A/N: Thanks for all of the support/feedback/reviews! Much appreciated!
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DoodleQueen66: Haha! Bulma can be over the top at times, but she certainly has the best intentions for the most part!
Gamelover41592: Yes, they both are facing some problems unfortunately!
coldblue2015: Great review! PM'ing you now in regards to it!
Abyss Trinity: Thanks! It's pretty hard to keep Vegeta in character sometimes, so I'm glad I'm doing good with his thoughts thus far!
Kirbylover99: Oh wow, you have no idea how happy that makes me! I'm really glad you enjoyed the prequel and that you're currently enjoying the sequel! I'm stoked that you binged both of them! As far as leaving the Buu saga, the final fight, into someone else's hands besides Vegeta and Goku, I'm still drawing up an outline per-say on events I want to happen and I'm currently thinking on what I want to happen with that! It's pretty conflicting because I want the minor characters to have more time to shine, but at the same time I have a lot of things in store that could potentially hinder that!
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Bit of a short chapter compared to the others, but I'm really trying to stick to introducing Super Buu in Chapter 31 so the next chapter may be a little lengthy considering Evil Buu will have to come up eventually.
Chapter 29: Goku's Time Is Up
Bulma was going through a whirlwind of emotions and it was like the more she tried to process everything, the more her emotions and questions seemingly accumulated. Why didn't Vegeta mention mating to her? Granted, he was no Raditz and certainly no Goku, but Vegeta definitely came around; in contrast to his original personality, Vegeta was a lot more open.
Or rather, a lot more tolerant of her and their family.
After all, the original Vegeta would have never slept in a bed with her, nor would he have ever given her the time of day; slowly but surely he was coming around and that showed in the smallest of things, but the tournament proved to be a major setback in their relationship. And as if that wasn't enough to deal with as is, now she was finding out that Saiyans could mate?
The blue-haired scientist felt overwhelmed.
This was just way too much to process in one day. Or perhaps it was just the fact that so much had already happened today that it was leaving her in a vulnerable state. The blue-haired beauty ran her delicate fingers through her hair, biting her bottom lip in obvious frustration. Could some of this be her fault? Was there something she failed to notice before the tournament? Could she have prevented this?
Bulma distractedly bit her lip harder.
No; this wasn't her fault by any means.
If anything, Vegeta seemed perfectly normal before the tournament and it wasn't until later on, when he, Goku, Tarble, and Gohan reappeared in the center of the ring, that Vegeta had acted completely out of character. Besides, she had already speculated that there was a connection between the insignia on his forehead and his actions at the tournament. And, further, she had already speculated that Spopovich, of whom had the same insignia, had displayed abnormal power and capabilities whilst fighting against Videl.
All in all, she had speculated that Vegeta may have willingly succumbed to such power just to settle his pathetic rivalry with Goku.
Though, if she had to be honest with herself, there was also the possibility that he didn't willingly succumb to such power, but she just couldn't find it within herself to believe that. There was just no way that someone as prideful as Vegeta would do something he didn't want to, right?
Bulma closed her eyes, exhaling soundlessly.
Didn't she make up her mind to talk to Android 18?
There was no point in theorizing to the point of driving herself crazy; she'd just be stressing herself out in the end.
So, mind seemingly made up, Bulma moved to just that - approach Android 18 and get to the bottom of things. Naturally, she'd ask about what Android 18 knew about Vegeta and what happened and then afterwards she'd ask for more details on the process of Saiyan mating.
Or, at least that was Bulma's intentions.
Unfortunately, it was incredibly hard to will her body to move for some reason.
Why was that? Didn't she want to know the truth? Didn't she want her questions answered? As well as her peace of mind back?
Dear Kami... What was wrong with her?
This wasn't the time to be reluctant or afraid; she needed to do this.
How else was she going to get her questions answered if she didn't seek out the truth?
So, using her mental pep talk to herself as motivation, Bulma tried to move again and this time she found herself more than able to walk. And with slow yet determined steps, the small woman made her way back to where the others were. Immediately, her blue eyes scanned around for a certain blonde Android but instead ran into the sight of many crestfallen faces.
Bulma cocked a brow; this sure wasn't the sight she expected. "Guys?" She called out tentatively, trekking further towards the center of the Lookout where everyone else was. "What's going on?"
"Goku's gone back now." Chi-Chi was first to respond, tears brimming her black eyes.
"What?" Bulma responded back weakly. "He's gone?! Why didn't anyone come get me?!"
