| Communication Breakdown Chapter 20 |
| Author: Valeyard Rating: R Disclaimer: She doesn't own, so don't even bother. |
| Vegeta disappeared into the ship, carrying the body of their mother. Trunks watched the door slowly close. Reality crashed in on him. That door was closing for a moment, but for all time. It would be the last time he would ever see his mother or his father, again. Trunks couldn’t bear the thought. "NO!" Trunks screamed against losing both his parents at once. Trunks ran up to the door, leaning on it with all his might, forcing it back open as he ran inside the ship. "Trunks!" Bra screamed after him as she also ran into the darkness of the ship. Inside, Vegeta placed the body of their mother on a berth, placing her body in a stasis field. "What are you doing?" Trunks brushed more tears out of his eyes, as he watched his father’s seemingly mad actions. "The meaning is implicit." Vegeta looked at Trunks as if Trunks was asking foolish questions. "I’m going home." "Pappa," Trunks demanded, becoming more and more agitated, "answer the question, where are you going?" Vegeta audibly sighed, and his shoulders sagged in defeat. "Your mother gave me a present, many years ago. I’ve never set foot on it, since she gave it to me. I’m going there, now. I want to go home. You two can’t come with me. Please, go." "You can’t mean that, Pappa." Trunks cried, exasperated with his father’s determination. "Whatever you are doing. Please let us help you!" Vegeta shook his head firmly. "You two belong to the Earth. You always have." Vegeta smiled uncharacteristically. "You two have a rich legacy in the Capsule Corporation. You will never want for anything, either of you. It is more of a legacy than I could give either of you. Go back and live out your days as your mother would have wanted you to." "We’ll, go back, but not before we come with you." Trunks screamed in his grief. "I, for one, am not going to let you die, alone. You deserve to have your family around you just like, Mom!" Vegeta turned to look at Bulma, lying there in the stasis field, looking peaceful and white. He remembered many years earlier when he carried her away telling her in his grief that he would die alone. "Alone," Vegeta remembered himself telling Bulma. "They are going to take you from me and I am going to die alone." Vegeta looked at Trunks and his fists clenched as if he was rallying his strength against some terrible battle, but his eyes began to glisten. Trunks looked at his father in amazement, and then suddenly understood why his father was so adamant against them going. Because his father was afraid, and he didn’t want his children to see him afraid. Vegeta suddenly shot out an arm, clutching Trunks’ shoulder firmly. He shot out his other arm, taking Bra by the shoulder, also. Vegeta pulled them to him, looking them firmly in the eye. "You must swear to me, you won’t do anything grief stricken or foolish after, after I’m gone. You will both go back home and live your lives as if I never existed. I don’t want you to mourn for me." "Not mourn for you." Bra sobbed. "Why not?" Vegeta released his children turning away from them, trembling. He, forced himself to be still, crossing his arms. Vegeta said the next very quietly. "Because, there will be no reason to mourn." "What do you mean?" Bra screamed in grief stricken exasperation. Vegeta said the next in a voice just above a whisper. "Because, I don’t deserve mourning." "That’s ridiculous!" Trunks screamed. "I would never agree to that!" Vegeta turned to look at them, lowering his head and closing his eyes. Vegeta had the look of one, finally unburdening his soul. "Children, I’m your father, yet you know nothing about me. If you did, you would spit on my memory. Just go home, afterwards and live your lives to the full. That will give me peace. Your mourning will do nothing for me." "You’re wrong!" Trunks screamed. "I know all about you!" Vegeta looked at Trunks stunned. His eyes widened in dismay. Vegeta backed up, trembling, shaking his head as if this was the last and final horror he could ever imagine or want to bear. "Mom told me all about you, Pappa." Trunks clenched his fists looking down at them in grief. "About Bejita-sei, about Furiza, about all those planets, and how you first came to destroy the Earth." Bra looked at Trunks as if he had to be telling lies. She turned to look at her Father, her eyes pleading with him to deny it all. Vegeta looked back at the body of Bulma. Real tears of rage flowed from his eyes. "She never told me, she told you that. How did she hide that from me?" "You can’t hide from me, Pappa!" Trunks screamed at him in his own grief-stricken rage. "I am Saiya-jin, too, don’t forget. You don’t think I don’t feel the pull of my blood? That I don’t want to just use my power to destroy, because I can? You know how hard it is, to keep that power leashed. You know better than I!" Trunks ran up, grabbing his father, taking him in a bear hug. There would have been a time, when his father would have pushed him away, refusing to show any weakness. Vegeta just sagged against him. Trunks realized with a shock, that his father was using up the last of his strength to keep standing. Trunks felt real tears flow from his eyes. He finally confronted the truth. His father was dying, and there was nothing he could do. "I am just like you, Pappa." Trunks whispered to him. "Don’t ever