A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not even Vegeta, regretfully.
Bulla waited until Frieza rounded de corner before she burst into the room. Trunks followed her, trying to stop her, but Bulla's scream almost made their ears bleed. Goku and Bulma ran after them.
"Oh my God…" Bulma muttered.
"Man…" Goku said.
Vegeta was unconscious, but his body was still trembling and his bangs stuck to his forehead from the way he was sweating. He was almost naked, the bloodied rags hanging off of his bleeding, tiny frame. He was lying on a puddle of his own blood, which was still growing. Bulla kneeled before him and was about to touch him, but Trunks held her back.
"Hey! What are you doing? You can't touch him."
"We can't just leave him here. He'll bleed out!"
"No. He survives." Bulma said. "Remember this already happened, Bulla."
Bulla sniffed and sat back on her ankles. A long minute passed before Vegeta groaned, startling everyone. He hissed as he tried to move and his breathing came out quivery and ragged. His entire body tensed as pain ran up and down his tiny frame and he moaned. He slowly opened his eyes, but he could barely open them halfway. He sat up slowly, hissing in pain, and took a while to gain his breath. He looked down at his destroyed body and got up slowly. His knees, however, buckled under him and he fell on his hands and knees. Clenching one eye and still gasping, the tiny prince hung his head and tried with all his might not to cry. His body was hurting so bad… The room around him seemed to start spinning and he heaved. There was nothing in his stomach, though, so nothing came out of his mouth. His little tail, which was also welted and bleeding, twitched as he opted to crawl. Luckily, nobody was watching him… as far as he was concerned. He sweated even more as he opened his closet door and reached inside. He sat back on his ankles as his trembling hands held his scouter. He put it on and pressed a button.
Two sleepy male voices came in.
"V…geta?"
Vegeta's weak, trembling voice spoke:
"R-Radditz… N-N-Nappa. C-come t-to my r-room now."
Even weak and in pain, he managed to sound bossy.
"We'll be right there." The older-sounding voice spoke.
That being said, he fell on his side, conscious but unable to move.
Less than a minute later, two sayians burst into the room. They looked around and swallowed. Radditz sighed deeply and picked the child off of the floor, ignoring his moan of pain.
"A-about… t-time." Vegeta forced out.
The group from the future noticed that Nappa was carrying a small bag on his left hand. Apparently, this had happened before, although that was no surprise.
Radditz laid the broken prince on the bed.
"I should've accompanied you back to your room." He said.
"What good would it have done?" Nappa said, opening the bag. "Frieza would've done it anyway."
Vegeta didn't say anything, he just closed his eyes.
"Why is he so hurt, anyway?" Trunks asked. "He's a kid but he's way stronger than that."
"Frieza beat him before, remember? He was already hurt. He could have bruised ribs or something. Besides he can be very tired by now." Bulma said.
"He is. He fell asleep." Goku said.
"He fell asleep." Radditz repeated as he pulled the rags off of the tiny body. "Frieza really did a work on him this morning. He was unconscious until I came back. That bastard won't let him use the tanks. It's catching up with him."
Nappa took out a soft towel and handed it over to Radditz. The younger man began to pass it across the child's body, cleaning his injuries.
"I know." The bald man said. "The lack of food is not helping either. Frieza won't let him eat as much as he should."
"And the training sessions with Zarbon…" Radditz said. "We should request a mission. A few days away will help a bit."
"I don't know." Nappa said, handing over some kind of substance. "Remember what happened a week ago? Frieza didn't give us enough time and Vegeta ended up paying for it."
Radditz winced and nodded. He could remember it clearly. Frieza's punishments were the cruelest of all, compared to the training sessions and the times when he was just bored or angry and let it out on the kid. However, most of the times Frieza would just find the slightest flaw, or force the prince to make a mistake just so that he could beat him up and cause him pain and agony in the most horrible ways, knowing that the prince would blame himself in the end. Both adults knew that Vegeta cried when he was alone. But really, they couldn't blame him. Life at Frieza's ship was bad, but for Vegeta it was plain horrible. A nightmare in itself. They were actually extremely proud of the prince's will.
