Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ What Exactly Is Involved In A Saiyan Mating Ritual? ❯ Revelations ( Chapter 12 )

A.N…Well thanx to computer trouble, mediaminer forums, and setting up my new website, I have to again apologise for the lateness of this chapter lol *^_^* Nevertheless I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: DBZ doesn't belong to me, and neither do the characters. This story however does… so *blows a raspberry* nyah!

Chapter twelve

Revelations

Vegeta's gasps, once full of violent determination, now settled to the calm of near unconsciousness. He could feel the familiar wall of blackness starting in a cloud of confusion as it ran through the synapses of his brain. It travelled downwards, numbing supple facial muscles, moving in incognisant trains through the upper-body, debilitating any movements that would instigate escape, and rendering him as helpless as a baby.

What the fuck had just happened? One minute the Ko-oni-jin was chatting to him, with the honesty and genuine benignity of a friend, (not that he had experienced much of that kind of camaraderie,) and the next he had turned on him. It was complete and utter proof of his recent weaknesses. That damn planet had a lot to answer for, stirring up forgotten and unnecessary emotions, laying him open to the effects of kindness.

Damnit! It wasn't supposed to be happening this way! He had come there to make them suffer, to repay all the misery that their powers had denied him leverage from, so much so that the dark feelings it promoted were never softened by anything lighter. It destroyed anything that he could ever have aspired to be, and laid it under an impenetrable veil, leading him on a path that even his territorial Saiyan blood would never have envisaged as correct.

It was now, as the life was being sucked out of his body, that he could feel the same lull, the gentle caress of forgotten memories itching for a release to send him over the brink to insanity. Now he knew what they were after, the distant images were hanging ready to engulf him the moment he lost consciousness. They were not the result of near death as he had originally thought, but the result of their power instigating his own as they searched his mind for something. It was almost affirmed to him that this 'something' had a connection with the power they had introduced to his system all those years ago, but the problem was finding out what? The elder had said that he was of Royal blood as well? Maybe that was the answer.

He tried to think coherently, tried to keep his mind on the subject at hand, to formulate a plan of escape, but every-time he managed to get any order to the jumble of thoughts bouncing around his head, they all fizzled out into a picture of Bulma. The mist curling around the delectable curves of her body as she slowly paled into the background, whilst he was unable to do anything other than stand by and watch.

Normally sharpened senses were now barely staying in focus, as the inability to protect his mate gnawed at his stricken body's thoughts with that all too familiar pain, accustomed to nothing but failure. Another Ko-oni-jin appeared in front of his fading vision, joining in discussion with the miniature face of the original captor. The rush of tiny feet added to the hiss on the rim of non-hearing, as the once empty chamber soon heaved with the Elfish green glow of an entire Ko-oni-jin community. They spilled out from unthinkably small nooks in the cavern walls, descending to stand by their elders, and stare inquisitively down on the powerful Saiyan's restrained form.

The damned creatures were taunting him with their very presence, and as the last vestiges of vision faded into a sea of green, all he could understand was that their deceptively fragile hands rested along the rock-hard contours of his chest, draining him of any last remnants of power.

The room began to spin in reaction as he clung onto anything that resembled normality. Underlying the eerie sound of depleting energy, the voice of a singular Ko-oni-jin filtered through, it appeared that he was whispering an apologetic prayer to whatever god they believed in. It furled around his head, as his body lost all hold on consciousness, repeating the words over and over, "We have no choice… no choice… no choice."

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Light streamed in fluidity onto dazed eyes, but no sense was made of surroundings or differentiation of colours… there was only a shifting of shadows, and voices. A stirring of movement close by could only be defined in the general confusion by the bristling of disturbed air currents on bare arms. Who was moving or what was being said was completely indecipherable. The mutated language skipped over the eardrum far too quickly for bewildered senses to comprehend, but despite this, the tones were strangely comforting to Bulma's overstrained nerves. For some unknown reason she felt safe.

