The Pride, The Glory: Vegeta's Destiny!

Chapter 15 : The Youngest Saiyan's Homeworld

As impatient as ever when it comes to a fight, goku was mere heartbeats away from giving in to the tension and charging Frieza by himself, but Vegeta beat him to it. In an instant the building was collapsing, rumbling and shaking violently. Kakarot was the only one who was able to see the movements made by the prince and the demon known as Frieza. It Became apparent very quickly that the rest of the saiyans on the planet had no place in this fight, and all of them except for the four that swore their allegiance to prince Vegeta, headed out into the war against their planet to do what they did best: fight!

Goku informed the others to get the king to a healing station immediately and guard him with their lives. Obviously the three saiyans just scoffed at him because he was just a boy, plus saiyans aren't too fond of taking orders. Just then prince Vegeta went crashing thru a support beam, causing more tremors in the building and structural damage. Goku had been aware of every movement of the combatants, even while talking. As soon as Vegeta hit the ground, Goku knew where that fight was heading and ascended on the spot.

Goku sternly repeated his demand to the other three saiyans before turning and zipping off towards Frieza. Flabbergasted at the events that just unfolded before their eyes, it took the saiyan warriors almost a full minute before they snapped out of it and assumed their objective. By the time they had king Vegeta out the door, prince Vegeta had found his feet again and was joining kakarot, who was having a difficult time with the demon. As much as Vegeta wanted to kill them both with one ultimate move, he knew it was too risky. If he missed, the planet would be destroyed. If he hit Frieza but wasn't powerful enough to kill him, he would be too exhausted to be of anymore use in the fight.

Vegeta stopped mid flight as a thought struck his head, bringing the Prince to a skidding hault. Although a young boy, the prince's pride was still on the large side and there was little Vegeta could do to control it. His destiny did not involve kakarot, or anybody else for that matter. And there was no way he was going to accept help from anybody, especially not a third class warrior and his arch rival! As he boiled on it a few seconds more, it dawned on him to just let kakarot fight FrIeza to wear him down.

Vegeta's teeth grinded savagely as that same pride of his would never allow him to sleep if he knew that he didn't defeat Frieza by himself. As tempting as letting kakarot burn himself out first sounded, Vegeta had only one option for his pride to remain in tact after this war was over: single handedly defeating Frieza and releasing the bond he had over the saiyans. He was still going to need kakarot though, because not even all off planet Vegeta would be able to take out Frieza's super elite's that were always in his company.

Vegeta telepathically demanded kakarot to stand down, explaining how he would be best received at the other part of the battle. Goku hesitated, countering that Vegeta didn't last very long against Frieza last time. As soon as the thought was received by the prince, goku was caught slipping and as a result was sent hurtling through the back wall of the building. The building abruptly collapsed, but neither Vegeta nor Frieza flinched. When the rubble and dust settled, Vegeta audibly told kakarot that he would not repeat himself, and to not return until the rest of the planet was safe; all the while maintaining his stare down with frieza.

Goku was all for it. It's no secret that an opponent as strong as Frieza had goku shivering with excitement. There was only a handful of things that goku would ever take instead of rising to meet that challenge. Although he never thought about it until right then, Goku quickly discovered that this situation was definitely one of the things he would take over the fight. Not to mention if he stayed, Vegeta would surely attack him and start a free for all. Goku may not be the brightest of saiyans (but he was rather brilliant, regardless of species), but he knew that this was an opportunity that is so rare, only a dozen or so throughout the history of the universe would ever have a similar experience.

There he was, the full blooded saiyan that was raised as an earthling; back on his long forgotten home world, helping to prevent it's destruction and the extinction of the saiyan race. Goku noted that God definitely knew what he was doing. There were so many things the young saiyan wanted to do, but obviously the battle stayed as his center of focus. He planned on establishing a radius around the prince, leaving weaker saiyans behind to guard as they could. From there, goku plotted on picking off the stragglers. Just plan and execute, he thought. He'd never been in one, so goku took the term war a tad bit lightly.

The prince was engaged in an eye lock with frieza, the latter becoming hysterical once again. Through his deep cackles, Frieza squeeked out a mocking insult that was just loud enough for the teenaged legend to catch. Filthy... monkey. Vegeta caught himself from the verge of flying off the handle in anger. Poetically, the prince adorned his pause by first raising a smirk on his face, before doing what prince Vegeta, as well as the entire universe, had wanted to do for as long back as he could remember.

Frieza wasn't the slightest bit aware, sedistically zoned out on his obnoxious laughing, when the young saiyan had warped in directly in front of the demon. Making sure that Frieza would not see him coming, Vegeta made his move. The prince disappeared, instantly reappeared in front of Frieza with his fist cocked back, and used his leverage to generate as much force behind his punch as he could have dreamed for. Only a completely corrupted mind that was equally as tactical, such as that of prince Vegeta, would have (or could have) intentionally timed the strike with frieza's exhale, connecting on the sternum. A crippling shock wave rippled out from the point of impact, followed by a thunderous crunching sound, the latter obviously causing the initial. Prince Vegeta was the only one close enough to hear, though, that Frieza yelped on impact, unable to control the air from forcefully being removed out of his lungs.

Kakarot found himself of little significance in the war that was going on all around him. Vegeta had been correct back on earth when he commented that earth had made his existence too soft and humble. Blinded from the ignorance of any other lifestyles than those of earthlings, he was only just then coming to grips with the brutal honesty from the prince. Not that he had been offended, having not yet realized the severity of what that meant to his pride at the time.

What good could a single super saiyan do, in the entire universe, if he found himself in the middle of a war with which both combating sides actively viewed him as the enemy? No matter where he went he kept getting attacked by both Frieza's forces, as well as his own species of saiyans. There was really no chance of convincing them that he was in fact a saiyan too, since his tail had been missing. Not to mention that his hair was now golden blonde and his eyes teal. But there was no time for arguing with them. Being in the middle of your planet's purge, one becomes jumpy and paranoid, and the saiyans were no different.

Goku knew he couldn't keep knocking the saiyans out everywhere he went, but he also remembered what Vegeta had told him as he was leaving to join the war. He knew what had to be done but couldn't for the life of him figure out a strategy to get around the saiyans. As he was mentally prodding Vegeta to tell him the situation there was a large and very bright explosion on the ground, not far from where he was hovering. With no response from Vegeta he decided to go check out the explosion and see what he could do. Goku then descended, both his ki and altitude, while rapidly advancing on the location.