(Hey there people. First off I just wanted to say thanks to those that reviewed. To those that didn't…it's cool. You'll come around. Also, I would like to give a big thanks to Shadowmajin for beta-reading. In fact, he has beta'd every chapter I've posted. Anyway, without further stalling for time…(unimaginative, I know) I present to you…)

Chapter Four: Conflict

"Your people; enemy. My people's hated enemy.
What are you, enemy? Though a created enemy.
Terminate the enemy. Eradicate the hated enemy."
Disturbed: Conflict

"Lady Seripa, I'm picking up an incoming ship."

Seripa sighed from where she was sitting in the throne on the bridge.

"You don't have to call me 'lady,' Lessbru." She stood up and walked over to where he was staring intently at a screen on his computer console.

Nearly four days had passed and there was still no sign of Turles. The ship was able to fly again, but they were still trying to repair the hole she had blown in the side of the hull. They had been making great time in the repairs when the natives decided they didn't want them on their planet anymore and had attacked. They were easily driven away, but they had also severely damaged some of their equipment and tools so they were left to devise an alternative way to repair the outer hull.

Which was easier said than done with the crew Seripa was working with.

She found herself regretting taking the role of leader, even if it was just a temporary title. Seripa had spent most of her life following orders, and none of it giving them. Until now, anyway. She found it difficult to set tasks for the group to do, as most questioned their orders and screwed up even the most simple of tasks. The group just did not have the respect for her as they did Amotto. This was what Seripa had wanted her friend to notice, but so far she seemed oblivious to the fact.

Or she was pretending to be and skirting the responsibilities of being a leader.

That was entirely possible, Seripa thought as she looked over Lessbru's shoulder. It was a monumental role to take on, especially given that it was highly likely they were the last of their kind anywhere in the universe.

"Any information on the ship?"

"No," responded Lessbru. He was an average-sized saiya-jin male, standing just under a foot taller than her. He had a thick head of dark blue (almost black) hair that he had tied back in a spiked ponytail down his back. His eyes were just as black as most of the males' were.

"Well, what can you tell me?" she asked, her violet eyes leaving the radar to look at him.

He frowned and shrugged as his hands worked furiously across the console.

"Hm. I can't tell if it's an enemy or not. I'm working on getting a visual, but the ship is out of short-range scanner range so it may take a while."

Seripa's gaze returned to the radar and she nodded. "Take your time and don't rush. Make sure you find out as much about the ship as possible. Have you tried opening a communication channel with them?"

"Yes. Right before I told you about it I was trying to establish communication with them, but they're either ignoring our signal…" he frowned and tore his gaze from the console and looked at her. "Or…I don't know, really. I can't think of any reason why they haven't responded, yet."

"Damn. Let's hope they're not coming to help Turles. Keep trying to establish contact and let me know if you find out anything."

"Yes, m'lady."

"Stop that!" she snapped suddenly. She sighed when he flinched. "I'm not a member of the royal family, so just call me 'Seripa.'"

He nodded and returned his gaze to the console, returning to his work.

Seripa turned and left the bridge. She needed some air, she realized. Acting as leader was beginning to take a toll on her nerves and she needed to calm down. The last thing she needed was for her mind to be clouded with annoyance if Turles ever attacked them. She knew he would, especially since they still had the crates of fruit he had loaded onto the ship.

At first she thought about destroyed the crates, but she decided to leave them as bait. She wanted Turles to come to the ship because the ship was fully armed. If he got within shooting range then the gunners had orders to shoot him on sight. She wasn't sure if the ship's energy cannons were powerful enough to kill him, but she figured they would at least discourage him from wanting to get any closer. That was assuming they saw him coming. But she didn't think he was smart enough to try and sneak up on them, especially given his newfound strength. She was hoping that he had become so confident in his new power that he would forego caution and come at them head on. That was her hope, anyway.

Seripa descended the ramp and stepped down on the dry black sand of the dead planet known as Mother. She felt the perspiration that almost instantly appeared on her face. The air of the planet was hot and dry, and it made her throat dry up almost instantly. She stepped out from beneath the circular cruiser and out of the force field that protected the ship from the fierce wind of the massive desert they had landed in. Her short hair was tousled by the wind as she stared out into the distance.

