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

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Author's note: Thanks to both of my reviewers for your comments. Hopefully you won't be the only ones for too long.

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CHAPTER 3: ANSWERS
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Jarod sat at Bulma's kitchen table, his left arm supporting Vega and his right hand holding a bottle of newborn formula. He had enjoyed this most of all of having his daughter with him, just sitting somewhere, staring into her eyes and talking to her as she ate her meal. It was such a normal thing, and God knew he had little enough normality in his life, but at the same time, it was wondrous that such a small creature would trust him so easily. There didn't seem to be any fear in her, and the blonde-headed child had easily worked her way into his heart. He knew that he would do anything to protect her.

When they had arrived in Japan, what had been one in the after noon in New York was eleven o'clock at night, and Bulma had suggested they all get some sleep to combat the "jet lag" and leave answering all the questions for in the morning. Since his day had been spent running, Jarod had readily agreed. He had been granted the use of a small guest bedroom with a double bed, so he had aranged all the pillows to keep Vega from falling out of the bed, then curled up next to her and was fast asleep.

But the lag still caught up to him, and he had found himself awake about two hours before dawn. Vega had woken a short time later, ready to eat, so he had gone into the kitchen to see what he could find for her. A grocery bag filled with baby supplies was on the counter, and he had gratefully mixed up the formula and sat down to feed his daughter. He noticed that, for such a young child, she had a very large appetite.

Bulma walked into the kitchen just then, stretching and yawning. Seeing what he was doing, she smiled. "Don't expect that appetite to go away. It's just something about Saiyans that they eat enough to feed a small army, and the demis eat just as much as the purebloods." Seeing him about to ask about that, she said, "No. Wait until everyone is awake and I can get everyone in here to answer questions. I've got to figure out where Vegeta is. I'm sure this is going to interest him."

Trunks, who had just come down stairs, said, "He's in the GR. I think he's just getting in a little light morning excercise, though, so don't worry. He'll be in for breakfast."

Bulma snorted. "One of these days he's going to have the gravity turned up so high that the next time he blows it up it'll take the planet with it and create a little wormhole."

Trunks chuckled. "Nah. The mechanism would be blown, so there wouldn't be a continuous distortion."

She grinned right back at him. "Why do you think I didn't shield the damned thing?"

Shaking his head musedly at their byplay, he wondered what they were talking about. GR? Gravity Room. Still, the rest of the conversation didn't make much sense. He hoped they would explain it to him. It seemed to him that Bulma and her son were probably just as smart as he was, though probably not as "absorbant."

Just a couple of hours later, Bulma's living room was full of people. Goku, Gohan and Videl, Goten, Pan, Bura, Trunks, Bulma and Jarod all sat on couches and chairs. Vega slept peacefully in her father's lap. And Prince Vegeta stood behind his mate, arms crossed over his chest and tail whipping agitatedly behind him, glaring at Jarod for some unknown reason. Everyone in the room but Jarod and Bulma were Saiyan, in whole or in part.

Jarod decided that he should tell his story first. "In Delaware, there is a think tank called the Centre. They are a very old organization, and they concern themselves with the extremes of human potential, mostly mental potential. They have their hands in every kind of biological science, from medicine and psycology to genetic engineering and the exploration of psychic phenomenon. The problem is, their ethics leave much to be desired. I am what is known as a Pretender. I can pretend to be anything, as long as it is within my physical capabilities. Doctor, lawyer, race car driver, FBI agent, Akido instructor; I've Pretended to be all those things and more. When I was four years old, I was stolen from my parents and isolated by the Centre. They trained me, experimented on me, did things to me that no one should ever do to another human being. When I was thirty, I escaped. That was ten years ago.

"Six years ago, a Centre team was called to the Arctic. Someone had found a downed space craft buried in the ice. It was spherical in shape, kind of like a giant baseball, and inside was a humanoid woman. She wore some kind of armor, but it was cracked. They ran tests for several years on both the body and the ship. They concluded that it had been damaged in some great explosion and thrown through space. It was just pure chance that it hit here. The woman was dead long before that ship ever reached Earth, but she was in space, and the cold preserved her body perfectly.

