DISCLAIMER: I do not own DBZ and I get no money for doing this.

Author Note: ‘The Pain of Pleasure’ was first written in the year 2000, it was my first serious Odd Couple fic, and yes, it is a Frieza/Bulma/Vegeta love triangle.

The fic is written in two parts – this is first part and it is followed by ‘Chains and Bonds’ – it’s disturbing yet satisfying sequel.

I feel it is only fair to warn people that this fic contains Odd Couples as well as some rape, torture and sex scenes of varying degrees. The exception to this is if you are reading this at fanfiction.net, because then you’re getting an edited version. I ask people to keep an open mind with this fic, for despite the inherent darkness in this fic, it is an enjoyable story with an original and intricate plot. - VG

The Pain of Pleasure

~*~ Prologue ~*~

Someone, some anonymous person long ago, once told me that every being is a slave his or her own destiny. That it is through our predestined choices and decisions that we follow our path in life, that each being is not truly responsible for their own fate, and that nothing we do can change the path preordained for us.

Not love.

Not hate.

Nothing.

There is nothing in this world that can prevent our fates from unravelling once we have started the ball rolling. No matter how we may struggle against the tide, the most we will ever achieve is to forestall the inevitable.

The underlying truth to it all is that we are all but slaves to destiny.

I learnt this the day that Frieza’s troops invaded my home, the Earth. That was the day that my world fell apart, the day it shattered like a fragile bauble. I can’t remember much; time has blurred memories that were once clear as glass…but I do remember the screams of fear and the deep staining red of blood on my hands.

I can remember watching Yamcha and Krillen slaughtered in front of me. I can remember Goku desperately ordering me to save Gohan and Chichi. To flee Frieza and leave our doomed world. I can remember quite clearly how solemn Goku’s voice had been and how he’d smelt of sweat and blood when I’d hugged him a final goodbye.

His blood had stayed on my hands long after I washed them clean.

It stains them still.

We never did find out what had happened to Goku – Chichi and I that is. Chichi used to wake up from nightmares so terrifying that they slowly drove her insane. Deep down, Chichi still held onto the hope that maybe her husband had survived somehow, but the truth was slowly driving her insane.

I at least knew better then hold onto fragile hope.

I’d watched as one of Frieza’s soldiers had literally torn Yamcha in half - as though he had been made of tissue paper.

Goku was dead.

I felt it in my bones just as surely as I felt the past was going to shadow Chichi and I for a very long time. Like a stalker following an innocent through the darkness in the deep of night.

I never knew how right I was about the past following us as we fled into the endless oblivion of space, but I was soon to learn that escaping our past was truly impossible.

I now know better then to believe, as I once did, that we are free to make out own choices. We may believe that we choose out own paths in life, but the truth is much darker.

The truth is that everyone is born a slave in some way or another, and whatever choices we make every last one of us is bound to our own unique destiny.

This is something that we cannot escape, for we all but slaves with fate as our cruel master.

~*~