Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Unfaithful ❯ Part Four: 27 ( Chapter 27 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

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________________________~*Part Four*~: War
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"Turles!"

The newly-promoted soldier kept on his mission for the new king, which was to find the head of Vejitasei's small science council so that detailed maps of Earth could be located, despite his pursuer. Ever since the takeover, Vejita had had everyone on the go, making battle arrangements. One good thing about him was that he wasted no time, even if he didn't always use the best of logic.

"Damn you, boy, turn around!"

Turles rolled his eyes at the reference of him as 'boy', never breaking strides. He couldn't deal with Bardock's guilt-trips now. The man was pathetic-- Vejita hadn't been on the throne for two hours before he started complaining about how bad of a job he was doing. Turles knew that it was Bardock's history and friendship to Vejita's mother that kept him alive now, and that only.

"I won't ask again!" Bardock snarled urgently from a few paces behind him. "You are my son, fool! You will respect my word!"

Turles couldn't take it anymore. "Dammit, Bardock, will you ever quit?! Vejita won't step down until this war is over! There's no point in fighting it and moving out of his favor!"

Bardock looked as pathetic as he sounded. It was as if the world was ending to him or something. "I know that. I just want to give you a word of caution from Magdalene-- don't cross him, least of all now. He will have you 'dealt with', if you know what I mean. He's lost control of himself, no matter how cool he may seem." The man placed a hand on Turles' shoulder. "Whether you were involved in this or not, I would hate for any of you boys to get hurt."

"I don't need you and Magdalene's warnings," was the curt reply. "I know Vejita perhaps better than all of you, remember?" He then checked to be sure that they were alone, and lowered his voice. "Besides, all that he wants is to retrieve Bulma and for Yamcha to be killed. Its not like he wants universal domination."

"Ah, Bulma," Bardock muttered. "Kami help her. I can only imagine what will happen when she and especially Yamcha find out."

Turles had thought of this already. He knew what Yamcha would do-- go ballistic. And Bulma... he didn't know her well enough to say, but she would surely take the brunt of the punishment from her husband. So he did not speak of this to Bardock. "Where is Magdalene now?"

"In her chambers. She just... sits there, staring at nothing. Thinking of Vejita's father, no doubt. Aren't we all?"

"No," Turles protested loyally. After all, Vejita was as close to a best friend as the Saiyan warrior could think of. "Vejita has more honor, better reasoning, less greed..."

"All of which are out the window during war."

"You are being treacherous, old man." Turles began to walk away, glaring as if Bardock was just another fool, and not his father. "Remember, Vejita has eyes and ears everywhere."

And it was true. At that very moment, Vejita was being informed that Turles and Bardock had been conversing in hushed tones by one of the palace guards. Settling back in his throne, Vejita did not worry because Turles would return soon, adn could be dealt with then. For now, he had to think of how he could announce his ascension to the people of Vejitasei without bluntly saying that he had heartlessly overthrown the wise and popular Queen Magdalene. He grudgingly found himself regretting that Bardock resented him-- he could have used a diplomat right now.

Why had he taken control of the empire, really? Not for world domination, as most people would presume. And he didn't want to abuse the power he now held for his own selfish purposes-- with the exception of Bulma, that is-- but that wasn't really all for him, he reasoned. He would be saving her life, actually, and he knew that she would make an excellent queen for his people, once all the dust settled. Vejita hadn't taken the throne so that he could boss everyone around, either (this was bound to be a popular theory, however), though for the moment that was what the people needed. He had always had more than enough power to satisfy his need for control.

No, none of those reasons prevailed here. The real reason, Vejita decided as he shot a staring guard a venomous look, was because of Magdalene's passive way of ruling. All his life, he had sat around and watched his mother console and spoil any passing citizen-- or ambassador, for that matter-- therefore giving her people and foreigners alike the impresison that they could get away with murder, literally and figuratively. Eventually, the fear that had been associated with the Saiyan empire had declined, and Vejita would be damned if he let their proud heritage be thrown away so that Magdalene could spare a few people's feelings. And, he admitted to himself, his feelings had been magnified when Bulma had become involved in this.

