112Disclaimer: RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth, and conceptualised by Monty Oum, may he rest in peace.
Princess?
Chapter One: Heiress, nee Prince.
Vegeta, prince of all Saiyans, Z warrior, one of the most powerful entities in the universe, stood with his arms crossed and stared up at King Yenma.
Yenma, king of the Ogres and lord of the dead, with a level of strength that the prince before him had surpassed at the tender age of nine, stared down over his massive wooden desk at Vegeta.
Vegeta stared upwards at Yenma.
Yenma stared downwards at Vegeta.
Vegeta stared upwards at Yenma.
Yenma stared downwards at Vegeta, and bead of sweat trickled down the back of his neck.
Vegeta stared upwards at Yenma.
Goku, standing a few feet apart from Vegeta, chuckled nervously at the tension.
"What do you mean we 'broke it'?" Vegeta asked suddenly, his harsh voice deceptively placid.
Yenma, shuffled a few papers on his desk, and cleared his throat with an apprehensive cough. "You broke death."
"Yes, that much I heard." Vegeta replied levelly, "But what does that mean, Yenma?"
Yenma sighed, shifting on his massive seat, cursing his fate in his mind. Never before had his office felt so small, so stifling, not in his eons of judging souls and sending them to their resting places in heaven or hell, and reincarnation, when requested. "Let me explain, then. Despite your reform, Vegeta, you are still directly responsible for the demise of millions, and the fact that they were brought back to life after a wish was made that all who died by the hand of those who served Frieza, which you did at the time, the acts themselves are enough to damn your soul to hell for eternity." Yenma paused as he declared this, watching Vegeta warily.
Vegeta, recognising the truth in what Yenma had told him, nodded slowly. "I understand."
"Woah, hey! Sure, Vegeta made some mistakes," Goku began with a encouraging smile.
"He destroyed entire planets on a whim." Yenma cut in blandly. He was deftly ignored by the now legendary saiyan warrior.
"But he's changed! He fought to the death to protect the innocent, that has to count for something, right?" Goku continued onwards with his usual cheeriness.
"It has." Yenma nodded. "Or, it would have." He corrected himself.
"Would have?" Vegeta asked with a raised brow.
"The problem we have with you, prince, is that I can sentence you, send you straight down to hell, but I have no way to keep you there." Yenma said tiredly.
Vegeta snorted at that. "Oh?"
"The only one possibly strong enough to keep you in line is Goku," Yenma jerked his thumb at the taller saiyan. "And that's ignoring his own mountain of problems."
Vegeta tapped his foot on the floor, not breaking eye contact with Yenma. "So, I am not to be sent to hell, then?"
"And that is the crux of the matter." Yenma muttered quietly, or as quietly as is possible with his massive, booming voice. "You no longer deserve the punishment of hell, not with the number of times you helped save the entire universe."
"Get to the point, ogre!" Vegeta snapped, his limited patience having finally worn thin.
"I can't send you to heaven because you haven't earned it, I can't send you to hell because I have no way of keeping you down there, and you don't truly qualify as a malicious enough entity to be there, anyway. I refuse to destroy your soul, and I can't reincarnate you, because your essence, your power, is still far too intact, and with a will like yours it could take thousands of years to fade, if it ever does." Yenma admitted, rubbing his face tiredly. "You broke death." He repeated.
"Fantastic." Vegeta said, voice laden with sarcasm. "So, what? I'm going to sit here and play secretary to your huge red ass for the rest of eternity?"
"Bulma always did want you to find a job." Goku interjected with a snicker.
"Shut it, Kakarot!" Vegeta barked.
"Ok, ok!" Goku raised his hands in supplication, not bothering to hide his smile.
"And you!" Yenma declared, pointing an outstretched finger at Goku accusingly. "You've died too many times already!"
"I'm sorry?" Goku replied with an unsure laugh, rubbing the back of his head and smiling sheepishly.
"The laws of the universe can only be stretched so far! The fact that you've ignored them so many times is unprecedented! I can't look the other way anymore!" Yenmna boomed.
Goku gulped. "And that's… bad?"
Yenma deflated, leaning his elbows against the desk and placing his face in his hands. "Possibly. The fact of the matter is that you've ignored the laws that govern this reality so many times that you no longer belong in it, you stand completely apart from it."
Goku stood in stunned silence, his brain working furiously to comprehend what the massive ogre had told him. Vegeta actually looked curious at what Yenma had said. "So chuckles over there shouldn't even exist?" The prince asked dubiously.
"Basically." Yemna replied, pinching the bridge of his nose between two tree sized fingers. "I can't send him to heaven, as he deserves, because he doesn't belong anywhere, anymore. I can't reincarnate him for the same reason as you, prince. And if I refuse to destroy your soul, tainted as it is, then I doubly refuse to annihilate the existence one of the purest beings to ever live."
"What in the hell are we going to do then, Yenma?" Vegeta snarled in frustration. "You can't put me anywhere because you can't contain me, even if you don't want to send me to hell, and the only one you could even count on in the first place to police me is being rejected by the fucking universe?"
"Chi-chi's going to murder me for this." Goku mumbled. "She's going to bring me back to life, and then she's going to murder me."
