Stolen Hearts
Chapter 32
What was this new evil? Vegeta's head ached to think of it all as he gazed with bleary vision at the dark sky. The cold and bitter wind tore through him.
He didn't want to think. He didn't want to feel. He didn't want to move. If he moved, if she was no longer in his arms, then he would have to accept it was all true. He couldn't handle that.
This was too much. This was too big for him. Had he really helped one of the most evil things this world had ever seen? Had he handed him this world and the next?
This had to be stopped, but how? Just thinking of the magnitude would send even the wisest man into a flurry, let alone a remorseful being whose love of all loves still lay lifeless beside him.
He bowed his head feeling crushed but the weight of the world. It was too much to expect for him to go on.
"Bulma...I am so sorry...I failed you," he whispered desperately to her corpse. There was nothing he could do now. They were in the other world and he could not find her there. Even in death Bulma would be haunted. That thought was the worst and it filled him deeply with bitterness and fury. Was there no escape for them?
Vegeta felt a madness coming upon him but lacked any strength to fight it. Maybe... Maybe if his life were to end he could follow her, yes...yes that was the only way...
Just as Vegeta was about to throw himself upon his own blade he felt a small hand on his shoulder.
"Father..." Came a slow unsteady voice laced with sorrow and fear.
"Trunks," Vegeta breathed, he had forgotten about him in the midist of this whole mess, oh Gods how could he? He had to be stronger for Trunks…. Somehow. Vegeta pulled his son into his arms and gathered his tears, "I am sorry son... I am sorry."
The two held each other like they were the last things they had in the world. Which was true, but they did have that one thing, so all was not lost. One defiant flag of hope lingered, as beaten as it was.
"Dad...what are we going to do? Is mom...is she..." Trunks heart would not allow him to speak the words of his mother's death. Maybe he thought if he just didn't speak it out loud the death keepers would not know of her passing and her soul could return. She had been the only thing he knew, and the fact that she was gone was incomprehensible to him in his fragile state.
His father was not so different. Vegeta was lost again in the dark and he could think of no possible way in the far corners of the world to get the light back. He was only a mortal! How could he expect to take on the Gods and the heavens? He wouldn't even know where to start. It was all hopeless it was over. The world was doomed. All he could do now was try to comfort his son, who he was a stranger to. Madness was still lurking at the edge of his mind. Bulma was always the only thing keeping him here.
"Vegeta, I feared this would happen, but this is not the end, do not despair. Look! The wars are over, the peoples are at peace...for now."
Vegeta looked up from his son, and indeed the peoples on both sides were speaking calmly and working together to heal all that had been ruined. It would take time, but peace was here. A group was standing around Vegeta, Trunks, and Bulma looking on with sad eyes, questioning what to do, and conveying immeasurable thanks. Vegeta's eyes met a pair he knew, and they belonged to the one who had spoken.
"Galatea! Why are you here? I am glad you are though, it is good to see a friendly face, and it's been so long since I have seen yours. Did you know of this?"
"Of Gorgorath? Yes, I felt his heinous presence multiple times but I did not know how to stop him. He is a God after all. There were doubts whispered about the Valkyrie being able to conquer, but when I saw Bulma I knew she would save us. Unfortunately though it seems Gorgorath has found another way to take over the kingdom of Emeldir. Vegeta if he makes Bulma his own then he will have all the power he needs to take over everything, and I don't think I have to say that we cannot let this happen. With her he will be the absolute ruler of an inferno like mass of primordial filth that will be the world. The universe will be unhinged, light will turn to dark, happiness to sorrow, and all will be shrouded in his evil."
"But what possibly can I do?" Vegeta cried still at the edge of his sanity. Galatea must have finally lost her mind to think that he could do anything to stop this now. What was he supposed to do, grow a pair of wings and fly to the heavens? It was hopeless, they were lost.
"Love Vegeta is stronger then any evil. There is not much more I can tell you but when the time comes you will know what to do. Follow that which lies inside you. You know more then you let yourself believe. The world does not withhold, it is generous enough. The truths of the world continually wait, they are not so conceited either. They are calm, subtle, and untransmittable by words. We did not weave the web or life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves."
"He is in another realm Galatea, how am I suppose to follow there as a mortal? Is it not impossible?"
"No, there is a way. For you. If you are brave and pure of heart. Follow the setting sun to the highest mountain in the range that lies at the edge of sight to the east. There you will find your road. You are the only hope Vegeta. No other can save everything as we know it."
Vegeta's head bowed as he felt the weight of the world again, but seconds later in a powerful swift movement he stood and grasped his sword.
"I will not leave her to torment. Whatever it takes of me...no matter how far I have to journey, I will be with her. I will never yield until we come face to face."
Galatea smiled and raised her hand to touch Vegeta's cheek. "I have complete faith in you Vegeta."
"It is appreciated, but it is I who must have the faith if this is to work. Will you watch over Trunks for me? He has been through much today and needs a kind face."
"It would be my honor to guard the future king. I have seen great things from him Vegeta, if the world is to continue that is."
"I know," Vegeta smiled thinking of the great deeds his son would do that he never could. Trunks was watching him intensely with tear shining eyes.
"Dad, are you leaving me too?" He said in a shaking voice of one who had experienced far too much in one day and could take no more.
Vegeta knelt and embraced him reassuringly. "For a little while Trunks, I am going to go get your mother back. But through all the worlds combined I will come back to you."
"Don't make promises you can't keep Dad."
"I will keep it." Vegeta said fiercely looking straight into Trunks' eyes, "You will not lose like I have." With that he kissed his forehead turned and strode into the darkness.
"Give them hell then Dad!" Trunks yelled after his form, his tears finally freeing themselves in another spell down his round cheeks,"I believe in you."
The forest was almost impenetrable, an enormous barrier of eternal trees with the dead ones fallen against the live and held to them by ivy. The living had to struggle up in competition with each other toward the sunlight which gave them life.
Vegeta had never traveled this far into the endless woods, and he was no meager traveler. More then once the thought crossed his troubled mind that his quest would never leave these woods and he would be a prisoner of them forever. But every time he remembered his words to Trunks, he remembered Bulma's fate and he plunged ahead like a machine, never sleeping hardly eating, just doggedly plunging on to the far ends of the world.
The days passed in a haze and the woods only seemed to get thicker. This place had an air of ancientness like no other. It was a place time did not reach and everything was as it was at the beginning of time. The world seemed to breathe around him and watch him with curious eyes, but were gracious enough to allow the passage of this new strange creature. Sometimes, especially at night, Vegeta sensed the presence of enormous creatures moving gracefully through the maze.
Some uncalculated amount of time later (it was hard to keep track of the passing of days in the deep forest when the sun didn't reach the boggy floor) Vegeta came out of the masses of trees to an out cropping the overlooked what seemed to him the whole world. He had never felt so exhausted in his life, his eyes were baggy, his ribs were protruding, cuts riddled every inch of his skin, he was filthy from head to toe, yet the burst of fresh air he felt was like a new wave of life over him. His eyes stared in awe at the scene he beheld before him.
From there you could gaze across the whole forest, your eyes would wander out over the blue tree tops that made a sea of leafy timber that rolled away and away until it was finally lost in the remote mountains which nobody had ever visited. The cloud capped towers that seemed to rise to the gorgeous places of heaven.
Vegeta for a moment almost felt what it was like to be a God looking down at the world and all its corners. He sighed and descended from his lookout. The world was definitely worth saving and there was no time to waste.
AN: So Vegeta's quest has begun. Will he be successful or will he have to break his promise to Trunks? And how will he ever find Bulma in the other world? Find out soon. We are reaching the end here people...