Pain.
That was the last thing he remembered, along with a flash of light and fire. After that, there was darkness, almost as if he were plunging into a frozen lake.
The deeper he sank into this darkness, the colder and darker everything became.
After sinking into perdition for what felt like an eternity, there was something glowing, almost like bubbles filled with images.
It didn't take long for him to understand that it originated from an unknown life.
More and more bubbles appeared to illuminate the darkness that circled his body to push him back to the surface.
Then there was light and warmth.
Opening his eyes, he found himself submerged in a pool of green water and his head throbbing with pain.
There was confusion in his situation, but not fear. His mind was working to try and understand what was happening.
Nothing came to mind.
Where am I? he asked himself, looking down at his hands and naked body. Who am I?
Again, nothing came to mind, only a twinge of pain.
Suddenly, the water around him began to drain and the glass in front of him opened to reveal a huge man being accompanied by unknown beings.
He recognized this man and knew who he was.
"Vegeta, you've finally woken up!" Nappa almost shouted before letting out a sigh of relief. "That explosion got you good, but I knew it would never be enough to defeat the prince of the Saiyan race!"
A lie.
Not only had his prince been defeated, but his heart had stopped twice and had to be revived before being placed in the healing pod.
Vegeta... He recognized that name too. My name... or not?
He didn't understand, only that it was familiar.
His head ached again and more images flashed through his mind.
Something wasn't right.
"Vegeta?" Nappa had to hold the little prince so he wouldn't fall. "Is everything all right?"
Maybe he needed to go back to the healing pod. Better still, get a new pod, because this one had clearly done a very bad job!
"I'm fine, Nappa." Vegeta took a deep breath, pushing away this man who seemed ten times bigger than him with absurd ease, almost throwing him into a wall. Why am I so small and...strong?
He had no memories of being like this. From what little he could remember, his body used to be bigger and...incapable of such a feat of strength.
"I'm sorry, Prince Vegeta," Nappa was quick to apologize for his intrusion. "Because of me and that incompetent brat Raditz, you ended up in this state."
Again, there was the image of light and fire that gave life to an explosion that almost killed him. This time, however, he remembered how it happened and more; much more.
His name was Vegeta, the fourth. At the same time, it wasn't. He was the Prince of the warrior race known as the Saiyans. At the same time, he wasn't. He was one of the few survivors of the destruction of his home planet, Vegeta. At the same time... he wasn't.
He was currently twelve years old and part of the Planet Trade Organization, under the command of the Cold family.
He knew all this and also things he shouldn't have, especially about the future; several different futures.
Regardless, at least he knew who he was now, in this life, but not who he used to be; the person who really knew about the future of this world and different timelines.
That left a bad taste in his mouth as if he were incomplete.
I need time to organize all these memories. Vegeta clenched his fists and took a deep breath to calm down. But for now, let's just deal with this situation.
Those present in the room were already looking at him strangely for standing there naked without saying anything.
"Nappa, report," Vegeta ordered as he always did while getting dressed. "What happened after the incident?"
The memories of this life stopped at the moment he let his guard down and almost died.
"R-right." Nappa preferred not to comment at all on how strange Vegeta was behaving and the unexpected lack of anger in his voice. "After those bastards blew themselves up trying to take you with them, I recovered your body and Raditz to retreat to the nearest command post...That was two months ago."
Objectively speaking, it was a miracle that he was still alive.
The race on that planet was weak but advanced in technology. At the last moment, when they were almost wiped out, a group pretending to surrender approached only to try to kill him by detonating explosives strong enough to destroy a continent.
In short, Vegeta was nuked by a bunch of kamikazes.
"For a moment there, I thought you were going to go from this to a better one." Nappa relaxed when he saw that Vegeta wasn't angry yet and decided to move on to the good news. "On the bright side, you got a good Zenkai out of that near-death experience and you've gotten a lot stronger!"
An absurd leap, in fact, going from 12,200 to 15,300!
