A Light in the Darkness - part 27: A New Arrival
by Mia Skywalker & Wataruo

PAIRING: Bulma/Vegeta
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. At least all of the ones with hair. 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. We just have fun writing it.
SUMMARY: Something's wrong with Bulma, and a new arrival.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Thanks to saiyengerl for beta'ing!

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

More quality time for Goku and Chi-Chi.

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Day 3

Bulma awoke the next morning, her head feeling like it was stuffed with cotton, her nose and eyes feeling like they'd been attacked with sandpaper. She tried to get up, but moaned with her head pounding so loudly she was sure Chi-Chi could hear it from miles away. She heard Gohan outside, his clear high voice asking her mother something regarding their breakfast. The thought of food made her suddenly nauseous, and she ran to the bathroom, losing what little she still had in her stomach. She crawled back into bed wondering if she was ill. She felt like she was dying, or at least she wished she were dead.

She pressed the button to the intercom that lead to the kitchen, and called out to her mother. "Bulma-chan?" her mother's startled voice came over the wire. Her daughter almost never used the intercom.

"Mother?" Bulma managed to rasp out. Her voice sounded almost as awful as she felt.

"Oh, Bulma! I'll be right up!" Her mother was true to her word, and was up there with a thermometer in a few seconds. She took Bulma's temperature, and was not surprised to find that it was higher than it should be. "Oh, Bulma-chan," she murmured softly. "You tired yourself out, crying that way. You need to get better. I'll bring you up some soup."

The thought of food once again caused her stomach to roil. "No, no food," she rasped out again. "No food," she insisted, at her mother's concerned look. "Just... lose it again. I'm so... tired."

Mrs. Briefs smoothed her forehead tenderly, wiping the hair from it, and nodded reluctantly. "All right, Bulma dear. But if you need anything, you let me know?" She sighed, and left the room, knowing she was going to be worried about her all day.

Bulma sat there in her bed, her arms curled around her knees, wishing that her mother could have brought her a glass of water.

~~~*~~~

"What the hell am I doing?" Hakusai asked herself for at least the thousandth time that morning. She stared out of her space pod and sighed. "I must be out of my mind." 

The tall Saiyan woman flicked her long braid around and out of her way as her fingers flew over the control panel of the ship, and she set in navigational coordinates for the planet Chikyuu. At the last minute she decided to follow Goku's advice and seek out her brother, despite her judgment to leave well enough alone. She frowned as the pod swung abruptly to the right and changed course.

"New coordinates accepted," a computerized voice intoned. "Arrival on Chikyuu in fifteen minutes." 

"Swell." She propped her chin on her fist and glared out the window. Some of the things that Goku had said about Vegeta had intrigued her. And everything had seemed contradictory. First he wanted to blow up Chikyuu, then he helped them fight against Frieza - he gave his life in fact - and now he was apparently settled on Chikyuu. "So what are you up to, little brother?" she asked the empty pod. "You are never in one place for very long." 

Until Goku had told her, she hadn't even realized that Vegeta was still alive. Even once she knew, she wasn't sure she wanted to see him, because she did not approve of his actions. And since all Saiyan families were dysfunctional, it mattered little to her mother that she had not sought him out. At the very least, as the former King's eldest, she could challenge him for the throne. ::Not that there's anything left of that miserable rock:: she mused. 

But she had chosen to live on Kassan as a hired soldier. After ten years of this, she'd decided that she'd had enough of fighting and wanted to do something else with her life. Not that she knew what that was, but with her knack with electronics, she could probably find something to interest her for the next hundred years or so. The warrior had made quite a nice amount of money to live comfortably on the planet of her choosing, but she hadn't found anywhere appealing. 

"We have reached the Sol system. ETA five minutes to planet-fall," the voice spoke up again. Hakusai shifted in her seat and re-strapped herself in. "Well, ready or not little brother, I am about to introduce myself. But first I'll stop in on Goku." She grinned devilishly. "And maybe I'll actually beat him in a sparring match." 

If anyone had bothered to look up on that clear morning, they would've been surprised to notice a large ball-like object moving at incredible speeds towards Mt. Pias, which was the home of one of Chikyuu's most famous heroes. 

The impact of the Saiyan space pod hitting the ground caused trees to splinter and dust to rise. The hole that it created was a quarter of a mile wide.  There were two men that immediately noticed another warrior had landed, one with an extremely high battle ki. One was Goku, who recognized the power signature. The other was a slightly cranky Saiyan prince who at the most had gotten only an hour or so of sleep. 

The warrior who got out of the pod was a little unusual. At 5'10" she was considered small for a Saiyan female and her hair, kept neatly in a braid down her back, reached her knees. Like most Saiyans she wore a body suit with Saiyan armor, her brown tail wrapped around her waist. 

Hakusai stretched. "Now I remember why I like commercial traveling. These pods are the pits," she muttered. "Whoa! Son-kun wasn't kidding, this place is great." Hakusai studied her surroundings with approval. And that was when she heard a door opening.

~~~*~~~

Vegeta awoke with a pounding headache and a queasy stomach. He took several deep breaths to steady himself and then sat up gingerly. ::What the hell is this?:: He groaned as his stomach roiled and he repressed the urge to vomit.

He had no idea why he felt this bad. He had never been sick in his life. Saiyans had great immune systems; there wasn't much to make them sick. ::Except a bonding.:: Vegeta flinched. ::No, I am not bonded to that pale, loud-mouthed, bad-tempered female:: he thought stubbornly. 

Vegeta looked up when he felt an unfamiliar power near him. Vegeta was more than surprised when he saw the Saiyan space pod pass him; he was absolutely shocked. The ki he sensed inside the pod made the warrior pause. If whoever was in the pod was bent on destruction, only one other person on the planet besides himself would be able to beat them. ::And he would most likely invite him to dinner first:: Vegeta grumbled. 

He took to the air, following the direction of the pod. ::If you want trouble, I'll give you some:: he promised the unknown occupant. ::I won't let you hurt Bulma.::

To be continued.....

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And in the next exciting episode of DragonBall Z: A Light in the Darkness...  Introductions