Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Unexplainables ❯ Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11

At a soft knocking sound, Vegeta's head snapped up. He had been sleeping, head resting on the side of the bed, face turned so that it was almost buried in her hair. He involuntarily tried to take in her scent, nose wrinkling as the smell of death and decay reached it instead. She would freak if she knew she smelled like that.

He chuckled at the morbid and almost insane thought and remembered the knock, which repeated itself with the same soft hesitancy. "What?" His voice came out dulled and almost as soft as the knock.

Goku's head peeked in, taking in not only the darkened atmosphere of the room but also the reek of dead things. He wrinkled his nose, unconsciously mimicking the Prince, before stepping in fully. "Piccolo says we'll be at New Namek in a few more minutes. You should get ready for the landing."

Vegeta merely shrugged, turning his gaze from Goku back to Bulma. Goku frowned lightly and stepped up to look down at his dead friend. He felt anger at her death and not a little sadness, but he knew they would be getting the dragonballs to wish her back soon. Really he was more worried about the man who sat beside her, seeming much too compliant for his liking. The slope of his shoulder and the bowed head spoke of much that Goku didn't understand.

"Vegeta?"

Vegeta looked up, searching the last full-blooded Saiyan's eyes. Was Bulma right that he had truly given up his birthright to find answers he could only find with it? Had he sacrificed everything to gain something he couldn't gain without what he had sacrificed? Chuckling, he returned his gaze back to the woman. Insightful little thing she was.

Goku's frown deepened, "Vegeta, we'll be reviving her soon."

"I know." He did not look at Goku, instead kept his dark eyes on her still, pale face. His voice was as dead as she was.

"Then why are you acting like she's dead forever?"

Vegeta shook his head, "You don't understand, Kakarott. Even if she is revived, she'll be lost to me."

Goku tilted his head to one side, shocked by the admission and confused by it at the same time, "Why?"

Vegeta looked shocked at what seemed to him an obvious answer, staring at the other as if it were he who had gone mad. "She's died because of me. She wants me to be who I was, but I am Hitori."

Goku rolled his eyes, "So? Who do you want to be?"

Vegeta shook his head again, looking irate at the man's foolishness. "It's not about what I want-"

Goku cut him off, "If it were, if you could be whatever you wanted, what would you be?"

Vegeta almost snarled, "It is pointless to think about-"

Goku felt something move within him and was unconsciously angry with the stubborn man, "Pointless? So her death was pointless? She died to give you a chance to be what you want to be, not what you were forced to be."

As Vegeta opened his mouth to deny that, Goku again ran over him, voice raised in volume, "I'm sure a part of you totally agreed with everything the Imperfect One asked you, but really, deep down, did you want to give it all up, Vegeta?

"You talk about questions and answers so much but it seems to me you're just evading the real ones! Who are you, Vegeta? Who do you want to be? What will take to be that? And are you willing to make the wrong choice again?" Goku pointed right down to the still body of Bulma, showing the price of such a wrong choice.

He shook his head at Vegeta's shocked silence, "I hope you figure it out soon, Vegeta. You'll only get two chances."

Before Vegeta could ask what that had meant, or rebuke the Saiyan for his treatment, Goku stomped out the door, slamming it behind him. Not able to follow the other for the powers of the Virus still holding sway on his body, Vegeta could only sit and sulk, Goku's words circling around in his head.

' ' '

Piccolo stepped out into a very familiar, and yet not, landscape. He supposed he should feel a bit of nostalgia or homesickness or something, but he had never been here beyond fighting Frieza, so it would be strange if he did feel that way. He stared down at the short and wizened Nameks that stood before him as the others filed out behind him.

There were seven Nameks in all, the elders from each village, and each held a dragonball in their hands. Kami had contacted New Namek while they had been in space, that way Bulma could be brought back as soon as possible. Piccolo had wondered why the guardian was in a rush until he had explained himself. They would have to wait until Bulma was brought back before Piccolo could tell them about the information he had so far kept from them. Once Bulma was brought back and Vegeta was normal, they would have what they needed, truly needed. It was really all up to Vegeta.

