Author's Note: First, I am so sorry that it took me so long to update. I decided that I wanted to get the story finished before posting another chapter. I felt that the story wouldn't flow as well if there was a hiatus between chapters. I also wanted to make sure that I was satisfied with the ending of the story. I went through several moments of writer's block. I had a few instances where I realized I had written myself into a corner. And there were plenty of times where I had to scrap a lot of what I had written to start over. I'm glad to say that it's finished, and to thank you for your patience, here are the final chapters of this story. Enjoy.

Silver Linings of a Distant Sky:
The Wish That Changed It All

~ Chapter Seventeen ~

As soon as Vegeta's consciousness had returned to his body, he found that he was on his knees, kneeling before a ruthless and mentally unstable Bulma. While her left hand was holding Goku at bay with a steady, aqua-colored energy beam, her opposite hand was forming a ki ball, aimed at the prince's head. In that single moment that Vegeta had regained awareness of his surroundings, he had but a split second to react to the situation. The super saiyan female released her ki ball at nigh point blank range, the orb of energy phasing from her hand towards its target at a rate of speed that was far too fast for the naked human eye to see.

An audible crash and a moderately small plume of smoke and debris filled the spot that the flame-haired super saiyan had been occupying. But as the dust settled, the spot was revealed to be vacant. Bulma's teal eyes darted upward and quickly locked with the matching teal eyes of her adversary. From his vantage point in the air thirty-or-so feet above her, he stared down upon her with a displeased expression that was emphasized by the lashing of his tail. An aggressive grin spread across the woman's face as if to challenge his unspoken condemnation.

Vegeta had just barely been able to dodge his mate's ki ball. He acknowledged that the attack was not meant to kill him. Subdue him? Yes. Maim him? Possibly. But kill? No. Because of the very open link he still shared with her, he knew that she still needed him alive. Her turbulent thoughts and chaotic emotions continued to swim over and through him. But he no longer bothered trying to fight the constant bombardment of her mental will. He realized that doing so only crippled his ability to fight her physically. In fact, he was now welcoming the waves of insanity and rage that she offered him. He would use this emotional and psychological energy as a weapon against her, as fuel for the ugly deed he would have to commit, as a means to an end.

As the former lovers silently stared each other down, Vegeta allowed himself a small moment of weakness. The task ahead of him weighed heavily on his mind. Although he appeared impassive on the outside, his innermost feelings were of sorrow, loss, and guilt. Bulma immediately picked up on these emotions and her grin faltered. Distracted, she abruptly extinguished the ki beam she had been sending towards Goku. The spiky-haired man was surprised and he hesitantly lowered his crossed arms to observe the sudden change of events.

The prince felt small ripples of confusion float along the stormy sea of the woman's emotions. But those ripples didn't last long, couldn't survive against the tsunami of rage and tides of madness. Her confusion faded quickly, the ripples swallowed up by her more dominant feelings. And as the female forgot her moment of confusion, the dangerous sneer grew stronger on her face.

That hideous expression on Bulma's face was enough for Vegeta to lock away the remorse he felt knowing that he would have to kill her. She plucked his murderous thoughts from his mind and in return he felt a surge of vindication from her, as if her earlier accusations against him were clearly justified. Her fury intensified, but also became more focused. Vegeta fed upon this collected resentment, allowed it to fill his core, to overwhelm his mind and body. Bulma's ire and irrationality were familiar to him, having experienced plenty of it in his youth in addition to having acquired the same experiences of the Before Vegeta– no, that other Vegeta, that false Vegeta. Although this Vegeta had vowed never again to visit such a toxic state of mind, he felt a twisted sense of comfort as it welcomed him back into its dark embrace.

Before the prince became swallowed whole by the swirling black emotions, he called out to their one and only audience member while keeping his eyes locked on the female. "Kakarot. No matter what occurs from here on out, you are not to get involved. Do you understand?"

Goku, who had shifted from a defensive to an offensive stance, was confounded but unsurprised by the older man's instruction. "Are you sure?"

"Do you understand?" the flame-haired saiyan repeated quite irritably – Bulma's emotions were already having a strong influence on his mental state.

Goku conceded but was clearly unhappy to do so. He powered down into his base form. "Yes. I understand."

With the taller man's compliance, Vegeta surrendered the last vestige of his control to the madness. To submerge himself completely within this delirium, he dredged up all the memories of his servitude to Frieza. The treachery. The torment. The abuse. The hopelessness. His stoic expression slowly morphed into something sinister, something cruel, something ruthless. His lips peeled back into a fierce grin. His eyes twinkled with malice. A menacing and dark chuckle rose from deep within his chest, quiet at first, but grew louder and more frightening as his own lunacy grew. Goku was visibly stricken by the prince's sudden change in demeanor, having never before seen his comrade in such an awful state. His wide eyes were filled with doubt, fear, and uncertainty. Had he made the right decision to remain uninvolved?

