A King's Pride, A Father's Love

Emotion

“You sick bastard! You will pay for this!” Vegeta yells as he attempts to power-up, screaming in agony when the rings around his wrists react, restricting his ki.

“There’s the beautiful tears I’ve been waiting for.”

“Father…I’m sorry…” Trunks’ words are cut off as he looses consciousness to the pain the last of his tears streaking down his face and falling to the floor of Vegeta’s cage.

“I’m afraid, dear Prince, it is not I, who is the sick one.” As Sladen speaks he drags Trunks’ unconscious body to a machine and begins strapping him to it, spread eagle style. Vegeta gasps as he sees the damage done to Trunks’ back. “For if it were my son enduring this torture, I’d have given in already.”

“I told you! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“This act is getting old, Prince.” Sladen secures Trunks’ bonds, and walks across the room to grab a bottle and a syringe.

“What is that?” Vegeta asks nervously.

Sladen carefully fills the syringe with fluid from the bottle. “Adrenaline, to wake him up…his screams will be key in getting you to talk.”

“Look, I’m not lying, I really have never heard of a royal birthright.”

Sladen growls, jamming the needle into Trunks’ arm. “I’m not leaving here without that birth-right.”

Trunks slowly opens his eyes.

“Have a nice nap, did we?” Sladen asks, leaning in close to Trunks’ face.

Trunks’ eyes lower into a glare as he looks away defiantly.

“Are you ready to beg, brat?”

Trunks refuses to acknowledge him.

“Vegeta, I’m disappointed, your son has no manners.” Sladen cranks a lever which twists his already broken arm slightly, causing him to scream in pain, “I asked you a question, boy.”

“Never!” Trunks yells through the pain as his arm remains in the twisted position.

Sladen grins sadistically, “Fine, keep resisting; I still enjoy the look in those eyes of yours.”

Sladen turns the master lever, which turns all 4 levers, slowly twisting Trunk’s appendages. An agonized scream rips from his throat as he feels his bones on the verge of breaking.


“Trunks, don’t be foolish, just do as he says.” Vegeta pleads as he watches the scene in horror from his cage.

Trunks’ breathing is labored, and his vision keeps blurring, the pain threatening to cause him to pass out again. “I…will…never…beg.”

Trunks shrieks again as another slow twist of the master lever causes the jagged end of bone in his already broken arm to perforate his skin, causing blood to flow freely from the fresh wound.

“Then I will do it for you…”

Sladen faces the proud prince in shocked awe at his words.

Vegeta holds his head high as he sinks to his knees. “Please, spare my son.”

“Are you ready to give me what I desire?”


Vegeta hangs his head. “Please believe me when I tell you I don’t know of any sayajin birthright.”

Vegeta’s head snaps up at the sound of Trunks tortured cry as Sladen cranks the machine again. Tears are streaming down Trunks’ face, and his eyes are vacant and glazed over with pain. Vegeta feels tears brim in his own. “I’m so sorry, Trunks.”

“You really don’t remember, do you?” Sladen asks in disbelief.

Vegeta shakes his head in despair. “If I did it would be yours already.” He adds weakly.

“Think, Vegeta. It was only a few days before King Vegeta’s…death.” A sad spark enters Sladen’s eyes as he remembers his fallen master, “He asked me to bring you to him, and for the first time in my history of service to him, he asked me to leave the room. It was a private moment that was to take place between father and son.”

A small flicker of recognition settles on Vegeta’s features. “I remember that day…I thought I was in serious trouble because he asked you to leave…”

“Yes, good Vegeta, now try to remember what happened after I left.”

Vegeta’s eyes travel Trunks who is neither conscious nor unconscious. “If you want me to cooperate, you’ll have to release him.”

“Yes, of course.” Sladen presses a button to releases all of Trunks’ bonds, and he falls to a limp, broken, heap on the floor. “Now start remembering.”

Vegeta stares at the floor, concentrating hard to recall that day so long ago when his life was still somewhat bearable.

“He called me over to him…he told me that he had something important to give me…”

“Good, don’t stop, keep going.”

“All I remember him doing was hugging me, and telling me that he loved me, and that I was now the only hope for the future of the saiyajin race…I didn’t understand, but when I looked up at him to ask what he meant, he was crying.”

“King Vegeta, crying? I doubt that, you must be mistaken.”

“No, I clearly remember that, because it was the first time that I ever saw anyone cry. But I’m telling you he didn’t give me anything.”

A puzzled look crosses Sladen’s face. “I don’t understand, how can this be?”

Flash back

Sladen watches as Prince Vegeta leaves his father’s chambers, his expression is solemn, he’s holding his head high, and his steps are deliberate, he is very much unlike the insecure, unsure, little boy that he brought to the King nearly an hour ago.

Sladen walks to the King’s door and knocks gently. “Do you require my services, my Lord?”

“Yes, come in.” comes the muffled voice from the other side of the door.

Sladen enters, and notes that the King’s eyes are a bit red and his nose is runny. “Sir, are you coming down with something?”

“No, no, I’ll be fine.”

Sladen notices the odd way his master is carrying himself. His broad shoulders are slumped over, his head is slightly hung, and the usual confident spark in his eyes was replaced by a look of defeat.

“Are you alright my Lord?”

“Of course I am…”

Sladen stares unbelieving at his King.

“Or, I will be, rather, I want you to call Koven and Rach to the conference room.”

“The captain of the army and the advisor! Is there something serious about to happen?”

