Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend Of the Bond ❯ Breaking away ( Chapter 25 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Tennyo_elf 
Beta version by Hollyberry!
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.28.2007 | Pages: 4 | Words: 8.1K | Visits: 1.1K | Status: Completed
Beta version by Hollyberry!
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.28.2007 | Pages: 4 | Words: 8.1K | Visits: 1.1K | Status: Completed
A large ship plunged into the hostile atmosphere of an unsuspecting planet. The damage done to the ship and the rate of speed at which it hit the atmosphere caused it to disintegrate upon impact. Colors of red, yellow, and blue filled space, covering the planet, and a blinding light poured out from the doomed vessel in violent waves. Chimo didn’t blink an eye at the spectacle below; instead, he flew through space in his specialized gear, trying desperately to avoid one of Freeza’s soldiers. Many of the rebellion fighters were out in open space fighting one-on-one, while smaller ships battled other vessels of similar size, and the larger ships observed the smaller skirmishes from a distance.
Not too long ago when this particular battle began, Chimo’s and Captain Fukusa’s fleets, filled mostly with Saiya-jins, paired up temporarily with Vegeta’s fleet while the prince was off battling Dodoria. During that time, Chimo and Bardock planned out and executed a surprise attack on Freeza’s third largest fleet and so far they were winning. Freeza’s fleet was taking on too many casualties and was slowly losing ship-by-ship. As Chimo rounded a nearby floating piece of debris, he suddenly came back into his enemy’s line of vision, but Chimo quickly blasted his pursuer, killing him on contact.
Their combined battle plan had gone off almost too easily, thanks to the false-ki level devices Bulma had devised for them. In fact, they had performed better than anyone had expected. What Freeza’s fleet had initially believed to be an easy win became increasingly difficult. For those who went up against a rebellion warrior and soon found their opponent’s ki impossibly strong, usually turned coward and ran, and once they decided to run, they were dead. The kill-switch device from Bulma also saved many rebellion forces’ lives, for the armor Freeza’s soldiers wore were also created by Bulma. As soon as Chimo flipped the switch, the protective programming within their enemies’ armor became useless.
Unlike Chimo, Bardock didn’t run from any enemy, but took on each with brute strength and stamina. Bardock glanced to the side and saw Seripa having a bit of trouble, but he returned his focus on the enemy in front of him. He knew the rebellion was also taking its share of casualties, but overall, Freeza’s fleet was losing badly, which was for the best. Just as Bardock shot a few blasts at two enemy soldiers and kicked an oncoming attacker, did he see yet another ship crash onto the nearby planet, which had recently been purged.
Chimo was again flying as fast as he could from another attacker. He wasn’t as strong as the Saiya-jins and couldn’t afford to stand and fight like they could. He was trained to be a tactical fighter and only thought to do just that. This time, the enemy wasn’t as weak as the others and had gotten a direct hit on Chimo’s leg, wounding him quite badly. He quickly retaliated with a Kaioken followed by a Shunkaido. Using the last bit of stamina he had left, Chimo teleported behind his enemy and stabbed the fighter in the back using a ki-like sword. Chimo watched with grim satisfaction as his enemy died, coughing up blood until he moved no more, becoming a still form, his body floating lifelessly in space. Once his enemy stopped moving, Chimo glanced over at Bardock, who was also hovering nearby.
The Saiya-jin looked to be remarkably fresh and full of energy. Chimo sighed and shook his head, knowing he could never be like a Saiya-jin. Given the severity of his injury, he didn’t know how much longer he could last. Suddenly, every person fighting heard a loud and blinding explosion. The sound was paralyzing and fearsome and no one knew what it was. Like everyone else, Chimo tried to look towards the source of the light, but it was too blinding to see and he had to look away momentarily until the brightness faded a bit. Fortunately, the spectacle was over with quickly. When he finally opened his eyes, Bardock was floating beside him, smiling proudly.
The last of Freeza’s third and most powerful space fleet had been destroyed and every one of its soldiers had been slaughtered. Chimo heard Seripa’s shout of laughter and he turned his head to see her clapping her hands and raising her arms in triumph. Soon all the Saiya-jins warriors were doing the same. A few of the non-Saiya-jins joined them in their victory ritual, but Chimo couldn’t. It was too much to take in right after such a bloody battle and he felt too numb. Perhaps somewhere, deep within his essence, he had hoped to perish today.
**********
Wearing a grim expression on his handsome face, King Vegeta stood silently at the head of the bridge on the largest vessel of the Saiya-jin space fleet, a flagship made solely for battle. No one knew what he was thinking and no one dared to ask, but all on board agreed that the king seemed different; he wasn’t boasting, nor was he acting like his normally proud self. Some speculated that perhaps it was because the prince’s open defiance had cost the king all of his good graces with Lord Freeza.
However, one person on the flagship, who had been punished for his services to the prince, felt much differently that the rest. Kabba was certain that King Vegeta was thinking about his only son, and the fact Prince Vegeta had not confided in him, never telling his father about the Bond, the rebellion, or anything else for that matter. Kabba knew the king cared for his son, but like all kings, he had to put the welfare of his people before his own needs, and in order to keep his people safe, he might have to lose his son. Somewhere, within the king’s silence, Kabba could sense him already mourning the loss of the prince.
A tall Saiya-jin came forward and bowed deeply before the king. He waited for the king to acknowledge him before he spoke. When the king turned his head slightly in his direction, the messenger spoke:
“Your Majesty, I have received a message from Lord Freeza. We are to meet up with him at these coordinates in four months. According to the message, they are anticipating the use of a certain battle tactic by the rebellion at that time.” The Saiya-jin then held up a tablet for the king.
King Vegeta took the tablet and scanned the contents. Once he saw the coordinates, his eyes narrowed. “This system?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The tone of the messenger’s voice was formal and full of respect.
“Fine, forward this information to the navigator and set course to this star system. On the way, should we encounter any battles in progress, we will stop and provide assistance. I want Lord Freeza to know how loyal we Saiya-jins are.” There was a slight sarcastic undertone to the king’s voice, but no one paid it any attention.
“Right away, Your Majesty!” The Saiya-jin took back the tablet with a deep bow and left the king’s presence still bowing.
When the Saiya-jin fleet began its course, Kabba knew that his time would soon come to an end. He knew that the prince would be the Legendary and defeat all who opposed him, even his own father. He leaned back and closed his eyes, not wanting to watch the stars as they raced past him outside his cell window. Instead, Kabba gave a small prayer, thanking Kami for allowing him to have been at the service of one of the greatest Saiya-jins to have ever lived.
**********
Vegeta strode powerfully into the bridge of his fleet’s command vessel while scratching feverishly at his wrist. Knowing the itch came from the Bond, he dismissed it, while keeping his eyes on the people looking back at him. Kakarotto followed closely behind Vegeta, grinning sheepishly. Bardock returned his prince’s severe look with a proud smirk and gave a quick satisfied nod to his son. Vegeta’s stern frown had been carved onto his face ever since he had heard Dodoria’s mocking words about Bulma. Still thinking about that, he could not return any pleased expressions to his soldiers, not even to Bardock. When everyone had acknowledged Vegeta’s presence, he walked up to Bardock with his head held high.
“Congratulations on your victory, Prince Vegeta!” Bardock’s voice was brimming with triumph.
“Dodoria wasn’t even worth fighting. His troops were harder to kill only because the cowards kept running from us and we had to waste time chasing down all of them.” Vegeta’s voice held a hint of humor. “Well done on your own victory, Bardock. Our continued successes only prove that we Saiya-jins are undoubtedly the strongest warriors in the universe.” Vegeta paused. “What is the current status of our allies’ fleets?” he asked, having heard earlier that Fukusa’s fleet had already left to continue the battle with some of Freeza’s smaller fleets. “Where is Chimo’s fleet?”
“Chimo’s group has just departed to prepare for their next battle, although we will rendezvous with them in two months.”
“Hmmph. At least they will be gone for two months.” Vegeta’s previously jovial tone was now dripping with venom. His shaky friendship with Chimo had frayed dangerously over time ever since the alien had refused to go back for Bulma. “I’m going to train. Search out the location of Freeza’s main fleet and set a course for it.”
“As you command, Your Highness.” Bardock gave the prince a respectful bow as Vegeta began to walk off the bridge, then looked over at his tall son.
Kakarotto waved to his father and gave him a goofy grin. “Hiya, Dad!” His father only responded with a quick, exasperated look before turning around to resume his command of the ship.
Kakarotto seized this opportunity to escape the bridge and his father’s disapproving looks and raced after Vegeta, knowing exactly where his prince was heading. In between battles, Vegeta spent as much time as he could, training in the “GR”, which Kakarotto thought was amazing. Bulma’s ability to invent wonderful and strange gadgets had never ceased to surprise him, and he always thought that his prince was lucky to have such a woman as his wife. As soon as he saw Vegeta’s form in the far end of the hallway, he quickly yelled out:
“Prince Vegeta!”
Vegeta stopped and slowly turned to face his only friend, something to which he’d never admit to anyone, and the only reason he bothered to stop. He didn’t say anything, but waited until Kakarotto caught up to him.
