AN: So now we re-enter the realm of filler until the arrival of the androids. Still have a year to go and a lot can happen in that amount of time, especially when Goku's on the same planet. Guy just seems to draw trouble like a… hmm. I was trying to come up with a clever DBZ analogy to tie that together, but nothing. I will forever fail to edit this awkward section out, so there.
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Capsule 3 zipped through the cosmos as gracefully as a giant and poorly shaped ship could. None of the occupants much cared about the matter of aesthetics, so long as it did the job and got them back home. They were now in the second week of their return journey and it felt much like the time spent traveling towards Broly, except half of their number had spent most of the time in bed, recovering from their wounds. Tien and Yamcha had made remarkable recoveries, leaving hardly any indication of their grievous injuries; mostly due to the treatments of Piccolo and copious amounts of first-aid from the ship's mini infirmary.
The interior of the ship had taken some damage despite their preparations. No matter how tightly you packed something down, the shockwaves from a detonated Omega Blaster were bound to rattle loose something. Fortunately none of the vital systems had been damaged by storm, though most of the training equipment was totaled.
Day to day proceedings had taken up a routine for the non-bed confined: wake, bathe, eat, perform various hobbies, watch an episode or two of "All My Love For You", eat again, and sleep. Before they might have complained about the monotony of it, but after surviving the clash with the Legendary Super Saiyan, they began to appreciate tedium and all the little things it held.
The daily activities were interrupted on an otherwise unremarkable day when the short wave sensors picked up a bizarre frequency that sounded pretty much like binary beeps. Deciding that a short detour wouldn't really matter, Gohan managed to alter their course (he was the only one with the know-how to do it) and off they went to investigate.
Just a day later, they came upon a planet that was mostly covered in ice and snow. This wouldn't have been very remarkable except for the fact that it was only the second planet away from its lively sun. Touching down on the surface of the planet, the landing struts sank a foot into the snow, indicating that this global freeze hadn't been going on for too long. Goku and Vegeta headed out alone, deciding that they would just see what the deal was and come right back without bothering the others.
As they flew across the land, they eventually spotted an enormous structure looming ahead; of a similar spherical nature as their ship but apparently made of stone. High above, only barely visible through the thick cloud cover, a large device hung in the low atmosphere and was spewing out a dark gas or smoke.
"What do you want to bet that that's what's causing the freezing?" Goku called over to Vegeta.
"I am not even tempted to take that bet Kakarot."
Before they had gotten close enough to observe the satellite, four figures shot forward to block their path in what was obviously supposed to be an impressive show of speed. Hovering there ahead of the saiyans with pompous (or blank, in one case) grins, were four aliens, all of differing species. There was a blonde haired man with green-grey skin and horns protruding from his hair, a fat creature with a breastplate on and two undersized wings flapping slowly behind him, an orange skinned guy with horns like the first one and covered in muscles, and a freaky little green creature with bulging yellow eyes.
"Who would be so foolish as to dare and approach the flagship of the great Lord Slug?" The grey skinned one inquired, the most powerful one from what Goku and Vegeta could sense though that wasn't saying much at all with this group.
"Just a couple sightseers," Goku supplied innocently, not exactly lying. They didn't buy it, however and let energy crackle along their hands in what might have been intimidating if one of them wasn't grossly fat and another looked like a mutant pug. "Well, we just wanted to ask a question."
"And what would that be?" The large orange one barked, more brutish than the other.
"Is Lord Slug responsible for freezing this planet?"
The four thugs laughed at this, sharing in some joke. Vegeta puffed out a breath and tapped a beat on his leg as he waited for them to cease their idiotic behavior. He passed the seconds by checking off on a list he had once made: the grey one was the pretty one, big orange was the ugly one though that ran double for the winged one whom he was sure was also the dumb one, and the little…thing probably had some bizarre and weird power. He wondered if guys with 'lord' before their names had to follow a guideline when picking their henchmen.
