OPENING THEME
Episode 17:
HOME AWAY FROM HOME: MEZORANS VS. HUMANS
"Hi, Mom - I see you were trying to contact me," Trunks started, looking at the watch with a guilty grin. The face of it was a two-way interface that allowed him to see his mother and her to see him.
"Like ages ago - what the hell is going on? It's day two, how long do you guys plan on staying there?" she asked angrily.
"Stop your idling, boy and get to the point," Vegeta barked.
"Well, hello to you too, Vegeta!" she yelled although she could not see him. In response, he folded his arms and huffed.
"Hi, there!" Sentee greeted warmly, pushing his head in front of the watch. His entire face filled the small, squared screen.
Taken by surprise, Bulma screamed. The sound of crashing and her sudden disappearance indicated that she had fallen out of her seat. Trying to regain her composure, she fumbled upon her return, shivering more so from embarrassment than the pain of the experience, "U-Uh, hi. W-Who are you?"
Sentee's cat-like ears twitched suddenly and she gawked. Shaking his head in annoyance and with a firm but gentle push, Trunks positioned Sentee to the perfect distance away from the interface.
"Oh, am, I'm sorry, ma'am," Sentee said, blushing furiously, holding his head down in shame, "I did not mean to startle you. I am Sentee Mitra and you must be the lovely wife of the prince."
With a heavy sigh, she relaxed and smiled, "Mitra, hm? Mela's brother. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"To you as well. We have a request," Sentee started, deciding it was best to push on once greetings were out of the way. Purple mist erupted from his hand and eyeing the metal bar on the ground, the element wiggled and came alive also becoming engulfed in the mist. With his guide, the metal bar eased its way before him.
"Whoa!" cried out Bulma, Trunks and Goten upon witnessing the phenomenon.
"I am merely telling where in time I want the rod to be," explained Sentee.
"Magicians," grumbled Vegeta under his breath.
"This rod here," Sentee continued, "It is a special alloy known only to us as P121-01KL, an odd term I would hope means something to you - it was given by Ratio, a brilliant scientist. Your son says that you will be able to determine which planet the alloy was derived."
"And, there - got it," Bulma said excitedly, shifting her focus to the left, her intent stare seemingly darting from side to side, "Lucky thing I'm in my lab right now and in front of a computer. I simply did a search with the name you gave me as the key word and it was a metal that was presented to us by some sort of race called the Igmites late last year. Our planet is not used to extraterrestrial activities and as such the offer was turned down by several countries but...they did willingly leave behind several samples for testing."
"Wow, Mom - that was quick!" Trunks said, wide-eyed.
"The name sounded familiar - and besides it was a quick online search. No biggie."
Goten grinned widely. He always admired the blue-haired beauty for her genius and quick-thinking.
"Hey, hold it up, let me get more light. Why is it so purple around you guys? I want to take a picture."
"That would be the sun," Sentee assured.
"Oh," Bulma said, taken aback. Sudden white light flashed on the screen several times and she proudly added, "There. I'll re-colour these photos and start making some calls."
"Thank you, most kindly, Mrs. E-?" Sentee was interrupted by a furious Bulma.
"Don't even - you can call me Brief, it's very popular from where I'm from which is probably the only reason Vegeta doesn't mind when I use it publicly. But, seriously, that name - what the hell, even after all these years I think it has got to be the most ridiculous name in all of existence. I gave it to Trunks out of respect but if I had him using it all along, the poor kid would still be trying to figure out how to spell it."
Goten giggled.
"Aw, Mom - that's not true. Dad's name cool, I don't know why you have such a problem with it."
"You would, you're as much of a freak as he is anyway," she scoffed.
"I quite understand - my sister had to endure it for three years as well," Sentee said.
"Oh, I've already gotten back a response," Bulma said suddenly, the seriousness in her tone reeled them in with added interest, "I sent a fax of the photos I just took and there's this University that is claiming that they had been begging me to visit them and get the metal off of their hands for some time now. Hmm...I don't remember ever getting any invoices about such. Maybe it's a HR thing, or maybe personnel or even PR, or..."
"Damn it, woman! Stop wasting time and get on with it!" Vegeta growled, sticking his head in front of Sentee.
"Well, sorry Mr. I'm-So-Impatient," she yelled back. The two locked eyes and a shouting match swiftly developed.
"You don't get away with much, do you?" whispered Goten, looking on with disbelief.
Trunks shook his head, "Nuh-uh."
