| Communication Breakdown Chapter 9 |
| Author: Valeyard Rating: R Disclaimer: She doesn't own, so don't even bother. |
| Vegeta walked toward's Bulma's office. He slammed his fist into his other hand harder and harder with every determined step, little heeding the pain. He passed Mrs. Briefs who tried to catch his eye, but Vegeta did his best to pretend he didn't notice. Vegeta stopped in front of the door, in shock. 'The door is shut! Bulma never shuts her office when she is in.' He stood there trying to sense her ki. There was something different about her ki. He couldn't put his finger on it. Vegeta hesitated for a split second, before he was sure. It was unmistakable. He could smell her right through the door. Yet, that puzzled him as well. There was something different about her smell! Had he been wrong? Had she been with Yamcha after all? He really hadn't taken time to take in Yamcha's smell and the idea of taking in a male's smell was repugnant to him. Vegeta shuddered with the thought. Yet, her smell was different. 'Is this why she is hiding? Has she been with someone?' Anger swelled in Vegeta as murderous thoughts filled his head of anyone touching Bulma beside himself. He turned the doorknob and became even more infuriated to know it was locked. Vegeta went half insane with jealousy. 'Is there someone with her now? Is that why the door is locked? Is that what I smell? Someone who can suppress their ki?' Vegeta let those ugly thoughts sink in him, until it brought up an even uglier thought. 'Kakarotto! Can it be him?' Vegeta's mind went back to the morning remembering Goku's words. "Dammit Vegeta, I don't want to spar with you, now. I'm a little busy, if you catch my drift." 'Could it have been Bulma he was talking about and not Chi Chi?' Vegeta ground his teeth in fury. 'That would explain why Kakarotto was acting so strangely. It seemed curious, his reluctance to fight me. Now I understand. That Son of a bitch! He didn't want me to catch her smell on him!' Vegeta's mind went black with rage. 'Fucking bastard! Giving me advice on MY woman and fucking her behind my back!' Vegeta struggled to keep his body under control as the rage reached into his well of power. 'No!' He told himself coldly. 'I won't reveal myself a Super Saiya-jin, just yet. Bulma, must not be in range when it happens. No matter what she has done, she is mine. But Kakarotto is another matter. He will die and Bulma will learn the error of her ways.' "Mom?" He heard Bulma's nervous voice from behind the door. Vegeta coiled his body in, suppressing the rage that begged to be released, but it could still be heard very clearly in his voice. "Open up the door, woman, or I'll blow it off the hinges." Vegeta listened and heard shuffling inside. "Woman, I know you are in there, open up this door, NOW!" Vegeta heard glass crackle and knew someone was trying to get out the window. 'Don't have the sense to teleport? You always were a fool, Kakarotto! You won't escape so easily, whether you teleport or not.' He put his hand to the door and sent a blast of energy through it. The door burst in slamming on the floor. He was relieved to see Bulma was not in harm's way when the door fell in, but it turned to amazement as he saw her jump right out the window. 'Is she out of her mind?' Vegeta rushed to the window to see her land and halt off into the woods. Vegeta looked wildly around seeing no one else in view, nor could he sense even a trace of another's ki. 'So there wasn't anyone else with her?' Vegeta looked toward the way she ran confused. 'So why is she running?' Vegeta's jealous frenzy turned to an equally frenzied joy, as he slammed his hand into the broken glass in the window frame, taking no notice of the glass driven into his hand. 'She's done it! She's finally made her decision! This is it!' A predatory smile stretched across Vegeta's face. 'Son of a bitch! With Bejita-sei gone, and exile on this forsaken rock, I thought I would never see this day!' Vegeta kicked out the glass, preparing to fly out the space made by his foot, then thought better of it. 'No! The least I can do is give her a chance.' He stood there for a moment appreciating her bravery. 'That was one hell of a jump for a human, let alone a woman.' He chuckled to himself in admiration. 'I didn't think Bulma capable.' 'All right, woman!' Vegeta smirked in amusement. 'You've made the first move. You've set the rules for the game. I will do something I don't usually do--give my quarry an even chance. You took off on foot. So will I!' Vegeta laughed as he leaped out the window, landing gracefully and all too easily on the ground below. 'This could be fun!' He told himself as he scanned the ground for her footprints. He saw her footprints very clearly in the crushed grass by the end of the woods. 