Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Time's Folly; A Bittersweet Symphony ❯ In Clouded Obscurity ( Chapter 11 )

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Chap 11*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

An annoyed Vegita stood over the bleeding and broken form of Nappa, who was lying on the floor at the brink of unconsciousness. The teenager's abilities were way beyond Nappa's in every way possible, so his sparring sessions with the larger warrior hardly lasted very long. On top of which, the sixteen-year-old Saiya-jin was having a very bad day, and dealing with Nappa's next-to-zero intelligence, wasn't helping his already ill-tempered mood in the least.

 

The door sprung open as two other Saiya-jins entered into the sparring room. One was tall, big, and muscular, with black spiky hair that originated from a deep widow's peak in the middle of his forehead and flowed behind him nearly the length of his body.

 

The other, a female, stood slightly below the prince's own height. She sported mid-back-length spiky hair, with a few short and random spikes on top, and two thick bangs framing her face. Her elegantly toned and athletic body glowed with golden-brown, oak-colored skin.

 

Both were dressed in Saiya-jin armor; the female had on a sleeveless, black, long-legged bodysuit underneath her shoulder-less armor, and the large, bare-legged male wore a more traditional suit of armor, and red, metallic bands circling both his thick upper left thigh and arm. Both had their tails wrapped around their waists.

 

“Prince Vegita!” the two addressed the prince in unison, bowing dutifully, but in slight astonishment, when both of them realized Nappa's situation.

 

“WHAT?!” he snapped back with annoyance, turning to look at them.

 

“Nothing really,” the female answered, immediately replacing the astonishment in her voice with some sarcasm. Vegita turned a heated stare towards her. She only cocked an eyebrow in return, with a slight smirk pulling at the corner of her mouth.

 

[Suika, you're only going to piss him off further,] Radditz needlessly reminded her, speaking to her telepathically.

 

[Vegita needs a better sparring partner and, out of the three of us, the only one that can go up against our prince and not end up near death like our neighborhood idiot is me -unless you would like the job?]

 

[Hell no! But it's been a while since you've sparred with Vegita -]

 

[And that means what?]

 

[How can you be so confident? Vegita is a lot stronger than you think.]

 

[Vegita has never been that much stronger than me. And besides, I'm still stronger than you and Nappa.] Radditz was about to rebuke that observation when she added, [I might get fucked up, but not as bad as that luckless heap of Saiya-jin over there!]

 

Radditz tried another tactic. [Are you even allowed to do such a thing?]

 

Suika glared angrily back at him and shouted, “The blood of the Saiya-jin runs through me just as it does you and everyone else in this room!!”

 

“So prove it!!” Vegita snapped, interrupting them with his shouted challenge. He then released a surprise ki blast that passed directly between the two older Saiya-jins.

 

After being slightly nipped by the blast, Radditz looked over at Suika. Her fists were clenched by her sides, her eyes glaring back at a smirking Vegita, ready to take on her prince's challenge. Radditz rolled his eyes and shrugged helplessly as he made his way over to where Nappa was lying, most likely passed out.

 

Focused only on each other, Suika and Vegita paid him no attention. Suika slid into a fighting stance, with Vegita following suit, smirking all the while.

 

“Get ready to be `fucked up!'” he mocked.

 

“So you were listening?”

 

“Don't you ever ignore me!” he said darkly, before springing into his first move.

 

He rushed at her. She threw a punch into his midsection but her fist passed through his afterimage. He laughed, then took the side of his forearm and hit her hard in the middle of her upper back. The momentum sent her towards the floor, but she quickly recovered by using a front handspring, her legs swinging up in an attempt to catch Vegita in mid-kick. But he saw through her move and easily dodged backwards, out of her legs' reach. She regained her footing and whipped around to face him, then charged.

 

After faking a punch that he instinctively moved to block, she dropped low and swiped Vegita's legs out from under him. He caught himself in mid-fall only to be hit by a ki blast in his stomach from the now airborne Suika, which pushed him onto the ground. Vegita cursed at himself as he flipped back up into a fighting stance.

 

With her body extended, Suika flew down feet first, at an angle towards Vegita. She bent her legs then kicked them out again, her feet connecting with his chest and hitting him down into the ground again. The impact of his landing made a dent into the floor. Lying on his back, Vegita retaliated immediately and sent a strong ki blast at her, which she hadn't anticipated. The force of it pushed her up and into the wall behind her.