"Alright, hon - see you in a few," she said sweetly and reaffirmed her affections with a wink. Vegeta grunted but his calm glare proved he was in a playful mood. The monitor fazed out and was replaced with an ordinary digital clock user interface, declaring in bold numbers the time and date. Trunks could now finally relax his arm, grateful that he did not have to endure the war of words any longer.
"Your parents are quite...uh, odd," Sentee said, finding it difficult to understand what he had seen.
"Why would the Igmites be so willing to leave behind metal that steals power, especially if it turns out to be in the form of this bar which can do a helluva lot more damage?" Vegeta pondered..
"I'm not sure but I have passed on my memories to Ratio and he will highlight just where exactly this planet is now that we have a name of the race and then we can pay a visit."
"It would do a lot of good for them to meet Ratio," Vegeta said calmly, "My son has been bitten with the genius gene. He could learn a thing or two while he's out here, eh, boy?"
"Heck, yeah, Dad!" Trunks said excitedly but in quick succession, he added worrisomely, "Wait, hold up. You're not coming with us, Dad?"
"You know very well where I'm going." He picked up to the skies, hovering as he paused, noticing that his son had more to say.
"But - alone?" Trunks asked.
"Why not?" he declared.
"Why not stay a while?" begged Sentee.
"Perhaps, later," Vegeta said, smirking coyly. His proud countenance drooped into an embarrassed stare upon hearing the rumbling of his stomach trumpeting over them. Goten giggled.
"Well, I will take that as a yes," smirked Sentee to which Vegeta alighted.
Sentee led the small group through a nearby path that led to village life. With a perfect purple hue pouring over them, several Mezorans started to make their way out and about thus finally bringing life to the planet. Goten and Trunks watched excitedly to see that the homes indeed served a purpose with several busily reaping crops from private gardens. As they walked by, they followed Sentee and waved to many and he answered their questioning glares.
"The sun is now at its highest. We have about 2 hours of pure freedom."
"So how come we didn't see anybody last night? I mean, if the Elmorites can't stand the sun, shouldn't they be like, I dunno, be partying or thrashing the place or something?" asked Goten.
"The Elmorites for some reason are not interested in our possessions. As I said before, they only attack and torture us upon sight. I suppose now I understand that they were only following orders and never intended to cause us harm to begin with. I suppose that they only do enough to fulfill their task of keeping us under subjection."
"So what do your people do at night, then?" Goten asked.
"We simply enjoy life on the indoors. Things have changed greatly since the boy - I mean Fahren - intervened. As long as we do not draw attention to ourselves by creating a fire or emitting light and remain hidden, the Elmorites rarely strike. Right now, we do all our cooking and farming in preparation for the silent nights."
Trunks nodded, "But that must still be pretty tough. It's like you're free but not."
Sentee nodded, his voice hummed in crescendo, "This is where I live."
They entered the house and the guests immediately fell in love with the environment. The children quickly took note of how similar yet different the surroundings were as compared to their own.
"Wow, neat!" exclaimed Goten in awe.
The musical interlude of the coloured beads as they collided haphazardly alerted them of another. Peeping cautiously from behind the beaded curtain that adorned the passageway, a beautiful woman smiled meekly at them. She was stirring something in a large bowl with a wooden spoon, clearly deciding that it was best that she should not stop prematurely not even to entertain the newcomers. A tempting scent swirled around them, coming directly from behind her. The men and the boys sniffed lustfully.
"Ah, there you are," the woman greeted, turning her head towards Sentee and then drawing closer to the boys, she added with sincerity, "Well, hello there."
The boys' faces shone with a brilliant red and they stuttered, finding it difficult to utter a single word as they took in the sight of the woman from head to toe.
"Excuse my friend, over there," Trunks started, finally finding the courage to speak but what he lacked earlier he was over-pouring with now and he proudly declared his love for the woman, "I know I'm a little young but you'll wait for me, wouldn't you?" His eyes flirtatiously danced up and down.
Vegeta growled and completely consumed by embarrassment, he was forced to hide a blush, "I cannot believe you boys do not know how to appropriate yourselves before women."
"This is Lite. Lite Yaire - my mate," Sentee introduced and the two exchanged a loving look.
"But if she's your wife, why doesn't she have your last name?" asked Goten curiously, a hint of disappointment etched on his face upon learning that the woman was taken.
Vegeta could not hide this time and his cheeks were bright red. He shook his head, more annoyed than angry.
