Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ At Odds ❯ Midnight Musings ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ nor do I own the song Simple Kind of Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd

A/N: Okay so the way I figure it, everybody probably has music. Humans wouldn't be the only ones to corner the market on that. In so saying, I have absolutely no creative powers when it comes to song writing so I have instead chosen to incorporate a song in this chapter as if it was playing in the background.

Chapter Nine

Midnight Musings

The belief that space is utterly silent is a misconception. It's filled with a hundred little noises that begin to pry persistently on your nerves like a crowbar. It chips away your sanity a piece at a time, hollowing out your reason until you snap like a rabid animal.

Bulma gritted her teeth as she listened to the rustling of Delia's clothing as she shifted in her seat once again. The navigational controls pinged as the sonar reached out to touch any unseen space debris and maneuver silently around it. Bulma compulsively rechecked their course for the thousandth time, her fingernails clicking across the panel.

Delia shifted again and Bulma's full lips depressed into a thin line.

"Do you think they will ever forgive us?" Delia's whispered question crashed down on them with the full force of an avalanche in a still, snow-covered valley.

Bulma's head dropped and her hair fell around her face in a curtain, shielding her from the accusation that hung in the air. The thought of the anger and betrayal that Vegeta must be feeling right now nearly choked her. She checked their course again, refusing to answer, her eyes anchored to the console in front of her. The silence rolled over them in a thick blanket of icy remorse that lingered heavy in the air, the pall of guilt nearly deafening.

Delia shifted, the ping sounded and Bulma checked the controls.

The hours passed and both women were slumped in their seats, each lost in their own thoughts. Suddenly the pitch of the familiar ping changed and Bulma quickly straightened in her chair, her fingers flying over the keys. Delia sat forward as well, eagerly awaiting Bulma's announcement.

"Primus Starbase has been detected by long range scanners. It is running on minimal power and the energy output for the environmentals indicates that the base is abandoned."

Delia let out a long sigh of relief and both women sprang into action as they readied their ship to dock.

When Frieza had unexpectedly arrived at the base so long ago and uprooted the women, they hadn't had a chance to collect some of their most precious belongings. In the miserable months that followed and in the chaos of Vegeta's ascension to the throne, they had lain forgotten on the dusty base only to be remembered now that they were on their way to the Badlands.

They had been concerned that the base was still inhabited by homeless soldiers or worse a band of pillaging bandits. The fact that the base was abandoned eased their mind quit a bit, giving them time to dock and collect their belongings without worrying about trying to defend themselves.

Also they needed money and while Vegeta had severely handicapped Bulma's funds, he had no true idea of how wealthy she really was or how many accounts she had under different aliases. Her time spent serving Frieza had taught her the fine art of subterfuge and she wasn't above using it on her mate when needed.

She had several credit chips in the stash in her forgotten room. Plus there was one other item that she was eager to obtain. For some unexplainable reason the urge to retrieve the Torque of Kingship was becoming an undeniable need.

The base environmentals had activated as soon as their ship was in range to dock and the lights sprang on when they exited the hatch. The women went their separate ways, both silently thankful to be parted from each other's company for a short time.

As Bulma walked down the hall her heels echoed eerily in the empty corridor, making her unreasonably skittish. She half expected some monster to jump out from a dark corner and grab her. To save energy the lights illuminated only as she entered a room and dimmed shortly after she left it, leaving her feeling strangely alone in the universe as if she was the only living being left.

She passed the Regeneration Room and she allowed a small smile to drift across her lips. She remembered the first time that she had seen the Saiyan Prince who had eventually stolen her heart. He had been so distant and cold, seemingly untouchable by a mere mortal woman. Somehow she had braved the chill of his icy heart, daring to reach out and touch him only to have her body and soul catch fire with the pure intensity of his emotions.

She continued down the hall, her mind wondering over the many memories that her and Vegeta had created during their time on the base. She chuckled lightly at the recollections of their antics in the mess hall and their heated kisses that put blistering suns to shame.

As she neared the room that they had shared together, a blush rose up on her cheeks and her thighs began to tingle as she remembered their first night together. He had made love to her with such devotion that she thought for sure she would die from bliss. Until that moment he hadn't shown her an iota of emotion indicating that he felt anything other than grudging respect for her skills and passing friendship, but that night had changed everything.

