WHAT DARKNESS BROUGHT.
CHAPTER 14 – Be careful what you start, finish it.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DRAGONBALL/Z/GT.
ALL CHARACTERS ARE A PRODUCT OF AKIRA TORIYAMA.
This story may contain Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence/Gore, Strong Language, and Ideologically Sensitive.
A/N: -thought- "speech" (mental speech) internal conflict/conscience
She overlooked the hand drawn blue prints she had recreated of the ships electrical systems for the millionth time. Her powder blue brows knit together as she stared at the configurations of wires and connections that lay before her. She balled up the plans along with the overlaying schematics and howled her furious frustrations to the ceiling above her. It had been weeks since she had informed her fellow maroonee that they were shit-out-of-luck unless they found that last remaining piece to this jigsaw puzzle of a patchwork ship. She had updated the ships to the fullest extent to keep her mind occupied and otherwise trained away from a certain Sayain prince. In doing so she had created a food generator that took a combination of compounds create a plethora of foods out of seemingly thin air. Bulma had also created waterless showers to cleanse them by means of sonic waves and lasers saving the ships water supply ingestion alone while in space where resources needed to be conserved. She looked down at the crumpled mess of paper wadded in her clinched fists before allowing the disfigured mass to fall from her fingertips to the floor. The pain she felt from how tightly her hands held their inanimate victim throbbed into them with her blood's pulse through her veins.
She found herself without much to do since having upgraded everything about the ship within capability of the material she had to work with. A lot of her tools she either had to scrounge or make for herself. She enjoyed it for it gave her more to do than to sit around idly. She spoke more to her saboteur lately. Often she wondered if it was from boredom or curiosity that she spoke to him at all. Often in the earlier weeks she treated Vegeta with a mild form of neglect. When they passed entered into the same space a nod from her and a grunt of a response from him is all that would be exchanged. On many occasions as of late she would catch herself staring at him as if she were trying to unravel the mystery to life itself. Bulma knew what lust was and this amount of concentrated pondering was something more than just physical attraction. She came to this realization when he would come back from wherever he had gone to do what only he knew adorned with his own blood, bruises, and burns. Her deep blue eyes traced each break in his skin with the utmost scrutiny. The sight caused worry and concern to bubble and twist in her stomach.
He felt her eyes on him, but he refused to acknowledge it or even show Bulma any sign that he had noticed. He could feel her tension as she stared upon him. –What does she want?- The frequency of her attention to him had grown in the passing weeks. He often wondered if it was because she was bored or if it was because she had run out of things to tinker with. –Does she know?- The hidden microchip came into mind briefly as the prickling intensity of her burning gaze vanished. Vegeta heard the shift of her delicate feet and she turned and softly padded out of the room and then disappeared from his peripheral watch. The only thing she left behind was the stir she caused in his emotions and her faint sweet scent spliced with something wild that was solitarily hers. –No, she would have come out and said something if she knew.-
Vegeta tensed his muscles until he felt the sting of the ki burns and the stiffness of the bruises that marred his skin as he walked to his quarters. After stepping through the threshold of his doorway he continued to his shower. -The woman at least had enough sense to leave my facilities well enough alone.- He had spent days upon days arguing about her entering his personal quarters to install what he had dubbed her 'unnecessary contraptions'. To his surprise she relented when he voiced his point about injuries and how they needed the heat as well the water. He remembered that day clearly because he was surprised how her eyes softened at the word 'injuries' and then how she inspected every part of his mildly roughened appearance checking ever so carefully. As soon as she had let her guard down it was back up again. Her head snapped up and her face screwed up with an expression of sour anger as she began huffing her breaths sharply and then stomping away, but not before screaming that he was an idiot and he could have it his way. A hint of a smile crept into the left corner of his mouth. –Damn, woman.- The thought would have come out as a purr had it been verbalized. His title for her was an almost caress. She had become more to him than an object of physical attraction. She entertained him with her sarcasm and wit. He also found her presence soothing when she wasn't ranting or screaming her lungs out at him. Vegeta found himself enjoying her company and noting the lack of her presence when she was otherwise occupied or he was out training.
His muscles soaked up the heat and melted away the dried sticky blood from his skin. He stared at the floor as he tilted his head down so that the hot water could ease out the stiffness and ache out of his neck and shoulders. Vegeta's eyes were drawn to the small gory tornado that circled the drain until it went from reddish-brown to dirty pinkish foam from his added soap. The cleanser stung his opened cuts and the patches of raw broken skin as he bathed tired body. After the water had done its part and the minor sting dulled away, Vegeta turned off the shower and stepped out to towel off. He dried most of the water from his hair and dabbed at the more tender and blemished part of his flesh before dressing in new clothing.
