Chapter 25
There is naught left within him. All it took was half an hour, just 30 short minutes after he had to adjust for his injured leg, and now his energy reserves are all but gone. He is running on empty. His body thrashed, ravaged and fatigued beyond belief, Vegeta's mind finally starts to succumb to the idea of relinquishing training until he can walk on both legs comfortably. Vegeta releases his grip on the metal bar and heavily thuds down onto his undamaged leg, he loses his balance and topples over, hitting his skull once more onto the cold, hard tiling. The wound on his forehead from the momentary surge in gravitational force earlier reopens and crimson floods his vision. Heavy eyelids droop, if it were not for the constant throbbing and aching he would also be yielding to the ever gnawing need for sleep wracking his entire being. He utilises the voice command features of the main console to remotely deactivate the artificial gravity and wearily pushes himself up to his feet.
Vegeta raises his hands before his face and tries to get his eyes to clearly focus on the digits before him. With the back of his hand he wipes away most of the blood hindering his vision and rubs at the laden bags beneath his bloodshot eyes. Two deep yawns echo throughout the training room, one straight after another, and with that he strides towards the door and exits into the front room to find Yamcha and Mihoshi. His only male tenant sheepishly looks towards him and waves with his one free arm before turning off the television, a contently napping Mihoshi pinning down his other arm and preventing him from leaving his seat. Vegeta sneers at the lazy loll-about he was forced to let into his home just lounging about as if the place were hers, never-mind he dislikes those who waste their time doing nothing at all.
"Does that pathetic woman do anything apart from sleep? Wake up woman, if you are tired I let you a room with a bed so use it." He gruffly snarls at the lounging policewoman causing her to rouse from her slumber. Mihoshi sleepily sits up and brushes one of her blond bangs aside as it was tickling her nose. Still half asleep, she drowsily looks about her and blushes slightly seeing her extreme proximity to Yamcha and realising that she fell asleep on him. She backs away slightly from him on the sofa and apologises to him and then out of embarrassment excuses herself and leaves the room. Yamcha's eyes follow the policewoman until she leaves the room and then he looks back at the Saiyan prince looking like he is about to drop to the floor yet he still stands there as if he commands the room and all around him. The Saiyan's stomach calls him towards the kitchen pantry but before he can take more than a few steps Yamcha rises from the sofa and begins to speak to him.
"Hey, uh, Vegeta, there's kinda something I gotta tell ya 'bout."
"What is it fool? Speak." Vegeta curtly responds to Yamcha, he is in no mind to waste time talking to the weakling warrior. Yamcha hesitates for a moment. The fear of self preservation deters the desert bandit from continuing on with his words immediately. With Vegeta being who he is Yamcha worries if what he is about to say could spell death for himself or, even worse, for Washu. Despite this though, the feeling of guilt for consigning Ryoko over to his loved one has been welling up inside him ever since he tricked her. He might not be as just and righteous as Goku or Gohan but Yamcha does want to do the right thing and so whatever may come of it he decides to spill the beans over the ploy he was a part of.
"Now don't take this the wrong way, I didn't mean anything by it, just trying to keep Washu off my back and so ..."
"What has that damn woman done now?" Again Vegeta's impertinence and impatience interrupt Yamcha's hesitant words.
" … Not exactly a what … more of a who is entertaining her at the minute. I trust her not to go overboard or hurt someone but I'm worried how Ryoko might respond to-"
Charred sawdust descends in burning embers, fluttering down to the ground like Winter's first flakes of snow. Vegeta is gone and the door-frame to Washu's realm stands vacant and empty but for a wall of smoke and butterflies of fire drifting downwards. Yamcha wishes Washu the best of luck in there for he knows if he goes in he will only get in the way and may regret what he might see in there, not realising that he and Vegeta have a large margin of power separating them right now and the Saiyan is no longer the one with the upper hand. So far Vegeta has never hurt or injured Washu and so Yamcha believes that despite the foul mood of the Saiyan that Washu is not in any life threatening danger.
Amidst the hail of debris from his blast, Vegeta quickly scans his surroundings with his eyes, ears and the sixth sense which has no sensory organ. He takes a few moments to pinpoint his targets through the haze of background ki Washu is still using to obscure and hide her movements from him, luckily for him Ryoko is a large enough source of ki so that he can distinguish her from the drained life force of Yamcha, though her ki seems somewhat lessened than what it normally is. Vegeta locks onto the position of the two women and raises two fingers to his forehead, his stiff shoulders protesting against the motion. Stood near the doorway back to the natural dimension and then deep in the murky infinity of Washu's lab within an instant, Vegeta purposefully strides out of the darkness to rescue an unfortunate damsel from the gossamer strands that have been so intricately woven by someone he has well and truly had enough of.
