A/N: Sorry it's taken so long! School has started up, and I've been a little busy. (And yes, also living up to my procrastinating standards. ^.^) Anyway, here's the fourth chapter. It's got action, even if I'm not very good at writing it. This is the chapter where I leave the timeline, going deeply into AU. Enjoy!!
In the aftermath of Vegeta's decimation of half the stadium, the crowd fell into hysterics and made a mad bolt for the door. But still, the announcer and Hercule were nothing if not persistent when it came to the public.
Thirty minutes later, the masses were seated once again, cheering louder than ever for their famed, phony hero Hercule. Only Bulma, Chi-Chi, Videl, and the others of the Z senshi remained silent and removed from the tournament.
Bulma took a deep breath and shoved all her conflicting emotions to the back of her mind. She needed a clear and calm mind to think through this rationally.
In the back of her mind, she felt the awe-inspiring ki levels of Vegeta and Goku as they finally had their battle. It looked like it was coming to a climax, but she couldn't tell who would be the victor. A little further away was Gohan, the Supreme Kai, and two other powers that she didn't know. For the first time, Bulma realized she couldn't feel Krillen, Piccolo, or Kibbito. Her son and Goten weren't far away from Gohan and the Supreme Kai.
But that wasn't on the forefront of her thoughts. Bulma was far more concerned about the growing, evil-saturated power. If Vegeta had truly gone back to his former self, it would leave only Goku and Gohan to battle the terror called Buu. And Goku, after fighting with Vegeta, would be almost, if not completely, drained.
"I have to go help them," Bulma said, hardly aware she spoke out loud.
"No!" Chi-Chi cried, latching onto Bulma's arm. "Bulma, you can't! Who would stay here with us?"
Bulma rounded on the dark-haired woman angrily. "You don't get it, do you, Chi-Chi? Vegeta has become evil! I can't sense Krillen or Piccolo. That leaves only your child and your husband to fight this…this thing! Do you want me to stay here so you can loose them both?"
Chi-Chi looked down. "No…" She glared back up at Bulma. "But I don't want you to die, either."
Bulma was silent, her anger fading. Finally she looked up and said softly, "Goten and Trunks are out there, too."
"What?!"
Bulma patiently repeated her statement.
Chi-Chi sighed, hanging her head. When she looked back up, she nodded at Bulma. "Bring my boys back safe, Bulma."
Bulma nodded. "I'll bring them all back safely."
She turned to leave when suddenly her world spun out of control. Desperately she grabbed at the railing as she felt her husband's power level reach an all-time high. Too high, she realized. It would consume him.
I do this for you…Bulma…
Bulma felt her eyes widen at the sound of Vegeta's voice in her mind. Then he was gone, and hundreds of miles away, the great Saiyan Prince released his final attack to destroy Majin Buu and save the world he had slowly come to care for.
Bulma collapsed on her knees, a howl of grief going unnoticed by all the cheering fans around her. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she clutched at her heart, certain it was going to shatter.
She threw back her head and screamed her fury and grief. "Vegeta!"
Hesitantly, Yamcha and Roshi came over, not knowing if they should interfere. Chi-Chi was confused, demanding to know what had happened.
"He gave his life to save us," Master Roshi said solemnly. "He is a true hero."
"Oh…Bulma…" Chi-Chi moved to embrace the fallen woman.
Bulma shook off the sympathy and stood. She didn't want understanding right now. She wanted to kill. She wanted death and pain to Majin Buu. She wanted revenge. But he was dead. Vegeta had killed him…Right?
There was a slight flicker from the decimated island, and then the evil aura that was Buu reappeared, feeling no weaker for the wear. Rage blossomed in her, and Bulma felt a cold, calculating smile twist her lips.
"What?!" Roshi exclaimed, following Bulma's gaze. "He's alive?"
"Then…Vegeta's sacrifice…" Yamcha said slowly, "was for nothing?"
Bulma chuckled. "He should have died with Vegeta," she said, her eyes sparkling maliciously. "It would have been far less painful on his part."
Bulma threw her friends a grin before using Goku's technique and vanishing in a moment. They gaped at her exit before Yamcha gulped.
"I hope Buu is all she destroys," he muttered. "She looked…really mad."
