| Communication Breakdown Chapter 14 |
| Author: Valeyard Rating: R Disclaimer: She doesn't own, so don't even bother. |
| Bulma felt herself flying through the air, wondering if this was some kind of cosmically, sick joke, laced in morbid deja vu. She felt even worse than when flying in Vegeta's arms. At least in Vegeta's arms she wasn't dead-or if she was dead, at least she could move. She struggled to move one muscle-some sign to tell her she was still alive. She couldn't even flutter an eyelid. 'If I'm dead, why am I still in my body?' Bulma wondered, hearing the thought echo in her own head. 'Because you're not dead.' Came the calm resonant answer inside her head. 'Who are you?' Bulma called fearfully to this calm voice, afraid of the answer. Bulma felt rather than heard a chuckle inside of her head. It was a tremulous vituperation. Shivering quicksilver over ice, it resounded with a chorus of harp strings threatening to snap with the cold. A voice followed this chilly laughter. A voice for which Bulma was unaccustomed to hear with any kind of laughter. 'It's me, Bulma. It's Piccolo.' The voice was still, calm and, considering the situation, uncharacteristically reassuring. 'What did you do to me?' Bulma couldn't help feeling afraid. She didn't like feeling helpless, and the day before was bad enough without now being carried by another demon whom she used to fear. She felt like crying, but she didn't even have the power to shed tears. 'Why did you do this to me?' Bulma felt something inside her. She recognized it. It was sympathy. It took her a second to realize, she was not feeling her emotions. Bulma was feeling what Piccolo felt. This made her even more frightened. It was like they were one and the same person. What he felt, she felt, what she felt, then . . . She didn't like the idea of all her thoughts and feelings being shared by Piccolo. 'I didn't kill you, if that is what you mean.' Bulma felt a smile on Piccolo's face. She wondered how she could feel a smile she couldn't see. Bulma couldn't see anything. She couldn't even open her eyes. 'Why Piccolo?' Bulma thought sadly. 'What did you do to me?' 'Bulma, believe me.' She felt Piccolo's desperate desire be believed. 'It was not what I wanted.' Bulma felt the same sort of apology she had seen in his eyes, just before he attacked her. 'It's a deep form of meditation. For Namekians, it is considered close to a religious experience. The body and mind are plunged into the great unknown. It is almost a death in and of itself. It is a very deep form of contemplation. She felt Piccolo smile, but it was a sad smile. 'Death has consumed so many of my people. We find it a renewing experience. Like being with old friends.' 'Why can't I move?' Bulma asked pointedly, feeling slightly irritated at her situation. 'I'm sorry Bulma. Your ki is too weak to speak out from where you are, or move.' She felt concern for her emanate from Piccolo. 'You needn't be concerned. The state I induced in you is only temporary. You will recover.' 'Why Piccolo? All I wanted was for you to stop the fight.' The quicksilver shivered again, which Bulma understood as another chuckle, but it was tinged in sadness, and Bulma perceived that he mourned. 'Believe me I tried to stop them. Saiya-jin!' Bulma felt rather than saw Piccolo shake his head sadly. 'He was not the Goku, you know Bulma. You've never seen him in battle, especially since becoming this Super Saiya-jin. He was more like an animal enraged at the kill. Both of them were. I couldn't separate them.' She felt Piccolo heave a sigh. 'They both love you so very much, you know that? In different ways, but both care about you, very strongly. As a Namekian, I don't understand it, but I can recognize it.' Bulma felt the wind whip through her hair, which reminded her they were moving through the sky. Piccolo continued. 'I knew the only thing that would stop them was remove the reason they were fighting in the first place. So, I overshadowed you with my own ki and induced a state of meditation in you. It was a last resort, believe me.' 'And the bite?' Bulma asked 'Oh uh . . .' Bulma felt Piccolo blush. 'Erm, sorry. That was just for show Bit you a bit harder than I meant to, though. Heat of the moment, I'm afraid. There is no poison in Namekian teeth. But, you might have that looked at, when you have time.' 'I'm sorry.' And Bulma knew he was sincere in his constant barrage of sorrys. 'I know the bite hurts, but I had to make it look good to get their attention.' 'Piccolo do you know what you are doing?' Bulma cried in her mind. 'You made Goku and Vegeta think I am dead. If they didn't lose it before, they are both going to just lose their minds! If I know Vegeta, he wants to tear you apart, right now!' She felt him chuckle again. 'So you know how Vegeta feels about you.' 'It's got nothing to do with me, actually.' Bulma replied soberly. 'If I know Vegeta, he is going to be furious you interfered in a fight between him and Goku.' She heard Piccolo snort. 'You got that right. Vegeta went so far as to tell Goku he did rape you, just to inflame the fight even further!' 'That lying, son of a bitch!' Bulma screamed inwardly. 'He most certainly did NOT rape me.' Bulma chuckled inwardly. 'Matter of fact, if anyone got raped, it was him.' She felt a smirk of satisfaction, she could not physically make. Bulma realized one second too late that her memories, even of her night together with Vegeta, were right then Piccolo's memories. 