Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Feeding Genius ❯ Wake Up and Make Up? ( Chapter 21 )

Feeding Genius

Chapter Twenty-One

Wake Up and Make Up?

Disclaimer: Shock, Horror! DBZ isn't mine!

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Out of the blackness the only thing I can feel is a great pain that seeps across from shoulder to shoulder, piercing its way down my back, and tearing a path up to my head, creating a crucifix of agony. My vision blurs in a warped double image through the gloom and pain, but there is so much light in the room. It burns like a halo of gold in the middle of static white tiles, reflecting on their gleaming surface, being amplified and forced back on me. It's too harsh on my eyes and they roll into the back of my head, welcoming the darkness once again.

It feels like only seconds have past, but I have the inkling it is much longer when my eyes eventually flutter into focus once again. The pain has subsided a little into an unnaturally harsh ache, and my head isn't pounding so hard. The only thing I can say with any certainty is that I feel like I'm going to throw up. My throat spasms once as a warning, but I haven't eaten anything to force back up. My stomach is empty and all I can do is dry-wretch.

Groaning low in the throat and falling back to a lying position I pause a moment and take in the scene. I lift a heavy arm to wipe the corners of my mouth. It's dark. I can't see much - only a soft orange glow illuminates the area. It coats certain aspects in a natural warmth, which might be comforting to a newly woken body, but which is too completely unsuited to where I know I should be to make me relax as I aught. My skin is clammy and slicked in sweat, but it is also goosebumped and pale as a cold breeze drifts over where it is left uncovered. I shift uneasily, now aware of a large blanket that pins my weak limbs under its weight.

I'm no longer in the space pod - of that at least, I am certain. The temperature is too low, and I wouldn't be exposed to the elements in such a manner if I were. My rapidly recovering sight is pinpointing rocky surfaces, intermingled with trees, which appear to be jutting out at precarious angles. My bed is in between two large standing stones etched in black rock, decorated by centuries of erosion. It seems to be a natural gully, but which has been modified with a mattress to make the harsh surface softer.

I know what the orange light is now. There is a fire not very far from my bed. I cannot quite see it from this position, sheltered as I am by the rocks, but my newly recovered ears can just about make out the crackling of some variety of burning timber through the gentle whisper the wind creates.

I lay and listen to it for a while, not being able to do much else. I feel so weak.

My heart stops beating for a second. I can hear footsteps. They are light but solid, moving in a path that is getting ever closer. I have to strain to hear them at first, but as they get closer I am not sure whether to feel relieved or frightened. Someone, or more disturbingly, something, is getting closer, and all I can do is stay motionless, watching my petrified breath mist into the orange tinted sky.

There is quiet for a moment then a thump as something falls to the floor.

A minute later the footsteps resume, this time slower and marked more in curiosity. They are so close now that I know I must be seen. I hold my breath. I am helpless.

Something else exhales.

I close my eyes.

"So you're awake at last." The voice is low, "Took you long enough."

A single tear slips over my cheek. It is too long since I last heard him speak. "Vegeta!" I can feel my heart pound with more strength than I thought my body could possess at this moment. "Oh kami! It is you, isn't it? I'm not unconscious and dreaming this?"

"I'm very real. I would have thought the…" he pauses, "…the pain you are experiencing would have told you that much."

I can't answer with words, I am experiencing too much emotion, but somehow I manage to nod in reply. I wish I could see him, but he is too far behind my head for that. I'll just have to satisfy myself in hearing his voice for now. I have never been able to force that Saiyan to do anything, and if he doesn't want to be seen then there is little I can do to change it, no matter how much my heart aches for it to be otherwise.

"You had a dislocated right shoulder, but I reset it." He says after a minutes' silence. "You also had a large gash on the back of the head, but that stopped bleeding pretty quickly. I have not been able to properly treat your ribs though. As far as I can tell you have cracked a couple of them, but without you being conscious it was hard to tell the extent of the damage."

"What about you Vegeta?" I manage to croak out. I don't care about my injuries. I'm still alive. For the moment that is good enough. I have to know about my husband. The doctors' words and doubts grip my head in a panic of uncertainty. "You know who I am right?"

