Chapter 13

Time had left a heavy toll on his young mind. It had seemed as though time had no value on Namek. Days carried silently on until the next, no break between the two to reassure him of the last day's passing. He imagined a large grandfather clock, its long brass shaft swinging back and forth endlessly in a dreary diligence of tick tock. No tolling bell to symbolize the passing of the hours, differentiating minutes from hours, day by night.

That is how his days carried on. Gohan tried his hardest not to let the arduous time pattern affect him, but there was only so much his young body could handle. He would feel himself growing tired at random points of the day, pin pointing it to his body's natural pattern of sleeping on the time frame he was accustomed to on Earth.

Ahead of him flew his father's trusted comrade, Kuririn. He himself did not know the small monk that well, but trusted his father's judgment. The time they shared on the spacecraft and fighting by his side against the Saiyan invasion built up one of his earliest friends, second only to Piccolo-sama.

"Kuririn," Gohan called out, his voice was brisk and dulled by the wind.

The monk turned his head, revealing the fresh purple skin around his swollen left eye. Gohan inwardly cringed at the mental vision he depicted of Vegeta causing such an injury.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to go after the Dragonballs?"

Kuririn smiled, the edges of his crusted lips curled reassuringly. "We can't just stand around and wait, we have to take the chance. Think, what your father would do?"

Gohan smiled meekly and lowered his head to stare at the beeping device in his hands. The green face of the radar stared back at him, four large orange dots radiated along its surface. They were both positive that they were the Dragonballs either owned by Freeza, or Vegeta. At the moment he didn't know which one he would rather face first. He had heard to keep his distance from Freeza, that he was ten times as powerful and as cruel as Vegeta. However, Gohan had witnessed Vegeta's strength first hand. He knew what powers he had and couldn't help but fear him more then any other creature, regardless of what the adults had warned.

"Right," Gohan nodded his head, a little more to himself then to Kuririn. Together they shot through the sky, no one leading, rather side by side.

--

Bulma flew through the air. Only the sound of the winds was able to block out the noisy motor of her bike. The day was cool and calm, like most she had experienced if she overlooked the raving mid-day heat of the two suns. The days were never unpleasant however. There were never any storms, thick clouds or haze, just the clear green skies and dual suns peaking over the horizon. Weather patterns were not what had worried her. When she had first landed Bulma had been guarded. She had never been on another planet before and did not know what to expect or what sort of cautions to use, was the oxygen levels breathable, or the gravity safe and were there any predatorial animals they should be wary of. Her friends however, Kuririn and the rambunctious son of Son Goku jumped out of the ship almost as quickly as she landed, and with sheer dumb luck managed to survive. If there had been no oxygen, they would have suffocated, and the gravity not been withstand-able, could have flattened them.

She had come to Namek in search of adventure, the like of which she had never experienced before. She had traveled with Goku much of her youth when Dragonballs and Princes still interested her teenaged hormonal mind. But the idea of traveling beyond the boundaries of the Earth's atmosphere elated her. Her childlike curiosity and adventure seeking heart as well as that scientific mind of hers jumped at the opportunity to travel in space for a distant planet in technology far beyond that of Earths. She had expected to find thick lands coated with tropics and animals of every size and color, but found herself on a deserted planet with green skies and blue water. Land was few and far between, only small patches of land scattered across the sea like a great earthquake shook the world and divided it. The ground was always dry and rarely green with only small areas of vegetation. The few trees barely acted as decent shade from the mighty suns, which Bulma realized was what she should be most careful about, not any beast, seeing as she had yet to even run into any sort of strange inhabitant besides the friendly Namekians. Bulma was more at risk to get sun and wind burn than anything else.

Though now was not the time to fantasize about adventures and landscapes. Bulma had bigger problems to worry about. In the sack carefully nestled in the rear of her motorbike were the Dragonballs she had gathered for Vegeta. Remembering where he had hidden them, concealed under a large protruding rock, Bulma had taken them, feeling it was only her right to do so. She was the one who found them so that justly gave her the right to take them back. When Vegeta awoke, he would not be very happy to find all of his Dragonballs missing, but that was not her problem now. She had escaped him and had no plan of ever meeting with the dark character again.

