Chapter 13- Father
Goku had explained to the coach what had happened to Vegeta and the coach had agreed to excuse him for a few days.
After practice, Goku had gone back to Vegeta's apartment (he had taken the key with him) to find both Vegeta and Bulma asleep. Goku hadn't had the heart to wake Bulma up and tell her to go home. Instead, he had put her on the couch to make her more comfortable.
After eating a snack, he had made himself a pallet in the living room and had fallen asleep as well.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rehtaf had been overjoyed to hear that his plan was going so well. The first step was now completed.
He had wanted to give Vegeta a good knock upside the head so that it would be easier to knock him out when he abducted him. Seeing that this had worked, he would now move on to step two.
He would have to move quickly before Vegeta's concussion loses its effects. But not too quickly so as to raise suspicion. With a little bit of spying, he had learned that there were people at Vegeta's apartment with him. That ruled out the possibility of him abducting Vegeta from his house. He would have to find another way.
Now, he was sitting on the rooftop of the building next to Vegeta's apartment. Locke and Shadow were stationed nearby as well.
They had decided that they would strike during the night. That way, it would be easier to slip away unnoticed.
Although it was nighttime now, around ten o'clock, it didn't seem as though the two people at Vegeta's apartment would be leaving anytime soon. He had seen a boy with black hair and a girl with blue hair enter, and then a girl with black hair leave, then the boy with black hair left but came back a few hours later.
He was starting to think that these people were on to him.
No. He decided. That's not possible. These people are too dumb to know what I'm planning.
With that thought, he prepared himself to sit the rest of the night waiting for these people to leave.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Vegeta had woken up to the sound of his alarm clock and rain outside his window. He hadn't remembered resetting it, but figured that Chuckie must have, whether accidentally or not. He could almost picture what had happened when Chuckie heard it the day before.
He, of course, would have been unconscious, and not able to tell her how to turn it off. After a few choice words, she would have picked it up and started hitting buttons. She probably had hit the reset button and just figured she had turned it off.
After finishing his musing, he went into the connecting bathroom, all the while marveling at how little his head hurt, and took a shower.
While brushing his teeth, he saw why his head had hurt so badly. While his head did look considerably better than it did the day before, it still looked pretty bad. The big gash had scabbed over and the bruise was starting to fade. He always knew he was a fast healer.
After getting dressed, he walked out of his room to find Goku and Bulma sprawled out in his living room. He looked from one to the other confused.
"Uhh...Goku." He said nudging Goku with his foot.
Goku woke up and propped himself up on his elbow. He yawned and then looked around wondering where he was. Finally, his eyes settled on Vegeta. "Oh hey Vegeta!" He said cheerfully as ever despite just waking up. Vegeta grimaced at his voice. "I see you're up!" Goku continued just as cheerfully standing up and looking down at his attire. "Mind if I borrow some clothes?"
"...Uh...Go ahead." Vegeta said not really in the mood for any arguing or such. Instead he started searching for his keys.
"Huh? What's goin' on? Where am I?" Bulma asked sitting up on the couch and rubbing her eyes.
"You're in my apartment." Vegeta answered while digging around the kitchen, still unable to find his keys. "Don't ask me why."
"Oh!" Bulma exclaimed embarrassed. She jumped off the couch and started running her hands through her hair as if to brush it. "Do you mind if I use your bathroom?"
"I think Goku might be in there." He answered.
Bulma had already found her purse and was digging through it to find her capsule clothes. Finding it, she pulled it out, and started digging once again for her brush.
Goku walked into the living room a few minutes later with some dark blue jeans and a red shirt with some evil looking eyes on it. The clothes fit him pretty good. But that was to be expected being that Vegeta always wore his clothes baggy.
Bulma, seeing that Goku was out of the bathroom, rushed in to go change as well. Since it was already almost seven, neither Goku nor Bulma showered.
"Goku." Vegeta said walking back into the living room. "Where are my keys?"
"I've got them." Goku said pulling Vegeta's keys out of his pocket.
"Give 'em here." Vegeta said grabbing for them.
