Shizema took in the happy group of people enjoying the weather, music and the company of each other. Apparently there were nine or so people moving to some type of human music; it was quite a sight. There was a pale faced child looking earthling, a three eyed man and a very short adult male. Every now and again two small children, one with jet black hair and another with lavender, would run onto the scene and then back out of it. But what grabbed his attention most was the two pairs of couple that danced. One consisted of his first creation who danced with a dark haired earthling woman. The other included a tall jet black haired man with eyes to match and Bulma Briefs, who, despite her simple wear of a short demin skirt and a small sleeveless t-shirt, she looked quite exquisite nonetheless.
He remembered the smell of her hair, the taste of her skin and feel of her body from when she was unconscious after the crash. Shizema found himself craving for those experiences again and then much more.
Entranced and thus failing to take in all personnel who were present he approached the group unnoticed. Before anyone could stop him and just as Gokou spun Bulma away from his side Shizema quickly stretched out both arms and in a flash wrapped them around Bulma from behind, pulling her away from Gokou and to himself; causing her to release a shocked and frightened scream.
Vegeta instantly turned his face when he heard the panic filled cry of his mate, and saw a sight that made his blood ferment.
Trapped like a caged bird with true fear on her face was Bulma in the arms of a tall human with short dark brown hair, and who wore casual wear that could be passed off for smart. But what shocked Vegeta the most was the look in his blue-green eyes. He had seen that same look and more, countless times in the eyes of faces from his past, from his dreams still. Murdering rapists who revelled in the torturing of innocence' in all its possibly twisted forms. Much like he had once been when the same look adorned his midnight orbs. But now the man who held his mate captive had that crazed obsessed and malice filled look in his eyes.
In the fraction of a second it had taken Vegeta to take that all in, along with an unpleasant trip down memory lane; at a speed humanly inconceivable he ripped himself from his position and moved to where he was needed.
Taken up in the unnatural joy at having the object of his obsession in his arms and pressed up against his body, Shizema didn't even feel it when his own arms was pulled from the aqua haired beauty. He forcefully reminded of the existence of his other senses, when a knee was rammed into his stomach and elbow slammed into the back of neck, knocking him to the ground. As he ever so slowly commanded his aching body and head to turn around he saw the focus of his `revenge' show him his open palm as if he were about to release an energy blast; and to his horror that was what was unfurling before his very eyes, as the Saiyajin's hand began to glow, indicating an unexpected end of his life. That was until the voice of an angel saved him.
"Vegeta, no!"
The Saiyajin no Ouji stared directly at his mate, with enraged confusion. "Nani?! Why not?"
"You don't understand…"
"What's there to understand?!" He cried in incredulously. "He tried to harm you!"
"No, I invited him here today." Bulma quickly tried to explain and in her desperation to save the man who lay at the feet of her husband she continued to ramble. "He's my friend, he saved my life yesterday. He wasn't trying to hurt me."
It took Vegeta a while to process what she had just told him. He finally blinked when he caught on the second sentence.
"Vegeta," Bulma spoke more calmly now. "Please. Please don't hurt him." Bulma moved to stand in front of her mate so that his open palm rested very near her chest. The heat that radiated from his ki ball was so close that she stood the very real risk of having her skin scorched. But no fear of that ever entered her mind.
"Vegeta," Gokou's voice came from behind. "Please listen to her. I know him too. He's the same man that with Bulma when she collapsed at lunch the other day. He was helping her then as well."
For what couldn't be soon enough, Vegeta reabsorbed the ki ball and stepped away from the man he had fallen. Taking firm hold of Bulma's hand he led her off to the side. "Now just what do you mean by he saved your life yesterday?" Then he added as a warning. "And don't try to dodge around the subject like you did last night."
"Vegeta, let's not talk about it now." Knowing she couldn't lie to him, Bulma tried to persuade him to drop the subject.
"No!" He yelled at her. "I will not allow this to linger! Was your life in danger, or not?"
"Vegeta, please," Bulma spoke in self maintained calmed voice, wanting the same of him. "Everybody is watching. Please don't ruin…"
"Dammit onna!" Vegeta shouted as he clasped his hands around her upper arm and roughly brought her face close to his. "You will not escape from this! Just answer the fucking question!" It was painfully obvious that the she didn't fully understand his position on the entire matter. But in his frustration he failed to take note of how her face twitched as well as the small sound of pain she made.
