Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Never Meant to Love Him ❯ Home Movies ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer - Yep I don't own it!

Chapter Two - Home Movies.

Bulma jolted awake. The tiredness she had been feeling for the last two hours trying to claim her attention once and for all as the luminescence of the computer screen flickered against her pale skin. Her body didn't seem to agree with her decision to sit on the bare tiles, and she stretched awkwardly as a yawn picked its way up her throat. No wonder it had been so easy to get Vegeta to agree with this. There were no words to describe it… bored to tears was not nearly enough to emphasise the way her brain ached for stimulation.

Perhaps it was his unforgiving demeanour, the knowledge of what his past had consisted of, or the restlessness and sheer brutality he trained with, but Bulma had expected that the trip he took into space a year ago would have been… well… quite frankly more eventful and exciting. For the past two weeks! Two weeks she had been working her mind up to this point, preparing to see visions of grand destruction and murderous killings, maybe even rape and Kami only knew what other habits he had picked up during his time in Frieza's army, but there was nothing! Well OK not exactly nothing, but as near as damn it for all she was concerned. This was supposed to be her therapy and here she was watching days of endless nothingness wondering over how right he had felt pressed up against her, instead of watching events that would harden her against the delusional tricks his presence played on her body.

To find the first tape to be so totally devoid of anything intense or disturbing was a shock for her. His initial port of call had been a fairly neat little planet not too far from Chikyu in terms of peacefulness. It seemed as though it was well equipped to deal with spacecraft and Vegeta had been accepted there with very little questions asked. Whether the inhabitants knew who and what he was, was hard to tell. They saw to his requirements with an efficiency and diligence that could have stemmed from fear for their lives, but the way in which he was received, would be more fitting to willing, instead of forced servitude. Still it was calm enough, and she at least relented that as much as it didn't serve her purpose at all, at least no one on that planet had suffered because of his arrival.

So now, after watching nothing but the metal hanger in which the ship was stored for his visit, she had nothing else to do but mentally let Vegeta win round one, and skip to the next stop on his tour. To her surprise he had logged the name of this planet into the database, and that on its own promised well, or at least, so she hoped. Surely something monumental was going to happen if he had taken the effort and trouble to record the event properly?

Pressing play she leant back against the central computer and took her first look at Vegeta's next destination. Wind wobbled the camera and hissed through the speakers and she was about to turn them down when the hatch opened and the proud Saiyan no Ouji exited the spacecraft in a blue burst of ki, his presence, little more than an arc of light across the sky. She sighed and rubbed her temples. This wasn't going as well as she had hoped. To a certain extent this landing might be significant. There was no official welcome as there was on the previous planet, and certainly Vegeta's exit was much more hasty and dramatic than before, but it appeared that whatever events that might transpire here, were still, more than likely, to remain a mystery untold. As she watched, his energy trail dipped over the horizon and completely out of sight.

Not being able to view the being she wanted too most, there was nothing left to do but view the planet itself. If truth be told then it fitted Vegeta's personality well, the sky was dark and unforgiving when given up to the very volcanic looking landscape that dominated the whole scene. Igneous rock, black and lifeless, stretched out to the furthest reaches of the bleak horizon, culminating in great towering mountains of stone, almost indistinguishable in conjunction with the lack of light.

It wasn't however as devoid of life as one might think. There was the occasional flicker of movement to disturb the monotony of its general depressiveness, and Bulma couldn't help but shiver when she saw a group of large bug-like creatures hovering above the scarred and potted land. In perspective they were probably the size of Chikyu's large hunting birds, and that was enough to make her thankful she wouldn't have to meet them in real life.

Diligently she now picked up a writing pad and noted their movement, colour etc… whilst drawing a small sketch for later benefits. Wasn't it her pretence that this was for her Halloween party? She would have to use some of the information collected otherwise Vegeta would get suspicious.

She worked under low lighting against the computer console, turning her back to the screen, but would occasionally be brought back to face it by an increase of light around the room. She could guess what it was, although the camera couldn't see so far away. To the ignorant eye the bright flashes of blue-white energy would probably be mistaken for lightening, and indeed Bulma might well have done the same hadn't the sky been completely devoid of any cloud or associated metrology. Wistfully she watched the light shows, wondering just how many people were losing their lives? Perhaps this plan would work after all. She could already feel her stomach knotting with pain, as she concentrated on the probable innocents that were being destroyed as she watched.