A proximity mine activates, letting out one digital beep before detonating in the air several hundred metres behind Vegeta where he tossed the explosive device. It normally wouldn't do him any harm to shrug off such a meagre explosion yet he does not want to take any unnecessary risks with his leg being so worse for wear, any jolt could split his tibia into splinters. The hot rush of air from the concussive blast ruffles his hair as a pink haired scientist very slowly and nervously turns about to see him frowning and with murder in his eyes. Those same black pupils narrow on her, her emerald eyes widen in alarm. Washu starts retreating backwards and regresses herself back to her smaller and younger form. A petrified scream erupts from Washu as she bumps into Vegeta behind her, he roughly grabs a hold of her ponytail and yanks it. Holding her aloft by her hair, her feet feebly kicking about in the air and with many pitiful sounds of fear coming from Washu, Vegeta coldly smirks.
"What is it? Thought I wouldn't harm a poor, defenceless, little girl running away in fear? You forget yourself Washu. I have killed millions of the like. Age, gender, appearance, none will grant you any mercy from me." Vegeta hears the muffled shouts and yells of Ryoko, his keen ears discern the desperation and fear in them. He is not aware that he is the cause of such emotions running rampant through her, all he knows is that she is being held against her will and Washu is responsible for it. Several pleads and apologies uncontrollably erupt from Washu's throat as the hand of the Saiyan prince creeps its way towards her face. Washu's words fail to form as his fingers enter her mouth and grab onto her tongue. Pulling sharply on it, Vegeta's sadism begins to take full control looking at the pure and abject look of dread on her youthful face.
" For someone supposedly so smart you seem to be lacking the sufficient brain power to understand that no-one messes with me or those under my protection, even that clown Kakarot got it through his thick skull. Maybe you just need to be taught like an animal that when you misbehave you get punished." Vegeta's grip becomes agonisingly painful as his harrowing eyes bore into Washu but she cannot be intimidated any further for she is already fearing for her life. Her eyes close as they begin to weep and her body trembles and shivers. His hand releases her tongue. Washu shudders in relief as the pain stops and timidly opens her eyes again just to see Vegeta's dark grin wide. Blood stains his fingers, he throws Washu to the floor and drops a wisdom tooth, root and all, onto the tiles. Cries of pain burst from Washu as she writhes on the floor clutching at her mouth as it quickly begins to fill with a metallic tasting liquid.
"Be thankful that I am being so lenient with you. I was in half a mind to watch you crawl about as I individually broke each of your vertebrae. Let this be a lesson to you, Washu, if you carry on acting so then you will lose more than a tooth." Vegeta chuckles to himself watching such a pathetic sight before he silences himself and his violent tendencies and turns to face the captive he is here to rescue. He lost himself in the moment then, the moment when the apex predator seizes its prey, but he does not regret his actions. From his viewpoint just the fact that he has spared her life and not ended it sooner should be cause for the mad scientist to be greatly indebted to him. Washu spits out sanguine and scurries away from Vegeta, she knows distancing herself means nothing to the Saiyan but her basic instincts still scream at her to get away from the one who just performed very rudimentary dental surgery on her.
A red mask of metal fully encases her face and masks her voice, a huge bank of coolers and processors whir from inside the room sized machine and gradually chug through processing its patient's full genome. Wires and electrodes encircle her body, some even go intravenously. In just her underwear for Washu stripped her down for this experimental procedure, Ryoko for once does not want the prince of Saiyans to see her like this. Her whole body is tense. Ryoko tries to cower away from who she can sense being so near to her but if she were to unhook herself from this machine then it would all be for naught. No matter how loud she shouts her words are nonsensical to the Saiyan approaching her, he can hear her making noise but individual words are indiscernible to him for the mask covering her face also prevents her jaw from opening and closing. She cannot face him. She does not want him to know about her intimate problem that her mind has assured her will ruin all chances she ever had with him. Ryoko is begging for him to leave her be and to forget about this, but all the exhausted warrior hears are frightened wails which just serve to convince him further that she is in need of his assistance.
Metal shreds and tears, ribbons of electronics flaking and falling away as Vegeta rips into the side of this unknown machine with his bare fists and also, inadvertently, into Ryoko's heart. In one fell swoop the behemothic super computers powering the saviour of Ryoko's future is dismantled into worthless and jagged scrap. Vegeta severs the restraints holding Ryoko in place even though she could have easily escaped from them if she so desired. At the touch of his hands, her mind goes blank and her body goes numb. His arms dart out and catch her before she can fall, her legs giving way as she retreats within herself for safety. Cradling her in his burly arms, Vegeta looks down at the space pirate and inspects her for any wounds or injuries as his brain is too tired and well beyond the point at which it cares as to her state of dress. Assured that she has not been physically harmed he removes the tight fitting helmet from her head and her long cyan hair flows free as do her tears.
Closed are her eyes that let loose the floods of tears wetting Vegeta's forearm. He rocks her gently to try and get her to open her eyes but she shuts them even tighter. This puzzles him. She had been tricked into entering Washu's laboratory, been hooked up and tied to a machine at the mercy of Washu, he freed her from said machine and now she won't even look at him. Vegeta asks her if something is wrong. Ryoko's fist lashes out and catches him off guard and grazes his Adam's apple. He coughs and she teleports from his arms to the far reaches of the room, hovering catatonically in the air. The Saiyan's brows frown in confusion as he rubs at his throat. He takes one step towards where she is and she teleports off to a different corner of the room. Even with over three days worth of fatigue and sleep deprivation plaguing his mind he can still tell that she wants him to stay away from her and he thinks he knows a person who might be willing to give him an answer as to why.
