The standard, white uniform boots of a soldier in Frieza's Army touched the bumpy road leading up to a tall medical facility tower. A futuristic facility shaped like an oval stone with decorations and exterior modeled similar to the motifs used on the Frieza Army armor and combat gear. None of the soldiers standing by stopped the approaching purple-skinned, fish-faced alien. Their scouting eyes halted on the passing by alien, however, a few of them even gulped down something heavy in their throats, hoping that they weren't the object of the elite soldier's ire at this moment.

It was only when the door to a specific medical room opened up and the alien revealed himself to the meek medical staff observing a trio of medical pods located inside that the scaly, grumpy-looking alien met the first resistance when a reptilian alien half his size who didn't look like the nature had designed it for combat or efficient movement ran out in front of the much more intimidating elite and spread his hands out before him as an attempt to block any further progression.

"Cui-san, please, Vegeta-san is injured! He has no time for your typical rivalry business. He still needs some more time to fully recover from the injuries sustained on Planet Babari!" the medical staff alien tried reasoning with the much taller alien while his expression and the smell of sweat exuding off of him relayed the actual message.

"Move aside. I've got orders from Lord Frieza himself to eliminate this waste of army rations!" Cui answered, giving the medical staff soldier a cold look that let him know that if he didn't step out of Cui's way–he'd also sign himself up as prime for elimination as someone opposing Lord Frieza's direct order.

"L-Lord Frieza himself...? How unexpected..." the reptilian alien shook in his boots. "V-Very well then, we shall remove the other medical pods though. I assume they have nothing to do with whatever it was prince Vegeta did and that Lord Frieza still wants them preserved?"

"Yeah... Leave me and Vegeta alone." Cui nodded, his strict look lost some of its edge when he realized that if he just went ahead and started blasting like his first instinct demanded of him–he'd have possibly killed or injured more severely someone treated in the same high importance chamber as the Saiyan prince.

"Excuse me, Cui-san, but this is incredibly out of nowhere..." a roughed up Saiyan soldier approached Cui from behind while the Saiyan and alien alike medical staff worked to remove the two other medical pods while continuing the treatment of the soldiers inside. Once detached from the power supply systems and elevated onto transportation pods, the glowing, murky green liquid flushing inside seemed to lose its luster though it only somewhat neutered the liquid's medicinal properties and merely postponed the regeneration process until they could connect the pod to a power supply.

"Quick, the patients will not receive their flow of oxygen until we connect them again, find a suitable room with some space. We have a dozen minutes at best!" the alien that opposed Cui first ordered the staff around after pulling out the pods, further rushing the already hasty steps of the staff while a few of the Saiyans amongst the staff remained in the medical ward where prince Vegeta was still resting.

"You wouldn't mind if we confirmed this matter with Lord Frieza, would you?" a rather masculine-looking female Saiyan approached Cui as well while a handful more joined the first pair to voice their objections to leaving an elite Frieza Army soldier to just murder their prince in cold blood like that.

"Huh? What makes you think that Lord Frieza has time for small-fry like you?" the right side of Cui's fishy lips tilted a few degrees before the elite soldier grabbed hold of the hand restraining his shoulder that belonged to the massive male Saiyan first voicing his oppositions. With a simple motion, Cui lifted the hand off and away from his shoulder before breaking the man's wrist and pulling him in closer for a headbutt that was as ferocious as it was deadly.

The Saiyan collapsed lifeless on the floor, covering half the room merely by his own bulky frame. His eyes stayed rolled back while his mouth dangled open and his body didn't as much as twitch. Cui looked back up at the other Saiyans. The lot stood frozen in a state of shock. The tomboyish female Saiyan still simmered with silent, rebellious rage, but her spirit seemed broken. Cui knew that sight well, as a Frieza Army elite, second only to the likes of Zarbon and Dodoria, and the Ginyu Special Squadron.

"What a deplorable race, defending such a sordid member of royalty..." Cui sighed, shaking his head to himself as he raised his hand up over his head in preparation for doing away with the rest of the rebellious Saiyans too.

