Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Dark Majik ❯ The Child ( Chapter 10 )

DISCLAIMER: I do not own DBZ.

~*~ Chapter 10 ~*~

Vegeta and Yamcha cruised down the highway at a speed that was several times over the legal speed limit - but neither of them was too concerned with abiding the law at the present time. They could both feel that they were close to finding them. It was almost as though they could taste his scent on the air.

Despite being so close to accomplishing their goal, Yamcha prayed in the passenger seat while Vegeta drove. Secretly Yamcha was terrified that Vegeta was going to get them both killed with his reckless driving, but out loud he merely pretending to be indifferent as Vegeta swerved through lanes without a care for the safety of themselves of the other drivers around them.

Vegeta glowed at Yamcha as he drove. He couldn't comprehend how Yamcha could be an angel and yet have such a complete and utter lack of survival sense! He was a complete and utter fool when it came for preparing do to battle on the Earthly plane! The man had actually suggested that they not use human weapons to fight Goku. How idiotic could you get? Human weapons were one of the few things which could slow Goku down long enough for them to actually launch an angelic attack on him. Sure the human weapons wouldn't kill him, but they sure as hell would hurt him!

Such ignorance! Vegeta thought with spite, he glanced at Yamcha again and felt a twang of dislike spread through him. With an obvious effort he forced his farseeing gaze back onto the road and frowned at a car that was heading the other way. It had to be at least as far over the speed limit as they were judging by its approaching speed. Although the car wasn't familiar, Vegeta felt a tingling down his sine and as the strange car flashed past, Vegeta's gaze zeroed in on the windows and he saw a flash of familiar spiky hair.

Cursing Vegeta slammed on the breaks and turned the steering wheel. "Shit! Its him!" Vegeta roared in excitement as he did a complete 180, ignoring Yamcha's startled yelps as he was thrown against the car door. The car brushed against the railings on the side of the road and sparks flew into the air as the car's metal ground against the railing. The light and sound lasted only for a second though, then Vegeta was facing the same way that Goku had been going and he slammed his foot onto the accelerator again.

"What the hell are you doing?" Yamcha was screaming at him, his pace was pale and his were wild and glassy.

"It him, it's Goku!" Vegeta explained with a growl, his teeth grinding against one another, as he had to brake sharply as a car pulled onto the highway from an adjoining road. Yamcha winced as Vegeta accelerated again and he was pressed back into his seat. "I told you to wear your seatbelt." Vegeta told Yamcha in a toneless voice, grimly gripping the wheel and concentrating on catching up to Goku's car.

He didn't even feel the usual pleasure at being right when Yamcha was wrong; all he wanted was to make sure Bulma was safe and away from him!

~*~

Bulma saw the car speeding up behind them before Goku did and with a sudden clarity of sight she knew without a doubt that Vegeta was in that car. It was as though all her life she had been able to feel these presences around her but she had been shutting them out, and only Goku's presence had been enough to wake up her inner instincts. For that was what it felt like; her instincts telling her that Vegeta was coming for them. "Goku." Bulma yelped, her breath catching in her throat as she imagined what Vegeta might do to her and her baby if he caught them. "I think Vegeta's behind us…" She trailed off as Goku scoffed.

"Nonsense!" He bit out, completely sure that Bulma was being paranoid again. "How could they have found us already…." Goku shut up abruptly as he looked in his review mirror and saw Vegeta's car fast approaching them from behind. "Fuck!" He cursed, his power level rising as adrenaline flooded through his system. "Shit, you're right! Okay people; seat belt time. This is going to be a rough ride." Goku clicked his own seatbelt on and stepped on the accelerator.

With a roar their car went even faster and Seventeen cackled and leant back into his seat, clearly relishing the life-threatening situation his was in. His cold blue eyes sought Bulma's in the rear view mirror and he winked at her in a way that was far from reassuring. Bulma decided that Seventeen was clearly insane and she tore her eyes away from him, choosing instead to look at the blond seated next to her. Eighteen smirked at her with full red lips as she tightened her belt; her eyes were almost as icy and detached as Seventeens and Bulma looked away while cold shivers racked her body. With a small whimper of fear Bulma dubiously looked at her stomach, then scrunched in as close to the car door as she could, looking as though she was trying to melt into the car and away from the people surrounding her.

"Please be careful Goku. Remember about our baby." Bulma could barely believe how small her voice sounded, as her hands clutched at the small bulge on her stomach. Part of her was repulsed at how fast her child was growing while another part of her merely accepted this as the way which things were meant to be. There was an internal conflict raging within Bulma as he current human state of mind combated against her darker and more ancient side.

It was hard to believe but her angelic side felt almost as evil as Goku's had.

Goku meanwhile frowned at her tone of voice then schooled his features to look confident as he looked back over the seat at her and flashed her a grin. "Trust me babe, I know what I'm doing." His black eyes caught her and Goku sent a flash of reassurance her way, hoping against hope that this would be the lifetime in which he and Bulma would finally be able to live together in peace. He was so tired of running from Vegeta and watching his love being slaughtered time an again at Vegeta's hands.

