Reality

Summary: AU, B/V With Bulma's new position as advisor to the head of the royal family of Bangou, she is taught simple mind techniques. With her new meditation techniques, comes horrid nightmares. She soon finds that her dreams are not just that, but someone else's reality.

Chapter 1: The Nightmares Commence

A flash of white and aqua is all that's seen as a young woman hurriedly makes her way through corridors of brick and stone. She is Bulma, advisor to the Queen of Bangou, a small planet in the eastern hemisphere. She has been advisor to the acting queen since the two women were young kids, but just recently, with the crowning of the new queen, Bulma's duties had increased. The head of the royal family is expected to have a priestess as a personal advisor, so to appease the council as much as possible, Bulma had taken up lessons in simple religious procedures as well as in simple magics. So far, those lessons weren't taking root in her brain. She was more a fan of the scientific.

Her flat shoes sounded with clicks as she walked as fast as she could in the damned dress that she was required to wear. It was floor length and white, with a sweeping v-neck trimmed in gold, and long bell sleeves, also trimmed in gold. She also had a large golden sash tied around her waist with the ends of it flowing behind her. She was required to pin her aqua curls up on her head as opposed to her preferred state of leaving it loose around her face. All this amounted to a very uncomfortable young woman.

Bulma was late, and she knew that she was to be reprimanded for it. She was to meet with the high priestess of the royal family who had also served as advisor to the current queens lost brother, the former King. With a huff of air, she finally made it to the center of the temple and walked in to find the older woman kneeled down in front of a large stone figure.

The high priestess was an older woman and quite bitter. She had wanted her own daughter, Marron, to be advisor to the current Queen, but she had been forced to give her daughter up to the ruler of the galaxy, Frieza, when she was quite young. She was not impressed with the fact that she had lost her place as the head advisor to the royal family just because her charge had been lost somewhere in the galaxy. She knew they would find the king, it was just a matter of time, and then she would be reinstated. Everything was still being rebuilt with their change of planets, so she knew the focus was more on rebuilding their community then on doing anything of importance.

Bulma cleared her throat and took a few unwary steps toward the older woman. "I'm sorry I'm late, Caistina, but-"

"Hush," the older woman replied in a hard voice. She got to her feet slowly and turned to face Bulma. She was tall and imposing, with a thin face and piercing green eyes. Her hair was long and silver from her many years of manipulating the magics. "I don't care to hear your excuses, child. This is the third time in the past few days that you've been late. I refuse to continue with your lessons until you learn some responsibility."

Bulma's eyes went wide, she never expected that the priestess would take things to such a high level, "But, Caistina, to have an advisor with no training would be an insult to the royal family. I beg you to reconsider."

"There will be no reconsidering," Caistina hissed, "I have spoken. You can work on your own if you'd like, but I will no longer train you." She turned her back to Bulma, signalling the end of their meeting.

Bulma narrowed her eyes at the woman's back before turning on her heel and stalking out. The audacity of that woman, going against the councils orders. Not that she personally cared about the refusal to train her, but Bulma wasn't fond of the idea of going in front of the council and explaining why Caistina had lost her patience with her.

The council was made up of the most successful men and woman of Bangou, Bulma's own father being part of it. She saw them as nothing but old men and women stuck in the old times and old way of doing things, which she did feel was right. She didn't know how they could expect the planet to go forward when they refused to update their way of thinking. They were the final authority, but often a silent one. They only upheld the laws and rules of the planet and made sure that things were running smoothly. Bulma had never seen them once interfere with the ruling parties judgement.

She walked out of the temple and took a deep breath. The air here was clean and refreshing, and made her glad that they had made the switch from the over industrialized planet they once inhabited. They had traded it to the lord of the galaxy in return for this one. He had had an interest in the industries created on their planet.

The temple was situated on the edge of a mountain which overlooked the valley and housing communities below. Everything was green and flourishing. The palace had been built on the eastern side of the valley. The intricate stone building could be seen from any vantage point. That was where she lived and had lived since her father had been elected to the council when she was very young. She was then appointed as the advisor to the princess. They had thought at the time that there was no way that the princess would end up being the ruler.

Bulma walked over to the side of the temple where she had left her personal vehicle, a small friendly pink dragon that she had befriended when they landed on the planet. She smiled and petted it's head, "back to the palace, Ruby," she told it cheerfully as she jumped on the back of it, making sure to adjust her clothing so as not to appear indecent. She enjoyed the breeze that blew around her as her friend flew her towards the palace walls. It felt so peaceful to be up above everything.

