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A warm breeze blows across the rocky, dense landscape. The two Saiyans stand facing one another, Prince Vegeta scowls at Xylias as they both begin to gauge each other carefully.
Although Vegeta would never admit it out loud, he's interested in seeing what Xylias is capable of.
"Don't expect me to go easy on you!" He thunders at her, masking his curiosity.
Xylias's mouth twitches, "Never. I want to have fun, you know.." She counters, enjoying the look of agitation that appears across Vegeta's face. The Prince immediately gets into his fighting stance.
Vegeta has his left arm in front, with the length of it (ready to be) covering some of his vital areas; while his right arm is behind, leaving his body open.
Similarly, he has his left leg in front, with his right leg behind and open.
She guesses that his left arm and leg are in front to defend most of his body from attacks, while his right arm and leg are free to attack. And since the left arm and leg alone can't defend the entire body, Vegeta inclines the left side of his body towards her while having the right side away from her. This allows an extra fraction of a second to react to attacks headed towards the right side of his body.
This is the stance of an experienced warrior. She muses, tucking away her observations for later while she gets into her stance.
Taking a deep breath, Xylias turns her right foot outward and draws her left knee up to her chest, hooking her right arm behind her back while she raises her left arm and extends it outward towards Vegeta, her left palm facing up with her fingers pointing towards the sky.
Narrowing her eyes at her now-opponent, Xylias opens and closes her palm in a beckoning motion to The Prince, urging him to make the first move. Then she lowers her leg to the ground and moves her arms in front and close to her body, keeping her palms up and open. She plants her feet a smidge wider than her shoulders and bends her knees slightly, keeping her toes pointed outward, showcasing a solid— yet open stance.
Vegeta evaluates her posture, noting the similarity between Xylias's and Kakarot's openness in their stances, but sees that the Woman's open-palmed poise indicates an inclination for close combat. Her waist is set firm, and he assumes her focus will be on heavier forearms to emphasize short and quick hand strikes over kicks. He smirks at this revelation and begins to calculate his strategy.
He doesn't want to go in based on observations though, and decides to start with a direct assault to see how she initially handles herself.
Vegeta launches forward instantly with immense speed, kicking up dust and spraying rocks around the area, although time seems to go more slowly to the powerful Saiyans. In the brief moment of Vegeta closing the distance between them, he notices Xylias closing her eyes while exhaling a deep breath. Before he flies through her, he stops himself short just in front of Xylias, clamping his left foot to the ground while using his momentum to swing his right leg around his body, intending to deliver a devastating kick.
The moment his foot touches the ground, time stops for a split second for Xylias. A shockwave of vibrations reverberates throughout the Earth around him, she feels his precise position and movement through the bottoms of her sensitive feet that are picking up these signals. The glowing channels of his Ki are illuminated behind her closed eyes, making out the outline of his form as well.
All the years' spent image training by herself made her unconsciously close her eyes in the face of a fight. She relies on her sharp senses, her Ki reading abilities, and her instincts to decipher and predict her opponent's movements instead of using her vision, similar to fighting with a blindfold.
Vegeta's leg swings in full force to her midsection, simultaneously Xylias subtly raises her arm and grazes his foot with her fingertips while gently pushing outward— redirecting it away from her body. The Prince recovers instantly, using the extra momentum to finish the full swing, and ducks low to catch the ground below him, he leans his weight onto his hands to do a full circular sweep of his legs in an attempt to throw Xylias's legs out from under her.
She feels the sudden weight shift in the ground from the change in his technique, and instinctively throws her body backwards into a back spring to avoid Vegeta's leg sweep.
"There's no fun in running away!" The Prince growls while thrusting himself towards her once more. He stops in front of her again, his arms looking hazy as he picks up the pace and begins to throw calculated punches at her, aiming both high and low— trying to find a weak point in her guard.
Xylias feels exhilaration, reveling in the feeling of having a worthwhile opponent, she moves ever so slightly to dodge his attacks. Through the eyes of normal people, the two would look like blurs, they're moving too fast for regular eyes to catch the full resolution of their movements.
