As Vegeta leaned against his bed frame he finally took the time to sit and think about all that had happened. Since he had died he had been reunited with the last true members of his race. He had traveled across the galaxy, landed on Earth. Quit the Frieza force, explained the threat Frieza posed to the weaklings, and then he'd nailed down a home base. But not before an annoyingly long house tour, which was made even more annoying by the fact that he knew where everything was down to the exact cupboard Bulma left her snacks in, which she of course selfishly left out of the tour. All of that over the span of what felt like a day, and now finally, he had some time to reflect.

What he hadn't done was come to terms with the way things went down in his original timeline, and as he further rested against the frame of the guest bed, he was angered by the fact that even after having time dedicated to thinking about it, he still hadn't accepted how everything went down.

The things around him just didn't feel real. He was in a world that was exactly the same as his, and yet not at all the same. But only in little ways, little ways that only a purebred Saiyan made for royalty would notice. Bulma's mother hummed her gardening tune while she was cooking, the different shade of blue in the curtains in the living room, the smell of Bulma's lab being more reminiscent of coffee than tobacco; which was a welcome change, and yet, it was a change. Just another small reminder that he was in an alien dimension, and he didn't know how to get back home. Or, if it was even possible.

It felt strange to finally call the life he used to have 'home,' but that's honestly what it was. Dying had a strange way of making you confront the things that you feared most, and for Vegeta it was that he might be becoming softened by the life he had lived. He was stronger than he had ever been, leagues above he had ever been. He had even surpassed Gohan at the height of the teen's power, and yet he still couldn't shake the thought that he had been softened by times of peace. Yet in the end he decided that the life that had made him mushy was worth dying for. He wasn't a good person then though, the universe hadn't deemed it so, as the namekian predicted. Yet, he was fine with that, and he figured he would always be. But then, the universe changed it's verdict, and for the life of him, Vegeta couldn't figure out why.

He thought of the universe recognizing him as a good person. Not once, but twice. It was still inconceivable to him, unfathomable. Did the universe itself not remember his crimes, the millions he's slaughtered in an effort to continue his own pitiful existence; an effort that proved fruitless, an effort that in the end was an abysmal failure. After a humiliating attempt to gain enough power to defeat Frieza by abusing his Saiyan characteristics as if he was some cheap hack, he was beaten down, embarrassed, and ended in an instant after begging Kakarot to avenge a race that he hardly belonged to. Put down by his former master like a feral animal. The end of his first life, and the greatest failure of all his lives. He had failed his lifelong purpose to avenge his race, and found no solace in the cold embrace of death like he sometimes fantasized he would as a desperate, lonely, angry child; and the second?

He shifted his position on the bed as his thoughts shifted to the end of his second life. The nostalgic exhilarating shiver that shook his body, the familiar drumming in his ears. The last screams of existential terror before life was taken by his hand, like a dozen beautifully sang swan songs from an unwilling choir, the unfortunate section of the stadium that stood in front of his hand completely destroyed along with anybody that had been in it. His hand trembled slightly as he realized he was officially past the point of no return, and all for what? The chance to fight Kakarot to the end on equal footing. To make himself the bad guy once again in the hopes that Kakarot would treat him as a threat to the planet, and go all out. What Kakarot described as 'innocents' were nothing more than means to an end, just to satisfy his own agenda; and in the end, the outcome of the fight didn't matter. It was all a lie, then he took himself out. Sacrificed himself on a lie, he never stood a chance against the third class fool. All for nothing anyway, Buu survived the strongest attack he could've possibly hit him with regardless of it all.

Apparently something he did after he was granted his body again changed somebody's mind though, and he couldn't fathom what he could've possibly done that could've made up for all the death and destruction he caused. Was it because he had helped save the universe? Did that make all the blood on his hands okay? Did that ease the pain of the five maybe six families that lived to experience the survivors guilt brought on by his carnage? Maybe it's because he had already atoned for those sins in hell, or maybe he really did make up for his misdoings.

