Chapter 5.

Trunks could feel the restraints on his wrists and ankles holding him down tight to the bed. In his dazed confusion he struggled to sit up and panicked when he realised that he couldn’t. Was he still on Coolers ship? He couldn’t be, he could hear his mothers voice. But there was a hint of fear in that voice when she spoke. Why would she have fear in her voice? It sounded like she was afraid, but afraid of what? Trunks tried desperately to see through his misted vision, his body painfully ached, every muscle felt as if it had run a marathon. His breath became heavy as alarm bells rang in his head; something was wrong, very wrong. He turned his head toward the voices as he heard another familiar voice, Goku’s. A faint orange shape came closer to him, he strained his eyes to try and focus on his friend. He needed to talk to someone, anyone, to explain to him why he was being strapped down like some sort of mental patient.

“M..mom…where are you?”

Bulma’s eyes went wide with both hope but also fear. Was he trying to trick her or was he finally snapping out of the spell that cooler had her son under? She slowly walked over to the bed and reached her hand out to Trunks. Goku suddenly grabbed her wrist and nodded a solemn no. She understood why her friend didn’t want her to get too close after all Trunks had attacked her earlier and she knew he could probably do it again. She backed away slowly until she backed into something solid.

“ Watch where you’re going woman!” Vegeta said in irritation. He had been watching the scenario unfold before him waiting for a chance to get answers from the boy about his erratic behaviour. Bulma was about to give him a piece of her mind until she heard Trunks call out for her again. The panic in her sons’ voice made her heart sink. She so desperately wanted to comfort him and let him know that everything was going to be fine. Maybe it was her motherly instincts drawing her to his bedside she didn’t know all she knew is that she was stepping dangerously close to him again, until she felt a sharp hand grab her arm and tug her back a few steps.

“ What do you think you are doing woman, he’s still dangerous, you saw what he did to me and to you for that matter!” Vegeta said still not letting go of her arm.

“I know, but he’s my son Vegeta He needs me can’t you see, he’s scared!”

“OUR son Bulma…and how do you know that this isn’t a trick?”

The first part of Vegeta’s sentence caught Bulma a little off guard. He sounded so quick to remind her that he was still the other parent of the boy. Bulma thought he didn’t really care about being a father. She was so used to looking after Trunks by herself that she had almost forgotten about the person who had helped to create her beautiful baby boy. It warmed her heart slightly to think that Vegeta did actually care.

“Vegeta’s right Bulma, I don’t think we should trust him just yet, not after what we just witnessed!” Goku said interrupting Bulma’s thoughts.

She turned around to look at her friend and sighed. She didn’t want to believe it but he was right. Trunks did hurt her and nearly kill his own father that was definitely not something she could ignore. Flashing visions of Vegeta choking for air ran through her mind and she closed her eyes tight trying to block out the haunting images.

Trunks stirred again and managed to open his eyes but Bulma could tell how glazed they were that he wouldn’t be able to see much.

“ Mom…..Father? Is that you? Please someone tell me what’s happening?” Trunks lifted up his head slightly trying to focus on the figures in front of him.

Vegeta gently pushed Bulma to the side and walked over to the bedside. He looked down at his son and a flurry of emotions ran through his mind as he gazed into his son’s confused eyes. Anger, sadness, confusion, pity and a little bit of shame not for his son, but shame in himself that he couldn’t protect his own son from that fucked up alien Cooler.

“Father? Please tell me…why are you all looking at me like I’ve done something wrong? What’s happened? Why am I strapped to th…”

“Quiet! Tell me boy…. Don’t you remember anything?” Vegeta questioned not taking his eyes away from Trunks.

Trunks narrowed his eyes, he could tell his father was extremely annoyed at him for something but he couldn’t tell what it was.

“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about…what do you mean, remember? Remember what?

“Don’t play dumb boy…you know exactly what I mean! Now tell me what the hell happened to you on that ship?” Vegeta said crossing his arms determined to find out what exactly happened on Coolers ship.

Trunks’s eyes widened at the mention of Cooler. “ W…what exactly do you want to know?”

