Harvest of the Soulless

By Poe

Chapter Eight:

Saiyan Legacy

"We're all dormant

We're all just statement

Everyone's just a prison you can't escape

Everyone's the only person you can't take."

            "I have plans for you, little girl," he had said in such a feral but honest tone.

Plans, indeed.

Long after Vegeta left, my life was given a furious shake. Things that were already out of place shuffled around in glorious disarray, turning my happiness to dust. I trusted Vegeta, I gave myself to him, and then all of a sudden, I was to be punished for doing it. It was like he had shown up at my door and dealt me a blow to the face for ever liking him or being with him.

Only, in reality, the blow to the face wasn't dealt to me.

 It started about two hours after he left, and one hour after I had tucked away enough anger to come down to breakfast. During breakfast, my father had a look on his face that was a mixture of devastation, guilt, and anger, but he said nothing. I'm sure that he wanted an expression that concealed all emotions, and in his mind he probably thought he had one already, but leave it to my father to wear all his feelings in the most obvious of ways. He knew I had been with Vegeta the other night, he had arrived home with Vegeta still in my room. Vegeta had too much pride to leave right away, so instead he stayed to mock my father with his presence.

Leaving my father one pissed-off demi-Saiyan.

My mother was oblivious to everything, of course, and both of us wanted it to stay that way. The entire time we were eating breakfast, I was smug but didn't spare my father a glance. He had started off trying to glare at me, but then realized that would tip off my mother. And once she had a hint as to what was going on, she would ask questions constantly to determine the truth. This would mean trouble for both of us, so we were careful not to reveal any clues.

I had finished breakfast and walked over to watch some TV when the doorbell rang. Thanks to ki detection skills, I knew who it was, but it still startled me.

"Why is Trunks here at a moment like this?" My father questioned, a mix of emotions blending in his tone. He was probably questioning why his problem-saturated life had to be interrupted by one strange visit at a completely inappropriate time, but he chose to voice the obvious.

"Pan," my mother said, "Did you invite Trunks to come over in the morning?" Her tone exaggerated the severity of the matter. I rolled my eyes.

"Of course not, I don't know why he's here."

"Well, you'd better answer it or we'll never know."

"Fine," I muttered, getting up from my comfortable spot. I walked over to the door and noticed that Trunks' ki was surprisingly high. It was almost as if he was about to turn Super Saiyan, or perhaps, already had and his ki was slowly declining. I shrugged off the thought and turned the door knob. Casually opening the door, it slowly swung forward to reveal a devastating sight.

My hand fell off the door knob.

My heart began to pound.

It was this moment that things took yet another drastic turn.

"What the hell?" I said, the words leaving my mouth as though I had not willed them to, but they had come as sort of a reflex.

Trunks stood before me, but not in the state I usually was used to seeing him in. He was completely torn apart, as though he had just engaged in a fierce battle and lost dishonorably. His hair was bloodied, parts of the blood running down his face. There were fresh wounds blending with bruises all over his face. Casualties on his profile were plenty, a broken nose, black eye, a swollen cheek, a near broken jaw, and bruises and cuts everywhere. The way he hunched over, it appeared he might even have a broken or at least bruised rib or two, and his labored breathing further suggested it.

Some of the cuts on him I could not assume where they came from, they were deep and strange in appearance. Some would scar, I was sure of that, but nothing he wasn't used to. What worried me was one of his arms hanging limp and the bruise on his temple.

"What happened?" my father exclaimed, rushing over with my mother.

Trunks shook his head with some difficulty. "I'm sorry, but I need to talk to Pan alone."

"This has to do with her?" my mother asked, her ignorance very obvious.

"Well, I'm surprised too, but if he asks to talk to me alone, then I think I should," I said, my eyes still roaming up and down his destroyed figure.

"Ok, but shouldn't we at least see to some medical attention first? It's been a while since I've seen Trunks in a state this bad!" my father exclaimed.

Trunks shook his head again. "I'll heal. What I need to do is talk with Pan."

"Are you sure?" my mother asked.

"Yes. Please don't worry about me."

I couldn't help but worry about both Trunks and myself. What did I have to do with this?

"We'll talk, then."

Honoring Trunks' request, I took a step outside and glanced at my parents. My father nodded and the door slowly began to shut. We waited there in silence before we felt there ki wander off to distant parts of the house, parts where they couldn't hear us. I stood there with an unvoiced concern weighing on me, as well as shock and horror. Everything in my life was happening so suddenly, I barely had time to cope. Things were starting to look bleak, but I still had no idea what was happening. And now was certainly not the time to be making inferences as to what was going on, now was the time to ask.

Once my parents were at that suitable distance, I turned to him and asked, "Ok, what's going on?"

"Pan," he said, sincerely, "I'll live, I just came here because I need to know something." The expression on his bloodied, broken face changed slightly as his finished his words.

"But how did this happen? What does this have to do with me?"

"Please, just answer my question," he said, sounding more helpless than I had ever seen him before. So this was why he came to us instead of jumping into a regeneration tank. He was more emotionally bruised than physically bruised, and he had to come here to sort it out. The question was why.

"Ok, what is it?"

"Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Why did you sleep with my father?"

"What?" I didn't have time to think.

"I know about you and my father. You can't lie about it anymore."

"Who told you that?"

"Who else?" he said with resentment, "My father. My lying, cheating, bastard of a father. And now I find out that you aren't much better either."

So he knew. It was a good thing that I was in a casual mood, otherwise I would be in a frenzied panic. It had to happen sometime, I realized, and I was planning on telling him sometime. I just wondered if this was how he was really reacting, or if he was suffering in hidden anguish. Many questions came, but looking at him, this was the strongest.

