DISCLAIMER: DBZ I do not own.

A/N – Yay! I’m so glad that everybody who was reading this previous to the big ‘NC-17’ thing has returned to read it as well as some new people ^_^ I am happy! Thank you to everybody who reviewed, you guys all rock!

Speaking of rockers, thanks to Ane S. Thesia for beta reading again. You’re the rockiest rock who ever rocked!

Chapter 6: ‘Bad Begins’

~*~

~*~ So, again, good night. ~*~

~*~ I must be cruel, only to be kind: ~*~

~*~ Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. ~*~

- Hamlet from ‘Hamlet’

~*~

“Bulma!”

Bulma turned around at the sound of her name being called and smiled happily when she saw Goku hurrying towards her. She still found it hard to believe Turles was jealous of Goku of all people! Goku didn’t have a mean bone in his body! “Hey, Goku, what’s up?” She slapped him a high five, grinning like an idiot.

“Not much.” He grinned back at her, pleased with her enthusiastic response to his approach. “How are you doing? Managing to survive with that space pirate?” Goku kept his tone light and playful, managing to keep all of the negative emotions out of his voice.

Bulma grinned at him and decided that since she couldn’t hear in animosity in his tone, Goku must have forgiven Turles for what he’d done. Goku always had been a forgiving guy. “Sure, he’s not all bad you know, Goku.” She flashed the taller saiyan a dazzling smile.

“Oh, I bet.” This time a note of what sounded like bitterness leaked out and Goku smiled quickly to cover it up, not wishing for Bulma to catch on to how deep his hatred of Turles really ran. “I mean, I bet he is a different person with you.”

Bulma giggled and blushed. “He sure is.”

Goku looked away and scowled, he’d have to be an idiot not to pick up on the sexual innuendo in her tone! How could she let a murderer touch her like that? It was unthinkable! He had known Bulma longer then any of these fools and yet she seemed to be getting more and more distant from him. It was as if Turles had her under some sort of strange spell that made her behave oddly.

“Do you miss Earth?” Goku added a touch of sadness and wistfulness to his voice, if he could only connect with Bulma in an emotional way he might have a chance to wrangle her away from his brother.

“Yes. All this time has passed since I left but…I still have nightmares about what took place after you left.” She shivered and Goku felt an overwhelming urge to take her in his arms and tell her it was going to be all right. He had to fight the protective side of him with every inch of his being. He couldn’t make any premature moves on Bulma or he’d risk losing her trust.

“Hard to believe we’re the only ones left.” Goku settled for taking Bulma’s hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “I never forgave myself for leaving, you know.” He moved closer to her and pushed a strand f her hair behind her ear, unable to keep his hands off her.

“Yeah, I know.” Bulma took a step back from him, pulled her hand away and rubbed it absentmindedly. The strand of hair he had ticked behind her ear pulled free again and swung into her eyes.

“We’re really the last of our kind, you know, Earthlings.” Her distancing herself didn’t perturb Goku from continuing to test how the water between himself an Bulma was. They were the only earthlings left after all, and it gave him a connection to her that Turles did not have.

Bulma apparently didn’t see this as a link and her eyes turned slightly missed without warning. “Kinda, but at least a piece of Earth will live on after we’ve gone.” Bulma smiled softly and touched her stomach. “I’m pregnant.”

Goku stopped dead in his tracks and almost choked. “You’re pregnant…to him?” With horror Goku realized that he’d betrayed how much he disliked Turles with that simple statement. Bulma was looking at him oddly, as if she was seeing him for the first time.

“What’s wrong with him?” Bulma said defensively, raising an eyebrow. She crossed her arms and continued to speak, not giving Goku a chance to interrupt her. “You know, if anybody has the right to get angry about what he did to Earth it’s me! I saw the things he did! I know what it felt like to be hunted, to fear for my life every single second of the day. And let me tell you, you can’t possibly imagine what it was like.” Bulma took a deep breath and the tension drained out of her. “If I can manage to forgive him, then I think you should too.”