If it had been any other woman, Vejita would have had the planet purged already, without so much as a remorseful second thought. But no, it had to have been her, the lovely Bulma. She was so perfect-- in looks, in her mannerisms, in her personality. She could easily charm an entire population into doing whatever her little heart pleased, and that was real power in Vejita's eyes. She was the only woman that Vejita had ever deemed worthy of more than five minutes of his time, and for good reasons. After all, it was only fitting that the most powerful man got the most beguiling woman! Vejita would accept no other, not now. The woman had gotten under his skin-- ever since her first day on his planet, when she had hummed his song, changing it into something miraculous and somehow entirely different, something that made her impossible to resist, marriage to his enemy or no.

Thinking of her made his mind dwell on her whereabouts-- on Earth, unprotected from her sick tyrant of a husband, utterly defenseless. Perhaps she was being beat up, or even raped, or-- dare he think it?-- dead at the hands of Yamcha. She was probably giving up hope of rescue about now, giving in to Yamcha's every whim... Vejita cut off that chain of thought immediately. It was thoughts like that that almost made him lose control. Or had he already? It was getting harder and harder to tell.

Thankfully, Vejita wasn't given the opprotunity to lose control for much longer. With a slam of the heavy throne room doors, Turles and a twitching, nerdy-looking man entered and bowed to their new king. Vejita received them with a somewhat annoyed expression-- the other man was getting on his nerves already.

"You had words with Bardock?" he snapped in Turles' direction, not one to put things off. "Why all the secrecy?"

The man looked surprised, though he tried his best to hide it. "He's my father, Vejita-sama! Yes, we spoke, but it was nothing. He warned me not to cross you, and said that that message was straight from Magdalene."

Vejita recognized a truthful statement and switched his attentions to the stranger, who trembled in the presence of his intimidating king. "And who the hell are you?"

"I- I'm the head of the s- science council, Y- Your Majesty," he stammered almost incoherently.

"Speak clearly, you imbecile," Vejita ordered, rolling his dark eyes. "A man of logic should be smart enough to know that I couldn't possibly kill someone that I needed information from!"

"Oh-- yes! Information!" the scientist said, as if just remembering his purpose there. From his pockets, he pulled out several large, rolled-up maps, which he held out to the king.

"What the fuck are you looking at me for?" Vejita spat. "Lay them out and demonstrate your knowledge." Reluctantly, he got up from the throne (oh, how natural he felt there, looking down on the trembling subjects!) and walked over to the center of the room, gesturing for the head scientist to place his maps there.

"Well, first we have a basic topographical map of Earth, which shows us where the mountains, valleys, and such are located on the planet," the man began, sounding much more at ease speaking about things that he knew than he had when answering direct questions. Turles and Vejita leaned in to examine the large map as the man spoke. "As you can see, they have situated the majority of their large cities, including the capital where the palace is located, in valleys that are typically surrounded by small mountains. They'll make a great resource when you want to trap all the people in the valley, as you can see."

"Wouldn't that work both ways?" Turles pointed out. "They could keep us out of the capital with those mountains acting as a barrier."

Vejita shook his head at Turles' stupidity. "Look at the color of the mountains, fool! They are barely a step over hills. Getting over them is easy for us, but not so much for them, since they can't fly. They've trapped themselves within the cities, and if I know Yamcha, he has gathered most of the people there for quick training."

The scientist nodded in agreement. "That seems to be the most likely action. As I was saying, if you surrounding the cities, you could easily trap the humans, and then overwhelm them with soldiers."

Vejita smirked. "That should be easy enough to do. Our armies outnumber theirs easily."

"And look-- there are several major rivers cutting through the mountains here and there around the capital," Turles observed. "That would be a good place to camp, if need be."

"The rivers could also be used for contamination," the scientist suggested with a wicked smile. He seemed completely at ease now. "If you poisoned the river with any number of substances, then their water supply will be utterly useless, therefore weakening their armies."

