Chapter 3

7:48 pm

"Woman, stay here! Don't move for anything!"

That had been the last Bulma had seen of Vegeta for almost forty-five minutes now after the scream had sounded, and frankly she was worried. She'd expected to hear him yelling at the boys to get back to bed. A tinge of pity had swelled up for the boys because whatever they had done had gotten Vegeta after them. If it were a minor offense he would've gotten her out of bed to punish them.

Now, though, it was apparent that something was up. Even his tone of voice before he left, the wide-eyed look she'd seen when he'd bolted out of bed could not be ignored with the alarming passage of time. Bulma wanted to know what was going on, despite Vegeta's warning not to leave the room.

She was just rising out of bed when the door began to creak ominously open. She stilled instantly but let out the breath she had been holding when a purple-haired head peeked around the edge of the door.

Trunks took in one sight of his mother sitting on the edge of the bed and flew toward her, immediately flinging himself around her waist. More out of a motherly instinct, Bulma held her son as his shoulders shook with evident sobs. He stayed like that for many moments before his crying seemed to subside to sniffling and he rose off her chest to glance behind her, eyes slightly widened.

She was about to ask her son what exactly had happened when the person who had caught Trunks's attention stopped in the doorway and gave her such a piercing and dark stare she blanched.

Vegeta crossed the room to the wall just opposite the bed and folded his arms over his chest, glancing at the door while saying nothing to Bulma. Bulma stood, lifting Trunks up with her, who clung even tighter to her and made a whimpering sound that had her heart jumping to her throat. Walking over to Vegeta, she paused as the entrance of yet another man made itself known and turned toward the door, Trunks still cradled in her arms.

Ash stopped and sucked in a deep breath at the sight of the blue-haired woman, barely covered with a negligee, brow scrunched up in obvious irritation as she held the purple-haired boy. He almost didn't notice that the boy-Trunks? men's underwear?-had turned in his mother's grip and was staring at him with an unreadable expression in his blue eyes.

The woman's own blue eyes took in the gun in the man's hands, the lack of hand on one arm, and the messed-up appearance, as if he'd just been in a fight. She turned to Vegeta and took in his own appearance, which didn't look to have changed from when he had left. His eyes though…. Bulma again took a step toward him, disregarding the unknown man. "Vegeta?"

Vegeta shook his head silently, pushing himself off the wall and allowing his scowl to deepen as he locked gazes with Trunks, who seemed to find his presence more strengthening than the unknown man's. Vegeta's scowl was not born of any disappointment or anger, but rather worry. The sight of Goten…it had triggered the memory of that dream, and Vegeta was reliving every second of it. "Put the boy down, woman."

Bulma frowned and almost wanted to hold him tighter. The look in Vegeta's eyes…it was almost-anxious? She did as he said, finally convincing the reluctant boy to let go of her and face his father. Trunks looked up into two eyes that stared at him unflinchingly and flinched. "I didn't know! I swear! All we wanted to do was see the book-"

Trunks's eyes widened as Vegeta suddenly knelt in front of him, hushing him with a finger on his lips. He removed the finger and placed the hand on the boy's head, tuning out the silently watching Bulma and Ash as he furrowed his brow and got the information he needed.

Bulma moved slightly, alarmed as both Trunks and Vegeta's eyes rolled to the back of their heads. Vegeta's eyes snapped open and his arms caught Trunks as the boy fell into them, breathing as evenly as if he was just napping.

Vegeta confirmed this when he rose up and handed the boy to her, "He's sleeping."

Bulma cradled him, pushing back those stubborn strands of hair that clung to his tear-stained and troubled face. Whatever he'd seen, Bulma knew he was much too young to have seen it. She raised her eyes back to Vegeta, mouth set in a straight line. Whoever had done this to her son would pay.

He nodded approvingly at her look, "Let's take him downstairs to the kitchen. We'll discuss this there."

Ash decided to break in there, "Listen, I hate to say it, but we need to know what the boy saw. I came in late to the show so I didn't see who said the words or where the book is. I didn't see it when I was down there."

Vegeta put a hand on Bulma's arm, stilling her before she lashed out at the man. "I know what he knows. I will explain once we are downstairs. Now let's stop stalling and go!"

Ash nodded obediently, noting the irritated tone of voice the last sentence had taken. He had many questions for these people, but they probably had many for him. He stepped out of the way and let the man lead, following behind the woman, who gave him a curious look before going in front of him. What? A man couldn't show a little chivalry? He had been back in medieval times.