It was now night and the haze of the still burning cities turned from their smokey-blownish-black to grey-blue-purple. This was her scenic view from her perch atop the ship. The city was miles away, but the plumes of smoke were visible even from this distance. The fact that the city smoldered on led Bulma to believe that there must have been a refinery or some sort of chemical factory to keep it going. The morbid aftereffect of Vegeta's rage had become a visually pleasant sight towards nightfall she had come to realize only to disappear as the stars began creeping across the sky at a snail's pace. She loved this time of day when the lights in the sky changed drastically and the smell of the air changed with them. She shivered as the air lost its heat and chilled her skin as it ran over her body. The cooling breeze coupled with the cold metal of the ship's hull under her backside were becoming unpleasant, but not so much that she was ready to give up her serenity to go inside. Her hair lapped at her face and neck gently with a few wisps of her soft night darkened powder blue hair blew into her eyes. She reached her hand toward her face to push back the rouge locks, but it never made it to its destination.
Vegeta felt compelled to remove the stray strands of hair from her eyes and extended his hand to do so before she moved. He knelt before her without making a sound and one of his hands caught hers before it reached her face and her closed lips snapped open in surprise at his touch. He froze for only a moment as they both stared at one another. When her breath slowed from her mild shock only then did he move forward to brush away the wild strays. Her deep blue eyes were full of questions and surprised as her delicately smoothed his fingertips up over brows into her hairline above her temple stopping there before his thumb joined in to test the texture gingerly between them. –Just like I thought…- The texture of her hair was far from what was on his mind when he had been with her before. Then it had just been about claiming her to produce an heir and thus begin the rekindling of the Saiyan race. Now he took more notice in the smallest of details about her.
"What are you doing?" Her voice fought to hold onto an authoritative tone, but her questioning overrode her bravado. She was so transparent and knowing that she chose to give up on trying to save face. Part of her was unnerved and the other part of her desperately had to know what cause his actions. When he didn't speak and just kept staring down at her with his ever stoic almost emotionless expression she repeated herself a little more loudly. "Vegeta?"
"Your hair is soft." That was the only response he gave her as he continued his exploration of her. His hand slipped from her hair trailing over the shell of her ear and the slowly rolled her ear lobe between the pad of his thumb and the second knuckle of his forefinger.
"Yea… Ummm…okay? Thanks?" Her nervousness rolled in her stomach and vibrated out into her limbs, hands, and feet. Her body shook with faint tremors, but not from fear. She was uncertain what his motives were and not knowing set her on edge as well as peaked her curiosity. Her eyes rose from his to the dark comb of black hair on top of his head. "Yours is nice, too. …I… I have to go… Engines… Generator… Fix something… Very bus-"
"Have you been claimed by anyone else since-" Vegeta kept his eyes trained on hers and he watched as her pupils dilated and contracted at the question. A smirk struggled in futility to make its presence, but his unreadable mask kept itself firmly in place. She inhaled and that was the cue telling him that she was ready to speak. His eyes skimmed down to her slightly parted lips so that he could watch them mold the words into his answer.
Bulma jerked out of his reach and the moment his warm touch left her soft skin she felt cold. "…THE HELL!? WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT!? That is none of your business!"
He remained calm and a hint of a smug smile tugged at his mouth. "Answer the question, woman." He was openly taunting her now and he began mentally ticking down the seconds until she exploded.
"So, what if someone had!? What then? Don't tell me that you're the jealous type. You'd have to give a damn to be jealous. Who I screw is my business alone and I know for a fact that you don't give a damn about me unless I spawn your bastards!"
He chuckled at her reaction and because she didn't disappoint him by releasing her fury. "You're not the harlot you claim to be. No one has had you since the night I took you. I would know if they had and your reaction confirms it."
"There isn't any way you could-" Her words halted as he slowly tapped the side of his nose. Bulma's lips curled inward as an expression of complete satisfaction spread over his face.
…We're mates now." His voice reached her ears as a low rumble though his words remained clear.
What does that even mean? You and your cryptic-bullshit-Saiyan way of speaking, I swear." She stood to her full height and shifted her weight to turn, but not before Vegeta caught her arm.
He held her arm loosely in his hand's grasp and when he knew that he had her attention once more he continued. As he spoke he released her. "You haven't had another male claim you. By Saiyan law, you and I are mates per tradition."
"No, no, no! So let me get this straight. You get to fuck who you want, and as long as I don't screw anyone in a 'certain timeframe', I belong to you!" She realized how her words had come out and tried to save herself in hopes of him not catching what she almost admitted. She may not love him, but she definitely felt a strong attraction to him. "BULLSHIT! I don't belong to you, not anyone. I won't!"