Her words made sense but Goku didn’t take any of it in. “You’re right, Bulma, I don’t have any idea of what it’s like to be hunted and threatened and to see my family die around me. But try to understand my position. Until you showed up with Turles I thought my family was alive! My wife…my son! And now I know that they’re dead and it’s all because of him!” Goku tried to calm himself down but the fuse inside of him had been lit and it was only a matter of time before he blew, metaphorically speaking. “You’ve had time to get over what he did, Bulma, I haven’t and more than that, I’m Saiyan and we react a little differently to these situations than humans do.” He almost snarled at Bulma but checked himself in time and turned his face away so she wouldn’t see how close to losing control he was.

“You’re sounding more and more like Turles with each minute.” Bulma sounded bitter for a moment and Goku’s head snapped around to look at her. “What happened to the old Goku I knew?” She sounded more wistful and Goku took this as his cue, moving closer to her again.

“The old Goku was forced to slaughter thousands of aliens against his will, that’s what happened to the old Goku.” This time the note of bitterness in Goku’s voice couldn’t be mistaken and when Bulma looked up to glance at his face he lowered his head to hers for a kiss…

~*~

Vegeta watched Kakarot with Bulma from the shadows of the hall. His tail was lashing back and forth with agitation as again and again he watched Kakarot touch Bulma, leaving his scent on her to further enrage Turles. Whether or not Goku was conscious of his own actions was debatable, but right now Vegeta was angry enough that the larger saiyan had dared to disobey him and had approached the woman again.

Part of Vegeta wondered what they were talking so animatedly about as he watched their facial expressions flicker from sadness to happiness and then back again. As he watched, Kakarot leant in close to Bulma as if to kiss her, but Bulma, moving quicker then Vegeta would have imagined her to move, twisted her head aside and hugged him instead. Goku looked angry for a beat, then he began to relax into the hug, almost snuggling into her embrace. Unable to stand it anymore Vegeta cursed and stepped out of the shadows.

“Kakarot!” He snapped waspishly as he strode out of the shadows, slightly pleased at the way Goku nervously jumped away from Bulma as if he had been caught doing something bad. Obviously, Kakarot’s instincts were telling him to be wary. Bulma may not have been a fully claimed mate, but Turles’ mark on her was blatantly obvious and a clear warning for any other Saiyan male who might think of touching her to keep away.

Bulma was most likely falling for Turles too; if she didn’t like him, then the mark would have faded and the bond claim would have been worthless. But the mark hadn’t faded physically or on a ki level, if anything, Turles’ mark on her was stronger. If Kakarot succeeded in breaking them apart, Vegeta knew that the little human would most likely get very, very hurt by the broken bond.

After all, Vegeta’s own mother had died when another saiyan female had managed to steal his father away. He had watched his other go mad and then slowly waste away, oh yes, he of all people understood how powerful and dangerous a bond could be. It made him al the more determined not to let the human female go through the same kind of pain that his mother had suffered. It wasn’t pity, it was just the honorable thing to do.

“What is it, Vegeta?” Kakarot stormed up, his power crackling around him. He was obviously very ruffled to have been caught attempting to seduce Bulma. It was almost sickening the way he had thrown himself at her – a grown man such as Kakarot should have known better.

“I wanted to have a word with Bulma.” Vegeta brushed past him as though he was nothing and took Bulma’s arm, leading her away from Kakarot and his not-so-nice honorable intentions. He could hear Goku growling behind him but he ignored him – for the moment he was still the stronger of the two.

“Vegeta? What’s wrong?” Bulma tugged on her arm as Vegeta all but dragged her away form Goku.

He dragged her around a corner where he was sure Goku wouldn’t hear them, then he turned to her and began to speak. “I thought I warned you two not to be alone together?” He hissed through clenched teeth. “Are you stupid or crazy?”