She struggled to come to terms with what had happened. One minute she was following blindly after Vegeta down a network of interlocking Ko-oni-jin tunnels, and the next she could feel a familiar pain crowding around her head, as the mist completely engulfed her. She could still see the panicked look in Vegeta's usually collected features… Oh Kami the pain in her head was almost intolerable… What in HFIL was going on? Where was she? Was Vegeta affected in the same way… was it something to do with the Ko-oni-jin? These questions were just a fraction of those that her present inactive state refused to answer. She shook her head trying to regain some of her senses.

The darkness of impaired vision began to lighten, as a shadow moved closer to stamp it's familiar outline into view. It swayed slowly from side to side, softly morphing into comfort as it was accompanied by the smoothest of voices. The gentle cooing instantly lulled any panic that its closeness might prompt. In an instant of clarity the combined smell of antiseptic and rose-blossom potpourri, gave a hint as to her location and another shadow followed to join the first. They danced infuriatingly out of reach as she tried to make sense of the clue her nose had handed to her to the surroundings.

A piercing beam of light scorched its rays into her recovering retina, as the fog that clouded her vision still blanketed the truth. The throbbing that had settled with grim persistence around her temples gave her the urge to scream out loud for painkillers, but just as it peaked to an unbearable level, her ears popped, letting the once muted conversation flow into a passionate, yet normal perception.

Emotions swarmed into being in quick succession as she heard the gentle trepidation of the female speakers voice. "Is she awake? Oh I can't take this anymore… what were her and Vegeta thinking? Bulma honey… Bulma can you hear me?"

Moisture built in the corner of her eyes and she felt a tiny droplet roll down her cheek as a hand encompassed her own. Bulma squeezed the delicate fingers as she let all her pent up emotions flow through the singular contact. "M… mo…mom" Her vocal chords disobeyed her, and as she spoke, the monosyllable word was little more than a squeak. Her throat felt dry, and her body jolted to the dictation of wracking coughs.

"Don't try and speak, you are safe now, but…" sobs overtook any further communication.

Another hand laid firmly on her shoulder as the other presence in the room spoke, "Here drink this!"

The smell of stale smoke confirmed the speaker in Bulma's mind, "Daddy?"

Tensed muscles relaxed as she tried to sit upright, and a hand helped her as the polystyrene of a disposable cup was laid gently in her fingers, "You are severely dehydrated my girl, it's a miracle you are as aware as you are! This Saiyan technology is absolutely fascinating! I wonder if Vegeta will be willing to let me study it at some point!"

Bulma drank in eager gulps, her throat was so dry, and she spilt half of it as her arms shakily tried to get some sort of coordination. Her vision slowly blurred back into a normal focus, and even though her head felt foggy, there seemed to be no other ill effects. She remembered the swell of pain that encompassed her small body after disengaging from the game on her first encounter. No wonder then that it affected her so much more this time around… how long had they been in there? Then her father's words registered, and she pulled her legs out from under the pristine white sheets, "V… Vegeta… Where is he?"

"He is still under the influence of the scouters," Her father smiled down at her, but kept the seriousness in his deportment, asking the question that he already half knew the answer to. "What were you doing?"

Blue eyes looked up to the aging moustachioed face, apprehension shining in their crystalline depths, "It's just a game daddy," They turned away with a blush from a questioning eyebrow, to instead stare down at the crumpled white sheets in embarrassment. She hated having to lie to her father, but Vegeta had not told her if she was permitted to make their relationship public knowledge, and that damnable pride of his was now under her guardianship. Explanations could wait! "Vegeta has been training me to use it, I guess we got… carried away."

Noting the blush that stained her cheeks a becoming shade of pink, the good doctor refrained from asking anything more. The connection that her daughter had formed with the Saiyan had been painfully obvious even before he had gone searching for Goku in space. He had only stayed at Capsule Corporation for one hundred odd days to wait for the wish that would bring his greatest rival back to life, but even then there had been a determination, a strange sparkle in the young mans eyes as he spoke to Bulma. He had never distinguished anything similar to it other than the frantic earnestness he bared witness to in the princes training sessions, pre gravity room. "I managed to find a little information from the game, but if Vegeta has been training you to use it, you may just be able to help."