"That's not very reassuring." Bulma mumbled, not happy with the casual way in which Goku was handling the situation. Although it was obvious he was just trying to make her feel safer, his attitude was far too relaxed to put her at ease. She shrieked in alarm as Goku accelerated hard and abruptly turned left off an exit ramp, the tires screeching at the sudden turn. Bulma whirled around and was just in time to see Vegeta's car manage to make the turn - although it scraped hard against the ramp wall, sparks flying up behind it.

Bulma blinked as she felt a sudden cooling touch thread its way through her mind. "What's happening to me?" She put a hand to her forehead and tried to ignore the presence of this other being inside of her mind. Images were flashing through her head from her dream last night - the vase crashing and blood pooling around it. Even the creature, which had chased her from below, was being shown to her. Her stomach felt warm and tingling and Bulma's eyes flew open as she realised that the presence she was feeling inside of her mind was her child. Somehow her child was powerful enough to already be manipulating her mind, and apparently it was flipping through her memories as though looking for something.

Bulma screamed and clutched at her head as the cold presence tried to soothe her. Although her child didn't feel evil there was an emptiness and a lack of emotion to its presence that scared her. Her blue eyes scrunched up in pain as her child continued to slide through her mind and slowly her eyes began to fill with red until Bulma stared sightlessly ahead with blood filled eyes. The pressure of her child's presence in her head eased off as it apparently saw through its mother's eyes - its gaze zeroing in on Goku. With another small cry the presence pulled sharply back into her mind and slowly it drifted away, trying to calm its mother down even as it relaxed its hold on her.

"Shit." Seventeen gazed in the review mirror at Bulma's face. "That was fucking awesome."

Bulma blinked and the blood drained from her eyes, sliding down her cheeks like two twin scarlet serpents. She let out her breath in a stark his and wiped them from her eyes with shaking hands. Inside of her stomach she felt her baby give out a warm glow of contentment and slowly all of the tension and panic drained out of her.

He had just wanted to know what his father looked like.

Bulma blinked in astonishment. The thought had come from nowhere but she was certain that it was true; her baby was a male and had been searching for his father. It was almost as though the child had been become panicked by Bulma's state of mind and had sought out its father for protection.

"Do that again." Seventeen's voice broke through Bulma's reflection and she looked up shakily. The icy eyes man was looking at her as though she was fascinating and Bulma looked away from him, angrily that he had witnessed what had just happened. "Oh, come on…" He prompted again.

"Shut up!" Eighteen and Bulma hissed together. Bulma turned to look at the blond who was watching her with concern; she raised a hand and traced Bulma's jaw gently.

"Don't be afraid." She pulled Bulma closer and they clung to one another as Gou took another hard left, causing both of to be flung to the side of the car. Seventeen howled with laughter again, apparently the sight of Bulma crying blood combined with the aggressive driving was exciting him beyond measure. Bulma didn't know if Goku had seen what had just happened to her or if he had been too busy driving to notice; either way she intended to have a long talk with him about their baby if they ever got out of this situation.

Behind them Vegeta's car missed the turn but within twenty seconds it had turned around and caught up with them. Bulma could imagine Vegeta sitting grimly behind the wheel of his car, clutching the steering wheel with white knuckles and with that grim determined look in his eyes. She knew he was a speed freak and loved driving, needles to say it wouldn't be long before he caught up with them. They couldn't run from Vegeta forever, sooner or later he was going to find them.

"Fuck!" Goku cursed from the front seat. "Out of road!" He twisted the steering wheel and with much squealing of the car brakes, as well as squealing from Bulma and Eighteen, Goku managed to get the car turned around and facing back the way it had come. Vegeta's car screeched to a halt and sat running in the middle of the road, Goku revved the engine of his car and Vegeta's car gave an answering roar…

"Oh no! Not chicken!" Bulma pleaded. Her eyes widening as she realised what Goku was intending to do. "Vegeta is a bloody mad man, Goku!" She tried to reason with her significant other, only far too aware that this was going to end in trouble. "I forbid you to do this!" Bulma screamed and kicked the back of his seat to drive home her point. "If you don't stop the car this minute I'll jump out of it while it's moving!" Bulma gripped the car handle and panted as she prayed for Goku to listen to her.

"No, you wont." Goku scoffed, his sinister ebony eyes focusing on the car ahead as though it was the only thing that mattered to him. "Besides, Vegeta won't put your life in danger, trust me!" The devil seated in front of her softened its voice in an attempt to placate Bulma, but she wasn't having any of it. She'd heard enough of Goku's reasoning for one day.

"You said the same thing about yourself and here we are playing chicken!" She spat at him through clenched teeth, fear beating inside of her chest as though it was a creature trying to get out. "Please! Stop it, Goku! Right this instant!" Bulma wailed and pulled at her car door as, with a squeal of tires, Goku accelerated towards Vegeta's car. As she tugged on the door handle it clicked uselessly in her hand.