say that!" Vegeta screamed out in horror. "Don’t ever say you are like me! At least, give me the peace that I did better with you, than I did with me!" "It’s true, Pappa." Trunks said between sobs. "And I would have done the same things, had I been raised like you. I’m just lucky and you weren’t. Forgive yourself, Pappa, forgive yourself!" Vegeta collapsed in Trunks arm, as Bra screamed out. "Pappa!" Trunks pulled his father into his arms, and helped him over to a chair. Vegeta sank into the chair sagging against the arm, as if he could barely keep himself upright. Vegeta gasped, as if breathing was becoming difficult. "It would seem I will have to relent, children." He looked at Trunks and then Bra. "I may need your help to get there." "Where?" Bra looked at her father, grief clearly written on her face. "Where are we going?" "Years ago." Vegeta gasped and then smiled slightly. "Your mother collected the dragonballs and wished back Bejita-sei." Vegeta shook his head. "I was never sure why she did it. She said it was a present to me. She couldn’t wish back the people. They were dead more than a year. But, she did wish back the planet. I’m going home. Home to die where I should have 50 years ago." "Stop talking like that." Trunks said, shaking his head sadly. "Trunks," Vegeta looked at him soberly. "I have lived a full, not always happy life. But, your mother made the latter half of it, the best she could. How many beings never had a chance for even that, because of me?" Trunks knelt beside the chair, and put his arm on Vegeta’s shoulder. "Let it go, Pappa. You are not that person, anymore." Vegeta didn’t answer. He was remembering. "So, you have this surprise for me." Vegeta said to Bulma. Vegeta shook his head remembering how cocky he used to be. "It’s something special, Vegeta." Bulma said, acting uncharacteristically shy. "Well, this must be something spectacular, as much mystery as you are putting around it." Vegeta chuckled wickedly. "First, you make me interrupt my training for this excursion into space, and then you won’t tell me where we are going. You won’t even allow me to look at the coordinates!" Bulma only smiled, mysteriously. Vegeta smiled, as he wallowed in the rich memories. The trip was very enjoyable. They had turned off the gravity on the ship and enjoyed many excursions into love making in the weightlessness of space. It was loving making, that when brought into remembrance, would cause them both to laugh like bad children, reflecting on some past chicanery. It on was the fifth day of the trip, when Bulma awoke Vegeta, after some extremely rigorous sex and exclaimed, "We’re here!" "Whatever this is, it better be good." Vegeta said grumpily, as he always did if he was awakened from a deep sleep. Bulma walked over to a porthole of the ship, and beaconed Vegeta excitedly. Vegeta walked up to Bulma giving her a puzzled look as he did. He warily looked out the porthole, then gasped in disbelief. There before his unbelieving eyes, was the home planet he had not seen since he was six years old. Vegeta rubbed his eyes, blinking, then looked at Bulma in utter shock. She only smiled, pleased as he looked out the porthole, again. "What is this?" Vegeta said in complete awe. "This is impossible!" Bulma shook her head, beaming as if proud of herself. "Not with the Dragonballs. The dragon wasn’t too happy about granting it either, but I finally got my way!" "The skies are just like I remember!" Vegeta said breathlessly. "I can see them even from here!" Vegeta’s face turned slightly angry, looking at Bulma suspiciously. "Why? Why would you do this?" Bulma looked askance, as if she was not expecting this reaction. "Well," she stammered. "You just never seemed happy on Earth, and I just thought maybe you would like to see your home, again." Vegeta huffed, chuckling low in his throat. He wanted to be angry with her, but he found he couldn’t. How could he, after the pleasant days they had leading up to that moment? Yet, he felt like he was being tested. Why even bother putting the choice of his planet or Earth before him? Vegeta knew he had already made his choice, a long time ago. "No people." Vegeta said in observation. "No!" Bulma said, matter-of-factly. "The dragon can’t bring back anyone dead over a year." Vegeta laughed loudly. "You wouldn’t want to bring those bastards back, anyway." Vegeta turned to Bulma looking as evil as when she first saw him. He chuckled low and menacingly in his throat. "Can’t have the big, bad Saiya-jin around, to rampage across the universe again, can we?" Vegeta laughed again with a bitter edge. Bulma looked down as if hurt. "I just wanted to make you happy, Vegeta." Vegeta grabbed her and pulled her to him. "If you couldn’t tell my satisfaction after the last few days. Then nothing will convince you." Bulma laughed nervously and kissed him. Vegeta wasn’t looking at her, he was looking out the window at his planet, with mixture of regret and sadness. "Would you like to land the ship and look around?" Bulma asked. "I would kind of like to see where you came from." Vegeta smiled an uncharacteristically open smile, turning away from the porthole, pulling Bulma with him. "Don’t be stupid, woman." Vegeta chuckled wickedly pulling her back to the bed. "The gravity on Bejita-sei is 10 times that of Earth. Why do you think the Saiya-jin are naturally so strong?" Vegeta placed her on the bed and then