Communication Breakdown
Chapter 10
Author: Valeyard
Rating: R
Disclaimer: She doesn't own, so don't even bother.
Bargain by the Who (Who's Next - 1972)



I'd gladly lose me to find you

I'd gladly give up all I had

To find you I'd suffer anything and be glad



I'd pay any price just to get you

I'd work all my life and I will

To win you I'd stand naked, stoned and stabbed



I'd call that a bargain

The best I ever had

The best I ever had



I'd gladly lose me to find you

I'd gladly give up all I got

To catch you I'm gonna run and never stop



I'd pay any price just to win you

Surrender my good life for bad

To find you I'm gonna drown an unsung man



I'd call that a bargain

The best I ever had

The best I ever had



I sit looking 'round

I look at my face in the mirror

I know I'm worth nothing without you

And like one and one don't make two

One and one make one

And I'm looking for that free ride to me

I'm looking for you



I'd gladly lose me to find you

I'd gladly give up all I got

To catch you I'm gonna run and never stop



I'd pay any price just to win you

Surrender my good life for bad

To find you I'm gonna drown an unsung man



I'd call that a bargain

The best I ever had

The best I ever had





Vegeta's breath quickened with every step, but not from exhaustion, or exertion, but from simple anticipation and pure, carnal lust. His excitement sharpened his already heightened senses. He could smell Bulma on the wind, tracking her without needing to sense her ki.



He came to a fork in the brush. There were two spaces in the brush that looked as if someone could have broken through either way. Which one did she take? Vegeta was puzzled for a moment. He could smell her on both routes.



A predatory smile broke out on Vegeta's face. 'Very clever!'



Vegeta laughed in admiration. 'She ran up this path for a space, backtracked in her own footprints, and then ran the other way.'



Vegeta's teeth flashed in the dark, whetted in anticipation. 'Still playing games, my little quarry? No matter! The games will end very soon. Very soon, I promise you.'



Vegeta ran up one path. Sure enough, the footprints abruptly ended. He chuckled, as he backtracked and ran up the other way. The footprints abruptly ended a few feet up that trail, as well.



Vegeta looked back the way he came, shocked. 'That little witch! She is more clever than I thought!'



Vegeta smiled wickedly. 'So, you present more of a challenge than I anticipated. So, much the better!'



Vegeta stood there for a moment feeling for any trace of her ki. It was faint but he could feel it. He got an attack of something, which for him, was quite rare-an attack of conscience. He could feel resentment rise in him with this attack. Since, living around Bulma and baka's like Kakarotto, he was getting these attacks more and more, and he didn't like them one bit. He truly feared he was growing soft on this planet. However, it couldn't be helped. It didn't seem fair to track her by her ki, knowing Bulma could not do the same. Vegeta was determined to give her a fair chance, and this seemed like breaking 'the rules.'



Vegeta sniffed the wind, not aware that humans did not posses such an acute sense of smell. Her scent was faint, but it was there.



'Where did she go?' Vegeta methodically went over the path and surrounding area, bit by bit. Vegeta looked up at the forest canopy with a wicked grin as the answer came to him.



'Impossible!' He laughed in pure disbelief. 'She took to the trees! I never imagined her this resourceful. She could almost be Saiya-jin!'



This last comment being, for Vegeta, the greatest compliment he could conceive.



Vegeta, in one leap, grabbed a branch from the canopy of trees that covered the entire wood, smelling from branch to branch. Overhand, he wended his way through the trees, until a few yards ahead, he saw the place where Bulma jumped down and ran away.



Vegeta landed in almost the same place, dashing away as his excitement grew. He never imagined Bulma would make this such an enjoyable contest. It only sharpened his anticipation for what he felt was the inevitable.



Vegeta felt those old tigers jump in him. The tigers that made him feel so powerful whenever he landed on a planet for conquest. The two heartless predators that made him feel he had landed on a planet full of sheep-and sheep existed solely to be slaughtered



Fools might have called him diminutive, but Vegeta felt he towered over the weaklings that were more than his prey. For most of his life, their slaughter was the only thing that kept him from becoming just like them at Furiza's cold hands.



