A/n
Trigger warning: torture and interrogation
Thank you for the reviews, faves and follows! It's great to know people are reading, it gives me motivation to know the story is being enjoyed.
Bulma sat at a desk playing with her pen that evening, staring at the door to her father's lab.
The old man was clearly avoiding her and she had decided to stake out his offices rather than let him slip away again.
Armed with the information the Saiyan had given her - that the ships were tamper-proof - she needed to know if other options needed exploration.
He had been right about one thing: the thought of actually harming the Saiyan for the sake of it made her uneasy to say the least. These creatures killed without a thought and were it not for the glass he would rip her in two, but still, Bulma's conscience was starting to push past her previous anger.
Just as her thoughts were wandering down a more merciful road, the door to her father's laboratory opened and the man emerged, flanked by three interns.
Bulma stood and waved to him.
"This is a nice surprise, sweetheart!" He chimed as he approached. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
Bulma folded her arms and stared him down.
"You know what I'm doing here, Dad, don't play dumb," she replied. "How are you getting along with the ships?"
The older Brief looked puzzled for a second then shook his head in a defeated manner. "No go, I'm afraid. The moment I opened the casing of one of them, they both shut down! Pity really…"
Bulma's heart sank into her shoes and she resisted breaking into sobs. Her friends… was this it? Was this a lost cause after all?
"Don't look so glum, honey!" The old man piped up, "I haven't told you the good news yet!"
Bulma's head shot up in hope.
"I'm modelling a new ship based on what I can figure out from these ones. I have the two space pods, plus the one Goku arrived in."
"Where did you get that?" Bulma asked, stunned.
The old man wiped his brow and grinned. He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it before replying.
"Well, old Master Gohan didn't know what to make of it when he found Goku in the woods. He brought it to me back then but I couldn't make heads or tails of it at the time! It's been sitting there in the garage for twenty years!"
Bulma shook her head in disbelief. For two decades, it seemed, humans had a blueprint for space travel and never knew.
The Saiyan would probably find that hilarious.
"I still need to know how far this thing needs to travel. I'm going to start designing the fuel system, but I don't know whether to put a tank or a rocket on the side!" Her father prompted.
Bulma nodded and rolled her eyes. The Saiyan would still have to talk…
Bulma applied a red lipstick in the bathroom outside her laboratory. Today was the day and she was going to get answers. She arranged her mouth to access the corners and blotted with a tissue before winking at herself. War paint applied, she entered the room.
"Anyone who is studying the subject's nerve pathways can stay. Anyone else needs to leave," she commanded, oozing enough confidence as not to be questioned.
She watched members of staff collect their things and vacate while she arranged her own desk and took a deep breath. They were making progress with their mission to Namek. The only thing in their way was eying her curiously from the glass cylinder before her.
"Fill the chamber with water vapour, fifty percent concentration." She ordered.
The Saiyan looked amused and pressed his hands against the glass.
"Are you giving me a sauna? How thoughtful." he smirked.
Bulma ignored him and rested on the desk closest to the chamber.
"Bring the scanners online, get the defibrillator off standby and ready for use if necessary," she instructed.
She saw hesitation then, but a quick determined look towards the staff fixed that and there was a flurry of activity once more.
"What're you planning, you foolish girl? I demand to know immediately!"
The heiress appraised the Saiyan as he stood before her, and she smiled. He was already wet from the vapour in the room and though his expression was not too far from composed, there was a notable furrow of his brow line and an anxious glint in his eye.
She reached into her bag which she had placed by her feet and pulled out the scouter. She put it on and watched him go from slightly concerned to highly entertained.
Again, she ignored him.
"I'm going to start with an easy one," she stated. She pressed the button to the first setting and watched his pulse on the small screen. "State your name."
Her question was met with a scowl. The Saiyan pushed himself away from the glass and gave her his back.
She sighed and looked over to a nervous intern.
"Keep the AMP low, go for fifty thousand volts," she ordered.
"Fifty thousand?" The young woman repeated.
Bulma nodded and turned back to the Saiyan.
The water vapour conducted the electric surge perfectly. Multiple bursts of lightning shot from the conductors above in tiny arcs to the man himself. Having been caught off guard, he cried out like an injured animal and fell to the floor.
Bulma summoned up the memory of standing on the battlefield, looking out at the craters this beast had made. How he and his thugs had ended her friends lives and how he was now refusing to help them. She dismissed thoughts of mercy and controlled her emotions.
He stayed prone on the floor for a minute. Bulma watched as his pulse return to normal and he stood. He flashed his teeth in a threatening display and rubbed the back of his neck.
"What the hell was that?" He snapped, "You are capable of ki blasts? Producing artificial lightning? What?"
"Electric shock. I'll increase it until it burns the skin off your body if I need to," was Bulma's cold reply.
She cleared her mind and fixed a focused expression on her face.
"Name?"
The Saiyan seemed to be considering his options. He noted her dead expression and grinned.
"With that scouter and look on your face, I'd confuse you for a Saiyan soldier," he joked.
The comment only served to fuel Bulma's anger. She gave the order to shock him again.
He took the hit silently this time, though his heart rate accelerated.
"Name, smart ass." The doctor demanded.
