Choice to be Different
Chapter Four: First Impressions Revised
Disclaimer: Dragonball Z characters and situations belong to Akira Toriyama, I'm just taking them out for a non-profit spin.
Vegeta-chan sat quietly in his room. His collar-bone was all but healed but Bulma still wanted him excluded from any training and his older counterpart was more than happy to enforce her edicts.
Goku and Goten were both gone and Trunks was angry with him for some reason. Vegeta-chan didn't know what to do with himself. After Vegeta-sai's destruction he had learned to avoid causing trouble. Frieza got too much enjoyment out of punishing his infractions. For Vegeta there was a certain thrill to getting in fights with Doodoria, Kiwi or Zarbon. Even though he inevitably lost he could make them mad, he could usually get in one or two good blows before they beat him unconscious and sometimes he lived for the memories of leaving bruises on them. Nappa warned him he'd probably die for it if he ever succeeded in his goal of breaking Zarbon's nose but Vegeta couldn't bring himself to care. The thought of bringing down that vain asshole a peg or three was too tempting.
But there was no thrill in getting into it with Frieza. Their power differential was just too great. Vegeta couldn't make Frieza angry, his efforts to fight back only amused the tyrant. It wasn't a fight, it was him getting beaten into the ground while Frieza laughed.
Frieza had never radiated the sort of tangible power that Vegeta's older counterpart did when he went Super Saiyan. There was a promise in that, a promise that a time would come when Vegeta wouldn't have to bow to anyone. But in the meantime that sort of power made Vegeta very wary of crossing the older man and he didn't understand the rules here.
He was constantly being told to 'go amuse himself' and that was a trap if he'd ever heard one. Frieza occasionally got bored and sent him out with insufficient instructions so that he could punish Vegeta later for screwing up. Even if Bulma and his older self were sincere, and he did feel an inexplicable urge to trust his counterpart's mate even if she did insist upon mangling his name, he just didn't know what he was supposed to do.
Vegeta scowled at the reminder of how his name was constantly mangled by everyone on the planet. Why couldn't they just call the other Vegeta 'old' instead of calling him 'little'? "Vegeta-ojiisan," Vegeta tried it out and decided it fitted the other Vegeta better than "Vegeta-chan" fitted him. Vegeta snorted, he knew why that wouldn't happen: The older Vegeta was stronger so he got his way. Although the other Vegeta did seem to let Bulma order him around to a degree. Vegeta smirked Radditz was the same way about his little camp follower. The girl had a bit of a Saiyan look to her, she was proud and wild despite her position, Radditz was a complete sap about her.
Vegeta sighed, even if Bulma and his counter-part weren't trying to trap him by giving him such imprecise instructions he still couldn't think of anything he wanted to do. He hated to admit it but he missed having Goku around. The bizarrely cheerful Saiyan boy was a moron but he shared Vegeta's incomprehension of Trunks and Goten's games. He also seemed to understand Earth's rules well enough to go do his own thing without concern about bring Vegeta-ojiisan's wrath down on them.
Of course Goku's complete lack of fear when it came to Vegeta-ojiisan only went to show that the other boy was a moron. When confronted with someone so powerful that they could squish you like a bug the only sane response was to fear them. Goku acted like he trusted Vegeta-ojiisan not to hurt them. Vegeta had to admit that his counterpart's training sessions were honest-to-god training sessions and not thinly disguised excuses for lording his power over them, but Vegeta couldn't bring himself to trust the good intentions of anyone so much stronger than he was.
Still, even if Goku was a moron Vegeta still missed having the other boy around.
"Hey Gohan!" Goku waved cheerfully as he walked over to the spot where Gohan had become accustomed to eating lunch with Videl, Erasa and Sharpener.
"Goku, what are you doing here?" Gohan asked.
"Well I just remembered that girl from the bank robbery. I said I was going to spar with her sometime but I forgot to set anything up. Then I remembered that she went to the same school you did. So I thought you might know her."
Gohan groaned.
Goku noticed Videl. "Oh, hi! I guess you do know Gohan. Chichi mentioned that you called so I guess you do want to spar?"
Sharpener stood up so that he could tower over the small Saiyan. "Look kid, Videl's father is Mr. Satan, the World's Champion. She doesn't waste her time sparring with nobodies."
"You mean Videl won't spar with you after she accidently broke your nose when you accidently grabbed her boob." Erasa remarked as she hauled Sharpener back into his place. She grinned at Goku. "You're a cutie, just like your big brother Gohan huh?"
