The goal was an apple.

Trunks and Goten stood against the wall, on their tiptoes to peer out the small barred window. Both boys were waiting for the absolute opportune moment when a pair of feet would pass by, bearing the fruit they so desired. Trunks looked over at Goten and nudged him a bit, jostling the chains wrapped around their wrists. The two were bound at the wrists and the ankles, and wore grungy brown clothes. There was dirt on their face, and their hair was matted and as dirty as the rest of them. Goten sat up and looked over at Trunks before nodding and looking back at the window.

Finally the pair of feet passed by and Trunks and Goten both stuck their hands out and grabbed the ankles. Instantly, the man toppled, spilling the basket of apples across the floor. The two ten year olds were quick to snatch the fruit up, pulling it through the bars. They could barely hear the swears and yells the man yelled as the two retreated back into the darkness of their room.

"We're getting better at this," Goten said, sitting down on the floor, against the sleek grey wall. He set his loot down, and picked up an apple, slowly munching on it. Trunks sat down beside him and picked up his own and slowly brought it to his mouth, murmuring his agreement. Goten crawled over to his companion, sensing something was wrong. "What's the matter, Trunks?"

"I still sort of hurt, from today."

"Want to play a game?" Goten tilted his head. "Playing games always makes us feel better."

"What game should we play?"

"We could play the thunder game."

"No we can't," Trunks bit down on his apple. "It's not storming."

"We could make our own thunder," Goten said, rocking back onto his shackled heels. "Come on, Trunks. It always makes you feel better."

"The thunder game makes me feel better when it's storming. I don't like the noises," Trunks looked up. Goten frowned and then jumped up, and ran to the center of the room. Trunks followed him with his eyes, and leaned back, still munching on his apple. Goten cleared his throat and then clapped his hands in front of his mouth.

"Boom!"

Trunks blinked and tilted his head. "What are you doing?"

"Being the thunder! Come on, Trunks you have to count. And then you can guess if the storm is getting closer or further away."

"That's a dumb game, Goten. I'll know after two tries."

Goten frowned. "Nah uh! I think it's a good game. You have to guess if I'm getting closer or further away, now count!" He clapped his hands in front of his mouth again. "Boom!"

Trunks sighed. "One, two, three, four, five, six…"

"Boom!" Goten clapped again.

Trunks shook his head, and folded his hands over his knees. "One, two, three, four, five, six…"

"Boom!"

Trunks blinked this time and looked up. "Goten, you dummy! That's the same number I got to last time!"

"I told you it was a tricky game."

Trunks groaned and shook his head. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…"

"Boom!"

"Alright, it's moving away."

"That was one second Trunks, keep counting."

"One, two, three, four…"

"Boom!"

"What the? Goten! You can't do that!"

"I'm a storm, I can do whatever I want."

Trunks got up. "Oh yeah? Well now I'm an even bigger storm! And I'm going to zap you with my lightning."

"Not if I blow you away with my thunder, first."

"You can't blow someone away with thunder, it's just a noise."

"You're no fun," Goten said, sticking his tongue out.

Both boys burst out laughing after a brief period of silence. The two sat back on the floor and stared at each other before going back to the apples they left on the floor. The two ate in silence, after that. There wasn't much more to say. Until the door opened, that was. Trunks and Goten looked up and smiles appeared on their faces as the two familiar forms entered the room. Goten leapt up off the floor, and ran over.

"Dad!" He jumped up, grabbing onto the man's arms as he was lifted into the air. Goku smiled, and lifted his son up above his head.

"Goten, hi! Oh, look, you got some fruit!" He said, setting Goten down on his shoulder. "Way to go!"

Trunks stood up a bit more slowly and walked over to the other man in the room, his father. He held up an apple, and looked up a smile on his face. "Here, papa. We got a bunch of them today."

Vegeta looked down at Trunks for a few moments before taking the apple in one hand and ruffling Trunks' hair with the other. "Well done," he put a hand on the back of Trunks' head and led him back into the room, before sitting down. Trunks sat next to him as Goku and Goten took their seats as well.

"What was today like, dad? You don't look hurt."

"I'm not," Goku said, setting Goten down on the floor and picking up an apple. "I think Freeza is getting softer on us, Vegeta."

"Whatever," Vegeta snorted, leaning back to the wall. "If he thinks this is all it will take to break us, he's got another thing coming."

Goku smiled and took a bite of the fruit. "Sometimes he's hard to figure out. I can't quite place what he wants from us."