Bulma settled Trunks on the counter after Vegeta had placed a few cushions off the chair on it as a mock-bed and pillow. Bulma frowned as she turned from the sleeping boy to the two men, one who didn't look to be comfortable sitting before anyone else, and the other who probably wasn't going to be sitting if that sour look on his face was any indication.

"None of us are going to get anywhere with all this tension. Now, come out with the names." At the prolonged silence she put all her glare right at the newcomer, "Hey! What's- your-name?"

Ash blinked, so lost in the woman's beauty he hadn't heard her question. He gave her a smile that melted women's hearts, "Ashley J. Williams. And yours, beautiful?"

Bulma rolled her eyes. Well, that certainly hadn't loosened the tension. In fact, it was quite heightened in the Saiyan's direction. "Bulma Briefs. And that is my husband, Prince Vegeta."

Ash followed the woman's motion to stare into black eyes that were stabbing into his with an intensity he could only gulp at. Okay. He'd never been looked at quite that way before. Of course, he usually wasn't stupid enough to go after another man's wife either. He really felt like slapping himself upside the head-with his metal hand.

What Bulma Briefs-was this family, obsessed with underwear?-had said clicked into his mind. "Prince?" He looked the man up and down, trying to let him know he was no longer interested in his wife. It reminded him acutely of that Leonard Skynard song-what was its name? Ah, Give Me Two Steps.

Vegeta tilted his head. "Prince of the Saiyans."

The confusion on Ash's face was comical, "Saiyans?" He held out a hand to forestall the man as he looked about to start into a speech. "Nevermind that. Right now I need to know what happened in there." He motioned to Bulma, "I'm sure she needs to know too."

Vegeta nodded, and shocked Bulma by sitting down. She too joined him by taking a seat next to him; Ash took one across from the pair. Vegeta looked at his audience and started.

"Trunks wanted to show Goten the book. He heard us talking about it before dinner. They found the door unlocked," he stalled Bulma before she could blurt out a denial, "I saw you lock it, woman. There was someone else already in the room. He was saying the words. The only thing Trunks saw was that the man had blonde hair. Trunks and Goten wanted to be heroes and both attacked him. He turned on them with a knife and-got Goten."

The significance of the pause was not lost on Bulma as she pressed her hand to her mouth in horror, staring blankly at the table as the last thing Vegeta had said tried to find purchase in her mind.

Ash made a sound and Vegeta turned to him with a raised hand, turning his attention back to the woman whose wide blue eyes were staring at the wood of the table as if it held answers. "Woman." When she did not answer him, he lightly touched her arm. Still there was no response except for a slight tremor underneath his hand, which suddenly gripped the arm sharply; drawing the distraught woman out of her thoughts so fast she almost fell off her chair.

Bulma's blue eyes swam with tears as she met Vegeta's eyes, which looked disturbed. "Woman, we can use the dragonballs."

While Ash wondered what a dragon's genitals had anything to do with anything, Bulma clung to the hope much as she had when other fighters and friends had died. Vegeta noted the changed look in his mate's eyes and continued, still holding onto her, "Trunks attacked the man," There seemed to be a note of pride at this, "But Goten-" His brow furrowed as he struggled to find some words that would not let out that he had seen that-thing before. "He got back up. He wasn't himself. It was as I had said. The book was one of Necromancy.

"Goten attacked Trunks and this man, Ash, came in and attacked Goten. Trunks's memory is shady there, up until I entered the room and told him to go up to you. We-" he indicated the other man, "put Goten to rest."

She nodded silently at Vegeta; blue eyes searching her husband's black ones and seeing that he was holding something back. She turned to Ash, vowing to find out what after they found out more about this book. "What is this book? Why are you here? And how do we get rid of the damned thing?"

Ash blinked as the woman's face took on an-almost feral light. Okay, he expected such a look from the man; and that was what he was getting, but the woman seemed too fragile for that, almost like Linda…. Ash shook his thoughts from his long-dead fiancée and turned to the matter at hand.

"Well, I suppose I should start with my story. That'll explain most of it. Me and five friends decided to take a little road trip. We ended up at an abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere. Everything was fine until we found the tape recorder and the book.

"We played it as a sort of joke and this guy named Professor Knowby came on talking of how he'd found the book and that it was a Syrian-no-Sumerian thing. We kept listening to it as it said the phonetic translations of the text. That's where everything went wrong.

