36
TRUNKS wasn't entirely sure what he'd been expecting to find when he and Goku instantly landed once more back on the Lookout Tower's platform with that club owner that had tried to poison his mother, Madame Destiny, and the two Saiyans under his father's command who'd killed Gure in their custody now to answer for their crimes, but for his mother and father to both be waiting for them was…not admittedly what he'd expected.
His mother especially. In her current condition, Trunks thought she needed to be resting, and it was clear by the trademark scowl on his father's face that Vegeta thought so too. He stiffened as he briefly met Trunks' gaze, who nodded but had eyes solely for his mother, who was keeping her blue eyes trained on Destiny.
Vegeta sneered at the two now held squirming in captivity under Trunks and Kakarot's strong, godlike grip.
He was hardly aware of Prince Tarble coming to stand to his immediate left, his own body shaking as he looked on with rage at the men who'd murdered his wife in front of him.
"Bulma, these three are responsible for almost killing you and the murder of my brother's wife," he informed Bulma, though she already knew this, his anger threatening to implode and boil to the surface of how he'd almost lost his mate today because of this purple-haired bitch of a club owner's actions by forcing that disgusting tea down her throat. He stepped forward, his voice rising with contempt.
"F—forgive me, my—my King, I—I was only following Lord Frieza's orders," the club owner cowered upon seeing the flashing look of rage in Vegeta's dark eyes, beginning to tear up at the fear of her unknown fate. She was unable to meet Bulma's glower, guilt obvious on her paling features.
"Forgive you?" Bulma breathed incredulously as she stalked her way towards where Goku and Trunks stood, with Trunks jutting his leg out and kicked Madame Destiny in the back of her hamstrings, eliciting a cry of pain from the alien as she felt her knees give out and knelt in front of her.
Vegeta grumbled a Saiyan curse under his breath as he followed in his wife's footsteps, secretly not wanting his mate anywhere near these insolent pieces of filth that had almost killed her. But he was not about to let any further harm come to his mate as he stood by Bulma's side, adding his judgmental stare to Madame Destiny's embarrassment.
"Forgive you," Bulma repeated numbly, feeling like she was barely able to breathe. "You tried to murder my baby!" she shouted, balling her shaking hands into her fists, feeling her long fingernails piercing the sensitive skin of her flesh.
Without even thinking, the shorter Saiyan in the group, the one called Lottus who'd been overly eager alongside his compatriot Toma to rid the planet Yardrat of their leader, spoke up in mistaken defense of the club owner.
"The babe would've been fine, Woman," he barked hoarsely in an attempt to pass off the angry Queen's fury.
Vegeta stepped off to the side and eyed Lottus hatefully. His rage surged through his bloodstream, rivaling Bulma's as he regarded the younger Saiyan that had endangered his mate's life and the life of their unborn son.
He didn't even feel it as he turned Super Saiyan, letting out a hair-raising scream that sent a collective chill down the group that had gathered to watch. Kami, Mr. Popo, Android 18, Krillin, and Prince Tarble, all of them eager to see what sentence Vegeta and Bulma would give the traitors.
"NO ONE IS TALKING TO YOU!" Vegeta roared with no small amount of hatred creeping into his voice. "I suggest you keep your mouth shut, Lottus, before I kill you…"
Bulma turned slowly back towards Madame Destiny, still forcefully kneeling into a crouch by her side, with Trunks having pulled his sword from its scabbard and held her would-be-assassin at sword point, not going anywhere.
She stared at the adult form of her son, finding it incredibly difficult to believe this young handsome man was her own flesh and blood son from several years in the future.
Bulma almost had wanted to laugh at Vegeta when she'd woken up and told her what had happened while she'd been asleep but laughing was the last thing that she felt like doing right now.
Instinctively, Bulma felt one of her hands drifting to her still-flat stomach and was overcome with a surge of emotion and a strong desire to protect her new family.
The gasp caught in Bulma's throat as the world of the Lookout spun around her.
She did not see Vegeta tense angrily by her side. It was her husband who spat his next words at the club owner with fury, while Bulma struggled to form the ability to speak what she wanted to say through the immense rage and pain she felt at almost dying today, and at the unpleasant thought of almost losing Vegeta's heir.
"What punishment are they to receive, Bulma?" he growled, sounding like he was unable to believe what had almost happened to his mate tonight.
Well. That made two of them.
After forcing a breath through her gnashing jaw as her teeth clenched in anger, Bulma continued speaking at last, though it was becoming increasingly difficult for her.
