Finally Bulma's transport landed on Capsule Corps grounds. Val rub at her bracelets angstily, nervous about seeing... him... again. Especially after so foolishly assuming why he came after her and how she could possibly even think the fighter was their son, grandson, or some sort of descendant. She coyly studied Bulma, thinking about the fighter, thinking how he kind of did look like her, and that he was a bit brainier when he fought, thinking his way around the fight rather than attacking with brutish force like a Saiyan would.
Bulma turned off the transport, leaving the transport with Val following after her, arms crossed over her chest. She stopped her outside the transport, saying quickly. "Maybe leave out any mentioning I had you curse me to be kissed by a prince. He still fears how your curses backfire, especially when it almost killed you at the top of the Lookout," she said discreetly. Val looked down at her hands, feeling self conscious. She nodded, pulling her sleeves down over her palms. "Don't worry, this one backfired in a good way. I got more than just one kiss," she added, going a bit redder.
It was around lunchtime, and Val did feel like she was hungry under all her nerves. Bulma led her into the kitchen without another word. Bulma kept walking into the room, but Val stopped in the doorway, seeing Vegeta sitting at the table, half way through eating his own lunch. She stopped and stared down at him as he stared up at her without movement. He did not even keep chewing the bite of food he had in his mouth. He looked away from her and over at Bulma, who had taken a bottled water from the fridge and was drinking from it. She gave him a victorious look. "Sit. Eat," she nodded over at Val. Val felt her stomach growl slightly under the weight of her nerves. She sat down at the table, stiff backed. He resumed eating. "Right," Bulma continued. "You two play nice while I go make a phone call," she said before giving him an affectionate, yet warning shake on the shoulder.
Val sat upright, not getting closer to the table, looking down at the table. "You should have just told me," she said, not saying it with any bite.
"You should have just come when you were beckoned," he countered, voice lacking any animosity.
She reached over for a plate, piling a smaller amount of food onto it than he had. She smiled to herself, slouching against the back of the chair as she ate. She well, enjoying a meal she had not had to make for herself for a change. Bulma came back in a few minutes, smiling to herself. "Well, the two of you are still alive, which means neither of you have killed each other yet, which is good." She stood by Vegeta, gentle hand rubbing along his shoulder. She nodded over at Val. "5 o'clock today work for you?" she asked, tone indicating she already knew the answer.
"Yeah," Val nodded. "Just let me send a text... to... um... Chichi," she landed on, knowing that was the only one close enough to Piccolo that had a phone. She pulled her phone out, sending the text, trying to explain the whole situation as briefly as possible, without mentioning the impending wedding.
"Keep your mouth shut," Vegeta growled out in warning, looking over at her phone.
"Now now," Bulma soothed over him.
She pulled her phone down to her lap and out of his line of sight. "I did," she answered, ears drawing back, but not at him. She jumped up looking over at the door. She saw, unexpectedly, Daiki come huffing into the room. "Daiki," she said, nodding her head over at him in greeting.
"Told you she was back," Bulma said smartly.
"You're back," he huffed, bending over to rest his hands on his knees. "Can we... the lab? Start working on the... making the antiviral medicine?"
Val looked over at Vegeta and Bulma before looking back at Daiki. "I have plans..." she started, not sure if she could agree to that right that moment.
"Not until five, you don't," Bulma pointed out.
Val stood up and nodded. "Okay. Let's go," she agreed. She cleaned up her dishes real quick before following Daiki out the door.
For such a heavy set man, he could hurry. Right then, he was certainly in a hurry. Val almost had to jog to keep up with him. By the time they got to the lab where Capsule Corps usually made medicines, he was panting, but not slowing down. "What's your hurry?" Val asked, almost thinking to tease him gently as they kitted up before going over to the smaller set of machinery used to make medicinal tablets.
She watched him type rapidly on the nearby computer, whipping at his brow. "You're certain this is the right formula we should use?" he asked her on bated breath.
She looked it over, nodded, and shrugged. "Bulma checked it over and said it was fine to start with. That it could be perfected as it's used to minimize any side effects and maximize benefits," she answered, secretly wishing to could be a little better.
"Right," he said, nodding and clicking away at the computer, watching the small machine start to mix together the right amount of ingredients for only fifty sets of the medicine to start.
Val watched how it was being made, curious about how the medicine was made, having never seen the process herself before. Then she hummed to herself, asking, "you could have done this step without me. How come you waited until I was back?"
