Bulma heard the noise outside, sitting on the couch in the living room. She didn't move. Well, so he made it once again, she thought. His Royalty has blown up the gravity room for another time, and now it's gonna be 'Woman! Fix it!' any moment. She waited, but no sound followed the explosion. Bulma frowned. What is it? Did he finally manage to kill himself? She told herself that she couldn't care less, but after a few seconds she wasn't able to take the silence any longer. She sighed quietly, got up, walked over to the window – and gasped. All that was left of the gravity room was a smoking pile of rubble. No sign of Vegeta.
"Oh my god! He really did it this time!"
She ran downstairs and out into the open. "Vegeta? VEGETA!" she screamed, a sudden fear building up in her chest.
No answer. Tears started running down her face, a she desperately looked for a sign of the proud Saiyan Prince. He is not dead, he is not dead, he is not dead…
Then she saw him: A motionless figure on the ground, lying in a growing pool of blood. Her heart stopped.
"VEGETA!!"
Bulma ran towards him, falling on her knees beside his body. A shaking hand reached out to touch his face. His skin felt softly under her fingers, despite the bruises the explosion had caused. A strange emotion rang through her, as she took an unresisting hand into hers, trying to find a pulse. There was none.
Vegeta was dead.
***
A young blue-haired woman was sitting in the hospital's waiting room, her face calm. It's alright, nothing could kill him that easily, she had told herself since the reanimation of the Saiyan had been successful. Yet, she had been reluctant to leave him all alone. Somebody should be by his side when he wakes up. Just in case he goes berserk and blows up the whole hospital. She was thoroughly convinced that she wasn't worried even in the slightest way.
He's alive. Oh, Kami...
A nurse entered the room.
"Miss Bulma Briefs?"
The young women raised her head.
"Yes, that's me."
"The operation has been completed. There were no complications. Your fiancé is a very lucky man."
Bulma managed not to blush. To hide her embarrassment, she asked: "May I, uhm..."
The nurse smiled.
"I'll show you to his room."
***
His body was floating in darkness. Thick silence surrounded him, a soundlessness that was more than just no hearing. Then a light flickered next to him, a gentle warm glow. He ignored it. There was no way he could be tricked into this again. This time, he simply wouldn't touch that glow. Floating wasn't that bad after all.
But something was going wrong. The light began to grow, slowly first, then it exploded, blinding him with it's sudden brightness as it washed through his body.
Then pain. Agony. The inability to breathe. Laughter filled his head, a cruel voice he knew only too well. He struggled to free himself from what seemed like an enormous pressure too high for him to withstand. Useless. His body was shaking violently as waves of pain raced through it. And then... release... and the familiar scene underneath him.
A man was lying there, his hunched body painfully clad in chains. He bled from a dozen wounds. It was him. And there he was again, kneeling right next to 'himself'. He tried to close his eyes. Agony. Reluctantly, he looked down again, meeting the stare of his grinning image:
Remember? A Loving Heart... Something You Will Never Find!
Evil laughter rang through every corner of his mind. He looked away from his obvious enemy, and his eyes met with those of the chained man. His mouth formed two words. The dreamer couldn't hear anything but the laughter, yet he was able to read them.
"Help me..."
***
Slowly, Vegeta rose from the depths of his unconsciousness. There was pain, but compared to what he had felt in his nightmare – dream! – it was nothing. And it surely wasn't the reason for him to frown. There was that sound. It was familiar somehow, as if he had heard it many times before. Just like... Someone's crying?
He opened his eyes. First, his vision was a blur of colour, but after a few seconds he was able to focus on... Bulma?
She sat on a chair right beneath his bed. His frown deepened as he looked around. White ceiling. White walls. White blanket. Had to be a hospital. His gaze turned back to the woman. She had buried her face in her palms, her shoulders were shaking. She was sobbing.
"Woman..." his voice was barely audible. He gave it another try.
"Woman." Bulma looked up... and into Vegeta's eyes. She gasped.
"Vegeta! Are you all right? How do you feel?"
"Why are you crying?" he demanded instead of an answer.
Bulma felt herself blush. I never wanted him to see that. I never wanted him to think I was weak. Oh Kami, what can I tell him?
