Heart of Fire

Disclaimer: Don’t act like you don’t know it isn’t mine. I don’t own Dragonball Z/GT, there, I said it.


Hooray for Chapter Eight! Here it is, sorry it took so long but it always takes a while doesn’t it? Well, I finally got the chance to do it. I already have a page typed for the last chapter, for some reason. The idea came to me and I couldn’t let it escape so I typed it and saved it. And it will be there until I catch up to it. I haven’t thought about Chapter Nine yet, but I will when I get some inspiration. Life is busy and the dreaded finals are coming up. (shudders) I am not looking forward to it. I may also take a lot longer to produce Ch.9 because I will be dedication most of time time after class and studying to working out at the gym, which I need to do. So with that and finals, I can’t predict when I’ll get back to this story, but I will. In no more than a months time, I could have Ch.9 up. Unless a spark of an inspirational idea hits me that I can’t ignore. I will have instances where I can write, but thinking about it and writing takes time. But look forward to it. Enough chatter, on with Ch.8.




Space had an eerie quietness about it. Its black, perpetually expanding abyss echoing in the…nothingness was like the most disturbing of music. Stars twinkled in its vastness, supposedly making it appear more ethereal. But it only served to make it creepier because even in the loneliness of space, anything and everything was a threat, maybe even the stars. Speaking of threats, there was a not-so-well known one a few miles in front of him.

Vegeta sat on the floor, barely moving, thinking about something. This something was not clear because it wasn’t anything, really. He was actually making the attempt to think of something. Something other than what he really should have been thinking about. Not that he was avoiding it, no, but pondering it really hadn’t made his days go much better.

‘It’ was the enigma in the ship not too far ahead of him. All things considered, he was all alone, nothing to bother him, but everything was bothering him. From the way space seemed so weird to the mixed feelings he was having about his latest discovery. Or his stupidest mistake, as he liked to call it. Nothing had happened in the last few days, he had not gone to ‘visit’ Kakarot or Tarneus, whatever, again and the other misguided Saiyan made no effort to contact him. All was still far from well.

While Vegeta liked to think he was a man of wit, intelligence and above all, control, he couldn’t keep the thoughts from bouncing around in his head even if he tried. So many questions and some undesirable answers to them seized his mind in the ungodly grips of confusion, guilt and fear. The fear was still a bit fuzzy to him, but there was indeed something to fear with a Saiyan who had a narcissistic god complex going on in his mind that he couldn’t be beaten. And he had every right to think so, he was in fact the most unbeatable force in the known universe, and nothing had come out of hiding that could best him. Not even Vegeta. But Vegeta had no intentions of ‘beating’ Kakarot, he simply wanted to bring him to his senses.

Simple desires for complex situations.

That was how it was.

Was it supposed to be easy? He wished! But then, it wouldn’t be trying, and Vegeta had to try because that was what Kakarot wanted. The thought of fighting with him was not something Vegeta wanted to explore, but if it had to come to that…Vegeta could try. It wouldn’t be an easy fight, not for Tarneus, Vegeta wasn’t exactly weak himself. He was good enough to give that evil heathen a run for his money. Vegeta would have had no qualms about fighting with him, really, but under the circumstances, the idea didn’t appeal to him. At all.

For days he had been sitting in the far corner of the room in an awkward position that was starting to give him cramps. He had fallen into the position after making an attempt to train, but failing miserably, and he just fell out of stride with it and stayed that way. It didn’t bother him, until now. Cracking his neck, he rubbed his shoulder and licked his ashen lips. The taste in his mouth had gone quite sour while he was brooding, and he didn’t like it. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t brought a toothbrush or anything like that, he hadn’t thought about it then. Either way, he had a few mints in his bag that were there from his last trip in space.

Not caring why they happened to be so conveniently there, he stalked over to the sleeping chambers where he kept the little bit of stuff he brought, and dug through his bag. He produced five decent sized mints and stuffed one into his mouth, which seemed to have gone sore as well, it didn’t feel the best when he moved his jaw. The mint bulged in his cheek and he resisted the urge to bite it to smaller pieces and eat it.

He would savor it. For now.

Sucking on the red stripped candy, his mind drifted back to the dreams he’d been having for days now. His thoughts shifted with such ease, it bothered him to no end. He’d been dreaming recently for a few days about his rival, naked and staring at him. The look in his eyes haunted Vegeta, showing him what he should have seen so many months earlier. He saw it, he just didn’t want to acknowledge it. He would now, he didn’t have much of a choice.