Vegeta was the last out, having insisted on not only coming out unassisted, but in carrying Bulma's body also. He had to stop at the ramp leading out and lean against it to catch his breath, ignoring the drops of sweat that ran into his eyes to burn them. His entire body trembled with the strain it was being put under, but he just gritted his teeth and pushed himself off, stumbling to where Piccolo was and gratefully dropping to the ground with her body cradled in his arms before the gathered Nameks.

He growled as he looked up at them, hating the fact that he seemed to be-begging. He looked back down at the body for what he hoped was the last time. "Call the dragon!"

The snapped words made the Nameks all frown in displeasure and the one in the front looked at Piccolo to see the Namek nod once, face set serious and without sympathy. "We don't have all day."

With a grimace, but a pointed reminder to himself that Kami had asked them very nicely for the dragonballs and warned them of the two's coming attitude problems, the Namek nodded back at the others and all set their globes down on the Namekian ground.

Vegeta stared at the dragonballs gleaming in the perpetual Namek light, squinting as one caught the light and reflected it into his eyes, which meant they were still their natural black color.

He missed the words that were said to invoke the dragon, not that he would've understood them, but he did not miss the darkening of the sky or the giant form that leapt out, looking more like a giant, green cobra than a dragon.

"I WILL GRANT YOU THREE WISHES. WHAT DO YOU WISH?"

Vegeta craned his neck up, staring the dragon in its ruby eyes that glittered as if it would find the little beings beneath him quite tasty. He was not about to show shock this time. He could care less how intimidating the thing looked.

"Dragon! I wish…" he stopped, looking down at Bulma as Goku's earlier words came to him. He would have two chances; there were three wishes.

He looked back up, "I wish to know who or what the other voice is."

There were shocked gasps all around, some of them sounding quite angry, but Vegeta tuned them out to here the dragon. "YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED."

Vegeta looked in front of him as a great, and actually comic, cloud of white dust appeared before him with a 'poof'. He peered at the object that cleared from the cloud and raised his head back up to shout at the dragon, "What is the meaning of this?"

The dragon raised one brow. Was he smirking? "YOU ASKED FOR THE IDENTITY OF THE VOICE. THAT IS HE."

Vegeta looked back down at the mirror, seeing no one but himself in its reflection. He was the voice? But that no sense! When he had entered the 'thread room' then, was he merely entering his own mind, or perhaps a place where all minds were connected as one? Was every time he had listened to the voice merely a time he was listening to himself? He shook his head, trying to clear not only the angry mumblings inside of him but outside. Finally he craned his head around to glare the group behind him, "Shut up!"

He turned back around to give his glare to the dragon as silence descended on the group behind, "You know what I meant! This is not it!"

The dragon shrugged, "I MERELY GAVE YOU WHAT YOU ASKED FOR. WHAT IS IT THAT IS SAID? 'BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR'?"

Vegeta gritted his teeth and again looked down at the female he held. "Well you'd better get this wish right, dragon. I want her restored to life."

The dragon nodded his head, "YOU'RE WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED."

Bulma yawned, stretching her arms and legs until they popped only to find them not wanting to stretch that far, held back by something cold and hard. She peered up with a disgruntled look on her face, as if she had just been awakened annoyingly early by a hungry Saiyan.

Well, the Saiyan she expected to see was definitely there, but the sight of his silver body jolted her completely awake to remember everything that had occurred up until things had become black.

She rose, finding herself being helped to her feet by the still kneeling Vegeta whose eyes did not move from her form; lips slightly parted and dark eyes wide in an expression that was mirrored by the reflective glass just in front of them.

A mirror? She did a double take, raising both brows at the sight of the ordinary, standing mirror that showed no one but Vegeta's form before she suddenly found herself wrapped up in two huge arms that lifted her off her feet and spun her around.

She laughed in shared exuberance and beat against Goku's arm with mock horror, "Goku! Put me down! I'm fragile!"

Goku complied, laughing slightly, and she beamed at him as he sheepishly put a hand behind his head. Bulma turned to look at Vegeta, who was staring into the mirror with an empty gaze. Goku followed the direction of the light frown on her face with one of his own. "He wished to see who the voice was. That's what he got. There's one wish left."

