The saiyajins' purpose

~chapter 4~



Bulma sat up in bed, shivering. Her face had tear streaks on it. She observed herself in the bathroom mirror from the angle she sat on the bed. Her creamy skin was red and blotchy. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy. She took into account everything that had happened in her dream... those bitches, responsible for everything. 'Why did I have to answer the door?!' she wondered. 'As if it would have mad a difference, anyway. There would have been other times...' but Bulma couldn't help but feel a little bit responsible for the chain of events that took place shortly after she met the saiyajins. Piccolo had passed in such an awful way, at the hands of those monsters; but thankfully, their actions were not without consequence.

The chikuuyu woman took a shower, dressed, and went to her lab. She didn't feel like eating, but she brought some food with her anyway. She never had an appetite these days.

Bulma entered the code to her security system and stepped into her technology based heaven, shutting, bolting, and locking it with the keypad inside. She sat down in her worn cushioned chair and awakened her long since abandoned computer, wondering what her latest project had been. It seemed so long ago that she had been in here, doing anything at all. There was no choice but to discontinue her work because her skills were needed for much more important things elsewhere.

She was greeted by her file folder, the glow of the screen illuminating her tired features in the shadowed room. Bulma pulled up the most recently saved document. Her hand slowly relaxed on the mouse, and her eyes clouded over with unshed tears. "Vegeta's gravity machine..." she whispered. She had forgotten all about it. But seeing as there was no point in working on it anymore, now that he was dead, maybe she could... no. 'I won't delete it! I- I want to keep it!' her mind screamed. Her index finger froze over the delete key, hovering, deciding. Then her finger went down, pressed it into the keyboard. A window popped up on the screen. "Are you sure you want to delete this file?" her computer asked in monotone. (A/N sorry if it seems strange, but my computer talks. You know, Chan, Karebear) She moved the mouse with a trembling hand. "Yes." she whispered, and then it was gone. Just like that, the only thing that Vegeta valued on this planet- (Besides her and Trunks, but she doesn't know that!)- and she had wiped it all out with the click of a mouse. She thought it was strange, really, that he really loved the machine, so it should mean something to her, too, but it didn't. Not in life, and not after his demise. 'God, Vegeta would kill me if he weren't already dead!' she thought. The ghost of a smile touched her lips as the imagined how he would react. And, calmed somewhat by the distant echo of her late lovers' furious screams in her head, she began creating a new project.

*Several hours later*

Bulma straitened up beside the metal table she was bent over for so long, admiring the new gadget she'd created. A new and improved Dragon Radar, upgraded, changed in appearance, and completed at last. The three saiyajin girls had discovered the old one with Krillin and Tenshinhan while they were searching for the dragon balls. Too bad, they didn't know the true potential of the dragon balls, as they disposed of the three that the duo had at the time and blasted the radar into oblivion. She closed her eyes, just for a second, but her mind wandered off...

***

The sun had just barely peaked over the mountains to the far east. Piccolo squinted his eyes against the brilliance of the dawning light, and quickly shut them again. He took a deep breath, and regretted it immediately; his broken ribs stabbed at him like knives embedded into his chest. He tried to open his eyes again, eyelids fluttering as what he thought was blinding light faded to the soft, golden glow of morning. He looked up to find himself facing the ceiling of one of the towers at Kami's Lookout.

Almost the entire place was ruined; the pillars that held the structure up were broken and chipped, some even completely smashed into powder. A massive spider web of cracks ran along almost every surface that was in tact. Chunks of stone and marble from pebble sized to boulder sized littered the floor and covered the beaten nameckian. The chalky whiteness of the ruined space was stained with brilliant purple rivers and pools of Piccolo's blood; some still glinting wet from the glow of the early sun. The carefully designed room was in shambles.

Piccolo sighed, breathing carefully. 'Man, I've never faced such power before... but it was evil.' He decided to try and stand, since laying there helplessly would be almost as pointless. At least if he was standing it showed that he still had some fight left.

