The Princess
Chapter 20: Overprotective Father
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.
Four weeks later, Bra looked over her final marks as she left the school, surprised she did so well. Straight A's, although only two of those A's were A+'s. Normally she would be very annoyed at not achieving perfection, she was truly her father's daughter. But considering she had crammed nearly two months of new school work she'd missed on top of the rest of that semesters work, she decided to be easy on herself.
"Bra, wait up!" Pan yelled as she ran at a speed she should have been hiding from the normal kids.
"So, how'd you do?" Pan asked anxiously.
Bra held up her report card for inspection.
"Awesome! I got about the same. This calls for a celebration!" Pan exclaimed as they reached the parking lot. Bra took off her backpack and removed a capsule case. Hoards of other teenagers were doing the same thing, releasing capsule vehicles.
"Actually Pan, I kinda made some plans. " Bra replied and released her fire red motorcycle. "I'll catch up with you later though."
"Guess I'll just fly home then." Pan replied gloomily and started to levitate in the air, ignoring the gasps of about fifteen spectators. Bra laughed at her recklessness. "Call me when you get home. And if you don't, I'm coming to find ya!" Pan warned and then took off, smiling over her shoulder.
Bra laughed as she secured her helmet, then took off in a more orthodox way.
She got home about quarter to ten at night, and she was in trouble.
"We were worried sick!" Bulma yelled.
"What were you doing for six hours?" Her father asked in a normal voice.
" What if you had gotten into an accident? No one would know where you were! You could have at least called!" Bulma continued yelling.
All the while, Bra reached into her bag and whipped out her report card.
"I got all A's." She announced while her mother paused to catch her breath.
"You did?" Bulma asked seriously then she beamed. "That's wonderful! Straight A's after all that! I'm so proud of you! You must be hungry, I'll go make you something." Bulma exclaimed and went into the kitchen boasting about how her children were both geniuses like her.
Bra heaved a sigh of relief sure she was free and clear.
"Nice move." Vegeta commented, looking at her sternly.
"Wasn't it?" Bra laughed. Her father wasn't appeased so easily.
"What were you doing for six hours?" Vegeta demanded again.
Bra looked at him straight in the face. "I lost track of time at the mall."
"I'll give you one more chance to tell the truth." Vegeta replied.
Bra cursed inside. How could he always tell when she was lying? It didn't matter how insignificant the lie, he always knew and called her on it.
"I was looking for Kami's tower." Bra replied then looked at the floor.
Vegeta gaped, not expecting something strange like that.
"Why would you want to go to Kami's?" He asked.
"I don't know. To visit. I've never been there."
Vegeta glared at her. "Lie number two."
Bra sighed. "I wanted to ask Dende the coordinates for Namek."
Vegeta finally understood.
"You didn't destroy those planets, Bra. Polkrif did." He said gently.
"He did it to lead you to me." Bra argued.
"Still not your fault." Vegeta replied. Bra sat on the carpet and sighed.
"I just want to make it right."
"No one has the power to do that, even with the dragonballs. We've all ready learned that evil like that can't be abolished only transferred to something else. And I sure as hell don't want to confront those evil dragons again."
"I want to try. Just this once!"
"No!"
"Why not, if we use the Name k dragonballs to wish it right..."
"Weren't you listening? We have no right to even go near that planet. If we start going now, then we'll be doing it whenever something terrible happens."
Bra jumped up and ran to her room unable to hold back her tears. Bulma entered the room, holding Bra's supper on a tray.
"Vegeta, " She said. "You have to help her get over that."
"She refuses to listen."
"Maybe you should listen to her. Is it so wrong what she wants to do? That evil was built up from years upon years of wishes. The Namek dragonballs have only been used a few times. A few wishes surely wouldn't hurt. What are they even there for if not to use?"
"It's not wrong." Vegeta agreed. "But you know the limitations of those Namekian dragon balls. She'd only be able to bring one person back with each wish. It just will not work."
Bulma turned her back. "Well maybe she needs to see that for herself, Vegeta. She's as stubborn as you and I know she won't be satisfied with a mere verbal explanation."
"I refuse to make a pointless strip to Namek just so that girl can be disappointed. She'll have to learn to deal with tragedy like everyone else."
"You mean like you?" Bulma asked. "Why not? Look how stable and well adjusted you turned out." She replied sarcastically.
"I didn't kill you, did I?" Vegeta spat right back. Bulma didn't answer and busied herself with trying to coax Bra into opening the door for her.
Bra woke up, lying in the grass. Above her was a blanket of stars. She turned her head and saw her father's gravity room shining under the glow of walk lamps. She heard a voice, chanting in a foreign language but she didn't see anyone.
Her head fell back to its original position. The voice, a male, was eerily soothing. She stargazed pleasantly, watching as one particular constellation became clearer. Mentally, she drew lines connecting the stars together, forming a mass of lines and dots. She couldn't make out a figure, she didn't know too many constellations anyway. One of the stars at the northernmost tip of the sky drawing glowed more intensely than the others. It slowly changed color to a brilliant red.
