Okay. You guys are getting this chapter a couple days early because I'm just not going to have time to post anything once we hit December.

I've watched the DBZ special at this point, and I have to say that I enjoyed it. When I first heard about it, I was kind of mixed on how I felt about it. I mean, it's been so long, and the plot synopsis I read just…wasn't quite what I would've hoped for. It was really wonderfully nostalgic, and it just took me back to when I was twelve and watching the series. I should mention, however, that this movie isn't for someone who just wants to see another epic battle between good and evil. This one's more about the humor.

I think this chapter turned out okay, but my judgment might be somewhat impaired due to lack of sleep. It's been hard to get to sleep because my room has been absolutely freezing at night. Residence life had the heat turned on, but they turned it off after they accidentally melted a sprinkler head and set off the fire alarm at almost four in the morning. I shit you not. It was so hot in this building that a sprinkler melted.

I'm tired, so tired…


Chapter Seven

Looking up at the sky, he squinted as though searching for something amongst the white puffs of cloud. His expression brightened slightly as he saw a dark speck moving through the bright blue expanse, but his face fell in disappointment as the spot morphed into a bird. A frown settled onto his lips as he watched it fly lower, landing in a tall tree some distance away.

Still nothing.

Ever since he'd become a child again, he'd found himself staring at the sky a great deal, hoping to see any familiar figures flying down to greet him. So far, he'd only seen birds and one lone plane passing overhead.

Turning his gaze back towards the ground, he began to walk through the waist-high grass again, noticing absently that it seemed oddly yellowed and dried. There had been plenty of rain recently, and it wasn't late enough in the year yet for them to be dying.

The change had happened so suddenly. One moment he'd been in the middle of a sparring match with Vegeta, and the next instant he'd been a child again, standing alone in a clearing that was unmarked by the signs of Saiya-jin training. After a moment he'd recognized that he was standing in a completely different area of the mountains than where he'd been fighting. There'd been no sign of the other man. Calling his name a few times, he hadn't been too surprised that there was no answer.

Goku hadn't been too concerned until he'd attempted to find the other's ki. It was gone. He couldn't feel even the slightest trace of Vegeta's ki, and all of the other signatures that he'd become used to sensing seemed to have vanished as well. He'd raced back home as quickly as he could.

They'd been gone too, but it wasn't like they'd simply vanished. Everything had changed. His home was back to the way it had been when he was a kid. The house that he lived in with Chi-Chi and Goten wasn't there, and the house that Gohan and Videl lived in didn't seem to have ever existed at all. It was as though time had suddenly spun backwards, and he was once again living alone in the mountains as he'd been before his accidental encounter with Bulma.

What had happened?

He didn't know. It had been weeks since the change—maybe longer. He didn't have a clue why things had changed.

Figuring things out by sitting back and really thinking about them wasn't his strong suite. That was more Vegeta's strength. No, he was better at coming up with ideas in the heat of them moment, before he had the time to really think about them and whether they should be able to work. Some times they did and others they didn't, but everything seemed to work well enough anyway that he didn't see any reason to change. Maybe that was why they made such a good team whenever they fought together.

"It'd be nice to have him around now."

.

In the dark of his room, Vegeta lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling and the circle of pale light that came in through the single window in the far wall. The time of day was mostly irrelevant on the bases. People were coming and going at all hours, so the buildings were always lit and open.

Thoughts whirled around in his head. He was still reeling slightly from the relief of finding out that the Earth really did exist and that everything he remembered had been true. The idea of returning there filled him with a sense of anticipation and even a bit of excitement.

Mixed in with those were many other conflicting emotions. He wondered and worried about what he would find on the planet once he arrived there. What would that world be like? How different would it be from the Earth he knew? Who else might remember? There were so many questions, and there seemed to be no answers.

Rolling onto his side, away from the window, he also wondered what good it would do for him to go to Earth. The man who'd given him the coordinates had said he needed to go there, but he still didn't know if it would do any good. Maybe the best he could do was to simply go there and use the dragonballs to wish the time shift undone. That would be something, but it wouldn't take care of the source of the shift.

"I'm getting ahead of myself," he murmured, rolling onto his other side, staring at the circular window in the wall. "There's no guarantee I'll even make it that far."

He would be risking his life by going through with this plan. There was always the chance that Freeza might catch onto him before he could manage to disappear. He didn't want to die, but he wouldn't let that stop him. It was still preferable to reliving all of this.