Vegeta unfolded his arms and leaned in closer to his son. “Everything! Lets start with how Cooler got you to hurt your mother and attack me!”

“W…what?!?” Trunks quickly glanced at his mother who was now beginning to cry.

“You mean you don’t remember knocking your mother unconscious?” Vegeta said making sure he left out the part where his own son tried to strangle the life from him. He couldn’t bare that sort of humiliation.

“Vegeta…don’t you think the kid has been through enough…don’t be s..”

“NOT nearly enough for what he did to me Kakarot, it’s enough to have to live with the shame of allowing my own flesh and blood to do that to me!!” Vegeta interrupted.

“P…please tell me what happened…I’m so sorry Father what ever it was that I did! But please tell me… I need to know why I’m strapped down like this…why you are looking at me like I’m some sort of…monster!” A tear slipped down Trunks’s cheek as he pleaded with his angry father. He was so confused. The thought of being accused of hurting his own mother made his heart break.

Vegeta watched the tear slide down his sons’ face and onto the blood stained pillow.

“Please.” Trunks said again in an almost hoarse whisper.

Vegeta turned and looked at Goku standing beside him and let out a sigh. He never was any good at sorting out situations like this. Vegeta was a man of action not words and he knew that his son needed him, needed him to comfort him and tell him that everything was alright. But he knew he couldn’t. That’s what pained him the most. Worst of all Vegeta didn’t know exactly what to tell his son; after all he didn’t exactly know what had happened to him. He was supposed to be the one asking the questions and getting the answers. But his son’s pleas were too much to bear.

“I…I don’t know what has happened to you Trunks, but I know what ever it is, it has something to do with Cooler. That’s why I need you to tell me everything. What did he do to you?” Vegeta’s voice sounded a lot softer now as he tried his best to calm the panicking teenager down.

Trunks lay there wide eyed for a moment taking in everything his father had just said. After a moment or two he began to speak, “But you said…I hurt my mom…Please tell me it isn’t true? I…I couldn’t live with myself…I..I” Trunks couldn’t say no more as tears began to spring from his eyes uncontrollably. He would never usually cry especially in front of his father, but as he tried to speak heart-breaking images of his mother crying out in pain by his hand began to flood his mind. Trunks couldn’t bear it any longer, the visions he saw, the pain his body felt, and the shame in his father’s eyes. He let out a scream of pure desperation, he wanted it all to end, and he wanted to close his eyes and wakeup to find that it had all been a terrible nightmare. To be in his own bed with the smell of his mothers cooking drifting up the stairs. But as he felt his tears enter the cuts on his face the small stings made him realise that this was very real.

“ Trunks, it’s ok, we’re gonna’ try and help you, I swear it!” Bulma said running over to the bed and nearly knocking Vegeta from his feet.

“ WOMAN! What are you doing, stay away from him!”

“NO VEGETA I WON’T! He needs us! It’s not a trick you moron can’t you tell! The Nanites must be temporarily inactive! I think it might be something to do with the tranquillisers I used!” She said holding Trunks’s head close to her trying her best to physically comfort him.

“Mom…I’m…I’m s…so sorry!” Trunks said between sobs he couldn’t help the shameful display of emotion, as his father would call it.

“It’s not your fault Trunks…Cooler made you do this…he injected you with Nanites, they have been controlling everything you do!” She said stroking his hair and wiping his tears away.

“Nanites? Is that what it is?” Vegeta said sounding horrified. He had heard about Nanites back when he was just another of Freezer’s minions. They were sometimes used to hack through planets complicated network systems to gather things like blue prints and other information that would be useful to his own armies. They could bring down entire battalions and turn their own destructive weapons against them. The thought of that disgusting lizards brother using them on his own son made his blood boil.

“ That Coward!!” Vegeta shouted out barely able to keep his rage under control. The sound of his boisterous voice made everyone in the room suddenly jump.

“Vegeta?! What’s up?” Goku said watching the angry prince turn an unhealthy shade of red.

