Author's Note: Hi guys. Now, where were we? Things went all to shit on Namek, and though everyone got out alive (well, except for Dodoria, some PTO personnel and an unfortunate number of Namekians), Frieza wished for immortality and the Saiyans and Earthlings got no wishes! Nail got two though, and wished all the aliens to the other side of the galaxy and removed all trace of Planet Namek from their ship's computer and the Galactic Directory.
With a punctured hull the gang are heading to the nearest safe planet for repairs.
'Why not?'
'Because I don't like you that way!'
'So you do like me?'
'I was just being polite. No, and I think you'd make a terrible husband!'
'Hey, how do you know? You been married before? You been married to me? No. Well, I think I'd make a good husband. Don't knock it till you've tried it.'
'Well, I'm not going to try it! And you seem to have forgotten that I'm promised to another!'
'You realise he's dead, right?'
'No! He's alive, we're the dead ones.'
'Splitting hairs. What counts is that you're in different dimensions.'
'We'll be in the same one sometime, one way or another!'
'Yeah, and how are you going to find each other? He could be dead already and you'd never know. Maybe he's down there in Hell.'
'How dare you say that! My Goku would never be caught dead in Heck!'
'He could also be in heaven, but it wouldn't matter because we'll still be following this road for the next thousand years.'
'Yajirobe, I will never marry you even if we're stuck here for the next million years!'
'Jeez, keep your hair on, Cream Puff. I don't want to marry you either.'
'But you just asked me-'
'No, I only asked what it would take for you to consider my marrying me. There's a difference.'
'No, there-'
'Shut it, you two!' yelled Yamcha. The last days, weeks, or maybe it was even months now were filled with these pointless circular arguments between Chichi and Yajirobe, and if he let himself be drawn into Yajirobe's game the three of them could go on for hours.
'Can't we just fly in peace for a while?'
'Absolutely!' replied Chichi. 'If we could just get this meanie-mouth to zip it!'
'I'm the meanie-mouth?' protested Yajirobe. 'You're the mean one, Ice Princess!'
'I'm only mean because-'
'Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!' roared Yamcha, but they paid him no attention, too tied up in their bickering.
'...when you called me a...B, I, T, C-'
'I am NOT fat, I'm solidly built; get your eyes examined!'
'Well you don't show me any respect!'
Oh god, he was going to hit them. He was going to hit them!
The younger two stopped in the air so they could get in each other's faces all the better.
'Well maybe if you weren't such a pushover!'
Yajirobe demonstrated by shoving Chichi. She instantly retaliated by slapping the side of his head.
'Ow!'
The two started scrapping; slapping and kicking at each other more like irritable children than warriors, which Yamcha supposed they were right about now. He watched them for half a minute before losing his temper.
'Hey, playtime's over, guys! Or have you forgotten we're here to do a job?'
'I haven't forgotten!' cried Chichi, and then squealed as Yajirobe caught both her wrists. The two rolled around in the air until Yajirobe's wide butt was presented to Yamcha, and this proved too much of a temptation to his own sour mood; he planted a boot on it and shoved, shunting them both along in the air. The next part wasn't planned though; the kids tumbled through the air together and fell into the clouds, screaming.
'Shit!' cried Yamcha, and rushed after them. Chichi disappeared, but Yajirobe seemed to get held up for a second, jammed in the clouds like they were solid, with his legs waving frantically in the air.
Yamcha grabbed both of the thick ankles before they could slip under the surface and hauled, and hauled harder. He'd expected the weight of two kids, but it felt like more, or like they were being sucked down there by force. He pulled until Yajirobe's belly could be seen and he could just hear Yajirobe's muffled cries, and then with a pop, like a seal had been broken, Yamcha shot upwards, towing a yelling Yajirobe with a screaming Chichi dangling from his arms.
He dropped them on Snake Way, both gasping for breath and covered with pastel pink foam. Whatever these clouds were made of, it wasn't the usual water vapour.
'You idiot!' were Yajirobe's first coherent words. 'You nearly sent us both to Hell! What'd'ya think you're playing at?'
'He pushed us?' said Chichi, rising to her feet. 'Yamcha, how could you?'
'I'm really sorry,' said Yamcha. 'I really didn't mean for that to happen.'
'I should hope you didn't! What were you thinking? We almost got sucked into Heck!'
'I don't think he was thinking anything,' suggested Yajirobe, scowling at him.
Shame coloured Yamcha's cheeks, but he felt this level of criticism was unwarranted, especially from Yajirobe. 'I said I was sorry, but if you two hadn't been driving me insane with your endless squabbling you mightn't have pushed me into doing something hasty!'
'Hasty!' exclaimed Chichi, pausing in flicking the foam off her to stare at Yamcha in disbelief.
'Irresponsible is more like it,' said Yajirobe, backing her up. 'Just because you don't get along with someone is no reason to go kicking them in the butt and sending them down into purgatory.'
'You need to think about the things you're doing!' said Chichi.
'Yeah, grow up, dude,' added Yajirobe.
Yamcha scoffed at the injustice of that. 'This from the pair who were slapping at each other and arguing non-stop for the last…month!'
'At least we can put aside our differences,' said Yajirobe, turning to Chichi. 'Come on, Chich, let's go.'
With an 'Hmm!' of disapproval in Yamcha's direction she took off into the air, closely followed by Yajirobe. Yamcha trailed them, pissed off and unable to believe that he was now in their bad books.
Yajirobe pulled a blob of foam out of his hair and was about to flick it away when he hesitated and sniffed at the stuff instead.
'Does this kind of smell like strawberries to you?' he asked Chichi.
'A little, I guess.'
So Yajirobe licked it.
'It's sweet!' he announced in surprise, and then took a mouthful. 'Oh! Food!' he cried, and dipped back down to the clouds to scoop up double handfuls of the stuff and immediately slurped one right down. 'Yummy!'
Curious, Chichi tasted a bit that was still clinging to the back of her arm. 'Mmm.'
'Just because it tastes sweet doesn't mean it's edible!' Yamcha warned them.
'Fine – you don't have to have any,' said Yajirobe shortly. 'What's it gonna do anyway? Kill me?' He gave a throaty laugh, and Chichi even giggled a little. Yamcha glowered at the backs of them. He supposed he should be grateful that they were temporarily united, even if it was in their scorn of him, but he just wasn't feeling it. His stomach growled for the first time in days.
For what felt like the rest of the day they flew on, the two younger ones up ahead, sometimes chatting, sometimes not, and Yamcha bringing up the rear, but yet again the sun didn't set. He yearned for night. He missed the dark. He missed the stars and any sense of time passing normally.
How he hated this place! It might seem strange that someone who spent so many years in the desert would find a relatively short time in this place boring, but it was amazingly and relentlessly boring in a way that the plains, ravines and mesa of the desert could never compete with. He couldn't even change the direction of travel. It was just the same view, on and on. Ever since the start of Snake Way fell out of sight there was nothing to mark their progress. He had no idea how far they'd come or how much further there was to go, and sometimes he suffered the illusion that they weren't moving at all, and that the road beneath them was just an endless loop that they would follow for eternity.
'I'd trade a sand storm for this any day,' he muttered aloud and suffered a particularly sharp pain of loss when he realised who he wished he was speaking to. He missed Puar. He missed her more than anyone, even Bulma. He hadn't been alone since the day he'd found her crying in the desert, a runaway like him. Now he felt almost as alone as the day he'd found her, even though he wasn't.
'I wonder if you're okay,' he said to the empty space on his shoulder. 'Do you miss me as much as I miss you?' There was no answer, just the ever present whistle of the warm evening air in his ears as he flew through it.
