The Worlds Smartest

This Is The Enforcer Speaking,

I'm sorry this took so long to put together. I've spent the last few weeks cramming for finals, which I passed by the skin of my teeth. Thank you all reviews.

Now…On To The Story!

The Beast Within

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Bulma hurried toward Vegeta's training room. It had taken her the last few weeks to complete her surprise for him though she couldn't claim full ownership of the project. Bulma discovered that the Saiyans had taken all of Capsule Corps data with them when they'd raided Earth. The shock of finding all of her fathers blue prints and experiments in the Saiyans hard drives had quickly turned into the realization of what it meant.

Bulma crept up and peeked through the window into the training room. One of her first steps after discovering the CC data had been to retrofit the entire room to act as a gravity chamber. Vegeta worked hard against the increased gravity, a quick glance at the exterior control console showed one hundred times Earths gravity, which was about ten times the natural gravity of Vegetasai. During her daily training Bulma was up to functioning under about forty times gravity finally. A level that'd nearly killed her once but she was never going to broach the levels of strength reached by the likes of Vegeta or even the idiot. As a human she simply lacked the genetic makeup. A fact that she found depressing.

Pressing the intercom Bulma spoke, "Vegeta. I'm coming in." She heard cursing before she released the button. Bulma entered the codes in the control panel to deactivate the gravity and release the door before entering.

Vegeta hung upside down in the air arms crossed classic frown firmly in place.

"Why are you interrupting my training woman?" He snapped.

"I've got a surprise for you Mr. Asshole if you'd calm down long enough for me to give it to you." Bulma snapped back. They'd been shorter with each other than usual the last few days. He'd also thrown her out of the training room earlier than usual that day saying she should go train on her own so he could get some real work done.

Grimacing at the physical feelings of aggravation Bulma clicked one of the capsules she held in her hand and tossed it to the floor. Vegeta didn't move from his position as the smoke cleared to reveal twelve metallic spheres. Bulma beamed up at Vegeta as she prepared to explain all about the new invention to him.

Vegeta scoffed before sniping at her. "I am in no need of surprises from you woman unless it is your mouth on-" Glaring at him Bulma pressed a button on the remote control in her hand and smiled as the training bots closest to Vegeta attacked him. Cutting off his diatribe of insults.

The Princes eyes grew wide as he spun around to defend himself but what he didn't know was that with every ki attack he threw at the bots the stronger they got, absorbing and redirecting the attacks back at him. Bulma pressed the controller again and the bots went silent. Panting he turned to her with his mouth agape.

"Now that you're done being an asshole will you let me explain some things to you?" Bulma asked.

In answer Vegeta landed in front of her while making a go ahead gesture. Frowning Bulma explained how the training bots worked. That they could be voice controlled or remotely controlled depending on what they were set to and that they contained artificial intelligence. Meaning they would learn from Vegeta as he fought against them so that they could present a continuously growing challenge and while they weren't indestructible they were pretty close to it.

"I've made you two dozen to start." Bulma tossed the second unopened capsule at him. "The second twelve are in there. You just click the top and toss it away from you when you're ready to use them."

Turning her back on the still bemused Prince Bulma made to leave the room. She didn't need to spend one minute longer with him than necessary if he was going to be a dick.

"Woman wait." He sounded tired. Bulma stopped walking but didn't turn around. "This is going to be a very valuable training tool. Your assistance is appreciated."

Gritting her teeth Bulma refused to turn around. "I suppose that's as close to a thank you as I will be getting. I apologize for interrupting your real training." She put a hard sarcastic edge to the words. Bulma left the room without waiting to hear his response. She had other issues to deal with at the moment.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

"How long until the uplink?" Bulma asked Bardock. They marched down the hall toward the secondary audience room. It'd been designated as hers for her new role with Earth as their "owner". However, Bulma schooled herself more as the Saiyan/Earthling emissary.

"One minutes Princess." He answered.