"The child lock is on." Seventeen yelled above the sound of the car engine, managing to give her a crazy grin as they approached Vegeta's car at an insane speed. His ice-cold eyes were twinkling as though he'd never had so much fun in his life. Time slowed down for Bulma after that point. She was aware of scenery flying past as the car accelerated, of Eighteen gripping her hand and praying next to her; a fervent mutter to a God she had long ago turned her back on. Bulma watched as Vegeta's car bore down on them and with a sickening crunch and grinding of metal they two cars collided.

Bulma was jerked forward in her seat and a voice screamed wordlessly which Bulma recognised it as her own. Crazy laughter rose to join her screams from Seventeen and Eighteen mutterings of prayer turned into gibberish. Goku was silent as their car was lifted and flipped.

With a final crash they hit the ground and rolled; Seventeen's laughed was abruptly cut off and Bulma felt the air leave her body as the car collided with the ground and they slid along, the car rolling sickeningly around her. Blackness, like a stage curtain, descended and the world was cut off as Bulma felt a slicing pain cut through her and heard a final scream; then there was nothing but an endless blackness that had never seen light.

~*~

Vegeta coughed bright red blood as he pulled himself from the wreck; his car was a twisted hunk of metal. Goku's car looed minimally worse despite having rolled further then Vegeta's car had. The angel tried to stand but his leg wouldn't move and with a detachment and clarity he realised that a shard of twisted metal had speared his into the ground. Blood was flecked over the ground and even as he watched it was pooling around his leg.

He tore his gaze away from his leg as he heard a pained groan and watched as Goku dragged himself from his own car; a bloody wound carved down his chest. The devil stared accusingly at Vegeta, their identical onyx eyes clashing; "Bastard." Goku gasped. "You we're supposed to stop." He shook his head, as though trying to clear his eyes, and Vegeta realised Goku must have a bad concussion.

"Yamcha." Vegeta managed to say before he coughed up more blood and wrapped his hand around the metal in his leg. "Yamcha made me keep driving." Vegeta closed his eyes and pulled at the metal with all of his strength. He swallowed a bellow of pain as the shard of metal pulled free, tearing his flesh as it did and spilling more of his angelic blood.

"Yamcha?" Goku looked confused for a moment. "Oh, the guy from the house. Taking orders from humans now?" Goku looked disgusted and for once Vegeta couldn't blame him. Since being sent to earth he had come to realise just how disgusting human beings could be; the amount of sin that lived in was sickening - he was surprised that God still had faith in humanity.

"He's Michael, the angel Michael." Vegeta clarified as he attempted to crawl away from the wreck of his car. Distantly heard Goku cackle as though he found the thought of Michael being sent to help capture him as ludicrous as Vegeta did.

"Michael.' He laughed harder. "How sad…" Goku laughed some more and then was silent as he started back in the car as though remembering something. "I think she's hurt…" He muttered vaguely as though talking to someone. There was movement form the back of the car and Eighteen crawled through one of the shattered windows with a bloodied Bulma in her arms.

"Trust me, he said. Vegeta will stop, he said." Eighteen growled as she crawled, looking sullenly at Goku as though she detested him. "You could have killed us!" She ground out, her blue eyes icing over coldly.

"Sorry. His fault." Goku pointed to Yamcha who had been flung out of the car and was lying in a bloody heap in the middle of the road. Yamcha was lying in a pool of blood so wide that Vegeta knew he must be dead or seriously injured. Hopefully he would have the sense to allow his physical body to die so he could return to heaven. "Is Bulma alright?" Vegeta heard Goku ask, his voice devoid of everything except concern.

"She's alive, though a bit cut up." Eighteen gently set Bulma down on the ground and lay down next to her, curling up in a foetal position and hugging herself. Tremors racked her body and slowly Eighteen rolled onto her back to look at the sky. "I think I might go to sleep." She murmured vaguely, her voice burning with pain.

"Yeah." Goku agreed, his eyes becoming dull and fuzzy. Vegeta tried to force himself to stay awake too but he realised that his body was in shock and that sooner or later he'd be out for the count. "Sleep sounds like a good idea…" Goku started to close his eyes but forced them open again. He looked at Vegeta in alarm. "Wait. Can't sleep, forgot about you." He looked unfocusedly at Vegeta and dropped to one knee as his strength gave out.

"Don't worry," Vegeta coughed up more blood, and smiled at how he was missing his chance to rescue the girl and save the day then continued, "About me. I think I'm going to sleep too."

Vegeta collapsed to the ground and was still. Goku dropped to the ground and gazed up at the blue sky for what seemed like a minute, but the next time he looked around he saw paramedics and humans crouching over Bulma and Eighteen and he realised he had been staring at the sky for a very long time.

Goku decided to sleep as well.

~*~