Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Crossroads ❯ Revelations ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

A/N: It's really amazing what inspiration can do to you. *grins* Therefore, this chapter is dedicated to you guys, who made me stay enthusiastic and motivated the whole weekend. You know who you are ;-)

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Zura slowly woke to the sensations of floating and weightlessness, and some liquid slightly warmer than his body temperature surrounding him. 'Oh no, not again!' he thought exasperatedly, and bubbles escaped the breathing mask he wore, tickling his skin on their way upwards. He recognized where he was, or rather in what he currently was.

The smell of the liquid was slightly different, but there was no mistaking the underlying stench of the substance found in ReGen tanks everywhere throughout the known universe. Once a scientist had attempted to cover the odour with artificial flavours, but that experiment hadn't been a success. Who would want to wake up from almost getting killed to find themselves immersed in a liquid smelling of fruit or flowers? Especially since it took a couple of days until you could get rid off the smell completely, no matter how much you washed. Stuff that analysed your DNA and repaired your injuries by activating and hastening the curative process, and essentially was a part of you until replaced by the body's own tissue, worked that way. For most people having the doubtful pleasure of being placed in a ReGen regularly, the smell of the liquid meant that they were alive. They complained and grumbled about it, but they valued it for its meaning. The saying "Life stinks" had taken on a whole new meaning among mercenaries and people with similar dangerous jobs.

Unpleasant memories of the last time he had been in a similar situation assaulted him and, but since he was sure he hadn't been nearly disembowelled again lately he was able to shove them away.

What had happened then? The last he remembered was being on Lokran with Svenja and seeing some incredibly bright light. And then pain. He frowned, trying to remember more but failed. Clearly he had been brought from Lokran to wherever he was now, by people who were probably not hostile, else he wouldn't be in a ReGen. On the other hand there was the one or other planet where people got healed so they lasted longer in torture…
He had unconsciously cast out his awareness after wakening but hadn't sensed or heard anything but the hum of the ReGen and some faint rhythmic beeping. That changed suddenly, he sensed people coming and heard a door being opened rather forcefully. He tensed up, careful not to make any movements that could indicate to the system he was awake and trigger it to drain the tank as the last part of a ReGen session. As long as he didn't know whether the people here were friendly or not he had no intention of giving his consciousness away. The tank muted noise, but his enhanced hearing and the loudness of the voices, or rather one voice, made it no problem for him to listen.

"…. demand to know what you did to him! And why…. Shit!" he heard a familiar voice changing from anger to horror. "What the fuck is that?"

He cracked an eye open carefully and tried to see through the liquid's distortion and the transparent hull toward the group of three people that had entered the room. Svenja was standing before a white-clad elderly man, an expression of fury and betrayal on her face. She wore new clothes, her tattered garments from before gone and replaced by a baggy set of loose pants and sweatshirt. "You said you'd help him!"
"I did, as you…"
"You did?! Is that your idea of helping? Stuffing an injured man in a big bowl of water?" Her voice took on a shrill tone.
"Look, it is helping him, and you would see that if you'd just listen!" the man, clearly at the end of his patience, snapped. "Besides, a little gratitude wouldn't be amiss, you know?"
"Gratitude?" Svenja exploded, managing to express impressive amounts of indignation and outrage in three small syllables. "Well excuse me! During the last two weeks I have been snatched out of my familiar surroundings against my will, got almost flattened by a space ship, was confronted with stuff that is thought impossible where I come from, had a nervous breakdown and was frozen to the bone! And the only one that made that whole shit bearable is over there!" she gestured wildly in the direction of the ReGen. "So excuse me if I'm a tiny little bit edgy right now. How incredibly stupid of me not showing gratitude when I'm once again somewhere I don't know and the only familiar person is looking like a giant version of the formaldehyde-preserved stuff we had in biology class at school! Well, THANK YOU!" she finished with a roar, breathing heavily and glaring at the man who had wisely stepped back when she had started waving her arms for emphasis.