As soon as the taller Saiya-jin got to his prince’s side, he paused for a cautious moment, but his question came tumbling out anyway. “Back there you sounded really upset with Chimo. Why? I thought you two were friends!”
Vegeta’s face darkened into an unshakable scowl. “That weakling is a coward! Never talk about him in my presence ever again or I will personally hand feed your sorry carcass to the nearest black hole! And never refer to him as my friend! I have no friends.”
The prince’s angry declaration puzzled Kakarotto as he thought about his own training with the Godan-jin and how he had become friendly with him. And then he realized what the true reason for Vegeta’s dislike of Chimo was. “But, Prince Vegeta, he couldn’t return for Bulma! Her ki was too weak to detect with Shunkaido and she was in the middle of Freeza’s main ship, surrounded by much stronger ki’s than hers!”
“I do not care what his pathetic excuses are! One more word about him and I swear to Kami that I will make good on every threat I have ever bestowed upon you!” Vegeta turned his face away from Kakarotto, trying his best to suppress his growing anger about the whole matter with Chimo.
Not wanting to aggravate the prince any further, Kakarotto wisely dropped the discussion of that particular subject for the time being. After a few tense seconds passed, he said slowly, “Well…I guess…okay…then. Umm…do you want to spar?”
Vegeta raised an eyebrow and twisted his head slowly to look up at Kakarotto’s hopeful and inquisitive face. The idea of a spar raised his mood slightly; no doubt beating the living daylights out of his fellow companion would help free him from his dark and troubling thoughts. “Prepare to be beaten, Kakarotto,” he replied with a smirk.
*********
Luckily, the “GR” held together while Vegeta and Kakarotto fought. Hours upon hours would pass before either of them became exhausted enough to call an end to their sparring session. Vegeta had the upper hand the entire time, although every so often, the idiotic Saiya-jin’s strength spiraled up so high and so fast that it bewildered him. As they fought, Vegeta kept thinking that, had they both existed in another universe, Kakarotto might’ve even been the stronger one, and that idea greatly unsettled him – he, whose pride demanded that he be the best in any universe.
During the last hour of their fight, Vegeta began to feel feverish and dizzy. As he started rapidly firing ki blasts at Kakarotto, his eyes betrayed him and his vision became hazy. Then he felt the ground coming closer, while the area around him shifted again like it had done in the past. When his vision cleared a bit, he was still battling Kakarotto, but now they were mortal enemies. Somewhere to the side, he felt the presence of another enemy. Suddenly, Kakarotto vanished, and the other opponent – a short, bald man, wearing an orange gi – appeared and began to trade blows with him. In mid-punch, the air shifted again, and the strange short man, wearing the same orange gi, stood grinning back at him in a welcoming way, as though he was now Vegeta’s ally and no longer his enemy. The other was saying something to an equally friendly-looking Kakarotto, while both of his hands held onto a large golden ball, which had a few red stars floating in the middle of it. Vegeta couldn’t make out what either was saying, but he did catch two words: dragon ball.
The vision shifted once more, and he saw Bulma, crawling in desperate haste to get away from him; her eyes looking straight at him, not filled with love but with a deathly fear of him. He tried to stop himself as he tried to reach out to her, but the vision ended and he was pulled back to reality. It was then when a ki blast hit him squarely on in the face, slamming his body onto the metal floor of the “GR”. Almost immediately, the gravity in the room was turned to its normal level. Although he tried, Vegeta was could hardly lift any part of his body and he could feel blood pouring from his limbs.
“Are you okay, Prince Vegeta?” Kakarotto asked as he kneeled beside him, but Vegeta pushed away his help rather roughly. His companion pulled back a bit, concerned and uncertain how to help his prince.
“Tch, I’m perfectly fine. I don’t need your help.” Gritting his teeth against the pain, Vegeta pushed himself up, one hand clenching the wound that draped across his chest.
“Perhaps I should take you to the medical wing?” It was the only thing Kakarotto could suggest at the moment.
“I said I’m perfectly well! I am the Prince of the Saiya-jins. To me, this is just a small scratch.” Vegeta slowly stood, wobbling and nearly falling again from the pain and dizziness. Kakarotto also stood up and watched as Vegeta began walking rather unsteadily to the stairs that led to the lower sleeping compartment. Kakarotto’s usually cheery face grew heavy with concern and confusion. “Leave, you're just getting in the way of my training!”
“But –”
“I SAID ‘LEAVE!’ ” His sharp words cut the air, startling the taller Saiya-jin, as Vegeta turned to glare sternly at his companion.
“Yes, Your Highness,” Kakarotto said, looking rather hurt by the prince’s dismissal. He bowed and began to leave, glancing over his shoulder a few times, watching as Vegeta unevenly progressed on his way again. He was very worried about his prince, but he realized that he could do nothing for him.
As worn-out as he was, Vegeta knew better than to attempt going to the medical wing during wartime. He knew how perilous it was to show any kind of weakness to the crew or the few people that remained loyal to him. He had to stand strong, to show that nothing could hurt him. Vegeta knew he was hurt, so he went to the place Bulma had created for him if such an incident ever happened. In the very bottom level of the “GR” was a medical supply room with everything he might need to address any injuries, even a small rejuvenation tank. Once he reached the room, Vegeta struggled to get into the small tank, but once in, he let the machine’s automatic programming take over. He would rest and tomorrow, if no battle awaited him, he would train again, even harder. He hoped to battle Zarbon soon, if only to rid himself of the nightmare of Bulma strapped beneath the ugly blue creature. The sudden remembrance of the vision of Bulma, fearing him, caused Vegeta to stir. He also wanted to rid himself of that as well. Only if he could see her, touch her, to let her know, he was on her side.
**********
As he sat in his command chair on the bridge, Freeza gnashed his teeth together. His upset growls were punctuated by static from his metal body. He hated hearing the same thing over and over again and now this latest news took the Sado-jin cake! His third largest fleet, the one that did his most important patrolling, had been defeated. Quickly standing, he blasted the nearest person he could see and began to pace around the bridge. He had no one to turn to. Gero had killed his father and brother and the number of remaining allies was growing dangerously thin. In two months, he was supposed to drop the twins off, further delaying the pleasure of destroying Vegeta-sei because he had to deal with this as well. No doubt Gero still wanted Vegeta brought to him or else he would carry out his threat to take over Freeza’s seat as High Emperor.
“If only that bitch would hurry and finish that damned body, I could be rid of those two nuisances!” Freeza’s outburst caused everyone on the bridge to look back at him in startled surprise, but he didn’t pay them any heed. He knew that in two months, he would have his ultimate suit and have all his dreams become a reality, including killing Gero.
From the side, Zarbon watched sadly as his lord ranted and raved. As far as Bulma was concerned, his carefully laid plans to blackmail her when her time was up would not likely come to fruition. He would have to settle for seducing her just to taste her and that would probably be it. He would have to settle for less, but no matter. Tonight, when I am alone with her, I will begin to slowly seduce her, like I had originally planned, he sighed, giving her my fullest attentions. Zarbon gave a small smirk, his thoughts filled by what he would do to his captive once he got her to fall for his charms. Unfortunately, he knew he wouldn’t have her tonight, but it would set the stage for a marvelous and sexually satisfying relationship for as long as she could last. But once she was dead, which was sadly inevitable, he would have to seek out a new playmate.
**********
In her room-like cell, Bulma tried to settle her jittery nerves by breathing steadily. Not too long ago, she had begun to show. Her belly sticking out further and further reminded her everyday why she had to escape. One way that stuck in her mind was to fight her way out, but she was hardly in any condition to fight anyone.
Two months ago, she noted that Zarbon had started to come to visit her around about twice a week. In any other situation, she might’ve believed that he was almost courting her attentions. She also suspected that he wasn’t trying to get close to her without a reason, but she felt she had to play along anyway. However, once she began to show, she did her best to hide her pregnancy from him by wearing looser clothing. Luckily, she could still wear the Saiya-jin armor Vegeta had given to her. Bulma tried not to think of her husband since learning about the true meaning of the Bond, afraid that he had used her, that the love she had felt from him had been a lie and that the child inside her was a result of that lie. Regardless, today was the day she planned to escape and if she failed, it was the life of her baby that was at risk.
Steeling herself with a deep breath, Bulma walked to her door. Before opening it, she glanced over her shoulder at the trap she had set behind her. Knowing she had only a few precious minutes once she left the room, Bulma quickly slipped on the ki disrupters, fitting them right over her hand and fingers then rushed through the sliding doors. As they had received direct orders that she was no longer allowed out of her room, her guards immediately stopped her. They stood in front of her like a muscular wall, not letting her take another step. With a sweet smile, she extended a hand towards each of them. Within moments of contact, the two fell to the floor with a large thud as her invention did its job. Bulma ignored the fallen guards and began to race down the corridors.
As the walls of those cold metal corridors rushed by her in a blur, Bulma held her stomach while she ran. Eventually, her old stamina came back to her. She soared down many different passage ways, turning corners so fast that she almost slipped a couple of times. She received a few odd looks from unknowing loiterers as she ran past them, but more then once she had to face a few soldiers that knew of her and her prisoner status, though they too dropped like flies as soon as Bulma touched them. She continued running and fighting her way to the pod docking bay. When she flew hard around the last corner, she lost her footing, slipping to the point where she had to place a hand on the floor.
