Hey. I'm sorry this is late. I have all my information on a floppy disk and it isn't working anymore.
Disclaimer: Not mine, fools. If it were then it'd be paying for my braces.
Poison.
Chapter 7.
Deciphering.
Vegeta looked out the window from his bed. They had gotten as far as a sea when his symptoms kicked in. He dropped Bulma into that ocean and needless to say, she wasn't please at all. She had given him his needle and told him to take her back. That had been a few hours ago and he was feeling his symptoms again.
He would listen to whatever was going on downstairs, which consisted of Yamcha begging for forgiveness yet again, Bulma denying him that chance and then Yamcha start to beg again.
Vegeta was somewhat pleased that he was back in his bed where he couldn't do that much pain to his ego, or his pride. He started to wonder if Bulma had put some painkillers in the syringes just to make him go loopy again.
"Manipulative. Another strong characteristic for mates." He said to himself before another wave of pain struck him again, making him release a grunt.
"Painful, isn't it?" a sly, sleazy voice asked from the window. Vegeta's eyes widened as a shadow overcastted it.
"Gaia?" he asked quietly, though he really was amazed.
"Not quite. I'm his brother and before you go on with listing all of the 'aias', I am Mike." The figure said, making Vegeta snicker somewhat.
"Mike? Isn't that a bit odd for your species?"
"My father didn't like me at all."
"Right, whatever." Vegeta groaned, turning to the side. He was assaulted, though, as Mike grabbed him by the collar of his top and pulled him up to his face.
"You know why we did this to you, right? So you can feel the absolute pain of Frieza. And to add to that, you'll have that human to watch you suffer like the weakling you really are." Mike snapped as he sent a blow to Vegeta's stomach. "But, I must admit that my brother was right. He really shouldn't have shown you your future."
"Future?" Vegeta asked through his laboured pants. Mike's blow had left him in some pain. "I-Bulma?"
"A very slow prince, you are. Yes, you bond with that human and you even have a half-breed child with her. But I really doubt that you'll know him all that much. This will cause you to die, even before those pesky machines are set free. Too bad, y'know. They have the dibs on killing you in the other timeline because my brother never got around to attacking you. You're just lucky that the Saiyan from the future came here to warn you, I guess, otherwise Bulma really wouldn't have made you that gravity machine that exploded, giving you the perfect reason to go training out in Gaia's area." Mike explained. "I should really congratulate him when it's my turn to go to Other World. Then again, I never really did like the idiot." Mike let out an animalistic laugh that rung through Vegeta's brain just as he was punched yet again.
~*~
"…Please, Bulma, try to understand…"
"I don't want to understand, Yamcha." Bulma sighed angrily. They had already gone through this. "Look, I know that there was this spark even after you cheated on me, but now there's nothing. I just can't love you anymore."
"But, it was just a mistake." Yamcha whined, hoping to get somewhere.
"The mistake is that I'm still here listening to you. I have to be upstairs taking care of Vegeta."
"It's all about Vegeta now. You didn't have time for me when we were dating. Weren't you going to work on some project to destroy the androids so no one would have to fight? Now you're going to have to watch over that over grown baby like he was your own child!"
"Vegeta is my friend, so don't you dare go and turn this around on me and make me sound like that baddie here. I am merely just trying to stop a friend from dying, much like I would help out Goku or yourself."
"I think we should just let him die. I mean, do we even know if he's on the right side? As far as I can see, he's still the same guy who sent those ugly little green things out to kill me and succeeded. He has nothing on this planet…"
"He does too." Bulma snapped, now clearly angered at Yamcha's tone. "Vegeta has his eyes set on a mate. That means that he basically wants to get married to someone and have a child with her. He told me himself. She lives here on earth."
"Oh, so what? Big deal. The guy probably doesn't even know how to like someone that much. He'd get the kid from her and then kill her with a blink of an eye. He's untrustworthy and that's it. Nothing else to say."
"Vegeta wouldn't do that. He's tried really hard to be more polite around me and even you."
"So?"
"It seems as if you're still angry over the fact that Vegeta's little green things managed to kill you." Bulma said, heading towards the staircase with a tray of food in her hands. "Just get over yourself." As she started going up the staircase, she heard the front door open and then slam shut.
~*~
Mike's eyes formed small little slits as he smiled in his frog-like way.
"You're hopeful mate is coming." He snickered. "A tasty little treat?"
Vegeta's eyes widened as he remembered one of the many reasons why he stayed well away from Gaia. His species were carnivores. They would eat anything that would classify as something delicious and that always included anything with flesh, especially ceramic coloured flesh, like that of humans.
