Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Danger in the horizon ❯ Confrontation ( Chapter 29 )

Chapter 29 - Confrontation

Note: I don't own DBZ.

{} means characters thoughts and some slight lemon in this chapter

"Do you love him?"

The questions drew Bulma suddenly back to reality. After an extended breakfast and lunch, due in most part to the ravenous appetites of Vegeta and Radditz, Bulma had left the two in the capable hands of her father, going over the schematics for a gravity based training programme. If it hadn't been for the sudden jolt from dreamland she would have smiled at the horrified look on her father's face as she left the three men trapped together for a couple of hours while she caught up with her mother.

"I said, do you love him?" The question came at her again, the voice becoming waspish in impatience.

Bulma sighed deeply. "I honestly don't know. This connection we have with each other is deeper than love that I am sure of. Love, well I would have to say that Vegeta is not familiar with that emotion."

Sarah Briefs laid one of her hands on Bulma's, more to comfort herself than her daughter. "Honey, how can you to all intents and purposes be married and not be in love? It doesn't make any sense. I know what it is…you've just gone into this relationship on the rebound from Yamcha, that's it isn't it?"

Bulma snatched her hand away from her mothers ignoring the look of hurt on Sarah's face as she snapped back at her. "You know nothing about me, Vegeta or Yamcha for that matter. As I said to Dad, I entered this relationship willingly, with my eyes wide open." She glared icy daggers as Sarah tried to interrupt her. "Oh, and for the record, waiting seven months to start another relationship is not jumping in on the rebound." Bulma then stopped in her tirade and softened, slightly lowering her voice by a couple of notches. "Mom, let's talk about something else, okay? I'm going to be interrogated by Yamcha tomorrow and knowing him as well as I do he will be a lot more persistent than you. Let's just leave it at that."

Sarah nodded her head in deference to her fiery daughter. She had known Bulma for 25 years and was still no closer to understanding what went on in that clever and complicated mind of hers. The only person who came close to understanding Bulma was her father, who had a mind just as complicated. Some of the decisions Bulma had made in her relatively short life were in a word, crazy. And it looked like Bulma was not going to settle down anytime soon. Sarah reached out to her daughter and smoothed an errant lock of blue hair from falling into Bulma's eyes gently. "Well, how about we look at what new inventions your father has come up with while you've been away. I know for a fact that a conversation about my garden or my shopping expeditions will only bore you senseless."

Bulma smiled tightly at her mother, slowly letting her anger dissipate towards her. "Sure, why not. And while we're at it, I can tell you a little more about Vegeta and Radditz, alright?"

Yamcha stretched out on his sofa attempting to be interested in the movie playing on cable. It was just what he liked, action and explosions, but for some reason it could not hold his attention. Bulma was preying on his mind. Had he made a rash decision in breaking off the relationship with her? Or was the fact that she was now possibly attached to another man the reason she was suddenly attractive to him again? Angrily he punched the remote control to turn the T.V set off almost disintegrating it in the process. He ran his hands over his brow in consternation, angry with himself for almost loosing control when the Saiyans had arrived with her. Seeing her had brought back too many good memories of the past.

Yamcha had suspected that all was not as it seemed the moment Bulma had placed her hands tenderly and without fear on Vegeta's chest to calm him down during the tense meeting in the Capsule Corporation gardens. Unfortunately, Yamcha knew that he would have to wait until the next day to return and find out the answers to his questions and to discover what kind of man this Prince Vegeta really was.

He rose from the sofa and decided to work out his frustrations by going to the local gym to pump some weights, hoping fervently that it would take his mind off the impending meeting tomorrow. {Do I want her back? Is that it? Am I in love with her now?}

Chi Chi wearily cleaned up the dishes from the immense mountain of food her father and Gohan had consumed for lunch, her hands red from the hot soapy water her hands had been immersed in for the better part of an hour. The Ox King and his only grandson had disappeared conveniently after filling their bellies on a short fishing trip, hoping to avoid the less savoury aspects of eating, namely cleaning up afterwards. With the final plate now cleaned and placed carefully away in the cupboard, Chi Chi allowed herself to sprawl clumsily on her bed, tears prickling at her brown eyes as she realised that once again that Goku would not be home for some time. She curled on her side and cuddled up to one of Goku's gi's, able to make out the faint scent of him on the rough cloth. It comforted her greatly to be able to keep a small part of him with her while he was away saving the world, again. Over the past week Chi Chi had woken trembling, her face damp with tears as once again she had dreamed of some terrible misfortune befalling her beloved husband. As a result she was becoming clumsy with her tiredness and snappish at any little disturbance.

