Chapter 3

Vegeta furrowed his eyebrows, pain radiating over every inch of his body. His eyes slowly opened, surprise visible on his face when he saw he was laying face down in an air vehicle. He groaned painfully as he tried to move, vehemently ignoring his body's protests telling him to stop moving about.

'What the hell happened?'

"Well I'll be damned. You're alive after all."

That voice…

The Prince finally managed to lean on one of his good arms and looked at the source of the voice. The woman was in the driver's seat in front of him, her eyes alternating between looking out the windscreen and looking at him through the rearview mirror.

"What are you on about?" He snarled at her, his face contorted in a nasty grimace.

"You don't remember?" Bulma looked at him through the rearview mirror again, raising a curious eyebrow at him. When she saw his expression start to morph angrily, she rushed to remind him of what happened. "We weren't even two minutes in our journey before you slowly started falling downwards. I didn't notice it at first until you lurched sharply towards the ground. You'd barely managed to steady yourself when you suddenly passed out and fell to the ground. Luckily you happened to crash into a meadow so the soft ground broke our fall.

Unfortunately, we were still a bit too high above ground that when we crashed, I got hurt and you managed to aggravate some of your wounds even more, especially that gash on your back. You were bleeding out heavily so I got out a first aid kit and tried to patch you up as best as I could before taking care of myself.

I didn't have the proper equipment on hand to deal with a cut like that so I loaded you on the plane I luckily happened to have on me and carried on the journey home so I could properly treat it there. We're about five minutes away from my house."

Vegeta looked down at his torso, noticing the lack of armour and the bandages she'd wrapped around him before he looked at her sitting in front of him. He did a quick scan of what was visible before his eyes landed on the bandage on her left forearm.

'Tch. Such extensive care for such a small cut. What a joke.' He sneered internally.

"I must say that I'm surprised about one thing. When you consider all the injuries you have, the bruised or broken ribs, the various contusions and lacerations, not to mention that wicked cut on your back, for all intents and purposes you should be dead." Bulma wasn't sure if that impressed her or made her even more anxious than before.

Vegeta narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "If that's the case, then why didn't you just leave me for dead in that field? That was your chance to be rid of me for good. Why didn't you take it?" He felt his anger increase the more she remained silent. That could only mean…

"Pathetic." He spat out. "I neither want nor need your pity you foolish woman!"

"Foolish?!" Bulma repeated in outrage.

"Of course. Only a foolish being like yourself would go to great lengths to heal their enemies when the most logical course of action would be to kill them off to eliminate the threat. And you call yourself a genius."

"How dare you, you pompous bastard!" Bulma put the plane into autopilot and turned her body to face him, her eyes spitting blue flames at him. "Unlike you, I don't relish the thought of taking another person's life! But now, I'm really starting to regret my decision! So you're right, I really should've just left you there to die so that the scavengers could take care of your ungrateful hide!"

The Prince quickly wrapped his tail around her neck, not tight enough to choke her but rather to get his point across, and brought her face close to his. "I'd really start watching my words if I were you, Woman" He whispered in a deceptively soft tone. "I may be seriously injured but that doesn't mean that I don't have enough strength to carry out my threat of ripping out your clever little tongue." He smirked, delighting in the fearful expression that came across her face. Finally, she was beginning to learn her place. "Understand?"

She nodded carefully, her courage leaving her almost immediately, fully aware of the appendage wrapped around her neck

"Perfect." He slowly unwrapped his tail from her neck and watched as she went back to her seat. His smirk widened when he caught the scent of her fear, with a hint of her own natural fragrance, as it drifted over to him. The rambunctious little female had quite the temper.

'I have a feeling this woman will be a great source of amusement in our travels.'

The heiress sat in her seat, her shaky hands holding onto the steering wheel.

'I really am regretting my decision to help that arrogant brute. Stupid, stupid, stupid.' She admonished herself silently.

