HAPPY FUCKING NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!
-Chapter Start-
"Unfortunately, we were not successful in reconstructing your tail."
"No matter, it will grow back." He stepped out of the healing tank, flexing his wrist and arms, stiff from being in the crouching position so long. "Where is my mate?"
"Third tank down. She'll require another hour yet."
"Hn," he grunted, making his way over to her tank with his arms folded over his chest. If only she would behave as nicely as she looked. A traditional saiyan beauty, polluted by earthling thoughts. And brain damage. "At least it will be quiet."
"Care to explain what happened, Vegeta, or is the wound to your ego still too raw to be examined? Judging by these stress fractures in your protective armour, I'd have to say this young lady here wasn't too keen on the idea of being your supposed mate. Must've put up a pretty good fight too. I do hope you two have worked out your issues, I might not be here to put you back together next time she decides to stay a single woman, especially after she's had some real training."
With a muffled growl he pulled on his glove, perhaps with slightly more force than necessary. "Is Freiza here?"
"He left. I don't know where he is."
"I hope you're not lying to me, I'm in no mood."
"Perhaps Qui can help you find him. I saw him on his way to the training center earlier. You can catch him before he leaves, if you hurry."
"I have no use for that coward. If you see Freiza, tell him I'm looking for him."
"But, Vegeta, wait!" The reptilian doctor ran out after his patient, waving a red scouter about in the air. "Sir, you forgot your scouter!"
"Keep it, it's yours, I have no use for it." He wondered briefly if they still had any female saiyan armor. She was so... tiny. Surely the men's clothing would absolutely swallow her. He couldn't just have her parading around in the nude either. At least not in public. Ah well, he was sure they had something.
"Hey, Vegeta, I hear you got quite a beating," a nasally voice rose before him. Openly he let his frown become deeper engraved into his face. "You couldn't even take over one measly planet. And if all the rumors are true, which I'm sure they are, the last female of your race rejected you, and not only that but you still couldn't beat her into submission without your ridiculous monkey forms."
"Drop it, Qui! I don't have time to waste gossiping with half-wits like you." He attempted to brush past the purple being, only to be stopped with a firm grasp of his shoulder.
"Not so fast. Word has it that Freiza isn't too happy with you and your attitude, Vegeta."
"Ha! Just let Freiza try to do something about it." He paused, momentarily appreciating Qui's fear, and the tremor of his hand. "Now get your hands off me."
"Your mouth is big," the alien recollected himself, "but I think you're biting off more than you can chew. You don't know what you're up against , Vegeta. Nobody has survived a fight with Freiza."
"Hn."
"You just don't seem to get it, do you? Let me put it plainly: Freiza is utterly indestructable."
"Enough! Now tell me where Freiza has run off to hide."
"Hm. The planet Namek."
He froze. No! How could he have known? Had everything in his life recently just been going all too well, had the universe had some sick need to restore balance by making his life miserable again? Immortality was for him, and his woman, no one else!
"Why don't you do the smart thing and just get up, because you will never get those dragon balls. Believe me, Vegeta. Freiza will most certainly find him first, and when he does, we'll destroy the planet Namek."
"I can't give up!" He spun around, running back to the medical bay.
"Wait, Vegeta!"
He ignored the cries of Qui, stopping only to steal his scouter back from the doctor. He burst into the medical room, running over to his mate's tank, and smashing any button that looked even remotely like it might release her.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, you blasted woman!" He watched the water drain from the tank ridiculously slowly and spun around to the first medical attendant he saw. "Clothes! Bring me clothes for Kakarot!"
"Yessir!" The man ran across the hall as though fleeing for his life. Which, he supposed, he probably was. No sooner than he had exited than the doctor ran up to them. The glass of Kakarot's tank had just begun to fall.
"Vegeta, she is not fully healed, she'll need as least fourty-five minutes yet!"
"I don't have time for the damned fourty-five minutes! Her ribs aren't broken anymore, that'll have to do!"
"Here is the armor for Kakarot, sir." The attendant rushed back.
"Vegeta?" A feminine voice rang behind him. With visible effort she forced open her ridiculously large eyes to stare owlishly up at him, still semi-curled into a ball. "Where'd the smelly water stuff go?"
"No time fore that, here, put these on!" He ripped the clothes from the hands of the attendant and threw them at her, suppressing the urge to scream when she instinctually tried to catch them with her broken arm, letting them fall onto the damp floor of her tank.
"Damn it, woman, hurry up before I end up taking you to Namek in the nude!"
"Alright, alright, I'm hurrying, yeesh." She grumbled, pulling on the pink leotard-like under armor with an agonizing amount of hesitation, and for the life of her the armor itself was rocket science.
"Blast it all, Kakarot, just put your hands in the air!"
"Yeah yeah, I'm doing it," she begrudgingly complied, looking at him with scrutinuity all the while he fasted the one shoulder-armor top around her torso. One of the older models, without the shoulder pads and other additions like were on his own armor.
