Last time:
"Because," I sighed, slowly crouching then sitting on the floor, head in my hands. "If I cannot offer her what she wants, if I cannot bury my pride for her sake-"
"-then you don't want to live to see her in pain."
***************************************************************
"Will you leave me be?" I hissed at Terrak, swatting him away. He'd been standing over me for quite some time now, just starring at the top of my head, as if looking into a cauldron of thoughts. He won't pluck a single syllable from my mind, of course, but it's still rather annoying, and I have training to do. He should leave. Now.
"I can't do that, friend. Not when your life is in danger." He crouched down to my level, I could feel his breath on my face, then decided to sit as well. "You'd do the same for me, though you'd hardly admit it."
"I can admit it," I snapped, shooting him a glare. "I would save you…But I'm in no danger."
"You could DIE, Vegeta! You are in the worst sort of danger."
"Could, not will."
"It's very likely that you will, and very soon. A bond as strong as yours has dire consequences when broken."
"How can you measure the strength of a Saiyan bond?"
"Vegeta, you know how much I know about Saiyans; nearly everything a common Saiyan knows, and that includes mating information." He sighed heavily. What, was I not saying what he wanted? Feh. What does he know? He's only ever read about Saiyans. He should try being one. "And alien bonds were well documented so to be prevented…Vegeta-"
"Enough Terrak, alright? I understand perfectly well what could happen. I'm fully prepared for that, and quite frankly, I could give less of a damn. I hate this mud ball, Frieza is gone, killed by another, no less, and I have nothing to show for my victories! I'm ready to die."
"You don't sound like the Saiyan Prince I once knew."
"The Saiyan Prince you once knew died on Namek long ago…Being brought back to life can change you…"
"You're pathetic and weak." He was to his feet again and heading for the door. Smart move; out of choking range. "I'm going to stop their mating. I'm going to tell Bulma exactly what the consequences are for her breaking your bond. She wouldn't want you to die."
"Take one more step and I'll blast your legs off." I smirked beside my anger. "Then we can be cripples together."
"Vegeta." His voice was soft again. "I know you care for her, I know you don't wish to live to see her in pain, but, damn it!, she'll be in ten times more pain with the loss of you!"
"She'll get over it."
"She won't…And you know it." I felt something change in his manner; I didn't need eyes to know he was angry now, completely angry with me. "You're running away!" he gasped; I heard him pad across the room and stop in front of me. "You lied!"
"About what?"
"You don't care if you see her in pain or not, you're running away so you don't have to admit that you love her!"
"I do too care!" I clamped my hands over my mouth, hoping against all odds that he didn't hear those words, that I hadn't said them, that I hadn't…meant them? But he'd heard them; he was laughing quietly to himself, the way he'd done on Deveron when he realized I was bonded to the woman. Kami, there was no way he'd leave me alone with this.
"Truth always springs from arguments," he mused; I imagined his hand under his chin, in the contemplative position; he was strategizing; hopefully I could counter his attacks. Too bad it isn't a physical battle; I would surely win. "Please Vegeta. Go to her. Stop her. Tell her the truth. Stop hiding from it."
"I hide from nothing."
"You're hiding from your feelings…I…I've never loved someone so difficult before, Vegeta. You're tough to keep as a friend."
"Shut up."
"I don't understand you, not one bit…You love this woman, you cannot live without her, therefore you wish to die, but your reasoning throws me. You cannot have her because you will not admit your feelings, yet you DO want her, you DO crave her, and you would have her if such feelings as love were not attached to your bonding."
I remained silent.
"Your father has does permanent damage to your mind, Vegeta, and yet-" There came that little muffled laugh again. "-you still love Bulma. He failed in that aspect."
Patience. Don't blast him.
"I wish you would have grown with your mother, learned from her, and only trained with your father. Who knows, maybe you would have been able to freely love Bulma…I wish you well in your grave."
"What was that?" But I already knew he was gone, and I'd heard him perfectly clear. He was giving up.