For the briefest of seconds she looked back down at the note pad that lay across her knees, twirling the pencil distractedly between her thumb and forefinger. Glancing back up, she nearly stabbed herself in the leg with it she jumped so high. Where there had once been an endless backdrop of twisted and scarred rock, was now a crowd of shadows that depicted deep-set eyebrows, the lines of an aristocratic smirk tugging at the left cheek, showing a profusion of white teeth, as they glinted in the dark.

The camera must have been a good ten feet high, so it was obvious that Vegeta was levitating to look into it, his arms folded across the chest. This position didn't last long though, and curiosity finally seemed to get the better of him as his hands moved to each side of the camera, his head moving inquisitively from side to side as though he were inspecting it. His eye seemed to catch sight of something and in an instant a crackle of static was pouring through the speakers and into the gravity room. Vegeta's face still smirked into the screen, "Give the onna and her father a Dragon ball! They think of everything!"

Bulma stood immobile in shock, but there was a something that underlined it. It couldn't help but drag out her curiosity. It was a something in her chest that tightened as the masculine words echoed around the circular structure. Maybe it was tempered with the utterly unpresumptuous playfulness in his face as he continued to stare as though he was looking straight at her, but was more than likely a result of the fact the he had thought of her at such a long distance and after a relatively short acquaintance.

Her reverie wasn't destined to last though and she was snapped back to reality as with a fizz, both the static and the screen went dead. It took a good few minutes to fully register what had happened, and when it did Bulma's eyebrows met firmly in the middle of her forehead, "Asshole! He killed the camera… what a complete baka! Ugh! How am I supposed to dig any dirt on him now?"

In hindsight she kicked herself for getting so mad, whatever he had done it couldn't possibly be permanent! She had the tapes that proved there was plenty of footage left, admittedly, now she thought about it, no where near the amount there should have been, but plenty of viewing time nonetheless. Her suspicion's were about to be proved right, as the technical hitch was only temporary and what was soon to become apparent was that she would find out more about Vegeta this way, than she could have ever hoped to before.

The first thing she noticed, when the blank whirring of tape had run its course, and the picture returned, was that the camera no longer appeared to be attached to the ship. At first it was hard to tell where it was. The focus was haphazardly spun around by who ever was operating the machine and they seemed to be fumbling with the controls. Then, as the last of the fuzziness melted into the background it soon became evident that she was now viewing inside the spacepod. The camera wobbled slightly but remained upright as Vegeta stepped out from behind to claim a place in the centre of the screen. His words (when they came) were exactly in keeping with his character… short and to the point.

"Planet Kloredis - Objective number one 'Find Kakarrot' - failed. Objective number two - Destroy Frieza's juvenile training facilities…" his eyes closed briefly and his throat bobbed as he swallowed hard, "completed. The wardens were easily overthrown, the subjects even easier, hardly any resistance - no survivors. Video confirmation will follow."

With no other warning the camera was switched off. When it was next turned on, the location had changed. Now they were back on the planets surface. Bulma could see the jagged ridge of peeked mountains that lined the horizon as before, but the air was filled with a black acrid smoke. Remnants of what appeared to be a large building, littered the landscape, great chunks of masonry smouldering within close view, framed by the odd electrical spark that jumped out between the debris.

The camera panned a little more and now the full destruction became apparent, and this time, not just inanimate. At first glance Bulma mistook the dark liquid dripping from what remained of the first story, as oil or some other lubricant, but was quickly put to right as the picture zoomed into a single figure. There was a cloak of some sort, torn and fluttering in the breeze, and as she got closer she eventually saw that the poor soul wearing it. His body lay slumped over the edge, a hole burnt clear through his chest, his face one mass of burnt tissue, there was nothing left to identify species or even to distinguish features for that matter.

A gloved hand appeared from the side and the camera tilted as it reached out to the body and ripped a badge from the man's chest. It was held carefully before the lens as Vegeta's thumb cleared away the blackness of clotted blood from its smooth surface, to reveal the true golden lustre underneath an intricate triangular symbol, which was overlaid in a twisting of red and blue.

Again Vegeta spoke, "General Sinerton - Director of Training - Frieza's seventh in command, and Cooler's right hand man. He would not tell me where King Cold and Cooler are. The facility has been neutralized." The camera moved to one remaining console that flickered with life, unaffected by the destruction surrounding it, "It appears they were training for a revenge attack on Chikyu. I have no idea why… familial sentimentality is not a trait I would associate with Ice-jin's. I'm guessing they were going to make an example of the planet, trying to keep control of Frieza's empire… no other reason seems to fit." No other explanation was offered and the camera lingered, once again panning around to take in the full destruction, pinpointing other casualties before going blank as it was turned off.

