Going Native: Eyes from a Different Perspective (Patreon)

There really weren’t words to describe the ‘oh shit’ moment that I had when I saw a power level that was six digits long. My head snapped to that direction so fast I would have given myself whiplash if I was a lesser species, my jaw-dropping. It was hundreds of miles away, so I could only hope that it was a saiyan going oozaru, but even then they must be crazy strong to start with. 

130,000. There were only two saiyans that could have a power level like that, and since one of them was back on Planet Vegeta, ruling it as its king, that left one option. Vegeta the Fourth, my older brother. Or, considering I hadn’t seen him in nearly five years, it was just as likely that it was a super powerful Reach weapon. 

A stray blast slammed into my chest, my armor protecting me from any damage, brought my attention back to the battle at hand. Looking over, I saw Borgos assault a city, his ki breath laying waste to entire streets and fortified positions, but the Reach soldiers didn’t budge. They fired away at him with hundreds of plasma, laser, and physical munitions -- the Reach doctrine when dealing with oozarus was more or less throw everything they had at us and hope that something stuck. 

I couldn’t tell if someone was trying to snipe me out of the sky, or if I was just hit with a stray blast. Frowning, I raised a hand and fired off a ki blast into the bottom of a building. Glass and metal exploded outward, blasting out the fortified foundation. Slowly, the thirty-story building began to tip over, raining glass and rubble on the street below before slamming into the ground with a giant plume of dust. 

Borgos fired another ki breath beam, illuminating its place in the darkness as he grabbed a scarab themed tank, crushing it with an oversized hand. Then the dust was illuminated with blasts of plasma and lasers, the defenders digging in even deeper, intending to make Borgos work for every inch. 

I wondered if they knew they were dying for little more than an inconvenience. They were set up to defend against armies, air support and so on. Not a giant great ape that rampaged through their defenses like they were nothing. Though, at the very least, it meant that they had evacuated the planet since nothing got in the way of a military defense quite like civilians. 

“They’re trying their best,” I noted, watching the slaughter dully. I glanced up at the sky, seeing glimpses of the battle still raging in space. I think we were winning, though. Between the fleet and the rest of the team, they should be mopping up the enemy fleet, so we should be getting some army support. 

I fired another ki blast, glancing again at the stupidly high power level. Was it Vegeta? He wasn’t on planet Vegeta a few years ago when I returned from my first mission. It was safe to assume that he was out on missions just like I was. Still, what were the odds we would wind up on the same planet? If I ever saw him again, I expected it to be on planet Sereall. 

Should I be excited? I wondered to myself, taking out a squad that was getting into position to try something. It wasn’t like we were close or anything, I met him three times my entire life and each time was brief. Even still, my mind drifted to the last time we saw each other. 

Don’t die. 

I won’t. 

As far as saiyan farewells went, it was a pretty standard one. He relayed a message, said goodbye and that was that. I shouldn’t be looking any deeper, expecting to find something that wasn’t there. The fact of the matter is, we might share parents, but I wasn’t family. King Vegeta’s filling stood — until I reached the elite-class, I was just another low-class saiyan. Expecting some tearful reunion was...too human. 

I mean...should...I try to find him later? Or just wait until we ran into each other, it was a big planet but we had to run into each other eventually, right? I-

Another blast raced towards me. I dodged out of the way, firing off another ki blast that destroyed a building and taking out the defenders inside. With a shake of my head, I pushed my thoughts to the side. There was a time and a place to think about my family situation, the battlefield wasn’t it.

I raised my hand to do another ki blast, only for the building I was aiming to blow up before I could blow it up. Dust washed over me, forcing me to sail a little higher to get a better view of what just happened. It was just the building, so it couldn’t have been Borgos. If it was, the entire block would have been gone. 

Craning my head back, I looked up to see it was one of our ships. A laser weapon jutting out of the bottom of it, looking almost out of place as it fired off another shot. Its shields shimmered as plasma and lasers slammed against it, some defenders trying to take it down. In response, flying at speeds that shattered the sound barrier, it strafed over the city, several bombs dropping. The explosions shook the city, great blasts of fire erupting from the ground. 

