A/N: I don't own DBZ or the characters, that honour belongs to Akira Toriyama. I use British English spelling.
Vegeta knew he was dreaming. He kept shifting from memory to dream, until he found himself standing in the kitchen of Capsule Corp, the smell of freshly cooked noodles, frying in soy sauce invading his nose. Suddenly he wasn't so sure if he was still asleep.
Bulma stood in front of him, dressed in a short nighty with pink bunny slippers on her feet. Her eyes filled with unshed tears as she looked at him. "Come home." She reached out to touch his face with her pale hand.
"I am," Vegeta breathed, although he hadn't ever called anywhere home in his life.
"No, you're not." A lone tear trickled down her cheek. "Come back to me. I need you."
Her warm skin felt velvety smooth against his, and Vegeta desperately wanted to lean into it. Instead, he reached up and pulled her hand away from his face. "You don't need me." He wanted to let go, but his hand felt glued to hers. "Kakarot will stop the androids."
Bulma's blue eyes widened and she shook her head. "I'm not worried about the androids. I don't need you to defeat them - I just need you here, with me. Come home."
"No one needs me." Vegeta lifted his other hand to touch her hair. "All I do is destroy."
Bulma's eyes darkened then, changing from blue to gold with flecks of red. "You're right."
Vegeta started at the venom in her voice. He tried to pull away, but her grip on his hand tightened with incredible strength.
"Bulma will never be safe with you." She said.
Vegeta closed his eyes, and when he opened them he knew it was no longer Bulma staring back at him.
"You'll kill her." Kalyana leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Like you killed me."
Vegeta tried to tug his hand away again, but found he couldn't move a muscle.
"You can't save her from yourself, my prince. Now, wake up!"
"Vegeta! Wake up!"
"No," Vegeta mumbled. He groaned as someone shook his shoulder.
"V! Seriously man, get up. Someone is coming down here."
Vegeta opened his eyes, which adjusted to the darkness slowly, half expecting to see Kalyana. He blinked, and in her place was the much less appealing figure of Elrik peering down at him and shaking his shoulder.
Vegeta sat up, relieved that his injuries felt mildly less severe. He peered through the barred door, spotting a pair of grey legs descending the narrow staircase that led to the dungeon.
"I don't suppose you came up with a plan in your sleep?" Elrik asked in a low whisper.
"Maybe." Vegeta got gingerly to his feet and motioned for Elrik to do the same. "You're not going to like it, so apologies in advance."
"Apologies for wha-" Elrik broke off with a cry as Vegeta slammed a fist into Elrik's face.
"I told you I'd kill you, you fucking bastard," Vegeta yelled, grabbing Elrik by his throat and slamming him against the bars on the door.
"Stop!" A frantic voice said in Jalakal, but with a terrible accent. "Put the prince down!"
Vegeta glared at the rock man, still unable to remember what planet rock men were from, or what their people were actually called. He looked like one of the men that had brought him into the cell, but Vegeta honestly couldn't be sure. Rock men all looked… well, rocky to him.
"Don't interrupt," he hissed at rock man. "I've been wanting to kill this man for years now and you've kindly provided me the opportunity."
The scaly skin above rock man's eyes lifted in a curiously odd expression of concern. He stepped forward to the door. "That prisoner must remain alive."
Vegeta responded by shoving his free hand through the bars it the door, grabbing the front of rock man's armour, and yanking him hard so his head hit the door. It didn't do much more to the man than make a resounding clang echo through the cell, but it gave Vegeta the chance to let go of Elrik and snatch the keys from rock man's belt.
Elrik dropped to his knees, gasping for breath and holding his throat. "Did you have to be so method in your acting?" He stood up gingerly and patted his face. "I think you broke my nose."
Rock man recovered and flared his ki, moving to fire. Vegeta had his cuffs undone though, and blasted hole in the door, creating one through rock man's chest at the same time. He tossed Elrik the keys with a smirk. "Selling it is key."