"You're right..." the tomboyish female hissed out. "Prince Vegeta is an objectionable leader, still acting out and bratty, compared to his father, but you've stepped out of line killing Saiyans on Planet Vegeta that for death by Lord Frieza. King Vegeta will hear about this."

Cui waved his hand, sending a cascading wave of popping air that extinguished the power in the entire medical wing while swatting the line of bothersome Saiyans aside. The purple-skinned alien turned back to look at his childhood rival, now battered and reduced to such a pathetic state that he had to rely on a medical pod to regain his once great strength.

"Vegeta... You've no idea for how long I've waited for Lord Frieza to give me the permission at last to do away with you. You've been on my back for years, you nauseating asshole. Finally, you've gone and done something that he didn't like, I don't even care what ticked Lord Frieza this time," Cui raised his hand up, lighting it up with a shapeless gleam of violet energy. Before the elite alien could launch his attack, however, his eyes widened in surprise after seeing Vegeta's medical pod glow.

What started as a feint trace of white light became something powerful and blinding, enough to consume the entire medical pod and even drive Cui himself reeling and stumbling back as the medical pod shattered to bits around prince Vegeta as the Saiyan royalty emerged holding his arms raised over his head and yelling in his groggy awakening back to his senses.

"V-Vegeta?" Cui muttered, completely thrown off balance to a point where he had almost fell on his back from the powerful eruption of Ki from the medical pod. "I... I thought you were still asleep and injured."

"Of course, you did, that is the only way that trash like you can approach a Saiyan prince like me," Vegeta stated while still looking up at the ceiling of the ruined medical room. The awakened Saiyan prince didn't seem to even notice or care to acknowledge the elite Frieza Army soldier that could only have come to his medical room to kill him. Vegeta kept looking up, allowing the gooey medical liquid to drip off of his half-exposed body and damaged armor as something else, far away on a different corner of the planet, had occupied his attention.

Sharp cackle pierced through the silence. It transitioned into a full-on burst of laughter when Cui rose to his feet and began patting his armor as if attempting to dust off the damage to his dignity he had suffered after Vegeta's awakening had swatted him aside like yesterday's trash.

"You were always one to talk tough, Vegeta. How quickly you forget I was your superior in every way the whole time we've known each other. And to even think that some consider us rivals..." Cui chortled to himself, attempting to transform the false courage into something more substantial deep in his gut as he activated his scouter to check the power level of his opponent. Cui didn't plan on engaging Vegeta face-to-face though, now that it seemed like it would come to this, he wanted to know the value of his opponent.

"6000... 9000... 12000..." Cui observed the numbers running up. "15000... 18000... It's still going higher!?"

"What's wrong? Did you expect a Saiyan's power level to remain in the same garbage tier his entire life? A Saiyan prince's no less." Vegeta finally found the inner strength needed to look down at his flustered would-be killer. Just a glimpse of Vegeta's calmness that fostered some deeper, seething hatred deep down, washed away over Cui's entire body, chilling him to the bone.

"20000... I... I thought you were injured!" Cui shrieked out as his scouter blew off of his face, leaving dusty remains of smoke on the face of the purple-skinned alien as its pieces scattered on the floor.

"I'm just as disgusted that Frieza lumped me in with the likes of you. Your ignorance has passed even the point where it was amusing!" Vegeta clenched his fist, taking a calm step out of the shattered, moist wreckage of the medical pod. "To think of us as rivals. Cut the crap! You were stronger than me when we were kids, that's true, but I've matched you in strength before I left to pursue that rebel Bardock and his crew. I've visited and fought on countless planets since then. Even back on Earth my power level was easily several times your worth!"

"Y-You're just bragging!" Cui shrieked out, petrified. He must have been more of the fight rather than flight category as he took off with a winded up right hook, letting a massive pulse of Ki build up in this one fist as if Cui was looking to punch prince Vegeta's head clean off with one swing.

