Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Unexplainables ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3

"WHAT?" Bulma cuffed Goku upside the head. Goku could have sworn she was taking lessons from Vegeta. That almost stung!

"I'm sorry, Bulma! I don't know what happened! He didn't fight it or anything. He even asked why he should fight it! He told me to leave."

"Oh, we are so going back, buster! You're taking me to that ship right now!" Before he could protest, Bulma had skittered away only to come back with a gun half as long as she was. "We'll just see how that ship fares against a photon blaster!"

Goku had no idea what she was holding but he needed to get her mind off this crazy idea. "Bulma, we need to come up with a plan. If we rush into this without looking at our options we'll get in the same situation as Vegeta. We need to think of a plan." He corrected himself quickly, "You need to think of a plan. I need to go get Piccolo and see if he can find out anything from Kami, much as he hates to associate with Earth's Guardian."

He smiled and lay a hand companionably on Bulma's shoulder, "Please, promise me you'll wait? We really need your brains right now, Bulma. Vegeta needs your brains."

Bulma's lips pursed at how Goku was manipulating her, especially with the Vegeta part at the end. She couldn't keep the angry façade up though, not with Goku's arm on her shoulder. "I-I'm just worried about-I mean, what if he's hurt? Or dead?" The last two words came out strangled and soft.

Goku tightened his hold in support, "You know Vegeta, Bulma! He's tough. He's been through a lot and he's not going to give up now." Secretly he wondered at that last. He certainly hadn't been fighting last time Goku saw him. He shook his head firmly, "He's not dead. Don't even think it!"

Bulma smiled her thanks, knowing she probably looked horrible keeping the tears she felt in. Vegeta certainly wouldn't have wanted her to bawl over him. "You're right. Hurry up and go get the others. Then we'll go rescue Vegeta."

"Vegeta needs no rescuing."

The voice, familiar and yet not, startled both of them. The face staring at them from the window needed no introduction. Goku started forward to greet the Saiyan, not questioning why he hadn't felt the other's ki, and was stopped by a horrified Bulma. "His eyes!"

Goku turned to look more closely at Vegeta's face hovering just above the windowsill, body hid from sight. He jerked back suddenly, no longer needing Bulma's hand to keep him back, "Vegeta?" His voice was a far cry from being steady.

The eyes, straight silver to their core, dimensionless and reflecting as the ship he had recently exited, turned fully on Goku. The familiar smirk graced the lips, but the eyes ruined the impression that this was Vegeta. The face slowly rose up to reveal the body and Vegeta floated fully into the room to land softly on the floor, smirk still in place.

Bulma gasped and felt the world shift beneath her feet, tightening her grip on Goku and regaining her balance before the apparition that was Vegeta.

From the neck down, it was quite evident that Vegeta was not who he had been. His body, the whole thing, was silver metal, like mercury. It was the same smooth form and grace of his old body but reflected the color of his eyes. His armor had even been simulated to perfection; the gloves and boots present though there was no way they could've been. Where the metal and flesh met at the neck was a band of black with a silver brooch in the middle that contained a symbol neither recognized.

Vegeta's smirk widened and he locked gazes with Goku, "Only the best."

Goku tilted his head to one side, "What?" He took a cautious step forward.

Vegeta tilted his own head to one side, mocking his opponent, "They only want the best, Kakarott. You should feel privileged. They want you."

Goku halted very suddenly, "Who wants me? Vegeta, what's going on?"

Vegeta took a step toward Goku, "It's simple. We are the Hitori. We are one. Do you want power, Kakarott? Immortality?"

Goku glanced at Bulma out of the corner of his eye. He wrapped the arm she held in a death grip around her, pulled her back slightly behind him, "Why would I want that? Tell these Hitori I don't want all that." He frowned at the other Saiyan, "What happened to you, Vegeta?"

Vegeta spread his hands out to both sides, "I am perfect, Kakarott. I have power, immortality," his eyes locked onto Bulma's, "and I will have the woman."

Goku made no effort to hide the fact that he was pushing Bulma, who was finding it hard to make her body respond, behind him, "Nothing's perfect, Vegeta. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to destroy those probes or that robot."