As Chi Chi closed her eyes, a sudden gust of wind blew over her from the window, upsetting her wallowing in self-pity. Frowning Chi Chi rose from the bed, intent on slamming the window shut and returning to the bed. As she closed the errant window, Chi Chi realised that she had not opened it earlier, which signalled to her that someone was in the house with her and it was not her father or her son. She tensed as she sensed another presence in the bedroom with her, spinning on her heel and landing a well-placed blow on her would be attackers gut.

"Oufffff! Chi, it's me, Goku!" Goku's voice came out slightly winded at the sudden attack on his unprepared body.

"Oh, Goku, I'm so sorry!" Chi Chi stepped closer to her husband gingerly placing her hands on Goku's stomach in part reassuring herself it was indeed her loving husband. Goku smiled broadly and drew her in close, wrapping his brawny arms around her and inhaling the sweet scent of her clean hair. "It's alright Chi, I think I'll live," he murmured against her glossy black hair. "I've been through worse, although you still pack one hell of punch for someone who hasn't trained for a few years."

Chi Chi moved her face upwards to Goku's her eyebrows raised quizzically at him being with her, sooner than expected. In answer, Goku gently led her to the bed and sat down next to her to explain the situation. "Well Chi, the Saiyans were less of a threat than expected, they mean no harm to us here on Earth. As you remember one of them is my brother, so I'll be heading back to Bulma's tomorrow to talk with him."

"What about Bulma? Is she okay, Goku?" Chi Chi grasped Goku's hands tightly for something to anchor to in case something had foully befallen Bulma. He smiled reassuringly at his anxious wife. "She's fine. Bulma said that she would come over and catch up with you when she's had a little rest and spent time with her parents." Goku glanced around, looking for any signs that his son and father in law were in the house. "Where's Gohan and Ox?"

"Where they always sneak off to when there's any cleaning up to be done, down at the river, fishing."

He ran his eyes appreciatively over the small form of his wife, hoping that she was thinking along the same track as his mind was running. A week of no sex had been like hell. "So," drawled Goku idly tracing a finger over his wife's, trying to look nonchalant, "they won't be back for a while then?"

Chi Chi then realised what her husband was trying in the most tactful way possible to convey to her. Her lips curled into a playful grin. "Not for a long while, if they know what's good for them," she purred removing her hands from his and tracing her fingertips across his jaw line. Goku closed his eyes, a rapt expression on his face as his wife lovingly caressed his face. Never one to be told twice what Chi Chi wanted, he lowered his lips to hers, capturing them in a soft yet passionate kiss. Chi Chi reluctantly broke from his kiss to slam the bedroom door shut, affording them some privacy in case Ox King and Gohan returned early. She then turned back to Goku and began to disrobe, her pale and curvy body slowly being revealed to him. Not wanting to waste a single moment, Goku sprang up from the bed and picked Chi Chi up, placing her gently down on the soft mattress, covering her with the lightest of kisses down her body as he divested himself of his own clothing and drew her close into his arms to spend a pleasurable few hours with his beautiful wife.

Gasping with the exertion, Zarbon used a few moments to tear his cape up into strips and bind the worst of his wounds to prevent any further injury to himself. Once he had covered most of his horribly disfigured face, Zarbon stealthily exited the morgue, hoping to make his way to the med wing undetected. The strain of shutting his body down for an hour to pass as dead had drained what little had remained of his energy from the skirmish from Vegeta. The extreme heat and power of the final blow from Vegeta had been almost overwhelming and if Zarbon had been of another species he would surely have died. Luckily for him though, his part reptilian nature had been a godsend, allowing him to go into a short-term stasis of sorts, allowing his body to pass as being devoid of life.

As Zarbon had so cleverly surmised, the area he was now travelling through was quiet with no other people around. He quickly located a service elevator which had no windows in it thus helping his cause and entered punching the button labelled "Med Wing", mentally urging the device to go as far as possible. Moments later he arrived in the Med Wing storage area, frantically rummaging around to find painkillers and suitable bindings for his injuries, warily eyeing the door for any intruders. As he searched, Zarbon caught sight of his reflection in one of the stainless steel benches in the area. Slowly, he removed the material covering his facial injuries and tentatively looked again, repulsed at the sight of his burnt flesh. Most of his hair on the right side had been singed away almost to nothingness, giving him a somewhat lopsided look. The injury to his face was the worst though. The skin, previously a light shade of green, was now a mottled purple colour, the skin had bubbled and now was in raised lumps of damaged tissue. His lips were ripped and torn from blows to his face and as he grimaced at the ugly sight, Zarbon noticed dully that several of his teeth were missing also. {Bastard…. he will pay.}

Dragging his eyes from the repulsive sight, Zarbon cleaned and bound his wounds, then with a heavy heart, took the plunge and cut all of his hair off, carefully gathering up the braid once it had been shorn off and placing it inside his ruined armour. He checked his appearance once more, ensuring that the blood and mucus had been adequately cleaned off. He was pleased with the transformation, which would allow him to leave the station undetected. He then departed the storage area and passed unnoticed into the med wing, intent on finding Lisa and leaving the station as soon as possible.