He growls, "Don't be absurd, Woman! As if anyone could forget someone as ugly and loud as you?" After a pause, "No one is that lucky."

I want to be angry with him, but I just haven't got the strength or the heart for it at the moment. Instead I take the comment as I hope it was meant and let out a weak laugh. I still have to be certain though. One warming and grounding joke at my expense hardly constitutes evidence of a complete recovery. "What was the last thing you remember before you woke up?"

He goes to speak, but I stop him just in time.

"I want an honest answer okay? No jibes, no clever remarks, no insults, got it?"

There is another pause. "I think I remember everything." His voice is deep - serious. "I remember the arguments. All the pointless, petty quarrels we shared on Earth. How my implacable resentment, and completely pointless and thinly founded mistrust blew the situation out of all thinkable proportion."

There is strong emotion behind his words, and as they filter out on the breeze, my heart clenches painfully. It has taken so long for me to hear this, for him to accept that he has had part of the blame, perhaps not as much as myself, but that it was a joint effort of stupidity that let things get so out of hand.

Unfortunately that is only half of the relief I need to feel. He has been silent for some time now. Could it be possible that this is all he remembers? Oh Kami! How am I going to tell him? What will his reaction be?

"V…."

"I remember my anger," he continues. "It seems like I have forever lived in that emotion. You would think that having suffered it so much I would have learnt to control it better by now, but I am lost Bulma. I am lost to everything. I do not like to admit when I am wrong. It does no good to me either way, but I know when it is required. I can at least give you that much. I gave you unnecessary pain before you left Earth, and I… I am sorry for that."

Shock is my only emotion. I do not think I have ever heard him apologise before! I still cannot see him, but my mind is a muddle of confusion! What does he want from me? Doesn't he remember the brief moment we shared in silent apology at his quarters on Gleya? Doesn't he know that I'd forgive him anything so long as he held me close?

"Vegeta…"

"Be quiet!" he scolds. "I have not finished yet."

I let the affront slide. At the minute his words hold all the importance of the universe on them. At least that is what it feels to me. I hang on every one, knowing that openness like this from my husband is like manna, and I am not about to let a drop go by without my full and undivided attention.

"It was only at the last split second of consciousness that I saw things so clearly. There is nothing so truly damning as seeing your own insignificance at the jaws of death. No redemption that you think is not worth trying to grab hold of. I have died once. I thought I was going to die for a second time at the hands of Faylorn."

Oh god! He remembers!

"Do not fear, Bulma. Trunks is alive. I know it. My son…."

I can't hold back the tears any longer. They flood down my cheeks and hiccup in my throat.

"Our son is strong," he continues. "Faylorn made me a promise. He will not break it. He has too much honour. I do not know how much you know of him. Perhaps not much more than I do, but Faylorn and I are not so dissimilar. We both grew up in the shadows of our fathers. We were both destined for greatness, and from what I can remember of his species, we both suffered the same fate at the hands of Frieza, and since that time we have both done what we have in order to survive. His interest isn't in killing Trunks. His interest is in money. He is a bounty hunter. Someone paid him to take Trunks."

The breath catches in my lungs. How much more don't I know? All this time I had thought Faylorn was my enemy when he was nothing more than a hired hit man?

I want to reply to everything he has said. I want to wrap my arms around his chest and hold him tightly, but all I can feel is the soft wind as it ripples through where I need him.

The cold and loneliness I have felt for so long gives my limbs new energy. My arms ache with inaction as I push them against the ground to roll me over and see my husband. It is an inelegant movement, strangled with pain on my injured ribs, but in this case neither the execution nor the exertion matters. Being able to gaze on Vegeta and to glory in the fact that his mind is working as it should be is all I need. I have pined after his strength for so long now. His encouragement and unfailing pride is everything to me. His determination and iron-will is the elixir I have longed to take since the moment I left Earth.

