Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Price You Pay ❯ Chapter Thirteen ( Chapter 13 )

Insert standard disclaimer here.

 

The Price You Pay: Chapter Thirteen

 

Bulma could feel the energy surge all the way from Vegeta's room. Usually she couldn't sense anything ki related, but ever since her energy had been combined with Vegeta's, she had an uncanny way of sensing him.

 

Immediately, she jumped out of the bed that she'd been lying in for Kami knows how long, and ran down the hall. She launched herself down the stairs and opened the door that exited the kitchen. Once out on the lawn, Bulma looked frantically around to find any indication that the GR had been destroyed, yet again. There was nothing.

 

Nearly in a panic, Bulma ran around to the other side of the house where the GR was located. The lights were red and blinking on the inside. How many of the generators could he have knocked out? What in the seven hells had he been doing? Didn't he know that releasing that much energy could be dangerous not only to him, but all the people within a few miles of the GR? There he'd been, lecturing her about energy releases earlier that morning, and now he was the one being careless.

 

Vegeta, what have you done?

 

The windows were all fogged up and cracked in several different places. Bulma had no idea what was going on, she couldn't see the Saiya-jin Prince.

 

She approached the vault door and took a look at the control panel. It indicated that the pressure had returned to its usual 1g. Bulma sighed in relief. If the GR had been charged up to Vegeta's usual few hundred gs, there would have been no way she could get in and help him without risking further injury. Everything seemed to check out on the outside, now she needed to figure out what was going on within.

 

Bulma quickly typed in her password and override command to open the door.

 

The first thing she noticed was how dark the room seemed. The lights had stopped their insistent blinking and totally shut down right before she reached the large training facility. She couldn't see any movement, that also wasn't a good sign. Vegeta was usually moving around at speeds close to that of light in here. An uneasy feeling settled in Bulma's stomach.

 

"Vegeta…?" It was a soft call. She wasn't sure what to do.

 

Bulma walked toward the control panel that resided in the center of the room. She needed to know what had gone wrong. She squinted her eyes as the screen blinked to life. The GR's computer recorded everything that went on in the room from temperature to ki levels. She quickly accessed the main memory.

 

Apparently everything had been going on as usual until about five minutes prior when the computer registered a ki level that spiked up to about one and a half million. Then a few seconds later the energy had dissipated down to somewhere around 10,000. Whatever happened, it had left Vegeta drained. His usual power level was at least three times more that. Something had gone terribly wrong.

 

Bulma walked around to the other side of the console.

 

I really should have grabbed a flashlight, thought Bulma as she wandered blindly through the dark. Her sense of sight had been heightened since the energy exchange, but it still wasn't anywhere near that of a Saiya-jin's.

 

There was a sudden movement and shuffling noise from somewhere in the dark.

 

"Vegeta?" asked Bulma, hoping beyond hope that he wasn't too badly injured.

 

A faint silhouette was beginning to form out of the darkness, albeit moving slowly.

 

He must have really done something to himself.

 

"O-onna…"

 

"Are you all right?" she asked timidly, reaching her hands out to support him, even as the help was batted away.

 

"Did you feel it?" asked Vegeta as he walked toward the control panel himself.

 

"Of course I did." Why else would I be here, you moron? She had been scared out of her wits when she realized what was going on. He could have been killed. He could have died, and she wouldn't have been able to do anything to save him. You nearly scared me to death.

 

"I was the Legendary," said the Saiya-jin no Ouji wistfully as he accessed the same memory files Bulma had moments earlier. If her hearing hadn't been so sharp, she probably wouldn't have heard him. It seemed he wanted to know what had happened just as much as she had. He turned and looked up at her. Although it was still difficult to see in the dark, Bulma suspected she would have had to be blind not to notice the golden glow that shone brightly in Vegeta's eyes.

