Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ FROM BAD TO WORSE... ❯ Separated Souls ( Chapter 7 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

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Last Chapter: Vegeta and Bulma share their fist kiss but it doesn't look as if
the romance will ever have a chance as Yamcha turns to the Briefs with the truth
about the Saiyans past. Bulma's father explodes and confronts Vegeta.
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FROM BAD TO WORSE...
Chapter Seven

Retreating to opposite corners of the compound, Bulma and Yamcha agreed on
an unspoken time-out while they grappled with their anger. Yamcha couldn't
comprehend the woman's stubbornness over the situation. He had just told her
parents what Vegeta was all about, nothing more or less (although he did have to
add some embellishments when the details were spotty to lend his words more
impact, of course. Nothing too serious). By having Bulma's parents on his side
he figured the woman would have seen reason by now but after every argument she
only became more adversarial. He was actually beginning to have the first
stirrings of doubt over what he had done. Up until now, her ability to fathom
out a person's hidden personality had been faultless. She had opened her heart
to him practically from day one even though he had tried to rob her when they
had first met. Was it possible that talent had seen something in Vegeta? Was it
even possible?

Grappling with hot bitter tears, Bulma sat in the grass beside one of the
storage capsules on the property keeping vigil over the gravity simulator.
Yamcha had told her that he had seen Vegeta slip inside earlier this morning but
he wasn't there now. She didn't know what to make of his absence but she hoped
that she could diffuse this tense situation before he came back. Unfortunately,
things only appeared to be escalating and she had never seen her father so livid
in all of her life.

"How could you, Yamcha?" she whimpered, sobbing into her hands.

The embittered fighter had cornered Dr. Briefs on his way into work and
had asked to speak to him and his wife in private. What followed had been a two-
hour lecture on the evil ways of the corrupted Saiyan race and the devastation
that Vegeta had personally inflicted onto a terrified galaxy while working for
Frieza. Yamcha had also seen fit to give an accurate account of their first
confrontation on Earth, up until he had died by Nappa's hand that is. The Namek
tale was the worst. Since he had been dead during the entire Namek situation, he
had made inaccurate embellishments that had relied on biased heresy from the
others. None of it had painted Vegeta in a flattering light.

>>>>>
Bulma had been entirely caught off guard when her father had cornered her
in her office. She had been studying the blueprints Vegeta had drawn just for
her, unable to stop her mystified smile. She was reliving the tender kiss they
had shared earlier when her father stormed into the room, seized the plans out
of her hands and ripped them in half.

"DAD! What're you doing?" she shrieked, diving for the tattered pieces as
he threw them to the floor.

He closed the door and turned on her, his blue eyes practically swimming
in tears behind his thick glasses. "Why didn't you tell us?" he asked in a harsh
voice.

"What's wrong with you, dad? Vegeta gave me those blueprints this morning
as a gift. Why did you-"

"Enough about Vegeta!" he shouted at her. "Yamcha just told me everything
that he's ever done. He's a butcher and you knowingly invited him into my house
without telling me! How could you betray my trust like that, Bulma?"

Seeing that incomprehensible rage in her father's face, Bulma could only
stammer in confusion. One word penetrated her shock. "Yamcha? We had a fight
earlier in the park. He went running to you, didn't he? What did he tell you?"

"He told me what you neglected to. All of the worlds that killer invaded,
entire populations of innocent people slaughtered-"

"Dad, Vegeta worked for Frieza. He had no choice! He-"

"He enjoyed it," Dr. Briefs snapped back. "Don't try to gloss over the
truth. You're incapable of being rational where that alien is concerned. I see
that now. Thank god that Yamcha set us straight!"

"Yamcha doesn't even know Vegeta! He hates him-"

"With good reason. Yamcha died because of him."

"It was Nappa! Nappa and his Saibamen-"

"Nappa took orders from Vegeta," Dr. Briefs growled. He was getting
angrier by the minute instead of the other way around. Bulma had no choice but
to try and wait him out so that he would calm down before making another attempt
at reasoning with him. "I know everything, Bulma, and when I see that Saiyan he
and I are going to have words."

