Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Unwanted ❯ Hate and Betrayal ( Chapter 17 )

Unwanted

 

 

Chapter 17 - Hate and Betrayal

 

“Where is my wife?” Vegeta's voice was calm as he came face to face with his enemy. The reunion was long overdue.

 

With mock ignorance, Nexus threw his hands up in confusion, “Why, I have no idea. Is she missing?”

 

The king's brow twitched, but Vegeta expressed no other sign of emotion, “Let us speak in private. Your memory will no doubt be more inclusive once our audience has disappeared.” He then ordered the band of soldiers that had accompanied him to stay as Nexus issued a similar decree to his palace guards. Kakarrot was disguised among the crowd. It was agreed that he would slip away to search the premises while Nexus was distracted. Vegeta was more optimistic about his plan for Kakarrot to find her. He knew Nexus would not be so accommodating.

 

Knowing his way around the grounds, Vegeta headed directly for what had been Toma's private chambers. Undoubtedly the man was now rolling over in his grave at the sight of his murderer's son having commandeered the room. “How nice of you to humble me with your presss—” Nexus choked on the word as he was thrust back against the door as soon as it closed behind him.

 

“I will not ask again. Where is my wife?!” The length of Vegeta's right hand was poised to strangle his rival if the next words out of his mouth were not a location.

 

“If you wish her back in one piece, this is not the way to go about it,” Nexus pushed the threatening hands away. Clearing his throat, he observed, “Such passion you have for the little whore. I must say I am quite surprised after what I have learned of her past. Although you must have some knowledge of that, after all, she was impure on your wedding night.”

 

His fist clenched, then relaxed. Vegeta could not lose his temper, too much was at stake. “I fail to see what purpose holding my wife serves. It only gives me a justifiable reason to attack you. Is that it, Nexus? You wish me to put you out of your misery? If that is the case, I would be happy to do the honors right now.” He reached for his blade, but did not draw it. Nexus' tongue sliced his efforts more effectively than any weapon.

 

“Do you wish me to bring you to her?” The offer was so jarring, Vegeta almost lost his balance. “Put your weapon down and I will be more than happy to take you to her. Once you see the condition she is in, you may be more inclined to submit to my demands.”

 

The catch, Vegeta was waiting for it. Something did not smell right about all this. Nexus had tried to abduct his wife once, and it failed. Why had he tried again? Trunks was easy leverage against Bulma, yes, but Nexus no longer had the boy. All he had was Bulma to use against Vegeta. But that was a double-edged sword. Once word spread that Nexus had taken Bulma against her will, support would ignite against the brute. He had to know that.

 

Or perhaps he was anticipating the king's silence as a precaution to protect his wife? Was that it? He intended to exchange his life for hers? No. That made even less sense. As far as the coward knew, Vegeta cared little for his wife outside of her title. So what was it that Nexus had up his sleeve? Perhaps it was nothing. Perhaps he was not thinking at all. Perhaps someone else was pulling his strings in a direction Vegeta had not considered.

 

“Follow me,” Nexus' guidance was planned, Vegeta realized immediately. His enemy wanted him to see his wife, and the king doubted it had anything to do with invoking his honorable compliance. Vegeta knew he had to be missing something. He had sensed it ever since his brother had returned. Nexus' actions were more bumbling than he would have ever dared anticipate. There had to be some facet to this mystery that he was missing, something so obvious he had looked past it, but what?

 

Now was not the time to twist his mind with various possibilities. He had to stay focused. He was to see his wife, the mother of his child, a woman who had been lying to him since the day they wed—no, more than that, for more than six fucking years!

 

Damning the circumstances, he had no patience to wait for her release from this foreboding situation. They would have it out, right here, right now. He did not care if she was half comatose, he deserved an explanation, and before anything else was decided, he would get it, one way or another.

 

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“Not one more step.” A blade digging into Kakarrot's neck sustained the threat. “Walk.” The captive followed instructions until he found himself in Seripa's private chambers. Once the door was locked behind them, the deadly woman dropped her weapon and demanded, “What are you doing here? You know damn well it is unsafe for you to be seen!”

 

“Vegeta ordered I come with him to help get Bulma back,” Kakarrot answered simply, his arms crossing over his chest as he did so. “When were you planning on informing me that you were going to abduct Bulma?”