"But Gohan's not..." Goku started to explain.
Gohan grabbed him and clamped a hand over the younger boy's mouth. "...not cute right little brother?" Gohan laughed. He whispered to Goku, "You can't tell them my dad's younger than I am!"
Goku shrugged agreeably and Gohan let him go. He smiled at Videl. "Your dad's the World's Champion? Neat. I was only runner up in the last two tournaments... well the last two I was in."
Gohan just knew Goku was going to mention time travel or something even worse so he interrupted again. "Jr. Tournaments, nothing to do with the Budokai."
Goku scowled at his future son. "It's not nice to lie," he said quietly.
"But sometimes it's necessary," Gohan whispered back. "Or should I tell Mom who raided the fridge last night?"
Goku gulped. Chichi was scary, especially since she'd gotten over crying and yelling at him for things he hadn't done yet. Once that was out of her system she decided to treat him like another one of her sons. She was even trying to make him study!!
Videl remembered this kid effortlessly slamming a hulking criminal across a room. "Runner-up huh? That must have been some tournament."
Goku grinned at her. "Thanks."
"Gohan tells me your dad was into Martial Arts too," Videl said. "Wanna show me what you've got?" She dropped into a fighting stance then her eyes widened as she remembered that Gohan had also said his little brother's name was Goten. Goku was his father's name, his dead father's name. She glanced over at Gohan worriedly. 'Was it healthy that Goten pretended to be his father?' she wondered. 'And Gohan stopped practicing Martial Arts all together after his father died. It really hit the family hard. It probably didn't help that my dad revealed the truth about the tricks Son Goku's style depended on at the same time. It's a wonder Gohan will even talk to me.'
While Videl's thoughts wandered Goku had also settled into a fighting stance. He waited for Videl to make the first move.
Gohan groaned in dismay as all hope of a normal High School experience went up in smoke.
Videl lightly tested Goku's defenses. He frowned. "Come on. I know you can hit harder than that! I saw you fight at the bank."
Videl glanced at Gohan.
He looked depressed but nodded.
Videl shrugged then really threw a punch. Goku evaded it and grinned. "That's more like it," he laughed.
As the spar progressed Erasa and Sharpener shared in jaw-dropping amazement as shy, nerdy Gohan's kid brother held his ground against Hercule Satan's daughter Videl. Gohan watched in puzzlement. He didn't really know how good of a fighter his father had been at fifteen but he would have sworn that Goku was deliberately leaving openings in his defenses. After a few more minutes Gohan realized that what Goku was doing: He was testing Videl to see if she'd spot the openings he gave her.
Goku went on the offensive for a short while then stepped back and bowed. Videl reciprocated.
"You're really good considering you've only had basic training," Goku told Videl warmly. "But you should find someone to teach you if you want to keep getting better. I could introduce you to Master Roshi, he probably wouldn't even make you find him a girl seeing as you're one yourself. Or maybe your dad would train you, you said he was the World's Champion."
Videl blinked at the boy owlishly. "Er, my dad doesn't want to train me. He's so much stronger he's afraid he'd hurt me."
Goku nodded seriously. "Yeah accidents sometimes happen when you're training. That's how 'Geta got hurt. Your dad would probably feel really bad if he hurt you. You should find someone else to teach you. If you don't like Master Roshi, lots of girls don't, maybe Kuririn would teach you. I think he's a master now."
"I'll think about it," Videl said.
"I better get my little bro on a bus back home before someone notices he's missing," Gohan said. Once they'd gotten off school grounds Gohan asked, "What was that about?"
"Well, I just think it's kind of sad," Goku said. "Your friend's a natural and she tries really hard but no one helps her. Even with the basics I think she learned by watching, she does little things wrong that a sensei would have fixed."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Gohan said with a serious look. "I've been trying to help her fight crime, but someone should teach her."
Vegeta-chan quickly finished his lunch. Then he excused himself and headed towards his room. He knew his counterpart was done allowing him or Trunks to train with him for the day. Before he could finish his retreat Vegeta said, "There will be a full moon tonight. Make sure you don't transform.
Vegeta-chan nodded and waited to see if there were any further orders.
"A full moon?" Bulma said nervously. "We better remind Goku as well."
"I could tell him." Vegeta-chan surprised himself by volunteering.
Bulma smiled at him. "That's a great idea!" She turned to her husband and teased. "Why can't you do thoughtful things like that?"
