Chapter 10

DISCLAIMER: I don't own DBZ or any of the characters from it, I do own this fics story line though and any characters that I create.

Vegeta closed the file with a shudder. He'd only read the first two documents and he already felt sick; nobody deserved the kind of treatment that Bulma had been given as a young child. Nobody. They'd pumped her full of psychological drugs trying to kill off her emotions as a child and had then screwed with her body until she learnt how to cope with pain. They'd pretty much tortured the girl for months at a time to build up her pain resistance. It was sick, very, very sick.

Perhaps the most disgusting thing he'd read so far had been his discovery that Frieza had been the main source of Bulma's DNA. The fact that he had slept with her when he'd known that Bulma was, in affect, his daughter was truly disturbing. How could Frieza had been that twisted to sleep with his own flesh and blood? Shaking his head, Vegeta opened the file again and glanced at her genetic statistics. It was mind-boggling! Bulma was related to Frieza, Dr. Briefs, several people who Vegeta had never hard of, and she even had DNA from, of all people, Goku.

Vegeta groaned and shut the file, dropping it back to the bed and rubbing his tired eyes. He didn't want to read any more. He'd learnt enough to know that Bulma could get pregnant and had the capacity to feel emotions, but he'd also read enough to now that if she ever regained any emotion abilities it would be a long hard process and she'd have to re-live and remember her childhood and he wasn't sure if he wanted her to remember such atrocities.

Sighing, Vegeta glanced down at the file again and paused. He stared at the label on the file and frowned - it looked as if the label had been stuck over an old label. Intrigued, he slowly peeled it off and started uncomprehending at what was underneath on the old label:

'Project 109-A : Security clearance 8 needed to access files'

Realisation slowly dawned on Vegeta, if Bulma was 109-A then that meant that there was a 109-B. Somehow Project 109 must have spawned to different projects! Which could of course only mean one thing: Bulma had a twin.

"Good news, Bulma." Doctor Briefs strode into the room clutching the results of the blood test he'd forced her to take earlier. "You're going to be a mommy." He held the results up for her to look at and beamed proudly at her. "I told you it was a good idea to take the test just to make sure."

"Oh God." Bulma paled, and flopped back into her seat as though she'd just been crushed by something. "That is not good news."

"Well it is for me, I'm going to be a grandpa." Dr. Briefs carefully folded up the piece of paper and put it safely in his pocket. Outside the small shuttle windows a huge lurking metal monstrosity was looming out of the darkness. Faintly visible along the side of the metal leviathan were the symbols that marked it to be the Frost space station. They had been orbiting around it for time now while one of the other scientists tried to access the main computer by remote so he could engage the tractor beam that would pull their ship into the docking bay.

Bulma sighed and looked out the shuttle window, hugging herself tightly as she wondered what in Kami's name she was going to tell Vegeta when she returned. It was funny but she almost wished that Dr. Briefs had not run the blood test on her; as though if he hadn't told her she was pregnant perhaps it might never have become real. Somehow having someone speak it out loud and having proof on paper that she was carrying Vegeta's child made everything seem oppressive; as oppressive as the huge space station that dwarfed their tiny ship.

The doctor followed his gave and nodded slowly to himself. "I might just run back into the medical bay and get some supplies in case anyone is hurt on the Frost station."

Bulma nodded, not really listening to what the doctor was saying. Her thoughts were contorting and twisting in her mind as she conjured up scene after scene where she was humiliated or punished for allowing herself to get pregnant. Apprehension and fear coursed through her veins – both feelings so intense that Bulma found herself confused by how truly frightened she was at the thought of confronting Vegeta and telling him about the child.

She was dreading it. Not just because it might end their little affair, although that too would be horrible, but because she couldn't help but be frightened by the thought of Vegeta telling her to get rid of the child. She didn't want to be pregnant if it just meant that she would be forced to get an abortion. It was strange but she'd spent her whole life believing she was barren and incapable of bearing a child and now that she had discovered that she was fully able to and was, in fact, already pregnant she didn't want to have to give her child's life away. She wanted to be a mother. She just hadn't expected to become a mother quite so soon.

The doctor returned into the room, and moved to stand behind Bulma's chair. "Looks like the tractor beam is working again." He commented and gestured to show Bulma that they were moving again, his movements oddly jerky and fast.

"Hoorah." Bulma sarcastically commented, burrowing further down into the chair and deciding that the doctors odd behaviour was just nerves.

"Not still upset about being pregnant?" He asked, patting Bulma's shoulder sympathetically.

"No." Bulma sulked. "I just can't help but think that nobody besides myself is going to care about me being pregnant." She touched her stomach self-consciously and sighed. "Aside from you, I mean."

"That's where your wrong my dear." The doctor took his hand away from her head and Bulma head a strange noise from behind her.

"What are you…?"

