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

A/N – This fic is being rewritten very slowly, I know that this bothers some people but you must be a little patient with me. I have so many other fics being tended to at the moment that I find it hard to concentrate on a single thing. I love writing this fic; I love the style I’ve chosen and how everything is slowly coming together. Writing this fic is a little like weaving a tapestry – all the little threads that I wrote in the original are slowly pulling together to form something which, to me, is beautiful. Try to stay with me because this fic is something special – if you want updates then subscribe to my mailing list. Oh, and enjoy this chapter!

~*~

Time had slipped past Bulma without her knowing it. Days had blurred to weeks and the weeks in turn had blurred to months until she had begun to suspect that perhaps time had stopped. Nothing changed in the blackness of space, the velvety blue black stretched away endlessly broken only by the distant stars which cast a dim light in the vast void. Bulma knew that time was passing through the growth of the child inside of her. Her stomach, which had once been flat and toned, was now grotesquely bloated from the saiyan halfling within it. Without knowing why, Bulma found herself despising her unborn child. It squirmed within her at every opportunity – waking her from sleep, disturbing her meals and yet this wasn’t the reason that Bulma hated it. She hated it because it was yet another link in the chain that still bound her to Vegeta.

She didn’t want to have his child. She didn’t want a constant reminder that she had been the pleasure slave of a haughty, prideful sociopath who had enjoyed taunting her about her races extinction at every opportunity. The horrible parasite within her was an unwanted remnant of the life she had lived against her will – had she been able to she would have rid herself of the child. But the abomination had been impervious to all of her attempts to end its life, it just squirmed about inside of her, letting her know that it was still there. Even now she could feel the repulsive creature moving inside of her, kicking viciously as though it sensed somehow that it was unwanted. A shaft of pain seemed to hit Bulma square in the chest as the little beast lashed out – sending ripples of pain down her bulging stomach. Clenching her teeth Bulma tried not to cry out, but the pain was too much and she let loose a horrible piercing scream.

Bulma felt wetness between her legs and with a horrible dawning she realised that the halfling was trying to claw its way out of her. Chichi had clearly not known what she was talking about when she had told Bulma that having a saiyan child was no different then having a human child. Granted, she was no expert, but the pain was coming so fast – faster then it should and sooner then it should. Did saiyans have a shorter gestation period? Were saiyan births usually violent? There were so many things that she wanted to know…but no one had the answers she sought. Meekly Bulma cried out for Chichi and hoped that the dark haired woman would know a little more then she about birthing.

~*~

The pain hadn’t lasted long but it had been intense. So much so that when the pain reached its crescendo Bulma thought that she would explode. Her stomach didn’t just cramp and spasm, it seemed to burn and stab and she hated her chid all the more. After what had felt like days, but which was closer to two hours, her body expelled the child into Chichi’s waiting hands and the pain subsided enough for Bulma to launch into an exhausted string of curses – all of them aimed at the father of her child.

“Congratulations Bulma, you’ve got a happy, healthy baby boy!” Chichi wrapped the screeching child in a blanket and held the small bundle up so Bulma could see it. A small gasp burst from her mouth as a tiny brown tail wrapped around her wrist securely and the child’s cries abruptly subsided. Small grey eyes blinked slowly at Bulma and it waved a chubby fist near her face as though asking her to touch it. Immediately Bulma drew back and her lip curled with disgust, the halfling, sensing her negative attitude began to lash from side to side fiercely.

“He looks like Vegeta.” Bulma drew back, an image of Vegeta danced before her eyes – the scowl on the child’s face the same look she had seen on Vegeta’s face a million times. A shiver slid down Bulma’s spine as the boy began to wail again and Chichi quickly placed the boy on the medical counter. Blackness began to fill her vision, bursting like flowers as the cramps started up again. Her eyes closed and despite the pain welling up Bulma found herself thinking that sleep would be nice.

“What are you going to call him?” Chichi’s voice washed over her and Bulma yawned then gasped as she forced her eyes opened and looked at the tiny, bloody halfling that Chichi was still tending to. Even though her friend couldn’t see her Bulma shrugged and gasped again, a flood of names washed through her mind, but all of then were more then a little inappropriate for a child’s name.

“I don’t really care, Chichi. How about I let you choose the name?” Bulma closed her eyes again and was almost instantly asleep, her face still scrunching into pain every now and again as the post childbirth pain infiltrated her dreams. Chichi watched Bulma sadly, knowing that despite Bulma’s hatred for Vegeta she would in time come to love the child – even Bulma must know that passing the sins of the father down t the child was silly, not to mention irrational.

