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

 

Chapter 7

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Bulma padded silently down the corridor of the ship, seeking out her sister. She had escaped from Vegeta and the palace and now need to get her sister out before Vegeta woke and found she was gone. She followed the unfamiliar hallways, only guided by her link to Chichi. She found the cell that she had shared with Chichi and found that Chichi was asleep, a blanket covering her small body. She frowned, wondering where the blanket had come from. Could that man, Kakkarot, have covered her out of pity? Or had he done other things to her sister, things that needed not be brought up to mind because of the horror they invoked. But as she gazed at Chichi, she didn't believe that Kakkarot could have or would have done anything to harm her. Chichi laid there completely relaxed.

"I didn't touch her." a voice said from behind her.

Kakkarot. Well, that put her mind at ease somewhat. "I know."

"I'm assuming you're here to make an escape with her." he stated.

Bulma nodded. She turned to look at him, considering how much trouble he would cause her.

He towered over her and looked at her easily. There was definitely something different about him from all the other Saiyans. He seemed to be gentle and compassionate; of course, he was probably just as fully devoted to his King as all he other Saiyans were, though probably more out of loyalty than fear. He gazed at Chichi for a while, a battle seeming to take place in his heart. He sighed and his shoulders sagged. "You know, I can't let you do that." he said finally.

"I know." Bulma said a she lightly placed a hand on his shoulder and sent an electric shock through his body, disrupting his nervous system. She shot her hands up along his head, disconnecting the flow of signals along his nerves at his temples momentarily. She kicked him once in the stomach, making him double over, and then she hit him on the back of his head with her elbow making him crumble to the floor.

With him momentarily out of the picture she looked at the energy field that stood between her and Chichi. She remembered vaguely that Kakkarot touched a panel that was off to the side of the chamber. She found the panel, an intricate piece of machinery. If she had the time she would break the code, but time she didn't have, so she sent another electrical shock through the panel, disabling the workings within the system. The energy flickered once and then disappeared.

She ran over to Chichi and shook her awake. "Chichi, get up. We need to get out before Vegeta wakes." she whispered urgently.

Chichi groaned and then stared groggily at Bulma. "Bulma? Where have you been?" she said, her voice hoarse from sleep.

"Don't worry about that now. We need to get out of here." Bulma said hurriedly, helping Chichi to her feet.

Chichi's eyebrows scrunched together. "Why?"

Bulma looked at her amazed. "What do you mean why? These people have captured us and plan to make us their slaves. Do you want to stay?"

Chichi's eyes flared. "No, of course not," she sputtered. "But why are you escaping all of a sudden." she demanded. She grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around her body as they stepped out of the chamber.

"Because I can." was all Bulma said, silencing Chichi with a glare.

Bulma noticed Chichi gaze uncertainly at Kakkarot as he lay on the floor, groaning. "Are you going to take him with you, Chichi?" she said exasperated.

Chichi glared at her and then shrugged. "Why not?" she said casually. She kneeled on the ground and heaved Kakkarot over her shoulder.

Bulma looked at her wide-eyed. "You're not really going to take him, are you?" she said, though she knew just by the look in Chichi's eyes that she was serious. Before Chichi could snap at her, she said, "Forget it." Shaking her head, she led the way out of the ship.

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"Sire!" a voice called, jolting Vegeta from his sleep. His eyes snapped open and her quickly scanned the room, noting the woman was gone. He jumped out of bed, threw on his clothes, and stormed out into the living quarters.

"Sire," a voice immediately started. "Kakkarot has been kidnapped and all the slaves have escaped."

Vegeta spun in the direction of the voice. It was Turles. He grabbed the Saiyan by the throat. "How can a Saiyan be captured by two women and a bunch of slaves?" he breathed through clenched teeth.

"I don't know." Turles said, his voice raspy.

Vegeta threw Turles against the wall. "What are you baka's doing now: sitting around a playing cards? Go out and find him, and get all my slaves back!" Vegeta commanded, his voice rising.

"Sire, we are now in the process of doing that." Turles said weakly, rubbing his throat and getting up from the floor.

"Then what the hell are you doing here? Get the hell out!" Vegeta yelled, throwing a ki ball at Turles. The Saiyan dodged it and sped out of the room.

What the hell had gone wrong? What the hell was she doing? How did she get passed him? "Well, that easy. You let your guard down." a voice said in his head. Vegeta didn't want to believe that, didn't want to believe that he had let her escape. "Think about it: maybe if you hadn't raped her she wouldn't have run away from you." the voice persisted.

