Kakarot smiled as Chi-Chi stood there with her female friend, trembling and clinging to her as if she could save her from anything. Kakarot laughed. He knew he didn't have much time, because Brolly hadn't gone far, but oh how he wished he could play with them. Unfortunately, he was going to have to make this quick - after his questions were answered.

"Bulma," Chi-Chi whispered to the other one, not escaping Kakarot's hearing. "Get to the ship. I'll handle him."

"Chi-Chi, are you crazy?" The one she called Bulma said, echoing Kakarot's thoughts.

"Don't argue with me. There's no time!" Chi-Chi said as she pushed her friend aside, where Bulma could skirt around Kakarot to approach the ship. "We need to get Brolly's ship out of here before he comes back, or this is all for nothing!"

As the other human stumbled sideways and stared in awe at Chi-Chi's face set in an attractive glare, Kakarot cleared his throat. "What is all for nothing?"

"What?" Bulma's gaze snapped to Kakarot as her hands clenched against her chest.

"What do you think you'll accomplish here?" Kakarot said with an air of conversation. "I wanna know."

The girls exchanged a glance, their eyes full of questions and doubt.

Kakarot scoffed. "Humor me. I could kill you now, so think of this as a way to buy yourselves time."

"We don't have time," Chi-Chi said through clenched teeth as she raised her brows at Bulma.

Kakarot's eyes bulged when the other woman darted away with a nod. He didn't expect that move. He could easily intercept her, but Chi-Chi wasn't moving. The woman who'd laid with him on his bed a few nights ago glared back at him, looking formidable in her armor and intent on not running. Kakarot cocked his head as he took in her features. Without the darkness of the bar or the influence of the alcohol, she looked different. He could see clearly now that she wasn't Saiyan.

As the other woman disappeared behind him, diving into Brolly's open, abandoned ship, Kakarot raised his chin toward Chi-Chi. "Are you really an Earthling?"

Her dark eyes went wide as she inhaled sharply. "Why did you follow me?"

"So it's true?" he said, ignoring her question as he crossed his arms and studied her eyes for signs of the lie he wished to see in them, but knew he wouldn't.

"Y-yes, we all are," she said as behind Kakarot, engines roared to life. He could see the relief in Chi-Chi's eyes as waves of heat rolled against his back. "That's…why I left before you woke up. Now. Why did you follow me here?"

Kakarot smiled. She was bold enough to ask him questions, even given her predicament. He rubbed his index finger beneath his nose as her eyes darted past him, watching the ship move. Kakarot didn't know why they wanted Brolly's ship - he was sure the bounty was for Brolly himself, not a worthless ship. Maybe they planned to use the ship for proof - Kakarot certainly wouldn't believe they'd killed Brolly if they told him that. But that was just it - they couldn't. They were kidding themselves if they thought they could best Brolly in a fight, even with all of them working together. Kakarot felt the heat move against his back with the rising ship. He could stop it. But he wasn't interested in Bulma alone. He needed to kill all the humans, and he would before he left this planet. For now, he needed more answers from Chi-Chi. His eyes went wide when he heard and felt the vibration of the ship's takeoff. It was louder than he'd expected it to be as it sputtered and roared. Wherever Brolly was, Kakarot was sure he felt it, too. His time was almost up with this woman, unless he wanted to directly confront Brolly, and no Saiyan was that stupid. Better to kill her himself and track down the rest of them before Brolly came along, without receiving his answers, though he would've really liked to know more about these mysterious Earthlings he had to kill twice. The memory of the first attempt's failure caused him to grit his teeth as fury rose to the forefront of his mind.

He narrowed his eyes, baring his teeth. "You have no idea what you've cost me."

"I've cost you? What? By sleeping with you?"

"It's time you die!" Kakarot's power rose, picking up gravel around him, which levitated into the air with the glow of his power.

Before Kakarot could throw himself at her to plunge his fist into her gut again and again until her wails of pain would end, something knocked him off his feet. He was thrown sideways, crushed into a mountain. He vaguely noted the woman's screams beneath the pounding of his head. When Kakarot righted himself, yanking his head from the rock, he turned just in time to avoid Brolly's fist. As he dodged to the side and watched Brolly's fist smash the rock behind him, Kakarot gasped.

"My ship!" Brolly yelled, his eyes rolling back until Kakarot saw the whites of his eyes. He had that same maniacal look Kakarot remembered from every one of their childhood encounters.

Kakarot drew his fist back and planted it in Brolly's gut before Brolly could attack. He had to retract his fist, biting his lip as his knuckles throbbed. Hitting Brolly was like hitting an impenetrable wall.

