Music blared over speakers as they pumped out a fast tempo, the blue hair of the driver swinging to match it beat for beat. "Hurry up Pan! We're going to be late!" The shout barley reached the passenger who was quickly leaving the car for the front door and hurrying into the house. Running up steps as fast as her legs could carry her, she almost ran into a tall figure coming out of one of the bedrooms. The arm that grabbed her, saving her from a rather painful crash was like a band of steel around her waist. Feet slowly touched the ground as he lowered the girl to the floor. "Watch where you're going Brat." was his only response as he waked off towards the kitchen. Pan let lose a sigh of relief, she never knew what kind of response she would get from the surly Saijian Prince.
Running towards the back of the house and the set of personal labs Bulma had set up for her self, she knew Bra's mother had to be in one of them. The faster she got there and told the blue headed woman that her best friend resembled so closely and who had become like a mother to her since she began coming over more often than staying at her own home, the faster they would be off.
A quick explanation a dash towards the door and they'd be at the concert in no time. That is unless she could get Bulma to step away from her new project.
As fascinating as Pan found time travel she knew Bra was in a hurry having spent an extra thirty minutes, that they didn't have, getting her outfit to look just right. Speeding at this point would be an understatement of Bra's driving.
The green enter light was on, so it was safe to go in. Carefully opening the door she searched for a blue haired head in the group of people scattered around the room. She found it, of all places bent over what looked like a set of finally made bracelets. The sliver surfaces of the bracelets reflected the light overhead across the room to Pan, who was intrigued with their beauty. Walking closer she forgot about the temperamental friend out side and went to Bulma, who as ever, would be willing to explain any of her projects in intricate detail to those who were willing to listen.
The elderly woman turned at the sound of footsteps and saw Pan walking up to her table, giving the young woman a dazzling smile, she waved for Pan to come closer noting the curious look on her face.
"This is my new project." She said as she handed a bracelet over to younger hands. Seeing the look on Pan's face she continued with an explanation.
"Since a time machine is so large and rather conspicuous I thought it would be better to have something a bit more personal and well...pretty. I had hoped to make a teleportation device something along the lines of Goku's Instant Transmission but for the lesser powerful person. A device that can transcend space and time easily, allowing a person to travel great distances as easily as pushing a button. Since Marian Trunks' death I always wondered if we had set the time line right. These bracelets will allow me to take a look around while having protection and allowing me to return, unharmed."
The small bracelets if they truly reached their makers goals would be a great achievement for Bulma, for the world.
Pointing over to the larger control center she watched as a few of Bulma's closest friends and helpers worked on the machinery that would help control the bracelets, trackers, circuits and panels all completed. "We've been running simulations and a few tests with bots but nothing alive yet."
Bulma's voice traveled around the room as Pan walked toward a raised dais.
In the middle of explaining what the raised platform was Pan remembered Bra sitting out in her car waiting for her to get back. Turning to face Bulma and apologize for having to cut the conversation short she was unprepared for what happened next.
An earsplitting explosion rocked the building, pieces of ceiling and machinery flying around in a storm of deadly debris.
Vegeta was the first to reach the demolished lab, his senses honing in on the body of his ex-wife.
Bulma lay against a far wall, the desk she had been behind lay over her creating a shield from the brunt of the explosion. Shaking her to consciousness he could barely control his sense of dread as he surveyed the destruction around him.
Blue eyes opened to look at him, finally focusing of the face that belonged to the incessant voice that insisted she answer him; she saw Vegeta, once again admiring how handsome he was at almost seventy. Even though they were no longer together she still loved him, in a strange platonic sort of way.
"What happened, onna?" It was his training clothes that brought back an image that sent pain racing through her heart. Pan similar gloves, and outfit standing looking at her from the center of the lab, a center now covered in piles of metal and concrete.
"Pan." arm shaking with the effort to point in the direction that the girl had been standing in last time she saw her. "Save." Two words were all she could get past her throat that seemed to be clogged more from tears than from the smoke that still traveled on the air.
Others were arriving from joining labs, emergency bots trying to access the damage as they went about their task of fire control.
Vegeta concentrated a faint life force not far from a bank of what looked like battered control panels crushed up a large steel beam and the surrounding concrete that had once been a good part of the now missing ceiling. He knew there wasn't enough time to go about uncovering her gentle. The Brat's life was fading so quickly he started grabbing the first pieces of concrete and throwing them out side, onto the lawn. As he reached for a large piece of concrete lying against the beam he saw a pale hand, glove battered and bloody, lying against the steel, pushing as much as someone whose energy was fading more every second could. A hand he knew well from the training and sparing they had done since she was old enough to decide she wanted to train and become a fight, no matter what her family thought.
Wrapping both arms around the giant steel beam he turned super and hurtled it over the wall and outside onto the grass, subconsciously satisfied with the large thunk it made as it hit the earth.
The sight that met his dark eyes was startling. Prone, covered in large gashes, burns and bloody, her clothes where mere taters of clothe. Black locks of hair clung to her head and face soaked with blood. Kneeling beside the struggling girl, who was still conscious and fighting for every breath she took, Vegeta carefully picked up the small body. She fit smoothly into his arms, he knew she needed the regeneration chamber but he also knew she'd never make it there. Rivers of red ran down his arms pooling on the floor. There was only one thing that would save the Brat, whose life had barely begun, who deserved to live it to the fullest.
Bonding was not something Saijians took for granted the connecting of two souls, two lives was a dangerous thing. But it was the only thing powerful enough to save her, to heal her, and perhaps if he survived the consequences they would both be better for it.
Concentrating, he blocked the world around him out, focusing his being on the gasping figure lying in his arms. Shifting closer he angled her head to better reach her neck, almost in slow motion the skin her pulse beating beneath it came closer to press against his lips. His k-9 teeth seemed to lengthen and in one strong motion he sank them into her neck, blood welled up under in lips flowing into his mouth as he forced her to accept energy and begin healing. The warmth of her soul, so young and innocent and yet so familiar sent his head reeling. He licked the wonder clean and looked down at the hand grabbing his arm. A sliver bracelet shined up at him. Its design so well memorized that he knew it in his sleep had dreamed of it from so many years that he could still feel its smooth surface under his fingertips.
In an instant he was sent back to a time years ago to a scene much like this one dirty, rubble everywhere, and blood flowing freely. And understood for the first time, a revelation that shed light on so much of his past that old wounds were tore open, for the entire world to see. In one massive roar he let the fates and whatever, whoever was listening know how deep his pain went. It was at that instant the a second explosion, smaller and more concentrated erupted from the one semi intact panel, the silver bracelet glowed a soft golden color and the figure in his arms disappeared from within them, his fingers reached for skin and only found air. For the second time in his life Prince Vegeta, last of the Royal family of Vegetasai, cried.