"You’ll provide us with a ship." Vegeta was saying.

"Provide you with a ship?? How am I supposed to do that??" Bulma screeched as she shot up from her seat.

Vegeta regarded the stubborn lavender-haired earth girl with impatience.

She pretended as if she weren’t the daughter of a renowned genius.

"Don’t play stupid with me, girl. You will bring forth a ship that is suited to my likes. It will be equipped with living conditions for four and must be stocked with sufficient food. We will leave in one week’s time." He stated as if that were that.

"Excuse me, Mr. High-and-Mighty, but even if I had agreed to build this ship for you, which I haven’t mind you, there’s no way I could build it in less than six months and with all your ‘specifications’ it’d probably take longer than that!" Bulma yelled gaining pained looks from the three other Saiya-jins as they covered their ears.

"Did I say you had to build me a ship?" Vegeta asked with disdain.

Bulma tried to mouth words, but could not recall him actually asking her to ‘build’ a ship for him.

"No, I did not," he said after observing her baffled silence. "I told you to provide me with one, did I not? And that’s all you have to do. I wouldn’t rely on a puny female like you to provide me with a new ship."

Bulma scowled at him with contempt. Besides feeling utterly incompetent, she despised his demeaning attitude towards women.

"Ok, if you’re so smart" she started without thinking, "then tell me where I am to find a ship, huh?? We don’t use them that much around here and I have no need for one. I wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon."

Vegeta smirked at the little human. He could tell that when she was calm and composed she would prove to be a very intelligent and valuable asset, but at the moment her pitiful attempt at besting him was not impressive.

"Well, hmm, if you do remember onna, you happened to come here in a ship. Is that not true? And since you said you won’t be leaving the planet there’s no need for you to want to hold on to the ship." Vegeta informed smugly.

Bulma stepped back and let herself crumple into the coach. She looked around her living room.

All the Saiya-jins were looking at her with mocking glances.

‘Damn it all. When did it come to this? Me, taking orders from barbaric Saiya-jins. A whole step down the evolution ladder.’ She thought to herself.

"Why can’t you just get on your own ship?" she asked without malice. She was defeated.

Vegeta rolled his eyes. The woman was becoming an annoyance, yet he needed her help so he decided on being civil.

"I informed you of the crisis on my planet. Everyone loyal to me is under lock and key. If the enemy even thought we were worth sending a ship for, they wouldn’t be coming to pick us up. They want us dead. Especially me and these brainless look-alikes behind me." Vegeta said motioning to Kakarot and Turles. "We can’t leave with the pods we came in because their speed will never get us back to Vegeta-sei in the time a ship would."

"We don’t have a lot of time." Turles said, his first input of the discussion.

Vegeta growled and glanced at the girl before him.

"Make that deadline four days. Less, if you can be even remotely efficient." He said as turned away from her.

"Hey, you just wait a second." Bulma said as she grabbed Vegeta’s shoulder, attempting to turn him around.

He growled and grabbed her hand, twisting her body and pulling him tight against him. The three other Saiya-jins knew why Vegeta had reacted this way. He didn’t like to be touched, and people knew better than to touch him.

"Little wench!" Vegeta growled through clenched teeth. "I am the strongest Saiya-jin known to live and I could snap you in two if I pleased. I’d advise you to stop taking liberties with me; I’m not like the human boys on your planet. Watch what you say and do, onna, because I will take everything personally and seriously." He said releasing her and allowing her to fall on the ground.

"Hey, don’t think I’m coming on to you, you prick! You can just pull that pole out your ass! And I sure as hell won’t go out of my way to touch you! So don’t get any ideas. I was just trying to tell you that I’ll make the necessary adjustments to the ship but you have to give me five days tops." She said, snarling at him from the ground.

Vegeta smirked at her choice of words. He hadn’t intended her to interpret his threat as taking intimate liberties with him, he had meant for her just not to get in his way.

‘She’s an interesting piece of work.’ He thought to himself.

He looked to his subjects and glowered at the girl still sitting on the ground. They all expected him to punish her for her outburst.

