It has been one year on the planet Earth since the defeat of Majin Buu and that year has been one of peace. Yet despite this peace, the Z fighters still train relentlessly in preparation to defend the world once again from whatever evil that may arise. One in particular is training excessively more than the others and his name is Vegeta: a short man of 5'5 with long, upward spiked hair and a very pronounced widow's peak. Vegeta, the prince of the near extinct race of Saiyans, came to Earth thirteen years ago as a mercenary for the galactic tyrant Frieza searching for the mystical dragonballs that could grant any wish. His defeat at the hands of the only other surviving Saiyan, Goku, left a bitter taste in his mouth and he vowed to defeat the low class warrior, but so far has not succeeded.
As the years passed he no longer strove for the dragonballs and his wish for immortality, but just for surpassing the one who had bettered him, the one constantly holding power beyond his own grasp. However, life on the planet Earth has changed him. He has settled down with loving wife Bulma: a blue haired, intelligent scientist and inventor who was the first to set off on the quest for the dragonballs and find a small child in the forest called Goku all those many years ago. His wife bore him a son, Trunks. A purple haired half breed of their two species, an impetuous and mischievous youth of 9 gifted with his father's strength and mother's intellect.
This day is like many others in the Capsule corporation household in which Vegeta and his family live. Trunks is playing with his childhood friend Goten, the second son of Goku, outside in the expansive well pruned gardens that surround the domed hemispherical house. Vegeta is on his way to train in the specialised room made for him that allows for immense amounts of artificial levels of gravity to be created and maintained when he passes his wife in the corridor leading to the training room. Bulma appears pale and unwell, only able to manage a weak, frail smile at her husband as he walks up to her.
" Feeling a bit under the weather today. I'll just go for a quick lay down, OK dear?" Bulma says to her beloved husband. Vegeta does not appear to care about his wife's minor health problems, his mind only focused, as it always is, on his training. She is human, and weaker than him, illness troubles her where it does not affect him and she can take care of herself.
" Fine, you know where I'll be." He gruffly says to her, as he strides off into the training room.
Bulma slowly and weakly stumbles the short distance to her and Vegeta's room. Lethargy saps at her limbs. Her knees give out once she reaches her room. She collapses on the bed exhausted and breathing hard with increasing difficulty. Slowly her breaths become shallower and fainter. Fear grips her. What started off as tiredness and shortness of breath has escalated into something far more fatal in mere minutes. No matter how much she breaths the oxygen is not flowing through her blood. The intercom system by the side of her bed is out of reach, her body not holding enough energy for her to move herself to it. Pain resides within her chest. A dragging, tearing sound erupts from her throat as her circulatory system languidly shuts down and a final, lone tear runs down her face as she outstretches her hand towards the family photo by the bedside. One of the few photos she could persuade Vegeta to be in. Her cradling the new-born infant Trunks with motherly pride whilst the Saiyan prince looks on from a few feet away with just the smallest hints of a smile on his face – he always hated the photograph for the fact it shows him as the family man he has become and enjoying it nonetheless.
" … Vegeta. … Trunks. … H-help m-m-me …" She whispers these last words before all her strength fades from her body, as does her life. Her last breath rattles through her grim expression of desperation and her hand falls down inches from the framed memory. The powerful ki of Vegeta and his son eclipse Bulma's snuffed out candle, neither sense the horror.
The clock in the room ticks loudly and uncaring as seconds slowly pass. An hour in the world of the livings tick by and her son excitedly runs into sight with a smile on his face only a child could have.
" Mom! Mom! Come look at what me and Goten can do, come on!" Trunks impatiently fidgets, jumping up and down on the spot, waiting for a response from his mother before calling to her again. When she doesn't respond the second time he senses that something is extremely wrong and approaches his mother's bedside to see what the matter is with her …
Six hundred times the Earth's gravity is being forced on Vegeta as he trains in these impossible circumstances, seemingly only slightly hindered even though his body now weighs several tonnes. A bead of sweat drips from his face and evaporates before it can reach the floor, burned up by its own acceleration under gravity. Thunk! The reinforced door to the training room is barged open as his son Trunks runs into the training room, showing obvious signs he cannot handle the gravity as well as his father. Tears are streaming down and exploding off of his face as he embraces his father and tugs at his clothing.
" Dad! Dad, help! Something's wrong with mom!" Beseeches Trunks to his father, who even at the best of times does not like being interrupted whilst training.
" Bulma is resting, you should leave your mother and me in peace. Go." Vegeta pulls away from Trunks' grasp and goes to continue his relentless training elsewhere in the room. Trunks follows his father with slow clunking steps and shouts at him at the top of his lungs.