"Now come on!" He yelled, grabbing her wrist and pulling her out towards their space pods. No, they had taken too long. The doors were shut and locked, and he knew from experience the energy blast it would take to open those doors wasn't worth the wasted time.
"What's happening? Where are we? What's that blaring sound, and why are the lights flashing?"
"I swear to kami, I will explain everything in ten god damn minutes if you will only, for the love of kami, shut up for five seconds, and help me find a way off this rock!"
"Well that's awfully rude."
"I am rude!" He announced, pulling her behind him, not bothering to stop when she fell and he was dragging her along the floor, his arm jerking around as she tried to pull herself back onto her feet. To one particular door he ran, rolling under just before it could close onto his mate's foot. This was the docking bay, and they may be slower but there would be unwatched ships here nonetheless. Running up to the first ship he saw, he first flung his mate inside, and leaped in himself, pressing the first button he saw hoping for all his life it would close the door. Without checking to make sure he bolted across the room to the control panel, smashing the most important looking of the buttons in no specific order feeling strange de ja vu to trying to open Kakarot's tank just minutes ago.
Lights flew alive aboard the ship and he finally succeeded in finding the coordinate settings, smashing in what he best remembered as the coordinates for Namek and hoping they were correct. When he looked out the window, he saw the docking bay left long behind them.
"So, care to tell me what just happened?"
"We're going to Namek, that's what's happening."
"What's Namek?" She questioned, tracing her hand up and down her broken arm.
"It's the birthplace of that green fighter, the one Nappa killed. We are going to go there, we are going to get the dragon balls, and we are both going to have immortality, as well as all of our offspring, it that clear to you?"
She froze up, like something in that sentence had intrigued her, and he wondered for a moment if she would actually say something intelligent. "Piccolo's an alien?"
"Yes!" Vegeta groaned, resisting the urge to slam his face into the ship controls. "He's green, Kakarot, how did you not notice that he wasn't an earthling? Exactly how hard did you hit your head as a child?"
"Pretty hard," she nodded. "And actually, that makes sense now that you mention it. But why immortality?"
"Is that a legitimate question? We'd be unbeatable, Kakarot. Doesn't that get your saiyan blood boiling, at least a bit?"
"Not really. What's the point in fighting if I know for a fact I'm gonna win all the time? That's no fun."
"Fine, Kakarot, maybe I'll add into the wish that you can still loose without dying, does that make you feel better, you imbecile?"
"A bit." She finally stood from the center of the room where he had originally tossed her and began wondering around the vessel. "I don't guess you see a fridge? I'm starving!" Her stomach growled for emphasis.
"Actually," he wrinkled his nose. "That's the first legititmate point you've made since I met you, Kakarot. I'm not certain there is any food aboard this ship."
She gaped openly. "But-but-"
"What's the matter, Kakarot, too weak to stand a few days without food?"
"Well it's not that I'm weak, per se..."
"I swear to god, Kakarot-"
"And my name is Goku."
"No, your name is Kakarot. It's the name your parents gave you, thus it is your real name."
"But Grandpa Gohan raised me, and he named me Goku."
"I don't care about what a random earthling man named you, your name is Kakarot and that's final."
"You can believe whatever you want to believe, but I know my name's Goku."
"Just find the damn fridge already."
"Oh hey, what does this button do?"
"No!"
In a matter of seconds both saiyans were flattened completely to the ground.
"Dammit... Kakarot..."
"Wait... I can... reach it..." she smashed the button again, but instead they only found themselves under even heavier force. He was beginning to wonder if this woman was really worth all of this effort.
"Try... a different... button!"
"Oh... right..." she slide her hand downwards, and managed to flop her hand over onto the lower button, leaving it there until the ship's gravity was back to it's original state.
"Alright, you," Vegeta panted, pulling himself back up. He went over to her, picking her up under arms and setting her back into the center of the room. "Stay right here. Don't touch anything, unless I say. I will find the blasted food, and then, maybe then, I will finally be given some peace!"
"Ya know, I bet training in that gravity would be really fun, Vegeta. We could get really strong!"
"Are you seriously asking me to fight you, Kakarot? Your arm is still broken, or have you forgotten the beating I gave you?"
She stuck out her lower lip in a most horrifically unsaiyan-like manner. "I still say whatever that moon did was a dirty trick. And besides, even if you do beat me up, we can still only get stronger!"
He smirked. "See, it's thinking like that that makes me think maybe there's some saiyan left in you after all."
"Nah, I don't care about that, I just wanna get as strong as I can, so I can fight all sorts of fun opponents!"
"Hn." He needed some air from this woman. Looking around he went down the only hall he could see. He opened the doors as he reached them- storage, storage- he paused at one in particular. A rejuvination tank, eh? That would be usefull at least. He moved on and felt a small breath of relief when the next door he opened was a kitchen. Maybe with food in her face that woman would talk a bit less.
