Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Second Soul ❯ Chapter 9

A couple things I need to say first. I am currently sick with a nasty flu so this probably isn't my best chapter. I may go over it later and fix it up.

The other thing is am sorry about the infrequent updates, you see I am currently being pressure from all sides and writing fanfics is pretty much at the bottom of my list.

The unconscious Gohan and Vegeta lay bound on the floor of the residential area. A long white cord wound tightly around them, tying their arms and legs together and pressing their backs viciously together.

The cord was the safety tether of a spacesuit that was designed for outer-ship repair, not unlike the one that Goku had used to repair the asteroid in his ship on the way to Namek. It had thankfully had a place to disconnect it and had come off with little trouble.

It was amusing. It was hilarious. In fact it was the funniest thing that Kakarot had ever seen and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. Perhaps it was because that Vegeta had always been privately terrified that his bloodline and Kakarot's would somehow become bound together? Or because after all these years he would triumph and finally take his rightful place as ruler in the universe. First of his people and then of all else. He would be beyond Freeza, beyond King Kold, beyond ANY emperor that was, is, and will be.

Looking down at his captives, he doubted that the other saiyans would argue against his right to claim the Right. The right to claim the Right? He chuckled. Anyways, Kakarot was sure he could handle Vegeta and Gohan could surely handle Trunks.

Thinking of Trunks, he glared at open-air vent in the wall. Little inconveniences like this were to be expected, but it was still annoying. Now the little prince, his younger son, and the midget were wandering around the ship somewhere and they most likely could cause some problems.

He walked over to vent, got down on his knees and poked his head in. There was no sign of the trouble makers, not that he expected them to be there, but with shadows covering most of the tunnel's depths virtually anything could be hidden. He leaned in further and jammed his shoulders in the incredibly tight space. All at once he was plunged into darkness and his mind started screaming.

"Not again, not again…" he whispered. "I didn't surrender before, and I won't now. SO LET ME GO!"

The darkness seemed to pulse around him, consuming him, smothering him in it, and slowly tightening its blanket around him. Trying to sweep him away to something that scared. His bones becoming numb with fear and chills wracking his very soul.

He screamed like a man's whose existence was at stake, the sound high-pitched with a dry quality to it.

He struggled, screaming again and again. Then suddenly he was out and sitting on the floor of residential area once more. Trembling he go to his feet and fought the urge to throw up and to let the sobs that were building in the bottom of his stomach overthrow him.

Never again, he promised. He would never go back to that place. Never again.

Trying to regain his previous humour, he moved back to where his prisoners were, and promptly kicking Vegeta in the gut. Hearing the sound of flesh hitting his foot and seeing the saiyan prince's eyes bulge as he was harshly awoken, was some condolence to his previous torture.

Vegeta grunted as the pain lanced through his body and forced himself to look about. He saw that he was still in the residential area. Lying on his right side, he felt something pressing against his back and twisted his neck around to see a still groggy Gohan tied back to back with him and slowly waking up.

What was that third class baka up to?

"How are you feeling, Vegeta?" The saiyan prince grimly looked up. Unfortunately he was all too ready for seeing his capturer standing above him, his looking greedily down at Vegeta and once again with that odd smile on his face.

"How are you feeling, Vegeta?" Goku repeated with an almost taunting quality, but he didn't say these words in any earth language that the prince knew. He said the words in kearn. Kearn had once been spoken commonly among saiyans, their ancestors, the kearns, and even the despised tsufuru-jin, but as time went by, it was only taught for traditional purposes and intergalactic languages were spoken even among their own.

"What are up to, Kakarot?" Vegeta answered in the same language.

"Where would be the fun in telling you that? Either way, I think you know or at least suspect."