Elrik caught the keys and started undoing his cuffs. "But why the nose! You know my face is my best asset." He undid his cuffs and rubbed his wrists. "You've got your hair and winning personality, but I rely on my good-looking mug to pull the ladies."
Vegeta snorted at that, and opened his mouth to reply, but then let out a hiss instead and grabbed one of Elrik's hands and studied the wrist. "How long have you been down here?" The skin where the cuffs had been was raw and scabbed over in places. This wasn't weeks' worth of wear. In Earth terms, it was months… maybe longer.
"I lost count," Elrik said, tugging his hand back. "How did you know he wouldn't let you kill me?"
Vegeta started moving towards his newly made exit, motioning for Elrik to follow. "A hunch."
"You nearly killed me on a hunch?"
They started creeping up the stairs. Vegeta limped slightly with each step, but grit his teeth through the pain. He could sense several ki signatures above, so Vegeta kept his voice low. "I know they must be keeping you alive for a reason. Threatening your father to keep his people in order I assume."
"My mother, actually," Elrik said. "Father's dead."
Vegeta paused on the stairs and turned to look at Elrik. The older prince's expression didn't waver.
"My condolences," Vegeta said.
"Why?" Elrik asked. "You hated my father."
Vegeta shrugged his agreement. "You didn't."
"Most of the time," Elrik muttered.
They made it to the top of the staircase and Vegeta noted where the ki signatures were coming from. There were a large number scattered around the palace, but only three in the room that the staircase led to.
Vegeta contemplated attempting to ascend, but he wasn't certain he could control it, and even in his weakened state none of the ki signatures felt strong enough to require it.
"What's the plan?" Elrik asked. "You do have one, right?"
"I always have a plan," Vegeta said.
Elrik grimaced. "True. Let me rephrase. Do you have a plan I'll actually like this time?"
Vegeta bared his teeth at Elrik in a ferocious grin. "Depends if the mighty Prince of Jalak minds getting his hands dirty. There are three soldiers through the door. You take the one on the right, I'll take the two on the left."
"How do you know how many there are?"
Vegeta ignored Elrik's question and kicked in the door. He ducked to avoid a ki blast the retaliated in kind, killing one of the rock me on the left instantly. The other tackled Vegeta, slamming his injured leg into the ground. Vegeta winced, but swung his fist into the solder's throat. It did little more than knock this rock man back slightly, but it gave Vegeta the time to fire a beam of ki through the solder' chest.
The soldier Vegeta had asked Elrik to take care of lay unmoving at Elrik's feet. Unconscious, but not dead - Vegeta could sense a low level of ki.
"Finish him off," Vegeta said.
Elrik's usually dark skin had paled. He lifted his hand to do the job, but hesitated.
With a scowl, Vegeta blasted the soldier himself. "Your planet is at war, and your people are suffering for it." He raised his voice when the prince didn't respond. "Elrik!"
The Jalakal prince flinched.
"Get it together. No hesitation. No mercy," Vegeta said, reminding him something Elrik used to say on purges.
Elrik lowered his hand, his eyes deep pools of pity that made Vegeta recoil. "That is their philosophy. I know it was ours once, but what is the point in fighting back if what we are fighting for isn't any better than them?"
"Fuck, not you too." Vegeta shook his head. "I was surrounded by enough do-gooders on Earth. This is your planet we are talking about. If you want it back, you need to be willing to do whatever it takes."
Three soldiers stormed into the room at that moment. Vegeta, having already detected their approach, killed them before Elrik could even move.
Vegeta turned to his old friend. "We'll do this my way until we get out of here. Then, if you want my help, it is yours. If not, I shall happily leave Jalak."
Elrik let out a deep sigh. "Can we attempt to keep the palace intact?"
"No promises." Vegeta grinned at Elrik, knowing he'd won this one. "I promise, I won't go near the throne room."
Elrik shut his eyes briefly, before nodding. "Alright, V. Get us out of here."
