Chapter 14
Vegita washed some of the blood off his hands in the nearby lake. The battle with Zarbon had been rather quick, and yet fairly satisfying. He'd come after Vegita again, with a wild look of desperation in his eyes and had appeared out of nowhere demanding the return of the dragonballs to Freeza or else, he himself would kill Vegita. Of course Vegita had only sneered and dared him to try and take them. So Zarbon transformed again, and they fought it out. It had only taken the first round of blows for Zarbon to realize what a fatal mistake he'd made in challenging Vegita a second time. But by then it had been too late for regrets. Vegita cracked a grin as he remembered Zarbon's expression of terror as he'd blasted him into the afterlife. It was about time someone finally took out that pompous prettyboy, and Vegita particularly enjoyed the fact that he had been granted the privilege. He smiled, happy that he no longer had to think about that sickly subservient weakling.
Now, back to old business. He trotted over to see if the Earth woman was still lying where he'd left her. Yes, she was still there. She still hadn't awakened yet, but he'd better hurry if he wanted to make the trade before she woke up. He still had a good ten minutes of flying left before he reached that ki out there - and those dragonballs.
He picked her up again, only a bit more gently this time, so as not to wake her. He held her so that she was reclining comfortably in both his arms, and took off once again toward her companion and the two dragonballs. He scowled. He just couldn't believe that he, the crowned prince of an entire race of superior beings, was reduced to carrying around this pathetic human female as if he were some kind of chauffer. Well, no matter. Soon he would be immortal, and then he could take this and all the other frustrations he'd experienced out on Freeza's hide.
After a while, Vegita could sense that he was very close. So close, in fact, that he knew he was within viewing distance of his goal. He surveyed the landscape below. It was pretty uniform in character, with one exception. Right down the middle was what appeared to be a small cave. Vegita studied it for a few moments. He had a feeling that someone was in there, but he couldn't sense anything. Whoever it was must have suppressed his ki. And Vegita knew that only he and the Earthlings could do that. Smirking triumphantly, he zoomed down to the ground and landed just twenty feet away from the entrance.
"I know you're in there!" Vegita called out. "Come out with both your dragonballs, and be quick about it, or I'll kill your friend here!" He waited for a few seconds. He could just make out the shuffling of feet inside for a little bit, but then there was pure silence.
"Perhaps I haven't made myself clear," he yelled angrily. "I'm going to send her in to you piece by piece unless you bring me both your dragonballs now!"
"All right!" Came an angry shout from inside the cave. "Don't hurt her! I'm coming out!" Kuririn stepped out of the shadows of the cave, carrying two dragonballs and glaring at Vegita. He saw Bulma hanging limply in Vegita's arms, and then he glared at him again. "What have you done to Bulma?" He growled angrily.
"Nothing," Vegita icily replied, "compared to what I'll do to her if you don't hand over those dragonballs this instant!"
Kuririn looked angrily down at the dragonballs. He didn't seem to know what to do.
Bulma began to return to her senses. She could hear loud voices off somewhere, but they seemed very far away. Then she felt the discomforting sensation of pain - a dull pulse at first, which suddenly became a throbbing jackhammer beating inside her head. She struggled to open her eyes. Where in the world was she? And what was with all that yelling? She blinked in the bright light, trying to bring into focus the blurry shadow looming over her. She suddenly heard Vegita's voice boom loudly in her ears.
"What the hell is there to think about, you bald moron!" Vegita yelled. "Hand over the dragonballs or she dies!"
Bulma's eyes opened wide and things suddenly came into focus. She could see Vegita's angry face above her, staring straight ahead, and she felt his grip tighten around her shoulders and her knees. The anger began to bubble to the surface. She felt like a geyser that was about to blow its top. Vegita was using her to pressure Kuririn into giving up their dragonballs!
"You slime!" She shrieked, struggling violently to wrench herself free from his grasp. "How dare you? Let me go, you Saiyan freak!"
Vegita, was fairly startled by Bulma's seemingly abrupt awakening, but he managed to get a good hold on her arms, although she had been able to kick her legs free. She kicked backwards at him viciously with them, trying to make him lose his balance and let go of her arms.
"Dammit, woman!" Vegita roared. "Hold still or I'll hold you still!"
Bulma ignored him, struggling all the more savagely. The mere sound of his frustrated voice was enough to drive her into an enraged frenzy. She was not going to let him get their dragonballs at any cost!
"Please, Bulma!" Kuririn pleaded. "Do what he says! You're only making him angry!"
