DISCLAIMER: I don’t own dragon ball z or dragon ball gt, nor do I make any money from this fic. Please don’t sue me, I’m just a poor Australian and our dollar really sucks right now so please don’t sue!

Chapter 13

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Seventeen grabbed Vegeta by his shirt and hurled him into a pile of rubble, rushing after him to punch him in the face and send him hurtling towards a half standing wall. Vegeta stopped himself and launched off the wall, tackling Seventeen by the waist and ramming him into the ground.

Bulma stood transfixed as the only two men she’d ever love started to beat each other to a pulp in front of her. Through the bond she could feel Vegeta tugging at her to come and attack Seventeen, and although she tried to fight against it she couldn’t. With a small growl she hurled herself into the fray – slamming into Seventeen and tackling him to the floor with a snarl of fury.

She tried to punch or kick him but her fighting skills where no match for Seventeen and he easily tossed her aside. He frowned at her, but quickly attacked Vegeta again – his punches a blur that Bulma couldn’t follow.

“You stole my woman! She was mine! She was always mine! She had my brat! You had no right to take her away…NONE!” Vegeta punched Seventeen in the face and kicked him in the chest, his insanity boosting his strength. Seventeen steadied him self and turned to face his enemy with a look of pure rage, his mouth twisted into a snarl and his teeth bared.

“You never loved her! I did! You just used her…and you never cared for your son either! The only reason you’ve gone through so much effort to get her back was because of your stupid saiyan pride! Face it Vegeta, Bulma wants a real man and you not it!” He began to form a ki blast and was about to throw it when something smashed into him and he went flying through the air to crash into the ground.

Seventeen stood up and turned to face the new enemy. He stood there for a few seconds and looked at the three golden haired warriors, Vegeta, Gohan…and Trunks; who had rammed him. Bulma stood off to one side, panting and watching him with a strange look in her eyes – it was as though two people were watching him.

“Oh, so you need the help of a little boy to beat me then?” Seventeen tore his attention away from Bulma and laughed as he scanned the horizon for a quick escape route, this time he knew he couldn’t beat them.

“I need help from no one to defeat you android.” Vegeta spat on the ground and began to gather his energy – he was having to spend too much of his energy on controlling Bulma through the bond.

“Well…we’ll see.” Seventeen smiled his evil grin and hurled a ki last at Vegeta, Gohan and Trunks, while they all scrambled out of the way Seventeen flew towards Bulma, gathered her into his arms and took off, flying into the night with no real sense of where he was heading, all he knew was that he had to get Bulma away and find out what Vegeta had done to her…and how he could stop it.

****@****

Eighteen blinked, then blinked again and tried to sit up. He auxiliary power supply had kicked in and she was running on a basic backup program. Something was stopping her from moving, some sort of restraint? She looked down at her chest and stared uncomprehending at the metal prongs that stuck out of her.

What had she been doing? Where was she? And more importantly where was her brother? The last thing she could remember was being ambushed by Gohan and Vegeta and then…nothing.

Had they done this to her? Eighteen reached behind her back and snapped the metal prongs off and levitated herself until she was standing upright. She pulled them out of her chest and blinked several times as she realised where she was. She was on a roof and had somehow been impaled on an antenna. How had she gotten here? She couldn’t remember fighting Vegeta and Gohan here…she had been in a city hadn’t she? The how had she gotten here?

Eighteen scanned her memory banks and realised with a groan that she was missing the last few days of her life. She could remember nothing of what had happened. Her wiring seemed to be wrong and her main power source and a small part of her neural processor had been pierced by the antennae.

“Damn it all.” She rubbed at the holes in her chest and looked around for Seventeen, surely he’d be able to tell her what happened? With a sigh of agitation she began to slowly fly back towards the lab. She’d fix herself with Dr. Gero’s tools and then she’d find her brother.

****@****

“I’ll kill him!” Vegeta howled again in frustration and sent a ki blast at the heap of rubble that had once been capsule corp.

“Calm down! We have to find them first…” Gohan tried to put a reassuring hand on Vegeta’s shoulder but stopped when Vegeta whirled around and glared at him menacingly.

“Don’t patronise me boy! We’ll go to the blasted lab and if they’re not there we’ll destroy it anyway and wait for them…sooner or later they’ll show up and when they do…” Vegeta began to chuckle, then to laugh until finally he was howling with insane laughter.

“Daddy? Are you going to hurt mommy?” Trunks spoke up and tugged on his uniform, “I know you said mommy has been bad but I don’t want to hurt her…I love her and you do too right?”

Vegeta stared at the small boy who was his son and his laughter slowed and stopped, “I’m not going to hurt your mother, boy. All I want to do is kill that blasted android!”

“Good!” Trunks nodded and looked at Gohan, “Then lets go!”

Gohan nodded and Vegeta gave a neurotic chuckle then they took off, speeding towards Gero’s lab. He could still feel Bulma inside of his head, but the distance had weakened his connection with her. All he wanted was to have her back…he needed her.

****@****

Seventeen landed and set Bulma down. For a second she stood there looking at him and he was half afraid that she would attack him again, but then she burst into tears and threw herself at him, hugging him tightly as she whimpered and cried on his shoulder.

“It was horrible Seventeen…he did something to me and now I have this mental link with him…but its more then that he has this power over me and can make me do things and say things that he wants me to do and say but that I don’t want to. And I can’t stop him or fight him…and he made me sleep with him…he made me do things…” Bulma closed her eyes and shook her head, reluctantly pulling out of his embrace. “I can feel him in my mind even now…trying to make me go back to him. But I won’t!” Bulma fiercely grabbed Seventeen by the shoulder and looked into his eyes, “You won’t let him take me again, will you?”

“No Bulma…I won’t.” Seventeen gently kissed her and let his arms gently link around her waist and pull her to the ground with him, “Now tell me everything Vegeta said about this bond. There must be some way to break it.” He could barely credit that Vegeta had forced Bulma to sleep with him; the saiyan had always seemed to have too much pride to lower himself to rape.

“He surprised me back at the lab and grabbed me from behind then he bit me…but he didn’t just bite me on the neck, it was more like the physical biting was only a doorway for him to get into my mind. I felt him in my head Seventeen! He somehow linked his mind to mine…and now I can feel what he feels and I can hear what he thinks and he’s stronger then me mentally and he can control me…”

“Did he say anything about the bond?” He gently interrupted her. “How it could be broken?” Seventeen smoothed her hair down and caressed her cheek soothingly.

“He said there was no way to break a saiyan bond.” Bulma gave herself a shake and seemed to pull herself together. “He said that time would strengthen it.”

“Hmm…a saiyan bond? I think our prince may have overlooked one little thing when he ‘bonded’ with you.” Seventeen frowned as his thoughts whirled. He wasn’t sure if he was right…but it seemed possible that Bulma might have a chance.

“Oh? And what did he forget?” Bulma began to burn with a faint spark of hope.

“He forgot that you’re human…and that a saiyan bond is meant for saiyans.” Seventeen smirked, “If there’s a way to break this bond thing we’ll find it, that much I can promise you.” Seventeen pulled Bulma close and kissed her again, desperately wanting to make things right for her again.

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