Silently, he entered her room, taking note that no medical staff were in attendance, which signalled to him that they suspected nothing of his plans. Lisa was still in a comatose state; her vital signs though were steady. Carefully, Zarbon gathered her up and made his way to the door, checking as he exited that he was not drawing attention to himself or his cargo. In any other circumstance he would have left the woman behind, but unfortunately for Lisa she had knowledge of his plans, jeopardising any success and besides he still had plans for the loathsome woman. He had to have some sort of consolation prize for Freeza's amusement after all. Zarbon took the service elevator, this time going all the way down to the docking bay. Once again luck favoured Zarbon and he was more than able to make his way, unnoticed, to his waiting ship. The technicians milling around seemed more intent on cleaning up the mess or gossiping about the missing Bulma Briefs. He strapped Lisa tightly into a seat in the rear of the cockpit, giving her another shot to keep her in a comatose state. It was going to take at least a month to meet up with Freeza's flagship and he was not in the mood for a hysterical female on his hands.

Wincing, Zarbon strapped himself in, fired up the engines and moved the ship towards the airlock. As the ship moved, several technicians were alerted to his presence and raised the alarm. However by the time the security detail arrived it was too late. The ship had moved into the airlock and the door leading to space beyond was opened allowing the small craft to swiftly accelerate and shoot off into the darkness of space, the pilot mentally cursing one Prince Vegeta of the Saiyans.

Having passed a somewhat vegative day with her mother, being careful to skirt around the subject of her relationship with Vegeta, Bulma sank her still tired bones into an overstuffed chair in her own entertainment area. Vegeta had not made an appearance as yet, so Bulma assumed that the discussions between him and her father were going smoothly, letting Vegeta obtain a suitable training programme for himself and Radditz. Several times during the afternoon Bulma had tentatively reached out mentally to her mate, but received no response from him. Her mind had been ticking overtime to deduce the reason for his sudden mental withdrawal and Bulma had come to the conclusion that it must be jealously and nothing else. She had seen for herself the way he had given the evil eye to both Goku and Yamcha during the meeting earlier in the day.

Bulma rose wearily and activated her stereo, placing a soothing disc of classical music in, then returning to her seat to meditate, while waiting for Vegeta to finish his plans with her father. She closed her eyes and drifted away into nothingness, letting the strains of the cello take her away from her worries for a short time. Her worries for the future.

Vegeta silently crept into the room, watching as Bulma sat in the lotus position, eyes closed, palms upward on her knees, meditating. The light from the sunset bathed her face in a golden glow, giving her the appearance of a goddess from the heavens. Carefully he walked around and sat directly in front of her, marvelling once more that this exquisite creature was indeed his life mate and belonged to no one but him. Reaching out one of his hands, Vegeta slowly moved his fingertips over Bulma's still healing lips, a small half smile on his face as he did so. Bulma, having known he was in the room all the time, smiled as well, cocking her head to one side as she did so. "The dark prince returns," she whispered, as Vegeta withdrew his fingers from her lips. Bulma's eyes opened and met the dark gaze of Vegeta's own eyes, boring almost into her very soul. "I know why you lock yourself off now, Vegeta."

"Really?" he retorted sarcastically. "And what makes you believe that?" He moved closer, his cheek resting against hers, almost nuzzling her.

Bulma abruptly uncrossed her legs, causing Vegeta to move away slightly, stretching and rolling her neck. "Maybe I'll tell you later." She changed the subject skilfully. "Did my father provide you with what you needed to train?"

Vegeta snorted in reply, amazed at the sudden change in direction, but also secretly relieved. "The arrangements are adequate. Your father has some small measure of skill."

"Then I'm sure he's honoured by your patronage, your highness," she retorted waspishly.

"As you should all be." He replied either not noticing or ignoring the obvious sarcasm. Bulma rose from the floor, giving a bow in mockery of his royal status. "Would you like to eat now, your highness?"

"Cut it out woman and stop mocking me." Vegeta stood himself moving into closer proximity to Bulma. "Yes I will eat, my energy levels are still too low. And besides," his mouth curled in a smirk, baiting Bulma into an argument, "I have no idea how Earthlings consume so little food and stay alive." He grabbed one of Bulma's hands and pulled her closer, just long enough briefly nibble on her lips.

Bulma rolled her eyes and pushed him away, before beckoning him to follow her into the kitchen. "That's because Earthlings are intelligent creatures. Not all brawn and no brains like you Saiyans." She replied sweetly knowing that Vegeta would not have a come back for that one. No answer. {It's going to be a long night Bulma…}

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