"Great." Bulma snapped. Screwing around with Vegeta put her behind and for what? A thank you? Nope. Never. What a jerk. He'd better save the damn planet after all this. She stormed into the audience room, scattering her advisors in her wake as she made her way to the center of the table.

Bulma had just enough time to settle into her chair, flip her cape into place, and smooth her hair down before the incoming call notification chimed. Forcing herself into nonchalance she nodded for the link to be opened. "Let the games begin."

A hologram of a room full of Earths representatives appeared in the center of the table. Not surprisingly it was comprised of mostly old men. Figures, Bulma thought, they're going to love me for sure.

"Greetings ambassadors. As you know we have come here today to discuss the freedom of your planet…" Bulma continued on explaining that she wanted to clarify the arrangements and constitutions that were already put in place by Vegeta with the ambassadors as well as make herself available for questions. The first volley was all about why was it Bulma they were speaking to and not the Prince or the King. The next focused on her positioned, all of which she knew they'd already received briefers on, and it wasn't until all that drama was settle that they truly got down to business.

Bulma found herself, along with the assistance of her advisors, trying to sooth the nerves of the Earthlings and all the while battling the slight undercurrent of "traitor" that seemed to lurk just below the conversation. As the hours ticked by her back ached from remaining ramrod straight, trying to appear as royal as possible involved impeccable posture according to Bardock, and the neutral expression on her face was beginning to make her cheeks ache to do anything else. Bulma wanted nothing more than to scream at them that they were free and as long as they remained allied with planet Vegeta they would remain both free and protected. That, however, was not an option.

It wasn't until she'd promised them another audience shortly that Bulma was able to close down the uplink.

She slumped back in the chair with a groan and closed her eyes.

"That was ridiculous." Bulma said to no one in particular.

A chorus of agreements greeted her.

"You're all dismissed." Bulma spoke again without opening her eyes. She didn't need to look to know they scattered like rats on the Titanic. No one had enjoyed that meeting.

Once the room grew silent Bulma cracked an eye to see her ever present shadow still seated next to her.

"Well how do you think that went?" Bulma asked Bardock.

"Surprisingly well Princess. You handled your temper better than I expected."

Bulma rolled her eyes. "Awesome."

"Unfortunately we need to head directly over to the Earthling compound for the tour you requested. Select few of your advisors will be attending with you."

"Fuck." Bulma let her head fall back against the chair. Her stomach chose that moment to remind her she hadn't eaten in about four hours. The growl made Bardock's brows shoot up. Ever since her training with Vegeta escalated over the last month she'd had to eat more and more often.

"First I'm eating something or I just might kill someone unnecessarily." Bulma grouched.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

"This isn't right." Bulma said as her eyes scanned the training yard. Supposedly all of the Earthlings were out in the yard . "This isn't all of my people."

She turned a glare on Bardock and the other advisors who'd "escorted" her to the compound. More like babysitters.

"Where's the rest of them? This is only about half of those we brought with us." She gestured out to the group. Before she realized what had happened. "Oh, a lot of them must have decided to become slaves." She hadn't expect so many to take that route but…it was better than the alternative of them all dying in the arena.

"Not exactly." Bardock cleared his throat. "Some of them did chose that option but the rest of the missing…"

"What?" Bulma demanded but she was getting a sinking feeling. Something bad had happened. "Tell me now?" Her voice strained against the urge to scream at him.

"The rest died upon introduction to our atmosphere. Their bodies were not strong enough to adapt."

Bulma blinked and whipped her head back around to the yard. There couldn't be more than a hundred Earthlings left down there. She'd known they'd arrived at planet Vegeta with two hundred and thirty eight Earthlings on board.

"How many?" She turned to her advisors. "How many died?"

She fought to keep her expression and voice as neutral as possible.

"One hundred and two." Bardock spoke for the group.

