*Great. Just absolutely, Jim-dandy, great. Shit, what did I get myself into?*  Bulma sighed into her shoulder as her head hanged down form her neck. Not like she could hold it up anyway. She had received the most horrible whipping of her life. It was worse than even when Kinas had…never mind. If the last whipping had 'brought it all home' then this one brought even that one 'all the way home', in triplicate. Her lips were once again flaking and she couldn't talk. She knew that she had probably said her last words when she told Nappa to flee. *I-am-going-to-die-I-am-going-to-die-I-am-going-to-die…*

~*~*~*~*~

Why. Vegeta had probably run that word through his over a billion times already, and just in that day. He had thought about everything that had happened the first two weeks she was gone… but then he had been able to pull himself together and continue on with daily life. He stopped momentarily, trying to regain focus and drive the picture of her perfect face form his mind. Damn, he just couldn't do it. He loved her, bad. He couldn't live without her. Only Goku know that before he had 'met' Bulma that he was on the verge of a breakdown. He was just a plain killing machine, no soul, no conscious.  He remembered the day that he had found out just that.

~*~Flashback~*~

The old woman walked into the clearing where Vegeta was training. He was deep in his meditating, but strenuous act of punching, left, right, left, right. In a blur he had moved over to kick a non-existent enemy, who happened to be standing right where that woman was. 

He hit her right in the face with his foot, and he heard her neck snap back with such a fore he thought it would just roll off. But her head just pooped right back up. He could tell that she was dying, he had probably snapped one of the blood vessels or something – she had just had a stroke. Vegeta just grinned. He hit her that hard, huh? She was old anyway, so it wasn't much of an accomplishment. Oh well, its not like he hadn't done it before – he was ruthless, and proud of it at that.

The old lady crumpled to the floor as Vegeta started to walk away. Her eyes widened as she gasped out a few last words.

"Y-You're walking away?"

'Why shouldn't I? He scoffed at the woman, her ki was fading by the second.

'You're a monster. Cold, heartless. You'll never get what you want, you don't deserve it. And once you find something actually good, I hope you lose it. And I hope you feel pain. Lastly, burn in hell." And then she died.

~*~End Flashback~*~

She was right. He was cruel and heartless, and now she got her wish. He wanted to run out and scream at all the world. Blow this planet to bits and then kill himself. But, he had to stay cool. He was the supreme leader. And that was the cause that kept him going. But he was back on the verge of another nervous breakdown. Face it, he couldn't live without her. He couldn't live before her, and he couldn't after her. He just couldn't.

He was overseeing his troops when these thoughts slowly clouded his mind. He needed to be alone. So he went to his Gravity Room. The GR was the one thing that he loved besides her.  She had built it when she had first come, and he spent many times a day just standing there, when he didn't have enough time to train. He also never pushed it to the max, in fear of breaking the thing – it couldn't be replaced.

He walked to the precious room and turned it up to 400 X Farad pressure. He smirked, remembering his 'history' lesson. When he was little, he was told that Farad's pressure was the same as Earths, the planet where the great Vegeta and Goku came to live. That means that he was training at the same level that the old Vegeta trained in when he was struggling to become a Super Saiyain. Hell, maybe even he would become a SS. He would do just that, just to prove himself, and prove it to them all, especially his new inner-voice – his inner 'Nappa', you could say.

Punch, Kick, Jab, Dodge, Punch, Kick, Jab, Dodge. Going on like this for a while, he finally landed back on the ground, panting hard as his feet touched down on the ground. He tried to clear his head of the images that threatened to take over his thoughts. He was tired, and wanted to go to bed, but he knew what awaited him there, and he didn't' want to think of it, but it was better than thinking of other things.

Every night since she had been gone, and that he had managed to get to sleep, which wasn't a lot, he had had nightmares. Not the nightmares that little kids have about trains under there beds or monsters coming to eat them, but really, frightening dreams that are so close to real life that they can shatter your soul if you believe them. He tried not to believe them, but slowly they actually were destroying his spirit.

It went something like this; he was in the clearing where he had tracked her, to the very edge of the cliff. He would see her form, opening its arms in an invitation of death, and then leap over the edge to perils unseen. He would cry out and rush to her aid, hopefully to stop her from her plummet, but when he reached the edge, she was gone. Then, before he could do anything, he was in a dark void, in which no light was coming in. it could be endless, it could be not, he couldn't tell – it was a black hole, that let thing in but didn't let them out.

He would just be standing there, when he would here the sound of metal and leather. There would be a crack and then a moan, a scream. He tried to find the source of the sound, but it was all around, and he couldn't find it in the darkness. Then he could here the sound of sobs, more screams – the sound of pain and suffering. He knew who's voice it was, it was hers, the Onna's.

Then there would be a light, and he would in the city itself. He was in a building where all these women where, but all he was doing was looking for her. He finally opened a door, and there she would be – dressed in the rags he first saw her in. She would see him, and run to him, but as she got to him, she ran right through him, and disappeared. Then he would be engulfed in blackness again.

Only this time when he returned to the black hole, he would find that there was a light on, and what he would see completely threw him. She would be leaned up against an invisible wall, and all he could see was her head, for her body would be covered by another body, a moving body, a naked body. She would groan, but if it was from pleasure or pain he never knew, because he would flash back, once again, to the room where he had seen her before. She was sitting once again, and ran to him, only to disappear.

Blackness, and back in the screaming world, where he could hear her screams and almost visualize the actual torture she was given. Louder the screams grew, and louder, until he thought his ear drums would burst, and then she called out,

"VEGETA!!!!!"

~*~*~*~*~

The king sat up in bed. The sheets around him where drenched in his sweat, and he was panting heavily, more so than when he had just completed his 4-hour training. It had been how long since she had gone, what – 4 ½ months? Why couldn't he get over her? Yeah, he had loved her, but she was dead, so… why? That word again, just his luck. Put what was it about that dream that scared him so bad? He thought about it, and what was actually going on that he could possibly be dreaming of.

From what he figured out already, he thought that he had seen her first part of her jump, then was imagining what she had told him that had happened before he met her – the beatings, the rape, the slavery, it all seemed to fit. In all his thoughts he did not realize that someone was knocking on his door, very, very hard. Coming to a pause in his thoughts, he noticed it. He managed to pull himself up and get into a pair of pants, then walked over to the door. He turned the knob so that he heard a 'click' as it unlocked, but was surprised by the force that pushed the door open, before he could even open it. What was behind that door, was very surprising.

Nappa was there, panting slightly, while beside him was Chichi, and Goku was in the background. Nappa took a deep breath, not know what to say next. Vegeta seemed angry at his presence, and showed his displeasure.

'I thought I told you to lea-"

"You did, but I came back. She…She's alive, and I know where she is."

Vegeta's mouth dropped considerably lower and he turned to go sit down, but his knee's gave way, and he fainted onto the floor.

A/N – oooh! He knows she's out there, somewhere. No, Vegeta doesn't faint, but consider the situation, here! Please Review!!!

(p.s. – this '*' this means that they are thinking ^.^)