Bulma watched Vegeta's transformation with rapt attention. As the prince fell further and further into his dark state of mind, the woman seemed to shrink away from him, if only slightly. She could see, feel, hear, taste, and smell the multitudes of hellish moments that the prince was reliving in his mind. Her own mind reeled from the overwhelming experience. Her self-confidence and self-righteousness waned during a brief moment of clarity as she realized that perhaps she had unleashed a beast that she was ill prepared to contend with. Vegeta's dark laughter simmered down, but his vicious grin remained planted on his face. He could taste her coiling fear over the scent of the dry and dusty air. And it only served to feed the crazed monster within him.

"What is the matter, my mate?" the prince sneered in the saiyan tongue, completely lost to his own insanity. "Was it not a fight that you wanted? Or perhaps you presumed that I would be easily subdued? To crawl on my belly at your feet...? To be used to suit your own needs and ambitions...? To be a slave to your desires as I was once a slave to those of Frieza?"

Bulma opened her mouth to rebut, but words escaped her. She needn't say a word anyway. Vegeta could discern her scattered thoughts through their bond. He heard her immediate denial followed by her reluctant acknowledgment that that was exactly what she had intended without even realizing it. He could feel her mind churning, contemplating, calculating quickly as she tried to figure out a way to turn the situation back to her favor. He listened as her thoughts returned to his intent to kill her and how she latched on to that thought with desperation. The woman used this knowledge to steel her nerves. She gritted her teeth in determination as she glared rebelliously at her former lover, unwilling to allow him to intimidate her further.

Vegeta met the challenge she issued through their shared link. He phased in front of Bulma, catching her by surprise. He was much faster than she had expected him to be. When the prince suddenly appeared directly in front of her, the female reacted quickly and instinctively as her fight mechanism kicked in. Her right fist snapped towards his face. The reaction was so quick that it was poorly aimed, thus the flame-haired man was able to block it with ease. He immediately retaliated with a fist of his own. The fight was on.

Their battle was a flurry of punches and kicks. The exchange of blows was almost evenly matched. Several attacks were either dodged or blocked, but most met their marks. No longer acknowledging the woman in front of him as his mate, Vegeta saw only a creature that would capture and enslave him if he did not fight back. His mind reeled at the thought of being forced into servitude yet again. He pressed his offense against Bulma with brutality, delivering powerful and sharp blows to her torso. Already, she had a few fractured and broken ribs.

Likewise, the female super saiyan viewed her former lover as the source of her possible execution. She refused to accept that outcome. She would not be assassinated so easily. She was crafty and devious, fighting dirtily and aiming for the prince's weak spots. Bulma targeted the injuries Vegeta had sustained during his earlier battles that day with the intention of worsening these wounds; perhaps she could cripple him in the process. He had begun to favor the left side of his face, and so it was there – in particular, his left temple – that she attempted to strike whenever the opportunity presented itself. If she hit him just right, she might be able to render him unconscious, and then he'd be hers for the taking.

It was not long before their confrontation took to the sky. Bulma was the first to go airborne. While attempting to dodge another uppercut to her lower ribcage, she avoided the brunt of the blow by levitating slightly into the air. While averting his attack, she used her momentum in an attempt to kick the side of his head. At the last moment – and it was just at the last moment because she was quite fast – Vegeta caught her ankle with his free hand and threw her into the atmosphere. He followed in fast pursuit, stirring up a whirlwind of dirt and dust as his ki propelled him into the sky.

Thanks to the bond, the woman knew that her opponent was quickly approaching her from below. She righted herself, turned towards the prince, and fired a hastily formed ki ball at him. The attack was sloppy and went wide. Bulma quickly gathered another sphere of energy and launched it at her former lover, this time taking an extra microsecond to aim better. With little thought, Vegeta deflected her ki attack with one of his own, closely circumnavigated the colliding balls of energy, and closed the gap between them. Before she could put herself into a defensive position, the flame-haired man rammed his knee into her solar plexus, causing her to bend painfully over his leg.

Bulma's eyes widened to saucers and her mouth opened to a full gape. The wind had been knocked completely out of her and a few of those fractured ribs were now fully broken. Rendered almost completely powerless, she nearly slid from her position draped over his knee. In desperation, she reached out with her left hand and grabbed the collar of his battle armor to steady herself. She then reached up towards him with her other hand, struggling while doing so. Vegeta watched her precarious situation with cold and cruel eyes. He raised both his fists above him, planning on slamming them down upon her back.

Blindly, the female searched for something more to cling to, her right hand pawing at the prince's chest and shoulders, eventually making its way to feather over his jaw. At that same moment, Vegeta charged his fists with ki, preparing his blow. Too late, he realized that Bulma was not searching for somewhere to grip him. Instead, she had been searching for his face and, after having found it, she blasted him with a quick burst of her own ki. Vegeta reeled backwards from the cheap shot, his own attack forgotten as he covered the ki burns on his face with his hands. Without his knee beneath her to support her, the woman fell several dozen feet towards the ground before managing to recover enough to prevent a complete free fall.