She didn't like the sound of that. "What-what are you going to say to
him?"

Moving towards the door Dr. Briefs fixed her with a solemn look. "You
shouldn't have become attached to him. It ends now," he said and left her
office.

"Dad- NO!" she screamed after him, rushing out into the corridor. The day
staff had begun curiously collecting around their doorways and now scrambled
back inside their labs as the puzzling conflict moved out of the office. "Leave
him alone!"

"He is no longer your concern. The two of you are off-limits from this
moment on, Bulma," he said without turning around.

"Damn it! You can't do that!" she yelled after him.

Just before rounding the corner, her father fixed her with a look that
brought her to an abrupt halt, her words dying in her throat.

"Daughter, it is done," he told her and ascended the stairs to leave.

>>>>>
Wiping her eyes on her sleeve, Bulma cast an anxious glance at the
simulator, waiting in dread for Vegeta's return. She had no idea how the man
would respond once the accusations started to fly. Fight or flight? It all
depended on his mood and he had been so tense lately from his set backs during
his training. She wanted to ensure that she got to him first to warn him of what
to expect. He wouldn't blame her, she knew this instinctively, but he might just
retaliate against someone else if she didn't calm him down. Right now, she
absolutely loathed Yamcha but that didn't mean she wanted his murder on her
conscience (at least she kept trying to convince herself of that).

"Speak of the devil," she muttered as Yamcha came into view, coming around
the main building obviously ready for round two. Gathering her strained
resources for another face-off, Bulma got to her feet even though her throat
hurt and her head was aching fiercely.

The pair was about to fly into one another again when someone called out
her name. Turning in surprise she saw Charles running towards her waving a paper
urgently. "Bulma!"

Dismissing Yamcha, she waited for the scientist to come up to her. His
face was flushed but it clearly wasn't from the sprint. He was visibly upset,
shoving the wrinkled paper into Bulma's hands. "I just printed this off. It was
transferred over all of our desktops not five minutes ago. The entire department
is in an uproar. What the hell is going on?!"

Suppressing a shiver, Bulma read the terse memo, her features paling in
shock.

Attention to all department heads and staff
dedicated to the current communication chip
prototype study and development. All research
is to be abandoned immediately. All data and
relevant documentation are to be destroyed
with no copies or back-ups to exist. This
applies to everyone without exception.
-Dr. Briefs, President

"Oh no," Bulma said in an unsteady voice. The paper fluttered from her
numb fingers and Yamcha snatched it up before it hit the ground. He read it with
an expression of irritation, nothing more.

"You're the department head. What do we do?" Charles pleaded. He was
practically in tears over the thought of seeing the project destroyed. "No one
can talk to your father. He came downstairs barely a half-hour ago and has
locked himself in his office. What the hell is going on, Bulma?"

"Let-let me think for a minute," she said distractedly, pacing in a tight
circle as her mind raced. "Charles, tell everyone to do as dad ordered-"

Charles' eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. "Bulma!"

"-But have back-ups made of everything. Just tell them to keep quiet on
it. This is all just one big misunderstanding. It'll blow over soon."

"I sure hope so. I'll get right on it," the younger man said quickly and
raced back downstairs before one byte of precious data could be irretrievably
lost.

Bulma began to follow after him until Yamcha grabbed her arm. "Not so
fast. We still have this issue of Vegeta to settle first!"

Wrenching her arm free, Bulma pushed the burly fighter backwards as she
exploded, "You dumb shit! This IS about Vegeta! He was working for dad and now
thanks to your bullshit all of his hard work is going to be destroyed! I HATE
YOU!"

Yamcha was left blinking in astonishment, trying to come up with a defense
but Bulma had wasted enough time on him. Running into the headquarters building,
she could hear the commotion even before she reached the doors to the Research
and Development labs. Her father had come out of his office and was trying to
restore some semblance of order to his staff.