"Leave her alone." Vegeta snapped.
"Tut tut tut." Mike said, shaking his head slowly from side to side. "I've seen her. She'll do as a nice meal. Too bad she's one the skinny side, though. I guess I'll just have to eat the other Earthlings here, too."
"Vegeta…" Bulma started before she noticed that tall man standing over Vegeta's body. "Would your stupid family just leave us alone?!" Bulma snapped angrily. She pushed Vegeta's meal onto the bedside table and hit Mike over the head with the tray repeatedly. "You. Get. Out. Of. My. House. Right. Now!" she demanded with each blow. It wasn't very long before Mike recovered and grabbed Bulma's wrist, preventing her from doing any more damage. He then pulled on it, pulling her in closer to his own body. Bulma let out a loud grunt of disapproval as Vegeta did the same, just not as audible.
"Now, young Earthling, I do advise that you never attempt to attack me like that again." he said, baring his teeth. They were especially pointy for a man of his race; the Kugae.
"I told you to leave her alone." Vegeta warned.
"And what are you going to do? Yell at me to death?" Mike asked. He leant forward and bit down on Bulma's left shoulder, drawing blood and a small shrill from Bulma. Mike noticed the restlessness that came from Vegeta. Mike then took a mental note that he had bitten her very close to the neck, where Vegeta would have to bite her if he were to make her his mate. "Oh, I get it." He smirked. "You're afraid I'll mark her."
"Why would you be interested in making a weak little human your mate?" Vegeta asked. Mike merely shrugged and bit Bulma a little closer to her neck, just above her collarbone.
"I've never tasted human blood before." Mike said as he looked back up at Vegeta again, who nearly quivered at the sight of Bulma's blood on Mike's teeth. "I must say, though, it would definitely classify as a must. It's just too bad that I'm the first and only Kugae to taste it. So, Prince Vegeta, am I getting closer to what you deem as your own?" Mike asked and bit into Bulma's skin again, only deeper, making her scream again. Vegeta was somewhat glad that Mike had not yet reached the slight dip in Bulma's neck where he would have to bite to make her his mate, but he was still angered that Mike was teasing him like that.
"I do not deem the woman as my own." Vegeta snorted.
"That's not what I'm reading right now. You're so angered that I'm this close to marking her as my own…" Mike started before Bulma raised up her knee into Mike's groin, making him let her go quickly, interrupted him.
Mike let out a small gasp and Bulma ran over to Vegeta. She searched around the tables for a shot and when she found one, she injected Vegeta as soon as she could. After a short time, Vegeta got up off the bed. Bulma hid behind the Saiyan, which boosted his ego yet again as he powered up his ki, ready for a fight.
Without a second thought, however, Mike flew towards the window and left as fast as he could.
Bulma let out a loud sigh and wrapped her arms around Vegeta's front from behind him in a hug. "I thought he was going to…eat…me." She said slowly. "It was like being in some sort of horror movie."
"Well, Kugaes are carnivorous." Vegeta shrugged. He was so satisfied, though, that Mike hadn't actually gotten around to marking her.
"What was he talking about, though?" Bulma asked, burying her face in Vegeta's back. "What about that marking stuff?"
"Err, a Saiyan will mark his, um, mate." Vegeta said, rather sheepishly.
"Mate? You mean me?" Bulma asked, letting go of Vegeta so she could face him.
"He meant you." Vegeta corrected.
"But he said stuff that…he bit me…ew, is that how Saiyans mark each other?" Bulma scrunched up her nose.
"We bite each other right," Vegeta pointed to the dip in Bulma's neck, "here." Bulma's hand moved to that spot.
"He was so close, I mean, do the Kuga…"
"Kugae." Vegeta corrected.
"Do the Kugae bite their mates?"
"In the very same spots as Saiyans." Vegeta shrugged.
"He was so close to making me his mate!" Bulma screamed. "I don't want to be his mate! I don't want to be anyone's mate. I'm going to marry a normal Earthling with a normal life which will be totally boring and what am I saying?"
"I have no idea." Vegeta said, shaking his head really slowly.
~*~
Vegeta looked around the room, or lab, as Bulma had brought him down into the basements of the house, which were lined with laboratories that she and her father worked in. He had never really been down here, well, he had been down there to order Dr. Briefs for some more training equipment, but this time was different, Bulma had invited him down there so he could have a look at what she was doing to help his little problem.
~*~Vegeta's P.O.V~*~
The woman had invited me down into these cold laboratories so I could see her progress in finding a cure to this poison. It was weird, she had grabbed my arm and dragged me down here, but it wasn't so much of her dragging me because I seemed to willingly walk next to her. All these thoughts were messing with my mind.
