Surviving Together: Retribution

Chapter 9 - Empty Tomb

"Bulma," Vegeta whispered as he woke to the familiar scent of lavender tickling his nose. As if in a dream, he opened his eyes to find the woman he loved lying comfortably in his arms. For the few seconds his mind was still clouded by sleep, he stroked his mate's hair, and tightly tucked her body against his while savoring the all too atypical serenity of being with his mate.

Then reality kicked in.

This was not his mate. This was the mate to another man, and mother to another's cub. Jolting to sit upright, Vegeta felt his body stiffen in horror. 'What have I done?' In one spontaneous act, he had betrayed his deceased mate, taking a lover barely a year after her death. And not just any lover of course, an already mated woman, a mother, a person whom did not deserve to have her family ripped apart because of his selfish actions.

'I have to fix this,' the plan seemed obvious, but the manner in which he would carry it out was near to impossible. Dropping his head in his right hand, Vegeta supported his elbow against his knee as he tried to make sense of his erratic behavior. What happened to all of his control? Damn it, he had gone ten fucking years not touching a single woman, excluding the Aphara incident, which certainly did not count, not even feeling a flicker of passion as he had with Bulma. How could this woman be so different?

Twisting his head to look down at the female in question, Vegeta sighed as he reached out his left hand to pull back the few stray strands of hair that had fallen wildly across her face. So like his mate. The same disheveled image after their lovemaking sessions, the same completely satisfied smile spreading lightly across her lips, the same enflamed bite mark that always darkened after their coupl-bite mark?

Shaking his head as if to brush off what was left of his sleep, to make certain what he was viewing was in fact what he believed it to be, Vegeta gently pulled all of Bulma's hair to the side, and lowered the covers so that nothing could obstruct his view of that juncture that connected her shoulder to her throat. "My mark," he would recognize it anywhere. Every Saiya-jin had their own distinctive bite, a testament to the impossibility of ever mistaking one man or woman's property for another. The mark he saw before him was unquestionable.

Jumping off of his bed as if it had been set ablaze, Vegeta tried to make sense of what was before him. A woman who looked like Bulma, talked like Bulma, acted like Bulma, sounded like Bulma, smelled like Bulma, and bore his mark could only be one person, right? 'It can not be!' Vegeta shook his head as he spun away from her in disbelief.

She was dead, he watched her die, he held her lifeless body in his arms, and he buried her for the gods' sake! She could not be alive! It made no sense. He had to be wrong! But his mark, it was as clear as crystal. Her feel, last night he had called her Bulma; she felt like Bulma, she reacted like Bulma, she-she had to be, but how? Lifting his eyes, Vegeta's gaze fell upon the door that brought him to the tomb, which he believed, housed his true mate. As if led by an external power, he walked to the entrance and quietly touched the identification pad that granted him access.

Gliding his hand over the marbled crypt in a similar fashion as he had last evening, Vegeta stopped his groping at the latch to open the encasement. 'Forgive me, Bulma.' Never would he have imagined desecrating her burial chamber, but he had to know, he had to know once and for all if his mind had finally snapped.

With a loud thud, the lid that enclosed her place of resting fell to the ground, revealing to Vegeta that he had been praying to an empty vault for the past months. "By the gods," he slowly paced backwards. He was the only being who had access to this room. It was impossible to have removed her body without his notice. "What the hell has been going on?" in a fit of fury he knocked over the rest of the crypt. Running his fingers through his hair, Vegeta found himself straining to keep his composure. Someone had taken his mate. Someone had been deceiving him for the last however many months. Someone-someone was going to pay.

The sound of shuffling abruptly reminded Vegeta that he had what was now very possibly his resurrected mate in his bed. Returning to his chambers with hastened speed, he was disappointed to find her heading towards the exit. The fact that she was still in the process of putting her shirt on blatantly implied that she had not awakened with the same contented disposition he had.

"Bulma, wait!" he managed to get to the door just before she could open it. "We have to talk."