Vegeta hadn't appreciated how handy being able to detect ki without a scouter was until he had to avoid over a hundred soldiers swarming the palace. He'd become used to the one on one battle style he'd had since landing on Earth, but this - fighting off a horde of soldiers bent on killing him, sticking with his bare hands to minimise damage to the building - like on the other planets he'd freed since leaving Earth, it gave him a rush like no other.
Even Elrik seemed to have overcome his squeamishness, cutting down soldiers in his path with the same brutality he had shown in his purges with Vegeta.
They left the palace, covered in blood that wasn't theirs, and filled with more adrenaline than they could burn. Once outside, they took to the sky, Elrik leading the way.
"You need to teach me how you knew where everyone was before seeing them," Elrik said as they flew over a dilapidated city that Vegeta remembered as being the pinnacle of modern engineering years ago.
"You want me to stay then?" Vegeta asked.
"You have your uses, I suppose." Elrik smiled then, a wide grin that brought more relief to Vegeta than slaking his bloodlust ever could. "Not like you have anywhere better to be, right?"
His words conjured an image of Bulma in Vegeta's head, but he ignored both Elrik's rhetorical question, and the thought of the woman.
They touched down in an abandoned town. Most of the buildings were crumbling, with robes missing, and walls with giant holes in them. Vegeta could see remnants of the cobblestone paving, and guessed that once it had been a quaint little village.
"What are we doing here?" Vegeta asked. "I can't sense anyone."
"That's good to know." Elrik took aim at a building and used his ki to blow it to complete rubble. "That should get their attention."
"Who's attention?" Vegeta asked, but then took refuge behind a wall as a rogue ki blast flew towards him. Suddenly he could sense the ki of twelve. A ki blast shot towards Elrik, and Vegeta jumped in front of him and deflected the blast towards a cluster of ki signatures.
"Don't hurt them!" Elrik yelled. "They are Jalakal. They don't know who we are."
"This was your plan? Piss off your people so they attack you?" Vegeta deflected another blast, this time sending it into an unpopulated area. "Next time, let me stick with the plan making alright?"
"Because yours are so much more thought out?" Elrik retorted, somersaulting out of the way of an attack. "Kill everyone in your path and get lost looking for the exit?"
"You should have known we were going the wrong way. It's your palace." Vegeta deflected another blast. "Fuck this. I'm too tired and too hungry." He rose into the air, dodging beams of ki, then looked down at the town. "Cut it out, you imbeciles!" He shouted in Jalakal. "That's your prince you are attempting to murder."
"You're no prince of ours, Saiyan!" Someone yelled back, sending a blast with it.
Vegeta rolled his eyes. Clearly his reputation wasn't the best on Jalak as well. "Not me. Elrik!"
"I'm their king, actually," Elrik called up. "Had my coronation before I was captured."
All ki blasts stopped and a few Jalakals crept out from their posts behind walls and buildings.
Vegeta flew back down, landing beside Elrik. "As if your ego wasn't big enough," he muttered.
Elrik snorted. "You're one to talk. Your ego's been bigger than a king's since I met you."
"It's well justified," Vegeta said. "Need I remind you that it was I who got you out of that cell?"
"Elrik?" An older woman came forward. A shaking hand covered her mouth. "Is that really you?"
"Mother." Elrik attempted to brush the dirt off his shirt, much to Vegeta's amusement. It didn't help.
"You're alive. They told us you were but…" The woman threw her arms around Elrik, who stiffened in obvious discomfort.
Vegeta smirked, and smothered a laugh as Elrik glared at him.
"I'm fine." Elrik squirmed out of his mother's grasp. "Vegeta showed up and busted us out."
"Vegeta!" Elrik's mother pulled back from her son and fixed a glare on the Saiyan.
"Hurandra." Vegeta said her name carefully. The woman hadn't openly hated Vegeta like Elrik's father had – in fact she'd been fairly supportive of his relationship with Kalyana - but he hadn't seen her since Kalyana died.
Hurandra marched up to Vegeta and punched him hard on his jaw. Not too long ago, Hurandra was a formidable warrior in her own right, and despite Vegeta bracing himself for it, the hit stung his already bruised face.
