Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Runaway Prince ❯ Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ… 'Nuff said.

Runaway Prince

Chapter 2

Vegeta rubbed his eyes and yawned as the computerized voice of the pod encouraged him to awaken. "Wake up Kakarrot. It is time for you to begin your mission."

Vegeta smirked. "My name isn't Kakarrot. And as for the mission… I am not a third class weakling, and I don't work for Frieza anymore anyway."

The planet that he could see through the pod's small window was a rich blue sphere lightly ringed by white clouds. It was beautiful, majestic and yet it looked peaceful and he could only wonder what it would be like to be live there. Not have to be wary of Zarbon and Dodoria. Not to mention Frieza himself looming over his shoulder, threatening to kill his father…

The young prince sighed. As hard as he had tried to protect his father and his people by being obedient to Lord Frieza, he had overheard Zarbon and Dodoria talking yesterday after he had finished his morning session in the training room… The most of the other Saiyans were already dead. His father, the king had tried to attack Frieza, several days ago, trying to get him back... And to punish The Saiyans' mutiny, Frieza had already killed their home planet, and now he was coming to collect him and annihilate the last Saiyan base… That meant the only Saiyans that would be left alive to amuse Frieza, would be Radditz, Napa and himself.

Vegeta growled. He couldn't let it end like that. He had not told anyone what he had overheard. Instead, he had acted as if everything was normal, letting a plan to escape form in his mind. Part of him did feel guilty about having to leave Napa and Radditz alone with Frieza and his goons… but he couldn't think of any way for them to join him in his escape and if they didn't know where he had gone, Frieza couldn't force them to tell him. Besides, after he became a Super Saiyan, and killed Frieza, they would understand his actions.

The pod began its decent toward the jewel like blue planet and yet Vegeta's thought were still of home. He wished that he were older, and that he didn't have to run away, but he knew that he had no hope of beating Frieza yet. His trainers had always told him to choose his battles carefully. A great warrior was aware that knowing the terrain and climate of a battlefield were as important as knowing ones' own strengths, choosing the right allies and knowing ones enemies. So far, Vegeta knew he had none of these things on his side. All of his instincts had told him to run, and still he could only wonder what would become of the Saiyans he had left behind. More than likely, Frieza would simply kill them… he was the reason they had not already been killed… and without him, Radditz wasn't very strong, and Napa was a moron. Frieza would probably not consider them worth keeping.

Vegeta didn't even feel the pod's landing; he was too busy feeling guilty for leaving. He sighed as the computer addressed him as Kakarrot again, and got out. Blue skies and green grass. He paused looking at the scenery, but he shrugged at least it wasn't a barren desert of rock and scrub plants like most of the planets he had been to. Vegeta almost felt a little guilt over that too, but he growled and pressed the button on his scouter, pushing those thoughts away. Saiyans were planet killers, that was just the way things were, even though it resulted in boring scenery.

He could see some interesting power readings far in the distance, and one really large power nearby. Vegeta decided to investigate, the sooner he was familiar with this planet the sooner he could begin his training. He flew up out of the crater to look around. A giant reptile with a massive head and mouth full of huge teeth and small forearms and shoulders was visible over the tops of a few trees and he sighed in disappointment, realizing that the huge animal was the power reading he had seen. He needed to train, and even such a large animal wouldn't stand a chance of making an interesting fight. Still, he shrugged, he was hungry and it looked like there was a lot of meat on this thing.

Vegeta flew toward the creature and heard its loud rumbling cry. The massive animal was hunting too, but it wasn't having much luck apparently. He blasted at the huge reptile and watched it turn to look at him; it gave another thunderous roar and started toward him. Vegeta smirked, deciding to have a little fun with his food before he killed it. The huge reptile licked its lips and growled at him, in midair, Vegeta settled into a fighting stance and growled back.

The prince's tail flickered restlessly for a moment before he wrapped it back around his waist and attacked. The monstrously large creature felt its head snap back, and was rolled completely over before it realized that the little challenger had moved. The beast scrambled up and looked around, startled, but the boy he had intended to eat was no where in sight.

When Vegeta reappeared, the reptile gave a startled squawk and began to run. It was fast for such a huge creature, the prince was a little surprised, but he just smirked, it wasn't nearly fast enough. The steps of the reptile sounded like thunder and its footprints were huge, but he was getting really hungry, and he decided playtime was over... A Ki-blast at the base of its neck caused the animal to stumble and go down hard, while another blast put it down for good.

Vegeta had roasted and eaten a good sized chunk of the beast's huge shoulder when his scouter suddenly came to life. Vegeta scanned the area on the ground and found nothing, but as the beeping and blips on the screen continued he looked up. The techs had sent Kakarrot behind him after all! Vegeta chuckled, practically purring as he congratulated himself on his brilliant plan of escape. The two morons probably hadn't even run a scan on his pod, they had been so worried about setting up a new pod for the infant that they had ignored procedure and missed noticing that the pod had been activated manually. It was what he had hoped would happen, but he hadn't really thought that his escape would work. Those two techs had probably deleted the first pods' departure from the log entirely. Vegeta couldn't help but laugh, there was no way he could have been that lucky twice… maybe Frieza wasn't invincible after all. If he could escape from a heavily guarded base and Napa that easily then maybe, just maybe he would succeed in his training too. Then he would return to find Frieza and destroy him for betraying the warriors who had worked so hard to serve him.