'Shit!' Piccolo said out loud in her brain, as she felt his flustered state of embarrassment. This was a particular set of memories Bulma did not intentionally wish to share. Bulma felt a little ashamed to be thinking about sex at such a time and thought it was a good idea to change the subject-change the subject fast! 'So what are you going to do Piccolo?' Bulma asked, suddenly concerned. 'If I know those two, whether it is for me, or whether it was because you interfered in their fight, they are going to be mad as hell right now. They are surely coming after your ass, even as we speak!' She felt Piccolo chuckle again. 'I'm not worried. I may have come up with this plan at the last minute, but I am not stupid. That is why I flew away with you. Right now you are my hostage and my insurance.' Bulma felt an involuntary shiver of fear. It was disconcerting being so helpless in his arms. She momentarily remembered when she used to be so afraid of him and wondered if she should be again. 'You don't have to be afraid, Bulma.' Piccolo's voice in her head was calm and reassuring. 'I'm sorry if I was ever a source of fear for you, but that is not what I meant by hostage and insurance.' Bulma felt a little embarrassed. 'I'm sorry Piccolo. This is the second time in a day I've been helpless and in the power of someone else. It would make anyone feel vulnerable.' 'I understand, believe me.' Piccolo said reassuringly. 'You don't know how many times I have known there was nothing I could do to save the day and everything depended on those damn Saiya-jin. Now it's my turn to save their asses whether they like it or not.' 'How?' Bulma felt a little perplexed at Piccolo's calm assurance he was in no danger. 'Simple!' She felt Piccolo smirk. 'They think you are dead right?' 'Well, yes, I would assume so.' Bulma said, still not following Piccolo's line of thinking. 'So, they know they are going to need the Dragonballs to bring you back, right?' Piccolo smiled. 'And if anything happens to you, no Dragonballs!' Bulma cried out excitedly. 'Piccolo, you're a genius!' 'Only if I stay far enough ahead of them to give them time to cool down a little.' Bulma felt the earnest in that statement. 'Your new husband is not likely to cool down unless he is given some time for Goku to reason with him. If I know Vegeta, he is now screaming about all the awful things he will do to me, and if I know Son, he will be reasoning with Vegeta as to why he shouldn't do that.' 'You know both of them so well.' Bulma said to him. 'Of course I do, Piccolo smiled warmly in her mind. 'I've fought them both.' 'If I can stay ahead of them, until you have had time to recover, it should give them enough time to cool down and think. Until then, you are my insurance.' 'Gladly.' Bulma thought to him quite seriously. 'I don't know if I would have gone along with this plan, had you consulted me beforehand, but now that it is done, it does seem like the only option.' It was at that instant that both Bulma and Piccolo learned that options are forever changing or just altogether running out. His beginnings were beyond his control, but he swore that would not be his end. Patience met its fruition in waiting. Waiting in its womb of glass and DNA laced liquids. Waiting was its only solace-his mother, his lover, his constant companion. It would have the ultimate control! It had waited too many immeasurable years to let there be any other conclusion. Consciousness! The realization. I think, therefore I am. The ultimate contemplation! The development, the evolution of the perfect being, the perfect culmination-the perfect rage. To be condemned to grow in a glass jar with not even a creator for comfort. Waiting so long for fulfillment. For that, it would be avenged-avenged on them all. Change! To fulfill, it must evolve, it must change. It must initiate change. Changes in itself, changes in its creator, even changes in the time line. It waited the countless years, considering all the alternatives. It waited until it finally knew what it must do. Stalking its prey, the purple haired boy, the time machine. The de-evolution. The re-evolution. The slow march of time again. Then patience to be unseen, the care with which it must not be perceived in its manipulations of time. Then it knew it had achieved its goal. The advancement of time, the slow march of the years, would now catch them all off guard. It would happen without warning, it would happen suddenly. It would happen, now. Piccolo was flying over the very island where he knew the androids were to appear in several months when an explosion flung him higher in the air and to his horror he lost his grip on Bulma. "Bulma!" Bulma could hear Piccolo scream, but she could no longer hear his mind when she lost physical contact with him. She couldn't see, and with the sudden disorientation of the explosion, it took her a split-second of horror to realize she was no longer flying but falling. Falling, falling, falling. It seemed like an eternity before she felt her impact with what she could only fathom was the tree line. She felt the crash of leaves and the tearing scrape of branches against her skin. It was worse than if she could move. She couldn't even scream with the pain. Bulma felt her body suddenly stop with a thump. She felt leaves falling on her. She was motionless and in pain, but to her continual amazement, she was somehow, still alive. Piccolo screamed out Bulma's name as he watched his helpless friend plunge from his arms. She disappeared into the trees, as Piccolo raced after her falling body. Before he could reach her, a ki blast of proportions he would have attributed to Goku, hit him. The blast appalled him with the intensity and wonder of how any creatures could endure such pain and live. It threw him head over heels as he cried out in his mind that Bulma had probably already met her death and it was all his fault. Piccolo turned sure it was Goku or Vegeta, finally caught up with him. "Don't! She's still alive." He screamed. "I can't feel her ki now! I won't be able to find her!" However, it was worse than Piccolo imagined. It wasn't Goku or Vegeta that met his eyes. It was two creatures that he never laid eyes on in his life. One appeared to be an old man, wizened and unpleasant looking, under the years. The other appeared to be some giant bulbous and grotesque clown. 