Now, those tigers would serve a different purpose. The tigers wanted to kill, but Vegeta leashed them under a new desire-to preserve! Tonight was special, and he wanted to preserve its meaning for whatever was left of his existence, even if he wouldn't be immortal, as he once hoped.



Vegeta was disappointed Piccolo had backed out on the challenge. Even more disappointed Kakarotto was ill. He had secretly hoped Yamcha would take up the challenge. The tigers would have enjoyed killing Yamcha almost as much as what Vegeta planned to enjoy at the end of the chase. The look on Yamcha's face, earlier that day, told Vegeta that was not going to happen.



Yet, Vegeta was still hoping for a fight. The tigers cried out for one. He couldn't think of anyone else that would even measure up for a good fight. It was one of the few times, Vegeta regretted being one of the elite.







Bulma madly ran through the brush, ignoring the blood on her hands, as she scratched and groped through a cruelly, yielding wilderness. Desperation made time slow down as she forced herself to think. She knew she could not out run or out fight Vegeta. Her only chance of survival was to out think him.



'Think Bulma! You can't just run wildly.' She told herself. 'That's a sure guarantee he'll catch you.'



Bulma ran through one part of the brush and stopped. She listened for approaching footsteps, but heard nothing.



'This might work to my advantage!' She told herself.



Bulma backed up, methodically putting her feet back in the prints she made, until she came to the point in the brush where she had crashed through. She then pushed through the other way. She ran a few feet, and looked around.



'How to put him off the track?' She looked frantically around, then, looking up, the answer came to her. Bulma tried to jump up and grab a branch from the forest canopy, above. It was hopelessly out of reach. Bulma cursed not being Saiya-jin as she painfully shinnied up the trunk of a tree. The bark scratched whatever skin that had been left unscratched by the brush. She was scraped raw all over, but fear overrode all need to escape pain. She would have jumped into an ocean full of razor blades to save her baby from Vegeta's merciless hands.



Bulma swung her arm out, trying to grab a low, hanging branch. She missed and tried again. Her heart temporarily rose from despair to small victory as she grabbed the branch on the second try. Carefully, she reached for the next branch, and the branch after that.



Her heart anxiously raced. 'This is taking too long! Piccolo won't slow him down that long, if he even stuck around for Vegeta, at all!'



Panic set in as she desperately reached another branch. She went from branch to branch, regretting she hadn't spent more time in the gym like all her friends. Kurillin, Goku, Yamcha; they all were fixated on physical fitness.



Bulma with her trim figure, never had to try and stay in shape. Now, she regretted she hadn't done at least a few chin ups. Her arms felt like they were breaking. She knew she couldn't keep this up much longer.



She finally dropped out of the tree, as landing reminded her painfully of the place that gave in her hip. She bit her lip, stifling a cry, fearing Vegeta would hear. Bulma had almost forgotten about the hip. Now, she wondered how the hell she had managed to climb with the hip at all. Adrenaline was a wonderful thing. Only now, exhaustion was setting in and pain reminded her that adrenaline lasts only so long.



'Fear will have to suffice.' She told herself, as she pushed herself to race forward, regardless of her hip's pleas to stop.



'Vegeta is coming.' She told herself. That instilled enough fear to win any argument the pain in her hip made. She remembered how terrified she had been of Vegeta in the beginning, and wondered now, why that fear had ever gone away.







Vegeta loped along at a determined, if not too rapid pace, sniffing every few feet, making sure she didn't try the "double-back" trick again.



He picked up a new scent-blood. 'Damn, woman! You aren't fooling around!'



A flash of teeth could be seen in the dark, but it was hard to tell if Vegeta was grinning in admiration, or baring his teeth in anticipation. The smell of blood threatened to drive him over the edge. The tigers smelled the blood and begged for prey.