He used his scouter to calculate a landing site for the incoming pod and followed it there, forgetting his meal. The infant was probably already the only Saiyan left besides himself, they had been in stasis for a year on the trip here… how strange that the revenge for their entire people had to fall on the shoulders of a five- no a six year old and an infant that was still too young to sit up on his own. But Vegeta promised himself that he wouldn't cry. The Saiyans would see their revenge, but for now, Vegeta supposed that it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on Kakarrot... he was only third class, and a baby, after all.

The pod came to rest on earth with a bone jarring crash, but Vegeta was hovering above the ground, watching from a safe distance. As the pod's hatch opened, Vegeta landed beside it and smirked as the smaller pod rolled out and the infant was released. Kakarrot landed on a rock and started to cry- loudly. Vegeta scowled and picked him up by his tail. "We are Saiyans not crybabies."

The baby stopped crying as Vegeta turned him around to look at him, and gurgled.

"That's better." Vegeta smirked. He was just about to take Kakarrot to the small camp he had made near his kill when his scouter came back on. "Shit… Now what?"

Kakarrot just babbled happily and latched onto Vegeta's tail that had unwrapped itself from his waist in his distracted state. A fat old man appeared at the edge of the crater, corresponding to the power that the scouter was detecting, but Vegeta didn't relax. He settled into a defensive stance and instinctively put Kakarrot on the ground behind him.

"W-what are you two boys doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" The old man asked, nimbly making his way down to them. "The nearest village is miles from here."

Vegeta didn't say anything, he was watching him , and listening to the man's tone as much as his words… The language was strikingly similar to the language Frieza's Empire used as common, and there was nothing threatening in the man's voice or movements. The old man looked pretty harmless, but Vegeta still knew better than to drop his guard on a planet that had been put on the purge list… The Saiyan prince glanced at the space pod behind him and the old man's eyes widened, Vegeta smirked.

"My name is Gohan, Son Gohan. What is your name, little fellow?"

"My name is Vegeta… this is Kakarrot."

"I had a feeling you understood me, how old are you?" The old man said, looking at Vegeta for a moment.

"I am five- six if you count stasis time."

"B-but if you came from one of those… where did you come from you are only children. Why were you sent here?"

"I sent myself here. I need time to train and get stronger. Kakarrot was sent here to destroy your planet."

The old man smiled, and he was going to laugh, until he saw the indifferent expression the small boy was wearing. He had noticed earlier that the look in Vegeta's eyes was one of bold pride and cunning, but it was hard to imagine such genius and defiance burning in the intelligent gaze of such a small child. He should be laughing at having such an outrageous conversation, especially with a child- but he wasn't. He looked the boy over once more and noted that he was wearing what looked like some sort of armor, with a cape and an insignia of some sort… but more than that, the boy also stood like a warrior... like he knew almost instinctively how to fight. The younger child with Vegeta was unusual as well, they both had strange hair styles, and tails, but Kakarrot looked pretty harmless. Vegeta on the other hand looked like some sort of a young warrior prince, standing there so proudly, he was confident and intelligent… All together the Vegeta gave the impression that he possessed great power, Gohan had been one of the most powerful martial artists of his day and still he had never encountered anyone quite like this before.

"You are a bit young for a warrior, aren't you Vegeta?" Gohan asked finally

"A Saiyan elite is never to young to train."

"What is a Saiyan?"

"I am a Saiyan elite while he is a third class Saiyan." Vegeta was starting to get bored and Kakarrot was chewing insistently on the end of his own tail, having just spat out a handful of dirt. Vegeta picked the younger Saiyan up by his tail again and rolled his eyes as he lifted off of the ground. "That is disgusting you brat! Come, Kakarrot, let's go. Food is this way…"

"You can fly??"

"Of course I can fly! Doesn't everybody? Now, if you will excuse me this idiot is attempting to eat dirt, so I…"

"Why don't you both come with me? I have plenty of food and I would like to know more about you. You can stay with me at my house until we can figure out what else to do. I think I know someone that might be able to help you, Vegeta, if you really wish to get stronger… But I would like to know why someone so young would be so determined to train, before I will take you to him."

"We are Saiyans. We would be fine on our own, but I am curious about your planet… We will follow you."

The old man smiled. "Good, would you mind if I ask you some more questions?"

"I suppose."

"When you say that you need to train, what is it that you are training for?"

"A monster named Frieza killed my father, and the rest of our race. I am going to destroy him." Vegeta said simply.

"Hmm. I see, but why are you carrying him like that?"

"It is uncomfortable enough to keep him quiet but I am not trying to hurt him. His parents would carry him this way if they were here, until he can walk, by then he will be too heavy. Besides, he is under the influence of his programming. Until he looses his memory of his orders, if you are going to be around him, you should hold him like this."

"His orders?"

"Yes. I told you he was sent here to destroy this planet, but since I have come here to train, I can't let him do it. Besides, it was Frieza that ordered this planet destroyed, and just that is enough to make me want to save it."

"Hmm… Don't you think he must be cold?"

"No. Even low class Saiyans are resistant to temperature, gravity and altitude. Only extremely rapid changes in weather or prolonged exposure will hurt him… even without clothes. His Ki is a natural barrier and when he learns to control his Ki, his body will learn to compensate for variations in all three automatically anyway…"

"You are familiar with Ki?"

"Yes. Saiyans are born with Ki abilities, but they only become something we can control with training."

Notes: I just love playing around with the DB and DBZ timelines!!!!!!!!!!!