He turns his head and sees his prey sat down on the floor and then sees his prey freeze in terror at his stare. A boot presses down on her dainty fingers.
"You better start talking or typing on that computer of yours will soon become quite difficult." The interrogation begins. Washu whimpers as she tries to move her hand that has been trapped under the Saiyan's foot, she can already feel his weight along with the additional mass of his weighted gi slowly shifting onto her petite digits. She coughs on the constant trickle of blood filling her mouth as she attempts to talk and in doing so stains the boot of Vegeta in spatters of red. The Saiyan prince is glad to see that she seems to be willing to co-operate with him and answer his questions otherwise in his bid to understand Ryoko's abnormal behaviour he knows for certain that a vengeful human would be waiting for him. Vegeta is under no illusion as to his current strength, if any dared to challenge him then he wouldn't prove much of a challenge at all with his power level decreasing with every passing second.
" Ryoko gave me permission. I'm not doing anything wrong. She said I could. Don't hurt me, please." The scientist cannot hide the deep undercurrents of fear flowing throughout her words. She knows this man can kill her, she knows he would have no qualms about doing so and how many of the shackles controlling his behaviour have been eroded by his insomnia. To her surprise, Vegeta steps back and releases her hand, it will bruise but she is counting her lucky stars that all of her phalanges are intact. Washu rubs her sore and red fingers and looks up at the prince who's mercy she is at. He folds his arms, his weary eyes trying to decipher whether her face holds a countenance of truth or of deceit.
"As much as I doubt that, explain to me what that hunk of junk was and what she was going to let you do to her."
"Genetic decoding, recoding, splicing, you know what those are?" Washu thought that all was going well but upon that last question she spies a slight twitch in the Saiyan's face. She yelps as he yanks her up by her collar. His frowning face is inches away from her own, Washu closes her eyes and gulps. Her feet find the floor again as she changes back into an adult, solely for that reason as with this height advantage she has over the short Saiyan it is not so easy for her to be throttled.
"Don't insult my intelligence woman, of course I do. Problem for you is I don't see any reasons as to why Ryoko would be remotely interested in letting you carry out your perverse procedures on her. Better tell me quick, Yamcha already told me all about your plan so don't attempt to lie to me again … and just so you know, Yamcha did seem pretty happy with that blonde laying on top of him." A dark smile cuts its way across Vegeta's face as he watches the colour drain from Washu's face.
" W … wh-wha... WHAT!?" Violent struggles and thrashings hit against Vegeta's limbs as an enraged woman vainly tries to push past him and wreck vengeance on the adulterer. Her growls of rage are swiftly transformed into a yowl of pain. Vegeta's grip intensifies on her clothing, throttling her even more and causing her an acute sensation of pain as one of his fingers purposefully sticks sharply into a nerve cluster in her neck. She fruitlessly kicks at his shins and grabs at his hand to free up her airway. Vegeta drops her to the floor gasping for breath.
"Now, I'll tell you how this'll work, once you have told me what I am missing then you can run off to do as you will. Then and only then." Bullying her more and more with both his physical superiority and his harsh, threatening words, Vegeta leaves Washu with no room to escape and continues to press her for an answer. She has disobeyed him, blatantly gone against his will on several occasions and had the tenacity to dare impose as to whether she could continue infesting his house and Vegeta has had enough. He will make sure that she will never even think of crossing him like this ever again, she will be obedient in her fear.
A gleaming, amber effulgence lights up and fills the room. Shadows swirl and dissipate as this moving source of light streaks down towards its unsuspecting target. Washu's eyes widen at the sight of the blast. The Saiyan rapidly turns around and swipes away the pulsating shot of ki aimed for his back. Flexing his fingers, his eyes drift up towards the ceiling of the room and the woman floating in the air above him.
"Let her go you bastard." Ryoko's breath seethes out from in-between gritted teeth. Her eyes bloodshot, her cheeks stained by the tracks of tears and swathes of energy continue to trace their way through the air and manifest around her clenched fists. Using this momentary distraction, Washu makes good her escape whilst the Saiyan's attention is elsewhere as she begins to plan what she'll do to Yamcha when she finds him. Vegeta takes a step towards Ryoko, his face showing his confusion concerning this sudden attack.
"Ryoko? Why did you do that?" His voice is calm and cold. Ever since he came in here to save her from Washu's nefarious clutches her behaviour has been erratic and she has not been acting like herself at all, it makes him wonder if he did indeed get here in time before Washu did whatever it was she was going to. Vegeta calls he name again as she fails to respond, her voice catching in her throat as the sound of his voice lacerates her ears. Not replying to him, Ryoko continues to pool energy into her hands as her breathing becomes heavier and more laboured. The Saiyan does not know what has come over her but he does not like the sight of someone gradually charging an attack meant for him, the idea to encapsulate her within a barrier does come to mind but he rejects it on the ground of Ryoko's fear of confinement.