I guess if I had thought about it more, I would've been sorry, but at the time I didn't stop to realize what kind of an effect this was going to have on my life. I could convince myself all I liked, but I had done a horrible thing and if Trunks was taking this well, something was wrong. Nonetheless, I tried to justify my actions as I had been doing to myself all this time.

"Trunks, I was in a lot of pain," I argued, "I didn't know what I was doing, I still don't."

"No kidding. According to him, you slept together twice."

My eyes widened. "What else did he say?"

"You don't want to know. I'll spare you that much."

It only took that long to hit me. The world in front of me seemed to distort, I had to struggle to keep conscious. How could this be happening? Both Trunks and my father knew, it seemed like the whole world knew about my mistake. I felt like a whore, with secrets of mine being passed around by someone I was supposed to be trusting.

Vegeta, how could you do this to me?

"Why did he tell you? Why the fuck are you telling me this now, and why are you so beat up?" Tears blurred my vision. Trunks seemed to be satisfied that I was in pain and at the same time angered that I had the nerve to express it when he was the one in the most trouble.

"He told me so I could stay away from you. He said that you belong to him, and that if I touched you, even if you wanted me to, he would make me pay. He's gone sick, I don't even know him anymore. He's obsessed with you, you know."

I shook my head, numb. "So he did this to you? Why?"

"I fought with him. I told him you were my girlfriend and that he had no right sleeping with you. I thought he had forced you, but he kept telling me you wanted him. I didn't believe him, and I was angry at him, so I attacked him." He turned away, as though it pained him to talk further. I wondered if that was emotional or physical pain.

"Please, go on," I stressed, weakly.

"His power, it was amazing. He was so much more powerful than me. It looked like some kind of Saiyan phenomena. People were shocked about Super Saiyan, but this was much more than that. He could've killed me without breaking a sweat."

"How could this happen?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it started happening to me recently. I notice my power was rising fast, without even having to train. My father might be experiencing the same thing, only in him it's magnified. I was no match for him, I'm lucky I'm still alive."

"Why didn't he kill you?"

"Because I knew he doesn't really want me dead, I think he wanted to teach me some kind of horrible lesson. He would never do this normally, anyway, there must be something horribly wrong with him."

"Nothing's been normal lately," I muttered.

Despite my more casual exterior, inside I was horrified. Could this have anything to do with the Saiyan instinct Vegeta kept talking about? I decided to give it a shot. "Although, I think I might have an idea why."

Trunks raised an eyebrow. "You do?"

"Vegeta says that I want to be with him, and the reason for that is because of some Saiyan instinct or something that makes a Saiyan prefer a Saiyan over another race. Do you think that has anything to do with this?"

As soon as I said that, a look of sheer unbelief spread over his face. "He told you about that?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Pan, that's the legacy gene."

"Oh, so it has a name. Does it have to do with his power surge or not?"

"Yeah, it explains everything, I'm just surprised he told you about that."

"Slow down, it explains everything?"

"Yeah. The legacy gene, when expressed, causes an increase of power anywhere from small to very high."

"Isn't this a revelation then? Isn't the mystery solved?" I asked, prodding him as to why he wasn't shocked. Was this the answer, and if so, why wasn't he surprised.

Trunks shrugged, as best he could. "I suspected it, but I wasn't sure. If the legacy gene was really activated, then he would have an intense desire to bear children with any Saiyan female he could get his hands on. But not the ones he's related to, of course."

"Wait, bear children? From what it looked like, he just really wanted to sleep with me."

"No, then he'd be going into heat, which Saiyans are too advanced to go through. A Saiyan's highly evolved DNA structure allows it to carry the legacy gene, one that a human wouldn't be able to."

"That's really strange, it sort of leaves some questions unanswered." Why did Vegeta use protection with me?

"That's because it isn't the answer. You wanted to sleep with him."

"Huh? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, did you or didn't you?" he asked, impatiently.

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because we can't find out if you don't!"

"Well, I don't want to say."

"Then it's a yes, and the legacy gene theory doesn't work."

"And why is that?"

He rolled his eyes. "Just tell me yes, or no. I'm already assuming yes."

"Fine! Yes! But only because I really liked him and that was the only way to have a relationship with him."

"Oh, and that makes it better?"

"Look, Trunks, I'm sorry about sleeping with him and not telling you. I should've broken up with you before he came along, but I really don't see lot of difference. Our relationship was failing anyway."

His eyes widened. "What?"

"It was failing! We had nothing going for us. Now, about that legacy gene-"

"I came here thinking you would just apologize and I would forgive you! But now you're telling me that we were 'failing'? I liked you! I was wiling to get over this!"

"Trunks, I didn't know," I pleaded, "I still like you, just not in that way."

"You're going to go to him, aren't you? You're going to go sleep with that sick asshole and all I can do is here about it from my father. I can't even beat him in battle anymore, what if he tries to kill me?"

"No! Forget about Vegeta! We need to talk about us!"

"Well you want to know something?" Trunks said, menacingly.

"What?"

"He probably does have the legacy gene, but you don't. You know why?"

"I don't? Why?"

"Because it only runs in royal blood."

"What?"

"Only the members of the royal family have it."

"No that can't be true," I said, panic pouring over me.

"There's some speculation that the royal family was genetically engineered some time back to have this gene so they wouldn't be eliminated from the gene pool. You know, Saiyans have a lot of enemies."

Damn it, why did it have to make sense? "But then… Vegeta said…"

"My father lied if he told you that you have it. I told you, it's only the royal family that has it, I'm sure of that."

"How do you know that?"

"The legacy gene was made to preserve Saiyan legacy. Only the royal blood had value to what was the Saiyan race, it was run by the elite remember?"

I looked at his grief-stricken, bloodied face and my world fell apart.

Royal blood?

I've been deceived.