Bulma's blood ran cold, "Chikyu… they…" her voice was barely above a whisper, "they were going to come here?" Her brain raced, "If they were planning an attack on Chikyu… then that means… that… Vegeta saved us! I can't believe it! Not that he meant to of course. He had another agenda to work for."

Bulma reasoned for several minutes over this. Whether he planned to overt an attack or not didn't matter. Hadn't Frieza come himself anyway? Didn't that cancel any debt owed? Vegeta had no more saved Chikyu than she had! Unfortunately no matter what words fell easily from the tongue, the feeling that poured through her chest couldn't be faked.

It intruded again - that little glimpse of something that wouldn't see the bad in him, even when the destruction wrought by his hand was right in front of her nose. If that dead soldier had been Frieza's seventh in command, then it was highly likely that he wasn't an innocent. There was no telling what kind of scourge he had been on the universe. In fact that was probably the worst thing, because again it set Vegeta in the favourable light, how many people did he save, how much suffering did he prevent by taking out this one man? The scary thing was she could even see why Vegeta had destroyed the base. It actually made sense to do it, and she could no more hate him for its destruction than she could hate anyone who wished to exact revenge on their tormentor after a life of servitude and degradation.

Eager to find out more Bulma was a little disappointed on finding the rest of the tape devoid of any recording. Clawing at the control panel she found the next in line to be viewed, not even giving a second thought to what secrets it might contain. How bad could it be? She had just seen a sight that would have made most people sick to the stomach. It didn't matter what was on the tape… she could handle it!

This landing had been logged as well. 'Taneta five' was displayed in the top right hand corner of the screen. Again Vegeta was the first thing to invade her senses, only this time through sound. It was quickly noted that he wasn't inside the spaceship, but in the middle of a forest. An unnaturally bright sky, (which reminded Bulma somewhat of Namek's,) burnt its way through the dense canopy, evaporating the moisture from the uneven and indistinguishable floor, creating a carpet of mist that hung eerily around the bases of large indiscernible tree roots.

"Taneta five - Objective number one 'Find Kakarrot' - Highly unlikely. Objective number two 'locate the laboratories for design and research. Destroy the technicians and specimens.' Completed. Objective number three 'Find the password to Frieza's internal research computer system' - In progress."

There was an edge to Vegeta's voice that had been lacking in the previous dialog. Bulma had sometimes heard him use it when he spoke to her after a particularly gruelling session in the gravity room. It was the basic combination of breathless energy, and adrenaline added with the usual generous helping of arrogance, but which also had the slightest hint of the beast about it, feral and dangerous. The camera appeared to be strapped firmly to Vegeta's waist, and didn't seem to inconvenience him as he picked his way through the swampy forest floor with a nimbleness that was fascinating to witness first hand.

Then all of a sudden he stopped, one arm slung over a branch, and balanced with his feet as they coiled on the roots, his knees pulled in close to the chest as though he was readying himself to pounce. "I know you are here old man, show yourself and give me what I want or you will suffer the same consequences as your stubborn colleagues. Indeed I would have toasted your sorry backside for running away like the child that you're carrying, if I didn't have need to spare one of your worthless lives for the sake of a password."

There was silence for longer than it seemed Vegeta had patience for.

"I'll give you to the count of three. If you do not show yourself within that time then I will destroy you, password or no. I can sense you ki, come into the clearing where I can see you. One… two…"

There was a rustle of leaves to the left, and the camera turned with Vegeta's body to view an old man, no more than five feet tall as he slowly walked out from his hiding place. His skin was a bright red and hair as white as the mist surrounding them, as it almost entirely blanketed his face, the skin that did show through, lined with age and worry, chiselled out of his features by time. In his arms he cradled a child, no more than three years old by Bulma's reckoning. Her long green hair flowed over the arms that carried her, her eyes shining once as they looked at Vegeta and then lost to view as her head buried itself into the torn remains of a lab coat, her chibi hands wrapped tightly round the scientists neck.

"Well that's more like it!"

"If you fire at me now the child will die." Exclaimed the old man firmly.

"I don't care about some scrawny child, she will die anyway. I am more disgusted with the thought that you would be such a coward as to hide behind her, than the thought of killing her. At least she will not have to suffer anymore because of you and your kind! I shudder to think what you have put her body through. Tell me old man did you pump the same poisons through her system as you did mine?"

"Lord Vegeta… I… I was only carrying out orders. I didn't mean…"

"To think I actually trusted you! Just as the child you are carrying does now. Your pretence is lost on me. I know you for what you really are, and let me tell you that only Frieza himself was more twisted and sick in the head!"