Flames were in Vegeta's eyes, and the echoes of screams, long silenced rang in his ears. He struggled to reign in the feeling that he towered over all that cowered in his wake. Yet, he wavered between Vegeta, on the trail of his woman, and Vegeta-sama, Lord of Death, bane of all that breathed.



Vegeta frowned. It had been fun up until now, but those old urges gave him a troublesome mixture of feelings, that ranged from macabre nostalgia, to fear of what he might do.



'She is taking this too seriously,' Vegeta told himself. 'I need to end this before I take this too seriously, as well.'



Vegeta decided it was time to break the rules and feel for her ki. Bulma was off in the distance, but her ki was still, indistinct, and the reason why still eluded him. Her scent was more definite and he knew he would have to rely on that.







Bulma ran, frantically trying to think of a new way to put Vegeta off her trail. She came upon a stream that bordered one side of the brush. Remembering what Chi Chi told her about Saiya-jin sense of smell, she jumped in, following it as far as she could. She would have stayed in the stream, but the bottom was muddy. The mud sucked at her feet, threatening to cause them to be stuck fast if she wasn't careful. She finally had to abandon the stream, coming out on the other side, dashing away.



Bulma tried to run, now regretting her foray into the stream, as mud and water clung and squelched in her shoes, weighing them down. The weight of the mud and water made it almost impossible to run. She finally threw the shoes away, hoping the ground wouldn't become too rocky, but she ran faster now that the shoes were gone. Time was running out and she knew it. The knowledge of that, was making it harder and harder to think of tricks to throw Vegeta off her trail.







Sniffing here and there, Vegeta's heart sank as he lost the scent. 'Dammit! What did she do now?'



Irritation drove him further into falling prey to his old nature. The tigers no longer begged, but demanded prey, long denied.



Vegeta ran up the trail. Sniffed in the air, and caught her scent. It was illusive. It wasn't in the trees. He ran back a bit to see if she doubled back again. Then he spied it. A track, just on the bank of the stream.



'Little, blue, haired witch!' Vegeta grinned.



He was amused at her ingenuity, but wasn't happy about following the stream. He would have rather floated over it, but if she could do it, so could he. Vegeta grimaced, watching his beloved white boots fall victim to the muck and the mud at the bottom.



'Fuck me!' Vegeta thought in temporary disgust. 'Why couldn't I have wanted challenge from someone a little less intelligent and resourceful?'



Vegeta watched with distaste as he almost lost a boot in the muck at the bottom. At least, the stream was shallow enough, the boots kept out the water. He trudged on and caught it. The scent! He turned around sniffing in the air.



'Where was it?' Vegeta turned this way and that, until he laughed out loud in victory. 'She dropped a shoe!



He charged his way out of the stream, quite forgetting his marred boots, running over to where he found the shoe on the ground.



'Foolish mistake!' Vegeta laughed at his minor victory. 'Bare feet will leave more scent.'



Vegeta chuckled darkly. 'You just made yourself easier to follow, woman!'



Vegeta charged up a few more feet and found the other shoe. Holding them both, he inhaled their scent, thinking of how much closer his goal was, and he found both the thought and the scent intoxicating. He threw the shoes in the air just for fun, incinerating them in one blast.



'Did you see that, woman?' Vegeta laughed to himself. 'Never say I didn't play by the rules. I'm giving you fair warning. I'm coming for you, woman. Am I close? Will I cause you to panic and make more mistakes, or will you just be more clever? Doesn't matter either way. I'm having fun, and I will find you. There is nothing you can do about it.'



Tigers are hard to keep leashed. Vegeta could feel them breaking their bonds with each passing step.







Bulma wheeled around as she saw a bright blast through the trees, and knew there was only one cause-Vegeta. 'That was only a few hundred yards away. God, he is almost on top of me!'



Bulma unconsciously put her hand on her stomach, as if there was some way she could guard her child by doing this.



'Goku!' She thought desperately. 'If there was only some way you could hear me. Some way you could help me!'



Bulma gave into the desperate fantasy of Goku coming at the last minute to save her. 'Oh, why didn't I fall in love with him? Then I would be safe and sound. No! I had to fall in love with a stone cold killer!'