"Kuririn!" Bulma yelled. "If you want to see real anger, then just take a look at me! There's no way in hell he can be angrier than I am right now!" She actually got an arm free and managed to smack Vegita in the face. Of course, it did little - if any - physical damage to him, but it caused him to finally lose his patience with Bulma.
"I have had enough!" Vegita yelled. He jerked Bulma's feet off the ground with one sweep of his leg, and slammed her down on her stomach with his arms. Before she could get back up, he brought his foot down on the middle of her back and held it there.
"Damn you!" Bulma screeched, squirming and pushing as hard as she could. But, try as she might, she couldn't get out from under his foot.
Vegita pushed harder, making Bulma cry out in pain and anger. "Now hold still!" He ordered. He looked back up at Kuririn, who could only helplessly watch Bulma's attempts at freedom. "The dragonballs!" Vegita ordered, aiming an outstretched hand at Bulma's head and powering up. "Don't think I won't kill her, baldy!"
"Kuririn!" Bulma gasped, trying to draw in enough breath to speak loudly. "Don't you dare! You know full well that he already has the other five!"
"Vegita pressed down harder. "Quiet!" He barked. "He doesn't need your help with his decision!"
Bulma ignored him and glared at Kuririn. "Who would you rather have to deal with?" She gasped angrily at him. "Vegita or me?" (Kuririn gulped, not sure how he'd answer that one.)
"If you don't shut up he won't be dealing with you at all!" Vegita said, throwing even more weight into his leg.
Bulma would have screamed at the pain this gave her, but she had no air in her lungs. She couldn't breathe with him pressing down on her like that. She struggled weakly but frantically against his leg. She had to get some air in her lungs!
Kuririn couldn't take it anymore. "All right!" He cried. "All right! Take them! Just stop it!" He held the dragonballs out to Vegita in silent rage and frustration.
Vegita grinned triumphantly and took the dragonballs from Kuririn. He laughed as he stepped back away from Bulma and watched her try to get up and attack him but fall back gasping and coughing violently. Kuririn bent down and held her still. She glared angrily at Vegita, and gasped in surprise as she noticed that he was wearing her scouter. She realized in horror that it was because of her scouter that he had found this place.
Vegita realized what she was looking at. "Oh yeah," he said, holding the dragonballs in one arm as he took the scouter off his ear. "I nearly forgot. Thank you very much for letting me borrow this," he said, smirking at her. "I never would have found this place without it. But I don't need it anymore. So, to show you what a nice guy I am, I'll return it to you." He laughed as he crunched it in his fist and dropped the pieces at Bulma's feet. Laughing maniacally, he took off and flew towards his other four dragonballs so fast that he was out of sight in seconds.
Bulma felt like crying. Now Vegita had all of the dragonballs and it was only a matter of time before he got his wish.
"I'm sorry, Bulma," Kuririn sighed. "There was nothing else I could do. I wouldn't have gotten far even if I had tried to get away, and you would have been killed anyway. At least this way we can live."
"Yes, but for how long?" She said angrily. "Once Vegita becomes immortal he'll probably do away with us anyway, along with everyone else who ever crossed him. Which includes Earth," she added sadly. "It's highly possible that he'll go back to Earth to look for Goku, and when he gets there, he'll just destroy the planet."
"I know," Kuririn said, shaking his head in disgust. "But there was no other possibility. Either way we were going to die, and he was going to get the dragonballs from me. But it's human nature to try to survive for as long as possible, so I went this way with it. At least this way we'll be able to live a little bit longer."
Bulma sighed. "I know," she said. "And I agree with you. I just keep thinking that there must have been some way to prevent this. If only I hadn't been wearing that scouter when I met him! Damn!" She got up to dust herself off, but nearly fell over again as she was struck by a severe dizzy spell.
"Whoa!" Kuririn exclaimed, holding her steady. "You gonna be all right, Bulma?"
"Don't be silly," she said, ashamed of her weakness. "I'm just a little dizzy, that's all. I don't quite know how long I was out, but it didn't help to have Vegita stomping all the air out of me after I'd come to."
"So Vegita was stronger than we thought," Kuririn said, shaking his head. "It's a terrible shame that I underestimated him like that. I just don't understand it. How could I have been so wrong?"
"Well, I don't know how he got so much stronger to begin with," Bulma replied. "But I do know one thing for certain. Vegita can mask ki. He must have learned how on Earth, I guess, but I do know from fighting him that he can do it. I never had a chance."
