Time passed.
Goku accepted Princess Vegeta as his student. Reluctantly.
But the little princess threw herself into training with obsession.
Every morning, she arrived at the wasteland before dawn. Every evening, she limped home after dark. Her body accumulated bruises faster than they could heal. Her muscles screamed. Her bones ached.
She never complained.
*Interesting*, Goku thought. *Pride can be useful.*
---
At The Palace.
"You're pushing yourself too hard."
Queen Vegeta watched her daughter collapse onto a chair, armor dented, cape torn, fresh bruises blooming across her arms.
"I'm fine, Mother."
"You can barely stand."
"I'm thankful for your concern mother."
The Queen's eyes narrowed. For days now, Vegeta had been returning like this, wrecked, exhausted, yet somehow... different. There was something in her eyes that hadn't been there before.
Queen Vegeta studied her daughter. This proud, stubborn child who had never accepted instruction from anyone.
*Someone broke through that pride.*
Goku occupied a corner of the Queen's thoughts.
But other matters demanded attention.
Frieza was coming. His family was coming. War was inevitable.
The Saiyans needed to prepare.
"You."
Eve straightened as Queen Vegeta approached her in the training grounds.
"My Queen?"
"Your power exceeds anything we've measured. I'm assigning you to oversee combat preparation for our warriors."
Eve's eyes widened.
"You want me to... train them?"
"I want you to make them ready." The Queen's gaze was steel. "Frieza arrives in days. Our survival depends on how quickly our forces can improve. Can you do this?"
*This is why I came.*
*To save them.*
*To save her.*
"Yes, my Queen. I won't let you down."
Queen Vegeta nodded.
"I believe you."
Eve threw herself into the task.
Days blurred together. She drilled squadrons. Corrected techniques. Pushed warriors past limits they didn't know they had. Her power, that impossible, unmeasurable power, served as both inspiration and humiliation.
*If she can reach that level, so can we.*
*We must.*
Being close to the Queen filled Eve with complicated warmth. Every interaction, every brief conversation, every moment of acknowledgment, they were gifts she'd never expected to receive.
*She trusts me.*
—
Princess Vegeta lay in a crater.
Her own crater. Goku had put her there with a single palm strike, casual, almost lazy. The hundredth time today. Maybe the thousandth.
She stared at the red sky, chest heaving.
"Get up."
"Give me... a moment..."
"Frieza won't give you moments."
She dragged herself upright. Wobbled. Steadied.
Then her nose wrinkled.
"What is that smell?"
Goku raised an eyebrow.
"It's you." She pinched her nose dramatically. "Those clothes. They reek. How long have you been wearing them?"
He glanced down at his tattered shirt and pants. The same ones from the crash. Stained with dirt, sweat, blood, some his, mostly not.
"A while."
"It's disgusting. A Saiyan warrior shouldn't-" She stopped herself. Crossed her arms. "I'll bring you clothes tomorrow. Elite Saiyan armor. It will suit yo—"
She cut off again.
Her face reddened.
"I mean... I'll allow you to wear Saiyan attire. Consider it a gift from your princess. Be grateful."
"How generous."
"It IS generous! Most peasants would grovel for such an honor!"
"I'll try to contain my gratitude."
"You should!"
She shot into the sky, cape billowing, hiding the excitement on her face.
Goku watched her go.
*Strange kid.*
---
The Next Day.
She arrived with a bundle.
Armor. Bodysuit. Boots. All of it elite-class, the finest the Saiyan armory could provide.
"Here." She thrust it at him without meeting his eyes. "Don't say I never gave you anything."
Goku took the bundle.
Examined it.
"Not bad."
"Not *bad*?! That's the highest quality—" She stopped. Breathed. Composed herself. "Whatever. Just put it on."
He tucked the armor under his arm.
"Later. Training first."
The session was brutal as always. He pushed her harder than before, faster combinations, stronger counters, less time to recover between exchanges, extreme weights.
