Dreams

Disclaimer:  I do not own anything that has a trademark thingy on it.  Lets just leave it at that.

Thanks for all the reviews you guys!  I mean, getting more than 70 reviews on one chapter is just… TOO COOL!  ^_^

OOOOO!  And I’ve just got to let you all know, that I got my OWN Vegeta to help me write my stories!  ^_^  Too cool, no?  He just sits on my desk while I type, and from now on will be in my stories.

Vegeta: **unenthused** See.  Here I am.  Whoop-de-do.

Pudgoose:  ^_^  Awww, you’re so cute Vege-baby!

Vegeta: **nerve near his temple twitching**  What did you call me?!

Pudgoose:  O.O  Uh… nothing.

Vegeta:  I heard you, you called me—

Pudgoose: **stuffing Vegeta’s mouth full of cotton** ANYWAYS!  I just thought I’d let you know.  He’ll be with me in my stories from now on.  K?  K.  ^_^’

Author’s Shout outs: 

LadySnowy:  O.O  I got you started on writing fanfics?  …COOL!  ^_^

Stef-chan:  Ok, big comment.  You know how you said that you’d make Vegeta not see that whole Phoenix/Bulma scene?  That’s pretty much why I hate my own writing, and love yours.  If I were the reader, I would have been thrilled to have suspense build up in the story!  But… **sigh** it just doesn’t seem happen that much with my fics.

    Pudgoose:  **sniff sniff**

    Vegeta:  **hands Pudgoose a tissue, sighing tiredly as he wraps an arm around her shoulders**

    Pudgoose:  **blows hard**  Thanks Vegeta….  **sniff**

    Vegeta:  Whatever.

Phoenix Feather:  DAWG!  You’ve been reviewing A LOT!  Not that I’m complaining, or anything!  ^_~

Shateera:  Just thought I might say hey.  **shrugs and smiles**

Steal after my heart, would you?

Vegeta sat cross-legged in the waiting room, supposedly meditating.  He had his head down and eyes closed, but his posture was too stiff and his ears were too alert.  He wouldn’t have been able to meditate like that even if he wanted to.

The truth was that he was waiting for the news about Bulma.  After handing her over to his most-experienced doctors, he went back to the ballroom and dismissed everyone, letting them know that they would not have trials tomorrow.  The four girls walked off looking very upset, feeling that their competition was taking some sort of a pattern of off and non-off days.

And so he was waiting.  Waiting in an almost impatient manner.

Two doors on the opposite sides of the room opened simultaneously.

“Vegeta!” his father’s voice rang out from one side, so that’s the direction the prince’s head turned, answering to the call of his name.  He scowled at his father and looked in the opposite direction, staring keenly at the doctor that was approaching him.

Vegeta stood up, and the doctor opened his mouth.  “Wait,” he said, and the latter closed his mouth.  Vegeta turned to his father.

“Yes?” he asked impatiently.

“Bardock’s here.  I got him over as fast as I could.”

Vegeta smirked out his approval, looking over his father’s shoulder at a very ragged and nervous-looking Bardock.  The retired Sayian was out of uniform and hadn’t washed his face and combed his hair that day (like combing his hair would help it at all), but he was just the same old Bardock that the prince remembered: scarred and rough on the edges, yet brilliant and wise on the inside.

Bardock’s eyes widened as he saw the prince.  He bowed quickly.  “Sire…”

“Stand up, Bardock, stand up.  Talk to this bozo over here,” the prince motioned to a very offended-looking doctor, “and he’ll give you info on what has happened.”

Bardock nodded, walked past the two royalty, and confronted the doctor seriously, who seemed to be doubting whether this rough and battle-scarred Sayian was smart enough to string two words together, let alone know about possibly poisoned human females.

King Vegeta pulled his son over to the side, looking serious.  “Son,” he said.  “I heard about Phoenix.”

The prince’s expression didn’t change.  “And?”

King Vegeta seemed startled.  “And?  Vegeta, it’s not normal of you to attack Sayians… well, yes it is”—the prince smirked—“but it’s not normal of you to attack first class Sayians!  And cut off his tail?!”

“He deserved it, father.  I don’t know how you found out about the whole deal, but I’m sure you don’t know the circumstances.”

“Please explain,” the older Vegeta prodded.

“If you wish, father, if you wish.  I’m pretty sure that Phoenix was the one who had the woman poisoned and—”

“He was?” the king interrupted.  Prince Vegeta nodded, and the king scowled.  “Damn.  I just had the chef murdered… he was a mighty fine cook too….”

“Father, please shut up!” the prince hissed, crossing his arms.

“Oh, excuse me Vegeta.  Please continue.”

Prince Vegeta cocked an eyebrow at his father, before continuing, “as I was saying… he also tried to kidnap the woman right under my nose.  It was absolutely ridiculous.  So I beat him up, cut off his tail, and sent him out of the castle.”

