Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Price You Pay ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

Insert standard disclaimer here.

 

The Price You Pay: Chapter Three

He'd gotten her going the night before. Her eyes had that look in them that they get when she was all riled up. If looks could kill, Vegeta would have been dead a thousand times over.

If only she had formidable ki.

She looked like she was ready to lynch him. He smirked.

That could have been interesting.

He hadn't gotten the complete reaction he was going for, even though he said he had, but he was pleased. Every so often he deemed it necessary to put her in her place and let her know just who was to be respected in the household. Everyone on the entire moronic, confounded planet needed to learn respect.

Once he defeated Kakkarot, he would be sure to give them all lessons in that area. The little onna especially.

Now that could be even more interesting.

But as amusing as this all sounded to him at the moment, the fact that he kept thinking about the pesky onna was becoming more frustrating by the day. He had more serious matters to attend to, like his training and the fact that the peak of the moon cycle, the Khon'daia na, was nearing.

 

The Khon'daia na was a period when Saiya-jins were more susceptible to the pheromones and life around them. A period when their deeper and more animalistic instincts emerged. The majority of Saiya-jin children were conceived during the moon cycle. Because Saiya-jin warriors had little time for mating while purging planets and expanding the Saiya-jin Empire, the Khon'daia na was the only time many warriors could spend with their mates. This staggered form of reproduction was the main contributor to the low population density on Vegeta-sei.

 

Additionally, the Khon'daia na called for all Saiya-jins to return to Vegeta-sei. All communications and transportations were shut down. With all the Saiya-jins going Oozaru sporadically, even their rulers, ambassadors and dignitaries from other planets were instructed to leave. It was the most dangerous part of Saiya-jin life. It was the month when Saiya-jins were most vulnerable, and most lethal. The one month every three years during which everything stopped.

And it was nearing.

The first time Vegeta's moon had come, Freeza refused to give him leave. He'd never witnessed the strange events that Saiya-jins went through after hitting puberty. There was no way Freeza could have known what exactly was going on in Vegeta's body. But after the Saiya-jin no Ouji's first moon cycle, Freeza would never refuse to give him leave again.

The planet Vegeta had been sent to was a class triple A; the rarest and most valuable class on the market. When Vegeta returned, the planet could barely be considered sell-able. Needless to say, Freeza was furious and took out the price of the planet on the chemically-imbalanced Saiya-jin no Ouji's body. Freeza was pissed, but it could have been worse. Vegeta could have been on the Ice-jin flagship when the change overtook him.

Bardock had thrown his revolt against the evil Ice-jin during his moon, when the blood of the Khon'daia na had been flowing through his veins. Not exactly the most educated decision a Saiya-jin had ever made, but it certainly had made its point. Freeza had just been too uninterested to realize what actually was going on down on the planet his ship was orbiting. And considering that no Saiya-jin pods were coming in or leaving Vegeta-sei, he must have been doing an excellent job of ignoring the planet's inhabitants.

Ever since then Vegeta had been condemned to stay in his quarters, which had been reconstructed to handle more serious ki blasts, during the month of his moon. The only other places Freeza ever sent him to involved suicide missions where only the awesome power Vegeta possessed during this rare time every three years was strong enough to handle the situation without Freeza's direct intervention.

The very first Legendary had destroyed himself when he reached the peak of his moon. Though that was rarely spoken of on Vegeta-sei. Not many Saiya-jins enjoyed dwelling on the negative aspects of the Khon'daia na. And there was plenty negative. Most Saiya-jins preferred to spend that time with their mates, or out in the forest, killing anything and everything that moved.

 

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The engineers started working on the error in the communications chip from the second they walked through the door to the Capsule Corp labs. Bulma had come in early and told them exactly what needed to be done. After Vegeta summoned her out of bed earlier that morning she hadn't been able to fall back asleep. So after about three hours of tossing and turning, trying to force herself to sleep, she groaned, got up, and took a shower. That meant that she was in the lab extra early.