I looked over to her; she was wearing one of those sleeveless tops and a small skirt that you would wear out in a desert, not this place. It's much too cold for this attire.
"Is there…anything wrong, Vegeta?" she asked, looking up at me. I wasn't very tall next to most people, but she was a few inches shorter than me, and then you add how high up my hair is. One of the best things about my weakling fathers' genes.
"No," I said after a while, but then added, "Aren't you cold? It does seem a little chilly, right?" She shook her head.
Perfect.
And, of course, that statement was purely sarcastic.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I think so." I said with an odd tone in my voice. I think she might have noticed the way I was talking. It was so weird that I was here getting colder by the moment and she was just standing there, not fazed in the least. I never feel the coldness in the air, to the heat, or the humidity. So why is my body overreacting now? I shook my head.
"What was that about?" she laughed. Nah, it was a giggle like a teenage girl. If her voice wasn't so damn piercing then I might actually find that attractive in some way.
"Nothing."
"Look, Vegeta, um…"
"What?" I demanded as she wouldn't continue. She glared at me for about a second or two before she giggled nervously.
"Well, I haven't exactly come up with a way to cure your condition, but I have come up with a small little devise that'll help me decipher your mind so I can tell who this mystery woman is."
How'd I know this was going to come up again?
She smiled as she turned to her desk and pulled out a small contraption. It looked like one of those things that she put over her ears to listen to music, only somewhat more complicated. She then put it onto my head before I could stop her.
She switched on something that caused my legs to go numb and made me fall slightly. She grabbed me around the middle and placed me so I was sitting on the desk. Next to me was another set of 'head-thingies', only they had a visor connected to it.
Now what was she going to do with that. A rhetorical question, of course. I'm just full of sarcasm today.
With a bright smile, Bulma put the thing on her head and flipped the visor down and then sat down next to me. She then flicked another switch, which blinded all of my senses before it felt like I passed out.
"Where are we?" I heard her ask and everything became lighter. I looked around.
We were…home.
"At the Royal Palace on Vegeta-Sei." I told her and started to walk. Soon we arrived at two large gates. I used to train around these.
"You did?" Bulma asked.
"I did what?"
"Train here." She said. I stared at her. How was that possible?
"You…how did you know that?" I asked. She smiled at me before she pointed at the headset.
"My intelligence can allow me to read your mind. But it's a one-way only thing."
"Oh, great." I mumbled. Then to my surprise, I saw a silhouette coming towards us from the palace. I could recognise that figure from anywhere. "Father."
"Vegeta senior?" Bulma asked me silently. "What's going on here?"
"A memory." I said quickly, but then groaned. I knew where this one was going. I was five when it had happened.
"Brat?" my father's voice boomed over the area. Turning to my right, I saw a younger version of myself walk out from behind the gate and my eyes were red and puffy like I had been crying…my mothers' death. This is just the thing I wanted a weak human to see. I should stop these sarcastic notes.
My father approached me and hit me across the face, telling me to stop my stupidity.
"Why did you have to choose this memory?" I groaned to Bulma. I looked at her. She was looking at the younger version of myself with pity. Like a mother would…I really had to stop those thoughts just in case she heard them.
But it was a normal thing for a Saiyan to learn how to created mental walls to keep their mates out of their heads during battles or something like that, so it was natural for me to start learning how now.
"You were so cute." I heard her giggle in her girly way again. I rolled my eyes…did she say cute? "So what's this, anyways?"
"Me finding out that my mother just died." I said sternly. I could see the look of commiseration in her eyes just by glancing at her.
"Okay, then, we'll leave here." She said hurriedly. She flicked another switch on her headset and the same feeling as before rushed over me again.
This time I came to by the sound of Nappa's unmistakeable voice.
"Your Highness, get up." He demanded with a chuckle. He was shaking a teen adaptation to myself and I was lying asleep in a bed. Raditz was there, too, and he was laughing.
"Leave him. He must be exhausted." Raditz laughed.
Oh no, it couldn't be, right?
"What?" Bulma asked.
"Err," I shook my head.
"I know I was after my first." Raditz said. He and Nappa started to laugh together. "I wonder where she went…"
"She?" Bulma asked, raising her eyebrows at me.
"You think she might be our queen?" Nappa asked Raditz. I was waking up very slowly.
"Prince Vegeta taking a mate? I'd doubt it." Raditz smirked. Just as he said that, there was a knocking on the door. He went to answer it.
With a snicker, he pulled away from the door and a female walked in. She was about the same age as my teen self still asleep in the bed, maybe even older by sight, but I knew. She smirked and walked over to the bed. She wrapped her arms around my figure and kissed my forehead, totally ignoring the fact that my two bodyguards were still in the room.