lay on top of her. "You would never be able to breathe if we landed there." Vegeta flashed her an evil smile as he reached over to the gravity controller. "As a matter of fact, I think it would be the best thing for your health if we turned off the gravity, altogether." Bulma chuckled. "Oh do you?" She said knowingly. "Oh yes!" Vegeta replied, chuckling wickedly. "After all you humans are so weak, we can’t have any pressure getting in the way of all the physical exertion you are about to expend." "I just bet." Bulma replied, reaching her hand slowly, to take a hold of him by the tail. Their love making was the most wonderful of all the loving making of that trip. Yet, afterwards, although he pretended to fall asleep, Vegeta lay awake for hours thinking about her present. He was still not sure how he felt about it. Was it a gift, or an offering? A present, or some compensation for something he was about to lose? He didn’t know why, but it made him feel guilty, angry and paranoid at the same time. Vegeta looked over at her sleeping so peacefully, breasts gently rising and falling with each quiet breath. He felt those hated insecurities of old creep in on him. He clenched his fist hard watching a drop of blood fall from his hand. Whatever her reasons, he knew he had brought it on himself. He had no one else to blame. After all, Vegeta told himself, he almost killed her at the Budokai, when he let Babadi take him. Vegeta still could see the look on her face as the blast went past her. Vegeta had been too obsessed with Goku at the time to care. Yet, the look on her face, a look of trust betrayed, had haunted and punished him, ever since. He had managed to push that image to the back of his mind, most of the time. Now, it burned in his memory, no matter how he tried to exercise it from his mind. Vegeta could take no more. He felt as if he would burst with all the feelings and incriminations screaming inside him. As many times as he had wanted to, he had been too afraid to look through the bond for the answers. He couldn’t bear to find the same answers as always tortured him in the dark years. He had to know what was the truth for all time, and he wanted to hear it from her own lips. He grabbed Bulma by the shoulders, pulled her to him, looking at her with deadly seriousness. "Vegeta? Wha?" Bulma opened and closed her eyes drowsily. "What’s going on?" "Tell me the truth." Vegeta said, with look that spoke clearly he feared the answer. "It would not be the first time someone has lied to me out of fear. You don’t have to be afraid to tell me. Don’t ever think that." "Fear?" Bulma looked at Vegeta perplexed. "What are you talking about?" Vegeta looked down, unable to look her completely in the eye. "Do you really want me to remain with you? I won’t have you stay out of fear. I demand you tell me the truth!" "The truth?" Bulma looked at him puzzled. "About what?" "Tell me!" Vegeta’s eyes glistened with a pain he couldn’t hide. "You hate me after what I did under the magic of Babadi. If you think I would blame you, you’re wrong! I would find it hard to forgive such treachery, so don’t think I expect more of you." Bulma looked at him absolutely stunned. "You think I brought back the planet, hoping you would leave and I could get rid of you?" She said, looking down and sighing as her eyes, too, began to glisten. Vegeta, also looked down, barely speaking above a whisper. "I can’t deny that it would hurt me. But, pain is something I have lived with my whole life. When it becomes that commonplace, it becomes unimportant. I certainly have given you enough reason to hate me. I simply don’t want to live a lie." "How can you say such things?" Bulma began to openly cry. "It would not be a new experience for me, Woman." Vegeta replied trying his best to sound like he didn’t care. "My mother died in giving birth to me. All the knowledge of the Saiya-jin could not save her, and my father blamed me. I know he did. Although, he was too cold and too selfish to fully bond with her, I think he truly missed her and blamed me for taking her away." "I do not say this, so you will feel sorry for me, woman." Vegeta said, doing his best to sound completely divorced from feeling. "I want you to know, why I demand your honesty. My father would never openly express his resentment of me, because I was already stronger than him, when I was a small child." Vegeta smirked bitterly at Bulma. "He was probably right to fear me. Probably right not express his feelings for me openly. I was a such a cold little bastard, I probably would have eventually killed him just to take his throne." Vegeta looked out the window of the spaceship, talking as if faraway. "I actually think it was a relief to him, when Furiza made him hand me over. I think he was glad to be rid of me and have one, less threat to his throne. What a stupid bastard he was. Thinking he was safe in finally being rid of me, and it was the last day his eyes would ever see." Bulma was crying softly. "You don’t know how much I have you and bakas like Kakarotto to thank for stopping me from ruling the universe. It would have been the worst thing that could have ever happened to me. All it would have been is one baka after another, just like my father, in worship of my name, and all the while really wishing I were dead. So, you see I am serious, when I say I do not wish to live a lie. Have no fear of hurting me or