"I can’t be bothered with you, weakling. I’m glad we see eye to eye and that you’ll keep your distance, how ever hard that may be. Now, just be a nice quiet little ningen and get to work!" he bellowed as he turned on his heel and stalked from the room. After a second of stunned silence, Kakarot and Turles quickly followed on the heels of his prince. Chichi remained behind, knowing she’d be dubbed babysitter again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Any word from the monkey prince, yet?" an angry Frieza asked.

His right hand men, Dodoria and Zarbon gulped at the question.

"Um… well, we don’t quite know sir. We haven’t intercepted any transmissions ever since we got all the Saiya-jins strong enough to fight back into the cells. Um, some scouter transmissions came through but none were long enough to trace from either their destination or their origin." Zarbon said shakily.

"So…" Frieza said as he sipped his wine, "what you’re trying to say is a call to Vegeta could have gotten through right under our noses?"

"Y-yes sir, but we couldn’t have prevented it!" Dodoria pleaded.

"That’s enough!!!" Frieza yelled as he pitched his glass to the floor.

"I tire of your insolent behavior! Have I pampered you so much that you forget you work for me! I rule you and I can easily dispose of you!" Frieza threatened.

Zarbon gulped and exchanged glances with Dodoria.

Coming from Frieza a threat was a lot more like a promise.

"What about Margo. Any word from my daughter?’ Frieza asked, settling down.

"Y-yes sire! She left a message saying she has brought forth Miranda who went in search of the Saiya-jins and came back mortally wounded. She is healing now in some pool and will be even stronger next time. She also states that some suspicious purple-haired girl has shown up on the scene and aids the Saiya-jins. She believes this was the one to wound Miranda. She says that Miranda stated that she easily brought the Saiya-jins down but hadn’t been expecting the girl." Dodoria read from a transcript, watching his lord, as he read.

Frieza’s lips were pursed into an angry black line.

"That is all she says? Not a word more?" he asked.

"Yes, sire. That is all." Zarbon spoke up.

"Fine." Frieza decided, getting to his feet. His thick white tail thumped angrily behind him.

"We will start with the removal of Saiya-jins immediately. Start with the lowest class. Half-breeds. And work your way up, make the elites and nobles watch their people dwindle down to a handful. And if the prince returns in time for the big show, we’ll let the disgusting beasts watch as I destroy the planet." Frieza said with a wicked smirk.

"And what will you do with the prince and the remaining few?" Zarbon asked, bravely.

Frieza frowned.

"Why, I’ll dispose of them personally. Might even let Vegeta hang around a tad bit. I’ve always liked the fire in that boy. I want to see how long it’d take me to beat it out of him. Using any means necessary."

"And… what about he situation on Checkisu-sei?" Dodoria asked timidly.

"Well, of course they’re likely to escape. Margo is powerful but can be incompetent and flighty. I bet she’d let them slip from right under her nose. We’ll handle them when they get here. If they bring anyone with them, I’ll let you boys have your fun. Now commence with the massacre!!" Frieza said, gleefully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bulma had been confined to her basement with the grouchy female Saiya-jin guarding her. She hadn’t seen much of the other Saiya-jins though. Only once when Turles had dragged Chichi away for something and Bulma had been left with Kakarot guarding her. She realized he was the nicest out of the four, well as nice as Saiya-jins could possibly be. It had been quite a long time Bulma realized. Not much had transpired in that time, however.

"Three and a half days." she grumbled as she wiped more grease from her face.

"Don’t even talk about it, it makes me want to go home so much more." Chichi growled as she watched the girl tinker around with a gigantic black and white spaceship.

"Well… what if you don’t… I mean, what if you don’t have a home to go home to? This whole Frieza thing seems really dangerous." Bulma commented.

Chichi scoffed.

"Oh, I have a home to go to. I’ve got friends and loving family. Can’t say the same for you. Where’s that annoying little brat-girl?" Chichi asked sinisterly.

"I don’t know…" Bulma muttered, thoughts of Elani filling her eyes with tears.

"I imagine you don’t care, either?" Chichi asked, absently rubbing her still flat stomach.

"That’s not true! I’m very worried about her! She’s like a little sister to me." Bulma argued.

