Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Enemy of my Enemy ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Vegeta drug his burden a few more feet, momentarily giving into pain and exhaustion. He trembled with the fear he would lose consciousness before reaching his goal. He looked up, surveying the fiery horizon of Namek. Furiza was as good as his word. Namek-sei could not have more than five minutes left. Vegeta looked down with disdain at his unconscious enemy.

'This is all your fault, Kakarotto!' Vegeta's face contorted into a snarl. 'You and your honest ways! If it wasn't for me, we'd both be dead now.'

Vegeta grimaced with the pain he knew, Goku's weight put on his injured body. It galled him beyond measure. He that had destroyed whole planets with the single whim of his finger, could barely drag one half-dead body. He gritted his teeth with the strain, as he heaved Goku's body across the Namekian terrain, watching his own blood drip onto Goku's face.

He must make it, Vegeta told himself. He had to make it. He was their only chance--both of them. If he passed out now . . .

Vegeta shook his head, his face written in determination. He fought against the panic as the landscape kept going in and out of focus. He would not lose, not now! He could not lose. He hated it. He was a killer, a monster. He fought for himself, and only himself. Now, he had to be the hero. It disgusted Vegeta, but he could not conceal the truth from himself. All now depended on him.

'Just a few more feet.'

Vegeta listened to his own labored breathing. He stopped for a moment, as he struggled to drag air inside his lungs. This always happened when he got away from space. He cursed all planets. So used to the pure air of pressured space ships, he found breathing the natural air of a planet, with its dust, its pollen, and debris to be uncomfortable in the best of conditions. Now, with his dying strength, he felt every breathe might be his last.

There it was, Furiza's ship! Vegeta felt panic close in on him, as he drug Goku closer. The ship was badly damaged.

'Damn!' Vegeta cursed himself. 'Why did I have to be so thorough? I could have killed all of Furiza's men without damaging the ship. How could I have been so stupid?'

A huge arc of fire exploded in front of Vegeta, before he had time to react, scorching his face. Instinctively, he threw himself upon the most precious burden in his universe, shielding Goku with his own injured body. The ground caved underneath them, and they both fell.

"No!" Vegeta screamed in frustration. "Not this close! I won't die."

He clenched his free fist drawing all the power he had left to him, rising unsteadily, carrying Goku with him. Painfully, he flew over the planetary gulf that stood between them and Furiza's ship, which was now their only salvation.

The cold sweat of fear beaded on Vegeta's forehead. Straining beyond hope, he struggled to keep them both airborne--and both alive. Just as he thought he would make it over the new gulf, an explosion erupted from deep inside the planet, sending them both flying. Vegeta felt Goku slip from his grasp. Screaming out in pain, he rode the force of the explosion grabbing Goku in midair, riding the down shaft as they tumbled into the entrance to Furiza's ship.

Vegeta slammed his hand on the button that closed the outer pressure doors, unceremoniously dumping Goku on the floor of the ship. With all the speed he could muster, he ran for the control room.

Vegeta burst through the doors before they had the chance to open. The sight that met him caused him to curse in every language he knew, and he knew quite many. The control boards were smashed and looked inoperable. Wires hung from open bays, dangling from many broken control boards.

He ran to the first control panel, feverishly reading the screens, hoping he could trust what they told him.

"Alpha command, voice control, hecta giga zoros!" Vegeta yelled, recalling every command he had heard on the ship that had been his home as a child.

It was too good to believe when he heard a mechanical voice respond, "hecta, giga, zoros."

This was followed by a beep that told Vegeta, it was still open to commands.

'Thank the Kings of Vegeta, it hasn't been locked out!" Vegeta thought fiercely as he racked his brain for every word of Cold-jin he could remember.

"Dida ronda para." Vegeta said as calmly possible.

The computer only beeped, and repeated, "hecta, giga, zoros."

Vegeta gave into his panic. It wasn't functioning. They were doomed.

He swayed but persisted. "Golo, jorda voika!"

The computer only beeped, and repeated, "hecta, giga, zoros."

As the computer said that, the whole ground underneath the ship heaved. Vegeta saw through the huge windows of the command room. A pit of lava had opened up before them and the ship was sinking into it.

Vegeta screeched the last in open fear. "Launch you stupid bitch, or we'll be boiled alive! Launch!"

With that he, he heard the engines fire. Vegeta screamed in triumph. Since, when did they turn the controls over to the common tongue? He momentarily shook his head in disgust. It figures they wouldn't tell him!

