Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ

A/N – A few things:

- I added 500 words or so to the last chapter, and the bulk of people who read it the day I posted it would have missed it. The changes are important – if Vegeta didn't beg Kakarot not to leave with Bulma, then you missed it and I'd go back and read it because it does subtly change the ending. The bulk of the changes are between Kakarot and Vegeta, and Bulma's final scene when she wakes up after the explosion.

- I was always reluctant to write this Epilogue because it hints at the sequel I once planned to write – I'm not writing a sequel though. But the epilogue does round up the story nicely and settles things which the last chapter left up in the air. Plus…this was where Slave was going to end up. Keep in mind that this is set five years after the last chapter and Vegeta is...not so dead after all.

- I'm looking for some fanart to use for the cover of Slave – hit me up if you can help as I can't draw.

- Some people have asked if they can write fan-sequels to Slave: Yep. Totally. As long as you give me credit for the original fic you can knock your socks off. We're all mad here.

Enjoy…

Bulma glanced out the huge viewing window that was at the very top of Rho Station and then looked back to the figure which was seated at her desk. The view of the purple and green Natassia gas nebula was as magnificent as ever, but she wasn't in the right frame of mind to look at beautiful things, not when the past had finally caught up with her. It had been more than five years since she and Kakarot had fled the Saiyan Empire, and in that time a lot had changed.

She sighed and walked back over to the desk to look at the security photos again and to look once more at the report that had accompanied them and confirmed her fears; saiyans were on Rho Station. She'd never expected to see saiyans again, aside from Kakarot, and she definitely hadn't expected to see a mercenary gang this far out in space. Rho Station orbited in the outer rim of the Thassia system, which itself was a remote; located on a distant arm of the galaxy. Initially when she and Kakarot had left they had kept on the move, and Bulma had done what she could to help Kakarot when he took on contracts and assignments, but the constant danger and violence hadn't been as thrilling to her as they had for him.

So she'd left.

Well, maybe not left so much as told Kakarot she wanted to go someplace quiet to rest and work out who she was; so he'd sent her to Rho Station where he had property and shares in the local 'industry'. The local industry consisting of piracy, gambling, prostitution and mercenary contracting; and that was just to start with. If it was illegal and made money, you could bet that at least some of the beings living on Rho were involved in it. Bulma hadn't known what to think when she arrived, mostly because although Rho was the Neutral Territories pirate capital, the people there treated her with a lot of respect and, more surprisingly, kindness.

Especially after they found out she was Kakarot's friend.

At first she'd found Rho Station just as immoral and corrupt as Frieza's station had been and she'd been miserable there. Eventually though her emotions had calmed and she'd started thinking rationally again, and Bulma had seen the potential in the people, and even the potential in the local industry; if it were run correctly. Rho Station, when she had arrived, had been run mostly through fear and intimidation from the self-proclaimed ruler; Articus Vassleur.

Bulma had never liked the man, but he'd certainly made it clear that he liked her, and he found the rumours of her hand in the destruction of the Icejin Empire fascinating. After a month of Articus hinting that he wanted to get to know her better, Bulma had indulged him...and secretly decided to get rid of him and take over the station. Kakarot had always been encouraging her to embrace her talent for acting and lying, and so after a month and a half of careful plotting and dealing with the local heads of business, she had finally put her plans in motion; aided by not only Kakarot but a small loyal band of station thugs who she had bribed and won to her cause with the promise of rewards.

For a plan put in motion by a mere Earthling and a former concubine, it couldn't have gone smoother.

Overnight, she'd gone from being a helpless slave in the Saiyan Empire, to being one of the most powerful people in the Thassia system and of the entire outer region of the neutral territories. It had taken a lot of hard work to get where she was now, and regretfully more than a few people had been disposed of along the way, but it had been unavoidable. Not that she'd done much of the killing herself; she had Kakarot and the rest of her inner circle for that, but some people, like the previous ruler of Rho Station, she had taken care of herself. He'd been a particularly nasty creature and when Bulma had finally been in a position to take him out, she had done so with no remorse.

Articus Vassleur been the first person she'd killed face to face; and she had never forgotten it. She'd been terrified; so scared she'd almost been sick. Afterwards she'd started shaking and she hadn't been able to stop for hours; but she hadn't cried. It hadn't been like with Frieza – she'd hated Frieza and killing him had been a pleasure; but Articus had just been revolting. She hadn't felt guilty about it, but she'd felt like a little part of her had iced over and died when she'd done it.