Brolly's eyes darted to the ship disappearing into the atmosphere above before he threw himself at Kakarot, both hands extended and prepared to wring Kakarot's neck. Kakarot ducked out of Brolly's grasp, the other man's hands grazing his neck as he slid away from the rock.

"Go, Bulma! That's it! Keep going!" Chi-Chi yelled while Kakarot was pummeled in the kidney by another hit from Brolly's fist.

Brolly looked down at Chi-Chi cupping her hands to her face. "Who are these people working for you?"

"Brolly!" Kakarot shouted, grimacing as his back throbbed. "I'm not here for your stupid ship!"

"You're lying!"

As Brolly lunged at him again, Kakarot leapt out of the way, heading high into the air to put some distance between them. "You know I wouldn't lie to you!"

"I thought you didn't know Brolly!" Chi-Chi called, causing Kakarot to look her way and eat another punch from Brolly.

"Well then he lied," Brolly said with a shrug, before sneering at Kakarot, "just like he's lying to me now."

"Brolly!"

Kakarot weaved away from Brolly's long leg sweeping at his shoulder, catching the meaty shin in his hand when he wasn't fast enough to dodge it.

"We go way back," Brolly said with a smirk as he pried his leg from Kakarot's grip. "Don't we? I see through your bullshit."

"This is different, Brolly!" Kakarot said. "I'm here to kill her."

With the most gut-wrenching scream Kakarot had ever heard from a woman, Chi-Chi ran away. Kakarot turned to run after her, but Brolly grabbed him by the foot and threw him to the ground, where he landed face-first in the jagged gravel. He peeled his face off the ground, looking up to see Chi-Chi running toward the crater left by his ship. With a gasp, Kakarot realized what she was doing.

"Hey!" Kakarot yelled. "You can't take my ship!"

"How's it feel?" Brolly said with a laugh as his feet crunched the gravel by Kakarot's side. "Don't like when it's done to you, do you, Kakarot?"

Gritting his teeth, Kakarot watched his faraway ship levitate into the boggy air. Brolly was never going to get it through his thick head that Kakarot had nothing to do with the hijacking of his ship. Kakarot almost wished Paragus was here, the prick, just so he could argue the point to someone who would listen.

"Those women were Earthlings, Brolly. They want to kill you!"

Kakarot was knocked between the shoulder blades by a blow that stole the wind from his lungs. As he flailed through the air, clutching his chest and trying to catch his breath, Kakarot watched his ship depart, leaving him behind with Brolly. He wondered why the humans would lure Brolly, their bounty, here only to leave him on this planet without doing him any harm. Kakarot gasped, his lungs finally drawing the air they craved so desperately. If the humans wanted to kill Brolly, leading him to a planet to be destroyed with it would be one way to do it, though a Saiyan would never consider such a cowardly method. These weren't Saiyans, though. They were conniving, manipulative humans. This was just the sort of thing they'd do. Kakarot had to get out of here.

"Brolly, where's your father?"

"Killed him," Brolly said before swinging his fist at Kakarot's face.

Kakarot leapt through the air to put some distance between him and Brolly. As he sped through the air, he sent one last growl to the woman departing in his ship to kill him along with this unreasonably hopeless moron. He somersaulted out of Brolly's reaching arms before Brolly could prolong the fight any longer. Kakarot didn't have a second longer to play. He needed to find a way off this planet. With Brolly on his tail and the humans already set for a course off the purged planet, he didn't stand a very good chance. But Kakarot had been up against impossible odds in the past, and he'd never let any limitations stop him before. He would get off this planet alive, he would track those Earthlings, and he would make them pay for prolonging this. He could sense the energy of the other Earthlings not too far away, in the only ship left on this desolate planet.


Chi-Chi's breath came in rapid pants as she programmed the Saiyan ship, trying to contact Bulma or the others on the Hope ship. She couldn't figure out the blasted controls though - it was just as Bulma had said, with this stupid Saiyan language on all the buttons and commands. Chi-Chi almost recoiled from touching anything, knowing this was his ship and she was sitting in the same place where he sat, but she pushed her feelings aside. She needed to know Bulma was alright. She needed to know when the planet would blow.

As she dialed in a command, hoping to make contact with Bulma, a flash of lights caught her eye. Chi-Chi gasped as she was flung back in her ship by the waves of the distant blast. Chi-Chi gazed out the space pod window at the dazzling display of exploding planet as the sound in her ears drowned out the explosion with a high-pitched ring. Settling back in the padded seat, Chi-Chi let her shoulders sag as the reality of their violent act set in.