He slowed to a standstill, his heart feeling like it weighed a thousand tons.
I don't know that I can do this anymore, he admitted to himself. But what choice do I have? Falling into Hell didn't sound like it would be a better option, and then he would let everyone down.
Still in conversation, Chichi looked back over her shoulder and spotted him way behind. She stuck out her hand to halt Yajirobe and then started flying back to him.
Embarrassed to be caught in despair he hurried on to meet her.
'Hey, are you okay?' she asked him as he caught up.
'I'm- Yeah,' he lied.
She cast him a worried glance. 'You're not tired?'
'Nope.'
'Are you still feeling bad about before?'
He was still miffed about it, but he pretended he wasn't. 'No, it's fine.'
They caught up to Yajirobe and he fell into formation with them.
'Something up, man?'
'Nah. I just needed a moment.'
'Well, I suppose that's okay, but don't go dropping away like that. You made Chichi worry.'
She reached out and gave Yamcha a friendly fist-bump on the shoulder. 'We three have got to stick together! We're the only friends we've got right now.'
A weak flutter of gratitude stirred his heart an inch or two higher than from his boots where it had settled. Yeah, even though these two drove him crazy at least half the time, they could be his friends.
'You're right,' he said, surprising himself by succeeding in smiling back at her. She beamed, and it was strange how seeing that expression lifted his heart a little more. He turned the other way and asked more playfully, 'Yo, Yajirobe, are we friends?'
'Suppose so,' muttered Yajirobe. 'Don't go telling anyone about it though. I don't want the word to get out that I'm going soft. I got a reputation to live up to.'
BOOK III
Bulma didn't think she was going to be able to eat the meal that Raditz dropped in her lap, but it turned out that her body didn't share quite the same sense of hopeless surrender as her mind, and she chomped through it, barely tasting it (which was probably a good thing considering that it was a reheated Grenouillean frozen dinner) until she was surprised to find the plastic tray empty.
She was slumped on the couch between Puar and Tarble, and though she intended to get up and put her cutlery and tray in the kitchen, her arms fell to her sides and the tray and fork balanced precariously on her stomach. Her eyelids were threatening to follow suit and take her directly into blessed slumber. She welcomed it as an escape from her thoughts and her pain. Her chest, collarbone and shoulder all hurt with the tiniest movement, even breathing. Perhaps she should get her first aid capsule out and take some pain killers? Then she really would sleep.
'Suppose we should get ready for bed,' said Raditz, stepping heavily down the steps into the sunken lounge. 'Kakarott, you need a shower and to burn those clothes or something!'
Bulma pried her eyes back open again.
'We all need to clean up,' declared Nappa, standing up from the dining table. 'Kakarott first, though. He's completely covered in war paint.'
'It's not paint, it's blood,' Goku pointed out sullenly.
Nappa rolled his eyes and said nothing, and Goku trudged away to the bathroom with barely a trace of his usual vim.
Bulma raised herself a little. If anything sounded as good as sleep and pain relief right now, it was a shower.
'I'm after Goku!' she declared.
'Third!' said Krillin, quickly.
'Fourth!' said Raditz.
'Don't be so childish,' huffed Nappa. 'I'm going in after Kakarott, because I said so. Baldie, what's wrong with your arm?'
Krillin had been sitting on the other couch, eating with his left hand while he cradled the other. Bulma realised she hadn't even noticed he was hurt.
'It got hit during the fight with Dodoria,' Krillin replied.
Nappa crouched down to examine it; running his big fingers down Krillin's forearm and wrist. Krillin yelped a little and went pale, but didn't pull away as Nappa squeezed over it.
'It's probably a fracture,' he announced. 'Just keep as you are, don't use it until we can get you in the regen tank. Anyone else got any injuries?'
Tarble spoke up, and Nappa had a look at the burn and bruising on his back, even going as far as scrubbing it clean with a dishtowel wetted in the kitchen sink. Tarble grit his teeth throughout, but Nappa's prognosis was, 'Aw, you'll be fine. If it's still an issue when the tank's free we'll toss you in. Who's left? Raditz, are you carrying anything? You've got a bruise in the middle of your forehead.'
Raditz fingered the small-foot-shaped bruise delicately, but said, 'Nah, nothing that won't sort itself out.'
Bulma wondered if she should mention her own injury, but held her tongue. She wasn't sure if she wanted Nappa examining her, but he stopped before her anyway.
'Princess?' He tone was slightly mocking. 'I know you're carrying an injury. Let's see it.'
'It's okay. I'll just put myself in the tank after Krillin.'
'Let's see it,' he repeated, kneeling in front of the couch. 'Turning all stoic at a time like this isn't doing the rest of us any favours.'
Bulma's brain was too tired to make sense of that statement, but she sat as straight as she could, flinching a little, and brought her good hand up and waved it over her injured parts. 'I got thrown against a tree by Frieza. I hit the trunk down this side of me.'
'And you're still alive. I am amazed,' said Nappa. He immediately reached out to touch her shoulder, and she pulled away, but his arms were way too long to be avoided. His giant fingers squeezed and she screamed, then choked on the scream as she held her breath against the pain, going rigid all over.
Puar leapt to her aid. 'Stop it! You're hurting her!'
The pressure from his fingers eased off right away. 'Sorry, I forgot I was handling the marshmallow girl,' he said, continuing to poke around, feeling her collarbone and her ribs through her clothes, but gentler now. It still hurt, and Bulma did not like that his hand was so close to her breast, but everyone else minus Goku and Vegeta (who was in the tank) was watching, so she figured it was unlikely that he would do anything disgusting. Besides, taking tiny shallow breaths didn't leave much air for objecting.
'You been coughing at all?' he asked.
She shook her head.
'Open your mouth. Stick out your tongue.'
She did.
'Well, it doesn't seem like you've punctured a lung, but I think you've probably cracked a rib or two, maybe fractured that collarbone again. What's with you and trees, huh?'
She shrugged her good shoulder, not at all interested in joking about it.
'Well, when Vegeta gets out, you need to go in next.'
Bulma's head swam for a moment, not understanding the apparent kindness he was showing her. She would have expected that he decreed she got her tank treatment last, if at all.
'Why me next?' she asked as he stood up again.
'Because who's going to need to act fastest if that patch starts failing?'
That made a bit more sense, but…
'I won't be able to react very fast if I'm in the tank,' she pointed out.
'No,' agreed Nappa, 'but I figure that the more time passes the more chance there is that something will go wrong with it, so I'd rather have you fixed up asap than leave you injured until later.'
'Uh.' So it was self-preservation motivating him. Or was it? She considered his argument. 'That's actually pretty sound logic, Nappa.'
Instantly she regretted that phrasing. Nappa wheeled around again, looking over her as he snarled out, 'Well, wha'd'ya know, us dumb monkeys can get some thinking done, too!'
She shrank away from his vicious sarcasm, feeling small and remorseful. She did consider Nappa a bit stupid at times, but she hadn't meant to insult his intelligence right then.
'I'm s-sorry.' She almost stumbled over the unfamiliar phrase. 'I didn't mean it that way.'
Nappa's scowl twitched, but he said nothing. Brolly appeared by the side of the couch.
'She said sorry,' he pointed out to Nappa.
'I know.' Then Nappa rolled his eyes and walked away.
Well, at least that's an improvement over smacking me in the face, she thought to herself.
The floor-bed was arranged, and one by one they processed through the shower. Bulma administered painkillers to anyone who wanted them, including herself, but not the sedative spray this time. It was more than half gone, and not knowing when their mission might be over now, she decided to save the rest for urgent, serious occasions.