Perhaps this was the universe's last fuck you to the Saiyan, relieving him of his crimes, and bringing him back to life because 'he was a good guy now'; ultimately proving that he had indeed gone soft. Only to take his life away from him, rendering being alive pointless in the most pessimistic sense of the word, and then sending him to a different timeline. What a load of space horse shit.

As his thoughts died down, Vegeta couldn't help but notice Bulma's presence in the compound. He literally couldn't, his body had been fine tuned over decades to seek out and recognize her abysmally tiny energy signature. A skill that was useful in another life, but annoying as shit right now in this one. He knew it wasn't his Bulma, and yet she looked like her, talked like her, bragged like her, smelt like her, had the same snacks in the snack drawer. She was her, and yet she wasn't. Her power level flickered up and down as though it was her chest rising up and down while she slept. The sudden spike in her distress like- wait.

In an instant, Vegeta was out of bed and flying down the compound to see why Bulma was suddenly terrified for her life, and in another instant there was no longer a door behind him and he was in the room with her. He immediately saw the cause of her distress.

The hooded man's speech was muffled through the mask he wore to conceal his identity, "Stay the fuck back." He said from behind the barrel of his gun, his sudden shouts quieted Bulma's muffled cries, his spare arm trapping a wide eyed, terrified Bulma by her neck. Silence filled the room, and he smiled behind his mask; realizing he still had the high ground.

"I don't want to see any sudden moves, or I swear to god I'll put a bullet right in the middle of your forehead. Your widows peak'll make a pretty good target."

Time seemed to slow down as Vegeta and Bulma's eyes connected, her silent pleas to rescue her seemed deafening in the quiet room they occupied together. Her lips quivered through the gag in her mouth, her glossy blue eyes held Vegeta in a trance as she silently screamed for help that only he could provide.

"Move out of the way, I don't want to make this a murder ransom but I will."

"Let her go." Came Vegeta's silent reply, his icy coolness unnerved the gunmen, who was pretty sure he was the one with the gun, and usually the guy with the gun was the one that made the commands.

"Are you stupid or something, move out of the way or-" The rest of his sentence suddenly got caught in his throat as he found himself pinned by the throat against a wall. It all happened so fast, way too fast. Too fast for a human. Vegeta raised his other hand in front of the man and held it for a second, then he moved it on his shoulder. His deep laugh filled the room when he noticed his wary eyes following his hand's movement, nothing was more satisfying than torturing people that truly deserve it. He wrenched his shoulder out of socket, and pressed his hand harshly over the gunmen's mouth as he screamed. "Shhh." Vegeta smiled toothily, "You don't want to get caught right." Vegeta grabbed the gun from nearby and put in the man's hands and pressed it under his own jaw. "Pull it." He said as icily as he could.

The gunman's shaky fingers struggled to wrap around the trigger as he was forced to stare in Vegeta's foreboding onyx eyes. Every inclination in his body told him that shooting the demon in front of him would prove to be a fruitless affair. Suddenly thinking was a lot harder as Vegeta tightened his hold around his neck to enunciate his words. "You're nothing. I can tell, just by looking at you if I squeezed just a little harder, nobody would remember you."

The Saiyan released his hold slightly as he let out a low chuckle, "That scares you doesn't it. Dying alone? Well let me tell you, it's terrifying." Vegeta said, squeezing again to punctuate his sentence. Reveling in the look on this man's face, the man who dared tried to hurt his woman.

Vegeta quickly grew tired of watching him fail to wrap his shaky fingers around the trigger, humans were just so soft. As far as this one knows he's being gifted the chance to end his suffering and get away free, but he's too scared to take the chance. All because his airflow was cut off, what a soft species. Vegeta pressed firmly down on his collarbone, and found pleasure in the breakage he felt, as well as the screams that though muffled filled the room, he threw him to the ground. "Do you work for anyone?" He asked.

"No." Came his simple tortured response, "I'm alone, I-I'm alone. I just wanted to hold her ransom, I just needed the money. I didn't want to hurt her or anything, I just."