Bulma ran, looking around for any way to trip Vegeta up. The trees hadn't worked. The stream hadn't worked.



'This man is a born warrior.' Bulma thought in despair. 'All those planets he exterminated. He has probably seen every trick in the book from terrified aliens trying to hide from him. I haven't got a chance!'



'Dammit!' Bulma thought rallying her wits. 'I am not giving up, just yet!'



Smell,' she thought. 'He's tracking me by my smell.'



Bulma looked around wildly for anything that could conceal her smell. She grabbed up clods of mud and mixed them with berries from a nearby bush. Hoping there was nothing poisonous or intoxicating in the berries that would go through skin, she covered all her exposed skin, including the souls of her feet with the mud and berries. She even rubbed it in her hair.



The earthy smell of mud mixed with a sickly, tangy smell from the berries, which cloyed at Bulma's nose. At the moment, she thought it was the most wonderful thing she had ever smelled. She, ran on further realizing her feet would still leave footprints. Bulma looked for higher, harder ground, but such ground was off in the distance, and she doubted she would make that before Vegeta saw her. It was too out in the open and too far away.



She dashed and clawed in and out of trees, brush, sage and thorns. Anything, to try and cover her tracks. She saw an opening in the brush ahead. That was too obvious. To the side was a hedge of evil looking thorns that Bulma wouldn't have gone near in happier circumstances. Now, desperation drove her to remember a story. What was it called? A story about a rabbit that escaped the fox by tricking him into throwing the rabbit in a briar patch. The fox wouldn't follow him into the thorns.



'Would it work on Saiya-jin?' She thought only momentarily, until desperation drove her to try anything and she climbed her way in. She was only in a few feet, before she felt the thorns give and claw at her hair and she remembered another story. Absalom, caught between heaven and earth, by his hair. Caught in a thorn tree, waiting certain death because he could not get free.



Bulma shrieked and struggled in a wild panic, but the thorn branches gave and pulled tenaciously with her struggle. Try as she might, she could not get herself loose. Bulma looked around, for anything to help. Looking around made her realize she had climbed into hell. There were tufts of fur, and a claw here and there. This was not a thorn bush, but a grave. A trap for some beast that used it to catch unwary animals foolish enough to enter. Foolish enough like her!



'Can it get worse?' She cried in her mind. 'Not only pursued by a conscienceless killer, now I'm waiting to be dinner for some mindless beast!'



Bulma pulled harder and harder, but got nowhere. She was stuck fast and there was nothing she could do. Her heart sank as she heard soft footfalls approaching. Her eyes widened in terror as her worst nightmare, the man she knew she still loved, came into view, running up the path. A vicious smile across his face, as he caught sight of Bulma, trapped in the thorns.



"Looks like you didn't get as far as you wanted to." Vegeta grinned savagely. "No matter. I can have my fun right here."



Vegeta leaped into the air, landing in front of the thorn bush. He stuck his face through a space in the thorns, laughing at Bulma.



'Bastard!' Bulma fought bravely to keep down the tears. 'He's enjoying this! I'm dying and he's laughing!'



"I've wanted to do this since the first time I set eyes on you." Vegeta shot an arm out taking her by the throat.



'This is it! This is death!' Bulma screamed in her mind, but the only sound she made was a scream as she felt Vegeta's hand lace around her throat.



Shock penetrated her numbed mind as she watched surprise cross Vegeta's face. 'What did he expect?' She wondered. 'That I wouldn't scream while he tried to kill me?'



Vegeta's face turned from surprise to animal rage.



"So you hate me!" Vegeta screamed at her. "Is that why you took me in, in the first place? To have your revenge on me? You think I've changed so much I'll do nothing while you laugh at me? Make a fool of me? You will find out just how wrong you can be, woman!"



Bulma's didn't think she could be more terrified, but knew she was wrong as his face twisted into one of the ugliest expressions she ever saw on him. He grabbed her, ripping her from the thorns. Then all hell broke loose, as she was torn away from the rock she was fleeing to be carried off by the hard place from the air.



