DISCLAIMER:
Rath: Man! Vetyga is sooooo annoying! She keeps bugging me... I mean ever since Shippo left, she won't stop speaking to me in that strange language of hers. I mean, as if I really understand her! All I know is that she better not be doing any disclaimers without me behind my back!
Vetyga: (Who is conveniently standing behind Rath's back) I DNO'T KONW WHY SHE HAS SCUH A POBLREM WTIH ME TLKAING TIHS WAY. I MAEN EVRONEYE ESLE UDNRESANTDS ME, RHIGT? SEH'S SO LMAE! AYNAWYS WE DNO'T OWN DRAOGN BLAL Z!
[Chapter edited: 5Jan2014]
WITHIN THE PRESENT WORLD:
It was a bold statement indeed... Send Vegeta to the Past where he could get the others in one place so that Dende could easily transport them back to the Present World. And so everyone would live happily ever after... Too bad it was all a delusion, bound by the fact that Dende could never again open the gateway to the Past World without demolishing the Present World in the process. This was something Dende would never allow to pass while it was still within his power. He was still a Guardian, after all. Though he cared about Goku and the others, he would not risk it.
"You will send me where you sent them," Vegeta demanded. "Now, so that I can correct your stupidity!"
"A noble gesture, Vegeta," Dende replied knowingly. "But one that is seriously flawed."
"Enough with your rubbish!" Vegeta growled angrily. "It is my Past we are dealing with here. I can do as I choose! So send me there NOW!" A ball of shining blue energy began to gather within his tightened left fist. "Or else...!"
Piccolo vowed he would kill Vegeta or die trying if the brash Saiyan Prince even dared to act on his threat in such haste. He lowered his stance, preparing to defend Dende at all costs, but Dende motioned for him to stop.
"Go ahead, Vegeta," Dende urged slowly. "But remember this: you so much as step a foot within the Past World and they will no longer have a Present World to return to. And so they would all be guaranteed to die the moment they crossed time's boundaries... Or you could put faith in the fact that they will make it through the Rift in time... And so they would live. In the end, you are right. It is truly up to you. Pray tell... How will you play your hand?"
The atmosphere between them remained tense for several long agonizing minutes as Vegeta took in Dende's words of wisdom. As his eyes darted angrily between Dende and Piccolo, Vegeta at last allowed his energy to dissipate. His expression was filled with anger. If what Dende said was true, then there really wasn't anything they could do. It bothered him. He hated not being in control over what went on his life. Too long had he been denied this in the past. Surely, there was something he could do? Somehow... He was never one to just sit around and wait, but he did not want to be responsible for the deaths of his wife and son...
Trying to keep his anger under control, Vegeta uttered two simple words, "How long?"
Dende knew this was Vegeta's way of showing that he accepted the truth of the situation and would no longer deny the facts. Dende answered honestly, "The time speeds may differ slightly between timelines, but all in all, they have about two weeks... But I know they'll make it!"
"They better..." Vegeta grumbled before he took off without warning. He went off to retrieve his daughter, who he had almost forgotten was being baby-sat by Krillin's brat.
"Goku won't fail," Piccolo repeated as though trying to convince himself of that fact. "They will make it."
As Gohan looked to the ominous skies, he thought to himself, 'I certainly hope so. I don't know what I'd do if I lost both Dad and Goten out there...'
A flash of red lightning struck through the heavens. It was another omen of things to come...
WITHIN THE PAST WORLD:
Vegeta was lying on his bed eating the meat scraps Raditz had managed to salvage for him. Nappa and Raditz sat on the floor conversing quietly with one another. He pretty much paid them no attention. After all, what did he care? His ears, however, perked up at the mention of Frieza and he began to feel very agitated as he felt two pairs of eyes upon him.
"You got a problem?" Vegeta asked impatiently as he turned to glare at them.
"How have you been feeling lately?" Nappa inquired quietly.
"Who cares?" Vegeta replied.
"What was it for this time...?" Nappa asked cautiously.
"Does it matter?" Vegeta replied irritably. "It's not like I can do anything about it, anyways. So why care?"
