Disclaimer: DBZ is not mine, so these characters are not mine.

 

Chapter 3

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Vegeta's bored eyes poured over the vast lush landscape before him. Now what was he suppose to do? The Earth had been taken already, and quite easily too. The promise of the blue-haired goddess had not come to fruition: her people had given up quite easily. Of course, there was that one upset in the takeover of the Earth: one woman had used the sea against them. But even she was soon conquered. "Weak race." he muttered as he closed the balcony doors to cut off the last rays of light as they settled upon the newly acquired land, his newly acquired land.

He turned and walked a circuit around his room. Upon his arrival on this planet his scouts had seen and secured this palace that stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking a green valley. It was set against the mountain, and it was positioned so that it used the sun's light to the greatest advantage in every room. It was a beautiful house set in the best location, and he had to grudgingly admit that not even his architects could come close to creating such beauty-- though he would never admit it out loud. The walls of his chamber were decorated lavishly with paintings of the current monarchy and those of the past. He closely scrutinized each painting, noting the clear resemblance of each pair or rulers, the king and queen. His stomach turned as the revelation hit his mind: incest. It was clear to him that they had interbreeded among each other, most likely trying to keep the blood pure. The practice was common among many of the planets he'd conquered, but the thought still made him squirm. He couldn't imagine having to mate with his sister, if he ever had one.

He came to the last picture and stared at it awed. There she was, the beauty with the blue hair. She stood there, clothed in blue, her eyes warm and inviting, yet independent. Her body screamed her independence, and she was positioned a little off to the side of the group she was standing with in the portrait. His eyes briefly looked over the other occupants in the portrait, noting the woman who controlled the sea and a man who had a scar running across his left eye. But his gaze always returned to the blue one.

She was riveting. But how did she come to be? No one else pictured in any of the portraits had blue hair, or anything remotely close to it. They all had black hair and dark eyes. And even her bone structure was different, more delicate. He had no doubt in his mind that if he had not come, she would have been the one to take over the monarchy, most likely mating with the man standing in the portrait. Vegeta shuddered at the thought. "No wonder why they're so weak." he growled, irritated again that they had been no trouble.

He wanted to hit something, blast something into many small pieces. He needed to do something before he went insane. Now that he was Supreme there was nothing to do. There was a knock at the door and he barked at them to come in. Anything for a diversion from his mind.

A servant came in balancing a tray on her hands. She placed the tray on the koa table that stood next to the balcony doors, probably in case someone wanted to watch the scenery as they ate their meals. She bowed low before him, her face almost pressed to the ground. "Your meal, Sire." she said, her voice slightly muffled as it bounced off the floor. He stared at her, his eyebrows arching in surprise. He hadn't been offended; in fact, far from it. He was thrilled. His own servants didn't bow so low, and yet here was this one, one newly acquired by him, who bowed so low and called him `Sire.'

But suspension also hung at the edges of his mind. Despite how good it felt to have her bow in such a way, there was the possibility that she could be concealing a weapon within the folds of her close, readying herself to kill him. Of course, it wouldn't; he was too fast for this race. But there was no reason not to be too careful.

"Stand." he commanded her.

She hurriedly stood to her feet, her gaze carefully averted to the side.

"Who are these people?" he said to her, motioning to the paintings.

The girl looked at them, and then started to speak, her voice soft. "They are the current rulers, the descendants of Kane."

"Kane?" he said, walking again and looking at the pictures.

"Kane is our Supreme Lord, our god." she said, her voice in total reverence to this deity.

"And you believe that these people are Kane's descendants?"

"Yes."

He turned to look at her, his eyes boring a hole into her soul. He caught her eyes as he said his next statement. "Then why am I now the Supreme Ruler over your planet? Where is your Kane?"

He expected to see hurt flash in her eyes, betrayal, pain, something; but instead she squared her shoulders a bit and he saw faith flash through her eyes. "He will come to our aid."

Vegeta snorted. "Through what? I have captured every single one of the weaklings on this planet, and I have destroyed all your chances of fighting back."

"The Goddess will come to fight for us. She will save us." the girl said, sure.