"It was nothing major at first; a tree through the window, a lone voice, my sister insisting on leaving after saying the woods had attacked her. It escalated when we found the bridge we had come in on mangled, as if something huge had forced itself through the middle of it and bent back both sides.

"We had to go back to the cabin. I listened to the tape recorder a bit further ahead. Professor Knowby's wife had been possessed by," he waved a hand back toward the lab to indicate where Goten had been, "what he called a Kandarian demon. He said the only way they could be stopped was by bodily dismemberment, although," he nodded his head toward Vegeta, "you're way seemed less messy and more efficient."

Vegeta nodded his head, keeping eye contact with the man while holding his mate's arm, which changed to holding her hand as she shifted it. Ash noted this but did not comment, although the man's steely gaze was unnerving. He continued, "My sister was the first possessed. She injured my fiancée and made quite a mess before we tossed her in the cellar. Then we could only hang onto the hope that when morning came it would all be just a bad dream." He did not miss the slight twitch to Vegeta's eye and wondered at it.

"Slowly each of my friends was possessed. It came down to me, my possessed sister, and the other guy who had come with me, Gary, who was also possessed. I burned the book and they-decomposed." He again had to swallow bile at the thought of that pleasant memory.

"Burning the book didn't destroy the evil we had awakened. It came at me and possessed me." He glanced away at the thought of his momentary possession, so many bad memories. "I don't remember much that happened. It was like I was muted, pushed aside so something dark and unnamable could walk, talk, and basically use my body. It was the sun's light that brought me back and that in and of itself was painful."

He grinned with true humor and turned back to see the couple looking at him with understanding and maybe a bit of sympathy. "Well, with my luck, all the paths out of this Hell were blocked by the Evil so I was stuck there another night." He shook his head, not wanting to relive these experiences, but having no other choice. "It tried to drive me mad. It brought back my fiancée's body and she had managed to bite my hand before I-put her to rest." He silently thanked the silent man listening to his tale for the words.

He held up the missing appendage, watching as Bulma looked away and Vegeta merely glanced at it and back at him. "I kept it from killing me at least.

"I had some more company after that. It was Professor Knowby's daughter, Kim, and her boyfriend, along with two others that had led them through the forest, since they couldn't go by the bridge." He sighed, "To make a long story short; very short, it was revealed to us that we had to recite certain other passages, passages Kim had brought with her. They made the-thing become flesh and opened a hole in space and time, sucking it into it at a cost of everyone's life but mine. Everything would've been hunky-dory after that if it hadn't sucked me along with it."

He rolled his eyes, "So now I was stuck in the Dark Ages, trying to get back to my own time and kill Deadites along the way. I fought off a whole army of the things, along with my evil twin. We barely survived that." He lowered his eyes and shook his head, continuing.

"I was instructed to say three words and I would find myself back home, minus the Deadites. I royally," he grinned lopsidedly at Vegeta, "forgive the pun, messed up and said the words wrong." His brow furrowed in frustration, "I always forgot that last word. Anyway, I came back, returned to my job, now with the added task of taking care of walking-dead people, and basically tried to resume a normal life, which is tough when people think you're crazy. A few hours ago, the same portal that transported me to the Dark Ages showed up and deposited me here. I frankly have no idea why I'm here and I want to go home."

Vegeta snorted and looked off to the side. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't believe it. "So, what about this-physical manifestation of the evil? It wasn't able to be seen before it was this?"

Bulma got up suddenly, needing to do something while the men talked, "Do you guys want some hot tea?"

Ash blinked, "Sure." He turned back to the Prince, "It wasn't visible. But it was most definitely there. It was like a terror that would grip you in the gut, screaming for you to turn and run. It wasn't the kind of fear you might have of spiders," here Bulma shuddered, "or snakes. It was real…this thing wouldn't hurt you because it was protecting itself. It would hurt you because it could."

Vegeta watched his mate set the pot of water on the stove with an unsteady hand and met her eyes as she turned around. "We've had experience with that kind of trouble. Some of us more than others."

Bulma retook her seat, "Should we call ChiChi, maybe get Gohan involved?"

Vegeta shook his head, "No. We collect the dragonballs, find the book, get rid of this thing, and bring Goten back. Whoever did this will pay, and since they have the book I'll have all the more reason to look for them."

As Ash again tried to figure out what exactly the couple spoke of, Bulma shook her own head, "How are you going to find one blonde-haired man, Vegeta? It'll be like a needle in a haystack." She rose and retrieved the now whistling teakettle, which was setting Ash's nerves on edge.

