Disclaimer: DB/DBZ/DBGT belong to Toriyama and other rich Japanese guys, not me.

A Brief Moment in Time

Author: Cka3ka

Chapter 2: And we meet again…

Another Dimension… Another Time…

Bulma looked up only to find herself staring into the charcoal black eyes of a man she thought she would never have to see again. Memories long suppressed began to surface in her mind. She suddenly remembered how much she longed for this man and how she had loved him. Yet, looking into his black eyes she couldn't see any of her feelings returned. Instead they were boring into her as if she were some sort of test animal and it was enough to make her feel as if someone had splashed her with a bucket of ice water.

Heh. What made me think that he would feel any differently in this dimension?

"Remove the gag so that the woman can speak," she heard him order to the two guards. Her attention, however, was no longer on the room or her surroundings. It had, instead, turned inwards. Seeing him had set her emotions, long kept under tight control, free. It had been a long time since she had cried and now, at the sight of him, her azure eyes began to slowly fill up with tears. The years of loneliness had finally caught up to her. For of all emotions, that was the one that tore at her the most. She thought back on the years that she had struggled through without any support. Only Gohan had survived and he had spent most of his time training so that he could defeat the androids. They had lost touch long ago. Indeed she had been truly alone from the day the androids had succeeded in killing the Z-warriors and her parents. It had been sixteen painful years of raising Trunks by herself without help from anyone. Yet for a while he had filled the gaping hole in her heart. She had succeeded in raising a fine boy and in doing so she knew that she had ended her own happiness. He had grown up and had begun to move on with his life as all children do. She would soon be left alone again.

Looking at Vegeta she saw the life that she could have had flash before her eyes if not for the androids. She saw a closed, but still caring husband who wouldn't express his affections much. Yet, he was a husband whom she could place her faith in and who would love her unquestioningly even as she grew old. Together they would have a young son who would grow up with family and friends and didn't have the haunted eyes that she saw in her own son, another daughter who was her twin and whom loved her father more than anything, and friends who would lay their own lives down for them.

Bitterness, resentment, and loneliness welled up within her until she burned with a cold fire. All she wanted was someone to love her, to hold her, to cherish her. Was that too much to ask? After all hadn't she done her best to help other people? Didn't she even go to another world to help save hers? Yet, she knew that just happened in fairytales. There were no rewards for good deeds in reality. No, real life was like hers, bitter, lonely, and most of all unfair. The sweet pain that had been threatening to overcome her finally did. She closed her eyes as she fell into blissful consciousness and in doing so caused a single tear to slip from her eyes.

Emperor Vegeta of the Galactic Imperium stared at the blue haired woman that lay unconscious in the bed before him. I should simply kill her , he thought to himself. Yet, something within him wouldn't permit him to do so. He knew that this was the woman who had brought him to his knees on Chikyuu. Never before had he hated anyone as much as he hated her, not even Freeza. She had taken everything from him, his honor, his pride, and then had flung it all back into his face when she chose that weakling human over him. Even after thirty years he could remember their last conversation.

"Woman, what are you doing with that pathetic Earthling?"

"I'm giving Yamcha another chance Vegeta. I think he's really changed and I still love him."

"And me? What we did was nothing to you woman?"

"Geez Vegeta, It was only sex. We were bored and so we had sex. I didn't realize it meant something to you. Come on we're just friends."

"Only had sex for a year?"

"I needed to get my fix from somewhere. If I didn't know better Vegeta I'd think you actually care."

"You flatter yourself. I couldn't give a damn about you."

"Well then you shouldn't give a damn about me going out with Yamcha."

"You are mine now and I will not let that pathetic human take what is mine."

"Who do YOU think YOU ARE?" she had shouted at him.

"I am the Prince of all Saiyans and your mate."

"You're nothing but the prince of a dead race of monkeys. You don't own me and I will never ever be a possession for you. Go mate with yourself."

"I'd rather mate with you," he said as he moved closer to her. It was a peace offering and she knew it. They had ended countless arguments over the past year in this manner.

"I told you to go fuck yourself," she screamed at him as she pushed away from him walking away, "and I meant it." After she was a good distance away from him she turned back to face him.

"Look, Vegeta, I care about you and all, but I'm still in love with Yamcha. I think its best we end whatever relationship you think we have right now ok?"

"Fine woman, but you will come back to me…" He was sure that she cared about him as much as he cared about her. Over the last year he had somehow warmed up to her as he had never done for anyone before. They had shared a lot in the past year. He had opened up past of his past to her that he had told no one before. She had done the same or so he thought."

"You are way too cocky for your own good Vegeta." Those had been the last words she had ever said to him.

Later that night she had gone out with Yamcha and had done the deed with him. He knew, he could smell it on her and it had turned his stomach to the point that he could not tolerate it anymore. It had snapped whatever budding relationship he had begun with her. He had not spoken to her again. The next day later he had left planet Chikyuu and never looked back.

Now he looked upon the face of the woman he had fallen in love with. The only creature that he had ever cared about in the universe until he had begun his drive to unite the remnants of Freiza's Empire. He was still in love with her, however much he tried to deny it. He knew it, and hated her for it. Reaching out he touched a strand of blue hair, and found it as soft as it always had been. Her skin, too, still felt like silk to him, and made him burn with a desire that he had quenched for over three decades. She had changed though. He had seen it in the eyes that had stared up at him in his audience chamber. They had not been filled with fear even though she had been pinned on the floor and gagged. No, instead, they had been filled with a yearning desire and the look that she had given had been full of hope and love. It had been a look that demanded acknowledgement whether. It had been one of the difficult things he had ever accomplished in keeping a mask of indifference in place. However, he had been forced to do it. If any one of the power hungry politicians in the room had detected even a hint of weakness in him, they would have snatched up on it in an instant. She was not a weakness he could afford, especially in this time of crisis.

Yes, I should kill her now. It would be best. He took a step back from her bedside. They were in a private room in his Imperial Palace and he had dismissed all the servants so that he could look upon her without hiding any of his emotions. Raising his hands he began to form the Ki ball that would take her life. He held it there for what seemed an eternity as love and hate warred within him. Finally, he steeled himself for the inevitable. Closing his eyes he whispered, "Bulma, I still love you."