Bra's eyes popped open, her bedroom ceiling was above her, not stars. But a red glow slowly faded from her vision, as if the red star had been burned into her eye.
Yet another weird dream. But Bra was thankful that it contained no oozaru or armies. She looked over at her clock, it was three a.m.
Before she knew what she was doing, she was headed to her mother's lab. It was light inside. Letta was asleep, her head resting on a pile of mechanical drawings. Bra went right over to the telescope, one of the most powerful in the world, and opened the skylight.
Bra searched through the database her grandfather had created. She had zeroed in on her dreams constellation almost immediately through the scope, but wasn't having as much luck locating it in the computer.
"Watch' ya doing?" Letta asked sleepily, surprising Bra.
"Looking for information on this constellation." Bra replied. Letta took a look at it.
"It looks like it's in the 98th quadrant, near the Tremna system." Letta said. She went to the computer and typed in some data.
"There you go." Letta replied.
"Thanks! " Bra exclaimed, amazed that Letta could do that. There wasn't much useful information, although there were coordinates for the constellation in general.
"Letta," Bra asked. "Is there any way you can determine the exact coordinates for this star here?" Bra asked and pointed to the star that had glowed red in her dream.
Letta stared at the screen.
"0, 47, 6" she replied, having calculated it in her head.
" You're amazing!" Bra exclaimed in astonishment.
"It just comes with practice." Letta replied modestly.
"Could that be a planet?" Bra asked.
"Possibly." Letta answered. "Earth hasn't got a lot of information plotted on the galaxy yet. I'd have to get to the ship to tell you for sure."
"That's OK." Bra replied. Satisfied for now.
"Well, I'll leave you to star gazing, I 'm going to go to bed before I wake up." Letta smiled and started to leave.
She wasn't even completely awake? Bra marveled.
After staring at the constellation for what seemed like forever, Bra finally decided that she too would go back to bed. Before leaving though, she went to her mother's desk. Opening the top drawer, she reached in and pulled out the dragon radar. Pressing the button did nothing. The screen was blank, the dragonballs having vanished with Shen Leung three years ago, not to return for a hundred years.
"It's really that important to you?"
Bra looked up at her father, leaning against the door casing, having watched her for who knew how long.
"Yes." Bra said.
Vegeta regarded her. He'd thought long and hard, and discovered that he knew exactly how she felt, having felt the same way once. He joined her side, running his finger down a strand of hair. It was the same color as the fur of his first victim. He'd fought so hard that day to keep hold of who he was, and he'd lost. That was Zarbon and Frieza's intent. Bitterly, he recalled how the blast that killed that little child had been forced out of him. He'd decided to kill her rather than see her suffer by Zarbon's notorious hands. All night, he sat in that cell staring at her corpse, wishing there was some way, any way he could bring her back. Remembering all that, he came to the decision that he'd be damned before he'd let his child experience the same torment of not being allowed to try and make things right.
"I'll take you to Dende tomorrow." He said, pulling her hair away from her face. Instantly, Bra threw her arms around him. "That's no guarantee the namek will tell you."
"And if he does?" Bra asked.
"I'll take you to the planet."
"Thank you, Daddy!" Bra exclaimed hugged him tighter.
The next morning, bright and early, Vegeta and Bra left the house before anyone else was up and flew to Kami's lookout.
"I was going in the right direction." Bra said, noticing the same landscape features.
"It's faster when you fly." Vegeta replied almost sarcastically. Bra made a face at being ridiculed. If she had've flown, he would've felt her ki and came after her. At the time she didn't want that, so she drove. "And there aren't any roads near the base of tower. You would have never found it on the ground. " He added.
"Well it's not like I knew different." Bra replied defensively.
"Don't get mad at me, you were the one who started this conversation." Vegeta replied and sped up so that he could get out of earshot of her, he hated to be bothered while flying.
"Hmph!" Bra grunted. To think she thought it would be nice to spend time alone with her Dad.
After an hour of flying, they landed on the white stone surface of Kami's lookout. Almost immediately, Mr.Popo was there to greet them.
"Welcome, what can I do for you today?" Mr. Popo said politely. Bra looked to her father nervously. Vegeta nodded at her to continue, he wasn't going to do it for her.
"I was wondering if I could speak to Dende, please." Bra asked.
"Certainly." Mr. Popo replied. "Master said you'd be stopping by." Both Bra and her father were slightly taken aback by that. Mr.Popo took no notice and beckoned them to follow. "You've come at a wonderful time." Mr.Popo continued pleasantly. "The flowers are in full bloom."
"This place is beautiful." Bra said, looking al around, trying to take it all in.
"Thank you, I try my best to keep it nice. Here comes Master Dende now."
Dende walked out of the building, smiling shyly, as if his job as guardian of the Earth was a modest occupation.
"Hello, Bra. I nearly didn't recognize you, you've grown so much since I saw you at that tournament." Dende said maintaining his smile. "Hello, Vegeta."
Vegeta acknowledged Dende's greeting with a curt nod.
"What can I do for you both today?"
"I suspect you all ready know why we've come." Vegeta replied.
"Yes." Dende laughed, still slightly intimidated by Vegeta. "You would like to go to Namek." He continued.