At the moment his feet lift off from the ground she screeches at him to stop, her voice tearing through her throat. Vegeta does not follow her orders and elevates himself higher and higher until he hovers a few metres before her. Ryoko tightly shuts her eyes to get his visage out of her mind, she can feel the saline moisture amassing once again. She senses movement towards her and thrusts her arms out aggressively, palms open as flaming balls of ki swirl into being. Her heart nearly fails her when she feels his hands clamp around her wrists, for several agonising seconds she can feel him being so close to her, the touch of his rough skin, the feel of his breath, and it all becomes too much for this grief-ridden pirate to bear any longer. She opens fire.
"No! Go away! I. Hate. You!" Words explode with rage. Shots detonate, fired point blank at his torso. As all accordance to rational thought flees from Ryoko's mind she erupts in this spontaneous bombardment. Lashing out in a great conflagration of fury, desperation and pain, she does not stop firing at Vegeta. The Saiyan removes his hands from her wrists. "You ruined everything! It's not fair. It's not fair!" Salvo after salvo fly free from her palms and instantaneously strike their target naught but a few inches away. The shady room is awash in this dark orange light being cast by her enraged assault. Acrid smoke stings her already weeping eyes, engulfing her sight of the target if she had opened her eyes at all during her onslaught. Her heart is breaking in two as merciless thoughts ensnare it, the deep thorns of the rose of love cutting deep gashes into her soul as she bleeds over what Vegeta has inadvertently gone and done.
"Just fuck off! Go away … Leave me !… Leave me alone." Ryoko was roaring at him and blasting away at him with all her might, yet as quickly as her emotions boiled over they abandon her leaving her desolate and empty in her sorrow as her voice mutes to a whisper. Her entire body shudders from a great tide of despair flooding her being brought forth from the knowledge of the consequences now that Vegeta completely wrecked that one of a kind machine that was the single hope she dared to cling onto after what Washu found out. She cannot outrun Vegeta, she cannot fight him off or scare him away from her. Her tears fall faster, she cannot escape the Saiyan she loves or the eventuality that petrifies her so much and fills her to the core with dread. Ryoko does not want him to ever find out her biological secret, for her that would be equivalent to a death sentence yet she knows with him mere inches away from her it is but a question of time until the inevitable happens.
Through the veil of smoke the arms of Vegeta dart out and embrace Ryoko, pulling her close to him to comfort this obviously distraught woman. He knows a cry for help when he sees one and tries to shush the crying space pirate as he strokes the back of her head. Ryoko's lamentations pour onto the battered and charred chest of the warrior she adores whilst every touch from his hands cause her to shudder and recoil. Her fingernails rake across his back and then slowly curl into fists and pound into wherever she can reach in a fruitless attempt to get him to release her. Vegeta's embrace does not loosen from her feeble and uncoordinated hits. She may be just in her underwear but for her sake Vegeta cannot dwell on such trivial matters as her state of dress, even when pressing her near naked body against his own.
"Ryoko, tell me. Explain to me what happened in here or what that damn woman did to you." Vegeta looks down at her as he speaks these hushed words whilst he gradually lowers both himself and Ryoko down to ground level. Her feet touch the floor before his. Vegeta has to support her weight for her and hold her up, her legs limp and buckled as she continues to wet the front of his outfit.
For half a minute Vegeta tries to soothe the woes of Ryoko as best he can whilst still asking about what is perturbing her so. She doesn't answer, she does not say anything. If Ryoko were to tell him this then he would find out, and if her were to find out then she will lose him and her chance at happiness. It was hard enough yesterday for her to find out that he does not hold feelings of love for her, yet this one thing beyond her control is making it so he never will. The more she thinks on the matter the more she upsets herself further and convinces herself that he will reject her heartlessly and callously as if she were nothing to him. Vegeta's kind words are not being heard, she is deaf to all except her mind's voice.
In all her long life this single man is the only one to have ever caused her so much emotional distress and pain. A battle-hardened pirate guilty of many despicable crimes, the Houdini who could never be caught by the police and impervious to most forms of conventional weaponry, yet just even the thought of a word coming from the Saiyan prince cuts her deeper than any energy blade ever has. The pain isn't going away, it isn't fading, and she cannot bear it. Then, just as that one day when it clicked inside her head whilst he was dead, Ryoko finds the single green and alive unfurled bud in the midst of the decaying crimson decorating and enshrouding the tree that is her confidence. Like when she gave up on her grief and started to train to impress Vegeta the same thought has finally crossed her traumatised mind: he has neither time nor empathy for cowards who would rather run away or hide from their problems than turn and face them.
" … me … Saiyan ..." The faintest of whispers escapes from her lips and into the sturdy chest of Vegeta. Wearing her heart on her sleeve she turns her head up towards his and opens her tear-ridden eyes. Her bleary and golden eyes meet his concerned look. A small fire of mirth is born amidst the barren tides of woe inside her heart from the worry he holds for her. Wrought with anxiety over the plunge she has just taken, her fingernails grip with fear into his back and she presses her face into his pecs again. From those two words alone and with no supporting context, Vegeta still has no idea as to what is going on. He yawns, his sturdy chin getting tickled by the cyan spikes of Ryoko's hair as his mouth opens wide. Not wanting to sound testy or push this obviously hurting woman too far too quickly, Vegeta does not ask for her to repeat herself and bides his time till she re-summons the courage to talk to him.
