*Sequel is up! The Fate of Trunks*
He smells the metallic tang of blood pooled around her. The promise he made to her echos in his ears. Looking up, Vegeta see's a figure walking among a war zone. It takes a turn behind a wall of crushed metal and disappears. The mysterious figure is now still and he see's it again. It slowly turns towards him. The Prince shudders and chokes down a cry. He spots the bloody smile painted on the beautiful face of his wife, Bulma. In her arms, she holds something: Trunks.
And Vegeta wakes up.
\\
Two weeks after the second Android attack on West City, he stands in the ruins of his broken life after his first rest in days. His body feels like it just woke up, but his mind feels like it never went to sleep. The island city morning is chilly and moist on the rubble and wreckage stretching for miles around, silent. Bugs and birds flutter back and forth over a thick carpet of foliage, ignoring the splats of dried blood and ripped clothing wrapped in the turf - his and the Android's blood. Curiously, he runs a hand over his body.
"Not surprised that I can feel each of my ribs..." The Prince says to himself. It gives him a quick moment to remember the gravity room incident. But this time it was different machines. He looks down and sees his own set of staggering footprints in the muddied grass, realizing vegetation had overgrown, on it's way back to nature, on the once clean-cut yard.
Two weeks before, Vegeta had made those prints as he drunkenly made his way against the cold metal of the ship. Moments before the covenant with the Androids, he wanted to fall down, give up. But he wasn't having none of that shit. Vegeta was going to get back up for his boy.
Snatches of memory come back to him. Faint pictures of him spitting in that damned Seventeen's face, the cracked window, forced to be beaten like a dog in order to save Trunks. Like his golden aura flicking off as he passed out in the ship from the new form. He'll get over it. It didn't hurt him as much as his pride, which he forced to stay dormant. He doesn't remember why they agreed. He doesn't try too hard to remember, though. The next decade and a half was strictly going to be his son's preparation to the ultimate warrior.
The Saiyan Prince still held on to the little piece of apprehension about this. Trunks, the 'Lord and Savior' of this planet, would grow up on one goal: defeating the Androids. Was he really going to do the Earth a favor or was he doing his son a life-scarring hindrance by even trying?
Zink
For about three seconds Vegeta stands still, sensing. It takes a long-ass second to figure out that the life force has come back.
Oh yeah. Right. The Prince thinks to himself. In the last couple weeks, the cyborg's energies had gotten smaller and smaller, fading away as they head east, toward the ocean. Back to their homes, wherever that may be. However, that meant other energies got bigger. A lot bigger.
Restless days and even worse nights, Trunks included, were the results of the terrible energy Seventeen and Eighteen radiated. It wasn't an option for the Prince to let his guard down, even now. Until three days before, the only focus was Androids. Not a good move to trust their little agreement too soon.
Three days ago. It was three days ago when he first met the human. The city was in chaos. Parsley was what Dr. Brief called it. The Saiyan fought the urge to cover his mouth and choke when he saw the bodies tumbled in a limp-limbed pile on the side streets, just like old times. That was one concern of his when he decided he needed to fly out there. He's been around dead bodies the majority of his life. But the twist was he was the one who caused their deaths. He'd eventually get used to this turn of events. Bulma would have wanted him to. Save anyone left. The faint pulsing energy was emitting from the direction he went.
Of the thousands of inhabitants who fled for the mountains, the few left were stumbling into the city, rail-thin and filthy. Most most likely hearing the same message that Vegeta heard over the resistance station on the radio. The broadcasters were supposedly survivors of the South Capital mountain city attacks and from what Vegeta heard, they were stationed in the high tower wedge between the mountains. Smart move. Their broadcasts were mostly made up of safe zone area locations and the latest Android strikes, fit with a cutting edge radio only a selected few safe areas could reach. Wasn't hard for Dr. Brief's gadget to pick up on it, thus feeding the information to Vegeta.
\\
Vegeta dodged past empty buildings as he soared lower and lower to the streets below. His eyes scanned a collapsed floor of an office building when the human energy vibrates closer. The flying Prince freezes as he watches the windows inside. Desks and trash strewn the floor inside. A gray shadow passes by inside, but he sees nothing else.
Not far from there, at the collapsed end of the building, he lands his feet on pulverized brick and two-by-fours. He brushes off the construction dust from his armor and pushes inside. Hood down, a man is huddled next to rebar, arms over his knees and head down. He rocks back and forth on his heels, maybe keeping warm.
With light feet, Vegeta reaches his target. He looks up at the Saiyan, startled. It's a young Caucasian guy, in his teens. The Prince clearly sees that he'd been crying. Crap, another kid to take care of. Vegeta thinks to himself.
"What's your name?" Vegeta asks, the only thing he can think of. The teen flinches a little when he hears the Saiyan's booming voice echo in the building. Leaning against the building, he stands up. Vegeta now sees a better view of his dirtied face. Thin eyes. Mangled blond hair grows long from his head. His arm bears a scar from less cautious times. A tank top flows over his thinning chest. Couldn't be more than fourteen.
"Sharpner..." He responds, putting his head down. No. Vegeta decides to himself. He wasn't going to deal with a coward like this kid. Let the resistance deal with him.
"Fair enough. Follow me."