Determined to win this match, Vegeta suddenly jumps up and back, simultaneously shooting a ball of Ki towards Xylias. She barely crosses her arms in an 'X' in front of her body in time to block the blast, the ball explodes and pushes her back a few feet. At the same time, Vegeta launches towards her and delivers a guard-breaking punch to the center of her arms.
The hit is powerful, and the bones in her forearms ring from the impact. She takes an unsteady step back and the Prince uses this moment to take his shot, using his entire body's momentum to swing his arm at her midsection, and his fist collides with her chest.
The breath is knocked out of her momentarily as she flies back a few feet, but when she first hits the ground she unconsciously channels her Ki to her hands as they touch the Earth, simultaneously willing the solid ground to hold her in place. Her hands instantly dig into the Earth, the dirt comes out of the ground and encases her hands, gripping her to the Earth. She redirects her body's force from the attack to push her body up and uses her momentum to swing her legs upright to handspring backward, then releases her Ki from the Earth's hold. The dirt crumbles back into the ground while she lands gracefully back on her feet.
Xylias realizes in those brief seconds, that it seems there's a possibility that she can use her Ki to manipulate the solid Earth and various forms of rock to her will if she could master precise energy dispersal and learn to better navigate through the countless channels of Ki embedded deep within the earth, and the prospect of expanding her Ki-reading/control abilities excites her further. As Vegeta comes at her again she quickly decides to test her geokinesis theory out.
Xylias gets into her stance again, her eyes still closed— making out the outline of Vegeta's figure from the illuminated Ki pulsing from his body. She slams her foot on the ground, following the path of the vibrations and estimating the point at which she wants to attack, and abruptly swings her fist across her body.
To Xylias's amazement, an instantaneous chain reaction happens. A large rectangular prism of solid Earth shoots out of the ground in the Prince's path. Her aim had been slightly off, but this had still caught Vegeta by surprise, he was so absorbed in looking for an opening in Xylias's movements that he didn't think to be aware of his surroundings too. His inability to read her Ki made it more difficult to detect or estimate her attacks. Vegeta narrowly catches the motion of the Earthly slab in time, throwing his left arm up to block the mass of dirt, he smashes completely through the rock.
Vegeta was physically unfazed by the attack for the most part, barely missing a beat after busting through the rock. But for a second he thinks about how unusual the move was. He had to give it to her, he would have never thought to use his surroundings in such a way as she did, but it seemed too juvenile. Her delayed reaction after performing the move told the Prince that she was now distracted, possibly by what she had just done. Trying out new moves on me huh? And now your guard is down! Hah! How foolish can you be?! He laughs to himself, while a smirk spreads across his face.
Her success catches Xylias by surprise too, making her hesitate for a millisecond as Vegeta closes in on her. He punches her squarely across the cheek, she feels the skin inside of her mouth split open as bright crimson blood spurts from her mouth but her eyes stay closed.
Her right leg steps back to brace her body and in a knee-jerk reaction she swings her left fist back up towards Vegeta's face, uppercutting his chin and skimming his nose.
The unexpected harsh blow angers the Prince as he feels the sensation of hot blood flowing from his nostrils. Vegeta felt a small taste of her power, from that hit alone he could tell there was far more depth to her strength than he had originally thought. He clenches his now-sore jaw, then instantly raises his power to a significantly higher level, and begins to wildly throw jabs at various vital points on her body.
The wind picks up around them as each swing comes at her with greater speed and force while his power level increases. Some collide with her, some get redirected followed by a powerful corresponding strike. A good few hit the Prince too, causing his irritation to grow.
He could see her eyes are still closed as their flurry of fists continually try to hit one another, and is reminded of the foreign feeling he had earlier when she ignored his antics at Capsule Corp.
Her nonchalant and unaffected behavior aggravates him to no end and he can't understand why, he feels like she's doing this purposely to him. Just days ago she was on her knees in front of him practically begging for his respect, and today she has been nothing but cold and unresponsive towards him, he had thought they had resolved everything between them the previous night.
