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 Chapter Fifteen...