A greater evil

Bulma stood frozen on the spot. Very few times she found herself at loss for words, but the prince had gotten under her skin. With a taunting snicker, he let go of her and turned around. Informing her he would meet with her again soon to see what his next challenge would be.
And though considered a great honor by some, to Bulma it sounded like a self-imposed pledge to her own agony. Her eyes stayed on his back, and though she was certain, he could feel her stare he said nothing else and left her alone with her despair. Bulma quickly grabbed the scouter and checked the prince's power level.
Seeing the numbers going so far up, higher than any number even in her most distressed nightmares, she tore device of her face just as quick as she had put it on. Distraught she brought her hand to her mouth and screamed in them, finally letting the fear she had been holding in for so long come out.

There is no way we can win from him!

Mindlessly Bulma let her get escorted back to the elevator that led to the hateful small living quarters she was to call home.
And still in complete shock she entered, ignoring her almost hysterical parents, and let herself fall on the bed. Her blue eyes could only think of the image of the prince. He was haunting her mind and it stung that she indeed owned her life to him. Why should I care? Would he care should he owe me his life? The stab of Kakarot's words suddenly dug in deeper. Was she still a decent human being or slowly becoming like on of them?

I'm not the one attacking innocent people. I just want to survive!

'B-Bulma, dear! Say something!' Her father desperately pleaded with her while shaking her out of her daze.
'I'm fine, dad. I just did something stupid today,' she said while letting out a deep sigh.
Tiredly she went with her hand through her hair. The blue strands were sticky and dirty. She could feel the deep-rooted fear and regret after crawling through that vent now stick onto her fingers.

What the hell had she been thinking!? She hadn't! She couldn't allow such a mistake again…

Gathering her thoughts, and herself together, she got up up and sat in front of her parent. When looking at them, she only now saw their despair, their pained expressions of worry and fear.
And realized that her actions today had come with the worse type of consequence, letting her parents worry about her and letting them down simply by losing her levelheadedness. Her once clear vision had become blurry by arrogance and fear. Wetting her lips, realizing suddenly how dry her mouth was. Bulma tried to think of an explanation.

For a small moment I had turned back into that coward I was when being a kid. And I had thought I was doing the right thing while almost leaving the two of you behind… Out of pure selfishness…

And that was the crude analyzation of her own actions of today. Her own reckless behavior was not the only problem, there was also Kakarot, who she did not know how to deal with.
Instead of finding the words, she pulled her parents into a tight embrace and simply apologized.

Not all was a lost however, the hope of the Dragon Balls was still alive. So instead of telling all that had happened today, she solely focused on the great catch. Her hands went to her pocket and got out the golden ball.

Her parents' eyes widen simultaneously and immediately all worry was forgotten. A great shriek of joy came from her mother and her father had a smile from to ear. Bulma simply gave a small smile while sensing how stiff her body felt and how tired her mind was.

A plan was still needed but right now she needed to recover from the many encounters and start thinking clearly again before any action could be taken. Giving her father the scouter, she explained how the software could help finding the Dragon Balls with the drones.
He simply gave her a nod, not needing any more explanation than that and immediately start working on it. A warm hand was placed on her tense shoulders, startling her for some reason. It was her mother, who still looked a little concerned.

'Why don't you freshen up, dear?' she suggested while looking her up and down.

Getting off the bed, Bulma agreed wholeheartedly. When she walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind her, her mother and father exchanged a look but remained silent and decided to not ask their daughter any more questions despite the rumors they had picked up on.

After a long and rather sleepless night, Bulma got up and started the same monotone routine of her fellow Earthlings. But when it was time to enter the workplace, it turned out she and her father were not going to be working together because Ilkm now claimed that, with the prince personally requesting her to work on the training bots, they were to work in different locations.
Besides, her father would be in charge of repairing the ship, Ilkm had added.
Dr. Briefs picked up on his daughter's sadness of facing the day alone again and grabbed her hand, giving it a light squeeze and muttered that this was perhaps not a bad thing.