Then a defender anti-air laser cut through the ship’s shields like they weren’t even there. A portion of the ship exploded, drifting down low enough that it slammed into a building. At the speed it was traveling, it crashed through another two before slamming into the ground, little more than a compressed ball of molten metal. 

Frowning, I checked my scouter to see that more power levels were heading in our direction. The battle above seemed like it was still raging, but a few ships were breaking off. Probably to secure footholds. Not too soon either, I thought, very aware of my limited air supply.

More ships began to drift down, some attempting to bomb the city with more success than the first one, while others touched down just outside of the city. Instantly, the large doors slid down, letting a train of hover tanks and other heavy artilitary with soldiers following behind. They set up, marking the perimeter with an energy shield, while the tanks came to a stop some distance away before they began bombarding the city. 

They wouldn’t come any closer. Oozaru instincts stopped them from attacking other oozaru, unless provoked, but everything else was fair game. Until Borgos changed back, they couldn’t get any closer. 

Soldiers themselves were made up of hundreds of species of all shapes and sizes. The only thing they had in common was the Frieza-force armor they wore. There were lizard based species, giant ogre looking ones, some that almost looked saiyan, and mixed in the lot were saiyans. My eyes caught one as he strode down the walkway, a massive saiyan with a bald head and thin mustache. 

It took me a moment to place him since he didn’t have hair anymore. Nappa. One of the mid-class saiyans that oversaw Vegeta’s training. So, that power level was probably Vegeta. That was...great. 

Nappa must be using his scouter because I saw him glance in my direction shortly before I heard him speak in my ear. “What squad are you with?” He asked in a tone that demanded an answer. 

“Bardock’s. I’m Tarble,” I answered. There was some military mobojumbo that I was supposed to say, but I never got the hang of it. Plus, there were few that didn’t know who Bardock was so it was never an issue. 

“Tarble? Huh, I owe Parslee a few meal tickets…” He muttered. Judging by his tone, I’m guessing that he wasn’t betting that I was still alive. I would be offended, but this wasn’t the first time this has happened. I got used to it eventually. “Why haven’t you gone oozaru?”

After four years of hiding the fact that I refused to go oozaru to mindlessly slaughter cities, I had an answer prepared. “To make sure Bargos’s tail doesn't get shot off,” I answered instantly. It was our greatest weakness out in the field and the Reach knew it. A perfectly plausible excuse. 

“Hm. Get over here then, the armor you’re using is out of date.” He ordered, coming to a stop as he crossed his arms. Sparing a glance at Borgos, seeing that he still had everything in hand, I blasted off towards Nappa. Despite the distance between us, it didn’t take long for me to reach him. Now that I was so close, I saw the army digging in its own fortifications since making the HQ in a ruined city rarely ended well anymore. The Reach had a nasty habit of leaving big bombs as parting gifts. 

Touching down, I looked up at Nappa. He was still stupidly big, two of my heads could fit in his biceps. I barely reached past his knee, if I wanted to look him in the eyes then it would take two and a half of me. Still, after standing next to guys like Tora and Borgos, being so small in comparison felt normal. I really couldn’t wait until I hit twelve and had my first growth spurt. 

“Here,” Nappa greeted, grabbing a saiyan that tried to run by, yanking the armor off him, before tossing it to me. The saiyan sputtered as I looked at the armor over, spotting the changes. Around the waist was a slot for my tail to go, which would protect it when I went oozaru. The shoulder guards were more squared, though there weren’t any thigh guards. 

Shrugging mine off, I put it on, frowning in discomfort as I fed my tail through. I’ve long since abandoned the idea of trying to use it as a weapon in a fight but having it so restricted felt wrong. 

“Thanks,” I said, glancing over at the saiyans that had his armor stolen to see him staring at me with a slack jaw and eyes so wide they could have rolled out of his skull. His scanner was marking me. I suppressed a smirk as I turned to Nappa, feeling pride at the reaction. Then that pride turned into nerves. “The power level over there, is that Prince Vegeta?”