“Vegeta, we were just talking.” Bulma spoke defensively and seemed to pull back into herself, making it clear that she considered him to be more dominant then herself. Obviously being chastised by a saiyan was something she was used to.

“And hugging.” He added quietly, wondering if the woman had noticed Goku’s attempt to kiss her.

“It was a friendly hug!” Bulma insisted, succeeded in pulling out of his grasp and defensively crossed her arms. “What are you implying? We didn’t do anything wrong!”

“He tried to kiss you, surely you noticed that?”

Bulma had noticed, actually, but at the time she hadn’t thought much of it. Goku couldn’t have been trying anything, at least not in the way Vegeta was implying – Goku had more sense then to risk her life.

“Well, woman?” Vegeta crossed his arms and waited for her to admit that she had seen his try to kiss her.

“Well what?” Bulma mirrored his action, meeting his eyes with a steely gaze.

“Did you notice his not-so-subtle attempt at kissing you?” Vegeta mirrored Bulma’s stance, smirking when she realized he had noticed her attempt to copy his arm crossing.

She blushed and hurriedly looked away. “Vegeta, I’m sure it was just a spur of the moment thing - a friendship thing. He didn’t mean anything by it, we’d just been talking about his wife and son and he’d gotten a bit emotional. We are the last two Earth dwellers left alive, you know.” She nodded as she spoke as though convincing herself along with him.

“I am well aware of that fact.” Vegeta sighed and realized that Bulma was not going to just give in. “I’m just asking you to be careful. Kakarot is hell-bent on getting revenge on Turles for destroying Earth and its inhabitants and I’m worried that you might be hurt by his actions.”

“Goku would never hurt me.” Bulma shook her head in denial. “We’ve been best friends since he was a little boy, Goku wouldn’t, couldn’t, do anything that would hurt me. It’s not in his nature.”

“Wasn’t in his nature, you mean.” Vegeta put a hand on Bulma’s shoulder and looked earnestly down into her eyes. “The Kakarot that you knew on Earth has changed, Bulma. He’s been with us for years now and each day he is becoming more and more saiyan-like. Whether or not you choose to acknowledge it, the fact is that Kakarot is following his Saiyan instincts and right now they’re telling him to get revenge on Turles.”

“I don’t believe you.” Bulma gave him a parting glare and strode away angrily while Vegeta stared helplessly after her.

Maybe he should have told her that Goku really did plan on hurting Turles by using her as a weapon, but it wasn’t his place to tell her. Kakarot had told him in confidence, and no matter how much he wanted to protect Bulma from his little plan, he had no choice but to watch from the sidelines as this little charade was played out. He could only hope that when all the dust died down Bulma would be left alive and intact.

~*~

Goku crept into Turles’ room and stealthily opened up the main wardrobe, his movements silent and quick as he searched for what he needed. Bulma, at the moment, was down in the science lab taking a look at the alien science. Turles was in a yet another meeting with Frieza – probably comparing notes on how to destroy worlds.

Goku found what he needed and smirked. He took out one of his brother’s training suits, two of his gloves, a pair of boots and some armor. Then he crept back out of the room again just as stealthily as he had entered, certain that his plan would work. He hated to deceive Bulma like this, but he had to win her to his side. She couldn’t realize just how much of a monster Turles was. He’d probably brainwashed her in space into wanting to stay with him - made her dependent on him for survival or some such thing.

Well, Goku wouldn’t allow that. Bulma was his! He had known her the longest; he knew the most about her, he knew what would make her happy. She shouldn’t have to stay with that freak of a brother of his and live out her life as his ‘mate.’ Goku went back to his own room filled with the knowledge that his plan was going to work. He dressed in his brother’s clothes and stared at himself in the mirror with a devious smirk.

It was amazing, except for the scar missing on his face he looked exactly like Turles - even his skin was the exact same tone.

Bulma wouldn’t know the difference.

~*~