"Help with what?"

"Vegeta."

The words danced around her head in the daze of partial comprehension, "What do you mean, what's wrong?"

"Calm down sweetie, everything is ok for the time being, but… I just can't seem to wake him." A look of tiredness seemed to waver around the old mans face, "When your mother and I found you, we couldn't get a coherent response from either of you. We were worried," His voice faltered slightly, "I was unsure if what you were doing was safe, so decided to bring you down to the laboratories to make sure you were well. I must say that my scientific mind was intrigued with the idea of having a closer look at such advanced technology, so the double motive was to try and somehow understand the games concept a little more.

I was glad that I did. On the outside you both looked fairly well, but neither of you seemed to be coping with the metal strain it demands on your system. In comparison to Vegeta you were a lot worse, so you received my attentions first. Do not get me wrong, I have given him every medical attention that is necessary (although Saiyan physiology is still somewhat of a mystery to me) but my priority is always to you, so I hooked up the computer to the scouter to try and find a way of waking you, giving you a timeout before the program started to do any permanent damage.

At first it seemed hopeless. From all the information I dared to extract whilst you were still in there, I found that there were only two ways of getting you out. The first was for you to willingly end it, but that wasn't an option we could leave to uncertainty. The design notes I managed to decipher stated that a scouter should not be used for extended periods of time, and I guess this information was the influencing factor, as from the seriousness of your dehydration I guessed you had been playing it for well over three day's!"

"T… three day's?" Bulma blinked in disbelief, "b…but that's impossible. We couldn't have been playing for more than twelve hours!"

"Well we will discuss that later, but I need you to listen if we are going to help Vegeta. The only other way to end the game was to actually make the computer believe that your character had died. I didn't anticipate this to be any great difficulty as I already had the script needed on screen in front of me. All I had to do was find the correct code for your playing character, and simply erase the text.

Unfortunately it wasn't as easy as I had hoped. The code had been designed to continuously adapt along with the game, and as soon as I deleted anything, the script merely modified itself, duplicating everything I erased. I realized that the only way to override the replication was to actually design a way to kill your character."

"Wow really, how did you manage it?"

"It wasn't easy, but I added a replicating code using the one already imbedded in the script and introduced it into the existing games environment. I'm still not a hundred percent sure why it worked for you and not Vegeta, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. I have a feeling it is all connected to something else I found when examining him.

Do you remember that as soon as I found out Goku was an alien I decided to take several tests, trying to build an accurate picture of his physiology… well that has been my basis on figuring out the best course of medication for Vegeta, but when I was running a simple energy scan I happened on something that is not present in any of the data we have on Goku. If you are feeling up to it I would like you to have a look, and tell me what you think."

"Where is he?" It hurt her newly recovered eyes to see in the laboratories glaring whiteness, but she had to help him. There was a hurriedness to her father's voice that made her nervous.

A soft supple hand reached out and steadied her as she flung away the covers in a panic, and almost passed out. She was glad of its comfort because as soon as her legs touched the floor they gave way under her bodyweight, "Oh dear, I don't think she is able to do anything right now… she needs to rest."

Dr Briefs sighed and rubbed his temples, "I guess you're right my wife." He laid an earnest hand on his daughter's shoulder, "Don't worry cupcake… it can wait until you are feeling a little stronger."

"No dad I'm fine I have to help him! I just can't…" She couldn't come up with the words in time.

Her father simply encouraged her back to the bed, "No excuses you need to get strong first, you wont be able help him otherwise."

Bulma grudgingly accepted the truth in the doctor's words, but to do nothing when Vegeta was in trouble was an option that she wasn't prepared to take. She had to be near him, nothing else mattered, even if she wasn't strong enough to help him she would at least be by his side.

Her body straightened defiantly, "I need to see him!" Settled determination rung out from the words as she spoke them. "Just get me something to eat, and a chair to sit in and I promise I will rest!" Her throat clogged with emotion, "I have to be near him, I wouldn't be able to relax anywhere else."

Her persistence seemed to pay off… nothing was going to stand in her way. Her father reluctantly nodded his head, and supported her weight as she walked slowly over to the other side of the laboratory.

