Author's Note: That's right! Another chapter - all the amazing reviews I got inspired me to write another (and quickly!) Enjoy.
I don't ever wanna feel like I did that day
Take me to the place I love, take me all the way
-Red Hot Chili Peppers
Set Me Free
Chapter 10
"Alright men! On my command!"
Vegeta was perched upon a pitch-black stallion, roaming back and forth in front of the line containing hundreds of soldiers. They were currently stationed at Planet Nash, ready for battle. Hired by the government to fight against an army of strange aliens, whose strength was comparable to that of the Saiyans. However, Vegeta's army largely outnumbered the others by two-to-one, not counting the soldiers supplied by Planet Nash themselves.
Vegeta's horse slowed to a stop and the prince narrowed his eyes towards the hills, searching for signs of life. As if on cue, movement was seen on the horizon. About time Vegeta thought, a small smirk appearing on his lips. The prince lived to fight and everyone knew it, especially the king, who used his son to make his fortunes.
The soldiers began to chant and cheer after seeing the movement as well. They were not so steady and feet were rumbling the grounds beneath, itching to start the fight. Vegeta looked back at the anxious soldiers and yelled out "Steady!"
As the army approached, Vegeta could see the faces of the opposing figures, who were also eager to start the fight. Finally, the prince's stallion reared up on its hind legs, releasing a cry as Vegeta pulled out his sword, signaling the beginning. No need for further instructions, the soldiers raced forward.
Meanwhile Bardock, Radditz, and Kakarott were also posted upon similar horses, overlooking the battle and giving instructions relayed from the prince. They too were itching to join the fight but only after order was established between the lower ranks.
As the last row of fighters filed out of command towards the enemy, they too joined the fight, hooting and calling out their cries of excitement as they raced forward wielding their swords.
By the time night fell, both sides lost considerable numbers from the first day of battle. The prince and his following officers were huddled about in his tent, discussing further plans for the future of the war.
"If we stake out here, hiding out here, we could ambush them here" Bardock ran a finger across a map of Planet Nash.
Vegeta was finding it difficult to pay much more attention. His mind once again drifted back to the woman of his dreams. The one that got away. A snarl escaped his lips and he cursed to himself for thinking that. Blah! Stupid, weak emotions!
"What do you think, your highness?" Radditz asked, as the entire rooms turned their attention to their prince.
Vegeta nodded. "Fine. Now get out, I need some sleep."
The men filed out of the tent and left the prince to his thoughts. Vegeta released a sigh and fell back against the mountains of carpets, furs, and blankets. He allowed himself to succumb to sleep, desperate to see her. Bulma.
Days turned into weeks, which turned into months. The men were getting tired and hungry. The food storage was getting awfully low while the numbers of soldiers remained high. Which is good, in some sense.
The enemy was putting up a good fight until recently, when the numbers began to dwindle. Slowly at first, then quickly. Stupid mistakes were made on their part; either by exposing their cover and location or strategies were not up to par with the Saiyans. Vegeta and the rest of his crew attributed this to a possible downfall of the leader or commander. Explains the pitiful errors.
The prince sat around a fire, stretching out after a hard day of battle. Surrounding him were low-rank soldiers and Radditz and Kakarott. Bardock excused himself to retire for the night but Vegeta thought it was a good idea to distract himself from thoughts of her once in awhile.
Vegeta gnawed on a piece of stale bread as soldiers resorted to eating things they found around camp, such as wild berries, sorts of plants, and the occasional moss. The eagerness was gone off their faces and replaced by despair and exhaustion. The prince even thought he was growing tired of this stupid war.
He shook his head and cleared his throat, drawing the attention to him. "Any day now. We'll finish this."
No one said a word but continued to stare into the flames. The flames, which brought back memories of his woman. He growled and immediately got up to retreat to his quarters.
The next day, Vegeta was immersed in the battlefield, as he always was. Wielding his sword left and right, dodging a simple hit and jabbing his sword into the side of an opponent. Child's play, really. He was getting cocky, but that was not a surprise.
He grinned after the dozen of enemies were strewn upon his feet. Vegeta ran off in the direction towards more opponents, hopefully worthy of his time. As he reached another batch of rivals, he raised his sword above his head, muttering the words "ready to die?" when a piercing pain erupted from right side.