After coming to a slow stop, Bulma managed to lift her head enough to inspect the damage she had wrought upon her adversary. Doing so revealed a steady trickle of blood dripping from the left corner of her mouth. The blood was from a punctured lung she had also sustained from Vegeta's most recent blow. She coughed and wheezed as her ability to breathe came back to her. Fortunately for her, the prince was recovering from his own injuries, giving her a few precious minutes to regain her composure. When the prince finally drew his hands away from his face, the right side was angry and pink, inflamed from the ki burns. His right eye was nearly swollen shut and his hair appeared singed on that same side. The duo locked eyes once more for just a brief moment and then the battle resumed.

The former lovers launched themselves towards each other simultaneously. Another burst of fists and feet were exchanged. Their injuries were taking a heavy toll on the combatants; Bulma's attacks were slightly slower and Vegeta's were a bit less powerful. They made up for these shortcomings by planning their attacks with greater care and precision. Unfortunately for Bulma, her injuries were far more serious than Vegeta's. While his injuries only slightly affected his field of vision and depth perception, hers were having a serious impact on her mobility and endurance. The odds were slowly tipping in Vegeta's favor.

The female's injuries were not the only cause of her hindered fighting ability. During the short few minutes that they had been battling, the prince had already determined that she was quite inexperienced in a true fight. Sure, she had years of sparring experience under her belt. But when it came to actual combat? She was a pure rookie. Bulma had nothing compared to the decades of purges and warfare in which Vegeta had participated. He noted that she was making far too many mistakes, left herself open far too often, and allowed herself to be vulnerable to far too many of his attacks. He was beginning to believe that the only battle that she had actually participated in – the one in which she had killed Frieza and his father – was a fluke that had occurred in her favor. It was pure luck that she had transformed into a super saiyan while the arcosian dictators had been in their subdued forms.

In the days and weeks after this battle was over, Vegeta would look back on this fight to analyze Bulma's performance. He would come to the conclusion that her inexperience in battle was because she had come to rely too much upon three important factors – factors that she had utilized in order to intentionally avoid combat. The first of these was the common knowledge that she had single-handedly overthrown King Cold and Lord Frieza, two of the universe's most feared tyrants. When she had defeated them, that fear had transferred to her. Secondly, she had acquired the ability to transform into the mythical super saiyan, a power far greater than most of the known races in the universe. Only those who were foolish would think to challenge someone with so much power at his or her fingertips.

The final piece of the puzzle was that body armor Bulma had built. She had had the foresight to expect that eventually she would come across someone who might be a threat to her power. Thus, she had designed that suit to not only resemble the arcosian race – to remind any challengers with whom they were contending – but to also offer a nigh impregnable defense. Unfortunately for the woman, all three of these factors were currently worthless. She had failed to take into consideration that she would one day face the Prince of All Saiyans in combat.

Vegeta threw a punch that caught his rival in her jaw. He followed that with a left jab to her right cheekbone. And then three more strikes were delivered to her midsection. Every time she failed to avoid one of his attacks, she grew more furious and her techniques became sloppier. Bulma tried to counter his blows with some of her own, but was hard pressed to succeed. She tried to catch him with a left hook aimed for his temple. He ducked. She attempted an uppercut to his jaw. It was a glancing blow. Her right foot struck towards his left side, but he blocked it with his forearm.

The saiyan prince unleashed another brutal series of blows to the female. He connected with a right cross to the left side of her face, followed up by a left uppercut to her chin. An immediate right jab to her stomach had her doubled over in pain once again. Vegeta cocked his left leg back, planning to send his knee crashing into her, but she managed to block the appendage with both her arms before it could connect with her face. Bulma snapped her head upwards, catching his nose with the back of her head, a sickening crack filled the air as his nose fractured.

The woman used the lucky shot to her advantage, pressing her offense despite her weakening condition and her increasing number of injuries. She sent a few strikes to his torso. The first two connected while the prince had been nursing his nose, but the third and forth attempts were blocked. She sent a right kick at his now unguarded face, but she was too slow. He ducked as her leg spun over his head. Bulma used the momentum of her spin to gain speed, twirling around a full 360 degrees, her right arm pulled back to punch him, determined to make that fractured nose a full break.

Vegeta saw the strike coming. Just before Bulma's fist could connect with his face, he grabbed a hold of her wrist, and pulled her sharply towards him. He quickly released her only to immediately wrap his muscular right arm around her head, locking her in place. Knowing she was in a precarious position with her back exposed to him, she desperately pushed and clawed at him like a trapped and wild animal as she tried to escape his grip. She was feisty and fought frantically. She had nearly slipped from his grasp at one point, but he tightened his hold on her, reducing her already limited ability to breathe. The prince pounded into her kidneys with his left fist, further weakening her.