*********************************************************
By the time I realized the meaning behind Terrak's apparent abandonment, it was too late; he'd told her everything. I was nearly winded when I reached her room and found her crying while Terrak comforted her; I didn't hear the weakling, but I knew he was there.
"You will pay for this, Terrak!" I yelled from the doorway. "I don't need to see you to kill you!"
"You're an asshole, Vegeta!" the woman snapped, coming up to me; she was inches from my face. "How dare you lead me to believe that this was the right thing to do! I could have killed you!" I touched her arm, her waist, her belly; fully clothed; her hair, when I touched it, was undisturbed and smooth.
"You've been up here for hours woman. If you were planning on breaking our bond, like promised, you would have done it already." She stepped back. "Why didn't you do it?"
"I was about to before Terrak came running in. And thank Kami I didn't."
I turned my head away, facing the ground; a useless gesture, but it got the point across.
"I love you Vegeta, I cannot kill you."
"But you can bed with the weakling?" The weakling stiffened, I could feel it through the air; so confident he was. I'd like to get him in an open field and prove my superiority.
"You will do no such thing."
"Stay out of my thoughts."
"And I was going to bed with him for Trunks' sake, not my own. You think I want to sleep with someone I don't love? Someone I can barely tolerate?"
"Hey!"
"You should leave, Yamcha," she sighed.
"But-"
"But what? You want some? Huh? Well go to your little whores like always. I don't care. Just leave. I don't know what I was thinking with you."
He brushed by me, just barely missing my arm; one more inch and he'd be vulture food.
The woman directed her attention back to me.
"I'm all yours Vegeta…I don't want to be any other man's woman." She took a deep breath, sucking in her sobs. "I want to be your woman, your mate…I don't care if I'm not your wife. I don't care if you can't love me…I need you Vegeta."
I thought for a long moment, then turned to go back and train.
"Where are you going?"
"I thought you were stronger than this woman."
"What're you talking about?"
"You're weakened by your need for me. I cannot have such a burden."
Her skeletal little hands grip my shoulders, and she jerks backwards to her chest; but only because I allow it.
"I am strong because I can love someone as cold and egotistical as you, Vegeta," she whispered, digging her expertly sharpened fingernails into my shoulders. "I am strong because I bore your child, a half-Saiyan powerhouse that tore up my uterus. I may never be able to bare another child because of that."
"And how would you go about that, if I'm the only one you would have?"
"I am strong," she continued, ignoring my words. "because I can admit that I love you to your face and still have strength to stand and care for OUR son…I'm strong because if I wasn't…I'd be dead by now."
She let her hands slip from my shoulders and took a few steps back; I didn't turn around.
"Touching," I spat, finally taking my leave. But Terrak was right at my heals, making it increasingly more difficult to descend the stairs; like trying to find my way through the absolute whitest snowstorm with an annoying child chattering in your ear.
"Miserable, wretched, no good, unbelievable-"
"Are you going anywhere with this? Because I really should be training."
"I can't believe your childish behavior, Vegeta!"
"Is her father finished with my regeneration tank yet? This white-blindness is beginning to wear on me."
"Would you stop thinking of yourself for one damn moment!" he yelled as we finally reached the bottom of the stairs. He grabbed my arms the way the woman did. "Do you love her?"
"Of course not. I think you're going blind as well." I shrugged his hands away. "I've shown her nothing that would lead her, or you, to believe such an abominable idea."
"You care for her, you don't wish to see her in pain, other men touching her obviously bothers you-"
"Because she's mine by connection with the half-breed. Nothing more than instinct!"
"No, you're wrong. There's much more there."
"Stop this."
"You loved your mother, you love her now, and you love Bulma."
"Why are you so adamant about this? It's my life. I choose what I do. Not you."
I turned for the gravity chamber, when he said:
"You were willing to die to save her from pain."
"Does this have a point?"
"What is out there, in that barren universe, that could bring you more joy than a woman that loves you so deeply?"