"Okay, that's enough." I said to Bulma who was laughing like crazy. She wiped a tear from her eye as she faced me and smiled.
"How old were you?" she asked with a giggle. I blushed. This was so stupid!
"Fifteen." I said with a groan.
"And she was?"
"Eighteen."
"No way." Bulma smiled. "An eighteen year old?" She started to laugh again. I rolled my eyes at her immaturity.
"Did I not just say that?" I asked.
I watched as the girl bent over me and bit me on the neck, on my left side. She had marked me, but that shocked me and I sat up, blowing a hole through her stomach, killing her instantly. My younger self panted with the adrenaline rush, but then a morbid look spread across my face as I realised what I had done.
"Prince Vegeta," Nappa started, but figured that it was better to stop. I ran my hand up my bleeding neck.
"Kollie," I said softly, looking at the girl.
"You killed her." Bulma said from my side. She then grabbed me and looked at the left side of my neck where Kollie had bitten me all those years ago. A little scar could barely be seen. Ever since I started considering taking a mate I've looked at it, seeing if it had faded, like all Saiyan marks do if you're separated or become less attached from your mate. I looked at Bulma, who was looking at me with concern before I flicked the switch on her headgear rather than waiting for her to do it.
"Okay, why are we going through my memories if you're after information in my mind?" I asked as I saw actual colours and shapes again.
"I can't control where we go." Bulma said with a smile. "So where are we now?" I looked around again. My eyes widened.
A dream. That's all that it was.
"Brat!" That was my father again. "Why haven't you turned into a Super Saiyan yet?"
"I…" this version of myself started. It was about three months ago. "I'm sorry. I just can't do it." I was kneeling in front of the arrogant man. He kicked me.
"Get up, you're worthless. You couldn't even avenge your races' death! A third class did while you died! And now, there's another Saiyan half your age that's turned into a Super Saiyan, surpassing you easily. You don't even have a family to blame it on. It's all your fault. You're the one to blame, no one else."
"Father, I tried really hard." I said, standing. He backhanded me across the face.
"And when some tramp decided to take you as her mate, you killed her, the last female Saiyan, and now, of all the stupid ideas, you're thinking of taking an Earthling as your mate. You're pathetic."
"She'd make an excellent mate, and mother." I said softly as I tried to hide my feelings. My father was always trying to put me down, even in his death.
"And mother." He repeated tauntingly. "You'd be lucky if you can get her to notice you. You'd have to force her to become your mate." The younger me cringed at the disappointed tone in my father's voice.
He was right, I was pathetic. And Bulma was here to see it happen. She was watching intently.
"I won't have to force her. She doesn't want to be my mate anyway…"
"She must have taste, then."
"What's happening?" Bulma asked me softly.
"It's a dream." I said.
"You need a life." Bulma laughed as she tried to lighten the mood. The sound of me getting hit again made her look back to the other two.
"You're a pathetic fool who can't even defeat a third class Saiyan!"
"Haven't you seen enough?" I asked Bulma solemnly. She nodded her head and we changed scenery to a ruined Capsule Corp. Crap. It's that dream again.
Bulma and I looked around. She saw herself holding our son while looking at the picture.
"What's this?" she asked me. Before she could see anything else, I grabbed my headset and threw it down on the ground, smashing it to pieces. "Vegeta?" she asked.
"Don't ever rebuild that machine again." I snapped. Bulma looked at me questioningly.
"What happened?"
"That was…another dream." I said slowly before I grabbed her forearm. "But I never want to see that again. Do you understand me?" Bulma nodded her head and I let go of her. "If you wanted to know that badly then you should have mentioned it." I said with a softer tone in my voice. I saw her relax slightly.
Not knowing what I was doing, I leant forward and kissed her gently on the lips for a few seconds before I pulled away slowly. She was staring me, but I didn't take much notice as I backed away and then out of the lab.
~*~
End Of The Chapter
Yay! I finally put some V/B moments in it. SAP! Sorry, we read this story in English and all the characters were crying and my teacher almost looked like she was there, too, and I laughed, yelling out sap and she called me heartless. DUH! Haven't you noticed the black jacket, the gloves, and the scowl? I mean, come on.
Interesting DBZ facts: In the English version, Vegeta is played by Brian Drummond. He also plays Zechs from Gundam Wing and Aiden from Card Captor Sakura. I can imagine him as Zechs, but not the caring Aiden. He's supposed to be more of a Dende-type voice, not a tough prince.
Keep tuned for more.
~Jinko.