Author's Notes: Hey guys! So I was very excited to wake up this morning and see that I already have two reviews. Thank you red4angel and preciousjade76 for making my day . Now to answer your question...in that last chapter, Bulma was 22 and Vegeta was 26. Bulma had been on Frieza's ship for 3 years at that time and Vegeta had been in service for 13 years. Hopefully that clears things up a little. And now for some back story!

Oh and just so you know, the font written in italics is Bulma's internal thoughts.

3 Years Earlier

Bulma gasped as she was harshly pushed forward, the chain around her waist growing taut and yanking the young man behind her. She frantically looked around her. All of the humans were bound around the wrists and connected by thick metal chains wrapped around their waists. She guessed that there were about a hundred people in there with her just as scared and confused as she was. Many were crying and begging for mercy. Bulma struggled with the manacles around her wrists.

"What's going to happen to us?" asked the young man behind her. Bulma looked back at him. He was about 18 with dark brown hair, pale skin, and red rimmed glasses. His bright green eyes were wide with uncertainty. Blood stained his face and the front of his IT Crowd shirt. Bulma shuddered, realizing the blood wasn't his.

"I don't know." She said softly. Bulma wished she could offer encouraging words to the boy. But none would come to her.

She silently studied the other prisoners. All seemed to be women and men roughly between the ages of 17 and 25. No children, middle aged, or elderly. Just young adults, like herself. Why?

"My name is Noah," the boy behind her spoke, jerking her out of her thoughts.

"Oh…my name is Bulma." She replied out of necessity.

"I-I don't why I told you that…I guess…I just wanted to tell someone. You know…in case something happens…" Noah spoke softly.

Bulma nodded silently, not looking at him. There's only 3 guards…if we can just get free…we can overtake them.

She studied the guards, talking among themselves. One was a massive swollen humanoid with bright pink skin adorned with inch long spikes on his arms and the top of his head. Bright purple lips and eyes flashing angrily as he scanned through the sea of faces. Another guard was a strangely handsome man with light blue skin and long emerald green hair braided down his back. He was holding a clipboard and scribbling notes, his bright golden eyes calmly reading over his writing. The last one was a very tall dark blue alien with reptilian skin and solid red eyes. He had two large ridges on the sides of his head and what looked like a gold ribbed metal plate on top of his smooth bald dome. All three appeared to be wearing similar armor with the top resembling the shoulder pads of a football player. It connected to their torsos and continued down to their knees. Gold, navy, and white seemed to be the colors of choice.

Who are these guys?

"So these are the humans that Lord Frieza wanted. None have a power level higher than five. Pathetic." Burter said in that slimy reptilian voice.

"Yes…Lord Frieza was very specific that they had to be young and smart. He would have no need for them as soldiers." Zarbon replied deeply, eyeing the prisoners over his clipboard.

"Unless they were meat shields," snickered Dodoria.

Zarbon smirked as he wrote down more notes for his reports. Behind him Burter was cursing loudly as he fiddled with his scouter.

"Damn thing keeps cutting out on me," Burter said angrily, his hands struggling to find any flaw with the device.

"Too bad being the fastest of the universe makes you completely useless with technology," Dodoria said dryly. Burter growled and narrowed his eyes, the scouter still dead between his hands. Zarbon looked up from his clipboard, an idea sparked in his head.

"Why don't we let one of them fix it? Lord Frieza is only looking for a few new slaves. The rest are expendable," Zarbon said calmly, scanning the frightened, tearstained faces.

"My parents were killed right in front of me." Noah said in a haunted monotone. Bulma looked over at him. Her bright blue eyes were filled with sadness and sympathy. The realization of whose blood was splashed all over the teen filled her with horror. Noah was obviously in shock. As if anyone would blame him.

I'm sorry Noa-" she started to say before she was interrupted by one of the guards standing at the front of the room.

"Alright humans! We're going to give you a little test. If you pass, Lord Frieza may have some use for you worthless worms." Dodoria announced in a deep guttural voice.

"Wha-What happens if we fail?" asked a timid man near the front of the room. From her place a few rows back, Bulma could see his knees shaking.

Dodoria narrowed his eyes and smiled, disappearing only to reappear next to the frightened man. In an instant, the large alien clamped his hands around the man's head and broke his neck with a loud crunching sound. Everyone in the room, including Bulma froze with fear. The people on either side of the man were jerked when his body, still attached by the chain, crumbled to the ground.

"Any questions?" Dodoria asked menacingly. No one dared to make a sound.

Oh my god…

"So all of you will get a chance to try to fix this little ol scouter. We will go through as many slaves as it takes," Dodoria declared, making his way to the front of the line. The other two aliens joined him at the front and presented the small device to a young woman no more than twenty. She hesitantly took the scouter from them and spent a minute looking it over. Bulma felt her heart tighten for the girl, just hoping she could fix it.