"Vegeta you're hurting me." Bulma whispered so as the others wouldn't hear.
He immediately relaxed his grip but of yet did not remove it, letting her know that though he was still in control of himself, he was still silently demanding her to answer and he would not back down. Seeing no other way out the awkward situation, Bulma did as she was told without further objections.
"When Chichi and I had finished shopping yesterday afternoon, we had an accident in the air-car on our way home."
Vegeta's eyes roved about her face as she began her tale. Though his gaze was piercing she didn't buckle or falter under his shimmering black eyes.
"All of a sudden the car violently jolted, twice, the engines failed and we just fell out of the sky." She shook her head twice to displace the traces of ill-feelings that still lingered inside her. "Even now I still don't know what exactly happened. I haven't had time to have the remains from the crash analysed yet. But…"
"But what?!" Vegeta pushed.
Bulma hesitated. So far he had taken everything well. However as for what she was about to say next, she had a feeling that his reaction wouldn't be quite the same.
"Continue!"
"But there was nothing I could do the stop us from falling." She continued at his urging. "If it wasn't for Jiro we never would've survived." Her hand moved out behind her in a gesturing motion to the man whom she spoke of now standing by Gokou.
"Vegeta, if he hadn't put his life at risk you would have seen a report of me as a newly deceased on the evening news." Whatever she had expected Vegeta's reaction to be it certainly wasn't what she was about to receive.
"How many times?" Then his voice rose. "How many times have I told you not to use those ridiculous contraptions?"
"Vegeta…"
"I hope you're satisfied. What I've always said would happen eventually did! Sometimes you amaze me so immensely with your stupidity."
"Now, just wait minute." Bulma's own voice began to grow as her temperament began to fall. "If you think…"
"If you were home where you should have been, the incident never would have happened in the first place!" Vegeta bellowed towering over Bulma. "It is my duty to protect you not some pathetic human male and you should have been here to allow me to do that!"
"Dammit, Vegeta!" Bulma cried. "I am not some little child that has to be looked after twenty-four, seven."
"You only seem to constantly prove otherwise!"
"Well if what say includes someone forcing his superior strength against a child and a defenceless onna. Then maybe there is some truth in your words, but it has been you who has put them there." It was too late to retract the harsh words once they had left her lips.
"A grave injustice to the world was done today when that baka didn't let you learn your lesson your hard way and instead spared your worthless hide." Vegeta instinctively retaliated in an uncaring, indifferent undertone before roughly shoving Bulma away and blasting off into the sky.
From her floored position, thankfully on the soft grass, Bulma stared at the retreating figure of her mate, and even when it disappeared from view her blue eyes remained skyward. Suddenly, however Bulma felt herself being lifted off the ground as she heard someone call her name, though her mind didn't register whom. In a daze she turned her head expecting to see the face of Chichi or Gokou, but was shocked out of her daze when the person who raised her to her feet was Jiro.
"Bulma, are you alright? You're not hurt are you?" When she shook her head to both questions he asked, "Who WAS that man?"
"My ma…my husband." Since the strength in her legs failed her she found herself leaning against Shizema for support, and not just for the physical kind.
"Husband?!" He echoed disbelievingly. Shizema would have added `And this is how he treats you?', but decided choose the line of a sincerely apologetic friend. "Oh god Bulma, I am so sorry. This is my entire fault, please forgive me. If I hadn't…"
"Jiro please don't." She said. "None of this is your fault. It's just that both of us…" She found herself finishing her sentence by turning her face to look at ground with a loud sigh, instead of using words.
"Bulma," Shizema placed a hand under her chin and applied gentle pressure to make her face him. "He did push you down quite hard, are you sure you're not hurt?"
"I'm fine, really." She tried to convince him, suddenly beginning to feel uncomfortable with his immediacy.
"Kaasan," said an uncertain little voice. "Where has Otousama gone?"
Snatching the opportunity, Bulma broke free of Shizema's grasp and kneel down so that she was on level with her son. "I don't know, honey." She said as she lightly stroked his head.