"Hey, Seripa!" came a voice from above her.

Looking up she saw Amotto standing atop the ship with a group of two women and two men. She hovered into the air and touched down lightly before them.

"What is it?"

"I just spoke with Broco. He's finished the report you asked for."

"He's already tallied up the known survivors?" Seripa asked, her eyes widening and her tone giving away her surprise. She hadn't expected him to finish so quickly when she had him begin the report the day before.

"Yeah. It's a pathetic number but I expect it'll grow in the coming years."

"That's good. How did he finish it so fast?" she queried.

Amotto grinned. "It seems Broco is very talented with satellites and computers. He hacked into Frieza's main database using the supercomputer on the bridge and from there he said it was easy as hell." She chuckled, shaking her head. "He also managed to find out that Frieza has allowed Prince Vegeta, his bodyguard Nappa, and a cadet named Raditz-"

"Raditz?" interrupted Seripa as she looked at her friend sharply.

Amotto's grin faded into a frown of confusion. "Yeah, I believe that's the name he said. Why?"

The shorter, but much more powerful, woman frowned. "We have to free him. Raditz is Bardock's son."

"Whoa, really? Bardock had a son?"

She only nodded before looking away. She was silent for a few moments as she stared out at the horizon, the wind blowing through her hair.

"He actually had two sons," she said so quietly that Amotto barely heard her.

The green-haired woman frowned as she regarded her silent friend. "I'm guessing the other didn't survive?"

"No. He was killed before the planet exploded." Seripa bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes.

"What happened?" Amotto questioned gently, before realizing that the other four had gathered closer to the two of them. "Hey, back off!" she snapped at them. They immediately retreated to the four corners of the ship. She returned her gaze to her friend. She could tell that there was something she wasn't saying and apparently didn't want to say around too many people.

Seripa smiled slightly and opened her eyes, looking towards the other woman. "He was too weak. King Vegeta's law was final, you know." She tried to laugh, but it came out choked. She sighed and looked down. "He was scheduled to die while I was on Planet Meat."

"What was his name?"

Sighing again, she looked out towards the horizon. "His name was…" she trailed off, something in the distance catching her attention. She narrowed her eyes and lifted a hand to activate her red-lensed scouter.

Symbols flashed across the glass and she frowned at the power reading that appeared. "1200." Looking to Amotto, she raised an eyebrow slightly. "That was Caul's reading, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. You think it's him, though?" Amotto activated her own scouter and frowned at the symbols flashing on the blue lens.

"I don't know. I was beginning to think that maybe Turles had killed him in space."

"It might be someone or something else." Amotto pointed out, glancing sideways at Seripa.

"Seripa."

Seripa frowned at the voice coming through her scouter. She pressed and held a button further to the back of the scouter. "What is it, Lessbru?"

"Whoever is in that ship has jammed our signal and increased their speed. Estimated time of arrival is soon. Probably within the next couple of hours."

"Shit. Okay, I'll be there in a minute." She released the button and sighed, glancing back to Amotto.

"There's a ship coming this way?" her friend asked, her apprehension apparent in her tone.

"Yeah, unfortunately." She moved to jump off the ship, but Amotto grabbed her arm. She looked at her curiously. "What's wrong?" she frowned at the blatantly fearful expression the other woman wore.

"What if it's Frieza?"

Seripa's frown deepened. She hadn't thought about that. But then again she also didn't think Frieza himself would hunt down such a small and weak group.

"Well, if it is Frieza…then we will fight him until we can fight no more."

"I don't know if I can." Amotto looked away in shame, letting go of Seripa's arm. "You've seen me fight. I'm no warrior."

"Warrior or not, remember this: no matter what you're a saiya-jin first and foremost. I don't expect any of us to survive a fight with him right now, but I do expect everyone to give everything they've got against him."

Amotto was silent. She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. Finally she spoke in a shakey voice.

"I…I will do my best."

Seripa smiled slightly, her normally intense gaze softening a bit, and touched her friend's shoulder. "That's all I ask, Amotto. Don't worry. I'll be there to watch your back, okay?"

