Author's Warning: This chapter is a pivotal point in the relationship between Bulma and Vegita, as well as between her and men in general. I'm giving you a warning now, however, because it contains a very disturbing scene that most normal people would find, at the very least, unpleasant to read. It is this scene that has prompted the rating I've chosen for my story, but it is critical to the character development I've envisioned. In my former version of this story, I didn't elaborate on it at all, out of fear of sounding trite, as well as lack of self-confidence in my ability to accurately portray the emotions of the characters involved. Now I feel better equipped, although not as well as I'd have liked even then, so I'm going to give it a better shot. You've been warned. Scary stuff ahead, and all that jazz.
Chapter 29: I'd Rather Die!
After a good half-hour's worth of flying, they found themselves just outside of Freeza's compound. Not a single henchman was to be found, which really surprised Bulma, considering the fact that the radar was showing that the dragonballs were all within the immediate vicinity.
"Where is everyone?" she wondered aloud. "I know Freeza had tons of soldiers in there when I was here earlier, but I can't sense a single one now."
"Do you think they could be with Freeza, wherever he went?" Gohan asked hopefully.
"No," Kuririn replied, shaking his head. "Freeza would have left someone behind to watch over the dragonballs; I'm sure of that. Something must've happened."
"Well, let's just get the dragonballs and summon the dragon while we can," Bulma said, looking around nervously. "I've got an uneasy feeling that we're being watched, and I keep expecting Freeza to pop out from behind every corner."
Bulma used the dragon radar to direct them around to the back of the ship. According to the radar, they were right where the dragonballs should be, but the large, orange orbs were nowhere in sight.
"So where are they?" Kuririn asked impatiently. "Are you reading the radar right, Bulma?"
Bulma shot him an irritated glare, and then she shifted her weight from one foot to the other impatiently. All at once she realized that the ground beneath their feet felt softer than usual. "Hmm..." she said, scratching at it with the toe of her boot. "This ground is pretty soft. Someone's been doing some digging here."
"Hey! You're right!" Kuririn exclaimed. "Come on; let's start digging!"
They shoveled the freshly packed dirt away with their hands, and sure enough, it was only a matter of minutes before they had unearthed all seven of the dragonballs. Apparently Freeza had been forced to hide them in a hurry, because he hadn't found a very secure place for them.
"Well, that was easy," Bulma remarked, dusting her hands off and putting her dragon radar away. "Somebody was definitely in a hurry to hide these things. Let's hope they're not in a hurry to come back!"
"Let's get these wishes made before they get the chance," Kuririn said. "Would you like to do the honors, Bulma?"
"I'd be delighted," she chuckled, smiling courteously at him. They stepped back away, and Bulma began the incantation.
"Oh, great Shenlon!" she cried. "Come forth and grant our wish!"
They waited tensely for a few seconds for the dragon to appear. Nothing happened.
"What's wrong?" Bulma exclaimed in dismay. "I said the incantation right, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did," Kuririn muttered, scratching his head. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute!" he cried. "Our dragon was made on Earth, wasn't he?"
"That's right," Bulma agreed. "Kami created him and the second set of dragonballs after Piccolo Daimaou destroyed the first ones. Both sets were created on earth."
"And we call Shenlon using our language, don't we?" Kuririn persisted. "Well, these were created here. Maybe these dragonballs won't respond to our language. Do you see what I'm getting at?"
"Oh!" Bulma cried. "That's an excellent point, Kuririn! I'll try saying it in the Namek language. Maybe that'll work!"
She thought carefully for a moment, laboring over the conjugation of the verb. Finally, she was satisfied that she knew what she wanted to say, and in a clear, calm voice, she said the words as she had translated them.
"Takkarato po Shenlon pupirittoparo!"
They waited hopefully for any kind of change in the dragonballs' appearance. Nothing happened – not even the faintest of glows within the orbs.
"I just don't get it," Bulma complained. "What am I doing wrong?"
"There must be a specific phrase then," Kuririn sighed. "I guess all we can do is go ask Saichorou what it is."
Bulma nodded. "I guess so," she said, "but maybe only one of us should go. We can't leave the dragonballs unguarded. Come to think of it, we probably ought to move them."
They were in the middle of trying to figure out what to do when Bulma suddenly sensed the twinge of approaching chi. "Kuririn!" she shrieked. "I can sense someone coming! No, wait; there are two of them! One of them is Jees, and I can't quite figure out who the other one is, but he's definitely strong!"