She knew now that she loved him long before that evening. She had probably fallen for him the first time she saw him floating in the Regeneration Tank, strong, defiant, utterly arrogant and so impossibly alone.

She was happy just to have him that one night. To reach out and possess him for a handful of hours and call him hers. She never thought that all their plotting and planning would eventually have come to this. Now, somewhere out there in the universe they had a beautiful baby boy, created from one perfect night of a coming together of two damaged souls.

Bulma entered their room and gracefully moved the chair out of the way so she could access the hidden safe in the floor.

Since the fateful day when she had been resurrected on Namek she had asked herself what had changed, what she had missed. Obviously a massive shift had taken place inside of Vegeta while she had been dead and somehow he placed all responsibility for his new found power squarely on her shoulders.

She was frightened by the madness that she saw gleaming in his eyes as he stared darkly across the table from her. She was scared and so incredibly sad. She wanted to reach out and sooth the frown away from his forehead with a cool, calming hand. She wished that she had some sort of magic power that would allow her to reach into his soul and pluck out whatever was infecting him. She wanted him to be happy for once in his life. She wanted him to accept her love. She wanted him to love her, not own her.

She reached into the hole and picked up the smooth wooden box that stood nestled among her treasures. She placed it on the foot of the bed, kneeling on the floor as she flipped open the gold latch. She lifted the lid and she had to restrain the gasp that rose up inside of her. Although she had seen it many times before, she was still awed by the sheer beauty and raw power the torque embodied. She started when the light in the living area clicked off, leaving her alone in the dimly lit bedroom.

With a trembling hand she reached out to trail her fingers across the smooth stone. As soon as she felt the coolness beneath her touch she was besieged with an onslaught of images that nearly choked her with their intensity. Heaving, Bulma reflexively clutched the torque to her chest, tears running down her cheeks as she shuddered with the force of her sobs that ripped up from her throat.

Behind her eyelids she saw pools of blood that ran as deep as oceans and bodies piled as high as mountains. Screams of terror echoed in her ears and the burning of flesh stung her nostrils. The images flashed and she saw race after race being annihilated, person after person being murdered in their homes as their children cried. A pale, blue haired woman with silver wings stood beside her and watched it all with silent tears, her pain echoing Bulma's. She saw the destruction of one world after another and behind it all there was the unmistakable visage of Vegeta. Her lover, her sovereign, her monster.

She looked up to see him standing over her, ignoring her very presence as if he could turn away from the past that they shared. "Oh Vegeta. How could you? How could you?" She whispered as her heart shattered into a thousand pieces.

Vegeta stood on the rise overlooking the once verdant valley. Now before him there were only the smoking ruins of burning homes and the screams of the slaughtered. He felt the familiar rush of blood lust as he gazed over the landscape and he reveled in the surge of adrenalin in his veins. He couldn't believe that he almost gave this up, that he had been willing to lock away this part of his life because of some foolish female's whim.

He hadn't felt this excited about a purge in a decade. He remembered the nearly maniacal pleasure he took as an adolescent as he ripped apart worlds and watched them burn under the heat of his hatred. As the years had past his heart had hardened and he had stowed away his emotions until he felt nothing but resolve to do his duty. Somewhere, somehow his carefully shuttered emotions had been reawakened leaving him free to feel the pleasures of the kill once again.

Below him a small boy about ten raced passed, his lavender hair streaming behind him. Vegeta cocked his head to the side and a stifled memory moaned in the back of his mind. Ruthlessly he crushed the faint protests in his heart and with a cruel smile he ignited his ki in the tip of his finger, taking aim. He laughed mercilessly as he let the bolt fly, striking down the boy before he had a chance to escape his fate.

"How could you Vegeta?"

His already wicked smirk widened as the soft dulcet voice wrapped its way around him. He glanced to the side, not really surprised to see Bulma huddled down by his feet, clutching something protectively to her chest. He was frankly shocked that he hadn't seen her sooner. It was only inevitable that she would make her appearance. They were irrevocably linked, eternally connected.

Her blue eyes were glistening with tears, her face pale with terror and disappointment. It was so like her to judge him, while she was the one who betrayed him. She had failed in her duty as his mate. Her vows to him were as empty and meaningless as his own heart.

He shrugged, smiling down at her chillingly. "It's easy really. Watch." He looked back out over the massacre and targeted a woman who was running for her life while trying to shield her baby from attack. He took careful aim, making sure to pass the blast through her body so it hit the infant as well.

