If Vegeta hadn't been above ground an hour ago, he wouldn't believe that a city had been here in the last fifty years. The uniform grids and the streetlights spaced to perfectly match them were erased, the high rises that scraped the heavens were toppled, and the subway tunnels covered by the dirt now had their shelter split open and were exposed to the sky above.
Vegeta pondered it for a moment. Before it was an abandoned city, now it was just a barren field of soil, its history spread out in fragments on the ground for as far as he could see. Looking at it from the sky, the remains of the city almost looked like seeds ready to be planted into the fields and canyons below, but that would be idiotic.
This planet had new worth. There was no reason to waste time rebuilding it from scratch when the alternative was much simpler, to serve as a show of power for his new empire.
Millions of planets existed that could serve as their new home, he just needed this one to point at as a warning in case they refused.
He had a lupine smile as he felt himself inching closer and closer to his destiny. Soon he would have servants waiting on him hand and foot, sycophants begging to join the New Saiyan Army after witnessing his might, and before long a path to becoming the new Emperor of the Galaxy. All would fear the power of the most terrifying being in the universe Vegeta, the Legendary Super Saiyan.
He just needed to find those useless soldiers of his, and they'd be on their way.
It was odd that none of them had answered back to his call, but they must've just been fighting further away. If he still had a scouter it would be easy to find them, but unfortunately they were the only useful thing that the Saiyans would leave behind when they deserted Frieza.
No matter, he would just use that stupid trick that Raditz was talking about. He would sense their ki out on his own, find them, and then find a way off of the dead planet. Surely it would come to him this time.
Vegeta closed his eyes, waited exactly one moment, and felt nothing.
He scrunched his brow and his anger rose, why was he doing this? Debasing himself by doing something someone as pathetic as Raditz of all people would do was beneath him. There were ways Saiyans did found one another before Frieza came around with scouters or Raditz's stupid technique.
His palm lit with ki and he shouted, "Signal!" as he hurled it into the sky. The ball of ki exploded into a scattershot, sending hundreds of trailing rays out for miles. All he had to do was wait for his soldiers to trace their way back to him.
He floated in the air, his arms crossed over his chest, and tapped at his side as the seconds ticked by. His focus was so centered on waiting to see who would be the first to appear over the horizon, that he let out a grunt of shock when a harmless ball of ki bumped into the sole of his boot and dissipated the moment he looked at it.
Vegeta looked at the heap of rubble the ki had come from. He rolled his eyes and descended to the ground with no sense of urgency. Couldn't be a mission with Raditz without something like this happening.
"Vegeta stood next to the pile of debris his comrade was buried under. "What's this, taking a nap already?"
Raditz didn't respond.
Vegeta sighed, of course he'd have to dig this weakling out.
He tossed away the chunks of concrete and clumps of soil, then stopped when he got to his hand.
He grabbed onto Raditz's palm and inspected it, four fingers and a cauterized wound where his thumb should've been.
With one firm yank he pulled Raditz out and finally got to see the whole picture; two missing thumbs, a bloodied and beaten body, and the most disgusting of it all, the enemy's uniform.
"Alright, let me guess what happened here," Vegeta said, "You dressed up like one of the enemy janitors and they found you out while you were on the job, took your thumbs as punishment for theft while you hid from whatever battle Kakarot and Nappa were up to?"
Raditz was unresponsive, but when Vegeta jerked him around by his arm like a broken toy, he coughed his way back to consciousness.
"Veh … Vegeta?" Raditz slurred as he struggled to open his swollen eyes.
Vegeta sneered at the pathetic excuse for a Saiyan. "That's all you have to say? You better be glad I have grand plans for you in our empire, or I'd blast your useless hide into dust right now. Years of you begging for help, but don't worry, I came up with the perfect job, Instructor. You teach people how to become remotely competent, they beat you, and then they advance in the ranks. After all, those who can't do, teach."
He waited for his response, either to laugh at his complaints or compliment the coward if he realized how generous he was being. Instead, the ingrate only said, "Where's Broly?"
Vegeta dropped Raditz back down, putting him with the rest of the debris. "Of course you'd ask about the one person weaker than you." His soldier didn't even have the pride to get up, he just laid on his back and took slow, labored breaths.