Zura blinked, impressed. He wouldn't have been surprised if she had smoke coming out her ears.

"That's enough." a female voice cut in, and only other occupant of the room, woman with blue hair stepped forward. "Doctor Chester, I'll take over from here. Go get some rest, you certainly deserve it. No buts." She smiled at the white-clad man and led him grumbling towards the door.
"I'm really thankful." Svenja said miserably after he had gone. "Honestly, I am. It's just…"

"Leave it." the woman interrupted. "You're both in a bad mood right now. He's not really a people person, and you're not a doctor person it seems." She grinned when Svenja blushed slightly and rubbed at a small wound on the back of her hand, the change of colour being weirdly distorted by the pale blueish liquid in the tank. "But you really don't have to worry, the thing over there is a Regeneration Tank that helped him heal. You're boyfriend's fine."
Zura's eyebrows shot up.
"He's not my boyfriend!" Svenja protested, flustered.
"He's not? But he had his tail wrapped around you."
Zura twitched involuntarily, his eyebrows threatening to disappear in his hairline and bubbles of air escaping his breathing mask. He had what?!
"Yeah, but…" Svenja started to answer, confusion apparent in her expression.

A shrill beeping noise cut off what she wanted to say, and the woman stepped over to a console to push some buttons. "He's awake." she said and went back to stay next to Svenja whose head had jerked around at the statement.

He felt the liquid being drained away, and after something clicked the transparent hull opened. Removing the breathing mask he took a deep breath, relieved to inhale normal air again, and stood up. Stepping out of the ReGen he enjoyed the feeling of excessive energy coursing through him, one of the few advantages of the things in his opinion, besides the life saving aspect.

"Hi there. Welcome to Capsule Corporation. I'm Bulma." the woman said, and stepped forward with a friendly smile. "We brought you here from Lokran. You were in a pretty bad shape so we put you in the Regeneration Tank. I know it's kinda weird, waking up in that stuff, but…"
Zura stopped her with a half-raised arm and stepped down the small platform. "I know. I've been in them before." Two blue eyebrows rose speculatively at the statement and a thoughtful look came over her face.

Svenja was looking at him with wide eyes, her slightly stunned gaze slowly wandering up his body and stopping at his face. Zura felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth, unaccountably pleased at the reaction.

"You might want to start breathing again," Bulma murmured in a low voice and nudged her. Svenja blinked and coloured slightly. Narrowing her eyes at his raised eyebrow and the knowing grin he couldn't keep off his face, she stuck her tongue out at him. "Not one stupid remark, I warn you!" she growled and crossed her arms at his sniggering. "What's so funny, huh?" she challenged, trying unsuccessfully to eye him up without him noticing as he walked closer.
"You're okay?" he asked when he reached her, pushing the strange effects her appreciative glance had on him to the side to analyse them later. She nodded. "More or less. You?"
"Great." he answered, feeling as if he could run for days without stopping. Flexing his muscles absent-mindedly he enjoyed the feeling of health and energy he hadn't had felt since his crash. "What do you mean, more or less?"
"Nothing important." she answered after ripping her eyes forcefully away from his arms and shook her head, muttering something under her breath he didn't quite catch. She started to smile after regarding him for a moment and suddenly stepped forward to hug him fiercely, causing his arms to go around her reflexively. "Good to see you're okay." she muttered in his chest, breath fanning warmly over slightly damp skin.
Zura blinked at the amount of relief in her voice. Lifting his head he looked quizzically at Bulma who stood to the side and not even tried to hide her grin. "What exactly did you mean with 'pretty bad shape'?"
"Well," she answered, "you had some almost-healed injuries from not long ago and some of them reopened. Nothing we couldn't handle, but you had too many torn muscles and ligaments for us to use more conventional methods. Not to mention the amount of adrenaline in your body. What did you do? It looked like you tensed up suddenly beyond the abilities of your body to cope with the strain. I didn't even know that could happen…. Anyway, it was either bandaging you up from head to toe after dealing with the rest of your injuries or put you in the tank. Oh, and your eardrums were ruptured. So don't wonder if you have a little trouble finding your balance."
"Ah." he answered, unable to come up with something more intelligent at the moment. That bad, huh? He had no clue how he had managed to hurt himself that way, and he was sure he would have remembered. Tensing up beyond his physical limits? That was something new, and totally contrary to one's own self-preservation instincts.