"Because this has gone on far too long," Nappa answered. "And way too often! Don't you think it's about time we put an end to all this?"
"You're an idiot, Nappa," Vegeta replied as he crossed his arms across his chest. "So just shut up!"
"Just give it up, Nappa," Raditz said. He was tired of Vegeta's ingratitude. As far as he was concerned, the bratty Prince had no right to disrespect them so much! Hell! They were trying to help him for goodness sakes! It was nerve-racking to say the least, for it seemed the bruises weren't the only things Vegeta was getting from Frieza. It was frightening, and sad really, how the young Prince's demeanor would suddenly morph, resembling the one being he strove so hard not to become.
After a long awkward silence, Vegeta asked quietly, "What if I told you that I was leaving tomorrow?"
"If Frieza catches you..." Raditz began, until Nappa cut him off. Nappa wanted to avoid reminding Vegeta of what Frieza had done to him the first and only time the child had attempted to run away. Nappa was surprised the Prince still had the will to even consider doing it again...
"Are you sure?" Nappa asked.
"They promised to take me," Vegeta replied.
"Who promised?" Nappa asked. He wasn't sure that he liked where this was heading.
"Trunks did!" Vegeta exclaimed. "The girl says they have to leave by tomorrow, so this will be my last day with Frieza!"
"How can you be so sure?" Raditz asked.
Vegeta just shrugged.
"You don't even know, do you?" Raditz exasperated. "Incredible! I can't believe you would be so willing to risk your own life for something that may not even be possible! Have you given this no thought at all?!"
"You don't get it!" Vegeta growled in frustration, suddenly feeling a loss of appetite despite the fact that he had eaten so little in the last several days. "Frieza never treats you like he does me! Haven't you given it any 'thought'? I just want to be free! I will not be beaten for no reason anymore! I hate it here! Why can't you just... Just..."
Vegeta shook his head as he threw the remaining scraps of food to the floor. "Just forget it!" He jumped off the bed and stormed angrily out the room as he called out, "And don't follow me either!"
"Vegeta..." Nappa tried to reason, but the child was already gone. Nappa was prepared to follow his Prince, when Raditz motioned for him to stop.
"Let him work it out," Raditz told him. "He'll be ok..."
'No one thinks I'll ever escape from Frieza!' Vegeta thought angrily to himself as he stormed down the hallway. 'But I'll show them! I will NOT be a slave forever!' For now, he just had to go find someplace that he could think by himself.
ELSEWHERE ABOARD FRIEZA'S SHIP:
Bulma had just returned to T-1.
"Had a nice 'break'?" Khamrii asked snidely.
"Uh, yeah," Bulma replied nervously. "Of course..."
"Khamrii, leave us!" Sugo ordered. He motioned for Bulma to meet him in the far corner of the room.
"Um, Sugo...?" Bulma started, but Sugo held his hand up in a silencing gesture.
"Listen," Sugo whispered into her ear. "You've been working pretty hard today, so I think I will give you the rest of the day off. Why don't you go enjoy yourself?"
"Why are you being so, uh, nice to me?" Bulma asked, trying hard not to be seduced by Sugo's striking golden eyes. Why did he have to be so CUTE!?
"You don't seem to have come from around here," Sugo replied. "You seem different from the others. Let me show you around..."
"What about Frieza?" Bulma asked, but Sugo interrupted her.
"You need not be concerned over Frieza," Sugo replied. "You are currently under my jurisdiction. Frieza has not yet given me any specific orders concerning you. It is only my concern."
"I've seen how Frieza is," Bulma said. "I don't want you getting in trouble over me..."
"Just follow me," Sugo replied as he gently grabbed her by the hand and led her out the room. Had he not been so infatuated over Bulma, he would have noticed Khamrii's glaring look...
"Where are you leading me?" Bulma questioned.
"You'll see," Sugo replied as he led her up to the uppermost level, where he took her into a large pitch dark circular room.
"What is this place?" Bulma asked curiously.