 

With a dismissive wave of her hand, the manipulative woman announced, “Do not be so demanding with me, my boy. If you want your little cottage bumpkin back, you will continue doing as I demand without complaint.”

 

He circled her throat, her comment enough to send him spiraling down into a mild rage, “If you have done anything to Chi-Chi—”

 

“Un-flex those bulging muscles of yours,” Seripa batted his hand away. “Really,” she straightened herself out before insisting, “You should be down on your hands and knees thanking me. If I had not stumbled upon you shacked up with that worthless peasant, you would still be in ignorance of your true heritage. You are a member of the royal bloodline, Kakarrot. You must avenge yourself as well as my daughter by murdering the man who violated your childhood love. Or do I need to remind you of the night he raped her?”

 

“Don't!” the younger man screamed as he walked past Seripa.

 

She did not allow him time to compose himself as she forged on, “Remind you of a little boy—your nephew—who grew up alone because his mother was not emotionally fit to raise a child conceived through such violence. Remind you of how your brother refused to send a search party out to find you two years ago, so that he could steal what mattered most to you. Remind you of how he married your fiancé just hours—hours—after your wake. Not to mention against her wishes. Remind you of how he for a second time forced his way into my daughter's life, into her bed, and this time under the sanctity of marriage!”

 

“Enough!” His tone was nothing short of emotional. Knotting his fingers through his hair, he tried to steady his head. “None of that excuses your abducting Chi-Chi. She is an innocent party in all of this.”

 

“Perhaps,” Seripa sighed glibly, “but I am a mother, and pardon me if my own daughter's welfare is more important to me than that of a peasant whose doorstep you happened to wash up on. So relax, your precious Chi will remain perfectly safe. Just continue with our plan and everything will go smoothly.”

 

“Smoothly?” Kakarrot hissed. “Everything has been going anything but smoothly since I returned from the dead. Do you have any idea what is does to me to have to lie to your daughter? To manipulate her? Pretend my feelings are what they once where when—when I am in love with another?”

 

“You knew from the start this was going to be a difficult ploy,” Seripa reminded. She could not have an important pawn be taken out of the game quite yet. She needed to keep him in check. “Just remember you are so close to everything you want. Bulma and Trunks will be free to be together. Your brother will be punished for his sins and you may finally be with your little peasant. So do not lose sight of what you are fighting for.”

 

Kakarrot had not, he simply needed to vent; Seripa could see that. Wanting, however, to shift to a less volatile topic, she asked if there were any manageable complaints on his part. He responded immediately, “Vegeta had me followed last night. Thank the gods his scout did not see you or else this little plot of yours would have been blown to hell.”

 

“How did you account for traveling into Nappabatsu territory?” she asked cautiously. “Not to mention the location was only a few miles away from the point we planned for you to intercept Nexus after his first foiled abduction of my daughter. Vegeta must have been suspicious.”

 

Kakarrot shook his head slowly, “He was more angry than anything else. His scout saw me kiss Chi-Chi, so Vegeta focused his censure on my morality more than my motivation. He assumed Chi-Chi was a member of Nexus' clan, hence why I was hiding the location from them.”

 

“Will he tell Bulma of your intimacy with another woman?” Seripa was nervous. She could not allow Bulma to know that Kakarrot no longer loved her. It would ruin her plans.

 

“It is difficult to tell,” Kakarrot scratched the back of his head in contemplation. “I believe Vegeta wants to keep Bulma for himself. He might use this information to ensure that.”

 

“Worthless piece of…” Seripa mumbled as she thought past what she could not control at that moment. “If your brother is even remotely suspicious of you, then we must be particularly careful from here on out.”

 

“No,” Kakarrot roared resoundingly, “I will wait no longer. This all ends tonight.”

 

“W—What?” Seripa snapped. “But you are not ready. We have to wait until the two armies clash. Then you will have your chance to kill Nexus and—”

 

“No,” Kakarrot repeated. “I want Chi-Chi, Bulma and Trunks safe now, which means we deal with Nexus now.”

 

“And what of the war?” Seripa reminded. “We need Nexus alive. His allies are too many to alienate.”

 

“I am beginning to no longer care,” Kakarrot ground the statement out.

 

“Well, you had better if you wish to see your lovely Chi ever again,” Seripa reminded him of the threat before asking, “Speaking of our agreement to return the peasant to you, how soon will it be before my daughter divorces your brother for you?”

