Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or its characters.
Notes: Um... Well, I actually have nothing interesting to say... so I'll just fill this part up with rhyming words: Vegeta, chaquita, margarita, fajita... Oh, just read the fic.
Chapter 16: Time is Running Out
"Do you love me, Vegeta?" - Seether
April 10, Tuesday à 1 day until the eclipse
Relena, Bra, Trunks, Goten, and Goku trudged through the underground tunnels in silence. The usual chatter and teasing of Trunks were gone, banished by the sense of urgency and danger. They had begun their trek five days before, and now they had only one day left to find Vegeta before the eclipse and stop Seether.
"Relena?" Bra spoke up.
"Hai?" Relena responded, her voice slightly above a whisper.
"Do..." Bra sounded like she was fighting tears. "Do you think we'll make it on time?"
Relena was silent for a moment. "Hai." And it was true. Relena was fairly sure that she and the other four would reach Vegeta before the eclipse. She just didn't know how much time they would have left to stop the apocalypse or if they would be able to stop it at all. It was possible, however, that they could foil Seether's plot and save Vegeta. Sure, plenty of things had gone wrong, but Relena didn't know how it could get any worse.
Then the flashlights went dead. Both at the same time, without so much as a flicker of warning.
Each person had his or her own reaction to this new development.
"Eep!" That was Bra.
Goten half-sighed, half-groaned.
Relena and Trunks's responses were very similar, each spouting off his or her own unique string of curses.
"I think I'm getting a little old for this," said Goku.
"Wait," Goten chirped brightly. "We brought batteries, right?"
"Hai," Relena snapped bitterly. "There were some in my pack, which is who the hell knows where, and Bulma had some, but that won't help either."
"Oh."
"Okay," Trunks said, calming down. "We're just going to have to form a human...er Saiyan... a people chain so we don't lose each other in the dark."
"Alright," Relena agreed. "I'll lead the line."
Everyone blindly reached for each other's hands in the blackness and eventually formed a line. Relena had Bra's hand, Bra had Trunks, then there was Goten, and after him was Goku. They walked sideways, the people chain, as Trunks had dubbed it, slowly creeping through the dark. Relena led the way, placing her free hand on the wall to keep her balance.
"'Tousan?" Goten spoke up.
"What?"
"Are you scared of the dark?"
"Why?"
"'Cause you're crushing all the bones in my hand!"
"Sorry." Goku loosened his grip.
"He's afraid of the dark too?" Trunks asked.
"Only a little bit!" Goku defended himself. "You have to admit that it is creepy."
"What do you mean he's afraid of the dark 'too?'" Relena asked Trunks.
"He's afraid of needles," Trunks replied.
"NEEDLE? WHERE?"
Bulma wondered how far she was from the others. She knew she wasn't traveling in the same tunnels as them; she'd looked but found no footprints in the soil when she illuminated the ground with her flashlight.
Would she make it to Vegeta when they did? Or would she arrive before they got there? Or after they got there? Would she ever see Vegeta again?
Flashes of him bursting awake at night and clinging to her helplessly invaded her mind. He was so terrified of the dreams, of the woman in his nightmares. She recalled that once when he woke up crying out and they made love, at one point she had dug her nails into his back. He had recoiled frantically, holding her away from him at arm's length by her shoulders. He had stared at her for a moment, a glint of fear in his eyes which had disappeared as he seemed to realize there was no danger. Then he drew her back into their embrace and continued to rock with her. Bulma had made a note to not do that again.
His reaction to the act was her only clue to what Seether had been doing to him in the dreams. The remainder of Seether's torture was only known to him, and the entire episode must have included worse things than nails digging into his skin.
Bulma's eyes narrowed with worry. What was Seether doing to him now?
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"Mistress..."
I turn to the hesitant voice. How odd. Vegeta hasn't spoken on his own since the brainwashing. And after that pretty much all he ever said was "Hai, Mistress." Yet he looks up at me from his kneeling position on the stone ground, a question on his lips.
I raise an eyebrow with curiosity. "Hai, Vegeta-chan?"
"My... my memory... It's all jumbled up and there are gaps... I... I'm confused..."
