Chapter 26
I've been gone so long, so, gone so long
But I will come back
I will come back
For you
The sweltering August sun was scorching the grounds of Capsule Corporation, but Bulma welcomed it. She was outside lounging by the pool in the red bikini she bought a year ago when she took Vegeta to the beach while Yamcha was swimming laps. They had finally gotten past their fighting stint and had reconciled. Bulma still smiled whenever she thought about the amazing make-up sex they had when it was all over.
Bulma was looking up at the cloudless blue sky through her red-rimmed sunglasses when something caught her eye. The rays of the sun seemed to be catching something relatively small, probably made of metal, falling through the atmosphere. She sat straight up in her chair and pulled her sunglasses off for a better look, but whatever it was had disappeared.
'It couldn't be, could it?' she thought excitedly as she stood up and ran over to the pool, almost falling in as she stopped herself right at the edge.
"Yamcha! Did you see that? I think it was a spaceship or meteor or something!"
Yamcha resurfaced and wiped the chlorine water out of his eyes before he asked, "What are you talking about, B? You look like you saw a ghost."
"In the sky! I saw something! Can you sense anyone's ki?" She pointed to where she had seen the object in the sky and hopped from one foot to another in her impatience as she waited for her boyfriend to focus and locate any ki that hadn't been there before. Then he groaned and clenched his fists.
Nodding, he informed her of the news. "Yeah, B. I think it's Vegeta. Damnit, I thought he left for good!" He smacked the water with his hand and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Oh stop pouting, you big baby. Let's go see him!" Bulma grinned and gave him her best puppy dog eyes until he had to look away to avoid cracking under the pressure.
"No way," he said firmly, "I can't stand that guy, and I don't want to see him right now."
Bulma frowned at her obstinate boyfriend and put her hands on her hips, ready to go into verbal battle, but her attention was diverted when she heard her cell phone ringing. She ran back over to her lounge chair and picked up her phone.
"Hello, this is Bulma."
"Bulma!" a cheerful male voice greeted her, "You're not going to believe this! Vegeta's back on Earth."
Bulma's excitement rose to new heights and her eyes sparkled with joy at the confirmation of what she considered to be good news. "I know, Goku! I saw his space pod and Yamcha felt his ki. Hey, would you mind coming here and getting me and we can go greet him?" She crossed her fingers as she waited for his answer.
"No problem, be right there." The phone clicked on the other end and a second later Goku appeared behind her. He immediately fell into the pool.
Bulma spun around and started laughing hysterically as Goku sullenly pulled himself out of the pool. He looked like a wet cat as he shook his head to rid his hair of excess water. Normally he loved swimming, but he didn't like taking a dip when he didn't expect it.
Goku shot her a slightly hurt look before he broke out into his characteristic grin. "So are you ready? Let's go!" Bulma, still laughing, walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder so he could use instant transmission to get them to where Vegeta was. "Oh, hey Yamcha, you want to come too?"
Yamcha looked at the saiyan as if he had grown a second head before he shook his head. "No way, you guys can go see that jerk, but I'm staying right here." Goku shrugged and put his fingers to his forehead. A second later he was gone. Yamcha watched them go and went back to pouting as he pulled himself out of the pool so only his legs were dangling in. He couldn't figure out what they were so excited about. It wasn't as if Vegeta returning was a good thing.
Vegeta opened his eyes and inhaled deeply to fill his lungs with oxygen when the space pod alerted him that landfall was in two minutes. He blinked his eyes a few times and looked out the small window to see the blue marble floating in the endless void of space. Just as he remembered it. He sighed and prepared himself for impact.
Two minutes later, his space pod crashed into a grassy wilderness, creating a massive crater in its stead. Seconds later the door opened with a hiss of steam and Vegeta pulled himself out of the pod. The bright summer sun blinded him temporarily as he adjusted to its light, his tail slowly waving behind him as he gathered his bearings. There wasn't much to see, just lots of grass, hills, flowers, and birds in the sky. Nothing out of the ordinary, though it was strange not to have a canopy of leaves and branches above.
The saiyan took a few steps forward and swung his leg up in a side kick that connected with someone's diaphragm, judging by the sharp exhalation and gasp for air that followed. He returned to his standing position and crossed his arms over his chest, but raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw that he had two people on this particular welcoming committee.
"Geez, Vegeta, why do you always have to do that?" Goku whined, holding his aching chest. He hunched over and coughed a few times before straightening up again.