Her wavering behavior confuses him, he's used to receiving attention from those around him— usually negative, as it's in his nature to get a rise out of those around him, but he had never been invisible to anyone, never been ignored.
One part of him wanted to continue to build on this match and draw out her true energy, but the other part of him was incredibly infuriated over her evasiveness and behavior towards him today— these feelings of unusual frustration had also created a need to put her in place. He grits his teeth and bares down on her with intense ferocity.
"Look. At. —" The Prince roars between each thrust of his fists, Xylias can feel the growing tension coming from Vegeta amidst the swelling brutality that is coming from every swing, she narrowly dodges them all until—
"ME!" — THWACK!
Right as his fist solidly connects with her cheek again, her eyes snap open and lock with Vegeta's at his last spoken syllable.
A light gasp escapes her lips as she's thrown to the ground by the sheer force of Vegeta's deck. The ground rumbles, and the patch of Earth that catches Xylias's body cracks from the impact of her landing.
The sounds of tumbling rocks and a cloud of dust spread throughout the area as the wind ceases to a breeze.
Vegeta lowers his Ki— breathing heavily with his fists clenched at his sides, he's done playing her games. "What's your problem?! I can tell you're holding back! And how dare you close your eyes during a fight?! All day you've been insolent and now you hold no honor for your opponent?! This match is over!" he sneers at her, yet is surprised to see a look of genuine shock on Xylias's face.
Her eyes widen, and Vegeta sees flickers of conflicting emotions in her golden orbs as he stares her down.
Xylias's face flushes as she wipes the metallic-tasting blood from her mouth with the back of her hand, holding back a wince as she slowly stands up. "I- I- What do you mean?" she stutters, struggling to maintain eye contact with the angered Prince, she hugs her arms close to her body, gripping her abdomen, and unconsciously tightens her tail around her waist as she mentally runs through the events of the day and the sparring match— not understanding how she could've possibly been disrespectful towards the Prince.
"You know what I mean!" he fumes, "Don't play dumb! On Namek, you stood your ground to Piccolo and Frieza yet you said nothing to me while the Earth Woman gave us that idiotic tour, on the beach you tried to brush me off when I confronted you then challenged me to a sparring match, and now you close your eyes while we fight— as if this match is beneath you! It's disgraceful!" He shouts at her, making Xylias flinch back at his tone.
As quick as the words fly from his mouth, regret instantly replaces his anger. Why is Xylias's fluctuating impassiveness getting to him like this? Deep down he knows something must've happened to her to make her seem so detached. He realizes in that instant how silly he's being over all of this, and the embarrassment of his behavior makes him contemplate leaving her behind to go be alone somewhere, yet he finds himself unable to move his feet.
Xylias feels a confusing mixture of shame and irritation well up inside of her, and she doesn't know what to do with it. She's not used to being perceived like this by another person, and resurfacing old feelings of being misunderstood reminds her of her childhood on Planet Vegeta.
Xylias is frustrated with herself for not being able to grasp the full complexity of this situation. She doesn't fully understand why Vegeta is so upset with her, she thought she had been honest in her actions.
"What was there to say at Capsule Corp? I— I don't know why you're bothered by all this Vegeta, please help me understand..." she stammers, "I didn't think I was brushing you off, I'm just feeling... overwhelmed, everything is so new to me... As for the match well— I didn't want to go all out at the start, and I'm used to fighting with my eyes closed, it's how I've trained all these years. I honestly didn't realize I was doing it..." she trails off
Vegeta gazes at her uneasily as she fidgets with her arms, her eyes darting between him and the ground. He shakes his head, feeling slightly idiotic for assuming the worst of Xylias when she's always proven to be straightforward with him, but it still doesn't answer the lingering feelings he's been trying to push away. She really doesn't get it, does she? He thinks to himself, and decides, for the first time in his life, to be upfront about his inner thoughts. Abnormally, he is suddenly overcome with the need to be completely honest with her.
