Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Lost in the Darkness ❯ A new Life ( Chapter 7 )

Lost in the Darkness

Part 7

A New Life

Disclaimer: Me no own.

ENJOY!
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Bardock smiled as he slowly woke up. He had been having the best dream of being back with Aria and his children and them having a nice master. He didn't want to wake up. Something warm burrowed into his side, giving a soft sigh. His eyes snapped open. "Aria!" It wasn't a dream.

"What?" She mumbled sleepily. ::Go away, Bardock. It's not time to get up yet.::

~It's not a dream!~ He thought happily. ~I really do have my mate back!~

"Wakey wakey!" A woman cried cheerfully, poking her head into the room. Aria groaned.

"It can't be time to get up!" She moaned. Bardock smiled at the Mrs. Williams, leaned over and kissed his mate deeply. Her eyes snapped open.

"BARDOCK!" She half-yelled. He gave a sweet smile making them both laugh.

"Tousan! I had the best dream last night. We were back with Kassan and…" Turlis and Kakarotto slid to a stop in the doorway and looked from their father then to their mother. "Kassan!" Both yelled, throwing themselves at her.

"Woah!" She caught them, smiling the entire time. "Slow down! It wasn't a dream!" The two gave sheepish smiles and sat down on the bed.

"Yeah, but we were afraid it was." Turlis told his mother with a shrug. "And we didn't want it to be."

"Yeah. And I'm glad it wasn't." Aria smiled. ::If only Raddtiz were here.:: She told Bardock.

::I know. I know.:: He whispered back.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"Wakey, wakey sleepyheads!" Mrs. Williams yelled, laughing. "Someone's gotta cook breakfast and there is no way it's gonna be me!"

"Why doesn't she cook?" Bardock asked with a look of slight trepidation.

"Anything she `cooks' is resurrected." Aria told her mate. "She cooked the first day she bought me and we voted unanimously that she was forever banned from the kitchen for the rest of our lives just so we'd live longer."
~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~

Bulma Briefs wandered around the grounds of Capsule corps in a daze. She couldn't stop thinking about her rescuer. ~He was so handsome.~ She sighed. ~I wonder how his hair stayed like that? And is it soft? Where's he from?~ She had so many unanswered questions.

It didn't matter to Bulma that he was a slave. Her family believed in slavery, but she didn't. She had been so mad when she found out it was her father that had invented the ki collars to be used on the other beings. It was a shame that not many shared her views. Her friend, Chichi did, but beyond that, no one she knew. Krillian didn't like it, but he didn't speak out against the slavers like she did.

Not that she could blame him. He lived with Kamesennin, the Turtle Hermit, and didn't know much about the outside world. Muten Roshi hadn't even know about slavery until she had would up on his island, half-drowned and told him. Even then he wouldn't have believed her, except one of her slave, Lunch, a pretty girl with a double personality, hadn't appeared sometime later.

Bulma had allowed Lunch to remain of the island, telling her parents she'd drowned at sea, and found out later that Lunch had a husband called Tien, who was a triclops. Without questions, she repeated the act and the two now lived quite happily on the island.

~ It's not fair. ~ Bulma thought as she walked slowly down the hallway. ~ I have so much, and everything he had was taken from him. And I love him. A slave. ~

She continued down the hallway, fighting back her tears. There was no one that could possibly understand this problem and even the world's smartest girl couldn't figure it out.
~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~

Vegita sat in the dark hut, seeing and not seeing at the same time. ~ That girl, she was so beautiful. Her name suited her perfectly. And I'm not supposed to love her. All because I'm a slave. It wasn't even my fault! Damn these ki collars and damn whoever made them! ~

The prince of the Saiya-Jins might have even cried if he could, but he had no tears to shed. They had been beaten out of him in captivity. In truth, Saiya-Jins were like wild creatures. They didn't do well in prisons. That's why the dungeons in the place were so rarely used, and even then only for major crimes.

One might even have described the Saiya-Jin race as gypsies. Powerful gypsies, but gypsies nonetheless. With a sigh, Vegita dropped his head into his hands. The dark room seemed to grow darker and the memories of his home came back in full force. The good, the bad, and the tedious. And he missed it all.

The only thing worse than missing it was knowing there was nothing he could do to get it back. No one would ever give him his freedom, which did happen on occasion, and even if he did gain his freedom he'd have an impossibly hard life anyway.

Groaning, he tried to get up, but the movement only brought more agony to his torn open back. He'd been whipped the day before for a crime he did not commit and forced into solitude until further notice. He hated solitude even more than walls. At least some walls were breakable. That and they had turned his ki dampening collar up to high. It was making him very weak. All the energy he could spare was going into healing his back and the high setting was making it agonizingly slow. He could barely move.

To top it all off, it was his sixteenth birthday. What a way to spend it.
~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~

Kakarotto stood by the stove eagerly awaiting breakfast. He was so hungry he could eat a mizutu, which is a large elephant like creature found only on Vegita-sei. "Hurry UP, Tousan! I'm starved!" He whined, "And so is Turlis." He added as an after thought.

"Kakarotto!" Bardock whined in the same fashion, "You're always starved!"

"Now, Bardock, you should know that if you want to make him miserable you ought to wave some of it under his nose right before you `taste' it." Mrs. Williams smirked. "Actually, on second thought, I'll do that!"