Stopping for a moment to regain her lost balance, Bulma stood up only to freeze in her tracks, her eyes slowly widening with disbelief. She openly stared at the two people before her, unable to think. Remaining quiet, the two stared back at her in equal, unmoving surprise.
**********
Two months had barely passed since the first encounters with the rebellion’s forces. Freeza’s main fleet, having taken on its own troubling share of damages, was making its way back towards the planet on which Gero had been happily making himself at home. Eager to see their master, the twins instructed a none-too-happy Freeza to set course for the planet a few days ahead of schedule. For once, everything was quiet on the ship, nothing stirred. Freeza sat dejectedly on the bridge, counting the days until Bulma’s time was up and his new reign would begin. Zarbon relished his night time with Bulma, believing that her resolve was beginning to break. Unfortunately, he had yet to sleep with her and was getting impatient; although as soon as Freeza called for her death, he would take her anyway. The more time passed, the less it mattered to Zarbon how Bulma would eventually come to him, willing or not. Lately, he had become even more disappointed by her hiding her lovely curves under thicker clothes and hardly allowing him to touch her.
Picking his teeth in boredom, Zarbon wanted to do nothing more than go off and move this annoyingly slow war into a faster gear. Since the fighting began, all remaining purging assignments had been put on complete hold for the time being. This was unfortunate situation as they were so close to realizing the dream that had been in the planning by the Cold Empire for years. When he heard the alarm go off on the bridge, Zarbon came to immediate attention, anxious to take care of the problem, if only to relieve his boredom.
“Lord Freeza! Lord Zarbon!” one unfortunate soldier yelled out seconds after the alarm rang. “The prisoner Bulma has escaped!”
Surprised at the news, Freeza jumped from his chair and stood quickly, anger clear on his face. “WHAT?!”
Zarbon turned to Freeza without hesitation and said, “Let me handle this, Lord Freeza.”
Too furious to care, Freeza turned and walked to the nearest port window. “Do what you like! I don’t care what happens to the girl.”
With that, Zarbon dashed off the bridge and headed to capture his little runaway. He held too much joy for words. His long-awaited day with the woman he had desired far too long was going to become real.
**********
Bulma couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her mouth agape, she almost struggled for words. “You two are Chikyuu-jin!”
The twins nodded. Juuhachigo was the first to speak, feeling comfortable with a fellow female. “So, Freeza was indeed hiding you from us.”
”And you’re a ‘her’, not a ‘him’,” Juunanago smirked.
“Tch, lucky for you, Brother,” Juuhachigo observed with a slight frown, “she’s good-looking, too.”
Bulma had a feeling Freeza already knew of her escape, so she said to the siblings, “Look, I’m sorry to rain on your parade but do either of you know where the pod docking bay is?”
The twins glanced at each other then back at Bulma, who was silently praying that the two before her would sympathize with her because they shared the same human DNA. “You’re escaping?” Juuhachigo’s inquiring voice was soft.
“Yes, do you want to join me?” Bulmam offered. She wanted to help her fellow Chikyuu-jins get away from the real reason behind their planet’s destruction.
“Sorry, we can’t join you. We have unfinished business,” Juunanago said with a smirk. “It’s something that we plan to take care of – very soon.” At his polite refusal, Bulma looked disappointed. She wished to know more about these two, but she too had other priorities to think about.
Juuhachigo pushed her blonde hair behind her ear and spoke playfully, “Well, if you’re lost, we’ll gladly take you to the pods. Follow us.” Juuhachigo began to walk away, while Juunanago smirked at Bulma then followed his sister. Bulma didn’t think twice about trusting them and went after the two. Luckily, her target goal wasn’t that far away, but Bulma was surprised that no one bothered them as they walked casually towards the pod area. In fact, everyone the twins passed looked terrified to see them. Curious, but worried more about other things, Bulma continued to follow the siblings until they reached their destination.
When the three arrived at the pod docking bay, the twins didn’t waste time and had the workers clear out. Afterwards, when they had the bay to themselves, the siblings walked to a nearby wall and leaned against it. They watched with interest and amusement while Bulma connected her little radar disabler onto one of the pods. Feeling somewhat safe with the twins nearby, she worked as fast as she could. As involved in her task as she was, she wasn’t concerned as to why they were watching her so closely or even why two Chikyuu-jins had so much power on Freeza’s ship.
As she was beginning to disable the locking pad on the pod and launch tray, she caught a glimpse of an unwelcome sight walking slowly into the docking bay, which made her drop her tool. The loud clank of it hitting the floor made the twins look over at the person that had just arrived seconds ago. Despair flooded throughout Bulma’s body and fear caused her to shake. Her baby was almost as good as dead with the way things were going. In a surprise move, the twins stepped between the fearful Bulma and the uninvited guest.
“I don’t think so, Zarbon.” Juuhachigo’s voice was stern.
Zarbon’s fake smile was easy to see through. “Oh, but can’t I say good-bye to my lover?”
“You can say good-bye from there.” Juunanago folded his arms and looked annoyed.
Zarbon took a few steps closer as he spoke, being cautious around the twins. “But can I not even kiss her goodbye?”
“Ask her yourself if that’s what she wants,” Juuhachigo said with a pointed smirk. Zarbon’s lies were pitiful.
As anger began to flow in her blood, Bulma’s face turned from fearful to scowling to shocked realization. Now, she understood the situation. These twins held more power than even Zarbon! She didn’t know why they were helping her, but she didn’t care. As long as she could get away, then that’s all that mattered. “FUCK OFF, you pervert!” Bulma shouted at Zarbon, pleased that her words were making him angry. She grinned at the twins then turned around to resume working on her pod. “You’re not that good-looking anyway!” she added over her shoulder.
Any bland sweetness that been in Zarbon’s face a moment ago was definitely gone now. “Fine, Bulma, you try and escape me. It won’t be long until I follow you and when I do catch up to you, it’ll be one hell of a ride!”
Suspecting that Zarbon would try and pull a stunt such as that, Bulma completed her last few adjustments and climbed into the pod. “Oh, well,” she said, as she sat into the seat and faced her captor, “try and catch me!” Zarbon clenched his fists and looked furious, but Bulma onloy smiled back at him. Just before the pod hatch closed, she spoke a few last words to the twins. “Goodbye and thanks for your help, guys!" Just then, curiosity overcame her and she began to ask, “Oh…and why do you work for Freeza? He was the one –” But the pod hatch suddenly closed and cut off the rest of her question.
The twins looked at each other for a puzzled moment, wondering what her last words meant. Seconds later, Bulma’s pod shot into space, accelerating to speeds that were unheard-of for a pod. Trying desperately to get control of her vessel, Bulma frantically punched in random coordinates, not even knowing where she might be traveling.
Back in the pod docking bay, Zarbon immediately ran towards a nearby pod, but again the twins blocked him.
Juunanago in particular was enjoying tormenting Zarbon. “Oh no, you don’t.”
Grinding his teeth in frustration, Zarbon instead flew towards a control panel and contacted the bridge. This time, the twins didn’t stop him; instead, they stood where they were, watching Zarbon’s agitated motions with lazy, all-knowing smiles on their faces. Listening while he attempted to explain away his failure to capture Bulma was providing them with much entertainment. A couple seconds later, however, they both began to wonder about what the blue-haired Chikyuu-jin had been trying to say to them right before she took off. The unanswered questions they now had soured their mood. The two walked off leaving the panicked blue-boy behind in the pod bay.
**********
Freeza slammed his cybernetic tail on the floor of his bridge several times, furious from what he was hearing from Zarbon. He couldn’t allow that girl to escape his grasp or else all of his waiting and scheming would be for nothing. Without his enhanced body, his plans would be destroyed. Unfortunately, the girl was too valuable at this moment. Her skills were crucial for the success of destroying both Vegeta and his accursed forces that were slowly chipping away at Freeza’s vast fleet. Then there was also the issue of power; and even now those interfering twins and Gero held too much of it. If the girl did happen to get away, there would only remain one chance available to Freeza to crush Vegeta’s rebellion. And that chance was still two months away. With this in mind, he tried to regain his composure, but failed. Clenching his fists tighter, Freeza decided he only had one viable option left: he would have to kill her now and hope that she had completed enough of his new body so that he could deal with Gero.
“Fire at the escaping pod!” he commanded.
Immediately, one soldier turned and bowed to Freeza. “Lord Freeza, the ship’s scanners have been trying to track the pod ever since it launched from the docking bay, but we have been unable to pick up its signal.”
“You will find a way to locate and destroy that pod! That’s an order!” Freeza shouted back at the cringing soldier, who rushed back to his console in order to not get blasted. At this point, his ruler was probably only a hair’s breath away from blowing his ship into pieces just out of sheer spite. But Freeza had more pressing matters on his mind. “Zarbon, meet me and our top engineer at the girl’s cell.”
Zarbon’s voice rang clear on the intercom. “Yes, Lord Freeza, I will head there now.”
