ROGUE PLANET
by the Not-So-Super Saiyan
and
Hanko the Doebringer
CHAPTER NINETEEN: DUST IN THE WIND
I close my eyes,
only for a moment,
and the moment's gone
Vegeta wasn't sure what he was looking for as he stared deeper into the corrugated metal of the wall. Bulma's arms were slung gently around his shoulders and he left them there, though he didn't know why. He wanted to push her off of him, to escape to anywhere but here. He wanted to disappear. But he didn't. He couldn't.
A gentle knock at the door pulled him from his bubbling, brooding thoughts.
"And this couldn't have waited until morning?" Vegeta griped under his breath.
Lato took a playful step forward with her hands clasped behind her back as she caught up with Vegeta. As always, he walked with purpose, wasting no time with his stride. She sniffed the air around him exaggeratedly as they stopped in front of the door to the medical bay.
"Mmm. Fetu ?" She asked disbelievingly.
"Who I chose to...spend my personal time with is my business and mine alone." He responded curtly. "Besides we are not here to discuss my personal life. You have news of your own." He stated knowingly.
"Yes, captain...I do."
Bulma turned over and buried her face in the pillow. It was cold and felt marvelous against her hot skin. It didn't smell like her pillow...it smelled like sweat and hot ash.
Odd...
She wiggled deeper under the blanket, expecting the gentle sway of her cot to lull her back to sleep, but it was not there. Her eyes shot open.
Vegeta's empty bed and empty room greeted her sleepy gaze. She sat up, tossing the holey blanket from her naked body, the blanket they had shared the night before.
Uh-oh.
Raditz's hand gripped the door handle tight but he couldn't bring himself to open the door. He had looked everywhere on the ship but here. It was silent now, still well before dawn and the door to the makeshift hospital was pulled shut, an oddity in and of itself. Something about the strangling silence frightened him and then he heard it. Lato gasped quietly on the other side of the door.
"Quiet woman, you'll wake someone."
"Sorry." she apologized weakly.
"I'll learn ya to fight real good, y'hear?" Nappa laughed as he looked affectionately down at Kakarot, tossing the fruit he held up in the air over and over again. He bounced it off his elbows and knees as he jogged, keeping it constantly in motion.
"Really? You'd do that?" Kakarot beamed as he quickened his pace to keep up with the large man.
"Sure will kid." Nappa boomed as he slapped Kakarot on the back. "Try not to be so loud, though. Your feet are noisy. People're tryin' ta sleep. Show some respect!"
"Hm?" Goku asked, eyebrows raised. He glanced down and only then realized Nappa, despite his size, was padding through the hall of the ship with a silence that belied his great mass - Goku really had to strain to hear his feet. "Oh." he said.
"Like this?" Goku asked, after adjusting his gait.
"Ehehey! Now we're talkin'!" Nappa beamed. "You learn to fight as well as you learn ta dance, and you may just pass up yer brother."
Goku, for his part, was happy to please his new teacher.
They turned down the hallway and Nappa stopped abruptly, his ears twitching at the sound of someone fumbling with the dented metal of Vegeta's door.
No one had ever been inside, no one had so much as seen the inside. He flattened against the wall, in the darkness between the hanging lights and pushed Kakarot against the hard metal with his burly arm.
"What is i-mmph" Goku started, before a giant hand covered his mouth.
"Well, well…" Nappa chuckled to himself as none other than the little Soesa emerged, holding an armful of clothes and padding barefoot down the hall as quickly as she could go, in nothing but Vegeta's shirt and herlittle striped panties.
Lato buttoned her pants and nodded her head serenely.
"Thank you captain. I…"
He held up his hand as he pulled his vest back on and unrolled his sleeve to cover the gnarled scars on his arms.
"Don't mention it."
She nodded and he grabbed her wrist as she walked past him to leave. "I mean it." His gaze burning holes through her. "If word of this gets out, especially to Fetu and Raditz…
"I…" she saw the fire in his eyes and thought better than to protest. "I understand." She whispered almost inaudibly.
Raditz paced the room nervously, his tail rapping at the ground as he walked in small circles.
He wasn't sure how to proceed but he would have to face her eventually. He just didn't know when or how.
There was a knock at the door and he nearly jumped out of his skin. He threw the door open to reveal Lato, hands gently folded in front of her. She was as poised and as beautiful as ever. Something inside of him broke.
He stared at her for what felt like an eternity until she broke the silence.
"May I come in?"
Raditz silently stepped aside, allowing her into the room.
"What's wrong?" She asked tenderly.
He scoffed and it turned into a growl that he caught in his throat.