She sighed and opened her eyes, looking back to the other woman with a small smile. "Okay."

Nodding to her, Seripa turned and jumped down to the ground and walked back into the ship. As she made her way to the bridge she couldn't help but think about how she used to be. She remembered being as timid as Amotto was when it came to fighting. It was just a natural trait that came about when one was surrounded by much stronger warriors. Her own power reading had barely been above 300 when she had first met Bardock. Now all these years later her reading was so much higher thanks to her mentor.

She paused in the hallway, frowning as she lifted her gaze to the ceiling. A few people busy with repairs down the hall from her looked up at her, but then went back to work. She ignored them as she thought to herself about the task that lay before her. She earnestly desired to defeat Frieza, but she was admittedly at a loss as to how she was going to manage such a feat. She had been trained by Bardock under some of the harshest conditions and her power had grown considerably as a result. But the training she had done for so many years just wasn't going to cut it if she planned to kill Frieza.

Plus, she wasn't even sure if going after him alone was such a good idea. She didn't like the idea of having someone else tagging along with her, but she also didn't like the odds that were clearly against her. And it was just beginning to dawn on her that in order for her to be able to beat Frieza, she would have to grow stronger than Bardock had been.

She felt her heart sink almost to her toes. There was no way she could do it. It had taken her ten years to reach the level she was currently at. And Bardock had trained for nearly twenty to get where he had been. How did she expect to become stronger than him when she was just barely stronger than any of the others aboard the ship?

Lowering her gaze from the ceiling, she sighed and started walking again.

"I can't even beat that bastard Turles and I expect to one day kill Frieza? What the hell am I thinkin'," she mumbled sourly as she walked onto the bridge. Casting a quick glance around, she saw that she and Lessbru were the only occupants.

She paused at his side, looking down at the console in from front of him.

"Anything else happen?"

Lessbru cast a brief glance her way then immediately returned his gaze to the screen.

"Yeah," Seripa quirked a brow at how weak his voice sounded. Like he was straining to speak.

"Well, what is it?"

He swallowed and glanced back up at her, "The long-range scouters detected the power readings of everyone on that ship. The vast majority of them have readings lower than yours, but there are two that are significantly higher than yours."

She tensed at his words and stared down at him evenly. Slowly and keeping her voice even and calm, she asked, "How high?"

He turned his gaze to the console, frowning slightly as he brought up the readings. "One is about as powerful as we calculated Turles' power to be, so it's over 9000***. The other…" he trailed off, and a bead of sweat trickled down the side of his voice. Finally he continued, his voice trembling slightly, "the other is over 20,000."

Seripa's heart, which was already in her toes, instantly melted away. After being injured by Turles she had had to spend a few hours in the rejuvenation chamber and as a result her power had risen again to over 3000. Even though it seemed high to her and the other twelve saiya-jin aboard the ship, it paled in comparison to that reading.

"20,000," she murmured. "We all better start prayin' and hope that whoever that reading belongs to is an ally."

"Considering our recent luck, I don't think the odds are stacked in our favor, Seripa." Lessbru commented sourly.

She furrowed her brow and her violet eyes flickered in his direction. "You better hope you're wrong, then." And with that she turned and started off the bridge. "Prepare the ship for take-off. We may not be capable of spaceflight, yet, but we can at least find a better place to hide than a damned desert." She hurried off the bridge and back outside to where Amotto still stood watch with the four posted guards.

"Everyone, get aboard the ship," Seripa said as she landed in front of them.

Amotto frowned, "What's wrong?" she had been sitting on the hull, but stood as soon as she saw her friend ascending over the rim of the ship.

"Lessbru scanned the power readings of those aboard the approaching ship and there are two that could cause us some serious problems. We're going to hide the ship before they arrive."

"Nothing is going right for us, is it?"

"Apparently not." Seripa remarked dryly.

Amotto opened her mouth to respond, but her eyes suddenly widened. Just as she lifted her arm to point behind her, Seripa's scouter came to life.

"5000?" she exclaimed as she whipped around.