The flame-haired man didn't expect the cheap shot that she delivered next. The woman caught him completely off guard with a ki-infused right jab to his groin. He immediately released her, shoved her roughly away, and doubled over. He mentally cursed her, curses she heard through their bond, that the blow was cowardly and dishonorable. Leave it to a female to fight so shamefully. She ignored his barbs and used the break in combat to put distance between the two of them. While Vegeta struggled not to vomit from the pain deep inside his gut, Bulma slid into a ki-gathering stance.

The prince sensed his adversary's accumulation of energy and quickly forced himself to overcome the gut-wrenching pain. She was gathering her ki at a tremendous speed. Vegeta could sense that she was growing desperate to end the fight. The further that it carried on, the less her odds were that she'd be able to subdue him. At the rate in which the woman was building up her energy, she would soon put all she had remaining into the blast she was preparing. And if he failed to handle it correctly, her attack would have enough potential to destroy the planet one thousand times over.

Vegeta pushed the last of his pain aside and began to build his ki, consciously matching how high Bulma raised hers, and then adding a little more to his own. He stretched his arms out to his sides so they were nearly parallel to the ground. His open hands became engulfed in golden ki. The female, meanwhile, had turned so that the left side of her body was facing him. Her left leg was lifted up beneath her, coiled up like a spring. Her hands were poised at her right hip, palms facing each other, fingertips to wrists. An aqua ball of ki formed in the space in between. He recognized the attack she was preparing. It was one she had used several times during the many spars they had shared in their youth. But his attack was one borrowed from the other Vegeta and as such, it was completely foreign to her.

Bulma's energy ball suddenly spiked in power, growing larger and brighter by fifty percent, nearly engulfing both of her hands. What parts of her hands that weren't swallowed up by her ki were still difficult to see due to her energy being too bright to look at. The prince followed her suit and pushed the energy in his hands higher, knowing that his opponent was getting ready to unleash her attack. In the saiyan tongue, the woman began to chant the name of her blast while the prince did the same for his own using the human common language.

"DEADLY..."

"FINAL..."

"SEDUCTION!" she turned towards him, rotating and pressing the heals of her hands together. She stepped forward with her left foot leading and pushed all of her energy away from her.

"FLASH!" he brought his hands forward, stretching them out in front of his chest. He combined the two halves of his energy into one point and expelled his blast towards her.

Vegeta's yellow-gold beam crashed into Bulma's blue-green one. A shockwave rippled through the area, kicking up dust on the ground below. A nearly forgotten Goku shielded his eyes from the debris while watching the battle of wills unfold. The two beams of energy pulsed forcefully against one another, each one vying for control as if they were two magnets with the same polar ends pushing against each other. The gold of one beam and the green of the other swirled in a violent vortex of power. Electricity charged in the air, bolts of lightning danced and arced around the point in the sky where the two beams were dueling it out.

Sweat trickled down Bulma's brow as she pushed even more of her ki into her beam. Again, Vegeta matched her ante. Unlike the woman, the prince had plenty more energy to spare. She was pushing more into the attack, but it was not to try to gain an advantage. Instead, she was doing so out of the desperate need to keep the playing field level. Unfortunately, she was quickly growing tired. And the flame-haired man was very well aware of her fatigue. \

Vegeta pushed even more ki into his beam, knowing that she was no longer able to counter with any more of her own. The point where their attacks met slowly began to move down Bulma's beam. Her eyes widened as she watched her doom draw closer. The prince pushed even harder. The tip of his blast headed towards her even faster. She was helpless to stop it.

The sky brightened to blinding levels as Vegeta's blast crashed into Bulma in an angry explosion of color. A plume of smoke mushroomed from the point of impact. Another shockwave, this one several times stronger than the previous one, bowled over the battle site. Vegeta and Goku both shielded their eyes. After the shockwave had passed over him and after the brightness of the blast dimmed down, the prince turned towards the woman's last known location prior to the explosion to ascertain the damage.

The smoke slowly dissipated, revealing a battered and beaten Bulma. She was bruised and bleeding. Her clothes were torn and singed. And, most importantly, she had fallen from her super saiyan transformation. She clutched at her abused ribcage, panting desperately for air. She managed to make eye contact with Vegeta for just the briefest moment before the last of her strength gave out on her and she plummeted to the ground. A disturbing slap echoed in the now silent air as her body collided with the rocky surface below.

The fight was finally over. Vegeta powered down out of his super saiyan form. He descended towards the ground with an air of confidence. He landed a few feet from Bulma's vulnerable body. The only sound were those of his feet as he calmly stepped closer to her. Although she had collapsed, she was still conscious. And she was fully aware of his approach. She trembled, whether it was from pain, or fear, or both, he wasn't fully certain. Nor did it matter. He had a duty to fulfill.