"Broly was unresponsive when I came to," Vegeta said, "Slapped the mute, kicked him around some, but the enemy must've drained him of power. Didn't even look like he'd thrown a single punch.
"Probably thought they could leave us together as prisoners, but some of us actually have the strength to stand up for ourselves." Raditz tried to push himself up, but his arms buckled and he fell back down into the dirt. "But I guess you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
He watched, waiting for Raditz to try again, but he only closed his eyes and slowed his breathing.
"You need to run," Raditz said. "Take Broly and leave."
Vegeta took a moment to look at him, put his fists to his hips, and kept his feet planted to the ground. "What I need is for you to get off of your backside and point me in the direction of people who are actually useful. Where are Nappa and Kakarot?"
Raditz bit his lip. It was hard to tell between all the blood and swelling, but Vegeta thought he could see his face turning a shade of red.
"I can't sense them anymore," Raditz choked out. "He killed them."
After taking a moment to study Raditz's face and trying to parse out exactly what the moron was babbling about, Vegeta recognized it for what it was: Absolute nonsense.
He crouched down and grabbed Raditz by his bloody collar. "Let's get one thing clear. There is no world, no mission, no universe, where Nappa and Kakarot both died, and I'm left alone with you. Even Kakarot, being the low-class moron that he is, has some semblance of strength, even if he has no talent. The idea that someone as sniveling and pathetic as you would survive while they died isn't only stupid, it's the most insulting thing I've heard in my life."
Raditz looked him in his eyes, obviously holding something back, but Vegeta wouldn't. He wasn't a coward. "You have one purpose in this galaxy, proving your worth to me. Either do it or lay here and die."
He stood up straight while keeping his grip tight on Raditz. "Now make your life worth it and use that stupid power of yours to point me in the direction of someone who has a backbone."
"I can't," Raditz said, "I can't sense them. It's just us here and Turles."
"Turles…?" The name was unfamiliar to him, but it sounded like a Saiyan's. "Well they sound more useful than you, time they pay their dues."
"Vegeta, N—" Vegeta tossed his soldier aside like a piece of trash, his attention already turned away as they bounced face first off of the ground.
He rose one hand into the air and fired off round after round of signal flares into the sky. Each blast had more energy than the last, escalating them to a volume so loud that even the deaf would feel the vibrations in the air.
"Turles!" Vegeta said, "Either bring yourself out here or have your legs broken when I find you myself!"
He stopped firing flares into the air and waited. He looked out into the distance, the wind howled across the wasteland, and no one came.
Of course he'd have to teach him the hard way.
Vegeta powered up to his full strength, if he was going to have to put this new Saiyan in line, it only made sense to show him the power of the Legendary Super Saiyan firsthand. It would be awe inspiring, terrifying even, but it sounded like the poor bastard needed a lesson in humility.
In one smooth motion he turned to jump into the sky and begin his search, but launched headfirst into a wall of muscle. Vegeta ricocheted off of it, landed on his rear, and looked up at the first new Saiyan he'd seen in over a decade.
Did Raditz actually want him to believe that this freak was what had wiped out his entire squad?
Turles was a bloody and steaming mess, fragments of a bark were jutting out of his body. There wasn't even much of his body left to take in, he looked muscular and was as tall as Broly, but he didn't look healthy. The dumb steaming bastard looked shriveled, no fat, no water, just skin and muscle stretches to the brink over a skeleton. The only thing intimidating about him was the fact that he wasn't already dead, but the hallowed look in his eyes told him that regardless of his body giving out or Vegeta assisting him into a grave, he was moments away from seeing Hell firsthand
"Lord Cooler," Turles said, causing the skin around his lips to tear, "would find great pleasure in having you by his side. It would be a great final insult to Frieza. His pets destroyed, his strongest defects."
Vegeta immediately laughed in his face when he heard the offer, and clutched at his sides as keeled over.
"Vegeta…?" He heard Raditz say, but he didn't stop laughing.
Turles watched him long and hard, until eventually, he let out a dry and strained bark of a laugh. "So you'll join us?"
"Amazing," Vegeta said, "you look like an off brand Kakarot and have the sense of humor to match!"