Bulma felt steel like claws rip her from both the thorns and Vegeta's hands. She struggled through the pain to understand what happened. She could only make out a huge shadow and wings. The beast that had probably used that thorn bush for years to catch helpless prey and she was the most helpless of all.



The claws dug into her side as her mind screamed it would hurt the baby. 'This is it.' Bulma told herself. 'Vegeta will let this brute do the job for him.'



Bulma mentally tried to push away the image of herself being rended to shreds by a ravenous brood of winged monsters. Bulma closed her eyes wishing she would either faint or die. Anything to have the horror and the pain end.



She felt a hand on her wrist and opened her eyes in shock to see Vegeta, one hand grabbing her wrist, the other hand drawn back for the attack. She tried not to laugh in hysteria and despair.



'Not Vegeta's style to let someone else have the fun. He has to kill me himself.'



Vegeta's hand moved quicker than she could see. She felt blood spray all over her. Bulma screamed out in horror thinking it was her own.



The monstrous shadow fell away, leaving Vegeta holding her by the wrist. Bulma hung there too numb to do anything but wait and hope it was a quick end.



'I'm sorry, baby,' she cried to her unborn child. 'I tried, I really tried. I'm sorry I'll never get to see you. I love you anyway.'



'It will be over soon.' She cried to herself in a soothing way. 'It's got to be over soon.'



"Woman!" She heard Vegeta's angry voice demand of her. "What the hell is wrong with you?"



Bulma 's held fell forward. She felt tears falling, but she didn't have the strength to look up at Vegeta again.



"Vegeta. Don't kill me. It wasn't my fault. I didn't plan for this to happen. If you want nothing to do with him, I'll understand. I'll raise him by myself. We'll, never bother you again. Just please don't kill me. Let our baby live!"



Bulma felt a shudder run through Vegeta. She barely opened her eyes, noticing how far away the ground seemed. She knew shock and a strange haze was mercifully setting in, because nothing seemed to matter. She hung there, caring about nothing at all. She felt Vegeta draw her in, and wondered if he would just snap her spine. It almost seemed comforting to her, and she drifted into a dream where Vegeta was holding her, because he loved her. The pain of her reality broke in screaming what a lie that was, but the fantasy told her as long as it was quick, it didn't matter, because he still loved her.



Bulma felt Vegeta carry her off into the night. She lolled her head over to look at him. His face was a mixture of anger and something else.



'What was it?' Bulma indulged in wondering.



She lolled her head over the other way and saw another shadow floating in the distance. The fear of another flying monster broke through the shock. Vegeta stopped just before the shadow and Bulma cried out, shrinking away from the shadow. She felt Vegeta hold her tighter.



'Will this nightmare ever end?' Bulma cried desperately. 'Every time I think this will be over, I find there is another threat!'







Piccolo floated between heaven and earth, again, waiting. He had thought earlier to wait until dawn and then go looking for Bulma, or whatever was left of her. Now, he felt two kis approaching, an extremely powerful one, and a much weaker one. So, Piccolo waited to know the truth of his decision not to help Bulma. Piccolo had to know if he had done the right thing and if not, to put it right, no matter the cost.



A small shadow approached from the east. Piccolo could spy someone carrying someone else in their arms, and Piccolo knew it was Vegeta carrying Bulma. His sharp eyes could see she hung lifelessly in his arms. Piccolo's heart sank, giving in to his worst fear she was already dead.



Vegeta stopped right in front of Piccolo, and Piccolo knew she was worse than dead. Piccolo's eyes widened in horror and then narrowed as his teeth ground in disbelief and fury. Bulma was covered with mud, and something reddish, that Piccolo could only fathom was blood. There was a bloody gash in her side. Her head, face, and hands, were completely covered in blood. Bulma shrank away from Piccolo into Vegeta's arms. Piccolo was amazed the fragile woman could live through such an experience.



