Bulma was once again getting restless. She had done every exercise she could think of, and had even had another go at the dreaded press ups and sit ups. Laying on the edge of the stream, she put her hands behind her head and paddled her dainty feet in the cool water as she watched the sun set. It wasn't long before the chilly night air penetrated her fragile body and she sat up shivering, quickly pulling her feet from the now freezing water.

"I guess my mother is really keeping him talking. Poor guy, I almost feel sorry for him..."

With a sigh, she stood up and stretched out her stiff muscles, and rubbed her cold arms. The Capsule Corp jacket wasn't really designed to fight against the cold nights of the Wastelands, and she knew that the night air was only going to get colder.

"Well, there's only one thing for it.... there has to be something around here that will burn."

She wandered into the destroyed Capsule House and began sifting through the rubble for things she could safely burn. She growled in frustration, as the only thing she could find were the remains of a wooden deck chair and a few tattered books. Breaking up the chair, she piled it up and stood back to access the situation.

"That won't last me two minutes.... come on Serigon... where the hell are you?"

She crossed her arms and looked angrily up into the starry sky; he should be back by now. She bet he was sitting in her mother's nice warm kitchen eating a nice meal whilst her mother told him embarrassing stories about her childhood. With a sigh she turned and began walking in a random direction. There had to be some old branches lying around somewhere, she could collect them up and go back to camp. If Serigon came back before she did, he could sense ki, so he'd be able to find her easily enough. Bulma hummed a happy little tune to try and keep her spirits up and ignore the cold. Her fingers were going numb as they wrapped around the now stone cold bits of wood she found here and there. It wasn't long before she realised she'd wandered a little too far away from the camp.

"Don't panic girl. Just follow your tracks back, you'll be fine."

Looking at the pathetic amount of wood she was carrying, she hung her head and groaned.

"But I can't go back yet, got to keep going."

As he looked to the stars, he began to seek out signs of the other planets in the galaxy. A misplaced feeling of being lost washed over him as he stared blankly; somehow failing to find what the purpose of his constantly intense training was for. It had been ages since he had seen or heard of Kakarot and no longer had him to base his competition upon. The entire situation of things momentarily seemed fruitless but that inherited Saiyan pride soon began to swell and throb within him.

Vegeta shook his head a few times. At his side, his bare hands raised slightly as his muscles began to tense in his forearms and biceps. Strong fingers stretched out as far as they could before coiling into his welcoming palms, tightening into a set of powerful fists. He could feel his abdomen firming along the lines of his defined muscles as his body steadily started to shake with a rising power.

Thick veins bulged along the lengths of his strengthened arms and pumped visibly underneath the skin of his neck. Vegeta's bare chest started glistening with perspiration from the nearby fire as well as the physical strain he forced himself to endure, accentuating the heavy set of tale telling battle scars that streaked his upper torso.

A faint veil of electricity sparked from the ground and ran like a current up his body, dispersing once it reached the very tip of his radical hair. A swirl of dust and rock fragments accumulated at his planted feet and steadily lifted from the ground with the uprising of wind whipping around him. Vegeta clenched his teeth and growled lowly as he attempted to summon the full amount of his power.

Crackles of energy continued to ride his body until the beckoned wave of energy came to his call and completely overwhelmed him. Like a bomb going off, an enormous blue aura of ki exploded around Vegeta and resounded with a deafening boom that shook the Wastelands for miles, mirrored by the warrior's own tremendous battle cry that roared above all sound. Nearby plateaus and earthen structures shook and shifted while the ground immediately under the Prince was completely torn apart.

The surging energy was like a paradise of its own, granted he was only able to relish in its perfection for mere moments before it dissipated. Vegeta's hair ceased to uncontrollably flail and his muscles dropped into a forced relaxation. The legs he stood so defiantly on ultimately buckled and he crashed onto his knees, falling forward onto his hands for support. He fought to catch his breathing during the aftermath, also noticing that small pools of darkened blood seeped into the dirt beneath his palms. It was apparent he clenched his fists too tightly, though he didn't and still didn't feel the pain.

He blinked a few times before weariness conquered him, falling face first into the ground with a thud and passing out into unconsciousness due to his extreme exhaustion.

The tired human woman was shivering so violently that her entire body was encompassed in a dull throbbing ache. Her bare feet shuffled across the dusty, broken ground. They were so numb with the cold that she could no longer feel the cut and bruised flesh. Her arms that held the pitiful amount of wood were stiff and aching, she was so cold that she could barely move her fingers.
Bulma was about to give up and go back to the camp, when the ground beneath her began to tremor slightly. The air became thick and heavy with a familiar energy which flexed and slowly began to rise in power. Usually, she could not sense Ki, in fact she often thought that her senses were dead to it, but the power was so strong she could not help but be drawn to it.

The Earth woman could taste her own fear thick on her tongue as she edged ever closer to a small forest of rocks jutting out of the ground. Beyond them she could catch glimpses of glimmers of light through the spaces in between the large boulders of stone. She was about to make her way of the rocks, when a thunderous roar broke out, and everything around her descended into madness.

The ground shook violently, forcing her off her feet and thrusting her face into the dusty cracked ground. With a shriek, she rolled quickly out of the way as the rocks shattered and fell around her. Shaken and bloody, she crawled from beneath the carnage and looked around in fear and foreboding. Her hand flew to her mouth in shock as she saw Vegeta unconscious, laying face down in a crater.
Scrambling to her feet, she ran towards the crater, sliding down its crumbling, craggy walls towards the unmoving Saiyan.

"Vegeta? Vegeta?! What happened? Vegeta!"

She grabbed hold of his shoulders and pulled as hard as she could, steadily rolling the warrior onto his back.

"What the hell do you think you were doing, you stupid, stupid man! Get up! I order you to get up!"

