Chapter 6 – Masterminds

'Kami damn it, why won't he fall?'

The fight has been going for hours now, the sun is setting. The horizon colors red. Blood drips to the ground as the two warriors circle around each other, chests heaving for air.

Vegeta begins to have second thoughts concerning his threat to bury Mirai Trunks. He still wants to bury him, but he's not entirely convinced whether he is able to do so. Mirai seems invincible and still maintains level SSJ3. Vegeta feels how he is slipping out of it, back to SSJ2.

Mirai senses Vegeta's struggle and smirks. "Give it up already, you stubborn baka. You can't win."

"I don't care. I won't give in to you. I'd rather be killed."

"I'd never kill you, it would be a waste to destroy such a work of art." Mirai licks his lips, lustfully eyeing the other warrior. Vegeta drops out of SSJ3 and remains at level 2, bloody and ragged.

'Kami knows I could eat you alive when you look like this,' Mirai chuckles inside Vegeta's mind. 'Are you sure you're not even slightly tempted by the idea of forming a bond with me?'

"Positive," Vegeta growls.

Mirai Trunks looks him in the eye, waving his finger warningly. 'Don't lie to me, Vegeta. You have considered it.'

"Considering it is not the same as agreeing to it," Vegeta says defiantly. "And I have seen what your plans with Kakarot are. No deal."

"Aww, come on! There's no way I'm going to share you with a low class warrior, that's preposterous."

"Radditz is also a low class, I share a pack bond with him. What are you going to do, kill him when he's already dead?"

"Radditz?" Mirai is taken by surprise. "Mom told me stories about Kakarot's brother… A pack bond?"

"Without him, I wouldn't have survived Frieza," Vegeta states calmly. It feels surprisingly good to say that out loud.

"Pack bonds can be broken," Mirai says coldly. "Easy as hell."

Vegeta gasps. "How do you know so much about bonding?"

"A little bird told me," Mirai smirks and attacks again. "Enough talk. Let's continue."

Vegeta uses every dirty trick he knows on Mirai, but he can't keep up with him. In the middle of the night, he powers down to Saiyan form. His legs give out from under him and he collapses to the ground.

"Finish it, Mirai. Or I will." Vegeta sounds tired. Through the rushing of blood in his ears, he hears Mirai's footsteps approach. The golden glow of his battle aura fades away as he powers down to Saiyan form as well.

"Had enough?" Mirai's voice is no more than a whisper. "Oh, Vegeta, you have no idea of what is on the way. The battle has only just begun. I don't want to take you by force, I want you to submit to me willingly."

Vegeta starts laughing uncontrollably. "In your… wet dreams… rookie!"

"Rookie?" Mirai Trunks' blue eyes seem to darken. His lavender hair half covers his glistening eyes. Blood drips from a fresh cut on his forehead. With most of his clothes torn away in the previous fight, his muscular silhouette looks divine. Vegeta tilts his head at this sudden change. Mirai seems to grow older in an instant, towering over him threateningly.

"You think I'm bluffing?"

"It wouldn't be the first time," Vegeta says hoarsely.

Mirai Trunks closes his eyes with a sigh, folding his hands in front of his chest. A white light hits Vegeta, taking over his mind, searching for the weak spots that are hidden deep within the chasms of his soul.

Sinking into a deep trance, two Saiyan warriors continue their battle on a whole other level. Mirai draws power from his burning desire to make Vegeta his own; Vegeta however draws power from his bonds and a lifetime of experience with mind struggles.

'Feels good to fight someone else's mind for a change,' he comments as he concentrates on keeping Mirai out of his inner mind.

'You won't be able to keep this up, Vegeta, I promise.'

Hours pass. The forest becomes very quiet, as if it's holding its breath while anxiously awaiting the outcome of the battle.

Sweating and breathing heavily, Mirai opens his eyes. Something distracts him, tugging at the outer regions of his awareness. He blinks, trying to regain his eyesight. Then he startles back in surprise as he looks at the people standing behind the unconscious form of Vegeta.

"Impossible…" he says breathless. He counts three halo's; one belongs to Mirai Gohan, the others belong to Radditz and Toorah. In between stand Mirai Bulma and Goku.

"Trunks-kun…" Mirai Gohan whispers. "What have you done to him?"