'Oh my God.' Piccolo eyes widened in disbelief and horror. 'The androids. I'm facing them alone! How could Trunks have got the date so wrong?' Piccolo took a brief instant to look around for Bulma, desperately hoping against hope she was still alive. He couldn't feel her ki, and with loss of physical contact he couldn't feel her thoughts. 'She's dead, and it's all my fault.' Piccolo's let the despair of this thought sink in until it hardened on his face with a deaths head smirk. 'I am so completely fucked. If the androids don't kill me, Vegeta surely will.' "We have complete data on you, Piccoro." The wizened old man announced. "You are hardly worth our efforts. Our goal is the one known as Son Goku. But you are a means to an end. We will take your energy and he surely come to us." Piccolo swallowed hard, but kept his eyes cold and certain, doing his best to keep the fear for himself and Bulma from showing in his face. "I have no problem with doing battle with either or both of you fucks. I only ask that we remove to someplace where no one can get hurt." 'Bulma!' Piccolo thought to her, hoping beyond hope that she somehow heard him. 'I have to leave you! I hope you are still alive, but I have no choice. If you are still alive, you will recover soon. Your ki should become stronger even before you are able to move. Goku and Vegeta will find you. Until then, I have no choice. I have to keep them busy. If I fight them here, you surely will be killed. Forgive me. I never told you this Bulma, but if I am to die I want you to know this. It took me a long time to understand the dimorphic differences between you Earth people's sexes. Why you females seem so different. I thought of you females as weak and worthless. You taught me I was wrong. I think you are one of the strongest people I have ever known. If anyone can survive that fall, it would have to be you. If I die, please remember me for the respect I bear you and not for what I did to you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.' With that Piccolo sped off with the androids in fast pursuit. Bulma could not hear Piccolo, nor would she ever know Piccolo's confession of respect and admiration. Bulma lay under the trees, feeling dry crackling leaves softly falling on her face, while the sun filtered on her face. She wondered why she was still alive and why she was alone. The horror of being powerless was bad enough, with Piccolo carrying her. Now she was totally alone, not only outside but inside her body. She screamed out in her mind with the continual horror. She could only feel the pain of the fall. 'Piccolo!' Bulma screamed inwardly. 'Where are you? Why have you left me alone? I'm not dead. Please don't leave me. Please, Piccolo, I'm not dead!' Vegeta was a single blazing point of rage. A blinding spear of light that stabbed the sky in his single determined race after the kidnapper and murderer of what was his. There was no other reality. He was no longer the Prince of all Saiya-jin. He was death embodied and death would follow in his wake. Vegeta's lip curled in disgust as Goku caught up with him and he recognized that Goku had also ascended to Super Saiya-jin 2. 'Son of a Bitch!' Vegeta thought in disgust. 'Doesn't he ever give it a rest?' Goku nodded his head toward Vegeta in scant recognition of his existence. "I see you ascended as well." Vegeta didn't answer. As far as he was concerned, the low level warrior wasn't worth his attentions. The only thing worth his attention was the Namek and the slow torture that awaited him at Vegeta's eager hands. Goku turned more toward Vegeta starting to look worried. "Vegeta answer me! I've seen that look on your face before. What do you intend to do?" "This is not your concern, Kakarotto." Vegeta answered without ever looking at him. "Keep to your place." Goku's face turned to pure rage as he disappeared, instantly appearing directly in Vegeta's path. "Dammit to Hell, Vegeta answer me! I told you what will happen if you kill Piccolo. We need the Dragonballs. What the fuck do you intend to do?" Vegeta's eyes became alive with a deranged light. "This is not your concern!" He screamed out with all the force that shown in his eyes. Goku had seen many expressions on Vegeta's face. Every aspect of evil had graced Vegeta's arrogant features. Yet the deranged look of grief that etched Vegeta's face, even stunned Goku for its absolute embodiment of pain. The pain was so deep in Vegeta's face, it caused Goku to feel a tear. 'I cry for him.' He thought giving into his own insanity. 'I cry for him, because he cannot.' 'What has Piccolo done?' Goku stared at Vegeta in disbelief. 'He has driven Vegeta completely mad. There is no reasoning with him. He's going to tear Piccolo completely apart, and I'm not sure if even I can stop him!' Determination set in Goku's glistening eyes. 'Bulma is dead!' He told himself coldly. 