"Would they really kill us all because we can't fix that thing?" Noah leaned in and whispered to her, his eyes trained on the unfortunate woman. Bulma shot him an uncertain look and turned her attention back to the front of the line. The woman seemed to be thoroughly confused as to what the device was and didn't seem to be doing anything with it. The aliens were grinning sadistically at her, sensing her growing distress.

"Having trouble?" Zarbon asked sarcastically, his yellows eyes sneering down at her.

The woman looked up, her helpless brown eyes watering with tears, the scouter remained unfixed in her hands.

"P-please I'll do anything. I just don't know ho-" she started to say before Dodoria snapped her neck, without another thought. Burter swooped down and quickly swiped the scouter from her lifeless hands as she fell.

Bulma gasped right along with everyone else in the room. Her heart clenched tightly in her chest cavity. The red headed woman that stood directly next to the fallen female started crying hysterically.

Dodoria quickly smacked her across the face, with enough force to knock her down, dragging the man attached to her down with her.

"Silence human. Now pick yourself up and fix this scouter." Dodoria growled. The woman slowly stood up, cradling her face. A huge bruise was already forming just under her left eye. Burter shoved the scouter into her hands and the aliens resumed watching her.

There's only 30 people between me and them now…what happens if the…scouter was it…Is fixed before it gets to me? Are all of the rest of us going to die? Or what if I end up fixing it? What happens then? And who is Frieza?

Bulma stood in horror as one by one, the number of people separating her from the aliens dwindled away. No one seemed to have any inkling of what to do with the scouter, much less fix it. And they all tried to beg and plead before Dodoria violently twisted their neck until their spines shattered. And they were all thrown unceremoniously on the ground as the monsters moved on to the next unfortunate person.

Sweat began to form at the back of her neck as Bulma sees them drawing nearer and nearer. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Noah grabbed her hand and began to hyperventilate. She squeezed his hand back, trying to calm him down. She had been trying to get a good look at the scouter before it reached her so she could atleast have some idea of what to do with it.

It's a small device…clearly supposed to be fitted over the ear. It has a light green lens that is attached and is supposed to go over the eye. Most likely it transmits information from the ear piece to the lens. But what is its purpose? What function does it provide? I won't know for sure until I get it in my hands…if they give me that much time.

Bulma could tell the demented trio was getting annoyed at the increasing failed attempts and that was only making her even more nervous. She jumped when Dodoria murdered the woman right next to her, her heart pounding violently. My turn…

Bulma released Noah's hand and took a deep breath as the monsters stepped in front of her. She buried her fears and looked them all right in the eye as they shoved the scouter into her hands. It took all of her courage to keep her body from shaking.

"Well well…I think we should keep this one when she fails…Lord Frieza would find some other use for her I'm sure…" Zarbon mused, taking her chin in his hand and leaning in for a closer look. Bulma glared up at him, not liking how that sounded one bit.

"Whatever…they look too much like those Saiyan monkeys for my taste," Dodoria retorted gruffly looking down at her with disdain.

"I agree, they're ugly pink hairless monkeys." Burter agreed, chuckling darkly.

Bulma jerked her head out of Zarbon's hand, ignoring their remarks, and looked down at the scouter. Ignoring the many bodies that lay dead next to her and the infinite pairs of eyes trained on her, Bulma got to work. She roved her hands around the device, and unlike everyone else, quickly finding the compartment that contains the advanced wiring and sparkling chips. Her eyes lit up with hope when she noticed a wire seemed to be singed in the middle. She could see the copper threads threatening to burst through.

Bulma raised her head and saw the aliens staring at her with expressions of both shock and bemused.

"I found the problem. If you have a sticky synthetic substance I can repair this wire. Otherwise a new wire can be used to replace this melted one." She reported, trying to contain the fear and uncertainty out of her voice.

For a sickeningly silent moment, the trio just stared down at her. Then Zarbon chuckled and scribbled something on his clipboard.

"Take her to Lord Frieza."

Bulma stood still as Burter unlocked her manacles and Dodoria wrenched her free of the chain around her waist. She turned and looked at Noah who stood there mouth agape, the fear in his eyes overwhelming. She mouthed "Be safe" as Dodoria and Burter gripped her arms and led her away from the remaining seventy people and the 30 lifeless bodies. Zarbon stood among them, looking after her with a strange glint in his eyes. Maybe since I found the problem with the scouter, they'll let all of those other people go.

Bulma didn't see the malicious nod shared between Dodoria and Zarbon as they led her out of the room, but she did hear the roomful of screams and shrieks and a distant roar.