Vegeta back tracks the path he found on the way in here. Sharpner hobbles along behind him after a few hesitant moments. Together, they roam through the destroyed building. Vegeta easily climbs over blasted rubble and Sharpner crawls under half collapsed walls. The silence between them grows the further they go. Finally they reach the entrance. The Prince hears the younger boy's foot steps stop clicking behind him and he half turns his head behind.
"Get moving." Vegeta hisses.
The kid stares, blank.
When Vegeta grabs him, the blond boy tries to shove away choking down shouts. "Stop it, dude," He says. "I'm no fucking idiot. Those killers are gonna find us!" Vegeta shoves him through the opening and the teen falls on his face. "They're gone." Vegeta looks at him as he lifts his body up from the ground, slipping a hand to his face. Seconds later, his hand comes away bloody. "Um, ow!" He cries out, sucking in bloody spit.
"Come with me." Vegeta spits impatiently, walking away from the scene.
"Wait up," Sharpner shouts after the Saiyan. "I don't even know where you're going!"
"A safe house to bring your candy-ass to." Vegeta responds. The South radio station mentioned the Parsley safe location was a sandstone parking garage in the depth of the city. Shouldn't be so hard to find.
"Don't be stupid, dude," Sharpner burrows his brows. This kid clearly didn't know when to shut up. "Momma and I went looking for that son-of-a-barrel weeks ago. No such thing around here anymore, bet."
Vegeta didn't remember sensing any other single life forces. "It's still around."
Eyes locked on Vegeta's chest, the kid holds his scarred arm. "It isn't, bro," He says in a small voice. "Now, listen, we can't be out here long. I've seen what they can do...I've seen..." He stops cold. his voice crackles on the last word.
I want to scream at this guy, this coward. Vegeta thinks to himself, neck muscles straining. The teen just stands there, lip quivering. He's about to cry again. Just my luck.
From a distance, both hear the moaning as another structure inside the office building dislodges and falls. A cloud of dusts pours out of the entrance, making the kid jump forward.
"C'mon, man. I need you. I need you to help me." Sharpner locks eyes with Vegeta. "They killed Momma. Grinned as they did it to. Ran in here when the locked target on me next. They aren't killing for anything good reason. They get satisfaction from it, man." He continues. "You can stay with me in this shitstack. What are you-?" Vegeta stops him with a raised palm. In seconds the squatting foundation building of the teen buckles. It's going to fall.
"Shit, the fuck was that!" Sharpner drives forward, but Vegeta catches him with his forearm, not moving and inch. "Let me go, crazy-dude!"
The blond doesn't notice as Vegeta rises up into the air as he ruffles his hair and kicks. Five meters off the street now. Tears gleam in his eyes. He's got to grow up. If he doesn't, he'll die.
When they're high enough, a cry catches in Sharpner's throat. Fifteen meters above the street now. The distance shows a bloody red horizon. It's getting dark now. Time to get going.
\\
Eventually, Vegeta sensed out the smothered life forces tucked inside the city. Dropped the kid off a few blocks in front and he ran away, screaming, inside the car garage. A good stringy feeling he got from doing it.
The heating and cooling valve pants on the ship's side, sending clouds of carbon monoxide over the ground. Somewhere within the interior of the ship, a Saiyan baby screeches in his chamber, waking up from his sleep.
Vegeta groans out of habit, finding himself back inside his Capsule Corp. bedroom waiting for either one of the servants or Bulma to tend to the screaming child. But then the Prince remembers where he is and relishes the quick moment of normalcy. That wasn't his life anymore.
The inside of the ship is loud. Louder than any vehicle Vegeta's ever been in. Surprisingly Trunks stayed asleep each night. The gears beneath the floors gnaw as they work. Can't blame Dr. Brief's engineering after what it's been through with the Android's barging in at the last moment before take off.
He wasn't used to this - being a parent. Now he had to take over the 'motherly' responsibilities. Vegeta never realized how many demands and strict attention a human child needed. A half Saiyan half human child, incongruously worse. Though he taught himself the diaper changing routine and picked up on the kid's eating habits, the Saiyan widower didn't deny the regret of almost always ignoring his family's needs when they were alive, shoving it aside when he believed all that was important was training to become stronger.
The outside nearest to the boy's room is crumpled up like a tissue. Fiberglass juts out in different directions. A mess of the inside walls are visible. The machine only done superficial damage, to much of Vegeta's benefit.
Trunks is screaming bloody murder now.
Strong lungs, nevertheless. The Prince thinks to himself as he uncrosses his arms. Trial and error taught the Saiyan father it was not in his best interest to scold the boy to shut up.
Finally, Vegeta walks across their 'yard' and into the ship's hatch. The metal door was already torn off its hinges from when a chunk of the falling science lab scraped it on the second attack. Before any repairs, it hung on the threshold like a scab about to fall off. But Vegeta had spent enough time around scientists and machines to know how to program the ship enough to repair itself. Besides the battle scars, the door worked perfectly and did its job. Keeping them inside. Or more specifically, keeping Trunks inside.
Today would be day thirteen of his son's training. Sixteen more years of it, too. But Vegeta didn't know those days would be cut short sooner than he thought.
a/n**** Wow, finally finished c: Hope you enjoyed this last chapter, as always. However, I believe I'm going to start a different sequel to this story and forget about the old one(Changeling Child) because I wrote it before I ended this one! Any thoughts on this? Anyways, please please review. And thanks for reading the story I had so much fun writing!