"That was for my daughter," she said, before spinning on her heals and walking off, waving at Elrik to follow.
"Don't worry about her," Elrik said, tugging on Vegeta's elbow to make him start moving. "She knows you had no choice, and you did save me, so she can hardly attempt to murder you."
"Comforting," Vegeta muttered.
"Metal on," Hurandra commanded.
The the Jalakals started pulling out grey jewellery from their pockets and put them on. Hurandra glanced back at Elrik and Vegeta, then with a scowl, tossed them a ring each.
Vegeta turned it over in his hand before slipping it on his right index finger. He attempted to raise his ki level, then grunted in surprise when he couldn't. That explained why he couldn't sense any of the Jalakals in this abandoned town.
Everyone formed a line and entered one of the more intact buildings, then made their way down a hidden staircase. As the stairs grew windier and the air cooler, Vegeta realised they were heading deep underground. Eventually the stairs levelled off to a wider pathway. Sconces lit the walls, creating odd shadows on the roof as everyone marched by.
When they reached their destination - an open area with more passageways joining off them, each with several adjoining rooms, Hurandra asked to speak with Elrik alone, leaving Vegeta standing in the middle of a group of Jalakals who stared at him with expressions stonier than the rock men.
Vegeta glared back at them, too tired and sore to bother with social niceties. "One of you idiots had better get me some food now, unless you want your underground hideout to have a sun roof, because I just got out of a cell with no windows, and this isn't feeling much better."
After a still moment of complete silence, the Jalakals in the room started scurrying about.
They got him some food, and even sent a Jalakal doctor to look at his injuries. Once fed, Vegeta felt less like killing everyone in the room. "I'm fine," he said to the doctor inspecting the gash on his leg. "It's just a scratch."
"It was a lot more than a scratch," the doctor replied. "That cut went straight to the bone. You are lucky it's not infected." He applied a topical cream that smelt a little like mint, and stung when applied.
Vegeta grit his teeth, but let the doctor finish dressing the wound. As soon as he was done, Vegeta grabbed some more bread and sliced cold meat, then went to find Elrik.
He'd become so used to sensing ki, that every time he came across someone in the passageways unexpectedly, Vegeta nearly jumped. He had no idea where Elrik was, and no one would tell him, so Vegeta simply started walking into rooms in the hopes of stumbling across him.
"You can't be serious!" Hurandra shouted.
Vegeta followed the sound of the voice.
"He can help us," Elrik replied.
"He's just as likely to kill all of us as he is Frieza's loyalists."
"Mother, don't be ridiculous. Vegeta saved my life. He's not going to hurt us."
Vegeta strolled into the room with a smirk. "Aw, Elrik, it's nice to know you have so much faith in me." He handed Elrik the bread and meat he'd picked up. "Eat," he commanded.
Elrik took the food eagerly and started shovelling it into his mouth.
Vegeta glared at Hurandra. "I didn't come here to kill anyone. I was injured and set my ship to come to the closest inhabited planet. I didn't know it was overrun with loyalists, or I would have come sooner. I've been flushing them out all over the galaxy. Let me help you. I've freed several planets from their rule, and you could use my help."
"We don't need your help," Hurandra said.
Vegeta raised his eyebrows. "Your husband is dead, your people hiding in sewers like rats, and your son was held captive for months. Yes, you need my help. Besides. The loyalists have my ship. If you want to get rid of me I need to get it back."
"Let him help, Mother." Elrik said in-between mouthfuls. "He's better at strategy than anyone else I know."
Hurandra let out a deep sigh. "As soon as our people are free, you'll leave?"
"Mother!" Elrik looked up from his food. "He can stay as long as he wants."
"I have somewhere I need to be," Vegeta said. "As soon as your people are free and my ship is ready, I'll leave."
A/N: This update took me a little longer that I'd have liked. B/V chapters are so much easier to write! The next chapter should be up tomorrow. I'm looking forward to getting Bulma and Vegeta in the same room!