By midday, she could barely lift her arms.
"Enough for now." Goku turned away. "I'm going to wash. The river nearby."
"F-fine. I'll leave then."
He walked toward the treeline.
Princess Vegeta watched him go.
*I should leave.*
Her feet didn't move.
*I should definitely leave.*
She found herself following instead.
The water ran clear and cold through a rocky channel.
Goku stood at its edge, back to the forest, stripping off his ruined clothes. Shirt first. Then pants. Then everything else.
Hidden in the undergrowth, Princess Vegeta watched.
*What am I doing?*
*This is beneath me.*
*I should go.*
*I should—*
He stepped into the water.
She didn't go.
Her face burned.
*This is purely... reconnaissance. Yes. Assessing his physical condition. As his princess, I have every right to—*
Her thoughts stopped.
There.
At the base of his spine.
A tail.
Long. Brown. Thick with fur. Swaying lazily as he washed.
*A Saiyan tail.*
Her eyes went wide.
*He's—*
*He's one of us?*
*But that's impossible. Male Saiyans don't exist. They've NEVER existed. How can he—*
A branch snapped beneath her foot.
She fled.
---
Princess Vegeta's Chambers.
She didn't sleep that night.
The image burned in her mind. That tail. Unmistakably Saiyan. Attached to a male body.
*What is he?*
*WHERE did he come from?*
*Why didn't he tell me?*
Questions spiraled endlessly.
No answers came.
The Next Morning.
She arrived to find him waiting.
In Saiyan armor.
The elite bodysuit hugged his frame perfectly, black material stretching across his chest, white armor plates gleaming in the morning light. Gloves. Boots. Even the stance looked different now.
He looked like a Saiyan warrior.
Princess Vegeta's throat tightened.
"It... fits."
"It does."
She couldn't stop staring at where his tail would be, hidden now beneath the armor's design, invisible to casual observation.
*He's been hiding it this whole time.*
*From everyone.*
*From me.*
"Well?" Goku's voice cut through her thoughts. "Are we training or not?"
"Y-yes. Of course."
Later.
*BOOM.*
Princess Vegeta lay in another crater.
Staring at another sky.
But her mind wasn't on the training.
"What's wrong with you?" Goku stood at the crater's edge, looking down. "You're not into it today."
She sat up slowly.
Brushed dust from her cape.
"Say... Master."
The word still felt strange on her tongue.
"What?"
"Are you a Saiyan?"
Silence.
Goku's expression didn't change.
"You peeked while I was washing myself."
Her face exploded with color.
"I—NO! I wasn't—how DARE you accuse—"
"Pervert."
"I AM NOT A PERVERT! I am the Princess of all Saiyans! I would NEVER stoop to such—such—" She sputtered. Choked on her own indignation. "YOUR princess doesn't peek at common—at—"
She trailed off.
Her eyes dropped.
"...I saw your tail."
"I know."
"You're really...?"
"I guess I am."
She looked up at him. Her teacher. Her... something she didn't have words for yet.
"But male Saiyans don't exist. They've NEVER existed. How is it possible?"
She opened her mouth to demand more.
Closed it.
*He won't tell me.*
*Not yet.*
"...fine."
"Enough talking." He dropped into a stance. "Let's get back to it."
She rose.
Brushed off her armor.
Faced him.
"One more question."
"What?"
"Why did you hide it? Your tail. Your identity. Why not tell anyone?"
"Would you have believed me?"
She considered.
"...no."
"Then there's your answer."
He moved.
She barely blocked in time.
And the training continued.
---
The Days That Followed.
Princess Vegeta kept his secret.
She didn't know why. Didn't examine the impulse too closely. It was hers, this knowledge, this truth about him. Sharing it felt like losing something precious.
The training continued.
Every morning. Every evening. Bruises and breakthroughs and that infuriating smirk that made her want to punch him and... other things she refused to acknowledge.
She grew stronger.
Faster.
Better.