"Look up," Sugo replied as he flipped a switch on one of the room's side panels. He watched Bulma's eyes light up in astonishment as the entire ceiling opened up to reveal a massive glass dome, surrounding them within the glistening stars.
"It's amazing!" Bulma gasped as she watched all the stars streak passed in a whirl of glimmering light. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. "The stars are so beautiful!"
"I thought you might like it," Sugo said, clearly pleased by her delight. "Not very many on this ship can fully appreciate the stars like this. Life under Frieza's empire has that affect on most beings. Somehow I knew you could..." He brushed his hand gently across the side of Bulma's face to fix a rogue strand of blue hair. Bulma's eyes still held that rare spark of life. It saddened Sugo to think what would become of her on this cursed ship. Life under Frieza's rule was not an easy one.
The moment, however, was ruined as a small movement on the opposite side of the room caught their attention.
"Why are you here, monkey?" Sugo questioned suspiciously after he switched on the lights. "Get out of here!"
"Please don't call him that," Bulma whispered quietly as she watched the 8- year-old Saiyan quickly stand up, preparing to defend himself if need be.
"If it's a fight you're lookin' for..." Vegeta snapped, glaring as menacingly as he could into Sugo's unblinking eyes.
"You know this Saiyan?" Sugo glanced at Bulma.
"Yes, so leave him be," Bulma responded. "I need him for something!"
"So be it," Sugo backed down as he continued to look at the stars. "Only for you..."
And then to Vegeta she said, "And don't you go starting any trouble either! Okay?"
Vegeta shrugged. "As if you can stop me!" he retorted. Of course, the only reason he backed down was because he didn't want to ruin his one chance to escape. Well, it was that and the fact that he still felt completely exhausted and weak from the beatings he had received earlier that day. Of course, he hid it well from the others, lest they try to take advantage of his weakness. Besides, he had to find out what this girl was up to...
"Do either of you know about the Schreetept Quadrant?" Bulma asked.
Vegeta just shrugged.
"Why?" Sugo asked.
"Because I, uh, heard someone mention it and I want to learn more about it," Bulma half-lied. "It sounds like a great place!"
"Why don't you allow me to assist you?" Sugo suggested smoothly, ignoring Vegeta's rolling eyes.
"Perhaps if you could get me into the mainframe..." Bulma started.
Sugo nodded as he said, "Say no more!" He motioned towards a small door on the far side of the room. "I can let you access one in there, but I'm afraid 'monkeys' are not allowed..." He glanced meaningfully at Vegeta.
Bulma frowned at his choice of wording, but she knew she couldn't overlook this opportunity... Not while the others were counting on her. She knelt down to be eye-level with Vegeta as she said, "I'm sorry, Vegeta, but can you wait out here for me?"
Vegeta's eyes were void of emotion as he said darkly, "Why did you even bother asking a mere 'monkey' for help if you had him? How dare you toy with me!"
"I didn't realize," Bulma explained as she placed her hands on his shoulders, but Vegeta immediately hit her away from him.
"Enough with your lies!" Vegeta threatened. That's when Sugo punched him hard in the face.
"Don't you ever strike her like that, you filthy monkey!" Sugo berated. Before Sugo even knew what hit him, Vegeta had tackled him to the floor with his little hands around his neck.
"I will kill you for calling me that!" Vegeta growled as he cut off Sugo's air supply. "And for ordering me around!" His anger gave him strength and made him forget about all the pain he was in. All he saw was red.
"Vegeta, stop!" Bulma exclaimed as she watched Sugo struggle. "STOP IT NOW, VEGETA! Please!"
However, Vegeta ignored her. He was determined to make Sugo suffer. Bulma franticly tried to think of a way to stop Vegeta from killing the one being capable and willing to get her all the information she needed. She didn't see any objects lying around that she could distract him with, so she grabbed a tight hold of what she knew to be a Saiyan weakness— His tail!
Vegeta's entire body shuddered as sharp waves of pain that shot through his body. He couldn't believe he had been so careless to let his guard down like that.