"How about we continue our talk elsewhere? Honestly, I really need a coffee." Bulma sighed.
"Coffee?!" Svenja's head jerked up and Zura's teeth clacked together at the connection of her head with his chin. "Ow!"
"Yep, coffee. And you should put on some clothes." Bulma sniggered and waved to a pile of clothing on a nearby table. Consciously becoming aware of his state of dress or rather undress at the moment he stepped back, releasing Svenja the same instant she snatched her arms back, and felt blood rushing to his face.
"Uh, right." he said and turned towards the pile of clothes, wondering what was wrong with him. He usually didn't have problems with nudity, his own or others, so what was the problem? Probably after-effects of the ReGen, those things sometimes did weird things to people, he dismissed the uncharacteristic feeling from before as he pulled on black pants. Besides, being in familiar surroundings with not enough information about his current situation made him feel somehow uneasy, and there was a kind of comfort in the imaginary protection clothes provided.

Turning around he looked at two carefully blank faces and felt a blush creeping up his neck and towards his face. 'Stupid fucking ReGen's!' he snarled inwardly and fought to get his circulation under control. So what if they got a kick out of watching him dress?

"Good." Bulma nodded and turned towards the door. "Believe me, you wouldn't want to catch a cold, you'd have to get the same treatment as Svenja here. And I somehow doubt Dr. Chester has any interest having another patient going crazy in his lab and throwing instruments at him." Bulma said and grinned at Svenja who shifted uncomfortably. Zura cast her a questioning glance and she glared at him defiantly. "Yes, so what? That guy scared the shit out of me!" she said.
"Apparently the doctor wanted to take some blood samples when she woke up." Bulma elaborated and opened the door, motioning for them to exit the room. "Maybe he should have explained."
"Oh." Zura answered, getting the picture. Svenja had told him about her fear of needles, and he could imagine what had happened when she opened her eyes to see a stranger bending over her and holding a syringe.

"I overreacted a bit." Svenja muttered as they proceeded down the hallway.

Bulma laughed aloud. "A bit? That's an understatement. You ripped out the drip and…"

"Alright! Change of topic, please!"

"Whatever you say." their guide sniggered and Zura bit back a chuckle. As much to give Svenja a chance to regain her normal face colour as out of his own curiosity he asked "Don't get me wrong, but I don't see any guards around here. Isn't it risky to be alone with two possibly hostile strangers without anyone to help you? You don't know us."
"Oh, we have a very good security system here." Bulma answered, not sounding uneasy or offended in the slightest, and opened the door at the end of the corridor. "And if that fails, I have my own kind of protection." She ushered them in a comfy looking kitchen. "Or rather, I usually have." she muttered darkly to herself and for no reason Zura could fathom looked out of a window to the sky beyond. "Besides, I don't think you're hostile. Sit down." She motioned to a table and went to get three mugs and pot.

"Well." she said when she was finished pouring. "I guess you have some questions. I'll answer as well as I can, but then it's my turn, okay? Good."

Zura exchanged a look with Svenja who shrugged. "Right." he said, trying to collect his thoughts. "Where are we?"
"Earth."
"Impossible." Svenja interjected, staring wide-eyed out of the window and pointing. "Flying cars?!"

"Why, yes." Bulma answered puzzled. "They're quite common."

