Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Second Chance ❯ Chapter 3

Disclaimer: And on the first day, Akira Toriyama created Dragonball and it was good. On the second day, he created Dragonball Z and it was very good (yeah Vegeta). On the third day, FUNimation took over the dubbing of DBZ and the world was plunged into darkness. The moral of the story is that I don't own DBZ.

Second Chance

Chapter Three

By nycscribe46

Aki forced herself to eat. Vegeta had ceased burning a hole in her back with his eyes when his food appeared in front of him. He ate just like his son, as if the food were trying to escape, and must be consumed as quickly as possible. Aki certainly knew what it was like to be hungry, and had probably looked like that at times. But her mother had taught her how to eat when you had company, and she behaved accordingly.

When she had finished, she looked around for Bulma. She wanted to see about this map.

She found the blue-haired woman sitting in a large room down the hall from the kitchen. The electronic map was in her lap. She glanced up when she heard Aki enter the room.

"I see you've finished your lunch. Or did you lose your appetite when you saw the way my husband and son like to eat?"

Aki froze, unsure of what to say. Then she realized that Bulma was joking, and forced a small smile.

"I managed."

"Good. Now, I'd like to ask you if you can find your planet on this thing. It's okay if you don't have a good knowledge of astrology. Not a lot of people your age do. We'll just give it a shot, all right?"

Aki nodded, and knelt beside Bulma's armchair.

Bulma slowly turned a dial on the device, and it was like the viewpoint on the screen pulled back to show the whole universe. Aki stared, fascinated.

Bulma began to reel off names of different solar systems and galaxies, but none of them made sense to Aki. She tried to focus on the pictures of them instead, hoping to see something she recognized from a book, or the night sky.

Bulma pointed to bright swirls of light as she named them. A few sounded vaguely familiar, but long forgotten, from the days her mother had tried to make a scholar of her.

"And this is the Milky Way Galaxy. Our solar system is in this galaxy, in which this planet and eight others are contained, along with their various moons, and the sun."

Aki looked at the place that Bulma was pointing at.

"I've seen this picture before."

"Really? Where?"

"One of my mother's books. It was a long time ago. She was reading it, but she stopped because she said it was pointless; neither of us would ever get to see anything outside of our own planet, so why bother reading about it? I think…I think I know something about this place. Our planet is also contained in it. But most of the planets here are uninhabitable. That's why our planet was left alone, and out of most wars until a few hundred years ago, she said. There weren't any other advanced space faring races in the solar system, and our government has a long standing policy of neutrality. Can you…"

"Go further into the solar system? Sure. This is Earth. We're right about here," said Bulma, pointing to a large land mass on a mostly blue planet.

"It's mostly water, and-"

"It looks just like my planet."

"That's probably true, because your planet would have to have similar conditions that would cause evolution to produce humans, just like Earth did. Oxygen and-wait, do you mean, it looks exactly like your planet?" Bulma sat up straighter, looking at Aki excitedly.

"Yes, it does. We have a moon, too. If-"

"If what?"

"If you hadn't said you'd never heard of the Eastern Empire, I'd say it was the same planet."

Bulma stared down at the confounding oblate spheroid. Then she looked at the too-thin, too wise young girl kneeling on the floor beside her.

"All right. We're not going to jump to any wild conclusions here. What we know for sure is that you're from a planet that evolved similarly to the way Earth did. And you were transported here by a devise that we don't fully understand. What exactly was it supposed to do?"

"I don't know. It was a secret. I shouldn't have even known of its existence. I was spying on a drunken scientist and he spoke of it in his ramblings. He said it would tear at the fabric of space. But it had been stolen. The next day, the rebels attacked the chief legislator's main building. I tried to stop them before they killed him. He's a good man. But I fell to them, and now here I am. I hope he escaped." Aki stared at the ground, ashamed. A man was probably dead now, and it was her fault. She should have stopped them. She should have known that it was the rebels who had stolen the device. She should have been ready.

"Aki, it's not your fault. You couldn't have known what they were planning. At least you tried. Maybe you gave him enough time to get away." Bulma put a hand on Aki's shoulder. She looked so guilty. Poor kid. She was too young to have to worry about that kind of stuff.

Aki forced the images of Senator Fuchida's mangled body from her mind. She couldn't help but imagine the worst. But she had no idea what had become of him, and there was nothing she could do for him now.

Bulma's thoughts were on what the scientist had let slip about the mysterious device. A device that would tear at the fabric of space. What did he mean by that? If it was only an instantaneous traveling device, it shouldn't tear at anything. But the void that Aki had come from looked completely unnatural, as if it had torn at the sky itself. Or the fabric of space. So something had occurred that nature definitely did not intend. There must be something that the scientist had known that Bulma did not.