Nappa nodded, shoving the saiyan so hard he flew, crashing to the ground in a heap. I guess he didn’t know how to fly. “That’s him. One of their strongholds, pretty much hollowed out a mountain and covered it with some kind of super-hard metal. With a bunch of scarabs, anti-orbital guns and so on, it’s shaping up to be a tough nut to crack.” He said, giving me a savage grin. 

I nodded, feeling a thrill race through me before logic took over. Whatever was strong enough that it made Vegeta go ozoru, then it was way, way, way stronger than me. But…

“Go on and reinforce him,” Nappa said, sounding like he was letting me go have a ball at a jungle gym. “I’m stuck getting this lot into position for now, and Vegeta’s squad could use the support.” 

Right. “Okay,” I agreed with a nod, turning to Vegeta, my scouter narrowing down all but the highest in that direction. 130,000. 50,000. 48,000. 30,000. 22,000. 

The strongest was Vegeta, but the next three couldn’t be saiyans. The war stretched across countless worlds, sending so many mid-class and an elite-class saiyans here didn’t make sense. So, either those three were other members of the Frieza-force, which I doubted, then they were scarabs. The one was probably a saiyan. 

“Could you make sure that Brogos doesn't get his tail cut off? Shugesh got his cut in half not that long ago and it hasn’t fully regrown yet,” I asked, earning a nod and a smirk from Nappa. 

“Sure thing kid. Have fun and try not to die,” Nappa agreed, striding forward to lead his army. He fell into the roll easily, barking orders and threatening to wipe out platoons for not being fast enough. Already I could see the HQ taking form, getting ready to expand our grip in every direction. 

After topping off my air canister with now purified air, I shot off in the direction of the raging battle. Punching through the sound barrier, I raced forward, trying to imagine what I was about to fly into. The three stupidly high numbers had to be vanguards, or maybe one of those special new units that I hadn’t seen yet. 

Ignoring the excited jitters that raced from the tip of my toes to my fingers, I caught the first hints of the battle. Everything below me was little more than a blur, but I still saw the craters that stretched for miles. When I flew over one, I couldn’t see the bottom, others reshaped a deep green coastline as the ocean rushed to fill in some craters. Rubble of cities, of spaceships and military hardware littered the ground, all of it growing more frequent as I neared a mountain in the distance. 

I didn’t know what it was called, but it was stupidly huge, jutting out of the horizon like a sore thumb. With the sun and a Power Ball hanging above, the mountain stood out that much more with a metallic sheen that could be seen from miles away. It didn’t look like a real mountain, I realized as I got closer. It looked like the Reach built a base in the shape of a stupidly huge mountain, putting every single weapon they could think of and as many as they could fit. 

“This is Tarble of Bardock’s Planetary Elite Squad,” I informed as I approached, spotting several oozarus, all of them wearing similar black armor that I now wore, all except one. Vegeta wore stark white armor with they royal families emblem displayed proudly on his chest. Scattered around them were ruins of Reach and Frieza forces. “I’m here to assist. Where do you want me?”

“Tarble?” Came a booming voice in my ear, so loud that I nearly fell out of the sky in shock. It took me a moment to figure out that it wasn’t my volume setting that was the problem. It was one of the oozarus speaking into a scouter. I searched the oozarus for the obvious speaker, only to see that all of them wore scouters. Giant ones that clung to the sides of their heads, looking like it stretched to scale like their armor did. 

“...Vegeta?” I hazard a guess, watching him blast at a giant scarab shaped platform that was nearly as big as he was. The metal collapsed in itself, the heat too much for it, before the war machine was reduced to slag. With a hand, Vegeta grabbed half of it, using it as a convenient shield to protect him from an energy blast coming from the mountain. 

Once the plasma was down washing over it, Vegeta threw it at another defense platform on the mountain that rained fire down on the attackers. However, before it could crash down on it, it was blasted to pieces from a scarab unit. Bigger than most, but still small in comparison to Vegeta, it's jet black armor stood out as it flew around, to attack the prince. 