“BLAST that spineless freak!! He didn’t have the guts to come for me himself, he knew I would have pulverised him into dust so he used Nanites to do it for him!! Grrr, just like freezer a gutless monster with no honour!!” Vegeta turned to walk out of the lab until Bulma called out to him. He stopped dead in his tracks a turned to face her.

“Vegeta…what are you planning? You can’t take him on by yourself! You’ll get yourself killed!”

“ I do not plan on getting killed, the only one who will be doing the killing is me! I’m going to put an end to this madness now before it gets too out of hand! No body messes with the Prince of all Saiyans OR his family!” With that Vegeta turned on his heel and stormed out of the lab, his aura burning brightly around him as his anger got the better of him.

“Don’t worry Bulma I’ll keep an eye on him for ya’! He’s just a little steamed right now, he’ll calm down.” Goku said walking over to her and Trunks. “But what are we gonna’ do about him? Is there anything you can do?”

Bulma looked down to see Trunks was almost falling asleep with exhaustion in her lap. “I’m gonna’ run some tests to see how these Nanite things work. There must be a way to permanently deactivate them and if anyone is good at figuring out how to deactivate robots it’s Bulma Briefs! Just because they are tiny doesn’t mean they’re any different to regular sized robots!” She said with a confident fiery glint in her eye.

“She’s back!” Goku said quietly, smiling at her courage.

Back on Coolers Ship………..

“My liege, the scientists have something to report on the progress of the mission”. A small soldier waited for the ice-jin Tyrant to acknowledge him.

Cooler sat for a few moments more staring out of his window. Waiting for reports on how the mission was going was boring him to no end to say the least. It had taken him years to find the one with royal blood and now he was made to wait even longer. A low growl escaped Coolers lips and he turned to look at the quivering soldier before him.

“What of it?” He said making the soldier swallow hard.

“T…they said that the Nanites had been temporary deactivated my liege!”

“WHAT?!”

“They said they can’t get a signal from them, the host must have been tranquillised my liege!” The guard said closing his eyes knowing what was coming next.

Cooler ground his teeth. How could this be happening, everything was going so well and now everything had ground to a halt. The thought of not being able to get what he wanted made him shake with rage.

“ GREAT! Just…..great!” Cooler stepped off his throne and walked toward the door completely ignoring the soldier. He had other people he wanted to take his anger out on.

Cooler walked down the long corridor and stopped as he came up to the doors to the labs. He barged his way through and grabbed the first scientist he came into contact with. Every other scientist in the lab turned to see the angry Tyrant and started backing away slowly, knowing exactly what had brought him here.

“ Tell me you old fool! Do you value that pathetic life of yours?” Cooler said lifting the small man up to eye level.

The scientist gulped but was to afraid to speak so he just nodded.

“Really? Then why is the mission failing because of your obtuse mistakes?” Coolers voice was dangerously calm which made everyone in lab even more nervous.

“Please my liege if you let us explain!” Another brave scientist interrupted.

“QUIET!!! I’m not asking you…I’m asking this old man! WELL?” Cooler had a bloodlust look in his eye as he turned back to the hopeless scientist in his grasp.

“I…I don’t work with Nanites my liege, my job is working on the weapons…on y…your ship!” The scientist protested.

Cooler smirked, “Wrong answer old man!” Cooler threw the man across the lab within the blink of an eye. Cooler watched as the man smashed through various scientific equipment and landed face down on the floor with a thud.

“Now…someone better tell me why the hell I don’t have a certain Saiyan Prince being brought back to me right now?” Cooler said turning back to the trembling scientists.

“My liege, I assure you that this is only temporary, the Nanites will be back on-line in no time, they must have drugged him and it forced them to shut down. But it won’t take them long to get the boy to complete his mission.” The scientist kept his head low, as he didn’t dare look into his master’s eyes at this point.

“ It better be soon you idiot, otherwise I’ll be cutting some numbers down in here, and it won’t be pretty! Do you understand?”

“Yes my liege!” The scientist swallowed down hard trying to keep his cool.

