A Father's Atonement-My best fanfic yet, according to Cez...

It was. Apparently it's not entirely correct. If I'd known what'd happen, I'd have got it right. Pwnd.

Lol... next installment will be up, if not tonight, then tomorrow.

When you say "tonight," what do you mean? Like...yeah ok I have no idea what I mean...

Lol alright then Jo... *rolls eyes*

Well, I was going to end this installment with something rather interesting, but I don't want to wait anymore... I want to show you all Vegeta's reaction... I love it =D but that doesn't mean you lot will. Tell me what you think please.

Installment five...

A slice of raw pain cut across Vegeta's heart as he flew, stopping him dead in his tracks.


*Something's wrong with Bulma,* he realised with a stab of horror, as Trunks threw him a searching look.


"Dad, what's wrong?" Trunks questioned, concerned at his father's horrified expression.


Vegeta ignored him completely, reaching deep inside his psyche to discover his wife's ki-a ki, he was startled to find, no longer existed...


The Prince felt as if all the air had evaporated from his lungs, making him struggle for breath... no, she could NOT be dead, he wouldn't accept it... he had left her only two hours ago, and she'd been fine then, sleeping peacefully...


"DAD? TELL ME!" Trunks demanded, floating over to the Saiyan in annoyance-the teenager hated his father's secretive manner at times, and this had to be one of those times...


"FEEL FOR YOURSELF!" Vegeta snapped angrily, attempting to concentrate on searching for even a particle of her ki... but there weren't any...


"No," he whispered furiously, turning himself inside out to sense her, but finding absolutely nothing of his wife... "No, she's NOT gone..."


Trunks, anxious at his father's new attitude, concentrated upon his own capabilities, discovering, in a stroke of terror, that his mother had been killed...


"Mum," he murmured painfully, tears blinding his eyes as he turned to his Saiyan parent.


"Dad-how?" He demanded, urgently trying to seek out even the tiniest fraction of his human mother...


"I don't know," Vegeta answered hollowly, resoundingly defiant in his response. "But I for one refuse to accept that a woman as strong-willed as Bulma Briefs just died like that," he added, snapping his fingers to symbolise his point.


"Dad, she's gone, you know," Trunks informed him gently, knowing exactly what his father was trying to say, or rather, trying to convince himself of...


"No, she's not-I can't be looking hard enough," Vegeta snapped in a livid retort, tears threatening to surface.


*Kami, I can't lose it in front of Trunks, no way,* his pride resolved in rage. *Saiyans, especially Princes, do NOT lose themselves over a woman, whoever that woman may be...*


*She wasn't just a woman though, was she?* His heart drummed furiously, forcing him to listen to it... *She was the first person you ever loved-without her, you'd have nothing... no son, no daughter, no happiness...*


*THIS IS REALLY NOT HELPFUL!* He shrieked at his conflicting organs, at his conscience... the conscience that just wanted to break down and cry forever at its devestating loss, something his stubborn head, the part that was telling him he was being stupid, and that his wife wasn't dead, wouldn't allow...


"Dad..." Trunks began heartbreakingly, but the Saiyan instantly cut across him, slashing his gentle arguments into a thousand ribbons-


"MY WIFE IS NOT DEAD!" Vegeta roared at his son, advancing upon himself furiously, his eyes watering desperately; he blinked back the liquid that longed to erupt from them, and glared at the boy in pure, frightening anger. "I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THAT SHE'S GONE UNTIL I SEE IT FOR MYSELF!"


And with that damning sentiment, he went Super Saiyan, ignoring his body's cry for recuperation, and flew off in a spurt of speed, his whole being panicking...


"I don't like it either, dad..." Trunks murmured sadly, wiping his eyes, a completely pointless exercise as the tears just kept on falling, and chased after him in a flash of gold.


***


"Mummy," the possessed Bura whispered, smashing her fist through the wall in a desperate rage, as citizens of West City flooded out of their homes and opened the windows to see what had disturbed their sleep in such a manner...


The door of Bulma and Vegeta's room burst open, and in strode Bulma's mother and father, flunked by around twenty live-in staff members.


"Bura... are you alright?" Bunny Briefs demanded of her sobbing granddaughter, picking her up and cradling in her arms gently.


"I'm out of here," the child was manipulated into murmuring aloud, breaking free of her nan's grasp and flying off out through the hole in the wall and onto the ground below, where a mass of people had gathered, all attempting to grab any information possible about the cause of their disturbed sleep...


"BURA!!!" Her grandfather shouted, as she flew off over the city, much to the amazement of the inhabitants, who all broke out into frenzied storms of chatter.


"Where's Bulma?" The man demanded anxiously, and his wife shrugged worriedly as she watched her granddaughter streak off through the night.


***


"Is that what I think it is?!" Trunks called to his father, who he just caught up with, as he saw a stroke of electric blue flicker through the sky up ahead.


"I don't know," Vegeta said tersely. "But if it IS Bura, then she better have your mother with her, or least have the reassurance that she's not..."