80,000. I stood absolutely no chance against that, even if I did go-

“Don’t transform,” Vegeta ordered, blasting at the scarab that returned fire, cutting a long mark against the front of Vegeta’s armor. “You’ll just get yourself killed mindlessly attacking. Go support Raditz and stay out of my way.” He ordered, lashing out at the second scarab, it moved too fast for me to see. 

“Got it,” I agreed with a nod, heading to the other oozaru. They didn’t move like Brogos or others when they went oozaru. Their body language didn’t express complete and utter rage, nor did they mindlessly attack everything. It was weird, but they almost acted normally, only in the shape of a great ape. 

Raditz, the other oozaru, wasn’t faring nearly as well as Vegeta. His armor was broken and chipped, wounds littered his body, and the other scarab started to attack at his waist to break through the thick armor protecting his tail. 30,000 and 20,000. What...what was Vegeta expecting me to do here?

Hanging back, I tried to track the scarab as it flew circles around Raditz, forcing the mid-class saiyan onto the defensive. His massive arms were pulled close to his chest, protecting his vitals, trying to keep his back away from it. I heard a low growl come from Radditz, his glowing red eyes making it impossible to tell what he was looking at but his head jerked around as if he were trying to find the spec of black armor. 

I couldn’t take it in a straight fight. It was flat out impossible. My strength grew by leaps and bounds, but a vanguard unit was still well out of reach. No, all I could do was open up an opportunity for Radtiz to take it out. Now, what could I do to manage that? A bunch of ways. Just which one wouldn’t leave me a smear on the ground? A lot fewer options with that filter. 

A sigh escaped me as I settled on a plan, blasting off towards the fight as I cupped my hands to my side. My eyes bounced around, trying to get a lock on the scarab, only managing to make myself dizzy in the process. Hitting it with a Kamehameha was pretty much impossible with it moving around like that. 

“Raditz, close your eyes in ten seconds,” I ordered, thrusting my hands out as dozens of ki blasts erupted from the palms of my hands, showering the are where the scarab was. 

“W-what- How dare you order me-” Raditz started, whatever else he had to say was lost to me when a blast of plasma raced towards me at breakneck speeds. I only managed to dodge it because I was ready to, blindly throwing myself to the side as I got a lead on where it was. Cupping my hands again, I muttered, “Kamehameha!” Before thrusting them out as the ki blast rushed towards where the scarab was. 

My attack erupted when it hit the ground below, missing the scarab entirely. Flying back, I caught a glimpse of the scarab moving towards me. With no time to spare, I summoned upon my ki, “Solar Flare!” I shouted, hoping that Raditz had his eyes closed before a blinding flash of light erupted from me. 

I wasn’t dead, so my attack must have worked. Cracking open my eyes, the vanguard clutched at its face, the thin eye covers not enough to protect its eyes from the piercing light rays. “Raditz, now!” I yelled, summoning a Riot Javelin to my hand before lobing it at the scarab. It slammed into its shoulder, scuffing the thicker armor, but managing nothing else. 

Before it could counter, Raditz acted. A massive hand came down on the scarab, slapping it to the ground hard enough it shot down like a speeding bullet. “HA!” Raditz laughed, stepping over and stomping on the scarab. “Take that you pathetic- Ah!” Raditz shouted a moment before a bright blue plasma blast burned a hole through his foot. 

A snarl escaped Raditz lips, pulling his foot back as a ki blast formed in his mouth. It shot down the same moment he moved his foot, not giving the scarab a chance to dodge. For a moment, all I could see was dust, though my scouter picked up on the scarab, meaning it wasn’t dead. 

Raditz jumped on the scarab, pushing the dust in the air away with a massive blast of wind. With it gone, I spared a glance over at Vegeta’s fight. He was still lashing out at the buzzing scarabs, his armor heavily damaged with his fur singed in a dozen places. One eye was clenched shut as he snarled his rage. 