"Well to be fair, Bul," Yamcha addressed with a cocked brow, "18 told us that you were taking a personal call and we all agreed not to bother you; it's not like we didn't want to tell you."
Bulma's shoulders slumped guilty. Just how long did she spend wallowing in her thoughts? Had time really passed her by that quickly? If anything, she did honor her excuse to Android 18 and called to check on her parents and that took up quite the time - seeing as they had no intentions of relocating to the Lookout and she spent a lot of time trying to convince them otherwise. Afterwards, upon realizing that her parents just weren't going to listen to her, she spent the remaining time entertaining her thoughts and feelings.
"Besides," 17 interjected coolly, comfortingly rubbing a hand atop of Goten's head, "It's not like this was a permanent goodbye; Goku will return soon enough."
Krillin's features lit up at the reminder, missing the way Maron's smile widened at the sight of his excitement. "Yeah! 17's right, you guys. Sure, we all hate to seem him go, but he'll be back soon enough and we shouldn't forget that."
Yamcha offered a light smile. "Yeah, that's right; that's the most important part, after all!"
Despite 17, Krillin's, and Yamcha's attempts, Goten was still quite saddened. After all, he had just met his dad today and they didn't really spend much time together - at least not doing things that he would have liked to have done.
Naturally, Chi-Chi and Marise seemed to take note of this.
"Oh, Goten," Chi-Chi murmured, unable to resist pulling her little boy into her arms. "Your father will be with us soon enough. He made a promise to me earlier and in order for him to fulfill that promise, he has to come back; Your father has always been a man of his word, if nothing else."
Marise hummed her agreement, offering her cousin a small smile. "That's what Papa says too!"
Goten seemed more or less reassured, a smile slowly making it's way back to his face. "You really mean it?"
"Of course." Chi-Chi promised lovingly.
"Goten," Trunks called out knowingly, "if it makes you feel any better, I'll let you have five toys of mine when this is all over."
"Wow!" Goten exclaimed excitedly, diverting all of his attention onto his best friend. "I can really have five toys?"
Trunks grinned. "Yup! Any five you want!"
Tarble chuckled lightly at the interaction whilst Ranfan, Videl, and Susan couldn't help but do the same. Afterwards, Tarble's eyes found his eyes shifting over onto Piccolo, "Well, then, what do you say we get back into the swing of things? The sooner this is all over, the better right?"
"Yeah," Yamcha interjected before Piccolo could respond. "If things get better, maybe I can relay some better news to Tien. I hated to have to be the one to brief him in, but I couldn't lie to him when he asked about everything - especially since he has a right to know to what was going on considering Launch is pregnant and all."
Master Roshi hummed. "That's still something I can't quite get used to, but if Tien needs some extra hands around the house - "
" - Can it." Chi-Chi interrupted with narrowed eyes. The raven-haired woman already knew where the perverted man was going and wasn't in the mood to hear his perverse jokes. And he should especially know better given his age as well as the fact that he was around both the twins and Goten and Trunks.
"Anyway," Piccolo cut in, eyes diverting onto Tarble. "We'll get back into the swing of things as soon as Raditz comes back and we'll pick up from there; we can't waste the time that Goku bought for us; we have two full days at our disposal."
"Well," Oolong butt in thoughtfully, "A little break couldn't hurt, right? After all, you, Tarble, Raditz and the boys have been training like crazy - or even more so - the minute Goku returned back from fighting Majin Buu up until Goku left a few minutes ago. Plus like you just said, there's still two more days."
"That's true," Piccolo agreed, "but given the nature of our opponent, we need to take advantage of every second in order to have the upper hand on Majin Buu. If we ease up on training now, I have the feeling that things will backfire."
Oolong didn't seem to agree on the matter completely; nonetheless, he dropped it. It just seemed as if the boys and everyone else were taking training a bit too extreme, but he supposed the only thing that mattered was getting rid of Majin Buu at the end of the day.
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Raditz swallowed the remnants of the water within the small plastic bottle, squeezing it into a ball and then throwing said plastic into the trash once he was finished.
He couldn't wait until all of this was over.
Granted, he didn't mind continuously training, but this felt different in some aspects - of which Raditz wasn't sure that he could explain. All Raditz knew was that he was more or less feeling like he did back when training for the Cell Games, but training to take on Majin Buu felt slightly different.
Was it because there was a lot more at stake this time around?
Back then, he didn't have a wife or two kids and while he did have Kakarot's family to look after at the time, having two families to look after now was obviously more responsibility. Or rather, given that he has also been looking out for Bulma and Trunks back then as well, it was more or less three families that he was currently looking after these days.