"Yeah, he's freezin' this 'ere planet," The fat one chortled, revealing his brown and blunted teeth. "Lord Slug's gonna' to make it into a ship and go 'round in space to freeze other planets and make them into ships too."
"And the people living on these planets?" Goku asked. Vegeta could see that the other saiyan was getting angry, and that suited him just fine.
"Well, let's just say that Lord Slug does enjoy ice statues," pretty boy snickered, completely forgetting that Goku was only supposed to ask the one question.
Goku looked toward Vegeta. "Henchmen or Big Bad?" Vegeta weighed his options.
"Henchmen. I finished off Broly so it's your turn this time."
"Heh, thanks Vegeta," Goku chuckled, enjoying the humor and not what was to follow.
"What are you two talking about? You think we'll just stand here and let you-" Orange was interrupted when he was disintegrated by a lone ki blast from the Prince's palm, leaving only smoke and dust to finish his sentence, and they weren't very talkative.
"This won't feel nice," Vegeta warned the others, a dangerous smirk pulling his scar up his cheek. The other henchmen were predictably flustered by the death of their teammate, but they soon rallied and leapt forward to attack the lone saiyan as Goku sped past to confront Lord Slug.
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Vegeta pointed a finger as the satellite above and fired of a shot like a gun, briefly jumping into Super Saiyan to augment the blast. As the Terra-Freeze device exploded and left the sky to clear up, Goku landed a few feet away, completely unscathed and looking disappointed.
"What, didn't you fight Slug?" Vegeta probed, wondering if he should have taken the Big Bad rather than the measly minions who didn't even last a minute apiece against his base form.
"Sorta." At Vegeta's raised eyebrow he detailed what had happened. "Well I got there, and there were these soldier guys who started to shoot at me. I tried to just use a small kiai wave on them to knock them out, but they had grenades on them or something and they all exploded. Then there were these two little guys in hoods who hid in a side room. I tried to get them to come out, but they just shouted at me to go away and then I heard this click and the room they were in was filled with fire. 'Trash Incinerator', it said next to the door."
Vegeta rubbed both temples with his right hand, sighing heavily into the fabric of his new gloves. He corrected himself on his earlier assumption: they were all stupid.
"Then I found Slug in his throne, and I told him to stop what he was doing right away, but he only laughed at me. He was an old guy Vegeta! He looked ancient, like Kami only fatter. He told me that I couldn't stop him and he tried to fire an energy wave at me, but I guess it was more strain than he was used to and had a heart attack."
"PAHAHAHA!" Vegeta erupted into laughter, delighting in the shear patheticness of it all. Goku had expressed mercy to them all, and they killed themselves on accident. That was better than anything he had heard in a long time and knew that he'd be chuckling at it for years to come.
"It's not that funny," Goku sulked, wishing he could've at least gotten a fight in before it had all been over.
"It is Kakarot, it completely is," Vegeta continued to laugh as they took flight back to their ship. The whole event would later be remembered by them only as 'that thing that happened on the way back from fighting Broly' and Lord Slug lived on as the punch line for most of Vegeta's degrading comparisons or jokes.
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Six months remained to them before the androids returned. Since returning back to Earth, the Z-Fighters had picked up their training (and spare senzu beans when they had finally sprouted, learning not to go anywhere without one) in an effort to squeeze in as much as they could before the prophesized day arrived. Morale actually was pretty high among them. They knew that the androids were probably going to be stronger opponents than Broly, but nothing in the world would ever seem quite so bad after surviving the titanic battle on that unnamed planet with the LSSJ.
So it was that Vegeta wasn't completely freaking out when, after a month and a half of living in a mutually surprising relationship with Bulma, she shyly confronted him one afternoon after what had been an ordinary day. He looked at her in silence, which had actually become commonplace with the Prince, tilting his head backward a bit to view her from down his nose. Running a hand along his jaw and then his scar, he hid his mouth behind closed fingers while his thumb was pressed against his cheek bone. Taking a couple of steps back, he sat on the corner of what had unofficially become "their" bed and steepled both sets of fingers, index fingers meeting just below his bottom lip while the others splayed forward like the plumage of a peacock.