'How so?' Bulma whispered, her eyes warily looking around.
'I was instructed to repair the damage of the explosion,' he said. His eyes stayed on hers for a moment, awaiting some sort of explanation of how the ship got damaged in the first place but Bulma kept her lips tightly pressed together.
'If I manage to get the blueprints…'
'You'll know how to get out,' Bulma whispered, excited by what this could mean.
'And if your mother's day is also successful…' he muttered. 'We could actually succeed in our goal.'
'Thanks, dad,' Bulma said and without warning embraced him. She never figured out how he always was so aware of when she was feeling distressed or sad but he had always known how to lift her spirits, no matter what the situation.
'Give us and yourself a few more days,' he told her with soft expression but a stern tone.

Bulma nodded in agreement. Her actions had been hasty and foolish. Together they were stronger.

Letting go of him, she wished him a good day and her hand went to the Dragon Ball hidden in her pocket. For a moment she had thought about leaving it with her mother, but something told her that it was safer with her. Having it with her made her feel better too. Her heart had more of a steady beat, her body felt more relaxed.

Following Ilkm, who was blabbering and lying how much, he had recommended her to the prince himself, Bulma followed without listening to a word he was saying. Her mind was preoccupied and already thinking of her next invention.

A few more days… She kept reminding herself. Buy yourself some time, Bulma.

To her surprise, her new workspace was much bigger than the one before and it was hers to personally use. And after appointing a few people to assist her, Ilkm wished her the best of luck and pretended to be very excited by her promotion but Bulma could see the spitefulness in his beady eyes. Ignoring his behavior and focusing on the task at hand, Bulma decided that the best way to kill time was by doing what she was best at. Innovating. Immediately she took action, and easily adapted to her new role as leading scientist and did so with excellence.

No Saiyans were around to keep an eye on her, and that gave her the false feeling of not being watched all the time. But it didn't take her longer than a few hours to notice that the people working for and with her had sworn loyalty to the barbarians. She had to stay on guard at all times, no matter who was around. Luckily developing, creating and engineering devices made her forget where she was and for who she was doing it for. But it wasn't until lunch time she bothered to realize that her current actions were contradicting her true intentions again.

'Are you ok, Dr. Briefs?' Libelle, one of her assistants asked.
Libelle was a petite girl with pinkish skin and blonde hair. Her alien features were a bit bug-like, but her cheerful and friendly personality made Bulma instantly forget she wasn't an Earthling like herself.
Realizing she was staring at her food instead of eating it, Bulma gave her a shy smile at being caught.
'I'm fine,' Bulma quickly said and started eating.
'Don't worry, we all had to adapt in the beginning! But before you know it feels like home,' Forog said, a man who looked human but his features, such as his wide nose and mouth, resembled that of a frog.
Bulma only nodded but then the comment nagged at her so much that, before she had thought it through, she blurted out of they didn't miss their real home.
'Don't you ever get upset? Or angry at them?' Bulma asked being agitated by how accepting they were with this absurd situation.

To be honest, at this point she didn't feel like the anger in her heart would ever settle down.

Shocked at her outburst, Libelle and Forog stared at her before, although with hesitance, answering her questions.
'I'm all alone,' Libelle explained softly. 'Why would I be angry at them? They gave me a home when I didn't have one…'
'But your home planet,' Bulma said on a sharp tone, her blue eyes digging into the young girl's.
The cheerfulness from before disappeared completely. And soon the pain of guilt followed when Bulma could see tears whelm up in her beautiful violet eyes.
'It got destroyed many years ago,' Libelle simply uttered.

Sensing Libelle's distress and Bulma's frustration over the matter, Forog spoke up and tried to explain it to Bulma, understanding that until a week ago, she had been completely oblivious to alien life.
'Conquering planets is not that uncommon and there is far worse than the Saiyans out there, you know. Libelle's planet got purged by that emperor...' Hearing a sob come from Libelle, he stopped a minute before getting angry and giving Bulma a look.
'At least Saiyans have honor! For instance, I pleaded with them to spare my planet, promising our very existence was to serve them from now on. It wasn't easy in the beginning but now everyone is at peace! Our world still exists, we are all still alive!'