"Wereti das Freoil Geadu," Vegeta muttered. The Right of Blood or in this case the Right of Royal Blood, a tradition passed down through each generation, the chance to take over the rights and privileges of a bloodline. There was only two bloodlines currently, Kakarot's and his. He glared at the other saiyan. "You think that if you take over my line it will give you any special power. Our people are virtually dead. What do you expect to achieve through this?"

Goku's eyes seemed to glow and that annoying smile disappeared and a patronising expression crossed his features. "After living on Earth for such a long time, Vegeta, I would think that you would know that some barriers are less… how can I say it? … Less permanent than others."

The dragon balls, so that was what he was planning. "And you believe that our people will just bow to you might? I am the prince, after all and they all know it."

"You've already betrayed them once, my prince. You didn't try and resurrect them and you broke the rule of royal inheritance. Only low levels who have no expectations for power have more than one child and if I understand correctly your mate has just given birth to a second, a daughter, and you have made no signs that you are planning to disown or kill her, nor have you been planning to do that with your son.

"Once I kill my younger son, me and my other son will merely show our superiority over you and your son in battle and the people shall rally behind us as King and Prince of the Saiyan Empire."

Vegeta almost laughed out loud. "You really think that he will join you after you tried to kill his brother? Are you mad? I though you actually had some common sense, Kakarot, and you went and spawned this scheme. You need a co-operative heir and I doubt that Gohan would ever do such a thing."

"I am not quite that mad, Vegeta. I am sure that he wouldn't do such a thing, but if I recall at when that young namek Dende who calls himself Kami said that when he remade the dragon balls that the were made so they could grant two wishes. One to revive our people, and another to make Gohan more open to this idea." Goku's eyes glittered as he said the words.

"Why after all this time, why now?" came a hoarse voice from right behind Vegeta. Gohan, it seemed had been more aware that they had suspected. "Why now, Tousan? First you'll murder Goten and maybe Krillin, brainwash me, then kill Vegeta and Trunks after this Right thing?"

"Let's say I am not the man as you knew."

So much for keeping your plans to yourself, thought Vegeta and felt Gohan sigh as the demi-saiyan came to the dark realisation of his brother and friends' fate.

"Well, I really must be going you know. I still must capture little Trunks and mustn't keep Goten and the weakling human waiting," said Goku casually, as if he were talking about a walk in the park, rather than the destruction of lives."

"Please don't do this," said Gohan. "Wouldn't it be better if I joined your side willingly?"

Goku pretty much giggled at the words, shook his head and went towards the door. Vegeta puzzled at Gohan's comment for a while. Gohan had to know that Kakarot would never believe him, and the half-breed would never join such a cause willingly no matter what, so why?

It came to him in a flash. The young man was stalling, giving the others time to come up with a plan.

"If a third class baka like you ever became king of our kind, next we'll wear frilly dresses and sip tea at tea time everyday, and go shopping," added Vegeta and Goku turned and eyed him.

"Like you're any better," the other saiyan exclaimed. "You've made a mockery of saiyans everywhere with your soft-heartedness and choosing a mate who couldn't throw a punch if her life depended on it."

"Maybe so, Kakarot, but at least mine has more useful skills than yelling and throwing frying pans around."

Goku made a strange expression and looked thoughtfully at Vegeta. "You're trying hard to trick me, my prince, giving them time to get ready for something. Well trust me, whatever they are planning it won't work. I've been up to other things myself, but better safe than sorry."

With that, Goku walked over Gohan and Vegeta and pulled at the tether that bounded them so tightly that a grimace covered both their faces. Taking what slack was left of the cord, he tied it onto the handle of Gohan's bedroom door. "Just so you don't fly away," he said cheerfully and with that he left.

They struggled with the bounds for a few minutes, twisting in awkward positions in attempts to untie each other by themselves, but elbows bashed into faces, hands ended up in more embarrassing places, overall a more than slightly painful circumstance.

Whenever the tried to move away, the knots became tighter and tighter, digging into their skin like teeth.

"Any ideas?" asked Gohan.

Vegeta didn't answer.