When he finished applying the strange substance, he dressed the prince in a new, clean spandex he found in his closet.
"That'll do for now." Nappa said. "Let's head back."
The two adult saiyans left the room.
Goku sighed as he stared at the sleeping prince. "I think we should head back as well."
All of them agreed, and began heading back. What nobody expected was the fact that Vegeta let out a scream. Not too loud, but a scream nonetheless. Everyone turned around, Goku and Trunks with a blast in their hands. But it turned out Vegeta was only having a nightmare. He was thrashing, the bed getting drenched in blood and sweat as his wounds reopened. It was Bulma who hurried over to his bed, mother instincts kicking in. Goku went behind her, but as he tried to grab her wrist, Trunks also thrust forward and both ended up on the ground. Unfortunately, Goku's hand held Bulma's dress to, futilely, keep himelf from falling. In time, Bulma grabbed Vegeta's old blanket and it fell from the prince's body. The prince turned around and curled into a ball to try and keep the heat in his body.
Bulma looked at the blanket in her hand with wide eyes. She looked back at Goku and Trunks and then tried to look up at Bulla. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to be there. Bulma hit the ground with her open palm, trying to go through it. All she got was a lance of pain up her wrist.
"Oh… my… God."
"Where's Bulla?" Goku asked.
"We can't see her." Bulma said. "We're visible in this timeline now. We… we kind of make part of it now, so we can't see her."
"Oh, man…" Goku said. "We screwed it up."
Bulla suddenly materialized next to them, holding on to Trunks.
"Bulla, what the hell are you doing?" Trunks demanded. "You should've stayed invisible."
"I just thought…"
"Doesn't matter." Bulma said quietly. "We better not wake him up and leave before anyone notices us."
"Right." Goku said.
"Why don't you just IT us outside?" Bulla asked.
"I need to detect a source of energy. But there's nobody outside." Goku said. "C'mon."
They got up and quietly began sneaking outside. Unfortunately, Vegeta never slept too heavily. He opened his eyes slowly and swallowed his groans. He suddenly shot up and prepared two ki blasts in each of his hands as he saw the people inside his room.
"Who are you?" he screamed.
"Uhm… Hi, Vegeta." Bulla said softly.
"How do you know my name? Did Frieza send you? I didn't do anything!" he screamed, his eyes wide.
"No, no." Bulma spoke. "We're not going to hurt you."
"Then what are you doing here? Get out of my room!"
"Yeah, we're on it." Goku said. "Bye."
Vegeta grunted and relaxed when he realized they had probably just got lost. He began lying down again when the door opened, revealing a pair of soldiers who were walking and talking. They suddenly stopped in front of the prince's room, looking oddly at the four people attempting to get out. Or so it seemed.
"Why is this door open?" One of them demanded.
"What tricks are you pulling now, monkey?"
Vegeta arched an eyebrow. "Are you two stupid? Can't you – "
"Wait." Bulma said. "I think they can't see us."
"How come?" Trunks said. "You touched the blanket, Goku touched you, and I touched Goku."
"Uhm… Hey, can you see us?"
"Well, he really is insane. Can't even finish your own sentences, kid?"
"He looks confused." The second soldier said. "His mind is too slow."
"Can't expect anything else from a monkey." The other soldier laughed.
"SHUT UP!" Vegeta snapped. "Get out here now or I'll rip you stomachs open and strangle you with your own intestines!"
The group from the future looked astonished as they heard the tiny prince.
"Well, we gotta go anyway." The soldier said.
"Yeah. We better tell Frieza that his little toy ruined the door."
"I did not!" Vegeta said. "You are the fools who can't even comprehend the technology the door operates with."
The two soldiers looked angry. Bulla, who was closer to the door, stepped back. The door slid back closed.
Vegeta swallowed and looked at all of them.
"What the hell is the deal with all of you?"
"Uh… uhm… we'll you see… we come from – " Goku started.
"From very far away." Bulma said. "But it seems that you're the only one that can see us."
"No shit." He said. "Why is that?"