Turles let out a loud exhale from his nose, then slowly rolled his neck. It sounded like crushing gravel, but it didn't stop Vegeta from continuing.
"I'm about to start a new empire, a haven for all true Saiyans that have any pride, and you offer me a way back into slavery? How about you kneel before I blast your head off?"
Vegeta waited for a response, but Turles only looked up at the sky and mused to himself, "I've incapacitated everyone with any worth … I could just bring them directly to Cooler. Force them to renounce their loyalty or die."
"Are you deaf or something? Nobody is renouncing their loyalty to me! They know that I'm the strongest Saiyan in the universe, and the only one who can possibly lead them!" Vegeta jabbed his finger into Turles's chest. "I don't know if you were low-class or what, but you must be a complete idiot to think that the Prince of All Saiyans offering you a personal recruitment is something you can just throw away!"
Even with his power causing the ground beneath them to tremble, Turles didn't move an inch.
He felt something inside begin to churn, an anger that he had never imagined feeling in his life. Not Raditz and Broly being too cowardly to follow orders, Nappa being too stupid to understand them, or Kakarot intentionally ruining them to annoy them. It was a Saiyan, one of his own people, who had purposefully thrown their own pride away — a Saiyan that was proud to be someone's pet.
Vegeta put his entire weight into his punch and threw a jumping haymaker into Turles's jaw that knocked him off his feet.
"Get your pathetic lying hide off of the ground!" Vegeta said as landed.
Turles pulled himself up with only his ability to hover, lifting each limb off of the ground like a puppet pulled to stand.
"Lying?" The word came out through barely parted lips.
"I was preoccupied while you interacted with my team, but I didn't need to be here to have common sense." Vegeta flared his energy as high as he could take it, blowing Raditz away as waves of purple energy whipped the ground around them. "No Saiyan with even a shred of pride, would lose to a traitorous excuse for a Saiyan Warrior like you."
The energy concentrated around him, creating a roaring pyre that reached that reached high over his head. He smirked, pressed his wrist together, raised his arms to the side of his head, and got ready to set the world ablaze.
"Time to die!" Energy crackled in his hands, building to a level of destruction they both knew could destroy the planet, but Turles only put one hand around his chin. "Galick Gun!"
Vegeta thrust his arms forward and blasted Turles. At first he could see the Turles's silhouette in the wave of energy that crashed down on him, but Vegeta pushed further. "Do you like that?! This is the power of a Legendary Super Saiyan, the height of our power! I'm the strongest in the galaxy!"
Vegeta didn't stop as he heard the ground rip apart underneath them, or at the faint screams of Raditz trying to rise over the sound of the attack, begging him to run. He wouldn't stop until-.
Turles's hand clasped over both of his and closed them shut, snuffing out the Galick Gun.
"You're talking about a fairy tale." Turles kept his grip tight as Vegeta tried to jerk away. "Saiyan Pride, Legendary Super Saiyans. The only thing that could've helped you was your squadron."
"Them?" Vegeta kicked at his shins, but he was unfazed, he didn't even look scratched from the attack. "I've never needed anyone's help, a true warrior stands on his own two feet!"
He saw that he was still using one hand to cover his chin. For all the strength Turles had, a glass chin was a glass chin. He tried to fly so that he could kick him right in his jaw, but Turles held him firm, only allowing him to hop in place.
"This is the height of Saiyan power?" Turles said with disappointment. "This is just how you've lived everyday. Held down like a child by your betters, thrashing against fate."
"Shut up!"
"Where have you been this entire mission, Prince Vegeta? Your soldiers have been fighting me, but what were you doing?"
Vegeta shuddered with fury as he pushed against Turles's hands, but failed to budge them. Even using all his power, it didn't matter. "I told you to silence!"
"Were you hiding? Or were you just beaten, nursing your wounds until you could crawl out of some hole and throw your life away?"
"Shut! Up!" Vegeta clenched his eyes shut and took all of his anger, all of the energy he could gather, and hunched forward.
Turles paid his petulant screams no mind. "Your teammates at least gave me a fight, they worked together, they almost beat … " He trailed off, his face growing puzzled at a thought. "They got blown away, and now you've become the easiest opponent of them all."