The prince swerved around to see a large challenger standing before him. The alien must have been 3 times his size but Vegeta sneered in his face and charged forward, preparing to end this bastard's life.
Instead, he got a decent fight, one he did not expect. Fatigue was tugging away at the prince, who for the first time reached down to his side to find a thick red stream. This angered Vegeta further, who pushed the weariness aside in order to finish this alien off.
Finally, after hours the alien laid before the dark prince, who held his head for a moment. He peered into the eyes before wrinkling his nose in disgust and tossing it aside.
Vegeta turned back to help his comrades when the energy finally gave out, as well as his legs. He pulled off his white gloves to find his skin pale, nearly white. He was afraid of that, but nothing to fear. He's been through worse. Just means what he predicted: he's bleeding out. Anemic. His breathing became rapid and he quickly pressed two fingers to his neck to find his pulse racing. Damn.
The prince got to his feet and staggered off in the direction of camp, seeking a medic on site. However, when he arrived the medic was out on the battlefield, joining the crew in the fight. Of course Vegeta remembered the argument he had days before about the doctor needing to do something rather than wait for the injured (since there was not a lot coming in at the time). He cursed at his foolishness.
Energy continued to wear down and Vegeta became dizzy the more blood he lost. He finally made his way to his tent and fell upon the pile of firs. Just need to rest my eyes for a moment, then I'll get help.
"Prince Vegeta!"
Vegeta stirred in his drowsy state but could not focus his attention for long before succumbing to the sleep again.
But wait – there it was! Someone calling in the distance! Help
"Here." The prince rasped out, flecks of blood escaping his lips. He cleared his throat and tried again, a bit louder this time. "Here! In the tent!"
Suddenly Bardock's head poked through to see the injured man lying on ground, clutching his side. He quickly rushed to him to examine the damage.
"Let me take a look" He trailed off, pushing away Vegeta's right hand.
Bardock cautiously poked around at the gaping wound, a frown on his face when Vegeta spoke up. "It's fine. Just put a bandage on it and we'll wait for the medic."
The soldier shook his head. "The medic is dead. Just died about 2 hours ago on the field."
Vegeta released a groan, realizing his stupid mistake which keeps coming back to haunt him. "Well, just stitch me up yourself."
Bardock nodded and quickly exited the tent only to be back within minutes holding a kit containing basic tools for this sort of thing. As fast as possible he sutured the Saiyan Prince's side. It was definitely not the best but it would have to do for now.
"You're going to need to get that looked at when we get back." Bardock stated.
"I've had worse." Vegeta smirked as he examined the site. He threw back on his combat uniform and made his way back to the fight, Bardock closely at his heels.
After a few more days, the Saiyans finally won the war. They lost few soldiers while the opponents had to eventually surrender due to their low numbers. The prince would have preferred to keep fighting till their rivals were obsolete but agreed to the compromise and surrender.
Soon, everyone was packed and boarded upon many different vessels, all going back to Planet Vegetasei. Except one.
"Vegeta, where are we going?" Kakarott questioned his commander, as he shoved his mouth full. The prince was busy plugging in coordinates to notice the lack of manners and simply stated "Earth" in response before exiting the room.
Vegeta laid on his left side, picturing a woman laying beside him, facing him. But not just any woman. Bulma. He rolled unto his back and drifted off to sleep, thinking about her and what must she be doing. He often wondered (but would never admit it) if she ever thought of him while they spent their time away. Has he been on her mind like she has been on his? If she is seeing another man-
The prince clenched his teeth thinking about it and quickly dismissed the absurd thought. He would arrive on Earth to see her. Oh how he longed to see her again. Her beauty was beginning to slip his thoughts as the months passed by.
I just need to see her again… just once more.
"Let me just finish this and… there!" The young woman stood back to look at her beautiful masterpiece.
Bulma was spending her days assisting her father, who was the head scientist of Earth, in a very special project – one that would blow all technology away!
"Father! I think it's finished!"
She reached to turn it on. A loud humming noise filled the room as green and lights flickered about, lighting up the excitement on her face. She squealed in joy until suddenly-
BAM!
Smoke filled the room.
"Never mind, father." She groaned and began to pick up the pieces of the machine that flew off in the explosion.