"Kakarotto, yum…" Bardock teased. Kakarotto groaned.

"That's MY job you baka!" Mrs. Williams smacked his shoulder playfully. The fun stopped.

"I'm sorry, milady, I didn't mean to. I won't do it again!" Bardock look almost frantic. "Really! I'm sorry!"

"Woah! Calm down! I'm teasing, it's no big thing." She frowned, then asked her self, "What on earth did they do to you?"

The relief on Bardock's face was unmistakable. But there was no more said about the remark.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Breakfast was over and the dishes were done when Mrs. Williams told the children to go outside and play for awhile. She also kicked Bardock and Aria out of the kitchen and told them to go spend some time together. They had been apart far to long. The two had immediately agreed.

"So, Bardock, what happened to you three while you were away from me? You all are so nervous. Nothing at all like you were." Aria told him, curling up in his arms.

"The master liked the whip. He also knew the way to get to me was through my children and visa versa. So, when something happened, well, one of us got beaten and it usually wasn't the one that did anything."

"But why were you so nervous this morning? You know Mrs. Williams wouldn't do that."

"No, but when you've been beaten for four years, well, you tend to change. I was so afraid she'd hurt Kakarotto and Turlis, you have no idea what it's like…" He trailed off and turned his face away. "I was so scared. They already have so many scars and so many of them have been my fault…"

He trailed off into silence, lost once again in memories. For the first time since he arrived on the planet, the powerful warrior dissolved into tears. ::It's okay, lover, it won't happen here.:: Aria whispered.

::I know, but it's so painful.:: He continued to cry.

::Show me, Bardock. Maybe I can help with the pain.:: She held him closer, trying to comfort him, trying to tell him he was no longer alone. That she was by his side and everything would be all right.

::I will show you.:: He agreed. ::Everything.:: And so it Began.


~*~ ~*~ ~*~ FLASHBACK~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"Who did this? Who? This is a sloppy job! None of you will leave until the culprit comes forward!" The master yelled.

Trembling Kakarotto raised his hand. "I did, sir. It's my fault." He said in a tiny voice. The eleven year old gulped.

"You will fix this, and then you will be punished." The master snarled.

~ Kakarotto! ~ Bardock mind-screamed. ~ No. He doesn't have to. ~ Making up his mind, Bardock stepped forward. "It was as much my fault as my son's." He intoned softly. The master growled.

He unbuckled the whip and struck out, lashing it across Kakarotto's back. "Here is you punishment, then." He continued to flail Kakarotto until the boy's back was in shreds.

"KAKAROTTO!" Bardock screamed, flinging himself forward to protect his youngest son. Turlis screamed and dropped to his knees as a wave of pain washed over him. The master gave a cruel laugh and stopped. A bleeding Bardock lifted his half dead son and tried to stand only to fall to his knees again. He moaned in pain.

"There is you punishment." The master laughed. "Now clean up this mess."

An extremely worried Alanya and Turlis raced forward. "Bardock? Kakarotto?"

"He said he couldn't move." Turlis told the adults in fear. "He said his leg is broken and he feels like he's been set on fire."

"Hello! A little help would be nice!" Alanya yelled to the slaves. Most backed away, afraid that the master would whip them too.

"Get them to the hut. I'll fix this mess. Master can't tell the difference between the two of us. He'll think I'm Kakarotto." Turlis assured the woman. She nodded and half-dragged half-carried Bardock and Kakarotto back to their hut.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ END FLASHBACK ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"Oh, Bardock." Aria held him closer. Tears still ran down his face. "It won't happen here. I swear. The only time Mrs. Williams has touched a whip was to get it off her property."

The warrior turned slave nodded. "But it's just so frightening, being helpless when you sons are dying, or calling out to you. I- It's- I can't even begin to explain. It even gives me nightmares. Alanya woke me up several time when I started to thrash in my sleep so I wouldn't wake the kids and make them worry."

"Who was Alanya, anyway?" Aria asked.

"Zarbon's mother. When her mate was sold, I promised to take care of the two of them as long as I was there." He explained. "They helped us when we first got there."

"What was his father's name?" Aria questioned.

"Riul. He was sold to someone in the south. I'm not sure who. I think his name might have been Zeke, or something like that." (A/N Small world ain't it?)

"Hn." She merely mumbled. "You look tired. Get some rest." Aria told him softly.

For the first time in nearly two years, Bardock's sleep was uninterrupted by nightmares.
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(A/N) Another chapter for you! How do you like that? I think this is the most popular story I've written, so far, but I've started another one ^-^; I don't believe it. I'm trying my hand at an Harry Potter DBZ crossover. The main character is Gohan, if you like him. He's one of my fav. Characters. But don't worry. This story is my baby. It's not going to be discontinued. I've got to many plans for it.

Anywho, I think this was one of the hardest chappies I've had to write. I wasn't to sure how to bring everything together. You'll now be seeing more of Bulma, cuz she's here for a reason.

I should be able to write a lot this week since I'm on spring break, so I'm going to try to update all my stories twice, if I can. I don't type that fast and sometimes writes block takes charge of my brain.

Well, I'll get the next chappie out as soon as I can.

Until then, Ja ne!

~*~ Lady Foeseeker ~*~