that I will hurt you. There was a time when I wanted all to hate and worship me. Now, all I desire in my life, is simply the truth." Bulma suddenly looked up at Vegeta, anger burning in her glistening eyes. Vegeta blanched despite his best attempts to keep his composure. He gave in to his worst fears. This was the moment of truth, and she would finally tell him how much she really hated him. After what he did at the Budokai, Vegeta told himself, no one could have that much forgiveness. "You think I made that planet, because I really hate you, and wish you would go away, and never come back?" Bulma screamed at him through her tears. "How dare you suggest I would make love like I have to you, out of fear! That I would fake all this! If you can’t figure out how I feel about you Vegeta, you never will. You are so impossible to live with! Sometimes I wish I could throw you in bed and love you with ever stopping." Bulma shook her fists at her angrily, then wiped away tears, "And sometimes, you are so dense I wish I could just beat you to a pulp, you thick headed asshole!" She grabbed Vegeta, crying into his shoulder. "But I love you, even though you are a thick headed asshole. I love you with all your faults! With your stubbornness, and even with your damn arrogance!" Bulma squeezed him repeating over and over between heaving sobs, "I couldn’t live without you, I couldn’t live without you." Vegeta sat there on the bed, too stunned to be sure if he should believe her or not. He couldn’t understand the capacity for forgiveness those of the Earth possessed. He didn’t understand it, when Gohan told him he forgave him and he didn’t understand her forgiveness now. Why wouldn’t they give him what he deserved? Sometimes, he wanted to scream at them in his frustration. Why were they such fools in forgiving someone who would never forgive in return? Vegeta never understood it, and it was only now so late it in his life, it wracked him with such guilt. Damn them all for making him feel this way! He slowly put an arm around her bare back, cradling her in his arms, as she cried into his shoulder. "Woman." Vegeta said heavily sighing. "You will never know how true it is, when I say, I could not live without you." He held Bulma and let her cry. As he held her, he reached over, pushing the button for the ship to automatically plot a return trajectory. A trajectory to take them back to Earth. "Pappa?" Vegeta awoke to Trunks apprehensive face, blushing that he had become that weak. "I’m sorry, Trunks. What did you say?" "I said, forgive yourself. I also said you can’t make this trip alone. You’re obviously too weak to stand. Wherever you are going, if you are that determined, let me help you. Please! If I have to let you go, then at least let me take my leave of you feeling I helped you in some way." "Me, too, Pappa." Bra said timidly. "It would seem, I have no choice than to relent. "Vegeta said gravely. "I don’t think I could make the trip on my own, now. I am beginning to doubt I will live as long as it will take. We better take off, at once." "Where are we going?" Trunks ran over to the controls, looking at his father for instruction. Vegeta closed his eyes for a moment, then looked up at Trunks. "The coordinates should still be fed in. We were planning a trip, soon to return to Bejita-sei, together, but we didn’t realize we would be using the ship so soon." Trunks tapped a few buttons and got the readout on the screen. "Are you sure these are the right coordinates?" Trunks looked at him, and Vegeta could see the worry in his face. "They are." Vegeta said, even more gravely. "If your late grandfather did the improvements he promised, it should take less time to get there than it took your mother and I so many years ago. Hopefully, only a couple days." Vegeta beaconed to Trunks who ran to his father’s side. Vegeta pulled him close and whispered in his ear. "If he didn’t do the improvements, and I die before we get there, simply land on the planet and leave our bodies on the surface. Just do that and go home." "Pappa!" Trunks looked horrified at the prospect. "How can we just leave you there?" "Promise me!" Vegeta said fiercely. "You will not take me back and bury me on the Earth. I want to be laid to rest with my people!" Vegeta’s eyes glistened. He screamed at Trunks desperately. "It’s not an unreasonable request!" Trunks sighed, looking down as he relented. "No, Pappa, it’s not an unreasonable request." "Trunks!" Vegeta pulled Trunks closer to him, whispering even more quietly. "I was never as hard on Bra, because I knew she would always have a brother to look out for her." "But you," Vegeta sighed. "I knew you would have to one day, depend only on yourself, just as I had no one else to depend on. I wanted you to be strong, but most of all, I didn’t want you to become like me." Trunks put his arms around him and hugged Vegeta. "I always knew that, Pappa. I never resented it." Vegeta chuckled low in his throat. "You’re a damn liar, Trunks." Trunks pulled back and turned a little red. "Well, maybe I did, sometimes." Vegeta chuckled good naturedly, then went into a coughing fit. Trunks and Bra watched him, with horrified looks on their faces. Even Vegeta looked appalled. He had never been sick a day in his life. Trunks could see the prospect of slowly withering away in front of his children, was something that was more than his father wanted to