Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Genesis ❯ Chapter 8

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

Chapter 8


Bulma watched as Calista sat down at the head of the long, gleaming table, her brown hair shining beautifully in the light. Bulma adjusted her pale yellow skirt as she waited for Calista to speak. It had turned out that her search for clothes was pointless, she found a set lying on her bed when she returned to her room, still angry with Vegeta and even angrier with herself for helping him. At least the clothes were nice. A long pale yellow skirt with a matching tank top. It was something she would have worn to the beach at night. And they didn't smell like Vegeta, which was her favorite part.

The men had all been outfitted too. They all had pants like Mr. Popo wore and plain shirts. She didn't want to tell them, but they looked pretty funny in those pants. Especially Vegeta. She stifled a giggle behind her hand as she tried to pay attention to Calista.

"Thank you for joining me. I hope you are all well-rested." Bulma nodded and smiled. She really liked Calista; she seemed so trustworthy and honest. "Please, eat. I had the cooks prepare a special dinner. Not only do I get to dine with my old friend, but with visiting royalty as well. Tell me Prince Vegeta, how do you find your accommodations?" she looked at Vegeta with a look Bulma couldn't read.

::Prince?:: Bulma thought as she glanced at Vegeta.

"I find them adequate." He answered, concentrating on his food. Calista smiled good-naturedly and proceeded to talk to Kami. When the meal was finished, Kami took a deep breath before addressing them all.

"We need to think of exactly what we will do now. I have talked to Calista about supplies, that is taken care of. We have also been monitoring the radio frequencies to learn of Frieza's activities. So far we have not heard anything. "

"Frieza will most likely be at his base on TL-34. If anything, he's predictable. However, I do not want to go in there without a concrete plan and definitely not without training." Vegeta said.

"We cannot waste the time it will take to train. The longer Goku remains there, the worse his chances of surviving become." Kami said, glancing nervously at Gohan as he said the last words. Gohan looked at Kami. It was obvious that he was no longer the boy he was when Piccolo had taken him.

"No. I agree with Vegeta. I don't want to fight Frieza without making sure I'm as strong as I can be. If we go in there without doing that, Goku doesn't have a chance."

"But the time it will take-"

"If I may Kami." Calista said, cutting him off. "We have something here that I believe might be of great use to you all. It's a place where you can live out an entire year on one day's time."

"What?" Vegeta said, suddenly showing more interest than he had all trip.

"We call it the room of spirit and time. It is a place where our warriors go and train to gain great strength and great knowledge of themselves."

"Of course! Mr. Popo build one on the lookout, we called it the hyperbolic time chamber. I had completely forgotten." Kami said.

"Yes well whatever you want to call it, it will help you all a great deal."

"Perfect. I will use this room for a week. It should be more than enough time to train." Vegeta said.

"Actually, I can only give you two days."

"What? Why?"

"If you stay in the room for longer than two days, the door disappears and you will never be able to come back." Vegeta looked irrupted.

"So do we each get two days?" Krillin asked.

"No. There is more than enough space for the four of you in there at once. That way you will each train, but no lose any time getting to Goku." Calista looked pleased with herself. Gohan was beaming at her with a smile brighter than a star and Krillin looked pretty excited himself.

"Is there enough room for five in there?" Bulma asked. Piccolo looked at her like she was crazy and Vegeta just scowled.

"Why Bulma? You can't fight." Krillin said, flinching away from her glare.

"I know that. But I was going through those journals before dinner and I found some of the papers that Dr. Gero wrote. One paper in there was about how he believed that broadcasting mathematical formulas on a digital frequency into space would ensure contact with another life form The other was on artificial synaptic neural controls and their application. Basically, Dr. Gero was talking about combining computers with human cells to create some kind of android."

"You think that's what Frieza wants?"

"I don't know Gohan but it might be. Luckily the paper is very detailed, complete with formulas and diagrams. If I study the paper and follow the formulas, I think I can build something that will counteract the androids. I think even if I don't come up with something exact, it'll be close enough that it will take just a little revamping to make it perfect. But I can't do it in two days. I'll need more time."

"There is enough space for five." Calista said, smiling at her. "And we can get whatever materials you think you'll need."

"I'd appreciate that, thank you."