 

Suika slid down the wall and landed on her feet, only to be greeted with a series of vicious punches to her stomach. The round came to a close when his relentless blows caused her to start coughing up blood. Vegita finally ended with his assault with a hard backhanded slap, which sent her sprawling towards the other side of the room. Breathing raggedly, she immediately curled an arm around her injured stomach, the other supporting her up on her knees.

 

A disdainful Vegita looked at her with disappointment on his young face.

 

“Is that all you've got, Suika? Fuck! Radditz could've done better than you! And you are supposed to be a first-class!” he spat accusingly.

 

A deep laugh came from Suika, which made Vegita look down at her in puzzlement.

 

“What the fuck are you laughing at?” Vegita demanded, his annoyance rising.

 

“You didn't really think that was all I had, did you?” she said as she slowly stood up.

 

Vegita cocked an eyebrow.

 

“As I said before, my little prince, strength is everything here. You have learned that, and so have I. It was I who told you that a long time ago. Now, did you really think that I would fall so easily?”

 

Vegita smirked. “You may actually be a true Saiya-jin after all - maybe!” He knew that he had hit a soft spot when he saw her features darken, which only excited the prince more. She started powering up and Vegita did the same.

 

Radditz had decided against trying to move the huge and very unconscious Saiya-jin at his feet in favor of watching the confrontation. But when he saw the two combatants begin to power up, a very bad feeling crept over him. This isn't good. He looked down at the passed out Nappa still lying in the same position he had been in since he had entered the room. This one needs to go to the medical bay. Those two are gonna destroy this room and Frieza will not be too happy if they do. I should say something; this is Freiza's ship, after all.

 

Radditz growled in great annoyance with himself as he struggled to make a decision. But I don't want to deal with Vegita when he's like this. It's not like dealing with one is better than the other. Either way, I have a feeling this will turn out badly…

 

Radditz took a few steps towards the dueling Saiya-jins. Vegita briefly acknowledged the movement coming from the corner of his eye, but didn't change his battle stance.

 

“Suika!” Radiditz barked at her, to no avail. [Suika, come to your senses!] Radditz sucked on his teeth in irritation. “This is Frieza's ship! You destroy this room and he's going to be furious!”

 

“Fuck off, Radditz!!” Vegita commanded.

 

“Prince Vegita, with all due respect -” Radditz began, as formally but as urgently as possible. The hot glare that Vegita shot back at him gave him pause, so Radditz abruptly shut his mouth. Resolving to at least get Nappa some much needed medical help, he grunted and slung the dead weight of the massive Saiya-jin over his shoulder and carried him out of the room, all the way grumbling and cursing softly to himself in his native language.

 

Suika, who had purposely blocked off all telepathic interference from any of the Saiya-jin, looked at Vegita with confidence as she abruptly stopped powering up. Vegita raised a confused eyebrow at her. That got him a smirk, accompanied by a ki blast heading in his direction, which he easily dodged, as it was an obvious move in the first place, and concentrated on what she would do next. The ki ball, he figured, was a distraction, one that hadn't done its job.

 

There was a blur of movement. Suika was directly behind him, aiming a mid-high kick to his back, but Vegita turned around at the last possible second, grabbed her leg and swung her around into the air. Caught slightly off guard, it took her only a second to reorient herself, but at a cost. Vegita moved above her, clasped his hands together and slammed his fists hard into the middle of her back, knocking her down. The hit was immediately followed up by a fairly dangerous ki blast.

 

Suika flipped onto her back, her eyes going wide at the sight of the coming ki ball. Not wasting a second, she placed her hands together and shot out a powerful blast of her own, which matched the intensity of his. When their blasts met, their combined forces created excess energy waves that bounced throughout the room. Walls started to crack and pieces flew everywhere as the two ki blasts, each controlled by its parent Saiya-jin, battled each other for dominance.

 

As the intensity of their battle grew, the condition of the room continued to worsen. Both Saiya-jin were being hit by stray pieces of the walls, both big and small, ripping through their clothes, lightly scarring their armor, and causing a variety of cuts all over their exposed arms. The struggle was a stalemate, as both were just about even in power. Suika was the first to decide to shift the battlefield and sprang off the floor, but soon both she and Vegita were in the air.

 

Still holding strong, the two Saiya-jins smirked arrogantly, looking straight into each other's eyes. Each saw great determination in the other's eyes; both seeing a kind of reflection of themselves in the other, mirroring their inborn want and need for competition. They also recognized each other's desire to achieve greatness and the hard work that would definitely have to be done to do so. They were now in the middle of an unofficial competition to determine which of them was the better warrior. And both wanted desperately to come out as the victor.