 

“She won't need to divorce him,” Kakarrot clarified darkly. “She will be widowed before this night is over.”

 

“Kakarrot,” Seripa warned. “We planned—”

 

“Your plans are finished. We do this my way now. I kill Nexus. I free Bulma. I kill Vegeta. I get Chi-Chi back, and any war that ensues from the chaos will be yours to deal with. I am finished, Seripa. I do not want to play the role of a man I no longer am anymore.”

 

The expression upon Seripa's face betrayed that she did not like the speed with which he planned to alter her well-devised scheme; however, it seemed recent complications would leave them with few other choices. “Nexus will be in his war room now, but do not trouble yourself with his death; I will handle that. You take care of your brother. He is likely already with Bulma. She is being kept in the bedchambers Vegeta occupied while my husband was still in control of these lands.”

 

“Sadistic bitch,” Kakarrot hissed under his breath as he leveled a heavy glare upon the woman before grasping his sword. “Do not think about refusing to honor our deal, Seripa. If you harm Chi-Chi in anyway, I will make you wish you had never found me alive.” The threat hung silently in the room for several moments before Kakarrot spun on his heel and headed toward the exit.

 

Pausing for a short breath, he gathered what strength he would need to carry out his plans. “I will make you pay, my brother. I will set right all you have made wrong.”

 

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The moment the door closed behind him, Vegeta felt uncertain whether he could trust Nexus to unlock it again anytime soon, but his own safety was not his priority right now. The demoralized sight of his wife looking ominously out of the window of the room their son was conceived in made him shudder. “We need to talk,” he had walked this path before; only Bulma had been the one to begin the life altering conversation with those words.

 

“What has it been? Four days since Nexus brought me here? You were faster to my rescue than I would have anticipated.” She did not turn to look at him as she spoke with an airy note in her voice, as if to break the ice. It eased the shock from the next words whispered from her mouth, “I do not suppose a boy came looking for you.” Her head turned ever so slightly.

 

It was then Vegeta saw it. A square clipped bandaging across the right side of her forehead. That must have been the injury that prevented her from escaping. Vegeta's fists clenched as his temper flared. No, he would not be moved by her pain, he was too angry. “Trunks, you mean?” His arms slid across his chest, attempting to control his tone. “Yes, you may rest assured I have taken excellent care of my son.”

 

Her eyes, at least the one that was partially in his vision, slid shut before she turned her head to face once more out the window. He waited for her to begin denying his deduction, claim the child was Kakarrot's, or perhaps not even hers at all. But she did not. She simply stood in silence for what felt like endless hours before indirectly confirming his conclusion, “You did not tell him, did you?”

 

That was all she had to ask!? Vegeta lost what control he hoped to maintain. Storming across the room to her, he grabbed her arms and spun her around. “Do you have nothing more to say to me on the matter!?” He shook her heatedly. “For more than six years you have kept me in ignorance of my own flesh and blood and all you care about is whether I let your secret out!? You had no right to keep my son from me! None at all!!”

 

“The hell I didn't!” Her passivity vanished as if he had literally shaken her to sanity. Clawing at his arms she struggled to free herself from his hold for a solid minute before he released her. Walking past him, she anchored her arms on the bed to steady herself before she released seven years of pent up bitterness. “No right?” she questioned aloud before she turned back to face him. “You want to talk about no right? You had no right to take advantage of a child's naivety. You were twenty years old. You had already been with only the gods know how many women. You knew the consequences a hell of a lot better than I did. You took all the time in the world to premeditate just the right words to invoke my sympathies to get me in your bed, but took not a single fucking moment to consider anything after getting laid!”

 

“I already told you I never intended to take you that night, and after I did I offered to marry you in reparation. You turned me down!” His interruption did little to quell her fury. If anything, it worsened.

 

“Marry you?” she repeated the suggestion with distaste. “Even if we ignore the fact that the war you were neck deep in would have prevented you from even seeing your son for more than a couple of days out of five years, and that your men would have lost respect for you once they learned that you debauched the daughter of your father's most trusted ally, did you ever consider the bull's-eye that would have been painted on Trunks' back? On my back? Nappa and Nexus would have stopped at nothing to kill the heir which would have solidified our two nations.”

 

“I could have protected you and the boy. Hell, I would have kept the damn marriage and the boy a secret had it been that much of a fear to you.” Vegeta felt his resolve waning slightly. She had points, strong ones.