She would admit, she found herself growing oddly attracted to the man, but knew better then to let it affect her any more than a high school crush would. She felt bad for leaving him, and her heart tugged at the memory of his mysterious eyes. He intrigued her the way Yamcha had when she first saw him, rising out of the sands in a morbid display of power, eyes piercing black and demeanor as slick and cold as ice. Over time Yamcha grew soft and her attention of him waned. She still felt for him, felt the pain of his death, but the spark had burnt out. Her heart was fickle, and as soon as she had domesticated him, she grew tired of him.

Vegeta however, resembled a dark knight. Unlike Yamcha, he was calculated, reserved, and always dangerous. He also didn't shy from the first thing with long eyelashes and wide hips. He did not seem overly concerned over the fact that she was female. Most men gawked at her, and she fleetingly wondered what made Vegeta any different before the obvious answer smacked her in the face. She meant her words she uttered to him while he was in his state of rest the drugs gave him. Had the circumstances been different, she might have admitted to herself she was interested in him, and might have permitted herself to his company. However the man had no morals, no sense of decency to women including herself, he had kidnapped her for Namek's sake, and wanted nothing more than death and destruction. The man was intolerable and cared little beyond his own selfish desires, so he was not worth her effort.

Her first stop would be to find Kuririn and Gohan. There she would hand them the Dragonballs and be safely on her way. There was no way she was going to have the weight of stashing away Dragonballs with power hungry maniacs flying around the planet that could dispose of her as easily as she could swat at a gnat. Bulma may be brave, but she was not so stupid as to let it get to her head. In the back of her mind, she was already coming up with a plan to snag the Dragonballs from right under Freeza's nose. What she needed was time to write it out, which meant she needed to find a quiet secluded place where no one, including Kuririn and Gohan could find her.

Ahead of her Bulma saw two streaking lights and immediately froze. Her joints locked up, her knuckles squeezed the bars until they turned white, and her bright clear eyes widened with knowing terror. Even just the thought of running into someone on the planet that could fly made her shiver. If they could fly that meant there was a high possibility they were working for none other than Freeza. Though never seeing him herself, Bulma trusted Vegeta disposition. If he was enough to make Vegeta quake in his boots, then she had absolutely no intention of wanting to meet him. To her complete surprise, the first thing she saw as they got closer was one bright orange dot and a purple one. As they got closer she noted the bald head on the orange one, and smiled, relieved.

"Kuririn! Gohan!" She shouted out with a wild hand gesture. The two stopped shortly and looked surprised, before they smiled and rushed toward her with more vigor then a steam truck.

"Bulma!" Was the first thing Kuririn shouted upon seeing his long time friend. He thought at first it was a mirage, or that maybe Vegeta was lurking somewhere just out of sight, but rational thought and a quick check of nearby Ki told him that was not the case. He wanted to hug her in happiness, but knew Bulma's capricious mind and temper so he refrained from doing so. Instead he stood next to her bike and smiled in relief.

"Man, am I glad to see you guys," Bulma laughed to edge off the small twinge of guilt she had. The sight of Kuririn's less then healthy purple eye brought back some memories she wished forgotten.

"How did you get away from Vegeta?" Gohan asked, his eyes marveling the sight of his friend.

Bulma shook her head, fighting back the sudden rush she felt upon remembering their last moments and that heated kiss.

"Don't worry about it. I got away is all that is important."

Gohan was puzzled and looked like he was about to question more, but Kuririn broke in.

"I'll say. I don't know how you did it, but it's a good thing you did, the man is evil."

Bulma bit back her tongue to keep from mentioning how he had rescued her from the Ginyu force. She still had mixed emotions about him and would rather not edge on to her friends about it, especially since they displayed such obvious vindictiveness for the man. Bulma's eyes suddenly widened, just remembering the Dragonballs she had stored in the back. She turned around and hefted the sack and presented her catch to the awestruck duo.

"And you got the Dragonballs? Wa-how Bulma, are you sure you don't have any super strength you never told us about?" Kuririn joked as the orange balls reflected in his dark eyes.

"Very funny. Do what you want with them, I'm heading back to the cave to pick up supplies."

"You're not coming with us?" Gohan looked disappointed.

"Afraid not. Have you seen the crazy people running around here? Why would I follow around you geeks and get messed up with them? I'm not suicidal." She spat, her usual temper and hot tongue lashed.

Completely used to it, Kuririn didn't even notice the insult. "Alright, stay out of trouble and don't get yourself kidnapped again."

She humphed and revved the engine. "No thanks to you." She lifted her nose in the air and drove off, remembering the exact location of the cave by heart.