 

As soon as the unspoken but somehow understood competition was confirmed, they were both hit hard in the sides by twin blasts coming from the floor below. They had been so consumed with the fight that they were caught off-guard by the attack and slammed against the wall. A bright flash filled the room as the two Saiya-jins slid down to the ground. Both Saiya-jins, who were already dazed from the slam into the wall, were now backhanded by the flash of brute force pummeling them. Both Suika and Vegita ended up in pain and on their sides, spitting up blood from their bruised lungs.

 

Suika felt something thick wrap tightly around her neck, so much so that that she was barely able to catch a breath. Her hand immediately clawed at this constricting object, trying to pry at it so that she could breathe again, but her efforts were futile. She could feel herself being lifted into the air.

 

At the same time, Vegita felt a brutal force come down on his back, which would've made him cry out in pain if he hadn't coughed up blood. When he felt the small bones in his back cracking, pain shot up through his back and upper body. Then he too felt something grip his throat tightly and lift him into the air. Through his new pain, he opened his eyes and he saw who it was.

 

A coarsely feminine voice, filled with annoyance but deadly in its calmness, spoke:

 

“You pathetic monkeys, LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO THIS FUCKING ROOM!!”

 

Roughly dropping Vegita down in front of him, Freiza curled his tail, enveloping Vegita in his tail's grasp as he brought the rest of his long tail around so that he could also glare at the other “monkey” he was holding. A sick, thin-lipped smile appeared on his face.

 

“Both of you will be `graciously' rewarded for your remodeling efforts.”

 

Through his tail's hold on them, Frieza faintly felt both of his “monkeys'” remaining composures shake in uneasiness. After serving him for as long has they had, they knew just exactly he was talking about; and there was nothing “gracious” about what he had in mind for them. Frieza cackled loudly in enjoyment and anticipation of one of his favorite pastimes.

 

“I always amaze myself at my own greatness and foresight. I always knew that you little monkeys would come in handy someday. Now all that's left is to see which of the two of you will be the better monkey pet,” he paused to stare at the choking Vegita, “Will it be the little monkey prince,” he stopped, turning to look at Suika, “or will it be you?” His maniacal laugh was heard again throughout the ruined room. After his sole bout of laughter expired, he turned his head and called out:

 

“Zarbon!”

 

The two Saiya-jins hadn't noticed that anyone besides Frieza had been in the room with them for the past few minutes. Unfortunately for them, they also noticed that both Nappa and Radditz were gone, and they were now alone with Zarbon and Frieza. “Take my little monkey, clean her up, and take her to my chambers!”

 

“Yes, Lord Frieza!” Zarbon replied as Frieza released his tail's hold on Suika, who dropped to her knees, gasping and gulping for much needed air. Zarbon let her pant there for a couple seconds before helping her, a little roughly, to her feet. Wordlessly, Zarbon turned and half-dragged a still dazed Suika towards the exit. She was able to look back at Vegita for a moment before eye contact was broken and she left the room.

 

<><><><>

 

Leaning heavily on Zarbon for support and gradually recovering from lack of oxygen, Suika walked slowly and quietly down the halls of the ship.

 

“It's been a while since you and Vegita have had a showdown,” Zarbon remarked casually.

 

“Old habits die hard,” she said with a small mumble, her throat hurting from the effort to speak. “The prince is an asshole, anyway,” she added with some tartness.

 

Zarbon chuckled in thorough agreement. “That he is.”

 

“But he is my prince,” she then added.

 

“Considering that you're both on Frieza's shitlist, no doubt you will both get the same degree of punishment.”

 

“He thrills at such things,” she scoffed..

 

Zarbon minutely shrugged. “It wasn't the smartest idea to do battle in that room, on this ship. You Saiya-jins can be surprisingly dense.”

 

Other than a light growl, Suika didn't respond to that vocally, as her throat was still aching. Zarbon huffed slightly as they reached her quarters.

 

<><><><>

 

Suika laid on Frieza's large and luxurious bed dressed in a lightweight, thigh-length, low-rise, light tan skirt, with a matching sleeveless, low-necked midriff top. Her tail, which was usually curled tightly about her waist, lay unfurled beside her on top of the bed. She lay still and strangely calm. Much of that had to do with the fact that she was still sore and bruised from her bout with Vegita, so moving about as little as possible was preferable. And fortunately for her battered body, Frieza's bed was amazingly comfortable as well.