Goku pulled them out of Vegeta's reach. "No Vegeta." He said flatly. "You can't drive. You might black out or something."
Before Vegeta could argue back, Bulma came back into the living room all dressed and ready for school.
"We'd better hurry." Goku said putting his arm around Vegeta's shoulders in a buddy-buddy manner. "We wouldn't want to be tardy."
Vegeta just hmphed, grabbed his schoolbag from by the door, and let Goku lead him out of the apartment.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Vegeta had a pretty decent day at school besides everyone asking him what happened to his head.
Mr. Dilloir had been ready and willing to write Vegeta up for skipping school the previous day, but upon seeing his forehead, had let the idea drop.
Goku had given his keys back at lunchtime in return for Vegeta eating lunch with him and the rest of the gang.
Vegeta wasn't allowed to participate in PE, and so had gone talk to Mr. Kozaku. To his surprise, Mr. Kozaku hadn't said anything like 'I told you so' but had only asked him if he was all right and stuff.
After school, since he was not allowed to practice either, he hitched a ride with a girl and went home.
When he got home, he did his homework and make-up work (it wasn't much because it was the beginning of the school year.) When he was done with his homework, which didn't take very long, he went to get a snack.
Seeing as he had slept all day, the day before he wasn't in the mood for a nap. Therefore, he did something that he rarely did: watch TV.
He settled on an old war movie. It was pretty good.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
If Rehtaf knew Vegeta at all, he would know that Vegeta would go to work no matter what.
Well, Rehtaf did know Vegeta. He knew him very well.
Therefore, he did not strike at Vegeta while he was alone in his apartment. He would do it outside where the rain would wash away the evidence.
Without wasting time, he parked his car next to the alley that Vegeta usually ran through and then he, Locke, and Shadow, took up positions in the alley.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The movie ended at seven.
For some odd reason, he wanted to go to work. He knew that Goku would most probably come over and tell him that he couldn't go, so he would just have to leave before he got there.
He quickly took a shower, got dressed, and left the apartment.
It was already dark outside, and still raining. It usually got like that during the fall in West City.
He quickly walked the few blocks to the block Gee's was on. Instead if walking around the block, he decided to cut through the alley. He had been doing that a lot lately. Usually because he would be late if he went around, but this time, it was to be out of view in case Goku rode by.
He had already made it halfway thorough the alley when he realized that something was wrong. He couldn't really see anything out of place, but he felt it.
He stopped in his tracks when he heard the click of a gun being loaded. He had heard that sound too many times and it always meant bad news.
He started to turn around to see if there was really anyone behind him, but he got his answer too soon.
Before he had turned all the way around, the man that was, in fact, behind him, fired. The bullet hit him in the back, cracking a rib but miraculously not hitting his lung.
The force of the bullet made him pitch forward. He was caught before he hit the ground, however, by a second man.
He had no idea who these people were or what he had done to him, but he had the feeling that his questions would be answered soon.
The two men didn't say anything, and held him tight as he struggled to get away. One of the men had gagged him so he couldn't yell.
Suddenly he heard footsteps heading toward them. His first reaction was relief that he would be saved. The relief subsided to panic once again as he realized that the two men weren't letting him go. He knew that they had heard the person approaching them. That they weren't even worrying about it only meant one thing, the person was with them.
Vegeta tried to calm himself. If these people were going to kill him, he would be killed proud and defiant, not cowering in fear.
His pride and defiance all but melted away as he saw who it was that had been walking towards them. With so little light, he had not been able to make out the person's face until he was only three feet away.
His expression turned to complete shock as he saw who the person was. This was the person who had destroyed everything that he loved when he was just a young boy, the person he still had nightmares about, the person he had tried to rid the memories of for so long.
"We meet again." The person said and nodded for the men behind him to take off the gag..
Vegeta was in such shock that he couldn't scream. This made the man smirk. Vegeta hated that smirk with all his being, the smirk that had been ever present on the man's face while he whipped him and burned him, hit him, and beat him as a child.
The man's smirk grew until it looked completely maniacal as he lifted his gun above his head.
One word slipped through Vegeta's lips as the gun collided with his skull effectively knocking him again.
"Father..."