Once he was towering over her prone form, the prince reached down and grabbed the woman by the collar of her battle suit. The lavender cloth tearing just a little bit more under the force of her weight as he hauled her to her feet. Feebly, she clutched at his wrist, but she was far too weak to do anything more. She met his cold eyes with her own. Although she knew that she had been defeated, her blue orbs remained defiant. But they were also resigned; she knew the fate that lay before her.

"Do it quickly," Bulma demanded quietly, switching to the human language. "Kill me if you think you must. But do it quickly."

Despite her voice being weak from her injuries, it was still loud enough for Goku to hear. "Vegeta..." the spiky-haired man gasped, surprised by the revelation of the prince's hidden intentions. "You're not really gonna kill her... are you?"

Vegeta was silent. He didn't respond to the third class saiyan. He kept his emotionless eyes locked on Bulma.

"Vegeta!" Goku pressed harder. "Think about it! She's your wife! You can't kill her!"

When the taller man took a step to move closer to his comrade, hoping to stop a terrible mistake before it was made, the prince lifted his free hand and fired a quick and small ki beam to his right. The energy collided with the ground at the other man's feet. Goku took a quick step back in retreat, confused and shocked.

"I warned you to stay out of this, Kakarot," Vegeta growled darkly. "Attempt to interfere again, and next time I won't miss."

Goku growled his displeasure. He glared at the prince, but the latter ignored the challenge. Vegeta kept his focus on the woman hanging from his grip. He retracted his hand from the third class saiyan's direction and brought it towards Bulma's neck. Feeling the contact of his gloved hand on her throat, she winced. As she awaited the death blow, she lost the remaining control of her features and allowed her fear to show on her face.

But the death blow did not come.

After a few moments where nothing happened, Bulma dared to open her eyes. She peered meekly up at her former lover and was confused by what she saw. His eyes were no longer hard and stoic. Instead, his obsidian orbs had softened as he gazed down upon her. His right hand slowly brushed along her skin, drifting upwards to her jaw line, careful not to irritate the bruise forming there, and gently cupped her face. She stared at him questioningly and through their bond, he fed to her some of the answers she sought.

The dark feelings that he had summoned prior to their battle had dissipated. While the prince had used his ominous emotions to engage her in combat, he had never completely given in to the rage and insanity. Unlike the woman, he had much more experience with anger and delirium, and therefore he had much more control over it. Where she had long ago lost touch with the real world because of her own delusions, he had not fallen to such depths. He had maintained enough of a hold on reality so that he would be able bring himself back from the brink of complete madness.

But when Bulma silently questioned him about his intentions with her life, Vegeta refused to answer her. Instead, he gently guided her head, tipping it to her left and exposing her neck in the process. He dipped his own head down, closing his eyes as he did so. He ran his nose along the soft flesh along the side of her throat and inhaled deeply. She smelt of sweat, blood, fear, and of an aroma that could only be described as her. His mate. His Bulma.

As Vegeta relished her scent, he was once again at war with himself. In his left hand, he cruelly clutched her by her collar, forcing her to remain upright. Meanwhile, his right hand caressed her cheek lovingly. This was the part that would be most difficult. He mentally steeled himself for his next course of action, recalling what d'Mele gu Saiya had told him of Bulma's fate, knowing that if he did nothing, she would succumb to that fate.

As the prince's thoughts skimmed over his encounter with Mele, his memories drifted to the events of that other timeline that she had shown him. He recalled the last moments that that other Vegeta had had with that timeline's Bulma. He focused on the final act of love that the other Vegeta had demonstrated for his wife. Mele may have only shown this to Vegeta in order to convince him that he didn't belong in that timeline, but she had unintentionally done something more than that. She had given him the solution to his dilemma. While the prince replayed in his mind the interaction he had had with the goddess, Bulma gleaned glimpses of his thoughts and feelings. Of course, they made little sense to her, and he could feel her confusion through the bond. But he ignored it. If he became too invested in each and every emotion she was giving off, then he doubted that he'd be able to finish the job.

With the thought of his counterpart's final moments during that alternate timeline, the prince whispered quietly into Bulma's ear. Using the saiyan tongue, he recited, "Bulmauka of House Nyctagis, with the blessing of d'Jitaba Saiya and d'Mele gu Saiya, I bind my life to yours, so that we may live long and happy together, and so that we may die comfortably and peacefully in each others' arms. As proof of my love and devotion to you, I give to you my life."

Vegeta could feel Bulma's sudden disbelief as he sank his teeth into the right side of her neck. He poured a portion of his life force into her. He could envision it flowing through her, filling her core, running along her extremities. Her breath stilled as his essence filled her. The prince could feel his life force binding to hers, the fibers of his being reaching out and latching onto hers. When he felt the completion of the binding after a few moments, he withdrew his teeth from her flesh. He panted from the exertion of the ritual. His breath puffed against her tender neck.

"Why?" her meek voice pleaded softly into his ear.

Vegeta pulled away from her slightly so that he could look into her face. Gone was all the evidence of her rage and lunacy, replaced by sadness and confusion.