Kakarot’s naked form was only a few feet away but every time Vegeta tried to get closer, he never really moved, and neither did Kakarot. Just out of his reach. This made him think about how close the younger Saiyan actually was, close enough to touch, too feel. Vegeta felt nothing at that time. Or he thought he didn’t. The naked man just continued to stare at him with the same look that beckoned him to feel….something. Vegeta didn’t know what to feel, maybe that was why he couldn’t get to him?

The dream was strange, and he didn’t know why Kakarot didn’t have any clothes on, but it didn’t unnerve him as much as why Kakarot was suddenly even there. With the reappearance of his evil, somewhat former self, the dreams had somehow gotten more graphic in nature so that Vegeta would wake up covered in an icy sheen of sweat.

Not exactly the stuff fantasies were made of.

Kakarot suddenly began to decay in his dreams, first the appearance of ghostly rings around his eyes until they hollowed out into his sockets. He slowly wilted away until he was nothing.

Then the next time Vegeta fell asleep, there he was again, intact, but then he would start to fade away in all sorts of ways. And he reached for Vegeta as Vegeta reached for him. What did it mean? Did Kakarot consciously know that he was in his head? If so, how had he gotten there? They had not had a bond of any sort that could have bared those kinds of results. Or was it a sign? Vegeta contemplated on the latter. It was definitely something to think about, but getting his head around it was no simple task. If his companion was leaving clues, Vegeta wasn’t sure how to use them. The information wasn’t enough to derive an alternative to fighting Tarneus. All fighting this new menace would do, was either ensure chaos on a grand scale, or get someone killed. Vegeta didn’t fancy the odds.

Even though he had landed a hit on Tarneus, the other Saiyan didn’t do much in response. Evil washed over him like an unholy water, and yet he seemed to be confident that waiting patiently to exact revenge was his best course of action. Or had he taken Vegeta’s advice and decided it wasn’t a good idea to do battle in space? He wouldn’t have been able to do too much about it, Vegeta had disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving him speechless and pissed. Just as well, he didn’t give Tarneus time to hit back, otherwise the consequences might have had some undesired effects, if not resulting in both of their demises. He wasn’t sure Tarneus would have attacked him because if nothing else, all he wanted to do was kill Vegeta, at his own pace, rushing into a fight would have done him no good.

Besides, Vegeta had an advantage. Instant Transmission, which it seemed Tarneus knew nothing about. Vegeta, being the skilled fighter he was, was sure he could put his new technique to good use. As far as Tarneus being aware of his real power, there was the issue of if he knew how to use it. Tarneus appeared to be the kind of person who relied on brute strength in a fight. Vegeta choose tactful thinking and razor sharp wit the see him through his battles, there was no use going into a fight and not knowing what to do. Blind. Kakarot, had the element of brute force and a technical mind to go along with it. Vegeta would hardly call him a genius, but when it came to fighting, he was the best at using what he had, even if intelligence didn’t always play a part. That was Kakarot through and through, and Tarneus was not him, even he should have been able to recognize the extent of his abilities by now.

On the one hand, his ignorance could come in handy for Vegeta, who was well aware of all of his rivals fighting skills. Tarneus had no clue. Undignified was what he was, jumping at the chance to destroy once he got it. Had he no morals? Apparently not, the ‘natural’ side of him was not even half the fighting genius his nicer counterpart was, so naturally he was ready to do anything that labeled him as evil. But Tarneus came off more like a power hungry fool, as far as Vegeta saw. In all fairness, he had not seen what Tarneus could do, but for his sake, it shouldn’t be anything he couldn’t handle. He was sure that he was training and Tarneus was not.

It was beginning to get tempting to check up on him, but if the evil bastard got too wise, then he could be giving away his most important technique.

Tarneus did not know of Instant Transmission, and if Vegeta could help it, it would stay that way. Tarneus was weird, that was for sure. He was not like the Kakarot Vegeta thought he would be. He was evil yes, but there was something about him that made Vegeta take him a little less seriously than he would have any other foe, and it had nothing to do with familiarity.

Vegeta squinted and tried to think about what was it that was making him think constantly about the other Saiyan. If he was evil, he was evil, Vegeta didn’t care. But ‘Goku’ did. Kakarot wanted him to care, but he didn’t care about Tarneus. What was on his mind was what he was going to do once he got his friend back. How could he show him he cared? It wasn’t that simple, Vegeta wasn’t the type.

