Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Unwanted ❯ Unwanted ( Chapter 18 )

Unwanted

 

 

Chapter 18 - Unwanted

 

“They are getting away!” Nexus screamed after ordering a band of fighters to chase after the troops attempting to remove his hostage. “Such incompetence!” he cried as he turned around to find Seripa at his side. “We will get your daughter back,” he promised before taking the goblet of wine his lover had poured for him.

 

“Of course, you will, darling.” Seripa smiled adoringly, “Come have a seat. Take a moment to relax. They will not get far.” She took a seat behind him. Placing her own cup down on a table next to herself, she lowered her hands onto Nexus' shoulders, attempting to massage his troubles away. Nexus responded by leaning back into her grasp.

 

“We are so close. I can almost taste victory.” He emptied the contents of his drink before lowering it onto the table next to Seripa's.

 

“And taste it you shall, my love.” The devious woman's smile deepened as she continued her slow ministrations. “You know I must thank you. You have given me the keys to all I have ever wanted: power, riches, and soon my entire family will share it with me. Were I a more sentimental person, it might have saddened me to have to do this.” Her voice lowered as she raised one hand to stroke Nexus' cheek.

 

Somewhat dazedly the younger man twisted his head to look down at her. “Do what?”

 

“Kill you,” she whispered evilly before jerking her body away from him.

 

“What?” he screamed, jumping to his feet. However, his balance quickly gave out on him. He stumbled a few steps forward before collapsing onto his knees.

 

“I am so terribly sorry, Nexus, but you must realize this is all your fault. Had you properly killed Kakarrot two years ago, I would not be betraying you for him, at least not this soon.”

 

“K-Kak—karrot… a—alive??” he choked, clutching his throat. Harsh gasping noises echoed through the room as he began hunching closer to the ground.

 

“Yes, and he is in excellent form. Doing my bidding brilliantly, I must say. But, you see, his patience has worn with you, so either he was going to kill you, or I was. So I opted for the pleasure,” she boasted while lowering herself to her knees. “Goodbye, Nexus. It was pleasurable while it lasted.” She paused for an evil chuckle before she rose back to her feet and took a deep breath.

 

It was now time to stretch her acting skills.

 

She screamed. Begging whatever guards were in the area to come quickly. Faking tears, she exaggerated a few forced sobs as the guards entered. “Help, me. They have poisoned your king! It must have been Vegeta's cowardly plan! Please, help him!”

 

A handful of guards immediately rushed to their leader's side. But as Seripa planned, they were all too late. “We are sorry, my lady.” Seripa screamed, as if in inconsolable grief. While faking her devastation, the men wrapped the body and then carried his corpse to another location. Though Seripa wished they had worked fast, she kept up her façade until she had her chance to escape.

 

Eventually one of the remaining guards offered to help her to her feet, but she pushed him away, declaring she wanted to be alone. The soldiers followed her instructions, vowing before they left to make Vegeta's people pay for the assassination. She meekly waved her agreement.

 

Once alone, Seripa dried her false tears and headed toward a hidden exit. This was merely the first execution she intended to witness today.

 

Her daughter's husband was the next.

 

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“I think we lost them,” Vegeta declared after leading his brother through a complicated section of forest. The six men from Vegeta's crew had divided into three pairs of two. He was not certain if the others had the same success as he and his brother, but the King had no time to find out. They were still deep within Nappabatsu territory, and needed to get out quickly. “This way,” Vegeta began to head toward the east. He only made it a few meters before realizing Kakarrot was not behind him. “Damn it, man, get back on your mount. We have to get out of here, now!”

 

Kakarrot did not comply. Instead he pulled his sword out and pointed it at his only brother. “There will be no `we.' Only one of us will be leaving these woods and returning to the Vegetabatsu.”

 

Stunned by his brother's aggressive stance, Vegeta slid off his horse and walked over to his younger kin, “Have you lost your mind?”

 

“No,” a man whose expression was typically jovial suddenly turned deadly. “I will wait no longer to have my revenge.”

 

“Revenge?” Vegeta repeated uncomprehendingly, “What revenge? I have done nothing to you.”

 

Kakarrot's tone remained deadly. “Perhaps you think I will forgive you for leaving me for dead two years ago, and marrying my fiancé in my place,” Vegeta opened his mouth to object, but Kakarrot did not allow him to, “But you are an even bigger fool than Nexus if you think I will forgive you for raping Bulma.”