Vegeta sneered. "Why are you always in my business, Kakarrot? I've told you a thousand times to leave me alone." His eyes turned to the blue-haired woman for the first time and he looked her up and down, his scrutiny making her blush and inch behind Goku. He could make her feel like she was naked the way his eyes pierced through her.
"Hey, Vegeta," she mumbled around Goku's shoulder and gave him a small wave.
"Do you always go trouncing around the planet wearing essentially nothing?" he spat.
Goku laughed nervously and waved his hands in defense, thinking it would be best to stop them before they got into an argument. "I picked her up from Capsule Corp, Vegeta. It's not like we've been all over the place."
For some reason seeing the woman clinging to the younger saiyan in her discomfort made Vegeta angry and he growled low in his throat, his tail lashing behind him. "I see. Are you afraid of me again, then, Woman? You're hiding from me."
"No! No, I'm not scared," Bulma said shyly as she moved from behind her shield. "It's just been a while since I've seen you, and I didn't know if you were still mad at me. I'm really sorry that I hurt your pride, I never meant to." She bowed her head and traced shapes in the dirt with her toe.
Vegeta thought for a moment that if the woman had a tail it would be hanging limply between her legs. He dismissed that thought and rolled his eyes. "As if your foolishness could break my pride. You give yourself too much credit." Translated: apology accepted.
Bulma smiled softly and looked up at his face, not at all put off by his scowl. Before she could stop herself she threw herself at him and hugged him tightly. "You big jerk! I missed you a lot, you know. You could have come back sooner, it wouldn't have killed you," she shouted into his chest.
Goku laughed at the prince's wide-eyed shock as he awkwardly patted Bulma's back and mumbled something unintelligible that sounded like 'foolish woman' and 'petty attachments.' When Bulma finally released him from her death grip, she moved back a few inches and looked into his ebony orbs, as if they could answer all her questions about his trip to space. "You smell really bad," she told him after a minute. She broke into giggles at his indignant look. "Really, when's the last time you took a bath? With soap?" She pinched her nose and waved one hand back and forth in front of her face to ward off the stench.
Vegeta glowered at her and crossed his arms over his chest again, lifting his chin defiantly as he hissed, "Excuse me, Woman, I spent the past few months on a planet where there was no soap."
"Yeah, I can tell," she mumbled, but she was grinning at the saiyan prince.
He scoffed and turned his attention to the other saiyan. "Well, what are you doing here, Kakarrot? Come for a rematch?" He grinned evilly and his tail twitched mischievously.
Goku's face turned red and he turned away so he wouldn't have to face the older saiyan. He rubbed the back of his neck as he answered, "Not right now, Vegeta, I just came because Bulma wanted me to bring her to see you."
Vegeta raised his eyebrow at Bulma. "Eager to see me, were you?"
Bulma's face turned almost as red as Goku's. "Don't get cocky," she said, slapping his chest playfully, "I get excited about seeing any of my friends when I haven't seen them in forever." She stuck her tongue out at him and jumped back when he snapped his teeth at it.
"So were you able to train while you were gone?" she asked after a few seconds.
"Of course, Woman. I would not waste several months of my time when I have androids to kill," he answered, sounding very arrogant and matter-of-fact. He raised his arm and pulled his glove off so she could see the small device on his wrist and explained, "I stopped at one of Frieza's old base planets and built this gravity simulator modeled after the one in the gravity room."
Bulma's eyes widened before she furrowed her brows and frowned at him. "No way! There's no way you could make one so small."
Vegeta smirked and took the device off and tossed it to Goku. "Kakarrot, would you care to demonstrate? Put it on and push the white button." Normally he would not share his invention with anyone, but he had some egos to squash. The woman thought she was the greatest technical genius around and Kakarrot, well, it never hurt to put him in his place. The current gravity setting would take him by surprise, if nothing else.
Goku caught the device and grinned as he put it on his wrist. "Sure, Vegeta!" He pushed the white button and immediately collapsed on the ground, completely immobilized. Vegeta threw his head back and laughed.
"Oh my Kami, Goku! Vegeta, help him!" Bulma cried, kneeling by her friend's side.
Vegeta kept laughing as he lowered himself to one knee and pushed the red button on the other side of the device. "I was sure you'd be able to handle my warm-up level, Kakarrot," he gasped out as he broke into another bout of laughter.
"That wasn't very nice," Goku snarled as he pushed himself up onto his knees and massaged his aching muscles. His healing pride had just taken another blow and he wasn't happy about it. "Come on, Bulma, let's go back to the compound." Goku stood up and pulled Bulma to her feet whether she wanted to go or not.