“I think I’ll name him Trunks, Bulma.” Chichi continued to clean the child, talking to Bulma even though she knew the petite blue woman could no longer hear what she was saying. “That was your fathers middle name, wasn’t it? I think Trunks Brief’s will suit him…and hopefully will help you forget that this kid is not his father!” Chichi finished swaddling the babe and turned to Bulma, knowing that the new mother probably needed even more care hen her child.

~*~

Frieza, Warlord of the Milky Way Galaxy, growled childishly as the surgeon who was nodding and taking notes, prodded him in a particularly sensitive area. The doctor’s cold grey eyes assessed him warily, knowing that one wrong diagnosis could lead to his destruction – and he didn’t want to shorten his life span any more then it already had been by the onset of several incurable diseases. Frieza growled again and shoved the doctor away from him in a most violent manner, standing up and deliberately swinging his muscled tail into the doddering old doctor.

“My Lord…Frieza,” The doctor wheezed, desperately trying to talk despite having the breath knocked out of him. “You’ve made a most remarkable recovery!” The surgeon bowed and rattled off a few scientific terms that he hoped would both impress and placate the irate Ice-jin. Lord Frieza had never been the most polite man in the galaxy, but the doctor had never seen him as upset, dare he say obsessed, as he seemed to be with his current situation. Not that he would have said anything aloud of course; Lord Frieza was embarrassed enough that a powerless slave had been able to almost kill him!

Frieza turned iridescent eyes on the old surgeon and laughed throatily. “Well said, Doctor.” He ran hands up his chest, which was laced with the half-healed stab wounds that the woman had left him with. “I should hope that I’m recovering as your head is on the line and if I don’t…” Frieza made a chopping gesture with his hands and cackled as the doctor blanched in horror – his wrinkled face turning a pale shade of green. Frieza floated over to a mirror and assessed his wounds, staring particularly hard at the scars that lacerated his midsection and crawled up into a half healed, but none-the-less vicious, slash at his throat. The doctor rubbed his hands together and coughed to gain his Lords attention.

“Lord Frieza, I must remind you that you will not be at full power until…”

“Silence!” Frieza hissed, his eyes flashing dangerously as he silenced the doctor with a mere glance and then turned and walked away, leaving the surgeon and stalking out with a snarl of naked fury on his face. It wasn’t the doctor that had infuriated him – it was the ever-constant memory of what that blue haired witch had done to him! No one made a fool of Frieza, least of all some lowly human scum who should have been killed while on Earth! He would find that girl and then he would make her pay! He would invent punishments for her – each more painful and brutal then any his ancestors may have devised!

“Lord Frieza!” Zarbon’s smooth voice cut through his thoughts and forced Frieza to slow his pace until his green haired underling caught up with him. “Good news my Lord!” Zarbon scurried up behind Frieza and hastily bowed to him, his face glowing with the news he had. “We have located her ship, Sire! The woman’s ship! It is in the asteroid fields of Delta Forte Five…”

“If you know where she is,” Frieza said frostily, “Why isn’t she back here begging me for mercy?”

The Icejin smiled coldly and began walking faster, his blistering pace forcing Zarbon to quicken his steps in order to keep up. Frieza took little notice of his second in command, his mind was once more racing with all the tortures he could inflict upon the foolish creature that had dared to make an attempt upon his life.

“Well Sire, we know where she is…but we don’t know exactly where she is. It appears that she has rigged her ship with some kind of cloaking device.” Frieza began to frown and at this unfavourable sign Zarbon hurriedly finished speaking. “We were able to track her iron trail to the asteroids but it stopped there…” Zarbon was cut off as Frieza halted abruptly and the green haired pretty boy almost ran into him. Slowly, Frieza turned around and faced him, a distant look in his eyes.

“We will travel to Delta Forte Five and search for her, I will not tolerate failure in this venture! The girl is to be found, captured and brought to me unharmed! I have waited too long to exact my revenge upon her.” Frieza growled and when Zarbon only stared at him he increased his growl to a ferocious rumble. “Set a course to Delta Forte Five, Zarbon! At once!” Frieza turned and angrily strode off, not bothering to wait for Zarbon to acknowledge his request or even for him to bow. His reptilian tail lashing angrily behind him, Frieza returned to his chambers and again allowed himself to sink into fantasies of what he could do to the girl once he was alone with her…

~*~

When Bulma finally woke up, it was to a strange feeling of numbness. The ship around her was eerily calm, yet she was certain that a loud noise had snatched her from slumber. She sat up straight on the bed and stared at her stomach which was infinitely smaller then it had been only hours before. The halfling child was resting in a small cot not far from the bed, however the tiny child was fast asleep and Bulma quickly dismissed it as the source of the noise. Her cold blue eyes lingered on the child – her child – and she stared at it with an almost clinical sense of interest.

