Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Fate's Coincidences ❯ Chapter 5

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Bulma walked back along the dusty path that lead to the little mud hut that she was sharing with Goku. She smiled as she thought about her goofy best friend. After seeing him today Bulma had felt much happier than she had in a long, long time. She hadn’t realised just how much she had missed spending time with him, like when they used to as kids. Ever since Goku had gotten married, things had changed so dramatically - for all of their friends. She had taken on more responsibility at Capsule Corporation in preparation to take over the company one day, Krillin and Master Roshi were on their isolated little Island, while Krillin tried to find his soul mate and Roshi continued to ogle every woman magazine he could get his lecherous hands on. Tien and Chiatzu were always on some snowy mountain training as hard as they could and Yamcha - he was just never around anymore. Bulma sighed when she thought about her long term lover. He was her first boyfriend, her first and only lover and she always thought that he would be the one she married and raised kids with, but it just never happened.

Without training and a Martial Arts Tournament to partake in Yamcha had started playing Baseball. Bulma was glad that he had started a career and had a hobby that did not involve fighting but in the end it had driven a wedge between them. He was always travelling, playing for his team in different states while she remained in West City as she had learned that taking over a Company was not an easy task. Besides familiarising herself with the workings of the Company she had clients, investors and workers to engage with – or as she always thought of it, to charm them in order to get what she wanted. And Bulma Briefs always got what she wanted! But Yamcha was always broke when it came to her and yet he could always go out with other girls or his Baseball mates when he and she were in between breaks.

She had cried so hard when she had seen him die and yet it only made her question their relationship even more after it had all settled in. He had been a shy guy who couldn’t even look at a girl without wetting his pants and now it was like he couldn’t stop wetting his pants over all the girls he had. It was one thing that she needed to put into order when she returned home. It was make or break time for them and she knew that she couldn’t keep hanging around for Yamcha to decide when – or if – he wanted to settle down while he enjoyed every bit of freedom he gained from their “breaks”. That was why she took a walk! She had wanted some time to herself, to think, and to get away from the overwhelming presence of the Yadrats.

After the Yadrats were convinced that she meant them no harm they had become very welcoming and animated. But she had begun to feel suffocated in their stifling presence after a while. During her enjoyable walk with Goku earlier on they had swapped horror stories about their experience on Namek. He had told her about how he had transformed into something Vegeta had called a Super Saiyan, how he had then defeated Frieza and landed here after narrowly escaping Namek’s destruction. She had then gone on to tell him about her own little adventures on Namek, including Zarbon, Vegeta and Burter followed by her trip into space. She felt at peace with him and she knew that Goku, could not only tell just how much their walk had meant to her, but had enjoyed her company as much as she had his. Just like the good ole days!

After they had returned to the dwellings of the Yardrats Bulma and Goku were treated to a feast, which Goku of course could not be torn away from. It was there that Bulma began to feel very uncomfortable. It was not the exotic food, that although looked slightly undesirable was truly delicious in texture and taste but rather it was the people who were so intrigued by her that they kept staring at her in awe. The children crowded her in hoards, sitting on her lap, drooling in her hands and pulling at her fascinating hair. It came to a point where she thought she might drown among their innocent curiosity until their mothers removed them from her. Bulma did not have much experience with children and she was seriously starting to doubt if she wanted her own for her limited patience was truly tested today - thoroughly.

Then it was the men who kept sending her leering glances that Bulma did not appreciate. She had felt so suffocated by her surroundings that she felt she was in danger of losing her minimal temperament and would shriek at all of them, making the Yadrats rethink their decision on how harmless she truly was. Deciding that she needed some alone time she decided to come out and watch the sun set. Planet Yardrat was so close to the sun that Bulma could swear she could literally see the ball of fire burning from where she stood on the top of a sandy hill. Yet it was a beautiful moment of burning oranges and dusky heat. Bulma breathed in deeply as she walked back to Goku, taking in the rich odours of dry sand and feeling the warm breeze on her skin. At least she had gotten a tan, well a slight one. She laughed at herself and it was then that she felt it. It definitely sounded like soft footfalls on the desert like sand, following the eerie silence of her melodious yet quite laughter, and Bulma could swear she had heard heavy breathing behind her. It placed goose bumps on her hands and waves of uneasiness washed over her. She picked up her pace in the hopes that she was just hearing a strange animal lurking around in search of food when she saw a shadow come over her. In a wild panic she started to run, silently cursing herself for wandering so far from Goku and leaving her Scouter sunglasses back at the hut for if she hadn’t she would have been able to sense energy around her before it decided to hunt for her. Then it came to her, just as a pair of strong hands grabbed at her arms, she still had her ED gun strapped to her waist. Without thinking Bulma pulled at her gun and shot the hand that grabbed her. She was satisfied to feel it make contact as it pierced into flesh and out of curiosity turned to look at the growling figure that was on its knees.
“You?” was all Bulma could mutter in disbelief.

