I'm back with a new story, I hope you will like it. It will be a BV story eventually, but I plan to make the saiyans pretty dark, just like I pictured them in my previous one-shot: Christmas Carol.

Predestination

Chapter 0

Prologue

The air was hot and it had a high humidity, making it hard to breath. Bulma was also sure, that it had a little less oxygen in it, compared to what they had on Earth. It reminded her of the air on high mountains. It was dark around her and it was hard to make out the objects with the small light what was provided by the torches hung on the wall. She sighed; it was already a year ago, that she was transported to this planet and she was working as a slave in one of the gold mines. At nights, sometimes she still had nightmares and saw how people got slaughtered on Earth. She was lucky enough to escape and she was dumb enough to hope that once the small boy returned to Vegetasei, they were saved. She had no idea that the boy only went back to report that the planet has been cleaned out from most of its original habitants and it was ready for sale. She remembered how shocked she was, when he arrived again with four other monsters and they gathered some of the survivors into a spaceship, while killed the rest. Again, she had luck on her side as she was alive and dropped on Aoi-sei. At least she still had her life, even though her freedom was lost. It wasn't just that, but she also lost her parents and friends. She became friends with a girl called Chichi and there were also some other people living with her, but many had died as they were not cut out for this kind of hard work. The original inhabitants of Aoi-sei were humanoid, with the basic difference that they had purple hair and pointy ears. Also, they were more durable as humans and during the saiyan invasion; they were already used to this labour. Saiyans did three different things with planets; sold them, destroyed them or invaded them. Mostly they never bothered with invasion, unless the planet was extremely valuable; like this one, which had a gold mine. She heard that they also invaded around 10-12 other planets, where they also enslaved the original population to work for them. They had no choice, everybody who opposed the saiyans, were killed off instantly. Saiyans never bothered with prison or other punishments. Disagreeing with their order meant death. In case the culprit was lucky, it was instant, while at other cases saiyans enjoyed torturing them, until they begged for death. Bulma hardly ever saw a saiyan since she arrived, as they only got here to transport back the gold to Vegetasei. In case they felt like the mined gold was not enough and the workers were not working hard enough, they remained for a few days, "supervising" their work.

Finally Bulma managed to get out from the tunnel and the bright sunlight made her eyes water. She dropped a metal piece on the ground and sit down, trying to get her breathing under control. The environment was almost completely destroyed around the mine, the ground was bare and as far as she could see, there were no trees. She heard that there are animals, but they lived far away in the woods and only the hunters dared to approach them. The settlement was self-supplying; some slaves worked on the fields, to farm. It was mostly the tasks of the women, as they were not as sufficient in the mines as men. Just like humans, the Aois' stronger gender was men.

"What are you doing?" Gale asked, who was one of the shift leaders from Aoi.

He was about 30 years old with long purple hair and strong body. His red eyes were piercing, searching for anything out of the place. Saiyans nominated 3 shift leaders it total, who were accountable for the work to be completed. They had a tight schedule in order to mine the sufficient amount of gold. Even though shift leaders had some privileges (like they had their own houses and received an extra amount of food each months), Gale was supportive and never threatened them with whip, unlike his other two "partners". The reason why they had to make sure the work is done was easy; in case they failed the deliver the goal, the saiyans killed all three of them and appointed new ones. It was a cruel way to make sure, those individuals terrorised their own race. Also, it spared them manpower as they left Aoi without any saiyan supervision. Even so, when they came, people were afraid and with every right. Sometimes, saiyans picked up a random guy and simply killed him off, just for the fun of it.

For months Bulma had trouble to differentiate between the inhabitants of Aois, as apart from their different hair-length, they looked the same. As she got used to them, she saw small features on their face and managed to tell who is who.

"I'm working on the machine" She answered.

The machine was actually an engine for the wagons. The mine had a railway system in most of the tunnels, but the workers had to push the wagons manually as all the engines broke ages ago and there was nobody, who could fix them. Almost all their scientists were killed during the invasion and the remaining few died soon after, as they were not cut out for physical work.

"There is no way, a little girl like you can fix something so difficult" Gale sighed.

"I'm already 11 years old!" Bulma answered and put her hands on her hips.

"Exactly" Gale laughed, but left, without arguing further.

Bulma got up and went to the engine, which stood just outside the mine, at the end of the tracks. She was almost done and once she fixed this, it would be much quicker to fix the other three. It's not like she was an average kid; she always hung out in her father's lab and learned many things from him, when he was still alive. She shook her head; she had to focus on work, there was no time to get depressed over something, what she couldn't change. Or can she? She remembered on the legend of the Dragon Balls, but that was just a myth, wasn't it? There is no way that they could be real; capable of fulfilling any wish… And even in case it was true, the Dragon Balls were on Earth and she was on Aoi-sei, with no hope of ever going back. She was glad, that the saiyans didn't destroy her planet and they decided that it was valuable enough to sell. At least she still had her home planet on some level. Again she shook her head and focused on her work. Her clothes were already full with grease, but it didn't matter as everybody had dirty garments on. As a slave, she only had a brown trouser and a white T-shirt, which was rather grey by now. She had boots, but as the weather was warm, she took them off and walked barefoot outside the mine. Aoi-sei was the most similar planet to Earth, that's why the saiyans dropped the humans here. She heard that the gravity on Vegetasei was 10 times higher and most of the planets had similar high gravity.

