Chapter 16. Purpose
Vegeta studied his little concubine sitting mutely at his side. Was she still upset due to their previous exchange? He could detect neither the earlier fury nor that crippling grief in her fierce features. She just crouched there with her forearms resting on her thights, a position he had seen her adopt often while she wasn't occupied, though never naked before. She was apparently brooding on something, her tail in her hands and her fingers heedlessly fondling the sleek red fur. The expression on her marred face was unagitated for now, yet even in this easy pose her presence demanded alertness. His instincts being bent on perservation made her stand out, everything around her retreating to the background and leaving her radiant and terrible in the centre of his senses. The nefarious warrior goddess.
She had quite a past behind her. It was no wonder she put away that blinding smile behind such a savage exterior. Life sure hadn't ever bothered smiling back at her. It was in there somewhere though, that smile, and he would draw it out again. As often as he could manage it.
It was a pity that she wouldn't give him the son he wanted, that he had to let that go for now. Perhaps she would come around in time, once she got used to the idea. Vegeta thought it likely that it brought up too many painful memories in stead of weirding her out like she said. He was beginning to understand the way she worked and sharing her feelings wasn't something she wanted to do. It may even be weird for her as well, but Vegeta wasn't burdened with that. He had left his father, and everything involving him, well in the past. It did not interfere with dealings of the present. If it had, he wouldn't have taken her for his concubine in the first place. He had no problems seperating these things.
That she defended his father so fiercely told him the fallen King was still very much at the forefront of her mind. Her unswerving devotion, something his father truly didn't deserve in light of his many transgressions, wasn't even all that surprising. The King had always had an extraordinary talent for inspiring love and loyalty in his people. Vegeta knew that he had loved the man that gave him life once. Worshipped him like sons worship fathers. At one time his whole life had revolved around his father. Maybe he still loved him somewhere deep in his heart. Maybe that was what made it all so unforgivable. Vegeta knew his father hadn't been an evil man, the King had wanted none of the things that had happened, but he was to blame. His father had been a misguided, confounded fool who was tempted by the promise of power and doomed them all in his blind pursuit of it.
"Vegeta." Akane's rough voice called him back from his reflections.
Vegeta jolted again and he wondered why it should move him so when she uttered his name. It was almost like an incantation to stirr up his growing affection for her.
"Do you think I will be able to ascend?" Akane asked. Her savage exterior didn't change, yet she came across as oddly touchable all of the sudden. Yes, his little concubine had a little heart as well.
"You might." Vegeta said, and he meant it too. He wasn't in the business of sparing someone's feelings. Not even hers. "If you don't sun your tits too often."
That made her laugh, which pleased him, and reinforced her self-confidence. "Can you show me again?"
Vegeta obliged and raised his power to phase into his super form. She made a grab for his blonde hair, still awed even if she had seen him transform before. It wasn't bad for his ego that she found him 'fucking awesome', as she declared so often. He found her fucking awesome as well. She was fit to be a queen. His terrible, magnificent warrior queen.
"How did you do it?" Akane asked eagerly.
Vegeta gratefully took the invite to divert his mind from his current line of thought.
"I had that fuck-wit Kakarot to spur me on." He made a distasteful noise deep in his throat and snapped his head to the side for a good far flung grem. "I simply couldn't stand the fact that a lousy third-class surpassed me so I trashed myself to near death until I attained my super form. One of these days I will have him on his bleeding knees begging for his worthless life."
Yes, thinking of beating Kakarot to within an inch of his life was just as consuming as thinking of his little concubine was. He still had that accomplish, infuriatingly enough.
Akane gave a fierce nod of agreement. "You will."
It made Vegeta glad to see that she trusted he would.
"Will you train me? Help me ascend?" Akane asked.
Vegeta wasted no time in coming to his feet. She came from her haunches with him, grand and imposing though reaching no higher than his chin. He would train her and he would enjoy doing it too. He had trained his son and he even took the idiot spawn in to train under him for a year. He liked training others almost as much as he liked pushing his own boundaries. Given that the potential was there, otherwise he wouldn't waste his time on it. His little concubine had no lack of that.
Akane started pulling on her spandex short, halted half way through and looked at him with a mischievous grin. "Or do you want to spar naked?"
Vegeta, busy putting back on his own battle suit, smirked back. It was an inticing propesition. "Not now. If you really want to train under me, you have to take it serious. No distractions."
"I am taking it serious." she snarled and slipped her fine arse into her spandex shorts. She had more difficulty getting her green shirt back on, yet seemed determined to deny that it was several sizes too small for her.