She poured them all a drink and set it before them as Vegeta answered. "Trunks got a good hold on his ki signature. I'll be able to find him, but first I want to gather the dragonballs. Do you still have the dragonball radar?"

Bulma nodded and opened her mouth only to have the words trail off as she watched Ash, who had become bored, lift his handless arm and attach a metal hand to it. She grabbed the stunned man's arm, "Wow! Did you do this? This is incredible! I've never seen an alloy like this…. It's an antique, that's for sure. Say, I can make improvements on this thing; deck it out with all kinds of stuff!"

Ash stared wide-eyed at the woman who looked like a kid in a candy store, trying to retrieve his hand from the eager Bulma. Vegeta rolled his eyes, "Go get the dragonball radar, woman! That's more important than your fascination with his-hand."

Bulma pouted but moved to do as he said, leaving the two men to a silence Ash found slightly uncomfortable. "So, what was this about dragon balls and radars and keys? And what was with her?" He motioned in the direction of the departed Bulma.

Vegeta shrugged, "She's an inventor. She sees anything that works mechanically and goes nuts." The way he said it almost sounded as if he wasn't all that upset about it, rather liked it. "The dragonballs are seven magical orbs that when collected will grant a person almost any wish. In this case, bringing the boy that was possessed back. The radar is something the woman made when she was younger to find them. Ki is the latent energy in a person's body. Everyone has a certain amount of it, the higher it is; the stronger one is. A ki signature is-like a fingerprint. It is unique to an individual."

Ash blinked at the plethora of information and tired to soak it all in. "But why are they called dragonballs? They aren't-?"

He could've sworn the other man flushed as he answered in a voice louder than it had to be, "No! When collected certain words are said and a dragon comes forth. He's the one who grants the wishes."

Ash nodded, "Okay. I'm just going to take your word for it. Sounds more like a genie if you ask me."

Vegeta raised a brow and made as if to answer when a ringing sound echoed through the house. Vegeta turned to look toward the living room. "Phone." With no more words, he rose and exited the room.

Ash gave a vivid curse as he realized that not only did the girl leave the room alone, but now the man was gone too. Ash couldn't very well leave the boy snoozing on the counter by himself. He sighed and folded his arms on the table, leaning his chin down to rest on them. Well, he hadn't exactly gotten across the seriousness of the situation across to them. He only hoped everyone would be okay while they were separated.

Ash's ears perked up as the scream reached him. He started off on instinct and bit his lower lip. He couldn't leave the kid. He'd just have to hope Vegeta could get to her in time. The last two times he'd heard such a scream, it had been much too late to do anything but dismember.

* * *

Vegeta picked up the phone with a narrowed-eyed glare. "What is it?" His gruff voice was enough to make anyone on the other line think twice.

He heard a strange shuffling noise and some breathing before the line went dead. Not the dead of a dial tone, but the dead of a disconnected line. Vegeta pulled the phone from his ear and glared at it as he sat it back on the cradle.

Things were really starting to piss him off, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Obviously, the blonde-haired guy and whoever he might have working with or for him were not through. His now remembered dream and the strange feeling that this was going deeper than what could clearly be seen were conspiring to make his anger roil over and manifest itself in the form of destruction.

So, when Bulma's scream came like a siren over his sensitive ears, he wasted no time in flying toward the lab. Whoever had dared to touch his mate would feel the full extent of his rage.

He rushed into the lab with the blue shield of his ki wrapped around him and quickly took stock of a shrieking Bulma who was standing on her tiptoes on the chair behind her desk. When she saw him she was reduced to incoherent shrieks that Vegeta had quite a time blocking out.

"Stop that, woman! What's wrong?"

"OhVegetaitwasawfulIpickeduptheradarandtherewasaspideronitanditlookedat mewithitsbeadyeyesandwavedhislegsandohmyKamikillit!"

Somehow, possibly due to superior Saiyan hearing, Vegeta managed to decipher the rushed sentence and growled as he picked up the radar. Attached to it was a daddy longlegs that looked more scared of him than he was of it; much more scared.

Smirking, he held the radar as close to the woman as possible, watching her shriek and squirm back. "Why in the world are you afraid of this little thing? It's not even poisonous." He transferred the spider from the radar to his hand and presented a truly scary sight, evilly grinning at Bulma from the corner of his eyes as the spider crawled gracefully in slow inches on his open-palmed glove.