Moving slowly, and with quiet voices, they exchanged snippets of their different experiences on Planet Namek, but it was obvious that so much had gone down it would be impossible to get a clear picture before bedtime. She was yawning continually by the time she dried herself and was allowed to settle on the cushions and furs of the bed. Brolly settled himself where Vegeta usually slept and she was pleased about that – he formed the safety barrier between her and early-morning-Nappa's impulses that would otherwise be missing while Vegeta was healing. Barely able to think straight, she was asleep before the holographic fire was off.
She woke up several times in the night when some movement or another caused her ribs and collar bone to hurt more, but always fell asleep quickly. Even once the lights of the ship said it was morning she shut her eyes again and dozed off.
Eventually the muttering of voices pulled her up from sleep and she opened her eyes, looking around the room. Raditz and Nappa were up, and Krillin and Goku were awake but still in bed, sitting close together and whispering to one another. She had a mild shock to find Brolly's still slumbering face close to hers instead of Vegeta's, but then she remembered that the prince was in the tank and looked over towards it.
A bigger jolt of shock went through her. He wasn't there!
Her heart started racing and she sat up slowly, looking around for him. He didn't appear to be in the living quarters. Of course, she'd known he'd be waking up some time, but she wasn't ready for it. She had no idea what she would say to him, nor he to her, or how he would take the news… Oh, jeez. She'd been so caught up in her own reaction she'd forgotten that his might be just as bad or worse.
'Where is Vegeta?' she asked quietly. Nappa and Raditz looked over at her, then at each other.
'He's having some quiet time,' said Raditz.
She struggled up, wincing at the renewed pain, and headed for the corridor to see if he was in that part of the ship, but Nappa crossed the room to block her way.
'You need to get in the tank.'
'Right now?'
'Right now, girl.'
She glared at him, hating to be told what to do by him, but perhaps it was best if she did what he said. Being in the tank would give Vegeta a few more hours to calm down before she had to face him, and she wouldn't have to do it with cracked ribs. She was concerned for him, but running to see if he was okay probably wasn't the best idea right now.
'Alright.'
She put herself in the tank, still clad in her nightie, and waited patiently while the fluid filled it up and her worries faded away back into oblivion.
He'd awoken in the night, lulled at first by the warmth and the darkness and the pleasant fogginess of the tank's chemicals lingering in his system. But then once the water had drained and he'd pushed the door open, confusion and dismay piled up.
They were on the ship! The "where" was obvious, but the "why" and "how" were different matters. There was just a hole in his memory where an explanation ought to be. He had racked his brain for his last memory, his breathing kicking up as he recalled the disastrous end of the fight with Frieza. How much time had passed since Frieza had been torturing him and his awakening here? What had happened?
Heart pounding, he had stood for a few long minutes, dripping on the parquet floor while he looked down at the sleeping forms of his crew, as if their still bodies could give him clues. They had looked clean, relaxed and innocent, as if the trip to Namek had just been one big, bad dream of Vegeta's. Bulma was among them, and it was only as he saw her that he remembered that he'd thought she might be dead. He just stared, relief added to the mix of the geyser of feelings that was rising up through him as the memories and realisations burst forth one after another. He had been losing. He had been dying. He had been taunted and humiliated and tortured. Had he heard Frieza have his wish granted, or was that part just a nightmare? A nightmare that had formed as a perfect dream unspooled in his hands. He remembered the dragon looming over all, looming over him, looking into him like he was a tiny insect, all but squashed. That part probably hadn't happened, had it? Could he hope that the rest hadn't?
No. At least this much was true: he had failed.
Again.
Failed.
They must have dragged his near-dead carcass back to the ship somehow before Frieza could kill him, and escaped. The humiliation of it made him feel sick. He couldn't feel grateful for their efforts. He wished that they hadn't bothered.
He made to wrap his tail around his waist before walking to the bathroom, but he felt nothing touch him. Cold horror zipped down his spine and then just ended at the small of his back, and he felt ill as he realised what it indicated. Still, his hand moved by itself to touch the tail that wasn't there, and encountering nothing but a smooth weal on the skin through the tail-hole in the back of his suit he felt his stomach lurch, remembering the bloody end of his own tail brandished in his face.
He stumbled to the bathroom, feeling clumsy and uncoordinated, and stopped in front of the vanity, gripping the basin with trembling hands. No tail. Frieza's laughing face flashed before him, and he retched, his knees almost buckling as he leant over the sink. His stomach heaved painfully, over and over. His empty stomach only ejected a small amount of bile, but the visceral misery of the dry heaving did eventually start to block out the thoughts that triggered it.
He eased down from the precipice of shock, and once his stomach finally stilled he forced himself into the shower, shaking, sniffing and eyes streaming, but then found very little motivation to wash himself. He could feel the water running though the hair of his tail, and the rest of his skin scrawled at the phantom sensation. He felt compelled but too terrified to reach back again because he knew he would not find it. It wasn't there. Instead he stood with his eyes and fists screwed tight, just trying to remain standing while the walls inside him came crumbling down.
He stayed under the hot spray until the lights began to turn up for morning, and Nappa walked in on him.
'Your Highness, are you-'
Vegeta turned to face the wall of the shower. 'Leave me alone.'
Nappa had withdrawn without another word.
He'd then forced himself out, dried and went to the linen cupboard for clothes before retreating to the bathroom again. Even the act of drawing on pants was deeply unsettling.
Even dressing is an endurance, he thought to himself, looking at his shirt but finding no will to actually pull it over his head. Instead he sank to the damp marble tiles in front of the window, feeling how his newly-disfigured body felt to bend and sit, and wondering if after such a failure he would ever have a reason to stand again. No further course of action presented itself to him. He had no plan for what to do after being defeated by Frieza and living. What did he have left to do now? What aim remained?
The stars were streaking by. They were moving, on the run again. What was the point? Nappa and Raditz and the others must have set a course to save their own skins, he supposed. He himself had nothing to save himself for.
Slowly, his despair began to heat up.
I have failed myself. I was everything I could be and I still wasn't enough!
Had he really become a Super Sayain? He now doubted that he had. Or if he had it hadn't been enough to defeat Frieza, and he refused to accept that. He'd made a fool of himself making that proclamation before Frieza.
He could hear voices outside and feel people creeping through the ship. His crew. What must they think of him now? He'd failed them also. Shame manifested as anger. They had failed him just as much! And Bulma! She had not just let him down but betrayed him! Somehow it seemed obscene that they all go on living after such a defeat.
Finally, morbid curiosity got him to his feet. He needed to fill the blanks. Perhaps things weren't as bad as he thought.
Perhaps they were worse.
He left the bathroom, and stomped out of the corridor into the lounge.
'Raditz! Nappa! Upstairs, now!'
He didn't stop as he continued to the stairs, conscious that his lack of tail must be apparent, but he saw Raditz flinch and the new destruction to the ceiling over the entranceway. From the corner of his eye he saw something white in the regen tank, and as he climbed the curve of the stairs he looked back and saw it was Bulma's nightdress floating up about her thighs. The sight almost stopped him for a moment, but didn't, and he made it to the top, somehow even angrier.
Nappa dutifully followed, not looking thrilled about it, but plodding onwards anyway. Raditz dithered a moment, looking all kinds of unhappy.
'Are you going to debrief?' Tarble asked him in a low voice.
'I don't know!' he replied. 'You know as much as I do.' He finally made to follow Nappa, and Tarble skipped along nervously beside him.
'What are you going to say about…?' he whispered.
'About what?'
