The Princess
Chapter 19: Strange Messages
By: senzubean
I do not own Dragon Ball Z in any way. I make no profit from this story. I just wrote it for fun.
Vegeta woke up with a start. He was standing in a tropical rain forest.
"What the hell?" He said as he scanned the surroundings. "How did I get here?" he continued disgustedly.
There was a clearing in the trees in front of him. Intent on figuring out why he was here and not with his daughter, he walked towards them hoping to find a town with people to whom he could complain.
Just as he was about to reach the sunlit open space, he was overtaken by what seemed like thousands of ape faced warriors. They were all brandishing archaic spears and crossbows. Vegeta was not impressed, especially when they blocked his way. He pushed past them, noticing that they all looked to be the same species as that Polkrif guy. Suddenly they all started yelling and drawing their weapons. Vegeta soon saw what they were so very upset at. A large, golden oozaru stood roaring above them, its voice bearly distinguishable from the screams of the army.
"Losers." Vegeta spat. It was only an oozaru. He was stronger than that thing and they didn't even care that he was standing among them. He watched it, admitting that a golden oozaru was impressive. But there was only one person who could become a golden oozaru now. And he was pretty sure it wasn't his mother.
"It couldn't be Kakarrot though ." Vegeta mumbled. He, along with Pan, were the only two people who knew that Kakarrot had given himself to the dragon and would never come back.
Finally he was in the front lines of the army and saw the first thing that did surprise him.
"Bra!" He yelled at his daughter who was standing only a few feet away from that oozaru. What was worse was that oozaru had noticed her and was reaching its massive hand down to grab her. He would have thought that Bra would either move or scream, or both, but she remained there silent, staring up at it.
"Bra!" Vegeta yelled as he ran to her, trying to get her attention. "Get away from it!"
The beast was almost within reach of her.
"MOVE!" Vegeta bellowed as loud as he could, still too far away to help her. He'd been trying to transform into a super saiyan , but for some reason his body was not listening, and he was unable to fly or move at super speed either.Vegeta watched in horror as the oozaru's hand coiled around her. Sure she'd be crushed, he stopped running and closed his eyes.
No sickening sounds of his daughters bones crushing were heard. Vegeta cautiously opened his eyes and saw that Bra was still alive. The creature had only cupped it's fingers around her just close enough so that Bra could touch it's palm. She was absorbing energy from it. The massive beast shrank gradually as Bra used her power. When it was the same size as Bra, she transformed to Super Saiyan. Her hair, instead of standing up straight and firm, waved like long serpents in the air. Then , instead of an oozaru standing before her, there was another girl. Like Bra, she too was a super saiyan with waving hair. But unlike Bra, she was a full blooded saiyan, dressed in old armor Vegeta could remember seeing in paintings on the palace walls, her golden tail coiled around her waist. The girl turned and walked straight through the closed stone doors in front of her, the royal crest chiseled out on the arch above.
Bra remained still, staring at the door.
"That...was weird." Vegeta mumbled. Then went to join his daughter when he felt a thump on the middle of his back. He looked over his shoulder and saw half a spear protruding from his shirt, he found the other half sticking out of his chest in front. Blood oozed from the wound, but he felt no pain. Spears and arrows whizzed all around him, aimed at Bra, who was now facing the army, and was looking very terrified.
Vegeta tried to move to help her, but as he went to run, he fell on his side and was unable to push himself back up.
"Bra!" He yelled at her, unable to see if weapons were hitting their mark.
Vegeta sat bolt upright. The forest and the army had disappeared, he was now back on his mother's ship. He quickly realized that the room was filled with a tremendous amount of ki. He looked over to the bed, where Bra was standing with her back pressed against the wall. Her eyes were wide and terrified and she was transformed. Her hair waving like serpents.
"Bra." Vegeta said carefully. She didn't look as if she was in control of herself and the attack of a super saiyan could easily destroy the ship.
That one word was all it took to bring Bra back to reality. Her large green pupils darted in his direction.