"What?!" Kuririn gasped. "Oh crap; you're right! What are we gonna do? We can't let Jees see the dragonballs!"
Bulma frowned and shook her head. "He came here after Goku beat up Baata and Rikuum, so I'm sure he already knows the dragonballs are here. Besides, they're too close now for us to hide these things in time. We only have two options here: flee or fight. We can either run like the dickens and hope they don't catch us, or we can stay here and defend the dragonballs. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide for yourselves, but as for me, I'm staying. I'm tired of running like a frightened rabbit every time some new powerful enemy comes along! We may not get another chance at these dragonballs, Kuririn; you know that. Who knows when Freeza might come back? Besides, it's not like we'd have very long to live if we fled anyway. We can't outrun Freeza forever. Eventually, he'd just blow up the planet."
"You're right," Kuririn agreed with an angry sigh. "I guess I'm in. We might as well fight. I just wish I knew what happened to Goku. He wouldn't have let Jees just come after us like this unless something happened to him."
Bulma would have said something in reply, but they had just received visitors. Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma stared in shock as Jees and Goku himself landed in front of them!
"Goku!" Kuririn exclaimed, utterly elated with this turn of events. "What's going on? Why are you here with this guy?"
"I know!" Gohan said eagerly, staring at Goku with a joyous expression. "You got him to switch sides, didn't you, Daddy?"
Goku grinned slyly at Jees, who grinned back. It was then that Bulma noticed that Goku was wearing a scouter. She'd felt kind of funny about him already, because his chi didn't feel right. It didn't seem like his at all, actually, and she could have recognized Goku's chi anywhere, no matter how strong he became. That scouter was what made her the most uneasy, though. Something definitely wasn't right.
"Are you... okay, Goku?" she asked, taking a few steps closer to him and looking him over from head to foot. "You don't feel right to me. Your chi is completely different. While we're on the subject, since when do you use a scouter, too?" She put her hands on her hips. "Something's not right. What happened to you in that battle back there?"
Goku winked at Jees and smiled absurdly at Bulma. "I don't know what you mean," he said in a hoarse yet strangely familiar voice. "My throat's a little scratchy, but I'm the same old Goku!"
Bulma started. His voice sounded awful! "What's going on?" she asked, suddenly apprehensive. She looked nervously first at Goku, and then at Jees. "And why is he here? You can't tell me he switched sides, Goku. That is, if you really are Goku..." Her voice trailed off, and she suddenly covered her mouth with her hand. "That voice!" she shrieked, hopping back away from him and adopting a defensive stance. "Now I know where I've heard it before! That's Ginyu's voice! Tell me," she demanded, "what the hell is going on here! I should have known something was wrong when I didn't recognize Goku's chi in you! You aren't him at all! What have you done to Goku, you impostor?"
Kuririn rushed forward and put himself between Bulma and Goku. "Bulma, what are you saying?!" he exclaimed. "That's got to be Goku! The only other people we left back there were Ginyu and Vegita, and I hardly think we could mistake either one for Goku! Now just calm down," he said in a more gentle tone. "You don't need to get yourself so worked up again! You're obviously just all stressed out, so why don't you sit down and take it easy for a while?"
Bulma shot him a brief but stony glare before returning her distrustful gaze to Goku. "Kuririn, you need to stop and focus your senses right now! Oolong and Puar have the ability to change their shapes at will. Do you honestly believe that they are the only ones in the universe to have learned such a technique? Who's to say that our dear friend 'Goku,' or should I say, 'Captain Ginyu,' couldn't have learned how to do this too?" She pointed an accusing finger at Goku. "Admit it!" she demanded. "You're not Goku! You're Ginyu!"
"Now that you mention it," Gohan said, turning a little pale, "he really doesn't feel like my dad at all, does he? Bulma, I think you might be right! Kuririn, get away from him! I don't think that's really my dad!"
Kuririn turned and glanced at Goku imploringly, as if to beg for some logical explanation that would calm Bulma down and set Gohan's mind at ease. Goku didn't acknowledge him, though. Both he and Jees simply stared at Bulma in total astonishment. Suddenly, Goku smirked, and after a few moments, he chuckled sinisterly and shook his head in disbelief.
"I must admit," he laughed, his eyes flashing with an unnatural gleam of depravity, "I never thought you'd notice the difference so quickly. You're a lot sharper than that idiot you left to fight me!"