He was winning, despite appearances. It was just that it was a lot closer than it should be. Even if I put both their power levels together, Vegeta was still stronger than them by nearly a third. 

My eyes narrowed when he smacked on out of the sky, the other distracting him so he couldn’t finish it off. As powerful as Vegeta was, I realized, his body was too slow. Even though he wasn’t blinded by rage like Bardock and the others were, his body trade pure power for speed and technique. He couldn’t use ki blasts other than ones that came from the mouth, flying in short bursts…

The oozaru was the saiyan race’s trump card. It let us go toe-to-toe with aliens like the scarabs, who were easily four times stronger than our strongest in our base state. Yet, if there was another scarab- no, another two or three, Vegeta would lose that fight easily. 

My lips pressed into a thin line as I watched a fight I could barely see, Raditz finishing off our opponent. When I first saw Vegeta’s power level, I felt nothing but awe and fear, but...maybe I was expecting too much, but I thought Vegeta would be crushing those scarabs with ease. Instead, the fight was a lot closer than it should be. 

Our ultimate trump card seemed a lot less invincible as I watched one of the two elite saiyans alive struggle with two vanguard class scarabs. 

It was because I was watching the fight I saw something fire out of the mountain from one of its few defense platforms. My eyes tracked it, seeing that it wasn’t a missile or plasma blast. As it shifted direction, racing right towards me, I realized it was a scarab. Silver in color. 

“Get out of the way!” I yelled to whoever could hear, throwing myself out of the silver scarabs path. If that got on me, then it would take control of my body, making me a slave to the Reach. The same went for everyone else -- I hadn’t seen a saiyan scarab soldier, but I heard rumors about them. If it got on one of our best then-

My thoughts were interrupted when the silver scarab shot past Raditz, directly towards the dying scarab. I realized my mistake too late when it merged with the black scarab, melting into it until the only traces of its existence could be seen in the dull silver highlights that traced the edges of its armor. 

88,000. My jaw dropped at the new power level. The scarab pushed itself up on two feet, showing its back to me so I could see the second scarab mounted on the back of the first. They melded together, just enough left of the silver one to see that they were once separated. Then it slapped its arms together, an utterly massive plasma gun forming that jutted out of its chest. 

“Raditz-” I managed to get out before a large blast of plasma slammed into him, burning a hole through his side. He cried out, clutching at his side as he went down. The scarab flew up, taking aim again at him. Before I could think better of it, I cupped my hands together and shouted, “Kamehameha!”

My attack did exactly nothing, not that I expected it too. As the blast raced from my palms, I spoke, “Vegeta! One of them got a massive power boost, 88,000-” I felt my Kamehameha get pushed back as a plasma blast was aimed towards me. Knowing it was a losing battle, I threw myself out of the way as I tried to think my way out of this one. 

There wasn’t one. I couldn’t do anything. Even if I did go oozaru, it would still be more than twice as strong as me. But…

“Bardock, we need support. I’m with Prince Vegeta. Get down here!” The order sounded a lot like a request. With that, I turned my gaze to the power ball and everything went red. 

…

“Hnngh…” I groaned, peeling my eyes open when I felt something kick me in the side. Blinking my hazy vision away, I looked up to see a familiar mess of hair. I squinted up at Bardock, the saiyan had taken a beating. He was covered in scrapes and dried blood, I don’t think I have ever seen him this injured. “...did we win?”

Bardock grunted, lowering a foot that he was going to kick me with. “Define winning.”

“Not dying to accomplish our objective.” I could never tell when he was being rhetorical or not. 

“Then it was a draw. We lived but had to withdraw,” he said, jerking his head to the left. Stifling a groan, I pushed my head off the ground to see the mountain still in the distance. Frieza-forces bombarded it with everything that they had, only for the shields to block the worst of it and whatever covered the mountain proved to be durable. All the while it fired back- Bardock pressed my scouter into my hand, which I must have lost at some point, letting me check out how bad we were getting our buts kicked. 