"Why even bother? I will defeat Frieza and whatever that crackpot doctor can throw at me. It's a complete waste of time, woman. You should just stay out here so you won't bother us when we're training. Sit by the water or do whatever it is you lazy humans do in your spare time."

"You are such a jerk Vegeta! I don't care what you say, I'm going in that room and that's final!" she was still angry with him for what happened earlier and she let it get the best of her.

"Fine, waste your time. See if I care. Just stay out of my way."

"Believe me, I won't be going out of the way to run into your sorry ass anyway! What I should do is work on something that will shrink the size of your ego, but I guess when you're as short as you are you need something that makes you feel bigger."

"Your clever wit astounds me woman. I think you may have wounded me with your amazing banter." Vegeta sneered sarcastically.

"Stop it! Both of you! Bulma, you will go in the room with them. I will remain out here and make sure we get all the supplies we need for our journey and also try to learn more about Frieza's activities around the universe."

"It's settled then. I'll provide you all with everything you need to train, or in your case Bulma, to work. You will enter the room at dawn tomorrow. I'll have my servants wake you and lead you to the room when the time is right. For now, get some rest. And you two knock it off. I won't tolerate your bickering in my palace." Calista stood and swept from the room, Kami close behind her. Vegeta just smirked victoriously at Bulma; he had had the last word. She glared at him and glanced quickly around before mouthing:

"Asshole." Vegeta's smirked widened. So she wanted to continue their little game? He had to admit rousing her anger was almost as much fun as pounding Kakarot into the ground. Besides, he had nothing else to do until tomorrow morning anyway, not with his broken ribs. Luckily, they should be healed by then, thanks to his Saiyan anatomy.

"Bitch." He mouthed back. No one else seemed to notice Bulma's ears turn a rather interesting shade of crimson as she glared at the obnoxious prince. The others were all too busy discussing the hyperbolic time chamber. By now, Bulma was so angry with Vegeta she was envisioning ways to remove his head from his body. But she would be damned if he had the last word again; it would only make him feel more superior. And she felt he needed to be brought back down to reality. She'd show him.

"Fuck you Vegeta." She mouthed, sparks shooting from her eyes. He could barely contain his laugh. Had she really left herself wide open like that? He could ignore it, but the look on her face would be priceless.

"Promise?" he mouthed, his eyes cold and amused all at once. Bulma's eyes went wide with horror and rage, and her body began to shake.

::I can't believe I was that stupid! That asshole! He was bating me the whole time!:: she thought. She was so mad she didn't think she could sit still. She needed to break something, if she was stronger, it would have been the Saiyan Prince himself. She snatched her napkin off her lap and threw it at the table like a fast pitch. Standing, she met Vegeta's eyes for one more final death glare, trying to convey all the various decapitations and horrible deaths by flesh-eating virus she wished upon him before leaving the dining room in a huff.

"What got into her?" Krillin asked. Gohan just shook his head, giving Krillin a perfect recreation of Goku's semi-clueless expression. Vegeta contained a smile and went back to consuming his meal.




Calista and Kami walked silently across the beach, now bleached red from the diminishing sun. A cool breeze came off the ocean, bring with it the scent of clean saline and the promise of open adventure. Calista's hair stirred softly, blowing around her warm eyes and wise expression. As they walked they could see two figures lying in the surf, laughter flittering on the breeze the rose petals on the wind. The couple stood and ran hand in hand down the beach, right toward Kami and Calista, and obviously very unaware that they were no longer alone. They froze when they saw the two other people, and Kami immediately recognized them as two of the servants from the palace.

"M'Lady." The young man said, glancing nervously at his queen. The woman smoothed her hair back behind her ear apprehensively.

"And what do you two think you're doing?" Calista said, her expression stern, but Kami could see the glint in her eyes.

"Please, let us explain. You see we had finished our duties early and so we-"

"Enough." She looked pointedly at each of them before her stern expression dissolved into a smile. "Go on, get out of here you two." She said, laughing.

"Are we in trouble?" the girl asked.

"No. Just let someone know you're taking off early next time ok?"

"Yes ma'am!" the young man said, grabbing his companion's hand and heading toward an outcropping of rocks.

"Thank you!" the girl cried as she ran after her lover. Calista shook her head as she chuckled, continuing her stroll down the now purple beach.

