A/N: I apologize for this being so late. Classes and a bad case of
writer's block combined in a truly horrendous fashion. Thanks to all who
reviewed...I'm new at this so I appreciate encouragement and constructive
criticism.
Disclaimer: Same as before. Not my property yadda yadda no profit yadda yadda don't sue me.
Vegeta was dreaming.
This was a rare occurrence for him, and even more unusually he was dreaming about his early past. Before Frieza had taken him from his home world and his people.
He was very young, perhaps 3 or 4 at most. Dressed in the deep blue of the royal family of Vegeta-sei, he wandered through the palace grounds, tail curled behind him like a question mark. He gravely investigated the effects of his newly learned energy blasts on the boulders in the carefully arranged rock garden. A particularly loud explosion sent debris flying and covered the small prince in dust. A childish smile of delight crossed his face and he powered up an even bigger energy attack, not noticing the taller saiyan approaching from behind. Just as young Vegeta released the energy and blew away yet another boulder, he was unceremoniously yanked into the air by his father's tail. Upside down, dangling by one leg, his tail instinctively wrapped around his sire's for support.
"Spachen! Kanda da-lamei chiisonn atch?" [Brat! What do you think you're doing?]
Arms crossed, his face composed despite his ridiculous position, the prince replied calmly,
"Skraanza." [Practicing.]
The king rubbed the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger.
"Ha-mo jix rham-se-kioke dou'al panna tiet. Osh liis?" [We have 10 training rooms in the palace alone. Why here?]
"Xah bah eamu des!" Said the prince enthusiastically. "O'at'o mil." [I like it here. The rock flies.]
King Vegeta frowned at the unrepentant toddler, who mimicked his father's expression back at him. With a sigh he righted the youngster and held him in one arm. Lifting off, he flew from the gardens to a quarry outside the palace grounds. There were boulders and rocks of all shapes and sizes here, many evidencing previous energy blasts.
"Ki-lamai ash berro'at'o, quilis des. Xah kiokee des moral lame'ro mox." [If you want to blow up rocks, do it here. I trained here when I was your age.]
"Uko kiokee des?" [Papa trained here?]
"Nask 'Uko', spachen! Lamei paco 'Ukolten'." [Don't call me 'papa', brat! You call me 'father'.]
"Uko kiokee des?" demanded the prince again. His father gave up and pointed to an enormous boulder with a huge chunk blown out of its side.
"Xah biken moral-lamei'ro mox. Po'lamei ix oshai?" [I did that when I was your age. Can you do better?] Smirking a little he set the boy down and lifted off again. From below there was a childish growl, and then a blinding explosion. King Vegeta blinked the dust out of his eyes and stared in disbelief at the crater where the boulder had once been. His son folded his little arms over his chest and smirked up at him.
"Xah badough oyamideen." [I will be the strongest.]
Vegeta awoke with a start. He sat up, massaging his temples. It had been years since he'd heard or spoken his native tongue, though up until age 5 or 6 he'd spoken it almost exclusively. Now he didn't even think in saiyan anymore, but in galactic standard. Not that it mattered – he was the only saiyan now alive who even remembered the old language. Growling he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. If he couldn't sleep, then he might as well train.
As he floated down the stairs, a familiar, and yet unfamiliar, chi signature startled the prince. After a puzzled instant, he realized it was the woman that he was sensing. Her power level had risen exponentially, nearly to the peak of a normal human's potential. Of course, it was still pathetic by his standards, but for a weak human female, it was impressive. He hadn't seen her for more than a few minutes since she'd sprouted the tail a day or two ago...and the GR was still broken, he recalled. Vegeta cursed. The woman was still in her lab. He altered his course, intending to order her out of the lab and outside fixing his gravity room. He glided into the lab and silently approached her. She was asleep at her workbench, computer on in front of her and various equipment scattered about. Her blue tail curled and uncurled slowly behind her, like a sleeping feline. She looked somewhat different. Her normally flat hair was a bit spikier, though still brilliant blue, and there was more definition to the muscle he could see.
All at once these minor appearance changes became the least of his concerns. As he stood by her he was startled by an intoxicating scent, which affected him, immediately, on some of the most primal of levels. His eyes widened as his body reacted, and he stared at the sleeping woman in disbelief. It was she. Her normal human scent had changed. While it still held the characteristic personal smell he had come to associate with her, an odd but not unpleasant mix of engine oil and lavender, it had taken on new aspects. More feral. Slightly more spicy. He leaned closer, entranced. His heart seemed to be pounding loudly in his ears, not unlike the moments just before oozaru transformation.