"I miss my daddy" She heard Chichi whispering as they were sleeping later at night in their tents.

The children had their own sleeping quarter, which was made from several linen and it was tied to logs, which were deep in the ground. They were lucky that Aoi-sei had a long summer with a short autumn and spring, but still, sometimes the nights were cold and they shivered under the blankets. They had no electricity and torches were dangerous in a tent, so they had to sleep in complete dark.

"I miss mine too" She answered and grabbed her hand.

Chichi was one of the few children, who survived so far. Most of them died within weeks after they arrived, just like the elder people. Her father was a material artist and he trained her from a very young age, so at age 6, she was way stronger as a normal 6 years old.

"That boy…" Chichi began "who killed our families, he looked as young as me. How can somebody be so strong?"

"Saiyans are monsters. Their power is beyond anything, what I have ever heard of." She answered.

The real problem wasn't even the boy's strength, it was the fact that he turned into a great ape at full moon. One of the fighters, Roshi managed to destroy the moon, but he still lost the fight and had to pay for it with his life. Bulma remembered that she saw it in the news, as the military also tried to take the boy out, but it looked like he never even felt the bullets. Humanity lost against one single saiyan…

"Tell me again about the Dagon Balls!" Chichi asked.

She already heard the legend a million times, but she wanted to hear it again. It gave her hope, that she can have back her father one day.

The next morning Bulma got up earlier and made her finishing touch on the engine. When the alarm woke up the rest of the settlement, she just turned on the machine and to everybody's utter surprise it was working.

"You really did it" Gale cried out, shocked.

"I told you I can do it!" Bulma grinned at him.

While she indeed told him that, she wasn't entirely convinced. For one, she didn't have proper tools and the parts were also limited. She was sure it will break within a few weeks, but even if they can use it for a few hours, they work will be so much easier. That was the day, when Gale pulled Bulma out from the mining duties and she was assigned to repair the tools and the rest of the engine. She couldn't believe how lucky she was, to have a special assignment as she wasn't cut out for physical labour either. Her palms were full with blisters and her arms with scratches and small bruises. Even so, she decided not to give up, she had to live for the sake of her parents, who saved her life by losing their own. For once, when the saiyans arrived a week later to get the gold, they were sure, that they managed to mine the required amount.

As soon as Bulma heard the noise of the cargo-ship, she knew that the saiyans were landing. She avoided ever going to their landing side, but she still wanted to know what was happening so she climbed on a rock and watched the happenings from there, hiding behind another one. Two saiyans stepped out from the ship. One was a huge bald man, who was called Nappa by the other, younger one, who had long raven hair and was only around 10 years old. His name was Radditz and he somehow reminded Bulma on the boy, who were sent to Earth. Maybe he was his older brother? Even though she lived there for a year, she knew hardly anything about the saiyans and only saw a couple of them.

"Quickly, load the ship!" Nappa called and looked at the slaves, who were standing around the cargo ship.

As the slaves loaded the huge boxes, Radditz inspected them one-by-one, making sure that all had the necessary quality of raw gold in it. It was a hard work to load the ship and it just made things worse, that the two saiyan watched them, sitting on the ground, doing nothing. With their power, the work could have been completed within minutes, while it took the others hours to finish it.

"I'm hungry, get me some food!" Nappa called.

"Right away!" Grey, one of the workers answered and he rushed off towards the kitchen.

The first time Bulma has seen them eat, she thought she was dreaming. They managed to consume as much food as 20 people and all that with an incredible speed. It was stunning, that even though they looked entirely human (apart from their tail), they were extremely different. Nappa began to chew on a piece of grass, while Radditz lied down and decided to take a map. The villagers were already prepared for the request to bring them something to eat, so within 20 minutes they placed a huge table for them and loaded it with plates full of food.

"It was about time!" Nappa grunted and hit Radditz between his ribs with his elbow.

"What?!" Radditz asked, sitting up irritated.

"The food is here, let's eat!" Nappa answered and pulled the table in front of them.

Again, Bulma watched them with awe. While they seemingly eat a lot, they were not fat, but rather muscular. Could their body really use up all of that nutrition?

"Why are you watching them?" Chichi whispered as the crawled next to her.

"I just have to know as much about them as possible."

"Why?"

"In order to escape one day."

"Escape? We don't even have a spaceship!"

"I know, I'm working on it. Right now I'm trying to find out their week spot. Everybody has one, so even though they seem invincible, they must have a weakness as well. They just must!"

While she sounded confident, she felt that their situation was hopeless and all her efforts were futile. But she was Bulma Brief, she wasn't ready to give up just yet! Then again, even if they escaped, where would they go? They cannot go back to Earth, it's already inhabited by aliens. Sure, she could try to find a new planet, but she might run out of fuel, wandering aimlessly in space and die out there. She knew saiyans were dealing with planets, maybe they had a database and she could find her new home there. It meant, that she will need to find a way to get to Vegetasei. She was sure, they had a laboratory there and even just getting a spaceship would be easier. But how could she get there? How could she convince any of the saiyans to take her with them? Also, how would she be able to endure the gravity on Vegetasei?