Chichi just let out a little sigh and played with her spiky hair.

"Aren’t you done yet??" Chichi asked in exasperation.

"If I were done I wouldn’t still be sitting around here readjusting the ship, would I??" Bulma asked, getting annoyed. "No! I’d be standing out side, watching you freaks blast off, back to your stupid mud ball of a planet to get yourselves killed!"

Chichi shot out of her seat.

"Don’t get smart with me, bitch!" Chichi warned.

Bulma closed her mouth but did not become meek.

"I could care less what you do to me, Chichi. But keep in mind, you don’t have a flyable ship yet." Bulma said returning to the chip she had been working on.

Chichi smirked as she sat back down.

"Well, there’s a good possibility that we’ll kill you as soon as we board the ship." Chichi said evilly.

"Well, there’s a possibility but you guys won’t do it. I’ve already made sure of that. I’ll have a code that I’ll input into my computer as soon as you’re out of our atmosphere. Then it will be impossible for you to return here in this ship. I’ve made the planet’s coordinates unknown to the ship’s computer. And since you’re in this predicament with Frieza I don’t think you’ll be finding other ships around here. If I don’t put this code in, as soon as you blast off your course will be set to orbiting this planet. And after you’ve orbited for a day and are far enough away not to cause damage, it’ll self-destruct." Bulma stated calmly as she screwed a white panel onto the ship and got to her feet.

Chichi gave her an unreadable _expression.

"That’s it. I’m finished." Bulma said, rubbing her dirty hands onto her work shirt and stretching her back.

"Finally!" Chichi said exasperatedly.

"You wait right here while I get the prince." She commanded as she rose from her chair and headed for the stairs.

"Sure." Bulma said as she lay down on the ground, face supported by her hands.

She was very proud of herself.

In just three short days she was able to build two additional room attachments and an advanced navigational system. She had sufficiently stocked the ship with the necessary supplies for a two-week trip. That was the only thing that bothered her.

She was angry that the Saiya-jin pods they had come in had required less traveling time than her capsule ship. She couldn’t figure it out.

"With the added turbo boosters, sleek outer coverings, and navigational plans my ship should travel at the optimum level of efficiency but their Saiya-jin pods took less time to arrive here." She stated in wonder.

"Maybe it’s just that Saiya-jins are more intelligent than puny humans?"

She jumped at the gruff voice.

"Vegeta." She mumbled getting to her feet.

"Prince Vegeta, wench! And don’t make me say it again! I can’t wait to be rid of you!!" he said angrily as he pushed her aside and walked closely to the ship.

He inspected it for a few minutes.

Bulma glared at the back of his head while the other three Saiya-jins waited anxiously for his approval.

"Like you know what you’re searching for, baka! My ship is completely up to spec. Ok?? There’s nothing wrong here!" Bulma said, feeling very insulted. She could say this was one of her best achievements yet.

Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose. She was giving him a headache with all her whining and moaning.

"Didn’t I say I wanted accommodations for four? There are only three rooms here." He said pointing to the ship’s plan.

Bulma sighed and rolled her eyes like it were something simple.

"Look. I ran out of materials, ok? I didn’t want to get cheap when it came to sleeping quarters, so I decided that since Kakarot and Chichi are mates they’d want to… uh… share a room." Bulma explained glancing sheepishly at the couple.

Chichi was blushing.

"We don’t do that while on missions. Everyone has separate sleeping quarters, but I suppose it’s fine." Chichi said in exasperation. "Really, ouji-sama, we all just want to leave here as quickly as possible! If you bother her with installing another room she’ll just take more time and with the situation on Vegeta-sei-"

"Enough!" Vegeta roared.

"If you are all pleased with this Earthling’s botchy work then we’ll leave in the goddamn ship!"

With that he angrily started towards the stairs.

"Great!" Kakarot spoke up.

"I can’t wait to get home."

"We’ve got preparations to make." Turles reminded him.

"Sure." Kakarot replied.

"Come on, Chi."

"What about her?" Chichi asked before all the men could get up the stairs.

Vegeta glanced back over his shoulder.

"You’re free to do as you please until 16:00 hours." He informed her.