His speech silenced her completely. Bulma took in the new information with shock. Wondering just how obscure the reality of the universe truly was. In her mind, finding alien life always had sounded like a great achievement. But perhaps Earthlings were truly behind on this life and it had already come to a point, as in many societies, that the one wanted to rule over all others. The idea saddens her and made her feel at loss for some reason. As if a dearly beloved dream had just been shattered.

'Who is this emperor?' Bulma quietly asked, not being able to look up anymore from her plate to meet them in the eye.
'He has once enslaved the Saiyans too but they broke free,' Libelle said, obviously excited by how the Saiyans had accomplished that.
Bulma's head shot up and she could see that Libelle's tears had already dried. It seemed the girl held great respect for the Saiyans. Even idolizing them by the look in her eyes.
'E-enslave Saiyans?' Bulma stuttered in shock.
'Yes, though it is unknown what exactly happened, the Saiyans have sworn revenge for their suffering. That is why Prince Vegeta wants to become the very strongest, he is the Saiyans that will destroy the emperor!' Libelle explained while her face lit up and her eyes held the same cheeriness from before.

Bulma stayed silent, completely shocked again. A greater evil than the Saiyans? Is that even possible?
Suddenly the internal struggle began again, and fearful doubts tired her out. The idea of escape seemed ludicrous now. Considering the knowledge that after the Saiyans, there would just be another evil Earth would have to face…

'Well, woman?'

Surprised by the voice, Bulma looked up and only now noticed the silence and shocked faces of her team. Looking around to see the voice, she saw the stern face of the Saiyan Prince who was looking at her. He had haunted her throughout the night and now seeing him again, made her feel weak.

Her team scrambled up from their seats and bowed their heads. Quirking up an eyebrow, Bulma suddenly became aware that last night she had been anything but respectful towards his majesty.
Though it was against every fiber in her body to do so, she tried to copy their movements but eventually ended up with curt nod towards the Prince, who didn't seem to be interested in formalities. With a stern nod, he dismissed her entire team for her, apparently wanted to speak to her alone.

'Well? I wanted to start my afternoon training.'

Confused Bulma, frowned at him.

'I wanted your training-bots to be ready.'

The undertone was obviously threateningly, his eyes staring angrily into hers.

'They will all be ready in a good two hours,' Bulma answered keeping her eyes on his figure as he began walking around in the workplace she had already deemed as personal.

'That is taking too long!'

He sounded like a spoiled child to her. Rolling her eyes, she cuttingly reminded him that he had asked her to make them better one compared to yesterday. In the back of her mind, she noted he didn't seem to care about ending up in the healing tank, as long as he was getting challenged.

'Well, that better be the case with all that time you're taking in completing them,' he coldly said.

Bulma again wanted to roll her eyes at his comment again but when he turned around and his eyes were on hers, she froze up. Feeling caught for some reason.
Probably because he was so threatening, and she knew of his incredible power. Or perhaps it was because he arrogantly always searched for her eyes to intimidate her. Which worked surprisingly well because fear couldn't make her stop staring at him.

The corners of his mouth went up again, clearly amused by her reaction.
These men, Bulma noted, despite some finding them noble, did clearly enjoy a certain sense of despair around them, it seemed to boost their ego, and that irked her. So, she grits her teeth to counter this attitude and gave him a defiant look.

'You look better,' he suddenly stated. His eyes shamelessly went over her and the action made her blush.
'E-excuse me?'
'You looked disgusting yesterday, woman,' he simply said.

Bulma bit her lips to stop herself from losing her temper. How dare he! Though a little voice reminded her of how she had looked rather disheveled yesterday after her attempt to escape.
His voice was low and almost growling, and the tone rude in which he spoke made every word come out with a certain arrogance that was meant to be offending to anyone listening. To be honest, she had never met a man quite as obnoxious as this one. And there is greater evil than him?
Bulma couldn't believe it.

Prince Vegeta simply kept smirking at her, obviously aware of how that comment pissed her off.

'I had a bad day yesterday,' Bulma calmly said while inwardly she smirked and venomously added,
'But so did you, I suppose.'

His smirk abruptly fell, clearly not amused by her words, and with a growl he reminded her of how he had been willing to forget the little attempt at his life but only if she learned her place.
It was obvious the incident kind of embarrassed him, so Bulma hid her smirk, though feeling victorious on the inside.