"You fucking, cunt! You miserable, son of a bitch!" Piccolo growled at Vegeta in ugly outrage. "What have you done to her?"



Piccolo barred his extremely sharp canines squaring off in front of Vegeta for a fight.



'Fuck the future!' Piccolo told himself in blind rage.



'Sorry kid!' He mentally told the future Trunks. 'If you are never born, so be it! But, I can endure this no longer! Who wants to be the kid of that son of a bitch, anyway? I'm probably doing you a favor.'



"Get the fuck out of my way." Vegeta's voice was low and threatening. "This is none of your business. This is between me and her."



"The fuck it's not my business." Piccolo screamed enraged, powering up for a fight if need be. "Just look at her!"







Part of Vegeta enjoyed Piccolo's shock and outrage. He liked being taken for the worst monster in the universe and found himself smiling at Piccolo's indignation.



'The way she looks,' Vegeta tried not to laugh, but part of him couldn't help finding it amusing. 'With all that blood from that monstrosity on her, he must think I half-killed her.'



Vegeta felt the tigers again. Piccolo wanted a fight. Vegeta wanted a fight, too. But, Vegeta looked at Bulma and knew this was not the time. He'd seen enough death to know when someone was in shock, and needed care. Bulma needed it, now.



"If you are looking to die, I will be more than glad to accommodate you." Vegeta eyes never wavered in their certainty of that fact. "But, she is mine, and on that, I answer to no one."



Piccolo extended a clawed hand. "Give her to me." Piccolo eyes narrowed, his tone was stone cold and unwavering. "Give her to me, or none of us leave this spot."



Vegeta ground his teeth in fury at Piccolo's insolence. He twisted round, ready to use one hand to fight Piccolo if need be, while holding Bulma in the other. Vegeta had met her challenge and won her. He had waited too long for this. He swore to himself, no one would get between them-not ever again.



"You try to come between us and you won't leave this spot." Vegeta extended his hand, forming a very small, but lethal ball, that grew as he darkly gazed into Piccolo's eyes.



Vegeta held Bulma firmly in one arm, holding Piccolo at bay with the other. He warily passed around Piccolo, holding Piccolo at bay with the ki ball. Vegeta looked steadily into Piccolo's eyes the whole time, his expression a warning to Piccolo of the consequences if he tried to interfere.



"This is not over, Vegeta!" Piccolo screamed.



"The fuck it isn't." Vegeta arrogantly smirked, as he sprinted away with Bulma.



"This isn't over!" Piccolo screamed after him. "Unlike you, you bastard, that woman has friends. Friends like Goku! He will recover. Then he and I will hunt you down if anything happens to her. Remember, talking about hunting Goku down in the afterlife? Well, don't think I can't do that to you, Vegeta. You better, the fuck remember, I have just the connections to do that! I will make your life a living hell in this world and the next, if anything happens to her. I promise you that!"



Vegeta flew away, trying to ignore the truth of Piccolo's words, but they stung in spite of his efforts. "Unlike you, that woman has friends."



Vegeta held Bulma closer like a treasured possession that might be taken away at any moment.



Vegeta gave in to his own kind of despair. 'Everything, I ever considered certain in my life, has either been fucked up for me, or I fucked it up myself! My home, my birthright, my place, my immortality, my revenge, and now my woman. Yesterday, I thought things were finally going right for me. Now, it's all blown to hell and she hates me.'



'I don't know how this got so fucked up.' Vegeta shook his head to himself. 'But, it sure as hell did. Damn you, woman! Why did it have to be you? Look, what you have brought me to.'



Vegeta indulged in wondering how different things might have been, had he achieved immortality. Ruling the universe. Taking Bulma as an exotic plaything to adorn his throne room. Killing the rest of the irritating beings that now annoyed him, constantly.



Now, not only was he going to die, he told himself, he was going to die alone. Or worse, be hunted down!



'Alone.' Vegeta shook his head in desperation, helplessly clutching Bulma like a child holding something for security. 'They are going to take you from me and I'm going to die alone.'
Chapter 9

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