A Warrior's Resolve

Author's Note: This ficlet was written for the 15_minute_fics community on LiveJournal. The challenge was to write non-stop for 15 minutes using the given prompt, then post what you had written. For once, I had good timing and completed this ficlet in the given time, however this particilar version has been edited slightly after undergowing some research and proofreading. The original can be found on my livejournal archive, which is linked on my profile page. The prompt for this challenge was past.

The Saiyan Prince struggled to lift his body from the floor as he attempted his 9000th push up of the morning. His body was glistening in sweat, which dripped from his nose as he rose inch by inch from the floor of his gravity room. He had hit a plateau in his performance, and was growing increasingly frustrated. He could not stall at 450 times Earth's normal gravity.
It was not right. Not for the man who should be the Legendary.
He growled, forcing all his strength into his arms and lifting up fully,only to buckle and crash onto the cold, wet tiles below him.
An exasperated scream escaped him.

It wasn't fair. He had suffered so long under Frieza. He had put himself through Hell to achieve greatness, always pushing for more power, and yet he could never attain it. To have Kakarot, with seemingly so little effort, achieve in three years, what he had spent thirty years striving for was unbearable. He, Prince Vegeta, should be the Super Saiyan – not the third class weakling who had only just learned of his heritage.
Vegeta had been trained as a Saiyan Elite, learning from his father that the royal blood was the best Saiyans had to offer and carried the sleeping power of the Legendary. From the moment he had heard of this Golden God – a warrior of unbeatable strength – he planned to become one.

As a child he had trained for days without stopping, depriving himself of sleep, food and even water – pushed to the edge of death many times and berated by his trainers for his foolish pursuit of power. They were just jealous that he was able to withstand what they could not. They scoffed at him when they thought he was not listening. They believed he would not achieve Legendary status.
He knew they were wrong.

Even when his father sold him out as a slave to Frieza, he saw it as a chance to train to higher levels without the suffocation of the elite trainers mocking him. He saw worlds he would never have seen, fought to new levels of power and was held in high esteem by his fellow warriors, despite Frieza believing him to be only a monkey. When his father was murdered and his planet destroyed, he found new reason to attain strength. He was fed up of being made a fool of by Frieza and was determined to destroy him and avenge his fallen Saiyan brethren.

But Kakarot – he who had lived a life on a weak blue planet with little concept of the universe, a man with no formal education, and primitive training – had achieved all Vegeta had suffered for.

Vegeta would not give in. Not at 450 times gravity. He had to push further- even if it meant breaking his body. He would not rest until his past had been justified and he reached the goal he was forever chasing – that of achieving Super Saiyan status. Though his goal now was not only to become the Legendary, but to surpass the one man who had made even more of a fool of him than his trainers, his father and Frieza. To surpass the man who took away all of Vegeta's self-worth. To defeat Kakarot.

With that goal in mind, he began his push-ups once again. Though his muscles ached and sweat blurred his vision, he continued, focused on his goal and caring of little else.

Thank you for reading. If you have any comments or feedback, feel free to leave a review, or alternatively you can contact me via my livejournal.

[29/01/10]