There wasn't time to think about his attack, to wonder if Raditz was out of the blast radius, there was only the opportunity to kill Turles. He'd stand up, let out an explosive wave of energy that would go out for miles, and kill this traitorous freak.
He got as far as starting to lean up before he was hurled into outer space.
Vegeta's first instinct was to breathe, the first step to sealing his fate. The vacuum of space sucked the air from his lungs in a second, and he realized that this was how he would die. If he could fly back to the planet he could survive, but it was just a small grey speck to him. The push to fly back was done as his tail and digits went rigid with frost, but it only slowed the momentum of the throw to a crawl. He clutched his hands to his neck and the speck got smaller as he drifted away.
His insides began to turn cold.
A purple dot shot out of Throhbaq, growing in size as it got closer. Turles stopped in front him surrounded by a jagged bubble of ki, and stared.
Vegeta gathered a fistful of ki and tried to throw it, but it fell apart as his elbows came to a chilling halt halfway through.
He saw the look of distant pity in Turles's eyes and felt angry tears form in his own. The heat they gave him vanished as they turned to ice before they could even trickle down his face.
Turles removed the shield of energy from around himself, grabbed Vegeta by his throat, and launched both of them back down to Throhbaq.
He struggled to comprehend the speed of the events happening to him. His body blazed with warmth as they crashed through the atmosphere, and he screamed, telling himself that it was the shock of his organs getting frozen and defrosted in seconds Turles jerked him over his head, and the scream didn't stop, he told himself it was just the beginning of his charging up, accessing the true power of a Super Saiyan when he needed it most.
The moment he was thrust downwards, he couldn't escape reality. For the first time in his life, he was afraid of another Saiyan. A moment away from slamming into the ground, Vegeta shut his eyes tight, and prayed his death would be quick.
It rivaled an asteroid hitting the planet. The ground exploded underneath them as dirt and rock shot miles into the sky, but the sound that rang above all others was the scream.
Vegeta landed not on the ground, but with the base of his spine across Turles's knee.
His screams did not stop after the debris came raining back down on them, and it did not stop after Turles rolled him off of his knee, letting him drop dozens of feet onto the ground below. He laid on his stomach, broken in the pit Turles had created, as he cried out like he never had before.
"Get up." Turles hovered over him, giving the young prince enough space to stand up proud and face him again. "Get up and fight me, this isn't over yet."
Vegeta pushed at the dirt with his arms, but his legs refused to move. They stayed limp as he collapsed onto the ground.
I can't feel my legs was the only thing he could think. The words played out over and over again in his ears, growing in terror with each repetition as he tried to push himself up. The muscles in his arms strained to move and the feeling of shock ended as the pain settled into him.
His lungs burned like they had been jammed in an oven as the heat of the planet touched them, his tears melted and formed with new ones as they ran down his face, falling into a pile of the blood mixed bile the prince vomited onto the ground.
Vegeta arms buckled and he collapsed, landing face first in his mess, but could no longer find the strength to get up.
"That's … it?" Turles descended and rolled him over with a shove of his boot.
Vegeta's eyes creaked open, his enemy's disappointment was unmistakable. It was the same look he'd given his own soldiers countless times before.
"This was all it took to beat the Prince of All Saiyans? You were supposed to be the challenge! You're the one who I was going to bring broken and battered to Cooler – he'd have you beg for your life and executed in front of Frieza himself. But this?" Vegeta wouldn't let himself keep crying as Turles looked at him, he bit his tongue till it bled as he held everything in. "This is hardly worth reporting."
Vegeta swallowed all of his pain down as best he could and said with a wavering voice. "You wanted a challenge. To be pushed to your absolute limits. Some Saiyan in you after all."
"I. am not. A filthy monkey. I am an Elite Soldier of the most powerful being in the universe." Turles reeled his hand back and held his palm flat and as sharp as a knife. "You squabble with one another, you stumble over each other, you can't even competently work together, and you thought you could beat the might of the Cold Empire? You thought you could destroy Lord Cooler?!"
Vegeta grasped a pebble he found on the ground.
"Leaving Frieza – You should've defected to Lord Cooler. He's not a sadist, he's a man of reason! Of ambition instead of sitting on his laurels! You all could've become just as good as me – but you were too proud! Look where that got you!"