"For the love of all that is holy, Kakarot, not this again," Vegeta rolled his eyes. "As Saiyans we have limitless potential, I've told you this before. Your stupidity knows no bounds."

"So what's he want with that potential? And I've told you a million times to call me Goku."

"That's an Earth name, you're a Saiyan."

"I was raised on Earth, you know."

"Whatever, Kakarot," Vegeta swallowed the rest of the apple whole, and wiped his mouth. "What he wants with the potential is obvious, isn't it? To break us. Make us into weapons, and our children into assassins."

"Assassins?" Goten looked up from his apple. "Cool."

"No, Goten," Goku shook his head. "Not, cool. That's bad."

Trunks remained silent, trying to mimic his father and shove the rest of the apple down his throat, but so far was only succeeding in strangling himself. Vegeta sighed and yanked the fruit out of the boy's hands and snapped it in half before handing it back and looking back at the other man in the room.

"By the way, your eldest has been gone a while."

"Gohan..? Yeah… I wonder what's going on?" Goku said, tossing the core over his shoulder. "I hope he's not hurt."

"You're not worried?"

"About Gohan? No. He's strong, and probably the smartest one here," Goku said, ruffling Goten's hair. "He'll take care of himself."

Vegeta snorted and leaned back as his son finished off his apple and leaned on his side. He didn't object and simply folded an arm behind his head, careful not to choke himself with his own restraints. "… And your mate?"

Goku looked down. "I don't know. I hope she's okay," He shook his head. "If Bulma is with her, I think she'll be alright, but…"

Trunks looked up at his father, and Goten and he exchanged glances. Whenever the subject of their mothers came up, the atmosphere in the room got very quiet. Goten stood up, and cleared his throat.

"Trunks and I made up a new game today."

"Really?" Goku looked over. "What is it?"

"It's a thunder game. I make the thunder and Trunks has to guess if the storm gets closer or further away."

"Why don't you show us, Goten?"

Trunks sat up. "I think it's a dumb game. Goten cheats."

"The storm is allowed to cheat. No one tells the weather what to do."

"He has a point," Goku looked over at Vegeta and Trunks. Vegeta scoffed and turned his head while Trunks made a face that showed he clearly thought this to be a valid point. And then, no more words passed between them, and the game began.

Gohan slipped behind a rock as another battalion of soldiers swept through the place. As happy as he was to have broken free from that thing, he was on a small desert planet with nowhere to go. His tail flickered behind him and he folded his arms, lowering his head to think. The chains around his arms and legs had been nearly impossible to remove, and were more in the way than anything else. Gohan had managed to break the chain that connected the cuffs on his wrists and ankles, but now that somehow seemed to make them louder, as they could now hang and knock against the other metal, making loud clanging noises. He turned around, leaning against the rocks and peering around, trying to get a good look at the army that swarmed the planet he had crashed on. He wasn't sure why the convoy had crashed, but it had been a godsend. It had given him everything he needed to escape, and Gohan wasn't one to allow opportunities to pass him by. He removed himself from the rock and took off running again. He would have to find a way off the planet soon.

Knowing Freeza, if he wasn't found soon, the whole place would go up in flames. He could either lead the soldiers away from the planet and spare countless of innocents, or he could slip away unnoticed and let them think he was dead. Son Gohan was not that kind of guy. He would find a way to save these people and escape at the same time. And while that was going to be the single most difficult thing he'd ever done, he was going to manage somehow. He probably didn't have much time. No one in Freeza's army had ever been one for patience.

His thoughts suddenly turned to the girl from earlier. The one who had found him in that clothes shop. He wasn't sure why, but the absolute terror in her eyes had gotten to him. Though it could have been because behind the terror there was some sort of genuine curiosity, and it made him feel uneasy. Then again, he had tackled her and pinned her to the floor. He had to imagine that that had made her feel more uneasy than he had.

Gohan tucked his tail around his waist and slipped through an alleyway, sticking as close to the walls as he could. He was closer to the shipyard now, and from there it would just be the insanely difficult matter of stealing one. Gohan was not by any means a guy who got along with technology. He was a genius, to be sure, but this sort of stuff had always eluded him. Though that might have had something to do with spending the first five years of his life in the mountains of Earth, and spending the next ten in Freeza's dungeon.

That had inhibited progress a bit. Gohan sighed and leaned up against the wall of the alley he was hiding in. The only solution he could see that didn't involve more people dying was him turning himself in. But the pure adrenaline and hatred that coursed through him made him decide against that decision before it could even cross his mind properly. He was not going back there, and there was no way anyone was going to make him. He peered around the wall, to the shipyard and frowned at the abundance of mechanical giants.