Turles' fist met her face in a downward strike, smashing her scouter and sending her face-first into the ship. The impact dented the hull in, and she recoiled violently from the hit, blood spraying from her nose and mouth.

Fuckin' asshole Seripa thought wearily as she struggled to push herself up. The others were frozen in terror as Turles stood over her laughing low.

"And the bitch is down after one hit!"

She struggled to her feet, wiping her gloved hand across her face in an attempt to clean off some of the blood. She only succeeded in smearing it across her face.

"How'd you come up on us without setting off our scouters?" she demanded, putting more courage behind her words than she felt.

"Easy. I approached on foot, suppressing my power. Then a quick burst of speed and BAM, took you down before you even realized I was here."

Seripa silently cursed herself for underestimating Turles. He was clearly much smarter than she had originally thought, and then she didn't really think he was much smarter than a rock.

"And now I'm going to kill all of you, take my fruit and be on my way off this dead rock."

"Ain't gonna happen."

"What's that," he raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest. He had to hear this.

"That ain't gonna happen, Turles. You may be stronger and faster and all that, but I am a veteran warrior. You're still just a novice," she practically spit out at him, hoping to set him off again so he'd act recklessly.

He merely grinned, "Yeah, maybe. But you don't know what you're up against here, bitch. That reading you got right before I hit you was nothing compared to what I'm really capable of." He paused, his grin fading as a thoughtful look came over his face.

After a moment he grinned again and chuckled, "I'll tell you what: I'll show you what you're up against before I kill you."

"HAAH!" cried a deep voice from behind him. He didn't even turn as a deep crimson blast exploded against his back, sending his hair whipping about violently and engulfing him in smoke.

A man dropped down beside her. He was a tall (easily towering over her) burly man lacking any hair on his head. He had a thick goatee and an ugly scar where his left eye had been. His single midnight blue eye was in a glare, as he watched the smoke tensely.

"Broco, get back!" Seripa snapped at the man almost angrily. "You can't stand against him!"

The man glanced at her and gave her a grim smile. "No point in backin' off now. He'll kill us all eventually, anyway. I'd rather go down fightin' than tryin' to run."

She glared at him but she silenced her argument. She knew there was no point in distracting herself with arguing. He had already made up his mind, that much was clear. If he was going to fight with her, then she needed to be on guard.

Turles began laughing and she snapped her gaze back to him as the smoke was blown away by an unseen force.

"Etapa!"

One of the women behind Seripa let out a gasp.

Without waiting for a response, Turles continued, "What model scouter are you wearing?" his grin seemed to broaden and his eyes gleamed with malicious intent.

Etapa gulped. She was thankful at least that he wasn't looking at her. "Uhm, it's one of the newer models," she said quietly and clearly.

"Good. Get ready to check my power." He lifted into the air and floated up a good ways from them. "Wouldn't want to accidentally kill any of you when I unleash my power." He laughed aloud and took a tensed stance, his arms held up at his sides with his fists tightly clenched.

Without warning a blue aura burst to life around Turles' body and a shockwave of unadulterated power slammed violently against everyone atop the ship. Seripa braced herself against it, pushing back with her ki as hard as she could to keep from being swept away. Behind her she heard Amotto and the others cry out as they were blown back. With the exception of Etapa, she noticed out of the corner of her eye. Beside her Broco was struggling more than she was, but he had steeled himself just in time so he wasn't going anywhere.

"What's his power?" she called out to Etapa.

"I don't know! My scouter is malfunctioning!" she exclaimed in response, the fear in her voice drowned out by Turles who had suddenly started crying out at the top of his lungs.

Seripa felt the sweat pouring down her face and mixing with the warm blood still on her face. Her violet eyes were set in a shaky glare as she could only look on in horror as the brat's power continued to skyrocket. Maybe he hadn't been overstating his power, afterall.

He suddenly began laughing, his blue aura still roaring around his body. He looked down at them and grinned manically.

"Well? Where am I right now?"

Glancing over her shoulder briefly, Seripa saw Etapa looking at her expectantly, almost as if she were asking for permission. Growling under her breath she snapped out, "What's his damn power?"