"So that's it," Vegeta said, "defection. You wanted us to join you."
Turles stopped his tirade, his skin tight as leather as it turned into a pensive glare. "How dare you insinuate that I would want to work with some tree swinging fools."
Vegeta kept the pebble tight in his grip and kept his focus on Turles's eye. "We're the last of our kind. We were treated like garbage by Frieza and his men, but we were treated that way together. Who taught you to call us monkeys?"
"Shut up."
"Everyone on Cooler's ship called you it, didn't they? Tell me an insult and we've heard it a million times. You always think that someday you're going to do the mission that gets you the respect you deserve -" The plea wasn't connecting, he corrected course. "Make them all so happy that they start treating you like a person like a warrior, but the goalposts never stops moving, does it? When you kill of the last of your people, that's what will have to make them happy, won't it? When your finally the last Saiyan in the universe, there won't be anyone to compare to, you'll get to just be an obedient little soldier on a clean slate."
His eyes glowed with energy. "I told you to stop talking."
"But they'll never allow it, you know I'm right! As long as they have any reason to look down on you, they'll take it! You'll always be a monkey to them, always be a joke, because it will never stop being fun for them to torment you!" He couldn't tell if it was to get Turles to lower his guard or if it was genuine, but his tears couldn't be held back anymore all the same. "The best hope for your people is going to die on this planet, all because you want to be one of the good ones. There's one chance at you ever finding your worth, and your about to kill it yourself."
"You don't know anything! I – I will be chosen." Turles covered half his face with his hand, his voice pained as he said, "It wasn't for nothing, I will end up where Cooler told me I could. I will be an elite warrior."
"I would've made you an elite the moment I met you." Vegeta saw the moment of hesitation in him. He shot the pebble with a flick of his thumb, aiming straight for their pupil, it would bore through his skull and into his brain. A quicker death than the bastard deserved.
It had come as close as his lashes. Turles disintegrated it with a blast from his eye, measured and precise. The blast struck only the rock, and not his opponent beneath him.
Turles grabbed him by his ankle. His spine felt like stones grinding to dust as Turles bobbed him up and down, and Vegeta's screams echoed throughout the barren wastes of the planet.
"Typical Saiyan arrogance, always has the same results. What happens when you never accept reality." He stopped toying with Vegeta and held him still as he pulled his leg back. "I'm giving you one last chance to surrender before I tee your skull off of your neck. Either renounce your cause or say your last words."
Every inch in Vegeta's body seared with pain he'd never felt before Regardless of what he said, it was hard to imagine they wouldn't be his final words.
"Okay," Vegeta croaked out as he looked at Turles, "okay, I'll do it."
Turles watched him, watched him dangle helplessly, his eyes bleary, his breaths a jagged start and stop. He lowered his foot down and let him speak.
"There are more important things in this world than just being alive," Vegeta said, "if you don't have the brains to see that, then I couldn't give a damn about your offers even if you were the god of destruction himself. From one Saiyan to another, you'll never be somebody worth bowing down to."
Turles dropped him on his head and he landed with a silent thud. He'd given him a lot, but he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of hearing him groan in pain as he raised his boot above his head.
"Goodbye, Vegeta," Turles said.
"Vegeta!" Nappa shouted from off in the distance. "Vegeta, hold on! I'm coming!"
Both of their attention turned to Nappa rushing towards them.
His flight was stumbling, moving side to side as if the wind threatened to knock him out of the sky.
He wasn't supposed to be this weak.
Vegeta's eyes widened as he saw the smirk grow on Turles's face. When he went to launch off of the ground he only let out a yelp as pain shot through his spine and his legs remained limp.
"Why so alarmed, prince?" Turles said. "I'm just going to do what any Saiyan would do."
"Turles- Turles stop! You're throwing away the greatest opportunity of your pathetic life!" Vegeta yelled at Turles as he ascended into the sky.
"No," Turles said, "I'm securing it."
Turles went past the clouds in the blink of an eye, and Vegeta watched helplessly as Nappa floated down to him.
The older Saiyan's breaths were sporadic and heavy, his eye showed only the will to live, his cheeks were stained with tears, his makeshift eye patch matched every inch of him from his stomach to the tips of his boots, soaked in sweat and blood.
