Tarble growled as he looked up from his book. What was making so much racket?
By his side, Betra looked scared. "Is everything going to cave in?"
He growled again. They were just getting into the good part. He was getting a lot of the glyphs down, and he had just started to read his first couple of pages.
He made to walk over to the door. "Stay here. I will return." He snarled.
She got up. "You won't be able to get back in without me."
As much as he wanted to argue, she was right. "Let's get this over with then. I want to get back to this."
She gave him a smile and nodded as they the door opened. The lights turned off and it was back into the darkness. The two of them made their way back up the stairs as everything shook around him, knocking Betra back into his arms. She squirmed a little. "I… I'm sorry." She pulled away in the darkness and made to move forward.
"Let's just get to the top." He said ignoring her error. He had some choice words for whoever was interrupting him. Here he was trying to find a way to use his power and he couldn't even get some peace and quiet.
As they reached the upper library, he growled as he looked out the window. What kind of practice drills were they doing? "Stay here."
"Will you be okay?" She asked behind him.
He nodded. "I'll take care of it. Just remember where we left off."
She smiled, turning red. "Yes, sir."
He walked through a busy corridor. Everyone seemed to be in a panic, but that was the last thing on his mind. He only needed to make a complaint to his brother and be done with it.
Bulma walked by him in the hallway. "Tarble, what are you…"
"What is with this racket? Seriously, I was on the way to a major breakthrough here." He said angrily.
Bulma gave him a glare. "If you didn't notice, your brother is trying to protect the planet!"
Tarble only sighed. "So does that mean that he's not going to stop this infernal rumbling?"
"He's trying. Why the hell are you being such a jerk?" Bulma yelled at him.
"So I'm the jerk for wanting some quiet while I discover how to save my mate." He growled.
"You won't be saving her if there's no planet left! Vegeta's out there risking his neck and all you want to do is complain!" Bulma screamed at him. "Why don't you get over yourself, and try and fucking help us?!"
"What are you trying to say?!" He snapped.
"Everyone here is risking their lives and you're just sitting around in that gravity room I gave you. If you were training, you would be trying to help us instead of standing here like a weak little shit." Bulma yelled at him.
Tarble froze at that last part. It had been a long time since someone called him weak. He thought he had heard the end of it all of those years ago, but he guessed he was wrong. Tarble looked down at the ground and walked by Bulma. He felt an uneasiness as he walked back to the library. She was continuing to yell at his back, but the door of the library quieted her screams.
"Prince Tarble, are you okay?" Someone asked, but he had no idea who.
His head was really starting to hurt as the room began to spin. A cloudy mist seemed to go over his vison as he walked over to the window. He could see that battle raging outside. His brother had just sent some kind of energy blast through someone.
Screams began to fill his ears, but he didn't cover them. Each was more horrible than the last.
He looked up at the collection of ships. One had some laser light on it. That was the source of his headache; the source of the one thing that was standing in the way of his goal.
Someone was knocking on the door to the library and yelling, but that was the last thing that he could even think about. All he wanted was for that laser to stop. Then the noise would stop and everything would be fine again.
Darkness began to fill the room as his eyes began to change. The red from before began to fade to black as he stared at it.
His hand went up in the air and he kept his palm open. All of the sounds around him quieted. He smirked as he closed his palm. The sky lit up with fire as the laser stopped: the ship completely exploded before him. He let out an insane chuckle as he backed away from the window and sat down. Not noticing the black void that was surrounding the room at this moment.
"Tarble?" He turned and found Betra staring at him in the darkness, but she didn't look scared. She looked quite happy. "Did you want to continue looking at the glyphs now?"
He smirked at her, nodding, before allowing her to lead him back to the underground library once more.
Vegeta looked at the falling debris in shock. What had just happened? It was almost as if the ship above them had imploded.
Cheers were heard from below and he could see that the other ships were retreating. They must have not had a weapon that was that advanced. But that still begged the question: how was that ship destroyed? From the look of it, there were only a few of his soldiers in the air, so how was that even possible?
His first instincts told him to look around for Kakarot, but there was no sign of him. He had to remind himself that Kakarot was off planet and wasn't back yet.
As he landed, he could hear some arguing and ran over to see what was going on. A couple of his soldiers were in Bardock's face. "Of all of the people, you had to live!" One shouted.
Bardock only glared back at them. "If he hadn't have got in the way, he would still be alive!"
"If I remember correctly, you should be dead!" The man said poking Bardock in the chest.
"But he isn't." The arguing stilled as he spoke. Many of his soldiers stared at him. "Bardock was chosen by me to live. If you have a problem with that, take it up with me." Everyone seemed to calm down at that. Well, everyone but that man. He didn't know who he was, but the last thing he needed was disorder in his own army. "If you have something to say, say it."
The man growled and Vegeta took in his appearance. He was a rogue from the look of it. He had a scruffy looking beard, but no hair. Those eyes weren't the most trustworthy either. He wanted to smirk. He believed that he had found his spy. The problem was getting the man to admit it. "There were better choices." The man said under his breath and with that he stormed off.
Vegeta looked over at Bardock to reassure him, but the older saiyan didn't look to be perturbed by it. "You okay?" He asked.
Bardock nodded. "I'm pretty used to it at this point. I understand their anger. Many of them had family that died back in that battle, but I'm not going to hang myself for being alive. I have plenty to live for and I'm glad that you chose for me and my mate to return." Bardock seemed a little distracted.