'What am I doing?' he mentally brought himself up short. It took so much effort to step away from her that it seemed as if the gravity had suddenly increased 400x. Shaken (not that he'd admit it even to himself) Vegeta raised his eyes from the sleeping scientist to the computer screen.
INITIAL GENETIC ANALYSIS: 25% SAIYAN
What was this? He tried to ignore the scent and read further.
EXPERIMENTAL REVERSAL 1: FAILURE
EXPERIMENTAL REVERSAL 2: FAILURE
12 HOUR GENETIC ANALYSIS: 50% SAIYAN
So it continued as she had attempted to reverse the process begun when she'd fallen in the experimental regeneration tank. By 24 hours after her tail had sprouted, her DNA was 75% saiyan in makeup – more than Kakkarot's brat. The last analysis, two hours before the present time, after eight failed attempts at reversal, glared out of the screen at him.
100% SAIYAN. HUMAN DNA NOT FOUND
Vegeta stared at the screen, then at the woman. Several things became painfully clear. She had become entirely saiyan. The scent that was so intoxicating to him was the scent of a female saiyan. Dimly he could remember it from his early years...but that had been before he'd become a mature male. Of course it hadn't affected him back then. Vegeta found he was once again leaning closer to her. His breathing rate increased, and a dull ache blossomed in his lower back.
He had been 7 when Vegeta-sei had been destroyed. Raaditz had been 5, and Nappa somewhat closer to adulthood at 17, though males tended not to reach full growth and development until 20 or 25.
"It's almost like staring at the full moon," the big saiyan had once described to his prince. "But better, cause it lasts longer. I heard from my old man that if the attraction's strong enough, weird things can happen."
"Weird things?" a younger Vegeta had mocked.
"Like if your tail had been cut off..." both young men had grimaced at the distasteful idea, "...it'd grow back even if you were full grown."
The saiyan prince snapped out of his reverie as the ache in his back became a sharp pinch. He reached behind him as cloth tore, and the sense of an appendage lost was abruptly replaced by the knowledge that his body was once again whole. His regrown tail wrapped comfortably around his place, and the normally unshakeable prince went somewhat pale.
If the attraction's strong enough...
No! He was not attracted to this loud mouthed, annoying, human born woman!
...Your tail would grow back...
His heart was pounding in his ears...
Like staring at the moon...
No way. No way! He was a warrior, cold and emotionless, he was...he was...
His tail had wound itself around Bulma's waist. Vegeta made a strangled noise and disengaged it, breaking away. What had been entertaining when her tail had been wrapping around him was nowhere near as funny as when his tail was behaving the same way towards her. The saiyan prince retreated from the lab...then up the stairs...then out of the house. Still breathing hard, he took to the sky, blasting away from Capsule Corporation as fast as he could go, his mind in turmoil.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bulma awoke with a stiff neck. Came from sleeping bent over on a lab bench. Grumpily she stood up and stretched, her tail coiling and uncoiling once or twice before settling around her waist. She stumbled up to the kitchen and started the coffee before devouring a saiyan-sized breakfast.
"What do I do now?" she murmured into her coffee cup 15 minutes later. Every attempt at reversing the process had failed, and by the last test she was no longer human at all. Not human. Saiyan. She shivered and drew her knees up to her chest. She didn't want this. She didn't want to be a saiyan! Goku excepted, full-blooded saiyans were...violent...dangerous...how long before she became as ruthless as her houseguest?
Speaking of which, where was he? Normally he'd be demanding breakfast at about this time. Absently she reached out and snagged the coffee pot with her tail, pouring another cup. Bulma blinked and then groaned. Damn it, she was starting to get comfortable with the tail already!
This was not happening. She would not stand for this. Bulma's eyes hardened. She slugged back the coffee and rose from the table. Up the stairs she marched and into her room. With a determined air she began to pack, ending up with a case of capsules and one small but very important item: the dragon radar.
If science couldn't change her back, then maybe magic would.
Bulma looked in the mirror and couldn't help but smile a little. She still looked much as she did when she'd set out to find the dragonballs the very first time. Well, except for the tail, of course. And the well defined lean muscles. And the eyes...she let out a shriek of outrage. Her eyes had changed! Now they were as dark a black as Goku's or Vegeta's! The contrast with her blue hair and tail was actually quite striking, but it still pissed her off. Without thinking she flung her hand forward. A burst of light flew from her palm, and the mirror exploded. Bulma stared openmouthed at the wreckage.
"Ohhhh.... I've got to hurry!" she groaned. Adding the ability to throw energy blasts to someone with her temper was a really, really bad idea. She hurried outside and tossed a capsule. "Hoi!"
Poi!
A sturdy motorbike appeared in a puff of smoke. She climbed on and revved up the engine.
