Chapter 2.
The spaceship raced quietly across space. The prince was sitting in the navigator's seat, and much to his annoyance he could not concentrate on the task before him. Bulma's words were the only thing on his mind. I changed too much. A few years ago I destroyed planets, exterminated races without remorse. And now... It fills me with guilty that I left a pregnant woman alone for a short time! Sometimes I can't understand myself. How could I let this stupid girl make such a sentimental fool out of me? He remembered the day when she told him that she's pregnant. He was a bit shocked at first, but then for some strange reason he felt so happy, he started running up and down in the spaceship, screaming: "I am going to be a father!! I am going to be a father!!" Of course he took perfect care that no one, not even Bulma sees him. Unbelieveable. How could I descend to such depths? But no matter how he fumed within himself, he couldn't drive the suggestion out of his head that he shouldn't have come away. He had too much pride to turn back, however.
"APPROACHING DESTINATION... TWO MINUTES TILL LANDING."
Vegita stood up and looked out of a window. The Kapet was once a blue coloured wonder, just like Earth. But now huge black stains spoiled the view, and enormous explosions tore it's surface apart. He also saw the Tourin. The moon was only a couple thousand miles away from the planet. Only a little time was left till the disaster.
"ATTENTION! LANDING SEQUENCE STARTED..."
He quickly took his seat. There's no turning back now.
The spaceship landed with a loud crack. The saiyajin gave a grunt; he forgot again to turn on the retrorockets and lower the landing gear. Damn... With the good old space capsules you simply crashed on the planet and that was all. He got out from the chair and walked to the door. It was stuck, but he forced it open without difficulty and stepped out of the vehicle.
The Kapet was in really bad shape. As it's moon slowly approached, the rocks of the surface were charged up with a large amount of electricity, changing the once beautiful planet into a rocky desert. Lightnings flashed everywhere.
Vegita viewed the horrible sight without batting an eyelid, but deep in his heart he was a bit nervous. Things were worse than he expected. Much worse.
Suddenly giant rocks broke off the Tourin and plunged towards the surface. Their destruction was like a carpet-raid. The saiyajin got into the air cursing, and fired dozens of ki blasts trying to destroy them before they could damage his ship.
He was fighting against the deluge for a long time, and he felt that slowly but surely he's getting tired. The rock-rain diminished for a moment; he looked down to his ship and saw with relief that it's still in one piece. I can't do this forever! There isn't a minute left before the disaster! I have to destroy the Tourin, NOW! He fired a giant beam from his right hand towards the moon. But the electric field surrounding it resisted the strike. Damn it!! The collision of the two energies resulted in a giant explosion, which knocked Vegita down to the rocky surface of the Kapet. The saiyajin was on the verge of fainting, but with much effort he got to his knees. His whole body was covered with blood.
The night was slowly falling. Bulma had locked herself up in her room for a couple of hours now. She sat on her bed, and tried to figure out what is happening on the Kapet. The scouter on her head reported worrying news: Vegita's power level decreased dramatically! What could have happened to him? She wanted to stand up, but sharp pain shot through her belly and she fell down from the bed. The girl noticed something strange about the baby lately, but she didn't pay much attention to it. It was a huge mistake. The pain was unbearable, she felt like someone stabbed her belly with a large knife, again, again and again. She tried to shout for help, but no voice came out from her throat. She desperately reached for the scouter beside her...
I have failed...!!! Unrestrained anger conquered the prince. He was beating a sharp rock with his fist in rage, not even felling that the rock is making deeper and deeper strokes on his hand. It's all over! The Tourin will batter me as flat as a pancake! I don't even have the strength to reach my spaceship! Bah! I'm a big fat joke! The cyborgs don't even need to do anything about me, because I simply kill myself! I'll never be better than Kakarotto! Never...!!