bear. Two days later Trunks worked feverishly at the controls, stealing grief stricken glances as his father. Vegeta could no longer control his trembling, or the pain that obviously wracked his body in sporadic convulsions. Trunks bit his lip in grief at his father’s determination. Trunks couldn’t help thinking his father would have already died peacefully, if he wasn’t so determined to make it to the planet alive. His father was simply too stubborn to die, before his goal. Trunks laid in the landing coordinates and looked at Bra, who hovered constantly around their father, in a fruitless attempt to ease his pain. Trunks closed his eyes trying to block out his own pain. There was nothing to be done to help his father. The hopelessness of the situation, made him want to scream in frustration. As they landed, Trunks watched the controls carefully, noticing the difficulty the ship had in maintaining equilibrium, because of the greater gravity. His father seemed little caring for the whole matter. He sat strapped in his seat, with his eyes half closed, half delirious with pain. "We’ve landed Pappa." There was no answer from Vegeta. He was deathly still. "Pappa?" Bra said, putting her arm on him. Vegeta jerked violently, taking in a deep inhale. "What? What was that?" He croaked out. "We’re here, Pappa." Trunks said gently. Trunks took in the sudden horror that he was almost sorry, his father was still alive. He almost longed for the relief of knowing it was all over and his father was out of pain. "Good! Quickly, there’s not much time." Vegeta undid the buckle on his chair with help from Bra, but refused any help in standing. "Trunks," Vegeta looked at Trunks gravely. "I don’t want to have to ask you to do this, but I don’t think I can do it myself now. Will you carry your mother for me?" Trunks looked over at the bed, where his mother had laid, alone in a stasis field for two days. He blanched at the macabre thought of carrying his mother’s body, but knew it was important to his father, and could not refuse him. "Of course, Pappa." Trunks said even more gently, walking over, rallying himself for a task he never thought he would have to perform. Trunks turned off the stasis, field, and put his arms under his mother’s body, horrified at how cold it felt. He was relieved when the body still seemed supple. The stasis field seemed to have done its job. There was no rigor mortis, yet. Bra ran over and operated the control so they could exit the ship. Vegeta staggered over to stop her. "Bra." Vegeta rasped out looking at her sternly. "You can’t go. Remain in the ship." "Pappa." Trunks protested. "She’s come with us this far. You can’t make her stay." "That’s right, Pappa!" Bra screamed in anguish. "How can you make me stay behind now?" "Because the gravity of the planet is 10 times that of Earth. Your brother has trained many times in 30 times that gravity, but you’ve never experienced it. I don’t think you would be able to breathe if you exit the ship!" Vegeta staggered leaning against the door control. It was obvious the argument was taking up energy he needed to remain alive. "I’m going Pappa!" Bra said defiantly. "If I get into any trouble, I will simply go back into the ship!" With that she pushed her hand on top of Vegeta’s hand, forcing the door control open, walking out of the ship before anyone could stop her. "Damn!" Vegeta rasped, smiling ruefully. "Just like her mother!" Trunks followed after his father. They walked out of the ship onto the alien landscape. Trunks looked around in disbelief. He had seen many alien planets, but none as alien looking as this one. The skies were a mosaic pink, dotted with white puffy clouds. Javelin like, alien spires, stabbed the skyline before widening into towering battlements, plunging into a walled fortress below. Bra gasped at the sight of the huge fortress. "It’s beautiful, Pappa. All of it. But what is it?" "This is where I was born." Vegeta weakly staggered forward, looking quickly backward to see if Trunks was following with his mother. "This is the royal palace of Bejita-sei." Vegeta looked around. "It’s just as beautiful as I remember. I thought maybe it had taken on a life of its own in my memories. But, no. It’s as breathtakingly beautiful as I remember." Vegeta suddenly rasped out at the skies, as loudly as he could, taking Trunks and Bra by surprise. "And we took all this beauty and turned it into a killing machine! You stupid fucking assholes!" Vegeta spread his arms wide, heedless of his children. He turning round as if there was an entire audience listening to his proclamation. "Hear, O Bejita-sei! I’m home! Your prince has returned!" Vegeta convulsed into coughing spasms, which only eased after a few minutes. "No thanks to any of you." Vegeta rasped out between coughs. "I hope you’re all burning in hell for what you did to this planet, and to me. I’ll be joining you, very soon." "You’re not going to go to hell, Pappa!" Bra ran over, clutching her father desperately. "You’re not." Vegeta put an arm around her shoulder, sadly shaking his head. "You don’t know what you are saying. You can’t have done as many things as I have and expect to be rewarded. Don’t protest against things that can’t be changed." "You won’t!" Trunks yelled more forcefully. "I don’t care what you were once, you are not that person now. The only one that hasn’t forgiven you is you, Pappa. For everyone else, it