"At least I know where one of the damn things is," Bulma muttered, and roared off toward Goku's home in the mountains, and the 4-star dragonball.
Disclaimer: Same as before. Not my property yadda yadda no profit yadda yadda don't sue me.
Vegeta was dreaming.
This was a rare occurrence for him, and even more unusually he was dreaming about his early past. Before Frieza had taken him from his home world and his people.
He was very young, perhaps 3 or 4 at most. Dressed in the deep blue of the royal family of Vegeta-sei, he wandered through the palace grounds, tail curled behind him like a question mark. He gravely investigated the effects of his newly learned energy blasts on the boulders in the carefully arranged rock garden. A particularly loud explosion sent debris flying and covered the small prince in dust. A childish smile of delight crossed his face and he powered up an even bigger energy attack, not noticing the taller saiyan approaching from behind. Just as young Vegeta released the energy and blew away yet another boulder, he was unceremoniously yanked into the air by his father's tail. Upside down, dangling by one leg, his tail instinctively wrapped around his sire's for support.
"Spachen! Kanda da-lamei chiisonn atch?" [Brat! What do you think you're doing?]
Arms crossed, his face composed despite his ridiculous position, the prince replied calmly,
"Skraanza." [Practicing.]
The king rubbed the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger.
"Ha-mo jix rham-se-kioke dou'al panna tiet. Osh liis?" [We have 10 training rooms in the palace alone. Why here?]
"Xah bah eamu des!" Said the prince enthusiastically. "O'at'o mil." [I like it here. The rock flies.]
King Vegeta frowned at the unrepentant toddler, who mimicked his father's expression back at him. With a sigh he righted the youngster and held him in one arm. Lifting off, he flew from the gardens to a quarry outside the palace grounds. There were boulders and rocks of all shapes and sizes here, many evidencing previous energy blasts.
"Ki-lamai ash berro'at'o, quilis des. Xah kiokee des moral lame'ro mox." [If you want to blow up rocks, do it here. I trained here when I was your age.]
"Uko kiokee des?" [Papa trained here?]
"Nask 'Uko', spachen! Lamei paco 'Ukolten'." [Don't call me 'papa', brat! You call me 'father'.]
"Uko kiokee des?" demanded the prince again. His father gave up and pointed to an enormous boulder with a huge chunk blown out of its side.
"Xah biken moral-lamei'ro mox. Po'lamei ix oshai?" [I did that when I was your age. Can you do better?] Smirking a little he set the boy down and lifted off again. From below there was a childish growl, and then a blinding explosion. King Vegeta blinked the dust out of his eyes and stared in disbelief at the crater where the boulder had once been. His son folded his little arms over his chest and smirked up at him.
"Xah badough oyamideen." [I will be the strongest.]
Vegeta awoke with a start. He sat up, massaging his temples. It had been years since he'd heard or spoken his native tongue, though up until age 5 or 6 he'd spoken it almost exclusively. Now he didn't even think in saiyan anymore, but in galactic standard. Not that it mattered – he was the only saiyan now alive who even remembered the old language. Growling he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. If he couldn't sleep, then he might as well train.
As he floated down the stairs, a familiar, and yet unfamiliar, chi signature startled the prince. After a puzzled instant, he realized it was the woman that he was sensing. Her power level had risen exponentially, nearly to the peak of a normal human's potential. Of course, it was still pathetic by his standards, but for a weak human female, it was impressive. He hadn't seen her for more than a few minutes since she'd sprouted the tail a day or two ago...and the GR was still broken, he recalled. Vegeta cursed. The woman was still in her lab. He altered his course, intending to order her out of the lab and outside fixing his gravity room. He glided into the lab and silently approached her. She was asleep at her workbench, computer on in front of her and various equipment scattered about. Her blue tail curled and uncurled slowly behind her, like a sleeping feline. She looked somewhat different. Her normally flat hair was a bit spikier, though still brilliant blue, and there was more definition to the muscle he could see.
All at once these minor appearance changes became the least of his concerns. As he stood by her he was startled by an intoxicating scent, which affected him, immediately, on some of the most primal of levels. His eyes widened as his body reacted, and he stared at the sleeping woman in disbelief. It was she. Her normal human scent had changed. While it still held the characteristic personal smell he had come to associate with her, an odd but not unpleasant mix of engine oil and lavender, it had taken on new aspects. More feral. Slightly more spicy. He leaned closer, entranced. His heart seemed to be pounding loudly in his ears, not unlike the moments just before oozaru transformation.
'What am I doing?' he mentally brought himself up short. It took so much effort to step away from her that it seemed as if the gravity had suddenly increased 400x. Shaken (not that he'd admit it even to himself) Vegeta raised his eyes from the sleeping scientist to the computer screen.