" But dad, she's not breathing!" Vegeta instantly turns around to look at his son with a look of shock on his face, his eyes wide in fear and mouth hanging limply open. No ki signature can be sensed from where she should be.
A cataclysmic hail of glass and tiles rain down the corridor leading out of the training room as the image of Vegeta dissipates. By the time his upset son has reached his parent's room Vegeta is already stood by his deceased wife, his face covered in shadow but his heavy breathing can be heard through gritted and clenched teeth. Apprehensively, Trunks approaches his father's side. Sparks of light flash through the room. Gold sporadically erupting from the hair of the father.
" Is…is mom going to be OK dad? W-what's wrong with her?" Trunks tries to look hopefully at his dad, but in his heart Trunks knows that something terrible has happened. His young mind cannot process what he knows to have happened.
Vegeta slowly reaches his arm out to Bulma, his arm that could punch a mountain into atoms shaking and trembling when it usually is perfectly steady. His rough, calloused fingers brush the smooth, cold and ghostly white cheeks of his betrothed. Jerking and recoiling his arm back his gaze goes to his white boots, his whole world he has built up on this planet unravelling before his eyes. The power of the Super Saiyan form does not protect him from this.
" No son, I'm afraid that … she …y-your mother …. Bulma …has …is- s-s-he's gone." The pain shows clearly on his face as he exclaims this. Fresh tears cover and stain his son's distraught face. He has dealt in death long enough to know without a doubt what it looks like.
" NO! No, she can't be! Mum! S-she's going to be OK, you'll see …w-we can revive her with the dragonballs." Hoping against hope, Trunks clings to his emotional defence of denial but his weeping eyes show that he does not believe what he is saying.
" Those damn balls are no good to us now! You know as well as I do, they don't work on people who … wh-who've passed naturally." He snarls at his son. Enraged by grief and rage at the world he storms out of the room, pounding a lorry sized hole through one of the walls.
Storming along the long corridors leaving a wake of debris and destruction behind him he suddenly stops. Standing, sparks fly around his brilliance of energy, his aura and light shining off the shards of glass. Looking out of a window and past his own reflection he sees his wife's gardens, her city, her planet. Her tomb. Vegeta tries to calm himself for the sake of his son, but the rage of emotions boiling within him builds, exponentially intensifying. His power unleashed with emotion. Growls of fury begin to sound like sobs wracked from a heart torn and broken from pain, his icy demeanour having been smashed and melting into the salty waters threatening to burst forth from the dams behind his eyes. He can take it no more.
Vegeta dives through the nearest window and flies off at his maximum speed. Pearls of shattered glass glistening in the sunlight fall from him like the tears he will not shed.
Many hundreds of miles away, the ground quakes and trembles at Mount Paozu as an incredibly irate widower impacts into the landscape. Vegeta stomps out of the crater beneath his feet and towards the two small houses in front of him dusting himself off. When he gets within 20 feet of the main dwelling a man exits the wooden door. This man is Goku, the other Saiyan, a kind hearted soul and a saviour of many with wild, spiked hair and wearing a blue gi showing off his powerful arms and sturdy chest. Goku notices Vegeta and naturally smiles and waves at his 'friend'. The rage in Vegeta flourishes before this man, his teeth bared, his eyebrows furrowed and fists clenched. There is only one path that Vegeta knows. He eyes Goku with a look of pure, undiluted hatred. Goku's friendly smile drops from his face as he walks up to Vegeta and senses the overflowing wrath within him.
" Fight me, Kakarot." Vegeta blurts out as he thrusts his fist out in front of him, knuckles white under the gloves he constantly wears. " Let us settle the score. Now!"
Goku frowns, displeased by the mood that Vegeta is in and wondering why this sudden challenge. Ever since the defeat of Buu, Goku had thought that Vegeta had mellowed down and finally accepted his superior strength, apparently not. A challenging fight he is always up for yet this aura surrounding Vegeta does not foretell the intentions of a sparring match.
" Now is not the time or place, you know you can't beat me Vegeta and what would Bulma say if -"
" She's dead! Kakarot! Dead!" Vegeta shouts at Goku. Taken aback by this news, a grim shadow passes over his face, deeply hurt by the news of his oldest friend passing on and praying that her soul finds peace.
" Dead? Vegeta … I-I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry, the dragonballs -"
" Sorry isn't going to cut it! Now how many bones will I have to break before you fight back, not necessarily your own."