"Why would you do that?" Bulma asked again. He knew that she understood what he had done. If he followed through with slaying her, he would be ending his own life as well. But she couldn't comprehend why he would put himself in such a situation.

The prince wouldn't give her a reason for his actions. To address it head on would be far too painful. Instead, he leaned in towards her again, brushing his lips against her bruised forehead. The hand that had been cupping her cheek dropped down to fall upon her shoulder and then drifted to her backside to support her while his left hand released the grip on her clothing, falling to the small space between them.

"I am sorry," he whispered to her as he placed his ki-charged palm on the center of her chest, just over her heart.

Vegeta could smell a hint of saltiness in the air as a single tear fell from one of Bulma's cerulean orbs. Her sadness intensified and consumed him, almost made him falter, but he hardened his resolve. All the fight had left her. Despondent, she silently waited for him to deal the final blow.

Vegeta closed his eyes, unwilling to witness Bulma's death once he delivered it to her. Instead, he offered what little comfort he could by projecting himself through their bond. He hoped that while doing so, he could perhaps find some peace for himself before he committed his hellish deed. He found that the storm that was once her emotions had stilled, allowing him easy access into her mind. Once there, he found that it was no longer a cold and barren void. It was still dark, but it was much warmer and had a much more comforting aura.

Standing there and waiting for him in the depths of her mind was her mental projection. Bulma's despair was apparent as she watched Vegeta approach. Seeing her so defeated brought him another wave of guilt, but he squashed it down. He had to remain strong if he was going to complete his task. As if reflecting the pose of his physical body, his mental image embraced that of the woman. They said nothing as Vegeta relished these last few moments with his mate. He brushed a lock of her blue hair from her face, noting that within her mind, her skin appeared unblemished from their battle.

Vegeta paused as that very important observation came to the forefront of his attention. Bulma's flesh – the mental projection of it, that is – was without any dark markings to indicate any bruising... or corruption. The wounds to her soul were still present, but the black essence that had been spreading from these wounds had completely disappeared. Shocked by this revelation, the prince retracted himself from her mind and opened his eyes. He immediately dissolved the ki he had charged in his hand. And he looked over her with a careful and critical eye.

With the same hand that had just a second ago held the power to extinguish both of their lives, the prince cupped her chin and inspected her face. The expressions of anger and madness hadn't just been replaced by her confusion. They were completely erased. Gone. Destroyed. He could no longer feel these bleak emotions emanating from her. He looked deeply into her blue orbs. They were full of fear, but most importantly, they were lucid. The wild and crazed shine of her eyes had evaporated, leaving a completely rational Bulma in its wake.

Vegeta wasn't exactly sure how it had happened, but somehow, the corruption of her soul had been healed. Likely, it had been an unforeseen result of performing the life bond with her. Whether it was the bond itself or some other side affect of the ritual, he wasn't sure. But what he was positive about was that without the overabundant taint manifesting in her soul, there was no longer any need to end her life!

A small grin broke across Vegeta's face as a swell of happiness suddenly filled him. This happiness was relayed to Bulma through the bond, eliciting further confusion from her. But her sadness seemed to wane as she realized that his intentions were no longer murderous. A timid smile graced her bruised lips. And although she looked like utter hell after their ugly battle, he could not help but to admire her beauty. He pulled her close into a tighter embrace, being mindful of her damaged ribs. He leaned in to capture her lips with his own...

A male voice, speaking in galactic standard, interrupted their happy moment. "Oh, how touching!"

Vegeta and Bulma instantly broke away from each other in a knee-jerk reaction to the newcomer's voice. Despite having separated, Bulma, in her weakened condition, relied on Vegeta's strength to hold her steady on her wobbly feet. They, along with Goku, gazed towards the source of the voice... and towards the last remaining horde of arcosians. The aliens' presence had been undetected due to those wretched ki cloaking devices. Their ships were no where in sight; they must have secretly landed miles away and flown to the saiyans' location. And with all three of them having been powered up into their legendary forms at one point or another, they had been all too easy to locate.

"Awww... I'm sorry... Did I interrupt you?" the arcosian in the forefront derided as he stepped forward from the army of warlords.

Bulma drew in a sharp breath. "Furio, what are you doing here?" she demanded. "You were ordered to remain on the flagship and guard-"

"I've grown tired of taking orders from the likes of you, you filthy monkey," Furio interrupted.

Vegeta tensed at the name 'Furio.' He recognized the name. He gave the arcosian dressed in indigo armor a closer examination. Like the warlords standing eagerly behind him, this arcosian was in his natural form. He was larger than the ranks of aliens behind him. He had the rigid brow and pointed nose of the arcosian royal family. But gauging the creature's ki, he was far weaker than the royal family had been. Yes... the saiyan prince did indeed recognized Furio despite having only briefly encountered him twice during his youth. The arcosian standing before him was King Cold's illegitimate half-brother.