INITIAL GENETIC ANALYSIS: 25% SAIYAN
What was this? He tried to ignore the scent and read further.
EXPERIMENTAL REVERSAL 1: FAILURE
EXPERIMENTAL REVERSAL 2: FAILURE
12 HOUR GENETIC ANALYSIS: 50% SAIYAN
So it continued as she had attempted to reverse the process begun when she'd fallen in the experimental regeneration tank. By 24 hours after her tail had sprouted, her DNA was 75% saiyan in makeup – more than Kakkarot's brat. The last analysis, two hours before the present time, after eight failed attempts at reversal, glared out of the screen at him.
100% SAIYAN. HUMAN DNA NOT FOUND
Vegeta stared at the screen, then at the woman. Several things became painfully clear. She had become entirely saiyan. The scent that was so intoxicating to him was the scent of a female saiyan. Dimly he could remember it from his early years...but that had been before he'd become a mature male. Of course it hadn't affected him back then. Vegeta found he was once again leaning closer to her. His breathing rate increased, and a dull ache blossomed in his lower back.
He had been 7 when Vegeta-sei had been destroyed. Raaditz had been 5, and Nappa somewhat closer to adulthood at 17, though males tended not to reach full growth and development until 20 or 25.
"It's almost like staring at the full moon," the big saiyan had once described to his prince. "But better, cause it lasts longer. I heard from my old man that if the attraction's strong enough, weird things can happen."
"Weird things?" a younger Vegeta had mocked.
"Like if your tail had been cut off..." both young men had grimaced at the distasteful idea, "...it'd grow back even if you were full grown."
The saiyan prince snapped out of his reverie as the ache in his back became a sharp pinch. He reached behind him as cloth tore, and the sense of an appendage lost was abruptly replaced by the knowledge that his body was once again whole. His regrown tail wrapped comfortably around his place, and the normally unshakeable prince went somewhat pale.
If the attraction's strong enough...
No! He was not attracted to this loud mouthed, annoying, human born woman!
...Your tail would grow back...
His heart was pounding in his ears...
Like staring at the moon...
No way. No way! He was a warrior, cold and emotionless, he was...he was...
His tail had wound itself around Bulma's waist. Vegeta made a strangled noise and disengaged it, breaking away. What had been entertaining when her tail had been wrapping around him was nowhere near as funny as when his tail was behaving the same way towards her. The saiyan prince retreated from the lab...then up the stairs...then out of the house. Still breathing hard, he took to the sky, blasting away from Capsule Corporation as fast as he could go, his mind in turmoil.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bulma awoke with a stiff neck. Came from sleeping bent over on a lab bench. Grumpily she stood up and stretched, her tail coiling and uncoiling once or twice before settling around her waist. She stumbled up to the kitchen and started the coffee before devouring a saiyan-sized breakfast.
"What do I do now?" she murmured into her coffee cup 15 minutes later. Every attempt at reversing the process had failed, and by the last test she was no longer human at all. Not human. Saiyan. She shivered and drew her knees up to her chest. She didn't want this. She didn't want to be a saiyan! Goku excepted, full-blooded saiyans were...violent...dangerous...how long before she became as ruthless as her houseguest?
Speaking of which, where was he? Normally he'd be demanding breakfast at about this time. Absently she reached out and snagged the coffee pot with her tail, pouring another cup. Bulma blinked and then groaned. Damn it, she was starting to get comfortable with the tail already!
This was not happening. She would not stand for this. Bulma's eyes hardened. She slugged back the coffee and rose from the table. Up the stairs she marched and into her room. With a determined air she began to pack, ending up with a case of capsules and one small but very important item: the dragon radar.
If science couldn't change her back, then maybe magic would.
Bulma looked in the mirror and couldn't help but smile a little. She still looked much as she did when she'd set out to find the dragonballs the very first time. Well, except for the tail, of course. And the well defined lean muscles. And the eyes...she let out a shriek of outrage. Her eyes had changed! Now they were as dark a black as Goku's or Vegeta's! The contrast with her blue hair and tail was actually quite striking, but it still pissed her off. Without thinking she flung her hand forward. A burst of light flew from her palm, and the mirror exploded. Bulma stared openmouthed at the wreckage.
"Ohhhh.... I've got to hurry!" she groaned. Adding the ability to throw energy blasts to someone with her temper was a really, really bad idea. She hurried outside and tossed a capsule. "Hoi!"
Poi!
A sturdy motorbike appeared in a puff of smoke. She climbed on and revved up the engine.
"At least I know where one of the damn things is," Bulma muttered, and roared off toward Goku's home in the mountains, and the 4-star dragonball.