Freeza turned his back on the frantic activity swirling around the bridge and stormed off to meet with Zarbon at Bulma’s cell. It didn’t make him any happier to see that his worries had been justified, that if the twins ever met up with another Chikyuu-jin that something such as this would happen. Those damned Chikyuu-jins did indeed seem to stick together. Once he arrived at the girl’s cell, he gave the approaching Zarbon a sharp, disapproving glare. Right behind Zarbon was a small, pathetic-looking creature that he recognized as his top engineer. Without saying a word to either of them, Freeza opened the door and quickly stepped into the cell. Moving from one side of the room to the other, he poked around anxiously, looking for anything resembling his new body. Hearing a soft beeping sound coming from a corner, he moved towards the sound and found a hastily made, human-sized puppet, holding a sign that read “The joke’s on you, asshole!” Freeza, Zarbon, and the engineer stared at the puppet in complete shock. Next to the puppet sat an illuminated digital counter with its display counting down in hundredths of a second beginning from “3”. A couple of beeps later, the counter reached zero. The resulting large and very deadly explosion ripped through a third of Freeza’s flagship, leaving decimation in its wake.
**********
Scared to death that he had done something horrible to his wife, Kakarotto was pacing nervously left-to-right. She kept yelling his Chikyuu-jin name, “Goku,” over and over again, but his name kept being accompanied by several curses and few choice words that made his ears hurt. He really didn’t know what he had done to make her scream so many awful words, although he thought he had an idea. Perhaps he shouldn’t have touched her all those times. But it was too late now. With his whole body shaking from nerves, he glanced over at Prince Vegeta. The prince, who Kakarotto could see was clearly amused by his distress, had come more so out of curiosity than friendship. It was bad enough that Chi-Chi was in the other room in the medical wing screaming her head off, but what felt worse was that his prince was sitting there openly laughing at him. Not able to take it any longer, Kakarotto jumped up and burst into Chi-Chi’s room.
“Doc, is she okay?!” Kakarotto was caught off-guarded by what he saw. His wife was not only screaming and grunting, but she had her legs spread wide open, and something huge and slimy was coming out of her. The alien physician was positioned between Chi-Chi’s legs, his gloved hands outstretched to receive the emerging shiny round thing, but instead of giving his attention to that, the doctor was staring over at Kakarotto, surprised that he had barged in unannounced. As more of the huge round thing slid out of his wife, Kakarotto began to scream, “Uwaaaaaaa!”
In mid-scream, something forcibly jerked him back out of the room by his collar, and the door shut on Chi-Chi and the doctor. Thoroughly disturbed by what he’d just seen, Kakarotto spun around, his eyes pleading with his prince. “They’re killing her!”
“Shut up, Kakarotto! Your loud, obnoxious wife is giving birth. That is all.”
“I know, b-but it’s killing her! And it’ll be my fault if she dies from this! What will I do if she comes back from the dead to haunt me?!”
Vegeta sighed and rolled his eyes at Kakarotto’s ignorance. “Idiot, all births are similar to this. Of course there is going to be pain. I didn’t decide to take a few minutes’ break from my training to come and hear you scream idiotically.”
With that, Kakarotto calmed down slightly, but now his worry was tinted with a new fear. “She really is going to kill me after this.”
Vegeta laughed, “Now, that would be interesting to watch.”
Suddenly a small, high-pitched wail could be heard coming from other side of the door, a sound which was startling similar to Kakarotto’s earlier scream, causing both Saiya-jins to glance towards the medical room. Within seconds, the doctor burst elatedly through the doors, a large smile on his alien face.
“Congratulations, sir! It’s a male!”
A relieved and slightly stunned Kakarotto answered the doctor with a large smile of his own. He ran past the pleased doctor into the medical room, followed by a slower paced prince. Kakarotto went to stand beside his wife, who was cradling a small baby boy in her arms. Much to his relief, Chi-Chi was no longer screaming and cursing his name, but actually smiling at him. Kakarotto leaned in for a better look and noticed that a furry tail had curled around his son’s small body. Without saying a word, Chi-Chi held out the baby and Kakarotto carefully took the tiny boy into his arms. The shift momentarily disturbed the baby, who began to cry again, but Kakarotto only laughed at the sound.
His large heart was touched as he looked down at Chi-Chi’s beaming face. “Let’s name him Gohan,” he said, and his wife smiled and nodded back at him.
Prince Vegeta wasn’t there to hear the reply to the name suggested by Kakarotto, as he had left the new family almost immediately after seeing the child. He only wanted to see what a mixed-born would look like, to help answer his own curious and depressing questions regarding his own possible future children. Once he rescued Bulma from the clutches of his enemy, then he wouldn’t wait too long to build a family. He longed to share a tender moment similar to the one he witnessed only seconds ago with his own wife, but certainly their offspring would be much better-looking than Kakarotto’s. Smirking, Vegeta began to walk back towards the “GR”, only allowing hopeful thoughts to enter his mind.
**********
Bulma had been knocked out completely during her trip. The speed at which she had traveled had been too fast for her and, after typing in the coordinates, the resulting g-forces caused her to pass out. Before losing consciousness, she protectively cradled her rounded belly, which had grown noticeable in the last four months while on Freeza‘s ship. It wasn’t until after a sudden crash and jerk shook her pod, did she hazily awaken. She opened her eyes slowly, uncertain of her immediate whereabouts. Her hands went from her belly to her head, which seemed to be spinning at the moment. She blinked a couple of times and stared as best as she could at the unusually bright green sky through the pod window.
Obviously, she had already landed on a planet, although she certainly didn’t have a clue as to which one she was on. She only hoped that this planet wasn’t owned by Freeza or inhabited by unfriendly aliens. She reached out to hit the Release button on the pod hatch and ungracefully stumbled out onto the soil of the planet. She was standing at the bottom of a deep crater made by the force of her own pod’s landing. Careful of her stomach and the precious cargo within, she began to slowly climb up the side of the crater, believing that she should put some distance between her and the pod as quickly as possible for her own safety. Once she reached the top, her energy drained and she woozily fell onto the flat ground, face up, before she passed out yet again.
Bulma didn’t know how long she had lain there under the warmth of the gentle suns, but when she opened her eyes again, she found herself surrounded by several green-skinned men with little antennae coming from their heads, their faces staring down at her in gentle curiosity. Their oddly familiar dark eyes held no evil in them, but only concern and interest.
“Hey, you guys look just like Piccolo,” Bulma impulsively said right before she blacked out again, totally unaware of what those words meant.
**********
Freeza and Zarbon survived the explosion, though many, including Freeza’s top engineer, who were caught in the explosion, did not. Because the blast had disabled part of the propulsion system, effectively crippling Freeza’s main warship, they had to wait a few extra days for another ship to come and retrieve them from their stranded vessel. Right after the damages were assessed, Freeza immediately ordered the creation of a barrier around the hull that was breached. Waiting for the relief ship to come made everyone frustrated and anxious, worrying that any members of the rebellion could easily come and pick off the rest of the crew and some of Freeza’s most prized workers. The twins were especially displeased at this setback, but they had no choice but to sit and wait along with the rest.
However, their luck held. No one from the rebellion came to attack the disabled ship and the new ship arrived as anticipated. Once everyone was transferred to the relief ship, Freeza made it a priority to see that the twins reached their destination. Holding back the urge to blow up the planet after dropping the troublesome twosome off on it, Freeza waived aside the idea and decided to make his way to meet up with King Vegeta’s fleet. After all that had happened to slow him down, Freeza planned to bide his time and regroup. Something favorable was going to fall into his lap, he was sure of it. And when it did, he would make certain that all of the universe would pay for his humiliation…especially Vegeta and that wretched blue-haired woman of his.
**********
Atop a cliff, the twins stood together against the winds blowing about them on the brown planet. All about them was the same boring, warm color. They looked down at Gero, who was waiting patiently for them to descend. He looked suspiciously happy to see them and they didn’t care for his look, so full of evil and glee. The twins looked warily at each other and wordlessly agreed not to let his expression disturb them. Instead, they smiled at each other and slowly rose into the air, allowing the warm, graceful air to whip around them. The twins then slowly descended towards Gero, never taking their eyes off of him, letting their feet softly touch the rocky ground.
“Finally, you have arrived! Now your usefulness will be at its peak –“ Gero, full of himself, babbled on for several minutes with his welcoming speech, but neither twins were listening.
In the middle of Gero’s speech, Juunanago began to walk slowly and full of purpose towards the man who had destroyed not only his life, but the life of his sister’s as well. “– and…hey! Junnanago, what do you think you are doing?” Gero demanded.
Junnanago only smiled menacingly and said, “Hmph, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, old man.” He then charged at Gero, full of wrath and hate.
Before the surprised and panicked scientist could move an inch, the android was next to him, smirking excitedly. Faster than the eye could see, Juunanago took his outstretched hand and, using it like a sword, sliced Gero’s head clean off with a fast and accurate strike. Her ice-blue eyes shining with merriment, Juuhachigo watched as the evil man who had killed their beloved mother and father and tormented them for years, finally died. Juunanago strolled casually over to where the decapitated head lay and, with slow and precise pleasure, repeatedly smashed the head under his boot heel, letting the organs and blood splash into the air, even onto his clothes.
“Bah, that was too easy,” Juunanago said, though no disappointment was in his voice.
“Too bad,” Juuhachigo agreed, tucking her hair back over her ear, keeping her smile in place and her tone the same as her brother’s.