Vegeta frowned at Goku, "The probes and the automaton were the first made. But the Cyborgs…we are perfect. Nothing can harm us. The more powerful we are, the more powerful the whole is." He lifted himself into the air so that the tips of his feet barely brushed the ground and moved forward, "Give me the woman, Kakarott." His eyes were demanding, locked on Goku's as if he could see behind him to Bulma.

"No! Vegeta, this isn't you. You'd never hurt Bulma!"

Vegeta stopped right before Goku, looking confused that the man would think he would hurt the woman. "No, I will not hurt her. We will be one."

Goku shook his head, "One? Vegeta, please-"

His plea was cut off by a swipe at his face with Vegeta's open metal hand, which wrenched Goku's grip from Bulma's and sent him careening into the wall to slump to the floor.

Vegeta did not spare the man a glance as he advanced on the woman. Bulma nearly tripped over her own feet in trying to back away. She could only stare into the silver orbs, trying to find an end to their depth, trapped in them instead. She finally lifted the gun between them with shaking hands, searching the eyes for some part of the man she remembered.

Vegeta stopped and chuckled, "Woman, you won't shoot me. We must join as one."

Bulma shook her head and cocked the gun with a sharp snap of her arm. She didn't care about all this 'one' crap. She didn't think she'd ever been this afraid, not even on Namek. "Don't make me, Vegeta."

Vegeta smirked, "Woman, you want me, do you not?" He let his feet touch the ground and moved, cat-like, at her. His tail completed the image to perfection and she gaped at the silver appendage waving behind him before her eyes trailed to other places.

Bulma found her eyes drawn to the body outlined in silver perfection. It moved with the same grace of old, but the metallic beauty that surrounded it multiplied that grace. Every step was made with the utmost of accuracy. Every movement timed to some seductive song she could just barely hear. It was perfect.

Her eyes snapped back up to find that Vegeta had lowered the gun in her hands and was so close she could feel his breath on her, warm and even. His smell alone was driving her on her toes. "You want me, woman. You want power. You want immortality. You want perfection."

Bulma drew in a shaky breath and gathered everything she had together, every bit of will, pushing him away from her as hard as she could. Meaning she herself had to step back, as she couldn't budge him an inch. "No. I want Vegeta. You aren't Vegeta! I don't want power, or immortality. And I certainly don't want perfection." She tried again to catch something in the eyes that only reflected everything back, "I liked Vegeta for his imperfections. I don't want what you are."

Vegeta's brow furrowed, "You-don't want me? But-I am perfect, woman." He put both his hands out to his sides again, "Why settle for something less than you deserve?"

Bulma's lips narrowed to a thin strip, "Exactly. You are less." She raised the gun again, "I won't let you take me."

Vegeta's arms fell to his side, "Take you? Possess you?" He stepped back and looked to the side, where Goku was groggily getting back up before flicking his gaze back over to Bulma. He looked at the gun, "That could not hurt me, woman. I could take you if I wanted. Kakarott could not stop me. But I do not want to take you. I do not want to possess you."

He cocked his head to one side, "The voices are fighting, woman. I don't know which one to listen to."

Bulma held out one hand to halt Goku, suddenly finding meaning in Vegeta's words. Perhaps she had been wrong in thinking this was not Vegeta. "What are they saying, Vegeta?"

Vegeta's brow furrowed, "One says to take you and Kakarott. It says to possess you. I do not want to possess you."

Bulma nodded slowly, eyes not moving from Vegeta, "And the other one?"

Vegeta's brow furrowed even further and it was a while before he spoke, "I cannot hear it. The first one is louder than it. But it's trying to tell me something important. It has answers."

Bulma nodded again, "If you do not want to do what the first one says, then don't. Fight it. Maybe if you fight the first, you'll hear the second."

Vegeta suddenly turned his head to look out the window, hearing the voice in his head grow insistent. He turned back to Bulma "I don't have much time. Listen to me, woman." He almost sounded like his old self, "I want you to find out all you can about the Hitori. The Voice is their leader; I don't know what he looks like. The probes and automatons follow his command."

Bulma lowered her gun completely, taking a step toward him, "Vegeta-"

"No, woman. You cannot follow me. I must go to them. I am theirs." He overrode her shaking head with a commanding tone, "You will find a way to destroy them. Promise me."

Bulma shook her head again and moved toward him only to have him move away, "Promise me, woman!"