He couldn't say it... he couldn't even the consider the possibility that he might have to live without his mate...


His heart sank as he searched the individual's ki and realised who it was...


"It's the ******* from earlier... stay on your guard, Trunks," the Saiyan Elite instructed, joining his father in stopping and hovering in mid-air and waiting impatiently for the individual's arrival.


He soon reached them, leering at them in a way that made them both snarl in anger, and they finally got a decent look at the ******* that was disguising Bura behind a veil of his true self...


He really was miraculously unattractive; his skin was an deep shade of grey, giving him a partially robotic look... he had no hair, but his head was somewhat unappealingly cone-shaped, and he sported a black uniform that was rather similar to Goku's, but not orange, and not marked with the crest of the Turtle Hermit...


But this wasn't what disturbed the two men...


What was truly shocking was his facial expression; it had taken on the same look Vegeta's now wore, only with an extra dash of prominence... his features were twisted, gnarled and caked with the bittersweet look of pure, unadulterated hatred-this was an alien who'd had a difficult existence, judging by his grotesque visage that virtually oozed grief... the sallow, sunken, haunted, invisible shield that stood all around him...


"Whoa," Trunks whispered, his own face deepening in shock. Vegeta, however, never one to be intimidated, flew up to the man, rage clouding his own, battle-scarred spirit...


"Where is she?!" He demanded furiously, pressing the nonplussed individual further back, desperation sealing all of other lines of enquiry, such as who the hell this man was, off tightly...


"Where is who?" He feigned innocently, causing Vegeta to growl, his soul filled with a torrential rage at the son of a *****'s derisive and aggravatingly evasive manner...


"DO NOT GIVE ME THAT ****!!!" The Saiyan roared at him lividly, his fists clenching firmly together, every particle of him going into the efforts of not annihilating the Galen... "WHERE IS MY WIFE???!!!"


"Bulma? Oh, probably halfway to Hades by now," he commented non-committally to Vegeta, who had the appearance of a man who'd just been stabbed and couldn't quite believe the ordacity of his attacker...


So she WAS dead... all hope that he'd had of finding Bulma alive evaporated from his body, making him want to scream... surges of cold, conflicting emotions shot through him, trying to convince him that collapsing and sobbing was the best course of action to take right now...


Pain. Searing, enveloping, unforgiving, wrenching, livid agony... Kami, it hurt... hurt so badly... ripped his heart and soul apart, split him in two-one part left here on the battlefield, completely broken, desiring nothing more than to have her back, the other with his wife, as dead as she herself was, as charred, saddened and grief-stricken as her mind would undoubtedly be right now...


Why wouldn't his eyes shed the tears that begged to fall from them? Well, the answer to that was frighteningly and sickeningly simple-he deemed it a weakness, and that was one thing he wouldn't exhibit...


Yet, he was sure his ghostly complexion and tortured expression showed every atom of his emotional torment... why wouldn't his eyes obey his command and flood? But he knew why... his pride was berating his sentimentality, creating an impentrable barrier just underneath his lids, that wouldn't forfeit itself to allow the Prince to shed a slight amount of agony, however microscopic that portion might be...


He had taken her for granted, that was the simple, overbearing fact... Vegeta now understood why humans utilised proverbs, such as "You don't know what you've got until it's gone"... it was true, saddeningly, angrily, painfully true... he couldn't recall a time where he'd ever whispered those magical three words to his wife, ones that would have made Bulma the happiest woman alive...


... I love you. He did-so much so at that. Why hadn't he ever told her? Perhaps if he had, he wouldn't feel such emptiness as he did right now, such overwhelming despair, such strong hatred for the creature that stood in front of him...


No, he didn't hate him-he ABHORRED him. Detested his very vision, disgusted in the fact that this THING had killed his mate, taken her away from her family, put her through such pain...


*No, this can't be happening...* his conscience tried to argue with the numb entirety of the Prince's insides... one minute, they'd been burning strong and bright, like the flame out a candle, without him even being aware of it; now, this ******* that floated in front of him had thrown bucketfuls of iced liquid all over them, extinguishing that comforting warmth that intrinsically binded him to Bulma... his organs were cold, unforgiving masses of stone now...


Anger. Fury. He didn't even know why her life had been taken-he had to find out, lest it drove him to the point of insanity, utter distraction...


Then again, revenge also seemed highly appealing-which to choose first? But his son answered that dilemma for him...


"Why?" Trunks queried lividly of the individual, who also appeared to be restraining himself from taking vengenance for his mother with extreme difficulty.


^^^^^ Seems a funny place to end it, I know, but there's a plot twist, and some serious pwnage, about to take place, so it was essential to end it abruptly.

Very dramatic. My guess would be... big fight. Vegeta and Trunks vs evil guy. Am I right?

Shweet...

On 28-Jul-2005 Cez said:

Very dramatic. My guess would be... big fight. Vegeta and Trunks vs evil guy. Am I right?