Only in time did he remember the huge whole he had blown earlier in the hull. "Isolate, sections gonda ra, through vonda be!"

The computer beeped its obedience, as Vegeta saw the welcome stars of what had been his only home since he was very small--space.

The computer beeped again. "Gatta?"

Vegeta looked up at the computer confused for a moment, before he looked at the scanners and sighed heavily.

"Anywhere." Replied Vegeta. "Take us anywhere. Just make sure it is as far from Cold-sei and as far away from Earth as possible."

The computer beeped, again in compliance. Vegeta turned away from it, in complete dismissal walking out. Adrenaline was beginning to seep away, with the returning pain held at bay for too long. Raw burning wounds covered his body. They screamed with the agony of the battle that should have killed him. If he hadn't learned how to suppress his ki, making Furiza think he was already dead, that is exactly what he would be.

Vegeta for the first time, since that lost battle, took time to survey his own injuries. He noticed in shock his under tunic was drenched in blood. He wasn't sure how much of the blood was his and how much Goku's. Remembering the badly injured Goku, he quickened his steps ignoring the agony screaming from every muscle in his body.

He found Goku where he left him. He gave into his worst fears, when he found him. Goku's complexion was deathly white.

"Don't you die on me, you bastard!" Vegeta said aloud as he picked him up to drag him to the medical ward. "It's your fault we are in this mess. All you had to do was kill him."

Vegeta berated Goku between hefts of his weight down the long hall. "But you couldn't do that could you? No! You couldn't kill the SOB, could you? You're the good guy. You had to show him mercy."

"You stupid bastard!"

Vegeta's fury got the better of him as he kicked Goku as hard as he could in the ribs. Goku convulsed, coughing up blood. As instantly as he finished coughing, he made a sighing sound and stopped breathing.

"I'm an idiot!" He screamed at himself, slapping Goku hard on the face.

Goku suddenly heaved, taking in a quick breath, followed by very shallow breathing.

"There's no time!" Vegeta screamed at himself, as he pulled Goku inside the medical ward.

He ran over to open the first medical machine, returning to drag Goku toward it. He heaved Goku into an upright position, attempting to push Goku into the machine. Goku's eyes opened suddenly and he started thrashing.

"Gohan!" Goku screamed weakly, fighting Vegeta, scratching him on the face.

Vegeta shook with fury. "You idiot, I'm trying to save your life!"

He punched Goku hard in the face, as Goku's helpless body crashed into the medical machine. Goku attempted to climb out. Before he had the chance, Vegeta grasped his arms pinning it in a restraint.

"Relax, Kakarotto." Vegeta said sarcastically. "You get to live, not that you deserve to. The Cold-jin are experts on how to make people live whether they like it or not."

Vegeta grasped the other arm, putting it into the opposite restraint, grasping the breathing apparatus, snapping it over Goku's face.

Vegeta closed the machine with smug satisfaction, looking on his prisoner, as the machine filled with the solution that would heal his injuries.

Vegeta was surprised when Goku's eyes opened inside the medical machine. Those in the machine should go immediately asleep, sedated by the solution, inside. Determination was written on Goku's face. Vegeta could barely make it out, but he could hear him struggling to speak through the apparatus that sealed his mouth.

"Why?" Goku looked honestly surprised at his captor. "Why did you save me?"

Vegeta huffed. "What a stupid question for you to ask? Why do you think?"

Why!" Goku screamed through his muffled prison.

"It wasn't for any love of you; trust me when I say that, Kakarotto. I swore revenge on you, on Earth, and that has not changed. But, we are all that's left, Kakarotto. We are the only two Sayai-jin left that can destroy Furiza. It's obvious that fighting him alone is useless. We need each other."

Vegeta turned to leave. "Whether we like it or not."

"My Son!" Goku screamed. "What do you mean, we are all that's left? Where is my son?"

Vegeta grimaced. Beyond his best attempts to hate all that breathed, a grudging respect had grown for the small warrior that had fought so bravely, again him and Furiza. Yet, he tempered that respect with bitterness. Gohan's bravery had won him nothing. Another lesson for Vegeta, in the futility of good.

Vegeta didn't know why he couldn't bring his eyes up to look at Goku. He lowered his head saying the words mechanically. "Gohan's been taken captive by Furiza."

Vegeta hurriedly left the medical room, doing his best to shut out the sound that filled his ears in Goku's one agonized howl of despair-filled rage.