"No, Vegeta. We can find a way to undo this."

Vegeta shook his head, "I do not want this undone. I must- The other voice. It calls to me." He glanced out the window again and put a foot on the sill before whipping his head back around, silver eyes piercing straight through her like bullets, "Promise me!"

Bulma had only just begun to nod and Vegeta was gone, a gust of wind the only evidence that he had been there.

Goku approached Bulma uncertainly and Bulma looked at him with tear-filled eyes, "We're going to find a way to get him back. The dragonballs."

Goku put a hand on her shoulder, "But he said he didn't want that. Bulma, he's searching for something. Until he finds it I don't think he can come back."

Bulma lowered her head and sighed. Then it came back up, determination shining in them with the tears, "Fine. Then we'll help him find the answers. We'll find out what this voice is and destroy it."

Goku nodded, "I'll go get the others."

' ' '

Vegeta only flew for a short time before three automatons were flying beside him, not that they needed to. He wouldn't run. These voices…. He didn't understand. In fact, he thought he knew less than he had before, or maybe there was just more to learn.

Vegeta landed softly and went straight into the ship as it opened to admit him, making his way past the room he had been 'initiated' in and toward the front of the ship.

The whole ship was dimly lit and he found this disturbing. It was as if the Voice did not want to be seen and Vegeta wondered why that would be. He knew the Voice was a Cyborg like him. He was perfect. Why would he wish to hide his perfection?

He entered the bridge and stopped just inside the entrance. The automatons flanked the door and it closed behind them. Vegeta's eyes tried to pierce the persistent gloom to see the Voice he knew was there, but it was to no avail. The Voice stayed hidden.

"Only the best. You brought me none. You are not Hitori. You are a traitor."

Vegeta cocked his head to one side, curious, "My task was to bring only the best. You have only the best. Kakarott is not the best."

The Voice's tone went lower, "He is strong. Stronger than you."

Vegeta's nostrils flared at remembered hostility, "Yes, he is, but he does not want power. He has power but does not want it. That is why he has it. That is why he is stronger. I know this now. He could be initiated, but he would be a threat to the Hitori. He is dangerous because he does not want the power."

The Voice sounded highly doubtful, "Ah, is that so? And the woman?"

"You want me to possess her. I will not possess her."

"All women need to be possessed," the Voice responded airily

Vegeta frowned. How could you be one with a woman if you wanted to possess her, be more than her? "What about the other voice? Why can I not hear it? Why do I hear only you?"

The voice made a motion with his hand, evident by the movement and the sudden heightening of tension in the air, "I am the only one worthy to listen to. You will forget the other voice. You are the second Cyborg that has been made and you will listen to the first as is proper."

Vegeta shook his head, "We are Hitori, one being. For one of us to be greater than the other means that we are one being with one leader. We are no longer Hitori."

"I would agree with you, but the Hitori need a leader. They would destroy themselves without me. They need a higher power. They choose me."

Vegeta shook his head again but was cut off from making a retort, "Do you not follow me? Are you not Hitori, though we have gifted you as one?"

Vegeta scowled, "Yes, I am Hitori."

The Voice nodded, "Then you will go back and get the best. You will get the woman too. She is the most intelligent on this planet."

"No." He did not have to explain himself. He couldn't explain himself to this voice. It did not understand.

The Voice sounded regretful, "You lie, Vegeta, by saying you are Hitori. We would take away the gift, but we cannot. You are ours."

He said the next to the automatons, "Take him to a cell. The one furthest down. We will have to erase the 'unexplainables'."

Vegeta once again let the automaton wrap its arms around him, although this time he seriously considered fighting it and attacking the Voice. It was obvious that the unknown voice and this voice were at odds. He didn't like this voice, but he did not know if the other would be worse or better.

He wondered if he was right to ask so many questions; if it would not be better to simply do as the Voice instructed. But then he would be as mindless as the automatons. He was a Cyborg, higher than they in development. Did that not mean he should be higher in stature, lording-it-over them, as it were?

He was once again carried, but this time deeper into the ship.

Soon he would be as mindless as the automaton holding him anyway. He didn't know what the 'unexplainables' were. He couldn't properly define or categorize them, partially why they were unexplainable, but without them he suspected he would not be able to be so forward with his thoughts, would have almost no free will.

