New Beginning

Throughout the next couple of months, Bulma did a number of things in an attempt to gain the cold Prince’s attention. She prepared meals, tried to catch him eating in the kitchen at three in the morning one night, dressed up, and she even sunbathed in a sexy swimsuit in clear view of one of the GT’s windows.

Nothing worked. Vegeta wouldn’t come to meals when others were present. He could tell that she was in the kitchen at three in the morning by the fact that the lights were on, so he would hunt in the woods for his dinner. He would totally ignore her presence in the backyard. Things were not looking up from what Bulma could see.

If truth be told, he was avoiding her. He admitted to himself that he found her highly attractive, but he did not want to grow attached to her or to begin to feel for her in any way. From what he’d been taught, it was just too dangerous. Caring would cost him dearly lovelove would bring him down.

Bulma was truly beginning to get frustrated. Her curiosity was eating away at her so much that she felt distracted from her academic studies. And to think this was only her freshman year at Satan City University! What would the next three years be like if she were to continue in this manner?

She finally decreed that the only way she was ever going to make any progress with Vegeta was if she were to take the ‘direct’ approach, rather than relying on chance. Although it was dangerous, she felt somewhat confident that Vegeta would not harm her. Perhaps he might harm anyone else who was to interrupt him in the middle of his training session, but she felt internally that she might have a different effect. She recalled Krillin telling her several months ago that Vegeta had referred to her as a ‘gorgeous girl’ while they were on Planet Namek.

She also remembered the day in the forest when she was searching for him. She had insulted him, and all he did was throw her a comeback, laugh in her face, or look confused. He didn’t even touch her.

She prayed for her theory to be correct, that he might somehow feel slightly different about her than he did about the rest of the Z gang and the rest of the Universe.

It was only about two weeks before summer vacation that Bulma had finally managed to gather the courage to go talk to Vegeta. ‘All right, Bulma-girl! You’ve got to be bold. You can do this. You’ve been handling men since you turned fourteen! Then again, this one is different…’ She told herself, peg oug out the backdoor of her home. ‘I’ll bet I can still handle him, though. Just like that day in the forest. Think sassy, think spirited, think…think… actually, no. Don’t think. Just do. Right. Okay.”

Dressed casually in a tank top and summer shorts, Bulma began to audaciously march across the lawn heading straight for the Gravitron. She climbed the few steps to the porm orm leading to the entrance, and pulled the remote control out of her pocket, pointing it at the closed portal directly in front of her.

Immediately after she hit the button, she heard the Gravitron power down. “OW!!!” Came Vegeta’s voice.

He had been unprepared for the power down, so when the gravity returned to normal he hit his head pretty hard on the ceiling. There was even a pretty large dent.

Muttering curses under his breath, he went to the control panel and attempted to turn the machine back on. He figured it was just a system failure. He was stunned to find that he was unable to restart the gravity simulator. Then he heard a knock on the door.

Curious to find out who would dare to disturb him, he went to the door to open it and was shocked to discover that it was the same blue-haired woman who had brought him to Capsule Corp. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she looked angry. What had he done? He certainly hadn’t harmed anyone since he’d been here, as far as he could remember. “I demand to know why you have disturbed my train” He” Herledrled.

“All right, Vegeta! Now you listen to me, bucko! I’ve got some questions, AND I’M NOT LEAVING UNTIL THEY’RE ANSWERED!!!!!! Got that?!!” She hollered.

The only reaction she got was a blank stare. He seemed…shocked?

Bulma continued. “I wanna know what’s up with you!” She leaned back and crossed her arms, waiting for his reply.

Vegeta looked confused. “Uh, you want to know what’s ‘up’ with me?”

Bulma nodded, beginning to tap her foot impatiently.

‘What a strange question.’ Thought Vegeta, wondering what she meant. “Um, the sky? The ceiling? The clouds? Those are all ‘up’ with me when I’m flying. Why?… Wait a minute! What a stupid question!! How dare you disturb my training to ask me a stupid question like that!!!”

“WILL YOU STOP JOKING AROUND AND ANSWER THE QUESTION SERIOUSLY ALREADY!!!!! You KNOW what I mean!” She ordered, appearing all the more annoyed by the delay.

“Did it ever occur to you, woman, that I just might not BE from around here?!!! I’ve never heard that strange expression before in my life!!!! It wasn’t very long ago that I didn’t even know what English WAS!!!” He hissed, growing more furious by the moment.

“Oh.” Bulma replied, looking at her feet sheepishly. She hadn’t taken that little point into consideration. Oops…

“Um, well then, allow me to rephrase the question. I…”

“NO!!!!” Vegeta roared, “I’m sick of this! I don’t have to answer your stupid questions!! I know what you’re up to, woman. I know what you want from me, and mark my words, YOU WON’T GET IT!!!!!”

“YOU’RE WRONG, VEGETA!!” She screamed back. That shut him up.

She continued, more calmly this time. “Whatever you’re thinking about my intentions, I’ll bet you’re wrong. Just listen for once.”

He didn’t say anything, just waited.

“I want to know why you are the way you are. I want to know why you’ve killed so many people and stolen their worlds. I want to know why you were Frieza’s ally. I bet you wanted to take over the whole Universe for yourself! That’s why you wanted to overthrow him in the end, isn’t it?! You were using him to gain power for your own selfish purposes!” She yelled, but jumped back in fear when he snarled fiercely at her, enraged.