What a stroke of luck, he didn't have to personally put down an entire crime organization. That made his life a lot easier.

Vegeta held his hand out in front of him and prepared the energy that it would take to end his measly life. As he held the purple blast in front of the man's face and prepared to welcome him to oblivion, a loud muffled screaming could be heard. Vegeta groaned as he looked at Bulma, he knew she was going to guilt him into letting this pathetic being live, so for a second he contemplated pretending he didn't hear her. It'd be a pretty likely story considering the gag in her mouth, but no. He wouldn't feel right with himself if he did. He wouldn't feel right with himself? Shit he was soft. Fuck.

"Vegeta wait!" Bulma yelled as she ripped the gag out of her mouth, and just like that there were no more excuses. He rolled his eyes as he released the minuscule amount of energy he needed to gather to erase this man feeling a strange sense of acceptance as he did it. He socked him on the back of the head, knocking him out instantly.

Bulma's POV

It all happened so fast, one second she was laying in bed, the next she had a gag in her mouth, and cold metal against her head. His menacing voice whispered low in her ear that he wasn't going to take any chances with her, if she so much as made a peep he'd break her neck and exit the corporation just as he'd entered, undetected. He placed his open palm on her chin creepily and guided her to her feet. "Get moving." Came his simple command and yet it sent shivers down her spine, her stomach dropped to her feet and her heart pounded as she took her first step toward the unknown. Her legs quaked, and her lip quivered as she silently begged for help. Her second step wasn't any easier, her breathing quickened but the gag in her mouth made catching her breath impossible. Before she could take her third step, the door burst into pieces and of all the people to come to her rescue, it was Vegeta.

She screamed for help, but the words got caught in her throat as her assailant threatened Vegeta and shifted his hold on her, "Stay the fuck back." His words quieted Bulma, but she was pretty sure her heart's wild beating was still audible. In her terrified state it was easy to forget that Vegeta being shot was more likely to tickle than actually hurt him. Her eyes connected with his and she hoped that her gaze had relayed the message she was trying to send.

"Let her go." Came Vegeta's icy cool response, Bulma nearly fainted from the relief in combination with the terror, he wasn't going to watch this guy walk her out at gun-point for the fun of it. He was actually going to go out of his way to save her. She then decided that if he gets her out of this no matter what, Vegeta was officially not that bad.

Vegeta wasn't visible, but she knew he was in movement, one second she was held hostage by her almost kidnapper, the next she was on the floor, holding herself up as the sweat dripped from her forehead down to her hands, and her arms shook under her weight. The pit in her stomach slowly deteriorated. She managed the strength to sit up against the side of her bed, Bulma gradually got her breathing under control which seemed strangely hard to do, then the dryness in her throat went away. She finally lifted her chin and saw her assailant being pinned to the wall by Vegeta.

The waves of anger and death being emanated by Vegeta scared the shit out of her, and she wasn't even the one they were directed at. A nearby window allowed the moonlight to illuminate the room just enough to see the absolutely terrified face of the man who almost kidnapped her, keeping Vegeta in horrifying darkness. She almost pitied him, his face twisted and contorted as he sweated, and silently hyperventilated while he failed to wrap his hand around the trigger. Any words they might have exchanged blurred together as Bulma tried to get herself together, the only thing that was evident to her was his choked expression. She jumped in surprise as his body hit the ground with a thud. Vegeta held his hand out in front of him and prepared to end his life, the purple light from Vegeta's palm filled the room as he held his palm in front of her kidnapper's face.

Her muffled cries surprised even her, as she held her hand out, she removed her gag and yelled, "Vegeta wait!" Much to her surprise he looked behind him with an annoyed look, as if he'd expected this. A second or two of thought passed by as Vegeta clearly considered her request, with a roll of his eyes he let go of the energy in his palm, and she jumped at the pounding noise that came from the man's skull after Vegeta knocked him out.

"Call the earth authorities on this waste of space."