Bulma placed her hand on her hips. She couldn’t deal with him bossing her around, but she nodded anyway.

She desperately needed to find Macki and Elani. She even considered checking up on Noel.

"Fine. Eight o’clock it is. Is that when you’ll be blasting off?" she asked casually.

"Isn’t that obvious?" Vegeta asked, his annoyance blatant.

"Well, I just wanted to warn you not to launch before I get back. Chichi will explain why." Bulma said, then she walked up the stairs and through the crowd of Saiya-jins.

"I won’t be long." She informed and was quickly out the door.

Vegeta stared after her.

"Peculiar thing." He said out loud.

"Yeah! I noticed it too, Vegeta." Kakarot chimed in. "No matter what you do or say she isn’t in the least bit afraid of you! I mean, you guys argue like a mated pair!"

Vegeta glared at his taller soldier.

"Don’t say that ever again. If I had the time to break the wench I would, but since we’ll be leaving the planet I won’t have the time to." He explained.

"So… you’re not taking her with you?" Turles asked nonchalantly.

"I… I don’t know. We’ll need her to operate the capsule machinery but if we bring her to Vegeta-sei she’ll just get in the way of battles." Vegeta said.

"Oh? Well, why don’t we ask her how to do it before we leave?" Kakarot asked. He wouldn’t want to endanger the lavender-haired girl for no reason.

"She doesn’t have a say in it!" Vegeta yelled. "Do you think I’m going to go and politely ask her if she’d like to teach us how to operate the machinery we stole from her?"

Kakarot looked at his feet.

"Well, then we’ve got to take her." Turles said with a smirk. He could imagine what it’d be like to have that girl on the ship for two whole weeks.

Vegeta glared at Turles.

"And then again, maybe we won’t. If we can settle the issue here with that disgusting scaly monstrosity we could always return after we have defeated Frieza and his minions." Vegeta said as if that were that.

But no one opted to argue all the things that could go wrong with that plan.

Vegeta sighed and went up the stairs followed quickly by Turles and Kakarot.

Chichi gave her prince a hard stare. He had never spoken to them so openly. She knew undoubtedly that this little ‘human wench’ was more of a comfort than a bother to the prince and that wasn’t a good thing. The Saiya-jins needed a strong impassive prince. Not a lovesick irrational one. And she knew in her heart that that was the inevitable outcome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bulma inhaled deeply as she ran through the backwoods behind her house.

It felt so good to finally be outside and free again.

In less than four hours the Saiya-jin problem would be over and done with.

No more uppity prince, no more rude Chichi, no more leering looks from Turles. She’d be free to go back to the way things used to be.

She was almost certain they wouldn’t kill her. After all she had done for them they should at least be moderately thankful. She had a plan that she was more than excited about. She had packed herself a capsule full of her belongings, while Chichi thought she was preparing for bed one night, and was planning on leaving the planet. She would find Macki and Elani and take them with her. She was sure someone would loan her a ship. She felt that the Saiya-jins had come there only because she was there and she didn’t want to bring any more trouble to the people.

‘Oh, but then what about that lizard woman? Have I seen the last of her?’ Bulma thought with worry.

As if in answer to her question a loud explosion sounded a few miles away.

Bulma’s eyebrows rose as her eyes widened.

The sound had come from one of the most populated cities.

She would hate to think that while she had been safely tinkering about in her basement that the demon had been running amuck causing chaos and death everywhere she went.

Bulma’s heart beat quickly as she ran off in the direction of the sound.

That was where Macki lived and if she had anything to bed, she’d bet Elani was with her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chichi was throwing some things into a bag when her scouter started to beep rapidly.

She knew that sound meant that it was recording a new ki signature.

At first she ignored it, thinking that one of the boys were just powering up and showing off but when the incessant beeping refused to cease she stopped what she was doing and picked it up.

She stepped back in fear as she saw the reading.

"Power level one million??" she said in astonishment.

"What?? No! That can’t be right… no one has a level like that…" Chichi said backing up into a wall.

"It’s close. I’ve got to tell someone. But it’s probably a fluke." Chichi convinced herself.

