Chapter 11: Join the Crew

"Goten! Gohan? Is that really you?"

"Stay back Goten," cautioned Gohan suddenly, eyeing the opposing party with a look of distrust, "they're probably not from our time period; remember, Trunks is gone."

"Wha-? I'm right here! I've not gone anywhere!" Trunks protested, "I-!"

Piccolo intervened, "Gohan, how long has it been on the outside since Vegeta and Trunks entered the Room of Spirit and Time?"

Gohan sighed and looked to his younger brother, who seemed to be as confused as he was. He remembered Trunks and Vegeta entering the room and never coming back out. If Piccolo and the others acknowledged this then it had happened to them too. Could they really be here? Still alive? "It's been a year." he answered finally, "Are you telling me it's been shorter in here?"

"Yes!" cried Trunks, "We've been in the room for six months! That should be half a day!"

"I think I know what's happened."

"Huh?" came a chorus of confused saiyans. They turned to Piccolo.

"Since we've been dislodged from space, our timing on the outside has been destroyed too. It might've been six months for us in here, but outside it's been a whole year."

"That's right!" said Goten, "We figured a year on the outside would be three hundred and sixty five years in the room! The room sealed itself shut, even Gohan couldn't open it!"

"So after a few months we just stopped trying," Gohan continued, "Even if you didn't starve to death you'd have died of old age by then anyway. Bulma was. . . Devastated."

"I can imagine." Trunks suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for the pain he'd caused his mother, and couldn't wait to see her face when they made it out of here. If they made it out of here.

"So what are you two doing here then?" Raditz finally spoke up, stepping out from behind Piccolo to address his nephews. Goten didn't recognise him at all.

"What is he doing here?" demanded Gohan, dropping into his fighting stance.

"It's alright Gohan, he's with me." said the namek.

"Well I don't trust him."

"And he's been my student for the last year, he's Goku's brother, he's lived with us over the few months and he's helped us in battle more than once so far, so I think he's worthy of our trust, don't you?"

For a second it seemed Gohan was about to retaliate, but he simply sighed again and lowered his guard. He trusted Piccolo more than anyone, and if anything the green man was a better judge of character than he. "After we gave up waiting for you to return, we asked Popo and Dende to build us another room; we still had to train, and couldn't let what happened to you deter us. So we entered: four months in Goten leans back and puts a little too much weight on that hourglass back there."

"Are you kidding me!?"

"Hey hey hey! Calm down Piccolo I didn't know!"

A pitying, embarrassed sigh went around the entire room as if to say 'we're doomed' as Goten protested his innocence by flapping around his arms madly.

"Anyway the thing breaks, and suddenly the room starts changing, flying us to all sorts of different places. Five days later and here we are." Gohan concluded.

"You haven't run into any Vices yet have you?" Trunks checked.

"Any what?"

"You'll see."

* * * * *

After many explanations about the rooms, the Vices, and especially Raditz and Piccolo's mysterious appearance, the Z-fighters relaxed and instantly got reacquainted with one another. Gohan begrudgingly apologised to Raditz, and Goten and Trunks got to finally catch up after Goten had believed him dead for a full year. Spirits were high once again. The two rooms had now magnetised into one so that whenever the shifts happened they travelled as one, and the doorway to Goten and Gohan's room had predictably been sealed shut.

The days that passed by saw Vegeta in a more bitter mood than usual. He talked and ate less and less with every following day until Trunks and everyone else could see he had a problem. The fact that they were hopelessly screwed with little chance of survival and nine potential enemies still out there without Goku didn't seem to be it either, as he'd would never show fear for something like that. It wasn't even fear; more like misery, and every time someone asked him what it was he shrugged them off and resumed training. Gohan trained alone now that Goten had regained his ideal sparring partner, which revealed something else rather interesting.

"Tadaa." jested Goten in mock amazement as he completed his transformation.

"You can reach super saiyan 3!?" Trunks cried, shocked by the sudden revelation.

"Yep; think you and Raditz are the only ones huh?"

Trunks and Goten sparred for the longest time in their maximum forms, and it was through this that Trunks learned that Goten had almost caught up to him. With the year's difference in age Trunks had always just been that tiny bit stronger than his dear friend Goten, but on the outside, where more time had passed, Goten had aged more, and there was now only a difference of a few months between their ages. Gohan's training on the other hand mirrored that of Vegeta's. He'd fly off into the void or some unknown planet somewhere and train in complete solitude; it was strange, but when he they arrived Vegeta, Piccolo and Trunks recognised Goten's ki signal, but not Gohan's. Once his face was revealed it all became clear, but there was still something different about him, and Goten seemed to be in on it. Piccolo and Raditz practiced as usual. Gohan and Goten also wore the gravity enhancers developed by Mr. Popo and Dende, which came in handy when training to the point of dependence; especially for Vegeta, who'd set the gravity to 650 for his own training, a level that none other than Raditz could even stand up in.