"She … she was going to make me into a Saiyan!"
Out of shock Vegeta's mouth hangs agape, his eyes unblinking and his mind reeling at the thought of another of his race – and a female at that. Ryoko stands and steps back a few paces away from him, her arms daintily crossed over her heart as she earnestly tries to read Vegeta's reaction. He looks down at his hands, the hands that destroyed the machine capable of doing what he believed to be impossible; Vegeta feels a surge of fatigue hit him and a wetness on the front of his ruined gi that does not originate from Ryoko. He pushes such thoughts about his physical well-being aside, his health is not what is important right now, and simply asks Ryoko : 'Why?'
" … Vegey, you remember what we talked about yesterday, about … about how I … I-I l-l-l-lo-love you. … Well, I-I thought that you-you'd like me more if I were like you …and Washu said …"
" You would truly sacrifice your species, your own identity, just for the sake of trying to please me?" Vegeta is gobsmacked, the thought aside of having a living, breathing female Saiyan back in existence is enough to give him pause for thought yet this great sacrifice on Ryoko's part is causing him to seriously think about how much he means to her. For a long time now Vegeta has understood that both the pirate and the princess hold a special place for him within their hearts but this is above and beyond anything any woman has ever offered him, including Bulma. Ryoko is just silently nodding, her eyes looking down at her hands held over her chest. For her there was no second thought about the procedure, she has no ties or affinity for her own species and very little knowledge about them anyway, to her Vegeta is much more important than whether the tail at her waist is synthetic or a part of her.
Silently, Vegeta ponders and muses on this turn of events. He closes his eyes to concentrate but has to jerk them open to stop himself falling into a well needed slumber. His mind being as rusted and handicapped as it is by a gargantuan amount of exhaustion still is picking up something, more from instinct than anything else. He can accept the words of Ryoko, they make sense to him, but the signals he is getting from her body seem to be telling him that she might in fact be lying to him. The heightened predatory senses of the Saiyan race pick up on the disturbances in her body language, trying to discern them from those caused by her emotional distress. Vegeta calls her out on it.
"No, there is more to this than that. Ryoko, you are not telling me something."
"No, please no! … Don't make me say, don't make me say. I won't. No." Ryoko clutches at her head, covering her face with her hands as she turns and hides herself away from Vegeta. Her body hunches as she screams back at him. For just a few seconds there she believed that she had got away with it, that she had managed to miraculously escape without revealing it to him. But if it were that easy to evade and deceive Vegeta then he would not be alive today. The tears begin to flow again. She wants nothing more than for him to drop this enquiry and leave her be, that or for this whole thing to have been some terrible nightmare that she is about to awake from and be able to forget about. Ryoko rubs at her eyes to try and rid herself of the river of tears escaping her eyes, to try and fruitlessly mask from Vegeta that what he suspects is true.
"So there is something then. If it is troubling you so much then I will try and help as best as I can. Ryoko, what is-"
"Don't! I won't say it, I won't tell you. Just forget about it Vegeta, I don't want to ever talk to you about it." Ryoko's shouts have devolved into loud, hoarse whispers broken up by her sobbing. She crouches down and shields her elfin ears to block out Vegeta's voice. Her whole body trembling with fear over what Vegeta is sure to do next. Her head violently shaking from side to side, her locks of hair whipping about her head as she spills more and more of her tears to the floor, as she tries to deny the future that has come her way and she is powerless to stop. Her uncontrollable crying only intensifies when she hears the Saiyan behind her inhale and open his mouth to speak.
"Sounds as though I am the specific one in which you will not confide this secret. Something that I must not know about and would cause you to spontaneously want to become the same species as me. Something that you yourself only found out because of Washu and that is why you were not shredding her to pieces and instead being the obedient, little test subject … she offered you that procedure not for herself but for you. Something that would cause you tears, something involving me … something that scared you so much you voluntarily let yourself get chained up to a machine ..." More musing to himself out-loud his thoughts than questioning Ryoko on the matter, Vegeta scratches at his stubble on his chin before rubbing at the dark and sunken bags beneath his weary eyes. He feels as if he has the ability to solve this conundrum if but his mind were functioning at 100% but in his current state he could wrack his brain for hours and still come up with no solution. The Saiyan has observed well what has transpired and several of the reasons why but the main chain interconnecting all these facts escapes him. Growling in irritation at his intelligence and deduction being empty shells of their true selves, Vegeta realises that it is beyond his current ability to solve this mystery. Ryoko mistakes his growl for one of anger towards her and it frightens her.