Vegeta was laid out on a hospital-style bed similar to the one she had just exited. A drip hung behind his left shoulder with its plastic tube trailing down to one of those wonderfully muscular arms, giving the fluids that his dehydrated body needed to function properly. Electrodes covered his bare chest as the heart monitor beeped out its melodic response to that vital organ. Bulma noted the very flat slow readings with concern. She hadn't had any idea that the game would affect either of them in this way, and what was even scarier was that fact that she hadn't even noticed any change whilst she was playing. If she couldn't detect it with all that medical knowledge of hers, then the chances of Vegeta being able to interpret it were even more unlikely.

Shrugging out of her fathers now relaxed grip, she cautiously made her way over to his side. One of her secret hobbies, before they had advanced into any kind of relationship, was to watch him whilst he slept. It was the only time that he let his defences down. Ever since he had nearly killed himself in that damned gravity room, giving her a glimpse at the vulnerability underlying his usual arrogance, had she taken to stealing into his room at night to check that he was ok. She didn't really have any explanation to justify it at the time.

The first night she found herself in his room had been a nerve-wracking experience to say the least, but all she wanted to do was help take those damnable nightmares of his away. Offering the shamefully little assistance of running her hands comfortingly along the harsh but beautiful angles of his face.

It didn't appear nearly enough relief to satiate her anguish for him, but even that was risky, what if he had woken up and found her babying him like that? It had worked though. The moment her delicate fingers touched his tortured, clammy face, did his mutterings stop.

At first she was startled to hear the names of her friends escaping his lips in such vehement hatred, Goku's more than the other's. After all they had done to help him he still felt threatened by them, but soon others replaced those names, and although familiar, they were ultimately more chilling.

One night she had happened in on him calling Frieza's name out in such horrifying fear, that she had actually felt compelled to wrap her arms around his broad chest to quieten him. Every single muscle in his body had felt knotted under that strange dream. It was in the wake of those anguished murmurings that she had heard her own name on his lips.

It had completely thrown her at first. She didn't think he had even noticed her in any other way than as the annoying hostess, let alone that she had a title other than woman or Onna. It was a sad fact to say that it had only been in these terror filled dreams that she first heard her name pronounced on his lips.

It had curled out from his mouth with all the insecurity of a small child, as his arms had wrapped themselves tightly around her waist in some sort of unconscious perception at her closeness. He had repeated her name over and over, almost as though the very sound of it would bring all the comfort he would ever need, and as he rolled it around his tongue the brightest of any ki energy swirled out from the front of his chest. It had poured in mesmerizing elegance over his tanned skin, around every rock hard muscle or supple joint, converging to cocoon him in its power. To her surprise though it didn't finish there, the energy seemed to need a release, and when her mind snapped back from the sheer beauty of it, she realized that the release was inevitably her.

When the first glowering of power had fallen over her polished fingernails she had tried to pull back. The sensations were similar to the gentle tingle experienced after receiving a small electrical shock, but as she moved the power followed, denying her attempt at escape. It continued to flow persuasively along her arms, setting the room aglow with its light, and after radiating its way all over her body, it began to slowly diffuse into her skin. It was only then that she had the faintest clue as to the depth of his emotions. That much desired path into his soul.

The connection was strange, but she had never mentioned it to Vegeta. The thought of having to admit that she crept into his room at night was more than she could bear to admit even to herself let alone anyone else. It was a once off, and she had never felt anything disconcerting in response to it. She had suffered no ill effects, and had gone on with her life as though nothing had happened. There was no re-occurrence of power... that was until...

Almost immediately her mind jumped to the morning they had started the mating ritual. She had been woken to the sound of muffled cries, leading her out onto the first floor patio to be confronted with him in the throes of yet another bad dream. That was the second time that it had happened.

Vegeta didn't even seem be aware it existed. The light had engulfed him whilst he had slept, brightening as she stepped out onto the Mediterranean-style balcony, but on this occasion she could feel the little something extra that had been introduced into her own system. It shivered its way through her whole body warming her skin against the autumn morning sky. The glow wasn't as noticeable in the sunlight as it had been in the blackness of his bedroom that night, but it was real enough.