Vegeta's interest was piqued. "The Goddess? Who is the Goddess?"

The girl shook her head to the last portrait, indicating the blue one. "She is the Goddess."

Vegeta grinned evilly at her. "I have your precious Goddess in my clutches already. She hardly put up a fight."

The girl didn't seem at all perturbed.

"Kakkarot." Vegeta barked at the doorway, knowing full well that Kakkarot was standing there. Kakkarot came in, his face stoic. He stood before Vegeta and placed his right fist over his heart and bowed. He stood then, and looked directly at Vegeta, but passed him in attention. Vegeta turned and walked over to the table. "Take the woman and show her how to give proper respect to her Supreme Ruler." He waved a hand at them motioning them to go.

"Yes, King Vegeta." Kakkarot said, bowing again. He gently pushed the girl out the door, leaving Vegeta to his thoughts again.

The Goddess. It was obvious that she was highly regarded among her people, so highly so that the people still carried faith enough that she would save them, even though she had been captured. He looked again at the picture, desire welling up in him. Maybe she'd be just the diversion he needed.

"Kakkarot." he called again. Without turning to look at his subordinate, he said, "Bring me the loud-mouthed Goddess." Then he picked up his hashi and began to eat.

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Bulma looked out of the window between the bars and sighed. What lesson was she suppose to learn? What good would come out of her capture? There had to be a reason why Kane would do this to her, would force her to be thrown into the Monkey King's dungeon. What `greater picture' was he seeing? Gods, sometimes she wondered if he did these things to her just to see her squirm. She could imagine him laughing at her pitiful situation.

Truth was, despite the fact that she was a direct descendant of Kane, she was also a direct descendant of someone much higher than even he: the god of the universe, Olemu. See, logical thinking would allow a person see that the world did not stop with Kane. Kane only created the earth. There must have been someone with a much higher power than he, someone who created Kane. Thus entered Olemu. She was also Olemu's daughter, a cross between the bloodline of Kane and Olemu, which gave her blue hair. Her mother one night was seduced by Olemu and she conceived. It was only one night, and Olemu never came again to see her mother, but it was enough to tell her mother that Olemu did indeed care about her, otherwise he would have never let her conceive. Her mother loved to tell her stories that she'd heard about Olemu, and she loved to describe Olemu and say how much he loved them. She was sure he loved them even though he never again came to her mother, or herself. Upon her mothers death she was given a pendant that Olemu had given her. It was a round glass ball that seemed to contain the universe in it. The first time she'd seen it she felt like she could fall into the ball. She knew that she held in her hands the universe.

Bulma absently fingered the pendant in thought that hung around her neck on a silver chain. She knew Kane suspected that her birth father was not the man whom she called dad, but he couldn't prove it. So, instead he liked to torture her in ways like these. The worst torture she had was that of her brother, Yamcha. He had placed all his attentions on her, fawning after her every where. She knew that one day she'd have to marry him, but until then she didn't want to have a thing to do with him. Even though her family was known for it's incestuous past-- trying to keep the blood pure-- she didn't agree with it. She'd seen enough of her younger brothers and sisters die because of the retardation of the genes. She couldn't imagine one of her own coming out in such a horrific manner. Of course, tradition had to be kept. Gods, she wished she was Chichi instead of herself. Chichi didn't have to worry about this; she was free to marry whomever she wanted because she was the youngest-- well, the youngest who had lived.

She thought back to her talk earlier with Chichi. She had told Chichi that Kane was behind this, but she had another thought that was much more chilling than Kane. She was pretty sure that Kane had nothing to do with her situation now (he'd never denied her Kilauea before), and that he was probably at a loss of what to do, if he even knew what was going on. No, someone much higher was working this situation. "Olemu."

"Is that who's behind your little predicament?" a voice said behind her.

She continued to look out the window. "If it's not you, then it has to be him." As Bulma looked up at the stars one seemed to wink at her. A small smile played at the corner of her lips.