"No, I am the master and she is the slave. I can do what I want with her." he whispered fiercely to himself.

"That's what you want to believe. But you know what's really going on. You know what you really feel for her. And you messed up, like you always do." the voice said venomously.

"No!" Vegeta screamed, pressing his hands against his temples. He was going crazy; that voice hadn't spoken to him once since the death of his father, since he killed his father. Now it was back, and it seemed to have come back with vengeance.

Before . . . .

"You're worthless! You are not my son!" the voice said, followed by a swift bat at Vegeta's head.

Vegeta spun from the hand but was still grazed by the long finger nails. He could feel the blood streaming down his face. He wiped it away on a gloved hand and glared at his father. The man turned on his heel and stormed off to the gods-know-where.

Vegeta got to his feet and dusted himself off. His face showed no emotion but his mind was reeling. "Worthless . . . nothing . . . you'll amount to nothing . . . you're not my son . . . you get nothing right . . . meaningless . . . ."

Now . . . .

He had thought that the voices would stop when his father was dead, killed by his hands, and they did; but now they were back. No, he wouldn't let them take over his mind. They had no place in his life now.

Vegeta felt a rumbling under his feet and the earth swayed a bit. The sky lit a bright red outside the balcony. "Woman."

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Bulma, Chichi, and an unconscious Kakkarot slowly made their way up the molten slopes of Kilauea. "Almost there." Bulma called to Chichi as they climbed the last trek of their long, hot hike.

"Woman." she heard a voice call before her.

Her head shot up from the hot red floor and stared straight into cold black eyes. "Vegeta." she shot at him, her eyes glaring.

He floated a few feet above the hot ground and a sheen of sweat covered his skin. His arms were crossed over his chest and he stared down at her superiorily, like the first time they met. "Did you think I was going to let you get away?" he stated.

"Did you think I was going to be your slave?" she snapped back at him.

"Yes."

Bulma snorted. "You know, I thought you were different. For just a moment you were . . . human. But that was totally blown away when you . . . ." Bulma stopped, unable to say what was on her mind. She could feel tears starting to form in her eyes.

Chichi stopped too and stared shocked at the odd couple that were before her. Bulma could feel power swelling from her, and she could hear Kakkarot stirring on her shoulder; he groaned aloud.

Vegeta's gaze darted over to Kakkarot. "Do you think Kakkarot will let you live when he wakes?" he said casually.

"Do you think he'd actually kill us?" she challenged him.

Vegeta remained silent.

"I didn't think so." She looked over her shoulder directly at Chichi. "Go on ahead." Chichi nodded and continued walking up the slope.

Bulma saw Vegeta shoot a ki ball out of his finger at Chichi. She swung her hand down and up, causing the lava to form a wall to protect Chichi from most of the blast. Pieces of black rock fell from the sky sizzling as it hardened mid air. He continued his assault on Chichi and Bulma blocked each one, blow for blow. Bulma could see his composure starting to slip. "What? If you can't take the heat, then get away from the volcano." she said to him sassily.

He glared at her.

"Bulma!" Chichi called from the lip of the volcano. Bulma nodded and then Chichi dropped into the volcano.

Vegeta's eyes grew wide as he watched Chichi plummet into the volcano. His head swiveled back in the direction of Bulma. "Woman, what the hell did you just do?"

Bulma smiled at him sadly. "Goodbye Vegeta."

She closed her eyes and lifted her arms. A wave of hot lava cascaded over the lip of Kilauea and poured down the hot slopes and directly over her, covering her in its hot silkiness.

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Vegeta gaped at the spectacle and recoiled from the heat before it burned him alive. He lifted himself in the cool air, sweat streaming from his body. "Bulma . . . ." he whispered painfully as the lava continued to flow down the slope towards the ocean.

The volcano began to erupt more violently, lava shooting hundreds of feet into the air. He watched it, awed, and he could have sworn at one point that the lava created a silhouette of her.

She was gone. Goddess of the volcano. She might have survived, but his mind couldn't, wouldn't, believe that. How could anyone survive that?

"Sire!" a voice called.

Vegeta closed his eyes and slowly turned to the source of the voice. "Turles."

"The tectonic plates of this planet are shifting and are causing violent eruptions throughout the planet. It is advised that we get off this planet before it explodes." Turles stated.

Vegeta grunted and flew off to the ship that stood waiting above the violently shaking earth. Once aboard the ship he watched the earth shake and boil. And then in one gigantic blast, it was gone.

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Chapter 6
Chapter 8