"In The Future"

Chapter 37: Confrontations

Maybe he did understand her more so than she had initially thought, but she had no intentions of letting him know that. She didn't want him to relate to her--it was just plain scary. He was supposed to be this inhuman beast who merely acted civilized--deep down he was nothing like her. That was, at least, what she wanted to believe.

But his imploring words kept coming back to her; they wouldn't leave her in peace: "18...what did he do to you?" The funny part was that she felt angry at herself for not answering. She was under no obligation to do so, but she felt as if she probably should.

Besides, the Vegeta she had talked to was not the same one from her memories. Perhaps he had been pretending to be civil for so long that he finally fooled himself into believing he really was. Whatever was the case, she had to get moving on Bra and Pan…it was time to keep her mind on focus.

///

18 was supposed to be showing him where his children were, but he had left her in a rather distraught mood. Pestering her about where his children was located didn't seem like the ideal thing to do at the moment. Besides, he could sense Cain clearly--he would just beat the information out of him. It sounded like an amusing activity seeing as Cain had had no qualms about doing similar things to him.

Vegeta tried to convince himself that he was not going after Cain merely for revenge, but he knew that was unrealistic. Revenge would always be part of the equation, however, there was much more to it. For instance, the world was at stake--this was something that drove him even more than paying Cain back. Everywhere he turned as he peered down upon the world flashing by him, he saw destruction. The infection must have spread to the general population. If he looked even closer at the actual people, he was certain that he would see their glowing crimson eyes. They needed his help--everyone needed him to make things right and Vegeta couldn't help but feel a little bigheaded about this fact.

Before with Oden, the responsibility placed upon him had seemed foreign, unreal. He couldn't quite wrap his mind around it, he just knew that something had to be done about Oden. Here he was again in the same situation and he found that he like the responsibility. It made him feel, at last, important and Princes of Vegeta's type reveled in that feeling. Simply being born of royal blood and being given the title of Prince hood wasn't enough. Vegeta knew that firsthand, but despite his realization of this fact, he would still draw pride from that very source. It hadn't been real, authentic pride just the same as he wasn't really a Prince having never once ruled over anyone besides perhaps his children. The pride from before had been the kind that could harm and ruin relationships, to force him to spend countless nights on his own, to ridicule people who didn't deserve it, and most of all, to cause him to continuously make the same redundant mistakes.

The pride that he felt at that moment was not the same as before. Somehow it was different as if this time it had some essence to it, some reasonable reason why he would feel such pride. He felt a kind of completeness about himself. This was what he should've been doing all along.

As he shot through the air, Vegeta became vaguely aware of two incoming ki signatures. One was Pan and the other Bra. He knew without ever seeing them that they were infected. By now, he was able to sense that as well. And now there was yet another obstacle to deal with.

He really only felt like beating the tar out of Cain--not his daughter and certainly not Pan. But here he was, thrown into exactly that situation. He made an abrupt stop and waited with crossed arms for their arrival.

They made it a point to surround him upon reaching his position. Bra stood in front of him; Pan stood behind him.

"Master, won't be pleased with this," Bra said in monotone.

"Yes, you're supposed to be dead," Pan said in an equally deadpan tone.

"Surprise; I'm not," Vegeta replied in an intentional plain voice.

"Then you know what we have to do," Pan droned.

Vegeta was waiting for their incoming attacks, but nothing came much to his annoyance.

"Well," Vegeta asked impatiently.

"We decided that you should attack first," Bra said mechanically, "It is only fair seeing as you are far more powerful than both us combined."

"Fine," Vegeta said with irritation, "You asked for it."

At his fingertips, Vegeta summoned compact spheres of ki that crackled dangerously in his grasp. He only used one hand and pointed the miniature blasts at Bra who stood in defense. Vegeta unleashed a string of tiny ki blasts directly at Bra, turned and did exactly the same to Pan who also stood in defense. All of this occurred in a split second rendering their defenses inoperable--they couldn't block all the blasts. Soon they were sailing swiftly to the ground and they landed with an audible thud.

Yet they wouldn't stay down. They zipped through the skies towards him once again and simultaneously began to attack him. Not that any of this was putting a great strain on the Prince who dodged so easily, it was as if he wasn't there at all. In fact, at some indiscernible moment, his presence seemed to disappear altogether unbeknownst to the two puppets--Bra and Pan--who were still attacking, but now currently attacking each other. Vegeta stood at a distance maintaining a low, undetectable ki level and watched incredulously.