 

~~~~~~~<(((((|||)))))>~~~~~~~

 

Vegeta found it quite amusing, despite his current state, that Bulma chose a time like this to show her emotions. Her face gave away nothing, but her eyes, which were glowing with the same intensity as his, gave everything away.

 

It was odd that the onna hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary about her heightened senses. She had most likely brushed them off as a reaction to the his energy. Simply a positive side effect perhaps. Soon she would realize what was actually going on as the other, not so positive, effects of the Khon'daia na hit her.

 

Vegeta turned away from Bulma. He had lost his self-control only moments ago, and even if it had helped him gain the status of the Legendary temporarily, he was still dangerous. With all that power flowing through his veins, if only for a few brief seconds, Vegeta felt more liberated than he had ever felt in his life.

 

The computer beeped and Vegeta looked down to where the stored memory was scrolling across the screen. The ki reading was amazing. One and a half million. The strongest Vegeta could ever remember himself being was immediately after his battle with Kakkarot, the moment he stepped out of the regen tank. His power level must have been somewhere around 15,000. But then again, that had been before he was killed by Freeza. Now, when completely powered up, his power level was somewhere in the 30,000 range. The giant leap to over a million was overwhelming.

 

I'm so close, I can taste it, thought Vegeta as he stared blankly at the power reading displayed on the screen.

 

Bulma shifted anxiously from foot to foot.

 

"How did it feel?" Bulma asked Vegeta once she summoned up the courage.

 

There was an uncomfortable silence. How did it feel? It felt amazing. It felt like he could do anything. Something had stirred inside of him as he became the master of everything he'd ever wanted. He was completely in control of his own destiny. He was free.

 

"Like nothing I've ever felt before." It was a low and gruff response, thickly laced with unseen emotion. The uncharacteristic Saiya-jin accent leaked its way into his words. It was something that he seldom allowed because it meant his control was slipping. Vegeta realized too late just how much he let slide.

 

He looked up and Bulma smiled at him. It was the smile he hated—the one that told him he was becoming more like the soft Chikyuu-jin that inhabited the planet.

 

There was another long, uncomfortable silence. Ascending to the level of the Legendary, if only for a few seconds, left him feeling more drained than going through an Oozaru transformation. Vegeta replaced the biting comment at the tip of his tongue with an angry glare that clearly said 'back off'.

 

Bulma hastily made her way in the direction of the exit.

 

Vegeta had no idea what she was making such a fuss about. He was fine. The GR was fine. She couldn't be upset just because he brushed her off. He had done that thousands of times before. What made this time any different?

 

~~~~~~~<(((((|||)))))>~~~~~~~

 

If Vegeta wanted to get himself killed, that was just fine with her.

 

No, in fact, it wasn't fine with her. That was the problem. Every time she tried to stop him from doing something damaging to himself, he pretended it didn't matter.

 

Bulma was shocked when she found out about his transformation. She knew he was capable of it, but she wasn't sure she liked the means he used to get there. Pushing himself to a point where he was about to pass out from the exertion wasn't the most enlightened of ideas. If he did it that way, he was going to accidentally commit suicide.

 

She took a deep breath through her nose and released the air slowly through her mouth. Whatever. She wasn't his keeper.

 

And, she had to admit, she was ecstatic for him—almost overcome by a sense of pride.

 

~~~~~~~<(((((|||)))))>~~~~~~~

 

Vegeta watched as Bulma stomped away, her head high, and her pride, if a little shaken, still intact. He hadn't meant for her to take his gesture so personally, but the reaction suited him. He didn't want her here.

 

He flipped a switch on the control panel he was still standing by. The GR immediately came back to life. The power surge must have just temporarily shut down all of the electrical equipment. The computer was the only system that could never be shut down. It was fueled by an impregnable nuclear power cell.

 

That was another thing for which he was thankful. The damned computer had saved his ass on more than one occasion. One way or another, the onna was looking out for him.

 

Always back to the onna, thought Vegeta in slight irritation and shook his head. He would have to face her later that night. He couldn't blame her for being curious, but the key to becoming the Legendary permanently was right at the tips of his fingers. If he could only figure out what it was…