Bulma felt bad hurting him like this, but she knew it was the only way. She was relieved that he hadn't yet learned to overcome this little weakness.
"I'll stop only if you let go of Sugo..." Bulma squeezed again to emphasize her point, causing the small Saiyan to immediately release his grip on Sugo. She then went to help Sugo up as she asked, "Are you alright?"
Sugo nodded, "Of course! It will take more than a scrawny little monkey to hurt me."
Vegeta looked humiliated as he turned to walk away from them.
"Wait, Vegeta!" Bulma called out to him.
Vegeta paused only long enough to ask, "Do you enjoy this? Because I don't care anymore! I'm sick of your stupid 'games'!"
Bulma gave up. Vegeta was being stubborn as usual and she just didn't have time for it right now. She had more important things to think about, like how to get to Schreetept!
"Come," Sugo motioned her towards the room. "Do not worry about the little monkey. He's much too stupid to comprehend this sort of stuff anyways..."
Bulma stared at him in disbelief for a moment. Why did everyone like to belittle Vegeta so much? She had to fight the urge to tell him a thing or two about his demeaning ways. It was starting to get to get to her, but she followed him anyways. It turns out, it was well worth the patience, for Bulma ended up finding out quite a bit of info about the where the Rift would be likely to appear. It turned out that within the core of the Schreetept Quadrant, there was a planet by the name of Rijow that was undergoing some very strange phenomenons. It turned out that a few of its many moons had mysteriously vanished from existence within the past couple of days and Rijow was suffering from some rather dangerous erratic weather changes. As if that weren't strange enough, some unidentifiable elemental compounds now seemed to be appearing out of nowhere on the unstable planet. The ancients of Rijow were apparently awaiting what they termed the 'Time of the Great Void', an apocalypse in which allegedly occurred every hundred years to the planets throughout Schreetept. Though some believed it to be but a myth, most agreed that Rijow's day of reckoning was finally upon them. Perhaps it was the 'Rift' Dende had told her about!? In fact, Bulma had no doubt that it was.
"And you wish to go there?" Sugo raised an eyebrow. "It seems to me that the entire quadrant is slowly obliterating itself. Even Frieza, himself, has no interest in that quadrant. What good could it be to you?"
Of course, Bulma did not dare tell Sugo her real reason for her unusual curiosity in Schreetept. She lied, "I just wanted to know what those people were talking about. That's all! But you will keep this all between us, right?" She batted her eyes.
'Damn, I'm flirting!' she thought shamelessly. 'But can a girl help it? Besides, is it really considered flirting if I'm just using it to get information? Well... I guess it can't hurt!'
Sugo fell for it like a charm as he replied, "But of course, my sweet. Anything for you... Let us say I haven't heard a thing!"
"Well then, I'm going to go see where Vegeta went," Bulma said as she jumped up to give him a big hug. "Thank you SOOOO much, Sugo! I couldn't have done it without you!"
"Well, I guess you should get going then," Sugo was thrilled to make her so content.
With one last hug of gratitude, Bulma ran out the observatory in search of Vegeta.
Several large red symbols blinked rapidly across the computer screen.
"Now, this is interesting..." Sugo mumbled to himself as he scrutinized the message. "It seems to be some sort of warning... Hmmmm... 'THE RIDDLE OF SCHREETEPT'..."
Rath: Well, I suppose I had better end it here before I end up turning this into one of those never ending chapters. Ha ha! I had more (much more) that I had intended to put into this chapter, but I think it will fit best in the next chapter instead! I guess that's what I get for trying to plan to end this chapter at a pre-set point before I even started writing it. It's the surest way to get Writer's Cramp or Writer's Block or whatever the saying is... That and vacation and martial arts training and new video games... Oh well!
Anyways, you should thank 'Lil Shady' (Talentless Muse) for giving me the motivation to write this chapter! And when you get the chance you should check out her latest story: "Faded Future" (story id.: 1912469) I doubt you'll find any another Chibi Vegeta fic like it! And it has such an interesting plot twist!
Well, I hope you enjoyed! Until Next Time! Sawatdee! Please R/R!