The king, who seemed to desperately want to interrupt his son since the word, ‘kidnap’, exclaimed, “What?  You’re kidding!  Is this TRUE?”

Bardock and the doctor stopped talking and looked over at the royal pair.  Prince Vegeta shot them a death glare, and continued.  “Yes, father, it is.  I would not treat a first-class so unless he did something serious…”  Vegeta paused, thinking.  “Or if I were really mad.”

“I just can’t believe he did that!  No WONDER you treated him so!  I can’t believe it!  This is just—”

“Well do something constructive while you continue to ‘not believe’, father,” the prince interrupted, “and go find us another first-class to take Phoenix’s job.”

The King, too dazed to protest, nodded dumbly and exited out the door.

The doctor, who had finished explaining the situation to Bardock, approached Vegeta and bowed.

“Yes?” Vegeta asked, sneering down at him, but anticipation was present in his eyes.

The doctor straitened up again.  “Sire,” he said very humbly, “I’m afraid to report that we still don’t know what’s wrong with her—”

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT’S WRONG WITH HER?!” the prince screamed, outraged.  “EVEN I KNOW THAT, YOU IMBECILE!  SHE GOT AN OVERDOSE OF SOME CHEMICAL—”

“A very strong type of alcohol, sire, with the powder of a foreign plant in it.  The plant’s named Yienvou.”

Vegeta shot him a glare of demise, a vein popping out on his forehead.  “Don’t you dare interrupt me,” he threatened slowly, his voice deadly quiet.  “Thank goodness for you that I need to get some information from you, because, otherwise, you’d be very much dead.”

The doctor was physically trembling as he let out a small, “Yes, sire.  Forgive me, sire.”

“Continue, fool,” Prince Vegeta barked.

“Yes, sire.  Well,” the doctor struggled to clear his throat, only managing in what sounded like a very odd gurgling sound.  Nevertheless, he continued.  “As I’ve told you she had some very strong alcohol, and a type of plant that grows on a variety of planets, yet it’s not grown here on Vegetasei.  Our planet isn’t humid enough to support the vegetation’s tropical needs.  But basically it’s like an adrenaline-substitute with some very strong side effects.  From our observations so far it seems to have the same effect on humans that it does on us Sayians—”

“Which is…?” Vegeta interrupted impatiently.

“Which is that it makes the subject very sleepy afterward, and when they do fall asleep, it puts them in a sleep almost as deep as a coma.”

Prince Vegeta blinked.  “She’s not in a coma, is she?”

The doctor shook his head.  “No, no she’s not.  Not yet, anyway.  We still don’t know the long-term effects of it on humans.  But on Sayians it causes grouchiness and an extreme hangover when they wake up, and—”

“YOU’RE GETTING OFF THE SUBJECT, DAMN IT!  JUST GET TO THE POINT!”

The doctor flinched.  “Yes, sire.  Well, we don’t exactly know for now what alcohol and plant combined may do to her.  I was informed that humans do have alcohol, but some not nearly as strong as ours.  Thank goodness it was as small of an amount as it was, or it could have killed her.”

The Prince nodded, keeping his face oddly blank after such anger was in it.  “Yes, and?”

“As of now, she’s in a deep sleep with a high fever.  A human’s body is very similar to a Sayian’s when it comes to temperature, and as of now she has a fever of 103.9ºF.”  (Ok, sorry for all you people who don’t know temperatures in Fahrenheit, but I’m an American, home of the bass-ackwards people.  I also count in inches and feet, not centimeters and meters  >.<  As my old science teacher used to say, “We’re metric retarded.”  ^_~)

Vegeta swallowed, the inner part of his eyebrow twitching briefly.  Other than that, he was silent, so the doctor continued.  “We are doing the best we can, giving her sponge baths of lukewarm water with cool cloths on her head.  We can’t do much more for her fever about that.  But she also seems to be having intense nightmares, because she cries out every now and then, twitching in a spasm-like manner.”

“So basically she’s not getting any better.”

The doctor blinked.  Twice.  “Yes… yes, that’s about right.  For now she’s not getting any better.”

Prince Vegeta smirked coldly.  “Good thing my father brought me Bardock,” he said, raising a hand to the doctor’s head.  The doctor’s eyes blinked with surprise just once, before they grew as large as saucers with fear.  “Because now you’re disposable.”

And just like that, the spot where the doctor once stood was a sticky pool of blood.

Prince Vegeta lifted his head towards the room that Miss Briefs lay in, troubled and containing a fever, while here he stood, unable to do a thing about it.

The feeling was maddening.

“For the safety of your life, Phoenix,” the prince hissed.  “The woman better be all right….”