"Daddy.." She said, her voice quivering. Her knees buckled beneath her and as she fell to the mattress, her hair fell back around her shoulders, the gold faded into blue. Then she burst out into hysterical crying,
Vegeta leapt off the floor and onto the bed. He collected her in his arms and held her firmly against him. His own tears fell into her hair. Bra looked up at him and saw then streaming down his cheeks.
"W...why are y..you crying?" She asked.
"I thought I'd lost you." Vegeta replied. "I love you so much."
"I love you too." Bra replied then rested her head on his chest.
Vegeta stroked her hair, happier than he'd ever been in his life. His beloved daughter was fine and what was more, she was a warrior. And it was when Vegeta made that admission that he'd realized that he'd still lost something.
Nine days later, they landed back at Capsule Corp. It was three in the morning, but everyone was wide awake and out in the yard as the travelers descended the gangplank.
Bulma had run right out the back door and didn't stop until she had Bra wrapped in her arms, nearly knocking the smaller girl over.
She spent the next ten minutes crying hysterically and telling Bra over and over how much she loved her and how worried she was. In the meantime Bra's skin was taking on a bluish tinge, Bulma was squeezing her too tight.
"She won't be alive for much longer if you don't ease up." Vegeta said to Bulma.
Bulma shot him an icy glare of death. Vegeta looked back puzzled, for the first time since they'd met, he had not deserved that.
Bulma then proceeded to thank Recely and Letta over and over again, then pulled Bra into the house, where everyone fought over who was going to talk to her first. Vegeta, who had done a great deal of the real work, was left alone and forgotten in the yard.
"Everyone's excited to have her back."
"Hmph!"
Recely joined her son in the yard and smiled at him.
"Vegeta, are you jealous?"
Vegeta made a face. "Of course not. That's just silly."
"You're definitely put off by something." Recely said. "I could always tell when something was bothering you."
Not wanting to tell her the real reason he was 'put off' he searched his mind for something that would do in its stead. The strange dream he had popped into his mind, and wouldn't leave when Vegeta tried to think of something else. Giving up he said:
"I had this dream just before Bra woke up. I tried to dismiss it, but it was just too strange." Indeed it was strange, but Vegeta wanted to dismiss it as being stupid.
"Really, what happened?"
Vegeta explained, a little embarrassed, about the warriors that looked like Polkrif, the Oozaru and Bra. He wished now that he'd just admitted the truth. To his dismay, Recely's eyes went slightly wider.
"How strange." Recely said.
"What?" Vegeta asked.
"Well, Bra told me that she had a dream identical to yours. She said she'd had it before."
"I've only had it once." Vegeta replied, very creeped out by that. "Identical?" He asked.
Recely nodded. "Maybe you should discuss it with her."
Vegeta decided that he would, but only after things settled down a bit.
"That planet we went to was awesome." Trunks exclaimed the next day to his sister. He and Bra were lounging in the living room in front of the television when Vegeta entered from his bedroom.
"The place we took those assassins was huge, I'd say it was over 100 stories. And there were , like, hundreds of warriors swarming in that one building alone. Sala said that it's because there's so many dangerous criminals kept there. If there were ever a prison break, the city would be in major trouble. Oh! And the floors moved by themselves and there were flying cars..."
"We have flying cars here." Bra interrupted.
"These flying cars were much cooler, they went way faster. And Sala said that they haven't figured out how to capsulize stuff anywhere else. Grandpa created something totally original in the entire known universe."
"Cool." Bra agreed somewhat reserved.
"Yeah! So I was thinking that it might be an idea to expand Capsule Corp. into the intergalactic market place."
Vegeta laughed at that. "You can barely manage being the President of one company. How will you manage hundreds?"
Trunks looked at him unimpressed, then turned back to Bra.
"Mom told me to make a business plan and she said she'd look into acquiring some alien crafts to test..." Trunks went on, completely ignoring his father's comment.