"I … I found you, Vegeta, it's gonna be okay," Nappa let go of the his stomach and the blood poured from him as he cradled Vegeta under his arms. "Was scared I was about to see the old gang for a second there, but I heard you, I sensed you-"
"Get your hands off of me you idiot! He's almost-"
"We can get back together with Kakarot and Raditz, I'm sure you three will be able to-"
Vegeta heard the descent, the sharp whistle of death, but he couldn't move fast enough to do anything about it.
Turles landed beside the two of them, his entire arm thrust through Nappa from his back to the hole in his stomach. The tips of his fingers reached Vegeta's chest plate, but Nappa kept still, shielding him with his body.
"See this, Vegeta?" Turles said. "Look what you've made me do! All you had to do was surrender, now there's just one more dead monkey! Is this what you wanted? Is this all the Prince of All Saiyans can do?!"
Vegeta couldn't move.
See, now this is how you turn on your scouter, Vegeta
You'll see your father soon, he's just busy right now with the Colds. Why don't we go for a couple rounds around the planet until he comes back?
Planet Vegeta, it's … It's gone …
Maybe you can be a little less mean to them, Vegeta. They're the only Saiyans we've got left.
A drop of blood landed on Vegeta's face and he looked Nappa right in his shining eyes. "I got ya, Vegeta. Don't worry, I've got ya."
A lump formed in Vegeta's throat. "Why didn't you run away! I was handling it on my own!"
"You remind me so much of your father." Nappa gave him a toothy smile, his teeth were coated red. "make your old man proud, okay?" He pulled the eye patch off of his face and placed it on Vegeta's chest.
Nappa grabbed onto Turles's hand and shoved himself backwards, further impaling himself on his arm until he was pressed against his shoulder. His entire body hummed with the last of his ki as he leapt into Turles, forcing him to step backwards.
"Just what do you think your-"
Nappa elbowed him in his chin, and Turle's head dropped down.
Seeing he was stunned, Nappa put him in a headlock as the last of his energy collected around his chest, humming loudly as the ground beneath them shook and he spoke in a thunderous boom. "For all Saiyans, for a new empire, for my family, Mouth Canno-"
Turles snapped to attention in a full panic and jerked his arm across, ripping through half of Nappa's stomach. His arm came out free, and Nappa's blast faded away in his mouth before it could even be shot out.
Nappa's face turned into a shocked horror that burned into Vegeta's mind, a look of complete agony that he would only get a closer inspection of. Before Nappa could even begin to fall, Turles used his now free hand to slice off Nappa's head, executing him instantly.
His head landed in Vegeta's lap.
Vegeta was speechless as he held onto his oldest comrade.
"Now do you get it? What that Saiyan Pride gets you." Turles spoke to him, but Vegeta heard nothing. He needed someone to protect him?
"Now only four left, who should I pick up first? Who's death is going to get it through your thick skull that your cause is pointless?"
He was the Prince of all Saiyans, an elite warrior, the strongest of his people, and he needed to be saved? He was broken and couldn't even kill the enemy while they were distracted? No, he couldn't even injure them when he was at full power.
His team, those weaklings, had one stupid goal on this mission, and he was the one who caused it to fail. He wasn't strong enough.
"I'm going to get each one of them and kill them in front of you, Super Saiyan. How does that sound?"
He'd been useless. He couldn't help his team when they were on Roug, he'd only gotten in one fight before being incapacitated on this planet.
Frieza had played him like a fiddle, the spat he'd gotten into with Kakarot earlier was probably all part of his master plan to split them apart. Kakarot obviously should've known his place, he used to know it before, him forgetting it was Vegeta's fault alone. He was a prince, and he'd let himself be moved around like a pawn. If he led his men since the beginning, would any of this even be happening?
This couldn't be happening to him. He wouldn't allow it.
His power rose in turn with the realization of his inadequacies. His black hair billowed like an open flame as the aura of ki around him glowed gold.
"Oh, Have some last attempts to make? Why don't you stand up and tell them to me?"
Vegeta said nothing. He cradled Nappa's head under his arm, floated himself up right, and felt his mind slip, lost to a shout of righteous grief.