"What happened?" Upon breaking away from his game of tag, with his best friend after hearing his mother scream, which taken them quite a way from the Capsule Corp grounds, Trunks had run back to the where the party was occurring. When he got there he could feel the retreating ki of his father and saw a strange man pick up his mother from the ground and hold her. It was done in much the same way that he had seen his father do, and even for such a small inexperienced child, the scene did not settle well with him. Trunks viewed the man prudently from the corner of his eye as he waited for her answer.
"Nothing, Trunks."
"No." He suddenly said when he felt nothing good coming from the man who watched him back. "No it can't be nothing. Otousan wouldn't just fly away like that if it was just nothing."
Bulma hid her surprise well from her son. He seemed to be becoming more and more perceptive for a boy his age, and growing up at rate that she didn't like. Soon he would be her baby anymore. She also noticed little Goten standing a few metres behind Trunks and she silently but happily mused how inseparable the two were. ~ Just like true friends. Just like true brothers. ~
"We had an argument Trunks, that's all." Seeing his face fall, she quickly added. "And I don't want you to worry about it. I'm sure he'll come back once he's calmed down. Not you go on and run along with Goten and enjoy this beautiful weather while we still have it." She gently ushered him towards the younger demi-Saiyajin boy and turned to try and salvage what was left of the party.
* * *
The door alert sounded and Sarumi granted entrance to who stood outside her quarters.
"Sarumi?"
"What are you troubling me about now, Birsha?"
"It's about Gaila. She…"
"Haven't I told you to ease up on your torching of the girl?"
"There are some things that I must bring to your attention about her, and there are far from pleasing."
"If you are referring to that fragile back bone that she annoying beginning to develop, I already know."
"I suppose in a way, it is part of it."
Sarumi looked up when Birsha had spoke. There was obviously more meaning behind those words.
"Please come with me to the surveillance room and see for yourself. I don't think my words alone will convince you."
Seeing the seriousness of the matter, Sarumi rose from her desk and both journeyed to the surveillance room. After selecting the surveillance history of the prison cells desk, particularly the area that housed the captured human male. Beginning with a recording from a few weeks prior, they both watched as Gaila brought food for the human prisoner for the first time and the interactions hat had occurred with it.
At first Sarumi had found the whole situation in a way amusing, seeing as the human was kind to Gaila after he had attacked, but when she eventually warmed up to the human, Yamchua grew in audacity to actually question the child on their activities and she half-hearted refusal to gone from that to dodging and then finally to truthful answering. A sense of betrayal that Sarumi had never ever before felt welled up inside her until it was all consuming.
"Have Jarik come here but tell him to wait outside the room, and I also want you to bring that girl to me." The menacingly calmness she displayed frightened Birsha, but she reacted to comply with Sarumi's bidding.
From the moment she stepped foot in the room with the door automatically closing shut once she was out of its sensor range; when she had taken in the audience in the room, consisting of Birsha standing off at her left side looking straight ahead, and Sarumi who stood at the surveillance room consoles with her back to her. Gaila instantly felt the ominous atmosphere crushing upon her, but she could not run, she had to answer to her.
"What is it, Sarumi?"
"When you take food down to the prisoner, what is his behaviour towards you like?"
"Quiet mostly," she said. "Being weak and with the bars in place, there isn't much he can do. He only opens his mouth to eat and say thank you."
"Well, what do you know," Sarumi said with a small humoured chuckled and Gaila partly jointed in with a nervous little smile. "The human at lease has some manners, quite impressive."
"Yes I was surprised too."
Then Sarumi stopped laughing but the corners of her lips still held onto an untrustworthy tilt. "Has he ever said anything else?" Gaila shook her head at the question. "Has he even asked you any questions, at all?"
"No he hasn't"
"Don't you find that strange, Gaila," Sarumi queried. "That a captive that has been held prisoner for so long has never asked his capturers, especially one he sees on a regular basis, questions about what will happen to him; about what they plan to do next?"
Gaila made no response; fear at the realisation that something was wrong had stilled her in Sarumi's presence.
"Are you he asked nothing of you?"
"Well, now if I carefully recall, I think he did enquire about the subject the first few times I brought food to him. But I didn't tell him anything." Gaila forced herself to answer, knowing that Sarumi would not accept another silence, and when she saw Sarumi nod her head in what looked like to be acknowledgement she breathed an inward sigh of relief.
