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

Author Note: 'The Pain of Pleasure' was first written in 2000, it was one of my first fanfics and my first serious Odd Couple fic, and yes, it is a Vegeta/Bulma and Bulma/Frieza fic.

I feel it is only fair to warn people that this fic contains Odd Couples as well as some non-con,mild torture and sex scenes pf varying degrees - all edited here. So enjoy and do let me know what you think. Feedback makes the world go around, you know!

Epilogue - What Dreams May Come

Someone, some anonymous person long ago, once told me that every being is a slave his or her own destiny. That it is through our predestined choices and decisions that we follow our path in life, and that each being is not truly responsible for their own fate; there is nothing that we do can change the path preordained for us.

Not love.

Not hate.

Nothing.

There is nothing in this world that can prevent our fates from unravelling once we have pulled the string and started the ball rolling. No matter how we may struggle against the tide, the most we will ever achieve is to forestall the inevitable.

The underlying truth to it all is that we are all but slaves to destiny.

I learned this the day that Frieza's troops invaded my home, the Earth. That was the day that my world fell apart, the day it shattered like a fragile bauble. I can't remember much; time has blurred memories that were once clear as glass…but I do remember the screams of fear and the deep staining red of blood on my hands.

I can remember watching Yamcha and Krillen slaughtered in front of me. I can remember Goku desperately ordering me to save Gohan and Chichi. To flee from Frieza's troops and leave our doomed world. I can remember quite clearly how solemn Goku's voice had been and how he'd smelled of sweat and blood when I'd hugged him a final goodbye.

His blood had stayed on my hands long after I washed them clean.

It stains them still.

We never did find out what had happened to Goku – Chichi and I that is. Chichi used to wake up from nightmares so terrifying that they slowly drove her insane. Deep down, Chichi still held onto the hope that maybe her husband had survived somehow, but the truth was slowly driving her insane; he was dead and he'd died trying to save her.

I at least know better then hold onto fragile hope.

I'd watched as one of Frieza's soldiers had literally torn Yamcha in half - as though he had been made of tissue paper.

Goku was dead.

I felt it in my bones just as surely as I felt the past was going to shadow Chichi and I for a very long time; Like a stalker following an innocent through the darkness in the deep of night. I never knew how right I was about the past following us as we fled into the endless oblivion of space, but I was soon to learn that escaping our past was truly impossible. I was nothing but a leaf being blown towards the inevitable waterfall that would tear my to shreds.

I now know better then to believe, as I once did, that we are free to make out own choices. We may believe that we choose out own paths in life, but the truth is much darker. The truth is that everyone is born a slave in some way or another and, whatever choices we make, every last one of us is bound to our own unique destiny.

This is something that we cannot escape, for we all but slaves with fate as our cruel master.