The man leaned on the glass with both his palms against it. This was a battle of wills and Bulma was determined not to lose.
"I'm going to pull that pretty head straight off your shoulders," he replied.
"Increase by ten thousand and hit him again."
The room lit up blue as the electricity found its mark, rendering the victim temporarily silent. He took a breath and resumed his previous position.
Bulma narrowed her eyes at him in return.
"Doctor Brief?" The intern called from her station, "I'm really not comfortable doing this anymore. It's like an interrogation, not a study of the nervous system… also it's causing discomfort so I really think-"
"Get out if you want to. I can take it from here," Bulma answered.
The intern looked shocked and walked over, clipboard clapsed in her hands.
"Doctor Brief," she mumbled, "I am aware that you have full command over this project but aren't you perhaps outside of the parameters for this particular study?" She whispered. Her fingers twisted her long auburn hair as she spoke to the floor. Her demeanour enraged the already irritated Bulma.
"Are you asking me if I'm abusing my position?" Bulma snapped.
The younger woman gulped and shook her head. The Saiyan started to laugh.
"It sounds like she's questioning you, woman. I wouldn't stand for that!" He goaded.
Bulma indicated the exit with her finger and stood stock still until the sullen and worried looking intern walked out. The other members of the team who had watched the drama play out also stood up and followed her out of the door. The bang as it shut echoed around the now empty lab.
The Saiyan watched the insubordinate display with nothing short of glee on his sharp features.
Bulma took a breath and calmed herself. None of this would matter once they had the Dragon Balls anyway and every team member could be replaced. She walked over to the controls and glared at the man behind the glass.
"Name," she repeated, her voice even and emotionless.
The Saiyan smirked and folded his arms.
She twisted the dial a few times and hit him with an obscene number of volts. The man was paralysed as the electrical charge hit him. Then he convulsed and screamed as his ability to move returned. Bulma noticed parts of his disintegrated uniform had charred from the hit. She smiled at the sight.
"Name?"
"V-Vegeta…" he muttered from his position on the floor.
It took her a moment but she registered his voice. He had cracked and answered her - she had won! Noting what he had pushed her to, she chose not to celebrate and focused on her mission.
"Alright," she said, her voice softer. "Now tell me how far Namek is…"
The Saiyan stood up, though the heiress felt he was missing some of his attitude as he did so, and glared at her through slitted eyes.
"Listen, woman. You have no hope of getting there before he arrives and skins you alive, do you understand? He will find me, claim me, and lay waste to your entire civilisation. This version of torture…" he smirked as he said the word, "is a joke. It is nothing compared to what he will do."
"I'm getting a little bored of this routine, Saiyan, and I think you're just buying time." Bulma put her feet up on the desk and watched his heartbeat fluctuate on the scouter as she did so. "How far is Namek?"
The Saiyan shook his head and Bulma delivered another massive shock.
This time, the Saiyan was ready. He squared his stance and raised his ki so it became a glowing aura around him. The electrics in the room started fizzing and bulbs started to blow overhead. Bulma stood up in a panic as the room began to shake.
She bolted towards the door and pulled the emergency switch. The lights flashed as the Saiyan's energy made it into the breaker switches.
"You stupid girl!" He shouted, "You don't know what you're dealing with! You're in way over your head!"
Bulma pressed herself against the back wall and mashed the emergency switch again. He was lit up like a candle; his energy showed up on the scouter as the numbers climbed higher and higher.
Why wasn't the switch working?
Bulma knew she couldn't leave until he was subdued. She owed it to her planet to keep them safe. Besides,the door was deadlocked from the moment the switch was activated. She was trapped.
Suddenly, the numbers on the scouter began to drop. When she glanced at him again, the Saiyan's stance had started to droop and his eyes looked less aware.
Bulma breathed a sigh of relief. She stepped closer to the glass. His aura had stopped glowing and he was clearly fighting the gas as it sedated him.
He saw her and chuckled.
"It's a shame I'm going to kill you," he said in a sing-song way. "You have rare spirit…"
Bulma gritted her teeth.
"I am Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans," he gabbled. He dropped to his knees, then collapsed to the floor, face down.
Bulma repeated his sentence a few times. She had not realised he was royal-that would certainly account for the apparent selective smiled and decided to take advantage of the situation.
"Prince Vegeta?" She pressed herself close against her side the glass and looked down at his near-unconscious form. "How far is Namek?"
He made a noise then groaned. "Fuck….. YOU."
Bulma screwed her face up in disappointment and pushed away from the chamber.
He started to snore softly. Bulma went to the door to deactivate the lock down which the computer had placed on the lab. As she did so, she caught him speaking in his sleep. She strained to hear but the word he kept repeating didn't make sense.
She released the deadlock and stood back as security poured in to assess the situation. Doctor Una ran in as well and grabbed her into an unprofessional embrace.
"We were worried! What happened?" Una asked.
Bulma pushed him away and took off her scouter. "He got a little excited. I need to redesign the wiring in that chamber or there may not be a next time!"
She used the back of her hand to wipe off her lipstick and charged towards the main house.
"Oh, Doctor?" Bulma called behind her, "check the temperature in the the chamber, would you? He was saying 'Freeze' in his sleep…"