They were quite blooded up by the time they noticed their folly. Yet they showed no sign of frustration on their expressionless faces. There was no light, no evidence of intelligence in their eyes as they bore holes into their object of desire--Vegeta. And they advanced upon him with all the intensity in the world.

Vegeta thought he was going to lose his mind. They fought with the same skill and elegance as a mindless drone. Before now, he believed such a manner of fighting didn't exist. Awkward, thoughtless punches sliced through the air missing their marks every time. All the time, Vegeta was frenetically trying to figure out how to end this fight as painlessly as possible. They were already quite bruised. Sometimes their missed attacks managed to land on themselves instead of their intended target.

Vegeta finally ended up punching them both hard in the guts merely to render them unconscious and they fell ungracefully to the ground with another audible thud. His eyes stayed on Pan as she groaned from the impact. If only she could remain down, he wouldn't be forced to hit her like some abusive boyfriend.

He looked down at both of them with a critical eye and couldn't help feeling a bit criminal. The image of their sprawled, wounded forms was undoubtedly going to stay with him. Even telling himself that it needed to be done wouldn't ease his conscience--which made him despise Cain even more.

The villains who couldn't fight their own battles were the worst ones. When they enlisted assistance, it was often done in a most cruel and unusual fashion. Vegeta considered himself to have been one of the more "respectable" villains--or at least not nearly as repulsive as Baby or Majjn Buu. He fought his own battles and when he ever wanted help--Nappa-- he didn't infect people, lay eggs, try to absorb their power, or try to force people into a humiliating servitude. No, he only asked that his orders be obeyed. Nappa and Raditz had done just that and Vegeta had been satisfied in that respect--perhaps, however, not satisfied by their inability to actually carry out his orders. That was always a fact to be proud of ignoring the point that being a villain at all was inherently reprobate.

Vegeta felt their ki spark suddenly as they lay injured on the ground. His eyes looked up to the skies in a hopeless manner. They would soon be on their feet again begging for more pain to be inflicted on them. Vegeta wasn't sure he could deal anymore out.

"Hey, you, Mr. Prince, aren't you going to save some for me."

Vegeta turned to the familiar feminine voice, "18, nice of you to show up. Didn't you say you were going to take care of them?"

"That's what I plan on doing. I'm here aren't I?"

"Good. Since I'm here, though, there's no point in me leaving you all by yourself against both of them."

"I'll be fine."

"You take Bra, I take Pan, understand?" Vegeta continued ignoring her last statement.

"Crystal," 18 responded despite herself. There was no point in pushing the issue if he really wanted to help.

"And don't be too hard on them."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I wouldn't want to hurt your precious daughter too severely."

Vegeta glared heatedly at the other, "For your sake, I hope you don't."

Whatever gentleness 18 had perceived in Vegeta from before when he asked about how she felt was gone instantly at that moment. There was the Vegeta she was used to. She only needed to annoy him continuously to get a proper response out of him.

Bra and Pan were on their feet soon enough and they fought 18 and Vegeta in midair. Vegeta quickly dismantled Pan's defenses and incapacitated her with another hard punch to the stomach, but caught her before she could make another injurious fall. One eye was black and blue from one of Bra's accidental fists, blood crawled from her nose and the side of her mouth along with from various cuts she had received. Despite this, Vegeta bent down and kissed her lips gingerly--hopefully those glowing crimson eyes wouldn't open again. He could imagine instead that it was Pan resting after a particularly rough session in the gravity chamber--maybe not, but his imagination was vivid.

"Wow, Vegeta, I didn't peg you as a necrophiliac."

"Mind your business," Vegeta said back in aggravation with slightly rosy cheeks, "Besides, for your information, she isn't dead."

"Alright, alright, touchy touchy. I was only joking."

Alas, yet another who enjoyed relating every joke to death. The similarities were chilling. 18 watched as a white light began to shine from Vegeta's hand which currently touched some part of Pan.

"This is different," Vegeta murmured after a moment.

"What's different?" 18 asked hearing the comment.

"The infection…it seems to be evolving."

"Evolving?" 18 asked trying to draw a more coherent answer.

But he was already quite concentrated on something else, but 18 didn't know exactly what. The only thing she saw was the white light, but she could discern no physical reaction from Pan. 18 waited for something to happen, but nothing did--at least from her point of view.

"Vegeta, what do you mean by evolving?" 18 asked again when she noticed that he was finished with whatever he had been doing.