"Look. Two in one." He snickered evilly and winked down at his treacherous mate.

She looked like she was about to gag and Vegeta moved away to save his boots. She heaved a broken sob and her tears flowed in a crystal flood down her cheeks. She reached out to grasp his pant leg, but he quickly darted further away, unwilling to have her touch him. He didn't want to risk contamination by her loving caress.

"Please don't do this. Please! I know you really don't want to." She pleaded with him, her eyes impossibly wide.

"What do you know what I want woman? You ran off the first chance you got. You are nothing but a backstabbing little whore that I should kill the first chance I get." Vegeta snarled down at her, fiery rage burning in his hellish eyes. Oh yes, he could feel the anger thrumming through his veins, infusing him with its power. She had been the one to show him the path to his emotions and she would be the one to suffer for it. In the past he had hated. He hated Frieza because he had enslaved him, beaten him and tortured him, but he hated Bulma because she had done so much worse. She had done what the vicious tyrant could not.

She had broken him.

"I know you are angry at me Vegeta, but don't punish the universe for it. All these innocent people…" Bulma looked around her helplessly as she watched Vegeta's soldiers butcher more screaming victims.

"You have no idea who or what I am. I thought you understood the values of ruthlessness and loyalty. I thought you were worthy enough to be my queen, that you cared enough to be my mate, but you are nothing but a disappointment to me and the throne. You are nothing but a liar." Vegeta spat at her, his venom overflowing from his eyes.

As he spoke a dark shadow seethed at his side, eventually taking form. Seemingly out of nowhere another woman appeared, her visage and body startling similar to Bulma's but with a taint of evil that wafted off her like an expensive perfume. She had dark blue hair that was nearly black in color, her skin was as creamy as milk and her red lips glistened under the sun.

She preened at Vegeta's side, her tight pale purple and ivory dress hugging her every curve. As she moved in the sunlight, Bulma could see that the fabric was woven into pattern similar to the scales on a dragon…or a lizard.

She laughed as Vegeta shot down another villager and his own mirth twined sinisterly with hers. Bulma stared in horror struck fascination at the woman Vegeta had conjured to be his ultimate queen. Someone who was just as bloodthirsty and ruthless as he. Someone who accepted all of his murderous faults and reveled in his cruelty. His yin to his yang.

Bulma swallowed down the bile in her throat as Vegeta reached out and grabbed the other woman, kissing her with a mindless passion that was born from the hedonistic pleasure of killing. They pulled apart and the woman looked deep into Vegeta's eyes, her red lips appearing as though they were coated in wet blood.

"You will be the most vicious tyrant the universe has ever seen."

Vegeta bolted upright in bed, his hand flailing for the light switch on his nightstand. The pale yellow light clicked on and in his frantic reaching he accidentally nudged the small stereo that was beside the lamp. He never listened to music, but Zarbon had insisted in installing one in his quarters. Vegeta had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with soothing the savage beast.

His bare feet hit the floor and the black silk bed sheets crumbled up around his waist, leaving his torso bare. He braced his elbows on his knees as he dropped his head into his hands, digging his fingers into his hair. He breathed heavily as the pseudo-queen's words echoed around in his head. His body shuddered and the sweat beaded between his shoulder blades, before rolling down his back. His skin gleamed bronze in the lamplight, the only color in his midnight sheets.

The dim light could not reach out to the rest of the shadowy quarters on his flag ship. He was surrounded by the small pool and outside of its reach he could hear the shifting and seething of the shades that haunted him throughout his waking and sleeping hours.

The strains of a softly strummed stringed instrument filled the air along with the husky voice of some distant singer. He lost himself to his painful thoughts as the words from the haunting song echoed around him.

Mama told me, when I was young

Come sit beside me, my only son

And listen closely, to what I say

And if you do this

It will help you some sunny day

What a Kami-awful dream. It had started out normally enough. Since he had started his universal rampage he had barely been able to sleep, only falling into his bed when the exhaustion overcame him. Always he dreamed that he was standing on the hill watching the extinction of yet another race that defied him. Usually it was the same race that he had slaughtered just that day or earlier in the week, but the dream itself was unchanging.