Over dinner Trunks, Vegeta, Piccolo and Raditz would often ask about life on the real world, having not seen it in far too long. A whole year had passed without them, and so Goten revealed to Trunks that Bulma had retaken over Capsule Corp in his absence despite having retired years ago, making Trunks feel terribly cruel for leaving her behind. So on the third night Trunks revealed to Goten and Gohan what had happened in the room to absolve himself of all blame, about Vegeta transforming into the golden great ape form and destroying the hourglass.

It was in his cold, miserable thoughts that Vegeta plodded slowly through the abyss. He'd made sure he was in no fit state to fly back to the Room's entrance by draining all his energy in a solitary training session, and so he wandered back alone, savouring the mile long journey to consolidate his thoughts. When in a bleach white emptiness, any new stimuli would be registered fast, and it was because of this that Vegeta noticed from far away the exhausted form of Gohan returning from his own training session. No one was around for as far as the eye could see, and he'd have at least fifteen minutes before they reached the room again, so the prince bravely seized his chance.

"Gohan," he said, coming up behind Goku's son to catch him unawares.

Gohan turned to face Vegeta. He'd been so exhausted that he didn't even sense the intimidating ki signal of the saiyan until now. "Oh, hey Vegeta, what's up?"

"I've been meaning to ask you about something that's been bothering me," Vegeta said, rolling his eyes and shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh." Gohan looked confused, "Yeah I noticed you seemed a little bummed out lately, what's up?"

"This conversation will be strictly confidential; you will not tell anyone else of this matter." Vegeta continued.

"Um- sure, I won't tell anyone, so what is it?"

"Well-" he stammered, "It's about Bulma." Vegeta looked away, going slightly red before gritting his teeth and pursuing the matter further, "Is she. . . Uh-"

"Seeing anyone else?" Gohan finished Vegeta's sentence, causing him to look away in embarrassment.

"Y-Yeah. . ." he replied.

From out of nowhere Gohan exploded with incredible laughter, a kind he hadn't experienced in years. Vegeta went even redder for a few moments until Gohan continued laughing, falling on the floor in sheer enjoyment.

"THIS IS NOT FUNNY!!!" He yelled, "STOP LAUGHING!!!"

A mile away Piccolo's ears pricked up to the sound of what was unmistakeably the saiyan prince shouting in furious anger. He couldn't make out the exact words, but Vegeta was definitely enraged, so he rounded up the group.

"You guys! I think Vegeta's in trouble! Come on!"

"You think this is funny!? How would you feel if you knew your wife thought you dead for a whole year!!"

Gohan continued to laugh hysterically.

"Quit laughing and answer the damn question! I- I've killed men for lesser transgressions!" By now Vegeta had turned a crimson similar to that of Raditz's Super Kaio-ken.

"No! No of course not!" panted Gohan, speaking through fits of giggles, "I said she was devastated Vegeta, but she still never gave up hope on you two! You really think Bulma would get over her 'Very own saiyan prince' so easily?"

Despite being more humiliated than ever, Vegeta couldn't help but feel relieved; it was a weight off his chest, something he'd been meaning to ask Gohan since his arrival, but could never find him alone.

"So that's what you've been so upset about!? Ah ha ha ha!!!"

"Quiet!!"

"Hey!" came a gruff namekian tone. Piccolo's lean figure suddenly swooped down to meet the two arguing saiyans followed by Trunks, Raditz and Goten. "Is everything okay? We heard voices."

Gohan was about to reply when the light around them began to shift and grow steadily brighter. Before any knew it the void had lit up as usual with them still in it, and all they could do was shield their eyes from the shine as they felt as a queasy sensation in their guts. Finally, the light dimmed, and Vegeta and the others looked down to find themselves back in the Room, stood neatly on the veranda.

"I guess we now know what happens if we're still out training when it changes." mused Raditz.

"We've got bigger problems."

Out on the void the new landscape loaded up to reveal a stretch of fresh grassy plains, harbouring nothing but a lone man; A Vicis. His figure suggested a more brutal fighting style than the last opponent. A clean shaven head characterised his face, which was relatively plain except from a multitude of thin, wiry scars zigzagging their way up either cheek stemming from his chin. This one was clearly more powerful than the last, as proven by the clock face indicating seven o'clock upon his chest, but the scars also indicated that he had actually seen true battle before unlike their last batch of foes.

"That," announced Raditz, "Is a Vicis."

"Welcome." He said, speaking in a drawling, smoker's tone, "We finally managed to find you again. You see we've had our eye on the significant places you've visited in your lives; you really didn't think we'd notice if your little vessel made a pit stop at the Kai planet?"

The Kai planet? Figured Trunks, I don't think we've stopped there yet.

"The others are on their way here," revealed the Vicis, "but since I got here first, I get to pick first choice of who to fight." Number seven scanned his beady little eyes over the six warriors. "I pick. . ." He sized each up in turn, which went painfully slowly for the Z-Fighters, clenching their teeth and trying to look determined against a superior foe. "You." The Vicis pointed straight down at Gohan.

Whew! Been a while, almost 2 months. Actually I'm really sorry for that, exams really suck :( BUT they're over now, and man does it feel good to be writing again. Haven't done anything in a while so I'll have to be excused if this isn't up to par, thanks again. :)