I sat down on the bottom step, not objecting to Terrak following suit. What was out there? There were no wars, no tyrants to overcome, no more enemies; nothing but space and stars and absolute nothingness. No warm blue-haired women with electric personalities. No half-breed Saiyan children with hellish purple hair and the power of myself as a teenager.
"Nothing," I finally sigh, leaning back, my elbows on the step just behind me. Nothing at all.
"What keeps you from staying? Pride?"
"All a Saiyan has is his pride and honor."
"But you have something more." He patted me on the back. "You have love," he sighed, standing up. "But it's up to you to disclose it." He was gone before I could answer.
*****************************************************************
Life is one big damn cycle; I've avoided the woman for three days now, only taking nourishment from her mother and counsel from Terrak; he won't speak of her, not even when I inquire, which isn't often. Dr. Briefs, the woman's father, informed me that the regeneration tank will be done by the end of the week, four more days; I can barely sleep thinking about it; my sight back, finally!
My training has been less than adequate, but it's improving by the day; a little light kicking and punching is all I can really do without seeing my target; though my hearing has heightened some, it's still rather difficult to get used to, no being could succumb to such a thing this quickly.
I'm surprised that the woman hasn't bothered to seek me out, hasn't even penetrated my thoughts, which I do now and then; my name courses through her mind like blood. It's a miracle that she hasn't discovered the same with me.
What would I lose staying here? I would gain a convenient bed-mate, training equipment, and housing and food. But my pride? No, I cannot sacrifice my pride. Not for anyone, not even her.
******************************************************************
"Vegeta, my boy," the woman's father said, knocking on my bedroom door; I'd been resting after some heavier training. "Your regeneration tank is finished. I have it running now for you. All you need to do is get in; I've programmed the rest."
I was to the door before he finished his second sentence.
"What lab?"
"Third door to the left."
I was in the lab before I could think of what turns to take and not to take; I'd waited too long for this moment. The machine wasn't far from the door, and there was a rope leading from the door to it; clever old man.
I was seated inside at once, pulling the overhead door closed; it instantly began to fill with fluid; I almost didn't have time to find and put on my mask. The liquid felt good; not too cold, not too warm; soothing, like earth pudding, but not so thick or sweet.
I closed my eyes, as is customary, when the fluid reached my head, and I was soon immersed entirely in Saiyan-DNA. I could feel myself becoming stronger with each passing second. It gave the nerves and veins in my eyes the most interesting pulling sensation; I could actually feel myself having sight again. I never want to look at another white light again.
I could feel the little bubbles in the fluid; they popped on my arms and face; I could feel the strength in them. It reminded my of that stuff the woman bathes in. What's it called, bubble something. I wouldn't mind getting into a bathtub naked with her and that stuff. Her sweet creamy body wet and slick all over, pushed against me, urging me to take her, right there in the little tub! Kami we should have done that!
I suddenly pick up the woman's presence, though I know she cannot be in the lab; it's in my mind that I feel her, she's listening to my thoughts. Oh well, I shall figure a way to break our bond that she'll agree to. I can tolerate this for now. So what if she knows I am thinking of her; lust is all I am registering.
I get a flash of her lying on the bathroom floor, covered in blood, staining her white silk nightdress.
My eyes fly open though I can still only see the white light; it's dimmer, but still there.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes again. It was only a vision, something she put before you to startle you. She's not dead.
The image flashes before me again and I subconsciously wonder how I can see it in my mind when I'm blind. This time the vision is closer and I can see that her chest is not moving, that her eyes are open and glazed over, and there is blood everywhere. Smears and drops and puddles!
I block her visions out. I cannot take them anymore.
How can this death effect me in such a way that those I have killed has not?
It was more than an hour before the fluid began to drain and I could finally open my eyes; but I dared not. I will only open my eyes when I can see the woman, alive.
Oh Kami I'm a fool.
*****************************************************************
---Chapter 17! Yay! Hmm. What's he mean he's a fool? Well, I know, but you have to wait! Heehee!
REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Reviews=More Chapters)
Next time: Doo doo doo doo doo doo dooooooooo! Doo doo!