"Now," he started, voice quite, "when you say…'pregnant'-"
"I mean that I'm carrying our child, yes," Bulma confirmed. She wasn't sure exactly what she was expecting him to have done, but this seemed like a better alternative than most anything else the Vegeta could have done. Like almost kill himself in training. Or completely kill Yamcha in "training". "This is what you should expect when two people are…intimate for any amount of time. It's just a matter of-" She searched for the right word, but came up with nothing. This was as much a shock to her as it was to the saiyan.
"So, the child will be like Kakarot's boy? Half human and half saiyan?" He looked up at her with searching eyes, probably wondering when his life had turned from galactic conquest to unexpected fatherhood.
"If neither of us has changed our species, then yeah. If he's going to be half saiyan, does that mean he's going to have one of those tails?" Vegeta just shrugged in response, shoulders rising higher than usual and lingering awkwardly, as though he didn't quite remember why he had lifted them in the first place.
The blue haired genius watched the Prince try to sort out the information and almost giggled at how cute it was when he was stumped. She didn't know if what they had between them was love, but the bond connecting them had grown stronger as the weeks passed. She knew that he would never hurt her, at least physically, and sometimes they could almost see what the other was thinking from just a look. He had mostly stopped calling her just "woman" and she mostly stopped referring to him as "your royal pain in the ass". She had to admit to herself that it hadn't been like this with Yamcha. The former bandit had been sweet to her, but he couldn't lock down in one relationship and hadn't really ever been as in sync with her as the would-be destroyer of the planet now was.
"How long will you carry him?" Vegeta inquired, apparently having fully grasped the situation.
"Well, the doctor said it started about a month ago, so it might be time in six or seven months."
Vegeta grimaced at that, and at first Bulma believed that it was about the child. But she remembered what else was due in six months. If the androids killed all of them, then the child would grow up without a father, or maybe even not at all. It was still early in the term, but already Bulma couldn't even bring herself to think about losing her baby to a bunch of heartless machines. Vegeta rose, a fire in his eyes.
"Where's the phone?" he asked in a brusque tone. Wordlessly she pointed at the nightstand and he marched over and snatched up the cellular. Wrapping her arms around her as of yet un-swollen belly, Bulma watched him poke buttons delicately, mindful of the last time he had tried to dial in anger. As soon as he had finished inputting the number he held it to his ear and waited. Several seconds passed before he realized there wasn't a ringtone and quickly pressed the 'dial' button, scarlet creeping into his cheeks as Bulma giggled.
"Kakarot?" Bulma was a surprised to hear who he had called. She hadn't even known that he knew the number; he usually only called the local pizza parlor. "Oh, Gohan. Is your scatter-brained father there? Well wake him up then; he and I need to train. I know we trained yesterday squirt, I'm not as absent minded as some others I know. The situation's changed and I need to be sure that we're both ready for those tin cans. One more thing: make him take the heart disease antidote right now. If he has the virus, we're preempting it, and if he doesn't have it then he gets a grape flavored drink."
He hung up, still not friendly enough to say a farewell. Tossing the phone onto the bed, he strode towards the door but stopped before exiting out into the hall, looking back at Bulma.
"If I am to soon have a child, I sure as Hell won't let a few androids get in the way of me training it to surpass Kakarot's own." And then he was gone, leaving an exasperated Bulma to roll her eyes at his reasoning and smile at his acceptance her pregnancy.
"Now, what should we name you?" She asked her stomach, rubbing it slowly as though it actually were the baby. "If you're a girl, maybe Bra. If you're a boy like your daddy, then how about…"
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Despite Vegeta's general silence and Bulma's uncertainty of her friend's reaction, the word quickly got out that she was expecting. It was a matter of great excitement for most and confusion for others, but overall they were happy for her and praised the Prince. For his part, Vegeta tried to act like nothing was different and each day was the same as the last. But as Bulma's belly began to expand and Goku couldn't help but ask him about baby names in the middle of sparring matches, the royal saiyan was quickly forced into accommodating the needs of the pregnant woman into his daily activities.