"Well… you see" Bulma said. "We can become invisible sometimes, unless we touch something. Up until now, we thought that if we touched one single thing, everyone would be able to see us, but I seems that, since we touched your blanket, only you can see us, or hear us. Or touch us, for that matter." She said.
"Why were you here? Why did you enter my room? And how long have you been here?"
"Uhm… not too long. We just appeared here a few minutes ago." Trunks lied.
"Then why did you touch my blanket?"
"It was an accident. Actually kind of funny…" Bulma said, chuckling.
"I don't care. If you didn't appear here deliberately, how did you know my name?"
"Excuse me?" Bulma said, wide eyed. Oh, crap.
"My name. You know my name, but you say you just got here by accident."
"Oh… well, you see…"
At that moment, however, something began to beep. Vegeta sighed as he turned to look at the discarded scouter lying on a drying puddle of blood. He got up from the bed, wincing just a little bit and walked over to it. He picked it up and pressed the button.
'Soldiers, attention. Soldiers, attention' a female voice spoke. 'There will be a meeting at 0981 hours. Don't be late. I repeat. Meeting at 0981 hours. Don't be late.'
Vegeta sighed and turned to look at them.
"Perhaps it's true what they say. I am insane." He muttered. "Well, get lost. Go back to wherever it is you come from."
"Right." Goku said. "Then, have a good day."
Vegeta glared at him. "Yeah. I see you really haven't been here long." He rummaged through his closet and took out a very small armor. He then looked at them. "Well? What are you waiting for? A good-bye party?"
They snapped out of their trance and headed outside. Once they were gone and the door closed behind them, Vegeta fell on his knees and held his head. He was feeling extremely weak and light-headed. He swallowed and took a deep breath. He really needed food and sleep. He looked back at the clock on the floor. 0969. He still had some time. He dragged himself over to his bed, figuring that Nappa and Radditz would come and get him when they were ready. He lied down and closed his eyes again.
Meanwhile, the group began walking outside. They found a set of stairs and climbed down until they reached the first floor. They found the sun was coming up, but it was still extremely cold. They crossed the front hall and stepped outside. The sight that greeted them, though, was not pleasant at all. The Time Machine was expelling smoke, the windows around it broken and cracked and the screens turned off. Bulma ran up to it with a horrified face. She coughed up when she reached the smoke.
"What happened?" Bulla gasped.
"I have no idea." Bulma said. "I… I don't know!"
"Could it have been a soldier?" Trunks asked, pressing the start button in vain.
"I don't know. If they can't see us I highly doubt they can see the machine."
"Maybe there was a glitch in it…" Trunks said. "Perhaps it couldn't support having us ona semi-physical plane."
"I didn't think of that one." Bulma muttered. "But I didn't think it would just explode."
"Maybe it couldn't handle two timelines at the same time." Bulla said.
Bulma put her hand on her forehead and closed her eyes shut.
"What are we going to do now?" Bulla said.
"Well, there's one thing we could do." Bulma answered, looking up. "Frieza has impressive technology, right? Maybe he has enough things to fix the machine up."
"But we can't touch them." Goku said. "We can't let everybody see us."
"No." Trunks said. "But my dad can. I mean, if we ask him to get it for us."
"Still, I don't know how much time it'll take for me to fix it. And I doubt Vegeta will be willing to help us."
"We can bring him along with us." Bulla said.
"No, we can't. We can't mix up two timelines, Bulla."
"We already did. He already saw his future wife and children. This timeline has already been ruined and it will continue to be different." She said.
"No. I'm sure that by the time he gets to Earth, he'd already have forgotten our faces. It isn't too late to leave. We just have to keep away from him until the machine is ready." Trunks said.
"But that might take days." Bulma admitted. "And we need food and other stuff. I think it won't hurt to ask Vegeta for soe help. However, what I meant by mixing timelines up was taking something away from one permanently. Things must always return to their timeline sooner or later. Who knows what'd happen if we don't respect that."
"I doubt he'll help us without getting something in reward." Bulla said.
"Let's just ask him and see how it goes." Bulma said.
"Right. Then let's see what's missing." Trunks said.
Good? Bad? Oh-please-continue?
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