is the past." Vegeta huffed and lowered his head, smiling sadly at some secret joke. He looked up at Trunks with some of the old bravado Trunks used to see in his father’s expression. "We shall see." Vegeta said, and then walked away toward the fortress. Vegeta turned to look back at the children? "Are you coming?" They followed almost robotlike, hardly believing everything around them. Vegeta stopped by the main gate, slyly smiling at Trunks and Bra as if he had some secret he couldn’t wait to show. "How do you expect to get in there, Pappa?" Bra looked at the complex wistfully. "It looks impossible." Vegeta pulled a characteristic smirk. His eyes lit up with the secret he was about to show. Vegeta held up a shaking hand, he could barely hold steady. "Not for the Prince of all Saiya-jin." Vegeta put his palm up to the door, and it slid open with no trouble. "Come," Vegeta beaconed to them, as he used his hands to steady himself, pulling himself in quickly. "The security measures will only be off for a moment." They all hurried inside as the door slammed shut and they were plunged into darkness. "Hmph!" Vegeta huffed as if annoyed at an incompetent servant. "The lights are supposed to come on automatically for me!" Vegeta yelled as if there was someone to hear. At that, the lights came on, to the voice of their Lord and Master. "Tsk!" Vegeta looked at Trunks hooking a thumb up at the lights as if dismissing a trivial but irritating matter. "I told father he needed to get that fixed, years ago!" Trunks and Bra followed Vegeta as their footsteps echoed on hard marble-like floors in the empty main entrance to their father’s former home. Trunks couldn’t help examining the architecture and materials as they walked over the floor. He couldn’t fathom what the floor was made of, but he couldn’t help feeling curious of its composition, despite the graveness of the moment. Trunks wasn’t sure if it was marble, stone, or some kind of nonporous metal. It had some aspects of all three materials, but certainly didn’t age at the same rate as those materials. The entire floor gleamed with some magical luster Trunks couldn’t help admiring. It suddenly hit him with a shock of guilt that he was thinking of it from a business point of view. How great it would be if he could market it on Earth. It made Trunks suddenly ill that he would think of making money at a time like this. He shuddered, picking up his pace to follow his Father and Bra. He swore to himself, from that moment on, no matter how dedicated he was to the Capsule Corporation, making money, would never be his first priority, again. Vegeta led them to a long hall, motioning for them to follow. "Here! It’s not much further." On the left of the grand entrance was a darkened hall. Vegeta stopped at the entrance of the hall and motioned for Trunks and Bra to follow. Vegeta disappeared into the darkened hall as if he knew the way very well and could walk it without fear. Trunks gasped at what he saw, hearing Bra gasp in the same emotion, as they followed their father into the hall. There was very little light in the hall. The ceiling, walls and floor were adorned in a black that seemed to swallow up all light. The only light source at all was high up in the ceiling and was obviously not for the benefit of those unlucky enough to walk that hall. The light shone on what had caused Trunks and Bra to gasp upon entering. There on the left, were gigantic portraits. Each portrait reached from ceiling to floor. All of the portraits were of crowned and adorned men, staring down on those in the hall with glaring, imposing eyes. Trunks looked at each portrait with a mixture of awe and dismay. They all had the same pitiless, cruel look in their eyes. He got the feeling the portraits were supposed to make you feel very small, before entering the main throne room. The main throne room, was the only place Trunks could assume they were headed. When they got to the last portrait in the hall, Bra caught her breath. "Pappa!" She stammered. "This portrait looks just like you!" Vegeta swayed and put at hand out to support himself, leaning himself right on the portrait. Bra ran to him, and put one of his arms over her shoulder, helping him stand. Trunks was surprised that his father didn’t protest, realizing with a shock of fear, his father was going to die any moment, and his father knew it all too well. "That, " Vegeta said with a smirk of bitterness, "is your Grandpa! King Vegeta! Last King of the Saiya-jin!" There was bitter sarcasm in his father’s voice. Trunks couldn’t help noting, the way his father looked at the portrait, and he wondered if his father didn’t really hate that man in the portrait. Trunks noticed a small, but stern looking, child standing beside King Vegeta in the portrait. Trunks gasped in disbelief. "Then that child beside him is . . . " Trunks gasped. "That’s you, Pappa?" Bra stammered. Vegeta smiled an openly bitter smile. He reached up to touch the face, of that angry looking child. "Was me." He corrected. Trunks noted the thick bitterness in his father’s voice. Vegeta turned to smirk at Trunks. "Wasn’t I a happy child?" His voice was thick with acrid sarcasm. Vegeta looked thoughtfully up at the two in the portrait. "This portrait, is my soul." Vegeta said. Vegeta turned to smirk at his children. "If we had time, I could show you all the technology, that is so far more advanced than