Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Colours Within ❯ Only Mortal ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. :D You guys rock.

 

This chapter has some direct reference to the TV show, in particular the episode entitled Z Warriors Prepare. I hope I got it more or less correct to the episode, it's been a while since I last saw it.

 

Enjoy!

 

///

 

three. only mortal.

 

Sounds of shouting and explosions brought Bulma rushing from the bathroom. Her mind focused on one word: androids. If they were here already, so soon, she didn't know what she was going to do. She felt a wave of nausea heave in her stomach. She hoped to God that Goku and the others knew that the androids had arrived. She hoped that Vegeta was upholding his part of the agreement.

 

Her legs carried her to the living room faster than they ever had, and she made her way to the window. She moved the blinds ever so slightly, just enough to see outside. She saw a small scorch mark on the lawn, and that was all. She didn't see chaos or bodies strewn about. She didn't see the androids, either. But there was another shout.

 

Bulma swallowed hard and moved away from the window to the front door. She unlocked it slowly, and then took a deep breath as her hand rested on the handle. Then she pulled it open almost violently and looked out through the screen door. To the far right she could see Vegeta… and a pizza man.

 

The blood slowly drained from her face. What was Vegeta doing?

 

She shoved open the screen door with a loud bang, which caught the attention of both the delivery boy and Vegeta as she marched towards them

 

“What's going on here?” she demanded angrily. “What's all the shouting about?”

 

The man's face was white. He looked between Bulma and Vegeta repeatedly before asking meekly, “May I go back to work now?”

 

Bulma didn't answer him. Instead she rounded on Vegeta. “What are you doing?”

 

“Nothing,” replied Vegeta heatedly.

 

Bulma rounded on the delivery boy. “Do you want to tell me what happened, or are you going to bugger off to work right away?”

 

He seemed to choose the first option. “Someone here ordered a pizza…” he started slowly, “and I was just delivering it. He came up and asked me what I was doing here and I told him that I was delivering pizza.”

 

“But I'm not stupid,” Vegeta interjected angrily. “I know that you buy pizza at that grocery store and keep it in the deep freeze in the basement.”

 

Bulma thought immediately of the single pizzas her parents often bought and almost laughed. Instead, she ushered the boy to go on.

 

“Well… he didn't believe me,” the delivery man said, “so he started attacking me! And… he threw fire at me…!” His eyes widened even as he said this.

 

“Where's the pizza now?” Bulma asked, and the boy pointed to a spot behind her. She turned around. Somewhere during the course of what had happened, the man had dropped his box and spilled pepperoni and cheese pizza all over the ground.

 

She sighed. “I'm sorry about this. It shouldn't have happened. If you go to the front door, someone will pay you for the pizza.”

 

“It's okay,” he fairly squeaked. “You don't need to pay.” But he took the opportunity to turn and run back to his car, stumbling over his own feet in his rush.

 

Bulma turned back to talk to Vegeta, surprisingly more frustrated than angry, but saw that he, too, had gone.

 

///

 

She chose not to bring the incident up when Vegeta arrived in the kitchen the following morning for breakfast. Instead she agreed to make him the omelettes he demanded and allowed them to lapse into a silence. At least for a time.

 

“I want you to make improvements on the gravity room.”

 

Bulma nodded slowly. “I can do that,” she said, “but I'm going to need some time.”

 

“How much time?” Vegeta demanded.

 

“That depends on what you want improved.”

 

“The amount of gravity, for starters,” Vegeta said, “and I want you to make sure it's fully functional for space travel. I plan to leave soon.”

 

Bulma turned from the stove to look at Vegeta for a moment. “You promise?”

 

He glowered at her darkly. “The faster you make the improvements I want, the faster I'll be off your miserable little planet.”

 

Bulma chuckled, turning back to the omelettes. “Making connections. That's very intelligent of you, Vegeta.”

 

“Just make sure you get them done.”

 

“Just make sure you let me know what you want in writing,” she replied. “How's the sleeping going?”

 

There was a few seconds of silence, then, “What?”

 

“Sleeping. I remember you said you were having problems sleeping. Is that okay now or what?”

 

Vegeta frowned. “Why does it matter to you?”

 

Bulma shrugged nonchalantly. “It really doesn't. I was just asking. I figured that by now you must be getting enough sleep, otherwise you'd be totally crazy.”