Her icy-blue stares practically burned a hole through Madame Destiny, who seemed a lot less composed than before.
"You slipped a deadly poison into that disgusting tea and forced it down my throat knowing full well what it would do to my baby and to me!"
She could not even finish her thought as the horrors of the danger she had narrowly escaped tonight thanks to Kami's healing powers came fully to her mind's eye. Bile rose at the back of her throat as she swallowed down hard.
"Anything could have happened to it!" she shouted, utterly incensed and beside herself, her fists clenching in raw, unbridled fury. "Anything!" Bulma screamed as she unleashed the back of her hand across Madame Destiny's face, causing her head to reel backward.
The club owner sobbed with pain and regret at her actions.
"Forgive me," she begged. "I am sorry, I know I shouldn't have done it. L—Lord Frieza got to me early on, he threatened my entire family, my business, my livelihood, b—but I never meant to kill you. I only gave you enough to make you sick. Your baby would have survived, my queen! I swear it! I swear!" Destiny implored fearfully, kneeling on her knees.
Unable to stomach looking at the woman who had almost killed her baby, Bulma turned her back on the alien woman's pleading.
"I cannot help you, though I don't want to," she growled, her voice growing soft and quiet as the entire group fell silent.
She inhaled a rather shaky breath and ducked her head low to hide whatever emotion was showing through despite her best efforts to keep it at bay.
Vegeta stiffened, still in Super Saiyan mode, ready to kill all three of these bastards in one fell swoop if she commanded it, though it did not come.
He wanted to order his Woman away, to tell her that she did not have to put herself through this.
But words were Kakarot's strong suit, in the right moment when he was of a mind to relay comfort. Not his.
She did not have to confront the aliens who had almost killed his heir.
And yet, it seemed like to the new Saiyan King, that Bulma in her own way, was searching for some form of closure. An end to an increasingly long nightmare.
Bulma slowly lifted her head and turned back around to look towards Madame Destiny and the two Saiyans, Lottus and Toma.
"Whatever help I could give you, I don't think that would ever be enough." Another beat, another pause as she drew in a shuddering breath. "I—I don't forgive you for what you've done. Maybe one day, I will. But now…" Bulma's voice cracked as her resolve faltered and Vegeta could feel his mate's shoulders start to shake. "Now all I want is for this to end. And you, Destiny, if that's even your real name, what is it that you want out of this?"
Madame Destiny did not answer Bulma. She just looked at Vegeta's wife with a blank expression, and yet, something flickered in the alien's purple eyes.
Something that had nothing to do with the coldness that had sone through them during her and Bulma's initial encounter earlier in the club. But it was gone as Bulma continued.
"There's nothing I can do for you." Now her voice had gone softer, more subdued than before, and everyone around them could tell she was fighting back tears as her voice had started to shake. "If I had the power to do it, I don't know if I would. I don't know."
She kept her head ducked low, but this time she lifted her head and pulled something over her head, a necklace that she wore.
It was a simple, silver medallion of some kind of cross on a thin black cord.
There was some sort of strange dragon emblem engraved on it, but Vegeta couldn't make it out what it was as she stepped away from him and towards Madame Destiny's current position.
"But I can give you this." She held it out for her to receive. "It's not much, if anything really. Please. Take it," she said.
For a moment, the black cord swung slowly back and forth between the two women like a slow-moving pendulum.
Bulma made no move to take it back and Madame Destiny made no move to accept it, either. Several long-drawn-out moments passed while Vegeta, Tarble, Krillin, 18, Kami, and Mr. Popo stared at the two, this human woman and the alien, their gazes flitting back and forth between them. Watching. Waiting to see what would become of this.
Anticipation and apprehension hung in the air before the unthinkable happened. Madame Destiny slowly closed her eyes and bowed her head low in a look of submission and recognition.
Vegeta's eyebrows shot so high up on his brow that they nearly disappeared into his now-golden hair.
Even Android 18 blinked owlishly at the alien, her blue eyes stretched so wide and round they looked like dinner plates. Krillin simply gaped and Tarble, Kami, and Mr. Popp all wore expressions of complete surprise and disbelief. Vegeta's own reaction was one of shock and bewilderment. He wasn't even aware a tiny noise of disbelief had escaped the back of his throat as Destiny accepted it.
He blinked rapidly for a moment or two and then shook his head slightly as if to clear the strange sight from his eyes.
