It seemed all to apparent to Goku that the treatment Vegeta had suffered had irreparable eroded his mind, heart and soul and he could never be healed, even with the love given by his family. The probability that the past ten years or so had merely been a time when the real Vegeta had simply remained dormant; awaiting an unsuspecting moment to strike so that he could cause the worst damage upon the unprepared innocents in his life. The bleak notion seemed the only one that was plausible, more than ever since Vegeta had murdered his own unborn children.
~ Then I truly have no choice. I'll do what I should have done years ago. ~
After watching Goku leap out the hole in the wall to go and break up the fight and prevent any loss of life, Chichi moved towards the two demi-saiyajin children.
"Goten, are you alright?"
"Hai Kaasan, I'm okay."
"Good. I am sorry I had to push you away like I did." Chichi then turned her attention to the other boy. "Trunks?"
Insensible to everything and everyone around him, little Trunks continued to stare into space. Chichi reigning in her worry softly took hold of Trunks face and made him look directly into hers.
"Trunks honey, talk to me."
For a period, the little boy stared lifelessly into the eyes of his mother's friend. All the while, a steady stream of tears fell from his blue eyes, following the trails already upon his cheeks. This was the only show of responsiveness that was displayed, and Chichi knew that it occurred as an involuntary reaction. However soon the child murmured sounds;
"He…he hurt her."
"What?" Chichi said not being able to distinguish his words.
"He hurt her. I thought he never could. He said he never would. But he did." The pre adolescent voice was imbued with disbelief. "Otousan hurt okaasan. I always thought he loved her."
"Trunks…" Chichi didn't know what to say, especially since for a time now, she had also believed in the exact same notion, or had it merely been an illusion that not just Trunks but everyone had been immersed in. How in the world could she convince the paining and confused child that his father did indeed love his mother when she could not do the same for herself. It was impossible! Chichi attentions focussed back on the child when he began to speak again.
"Does that mean that otousan doesn't love me either?"
While Chichi ransacked her brain for a comforting response to her shocking question just asked of her a loud. `kamehameha' was heard, followed by a howl of pain. Those who were brave enough rushed to look out the hole in the wall to view the skirmish going on outside.
Apparently, and also as no surprise, Yamchua was lying on his back, on the ground with Goku standing next to him. Then a sudden indistinguishable yell attracted their attention some distance off.
"Who is that?" Chichi asked.
"That's my otousan." Trunks answered. He would forever remember the sound of his voice. "I think he's arguing with Goku-san."
"What are they arguing about?" Goten voiced his question.
"I don't know. I can't hear what they're saying clearly enough." Trunks said while straining his hearing sense.
Seeing Vegeta suddenly make a move and then seeing Goku do the exact same to block him ceased all conversation among the three witnesses. Then after several seconds, the scene repeated itself with the only addition action of Goku knocking Veget out of the air.
"They're actually fighting!" Goten spoke in surprise.
After watching Vegeta pull himself to his feet and float to Goku, he raised a hand that unexpectedly moved to face the direction of the room where they, Chichi, the boys, the nurse and Bulma's parents were. The next thing anyone knew was that an energy ball was hurling towards them. But a split second before the sphere of ki left Vegeta's hand, for unknown reason Trunks received a sensed warning what was about to happen and so yelled an alarm for everyone to take cover. When the ball had struck, it destroyed over half of the room, but having heeded Trunks' words, though having been shook up those inside were mercifully unharmed.
Coughing and spluttering, Trunks as quickly as he could, pulled himself and hovered over rubble to look out the room with more than two walls missing. However, there was no trace of either Vegeta or Goku nor any clue as to where they had disappeared to. A second later, his friend joined him and looked out to the scene of destroyed vehicles, cratered and turned over pavement and road, and demolished hospital building compound.
After checking that Dr and Mrs Briefs as well as the nurse others were not, hurt Chichi joined the boys.
"Where are they?" She asked as she carefully scanned the area for her husband and his rival.