Chichi ran from the room and down the stairs into the kitchen.

She wasn’t surprised to see the three men eating their fills from the ningen’s fridge. Their scouters were on the table, obviously not reacting. She calmed instantly.

‘Mine is simply defunct.’ She convinced herself.

Kakarot looked up when Chichi entered.

"What’s wrong, Chi?" he asked around a mouthful of food.

"Oh… nothing. It’s just silly. My scouter is malfunctioning. I thought what it had reported was actually true, but when I saw that yours weren’t going berserk I quickly deduced that something was wrong with mine. It’s nothing." Chichi said as she prepared to leave.

"Wait!" Turles called after swallowing a large portion of food.

"Our scouters are turned off."

Chichi turned around, the feeling of dread consuming her quickly.

"I mean… yours still won’t get the same reading mine does… don’t bother turning them on." Chichi said.

"Nonsense!" Vegeta said grabbing Kakarot’s scouter since he had destroyed his.

"These scouters are state of the art. They couldn’t be malfunctioning so quickly. We’ll check what it records." Vegeta said.

Chichi bit her lip as Vegeta clicked on the scouter, Turles following suit.

She watched anxiously as they powered up and then the familiar incessant beeping was heard.

"What?" Vegeta and Turles said simultaneously.

"Power level 900,000 and rising!!" Turles asked, eyes wide.

"That’s impossible! I don’t even think Frieza has gotten past 500,000!" Kakarot said, looking over his brother’s shoulder.

"Mine recorded 1 million." Chichi said dejectedly as she tossed her scouter on the kitchen table.

"That’s it…" Vegeta said clutching the table. "It’s that lizard wench, Miranda. That’s who this reading belongs to."

"Impossible!!" Chichi shrieked. "She last recorded two-hundred ninety thousand! No way she could rise more than 700 levels in three days!"

"Saiya-jins have been known to raise their powers substantially after being injured. Kakarot, Turles and I all raised our power levels about 20,000 levels after the fight with her." Vegeta said distantly, staring hard at the astonishing numbers.

"But not hundreds of thousands!" Chichi argued. "It’s IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Not when it’s written plainly right here!" Turles argued back.

Vegeta could see his troop was getting testy.

"Enough. It’s simple. We will leave immediately."

"What?? Are you suggesting running away?" Kakarot asked in awe.

"No… we’re not running away. It’s not our problem. It’s these Checkisu-jins’ problem. We cannot in any way defeat a force this powerful. What’s the point of sacrificing our lives for this cause when we must worry ourselves with the Saiya-jin cause?? This isn’t our problem! They’ll all die. They were going to in the first place. I had all intention of blowing up this planet. We have Frieza to contend with." Vegeta said rising to his feet.

Chichi’s face was set in a frown that mimicked those of her mate and his brother.

They weren’t happy with the decision but couldn’t argue it either.

Chichi blinked, suddenly in realization.

"What about the girl? Bulma??" she asked getting to her feet. She couldn’t ignore that she had saved her life.

"We have to leave her, then." Turles said, disappointedly.

Chichi couldn’t figure away to explain it to them.

"Uh… uh… we can’t launch unless she gives us this code!" Chichi remembered. "She said that that’s the only way we’ll get out of the atmosphere."

"Well find her then!!" Vegeta roared. He knew that if they stayed any longer than they had to that the Saiya-jin race would lose its only hope of salvation.

"She left remember! She’s probably being killed right now!!" Kakarot said in frustration.

"No…" Turles said while tapping buttons on his scouter.

"She’s still very much alive… actually, she’s powering up!" he said in some sort of admiration.

"Let’s go, then. We need her to get the ship out of the basement, outside, and launched." Vegeta said.

"What’ll we do with her afterwards??" Chichi asked.

"I don’t know!!" Vegeta yelled. He hated this feeling of uncertainty.

He screamed and blasted through a wall of the house.

The three Saiya-jins exchanged a look, then hurriedly followed after Vegeta.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The carnage. Unspeakable carnage littered the streets.

Bulma’s breathing was ragged and her body ached with strain as her anger fueled her power.