120,000. 88,000. 50,000. 45,000. 8,000. 8,000. 5,000. 

“Oh shit,” I breathed, amazed at what I was seeing. So we didn’t manage to beat the supped up scarab, and Vegeta failed to kill the other two. Worse, was there a special class scarab in the mountain? I hadn't seen one before, but if it was nearly as strong as Vegeta in his oozaru form… Much, much worse, apparently three other scout classes found their way here, or they left the interior of the mountain to put a halt to our assault. I don’t think we were losing, per say, but we definitely weren’t winning. 

“Yeah, that sums it up rather nicely,” Bardock muttered, looking to the side to bring my attention to the rest of our team. All of them looked worse for wear, all except Borgos, who munched his way through a pile of rations. “We came down when we got your call. Went oozaru to overwhelm them with numbers, but apparently it didn’t work. We came to a little earlier.”

I nodded, resting my head back against cool dirt, looking up at the cloudy pinkish sky. “What about Vegeta and Raditz?” I asked, trying not to sound- oh, right. Raditz is Bardock’s son. Normally, I would say that didn’t matter but Bardock was weird so it entirely possible he actually cared what happened to his kid. If only because it increased his reputation for fathering a mid-class saiyan. 

“They’re fine. Raditz is in a healing pod. Prince Vegeta is off doing something,” Bardock answered, his tone carefully blank. I couldn’t begin to guess if he was worried or not about Raditz, but at least he wasn’t dead. So, there was that. 

“Do we have a plan?” I asked after a moment of silence. We couldn’t just get an asteroid and drop it on the mountain. Lord Frieza forbade any attack that would devalue a planet permanently since he intended to sell them when the war was done. That left taking it. From what I saw, the progress we would make would be measured in inches.

“We do,” Vegeta said from behind me, startling me and Bardock. I ignored a pang of pain in my ribs as I sat up, looking at the prince. He was taller after having his first growth spurt. Now he looked like an eight-year-old at twelve instead of a three-year-old. He looked down at me, his ruby red scouter reading me. 

“And that would be, my prince?” Bardock asked, his tone so polite it sounded sarcastic. Vegeta sent him a look, crossing his arms as he sneered at the taller saiyan. 

“You lot need to learn to control yourselves when you go oozaru,” he explained, sounding like he’d rather pull teeth than let us learn. “You attacked our soldiers as often as you did the scarabs -- we can’t afford those kinds of distractions.” He said, glaring at Bardock. I looked between them, seeing Bardock smirk ever so slightly, it was only because I spent four years with him that I noticed. 

There was something I was missing here. Whatever it was, it could wait. 

“Tarble, come with me. Your training begins now,” he ordered, turning on his heel. His armor didn’t have a cape, so it was left to my imagination to see it dramatically fluttering behind him. 

I stifled a groan as I forced myself onto two feet, glancing at Bardock as I stood, catching him giving me a look. It was one I was very familiar with. It was the look that only appeared when he was planning to kill all of his enemies in one swoop. The expression vanished when he caught my eye, giving me a nod. 

“Tarble!” Vegeta snapped, getting my attention. Giving Bardock a nod, I rushed after Vegeta, who took off into the air. Now with a birds eye view, I saw the defensive line stretch off into the distance, practically surrounding the mountain. Hundreds of thousands, possibly even a million, soldiers laid siege to the mountain. With those scarabs in there, I didn’t feel great about our chances. 

I fell in line just behind Vegeta. Now that we were alone, I had absolutely no idea what to say. What would two saiyans that were brothers but couldn’t acknowledge that fact talk about when they’re trying to conquer a planet?

“What about the others?” I asked, trying to find a topic to talk about. It seemed like a safe bet. 

“Nappa can teach them. The mid-class can teach the mid-class. I won’t waste my time with them,” Vegeta dismissed, getting a twitch from me. Thankfully, he didn’t have eyes in the back of his head so he didn’t notice.

I mean...technically speaking...