Happy to finally be free, the twins looked at each other again. Now, they would seek the revenge they had been wanting for so many years. They took their time, blasting every inch of Gero’s work and living areas, destroying every last inch of his body and laughing delightedly the whole time. They didn’t care or take notice that the brown drab planet was, in fact, far emptier of life since Gero’s arrival. Now, that emptiness concealed something that was far stronger than even the android twins. They would soon come to know that in the formerly vibrant planet a being now existed, a creature that waited only to devour them so that it could achieve perfection.
**********
Not too long ago when this particular battle began, Chimo’s and Captain Fukusa’s fleets, filled mostly with Saiya-jins, paired up temporarily with Vegeta’s fleet while the prince was off battling Dodoria. During that time, Chimo and Bardock planned out and executed a surprise attack on Freeza’s third largest fleet and so far they were winning. Freeza’s fleet was taking on too many casualties and was slowly losing ship-by-ship. As Chimo rounded a nearby floating piece of debris, he suddenly came back into his enemy’s line of vision, but Chimo quickly blasted his pursuer, killing him on contact.
Their combined battle plan had gone off almost too easily, thanks to the false-ki level devices Bulma had devised for them. In fact, they had performed better than anyone had expected. What Freeza’s fleet had initially believed to be an easy win became increasingly difficult. For those who went up against a rebellion warrior and soon found their opponent’s ki impossibly strong, usually turned coward and ran, and once they decided to run, they were dead. The kill-switch device from Bulma also saved many rebellion forces’ lives, for the armor Freeza’s soldiers wore were also created by Bulma. As soon as Chimo flipped the switch, the protective programming within their enemies’ armor became useless.
Unlike Chimo, Bardock didn’t run from any enemy, but took on each with brute strength and stamina. Bardock glanced to the side and saw Seripa having a bit of trouble, but he returned his focus on the enemy in front of him. He knew the rebellion was also taking its share of casualties, but overall, Freeza’s fleet was losing badly, which was for the best. Just as Bardock shot a few blasts at two enemy soldiers and kicked an oncoming attacker, did he see yet another ship crash onto the nearby planet, which had recently been purged.
Chimo was again flying as fast as he could from another attacker. He wasn’t as strong as the Saiya-jins and couldn’t afford to stand and fight like they could. He was trained to be a tactical fighter and only thought to do just that. This time, the enemy wasn’t as weak as the others and had gotten a direct hit on Chimo’s leg, wounding him quite badly. He quickly retaliated with a Kaioken followed by a Shunkaido. Using the last bit of stamina he had left, Chimo teleported behind his enemy and stabbed the fighter in the back using a ki-like sword. Chimo watched with grim satisfaction as his enemy died, coughing up blood until he moved no more, becoming a still form, his body floating lifelessly in space. Once his enemy stopped moving, Chimo glanced over at Bardock, who was also hovering nearby.
The Saiya-jin looked to be remarkably fresh and full of energy. Chimo sighed and shook his head, knowing he could never be like a Saiya-jin. Given the severity of his injury, he didn’t know how much longer he could last. Suddenly, every person fighting heard a loud and blinding explosion. The sound was paralyzing and fearsome and no one knew what it was. Like everyone else, Chimo tried to look towards the source of the light, but it was too blinding to see and he had to look away momentarily until the brightness faded a bit. Fortunately, the spectacle was over with quickly. When he finally opened his eyes, Bardock was floating beside him, smiling proudly.
The last of Freeza’s third and most powerful space fleet had been destroyed and every one of its soldiers had been slaughtered. Chimo heard Seripa’s shout of laughter and he turned his head to see her clapping her hands and raising her arms in triumph. Soon all the Saiya-jins warriors were doing the same. A few of the non-Saiya-jins joined them in their victory ritual, but Chimo couldn’t. It was too much to take in right after such a bloody battle and he felt too numb. Perhaps somewhere, deep within his essence, he had hoped to perish today.
**********
Wearing a grim expression on his handsome face, King Vegeta stood silently at the head of the bridge on the largest vessel of the Saiya-jin space fleet, a flagship made solely for battle. No one knew what he was thinking and no one dared to ask, but all on board agreed that the king seemed different; he wasn’t boasting, nor was he acting like his normally proud self. Some speculated that perhaps it was because the prince’s open defiance had cost the king all of his good graces with Lord Freeza.
However, one person on the flagship, who had been punished for his services to the prince, felt much differently that the rest. Kabba was certain that King Vegeta was thinking about his only son, and the fact Prince Vegeta had not confided in him, never telling his father about the Bond, the rebellion, or anything else for that matter. Kabba knew the king cared for his son, but like all kings, he had to put the welfare of his people before his own needs, and in order to keep his people safe, he might have to lose his son. Somewhere, within the king’s silence, Kabba could sense him already mourning the loss of the prince.
A tall Saiya-jin came forward and bowed deeply before the king. He waited for the king to acknowledge him before he spoke. When the king turned his head slightly in his direction, the messenger spoke:
“Your Majesty, I have received a message from Lord Freeza. We are to meet up with him at these coordinates in four months. According to the message, they are anticipating the use of a certain battle tactic by the rebellion at that time.” The Saiya-jin then held up a tablet for the king.
King Vegeta took the tablet and scanned the contents. Once he saw the coordinates, his eyes narrowed. “This system?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The tone of the messenger’s voice was formal and full of respect.
“Fine, forward this information to the navigator and set course to this star system. On the way, should we encounter any battles in progress, we will stop and provide assistance. I want Lord Freeza to know how loyal we Saiya-jins are.” There was a slight sarcastic undertone to the king’s voice, but no one paid it any attention.
“Right away, Your Majesty!” The Saiya-jin took back the tablet with a deep bow and left the king’s presence still bowing.
When the Saiya-jin fleet began its course, Kabba knew that his time would soon come to an end. He knew that the prince would be the Legendary and defeat all who opposed him, even his own father. He leaned back and closed his eyes, not wanting to watch the stars as they raced past him outside his cell window. Instead, Kabba gave a small prayer, thanking Kami for allowing him to have been at the service of one of the greatest Saiya-jins to have ever lived.
**********
Vegeta strode powerfully into the bridge of his fleet’s command vessel while scratching feverishly at his wrist. Knowing the itch came from the Bond, he dismissed it, while keeping his eyes on the people looking back at him. Kakarotto followed closely behind Vegeta, grinning sheepishly. Bardock returned his prince’s severe look with a proud smirk and gave a quick satisfied nod to his son. Vegeta’s stern frown had been carved onto his face ever since he had heard Dodoria’s mocking words about Bulma. Still thinking about that, he could not return any pleased expressions to his soldiers, not even to Bardock. When everyone had acknowledged Vegeta’s presence, he walked up to Bardock with his head held high.
“Congratulations on your victory, Prince Vegeta!” Bardock’s voice was brimming with triumph.
“Dodoria wasn’t even worth fighting. His troops were harder to kill only because the cowards kept running from us and we had to waste time chasing down all of them.” Vegeta’s voice held a hint of humor. “Well done on your own victory, Bardock. Our continued successes only prove that we Saiya-jins are undoubtedly the strongest warriors in the universe.” Vegeta paused. “What is the current status of our allies’ fleets?” he asked, having heard earlier that Fukusa’s fleet had already left to continue the battle with some of Freeza’s smaller fleets. “Where is Chimo’s fleet?”
“Chimo’s group has just departed to prepare for their next battle, although we will rendezvous with them in two months.”
“Hmmph. At least they will be gone for two months.” Vegeta’s previously jovial tone was now dripping with venom. His shaky friendship with Chimo had frayed dangerously over time ever since the alien had refused to go back for Bulma. “I’m going to train. Search out the location of Freeza’s main fleet and set a course for it.”
“As you command, Your Highness.” Bardock gave the prince a respectful bow as Vegeta began to walk off the bridge, then looked over at his tall son.
Kakarotto waved to his father and gave him a goofy grin. “Hiya, Dad!” His father only responded with a quick, exasperated look before turning around to resume his command of the ship.
Kakarotto seized this opportunity to escape the bridge and his father’s disapproving looks and raced after Vegeta, knowing exactly where his prince was heading. In between battles, Vegeta spent as much time as he could, training in the “GR”, which Kakarotto thought was amazing. Bulma’s ability to invent wonderful and strange gadgets had never ceased to surprise him, and he always thought that his prince was lucky to have such a woman as his wife. As soon as he saw Vegeta’s form in the far end of the hallway, he quickly yelled out:
“Prince Vegeta!”
Vegeta stopped and slowly turned to face his only friend, something to which he’d never admit to anyone, and the only reason he bothered to stop. He didn’t say anything, but waited until Kakarotto caught up to him.
As soon as the taller Saiya-jin got to his prince’s side, he paused for a cautious moment, but his question came tumbling out anyway. “Back there you sounded really upset with Chimo. Why? I thought you two were friends!”
Vegeta’s face darkened into an unshakable scowl. “That weakling is a coward! Never talk about him in my presence ever again or I will personally hand feed your sorry carcass to the nearest black hole! And never refer to him as my friend! I have no friends.”