She'd known about the gravity to an extent, had warned her people to be prepared for it and made sure they trained as hard as possible but Bulma honestly hadn't thought that people would die from it. At the worst she thought perhaps they'd struggle for a while but she'd underestimated the danger of the gravity of the planet.

"And no one thought to tell me?" Her calm demeanor cracked around the edges. "One hundred and two of my people die and no one tells me!" She screamed the last part.

"They're not your people." Egplon, one of her lesser advisors, spoke before Bardock could.

Bulma backhanded him so hard and so fast that she caught him completely off guard. The male's head whipped back and he fell to his ass. She made to move after him but Bardock's answer to her question drew her to a halt.

"The Prince ordered us not to inform you of the situation." His voice was soft as he spoke. "He believes you have greater concerns and that you do not need distracted by unchangeable events."

Bardock's words effectively redirect her fire. "Oh he did, did he? Is that why he's been trying to keep me from coming down here?"

Vegeta had steadfastly taken the stance that any contact from Bulma would look like favoritism and the monarchy was required to remain neutral during the games. Yet, lately Vegeta all but lived in the training room and Bulma had taken full advantage to come see what was going on without him knowing. Of course it'd only been possible with Bardock's help.

"You wanted me to know didn't you?" Bulma asked him. The older Saiyan nodded.

"They are your people after all." He shot a look at Egplon, who'd stayed on the ground.

"You're fired." Bulma told Egplon. "Find a replacement." She directed the last a Bardock. "I've got to go have a conversation with Vegeta. The rest of the tour can wait."

With that Bulma took to the sky. She heard Bardock following behind her but he let her have her privacy as she fought the rage roiling inside her chest.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Once inside the palace proper Bardock disappeared into some shadow or another leaving Bulma to her anger. Unsurprisingly Vegeta was still in his gravity room. Furious with him Bulma stormed up to the control panels and using her hand scan she accessed certain features that were locked from the general population. From there she was able to adjust the gravity inside the room to whatever she wanted and with a sick feeling of satisfaction Bulma hiked up the gravity to a hundred and twenty times. Just enough to make her point. She heard Vegeta roar a second before the deafening crash of his body being pummeled into the ground. Bulma watched through the viewing window as the training bots continued attacking him until he remembered that he could deactivate them via voice command. Another swipe across the keyboard deactivate the gravity and Bulma charged into the room.

"I knew it." Vegeta snarled from the ground where he lay on his back in a body shaped hole in the ground. "What the hell woman?"

"One hundred and two." Bulma snarled right back.

Vegeta closed his eyes and signed before sitting up out of the crater.

"The loss of so many was unexpected." Vegeta said. "We have never acquired a species with such natural weakness before."

"Enslaved." Bulma corrected him. "Enslaved is the word not acquired and why didn't you tell me." She screamed at him. Not caring if he saw her loose control.

"To what end?" He spoke from his seated position on the floor. One leg bent, one out stretched, the picture of utter calm in the face of her rage. "To distract you from the things you can change? From your training or from learning your role as a monarch? Or from your work in the lab? At what point would you have liked me to distract you from your purpose?"

Screaming Bulma hurled a ki blast at the wall. It exploded in a shower of blue sparks. She rubbed at the angry ache in her chest.

"That is not the point." She yelled.

"That is precisely the point." Vegeta snapped back. "By the time we realized the situation it was too late. The weakest humans were crushed and suffocated in moments. Knowing what happened would not have changed a thing except distract you from matters that require your full attention."

Bulma couldn't accept this, she just couldn't.

"I need you to stop deciding things for me based on my own good. How about that?"

"It is my duty to protect you even if it is from yourself." Vegeta's voice was deadly serious.

Bulma bared her teeth and snarled wordlessly at him. Shocked by her own behavior she snapped her mouth shut. She was acting insane.

"Take me to their graves." Bulma demanded before turning her back on Vegeta and walking out.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Six rows, seventeen graves long, each marked by a pyramid of stones and a small blue flowering bush, sat in a meadow two miles west of the palace. Tall trees and thick woodlands bordered the well-tended clearing.