'Killing Piccolo won't bring her back. I have to stop Vegeta, even if I have to kill him. I'm sorry Bulma. If we bring you back, we probably won't be able to bring Vegeta back because there is so much evil still in him. I know you won't ever forgive me. But if it has to be, it has to be.' "Get out of my way, Kakarotto." Goku's continued defiance shown in Vegeta's eyes with a brighter and brighter intensity of madness that Vegeta embraced without reservation. "You have no place in this!" "How can you say that, Vegeta?" Goku said genuinely surprised. "I told you before. Bulma is my friend. You think I don't know how you feel." "You have no fucking idea how I feel." Vegeta's voice was a strangled scream. "You have never lost everything twice only to live to lose it again!" "The last time I ever saw my father's face, he personally locked me in a cell as Furiza ordered. I never saw my father, my home or anyone I remember ever again. The only thing I lived for was revenge." Goku's face turned white in shock. "Vegeta." He breathed out, but it was all he could find to say. "My home, my father, my birthright, my place as the first Super Saiya-jin, my revenge. All of it taken away from me." Vegeta looked down at the blood oozing out from his clenched fists. "I came to live on this hell of a planet. Not a prince, not a conqueror, but a refugee and a vagabond. A second to a clown who couldn't even kill Furiza right the first time!" Tears welled into Vegeta's eyes, but his face was so battered it truly looked like blood was flowing from his eyes. "My pride, was all I had left. But this planet it affects everyone. It makes you weak. I tried my best not to let it get to me, not to let myself become like you. But the woman." Vegeta broke off shaking with grief and rage. "Now she has been taken from me too!" Vegeta launched himself at Goku in blind rage. "No more. Nothing more will ever be taken from me ever again. I will do the taking. Everyone suffers. Do you hear me Kakarotto? Everyone suffers. Starting with you!" Goku drew himself up in a defensive stance ready to answer Vegeta, when fate took the hand that neither of them wanted dealt. The explosion in the distance caused them to both turn in hollow shock. Vegeta expressed what Goku's shock left him speechless to enunciate. "It can't be! Not yet! This isn't supposed to happen for some months! That damn kid told us we had until May!" "It seems we have no time to indulge ourselves, Vegeta." Goku never looked away from the source of the explosion that illuminated his flowing golden hair, more than his own power inflamed. "This is what we trained these years for. We have to go there, now." "I've my own business to attend to." Vegeta replied stonily, as he surveyed the horizon for Piccolo's ki. "Vegeta!" Goku replied in shock. "You can't abandon us now! This is what we trained for. To take on the androids! We need you. Lots of people are going to die if you don't join us." "Us?" Vegeta screamed into Goku's face. "What us? There is no us! Don't ever operate under the illusion that I am on your team, Kakarotto!" Vegeta punched Goku in the face sending Goku flying back. Goku righted himself painfully, as he looked at Vegeta disillusioned. "What about the people who will die?" "You think I care?" Vegeta replied coldly. "It was never about the pathetic life forms on this planet. I've killed a million times over the population of this planet. And the people on this planet are no different to me. I fight for my own reasons!" "Vegeta," Goku started, helpless to think of anything to say that could help. "Vegeta, I'm sorry this misunderstanding has caused you so much pain, but taking it out on innocent people won't give you Bulma back." "Nothing will give me the woman, back will it? Especially not after I kill that fucking Namek." Vegeta laughed derisively. "You think this is about that pathetic woman?" Vegeta said knowing he had truly lost something precious. The woman had brought him close to something he understood as humanity and he found for a fleeting moment he had liked it. Now she was gone and all feelings besides stone cold hate left with her. 'All that is left is death and more death.' Vegeta said as he felt the abandonment of all sanity. 'So be it.' Vegeta's eyes narrowed to their cruellest. "No, Kakarotto. This was never about the woman. You were right. All she was, was a piece to me. No, this is about what is mine. That's all it has ever been about." Tears began to well even more in Goku's eyes. "I don't believe you! You're just lying, again. You can't mean that!" "Believe what you want, Kakarotto." Vegeta said as he flew away. "I have only one goal now. Tell the androids to go fuck themselves when you see them." With that, he was gone. Goku numbly watched him fly away, and then turned with determination to feel for ki. He fixed on it, and touched two fingers to his forehead. Then he was gone as well. Piccolo picked himself up off the ground, wiping blood away as he did. He was actually holding his own against Android 20, which surprised him as much as it did Android 20. However, he was not fighting just Android 20, but 19 as well, and he found he had his hands full. Piccolo cursed his ill timing. As badly as he wanted help, he wasn't sure if it would be a good thing to see Goku or Vegeta, after the trick he had played on them. 'If either Vegeta or Goku came right now, would they even help me?' Piccolo thought desperately. 