Disclaimer: I don't own dbz, I'm sure of that.
There are references to Final Fantasy games and I don't own FF games.
Chapter 10 - Dreamy Truth Part 1
.1
A silence filled the room. Even the greatest scientist ever to grace Earth was unable to anticipate the turn of events. Now they could only hope that by getting a better view of the whole picture, or as whole as possible, they could find a way out of this mess.
"Trunks, can you sense your dad? Where is he now?"
"...he is high above us. But his ki is very BIG... I never feel Dad like this before."
His mother knew very well what her son meant by the word "BIG". Not "BIG" as in power level, but "BIG" as in physical width, length and height. Although this "BIGness" equated troubles, as least she was relieved knowing that her husband didn't go haywire and fly off to some distance places. Otherwise, she couldn't imagine what would happen if there were more attacks from the androids.
"Bulma, what happened?"
"Chi Chi, have you seen Oozaru before?"
"What?! You don't mean..."
"I'm afraid so."
"But how? Don't you need a tail and a full moon? Even if the GM senzu bean caused Vegeta's tail to grow back..."
"Yeah, those GM senzu beans are more magical than I thought."
"They are more than magical! I hope you will have them destroyed once this is all over!"
"Well...er...you see..."
Just like all other mad scientist, Bulma was deeply connected to her creations. It was sickening for her to see her brainchildren were disposed simply because they were not wanted. Yet, she knew she would not be able to talk her way out of it. Being cornered, her only option was to make a distraction. Scanning the room for a possible source, she immediately spotted Videl. The girl was listening intensively at the conversation, as if it could really answer some of her questions.
"Oh Miss Satan! I forgot to serve you anything to drink! Chi Chi, will you be so kind as to keep her company while I go to make some tea?"
"Sure sure." This request was so "proper" that no professional housewife would refuse, and so Chi Chi agreed without a second thought. Immediately, Bulam hurried out of the room, fearing that Chi Chi might change her mind. Now that the talk had abruptly ended, Videl took the chance to introduced herself to the others.
"Hello, my name is Videl Satan. I'm Gohan's classmate."
"Hiya big Sister! Remember me?"
"Of course I do, little Goten!"
"Hello Videl! I'm Trunks!"
"Hello Trunks! And Mrs Son, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too Miss Satan and thank you very much for helping Gohan."
"Don't mention it. He came to help me in the first place. But Mrs Son..."
"Yes?"
"Can you tell me what is going on?"
"Well...I..." Not sure whether it would do good to tell her the truth, Chi Chi hesitated. Just then, Bulma returned, yet the expected tray of tea filled cups were no where to be seen. Not knowing what to say, Chi Chi looked at Bulma expectedly, hoping she could do the answering instead.
"Don't worry Chi Chi, I'm not making the tea, I asked mom to make some."
"What? That's not what I -"
"Now Miss Satan."
"Ms Briefs, please call me Videl."
"Ok. Videl, can you tell me what happened tonight? I know you must have many questions but I have to decide on something first and your account of the event may give me some insight to the problem."
Minutes later...
"That's a relief." Bulma said after hearing Videl's recount, but not before asking multitude of questions, trying to squeeze out every single drop of useful information. On the other hand, Chi Chi hadn't say a word for the whole time, for the news about the dragon balls occupied her mind.
"Aren't we still in danger? My son is in the healing tank and the dragon balls are gone. Vegeta is out there but he got hurt pretty bad last time with the androids..."
"Well, Gohan and Vegeta are hurt by the androids only because they are taken off guard. Now that Vegeta is healed and we are fully alerted, they shouldn't be able to cause further trouble to us. Now we have to decide our next step."
"Excuse me, Ms Briefs?"
"Oh yes, we better explain to you what is going on before that."
"But Bulma, are you sure about this?"
"Now that we've got her so deep into this, I think she has the right to know the truth. And I don't think she will give up on seeking it out."
"I guess you are right. Will you do the talking? You have more first hand information than I do."
"Yes, but it will be nice to let the kids know this as well. Hey kids, do you want to listen to this?"
"Yeah!" The kids danced happily for they enjoyed stories as well as the snacks that went with them.
.2
Snakeway...
The path was mostly empty except for the lone Sayian who was running on it at high speed.
"I must be quick!"
Gradually, the runner pushed up his ki and increased his step size from 2 meters to 200 meters, so that he appeared as a leaping fireball. Soon the Snakeway shook as it experienced a sonic boom and two ki booms and the scene with filled with a golden light and the roaring of ki flow. However, that quickly ended as the man reached the end of the Snakeway and jumped onto the floating planet just beyond the path.
"Please! I don't have much time. The enemies will come soon!"
"Well, if you insist..."
"Yes, I do insist! I must show them the new move!"
"Fine. Then we will teach you our best moves that we had created over the years! Aren't we lads?"
"Yes, Captain Ginyu!" Several voices replied.
Gohan opened his eyes and found himself inside a healing tank. Not quite sure what was going on, he searched his memory to find out what was the last thing that happened. But then he remembered the dream that he just had and wondered if there was any hidden message in it. His thought was disrupted as he sensed Vegeta's ki and it was bigger than anything that he had met before.
"Wow, how does he do that?!"
.3
"Uwhahahaha! This is great!"
High above the Capsule Corp, a giant were-ape, which also happens to be the one and only living Saiyan prince, was circling excitedly above a thick layer of clouds, like a bored kid who just found his long lost favourite toy. After firing several "Mega Flares" into the dark space, he was finally calm enough to do some thinking.
"How come I'm in Oozaru form? My tail is back but there is no moon on Earth. And if I don't need the full moon to stay in this form, how do I transform back?"
Vegeta looked at his tail and immediately knew the solution to his problem but he quickly pushed it away.