The child looked almost nothing like Vegeta, which was something that Bulma was grateful for. He was fair skinned like herself and had inherited her father’s peculiar shade of lavender hair. She couldn’t remember what colour his eyes were, but she had a feeling that it didn’t matter because all babies were born with neutral coloured eyes – even saiyans? She’d never seen a saiyan child but she was willing to bet that they were all born with the same beady black eyes. Had her child been born with black eyes? She didn’t think so.

Bulma shrugged, it wasn’t as if she cared about the wretched beast. She pulled herself into a sitting position and groaned at how wonderful it felt to be able to pull her knees to her chest – it felt glorious! Her back crackled as she arched her spine like a cat and closed her eyes in ecstasy, revelling in the freedom of movement she had now that she’d got rid of the child. Her muscles were sore, but when Bulma finally gathered enough courage to swing her legs off the bed and stand up she did so more easily then she’d imagined she would. Oh, she was a little wobbly on her feet but at least she hadn’t toppled into an ungraceful pile on the floor!

A new coverall was neatly folded on one of the benches. It made of the same lifeless grey one as her old one, only much smaller so as to accommodate for the weight she’d lost. She quickly dressed and then moved to the child. She hovered over it for a few seconds before picking it up and carrying it awkwardly in front of her, trying to touch as little of it as possible.

“Stupid creature.” Bulma growled as the child moved sleepily in her arms, opening its eyes a crack before closing them again. She sniffed in distaste before leaving the room, heading towards the main bridge where Chichi was undoubtedly standing watch. They were hidden deep within an asteroid field, their ship anchored to the side of one of the larger and more stable pieces of debris. Their ship was down to three percent fuel, which was not quite enough to re-launch their ship with. So they were literally stuck on a rock in the middle of space.

A horrible, grey, lifeless rock. They had rations a plenty and their ship’s air supply was constantly filtered and re-circulated so they wouldn’t suffocate. The bad news was that most of the ships electrical systems were solar fuelled, including the air filter, so they were really only waiting for their own deaths. There was one cryogenic emergency pod, but neither Bulma nor Chichi was willing to leave the other behind. Bulma was slightly tempted to put the child in to blast it away from her but the thought of Vegeta’s child having a slim chance at survival while she was faced with death rankled considerably. If she was going to die then Vegeta’s horrid little halfling was dying too.

Chichi paused what she was doing and looked up as Bulma came plodding in, the small baby held at arms length from her body as though it was poisonous and might somehow infect her. She glanced down at the screen she had been staring at, her face tight with worry and Bulma guessed that whatever it was she was looking at, it wasn’t good. When the raven-haired ex-princess began speaking again her voice was high with fear and her hands constantly fluttered around her body, trembling slightly.

“Bulma…” Her voice tumbled from her mouth on a hysterical note and she closed it with a snap, taking a deep breath before she tried again. “Bulma, about fifteen minutes ago a fleet of ships appeared on the screen.”

Bulma guessed what was coming but kept her mouth closed anyway.

“It’s a whole fleet of Frieza’s ships. I don’t know how they tracked us down but they did.” She buried her face in her hands, her body violently trembling. “What do we do?”

Bulma looked into Chichi’s panicked eyes and resisted the urge to ask her how she was supposed to know what to do. Instead she tried to look reassuring as she passed her his son and settled herself behind the main communication board, checking out how long she had before Frieza’s ships reached them and how likely it was that they would be able to find them in the asteroid field. The ships that were approaching them on the screen were the giant clumsy battle cruisers that Frieza seemed to favour and inside of these cruisers were undoubtable more of the small vessels like the one Chichi and herself had commandeered.

“Well…” Bulma shrugged, swallowing the urge to laugh hysterically at their predicament. “We can’t run from them Chichi. Even if we had enough fuel their ships are much faster then ours.”

“So what do we do?” Chichi clutched the boy to her chest and he woke with an angry squalling cry.

“All we can do is stay here and hope they don’t find us…” Bulma abruptly trailed off as yet more ships appeared on her radar, however these ships were coming from a completely different direction and were, however familiar, completely different to the type of ships Frieza used. A look must have passed over her face because Chichi was instantly behind her, pushing up against her as she tried to read the radar screen.

“Bulma what is it?” She croaked, terror squeezing her voice.

“Saiyans.”

Chichi swayed as though Bulma had hit her physically. Her ebony eyes widened and she backed away, not stopping until she hit the far wall and even then she kept pushing as though expecting the wall to give way to her. Chichi opened and closed her mouth, horror drawing the blood from her pace leaving her looking pale and delicate.