Bulma reappeared on the battlefield, perched atop a cliff a few feet away from Majin Buu. The pink, fat blob turned, sensing her presence, and smiled at her childishly.
"Buu play!" It exclaimed happily. "Buu have new play!"
"Buu has death," Bulma told him coldly, all emotions locked away. All but the burning hatred of the being who killed her dark Prince.
Buu laughed freely, obviously amused by her statement. Bulma's stony expression didn't change as she stared at him, and slowly the pink fat stopped shaking and Buu watched her silently.
"It really would have been better for you if you had died," Bulma told him, a smile playing over her features. "Now…You're mine!"
Without waiting for his response, Bulma launched herself from the rock, her eyes hardening unmercifully. She drew back her fist and landed the first blow, knocking him back into a wall of rock.
As he pulled himself up, Bulma stared coldly at him. There would be no playing, she thought at him. No warm-ups. And no reprisal.
Buu frowned as he read all of this in the woman's expression. He clenched his hands into fists and drastically raised his power level, steam bursting forth from the holes all over his body.
"Buu mad!" He exclaimed, launching his own counter attacks.
Bulma met each one easily before pulling off a combination attack that sent him back into the ground, creating a crater.
"No," Bulma told him when he lifted back up from the ground to meet her in the air. "You still don't understand!" She cried, beating him mercilessly, too fast and too skilled for him to block her. She accented her words with ki-backed punches. "Buu…is….dead!"
Again he went spiraling into the ground, and Bulma used this chance to gather power for a ki blast. She looked down at him, no blood evident anywhere on him, but obviously becoming tired.
She swept her arms out wide, the folds of her cloak falling behind her. Bulma tensed, clenching her jaw as she gathered the latent energy around her. The air crackled and snapped with tension and slowly she brought her hands together cupping them around each other. The tension around the two fighters seemed to gather in her hands, pushing them apart. Blackness spilled out between her fingers so dark and completely black that it looked like Bulma had opened a void.
Glaring down at Buu, Bulma clenched her top hand into a fist around the power and called out her attack as she released it at him. "Black Lightening!"
And that was precisely what came roaring out of her hand. It streaked towards Buu, seeming to suck the color out of everything as it passed, adding more power to the blast. It struck Buu dead on, and Bulma felt a small bit of the pain in her heart ease when she heard him scream in pain. It cut through him, tearing into the earth and creating a cloud of dust and dirt.
Bulma hovered in the air, waiting patiently for the cloud to settle. Regardless of what happened, she knew she had hurt the monster deeply. Possibly even killed him.
But when the dust cleared, that thought was disillusioned quickly. Still, Bulma smirked when she saw that there were chunks missing from the pink blob. Bits of his arms and stomach had holes in it, cracked and dry.
"You…you…" Buu stammered in his high-pitched voice. "You hurt Buu!" Something changed in the childish tone that made Bulma tense. It grew slightly deeper, the she found herself staring into his beady eyes. "Now Buu mad."
Again they met in the air, their fighting even more serious than before. Bulma swallowed a grunt when he slipped past her guard and planted a gloved fist in her stomach.
He had been playing, she realized, pulling herself up from the ground after a strong kick from Buu. The entire fight, everything from before, was all just a game to him. Even Vegeta's sacrifice…
But now that Bulma had actually wounded him, the game was over. He would settle for nothing less than her death. And that made Bulma smile slightly. The fool was too conceited to realize that he could die, too. That was his weakness, and Bulma would not be merciful in exploiting this one.
Unfortunately, it seemed that she, too, had made a mistake. She had seriously underestimated Buu's level of power. A mistake that may or may not prove fatal to her.
For the next few minutes, things became a draw between the blue-haired genius and the pink blob. Then, slowly, the tide began to turn.
In Buu's favor.
Bulma was still so new to fighting, and there was only so much of her power to use. Too late, she realized why the Kais had been so afraid of this monster. He seemed to be tireless, and every attack that wasn't backed by a good bit of power was repelled easily.
Something moved in the corner of her eye, and Bulma was distracted enough for Buu to knock her into the ground. With a groan, Bulma struggled to pull herself from the rubble, spitting a mouthful of blood to the side. She glanced to her right, where the distraction had come from, and sucked in an excited breath when she saw Goku landing and sliding into his trademark position. Then she heard the slow, confident chanting that brought hope to her heart.