Crouched down upon the cold floor, her body shivering but not due to her lack of clothing, Ryoko tries to make sense of how she came to be in such an abysmal state. Just a short while ago she was perfectly happy and without a care in the world and now that world is falling apart at the seams around her, crushing her with its inconsolable weight. Ignorance is bliss as they say and she would much prefer her prior state when she was not made aware of the radical difference between her biology and that of the man she loves. It is eating her up from the inside, ripping apart her bleeding heart and breaking her mind. She doesn't know who to hate, who to blame, who to want vengeance on. Ryoko doesn't even know who to trust anymore. He is annoyed at her, she is sure of it. He is growing impatient at her weakness and pitiful display of pathetic emotion, he is growing to dislike her, the sobbing wretch she has become, she is sure of this. But she is also sure of one other thing and that is that she cannot stand this pain anymore. She has to be rid of it. If she doesn't stop this rampant madness ravaging her mind it will destroy her. Fear prevents her. To act now terrifies her, but to leave things in this state will only delay the inevitable. Ryoko cannot evade Vegeta forever, she cannot bear the thought of having to distance herself from him but the only other alternative weaves such a thick illusion of dread about her that she dare not act upon it.
A clunky footstep sounds behind her. Ryoko's whole body freezes and tenses as she curls up even tighter upon herself. A second footstep follows the first at an irregular pace. She wants so much to rely upon Vegeta, for him to help her and save her from this fate but he is the one who has left her is so much inner turmoil. He is the alpha and omega, not one thing that goes through her mind does not concern him but she cannot find the resolve to put her faith in him. Vegeta means too much to her for her to risk any chance of bereaving herself of him. The potential of his actions and his words, the facts about the Saiyans that Washu told her about, all swarm about, buzzing and plaguing her into inaction. She doesn't want to be controlled by her cowardice, she doesn't want to do nothing, she doesn't want to do anything she might regret but most importantly she doesn't want to lose Vegeta from her life. He quietly says her name.
" I'm infertile!"
The response blurts out from her. An involuntary verbal explosion brought on by the delicate way in which he called out her name.
" … I … I can't have your children, Vegey."
More words follow, tumbling freely from her mouth. The gates have been opened, she cannot prevent the rest from flowing out of her despite her integral fear. Her sorrow and depressive mood seeps into her whispered words, the hushed voice of hers sounding as fragile and cracked as a sheet of ice with a great weight pressing down upon it.
" Washu did tests and … and she said that-that … DNA was incompatible. … That I was incompatible with you!" Ryoko whirls around suddenly and grabs onto Vegeta, wrapping her arms about his waist and holding onto him as tight as she can in hope that he will never leave her side. Her golden eyes brimming with tears stare up at him, the pain in her face clear for Vegeta to see. The Saiyan remains silent, unable to speak from the shock of what she is saying, he has never faced such a situation like this before.
" … It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair. You'll hate me now … you'll hate me, and-and-and you'll love Ayeka instead of me! You'll pick her and I'll be alone because I'm-I'm-I'm … I love you Vegeta. I want you, but I can't give you ..."
"Ryoko, it's Ok." Vegeta looks down at this heartbroken woman putting her heart and soul on the line and nods his head in reassurance. Instead of being consoled and revified by his truthful words, Ryoko wails loudly and buries her head into his abdomen. So tightly wound up within the false reality her mind has cast about her she denies his words, for she cannot believe them to hold any truth whatsoever. The Saiyan stands, thinking about the words she has spoken to him and how he can counteract them.
"No, nothing's OK at all. You don't love me and you never will! … Washu told me about Saiyans. She told me about you and Trunks … and Bulma. I don't want to lose you Vegey but-but I can't-"
Vegeta bends down beside her, lifting her chin up with one ungloved hand and wiping away her tears with the other. He tries to smile at her but at this point in time it appears more of a forced grimace. Her arms now no longer around him clutch at his hands as her eyes focus solely on his. Clearing his throat before he speaks Vegeta coughs several times, a small spittle of blood emerging from his lips. Quietly, he says to her the single sentence she needs to hear.
"Ryoko, my son was conceived through love to my wife, my love for my wife was not conceived through my son."
Despite his dislike for spouting such poetic statements, Vegeta knows that it is exactly what Ryoko sorely needed. He can roughly understand her position - though the closest thing he can equate this biological issue to for himself is the shameful loss of his own tail - and imagines that Bulma would have been similarly hit by such a personal and intimate strike. The Saiyan brushes her hair from her face as he watches her face morph from one contorted from pain and anguish to blank astonishment tinted with the slightest glimmer of hope.
"B-but, you – but Washu ..." With her bloodshot and golden eyes opened wide, she moves her hands to cover her mouth, her heart hangs suspended and unbeating as she mutters. In response, Vegeta pulls her close so her head rests against his bruised and aching shoulder. Her arms instinctively wrap back around his broad back, her slender fingers wedding together over his spine.