She felt warm arms encircle her waist and then a body pressed up against her. She continued to look out the window, completely ignoring the man that stood behind her. She could feel his breath on her neck and could hear him breath in her scent. She felt his lips caress her skin softly just below her neck.

"Your beauty grows every day." he murmured softly in her ear.

Bulma sighed and turned around to face him, her face scowling. She shook off his hands and walked to the energy barrier, careful not to step on Chichi as she lay sprawled on the floor sleeping. "What do you want, Kane?" she said, her voice tired. The last thing she needed was Kane bothering her.

"Just wanted to drop in on my favorite person, see how she was fairing in her new home." he said casually.

Bulma looked at him, her blue eyes steady. "Not that well. You're here."

"Is that anyway to talk to the god of this world?" he said, standing before her and grasping her chin.

"Do I look like I care who you are?"

He pretended to be stung. "Oh, you've hurt me." He smirked at her, his dark eyes dancing.

"What do you want?" Bulma sighed. She rolled her neck to get all the kinks out.

"I just wanted to say that this little predicament of yours has nothing to do with me." he informed her lightly.

"I guessed that." she said annoyed. "You don't have enough brains to think of something like this."

Kane snorted. "You'd be surprised how smart I really am, my dear little half-breed. How do you suppose I created all this beauty?" he said motioning to the land out the window.

"If I remember correctly, I was the one who started it. The lava made this island and then the rains gave it life." she stated factually.

"Who created the volcano and the rains, my dear?" he said smugly.

Bulma said nothing, grudgingly admitting that he was indeed the creator of the volcano and the rains with her silence.

He smirked at her. "One: Kane; Zero: Bulma."

"Shut up, Kane." Bulma said, annoyed.

"Oh, I'm hurt again." He circled her in his arms again, his chin resting on her head.

Bulma shoved him away, disgusted. "You've delivered your little message. Why don't you leave now?"

"And leave my little half-breed all by herself?"

Bulma frowned. Twice he had called her a half-breed. But she said to him, "I'm hardly alone. I do have Chichi." She motioned to the woman sleeping on the floor.

Kane glanced at her briefly, but his eyes settled back on her.

"What? You don't like your full-blooded relative?" Bulma watched his reaction carefully.

He shuddered and glanced at Chichi disgusted. It only took a moment, but she saw it, and she smiled. She chalked up one for herself.

He quickly regained his composure and said, "You finally admit that your father is not the man who you called father?"

"I never told you that he was my father." she said, smirking.

Kane visibly turned red. Bulma chalked up another one for herself.

"You better go before you embarrass yourself more, Kane. I wouldn't want to shred all of your pride." she said snickering.

His eyes smoldered in their sockets. "You better watch yourself, half-breed, or I might not be around to help you out of this one." he said through clenched teeth.

Bulma feigned confusion. "But I thought you were powerless in this situation anyway? What can you do for me?"

Kane shut his eyes and disappeared from her sight. Bulma smiled to herself. She'd won this little war of words with him.

Bulma turned back to the energy barrier and was startled to see Kakkarot standing there. He had a perplexed look on his face. Bulma smiled sourly at him: no doubt he thought she was a lunatic now that he had caught her `talking' to herself. Damn Kane! He had to only appear to her. She could see him laughing now.

"Do you always talk to yourself?" Kakkarot asked her.

She looked at him, surprised that he would even ask her that, let alone talk to her like she was someone of worth. She decided that she didn't want to get into the whole story about Kane, so she answered, "No."

Kakkarot grunted and shook himself. Clearing his throat, he said, "King Vegeta wants to see you." He shut down the energy barrier and motioned for her to step out.

Bulma sighed and stepped out into the long corridor. Now she was on to another idiot, "a handsome idiot, though" her mind rebelled. She looked back at the cell and saw Chichi shiver on the floor. She turned her gaze to Kakkarot who was also looking at Chichi, strangely though. He looked . . . sorry. He shook himself again and closed the energy barrier.

"Let's go." he said.

"Lead on."

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FYI

Olemu is made up.

Kane's character (as in the way he behaves) is made up. Sorry if it is

a gross representation of him.

More to come . . . .


Chapter 2
Chapter 4