'She is making this too easy! No matter. I'll take my time for a while. Run, woman! Run all you like. But you had better make this more of a challenge! I've haven't waited all this time, just to have this over with too soon.' With an evil smile, Vegeta crashed into the brush. Piccolo regretted this day ever dawned. He was regretting it more with each passing moment he waited in the dark. But he knew who was coming. He could sense his ki and knew if he waited there, his waiting would not be long. Piccolo thought over the day and it only brought memories he found very troubling. First, his conversation with Yamcha, which was an uncomfortable experience at best. Then, an even more troubling conversation with Chi Chi. Last of all, seeing Goku, the strongest man he had ever known, too weak to get out of bed. This memory was most troubling of all. Now, he stood in the woods, waiting, not sure if he would ever leave that spot. Piccolo had been dead before, dead by Vegeta's hands, and he did not relish dying by those merciless hands, again. He silently removed his outer, weighted clothing, not sure if he would need it, but not taking any chances. Piccolo watched the cloud of dust his clothing made with some satisfaction. It was always a relief to take them off, even if the occasions he removed them were rare. He had long ago consecrated himself to wear the clothing in rest or battle, only removing them when the need was upon him. This was one of those times, he told himself as a chill ran up his spine-a chill not caused by the weather. Sweat broke out on his forehead, but it was also not caused by the weather. Piccolo was feeling an emotion Nameks seldom wished to feel. Piccolo was afraid. So afraid he could smell his own fear, and hoped Vegeta would not be able to smell it, as well. Or if Vegeta could, Piccolo hoped he would not recognize the scent of a Namekian in fear. Piccolo stood there silently with his hope and his fear, contemplating which of the two were in vain. A small figure crashed through the brush, practically running into Piccolo in a wild panic. Piccolo grabbed the small figure, and recognized the scream as Bulma's. "It's me, Bulma." Piccolo's voice was resonant and low. Bulma stopped struggling, and clung to Piccolo as she took in hard breaths. "Piccolo, help me. He's trying to kill me!" Piccolo trembled. He could not interfere. The past and future depended on it. 'Bulma has to be wrong,' he told himself desperately. 'She just has to be wrong! Vegeta will not harm her!' But if the things he saw at Goku's hut, and the things Chi Chi told him were true, did he dare do nothing at all? Piccolo heard himself say the words, scarcely believing them as he said them. "There's nothing I can do for you Bulma." Bulma looked at him with a mixture of hurt and shock. "You can't mean that!" Piccolo turned away, watching for the much more powerful ki, he felt approaching. "There's nothing I can do for you. Run! That's all I can tell you. Run and keep running." Bulma backed away from Piccolo, disbelief written on her face, before she turned and limped away. Piccolo could hear her crying as she left. He cursed himself, waiting for the approaching ki, sweat breaking out anew on his face. Piccolo felt like a stone, unmovable, resolute. He stood there waiting, knowing that Vegeta was unstoppable, and under that force even a stone would crack. Vegeta came out of the brush at barely at a trot. His eyes fixed on Piccolo for a moment. Vegeta's amused expression quickly turned to one of surprise, before his eyes narrowed down to a look of cruel determination. He chuckled coldly, stalking up to Piccolo, a smirk crossing his face. "I must say, I am disappointed." Vegeta laughed derisively. "I was hoping for Kakarotto. I'm looking for a challenge. You, I'm afraid, are going to bore me." Piccolo gave Vegeta a dark but determined stare. "I didn't come to entertain you, Vegeta. Sorry to disappoint, you. I came to find out, if certain things were true, and if they are to fight you, even if I die, again, at your hands." Vegeta laughed out loud. "Really?" Vegeta said contemptuously. "I think you better know what you are getting yourself into, Namek. I was hoping to keep this under wraps until I faced Kakarotto, but I suppose this is as good a time as any." With that, Vegeta gritted his teeth, pulling his arms inward, clenched fisted as if in agony. Energy flared and arced up his body with lightning force. The ground trembled under his feet. Piccolo stepped back in shock as the ground caved beneath Vegeta. Vegeta screamed out with the force expelled from his body as his hair blazed gold and the ground underneath his feet exploded Vegeta stood in the middle of chaos, as Piccolo backed away in open fear. If Piccolo didn't have a chance against Vegeta before, he knew he was facing certain death now, and it was written in the satisfaction of a Super Saiya-jin's, hard as steel smile. Vegeta pulled an ugly smirk, while waves of blazing power, cascaded up and down his body. "Now, why don't we forgo the children's hour and let the big boys play? Where is Kakarotto? Send him out or is he now afraid to face me?" Piccolo felt a rage well up inside him that fear could not temper. "That's very interesting you should say that, Vegeta, considering Chi Chi claims you deliberately stopped Goku from taking the medicine that might save his life!" Vegeta recoiled in shock and his hair went back to black. It was then Piccolo knew Chi Chi was wrong. He could read it in Vegeta's face. "What