"That woman does not know everything, especially about me. It's OK Ryoko, I already have a child, I do not care for any additional offspring. My bloodline will continue even if my species will not. I need no more children and besides I doubt I could handle another. … I do not hate you, or think of you in any lesser light due to this, Ryoko. If anything I think more of you. You were in pain and so very scared of me, and not for the reasons I am used to, yet you were magnificently brave in telling me. You might not be a Saiyan in blood, but you definitely are in spirit." As the knotted web of self-loathing, woe, dolour and heartache are shredded and obliterated, extricating Ryoko, strength enters Ryoko's embrace. Such ecstatic relief purges her body of all the emotional ills that plagued her during that darkest hour, a truly gay and joyous smile births itself on her face as this time the few tears that escape from the corner of her eyes are those not born from sadness but unbridled mirth. Vegeta pats her bare back feeling the strap of her bra and thinking he should find where Washu put her clothes for he cannot ignore her near nakedness indefinitely. A drop of crimson falls in-between them from the soaked training gi.
" You make me so happy, Vegey. … I thought that – but you – you honestly don't care about this?" Ryoko's clutch on the Saiyan prince loosens slightly a she double checks whether she has nothing to fear, that all of her despair and melancholy can be brushed aside and vanquished.
" Children were more Bulma's thing than mine, I don't have the time to train children if I am to surpass Kakarot. The only time at which that part of your anatomy would be of interest to me is if we were actually engaging in those acts you try to tempt me with. Speaking of which, isn't it about time you put your clothes back on." He pats Ryoko on the back of her head, slightly stroking her spikes of hair as he begins to casually glance side to side to ascertain the location of her garments. His vision fails to penetrate the perpetual gloom hanging over this realm, he can't even clearly focus his vision on the machine he destroyed that is not even five metres away from him. Upon hearing his words, Ryoko turns her face towards his and nuzzles against his neck. Vegeta begins looking a bit more urgently for anything with which he could use to cover up Ryoko as he feels her chest against his own. The pirate basks in the warmth of his body, lapping up this physical interaction between her and the one she loves and the feel of his slow and steady heartbeat resounding throughout her own chest.
" I love you Vegeta." It feels so good for Ryoko to finally say those few special words to him properly. She knows he won't respond properly to her confession of love and she doesn't expect him to for he has already gone beyond all expectations she ever had of him by far. In her state of euphoric bliss brought on by his tender compassion for her and also his general apathy concerning most things she doesn't care about his inability to love any other woman except his deceased wife, she just savours and enjoys the moment and purrs contently.
"I know, and although I do like a woman with some fire in her blood that does not distract from the fact you should get dressed."
" I knew I'd eventually get you to say that you like me. You just keep talking like that and I might fall even more in love with you Vegey, so can't we stay like this a little longer?" Ryoko grins, completely satisfied and happy staying in this embrace forever if it means Vegeta will compliment her some more. Flattery is a rare thing from this stoic man and so she will gladly take all that she can get from him though silence now ensues after her question. He does not want to be in this embrace for any longer than absolutely necessary but he is having trouble determining how long that would mean, she might be happy now but if he suddenly acts cold towards her he knows her high emotions might take a turn for the worse. Ryoko picks up on this. Normally given these circumstances he breaks off contact with her very quickly but he has not done so, her smile widens.
After a minute or two Ryoko pulls back by a small amount to look at Vegeta's face as she realises that his hands have not been in contact with her body for a good while now. He is looking off to the side with his tired eyes averted from her and if it weren't for his unhealthy pallor due to his extreme exhaustion her feline eyes would also spy a slight blush. She casually looks down at herself and her toothy grin stretches from ear to ear. Ryoko lets go of Vegeta and stands up with her arms crossed in such a way to show off her assets to a higher degree. The Saiyan slowly rises, wincing in pain as he puts weight onto his damaged leg, having forgot about the hairline fracture.
" If you' re really so fussed about my clothes then why don't you dress me? Go on Vegey, it'll be fun." Ryoko places an index finger delicately on Vegeta's chest and winks as she wryly grins. Her fingernail starts tracing smooth curves and circles on his sternum, she watches keenly as she sees that a part of his mind is actually thinking about taking her up on the offer. The Saiyan is in no mood for messing about with her and her lewd antics but if it is a short and harmless solution that saves him time then it could be in his interest to consider it so he can get back to training. He does not want to do it, to give in to her desires so easily, yet his own desire to get back to heightening his power is stirring within his mind. Ryoko greedily eyes this internal debate taking place within the prince's head until her finger comes into contact with something warm and wet. Crimson stains the tip of her finger as it drips down through the saturated outfit and onto the tiles. The Saiyan prince's blood trickles onto her hand.
" V-Vegeta, you're … did – did I do that to you?" Ryoko quickly retracts her finger from his body as she stares at the raw wound upon Vegeta's abdomen. Drops of his blood fall from her finger as guilt slinks its way into her stomach seeing the damage and hurt she has caused him. In a nonchalant manner Vegeta quickly inspects the haemorrhaging part of his torso and thinks how it will affect his ability to train, adding this with his injured leg and depleted ki reserves. He would growl and curse at his body failing him like this but doing so would achieve nothing but scaring Ryoko so he keeps his composure.
" I was too slow in raising my ki to defend against the first of your blasts, I was not expecting you to use your full power like you did." He states matter-of -factly. The lesion is not endangering his life in any way and will not impede his movement any more than it already is by his body's current state, it looks worse than it actually is. Vegeta can't even feel the pain from this wound above the constant throbbing coursing through each and every one of his nerves as a consequence from his torturous training. Ryoko though cannot help but feel guilty over actually physically harming Vegeta, something she thought she could never accomplish.