He put both of his hands on the litter strewn ground at his sides, palms facing down, and slowly... slowly, began to lift himself up. Big mistake. His dislocated shoulder snapped back into place and he lost his hold, cringing at the sudden burst of pain, a low hiss escaping through his clenched teeth. A small trickle of blood ran out of the corner of his mouth. His shattered left wrist was twisted underneath him. Part of the reason he could not push himself up. Deep, ugly bruises covered most of his body; the dark outline of hand prints beginning to show up on his neck. He rolled over onto his good arm and used it to brace himself; the muscles quaked in protest as he slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. No challenge for a great warrior such as himself. Right... He struggled to put his feet underneath him, careful to do as little damage as possible to his sore and broken limbs. His clothes had been maimed and shredded; kind of like his physical state. Long, painful claw marks ran the length of his back, still dripping with blood, joining the pool on the floor where he had been a few moments before; it began to seep into the cracks in the vandalized tile, turning the spider web of cracks into tiny violet lines. He lifted his head and looked around, and caught sight of Suisheu leaning against the demolished frame in which a door once stood. 'Oh, great, now what does she want?' he groaned mentally, keeping his outward appearance as blank and unemotional as he could.

Suisheu advanced toward the nameck, a smile playing on her lips. She kicked aside some fallen debris and knelt beside him, roughly grabbing his newly relocated arm (A/N: can you use that word in a sentence like that? Oh well, I did anyway.) And pulling him to his feet. Piccolo screamed. Suisheu chuckled, casting a curious glance at the green warrior. "Oh, you really don't look to well. You should learn to take better care of yourself." she said, he grin widening.

"So, Nameck, do you still oppose us? Or is this still not enough to convince you?" Piccolo gasped in some air and gazed straight into the cold depths of her swirling black eyes. "I was once the ruling guardian of Earth-" he wheezed, lowering his voice a touch. "and I am still sworn to protect it, even if that means sacrificing myself for the good of its inhabitants!" He coughed violently; small drops of his blood spattering onto her boots.

Suisheu's smile was gone; her icy glare bore into him. She reached for his other arm, catching it by the wrist. "So, nameck, you still deny us help?" Piccolo shook his head as best he could, feeling the throbbing pain in his neck spread to his temples, and flashes of light spot his vision. "Yes..." he began, slowly sinking to his knees, "I will not just hand you the people of earth, to beasts like you!" A fine tremor of rage ran through Suisheu's body, and she twisted his hand back, slowly, deliberately. "Then I deny you your life!" She screamed. The sharp snap of bone being broken echoed through the silent room. But Piccolo bit down on his tongue as hard as he dared, refusing to give her the satisfaction of his agony.

Suisheu leaned closer to him, so close that he could see the thin white scar on her right cheek. "...Too bad..." she whispered in his ear. "I admire your stubbornness. However, at this point in time, you know too much about our plans to go against us..." More snaps sounded, like an invisible whip being cracked. Piccolo's legs collapsed, and he was held up only by the limb that Suisheu was abusing. She laughed wickedly, kissing him lightly on the forehead. "I guess that means you have to die..." She brought her knee up and smashed it into his chest; shards of broken ribs tore through his skin and reflected dully in the sunlight. She let go of him and he fell to the floor, writhing, in too much suffering to speak. Not that he would, anyway. He swore to himself that if this was the end, he wouldn't cry out once, wouldn't let her hear his pleading again. Suisheu raised a hand and moved it close to his face.

A white hot ball of energy began to form in the palm of her hand. "Bad choice, Piccolo. But hey, at least I get to kill you, after all." Piccolo's eyes focused past the energy charging close to his face, past her image, blurring her figure, and focused on Dende, on the edge of Kami's lookout, trying to get away from the other two saiyajins... "NOOOO!!" He yelled, right before the ball exploded. The magnitude of the blast rocked the tower, pieces of tile and glass raining down to the earth below as half of the structure on Kami's Lookout was blown into nothing. The flash of the energy being let loose expanded, momentarily blinding those who saw it from the ground. Clouds of thick smoke and the stench of charred flesh filled the air, blocking out the now fully risen sun. Suisheu ran her fingers through her hair, dusted herself off, and began to walk away from the wreckage.

"Aspera! Kary!" She called, standing with her arms crossed firmly in front of her. "Company's coming. We must prepare for them..."

***

End of chapter!!! Hehehe!!

Hello's! Sorry the update too so long! ^_^ I did it before, but I don't know where it went, and then I forgot how to post new chappies. *thanx, Aspie!* Karebear, you'll know why I asked you about Coco, later... hehe... I'll try to update soon! Bye!