Vegeta roars as he dashes towards Goku with a right jab which he barely manages to block in time as a flurry of savage blows begins to rain down on him. Frenzied with fury, Vegeta is going all out and pushing Goku back, blow by blow, and all the time the margin by which Goku either dodges or blocks is getting narrower and narrower. A swift uppercut to Goku's jaw is easily swiped to the side but that blow was just a diversion for Vegeta to gut punch Goku. The blow lands hammering into his stomach with great might causing Goku to double over with pain, a thin sliver of blood drooling from his mouth. Ki channels into Vegeta's fist and a neon blast tears into Goku's rock-like abdomen sending him sprawling onto the dirt strewn floor. The windows of Goku's house shatter from the concussive force and within Chichi screams in shock.
Quickly springing back to his feet with no injuries but a charred hole in his gi, the pure hearted Saiyan stands tall with his arms by his side making no effort to take up a fighting stance. Vegeta lets loose a blood-curdling roar charging his ki and in a brilliant flash of white-golden heavenly light he ascends to Super Saiyan 2. His muscles have bulked up, his eyes turned a stunning shade of blue, hair blonde and a brilliant golden yellow and sparking aura surrounds him.
" If you aren't going to take this seriously then prepare to perish." Vegeta exclaims at Goku, who is still stood calmly making no aggressive moves towards him. Lightning arcs from his incandescence, enkindling and scorching the grass around him. Enraged by Goku's lack of cooperation, Vegeta hurls a small yellow sphere of energy zooming millimetres from his rival's head. It continues to travel and hits a far off mountain and begins burrowing and boring deep inside the rock face before a magnificent explosion envelops and vaporises the entire mountain range, leaving nothing but smoking ruin.
" That could have easily been your home, Kakarot. Fight now. Don't make me destroy this planet."
Goku closes his eyes for a brief moment then his eyelids snap open, spontaneously ascending to Super Saiyan 2 as well. A wicked grin plays across Vegeta's face as he jumps high in the air, using the Sun to obscure his approach, and comes down lightning quick with a double footed kick. Goku reacts instantly and grabs the other Saiyan's foot, absorbing the impact through his arm and soaking it all up, cracking the dirt floor beneath him.
The two warriors vanish off of the face of the planet and reappear in the underworld. A desolate and open rocky plain, barren and devoid of life. Random boulders and plateaus of rock are the only things to be seen under the burning, crimson skies of Hades. Vegeta twists his foot free and lands crouched, quickly surveying his surroundings before blasting a barrage of ki shots at Goku who appears behind Vegeta before any of the blasts can hit him. Detonating and ravaging the already scarred landscape, more blasts fly towards the bane of his existence, yet still none come closer to even singeing him.
" Instant Transmission. Vegeta, I'm faster than you so stop this now." Goku calmly says to Vegeta as he casually lands in front of him. Only infuriated more by this, hell-fire once more rains down at empty air.
" Shut up!" Vegeta yells as he springs off the ground and shoulder barges where Goku was. Quickly pivoting on the spot Vegeta turns and continues trying to hit Goku, putting everything he has into the onslaught, but always hitting thin air no matter how fast he is or how hard he tries.
" Coward! Come and face me! Are you a Saiyan or a mouse?" Vegeta bellows at the barren expanse. Behind him Goku slowly turns showing his back to Vegeta and starts walking off to nowhere in particular. Spinning around to see his nemesis ignoring him as if he were nothing, he rushes in projecting over 20 after-images and yet still Goku manages to dodge away using Instant Transmission.
" No! I will not be made a fool again by you. NEVER! You hear me! Never again!"
His aura explodes out and in a flash peters out. This is the only option he knows, if Bulma is gone there is nothing left for him but his Saiyan roots. He has to be stronger than Goku, if he does not have that power then he does not know how he will make it through this. Vegeta wobbles, not concentrating on his balance. His wife is dead. Blue eyes stare down at his hand, recalling the dread of that touch against her still body. His son's mother is gone. Goku watches on as the inevitable impact catches up to the prince and hits him full force. He bows his head in respect and in memory of his deceased friend.
Cracks become large fissures beneath his feet, small pebbles then larger boulders within the vicinity begin to float upwards, rock vaporises into dust beneath him. A swirling storm of power circles around the mighty Saiyan as an all encompassing crater is born then deforms as it melts. Vegeta's aura brightens and increases vastly in size, reaching forth into the skies like a beacon. Vegeta's emotions have broken. His raw power is unleashed and it pushes beyond his limits. Goku stares at Vegeta in disbelief as he sees Vegeta's hair gradually elongating and his eyebrows disappearing from his face.