The other automaton held a door open and he was deposited in the room, the automaton leaving him there and closing the door behind it. Vegeta's surroundings were bare and as dimly lit as the rest of the ship.

He thought back to that brief moment when he had remembered what humiliation had felt like, and anger at that humiliation. He'd felt it toward Kakarott, the anger at least. He knew why he didn't feel all that he had felt before, why now it was all merely a memory. Somehow, even though the feelings were all there and surfaced every once in a while, they were dampened, put behind a wall that Vegeta had, in a way, a hand in building.

Carefully, Vegeta mentally probed inside himself for that other voice, bypassing the voice that insisted he give in and agree to go back and get the woman and Kakarott. He soon found it. It seemed louder here, away from all distractions.

Vegeta took a lotus position on the floor and did something he'd never done when he had been fully Saiyan for the relaxation it required and the total separation from his surroundings, which he'd never had the leisure to pursue. He meditated.

His breathing evened out, his thoughts stilled and rested in the blackness behind his eyelids, and his physical body went into a sleep-like state, the mental part gaining acuity he could not have outside it. His head lowered slightly in indication of his state of rest, but his body imperceptibly twitched; he had reached something.

A swirl of thoughts almost sent him careening back out of his meditation, but he managed to grab a hold of it. He could barely discern one concept from another.

Vegeta tried to grasp onto one thought, one piece that floated all around him, but they all slipped past his grasp. He caught only snatches of anything.

'Fall seven times…'

'…expect themselves to be.'

'Manifest the courage…'

Finally Vegeta tuned out all the voices whipping back and forth like strands of cloth blown by the breeze; instead he tried to find one strand that wasn't broken.

It took awhile, but he did find it and started in surprise. It was a light blue in color. How he could see its color was beyond him, but he could see it. It was taut with strain and looked as if it would break any second. He reached out a hand- when had he had a body? -and brushed the strand gently. It quivered under his touch and went still, some of the tension relieving. He clearly heard a voice, achingly familiar, that snapped him immediately out of his meditation.

'Vegeta?'

He blinked, non-Saiyan eyes quickly adjusting to the dimness. His mouth worked but nothing came out for several seconds. Finally his voice croaked into the empty room, echoing back on the walls and hitting his ears so that he had no doubt of what he had said.

"Woman?"

A/N: Well, another chapter…. I keep ending on cliffies…wonder why? Lol Anyways, review and tell me what you think. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Reviewers who make suggestions usually get them put in the story if I can manage it.

bararaven: Well, probably because I stink at summaries. That's what they pay other people for, after all…. I'm glad you're so anxious, but patience is a virtue (I should know, I have wait a whole week to watch DBZ cause someone else is taping it for me…. Not having cable stinks!)

SkittleKicks: (rolls eyes) You shouldn't plant yourself in the front of the computer 24/7. I hope you have more of a life than I do! (like a boyfriend and stuffs -_^ ) Thank you! I'm glad to know I'm not like a Robert Jordan book, who feels he has to use three pages to describe one room…. Actually, I never describe clothes…I'm working on that…. Perhaps…. Or perhaps the author calls them Unexplainables because she really can't explain them…. Lame, huh?

Vegeta's-True-Love: Crap is holy? Man, and here I've been flushing it! Nevermind…. Think Borg and you've got the 'one' thing. I'm working on DoY. I promise! Working on it all today actually!

Masamune: Coolness! Glad I'm throwing you off! Heck, even I didn't know where this was going!

Jadedbest: Hitori….It means 'one person' in Japanese. Uh, can I venture a guess that you're not happy about what they had in store in for him…. (sigh) Prepare to get even unhappier. Really? O_O Ok…. All I do is think how me and my friend I would still like to be more than a friend act. Well, minus the fighting…. We get along pretty well. (smacks self on head) Shut up, Kahlan! S:WW? Wow! Almost forgot that one! Seriously though, I had to erase a whole section and I'm going to rewatch Evil Dead for inspiration. It was getting too serious and angst too soon. Anyways, DoY is coming! I'm on Namek for Pete's Sake! Give me a break! Jeez, I don't see you writing Namek and everything that happened in it in one chapter! Lol (smirks) You do that and I'll make sure Trunks is never born…and Goten…. (runs away laughing)

Oh yeah! REVIEW!