"They're…just gone." Trunks said.
"Did you see where they went?"
"No."
"Well as least everyone here is safe." She tonelessly said, in more of a state of shock than she was before. Chichi looked over Trunks and was surprised to see that for some reason he was no longer in the same degree of incredulity and trauma as he was in before Vegeta had attacked them. She couldn't understand it at all. The boy's own father had just tried to blast them into oblivion! Any other normal child could have very well been driven to insanity. After second look, she began to wonder if he already had been. Chichi opened her mouth to enquire of Trunks welfare, but he spoke first.
"Look!" Trunks suddenly yelled excitedly while extending his left hand and trusting forward his index finger. "I can see Yamchua!"
Following the direction of indication, both Chichi and Goten saw that Trunks spoke the truth.
"Let's go check to see if he's alright." Chichi suggested. "Boys, help me down there."
* * *
The proximity alert startled Gaila from her dose. Blinking rapidly to erase the sleep from her eyes, she looked into the monitor hanging from the ceiling to her right and registered the reading she found there.
~ Good. We're about to enter earth's outer atmosphere. ~ Gaila turned to hold down the communications switch and spoke.
"Yamchua, can you please come to the cockpit, we're about to enter your planet's atmosphere and I need to begin landing procedure."
Not even five second had passed before the human warrior had taken his seat beside the pilot and fastened his safety restraints. Without further hesitation, Gaila altered the necessary controls and a violent vibrating of the pod began as it entered the upper earth atmosphere.
* * *
"Yamchua," Chichi asked as she knelt at the side of the wounded warrior. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, Chichi…" An abrupt cough interrupted his speech. "You didn't think that short piece of shit could really hurt me, did you?"
The words used to describe his father fired the part of Trunks that was `loyal son'. "I wouldn't say that. From where I'm standing you're the one who looks like a piece of shit. And a pathetic one at that."
The pain in Yamchua's face disappeared as he threw a hateful glare at the young boy's remark, and for a fraction of a second, the two battled with stares. Yamchua would have retailed if Chichi hadn't turned her face to Trunks and rebuke him for his words.
"Trunks, how dare you! You apologise to Yamchua right now."
"No, it's alright Chichi." Yamchua spoke before Trunks could refuse. "I shouldn't have said that about the boy's father." Yamcua demeanour was once again that of a friend in pain. "Speaking of which, you guys should go after them, before any kind of real fighting begins."
"I don't think we should Yamchua, you're hurt and Bulma's still in hospital." The woman argued.
"Please, don't worry about me. I'll check myself in and I'll keep an eye on Bulma." A humoured smile showed while spoke.
"I still don't want to leave you like this."
With a strained groan, Yamchua moved to pull himself up. To emphasize his point he even refused assistance as he stood on his feet. "Chichi, listen to me. Look at the damage Vegeta and …I caused." A guilty look passed over his face for a second. "And just think of the fraction of the damage two full blooded saiyajins could do giving their all in battle."
The crux of the matter had been immediately forced home by his words. Reluctantly Chichi shook her head in agree meant.
"I think it will be best if you took the boys with you. You'll most likely need all the help you can get."
"Alright, Yamchua. Come boys," Chichi said. "Let's hope we can put some sense into your fathers."
Both boys took a stand by Chichi's side and held onto her arms, and a few moments later they were nothing more than specs on the horizon, which eventually disappeared altogether.
"About fucking time!" Yamchua snarled. "I thought they'd never leave." Comfortably drawing himself up to his full height as if nothing was wrong with him, Yamchua brought his wrist to his face and spoke again. "We can now proceed."
Two beams of light suddenly appeared before him with a billion particles that quickly formed into two separate beings. The beams faded away to leave Shizema and Bulma in their place.
"It took you long enough to get rid of them, clone." Shizema criticized his creation.
"The other Saiyajin's bitch was all loving and caring, she wouldn't leave me alone. And as for Vegeta's little bastard," Yamchua smirked. "I don't think he likes me."
