Bulma rubbed her eyelids with a yawn. She was three weeks into the design of her spacecraft but her pregnancy slowed down her progression. She should already have been done with the blue prints at this point but she couldn't manage to actually finish them. She was always either too tired, to upset or too sick to sit down at the drawing board and complete the design. She stretched out, crossing her fingers far over her head, and leaned against the back of her chair. Her eyes roamed absentmindedly on the wide screens that covered the walls of the lab. Enlarged pictures of the pieces of the Saiyan pod they had found were displayed next to some notes she had taken. Some of them had a bright question mark, meaning that she needed to ask Vegeta for more details. On the largest screen was a map of the sky. A green dot in the center represented the Earth. She smiled at the absurdity of her problems in this giant galaxy.

xXx

Elery had been notified that the gravity room was now her place and that she was not to go out without Vegeta being present to watch over her. The truth was that it had become her personal jail cell and the door was only open during restricted hours. Nobody was comfortable with the idea of keeping her as a prisoner, but Bulma and Chichi outright refused to let her anywhere near their sons. Goku had innocently told his wife about his training session with the Saiyan girl and had been severely scolded for being an oblivious idiot. Both Bulma and Chichi wondered about her unhealthy obsession for reproduction. Bulma insisted that Vegeta was well aware he could not rebuild his clan with a single female but it didn't stop him from being fascinated by her existence. Chichi was afraid Goku's candidness would be used against him and forbade any contact between him and the girl. The women spent hours together around the teapot, talking about Bulma's pregnancy, their faithful husbands and the troublesome guest.

As for Vegeta, the Saiyan kept a low profile and tried to find the right balance between taking care of his pregnant wife, something he had never done before, and dealing with the girl without creating more problems. He had established a schedule that was supposed to prevent Elery from plotting against them or trying to escape. He never spent more than one hour alone with her. It was officially to reassure Bulma, but deep down Vegeta knew it was a measure he had taken to protect himself. He had seen how easy it was for Elery to mess up with his mind. She had a way of saying exactly what he wanted to hear when he needed to hear it. She would get under his skin, trigger his pride and flatter his ego in a perfect combination of behavior and speech. No matter how he tried to stop her, how terrifying his threats and haughty his indifference, she always had the last word. To her it was an intoxicating game in which she gambled with her life to get the tiniest sign of attention from him. It started every time he unlocked the door and she won at the first twitch of an eyebrow, the mere blink of an eye or delay in a movement. Vegeta dreaded his visits to her, he feared his own weakness of mind, but couldn't avoid them. She had to be fed and trained and he was almost convinced she would let herself starve to death if he stopped coming, for the sole purpose of weighting on his conscience. The worst for him was that he was alone in his ordeal. Kakarott was too stupid to be left alone with Elery and her manipulative schemes, and Bulma was still distant and uneasy around him. Not that he wanted to report to his wife the indecent offers and the promises of power and glory the Saiyan girl would whisper to him, but he wouldn't have said no to a few minutes of contact and attention.

Bulma had mixed feelings. Her relationship with Vegeta was terribly shaky but she still could not find the strength to make a move toward him. She remembered how Trunks and herself had suffered when he had left and it was too hard to trust him again so soon. She knew accepting Vegeta back home was the best thing to do for her family. Trunks had tried to become the man of the family and take care of his mother but a part of him was still a child and Bulma would not steal it away from him, no matter the circumstances. She had seen her teenager take on adult responsibilities while hiding the pain of missing his dad and she would never allow it again.

xXx

Resting one hand on each side of the sink, Trunks looked at the strange reflection in the mirror. The boy he saw was tired. The bathroom light gave him an unflattering yellow complexion and enhanced his dark circles and pale skin. His T-shirt was worn and slightly too small. His body had the curious proportions of one that had grown too fast. His arms and hands seemed to develop at their own pace, much quicker than the rest of his body. His shoulders were wider than he remembered. Trunks heard Goten call him through the door and stopped his contemplation. He quickly tied his hair in a low pony tail and joined his best friend in the next room, where he lay on his sleeping bag and crossed his fingers behind his head. That night he was sleeping over at the Son's and although they kept their voices low, the boys were nowhere close to falling asleep.

"How can you be sure your dad is the father since he was gone for a month?" Goten asked with excitement as he rolled on his side to face Trunks.

"My mom didn't see anybody else," Trunks shrugged, "she would just stay at home and work, I don't see how she could have met someone else."

"But what if before he left…"

"Do you really think my dad would let someone else get any close to his wife?"

"I don't know maybe he…"

"Stop. Stop talking about this." Trunks cut dryly. "This baby will be my little brother no matter what."

"Well I hope it will be a boy…" Goten said mischievously.

"Why?"

"Imagine if it's a girl and she looks like your dad." he laughed.

Trunks repressed a very unpleasant image of a girl blessed with large muscles and thick, furrowed black brows across her balding forehead.

"Why would you say that?" he asked, his irritation piercing in the dark.

"My dad says he is the second child and his brother told him he looked like their father." Goten explained, "And I'm the second child and I'm basically identical to my dad. It could be the same in your family…".

"My mom is super pretty I don't see why my little sister wouldn't be."

"Then all the boys will be chasing after her." Goten teased.

"She will be amazing and I will make sure no one lays a hand on her." Trunks stated resolutely.

"Oh wow, protective big brother, I see…" Goten said with a mocking smile.

"Shut up."

"Hey calm down, you know I would protect her as well."

"You stay away from my sister." Trunks spat harshly.