'About…going to Guru's?'
Understanding flashed in Raditz's eyes and he stared down at the younger Saiyan with his cheeks reddening. Tarble held his breath, knowing that if Raditz told Vegeta that he had switched sides on Namek, Vegeta would very likely kill him.
'I know what I should say,' he whispered back.
'That we overpowered you and you got knocked out by a little-boy Namekian?'
Raditz scowled and then hissed between his teeth, 'Of course not. We all decided to keep searching for the dragonballs and go to Guru's together, and then I persuaded you all to try and rescue Vegeta and Bulma. You guys couldn't have done anything without me.'
'Raditz!' Vegeta snapped from above, and the Saiyan put his head down and rushed up the stairs to meet the storm that awaited. The door was slammed behind him and Tarble breathed easier than he had since they landed on Namek. Apparently Raditz's pride would be sufficient shield against Vegeta's wrath. He went to keep vigil with Brolly, Goku, Krillin and Puar who had packed up the bed again and were sitting on the floor, leaning back against the couches and the steps.
'Vegeta is really upset,' Puar said, which none of them could hardly have missed, but Tarble was surprised that the cat seemed close to tears about it.
'You'd be too if you lost a fight like that one,' said Krillin.
'I wish I knew what was going to happen next,' said Goku. 'I hate being on this ship. I hate being trapped like this. We can't just leave Vegeta and the others if he gets really angry with us, and we can't fight him, either.'
'Fight him?' Krillin said incredulously. 'Did you see the same fight I did outside Guru's place?'
'I hope Bulma isn't in the tank for long,' said Puar. 'She knows what's going on with the ship and the dragonballs better than anyone.'
'She's better off in the tank,' said Tarble, feeling worried for her because he knew that she would have to get out sometime. 'I bet anything that Vegeta is still furious with her.'
'Furious?' said Brolly, coming completely alert. 'Why?'
'Because she drugged him,' Tarble said. 'Don't you remember? Krillin told us.'
Brolly stared back at him for a long moment before remembrance caught up to him. 'I forgot. I guess I wasn't paying much attention before…'
Tarble watched Brolly as his gaze became distant. It was still so strange to him that his dull, taciturn companion of the last year and a half had been transformed into someone else. Suddenly those dark eyes snapped back to him.
'Tarble, what was I like before? What was it that you all think Guru healed?'
Tarble was a little speechless. 'Er… Um, you were… You used to get really angry and do crazy things.'
Brolly looked genuinely surprised. 'No, I didn't!'
'You did, sometimes.'
'Like when?'
'Like when you tried to attack my friend Chichi,' said Goku quickly.
Brolly frowned. 'She kicked me, but I wasn't that angry.'
'You were,' insisted Krillin. 'Believe me.'
'I barely remember being angry,' he said. 'Annoyed, maybe.' His eyes flicked up to the regen tank. 'Was I ever angry with Bulma?'
'No, you were really nice to Bulma,' Tarble told him, and he looked relieved.
'Oh. Good.'
They fell silent for a minute and then they heard Vegeta's raised voice, the muffled rage filtering down through the closed door.
'Maybe Guru should have healed Vegeta's anger, not just mine?' suggested Brolly. No one replied.
When Bulma awoke in the tank this time it wasn't long before nervousness assailed her. She spent a minute wringing out the hem of her soaked nightie before stepping out timidly, dripping wet, and Brolly and Tarble stood up, both apparently waiting on her, and Brolly handed her a towel.
'Thank you.'
She tiptoed away to the bathroom without spying Vegeta, showered and dressed and then after spending a ridiculous amount of time combing her wet, tangled hair out, she crept back into the lounge. Movement caught her eye in the kitchen, and she caught a glimpse of Vegeta's back as he whirled away into the corridor holding a tray of food. Her heart leapt, raced and sank all in the space of a second.
Krillin was already in the tank, so she hunkered down on the couch between Goku and Raditz, trying to make herself as small and as unobjectionable as possible. The guys were watching nature documentaries again. It was pretty much the only form of entertainment on the holographic unit that bore watching.
Nappa sat with one leg crossed over his knee, taking up even more space than he needed to, crowding Tarble and Brolly into the corner. After waiting a while to see if Vegeta was coming back she asked quietly, 'So, how did he take the news?'
'As well as expected,' said Nappa. 'Why don't you go ask him yourself?'
She wondered for a moment if he was serious, but then Raditz followed with his own assessment.
'I think he might not kill you on sight.'
Nappa chuckled and Bulma groaned, distress flaring into irritation.
'Ha-ha. Now tell me what he said about going back to Namek.'
'He didn't say anything about going back,' replied Nappa.
'Did you tell him what happened?'
'Yes.'
Unease, concern, fear and unhappiness made a horrible soup in her stomach. She stared unseeingly at the creatures in the air of the lounge for a minute while it curdled some more. She had to go talk to him. She had to.
'How can you guys be watching television at a time like this?' she suddenly burst forth, her distress seeking some release. 'Our lives have fallen apart and you're just watching critters mating in the rainforest!'
'My life has fallen apart many times,' was Nappa's reply. 'I'm used to it by now.'
Raditz grimaced down at her. 'I'd weep and moan, but then I'd have to turn in my Saiyan club card.'
She huffed and shook her head.
'I'm not really watching,' said Goku. 'I'm thinking about what we need to do.'
'What can we do?' asked Brolly, sitting forward so that he could see Goku.
She supposed he had a point. Other than those couple of points of business that absolutely must be talked over with Vegeta, there wasn't much to do. Her stomach knotted itself again.
Maybe I'll wait until dinner time before going to see him, she thought. Best to give us both some time to calm down.
Vegeta's thoughts alternated between turning over the events of the day before and Raditz and Nappa's report, and black, wordless rage and despair that felt like he was sinking to the bottom of the deepest quagmire.
Nappa had suspected Krillin of turning Tarble against them, but Raditz was adamant that that wasn't the case. Guru had unlocked the potential of Raditz, Tarble, Kakarott and Krillin. That might be potentially useful, but Vegeta found he didn't care. Guru had unlocked his potential and what had that achieved? He had lasted longer against Frieza than he otherwise would have, but apparently that was still nowhere near enough. If he was destined to become the Legendary Super Saiyan shouldn't that have that done the trick?
'I guess this means this is all you'll ever be,' he had told Raditz cruelly, feeling bitter about his own lackingness.
Raditz had glowered but then told him primly, 'Actually, no. Kakarott asked Guru if this was the maximum power level we could ever reach and Guru said that it was just the full potential of what we are now. If we train our potential will go up, and if we slack off it'll go down.'
So maybe there was still hope?
Who are you trying to fool?
He shoved the voice away, the one that sounded suspiciously like Zarbon.
'I'll kill you at least, if I ever see you again,' he muttered aloud. Locked in the bedroom, with only Nappa's discarded socks and smelly T-shirts for company no one could hear him.
Actually, he wasn't sure if Zarbon was still alive. That Namekian Ngata had outclassed him. Maybe he'd finished the perfumed prick off? Dodoria was gone, killed by Nappa and the others – that was unbelievable! But he didn't feel glad or proud, he felt jealous. He had defeated precisely no one on Planet Namek. When he was finally able to destroy Dodoria and Zarbon, others had defeated them instead. Meanwhile he'd had his ass handed to him a third time by Frieza. How was that fair? He supposed he had only been saved by Nail's timely wish.
Utter, utter, utter defeat.