Regardless if Vegeta was alive or not, he and Bulma were rather close and he would always look out after her and Trunks; if anything, it was the least he could do for her given what she has done for him.
The SSJ3 Saiyan then found himself shifting his teal eyes onto his hands, taking in the yellow aura of which immersed his entire body. With this power coursing through his veins, things would surely go different the next time he confronted Majin Buu. Unlike last time, there wouldn't be a time limit of any sorts, so there wouldn't be any pressure in that sense.
"How much longer do you intend to ignore me?"
Raditz's teal eyes shifted onto 18, taking in her calm and collected features before diverting his teal eyes back in front of him. "I needed to think."
18 cocked a brow. "And ignoring me helps you think?"
"It's nothing like that." Raditz dismissed easily.
18 didn't look convinced, but nonetheless decided to hear him out. "Then what is it?"
"I was upset with you earlier." He revealed. "You were aware that I didn't want you fighting, yet you did so anyway. As a result, Zangya was killed, I was unable to go back into the Time Chamber and Kakarot ended up burning through his time a lot more faster than he would have originally. In short, a lot of things happened as a result of your actions, Lazuli."
18 opened her mouth to respond, but Raditz beat her to it, continuing, "What made me upset the most, however, was that it could have been you that was killed instead of Zangya or even the both of you could have been killed. What if Kakarot and I had been a second late? Marise and Taro would have not only been without their eldest cousin, but without their mother as well."
Near instantaneously, guilt flooded 18's pretty features.
And at the sight, Raditz's hard gazed eased up slightly as he eventually turned around to face the blonde. "Not only that but it upsets me that you're still trying to bare things alone. I know I promised you that I would give you time to come around when things were bothering you, but we've been together for about seven years and we have two kids together. I don't know how many times I have to keep reminding you of that and I would have figured that by now...things would be easier between us, but I guess not."
Then as if considering his next words, Raditz paused for a moment, before picking back up, "So I guess my question to when is when are you going to start trusting me?"
18 blinked. Granted, she gave Raditz a bit of a hard time when it came to things that bothered her, but it certainly wasn't because she didn't trust him. Perhaps it was a good idea on her part to take Bulma's advice and seek out her husband, after all. "How could you imply that I don't trust you?"
Raditz shot his wife an incredulous look. "Because you don't, Lazuli.
18 frowned, blonde brows furrowing. "That's not true. If anything, it's out of habit not out of distrust for you."
"Out of habit, huh? Even after seven years?"
18's frown deepened. "What are you saying?"
"All I'm saying is that I trusted you enough to go through with the Saiyan mating process with you, despite the possibility of death, and for you to not even be able to trust me is an insult. How the hell am I suppose to believe that it's a "habit" issue and not a trust issue when you didn't even trust me enough to not interfere and take on Majin Buu?"
18 fell quiet and Raditz scoffed lightly. "I'm going to get back to training with Piccolo, Tarble and the boys. We have a lot of work to do if we're going to see if the boys can actually tap into SSJ3. I think Piccolo's going to train with Tarble and I'm going to train with Goten and Trunks since they've officially mastered the actual technique, so we can talk later."
Android 18 said nothing in response and even if she wanted to, Raditz certainly didn't wait around for her to do so as her husband was quickly leaving her within the dinning area of the Lookout and proceeding to head to where Piccolo was. She couldn't believe Raditz thought that she didn't trust him. Was this what Zangya had been referring to?
"Hey, 18," Bulma called out tentatively.
The blonde bombshell guessed that Bulma may have overheard everything; nonetheless, 18 coolly diverted her eyes onto the blue-haired woman. And once Bulma saw that she had 18's attention, she continued. "Do you mind if we talk for a bit? There's some things that I need to know; I need answers."
Silence.
Bulma offered a genuine smile, "And perhaps if you're up to it, we can talk about you and Raditz afterwards if you want."
If Android 18 heard Bulma's offer, she certainly didn't address it; if anything, the icy-eyed beauty much preferred to cut straight to the point. "Is this about Saiyan mating?"
"Well, yes," Bulma answered truthfully, "but first I would like to know about Vegeta. I have a few speculations in mind, but my speculations are probably weightless in comparison to the truth."
"And you came to me?"
"Yeah, I know it seems a bit off, but I don't really want to ask Tarble or Raditz; I'm not sure if Tarble is ready to talk about something like that just yet and they're both pretty occupied with training anyway."
"Alright," Android 18 finally agreed after some thought, "I'll answer whatever I can."