Kakarot had been ecstatic when she'd killed Articus and had taken over, in fact Bulma had never seen him as excited and turned on as he had been at the sight of her killing someone. Even though she was terrified and shaking he'd seduced her in his office and they'd fucked on the blood covered desk with his body on the ground. Bulma had felt a little dirty afterwards, but Kakarot had seemed to find her more attractive than ever; it was like the stronger and more independent she became the more he alluring he found her.

The conditions on Rho Station had improved vastly since then; people no longer lived in squalor or went hungry, and slavery was not tolerated. Bulma still ran the seedier business ventures on the station; the casinos, money laundering, prostitution and mercenary services, but she ensured that they were run properly. The people on the station appreciated her forthright approach to business, her honesty and her ruthless ability to prevent any of the Thassia's systems other crime lords from taking over.

Rho Station's remoteness and its location in the neutral territories meant that while the Cold Empire and the Saiyan Empire had fought for months on end, they had remained untouched. They'd also watched when, about nine months after they had left and just when it seemed the saiyan's were winning the war, a new galactic power called the Acronians had entered the fray and had wiped out both the Cold and Saiyan Empire almost overnight. Thankfully, the Acronian's had left the neutral territories alone and focused instead on conquering the more inhabited systems on the other side of the galaxy.

The Acronians themselves were a race so technologically advanced that they had destroyed all armies that came up against them within days. The saiyan race had been decimated and were now all but gone; reduced to isolated mercenary gangs who did much the same work as Kakarot did, but on a larger scale. Saiyan mercenaries were often hired to conquer planets or as private armies for wealthy lords. The Cold Empire had fared even worse and there were few Icejins left at all.

Bulma had watched the destruction of the Saiyan Empire from a nice safe distance and had felt…nothing. Or almost nothing. When word reached her that the saiyan Queen and her newly born child had been killed, she had felt briefly curious. It was curious that while the deaths or Zucchini and the little prince Vegeta had been announced, she had never, in all the months since she had left the Saiyan Empire, heard any word about Vegeta's death.

His death had never been announced and no funeral had been held, and while orders were still fired off in his name, he had made no public appearance, no vid recordings nor had he really been spoken of at all. She'd found it more than just strange, it was as though he'd vanished into thin air; but that couldn't be. And so she'd wondered; was Kakarot lying to her or had the Saiyan Empire opted to keep Vegeta's death a secret so the troops would not become demoralised?

When the Empire had finally fallen before the Acronians, she'd finally worked up the courage to ask Kakarot what had really happened to Vegeta. It had taken a lot of soul searching and more than a few pep-talks to herself to convince her to face up to the saiyan mercenary and demand the truth from him. It wasn't that she was scared of Kakarot, more that she was scared of what he was going to say. Getting away from Vegeta had undoubtedly been the best thing for her, she knew that now, but she still burned for him and missed him in a way that kept her awake at night.

So after weeks of internal debate, she had finally confronted Kakarot and learned the truth; Vegeta had been alive when Kakarot had left with her. He had been impaled by a massive steel beam and many shards of metal, he'd been struggling to breathe and speak, he'd been drowning in his own blood; but he'd been alive. Bulma's fury at discovering that the person who she thought she could trust had been lying to her for months had been spectacular to behold, or so Kakarot had told her later.

She had screamed, ranted and hit Kakarot in her fury. It hadn't even been that Kakarot had lied about Vegeta that had driven her into a foaming frenzy; it was that he'd done the same thing that Vegeta and Illandra had done to her; he'd taken control of her life away from her. He'd assumed that he'd known best and he had acted selfishly and arrogantly and had made decisions for her that she should have been allowed to make herself.

He'd taken Vegeta from her.

He'd apologised of course, Kakarot was good at apologies, but it had been too little, too late. Maybe if he'd proactively told her the truth himself at some stage, it might have been different, but because he'd lied to her about something so important for so long, it had changed something between them. They still lived together and worked together, but Bulma had felt yet another part of herself freeze up deep inside of her. Oddly enough, her emotional frostiness hadn't had much impact on Kakarot; so long as she was with him he seemed content.

Over the last four years since she'd discovered the truth, Bulma had come to realise that Kakarot wasn't just a psychopath, he was also a sociopath in many ways. He couldn't understand why Bulma found his lie to be so abhorrent, especially when she had come to admit that his decision had probably been the best one. It was as though Kakarot's social and moral code was almost turned around; there was no guilt for him and no remorse; just the end result.

She'd never discovered what had really happened to Vegeta, and as time had gone on she had let the mystery be; whatever had happened had happened.