 

Vegeta's eyes widened. “Is that what she told you?”

 

“She did not have to, I already knew,” Kakarrot stormed into a detailed tirade regarding his deceitful behavior the past few days. As soon as he believed his motives were then properly understood, he vowed, “You are going to pay for all the lives you have destroyed!” The younger man held back his rage no more and lunged at Vegeta.

 

Swords clashed, neither affecting a blow upon the other for some time. Kakarrot hit first, striking diagonally across his brother's chest. Vegeta made contact next, driving his blade through his brother's left forearm. When the injured man lunged back to regain his fighting strength, Vegeta attempted to reason with him, “This is insane! If we wait much longer, Nexus' infantry will arrive and we will both be killed!”

 

The warning seemed lost on the angered man when he swung at his brother yet again, “Your punishment has been withheld long enough.”

 

“Your facts are misguided, brother,” Vegeta warned him as he volleyed all of his attacker's strikes, “Seripa has poisoned your mind. She is manipulating you.”

 

“Then you deny siring Trunks on a sixteen year old virgin that I was in love with?” Kakarrot questioned boldly. Vegeta was at a loss to answer. “Do you also deny leaving me for dead so you could marry her?”

 

“Yes!” Vegeta bellowed after using his weapon to shove his brother back a step. “I took advantage of her, I admit that; and I have spent my every moment with her since attempting to atone for it. But I never desired to marry her. I was advised to, for both her sake and that of our people. It was a last resort, not my plan.”

 

“Even if that is true,” the younger man countered, “I don't doubt you took full advantage of the situation.”

 

“Wrong again, brother,” Vegeta insisted while lowering his sword, attempting to calm the tension. “For every day you were missing during our union, I never laid a hand on her. She lived her life protected, and wanted for nothing.”

 

“Except for her son.”

 

“I did not know he existed!” Vegeta reminded, “If I had, I would have brought him to live with us. I would have afforded him everything I gave his mother.”

 

“I don't believe you,” but something in his expression suggested otherwise to Vegeta. So he forged on.

 

“Ask Bulma. I am not the monster Seripa wishes you to believe. Return home with me, hear the truth, and then if you wish to continue this battle, I will oblige.” Kakarrot's eyes cooled some. His weapon lowered. Vegeta thought they had managed to table the argument. They had not.

 

“What are you waiting for?!” a harsh female voice echoed through Vegeta's ears. Twisting his head to the side, he managed to see a flustered Seripa approach them. “Kill him,” she advised Kakarrot. He did not comply.

 

“Well, if it is not my mother-in-law from hell—literally,” Vegeta snapped, as the elder woman turned to glare at him.

 

“Do not worry; you will not have to suffer me much longer.”

 

“You are right about that,” Vegeta lifted his sword to turn it toward the third party, “You are going to die now for betraying your daughter.” Vegeta lunged. Kakarrot blocked him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

 

“I need her alive,” the junior prince announced before turning back to his partner in crime. “What did Bulma tell you about what happened between her and Vegeta?”

 

Seripa stuttered for a moment before declaring, “I have already told you…”

 

“Why was she desperate to escape from here, if all you have told me about her history with my brother is true?” Kakarrot advanced on her.

 

“Trunks, of course, she wanted to be with—”

 

“She never once complained to me. I have been home for days, and not once did she mention a single mistreatment.” He was nearly a foot away from her.

 

“She was surely too embarrassed. She would never admit—”

 

“Have you been lying to me?” He was only a breath away.

 

“No!” she swore, “Whatever your brother has told you, it is the lie! He is trying to cover his misdeeds, do not let him, for your sake as well as your precious Chi's.”

 

Vegeta smirked triumphantly, “I believe you have your answer. Honesty has never mingles well with threats.”

 

“Tell me where she is,” Kakarrot reached out and grabbed the small woman's throat, “Or I will kill you where you stand.”

 

Seripa released a few gasping breaths before she declared, “I will take her location to my grave!” Both men knew she would, this was a woman who never played fair, not even when faced with death. “Finish what I demanded. Either kill your brother, or your pregnant wife dies.”

 

Vegeta's resolve faltered as the news stunned him. He had not realized the depth of Seripa's manipulation. She had not only Kakarrot's wife, but also his unborn child. No wonder he was so desperate to accept any justification for the actions he would have to commit to save them. “Kakarrot, just kill her,” Vegeta ordered. “We will send a search party for your wife. We do not need Seripa.”