"Oh Vegey I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you I was just ..." Her words quickly tail off half way through her apology. She cannot finish her sentence. Ryoko does not want to think about the dark place her mind was in: she was scared, confused, angry, depressed, all of those but even if she wanted to she could not properly express her emotions when she feared for the loss of Vegeta's possible love. Vegeta shakes his head at her, he will not allow her to take the blame. His prideful nature dictates that any mistake on his part that leads to him being damaged is entirely his fault with no-one else to blame but his own inability to defend himself.
"Don't apologise, it's my fault for allowing myself to be taken by surprise by such a weak attack. Come now, find your clothes, we're leaving this damn place." Vegeta motions for her to go and retrieve her clothing as he takes advantage of the situation. Utilising her feeling of being indebted to him because she harmed him he escapes from having to dress her himself. She silently nods at him and vanishes, teleporting off to wherever Washu got her to take most of her clothes off for the procedure. Standing on his own with his blood decorating the floor, Vegeta's mind slips into imagining the possibilities that the machine he destroyed could have given him. His species consists of only two, not counting the hybrid children. If what Ryoko and Washu claim to be true then the proud warrior race of which he is the prince of could have risen again. The second advent of the Saiyans. He shakes his head to rid himself of such delusional fantasies, he will think more on this when his mind is functioning at full capacity and have words with Washu, not just concerning the machine but the whole situation for he has not finished with her and her insubordination. A woman in a blue and yellow striped dress reappears before him.
Vegeta smiles half-heartedly towards Ryoko, his tiredness getting the better of him, and offers her one of his battered and gnarled hands. Instead of taking it the space pirate instead holds out a small cloth that looks like it was torn from some surgery gown and approaches him with it. His offered hand closes over her outreaching wrist and with his other hand he takes the rag of fabric from her and incinerates it with ki. Ryoko begins to ask why as he releases her wrist. She was trying to apologise to him by cleaning up his wound, he realises that, but even though he can accept her apology easily, he cannot accept what she was going to do. He answers her question before she can speak it: ' I don't accept aid from anyone.'. A sombre mood drifts between the two, Ryoko looking somewhat dejected by his callous rejection of the kind deed she was going to do for him to make up for what she did earlier. Her fashion accessory of a tail hangs low in between her legs. Vegeta offers his hand again so that he can instantaneously take them from this hellhole that he detests being in. Once again Ryoko does not take it. She looks down at his hand and then back up to his face, a serious look in her amber eyes as her slit like pupils focus on him.
"Vegeta, I know you like jumping in to save that pathetic princess but I need to make her pay for all this. I need to make her suffer like I did." Glacial and unemotional are Ryoko's words as she faces Vegeta. Both have stern expressions upon their faces and have their arms crossed. Silence passes between the two as Ryoko's tail restlessly swishes and coils around her knees. The Saiyan sees the deathly seriousness behind the woman's eyes, that destructive will for vengeance that is a constant part of his own mindset. He scratches at the scab on his forehead just below his widow's peak.
"Either I'm more tired than I thought or was it not Washu I saw in here who experimented on you not Ayeka?" He asks the obvious question. Not once in here has he heard any mention of the fair Juraian princess up until now and neither did Yamcha mention her when confessing to Washu's scheme so he sees no connection between what is occurring and this request.
" I think Washu already has enough things to worry about, but it was that Juraian bitch who told her to do that to me. She's the one who got me locked up in here and … and she made me go through all that shit. I need you to let me have a little girl to girl chat with her, uninterrupted." Her fingers clench tightly on her biceps, her face scowls and her tail wraps itself around her waist, a motion which catches Vegeta's eye momentarily from the familiarity he has with that motion. Ryoko lets Washu off the hook due to the aid she tried to give her and of what she heard transpired when Vegeta came to rescue her, she knows he will not have forgiven her as easily. The Saiyan simply nods.
" … That is a dishonourable thing to have done to someone. Ok. Fine. You're not going to let this drop till you've had your vengeance. You can have your chat, keep injuries to a minimum though, as much as you can. If I sense your power rising too much or her life force diminishing then I will stop you." He has not the time nor the patience to deal with babysitting Ryoko all day so that she does not attack Ayeka and although concerned as to whether Ryoko will indeed behave herself or act as she did two days ago he sees nothing wrong with what she is asking of him. If it were any other man the answer would be no, but he is not any other man he is a Saiyan prince who had to live most of his life under the tyranny of Frieza and he himself was commonly subjected to beatings or other means of physical punishment. Vegeta sees no reason against violence at the best of times and now he just wants to hurry things along and get out of this unnatural place. Ryoko smirks at him.
"You've got yourself a deal then Vegey and I understand your rules, suppose it was too much to hope for you to let me permanently get rid of your fiancée." Pellucid and unmitigated venom drips from her tone as she speaks that word so abhorrent to her: 'fiancée'. Ryoko holds out one hand and Vegeta takes it and shakes it, signing the deal between these two killers.