Oddly enough, once Bulma knew the truth about his lies and slotted some emotional distance between them, their relationship had improved again. Their relationship was more physical than ever, and when Kakarot started taking mercenary jobs again that took him off station for weeks at a time, Bulma was content to live with him in a semi-transient lifestyle. She hadn't been able to bring herself to hate Kakarot, but nor could she find it inside of her to love him as she once had. She stayed with him because he kept her safe and because, as terrifying as he was, he was the only thing she had left that was familiar and comforting.

She sighed again, realising she'd been lost in memories yet again as she walked back over to the desk where Kakarot was lounging and watching her, his dark eyes as enigmatic and emotionless as ever. He'd been back on the station for a week now, and although they lived together, she hadn't seen much of him over the last two days; and now she knew why. When he'd discovered a band of saiyan mercenaries were on Rho Station he'd gone to investigate, not so much because he cared about them being saiyans, but because saiyans were usually only hired to kill.

"You have to decide what to do." He tilted his head and watched her as she approached, picking up a photo in his long fingers and holding it out. There was a tension in Kakarot that Bulma hadn't seen in a long time, a wariness and emotional distance that she was having trouble ignoring.

She knew why he was so worried, but she made herself ignore it and picked up the photo he held out. It showed the saiyans all standing together outside of their ship, a very rough and beaten up cruiser that had seen better days. There were only four saiyans in their mercenary band, all of them men, but only one of them was of any interest to Bulma and it was he who was causing her so much consternation.

"Do you mean I need to decide what to do about the saiyans? Or about Vegeta?" She ran a finger over his face in the photo.

Even in the security photos, which were never the best quality, she knew it was Vegeta without a shadow a doubt. His face was clear and although he looked different; older, rougher and more like an average saiyan grunt than a king, she knew it was him. He looked far more battle-hardened than she'd ever seen him look, as though he'd been fighting for years in unpleasant circumstances. She glanced up from his face to see Kakarot watching her, his eyes hard and sharp.

"How long have you known he was alive?" Bulma put the photo down and leaned on the desk in front of Kakarot, bumping his legs softly with hers as she picked up the security report. "You must have known he was alive."

Kakarot shook his head slowly, "I've suspected for years but I never knew for sure." He saw Bulma's look of disbelief and he smiled slowly as he leaned forward and pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her so she couldn't pull out of his embrace, "I have no reason to lie to you, kitten."

Bulma let herself rest against his chest, and then winced and shifted on his lap slightly as his armour dug into her. "I can never tell whether you're lying or not, Kakarot."

"I know." He glanced down at her in amusement and his arms tightened. "I don't like that he's alive, but I swear I didn't know until a few days ago when I found out they were here for the contract on your life."

"Kiri's life, you mean." Bulma smiled bitterly and glanced down at the photos again, the other three saiyans who were with Vegeta with big mothers. Even for saiyans they were huge and they looked like trouble. "I doubt they even know what I look like. Most of the Station doesn't even know the truth about who I am."

When she'd taken over Bulma had kept quiet and worked behind the scenes; the biggest mistake that Articus had made, in her opinion, was that he'd made himself too visible. So Bulma had opted for a different approach; she'd created another persona called Kiri and it was Kiri who officially ran the station. Kiri had her own voice and her own holographic body that Bulma had managed to make very lifelike over the five years she'd spent on the station. No one knew Bulma ran the station aside from her inner circle, and they were so well taken care of that she knew they wouldn't betray her.

To most people Bulma Briefs was just another Rho security officer.

Kiri had several contracts out on her life, but so far no one had managed to come close to killing her. Hell, outside of the Rho Station, most people had no idea what Kiri even looked like, only that she was of the Serpantine race. Bulma had based Kiri on one of the prisoners on Frieza's ship – a girl with emerald eyes, emerald hair and pale lime skin whose name Bulma had long forgotten. She'd only glimpsed her once, as Frieza took her on his little tour of his collection, but she'd never forgotten the angry girl and the way her eyes had simmered with abhorrence when she'd looked at Frieza.

"You're right of course, but the saiyans could make trouble for us." Kakarot sounded grumpy and Bulma pulled back a little to look at his face. He looked sullen and angry; there was no doubt about it. Kakarot, who normally had the ability to hide his emotions perfectly, was fighting to control his temper.

"Kakarot, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were jealous." Bulma smirked and pulled against his arms until he relented and let her stand up again.

"I'm not jealous of him." Kakarot stood up himself and brushed off his armour almost violently, "I'm just worried that he's going to distract you and you'll get hurt."

Liar.

Bulma narrowed her eyes as Kakarot paced in front of her, unable to contain his agitation, and she sighed. "I'm not the person I used to be, but you know I'm going to want to see him again."