Though, he had to admit she had a point. If he was going to be facing Freiza, any power he could get wouldn't hurt. Not that he couldn't beat him as is, but only to make his defeat even quicker, and more humiliating. Perhaps then the woman would realize how many leagues above her he truly was,and she would cease to reject his advances. It was ridiculous- with the loss of that battle she should have also lost her right to reject him, but instead those slimy earthling ideals pervaded her head and told her she could still fight him! Blasted woman.
Looking around the room he tried to reflect upon his knowledge of saiyan women before the planet was destroyed. What did they eat? She was smaller than him, so she should eat less than him, right? Picking up a large tray he piled it from the table to his height with miscellaneous things that didn't need to be cooked, and carried it back out into the hall. Coming from the control room he heard a disturbingly familiar sound, and he quickened his pace. He almost wasn't surprised anymore when he stepped into stronger gravity than he had left the room in, greeted by the sight of his mate doing sit-ups in the middle of the room.
"Damn it, woman!" He groaned, setting down the food beside her, and plopping down on the ground. Though she had ignored him when he first came in, the sight of food had her instantaneously attacking the pile with a speed he hadn't seen since the destruction of Vegeta. Even among him and the other saiyans, most places were unequipped for their natural appetites, and they had learned to savor their meals at some level. In this one aspect, if nothing else, growing up on earth had appeared to make her more saiyan-like than she would have been otherwise.
"Save some for me, Kakarot, I didn't bring all of this out to cater to you." He chastised, snatching food out for himself before she could take it all. Kakarot lesson learned: she does, in fact, eat as much as him, or three of him, in fact.
"Whaaat? But this is barely anything!"
"If you want our food to last until Namek then this is what you'll be getting for the next week or two or however the hell long this piece of junk takes."
"Aaaww! I'll have to train extra hard to distract myself then," she nodded, fist pumped into the air for emphasis. Her enthusiasm was suffocating. Still, the image of her floating in the tanks just hours ago pervaded his mind. Surely someone so outwardly gorgeous could be fixed, right? Hell, he was starting to feel that he could even live with her enthusiasm, if she just weren't so damn soft.
"You know, I could think of many better uses of our time at the moment." He said, watching her armored form begin a series of stretches, obviously intent on returning to her training. She flinched, but went on touching her toes as though nothing were the matter.
"Yeah?"
He walked up behind her, and ran a hand through her loose, spiked hair. "You know, with your broken arm, I could probably take you right now on this floor and there wouldn't be anything you could do about it."
She froze. What he would have given to see her face at that moment. "You know, I'll never just give in, Vegeta. I know there must be good in you somewhere, but if you think I'm just gonna give myself up to you because you have a chance of being decent and you beat me in a fight once, then maybe I hit you worse in that battle than you thought."
"Oh, but you were happy enough giving yourself up to some earthling? I bet he couldn't even best you in battle," he scoffed.
"I was..." she paused. "Kami, I love my son for all the world, but I was young, and I didn't even know what was happening. I made a dumb mistake, and so did he, and neither of us were ready for the consequences. I've spoken to him maybe three times since Gohan was born. I've always been his only parent, really. And he's the only child I plan on having."
"I'm sorry to say we have quite different plans," he announced, grabbing her shoulder and spinning her around to face him. Her eyes narrowed into harsh, straight lines, her fists clenched.
"You said the reason you think I belong to you is because you beat me back on earth, right?"
He didn't release her, but the frown etched itself deeper into his features. Something was suspicious about this. "Yes, that's why."
"But you cheated."
"I did no such thing, woman!"
"But now you can't do that again, the ship is too small. No more tricks now! I challenge you: beat me again."
"You really think you can take me on with your broken arm?"
"I think I can."
His laughter filled the room, booming around the empty space. "That's a good one, Kakarot! I'll take you on- just remember the consequences you've agreed on when you loose."
"If you're so confidant, let's go already," she grinned.
"Just don't blame me when I break your other arm."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
For the first time since they met each other, they were both smiling.
It is decided. Will Goku have the power to ward off the space pirate's unwanted advances, or will Vegeta come out on top? Will they have enough food to last them until Namek? WHO THE HELL IS WATCHING GOHAN!? Stick around to find out, on the next chapter of the Dragoness!
-End Chapter-
AN: I'd like to begin this chapter with a special thanks to Dragonlver for allowing me to ramble on at her, she's been incredibly helpful and patient with me throughout the writing of these last few chapters! Also thanks to vishwakarmarahul735 and thewhittywhy for offering their own suggestions, many of which I am considering, though they are someone far off. All of the above and other readers feel free to leave a review or PM me any ideas that you have!
Anyways, just out of curiosity, how many children do y'all feel Goku and Vegeta should have? I definitely want Goten in there, but how do you feel about any others? Maybe another son and a daughter to make up for lack of Trunks and Bulla? I can't wait to hear all your thoughts! Adeus~!