 

“Yes you do,” Seripa did not take her eyes off of Kakarrot. “If I die, her guards have been ordered to execute her. Your choice. Let your wife and child die, or kill your bastard of a brother. Remember Kakarrot, regardless of whatever atonement Vegeta has offered to spare his life, it will never forgive the atrocities he has committed. Your wife, however, is an innocent. Will you truly place her welfare beneath that of your worthless brother?”

 

Kakarrot stood motionless, keeping Seripa in his grasp for some time before he finally released her. He remained in place, unmoving for several moments before he turned around. Picking back up his sword, he looked to his brother. “We finish now,” he deadpanned before telling his brother to prepare himself to fight.

 

“Kakarrot,” Vegeta spoke his brother's name slowly, as if in one word he was attempting to alert him of the severity of what he was doing.

 

“I am sorry, Vegeta. Even if Seripa is wrong about you, I love Chi-Chi. And when you love a woman the way I do, you would commit any sin for her.” The words echoed in Vegeta's mind before culminating into a single moment of clarity.

 

He understood.

 

He understood his normally honorable brother's turn to treachery. Kakarrot loved this Chi-Chi woman enough to commit transgressions he would never consciously partake in, just to ensure the protection of her life. Vegeta comprehended that, only now he wished he could have had one last chance to tell the source of that understanding why.

 

The battle was short. Vegeta put up little resistance. Among the many sins his life would be judged for, demanding his life over a pregnant woman's would not be one of them. He might have laughed had he the strength left to do so. Bulma had, after all, demanded he leave her in peace. It seemed she would now get her wish.

 

As his brother's blade went through his shoulder, Vegeta swallowed a scream. He took several steps back before he realized there was no ground behind him. He jerked forward, grasping her brother's armor to keep himself from falling, “I don't give a damn what obligations you have to this damn wife and child of yours. You take care of Bulma and my son, or so help me I will haunt you from the grave,” Vegeta choked through a mouthful of blood before releasing Kakarrot's armor and allowing himself to fall back into the abyss behind him.

 

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“Are you feeling better now?” Trunks asked his mother as he plopped back on the bed next to her. Their reunion had been shortened after Radditz had persisted for mother and son to part so a doctor could properly examine Bulma's injuries. After a thorough examination it was determined that she had initially received proper care, and after some rest she would be back on her feet in little time.

 

The verdict had only barely registered with Bulma. Her mind had been occupied with graver matters. “I am feeling much better now that you are here with me.” She pulled the boy's head down to rest upon her chest. While stroking her fingers through his hair, she wondered aloud, “How long has it been since I returned?”

 

“A couple of hours,” Trunks offered. Bulma then called for Radditz. He came in immediately.

 

“Is there any word from Kakarrot or Vegeta yet?” Bulma asked. Radditz somberly shook his head. He promised to inform her once he learned anything and then departed from the room once more.

 

“You sound worried,” Trunks recognized. Not wanting to admit to her fear, Bulma attempted to dismiss her concern. She assured him everything would turn out all right, but as she came to learn within the next hour, everything was far from such.

 

A knock came at the door and to Bulma's relief she saw Kakarrot enter. “You made it out alright. Thank the gods,” she cried, ignoring the demoralized expression upon her visitor's face. “Where is Vegeta? Is he all right?”

 

Kakarrot did not respond immediately. When he did, he turned his attention to Trunks, “Would you mind giving me a minute alone with Bulma? Radditz is right outside and will be happy to entertain you in the interim.”

 

The young man turned to his mother for guidance, and after she nodded her approval, he disappeared from the room. As soon as he did, Bulma demanded, “What is going on, Kakarrot. Why did you send Trunks away? Where is your brother? Why do you look so—”

 

“Bulma, I—I need to tell you what I have been keeping from you, so you can understand what happened.” He took a seat next to her on the bed.

 

“Happened? What do you mean?” she struggled to ask, quickly gaining concern that she did not want to hear what she was about to.

 

Slowly Kakarrot explained that he had lied to her from the day they found one another again. He told her how his memory had not returned to him until Seripa had found him. He told her that he had omitted the relationship he had begun with the female villager who helped save his life. He told her how he fell in love with her, married her, and how Seripa had used it against him. He told her of the lies Seripa had poisoned him with, and how foolishly he had believed them. He told her of Chi-Chi's abduction, attempting to explain why he had been lying to her. He explained Seripa's plan to use him to convince Bulma to leave. He detailed to the best of his knowledge how Seripa had been manipulating Nexus, all in some hope of gaining a reunion between daughter and grandson that was meant only for her imagination.