Turles saw Vegeta's pupils disappear, and felt a chill run up his spine. He dashed backwards expecting to land on the lip of the crater, but only found thin air. It was expanding out, the ground disintegrating underneath them as Vegeta shouted and his aura grew.
He tensed himself as goosebumps formed on his leathery skin. "Why is your aura changing?"
Vegeta floated upwards, meeting him at eye level. Their face was blank as their aura shined brilliantly. His grasp remained firm on Nappa's skull, and he slowly approached Turles, his fist clenched
"How are you moving?!" Turles moved backwards before he could even think to do so. "Acting tough isn't going to scare me! I'm a chosen soldier of Lord Cooler, I've had the fruit from the Tree of Might, just lay down and die you damn monkey!"
Turles hurled a speed ball of ki at Vegeta. It traveled at hundreds of miles per hour and had the power to destroy continents with ease.
Vegeta caught it in his hand and crushed it.
This wasn't possible. He'd eaten the fruit the purest manifestation of strength there could be on this planet, and Vegeta treated it like it was nothing.
It was a setback, but he knew what would work. He would appeal to his hubris, and beat him when he inevitably fumbled it all. That was what Lord Cooler told him got all Saiyans eventually. "You know, Prince Vegeta, this is only the passive amount of power your dealing with. You think you're superior, but you've only dealt with a fraction of what your soldiers have. Now how would you like to deal with something much stronger than anything they could ever imagine? The power of the Tree of Might, and the mind of one of Cooler's Elite?"
Vegeta stood statuesque, holding Nappa's head tightly to him.
"Exactly," Turles began to concentrate. "Now watch the pow-"
He gasped out, craning forward as his mouth forced into a hollow scream as Vegeta's fist sank into his stomach.
"Monster." Vegeta headbutted Turles across the bridge of his nose.
He felt bone break, but no blood spurted forth. His skin cracked open, too dried out to do more than a trickle of blood.
"Traitor." Vegeta elbowed crashed into his temple.
Turles thanked the stars he used his moment of reaction to pivot his head, if he hadn't he'd have had his eye knocked clean from its socket. Instead he had to deal with the small blessing of feeling his brain shake in his skull, a concussion that matched the one Raditz and Kakarot had given him.
His vision swam as Vegeta gripped his throat, lifting him higher into the air with one hand. "Die."
Nappa's head was still cradled in his arm and his legs hung limply in the air. Turles was not about to die to a man fighting him with only one limb.
He wrapped his arms around Vegeta's spine and squeezed tight. When his stoic facade crumbled into the same look of agony on Nappa's face, he knew he had one.
"That's more like it," Turles said as he heard Vegeta's spine start to crack under him. "Die like you're supposed to."
Vegeta's aura flickered golden and blue as his black grew stiller with each moment, screaming as he pushed at him, but the poor wretch just wasn't strong enough to get him away with only one hand.
"Don't worry, once you're all gone, and everyone sees how powerful I've become, I'll be respected as one of the best soldiers in the galaxy. A hero to the empire." Vegeta's scream was music to his ears. "I'll be what Saiyans were always meant to be. Someone who know their place and get the job done."
Turles felt the boot hit his chin, his grip went limp, and the world went dark.
"Forget about me?" He heard Kakarot's voice.
His vision was coming back slowly, a fuzzy blur of the world revealed one bit at a time.
Where had Vegeta gone?
"I'm sorry I couldn't be faster." Kakarot paused, his coughs hard and wet before he continued. "Almost played dead a little bit too well. Knew Nappa was ahead of me, but I had to make a stop first. I just..."He paused, his jovial nature had been dropping with each word, now replaced by a bitter acceptance. "I guess this is how we have to end it."
Turles stayed where he was and watched as Kakarot dropped down next to Vegeta. He could make out that the battered prince trembled as he floated, the tips of his feet touching the ground, but that aura still stayed with him. The hole in Kakarot's chest had bled like mad, his face was as pale as a sheet.
They both should've been dead. Why were they still fighting, why were they fighting so hard for one another. That wasn't how Saiyans behaved, they were just blood thirsty monkeys. They were doing it wrong. Everything was wrong.