Her face had been averted from his until she finally lifted her head to respond. "You called me Bulma again," she was crying, porcelain skin marred by dampness, her azure eyes swollen with redness. "For some reason I put up with it last night, but I won't this morning, so let me leave with what little dignity I have left." She tried to forcefully push past him, but he was not budging. Instead, he circled her face with the palms of his hands, looking at her with an intensity that held something unfamiliar, some kind of understanding, perhaps.

"How could I have ignored the truth for so long?" he asked more to himself than the woman standing before him; horrified to realize his state of depression clouded what he knew in his heart, how close he may have come to letting her slip through his fingers.

"Let me go!" Bulma demanded as she pushed his hands away. She should have never allowed her anatomy to override her senses, now this man was experiencing full blown delusions, thinking she is his real mate. It seemed a cold slap of recognition was in order, "I have to get to my daughter, my two month old daughter, who I am sure is wailing to the heavens because you are keeping her from breakfast." She grasped an engorged breast for emphasis, the dampening of her shirt proof of her claim.

Taking an uncomfortable step back, Vegeta found himself faced with a consideration he had carefully ignored before this moment, the child. If this woman was truly his mate, then-then he was no longer the only man who shared a paternal connection with her. But two months old, that means the child would have to have been conceived not much more than a month after her death or resurrection, or whatever the hell happened to her in those following weeks.

But he knew his Bulma would never betray him, unless something was wrong with her mind. Is that it? Is that why this woman fails to recognize him? With her resurrection came some sort of damage to her memory?

So many questions he had to ask, the first one being about last night; but fate would not give him a chance, as Vegeta realized that while he was in his acute state of shock, his mate had disappeared from his chambers. "Damn it!" he hissed while thrusting his door open and scanning down the hall for the disappeared woman. When he registered no sign of her, he slammed his chamber doors, returning inside.

Though in hindsight he recognized that it was better she had left, giving him time to sort out his turbulent state of mind while she attended to her daughter. But he sure as hell was not going to leave this alone for long. Atae and Bulma had to be one in the same person. He did not know how that was possible, but he was beginning to believe it. She had his mark, she felt the same, and the most flagrant of proofs, her tomb was empty. He just had to fill in all the pieces before he could confront her with what he was sure she would think a desperate attempt by a widower to reclaim the happiness he had with the woman he loved. But Vegeta would prove her wrong. No fantasy could ever be so vivid, so deceptive that he could forget his true mate. He just had to prove it.

Grabbing his discarded clothes from the evening before, Vegeta redressed and left to seek out his colleague. If anyone could help him solve this impossibility, it was Garock. He only hoped the old man would not be as disinclined to believe him as Bulma had been.

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"That's a good girl, Mommy is sorry she kept you waiting so long," Bulma had rushed to her daughter's side the moment she returned, ignoring the barrage of angered questions Radditz had thrown at her as she finally arrived. "Keep your voice down; you're scaring her," Bulma hissed at her believed mate as she watched him pacing back and forth across the room. He was angry, of course, but she would not have expected any less. She had been out all night. What was he supposed to insinuate besides the obvious?

"Where have you been, Atae?" His tone was softer as she requested, but nonetheless incensed.

"Go fetch Garock, so after I finish feeding Bra we may have some privacy. I will explain everything to you then." She had to tell him the truth. If any sort of trust was ever to be reestablished between them, she had to confess her indiscretion and hope for his forgiveness.

Time seemed to drag on as Radditz, against his better judgment, left to do as she had asked. Once he returned, a very confused Garock accepted the task of watching their daughter for an hour while they hashed out whatever skirmish was clearly brewing between them. Though the elderly man had his suspicions this dispute had something to do with Vegeta and the evening he had planned with this woman, he voiced none of his curiosity as he exited the room. He had a meeting with Trunks he was now late for, due to this misdirection.

The moment the door clicked closed, Radditz's eyes turned deadly as they landed on Bulma. Flaring his nostrils, he approached her slowly. "You have Vegeta's scent on you." He stopped just barely a foot in front of her. "You preach to me, just yesterday, about how you are not ready to couple and then you go and fuck a total stranger!" His voice was loud, very loud; anger was oozing from his every pore. She had slept with Vegeta. Not a single damn memory of the bastard and she still falls into bed with him, while he has spent months trying to woo her and nothing!

