Val went back to Capsule Corps the next morning after leaving the hotel with Tien, finding it odd to part way with him after what they got up to last night and even the morning prior. She felt an odd heaviness flying back and landing on the grounds. She crossed her arms over her chest, noticing the brightness of the morning's sunshine and the sound of the birds chirping nearby. She looked around outside, wanting to stay out a bit more rather than go inside.
She walked around the grounds aimlessly, ending up in the area where Bulma's father had set up a spaceship like building for Vegeta to train. She walked around it, looking it over. The ship looked space worthy, with Bulma's father being one of the few humans smart enough to make a ship that way. She went up the steps that lead to the front and looked in the window of the door, but did not open the door or go in. She looked around from the front of it, wondering what it would be like to train all day everyday for moments on end like he did.
She stepped down from the door and back to the ground, feeling the springiness of the overly green grass beneath her feet. She walked towards the building she lived in, stopping at the door when she saw Vegeta walk out of the room, a set of papers stapled together in hand, looking it over.
"What are you doing back here?" he asked her without bothering to look at her as he walked to the ship. She heard him sniff the air and then gave her a look. It made her draw back her ears.
She gave a shrug. "Just going for an early morning walk," she answered.
"Not getting enough exercise with the Namekians and the Triclops?" he snickered.
She shook her head, not wanting him to egg her on. "Beats doing the same thing day in and day out all alone," she retorted.
He grunted, not saying more as he went through the door. She watched him and gave a small, patient smile. She turned towards the door, seeing Bulma's father rush out the door with a smaller set of papers in his hand and calling after Vegeta to wait. Val watched him run into the ship, curious to see such a scene.
She turned back, going up the stairs and standing in the doorway, noticing the smell before anything else, making her take a second to get a whiff of fresh air before going in. She watched Bulma's father going over the papers he brought with Vegeta listening in carefully. "What's going on?" she asked.
They looked over at her, with Bulma's father answering, "trying to make this ship long term space worthy like the one Goku used to get to Namek."
She frowned, not sure what to make of that answer. "Are you going to New Namek?" she asked. She shook her head. She walked over to them. "Has there been a problem out there? Did you hear something from Moori?"
Neither of them spoke right away, which made her nervous. "He's going to search for Goku," Bulma's father answered.
She blinked at that answer. "But he said he was coming back in his own time," she pointed out. "Why go searching for him?" She watched Vegeta, wondering what he was planning.
Bulma's father seemed to sense the tension building. "I think I should just go get the... the..." he flustered out to excuse himself.
She watched him go, not sure what to make of that. She shook her head, not sure what to think. "Why are going after him?" she asked.
Vegeta flicked her eyes over at her, putting the papers together in a stack on the consol. "I need to know," he finally answered.
She frowned at him, shaking her head. "You want to ask him about becoming a Super Saiyan, don't you?" she struggled out. "Because you can't figure it out on your own." He flicked his eyes down at her wrists, making her draw her hands back. She looked around the ship, wondering how it flew compared to the ships the two of them had been on before. She had told Bulma's father and any other Capsule Corps researcher she could about how everything she could remember technology wise from being stuck on Frieza's ships for years, but her memory was lacking without the proper data to fill in the gaps. "I'll go with you," she decided in the instant.
He looked at her, a mixed of bemused and surprised. "No," he told him simply.
Her jaw dropped. "Why not?" she asked. She recalled the two healing tanks he broke on Namek alone. "You? You're going to go off to space in this ship all alone to find someone who will be back eventually? Someone you don't even know where they are. How can you possibly think that's a good idea? You'll get angry at something, break something like you have in the past. You'll break the wrong thing and then you're dead." He looked at her say nothing. "Or worse, draw the attention of the Imperial Army and King Cold, who have to know by now Frieza dead. They'll connect you to that somehow. Kill you for it since they don't hardly know anything about Goku," she grasped at straws to reason with him. "If you tell them about the Earth and its dragon balls, you endanger the whole planet."
He grunted, shaking his head. "You're not going with me," he refused.
"You can't go alone," she reiterated. "The risks alone... you... I... "
He waited until she finished. "If I take you, you'll draw them down on us. I'm strong enough to defend myself from any army cronies, but you aren't."
She blinked up at him, mouth moving but unable to figure out what words to say back at him. "I can to. I've been training. With the Namekians before they left, with Kami, with Piccolo, and now with Tien. Not as hard as you because I've actually been helping this planet, giving them all I can remember about the ship we were stuck on for years. I don't have anymore information I can give them because I can't access any of it, but I tried to remember what I could. Yet you just come in here training day and day out and do nothing helpful," she accused.
"You've maxed out," was all he answered.
"What?" she asked, feeling her temper flare.
"You got stronger when you grew on Namek, I sensed it when we first got to this planet, but you plateaued ever since you reached this planet. Your power level hasn't grown after all that, in spite of all your playing around with either your former toy or new one. Probably can't even sense well enough to realize it," he explained. He nodded down at her bracelets. "Your strength is in your hands from that cursing ability your inherited from your enchantress mother. Your looks as well. You could make someone pause long enough to get your hands on them if tried, but that trick won't work on everyone. The smart woman's got that as well as her brains, but she didn't even dare to suggest going with me. Train that all you want as well as physically, but you would never be able protect yourself if King Cold found out the last anthromorph is alive and well and grown. He'll take you and rent you out like Frieza wanted to to the highest bidder whose race is nearly extinct like those birds were almost three generations ago."
She shook her head, feeling her hands heat up. "I wouldn't. I would fight. I would curse anyone who try," she resolved.
"You wouldn't win, and a lot sooner than you realize," he warned her. "You can't go with me. Otherwise you would sentence yourself to the very hell your guardian Asa swore to save you from."
She felt her face flame up, shaking her head. "And what about you? You could be drawn into a hell of your own. All to chase a legend you might not even be worthy of?" He did not answer, just looked at her. She looked down at the bracelet on her left hand, bringing her right hand down around it. Her throat seized up at the thought of using it, but was more confident she could do it right. "I do it," she said, slipping the left bracelet off. "Then you don't have to go."
She brought her left hand to her right wrist. His hand clasped on left wrist to stop her. "I've seen what you've done to your first lover when you cursed him, and I'm not going to let you do that to me," he refused. "The new one, the downgrade you have a passing interest at best only because the smart woman threw him at you, is still alive and well, so you haven't cursed him yet. I bet you haven't even told him the name you were given on Namek."
She pulled away from his touch, putting the left bracelet back on, hands warm and twitching. "Even if you find him and he tells you exactly how to do it, you'll never be smart enough, never be worthy enough to figure it out," she threw at him, wanting to slap him.
She turned from him instead, stomping out of the ship to get away from him. She shook her hands out the moment she had enough distance from the ship. The grass was scorched in a pathway as she stomped off, cursing him under her breath. She stopped in her tracks, seeing Bulma standing by the entrance. She shook her head, walking passed her in her huff. She heard Bulma ask, "he finally told you, didn't he?"
She did not answer. She stepped away from her, but paused long enough to look back to see Bulma go into the spaceship herself.