Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Another Time ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Another Time

By Karete-chan

Chapter 4: There has to be a plot somewhere.

When they arrived back Bulma immediately ran inside while Gohan and his grandfather helped Kat out of the car. She shrugged them off and managed to take three steps before she fell.

Vegeta sneered. "Pathetic third class weakling." He turned and walked around the side of the house.

Kat glared at the back of his retreating form. "Asshole," she muttered.

She lent on Gohan's shoulders as they guided her into the house and down to Capsule Corp.'s medical lab. Bulma was bustling around a large machine that had tubes and pipes of various sizes running in and out of it. "Put her in," Bulma called to Gohan. "She should only need half an hour or so."

"What is it?" asked Kat as Gohan helped her into the machine.

"It's a rejuvenation tank," answered Bulma.

"I've never seen one before."

"No," the older woman replied. "You wouldn't have. It's Saiya-jin technology and they don't openly advertise."

"Heh. That's funny. Beaten up by a Saiya-jin. Saved by their technology."

"It's your technology too now, remember?"

"Don't remind me," Kat answered as the tanks waters began to rise. "Bulma!"

"What? What's wrong?" she turned around to see Kat waving something at her.

"The picture." Kat dropped the paper to the floor just as the tank doors closed and enveloped her in dreamlessness.

*****

Bulma was the only one left in the room when the waters subsided. She had fallen asleep at a computer console the picture clutched tightly in one hand.

Kat gingerly got out of the tank, marveling at how good she felt. She walked over to Bulma and gently shook the woman's shoulder.

"Hunh? What?" came the sleepy reply.

"Bulma," Kat said. "Wake up."

Bulma jerked up. "Huh? Oh, Kat you're out." She glanced at the clock. "Hmm, took a little longer than I expected. Maybe if I adjust the…"

"Bulma? Could I have the picture?"

Bulma looked down at the tightly clutched piece of paper. "Oh. Of course."

Kat took the picture, looked at it for a minute then once again folded it carefully and put it in her pocket. She looked up to see Bulma staring at her.

"What?" she asked.

"You look just like him," she sighed. "It's hard to believe he's gone again."

"Again? He's been dead before?"

"Yeah. But last time we were able to wish him back with the Dragonballs," she smiled at her. "That was when you were sleeping though. Come to think of it, the last time he died was when a family member showed up."

Kat's eyes widened. "Who?"

"Radditz. He's your brother. From what we could tell he was about seven years older than the two of you. Or at least he was. He and Gokou managed to kill each other."

"They killed each other? What for?"

"Gohan."

"Gohan?"

"Yeah. Radditz wanted to take him to Vegeta as proof that the Saiya-jin race was still alive. Not surprisingly Gokou protested."

"This is the same Vegeta that tried to kill me?"

"Yes and no. Vegeta has changed since he came to live on Earth," she paused. "Well at least we hope he has." Kat caught the look that washed over Bulma's face but before she could say anything a wail came from upstairs.

"Uh oh, he's awake. Probably wants food or something," she sighed and stood.

Bulma made her way upstairs and Kat followed her noting all the broken robots. She frowned ~How can one family run through so many servo-bots?~ They entered the main living area and Kat was surprised to see no-one around.

"Bulma?"

"Mmm?"

"Where is everyone?"

"Oh. Vegeta's locked himself in the gravity room again, mum and dad have gone to some soiree and the Sons have gone home," she said as they walked into the kitchen.

"What? They left?"

"Oh, don't worry," said Bulma, smiling. "They haven't deserted you. We've got it all worked out." She paused to put a bottle of milk in the microwave. "You're going to stay here for as long as necessary. ChiChi would have had you stay with them but she's just had her dad move in and we've got plenty of room here."

"That's very good of you but I couldn't possibly…"

"Of course you can don't be silly. We'll go and pick up…" *beep, beep, beep* "…oh, excuse me." She turned around to collect the bottle then headed for the second floor. "Like I was saying, we'll go and collect all your things from Kami's Place tomorrow and then you can set them up in your new room however you like. Sound good?"

"Sure but…"

"I haven't told Vegeta yet but he'll just have to put up with it unless he wants to sleep in the gravity room all night and Gohan promised he'll come back tomorrow to help. He wanted to stay until you woke up but ChiChi insisted he come home. I think she wanted him to go over everything again," she chuckled. "She did look like she was still in shock." She opened the door she had come to.