When they had crashed, Bulma had been overjoyed, thinking that she had finally caught a break. She'd popped out a first aid kit and treated her arm before getting the airplane out of its capsule. She'd climbed in, ready to get back to her friends.

Until she'd made the mistake of looking over at the unconscious Saiyan.

Bulma had noticed the blood seeping out of his back consistently, knowing that he didn't have long before the blood loss would kill him. Against her will, her stupid conscience had taken that moment to attack, telling her that she couldn't leave him in such a sorry state. She'd been less than happy at that, reminding her inner voice that it was because of this man that Yamcha and the others were dead.

In the end, her conscience had gotten the best of her and she'd climbed out of the plane. She'd made her way to him, grumbling to herself all the while, and took off his armour so she could take care of his wound.

'I'm only helping you because you're the only one that knows where Namek is and you have the transportation to get me there.'

The heiress had cleaned the large cut and placed cotton wool along the length to absorb the blood before placing adhesive dressing and wrapping his torso with bandages. It was an amateurish job but she didn't have a lot to work with. She'd loaded him into the backseat, struggling with his dead weight, and flew off as fast as she could in the direction of Capsule Corp.

Now though, she was starting to question her decision, regardless of whether he had the information she needed or not.

Bulma felt her heart race when the huge yellow dome finally came into sight. She flew around the house, wanting to land as close to the infirmary as she could. "We're here."

Vegeta sat up partially, gritting his teeth at the burning pain on his back. He watched as the woman landed beside the building and stepped out, opening the door for him.

"Do you think you can walk to the door?" She asked him, her voice flat.

He rolled his eyes before looking down his nose at her. "Don't be ridiculous, Woman. Of course I can walk to the door." Slowly, he made for the door of the plane. He placed one leg down before the other and stood as tall as he could without aggravating his throbbing back and ribs.

Vegeta walked all of two steps before he fell onto his knee, hating how weak he felt at that moment.

'Those bastards really did a number on me. If I ever see them again, I'll be sure to make them suffer tenfold. Then they'll know the true wrath of the Saiyan Prince.'

'If only being a conceited douche was enough to give you strength, you could have made it all the way to the door on your own.' Bulma thought to herself.

After watching him struggle to get up, Bulma let out a tired sigh and walked over to him. "Here. Let me give you a hand."

"I don't need your help." He practically growled at her

She rolled her eyes, really getting fed up with his stubborn attitude. "Fine. I'll leave you alone. Just don't complain when you take 5 days to get to the door, wasting the time for your precious dragon ball hunt."

Vegeta gave her a nasty glare, almost willing her to drop dead with his cold onyx eyes. But inside, he knew she was telling the truth. Every second counted in his mission to gain immortality.

A moment later he scoffed, relenting so she could assist him. "And by the way, my name is not Woman. It's Bulma. Use it."

She came forward and wrapped her arm around his waist.

'Think of the dragon balls Bulma. Just think of the dragon balls.'

Once she was sure he could move, she slowly made her way to the infirmary.


Vegeta sat on one of the beds with Bulma standing behind him as she began to properly treat his back. Once she had removed his bandages, she took a wet cloth and wiped the excess blood off his skin. After drying his skin, she took an iodine soaked cotton ball and dabbed his wound without warning to disinfect it.

"Whoops. Sorry." Bulma muttered dryly when he groaned at the sting of the iodine.

She prepared a needle and suture and held it to his skin, choosing to warn him this time. "Just so you know, this is gonna hurt.

At his agreeing grunt, she got to work. While she was busy, her eyes looked him over and she noticed that his body was littered with scars. Bulma hadn't noticed the first time she aided him since at the time she was trying to get it done as quickly as possible. Now though, she was paying attention.

Of course she wasn't surprised that he had scars, considering what he did for a living it wasn't a shock that he had them. It was the way they looked that caught her attention. Some of them looked like the type of scars she's seen on other fighters before, 'badges of victory' as they tended to call them.