"Ka...Me...Ha...Me..."
There was another movement, and the Supreme Kai staggered to his feet and began silently gathering his own ki blast, trapping Buu between him and Goku.
"Ka...Me...Ha...Me..."
Gohan was back as well. Weak, exhausted, but still contributing to the final blow-out, as it was.
Bulma smirked, and decided to follow the trend. She slid into the ready stance, the heels of her palms just touching each other.
"Ka...Me...Ha...Me..."
The glowing blue ki from the three fighters from Earth, and the Supreme Kai's golden glow, seemed to hover in the air around them, like four corners of a square, trapping Buu inside of it. The monster had one moment to see this, and fear it, before it was released, Bulma, Goku, and Gohan, shouting as one person.
"…HA!!!"
The Supreme Kai released his attack a moment after them, and Bulma realized, then, what it was. The golden ki wasn't an attack, like she had thought, but a containment shield that allowed the kamehameha waves to pass through, but kept Buu contained when he tried to escape.
Then everything was awash in a brilliant, vibrant white light, and Bulma lost consciousness. Her last thought, as she rushed towards oblivion, was, oddly enough, of the raven-haired former-fighter.
Now I know why Chi-Chi retired.
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It had been over a year since the Buu incident, and things had settled down amazingly for the Z fighters. Goku and Vegeta had been wished back to the living. Bulma had more or less given up fighting, although she still occasionally sparred with Vegeta to stop his griping over the broken GR. The Supreme Kai had vanished, but not before thanking them ardently. And, much to Chi-Chi's delight, Gohan and Videl were well and truly stuck on each other. Even Vegeta seemed to be calming slightly. Settling into the family life with only a couple of major problems.
And now…
Bulma hummed to herself as she walked from the lab, unable to stop smiling. She couldn't believe it! The smile grew when she thought of telling her husband about her new discovery. He was going to blow a gasket!
*~*~*~*~
Trunks and Goten were in the kitchen, starving after their latest sparring games, and looking a little beat up around the edges. They had just sat down, tucking into the twelve-course meal with happy hearts, when there came a knock on the door.
Trunks paused, and reluctantly jumped down to answer the door. His mom was in her lab again, and his dad was training, so there would be no one to answer the door beside him and Goten.
He hesitated, thinking quickly, and grabbed Goten, hauling him away from the table too.
"You'd eat everything before I got back," Trunks explained when Goten whined at being pulled away from his meal. "And I'm hungry too!"
Goten laughed. "I can't help it, Trunks! It just all tastes so good!"
"Whatever," Trunks dismissed the conversation, opening the door to glare at the unfortunate soul who had interrupted his snack. "What do you-"
Trunks stopped, and blinked at the small group of kids in front of him. They looked really strange, their small bodies covered in brown sheets, and their silver-green eyes staring at him confidently.
Goten leaned around Trunks and blinked at the kids. "Hey, Trunks! Who're they?"
The group shifted their attention to Goten, and broke out in excited noises, gesturing to Goten wildly. The two demi-Saiyans traded confused looks. Finally, one of the kids, a boy with a sullen, intimidating scowl, made a harsh sound and the others fell silent. He stepped forward and looked at Trunks.
"…Bul…ma…" He said slowly, carefully pronouncing each sound.
"How does he know your mom, Trunks?" Goten asked.
"How am I supposed to know?" Trunks snapped, glaring at the boy. "Go get Mom, Goten, and tell her there's these weird kids here to see her."
"Okay!" Goten chirped and raced back towards the kitchen.
Trunks whirled around and yelled after his friend, "AND DON'T YOU DARE EAT ANYTHING, SON GOTEN!!"
There was a muffled yelp, and then Trunks sensed Goten hurrying away from the table to the lab. Trunks turned back to the visitors, his father's scowl pulling at his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest.
There was something…off about these kids that grated at his nerves. Something that made him want to bring his father out here to take care of them. They stood there silently, facing off until Bulma could come. Neither trusting the other.