"Kids." She laughed.

"Yes." Kami said. "I often wonder what would have happened had I stayed here."

"It wasn't your fate to stay here. But...I sometimes that myself. I wonder what would have happened between us had you stayed."

"I have thought of that myself...many times." He said softly, glancing over at her. She smiled coyly, gazing at him out of the corner of her eye. "But I know that it was for the best that I left. I also know that I could have never made you happy, considering my...inadequacies."

"I was saddened by our inability to express our feelings physically, but there are other ways to say I love you. Just as there are many types of love."

"It was not meant to be."

"No, it wasn't." they had stopped walking sometime during the conversation and now stared at each other under the light of the moon.

"Are you happy?'

"I have found happiness in my fate, as I'm certain you have found in yours. I can't complain anyway, I'm pushing 400, my children will be coming back from learning the ways of the Goddess soon, my daughter will rule in my place after I've gone and my planet is at peace. But all of that doesn't mean that I haven't missed you." She said, touching his arm softly. He smiled as a small flush came to his cheeks. Reaching his hand up, he pushed a strand of hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear before turning to continue their walk.

"And you Kami? How have you been? You are missing the great darkness that plagued you for so long. That darkness, I assume, is Piccolo?"

"In a way. In order to be a proper Guardian I expelled all the evil in my heart into another being, that being was King Piccolo. After he was defeated by Goku, he expelled another version of himself, that being became the Piccolo you see today."

"You worry about him."

"I worry about him as any parent would worry about his offspring, if that is what you can call our connection. I worry that he will succumb to the darkness that once haunted my own heart."

"I think you can. He's a part of you, I don't think you can get much closer to parent-child than that. And I also think that the evil in Piccolo is subsiding. I can see love in his eyes when he looks at the boy Gohan."

"Gohan seems to have softened Piccolo's heart."

"Children have that effect on people sometimes." Kami laughed.

"It is not Piccolo that worries me, however. It is Vegeta. I do not think trusting him in this mission is a wise decision."

"I'm not going to lie to you, Kami. I know what type of man Vegeta is. I know what he's done in his past. And under any other circumstances I would not help him gain strength, he goes against the ways of our people and the teachings of the Goddess. However, I have been granted the privilege of seeing bits and pieces of Vegeta's fate. I don't know much, but I do know that he will never again be the man that landed on Earth.

"And besides. This universe has lived in fear of Frieza for far too long. If he can help to bring about an end to this then I willingly help him."

"I hope you are right." Kami said as they came in sight of the castle again. Their path had taken them in a circle. "There is one more thing I want to ask of you."

"Anything."

"Will you keep the woman Bulma here with you when we depart for space? I do not think she will be able to help on the mission, regardless of her intellect, and she may be killed when the fighting starts. I do not want to be responsible for another human death."

"Kami, you know as well as I do that Guardians watch. They do not interfere unless the circumstances prove dire. They are there to listen, to watch, to understand. They cannot make decisions for those they watch over, they can only attempt to guide in the right direction. Forcefully keeping Bulma here would break all those rules."

"I know that. But I have already done a great wrong in not stopping Frieza."

"And how would you have stopped him? Gotten on the ship, taken the controls and turned it around? That wouldn't have worked."

"Yes but-"

"Why did you take her in the first place? If she was just meant to sit here with me, then you could have let her die on the planet and wished her back with the dragonballs when the time was right, correct?"

"I suppose. I did not expect to see her on the battlefield, I could not just leave her to die."

"Then she was there for a reason. Yet again, fate. No, I think Bulma has a part to play in this yet. I know that many people view women as worthless because we may not be as strong as men or seemingly as brutal." His eyes widened, he looked almost hurt. "I'm not saying you, I'm saying in general. A matriarchal culture, Goddess worship, women being allowed to be as equals to men, it's not exactly commonplace in this universe, I know that. I know my planet is an exception. But I'm asking you, before you go and ask Bulma to stay here with me when the rest of you leave to realize that she has a power of her own. And if you don't see that, then at least acknowledge her role in the fate of your mission."

"I may be better off not bringing it up to her at all."

"After the way she laid into Vegeta at the table tonight, I think that's the wisest decision." Calista said, grinning at him humorously. Kami shook his head as they ascended the steps to the castle.