Vegeta's smirk never left Cui's memory until it was no more. The confident Saiyan prince leaned his upper body back, evading this desperation attack as he allowed his entire body to transition into a cradle-like float and threw both of his feet at Cui's chin. After completing this levitating flip over the back of his head, the Saiyan prince raised his arms over his head and expelled a bright flash of Ki that utterly decimated the elite Frieza Army soldier into ashes and blasted a booming pillar of energy out of the medical facility roof.

"Tsk..." Vegeta looked down at his hands after disposing of his would-be assassin. Ever since escaping Earth and recovering, he had spent loads of time visiting planets known for their capable residents that would have been able to give him a proper challenge. It had been a while since he was gathering power not out of arrogance, the vain need to prove that he is the strongest around, but out of hatred and spite toward a specific bunch.

It was troublesome that Frieza could have now joined that list of people he had to dispose of. If he was ever to clash against the tyrannical space emperor, he wanted to do so on his own terms, when he had accumulated more than enough power to rival that of Frieza's. It was no secret that Frieza was doing his best to observe and control Vegeta's growth. The little prince had grown up with that sly bastard. Still, with him engaged in an endless streak of survival exercises, plundering and conquering in the name of Lord Frieza–acting like he was immersed in his job for long enough to accumulate more power on his own than Frieza would have wanted.

Who knew, maybe that was why that horned bastard sent Cui here to begin with?

Vegeta grit his teeth, realizing that Cui wasn't too far away from either doing him in or severely injuring him. Had it not been that feeling... That familiar, much-despised energy introduced to him once more that called out to him, as if challenging him to come at it and crush it with all his might. Earthlings had that curious talent of sensing out Ki without the aid of scouters. It didn't come to Vegeta immediately, but he was a warrior prodigy, so if lowlife trash could master such an ability–it would serve him.

Bardock. That lowlife scoundrel was here on Planet Vegeta! What was he doing here? Invasion? Vegeta returned to the time when they clashed back on Earth. The low ranking Saiyan warrior drove Vegeta into quite a fit back then, acting like they were at all comparable to one another in terms of combat ability. Vegeta mentioned something about his wife, the meat plant worker, didn't he? That's right... That's why Bardock hurried along back here after nursing himself back to full health. There was a whole heap of other Ki signatures that Vegeta had never felt before. Did he bring his crew back with the Earth's Dragon Balls? No, that was unlikely, though what if he brought the Earthlings with him?

That was just great! With one heap, Vegeta will do away with Bardock and whatever party he had brought alongside him from Earth. If memory served, that female Saiyan also attacked him to protect Bardock–it was more than likely that he brought her here too. Oh, if only the Namekian was here, Vegeta would have all of his enemies right where he wants them. After dealing with them and licking his wounds–Frieza will be one step closer!

The rushing mob of Saiyans and alien engineers all turned their heads up at a bright flash up in the sky of a comet-like arc. A white aura blitzed away from the blown-out roof of the medical tower and toward one of the larger industrial and military clusters on Planet Vegeta. The inquisitive souls that would have hurried up the ruined facility and examined the supplies would have found one set of Saiyan armor missing, though all scouters that weren't outright destroyed remained intact.

"Lord Frieza, there's been an accident at one of the medical facilities on Planet Vegeta," a mint-skinned alien with flawless, green hair hanging on his back in one, solid braid entered the central command office of Frieza's spaceship and bowed his upper body.

"Oh? Did Cui dispose of prince Vegeta then?" Frieza smirked. The chilling emperor was staring through the porthole at a tiny space marble out in the distance. He turned his eyes to the other side to look at his subordinate's reflection in the porthole instead of turning around himself. Something in Lord Frieza's tone suggested that he knew the answer and was just messing around.

"That is unclear, Lord Vegeta. Nobody can find Cui, and his scouter might be destroyed as it is impossible to reach. Some witnesses state they saw prince Vegeta leave the medical facility in quite a vibrant rush so I would say that it is highly unlikely that Cui killed Vegeta," Zarbon replied with a rather vain-sounding tone though those that knew Frieza's right-hand man would have testified that he was physically incapable of sounding otherwise.