"That can't be. Look, I'm from Earth. And I think I'd know if we had that." she said firmly, an expression of amazement and envy on her face.
"Let's clear that up later. Okay, so you brought us from Lokran to Earth." Zura said and laid a hand on Svenja's forearm to cut off her objection. "How?"

"With the Portal. Basically it's a device to cover long distances with only a step. I built it." Bulma answered proudly. "Imagine the universe being a sheet of paper. Instead of taking the long route from point A to B", she drew an invisible line across the table with her fingers, "you just take it and fold the sheet so both points are pressed against another. That's not how it works of course, but it's a good way to explain the principle."

Zura nodded. "Right. Can you do it again? Meaning, could I go back to Lokran?"
"Well, sure. But why…"
"I have my equipment there. And my ship. I won't abandon it, but I'd be glad if you could provide me with some tools and material so I can repair it."
"Right. But I want to have a look at it myself." she said with a gleam of interest in her eyes.
"Deal."

"You'll have to wait a couple of days though. We're still in the testing and evaluation takes a little. Especially since our first attempt ten days ago had been so disastrous, so we have to compare the data very carefully to find out what had gone wrong then."
"Exactly ten days ago? Where precisely on Lokran did your Portal pop up? And what went wrong" Svenja asked, a look of apprehension on her face.
Bulma blinked. "Yes, ten days. And the location was the same like this morning when we found you. As to what went wrong… I still don't know how it happened, but we had some kind of overlapping locations. That shouldn't be possible, and I honestly can't explain it… Hey, what's wrong?" She frowned and looked at them puzzled.

Zura cast a worried glance at Svenja who had turned pale. "What do you mean with overlapping locations?" she asked in a strangled voice, ignoring the woman's question.
"Well, there were two locations. We saw two different places at the same time where there should have been only one."

"What did the other place besides Lokran look like?" Zura asked when it became apparent his companion wouldn't and enhanced the pressure of his hand on her arm.
"It was a city. It was night and raining. Could you tell me what the hell's wrong?" Their hostess demanded impatiently. "Did I grow another head or what?"
Zura's mind reeled and he was unable to form words. He had wondered about the reason for them being stuck in Lokran in the first place for a long time, had come up with lots of different possibilities. But the source of all their trouble being a strange malfunction of a scientific experiment hadn't been one.
"Shit." he managed to choke out. "Do you know what you did?" Staring at the blue haired woman he cut off her angry reply and told her about how they had ended up on the planet at exactly the same time the first experiment had turned awry and at the exact location her Portal had opened. After he had finished, stunned silence hung over the room.
"That's just not possible." Bulma mumbled faintly after a while. Looking at the other woman she asked: "Are you sure it was…"
"Yes!" Svenja said forcefully, coming to life. Hectic red spots were forming on her white face and her eyes showed an almost feverish intensity. "I am sure. You made it happen. That means you can reverse it."

Bulma stared at her for a moment and then stood up. "Right. You stay here, I'll be back in a moment. I have to tell my colleagues about it."

"Shit," Zura said with feeling when they were alone in the kitchen.
"You can say that again." she growled, a multitude of emotions crossing her face in rapid succession.
"How did you know?"
"I didn't. It was a hunch." She balled her hand into a fist. "Remember the things we thought we'd do to the one who got us in that mess? I think we can just forget that. If it was an accident it's not her fault. And you know what's weird? I feel kinda cheated. I mean, I'm so majorly pissed off right now I can't even think straight! I finally find the source of the shit we've been in during the last days and I can't vent my anger!" She chuckled wryly. "I'm not making much sense, right? I should be glad we finally found the one responsible and that it wasn't on purpose. But instead I feel cheated. I want to break something!"
"You make sense to me." he muttered, struggling with the same irrational emotions. "And about the venting," he extracted the coffee mug from her clenched hand, "you can always take me as a substitute target. It's what you did the whole time anyway."
"I.. what?!" she asked indignantly and punched his arm. "See?" he sniggered. She started to grin and shook her head. "I'm a bitch, right?"
"I'd rather not comment on that… Hey, stop!" He jerked when he felt fingers jabbing a sensitive spot on his side.
"Are you ticklish?" she asked, astonished, and a wide grin began to spread over her face.
"Yes." he said tersely, and watched her arms suspiciously.
"Say," she asked after a few unsuccessful attempts to reach his side again, "how come you're taking it so lightly?"
He frowned thoughtfully. "Not lightly. Only there's nothing we can do, so we have to make the best out of it."
"You're an optimistic one."
"No." he shook his head and grinned, "not optimistic. Stubborn."
"I wouldn't have noticed," came the sarcastic reply.