All too soon, the small dragon landed in the palace courtyard. Bulma climbed off of it and gave it another quick pet, delighted with it's happy squeal, before letting it run off to play in the courtyard. She watched it go with a contented look before walking into the palace, greeting the guards as she went. It wasn't long before she found her way to the throne room and walked in through the large, fancy double doors. There was a long violet carpet running down the middle of the room, and various paintings of former royalty on the walls. Bulma had never liked the throne room, neither on this planet or the former. She always felt like she was being watched.

At the far end of the long room sat the Queen, looking horribly bored as a young man was showing her what looked to be building plans. She looked up when she heard the doors open, the corners of her mouth upturning slightly as she saw her friend. She was a lovely blonde woman with bright blue eyes, but a serious demeanour. The former king, her twin brother, looked the exact opposite of her and actually possessed the personality to be in charge, a trait his sister was lacking in. "Bulma," she greeted in a bored voice as her friend walked up to her, "I'm so glad you're here."

Bulma bowed slightly as she stopped in front of her queen, a custom that was to be expected of her that the two ignored when they were in private, "you won't be, Princess Juu, I have not so good news."

"Any news is more interesting then this," the acting queen, Juu, replied, casting a bored glance at the now insulted man at her side.

Bulma smiled as she dismissed him, "well, Caistina has-"

"Wait," Juu interrupted and stood from her throne, "let us go to my private quarters. I don't want to be here any more then I absolutely have to be."

Bulma waited for her friend to join her before turning and accompanying her out of the room. When the pair had safely made it to Juu's private quarters, Bulma heard a sigh of relief escape the blonde's lips. With a laugh, Bulma plopped herself down on the plush red sofa that adorned one of the walls in her friends living quarters. "How did this morning go?"

"Horrible," Juu replied and leaned down from behind on the back of the sofa's matching chair. "I don't know how Jay did this, it's unbearably boring."

"Well, to be fair, he was brought up to do this, you were kind of just thrown into it," Bulma stated, "how do you think I feel? I have minimal experience advising anything, let alone the ruler. I was supposed to be a companion, only an 'advisor' in title."

"I feel so bad for you," Juu replied with a roll of her eyes, "how horrible it must be for you."

"Hey, at least you don't have to deal with the nasty witch," Bulma stated with a wrinkle of her nose.

Juu chuckled, "what did Caistina do to you now?"

"Nothing, just refuse to train me anymore," Bulma told her and rolled her eyes. "She's been out to get me from the very beginning."

"Bulma," Juu groaned, "what did you do? You were late again, weren't you?" she accused and went on without waiting for a reply, "how are we going to explain this to the council? They were wary of letting you stay my advisor as it was, now they're probably going to replace you with Caistina and that's the last thing I want."

"She did say I could practise and train on my own," Bulma supplied with a shrug, "I'll let the council know that I plan to and maybe they'll take mercy."

"You know they won't," Juu stated. "I have a meeting with them tomorrow regarding the lord of the galaxy visiting. We'll have to break the news to them then."

"Ugh, why is that thing coming here anyway?" Bulma asked. She didn't like the lord, something was off about him. Possibly the way he purged planets and killed those not willing to bow down to him.

"He just wants to meet with me and make sure everything is going well. Should just be a short meeting, as I'm sure he has way more important things to attend to," Juu stated, and sent Bulma a glare to silence her, knowing a rude comment about the lord was on the tip of her tongue.

"I won't have to attend, will I?" Bulma grumbled, knowing full well that she would be required too.

"You know the answer to that," Juu replied. She unbent from her position and stretched her back. "I'm sure I should return before they come looking for me. I miss the days of having nothing to do."

Bulma smiled in acknowledgement and stood from her seat. "Lead the way,"

---

Bulma sat in front of the mirror in her own bedroom which was situated off Juu's private quarters. She happily plucked each and every pin out of her hair, letting her long aqua locks fall around her shoulders. She brushed it out before leaving her seat and walking into her changing room, shedding the formal advisor wear for a knee-length, thin strapped navy blue dress. She missed her freedom to choose what to wear.

Lighting four candles, she placed them throughout the room and sat cross-legged on the floor between them. She had promised Juu that she would continue practising and she planned to follow through on that promise. Caistina had taught her how to meditate and try to reach out with her mind. It wasn't long before Bulma had cleared her mind and was feeling the presence of different people in the palace. She could feel presences, but anymore then that, her brain had yet to advance to. After a few minutes, she gave up and blew out the candles. She climbed into her bed and laid her head down, falling asleep not long after.

Her slumber was soon interrupted by a series of images. She watched helplessly as a poor man was tortured and beat until he was unconscious, she watched the blood flow from various wounds and stain the clothes he wore and the floor underneath him, she watched as the light glinted off a short blade that was destined for his torso…

Bulma awoke with a start, perspiration making it's way down the sides of her face. She closed her eyes tight and wished the haunting images away, trying hard to forget the horrid nightmare.