The prince’s angry declaration puzzled Kakarotto as he thought about his own training with the Godan-jin and how he had become friendly with him. And then he realized what the true reason for Vegeta’s dislike of Chimo was. “But, Prince Vegeta, he couldn’t return for Bulma! Her ki was too weak to detect with Shunkaido and she was in the middle of Freeza’s main ship, surrounded by much stronger ki’s than hers!”
“I do not care what his pathetic excuses are! One more word about him and I swear to Kami that I will make good on every threat I have ever bestowed upon you!” Vegeta turned his face away from Kakarotto, trying his best to suppress his growing anger about the whole matter with Chimo.
Not wanting to aggravate the prince any further, Kakarotto wisely dropped the discussion of that particular subject for the time being. After a few tense seconds passed, he said slowly, “Well…I guess…okay…then. Umm…do you want to spar?”
Vegeta raised an eyebrow and twisted his head slowly to look up at Kakarotto’s hopeful and inquisitive face. The idea of a spar raised his mood slightly; no doubt beating the living daylights out of his fellow companion would help free him from his dark and troubling thoughts. “Prepare to be beaten, Kakarotto,” he replied with a smirk.
*********
Luckily, the “GR” held together while Vegeta and Kakarotto fought. Hours upon hours would pass before either of them became exhausted enough to call an end to their sparring session. Vegeta had the upper hand the entire time, although every so often, the idiotic Saiya-jin’s strength spiraled up so high and so fast that it bewildered him. As they fought, Vegeta kept thinking that, had they both existed in another universe, Kakarotto might’ve even been the stronger one, and that idea greatly unsettled him – he, whose pride demanded that he be the best in any universe.
During the last hour of their fight, Vegeta began to feel feverish and dizzy. As he started rapidly firing ki blasts at Kakarotto, his eyes betrayed him and his vision became hazy. Then he felt the ground coming closer, while the area around him shifted again like it had done in the past. When his vision cleared a bit, he was still battling Kakarotto, but now they were mortal enemies. Somewhere to the side, he felt the presence of another enemy. Suddenly, Kakarotto vanished, and the other opponent – a short, bald man, wearing an orange gi – appeared and began to trade blows with him. In mid-punch, the air shifted again, and the strange short man, wearing the same orange gi, stood grinning back at him in a welcoming way, as though he was now Vegeta’s ally and no longer his enemy. The other was saying something to an equally friendly-looking Kakarotto, while both of his hands held onto a large golden ball, which had a few red stars floating in the middle of it. Vegeta couldn’t make out what either was saying, but he did catch two words: dragon ball.
The vision shifted once more, and he saw Bulma, crawling in desperate haste to get away from him; her eyes looking straight at him, not filled with love but with a deathly fear of him. He tried to stop himself as he tried to reach out to her, but the vision ended and he was pulled back to reality. It was then when a ki blast hit him squarely on in the face, slamming his body onto the metal floor of the “GR”. Almost immediately, the gravity in the room was turned to its normal level. Although he tried, Vegeta was could hardly lift any part of his body and he could feel blood pouring from his limbs.
“Are you okay, Prince Vegeta?” Kakarotto asked as he kneeled beside him, but Vegeta pushed away his help rather roughly. His companion pulled back a bit, concerned and uncertain how to help his prince.
“Tch, I’m perfectly fine. I don’t need your help.” Gritting his teeth against the pain, Vegeta pushed himself up, one hand clenching the wound that draped across his chest.
“Perhaps I should take you to the medical wing?” It was the only thing Kakarotto could suggest at the moment.
“I said I’m perfectly well! I am the Prince of the Saiya-jins. To me, this is just a small scratch.” Vegeta slowly stood, wobbling and nearly falling again from the pain and dizziness. Kakarotto also stood up and watched as Vegeta began walking rather unsteadily to the stairs that led to the lower sleeping compartment. Kakarotto’s usually cheery face grew heavy with concern and confusion. “Leave, you're just getting in the way of my training!”
“But –”
“I SAID ‘LEAVE!’ ” His sharp words cut the air, startling the taller Saiya-jin, as Vegeta turned to glare sternly at his companion.
“Yes, Your Highness,” Kakarotto said, looking rather hurt by the prince’s dismissal. He bowed and began to leave, glancing over his shoulder a few times, watching as Vegeta unevenly progressed on his way again. He was very worried about his prince, but he realized that he could do nothing for him.
As worn-out as he was, Vegeta knew better than to attempt going to the medical wing during wartime. He knew how perilous it was to show any kind of weakness to the crew or the few people that remained loyal to him. He had to stand strong, to show that nothing could hurt him. Vegeta knew he was hurt, so he went to the place Bulma had created for him if such an incident ever happened. In the very bottom level of the “GR” was a medical supply room with everything he might need to address any injuries, even a small rejuvenation tank. Once he reached the room, Vegeta struggled to get into the small tank, but once in, he let the machine’s automatic programming take over. He would rest and tomorrow, if no battle awaited him, he would train again, even harder. He hoped to battle Zarbon soon, if only to rid himself of the nightmare of Bulma strapped beneath the ugly blue creature. The sudden remembrance of the vision of Bulma, fearing him, caused Vegeta to stir. He also wanted to rid himself of that as well. Only if he could see her, touch her, to let her know, he was on her side.
**********
As he sat in his command chair on the bridge, Freeza gnashed his teeth together. His upset growls were punctuated by static from his metal body. He hated hearing the same thing over and over again and now this latest news took the Sado-jin cake! His third largest fleet, the one that did his most important patrolling, had been defeated. Quickly standing, he blasted the nearest person he could see and began to pace around the bridge. He had no one to turn to. Gero had killed his father and brother and the number of remaining allies was growing dangerously thin. In two months, he was supposed to drop the twins off, further delaying the pleasure of destroying Vegeta-sei because he had to deal with this as well. No doubt Gero still wanted Vegeta brought to him or else he would carry out his threat to take over Freeza’s seat as High Emperor.
“If only that bitch would hurry and finish that damned body, I could be rid of those two nuisances!” Freeza’s outburst caused everyone on the bridge to look back at him in startled surprise, but he didn’t pay them any heed. He knew that in two months, he would have his ultimate suit and have all his dreams become a reality, including killing Gero.
From the side, Zarbon watched sadly as his lord ranted and raved. As far as Bulma was concerned, his carefully laid plans to blackmail her when her time was up would not likely come to fruition. He would have to settle for seducing her just to taste her and that would probably be it. He would have to settle for less, but no matter. Tonight, when I am alone with her, I will begin to slowly seduce her, like I had originally planned, he sighed, giving her my fullest attentions. Zarbon gave a small smirk, his thoughts filled by what he would do to his captive once he got her to fall for his charms. Unfortunately, he knew he wouldn’t have her tonight, but it would set the stage for a marvelous and sexually satisfying relationship for as long as she could last. But once she was dead, which was sadly inevitable, he would have to seek out a new playmate.
**********
In her room-like cell, Bulma tried to settle her jittery nerves by breathing steadily. Not too long ago, she had begun to show. Her belly sticking out further and further reminded her everyday why she had to escape. One way that stuck in her mind was to fight her way out, but she was hardly in any condition to fight anyone.
Two months ago, she noted that Zarbon had started to come to visit her around about twice a week. In any other situation, she might’ve believed that he was almost courting her attentions. She also suspected that he wasn’t trying to get close to her without a reason, but she felt she had to play along anyway. However, once she began to show, she did her best to hide her pregnancy from him by wearing looser clothing. Luckily, she could still wear the Saiya-jin armor Vegeta had given to her. Bulma tried not to think of her husband since learning about the true meaning of the Bond, afraid that he had used her, that the love she had felt from him had been a lie and that the child inside her was a result of that lie. Regardless, today was the day she planned to escape and if she failed, it was the life of her baby that was at risk.
Steeling herself with a deep breath, Bulma walked to her door. Before opening it, she glanced over her shoulder at the trap she had set behind her. Knowing she had only a few precious minutes once she left the room, Bulma quickly slipped on the ki disrupters, fitting them right over her hand and fingers then rushed through the sliding doors. As they had received direct orders that she was no longer allowed out of her room, her guards immediately stopped her. They stood in front of her like a muscular wall, not letting her take another step. With a sweet smile, she extended a hand towards each of them. Within moments of contact, the two fell to the floor with a large thud as her invention did its job. Bulma ignored the fallen guards and began to race down the corridors.
As the walls of those cold metal corridors rushed by her in a blur, Bulma held her stomach while she ran. Eventually, her old stamina came back to her. She soared down many different passage ways, turning corners so fast that she almost slipped a couple of times. She received a few odd looks from unknowing loiterers as she ran past them, but more then once she had to face a few soldiers that knew of her and her prisoner status, though they too dropped like flies as soon as Bulma touched them. She continued running and fighting her way to the pod docking bay. When she flew hard around the last corner, she lost her footing, slipping to the point where she had to place a hand on the floor.
Stopping for a moment to regain her lost balance, Bulma stood up only to freeze in her tracks, her eyes slowly widening with disbelief. She openly stared at the two people before her, unable to think. Remaining quiet, the two stared back at her in equal, unmoving surprise.