Bulma bared her teeth at him, and Gohan tensed as Kuririn laughed nervously. "Uh, Goku?" he said, backing away a bit. "You can stop joking around now, you know. I uh... I think you're scaring Gohan!"
"What have you done with him?" Bulma growled. "Where is Goku?"
Goku (who shall hitherto be known as Ginyu) stifled a laugh. "Well, it all depends on what you count as 'being' Goku," he said, grinning broadly. "If you mean the physical part of him, or his body, then you're looking at him. As for the rest of him... well, let's just say that I hope you weren't too attached to his brilliant personality!"
"What?" Gohan and Kuririn gasped.
"Y- you're inside Goku's body?!" Bulma stuttered. "But what about..."
"My old body?" he finished for her, relishing her astonishment. "You might say it's now the legal property of the original owner of this one. Poor sap! He really did get the bad end of the bargain. I gave him my old body in return for his, but mine was slightly damaged when we made the exchange."
Kuririn and Gohan were by now much too stunned to utter a single syllable. Bulma was shaking with rage. To have victory snatched away from them when it was so close! It was unbearable!
"Now then," Ginyu said, allowing only the faintest trace of a smile to linger on his face. "The introductions are over. It's time to get down to business. Since you were able to find our dragonballs so quickly, I'm going to assume you know enough about them to know how to use them. Tell me; how do they work?"
"Sorry pal," Bulma said, grinning angrily. "They don't grant wishes to assholes."
Ginyu stared at her in shock for a couple of seconds before bursting out into a roaring fit of laughter. "Is that a fact?" he asked, chuckling deeply. "Well, I suppose that rules me out then, doesn't it? Good thing I'm not the one who's making the wish. Ah well. It really doesn't matter if you tell me how to use them or not. Lord Freeza is going to beat the answers out of those three Nameks anyway."
Bulma realized with horror that he was talking about Nail, Dende, and Saichorou, and she gasped. All at once, however, her expression brightened and she broke out into an unnaturally high-pitched laugh.
"What is it?" Ginyu asked her, looking more than a little confused by her surprising reaction.
"Freeza is such a fool," Bulma said, shaking her head and chuckling wryly. "He doesn't have any idea that the moment he kills the eldest Namek, he will have permanently destroyed his dreams of immortality! Once Saichorou dies, the dragonballs die with him!" She laughed again; not because Saichorou was going to die, but because of the supreme irony of the situation. It would be Freeza's own ruthlessness and cruelty that would doom his plan to failure.
"You're not kidding," Kuririn chuckled. "It's a twisted sort of justice, but it serves the scaly bastard right, doesn't it?" He laughed a little too, shaking his head angrily as he too marveled at the irony. He was furious about the possibility of Freeza's attacking someone as noble and defenseless as Saichorou, but he couldn't help thinking that even the kind old Namek would appreciate the irony enough to laugh at the purpose his death would serve Freeza in the end.
Ginyu snorted and shot them a crafty smirk before shaking his head in disappointment. "You know, I was wrong to say you were smarter than your precious Goku. Anyone with a brain can see that you're only using a ploy to try to spare the Nameks' lives! How transparent can you get?!" He laughed again, and then he crossed his arms and sneered at them. "Unfortunately for you, my friends, my scouter isn't transmitting our conversation to Lord Freeza, so he didn't hear your pathetic attempt to save the lives of your little green buddies."
Bulma frowned and decided to set her emotions aside for the time being. Dwelling on the cruelty of Freeza and the suffering of her Namek friends wouldn't solve their current problem, and it wouldn't be what they would have wanted her to do anyway. "Believe me or don't," she said coldly, shrugging and shaking her head. "Either way, it no longer has anything to do with us. It's now between Freeza and the Nameks to determine the fate of the dragonballs; neither you nor I know the proper phrase to unlock their power."
"I see," Ginyu said, smiling a very satisfied smile and nodding at her. "That's all I wanted to hear." He took off his scouter and handed it to Jees. "You can have this back now," he told him. "It doesn't do any good against these people anyway." Cracking his knuckles, he took a couple steps toward them, causing them all to tense anxiously. "Well then," he said, grinning fiendishly at them. "I suppose all that remains for us now is a fight to determine who will gain custody of the dragonballs until Lord Freeza returns. It'll be a great way to stave off our boredom, don't you agree?"