Turning onto his stomach, he frowned and huffed into his pillow. While the thought of leaving the diminutive tyrant filled him with something close to ecstasy, leaving Nappa and Raditz behind made him feel as though he was betraying them. A feeling like guilt twisted in his stomach as he rolled that thought over in his mind. Once he was gone, Freeza would inevitably seek them out to see if they might know of his whereabouts, and he would torture them until he became convinced that they knew nothing. He would kill them then.

Rolling over again, he yelped as he accidentally slipped off of the bed and landed on the floor with a dull thud. He lay there for a moment, quietly muttering curses before sitting up with a small groan. At this rate he wasn't going to get any sleep at all tonight.

He sighed, looking over in a corner where he'd thrown his armor. It wasn't fair of him to leave them to deal with the consequences of his actions. "Damn conscience," he whispered as he stood up and walked to the door, not bothering to put his boots on.

Exiting into the hallway, Vegeta walked down a couple of floors to the room that Nappa had told him he'd been assigned to. He could sense the man's ki on the other side of the door, confirming that he'd remembered it correctly. Briefly he paused in front of the electronic lock before quickly tapping a few keys on the panel. It beeped, and a blue light flashed as the door slid open.

The sound of thunderous snores suddenly poured out into hall, telling him that the massive man was asleep. As he walked in, he wondered vaguely whether the sound penetrated the walls of the other rooms around his. It didn't seem likely though. If it did, the people in them were probably plotting his death at this moment.

The door had opened quietly enough, but for some reason it seemed to close with an ungodly amount of noise. In his sleep, Nappa grunted, snores interrupted as he muttered something unintelligible and rolled onto his side, facing the boy. He must have opened his eyes as he was shifting around because he suddenly sat up with a start. "Vegeta!" he exclaimed in a mixture of confusion and alarm.

"Don't be so loud," admonished the child with a note of annoyance in his voice. "Do you want to wake everyone else up?"

What're you doing here?" he asked as he sat up. He sounded groggy and irritated at being awakened in the middle of the night, but, mostly, he sounded concerned. "You haven't snuck into my room since they stopped forcing you to bunk with Raditz."

"It's nothing like that," he snapped, face burning in embarrassment. Thankfully it was hidden in the darkness.

For the first couple of years following the destruction of their birth world, he and Raditz had been assigned to room together because they were both children. He'd been young then, and he hadn't liked that he was being forced to share space with this unfamiliar, older boy. With everything that had changed so suddenly, he'd wanted to hold the one familiar thing that had still remained in his life: Nappa, so in those early years, he would regularly sneak into the large man's room to sleep with him.

Of course, Raditz had made fun of him for it, mocking him and calling him a baby. He'd beat the older boy up for it, but that hadn't stopped the teasing any longer than it had taken his broken jaw to mend. Eventually they had been separated, and Vegeta had started to sleep in his room.

"What is it then?"

"I'm leaving," he said quickly before he had the chance to reconsider and change his mind.

"Are you insane?" hissed Nappa, looking around as though expecting someone to suddenly leap out of the shadows and execute the boy on the spot.

"Possibly," he responded blandly, "but that's hardly the point. I found a way out. I'm taking it."

"Do you realize what you're risking?"

He flinched slightly at the harsh mix of anger and worry in Nappa's voice. "Yes. If I'm caught, I'll definitely be brutally beaten for trying to leave, and it's entirely likely that I'll be killed as well. So what? It's my life. I want the chance to control it for a change."

A long silence passed between them. "Why are you telling me this?"

He didn't answer immediately. "I want you to come with me."

"What?"

"I'm leaving, and Freeza would come to you and Raditz first to find out where I've run off to. He'll kill you if you don't tell him, and I know you wouldn't betray me to him." He paused, fidgeting almost nervously. "I don't want to just abandon the two of you to death."

The look of distaste on his face was difficult to see in the darkness. Even in front of someone like Nappa, he didn't like admitting anything that might even suggest an emotional attachment to another person. It was perceived by many as a sign of weakness, and someone in Vegeta's position couldn't be seen as weak. He had to appear strong always.

"Am I understanding you correctly?" asked Nappa slowly. "You are planning to run away, and you want me to come with you so that I won't be killed at Freeza's hand?"

"That's correct."

"You are, in effect, trying to protect me when it is my duty to protect you?"

"You can't protect me forever. I have to take over some time."

"I know," he responded, recalling with a certain amount of bitterness his earlier conversation with Raditz. "That doesn't mean you should have to yet. You're still only a cub."