Bulma plopped herself back in front of her desk, etching out a new blue print. Time to start from the beginning.
She released a sigh and looked up from her work. The blue-haired woman spent months and months on this contraption and she was starting to get a little frustrated with the progress. If only she could keep her mind from drifting.
Speaking of which: Bulma dropped her pencil on the desk and looked to the ceiling. She loved daydreaming, especially about Planet Vegetasei. She loved to think about her favorite reading place beneath the tree and feeling the warm breezes, strolling through the gardens, walking through the marble hallways of the palace, and of course…
"Vegeta." She purred, closing her eyes to think about that handsome man she longed for.
"What do you want, woman?"
Bulma smiled at first – it was like hearing his voice in person. Wait!
She leapt off her chair, startled by the intrusion, and quickly looked around the room until her eyes met with dark onyx eyes and a devilish smile.
"Vegeta?"
He folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe, the smirk still plastered on his face. Bulma's face instantly lit up realizing this was not another one of her fantasies and she hastily charged toward the man of her dreams.
"Oh Vegeta!" She pounced on him, holding him in an embrace. Surprisingly, he returned it, wrapping his muscular arms around her thin waist.
"Miss me?" He questioned. "I don't blame you."
She pushed him back. "Oh very funny, smartass." But her face continued to glow. "So what brings you here?"
"Oh just in the neighborhood."
The young woman returned his smirk and crossed her arms. She knew better but she also knew he would never admit it.
"Oh, is that so?"
Vegeta nodded. "Yeah well, I better get going. Nice seeing you."
"Ugh you jerk!" She laughed, shoving him in his side as he chuckled at her response. However, the shove earned him a slight wince but he quickly regained his composer.
Her laughter turned to concern and she immediately began tearing away at his shirt to see what was causing his reaction to pain.
"It's nothing." He sighed. The prince absolutely hated being 'babied.' He loathed it.
She found the cause and site of injury and pressed her hands to her mouth to stifle the gasp. "Vegeta… you need a doctor."
"No, I'm fine." He desperately tried to cover himself but she overpowered his feeble attempts and continued to examine it. The skin around the site was turning a dark purple, even black in some places. Bright red lines traveled in different directions from the original site and there was a definite hint of foul odor. The wound was truly grotesque.
"It's infected. Whoever did the sutures was not properly trained-"
"It was Bardock. And only because the medic was dead."
"Well, it needs to be re-sutured and cleaned. Properly this time!"
The young woman grasped his arm and pulled him over to a steel table located in the lab. She grabbed some tools quickly and got to work beginning with cutting the strings holding the tethered skin together.
Once in awhile, Bulma would look up from her work to the man, who remained stoic and never showed the pain he was experiencing. She felt relieved at first but remembered who she was dealing with and thought about how uncomfortable he really was.
"Do you want something for pain?"
Vegeta looked at her with slight disgust. "I'm fine." He barked back.
After tediously cleaning the skin and removing the dead tissue, she carefully sutured the wound and applied gauze dressing to protect it further. She stood back and admired her fine work.
"Finished!" She happily declared, still amazed by the great job she accomplished. The wound looked like it was professionally taken care of and even the prince had to admit he was impressed.
As she was busy putting away her array of tools, Bulma asked "so why are you really here?"
Vegeta once again ignored her question, not wanting to admit his real reason, which was to simply see her. He jumped off the table and buttoned his black shirt. For a moment, the prince did not know how express his thoughts but finally proceeded to tell Bulma about his conversation with Chi Chi and how he broke off the marriage.
Bulma was shocked, to say the least, and it was very evident by her gaping mouth. She could not find the words to respond so she simply sat back and waited for the prince to end. But there was one question that continued to plague her mind:
"Why?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
Bulma said nothing to his question, confused. She knew they had a 'fling' and she knew Chi Chi was in love with another man but that was the extent of it.
After minutes of silence, Vegeta finished the phrase he started.
"I did it because I want you."
Author's Note: I apologize for the "fighting" scenes. I'm just awful when it comes to writing about action and such. I'm also pretty bad about proof-reading so I'm sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes. Vegeta is also a little OOC in this chapter... but I guess you could say he's like that throughout the entire story anyways. I just needed to portray him thinking about her.
Thanks for the amazing reviews! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Review Review Review! I love to hear your thoughts.