 

“You're really very nosy, you know that?” Vegeta shot at her irritably.

 

“I've been told,” she replied, and without another word she dumped the eggs onto a plate slid it forcefully across the table to Vegeta.

 

///

 

“Dad, I'm going to need you to help me a bit with the company for the next little while. Is that okay?”

 

Dr. Briefs sat forward in his chair and looked at Bulma with concern. “Why, is something wrong? Are you sick? Stressed?”

 

She shook her head and smiled reassuringly. “It's nothing like that. Vegeta gave me a list of things he wants upgraded on the gravity room a couple days ago and it's going to take me a bit to get everything done. He says that he wants to leave, so I figure the faster I get everything upgraded, the sooner he'll leave.”

 

“He's not that bad.”

 

“Dad… he doesn't belong here. He attacked a delivery boy because he didn't believe that he was just delivering pizza. He doesn't know that people order pizza because we haven't done it since he's moved here - he only knows about those crappy, frozen, store-bought pizzas. And he isn't happy here. He was having trouble sleeping a little while ago, and he wouldn't talk to anyone about what was bothering him. I don't even know for sure if he's okay now. He doesn't talk to anyone about anything unless he's arguing with them or telling them to do things. He'd probably be better off in space where he doesn't have to worry about other people.”

 

“Will he be back?” Dr. Briefs asked. “To fight the androids?”

 

Bulma shrugged. “He didn't say anything about it, but he said he would help us so I'm assuming he will be.”

 

“You might want to make the gas tank a bit larger if he's going on an extended trip,” he suggested.

 

“Isn't it big enough as it is?”

 

“The bigger it is the longer Vegeta will be able to be away.”

 

///

 

One improvement led to another on the blueprint, and Bulma finally decided that the project would be easier if she built an entirely new gravity room - longer, perhaps, but the end result would be far superior. Vegeta was clearly mixed about this news.

 

“How much longer?”

 

Bulma hesitated. “About three weeks.”

 

“Three weeks!?”

 

“But the machine will run much smoother, and the gas tank will be larger as well!” Bulma pointed out. “And you'll be able to continue using the old machine while we build the new one, so you won't miss out on any training.”

 

Vegeta frowned as he considered this. “What about larger living quarters?” he finally asked.

 

“I suppose I can do that. It'll be under the training room near the cockpit.”

 

Vegeta nodded slowly. “Three weeks, then,” he said, and left to train.

 

///

 

“Why would you think that?” he demanded. “Are you completely insane?”

 

“No,” she snapped back, “I'm superimposing history over the present.”

 

Yamcha rolled his eyes. “For God's sakes, if I tell you I'm not cheating then I'm not! I've been training, just like everybody else! I'll bet Chichi's not accusing Goku of cheating on her.”

 

“Goku hasn't cheated on her before. He doesn't even know the meaning of the word.”

 

“Bulma, I'm telling you I haven't been cheating on you.”

 

Her narrowed eyes bored into his. “If I called every single restaurant, hotel, motel, and club in the city, none of them would have your name on the guest list from the past couple weeks. Is that what you're saying?”

 

“That's what I'm saying!” he cried. “Go ahead, call them all!”

 

Bulma studied him for a moment, then relented. “I believe you.”

 

Yamcha sighed deeply. “I don't know what made you think I was cheating in the first place.”

 

“Maybe because you haven't called or come around!”

 

“I'm sorry, babe, I've been busy. It looks like you've been too,” he added, glancing at the forming gravity room at the far end of the lab.

 

Bulma nodded. “Vegeta's leaving. He wanted improvements on the gravity room, but it was easier to just rebuild it.”

 

Yamcha's eyes widened. “Leaving?”

 

“That's what he said.”

 

“But… the androids!”

 

Bulma grinned at Yamcha mischievously. “Are you upset by this? I never thought that you, of all people, would ever be upset to learn that Vegeta's leaving!”

 

“`Upset' is hardly the word I would use.”

 

“Which word would you use?”

 

“`Concerned', maybe, or `worried'. He's a strong fighter, and if he's actually willing to help then I guess we could use it.”

 

Bulma's grin grew. “Yamcha just paid Vegeta a compliment!” she howled. “It's apocalyptic!”

