Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Controlling Lies, Painful Truths ❯ Revalations ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! I really didn't mean for it to be this long in between chapters. But with working 2 retail jobs over Christmas, then moving to a new apartment, things have just been too frelled for me to work on fic. But I hope some of my readers are still with me! I didn't mean to make people think I'd stopped writing. I hope it's worth the wait... as always, feedback is appreciated!

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Last time: Vegeta began to hallucinate, seeing people from his past and present, including his mother and father! At the end, he saw his enemy, Kakarott, in what appeared to be a spaceship...

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Chapter 4: Revelations

Vegeta watched through narrowed eyes as his nemesis moved to kneel down by his side. In contrast to the hazy surroundings, he could see the other Saiyan with startling clarity. "Go away, Kakarott," he warned. "You're just another... dream."

Kakarott scratched his head. "Well... if you're dreaming, how come I can see you here?"

Vegeta closed his eyes, not feeling like explaining hallucinations to... well... a hallucination! When he opened them again, he was surprised to see that he was still on the dream-ship, and Kakarott was still beside him, a concerned look on his face. Ah, what the hell, I might as well play this thing out, the prince thought. "Well, Kakarott," he began. "It looks like it's finally happening... what you were too much of a soft-hearted weakling to do before."

"What's happening?"

"I'm dying, idiot! Otherwise I'd be up kicking your sorry ass into oblivion."

The dream-Kakarott looked shocked. "What? Did someone fight you? Are you hurt?"

Vegeta clenched his teeth. "No, I've been denied the honor of dying in battle. This damned illness is..." He broke off with a gasp as a bolt of pain shot through him. He pressed his hands flat against the cold, hard, tile floor, trying to regain control.

Kakarott reached out, stopping just short of touching him. A look of concentration crossed his face for a moment, then he smiled brightly. "You're not dying, Vegeta!" he said happily.

"What?! Moron! How could you possibly tell that?"

The big Saiyan put his hand behind his head and laughed nervously. "I dunno, I just can! You're really weak right now, but you're not dying. You're gonna be OK, I just know it!"

Glaring at his nemesis, Vegeta was about to give another sharp retort when everything began to fade to black again. Desperately, he tried to hold on to this vision. "Wait! Kakarott! Tell me what you mean! Kakarott!" But it was to no avail, and the dream-Kakarott and strange ship dissolved into a dark fog.

After a long moment, Vegeta blinked as his surroundings came back into focus. The rock walls loomed on either side of him, and Namek's green sky gleamed overhead. A warm breeze swept gently through the cavern, ruffling the prince's spiky hair. He shifted his weight, and felt the soft surface conform underneath him. Yes, he was back on the planet, that was for sure. But where... and how...?

For several minutes, he lay still while his mind seethed with anger. How dare Kakarott presume that he knew what was wrong? The fool knew nothing, nothing at all. A part of Vegeta wondered why, exactly, he was so worried about what a hallucination thought. But this vision seemed different somehow... more real in a way, and he couldn't shake the premonition that it was more than what it seemed.

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Several light years away, Goku sat down hard on the space capsule floor. "What was that?" he wondered aloud. He'd just finished a tough 100G workout, and had just turned off the gravity generator when he sensed someone behind him. When he'd turned around, he'd been surprised to see the prince of all Saiyans lying on the floor behind him! After recovering from his initial shock, he'd gone over to talk to the apparition. Vegeta's revelation that he was dying had certainly stunned Goku, but after stretching his senses a bit, he'd tried to reassure his one-time opponent that he would be all right. Sure, the other Saiyan was terribly weak, but Goku was confident that he would eventually recover.

Goku was intrigued by the fact that he'd been able to read Vegeta's condition. He knew he had some sort of latent psychic powers, but had never really tested them until today. Somehow he knew that the Vegeta he'd seen lying on the floor was only a vision of the real one, but that what he'd seen was an accurate representation of what was going on far away on Namek. Frowning, Goku stood up and moved to the navigation console to see if he could coax a little more speed out of the spaceship. He was needed on Namek, and soon.

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Back on the green planed, Vegeta sensed two fairly strong Ki's approaching, even though they were apparently trying to suppress their power. He turned his head and saw the bald human and Kakarott's spawn swoop down and land a few feet away. The cerulean-haired female jumped up. "Took you long enough!" she shrieked.

"Sorry, Bulma," Krillin replied, one hand behind his head. "We ran into a little trouble."

Vegeta struggled up to one elbow. "Well?" he grated. "Did you get the password?"

Both earthlings shuffled their feet and looked at the ground. Vegeta sat up further. "Well?" he repeated, anger twisting his features even further into a scowl than normal.