"I know." He glanced at her, his eyes distant and cold. "And I won't stop you, but something has to be done about the other saiyans now. I can kill them and bring Vegeta to you…"

"No." Bulma shook her head and picked up the photo of the saiyans again, smiling to herself as a much better idea occurred to her. "You know I try to avoid bloodshed if I can help it. Take a security team and restrain in the holding cells. Use the ki-restricting restraints on them."

Silence greeted her request and she glanced up to find Kakarot staring at her.

"You still miss him, don't you?" Kakarot looked lost for a moment, his dark eyes hollow as he looked at her. "No matter what I did for you, it was never enough, was it?"

Bulma looked back at him, trying to hide her torment as she felt the usual confusion she always felt when it came to Kakarot. "The problem was never you, Kakarot. The problem was me."

I hate you.

I want you.

"Love." His mouth twisted briefly in smile that wasn't a smile. "It'll get you killed."

Bulma returned his smile in kind, "Maybe. Now go and do as I asked."

Kakarot gave her another one of his distant stares and sighed, "As you wish."

Bulma waited until Kakarot left the room and then sighed, picking up the photo again and staring at Vegeta. Despite what she had said to Kakarot she was by no means certain about what to do with Vegeta. She still dreamed about him almost every night and her body still yearned for his all these years later. But she'd changed so much in the last five years that she wasn't certain that there was a place in her life for him.

But you still love him...

Vegeta glared down at his hands which were tightly bound at the wrists by glowing manacles and followed the black helmeted security chief down the hallway, he was flanked on either side by more security officers and another two walked behind him. They'd carted off Zeke, Tora and Flik and put them in a separate holding cell and now he was being taken away, for questioning he supposed.

It had been a mistake to take this job, he'd known it as soon as he'd accepted the contract on the woman's life. It was too much money for one person and there almost no information on the target other than her name, her position on Rho Station and a photograph. He'd known it would be dangerous to go after the woman who was ruling one of the toughest and most remote criminal stations in the neutral territories, but the money had been too tempting.

He should have known better.

Anything that seemed too good to be true, normally was; especially in the world of organised crime. Vegeta scowled as the security officer led them into a smaller room and motioned for the saiyan to precede him into a cell, which he did without comment. Arguing and fighting with security would get him nowhere, especially out here in the neutral territories where the words 'law' and 'justice' had very loose meanings. It was better to stay quiet; the Acronians still had a warrant out for his arrest so the more cooperative he was the more chance he had of walking out of here.

Technically, he hadn't done anything wrong yet and it wasn't like he had much that they could be interested in. Gods, even his ship was barely capable of spaceflight. He'd gone from ruling one of the biggest Empires in the galaxy to living in run down space cruiser with nothing to his name. Nothing. He had no money, he had no servants, and he barely had his health.

Some days he wished he had died in the fight with Frieza.

The guard activated the force shield and then gestured for the other guards to leave. When they were gone and the door was closed, the guard locked it and then moved back to stand in front of the force shield. It was then that Vegeta noticed it; a tail. He had a long brown tail wrapped around his waist and even though Vegeta couldn't see his face because of the black helmet he knew what a tail like that meant.

The guard was a mother fucking saiyan.

"You're a saiyan." It was the first thing Vegeta had said since they'd arrested him, and he scowled more at the sound of his own voice.

Five years ago when he'd almost died, he'd suffered massive damage to his body and it had only been through almost a year of surgery and treatments on a medial planet that he'd lived. By the time he was able to be released his Empire was gone and the saiyan race was all but dead. The royal guard that had been with him on the medical planet, some thirty troops, were almost all dead now; his three current companions were all that were left.

Despite the healing there had been some things which they had been unable to repair; his voice had been damaged and was rough and gravelly, and they'd replaced several of his internal organs with cybernetic implants including his lungs, heart and most of his intestines. Luckily the skeletal and muscular damage had been repaired, but Vegeta couldn't help but feel like it had all been in vain. He'd lost everything while they were repairing him on that planet, he had nothing left to live for.

The guard watched him for a moment and then reached up slowly and pulled his helmet off, exposing a face which Vegeta had often seen in his dreams...and his nightmares. A face he loathed and hated and a face which he had searched for in every crowd. Kakarot! He took a step towards him and then came up short when he hit the painful force wall, but every muscle in his body tightened with the kind of rage and hate he'd only dreamed of feeling again.

"You." Vegeta couldn't seem to find anything else to say, he could remember the last time he'd seen Kakarot with absolute clarity and it made his blood boil. He'd been helpless and dying and instead of helping him as a loyal subject was bound by saiyan law to do, he'd left him to die and had taken the woman he…

Loved?

He'd taken Bulma. He'd taken her and he'd run away like a coward.