Bulma put on a great show of shrinking back and whimpering, making a comic scene of fright that had Vegeta sneering.

Vegeta finally tired of the game and flung the bug out the hole that was where the wall had been. "Come on, coward, you shouldn't be alone. Someone just disconnected the phones."

Bulma immediately forgot about the spider with this new info. Out of sight, out of mind. "Disconnected? You mean, someone is here, right now?"

He nodded, "I suspect it's that blonde-haired man with whoever he has working for him." He allowed the woman to crowd close to them as they walked back to the kitchen, absently rubbing her goose-pimpled arm.

Bulma hoped he didn't think this small gesture meant he was off the hook about the spider. "But, can't you sense his ki?"

Vegeta frowned, cursing himself for not noticing earlier the lack of any ki except for himself, Ash, his woman, and his son. "No. It might have something to do with this Evil that we can't see. I'd like to meet it in person myself. A simple Final Flash would do the trick."

Bulma rolled her eyes as they entered the kitchen. Her response was stopped by Ash standing up and cocking his gun right at them.

Ash laughed nervously at the murderous glare he was receiving from Vegeta, "Sorry. Usually a scream means possession. I find being a bit trigger-happy is safe."

Vegeta scowled, "Well don't be trigger-happy around my mate."

Ash nodded obediently and watched as Vegeta tossed a round, almost flat object that looked like a palm-sized pocket watch onto the table. It had a display that for the moment was dark, green lines crisscrossing it in grid-style. "That is the dragonball radar. The woman and I will go retrieve the dragonballs; you will watch my son. If anything happens to him, your soul will be the price. If you think possession by that Evil is something to fear; try me."

Ash couldn't have stopped the gulp from becoming audible if he'd tried. Where, in looking back, he could say most of his opponents had been almost comical, this man-Saiyan did he call himself?-was not.

Vegeta nodded curtly and was stopped from asking his mate anything by her sudden lunge toward Ash. He let out a low growl as the woman grabbed the other's hand and quickly pulled out her toolbox, which it seemed he had failed to notice her carrying. "My goodness! This is real quality work. Now, if you'll just take it off I can make some adjustments that will make it even more sensitive, instead of relying on pistons and levers and pulleys. It'll be attuned to your muscles and nerves so it will react to your mind instead of you having to consciously move it." As she chattered, Bulma, much to Ash's consternation and pleading looks to Vegeta, who wasn't about to get in the way of his woman and mechanicals, managed to detach Ash's hand and was tinkering with it as if there was no tomorrow.

Vegeta heaved the woman up by her elbow, earning himself a glare as he jostled her. "You can do it after we've picked up the dragonballs."

Bulma rolled her eyes, "Think, Vegeta. Do you think I'm going to leave my son here knowing there's someone else here? I don't think so. You'll go investigate and cream whoever it is, though we could use some answers. Ash will watch what I'm doing and watch us. It'll be good practice for watching Trunks."

Vegeta flung both his arms in the air, eyes rolled back as if asking Kami why he was so cursed. The woman was right, of course. That made it all the more worse. "It'll give him plenty of practice." Luckily, Bulma didn't catch the implications of that sentence.

"Someone else is here? The scream?" Ash decided that this couple was-amusing.

Vegeta rolled his eyes as Bulma glared at him, "It was a spider. She's afraid of the little things. No, someone disconnected our phones." He squinted one eye at the still glaring woman and turned up one corner of his mouth, folding his arms across his chest. "Where are the phone lines, woman?"

Bulma sniffed in a way that made Ash gag down laughter. He quickly straightened his face when he caught her glare his way. The last thing he wanted was the blue-haired woman to shriek at him. From the sheer volume and pitch of her scream he had heard, he didn't want it this close.

"Near the lab actually. I suppose you could take the exit you made that you'll fix I'm sure." A snort answered her, but she ignored him, "Turn to the left and follow the wall. It's like most of these bigger capsule houses; you have to push the gray button in the wall. A panel pops out. Check and make sure it wasn't something simple like a rat chewing through the wires."

Everyone present knew it wasn't that, but it wouldn't hurt to check. Vegeta glowered at Bulma, "You'll owe me for this. I'm being reduced to an electrician and a wall-repairer. You'll owe me."

Bulma smiled sweetly, not heeding her guest for the moment, "Well, Vegeta, I'm sure you'll exact your price in due time. Right now though, we need to get rid of a few things, so calm down boy."