He is on a precipice of rock, silhouetted against a gloomy night sky of blues and browns, looking out across a canyon of unbelievable proportions. His back is ramrod straight as his shoulders are pinned back with their usual pride and bearing. The wind grabs the tips of his hair and bends them slightly to its dictation. He hasn't seen that I am watching.

"Trunks is on Earth," I whisper.

I can see his body reflex compulsively at my words. He shakes once as he draws a deep breath into his lungs, and just as quickly as it appears, the emotion is thumped back down into the façade of stone.

"How do you know?"

"A locator chip. I implanted one when he was a toddler. You were training off planet at the time. Dad used it to track him. I called Earth while you were recovering and got him to reactivate it."

"Then you were in a better situation then than you are now, Onna."

I shake my head, "What are you talking about?"

"I…"

"Don't play about with me Vegeta! This isn't the time or the place. I need to speak to dad! He must have found Trunks' exact location by now! I need to…"

"It is pointless Bulma." He interrupts, "There is no way of contacting Earth."

I feel my freshly renewed security shatter.

"The space pod took too much damage on landing. Communications are down. I have already tried. The whole electrical system is fucked and there's no way for you to fix it. You aren't healed yet and at the minute it isn't even possible for you to set foot inside the space pod. The gravity controls have jammed, and I can't seem to switch off the main power. It's stuck on two hundred times Earths normal gravity. If I hadn't come to my senses quickly enough you would be dead now. I…" he pauses running a hand, flat over his face. "I would have killed you."

"Don't even think it Vegeta!" I scold; trying desperately to block out the bleakness his speech has presented me with, and the pain that rips though my chest as I speak. "I chose to come with you. Everyone tried to stop me, but I wouldn't listen. I knew that I'd be in danger when you woke up, but you know what?"

He turns to face me, his eyes widening when they meet with mine over the fires' flames.

"I love you," I smile. "I wouldn't be anywhere else."

He bows his head and shakes it slowly. After a pause he stoops down, scooping something off the floor, and walking closer he crouches down in front of me, holding it out for me to take.

"I thought you'd probably want a change of clothes," he says. "I know how much importance you humans place on modesty, and although I have no objection to seeing you half naked I thought you might."

I blush, looking down to see that the clothes I was wearing are now practically non-existent. I look up, making solid eye contact and wink once, "I'd never mind you looking."

"Good," he says, his eyes burning into mine. "Because I had to cut away a lot of your garments to ascertain the extent of your injuries." A rare smile passes his lips, "I liked the Jiggly Puff underwear - precisely what every bitched up businesswoman should wear."

I groan, the blush burning my cheeks, deepening. "They were a Christmas present from mum."

He snorts once, turning away and sitting on the exposed rock in front of me. "A likely story."

"It's the truth hentai no Ouji! What else did you 'look' at while you were down there? You…." The breath is taken from my lungs. Shouting in that manner made me move and cause a sharp pain to cascade through my lungs. I scream out with the pain, closing my eyes tight to try and blank it out.

After a moment there is warmth on my cheek and at first (through the pain) I mistake it for my tears, but as I lean into the sensation I realize it's something much more suited to giving me comfort - gloved fingertips. A thumb runs coaxingly across my jaw. "Focus on me Bulma."

The oxygen shudders in my lungs as I try to do as he asks.

"Open your eyes… look at me," he continues.

I grit my teeth, forcing my eyes open. I can see his face, distorted by my tears. It is so close to mine, those wonderful eyes piercing me with their energy. Then they are closer, his lips searching out mine.

Through the strain, pain and tears I push against them, letting his mouth break through the discomfort and lend me a reprieve. The tears fall for a different reason as he tangles his hand in my hair. I have thought about this feeling, dreamt it for weeks, at times repeating it over and despairing in the sickening nightmare that I might never experience it again.

The kiss ends and he rests his forehead on mine, his hands now moving gently up and down the side of my neck. "That's good… keep that focus," he says when my breathing calms. "I need to go back to the ship for more medical supplies. Focus and wait here for me."

He gets up and makes it three strides before I call him back, resolutely shaking my head, "No Vegeta! Don't leave me."

His lip curls in a snarl, "Don't argue with me!"