Flinching, Etapa returned her own violet eyes to Turles, "I…The scouter is broken."

"Probably a good thing." Seripa murmured as she returned her gaze to him. Behind her she heard the other four, Amotto included, land behind her. Followed closely by multiple others. The others from inside the ship had finally joined the fight.

"That's a shame!"

Turles roared with laughter, and she felt Broco tense up beside her.

"We'll just have to see how strong I am the old fashioned way!" he laughed again and then another shockwave exploded from his body as he cried out again, his power climbing rapidly once more. Finally, his aura convulsed and then exploded outwards from his body, vanishing as he finally reached his peak.

Panting lightly he folded his arms across his chest once more, a smug look coming across his features.

"Anyone got a working scouter?"

Etapa merely stared on, removing her scouter and dropping the useless device.

Instead, Amotto spoke up, reading the numbers from her own scouter. "9200..."

Seripa noticed that her voice was shaky, but it also had a determined edge to it. It was enough to bring a slight smirk to her lips as she stared up at the boy hovering over them. It ate at her that the brat had gone from being weaker than her to dwarfing her power and the others' power combined. And only in the span of a few days, too. Actually, it pissed her off.

It also pissed her off that she hadn't reconsidered Amotto's idea for her to consume a piece of the fruit. She had refused, obviously, since her power reading was still just a little over 3000. She had refused because she didn't want to sink to Turles' level on gaining strength. Sure it was a guaranteed super boost in power, but she still had her saiya-jin pride, even if the whelp above her didn't. She would grow stronger, but on her terms not his. Though at this point it was beginning to look as if she should have eaten a piece of the fruit. Maybe then she would be able to take him on, because right now things were looking way too one-sided for her liking.

She quirked a brow as something occurred to her, "Where's Caul?"

Turles chuckled and floated down level with the ship. "I killed him days ago. I no longer needed him for anything and he was just going to slow me down in the long-run, as I had no intention of sharing the fruit with him," he grinned, "despite me telling him otherwise."

Her eyes narrowed, "You have no qualms with killing off what's left of us? You are a twisted boy."

"Of course I don't," he laughed low. "I don't care what happens to the rest of ya'll. As far as I'm concerned, I am the last saiya-jin in the universe. And I'm well on my way to becoming a Super Saiya-jin."

"That's just a myth," said Lessbru from behind Seripa. "There is no historical evidence to support the existence of an actual Super Saiya-jin."

"Well, then I guess I'll just be the first one ever."

"Don't get too cocky," said Seripa coldly. "You have to beat us before you can become one of those!" Flaring her aura around her body she lunged towards him, her fist drawn back.

Thrusting it forward with as much power behind it as she could muster, she was dismayed to find her punch all-too easily deflected to one side.

"My turn!" Turles said low and viciously, grinning as he brought his other hand around and drove his fist effortlessly into her gut. It was hard enough to send her flying, but she had barely gone a few inches before he caught her by her hair.

Seripa was helpless as he spun her around by her hair, then flung her straight at the ground. The force of her impact dug her deep into the sand. Before she could recover he had dropped down onto her back, the sound of her armor and bones cracking filling the air.

For a brief moment she could only lay there in shock, before she opened her mouth to let out an involuntary cry of pain. Before the sound could come forth, she felt a hard kick to her side (and several ribs breaking instantly) and she was sent tumbling across the sand, pieces of her armor breaking away, leaving behind a trail of white and gold.

Turles folded his arms and laughed again. He was thoroughly enjoying roughing her up. It was the easiest thing he had ever done; he was so much more powerful than her that it was almost too pathetic for him to be beating her up. But she had insulted him multiple times already and had come too close to beating him once. He couldn't let her live any longer, because it was too obvious just how much of a threat she actually was. Even if his power was so much greater than hers, she had already proven to him that she was a clever fighter, as well.

Well, he could be clever, too. He had, afterall, snuck up on them rather easily.

Seripa struggled to push herself up. Blood dripped from her mouth with each heavy breath she took. Wincing as a rib poked into her side, she stood on shaking feet. Gritting her teeth she brought both of her hands up and began to summon what was left of her ki. She wasn't going down without a fight, she decided.