 

Yamcha threw her a dirty look. “I was just stating a fact,” he muttered.

 

“Well, Vegeta will be back. It's just a trip.”

 

“It's too bad it's not one-way,” Yamcha said, attempting to redeem himself after the unintentional compliment.

 

Bulma just shook her head and turned away, not noticing Yamcha's eyes fall on the gravity room.

 

///

 

“I wonder what's so great about this thing that Vegeta spends all his time training in it,” Yamcha said as he crept up to the window of the gravity room in the middle of the compound.

 

“Yamcha, don't! It might not be safe,” Puar cautioned, hovering nervously near the warrior's ear.

 

“Please, if Vegeta can handle it then I can too.”

 

He opened the door to the machine and it unlocked with a metallic click. The ramp lowered itself to the ground and Yamcha made his way into the training facility. Puar remained just outside the door.

 

“Yamcha, I really don't think this is a good idea,” he said.

 

“Relax. Just wait out there.”

 

Yamcha studied the controls for a minute, and then turned on the machine. “What do you think?” he asked. “Three hundred times normal gravity?”

 

“How about one times?”

 

“Vegeta was training at three hundred times normal gravity today - I saw him. Better make it four hundred.”

 

“Four hundred!?”

 

Yamcha scrolled up to four hundred, and waited while the door closed behind him. Puar frowned at him as the door shut him outside. As it locked itself, the computer stated, “Initiating gravity.”

 

Yamcha suddenly felt himself plowed into the floor, the gravity crushing him. He could barely breathe, let alone move, from the pressure on both his back and chest. He had to get to the controls and shut the gravity off. It wasn't far off, just high up, and Yamcha doubted if he could stand under all the weight forcing him down. He could just see the emergency stop button at the edge of the control panel, and forced his arm up towards it. His muscles strained and weakened as his fingertips groped for the button… just a little farther…

 

He barely touched it but it was enough to end the session and stabilize the gravity levels again. Yamcha heaved himself up and sat leaning against the panel, gasping for breath. For the first time in his life he felt completely useless. When the androids came, he would be weak and unprepared compared to the rest of the Z team, particularly Goku and Vegeta who were pouring their all into training. He felt tears prick the back of his eyes. He would have to increase his efforts.

 

///

 

“I really can't stay, I have to go train.”

 

Bulma pouted. “You're beginning to sound like Vegeta,” she accused.

 

Yamcha grinned weakly. “Well, it's true. We're running out of time.”

 

“We have three years! Just stay for the rest of today. I hardly ever see you anymore…”

 

“Bulma, you know I want to—”

 

An explosion ripped through the air, and both Bulma and Yamcha froze. They stared at each other for a brief, horrifying moment before Yamcha asked in a hushed voice, “Androids?”

 

“I don't know. It came from the back.” Bulma turned from the front door and hurried through the house. Remembering the incident with the delivery boy, she doubted that it was the androids, but still… what could make an explosion like that?

 

Looking out the window she saw a pile of debris, and a cry escaped her lips.

 

“What?” asked Yamcha coming up behind her. “What is it?” He was clearly panicked.

 

“The gravity room! He blew it up! Oh, Vegeta!”

 

A moment later Bulma was out the back door, racing across the compound. Vegeta better be okay, she thought furiously, or else… or else… She let her mind trail off as she reached the rubble and began digging through it. A moment later a hand shot up through the wreckage and she felt relief bubble up inside her. He wasn't dead.

 

///

 

Vegeta opened his eyes and watched as his vision cleared slowly. It took him a few moments to realize that he was inside the Capsule Corporation hospital wing, and not still outside as he last remembered. He remembered training at four hundred times Earth's gravity, and he remembered the Ki blast that demolished the gravity room. He remembered regaining consciousness and pulling himself out of the remains of the training facility only to find Bulma trying to help him. But he did not remember getting inside the building.

 

And he had no idea why the woman was sitting at the table beside his bed, sleeping. She didn't need to keep twenty-four hour surveillance on him - she had robots and machines to do that, and his condition wasn't that bad to warrant it anyway.

 

He shifted and a searing pain shot through his side. He fell back into unconsciousness a moment later.

 

///

 

The dream had left him uneasy. That mysterious Saiya-jin and Kakarot were not the only two in the universe who could obtain the level of Super Saiya-jin!