He was starting to get haunted by visions. He saw himself dying... No one shall mourn him, except maybe Bulma. And then the robots will come... Son Goku will get sick, and he will lost the fight against them... The monsters will kill him, they'll kill anyone in their way. The universe will be theirs... He saw a house, which was a lot like Her house, but it was in ruins. Under one of the trees in the garden were two graves. The inscription on the first wooden cross was: "Here lies in eternal slumber Bulma, the loving mother and her baby". And on the other one was: "Here lies Vegita the 18th, the Prince of the Saiyajins, who could have been here to save them, but instead he was killed by his own pride on a planet far away...!
NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A horrible scream emerged from his throat. He felt indescribable pain, but only for a moment. A golden aura developed around him, his hair and eyebrows changed to the same colour and his eyes were now not black, but green. His wounds disappeared, like they never were there. He slowly recovered from his insanity, leisurely stood up and fixed his fearful look on the Tourin. A lightbeam shot out from his aura and hit the moon. A flash and it was no more.
- Bulma dear, are you okay? - asked Mrs. Briefs, for the who knows which time. Even her husband, who was working in his lab, heard the shouting and came to see what happened.
- What happened, honey?
- I don't know, I'm yelling here before her door for minutes, but she is not answering!
- Don't get upset, dear. She's maybe just asleep or something.
All of a sudden they heard their daughter's scream from inside.
- Good heavens! - Mr. Briefs turned as white as a sheet - Open the door, quickly!
- I can't! It's locked from the inside!
- Stand aside! I'll brake it down! - said Mr. Briefs, and he dashed against the door. He bounced off, but he didn't give up that easily, he tried again. And again. And again. And again. Finally he was so muddled, he could hardly stay on his feet.
- Honey, - spoke his wife - why don't you rather go get the spare keys? You know the ones you keep in a safe in the basement.
- You're right! Why didn't I think of this earlier?! - said the man and he ran off.
Vegita stepped into the ship with a proud smile on his face. Yes! At last, he reached the goal he wanted to conquer for a long time: He was a super saiyajin. He was The Super Saiyajin! He examined his shiny reflection on the floor, when he noticed that the scouter, which hanged on one of the levers on the control panel, was flashing. Vegita put the instrument on his head, but he did not hear anything.
- I'm listening, B... woman, what's wrong?
No answer.
The message-sending button might have been pushed by mistake. But just when he wanted to put the scouter down, his eardrum almost burst by Bulma's shrill screaming.
That could only mean one thing. Vegita quickly programmed Earth's co-ordinates into the computer and started the blast-off sequence. Long seconds passed, but nothing happened. That damned electric storm ruined the engine! He had only one chance to get back: If he puts a space suit on, and flies to Earth. Normally it would took weeks, but the prince hoped that as a super saiyajin he's maximal speed increases as much as his powers do. So he got dressed in the suit, put the helmet on and left the ship. After a moment of concentration his golden ki erupted and he disappeared. Actually he did not disappear, but started moving away from the planet at an unbelievable speed. When he looked back after a few seconds, the sun of the Kapet's solar system was just as big as the other stars on the milky way.
After ten minutes he was at the door of Capsule Corp. He tore the spacesuit off and rushed into the building. Bulma was lying unconscious on the sofa in the livingroom, his parents were walking nervously around her.
- Did you call the ambulance? - asked the prince with an impatient tone in his voice.
- Yes... - started Mr. Briefs, but when he saw the saiyajin with blond hair and green eyes, his voice left him. Vegita noticed this, so he dropped out of super sayajin.
- So?! Answer my question, you idiot!!
- Err... Y-Yes, we called them, but they said we must wait, because all of their vehicles are occupied at the moment.
- Wait?!! You mean you just wait here until those idiots show up??!!
- W-Well, yes, what else?
Vegita didn't answer, he picked Bulma up and raced out of the house. Stupid humans!!!
**********************
Author's note: The scene where Vegita turned to SSJ wasn't my idea. It was actually Akira Toriyama's: Vegita told the Z-fighters about how he did it when he rescued Goku from C19. He said he reached SSJ because he was so angry about never being able to surpass Kakarotto and because his heart was pure evil. Of course we all know that that's not enough for someone to turn to SSJ, so Vegita, please try a better excuse next time… :))