I am taken aback. I know I shouldn't be surprised at his bluntness, but I… I can't help it. My emotions are torn to shreds. "Don't you dare speak to me like that! I'm not a fucking child!"

"Then stop acting like one!"

I grind my forehead on the rock, willing my temper away. I'm fucking this up! "Asshole!" I mumble, but with a slight breathy chuckle to let him know my retraction. It hurts to breath and I wince.

"As always," he concedes with a shrug of the shoulders, acknowledging the truce.

"I still don't want you to go."

He rolls his eyes.

"Don't worry." I continue, "There's no need to. Go in my bag and find my capsule case for me would you."

He stalls for a moment. Perhaps he thinks it's below his pride to do so. I glare at him. His bares his canines at me. We stay this way for over a minute, but eventually I win and he grudgingly does as I request.

"Now what!"

"Open it. Take out the green one, and uncapsulate it."

"What's in it?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

"Onna, I need to know how much space it takes up."

"There's plenty of room, Baka, now hurry up!"

With a look that could melt iron, he presses the top and lets the capsule explode. When the dust settles there is nothing more than a black silk bag lying on the floor, no bigger than a purse. "Pass it over."

Seemingly disgusted, Vegeta sticks the tip of one of his boots under it and kicks it in my direction, throwing a good shower of grit over my face as well. Ugh! Now he's smirking. He is so going to pay for that! He has turned his back to me as I open it, trying not to let his curiosity show, but I know he can still see. His head is tilted, and his eyebrow is hiked for heightened peripheral vision.

Proudly I claim my prize and hold it up high enough for him to see.

"Bitch!" he snarls, instantaneously spinning on the spot. "You stole them from me!"

"Borrowed," I correct, putting the senzu in my mouth and crunching it into a suitable state to be swallowed.

"Borrowed would imply asking for permission first. You didn't do that. You knew I'd want to know why you were taking them and so you went behind my back and took them instead. Witch!" he spits. "If it wasn't such a deviously underhanded, and low thing to do I would be pissed at you…."

I miss half of his curses on me. All I can focus on is the warm and intoxicating spread of tingling sensations that rocket through my body as the senzu takes effect. I can feel all the torn skin, all the damaged areas, and all the breaks knitting together under the blissful spell of its power. Amazing! I can feel it bringing a flush to my cheeks as the energy literally pours back into my body.

Under the new influence I tentatively get to my feet, stretching my body out, and testing its newly healed frame. In way of a test I jump gently up and down, making sure that I'm completely one hundred percent recovered. I look evilly up to Vegeta, a wide smile on my lips. "Looks like I'm all better."

"Good!" he says, circling me cautiously and upbraiding me with his eyes. "Then you are well enough to answer questions I purposefully refrained from asking you before in your weakened state!"

There is real fire and purpose in his features as he stares at me. "First off, how long ago was my fight with Faylorn?"

"I have no idea… how long have I been unconscious for?"

"Two days."

"Wow! Two days… that long?"

My mind can hardly digest it. I knew it had been a while, but I was thinking hours, not days!

"Yes… now answer me!"

"Um…well… it was a week on Gleya… one day on the spaceship. That would mean, with the time I've been unconscious, its about ten days."

His eyes widen just a fraction, "I didn't realize it was that long. Why the fuck didn't you use a senzu on me? I could have been healed days ago and we wouldn't be stuck on this hell hole planet!"

"You have to be semi-conscious, otherwise you'd choke on it. Besides… you were already in the regen tank by the time Rian found me. I was high on some stray gas as well. That didn't help… and well…. I didn't want anyone finding out about them. I don't think Korin would thank me if hundreds of alien fighters and scientists turned up at his tower demanding senzu."

"I'm sure you could have found some way." He says with only slight bitterness, "We're completely fucking stranded here." He looks out over the cliff. "Which nicely leads me to asking… what the fuck are we doing here in the first place, and where the hell is here any way?"

"You mean you've been here for two days and don't know?"

"The computer is only telling me two things at the minute. Jack and shit! It listed this as the final destination, but all it gave were coordinates that mean absolutely nothing to me. Not a name."