She was going to thank him, whether it was for not killing him, or for saving her she had no idea, but she was going to thank him; until the words got caught in her throat. She tried to sink further into the wood that made up her bed as she realized she was finally completely safe, she bit her finger-nail nervously for a second before finally letting out real words. "Thank you Vegeta, I really. I thought that…I thought, I-I just can't believe that this..." Slowly the fear gave way to anger, "Oh gosh. Somebody is so fucking fired!" Her sudden outburst caused Vegeta a ghost of a smile, which was gone as soon as it came. A flutter of a grin that Bulma had a feeling she was lucky to see.

An awkward silence filled the room before Vegeta's words finally registered to Bulma, "we need to call the cops! I can't believe he got past security! How did he even get in, we have security cameras, and guards and, oh my gosh!" Bulma said quickly, as she ran her hands anxiously through her hair.

"Go to the phone, call the authorities. Get your shit together, I'll make sure he's still here when they arrive."

Bulma nodded, "Alright, thanks again Vegeta. I-I don't know what I would've done, or what would've happened if you weren't here to help me."

Vegeta shrugged, and leaned against the wall next to him was the unfortunate man who lay in a very unflattering position, with his butt in the air.

After one last glance at Vegeta she stepped over the remains of the door and made sure to hold her head high as she walked through the hallway, feigning as much confidence as she could, whilst she walked to the landline in the living room. Although everything seemed like it was okay, the dark was home to the unknown, and Bulma by nature, and especially right now wanted to be sure of everything.

As she dialed, she wrapped the line around her finger and relaxed against the wall, she explained her situation to the operator. She hung up, and took a second to relax before she thought of her next move.

Bulma debated going back to the room with Vegeta, but decided against it. She didn't want to be in the same room as that creep that put a gag in her mouth, and now that rational thought had returned to her, she had to wonder why Vegeta went out of his way to torture him. Flashes of Vegeta taking his time to scare the daylights of her assailant hit her, and she had no choice but to question why he took the time to scare him. Wasn't he supposed to be a genocidal freak, and yet he'd saved her. She hadn't even proved herself to be useful yet, not really at least. The more she thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. Bulma ran her hands through her hair in frustration, and nearly screamed, she hated not knowing things. She knew everything! Yet the more she thought about this, the less sense it made. Whatever, he probably just saw an excuse to be sadistic and took it.

But could that be it? Was there more to Vegeta than she had previously thought? He seemed quiet the whole time she showed them around. Both Nappa and Raditz occasionally had something to say, or ask but Vegeta just kept quiet, she just assumed that judging by that perpetual scowl on his face that he was a bona-fide grump. Maybe she judged him too early, a grumpy, genocidal, scarily powerful Saiyan probably wouldn't go out of his way to get out of his million dollar custom made guest bed unless there was more to him than just being grumpy and genocidal.

The flashing lights from the police cars shone through the curtains in the living room, and Bulma confronted them outside and explained what happened.

Vegeta sighed as he crossed his arms and leaned further into the wall, he focused on sensing everything that was going on in the compound. Like Bulma's softly flickering ki, and her parents even softer ki, an even smaller blip on his mental radar was the piece of shit right in front of him. Everyone was alive, he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and relaxed a little. He groaned as he heard either Nappa or Raditz snoring, he didn't need to sense their energy to know they were breathing, the loud disgusting oafs. Nor did he need to focus to hear that wretchedly high pitched noise that the earthlings stupidly decided they needed to attach to their emergency responders.

After one more glance below his nose at Bulma's knocked out assailant, Vegeta left the room and started towards his own room. He smirked when he heard Bulma yelling at some poor security officer through the walls, she might even wake up Nappa and Raditz if she continued at that rate. It was justified though, how hard could his job possibly be. He had to stay awake and look ahead, that's literally it.

Vegeta closed the door behind him, and put his head on his pillow, then did his best to tune out the rest of the world.

He didn't know how much time had passed before Bulma had predictably intruded upon his living space, but she was here.