 

There was no question that his chamber was beautiful; she had always given him credit for his lavish taste, which was reflected not only in his personal rooms but in the other sections throughout his grand ship. His bedroom's color scheme contained different hues of pastel blue. Three different chairs were set up around the room, all of which sported alien designs. A couple of large, abstract-looking figures, symbolic models representing Frieza's race and family, were set up in opposite corners of the room. Other light alien decorations accented the top of the walls.

 

The floor was soft and smooth to the touch, and was a light blue-ish/white color. His room was truly a beautiful and comfortable place to be. Of course, none of this was really surprising to her, since she had spent many nights in this very room. After blankly looking about the familiar room for a while, she began to drift off, but shook off the sleepiness with a mental curse.

 

Damn it! I need to stay awake!! He could come in at any second and it's better to be awake than to be sleeping when he arrives! Who knows what the hell he's planning? She sat up slowly, wincing slightly as she did, to prop herself up against the collection of pillows resting against the intricate headboard.

 

Despite her determined attempts to stay awake, she was too worn out, too sore, and was lying on too comfortable a bed to fight off the fatigue that was equally determined to take over her weary body. So she ended up falling into a dreamless doze that, in reality, only lasted a few minutes.

 

In the back of her mind, Suika had become vaguely aware of something thick and warm coiling around her neck, slowly getting tighter, and tighter, and tighter…

 

Suika came out of her short, but deep sleep wide-eyed and frantic as she felt her ability to intake oxygen slowly drop. Instinctively, she began to claw at the hindrance choking her before she looked up into Frieza's smirking face. He had wrapped his tail around her neck as she lay sleeping.

 

“N-noo, n-nnoo -” she wheezed hoarsely in protest. She unclenched her hands and placed them on the part of his tail that was wrapped around her neck and rubbed its smooth surface awkwardly. She was trying to resist her natural urge to dig her sharp nails into his tail, while trying to regain her breath. Amused by her reactions, Frieza stalled for a couple seconds before releasing her, then watched with an indifferent look as she struggled for air. When she was finally able to breathe, she looked up at him and caught his unreadable expression. Slowly, she moved off the bed and made a dutiful bow in front of him.

 

“Master Frieza.”

 

“Stand,” Frieza said after a few moments. She rose to her feet upon his command.

 

“What do you want, Suika?” Frieza asked his voice deceptively gentle.

 

“It's not what I want. It is what you want,” she replied calmly. Frieza smirked.

 

“I want you to tell me what you want.” Suika looked at Frieza with uncertainty, unclear of what his motives were. An ambiguous question like this needed to be answered with utmost care.

 

“You've granted me many substantial leaves from your side for assignments. That was what I wanted. I have nothing else to ask from you, my lord.”

 

Frieza raised an eyebrow, as his tail loosely snaked its way half way up one of her legs. Sukia stood unbothered, until the tip of his tail graced her unobstructed `lips,' just barely dipping into them before slowly rubbing against them. The familiar, arousing touch made Suika inhale a quick, deep breath, forcing herself to stay as unaffected as possible.

 

“Nothing else?” he prodded.

 

“Nothing else of importance,” she replied, inwardly fighting to keep the calmness in her voice. Frieza smirked.

 

“Suika,” Frieza started, almost offhandedly, while his tail once again dipped inside, just a little farther than before, “I'm not really sure what to do with you.” This time around, Suika's sharp intake of air was a little more audible, but she remained unmoving, despite what he was doing to her. He started to slowly dip in and out of her warmth in a tantalizing rhythm as he continued speaking as if nothing but their shared conversation was going on. “Tell me, Suika, what should be your punishment?”

 

She was finding it more and more difficult to stand upright and ignore the feel of his tail teasing her body. The warmth and thickness of his tail moving in and out of her was slowly starting to awaken her hardly controlled sexual side. She took a breath before answering, “I - cannot decide that.”

 

Suika closed her eyes momentarily and forced her thoughts onto willing her own tail to stay calm, which in turn would keep her entire body calm. Frieza moved towards her until there was less than an inch between them. “It would seem that Vegita has already had his fill for today.”

 

At the mention of Vegita's name, she noticed the very faint scent of her prince coming off of Frieza's body. At the same time, she felt him remove his tail completely from her body, followed by a swift punch to her stomach. She lurched forward to fall only to be stopped by Frieza's tail, which held her from the floor. He circled his tail around her neck just enough to bring her head up so that they were face-to-face and his dark, beady eyes were boring into hers.