"I've a better idea," Bulma said, as a plan had begun to take shape in her mind. She levitated the dragonballs in a horizontal ring above her head. "Take one last look at them," she said with a flash of mischief sparkling in her eyes. She teleported them away to a place in the air just above the surface of a lake some hundred miles away. Although she obviously wasn't able to hear the splash they must have made, she knew for certain that they'd be well hidden once they sunk all the way to the bottom, and this little tactic just might ensure their victory; just in case Freeza did learn how to use the dragonballs, that is.
Ginyu's eyes narrowed, and his breath hissed in the back of his throat. "You shouldn't have done that," he said with a quiet malevolence in his voice that sent a chill through her tensed muscles. "Now I'll have to make your death more painful and humiliating than I'd first intended. Jees," he commanded, his eyes never leaving hers as he spoke. "I know you'll get a kick out of this. Do whatever it takes to get this stupid girl to tell you where she's spirited those dragonballs off to."
"With pleasure," Jees said, licking his lips and giving Bulma a look that made her want to retch. She clenched her fists and glared at him defiantly.
"Gohan! Kuririn!" she barked. "Leave Jees to me. No matter what happens, I want you two to focus on Ginyu. Never mind if he is in Goku's body! Pound him flat! Forget about the dragonballs; they're gone for good. Only I know where to find them now, and I'll be damned if I'm telling these bastards anything! Besides, they aren't going to do us much good if we don't know how to use them. The only thing we can do now is keep Freeza from winning!"
"You've got it, Bulma!" Gohan cried, flaring his chi.
"So much for an easy victory," Kuririn chuckled wryly, assuming a defensive stance. "Be careful, Bulma."
After a hasty nod, she teleported to the air just above Freeza's compound, and she shot a small blast of challenge at Jees. He grinned and dodged it with ease as he took off after Bulma, which was exactly what she'd counted on his doing. If she could somehow manage to pull this off, she'd really have an impressive story to tell Yamucha later on.
"So-ki-dan!" she cried, forming the deadliest one she could muster with what limited strength she had left. She sent it whizzing at Jees, and he stopped in mid-air in order to block it. Well, that's what he thought! She sent it off to the left just before it reached him. Then she straightaway sent it zooming back, and she soon had it zigzagging all around him, all the time never touching him, but keeping him fairly preoccupied. It didn't confuse him, though, as the grin on his face was enough evidence to see that her ploy was only amusing him. Still, all it really needed to do was keep his attention, and so far, it looked like it was working splendidly.
In the meantime, she circled around to the other side of him, and with a fierce shout, she launched herself full-force at him, drawing her leg back for a vicious kick. He laughed and spun around to meet her attack, and she let her so-ki-dan dawdle a bit behind him as she sailed forward. He turned his eyes away from the zigzagging ball as he poised himself to block her, and that was all she had been waiting for. She flicked the so-ki-dan towards his back with all her mental strength.
She couldn't have executed it more perfectly. The blast slammed into his back with impressive speed and strength, and it quite surprised and disoriented Jees. He fell forward from the force of the explosion, and in his surprise, he momentarily lost his focus on Bulma, who was still coming at him. She was just in time to finish her attack off with a savage kick to his ribcage, completely reversing his direction of movement, and thus making the attack twice as powerful.
Jees shot backwards and bounced off the top of Freeza's ship, just missing the edge on his way over. He landed roughly on the ground below, but Bulma could sense he was regaining his composure just the same. She remembered seeing a gaping hole in one of the main windows on the side of the ship. Like a flash, a good idea occurred to her, and she made a mad dash for that hole. She checked once to see if Jees was following her. Not yet, but judging from the loud, angry curse she heard from the ground back there, he was on his way.
She hesitated before she jumped into the ship through the hole, glancing down at Gohan, Kuririn, and Ginyu. They had already begun their battle, and Gohan and Kuririn were holding their own marvelously. Gohan was doing especially well. It felt as though he'd gotten a lot stronger since he'd eaten that Sensu bean. She grinned in silent satisfaction as she dove into the hole in the glass.
Once inside, she found herself in a large room on the side of the ship opposite from the sick bay where she had awakened in her first visit. She left the room she was in via a door, which led her out into the main hallway of the top floor of the ship. She then ran into the central area of the top floor, where she noticed a small stairway down. She shot down the stairs until she reached the bottom floor, which was three floors from the top. This would do nicely. She ran into one of the nearest rooms and quietly closed the door behind her. She had found herself in what appeared to be some kind of training room, guessing from the variety of weights and exercise machines she saw everywhere. She decided that this place would be satisfactory.