Once, he showed his emotions and gave his life up for nothing.

He would not do it again.

He would have to bar himself in some way to make sure that that kind of thing never happened again, if it was possible to get through this. Questions about how Kakarot was fairing alone in his ship were bombarding Vegeta. He was beginning to care and Kakarot wasn’t even there to see it. Vegeta shook his head madly. He didn’t have to care to this extent when he was alone, he didn’t care before he made his discovery, so why should he care now?

Because it was what his wayward rival wanted? Since when did he care what the bumbling fool had wanted, he meant nothing special to him!

Vegeta was a liar.

But it really was the only way he could put his thoughts into categories. Some labeled ‘Important’ and others labeled ‘Unimportant’. The last being ‘Questionable’. Since this whole mess, most, if not all of his thoughts about his rival had fallen effortlessly into the ‘Questionable’ category. Suddenly, no matter what Vegeta thought to himself, he cared, and it was only after he realized that it was what Kakarot wanted. The answer to his earlier question came in the form of acceptable denial. He only cared because it would get Kakarot to be normal again and not blow the place he called home to oblivion. That worked, and Vegeta would hang onto to that until he could figure out what would happen after he got the other Saiyan to come back with him. If he did.

It all really depended on Tarneus’ ignorance of himself, which should have been driving him crazy, having ‘Goku’s’ voice in his head. Vegeta had experienced that and at the time it wasn’t pleasant in the least. But what he would give to hear the unclothed form of the ‘Goku’ in his dreams utter a few words, just enough to let him know what was going on. What the hell was up with all of the mystery? Nothing he thought about was giving him any answers worth contemplating, still leaving him with more questions than he started with. If all went well and he was somehow able to get Kakarot to come back with him, then he would have all of the answers at his disposal.

But did he really want to know?

If he still cared after all of this was over, then it would certainly be good to have some recognition of his ‘feelings’. He almost wanted to push away the emotion as he had done so many times in the past, but it was too late. It was there, and it wasn’t going away until he found a way to fix everything that went wrong. After all, it was his fault. If he cared at all in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened. But still, he wasn’t sure how he would have reacted if Kakarot had made it more obvious what he wanted.

The possibility that he _could_ have tried was not something he had thought about. He hadn’t seen the Saiyan much more than once or twice in a blue moon in more than a year. Coming over after so long to tell his prince he was leaving and expecting something out of him was unfair.

Vegeta couldn’t have produced very much feeling at that moment, even if he pretended to try. It had to come to what it had for him to realize that it was real. For whatever reason, what he felt about Kakarot seemed to be very important to his younger friend. And this thought brought him to another question: Why had he wanted him to care? He never showed that he thought about it before, mostly taking Vegeta’s harsh insults with surprising patience and ease, not minimally affected.

Or so it seemed. Then, out of nowhere, he began to avoid him, taking care _not_ to see him. To Vegeta, Kakarot was better at expressing emotion on a verbal level, outright telling people what he felt most of the time, when he was sure it wouldn’t lead to violence. Ever the pacifist. He was never one to run away from something that seemed impossible on the outside.

Kakarot wanted him to return those feelings, and knowing that it was near impossible to get Vegeta to do so, gave up. But was leaving the planet necessary? Vegeta felt stupid for asking himself questions that he knew the answers to all along, things just had to be put into a realistic perspective. Kakarot’s unknown emotions for him were the pinnacle of all of this insanity. For some reason he desperately wanted Vegeta to feel something.

For him. Why?

For years, everything had been settled between them, they had their respective wives and were never lonely. But now it was getting clear as day that that was not the case. Vegeta was always lonely, in his own mind, his thoughts giving him a cold, unwelcomed company. And Kakarot…just seemed content with the life he lived. Apparently, he was not.

Now despite all of his brooding, Vegeta was not a stupid man. He knew exactly what kind of emotions his Saiyan subject may have had for him, there was no other reason to let any other emotion go this far. He just didn’t want to go down that avenue of thinking. If this was what things had come to, then the real reason behind all of this was a silly human emotion called love. Or something that had something to do with love, Vegeta didn’t know. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a simple emotion, as love never is. And for another man no less.

Not uncommon in Vegeta’s past, but for the Earth raised Saiyan, everything was wrong with what he was feeling.

His customs had taught him that having feelings of that nature for a person of the same gender was frowned upon and therefore was wrong. So wrong that he had it beaten into his head that his prince would react the same way as a petty human. Vegeta scoffed loudly. That was it. The fool had feelings for him and couldn’t face up and tell him.