Vegeta looked up at the woman who had somehow managed to attack him with a stupid human weapon. He knew about guns but this one didn’t have the same effect as the ones he knew about. It had happened so quickly that even his lightning quick reflexes failed to stop her from attacking him. Of course, truth be told, he was not expecting her to have a weapon in her possession. Struggling - he could see her do. Scratching – yes. Screaming – definitely! but not piercing his arm with a laser like gun. He was on his knees while his entire body contracted in pain. He felt as if his insides were leaving him, withdrawing from his body, rendering him helpless. “What the fuck did you do to me woman?” Vegeta growled.

“Vegeta, what are you doing here?” Bulma asked, still not sure how to react to finding Vegeta following her. Her ED gun hung loosely at her side.

“Saving you from that disgusting creature that was following you idiot and this is the thanks I get?” he growled menacingly at her yet could not snuff out the pain that infiltrated his voice or marred his features.

“It wasn’t you who was following me?” Bulma asked in surprise.

“No!” He replied simply, looking at her as if it were beneath him to do such things and as if she had insulted him gravely with her question, before inclining his head to the side.

Bulma squinted in the dusky light, moving her head to look in the direction Vegeta had shown her and sure enough a few steps behind them was a dead body with black blood pooling around it. She quickly averted her eyes before staring disapprovingly at Vegeta. “Well maybe if you had said something to me instead of grabbing me I wouldn’t have thought you were trying to kill me.” Bulma huffed as she crossed her hands and haughtily raised her nose in the air. “And was it really necessary to kill it?” Bulma motioned to the dead body with a small shake of her head, avoiding looking at it with her eyes.

Vegeta looked disbelieving at the woman before him. He had been flying around in space for months now trying to find Kakarot while attending to other business when he had been passing this dirt planet. He had sensed Kakarot’s energy and had decided to land here. He had not been flying for very long when another familiar energy had tugged at his senses. Looking down he had seen the Earth woman walking around and another being following her. He had felt her energy spike in fear and noticed the being trying to run after her, he had then attacked. He hadn’t, at the time, thought about what he was doing. He had just acted. And now, for the life of him, couldn’t explain why he had saved the ungrateful witch.

After a few minutes Vegeta felt his body began to relax and he slowly got to his feet although, much to his frustration, he felt as if something were still missing. Something deep inside of him. ‘What was it?’ he looked at Bulma who was now regarding him carefully yet it wasn’t fear that he could smell, but something else. Something completely ridiculous. Something like concern?

“What did you do to me woman?” Vegeta asked, almost afraid to hear her reply, for he knew now that she was a Scientist. Almost!

“I ... I shot ... It wasn’t ... I’m sorry ...”

“Stop blubbering you idiot and just tell me what you did?” Vegeta demanded in a fierce growl. Her hesitation did nothing to ease his concerns and he could only imagine what ridiculous things her little weapon had done to him. ‘Crazy Scientists.’

Bulma immediately took a small step back and uncrossed her arms. She was now wringing her hands anxiously before her, taking in a deep breath she decided to just tell him the truth. After all, how bad could it be, and if he did feel a strong need to kill her, she always had Goku a few miles away. “I shot you with my energy draining gun.”

There was a deafening silence between them before Vegeta’s voice said calmly, too calmly “Well, give me back my energy then.” He sounded like a little boy asking for his parent to bring back his dead pet fish from heaven. And Bulma felt his tone pull at her heart strings. It didn’t surprise her that he had figured out what she had done to him for he seemed like a relatively smart guy. ‘Not a genius like her ... Focus Bulma.’

“I can’t.” Bulma whispered hoping he wouldn’t hear her but she was disappointed when his keen Saiyan hearing picked up those two words loud and clear. It was as if a fatal wound had been delivered to him.

“You what?” his voice boomed in the quite air around them and Bulma involuntarily shrieked and jumped on the spot before she calmed down realizing he wouldn’t hurt her when he stood as still as a statue. Only she could see clearly how his fists clenched tightly that it made his veins bulge ominously through his tanned skin.