She hid behind one of the exercise machines and waited, patiently watching the door. She was breathing heavily and sweating a little by now; the stress and exertion of the past couple of days was catching up with her, and she was already past her exhaustion point. Still, she was confident in her plan. She had known that he'd follow her in, but that he wouldn't dare blow up the ship; Freeza would kill him for wasting a ship on the likes of her – even one that had been slightly pockmarked by the successful escape attempts of both Vegita and herself. If she'd figured this right, it would take him a few minutes to find her. That ought to give her enough time to gather her strength and think of her next plan of action.
Really, this had only been a diversionary tactic. She'd needed to buy herself some time and catch her breath. She was smart enough to know that she couldn't beat Jees on her own, but she figured that the boys could handle Captain Ginyu, as long as Jees wasn't there to help him. If she could hold him off long enough for them to take care of the big guy, then she'd stand a good chance of survival. She knew, however, that it was going to take all of her remaining energy and cunning just to keep ahead of him, and that although she had cunning to spare, her energy was in dangerously short supply. She hastily went to work on deciding what to do next.
When Bulma had entered the room, she had neglected to notice that there was another entrance on its opposite end - one which led to a separate hallway that was just as accessible from the upstairs as hers was. Also, she had forgotten that Jees had Ginyu's scouter, so she wasn't suppressing her chi as she hid from him. These two oversights, unbeknownst to her, had rendered her plan ineffective. As Jees tracked her down with the scouter, he used the quickest passages to get to where he was going, which, unfortunately for Bulma, led him straight to that door that she had overlooked. Although it was sheer coincidence that she had come to the first door rather than this one, it might just as easily have been attributed to bad luck, because as soon as Jees stealthily slipped inside, he perceived almost immediately what was going on. He could plainly see Bulma from where he was, and he could also see that she was totally oblivious to him. Stifling a laugh, he silently crept up behind her.
Bulma was still trying to come up with a good plan when the little hairs on the back of her neck began to stand on end. She was suddenly aware that someone was watching her from behind, and she realized that she hadn't been paying enough attention to the chi around her, thanks to her focusing on the battle going on outside. She spun around frantically, punching at the presence she felt behind her. Upon finding herself face to face with Jees, she let out a horrified gasp.
He caught her fist in his gloved hand and he held it there. As their connected hands quivered a bit in opposition of one another, he began squeezing her fist progressively harder until she winced in pain, at which point he let her go, surprisingly enough. She did a quick somersault up and over the machine she'd been using for cover, and she eyed him warily as he strolled casually around it until he was standing only a few yards away from her.
"You can't win, you know," he said, leaning up against the machine with a smug grin on his face. "You're far too outclassed by me to stand any chance of escape."
Bulma tensed and backed up a few more steps. "If you think that I'm going to tell you anything because of that, then you're going to be terrifically disappointed!" she spat at him with a wry laugh.
"Well I should hope not!" Jees laughed back. "That would take all the fun out of it!"
Bulma decided that it was time to leave. She bolted out the door she'd used to enter the room, and she made a beeline for the stairway. She cursed herself for underestimating Jees so terribly. Right now she was too weak to teleport any real distance; all she could do was run. She knew he was following her, but she couldn't hear him coming.
Suddenly, she found out why. He materialized in front of her, right inside the doorway to the stairs. She crashed into him, and she would have fallen backward from the impact (which quite easily could have been likened to crashing into a reinforced concrete wall) had Jees not grabbed her by her upper arms and held her upright. He clamped her arms against her sides and held them there, thus immobilizing her upper body. She shrieked in terror and kicked viciously at him, but he didn't so much as flinch at any of her strikes. She must have become far more weakened than she had first surmised. Bulma began to panic in earnest. She was much too weak right now to fend off any kind of attack, and she had a feeling that Jees knew it. She only hoped that the boys were having better luck than she was.
"You might as well accept it, love," he said seductively, his eyes burning holes into hers. "I've won, and now, you belong to me." His voice had become thick and husky, and when both tone and words combined to form their sinister duet, they froze the blood in Bulma's veins. All at once, the fear and dread he had awakened in her revealed to Bulma his unthinkable intentions, and she lost nearly all color in her face.