The Prince clears his throat to try and to stifle the embarrassment rising in his cheeks, "But aren't you... angry with me? You've been so indifferent to me today... I thought you were punishing me for what happened on our first day here." he mutters, feeling foolish for saying it out loud, having never worried about these kinds of things before.
Her eyes widen in surprise as realization dawns on her, she looks back up to the Prince and sees an uncomfortable expression on his face. She stands up straighter, and releases her arms from her waist in relief, "No Prince Vegeta, I'm not 'angry with you'. I'll admit what you said that first day hurt me... but I can also understand how shocking it was for you when you found out who I am, I would have probably been suspicious too. Bulma told me I should've made you pay in some way, but I realized on the beach... That's not who I want to be. I don't think I could bring myself to inflict any kind of pain on another Saiyan outside of sparring... but please understand, I will not tolerate being treated as less than, status or not." she bluntly declares.
Vegeta's face contorts into contemplation, recalling how Xylias sacrificed herself for him so he could escape with the Dragon Balls back on Namek, even after he tried to attack her.
After a few moments, his voice drops to just above a whisper, "But at Capsule Corp with the Earth Woman, then on the beach, and even back on Namek... I was... harsh. You aren't bothered by... by how I've been acting? " Vegeta's face turns scarlet as he asks, he crosses his arms in front of his body, averting his eyes to a boulder nearby.
Xylias tilts her head to the side and examines the Prince, completely puzzled by his admission, visible discomfort, and red cheeks. Although still unable to fathom why Vegeta would be bothered by these minuscule things, she can tell how much this is troubling him.
She scratches her chin, now gazing at a lizard scampering out of a crack on the ground beside them, "No Prince, you actually remind me of home... you behave like a lot of Saiyans did from what I remember, even your father." Xylias reminisces, causing Vegeta's eyes to snap over to her again.
Xylias truly respects me as a Saiyan and as the Prince, without sacrificing her own pride... She's proven this to him multiple times over the last week or so and yet the thought still validates his ego further, and Vegeta is surprised to realize that he missed that kind of support, having not truly felt it since his childhood.
The color in his cheeks returns to normal and he visibly relaxes. Intrigue taking over, "You knew my father?"
Xylias's head bobbles slightly, looking off into the distance with a nostalgic look in her eye, "No but yes, we only met once. My mother knew him extensively though, when I was growing up I heard countless stories from her and others close to him about his strong will and courageousness as a leader— although it wasn't spoken about often, the majority of our society knew he resented Frieza, and a large portion of us thought he would finally free us in his lifetime."
Her eyes flick back to the Prince, and she catches sight of a mournful longing in his eyes, "I didn't get the chance to see that side of him." Vegeta murmurs after a while.
Xylias pauses, remembering the Prince's heart-wrenching story about being taken as a young boy by Frieza— and how the same thing had happened to her, she knows his grief all too well. "Well, he's a part of you now... You look just like him, and I see that same strong will within you too." She adds
Vegeta's gaze softens for a moment, "I remember other Saiyans telling me the same when I was a small boy, it's... refreshing to hear." He says wistfully.
The Prince studies Xylias for a moment, lost in thought, his expression unreadable. After a few moments, the Woman shifts around uncomfortably, not liking the feeling of being stared at, which he notices. Snapping out of his thoughts, he shakes his head. Vegeta still has questions to ask her.
"You never did tell us how you ended up with Frieza, and how come we never crossed paths. Before finding out about Kakarot I was with 2 other Saiyan survivors, we thought there were no others." He states, gazing at her expectantly.
Xylias takes a deep breath, formulating her thoughts and memories. "I believe I was 7 when he took me. Growing up— my mother and I were always on the run. At that time, I didn't understand why. I assumed ridiculous things, like she was ashamed of me, that I was the problem somehow." She says somberly, the hole in her chest aches as she recalls her anguish as a child.
"I now know Frieza wanted something from me and Mother sought to prevent his knowledge of my existence, because of something she knew. Of course, he eventually heard about me, then tracked my mother and I down. Slaughtered dozens in the process, destroyed many villages, and even when she finally handed me over he still killed her." Xylias squeezes her eyes shut as a wave of suppressed grief washes over her.