 

“For how long, Vegeta? Servants gossip. Soldiers betray. The secret would not have kept long and you know it. Trunks was safest away from you, away from us. I was just a child myself, Vegeta. I knew nothing of raising one of my own and I could not trust the endeavor to a servant who for all I knew would have poisoned him if the price Nexus offered her was right. You will never convince me I made a mistake in placing him in the protection of two of my closest friends—friends of my father. I did what was best for him, so do not stand before me and condemn me as if I was wrong or the decision was not the hardest I have ever had to make in my life!”

 

Tears began flowing from Bulma's eyes as she sunk onto the bed. Holding her face in her hands, she took several moments to calm herself. The time awarded Vegeta enough to come to some understanding of her mindset, her reasoning. It was not all flawed—to a point. “That does not excuse continuing to lie to me these last two years. You were not a child anymore, and I was not `neck deep' in a war. There is no excuse for why you did not tell me sooner!”

 

Laughter emerged from Bulma's tears. It was not a pleasant laughter or a boisterous one; it mixed with her weeping as if she no longer had control over her reactions. “You, it's always about you, isn't it? Who cares that Trunks was happy with his family? That Juuhachigou and Krillin provided him with a stable and protected home life. Who cares that Nexus was still on the loose and while the threat to our son's life had diminished, it was still there? Who cares that I have devoted the last five years of my life to protecting him from the truth, that he was the result of his parent's thoughtless behavior and that he had to be denied his birthright because his grandfathers' murderers had yet to be completely brought to justice?”

 

“Do not place all the blame on me!” Vegeta's voice struck a violent note. Falling to his knees in front of his wife, he grasped her thin torso with his fingers, holding her in place, forcing her to listen. “I gave you the chance. The night we were married, I asked you pointblank if you had my child and you chose to lie to me!”

 

“I did not lie! I just never directly answered the question.” Her weak response fell on deaf ears as Vegeta continued.

 

“What have I done in the last two years to show you I was untrustworthy? I protected you as if you were the only creature in this universe that mattered to me. I comforted you—a man who did not know the meaning of the fucking word took the effort to learn it!—when you thought my brother was dead and after you learned of your mother's betrayal. I kept my goddamn hands off you when every night I wanted to break down the door to your room and pleasure you until you were begging me to stop. I trained you after you lost your limited male family and friends. I respected you even when you spit in the face of all of the effort I made to win your forgiveness for one—one stupid youthful mistake. So enlighten me, my self-righteous wife, what the fuck did I do which denied me the right to even know I had a son? Bar claiming him or even meeting him, why could you not even tell me he existed!?” Vegeta's final statement came out almost more as a plea than a question. It brought his listener to tears.

 

“I planned to tell you after we divorced.” A long slow stream of barely cohesive words followed the almost inaudible confession as Bulma began to admit, “I realized the more time I spent with you that you were not the same man anymore and that you deserved to know the truth, but I feared you would demand to see him—to tell him the truth immediately—I couldn't let you uproot him when he was so happy, when Juuhachigou and Krillin were his parents—they are wonderful parents—and I feared you would make them bring Trunks here and make me stay with you and I can not—not now—it's just become too hard now; if this had not happened, everything would be fine—I could have moved in with Juuhachigou and Krillin and you could have come to visit eventually, to meet Trunks—he would never have had to know—You could remarry, have an heir born properly—I mean, chances are the batsu would not accept Trunks anyway—”

 

“That is what you planned?” Vegeta whispered the words utterly stunned. “You were going to deny the boy his birthright? His heritage? Hope I remarry and sire another heir to pass off as my first?”

 

“Only until he is old enough to understand,” Bulma explained in a rush, “And you would have had to remarry anyway. I am sure you already planned on it. Things do not need to change. I can—I can take Trunks and raise him from now on. We do not have to interfere with your life; everything can be—can be as we planned. Trunks will be safest away from all this.”

 

“And in the care of yourself and my brother,” Vegeta offered the only detail he knew his wife was omitting. “That is what you really want, is it not? Divorce me, marry him and raise my child as Kakarrot's, is that it!?” When she offered no immediate denial, Vegeta's hands slid from his wife's waist to her hips. Dropping his head, he rested it dejectedly atop of her knees. “You still hate me that much? You are this desperate to get away from me?”