Except this time Bulma had been there, with her wide, accusing eyes and shocked face. He had wondered how long it would take her to initiate their telepathic bond, had even toyed with the thought that he wasn't worth wasting her time over as the days had passed without her mental touch. Vegeta had felt relief when she had finally made an appearance, but then the familiar anger built up inside of him. When he looked down at her he could barely contain himself. He wanted to turn Super Saiyan right then and there, proving to her and himself that he didn't need her. He desperately wanted to blast her out of existence, annihilating his fatal flaw, but instead he taunted her with the proof of the monster he was becoming.

Ohh take your time…Don't live too fast,

Troubles will come, and they will pass

Go find a woman and you'll find love

And don't forget son

There is someone up above

He couldn't believe the amount of rage just being in her presence evoked. Not even Frieza had been able to coax that amount of shameful emotion from him. Every time he looked at her, he saw their past together, their life as it once was. He remembered saving her that first time in the hallway on Primus as payment for her own selfless act of bravery earlier in the week.

Later he found out that her act wasn't nearly as selfless as it appeared, but he wasn't surprised. In this brutal universe nothing was given freely, not mercy and certainly not compassion. Somehow during his time spent with her he had forgotten that lesson and he had allowed himself to believe in her lies. To believe in her.

Namek had been the ultimate nightmare as well as a supreme victory for him. During his short time there he had unearthed something he thought he had buried long ago. His heart.

His desire, his need to be with his mate was so great that it allowed him to reach down and tap the power that lingered inside of him for so long. He was no fool. He would admit that it was his love for her that broke down the barrier.

What a cosmic joke.

And be a simple kind of man

Oh be something you'll love and understand

Baby be a simple kind of man

Won't you do this for me son

If you can?

He knew why he was so angry at her. Yes she had betrayed him. Yes she had run away from him, but that only scratched the surface of his pain. Vegeta had learned a valuable lesson on Namek. He had learned to love another, but unfortunately he had skipped an important part of the teaching. He never learned to love himself.

That was why he was so angry. He knew that he was worthless. He was nothing more than a monster, whose only use was to rampage across the universe, causing destruction and bloodshed in his wake. For all his power, for all his strength, he was a creature to be scorned and hated. To be spat on as he passed. His arrogance shielded him from the truth. He was a bastard, unworthy of anyone's love and her leaving proved it.

He knew all these things, yet he had dared to dream. He had reached out to touch the stars only to be rejected. He was inferior when compared to the perfection of the woman he chose to love. He had come to believe that it was his right to be granted such a gift as love. His birth alone guaranteed certain benefits, but those had been torn away from him at such a young age. He could fight for respect, he could kill for power, but love would be forever out of his reach. He may have been born a prince, but he had been fashioned into a tyrant and no sane person would want to be mated to that. Especially a woman like Bulma.

His anger was directed at himself. He had dared to be disappointed when she had turned her back on him. He had dared to hope. He had known better, but he had ignored his common sense and his instincts.

He had allowed himself to feel.

Forget you lust for the rich man's gold

All that you need is in your soul

And you can do this if you try

All that I want for you my son

Is to be satisfied

He didn't know where the other woman had come from. A manifestation of his damaged psyche he supposed, but her presence had disturbed him far more than Bulma's.

Her words, the same prophetic words that Frieza had uttered to him so long ago, stabbed him through the heart, nearly rendering him dead. In the end, Frieza had been right. He was the most vicious tyrant the universe had ever seen.

Boy, don't you worry…you'll find yourself

Follow your heart and nothing else

And you can do this if you try

All I want for you my son

Is to be satisfied

Vegeta abruptly sat up from the bed, slamming his fist down on the stereo and smashing it to bits. He gathered up his clothes and hurriedly dressed himself.

He would never be something that anyone would love and understand, especially himself. He had only one path in life and he was a fool to think that he could forge another. He was a killer, he was a conqueror. He was the Emperor of the universe and all would tremble under his shadow.

He was Death.

He stalked out of the room and didn't look back.

A/N: All this emotional upheaval is upsetting. Gees where is the action/adventure part of this story?

*Tempest flips ahead a couple of pages*

Oh here it is. Monsters, explosions, a couple of fight scenes. *Tempests crinkles her nose*

Oh yeah, someone dies.

*Tempest slaps her hand over her mouth*

Oops let the cat out of the bag didn't I?

*Tempest sniggers maliciously*

Next chapter, GIRL POWER, *waves her fist in the air* Go home team!