~*~*~

In the room across the hall from what would normally be Iiovana and Bulma’s room, there lay three girls: Zoë, Madonna, and Cleopatra.  Two of them were asleep.  One, however, couldn’t.  She lay tossing and turning, wrinkling her maroon bed sheets and satin pillow, and thinking about how awful of a situation she was in.  For Clark (who was the busybody and gossip-center of the palace) had just come in about an hour ago, exclaiming that Phoenix was gone, and that there was word going around that Prince Vegeta had attacked him, leaving nothing but a tail behind.

The three girls had discussed it thoroughly for thirty minutes till the subject was worn out, and then two of them had shifted off into sleep.  But one remained.  Tossing and turning.

Turning and tossing.

Unable to sleep.

“Damn it,” she whispered, throwing a pillow over her face.  She was never going to get to sleep this way, anticipating and wondering so much.  She was sure that, with Phoenix gone, she was never going to win the damn tournament.  She hated to admit it, but Bulma seemed much more likely to become the prince’s future queen.  She was just more… fit for him.

And this thought tortured her with all its might.

She was sure Prince Vegeta was somewhere nearby the doctor’s room, probably pacing back and forth and cursing Phoenix to Hell and back for doing such a thing to Bulma.  She could just see him, pacing, worrying… caring for her.

The girl sighed impatiently.  “Stop that,” she said.  “The competition is not over, and that bitch hasn’t won.  You’ll become Queen of Vegetasei, even if you have to do it the old-fashioned way.  You’ll do it, damn it, or your name’s not Zoë Halimanger.”

~*~*~

Chi-Chi shot up in bed, terrified, and cold sweat running down her forehead.  She looked around her, finally realizing she was back in her bedroom.  She glanced at the clock on the wall.  It was about three in the morning.

Chi-Chi sighed, trying to calm herself down.  And yet she couldn’t get the image of that awful dream out of her head, and whenever she thought about it, it gave her chill-bumps.

~

She had dreamed that she came to school one day to find it deserted of people.  Everywhere she walked: the corridors, the classrooms, the student lounge… all devoid of people.  She had finally jogged into Bardock’s classroom to find him sitting at his desk, his hair gray and his face wrinkled with stress and lost hope.

“I can’t believe they took her,” he whispered, looking up at her.  “I can’t believe they took Bulma.  And I still can’t find her!  I’ve tried….”  His voice trailed off into incoherent murmurs.

“How long has she been gone?” Chi-Chi whispered, her dream self not even wondering who had “taken” Bulma.

Bardock looked up at her with weary surprise.  He slanted his eyes at her accusingly.  “You of all people should know, Chi-Chi,” he whispered back.  “She’s your best friend, isn’t she?  She’s been gone for 18 years!”

Chi-Chi blinked, her mouth sagging down at him.  “What?” she exclaimed.

“Chi-Chi?” a voice gasped out behind her, the voice quick and pained.  Chi-Chi spun around to see her best friend hunched over in the doorway.

“Bulma!” Chi-Chi shouted in relief.  “Bulma, what happened to you?”

“They broke every bone in my body,” the blue-haired female whispered, her face pale and blood soaking her mouth and lips.  (Now that Chi-Chi thought about it, it seemed kind of odd that her dream self didn’t even notice that Bulma was actually standing when she said this.)  “They submitted me to mindless torture every single minute of every single day.”  Bulma paused.  “Why didn’t you come to help me?”

Chi-Chi blinked guiltily.  “Bulma—I—I didn’t know—”

“DIDN’T KNOW WHAT CHI-CHI?!  WELL I KNOW WHAT!  YOU FORGOT ME!  DAMN IT, YOU FORGOT ME!”  There was pain in her voice and face, and blood was now spilling freely out of her mouth.

Chi-Chi had awoken shortly afterward.

~

“Bulma,” she whispered, pulling the covers tighter to her to try and trap some of her body heat.  She felt so cold at the moment.  Most of it was an internal chill.

She took in deep, relaxing breaths, trying to calm herself down.  She repeated over and over in her mind that it was just a dream, and that Bulma was safe and sound inside the palace.  No danger could reach her inside those safe walls.

Chi-Chi sighed, leaning back on her pillow.  Well, tomorrow was Saturday… no, wait… today was Saturday, so she’s be able to write to Bulma when she woke up again.  (The whole thing sounded ridiculous when Chi-Chi thought it inside her head.)

But nevertheless, Chi-Chi snuggled deeper in her pillows, her eyes closing tiredly.  Bulma was safe and sound, most likely sleeping at this very moment in some elaborate nightgown fit for a queen.

Chi-Chi smiled, sending herself off to sleep by thinking of all the things she, herself, would wear if she were Queen of Vegetasei.  Silver, silk gowns that ran floor length and were sparkled with pearls and diamonds.  Or maybe she would wear red satin with a gold trim, blood red rubies trickling throughout her black hair….