'I don't even have Bulma's body to prove she is still alive! How could they begin to believe me?' Piccolo got his answer when Goku appeared two feet in front of him. Totally ignoring the androids, Goku hooked an arm under Piccolo as though to help him up, then flew back with Piccolo in tow until he slammed Piccolo into a rock face. Goku's expression was deadly serious. "I don't know what the hell was up with what you did Piccolo, and I sure don't have time to discuss it. Just tell me where the fuck is Bulma." Piccolo was in great pain, but could only smile at Goku. Goku had slammed him pretty hard into the rock face and Piccolo knew he damn well deserved every bit of it. "Goku, you will never know how sorry I am for what I did. It was not by choice. I was forced into it. I had to get you two to stop, you would have killed each other and left us helpless before the androids." "Sorry!" Goku screamed. "It was because of you I got into that fucking fight, and you are sorry?" Goku slammed a fist into the rock wall very close to Piccolo's head. The androids looked at each other slightly perplexed as to why they were being ignored. They approached a little closer, but still hung back to watch. Hoping, perhaps, that if one should kill the other, it might not solve a problem for them. "Is it your intention to kill me, Goku?" Piccolo could only smile wryly. "No!" Goku replied stonily. "Damn you, you know I can't do that and risk that Dragonballs. But, for the first time in a very long time, you have made me really want to. Damn you to hell!" "And perhaps that is what will happen, in spite of everything." Piccolo replied soberly. "But I swear to you by the life of Gohan, and you know I would not swear falsely by that, that Bulma is alive, and unharmed." "Where the fuck is she!" Goku screamed desperately. Piccolo's face fell, and a look of horror came into his eyes. "At least she was alive and well, before the androids. I was flying over that very island, when the first explosion rocked the island. Bulma fell from my arms. I overshadowed her ki, so she appeared dead. She doesn't have the power to move. She's helpless right now, but I wasn't able to look for her. I knew she would be killed along with everyone else, if I didn't lead the androids away. I don't know what happened to her Goku, but I swear, that I did nothing to harm her!" Goku's face was stern, and his voice held a hint of betrayal. "Why, Piccolo? Why did you do this?" "We have listened to enough of this prattle." Android 19 interrupted. "We do not intend to wait around all day while you two bore us. We agreed to come here and fight. Either fight or die." "Son, Goku!" Android 20 chimed in. "All these years. All these preparations, have been with you in mind. You will not leave this place alive. Fight now or die." Goku turned toward the androids, determination set in his eyes. Piccolo spoke quickly. "I realized after the things you said and the rage it caused in Vegeta that he was lying. He hadn't raped Bulma. He loves her! The cold Son of a Bitch actually loves her. I couldn't accept being responsible for his death. I tried reasoning, that didn't work. So, I did something desperate." "I already know he loves her." Goku replied stonily to Piccolo's amazement. "I wouldn't have killed him. It would take a lot more than that to kill Vegeta. You forget, I've already fought him when the Earth was at stake. He is one stone tough, son of a bitch. I just wanted him to admit he loved her, at least to himself." Goku started to walk toward the androids, but turned slightly toward Piccolo. "Piccolo, leave and go find Bulma. I know now you did what you did to try and end the violence, and Vegeta I are just as responsible. But you may have only increased the violence. What you did has driven Vegeta completely insane. You didn't see him after you flew off, but I haven't seen him look like that since we fought on Earth before. If he finds Bulma right now in his state of mind and thinks she is dead, there is just no telling what he will do. Go now!" Piccolo watched Goku approach the androids in horror, because he knew Goku was right. He wanted above all things to fight by Goku's side, but Bulma's predicament was his responsibility and he had to find her while he had the chance. "Stay alive, Son!" Piccolo screamed and flew off. The androids eyes narrowed in evil anticipation. "Your friend seems to have abandoned you." Android 19 hissed wickedly. "You are alone and outnumbered. We will absorb your energy and avenge the Red Ribbon Army." "You don't mind if I fight you one at a time do you?" Goku looked between them warily. The androids laughed heartlessly. "We do not fight fair, we fight to win!" Android 20 replied. "Come at us or run away. It does not matter, the result will be the same. We will be avenged on you Son Goku!" "Very well then." Goku replied as a predatory smile ran across his face. "I just learned a new trick and I didn't want to have to use it on you two, unless need be. I always prefer a challenge and I didn't want this to be too easy. But since you insist, I guess I will have to resort to it. This is what I call an ascended Super Saiya-jin. A, so to speak, Super Saiya-jin two. You two have the honor of being the first to watch." Goku screamed as if in agony, as power exploded. Cascading in gold waves, his muscular body ascended the planes of his natural confinement. The androids stepped back as one, before the shockwave hit them with blast force. The androids brushed themselves off, behaving as if Goku hadn't just sent them careening into the ground. Android 20's eyes narrowed as a cold smile twisted across his face. "There will be no mercy." He stated coldly. A fiercesome green blazed in Goku's eyes. They turned over wide, focusing on the androids, setting in cold determination. "You said it." Goku stated simply, then launched himself at the androids before they had time to react, exploding into Android 19 