Cooler frowned at the rest of the cowardly scientists, “Hmmpf, never send a monkey to do an Ice-Jin’s work!” With that last remark Cooler turned his back and exited the lab leaving the scientists scrambling about getting back to their work feeling very unnerved.

Goku walked into the living room of Bulma’s house looking for the angry Saiyan Prince but he was no where to be seen. Goku started calling out for him but he got no answer. He decided to search out his Ki wondering why he hadn’t just done that in the first place. As soon as he reached out his senses he knew exactly where Vegeta was, the Gravity Room.

“Man, does that guy ever stop?” Goku said to himself as he made his way over to the Gravity chamber.

Goku stopped as he saw the portholes glowing from red to blue, loud crashes and screams of pure rage could be heard coming from the room. He sneaked over to one of the windows and peaked in. Vegeta could be seen performing an array uniformed moves, that were graceful yet powerful. Goku hadn’t seen this type of training before it seemed very elite like to him. His moves were neat and refined, it was like there was a certain pattern to it, but Goku couldn’t make it out as Vegeta executed them swiftly. Goku was more than impressed as he glanced at the chambers control panel, Vegeta was performing all these moves under 600 times earths normal gravity and he made it look as if the gravity wasn’t even on. Suddenly one of Vegeta’s Ki blasts rocked the chamber and Goku fell to the floor. When he looked up he could see the lights on the chamber begin to come back on and he heard the whirr of the gravity room shutting down. He turned his head to the side as he heard the door opening. Goku scrambled to stand up and began dusting his clothes off.

Vegeta walked out of the room with a towel around his neck, sweat beads covered his face and he looked exhausted. As soon as he stepped out he sensed Goku and he frowned.

“Kakarot, do you ever stop pestering?”

“Vegeta, I was, erm…Can I ask you something?” Goku stuttered.

“What is it?! Can’t you see I’m busy here, I have more important things to do than speak to a dim-wit like you Kakarot!” Vegeta said wiping the towel over his face, not even making eye contact with Saiyan in front of him.

“Well, I just wanted to ask, how did you learn those moves? I’ve never seen anything like that before, I have to say I was real impressed!” Goku said with is big childish grin that Vegeta detested so much; it was so un-saiyan like in the Prince’s books.

Vegeta’s eyes widened for a moment as he realised that Goku had been watching him train. He turned to look at Goku and smirked, “So you watched me train? You shouldn’t be so nosey Kakarot, if I had wanted a peep show I would have asked the woman for bigger windows!”

Goku looked disappointed, “Ah come on Vegeta! I’ll tech you instant-translocation if you teach me how to do moves like that!”

Vegeta grit his teeth at Goku’s sentence, “ I will not teach you those moves Kakarot, NEVER! You want to know why?…Because only those from the Royal house Vegetasie are taught those moves! In other words, a low class baka like you aren’t worthy to learn such things! Secondly I couldn’t give a damn about your childish translocation crap so get over yourself!”

“Geeze Vegeta, I was only askin’ I was just curious that’s all!” Goku said feeling slightly hurt by Vegeta’s harsh words.

Vegeta started to walk away trying to hide the tinge of guilt he felt. ‘Damn that woman making me feel these emotions’ He thought to himself. A few years ago he would have enjoyed running Goku down into the ground but since being with Bulma he began experiencing a lot of emotions that before he would have just shrugged off. As he thought his feeling through he noticed that his walking pace had slowed down almost to a stop. He breathed out a long sigh and turned around to find Goku still standing there looking at his feet.

Vegeta frowned, “ Kakarot!”

Goku looked up hopefully, “Yeah?”

“Are you…hungry?”

“Vegeta, that’s a silly question to ask!” Goku grinned again.

Vegeta frowned even harder as he saw his smile get bigger and bigger, “Fine…I’ll get the woman’s Mother to cook us something!…But Kakarot?”

“Yeah?”

“Do me and favour and wipe that ridiculous smile off that stupid face of yours!”

“Oh, sure thing Vegeta! So what’s for dinner?” Goku said happily following Vegeta into the building

“Don’t push it Kakarot!” Vegeta said walking in front of his bubbly companion holding both ends of his towel around his neck.