The boy bristled slightly at that remark, the fur on his tail puffing out indignantly as he bit back on the urge to snap out that he wasn't a cub. It would've been a pointless argument anyway. Although his mind was still that of his adult self, he was physically still just a child—his voice hadn't even changed yet—and attempting to argue against it would undermine whatever he might have to say. "I can handle it."

"I don't doubt that," said Nappa with a resigned sigh. "You're already acting more mature than Raditz even though he likes to remind me at every opportunity that he's an adult.

He snorted in amusement, smirking at the comment. It wasn't exactly a fair comparison to make between them when he had memories of roughly thirty years worth of life experience over the other Saiya-jin. "Will you come with me?"

Nappa's expression grew serious as he seemed to really consider what the boy was asking. "You do realize that you're only increasing your chances of being caught by asking me to come along, don't you?"

"Yes."

"And you realize how much more your chances will increase again if you invite Raditz too?"

"Yes."

"Are you certain that you want us to come?"

"I am," he answered a bit more forcefully than necessary. Why was he asking all of these questions? Why didn't she just answer the question he'd asked first? "Are you not going to come?"

The large man looked down at him with an unreadable expression. "Of course I'll come. If you're willing to put yourself at risk for my sake, I can't very well refuse your offer," he said still sounding somewhat disbelieving of the whole thing. "I will serve you in any way I can."

His lips twitched into a disapproving frown. "Don't say things like that. I don't want you to be my servant."

"What?"

For a moment he was silent, dark eyes boring into the wall behind Nappa. He couldn't quite look at him directly. "I don't want servants. I would rather have comrades."

The man seemed too astonished to speak for a minute, and when he regained his voice, it had a strange, breathless sound like he'd just finished a heavy workout. "Prince Vegeta, I am truly honored that you would think so highly of me. I couldn't receive a greater compliment from you than that."

A grimace flashed across the boy's face for an instant, passing too quickly to be caught. That feeling like guilt began to squirm in his stomach again. Nappa didn't know, didn't remember, how he would die. He didn't realize that he was praising his killer.

"Saying things like that is really unnecessary," said Vegeta as he turned away and walked back to the door. "I'll talk to Raditz about it in the morning."

"Is something wrong?" The man's voice was concerned again.

The door slid open, and the Saiya-jins blinked from the sudden brightness spilling in from the hallway. "You're not my mother," he scoffed, trying to sound simply annoyed. "Stop acting the part."

Nappa snorted. "You're lucky I'm not. She wouldn't let you get away with half of the crap you pull."

"That's not what I remember about her," he said in an almost nostalgic tone. He seemed to hesitate in the door for a moment, but then he walked into the hall and was gone.

Walking back up to his room with an unusually slow, purposeless pace, he stared thoughtfully at the floor. Even seeing Nappa again, he hadn't thought too much about having killed him in the future. The man didn't remember anything of it. What difference did it make to think about it when he was the only one who remembered?

None.

It didn't make any difference. He still felt guilty over it, as useless as that was.

Entering his room, he frowned at the bed. He doubted that he was going to actually get any sleep tonight. "Might as well make use of this time," he muttered, grabbing his boots and gloves and pulling them on. Just before he left, he decided to wear his armor as well and grabbed it before walking back out the door.

He didn't bother to look up from his training as he heard the sound of the door sliding open and felt another ki signature enter the room. The person's ki was roughly the same level as his, maybe a little bit lower, and seemed faintly familiar. He frowned thoughtfully as he punched the air. Who was it?

Realization dawned on him an instant before the person spoke. "Training alone, Vege~ta?" asked the man, drawing out the middle vowel of his name in a most annoying way.

"Kiwi," he growled, glancing over at the indigo-skinned alien. He was surprised both that he hadn't encountered the alien before and that he was suddenly showing up now, but the only thing that showed on his face was irritation. "That's a stupid question. Now get lost."

"You know, it's dangerous for someone as unpopular as you to be all alone. Someone might think it's a good time to attack you, and you've got no one here to protect you." Even if he'd tried to, he wouldn't have been able to miss the threat and malice dripping from the man's words. He was set on getting a fight.

Looking away from him, Vegeta continued his training. He didn't need to keep his eyes on him to know what would be coming. Why give him that much regard? "As much as they'd like to, those who would try to protect me could do very little against any real threat."

He could almost feel Kiwi's smug smile.

"Don't get too full of yourself. You don't even rank on that list." He allowed one corner of his mouth to tilt upwards.

There was an indignant snort behind him. "You're the one who's full of himself. How long have you been training?"

"Hours." Vegeta didn't miss the edge in the other man's voice.

"You look tired. Did you sleep at all last night?"

"No."