His eyes had slowly opened, even his early morning sleep filled look, was calculated, but it wasn't alone. The light had dissipated as soon as he had regained consciousness, but it lived as a flicker of brilliance against those usual dark eyes. They surveyed her with such a need and longing, before she was taken up in the most fantastically exciting hug that she had never known.

The very last thing you could think of to describe Vegeta was cuddly, and that definitely wasn't the feeling invoked by such close contact with him. It spilt out from his very being, clinging to the very edge of the power that still radiated around her body. Unfortunately it was at the moment of connection reaffirmed, that his arms exerted so much pressure onto her small chest, and she had felt compelled to stop him, causing the power and the moment to be lost.

Now she sat next to his lifeless body, ignoring her fathers questioning looks, as she traced her hand over the wonderful definitions of his chest muscles, wondering what he was experiencing in the game. Had he met up with Ko-oni-jin elders, was he trying to find her?

Mrs Brief had exited the room, going off to make a veritable pancake banquet for her only child, but Dr Brief remained at his daughter's side with a curiosity that just couldn't be driven out of him. The results of the energy scan he had taken earlier, hung loosely in hands as he watched the tenderness that Bulma showered on the egotistical Saiyan, seemingly oblivious to him. Was there an understanding between them? Was it possible that the high and mighty prince had actually found some comfort in his daughter, and vice versa, and if this was the case what did it mean for… "Can I have a look at those now Daddy?"

Her voice echoed around the sparsely decorated laboratory, losing none of the earnestness it had held before. Shaking his head his arm lifted. The holographic slides were laced carefully into her hands, as his hand gently squeezed her shoulder. "Bulma… I?" he struggled for the right words, but he had to say something, "I know this probably isn't the right time, but… well… err… does Yamcha…"

Bulma started at the question, even though she had been half expecting it. She looked at Vegeta's stern face and ran her thumb thoughtfully over one eyebrow. "Yamcha and I have split up."

"I see… and does he know about you and Vegeta?"

"No…" Not saying another word she slumped back onto the canvas covering of the swivel chair holding up the slides to the artificial strip lighting, "Holy shit!" she coughed out, standing up abruptly, and knocking over the contents of a side table in the process, "Dad what is this?"

"What's what my dear?" He asked sidling closer to peer over her shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the slides.

"Here…" She pointed to a luminescence that clouded around at the bottom of his diaphragm in a small ball. "Is this what you were trying to tell me about earlier?"

Dr Brief's eyes trailed over the area that his daughter pointed to, "Yep that's the one all right! I tell you it's a complete mystery to me, do you know anything about it? I ran a check on all scans trying to adjust the frequency to get a better image. You see on each slide that Vegeta's normal power settles in a blue that runs along with the blood in his veins, but this power is completely separate, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get any better resolution to it than this."

The old man passed another slide to Bulma. She looked down on the magnified projection of power, and stared at it incredulously. The golden spark of energy spun in concentricity, furling around, over, and in on itself. It was so beautiful, and the carbon copy of the power she had felt spilling into her own system, "I'm not sure daddy, but I think I have seen this power before," She stacked all the slides together and passed them to him, "I need you to run a scan on me."

"What on Chikyu for?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it will help!" Not leaving anytime for disapprobation she walked barefoot over the cold concrete floor, and back to the table she had awoken on. "Come on I haven't got all day!"

The good doctor knew when he was beaten, and with nothing more than an amused shake of the head he followed his daughter's lead, ready to start doing the same tests he had done earlier on Vegeta.

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A.N… That's it for chapter twelve, as always I hope you liked it. Please review and let me know :) I have just started making my own website, so if you have a spare few minutes then go and check it out! All of my fanfics will also be posted on that site, plus whoever-else I can con into letting me use their fics… smiles gratefully at Dark Jade, and Saiya-jin44… thank you! I lovies you both! The URL is http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/ember/ and don't forget to sign the guest book :)