Lucy chapter 24

Lucy sits beside her bed staring at her beautiful prince, she does feel guilty for cheating at her own game but looking at him now, sleeping peacefully in her bed, it was worth it. Had she let Vegeta go, as she probably should have she would never find love, no one else can compare to him. Vegeta is perfection, he has just the right amount of goodness in him to make him different to all the other guys down here that Lucy had to choose from before, but he is still evil, no doubt about it, his energy is dark and exciting. Then there's his looks, Vegeta looks amazing. Yeah, he is short, quite a lot shorter than Lucy, especially with the heels she wears, but that takes nothing away from his attractiveness, he is gorgeous. Lucy smiles to herself, she's gonna make him so happy. She knows he is gonna be distraught at first, loosing Goku is gonna hit the prince hard, but she will get him through it, she will help him. then when Goku dies she will bring him here as a gift for her king. She leans forward and softly kisses his closed eyelid.

Vegeta's eyes flutter open, his vision is a mass of colours that have no meaning, where is he, what happened? Why can't he remember anything? Slowly his vision clears and a face comes into view

"Kakarot?" He whispers, his voice horse

"Nope, soz babe," Lucy answers

"Oh, it's you. What the fuck are you doing here?" He moans

"I live 'ere bubs," She answers. Vegeta sits up unsteadily and takes in his environment, he is in Lucy's room, in hell

"What the fuck am I doing here?" He changes his question

"Ya dun remember?" she asks sadly

"Umm, I remember a boat, and I asked Kakarot to marry me! HE SAID YES! Oh, fuck I'm getting married," He exclaims, trying to jump up in excitement but soon giving up on the idea when he realises how dizzy his head is. Now Lucy feels incredibly guilty, she half wishes she didn't cheat after seeing his excitement, but only half.

"Vegeta, that's not all that happened. Think harder," She prompts him sadly

"Then…. then he kissed me and I…." She sees the smile fall hard from his face "I told him I loved him," He says so quietly its barely audible.

"Why? Why did I do that? you can give me another chance right? I mean were friends now, surely you can do something," He says almost desperate

"Sorry Vegeta, I dun make the rules," She shrugs

"Please, I can't lose him now," he begs

"Vegeta, I'm really sorry there's nout I can do," She says with finality

His body slumps, feeling the weight of the world press down on his shoulders, what has he done, why did he say that, if he had just kept his stupid mouth shut he would have had eternity to tell Goku he loved him, but no, he had to let his stupid sentiment get the better of him and ruin everything.

His chest feels empty. He is going back to hell, back to that endless nothing, the eternal non-existence, only this time it would be a thousand times worse, he would never see Goku again. This was the end of the line, he would never see that perfect, infuriating grin on that beautiful face ever again. Never run his fingers through those wayward locks, never kiss his soft lips again. Vegeta is damned to long for his lover forever, to pine for him. he will have him now only in his memories

"How about another deal? I bet the quest master 4000 has lots more cool tasks for me to do? How about it?" He says trying anything to convince her to change her mind

"It's the quest master 3000, Vegeta, and I can't bubs, its done now, I'm sorry," She says a little more firmly

"God, I don't wanna go back down there," He sighs trying to hold back tears

"Down there? What do ya mean? Ya gonna stay wi me, right?" She says confused

"No, if I can't have him I don't want anybody," Vegeta says, a single tear escaping him

"But I told ya already, ya can bring im wi ya," Lucy reminds him hoping that he will change his mind, it would be heart-breaking to have to send him away after all she done to keep him

"I won't damn Kakarot to an eternity in hell as my bit on the side. As appealing as that sounds, he is worth so much more. I want him to be happy, and if that means I have to let him go, so be it" Vegeta explains sadly.

Lucy nods, she never knew he felt that strongly for him. he loves him enough to give up everything to keep him happy

"What can I do to change ya mind, Vegeta. I really want ya with me, please," She begs

"There's nothing that will change my mind…. or maybe, if you let me see him again, can you do that? can you let me see him? just once,"

"I can maybe do a very short amount of time," She says uncertainly

"One hour, that's all I ask, one hour with Kakarot and I'll give you what you want, I'll be your king, please Lucy just let me see him,"

"Deal," She quickly shakes his hand, an excited grin on her face "You won't regret it Vegeta. I'll make you happy I swear, you can have whatever you want, I'll give you the world"

"Ok, whatever, just please, take me to him,".

Goku drifts in and out of consciousness, he is vaguely aware of a conversation happening around him. he can't really make out what they are saying or who is talking, his brain is too fuzzled. He feels like he should try to clear the fog from his mind, but something in the back his head tells him not to, it screams at him to hold on to it for as long as he possibly can. Cling to this blissful oblivion as though his very life depends on it, stay here where reality can't get him. Reality is bad, reality is a painful abys of heartache and torment, this is nice, this is calm, far away from the harsh agony of reality. Stay here.

But he can only hold on so long and soon enough, the awful truth hits him like a bag of hammers.

Vegeta.

The love of his life, the only person who ever understood him, the only other one like him is gone. Not just dead, but gone. Goku searched everywhere for him earlier, he isn't here, he is no longer in this world.

There is no Vegeta.

He tries to open his eyes, they sting and the lights in the room are far too bright. He closes his eyes again and lays there, his body drained but his mind working overtime. There must be a way he can find his prince, he must be somewhere, he can't have just gone forever, he CANT.

He thinks back to that pained expression on Vegeta's face as he died in his arms, the almost silent sigh of I love you as his heart gave up and beat a final time. That can't be the end.