"You're kidding," Kuririn said frustratedly. Bulma shook her head. "Man, that's just great!" He sighed. "Well, what should we do now?" He asked. "You think we should go tell Saichorou that we've failed?"
Bulma thought about that for a moment. Should they? It wouldn't be very fair of them to give the Nameks false hope, but she hated to have to tell them such terrible news.
She was still pondering this when she felt the twinge of approaching ki. She turned to face its direction. Was Vegita coming back already?
"Kuririn," she said, pointing in the ki's direction. "Do you sense that?" He turned to study it, but before he could reply, Bulma suddenly realized who it was.
"Can it be?" She exclaimed. "Could that be Gohan?"
Kuririn studied the ki intensely for a few moments. Suddenly his expression became one of supreme elation, and he beamed back at Bulma. "By Kami, you're right!" He exclaimed. "Do you have any idea what this could mean?"
"Yes!" She exclaimed. "Gohan may have gotten that dragonball after all!"
"Yeah," Kuririn breathed excitedly. "Still," he added, adopting a more serious expression. "We can't allow ourselves to get too hopeful. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."
So they waited impatiently as he drew ever closer to them. Finally they saw him - a small speck on the horizon, growing in size as he came. Bulma strained her eyes to see if he had a dragonball with him. As he got closer, she could discern separate features, and discovered - much to her delight and relief - that he was carrying one of the large, orange orbs!
Gohan beamed proudly as he landed in front of them, holding his prize up for his friends to see. Kuririn and Bulma cheered excitedly, causing him to laugh out loud.
"I'm glad to see you're back," he said to Bulma, setting down the dragonball to give her a hug. "Kuririn and I didn't know what to think when you didn't come back from holding off Dodoria."
"Yeah," Kuririn agreed. "But Gohan, Bulma and I were worried sick about you too. What took you so long to get back here?"
"Well," Gohan began. "I eventually found this dragonball in the bottom of a lake. But the lake was at the edge of a Namek village, or at least what used to be one before someone ransacked it and killed all the Nameks for their dragonball. There were dead bodies all over the place and I didn't think it was right to just leave them there on the ground like that. So I dug graves for them and gave them all proper burials. It was so sad, guys. There were so many of them, and there were kids too, all dead. I couldn't believe it. It had to be Freeza. Who else would kill all those people just for a dragonball?"
"Vegita," Kuririn and Bulma said in unison.
"Well, yeah, I guess he would too," Gohan said, thinking for a moment. "I forgot about him."
"Well, he did," Bulma said. "That dragonball you have there is the one that he ransacked that Namek village for. I had no idea that he'd hide it so close to the village he got it from, though."
"How do you know that Vegita hid this one?" Gohan asked her.
"I'll tell you later," she replied. "That's unimportant right now. What's important to know now is that Vegita is going to come here when he finds out he's missing a dragonball. Which means," she said, addressing Kuririn, "that we've got to pack up and get out of here before he gets here."
"I agree," Kuririn said, nodding. "Where should we go?"
"I think we should go to Saichorou's," she said, patting Gohan on the head. "We still have to take this one to see him anyway, so we might as well at least stop by there."
"Good thinking," Kuririn said.
"I'll be right back," Bulma said. "I've just got to get my capsule house out of the cave and I'll be ready to go."
"We'll wait for you," Kuririn said, and she turned and ran into the cave.
"What the heck are you guys talking about?" Gohan asked Kuririn. "How would Vegita know to come here? And why do I need to see Saichorou?"
"We'll tell you on the way there," Bulma replied, as she came out of the cave, slipping the house capsule into the case. "Hey Gohan," she said, as she noticed her broken scouter on the ground. "Do you still have my dragon radar?"
"Uh-huh," he replied, taking it out of his pocket. "Do you want it back now?"
"Yeah," she said. "I did manage to turn Radditz's scouter into one, but Vegita broke it. Do you mind if I keep this one now?"
"No, I don't mind," he said, smiling as he handed it to her. "We're all together now, anyway, so it won't make any difference who keeps it."
"Thank you," she said. She put it in her travel bag, then recapsulized it and put it in the capsule case.
"Well, I'm ready to go," Gohan said, picking up the dragonball and looking at his comrades.
"Me too," Kuririn said.
"So am I," Bulma said, snapping her boot flap closed. "Let's go!"
They took off for Saichorou's house, and Bulma and Kuririn began telling Gohan about the incredible events that had taken place in his absence. But little did they realize that this was only the beginning. They had no idea what was about to happen to them, and how it would change their situation altogether.
On to the next Chapter!