"For far too long I've suffered from a front row seat as you've single-handedly destroyed all that my brother and his progeny have worked so hard to create!" the ice lizard sneered. "While the destruction of my brother's empire has left a bitter taste in my mouth, I was willing to endure it if it meant that you would lead me to the rest of your wretched kind."

A pang of anxiety rippled from Bulma through the bond to flow over Vegeta. Her goal over the past several galactic years had been to locate – and conquer – the saiyan refugees, using the arcosians if need be. She had had no idea that Furio had been using her for his own means. But she had never considered that she'd lose her control over the lizard army... if she had had control to begin with. How deep did Furio's deception run? Had he been pulling all the strings all along? The possibilities clearly unsettled her. Had she been able to find the saiyans, she would have inadvertently delivered them to the arcosians. Who knew what unfortunate fate would have befallen them at the lizard's claws?

Despite Bulma's fret, she put up a confident facade. She stood up a bit straighter, making the extra effort to do so without Vegeta's support, to stand using her own strength despite having so very little to spare. The prince felt a surge of pride for her. Like a true saiyan warrior, she stood tall and proud. She couldn't afford to appear weak and frail in front of the ice lizards.

"And what would you have been able to do once you found my people?" the female saiyan scoffed. "I am your empress. You are my subjects and you will obey me. Or have you forgotten with whom you are dealing?"

Furio snickered. "Oh, I have not forgotten a thing. You, my naïve little monkey, are a fool. For someone who claims to have so much intelligence, you are very stupid. Did you think all along that we had sworn our allegiance to you? You are so gullible, it's pathetic!" He laughed heartily.

After Furio's laughter died down, he continued. "I must tell you, that most races see our noble arcosian race as a bunch of cold-hearted, warmongers. Now while that may be true, that doesn't mean we aren't capable of familial love. Although Cold and I were not very close, he was still my brother and I still loved and respected him. And after you murdered him and my beloved nephew Frieza and sent my other dear nephew Cooler into exile, I vowed that I would have my revenge. But I wanted more than just revenge. I wanted to ensure the complete eradication of the saiyan race. And what better way to have my revenge than to have you be the one responsible for their fate?

"After you killed my kin, I soon realized that your state of mind wasn't quite... stable. It was far too easy to manipulate to my will, to use you as the means to find the rest of the worthless monkeys." He paused, considering his next words. "Unfortunately, you have proven to be too much of a liability. You have dragged us across the galaxy for far too long. When you stumbled across the location of the saiyan prince Vegeta, we believed that our years-long investment was finally coming to fruition. Instead, you have sacrificed far too many of our noble people during this fool hearty endeavor. It is now time that we cut our losses."

Furio lifted his left hand towards Bulma. The instinct to put himself protectively in front of her surged through Vegeta's core, but he forced himself to push it down. If he openly put her under his protection, he would undermine her place as their empress – or former empress – and destroy the visage of power and strength she was trying desperately to uphold. With Furio's open hand facing the female, a design of three gold, interlocking circles was revealed in the palm of his glove. The lizard charged his ki, infusing it into the pattern of rings, causing them to illuminate. A high pitched noise filled the air, sounding much like a charge of electricity building up. Vegeta felt Bulma's fear heighten as she stared at the bizarre garment.

With a quiet breath, she gasped, "The ki enhancer!"

In his mind's eye, Vegeta saw Bulma's knowledge of the device... When the woman was still a girl-child, her father Paragus had taken one of the two memory spheres that her mother Mizuna had created and used its ki absorbing properties to design a ki suppressing device. It was that device that the traitor had used to keep his daughter under his control until the day that she had grown too strong for it to contain her ki. The result had been his death.

Years later, Bulma took her father's design and improved upon the ki suppressor, making it several dozen times stronger than the original. Thus, the ki absorbing shackles had been born. But her creativity hadn't stopped there. She reasoned that if a ki suppressor could be developed, then why not a ki enhancer? The idea was that once perfected, she would implement the ki enhancing properties into her personal body armor. Coupled with her super saiyan strength, she would have had immeasurable power at her fingertips. However, the enhancer was still in its development stages; the glove being the first and only successful prototype thus far. All this information was fed to Vegeta over the course of only a couple seconds.

"I had truly hoped I would get to use this invention of yours against that horrid battle armor you designed for yourself," Furio commented. "Seeing you adopt the likeness of my people was quite the abomination. I would have loved to have blasted it off of your disgusting figure. But I see that one of these other monkeys have already taken that pleasure from me." He shrugged. "Pity."

With no further warning, Furio released the pent up energy contained within the rings of the ki enhancing glove. The energy was magnified so greatly that not only did it contain a terrible amount of power, but it was unfathomably fast. Not even Vegeta could see the blast. He was almost uncertain that the arcosian had even fired a shot. One moment, the rings were glowing so bright that they appeared to be burning with energy. And in the next moment, a powerful pulse and a deafening crack crashed through the air. Furio's hand violently recoiled from the backlash of the blast, like a low gauge shotgun fired in the loose grip of an ill prepared hunter.