"Because," I sighed, slowly crouching then sitting on the floor, head in my hands. "If I cannot offer her what she wants, if I cannot bury my pride for her sake-"
"-then you don't want to live to see her in pain."
***************************************************************
"Will you leave me be?" I hissed at Terrak, swatting him away. He'd been standing over me for quite some time now, just starring at the top of my head, as if looking into a cauldron of thoughts. He won't pluck a single syllable from my mind, of course, but it's still rather annoying, and I have training to do. He should leave. Now.
"I can't do that, friend. Not when your life is in danger." He crouched down to my level, I could feel his breath on my face, then decided to sit as well. "You'd do the same for me, though you'd hardly admit it."
"I can admit it," I snapped, shooting him a glare. "I would save you…But I'm in no danger."
"You could DIE, Vegeta! You are in the worst sort of danger."
"Could, not will."
"It's very likely that you will, and very soon. A bond as strong as yours has dire consequences when broken."
"How can you measure the strength of a Saiyan bond?"
"Vegeta, you know how much I know about Saiyans; nearly everything a common Saiyan knows, and that includes mating information." He sighed heavily. What, was I not saying what he wanted? Feh. What does he know? He's only ever read about Saiyans. He should try being one. "And alien bonds were well documented so to be prevented…Vegeta-"
"Enough Terrak, alright? I understand perfectly well what could happen. I'm fully prepared for that, and quite frankly, I could give less of a damn. I hate this mud ball, Frieza is gone, killed by another, no less, and I have nothing to show for my victories! I'm ready to die."
"You don't sound like the Saiyan Prince I once knew."
"The Saiyan Prince you once knew died on Namek long ago…Being brought back to life can change you…"
"You're pathetic and weak." He was to his feet again and heading for the door. Smart move; out of choking range. "I'm going to stop their mating. I'm going to tell Bulma exactly what the consequences are for her breaking your bond. She wouldn't want you to die."
"Take one more step and I'll blast your legs off." I smirked beside my anger. "Then we can be cripples together."
"Vegeta." His voice was soft again. "I know you care for her, I know you don't wish to live to see her in pain, but, damn it!, she'll be in ten times more pain with the loss of you!"
"She'll get over it."
"She won't…And you know it." I felt something change in his manner; I didn't need eyes to know he was angry now, completely angry with me. "You're running away!" he gasped; I heard him pad across the room and stop in front of me. "You lied!"
"About what?"
"You don't care if you see her in pain or not, you're running away so you don't have to admit that you love her!"
"I do too care!" I clamped my hands over my mouth, hoping against all odds that he didn't hear those words, that I hadn't said them, that I hadn't…meant them? But he'd heard them; he was laughing quietly to himself, the way he'd done on Deveron when he realized I was bonded to the woman. Kami, there was no way he'd leave me alone with this.
"Truth always springs from arguments," he mused; I imagined his hand under his chin, in the contemplative position; he was strategizing; hopefully I could counter his attacks. Too bad it isn't a physical battle; I would surely win. "Please Vegeta. Go to her. Stop her. Tell her the truth. Stop hiding from it."
"I hide from nothing."
"You're hiding from your feelings…I…I've never loved someone so difficult before, Vegeta. You're tough to keep as a friend."
"Shut up."
"I don't understand you, not one bit…You love this woman, you cannot live without her, therefore you wish to die, but your reasoning throws me. You cannot have her because you will not admit your feelings, yet you DO want her, you DO crave her, and you would have her if such feelings as love were not attached to your bonding."
I remained silent.
"Your father has does permanent damage to your mind, Vegeta, and yet-" There came that little muffled laugh again. "-you still love Bulma. He failed in that aspect."
Patience. Don't blast him.
"I wish you would have grown with your mother, learned from her, and only trained with your father. Who knows, maybe you would have been able to freely love Bulma…I wish you well in your grave."
"What was that?" But I already knew he was gone, and I'd heard him perfectly clear. He was giving up.