All of that lead to this. And still it was Vegeta’s fault.

His lack of emotions was what made Kakarot leave in the first place. Had it been another human, Kakarot might have made the effort to get through to them. But he knew he wouldn’t ever get to Vegeta that way, and he gave up. After maybe more than a year of fighting it with avoiding him and such, he finally gave up and left. Without very much of a fight.

He, the savior of the universe, with more respect under his belt than anything, had let a foolish emotion like love turn him into the evil killing machine in the ship ahead of him. He, who was the best at being seen through suddenly locked up and barred all that looked from what he was feeling. And Vegeta was the only one there to see, not that he was looking. He should have been looking.

The bulk of his thoughts were questions without answers, should haves and could haves and none it was making any sense. As far as he knew, his long time rival was in love with him, or close to it, and it wasn’t making things easier to understand. Vegeta didn’t understand real love. He had loved Bulma, but as the mother of his children, there was no real substance to what he had with her. Now it was a mystery to how long Kakarot had felt this way and if it was the same feeling he had with his own wife. He probably wasn’t sure of his feelings, and needed some space.

He had gone far. Very far.

Reeling him back in might not have actually been the best course of action. It would make things worse because Vegeta may not return have those feelings. Kakarot would still have a reasonably valid reason for leaving. The problem would still be present and Vegeta could do nothing to change that. If it was possible, then it would take some time, if he tried. He could try. No guarantees. Kakarot was his friend and he respected him to a certain degree, and did care for his wellbeing in general. But he had never taken the time out to consider his emotions and he still didn’t want to. Emotions were the sort of thing that either killed someone, or haunted them forever.

Case in point, this situation.

The other mans feelings got the best of him and caused him to run, and become what he was. He lost his memory and all sense of his real self. Unwillingly. He was still inside of Tarneus, waiting to be saved. Cared for. Vegeta could save him, but he couldn’t erase the problem. He wasn’t sure he could care that way. Kakarot wanted more from him than it was in his power to give. His emotions were slowly destroying him, eating away at him and leading him to inevitable disaster.

He once taught his prince that it was okay to feel, when it was clearly not. Not in this case. Yet the more he thought about it, the more Vegeta found himself exploring the idea of _letting_ himself care. He had not allowed himself to experience deep emotion of that kind, and so he couldn’t feel it.

If he tried….

There was no denying it, he had had some thoughts about Kakarot that felt misplaced and strange, but they were there. Vegeta put those thought in the back of his mind, and tried not to think of them again. They were feelings that he didn’t know what to make of.

What could he classify them as? Sometimes Vegeta sat alone in his kitchen and thought about the other man for hours, and none of his thoughts felt like love. Not that he knew what love felt like. How would he have known? Feeling at all for him was not something that was forced, it just was. Trying to show that he cared instead of expecting the tall Saiyan to know was going to be quite a task. First he would find out exactly what he thought, and then see what to do about it.

He wasn’t psychic, he was smart, but not a mind reader. Then he ran into another wall. Who said Kakarot was going to tell him how he felt?

This was only getting more complicated as it was frustrating. Only mere miles in front of him was the object of his confusion, oblivious to what was going on in the prince’s head. Vegeta thoughts were not for Tarneus, they were for the love ridden idiot inside of him. Once Tarneus was out of the way, all that would be left was ‘Goku’. After that, there would be no happy ending, there would more likely be more pain and it would be worsened by the fact that the source of the pain was now out in the open. Kakarot would not come back to that if he didn’t have to.

Another problem. Not only would he not tell Vegeta what he was feeling in vivid detail, but he probably wouldn’t come back with him. Especially not with him. Not unless Vegeta presented him with similar feelings of his own. That was unlikely, but the promise was there.

Would that be enough to secure Kakarot?

If anything, the man was insecure, afraid of what others would think. If he had decided to tell and pursue his feelings for the short Saiyan, who would he tell? There would be no one around to criticize them, point at them and tell them they were wrong for having such feelings for each other. Kakarot may not have considered that. He was far more concerned with what his prince thought of him.

What did he care what he thought? For as long as he could remember he had said about less than 5 nice things to him, and most of what he said were insults and taunts. Was that a beacon of some sort for love? There was nothing about him worth loving, nothing worth worrying anyone’s head about. Obviously his rival saw something, or maybe he liked being put down and frowned on like a petty commoner. Vegeta just didn’t see it. He would never understand what was going on in Kakarot’s head unless he got him to tell him.