I snuck a glance at Vegeta as we entered another bubble, this one far behind the front lines, set up for our training. We lowered, touching down at the center of the bubble. Vegeta wasted no time forming a power ball before tossing it up overhead. Then he turned to look at me. 

I tried not to fidget underneath his heavy gaze that reminded me far too much of King Vegeta’s. Eventually, he found whatever it was he was looking for because he gave a small nod as he crossed his arms. “You’ve made acceptable progress,” he declared, earning a perplexed look from me. 

Was...that a compliment…?

“Thank...you?” I tried, waiting for the but to show up. Vegeta just smirked at my reaction. 

“It took your leader Bardock over thirty years to reach a power level of 6500. You managed it in four,” he explained, making me stand a little straighter in response. Pride filled my chest as I struggled to keep my expression blank -- I was a lot stronger than I was four years ago, but I still had a long way to go before I reached elite-class and I didn’t want to ruin my ride on cloud nine with that reminder. 

Small steps. I was now the second strongest member of Bardock's squad, having overtaken Tora a few months ago, who had a power level of 6200. The entire squad had grown by leaps and bounds; Fasha was 6000, Shugesh and Borgos at 5900, with Leek finally breaking into the thousands with 1100. All of them grew significantly thanks to our brutal spars, some of which left me closer to death than any battle so far. The entire team was mid-class if you excluded Leek. 

“You’re already past the halfway point to your goal, at the rate you're going it’ll only take a few more years for you to become an elite-class. Learning to control yourself in oozaru form will only make you reach it faster,” Vegeta said, giving me a firm nod. I tried not to stare at him, giving a nod back to hide how I felt. I think I managed it because Vegeta didn’t make a comment about it. 

I didn’t expect this. Not really. My goal of reaching the elite-class, to be acknowledged by my family, was a pipedream at best. For four years, I fought tooth and nail every step of the way to get as far as I had and I did it all alone. There were days when I barely believed it was possible. I knew for a fact that Bardock and the others were just humoring me. 

Then Vegeta says something like that, like my ascension to the elite-class was a foregone conclusion. 

“The technique to controlling yourself is a closely guarded secret. I expect you to keep it to yourself,” Vegeta started, earning a nod from me. “Good. It is rather simple, but much more difficult in practice.” He said, his expression becoming grave. I swallowed thickly, nodding again to show that I was following along. 

“When you begin to transform, gather yourself like Hmmmm!” Vegeta hummed, clenching his fists as a look of intense concentration appeared. “The instincts of the great ape will try to overwhelm you, driving you mad with rage. Resist them like this; hnnn!” Again I nodded, bracing myself. “You have to maintain it until the transformation is finished. When it is, you have to crush your instincts like this; AHHHH!” He shouted, throwing his arms up high. 

“Hnnn,” I started, drawing into myself like I did so many times before. I looked up at the Power Ball, absorbing blutz waves and I felt the transformation begin. The transformation was slower now that I was fighting against it. My teeth got longer, turning into fangs as my body began to bulge, growing in height and muscle mass. I felt the primal rage of the oozaru begin to surge-

…

“Ugh,” I groaned, blinking rapidly as the sense of Deja vu overcame me. Looking around, I saw Vegeta stood some distance away with his arms crossed. 

“You failed the second step. Do it again.” He ordered, tossing another power ball into the air. 

I had enough time to bring myself up to my knees before I felt the transformation start-

…

“Try it again,” Vegeta ordered, his words bringing me from the blissful realm of unconsciousness. Again, he formed another power ball, tossing it into the air-

…

“Again.” He-

…

“Again.”

…

“Again.”

…

“Again.” 

…

“Again-”

…

“Ughhhh…” I groaned, collapsing on my back, every part of me feeling like it was stretched too far. The only thing I could compare it to is what I imagined it felt like to be a stretch armstrong toy. Every movement was pure agony, it certainly didn’t help when Vegeta wandered over and kicked me in my ribs. “Ow.”

“Get up,” Vegeta ordered, kicking me again, a deep scowl on his face. “It’s not that hard.” He stated though I’m not sure if he was talking about getting up or controlling oozaru. Knowing him, it was probably both. 