" You! … Will! …Fight! … Me!" The enraged Saiyan thunders as both his immense rage and grief push and drive his body into the Super Saiyan 3 transformation. Goku is in shock at Vegeta's newfound ability to pull off this most tricky, challenging but most importantly almighty transformation and rightly so as Vegeta moves with exponentially increased swiftness behind Goku and elbows him in the small of the back.
Grasping at his back as stars daze his vision, Vegeta mercilessly knees Goku in the stomach over and over again and as Goku doubles over he uppercuts him in the face sending him flying into the air with Vegeta launching himself after his target. Crashing back down through a mountain worth of rock from the sharp impact of a head-butt from the empowered prince, Goku blasts through the tunnel of debris that buried him alive. Getting to his feet as he crawls forth from the ground, the hero of the world gets serious.
An ear-splitting yell bursts from him whilst transforming to Super Saiyan 3, now with both warriors on even ground they adopt their preferred defensive fighting poses. Both of them charge at each other and a flurry of devastating blows are thrown at each other, each punch or kick sending out massive shock waves to the surroundings and pulverising all obstacles in their way aside. As the exchange of violence continues they rise high and fly into the air so as to have more freedom in movement whilst fighting in this fated duel. A reckless kick spawned from anger by Vegeta leaves him open with his guard down and so Goku tightens his hands around the outstretched leg and flings the prince to the ground. Smashing him through many metres of solid stone then shooting several bombarding bursts of ki before Vegeta recovers and flies back up to the same altitude as Goku.
Scuff marks and lacerations cover both fighters from head to toe, a thin trickle of blood slips down one of Goku's arms and another stream of sanguine fluid starts to fill the boots of the prince. They stare at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Neither fighter daring to as both are trying to recuperate and get their breath back from the extreme physical exhaustion of their fatigued bodies. Vegeta's patience wanes thin and he advances at maximum speed towards Goku and they both disappear. Moving faster than any human or alien eye could ever follow their fight still rages. Eerie sounds of the battle carry across this decimated desert of rock, reverberating off the cold stone and echoing in the eternity of the underworld. Goku and Vegeta appear in a stand-off, both drawing energy and charging up massive quantities of ki in their bodies ready to be expelled destructively in one final attack. They both reach their zenith of power and Goku moves both his cupped hands to his side whilst Vegeta outstretches his arms and palms wide, both concentrating all their gathered energy into their hands. Panting hard under the exertion of the extraordinarily large amount of ki and the Super Saiyan 3 transformation, they holler the names of their signature techniques.
" KA … ME … HA … ME … HA!" Goku thrusts both hands forward and a brilliant blue wave of dazzling energy is shot forward.
" FINAL FLASH!" Vegeta slams both arms together in front of him and a shining surge of yellow energy erupts from his palms. The massive beams of energy meet and interlock, struggling in a clash against the might of the other. Forcing more and still more power and energy into their attack, both warriors yell as the ki blasts expand and broaden beyond biblical proportions. The ground ruptures and crumbles apart like breadcrumbs before this force yet still the blasts continue to engulf more and more of the sky with neither Saiyan backing down.
Vegeta's fiery blaze of his planet destroying Final Flash creeps ever closer, beating back the smaller concentrated blue energy Kamehameha towards its source. Smirking with the assurance of his long awaited for victory, Vegeta puts the last bit of his energy he can muster into the blast, as it overpowers and breaks the Kamehameha, flaring towards Goku. The Final Flash shoots on for many hundreds of thousands of miles, scarring and destroying all land in that direction before detonating in an explosion of such magnitude it is large enough to make the whole of the underworld tremble. Exhausted, Vegeta floats back down to the nearest piece of land to stand on and pants heavily. His face hits the floor and Vegeta reverts back to base form in the dust. Goku stands beside the prone figure with one arm hanging limply from its socket and his chest bloody. Instant-transmissioning behind him during the clash of beams and striking him in the back of the neck was the only way in which Goku could survive and win against that level of blast. Sighing as he reverts back to base form also, he lifts Vegeta's limp and battered body over his shoulder and Instant Transmissions back home to Earth and out of the realm of the dead.
Vegeta stirs and wakes up lying on the floor, he can feel the grass tickling the patches of skin where his clothes were destroyed. A small object is placed in his mouth which he instinctively swallows. The Senzu bean immediately rejuvenates and heals him. Now with the energy to do so, Vegeta sits up and opens his eyes to see Goku next to him still beaten and injured about to swallow his Senzu bean. They have returned to the land of the living, and Bulma has not. Without a word Vegeta leaps up into the air and flies back to his home, shedding a single tear that crystallises and freezes due to the altitude at which he is flying that falls off his face and into the endless oceans stretching out beneath him.
