In the bowels of the Earth, in a spacious cavern
there was a palace made of pure uncut crystal. Jagged spires of rose
quartz reached the top of the cavern, competing with stalactites for room.
In the center of this fortress on a throne of obsidian sat a "woman" neither
human, nor alien. Not demon nor angel. She was a goddess named
Kali.
"Oh my, he is beautiful. He will make a lovely pet." She stared
at the image of Vegeta and Bulma. "It's been ages since I've had
one, and he is not human. He is far more resilient, and he lives
twice as long as a mortal man. Daiken!!" she cried. Within
seconds a shivering hunk of twisted flesh hobbled forward.
"Yes mistress?" she smirked at the thing before her, he'd been her
last lover and look at him now. She was just too rough. Oh
well, it couldn't be helped.
"Look into the pool of sight my dear." Daiken nodded and hobbled forward,
peering over the edge.
"You wish me to bring this man to you." Kali nodded, pleased.
"Yes my dear, but take great care. He is not human, he is Saiyajin.
His strength is phenomenal, he wields ki extremely well. You must
use every spell at your command. I will lend you some of my more
powerful entrapment spells and power to wield them. But do not be
seen! I don't want his mate or his friends to know what has happened
to him or where he is." Daiken nodded in understanding. He was not
angry or jealous of the Saiyan before him, he felt only pity. When
the mistress had sent for him he was but twenty years old, and full of
life. But after she was done with him he was nothing more than the
shriveled mass he was today. He hated Kali, but now, he could not
live without her and were he to try and leave, even if he could somehow
have a somewhat normal life, she could open a gateway to hell and cast
him into the deepest pit without Lord Emma's permission.
"Yes mistress, your will is my command."
Vegeta… He was
in a strange house. He recognized nothing. It was a large building
more suited to several families living there at once. The walls were
decaying. Old wallpaper, faded beyond recognition, hung down in tatters
and swayed in a breeze that Vegeta could not feel. He smelled dust
and decay, his nose wrinkled in disgust. Cobwebs barley clung to
the corners of the ceiling, weighted down by dust and long dead insects.
He could hear rats scamper about and the wooden floor he trod upon was
covered in debris and filth. The floor creaked alarmingly as he set
his weight upon it.
Vegeta figured that he'd be safer if he flew,
picturing himself falling through the floor to the next level, but when
he tried to rise up, nothing happened.
"What the-?" he wondered aloud. He immediately
wished he had not spoken. His voice echoed through the house, but
it was unlike a real echo. It was as if the house was filled with
invisible beings, chanting his words back to him, each voice more distorted
than the last. It was as if they were mocking him. And sliver
of fear crept up his spine and he began to tremble. He didn't know
why, but he knew there was something horribly wrong with the house.
He felt death, violence, pain, and fear. He knew there were bodies
buried under the floor in the basement, and between the very walls themselves,
though how he knew he could not say. He wanted to leave. He
knew that if he didn't get out as fast as he could he would be mauled,
dismembered, or worse. The more he thought about it, the more he
was convinced that the very walls had the power to suck his soul out and
leave a dried, shriveled corpse behind.
He was sweating and shaking as he looked for
a door to escape out of. But his thoughts were way ahead of him.
The window! Jump
out! NOW!!
So he did.
Or at least, he tried.
The glass did not so much as crack.
He collapsed to the ground after pounding on
the window in a frenzy for a few moments. Realizing that it would
not break, he frantically went to every window he could find. He
tried opening them, breaking them, nothing worked. He was almost
hysterical by time he reached the first floor.
"Let me out!" he screamed.
"OuT. oUt. Out.."
the
walls whispered. He ran to the front door and rattled the knob, tugged
it, and hit it until it shattered and crumbled into dust.
Vegeta was about to get as close to hysterical
as he'd ever come in his life.
"No!" he moaned.
"No. No. No…"
the house taunted. Vegeta desperately tried to remain calm.
He knew that if he were to lose control the house would destroy him, devour
him like a juicy morsel. With a shuddering sigh he stood and looked
around. There were holes in the wall where he could see thin, narrow
boards and behind them, crumbling bricks. He crossed the living room
and began to tear the boards out. They snapped like toothpicks, and
at last, Vegeta felt a glimmer of hope.
The bricks gave way as easily as the wood.
The mortar crumbled in his fingers like wet sand. Warm air began
to seep through the cracks, pushing Vegeta to go faster.