Though annoyed by his rude attitude, Bulma couldn't help but think what Libelle and Forog had just said. She did want to know more about the rest of the universe. The appearance of the Saiyans had taken her and Earth by complete surprise, but what else was lurking in the darkness of the universe?
Her blue eyes went over his figure. He was strong and proud but not foolish.
The prince seemed to be a man who had experienced many battles and encountered all sorts of aliens…

'May I ask you a question?' she started politely, hating how her own voice sounded. But she was being sincere and hoped he would do the same.

Not answering her with words, he turned his head to her. His dark eyes clashing once again with hers. She wished he'd stop doing that. Being so intrusive that is.

'I've heard…' She halted and decided to not remind him of his once slavery. Rephrasing her question and keeping voice soft, she tried again.

'Who is this Emperor people speak of?'

As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted it. He looked angrier and a certain electricity filled the air. Swallowing at the hateful glare that was send her way, Bulma took a step back only to bump into the table behind her. Her heart beating rapidly when seeing the look in his eyes.
This emperor had marked him and now she could feel the hate pouring over and consuming her too. Her body began the shiver though she couldn't even move a muscle to look away from the man before her.

'Frieza,' he simply answered, biting out the name with disgust.

Then the Saiyan Prince started walking towards her. Bulma stayed put, uncertain on what to do or say to the terrifying man. Swallowing her fear and wetting her now dry lips, she tried to think of something clever to pull her back out of this menacing situation. Even small movements he could detect, making her cheeks redden.

'He is a ruthless tyrant,' he said, invading her personal space without consent, 'Your planet would be destroyed in mere seconds, blown up by his power… Out of pure boredom,' he hissed, his face now close to hers. The way he had said it, made Bulma realize he wasn't exaggerating. Her mind could envision it as he spoke the words.

'If you fear us, be aware that there is a far greater evil in this universe. He doesn't even bother with the likes of you. You are nothing. A waste of air to him.'

'Is that why you fight?' Bulma asked, taken back by his sudden change in demeanor.

His dark eyes stared into hers for a moment before answering,

'Why do you fight?'

The question startled her but the answer escaped her lips without thought, 'To survive.'

His hand weaved itself into her hair and he pulled her face closer, his breath tickling her face,
'Exactly.'

A moment of silence followed the threatening answer and Bulma could see all sorts of violent emotions swirl in those dark eyes of his. He then pushed her away, startling her by his rough and strange actions.

'So, get moving, woman, because I don't have time to waste.'

Though the smirk that followed might indicate that he was just toying with her, his eyes had told her everything she had wanted to know.
This wasn't anything personal. This conquest had never even been about Earth. The planet had simply crossed the prince's path, who was in search of power.
And that was it, he needed to become stronger and she… She had no choice in the matter of helping him. It was a necessity for the Saiyans and thus for those who followed them, those being the same who desperately wanted to avoid the wrath of the emperor they spoke so fearfully of.
It was all so much bigger than Earth and though she could shrug it off and claim this wasn't her problem, she realized that this emperor perhaps would one day come but then it would be too late for her and the planet.

Her blue eyes no longer dreaded staring into his.

Because, when she thought about it a hint of respect could be found in his actions. He wanted her to understand. And apparently deemed she had the talent and skill to truly make him stronger.
Above all, he had answered her question, even though he didn't have to.
Feeling a guilty stab in her heart because despite his harsh manners, in his own way, the prince was being kind to her.

When he turned around, ready to leave, Bulma bid him goodbye and bowed her head in respect. Looking over his shoulder, his eyes stayed on her for a second too long before he simply ignored the gesture and left.

I want thank Kitty in the Box for the incredible kind reviews on both this story and my other V/B story, Those Who Fight Further. It always a pleasure to read such elaborating reviews and getting such kind feedback!

Reviews always make my day, thank you everyone!

Fun facts:
Libelle means Dragonfly in Flemish/Dutch,
Ilkm is an anagram for milk (also, imagine him as the much fatter version of Burtur…)
And Forog is obviously just… Frog with an extra o.
Dragon Ball is one of those series were creating your own characters is just so much fun because it's simply so easy.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Next chapter will be up soon!