Several days pass, the day of Bulma's funeral arrives as do all the Z fighters to pay their respects to the woman who helped bring them all together. As the casket is lowered into the Earth and her mortal remains laid to rest the living look on and mourn her passing, all save one. The lone Saiyan prince stands in the background, distancing himself from both friends and family. His face set in stone, yielding to no emotion. He observes the mortal remains of his wife being given to the ground as one of the few strings tying him to this planet is permanently severed, a string that tugs like torture on his closed heart.
An eternity later, the ceremony is over and the proud warrior returns to his wife's home with his openly distraught and grieving son. Without pause or hesitation he purposefully strides to his son's room and packs as much as he can in one suitcase before heading off to his own room. He stops in the doorway, looking into the bedroom where he shared so much with the first woman who had loved him and he had loved back and where all that had ended. She was the first person to treat him as a 'human being' not just a thing, the first one who could reach out to him in his moments of need and comfort him. Now in his darkest hour she is gone and nothing he can do for all his power can change it.
Finally, he summons up the courage to cross the threshold and haphazardly throws what few belongings he has on this planet that isn't his into one of Bulma's capsule rucksacks. Vegeta's hand stops before the family photo on the bedside cabinet, the one his dead wife tried to reach with her cold, outstretched hands. His own arm reaches out towards it and lifts it up before his eyes, it gets thrown into the bag along with his weighted clothing. Grabbing some capsules from his father in law's lab undetected and Trunks, he leaves behind his home and tries to escape the painful memories that it holds, stealing away into the night. Answering none of the questions his confused and grief ridden son throws at him, he flies endlessly towards the starlit horizon in search of a new life, far from anyone and everything.
Many months pass, summer turns to autumn to winter then spring and summer has now returned to the world, all but one place. No sunlight has reached the heart of Vegeta since that fateful day, all he lives for now is his training more so than before. With no company or distractions, save his son, he has exiled himself far off from all others. Most would call his new house's location beautiful being situated at the foot of picturesque snowy mountains, surrounded by untouched verdant forests and at the edge of a pristine freshwater lake. Vegeta sees none of these things except for the lack of inhabitants. Living in solitude, except for the times his son returns home from school, he has stopped shaving and grown a short beard leading to an even greater resemblance to his dead father.
Today is a new day, the sun has risen glistening off of the lake, the birds in the forest singing merrily to each other and a cooling breeze rolling down from the green hills and mountains to the back of the house. His son has already flown off to school and he has just finished a punishing and arduous slog in the training room and has now gone outside for some fresh air. The slight breeze cools him down nicely as the peace of the wilderness drapes over him. His eyes quickly adjust to the exterior lighting as he examines the view but is greeted only by the sight of his dead wife's face in the lake, the sound of her voice being hollowly echoed from the bustling tree branches. Avoiding the haunting visage, he looks to the sky and takes off flying from the sight that forever lingers within his soul.
Landing back on Terra firma in a rocky landscape of shrubbery and boulders, not too dissimilar from the one where he first fell from grace, he begins to train. Blasting away the mountains into rubble with the rush of air from his speedy punches. Flattened by his destruction, the scarred landscape spews volumes of dust into the air. With no other targets, Vegeta barrages the sky with flak, lighting up the sky as if it had become an inferno. A whole continent bears witness to the fireworks display before stopping, he realises that this training is beneath him and not worthy of his time for it offers up no challenge and so ceases. A flaming speck tears through the plumes of smoke in the sky, plummeting down to the Earth.
Sensing an energy reading from this falling meteor, Vegeta's interest is piqued. Flying close to the ground he skims across many leagues to where he calculates its trajectory will lead to impact and waits. Burning through the atmosphere, the object hurtles towards Vegeta at terminal velocity, soon its shape can be made out. A spaceship of unusual design: 4 dark brown prongs jutting out from a circular pink cockpit and many smaller cream coloured spikes protruding from the base of the craft. Vegeta doesn't flinch as it screams through the air looming forever closer. At the last second he raises his left arm and grabs one of the four main prongs, instantly stopping all of its momentum, taking the impact upon himself. The earth beneath him crumbles and opens up engulfing him. With only his outstretched arm left above ground in the jagged man-sized crater he releases the ship and lets it settle down with a clang in the dust as he scrambles out of the dirt. Covered in dust, he sits down on a nearby boulder waiting for the crew of the spaceship to reveal themselves.