"Nothing, nothing." The doctor gave her another reassuring pat. "Don't you worry about a thing, Bulma, not even your pregnancy."

"Why not?" She started to turn around and froze when she saw Doctor Briefs standing with a needle in his hand.

"Because I happen to know somebody who will be very interested to know you're pregnant." Dr. Briefs chuckled and squirted some of the liquid out of the needle to get rid of any air bubbles. "Very interested indeed."

"What on Earth is that for?" Bulma frowned at the needle. "Is that for me?"

"It's just some vitamins." The doctor leant forward and before Bulma could voice a protest she felt a small prick in her arm. "There we go, all done." He put the needle down and crouched beside Bulma's chair. "Now you remember Bulma, you don't have to worry about anything else from now on."

"What do you mean?" Bulma felt her body begin tingling and her eyesight blurred abruptly. "What have done…" Her voice slurred she felt her muscles give way as she slumped suddenly in her seat, her mind going into panic mode as she felt the effects of a sedative kick in. The doctor said something else above her but she couldn't concentrate enough to understand what he was saying – her mind was too warm and fuzzy. Her body felt languid and light and suddenly she was floating…unable to remember why she had been so worried only a moment ago.

Doctor Briefs gently stroked Bulma's hair as he waited in the docking bay of the space station; the ominous silence pressing in from all sides. He paused in his stroking to scrub at a bloodstain on his shirt that he must have missed when he cleaned himself up after killing the other scientists. There hadn't been enough sedative left to knock the others out after the huge dose he'd had to inject into Bulma, so he'd had to kill the others using the razor sharp medical scalpel he'd plundered from the shuttles med bay. At least with the scalpel he'd been able to slit their throats quietly and allow them the pleasure of a fast and unexpected death.

They had been good workers and loyal to Frieza while they had lived – a quick death had been the least he could do for them.

"Ah, Dr. Briefs." The voice echoed abruptly through the room, stunning the doctor out of his thoughts and alerting him to the presence of a giant horned icejin who was standing just inside the door leading out of the shuttle bay. King Cold took a step forward and allowed the bay's lighting to chase the shadows off his face. He chuckled nastily at the fright he'd given the doctor. "I trust you had a fine trip?"

"It…it was very enjoyable indeed." Dr. Briefs managed to shake off his nerves and he wheeled forward the stretcher on which he'd strapped Bulma; sedated with enough tranquillisers to keep even a saiyan asleep for hours. As he approached his old friend and first employer, Doctor Briefs couldn't help but reflect on how easy it had been for him and the Frieza loyalists to slip Bulma out from under Vegeta's nose. It made him smile.

"Is this the one? The one with my sons DNA?" King Cold looked at Bulma with interest, his keen eyes taking everything in. "She's very small isn't she?" He drawled as he flicked fingers in her direction dismissively.

"What do you expect having human DNA in her?" Dr. Briefs scoffed, aware that he himself was human but not feeling any need to defend his race – they had all been weak and ripe for conquering. He dared a glance up at King Cold, noting that he was probably a foot taller then he had been the leats time he had seen him. He was still an incredibly ugly icejin, though. Powerful, but none too pretty – his purple and white body was too bulky and ox-like for any real beauty to reside there. "It was your sons downfall, you know. His liking for humanoids."

"I'm quite aware of the fact." King Cold turned his piercing gaze to doctor Briefs. "Are you sure she's pregnant?"

"Quite sure, and to the traitorous Prince Vegeta." Dr. Briefs spat n the ground to emphasise his dislike for the saiyan prince. "It was quite a job talking the girl into letting me do a blood test, I had to talk to her about her relationship to the saiyan for hours before she finally granted me permission." The lavender haired doctor shuddered. "I still feel unclean for encouraging the girl to actively seek out his company."

"Of course you do." Kind Cold looked briefly at Dr. Briefs. "How could you not feel that way for encouraging a blood relative of the Colds to embark on a sexual affair with a monkey." His eyes narrowed. "You're lucky I don't kill you where you stand."

"What?" The doctor blinked in surprise. "I had to gain her trust somehow." He felt sweat begin to bead on his forehead at the very thought of being slaughtered for doing his job and brining Bulma to King Cold.

"You served your purpose doctor, you brought me the girl and I am very thankful, so you shall not die." He stepped past the Doctor and gestured for him to begin wheeling the stretcher towards his private shuttle, "However, your job is not done and you shall not be accompanying me to Planet Cold."

"My Liege…?"

"After I've left you must destroy the space station." King Cold ordered as he took control off the stretcher from Doctor Briefs and herded him back towards the docking bay. "You can either return to Prince Vegeta and continue to spy on him for me," King Cold sneered at the title which Vegeta had appointed upon himself despite his planet and his monarchy being destroyed. "Or you can head towards one of the outlying Cold outposts and continue your scientific study. Either way you are not to see Project 109 again, nor are you ever to speak of her nor try to create her again."

