Chapter Text
This was absolutely asinine, Vegeta grumbled to himself. Patrolling the galaxy- for what?! It wasn’t as if trouble always came to them anyway. This was simply cutting in on training. Kakarot really was an imbecile. Why had he allowed himself to be bullied into this pointless endeavor anyway? The idiot could’ve done this on his own, couldn’t he? He glared at the Saiyan flying ahead of him. What was his angle in all this?
Little did Vegeta know, Goku simply wanted company.
Of course, had he known, he would have laughed in his face and likely not come at all, so of course, Goku had to rely a little on Bulma to get the grumpy Saiyan to go. Maybe it was a low blow, but no one else could keep up as well as Vegeta. Even if he was sort of not the greatest companion at times. Or.. A lot of the time. That was alright though. He wasn’t alone and that was enough.
The planet they were currently on seemed devoid of any sort of intelligent lifeforms. There were ruins scattered about the planet though. Evidence that there had been people there had been some sort of higher lifeforms on the planet at one point or another. Goku frowned. Everything seemed so derelict. Whatever had happened must have been long ago. “Hey-!” He shouted back at Vegeta and pointed to a small cluster of crumbling buildings. “Let’s land over here!”
The Prince gave the other a flat stare before rolling his eyes. It would be the only agreement he gave as he followed Kakarot to the ground. “Hmf. I suppose you've noticed too, then?”
Goku frowned, his expression becoming serious as he glanced back at his traveling companion. “Yeah.. I did, anyway. It’s gone now. What do you think could be causing an energy level like that?”
Vegeta wasn’t exactly nervous, but his instincts told him they were being watched. It was a faint feeling though. An echo of a voice that at one point was impossible to ignore. However, it had dulled over the years after his tail had been cut off. The memory made him seethe and he snorted, crossing his arms. “How in the hell am I supposed to know that?! You’re the moron who dragged us to a planet with no population for a day trip!”
Offering a nervous chuckle as he was scolded, Goku soon sighed. “Okay, I guess that’s a good point. But thought we should check things out and it’s a good thing I did, isn’t it?”
“No. Nothing you do is a good thing for me.” Vegeta shot back with a snarl.
Goku simply laughed again and began following the one dirt road that led out of the small bunching of buildings. There was only a handful, but the little fountain in the middle was still running. Well, that’s weird. He thought better than to bring it up though. Vegeta was probably hungry by now and pointing out the obvious really seemed to agitate him. Usually, this was amusing, but they had to find the source of that mysterious energy.
Vegeta had, indeed, noticed the fountain. It caused his brow to furrow and his eyes to narrow a bit. Someone was definitely here and they knew how to hide. And hide well. Watching. That echo again. It caused the Prince to glance back over his shoulder as he slowed to a stop, dark eyes scanning their surroundings, but seeing nothing entirely out of place.
The taller Saiyan hadn’t noticed the other fall behind until he had to almost squint to see Vegeta. “Huh..? Hey! What are you doing!?”
“Shut up!” Vegeta practically hissed back at the other. What a moron! He easily caught up and when he did, he gave Kakarot a good punch to the arm.
“Are you really that dense?! We’re out here looking for- something and you’re giving our position away!”
You never had a position. Watching you.
Vegeta fought back a shudder and huffed before continuing down the path. All around them the landscape was overgrown and seemingly becoming more wild by the day with no one to tend to the land. Save for the wildlife, of course. There was something unsettling about the lack of inhabitants. Of course, there was a time when he was the cause of such an absence, but there wasn’t any sign of bodies anywhere and the buildings were standing. Some had been damaged, but there had been nothing inside any of the earthen buildings when they had checked. Had everyone simply evaporated? Obviously not, but the scene was still baffling.
There didn’t seem to be any large predators, not that Goku had seen anyway. They had flew quite a ways from their ship and hadn’t seen a thing bigger than maybe a typical wolf or big cat of sorts. He was just as confused as Vegeta, really. “Hey- what do you think could’ve caused all these people to just leave?”
Vegeta huffed. “What makes you think they just left..? It’s more likely they were annihilated.”
Goku frowned. Maybe Vegeta was right.
“Kakarot..”
“Yeah?”
“We’re being watched.”
Well, that was good news.