The old man's head rose, a glint of something demonic glinting in his eye as he looked up from under his pronounced eyebrows, "You have no idea and no understanding of how brilliant my mind is. I think that you are jealous of my mental prowess, knowing how thick-headed your own race is. I don't know why Frieza wasted his time with you, you were a poor test subject, unlike this Samorian child."

There was a sharp intake of breath, "She's Samorian?"

"Yes and the perfect specimen for my experiments. She is the embodiment of my life's work. I know you are aware enough of my vocation to understand what this means. You see this?" His hand moved from under the profusion of the child's hair to show a surgical type instrument, which glistened with metallic glory in the palm, "This syringe contains the serum that I injected into you all those years ago, only modified slightly. Do you remember how it infected your Ouzaru form?"

"Yes it was one of the reasons that I taught myself to control Ozaru. There was no way I was letting either you or Frieza control me completely. No matter how much power it gave me."

"You remember the power then. Just imagine what this girl is capable of, being the perfect match to its genetic structure." Without any more talking he stabbed the needle in the girls neck, pumping the serum into her. "This is your worst nightmare Vegeta. She will beat you to the ground!"

To Bulma's surprise Vegeta's body backed away, his breathing increasing as he eyed the creature. The scientist's arms parted and she dropped inelegantly to the mud with a squelch. Her small body writhed on the floor for a few minutes before Vegeta realized what was happening and let a stream of ki fly from his hand. It burst into a thousand beads as it impacted, but the young girl seemed completely unfazed even as she clutched her head as though her mind was crawling with pain.

In the background it was just about possible to see the scientist flee into the surrounding forest, leaving Vegeta and the girl to duke things out on their own. Bulma wasn't the only one to notice and without delay Vegeta had powered up and was tracking the old man in a murderous rage. He wasn't however destined to get very far. A small limb reached up and caught him by the ankle. The child had a firm hold on his foot, refusing to let go. Her eyes glowed a brilliant shade of pink as her skin blistered and pulled, searing away the gentle features of her young body and ripping them into shreds, exposing veins that pulsed with a black liquid.

Vegeta seemed to be immobile under her spell. His ki fluttered intermittently over the camera but was rebuffed as soon as it touched her skin, "Get the fuck off me!" he growled, kicking at her temple. To his obvious relief the kick landed squarely and pushed her away enough for him to free himself. He turned blindly as the sun scorched its rays onto the retina and tried to focus on her, but she was gone.

Then came the sound. The childish giggles floated around the forest, carried on the wind, "I see you, I see you, I see you. Find me!"

Vegeta turned haphazardly, and it was obvious that his senses couldn't pick her up.

"Peek a boo!" she taunted, as her body appeared laying underneath his floating form, a bright bubble of ki flying up from her position. It must have been flung out of the way by Vegeta as he swerved and released a ki ball of his own. It scorched towards her body and she didn't even attempt to dodge it. The pink of her eyes was reflected in the energy that surrounded her and as the power reached her it stopped dead. For awhile it just stayed in the same spot, spinning in mid air, before the young girls hands splayed and with a giggle the energy was split into six pieces, being manipulated to fly away in various directions before converging on Vegeta's position.

One must have hit its target as Vegeta was sent into a brief spin before he managed to catch his equilibrium, "Enough tricks!" he shouted. "I don't have time for these games!"

"Playing is fun! I can do magic now! Wanna see trees dance?"

"No."

"Go bang?"

"No."

"Be like me?"

"What the fuck?"

The woodland around them literally breathed with life as twisted limbs flew from the trees and into the clearing, morphing from their lifeless forms into the exact replica of the girl he was forced to fight with. There must have been at least a dozen of them, all tracking him, the energy flowing through them, unmistakable as it created a haze of heat against the pale sky.

All of them leapt onto his form, striking and kicking at him with precision and speed. After parrying their attacks for several minutes, it appeared that Vegeta's patience was wearing thin. His lungs exploded in a battle cry as he gathered energy, pushing it out from all around him, blinding vision as it scorched everything in its path. When the energy subsided there was nothing of the forest left in close proximity. A crater of devastation had been inflicted on the scenery for miles around with only a few suborn trunks left in an upright position, blackened as though the area had been burning for days rather than just a few seconds.

From under the piles of ash, something moved. There was a flash of power and the debris that imprisoned was blown clean away. "You broke my TOYS!"

The creature, (now almost unrecognisable under the burning it had suffered,) rushed at him with its fists flying in a tantrum, tears falling from it sealed eyelids. Vegeta now easily dodged the attacks as the rage and damage to the child's body slowed its progress and weakened its abilities.