 

And when he finished telling her all of this, he was struck by the complacency in her attitude. “I think I knew,” she whispered. “The way you looked at me, it was not the same as when we were younger. But I suppose I ignored it, because I wanted our past to still be our future. It would have just made things easier.” Of course, easier was not fair, and Bulma knew deep down she never could have gone through with her plans to marry Kakarrot when she knew in her heart she would always want his brother. It promptly occurred to her than now she would have little ground to fight Vegeta on his refusal for an annulment. She thought perhaps it was an indication she would have to resign herself to remaining in a one-sided love affair.

 

That thought would prove irrelevant.

 

“Is Chi-Chi all right?”

 

“Yes,” Kakarrot sighed. “Seripa showed me to her location. I freed her just an hour ago. She is here now being examined by a physician.”

 

“So, what happened to my mother?” Bulma asked slowly, not certain whether she wished to know.

 

“Seripa had no intention of letting me leave with Chi-Chi,” Kakarrot began with much hesitation. “Once she took me to the cave my wife was being held in, half a dozen guards attacked me. I was fortunate they were ill trained; I defeated them all, but not without foolishly leaving Chi-Chi to fall into Seripa's hands. I laid down my sword, offering her anything to set Chi free. She told me it was too late, that I had already ruined her plans. She was mad with anger and grief, so I used that to my advantage and dared to attack her when she showed vulnerability. I did,” he paused clearing his throat, “It took all the strength within me, but I freed Chi-Chi at the cost of your mother's life.”

 

Bulma's head lowered, her breath escaped her body. Her mother had been an enemy over the last few years, and a part of her hated Seripa for all the horrible things she had done in that short time, but she was still her mother. “I am sure more than just strength motivated your victory,” Bulma offered a weak smile, not allowing herself to ponder her mother's death for too long.

 

“Perhaps,” Kakarrot nodded before taking a breath. He knew what he had to say next would not be welcomed with such composure, “But I am afraid it came at a greater cost than your mother's life.”

 

“What could be greater?” After that question, time seemed to lag for Bulma. Every word that would come out of her brother in-law's mouth would sound as if he was speaking in half speed.

 

“Seripa would not tell me where Chi-Chi was unless I did as she asked.” Kakarrot lowered his gaze as he released a throaty sigh, “She demanded I take my brother's life.” He cleared his throat, “So I,” he did so a second time, prolonging Bulma's anticipation more than he had right to, “I did.”

 

Bulma blinked once.

 

Then again

 

And again.

 

And once more before shaking her head in a few slow twists, “No,” Bulma appeared to remain calm as she continued to shake her head.

 

“I stabbed him in the shoulder, Bulma; he then fell into a ravine.” Kakarrot spoke carefully, realizing the news was not registering with her. Whether that was by conscious or unconscious choice he could not tell. “There is no way he could have survived.”

 

“No!” Bulma screamed, slamming her fists down on her lap, no longer able to contain her emotion. “Two years ago, Vegeta came to me like this and said the same about you, and it turned out to be false. This has to be the same. He must still be alive!”

 

“Bulma,” Kakarrot grasped her arms to try and force her to look at him, to look at reason, “he fell off a—”

 

“So did we,” she begged him to remember. “We fell off that embankment and we both survived. He must have as well.” She moved forward on her seat, shaking his hands, and pleading with her eyes, “We have to go look for him. We have to—”

 

“Bulma,” Kakarrot found himself having to strengthen his grip. “This was not a thirty-foot drop into twenty feet of water. The bottom of that ravine was nearly half a mile down, and the water at its bottom was shallow. And even if by some miracle he could have survived the fall, his stab wound was too severe to bear for long. I sent a team to search for his body, but you can't hope for more than that.”

 

Her steadily streaming tears quickly turned to violent sobs as she hunched over into Kakarrot's lap. “No, he can't be gone,” she repeated between wails. “The last thing I ever said to him was that I wanted him to leave me alone, that I wanted him to let me go. That cannot be our end. He could not die believing I hated him.”

 

Kakarrot's expression paled, the depth of his actions hitting him violently. “I am so sorry, Bulma,” was all he could offer as he held the weeping woman. “But I swear I will help you through this. And you still have Trunks. He can finally be a complete part of your life.”