If Kakarot didn’t want to tell him then the point of this conquest was solely to get him back to his normal self. Vegeta knew he wanted more than that. He missed the others company and would have liked for him to come back to Earth. If he was going to live for the next century with no family or other friends to speak of, then it would suit him to live with someone in the same position. Not to be selfish. It was not only his company Vegeta wanted. He was not sure what that something else was right now, but in time he would become more aware of it.

Until then, he would have to come up with a close to flawless plan of going about getting what he wanted. Or he really didn’t have much of a reason to live.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Space was quiet and lonely. Not something he liked in particular, but it never hurt to be alone sometimes. He needed to think. Considering the events of the last few days, he had to contemplate some things. Like why Vegeta was so important in his ‘mental haunting’. If that little asshole was responsible for the horrible thrashing his sanity was going through, then he would make very sure to kill him in the worst way. The man had not come back to his ship in days and even Goku had left him alone for some time, making brief visits in his dreams.

He didn’t talk anymore, he just looked at Tarneus and said nothing.

Tarneus supposed he was waiting for whatever he was waiting for. He still didn’t know what that was. But Vegeta had something, if not everything to do with it. In a matter of days, he would find out what Vegeta had to do with anything. In the meantime, he would just have to be patient, something he had no choice but to do. In 4 days he would face the other man in a battle to see who was more superior. He would have liked to keep Vegeta as a partner, but if he had to kill him, he would. But first, there were questions to be answered.

Tarneus had already grown tired of the vastness of space, all of the appeal had been sucked right out of it. What was he going to rule? Most of the galaxy was nothing but empty air, destroying it was not going to change anything. The universe was big, but by his standards, it was big for nothing. Planets were spaced out years apart from each other and they only got farther away with time. This was not interesting to know, it only made him question what he wanted to do all the more.

Ruling the universe was now becoming as appealing as erasing it and that was not a good thing for Tarneus. And what was that supposed to mean? What did he want to do? Yanking planets out of existence was becoming a boring thought, and leaving them there to live under his rule was pointless. With no one to compete with, no constant challenge, who knew how long it would take to find that? Vegeta did not pose much of a competition, and would have been better off dead. So what was he going to do? He didn’t want to consider living on a planet ‘peacefully’ as his nude counterpart had. The power in his body demanded to be put to good use, and what better use then controlling and killing. Even that could get boring after a while.

From what he knew, he was 87 years old and didn’t look a day over 30 and he was no god. Having an empire would be something that would temporarily amuse him. Then what? Two weeks ago he was buzzing with excitement of being the sole ruler of the universe as mankind knew it, he had lusted the killing that would go along with it. He still wanted to kill, but that wouldn’t last long. Just weeks ago, he wanted nothing more than to declare himself the most powerful force in existence, but now, something was wearing him down and he didn’t like it. It was Goku. There was nobody else affecting him in any way and if not for him, Tarneus would not have known that Vegeta had some significance in his life at all.

Nothing would have been nagging him to change and nothing would have influenced him to think that he had a life outside of Goku’s. Before Goku’s first visit in his dreams, things were fine, he never wanted to kill more. But he showed up and was somehow changing him, messing with his head. He may not have been talking, but he was doing something worse than haunting him.

Whatever he was doing, Tarneus had to find a way to stop him before he managed to get into his subconscious and fuck around with his identity. He was there first, Goku was a temporary id for the body that was rightfully his, what did that bastard want? He wanted something that was not his. When the right moment to escape the grasp of the Earth raised fool had presented itself, it meant nothing in the long run.

He was now competing with a figment of the result of his amnesia, for his own identity, even if it was that of a man named Kakarot. Names had little to do with it, Tarneus was sure of who he was and he should have had control over his mind. If anything, it should have been the other way around, Goku should not have been able to fight for what was not his. How it was that he happened to get into his mind and cause so much chaos was unknown to Tarneus, but something had to be done about it and soon.

It was hard to admit, especially to himself, that he was losing the battle of identity that Goku had waged with him. He had Tarneus’ mind at his disposal, he could do damn near anything he pleased and there was little Tarneus himself could do. Vegeta. He had to get to Vegeta, he was his only hope, sadly. Before he killed the other Saiyan, he would get him to somehow make Goku stop what he was doing. Goku had said something about Vegeta expecting him to stay alive. What for? He would stay alive, there was nothing that could kill him that he knew of and the only threat he could see was Goku. Vegeta was something else, important in getting Goku to go away once and for all.