Of all the things he'd expected his wife to do to the bitch who'd tried to murder his heir, this was not one of them. Bulma, who was surprised in her own right, took her gesture with slightly more tact and composure.
She inhaled a deep breath as she slowly drew closer to the club owner.
She shrugged her arm out of Vegeta's ironclad grasp and placed the strange necklace over Destiny's head and letting it fall against the older woman's chest ungracefully.
"Now get her out of my sight. Get them all out of my sight," Bulma commanded in disgust and utter contempt.
While Bulma tried to calm herself as she shivered, both from the cold at being up at such a high altitude and both in anger and fear, Vegeta stalked forward and pulled the club owner unceremoniously to her feet, glowering with hatred as he exhaled slowly, letting his energy dissipate until he felt his hair return to normal and his irises shift back to black as he quelled the worst of his rage.
The two Saiyans, who were shoved forward by Trunks and Goku towards the edge of the platform, intending to take them back to Yardrat, stopped under the judging gaze of their new King, Madame Destiny trembling under the harsh grip of Bulma's son.
"There are no words you could offer in your defense. You've betrayed our people, Toma, Lottus," Vegeta growled as he eyed the pair of Saiyan warriors disapprovingly. "I trusted you." His eyes narrowed further in his disappointment. "What should be done with you three?" he growled as he considered the consequences that he could inflict on all three of them.
He could kill them where they stood, easy. He could do it, or Trunks could run them all through with that fancy stupid sword of his. But then he relinquished his authority as King of All Saiyans to the one who'd been most gravely injured by their actions tonight.
"It's unfortunately not my decision to make. Were it up to me, I'd free all of your wretched heads from your bodies," Vegeta told the trio coldly. He raised his eyes back towards Bulma, as Madame Destiny's trembling grew more violent with the realization of what was about to happen. "Bulma, Tarble, you both were affected tonight by their actions," he stated plainly, though his voice shook with rage. "You both shall decide their fate. What happens to them?"
Bulma exchanged a dark glower with Tarble, who gave a curt nod, though his expression remained impassive.
It was impossible for Vegeta to tell what either one was thinking, as when he tried to initiate the mental bond with both his brother and wife, their minds were closed off.
The others waited for the pair to pronounce their sentence upon the three people who had almost ruined their lives.
Though considering Bulma and Vegeta's baby was healthy, and Prince Tarble had been ecstatic to learn that Gure could be revived by all seven Dragon Balls by wishing her back to life, Tarble was inclined to be lenient on the three individuals.
Vegeta could almost see it in his brother's darkened eyes.
"We don't care what happens to them, as long as neither one of them ever comes near us or our families again," Prince Tarble declared in a slightly shaking tone.
There was nothing he or Bulma could see done to the two Saiyans and the other alien that would compensate their need to avenge the wrongs done to the two of them, Bulma's unborn baby, and his poor sweet Gure.
"Let them go, take them back to Yardrat. Destroy the two Saiyans' escape pods. Frieza's ship was already destroyed. Let them rot there, and destroy the club. Goku, tell the leader of the planet not to teach them the instant transmission technique," Tarble snapped, watching Destiny's face pale in shock and horror at the thought of her empire crumbling.
Prince Tarble spoke with such an austere air that Toma's smile widened even through his grunt as Trunks shoved him forward.
Toma smirked. "You'll make a good King when your big brother dies one day," he said as Goku gripped his arm and moved to turn him away. "You and Vegeta are more similar to your father than you think."
His expression turned somber as he peered over his shoulder to look at Vegeta one last time. Vegeta and Bulma both raised their eyebrows.
"Only that I meant to say," Toma continued in a smooth, languid voice, "Well, you two Saiyans have the same Achilles' heel. Your duty and honor and pride get in the way of everything. To the point of hurting everyone else around you but more than anything, you wound yourself, King Vegeta. Where I'm going, back to Yardrat, it seeped with it, sir."
"In what?" Vegeta growled in a hushed voice, his tone turning curious despite his best efforts to ignore them all.
Toma's dark eyes traveled across the Lookout's platform until they landed once more on Bulma, nervously clutching at Tarble's arm for support, as she was still incredibly tired and taxed from her ordeal, watching. Waiting to see what her husband would say to his next words.
"Self-punishment," Toma replied plainly before he offered a swift bow and turned towards Goku. "Lead on, sir."
Goku briefly nodded before looking to Trunks for confirmation, who returned the nod before setting his hand on his bicep to allow him to instantly transmit the group back to Yardrat.
