Return of the Queen, Part 2

No word in the English language could have possibly described how relieved I felt knowing that my mother was alive. As I soon realized, however, she was quite different from the mother I remembered. The spiked tips of her hair just grazed her shoulders, the way they always had; but I could swear I saw a streak of gray peeking out from the front of her bangs. Her usually sleek tail was unkempt and greasy, wagging lazily behind her like that of a wild animal. Even her eyes, often filled with joy, appeared darker and colder. It was as though Freeza had somehow sucked the life out of her.

Once the shock had worn off, I began to ask myself: How had she escaped? How did she find me? When did she get so powerful? But, more importantly, where in the hell had my fiancée disappeared to?

"Vegeta, dear, you look worried. Is something the matter?"

Of course, Mother could always tell when I was upset, whether or not I'd meant for it to show. She had long since taken to her usual nature of smiling, but I still felt as though something wasn't right. This idiotic cycle had to stop.

"Have you seen Bulma, by any chance?" I asked.

"I haven't seen her since the fight. She might still be in hiding."

So, she called out to her, as did I, about four or five times. I furrowed my brow in worry when we received no answer; Mother looked over at me concernedly. Just as we were going to call her again, the pitter-patter of hastened footsteps up the hallway and a silhouette emerging from the darkness reassured us.

Well, until it pulled out a glowing spear.

Without a word, Mother powered up and rushed at the Ice-jin sentinel. The guard flipped his spear over and thrust it at her as she descended upon him, ki-charged fist ready for attack. Catching the end of it just below the sharp, iridescent tip, she snapped the spear in half. Unexpectedly, the guard reared back with the bottom half and struck her on the head. In the time it took her to sneer and place a curse upon his family and heritage, she'd stabbed him in the gut and forced him to the ground.

It was quite mesmerizing, really, seeing my normally gentle mother beat the shit out of someone; even more so, how the spear tip began to glow brighter as the guard screamed in agony. I always knew my mother was a great warrior at heart, but I couldn't help wondering where she learned the sorcery. I thought for sure I was seeing things.

In the violent heat of the moment, she forced the weapon further into her opponent's abdomen, garnering another howl of pain from him. With her weight alone, she easily prevented his attempts at retaliation and escape.

"Die, you worthless scum!" she snarled mere inches from his face.

And so he did, coughing up one last gout of blue fluid just before his eyes rolled back and his bloody hand, once gripped around my mother's wrist, fell limp at his side.

In all my years, I'd never seen any evidence of such pure hatred or malice in Mother's character. One would think that I'd be proud to have so zealous a fighter contribute to my lineage, but instead I felt only a twinge of anger. There's no doubt that I love my mother and would under any circumstances, but the bloodthirsty warmonger who continued to mercilessly slaughter enemy guardsmen wasn't the woman who raised me. Regardless of who she fought, the chilling smirk of satisfaction on her face seemed far too out of place.

Saiya-jins may be ardent in combat, but we're not completely heartless by nature. Foolhardy and arrogant, perhaps, but not heartless.

"Vegeta, would you have a look at this."

Snapping back into reality, I saw Mother neatly step over the corpse as she walked toward me, all smiles as she had been before. For a moment, I was speechless. Within so short an amount of time, she'd become more unpredictable than Bulma's mood swings.

"A look at what?" I asked finally as she stopped in front of me.

She wiped the blood off the spear tip with her cloak and handed it to me. After a quick once-over, I began twirling it between my fingers like a baton.

"What do you expect me to do with it?"

"Look at how it's glowing brighter after I killed the guard. Every time I stabbed him with it… It was as if—I could swear I felt stronger! I've never felt such a driving determination to kill in all my life. So strange, it seemed."

I could only agree with her. Nothing seemed normal about that evil look in Mother's eyes. And then, she presented an idea that I hadn't thought of before:

"Either Freeza has learned to use magic, or he's developed some sort of new technology. I wonder…" She took the spear tip back from me and turned it over in her hands a few times; then, held it up to the light. "It's not any kind of crystal I've ever seen. It's like… something straight out of a fantasy book. Lady Bulma is well versed in these sorts of things, is she not?"

It was then that I became aware of a distinct thumping sound, accompanied by the muffled cries of a woman, coming from within the walls of the castle.