“Look, it’s a new invention that I created while in space. I needed something to protect me from you energy blasting beings and I had to come up with something. I haven’t tested it yet and well ...” Bulma trailed off as she watched a vein throb in Vegeta’s forehead. She could tell it was a bad sign, a very bad sign. His face was livid with rage and it appeared as if he were vibrating from stopping himself from attacking her. Or ripping her apart and feeding her to the sandy dunes of the Planet. “Vegeta. I’m sorry.” Bulma made to touch his arm but he took a quick step back, her outstretched hand hanging awkwardly between them.

Vegeta couldn’t believe his luck. He had finally found Kakarot after months of searching and now he had no energy. He couldn’t even reach the legendary with the secret. He was helpless to fulfil his destiny. He had waited a hundred and thirty one days on that mud ball and he couldn’t even help himself now. Unless . . .

“Can you reverse it?”

Bulma felt some relief at his question. “It isn’t permanent since it only locks a person’s energy inside his body, it doesn’t kill the energy inside so obviously it can be unlocked if the process is reversed.”

“Obviously.” Vegeta muttered dryly. “How long will it take?”

“I’m not sure. It took me a while to build the ED gun and I will need tools and you will need to be around for testing and ...”

“Fine!” Vegeta muttered cutting of her scientific tirade. He didn’t care what she had to do but she would get him back to the way he was.

“Fine?”Bulma asked nervously.

“I don’t care if you don’t eat, sleep or bathe but I want this thing fixed. Are we clear?”

“Crystal!” Bulma said out of guilt for paralyzing him but her single word was coated thickly with sarcasm.

“Bulma you can’t be serious about this.” Goku said sternly. “You know that I like to see the good in people and I believe everyone can change, in fact I don’t believe Vegeta is solely evil. But I don’t like you being stuck in space with an unpredictable character like him. Especially without any protection.”

Bulma droned out Goku’s speech as she was too busy thinking about another Saiyan who was eating, as much as Goku, in the little hut that the three were supposed to be sharing. Vegeta of course had declined the offer and told them that he would sleep in his ship. ‘His ship, what a joke!’ Bulma thought as he had stolen the ship from her father when he had lived in her home. She still couldn’t believe he had been living in her home and he hadn’t killed anyone.

“Bulma, are you even listening to me?” Goku waved a large palm in her face.

Bulma smiled guiltily. “Of course I am.” She lied easily. Bulma took his hand in hers and held onto it tightly. Goku was at a war with himself. Something she could easily tell.

She knew that he was more convinced than ever that Vegeta was a good person buried deep under the atrocious circumstances of his life but he was also her best friend and she didn’t think he would forgive himself if something were to happen to her. She had heard the stories, from him, of how Vegeta had put him in a Regeneration Tank after he was badly beaten, how Vegeta had saved Gohan and most interestingly how he had cried during his last moments begging Goku to avenge the lost Saiyan race. It was sad but it also proved her right, there was more, much more to Vegeta than what met the eye. His pride, arrogance, aloofness and cold exterior were nothing more but a façade. A defence mechanism from preventing himself from feeling, for feeling lead to pain and pain was a weakness. And if it was one thing she already knew about the dark Prince, was that he absolutely abhorred weaknesses!

“Goku, I will be fine. Vegeta needs my help and it’s all my fault. Besides it won’t be long till I get home. Probably a month or so after you.” Bulma reasoned.

“You’ve made up your mind haven’t you?” it wasn’t a question but Bulma felt it deserved an answer anyway.

“Yep.” She nodded and gave Goku a charming smile. Her friend shook his head in exasperation but with deep affection and pulled her in his big bear hug. Bulma smiled to herself as she snuggled closer into her friends embrace.

Vegeta watched the sickening display of affection and familiarity that passed between the woman and Kakarot with jealousy. Though he couldn’t tell if the clenching he felt in his stomach was jealousy over Kakarot or the fact that he was holding the woman so close to him. Jealousy over anything was a new feeling for him. He had never been jealous in his life. Even over the fact that Frieza had been stronger than him, for some reason all he felt for the oppressive Lizard was cold hatred! Nothing more, nothing less that fuelled his need for revenge over the bastard.

And then he had met Kakarot. Maybe it was that Saiyan culture was so deeply entrenched in him, maybe it was that he had still felt like the Prince he was supposed to be with Radditz and Nappa, hell even Frieza and his men had never failed to acknowledge that he was royalty, maybe it was the fact that Kakarot was only a third class Saiyan and yet he disliked the younger man. It had not really been instant but ever since he had escaped Earth, barely able to breathe, he had gained a new burning desire either than to kill Frieza. To defeat and humiliate Kakarot. And then the third class had to transform into a Super Saiyan and steal the honour from him with the defeat of Frieza. Two things that he believed would be his. Damn it all. Kakarot was the only Saiyan who had managed to escape Frieza’s personal hell after the destruction of their home Planet and now he was basically a Prince of Earth, besting Vegeta in every aspect of life, even in holding Bulma’s affection.