Kakarot smirked at him and strolled closer, twirling the security helmet in his hands, the shiny black surface reflecting the light. "Surprise!"

"Where is she?" Vegeta ignored the goading statement and glared at Kakarot, his hate boiling inside of him as he twisted his hands and tried to break free of the manacles, but the restrains held securely and try as he might he couldn't seem to break them.

"Who?" Kakarot grinned wider and perched the helmet on one hip as he paused in front of the force screen, inches away from Vegeta. "Kiri?"

Vegeta growled and smashed his fist against the force screen, ignoring the pain as it shocked him. "Forget Kiri! I don't give a shit about the goddamned woman I was supposed to kill. Where the hell is Bulma?"

"Oh! Bulma." Kakarot over-pronounced her name and took a step back, twirling his security helmet again and shrugging.

Vegeta felt his blood boil red hot as Kakarot dithered in front of him as though he had all the time in the world, and ignoring his question as though it was of no importance. He hated the man, hated him with a fire that he hadn't felt for a long time. He'd been numb for so long, simply struggling to survive, that he'd forgotten what it was like to feel real hatred like this.

"Is she alive? Is she okay?" Vegeta against wrestled with the restraints again to no avail. The harder he struggled the more they glowed and he gave up in frustration. "Damn you Kakarot! You left me to die and you took her! Now where is she?"

When Vegeta had finally left the hospital planet four years ago he'd tried to find out what had happened to the two of them, but with a price on his head and his Empire decimated it had been all he could do to stay alive. He'd heard rumours from time to time about Kakarot, but always they were about Kakarot and never about Bulma. He'd driven himself half mad imagining the things that could have happened to her in the year in which he'd been in hospital. He'd dreamed of her at night and had fantasized about her during the day.

But he'd never found her.

"She's alive." Kakarot abruptly straightened and the smile slid off his face, and Vegeta found himself staring at the same person he'd looked at five years ago when Kakarot had left him to die. "I don't like that you're here Vegeta, but it's not my choice."

There was a coldness and monstrousness to him that still gave Vegeta the chills; this was the man who's laughed when he'd seen Vegeta impaled and had gloated before he stole Bulma. The monster stared at him for a heartbeat longer and then put his security helmet back on, his cold black eyes vanishing behind the black screen of the helmet.

Bulma was alive.

"She'll be along shortly." His voice was muffled behind the helmet and Vegeta had to listen hard to catch his words. "But I should warn you that you might not like what you see..."

He gave Vegeta a ridiculously friendly wave and vanished back out the door, leaving it open as a woman came through the door. For a moment, the saiyan thought it was Bulma, but the face that appeared as she unwound the scarf from around her head wasn't Bulma's. She was much shorter and thinner, with pale green skin, bright green eyes and lime hair which was cut in a sharp bob. Vegeta recognised the face as that of Kiri and he backed away from the force screen, trying to look pleasant and less murderous.

She's so young…

Kiri was much younger than her photo had led him to believe. She seemed barely out of her teens, although Vegeta knew that age was a deceptive concept for some alien species. For all he knew she could have been hundreds of years old. She smiled at him smugly as she sauntered through the room, wrapping the scarf around her neck as she stood before him, her eyes strangely distant as she looked him up and down.

"You wanted to kill me?" Her voice was soft and pleasant sounding, and instantly Vegeta felt his hackles come up.

This was the ruler of Rho Station? This delicate looking woman was responsible for running one of the biggest hubs of organised crimes in the neutral territories? She looked perfectly harmless and incredibly innocent, which always made Vegeta suspicious. Whoever this woman was, she was clearly a really nasty piece of work. Still, he'd play nice until he got free and clearly, if Kakarot was working here it meant that Bulma was probably not far away either.

"I did accept a contract for your life, but I'm starting to see the error of my way." Vegeta gave a small bow and tried to look pleasant.

Once a upon a time no force in the galaxy would have induced him to bow to anyone, but five years of living in poverty as an outlaw had taught Vegeta the power of politeness and manners. People loved feeling as though they were in your power; he'd loved it too once upon a time. But his pride wasn't what it once was; it was hard to be proud when you had nothing left.

She smiled, the faintest upturning of her lips, "I should think so. Many have tried to come after me, but I must admit none of them have been quite as famous as you." She smirked and tilted her head to the side, brushing her hair behind one ear. "The great Vegeta. You have quite a price on your own head in the right quarters."

He said nothing and just watched her as she stood in front of him, smiling up at him quietly. There was something about her which made him feel unsettled; something wasn't right. He narrowed his eyes and looked at her carefully, but nothing looked amiss. Then Vegeta realised what it was; she was like a void. He could feel no energy and he couldn't smell a thing and he should have been able to feel or smell something. She stood in front of him, and yet she didn't. He could see her with his eyes and hear her with his ears, but his other senses registered nothing.