"How unfortunate." He leaned over as Kiwi suddenly shot a ki blast at him, allowing it to sail harmlessly over him and collide with the wall. Straightening back up, he pretended not to notice that anything had happened.

"Why is that?" he asked, punching at the air as though he was striking an opponent.

For a long moment his only answer was stunned silence. "Well, with that lack of sleep, you'll be less alert if someone tries a surprise attack against you."

Another blast shot at him, and he stepped to the side this time, making it look like a part of his exercise. He could sense the alien's astonishment. Stepping to the left as a third attack whizzed past him, he was having difficulty not laughing. It was almost too much. "I don't think one night with no sleep will affect me too greatly. Sometimes I go days without sleep on missions."

"I see…" Kiwi shot a few more attacks at him, and the Saiya-jin continued dodging them, acting as though he didn't notice. With a frustrated growl, the man shot a barrage of blasts that finally forced Vegeta to counter with one of his own.

"Did you really believe I didn't realize what you were doing?" he asked, smirking at the shocked expression on Kiwi's face. "I am no fool like you."

"Don't start acting cocky. I'm still an even match for you in a fight," he growled, clenching his fists and taking a step forward.

"You're an almost even match for me when you're at full power," he said with a derisive sneer twisting his lips, "but how much have you wasted on all of those missed shots? How much have I spent on you?"

He watched as realization struck the man full force, and smug confidence quickly evaporated to reveal sputtering cowardice. "You…you little…" growled Kiwi as he began to shuffle back towards the door, trying to look intimidating even as he was running away. His face burned a dark, angry purple as he shot a final murderous glare at the boy before practically running out of the room.

Letting out a low sigh, Vegeta's shoulders sagged tiredly. It was a good thing that Kiwi was so easy to scare. He'd forgotten to take into account that while he had indeed spent a good deal of energy, the boy had been up all night training, burning much more of his ki over hours of drills and exercise. If he'd taken just a moment to check his scouter, he would've caught the bluff.

The door slid open again, but he recognized these ki signatures at once. Looking over at the entrance, he smirked tiredly as Nappa and Raditz walked in.

"I take it you had something to do with Kiwi running away down the hall," commented the large man with a note of amusement in his voice.

"That was all his decision," he said with a casual shrug.

"You just encouraged him along, right?" Nappa asked with a knowing grin, but his expression grew more serious as he seemed to examine the boy's appearance. "You need sleep."

"I'm fine," he said, drawing himself back up and giving a dismissive wave.

Nappa was unwilling to be deterred. "No, you're not. You need some sleep"

Sleep wasn't what he needed so much as he did rest, but there was no chance he'd get that here. There were too many people who wanted to kill him for that. Maybe he could once they reached Earth.

"Been skipping nap time again?" asked Raditz with a smirk.

"Do I have to break you jaw again? Didn't you have enough of eating through a straw before?" It must have been something about their family. Nobody seemed able to get on his nerves quite as quickly as Kakarotto and his brother.

"Go to bed." Vegeta opened his mouth to tell the large man off, but he paused as he saw the look in his eyes. This wasn't about getting him to sleep.

"You're not going to drop this until I give in, are you?"

"No."

"Fine," he responded, sounding appropriately irritated with the large Saiya-jin. With a huff, he crossed his arms over his chest and began the walk back to the dormitories. Nappa followed behind him, grabbing one of Raditz's shoulder pads and dragging him out as well.

"What're you doing?" he asked, trying to squirm out of the large man's grasp.

"Come on. We've got things to talk about," hissed the bald Saiya-jin, keeping his voice low.

They maintained a tense silence until they were back in Vegeta's assigned room. As soon as the door slid closed and the usual search for listening devices was done, Raditz said, "Nappa told me you're planning on leaving and that you want us to come with you." He sounded a bit dubious about it.

"Yeah. That's right," he said as he pulled off his armor and tossed it away.

"Where're you going to go? Saiya-jins aren't exactly welcome most places."

"I found a planet," he answered vaguely.

"Where is it?"

"It's out in the frontier, away from where Freeza would likely look for us."

The long-haired Saiya-jin frowned in distaste. "I can imagine he wouldn't. What the hell do you want to go out there for? There's only primitive worlds out that way."

"I already told you."

"No, I know you better than that," he said as though he'd caught Vegeta in the middle of doing something he shouldn't. "You wouldn't even think about doing something like this just for the sake of running away. Nappa knows it too, but he's willing to follow you anyway. That won't work with me. I want to know your reasons."

He frowned as he sat down on the edge of his bed. "My reasons are none of your concern."