"Hey." She said awkwardly, her voice filled the dark comfortably quiet room as Vegeta rolled over to face her, "I just wanted to thank you again, Vegeta, I don't know what would've happened if-"

Vegeta interrupted her, "You would've been held for ransom, likely unharmed if it could've been helped. Your parents would have coughed up the money too quickly, the incompetent earth criminal would ask for quadruple after shaking his head because he forgot he was dealing with trillionaries. Then you'd of been returned home. I didn't save your life or anything." He said harshly, he facepalmed inwardly at his words. They weren't as comforting as he wanted them to sound, but he wasn't wrong. She was never in any harm, was that a comforting thought? Fuck, this was hard.

"I guess so, but you know when you wake up and feel a hand over your mouth and some guy of questionable intentions whispers in your ear to shut the fuck up, it kind of makes you feel in danger."

"Been there." He said dryly.

Bulma nearly laughed at his response, was that an admission of something dark or did Vegeta have a sense of humor? It was so hard to get a read on him! Fuck this was hard "By the way uh, how did you hear me?"

Vegeta scoffed, "I didn't hear you, but judging by the way you flipped out on your pathetic excuse for security I could've if you tried hard enough."

Bulma huffed, "Don't even get me started on that, oh my gosh, like he honestly has to have the easiest job in the world. 99% of the time he gets to just sit and twiddle his thumbs and be paid for it, but the time comes to actually do something he's asleep at like 11 o-clock, ooh my ughh. I'm replacing him with a machine next bit of free time I get" Bulma said as she ran a hand through her hair frustratedly.

Vegeta grinned in the darkness, he had thought virtually the same thing.

"But getting away from that, how did you know I was in trouble? Did you like, sense my energy?"

Vegeta nodded, "Something like that."

"But Goku and Yamcha and everyone else always say it's hard to sense my energy because of how small it is? Yamcha always complains about how hard he has to focus to sense me. Which I'm perfectly fine with, I think it's creepy that you guys can just read wherever I am or how I'm feeling."

Vegeta inwardly groaned, how could he explain to Bulma that he had been married to her for close to a decade, and had just acclimated himself to it. Familiarized himself with her ki signature, made sure he'd always be able to distinguish it in a crowd. Always be able to feel it, for her own safety. So shit like this doesn't happen without someone paying for trying.

Vegeta sat quietly and thought about his response carefully before he responded, "I like to do a mental sweep of everyone in my immediate surroundings before I go to bed. Nappa and Raditz were asleep, your parents were asleep, and you seemed to be in distress and there was someone unfamiliar to me next to you. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on."

"Why do you do that?" Bulma asked curiously as she leaned against the door frame.

"Make sure nobody's feeling like murdering me in the night, make sure everyone is alive. You just happened to get lucky enough to be in danger right when I did my sweep."

Bulma sighed, "Damn, alright. Thanks again Vegeta. I really appreciate it."

Vegeta sighed as he realized that distancing himself from this Bulma while he trained to kill Frieza was going to be a pain in the ass, if he knew Bulma and he did. He was a bona-fide friend to her in her naïve view of the world, and that meant she was going to want to do shit with him, and the more he ignored her, the harder she tried. Because, "nobody blew off Bulma Briefs." Such a disgustingly brazen woman. If he could have helped it he would have just stayed away from her but no, stupid humans had to go and fuck everything up like always.

"Don't mention it, now leave me alone. I'm going to sleep." Vegeta said, he rolled over and his eye twitched as he heard the soft goodnight from Bulma. His stomach slightly dropped as she closed the door, in his old life he'd sometimes miss having his own bed. It was hard to justify those feelings tonight.

An: Not much to say today

Review Hour: RedGta2004: I'll definitely do this lol

Amanny: Guess we'll see...

HavalTheRock: I'll be waiting, for your next review. Always epic stuff from you.

TurboTheRaichu: I like to be humorous sometimes, usually the funnier stuff comes in rewrites though. Thank you though that's a big compliment.