What the hell was going on?

"You're not real, are you?" He moved closer to the screen again and looked down at her in confusion. "What are you?"

"Clever." She tilted her head again and her eyes widened slightly, as did her smile as she also stepped forward so she was standing eye to eye with him. "You're the first one to ever figure it out. How?"

Vegeta drew in another breath, and again he detected nothing. "You have no smell and you have no energy; which means you're not alive."

She laughed, and as she laughed she vanished in fantastic pixelated flashes of light, until a small metallic ball hovered in mid-air, then it floated away and Vegeta saw that there was another person standing in the doorway that Kiri had left open. She stood in the shadows but as she reached out and took the silver ball Vegeta recognised the small fine boned hand, and his heart gave a painful lurch as Bulma stepped through the doorway.

She was more beautiful than he remembered, or maybe she had simply become more beautiful over the last five years. Either way, looking at Bulma felt a little like looking at a familiar stranger; he knew her face and knew her walk, but there were subtle differences that only someone who had been physically intimate with her would notice. She was dressed in the same black security uniform that Kakarot had been wearing, but as always she looked good.

He ran his gaze over her, aware he was staring but unable to tear his eyes away. She was alive. She was fine. She was in front of him. Bulma was curvier than she had been and had lost that waif-like appearance that she'd had when he'd last seen her; she looked like a woman. Her skin was still that delicate porcelain white colour and her lips were still a kissable pouty red. Her hair was longer than he'd ever seen it, well past her shoulders and hanging almost to her elbows, and it cascaded down her shoulders in azure waves that made him want to reach out and touch it.

It was her eyes that held the greatest change though. She'd always had such beautiful expressive eyes; eyes which he'd seen excited, angry and terrified. They were eyes which had haunted his dreams too often over the years, and though her eyes were the same sky blue he remembered, the look in them was focused and assertive. Oh, she was wary of him, he could read it in her body language, but her eyes were no longer the eyes of a submissive servant. She looked at him as an equal, perhaps even as more than his equal.

"I thought you were dead."

Soft words.

Not the words which Vegeta had imagined her speaking to him when they met in his fantasies. He'd always dreamed that she would be frightened when she saw him again; frightened and yet aroused as she always had been. But his dreams had always featured Bulma as she had been then, not as she was now. This woman wasn't afraid of him at all; there was no fear in her face or voice. She stepped further into the light, and finally Vegeta could see that the last five years which had been so cruel to him, had evidently been kind to her.

So beautiful.

"Bulma." He breathed her name gruffly, and it was all he could do to maintain his composure.

For so many years he'd wondered where she had gone and what had happened to her. Was she alive? Was she with Kakarot? Was she happy? His life had been in shambles and he'd had so many things to occupy his time, but he'd still thought about her. Thought about her. Yearned for her. Dreamed of her. He must have looked like such a fool, standing there like a statue and staring at her like she was a vision from the past come to haunt him, but what else could he do? He was struggling to think clearly, let along summon the will to talk.

"Vegeta." There was a ghost of a smile on her lips as she replied with his name, her hips swaying under her black uniform as she crossed the floor and stood in front of him.

"So, Kakarot told you I was dead?" He moved so close to the force shield that covered his cell that he could feel the faint electrical buzz against his skin, "He glossed over the fact that he left me there dying I suppose?"

"He told me you were dead...but the last thing I could remember before I passed out was you impaled on the ground. You looked dead, so I guess I was easy to fool." Her voice was like music to his ears, but as she spoke her blue eyes looked troubled, even guilty. "He never gave me the details of what happened after I passed out and it took me a while to work out that he was lying." She shrugged and crossed her arms, the move surprisingly defensive. "I was never able to confirm that you were alive though, and once the Empire fell it became too hard to get much information on the whereabouts of any saiyans, let alone their king."

She'd looked for him.

He laughed softly, "I almost did die; Zucchini held off on announcing anything about my condition until she could be certain that I was going to survive. Unfortunately by the time I had recovered enough for that announcement to be made, she had been killed and the Empire had fallen." Vegeta shrugged as though it didn't matter to him and he instead lifted the battle shirt he wore so Bulma could see the impressive range of scars across his chest and stomach.

The scar tissue was impressive and painful, and if the Saiyan Empire hadn't had such high-tech healing facilities he would died. He watched as Bulma came closer, so close that if the force shield hadn't been between them he could have reached out and touched her. He could smell her though, and he scent was both wonderfully familiar and strangely alien. Gods how I've missed her. She knelt in front of him and looked at the scars carefully, her blue eyes tracing back and forth until she had seen every inch of him.