A new base power record for the Saiyan race!
The price for earning that increase, however...was one that Nappa would never have the courage to pay.
"I see." Vegeta could feel the power inside his body and it was much greater than before. But even so, that's nothing compared to what my counterpart managed to achieve in the distant future.
To reach that level and survive everything that would threaten to kill him in this life, he would have to train hard.
At least I know how to get stronger. That was one of the advantages that all his knowledge gave him. "What about Raditz?"
The third member of the team who was nowhere to be seen.
"In a Healing Pod in the common medical ward." Nappa had almost forgotten about the wimp. "He's lucky I bothered to help."
"Was he caught in the explosion too?" Vegeta didn't remember Raditz being around when it happened. He really is blessed by the Dragon Balls to survive something like that.
After all, the military firepower of those creatures managed to knock even him out. Although, it was obvious that Vegeta had underestimated them and let his guard down.
As expected, arrogance had its price.
"Nah, I put that idiot down." Nappa smiled just remembering the sound of bones breaking and screams of pain. "If he'd done his part and taken out the military bases as ordered, you wouldn't have nearly died."
While what was said wasn't exactly a lie, it was far from the truth.
Vegeta was even more to blame for refusing to fight the weaklings and leaving most of the work to his two followers.
Nappa was competent and had a power of over 3,000, being able to deal with almost anything that came his way. Raditz, on the other hand, was ten times weaker and only had a power level of 300.
Considering that he had been accompanying them and fighting on every conquered planet for the last seven years, it said a lot about the tenacity and overlooked usefulness of this low-class warrior.
Obviously, his survival was partly due to Bardock's wish for his two sons to grow up well or Raditz would probably have succumbed to this unnecessary beating by Nappa.
Reason enough for Vegeta to dislike what he just heard, narrowing his eyes to make this mountain of muscle start to sweat and tremble with fear.
"Don't ever do anything like that again," he warned in a low voice, taking a step closer to make Nappa flinch accordingly. "Any and all punishment directed at a Saiyan is up to me and me alone, the Prince." He stopped as soon as Nappa had his back against the wall and raised a hand towards him. "Are we clear?"
The threat was plain and more than enough to have the desired effect.
"Y-yes, my Prince!" Nappa fell to his knees, head down and not daring to look Vegeta in the eye. "I-I won't forget my place anymore!"
Only silence remained, where not even the doctors dared to breathe as they expected only the worst.
The young prince's reputation within the Freeza Force was that bad.
"Good," was all Vegeta had to say before he lowered his hand and went back to finishing dressing. I didn't feel anything.
There wasn't the expected euphoria at seeing someone else almost begging for his life.
It proved that Vegeta was no longer the same and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
As for Nappa, he could finally breathe again, but he didn't dare move without permission. Although it was humiliating to be reduced to this state by a child, in Saiyan society only power mattered and Vegeta was the strongest.
He is still the same. For a moment, Nappa thought Vegeta had injured his head or something. Although, he seems to be calmer now.
A near-death experience can do that to you.
Which was a good thing.
Otherwise, Nappa would be on his way to sharing a Healing Pod with Raditz...or dead.
That aside, Vegeta being well was all that mattered. For if anything happened to him, Freeza would no longer be of any use to the rest of the group.
Nappa and Raditz needed Vegeta to survive.
"Come on, Nappa." Vegeta had finished dressing, now wearing something slightly different as he chose full-body blue spandex, a pair of white boots and gloves, and long white armor without shoulder pads, very similar to a tank top, but with four segments around his waist that went down to his knees and didn't restrict his movements. "I'm starving."
Without further ado, he left the advanced medical ward in the direction of the cafeteria.
"Yes, my Prince!" Nappa wasted no time in following Vegeta closely and smiling as he saw everyone along the way cowering at his mere presence. Just as it should be.
As long as Vegeta lived, the Saiyan race would live too and that was all that mattered.