**********
Two months had barely passed since the first encounters with the rebellion’s forces. Freeza’s main fleet, having taken on its own troubling share of damages, was making its way back towards the planet on which Gero had been happily making himself at home. Eager to see their master, the twins instructed a none-too-happy Freeza to set course for the planet a few days ahead of schedule. For once, everything was quiet on the ship, nothing stirred. Freeza sat dejectedly on the bridge, counting the days until Bulma’s time was up and his new reign would begin. Zarbon relished his night time with Bulma, believing that her resolve was beginning to break. Unfortunately, he had yet to sleep with her and was getting impatient; although as soon as Freeza called for her death, he would take her anyway. The more time passed, the less it mattered to Zarbon how Bulma would eventually come to him, willing or not. Lately, he had become even more disappointed by her hiding her lovely curves under thicker clothes and hardly allowing him to touch her.
Picking his teeth in boredom, Zarbon wanted to do nothing more than go off and move this annoyingly slow war into a faster gear. Since the fighting began, all remaining purging assignments had been put on complete hold for the time being. This was unfortunate situation as they were so close to realizing the dream that had been in the planning by the Cold Empire for years. When he heard the alarm go off on the bridge, Zarbon came to immediate attention, anxious to take care of the problem, if only to relieve his boredom.
“Lord Freeza! Lord Zarbon!” one unfortunate soldier yelled out seconds after the alarm rang. “The prisoner Bulma has escaped!”
Surprised at the news, Freeza jumped from his chair and stood quickly, anger clear on his face. “WHAT?!”
Zarbon turned to Freeza without hesitation and said, “Let me handle this, Lord Freeza.”
Too furious to care, Freeza turned and walked to the nearest port window. “Do what you like! I don’t care what happens to the girl.”
With that, Zarbon dashed off the bridge and headed to capture his little runaway. He held too much joy for words. His long-awaited day with the woman he had desired far too long was going to become real.
**********
Bulma couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her mouth agape, she almost struggled for words. “You two are Chikyuu-jin!”
The twins nodded. Juuhachigo was the first to speak, feeling comfortable with a fellow female. “So, Freeza was indeed hiding you from us.”
”And you’re a ‘her’, not a ‘him’,” Juunanago smirked.
“Tch, lucky for you, Brother,” Juuhachigo observed with a slight frown, “she’s good-looking, too.”
Bulma had a feeling Freeza already knew of her escape, so she said to the siblings, “Look, I’m sorry to rain on your parade but do either of you know where the pod docking bay is?”
The twins glanced at each other then back at Bulma, who was silently praying that the two before her would sympathize with her because they shared the same human DNA. “You’re escaping?” Juuhachigo’s inquiring voice was soft.
“Yes, do you want to join me?” Bulmam offered. She wanted to help her fellow Chikyuu-jins get away from the real reason behind their planet’s destruction.
“Sorry, we can’t join you. We have unfinished business,” Juunanago said with a smirk. “It’s something that we plan to take care of – very soon.” At his polite refusal, Bulma looked disappointed. She wished to know more about these two, but she too had other priorities to think about.
Juuhachigo pushed her blonde hair behind her ear and spoke playfully, “Well, if you’re lost, we’ll gladly take you to the pods. Follow us.” Juuhachigo began to walk away, while Juunanago smirked at Bulma then followed his sister. Bulma didn’t think twice about trusting them and went after the two. Luckily, her target goal wasn’t that far away, but Bulma was surprised that no one bothered them as they walked casually towards the pod area. In fact, everyone the twins passed looked terrified to see them. Curious, but worried more about other things, Bulma continued to follow the siblings until they reached their destination.
When the three arrived at the pod docking bay, the twins didn’t waste time and had the workers clear out. Afterwards, when they had the bay to themselves, the siblings walked to a nearby wall and leaned against it. They watched with interest and amusement while Bulma connected her little radar disabler onto one of the pods. Feeling somewhat safe with the twins nearby, she worked as fast as she could. As involved in her task as she was, she wasn’t concerned as to why they were watching her so closely or even why two Chikyuu-jins had so much power on Freeza’s ship.
As she was beginning to disable the locking pad on the pod and launch tray, she caught a glimpse of an unwelcome sight walking slowly into the docking bay, which made her drop her tool. The loud clank of it hitting the floor made the twins look over at the person that had just arrived seconds ago. Despair flooded throughout Bulma’s body and fear caused her to shake. Her baby was almost as good as dead with the way things were going. In a surprise move, the twins stepped between the fearful Bulma and the uninvited guest.
“I don’t think so, Zarbon.” Juuhachigo’s voice was stern.
Zarbon’s fake smile was easy to see through. “Oh, but can’t I say good-bye to my lover?”
“You can say good-bye from there.” Juunanago folded his arms and looked annoyed.
Zarbon took a few steps closer as he spoke, being cautious around the twins. “But can I not even kiss her goodbye?”
“Ask her yourself if that’s what she wants,” Juuhachigo said with a pointed smirk. Zarbon’s lies were pitiful.
As anger began to flow in her blood, Bulma’s face turned from fearful to scowling to shocked realization. Now, she understood the situation. These twins held more power than even Zarbon! She didn’t know why they were helping her, but she didn’t care. As long as she could get away, then that’s all that mattered. “FUCK OFF, you pervert!” Bulma shouted at Zarbon, pleased that her words were making him angry. She grinned at the twins then turned around to resume working on her pod. “You’re not that good-looking anyway!” she added over her shoulder.
Any bland sweetness that been in Zarbon’s face a moment ago was definitely gone now. “Fine, Bulma, you try and escape me. It won’t be long until I follow you and when I do catch up to you, it’ll be one hell of a ride!”
Suspecting that Zarbon would try and pull a stunt such as that, Bulma completed her last few adjustments and climbed into the pod. “Oh, well,” she said, as she sat into the seat and faced her captor, “try and catch me!” Zarbon clenched his fists and looked furious, but Bulma onloy smiled back at him. Just before the pod hatch closed, she spoke a few last words to the twins. “Goodbye and thanks for your help, guys!" Just then, curiosity overcame her and she began to ask, “Oh…and why do you work for Freeza? He was the one –” But the pod hatch suddenly closed and cut off the rest of her question.
The twins looked at each other for a puzzled moment, wondering what her last words meant. Seconds later, Bulma’s pod shot into space, accelerating to speeds that were unheard-of for a pod. Trying desperately to get control of her vessel, Bulma frantically punched in random coordinates, not even knowing where she might be traveling.
Back in the pod docking bay, Zarbon immediately ran towards a nearby pod, but again the twins blocked him.
Juunanago in particular was enjoying tormenting Zarbon. “Oh no, you don’t.”
Grinding his teeth in frustration, Zarbon instead flew towards a control panel and contacted the bridge. This time, the twins didn’t stop him; instead, they stood where they were, watching Zarbon’s agitated motions with lazy, all-knowing smiles on their faces. Listening while he attempted to explain away his failure to capture Bulma was providing them with much entertainment. A couple seconds later, however, they both began to wonder about what the blue-haired Chikyuu-jin had been trying to say to them right before she took off. The unanswered questions they now had soured their mood. The two walked off leaving the panicked blue-boy behind in the pod bay.
**********
Freeza slammed his cybernetic tail on the floor of his bridge several times, furious from what he was hearing from Zarbon. He couldn’t allow that girl to escape his grasp or else all of his waiting and scheming would be for nothing. Without his enhanced body, his plans would be destroyed. Unfortunately, the girl was too valuable at this moment. Her skills were crucial for the success of destroying both Vegeta and his accursed forces that were slowly chipping away at Freeza’s vast fleet. Then there was also the issue of power; and even now those interfering twins and Gero held too much of it. If the girl did happen to get away, there would only remain one chance available to Freeza to crush Vegeta’s rebellion. And that chance was still two months away. With this in mind, he tried to regain his composure, but failed. Clenching his fists tighter, Freeza decided he only had one viable option left: he would have to kill her now and hope that she had completed enough of his new body so that he could deal with Gero.
“Fire at the escaping pod!” he commanded.
Immediately, one soldier turned and bowed to Freeza. “Lord Freeza, the ship’s scanners have been trying to track the pod ever since it launched from the docking bay, but we have been unable to pick up its signal.”
“You will find a way to locate and destroy that pod! That’s an order!” Freeza shouted back at the cringing soldier, who rushed back to his console in order to not get blasted. At this point, his ruler was probably only a hair’s breath away from blowing his ship into pieces just out of sheer spite. But Freeza had more pressing matters on his mind. “Zarbon, meet me and our top engineer at the girl’s cell.”
Zarbon’s voice rang clear on the intercom. “Yes, Lord Freeza, I will head there now.”
Freeza turned his back on the frantic activity swirling around the bridge and stormed off to meet with Zarbon at Bulma’s cell. It didn’t make him any happier to see that his worries had been justified, that if the twins ever met up with another Chikyuu-jin that something such as this would happen. Those damned Chikyuu-jins did indeed seem to stick together. Once he arrived at the girl’s cell, he gave the approaching Zarbon a sharp, disapproving glare. Right behind Zarbon was a small, pathetic-looking creature that he recognized as his top engineer. Without saying a word to either of them, Freeza opened the door and quickly stepped into the cell. Moving from one side of the room to the other, he poked around anxiously, looking for anything resembling his new body. Hearing a soft beeping sound coming from a corner, he moved towards the sound and found a hastily made, human-sized puppet, holding a sign that read “The joke’s on you, asshole!” Freeza, Zarbon, and the engineer stared at the puppet in complete shock. Next to the puppet sat an illuminated digital counter with its display counting down in hundredths of a second beginning from “3”. A couple of beeps later, the counter reached zero. The resulting large and very deadly explosion ripped through a third of Freeza’s flagship, leaving decimation in its wake.