Several tense moments passed before Krillin finally looked up. "We... we decided not to, Vegeta," he began, obviously nervous.

"You... did... what?!" the Saiyan replied incredulously.

Gohan spoke up quickly. "We went to Frieza's ship instead, to see if we could find your antidote. But we heard Frieza talking..." his voice trailed off as Vegeta shot him a look that would have made a lesser being run screaming in terror.

"Go on," the prince growled, his tone promising death.

Krillin picked up where Gohan had left off. "We heard Frieza telling his men that they wouldn't have trouble fighting you because you'd be..." he halted and swallowed nervously, his eyes darting to his demi-Saiyan friend, seeking support. After a short pause, he took a deep breath and continued. "They wouldn't have trouble because you'd be weakened by withdrawal symptoms."

Finally, Krillin met Vegeta's intense gaze. "It wasn't an antidote he was giving you, Vegeta. It was a drug. He was keeping you addicted to it so you wouldn't betray him... like you did today."

Vegeta sate in stunned silence, no longer paying attention to Krillin as the bald man continued to speak. The words echoed in his head. Withdrawal... a drug... addicted... betray... It all made a twisted sort of sense, now, and he had no doubt that this was the truth. This sounded exactly like a plot the little tyrant would love to create: to control someone with lies... with fear... and with pain. And the truth hurt more than any of the torment he'd endured over the past few hours. His hands clenched into fists, fingernails digging deep enough to draw beads of blood, which quickly pooled and ran in small crimson streams between his fingers.

Why hadn't he seen through the deception before now! He had been fooled, duped like the child he was when Frieza first forced him into service. Like an animal, he'd been trapped and chained, not with steel and cages, but with chemicals and lies. And he'd been stupid enough to trust the doctors! They all said the same thing... that he'd surely die without regular doses of the "antidote." But they had all been physicians hired by Frieza himself. Why hadn't he caught on? The drug must have addled his brain in addition to making his body dependent upon it.

Mentally berating himself, Vegeta was vaguely aware that two of Frieza's henchmen had landed nearby, and were currently fighting with the two earthlings. Shaking himself out of his daze, he watched the battle for a few moments. The others seemed to be holding their own, and even appeared to have the upper hand in speed and overall ki strength. Vegeta winced as the sound of the woman's screaming reached his ears. He turned toward the sound, and saw Bulma hiding behind a nearby boulder, alternately cheering her companions on and screeching in terror when the fight got too close. However, she seemed to be in no real danger, and he quickly ignored her.

With an effort, the Saiyan blocked out the sounds of combat and rolled off the mattress onto his hands and knees. The pain and dizziness rapidly threatened to overwhelm him again, and he clenched his teeth and let his head loll forward until the spell passed. Once he mostly regained his equilibrium, he forced the pain to the side and began to look around for his armor.

Krillin dealt one last kick to his opponent, then finished off the scaly green creature with a powerful ki blast to the head. He felt bad about having to kill, but knew that Frieza's henchmen would destroy them or report their position back to their leader, if allowed to live. Turning to help Gohan, he saw that his friend had already defeated the other underling. He nodded in approval, then looked toward Vegeta. To his surprise, he saw the Saiyan prince fully dressed, sitting on the edge of the air mattress and pulling on his gloves. Krillin took a step toward him, intent on deterring the Saiyan, but Bulma beat him to the punch. Running out from behind the rock where she had been hiding, the blue-haired fireball came to a stop in front of Vegeta and crossed her arms.

"What do you think you're doing?" she shrieked, causing all three males to wince. "You're way too weak to be up yet."

Vegeta looked up at her with narrowed eyes. "I don't have time to be lying around here. Now that I know what Frieza's done to me, I can fight it... and him."

With that, he cautiously stood up. Everything seemed fine for a few seconds, then a sharp lance of pain shot through his entire body, causing him to double over and gasp. He felt Bulma's hand gripping his elbow as the world spun crazily around him. The spell passed relatively quickly, for which Vegeta was grateful. He straightened up slowly, pushing the woman's hand away from him. She began protesting again, but he ignored her, focusing his energy on staying upright and suppressing the pain. He breathed deeply a couple of times, then spoke. "We need to get that password. Since you two didn't do it, I'll have..." He stopped abruptly as he sensed something: distant, but powerful. He looked up at the sky, his eyes wide.

"Wh-what is it?" he heard Gohan ask from behind him. "I sense several powerful ki's..."

"I feel it too," Krillin said, his voice tentative. "Who are they?"

Vegeta tensed as he recognized the energy. He cursed under his breath, then laughed without mirth. "Shit. We're screwed." He met the curious stares of the others. "Now we're all dead. Frieza has summoned the Ginyu Force."

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To Be Continued...

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Next time: The conclusion!

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