"Bulma!"

I had noticed before that she was missing, but then I was certain I knew where she was. Well, almost certain.

Unbeknownst to Freeza's men, the castle's chambers and corridors contained many trapdoors and hidden passages. Since the castle had been severely damaged during a time of war, past generations of the royal family sought to modify the castle's design to ensure its residents an upper hand through any breach of the castle walls. (After all, who doesn't enjoy the look of surprise on his enemy's face when the little bastard realizes he's just been ambushed from the floor?) Without knowing, she could've easily stepped on a spring-loaded stone or caught her clothes on a lever and fallen into a pit.

Mother and I began feeling on the walls and floor for any odd-shaped bricks or niches; but, try as we might, our search remained fruitless.

"What do we do? I can't tell where her screaming is coming from!" I was beginning to panic.

"Wait… I think I recognize this wall."

I stopped dead in my tracks. "You know where she's hidden?"

"Lady, can you hear me?" she shouted at the wall. "Please, be patient while I get you out!"

Bulma's incessant wails and pounding stopped. For a moment, all was silent.

Mother began feeling along a crack in the floor, digging her fingers between the stones as if she'd lost something. Seconds later, she pulled out a thin black rope: an unseen tripwire. She smirked, satisfied with her success, and said, "Now to find that switch…"

As Mother continued her search, I couldn't help wondering how it was she could tell one wall in that damned castle from another. They all looked the same to me.

"Mother?" I inquired.

"Wedding tradition," answered she.

Again, I was baffled. Again, I inquired.

"Years ago," began the tale, "your Father and I decided to deviate a little from the usual wedding ceremonies."

And, thus, I was told of the game Mother and Father played before their first night together, in which one of them would hide while the other looked for former. It seemed fairly simple and… well, odd, but I decided it best not to bother asking. During one such round of the game, Mother accidentally tripped over a rope, opening a passageway that she had never seen before. Since it looked like such a clever place to hide, she decided to stay there. Several minutes later, when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway, she leaped out from her hiding place and tackled an unsuspecting Father.

"It was such a secluded place…" Mother mused, implying that there was a longer, less family-oriented version of the story. "Anyway," she pointed to a brick on the floor, "we decided to mark it as 'our place'."

I looked down at the brick: two Saiya-jin letters carved into it. Vega and Mae, my parents' first initials. I tried imagining my Father doing anything remotely romantic. It didn't work. Before I could comment, I heard a resounding clack, and the section of the wall in front of me began to creak and slide open to reveal a dark passageway.

At first, I saw no sign of Bulma. The air was so thick with dust that I wondered just how My Lady could have survived being trapped in there for even a few seconds. Dense layers of cobwebs hung down like dirty gray sheets, and even though Mother insisted that there were several wall fixtures for holding torches lining the passage, I couldn't see any. In fact, the only non-grimy object I saw was a soft, round light glowing somewhere in the distance.

"Vegeta!"

The light started flying towards me, bobbing around in a sort of bipedal fashion. The next thing I knew, a cobweb-caked Bulma was squeezing the life out of me.

"Dark—and creepy—" she shuddered. "I was terrified! If it wasn't for my ki-detector, I might not have even found the wall!"

I wrapped my arms around her to calm her down. In the mean time, Mother looked for a way to close the door behind us so that none of Freeza's guards would follow.

"What took you guys so… long…?" Bulma trailed off, looked intently at something behind me.

"Is something the matter?"

Bulma pointed at Mother and gave me an unfamiliar look of perplexity. Strangely enough, in the time that I had been courting her, Bulma had never seen nor met my mother. As it turned out, when one was present, the other happened to be somewhere else doing something gravely important. I tried once, even, to find her a picture of Mother, but someone thought it would be a smart idea to renovate the library and royal galleries that week.

"Don't you have a camera or something you can take a snapshot of her with?" said Bulma, a few weeks into our courtship.

Father looked grimly at her from across the meeting table. "Photography is a useless exploit. We've had no need for it."

And that was simply that.

Of course, then I had to give them both a formal introduction…

Author's Note: Yes! I've made it this far! Sorry I'm so slow to update. College prep stuff and lack of ideas tend to keep me from writing as often. Don't fret, though! Thisstory will be finished if I have to beat myself to do it!