Vegeta took in his fighting stance, phased back out of his super form and laid out the ground rules. "No ki attacks and no flying for now. Just try to keep up with me. Hold nothing back. I am going to hurt you. A lot. Try not to take it personally. There is no room for your foul temper now. Put a leash on it."
It was a wonder that she didn't blow her fuse at his words alone. She bared her teeth at him very menacingly, but that was all she did and she slipped into battle mode readily when he moved in to engage her. Vegeta eased her into the fight, constantly gauging how much further he could push her and ramping up as she met his efforts, her battle power steadily rising as high as it would go. Her strength had increased since her near death at the malfunctioning of the chip in her head and judging from the points she had gained from that, he became certain that if he helped her push her boundaries enough times, she could break her limits eventually and attain her super form. It was going to take time though. Years maybe. He would make time for it. Training her was going te help him advance as well.
He had noticed before how well she was able to anticipate his next move and now that he payed closer attention to the way she used the abilities she had gained from her rites, he understood just how much of an edge her advanced sensory system gave her in the field. She knew where to expect him every time without fail, even if she wasn't fast enough yet to ward him off most of the times. Her speed would increase with her strength though. He found himself looking forward to that. It would become a real challenge to try and outsmart her once it did.
His little concubine took her lesson in silence, not uttering more than a few bitter curses in the next couple of hours he spent kicking the shit out of her. Her temper got her into trouble several times and he disciplined her for losing focus. She had more control over it than she gave herself credit for, or perhaps she loved wallowing in her ill-humour too much to regulate it. It served as a front as well. A means to get away from her true feelings. He had learned that by now. Be that as it may, it had no place on the battlefield and it was past time she learned that.
"You need a lot of work, little one." Vegeta said provokingly. "You're a cack-hander."
"I bleeding well am not!" Akane hollered insultedly. "I am ambidexterous."
"No, I am ambidexterous." Vegeta corrected her with an arrogant smirk. "You still favour your left side far too much. Your previous oponents as well as the pricks you have serving under you might not be able to pick up on it, but I do. And so will the other Saiyajins on Earth."
He trapped her left foot against his shoulder when she targeted his face with a furious back kick. She cried fiercely and swung her other leg back and up to kick him in the face with that foot in stead, her hands supporting her weight on the grass. He aimed his own foot at her left arm hard enough to dislocate her shoulder and set her legs loose. She flung herself away from him with a snarl, grabbing at her arm panting and cursing him out under her breath.
Akane snapped her shoulder back in place with another fierce cry. Vegeta hadn't seen that coming. He expected that in stead the pain would keep her from favouring her left side as he engaged her again, yet she didn't spare her shoulder at all, even if it was clear that it caused her pain to use her left arm for the swipes she made at him. His fascination for her only grew because she was just so tough and persistent and compatible with him. He forced it all out so that he wouldn't lose his own focus. Helping her become even more awesome than she already was could very well turn out to be his next obsession. He just had to see how far she could come.
Vegeta didn't let up on her until dusk had settled on the valley and he had her lying crumpled and thoroughly beaten in the grass at his feet. Her tenacity had her still trying to get up from the ground, but her fuel was burned up.
"We're done for today."
Akane let out a liberated roar and rolled onto her back, throwing out her limbs for more comfort as she lay catching her breath. Her left arm wouldn't move and stayed where it was lying limp and askew at her side.
"You dislocated my fucking shoulder four times."
"I had to. You wouldn't leave it alone." Vegeta crouched with her to sort out her shoulder for her, but she put herself back in the right order again with a quick jerk and a pained snarl.
"Fuck me, that smarts." Akane breathed.
"Well done, little one." Vegeta complimented, finally allowing his pride and adoration for her room again. It was so intense that he couldn't quite handle it and before he knew what he was doing, he was pressing his mouth to hers hard and true.
The dubious look she gave him implied that it had blindsided her as much.
"You know," Akane said very carefully, her eyes raking his face in search of something he couldn't guess at. "If you want me to give you a son, you shouldn't wait much longer, my estrus is waning."
This caught Vegeta off guard and his voice felt strangely weak when he said: "It doesn't have to be now. I told you I can wait."
"I'm already in tatters from the beating you gave me. You go easy one me for once." Akane said, ignoring his words.
Vegeta did just that, at last finding good use for all those years of practicing restraint in his carnal doings. His little concubine wasn't completely spent after all when she accompanied him in his climax and as he relinquished his seed to her gripping sex, he knew, he just knew somehow that he had successfully gifted her with his royal issue.
And maybe, just maybe, since it brought them together on this foreign planet where they created a new beginning for their extinct race, a new beginning for them both, the atrocious events their lives had forced on them had some small purpose after all.