The dust settles and the wasteland regains its tranquillity, a patch of tumble-weed drifts past before being incinerated. Vegeta crosses his arms in frustration and impatience that the pilot has not left their craft. A head then appears popping out of the ship. Phasing directly through the hull of the spaceship, a woman appears floating ten feet off the floor before landing and facing Vegeta. The woman is young, appearing to be in her prime with long spiky, light silvery cyan hair, elongated elf-like ears, cat like yellow irises and wearing red tights, a low cut white dress with a large black belt and a short orange and black jacket. The woman faces Vegeta who has raised his eyebrows in curiosity for never before has he seen someone phase through solid objects, he locks eyes with the predatory stare of the woman.
Both Vegeta and the woman continue to stare at each other until with a loud meow the spaceship morphs into a cabbit – a small, brown, half cat, half rabbit with extremely long ears, tufts of cream coloured fur and a red gem embedded in its forehead. Vegeta nearly loses his balance on the rock he is that taken aback by this incredulous manner of transformation, he only just remains sat on his perch. The cabbit quickly leaps onto the woman's shoulder and hisses at Vegeta with its hackles rising stiffly into the air. Her flowing hair is whipped into her face by the strong winds of the plain. She casually flicks her hair out of her eyes, eyes that narrow coldly at Vegeta as she raises her right arm to the sky. Around her small orange balls of energy materialise and whiz towards her hand until she crushes the ball of energy in her hand to form a rudimentary sword out of the crackling orange energy. With her raised sword in her arm she rushes at Vegeta viciously slicing down screaming for vengeance.
" No-one shoots me down. Don't you know who I am!" Her sword cleanly slices the boulder in half, her swipe going to the floor and leaving a small puddle of molten lava. Despite this, Vegeta has vacated his seat and is calmly walking around behind her as if nothing has happened.
Unfazed by his show of speed, the woman turns and sends a quick flurry of slashes at Vegeta, which he effortlessly evades whilst standing still. Incensed by his inability to be hit she continues hacking and swiping at Vegeta yet all her blows are smoothly dodged by the minutest of movements or effort until she shouts in rage and stabs at Vegeta's muscular chest. Her sword stops centimetres from his sternum, crackling and sparking with energy at the fingertip he used to stop her blow. With minimal force he pushes the sword backwards and sends the woman staggering back several paces to keep her balance. Vegeta inspects his completely uninjured finger then cracks his knuckles one by one ominously as the woman watches frustrated by his seamless strength until it is too much. Roaring she leaps into the air and blasts him with multiple orange ki blasts. The blasts tear away at the rocky floor beneath him and dust, debris and smoke is launched into the air obscuring Vegeta from view. As the ashes and embers slowly dissipate, only a smoking crater is left beside the larger one caused by her crash-landing on Earth.
She lands and smiles, laughing triumphantly and freezes when she hears a low chuckle coming from behind her. With his leather jacket and t-shirt nearly completely burnt off of his body and small patches of soot on his otherwise perfectly unharmed skin, Vegeta smirks. The woman gapes in shock, unable to comprehend his speed and how he managed to survive what she thought was sure to be a fatal attack. In an instant Vegeta is stood menacingly in front of her, terrified she falls and stumbles backwards. As she quickly stands back up something catches Vegeta's eye. A quick darting flash of dark brown fur, the woman has a tail and not just any tail but a tail that reminded him a lot of the one he used to have before he came to this planet.
" Who are you and what is your business here on my planet? I demand answers, now!" Vegeta shouts at the woman, trying to hide his confusion caused by her tail and the possible implications of it. Calmly the woman smiles and quietly answers his question.
" Ryoko …that's my name."
Plan A has failed, Ryoko scans her mark and decides that Plan B will have to be utilised. No physical threat has been given to her. She decides it should be safer for her to play things smart instead of strong. He will not yield to her sword but she has many other ways of making this strong man do what she wants.
Spontaneously Ryoko throws herself at Vegeta, who sensing no threatening action decided not to dodge - to his mistake. She hugs and embraces Vegeta and because of his stature she is as tall or even taller than he making him extremely uncomfortable in this situation. Still surprised by this sudden turn of events, Vegeta is not too sure what to do especially when her fingers start tracing circles on his stone hard muscles. Her eyes are firmly fixed on and admiring his masculine body. She raises her head and looks at his face with a pleasant smile.
