Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Unexplainables ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7

Three years. He gazed down at the blue and green planet with a twinge of something he didn't recognize, although he could have put it up to something else.

The probe beside him, actually the one that had injured him; that had been faster than the other probes, spoke up, though mentally, What is this we feel? Why do we feel it?

Vegeta opted to answer it aloud. The sound of his voice sometimes stopped the thunderous silence. "Of all the planets we have seen, this one is the one that stayed with us. No other planet is that blue or green. The colors look good together."

The probe seemed to assent to this.

Vegeta decided that perhaps some more noise was needed, per say, "Who knew it would come to this? That we'd be so desperate as to come back before we'd finished?" He glanced at the probe beside him.

We come here because of our condition? Because the blue-haired one might help?

Vegeta chuckled, "Yes, I suppose that is why." He looked back out the window at the world below, watching as it came closer and closer, until it filled the whole of their vision. "Prepare to land."

Will they be caught unprepared? The probe moved to the control console as he asked the question.

He shook his head and folded his arms across his chest, "Doubtful. We aren't hiding ourselves as the Imperfect One did. At the least, Kami will be able to sense us."

A pause, "Scan the database again."

We have already scanned it and found nothing.

"True. But it couldn't hurt to do it again. There is a possibility that we may find something."

The probe made another assenting noise and fell silent, as did Vegeta, watching the planet beneath them come in sharper; features ridged and yet quite malleable at the same time. A far cry from all of the other planets he had been near.

Vegeta's thoughts were not really on the planet before him, but rather a certain blue-haired female. He wondered what she had been doing all these years.

' ' '

Bulma sighed as she put away the last dish. The sigh was not born of the work she had to do, but the fact that she could do the work and the memory that brought up.

When Vegeta had been here, she hadn't been able to do the dishes for the sheer amount of them he dirtied. Now, she could have continued to let the bots do the work, but that would have reminded her of him, so instead she was doing them, and it was reminding her of him.

Immediately after the ship had vanished from their sights, Piccolo had taken off, saying he needed information from Kami. Goku had gone with him, but both had come back empty-handed. Kami had known the legend had said the Voice was green-skinned, but who was he to tell them that. He'd only suspected it was a Namek, and suspicions were nothing substantial to go on.

Piccolo had grudgingly accepted that truth but did demand that Kami contact New Namek and get the information from them on this Namek. Kami had not liked the order at all, but he too wanted to know, so he didn't argue.

However, it seemed no one on New Namek was any wiser about the Namek leader of the Hitori. The only one that was old enough to have known was Guru, and he was long deceased.

So, three years had passed and nobody had found out a thing. Life had gone back to a normal, almost numb, pace. Bulma had even tried to rig up a ship and see if she could track Vegeta down, but Goku's earlier words came back to her: Bulma, he's searching for something. Until he finds it I don't think he can come back.

She wiped her hands on a cloth-a drying cloth-and moved to the living room to watch her daily dose of television. Not that she would be watching it. Her mind would be revolving the subject of Vegeta, trying to find answers to questions she at least knew, while the day slowly ebbed to night around her, unnoticed.

However, sitting on her butt twiddling her thumbs was not going to work tonight. She had itchy feet and itchy hands that were craving to do something. She rose, almost without thinking about it, and moved to her lab, mind preoccupied with what exactly she wanted to work on.

As soon as she entered her lab, she noticed the change, like one couldn't notice the flashing red lights and sirens that were squealing as if there were no tomorrow.

She dashed to her screen; her heart leaping into her throat, as her eyes confirmed what her mind knew wasn't true. She stood there, staring at the screen before a hand dropping on her shoulder made her shriek in terror, whirling around to confront an equally frightened-looking Goku.

"Jeez, I'm sorry, Bulma! Vegeta told me not to do that. I guess I should've listened."

Bulma took in a deep breath to calm her frayed nerves, "Nevermind that! Tell me you see what I'm seeing." She tugged on his arm, forcing him to stumble forward to the console, where he peered in close to try and see what she was talking about.

He pointed at the screen as he leaned back up, "That little yellow light going toward that half-circle thingy? What is it? A video game? Where do you put the quarter?"

Bulma sighed with pure disgust, "No, Goku! Nevermind-again! Just take me to where you sense Vegeta's ki."

Goku scratched his head, thoroughly confused, "Vegeta? But I can't feel his ki, remember?"

"Right." Bulma sighed and narrowed her eyes at the screen, trying to find out a solution to the problem, little as it was. Vegeta would come straight here, but she couldn't wait that long.

"Oh!" Bulma looked up to see Goku's face shining, as if a light bulb had just turned on above his head, "Kami said he sensed Vegeta coming down so Piccolo went to go meet him. I thought you might like to come so I came to bring you via Piccolo's ki."

Bulma slapped a hand across her head, "Goku-"

"Yeah, I know. Piccolo was shocked I said 'via' too. Gohan taught it to me. You should see how smart he's getting."

Bulma threw both her hands in the air, "Take me there already!"

Goku nodded, smiling broadly, and put his hand back on his shoulder, "Sure thing!" He put two fingers on his head, still grinning, and they both vanished from Capsule Corporations.

' ' '

Vegeta could see the small trio waiting for him through the ship's hull, even though they could not see him. It was yet another strange property of the Hitori ship he didn't understand. The woman might, but he had a slightly bigger puzzle for her to solve.