Her hands were balled into little fists as she saw the mountains of bodies, most of who she knew. Her hair flew about her in a violent purple mess and her eyes burned with savage rage.

She heard a loud laugh and then something blasted through the roof of a shop.

She recognized the thing quickly as being the dragoness but her heart broke when she noticed what she was clutching.

Two bodies.

One obviously already lifeless, the other struggling to free itself.

Her breath hitched in her throat as Miranda threw Macki’s body to the ground; she landed with an audible plop.

Bulma almost screamed, but halted when Elani, the second body, did it for her.

Bulma’s eyes were wide with horror and streaming tears.

"No!!!" she yelled as she sped towards Miranda who had by then landed.

"No!!!" she screamed again.

Miranda glanced at her, and then at the trembling child.

"Bulma-san… I’m sorry… I c-couldn’t be here for you!" Elani said through tears.

"No! I’ll save you, Lani-chan! I swear it." Bulma said approaching the dragoness with caution.

"No… I don’t think you will." Miranda said as she licked her lips, showing Bulma her white fangs.

With a wink and a twist of her wrist she had snapped Elani’s neck.

Bulma’s heart stopped then and everything went in slow motion. She saw Elani’s eyes snap open. She saw Miranda’s smirk as she tossed the small child aside, not a care for the damage she had done. Elani’s corpse crumpled to the ground her dead green eyes wide and unseeing.

Then everything was back to normal pace. Bulma was inhaling deeply, rage and tears making her vision unclear. Miranda had started to approach her, and Bulma was more than ready to beat the bitch into a pulp.

She snapped out of her stupor when she heard clapping.

Her head snapped to the left and she saw a petite woman with unnaturally white skin, tangerine hair and hollow amber eyes. Her hair was swept back to frame her face and she was wearing a long black cloak.

Bulma almost choked when she saw who came out from behind the applauding woman.

"Noel…" she mumbled, feeling dizzy.

"How could you??" she screamed. The pain of losing the two most important people in her life was starting to take its toll on her. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t stop the tears, couldn’t stop shaking.

She heard footsteps behind her and wondered angrily what back up these barbarians had brought along.

She turned with fear, loathing, anger and pain in her eyes, ready for anything.

She was almost relieved to see the Saiya-jins but they weren’t even looking at her. They were staring at the orange-haired woman.

"Margo." Vegeta muttered.

He knew right then they had no chance of beating these women if they tried to.

Without considering his actions he launched several powerful ki-blasts at the buildings and at his foes, to create a diversion.

He lunged at Bulma, grabbing the resistant girl and blasting off with the other three Saiya-jins in close pursuit.

Bulma fought against him crying and screaming that she had to avenge their deaths. She beat against his chest with small yet powerful fists, screaming about the injustice.

Vegeta ignored her and flew as fast as he could.

He arrived at her house in less than eight minutes. But he knew that he had already wasted too much time. His soldiers were about a minute or two behind him. Which meant that Margo and her demon were less than ten minutes behind.

He ran into the house from the hole he had made and carried Bulma all the way downstairs.

He deposited the sobbing, broken girl on the ground because she couldn’t even stand up.

"Vegeta!!" she howled. "How could you take me away??"

He glared at her weakness. He had never seen her so broken and it scared him.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet.

"Get a hold of yourself, woman!" he yelled at her as he shook her. "They’re dead! Ok! Dead! You can’t do anything positive by staying here and letting them kill you! You won’t avenge your lost ones that way! You have to survive to see another day! You can make yourself stronger and settle your score with them later. Right now you have to input this code in the ship and get us out of here!" he yelled at her.

She turned her face away from him and became limp.

Vegeta knew she was too destroyed inside to make any move to help. He had to motivate her.

He cursed as he heard Turles, Chichi, and Kakarot land outside. That meant he had less than eight minutes to get hic crew on the ship and off the planet.

The Saiya-jins all came rushing down the stairs breathing heavy with defeated looks on their faces.

"She wont’ cooperate, will she??" Turles asked.

"We’ll all die." Chichi stated, without sorrow or anything.

Vegeta looked at his dispirited crew. He didn’t want these people to go like this. He put aside his pride and gathered his strength.