"I see... That is unfortunate..." Frieza spoke one thing, but his gleeful smile spoke something different entirely.

"Until you sent Cui to dispatch of prince Vegeta, I was not aware you wanted him dead. I can take Dodoria with me and we can kill him for you ourselves. This does not have to be a setback for us." Zarbon suggested.

"A setback? Oh, no..." Lord Frieza chuckled into his own finger. "The reason I want prince Vegeta dead is that I can no longer accurately tell how much more powerful he will become. Not that I'm afraid of him or anything, by no means. It's just that someone that strong, and that spoiled will let all that power get in their head, and then he'll do something that I won't like as a result. If he killed you or Dodoria, for example, it would piss me off and truly be a setback, despite Vegeta himself being worthless."

"Dodoria or... Me? Lord Frieza, do you think Vegeta has grown that powerful?" Zarbon exclaimed in surprise. He didn't want to doubt his overlord outright out of fear that he would snap back at him, as was Lord Frieza's character, but Zarbon found this statement to be tough to believe.

"He has been for quite some time," all traces of glee disappeared from Lord Frieza's face as he turned his crimson beads to focus at the lone marble far away in the distance. "And he keeps on taking more and more missions all by himself lately. He must think me a fool, as if I wouldn't know what exactly it is that he's doing. Not to mention, I've received troubling reports from the medical staff overseeing prince Vegeta's recuperations after his many missions."

"Troubling reports, sir?" Zarbon wondered.

"Little prince has been muttering in his delirium. He's been dreaming of a Super Saiyan!" Frieza's face grew outright ice cold before ire began burning up and faint ripples of pressure began spreading from the lonely planet far off in the distance.

"A Super Saiyan...?" Zarbon muttered to himself.

"It's some silly old legend. Saiyans passed it around in my father's days, but I've not heard about it in a while. Supposedly, a Super Saiyan is some mighty, ruthless Saiyan warrior that possesses power so great that it surpasses even that of the Great Ape. This drivel has been driving me mad for almost thirty years now... It takes unimaginable willpower not to blast that accursed planet into oblivion!" Frieza yelled out as the remote planet that their spaceship hovered nearby popped into a single cluster of crushed rock and spraying magma as the infuriated tyrant had crushed it with the focus of his telekinetic force alone.

"It sounds like some made-up nonsense, honestly. Saiyans are brutish, worthless fighting dogs, nothing more. They cannot even fully control their own transformations..." Zarbon dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

"You are right, of course, Zarbon-san..." Frieza relieved himself with a couple of deep breaths. "That is, of course, only because you are intelligent and reasonable, unlike those savage monkeys. I am afraid that imagining those brainless muscle-heads buying into such hogwash is all too easy and someone who has grown up not as a Saiyan but amongst more developed and powerful peers like prince Vegeta might see the benefit of exploiting such a legend by uniting the Saiyans behind his back."

"Could he succeed with that?" Zarbon didn't seem willing to believe it himself. "King Vegeta is unquestionably loyal to you..."

"That is the only thing that eases my most dire thoughts. The only thing that steadies and calms my hand from wiping them away from the face of this universe, in fact..." Frieza admitted with a bitter expression. "I do not care if prince Vegeta can accomplish something of the sort. What ticks me off is that he has an option to even try! The waste of my time, the workforce and the sheer impudence that leads up to such a thing! It's unforgivable!"

"I see, so you've sent Cui not to kill Vegeta but to nudge him, to leave him no choice but to rebel against you on your own terms?" Zarbon's lush lips formed an O shape while his eyebrows tilted in pleasant surprise. "This is the brilliance that keeps you in charge of this entire universe. Ingenious, Lord Frieza!"

"Call the Ginyu Special Squadron here. Let the Force join their captain and deal with the Prince. Nothing less of them will suffice, I am afraid..." joy returned to Frieza's expression as the tyrant marveled at the bleeding end to the planet he had crushed lighting up the cosmos far away in the distance. Nothing less would have sufficed to bring a smile to Lord Frieza's face again.