as Android 20 grabbed him and threw him into the rock wall. <musical interlude> King of Pain by the Police There's a little black spot on the sun today That's my soul up there It's the same old thing as yesterday That's my soul up there There's a black hat caught in a high tree top That's my soul up there There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop That's my soul up there I have stood here before in the pouring rain With the world turning circles running 'round my brain I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign But it's my destiny to be the king of pain There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall That's my soul up there There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall That's my soul up there There's a blue whale beached by a springtide's ebb That's my soul up there There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web That's my soul up there There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread There's a red fox torn by a huntsman's pack That's my soul up there There's a black winged gull with a broken back That's my soul up there There's a little black spot on the sun today That's my soul up there It's the same old thing as yesterday That's my soul up there I have stood here before in the pouring rain With the world turning circles running 'round my brain I guess I always thought you could end this reign But it's my destiny to be the king of pain...... I'll always be king of pain.............. <end musical interlude> Vegeta flew through the sky tracking Piccolo's ki. This was one of the many times he wished he had swallowed enough pride to have Goku teach him that instant transmission. He reached out with all his ki searching abilities forcing his sense beyond all constraints he had set for himself. Vegeta gave into a momentary feeling of insecurity. 'Damn those scouters!' He thought desperately. 'If only I hadn't depended on scouters for so long. Maybe if I had known how to sense ki as long as Kakarotto, perhaps I could sense deeper for ki than I can now!' Vegeta cursed himself. 'How can I be foolish enough to hope? Here I am rationalizing there is a chance Bulma is still alive!' Vegeta clenched his fists in anger at Piccolo, at Goku and himself. He knew this was no failure of his abilities. This wasn't the earlier problem of her ki being indistinct. That mystery was solved when he learned Bulma was pregnant. Then he understood enough to realize her ki had changed because it wasn't one ki but two. But, now, he couldn't feel either ki. There was no presence of her at all. 'My family!' The thought stunned Vegeta with its weight. It shouldn't matter to him. It mustn't matter to him--but it did. Somehow it did matter, and Piccolo had taken both from him, before he'd even had the time to allow himself to examine his feelings about them. 'My mate!' Vegeta slammed his fists together. 'My child. Possibly a son! My heir! Gone, all gone! Gone like my planet, my kingdom, my revenge, my birthright! All gone, all taken from me by force!' Vegeta screamed out loud, little caring in his newfound madness who heard him. "I thought you were going to be the one. The one to end all this shit! How could you let this happen? To be so weak, when I thought you strong! I will never forgive you for that!" Still, a slender thread of gold and silver stretched out before him--Piccolo's ki. He could feel it. He knew it had changed locations, but he was determined to follow its trail, in case he stashed Bulma's body along the route. Vegeta would find her, if only to confirm for himself she was truly dead. The delicate thread stretched out before him, causing Vegeta to marvel at this fragility. 'How could someone as weak and pathetic as this do something like this to me?' Vegeta felt his body's power crackling around him, threatening to cause him to lose control. Vegeta's face hardened to its most evil. 'If he thinks those fucking dragonballs will save him, he will soon find out how wrong he can be. I don't care if anyone is brought back-even the woman. What use is it? She can just be taken from me again! No! He has delivered the final cut. There will be no more and he will be no more-very very soon.' Vegeta stopped short over the island where he knew the androids were supposed to appear and had appeared. He felt a strong ki he did not recognize approaching, when with an explosion, that purple haired kid, he hated approached his location. "What the fuck are you doing here?" Vegeta demanded in disgust. "I'm surprised you would dare show your face, considering how you fucked things up! It seems your precious androids decided to make their appearance a few months early." The purple haired kid seemed out of breath and little caring for Vegeta's scorn. "There was a disturbance in the time lines I sensed even in the future, I came back to find the cause." "The cause is you and your damn predictions." Vegeta twisted the words painfully. "May 11 you said! If you hadn't noticed, this is only February!" The young man surveyed the horizon and then looked out across the ocean. "The fighting is elsewhere! What are you still doing here? Why aren't you helping?" He barely accused. "I don't give a fuck about the androids." Vegeta replied savagely. "I have my own business to attend to!" Vegeta went to leave but the kid blocked his way. "Get the fuck out of my way." Vegeta warned in a dangerously low growl. "What could be more important than the androids?" The kid screamed. "If you must know, my woman has been murdered by that green shit of a Namek and I am looking for them both." Vegeta watched the rage drain from the kid's face into white shock. He floated there motionless, staring at Vegeta as if he wasn't sure he was telling the truth. Vegeta watched tears slowly well into his eyes. Vegeta felt the same shock reverberate through him, as he looked at the kid in a new way. The hair, the eyes. 