"But, Goku, he was only playing," she pleaded, pulling away. He grabbed her arm again but before he could raise his fingers to his forehead Vegeta swept his feet out from under him and pulled Bulma close, wrapping his tail around her thigh.
Goku sighed in defeat as he looked up at the clear blue sky. He could hear the faintly audible growl coming from the older saiyan. 'Well, that wasn't fun,' he thought. 'But at least it's good to see Vegeta's sticking by her side. They still have a couple weeks…' He forced himself back up on his feet and smiled apologetically at Bulma.
"Sorry, Bulma," he said and turned to the prince. "I'm not going to hurt her, Vegeta, relax." He watched as Vegeta's slightly bristled tail smoothed out, but stayed coiled around her leg.
Vegeta slipped the gravity simulator back on his wrist and pulled his glove on over it. Bulma watched him and cocked her head a little. "How many G's was that?"
"Eight hundred fifty."
Bulma's eyes bugged out and she stuttered for a minute before she could form coherent words. "That was 850? You said that was your warm-up level!"
"It is," he said nonchalantly. "My strength has grown dramatically since I left."
The blue-haired woman could only nod as she stared at him in awe. Finally she shook her head to get her mind working again and turned back to Goku. "If you want to go, you can, Goku. That is, if Vegeta doesn't mind taking me back to the compound. You will come stay with us again, won't you?"
Vegeta shrugged one shoulder and pulled Bulma closer so he could wrap one strong arm around her narrow waist. His hair flashed gold as he was engulfed in a flame of ki. Bulma gasped and jumped in surprise. "What are you doing, Vegeta?" She felt his body burning against her skin as his temperature rose with the infusion of energy.
He whispered in her ear so only she could hear, "You asked me once to fly you as a super saiyan. I'm cashing in your rain check." He levitated in the air slowly until he was almost a hundred feet off the ground.
Bulma smiled brightly and nuzzled back into him as she waved to Goku. "Thanks for the ride, Goku, I'll see you later!" He could barely catch her words as Vegeta blasted off toward the Capsule Corp compound. He grinned and scratched his head.
'Maybe they'll have Trunks after all.' With that thought he put his fingers on his forehead and disappeared.
Vegeta started flying relatively slowly as he let Bulma get accustomed to the wind whipping in her face before he accelerated, easily breaking the sound barrier. She laughed as they were followed by sonic booms and the ground raced beneath them in a blur of colors. Vegeta rose higher in the atmosphere and without warning released his hold on Bulma and stopped, allowing her to continue flying forward with nothing but momentum.
When her support disappeared behind her, Bulma started screaming and flailing her arms and legs even before she started falling down. Vegeta watched and darted after her when he figured he had let her panic long enough. He flew beneath her and let her land on his chest as he wrapped his arm around her again.
"Vegeta!" she shrieked, "You could give a girl some warning before you throw them into the sky." Her heart was beating furiously and she was panting as her lungs decided to work again and a healthy dose of adrenaline rushed through her veins.
"Tell me you didn't have fun, Woman." Vegeta challenged her and spiraled through the air, leaving a golden trail behind. Bulma chuckled and nuzzled into his chest as she put her arms around him. She wasn't going to deny it, but she didn't want to do it again, either. At least not at the moment.
Vegeta's tail coiled around her waist and he sped up to his top speed and nosedived toward the ground. Bulma held her breath and closed her eyes as they dove. "Open your eyes," he told her gruffly. She cracked her eyes open and saw the ground approaching at a dizzying rate. She was about to scream again when he suddenly swooped back up in the air after coming mere inches from hitting the ground. She laughed and held on tighter as her fear gave way to complete trust in his ability to keep her safe. Flying with him was better than a roller coaster.
Sooner than Bulma would have liked they landed in the backyard of the compound and Vegeta released her. She fell back a couple steps and inhaled deeply. "Wow, that was amazing."
The absence of Bulma's slight weight in his arms came as an unexpectedly unpleasant sensation, which confused Vegeta greatly. He shook his head, chalking it up to his just having been without companionship for too long. At her comment he smirked and crossed his arms over his chest and swished his tail through the air behind him. "Of course it was."
She rolled her eyes at his predictable cockiness and grabbed his hand. "Come with me." She gently tugged his hand and led him to the side yard where the pool was. He raised his eyebrow at her but allowed her to pull him along until they were standing next to the pool. "Now you, Mr. Stinky, need to take a dip." Bulma threw all of her weight into pushing him over the edge and into the pale blue water.