After spending pretty much all of this lifetime pushing past my limits, I was used to ignoring my body's screams for me to stay down. This time was no different as I pushed myself to my feet, my legs wobbling, finding it hard to balance since my tail was still locked inside my armor. Vegeta nodded, though there was still a frown tugging at the edges of his lips. 

“The second step is the most important. You have to fight against your instincts. If you can’t do that, then you’ll never master this.” You’ll never become elite-class went unsaid. “Some of your squadmates have already made more progress than you.” 

My lips pressed together into a thin line. I couldn’t imagine that the others were having as much trouble as I was. Fighting against my instincts just felt unnatural. I relied on them to keep me alive for the past four years when I was constantly in over my head. To push them away went against everything that I learned until now. 

“Make another power ball,” I asked, giving Vegeta a nod, getting a smirk in response. For what felt like the hundredth time, he formed on in his hands before tossing it up. I gathered myself, distantly aware that Vegeta backed off to give himself space to change as well. My body began to grow, my vision started to grow red, fur growing on my neck and arms…

I felt my instincts raise, commanding me to destroy everything around me. There was no rational thought. Just base desires for death and destruction. Bashing my head against those instincts wasn’t working. It could work for Vegeta, Bardock, and the others because they were pure saiyans. 

I wasn’t. My past life left a stain on my current one. The parts of me that still remembered being human...they were why I couldn’t bring myself to massacre civilians. I don’t know how to put it in words that didn’t sound overly dramatic, but it felt like that was one of the last ties to my human life. A saiyan warrior could slaughter billions, down to the last man, woman and child until that species went extinct. 

And I couldn’t do that. In a way, being human had crippled me. In others, it was my greatest strength. 

I drew into myself, separating myself from the instincts in me that demanded that I lay waste to everything. Just like I did so many times before back in the gestation tank, the healing pod and every chance I got, I pushed my feelings away and withdrew into myself. I imagined a bubble around me, protecting my mind from the wrathful instincts of the oozaru.

My body grew, stretching and bulking up equally. I saw the ground grow more distant through red-tinted vision. I could feel my body becoming more powerful. The feeling that I became very familiar with after each day with the saibamen, it seemed to grow alongside my body until I was standing at height I didn’t know existed. As my strength grew, the stronger my instincts to destroy became. They were a roaring monster screaming in my ear, deafening me, but I continued to push them away. 

I wasn’t dominating them like I was supposed to. Instead, I pushed them away and kept pushing until the maddening rage felt distant. It was still there, lurking beneath the surface, waiting for a chance to explode. But, for now, I was in control. 

“I think I did it,” my voice boomed, my giant maw feeling awkward as I spoke. I moved it as naturally as I did my normal lips, but my mouth felt longer so it caused this weird dissociative feeling. Everything had a red tint to it, I noticed as I looked over at Vegeta. My body felt stronger than I thought possible -- I felt invincible. 

But...that wasn’t true, I was quick to remind myself. I watched Vegeta struggle with those scarabs. As powerful as I felt right now, there was still plenty on this planet that could crush me. Testing my arms, I threw a quick jab, trying to summon upon my ki, but it felt...wrong. I couldn’t form it, shape it into an attack like I did so easily in my base form. 

The drawbacks I noticed earlier seemed more pronounced now that I was in control. I felt so incredibly powerful, so the weaknesses stood out that much more. Maybe it was too early to tell, but would I be able to use any ki attacks in this form or was I stuck with the breath attack? Could I make myself faster to keep up with the scarabs-

“What do you mean Nappa is dead?!” Vegeta roared into his oversized scouter, his beastly voice echoing across the clearing, sounding impossibly loud. My gaze shot to him, my shock nearly making my control slip on my instincts. Nappa was dead? One of our mid-class saiyans? How-

“Bardock killed him when he went oozaru?!” Vegeta snapped, answering my unspoken question. 

Oh. That wasn’t good.