She shook him roughly before pulling one of the water bottles from her rations from her pocket and splashing some of it on his face.

He was unresponsive to her shaking and his head shifted from side to side idly in accordance to his body's movements. Vegeta still breathed, though, as seen in how his chest continued to rise and fall with each lungful of needed oxygen.

When she splashed the water on his face, his closed eyes clenched a couple of times in recognition of the wet annoyance. Finally, his consciousness began to stir and he was awakened from his foolish stupor, weakly opening his eyes to behold the aquamarine haired Bulma cradling him.

He couldn't find the words to question what she was doing or the strength to scowl and bark, so he would only lay there for the next passing moments until he could gather the proper energy to sit alert. Vegeta swallowed hard and closed his eyes to resume resting but wouldn't allow his body the time it required, forcing his self to partially sit up.

"I am.. the Prince of Saiyans.." he weakly grumbled, pausing a second to swallow before continuing. "I am supposed.. to be the strongest."

Vigor was slowly returning to his limbs the more he retained consciousness. His arms quivered wildly as they were initially pressed to bear his own weight, moving to separate the hold Bulma had around him was a rough task and he barely managed it.

He looked over his bare skin and noticed considerable scuffing from the fall, accompanied by a second layering of dust and shallowly embedded rocks. Vegeta inspected the inside of his palms that were marked by the broken indentations of his own fingertips, caked with dried blood all within his hands.

The royal Saiyan had attempted to push his limits too far and the results weren't as great as expected.

Bulma scowled as she was pushed away and sighed softly as the proud warrior tried to mobilize on his own weakened strength alone. It had been said on a numerous occasions by a number of people that they were alike in their stubborn nature, but it was only in moments like these when she actually saw any truth in their words.
Putting one slim arm around his broad shoulders, and gripping one thick wrist with a delicate hand, she tried to help him into a more stable sitting position. Her body was tensed up, prepared to be swatted away again, but she was determined to help, despite his pride and stubbornness.

"I know you are, Vegeta... you never let me forget for one moment. But even royalty needs help sometimes, and I won't tell if you won't."

Moving slowly and steadily, she slid her hand up his arm, and lay the palm of her other hand flat between his shoulder blades. Once she was sure she could aid him in sitting and move at the same time, she shuffled behind him, and sat down, pressing her back against his. The small human female tensed her entire body, bracing herself against his greater weight. Gritting her teeth, she dug her heels into the ground and grasped the dry earth with her broken finger nails. Sometimes she didn't know why she bothered with the prideful man, but she knew that she couldn't leave him in this condition, no matter what he said about being the strongest.

"What were you doing, Vegeta? What if an enemy had come along and found you like that? I doubt very much they would have woken you first before challenging you to fight. Stop pushing yourself so hard. Train as much as you want to, but flaunting your power recklessly is just foolish..."

Vegeta was currently experiencing a lapse in history, feeling as though he has had this conversation before with Bulma about the exact same subject. He wouldn't get stronger unless he pushed himself to the next level, always.

Shaking off the effects of the déjà vu, he only grunted in response to her questioning but did allow her to aid him in sitting up. His body remained immobile even after she sat down behind him with her back against his, choosing the more important option of reserving his energy instead of pointlessly arguing with her.

He had this awkward feeling that he was stuck with her company whether he wanted it or not.

For the longest time, he sat in silence and failed to acknowledge Bulma with a response to her prying. However, Vegeta slouched forward a bit to ease some of his weight off of her once he found the energy to. His damaged hands laid restlessly in the lap of his outstretched legs, half cocked in an Indian style manner.

"I have to be the strongest to face whatever may come," he mumbled quietly, carried by a voice that was hoarse and tired from his escapades. The roar of the fire had dwindled quite a bit from the chaos he caused but it still burned lowly, surely to be easily rekindled with the addition of more dry wood.

"Go sit by the fire. I don't need help."

He could feel the body heat she was lacking and realized that it was rather cold outside, for a human woman anyway. Leaning to the side, he slid his legs beneath his frame and forced himself onto his feet, fighting his knees from giving out almost immediately. His legs locked in his stance and kept him stable as he stood, finishing off his stubborn look by crossing his arms over his chest and looking at Bulma with a side glance.

Bulma sighed heavily, and allowed her head to briefly fall back against Vegeta's broad back. Closing her eyes, she counted slowly backwards from ten to stop the scathing comment from escaping her throat. He really was impossible sometimes, and yet here she was, determined to help in any way she could.

I must be mad...

Raising her head slowly, she turned a little and flicked her bright blue eyes to the side so she could see the curve of the Saiyan's shoulder and the back of his bowed head. She allowed some of the tension to leave her body as Vegeta took some of the pressure off by slouching his heavy body slightly. Bulma was tired, too tired to shout, and too tired to argue, but she could not help but be worried by his words.

"You don't always have to be the strongest, Vegeta. But it doesn't really matter what I say, you're going to walk your own path regardless."

So used to her tensed stance and the feel of the heavy body behind her, Bulma almost fell backwards when Vegeta moved to stand up, but she gripped the ground tightly, and saved herself the embarrassment of falling back in the dirt. Remembering the wood she had dropped as she slid down into the crater, she carefully gathered it up, and placed the bottle of water back in her jacket pocket. Too tired to feign strength or even keep up her prideful banner of not needing anyone, she staggered to her feet with a whimper and climbed steadily out of the crater.

The brief warmth she had gathered from sitting close to the Saiyan had woken up her stiff numb body, and now it was aflame with aches and pains. Bulma shuffled to the small camp fire and placed a few of the branches she had brought upon it and poked at it with a long thin stick to make the flames leap higher. Huddling deep into her jacket she shuffled closer to the heat, and watched the Saiyan through the dancing flames.