And yet, Aki spoke of Earth's galaxy like it was her own. It was the only thing that Bulma had shown her that she had shown some recognition of. And what she said about the solar system she was from did mesh with Earth's. In fact, it was almost exactly the same. A device that would tear at the fabric of space. Did that mean it would destroy the universe, like pulling a thread out of a sweater? Or would it simply change the order of things, like patches in a quilt? Maybe Aki was a new component in the quilt of Earth.

Bulma began to get excited.

Aki was afraid of the look in the woman's eyes.

"Aki, did you see if the person with the device touched something on it before you were zapped here? A button, a dial, or something. I'm wondering why you happened to come here, instead of another planet? Why Earth?" Or, Bulma thought animatedly, why this Earth. Because she was almost certain that Aki was from this planet, and not some impossibly similar one. Or at least a planet that was third from the sun in the very same solar system, under a different name. She almost laughed. It was so obvious, she didn't know why she hadn't seen it before.

"I didn't see anything except the scum reach under his cloak, pull out the device, and a bright light. And then you. And that man of yours."

Bulma grinned at Aki's tone when she referred to Vegeta.

"Ah, yes. Him. Heh." Bulma had to laugh. Apparently the Vegeta in Aki's dimension had been busy. Bulma wondered if Aki had figured it out yet. Vegeta might have. It certainly had not escaped Bulma's attention that he had been staring at the girl since her arrival. She looked so like him. It must be eating him alive, Bulma thought. She imagined Vegeta's voice in her mind. 'I don't recall mating with any other humans on this miserable planet! What the hell are you talking about, woman?' But Bulma had examined both Vegeta's and Trunks' blood and DNA, not to mention their faces, so many times, she could definitely see the resemblance. Bulma decided to tell Aki her suspicions.

"Aki, you and Vegeta-"

"We're related somehow. You're right. I am of the same race as he."

"Yes, but I think it goes a little further than that. You see, Vegeta's a prince."

"He certainly acts like one."

"Yes, he does. But his entire race was wiped out by Frieza. And his home planet destroyed. Just like the prince in your story. And you couldn't have known that about him unless I'm right, and he really is your father."

"My father's dead."

"Don't get angry. I'm not saying that your father ran out on your mom. I'm saying that you're from a different dimension than the one you're in now, and the Prince Vegeta that met your mother and had you is dead, and different from the one in this dimension who came to this Earth and met me."

Aki sat there silently. Everything the woman had said made sense. It explained why Vegeta had been so wary of her. It only added to what she had already guessed. And the woman had already proven herself to be very intelligent. Maybe she was right. But still…

"He has no obligation to me. And I don't want him to feel as if he does. He isn't my father."

"Well, no. And I don't think he wants to be. But you happen to have a few of his chromosomes, and saiyan blood running through your veins. I think that will mean something to him. And, Aki?"

She looked up.

"If you don't mind, I'd love it if you stayed here. You deserve a family just like everyone else. I'm so sorry about what happened to your first one. But maybe we can give you a home here. I wouldn't mind having a daughter, if you'd let me adopt you. I mean, I know you want to keep fighting your mother's fight. I can see it in your eyes. But it's just not possible, Aki. I don't know how to get you back there, and even if I did, I'm sorry, but I wouldn't let you go. From what you said, there's nothing you can do. You're only one person. So will you give it a shot?"

Aki looked away from the woman's bright blue eyes. She was being very gracious and kind. Aki knew she had no where to go, and here was a woman who understood everything, and had asked her to stay, and become part of her family. She looked back up with tear filled eyes.

"Yes, I will,…"

Bulma smiled.

"It's Bulma, Aki. My name's Bulma."

"Yes, I will stay with you, Bulma. Thank you." The tears began to fall.

Bulma embraced the sobbing girl, who stiffened, and then relaxed.

Aki hadn't been hugged in three years.

Bulma let go of her, and she immediately wiped away the evidence of her emotions.

Bulma rolled her eyes. It was nothing to be ashamed of. If she'd gone through the myriad of emotions that Aki had that day, she'd be bawling.

"What do you want to do now?" she asked the girl.

"Sleep."

"Well, too bad. You're taking a shower. Then you can sleep. But if you're really a half saiyan, by then you'll be hungry again. Tomorrow, we'll go to the courthouse and get your adoption papers in order. You'll be Aki Briefs. Unless you want to keep your last name. What is it, anyway?"

"Kawaii. But I don't care. My mother just picked it out of a hat so no one would find us. I don't mind taking your last name."

"Okay. Come on, I'll show you to your room."