Understanding, Lite quickly explained, "A mate is the same thing as from what I gather from your memories, what you would consider a girlfriend but perhaps more leaning towards a fiancée. It is a very serious relationship where the couple have every intention to marry one day, with or without a bond. I'm sure your father will fill you in when you come of age - he has experienced twice what one could search for for an eternity and never find."
"Oh, sorry," Goten apologized, the embarrassment evident in his tone. Trunks, however, was staring at his father, wordlessly begging for answers but Vegeta cleverly turned his head the other way.
"Would it be OK if we have a private discussion until dinner is ready?" asked Sentee. With a nod, the two men trotted along side by side, making their way towards another room.
Before Lite returned to the kitchen, she politely added, "You boys I'm sure are dying to have a look around. Why not?"
"What do you do for fun around here? We always do something before dinner," Trunks said.
Vegeta stopped in his tracks and stared at the boy in rage. Trunks, scratching his head in pretense, laughed nervously, closing his eyes to avoid the death stare.
"It's quite OK. We have something quite similar to what you refer to as television. With Ratio's technology we get news, sports and entertainment from all of the other planets within our solar system. I'm sure you will figure out how to use the interactive guide - you can play, um, what you humans call games."
Goten and Trunks eyed one another in awe and excitement, "Yeah!"
Vegeta lowered his head in shame, shaking it.
"Boys will be boys, no matter where they go," Lite assured and Sentee chuckled.
Vegeta, Sentee and Lite disappeared to separate rooms thus leaving the boys unattended.
"How bout we have some fun before we have some fun?" exclaimed Trunks, with a quick wink.
"Huh?"
"How 'bout I get my Dad in trouble with my Mom?"
Goten then got where he was coming from and agreed anxiously and snickered evilly.
Trunks tapped on his watch to contact his mother and after a little wait, she popped on the screen.
"What is going on?" she said in a panic.
"We just met this babe and Dad's blushing like crazy over her," Trunks said in a mischievious tone.
As if bored, Bulma said, "If your father is blushing, it must be because he is embarrassed and I do believe that you boys are the ones crazy over her, after all there is a babe in the room!"
They both blushed.
"Now, if you excuse me, only call me when there's an emergency, for goodness sake."
"Right, sorry," Trunks laughed nervously and switched the device off.
"Wow, your Mom's good," Goten exclaimed, "Why you'd even think that this would have worked?"
"It always works with Krillin," Trunks said matter-of-factly.
Goten giggled.
The couple stared at the trio in awe as they hurriedly and efficiently cleaned their plates, making several returns, with each round the plate was brimming.
"Wow! I almost forgot how the prince ate," Sentee exclaimed, chuckling.
"Wow, thanks," Goten said excitedly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Thank you, Ms. Yaire," Trunks smiled at the beautiful woman.
"Thank you but I believe this is where I shall be leaving," Vegeta added.
Lite and Sentee nodded their understanding.
"I just need to have a word with the boys before I go," Vegeta said firmly but his mischievous eyes caught the boys by surprise and they shuddered in anticipation of what was to come.
On the outside, Vegeta pulled his son forward with an abrupt tug on his shirt. His countenance matching his voice, he snarled, "Boy, remember the promise your mother gave to me if you do not behave."
"Dad, yeesh. Again what do you guys think I will do? I'm not a little kid any more," he said in a lackluster tone.
"Exactly - which means I can't use that as an excuse any more."
Trunks rolled his eyes.
Goten giggled.
"And the same applies to you," he added gruffly to which Goten stopped immediately.
"I will see you when I see you," he said and dashed off to the sky.
The boys waved after him and returned to the couple who were waving as well.
"OK. Before we go to meet Ratio, I want you boys to meet my father," Sentee said.
"What?"
Trunks and Goten looked up at him with a questioning stare but Sentee smiled eagerly and patted them on their shoulders, "He would very much love to meet you, my boy."
Trunks looked at him with a curious glare.
END THEME:
PREVIEW OF NEXT EPISODE
The boys look on mesmerized at the great wall of darkness and even more so at the immediate sunlit landscape behind them.
"Son Goku here! Mezora's a pretty interesting place so far, huh? The food, the people and the...um, well, I don't know what that is. He - he!"
Vegeta's aura flares, his blue hair being swept up by the upsurge of energy.
