Mel had escaped the cave before. Hundreds of times, in fact. Having been held captive in this particular territory for the last three years or so, she knew the nearby woods like the back of her hand.
Mel's original capture point, where she'd first been captured by a tribe of natives, was actually in another tribe's territory to the east. She'd escaped several different tribes over the years, hidden in trees and caves for a few nights, maybe a week or two before recapture.
Unfortunately, it seemed that every square inch of the planet was a different tribe's territory. Permanent freedom was a pipe dream. Recapture always happened, eventually. This particular tribe had actually won her as a trophy in a skirmish with another tribe. Usually, only the tribe's chieftain could transform, but in this tribe, they had two sub-leaders as well with the capability.
Naturally, that meant internal friction. Mel had noticed one of the sub-leaders subtly challenging the actual chieftain repeatedly over the last few weeks, but there had been no point in making it boil over into an actual fight, when she would just end up recaptured anyway.
But now, all she needed were a few hours of freedom. Maybe a day at the most. She could buy that.
Vegeta followed Mel's figure in the silence borne from reluctant acknowledgement that he did not have the requisite information to be useful beyond simply not causing trouble or slowing her down, and had chosen to place the processing of that fact in the background rather than fully process it, as Mel threaded through trees and over vegetation with a practiced fluidity that came from being stranded on a jungle-type planet for the better part of a decade, ensuring a certain, unique sort of coexistence with the environment that goes beyond the conscious level.
He noted, with a small bit of annoyance, that his own footsteps did not hold that same fluidity. Where she existed in the forest as a ghost, Vegeta barreled through it like a bear, no matter how lightly he attempted to step, or how many leaves and twigs he managed to avoid.
He blamed the broken ribs for his lack of stealth.
He was likely lying to himself. He knew that.
He refused to acknowledge it.
After around twenty minutes, though, Vegeta realized something. "Hey. We're going in the wrong direction. The ships are that way." He pointed.
She ignored him, slipping deeper into the shrubbery, as it got denser and denser.
Eventually, Vegeta lost sight of the other Saiyan completely, her form entirely obscured by alien plants that Vegeta wouldn't recognize, even if he cared enough about botany to attempt to do so.
"Hey! Woman!" Vegeta shouted, his eyes widening with a mixture of surprise and annoyance as he finally lost sight of her. She was faster than he'd expected.
He barrelled through the last line of shrubbery.
He only had about a moment to take in the sight in front of him. A vast expanse of blue that seemed to stretch all the way into the horizon, waves half as tall as him breaking onto the golden sand that covered the shoreline back for a few dozen yards.
An incredible, beautiful beach.
Unfortunately, the sight was ruined by the sight of a brown tail and a pair of feet slipping beneath the waves.
"...So, that's her plan." Vegeta realized.
He didn't hesitate to follow the other Saiyan under the water… where scent didn't carry.
Yet again, Vegeta's ribs screamed as he held his breath, but yet again, he ignored the pain and followed the woman, deep under the water.
The water pressure multiplied, then multiplied again as they went deep, to the point where sunlight began to have minor difficulties reaching.
That was when she finally seemed to make up her mind.
Vegeta watched as the woman swam up to a plain, rocky surface, and began concentrating her energy.
The resulting construction job, or rather, carving job, was neither quick nor slow.
With a practiced balance between speed and care, the woman expertly carved a hole directly into the ground, as if she'd done this dozens of times before. Vegeta silently noted her energy control… better than Nappa's, by a wide margin…
Likely even better than his own, though he dared not admit it.
After a quick carving job, there was a brand new cavern deep under the sea. At the end of it was a small pocket of air, in which the duo surfaced.
Vegeta lit the small space with ki fueled by his annoyance. "So, we're just going to sit here and wait for them to roll over and stop looking for us?" He spat.
"We wait for nightfall. Just a few hours. They aren't nocturnal. We use the cover of darkness to get to your ship. Then, you bring me back to Planet Vegeta, as we agreed." She explained.
Vegeta snorted. "Not happening, woman."
Her eyes narrowed in the low light of Vegeta's ki. "Whatever you want from me, I'm retiring. If you want me to go back and work for the man who left me on this-"
"My father died when Planet Vegeta was destroyed." Vegeta said with the specific bluntness of someone who was highly impacted by this information ten years ago, and has since learned to treat it as exactly what it was: Information and nothing more.
"..." Mell was rendered temporarily speechless by the shock. Vegeta felt a pang of something that may have been close to sympathy, but wasn't, really.
It was still enough of an emotion that he spoke further. "I don't particularly care whether you join my squad and fight under me, or if you want me to lend you a ship and let you find a different rock to settle down on. I didn't come to this godforsaken planet to recruit a worthless woman like you."
"...You came to ask about your brother. The brat who beat me." She said, confirming something that she'd known since the moment that she laid eyes on him.
"...Yes. What do you know?"