"-Please everyone, try to calm down," the old man said in a loud voice. "I
just can't get into the details of the situation at this time. I only expect
that my request will be followed to the letter."

"What about the competitive bids that have already come in for the
development of this project?" one technician called out, obviously outraged.
"Are you seriously going to turn down their offers?"

"I'm going to have to. The blueprints of the communications chip were
based on false pretences. I cannot, in good conscience, use them here, " Dr.
Briefs spoke slowly.

Going over to where Bulma was standing, Charles looked at her pale,
disbelieving face and suddenly called out over the crowd, "What about the
designer? Vegeta? What's he got to say about all of this?"

The staff quieted down, waiting expectantly for an answer. Finding his
daughter's eyes and holding them in a withering glare, Dr. Briefs stated firmly,
"Earlier this afternoon, Mr. Vegeta was informed of his termination of
employment with Capsule Corp. He is no longer a desired employee of this
company."

Yamcha had been coming down the stairs when he heard that harsh statement
reverberate along the corridor. His blood went cold in shock, unable to believe
how things could have gone downhill so quickly. All that he had wanted to do was
to make Bulma see Vegeta for what he truly was. It was now dawning on him that
he should have taken more time to figure out WHO the Saiyan was first.

There was a stunned silence following that announcement before the staff
started in louder than before, demanding an explanation. Yamcha's stomach did a
lazy roll when Bulma burst through the doors, her face streaked with tears. The
two met eyes and he was unable to hold his own to her livid, accusing stare. He
wordlessly stepped aside and made no attempt to follow her as she went upstairs
to the living area of the building.

Bulma found her mother still sitting in the living room, mutilating the
remains of her tea towel in her nervous hands. She had recently been crying and
when she saw her daughter enter the room, she burst into noisy tears again. "Oh!
Buh-Bulma! It's awful!" she wailed in near-hysterics.

Embracing her awkwardly, Bulma waited for the torrent to pass before
asking, "I need to talk to Vegeta, mom. Have you seen him?"

"He went straight to his room after your father fired him," the blond
sniffed. "Oh, he looked sooo hurt, Bulma! I've never seen him look that way
before. None of this is true, is it, dear? I just can't believe it!"

Leaving her side, Bulma raced up the freestanding staircase and jogged
along the balcony that over-looked the living area. Skidding to a halt in front
of Vegeta's quarters she found the door to his room unlocked and partially ajar.
Her dread was intensifying and she had to force herself to step inside.

She saw the truth the instant she looked at the closet and saw only bare
hangers there. All of the drawers had been cleaned out of their belongings (what
pitifully few Vegeta possessed anyway). The bathroom was empty of any
necessities. Grappling with the reality of the situation, Bulma rushed to the
open window as if half-expecting to catch sight of him or the scar of afterburn
from his retreat. She saw neither.

"!!VEGETA!!" she screamed with all of the pain from her heart and soul,
her throat straining from the effort. Standing below were several employees who
were trying to puzzle out the scene in the downstairs lab. They whirled at the
sound of that cry, never having heard such piercing sorrow from another human
being in all of their lives.

Holding her breath expectantly, Bulma practically willed her racing heart
to slow as she waited for some manner of response in her mind or soul where she
prayed Vegeta had left some minuscule portion of himself. There was no sense of
reaction. Her call echoed flatly off of the buildings and went unanswered and
she could not muster the strength for another. Speeding a desperate course away
from Capsule Corp. Vegeta was trying to escape from people who now viewed him as
utterly loathsome. He was alone and defenseless against a world he was ill
prepared to handle. Leaving her behind and all of the things she had so freely
wanted to share in their pitifully short time together.

All at once the strength went out of her legs and she sank bonelessly to
the floor, her small frame wracked by grieving sobs. Realization fell on her
like a shroud and she could not deny the truth.

She was alone now, too.

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