 

His father had told him that it was his destiny to reach that legendary level - he was the Saiya-jin Prince, and en elite warrior. His skills as a boy had far surpassed those of many other Saiya-jin fighters. How could it be that a third-class warrior and a Capsule Corporation supporter feel the power of a Super Saiya-jin before he did?

 

He threw another punch, his adrenaline pumping.

 

A face appeared on the large TV in the facility, and Vegeta found himself being scrutinized by an overly large Bulma.

 

“Vegeta! You shouldn't be training when you're hurt!” she admonished.

 

“Shut up!”

 

She scowled at him. “Jerk!” she snapped. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

 

“Leave me alone!” he howled, and a Ki blast destroyed the video communicator a second later.

 

He would reach the level of a Super Saiya-jin if it took him his entire life - goddamn him if he didn't!

 

///

 

Bulma sat back in her chair, fuming. When she'd woken the next morning she'd found that she'd never made it to bed the night before - instead she'd fallen asleep at the desk in the hospital wing. She'd also found that Vegeta was gone.

 

She had been so worried the day before when he'd collapsed back into the debris. He'd forced himself to stand on his own, and tried to shove Bulma off. He took a couple stumbling steps before losing consciousness and toppling back onto the wreckage. She'd seen Vegeta injured from his training before, but it was the first time he'd blown up the gravity room, and the first time that the prince had never been able to make it back to the hospital wing on his own for treatment.

 

She'd called for a stretcher and the on-site paramedics hurried him to the hospital wing where they'd cleaned his cuts and bandaged his injuries. The X-ray showed that he had three cracked ribs, but no bones were actually broken. They hooked him up to an oxygen tank to aid with his breathing - Bulma had noticed the shallowness of it and she and another doctor drew the conclusion that his lungs may have been bruised during the impact that cracked his ribs. And then they let Vegeta lay in bed to recover. They weren't worried - not only were the injuries not particularly bad to begin with, but everyone in the hospital wing had been informed that Vegeta wasn't human. This accounted for several things, like the fact that his normal body temperature was several degrees higher than that of a human. They'd also learned that he healed much faster than anyone else on Earth.

 

But Bulma was concerned for him. As little as she knew about Vegeta, she knew him better than anyone else on the compound, and she knew that he must be badly injured for him to allow himself to pass out in front of her. It was an action he would usually hold back until he was alone, if not hold back completely.

 

What a waste of energy her worry had been. The bastard was back up and training again, not even taking the responsibility to rest until he recovered. And he was just as ungrateful as ever, shouting at her to leave him alone and then destroying the TV screen. How she hated him.

 

She wondered vaguely if Yamcha had left.

 

///

 

“You are so irresponsible! You could have killed yourself! You were in no condition to train, especially under so much gravity!”

 

Vegeta, trailing bandages, ignored her as he made his way into the labs.

 

“You're only mortal, you know, you can be injured just like everyone else! You're just too arrogant to realize it. You're unbelievable.”

 

“How much longer?” he asked suddenly, cutting Bulma's next words off. She looked in the direction that he was pointing.

 

“That damn gravity room!” she screeched. “That's all you ever fucking think about, is how much you can train! You're going to kill yourself!”

 

He glared at her. “That's my problem, not yours. How much longer?”

 

“If you're in the hospital wing, you're in there for a reason!” Bulma carried on, ignoring him. “You can't just get up and leave to go train - train of all things! - especially without telling anybody! You're in the hospital wing to be monitored. You wouldn't just get up and walk out of a hospital without the doctor's permission! The same goes for the hospital wing here! Just because it's on the campus doesn't change the procedures! If you—”

 

“Shut up!” Vegeta's voice boomed through the room, and the small group of scientists in the opposite corner working on a new robot prototype looked up in alarm. Sensing danger, they gathered their blueprints and hurried from the lab.

 

Bulma's temper flared. “Don't you dare tell me to shut up, you ungrateful prick! Not only do I give you room and board, build your friggin' gravity room, and put up with all your bullshit, but I help you when you're injured and make sure that you're taken care of properly, and then only thing you can do is go back to your incessant training without thinking of the consequences, and tell me to go away! And now you're asking about your new gravity room! What the hell is wrong with you?”