"I like that." Vejita smirked. "Considering their weak immune systems, we probably wouldn't even have to fight them. They'll drop like flies once the poison enters their system. Do you know of such a chemical, scientist?"

The man thought for a moment. "If I asked some of the other scientists, we could probably come up with something. It should be easy enough, since humans are so fragile."

"Bulma would have to be warned somehow," Turles said to Vejita. "If she accidentally drank the water..."

Vejita realized this for the first time. If he poisoned the water supply, which also went to the palace, then he could very likely kill Bulma as well, and that would defeat most of the purpose of war in the first place. Getting somebody to slip through the thin loopholes in Yamcha's tight security would prove to be difficult, however, and there was no guarantee that the message would even reach her... or that she was conscious enough to comprehend what it was relaying. "Fuck..." he muttered. "Poison is out of the question, at least for the water supply that goes to the palace. There is no sure way that word can be sent to her. Are there any rivers that don't go to the palace?"

"One," the scientist replied after consulting his map. "But it goes along the outskirts of the city. There's no telling if anyone uses it for drinking or not."

"Its worth the effort," Vejita decided. "Arrange for it. I don't want the concoction to be fatal, however." His features darkened, and Turles felt a cold chill go up and down his spine. "I want them to writhe in pain. Besides, my men will need some fun to keep their motivation up."

The scientist gulped, then nodded. From his pocket he withdrew a notepad, which he scribbled notes on. "I shall have it arranged, Your Majesty, and I'll have instructions written up on the procedures for putting it into the river."

"What's on the other map?" Turles asked once the man was finished writing.

"The other map shows the main streets and alleyways that go through the capital city," he explained, laying out that map on top of the other one. "I apologize that we don't have a map of the castle, but even we have our limits. Blueprints could not be acquired, it seems. But the queen's location should be easy enough to determine-- she'll be heavily guarded."

Vejita thought of his dream, where Bulma had been on the front steps of the dismal palace, and suppressed a shudder. "I wouldn't put too much faith in such assumptions. Yamcha will do what he thinks we won't be expecting. She might very well be kept in a very obvious location."

"That sounds more like Yamcha to me," Turles agreed with serious eyes. "He'll be taunting us with her, no doubt."

"More importantly," the scientist began cautiously, having heard of the protectiveness Vejita had for the pretty human, "He'll send out all of his armies before allowing you to face him and Queen Bulma. Which means that you most likely will never see her until-- if-- you've won the battle."

Vejita's eyes flashed at the 'if' thrown in there, but otherwise did not comment. "The capital is child's play," he moved on. "Its the other major cities that may cause problems. No large city can be left unattended, or else we could be ambushed while trying to infiltrate the capital."

"Certainly, Your Majesty." The scientist spread his hands nervously over the map, his sharp eyes scanning the color-coded cities for differences in population. "It looks to me like you will be able to post at least ten men at each city with populations of one thousand or more."

"One thousand?" Turles repeated incredulously. "We have that much in two city blocks!"

"The people of Earth do not like to live in the cities," the man explained. "The climate is such that they can spread out into the country, where they can own land and live their own private lives."

"Yamcha will have every man and boy gathered at the cities," Vejita estimated, crossing his arms and surveying the map with calculating eyes. In his mind, he was already seeing his men invade the cities, burning and destroying everything in their path. "No one but the women and the young children will be left out in the backcountry. All that needs to be done to gain control over them is send a small group of soldiers to each major city, and the bulk of the armies to the capital, and the human population will be nicely contained."

"How do you plan to uh-- exterminate them, Vejita-sama?" the head scientist asked. "The humans may be weak in body, but they make up for it in technology. They have guns, and explosives that could destroy an entire fleet of ships."

"Bullets cannot penetrate a Saiyan ki," Vejita corrected him. "The only way that their guns can harm us to if some idiot has his guard down. And as for their explosives-- that is not unique to them anymore. I have already sent men to get state-of-the-art firepower of our own from neighboring planets."

"We'll run out of energy at some point, Vejita." Turles looked skeptical of Vejita's cockiness. "A man cannot keep up his aura forever."