Bulma made a small sound, moving toward the man who still sat on his knees, looking into the mirror as if he could actually see anything except himself in it. She kneeled down behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Vegeta stiffened at first, then leaned back into the embrace, closing his eyes against what was before him and trying to lose what he had become in the woman behind him. It would not go away though. He still could not feel her on his skin as he should have, could not hear the sound of flesh on cloth as she settled herself more comfortably, could not do anything but smell her and feast on the sight of her after seeing her so bloodless and dull.

He turned his head to open his eyes and do just that when the booming voice of the dragon cut through his dream, bringing him back with a frown to reality.

"YOU HAVE ONE WISH LEFT. WHAT DO YOU WISH?"

Vegeta tried to shrug out of the woman's grip, but it did not loosen and he couldn't stand to get out of it. He suspected she knew that too.

"Vegeta, what are you going to wish for?"

The whispered words had him barely concealing the shudder they produced. "Let someone else take the last wish."

Bulma shook her head, blue hair brushing the skin on his neck, "No. It is yours. It is your choice. Who are you, Vegeta?"

His eyes widened as the woman echoed Goku's words, knowingly or not. But how could she have known?

He turned this time and stared into blue eyes that tried to delve into his very soul. He stared back at her with what he knew were his Saiyan eyes. He could see their reflection in her eyes. "Woman-"

She shushed him with two fingers to his lips, "I told you I knew who the voice was. I knew it was you. What is a meditative state, Vegeta? It's when you go into yourself. Then you wound up in that 'thread room' and I was the only unbroken strand and you couldn't see any other unbroken ones." She shook her head, "I don't understand it all, but I don't have to."

She grabbed his face with both hands, forcing him to continue to lock eyes with her, "You have one wish left, Vegeta. The Earth's dragonballs are gone. You have one chance to do what you have to do. What will you choose? Remember everything; then choose."

Vegeta watched with a slightly numb look, as if he'd just been fed too much information, as Bulma let go of his head and stood up, taking two steps backward until she was beside Goku.

Vegeta met her blue eyes, remembering…he met Goku's eyes, remembering…he met Piccolo's eyes, remembering…he even met Ayamari's eyes, remembering….

Finally he turned around, meeting his own eyes in the mirror, watching with no emotion as those silver orbs replaced what had been his emotion-filled black ones, not letting the gasp of pain from the woman behind him register as he finally met the dragon's eyes.

"Dragon! This is what I wish!" Silver orbs locked with ruby ones in a contest of wills neither was trying to win as Vegeta again opened his mouth….

The End….

A/N: Hey! Stop throwing those! That's good food you're wasting! Besides, tomatoes are really good for you! Ok, okay, I know. 'You said this was the end! Not only did you not tell us anything about the Namek but we have something being hinted at and a new character that hasn't been developed well and Vegeta has to make his last wish and he's all Hitori again and it just isn't fair!' Sorry. (shrugs) I thought it might be cool to start a second 'book' per say and finish this though…. Should I? Or is it fine there? With you guys knowing nothing…. Heehee, well, come back in one week to find out what happens…. What did Vegeta wish for? Will everything be ok? Lucky you! I've already started on the second book!

Ssjprincess: Yeepers! You caught up! Goodie! Yes, Goku grows-um, a brain cell! He, I love writing you as Emperor, Vegeta! O.O Oh my Kami! SSJ! Did you come up with that theory all by yourself? Have to find out next book, eh? lol I did enjoy it! Hmm, I don't know…did he? Caught up and now have to read another book. I'm so mean! I take after Veg-boy!

Danieloflorien: Thanks! Perfect? *_* Wow! But he can't go SS while he's Hitori. Besides, what is required for going SS? Need not want. ^_^ Never know, you might be right. Might be wrong!

Mizu megami: Ok…. O.O I'm not Kami or Kahlan-sama! Don't bow and scrape! Yeah, you definitely do! But then again, if you wish to honor me….

Masamune: Thanks! I've already some of what I'll be doing and reading! It sounds great! I hope you're not too-wiggly in your seat in suspense.

Susan: Um, have I redeemed myself…. (looks at last word of chapter) Not yet! ^_^

JadedBest: I made you cry? (gg) Sorry…. Sadist here…. Well, don't kill me! I'll post the first chapter of the new story quickly. Heehee, broken record! You really needed a thesaurus for that! Oh well. I requested it removed, they said they did, it wasn't done…. (I like seeing you mess up [lion])