So now, about six hours later, Bulma Briefs sat at her lab desk for the hundredth time that month and stared blankly at the piece of Vegeta's breast plate. After working non-stop on the communications chip for about eight hours the previous day, she thought it was about time she did something she enjoyed. And that was figuring out the Saiya-jin material.

She'd already figured out about half of the components. The problem was that the other half were alien materials. If she was going to recreate the breast plate, she was going to have to use substitutes that could be generated on Earth. That was the challenge. If Vegeta didn't know what the material was made of, maybe she could just ask him about a few of the compounds and see if he knew anything about those. It was a start.

There were light, barely noticeable purple rings under her eyes.

One of the signs of serious sleep deprivation.

She yawned and stood from her desk. Now was a better time than any to ask Vegeta about the compounds. He'd be training the rest of the day anyway. It wasn't like five minutes was such a sacrifice.

The lights in the GR were flashing when she arrived at the training facility she'd designed for the Saiya-jin no Ouji. Bulma didn't know whether to take that as a good or a bad sign. She knew that Vegeta used ki blasts in most of his training, but wasn't sure if asking to talk to him was such a good idea. Who knew? Maybe if she distracted him, one of those ki blasts would get away and send them both to the next dimension.

That couldn't be pleasant.

She cringed. The thought of millions of volts of electricity and pure energy zapping through her body made her shiver.

How do they do it?

Deciding that she would wait it out and hope that Vegeta would stop using ki blasts in the next few minutes, Bulma approached the small window in the vault door to the GR.

The lights were still blinking, and Bulma could barely make out the sign on the control console that indicated the gravity pressurization.

350gs. Vegeta must have upped his training today.

Now turning her attention to the man in question, Bulma watched as Vegeta hovered about two feet from the ground and threw ki blasts at the training bots. It was hard to believe he could do it while avoiding the ki blasts that were already flying around the room. She noticed how difficult it actually was when she saw a ki blast get shot directly at Vegeta's back. A training bot must have somehow flanked Vegeta without his noticing.

Bulma watched on, feeling she had to let him know of the danger, yet eager to merely see what would happen. The blast could kill him if he didn't get out of the way soon enough. But before the strike could hit him, he was gone. Bulma looked around in confusion. He was just there a moment ago. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere, Vegeta was back in place and bouncing the imposing ki blast back at the training bot at break neck speed. The bot never had a chance. She watched on as the melted remnants of the bot crashed to the floor, creating a small crater.

There goes another $20,000, she thought, remembering the previous night.

Realizing that there was obviously no danger, at least not any that Vegeta couldn't handle, Bulma smiled. He really was… something. She didn't know what it took to become a Super Saiya-jin or the 'Legendary' as Vegeta preferred to call it, but Vegeta had to be getting close. Not many people could boast of avoiding one of Vegeta's ki blasts, (mainly because they were all dead), let alone in 350gs of gravity.

The only person who had managed to do that so far was Goku. And there wasn't one person acquainted with the Saiya-jin no Ouji who didn't know how much that irked Vegeta beyond belief.

He was wearing those spandex, or at least what she called spandex, shorts again. They were made out of the same material his armor was, but softer and more flexible, allowing a fuller range of movement. He looked completely at ease, concentration in his eyes. All together, even covered from head to toe in sweat, he looked really good.

Bulma knew she would be lying to herself if she said she didn't find him attractive. There was nothing physically unattractive about him. He was toned from his intense training sessions, and maintained a year-round bronze to his skin. But what she especially loved about him were his eyes. She had originally thought them to be black, but upon closer inspection, she realized they were actually a rich chocolate brown. Nothing unattractive at all.

Except his personality, she thought with a mental grunt.

Regardless of what she liked or didn't like about the Prince, she knew that he better finish soon, otherwise she was going to open that door, and one way or another, she was going to get the information out of him that she needed.