"Why would I want to?" Vegeta asked.
Bulma stuck out her tongue at him.
Trunks groaned and rolled his eyes. "It's going to be one of those fights," he said with disgust. "I'm going to visit Goten. There's no one running around doing perverted stuff at his place."
"Have a good time sweetie," Bulma said never taking her eyes off Vegeta.
"Don't come back too soon," Vegeta added. He watched Bulma with blatant desire in his eyes.
Vegeta-chan found himself blushing.
"Come on," Trunks said as he dragged the older boy of the room. As a parting shot at his parents he added. "I don't know how it is with normal people but when they start baiting each other about stupid stuff it means they're going do embarrassing, potentially mentally scarring stuff soon. Gross huh?"
As Trunks and Vegeta-chan approached Mt. Pauz they sensed Goku and Goten's energy several miles form the Son's home and changed course. They found the other two boys taking turns diving into a hidden lake at the base of a crevasse in the mountains. Several fish, bigger than either of the boys, lay on the bank.
Trunks was surprised at how happy, really happy, not just his normal happy-go-lucky, Goten looked.
Goku popped up out of the water. "Hey 'Geta! Hey Trunks!" he called.
"There's going to be a full moon tonight," Vegeta-chan said.
Goku nodded seriously. "We'll be careful not to look," he said as he pulled his clothes back on.
"What's the big deal about the full moon?" Trunks demanded.
Goku looked at the other boy with big eyes. "You mean you don't know?" he asked. "If you look at the full moon a terrible monster comes."
Vegeta-chan snorted. "They don't have tails moron. Nothing happens if they look at the moon."
"What do our tails have to do with the monster?" Goku asked with a puzzled expression.
Vegeta-chan rolled his eyes. "If a Saiyan loses his tail he can't transform."
"But me and big brother and Trunks and Uncle Vegeta transforms into Super Saiyans and we don't have tails," Goten objected.
"Not that transformation," Vegeta-chan said. "When a Saiyan with a tail looks at a full moon they transform into a giant ape."
"We... we are the monster?" Goku asked in a small, sickly voice.
"Of course," Vegeta-chan said.
"B-but, it-it squished Grandpa," Goku protested. "It can't have been me."
Vegeta-chan looked uncomfortable at the open misery in Goku's expression. "Look, if you don't know how to control it you're not responsible for the stuff it does," he said shortly. "Just don't look at the moon."
"I know not to look! Grandpa told me but I still did... and with Bulma, Yamcha, Puar and Oolong the first time my tail disappeared... and the Tournament, all those people! I might've squished them like I squished Grandpa!" There was a look of dawning horror n Goku's face. "You gotta cut my tail off again before the moon comes up!" he exclaimed.
"Or you could ask the old Vegeta to teach you to stay in control if you do transform," Vegeta-chan said. "Unless you actually want to mutilate yourself."
Goku looked confused and uncertain. Vegeta-chan gave an impatient huff then grabbed Goku's arm and flew back toward Capsule Corps. Trunks and Goten watched them vanish in the distance. Trunks shook his head at Goku's awkward, unpracticed attempts to fly for himself. Inevitably Goku's efforts got screwed up by 'Geta hauling him along like a rag doll.
Trunks stole a side-long look at Goten. "You haven't been over much lately," he commented warily.
"You were mad about sharing your dad," Goten said. " 'Sides Mommy doesn't like Uncle Vegeta training Daddy."
Trunks winced. He imagined it was because his father had hurt 'Geta.
"When'd you start calling Goku 'Daddy'?" Trunks asked. "I thought you and Gohan decided it was too weird with him being younger than Gohan and everything?"
Goten shrugged.
The two boys sat in silence for a time. They watched the fish make ripples in the lake. Then Goten said. "Big Brother never talks about our daddy much. I think he feels bad 'cause he knew him an' I don't. But the first time Big Brother took me here he said Daddy showed him this place when he was little."
"So you brought Goku here?" Trunks asked.
Goten smiled brilliantly. "Hn-huh. Daddy showed it to me. I didn't tell him Big Brother already took me here."
"You look like you're having a good day sweetie," Bulma's mother remarked.
Bulma grinned conspiratorially. "I just spotted Vegeta-chan hauling Goku back here," She laughed. "It's about time, he's been sulking in her room ever since Goku left."
"I don't know that Vegeta-chan has been sulking," Bunny corrected gently. "He just doesn't seem to know what to do with himself without Goku-chan around."
