Chapter 4 – Fairy Tales Are Not Found

The thwack that followed had her cringing, as did the tensing of the vendor's body as it flushed red and an obvious strain began to show until he fell to the ground. First onto his knees, then onto his face.

The stick dropped from her shaking hand as though she'd been burned and Bulma swallowed hard, trying to ignore the twisting of her suddenly unsettled stomach.

"Don't be getting weak on me," Vegeta warned darkly from behind her. "Grab the remote from his pocket and lower the settings enough for me to be able to move."

"Gohan, I said no!"

"Miss Bulma, are you okay?"

Light blinded her and she raised her hand instinctively, shielding her eyes from the brightness. Poor Vegeta could only squint as he attempted to adjust to the light. Soon, though, there were two more figures standing in the opening of the tent and the blinding sun disappeared, their eyes widening with horror as they put two and two together.

"Bulma, what do you think you're doing?" gasped Chi-Chi and her hold tightened on her son's shoulders, keeping him close to her.

"What does it look like?" She forced herself to move, to approach the motionless vendor. "I'm taking Vegeta back to the ship."

"What?" As expected, she was yelling. "Have you lost your mind?"

"He knows where Goku might be, Chi-Chi," Bulma argued with a grunt as she searched through the man's pockets. The first thing she came across were a set of keys and she held them up to the saiyan. "Are these for your chains?" He nodded once and she then continued her search for the controls. "Found them."

As soon as the remote was in her hand, Bulma shoved it into her pocket and turned around once more, facing Vegeta and making her way over to him.

"What makes you think we can trust him?"

Blue eyes clashed with black and she saw him raise an eyebrow at her, one she mirrored. "We can't," she replied easily. "But he's our best shot of getting our planet and Goku back."

Surely, Chi-Chi would have had more to say, but Gohan silenced her by saying, "Think about it, Mom. We might actually get somewhere with him."

So Gohan had been thinking along the same lines as herself, then. Bulma huffed under her breath and raised her hands, the keys jingling quietly between herself and Vegeta.

"I'm going to release you, but don't you dare even think about attacking us. My ship runs off voice commands in a language you certainly won't know how to speak, meaning you need me to get off this rock."

His eyes narrowed. "Just hurry the hell up, human. You haven't killed him, so you should be acting as though he will wake up at any moment, even if he doesn't."

"Stupid saiyan," Bulma muttered and lowered herself, assessing the chains again to try and find the lock.

"Annoying human."

The hand that wasn't holding onto the keys clenched tightly and her eyebrow ticked, but she held back the urge to scream and shout at him. Instead, she continued with her search until she found what she was looking for. The lock was on his back, in a place that would be difficult for him to reach should he have ever found himself with access to the keys. Well, if Vegeta still had a tail, it would have been a piece of cake for him to unlock the chains, but not without it.

It took all of five seconds to unlock it, but she hesitated in removing them, watching Vegeta warily. "This is going to hurt. I–"

"Lower the damn settings already so that I can move."

Geez, and people thought she was hot-headed and bad tempered. Grabbing the remote from her pocket, she glanced over it and was surprised to find the controls were easy enough to understand. Ignoring Chi-Chi's angered yells from behind her and ignoring the fact that Gohan was having to hold her back, Bulma lowered the settings, though not before expressing her disgust at how high it was. The damn thing was high enough to bring an elephant down with a single shock.

The effect was obvious as Vegeta could suddenly breathe more easily. Just as she was about to assist with removing the barbed chains from within his skin, however, he shoved her aside and beat her to it by simply ripping it away. He didn't even wince at the pain he caused himself.

Gohan grimaced and Bulma couldn't even blame him for it.

"Only I will have access to this," she stated clearly, waving the remote in the air as Vegeta stood up. "So you don't have to worry about Chi-Chi targeting you with it."

"Like she could do much harm."

Even now, he was trying to act like a tough guy. Even when his body was littered in so many injuries that it made Bulma feel lightheaded just looking at him. How the hell he could stand and talk back to her, she'd never know. It had to take strength she didn't even know the beginning of. That or he was just plain stupid and stubborn.

"Bulma, please listen to me," Chi-Chi tried to get through to her, her voice almost desperate when she began to realise her anger didn't work on Bulma. "This man is the reason why we lost everyone. We both lost the men we were going to spend the rest of our lives with, as well as all of our friends."

She shot a dark look over her shoulder at the younger woman, narrowing her eyes at her. "Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I understand how much it hurts?" demanded Bulma angrily. "I was with Yamcha for a hell of a lot longer than you have been married to Goku – count yourself lucky that your husband is more than likely still alive."

Her words silenced Chi-Chi.

They stunned Gohan.

"He's… He's definitely still alive?" he whispered hopefully.

It was Vegeta who responded after Bulma prompted him to with a single look. "Frieza enjoys collecting anyone who will be of use to him. Chances are he even has the bald headed one who fought with you on Earth."