Goku lent help whenever he could, and Dr. Briefs and Bunny were very supportive of the two, but Vegeta had not anticipated just how taxing it would be. Before too long, Bulma was now quite heavy with child, spending most of her time in bed, or on the couch with a random flavored carton of ice-cream. She would constantly call for him no matter where in the house he was at the time and tell him to rub her back, or refill her iced tea, or get some warm towels, or change the channel on the TV, or get her bananas (she went through a whole phase where the only thing she ate all day for weeks was bananas; Vegeta could hardly stand to look at them now).
Whenever he managed to slip out for some training, she insisted that he carry a cellphone with him so she could call him if she needed something. The one time he had shouted back through the phone that her parents could it for her (albeit with a few more curse words thrown in) she had burst into tears and sobbed that he was abandoning her and the baby. Trapped, he had cut his training with Gohan and Piccolo short and used Instant Transmission to return to her side. Once she saw that he was there, she threw a mostly empty bowl of potato chips at his head and called him some choice names that had succeeded in making him blush. She had then demanded a foot massage to make up for his 'negligence'.
'Broly might have had the better fate' Vegeta seethed to himself that night, guilt-tripped into making Bulma an entire tray of cinnamon rolls. Saiyans weren't normally inclined to cook, but anyone could follow the dead simple instructions printed and illustrated on the side of the tube the dough had come in. 'I wonder if this is what Nappa went through with myself and my father. May you find peace in the Afterlife you poor bastard.' He paused for a moment, hands sticky and the oven door hanging open, heat spilling out. 'Did I just feel empathic towards Nappa?' Shaking his head, he decided that he probably needed the time away from Goku anyway. Too much of a positive influence for his liking.
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Krillin hadn't meant to become friends with the Prince of all Saiyans, honest. Yet here he was, at a coffee shop in North City with a very tired looking Vegeta who was nursing a richly scented mug of brew, three empty cups already resting about the table. The former monk had just stopped by Capsule Corp. to check in on Bulma, but when he had seen the saiyan actually fall asleep standing in front of the microwave while the popcorn inside burnt, he had decided to intervene. With the excuse of 'needing an extra set of hands to move a mountain', he had led a nearly zombified Vegeta out the door and towards caffeine, and plenty of it.
Now here they were, halfway through a conversation about the pros and cons of tropical fruit and mingling like any other citizen on the planet; except they just happened to be two of the strongest.
"I don't care if it looks like me," Vegeta insisted as he tapped his finger on the tabletop to the beat of the muzzack playing softly in the background, "pineapple is disgustingly sweet and is designed to spear you through the mouth."
"Aw, you've probably only had the treated ones then. They make 'em sweeter than natural ones so you don't need to put them into syrup or anything," Krillin countered, taking a bite from the bagel he had ordered and licking stray cream cheese from the corners of his mouth.
"That's disgusting. Who'd ever want to wittingly eat science experiments?"
"They're not that bad. They even helped farmers make a bit more money as they don't need to go through third party processors."
"Pah," Vegeta grunted, flicking his fingers upward in what had become his way of discarding the current topic. Taking several gulps from his earthenware mug, the prince cast his eyes over the other customers of the establishment. "Why are there so many teenagers here? Don't they have better things to do than to buy overpriced drinks and play on their computers?"
"You'd think," Krillin murmured, not really noticing the worldly ignorant teens so much as the ones who had brought dates with them. Wherever he looked, it seemed like everyone had a significant other. Even Vegeta, the often times callous and haughty prince of a warrior race, had managed to attract Bulma and vice versa. Was there really no hope for a tallish dwarf monk without a nose and shaven head?