The door opened again and Bulma entered the room, blinking at the sight of her two guests grinning and generally appearing to have a good time. "I told the others priorities have changed. They're comparing the data of the two test-runs and looking for differences," she said and sat down, taking a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry. What you told me seems impossible, but so is the overlapping of locations. We'll try our best to find out how it happened and a way to reverse it. Only I can't promise you anything. We didn't do it intentionally in the first place, so we don't really know what we're looking for. "
"Thank you." Svenja nodded, her expression sober but without the underlying strain displayed minutes ago. "That's not how I want it to be, but it's a lot better than what I had a day ago."
"Aren't you angry? I would be for sure." Bulma asked, relieved but puzzled.
"Oh, I was, and I still am in a way. But I found another way to let off steam," she said, abruptly moving her hand.
"Bitch," Zura muttered and tried to relax again, glowering at the innocent look she gave him over the rim of her mug.
"Didn't you say you wouldn't comment on it?"
"Well, you seem to be in a better mood than I hoped." Bulma said amusedly. "Dinner will be in an hour. Zura got out of the Regeneration Tank earlier than we anticipated, so my mom had to change her cooking to satisfy the appetite of two Saiyans now instead of one.

Zura froze. "Two?"

"Sorry, I should have told you another way." Bulma grimaced. "But yeah, two. You and Vegeta. He's living here, but he flew away to sulk somewhere a few hours ago, so I have no idea when he'll be back. But considering we estimated you coming out of the tank in half an hour I guess he'll be here shortly."

"Vegeta?" he repeated in a strangled voice. There was only one Saiyan with that name. "Prince Vegeta?" But by all means that should be impossible. Prince Vegeta had been taken by Frieza, and after Frieza's empire had been destroyed no one had heard anything about the whereabouts of the prince. He was assumed dead, perished with Frieza's other followers.

"Yeah, the one and only," she snorted.
"What?" Zura managed to croak, staring at her in disbelief. "I mean, he's alive?"
"Yeah, very. And he'll want to have a talk with you, I 'm sure." Her gaze softened. "Small wonder. He thought there were no Saiyans left out there."
"There are." Zura shook his head to clear his thoughts. "We're not many, only a few, and we're scattered. Not everybody managed to get to the planet in time after the King Vegeta summoned us back home. Those who were too far away when they received the call survived." Unwanted memories clouded his vision and he forced them away with difficulty.
"Then why didn't you contact him?"
He stared at her incredulously. "Are you kidding? He worked for the same guy who blasted our planet! We knew he hadn't gone willingly to serve under Frieza, but contacting him would have been too risky, both for us and for him. We barely had contact with each other."

"You managed to hide well," a harsh voice came from the door. Zura recognised him instantly, the faces of the royal family being one of the first memories he'd had from people outside his family. He was a younger version of his father, the only difference was the smaller height, the lack of facial hair, and where King Vegeta's face had been fierce and arrogant, his son's was pissed off and arrogant.

"Come on, Svenja." Bulma said and stood up. "Let's go and see whether we can find something else for you to wear than my mom's old jogging clothes." Svenja cast a worried glance in his direction and followed Bulma out. "What was that all about?" he heard her ask before the door closed and he was alone with the prince.