"How'd you know?" Bra asked.
"King Yemma told me." Dende replied.
"So, can I go? I have a good reason. Well, I think it's a good reason."
"Oh it is a good reason, Bra. But technically I shouldn't allow it. Wishing on the Dragon Balls is a privilege, and Shen-Leung decided to revoke Earth's wishing privileges for a hundred years."
"I know." Bra replied. "But it isn't fair. We couldn't even try to save those people and they didn't do anything! Is it right just to let all those people stay dead when we could restore them to life?"
"But if you tried to do that for everyone you saw die, you would never be free to live your own life." Dende gently argued.
"I'll just have to make sure that no more planets are destroyed." Bra replied firmly.
Dende's smile widened, pleased with her answer.
"Bra!" Vegeta bellowed suddenly, making Popo, Dende and Bra all jump. "Come! I've decided this was a mistake." He tuned on his heel and walked towards the exit.
Bra was about to protest when Dende spoke.
"Your ancestors don't seem to think this is a mistake, Vegeta."
Vegeta stopped dead in his tracks, turned around and scowled.
"You have no idea what you're talking about, Namek."
Dende stood his ground patiently. "I do know. King Yemma has told me what the spirits of your ancestors have been saying for centuries. They've waited a thousand years for this."
Vegeta snarled and ran back up to the platform. "They can wait another thousand for all I care!" He spat viciously and grabbed Bra roughly, dragging her down the stairs.
"Daddy, stop it! I want to know what he's talking about!" Bra resisted her father's pull. Vegeta refused to answer and continued to drag her along, up into the air. Furious, Bra transformed, and wrenched her arm from his grasp.
"Girl, you have no idea what I'm trying to do for you!"
Bra maintained her transformation, glaring harshly at her father.
"I'm going to find out what Dende was talking about." Bra replied slowly.
"Fine!" Vegeta exclaimed and released her. "But you are not leaving this planet!"
With that, he flew off, engulfing his daughter in a vapor trail.
Bra returned about an hour later. Dende had told her some very scary things. The drawings, the planet, her power were all connected as she'd thought. Her ancestors had a task for her.
"So?" Trunks asked as she entered the kitchen.
"So what?" Bra asked in a near daze, still trying to absorb all the information Dende had spilled out to her.
"Did you get the coordinates for Namek?"
"Yes." Bra nodded. Dende had given them to her, and even said he'd inform the eldest Namek that she would be coming for the Dragonballs. But the information was given to her on a condition. She would have to go to that planet she'd located with Letta's help the night before. There, Dende had said, was a secret of the saiyan race that not even he or King Yemma had been trusted with. The saiyan spirits had only wanted to ensure that Bra herself would go there. They'd been trying to tell her this directly through the poem, but Vegeta had deliberately ensured that she could not decipher that message.
"Where' s Dad?" Bra demanded.
Trunks looked at her apprehensively. "You'd better stay away from Dad. He's kind of in one of his states right now."
Bra's eyes widened. 'in one of his states..' was the discreet way Trunks, Bulma and Bra talked about her father's breaking point. When Vegeta was in a state, everyone else was warned to stay away.
"What's he doing?" Bra asked.
"He was out in the yard cursing the heavens." Trunks replied. He pulled back the drapes to check what he was doing now.
"Shit!" Trunks said in a mere whisper.
"What is it?" Bra exclaimed and ran to the window.
Vegeta was walking back towards the house. His training capsule was gone.
He walked into the kitchen and met the bewildered faces of his two children.
"What'd you do with your capsule?" Trunks asked, this action being to strange not to ask for an explanation, no matter how angry Vegeta was.
"I'm making sure no one uses it without my consent." Vegeta replied, his eyes fixed on Bra. Then he went in the direction to Bulma's lab, obviously to confiscate the rest of the ships so Bra would have no means of getting to Namek or any other planet. Her grandmother and Sala had left a few days ago in order to give an official report on Polkrif's defeat. They would be back soon, but she was sure her father would guard their ship when they got back.
Bra would not stand for this. She had to go to those planets.
"Daddy!" She exclaimed, catching up with him in the hall.
"What?" Vegeta snapped.
"Won't you please just listen to what Dende told me before you jump to conclusions?"
"If I had wanted to listen to Dende, I would have stayed." Vegeta retorted. " I know exactly what he said. I know exactly what those spirit want. I decided twelve years ago that they would not get it and that's final! So just stop pushing it Bra, before I get really angry."
"Those spirits were talking to me! It's my decision, not yours!"
"As long as you live in my house.."
"This is Mom's house! Your house blew up with your planet!" Bra corrected obnoxiously.
"I'm your father and so long as you live with me you will abide by my decisions!"
"Well maybe I won't live with you anymore!"
"Well get packing, Princess, you have a lot of stuff!" Vegeta said. Bra choked back a sob and flew back towards the kitchen. Vegeta stood there panting, still angry at Bra's complete disrespect for his authority. Trunks popped his head around the corner of the kitchen doorway and glared murderously at him, then disappeared as soon as Vegeta registered it.