"Krillin," Gohan commented. "His name is Krillin."

"Like I care," he muttered then looked to Bulma. "We should go now, since I can tell you will all be against finishing this guy off."

The hatred in Vegeta's eyes screamed that he wanted to do more than merely leave the vendor unconscious on the floor of his tent. His hatred oozed out of him, threatening to suffocate her and the others and Bulma knew that that was their cue to leave.

"I'll release the bikes outside of the tent," she informed the others. "We'll drive slowly through the market then floor it once we hit the desert, got it?" After a moment of hesitation, Bulma's eyes met with Vegeta's once more. "You'll be riding with me."

He nodded once.

"I don't get it," hissed Chi-Chi. "Why are you going along with this? Why are you letting her use your power at her disposal like it's her latest toy?"

The words seemed to aggravate Vegeta and part of Bulma wanted to scream at her to shut up accusing him of things already, because even Buddha's patience had limits and was able to be provoked – and Vegeta was no Buddha.

"Our deal," Bulma stated with a hint of annoyance. "He will be free once Earth is free. No sooner and no later. In order to do that, however, we need to get rid of our mutual enemy: Frieza. With Vegeta's brawn and my brain, we should be able to do it in no time."

She ignored his scoff, though noticed the faint smirk on his lips.

Oh God, had she just stroked his obviously massive ego?

Gohan frowned down at the vendor, telling them, "We should get going, his energy is flickering like he's about to wake up."

Vegeta nodded once in silent agreement.

"Can you sense energy now, too, Vegeta?" the younger saiyan asked, his eyes widening.

"Of course," he scoffed. "It was easy to learn for somebody like me."

Before the conversation could go any further, Bulma made her way to the exit, swapping the remote and the bikes' capsule around. The sudden appearance of her bikes startled the other vendors and shoppers, perhaps even Vegeta too, but she paid no mind to them. They needed to get moving.

She was on the bike and starting the engine as Vegeta left the tent, holding a bloody and torn up arm over his eyes to shield them from the sun. Considering the fact that he'd been away from all light for a few months, his eyes had to be extremely sensitive. Bulma frowned and glanced at her sunglasses, torn about offering them to him. Then again, she'd need them for the desert so that the sand wouldn't blind her.

His weight dipped the bike, startling her for a moment and tearing her from her thoughts. She hadn't expected Vegeta to be so compliant to her orders and it was unnerving.

"There's a bar behind you that you can hold onto," Bulma warned and kicked the stand up. The thought of him holding onto her was unpleasant, mainly because of the foul smell emanating from him. "Chi-Chi, you ready?"

The younger woman was fuming, even she could sense that, but she still replied affirmatively and in response, Bulma slowly made her way down the narrow roads of the market, beeping at shoppers when necessary.

The second they reached the safe point to hit high speeds, she felt Vegeta shift in his seat, but could see in her mirror that he had his arms folded over his chest instead of holding onto the bar or even her waist, like Gohan was with his mother.

He was breathing deeply, seeming to cherish the fresh air and part of her felt bad for him, as she couldn't imagine what it was like to be held hostage for months on end, forced to rot away in your own smell and bodily fluids while covered in vicious wounds from previous battles and current torture sessions.

The guy was a monster, there was no denying or ignoring that fact. He had slaughtered millions, had been the reason for the downfall of her planet, but now he was going to help them get it back. That was all that mattered in that moment. Getting her home back.

The earlier joy of driving at such high speeds was no longer there and Bulma could feel that Chi-Chi was deliberately keeping back instead of racing her. It hardly mattered. If she wanted their home back, then she would have to put aside her hatred towards Vegeta, just as he was putting aside his. In the end, they were both going to gain a win. His freedom and their world's freedom.

Whatever. Let her sulk.

With that thought, Bulma picked up more speed, grinning to herself when she felt Vegeta shifting in order to feel more secure. Still, however, he didn't hold onto anything.

Jerk.

Unfortunately for her, they arrived at the ship much too soon, with Chi-Chi and Gohan a few minutes behind them. It gave her the opportunity to put her bike away and enter the ship, starting up the engine so they could set off straight away.

It was a good thing that she'd installed an extra seat just in case they came across Goku.

There was no need to instruct Vegeta to sit down, because he immediately took the seat beside hers, surprising her momentarily before she inwardly shrugged. Gohan was part of the reason why he was in the position he was in right now and Chi-Chi hated his guts. She was the least likely to bug him, she supposed. It annoyed Chi-Chi, though. Bulma was guessing the only reason why she didn't say anything was because of Gohan. She would rather be sitting next to her son than a murderer, or having a murderer beside him.

"You guys ready?" she asked rhetorically. Even if they weren't, they were getting off this damned rock and proved her point by setting off before they could utter a single word, glancing over at Vegeta smugly as she murmured, "Welcome to the team, Vegeta."