"Spill." Vegeta wasn't one for surprises. Whatever it was, Bardock might as well get it off his chest.
Bardock laughed. "Let's just say that Raditz and Kakarot are in for one hell of a surprise when they get home." Vegeta gave him another look, telling him to just tell him. "Gine and I are having another baby."
Now that wasn't news that you heard every day. Vegeta smirked. Bardock's children were interesting. Vegeta really wanted to see what this one would be capable of. "Congratulations."
Bardock chuckled. "Gine said that maybe with this one, we'll actually have grandchildren."
Vegeta couldn't help but laugh at that. "You'll still be waiting quite a while."
Bardock only laughed. "I think we can wait another 20 years."
Vegeta heard some talking in the distance. He could see that soldier from before talking with some of the others. "Bardock, who is that rogue?"
Bardock shrugged. "I don't know. I've never seen him on the front lines before."
"That's Zunn." Toma said coming up behind them.
"Who the hell is he and what does he do?" Vegeta asked.
Toma smirked. "He works in the hanger bay. I think he does all of the ship assignments."
Now that really was interesting; Vegeta needed to tell Bulma this. This Zunn had just become a person of interest and for all of the wrong reasons. "So he's only a lackey then?"
"Pretty much. A trained seal could do his job." Toma said, making Bardock laugh. "Anyway, I'm going to run and check on some of people in the west sector." With that Toma bowed before leaving.
Bardock looked at him. "You're hiding something."
"It's only speculation. Bulma and I have some thoughts on some upcoming matters. But I don't want to jump the gun. Just be careful who you share information with." Vegeta stated quietly.
Bardock nodded. The man knew not to say anything more. This was not the time or place. "I'm going to go to my mate. If anything comes up, you know how to contact me."
Vegeta nodded. He figured that he needed to do the same and flew up. He did make her a promise. He was going to keep it.
He landed on the balcony to his quarters and she was waiting for him as he entered. "I told you that I would be fine."
Bulma practically launched herself at him. "I saw that beam from here. Just what was that?"
"The better question is how was it destroyed?" He said.
Bulma sighed. "Who knows? The last thing we needed was another mystery."
Vegeta grimaced. "Have you seen Tarble?"
She shook her head. "I haven't seen him. He's probably still locked up in his room." Vegeta nodded. "You're still not going to tell him, are you?"
"I already told you that he won't be able to focus on it. Tarble is only going to be focused on Gure. Nothing else is going to matter to him now." Vegeta said.
Bulma sighed. "But what about the spy? You really think that it's a good idea for him to not be prepared for it?"
Vegeta smirked. "He won't. I've already discovered our prime suspect."
Bulma leaned into him. "Tell me more."
A series of knocks came onto their door and Vegeta sighed as he told the servant to come in. "What do you need?" He wasn't in the mood to be interrupted.
"Sir, it's Captain Kakarot. He's sending a transmission." The man said.
Vegeta jumped past him and Bulma followed him quickly as he practically ran to the communications room. He pushed past a couple of other saiyans and plugged the earpiece in. "Where the hell are you?"
"There you are, Vegeta." He heard Kakarot say.
"You didn't answer my question. Where are you?" Vegeta said almost angrily. Sure he was happy to hear Kakarot's voice, but after the day he had had, he wasn't really in the mood for small chat.
"Oh, Chichi and I are on..." Kakarot said as some static came over the receiver. But Vegeta didn't have time for that. He needed information.
"Tell me, what happened?" Vegeta already knew what was going on, but he wanted everything backed up by Kakarot.
"When I got to Earth, the ships communications and the hyperdrive were broken. I really didn't notice that it was messed up until I…" Kakarot started.
"I don't need your life story, Kakarot. Do you know if you can get it fixed?" Vegeta asked.
Kakarot sighed. "It's one of Tarble's designs. You know as well as I do that I would need to send a copy of the blueprints to some mechanic out here. I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of sharing our ideas with other races."
Kakarot had a point. "So what are you going to do then?" Vegeta asked.
"Chichi and I are just coming back the normal route. We've been getting fuel and I'm going to try and get the communications fixed, maybe I can run across someone that can fix everything in one go and then blast him." Kakarot stated.
Vegeta chuckled. "I'm not against that idea."
"Besides, I would really like to be somewhere stable when Chichi…"
"Goku! Coco ran out of the ship!" Chichi said frantically in the background.
"You wanted that damn bird! You go look for it!" Kakarot said angrily.
"Goku, I swear if something happens to Coco, it will be your head!" Chichi shrieked at Kakarot.
Vegeta was about to ask about the situation, when the line cut. All he could hear was dead space. Something had to cut them off. At least he knew that Kakarot was alive and that was going to have to do for now.
On Gorgo 5…
Kakarot pulled the communicator away from the wall and glared down at Coco who had the cord crushed in her beak.
"Chichi!" His mate came back, but she didn't look mad after seeing Coco. "She destroyed the communication line!"
"But Coco didn't mean it, Goku. You just weren't paying attention." Chichi said. "Come on, Coco, I saved a trotuga leg for you."
"What about me?" Kakarot asked. His stomach grumbled.
Chichi sighed. "There's food for you too."
With that Kakarot made to follow her. He just wished that he had been able to finish his conversation with Vegeta. Maybe, then he could have sent them a pod or something. "Oh well, maybe next time."
To Be Continued…