With a sudden laugh, he turned and violently flung her across the room. She slammed into the far wall and dropped to the floor on her stomach, stunned and unable to push herself up onto her feet – at least for the moment. She heard a hollow thud, and she weakly lifted her head to find that he had taken off his armor and tossed it aside. Now he was wearing only the skin-tight, legless suit that had been underneath. He quickly walked toward her, grinning at her with far more than a little excitement dancing in his evil eyes. She let out a frightened squeak as her flight instincts kicked in, and she scrambled to her feet to run from him. She hadn't even taken the first two steps before he appeared in front of her and clamped a vice-like hand around her neck, stopping her cold in her tracks. She simply couldn't believe his speed; it was like teleportation!
Before she even had a chance to gag, he threw her into the wall again, this time pinning her there - his grip like an unbreakable collar, tethering her neck to the wall and rendering her immobile. She fought sluggishly against him as he grinned a wicked, eager grin and slowly raked his eyes up and down the contours of her body. She wanted to cry out, but he had all but closed her windpipe, and she could only claw desperately at his hand to loosen his grip. He wasn't ready to let her go just yet, however.
"First we'll get rid of this useless thing," he snickered, seizing a fistful of fabric from the front of her gi and ripping a large section of it away from her. He then let go of her and stepped back, watching with cruel satisfaction as she staggered away from him, gasping for air and desperately trying to cover the front of herself with her arms. He had all but torn the entire front half of her gi away, and only her bra and panties remained to protect what was left of her modesty from his invasive eyes.
"Stay... stay away from me, you pervert!" she cried shrilly as she finally began to fill her lungs with air. She let out a terrified scream as he began following her down the hall, his eyes glittering with a foreign yet terrifying intensity. "P-please! Stay back!"
"Do you know what I love about women?" he asked her, grinning triumphantly as he watched an expression of panic wash over her face when she realized that she had backed herself into a corner and left herself no route for escape. She stood there as he advanced, shivering and covering what she could with her trembling arms.
"Don't do this," she pleaded, her frightened eyes filling with tears as they watched every move he made. He casually closed the distance between them with his slow, deliberate steps. "Please, just stay away!"
"As soon as I get down to a little skin, they all do the same thing," he chuckled, so close now that he could have reached out and touched her. "No matter how tough they think they are, they all do what you're doing now: make some ridiculous attempts at covering themselves, and completely lower their guard." He studied her with a sadistic grin as she tried to flatten herself against the wall in an effort to stay as far away from him as possible. "Women are weak, and yet they never seem to understand it well enough. It's one of the most wonderful feelings in the world to utterly conquer a woman, and I can't wait to feel it again!" He lunged forward and seized her shoulders, yanking her away from the wall and throwing her to the floor. As she screamed in terror, he pounced on her, pinning her arms to the floor and laughing a wild, terrifying laugh.
"Yes!" he growled, his eyes flashing with a savagery that frightened her half to death. "Scream and fight it! There's nothing that excites me more!"
"Please!" she begged, shaking her head violently and struggling to wriggle free of his powerful grip on her arms. "Please let me go!"
"Oh, I haven't even begun to enjoy you yet, sweetie," he crooned, letting go of her arms as he began ripping his body suit open down the front, eliciting a whimper of despair from Bulma. "I knew the moment I saw you that I wanted to break you in. You're the rare gem on a battlefield full of worthless gravel! And who knows? If you please me enough, I may not have to kill you after all. I might be persuaded to ask Freeza to let me keep you for a while. Wouldn't that be lovely?"
"No!" she sobbed, desperately beating at his chest and kicking her legs in an effort to force him off of her. "I'd rather die! Let me go!"
Out of the corner of her eye, Bulma thought she saw a flash of movement in the shadows behind Jees. However, that was soon forgotten as he began laughing at her frightened sobs and plaintive cries and quickly ripped away what was left of her gi. He began to grope and squeeze the most intimate places of her upper body, and he laughingly toyed with her brassiere, jeering at her for choosing to wear such flimsy armor. All of the sudden, Bulma saw through the veil of her tears the unmistakable silhouette of Vegita as he advanced upon them from the shadows behind Jees.
As he stepped into the light only a foot or so away from them, she got a disturbingly clear look at his face. Although she was already quite frightened, Bulma immediately became frozen in terror by the very sight of him. He was more than angry; he was insane with rage, and the sheer power of his chi as it crackled and sparked around him was overwhelming, to say the least. She stared at him in abject terror and she forgot all else, transfixed as she was by the petrifying vision he made. His nostrils flared and his teeth were grinding forcefully, but the features that would be forever imprinted in Bulma's memory were his eyes. They were glowing with the power of pure hatred, and right now they glared with incalculable ferocity at Jees.