He had a mate, an adequate son and doting people who believed in him. These people waited for him to rescue them, save their Planet and fight for them and he treated them as equals. As friends. Things that, had Frieza never existed and Planet Vegeta never destroyed, Vegeta would have done. Maybe not the friendly part though!

Even now, he could tell how much the woman in Kakarot’s arms cared for him. She looked at him with those big blue eyes and all Vegeta could see was open adoration for the man. Vegeta never knew what love was, Saiyan’s didn’t believe that it existed but when he saw with his own two eyes the way Bulma looked at Kakarot he wondered if that was what love was?

Shaking the stupid thoughts from his mind and blaming the conversation he had had earlier with Kakarot for thinking such rubbish Vegeta stalked off into the dry night. When he had asked Kakarot about how the clown had made the legendary transformation Vegeta had never in all his life been prepared for the answer. “I don’t know. I saw Frieza kill Krillin and it was like something inside of me just snapped. I don’t know if it was the pain of the loss or anger at Frieza but I felt myself grow with the need to defeat Frieza and then it just happened.”

‘What a load of bull.’ Vegeta snarled at that logic. Saiyan’s didn’t feel pain from a loss of a friend and certainly didn’t care about friends to the point of increasing power. Hell, the most they had were partners, never friends! Kakarot’s logic was an insult to the Legendary transformation and Vegeta couldn’t help but think there was more to it. After all, who would just see someone die and transform? Yet it was mind boggling for Kakarot was hardly much stronger than himself when they had duelled on Earth. So what had changed? He couldn’t have increased his energy that much during his travel to Namek. Vegeta had thought it must have been the extra gravitational force that Kakarot had been training in on his way to Namek. That had made more sense as Planet Vegeta had a high gravitational force and it did prove to be an advantage for Saiyan power. However Vegeta had mastered one hundred times gravity while travelling through space, from Earth, and nothing. He was more powerful yes, but he was not the Legendary yet. And now, would out his energy, he couldn’t be capable of handling the gravity for being crushed under it. He would have to settle for ten times a higher gravity while he waited for his energy to be restored. Seeing Bulma and Kakarot release each other but walk with their arms around each other to retire for the night Vegeta scowled darkly before flying off towards his ship.

Upon arrival a smirked graced his lips as he thought about how the woman had scoffed at his assumed ownership and corrected him in saying that technically it was her ship. He was slightly impressed at her living quarters back on Earth and immediately he could tell that she was very wealthy. He wasn’t impressed with her parents though, especially her mother who grated on his last nerves. But he had learned a lot on Earth. For some reason ever since he had given Kakarot’s brat the idea of how to wish back his pathetic father, Gohan had tried to be his friend. Vegeta shuddered at how the boy had often sought him out on Earth. Of course he had skilfully avoided the brat most times but he also found it quite interesting to learn about the woman called Bulma.

Only child, obviously spoiled rotten and Kakarot’s oldest friend. And after seeing Kakarot’s mate Vegeta found it more plausible that Kakarot and Bulma were not just friends! Suddenly his mind conjured up images of her and Kakarot entangled in sweaty limbs and silk sheets and he felt his blood boil. Of course Kakarot knew nothing about Saiyan tradition and had obviously not claimed his brat’s mother as his own and that would allow him to indulge, but what about the woman? He had been there when her mate had been revived and yet for some reason the way her blue eyes lightened upon Kakarot made him want to kill the clown all the more. Grunting his displeasure at his train of thoughts and at himself for entertaining the uselessness of it all Vegeta picked up the Scouter that lay safely in a compartment near the ships control panel.

He was not using it for sensing energy levels, no, he was using it to check in on his team. After all, he couldn’t rule the Universe successfully if he didn’t ensure the uprising and usurping he was about to cause, was going as planned.

“Prince Vegeta.” The voice answered respectfully on the other end and Vegeta smirked devilishly at being addressed by his proper title.


Authors Note: So what is Vegeta up to? We will just have to wait and see! And what will Bulma think about him wanting to rule the Universe? Or will that little fact be kept hidden from her? Read to find out.

I apologise for the late updates but work is HECTIC!!!

Regards,

S …

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