Bulma stopped worked at the computer for a break. She pulled
off her glasses and set them aside, then rubbed at her eyes with a sigh.
"Bulma, girl, you're going to have to start getting out more often," she
whispered to herself. She wheeled her chair back and stood up, meaning
to go for a cup of coffee, but there, right in her lab, stood the Saiya-jin
female.
She was leaning nonchalantly against one of the
tables, her arms folded across her chest, head turned to look at Bulma.
Her hair stuck up at angles, probably sticky from the fluid she'd been
submerged in while she'd been in the regeneration tank, and Bulma was willing
to bet that her clothing was probably much the same. She wore it like royalty
though, and stood like she had every right in the world to be there. Like
she hadn't destroyed the regeneration tank just a day before and tried
to escape.
"Trunks!" Bulma shouted, then screamed it again.
Trunks skidded into the lab, then stopped at the
sight of the Saiya-jin. He blinked at her and assumed a fighting stance.
"How did you get out?" he asked.
She glanced at him as if unconcerned with the question,
then looked back at Bulma. "Well, how nice," she said. "Now there are two
of you to answer my questions." She spoke in a conversational tone, as
if there weren't an underlying threat there. Tell me what I want to
know, or else.
Trunks and Bulma shared a glance. This behavior
was altogether different from the last. Maybe she had been running a fever
after all. "What do you want to know?" he asked.
The Saiya-jin female looked at him, then turned
her head to look at Bulma. Then she smoothly straightened from her lean
on the table and moved to a wall and leaned against it, settling at an
angle where she could see both Trunks and Bulma. Guess she doesn't want
either of us at her back, Bulma thought.
"First of all, who are you two, where am I, and
how did I get here?"
"My name is Bulma, and that's my son Trunks. We
found you by chance in a ship that crashed some time ago, and brought you
here. Do you know what happened to your ship?"
"Wasn't my ship." The Saiya-jin seemed faintly amused
at this.
"Then whose ship was it?"
"It was a parasitic ship. I don't know who it belonged
to, if anyone. I wasn't awake when it crashed."
"Oh." Bulma looked at Trunks, feeling a little at
a loss as to what to say next.
"Are you really a Saiya-jin?" he asked with no hesitation.
There was a strange intensity in his eyes as he spoke.
She looked at him and arched a brow, the first real
change in her face that had happened yet. "Yes."
"But how? The planet was destroyed a long time ago.
Vegeta and Goku were the last Saiya-jins. Trunks is supposed to be the
last now, if you count half-blooded."
The girl looked at him, something odd in her face.
Surprise? "You're half Saiyajin?"
Trunks nodded. "Vegeta was my father."
Now she seemed even more amused than every. "What
do you know. The son of the great Prince Vegeta." She spoke the last three
words with a little sarcasm. "Yes, I'm well aware that Vegeta-sei was destroyed.
However, no one should ever count themselves the last of any given
race. I suppose your father was forgetting that Saiya-jin children were
often sent on missions to other planets. Some never returned, and were
presumed lost or dead, as I suppose I was."
"What's your name?" Bulma asked.
The girl fixed her with grey eyes, and seemed to
weigh her for a moment. "Endive. I want to see the ship."
"I don't think you're in any condition to go yet.
You've only been out of the suspension tank for a little over a week, and
out of the regeneration tank for a day. I don't think it will hurt you
to rest a little more," Bulma said.
Endive looked at him for a moment, her top lip curled
a little in a sneer. "Don't mother me, woman. I couldn't have been in the
suspension tank for that long. I want to see the damned ship."
"You were in it for over thirty years, Endive,"
Trunks said quietly.
The Saiya-jin looked at him, and was quiet for a
moment as it sank in. "Thirty years," she murmured. Her hand went to her
belly, to the spot where the hole through her stomach had been. She was
still wearing the same clothes she'd been in since they brought her there.
There was a hole through the dark green jumpsuit in the front and back,
both spots nearly even. She hadn't taken off the bandage Bulma had put
on her. That showed she had some sense, at least.
"Yeah, that long," Bulma said. "So what's another
day, Endive?"
"Another day is just that," the Saiya-jin
replied with a stubbornness Bulma was beginning to think was typical
of the race. "But I want to see the damn ship today."
Endive and Bulma argued over this for a few more
minutes. Finally Bulma agreed, but only on certain conditions. Endive had
to eat and shower first, and take Trunks with her. Endive grumbled about
it, but finally agreed.