"Ah man, I really hope it's a brother…" Goten contentedly sighed.

xXx

Vegeta's wish became reality a few days later when Bulma asked him to join her in her main lab. He found her surrounded by maps and plans representing different areas of the sky around the Earth. From the doorstep he could only see the back of her chair. Without looking back, she invited him to sit next to him in front of the desk.

"I have a few questions about the space pod" she started, "I hope you can answer them, it's crucial for the final design."

"I haven't been in one in a while but I will do what I can." he answered seriously.

"Don't kid with me, I know soldiers are taught how to repair their ship in case they need to."

Vegeta was surprised both at her familiarity and her reference to his past as a warrior, but above all he was amazed by the soft smile she wore for him. They had not been alone together for several weeks and he had not yet been able to understand how he was supposed to behave around her. He still slept in a different bedroom and felt like he had to gain her trust all over again. He was afraid to get close to her, to make a wrong move and lose her again. He waited patiently for her to be ready.

"Read this and explain what you can" she continued as she gave him a small pile of papers.

He browsed the documents and quickly began with the first page.

"These pieces are not from the original craft." he pointed out.

"They aren't?"

"No. These would be added by mechanics to improve the power of the ship. It was common practice although it was theoretically forbidden in the army."

"Oh I see..."

"Why did you write "food" on this?" he asked.

"I can't figure out where the food and the water were stored, nor the waste."

"Why would you want to bring food?" he chuckled.

"How did you survive the long trips?" Bulma asked with a surprised smile.

"The trips were at most four hours long, sometimes six but it was rare." he explained, "The troops would travel in the main ship to get as close as possible to the targeted planet and only then the space pods where used to land and invade."

"Oh I didn't know that… So this is why she took so long, she could only jump from one planet to another and travel very small distances at a time."

"I'm actually amazed she managed to use it for such a long travel," Vegeta nodded, "no wonder it crashed into pieces when she landed. This thing was used way beyond its intended purpose."

"Why do you think she spent her life looking for you when she was not even sure you were alive?" Bulma asked suddenly, putting down her papers and leaning back in her chair.

"I don't know, it looks like she thinks she is on a mission, she has to save her race…"

"She's obsessed." she stated.

Vegeta said nothing. Yes, Elery was definitely obsessed, but he was lying when he said he did not know how someone could spend a life looking for the last representative of their species. He remembered the first time he had realized his race would disappear with him. It was shortly after his arrival on Frieza's ship. At that time, he had not even thought about the fact that Radditz, Nappa and himself were all males, he had just observed the life of the soldiers on the ship and understood they would all die young in battle and be forgotten forever. With his planet blown away, no trace of the Saiyans would remain. He was not even fifteen and he had already accepted the emptiness of his life. He was still alive but somehow nothing mattered anymore, he was just waiting for his death to come, an insignificant detail in a story that nobody would ever remember. Vegeta knew that if, at this point, he had known about another Saiyan being alive and free from Frieza, he would have done everything to find her. He would have traveled the universe just to be able to find another person like him. Someone who would understand how it felt to be the last of his kind. Someone who knew how lonely he was. Surely that was why he had decided to stay on Earth after Radditz and Nappa's death. Kakarott was more of a human than a Saiyan but he sure was a decent opponent, and there was Bulma. She was the first one to care about him. Across the galaxy the Saiyans were feared and resented, and on Frieza's ship no soldier wanted to have to deal with them, but Bulma was different. She had treated him like a human, unconcerned whether he was about to break her bones and eat her alive.

"Why is there a question mark next to these coordinates?" he asked to break the awkward silence that had settled.

"They are incorrect, you must have made a mistake while writing them down last time that's all." Bulma explained.

"No, they are not." he declared buntly.

"I can totally understand if you don't remember the exact data for a small neighbor planet you know."

"I'm telling you these are correct." he insisted, "It was easy to remember, they are almost the same as the coordinates of Vegetasei but the eights become sevens in the last number."

"Maybe you are being confused with another small planet I don't know, it's been a while and you were young, just check them please…"

"I would if I could but it's not like I have them written down somewhere… If you're not satisfied with these I can't do anything else."

"I can't design the ship without knowing exactly where it will go… I mean if we were building a giant destroyer it wouldn't matter much but it's a one person pod, each square inch is valuable, it would be a waste to use a giant fuel tank if I can downsize it you see?..."

"What makes you think that the coordinates I gave you are incorrect?" Vegeta asked.

"They don't match the map."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that there is nothing where Sperks is supposed to be if I trust these data."

"Nothing?"

"When Vegetasei exploded, it blew away several other planets and left a giant void in the galaxy." Bulma clarified, "A huge area without a single piece of rock or stardust. Sperks was beyond the limits of this empty space, and should have actually resisted the explosion, just like she explained. But I can't find it anywhere."

Bulma raised her head from her papers to the largest screen and typed the coordinates on the keyboard. The image shifted to present another area of the galaxy. Vegeta looked at the screen. It showed nothing but tiny bright dots in the black sky. Nothing but a few stars that where millions of light years away.

"Is it possible that your map is incorrect or outdated?" he asked with a dry mouth.

"What you see on the screen is not a map. It's a live stream from the European giant telescope. The largest on Earth, the only one that can see that far away. Capsule Corps was the main investor, they let me use it when they don't need it for research purposes."

Vegeta looked at the screen again and then at Bulma. Their eyes met and they shared the same small chill down their spine. They both knew what the void on the screen implied. The girl they kept in their backyard had lied about her origin and they could no longer plan on sending her back to her home planet.

"I ran a scan," Bulma said tensely, "there is no planet that matches Sperks coordinates, size or description in the area. I'm not saying there never was one, but as of today, it's not there anymore."