"I wasn't expecting this." Bulma said. Honestly she'd expected a holocaust style pit in the ground with corpses covered in lye.

"They were yours, woman. To me that meant they were to be buried with respect. I had no plans to keep this from you forever. No one predicted this; we severely miss judged Earthling physiology. I promise you it was not intentional."

"I believe you." Bulma said. They fell into silence, not looking at each other but looking out amongst the dead and into the setting sun.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Vegeta insisted they be back inside the palace before the sunset as it was the night of the full moon and he had no desire to transform. Spending the night in his great ape form held no appeal to him at the moment. He had explained that Saiyans didn't always want to transform so all homes were equipped with shutters. The palace in particular was fitted with automatic steel shutters that decided half an hour before moonrise and would remain down until half an hour after moon set. Bulma watched the metal plates descend over the doors and windows with a strange feeling of expectation.

"I know you can't look at it but I'd like to see the moon." Bulma told him. They were just finishing dinner. For the first time in a while Vegeta insisted they have a real meal alone together. He must feel guilty Bulma concluded. Her anger over his keeping the Earthlings deaths from her was somewhat abated by that knowledge not to mention the care with which he'd had them buried.

"If you really want to you can go out of our balcony doors to see it. It is just a moon though." He said as he stood. "Come on."

Bulma followed him into their bedroom where he stood as far away from the doors as possible. She hesitated at the doors, glancing back at Vegeta. She didn't want him stuck in Oozaru form all night either.

"Well, woman, what are you waiting for?" He motioned for her to get on with it. "I will be fine as long as my eyes don't make direct contact with the moon light."

Turning back to the doors Bulma pushed them open and stepped out.

The moon was ginormous compared to Earths and glowed brighter. Bulmas heart began to hammer as she looked up into the light. She frowned and rubbed her chest as a strange sliding sensation went through her. What was that?

Bulma gasped when the sliding sensation turned into something different. Something painful. Bulma grabbed at her chest. A sharp stab of pain went through her, an image flashed before her mind of red eyes and brown fur. Heart thundering in her ears Bulma turned a frightened look back inside to Vegeta. He stood up straight from where he'd been leaning against the wall, a frown between his eyes, a question on his lips but Bulma didn't hear whatever he said. Her heart beat too loudly in her ears.

A scream tore itself from her lips as a rending sensation tore through her body. Bulma fell to the ground screaming again. It felt as though something inside her was trying to get out. Claws ripped at her from the inside, teeth gnashed and fists pounded. Bulma could hear roaring in her ears now, over the screaming over the thundering of her heart. The roars were not coming from outside but from within her. Her arms and legs thrashed about, back arching, whatever was inside her needed out but Bulma knew in that instant she had no way to let it out. Her body was not meant for this, she could not release this beast as it thrashed inside her and tried to tear it's way free. Blood ran from her mouth, hot liquid poured down her cheeks, too thick to be water, she cried tears of blood.

Hands grabbed her, arms scooped her up.

"Bulma, look at me, look at me now!" His concern was evident as he held her head between his hands. Bulma forced her eyes open, forced herself to look up at him. He had his head ducked eyes carefully diverted from the moon above.

"My Gods, your eyes…they are red." He seemed at a loss for a moment when something occurred to him. "You have the beast within you." He whispered.

"What?" Bulma cried out. Barely able to focus on his words. Unable to understand.

"The Oozaru, you have the spirit of one inside of you and it wants out."

Bulma's mind was fading, her body tearing itself apart. "How?" She stuttered. "How?"

"I do not know." Vegeta seemed to be searching for answers or an explanation. With a near desperate look he kissed her. Vegeta forced her mouth open, breathed in her air, and the beast within Bulma showed her what needed to be done. It sensed a way to escape and roared forward. Bulma helped it along, pushing it out of her. All that white-hot energy inside of Bulma poured into Vegeta. As he took her beast into himself he launched them over the balcony railing and down to the ground.