 

Trunks.

 

How could she ever tell him this horrible tale of his parents' never ending calamity? How could she ever tell him that the man he met for only a few seconds was his father? How can he ever forgive her for depriving him of the limited time he could have had with his father?

 

“I have to tell Trunks,” Bulma sobbed as she pushed Kakarrot away, ordering him to bring her son back, “He needs to know the truth.”

 

“Bulma, you are in no state to—”

 

“Get him,” she demanded. Too ashamed to do much else, Kakarrot pushed himself off his seat and toward the exit. He paused as soon as his hand touched the doorknob.

 

“You need not worry about the Nexus-batsu anymore. With your mother and Nexus dead, the resistance will easily be crushed and the war put to rest once and for all. I will see to it both our peoples are taken care of.” He turned back to see Bulma's expression; when it was unchanged, he added, “I will also handle the ruling of the reunited Vegeta-batsu, once the time comes.” He shamefully shifted his gaze back to the door, “At least, until Trunks is of age. I may have taken his father, but I won't take his birthright.”

 

“Get him, please,” Bulma did not care about politics at the moment. She needed her son.

 

Soon after Kakarrot finally disappeared from the room, Trunks returned. He closed the door behind him before heading to his mother's side. He returned to the spot he had earlier claimed next to her. He crawled into her arms, and she took a moment to simply hold him as if he were her only lifeline from the cyclical hell her life had become.

 

Running a hand over his face, she battled to hold back her tears. His profile was the perfect image of Vegeta's, only softer, gentler, and happier, a disposition Vegeta never held. Now she realized with biting clarity, this had been partially her fault. “Aunt Bulma, what's wrong?” the young man asked, unaware of her hopeless state.

 

Bulma was tempted to lay all of the truth upon him. Just admit she was his mother and explain the edited details of why she had denied it until this day, but she could not. Looking into his sweet, innocent face, she quickly realized he was still too fragile after all that happened. “I—I just received some bad news.” There would come a time in his life when he could know everything, a time when she could tell him how foolish she and Vegeta had been, how dangerous circumstance shaped their decisions, how fleetingly they had been together and how stupidly they had wasted that precious time.

 

She loved him. A part of her always knew that, but for too long had refused to accept it. There was nothing in this life she had feared more than hearing Vegeta's rejection. She had always tried to protect herself from his indifference, but then at some moments he would surprise her and act in a way that gave her hope. However, she knew better than to keep any for herself.

 

The truth was that Vegeta never really wanted her. Bed her, yes. Use her in marriage to keep his peoples out of a war they were not prepared for, yes. Keep her safe as a means of atoning for sins he, in elder years, began to regret, yes. But want her? Want her heart and soul. Want the good with the bad. Want the flaws with the perfections. Want all of her.

 

No.

 

He never wanted that. And her bitterness toward him because of that very truth was why she now sat with her son, uncertain how to tell him that the father he never knew would remain that way for the rest of his life. “I just learned your—my husband has been killed in battle.”

 

The boy offered no strong reaction, oblivious to the depth of how this knowledge should affect him. “I guess we both just lost family. I am sorry,” he empathized while crawling into her lap and wrapping his arms around her. She held him close, silently praying her fate would not prove hereditary. Trunks' parents were a sorry pair to be sure, neither happy together, but neither strong enough to walk away.

 

Perhaps that was what made Vegeta's death all the more devastating. If this was the only way the addiction would be broken, she was destined to live an unfulfilled, lonely, longing life.

 

Perhaps that was a punishment she deserved for all of the mistakes she had made with him.

 

“Will you tell me about him?” Trunks asked from against his mother's bosom.

 

“Tell you about him?” Bulma repeated, startled by the question.

 

“Yes. What was he like? He must have been pretty special for you to marry him.” A soft laugh broke through Bulma tears as she found her son's innocent question soothing the empty beats of her heart.

 

He was right; Vegeta was a special man. She had selfishly ignored that truth for years, but she could no longer. For all the mistakes Vegeta had made in the past, he had become not just a whole man, but a good one. And for the remainder of her life, Bulma would never forgive herself for ignoring that truth any more than she would allow her son to remain in ignorance of it.

 

“Yes, Trunks,” Bulma wiped her tears before lowering a kiss onto her son's forehead, “I would love to tell you all about him…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The End

 

 

 

 

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