Vejita didn't even hesitate in answering. "Think of how many humans can be killed in that long span of time, Turles. By the time your energy runs out, you'll have killed every one of the bastards within a four-mile radius." The king then stepped away from the table with the maps and motioned for them to leave. "Thats enough for now. Come back tomorrow and we'll discuss this further. I'll send someone for you."

The head scientist bowed, shakily gathered up his maps, and scurried out of the room, leaving only Turles and Vejita near the table. The lesser man regarded his king with suspicious eyes.

"You really think that its going to be that easy, don't you?"

"You sound like you know better, Turles," Vejita snapped, not liking the demeaning tone in his friend's sullen voice. "If you know something that I do not, by all means, enlighten me."

Turles shrugged. "Sure, it'll be easy to take control of the cities and that, but as far as retrieving Bulma goes... You and I both know that Yamcha won't make it that easy. He'll pull something shady-- like hold her at gunpoint or something. She won't come without a price, Vejita, and something tells me that it'll cost us many lives to pay it. And who knows what she'll be like when we get there? When she was being dragged away, I saw something change in her. She was giving up, at least a little." The man paused for a moment, and horrible images of the torture that Bulma would surely be put through circulated through both their minds. "How long do you think one human woman can last before she cracks under the pressure?"

Vejita felt his fists clench with a will of their own, and his power level fluctuated with his raging emotions-- anger and fear, mostly. Anger at his helplessness, and fear at the possibility that Bulma could come back to him an empty shell, beyond recovery. "Get out of my sight, Turles, before I decide that its time for you to crack."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Turles bowed slightly and began to exit the room. Before he left, however, he stopped and turned back to Vejita, who was as still as stone. "Just remember what I said-- for both you and Bulma's sake."

Vejita waited until Turles had gone, then he turned on his heel and with a flash of golden light shattered one of the large picture windows. Anger and frustration consumed him, blurring all of his logic together into one incoherent heap.

Control. He musn't ever lose control...
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After checking over each and every unfortunate man and boy lined up in the city streets, Yamcha had finally relented and led Bulma back to the castle. She stumbled and nearly fell several times during their walk, so eventually he was forced to take her arm, but other than that, he avoided all contact with her. There would be plenty of contact later, and he wanted to wait until then, to make it special.

He kept them up at a brisk pace, ignoring the greetings of the people they passed. He didn't care what some half-assed noble thought of him and his decision to wage war on the Saiyans-- he'd heard it all already, and he wasn't going to listen to anybody anymore. From here on out, Yamcha needed no assistance. He was handling this war himself. And, as it turned out, he wasn't the only one to have decided that. Just as he was coming through the doors of the throne room to check on his council's progress, he was ambushed by a dozen of the anxious human men, all gesturing and chattering frantically.

"What's all this?!" he demanded shortly, pulling Bulma behind him so that the men could not get a good look at her. He hated it when others looked at her. There had been a time when he didn't mind so much, because from admiration came jealousy-- of him-- but now, he could never be sure if Bulma was looking back or not.

"Its the Saiyans, Your Majesty!" one man spoke up, his facial expression bordering on panic. "They've crowned Prince Vejita as their new king-- or rather, he's overthrown his mother and taken the position!"

Yamcha felt butterflies materialize in the pit of his stomach, and he began to look a little green around the edges. "Wh-- what did you say?"

"Its not 'Prince' Vejita anymore," the man repeated gravely. "Its 'King'."

Damn him! Yamcha thought, running a hand through his hair. Damn the Saiyan and his need for power! Winning a war against Magdalene wouldn't have been so difficult, but winning one against the likes of Vejita was entirely different. The man was ruthless-- he would slaughter the entire army and his own without a second thought, and then move on to him, and he had a feeling that his death would not be so quick. No! What was he thinking? Yamcha glared at the floor. Just because Vejita was in control now, didn't mean that the war was won yet.

"Queen Bulma?" one of the men inquired gently. "Are you alright?"