"I wonder what will happen if I stay in this form over one night..."
It was true that no one ever tries to prolong the transformation by using artificial full moon even if they were in battle. One reason being that if they had failed to destroy their enemies during that night, then their enemies were much stronger than they were and they better escape the place than to keep on attacking. But the main reason was because having the size increased by 5 to 10 times in each dimension, the body weight would have a combined increase of several hundred folds. Since the appetite was directly proportional to the body weight, it became a major problem to feed just a single Oozaru, let alone an Oozaru army.
"How will I feed?"
During the last hundred years before the destruction of planet Vegeta, there were several recorded cases of death relating to food consumption while the subject was in Oozaru form. In those cases the fool was starving before the transformation. And once transformed, the hungry crazed Oozaru ate large amount of food, measuring hundred times the size of a standard Saiyan meal. In most cases, the consumed mass consisted of herds of the largest native creatures, along with a few boulders and tree trunks. However the Saiyan failed to stay in Oozaru form until the meal was completely digested and the body promptly burst when reverting back to normal size, resulting in instant death. Thinking about food, the transformed Saiyan realized that he missed his meal, yet he wasn't hungry.
"Maybe the bean also fills up the stomach?"
Not knowing the inner working of the GM Senzu bean, Vegeta could only speculate that much. On the other hand, to all Saiyans and also to many humans, the act of eating was more of an enjoyment than merely a body function, thus it was extreme depressing at the thought of not able to eat indefinitely. So to take his mind off the subject of food, the prince decided to take this opportunity and perform some experiments with Oozaru form.
"Let's see if I can transform into Super..."
With little effort, Vegeta transformed into a golden Oozaru. Forturnately, the layer of clouds blocked the light emitted from the body, otherwise, it would have become the latest entry in the "List of Unsolved Mysteries above Capsule Corp".
"Now with the next level..."
Focusing his ki, an act which was much harder to do in his current form, the whole body began to shake violently and electric sparks started to appear around him. Focusing even harder, bolts of lightning filled the air and the body was emitting a blinding light. At this point, he was surprised as he could feel that there was something up ahead, but it was still very far away from his reach. Not someone who easily give up, he pushed himself to the limit. Then suddenly without warning, images of death and destruction flooded into his mind, reminding him the thrill of fighting a strong opponent, the joy of eliminating weaklings, the anger of serving under Freeza and the lust of defeating his rival Kakarot. Unable to contain his rage, huge amount of ki gathered in his throat and turned his head toward the Earth below him, ready to unleash a "Tera Flare" that could blow out the Sun.
No Vegeta! Stop!
"Kakarot?! ...No, Gohan?"
With the help of the distraction, Vegeta quickly realized that he was about to destroy the Earth. Before it was too late, he charged up some ki in his hand and cut off his tail, knowing that this was the only solution. Immediately, he transformed back to normal size and the ki in his throat was dispersed. Filled with guilt and shame, he descended to the ground and went to the gravity room with out alerting the others.
.4
Bulma took out a piece of paper from a pocket and after clearing her throat, she started reading it.
"Young warrior, for your effort, you have earned the privilege of learning a dangerous secret known by very few people. Now being a member of our rank, you must not pass the secret to anyone else or you will face the wrath of someone who you have no hope at defeating. But if you want to change your mind, this will be you last chance to say so."
"Mom, you are awesome!"
"Hahaha, I always wanted to do this."
"Bulma, I'm not changing my mind, you can have my word."
"Videl, don't be so tense, that was just a joke! But I'm glad to hear what you just said. Ok, now where should I begin? ...Let's start with the dragon balls. Videl, have you hear about them before?"
"Yes, I have. They are mentioned in the history records of many ancient nations around the world. I came across it several times when I was reading up martial art history. I did some research on it but not much came up. All I know is that those dragon balls are some sort of wish granting device."
"Wow, Videl, I'm surprised! You do know your stuff. The dragon balls are created by Kami and there are seven of them. Once you gathered all of them, you can summon the Eternal Dragon and the Dragon will grant you a wish."
"Mom, you can have two wishes!"
"Yes, I know that. But it was just one wish when I first learn about it. Once the wish is granted, the dragon balls will scatter around the world and stay dormant as ordinary stones for a year."
"Hold on a sec. Bulma, I think I heard you mentioned something about a radar to detect the dragon balls. Is that correct?"
"Yes, I made detector called dragon radar."
"So you have the means to gather the dragon balls and make wishes."
"Yes, we have make many wishes over the years."
"Oh my... oh my... oh my..."
"Don't worry Videl, althought I started my search of the dragon balls for personal reasons, we now know better and use wishes mainly for bringing back those killed by evil."
"What?! You can even bring back dead people?!"
"Yes, but you can do it only once to the same person."
"Wait, when you mentioned the dragon radar earlier, you also said the dragon balls are gone. Then either someone make a wish or Kami is..."
"Well, no one can gather the dragon balls without me knowing, so it is unlikely..."
"That means Kami is...dead?"
"I'm afraid so..."
"Mom what are you talking about? Dende is alive. I can sense him right now."
"What?! Then why aren't the dragon balls showing up on the radar? How I wish to have a powerful telepath among us. Many times I suggested installing a phone system up there and each time they rejected the idea. Now see what happens!"
"Calm down Bulma, at least now we know they are alive up there."
"Chi Chi you are right. Now where was I?"
"So Kami's name is Dende?"
"Yes, and I know him since he was a kid."
"You what?!"
"Well, this one is a new Kami. We only have him for several years. The last one has to go because of Cell."
"You mean the last one got fired because he didn't do a good job in the Cell event?"
"It's not that, but lets leave this topic for now, I'll come to that again later."