He closed his eyes and shook his head and began edging his way towards the ships. He noticed a particularly grungy one parked more than a few feet away from where he was standing and looked it up and down. There was something familiar about it. Something he couldn't quite place.

What he could place, however, was one of the people who were stepping out of it. It was her. The girl from earlier. Gohan frowned and leaned back into the alleyway, and lowered his breathing as much as it would go. She was talking to another man with dark hair and scars on her face.

"Even if we do find him, then what?"

"Then… Well…" The girl put her hands on her hips. "We question him."

"About?"

"Everything, now come on," she said, turning to her companion. "Do you want to find him or not?"

Were they talking about him? Gohan's mind was racing, and for once in his life he was genuinely not sure what to do. He hadn't been expecting MORE people to go looking for him. Especially not someone he had more or less attacked before. It was a problem and it was a problem he was not equipped to deal with at the moment.

He shook his head and was about to think through his next move when a force that felt like a semi truck struck him from behind. It sent him flying forwards, into the shipyard where he crashed into the dirt, under the ship that the girl was standing on. He gasped and pushed himself up, as all eyes were now on him. But that wasn't what he was concerned with. He wanted to know what had hit him. He jumped up, just in time to see a second blast of Ki coming towards him, speeding forwards like a rocket. He raised his hand and swatted it away, like it was nothing. It careened off course and smashed into the ground, exploding on impact.

"Well, well, well," a familiar voice drawled. "You know, I honestly wasn't expecting to find you. I was just going to destroy the planet, but I thought a cursory glance was in order, and lo and behold, there you were!"

Gohan growled as the figure came into view. "Zarbon!"

"Hello, little monkey. We've missed you back home," the tall green alien said, extending a hand. "Won't you come back with me? Lord Freeza is terribly worried about you."

"I'm sure he is," Gohan snarled, backing up a few paces. If Zarbon was here, it could only mean an army was close behind. An army meant only to haul him back.

"Your family misses you as well, you wouldn't leave them, would you?"

"I'll be back for them as soon as possible, don't worry about that, Zarbon." Gohan eyed his surroundings. The girl from earlier was staring at him, and others had joined her. He looked up quickly at the ship, and suddenly it was all too apparent why it was so familiar. It was an Earth design. It was an Earth ship. A light bulb clicked on in Gohan's mind, and he tuned out all of Zarbon's irrelevant ramblings. With inhuman speed, he rushed towards the side, towards the girl. He leapt up into the air, and landed behind her, before spinning around and grabbing her, wrapping a hand around her neck.

There was absolute silence all of the sudden. Zarbon stared at him for a few minutes before bursting out laughing. "Hostage taking? Oh please, SG002. Since when have we cared about hostages?"

Gohan gritted his teeth and leaned forwards, whispering to the girl he held onto. "Please forgive me… I promise you'll make it out of here safely." He looked back up at Zarbon. "You'll care about this one!" He yelled.

"Why is that?"

"She's a human, that's why."

"So?"

"Don't be dense, Zarbon," Gohan sneered. He could hear the other people she was with tensing, as if they were preparing to attack him. The girl was just standing there, completely shell shocked. "If you attack an Earthship all the federations that use it as a neutral planets will see it as an act of sabotage against them. I'm sure Freeza would be delighted to do all that paperwork. So if you're ready to take responsibility for that, then go ahead and shoot."

Zarbon could only stare at him for a while and Gohan was suddenly sure he had won. Zarbon was not going to attack, but then again, the humans behind him did seem to be gearing up for a battle. He was going to have to end this quickly. He leaned down and whispered to the girl he held onto again.

"… Please help me," he pleaded. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know. Just please help me."

He felt her tense under him, and he silently prayed she wouldn't just start screaming again. Still that didn't seem likely. Finally she spoke up. "Back up, onto the ship then."

Gohan smiled and nodded. "Thank you," he slowly began to back up, walking her with him. The others slowly followed him up onto the ship, and to his relief, Zarbon and the rest of the guards on the planet remained where they were. He sighed his relief and the girl spoke up again.

"Yamucha, close the doors… Kuririn start up the ship and take off."

Both men ran forwards to do as they were told, and Gohan loosened his grip a bit, and as soon as the doors were closed, he released her entirely. And as soon as he did, a fist harder than metal collided with his face between his eyes, and sent Gohan spiraling backwards into unconsciousness.