Krillin was the first to break the silence that followed while they waited for the two Saiyans to return.
"That's it?" Krillin whispered to Kami, utterly confused. He could not understand either Tarble or Bulma's leniency on the three individuals who'd upset their lives.
"Tch," Vegeta scoffed. "What do you mean that's it?" he snapped, though his tone slightly sounded reassuring. "Back to that pathetic wasteland of a planet with no resources, no ties to the rest of our people, and no means of support, they don't stand a chance, especially the female." He dipped his chin in satisfaction. "She'll probably be a whore within a week and my two companions will go insane, not able to get off that planet. With any luck, they'll rip each other's throat and spare our race the disgrace of two worthless Saiyans who dishonor their very name and what being a Saiyan means. It's one thing to kill, but another thing entirely to go after one of our own kind's mates. No Yardratians will teach them the instant transmission technique they taught Kakarot."
A fitting end for the three who'd almost cost him his family, Vegeta judged meanly, turning back toward Bulma.
"You need to eat," he barked in his typical rough voice, not liking how peaky his mate was looking. Bulma grimaced.
"I'm not that hungry, Geta," Bulma whispered, almost shyly as her eyelashes fluttered upward to regard her husband while the others, sensing the two needed a moment, headed back inside the Lookout's tower towards the kitchens.
Mr. Popo was cheerfully going on in excruciating detail about the meal he'd painstakingly prepared for the group. Kami hoped Bulma at least would eat something before Vegeta took her back to Capsule Corp.
"Tc. You say that as if you have a choice, Woman. Too bad," he snapped, his fingers curling around her arm as he steered her back towards the building, though he slowed his pace, wanting in his mind a moment to linger. "You're eating for two now. I'm not going to have my heir weak because my wife won't take proper care of herself. I'm not going to tolerate you starving yourself, Woman. You will eat, or I'll make you," he hissed.
With a frustrated exhale, Vegeta let himself look away from Bulma for a moment, closing his eyes in exhaustion. Fatigue was catching up to him, and he suddenly wished for nothing more than to take her back home. He had to let this go. He'd pushed everything else he didn't want to think about to the darkest corners of his mind.
This ordeal they'd experienced needed to join the rest. Things like this would never be erased from his memory completely, but Vegeta was damned well sure going to try.
Don't think about it, the new Saiyan King silently thought to himself as he held his wife close now that the pair were alone for a moment.
Things could have been much, much worse. Bulma was safe, his heir was safe. He himself was relatively unscathed. Bulma was resilient. What his mate had been through was rough and more than a little terrifying and traumatizing, but it could have been worse.
She was fine. He was fine. Tarble was fine. Gure would be wished back with the Dragon Balls. They were all alright.
Don't think about it, Vegeta again told himself as he felt his fatigue and stress of the night's events catching up to him. He could feel Bulma's chest rising and falling softly as his wife nestled in close, seeking solace from him.
The poor Woman trusted Vegeta much more than she should have.
She'd assumed when she was with her husband that she would be alright, maybe in danger some of the time, but always okay in the end. She trusted Vegeta to keep her from him, or at least to save her from things when shit escalated too far.
And Vegeta had not only failed to stop Bulma from drinking the poisoned tea, but he'd almost failed to save her. Bulma did not realize how close she'd come to not being saved at all, was it not for Kakarot's surprisingly quick thinking to bring her here to the Namek for help.
Don't think about it, Vegeta again demanded angrily in his mind.
In a surprising show of tenderness as they paused outside the kitchens, he rubbed his hand surprisingly gently over Bulma's left arm, careful to be mindful of any bruises.
"You're fine," he said gruffly but softly. He kept his voice low outside the door so the others would never know he said it.
Vegeta was saying it for himself more than Bulma.
Bulma was okay. Their baby would be just fine. He would make sure of it himself.
Everything was fine now. Frieza was dead, his forces disbanded and liberated from the alien's control. His heir was safe, and in another seven months, he would meet his son. Well. His son from this timeline, that was.
Vegeta sighed and shook his head to himself, thinking that as long as his Woman was by his side, he'd never feel the icy-cold touch of loneliness ever again. She mentioned something under her breath about joining the others, though Vegeta made no move to relinquish his Woman from his strong embrace, despite the pangs of his own hunger gnawing at him.
He was much too comfortable with Bulma in his arms.
And this time, he aimed to keep it that way.