*~*~*~*~*~
Bulma hurried out to the GR, intent on nothing but breaking the news to Vegeta. She went up to the door and pounded on it impatiently. The red flashing bulb above it slowly faded, signaling that the gravity was going back down to normal. A moment later, Vegeta stepped out, scowling down at her fiercely.
"What, Woman?" He growled.
Bulma beamed at him, just itching to tell him the great news. "Maybe you should sit down for this, Vegeta dear," she giggled.
Vegeta scowled even more at his mate. "Woman, you had better say whatever foolish thing that is running through that warped mind of yours, before I-"
"Okay, okay," Bulma grumbled, grinning widely. "You get to be a-"
"Bulma!"
Bulma, interrupted, turned to frown at Goten, who was flying through the halls towards them. "Later, Goten," she said flatly. "I'm talking with Vegeta right now."
"But Bulma…" Goten said urgently, landing.
"Whatever it is," Bulma told him firmly, "it can wait two seconds."
Goten opened his mouth to argue when there was a sudden wash of power, followed closely by Trunks' rapidly rising ki. Bulma sucked in a breath of mingled shock and delight.
"It's Kaele and the others!" Bulma cried in delight.
She was gone in the next moment, leaving a slowly angering Vegeta and a confused Goten to follow. Bulma followed the energy patterns outside, where she saw her son facing off against Maele. She began to grow worried immediately. Maele had always been the quick-tempered one of the group. And she didn't want to have to go against him when he was pissed.
Gathering her voice, and recalling the Yarrate's language, Bulma yelled up at the floating figure of Maele. "If you harm my son, Maele, so help me Kami, I'll pound you even more senseless than you already are!"
All action stilled, Maele and Trunks staring down at her with identical expressions of shock across their faces. Trunks for hearing his mother yelling in the same sounds that the kids made, and Maele for finding out that his opponent was Bulma's offspring.
"He's your child?" Haliya demanded, hurrying over to Bulma. "He's very arrogant."
"He takes after his father," Bulma responded dryly.
"Woman!" Vegeta roared, storming out of the house. "I demand to know what is going on here!"
"I see your meaning," Jaelen drawled lazily.
This sent Bulma and Haliya into fits of laughter, and irked Vegeta even more. Trunks landed beside his mother, scowling and crossing his arms over his chest, mirroring Vegeta as he stalked over. Goten joined his friend, innocent to the world as all Sons seemed to be. Kaele and Maele landed and joined Jaelen and Haliya, Kaele having finally managed to calm his Second down.
Bulma glared down at Maele. "Do you mind telling me what you were doing fighting my son?" She demanded.
Maele crossed his arms defensively. "He barred us entrance!" He argued, gesturing sharply to Trunks. "We could very easily sense you inside, yet he refused to let us pass! And he kept glaring at us!"
Seeing that Maele was working himself back into his temper, Bulma raised her hand, calming him. "Alright, Maele," she said gently. "I understand. But you have to understand as well. He was just protecting me against possible hostile company. I'm sure you can see the reason in that."
Maele grumbled to himself, but subsided. "Yes, I can understand that," he groused.
"We enjoyed your tournament," Jaelen remarked, changing topics. "A very impressive display of the skills we taught you."
Bulma grinned at him, flushing slightly with pleasure. "So you watched us against that Buu thing?"
"Of course," he replied. "I told you that we would be watching."
"Although," Kaele added, "there was still the one attack that you did not use against him that would have eradicated the monster. I am curious as to why you did not use Red Death."
Bulma laughed sheepishly. "Oh. Well, I didn't think he would be that much of a trouble. Besides," she added quickly, "an attack like that would have ripped this world apart."
"I'm curious about this," Haliya said, poking at her stomach softly. She looked up at Bulma suddenly, understanding breaking across her face in joy. "You're PREGNANT!"
Bulma laughed, her happy glow returning. "Yeah! I was just about to tell Vegeta about it when I sensed Maele's rising ki."
"You mean he doesn't know?" Haliya asked, confusion written across her face. "But…how could he not know? The merging of seed and egg…" She trailed off, stars dancing in her eyes.
Bulma blushed deeply, embarrassed. "That's not how it is for humans," she explained. "It takes a few weeks to find out if your really pregnant, and then the male doesn't know unless you tell him."