Not until he had made a hole large enough for him to fit through
did he stop to wonder why it had been so easy when every other form of
escape had been impossible. He ignored the thought and began to crawl
through. The hole was small, it was a tight fit and he could not
raise his head until he was out. He made his way through, fresh air
hit him, and below him… Below him was possibly the steepest cliff
he'd ever laid eyes on.
"No…" he whispered. He remembered then
that he could no longer fly and a fear he'd never experienced before shook
him in its teeth like a rag doll. Vegeta had never been afraid of
heights in his life, he loved it high above the ground. But now,
he was terrified. He wanted to go back the way he came but he refused
to enter the house again.
Vegeta… Vegeta stiffened in horror. Now what?!
He looked around but saw no one. He couldn't sense anything either.
Vegeta…
he didn't answer. Instead he climbed out onto the roof below him,
above a porch he assumed. He walked a bit to the left and looked
out over the horizon. All he saw was death.
"My…God.." as far as he could see, everything
was laid waste. Buildings were reduced to ashes, rubble, and twisted
metal. Cars lay in heaps. Everything looked as though an explosion
of immense power had ripped through. The sky was full of dark, boiling
clouds. He could not see the sun.
"What.. happened?" he murmured. And in
response, a thousand souls began to flow from charred lumps on the ground.
They shrieked in terror and pain, horrified by their deaths and the state
of their world. Their emotions seemed to hit Vegeta in the face and
sink into his bones until he nearly wept at their loss as if it was his
own.
With a heart-breaking moan, he slumped to his knees.
"Vegeta! Wake up!!"
Vegeta sat up with a gasp. Bulma stared at
him in shock.
"Are you all right?" she asked, her brow furrowed
in concern. Vegeta was trembling, still half in his dream.
"My God!" he cried in Saiyago. Bulma stared
in confusion. He realized it was still night.
"What happened?" she asked. "You woke me up."
Vegeta flushed in embarrassment.
"I- a dream. I've never had a dream like that."
He jumped up.
"Wait!" Bulma cried as he ran to the door.
He ignored her and flew off as if he hadn't heard a thing.
He stopped in the middle of the forest surrounding CC. He knew he shouldn't have run off like that. He was still tired and Bulma was probably upset, but he was embarrassed at having woken Bulma and the dream unnerved him. He always was having strange dreams, but they never scared him. He sat down on the edge of a cliff overlooking a river and pondered the dream and what it could possibly mean.
Bulma sat stunned in her bed. She had been woken up by him thrashing in bed and whimpering. She shook him and called his name and at first he didn't respond but then he woke up and took off leaving her confused and worried. She sighed and got out of bed. She couldn't sleep anymore, she had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt that something was about to happen.
Daiken sat in a tree above the Saiyan Prince.
He reached into a pouch that hung from his belt and sprinkled some sand
down and began to chant in a foreign tongue. Vegeta sat on the ground
at the base of the tree and he suddenly felt light-headed. He tried
to stand, thinking he needed to get back to CC and rest, but as soon as
he let go of the tree his knees buckled and he collapsed. He didn't
even have time to curse as a small body landed on top of him. Before
he could react something sharp rammed into his neck. He gasped in
agony and his throat filled with blood. He began to choke and quickly
lost consciousness.
Daiken smiled at the figure before him, but the
blood would simply not do. His mistress wanted the saiyan unharmed.
He reached into a bag and pulled out a mortal and pestle. He threw
some oak leaves and dragon's blood in, then took some of Vegeta's blood
and added it to the mixture. He crushed up the leaves murmuring a
soft chant over the mix which began to give off a faint luminescence and
when he was done he applied the mixture to Vegeta's wound. In seconds
the laceration had healed and Daiken nodded in satisfaction. He then
sat on Vegeta's back and chanted again, and they were gone as if they'd
never been there.
Bulma gasped in agony. She felt a sharp, twisting pain in her
neck so severe, tears immediately filled her eyes. Without knowing
how, she knew it was Vegeta. She bolted outside and ran straight
into the forest without regard for the consequences. All she could
think of was Vegeta and the pain she'd just felt. She ran for a good
ten minutes when her legs stopped of their own accord. She collapsed
gasping for air and she suddenly spotted something in the light of the
moon. She put her hand down and felt wetness and brought it closer
for inspection.
It was blood. Bulma shuddered convulsively and raised her head.
"VEGETA!!!!" she screamed.