Not quite, no. Slightly more action-packed and less predictable.

OK... this installment is far from finished lol, but I wanted to show you it anyway. It will be up in its entirety by Monday night at the latest, but I aim to tease, so here you go.

Part of installment six... you'll seem some of the aforementioned plot twist here, but this isn't the best of it...


"Well, it's really quite simple," Remzu informed them, a triumphant smile gracing his worn face, making the man want to beat the smugness out of him... it was taking Vegeta every milligram of self-control he possessed not to smack that ugly look right off his unattractive visage...


"Vegeta killed my family, so now I'm killing his, if you want the really basic answer," the Galen replied simply, and the Saiyan cracked his knuckles... he didn't know how long he stand this torment, but he DID know he wasn't going to take it for much longer, not when he felt like he'd soon break apart with the attempt at keeping his emotions in check...


"So, that's it, is it?" The Prince demanded, his voice shaking and waveringly horribly, the efforts of sustaining his feelings weighing heavily on his vocal chords, "an eye for an eye? So, it's alright if my wife suffers for my previous, unavoidable damage... as long as you get revenge on me, who has been on the side of good for almost thirty years? You DISGUST me, you deranged, twisted son of a *****..."


"Contrary to popular belief, grief doesn't heal with time, Vegeta," Bura's invader snapped bitterly, firing up at the mention of lost love. "It hurts, doesn't it? It makes you feel like you're being shredded by tiny razors of malice, each of which want to cause you as much pain as they possibly can... that's what I feel every day, because you and your carelessness, complete disregard for anyone other than yourself... I have been chasing you ever since I tried to come home from a Conference and found there wasn't a home to go to... ever since the day Drafacus got annihilated by you... I have been searching planets for you for thirty years... do you have ANY idea what three decades worth of hatred does to a person? I don't think you have any idea how much I detest you for stealing my family from me..."


To this, Vegeta would generally have argued that Bulma meant more to him than the entirety of his relations would EVER have done... but the colour was draining rapidly from his face, and his mouth went dry with shock...


"Did you just say... 'Drafacus'?" The Saiyan royal repeated hollowly, gaping at the alien that stood before him, horror tying knots inside him. "Are you a Galen?"


Remzu nodded maliciously, and the pride of the Prince fell, leaving him exposed to the raw pain of his emotions... he'd thought it unbearable before... now, it was just agony...


Vegeta had completed many terrible actions in his half a century of existence, most of which had been for the long-dead Frieza... but he hadn't annihilated Drafacus... that had been the work of the one he himself had killed, after he had failed so miserably in destroying Kakarott... Nappa. HE had wreaked havoc upon Remzu's home, the home of the Galens, not Vegeta...

The Prince barely resisted the urge to throw up, so sickened and distraught as he was... his mate, his wife, the one he loved above all others-had just been killed.


For absolutely no reason whatsoever.


^^^^^ God, I'm so deliciously evil with these plot twists. Oh, and Cez... I realise the e-mails were slightly harsh... sorry about those, that was just me being a pure *****.

You don't say. I'm willing to apologise if you're willing not to flame. Okay? Right, review time...

Pretty cool. Nice plot twist there, having the big bald guy do it instead. Keep it up.

Superb.

(Today's funny comment?Oh,wait.I left it in the car,i'll go get it now...*runs off*)

On 29-Jul-2005 t0ms0nic said:

Superb.

(Today's funny comment?Oh,wait.I left it in the car,i'll go get it now...*runs off*)

LOL. Tom, you're a great chauvinist... keep it up, it's funny.

On 29-Jul-2005 Cez said:

You don't say. I'm willing to apologise if you're willing not to flame. Okay? Right, review time...

Pretty cool. Nice plot twist there, having the big bald guy do it instead. Keep it up.

Okay... guess I should add you back to my contact list =P Thanks, I do like the ol' plot twists, as you know.

Thanks. And yes, plot twists are awesome. They're like black market DVDs. Not many people have 'em, but deep down, we all want 'em.

I'd know what you were talking about, Cez, if I knew what the black market was...

Great job, Hol. Although I've read a little bit of that already...

Black market = illegal. Hooky. Sperious. Not genuine. Get it?

On 29-Jul-2005 Cez said:

Thanks. And yes, plot twists are awesome. They're like black market DVDs. Not many people have 'em, but deep down, we all want 'em.

Yeah... I am choc-full of the buggers =P

What, hooky DVDs? Or plot twists? *Calls the cops* Joke, joke. So when's the next chapter due?

On 30-Jul-2005 Cez said:

What, hooky DVDs? Or plot twists? *Calls the cops* Joke, joke. So when's the next chapter due?

Lol! Should be up be tomorrow night, but I might be able to wangle it for tonight, if you're lucky. I'll show you some on msn later anyway.

Hvala. I'll look forward to it.

On 29-Jul-2005 Cez said:

Black market = illegal. Hooky. Sperious. Not genuine. Get it?

Uhh...No, still don't got it...Why's it called the "black" market?