Tarneus had slept very little in the past 8 days, but he wasn’t tired. His eyes were red and itchy, but he would not sleep if he didn’t have to. Still, if he wanted to be able to focus on the upcoming fight, he would need sleep, there was no way around it. Caught off guard and Vegeta could be trouble for him. He would have to be at his full attention and potential for this one. It was going to be his first real fight since he awoke from his amnesia, he was not going to burn himself out before he got the chance to prove himself.

On the not-so-dark side of things, he still had his passion to obliterate Earth and doing that would satisfy him to no end. If he could, he would keep Vegeta alive to watch him do it. No victory would be sweeter than to turn the place Goku called home to cosmic dust. There would be no reason to bother him once he took out Earth and Vegeta. Goku would have to retract back in the farthest reaches of his subconscious and remain there as a distant, and fleeting memory that would hopefully erase with time. Then Tarneus would be at peace. It did not matter what Vegeta wanted, or what Goku said, but he still wanted to know, just to get a better handle on things. It was something that was imperative that he know in order to declare himself as one real person and not a tyrant with a split identity that could lead to a schizophrenic disaster.

He was one person, the other was an identity filler while Kakarot was away. Now Kakarot was back, the same man with a different name. He wasn’t sure he liked that name. ‘Kakarot’, it sounded too much like a name that would better suit a carrot munching bunny. Either way, he was one in the same and it didn’t matter if some saw him as Kakarot, but his name was now Tarneus. The Lais-jins gave it to him and it stuck. It just fit better, at least to him.

Nothing that held any semblance of eventfulness had happened, just the thought of seeing Vegeta again kept him company. He had not turned on the screen monitor for days, wanting to see the other in person again the next time, then there would be no disappearing without explanations. How he managed to move through space like that was beyond Tarneus, but if they were anything alike like Vegeta said, then it shouldn’t be hard for him to master such a skill. He could do anything he wanted, and a little thing like speed or transportation would not get in his way. Once he got Vegeta right where he wanted him, that technique would be useless, and Tarneus would learn it and put it to better use.

Tarneus didn’t know how long he stood there staring out the window into black nothingness, but his eyelids were getting heavy and on top of that he was famished. He had long ago run out of food and had been running on anticipation for the past week. Sleeping was now his escape from hunger, having nothing better to do but shut his eyes and take a break from his thoughts.

He went into the sleeping chamber and spread out on the bed, his arms hanging limply off the edge, his legs comfortably resting on the surface. It would be one of the few times he spent in the room, doing anything. He was not going to welcome Goku’s face in his dreams anymore than usual, but he needed to sleep.

Minutes later, he was asleep and breathing lightly, looking angry and agitated. Entering the not so pleasant world of his mind, he looked around and stood where he was, unmoving. There was no reason to do anything, Goku would come when he did, and all he would do was stare at him. Tarneus wouldn’t look back, the feeling on his inattentive form enough to make him more than uneasy. But what could he do? Goku had already proved that using any kind of physical means to get his point across was useless.

He couldn’t block the other out, there was a heat to his gaze that burned Tarneus to the core. He didn’t have to look to know Goku was there, still naked, and staring at him with an ever unwavering glare of scrutiny.

Every time he closed his eyes, there his counterpart was, motionless and quiet, waiting. All Tarneus had to do was wait until he woke up, until then he would spend real time with Goku and it didn’t matter where he went, Goku would be there. That certainly gave a new meaning to the phrase, ‘No matter where you go, there you are’ Tarneus laughed at the irony and he could feel the gaze on him shift from burning to curiosity. He wanted to know what he found funny. He would break his mysterious silence and ask. Goku didn’t speak. Or not.

Tarneus stood there and stared off into space, not trusting the ‘floor’ again to sit. He tried once and the moment his bottom went to rest on the ‘floor’ he almost fell through, if not for his quick reflexes, who knows what would have happened.

He would stand.

He couldn’t lean against a wall because there weren’t any.

So he waited with Goku, although not for the same reasons. Whatever that creep was waiting for, was waiting for him four days from now, following him in a ship not far behind.

Vegeta.

Tarneus’s head dropped and his eyes closed. He couldn’t sleep where he was but he would think some more, except there was an uncomfortable feeling that accompanied his thoughts. Goku was standing not very far away, never far, watching him. It was disturbing, but there was nothing that could be done.