on Earth. But, no matter how advanced we became, we were a warrior race at heart." Vegeta touched the eyes of the child in the portrait. "We believed these portraits captured our souls after death. In that way, we looked down on the realm even after death. Your mother could not have possibly understood, that by resurrecting this planet, she trapped my soul, again. To be trapped for all eternity in those eyes. If that isn’t hell . . ." "That’s silly, pappa!" Bra interrupted. Vegeta looked at Bra smirking coldly. "Is it?" He chuckled quietly in his throat and turned away to walk into the throne room. Trunks looked at the child, and his words of earlier took on even greater meaning. He had told his father he had been lucky and his father wasn’t. Trunks didn’t understand just how lucky until he looked into the eyes of the child in that portrait. There was no innocense in those eyes. No happiness. No joy. None of the things Trunks took for granted when he was a child, or even now as a man. The only thing he saw in those eyes, was hardened, bitter hatred. ‘What could do that to a child?’ Trunks thought in sorrow for the father that child would become. It made Trunks want to cry for him. It was one thing to see the man his father had become, but to confront the child that had lived such bitterness, it doubled the grief Trunks felt for his father. Yet, his father didn’t seem to notice the stricken look on Trunks face. His father let go of Bra and walked into the Great Hall, spreading his arms for his children to see. "The Royal Throne Room!" Vegeta suddenly collapsed, as if he had used up the last of his strength. Trunks watched helplessly as Bra ran to him. Trunks couldn’t help as long as he was carrying his mother’s body, and it didn’t seem right to put her burden down, after promising his father. Vegeta motioned to the grand thrones that sat under impressive looking awnings carved with figures in battle. Bra helped him limp up to one of them, as she placed him finally to rest in one. Vegeta then looked at Trunks and motioned to the other throne. Trunks understood and cautiously walked up, putting his mother down in the other throne beside his father. His mother slumped a little. Trunks tried to gently sit her up, but he couldn’t keep her upright in the chair. He finally let her slump in the chair, laid her arms on the arms of the chair and stepped back. Vegeta looked at Trunks in satisfaction. "It is enough. These were the thrones of the King and Queen of Bejita-sei, though my mother died giving birth to me." Vegeta sighed, wistfully looking over at the body of Bulma. "It’s hard to believe the old bastard had feelings for anyone, but he never would remove the throne. I really think the SOB missed her." Vegeta never tore his eyes away from Bulma, but Trunks knew the next was directed at them. "Now go home. Keep your promise! Go home and live happy lives and never come here again, not ever. You have done well, children. I am content." Vegeta looked at the great hall and raised his head to speak out to his empty audience. "Do you think I’m sorry you’re all gone? That I had to live on Earth? Maybe at one time, but not anymore. Not for many years. I’m glad do you hear me." The last was said almost as a sigh. "I’m glad. And I’m not afraid, anymore." Vegeta reached over and lightly laid a loving hand on Bulma’s arm. A contented smile came to his face that Trunks never saw before in his life, as his father slowly closed his eyes. Bra was looking around askance at the empty throne room, turning to look at her Father. "Pappa you can’t really be serious about leaving you here. I can’t bear it." Trunks was looking at his father intently. Vegeta didn’t answer. He didn’t move, and more importantly than that, he didn’t breathe. The realization suddenly hit Bra. She screamed, trying to run over to her father’s side. Trunks shot out an arm to stop her. "It’s no good, Bra." Trunks said sternly. "Don’t touch him. His ki disappeared a few moments ago. He’s gone." Bra screamed again, sobbing and fighting against Trunks to run to her father’s side. "No, Bra!" Trunks bellowed forcefully, shocking Bra so much she stopped crying. "Look at them." Trunks smiled through his own tears at Bra. "I think I understand, why he wanted this. Don’t move them. Leave them as they are." Trunks took one last look at his father and mother, each on their final resting place and turned to go pulling Bra with him. Bra protested but Trunks wouldn’t hear of it. "We promised, Pappa." Trunks said firmly. "This is a promise, we have to keep." Trunks slowly walked away, refusing to show to Bra that leaving was just as hard for him. He couldn’t help noticing that Bra was leaning on him rather hard, realizing the gravity was more arduous for her than she would admit. He passed the portrait of his father in the hall, almost loathing to look at that hate-filled child, but unable to tear himself away. Trunks almost cried out in shock, when he thought he saw the child in the portrait move. He blinked and looked at the portrait again, daring it to move again, and whitened in horror as he could have sworn the child in the portrait spoke, with a child’s voice, but with the words he knew could only come from his father. "Release my soul from this portrait, son. Don’t leave me in these eyes. Release me." "Bra." Trunks stammered looking down at her as he pulled her along. "Did you hear