Bulma took Aki's hand and pulled her up. They left the living room and went up the stairs to the bedrooms. They passed Bulma and Vegeta's room, and Trunks' room, to a room with a bed and an empty bureau. It had a closet and an adjoining bathroom.

"Here we are. I'll get you a towel and some clothes." Bulma left Aki in her new bedroom. She sat on the bed. She felt a bit queasy. She still couldn't believe the turn of events that had placed her here, in this very spot. She genuinely liked Bulma; that emotion was unfamiliar. Until today, she had felt nothing towards another person besides respect, or fear, or annoyance, since her mother's death. She hadn't thought the war would ever end, and now it had, at least for her.

She was free, free of the debt she had felt she had to repay to her mother. Free of the foreboding responsibility she knew she would have if the war had ended, and she had been discovered to be the direct descendant of the fallen king, and the rightful ruler. Unless of course, the rebel army had won. Then she would have been killed outright, if she was not already dead.

"Aki? I brought you some clothes. I know they're not your size, but we can go shopping tomorrow."

Aki was jarred out of her morbid thoughts by Bulma, who had returned with a towel and a sweatshirt and some pants that were a bit too big for her, but Aki was not too picky. She thanked her, and went into the bathroom. She showered and washed her hair with the sweet-smelling soap she found in the bathroom closet. When she went back into her room, she found that Bulma had turned the heat on, and the room was comfortably warm. She got dressed quickly, and as Bulma had joked about earlier, yes, she was hungry. She pulled on the shoes Bulma had given her earlier and went downstairs to the kitchen.

She saw Bulma unpacking bags of food. It smelled delicious. She tried not to salivate too much. Bulma looked up and smiled.

"Yep, I ordered some take-out. I've heard too many bad things about my cooking to subject you to it. You've already had a rough day."

Aki smiled at the self-depreciating joke and sat down at the table. Bulma had just opened a carton of rice and was about to spoon some onto Aki's plate, when Trunks ran in ahead of his father, yelling, "Yay! Dinner!"

Bulma laughed, scooping up her son in a hug. He squeezed her briefly, then grabbed a plate, beaming at her as he held it out for a serving.

Aki told Bulma to go ahead and serve him first.

Bulma filled Trunks' plate and then motioned to serve Aki next.

Vegeta narrowed his eyes at her.

Bulma ignored him, and said firmly, "Wait your turn."

Vegeta grumbled but refrained from destroying anything. His fork had seen better days, though.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, Aki. Now I'll serve you, Vegeta. See, you're still alive. The thirty second delay didn't kill you, unfortunately."

"Just give me my food, woman."

Bulma sighed, and emptied the seafood platter onto Vegeta's plate, along with the chicken, broccoli, and rice. Then she began to eat her own, much smaller dinner.

She took a bite, and watched the scene before her. Aki ate her own food normally, still keeping an eye on the child next to her. She was afraid he was going to hurt himself, but he seemed to be assimilating the food just fine.

Bulma cleared her throat.

"Hey, Trunks?"

Trunks looked up at his mother with a rice covered smile.

"How would you like to have a big sister?"

Vegeta, who had just attempted to swallow several jumbo shrimp, immediately began to choke. His eyes bulged. Trunks smacked him on the back a few times, but to no avail. Bulma was torn between trying to help, and laughing out loud. She knew this was going to happen one day.

Aki put down her fork. She went behind the choking saiyan and pulled him from his seat, putting her arms around him the way she'd seen her mother do at the tavern she'd worked at, when a drunk had swallowed too much food. She made a fist just above Vegeta's middle and pushed as hard as she could. Then she did it again. On the third try, the offending food finally escaped Vegeta's gullet. He shoved her away angrily, still gasping for breath.

"Damn…*gasp* shrimp…*hack*…"

Bulma burst out laughing.

Trunks stared at them both.

Aki went back to her seat, satisfied that her new friend's man would not die. She couldn't even face the fact that the red-faced, ungrateful oaf over there was her father. Sort of.

Vegeta got his breathing back under control, and turned to face Aki.

"I didn't need your help, girl."

Bulma stopped laughing, and grabbed Vegeta's arm.

"Hey, you. She saved your life. And she has a name."

Vegeta stared at Bulma. He couldn't believe this. She meant to make this girl part of their family. And then the little weakling had managed to save him. From rogue seafood, no less. The much smaller, more rational side of his brain reminded the arrogant, angry part of the girl's saiyan blood. And her face. Her eyes. He didn't understand how, or why, but she was… She was…

Vegeta shook Bulma off of him. He turned to Aki, who was staring at her feet, and said,

"Thank you."

Aki looked up, surprised.

Vegeta returned to his seat, not waiting for an answer. He began to finish his food, eating slowly for once. Well, slowly for him, anyway.

With caution.

And he didn't even look at the shrimp.