She immediately regretted her actions, not because she was afraid, but because she realized she could be wrong about him. It was unwise to allow her anger to cloud her judgment. She had to admit she had a very short temper and was very intolerant of frustration.

“Like I’ve said, wench! Things are NOT what they appear!” He seethed bitterly, a large vein bulging on his forehead, “You know NOTHING about me!!!”

Bulma stepped back and apologized. “I’m sorry, Vegeta. It’s true that I don’t know you at all. You’re a master at hiding your emotions, so can you really blame me?”

“I HAVE NO EMOTIONS!!!! EMOTIONS MAKE YOU WEAK AND VULNERABLE!!!!!! I DO NOT NEED SUCH DISTRACTIONS, AS I AM BUSY TRAINING TO BECOME A SUPER SAIYAN!!!!” He spat, hoping to Kami she’d just go away and leave him alone.

“That’s not possible, Vegeta! Goku has emotions that he’s not afraid to let show and he is DEFINITELY not weak as he so demonstrated just a few months ago!!” Bulma argued.

“It WILL be his downfall some day, woman. That, I know. He’s been unusually fortunate in his life. You’ll see. NOW LET ME RETURN TO MY TRAINING!!”

“Why? So you can destroy him?!!” She inquired angrily.

“No, woman! So I can defeat him. His death is not required to satisfy me. Though perhaps he will die of shame afterwards.” Vegeta considered openly, snickering evilly at the thought.

“Why do you want to defeat him? So no one can stop you from taking over the Universe?!!”

“Wrong again, woman. The Universe has nothing to do with it. It’s fate. Defeating Kakarott and achieving ultimate and unequalled power is my destiny! It will happen whether YOU like it or not. Now you had better give me that remote control, or do you want me to go back on our deal?” He offered his open hand, expecting her to just hand over the remote immediately.

Bulma tried to stall. “What is it you plan to DO with this ‘ultimate and unequalled power,’ if I may ask?”

“I know what you want woman, and you’re not going to get it. You’re trying to find out about me so you can either persuade me not to defeat Kakarott, or perhaps you gave me this gravity room so you can have a chance to study me without my knowing, and thus find a way to restrain me or to control my powers. YOU CANNOT ALTER FATE!!!!”

“Perhaps I’m wrong about you, Vegeta.” She stated matter-of-factly. “But you’re wrong about me too. If you would just open up and stop avoiding me, you would know that.”

“Bah! If you mutter one more word before that remote control is IN my hand, then there will be HELL TO PAY!!!” He warned ferociously, his hateful eyes burning into her.

She paused, and then reached into her pocket to retrieve the remote. She held it out for him. He smirked at her maliciously, and snatched the object of his desire away from her.

The next thing Bulma did shocked him. She ducked under his arm and darted past him into the interior of the Gravitron.

He spun around to face her. “What do you think you’re doing?!!!”

She stood in front of the control panel, staring him in the eye. “You can have the stupid remote, but I still want to talk! You need help, Vegeta. Let me give it to you!” She pleaded.

“Get out of here! I need to train!” He replied, “And I don’t need your help. I DON’T NEED ANYONE!!!!!!”

She didn’t even flinch as he yelled at her this time. She was determined. “Trust me on this, Vegeta. Yes, you do need help.”

“I will NEVER trust you, woman! Either you get out of here in ten seconds, or I will turn the gravity back on and crush you like a bug!” He warned, holding up the remote. “All I have to do is push this one button, and your pointless and pathetic existence will be ended.”

“I dare you.” Came her simple reply.

What? Had Vegeta heard her right? Had she just CHALLENGED him? The blue-haired girl had just challenged him! If she had been any other person, this would be suicide. What made her so confident in her actions?

Vegeta knew he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t kill her. But how could she have possibly predicted that he was bluffing, especially considering his reputation and all? It made no sense. He had proved time and time again that he was quite capable of killing.

Vegeta realized that she was acting very much like him. She had no intention of giving up and seemed to be very sure of herself. Though he was impressed by her confidence and determination, he would never admit it. He needed to get rid of her. He had no intention of giving her what she wanted.

His brows became even more furrowed and he lowered the hand that was holding the remote to his side, staring at her with a fiery look in those dark ebony eyes of his. He began to advance towards her. “I see I’ll have to remove you myself.”

She stepped back away from him, but accidentally tripped over her own feet and fell onto the control panel behind her. Her head smashed through the glass casing over the ‘launch’ button and accidentally pressed it.

Vegeta gasped as the Gravitron began to rumble and shake. A crimson fluid oozed from where glass shards had sliced into Bulma’s flesh on the left side of her face. The tremors caused her limp body to slide off the control panel, but Vegeta caught her before she could impact the floor.

The portal door automatically closed in preparation for the launch. Vegeta had to think fast. A human had to be strapped into a seat for take-off and landing, or else he or she could get seriously injured. Vegeta quickly sat Bulma in one of the four seats sundiunding the control panel and buckled her in tight.

Desperately trying not to fall over onto the trembling floor, Vegeta made it to another seat just in time before lift-off and quickly strapped himself in.

The Gravitron accelerated off the ground and propelled itself into the upper atmosphere, and then out into space.