" Oh thank you ever so much for saving poor, little Ryo-Ohki and me from such a horribly nasty crash. How could I ever repay a brave, gallant and handsome man for such a heroic deed?" Ryoko's intimate tone makes Vegeta uneasy but he reaches his limit when her hand starts falling down lower over his abs and even lower still. Angered by the weird behaviour of this woman he repulses her off of his person with ki causing her to reel backwards, however this time she does not fall.
" You can start by answering my questions, why are you here?" Vegeta coldly asks Ryoko not trusting her seemingly dichotomous behaviour. Ryoko drops the sugary tone and replies.
" I came here searching for the one who killed Frieza. That is I was until you shot me down." Vegeta is amused by this reply and a smile plays across his face.
" Oh, let me guess … you were a space pirate lackey of Frieza's and now, since business has all dried up, you come seeking Kakarot. You must have been one of the lucky ones that I didn't find when I cleaned up that little mess." Vegeta chuckles to himself at the memory of Frieza's defeat and the part he played in his dethroning. Ryoko doesn't like him making light of her quest that she has spent years of her life on and pursued across many star systems. However, he has mentioned a name, this man has become far more worthwhile for her to ensnare.
" I worked alone, Frieza was not my boss!"
" Then tell me, why wish for Kakarot's demise? For you should know that Kakarot is mine and he will meet his death at my hand alone."
" Then why haven't you done so already?" Reminded of his failures and annoyed by the quick wits of this strange women, he turns his back on her and rockets into the air returning home. Leaving Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki behind as the cabbit jumps back up onto her shoulder and meows loudly at the vapour trail in the air. Ryoko licks her lips, no prey alludes her grasp for long and with that much power she could have some real fun.
The Sun is setting behind the crystal peaks of the mountains when he lands outside the door to his house. Entering the undecorated hallway he tears off his ruined jacket and t-shirt throwing them onto the bannister of the stairway before turning left into the living room, striding through it past the second stairway and to the door next to it that leads to his place of escape: the gravity training room. With a swish, Ryoko appears outside the house and surveys the scene. Peeping through the large floor to ceiling window at the front of the house to see the open plan living room and flashes coming through a porthole of one of the adjoining doors. Manoeuvring her way along the perimeter of the house she sees a large metal hemisphere crudely latched onto the side of the house, light shines through the small slits of glass spaced around the exterior of the dome. She creeps towards the metallic bubble and peeks through the windows.
Inside Vegeta is pumping iron, weights of 10 tonne in each arm being curled in Super Saiyan form. Startled by his radical change in appearance, Ryoko continues to watch the blonde Vegeta slog through a marathon two hour session of lifting weights and not once taking a break. Unbeknown to her the gravity in the training room is consistently rising and pushing Vegeta further and further to his limits and when the artificial gravity peaks at 1000G the strain on his body pushes Vegeta into the Super Saiyan 3 transformation out of necessity. Blinding light bedazzles Ryoko as she retreats from the windows shielding her eyes from a thousand suns of illumination. As she returns the man inside is hardly recognisable with his elongated, flowing blonde hair and lengthened beard obscuring him as much as the godly aura pulsating from his body. However, within less than ten minutes in this state Vegeta's body fails him as he is unable to stay in Super Saiyan 3 form for any longer, all his energy sapped away, and reverts to base form.
The weights clunk to the floor with a resounding impact on the near unbreakable tiles as Vegeta step by step slowly makes his way to the central console and switches off the artificial gravity. Collapsing to his knees panting, sweat pouring down him like a waterfall, as Ryoko continues to stare through the window awed by the physical feats she has just witnessed. Fatigued but no longer under the strain of excessive gravity or an energy consumptive form, Vegeta senses a nearby presence and raises his head to look at Ryoko's face through the glass panes. Unsurprised she followed him but shamed by her seeing him in this weakened state, he leaps to his feet and storms out of the training room. She continues to watch him through the living room window as he marches up the stairs and comes back down in his blue sleeveless Saiyan jumpsuit, ignoring the woman outside his house. The door slams open as Trunks rushes into the house.
" Dad I'm back, got some homework to do so I'll be in my room. Oh and there was someone at the door so I let her in." Vegeta bristles at the news that Ryoko has been allowed into his home and shouts at Trunks to go and commence his daily amount of training. As he looks again in the living room he sees that Ryoko is on the couch making herself comfortable, lounging about and looking curiously around the room. A photo on the table in front of her grabs her attention and she picks it up curious, Vegeta's eyes narrow as he watches her. The photo is the only one that Vegeta took with him to remind him of his past life with Bulma, the family photo that belongs at his bedside in the capsule corporation headquarters.