The square opening he had been gazing at them through flashed a dull color, signaling that not only could the trio see him, but he also could exit the ship. He stepped from the half-shadow he had been standing in and into the bright, Earth sunlight. He blinked up at the sky, soaking in the rich color, feeling a breeze tussle his hair around like a small, mischievous demon.

His gaze flickered to the probe that floated beside him, studying his condition with a worried expression. The probe sent a brief consoling message to him and Vegeta turned to the group, satisfied with the answer for the moment.

Piccolo's reaction was nothing more than a narrow eyed greeting, barely perceptible. Goku's was a huge grin, eyes seemingly taking in nothing of what Piccolo and Bulma could obviously see.

Bulma. Yes, the woman was looking at him with the most transparent of expressions. She'd obviously hoped he'd come back as he had been-pure Saiyan. He almost chuckled at the thought of being anything other than Hitori. He was perfection, simple as that. Well, maybe not that simple anymore.

Now, her eyes were taking in his whole form, at least the bottom half; that was where the most apparent evidence of his affliction was, of the Hitori's affliction.

It started at Vegeta's neck, right where the black band joined neck to body, and went all the way down to his boots.

Fine cracks, too fine to be seen but for the sheer number of them, wrapped around his entire body, as if someone had broken him and done a poor job in gluing him back together. Some kind of yellow liquid oozed out of the cracks, running down to puddle slowly but steadily at his feet. He seemed not to notice the liquid, but the cracks themselves must have been uncomfortable for his hands, hanging loosely by his sides, twitched and convulsed every few minutes.

The probe beside him seemed in no better shape, the yellow liquid dripping onto the ground at a greater rate than Vegeta's. The probe suddenly swerved downward and Vegeta's eyes snapped to it, a hand half raised as if to help it.

Vegeta's hand paused in the air just above the probe, silver eyes narrowed at the spider-like robot. Although the others had heard nothing, Vegeta responded, "Yes. We understand. You were Hitori to the end. You will not be forgotten."

Vegeta's hands caught the probe as it suddenly fell from the sky. Vegeta looked down at the still probe he held in his hands and carefully turned from the silently watching trio, who desperately wanted to know what was going on, setting the probe inside the ship as it had wanted.

He turned back to the group and addressed them, "We have come back, but not as we said we would; when I found answers." He was now speaking directly to Bulma, who had taken a step toward him, "We have need of your help."

Bulma nodded, "What happened, Vegeta? What's wrong with you?"

He glanced back at the still probe, "I am the last of the Hitori now, woman." His silver eyes bored into her blue ones. He was pleased that she did not flinch away from them. He carefully took a step forward and gasped as pain tore through his body like electricity. He heard the woman shout his name and felt his cheek make contact with the ground with a thud.

As she knelt down beside him, hands fluttering but not touching his body, he raised himself quickly to his hands and knees, mostly as a way to reassure her, turning his head to look at her. "We contracted a virus."

She saw the way his eyes squinted, the way his body shuddered with remembered pain. It seemed there were more cracks in his body and even more of the liquid was flowing out of it.

She put one of his arms on her shoulders and helped him to rise, alarmed when he didn't pull away or snap at her. As soon as he was fully upright, he moved away, so she knew the change wasn't because of his Cyborg state. She wrinkled a nose in distaste at the liquid that now coated her, but spoke despite a sudden urge to shower, "From where?"

Vegeta shrugged, "That is part of the problem. I was following the Imperfect One's record of the planets he had been to, collecting data from them and uploading it to our database to find answers. Seven months and six days ago one of the automatons started to show signs of the virus," he held up one arm to elaborate, watching yellow liquid drip from it, "He was dead a day later.

"After that the automatons died in clusters. We immediately tried to pinpoint the source, but could only isolate it to the database. We cannot find which planet it came from. Without that knowledge, we couldn't find out the structure of the virus to find a cure.

"It killed all the automatons, and then moved to the probes. I had them set a course for Earth, as you are the only planet we have contact with but did not get information from. By the time we got here it was just the probe and I. Now, it is just I."

Bulma made a small sound and Vegeta's head turned to her, as he had been looking at the dead probe. He tilted his head to one side, wondering at her expression. It was not pity, sympathy maybe? "Will you help?"

Bulma nodded, "Of course! I don't care if you're Hitori or not, Vegeta, you're still Vegeta."

He nodded, his knees suddenly buckling, causing him to sit hard on the ground. The doorway behind him disappeared, changing back into the impenetrable silver hull. His head hung down to gaze at his lap, as if it was too heavy to hold up, chest heaving with labored breaths he had been controlling up until now. "Take me somewhere…where I can rest."

Bulma stopped her forward momentum to aid Vegeta long enough to snap at Goku, breaking him out of whatever trance he had been in that had caused him to stay so silent through the whole scene, "Goku! You heard him! Capsule. Now."

Goku nodded and started forward to be halted by a green hand on his arm. Piccolo was scowling slightly at Vegeta, not even looking at Goku as he spoke, "I'll go inform Kami and meet you there."

Goku nodded as the hand released him and the owner of it flew off, not even looking back to see if Goku had nodded or not. Shrugging, he turned back to the immediate worries and quickly transported all three of them back to Capsule Corporation, via Mrs. Brief's ki, Goku was happy to point out.

A/N: Three years? I'm just mean. So, what happened in those three years? Where did this Virus come from? Oh no! Whatever shall we do with this quite unrevealing chapter? How about, since I was late, we go onto the next? Hmm? Well, go on! Reviewer responses are there! ^_^