"You should have died." She straightened and looked at him with a faint frown on her face. "How did you survive the wounds?"

"Cybernetic implants and months of surgery. By the time I left the hospital planet with what remained of the royal guard the saiyan race was all but gone and Planet Vegeta had been rendered uninhabitable." He knew he sounded bitter as he spoke, but he had every reason to feel bitter. "I only survived because Zucchini had the foresight to keep my location a secret."

"She was always clever." Bulma nodded and her eyes followed his hands as he pulled his shirt back down, and she hastily looked away once his skin was covered up again.

When she met his eyes again, Vegeta felt his breath hitch in his chest; she looked heart-breakingly lonely. He wasn't sure what it was that gave it away, but he knew in that instant that she was just as lonely as he was. Her body language was so guarded that it was almost like she didn't trust her own hands, and there was a look deep in her eyes that he recognised as longing. The fact that she was here when she could have run away was a sign that she still wanted him.

"I missed you." Vegeta moved as close to the force screen as he could, his eyes entreating as he looked down at her.

It was the truth; he had missed her.

Her eyes darkened and she moved closer to the force screen as though hypnotised, slowly raising a hand up as though she was going to touch him. He thought she would stop but she didn't, Bulma placed her delicate looking hand against the force screen and Vegeta saw the shield shimmer and spark as she hit it. Her face was impassive, but he knew it must have hurt – when he'd touched it earlier it had been excruciating.

Her eyes locked with his and Vegeta knew what she wanted and he raised his own hand to the screen opposite her own, pressing against it and ignoring the shocking pain that arced through him. He could take pain, especially when he could actually feel her through the shield. It was the barest of contacts, and one which caused them both a great deal of pain, but it was worth it to see her smile as she pulled her hand back.

"I missed you too." Bulma admitted, for the first time smiling at him openly, instead of hiding behind her defensiveness. She opened and closed her hand as though trying to shake off the numbing pain that still remained, then she looked back at him. "I want to let you out, Vegeta, but I'm a little bit...wary."

He blinked, having been lost in the depths of her eyes. "I won't hurt you. I can't promise I won't try and murder Kakarot, but I won't hurt you."

She laughed, and Vegeta felt himself come back to reality with a bang; there was something very Kakarot-like about her laugh. "You came here to kill me, Vegeta. You can't blame me for being cautious."

"I didn't come for you…" He trailed off as he realised what she was telling him. "You're Kiri? You run this station?"

It wasn't possible? He'd come here to kill Bulma?

"Kiri is a convenient cover for me; if people are trying to kill her, it's harder for them to get to me." Bulma twirled a lock of hair around a finger and glanced back at him with a calmness that Vegeta knew had to be fake. No one could be that calm while talking about someone trying to kill them. "So you see my problem. What if I let you go free and you try and kill me again?"

"You have my word." He bowed his head and closed his eyes briefly as he thought the words he couldn't say; please believe me. I want you. I need you.

Bulma chewed on her lower lip as she stared at him and then slowly raised her hand and deactivated the force shield with a decisively flick. It shimmered briefly and then went off and Vegeta stepped straight out. He kept his manacled hands up as he crossed the room slowly and purposefully and came to a stop in front of Bulma. The tension between them was electric and his body was almost humming with it; he wanted her badly and he could see on her face that she felt the same.

"My hands?" He held them up a little higher and Bulma stared at them, slowly raising one eyebrow as she moved closer and took hold of them.

Vegeta froze as Bulma raised his arms higher and slipped underneath, hooking them around her neck so they stood face to face, their eyes inches apart. Vegeta could feel her hands on his shoulders and she very carefully ran them down his chest until she rested them on his hips. Her touch was light as she stepped in closer and her body lightly brushed against his. Her eyes, such a wonderfully alien blue, stared deeply into his own and she very slowly leaned in closer, brushing her lips against his.

It was a light kiss, more than Vegeta had ever dreamed he would get from her again, and he forced himself to stay still as she drew away again, even though his body was screaming for more. It had been a long time since he'd had a woman, and he'd been tormented by dreams of Bulma for years. Being here now, like this, was surreal.

"I want you, Vegeta." Bulma kissed his lips again and then along his jawline before she again pulled back and her eyes sought his, her gaze serious. "But you have to understand that things can't be like they were, I'm not your slave anymore and things have to be on my terms."

Her terms.

Vegeta knew he hadn't treated Bulma very well when she'd been his. He'd treated her as a disposable toy and he'd treated her even worse once he'd begun to care about her, resenting the power she had over him and pushing the boundaries with her as he never had with another woman. He'd done things to her which he had regretted; things which he knew had ultimately been the reason why Kakarot had taken her away from him.

