A Killer in Me
Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or any of its characters. Yadda…yadda…yadda.
Warnings: none for now
Disarm you with a smile
And leave you like they left me here
To whither in denial
With the bitterness of one whose left alone
Ohh, the years burn
Disarm by Smashing Pumpkins
Chapter 4
They flew over the sea leaving white ki trails in their wake. Piccolo was in the center with Trunks on his right, and Vegeta on his left. Each of the boys carried a pack containing some clothes and equipment. Piccolo had decided to take the young Saiyans away from populated areas. He wasn't too worried about Trunks, as the half-Saiyan was raised on Earth and would behave accordingly.
But Vegeta…Piccolo knew that the young prince had a tendency to shoot first, and not bother asking questions later. So in an effort to forestall any disasters, the Namekian was taking his charges to his peaceful valley. He shuddered at the thought of Vegeta wreaking havoc at the lookout, and high-powered fights had long ago leveled the place where he had trained little Gohan so many years ago. That left his valley.
Piccolo resolved not to let the brat prince out of his sight.
As if he knew that Piccolo had been thinking about him. Vegeta turned to him, his black hair gusting in the wind. "Hey, Namek!" he hollered.
Piccolo gritted his teeth, all too aware that that gesture was becoming a habit. "What?"
He kept his gaze firmly forward. Vegeta knew damn well that he was Namekian not a Namek.
"Where are we going?"
"We are going to stop by Master Roshi's to drop something off, then we are going to a place where we will stay until Bulma figures out how to get you back to the way you were," Piccolo explained. He didn't say 'back to normal' because grown-up Vegeta wasn't normal by any stretch of the imagination.
"What are we dropping off?" Trunks wanted to know.
Piccolo's gaze never wavered. "We are dropping off something for 18. Apparently she is having a problem with one of her…ah…parts," he finished, praying that neither of the boys asked which part. As soon as Bulma used to the words 'female' and 'parts' in the same sentence, Piccolo ended the conversation. There were some things that Piccolo just didn't want to know about.
Piccolo was in luck. The Kame House came into sight at that time. His sharp eyes could detect several people standing in front of the house, apparently having sensed their approach. Krillen, Yamcha, Tien, Chautzu, and Master Roshi himself, who was holding a mug of beer. They landed soon and Krillen called out a greeting.
"Hey Piccolo! Trunks!" He waved, and then cocked his head to the side. "Who is the kid?"
Vegeta just sneered at them. He was wearing his scouter again, and though the very high ki levels he was reading was disturbing, he would be damned if he showed any fear around these people.
"It's a little Saiyan! You can see his tail!" Yamcha pointed to it in surprise.
"Who are you calling little?" Vegeta growled, his furry tail lashing from side to side.
"Where'd he come from Piccolo?" Tien asked, his three eyes wide.
Piccolo casually dropped the bomb. "It is Vegeta."
After listening to a few minutes of 'WHAT? NO WAY!'s and How?'s, Piccolo raised a
hand for silence. He then went on to explain what had happened in the lab and subsequent events that led up to Piccolo's current task of keeping the Saiyan prince out of trouble.
"Who are these people?" Vegeta wanted to know, his tail curling up behind him like a furry question mark.
Introductions were made. In the end, Vegeta was as unimpressed with them as he was with everything else. Then an unpleasant thought occurred to him. "Don't tell me that I let these people hang around me when I was older," he nearly begged Trunks in an undertone.
Trunks grinned. "Naw, you always stayed away from them," he assured his father.
Relieved, Vegeta smirked.
As the adults talked, Vegeta grew bored. He saw a brown rock and walked over to it. His scouter came to life and gave it a battle power of .02. Vegeta's eyebrows rose. He put out a hand and touched to rock, which shivered under his fingers. He frowned and tilted his head to the side. He wondered what would happen if he fired up a ki ball and blasted it. He was just starting to form one when Trunks wandered over to see what was up.
"What is this thing?" Vegeta asked.
"That's the turtle," Trunks explained in his usual helpful-not-very-way. "He's hiding in his shell."
"Hiding?" Vegeta asked.
Trunks nodded, and leaned over to whisper to Vegeta. "He's scared of you."
Vegeta blinked, then smirked again. "Smart turtle," he commented.
Meanwhile, the adults were still talking.
"So, he's stuck like that?" Master Roshi mused, taking a long drink of beer as he studied the pint-sized prince.
As Piccolo nodded, he did not miss the amused look that passed between Yamcha and Tien. Piccolo could not blame them. Vegeta was the most obnoxious, condescending, rude and arrogant person on the face of the earth. And now he was a kid with a power level so drastically reduced it was below all the Z fighters.
"Until Bulma can rebuild her dad's invention and restore him." Piccolo subtly reminded the two fighters. As tempting as it was to take the little twerp down a peg or three, Vegeta would not be like this forever. And when he was back to full strength, he would not be happy about any humiliation done to him in his vulnerable state.
Luckily, both Yamcha and Tien seemed to catch onto Piccolo's warning. At that moment, 18 stepped out o the house, with Marron in her arms. She raised her cold gaze to Piccolo in inquiry.
"Bulma called and said you were bringing me a package?" she said in her usual cold voice.
Turning even greener, Piccolo held out the package. She took it without comment. In her arms Marron had noticed the two boys on the beach. With a squeal of delight, she squirmed out of her mother's arms and ran over to Trunks and Vegeta, who were still studying the unfortunate turtle.
Android 18 saw where she was running to, and followed her daughter. She did not know the strange boy with Trunks, though he seemed familiar. She was not worried that anything would happen to Marron, but there was something about the boy that she didn't trust.
At that time, Vegeta looked up and saw the android. Then his scouter came to life.
As line after line of data scrolled over the tiny screen, his eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth. His tail fluffed in agitation, seemingly twice as thick with all the fur standing on end. "What are you?" he growled.
All conversation between the others broke off and they watched Vegeta and 18 engage in a stare-down. Of course, Vegeta was doomed to lose, as 18 didn't need to blink. The only movement for a span of heartbeats was the continuous scrolling of strange characters across the screen of Vegeta's scouter.
It was Trunks who broke the tension. "Father?" he asked. "What is it?"
Vegeta blinked, then sneered, but the trademark sneer was tainted by something that
Piccolo couldn't put a name on. "Let me kill it, it needs killing."
18 raised an eyebrow when Trunks had called the boy 'father'. "You just called this kid 'father'," she informed him.
Trunks nodded. "He is my father," he non-explained.
Piccolo stepped in, with Yamcha, Tien and Krillen right behind him. "Vegeta, this is android 18, she is not your enemy."
The prince glanced at Piccolo, but did not immediately relax his stance. Something deep inside of him insisted that this mixture of flesh and machinery was an abomination and should be destroyed. That feeling was so strong that Vegeta was nearly shaking. But as he read the readings from his scouter, he realized that he was not nearly powerful enough to eliminate the android. Ignoring the screaming of his instincts, he straightened.
"Fine, are you done?" he asked, to bothering to mask the loathing he felt for the blond android. Something inside of him was insisting that he should attack with all his power and destroy her. He was smart enough to realize that it was instinct and fought it as best he could.
Piccolo too was disturbed. He wanted to figure out what was happening between the Saiyan and the android, but now was not the time. "Let's go," he told Vegeta and Trunks. With a final wave, they left Kame House and soared to Piccolo's valley.
Trunks too, was bothered. "Hey, father. What was that all about?"
He was so lost in his thoughts that Vegeta didn't care that Trunks had called him father.
All he knew was the urge to turn around and attack.
And he didn't know why.
TBC