Turles began to laugh harder now, his eyes closing as he grabbed at his sides mockingly.

"You really plan to keep fighting? Damn, you are one stubborn bitch!"

"Yeah…w-well, I d-did learn from the b-best." She grinned weakly when Turles immediately stopped laughing. She could always rely on mentioning his brother; that sure seemed to distract him sufficiently.

He clenched his jaw tight and narrowed his eyes.

"Bardock was nothing. His power was nowhere near what mine is now, and you still insist that he was the best?" he scoffed, but the rage in his eyes remained. It looked like he was struggling to keep his temper in check now.

A pink ball of ki appeared between her outstretched hands. It flickered weakly before stabilizing and beginning to grow..

"Resistance is futile, bitch."

"My name…is Seripa." She hissed in pain as several shards of one of her ribs stabbed into her side. Her body was trembling with the effort of pouring her ki into the blast.

Her eyes flicked away from him briefly, and she smirked as he took the bait, watching him as he snapped his head in the direction she'd looked. She poured even more ki into the blast, her knees wobbling and her head spinning with the effort. Just as he realized his mistake and was beginning to look back at her, she fired off the blast.

A look of triumph crossed her features as she watched it fly at the horror-stricken face of Turles. Then he suddenly flashed a grin, and she didn't even see when he knocked the blast away. She could only stare on. She wasn't really all that shocked that he had deflected it. She was more blown away by the fact that he had tricked her.

She slumped to her knees as the others landed behind her.

Broco suddenly dashed forward and began to deliver a barrage of punches and kicks to Turles, who didn't block as the hits collided with his unprotected body. They didn't even make him flinch.

Lessbru suddenly lunged forward, joining in with Broco. Then Etapa and then Amotto, followed by the rest. They all swarmed him, punching and kicking and blasting in any desperate attempt to beat him. But he remained motionless, laughing at them and shaking his head.

He suddenly threw his back and let out a yell. A shockwave spread out from his body, sending them all flying backwards. Amotto, Broco, Lessbru, a couple of others whose names Seripa couldn't remember, found themselves slamming into the unforgiving hull of the ship. The others landed in the sand violently and didn't move.

She took a pained breath as she slowly climbed to her feet again. She squared her shoulders as he closed the distance between them.

Pausing just a few feet from her, he extended one hand towards her, and a blue ball of light appeared in his palm.

Grinning manically at her he arched an eyebrow, "Any last words, bitch?"

"Yeah. 'Fuck' and 'you'." She spat on his armor, and met his dark eyes with her violet ones.

"So be it."

The ball of light flashed from his palm and she closed her eyes as she felt the incinerating heat mere milliseconds from ending her life.

The next thing she knew she was picking herself up out of a pile of sand, and spitting said sand out of her mouth. Blinking she looked around until she spotted Turles…but standing in front of him was a man clad in black and red armor and wearing a black and red helmet on his head, concealing his face. An almost blood red cape hung from the shoulder guards of his armor, flapping behind him in the fierce wind that blew all around them. His arms, the muscles well defined by the black body-suit he wore beneath the armor, were folded casually across his chest.

"Looks like I arrived just in time," the man said, an almost bored tone dripping from his deep voice.

Turles quirked a brow at the man and slowly lowered his arm.

"Who the hell do you think you are?"

The bottom of the man's helmet split and slid away to reveal his grinning lips. A scar stretched from the corner of his lips and up the left side of his face, vanishing beneath the rest of the helmet. Seripa frowned at the scar as she struggled to her feet weakly. Something twitching at his waist drew her gaze down and her eyes widened at the tail wrapped snuggly around his waist.

"I said, who the hell do you think you are?" Turles repeated, his agitation apparent in his voice.

"I think I'm the guy that's about to kick your ass."

DBZ

(***Author's Note: Yes, I made a reference to the "over 9000" line. Deal with it. Hahaha! Anyway, I hope ya'll liked this one. So far it's been my favorite to write. Anyway, as usual, R/R blah blah blah. You know the routine.)

(P.S. Can anyone guess who the mystery-man is? Free imaginary cookie to the first person to figure it out.)