He feels a single tear run down his face leaving a cold and uncomfortable damp track in its path. Goku hardly ever cries, that is more Vegeta's thing but right now he feels as though he could cry forever. He tunes in the conversation around him

"Well, if he is dead we can use it, but only if you can find him. I need a body for it to work," Bulma's pretty voice rings out

"I don't even know where to start looking, but we have to find him for Goku's piece of mind, I've been trying to track where he goes when he vanishes but so far I've had no luck," piccolo answers

"Can't you look harder, I hate to see him like this," Chichi says, concern filling her voice

"Im trying my best Chi, I swear," Piccolo says.

Goku opens his eyes again, this time the light is a little more bearable. Bulma is sat at a computer in the corner of the room. Chichi is in a small armchair, Piccolo beside her, holding her hand.

"Vegeta," Goku croaks, his throat dry and raspy.

"He's awake, Goku, can you hear me honey," Chichi is at his side wiping a damp cloth over his face within a second. He forces himself to sit up, even though the groggy feeling is weighing him down

"Need to find him," he rasps

"We will find him, I promise, you need to rest first, there's no point trying to run around like this, you are all drugged up. Let me get you some water," Chichi fusses over Goku helping him to drink the water even after he assures her that he doesn't need help, he can hold a glass. But Chichi will have none of it, and Goku may not be with her anymore but he knows better than to argue with her.

"So, what is it, exactly, how does it work?" Piccolo asks Bulma, peering over her shoulder at the endless lines of data on her screen

"It's pretty basic really, it's just C25H28O9N5PNO3NACL," she explains with a little smile,

"Yeah…. can you dumb it down a bit, I don't know what all those letters mean," Piccolo says flatly

"Oh, sorry. It's a compound made of DNA, lots of oxygen, adrenaline, salt water and glucose. When someone dies their DNA starts to disintegrate immediately, so we replace that, fill in the gaps if you like, salt water and glucose are to rehydrate that blood, it usually dries up pretty quick. The adrenaline is to make the heart beat again and push the oxygen round the body. it's worked on rats and monkeys so I can't see why it wouldn't work on Vegeta. however…." She trails off

"What? is there a chance it won't work?" Piccolo looks sceptical

"No, im confident it will work, but…. it's human DNA, so he might end up a little more…. not Saiyan,"

"Can't you use Goku's DNA?" Piccolo asks

"It's taken me over a year to perfect this formula, if I start changing stuff now I'll have to go back through animal testing, I have no idea how much Saiyan DNA would change it, I can't use it on Vegeta if its untested. And I don't have time to start messing with it, by the time I'd got it right he would have completely disintegrated, I can't use it if he doesn't have a heart left, that is if we ever find his body,"

Goku hears her words and lets out a small moan

"Sorry Goku, were gonna find him, he can't have gone far,"

"He has gone far," Goku says sitting up on the edge of the bed he has been sleeping on "He isn't anywhere, Piccolo do you think he will come back again like he did before?"

"I don't know Goku, he has never been gone for this long before,"

Goku doesn't know what to say, he looks down at the silver band on his second finger, he spins it slightly with the fingers on the other hand a sad smile pulls at his lips

"What is that ring?" Chichi asks, noticing that it is not their wedding ring on his finger, but a different ring "Did Vegeta give you that?" she asks

"Yeah, he asked me to marry him, right before he…., I said yes. I hope you don't mind Chichi,"

Chichi throws her arms around him, holding him close, she feels her heart breaking to see her husband this sad, they may not be an item anymore but Goku is and always will be her best friend, her first love and the father of her children. He will always hold a special place in her heart and it pains her to see him this torn up

"Of course, I don't mind silly, and when we find Vegeta and use Bulma's formula to bring him back to life, I better have front row seats at the wedding,"

"What about the dragon balls? We can bring him back with those, right?" Goku says, a real smile on his face

"Sorry Goku, he's already been wished back once, shenron can't bring him back again, but don't worry my formula will work. As long as we find him. let me see your ring," Bulma exclaims holding out her hand. Goku slides the band from his finger and drops it into Bulma's palm

"How did he ask you," She says, under any other circumstances she would be jumping up and down at the prospect of organising Goku and Vegeta's wedding, but now she feels her eyes well up

"Was it on a boat? With a shit ton of flowers and fairy lights?"

"Yeah, how did you know," Goku asks

"I saw his credit card statement, that's so romantic. I swear I'll find him for you Goku" she says fervently, if she wasn't determined before she certainly is now. she will find her husband, bring him back to life, divorce him and watch as he marries her best friend. Life sure is strange. She goes to hand Goku his ring back

"Wait," She calls "There's something written inside," She exclaims

"Let me see," Goku snatches the ring and squints as he tries to read the tiny writing, reading has never been Goku's forte

"I'll…. be …. wait…. ing," he reads slowly "What does that mean? What does he mean by that?" he looks up confused, meeting the eyes of every other person in the room, hoping someone had some kind of explanation for this unusual inscription

"Did he know…...did he know he was gonna disappear and now he's waiting for me to come and get him. what does he mean?" Goku asks again frustrated that he can't decipher Vegeta's message

"I'm not definite but it sure sounds like he knew, he must be waiting for you, what else could he mean?" Chichi muses

"Ok so let's find him. he died right so surely king Yemma must have seen him, I'll go ask him where my Vegeta is,"

Goku raises his fingers to his forehead, then stops. The room suddenly grows cold and a dark energy saturates the area.