Yamcha inclined his head slightly to glance over at Bulma, who had gone pale as a ghost. Her pink lips trembled, and her blue eyes were wide as saucers. She was worried about what her infamously violent little prince would do with the might of the Saiyan empire in his hands, no doubt. If he hadn't fallen under her spell years ago, he would have now, just looking at her.

Suddenly, something occured to him, something that he should have known all along. Vejita would prove to be a powerful and calculating ruler, yes, but he had one weakness-- a fatal weakness. Bulma. Yamcha's lips twisted into as much of a smile as he could muster as he thought of all the perverse ways he could use the woman to taunt the Saiyan King. This war had just gotten to be a lot more fun.

"She's fine," Yamcha answered for her, still smiling that odd smile. "And there has been a change of plans. I've decided that my wife and I will attend the party for the soldiers tonight. Arrange for a tent for us to sit under, at once."

After some men hurried to oblige, Yamcha relaxed a bit and watched Bulma out of the corner of his eyes. When he had decided to allow the armies one last night of good fun before the war really began, he hadn't even thought that he and Bulma would think to attend, but now... An dehumanizing, mean-spirited idea had begun to form in the dark recesses of his mind. It was time to show his discouraged soldiers just what they were fighting for.

"It looks like we won't be turning in early after all, my sweet," he informed Bulma mischeviously, once again taking her arm in his own. "I hope that you still have some of those party dresses."
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They all thought that she was locked up in her chambers like a good little queen, seething, but she was not. Sitting and wallowing in her anger would do nothing to remedy the situation, and Magdalene knew that from years of experience.

It hadn't taken her long to reach the outskirts of the city, seeing as how her hooded cloak kept her identity safe from the people who kindly pointed out the shortcuts along the way. It was easy enough to get through the maze-like capital that way. Eventually thought, the city ended and she was heading along a scruffy, rarely used trail that led out into the red, barren desert and over to a place where no one would think to find her.

The large gray marble looked as if it had taken the worst of the desert wind, and the sand had all but eroded away the engraved lettering on the monument. Magdalene traced shaky fingers over the words, her mouth moving in correspondence with them as she went.

'King Vejita XIV. Proud in life, strong in death.'

Magdalene clearly remembered the fool who had made up that laughable lie about her husband. Yes, he had been proud, but of all the wrong things. She supposed the engraver had been payed, though certainly not by her or Vejita. And strong in death? He had been murdered by his own battered wife, who had noted the unmistakable fear on his dark features.

She no longer had nightmares of it-- in her view, Kami picked the time of King Vejita's death, and she had just been lucky enough to be there to be the means of his destruction. But that was not why she had come.

She had come to her husband's grave in the lonely desert to seek answers. No, she did not expect her dead mate to come to life and tell her the planet's secrets, nor did she plan to stand and stare at the oversized block of stone all evening.

You see, her people had been blessed with a gift. Some say that it originated because of the Saiyans' deep love of war, and some others said that it is the gift itself that caused the love of battle. Either way, it did not matter. Because sometimes, when the situation was right, a Saiyan could look upon a grave and get premonitions of what kind of knowledge the owner had possessed in life. Until now, she had dismissed the theory as merely that-- a theory. But she was desperate, and she needed it to work now.

After all, who could guess what was going on in her son's head better than his own father?
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Rhapsody~*
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(A/N): Hey everyone! Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and the fairly steady updates. I'm trying my best to stick to the routine of updating here, while juggling my studies and horse shows at the same time, so please bear with me and have some patience! With that in mind, I'll warn you now-- I'm going to a horse show that lasts from tomorrow (Thursday) to Sunday. That means that I can't update until Tuesday or Wednesday. Thats not too long, is it? Anyway, I apologize in advance.

And oh yeah-- I WON I WON I WON I WON!!! Haha, there's a shameless plug for myself! I won first place in Vegeta Goddess's Fanfiction Competition for "Pitch Black"! Yay! I feel so... *sniff sniff*... loved! Thanks to Debido, who was a judge, for all the good (and bad) comments on the judge's form. If you're reading this Debido, I'd like to thank you for your e-mails! ^_^

So, please remember to review, and see ya in the next chapter...


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