The Crystal in The Night

Bulma was trying, to no avail, to keep up with Vegeta. She threw off her shoes as she pushed past people to get back to the garden. The sound of screaming and crying was drowning out her senses. She saw people being carried out with blood splattered on some and up ahead she saw warriors throwing ki blasts.

As Bulma made it past the threshold of the garden she was horrified to see a battlefield. People were running away from the fighting, some holding onto dead bodies and others just standing in shock. Bulma eyes were scouring the crowd trying to find the royal family. Her eyes darted from left to right, she felt a hand grab her shoulder. Quickly turning she saw Kakarot with what looked to be blue blood splattered across her face. "Have you seen Chichi?" He asked with the most serious face she's ever seen him wear. Bulma shook her head scared to break his concentration. "You need to evacuate with everyone else." He said pointing towards the door.

"I have to secure the King and Queen first, that's my protocol." She said, "Have you seen Vegeta?" Bulma was about to look towards the massacre that was going on behind her but Kakarot pulled her into his chest and shielding her eyes. "Goku let go!" She shouted trying to pull herself away.

"I'm not going to let you see this." He said softly.

Before he could say anything else a loud cackle echoed through the garden. "Well well well, isn't this a great party?" The blood felt like it drained from Bulma's face. Kakarot let her go and she just as slowly turned to the stage. It felt like the air was sucked out of the room when she saw him. Frieza was standing proudly holding the mic with his tail while his arms were behind his back. "The entertainment was great and the food was immaculate but the main event is about to start." He had a slimy grin plastered across his face. At his feet kneeled the Queen with her hands bound behind their backs, the King laid on his side looking to be unconscious. "Even their royal majesty's are here to enjoy the festivities." Frieza patted the Queen's shoulder and nudged the King with his foot. "But I think it's time to take our leave." He said as two men grabbed the King and Queen.

Bulma's throat became dry, she felt like screaming but the noise was trapped in her chest. Bulma felt a breeze of air flash past her. Before she knew it she saw Frieza and the men holding the King and Queen disappear. Vegeta, a second too late, destroyed the stage with his bare fist. His cape was torn and his ceremonial chest armor cracked and missing pieces. He also had a mix of purple and greed blood splattered across his face, hands and clothes.

The battle started to pick up again with Frieza's men attacking Vegeta. Before Bulma could see any blood shed Kakarot grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. "You can evacuate now, securing the King and Queen is a mission for elite guards and the Prince now." Kakarot said before being grabbed by one of the invaders.

"We've found her." One of them said, grabbing Bulma's arm turning her towards him.

Kakarot killed the creature who grabbed him and before he could get to the man who had Bulma a fist was already through his chest. Blood splattered onto Bulma's face and clothes. She looked down at herself, small drops of green blood stained her dress and some got on her skin. She wanted to scream but knew better then to do that. Terror rushed through her body when she looked to the invader that grabbed her. She stared at the fist protruding from his chest, already knowing who it belonged to but still too scared to look at him. She felt like throwing up or screaming, maybe both. Vegeta pulled his arm out of his chest and she watched as he slumped to the floor with a dull thud. She looked at Vegeta, he looked at her with a face Bulma had never seen before. He had murder in his eyes and anger plastered across his face. "Why are you here?" He asked removing his arm from the man's chest and let him fall lifeless to the ground.

Bulma looked down at the dead alien again and then up to Vegeta's green blood stained arm. Noticing her shock, he tore off the rest of his cape and used it to wipe his arm. The way he acted was foreign to Bulma, he acted like killing was nothing to him, like it was a normal everyday occurrence.

She took in a deep breath to keep from throwing up the entire contents of her stomach. 'In for six seconds and out for four.' She thought to herself as her body calmed a little. "I-I w-w-was…" Bulma took another breath to further calm her and hopefully stop the shaking. "I was trying to execute the invasion protocol." She looked back to Vegeta's arm that still had streaks of green blood. When she looked back to him he was still looking at her with that angry face he held, but his eyes looked concerned.

Vegeta looked from her to Kakarot. "Report"

"I'm dealing with casualties and as you ordered I was securing her." He pointed to Bulma. "Raditz is taking care of evacuations at the boarding docks, we don't know if it's safe to leave the planet yet so he's trying to keep people from leaving until further information is relayed and Bardock is leading a team to take care of the invaders." He said.