“Yes, we are going to confront Frieza, and we’re going to regain our freedom.”

“But sire, that’s suicide.”

“Perhaps, but I will not stand by any longer, I may no longer have my pride, but I still have my courage.”

“Your pride, sir?”

King Vegeta looks at him, startled, as if he’s said too much.

“Never mind, just gather them, I will be there in an hour.”

Sladen bows. “Yes my Lord.”

End Flash back.

“That’s it! I remember now! It was his pride that he bestowed upon you!”

“His pride?”

“Yes, it was almost as if he’d taken on your insecurities, and given you his royal sense of pride.”

“Yes, I remember now, I did feel a certain change take place that day…”

“So that’s it! The Saiyajin birthright is pride!”

“But…I have no idea how to give it to you…”

“What was the reason for the King’s tears that day?”

“I really don’t know…but he looked very anguished.”

“Wait here, I’ll be back.”

Sladen exits the room.

‘Trunks. Trunks! Can you hear me? Wake up.”

Trunks’ eyes flutter open and he releases a pained moan as he tries to move.

“Trunks, listen to me, you’ve got to get out of here…find help.”

“I-I can’t move…”

“Stop being weak, of course you can move, it just hurts.”

Trunks painfully picks himself off the floor, gritting his teeth when the air hits his raw back. He braces himself against Vegeta’s cage as he tries to gather enough strength to fly to the high window.

“Trunks, no!” Trunks screams as the bracelets emit golden shocks that pulse throughout his body. “No ki usage, remember?”

Trunks breathes hard, his body trembling with the shock of the added pain. “There’s no way for me to get out of here, I can’t possibly reach that window.”

“Okay, then I want you to find a corner to sit in where you’re protected.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet, but I can’t be worrying about you getting hurt.”

Trunks nods his understanding as he slowly makes his way to the other side of the room.

Vegeta looks around, appraising the structure of the cage that is holding him.

He grabs hold of the bars, clenching his teeth and pulling back, his hands smoking from the heat of the metal. Vegeta furrows his brow, holding the back of his hand mere centimeters from the bars and feeling no heat off of them. He also recalls that Trunks had not been burned when he was chained to them.

Deciding not to dwell on it, Vegeta listens intently for an approaching footsteps, and after deciding that it’s clear, he sets his jaw and grabs the bars, ignoring the searing flesh, and shaking them with all of his strength.

The bars make an awful clanging, sure to alert their captors, wherever they are, but he is determined. Finally, one of the bars breaks loose from the floor, and Vegeta releases the bars, resorting to kicking at the bar to give his hands a break.

The heavy door to the room swings open, and Sladen enters, the anger evident in his eyes. He raises his hand and sends a small power blast at Trunks. Unable to move with any measure of speed, Trunks simply curls into a tight ball and releases a pain-soaked cry as he is unable to dodge the blast.

“Trunks!”

Sladen smiles, pleased that he seems to be finally getting under the prince’s skin.

“Vegeta, if you insist on being uncooperative, I’m afraid your son here will feel the consequences of your actions. Not to mention those bars are designed to measure changes in a being that signal they are about to attack, and to defend themselves.”

Vegeta growls, but steps away from the cage wall and crosses his arms over his chest.

“I’m finished. Leave the boy alone.”

“Good.” Sladen turns toward the door. “Vlados, you can come in now.”

Vegeta’s head snaps up at the name, and recognition settles over his features as an elderly saiyajin enters the room carrying a book.

“Vlados?!” Vegeta’s voice is thick with disbelief as he stands staring at the elder that he had assumed dead along with the rest of planet Vegeta.

The elderly saiyajin bows slightly, a small smile gracing his lips.

“Don’t bow to him you idiot, he’s not the prince for much longer.” Sladen reprimanded sharply.


“How?” Vegeta asks through his confusion.

“The King knew that he was embarking upon a suicide mission when he faced Frieza. He had called me and left me with the books of wisdom, and sent me to another planet with them. “ Vlados explains, as he holds the book out to Vegeta.

Vegeta takes the book, turning it over in his hands, memories of more innocent times flooding back to him.

“But…it can’t be opened. Only my father’s ring can open it, and as far as I know he was buried with it.”

Vlados reached inside his robes, withdrawing a ring on a chain. “The King was smarter than you give him credit for, Vegeta. Only those of royal blood can open the book.”

Vegeta nods knowingly as he takes the ring, slipping it on his finger, feeling the weight of it, remembering playing with it on his father’s hand when he was little more than a baby.

“Come on, get on with it, and let’s find out how to transfer this bloody birthright!” Sladen snaps.

Vegeta nods, and holds the ring to the lock on the book, which separates with ease, falling open as if welcoming Vegeta home.

Vegeta hands the book to Vlados, who thumbs through the pages of ancient writing. As Vegeta watches him, a sense of homesickness that he had not felt since the days shortly after Freiza took him from his father, settled on his soul, and he felt as if he would drown in it.

“Ah, here we are!” Vlados says as he begins reading, “The birthright is passed from the present king to one he has chosen as his heir, by the king shedding tears of shame, usually brought on by recognizing his own inability to lead his people any longer. The tears much touch the heir. This can only be done once, so it is important for the king to never feel shame. The saiyajin pride usually protects against this, but there have been rare instances where it has not. In these cases, the first person to touch the tears becomes endowed with the birthright.”

Sladen smirks evily. “Seems I’ve been forcing tears out of the wrong person. So, Vegeta, ready to cry for me?”