"I mean that before with Goten and Gohan, the infection in their systems had been more apparent and obvious, but now it seems to have integrated almost seamlessly with the body. You saw how they fought. There was no…forethought, no real motivation to their attacks. It hadn't been that way with Goten or Gohan."

"So you think the infection has more control over them now?"

"That's what I think."

"But Cain has always been about chaos not control."

"Well, maybe he's decided that chaos won't bring him everything he wants."

"Which is?"

"How should I know?" Vegeta said with slight sarcasm.

"You wouldn't," 18 said with irritation, "I was just asking for an opinion."

"What if I don't have one," Vegeta said back.

"You always have one. I want to hear it."

"Cain wants what every other villain wants--power. I haven't met one yet who didn't want power. Chaos won't bring him anything, but control--that would make him nearly omnipotent."

"Hm. That makes sense. But it sounds so…"

"Simple," Vegeta finished.

"Whatever he wants, it's not going to happen. You'll finish him off before then, right?"

"I wasn't aware that that was even a question," he said in standard Vegeta cockiness fashion.

18 grinned at him crookedly, "Right."

The same thing he did for Pan he did for Bra as well. 18 watched as his hands began to glow white once again and as he placed his hand on Bra for a few minutes.

"Listen, you take them back home while I take care of Cain."

18 noticed the closeness of Cain's signature and understood why he couldn't help her take them back to safety at this time.

"You got it," 18 said with a nod, "But first, there's something I have to tell you. Well, maybe two things." Her voice suddenly turned serious with furrowing eyebrows.

Vegeta looked on in interest.

"First of all, your children--they're being held captive in an old, abandoned factory just outside West City. And secondly…you were right, Vegeta, Cain did do something to me--he betrayed me and I was stupid enough to let it happen."

Vegeta waited for her to continue--he knew that she wasn't finished.

"He promised me that he'd bring Krillen back. I know, it sounds like a trick, but I was so desperate and ready to take that chance even at the expense of the world so I stole the black box from the Lookout--it was me. Cain told me that overexposure to such an extreme amount of energy in a concentrated area to someone who could sense it weakens the mental state so much that it could disrupt the normalcy of the person's mind. Goku wasn't going to be an obstacle and I had no detectable ki signature. Stealing the black box was a simple task. It was so simple, in fact, that Cain hadn't realized that I had taken it and he took it upon him to create a diversion--kidnapping Robby--taking a nice little hit on the head for his troubles."

Now everything was coming together in Vegeta's mind. How Cain was able to steal the box wasn't quite so mysterious anymore.

"He never did hold his end of the bargain--and now…"

"And now, all of this," Vegeta finished.

18 was waiting for the onslaught of his judgmental rant, the return of the uncivil Vegeta. But it never came.

"Is that it?" 18 said, "I just admitted that I'm the reason Cain is wreaking havoc on the world."

"I'm not going to punish you. I have a feeling that you've done a good job of that all on your own."

18 stared at him in disbelief.

"Cain likes to play upon people's weakness and he read you perfectly, but perhaps not perfectly enough. I'm still alive. Here, take her home," Vegeta said handing Pan carefully over.

18 was forced to hold both of them by their collars.

"You know, Vegeta…you're not so bad." 18 took off before Vegeta could respond.

She flew a long ways before she decided to slow down again certain that Vegeta had not decided to go and follow her. She gave a sigh of relief. It was almost as if a weight had been taken off of her shoulders. Telling someone, anyone who would listen…was refreshing. The only downfall was that she saw even clearer now how easily she had been tricked. She could see restless nights in the future--not that she was getting any sleep now. Over the past few days she had made sure that at least Vegeta got his rest, but for her it was a different story. The sleeping pills she took religiously were slowly losing their effectiveness. It didn't matter much, at the moment--for now, she needed to stay awake.

///

AN: I know. Everyone thought I was dead or something, but I'm here to say that I'm still alive^.~ It's been pretty busy for the last few weeks--it still is, but I decided its time for another chapter. By the way, I've also taken the time to actually plan out the rest of the story so now I know what the ending is going to be and that it'll probably come in at least six more chapters. Could be good news (for those who are getting tired of reading)…or bad news (for those who want this story to continue forever).

Reviews, adding me or this story to your alert list, everything--I really appreciate the support:

Cheche: Yeah, yeah, I know…more Vegeta/Pan 'cus it's a Vegeta/Pan story. Although, I don't know about lemons…

xzavx: You're partially right, but 18 doesn't know that it was really Cain who killed Krillen in the first place…she certainly doesn't know that Oden wasn't really himself. She only knows that she was betrayed.

kyra: I can't wait either