 

“It really is a shame. For you see, all of my gratitude has been given to Vegita,” he continued with a smirk.

 

“Vegita?” she whispered incredulously.

 

“Vegita,” Frieza repeated. “You, however, will be saved for tomorrow. And I warn you, Suika, do not go to Vegita, for any reason. Do you understand?”

 

“Sire,” she said, nodding slowly, regaining air to her body.

 

“Good. Now, my contrite little monkey, get out!” Frieza abruptly dropped Suika from his tail's clutches. Pausing for a second to take a deep breath, she stood up, gave a bow, and left his room, but not before she heard Frieza's departing words to her:

 

“Make certain that you are well-rested tomorrow, Suika.”

 

<><><><>

 

Suika was fuming as she stormed down the corridor.

 

“Vegita! Fucking Vegita! How dare he take Vegita over me! And that fuckin' stunt he just pulled! But…No! Instead of favoring me, he goes and plays with the fuckin' prince!! If it wasn't for that stupid brat of a Saiya-jin, I wouldn't be in this condition!”

 

Blind with rage, she turned a corner and felt herself run into someone. Recoiling from the contact, she took a few steps backwards, then glared at the person and snapped:

 

“WATCH WHERE THE FUCK YOU ARE GOING!!”

 

The short, pink bumpy alien in front of her crossed his arms scornfully in front of his chest. “You had better take that back, little monkey, and show your superiors better respect!” Dodoria snapped back with great annoyance and a hint of a threat. Suika looked at him harshly, though she was a little surprised that it was Dodoria she had run into. In her weakened state, she was in no mood or position to get in any kind of entanglement with the pink, spiky marshmallow.

 

“You are nothing but a blob of shit, Dodoria!” she seethed back.

 

Dodoria uncrossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. “Why you -!”

 

“Frieza,” she was all she said, with silky smoothness, just as she saw him raise his arm, only stop it in mid-air. Then she merely walked around him and headed to her quarters.

 

Dodoria growled. “Fuckin' monkey whore!” he said aloud to himself. None of them were allowed to touch her unless they had orders or direct permission from Frieza to do so. But then again, that didn't always mean that Dodoria or Zarbon fell under that particular rule. “Shit!” he muttered, annoyed with himself that he hadn't remembered that exception quickly enough before she had already gone. He thought about going after her, but let it pass. Then he smirked and continued on his way. Never mind, he thought, there is always tomorrow...

 

<><><><>

 

Vegita sat up sharply upon hearing the small sound of a door closing outside in the hallway. Frowning, he got out of his bed and walked to his own door, sensing the signal of the strong, agitated ki moving away from its assigned room. He opened his door without making a sound and peered out. From his doorway, he saw the figure of Azure walking down the darkened hall towards the stairs and silently followed behind, keeping his own ki down to the point of being undetectable.

 

He had followed her downstairs, stealthily into the shadows of the living room, into a position where he could see more than just her back. He observed her as she moved to the uncovered window to look up into the sky, as if she could find her answers in the dark, starlit night.

 

“Again,” he heard her say almost inaudibly to herself. “Why the fuck am I having these dreams, these visions? Frieza and all those other creatures with strange names - Suika, yet another new, but still so blurred, image of that strange alien woman … and Vegita. Yet another appearance of that one they call `prince.'”

 

Another? Vegita thought incredulously. I can sense the Earthling in her; she looks like an Earthling, she obviously has lived as an Earthling. A confused Vegita honed to her voice as he listened as she began talking to herself again.

 

“This Frieza, Vegita, and all the others, who are they really? Why do they keep haunting me?” Minutes went by before Azure finally huffed to herself in frustration, “This is stupid!”

 

Vegita thoughts went back to earlier that night when he had walked out of the kitchen and Mirai had followed minutes behind him. He had made note of the conversation, if one could call it that, between his future son and the girl, and of the tank incident earlier in the day. Something about her was very off; something strong and disturbing was nagging at him from within.

 

Azure had opted to go outside, hoping that the brisk night air would help clear her head. Vegita, stayed in his place of concealment in the shadows of the living room, keeping tabs on the girl, who hardly ventured more than a few feet from the door. A small amount of time went by until she came back in to the house. Just as he had followed her earlier, he did so again, never being noticed.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*