"But why..? What was he after? My father was threatened and gave me up immediately, why would your mother risk everything to run away?" Vegeta counters, in Saiyan culture it wasn't common for parents to demonstrate care for their children, and it was rare for a Saiyan to be of gentle nature.
"I never got the chance to learn everything she knew, I was so young, but I know it all started when she gave birth to me—"
"Hold on, your mother gave birth to you? That makes no sense, incubation tanks were standard to speed up the growth of muscles and cells, amongst other things." The Prince interjects
Xylias pauses, "I know, and I'm not sure why she went through with it... I never knew my father, and she refused to speak about the subject. I know Mother was one of King Vegeta's closest military advisors for a long time, but she stepped away from his inner circle when she somehow became pregnant with me then decided to keep it a secret for reasons I do not know. Only a handful of other soldiers knew, including Kakarot's parents. With their help, my mother was sent on long missions away from home often, and gave birth to me in secret."
Vegeta listens carefully as she speaks, digesting her story— Xylias's mother broke many of their culture's taboos.
She takes another deep breath and continues, "I was born with a strange marking... The healer present for my birth told Mother to get rid of me, that I am cursed, but she didn't. When she got home she took me and ran. She tried to keep me a secret from the public— from the King, the Elders even helped her. They and the other soldiers I knew taught me so much in my short time on Planet Vegeta, the Elders and my mother knew something about the mark that I didn't. Frieza tried to find out what it is but failed. I've... experienced things, and now I understand that I have to find out what they knew, I have to find out what it all means..." She trails off, reaching to grab a strand of her hair.
Vegeta's aghast over these revelations, but finds himself overtly fascinated with the idea of childhood myths of great Saiyan power possibly being true, Could there be more than Super Saiyan? He asks himself, suddenly overcome with the need to see this supposed mark. The Prince also wants to know more about her encounters and what her conjectures on them all are, but Xylias continues before he can delve into that topic.
She twists the strand of hair between her fingers, focusing her attention on it, "I'm not sure why Frieza kept us separated, maybe it was because he knew our generation was stronger than our parents', what you said back on Namek was true— he did fear the Super Saiyan power. Maybe he thought we could take him down if we had ever decided to align with one another." She adds thoughtfully, glancing over at Vegeta she sees a glint of understanding flash across his face.
"Of course... Nappa and Raditz were hardly threats to Frieza, but mix us and even that imbecile Kakarot into it all, it would make sense." He murmurs
There's so much more she wishes to tell Vegeta, the dream she had, the strange power-up she had back on Namek, and the correlations from her childhood, then her theories on it all, but she feels like she has said too much already. Not that she didn't want to tell him but Xylias couldn't remember the last time someone asked her these kinds of probing questions about herself, couldn't recall when she last exchanged thoughts and ideas with another person, and strangely—it felt odd to recall these things, they had been buried inside for so long they almost didn't seem real.
This whole conversation has been mind-boggling to her, yet she feels like she's made progress with Vegeta today, she's determined to get past his ego and befriend him, but her thoughts get interrupted by a loud growling noise coming from her abdomen.
Xylias flinches back in surprise, looking at her body with concern then to Vegeta who's gazing at her with a slightly amused expression in his eyes.
"It's getting late, we might as well head back. You've given me a lot to think about, we'll continue this conversation later." He states before turning around and abruptly taking off in flight. She said so much for him to process, yet raised even more questions— enigmatic just like he assumed.
Also, the Prince could tell from Xylias's body language that she needed a break from questioning because he knows the Earthlings won't be able to resist their curiosity, and who knows— maybe she'd divulge more information under their inquisition.
Xylias stands there for a moment processing their conversation, watching his figure become smaller and smaller in the distance, then nods to herself and takes off following after him back to Capsule Corp
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A/N* Thank you so much for reading! Don't forget to vote and comment, I'd love to know what you think so far :)
also just a reminder that MC's name is pronounced Zy-luh-s/Zai-luh-s