"Please." He forced out, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.

"If not for the ones you lost today, then for your parents and all the earthlings that died because of Frieza. If you allow us all to stay here and die, everyone on planets all around the universe will face this fate. Please." He stressed.

Bulma locked eyes with him and knew he was sincere. She scanned the room focusing on Chichi who looked like she had given up all hope.

Bulma didn’t want more deaths hanging over her heads. And she knew that time was running out.

She detached herself from Vegeta’s powerful grip and moved as fast as her exhausted body would allow towards the control panel.

Vegeta watched as she inputted an eight-digit pass code and the ship booted up.

"Come on, everyone get in." she ordered weakly.

The Saiya-jins came to life at that and filed onto the ship.

After entering the lock and deployment codes Bulma hurried onto the ship also.

"I guess we’ll have to leave from my basement. Everyone strap in." she ordered. She configured the ship for liftoff and set it to a 10 second countdown.

Vegeta noticed there were only four seats. Bulma would be pitched around like a toy if she weren’t restrained when the ship launched.

As the computer’s mechanical voice reached four Vegeta grabbed the still shaking girl and pulled her into the seat with him.

He strapped the restraints over their bodies and held onto her tight.

Bulma was surprised at his actions she never thought he’d care for her well-being but her thoughts quickly shifted as the ship took off.

She got dizzy as the pressures in the ship fluctuated.

Through the loud racket of the ship breaking free of the atmosphere she heard Turles announce that Margo had just arrived at Bulma’s house.

Bulma sighed heavily.

‘At least I saved someone.’ She thought. She listened to the beat of Vegeta’s strong heart against her back and closed her eyes. She was quickly lulled into a dreamless sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**6 hours later**

Bulma woke to the sound of quiet bickering. She hadn’t even realized she was sleeping.

Her eyes fluttered open and fixed on the sight of Vegeta and Turles arguing.

She undid the restraints around her body and shakily got to her feet.

"Of course we weren’t planning on her being here, but we’ll have to do something about it!" Turles was saying.

"God damn low-class shut your mouth! I’ll do whatever I please! If I want to leave her on a safe planet it’s my choice!" Vegeta yelled.

Bulma walked slowly over to the group noticing how Chichi and Kakarot observed the argument from a safe distance.

"That won’t do! You told me yourself how she was able to injure the dragoness in a way that none of us could!!" Turles argued. "She’s a valuable asset!"

"Cretin! You just want to bed her!" Vegeta said angrily, appalled by Turles’ gall. He had to consider that she had indeed been able to incapacitate Miranda but he didn’t want to admit how valuable she really was.

"What are you talking about??" Bulma asked softly. Her voice was hoarse from the crying and screaming.

The two men glanced at her.

Vegeta looked over her vulnerable state. Her hair was a mess, eyes red and puffy, clothes wrinkled and dusty.

"What’ll we do with her at the moment?" Kakarot voiced the question no one cared to.

"Well, we’re short one room. She can stay with me." Turles offered, giving Bulma a sympathetic look.

Bulma gave him a distrustful one.

"She’s staying with me." Vegeta said.

Bulma’s eyes widened. That bothered her more than the thought of sharing a room with Turles.

Chichi could see the girl’s fear of spending two-weeks’ worth of night with Vegeta.

After a moment of silence she sighed heavily and gave in.

"Look, Kakarot can stay with his brother and Bulma and I can share a room." She offered, giving Kakarot and apologetic look. He sighed and shrugged.

"No. She’ll stay with me, and that’s final." Vegeta said, turning his back and walking away.

Bulma shuddered at the thought, but she wasn’t too sure it was a shudder of fear.

Chichi sighed and touched Bulma’s shoulder drawing her from her thoughts.

"It’s hard enough for us to spend weeks with Vegeta just sharing a ship, I’d hate to think how it’ll be sharing such close quarters with him! All I can say is good luck. You’ll need it." Chichi said sympathetically.

Bulma sighed as the Saiya-jins all filed away to their respective rooms, which she assumed had been called whilst she was sleeping.

"What am I to do?" Bulma asked her self with worry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~