~*~*~

Bulma continued to run though the smothering vegetation of a humid jungle.  She must have been somewhere around the tropics, because she felt like she was almost suffocating in the dense humidity and 100ºF+ heat.

“Why me?” Bulma gasped out, collapsing at the base of a tree.  She panted repeatedly, trying to get as much rest as she could; she couldn’t stop for long, for there was a deadly creature on her trail, hunting her down.  And if it caught her, it was certainly going to kill her, because Bulma could feel the hunger in its presence.  The raw, violently desiring drive for fresh meat.

Bulma stood up, getting ready to take off again, when that creature jumped in front of her path.  She froze immediately, gazing into those red, fire-like eyes.  It was an evil, feline-looking creature with a long, taunting tail.

“Running is pointless Bulma,” it spoke, its voice deep and powerful.  “Just look around you.  See where you are.”

Bulma looked, and found, to her own, utter surprise and horror, that she was not among jungle vegetation anymore but was standing in endless darkness.  Even where she stood: infinite pits of black that threatened to swallow her whole.

Bulma turned back to her predator, and found that Phoenix was approaching her instead, that same taunting tail on him.  “You know how dearly I want you?” he said, stopping an inch away from her face.  Afraid to move anywhere in this nothingness, she only trembled on the spot.

“Get away from me,” she whispered.  He laughed cruelly.

“Yes, dear, that’s the spirit!” he teased, smirking coldly at her.  “Never give up the fight!”

And to Bulma’s horror, he grabbed the back of her head and crushed his marble-like lips on hers, chilling her body in an almost pleasing way, contrasting its previous heat.  Bulma whimpered, his mouth muffling it.  After scrambling and clawing madly at him, she was finally able to pull away, and found herself face to face with the prince, a hungry smirk on his lips.

He mumbled something she couldn’t hear, and forced her painfully back into his kiss, tears now running down Bulma’s hot face and cheeks.

~*~*~

Vegeta looked up as the door opened, dark bags under his eyes.  Bardock’s eyes, tired and strained looking, met the Prince’s earnest, onyx ones.

“Prince Vegeta,” Bardock greeted, bowing slightly and not even bothering to let the prince tell him to stand again.  Vegeta didn’t even notice himself.

“Yes Bardock?  What’s happened?” Vegeta asked, his eyes keenly searching the older Sayian’s.

“She’s not improving,” Bardock said shortly, and, for the briefest of moments, Vegeta’s mouth twitched.  “But!” Bardock added hastily.  “She’s not getting worse either.  I’ve gotten those reports on what happens when a human is exposed to Yienvou… or, should I say, lack of reports….  It seems that humans have never been tested with Yienvou, so I have no clue as to what it might do to her.  I’m actually pretty sure that the alcohol’s going to do nothing more than give her a serious headache when she wakes up, but, about the Yienvou…” Bardock shrugged.  “I just don’t know what to say.”

“Thank you, Commander Bardock,” Prince Vegeta said slowly in his masculine voice.

“We’ve just given her a sponge bath, which should have cooled her down, and we’ve got a large fan blowing cool air on her nonstop.  That should help take down the fever as well.”

Vegeta nodded.  “Ok then.”

Bardock shrugged.  “But, like I said, we have no clue what Yienvou might do to her.”  The prince blinked once, thinking.  Bardock paused, then continued.  “I must say, though, I’ve never heard of a case in which that amount of Yienvou was deadly.”

Prince Vegeta nodded.  “Thank you, Commander Bardock.  That helps greatly.”

Bardock nodded, bowed in a manner that excused himself, and began to head for the door he had just come out of.  He stopped, though, and turned around.

“Prince Vegeta?” he said.  Vegeta looked up.

“What?” he barked.

“Whatever happened to that first doctor…?”

The prince smirked his devilish smirk, and Bardock swallowed.  He nodded in understanding.

“Alright then.  Um… excuse me, my prince.”

And with that, he left.

Ok, so chapter stops here.  I know you all are probably all screaming simultaneously, “‘WHAT THE HECK?!  NOTHING HAPPENED!’”  And yes, I realize this.  This chapter was a sort of look inside different people’s minds, and how all of them were sort of relating to Bulma, whether it be bad or good.

So peeps, please don’t be mad at me.  School’s going to be out soon (thank goodness), so I’ll have ALL the time in the world to finish!  I’m serious; homework has been piling up non-stop.  We’re reading this really complicated book in literature class, and our teacher’s assigning the chapters like there’s no tomorrow.  >.<

SO… review everyone!  Pretty pwease!  I hope I’ve pleased everybody!  ^_^  I just love making people happy!

Vegeta: **shakes his head** Foolish woman….

Pudgoose:  ^_^   I love you too, Vege-baby.

Vegeta:  DON’T CALL ME THAT!