Vegeta growled before turning on his heel and stalking out the door back toward the lab, hearing Ash chuckling behind him.

Ash turned to the woman calmly sitting beside him and drinking tea as she worked on his hand. Boy, that was weird to think. "Do you think he should go alone?"

Bulma looked shocked by the question; then smiled at him, "Oh, you don't know my husband. He's as tough as he looks. As of now, he's the strongest person on Earth."

Ash cocked his head to one side, watching as she replaced one of the pumping valves for something that blinked and beeped. She was much more technologically advanced than he. "As of now?"

Bulma nodded, not looking up from her work. It was helping her nerves actually, that and the man's curiosity. "There was someone stronger than him. Vegeta was always trying to beat him. He died six years ago. He gave his life for everyone on this planet and no one but his closest friends know it."

"Vegeta said something about dragonballs and getting a wish. If you can use them to bring that kid back, why didn't you use them to bring this man back?"

Bulma smiled sadly, "We tried, but he wanted to stay away. He thought the whole reason that the danger had threatened Earth in the first place was his fault." She shook her head, "Really I'd rather he was here. He was my best friend. My first friend."

Ash nodded, "At least you didn't have to kill him…." He grinned lopsidedly, an expression Bulma found made him look much younger than experience had made him. She nodded and continued on with her work.

"So, you made this when you were in the Middle Ages?"

Ash grinned, happy to boast. "Yep. Took an old gauntlet, which explains the antique look of it. I made it so my chainsaw could attach to my wrist also, but I lost that right off the bat." He frowned, "I feel naked without the thing. I don't have many shell guns left, just some useless chains."

Bulma chuckled as she glanced at him from the corner of her eye, "Useless? Nothing in this house is useless. Bring me those chains and I guarantee I can make them useful. I could coil them in your hand and you could flick your wrist and have instant whips. Metal, serrated whips…." She grimaced, "Bloody."

He blinked at the last word until he realized she was visualizing what kind of damage they could do. "Yeah." He grinned, "Might hurt too." He retrieved the talked-about chains and handed them to her.

Taking them, she chuckled, "You remind me of Vegeta…sadist."

He answered her with a smile. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Bulma nodded and returned to her work, and Ash fell into silence, watching her make his hand into a deadly and lethal, for Deadites that is, weapon.

~<~>~

Vegeta sniffed the air as he neared where Bulma had said the button was. There was a hint of musk in the air, the scent of a strange male, which made his hackles involuntarily rise. He took in a clear breath to calm down and examined the button. It looked like it hadn't been touched, but the scent swirling around the area said otherwise.

He grimaced and pushed the button. With a simple move of his arm, Vegeta caught the tiny dart an inch from his throat as the panel slid open. He made an inquisitive noise in his throat and examined the tiny, needle-like object. There was no smell to it, but he would've bet his title it was loaded with something lethal. He chuckled and threw the thing over his shoulder. Didn't work though.

The line was indeed severed, cleanly, as if cut by a knife. He grimaced and glanced around, again trying to sense out anything…but there was nothing. It was like he was trying to see through a fog with a flashlight, everything came back to him, but it wasn't what he needed to see he was seeing. He lifted a side of his lip in frustration and again stared at the wires, wondering if he should try to repair them. Not being the mechanical type, and not seeing any good reason to worry about phone lines, he merely shrugged and closed the panel back. No, it was time to do some hunting.

He seemed to melt into the fog surrounding him, becoming nothing more than the many black shapes around him that were trees, shrubs, and Capsule Corporation. The fog floated around him, curling as if its tendrils could grab him and pull him in. He stilled suddenly as his sixth sense; not his ki sense, his sixth sense; screamed a warning at him. Something was in the forest, and it was watching him.

He turned his head slowly, rotating it around to catch his backside. Nothing moved in the fog except him, yet something was indeed there. He couldn't have explained it. It just felt like a pair of eyes, watching him, coolly calculating when to attack.

"It wasn't visible. But it was most definitely there. It was like a terror that would grip you in the gut, screaming for you to turn and run." Ash's words ran through his head and he was again looking around, wondering at the silence that suddenly stretched the forest's night air thin. The shadows around him seemed to lengthen, reaching out as if to grab him; and it most definitely wasn't his imagination that the fog was curling around him possessively. He heard a high-pitched whining, as if some animal cried out in pain and moved to the right, grabbing a vine as it snapped out where his arm had been.