"I am not proud of what I did," she offered in a soft voice, her head lowered in shame. "I can not explain what happened, I can not justify it, and I can not change it. All I can tell you is that I am sorry for hurting you, and assure you it won't happen again."

"You're damn right it won't," he grabbed her arm, and for the first time since they began living together, he manhandled her. Dragging her into the bathroom, he just short of threw her into the shower, turning the water on and ordering, "scrub yourself until every last morsel of that bastard is off your skin and when you are done," he trapped her body between his oppressive arms as he whispered huskily, "you, Atae, are going to crawl into my bed and give me what you whorishly gave Vegeta last night." He roughly pressed his lips against hers. There was no gentility in his kiss like there was last night; this was purely primal, punishing in its intent.

When he finally pulled away, Bulma lifted her hand to slap him, but he dodged it easily. "You can not force me to sleep with you," she slammed her hand against the nozzle so that she did not have to fight the water pressure to see his face. "You know, for someone who had an affair of his own yesterday, you are acting awfully high and mighty! Damn it, Radditz, I made a mistake, just like you did! You have no right to refuse me forgiveness when I gave it to you yesterday!"

"That's what this is about!?" He belted out a harsh laugh. "You had an affair to get back at me for fucking Keila?"

"No!" She was screaming at the top of her lungs, "I had an affair because I wanted to! Because I am attracted to Vegeta, and-"

"And not to me," he concluded her thought just above a whisper, the hard reality of what was lacking between them painfully clear.

"Radditz, I am so sorry." Sorry for allowing it to be admitted, not for feeling the way she did, he felt certain. The consequences of bringing her here, seeing Vegeta and her son, was a fear he had overlooked in his pursuit of vengeance. Ignoring the possibility that the pull their bond held would be stronger than the months of work he had put into making her love him as she thought she did Vegeta, it seemed his effort was all for naught. Vegeta's claws were too deeply entrenched into her flesh. His only hope of breaking the spell was to kill him, and kill him he must. "Radditz, where are you going?" Bulma screamed after him as he exited the bathroom and stopped at the entrance to their chambers. "Please, do not do anything rash." It was insane that she was worried about Vegeta's safety, but she was. She did not want him to suffer because of her weakness.

"He has to die, Atae. It is the only way I can have you all to myself," half insanely he confessed, no longer rational enough to try and keep his cover well protected. All he could see in his blind rage was Vegeta, with his mate, in bed together. His ki flared in fury.

"No, he does not, Radditz." She hastened to reach him, grabbing his arm, trying to look into his eyes, estimating his reaction. "We can leave tonight, and never return. Please, Radditz, let us just forget all of this; Keila, Vegeta, and start over again. We have a child together, we have to fix this!" How, she did not know, but she had to stay with Radditz. He loved her for who she was, not because he thought she was his dead mate. The realization of her bitterness suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks. Why did she care if Vegeta wanted her for herself? He was not her mate, Radditz was. It is Radditz she loves. So why does she feel so empty with him? Why did she have to now know Vegeta's touch and how pathetic it now makes Radditz's feel. Her entire world was falling apart, and just after she finally found some stability. She had to set this right, but violence was not going to be the means of doing it.

"You do not understand, Atae, I am doing this so we can be together. It's the only way," he briefly kissed her on the forehead before exiting the room. He should have anticipated the affair, but he did not, so he will take the full blame for her indiscretion. He should have never brought her here in the first place, but he was going to rectify that now. Once Vegeta was dead, nothing would stand in the way of their being together, nothing.

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"How did you discover this?" Vegeta asked, thoroughly dazed by the shocking deductions his son had made. When he had left his chambers to seek out Garock, he had been led to the science wing, only to find Trunks had been working diligently to prove what Vegeta had not believed until this morning.

"I may have broken into Radditz's ship and searched his private computer," Trunks offered nonchalantly as he shrugged his shoulders, "and then had the data analyzed to see if there was any validity to it."

"And is there?" Vegeta had to know. If this planet Namek and this mystical dragon are real, then Bulma and Atae could actually, may the gods forbid he let himself hope, be one and the same person; making all the bizarre similarities between this mystery woman and Bulma, finally make sense.