"Of course." The doctor hastily bowed, feeling slightly irritated at being cut out of the girl's life when it was he who had kept her safe for so many years. It was even more of a slight to his character that King Cold thought he would even try to make a clone of Bulma! For one thing Frieza was gone so there wasn't any more of his DNA, and for another he had no inclination to even attempt to make trouble within the cold Empire by creating another being with Cold DNA.

The doctor continued to bow as his king disappeared up the ramp of his personal craft and until the door had closed, then with resignation and perhaps a little bit of hesitation he made his way to the central elevator shaft which would take him down to the space stations core and the flux-generator which powered it. Blowing up the space station was as easy as overloading the generator, but it would take time. Best he started now and gave himself plenty of time to get away before the other shuttle and the other doctors arrived.

King Cold smiled coldly as he looked down the small humanoid girl, thinking fondly of his son and wondering what characteristics of him were evident in the human. He frowned briefly as the faint hum of the shuttle was interrupted by a rumbling shock wave which past by – caused no doubt, from the destruction of that horrid space station. He grinned once more at the thought of the depressing metal space junk heap. The only fun he'd had on that station while waiting for Briefs had been hunting down the survivors of his original attack and slaughtering them, but of course, that had been a great deal of fun and had more then made up for the menial amusements that the station had offered him upon his arrival.

"Did it work?" A low male voice came from the darkened med room and slowly Jay stepped into the light, his orange hair glinting under the artificial lights as Project 89 looked down fondly at the girl he had grown up with. Far from obeying Vegeta's orders and reporting for battle duty Jay had stowed away on a freighter heading to the Frost quadrant and had contacted King Cold as soon as possible to await further instructions on how to proceed with the situation. He, unlike the others, had been truly loyal to Frieza. His supposed 'happiness' after Frieza's death had all been part of a deception to insure Vegeta did not pick up on his loyalty – and he was certain that Bulma too had been merely acting.

"It worked." King Cold placed a hand on Jay's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "She's ours – her and the child she carries."

Jay's eyes darkened. "I knew when I left that that beast was planning on defiling her, but I never guessed he would manage to get her pregnant in such a short amount of time." He glowered at the thought. "I should have told Bulma the truth about us as soon as Frieza died, he was the only one opposed to telling her the truth."

"For fear of losing control of her." King Cold added, nodding. "Frieza should have been brought home to us the moment he started abusing 109, you know. It is…unthinkable that a member of the Cold Empire would dare to abuse a child of the same bloodline in such a way." His lip curled; much as he had loved his son he would never have condoned him sleeping with a woman who was essentially his daughter.

"Frieza never hurt her…not like he could have. He protected Bulma. He protected all of us." Jay moved around to one of the benches and began going through its contents. A concentrated look on his face as he picked up another plastic vial with alien letters on it and quickly pierced the side of it with a needle. "I'm going to wake her up."

"Fine, just as long as you can control her. The doctor did mention that she had been training to get stronger."

Jay chuckled. "She's weak, Sire. No matter how hard she trains she is weak as a kitten compared to us." He injected the liquid directly into Bulma's neck. "Her real weapon is her mind."

"Well then see to that she doesn't get it in her mind to run back to the man who fathered the child inside of her. Humans can become attached to sexual partners, Jay. Remember that." King Cold watched as Bulma twitched, her body spasming as it fought to get free from the grip the sedative had it in. He glanced at Jay and then back down again, he reached down and undid the straps holding her down.

Jay's loyalty to Frieza had been…expected. While Project 109 had been trained mainly in pain resistance as a child, her brother had been taught only a deep loyalty to Frieza and the Cold bloodline and had been told the truth about himself and Bulma. Jay was another Project to have Frieza's blood running in him, which accounted for his battle cunning and his incredible strength and powers. When he had first heard of his son's death King Cold had feared that Jay would betray them but, thankfully, he hadn't.

"I'll leave you to it, I think. Better she wakes up with a friendly face by her side." King Cold stood back to his full height and left the room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

Bulma swam free of unconsciousness a little at a time. First she was aware of sounds, then she was aware that she was lying on a table and finally she managed to open her eyes a crack and make out an unfamiliar ceiling above her. She struggled to sit up but her strength seemed to have been sapped. She whimpered as she realised she was in what looked like a medical bay and instantly everything that had happened with Dr. Briefs returned to her.

"Where am I?" She asked out loud, her voice full of fear as she heard someone approaching from the other side of the room. "Who's there?" She struggled to move and found that with each passing second she was getting stronger.

"You're on a shuttle heading for planet Cold." A hand reached down and helped Bulma sit up. She stared at the hand on her shoulder and followed it back to its source - unable to believe her eyes as she saw her brother standing in next to her.