The screaming immediately got louder. ~Woah. What has she been feeding this kid?~

"Shush, Trunks. Mummy's here and look I brought food," Bulma stuck the bottle in her son's mouth. "Heh. Fastest way to a Saiya-jins heart is through his stomach," she turned around. "I think that's the only time that that cliché is allowed to be used. What's the matter?"

Kat had stopped dead and was looking strangely at the child in the crib. "Did you just call him Trunks?"

"Yeah, he's my…oh, you're wondering why he's a baby," as if this was the most normal thing to be thinking about a one year old. "The Trunks you saw was from the future. Well an alternate future really. In his timeline Gokou died from a heart virus and wasn't there to help the others when the androids attacked. Everyone died except for him, Gohan, ChiChi and myself. Eventually the androids got Gohan and almost got Trunks. He decided to go back in time to save Gokou and thus change his future but all he succeeded in doing was changing ours. His stayed the same." She sighed. "Poor kid, he came back again three years later to help us fight the androids and all he got was a bad attitude from a father he never knew."

"As well as being killed. What a wonderful way to be repaid for helping someone."

"Yeah. But he took it all in stride and went back to destroy the androids in his time," she sighed. "I hope he's all right."

Trunks the baby, finished with the bottle and promptly fell asleep again. "Hmph," said Bulma. "If only it were that easy to please your father."

She and Kat went back downstairs and sat in the lounge.

"You know, when I was little I always wanted to come here," said Kat.

"What? To my house?"

"No. To Capsule Corp. I always wanted to meet the famous Dr. Briefs."

"Yeah dad has made sort of a name for himself over the years," Bulma grinned. "Though most of the time now he just holes himself up in one of the labs and tries to get out of society dinners."

"Didn't succeed tonight did he?"

"Well… tonight's dinner is a Big Deal for Capsule Corp. I was supposed to be going but with everything that's just happened, dad offered to go instead. Oh it's all right, don't worry," she added seeing the guilty look on Kat's face. "Anyway I would've had to take Vegeta and he hates those things."

"As long as I didn't put you out in any way."

"Nah, you're fine. Like I said, don't worry about it."

Kat smiled at the older woman. Bulma was suddenly struck by the thought that if it had have been Kat and not Gokou she had met when she was young she would have had some serious competition. ~I never realized how good Gokou would look like as a girl.~ She started giggling.

"What?" asked Kat.

Bulma composed herself. "Oh nothing. It … it's just all a bit overwhelming. I mean, I've known Gokou for years and after Radditz it never occurred to anyone that he might have other family members floating around out there. Heh. At least you're not trying to kill us."

"Why would I want to do that?" asked Kat shocked.

"Oh, Gokou just has a knack for making people wish he were dead," she shrugged. "Must be a Saiya-jin thing."

"Sounds interesting," she sighed. "I wish I could've met him." Then she yawned. "Oh, excuse me."

Bulma smiled. "If you just wanna crash your room is the third on the right upstairs. I'll come and get you for dinner."

"Umm…I don't mean to be rude but won't Vegeta be there?"

"Good point," she frowned, "That probably won't be the best way to break it to him. I'll bring your dinner up."

"Oh, you don't have to bother," she said as she made her way to the stairs. Then she turned. "I don't mean to be nosy but I'm not exactly his favorite person today. How are you gonna tell him?"

Bulma smiled evilly. "I have my ways."

*****

Kat was woken the next morning by something that smelled extremely good. Her nose led her downstairs and into the kitchen. She was knocked out of her daze by the sight of Vegeta sitting at the kitchen table. Kat stood in the doorway frowning at the man while he glared right back at her. They stayed that way even after Bulma walked in.

She looked from one to the other and sighed. "Well at least you're not punching into each other." She gestured for Kat to sit.

Kat did so, sitting as far away as it was possible from Vegeta. It wasn't because she was scared of him but because Bulma had been good to her and she didn't want to wreak her kitchen. Vegeta smirked at her as if he had beaten her again. She ignored him.

This was made easier when a plate of food was placed in front of her. Everything else became distant while she was eating.

When Bulma took her plate away to replace it with another she risked a glance at Vegeta. He had already gone through three plates of food and was starting his forth. Kat had never seen anyone eat more than her before.

"What the hell are you staring at?" he growled from across the table.

"Huh? Oh…nothing," she said and immediately made like the food in front of her was extremely important. Which of was not a hard thing to do for a Saiya-jin.