Mirai Trunks shakes his head as if he's trying to wake up from a nightmare.

"This isn't real… You are dead!"

"Someone needs to stop you, Trunks. You belong in our dimension, not theirs." Mirai Gohan approaches him, but Mirai Trunks backs away.

"Get the hell away from me!"

Meanwhile, Goku has kneeled down beside Vegeta, waking him up with a surge of ki. Sitting up, Vegeta says: "You were a fool to believe you could defeat me, Mirai Trunks. There's more to me than just Vegeta. I am the Saiyan race."

Mirai Trunks trembles violently as he forms two ki spheres in his hands.

'Kakarotto. Don't let him do that.'

Goku stretches out his hands and unleashes his ki draining attack. Mirai is knocked out easily; the battle of the mind exhausted him. Right before he passes out, he sees Vegeta tower over him. The other figures fade away and he hears Vegeta chuckle inside his head.

'Fooled you… rookie.'

The world then turns to a very dark shade of grey.

When he wakes up, his head hurts like hell. He lies on a concrete floor, probably in some cellar in Capsule Corp. He feels totally drained and soon notices why. His wrists and ankles are tied to the wall with heavy ki restraints.

'Kami damn it. I lost.'

He tries to break free, but to no avail. His head is killing him and he slouches down to the ground. The worst of the whole situation is, that he has no idea what the fighters of this dimension are planning to do with him.

'I attacked Kakarot and tried to kill him… I'm surprised that I'm still alive. But how did Vegeta defeat me? It's such a blur…'

"I'll tell you how I defeated you, brat," Vegeta's dark voice emerges from the doorway. Mirai backs away until his back is to the wall. He's convinced that Vegeta has come here to finish him.

"Scared? You should be," Vegeta says in a tone that tells him to treasure the seconds he has left to breathe. "There is no way, in this dimension or another, that you could have defeated me in a mastermind battle. To be honest, I wonder if you even had the slightest comprehension of what you were getting yourself into at the time."

"I hadn't," Mirai admits weakly. "There was only one thing on my mind…"

"And I bet it still is the only thing on your mind. Except for your question marks about how I defeated you. It's simple: I got to you first. The excruciating truth is, that no one ever defeated anyone in a mastermind battle. The one who loses defeats himself."

Mirai looks up in astonishment. "No way!"

Vegeta approaches him to the point where he knows Mirai can't touch him.

"You cannot escape the truth, boy. You wanted me to defeat you. I have no clue why, because it doesn't make any sense. Or maybe…" Vegeta thinks for a moment. "Maybe you had no choice."

"What the hell do you mean?" Mirai gets up angrily and rushes up to Vegeta, but is stopped by the ki-restraining chains.

Vegeta chuckles. "I can tell by your reaction that you already knew this, Trunks."

Mirai Trunks clenches his jaws and hisses: "I did. Somewhere along the way I realized that if I'd wrench you away from Kakarot, you'd be miserable for the rest of your life. I could never do that to you, because of this ridiculous instinct to protect you!"

"So you lost on purpose." Vegeta looks at him intently, feeling the hot breath of the prisoner on his face. "You know, Trunks, you might be a lot smarter than I thought."

"I'm not," Mirai hisses, tears rolling down his face. He looks angry, beaten, disappointed and very frustrated. "All I am is a loser with nothing left to live for. I still wonder why you haven't killed me yet."

A genuine smile forms on Vegeta's face. "It would be a waste to destroy such a work of art."

Before Mirai knows what hits him, Vegeta crushes their lips together in a passionate kiss. Mirai tugs at his chains, wanting to let his hands roam Vegeta's body, but they won't budge. He feels blissfully powerless, surrendering to Vegeta's hot mouth. He feels how Vegeta's hips grind against his and instantly grows hard.

After a few breathless moments, Vegeta steps back and grins ferally.

'So, future brat, you actually thought the battle was over? I admire your skills, and choosing the role of the prisoner was very smart indeed, but I'm still the one who's in control here. I won't let you enter my inner mind.'

'Wait and see, Vegeta,' Mirai Trunks growls inside Vegeta's mind, audibly irritated because he fell for Vegeta's vision. 'I've got more cards up my sleeve.'

'In that case, let's play some more. You're running two points short.'

A new vision begins to form…