are you talking about, you green-faced goon?" Vegeta demanded. "If this is some kind of sick joke, it better cease right now! I've had enough of these games! Don't talk to me like I am a fool. I spoke with Kakarotto only this morning and he was just fine!" "No, he wasn't Vegeta." Piccolo yelled, clenching his fists in impotent fury. "That young man that came from the future, the one that killed Furiza, told Goku he would die of heart disease in three years. That is, if he didn't take a medicine he gave Goku. Goku was supposed to take it at the first symptoms." Piccolo turned his back on Vegeta daring him to attack him from behind. "Goku lied when he said he didn't want to spar with you. The truth was he couldn't. When you woke him up, he was seriously ill and would have taken the medicine right away, only YOU were threatening to kill everyone if he didn't come out right then. He didn't take the medicine in time. He may still recover, but he is practically in a coma right now, and it is thanks to you." Piccolo turned around giving Vegeta a cold accusing look, his eyes were daggers, daring Vegeta to deny anything he had said. Vegeta's face changed from shock to red rage. He dropped to his knees beating the ground with his fists in frustration, as he screamed the words over and over. "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!!!" Impact tremors shook the area for a mile around as Vegeta pounded the ground, harder. "That stupid, fucking asshole! Three years! Three long, hard years, I've worked to achieve this! I have denied myself every pleasure, just so I could defeat that asshole on the battlefield and now he is going to die like some pathetic old man?" Vegeta pointed at the Namek, fury clearly written on his face. "I am Saiya-jin. We defeat our opponents in open battle, not upon sick beds! My goal is to destroy Kakarotto in battle. I've even saved his life, just for that purpose! If he dies, I don't care how long it takes, I will follow him into the afterlife and hunt him down!" The rage died on Vegeta's lips as he closed his eyes momentarily. He slowly got to his feet, crossing his arms, returning to his usual smirk. "I suppose I have given that baka no reason to trust me-not that I want to." Vegeta coldly laughed. "It shouldn't surprise me, he wouldn't trust me enough to tell me he was ill." Vegeta turned angry again. "I wouldn't have prevented him from taking the medicine." Black tigers dressed in lightening sprang behind Vegeta's dark eyes. "Not that I have to justify myself to the likes of you. Why am I even talking to you? I never cared what you thought of me before, and I sure as fuck don't care now." Vegeta's eyes narrowed down to an expression of contempt. "You might be the messenger that tells me I may be denied my revenge on Kakarotto, but there is one pleasure of which I will no longer be denied." Vegeta looked toward the path Bulma left so clearly in the brush. "She is mine, and anyone that gets in my way is going to wish they hadn't." Piccolo turned toward Vegeta. "She's yours." Piccolo had no emotion in his voice. "I didn't come here to get in the way. I came here to be sure Chi Chi was wrong. I'm satisfied. Our business is finished." "A pity." Vegeta smirked as he walked by him. "I was hoping for a challenge. And all I find are pathetic weaklings with Kakarotto being the most pathetic weakling of all. This planet is a disappointment all around." Vegeta laughed contemptuously and with a quick trot crashed into the brush after Bulma. Piccolo stood there in the dark, grinding sharp teeth in impotent fury, Vegeta hateful words still stinging in his mind. There was nothing he could do. He believed Vegeta hadn't deliberately caused Goku's lapse. Piccolo was less sure about his intentions for Bulma. Piccolo was torn between his desire to help Bulma and his duty to the past and the future. 'Is this how Trunks will be born? Will Vegeta rape her?' Piccolo didn't believe Vegeta capable earlier. But, Piccolo saw Vegeta's face run a gambit of emotions that night, yet there was a cold thread of cruelty that ran through each expression. He shuddered to think of that cruelty being turned on a helpless Bulma. Piccolo knew Bulma would survive. She had to, for Trunks to be born. But, would she ever forgive him for turning away in her hour of need? The pain of Bulma looking to him for help, and turning her away was more than the Namekian could bear. He tried to purge the pain-become the unfeeling demon he used to be and not care about her plight. The pain only increased until he clenched his fists in helplessness, knowing if anything happened to Bulma, the pain would never go away. "Damn you, Gohan." Piccolo said quietly to himself. "Look what you've brought me to." Piccolo stood there in the dark, a silent figure, standing alone in silent vigil. A Namekian who wished he were stone, because a stone feels no pain. The pain demanded he help a woman he respected, even if he found her sometimes irritating. It was a pain that would have to be denied, but could not be ignored. He stood for hours that night, watching for the sun to rise, dreading what that morning sun might reveal. |