"Jay!" she threw herself into his arms, and hugged him as tightly as she could. She pulled back slowly as she realised that her brother shouldn't have been in the same room as her, let alone on the Frost space station with her. What on earth was going on? Where was Doctor Briefs?

"Uh, Jay…" Bulma spoke slowly, a bad feeling worming its way down her spine at the odd look on her brother's face. "What's going on? Where's doctor Briefs…and what are you doing on the Frost station?" She swallowed after she spoke, wishing she was at full strength.

"This isn't the space station, Bulma!" Her brother tilted his head to the side and chuckled, his voice slightly chiding. "You should know all this by now! You should be smart enough to work it out!"

Bulma stared at him blankly and shook her head, wincing as the movement made the room spinning around her. Jay sighed and lent against the bench she was lying on.

"Doctor Briefs got you out, Bulma."

"Out?" The project swallowed again. "Out of what?"

"Out of Vegeta's Empire." Project 89 smiled at her. "We're on King Cold's ship heading for Planet Frost – the good doctor stayed at the space station to blow it up and hide evidence of what we've done."

"Oh." Bulma spoke slowly, her mind working fast as she tried to think of something to say. Obviously her brother thought she would be happy to be…rescued…from Vegeta and apparently Doctor Briefs had been in on it all. "And you think it's a good idea to go with King Cold?" She tried to sound natural; as though she was in agreement with her brother.

"Of course." Jay smiled again, happy with her attitude. "I helped King Cold kill everyone on the space station."

"Oh." She said again, her mind instantly distancing itself from such a huge loss of life. "Why? I mean…how could you do that? They were…" She thought fast. "They were Frieza's people once too."

"They were traitors. They were happy that Frieza was dead! Happy! Can you imagine?" Jay slowly shook his head. "I knew that you would be like me though, you're just like me."

There was something ominous in the way he said that and Bulma nodded. "Yes of course…I'm your sister, Jay…"

"Yes! That's it!" He leapt closer, his eyes blazing with something that was kin to both madness and triumph. "I am your brother! You're proper brother! You and I Bulma, we were from the same test tube."

"No, that impossible!" Bulma warily watched Jay as he paced around the room. "It's impossible!" Her voice rose and it was only with a huge strength of will that she calmed her galloping heart. Her brain was screaming that this was all too much!

"Wrong!" Jay moved closer to her again, his eyes dancing. "We came from eggs that had identical genetic information inserted into them, our differences occurred during the fertilization part of the process, but I am, in affect your brother. Your twin."

"But…you're older then me!" Bulma clutched a pillow to her chest. She didn't want to believe Jay, but something inside of her was telling her he was telling the truth. She could almost feel the truth in his words, like she had known them all her life.

"No, I'm not." Jay shook his head, his eyes serious as he lent closer. "You see, they hid me when I was young, they kept me separate from the rest of the Project. You were the first born; Project 109-A, I'm just Project 109-B, the reject who would have been perfect if he hadn't been hideous." Bitterness invaded his face. "They hid me away for years and when they finally let me meet the other projects they told you all I was someone else. That I was older then I was. But I wasn't – I was just like you."

"Just like me." Bulma repeated. Jay was looking at her with a scary kind of tenderness – not sexual, but with an adoring look that she'd never once caught on his face before.

"The doctors were very bad to you Bulma, they made you forget but…" Jay's voice hitched and he had to gather himself before he could continue. "But I remember what they did to you."

"I remember too…"

"No you don't! Not these things! You can remember some things but not these things Bulma. They tried to make you perfect by taking away your emotions but it didn't work because you're still very human and very weak." He stroked her face carefully. "I'm going to take care of you now. I'm going to make sure no one hurts you ever again."

Bulma nodded at everything Jay was saying, in a total state of shock. She didn't' know what to believe anymore. Deep down her instincts were still telling her that Jay was speaking the truth…faint memories teased her like butterflies…drifting closer then floating away…memories that made Bulma shy away from them. Dark black memories that she could feel stirring inside.

"What are we?" Bulma asked hopelessly as she sank back down on the table, feeling a suspicious pricking in her eyes. She'd gained a child and a brother in one day…yet she felt more alone then ever. An image of Vegeta welled up in her mind and the pain in her chest swelled and increased – a feeling of intense loneliness. She could feel herself reaching out to Vegeta mentally, going through her memories and savouring every moment with him. He was still a virtual stranger to her and yet…when she'd been with him she hadn't felt alone at all.

Vegeta…

"We're Projects." Her red headed brother smiled rather sadly at her, as though he knew of the inner turmoil she was feeling. "But don't worry, I'm going to take care of you. No one's going to hurt you again - you're a Cold, just like Frieza was and just like me."

A/N – I hope you're enjoying this so far!