The vine twisted through his hold and latched onto his wrist, wrapping around so fast that he was caught before he could blink. He could hear the rustling of other vines and knew exactly what was going on. How convenient for the man to forget to mention that this Evil could possess plants....

He felt yet another grab for his other arm and used his speed to jerk it out of the way. More were making their way up his legs and one managed to wrap several times around his waist, cinching tighter than any python. He gasped for air and the thing around his middle tightened, making it impossible for him to breathe out. A mad light appeared in his eyes suddenly, almost making them seem as if black fire danced in them, as memory took hold; a memory of another monster doing this to him.

He took his still free hand and applied it right to the offending twig, alighting hand and branch in one swift thought. The rest of the vines retracted as his ki suddenly flared around him like a flame, burning every piece of forestry that had dared to touch him. He did not allow them to retreat though. He simply watched for movement and lit the fogged air with ki blasts, cackling maniacally.

Eventually though, that presence intruded again, as if the Evil would only stand for this type of punishment for so long before it brought out the big guns. He stilled and eyed his surroundings. Now nothing moved. There was no smell but the burning of twigs that shriveled, no sight but the fog and the shadows, both twisting around madly, but there was a feeling.

It started from his gut; a jumpy sensation he could only call anxiety. He had gotten it the first few times he'd gone into battle as a child. The thrill of the fight, the thought that maybe this time there would be a challenge, had quickly cancelled out the feeling, but now it was returning. The feeling slowly built up, growing until he thought he would have to run to release it. It was then that the noises started. It was no soft, quiet noise. It was the loud crescendo as a tree not three feet in front of him toppled over, knocked down as casually as he had seen Trunks knock down his building blocks. More trees followed and the anxiety finally had something to latch onto. Big thing, coming this way, strong, mean, EVIL-RUN!!!

Vegeta fought the feeling, crushing it down inside of him with the rest of his emotions. His feet spread apart as if he fought against a great foe that was trying to push him back and sweat broke out on his forehead. Another tree crashed to the ground and he jumped, taking an involuntary leap backwards, eyes wide enough that the whites were bigger than the pupils. He again stood his ground, lowering almost to a crouch as his breath huffed out erratically. The anxious lump inside his gut jumped to his throat as he ran through his mental litany. The one he'd had to use all through his slavery: I am the Prince of all Saiyans. I scrap for no one. I bow for no one. I am stronger than all. I will defeat all. There is none above me. I am the Prince of all Saiyans. I scrap for no one. I bo-

As another tree landed just inches from where he stood, Vegeta cursed and turned, the fear gnawing at his insides like a rat trying to get out of his stomach. He took from the ground with his blue aura shimmering around him with his own terror, dodging trees and blasting anything that moved as he rocketed straight to the hole in the wall and into Capsule Corporation. He did not stop moving until he was in the kitchen, and even then he could still feel that thing coming at him, reaching for him with hands colder than his old slaver Frieza's had ever been.

~<~>~

Bulma lurched upward almost drunkenly from her seat as she was brought out of her deep concentration by a presence into the room. Ash was beside her with aimed gun, quickly lowering it and hoping the temperamental man he had been aiming at hadn't noticed. Bulma's eyes widened at Vegeta's bedraggled appearance and she quickly made her way around the table to approach him. His wide, empty eyes looked right through her, seemingly staring a hole into the wall. She took in the torn state of his clothes, the rips of both cloth and skin as if something had clawed him, the bulging eyes, panting and shallow breath, and pale skin all in one glance. "My Kami, Vegeta! Are you okay?"

When the man neither looked at her nor seemed to even realize where he was, she took a tentative step forward. "Vegeta?"

Vegeta blinked then, coming back to the present and leaving the apparition that had still been chasing him far behind. He actually jumped when he saw her standing there. He looked at her for a second, noting the concerned eyes and half-open mouth and swiveled his head around to Ash, who looked as if he had seen this all before. Ash was eyeing him nervously and fingering his trigger. Trigger-happy, he says. Now I understand. I'm feeling a little jittery myself.

Vegeta rolled his shoulders back, color flooding back to his face as his eyes returned to their normal intensity. He had survived for twenty years under that monster Frieza, he could survive one encounter with this-thing.

Despite himself, mention of the Evil caused a shiver to race up his spine even as his breath evened out. He shifted his stance out of the one that looked like a deer ready to bolt. "You were right. Someone severed the lines. They even booby-trapped the thing with some kind of poisoned dart."