"When I was going through puberty, I was slaughtering billions on the orders of a tyrant, not looking up nude pictures or playing fantasy games," he gestured at a bespectacled youth in the corner who apparently heard them and turned beat red, hastily shutting out of whatever site he had been browsing.
"I was always training," Krillin shared, watching the remainder of his own coffee swirling around the bottom of the cup. "It seemed like there was one big thing that happened, then we were getting ready for the next Budokai. Red Ribbon Army, the return of King Piccolo. We barely saw Goku in those three year absences, always off doing the next hardest training he could find and come back to completely overshadow us." He sighed protractedly. Vegeta gave him a look over the rim of the coffee the waiter had just set down in front of him.
"Resentful?" Krillin thought about it for a minute before answering.
"A bit. Not of Goku, but of Goku being from a race better developed for fighting than humans. Nothing we can do will ever bridge the gap between us and we'll always be the guys who get beaten up until you or Goku arrives."
Vegeta pondered this in silence. He had never given much thought to how the humans and namekian might be feeling as the saiyans rose to ever higher fields of strength. It was exactly what he had felt when he had languished in the knowledge that Goku had somehow beaten him here on Earth, or when he had fought the Ginyu Force effortlessly where the Prince had failed miserably. It was that kind of anger and frustration that could motivate and empower a saiyan, but humans didn't have such an advantage. For them to increase their power it required years of training, no convenient zenkais or transformations to help out.
"Maybe," he started, looking into the mid-distance at his memories of his fights with the Z-Fighters, both against them and as one of them, "there is a way for you to build that bridge." Krillin raised an eyebrow at him, nonverbally telling him to continue. "That technique that Kakarot used when we first met to overpower me, the Kaioken, it multiplies your strength exponentially. He used it to rise from around eight thousand in scouter units to well over my twenty five thousand in seconds."
"I thought you said that his power level was over nine thousand?"
"Shut up. Now, if Kakarot could learn that trick from King Kai, then why not you humans as well?" Krillin was mulling it over, so Vegeta continued. "You could get Kakarot to teach you, or maybe contact King Kai telepathically. He said it was a dangerous technique, but I don't really see how he can say that to-"
He broke off suddenly as he stood bolt upright, scalding hot coffee spilling onto the table and dripping down off the sides. Krillin jumped up as well to avoid the beverage and was about to yell at Vegeta just what he had been thinking until he saw the saiyan's face.
"Bulma," the Prince whispered briefly before running out the door and blasting off into the evening sky. Quickly following after him and leaving the occupants of the coffee shop in stunned disbelief, he cast his senses out to find the single ki signature of one of his oldest friends. With shock, he discovered that it had spiked erratically and was spasming in time to what he assumed was her breathing exercises. Vegeta must have been unconsciously keeping track of her through their whole conversation, and Krillin had been none the wiser.
Though he was easily outstripped by the alien royalty, Krillin knew that he would make it in plenty of time for the birth of Vegeta and Bulma's child.
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AN: Another short chapter with barely any action in it at all and still took forever to post. Kind of a balance for that last one, but it gets pretty tedious writing exposition in a way that is faithful to the characters (as I see them, admittedly). Well, the next chapter is the start of the android saga, so we can look forward to copious amounts of ass-kickery taking place there. How will two super saiyans affect the battle, especially now that Goku's taken the antidote for his virus and nipped that threat in the bud?
For those that don't like what I did to Slug here, too bad. He's a filler villain this time, not a movie one, and that means embarrassing defeat. Not to mention he was still in his 'old as dirt's grandfather' state so he wasn't exactly going to be much of a problem anyway.
And thanks again to those of you who reviewed last chapter. But please, for all future posterity, don't tell me I should use the "Bringer of Death" scale of power leveling. First off, it's kind of rude to say my system is inferior, and secondly, I don't need to use their system for my story. I'm taking a much different approach to viewing the show and manga than those authors, and as such the…deliberate level of realism and scientific guide lines are not necessary for "WiaM". Also I don't like it.
Thanks for reading!
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