A Light in the Darkness - part 10: Confrontations
by Mia Skywalker & Wataruo

PAIRING: Vegeta/Bulma
RATING: G
WARNINGS: None
DISCLAIMER: Neither of us owns any of the DBZ characters or anything about DBZ, but we both wish we owned the Saiyans. All of them. These characters are owned by Toei, Viz, Akira Toriyama, and FUNimation, even though the last one is a crying shame. We do own what we've written here, and our specific storyline, just not Dragonball itself. We make no money off of any of these guys, nor off this fic.
SUMMARY: Confrontations
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Ravyn, for beta-ing this! ^_^ 

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Last time on Dragonball Z: A Light in the Darkness....

Pod people? "Who are you and what have you done with Vegeta?"

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Gohan found Hiya Dragon again, and tried to play with him to keep his mind off things, but found that it wasn't working. His mother was crying again, and somehow he felt that it must be his fault in some manner. He sighed unhappily, and the dragon, sensing Gohan's distress, cooed anxiously and nuzzled the little boy. He gave him a giant dragon tongue-lick on his cheek, causing the little boy to giggle briefly, and the dragon smiled, thumping his tail happily. But the little boy's giggles didn't last, and subsided after a few minutes. Hiya dragon, sensing Gohan's pensiveness, curled up next to him, laying his head on the little Saiyan's lap. Gohan stroked the dragon's ears as he thought about his family.

His father had been gone for a long time, and Gohan had missed him. He'd always hero-worshipped his father, wanting to be just like him, but it had only been for the past two years that he'd had any training. Chi-Chi had had a fit about that, and tried to keep Gohan from continuing that training. She didn't seem to realize, though, that he had to train. His mother didn't understand that although he wanted to do well in school, and be a great scholar when he grew up, he also wanted to be a warrior like his father. ::Can't I be both?:: he wondered. ::I can study and train! Why doesn't Mommy let me do both?::

Gohan slid his arms around the little dragon's neck, pressing his cheek into the soft scales. The dragon sighed, purring slightly, and closed its eyes. Gohan closed his eyes as well, trying his best not to cry. His parents were quarrelling again, and it hurt. He felt that somehow it had to be his fault. ::Wasn't I a good enough boy? Maybe if I'd been better, had studied more, they wouldn't be fighting?:: He didn't understand that they weren't really 'fighting', that Chi-Chi was unhappy for reasons that were unrelated to him. He was a child, and blamed himself.

Suddenly Gohan sensed the approach of a powerful ki, and he looked up in the direction that it was coming from. It was coming from the direction of Capsule Corp; he sensed it was Vegeta. Gohan sighed again. He'd seen Vegeta quite a bit since they'd returned from Namek, whenever he'd visited Bulma. Most of the time the older Saiyan was immersed in training in the gravity room, but sometimes he'd been outside, either eating or training outside of the gravity room. Vegeta had mostly ignored Gohan, but Gohan could sense Vegeta's gaze on him occasionally as well. He didn't know why the Saiyan Prince would study him so intently, and it bothered him.

He didn't really understand Vegeta. His father had assured him that the tears that Vegeta had shed on his death had been a sign that he could change, and Gohan trusted his father implicitly. Vegeta had saved his life on a number of occasions while they were on Namek; he'd never explained to any of them why he'd done it, either. And when the prince had died....

Gohan wondered why Vegeta had insisted on fighting Frieza alone like that. It hadn't made any sense to him at all. They'd have stood a much better chance of defeating Frieza if they'd all fought together, but Vegeta had insisted that the others stay out of it. Gohan suspected that there was more to that fight than the prince would admit. There'd been a sort of anger that Vegeta had carried around with him ever since, an unexplained resentment that he seemed to harbor for the others. Gohan wished he would just tell them what was bothering him. If Vegeta explained himself, maybe the rest of them could help him in some way. But Gohan knew that Vegeta was never going to say anything, and the rest of them would just have to either figure it out, or ignore it. And so far Gohan seemed to be the only one interested in figuring it out at all.

Suddenly Gohan realized that Vegeta's ki was approaching his own house. ::What does Vegeta want? Is he going to fight my Daddy?:: Gohan felt a frisson of alarm at the thought. He'd grown used to the dour prince, and had even grown to like him in an odd sort of way, but wasn't going to let him attack his father. Not without helping Goku, if it came down to a fight. Even if his father didn't want him to help, he wasn't about to let Vegeta kill Goku again. And that had been almost all Vegeta had spoken of to him, this past year.

Gohan stood up after giving the dragon's neck one last friendly squeeze, and the dragon tottered to its feet as well. Gohan lifted his face toward the sky, and shot off towards his home again. The little dragon gave a squawk of surprise, and flew after him, even though Gohan had told him repeatedly that he was not to ever follow him home, as that would anger Chi-Chi, and make her forbid Gohan to ever see the dragon again.