"Forget it then."

"You can't be serious," grumbled Nappa with an irritated glance at the other man. "You would really rather stay behind and be killed just because he won't tell you why he wants to leave?"

"Sounds about right."

"That's idiotic!"

"You're a real pain in the ass, you know that?" commented the boy, sounding almost amused and surprising the men. "I won't tell you my reasons. They're mine, but I will give you a reason why you should want to come."

"Why is that?" he asked in an antagonistic tone, trying to push Vegeta to the end of his almost notoriously short temper. For what purpose, he didn't know. "Should I come because you're my prince and I'm supposed to follow you like a loyal dog?"

An indignant expression crossed his face at that question, and for a moment he looked as though he might beat the older boy right there. "I have no use for dogs."

"What is it then?" His tone was curious in spite of himself. "Give me your reason if you're so sure it'll change my mind."

"Kakarotto."

Just as he'd expected, Raditz's whole attitude seemed to change almost instantly. He blinked dazedly, staring down at Vegeta as though he couldn't quite believe. Nappa quirked one brow curiously at the switch. "Are you serious?"

"Of course."

"We're going to the planet he was sent to?"

He smirked, noticing Raditz's use of "we." It was over now. "That is the plan. The planet he was sent to is populated by beings that have a physical appearance remarkably similar to our own."

"How similar?" asked Nappa with mild curiosity.

The boy appeared to think over it for a minute. "The biggest difference is that they don't have tails, but they'll overlook them for the most part. As a whole they're a rather dense race," he said, adding the last part as more of an afterthought.

In the future, that same remote planet would be host to some of the most spectacular battles ever fought. The fate of the universe would be decided thanks to that backwater chunk of rock, and almost no one who lived there would ever realize it. They would just continue living out their mundane little lives, content to believe that nothing fantastic ever happened and worship their fake ultimate hero.

Many times he'd wished that the humans would open their eyes to the truth and finally stop worshipping that posturing fool, Satan. That man was insufferable, and his fame was based almost completely on lies—lies that he was, at this point, helping to perpetuate. Although, even he had to admit that they would've been lost in the final fight against Buu if it hadn't been for his interference. He hated admitting that.

At the same time, Vegeta understood that if the humans ever did realize the truth, he would never again have a moment's peace. Unlike most of the other Earth warriors, who lived relatively secluded from the rest of the world, he lived in the middle of the densely populated West Capital. More than, he'd become a member of one of the most prominent families on the planet, and to be a part of such a famous family automatically made him a target for the media. They were already bothersome, nosy pests that he would like nothing more than to punt over the compound's outer wall. He could only imagine how much worse it would become if they ever did figure it out.

"Fine," said Raditz, pulling the boy out from his thoughts. "I'll come with you."

"I expected as much," he said as the long-haired man moved to exit the room. Raditz paused briefly, glancing dubiously back over his shoulder before walking out.

He'd expected Nappa to leave as well, but the man instead remained where he'd been standing since he'd entered the room. His massive form made the room feel rather. Vegeta wondered if the man had actually been serious about him going to sleep. "Who is Kakarotto?"

"He's Raditz's younger brother."

"Are we really going to the planet he's on?"

"Yes. Why would I lie about that?"

The large man gave a shrug of his shoulders. "I'm not suggesting that you are lying, but this boy was sent to the planet years ago. We should have heard something from him by now if he was still alive. You shouldn't have told him until you were sure that Kakarotto isn't dead."

"Kakarotto is alive."

"Are you certain?" asked Nappa, wearing a thoughtful expression.

"I am.


Thank yous go out to kitsuneluvuh (You reminded me that I had wanted to put in a scene of Goku on Earth, and no, neither Vegeta nor Goku can become Super Saiya-jin.), kitsuk8 (I still don't think I've quite gotten the awkwardness nailed. I don't think he'd feel much of it if he was just dealing with Raditz. It's Nappa that makes the situation what it is.), XxKuroyoxX, GoldenRat (Funny you should say that I expanded Nappa's character when both of the scenes with him in Chapter Six were shorter than their previous versions. Also, I never said I wasn't planning on keeping them before.), confused (Um…yeah. I'm doing a complete rewrite, so things are going to change.), Eragrand, and Dragonpride (Well, Tabaru/Table is one of the characters in the new Dragonball Z special called—give me a second—Ossu! Kaette Kita Son Goku to Nakama-tachi! He's…well, you should go watch the movie. They're streaming it on the official site until the end of the year, and it's been subtitled in pretty decent English.) for reviewing.

Also, happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers in America.