" Who's that girl you're with?" Ryoko asks Vegeta, pointing to Bulma in the family photo, Vegeta pretends not to hear her and continues to stand with his arms crossed staring into the room.
" That's my mom, Bulma." Trunks answers as he walks back in the room, Ryoko looks at Vegeta with a raised eyebrow. A family man makes her mission complicated, though she is confident she can turn a head or two if she puts some effort in.
" I thought I told you to go and train son." Vegeta calmly but coldly says to Trunks.
" But I have school work due in for tomorrow." Trunks argues to his father.
" Do you ever want to get your sword back Trunks?" Vegeta looks at his son, using this easy method to blackmail his son into training once again.
" Yeah, give it back!"
" Not until you ascend beyond Super Saiyan, now go train." Vegeta dismisses the lad and Trunks slowly plods off into the training room against his will. Ryoko lets out a loud sigh drawing Vegeta's attention back to her, she smiles when she sees the tan lines on Vegeta's hand that indicate a missing wedding ring – a universal symbol of bachelorhood. She is back in the game.
" What are you doing here, in my house? You said your business was with Kakarot not me."
" Well it seems to me that you know a lot about this Kakarot guy."
" Of course, he's the only other surviving Saiyan pure blood beside me." Ryoko sits up intrigued by learning that Vegeta is a Saiyan, a race she has heard regularly in her service to Frieza but only as a hushed myth; a legend of a race of bloodthirsty warriors who would drown the universe in their unquenchable lust for war, a race that supposedly even the Cold family feared.
" Saiyans huh? Sorry about that whole asteroid destroying your planet." Vegeta frowns and a vein on his forehead starts to pulse. Reminded of his planet's destruction and the genocide of his race and family his blood starts to boil, the lies spread by Frieza continue to circulate through the far reaches of space.
" Asteroid! It was no damn asteroid! Frieza himself feared us, our potential, what we might become and so betrayed our loyalty to him! Anyway enough of that. How did you find us, it wasn't those blasted Nameks was it?"
" No, Ryo-Ohki picked up off the chart energy signatures from this planet that dwarfed those of Frieza's whole race, presumably you and Kakarot." This flattery appears to calm down the anger of Vegeta as he walks towards Ryoko who follows him carefully with her eyes.
" If I give you the coordinates for Kakarot's home, will you leave me be?"
" Umm …nope." Ryoko grins cheekily.
" Wha …Why not?!" Vegeta's anger has risen again at this unexpected answer.
" If your strength is anything to go by then I stand no chance against this Kakarot. Gonna need time to think of a plan." Ryoko continues to smile innocently.
" So leave me and this planet then!"
" Nope, no can do." Ryoko lounges back into the sofa stretching out on it, irritating Vegeta even further.
" Your space animal- pet- thing looks to be in working order." Vegeta points to Ryo-Ohki who is quietly cuddled up and napping on the floor.
" It's not Ryo-Ohki.." Ryoko suddenly gets off the sofa and kneels before Vegeta, touching his stomach with her hands. " … It's just …I-I'm being pursued, by the Juraians, they want to imprison me and do horrible, such horrible things to me. I don't want to impose, you have already saved my life today…" Ryoko softly pleads to a completely uncaring Vegeta who is more interested in trying to remember who Juraians are than the well-being of Ryoko. He is sure he has heard that name before, a long time ago though when he still travelled with Nappa and Raditz.
" Sure you can stay with us, it'll be fun and we have plenty of rooms to spare." Trunks announces as he pops his head around the door from the training room.
" What?! Trunks Briefs!" Vegeta glares threateningly at his son who quickly disappears back around the door with urgency and before he knows it the Saiyan has Ryoko trying to hug him again thanking him for being so kind and caring. This time he doesn't allow her to embrace him and with a matador-like supersonic sidestep she misses him completely. By the time Ryoko has recovered and turned around, Vegeta is making his way to leave the room.
" Hey, wait. I never got your name" Ryoko calls to Vegeta, he stops and turns his head partially towards her.
" I am Vegeta, prince of all Saiyans." With that he continues out of the room.
" A prince huh?" Ryoko smiles devilishly to herself.
Later that night in Vegeta's room, the prince is asleep in his bed, the room is pitch black and the house silent. Through the aged and worn floorboards Ryoko phases into his room, an extremely wide mischievous grin on her face as she silently and slowly flies towards the sleeping Vegeta. Persuading an ally to seize her goal of the bounty should not be too hard under cover of night.
" Your room's the next one along I believe." Vegeta's eyes suddenly snap open although still facing away from Ryoko. Her shoulders slump and she phases disappointed back from whence she came.