The other scars…

They were too straight. Too precise. No jagged edges, no odd shapes. Just clean breaks in his skin.

He obviously didn't get these from a fight. These types of wounds came from being lashed with something akin to a whip. Her eyebrows furrowed in thought. She didn't know Vegeta from a complete stranger but what she did know was that he would never let anyone push him around. He would kill first and ask questions later.

Which begs the question…

'Who did this to you?' She wondered worriedly. This person must have been quite tough if they could do this to someone as strong as Vegeta. Bulma just hoped that where they were going, they didn't run into anyone like that.

A few more stitches and a roll of bandages later and Bulma was done. "There. I did the best I could."

"It should hold until we get to Frieza Planet Number 79. I'll heal myself properly when we get there. Speaking of which, it's time to go." He said with a blank expression on his face.

"Okay, so just to be clear. We're going to use the spaceships you and your partner came in right?

"No of course not. We're going to walk", he answered with a roll of his eyes, "Obviously we're going to use the pods."

Bulma narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything to that. "Well, it's been hours since you guys arrived and the authorities and higher ups must have already taken them away by now considering it's almost evening."

"What's your point?"

"How do you plan on getting to them when you don't even know where they are?"

Vegeta looked at her like she was a child before reaching for his torn lycra shirt. He felt around for a moment before pulling out a small remote control. "With this little gadget, I can summon the pods from wherever they are to my current location."

"Amazing." She said softly, the scientist in her buzzing with curiosity at the little device.

"You would think it's amazing." He missed her glare as he typed in the command for the pods to head for their location.

"Prick." Bulma muttered under her breath.

"I heard that." He turned to face her, "The pods will be here shortly, give or take five minutes."

The heiress nodded and cleaned up the mess from treating Vegeta, stopping short when she saw him put in his torn shirt. "Hold on. Can you leave the breastplate behind?"

"What for?" He scowled at her out of the side of his eye.

"I may want to study when I get back."

"When you get back huh?" He questioned with a small yet devious grin. "I do like your confidence. But whatever, keep it. It's not like I'm going to need it anyway."

Bulma simply shook her head and carried on. When she was done, she looked down at her clothes and frowned. "My outfit is all dirty. I need to change, as in yesterday."

"There's no time for that." He said in a flat voice.

"But-"

"You can satisfy your vanity when we arrive on Planet Frieza, there are more important issues to be addressed. Get the radar and your essentials and let's go."

Bulma felt her face turn hot at his words. "Vanity?! You brat! Who do you think you are, calling me vain?! Why I ought to-"

Her words were interrupted when Vegeta hooked a finger in her collar and pulled her down to be level with his eyes. "Now female. We don't have all day."

The heiress pulled herself out of his grip and took a step back. She glowered at him, her eyes scorching him with their fire, before she stomped out of the infirmary. When she was gone, Vegeta chuckled softly, feeling amused at the woman's behaviour. It seemed she had a temper to match his own. He grinned at the thought, his canines shining in the artificial lighting of the room.

Yep. She was definitely going to be a great source of amusement in their travels.


Bulma burst into her room, her face flushed with anger. She was ready to murder something. Or more specifically, someone.

"I don't care that he's a thousand times stronger than me, I'll kill him somehow!" She yelled at no one in particular.

She snatched her large pink backpack and stuffed it with the things she'd need. A change of clothes, a capsule case, her essential items and finally the dragon radar. She roughly zipped the bag closed, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

"Bulma dear. Is that you?" A soft voice asked from her door.

The heiress turned around and saw her mother standing by the entrance to her room, her ever present smile set on her face. "Oh, hi Mama", she said in a soft tone, her mother's presence helping to curb her temper slightly.

"When did you get back sweety? I didn't hear you come in."

"Oh not too long ago." She turned to face her mother. "Listen mom, this may come as a bit of a shock but I'm not staying long. I actually came here to get some things cause I'm going dragon ball hunting."