He wanted to ask them why they were doing this, what exactly they hoped to accomplish, but he found his jaw hanging slack, broken by Kakarot's kick.
The time had finally come for a question about the Saiyans, and he could not talk, he couldn't scream, and he wouldn't beg.
Kakarot put the heels of his palms together and put them next to his head. Functioning on complete autopilot, Vegeta curled his fingers and joined his hand with Kakarot's, creating a purple glow around their hands.
Turles flew upwards, they would both need a moment to gather their energy. He wasn't about to run away from this problem, he'd come all this way to solve it, he'd come too far.
As he charged he felt his skin grow tight, but he ignored the pain. He rejected the blisters that formed on his body, they were a sign of weakness, and he was an elite soldier, he would complete his task. This wasn't the time for emotion, for being weak, he'd finish it.
"Galick Gun!" The pair shouted beneath him.
The attack was the grandest he'd ever seen, glowing in hues of purple and blue as it rushed towards him.
He stuck out his hands to meet it with an attack of his own, nameless. He had no attack that was wholly his own and he'd never been trained for a beam struggle, it was supposed to be something beneath him, savages pushing at one another until one broke. He couldn't resist it.
He wailed out as their attacks collided, pushing himself with everything he had within him. He could feel his attack winning out, but saw the skin on his fingers crackle and peel. Skin gave way to dried tissue, which peeled away to muscle, which would tear away to bone, and then there would be nothing left of him.
He wouldn't get to ever become an elite warrior, but Lord Cooler would remember him. He would be taught as an example of what the proudest of what any soldier could be. That would be enough.
He took in one last breath, breathing deep through his nose to prepare for the final push, only to break into a jolted cough as an explosion hit his back.
His energy faltered, Vegeta and Kakarot's attack was coming nearer, but there wasn't anymore time to gather ki. He looked back to see who had just ruined everything he worked for in his life and saw Raditz, his swollen face unreadable as he dropped out of the sky, his energy spent.
One of them he'd already killed, another just fell unconscious behind him, one was bleeding out, and the other had one good limb and would probably pass out after the attack. His beam was pushed closer to him with each second, his entire field of vision was consumed by it, but all he had to do was live.
If he could live through the attack and just be awake, he would win it all. He'd crush Raditz's head in his sleep, he'd stomp on Vegeta's spine until the dust came trailing out of his mouth, and Kakarot? He'd stick his fist into that bastard's wound and pull his heart out, force him to watch as he tore it apart, then he'd see just who was bored.
He closed his fists, cutting off his blasts, and tightened his guard into a tight shell. As his skin tore and ripped, he held firm, but what tore into him the deepest was an inescapable fact that he felt in his core; They could've killed him.
How could Saiyans of all people work together, and almost kill him?
The Galick Gun finished, and he had lived.
His guard dropped, one series of nauseating creaks at a time, and he saw the last two saiyans underneath him. Vegeta's aura had gone away, his head hung low. Kakarot was already on his hands and knees, unmoving aside from his wet breaths. They collapsed in sync on top of one another, and Turles had never seen a sight more fulfilling.
He landed in front of them with a clumsy thud and raised his boot.
"Ya know," Kakarot's voice was barely above a whisper. "That was a pretty good last fight. For all of us. Glad I got to fight another Saiyan for real."
Turles's boot landed on Kakarot's head with all of its strength, a gentle tap. He looked to his leg and saw that all of the flesh on his legs had been peeled off. He looked at his arms and saw they fared no better, frayed ribbons and patches of what should've been whole. His last frenzied move was touching his face, a fractured tapestry of burns and rips.
His strength left him as he lifted his boot to stomp harder, and twisted as he landed on top of the pair, forming a pile of three Saiyans.
Laying on death's door, he tried to think of what Lord Cooler would say of him, but one thought overrode it all, He really could've been their brothers. It was only luck that Cooler had found him instead of Frieza. Everything could've been so different, but it was never in his control. Gazing at the sky, he watched a hawk with feathers of perse and amber circle above them, and figured nothing really ever was. That was the life that he had accepted, the pride he had carried.
The carrion screeched before its descent and he closed his eyes. Lord Cooler would be proud of his sacrifice. He had to be.