Having fallen from the top of the mountain to his current position, Vegeta knew he didn't have a lot left in his life to hold onto or to fight for, but he did have his pride. He wanted Bulma desperately, but not at any cost. It was a sobering thought and he focused on her properly as she stood in front of him. What would she want him to do? Would this be revenge for everything he'd ever done to her?

"What terms?" He sounded wary, and Bulma looked at him carefully before she spoke.

She carefully moved her hands up to his shoulders and her eyes grew serious again, "Well, I won't let you do anything to me that I don't want you to do."

Vegeta blinked, her choice of phrasing said more than her actual words: I won't let you. Not 'You can't', but 'I won't let you'. This Bulma was definitely a more assertive creature than the girl he'd once known. The request, one of simple dignity, was one that he wouldn't have understood once. He would have laughed and done something horrible to her just to prove that he could do what he wanted. But of course, he'd learned some harsh lessons in the last five years and he wasn't that person anymore.

"That's fine." He couldn't stop the smirk that briefly crossed his face as Bulma blinked in surprise.

Evidently she remembered the old Vegeta too.

"The other thing is Kakarot." Vegeta could hide the naked hate that crossed his features at the mention of his name, but Bulma shook her head at him. "You can't hurt or kill him. He kept me alive for the last five years. He protected me and made sure I was safe. As much as you hate him, he saved my life by taking me away from you. If I'd stayed the Acronians would have killed me too."

She was right; if she'd stayed she would have died too. But asking him to work alongside Kakarot was too much. The man had betrayed him when he'd needed help. He'd rammed a metal spike through his chest and had laughed as he lay dying…

…but if he said no he'd likely never see Bulma again.

He had no reason not to put his hate to the side for now; his hate for Kakarot could go in the same internal compartment where he kept his rage at the Acronians. He had to do it. Staying here with Bulma was what he wanted to do, and it made the most sense. It would mean an end to all the running, hiding and living on the edges of society to keep under the radar of the Acronians.

It would mean a measure of peace and it would mean her.

"Fine." He said it resentfully, his underlying hatred of Kakarot not something he could easily bury, and he could tell that Bulma wasn't entirely sure if he was merely humouring her. "I hate him, Bulma. But I can put that to the side for now."

For you.

She looked into his eyes again, and then slowly so he could watch what she was doing, Bulma ducked out from under his arms and took his hands in hers. She removed the manacles and put them to one side and then stepped closer to him again, a little of the old Bulma showing in her eyes as she waited to see what he would do.

He touched her as he never had before; carefully and reverently. His rough hands gentle as he cupped her face and gently traced the curve of her jaw and the delicate lines of her neck. He ran his hands through her hair; so soft and unlike saiyan hair. He trailed his fingertips down her arms, the fabric of the security uniform stiff and unyielding, but he felt her shiver and knew that she could feel him through the cloth. Her eyes which had drifted closed, fluttered open as he let his hands move to her tiny waist, squeezing her with enough strength to make her whimper as he pulled her to him.

It was like coming home, he thought to himself as he pulled her body against his, her curves fitting perfectly against his more angular body. This, more than anything, was what he'd wanted over the last five years. It was so stupid that he, a member of the fiercest warrior race the galaxy had ever known, had essentially been conquered by a human woman. He was powerless before her, a prisoner of the spell she'd cast over him years before, a spell he hadn't even known he was under until it was too late and she was gone.

Vegeta lowered his face to hers and claimed her mouth in a kiss that was all fire and passion; a kiss that held five years of longing and hunger. Bulma kissed him back with an equal burning need, small desperate cries escaping her lips as her hands clawed at his back and clung to him desperately. This was where he belonged, and now that he had Bulma back in his arms, he would never let her go again.

Bulma pulled away to catch her breath and to lean against him while her heart thundered so hard in her chest he could feel it against his own body. Or maybe it was his own heart he could feel, there was so much going on inside of him that he didn't know what he was feeling other than happy. As Vegeta held Bulma's trembling body against his own, he realised with razor sharp clarity that he'd felt this way about her for a long time; he'd simply been too arrogant to realise what it was he felt.

She nestled in against his chest, lips pressed to his neck and her eyelashes fluttering lightly against his skin, and Vegeta wrapped his arms tighter around her. It was strange that it had taken him losing everything he thought he wanted, before he realised the truth that had been staring him in the face all those years ago. His desire and obsession for Bulma had been symptoms of something which he'd fought against for years, but deep down he'd known the truth;

"I love you."

The End.

A/N – I regret nothing.