He hummed to himself, tone more nervous than hers had been. "Because... it's your creation. I didn't want to overstep, but I didn't want to wait on it any longer," he said shyly.
She nodded and shrugged again. "It would have been fine without me," she commented, crossing her arms over her chest nonchalantly. She leaned against a nearby wall, watching the machine work. She glanced farther down into the lab, seeing the enormous machines that did the same work at thousands of the scale the machine they were currently using was.
"You..." he started. "You wanted to make this because of what happened when you were a child right? The epidemic that hit your city or province or...?" he stumbled out.
She raised her eyebrows up at him, trying to make sense of what he was saying. She nodded. "Yeah..." she lied, not wanting to reveal anything about the impending future heart virus. "It hit Anthromorphs harder than Avarians. My father got the sniffles essentially, but I struggled since I was only a small child back then..." she recalled somberly. "The doctor there, I can hardly remember him beyond a hawk beak like nose. He told my father if I survived the night, I'd survive the illness..." She shook her head, the memory half a blur. "My father stayed up the whole night with me, telling me I had to survive. He prayed, well, demanded really to the goddess of our planet, the Great Hawk Spirit, to lend me her strength since I was still her child, too, for me survive..." She felt a chill go over her at the memories.
"And you did survive," he said in a rush. "And that's the only reason?" he pressed. She looked over at him, nodding curtly. "What kind of virus was it?" he asked, looking back over at the formula as he asked.
"I... don't remember," she answered, trying not to sound tight or to fidget with anything.
"If your father had nasal irritation, then it was likely respiratory," Daiki commented. She made herself shrug. "But a few of these ingredients look better suited towards myocarditis and less towards bronchitis," he said, looking more nervous. Val got off the wall standing up a bit straighter, watching him carefully. He raised his hands up cautiously, skittish just by her moving like that alone. "Look, I know you're from space. And not just you. I know to be careful around you because you're a kind of enchantress, but somehow you knew some sort of new heart virus was coming. It's the only explanation I could think of. You saw it coming somehow, didn't you? Like in a dream or a vision or with your bracelets or necklace."
She stared at him, not quite breathing. He looked afraid of her, half ready to bolt. She shook her head, admitting only, "I can't tell you."
"Is that why you went to the mountain villages? The ones just North of the Southern Capital, my new husband comes from?" he pressed.
She frowned at him at that, shaking her head. "No, that was just really me wanting to get a break from Vegeta. I went to friends out there."
"Did you go to the Southern Capital at all?" he asked. "Do you know what's been happening there at all?"
She cocked her head, shaking it. "What's happening down there?" she asked, nervous since that city was close to the village Goku and the others were living in.
"The city's government is trying to keep it quiet, but a new kind of virus, a myocarditis, has been found there. My husband only knows about it from his sister," he explained. "Can we take the medicine, this medicine you created, to the hospitals out there? It might not completely stop the spread of the virus, but it can help people survive it. That would be a victory in the least."
She looked over at the small machine, whirling away. She brought the her hands to her face, swearing under her breath. She curled her fingers, digging her nails into her forehead. She rolled her heels of her palms up to her forehead and then put her hands on her forehead. She started to shake her head, knowing now if she went there, she would have to avoid going to Goku's village now lest she caught the virus and passed it on to him, or anyone else. She would have to distance herself from Piccolo as well, not knowing where they stood in the midst of all this with her sudden departure, brief note, and vague text to Chichi. She thought of her father, wondering what he would advise her to do. "We have to go. We have to help them," she ruled dutifully. "But after 5..." she added.
He rushed over to her, hugging her unexpectedly. "Thank you," he rushed out, sounding a mixture of mopey and grateful. He pulled back and stepped away. "My husband's sister just caught it, whatever it is. She said it started just with the bottom of her thighs aching."
"Can you call her?" she asked, feeling her stomach clench in anticipation of one of the fights she had been preparing for ever since the fighter showed up and warned them of the future. "We need to know as much as we can before we go." She nodded over at the machine, working away. "And make as much as we can to bring along."
He nodded. "I will. Do both. Right away," he agreed, pulling out his phone and stepping away from her.
She watched him step away and looked back over at the small machines, over at Daiki, and then down the lab at the enormous machines. She thought to herself that Vegeta might be the one to defeat the androids coming, but Daiki and she would be the ones to defeat the virus coming. She pulled out her own phone, sending Chichi another text, updating her now about the likely emergence of the virus.