Ch. 134: Prince of All Saiyans

"So, you're going to kill me, Goku? I thought that you had already reserved that right, Vegeta? I suppose it makes sense. You leave the work to the one most capable of doing it, and that's definitely not you, my ever-loyal dog." Frieza goaded as Vegeta began to turn towards me with the intent of taking me away from the battle. His objective was obvious. Push at Vegeta's pride and make him angry enough to attack Frieza head-on, despite the difference in strength. 

Unfortunately, even if Vegeta understood that fact in his head, Frieza had just challenged him. Vegeta's pride wasn't going to allow him to bow out of the fight gracefully now, even if it meant certain death. Meeting Frieza's gaze, Vegeta walked past Goku, pushing the other Saiyan aside, rage in his eyes. "Shut up. The fun of killing you is mine and mine alone, Frieza. I am nobody's dog. Not anymore." He declared, looking the tyrant in the eye with a gaze that screamed 'You're mine.'

"Vegeta. You don't stand a chance against this guy. Let me-" Goku tried, but Vegeta immediately cut him off.

"I know that better than anyone, Kakarot. Even if I throw everything that I have at this bastard, I wouldn't even scratch his skin. But he's still my prey." Vegeta declared.

"Vegeta, please. Take Hanna and get out of here before someone dies." Goku tried to ask again, but Vegeta wasn't listening to reason anymore.

"Namekian." Without turning around, Vegeta addressed Piccolo, who'd just landed beside me. "Take the girl to Nappa. He'll know what to do."

"Vegeta." Piccolo tried to say something, but he lost his voice when Vegeta looked back at him. 

The Prince of all Saiyans knew that he'd almost certainly die if he took on Frieza. He didn't have any special techniques like I did. He didn't have the same overwhelming power that Raditz did, and he didn't have the versatility that Piccolo did, but...

"Kakarot. As much as I hate to admit it, you've been far stronger than me since the moment that we met, even with your soft heart. Perhaps that's your strength, in fact. You, Nappa, and Raditz as well... they all became stronger just by learning something from you Earthlings, I realized that when I saw Raditz fight Frieza earlier... but I don't work that way. I'm the Prince of all Saiyans, and I already have the only weapon I'll ever need, to push myself to your level... to Frieza's level... and far beyond."

Vegeta turned around to look Goku in the eye before continuing. Memories flashed through his mind's eye. Getting blasted into the stratosphere by Goku's Kamehameha. Getting beaten to a pulp by Zarbon, then Recoome, then Captain Ginyu. Me jumping between him and Frieza when Frieza'd first powered up, avoiding all of the lightning-fast attacks that'd punched straight through his defenses. He'd been humiliated constantly since that one fated meeting. But standing here now, Vegeta knew that he was incomparably stronger than he'd been before, because of those humiliations. Each loss... each time he'd been saved from the brink of death by someone else's mercy, had carved itself into Vegeta's heart, urging him forward.

'If I'm going to live from this moment forward, I want to find a different way. On Earth, they gained power by working together, and they were smiling, happy! I'm done living without pride, Vegeta, don't you see?!' The words that Nappa had said to Vegeta when he'd been deliberating on whether to destroy the Namekian village or not came into Vegeta's head. "Pride." Clenching his fist, he repeated the word, "Pride. If I'm not the strongest now, then I will be. If I die today, then I'll find some way to claw myself from the pits of hell for my revenge, I swear to you now. By my pride as the Prince of All Saiyans, I will turn you into a mere stepping-stone on my road to becoming the strongest being in the universe, Frieza." Vegeta told the tyrant. "Even if I fail here, Kakarot won't. You'll die today either way, Frieza. That's why I can fight you with every scrap of power I have. Because I want to be the one to put you in the ground myself."

After hearing Vegeta's speech, Goku knew that he couldn't bring himself to charge between Vegeta and Frieza, even if it meant saving the other Saiyan's life. Nobody knew a Saiyan's drive to get stronger, no matter the risk or the cost, better than Goku did, so instead of stopping Vegeta, he took a step back, made eye contact with Piccolo, and jerked his chin as an indication that the Namekian should get going. Taking the hint, Piccolo picked me up in his arms and began to fly off without a word.

Frieza didn't care in the least about Vegeta's declaration. None of it moved his cold, dead heart at all. It was just a battle-crazed monkey throwing himself into the fire, like millions had done before.

But he couldn't allow me to leave. He knew it in the depths of his soul. Only three times in his life had Frieza ever felt real fear at this point. Against Gohan, who was now useless.

Against Krillin's Destructo-Disk, which was also useless, now that he'd seen it. He wouldn't be blindsided by it again.

And when he'd looked into my eyes as he held me in his grip, poised to deal the killing blow.

If I were to heal, and become stronger... Would I become the thing he feared the most? Would I become a Super Saiyan? Somewhere in his heart, Frieza believed that might happen. Unbeknownst to him, it actually had been possible for me to go Super Saiyan ever since I'd released my last seal. Had I done so, though, I still wouldn't have been much of a threat to him.

But if I released my next seal, it'd be easy for me to transform and be flashy about it, rather than brute-forcing it with insane energy control. Honestly, I'd be able to wipe the floor with the tyrant without breaking a sweat, and somewhere deep in Frieza's soul, he'd realized that.

So, ignoring Vegeta's passionate declaration, Frieza leapt after Piccolo and myself before he'd even realized what he was doing, in a mad rush to kill me right here and now.