Vegeta was completely taken by surprise as he fell backwards into the pool, but he was able to recover fast enough to wrap his tail around Bulma's waist as he fell, dragging her in with him. Bulma shrieked and flailed her arms as she was pulled in, but there was no way to fight his tail and avoid having her face meet water.
She broke the surface sputtering and gasping for air as she doggy-paddled to the edge of the pool. She tried to shake her head to get her long, wet locks out her face, but they were sticking there and she couldn't see anything. Unfortunately for her, Vegeta knew her dilemma and swam underneath her and grabbed her ankle, pulling her back under.
Bulma twisted around in the water to face her assailant and glared at him before trying to kick his smug expression off his face. But her movements were sluggish through the liquid medium and his reflexes would have saved him anyway. So he blocked her kick and sprang from the bottom of the pool with her held close so they resurfaced together.
Gasping for breath, Bulma held onto the sturdy saiyan and shivered in the cold water. "You b-big jerk!" she yelled through chattering teeth. "Why'd y-you d-do that?"
He smirked at her and wrapped his warm tail protectively around her waist. "You're the one who pushed me in first," he replied. "I just took you in with me." He snapped his teeth at her again when she stuck her tongue out at him. It was becoming a game for them. "Now if you don't mind, I would like to remove my person from this water. The chemicals are giving me a headache." He pulled Bulma along with him as he swam to the edge of the pool and climbed out.
The blue-haired woman giggled as he shook himself like a dog to rid his thick hair of the chlorine water. "You animal," she quipped.
He whirled around to face her and grinned. "You flatter me." He flicked his tail once to dry it and clear drops of water flew through the air like fireworks. Bulma giggled again as she wrung her hair out and threw it over her shoulder. The warm sun was drying the cold water from her skin and she sighed with relief.
Vegeta pulled his boots off and emptied them of water before putting them back on. "Are my quarters still equipped with clean garments and hygienic products?"
Bulma nodded. "It's basically the same as you left it."
"Good." Vegeta peeled the top of his bodysuit off so it hung around his hips. Bulma gasped and couldn't help but stare at his physique. It had always been impressive, god-like even, but it had never looked this good. Vegeta noticed her staring and raised an eyebrow suggestively. "See something you like?"
"Uh huh," Bulma muttered before she could stop herself. She slapped her hand over her mouth before trying again. "I mean, you look good, 'Geta. I was worried you wouldn't take care of yourself. But it looks like you've gained a lot of muscle mass, and, you know. Stuff," she finished lamely. It was true; his muscles were more well-defined than they had been before, as if they had been sculpted out of marble. They weren't overly bulky, but they were bulging and rippling under his darkly tanned skin.
He chuckled and flexed his muscles a little, hardly registering the fact that he was showing off for her. "That's what a diet of raw meat freshly killed will do for a saiyan. And training in gravity hundreds of times greater than this mudball." He flicked his tongue over his canine to emphasize the part about eating uncooked animals.
Bulma pretended to gag. "You are so gross."
"You just have a weak stomach," he shot back. He snapped again when she stuck her tongue out. She jumped back and laughed at their childish antics.
"Maybe, or maybe I'm civilized. Speaking of which, you smell like a barbarian. Go shower, Stinky Tail." Bulma kicked his ass gently when he turned to go. He shot a look of amusement over his shoulder and went around the compound to the door and disappeared inside.
'He's so mellow,' she mused as she went back to the lounge chair she had been sitting in before he returned. 'It's like he came back a completely different person, yet he's still the same.'
As his bedroom door shut behind him he shook his head at his strange behavior with the woman. He had never acted that way before with anyone. Hell, he never acted that way alone. Even so, it didn't bother him as he would normally have expected it to. It seemed like something to do with a friend, a pack mate. He accepted that explanation, since it was mostly true anyway, and pulled his clothes off.
Vegeta got in the shower and turned the hot water on and sighed as it washed away months of dirt, sweat, and blood the streams on the forested planet had been unable to remove. He scrubbed himself with his scentless soap three times before he was satisfied with his cleanliness. He washed his hair and tail and stepped out of the shower. The reflection that he saw in the mirror stopped his thoughts as he stared open-mouthed much as Bulma had.
