PAIRING (if applicable): b/v …no lemon though….
RATING: PG-13 for talking about dead people
I guess.
WARNINGS: Dragonball Z belongs to Akira Toriyama,
not me!!
SUMMARY: just read the fic already!!
"I've been here before!"
Vegeta exclaimed suddenly. He and Bulma stopped in their tracks on
the path between river and forest. "No… I dreamed of it!" His eyes
suddenly lit up. Bulma was quite taken by the expression she'd never
seen on his face before. It could only be described as wonder.
"It was when I left to train in space." He continued staring fixedly at
a small swamp at the edge of the woods and the path. "I was walking
here at night though. The moon was full, but I didn't transform."
He sounded bitter on that point. Bulma had thought he'd gotten over
the loss of his tail, but then again, she didn't really know how deeply
it affected him. "I turned and looked there." He said pointing at
the murky swamp water, the twisted tree trunks, and the lush vegetation
that sprouted along the fringe. "There were two dead people in the
water. A boy and a girl. About seventeen or something.
The boy had brown hair and the girl had blond. But they weren't floating-"
he heard Bulma abruptly suck in her breath and look at her questioningly.
"There were cinderblocks
tied to their feet and they were tied together." She said. He looked
faintly surprised.
"I saw them holding each
other and the boy had two fingers in the girl's mouth. It was weird."
He said with a faint smile.
"I can't believe it."
Bulma said. He glanced at her and was surprised to see her staring
at him in stunned amazement.
"What?" he said
a little unnerved.
"That did happen!
Kami it was in the news like crazy! And not a week after you left!"
"So?" Vegeta demanded,
not liking the implications. But Bulma wasn't listening.
"Their poor parents..
I felt so bad. Some wacko found them together in the woods and killed
them.. Drowned them both. There were bruises on the back of
there necks from him holding them underwater. Then he chained them
up to cinder blocks and threw them in. It was all over the news.
The only reason I came here was because you are with me. I would hate to
run into their wandering spirits!" She finished softly. She glanced
at him and they resumed walking.
"I don't know how I saw
that, I didn't even like you back then!" Vegeta exclaimed, referring to
the bond they now shared which formed a mental link between them.
"No kidding." Bulma said
in the same lofty tone. "I was so glad you left!" she gazed at him
and gave him a charming, crooked smile. "I was glad you came back
though, silly girl that I was!" Vegeta smiled briefly.
"Is that so? Well, if
we run into any "wandering spirits" as you said, I'll be out of here."
"Without me?" she asked
fluttering her lashes teasingly. "Why Vegeta, you're not scared of
ghosts are you?" she teased.
"No!" he snapped, flushing slightly. "I've seen one before and that
was enough, okay?"
"Really? What happened?"
she asked, curiously. He frowned.
"I saw a woman.
In an old- I don't know what you call them. It was big. One
big room and there to put animals in. They used to have them on the
agricultural planets that Frieza controlled. I know they're on Chikyuu,
I've seen them on TV!" he said, struggling to find the word.
"A barn?" Bulma
offered. Recognition dawned in his eyes and he nodded.
"Yes. I was five.
I remember. My father needed to buy grain and seeds for the slaves
to sow because the full moon had just come the year before and all the
fields on Vajiitasei had been torn up."
"Crazy monkeys." Bulma
said. Vegeta only smirked in response. "Go on." She prompted.
"Uh.. yeah. The
barn was really old and there was nothing in it but old junk. Frieza's
slaves were building three huge ones to fit all the smelly fat animals
on the colony. But anyway, I went to check the old barn out
while my father and Frieza were doing business and I ran out screaming
that I saw "A lady" and crying like a little brat." He admitted with
a definite blush. Bulma's eyes nearly bulged not because of the information
itself, but the fact that he'd just confided it to her.
"What happened?" she asked,
breathless, caught up in his remembered fear.
"I don't know. I
can't remember. I remember everything but her. What she looked like,
when I saw her, where. Nothing. It's gone. All I remember
is walking in and then running out screaming. And that I know was
it was a woman. And I think she must have hung herself because that's
the only way you can kill yourself in a barn that I know of."
"How do you know she killed
herself?" Bulma asked. At that he looked confused, frowning.
Then his expression cleared and he shrugged.
"I don't know. If
I could go back there I would. I want to see if she's still there.
Maybe if I saw her again it wouldn't bother me anymore." He broke off abruptly
and looked as if he wanted to leave right then and there, with or without
her. She gently laid her hand on his arm and felt the muscles twitching
underneath the smooth flesh.
"Vegeta. I would
have probably pissed in my pants if I saw that when I was five. And
I doubt I'd remember half of what you do. I would have blocked it
all out. And gladly too!" he sighed. He wanted to say
more, that was clear.
"It's just that I've been
thinking about it a lot recently. Frieza used to ask me about it
occasionally. It was the only time he was really interested in what
I had to say, I think. That kind of stuff interested him for some
reason. The first time he asked about it I didn't know what he was talking
about at first.
"And now I think about
her all the time and I don't know why. I can't remember and I can't
forget and it's driving me crazy! Why, out of everything I've seen
that has hurt, why is she all I can think of and I can't even see her face?
I don't even know who the hell she was but I feel like I have to find out.
But I can't because I don't remember what planet it was on, or if the barn
is still there, or if she herself is still there!" he was getting loud,
but Bulma wasn't about to tell him to shut up. She was fascinated,
and puzzled at the same time.
Of all of those he'd killed,
he'd never seen one bitter specter. Instead he was haunted by a woman
from long ago who he'd never even known in life. A dead woman who
scared the chibi no Ouji so bad, he'd fled screaming and crying by his
own account!
It was weird. Scary
too. It would torment her as well.
"We could ask Dende about
it." she offered.
"No. It's not the
same. I have to see it myself. And if that barn is still there,
I'll burn it to the ground!" he declared fervently. Then he lowered
his eyes with another sigh. "I feel like I have to send her away.
To where she's supposed to be, wherever or whatever it is. I don't
know.." he trailed off.
"How would burning the
barn help?" Bulma questioned.
"She'd have no place to keep her anymore. She wouldn't be able to
stare at the reminder of what she did to herself. I don't know!"
he snapped at last, looking angry and uncomfortable.
"Alright. Maybe
we could find the Dragon balls to wish us there." She offered.
"But-" he broke off and
bit his lip, his face turning a dull red. She blinked in surprise.
"You don't want
to go back?" he stopped in his tracks. Bulma followed suit.
His fists clenched and relaxed repeatedly, and she could see the emotions
flickering across his face. Only one was constant- fear. She
dared not say anything.
"No." he said softly,
and turned to look at her. The sun was rapidly setting and his eyes
were pools of black in the fading light. "I don't. I do but
I don't. I remember but I can't! I'm torn in half over something
that shouldn't even concern me! Why?" the last word was a sorrowful
plea to anyone who might be listening. She felt her heart clench.
He had been right when he'd said the bond would change everything..
Vegeta himself was changing. Before he'd been a wall of cold, unfeeling
ice. Now he was feeling with an intensity that he most likely found
shameful.
"There can only be one
reason. You have to do something. Maybe you are the only one
who can." He shook his head as he wanted to deny it but Bulma refused to
let him shy away. "Think on this. Why do you remember still?
Why does it bother you? Why did you see her in the first place? Perhaps
she knew you'd have the strength to help her, when she couldn't release
herself." She sighed, struggling. It made about as much sense to
her as it did to him. "I don't know, Vegeta. I told you what
you might do to find out and end this, it's up to you to decide."
He nodded and they continued
walking.