A/N – Sorry I have taken such a long time to post, but I have had like 6 projects due in the past week, and what can I say? When it comes to schoolwork, I am the procrastination queen. But here it is, so don't complain, and just read! I also promise this will be a long one, too. R & R!

She closed her eyes, envisioning herself jump – flying through the air, landing gracefully among the rocks, having the waves dash upon her broken body. Her life, and all the misery that went along with it, draining into the oncoming darkness. Stepping up to the edge of the overhang, she spread her arms wide; to feel the wind beneath her new found wings. Then, opening her wings, she jumped, letting the wind carry her, and only to find that these fragile wings could not support her, and neither could the wind. So she didn't fly, and began plummeting towards the rocks and sea below her. She fell, looking up as she did so, and saw that all this had happened in a matter of microseconds, and she just passed the edge of the face. But what happened next she could have never thought would happen. A hand caught her wrist, and a stern voice called to her.

"Don't let go."

She realized her predicament easily, with her quick-mind. She was hanging over the cliff, holding onto a hand for dear life, a life that she still wanted – she didn't want to die. She didn't panic, knowing in all her genius that wasn't a very smart thing to do. Instead she grasped on harder, while the person above tugged at her to try and pull her up. She cried when she realized what she had tried to do, she hadn't been thinking, but she was thinking straight now… and she didn't want to die. She didn't want to die. Tears streamed down her face as she was slowly pulled upward. Though her arm was being ripped out of its socket in the process.

Finally, she managed to climb over the brink, in tome to see her rescuer. He had a slight build, enough to save her, that's for sure. But what he was wearing scared her.

A uniform – a Jateal hunting uniform.

This was a hunting party, his hunting party. She gasped for breath just as she heard a parting in the crowd behind her and her rescuer. And sure enough, there he was, laughing at his discovery.

"I thought we had lost you… I guess I was wrong." Then he gave her the most wicked smile she had ever seen. She wanted to scream out for someone, anyone… she wanted to scream out for Vegeta.  But she knew, in all her pride, she would never do that. So she watched as he came up to her, and pulled up her cheek in his hands so that he was starring at her. Before she could do what was on her mind - which was to either turn away or spit on him, the latter being her favored choice – he had hit her on the back of the neck, knocking her out cold.

~*~*~*~*~

He searched everywhere for her, before he found her trail. The redness of the setting sun had died, and now it was becoming darker by the moment. He knew what would happen if he stayed out much longer – he gave himself half an hour at most.

He followed her trail, noting her footprints; barely visible in the soft soil, and he knew how light her footfalls where, almost undetectable…as if she was walking on air. He muttered a string of heated words to himself and anything that happened to come by him in his present state. He already missed her. Why was he such a fool to begin that statement, he was angry, and he didn't even mean it. Because he did love her. He thought about what he had said to Nappa as he had run after her. He walked on, barely aware of his surroundings and what he himself was doing.

He came to the opening where she made her 'would be' jump. He immediately snapped his attention to her foot impressions in the ground, and followed them, eyeing them o so carefully until they came to the edge, and there his face fell.

She jumped, and he knew it.

So wrapped up in his own thoughts, he failed to notice the multiple sets of footprints that were her captors, and if he was paying attention, he would have noticed the impressions in the sandy overhang of her struggle, but he did not, and was too late to see her captors haul off her unconscious body.  He wanted to cry, not something he had even considered since his early childhood. His shoulders heaved up, trying to stand tall and proud. But he couldn't, because the weight that now rested on them was to great. And so, he walked, shoulders slumped, as slow as possible (so he would make it back by nightfall) back to his underground hideaway.

~*~*~*~*~

Bulma opened her eyes only to find more darkness. She was sitting, backed against a wall, in a dark, cell-like structure. She tried to move away from the repulsive wall, for even through her clothes she could feel the slime and moss rub against her, and it protruded with a foul odor that made her want to puke. But when she did move, she felt a restraint, and then heard the clacking of shackles around her ankles and wrists. She was trapped, pressed – practically hugging – the grotesque wall, forced to be sprawled out, like she was a web, in which all spiders and gross things were allowed to crawl on.

She heard the creaking of a door, and grimaced and looked away as a bright light filled the room. By the time her eyes were used to the light, she noticed that 3 men had entered the room, one with a ring of keys, one with a coil of rope, and another with a sneer on his face. That was Kinas.

Kinas ordered the man with the keys out, and that left only him and the other guy. Her eyes widened as he stepped forward, and she found out what the rope was for. It wasn't a rope, it was a whip. Bulma groaned and winced already, knowing what was to come, but tenfold. She had been whipped before, and severely beaten, almost to death.  But all those times she had been gone only a few hours, maybe a half a day. She had been gone and with Vegeta for many months, the pain would unbearable, and would probably end only with her death.

Lord Kinas took the whip from the man, who Bulma now recognized as Riamer, a bodyguard she had met once, after being summoned to the Lord. Ritel gave him the flogging device, then continued to step up to Bulma, releasing her from her imprisoning chains. Bulma saw her chance – although weak from her blow to the head and her imprisonment, she was quite stronger than she would have been before. She kicked out, hitting Riamer square in the jaw, and knocking him back a few feet. Kinas stood there shock still as Bulma proceeded to stand up and approach him. But he quickly snapped into action and put his 'rope' into use.  Whipping her again and again until she was backed into a corner and saw that she was in control.

He pulled her out of her corner and dragged her to the center of the cell area. He let Raimer have his revenge on her, by letting him beat her repeatedly to the point where blood ran freely down her arms, chest, and face. Bulma screamed in agony as the whip lashed again and again, tearing through her as if she had been cut open with a chain saw, then someone dumped a bucket of salt water on it. And then, much to her pained dismay, Kinas ordered that he stopped, and let him have a turn, before she passed out, or died. He wanted to here her scream, he said, and then let a cruel smile cross his features. Bulma's eyes widened and became as black as night, filling the sorrowful eyes with fear, pain, and anguish.

Bulma had a feeling that by the ending of this, she had wished she had jumped and fallen – and died.

~*~*~*~*~

Nappa ducked into a cave just as the moon rose above the horizon. He had been kicked out, and he couldn't believe it. It had been his whole life, fighting and training with Vegeta and the Saiyains. What would he do know? He had to go back. But how, with Vegeta angry with him? He thought and thought until he heard a noise at the front of the cave.

Vegeta was standing there, luckily safe from the dense clouds of the night.  Nappa knew instantly something was wrong, for he had lost his kingly stature, and was slumped as if he was near death. Nappa knew he hadn't found the girl, or maybe he had found worse. He stilled instantly as he heard Vegeta rambling to himself.

"How could I have lost her? I was such a fool…" and he continued to rattle of his famous string of animated words.

Nappa knew now what he could do. Starting tomorrow, he was going to search for the girl, this Bulma, and bring her back. That would get him back into the Lair. He would bring her back if it was the last thing he did.

A/N – So, there it is! 4 full pages of twisting, turning and very sad events. Just to let you know, this fic is going to be very sad from now on, but will have a good ending – notice I didn't say happy! Well, I don't know how it will end, but just keep reading to find out! Please Review.