"Now isn't the time to worry about your woman, you fool!" Vegeta snapped at him before turning back to Yenma. "Do you have any idea how to solve this, Shrek?"
Yenma scowled at the nickname, before he nodded. "I do, but I don't know if you are going to like it."
"We don't have much of a choice, do we?" Vegeta replied rhetorically, his anger causing his voice to crack out like a whip.
"I can reincarnate you, but not in this universe."
A heavy silence descended upon the room.
"Good luck telling Chi-Chi, Yenma."
Yenma sighed, feeling the need to drink on the job for the first time in his thousands of years of existence. "Yes, I know, thank you, Goku."
Reincarnation was more boring than Vegeta thought it would be. At first it had been startling, an explosive riot of colours, streaking by at immeasurable speed, painting his passage through the voids of reality. It was unlike anything he'd ever experienced, looking at colours and shapes he'd never conceived, and was still unable to fathom fully. It was a life-changing experience, literally and metaphorically. It was an immense, inimitable event that he doubted he would ever be subjected to again. It was intense. It was humbling.
It was boring. After what felt like days of zooming through everything and nothing, it became mind-numbingly boring. Yenma had not mentioned this in his brief explanation. All Vegeta knew was that he would be going to a new universe, and he would retain his memories. His soul would be changed, becoming something other, he would have to be 'recreated', so that he truly counted as a new soul, an entirely different being. He would become a new person, albeit a person who would likely carry some of his stronger traits and have a recollection of a past life. He wouldn't be Vegeta anymore, but he Vegeta would always be a part of whom he was.
Yenma really could spout some stupid, philosophical bullshit, sometimes.
Vegeta didn't care. He just couldn't wait for the journey to be over.
Dear Kami, was he bored.
Being birthed was an absolutely atrocious experience. He could attest to that. He'd been present at the birth of his son, Trunks, and no one in that room had been happy during the process, Bulma and Trunks least of all. But now... now he couldn't help but think his son got the easy way out.
Being born with even a vague self awareness, an impossibility for any other newborn, was inexplicably horrifying. Vegeta vowed he would bury his recollection of the sensation and sounds for the rest of his life deep, deep into his subconscious.
There were some things he just wished to un-know.
And despite having a plethora of memories and experiences, those of an adult that had lived a full life, there wasn't really anything Vegeta could do about it. His mind was disjointed and fuzzy, and he felt like he'd taken one too many blows to the head, or some seriously potent drugs.
He was able to think – vaguely. There was, after all, only so much one could do with a baby-sized brain. He felt stupid and uncoordinated, mostly because he probably was stupid and uncoordinated.
Everything was hot and wet and sore and strange, and Vegeta felt like his mind was melting under the pressure of all these oddly new, but old, sensations. He could feel himself crying, wailing like the babe he was, but it felt oddly disjointed. He could stop himself, maybe, if he was willing to really try, but even rallying his thoughts in the slightest was incredibly tiring. A train of thought that would take him a mere moment in a past life required all his focus and determination, all his practice at tuning out his senses, and even then it took him what could be minutes or a few seconds, he wasn't sure.
He was, for all intents and purposes, a baby with a semi-subconscious mind of an adult. He could think and reason beyond his years, but the effort it required was like wading through glue, slow and tiring. It seems he would have to wait some time for his brain to develop sufficiently before he could function with even a hint of normality.
As he was thinking, he was peripherally aware of his body crying and then becoming still, being cleaned and swaddled in blankets. His introspection, which would have taken but seconds in his previous life, had seemingly taken well over ten minutes of real time.
But, luckily, it seemed his body was tiring. As parts of his brain shut down, falling into slumber, Vegeta's thinking became sharper, easier. He didn't feel swamped under his senses and unresponsive body. An idea came to him then, and he did his best to fulfil it. He closed off all his senses, meditatively ignoring them so he could focus solely on his hearing.
"-nce again, you have my congratulations, Mr and Ms Schnee." He heard a voice echo in the darkness.
Schnee? Must be the family name.
"-elieve it! Oh look at our beautiful Weiss, darling." A smooth feminine voice crooned.
My new mother, most probably. And 'Weiss', is that my name?
"-he is amazing, my love. I'm so proud." A man's voice added, deep and well enunciated in his tone.
And father, I assume.
"-carry on the noble name of Schnee." The man's voice continued, and Vegeta – or Weiss, if that truly was his name - realised as he was thinking, due to its slowness, he was missing parts of the conversation.
But he was pleased by what he had heard so far.
It was fitting, he mused. He was a noble even in this life, it seemed, and it also looked like that having a proud heritage was his destiny. And who was he to deny it? He had lived once, already. Lived his life as Vegeta, prince of the mighty saiyan race! His soul was strong! It was his responsibility in the past to represent his proud, powerful lineage, and it seemed it would be the same, to uphold the name 'Schnee' in this life! He would do so, on the honour of his ancestors, both in his past and current life. He would prove himself worthy, worthy of any legacy his family wished to bestow upon him. His glory would be their glory! He was sure of it! He was-
"-our gorgeous little princess!" His mothered trilled.
… Princess?
Oh Yenma, you motherfucker.
FAVOURITE~REVIEW~FOLLOW!
Well damn, it's finally finished. Chapter two is underway, I'll update it it sooner or later! Beyond that, who knows?
Cheers!