Vegeta walked into the kitchen just as his wife was walking out. She smiled at him, no longer angry with him for no reason. He started making himself a sandwich, all the while listening to the conversation in the living room.
"Listen missy, if you don't catch up on all the work you missed you won't pass grade 11. You want to graduate next year with all your friends don't you?" Bulma said to Bra.
"Yeah." Bra replied innocently.
"Well, get busy!"
"I was doing it until Trunks came in and started bothering me."
"You can't do your homework in front of the TV anyway. Go and do it in your room."
"But my desk is too messy."
"I don't have time to get into that now." Bulma replied. "I'm taking your grandmother and aunts shopping, I want to see how much you've gotten done when I get back. And if I'm not satisfied with your progress I'll sent you to Chi Chi."
"All right!" Bra replied none to pleased about being scolded and excluded from a shopping trip. Reluctantly she started to pack up the mess of schoolwork spread out all over the living room. Trunks helped, he picked up a scribbler and a page fell out on the floor. He picked it up and examined it.
"You better get rid of all the pages like this before Mom looks at your notes."
Bra snatched it out of his hand, crumpled it up and shoved it into her bag.
"Geeze Bra! I was only trying to help."
"Thanks." Bra said dryly. Vegeta walked into the room, trying to balance three plates filled with massive sandwiches and a two liter bottle of coke.
"Are you drawing those hearts all over the place again?" Vegeta demanded of Bra.
"No!" Bra replied exasperated. Vegeta sat down in his favorite chair and gave her a stern look. He was barely coming to terms with the fact his little girl was a warrior, he wasn't ready to deal with her seeking a mate.
"Good, because if I catch any human boys in my territory..."
"Whatever, Dad." Bra replied angrily, grabbed her backpack and a pile of books, and stormed out of the room.
Vegeta waited until she heard her door shut firmly. Then he turned to Trunks. "What was on that paper?"
"Just some weird characters. I saw her reading 'Lord of the Rings' before she was kidnapped. It might be elvish."
Vegeta didn't understand that explanation, but as long as the paper did not have boys names enclosed in puffy hearts, he didn't care.
In her room, Bra pulled out her bottom dresser drawer all the way and removed a bag hidden underneath.. Taking it to her desk, she carefully removed its contents, then retrieved the crumpled piece of paper she'd shoved in her backpack. The bag contained a mass of papers, all with identical characters as that of the crumpled piece. Some of the other papers were yellowed and written in crayon, in the sloppy hand of a child.
Bra had written all of them at various points in her life. The newest, the crumpled piece, she'd written just that afternoon. Uneasily she sorted through them, wondering if perhaps she should show someone. The one time someone had seen, it wasn't pleasant.
Bra remembered that day with crystal clarity. Her fourth birthday had been two days before and she had just cracked open a brand new box of crayons. Quietly, she had been drawing pictures for a good hour and her father, suspicious of her quietness, had come to check on her. Of course, she insisted on showing him all of her pretty pictures. But Vegeta was only interested in one. It was one Bra didn't even remember drawing. Her paper was suddenly filled with ugly scribbles in black, so she'd discarded it on the floor. Disappointed that Vegeta only took interest in that one, going so far as to retrieve it form the carpet, Bra pouted. Abruptly, Vegeta started yelling at her, ordering her never to draw such pictures ever again.
Unfortunately, Bra continued to subconsciously draw them. Snapping out of hypnotic states only to find full pages of scribbles. She'd ripped up most of the first ones, but being a smart little girl, soon realized that every time, her scribbles were exactly the same. Curiosity caused her to save them under her drawer. Eventually the drawings stopped. Since she was eight, she had been free of them, and she'd forgotten about her stash entirely. But ever since she had that first dream of the forest, the ape army, and the oozaru, she'd been drawing them again.
"They must mean something." Bra said, studying them. They characters were lined up neatly, arranged in varied sized groups with spaces between each group.
"It must be a language." Bra concluded. "And I bet that Daddy understood what it said."