anything?" Bra looked up at Trunks puzzled. "Hear anything? No. I heard nothing." Trunks blanched, pulling Bra along a little faster, not wishing to stay any longer. Before they left the fortress, Trunks could have sworn he heard the voice whisper, again, "release me." He never heard it again. When they were back in the ship, Trunks calmly plotted the course back home, forcing himself to concentrate on the task at hand, refusing to give in to his grief. Bra sobbed freely little caring what Trunks thought of her. She was too grief stricken to do anything else. "How can you be so calm?" Bra screamed at him, as the ship took off. "That’s Momma and Pappa back there!" "I know, Bra," Trunks struggled to keep his voice even. "And I told you I think I understand why Pappa wanted it this way. Mom gave him this present years ago, but they never set foot on it, because of the gravity. Mom wouldn’t have survived. They finally could both go to the planet." "That’s stupid!" Bra said bitterly. Trunks lowered his head in defeat. "Maybe, not to Pappa." Trunks said quietly. They were both quiet for a moment, each alone with their own thoughts, and their own grief. Trunks suddenly stood up, as if taking a cue from some inner signal, walking over to the spacesuits, that were lined up on the far side of the cabin. "What are you doing?" She demanded. Trunks calmly put on the spacesuit, holding the helmet up as if just about to put it on. "Just stay in the ship. I think I know what Pappa was telling me. I’ll be right back." With that he snapped on the helmet, made sure it was secure, exiting one of the air locks and prepared to depart the ship. Bra could only bang on the glass screaming at him to stop and demanding an explanation. Trunks didn’t answer. He left the ship without a word. Outside the ship, Trunks looked upon the planet where they had left their father and mother. Even at that distance, it was beautiful. Trunks watched it silently for a moment, and then spoke as if his father could hear him. "I think I understand what you were telling me Pappa, and I know of only one way to do it." With that, Trunks extended an arm, pointed a finger at the far-off planet. "I love you Momma and Pappa." He said. With that, he sent a solid beam of light that caused the planet to explode a few minutes after it hit. Trunks watched as the planet split apart, sending arcs of fire and lightening streaking into space. The sight was so beautiful, he remembered, almost too late, to get inside the ship, before the shockwave hit. "Strap yourself down, Bra!" Trunks ordered as he came back in and hurriedly took off his helmet. Bra’s eyes widened in disbelief. She quickly complied as the ship was rocked violently by waves of after shocks from the planet’s explosion. "What did you do?" Bra screamed at him. Trunks looked at Bra, a certain amount of satisfaction in his eyes. "The only funeral fitting the King and Queen of Bejita-sei. The greatest funeral-pyre the universe has ever seen!" Bra waited until the shocks were over. She cautiously, unhooked herself, running over to the porthole to see the result. She gasped at what she saw. The space where the planet had resided, was now awash in spreading rings of pink fire, dotted with jagged bursts of chrisom. Dust and debris scattered as fire reflected jewels. It spread out as a dotted diadem of burning brilliance. The burning pyre of royalty reaching out into cold eternity before quietly dying away. "It’s beautiful." She said with the slight sound of surprise. "Somehow you are right, Trunks. It was the only fitting thing to do." Trunks smiled sadly at Bra, and then said firmly. "Let’s go home." The small ship left the sector of space that used to be the planet of Bejita-sei. In a few moments the departing spaceship, carrying two of the last Saiya-jin, was reduced to a shining pencil of light before that light faded into the distance and was gone. Only Vegeta and Bulma were left to meld into their massive funeral pyre. Ashes to ashes, reduced the home of what were once the greatest warriors in the universe, to streaks of fiery red particles, shimmering pink dust, and jeweled arcs of light. That would eventually collapse in on the remains of its own heavy gravity, finally creating a new star. Where had once been a planet of darkness and destruction, there would be a sun to bring light. Where only death reigned before, was a world bearing new life. As death became life, there was a legacy left to them, those new happier beings could have never understood. A legacy bequeathed to them, in the forgotten love of two very different, special people. A love that would live on in the vast quiet of space in open, eternal communication. "I love you." Exit Music Stand Here With Me by Creed Exit Music Stand Here With Me by Creed You always reached out to me and helped me believe All those memories we share I will cherish every one of them The truth of it is there’s a right way to live And you showed me So now you live on in the words of a song You’re a melody You stand here with me now Just when fear blinded me you taught me to dream I’ll give you everything I am and still fall short of What you’ve done for me In this life that I live I hope I can give love unselfishly I’ve learned the world is bigger than me You’re my daily dose of reality You stand here with me now On and on we sing On and on we sing this song Cause you stand here with me |