Things were kind of tense in the lounge. It wasn't hostility for once, only Raditz and Nappa oozing agitation over Vegeta's withdrawal. There was no plan beyond getting to Baccanelli; Vegeta had made no decision and the Earthlings hadn't had access to him to plead their case. At Raditz's prodding, Puar shared the tale of how she got captured and then escaped, freed Vegeta and their failed attempt to free Bulma. Bulma gave her own, very patchy account. Nappa simmered and provided vicious commentary as she told the tale of the three trials that she passed with the assistance of an inebriated Vegeta. She didn't mention of course how she had managed to get a needle in him. She gave a fuller account of her time on Frieza's ship. The boys were very impressed.
'You met Frieza?' asked Tarble.
'Yes. He wanted to keep me as one of his technologists and make capsules for him.'
She and Puar took turns sketching out events up to the point that the dragon was summoned.
Krillin cringed. 'Oh, Nail! He screwed it up for everyone!' Bulma was of the same opinion. If only Nail had not been in such a rush to summon the dragon they might not be in this mess right now.
'He also saved us all,' Goku pointed out.
'Yes, after fucking it up,' she said flatly, and then regretted being so harsh. Her time amongst the older Saiyans was really starting to show on her vocabulary choices, and Nail was just a toddler after all. She rolled her eyes – no, she wasn't going to forgive the twerp – not yet anyway.
Puar offered the rest as far as she knew it. She described what she saw of Frieza's second transformation and what happened when Vegeta showed up. The cat broke down and became nearly incomprehensible due to blubbing over the memory of Vegeta's vicious beating, and Bulma teared up too, but bit her lip and blinked the tears away, hoping no one would notice. She'd seen the aftermath of that beating, and the grief and fear she'd felt would not be easily forgotten. Puar finished the tale of Frieza getting his wish, dropping Vegeta to the ground and reappearing in yet another form before Brolly saved them.
'And what did you do while you were off the leash, son?' asked Nappa curiously.
'You mean what I did after I left Guru's?'
'Yeah. Tell us about that.'
Brolly looked perplexed and began to regurgitate his story in a hesitant fashion, seeming uncomfortable under everyone's undivided attention. Bulma couldn't look away, and it seemed like no one else could either, maybe because it was just so odd to hear him speak at length. He took long pauses at points, as if he was not sure what to say or how to say it, and at times summed up big events with a sparse sentence. Raditz and Nappa were stunned that he'd tangled with Frieza near the Namekian village. When he got to the end of his account everyone but Bulma and Puar, who had been there at the time, were floored with surprise.
'I couldn't let him hurt the girls, so I flew in and kicked him in the face. He was knocked away through a hill and I had a chance to rescue them.'
'What?' the other boys cried, almost in unison.
'You kicked Frieza through a hill?' gawped Raditz. 'In his final form?'
Nappa's mouth was just open in shock.
'Yeah,' said Brolly, uncertainly. 'But he didn't see me coming and only went down for a few seconds. I had to get out of there.'
'Shee-it!' breathed Raditz. 'Boy, you are one lucky bastard. He could've killed you!'
'Huh, yeah,' agreed Nappa. 'You got real lucky, son. Real lucky! But perhaps don't mention it to Vegeta right now.'
'Why not?' asked Brolly, frowning.
'Because Frieza was his fish to fry,' replied Nappa cryptically.
Brolly looked confused but didn't argue. Bulma frowned too. That was a point – how did Brolly get a shot in on Frieza's final form when Vegeta had been no match for his third form? Was it just a lucky shot?
Dinner time arrived, but Vegeta didn't, at least not at first. Raditz went to tap on the bedroom door and let him know very meekly that dinner was ready, and sometime later Vegeta reappeared to dump an empty tray in the kitchen and collect his lukewarm dinner from the dining table. Bulma's eyes were glued to him. His face was like stone; like it had never smiled before and never would again. As he turned his back and started to leave again without having made eye contact with anyone she saw that his shoulders were hunched. A muscle popped in his jaw as he clenched his teeth.
She got to her feet and opened her mouth to say his name, but her tongue seemed to get tangled up. He was almost in the corridor before she began to stammer out, 'V-Veg-' and then he was gone, and if he heard her he ignored her.
Dammit.
Well, at bed time he would be unable to avoid her. Unless he decided to sleep upstairs. Hmm.
Time was ticking, though, so to get things underway, and perhaps also to camp out and prevent Vegeta locking himself up there, she went up to the flight deck. She hauled out her boxes of electronics and added Brolly's broken diadem and useless earrings to the mess. Though they weren't needed any more they were well worth hanging onto – for parts, or perhaps even to sell as just a pieces of jewellery. Then she began picking over the contents of her boxes, picking out rolls of wire to use as antennae, various amps and capacitors and blank circuits boards. While she worked, her mind turned over her various problems and how to broach the subjects with Vegeta.
She sighed.
Though part of her was desperate to mend things between them, and even concerned about Vegeta's state of mind, another part of her wanted to run and hide and maybe write a nice letter to him from a safe distance, but circumstances wouldn't allow for that kind of cowardice.
It was getting late when she heard footsteps on the stairs, and somehow she could tell it was going to be him. She looked up in anticipation, and he appeared, holding his blue fur and blanket, gaze glued to the floor. It seemed like her prediction was accurate.
He sat in one of the pilot chairs with his back to her.
'Leave. I wish to sleep.'
Wow, he was rude when he was sulking!
'Not yet,' she said. 'We need to talk, Vegeta.'
'We do not,' he replied.
'Yes. We do.'
Vegeta half turned the chair her way, but didn't go quite as far as look her in the eye before yelling at her.
'The only reason you are still on this ship is because there's a hole in it!'
Okay, he was still angry, still really fucking angry, and maybe he had good reason to be, so she made a great effort to keep hold of her own temper even though this treatment just pressed all her meltdown buttons.
'So you'd be airlocking me right now if wasn't for my expertise?'
'Congratulations for working it out – I guess you are a genius after all!'
Bulma grit her teeth, starting to get hot and bothered with anger. 'Well, that shows how much you know. You need me for a lot more than fixing the ship, and if you would listen to what I have to say instead of spewing attitude everywhere, you would know that.'
He finally looked her in the eye and the windows to that soul were as black and as hot as the pit of hell.
'Shall I listen to you in order to let you lie and ensnare me once again? You must think me an idiot,' he hissed.
'I don't think you're an idiot and I'm not trying to trick you!' she said, frustration adding more sting to the words than she'd meant. Vegeta gave her a look of contempt and turned away again. Damn it – if she kept on going this way she would make things worse. More calmly she went to the door, but if Vegeta thought she was about to leave he was wrong. She closed and locked it, and hearing Vegeta spring from his seat she whirled around and leant against it, shielding the lock from him with her body. She knew that wouldn't do much good if he was determined, but at least he'd have to look at her first.
Oh, Lordy.
Vegeta had his teeth bared and his brows down so that they must have been impeding his vision. As she was leaning back against the door he had enough height to loom over her, and he did, though he didn't touch her.
'What part of "leave" did you not understand?'
'The part where you kick me out even though we have some really fucking important things to talk about,' she said, still trying to control her own ire. 'Look, I know you don't want to, and I know you have a right to be angry with me, but we're going to have to get past that if we're going to work together again.'
'We are not working together again!'
'Would you hear me out?'
'Will you prick me with another vial of poison if I don't?' His face was twisted up in the most vicious, black humour Bulma had ever seen. She quailed.
'It wasn't poison! It was only sedative!'
'Sedatives are poison if used in high enough doses – we both saw what it was doing to Brolly! Were you trying to kill me, or did you just not care if you did?'