Bra looked at the door. Curiosity ate at her, she wanted to know what these drawings that she'd been doing her entire life meant. But the last thing she wanted was Vegeta to get angry with her again. Her disrespectful behavior in the living room towards him probably put him in a sour mood.
She was saved the trouble of deciding as she heard a knock at the door. She was quite annoyed by who was there.
"Um, hi." Potay said, trying to make eye contact through the small crack Bra had opened.
"What do you want?" Bra demanded coldly.
Potay looked at the floor sheepishly and turned bright red in the face. He had been avoiding everyone since she and her father got home. He hadn't dared to cross Vegeta's path and he hadn't yet spoken to Bra.
"I wanted to apologize for what I did. You were right, I did know it was a mistake. It was mean and dumb and I'm really sorry."
There was a lengthy pause. "It was mean and dumb, and you're really sorry." Bra snapped back.
Potay looked even more embarrassed.
"You have no idea what I went through, and if you did, you would understand that I can't forgive you!" She shut the door quickly in his face. Potay heaved a hurtful sigh. He'd really wanted to make things right. He remained in the hall, staring at the door, until he decided that he would make things right.
"How dare you!" Bra exclaimed as Potay walked right in her room.
"Just be quiet for a second." Potay said hastily, hoping Vegeta hadn't heard her yell. Bra's jaw dropped and she was about to do the exact opposite of what he ordered, but Potay beat her to it.
"Look, I know I did a terrible thing. And I know that a simple apology will never make up for the pain I caused you. But the truth is Bra, that after you left I realized what I'd lost."
"Oh, you lost something?" Bra spat, she couldn't believe the nerve of him.
"Yes." Potay replied firmly. " A friend."
Bra was startled by that. Potay continued.
"I thought about you a lot after you were taken. I realized how hard you had tried to be a friend to me, and I treated you like dirt." Potay said solemnly. He glanced up at Bra hopefully, who still glared back. Potay averted his gaze to the floor. "Anyway, I've always been so different from my other friends. I was just hoping I wouldn't lose my chance with you, but I guess I can't expect you to forgive me- so, I'll just go now." He concluded and made for the door.
"You know.." Bra started, halting him. "What happened was probably inevitable. I know I would have taken off sooner or later without your help. It wasn't all your fault." She looked up at Potay who was staring blank faced back.
"I just forgave you, dumb ass." Bra explained.
Potay smiled shyly. "Really? Um ... thank you."
Bra giggled at him, having to admit that he was kind of cute now that she had decided to put her feelings of hatred aside.
"Well, it looks like you'll be living here from now on, so we should probably get along." Bra added.
"Right." Potay replied. The two remained where they were. Potay shyly looked around the room, but wasn't sure if he should leave or stay. Bra tried not to stare to hard at Potay's very attractive physique, and looked around aimlessly.
"What's this?" Potay asked. Before Bra could determine what Potay was referring to, he had already crossed the room and picked up one of her drawings.
"That's nothing!" Bra replied. Potay looked it over, then looked at her skeptically.
"Did you write this?"
"No.. I mean...well..technically..."
"Nice imagination you've got there. But rhymes are so overrated when it comes to poetry." Potay said and sat down on the carpet beside Bra. "So, your Dad actually sat down and taught you this?"
"What?" Bra asked bewildered.
"Saiyan." Potay replied mockingly.
Bra took the page from him," This... is Saiyan?"
"Yeah." Potay replied. "Quit fooling, did you write it or not?"
Bra looked at her paper. So it was a language, and no wonder her father was freaked out. He was the only one who could have possibly taught her how to write saiyan.
"Potay," Bra said seriously. "Dad never taught me how to do this."
Potay made a confused face.
"I just did it by myself. I zone out and when I wake up I have a full page of this." She explained.
"You're kidding, right?"
"No!"
Potay took the paper from her again.
"Did you ever show your dad this?"
"Once, and he totally freaked on me! I hid all the rest."
"Interesting." Potay replied absentmindedly as he read the paper again.