Bulma shook her head and gave into the urge to laugh at their predicament. The laugh burbled from her throat and Bulma found that once she had started laughing she couldn’t stop. Even when she felt tears beginning to well up she couldn’t make herself stop. After everything she had done to get away from them and all she had been through to secure her and Chichi’s freedom they were going to be dragged back to a life of torture and slavery.

She felt Chichi’s hand on her arm and distantly she could hear her child’s piercing cries. “Bulma! Please stop laughing! You’re scaring us!” Bulma’s head drooped for a second and the laughter faded out altogether, but the tears didn’t stop. They continued to fall, silently, unnoticed and hidden by her hair.

“I can’t go back, Chi.” Bulma’s voice was soft, but so full of emotion that even if Chichi hadn’t heard the words she would have known what was said. It wasn’t fair, she didn’t deserve something like this…she had come to far and done too much to have it all end with her in the hands of a madman. They were both madmen - Frieza and Vegeta. She didn’t know which one of them she hated more; they were both as detestable as the other. However, she did know which one she feared the most, and it was Vegeta.

They were both as bad as each other, but she had spent more time with Vegeta and time had taught her that he was cruel in ways which made her skin crawl even now. It wasn’t just the rape and torture, it was the emotional pain that she had endured with him. He liked to see her hurting, crying, and writhing in pain. One of his favourite games was to tell her that he’d had Chichi killed, another game was to pull out a random slave from the prison pens and threaten to kill them if Bulma didn’t do as he wished.

“…Wouldn’t it be safer to go with the Saiyans?”

Chichi’s voice was interrupting her thoughts, forcing her to face the reality of her situation instead of dwelling in those horrible memories. She had never told Chichi about the things that Vegeta had done to her. She didn’t want Chichi to know what Vegeta had made her do when she had finally given in to his threats…or to know how many people had died before she had given in.

“…You had his son, won’t that mean something to them?” Chichi had dropped to her knees next to Bulma, desperation in her eyes. “Bulma, I can’t just give in to Frieza again! Not to Frieza and his men.” Something in Chichi’s voice made Bulma wonder just what had been done to her in Frieza’s prison camp. There was a horror in her face that made Bulma shiver – she didn’t want to know what had been done to Chichi anymore then she wanted Chichi to know what had been done to her in the space of that night they had spent away from one another.

“Please Bulma,” Chichi continued, her hand tightly gripping Bulma’s shoulder. “Give into the saiyans before Frieza can get to us.”

“Chichi…no!” Bulma shook her head, swallowing hard so she wouldn’t cry again.

“You don’t understand Bulma! They may have been cold and cruel but they were nothing compared to Frieza and his men…nothing!” Chichi choked on a sob as tears freely ran down her face. Her frail body was shivering with terror and the look on her face…the look was something that Bulma had never imagined to see again. It was the same look that Chichi had had after Goku had been killed and they had been forced to flee Earth.

“How can you say that when the saiyans killed your only child?” It was the only thing that Bulma could think of to say, and as far as defences went it was petty and desperate. She wanted to scream at Chichi and tell her that she was being selfish; that she didn’t know what Vegeta had done to her! That she didn’t know what Frieza had done! She couldn’t go back! She couldn’t…

“Because I’m still alive.” Chichi’s voice had returned to a normal tone of voice and she took her hand off Bulma’s shoulder. “I’m alive and I’m thinking of myself! They saiyans treated me better then Frieza’s men did and given a choice I’d rather be with the saiyans.” The ebony haired woman shook the tears from her face and stood up with a flourish. “Besides my Goku was a Saiyan and…and…” She turned away and composed herself before turning back around to face Bulma. “I wont let Frieza take me Bulma! I wont!”

Bulma swallowed hard as Chichi spoke the same words she had just been thinking, only Chichi’s great fear was Frieza and his men. She watched through her sky blue eyes as Chichi pulled herself together and abruptly turned her blazing eyes on Bulma.

“You will surrender to the saiyans, Bulma.” She strode forward and loomed over the petite woman. “Because if you don’t Bulma, I’ll kill myself. I’d rather die then go back to Frieza.” Their eyes clashed and Bulma felt her own fear receding. She wouldn’t loose her only friend. Even if it meant they had to return to the saiyans, she wouldn’t loose Chichi.

“Okay.” Bulma calmly turned to the communication board and began to open a COM link with the saiyans ship. A child’s wail pieced the silence, and both the women looked at the small boy that Chichi was clutching in her arms. Bulma clenched her teeth and frowned at the unpleasant thought that it was this child that might end up saving them from the saiyans wrath.

~*~

A/N – Let me know what you think of this chapter. I’ve made some pretty big character changes and these are going to become even more apparent in the next chapter of this fic. Thanks for reading.