Haliya's voice held open scorn as she managed to look down her nose at Vegeta. "Obviously, your male is not in tune enough with you." She sniffed. "He's defective."
Bulma snorted, ducking her head as she tried not to laugh. Oh, if Vegeta had heard that…
"Woman!" Vegeta snapped, getting tired of being ignored.
"Why does he insist on calling you by your gender?" Haliya asked.
Bulma rolled her eyes. "Who knows?" She grinned and winked at them. "Maybe it's another deficiency."
The group laughed at that, and Bulma turned to her family and Goten, ready to make introductions.
"Guys," Bulma said, making the conscious effort to switch back to her native language. "These are some of my friends from the Grand Kai's place. Kaele, Maele, Jaeren, and Haliya."
"They're kids," Trunks snorted, standing beside his father and glaring at the company suspiciously. "And they feel weird."
"They're not kids," Bulma told him firmly. "As a matter of fact, when they died, none of them were under three hundred years old!"
"What?!" Trunks and Goten cried.
"What race are they, Woman?" Vegeta snapped. "And how is it that a human like you can speak their tongue?"
"They're called Yarrates, Vegeta," Bulma told him, frowning at him. "And it's like I said. They're friends from the Other Realm." She put her fists on her hips. "You got a problem with that?"
"They don't look dead," Goten said, poking at Kaele curiously. "But they do have a ring over their heads like Daddy did."
Bulma grinned as Kaele irritably batted Goten's hand away. "Goten, maybe you had better stop bothering Kaele. He might start bothering you back."
"Who is this child-clone of Goku?" Kaele asked, glaring at the kid to keep him from trying to poke at him again.
"That's Goku's second son, Goten," Bulma told him.
"Second son?" Haliya asked excitedly. "He has a first, then?"
Bulma smiled slightly. "Yes. But let me get introductions out of the way, first. Then we can discuss genetics."
Bulma turned back to her husband, motioning to the Yarrates. "This is Kaele, Maele, Jaelen, and Haliya," she said to them. Then she turned to the Yarrates. "This is my husband Vegeta, my son Trunks, and his friend Goten."
"Now that we're all acquainted," Vegeta growled sarcastically. "What are they doing here?"
"I don't really know why there here," Bulma said thoughtfully. "However, we can at least go inside to figure it all out."
After one hour of talking, Bulma became quite tired of the endless translating. It was mind-numbing to keep jumping from language to language.
"That's it!" Bulma snapped, standing up. She glared at both her family and the Yarrates. "All of you: Stay!"
Vegeta growled at her command, and Bulma growled right back at him. He subsided with a smirk and watched her walk out of the room.
She returned ten minutes later with a box of strange, button-like devices which she promptly ordered them all to put on. Bulma took one, pressed the bottom in the dip just behind her ear, and flicked it on.
"This," she explained the them as she helped her son and Goten with them, "is a translator. I am sick and tired of jumping back and forth between languages."
Vegeta snorted. "About time you got something right, Woman."
Kaele, who had already activated his translator, snarled at Vegeta, his eyes flashing dangerously. Bulma hesitated in activating the Yarratian translators on Vegeta, Goten, and Trunks, turning to her visitors.
"I don't want you to tell them about my pregnancy," Bulma said quickly, watching Vegeta to make sure he didn't turn on the device. "Please."
"As you wish," Jaelen agreed as the rest of the group nodded. "It seems that your mate possesses an overprotective nature that would hamper our reason for coming."
Bulma blinked, not expecting a speech from Jaelen. She nodded gravely, understanding for the first time since their arrival, that there was something seriously wrong. She turned the translators on, settled in her chair beside Vegeta, and gave the Yarrates her full attention.
"What has happened?" Bulma asked grimly.
"The Kais…" Kaele trailed off, looking vaguely sick.
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A/N: ::grins:: hehehehe. Sorry to leave it off like this, but I need some kind of insurance for more reviews! ^.^ Anyway, thanks for all the reviews!!! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! The next chapter should be out sooner than this one. No promises, though. -.- School life is so demanding now. (::grumbles:: and they say your senior years is the easiest….) Hope you enjoyed this installment! Please don't kill me…
Ja matta ne!!
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