"Well, it must mean something's up for Vegeta to transform. Perhaps, this is the dark side of the planet they were talking about. Wow! I can't wait. See you NEXT TIME ON DRAGONBALL SUPER: A WALK ON THE DARK SIDE: THE REAL BATTLE BEGINS"
END CREDITS : Author/Creator of the DBZ series and characters: Akira Toriyama
Author/Creator of this Story/Series; Creator of a last name for Vegeta (well, OK, the first letter of his last name :D); and the understanding of a mate, which to us means husband/wife but to them it means something else entirely (now you know why Sharma was so heartbroken): Chrissi B (c) December 2015
A/N: Only bother to read this long-winded explanation if you are into the understanding of Dragonball relationships :D
So from reading a few B/V stories, I've learnt about this thing called a bond. If it has been mentioned in the show please let me know because I was not aware of it beforehand. According to these fanfics, a bond is a strong connection that is created on purpose with his mate and they can feel what the other feels - similar to how in the show Bulma knew Vegeta was dead during the Buu saga.
In this story, I want to change the concept of a bond:-
According to Lite Yaire (love that name :D) - a bond is very similar to having a soul mate, it knows better than you who is for you. However, she failed to mention that a bond can only be felt once the person initiates it (by being attracted to this person). eg. with Vegeta, he felt it automatically once finding Mela attractive but for Mela, she did not have any sort of romantic inclination towards him in the beginning so it was only after realising she had feelings for him or she started to find him attractive that she then started to feel the bond as well. (Don't worry, now thanks to Lite Yaire he has to explain to Trunks - perhaps a lot sooner than planned).
So using this understanding has helped me to realise that Goku and Chi-Chi have a bond as well (so for those who believe their relationship is unrealistic, think about it - if you have a strong understanding that this person is for you then why look elsewhere?) So, Chi-Chi would have felt this bond at 12 where Goku probably started having feelings for her maybe around 15ish (after he remembered her - so it was that all of a sudden women had as much meaning to him as food, gee I wonder why at that sort of age :D). In essence, he grew to understand about things (my belief, probably Kami taught him - correct me if I am wrong but didn't he trained with him for 3 yrs with him at this age?) And once he realised what marriage was, he wanted to go ahead with it. So it wasn't like "Oh, hey Chi-Chi. Hey, I just met you but, and this is crazy, but here's my number and will you marry me?" It was just that at first he didn't recognize Chi-Chi (seriously, who would've) but Chi-Chi knew who he was (who could forget that hairstyle? :D)
Note though, that a person is NOT obligated to the other because of this bond (i.e. you don't have to divorce from a happy marriage because you now realise oh, heh, I have a bond with someone else.) Having a bond does not mean that the other person will automatically love you or be faithful. It just simply means that the two of you are perfect for the other if you allow the bond to do its thing.
Also, with Mela and Vegeta:- First off, warrior races are very different to how they do things (even how they speak, more on that another time). In the movie special, did you see how fast they went from being together to being married? (And to think Mela was like, "Took you long enough!" Seriously?). It is understood (for them) that once you have a bond and it is established from the beginning, then without a doubt the couple would be married effective immediately. Seriously, warrior races do not date and having a bond would put all of those "dating worries" out of the way. So with this thinking, I would say that other races, especially the humans, do not have access to this thing called a bond so easily but perhaps it needs to be awoken (I mean after all, Bulma felt it, right? And Chi-Chi too, right?)
Overall, bonds are at their strongest between parents/children and siblings. So when Vegeta's brother made a visit, he not only sensed him through his ki but also through their bond. Didn't he say something like "It can't be...". He knew it was his brother without even seeing him. (Also, check up the update A/N on Vegeta's brother in this story at the end of chapter 13 and 14, just in case you missed it).
Whereas for Future Trunks, Vegeta did not connect to that bond until after he found out who he truly was. And perhaps not even then, at least not so quickly - I mean he really did hate Future Trunks (for becoming super saiyan before him at such a young age and for being the one to kill Frieza). If he just had an ounce of respect or admiration towards him then he would have tapped into that bond. Remember, a bond has to be initiated.
Also, bonds can be broken and once broken can not be retrieved (even family bonds). Right now, still thinking through how one would break a bond but it has to be done willingly. Mela begged Vegeta to break their bond after maybe about a year or so after she died. Through her abilities to warp dreams and memories, she communicated with Vegeta after her death. She wanted the bond to end so that Vegeta would forget her and move on (after all, she could not cover the fact that Fahren was not with her any longer - knowing how he would react).
Just sharing my thoughts. Let me know if you agree or disagree and why. So until next time.