'No! How could you think I didn't care if you lived or died?' The idea was awful. All her anguish about drugging him returned; the memory of him going limp and collapsing in her arms and her terror that his heart might stop beating. 'I didn't even want to drug you!' she cried, and then she was trembling, her eyes filling up. 'Vegeta, please believe me that I didn't want to hurt you!'
He must've seen the tears because he made a sound of disgust and wheeled away, returning to his chair and throwing himself in it.
'I didn't see anyone forcing your hand.'
'I just didn't see any other way,' she said, her voice warbling now. She tried to speak again but only sobs came out.
'And while I was unconscious our enemies moved against us. If you hadn't done that then maybe we'd both have our wishes!'
'I know, and I'm...' She couldn't bring herself to say sorry, because if circumstances had been how she thought they were she wouldn't have changed what she'd done, though she'd still feel bad about it. She sank down the door, brushing tears away on the sleeve of her hoodie only for them to be replaced by fresh ones.
'If I could take it back I would! If I'd known that Frieza was on Namek or that there was more than one wish, I'd never have done it! I thought it was just me versus you. You would have done the same! Don't tell me that if you thought knocking me unconscious was the only way to get your wish that you wouldn't have done it!'
'I didn't do that, though!' he snarled.
'You tied my wrists! You had all of us on leashes! If I hadn't made the dragon radars unreadable to you Saiyans, you would have bound us and left us on the ship! Probably knocked out! Don't deny it!'
'It's not the same!' Vegeta roared. He watched as her head came up, pink and wet from crying and shouted back at him.
'How is it not the same?'
But Vegeta couldn't say. All he knew was this bitter, twisted feeling in his stomach and the shame. It was the way he'd untied her wrists and then he'd left her alone and thought that he was getting somewhere with her, then she repaid these freedoms with treachery. 'You took advantage,' he said eventually. 'I trusted you.'
'You trusted me?' she squawked, rearing up onto her knees. 'Yes, trusted me so much I had to beg for you to untie me to use the little girl's room!'
'You mean so that you could scheme against me.'
'Yes!' she said. 'Because that's all you allowed me. I asked for the first wish then we were on Grenouillea! I tried to bargain with you for it, but you wouldn't accept anything but a head-to-head competition for the dragonballs. I had my whole planet's population riding on that wish! You FORCED me to go against you!'
Vegeta's mouth came open. 'You're saying that it was somehow my own fault?'
'Yes!'
'You're insane!'
She screamed through clenched teeth before sobbing some more. 'I am not!' she choked out. 'Did you forget about the agreement we made on Grenouillea? I did nothing outside the terms of it! It's not my fault if you were so sure that you Saiyans were going to win our competition that you weren't taking it seriously!'
'Taking it seriously?' echoed Vegeta. 'You were the one that proposed this as a game! For fun! That doesn't sound like you were taking it that seriously.'
'Oh, come on!' she cried. 'You know we both had really big stakes riding on the outcome! It was never really a game!'
'Then why did you call it one?' Vegeta knew he was clutching at straws now. What she said was right – the stakes had been very high and he hadn't taken the Earthlings' threat seriously enough. He'd been too caught up in thoughts about getting in her pants instead.
'I called it a game to get you to buy into the idea of not killing us! To get even a chance of saving my family and my planet from you! You were going to kill me if I defied you, remember? Before we made our agreement?' She collapsed into tears again. 'How is what I did worse than that? It isn't!'
That's right – he had said that. He knew now that he hadn't truly meant it, but he had said it to scare her into co-operation.
'There is a difference,' he insisted. Looking back all he could see were his own warped decisions, foolish concessions and irrational softness towards this girl. But she…she had kept her head every step of the way. Why couldn't he have?
'What is the difference?' she demanded.
She had used his feelings against him. But he couldn't say that, not without admitting that he'd had feelings for her. It was so humiliating! He turned away from her again, alarmed to feel moistness prickle his eyes. Fucking, what? He was not going to cry over hurt feelings! Over the manipulation of a useless desire that should never have been allowed to take root! Oh, how he should pity himself! He suddenly recalled Nappa's words to him in this very place, lecturing him about what he should and shouldn't be doing about Bulma.
I am a fool! I should have just…
He couldn't finish the thought. He couldn't have brought himself to force himself on her, couldn't have brought himself to ask her, and he'd proven that he couldn't seduce her without making himself her victim.
For a moment the vision he'd had under Guru's influence returned; an alarming flash of shock and shame and disorientation as he saw a sight he hadn't understood but now did. Though far less visually appealing and more banal than the pornographic holo-vids he'd been subjected to from time to time, he recognised that his father was in the midst of bedding some woman. How clearly he remembered the feeling of the cold metal door handles in his hands and the weight of the doors and the horrible sense that his perfect father was doing something wrong.
Did that actually happen? Was that a vision or a memory?
Bulma stirred behind him, shuffling closer on her knees.
'Vegeta?' She was kneeling at the side of his chair.
He closed his eyes and rested his head in his hands, trying to hide as much evidence of emotion as he could. What was he going to do? What was he going to do about her? They needed her right now, and maybe they would continue to need her, or that warped part of himself would find a reason why they still needed her, but perhaps the wisest course of action was to leave her on this Baccanelli planet they were heading to after she had repaired the ship. What was the clear headed thing to do? Even though he was angry with her, something inside him roared in pain at the thought. He'd lost everything else – why should he have to also give her up?
I'm an idiot! Gods, he was so angry with himself!
When he didn't answer she began to cry softly again; a sound that picked at his soul and filled him with an urgent need to make it stop. He sucked in a breath, felt it catching at his throat and his clenched fists, pushing them into his eye sockets.
'Vegeta,' she tried again, her voice reedy and sounding like it might give way at any second. 'It sucks; what we did to each other. You threatened me, I drugged you, you pushed me off a cliff, which really hurt a lot, by the way, and you could have just as easily killed me at that point. We can't take it back, but we have to get past it!'
Vegeta snorted, despite his misery. Get past it. He knew she was talking of forgiveness, but he could not forgive on demand and only a fool would.
'It wasn't a cliff, it was a hill,' he said. 'Exaggerating your injuries won't even the score.'
'A really steep hill! And they had to put me in the regeneration tank afterwards, I was that hurt. I'd say we are even!'
He took a deep breath and raised his head from his fists again, blinking to clear his bleary vision. Now his eyes had an excuse for being red.
'Why do you think we need to "get past it"?' He risked looking down at her, expecting a pathetic sight, but it wasn't. She was on her knees, but didn't cower. Her face was wet with tear tracks, but she didn't look scared. Her wet eyes shone bright with a certainty that Vegeta lacked right now.
'So we can work together to get back to Planet Namek and get what we both need.'
Vegeta stared at her.
'You're unbelievable,' he said.
'Unbelievable good, or unbelievable bad?'
'Unbelievable stupid! We can't get back to Namek - that ship has sailed!'
'No, it hasn't!' she said excitedly, and she shuffled even closer, resting one hand on the console and one on his armrest. He leant back from the closeness, uncomfortable with her pleasant clean smell while he was still pissed at her. A glitter of red caught his eye - she was wearing the colour-changing alexandrite ring today, which was another reminder of his folly. He'd bought the ring to turn credit into asset, but he'd bought it with her hand in mind and given it to her for lame reasons that ultimately boiled down to wanting to see her reaction to the gift.
Bulma noticed him drop his eyes and slump back into the chair, but paid it no heed. Vegeta was actually ready to listen to her now, and if she had him a little cornered, so much the better.
'The Namekian dragonballs will be ready to be used again in about six galactic months. We get back there, use one to wish for immortality for you and another to bring back Kami, the Guardian of Earth, back to life, and then everyone is happy!'