"The pitiful excuses of a, low-grade prototype." Bulma said in a droll tone.
"At lease I have more uses other than just to be a fucking whore."
"With the short time you were in the progression chamber I doubt you have the equipment to `fuck' with."
Yamchua opened his mouth to retaliate but didn't receive the chance to form a single syllable.
"I don't care to hear anything from either of you two. We have things that need to be done here so let us do it." Shizema addressed Yamchua. "Take us to her. Now!"
Gaining entrance into the hospital was very easy. The chaos caused by the fight between Vegeta and Yamchua was still having effect upon all inside. It seemed that a great number of medical staff number had been among those who were harmed by falling parts of infrastructure. Along the remaining corridors that were still structurally sound patient trolleys lined walls from one end to the other, not a single one them remain unoccupied. Beside usual patient gowns and civilian clothing that was now tattered rags of those wounded, security guards' and nurses' uniforms along with doctors' robes adorned a number of those injured also. The three people however continued to their destination as if invisible all others there. Having lead them to the correct private patient's room door Yamchua opened it for all three to enter, before closing and locking the door once they were in.
At the other end of the room, resting in a cold white was Bulma. Numerous tubes and wires were connected to her. Some had purpose of monitoring her life signs, some had the function of expanding her plasma in order to replace that which had been lost, and others the task to ease her pain by the continued insertion of pain killers into her damaged body.
Looking at the woman who seemed more like she was lying at death's door rather than in a hospital bed, Shizema was left to wondering just who fared worst, Bulma or Gaila. "It seems Vegeta has done more than we hoped." He commented.
"You have no idea," Yamchua remarked.
"What do you mean?"
"She was carrying two unborn, but Vegeta killed them both."
A dark roar of laughter shattered the molecules of air in the room. "Vegeta is truly the worst kind of all, his own fucking mate and offspring. Oh this is more beautiful than Sarumi could have hoped for."
"No doubt you'll assume the privilege to tell her yourself."
"Of course!" Shizema cried as if Yamchua had just asked who created him. "I formulated and produced that wonderful drug that is responsible for all this."
"Then who created the delivery system?" Shizema's other creation asked suddenly enquired.
"The traitor bitch Gaila!" He snarled taking a moment to glare at his clone of Bulma, showing a sudden rage at her question. "It's a damn same that she didn't continue to utilise her intelligence for Sarumi. What a waste, and she was maturing so nicely as well." With a non-caring shrug of his shoulders, Shizema matched over to the bed and flung the sheet from Bulma's body.
"It is best that we waste no more time here." Saying so, he continued to rip all connections from the unconscious woman before slinging her limp form over his shoulder.
"What will happen to her?" Bulma asked.
"That is none of your business, clone." Shizema was clearly annoyed that she had boldness to ask him. "Sarumi still has uses for her, and if you want to know what they are I dare you to ask her yourself." Shizema then mumbled something about flaw in his creations due to the free will he had let remain in them.
"Now, remove your clothing and take her place."
Bulma's mirror image unfailingly looked her `father' in the eye. "As you wish." Before the two men in the room, Bulma stripped herself of her clothing and then lay down in the bed making sure to hide her body from leering eyes with the sheet that had previously discarded on the floor by Shizema.
"Good." Glancing over at his `son' and not liking the way he looked at his `sister' Shizema made a slight alteration in plan. "For now, Yamchua you had best come with me. And you," he spoke addressing the woman in bed. "Make sure you come up with plausible lie as to your sudden recovery, or shall make you wish that she were you and you were she." Raising his wrist to his mouth Shizema spoke a command through the communication link maintained with the computer on his personal spacecraft, and in mere seconds he, Yamchua and the still cataleptic Bulma disappeared from the room.
Once they all vanished, Bulma lay down and closed her eyes. Now that she could allow herself to fully relax and revelled in her solitude moment of freedom.