Bulma's shocked face turned to Kakarot. "Me, why did I need to be secured?" Bulma looked between him and Vegeta.

"Okay she's been secured, go roundup as many warriors you can find and scout for a safe location to set up casualty tents outside of the city." Vegeta said, completely ignoring her question. Kakarot bowed to Vegeta and flew away. "We have to get you to a safe location." Vegeta grabbed Bulma and started to lead her towards the back of the garden.

Bulma tried snatching her arm away from Vegeta's grasp to no avail. "Vegeta wait!" She said, still trying to slip her arm out of his grasp. "What is going on?" She yelled, trying to stop in her tracks causing her to almost fall.

Vegeta stopped and grabbed her up before she fell. "As you just heard one of Frieza's men say that they found you so that leads me to believe they are looking for you, we don't know why, but they are." He then continued to drag her towards the back. "I am trying to evacuate you first so I can figure out why they want you."

Bulma stopped struggling and pulled the paper from her pocket. "Why don't we go here?" She said, handing him the paper as he continued to drag her along. "It's basically the middle of nowhere and no one will know where it is because I ripped it from the records." Vegeta stopped once they got to the edge of the garden and let go of her arm as took the paper. "The palace is compromised, this was obviously a planned attack." She looked at him with a serious face. "We have nowhere else to go and there might be some information of why their looking for me there." Vegeta let out a long sigh, looking back to the palace.

"Getting some intel would be smart before we go to the safe house I was going to take you too. Let's go, I'll alert Bardock of our location when we get there." He said grabbing her again and walked out of the back of the garden.

They were walking for what felt like hours. "Is it safe to fly yet?" She asked, sweating in the hot fabric of her dress. Bulma had learned in her first month here that Vegetasi's nights were just as hot as they day.

Vegeta looked back from where they came, only seeing a glimpse of the lights illuminating the castle. "I believe so, we're far enough away to use the night as cover." He said taking her by her waist and lifting them into the air. "I'm not sure if this town is inhabited so you must stay close to me." He said, rocketing them towards their destination. Bulma nodded, wrapping her arms tightly around Vegeta's neck.

Once in the little town Bulma did just as Vegeta said and stayed close. Being that it was the middle of the night nobody, but an old man sitting on his porch, was outside . "A little too dressed up aren't we?" He asked amusingly. This earned the man a scowl from Vegeta, which made him chuckle. The man furrowed his brows and stood up. "Your majesty." He said bowing. "I'm Roshi and you're both a little far from the palace don't you think." He said sitting back down.

"The palace has been attacked and we're looking for John Briefs." Bulma said walking up to Roshi.

Roshi lowered his head. "You're about 10 years too late." He said looking sad. "John was a hermit who stayed in his house, coming out every once in a while to get food or have a chat with me." Roshi stood up, motioning them to wait there, and went back into his house.

Bulma's heart sank into her stomach. Her legs felt like they were going to give out from under her as she swayed a little. Vegeta grabbed her arm and placed a hand on her lower back to keep her from falling. She searched for years to find him and he had been dead the whole time. Roshi came back with a notebook and a chest under his arm. "He was engrossed with his research but before he could finish he died of an illness unknown to us." He handed Bulma the book and box. "Me and him weren't the closest of people but I would like to say we were good friends, before he died he gave me this, he told me a woman was going to be looking for him and to give her this." Roshi handed the notebook to Bulma and the chest to Vegeta.

Bulma looked down at the brown notebook which had her fathers name written in large black script across it, she softly ran her hand across the book and then gripped it tightly to her side. "Where did he stay?" Vegeta asked looking from Bulma to the man.

"Yes, he had paid off a house while he was here and asked if we could tidy it up every now and again being that he left it to his daughter." Roshi stepped off the porch and started walking in the direction of the house.

"What did you know about my father?" Bulma asked, clutching the book tight to her chest.

Roshi smiled thinking about him. "He talked about his family a lot, the way he talked about you and your mother it felt like I had known you both forever." Roshi chuckled about his memories of the man. "He was very smart but couldn't play galactic chess to save his life." Roshi stopped in front of a small brown house. "Well this is it, I hope you find what you're looking for." Roshi bowed again and left.

"He's gone, I looked for so long." Bulma walked up to the door and hovered her hand over the door knob. "I feel like, even though I know he won't be in there, he'll still be standing there waiting to greet me." She slowly grabbed the knob and opened the door and entered the dark house.