"I...Raditz...I have good news." she started meekly, gently changing the subject.
"Good news, mmm ?" He scoffed under his breath.
"What?" It was clear from her expression and posture that Lato was confused.
"Don't lie to me." Raditz muttered brokenly. "I went looking for you this morning and you were locked in the medical bay with him." He fathered his broken composure as much as he could and straightened himself. He began again, "It would seem the time has come."
Lato was more than confused. "What time would that be, Raditz?"
"Don't placate me, Lato…" The image of Tschev astride his father was forever etched in his memory, except now it was her, his beloved Lato, tossing her head back in ecstasy as she ground her hips into Vegeta who sat on the examination table in his father's place. It was even worse than when it had been his father. His heart had fallen and the hole it left ached with an intensity worse than anything he'd ever felt. All the shame, humiliation, and crushing despair of years living in his father's shadow, of constant ridicule, of failing to be a true Saiyan... It all paled in comparison to this emptiness that filled his soul. He had believed that they had meant something to each other. He had exposed himself at his most vulnerable to her. She had used him and now she and Vegeta would enjoy a good laugh at his expense every time his name came up for the rest of their lives.
"I'm not stupid..." He continued. "Vegeta has come of age, and it's time for him to be mated. The prince of all Saiyans... And..." He gestured defeatedly at Lato as his head sunk, "the last Saiyan woman. He has claimed you."
She opened her mouth to contest and he interrupted her again.
"Don't...I can smell him all over you."
"Oh Raditz," she whispered musically and Raditz felt his face prickling hot. "He was performing a medical exam, that's all. 'Ua faito'alua ta'ua* , and nothing will change that. Nothing."
Raditz's ire was suddenly gone and he grabbed her by the shoulders crouching to look her in the eyes. "A medical exam? Wait, what's wrong? Are you alright?" His hand cupped the side of her face as he looked deeply into her eyes, his brow furrowed in concern.
She smiled sweetly back at him and rubbed her cheek into his palm.
"We're fine Raditz. ' O ma'ua 'uma *." Before he could register the meaning of her words she clasped his hand and ran it down his front to her abdomen, where she let it rest.
Nappa hadn't trained such a soft, young, tenderfoot in years. By golly, Tschev woulda been the last one he got to show the ropes, and honestly, she was so oppositional she probably learned about as much as everyone assumed Nappa knew. Had it really been that many years?
All Nappa knew was that he was really enjoying himself, and not just because his new pupil absorbed his lessons faster than anyone ever had.
Nappa's elbow came crashing downard, threatening to pulverize the smaller man, but Kakarot held his ground and caught it, shoving it upwards to try and unbalance him before throwing a kick towards the big man's gut. Nappa was pleased. Kakarot had a bad habit of trying to be faster and nimbler than him, and he probably could be in a bit of time if he kept at it. But honestly, it's not always a bad thing to block something head on, and Kakarot was getting physically stronger it seemed by the hour. He was finally realizing it.
Goku himself was surprised when Nappa spun to the outside, grabbing Kakarot with both mighty hands, lifting him in the air and tossing him like a bale of hay.
Goku had no idea how the big guy was so fast - especially with how big he was.
"Ah, don't take it too hard." Nappa beamed, enthusiastically. "Honest, you're getting quite a bit better. Yer intergraining the different stuff you've learned and making it more of yer own. Whatever your 'turtle school' is, and the stuff you picked up from 'Korino' or whatever… it's less ecleptic now. All yer training is working together now, in particulars the stuff I've been showin' ya."
Goku stood, panting. "Thought I...had you, that time." he said.
"Hehe, ye darn near did." Nappa laughed. Goku understood he wasn't being laughed at, but that Nappa was actually enjoying himself as much as Goku did. It was a refreshing change of pace. Everyone who trained on earth took it so seriously - and of course Goku did too. He just also didn't see why people couldn't also have fun while they did it. He was convinced that his friends Yamcha and Tien almost didn't even like fighting, which made him wonder why they did it. They were always so stone faced while training.
"Alright," Nappa said, halting Goku as he was about to charge him again. "Hang on a sec."
"What is it? Are we done for today?"
"Hehe, You wish." Nappa shot back. "No, no, I just have a couple questions."
"Oh, okay. Shoot." Goku said.
"First," Nappa hunched down, laying his great, tree-trunk arm across Goku's shoulders and pulling his face close. "What kind of animal is a turtle? It sounds majestic…." Nappa asked.
"Uhhhh…." Goku said. "Well, they swim...and they have shells...like built in armor!"
"Uh-huh…" Nappa said. "Then why…nevermind. We'll talk more about that later. Now," and he pulled Goku in closer. "What do you know about ki ?"