However long a period of time that went by, Tarneus later woke again to the expansive glittering view of space, and it wasn’t all that great seeing as that was all he saw for months on end. He stretched his muscles and winced when a growl tore its way through his stomach. He didn’t want to put off his journey to Dusk any longer and was sure he could last for more days without eating, but then it presented the question of if Vegeta would let him eat? There wasn’t enough food from the service station for him to eat.

He wanted to fight Vegeta on Dusk and not prolong the battle, but if the Saiyan didn’t allow him time to eat then it would be just as well that he didn’t go to fight him at all. And he was no coward, something like hunger could cramp his style as well as his stomach and he had to do something about it soon, even if it meant stopping. He would somehow convince Vegeta to stop and let him eat before continuing. Fighting on an empty stomach was bothering him. He felt weak and powerless, his stomach’s growls having more fight in them that he had.

He had no choice, he had to find food, or he thought he was going to die. Now.

Dragging his lightly fatigued body to the control panel, he stabbed his finger on the button for the screen monitor and watched as the fuzzy picture flickered on to the vision of the interior of Vegeta’s ship. Vegeta was not there.

“Hey, you, answer me!”

Seconds later Vegeta slowly approached the chair and leaned over it.

“What do you want?”

“I’m hungry.”

“So?”

“I have to stop and get some food, do you think your will to die can wait a moment longer while I get something to eat? I really wouldn’t want to kill you before I ate, I like to do my killing after meals.”

Vegeta’s face screwed up in surprise, making Tarneus almost regret asking the little asshole in the first place. “Whatever, just don’t destroy the planet afterward.”

That thought hadn’t crossed his mind, but now that Vegeta mentioned it…

”Or what?” Vegeta still wasn’t smirking. “I won’t let you get back on your ship alive.”

“Oh I wouldn’t do that. I must speak with you, it’s too important to waste turning a few aliens into space confetti. I won’t do anything, you have my word.”

“A heck of a lot that means.” Vegeta muttered.

“What?!”

“Eat, do what you must, but we continue on to--- Vegeta stopped. A look of something akin to having an epiphany crossed his face. “How important is what you have to say to me?”

Tarneus glared at him. What was he getting at? He simply wanted to tell him they were stopping for food, what more did he want to know? He would ask his questions on his own time and no sooner. “It does not matter, I will speak with you before I destroy Dusk and you.”

“And just what the hell makes you think I will answer any question of yours if you are going to do that?”

Tarneus knew this was coming, the other man was no fool, it had taken Tarneus days to get up the nerve to make such a demeaning request of him. Shit. Vegeta had him by the balls. If he wanted to know anything, there would be a lot of fair play on his part. Of course, that wasn’t the way he liked to do things, but Vegeta now held the fate of his sanity in his gloved hands. He wanted, no _needed_ to know what Vegeta had to do with anything that had happened to him. He had to know. The thought of having Goku haunt his dreams for the rest of his days, he was not looking forward to.

“It’s not that important, I suppose I can live without it.” He was bluffing and he knew it. So did Vegeta. He shrugged. “Fine then, I suppose then maybe you’d like to have Kakarot parading around in your head, if you want to speak to me at all, it has something to do with him. I’m not stupid, Tarneus, you want to speak to me, you need to. You’re right though, you could live without it, but I suppose it would be easier to live with Kakarot invading the recesses of your mind for the rest of your life. That should be fun.”

Tarneus opened his mouth to send a stinging retort, but Vegeta blinked off the screen and left him seething. That prick! How dare he?! The fucker knew now that he had even an ounce of control over him and he was already lording it with a fist of smugness. There had to be another way, but Goku would not talk to him at all. He was still waiting. For Vegeta. To what?

Someone had the answers he was looking for and if he couldn’t get them from Vegeta, he was screwed. Goku would never leave him alone, and he would even less likely put any clothes on. Because of Goku, he was now vulnerable _and_ crazy. Vegeta knew it. If he had to choke the life from the short man to get the answers, he would! The man was not there to ensure that Tarneus did no more damage to the galaxy, he came for something else. He had been looking for him for some time, and Goku had been waiting for him. Vegeta was the only way for him to get the answers he needed, and after that….he didn’t know what would happen.

Vegeta agreed to fight him, but if he somehow won, then what would he do? It was obvious he had no intentions to kill him, so he came with the intent to take him back to Earth. Then that meant he wanted the same thing Goku did. He wanted to change him. Goku wanted Vegeta to rescue him for Tarneus.

There was more to this than Goku had let on.

