"And I don't want to see you back in here until you have a better answer then 'I don't know' you leaching sociopath!" Bed pans and other appropriate items clattered loudly against the wooden door, making sounds the likes of which the infirmaries night caretaker hadn't heard since old Grandma Briefs hip replacement slipped out and she banged it on the bed railing all night in hopes of catching someone's attention.
It had been a harrowing four days for the doctors after the strange little man was brought to their care. Not because of the patient mind you, but because of the blue haired woman who was constantly nagging them and plucking at their shirt sleeves. They almost feared coming into the spacious one person "suite". The woman had a tendency of screaming at them for their inefficiency one moment, then breaking down in tears, begging their forgiveness the next.
The team of experts were hard pressed to make a decision. Either the woman was going through incredibly stressful times, this just adding to it, or she was another undiagnosed victim of a nervous breakdown. Either way, her money was good and they really didn't mind as long as they made the buck.
Bulma was pacing the extremely comfortable rug brought in for her sole comfort, the very end of a pen top being gnawed to shreds. There was a note pad laying on the desk with a few words scrawled on it in an obscene hand. Scattered helter-skelter in no concerned pattern laid crumbled sheets from said note pad. Apparently what was written there had offended Bulma highly. Let's just not mention that what was written on those sheets were her own thoughts.
Large boxes of chocolates, a woman's release during the harsh break up times, cluttered the room. In actuality when one looked at the expanse of the place it didn't really seem very large. Trash was taking up all the space. A nurse had the temerity of peaking her head through the door and was met with the loud screeching of an enraged drama queen and various chocolate boxes flung in her general direction.. She quickly exited... later that evening her notice of withdrawal was found on Mr. Briefs desk.
Bulmas'' pacing continued for some hours before she decided that the a person couldn't live on chocolate and rage alone. The comfortable roll-out bed called to her and she succumbed to the temptation of sleep. Figuring she had the rest of her life and then some to finish her pointless yet sadistic note to Yamcha she laid herself on the airy cushion and was asleep almost before she had properly curled into the sheets.................
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Where are we?"
A voice whispered from amongst the darkness and Bulma wasn't sure where it came from. She wasn't sure of much except that she could feel a strange tingling along her arms that screamed of an unholy presence. Frowning slightly she walked ahead in hopes of finding whoever the voice belonged to, and perhaps a little light to see by. For a while Bulma walked on, one hand waving precariously in front of her while the other ran against a wall. When she heard the voice again it seemed only a few feet away from her.
"I said where are we!?"
Startled Bulma bit back a gasp and threw herself against the wall, inching herself towards a corridor she knew must be nearby. Straining every underdeveloped sense she possessed Bulma attempted to make as little noise as possible while in the mean time hear what was being said not even 7 feet from her.
"Quiet impudent princeling, we've come on your own command and you don't know where you are?"
Cringing slightly against the cold of the stone that bit into her palms Bulma laid her head back and wondered what she was listening to. This latest voice wasn't the one she heard before, it was older and sounded much more sarcastic. But there was an underlying in both voices that nudged at her... both were incredibly arrogant.
"What are you talking about Magicka? I haven't asked for anything and if you don't..."
Whatever else was said was blotted out by a sharp exclamation from Bulma who had just experienced the unpleasant sensation of -something- brushing against her foot in it's passing. Biting down on her tongue she tried her best to not whimper and laid her head against rough stone wall, wishing she were anywhere but here. Farther ahead she heard whatever it had been scrape against something else and knock it over, causing a loud clatter to reverberate through the echo-hungry halls.
"What the hell was that?"
It was the first voice. There was no arrogance this time, just nervousness borderlining fear. And now that Bulma listened to it, she could almost swear she recognized it... but from -where-?
"There is nothing living down in these catacombs princeling, but just because there's nothing living doesn't mean there aren't things that wouldn't love to lunge into you."
The statement caught her off guard until she realized there was no way this was real... she must be dreaming, all those chocolates couldn't be good for your stomach... now she was paying the consequence. There was no other logical explanation, especially considering the fact that she'd only just gone to sleep in the infirmary.. yeah, it was the chocolate, had to be.
"Gah! Catacombs... you've brought me to Mortem haven't you?!"
The first voice again. It sounded grating and angry... and extremely violent. Frowning deeply Bulma tried her best to pin-point the voice. It was most likely someone close to her, someone she knew very well. Dreams had that strange tendency of pulling in the least likely people so as to confuse you into near panic.
"Quiet child, and patience. Yes, I -have- brought you to Mortem... if you wait a few moments I will show you why..."
If it was at all possible Bulma could have sworn she could -hear- the sneer in the older voice. Shivering slightly she silently cursing her over-active imagination and wished her dreams had seen it fit to give her more clothes then what she had fallen asleep in and edged closer to the voices, wanting to figure out who the other voice belonged to before she woke up.
"At least give us some light, I can't see a thing in here!"
Confidence returned the first voice was over-powerlingly gruff, only making the underlying nervousness more prominent. Bulma almost had it that time too, it was so familiar... Suddenly a bright blue flame sprung into being paces away from her and she saw that there was no separate corridor, the owners of the voices were standing not even a full four feet away from her. And at this Bulma gasped. Not because of her insane proximity to the pair, but because of what the pair looked like.