Vegeta tightened his freshly, wrapped fist as the blood dripped faster through his fingers. He drove his first through the moaning, splintered tree that stood before him and cursed to himself.
No sense of propriety. Lato couldn't have picked a worse time.
He squinted against the hot winds that blew harder and harder picking up dust, small rocks, and tumbleweeds as they swirled about him.
Damn Lato. Damn Raditz. Damn Fetu.
No. Damn him.
Could he blame them when he had-
A stray fragment of a splintered rock blew past him and he ducked just in time, the jagged edge of the stone shard just missing his face. He spun around and swung his leg upwards. It collided with the granite and sent the rock barreling into the dark, starry sky.
No matter how hard he trained, every time he closed his eyes he still saw her face, sweet and round, her eyelashes fluttering in ecstasy.
He couldn't escape her.
Vegeta opened his eyes once again just in time to feel the hot, ashen wood collide with his chest.
Stupid.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
What was she thinking?
She wasn't. That was the problem.
She told herself she let her loneliness get the best of her.
Bulma paced her room in a state of fluttering panic. She chewed down the edges of her nails as she kicked aside papers and tools with her bare feet.
In that moment everything else was thrown into the wind. The engine, the other saiyans, Kakarot- er, Goku, everything.
All there had been was Vegeta, and Vegeta was all she could think about now.
Where was he anyway?
Probably training. She concluded, telling herself she wasn't going to read into waking up alone. But she did anyway, welcoming another onset of panic. She curled up in her cot and hid under the blanket, willing the day to pass and night to come again. She didn't want to face anyone but she needed to find Nappa and finish the engine. The sooner she did that the sooner they could leave. And then she asked herself a question she had never entertained before.
What would she do then?
The child's fingers dug into the grate floor until they began to bleed. Bala pulled the blade away and inspected it in the soft, yellow light of the ceremony hall as the blood dripped from the edge of the blade. The guests chattered amongst themselves, seemingly unaware of the torture that was taking place just inches away from their dinner plates.
"Tell me," Frieza chimed in through a mouthful of food, "what was it that you called this technique commander?"
"It is called Death of Ten Thousand Cuts but it is also known as stripping. Notice the way you strip the flesh bit by bit from the evildoer, as a form of last penance, my lord." Bala stated.
Vegeta's body shook as raw strips of flesh hung open from his arms and back.
"Oh, I see. How clever." Frieza said clapping his hands together like an excited child.
Bala held the cold blade to the boy's back once again and watched as his tail tightened around his waist. He smiled. Sliding his fingers between the boy's tail and his back, Bala pulled it free with some effort from it's grasp about his waist. It recoiled but Bala caught it. Pulling the tail taut in his hand, with his other hand he pressed the knife against the base of the tail and watched as blood began to well up and drip down Vegeta's side. Until now the small soldier had been silent. No matter how violent the assault, not a single sound had escaped him.
"No…" he muttered meekly.
The sound silenced the guests.
"What was that?" Bala chuckled.
"P-please." The boy gripped the ground tighter as Bala jerked his tail, the muscles in his raw, back strained. "Please don't." he begged.
"Oh, this ? Do this? " the commander taunted as he wrapped his hand around the tail and pulled as hard as he could. Not even the fine, ring of silverware could be heard in the room. Everyone was still and silent as they watched with morbid curiosity.
"No," Bala continued. "This is nothing more than pain to you, you little brute."
Vegeta didn't respond. Still and silent, as he had been the entire time. Bala twirled the knife in his hand and smirked as he pressed it once again at the base of his tail. Vegeta stiffened as panic gripped him. He inhaled sharply.
"Oh, I see." Bala laughed, a sick grin splitting his face. "Attached to this are you?"
Vegeta felt tears well up in his eyes but refused to cry out. Instead clenching down harder in the grate where his hands were restrained.
"That's enough commander." Frieza's voice slithered casually through the air. It sounded almost disappointed.
Bala froze, knife touching bone.
"While I've rather enjoyed the show I told you I want the boy intact. What use is he to me if he is unable to breach the full extent of his power?"
Bala jerked awake from his thoughts as the door-chime of his quarters alerted him that someone was on the other side. ' Pity,' He thought himself. Torturing the saiyan welp was his fondest memory and he greatly enjoyed reliving the moment again and again. He could practically hear the sound of the child blubbering and begging, pleading for relief and it gave him more pleasure than any woman - or man, for that matter - ever had. It awoke in him a thirst that, no matter how he tried, he could never quench. He groggily made his way to his door, pressing his finger into the pad next to it.