Bulma's eyebrows rose. It was uncommon for her husband to pretend as if he wasn't injured; but scared? She'd never seen him scared. There was no way he was pretending as if he hadn't been either. "What happened? Did you wrestle with a tiger on the way back?"

It took a puzzled moment for Vegeta to realize she referred to the scratches and rips he hadn't even noticed up and down his legs and arms. He held his arms from his body and inspected himself. He was glad he'd fried the things now.... "No." He pierced Ash with a glance. "The woods attacked me."

While Bulma repeated what he had said disbelievingly, Ash moaned. "They did it here too? That's how they blocked all the paths...." He took in the cuts and scrapes on Vegeta again. "You're the second to escape them." He would have to watch the man. The first, Gary, to escape them had died and then been possessed. But Vegeta didn't look that badly injured.

Vegeta nodded grimly, taking a seat before his legs gave out on him. Now that the rush of adrenaline was gone, he felt as weak as a newborn. He picked up his now cold cup of tea and drained the rest of it in one gulp, holding it out demandingly to the woman who was hovering over him with concern. "They didn't like my 'ammunition'. You said that when those four came, your second night there, they took a path in the woods."

Ash answered the unspoken question. "The Evil will let you in, but it has no intentions of letting you out."

Bulma frowned and put the kettle on for more tea, perhaps with a bit of alcohol sprinkled in, since Vegeta's demeanor couldn't quite hide his still disturbed state. "That means we'll have trouble getting the dragonballs. Unless you can just burn your way through." Her eyes told that she knew what the answer would be; she just wanted the reason.

Vegeta's dark eyes clouded for one second before snapping back to their normal color. He waited until Bulma had sat down beside him in her chair before speaking, locking eyes with the man who seemed to know what he was going to say, judging by the thinned lips and sudden lack of color on his face. "There's something out there. It was that Evil you spoke of. It was there and...." He stopped, almost flushing with anger at the thought of his cowardice. "It was huge. I couldn't see it, but it was huge and...I can't get past it. I couldn't even...."

Under the table he felt a hand squeeze his knee and darted his eyes over to Bulma, who looked at him with sincerity as she stopped what he couldn't admit. "I suppose we'll have to take care of this Evil before we can take care of the dragonballs then. Capsule Corporation has an extensive library. There has to be an answer somewhere and we're going to find it. Besides, I'd like to catch whoever started this and wring his neck. Then wish him back and wring his neck again."

Vegeta smirked. Somehow his mate always knew how to put him in a good mood again. "That sounds like fun."

Ash interrupted the sadist nature of the duo; not that he minded it. "Did your son happen to see where the book went? Did this man take it? If we can get the book, it might have some answers. It did last time."

Vegeta shook his head. "Trunks flew at him in a rage and managed to knock the book out of his hands, but he didn't notice it from that point on. That man could have it."

Bulma groaned. "In which case-"

Ash stalled her with a cleared throat, eyes twinkling with unhidden malice. "You forget. The Evil lets no one out. He's stuck here too. And the woods...." He gestured toward Vegeta's torn form to illustrate. "He'll come to us. We'll just set the trap."

Bulma nodded. "Oh, that should be fun." She turned and looked at Vegeta with two raised brows. "Well, let's go get you cleaned up. I don't like you looking as if women have been fighting over you." She stood up and put a hand under Vegeta's elbow, guiding him up.

Vegeta allowed himself to be led over to the sink, secretly glad for the warm touch. He smirked at her. "I can't help it if I'm so irresistible the very plants want to rip my clothes-" An elbow to his ribs stopped what he was going to say, but his chuckle, and the light pinch on the butt that Bulma received had Ash once again laughing. Perhaps this time, the ending would not be so angst-ridden.

A/N: Kay, anything not explained right? Are DBZ and ED people getting all this? Tell me if I need to clarify anything…. Thanks! Sorry for the long wait. I tried to make it worth it.

SkittleKicks: lol, 'twisted my numb butt'! You're saying my story was that long! For goodness sake, you can get up and walk around! I'll still be here! lol

Jadedbest: You read Deceiver?! Jeez, that story stinks! I'm redoing the WHOLE thing! Lol Poor you! Go read the Prologue…. (shakes head) You'll like it much better now!

Going toward morning here hopefully! For those of you who have watched ED, I know I-left out some parts…but come on, I am a girl!

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Review and I won't send the book your way! lol