Vegeta rolled his eyes insultingly. 'And what is the point of that? For that matter, how the hell do you think we will get to Planet Namek without a map, co-ordinates or anything that might help us find the way?'
'What do you mean, what is the point?' She felt the point was obvious.
'Frieza can't be killed if he is immortal,' he pointed out. 'And no man or beast this side of the universe could be strong enough even if he wasn't!'
That took Bulma back a bit. Not so much the immortal part, but the no-defeating-him part. What happened to Vegeta's conviction that he would be the one to destroy his old master? It was gone.
Her heart suddenly slumped as a crutch she hadn't realised she'd been relying on disappeared. Vegeta couldn't give up! She looked at him again, seeing the slouched posture, the angry, mocking defiance, and now realised that he was not just angry with the way things turned out, but was masking a mortal wound to his ego, or a gaping hole where his grand aspirations used to reside. God, Frieza mightn't have killed him, but he'd sure knocked him down a few pegs. The last of her anger drained away. She remembered how she felt when she'd thought he was dead. Maybe he'd thought he was as good as, too. Maybe he was terrified now at the thought of facing Frieza again? She felt the prickle of more tears on the way.
He scowled at her.
'Why are you looking at me like that?'
'Like what?'
'Like you... Like you...' But he didn't seem to be able to say what it was. He looked away out the window again. 'You need to put aside childish dreams of unattainable wishes and accept what life has offered you in reality,' he said bitterly. 'Your case is more pitiful than mine could ever be, so don't you dare look at me like that.'
That hurt to hear, but Bulma guessed where it was coming from now. Slowly she stood up and took the other chair.
'Maybe I'd have to do that if there was no chance of success, but there is a chance – a pretty good one,' she said, watching his face as first hope crossed it and then sneering cynicism.
'There is no reasonable chance of finding the blasted planet again,' he said, 'and no chance at all of defeating Frieza!'
'Well, he doesn't have to remain immortal - that's easily solved. With the last wish we can wish away his immortality. And about getting there... I've been thinking.' She got up again, crossing to the table to pick up a dragon radar that lay there and came back, dropping it in his hands. Vegeta looked up at her in surprise.
'This has that kind of range?'
'No. But I could make a radar that did. It wouldn't be hand held, but it wouldn't need to be. We know enough of the location of Planet Namek to get ourselves within a week's travel of it and then we can use a ship-mounted dragon radar to hone in the rest of the way. I don't even think it would be that hard to build.'
He looked up at her in surprise. Not happiness. She could see the war going on behind those eyes – the struggle not to surrender resignation to a possibly naïve hope once again. She was familiar with the struggle because she'd had been going through the same since yesterday, but she was becoming more and more convinced that their hope was more than just a fool's.
But then the spark dimmed in his eyes again.
'Wonderful,' was his reply. 'That only leaves the most impossible task.'
Bulma sat down again, seeing through his sarcasm to his pain.
'Do you really not think you can beat him?'
His expression became thunderous and he swivelled his chair around to look over the console out of the window. Cheeks pinkening, his voice was hoarse when he finally spoke.
'I didn't say that. But it would be foolish to think that I could in the near future.'
'What about that Zenkai thing?' she asked. 'Didn't you say that you Saiyans get stronger after you're badly beaten in battle?'
'Yes, but that won't be enough.'
'What about…if you train? We've got some time before we need to go back. You can spend some of it in training.'
She could see she was not moving him.
'I think it would take more than a few months training to defeat Frieza. You can't sense chi, so you have no idea how ridiculously powerful he is in his final form.'
Truthfully, Vegeta didn't really know either. He'd been mostly unconscious while Frieza was in his final form, but Raditz had called it "the most shit-squirting fear I've ever felt." Third-form Frieza was bad enough.
'Well…what about…with a training device? Or even more time? I mean, I need to get back to Namek either this cycle or the next. There's a time limit for me, but there's no reason why we can't go there then leave again for you to train some more, or even for you to train there before facing Frieza again.'
He frowned in confusion. 'You'd stay with me beyond getting your own wish?'
She nodded solemnly. 'I'm sure Goku, Krillin and Puar would agree to stay and help, too.'
Vegeta was too weary to argue that Kakarott had no choice. The thought of Puar returning to Earth was an unexpectedly bitter one.
'Why?'
'Because while he's alive, Earth is still on the auctioneer's block. I think I want to see Frieza dead almost as much as you do.' She took a deep breath. 'And I think that you are the one who is going to end him.'
Those words were like power, flooding Vegeta's heart with some momentary golden flash of pride, and trying to jump start it. And then it fizzled away to a ghost of a glow, but it left him feeling minutely stronger and more hopeful than a moment ago. Bulma thought that he would beat Frieza. She could well be a fool, but it was still something.
'Why?' he asked her, suspiciously. She hadn't taken her eyes off him, and he was almost starting to feel exposed under that earnest blue gaze.
'Aren't you the second strongest in the Galaxy?'
He knew was stronger than Zarbon now, and estimated that he was probably stronger than all of Captain Ginyu's team, so he supposed that was probably true.
'That I know of. Frieza seemed to think so.'
'All right – so you are. Plus you're a Saiyan, and a Super Saiyan is meant to be what kills Frieza, right?'
He felt the golden glow slipping further away. 'I am not a Super Saiyan,' he said stonily.
'Yet,' Bulma amended. 'This is good though, because if I understand the story right you get stronger when you cross that threshold. So if you cross it you'll gain all that! And even if you don't become a Super Saiyan, I think you could probably beat him anyway just by getting stronger.'
Vegeta sighed at her forced optimism. 'Long shot. But perhaps.'
'A long shot is enough for me.'
Of course it was.
'And what sort of training device do you propose for getting me strong enough for a fight with that demon?'
'Well, I know that Goku and Krillin have used weighted clothes and trained with large rocks on their backs and things like that, so I was riffing along those lines.'
'Weighted clothes?' he scoffed. 'Training aids like that aren't much use outside of the nursery!'
She looked annoyed at his dismissal. 'I didn't say my idea was weighed clothes, I said it was inspired by it! Look, I've only had a few hours thought on this! I'll come up with something. You've got some time, and you've got me. We'll get this figured out.' She slid to the edge of her seat, eyes imploring. 'It's worth a try, right?'
Vegeta stared back, not giving anything away. He was sure Nappa would say that it was foolish to keep trying to defeat Frieza, but it was all he'd wanted for a long time. Frieza wouldn't stop coming for him either, so he might just end up in a confrontation with an immortal Frieza even if he ran away and hid somewhere. Also, he just didn't know what else to do with his life. The Saiyan breeding scheme had pretty much bit the dust, and probably had even less chance of success than what Bulma was proposing… Unless he used wishes to find or resurrect some Saiyan females? Food for thought, though somehow the whole idea wasn't as appealing as it used to be.
He paused, taking the opportunity to take in Bulma. She was motivated, yes, but could he trust that she was sincere? She was also beautiful, her lips just parted, waiting on his words, all her attention focused on him. He remembered what those lips felt like and what fierce joy it had been to be pressed against her, and the feel of her hands touching him, and that knife twisted again. He grimaced.
'Don't you think?' she prompted, starting to frown.
'I guess it is,' he admitted. 'But there is still the fact that I will never trust you or the other Earthlings again.'
'Did you honestly trust us before?' she asked with surprise.
Hmm, a point. 'Well, I trust you less now.'
Unexpectedly she grinned. 'Don't you see though? Before when we thought we only had one wish and one chance we were forced to be in opposition to each other. Now with more chances and more wishes we can help each other out! We can help each other get what the other wants! We can be allies!'