"What is it?!" he asked impatiently.
"Sir, we found them."
Bala smiled.
"How long until we know?" Raditz muttered sleepily as he buried his face in the crook of Lato's neck and breathed her in, letting his hands slide down her front to rest on her abdomen.
"Many moons, my love."
Raditz pouted playfully and sighed. Lato laughed. It was pure music.
"It's still so very early." she added. Raditz had slept so peacefully since she had moved into his quarters and even more so now.
He was simply over the moon, and nothing or no one could bring him down again.
"You're the only reason we are still stuck on this godforsaken rock, you know that right? I swear to God I will never forgive you for this Nappa."
"I told ya. I'll get to it as soon as we're done here." he laughed, still exchanging blows with Kakarot.
"You said that yesterday."
He laughed again, a deep, hearty laugh. "And I meant it then just like I meant it now!"
"That's what I'm afraid of…" Bulma said sardonically.
"Gee Bulma...we're just...havin' a little fun. What's the big hurry? Besides...Vegeta...isn't even...back yet." Kakarot beamed as he dodged each expertly timed blow.
Bulma rolled her eyes and sighed. She wanted to stay mad at him but she couldn't help but smile. Pushing herself off the doorframe to the ship with her shoulder she walked back inside, arms still crossed.
As she wound her way through the maze of hallways she passed Vegeta's room and stopped. He had been gone nearly three days now, a trivial amount of time where Vegeta was concerned but considering the circumstances preceding it…
Something sour wiggled around in her gut as she thought about it and she found herself looking out the thin, long beveled window in the hallway to the darkness outside.
"Come home soon." she whispered as she thumbed the cross about her neck.
Vegeta woke with a start. He had trained until his body had dropped and that was where he found himself now, a thick, gritty layer of sand covering him.
He pulled himself onto his knees and took a deep breath before standing. He couldn't be sure how long he was out but his body was still exhausted, trembling and threatening to give out at the first wrong move.
He groaned as he sat up, his joints stiff. He looked around for a moment until he saw where he left his pack that had the food he had taken with him. He started towards it when his ears pricked and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. A storm was brewing nearby, he could smell it on the wind. Perhaps he should head back a day or two sooner than planned.
The wind howled and dead trees moaned beneath it as the red dust swirled in small twisters across the landscape, ripping dry plants and weeds from the earth and tossing them violently about.
Admiral Bala straightened himself squinting blindly against the desert storm as if he could blink away the thick, blackness of night.
"Admiral." the soldier bowed slightly as he lifted up the scouter to his superior.
"Thank you Rema." Bala nodded as he slid the scouter on his face.
Rema nodded and sniffed at the wind. "It reeks of Saiyan, sir."
"Yes. It does. Let us take care of that, shall we?"
AN: A thousand apologies! We moved, then moved the rest of my family halfway across the country and it has been CRAZY. Needless to say we are back and trying to stick to a regular publishing schedule now that we both have computers again (yay!). Thank you all for your patience and I hope you enjoy this chapter because next chapter, shit is gonna get real.
Note From Hanko: Just so you know what kind of a wild ride you're in, the last three chapters are going to be pubbed back-to-back on consecutive days, kind of a 'series finale' sort of shindig. We hope you enjoy it and that it was worth the wait.
' Ua faito'alua ta'ua - literally: 'we are become a pair/married couple',
Note: It's important that the pronoun used here for 'we', ta'ua, specifically refers to the speaker and the one spoken to - not just any 'we'. Samoan has a very systematic and extensive conception of pronouns, including categories that don't exist in most languages. Whereas 'we' in English may or may not include the person being spoken to (ex: 'Hey mom, my friends and I, we're going to the mall' - exclusive use of 'we'; 'Where are we going on the field trip?' as in a student to a teacher, inclusive use of 'we'). They have different forms of 'we' in Samoan (and thus, Saiyan) that make such things completely unambiguous. They also have different levels of plurality. In English, pronouns are either singular or plural. In Samoan, there are singular, dual, and plural pronouns. The pronoun Lato uses here is dual and inclusive, thus, she is unequivocally referring specifically to herself and Raditz, and only to herself and Raditz.
' O ma'ua 'uma' - Both of us. (literally: "all of us", see below)
Note: As above, the pronoun Lato uses here is significant. Unlike ta'ua which is inclusive, ma'ua is dual and exclusive. What Lato is saying here is literally 'All (two) of us (not you).' Raditz, hearing that when she's using a dual pronoun (referring to two people) and that he, himself, isn't one of the two, could realize even without any other clues that Lato is referring to someone else getting a medical checkup - in this case, their unborn child.