Bulma sighed. "You know when I first saw the two of them I just assumed that they'd fall into the same patterns as Trunks and Goten. Goku and Goten are so much alike."
Bunny looked puzzled. "But Goku has always been so much more independent than Goten."
Bulma acknowledged her mother's point then added. "And Trunks really doesn't have much in common with his father. Trunks is a natural leader... well ring-leader at least." She shook her head at the thought of how much mischief Trunks had encouraged over the years. "You'd think Vegeta would be as well, what with him being a real Prince but intimidation is pretty much his only real 'people skill'."
"I said 'no' Kakarrot. It's a simple concept, I'm certain even you can comprehend it if you put some effort into it."
"But Vegeta..."
"I'm not teaching you and that's final."
"Then cut off my tail," Goku demanded.
"Fine," Vegeta said.
"NO!" 'Geta exclaimed. He yanked Goku away from Vegeta. "You can't! It's part of being Saiyan! And that's most of your power! You can't just throw it away."
"I'm not gonna squish anyone else!" Goku shouted.
"Don't you take any pride in being Saiyan at all?" 'Geta demanded furiously. Then he turned on his older counterpart. "And you! After everything I've been through don't you care at all?"
"What happened?" Goku asked.
Vegeta grimaced. "Without their tails Saiyans can pass for humans or any of a half-dozen other races," he said, avoiding most of the issue. He glanced at the younger Vegeta. "I – we- ran into a group of Saiyan smugglers who'd survived the planet."
"Two years ago," the younger supplied. "They cut-off their tails and pretended not to be Saiyan. The cowards." He glared at Vegeta. "And you're just like them! Don't you even want to be Saiyan anymore?"
The next thing Vegeta-chan knew he was dangling in midair, a hand wrapped around his throat like an iron band choking the life out of him.
"You still haven't learned to stop mouthing off?" Vegeta asked in a soft, deadly voice. He touched the boy's jaw lightly with his free hand. "What was the normal way they shut you up?" His touch shifted to a crushing grip. "I remember. They broke your jaw. The only reason they didn't cut your tongue out was that they liked that you'd always give them an excuse."
"Kamehame-Ha!" Goku's powers at fifteen were inconsequential to Vegeta in his prime. Still Goku's most concentrated attack fired into Vegeta's extended arm at point blank range was enough to make him drop the younger Vegeta.
"Cut it out!" Goku shouted. "You're hurting him!" Goku planted himself defensively between Vegeta and Vegeta-chan. He glared at the older Saiyan with a mixture of shock and outrage. For the first time Vegeta found himself seeing the time-displaced boy as Goten. Goten and Trunks were the only ones he could truly shock if he ever showed them the darker side of his nature. They were the only ones who saw him, without reservation, as a good person.
Vegeta looked down at his younger self. The boy's face was a blank mask. For several moments he just lay where he'd been dropped. Vegeta knew that the boy was considering whether or not this was one of the times when it was best just to stay down. It had only been after Vegeta-sai's destruction that he'd lost enough pride to ever do that. While his father had still lived he would have kept getting up so long as he retained consciousness, even against Frieza, just in case word got back to the king. After Vegeta-sai had been destroyed Frieza had taught him it was better to go to his knees willingly then to wait until Frieza forced him to them.
"Don't look at the moon, either of you," Vegeta ordered.
Then Vegeta retreated to the Gravity Room and set it high enough to kill anyone else in the house. Vegeta found himself waiting for Bulma to come and yell at him for what he'd done. When she didn't come he was disquieted rather than relieved.
"It's probably for the best that Goku stay with us. The moon would be up before he could make it home." Bunny spoke into the phone as she watched her daughter pin together the drapes in the front room. "And Chichi, could you let Trunks stay with you tonight?" she asked. "Things are a bit tense here."
"Goku-sweetie, I shut all the windows. It's safe to come out now," Bulma said to the coat closet door.
"What if you forgot one?" Goku's voice came back.
"Goku, I didn't forget any," Bulma said.
"Or what if a curtain blows open and I wake up and just look? What if I trip? What if the house catches on fire? What if I forget and look up?"
Bulma bit her lip. She'd always been ashamed that she was terrified of Goku's Oozaru form. Having Goku share her fear made it worse. This was why they'd never told Goku the truth about what happened to his grandfather.
"I could call Kuririn," Bulma suggested after a time. "I don't think I could cut off your tail for you even if I tried, but he could. Then you wouldn't have to worry."
