The Pride, The Glory: Vegeta's Destiny!

Chapter 12 : Young Vegeta's Lesson Of Respect

Bulma spun back towards Vegeta, curious as to what he meant, but the prince had already made a bee line for his ship. Bulma wasn't sure what it was about the young teenager that forced her to give him her undying trust. After all, that was the same person who had come to earth twice for no reason other than to kill her friends before destroying the whole planet. Nevertheless, she did trust him. For some unspoken reason, she felt like she would trust him with her life...

Vegeta reached his ship and extended a hand to a small touch pad beside the loading ramp. After pushing a series of buttons in sequence, there was a loud hissing noise accompanied by a gust of air escaping the now opening ramp. He stepped back, just clear of being crushed, before pivoting around on his heel like a soldier doing about face. He thanked them both, although it was choked out because that wasn't necessarily one of his strong points.

He made direct eye contact with Bulma for a few seconds, his hardened features instantly softening until he looked.. like a normal person. At first she was frightened, flinching slightly while using one arm to blindly feel for something behind her. Then she realized the look on his face and in his eyes. It was not one she could outright put her finger on, but she had seen it on multiple occasions in her life. Any feelings of terror she was harboring instantly vanished, replaced by a deep throbbing in her heart. She wasn't sure why, but she felt unimaginably bad for this lone child, this warrior who had obviously been mistreated and exploited his entire life. And in true Briefs fashion, she would be damned if Kami himself was going to keep her from helping this poor soul!

Vegeta wasn't sure what to say. The pain killers did little to help ever since Bulma took off his bandages, which he thought odd but didn't question. Plus, the prince had never had anybody do any thing near as nice to him in his life. To top it off, although you could never get him to admit it for anything, the receiving party was this beautiful, blue eyed voluptuous young woman that gave him this stare which made his knees weak.

After a few seconds Vegeta cleared his throat, which was rather sickening to the other two when a large chunk of phlegm launched from his throat without his control. Looking at her, he stated in a low nervous tone that he would only return alone, for kakarot, and that earth would be out of it regardless of the answer. Any lingering doubts that Bulma had were, with that simple statement, completely disintegrated.

Goku remained unconvinced, until Vegeta cracked a wicked grin and swiveled his cranium until eye contact was established. Vegeta told Goku that he'd better be ready for a one on one match next time, because he would not be bested with fair odds against a third class warrior, super saiyan or no super saiyan. Before spinning to go, Vegeta stopped and asked (again) how long he had been out for. Immediately after, goku shouted oh yeah, which made Vegeta wince causing him pain that visibly appeared on his features.

He started looking at goku again, in protest, but was surprised when his hand instantly was instinctively rising up to catch something. Vegeta snagged the object, shot a glare of daggers at goku, then without moving his head, dropped his attention to the small green object in his palm. Goku told him that they had all been unconscious for a day before Bulma went and found them. He then explained to him senzu beans, and Vegeta gave an honest, whole hearted laugh in response until he started coughing up more phlegm.

Goku gave him a look that showed he was genuinely confused. Vegeta noticed and when he finished, he said in a firm tone that he was not the stupid type, right before throwing the bean back at Goku. He added that even if it was real, he would never stoop to such drastic measures of a weak individual. Goku blinked, not quite used to the foolishness from the sheer volume of Vegeta's pride. Vegeta then spun about and quickly proceeded up the ramp.

When he was about halfway up the ramp, Goku asked Vegeta if he could help. Bulma shouted instantly what, are you crazy. Vegeta didn't miss a beat though, and keeping stride he said very firmly: no. Ignoring Bulma, goku began a rebuttal with obvious content, but was shot down just as quickly as he started. There were many things he could have said, but his mind was one tracked and determined like only his could be.

Once he had cleared the ramp, Vegeta kept striding thru his ship and without looking back, gave an audible command for the door to close. As it was nearly closed shut, goku threw the sensu bean through the slit. It bounced, tumbled and slid, stopping inches from Vegeta's feet. He was genuinely surprised by the sound, although he knew what it was the instant he heard it. With a grin on his face, he gave the command for departure and the ship started to rumble as the thrusters prepared themselves. Kakarot, he thought, you kind hearted fool.

Shortly after his departure, Vegeta decided he was going to eat half of the bean. Not because he trusted goku, of course. He figured they did save his life, when rightfully they should have ended it. And ontop of that, they bandaged his wounds. All things considered, he was certain it wasn't poison. Furthermore, his intuition, not to mention his whole body, was screaming for him to eat it; partly from his hunger, but mostly because of his battle wounds. Instantly he jolted upright, completely healed and reinvigorated. Well I'll be fucking damned, he thought.

The prince was considering resting until he was fully healed, which would undoubtedly take the whole trip. But now that he was feeling tip top again, with his arrogance and inflated ego to match, he headed straight for the training chamber. He had heard Frieza mention the legend of the super saiyan on a handful of occasions, enough to know that the frost demon held a measurable amount of fear of it. He also knew that his newfound abilities went far beyond anything he had ever seen Frieza put forth.

But that simply wasn't adequate for the Young Prince of saiyans. There were too many unknowns for him to bet on. How strong is a super saiyan supposed to be? Is a super saiyan in child form as powerful as an adult? Exactly how strong was Frieza, anyways? And, most importantly, Did frieza even have anything to fear of a super saiyan? It had been three millennium since the legend had began, so there was nothing more than words to explain the potential of an ascended saiyan. Even then, he had nothing to compare it to, with not knowing frieza's limits and all. Vegeta was certain of one fact, though. He was damn sure going to find out!

Frieza had been on his way towards planet Vegeta, at a leisurely pace, after he had established contact and been informed that the prince was still M.I.A. Frieza had no intentions of landing for any longer than was necessary. He found that the saiyans literally had nothing he wanted, besides their labor. He was nearing the saiyan's star system when he changed his mind, and they set full course for the small planet.

The idea crossed frieza's mind to set the prince up, using his own race against him. He knew they would resist, even past the threatening. Obviously, frieza cared nothing about putting on a little display, for "encouragement". Actually, that's untrue. He did care for it, quite a bit more than he expected to. He always loved the thrill of threatening to destroy something, which never ended with anything other than fulfillment. Yes, Vegeta would learn his lesson for sure.