Rock Your World
Part 19 – Tail Torture
I had never been so humiliated. The supposed strongest person in the universe, face down, devoid of power, in front of all my friends and family, with my son's boot grinding into my back.
I was aware that it was driving Vegeta insane to not bolt to my side and beat Gohan off of me, but he wouldn't put me in danger by getting between a possibly insane Gohan and a man with almost no ki.
"Go-han," I choked as he pressed the air out of my lungs, I felt my ribs straining, possibly cracking under the pressure, "Why a-are you…? What did I…?"
"Just payback," Gohan said sleekly, jabbing his heel into my spine, "I've been below you my entire life, it's nice to have the situation reversed; to have you at my mercy."
"W-what?" I coughed, "Are you insane? I never-!"
He cut me off by squashing the remaining air from my lungs and I spat blood and felt several ribs snap. Bulma cringed and looked away and Vegeta was positively shaking with rage, his hair flickering to gold and back. Goten was crying and most everyone else was staring mutely. Except Trunks. He was doing a perfect imitation of Gohan's sneer, holding Vegeta back with one hand and Piccolo with the other, swearing that if either of them budged, he'd signal Gohan, who had me pinned powerless beneath his boot. Gohan held all the cards.
"You were never –" he grabbed my tail in his fist, knowing that it was my most sensitive area, I yelped and shivered as he ran the rippling appendage smoothly through his fingers until he came to the tip, I froze, " –there for me, ever –" he squeezed the tip of the tail on the last word, I bit back a moan of fear and pain, refusing to show weakness, " You forced me to fight, never asked whether I wanted to or not, you disappeared after every battle, whether you died trying to play the hero, or just vanished into space to train for three years!" with every word he accented, he squeezed my tail brutally, harder each time. His references to my self-imposed defeats at the hands of Radditz and Cell, and the incident where I'd disappeared after Frieza, made me burn with shame. I deserve this… Gohan has every right to punish me for my sins…
"Then there was Buu," Gohan growled, loosening his grip on the tail only to grip it a little lower down, "I finally got to see you after seven years, and what did you decide to do with your one day back on Earth? What did you do?" he dug his fingernails into the fur and skin, eliciting a shout of pain, "Answer me!"
"I-I…" my voice rasped, my throat burning from the abuse and the lack of air in my lungs, "I c-came back… I…."
"Wrong," Gohan said in a deadly quiet, twisting my tail viciously, I screamed, trying desperately to get away from the agony. It was like the whole thing - right up my spine to the base of my skull - was being pressed to a white-hot iron while being pinched between iron jaws, "You came back, yes, but only to fight in the godsdamned Budokai tournament! You didn't come back for me, for mom, or Goten who you didn't even know, you came back to satisfy your fucking Saiyan bloodlust even after that's what got you killed in the first place!"
"I…" I began, sobbing now, unable to stop the tremors and whimpers that shook my frame; the world had narrowed down to me, my attacker, and the scalding pain assaulting my tail, "I…I'm s-s-sor-ry…."
"Oh you're sorry?" Gohan leered, wrenching the twisted knot of tail to the side, making me shriek and writhe, "Well, that's just peachy, now everything will be perfect, right? Gods, when did you become such an idiot? Vegeta's right, you're an absolute imbecile! And speaking of His Royal Highness, how – could – you – fucking – fall – in –love – with – that – damn, arrogant murderer?" He dug his heel into my back after each word, as if I were a bug that simply wouldn't die, no matter how hard you squished it.
I choked on a wash of blood that rushed into my mouth, I could barely even feel the pain anymore; which I took as a bad sign, maybe Gohan had messed up my nervous system, or maybe I was going into shock.
"But…" I strained to get the word past my savaged throat and mutilated teeth, "ChiChi…s-said…"
"That's another thing," Gohan snarled, "Three months ago; mom's funeral, everyone cried but you. Why? Didn't you care?" he shot a bolt of ki down the length of my tail and I screamed again, the pain returning with a vengeance; and I prayed, for the first of many times that day, for the end, "Or were you glad to be rid of her? Glad she couldn't boss you around anymore?"
I promised her I wouldn't cry…. I tried to get the words out, to explain, but my ability to speak had left me; maybe I'd broken my jaw or ripped my windpipe from screaming.
"You know what I think?" Gohan said coldly, letting my tail untwist itself. It didn't matter; the agony remained, making every inch of my body feel as if it were on fire, "I think you never loved her. I think you never loved me, or Goten," he laughed mirthlessly, "Hell, you full-blooded Saiyans are little more than animals, can you even feel love to begin with?"
Yes. I retorted, unable to wrench the word out, but it throbbed in my mind nonetheless, …so much that I almost died from it. That I have died for it, more than once.
"Oh, no, you wouldn't know about love, would you?" Gohan sneered, "After all, you've spent two months fucking that bastard Vegeta. He's probably ashamed of you right now, I know I'd be. He probably doesn't like to see his fuck-buddy get his ass handed to him -"
Gohan didn't get to finish. With a roar or pure rage, Vegeta – at level two of Super Saiyan – attacked Gohan; pinning him to the ground beneath him and raising a ball of ki over his head.
"Vegeta, NO!" I shouted, squeezing my eyes shut; the two words destroying my throat and making my head feel like it would explode.
Vegeta stopped, hand still raised, and looked over his shoulder at me with teal eyes crackling with lightning…tangible fury.
"D-don't kill him…please…m-my fau-lt… my fault…." I sobbed, amazed that I could actually form words. Gohan seemed surprised too.
"I guess I didn't give Saiyan healing proper credit," the demi growled, "By all rights, you should be dead by now,"
Vegeta snapped his gaze back to Gohan and punched him in the face.
Gohan didn't even blink.
"Let…him go," I pleaded.
"Why? So he can kill you?" Vegeta snarled, spitting out the words.
"He…could have d-done it be-fore…" I reasoned. Obviously Gohan didn't want me dead. He just needed to vent his anger. Maybe if I showed him I still loved him, he'd forgive me….
Vegeta slowly got back to his feet, his eyes never leaving mine.
"For you, Kakarot. If you hadn't asked me not to, I'd have killed him in a heartbeat."
The instant – the very instant – that Vegeta's weight left Gohan, the demi-Saiyan leapt to his feet. Vegeta started to turn and walk away, and Gohan's eyes followed him. Vegeta helped me to my feet, giving me ki to help me stand.
"Senzu?" I asked. He reached in his glove and fished one out, pulling down my lower lip gently and placing the bean between my ravaged teeth.
"That's the last senzu, Kakarot. The freaky cat won't have any more until the next batch grows," Vegeta muttered. He always did this, whenever we were out, he let me know so I didn't do anything drastic until we had more. Just another small show of how much he actually cared.
When I could stand on my own, Vegeta turned back to Gohan. My gaze followed his and I froze. Gohan had a ki blast aimed at Vegeta's chest, I sensed enough power to kill.
Gohan spoke in a clipped voice, "I can't kill Dad; I won't, but I can kill you,"
The beam of light seemed to move in slow motion, leaving Gohan's hand and approaching the prince with deadly aim.
I didn't think. I IT'd in front of my lover and shoved him out of the blast's trajectory; but I didn't have time to get away. The energy struck my chest with the force of a freight train and I collapsed; the world around me fading to black.
The last thing I heard was Vegeta's scream.
TBC