'No wonder she was staring,' he thought, amused. 'I look good.' He flexed his muscles as he had done by the pool and snickered. 'I'm surprised she didn't jump me.' He laughed harder at that thought and wrapped a towel around his hips. He had never been one to admire himself in the mirror and he wasn't about to start now. He walked out of the bathroom and pulled a pair of white training shorts out of a drawer and put them on.
Dressed enough for his taste, Vegeta went out to his balcony, leaped onto the rail, and stepped off, landing softly on the ground below in a crouch. He sniffed the air and snarled when an unpleasantly familiar scent reached his nose. He rose to his full height and walked around the compound until the weakling came into view. His tail lashed behind him once before it wrapped back around his waist.
Yamcha whirled around when he felt a powerful ki approaching from behind. He threw himself off balance as he had been in the middle of performing a kick and almost fell over. "Vegeta!" he shouted once he regained his balance, "What are you doing here?"
Vegeta scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "If you need to ask then I won't answer, Weakling."
The scar-faced warrior glared at the saiyan and balled his fists. "You think you can leave for months and then come back as if you were never gone? You're nuts!"
"Tell that to the Woman, you idiot. She invited me to come back. And she must have expected me to return because my quarters were kept exactly the way I left them." Vegeta grinned evilly and circled around the human like a cat playing with a mouse.
Yamcha took a deep breath to calm his racing heart and stared the shorter man down as best he could. He didn't want to get into another scuffle with him if he could help it. Especially if he was a super saiyan. Seriously, did he ever return to his base state or was he always ascended now that he could do it? Yamcha didn't know and didn't care to find out. He just wanted to get away from the saiyan before he got himself into trouble.
Vegeta watched as the weakling turned to walk away. He sniffed the air again, already forgetting the other warrior's presence. There it was, the sweet, floral scent of the blue-haired woman. He walked further around the compound and saw her lying in the sun roasting herself by the pool still. He rolled his eyes and strode over to her.
He gently smacked her ass with his tail to get her attention when she didn't acknowledge his presence. She nearly jumped into the air in her surprise before she rolled onto her back to see who had assaulted her. "Vegeta? What do you want?" she asked, but not with any irritation. Even if she wanted to be mad she couldn't when the man who had left her feeling somehow empty when he was gone was standing right in front of her, returning life to her dull eyes. It didn't hurt that he wasn't wearing a shirt, either.
He crawled on top of her and touched his forehead to hers before he answered, "I'm bored, Woman. Entertain me." His tail brushed against her ribs playfully and she laughed as he tickled her. At first she had been startled by his close proximity but then she remembered that, probably because of his saiyan culture, he did not recognize human barriers or personal space.
"Stop it, Vegeta!" she cried as she tried to push his hulking weight off of her tiny frame. "Why don't you go train or something?"
Vegeta nuzzled his face into her neck and breathed her scent in deeply. His breath tickled her neck when he answered, "I have trained every day I have been awake for the past year. I think it would be acceptable to take a day off. Or are you too busy for me, Woman?"
Bulma sighed and pressed her hands against his chest to tell him she needed a little more space than he was giving her. He raised himself slightly and cocked his head at her. "What am I going to do with you, you crazy saiyan?" she asked with a brilliant smile on her face. "At least you smell good now," she added absent-mindedly.
At her off-handed compliment Vegeta felt a rush of blood to his face and hid his blush in her neck. It meant a lot to a saiyan when their scent was praised and he hadn't expected it from her. He knew she didn't know complimenting his scent meant much, but it was still flattering.
The blue-haired woman didn't notice his bashfulness as she wrapped one arm around him and rubbed his back, gently tracing her fingers up and down his spine. She only realized what she was doing when she heard a low rumble in his chest that vibrated through her body. 'He's purring!' she thought happily, 'I almost forgot he would do that.' She felt him nuzzle into her neck more and grinned.
"You're like a big kitty sometimes," she teased.
"You mean like that little black ball of fluff that lives on your sire's shoulder?" he murmured into her ear.
Bulma laughed again. "No, I mean like a big, vicious tiger." She felt his smirk against her neck and knew she had stroked his ego. "I'm glad you're back, Vegeta. I missed you so much it was driving me crazy."
He raised his head so he could look her in the eye, his brows furrowed. "Why would you miss me, Woman? I'm not your friend or lover or anything. You know what I am: a saiyan, an animal. A murderer," he muttered softly.
She smiled sadly and ran her hand through his thick hair. How she had missed the feathery strands between her fingers! "I know what you are, Vegeta, and I accept that. You might not be my friend, but I'm yours, so it's practically my duty to miss you. But I would've anyway."