 

“My `incessant training' is to save your worthless planet! Don't forget the reason I'm here! I don't live here, and I won't be living here after these androids are taken care of. If I feel like training to help you, I wouldn't be complaining!”

 

“There is a time to train and a time to recover!” Bulma argued. “One day's break from training won't make the difference between life or death, but if you exert yourself too much before you're ready, then it could make the difference!”

 

“Every day spent not training is one extra day before I can become a Super Saiya-jin!” Vegeta roared. “And the longer it takes to reach that level, the less comfortable I'll be with it when the androids finally arrive!”

 

Bulma threw her hands into the air, her blue hair almost crackling in its afro from the emotion surging through her. “Are you still on about that thing?” she cried. “Get over yourself, Vegeta! You are not the greatest warrior in the universe! Just face the facts: Goku became a Super Saiya-jin and you didn't. That doesn't even mean you aren't strong! You're just not as powerful as Goku is! Things aren't always going to happen the way you want them to. Just suck it up and deal with it, princess.”

 

A moment later, Bulma found herself pinned against the wall, a hand circling her neck painfully. “Say that again, woman,” Vegeta snarled, his black eyes stabbing into her lighter ones. “I should kill you for that.” His grip tightened around her throat and Bulma coughed, gasping for breath. “You forget who it is that you're talking to. I am Vegeta, Prince of the Saiya-jin, and I could snap your neck in an instant, before you even realized that I was there behind you.”

 

He pulled her away from the wall suddenly, then slammed her back into it and let go of her. She slid down the wall and landed in a crumpled pile on the floor, gasping and gagging. She looked up at him, and was engulfed in terror as she saw a Ki blast fully formed in his palm, just waiting to be released.

 

“No,” she whispered. “Please, don't.”

 

There was a crazed look in Vegeta's eyes, full of venom and murder. He had forgotten where he was, who he was, and who was before him. He was in another time, another place, where his only purpose on the planet was to kill. The inhabitants quaked in fear before him and he laughed and mocked them before his Ki ran them through. Some of them begged for mercy; others merely accepted their inevitable death. It was the brave ones who fought back. Vegeta had liked them the best. It made the trip more enjoyable when there was a bit of a challenge before he killed them, but more than that he admired their determination. They were prepared to fight back against this suppressor until the death. It was more than he had ever done.

 

“Vegeta, please!”

 

But of all the places he had been and all the people he had killed, none of them had ever said his name before. None of them had ever known it. Who was this person who addressed him by name? Was he killing someone that he knew?

 

“Don't do this.”

 

He frowned. The woman was at his feet in a heap, but her eyes looked directly into his. It was a bold move. He could see that she was scared, but there was a spark of determination in them as well. The odds were against her, and he knew that she knew this as well, but she was going to continue talking, continue attempting to get herself out of this predicament. She looked familiar.

 

“There's no need for this, Vegeta. Just calm down.”

 

She was moving, pushing herself more upright with one hand while her other hand held her neck gently. She rose slowly until she was standing, her eye level almost even with his. She was either very brave or very stupid, Vegeta thought, to challenge him in this way.

 

Not stupid, he realized. Bulma knew what he was capable of. He'd murdered several of her friends and she'd seen him fight on Namek. She knew that he could kill her if he wanted to.

 

Bulma. That's who she was. She lived on Earth, owned the Capsule Corporation. Vegeta's head swam for a moment before he was slammed back into reality. He took in his surroundings: The lab, Bulma, the gravity room.

 

Howling like a wounded animal, Vegeta swung his arm around and launched the Ki blast. Bulma screamed and threw herself behind a nearby table as shards of metal rocketed around the room. The sound of the explosion caused her ears to pop painfully, and her hands covered her head protectively. A few seconds later the lab fell silent again, and Bulma raised her head uncertainly to see that the half-finished gravity room was completely destroyed, debris littering the floor. Vegeta was still standing in the middle of the room.

 

She hesitated, and then crawled out from under the table. She surveyed the damage, and saw that everything else was still intact. Glass and metal crunched under her feet as she moved nearer Vegeta. Her hand rubbed her neck as she approached him slowly.

 

“Vegeta?” she asked gently. “Are you okay?”

 

He looked over at her, his face blank as it usually was. “I'm fine,” he grunted.

 

“What was wrong with you?”

 

He didn't answer her. Instead he tumbled to the floor, unconscious.