Allies! Vegeta laughed, she then she started laughing too, apparently with happiness, and he laughed harder.
'Are you serious?' he asked.
Bulma's laughter died off. 'What? Yes, of course!'
'Saiyans allied with Earthlings?' he asked incredulously.
'Isn't that what I said? I don't see what's funny about that.'
'It's not funny, it's pathetic,' replied Vegeta. 'What you just suggested is like a lion allying with a mouse.'
Bulma's face got all sucked up with offence. 'Now you're just being racist!' she exploded. 'Excuse me, but who has it been assisting you this last month? Who's been hauling your ass out of the fire every ten minutes, huh?'
He scowled at her, not appreciating the reminder at this time. 'Another exaggeration! But I'm not denying your usefulness, only the protesting a partnership.'
Bulma saw the distaste in his expression and couldn't quite believe it.
'And what's wrong with being partners?'
'The last of the Saiyans will never be beholden to another race again. You may join my crew, but I won't be entertaining orders from you or anyone.'
She felt her temper start to be tested again. 'Are you for real? I'm not talking about me ordering you about, I'm talking about joint decision making!'
'Exactly!'
'Well, I'm not accepting some subordinate position for the Earthlings! You need us as much as we need you, so we'll be equal partners or nothing!'
He glowered up at her. 'Sharing power is a mark of weakness.'
'No, it's a mark of getting shit done that wouldn't get done any other way!'
He opened his mouth and Bulma anticipated the next argument from his lips.
'Don't even think about threats of violence and other bullshit like that! That's the same crap that got us turning against one another. This is another way – a better one!'
He pursed his lips but didn't argue - yet. While he was gathering his thoughts Bulma pushed her argument.
'If you want to go on being a tyrant, go ahead. We Earthlings will ditch you on this Baccanelli planet and find some other ship that can take us back to Namek. We'll get our wish one way or another, but you won't because you won't be able to find the damn place. Meanwhile, Frieza will track you down in months or weeks, though if he's close by right now, it could just be a matter of days.'
The idea of being ditched by the Earthlings and not the other way around caused Vegeta an unpleasant fright-like sensation. He'd never considered that they might be able to get along without the Saiyans, but now he was confronted with the idea he realised that with Krillin and Kakarott's improved abilities, Puar's talents and Bulma's brain, they could easily steal or highjack a ship and navigate it themselves. However, it might not be as easy as she made it sound, and she was oddly overstating the threat from Frieza.
'You still don't have enough knowledge of this galaxy to do without me, and though I'm sure that Frieza will keep hunting me, he has no way of tracking me and no clue yet where to look. I'll have some time to breathe.'
'That's what we thought,' she said, mysteriously. 'While I was shut up in Frieza's brig, Zarbon told me that you have a tracker inside you. That's how they've been finding you.'
The unpleasant fright-like sensation was back, tenfold. Okay, maybe it was just straight fright – the fucking thing was inside him?
'Zarbon could have been lying,' he said, expecting to see some smirk of triumph on her face, but it wasn't there. Instead there was that damn expression of pity again.
'I don't think he was,' she replied. 'He was mocking us for not figuring out that you had the tracker inside you. He said that I would get one next – that Frieza kept tabs on all his high-risk assets that way.'
Cold was sweeping down Vegeta's nerves, leaving his hair standing on end as it passed. It made sense! Why hadn't he thought of that before? How many scores of times had he been in one of Frieza's med labs, in his tanks, unconscious? Frieza had had so many opportunities to inject some tracking device into him! He shuddered, feeling his dark mood threatening to roll over him once more.
'So I'm doomed to have him constantly at my back?'
'Not if I have something to do about it,' replied Bulma. She stood up, hands on her hips and Vegeta joined her, not wanting to give her the advantage of altitude over him. She looked him in the eye, no fear again, only pleading and hope. He remembered how he'd once lamented that she'd lost her fear of him, and now it looked like she'd never fear him again.
She knows I'll never kill her now. Knows that I probably won't even hurt her. She can't be intimidated.
With a surge of anger at himself he shot out a hand, reaching for her throat, but at the last fraction of a second before his hand gripped her airway tight, it diverted to the collar of her hoodie, grabbing it roughly, knocking her in the chest and making her take half a step back. Dammit! It was as if he couldn't even force myself to hurt her, not properly! He'd been going easy on her for so long it was like it was instinctual now!
She gasped and her eyes did go wide with fear for a moment, but whatever she saw in his face made the shock fade into a frown and then relative calm again. He'd lost that control over her. She put her hand over his fist, and he immediately stopped pushing her, but didn't want to drop his hand for fear of looking weak.
'I know you don't want to have to trust an Earthling or share control with one, but I'm not going to take a back seat on decisions around here! I can get that tracker out of you, and if we stick together, I will. I can help you, and you can help me!'
Share control? Share? Cooperate? But to secure his revenge and destiny it would surely be worth it? If it was just himself and Bulma he would agree, but it wasn't. He had men under his command that would balk at the thought of allying with these weaklings. Would he not seem weak to them?
Her eyes bored into his, intense with conviction.
'I know we can do this together, Vegeta! Instead of struggling against each other, we can…we can share the load.'
His grip on her hoodie was only a limp fist over her breast bone now, covered with the warmth of her hand. Share the load. He hadn't thought of it that way. Sharing decisions would also mean dispersing responsibility; having two heads. And if he were to have a spare head to discuss his decisions with, he would prefer it to be Bulma's ingenious one rather Nappa or Raditz's, whose advice he was currently stuck with.
Her hand squeezed his a little. 'I'll do everything I can to get you ready to beat Frieza if you do everything you can to get me that one wish. We'll promise not to do anything that screws the other person over; to make each other's aim as important as our own.'
'Do you expect me to believe that?' he scoffed.
Bulma pressed her lips together and then relented. 'Okay, I guess each other's aims would remain in second place on the priorities list, but a close second! Most importantly, we help each other and don't just fuck things up for the other half of the team!'
Vegeta snorted with laughter despite himself. Other half of the team, indeed! His eyes dropped to her fingers, wrapped around his own. He was starting to become unbearably conscious of the heat of her hand. Gently he let go of her clothes and dropped his arm, parting their hands.
'What do you think?' she asked.
He was silent, turning it over. There was a lot to be gained, but still some concessions that he was reluctant to make.
'I'm still not sure I trust you Earthlings.'
'I'm not totally sure I trust you Saiyans either, but if we make this alliance you won't have to worry about looking over your shoulder for the next knife in the back.' Her mouth twitched into a little smile, as if she was pleased with what she'd just said.
He curled his lip in distaste at the reminder and stepped away, throwing his fur and blanket down on the curved sofa on the other side of the circular deck.
'I'll think about it.'
'Don't think too long,' she warned him. 'I'd like to get that transmitter out of you before we land on Baccanelli.'
He walked over to join his bedding, hiding his face from her.
'I'll let you know my decision in the morning.'
Author's Note: I thought I'd have this chapter out before now, so sorry about that. The last week and a half has been one of those ones where the best that can be said about it is that at least no one died. Yet. To guest reviewer Oldie, I guess your hope for me isn't being borne out, but please go on hoping as I'd like it to all turn around. Also, do I know you? Have you reviewed before, perhaps under another name?
Thanks for everyone's reviews, by the way. You know I love it! It seems that opinion is split on whether the best bits are when there's a lot of action like on Namek or the end of the Grenouillea arc, or the quiet bits in space. I like both, and how could I not, being the author or both?