*********************************************************
By the time I realized the meaning behind Terrak's apparent abandonment, it was too late; he'd told her everything. I was nearly winded when I reached her room and found her crying while Terrak comforted her; I didn't hear the weakling, but I knew he was there.
"You will pay for this, Terrak!" I yelled from the doorway. "I don't need to see you to kill you!"
"You're an asshole, Vegeta!" the woman snapped, coming up to me; she was inches from my face. "How dare you lead me to believe that this was the right thing to do! I could have killed you!" I touched her arm, her waist, her belly; fully clothed; her hair, when I touched it, was undisturbed and smooth.
"You've been up here for hours woman. If you were planning on breaking our bond, like promised, you would have done it already." She stepped back. "Why didn't you do it?"
"I was about to before Terrak came running in. And thank Kami I didn't."
I turned my head away, facing the ground; a useless gesture, but it got the point across.
"I love you Vegeta, I cannot kill you."
"But you can bed with the weakling?" The weakling stiffened, I could feel it through the air; so confident he was. I'd like to get him in an open field and prove my superiority.
"You will do no such thing."
"Stay out of my thoughts."
"And I was going to bed with him for Trunks' sake, not my own. You think I want to sleep with someone I don't love? Someone I can barely tolerate?"
"Hey!"
"You should leave, Yamcha," she sighed.
"But-"
"But what? You want some? Huh? Well go to your little whores like always. I don't care. Just leave. I don't know what I was thinking with you."
He brushed by me, just barely missing my arm; one more inch and he'd be vulture food.
The woman directed her attention back to me.
"I'm all yours Vegeta…I don't want to be any other man's woman." She took a deep breath, sucking in her sobs. "I want to be your woman, your mate…I don't care if I'm not your wife. I don't care if you can't love me…I need you Vegeta."
I thought for a long moment, then turned to go back and train.
"Where are you going?"
"I thought you were stronger than this woman."
"What're you talking about?"
"You're weakened by your need for me. I cannot have such a burden."
Her skeletal little hands grip my shoulders, and she jerks backwards to her chest; but only because I allow it.
"I am strong because I can love someone as cold and egotistical as you, Vegeta," she whispered, digging her expertly sharpened fingernails into my shoulders. "I am strong because I bore your child, a half-Saiyan powerhouse that tore up my uterus. I may never be able to bare another child because of that."
"And how would you go about that, if I'm the only one you would have?"
"I am strong," she continued, ignoring my words. "because I can admit that I love you to your face and still have strength to stand and care for OUR son…I'm strong because if I wasn't…I'd be dead by now."
She let her hands slip from my shoulders and took a few steps back; I didn't turn around.
"Touching," I spat, finally taking my leave. But Terrak was right at my heals, making it increasingly more difficult to descend the stairs; like trying to find my way through the absolute whitest snowstorm with an annoying child chattering in your ear.
"Miserable, wretched, no good, unbelievable-"
"Are you going anywhere with this? Because I really should be training."
"I can't believe your childish behavior, Vegeta!"
"Is her father finished with my regeneration tank yet? This white-blindness is beginning to wear on me."
"Would you stop thinking of yourself for one damn moment!" he yelled as we finally reached the bottom of the stairs. He grabbed my arms the way the woman did. "Do you love her?"
"Of course not. I think you're going blind as well." I shrugged his hands away. "I've shown her nothing that would lead her, or you, to believe such an abominable idea."
"You care for her, you don't wish to see her in pain, other men touching her obviously bothers you-"
"Because she's mine by connection with the half-breed. Nothing more than instinct!"
"No, you're wrong. There's much more there."
"Stop this."
"You loved your mother, you love her now, and you love Bulma."
"Why are you so adamant about this? It's my life. I choose what I do. Not you."
I turned for the gravity chamber, when he said:
"You were willing to die to save her from pain."
"Does this have a point?"
"What is out there, in that barren universe, that could bring you more joy than a woman that loves you so deeply?"