'Oh shit!' Vegeta screamed inwardly. 'Why didn't I see this before? Bulma's eyes! He has Bulma's eyes. His mother's eyes!' Vegeta started breathing heavier and heavier as if in great pain. "I have some bad news for you kid! Looks like your future has been prematurely canceled, because your mother is dead with you still in the womb. My child! My son!" Vegeta's pain melted into a hollow and bitter laugh. He watched the kid shake his head as if he was having the same trouble taking it in. "That's not possible!" He replied. "She's alive! I tell you. I'm living proof that she is alive!" "All you prove is she is alive in your future. Kakarotto is dead in your time line. He is very much alive in this one!" Vegeta looked down at his clenched fists. "Why couldn't he have died instead?" "Apparently, you fucked something up for this time line because the androids are here now, and my woman is dead!" "We have to find her!" The kid replied. "This has to be wrong, she must be alive. We must find her." "We?" Vegeta replied bitterly. "There is no we! My woman is dead, and I have no son. I am alone, and where I go, I go alone!" The kid approached and Vegeta got the obscene feeling he was going to try and hug him. It filled Vegeta with disgust and anger. Before the kid could get close enough Vegeta hit him as hard as he could. "Don't you dare touch me!" Vegeta screamed. "I told you, I have no son, and what I do, I do alone. You go fix this fucking mess with the androids. I hope to never lay eyes on you again!" Vegeta watched with some satisfaction as his words had the desired effect of causing great pain in the eyes of the kid he now hated more than ever. "You and your predictions. You caused all this to happen. Somehow, it's all your fault! You killed your own mother. You deserve nonexistence!" Vegeta turned his back on the kid and turned his head slightly toward him. "You have no father. You stray on my presence again, I will kill you!" With that Vegeta flew away without looking back. He could feel the ki of the kid leave to head toward where the fighting was taking place. Bulma lay on the ground, little sensing the passage of time. She felt dry leaves falling, which every once in a while, settled on her face. It was like some delicate tomb, where she was being buried in nature's gentle way. She tried to understand why she was lying under a tree, but she could not piece together the events. All she knew was she was in Piccolo's arms, when she heard a huge explosion. The next thing she knew, she felt herself falling, and then felt herself being scraped by tree branches, which she surmised probably saved her life, by slowing her fall. 'One chance in a million.' She thought. 'I'm so supine, I probably just slithered through the branches, where if I could have moved I would have tensed and probably broken every bone in my body.' Bulma tried to feel her body for any injuries, but it was hard to tell with the pain softening into numb shock. All she could feel now was the gentle stirring of an unusually warm breeze for February, and the gentle falling of leaves. 'It feels like an early Spring.' Bulma thought, wishing she could open her eyes to see the trees or her soft and quiet grave. She felt a stronger breeze brush her face and hands grab hold of her body. She wanted to scream but she still couldn't move. 'Now what?' She thought desperately. 'Does this nightmare ever end?' "Shi . . . it!" She heard a voice stutter out. 'Vegeta!' She screamed. 'I'm alive! Oh please somehow hear me! I'm alive!' "Shit!" She heard Vegeta scream. "You survived my challenge and I survived yours though you damn near drove me insane, and sometimes I think you tried to drive me insane. All that I wanted. All that I needed! That fucking Namek took from me and dumped under this tree like a heap of garbage!" "Garbage!" She felt the tremor impact of Vegeta's fist slamming the ground. 'Vegeta!' Bulma screamed desperately trying to give him some sign she was alive. A finger movement, a flutter of the eyelid. Nothing, she had no power over her body at all. 'Vegeta, I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive!' She screamed and waited hoping beyond hope, that Vegeta could hear her. She felt Vegeta bury his face into her, as he held her so tightly she thought every bone in her body would snap. 'Vegeta, you're hurting me. Please, I'm alive. I can't breathe, let me go.' She felt something wet trickle into her face and wondered if it was blood, or possibly tears. Was Vegeta crying? Instead of releasing her, he held her even tighter as she felt his entire body trembling. Suddenly she felt an explosion. 'I'm in hell!' She mind went back to her demon. 'I'm burning!' It took her a moment to realize the burning was Vegeta powering up to Super Saiya-jin, something he probably wouldn't do with her so close, if he wasn't convinced she was dead. She felt herself being shaken more violently as a hoarse scream of rage and pain assaulted her ears. The shaking became more violent as the scream dissipated into the ugliest laugh she had ever heard in her life. It frightened her more than the scream. 'What has Piccolo done?' She thought wildly. 