There was a long silence. "No," Goku said finally, reluctantly. "It would hurt 'Geta and he's my friend."
Bulma winced at the reminder of the other boy. After the incident Vegeta-chan had retreated to his room, the last time Bulma checked on him he'd been staring blankly at the wall. A hand-shaped bruise was already darkening the boy's throat.
Vegeta turned up the gravity in the GR for the third time. Then went back to dodging lasers even though the gravity was so intense it hurt just to move.
Trunks was a hell-raising spoiled brat and Goten was an infuriatingly naive moron. The two of them tried his patience on a daily basis but he had no desire to hurt them. He wanted to scare the living day-lights out of them on a regular basis but he never truly lost his temper with them. In fact when Trunks had been an infant, he'd been reluctant to even touch the boy for fear of doing harm. His father and Nappa would both sneer at how he'd trained Trunks. The boy was eight years old, had more power than an adult of Saiyan Elite could dream of and Vegeta had never even really sparred with the boy. In a real spar he would have had to hit Trunks and he didn't trust himself that far.
Kakarrot was his rival but the teenaged version didn't in spire any urge to do violence in him. He found it difficult to believe that the brat would be a Super Saiyan in just over a decade. Even when he considered Kakarrot's age and class the fifteen-year-old was weak for a Saiyan. And yet, somehow, Kakarrot always rose to any challenge he encountered. Since being brought into this time Kakarrot's power had already more than doubled.
Vegeta did a few quick mental calculations and realized that, given a year if both Kakarrot and Vegeta-chan continued to progress at their current rates, the third class moron would catch up to him. Vegeta ground his teeth in disgust. But it wasn't directed at his rival, it was his young counterpart he was disgusted with. Vegeta grimaced 'And that was the problem. I feel nothing but contempt for my counterpart. He's much stronger than Kakarrot at the same age but not strong enough to have any control over his life.' Vegeta sneered. 'He's barely strong enough to survive but he can't admit that even to himself. I despise him for the choices he's going to make in the next few years.'
"Don't you even want to be Saiyan anymore?"
Vegeta flinched. That had hit a little close to the bone. There were decisions that the Saiyan people had made that he no longer agreed with. That he questioned, even rejected, certain aspects of his culture was not something Vegeta was comfortable with. Still when he applied Saiyan infant mortality statistics to Trunks' chances for survival he couldn't even pretend to be angry that Bulma had cut the brat's tail off before he ever transformed. The Oozaru transformation and the power that came with it wasn't worth the risk.
But that had nothing to do with his agreeing to get rid of Kakarrot's tail. Every Saiyan child born on Vegeta-sai was tested to see if they would survive the transformation before they were even named. Kakarrot's tail didn't represent a danger to the other Saiyan. If Vegeta taught him to control the Oozaru state, as his younger counterpart had requested, it wouldn't represent a danger to anyone else either. Vegeta just didn't want to teach that to his rival. The first time they'd fought Vegeta won because he could use his Oozaru transformation and Kakarrot couldn't
Vegeta gritted his teeth. 'Not that it will matter in the new time line that had been created by the brats' wish. Kakarrot and I won't meet as enemies. We won't fight when I come to the earth, not unless my counterpart goes insane in the next twenty years. '
A cold chill ran down Vegeta's spine, twenty years with Frieza would drive his counterpart insane. On Namek he had begged Kakarrot to kill Frieza to stop the lizard from twisting anyone else the way Frieza had done to him. It had taken his imminent death to bring Vegeta back to himself enough to see how Frieza had distorted who he was. Like re-breaking a bone after it had healed wrong, it had taken seeing his son die for him to remember that there were more important things than base survival.
When Vegeta had come to Earth he didn't have the capacity for any sort of loyalty. He'd killed his lifelong bodyguard without hesitation or remorse. The fifteen-year-old wasn't that person yet, but he would be by the time he came to Earth and in the time line he was returning to Kakarrot wouldn't recognize his coming as the portent of doom that it was. "Trusting fool," Vegeta muttered. In that other time line Kakarrot wouldn't expect him to be an enemy and Kakarrot would die before he recognized his mistake. 'With no one to stop me I'll decimate the Earth," Vegeta thought. "Much more importantly I'll kill Bulma before I even know who she is."
Vegeta turned the GR down to a sane level and started planning. Before the year was up he needed to make sure that his counterpart could destroy Frieza upon his return to his own time or he needed to ensure that Kakarrot would defeat Vegeta-chan when he first came to Earth.