Bulma might have been the one to blow the planet, but they all had a hand in this. Three Saiyans were dead because of them. Lives were lives, heartless beings or not. She hated it every single time she had to take part in something like this. Chi-Chi felt sick to her stomach. Brolly and Paragus might've been nothing to her, but the third Saiyan – she'd been intimate with him. She didn't even know his name or like him, but she had to admit he'd made her feel good and given her an amazing evening she would never forget. He was trying to kill her, though. She reminded herself that this was the way it had to be.

Chi-Chi resumed entering the setting she'd started prior to the explosion. The ship chimed to notify her of contact. "Bulma?"

"...Ch-Chi-Chi?"

"It - you did it?"

"Mm-hmm," Bulma said numbly.

"You okay?"

"I-I'm better now. Glad you're alive, Chi-Chi." A moment of silence filled Chi-Chi's pod, in which she could feel the weight of Bulma's emotion. "Don't you ever scare me like that again! I thought I killed you, but you didn't leave me much of a choice, did you?"

"Oh, I guess not," Chi-Chi said with a grimace, realizing how it must've looked from Bulma's perspective, not knowing Chi-Chi had sought safety in the Saiyan ship.

"You guess not," Bulma huffed. "Well, it's done anyway. Now the next step is to collect our money from Zarbon."

"Zarbon?"

"He's the one paying the bounty."

"Okay. Well, we need to tell the others. Are they okay?"

"I haven't talked to them yet."

"Bulma, what if they didn't make it off-"

"They did, Chi-Chi. I saw the Hope ship leave before I blew the planet." Bulma sighed. "Now at least those poor people on Pzaa can rest in Peace, rather than letting the likes of Frieza take over their planet, stepping all over their corpses."

Chi-Chi released a solemn hum, turning her eyes on the fragmented rock floating in space where the once large and lively planet had been. All those people. Just like Earth. And the Saiyans - the first man with whom she'd ever been intimate among them - they were dead now too. Chi-Chi didn't know how to feel about that. He was trying to kill them. But a part of her heart ached, knowing he was lost forever. She had no idea why it should.

"I'll - I'll contact the ship, Bulma. I can tell them where we need to meet."

"Okay. Chelfiss," Bulma said. "Tell them Zarbon has our money on Planet Chelfiss."

Chi-Chi knit her brows, concerned by Bulma's despondent tone. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine. I'm a big girl. I can handle myself."

"Space is a lonely, empty place to be alone with your thoughts."

"Maybe...after you talk to the others, your voice can keep me company on the way there?"

Chi-Chi smiled. "Sounds good to me."

"Talk to you in a few, Chi."

As the beep indicated their communication's end, Chi-Chi sighed. Her eyes focused on the floating rubble, crashing softly into other jagged pieces of land only to spring into space as if they enjoyed the ride. The sight was contrary to the emotional weight of the planet's fate, and Chi-Chi wasn't sure whether it made her feel better or worse.

Chi-Chi thrust her finger into the comm button without bothering to look at the view screen. "Hey everybody. Mission accomplished, right?"

"It's accomplished, alright."

The mocking voice on the other end made Chi-Chi's eyes go wide before they shot to the view screen. The dark eyes staring back at her, mocking her, made Chi-Chi's blood run cold. He couldn't be on her ship. If he was on her ship, the others were all in danger, or maybe dead already. With a gasp, Chi-Chi shook her head. This was impossible. There was no way he survived that explosion. The others had to be alive!

Leaning forward, placing her hands on the console surrounding the view screen, Chi-Chi sent the Saiyan her fiercest glare. "Get off my ship."

"Sorry," he said, licking his teeth. "Can't do that. Where are we headed now?"

"I'm not telling you."

"Let me guess. To collect your bounty? That would be...Dodoria? Or is it Zarbon these days? Either way, I know you're going to Chelfiss."

"Please," Chi-Chi said, knowing it was futile to hide the details from him, growing more desperate to know what had happened to the others with every passing second. "What do you want?"

"You. All of you," he said with a glare that cut Chi-Chi to the bone. "I'll have you soon enough. See ya."

As communication cut off, ceased on his end, Chi-Chi closed her eyes and released a withering sigh. Now she couldn't wait for this journey to Chelfiss to end. She dreaded contacting Bulma and having to relay this news to her. Shaking her head, Chi-Chi clenched her jaw. She regretted even momentarily mourning that bastard.

She hated that Saiyan.