"It's called Mantion." I curl my lip in preparation for the next part of my speech, "Master Suh, suggested that it was safer for you to wake up on a deserted planet, and this was the closest to Gleya with a breathable atmosphere."

"Mantion?" he questions, his brow furrowed in thought.

"Yes."

"The name is familiar to me. I just can't think where I've heard it before."

"Rian said it once belonged to Frieza."

"No doubt I heard it mentioned from the lizard freak at some point then," he replies, but his eyes are now directly on me, studying me carefully. "Who is this Rian you keep referring to?"

I blush slightly, "A friend I made on Gleya. You'd probably know him as Commander Teash."

He frowns deeply, his jaw clenching slightly.

I test a little theory. "He's been very attentive to me. Helped me out a lot setting up Capsule Corp on Gleya. We became pretty good friends. He has vast experience in engineering and helped me…."

"Enough!" he shouts. "The Commander is a weak fool who can't think above the waist. Let me hear no more of his supposed qualities."

I chuckle at his expense, as he has done at mine several times. "Oh come on Vegeta. I'm only winding you up."

He harrumphs and scowls.

"But… where on earth did you hear that he has a problem keeping his trousers on?"

"Master Suh," he admits. Is that a slight shade of red tinting his cheeks? "She is a great gatherer of gossip, and gossip with astounding accuracy as well."

I snort, "I doubt you'll find her accurate on Rian. The last time I spoke to her she said she was going to break his neck."

At this, Vegeta bursts out in resounding peels of cruel laughter.

"It's not funny, Vegeta!" I shout, my tolerance for the lady in question, marginal at best. "I don't trust her."

Vegeta sobers, laying a hand firmly on my shoulder. "As well you shouldn't Bulma."

"What do you mean? Have you got reason to think she's dangerous? Do you know for certain… I."

"Don't get carried away," he snaps, "Yes. I have every reason to consider her dangerous. She taught me dangerous. You should not put your trust in anyone in this universe. Everyone is out to get you. That is the harsh reality. I no more trust your Commander than you do Maek Suh. We shall not put our trust in either, we will watch their actions and we will decide what is best to be done with the information we are given at the time. At least in that we will have no cause to regret our actions."

"You precious teacher is headed to Earth right now. What do you make of that information?"

His hand clenches tightly on my shoulder. "Why?"

"She thinks Faylorn is there?"

His fist relaxes.

"And what about the Commander. Where is he?"

"He's still on Gleya."

He spins me around, holding me firmly by the shoulders, holding my vision captive. "Doing what?" he demands.

"I don't know."

His lip sneers into a frown. "My point exactly. Have the Z senshi been warned that Maek Suh is coming?"

"No," I reply, "I didn't get a chance to."

He looks me up and down once. "Are you able to walk?"

"Yeah, but…"

I don't get the chance to say anymore. At once his grip on my shoulders has lowered, and grabbing me by the wrist he is now marching me along a narrow pathway that precariously circles the canyon. "Then we have to get started on repairing the ship right away!"

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A/N - Whoa… that was a longer than average chapter, but there had to be a lot sorted out in it. I apologize to those who might have wanted lemon in this chapter. There is some coming soon I promise, but there was just no room for it in this scene. Sorry!

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who reviewed or emailed me after the last chapter. As you can imagine it was a close call between Vegeta and Bulma. Too close…. So I decided to stick with Bulma for one more chapter. Vegeta's POV will be coming up soon, but I want to say a special thank you to Debido for suggesting Piccolo as a candidate on Earth.

I love the idea and think it might actually work. I've wanted to do a chapter on Earth for a while, but haven't been sure who would be the best character to follow. That was why I suggested Master Suh as a possibility. I had, had thoughts of Trunks, but he's only five years old. If he's anything like my six-year-old daughter then his thought pattern is all over the place. I don't think I have the skill to realistically pull off a whole chapter as him. Piccolo though… Piccolo is an intriguing prospect and fits in with my plans for the story. We'll have to see… *hugs* Ember