One side of Vegeta's mouth quirked up in a lopsided smile and he buried his face in her neck again. He started purring more when she resumed scratching his back lightly. "I did some terrible things while I was gone, though. I killed many people, soldiers in Cooler's army, mostly, but also civilians."
Bulma's hand stilled and she craned her neck so she could look at his face. There, sadly, was no deception in his eyes. He was telling her the truth, but he actually didn't sound proud of what he had done. He was looking to her for acceptance as a child might confess to breaking a rule to his mother when he realized what he did was wrong. "Who's Cooler?"
"Frieza's brother. He took over the empire when his father and brother were killed."
"Oh," she breathed, shocked that that monster could even have a brother. "Well, as much as I don't condone killing, I don't mind you killing his soldiers too much. The civilians, yes, but I'm sure you had your reasons."
This time Vegeta pulled back to look at her in disbelief. This angelic woman was telling him it was copacetic to kill someone because they were soldiers? He couldn't believe it. He was afraid maybe he had rubbed off on her, taken away some of her purity. "My reason was that I wanted to. They couldn't harm me, wouldn't have bothered me, but they were there." He sighed and continued, "But I will not kill senselessly anymore. I want you to know that. I spent a few months alone and sort of, what would you say? Rediscovered myself. I rediscovered what it means to be a saiyan, and it doesn't include killing for fun."
Bulma was confused by his revelation. She thought the saiyans had been a bloodthirsty warrior race who killed ruthlessly and without reason simply because they could. Apparently, he could see her thoughts through her eyes because he interrupted them.
"I know what you're thinking, Woman, and it is wrong. We always had the power to take life, but it was the honorable thing to refrain from exercising that power. Frieza enslaved the saiyans and twisted their need for battle into his weapon. He took their nobility and warped it into crazed bloodlust he used for his own purposes. Saiyans were different before that. I know, because my mother showed me what they used to be. I had simply forgotten after years of abuse, manipulation, and humiliation. You told me once that I have the potential to become a great man, that I can shape my own destiny. I will, and as their prince, I will redeem my people of their sins by living with honor as they would have had they been free as I am."
Vegeta's face was calm and serious as he spoke, and Bulma's heart leaped with joy. She knew he wasn't kidding around or just saying things to make her happy. Her brutally honest houseguest would never bother with that. Maybe going away had been the best thing he could have done. He seemed so stable now, and he had purpose in life again that wasn't just fighting the androids and defeating Goku. She grinned when he finished and hugged him tightly. She knew he had it in him to change, she knew it! And he would still be himself, the same surly, proud prince, but he would have control over his bloodlust and he wouldn't kill pointlessly ever again. "Oh, Vegeta, I'm so proud of you," she murmured into his shoulder.
He pulled away from her and she laid back on the lounge chair again, looking up at him through blurred vision as her eyes filled with tears of joy. "Why do you cry, Woman? Have I said something wrong?" he asked, confused. He gently nipped her nose and rubbed his cheek against hers.
"No, Vegeta, I'm crying because I'm happy," she explained. "Humans cry for a whole bunch of different reasons, silly."
"I'm silly? I don't get all teary-eyed when I'm happy," he groused.
She chuckled. It sure was good to have her grumpy saiyan back.
A/N: Since it's been brought up in a few reviews, I just want to put it out there that there will not be SSJ4 in this story. Yes, Vegeta has a tail, can still become Oozaru, can ascend to super saiyan, and has harnessed the power of the Oozaru, but he doesn't have enough power to make that jump yet. Here's how levels of super saiyan work (in my universe): you have to be able to ascend to SSJ before being able to go SSJ2. SSJ2 must come before SSJ3, but SSJ3 is not a necessary prerequisite for SSJ4; rather, it is a sort of substitute for saiyans without tails. That's why Vegeta can skip SSJ3. Still, it's not happening in this story because he hasn't made it to SSJ2. Ok, now that that's cleared up (I hope), I think it's funny that many reviewers thought Vegeta's power level was too low. Well, maybe, but I didn't want to make it absolutely ridiculous because then he'd be around SSJ2 already. And anyway, his power is different because of the Oozaru thing, not necessarily a lot higher than Goku's power. Even if they were at the exact same level, Vegeta would be stronger because power level isn't everything. The nature of the power makes a huge difference too. Consider when Vegeta became Majin Vegeta. Though he was only SSJ2, Goku claimed not to be able to approach it. I say this is because it was evil/magical, not because it was too high.
Song: "Come Back" by Foo Fighters