I sat down on the bottom step, not objecting to Terrak following suit. What was out there? There were no wars, no tyrants to overcome, no more enemies; nothing but space and stars and absolute nothingness. No warm blue-haired women with electric personalities. No half-breed Saiyan children with hellish purple hair and the power of myself as a teenager.
"Nothing," I finally sigh, leaning back, my elbows on the step just behind me. Nothing at all.
"What keeps you from staying? Pride?"
"All a Saiyan has is his pride and honor."
"But you have something more." He patted me on the back. "You have love," he sighed, standing up. "But it's up to you to disclose it." He was gone before I could answer.
*****************************************************************
Life is one big damn cycle; I've avoided the woman for three days now, only taking nourishment from her mother and counsel from Terrak; he won't speak of her, not even when I inquire, which isn't often. Dr. Briefs, the woman's father, informed me that the regeneration tank will be done by the end of the week, four more days; I can barely sleep thinking about it; my sight back, finally!
My training has been less than adequate, but it's improving by the day; a little light kicking and punching is all I can really do without seeing my target; though my hearing has heightened some, it's still rather difficult to get used to, no being could succumb to such a thing this quickly.
I'm surprised that the woman hasn't bothered to seek me out, hasn't even penetrated my thoughts, which I do now and then; my name courses through her mind like blood. It's a miracle that she hasn't discovered the same with me.
What would I lose staying here? I would gain a convenient bed-mate, training equipment, and housing and food. But my pride? No, I cannot sacrifice my pride. Not for anyone, not even her.
******************************************************************
"Vegeta, my boy," the woman's father said, knocking on my bedroom door; I'd been resting after some heavier training. "Your regeneration tank is finished. I have it running now for you. All you need to do is get in; I've programmed the rest."
I was to the door before he finished his second sentence.
"What lab?"
"Third door to the left."
I was in the lab before I could think of what turns to take and not to take; I'd waited too long for this moment. The machine wasn't far from the door, and there was a rope leading from the door to it; clever old man.
I was seated inside at once, pulling the overhead door closed; it instantly began to fill with fluid; I almost didn't have time to find and put on my mask. The liquid felt good; not too cold, not too warm; soothing, like earth pudding, but not so thick or sweet.
I closed my eyes, as is customary, when the fluid reached my head, and I was soon immersed entirely in Saiyan-DNA. I could feel myself becoming stronger with each passing second. It gave the nerves and veins in my eyes the most interesting pulling sensation; I could actually feel myself having sight again. I never want to look at another white light again.
I could feel the little bubbles in the fluid; they popped on my arms and face; I could feel the strength in them. It reminded my of that stuff the woman bathes in. What's it called, bubble something. I wouldn't mind getting into a bathtub naked with her and that stuff. Her sweet creamy body wet and slick all over, pushed against me, urging me to take her, right there in the little tub! Kami we should have done that!
I suddenly pick up the woman's presence, though I know she cannot be in the lab; it's in my mind that I feel her, she's listening to my thoughts. Oh well, I shall figure a way to break our bond that she'll agree to. I can tolerate this for now. So what if she knows I am thinking of her; lust is all I am registering.
I get a flash of her lying on the bathroom floor, covered in blood, staining her white silk nightdress.
My eyes fly open though I can still only see the white light; it's dimmer, but still there.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes again. It was only a vision, something she put before you to startle you. She's not dead.
The image flashes before me again and I subconsciously wonder how I can see it in my mind when I'm blind. This time the vision is closer and I can see that her chest is not moving, that her eyes are open and glazed over, and there is blood everywhere. Smears and drops and puddles!
I block her visions out. I cannot take them anymore.
How can this death effect me in such a way that those I have killed has not?
It was more than an hour before the fluid began to drain and I could finally open my eyes; but I dared not. I will only open my eyes when I can see the woman, alive.
Oh Kami I'm a fool.
*****************************************************************
---Chapter 17! Yay! Hmm. What's he mean he's a fool? Well, I know, but you have to wait! Heehee!
REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Reviews=More Chapters)
Next time: Doo doo doo doo doo doo dooooooooo! Doo doo!