"Oh, Vegeta-chan," I say, kneeling down and cupping his face in my hands. "I had to erase some of your memories. They were just so... painful. I didn't want you to be haunted by them any longer." With that, I stand back up to resume monitoring the rescuers.
"Mistress?"
Another question? "Hai?"
"Were those memories more painful than the ones I still have?"
"I'm afraid so."
"And she was all I had..."
"Hai." This could be beneficial. The more he dwells on her, the more angry and violent he will become.
"I still remember how beautiful she was," he continues, and it sounds as if he is talking to himself more than me. "I was addicted to her, drowning in her blue eyes... I acted like I didn't care about her sometimes, but I did. I melted in every hug, cherished every kiss. She was all I ever had. I will never love another..."
I am becoming agitated. He is supposed to be getting enraged, not blubbering on like some lovesick poet. And what is this about never loving another? He is supposed to think he is in love with me!
This will not do at all. And since when does he talk on his own anyway?
I strike him across the cheek with an open palm, fed up with his ramblings. "You ungrateful bastard! She is dead! Gone! You should be thinking about getting revenge on Kakarot! And what is this about never loving again? After she died, I took you into my arms and loved you myself, and you cannot give me your love in return?"
"G- gomen, Mistress. I- I did not mean to upset you," he stammers, a little shocked from the slap.
I bend over and tilt his chin so he looks back at me. "Do you love me, Vegeta?"
"O- of course, Mistress."
"Good. Now you are not to speak unless told to! Understand?"
"Hai, Mistress. I hope you are not angry with me."
I soften my murderous expression. "Oh, Vegeta-chan. It's okay. You are forgiven. I understand that it is hard for you to go on, but you must in order to kill Kakarot! Am I right?"
"Hai, Mistress."
I kneel down and bring his lips to mine. "Now, I want you to close your eyes and concentrate on defeating Kakarot. He is the reason she is dead, correct?"
"Hai, Mistress."
I stand up and watch as he follows my order, his eyelids sliding shut. I take in a glimpse of his attire: a pair of light blue denim jeans and hiking boots. The garments barely fit my idea of a black knight...
I believe there will be a little costume change before the final performance.
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Bulma shone her flashlight on the ground beneath her boots. For the last few moments she had noticed that the texture of the ground felt softer than before, and the bright light revealed that the dirt was now black.
Wait... it wasn't dirt at all. She knelt down and felt the dark surface, noticing it was slightly warm and how it broke off into chunks. It wasn't that soft, Bulma concluded as she held a clump of the ebony substance in her hand, but it became slightly indented when she pressed her thumb into it.
"It's lava..." Bulma realized, adding to smoldering scent of the air to her clues. Cooled off lava, but lava just the same. She looked to her left, and saw a large hole in the wall that passed through more tunnels, and she understood that the lava filled in a ditch that had been drilled across the floors of the underground paths.
Bulma stood up and entered the hole, which was really more of another tunnel, only this one cut through other parallel tunnels. Goku and the others must have made the ditch, since the trench seemed to be more of a defensive structure than an offensive one, so the group must have been in one of these underground paths. Bulma walked across each tunnel, shining her flashlight around each one, looking for any sign that intelligent life had passed through.
After searching five tunnels, her flashlight found a group of several footprints in the sixth one she examined. They were all on one side of the ditch, all grouped together at first, but then they straightened out into as the footprints clumped together to form more of a line.
Bulma's heart leapt and a grin appeared on her dirt-smudged face. They were here... They had been here! And it looked to her that they were all still alive, judging by the different sizes of the prints.
But how long ago had they stood on this spot? The lava, well, technically the magma, since they liquid had never reached the surface, must have taken quite a long time to dry this much. She estimated that these footprints were at least a day old, so they must be far ahead of her now. Which also meant that they would reach Seether before her.
Bulma's grin settled into a frown, and she knew that she had to catch up to them, or at least shorten the distance between her and the group. She was hungry, she was tired, and, heck, she was a little old, but she was going to have to run to reach them. Run a lot.
"Shimatta..." she muttered as she stretched out her weak and exhausted limbs. "The things I do for you, Vegeta," she continued with a chuckle.
She began her sprint through the tunnel.
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Will they make it to Veggie-chan in time?? Well, if I told you that I would give everything away, wouldn't I?
'Til next time, minna-san! ^_^