With the last of the energy leaving her body Bulma slumped in relief. Vegeta dropped her to the ground as gently as he could and stumbled back gasping. Red bled across his eyes until they glowed like fire and then he changed faster than Bulma had ever seen before. One moment his humanoid form stood before her the next the ape was there, shaking and breathing heavily, as though he'd gone through hell with her.

Bulma sat up slowly. What the hell just happened? She spit out a mouthful of blood and whipped at the blood on her cheeks. She was sure she looked like a horror show.

"Can you hear me?" Vegeta's voice was in her head. Blinking Bulma thought back at him.

"Yes. What's going on? How can we talk like this?"

Vegeta stood up in front of her, towering over her in his Oozaru form, his tail swayed nervously behind him. Previously he'd just talked to her out loud in this form. She'd never spoken to him…psychically…before.

"You have been gifted the spirit of the beast within you but your body remains human and ultimately incapable of transforming. You have no way to let the beast out of its cage and in its attempt to be free it was tearing you up from the inside out. I was able to take the energy from you and give it an outlet. I have never heard of this happening before."

"Is that why we can talk telepathically now?" Bulma thought at him. He gave his big head a nod. "And you have no idea how this has happened or if it has happened before?" A shake this time. "Great."

Bulma tried to stand but her head swam and she found herself right back on her butt. Vegeta scooped her up in his giant hands and cradled her.

"So what now?" She asked him.

"I want to show you someplace." He thought before launching into the air.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

It was a cove. The only way to access the cove was to scale a cliff down into it, or fly down into in their case. The rocks formed an open circular ceiling around the cove. As though it had once been a cave before the center of the ceiling fell away. White sand made up the crescent shaped beach and the water was as smooth as glass. The best part was that the water glowed green, like a glow stick. The place was beautiful.

After sitting her down on the sand it'd taken Vegeta quite a bit of coxing to get her to strip down and get far enough in the water to wash herself off. He'd sworn Vegetasai had no large water predators. Of course his idea of large and her idea of large may be different so it was with extreme caution that Bulma edged her way into the warm waters. She only went in far enough to kneel in the water and rinse herself. Vegeta chuckled at her fear.

"Does anyone else know about this place?" Bulma asked him her place in the shallows. She swirled her hand through the glowing water.

"This is royal land, none would trespass, and to my knowledge no one else knows of this place outside of my family." Vegeta settled himself at the waters edge, watching her like a hawk. She wasn't sure if she was flattered or freaked that he felt like he needed to hover over her so hard.

"So what do we do now?" Bulma knew she sounded lost. She didn't like the weakness in her voice or that she really couldn't bring herself to be upset with Vegeta at the moment.

"We keep you out of the moonlight and we keep preparing. I will make select inquires as to our situation but it is a weakness we do not need exploited."

She knew he was right. They didn't know if she would die or not if she wasn't able to transfer the great ape into someone else.

"I can feel your despair." Vegeta said. "You should see this as a gift. One thing you should learn about this new piece of your soul is to always trust its instincts. Trust your beast because it will not steer you wrong and may one day save your life. It is how I knew what to do back there. My instincts led me true and they will always lead you true as well."

They spent the rest of the night in peaceful silence. Bulma fell asleep cradled in Vegeta's giant furred arms.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

A/N: Thank you to all who have made it this far. For me this chapter was a couple of great reveals. I did struggle at moments with this chapter, as I did not want to go too far down certain rabbit holes. Figuring out how to write in this new inner beast of Bulmas without it turning into some sort of Mary Sue oh look Bulma's a Saiyan story truly stressed me out. Because she's not, she's just gotten a new piece add to her. Once again I appreciate my readers and love my reviewers with all my heart.

Next Time on The Worlds Smartest: Let the games begin!