There was a very tall figure slightly hunched over an intricately carved staff that looked almost as unsettling as the man leaning on it. No, leaning was the wrong word to use. The taller man, obviously quite advanced in years, held the staff lightly and hardly put any weight on it, making it seem more as a decorative accessory then anything else. Flowing black robes hid any proportions that would have been distinguishable but for the hands that held the staff possessively and the head that leered through lankly black tresses that fell like a curtain around the mans face, hiding his features from her. Unsettling as the old man was, he wasn't the cause for Bulmas' in drawn breath. The cause of her shock was the owner of the first voice she had heard, a boy that couldn't be much older then 12... and a short one at that.
The taller man bowed so deep Bulma was amazed he didn't break and answered the boys scowl with a sarcastic smirk.
"I, the lowly Guilo, bend my knees, my will and my magic to serve the mighty Prince Vegeta."
Vegeta smirked at the sarcasm, obviously well accustomed to it from this man who called himself 'Guilo' and looked around himself. Bulmas' eyes grew three times their normal size as he looked her way, then blinked in confusion as he didn't even notice her... could it be they couldn't see her?
"Where exactly are we headed?"
The old man pointed past her, past the flickering blue flame, into the darkness beyond.
"What we seek lies not too far from here in that direction, let's be off."
Guilo walked past Bulma with Vegeta following almost eagerly and to Bulma's amazement the blue flame floated right in front of them. Before she knew it she was being left behind as they advanced. Frowning slightly, trying to figure out what was going on she followed after the quickly, not minding to be quiet since they obviously couldn't see her.
She had apparently taking longer then she had thought at first because by the time she reached the end of the corridor and peeked through a large pair of gilt doors Guilo was casting some sort of spell on a large mirror in the middle of the room as he muttered a few things at Vegeta. The prince hardly seemed to be listening to the mage, rather he seemed to be quite transfixed with the mirror and whatever was happening to it. For a few moments she couldn't see the reflecting glass because Guilo's body was blocking her view. Curiosity bade her to enter the chamber and her feet followed on their own accord with no prior instructions from her mind. Soon she was practically standing next to the two and had full access to the mirror. As she looked on she understood what held Vegeta in stasis.
Floating in the center of the glass was an apparition of a planet in mid space. The longer she looked at a specific portion the more in focus it would become until finally she was able to see the actual occurrences on that specific part of the planet. She flitted back and forth in curiosity, scanning over portions and was surprised to see that no matter where she looked she couldn't find a single trace of life. Suddenly her vision was sucked back so that she could only view the planet as a whole, and before she had the time to wonder what happened she saw Freiza floating before a mass colonization of people that looked just like Vegeta. There were a few words exchanged in a language she couldn't understand and then, just like that Freiza launched an attack... and the planet, along with the warriors that were to fight him, were obliterated.
After the massive explosion that took out the planet Vegeta the mirror calmed and seemed to shut down completely. Even the blue flame, the only source of visibility in the room, refused to shine in the mirror though the entire room basked in the unholy blue light. Blinking back shock at the vision Bulma turned in time to see a mirade of emotions cross over Vegetas' face. Surprise. Anger. Denial... then a horribly agonized mixture of pain, fear and sorrow combating the intense need to not show emotion. He looked on to the Guilo, almost pleading for the older man to deny what he knew must be truth.
"And so... come the end of the great Saiy-jin race..."
A heavy sigh rocked the mages frame. I seemed, as alien as the notion was to Bulma, that this strange old man cared for Vegeta somewhat...
"You will never rule..."
Suddenly the blue flame that was now the only light in the room flared to an almost impossible brightness. Millions of scenes flashed before Bulma's eyes, so many and so fast that she hardly had the chance to realize it was a different scene before it was replaced by another. In the midst of this chaos the mirror somehow shattered, and with it, Bulma's fleeting grip of consciousness. Hard stone floor rose up to meet her as body joined mind in it's plummet from reality.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A shriek apart from Bulma's pulled her out of her dream and she blinked in confusion. The lights of the room were off and the shades were drawn over the windows but a small silhouette that was Vegeta could be seen through the soft light the moon lent. Sweat was glistening off his scarred chest and Bulma was forced to struggle between her knowledge of this Vegeta and the scared boy from her dream. There was a noise, like the crunching of metal, and Bulmas' mind began calculating the cost of new bed railings. Frowning slightly Bulma was on the verge of asking the previously comatose prince how he was feeling when suddenly Vegeta turned to look at her. His blank look made her swallow her words immediately, and not knowing how, she knew exactly what he was about to say.
"Where am I?"
The question was a natural one, one that shouldn't have worried anyone.. it was the look that accompanied it that caused panic to rise in her throat. She remembered once when she was younger an employee had gotten quite drunk on the job and had fallen into an argument with a crane. The man was finally calmed when he gave the machine a mighty shove and it shoved back(In actuality he really -did- shove the crane.. and manage to push a button in the process). The large hook connected to the button wasn't holding anything a few chains that were being simply hanging until needed and these caught the man as they fell. He wasn't too badly hurt, but he just sat there with a blank expression on his, staring off into nothing. The stare lasted for a while until his face suddenly screwed up in pain. Before anyone was able to recover from the surprise of the incident or even ask the man if he was okay he blinked about, and asked the fatal question, "Where am I?"
Vegeta was giving Bulma that very same stare and she felt something curl up inside her
stomach as she cringed away. What was the Earth supposed to do -now-?