But more than that, she grew to anticipate these sessions. The walk to the wasteland. The first exchange of blows. Even the defeats, the craters, the exhaustion.
*Training*, she told herself.
*I'm just eager to train.*
*To get stronger.*
*To defeat Frieza.*
*That's all.*
But when she lay awake at night, it wasn't Frieza she thought about.
It was him.
---
Dawn broke red over Planet Vegeta.
The same crimson sky as always. The same burning horizon. But today it felt different, heavier, like the air itself knew what was coming.
Queen Vegeta stood before her assembled army.
Thousands of warriors. Every able-bodied Saiyan who could hold a stance. Elites and low-class alike, standing shoulder to shoulder. Differences forgotten. Hierarchy abandoned.
Today, they were simply Saiyans.
And today, they might all die.
The Queen surveyed her forces.
They were stronger now. Weeks of desperate training under Eve's guidance had pushed them past limits they didn't know existed. Power levels had climbed. Techniques had sharpened. Fear had transformed into something harder.
*Resolve.*
But the greatest change stood near the front.
Princess Vegeta.
The child had become something else entirely. Her ki radiated, compressed and refined in ways that made veteran warriors step back. The transformation was visible in her posture, her eyes, her very presence.
*Our princess has become a monster.*
Eve caught the young Saiyan's gaze across the crowd.
Smirked.
*So that's where she's been disappearing to.*
*He trained her.*
Princess Vegeta saw the knowing look. Her small fist clenched, but she said nothing.
"Listen, my fellow Saiyans!"
Queen Vegeta's voice silenced the murmurs.
"We received a signal at dawn. Three massive vessels approaching from the outer system." She let the words sink in. "They will arrive by nightfall."
Three ships.
Frieza. King Cold. Cooler.
The entire Cold family, coming to personally oversee their extermination.
"Today is the day we live—" The Queen raised her fist. "—or we die!"
"**FOR THE SAIYAN RACE!**"
The roar shook the ground.
Eve stepped toward the Queen.
"I need to get him."
Queen Vegeta's eyes narrowed. "Get who?"
"Goku. The male. We can't win without—"
"I need you here." The Queen's hand closed on her arm. "You're our strongest warrior. If you leave now, morale collapses."
"But—"
"I'll go!"
They turned.
Princess Vegeta pushed through the crowd, cape billowing.
"I'll retrieve the male. I know where he is."
Eve's eyes narrowed.
"How would you know where he is?"
"*Tch!*"
The princess didn't answer. She launched into the sky before anyone could stop her, a streak of blue vanishing toward the horizon.
---
Princess Vegeta descended onto familiar ground.
The plateau where they'd trained. The craters she'd created, and been thrown into. The boulder where he sat between sessions, watching her with that infuriating smirk.
Empty.
"Master!"
Her voice echoed off stone.
Nothing.
She searched the area, behind rocks, near the river, every spot she'd ever seen him occupy.
Nothing.
*Where are you?*
A sound.
Behind a cluster of boulders. Movement. Breathing.
She rounded the corner.
"Mast—"
A creature stood before her.
Scaly. Fish-faced. Purple skin glistening with something wet. He wore Frieza-force armor, the emblem unmistakable.
Not Goku.
"Well, well." The creature's lips peeled back, revealing rows of needle teeth. "If it isn't Princess Vegeta herself."
Her stance shifted immediately.
"Who are you? Where is the man who was here?"
"Man?" The fish-creature laughed, wet, gurgling. "I don't know anything about a man. But if you're looking for bodies..."
He gestured behind him.
A pile.
Saiyan women. Dozens of them. Stacked, armor dented, eyes vacant. Blood pooled beneath the mass, still fresh.
Princess Vegeta's eyes widened.
"What—"
"Frieza-sama isn't pleased about the Saiyans' little rebellion." The creature cracked his neck. "He sent assassins ahead. Softening the defenses, you might say. Picking off stragglers."