With a long nod, Trunks pointed to a computer console, "a fleet arrived just an hour ago. The planet Namek is real, now they just have to find this dragon to prove the myth, is not really a myth." Proud of his work, Trunks waited for praise from his father, but all he received was a blank stare. Clearly he was having a hard time accepting this. "You do not believe me, do you?"

It took Vegeta several moments to register the question before he shook his head, a mixture of absolute elation, and infuriation of this deception quaking through his veins. "Quite the contrary, I am now more sure than ever that Atae is your mother. We just have to prove it."

Ready to ask what had suddenly changed his father's mind on the subject, after having been so adamant about not considering Atae was his mother, Trunks abruptly found his attention redirected as Garock strolled into the science lab, with unexpected cargo in his arms. "Sorry I am late," Garock apologized to Trunks before he realized Vegeta was present as well. "Sir, w-what are you doing at this end of the castle so early in the morning?" The data was still too incomplete for Vegeta to be told, but it seemed Trunks had jumped the gun in telling him anyway, impatient boy.

"I told him all about Namek; he thinks Atae is Mom, too!!" Trunks smiled in excitement as he reached up to touch the girl's hand in greeting. He froze mid-grasp as he realized she was a part of the equation he had not considered. If Atae was his Mom, then Bra was his sister, but only his half sister. Unless… Trunks' eyes roamed over to Bra as he watched the young girl staring at his father with a toothless smile on her face, her hands clapping in excitement. She seemed ecstatic to see him, almost drawn to him, perhaps? He could not help but wonder…

"What are you doing with her?" Vegeta asked Garock, oblivious to the wheels spinning frantically in his son's mind.

"Radditz found me, wanted me to watch her while he and Atae had some time alone to argue. At least that is what I assumed in consideration of their volatile emotions." He gave Vegeta a hard look, clearly curious about how much this man knew about their quarrel.

"I should go make certain she is all right," Vegeta instinctively offered. If Radditz had smelled his scent on Bulma when she returned to their chambers, then he would have known they had slept together. And if Vegeta recalled the second class's temper, the bastard practiced no holds barred when he was enraged. Neither men, nor women, nor children were spared. Clearly it was from that foresight that Bulma had ordered Bra be sent away, not to be exposed to the dangerous confrontation.

"Dad, wait!!" Trunks grabbed his father's arm before he could leave.

"Not now, Trunks," Vegeta tried again to leave, but his son blocked his path a second time.

"Look, I need a sample of your hair before you go." He did not allow his father a chance to object as Trunks used his ki to clip off a few strands of his black mop. Taking the clipping, he securely tucked it into his pocket as he turned his attention to the child in Garock's arms.

"What the hell is wrong with you, boy?" Vegeta snapped as he fanned the smoke from his hair out. He could not afford to lose any of his mane, did the boy not know a pure Saiya-jin's hair does not grow back!?!

"Sorry Dad, but I need it for a little test." He flew up to, without asking, take Bra from Garock's arms and then headed off to find Euran, promising he'd be back in a 'little bit.' Deciding to question his son's odd behavior at a later date, Vegeta focused himself on finding Bulma to make certain her false mate was not abusing her. "Garock, come with me," the pair headed towards the chambers Radditz and 'Atae' had been given. There would be hell to pay if he found so much as a hair out of place on the blue haired beauty.

Not more than a few corridors away, Vegeta and Garock stopped cold in their tracks as they came face to face with their clearly enraged target, only he was not as they had expected to see him. His hair was a golden blond, and his eyes were a deep emerald as he chanted cyclically, "Kyousou Netoru, Vegeta; Imaima!"

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Translations: Kyousou Netoru - Contest to Steal Another's Mate

Imaima - Right Now

Author's Note: Hmmm… Looks like Vegeta and Radditz are not going to wait the rest of the week for their Kyousou Netoru. Who will be victorious? And what about the 'test' Trunks wants to run, what will the results be? Then there is the fleet on Namek, what will they learn about the dragon?? Oh, so much to deal with! Next chapter in a few…