Vegeta lost his temper at her rejection and roared his displeasure at the accusations. "There has been no other, woman! We are mates because we both have gone without another partner all of this time!"
The shock melted away as the weight of his words bore down on her. "All WHAT time!" She entered his personal space standing within inches of their noses touching. Her challenging demeanor dominated over her previous position of retreat making it dull memory. "Have you finally lost the last bit of your meager intelligence? If I didn't already know you were I'd have asked if you were CRAZY!" Her narrowed eyes made her glare look like that of a ferocious beast.
Most of his anger faded when she stood up to him and the blue of her eyes shone as they reflected her rage and the stars glow. Her glare and snarl reflected her rage. To Vegeta she was never more beautiful than when she was seething with anger. "…Gorgeous." The word he spoke was barely above a whisper.
Her expression folded into one of question though her fury still held its place in her eyes. "What?!" She hadn't heard him because she was too focused on her boiling temper. When he didn't answer her she ask again lacing her words with venom. "What. Did. You. SAY?!"
As Bulma dropped each hate laden word the building smirk on his face grew and being the sharp tongued prince that he was he was compelled to goad her further. "Is the plain universal standard too much for Earth's greatest scientist to understand? Shall I draw it out in crayon, or is it that of all the Saiyan traits you have inherited hearing was the one you didn't reap the benefit of?" He scoffed and backed away before turning to leave. "What a waste, such an inferior subject to be given such a gift. It is a crying shame that YOU are one in a handful Saiyans that still exist."
Bulma watched as he turned and at his last comment her body pulsed with her fury. Her blood felt as if it was boiling in her veins and at the height of her anger there was an eerie feeling of peace. At that moment something within her was freed and a great feeling relief accompanied it. Everything was much cleared all her senses where honed on her sole target. It was almost as if she could predict his next series of movements. The previous problems she had with developing ki control had vanished and she called her energy forth and it answered to her will. She channeled a small amount into her palm and the hurled it to impact with the back of Vegeta's head. However at the last minute he felt the level of her ki rise and turned into the blast.
The expression on her face was peaceful, but her eyes held an animalistic form of malice and there was a faint smile on her lips. His reflexes saved him from a full on hit and the small ball of energy brushed his cheek before zipping past him to explode in the distance behind him. As the dust and rocky debris rained down upon them, neither moved an inch. Their attentions were fixed on the other and the remained motionless until Vegeta began to laugh as he had been told that he had been punked and the Saiyan race was still in existence. "So you want to fight? I see that you have control over your ki. It feels like nothing else. The power to obliterate all life or just to have the knowledge that you could if you so choose. Finally you show your Saiyan nature. Well…" He tugged at the bottom of his armor and pulled it free from his torso. "…I want to see what you can do." His armor crashed to the ground indenting the hard soil with its weight. Vegeta crouched into a fighting stance and waited for her to make her move. He was coiled and ready for what he knew to be certain victory; however, this wasn't about winning. He wanted to test her and know her limits.
Bulma had trained on her own for some months using what she had seen from the countless fights and battles she had witnessed with her friends. She was still an untrained novice when she was pit against Vegeta's years of combat experience and battle hardened skill. Her pride would not allow her to back down. She knew there was no chance of beating him, but her reason had left her when she released the first ki ball from her fingertips. She channeled her energy and cleared her mind as he spoke, taunting her into action. His goading did have its desired effect she leapt into action. Vegeta dodged her attack with ease as if her movements were stuck in slow motion. He almost felt sorry for her when he delivered the first blow sending her into the ground.
Bulma growled in frustration as she pulled herself up and shook off the dirt and rocks. He had caused her pain, but not enough to keep her down. Vegeta's smug expression deepened as she lunged for him again albeit faster this time. She almost caught him off guard with how quickly she came at him. She was almost as quick as he was and every aimed punch she threw at him was caught and then returned with one of his own.
She wheezed and doubled over as the pain from his blows gripped her. Her tears burned down her cheeks and Vegeta backed off. "…Had enough, I take it?" He snarkily ask as she shuddered with the pain. Part of him felt concern for her, but the other part of him knew that if she was going to use this power she would have to be shown what to do with it. Using it in anger as a child throwing a tantrum would not do.
When she said nothing from her crouched and beaten position he threw another punch. To his surprise she caught it and he now stared down into her burning tear reddened eyes. "No! I've not had enough!" She shook with a combination of pain and anger as she stood defiantly before him. She quirked a pained half smile as she challenged him.
A smile crept across his lips and a small amount of pride welled within him at her defiance and inner strength. In a flash he released a ki ball into her midsection. Her body slumped downward as her unconscious form fell against him. "Good. I would expect nothing less."Paste your document here...