Jees observed that not only had she ceased struggling and screaming, but she was also staring at something behind him. All at once he realized that they were not alone. He spun around to see who it was, but he didn't react quickly enough to avoid what came next.
"You fucking pig!" Vegita hissed, seizing him by the neck and hurling the surprised, half-naked man all the way across the twenty-foot hallway, where he crashed spectacularly into the opposite wall, cracking open a large hole and loosing a flurry of debris and chalky dust behind him. Jees had taken a nasty blow to the head, and he didn't get to his feet immediately. Vegita was by no means through with him, however.
"I'm blasting you straight to Hell, you stinking bastard!" he roared, his chi practically exploding around him.
Bulma was unable to move. She was so terrified by Vegita that she hadn't even realized that Jees was no longer a threat to her. Even on Earth, she hadn't seen such tremendous rage in the explosive Saiyan, and although she had found him frightening and even terrifying before, she was now scarcely able to withstand the depths of the fear that he instilled in her. He was a demon of rage and hatred, and she was paralyzed by her unyielding terror of him.
Jees somehow managed to unearth himself from the wall, but he was only just in time to be attacked again. Vegita shot down the hallway and sailed into him, and Bulma could only watch as he grabbed Jees by his neck with one hand and then slammed him violently against the part of the wall which hadn't been broken by the prior impact. The sheer ferocity and rage being emitted by Vegita's chi aura bombarded Bulma's senses and made her feel faint. If she had been in a calmer state of mind, however, she would have realized that her exhaustion - as well as the trauma that Jees had caused her - had also been large contributing factors to her weakened constitution.
Jees made an unintelligible gurgling sound, and he kicked at Vegita's legs and chopped at his arms as he tried to wrench his neck free. Unfortunately for him, the enraged Saiyan knew very well that he had his adversary at a huge disadvantage in strength right now. He was ten times more powerful now than he had been before Kakkarot had given him that strange seed. Jees wasn't going anywhere.
"I sorely detest the fact that I won't be able to make your death as long-lasting and painful as you so richly deserve," Vegita snarled, drawing his free hand back and charging himself up for something huge, "but I haven't the time to waste on a spineless worm like you. Be grateful for that, and be prepared to meet your idiotic captain again soon; he will be joining you shortly!" With that, he released Jees' neck, and - in one swift movement - he fired off a chi blast that completely engulfed his enemy and instantly disintegrated him as it tore all the way through to the outside of Freeza's ship. Vegita's eyes were gleaming with a sadistic satisfaction as his blast traveled across the Namekian landscape for nearly a mile beyond the ship, causing several explosions along the way. Jees was undeniably no more.
The hellish roar of the blast had shaken Bulma from her paralysis, and she had somehow managed to struggle jerkily to her feet, using the wall next to her for much-needed support. She was breathing very heavily, and she fought hard against the dizziness that had suddenly plagued her. She was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and she was afraid that she might keel over at any moment. She stared numbly at Vegita, almost too exhausted to care why he was there or what he planned to do with her now. However, all that changed when he turned around and his gaze fell upon her.
When she saw his eyes focus on hers, the vulnerability of her situation hit her all at once, and she let out a terrified whimper. She clung to the wall to keep her knees from buckling, and she was unable to do more than simply stand there and tremble under his critical stare. All the terror and mind-crushing despair of being confined here alone with him was nearly more than her anguished mind could bear, and as he slowly began walking toward her, she bemoaned the realization that she'd gone from the clutches of one cruel beast right into the clutches of another.
"S-stay away from me..." she sobbed, burying her face in the wall and feebly swinging her arm behind her to ward off the frightening image. "Don't come any closer!"
She was so weakened right now that she could barely stand, and her reason and logic had left her entirely, leaving only terror and shame in their wake. She couldn't bear it; she didn't want him looking at her like this any more than she'd wanted Jees doing it, but Vegita was far more frightening to her than Jees had been.
He advanced on her slowly, cautiously studying her movements in case she might fly at him in a sudden rage and injure herself. As he realized how dangerously low the strength of her chi had become, he knew there'd be no danger of that. The only thing she could do to anyone now was yell and cry at them. She seemed barely able to keep herself upright on those wobbly legs of hers, and she looked as though she might pass out at any moment.