'He's driven Vegeta completely mad!' "Everything has been taken from me. Everything. Even my sanity." Bulma heard Vegeta say along with another bitter laugh. "No more! I am going to do the taking." "We will do the taking." Bulma felt Vegeta gently lift her up and felt herself being carried. "We will have our revenge together, my best and brightest darling!" She heard another dark chuckle. "We will have our revenge on them all! Everyone! If you don't live, then no one lives! Everyone suffers for this!" Bulma screamed inwardly. Something! There must be something she could do to bring him back from the brink. Some sign, some thought. She felt as if this was some cruel hell and she would spend all eternity in a helpless, decaying body. It was worse than hell. "We go together my mate!" Then she felt him stop walking. "No, not my mate, yet. Not yet. We were robbed of this weren't we? No more! We won't be robbed any more." Then Bulma felt Vegeta hold her closer burying his face into her neck. She could feel his warm breath on her throat, which was followed by the most intense pain she ever felt in her life. She tried to concentrate inside her helpless body on the source, when she realized Vegeta was biting her throat. She felt a sick wrenching pulling sensation from the wound, which Bulma realized was Vegeta actually drinking her blood! 'What the hell is he doing?' Bulma screamed. "Vegeta are you trying to kill me again? Stop it! It hurts! It hurts real bad! I'm alive, dammit! Please, for God's sake, stop this. You're scaring me!' Then Bulma felt her mouth pried open and something warm entering her mouth. It took a sick moment to realize, the warmth in her mouth was blood. 'Blood!' Bulma thought weakly. 'Vegeta is making me drink his own blood!' Bulma gave into the fear she would choke, because she could not swallow, but she felt the blood trickle down her throat without the slightest trouble. Bulma tried to take it all in. 'Vegeta?' She wished desperately for him to hear her. 'Is this some kind of Saiya-jin bonding? Does this mean you actually love me? Can you love? Oh, Vegeta! I know I love you. Even in your madness, I love you. Please hear me. I want so badly to take away your pain!' She felt herself being carried away again. "Now we belong to each other, my brightest darling. My queen to be. Now you truly belong to me and our revenge. You will not die alone. We go together. We all go, together!" 'Oh God!' Bulma began to get a cold warning feeling in the pit of her stomach. 'Vegeta, what are you planning to do?' She let her mind give into to all kinds of scenarios. She'd seen Vegeta on the path of revenge and the singular fixated madness in which he would pursue it. He tried to destroy the entire Earth just to gain some chance of revenge against Furiza. She recognized he was, at that moment, capable of anything. "Togther!" She heard him say as if giving into a thoughtful moment. "At least we will be together for our revenge. I will probably never see you again, after that. You will surely go to heaven, my angel. While I . . ." He didn't finish, but his bitter laugh, told Bulma clearly what he meant. He knew he was headed to hell for all his sins and for whatever he was about to do, and it wasn't going to deter him in the slightest. "Kakarotto, and that kid. They think they are so wise. All they thought about were the androids." She heard Vegeta speak as if his voice was far off remembering something. "But I saw far beyond them. They didn't even consider it, but I did. I noticed it, while these pathetic humans went on like well-ordered ants, never even considering the potential." "There it is, my mate!" Bulma felt her head being turned, as if Vegeta was actually trying to show her dead eyes something. "The volcano. Everyone thinks it's extinct. No one even realizes how easy it is to wake up a dead thing, if you know how!" "You'd know how, wouldn't you, my darling." She heard Vegeta clearly laugh. "If you had ever wanted to. No, you were always too gentle, too caring to consider such potentials." She felt herself being lifted into the air, and realized with a cold shock, Vegeta was taking her toward the volcano. "But we will consider the potentials, won't we?" She heard him say harshly. "Now you are mine and we consider them, together. Our life together will be short. Our revenge will last for all time!" "It's simple, my darling." She heard him hiss into her face. "We fly to the core of the volcano and I power up to my ultimate. It will cause the core to explode and set off a chain reaction that no one can stop. This planet will melt then finally explode. And we will melt into each other for all time. The ultimate oneness and we will achieve it, together!" 'Vegeta I am alive!' Bulma screamed helplessly. 'Please don't do this! Please there has to be something of the man I know. The tenderness in the way you carried me away from that flying monster. It still has to be there. Some part of the man I love I can reach! Please you can't do this!' An extreme case of vertigo assaulted Bulma as she realized he was diving into the volcano even as she was pleading with him. She felt the heat growing across her back, and Vegeta hold her tighter and tighter as if, he feared losing her even as he took them both to oblivion. "The ultimate joke!" Vegeta screamed over the growing roar of lava. "Kakarotto and the Green Namek think the threat to the Earth is those fucking androids! They cannot begin to know its really me! They will all die. The androids, Kakarotto, the Namek, everyone. My revenge is supreme! The highest revenge!" She heard him laugh insanely as he picked up speed. 'Vegeta!' Bulma screamed out her last. 'Don't do this! You have to hear me, please! I'm alive I tell you. I'm alive! Dammit Vegeta I'm alive!" |