I was going to die.
I was quite certain that I was, anyway. I'd drunk so much coffee that I was certain I was close to having a caffeine overdose. But I'd had to drink lots of coffee, or I wouldn't have finished the isolation chamber. As it was, I still wasn't finished it. I was still working on the cell synthesisation mechanism – the one aspect I always had a bit of trouble with. It wasn't that I didn't know how to build one, no. It was a very small mechanism, and I had really long fingers. Dad had once told me that my fingers were equivalent to sausages.
"Shit," I murmured as I dropped a bit of the synthesisation mechanism. I picked it up delicately and noticed that a speck of dust was on it. That wouldn't do. This was a very important part of the machine, and I didn't want it to get ruined due to any sort of error. Not even one speck of dust.
"RADITZ!" Kakarot blatantly yelled as he randomly smashed the door open. I jumped and nearly dropped the delicate mechanism. "Whoa…" he breathed as he stopped right behind me. I was sitting on the floor, and in front of me was the isolation chamber. One of the outer encasing plates was removed, but that was the place where I had to put the mechanism. "Is that the thingy-ma-jig?" my younger brother asked.
"Yes, Kakarot, it is," I said bluntly. Kakarot didn't appear to take the hint. He sat down next to me and looked at what I was doing.
"What's that?" he asked carefully. I finished the mechanism then, and stood up.
"It's a cell synthesisation mechanism. The isolation chambers need them for the special fluid that regenerates and heals Saiyans…" I trailed off as Kakarot gave me a confused expression. "You don't understand, do you?" I sighed. He shook his head, and I walked over to the machine and plugged the mechanism into the machine. It whirred and clicked at me, which was a good sign, as I shut the metal plating. "What it's supposed to do is to heal us," I said, trying to simplify what I'd said before. Understanding glinted in his eyes, and he nodded enthusiastically.
"So that's gonna help Vegeta?" he asked. The question sounded stupid, considering that he should have known, but I ignored the stupidity because I knew Kakarot wasn't quite normal. I nodded in response to the question and pressed a few buttons on the panel nearby. The chamber began working, and I grinned.
"Can you get him? It's working now," I said. Kakarot nodded and ran out to go get Vegeta. I looked at the mess scattered around me. There was a coffee mug, and lots of bits and bobs that would have been useful for later projects. I sighed as Gohan and Kakarot walked in, Vegeta between them. Frowning at their method of carrying him, I took him and sat him in the machine. It probably would have been better to strip him, but that would have been embarrassing to explain. The machine worked just as well when the person inside had their clothes on, anyway. "Alright, set it to this setting, and…" I murmured to myself. I saw that, out of my peripheral vision, everyone had followed and were watching. I frowned to myself, but continued setting the machine up. With a flick of my wrist, I shut the hatch and pressed a button. Blue liquid filled the chamber, and I happily smiled. It had worked.
"So now what?" Bulma asked as I set about, plotting tasks for the machine.
"We wait. The isolation chambers heal people faster than your human hospitals would have," I said. Bulma frowned at me, and I thought I'd said something wrong.
"How are you so certain?" she asked.
"Is that a trick question?" I responded with sarcastically. Nope. It wasn't. She looked at me, dead serious, and I sighed. "I've been in isolation a few times before, and my father even more so. I used to stay with Dad while he was recovering, and I used to monitor how fast he recovered… Well, it really depended on how injured the idiot was," I explained.
"How injured?" Bulma squeaked, looking worriedly over at Vegeta. I sighed.
"Vegeta's injuries are nothing. Some Saiyans used to come back almost dead… and at most it took them a few hours to recover. Vegeta will be fine," I assured everyone. A blonde-haired woman – who I'd noticed before – took a few steps forward and grabbed my shirt collar. "Hey, wha…?" I demanded, confused, but she shushed me. Her pale blue eyes seemed to glow…
"You better not be lying, pal, or I'll kill you," she threatened. I panicked immediately.
"I'm not lying!" I exclaimed. This woman scared me. She let me go and walked over to a little blonde-haired girl (with no nose?), and picked her up. Kakarot walked over to me, looking at the woman with an angry expression.
"Eighteen, don't do that! He helped us out!" he exclaimed angrily. What an odd name for a woman. Was she a slave or something?
"I don't trust Saiyans. I barely trust you, but only because Krillin does," she muttered. Great. She walked out then, followed by the little girl, and I sat on the ground next to the isolation chamber. Sadness flowed through me. So the Saiyan stigma had reached this planet too? Wonderful.
Everyone departed, save for myself, Kakarot, Gohan, Goten, and Vegeta's son (who, I'd found, was named Trunks). I shut my eyes and tried to ignore them, but that was difficult considering that Trunks and Goten refused to stop pestering me.
"Hey! Mr Goku's Brother!" Trunks said. The sheer stupidity of the title he gave me made me open my eyes and look at him. His blue eyes were looking up into my black ones.
"My name is Raditz, kid," I replied. Trunks frowned.
"Okay then. What are you gonna do now that Dad brought you back?"
Everything stopped. I felt my insides go cold. I couldn't believe it. Kakarot's face told me that he hadn't wanted to tell me yet. Oh no.
"Vegeta… revived… me?"