"Good." Sarumi turned her back to the girl to operate the console. "Now, there is something I want you to see. Step up close to the view screen, child." And Sarumi proceeded to show Gaila what she had watched regarding all her interaction with human prisoner.
Birsha made sure to stand back as far from the two as the room physically allowed. When Sarumi's fury was unleashed she in no way wanted to be a recipient of it for even a parsec.
* * *
After almost two months away from home, upon his return Vegeta was greeted by a silent house, which suited him just fine. He wasted no time entering the kitchen, grabbing a pitcher from the cabinet cupboard, and filling it with water from the cold tap only to immediately empty the contents down his parched throat. Just as he removed the empty container from to lips and placed it back under the tap for refill, a shrill annoying happy voice shattered his peace.
"Oh, Vegeta honey, you're back!"
The Saiyajin no Ouji refused to even turn around and acknowledge the mother of his mate. The barriers he had somehow managed to erect about his temperament were as raw as meat, despite his time away. He was beginning to think that whatever was trying his control was embedded into the very cell of his entire being and he never be rid of them. He pushed away the memories of the circumstances of his departure, not wanting to view or endure the emotions regarding them.
"I was so worried when Bulma told me you had taken off the way you did. Are you alright now?" Once she was near enough, Mrs Brief placed her hand on Vegeta's shoulder in a concerned gesture, but he roughly shook it off.
"What's wrong dear?" And she once again moved to him.
"Do not touch me!" Vegeta growled out in warning.
Mrs Briefs stared silently at the man she considered to be her son-in-law. She knew that Vegeta didn't exactly have everlasting patients, but he seemed to be unusually extra snappy.
"What's the matter Vegeta?" The worried look on her face suddenly disappeared as if it never existed and was replaced with closed eyed smile. "I know, I fix you little snack, I'm sure you must be hungry. What would you like dear? Oh I know what will really hit the spot! I'll cook you some rice and some potatoes, and broccoli…"
Just about managing with a great deal of conscious effort Vegeta tuned out the blonde's voice and depart from the kitchen with no set destination in mind, just so long as she wasn't anywhere near there. However it hadn't even been ten peaceful seconds before that same high pitched frightfully ecstatic sound was violating his ears once more. It seemed that that woman was following him around with an endless menu decanting from her lips and this was one time Vegeta was not in the mood for it.
Momentarily stopping he said, "I'm warning you woman. Leave me alone." His head was slightly turned at an angle for her see the side of his face. It was one that indicated no weakness or jest in his words. It was then that resumed his movement with broadened strides.
"Ooo, but Vegeta," As if not hearing his admonishing she ran up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder as she spoke. "I know that when I'm finished you will…"
With no explanation or known reason Vegeta spun around and fastened his hands around the unsuspecting woman's neck. Not even a second later he had her back up against the hall wall after having just banged the rear of her skull against it. A small split travelled several inches up the wall from the point where her head had struck it. Mrs Briefs' shock was soon accompanied by other emotions as her throat felt as though it was being restrained by merciless talons, and it was practically impossible for her breath. Whether it was from the grip he had on her or it was from the absolute terror she was experiencing she didn't know. When she was able to take in the look on Vegeta's face and in his eyes, the heat in her chest rose and her heart all but stopped beating.
It was as if a mask had descended upon the man. His face was full of hate and an un-comprehendible rage and his eyes magnified violence and the desire to murder. For the first time in her life Mrs Briefs was in mortal fear for her life as she beheld what was once the opponent of the billions of planets in the universe.
Smelling her fear permeating the air a sickeningly wicked sneer grafted onto Vegeta lips for a second before anger returned. He brought his face a hair away from his captive, knowing she was able to feel his hot breath on her face. He reached out with other hand stroked her face; her skin was softer than he imagined, and he imagined what her expression on her very attractive face would be like as he envisioned his hand tightening slowly before he jarred her, severing all internal biological connections. Vegeta suddenly wanted to hear what sounds of pain he could coax from her voice box before she was silenced forever.
Just as Mrs Briefs felt his fingers dig even further into her flesh, she closed her eyes not wanting to see her end. Then suddenly he stopped and the next thing she knew was that she no longer felt his presence. For some time she remained as she were, pressed up against the wall with her eyes closed shut. When she finally gathered the courage to open them she saw no trace of Vegeta.