"What does it say?"
Potay cleared his throat and began to recite.
"Among the trees of Granna, stands an oozaru of gold,
Where Legumasa keeps power that only one can hold.
Many men will seek it, but it will not be found,
For it is destined to ensure the universe is sound.
Only she who holds the power can take it as her own,
The heir holds the key to gather power from the stone."
"Does that make sense to you?" Bra asked.
"Sort of." Potay replied and began to explain. "Legumasa is a female form of the name Vegeta. Until recently, I had known Recely as Leguma. She changed her name so that she wouldn't be recognized as the Queen of the saiyans. Mom explained she chose Leguma as a tribute to her son. You're the heir of Vegeta. Then there's mention of a golden oozaru-a direct reference to the legend of the super saiyan. Then it uses words like she and her, indicating, again, a female. And what's more, a female with special power. " Potay smiled. "This message was created for you and only you! Someone, is trying to tell you something."
"Who?" Bra asked.
Potay laughed excitedly. "I read somewhere once that certain people talk to the dead this way. They're called channelers." He held up the poem again. "I'd guess it's one of your ancestors. You're a direct descendant of Clan Vegeta, rulers of our people since the beginning of time. The first legendary Super Saiyan was alleged to be a member of your family."
"That's great." Bra replied dryly. "But it still doesn't explain what this ancestor wants from me."
"Weren't you listening?" Potay asked astonished." '... for it is destined to ensure the universe is sound...' " He repeated the words of the poem. "That's pretty damned obvious."
"They want me to protect the universe?" Bra said, looking at the writing she herself couldn't understand. "I think they chose the wrong girl." She said and gathered up all the papers with the intention on returning them to their hiding spot.
"I'm sure they have the right girl." Potay replied. "I doubt it's a good idea to question the voice of the supernatural. Look at that Prophecy..."
Bra glared at him. "Polkrif was an idiot. Someone else would have destroyed him if we failed."
"Yes, but the Prophecy said that you would do it."
Bra shut the drawer forcefully. " Dad killed him."
"Could he have done it without your help though?" Potay persisted.
Bra suppressed a growl, trying very hard not to spark an argument with her new friend.
"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but if I don't put a dint in all that homework, my mom is going to be majorly pissed."
Potay sighed gloomily. "I'll go."
"Thanks, I'll talk to you after supper."
Potay got up and put a hand on the doorknob then turned back to her.
"You're not excited at all? I sure would be."
Bra gave him a warning glance.
"All right, all right." Potay replied and opened the door, only to slam it shut again. He ran across the room and stood behind Bra.
"Quit messing around! I mean it!" Bra exclaimed just before her father threw open the door.
"You!" He shouted at Potay. "Stop tormenting my daughter."
"I wasn't!" Potay protested. "Tell him!" He said to Bra, nudging her with his elbow.
Bra smiled, seeing an opportunity for a little amusement.
"You're bothering me now. I asked you very nicely to leave. " Bra stated and walked casually away from Potay, leaving him unprotected.
"Get out , boy!" Vegeta ordered standing off to the side of the door. Potay very reluctantly crossed the room babbling explanations all the way. Vegeta was uninterested in his excuses and he shoved Potay into the hall, then slammed the door shut as he left.
Bra ran to the door to listen to them continue.
"I'm really sorry for what I did, honest!" Potay continued frantically.
She could hear her father growling, and wondered if she should go and call him off.
"Unfortunately, I can't hurt you out of respect for my friend!" Vegeta replied just as Bra was about to open the door.
"Could I go to my room now, please?" Potay asked very respectfully.
"You do that." Vegeta replied. Potay wasted no time and ran down the hall. "Stay away from my daughter!" Vegeta bellowed after him. Bra collapsed to her rear laughing.
"What was so damned funny about that?" Vegeta demanded through the door. He sounded especially cranky.
"Nothing , Dad. Thanks." Bra tried her best to say in a normal voice.
"Hmph!" Vegeta scoffed and went back to his own activities.