The air was silent as they all processed what they had witnessed. Vegeta, like everyone else present, was stunned into stillness by the magnitude of the blast. Even Furio appeared to have been taken by surprise by the terrible latent potential of the ki enhancing glove. With only his unaltered ki to rely on, the lizard was as harmless as a fly against a super saiyan. But with the device, he had become incredibly dangerous... and lethal.

The smallest of whimpers escaped Bulma's lips just as a wave of her adrenaline-induced panic flooded through the bond to crash over Vegeta. He snapped his eyes to his right. They widened in horror as he took in the damage wrought by Furio's single blast. She was hunched over, ever so slightly. Her hands clutched at the upper left side of her chest, just above her heart. Blood oozed from between her fingers, coating her hands with her crimson life fluid. Slouched over as she was, Vegeta had an angled view of her backside. He was mortified to see the softball-sized exit wound where her shoulder-blade should have been. A slower river of blood trickled from the gaping hole, the edges of which were blackened to a crisp, burnt by the inferno of the ki beam.

Bulma collapsed to her knees and then fell to her side. Vegeta instantly dropped to his knees to kneel beside her. All thoughts or concerns about the arcosians were completely forgotten. He gently rolled her over onto her back. Her slackened hands fell from the gaping wound in her chest. Her blood glistened as the flow slowed to nothing. Her eyes were wide open, glazed and vacant. The signs of pain faded from her as her face relaxed in death.

Panic swelled in Vegeta's core as he desperately searched for any signs of life from his mate. He couldn't find a pulse because she had lost too much blood. He placed his palm on her chest just below the injury, praying that he'd be able to feel a heartbeat. But her heart had grown too weak. He searched their bond, hoping that he'd find something... anything... There was nothing. He was met with emptiness. The link was gone.

"No," he whispered as he gave her a gentle shake. "NO!"

The prince was in full blown denial. This couldn't be happening! This wasn't how his mate was supposed to die. She had been given a chance to rebuild her life. And now it had been torn away from her before she had even enough time to grow aware of this second opportunity. A soul rending pain tore through Vegeta's core. He felt as though a large piece of him was being ripped away. He knew what the feeling was. It was the sensation of his soul's other half being severed from him as Bulma's spirit transcended to the Afterlife. It was excruciating.

The pain ripped through Vegeta's chest. He felt slick with sweat. He felt his strength escape him as his mind spun from the knowledge of the horrible truth. Each breath was drawn in with greater and greater difficulty, threatening to hyperventilate him. The prince felt as if he were going to collapse. The pain in his chest caused him to have a coughing fit. When he drew his hand away from his mouth, he was startled to see that it was flecked with blood. When had his lung become punctured? He staggered slightly as he grew even weaker, catching himself from falling over completely by planting a hand on the ground to support himself.

"Vegeta?" Goku expressed his concern. "Are you okay? You're bleeding... a lot."

Bleeding? From where? His injuries weren't that severe... At least he didn't think they were. But a quick glance downward revealed that he was indeed losing a considerable amount of blood. A crimson pool had begun to collect beneath him. But from where? His arms and legs were intact. His chestplate was still whole so he hadn't sustained a wound to his torso. Or had he?

Continuing to feel weaker and weaker, the prince slowly reached up to the collar of his armor. The action brought an unexpected lance of pain to race across his left pectoral muscle and down through his arm. His breath was nearly sucked from him as the ache tore through him. With more caution to prevent further discomfort, he gingerly grabbed a hold of his armor and pulled the stretchy material away from his collarbone and looked down. The entire front side of his chest and stomach was coated in his blood, weeping from the fist-sized hole in the upper left side of his chest.

Vegeta gently allowed his armor to settle back into place. Despite the wound to his chest, he was quite calm. Lost in the pain from the severance of his bond to his mate, he hadn't noticed the wound that had opened up in his chest. He knew right away, that the wound hadn't been inflicted upon him by Furio or any of the other arcosians. This was the side effect of the life bond he had only moments ago forged with Bulma. Upon her death, her fatal injury had become his own. The prince smiled sardonically. He had come so very close to inflicting this very same wound. Only when he had had a reason to decide against it, the decision had been taken from him.

The flame-haired saiyan felt the last of his strength slip away from him. He collapsed the last few inches to the ground, his head falling to lay on his woman's blood soaked stomach. His vision narrowed until only a small tunnel in the center of his vision remained. He reached out towards his dead mate and placed his left hand over her right. He closed his eyes and waited for death to take him. His hearing had nearly diminished. Any sounds he could still hear sounded muffled and distant as if he were underwater. Breathing had become impossible. As his last breath escaped him, he thought he heard a voice, one that sounded rather young, call out.

Story Notes:
Furio – a play on the word fury and the Spanish word frio meaning cold.