Nothing was adding up to why he was where he was. He was on Earth and left. Vegeta also lived on Earth, why would he need to find him if they lived in the same place? Goku had a connection with the Saiyan and vice versa, so why was he here? It wouldn’t have been a problem for him, but it was adversely affecting him. He didn’t care what Goku wanted with the other man, he just wanted to be left alone. Goku seemed more than comfortable lounging in Tarneus conscious. Tarneus sat still as a board and finally relaxed, defeated.

He would play by Vegeta’s rules, but only until he got what he wanted. Then Vegeta was a done for.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tarneus was hungry, that was the way it started.

Vegeta could have cared less, except when he turned the screen monitor on, he didn’t expect Tarneus to out right put himself in the palm of his hand. The idea had hit him like a bucket of ice water the moment Tarneus revealed that there was something he needed to know. He needed to speak to Vegeta as much as Vegeta needed to speak with Kakarot. But Vegeta did not want to talk to Tarneus, he wanted to talk to Kakarot. What had made Tarneus want to speak to him in the first place? It had everything to do with Kakarot.

Vegeta’s confidence had boosted a fraction, now that there was even the smallest chance that he could get through him to Kakarot. But he dared not get too excited, this could be another dead end for all he knew, no matter how much promise the current situation held. That and it was a good idea to stop for food, and Vegeta hadn’t let hunger worry him in the least, just as long as it wasn’t him reduced to begging to eat.

Tarneus had the same weak spot Kakarot did, and it certainly came in handy for Vegeta. He couldn’t do much of anything on an empty stomach, so the slight change in their plans for the moment was welcome. Also, he had managed to get Tarneus to show him that there was a likelihood that the ‘Goku’ inside of him had been aware of his arrival. Kakarot knew he was there. There was hope yet.

Getting Tarneus to concede to letting Dusk stay intact was going to be hard. If there was no way he could get Kakarot back, there was nothing to make sure that Tarneus kept his word, which really meant nothing without something to keep it valid. Vegeta could do next to nothing if Tarneus wanted to take over the universe, and if he lost in a fight to Tarneus, then all had had done would have been for nothing.

Oh yes, he would have to go about this as delicately as possible, Tarneus was a loose canon, and as far as he knew, wasn’t good for keeping promises if he didn’t have to. He was unstoppable for now, until Vegeta could assess whether he had improved over the two years he had not see him. Training was a necessity, it could have made the difference, no matter how slight, in their power levels. And that difference could mean the fate of the universe and Earth. What had Tarneus wanted to know? Vegeta had already made it clear that he wasn’t telling him anything without collateral, and Tarneus attempted to retract his request. But it was too late, Vegeta knew what he had and he would milk it for all it was worth.

Not waiting to see his reaction, Vegeta turned the screen off and smirked with satisfaction at having riled him up again. Tarneus would have to patiently wait until they landed on the nearest planet to see his face again. Fighting him on Dusk and getting to Kakarot was still a problem. He couldn’t think of a conditional way of telling him anything he wanted to know without going against inconceivable odds. There was no way to tell if Kakarot’s body had gotten stronger over time and if he even had a chance at beating him. Weighing his options, he decided to see what would happen next and take everything in stride.

The inactivity was boring him so he pulled up the coordinates for the nearest planet. A planet called Agron was nearby, Tarneus would be headed there. It was a very big planet that didn’t have any moons, like Namek, but not as lush in vegetation. And the people probably weren’t green.

Vegeta had already eaten 3 mint balls and trained endlessly for the last week and a half. He was hungry as well, but luckily he could maintain his current state without going down in the throes of starvation in the middle of a fight. And Kakarot couldn’t. Stopping for a while to prolong the fight and destruction of Dusk gave him more time to work on getting Tarneus to tell him more about ‘Goku’. His own dreams of Kakarot had been less vivid in that he didn’t seem to die anymore, now, he just stood there and looked at Vegeta. With that same look in his eyes as the day he left. And thankfully, he had clothes on. The clothes he left with. Vegeta was sure it was not his imagination that his rival would be in his dreams. Kakarot was not only in Tarneus head but his as well and there had to be a reason why.

It was like pieces to a puzzle, all Vegeta had to do was put it together.

And nobody said it would be easy.


To Be Continued…

Yes, Chapter Eight. Review please, as I won’t be writing for a little while and I’d like to know that people are still interested in the fic while I’m away. Thanks to everyone for all the reviews I’ve received so far. Your reviews mean a lot and I look forward to more. Until next time, Alas!