"We were sent here to die, weren't we?" My question hung in the air between us, as I reciprocated Mel's angry-looking gaze with a blank one of my own.
She paused for a moment, shocked at my bluntness, before her face erupted in a cold grin. "You were supposed to survive, Prince. A tragic accident, scarring you for life."
"My father's a real coward, huh?" I muttered, mostly to myself. Looking at the others, my heart broke a bit. The blunt admission that they'd come here at the behest of my father, for the sole purpose of dying, wasn't lost on them, even with their young ages. I could literally feel the sadness and rage rolling off of the four young Saiyans in spades. "I won't let you kill them."
"Sorry, young prince. Being a little strong isn't enough for your father. My orders were clear. If you found out about the arrangement somehow, -"
"You kill me, too?" I rolled my eyes. How original. "Just because I'm not the favored son? I'm guessing that those four are dying because they're weak, then?" I asked.
"Exactly. Sorry, Prince Tarble. Orders are-" An energy beam destroyed Mel's scouter, blowing it right off of her face.
"Why, you!" Mel didn't need any more incentive to attack, charging at me in a blink to deliver a powerful punch with all of her strength behind it.
Only for her fist to stop, caught in my smaller one. "This won't be that easy for you!"
With a shout, I powered up as far as I could, my full 1870 power level on display for all of the people who couldn't sense it at all. Using my power, I kicked Mel into the air, away from the children and spaceships before blasting off after her.
When I caught up with Mel, she was floating in midair, looking disheveled. Her tail was unfurled and her teeth were bared in a clear display of shock and rage.
"How!? Your power level is only-"
"A lie." I decided to enlighten the Saiyan woman. After all, she wasn't going to be able to tell anyone anymore, "In case you've noticed, my father believes quite a bit in inborn power. I didn't have much. That meant that, in my father's eyes, I would never be allowed to surpass the truly talented, like my brother. I always knew that the bastard was going to try and have me killed, one day."
My tail twitched around my waist as I spoke about my father, the man whose worthlessness, in my eyes, had no bounds. A real Saiyan never held themselves back. Like Goku, they pushed forward.
Maybe I did have a bit of the Saiyan battle lust inside of me, somewhere. Though mine was more of a power lust than a battle lust, it worked for me.
"You're still weaker than me! I can tell!"
"Let's see about that!"
Our first clash seemed pretty even, despite the glaring difference in our power level. That was the benefit of being able to control my chi. But it didn't last long, as Mel connected her foot with my gut in a roundhouse that knocked me to the ground, spittle flying out of my mouth.
But, one single hit wasn't going to decide this particular battle. Jumping to my feet, out of the crater that Mel had put me in, I quickly charged up an energy wave and blasted it at Mel's figure with as much energy as I could muster.
Seeing the wave of pure energy flying toward her, Mel's arrogance didn't fade in the slightest. One single attack, and she'd believed that she'd already won the fight. She didn't even bother trying to dodge it, but rather raised her hands to try to block it.
Unfortunately for Mel, I'd put enough energy in that ki wave to seriously injure someone with a power level of 3,000. This wasn't just some random Saiyan technique that worked by expelling extra energy haphazardly, but something that I'd polished and refined, in exchange for not being allowed to learn my family's secret Galick Gun technique. I called it…
"Regalia Wave!"
My Regalia Wave slammed right into, and past, Mel's outstretched palms, burning her body and leaving her armor blackened and burnt almost beyond recognition. Then, as if in slow motion, she fell from the sky.
Before Mel could hit the ground, I caught her in midair, dropping to the ground myself before leaving her unconscious body in the dirt, dropping it at a non-lethal velocity, but still with the gentle touch of someone chucking a sack of potatoes. I didn't have any sympathy for someone who'd tried to have five random children killed or seriously injured, after all.
That didn't mean that I was going to kill the woman, though.
From my time in the sky, I'd caught a glimpse of the planets' native species. I recognized them because, surprisingly, this planet had actually gotten screen time in Dragon Ball Super, a cameo to bring the point across about Beerus's combination of sheer power and utter disregard for people who annoy him. They were small and bean-shaped, with greenish skin, four eyes, and four arms. They'd clearly come over to check out the ruckus caused by our landing, but seeing my Regalia Wave pick Mel off from afar had spooked the primitive little guys off. For now, at least.
I was sure that they'd be back, though. Probably with some sort of tribe leader that I won't be strong enough to fight against. My team's stay on this planet had reached its end.
But I still had to determine whether I'd be leaving the planet alone or not.
Rolling Mel's unconscious body over onto her stomach with my foot, I turned toward my 'team' of 'losers' originally destined for unremarkable deaths due to my, and likely their, parents' machinations. Grabbing the woman's tail and gripping it in my hand, I made my pitch.
"In case any of you haven't figured it out yet, my father sent us here because the natives are far too strong for us to beat right now. That's just a fact. Her job was to pull me, and only me, out of the fire once I was close to death."
"Shut up. We know that. My dad…" Pepper had already put it together, and even the tough Saiyan girl looked to be on the verge of bawling. I couldn't blame her, but I needed to give them the cold, harsh truth, so I continued.
"Only sees power, and lack of power. I should know, he was supposed to be training me. As far as he saw it, you'd always be weak, no matter how much you trained. So, it was better if you died. My father wanted me to be so traumatized, watching my team die in front of me, that I gave up trying to get stronger. I don't know about any of your parents, though." I told the triplets, who all three seemed lost in thought. "Each of you has a choice. Make it right now. I'm leaving this planet, and my father's Saiyan civilization. I'm done with all of it. There's no honor in slaughter, anyway. You'll each have to decide, right now, whether you want to follow me, or go back to Planet Vegeta. I won't force you, either way."
Honestly, though, they didn't really have a choice. Even children like them knew it. For most Saiyans, strength mattered a lot more than family bonds, and they were weaklings born to highly talented Saiyans. Even if the triplets' parents were the exception to this rule, my father would likely kill them anyway, to cover up what he'd attempted to do.
In other words, Pepper and I would definitely be killed by our own parents for coming back. There wasn't an alternative there. And my father would have the triplets killed if they came back, either. The only one here who still had a home on Planet Vegeta was Mel.