*****

Gohan looked around the room. "So this is where you live. Must be interesting here."

"It has its moments," came Kat's muffled reply.

Gohan turned around. He could see half of the person he now knew as Kat. Well really she was Aunt Kat but she looked like she'd throttle him if he called her that. She had her head stuck in some cupboard and was throwing things over her shoulder.

"Ugh, what ever possessed me to buy that?" another shirt, an awful green colour, went sailing past.

He sighed and went back to examining the room. He had never seen such a plain room before. Sure she had the standard furniture; a desk with shelf, chest of drawers, a cupboard, but the bed was a bunk built into the wall with just a blanket over it. There was nothing in the room to let you know about the type of person who lived here.

He wandered over to the desk and started packing odds and ends into a box. Then he made his way to the books. He was surprised she had any really. His dad was not a big reader and being his twin Gohan thought that Kat would be the same.

Even more surprising were the titles of those books. There were few novels, the bulk seemed to be made up of texts; `Advanced Electronics', `Computer Systems', `Principles of Chemistry' and so on. Gohan stared. She was very different from is dad. His head would've hurt just looking at them.

"Well that's the cupboard done."

He turned around to see her dump a duffle bag next to the other boxes she had pulled from the cupboard. She looked over to see what he was doing.

He held the books up. "Bit of light reading?"

"Ha, ha," she said putting her hands on her hips. "No. Those were my old school books. You might as well throw them out. They're probably way out of date."

Gohan blanched. ~Sc…schoolbooks? What kind of school did she go to?~ He threw the books in the box.

He finished packing up the desk and hauled the box over to the pile. He pressed a button on the side of each parcel and they soon had a small pile of capsules in front of them.

Kat picked them up and placed them in a satchel. "Right that's it," she said patting the bag. "Let's go."

Gohan didn't know the ins and outs of Kami's place so he followed Kat through the hallways.

"Um, Kat?" he said.

"Yeah?"

"Those books."

"Mm, what about them?"

"Well," how was he going to put this? "You said you were only sixteen yeah?"

"Uh huh."

"Well those books are advanced university levels. I know cause mum bought me some."

"Yeah? Good for you. It's never too early to learn anything."

"Thanks. But," he stopped walking. She turned around.

Kat grinned. "You want to know why I have those books when I'm still in High School."

He nodded.

"Kid, you aren't the only one who grew up being told an education was important. My teachers gave me those books as extra work. They got sick of watching me sit there and do nothing while the rest of the class caught up."

"Wow. You must be really smart then."

"No more than you. It seems to run in the family," she looked down at Gohan, though not that much, he was almost as tall as her. "Besides I find all that stuff interesting."

He grinned back at her. "You're gonna love it Capsule Corp. then. Bulma will probably let you help in the lab if you tell her that."

"Really? She'd let me do that?"

"Sure. She's good like that."

"Wow," whispered Kat. "I'd get to work at Capsule Corp." Her eyes glossed over.

"Kat?"

She continued to stare into space.

"Kat? Hello, Kat," said Gohan waving a hand in front of her face.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Daydreaming," she smiled. "Whenever I wasn't training I always wanted to work at Capsule Corp." She shook her head. "Anyway, enough yapping, let's find Bulma and get out of here. Piccolo probably thinks we're distracting Dende even if we're not in the same room as him." Gohan giggled. She laughed. "You have no idea how weird it is to see the strongest warrior in the world giggle."

Outside, Bulma was nowhere to be seen near the jet they had used to get there. Kat looked at Gohan, who just shrugged. Together they went around the side of the house.

At the same time they heard the hushed voices. Gohan looked at Kat and grinned mischievously. She grinned back and they silently crept towards the sound.

Around the corner Bulma was trying to yell quietly at a very disgruntled looking Piccolo.

"Are you sure? Couldn't you have made a mistake?"

"Of course I'm sure. I searched Kami's memories thoroughly. That's exactly what he saw happening."

"But that's awful. You are going to tell her?"

Kat exchanged a look with Gohan who shrugged.

"Why? It'd just haunt her."

"She deserves to know," hissed Bulma.

"I think I know her a bit better than you do. Telling her that Kami put her in the time thingy just so she could wake up, save someone, then die, will not have a good effect on her."

Gohan turned to Kat. She was staring silently into space.

"Well … if you put it like that. Maybe we shouldn't tell her."