 

“I have to. It has become too hard,” Bulma whispered as she ran her fingers through Vegeta's hair. Leaning down she placed a kiss upon it, before pulling his head completely to rest in her lap. “You know Kakarrot and I were always meant to be. It was always so easy for us, never any sorrow or pain. But with you, it just—it just hurts too much to be with you.” Before that moment, Bulma realized she never truly understood the sentiment behind her words.

 

Vegeta was right.

 

She hated him.

 

Not because he had taken advantage of her youth or because his cruelty had once reached immeasurable levels, but because he could never give her want she wanted, what she had only been able to admit to herself the night she came to this very room seven years ago. She wanted him. Not his title, not his power, not his money, not even his body as he on more than one occasion was desperate to offer her. She wanted his heart. She wanted his love. And every day she spent with him, being denied the emotion, it killed her, it made her resent him, it made a part of her hate him for it.

 

She could not stay with him. It would destroy her and no doubt eventually their son as well. Trunks needed a father who could love him just as much as she needed a husband who could provide the same. And in no uncertain terms, Vegeta had sworn his inability to feel the sentiment. He once promised her passion in exchange, and for one night she had taken it. She had taken him in the only form he could give of himself, bodily. And she had worked herself into a nearly catatonic state afterwards, protecting herself from facing the truth. She only wished the delusion could protect her now.

 

“I won't let you go.” The admission came from Bulma's lap as she felt Vegeta pull his head away. His hands slid back to her waist, over her arms and then around her neck. Raising them a few more inches he cupped her face, “I will not be granting you a divorce or annulment or anything that legally separates us. We have a child together, thus we have a responsibility to raise him together. I will not be moved on the subject.” What had started as calmed reason swiftly shifted to possessive determination. “Do you understand me, Bulma? You will not leave me!”

 

“Vegeta, please, think about this,” she pleaded, her hands wrapping around his, begging him to understand. “You are angry right now, you are not thinking clearly. Being stuck with me for a few years until the war is over is one thing, but a lifetime is another. We will tear one another apart, not to mention our son. Kakarrot and I—”

 

“You are not leaving me for Kakarrot!” he reiterated as if it were the final word on the matter. His fingers were taut against her cheeks. He grit his teeth as he laid down the law, “You will remain my wife once this war is over. We will raise our son together and we will put this animosity behind us. I want a new beginning and you are going to damn well give it to me.” His lips crushed hers in a mixture of pleasure and punishment. “You will be my wife in every sense of the word,” he laid her beneath him on the bed, trapping her body under his. “Starting now…”

 

Vegeta reacquainted himself with his wife's curves. Taking gentle liberties, mindful of her injuries, he caressed, kissed and explored her entire quaking body with his lips and fingers. “Vegeta…” she protested. “Don't do this to me…”

 

“Don't do what?” His ministrations halted abruptly as he found his wife's lips again. Tempting them with another kiss, he demanded, “Arouse you? Pleasure you? Make you feel the way I know damn well no other man ever will? Kakarrot will never make you feel pleasure like this—only I can.”

 

“Kakarrot will also never hurt me like you can.” She shoved at his arms, pushing herself off the bed as she straightened herself out. “For fuck's sake, do you see where we are, Vegeta? This is where any chance we had at being together ended. Look, I am truly sorry things are not—cannot be different, believe me, I am, but I will not raise our son in this mess we have created. I want him to have a stable environment to live in. We cannot provide that, but Kakarrot and I can. You have to let us go.”

 

The pair stared unblinkingly at one another for several seconds before the sound of swords clashing interrupted their dispute. Rushing to the door, Vegeta attempted to open it, only to find it still locked. “Open this door,” he screamed to anyone who was capable of performing the service. After a few minutes of further banging on the door, the lock unhitched and then a somewhat battered looking Kakarrot ordered them to hurry.

 

For Bulma it was a dizzying run to the castle gate, her head still throbbing from her injury. Before long, darkness overclouded her senses and she failed to remember anything until she awoke sometime later, tucked within the arms of a stranger. “Wha—” She jerked her head around. “Where are Vegeta and Kakarrot?” she asked the guard escorting her back to Vegeta-batsu territory.

 

“They were held up, my Queen,” he explained minimally. “Their first priority was to get you out safely. I am sure they will not be far behind us.”

 

Her head immediately drifted toward the direction they were traveling from. After a few more minutes of traveling, she somberly realized no hoof prints were sounding anywhere near them.

 

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