**********
Scared to death that he had done something horrible to his wife, Kakarotto was pacing nervously left-to-right. She kept yelling his Chikyuu-jin name, “Goku,” over and over again, but his name kept being accompanied by several curses and few choice words that made his ears hurt. He really didn’t know what he had done to make her scream so many awful words, although he thought he had an idea. Perhaps he shouldn’t have touched her all those times. But it was too late now. With his whole body shaking from nerves, he glanced over at Prince Vegeta. The prince, who Kakarotto could see was clearly amused by his distress, had come more so out of curiosity than friendship. It was bad enough that Chi-Chi was in the other room in the medical wing screaming her head off, but what felt worse was that his prince was sitting there openly laughing at him. Not able to take it any longer, Kakarotto jumped up and burst into Chi-Chi’s room.
“Doc, is she okay?!” Kakarotto was caught off-guarded by what he saw. His wife was not only screaming and grunting, but she had her legs spread wide open, and something huge and slimy was coming out of her. The alien physician was positioned between Chi-Chi’s legs, his gloved hands outstretched to receive the emerging shiny round thing, but instead of giving his attention to that, the doctor was staring over at Kakarotto, surprised that he had barged in unannounced. As more of the huge round thing slid out of his wife, Kakarotto began to scream, “Uwaaaaaaa!”
In mid-scream, something forcibly jerked him back out of the room by his collar, and the door shut on Chi-Chi and the doctor. Thoroughly disturbed by what he’d just seen, Kakarotto spun around, his eyes pleading with his prince. “They’re killing her!”
“Shut up, Kakarotto! Your loud, obnoxious wife is giving birth. That is all.”
“I know, b-but it’s killing her! And it’ll be my fault if she dies from this! What will I do if she comes back from the dead to haunt me?!”
Vegeta sighed and rolled his eyes at Kakarotto’s ignorance. “Idiot, all births are similar to this. Of course there is going to be pain. I didn’t decide to take a few minutes’ break from my training to come and hear you scream idiotically.”
With that, Kakarotto calmed down slightly, but now his worry was tinted with a new fear. “She really is going to kill me after this.”
Vegeta laughed, “Now, that would be interesting to watch.”
Suddenly a small, high-pitched wail could be heard coming from other side of the door, a sound which was startling similar to Kakarotto’s earlier scream, causing both Saiya-jins to glance towards the medical room. Within seconds, the doctor burst elatedly through the doors, a large smile on his alien face.
“Congratulations, sir! It’s a male!”
A relieved and slightly stunned Kakarotto answered the doctor with a large smile of his own. He ran past the pleased doctor into the medical room, followed by a slower paced prince. Kakarotto went to stand beside his wife, who was cradling a small baby boy in her arms. Much to his relief, Chi-Chi was no longer screaming and cursing his name, but actually smiling at him. Kakarotto leaned in for a better look and noticed that a furry tail had curled around his son’s small body. Without saying a word, Chi-Chi held out the baby and Kakarotto carefully took the tiny boy into his arms. The shift momentarily disturbed the baby, who began to cry again, but Kakarotto only laughed at the sound.
His large heart was touched as he looked down at Chi-Chi’s beaming face. “Let’s name him Gohan,” he said, and his wife smiled and nodded back at him.
Prince Vegeta wasn’t there to hear the reply to the name suggested by Kakarotto, as he had left the new family almost immediately after seeing the child. He only wanted to see what a mixed-born would look like, to help answer his own curious and depressing questions regarding his own possible future children. Once he rescued Bulma from the clutches of his enemy, then he wouldn’t wait too long to build a family. He longed to share a tender moment similar to the one he witnessed only seconds ago with his own wife, but certainly their offspring would be much better-looking than Kakarotto’s. Smirking, Vegeta began to walk back towards the “GR”, only allowing hopeful thoughts to enter his mind.
**********
Bulma had been knocked out completely during her trip. The speed at which she had traveled had been too fast for her and, after typing in the coordinates, the resulting g-forces caused her to pass out. Before losing consciousness, she protectively cradled her rounded belly, which had grown noticeable in the last four months while on Freeza‘s ship. It wasn’t until after a sudden crash and jerk shook her pod, did she hazily awaken. She opened her eyes slowly, uncertain of her immediate whereabouts. Her hands went from her belly to her head, which seemed to be spinning at the moment. She blinked a couple of times and stared as best as she could at the unusually bright green sky through the pod window.
Obviously, she had already landed on a planet, although she certainly didn’t have a clue as to which one she was on. She only hoped that this planet wasn’t owned by Freeza or inhabited by unfriendly aliens. She reached out to hit the Release button on the pod hatch and ungracefully stumbled out onto the soil of the planet. She was standing at the bottom of a deep crater made by the force of her own pod’s landing. Careful of her stomach and the precious cargo within, she began to slowly climb up the side of the crater, believing that she should put some distance between her and the pod as quickly as possible for her own safety. Once she reached the top, her energy drained and she woozily fell onto the flat ground, face up, before she passed out yet again.
Bulma didn’t know how long she had lain there under the warmth of the gentle suns, but when she opened her eyes again, she found herself surrounded by several green-skinned men with little antennae coming from their heads, their faces staring down at her in gentle curiosity. Their oddly familiar dark eyes held no evil in them, but only concern and interest.
“Hey, you guys look just like Piccolo,” Bulma impulsively said right before she blacked out again, totally unaware of what those words meant.
**********
Freeza and Zarbon survived the explosion, though many, including Freeza’s top engineer, who were caught in the explosion, did not. Because the blast had disabled part of the propulsion system, effectively crippling Freeza’s main warship, they had to wait a few extra days for another ship to come and retrieve them from their stranded vessel. Right after the damages were assessed, Freeza immediately ordered the creation of a barrier around the hull that was breached. Waiting for the relief ship to come made everyone frustrated and anxious, worrying that any members of the rebellion could easily come and pick off the rest of the crew and some of Freeza’s most prized workers. The twins were especially displeased at this setback, but they had no choice but to sit and wait along with the rest.
However, their luck held. No one from the rebellion came to attack the disabled ship and the new ship arrived as anticipated. Once everyone was transferred to the relief ship, Freeza made it a priority to see that the twins reached their destination. Holding back the urge to blow up the planet after dropping the troublesome twosome off on it, Freeza waived aside the idea and decided to make his way to meet up with King Vegeta’s fleet. After all that had happened to slow him down, Freeza planned to bide his time and regroup. Something favorable was going to fall into his lap, he was sure of it. And when it did, he would make certain that all of the universe would pay for his humiliation…especially Vegeta and that wretched blue-haired woman of his.
**********
Atop a cliff, the twins stood together against the winds blowing about them on the brown planet. All about them was the same boring, warm color. They looked down at Gero, who was waiting patiently for them to descend. He looked suspiciously happy to see them and they didn’t care for his look, so full of evil and glee. The twins looked warily at each other and wordlessly agreed not to let his expression disturb them. Instead, they smiled at each other and slowly rose into the air, allowing the warm, graceful air to whip around them. The twins then slowly descended towards Gero, never taking their eyes off of him, letting their feet softly touch the rocky ground.
“Finally, you have arrived! Now your usefulness will be at its peak –“ Gero, full of himself, babbled on for several minutes with his welcoming speech, but neither twins were listening.
In the middle of Gero’s speech, Juunanago began to walk slowly and full of purpose towards the man who had destroyed not only his life, but the life of his sister’s as well. “– and…hey! Junnanago, what do you think you are doing?” Gero demanded.
Junnanago only smiled menacingly and said, “Hmph, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, old man.” He then charged at Gero, full of wrath and hate.
Before the surprised and panicked scientist could move an inch, the android was next to him, smirking excitedly. Faster than the eye could see, Juunanago took his outstretched hand and, using it like a sword, sliced Gero’s head clean off with a fast and accurate strike. Her ice-blue eyes shining with merriment, Juuhachigo watched as the evil man who had killed their beloved mother and father and tormented them for years, finally died. Juunanago strolled casually over to where the decapitated head lay and, with slow and precise pleasure, repeatedly smashed the head under his boot heel, letting the organs and blood splash into the air, even onto his clothes.
“Bah, that was too easy,” Juunanago said, though no disappointment was in his voice.
“Too bad,” Juuhachigo agreed, tucking her hair back over her ear, keeping her smile in place and her tone the same as her brother’s.
Happy to finally be free, the twins looked at each other again. Now, they would seek the revenge they had been wanting for so many years. They took their time, blasting every inch of Gero’s work and living areas, destroying every last inch of his body and laughing delightedly the whole time. They didn’t care or take notice that the brown drab planet was, in fact, far emptier of life since Gero’s arrival. Now, that emptiness concealed something that was far stronger than even the android twins. They would soon come to know that in the formerly vibrant planet a being now existed, a creature that waited only to devour them so that it could achieve perfection.
**********