He stepped forward.
"My name is Cui. I thought you'd want to know the name of the one who's going to kill you."
He moved.
Fast, faster than most elites. His fist blurred toward her face, backed by killing intent and the confidence of a hundred successful assassinations.
Princess Vegeta watched him come.
*Slow.*
She tilted her head. His fist sailed past. Before he could recover, she spun, torquing her entire body into the rotation, and drove her small fist into his stomach.
*BOOM.*
Cui's eyes bulged. Blood sprayed from his mouth. His body folded around her knuckles, then launched upward, rocketing into the sky like a missile.
"Wha—"
He caught himself mid-air. Stared down at her with disbelief.
"How?!"
She appeared above him.
He didn't see her move.
"Wait!" Cui threw up his hands. "Let me go! I'll tell you everything, Frieza's plans, the invasion routes, anything! You won't regret—"
Princess Vegeta raised two fingers.
"Master could never be defeated by the likes of you."
Her eyes were ice.
"By anyone."
*FLASH.*
Cui exploded.
Blood and viscera scattered across the sky like crimson fireworks. Chunks of scale and bone rained down, splattering against stone.
Princess Vegeta hovered in the aftermath.
Expressionless.
"What dirty fireworks."
She descended.
Landed near the pile of bodies.
Searched.
Her hands moved through the dead, checking faces, pushing aside corpses, looking for that familiar wild hair. That impossible male form among the female dead.
Nothing.
He wasn't there.
He wasn't anywhere.
*Master.*
She stood alone among the slaughtered.
*Did you flee?*
Her fists trembled.
*Did Frieza and his family frighten you?*
*Did you abandon us?*
*Abandon... me?*
A tear, single, hot, furious, traced down her cheek.
She wiped it away violently.
*No.*
*I won't accept that.*
*You're out there somewhere.*
*You have to be.*
She blasted toward the palace.
There was nothing else to do.
---
The Palace, Hours Later.
The waiting was worst.
Tension coiled through the assembled army like a living thing. Warriors shifted. Fingers twitched. Eyes kept drifting to the sky.
Whispers spread like infection.
"Frieza's power level is immeasurable..."
"They say King Cold is even stronger..."
"And Cooler, no one even knows what he's capable of..."
"We're finished. They don't even need to land. They can destroy the planet from orbit."
"Why are we even standing here? We should flee, find ships,"
"There's nowhere to run. The Cold family controls everything."
"Then we die for nothing."
Queen Vegeta heard them.
Every word.
She didn't stop them.
Because deep inside, in the place she'd never show anyone, she saw defeat too.
*We're not ready.*
*Even with Eve. Even with Vegeta's transformation.*
*Against three of them...*
Her fist clenched.
*Where is he?*
Princess Vegeta stood rigid.
Eyes fixed on the sky.
*Master.*
The word repeated endlessly in her mind.
*You promised to train me.*
*You said Frieza wouldn't give me moments.*
*So where are you now that he's coming?*
*Where ARE you?*
Eve stood apart.
Her senses stretched outward, searching, scanning, hoping.
Nothing.
*I brought you here to save them.*
*I brought you back in time to stop this.*
*Please.*
*Please don't let it end like this.*
The sky darkened.
Not clouds. Not natural shadow.
The first ship emerged from the upper atmosphere, massive, circular, blocking out the sun itself. Its shadow swept across the landscape like a tide of darkness, swallowing buildings, swallowing armies, swallowing hope.
Then the second.
Then the third.
Three vessels. Three shadows. Three harbingers of extinction.
They descended in formation, slow, deliberate. Frieza always did appreciate drama.
"He's here."
Queen Vegeta's voice cut through the terror.
Her fist clenched.
Beside her, Princess Vegeta's fist mirrored the gesture.
*Master.*
Behind them, Eve's hands trembled at her sides.
*Father.*
The ships settled.
Dust billowed.
Ramps descended.
And from the darkness within, figures began to emerge.