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Vegeta frowned as he sensed another power coming in the opposite direction. The warrior snorted then grinned when he realized the speed that the other ki was traveling at. "Looks like something has gotten Kakarotto's brat in a hurry," he said with an evil grin. "I can't imagine what's got him moving at that speed."

Gohan was in front of the house when Vegeta and Bulma landed. He watched Vegeta curiously, and with a slight wariness, but with no hostility. He would help his father fight the Saiyan Prince if the older Saiyan attacked Goku, but he wouldn't instigate any hostilities between them. And if he felt that he could prevent a fight between the two older Saiyans, he'd try to do that as well. He didn't know how he could, but he'd try. He worshipped his father but he had also grown to respect the other warrior in the past year, and hoped it wouldn't come down to a fight.

He said nothing at first when the two landed, but simply stood in front of the door, barring their entrance. His eyes widened when he noticed Bulma for the first time, and wondered why she'd come with Vegeta, but he remained silent.

Bulma hopped out of Vegeta's arms, not giving him a chance to react, and skipped over to Gohan, crouching in front of him so they were at eye level. "Gohan-chan!" she exclaimed, smiling at him. He could tell she was nervous, but he wasn't entirely sure why. "Are your parents home?" she asked quietly.

He nodded, still looking serious. "They're upstairs. They're talking."

"Goku-san... he's all right?" She remembered Vegeta's comment that Gohan had been 'moving fast', so wondered how he knew where his parents were and what they were doing if he hadn't been home. Hadn't he been there to greet Goku? She couldn't imagine that he wouldn't want to see his father, considering how often he'd chattered about how much he missed him, this past year.

Gohan nodded again. "Daddy's okay. Mommy was crying. Daddy went to make her feel better." His heart clenched, as he once again wondered if it was somehow his fault.

"Oh...." Bulma looked at the little boy sympathetically, then put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure... I'm sure everything will be all right." She didn't know what else to say to Gohan. She felt guilty that she hadn't been there much for Chi-Chi this past year, while Goku was gone, but she hadn't really known how to handle her friend's grief, and so had selfishly stayed away. She now regretted that, wishing she'd helped her more. "Do you think they want to be alone?"

Gohan glanced at the upstairs window, his face a mask of confusion. "I don't know, Bulma."

Vegeta folded his arms across his chest and glanced over at Goku's home. He sensed the younger man and another person, most likely his wife, in one of the outer rooms. Vegeta was sure that the other warrior was well aware of his presence and it irked the prince to no end that a low class warrior was ignoring him. ::He needs to be taught his place:: Vegeta thought as he continued to scowl at Goku's dwelling. And thought to the other warrior directly even though it was beneath him to communicate to subordinate. 

::Where have you been Kakarotto?:: Vegeta grumbled to the other man.

If Goku was surprised by this means of communication, he showed no sign as he responded in kind. ::Yardrat.::

::Yardrat?:: Vegeta snorted. ::There isn't anything on that planet.::

::Yes there is:: Goku disagreed. ::There is a small colony there. I picked up a couple of techniques from another Saiyan that I ran into.::

"What other Saiyan?" Vegeta was so startled that he said this aloud, making Bulma and Gohan stare at him. ::What other Saiyan, Kakarotto? There aren't any more left but us and your hybrid son.::

::Oh she was very nice:: Goku replied. ::She said she might visit later. One moment and I'll be down. Chi-Chi is upset.::

::I couldn't care less about your mate:: he muttered back and was surprised to find that Goku had completely blocked him out. He was apparently talking to his wife. Vegeta grumbled some choice swear words under his breath and waited for his adversary to make an appearance.

Bulma and Gohan stared at Vegeta in confusion, wondering what he was talking about. He'd been scowling at them while they'd been talking, but when he'd suddenly blurted out that statement, they couldn't figure out where it had come from. Bulma stood up and faced him, her hand still on Gohan's shoulder in an almost protective gesture.

"Vegeta, what do you want here?" Bulma asked him quietly, yet defiantly. "Are you going to fight, or leave us alone?" Gohan shot Bulma a startled look, surprised at her sudden courage, then looked back at Vegeta with a solemn look on his face.

Vegeta snorted. "As if you could stop me," he said giving her a cocky look. "Besides, woman, I said I wanted to see a Super Saiyan. And I told you I wouldn't fight him. Or have you forgotten?" He folded his arms across his chest and smirked as he watched them. "Tell your father to hurry up, brat. I need to train and haven't got all year."

To be continued.....

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And in the next exciting episode of DragonBall Z: A Light in the Darkness... Conflict and resolution