Mid-fight the camera twisted sharply round, its object being another figure moving in the torched wasteland. Landing an unblocked spear hand to his attackers midriff, Vegeta flew across to where the old man chocked up through the layers of destruction. Again it appeared that the rage inflicted on the scenery had been equally felt by him. His face was now as dark as the burnt wood around him, the profusion of hair that had covered his face, melted into the skin.

Grabbing him by the neck Vegeta lifted him clear off the ground, "Give me the password!" he demanded.

"Never. You will erase all my research, and I cannot let that happen! " Came the choked reply.

Vegeta seemed to ignore the statement and the palm of his free hand glowied with power, as he brought it forward to the old mans chest, burning its perfect imprint into the skin, "Tell me the password or I will inflict more pain on your body than you could possible imagine!"

"Do as you wish. I feel nothing. So long as I'm controlling the girls body, she will feel it all."

The scientist didn't get to say anything more. In a heartbeat his neck was snapped and he died instantly. Angrily his body was thrown to the side and Vegeta concentrated back on the child. She lay on the burnt ground clutching her chest, her permanently disfigured face, screaming out in pain. For a while Vegeta just looked down, as if he were unsure of what to do with her. In the throes of agony a hand reached up to him, as tears still seeped, "It hurts," she whimpered in such a child-like plea for comfort that it made Bulma's eyes brim with tears.

Amazingly Vegeta knelt down at her side and gathered her into his arms, "I can make the pain go away, do you want that?" he questioned.

She nodded her head and bit her lip.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Vegeta put his hand over her face, readying a ball of ki to finish her once and for all, but he stalled. "What is your name?" he asked.

"Anekea."

"Sweet dreams Anekea." He growled in a deathly pitch as the energy exploded from his hand, incinerating her body and sending it to the next dimension on impact.

Slowly Vegeta got to his feet, brushing off the dust and ash that stuck to him. There was a good five minutes of nothing as he stood in the clearing, before he turned and took to the air, "Objective number three," there was a hint of fatigue in the words, "'Find the password to Frieza's internal research computer system' - Completed… The password is Anekea." Appropriately the screen went blank.

As the image was lost Bulma sat immovable from shock, the tears that had threatened to fall, now cascading down her cheeks. When her body caught up to the emotion she was feeling, she pulled her legs into her chest and laying her head on the raised knees, sobbed so uncontrollably that it hurt her lungs to breath.

Nothing could offer her comfort. To see how easy it had been for Vegeta to kill that child! It was awful! She had seen all that she had wanted, all that she had convinced herself he was capable of. Why did it upset her so much? Then she understood. It was because even though she had seen him in such a horrific light, she still loved him, still wanted and needed him. Even now as she sat in barely controlled anguish because of the loss he had inflicted, she wanted nothing more than his presence to sooth away the pain. It made absolutely no sense.

Again however she was thought to rethink what she had just seen. Yes she had just seen Vegeta kill an innocent child. The girl could not have asked to have had those things put on her. It appeared as though her involvement in any of this had been purely circumstantial, but she was suffering. Vegeta saw that. He could have easily left her there to die on her own. It was obvious that whatever poison the mad old man had injected her with had bound them physically, and that it would only have been a matter of time until she had died without Vegeta's assistance, but how much would she have had to suffer if he hadn't been there? His words to her also couldn't be ignored, "Sweet dreams." She remembered speaking them to Vegeta herself several times before he left and getting only a snort in response, but when the child had needed comfort he had used what little of it he had experienced to calm her.

It was too much to take in. The more she thought the more she ended up going in circles and confusing her mind even more than when she had first entered the gravity room this night. The emotions it created were even more on edge, her feelings even more undecided than ever.

There was one part of this whole thing that puzzled her… and that was why? Why had Vegeta dismounted the camera? Why had he felt obliged to film his destruction? Why did he choose to document it so meticulously? What was the purpose of it all?

Realistically there was only one way that she would find out and that was by watching more. Unfortunately, however much she watched it wouldn't be able to solve the biggest question of all, and as she stood up from the tiled floor to find the next tape she shook her head from side to side as she voiced it out loud, "Why did he agree to let me see this, if he knew what was on there?"

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A/N - Whoa! I think my brain is going to explode after writing that chapter. It was a LOT darker than I'm used to writing, but was a good challenge. Let me know what you think! I have a strange feeling that this is going to have to be more than three chapters now, but I'm definitely not complaining. Fun, fun, fun! Look for another update on Halloween.

*huggles*

Ember