"Then someone, and I think I know who it was, decided to see if our two species were genetically compatible. Early tests had suggested that they would be. That person was connected to the Pretender program, and they had my genetic material on file. After only three tries, they were successful in fertilizing one of the alien's eggs with my sperm." Jarod paused, getting a handle on his emotions. When he thought about just how close Raines had come to getting his hands on his daughter, he wanted to either shake apart or go find the "good doctor" and murder him. Slowly.

When he was able to speak again, he continued. "Despite the general lack of ethics in the Centre, there are still some good people there, allies that can sometimes help me. One of them is a powerful empath named Angelo. He sent me an e-mail with all the reports and the experimental records. There were photos of the woman and the ship, and the serogate mother's physicals. He sent it to me one week before the baby was born, so I had plenty of time to work with a couple of those allies to, once she had been born, get in and take her. But there was a small gitch in the program we used to mess up their security system, and one of the cameras wasn't shut off. They spotted me, so I've almost been at a dead run for three days. I've never been so glad to have a rest as I was last night."

Everyone took a moment to absorb the information he had just given them. Vegeta asked the first question, surprising everyone. "Why did you name her Vega?"

Raising an eyebrow and having expected much different questions, he said, "It's Latin. It means 'fallen star.'"

"Hn." Vegeta turned away. Bulma looked at him like he'd grown a second head.

Goku said, "Well, I guess it's time to tell you our part of the story. It really starts with Planet Vegeta and a tyrant named Frieza." Goku, Gohan and Bulma took turns telling Jarod the entire story, from the destruction of the Saiyan homeworld and Goku's childhood to the Saiyans, Frieza, the androids, Cell and Buu.

Jarod was not surprised to learn that Hercule Satan had not truly been responsible for Cell's destruction, but the truth was still amazing. Then he thought about Vegeta's reaction to his own story. There was one who held things close to the vest, but because of what he was, Jarod was the very best there was at reading people. Vegeta had reacted to the name. He knew something, maybe not for sure, but something, none the less.

He looked at his daughter's face, an idea taking seed in his mind. It wasn't his imagination. She looked much like the Saiyan Prince. He looked around the room, searching for a picture that he knew would be there. There, on the mantle. Jarod got up out of his chair walking over to the fireplace, staring intently at the purple-haired infant in the photo. He looked so much like Vega, it was startling. He looked up and turned to face Vegeta, who stood staring out the window. "I've hidden my laptop well enough that the Sweepers are unlikely to find it. The pictures of the mother and the ship are still on the hard drive." He said nothing else, letting Vegeta draw his own conclusions.

Vegeta turned toward the human, examining his face. It was little known, but some Saiyans were naturally gifted with a small amount of empathy, enough to be an asset in battle. Vegeta had always known that Frieza lied when he told a then young Prince that his world had been destroyed by meteors. He could tell that Jarod had guessed to some extent what had run through his mind at his story. He was offering to confirm Vegeta's suspicions if he could. He nodded, then turned back to the window, staring out and seeing nothing but his own thoughts.

Jarod faced the others again. "I need to get my laptop. It has very sensitive information on it, and not just about all of this. I don't want it falling into Centre hands. It's unlikely that the ones who were after me yesterday will find it, unlikely in the extreme, but there's one who might, just because she's so damned stubborn and she knows me too well. It'll be a couple of days before she's called in, but I still need to get it out of her way."

Gohan stood and said, "I'll take you. We can leave Vega here since I just know my Dad is itching to play with her, and that'll keep her out of harm's way."

Jarod nodded. "Let's go."

So what's the connection between this kid and Vegeta? Anyone care to guess? Points will be awarded at the end of the next chapter for correct guesses. (Maybe that will get me some reviews! ^_^)