When he had come close enough to touch her, he hesitated for a moment, as though he was unsure of what to do. It was only a brief pause, however. "You're coming with me," he ordered sternly, gripping her shoulder with one hand. Immediately, her head snapped around, and she stared at him with wide, panic-stricken eyes for the briefest of instants before letting out a terrified yelp. She let go of the wall in a frantic effort to shove him away from her with both her hands, and she turned her head away again, screaming as though the sight of him drove her to hysteria. Her feeble attempts to push him away only succeeded in giving him two arms to grab onto to aid in pulling her towards him, and he held her upright by her shoulders, as her legs didn't seem to want to support her weight any longer. She began crying and screaming at him, sluggishly beating at him with her fists and craning her neck in an effort to keep her face as far away from him as possible.
"No!" she screamed as he ignored her struggles and scooped her into his arms – flailing limbs and all. "Please, no! I don't want this! Oh God, somebody please help me!"
Vegita let her flail and scream without comment as he turned and calmly began walking down the hallway with her. Although she managed to strike his face several times during her terrified struggles, at this point her blows had become so feeble that they scarcely made him close his eyes. After only a half-minute or so of hysterics, she had already worn herself out, and she simply buried her face in her shaking hands and sobbed as though she could never be consoled.
She knew that there was nothing she could do to stop him. Regardless of whatever Vegita had in mind, he was going to get his way without so much as a bruise from her. She hated herself so much right now. She wanted to die; even death would have been better than the utter helplessness and weakness that plagued her body and her mind at that moment. The shame she felt as she imagined his cool, scrutinizing eyes raking every inch of her trembling, scantily clothed body - that and her overwhelming fear of him were both terrifically powerful sensations, but even they weren't as oppressive as the complete and utter defeat that had claimed her soul. She was finished. She had no fight left.
As he carried her through the complicated hallways of Freeza's ship, Vegita could feel her violent trembling and palpitating heartbeat everywhere her body came into contact with his. He was starkly aware of the paralyzing fear she had reserved for him, and for some reason, it made him uneasy. He wasn't sure why; it didn't make any sense, considering the fact that by all rights she damn well ought to be terrified of him. He was her enemy, and he was far more powerful than she could ever hope to be. He could kill her in an instant, and why this fact seemed to escape her logic so often, he had never quite understood.
One thing had been certain, however. When he had seen the way that Jees had rendered her into the pitiful, sobbing state that she was in, it had filled him with an unimaginable level of rage and hatred. On a normal day, he hated Jees' guts. At that moment, he had loathed the very idea that the flaming cretin had dared breathe the same air as himself. His gut told him that the woman had had something to do with his fury, but he didn't really concern himself too much about it. The most important thing now was to restore her to a more coherent state of mind and body, or he'd never find out where she'd hidden the dragonballs.
In the next several minutes of silence that they spent traveling through the hallways of Freeza's ship, Bulma went through a lifetime of agonies. When she heard Vegita's voice at last, it was like being awakened from a terrible dream, only to find herself living yet another one.
"You aren't going to be much use to anyone the way you are now," he grumbled. "The rejuvenation tank can heal your physical injuries, but you need to snap yourself out of the rest of it. Freeza isn't going to give you a chance to recover from this. You have to strengthen your mind, or you won't survive what's to come."
"Re-... rejuvenation tank?" she asked him, her voice wavering and cracking from fatigue and emotion.
"You can't tell me you've forgotten what those are," he said quietly, turning his head from side to side as he reached a split at the end of a hallway that he wasn't familiar with. "Didn't they put you in one after you were brought here the last time?"
"You're... going to put me in... a rejuvenation tank?" she continued, her mind only partially comprehending the significance of her own words, and her head beginning to nod.
"Yes, I'm going to put you in one! Why in blazes do you think I'm traipsing through this infernal ship with a mumbling fool like you? You're in no condition to even stand upright, much less tell anyone where you hid the dragonballs. You're going into the rejuvenation tank for an hour, and when you come out again, you're going to stop being such a weakling, and grow yourself a backbone, dammit!"
Bulma didn't answer him. Her exhaustion had finally conquered her, and she had fallen asleep in his arms. He groaned in frustration and kicked the door of the sick bay open with one foot, snarling savagely as he looked for a tank that hadn't been damaged. More than anything, he lamented the fact that he hadn't been granted enough time to rip that bastard Jees apart, one limb at a time!