"Really? But it's dark out honey. Can't it wait till the morning?" Bunny asked, a small worried frown on her face.

"Nope it can't. We lost some of our friends in the battle today so we want to bring them back as soon as we can." She left out the part about how she'd have to go offworld to do it. She hated lying to her mother but she knew it had to be done. Bulma felt her eyes burn when she thought about how this could be the last time she sees her.

"Oh no! That's awful!" Her hands flew up to cover her mouth in shock. Oh, those poor darlings! Now she understood why Bulma needed to leave so badly. "Alright then hon. I understand. Just be safe, okay?" Bunny told her, a warm smile chasing away the worry in her eyes.

"I will, I promise." Bulma hugged her mother tightly, taking in her comforting scent. "I love you Mama." She whispered softly.

"I love you too darling." Bunny gave her daughter a squeeze and kissed her forehead before letting her go.

"Tell Dad I'll be back soon and that I love him too. See you later!" Bulma said before making her way out the door, fighting the tears that were threatening to fall down her cheeks.

Until now, it hadn't really dawned on her that she may not make it out of this alive. Sure she'd thought about it while planning to steal the dragon balls from Vegeta but it hadn't sunk in fully before. Now though, she was feeling it. She'd just lied to her mother, knowing full well she may not see her again. She just felt...horrible.

'Stop it Bulma! Don't think like that! You have to believe you can make it out of this situation alive. You just have to.'

A few minutes later, she arrived at the place she'd landed her plane and found Vegeta already there along with the two pods.

"Took you long enough." He said snarkily.

"Oh hush. I'm here aren't I?"

Vegeta merely shook his head at her, not bothering to respond before he had her get closer to where he was. "I've already set the coordinates to Planet Frieza. When you get in your pod, you're going to press this button to blast off", he pointed at the red button, "Then when the ship steadies out, you'll press this one to release the stasis gas." He pointed at a blue button for that. "That should be simple enough for you to understand."

Bulma glared at him sharply. "Are you always this much of an ass? Or am I just a special case?"

The Prince barked out a scornful laugh and turned to his pod. "Please. Don't flatter yourself Woman."

"My name is Bulma!" She yelled, getting fed up at his stupid nickname for her.

"Whatever." Before she could say anything, his pod closed its door, hiding his stupid face from her.

The heiress got into her own pod, mumbling curses under breath the entire time. Once the door shut, she pressed the red button. She barely sees Vegeta's pod lift off before she blasts off, her ears popping at the speed it was going. A moment later, her ears gave her a break and she looked out the window.

"Oh...my...Kami…"

Bulma was awed at the stars as the ship whizzed past them, their usual bright white hue now a soft pink courtesy of the red glass. Excitement started running through her when she realised that she was the first human to travel so deep into the vast unknown reaches of space.

Soon after, Bulma shook her head, trying to clear the magic from her brain. She needed to come up with a plan to wish her friends back. The heiress knew that once she managed to successfully swipe the dragon balls from her captor, he was going to kill her. It was a risk she was willing to take. But she needed to think of a way to make the wish before he did so.

'How though? How do I successfully deceive a person who is so much stronger and faster than I am? It's a daunting idea, but if there's anyone who could come up with an answer to that problem, it's me.' Bulma nodded her head at that thought, her face steely with determination.

She reached forward and pressed the stasis button, waiting for the gas to knock her out.

'Don't worry Yamcha. I'll wish you and the gang back before you know it. Even though it's unlikely, I hope I can live through this so that when I get back, we can be together again, just like old times.'

That was the last thought that passed through her mind before everything went black.


Author's Note: And so, the pair leaves Earth to begin the hunt for the dragon balls! Things are about to get complicated real soon for these two.

I wanna give a shoutout to Becky L. Sly and Anonymously96 for their reviews on the last chapter. It's very much appreciated!

Please don't forget to review! As usual, keep safe and happy everyone. Peace, love and good vibes to you all! Till next time!

RR18