In the last chapter...

Bulma finally decides she is going to check on the drone she sent to see if her parents are okay.

Meanwhile, Gohan changes form during his training with Piccolo, causing his ki to spike. Vegeta recognizes this as the mysterious ki he felt weeks earlier, but before he has a chance to investigate it goes away. Realizing what it might mean, he is furious as he storms in to check on Bulma once again...

"Damn you, Woman!" Vegeta was snarling. He'd only stepped into the house two seconds earlier, but he had already seen that Bulma was nowhere near her workstation. Five minutes hadn't even passed since all that had happened in the gravity room. Still processing the conclusion he'd come to, the saiyan was already furious before he'd seen that Bulma was missing, and that only added to his rage. Scanning the room for the Bluehead, the saiyan was quick to spot her huddled at the other end of the large room.

Even as he yelled and made his temper known, Bulma didn't stir from whatever it was she was busy with.

"WHAT do you think you're doing!" He continued, storming right for her. He'd expected her to turn and scowl at him, and to even yell back, but she didn't move at all as he crossed the room. If anything, her head only seemed to lower between her shoulders as the saiyan gained momentum. It wasn't until he was standing just behind her and made to put his hand on her shoulder that she finally stirred.

"Oh, leave me alone!" She howled, jumping from her seat and spinning around to face the saiyan in one swift movement. It seemed that she had sensed that he was reaching for her, because Bulma had been slapping his arm away before he'd even touched her.

"Woman!" Vegeta snapped. He took a step back, but did not lessen his hard demeanor. "What do you-"

"My name is not WOMAN!" She shouted, and her blue eyes were glistening as she glared at him. "You seemed to know my name back when you were jumping on me every two minutes, so you should be able to remember it now!"

"Who do you think you're-" Vegeta tried again, but Bulma cut him off.

"Just leave me the fuck alone, damnit!" She screamed. "You've been harassing me for days about those damned bots, and I keep telling you that I'm almost done! All I did was take one small break, and you're coming in here and barking at me like I'm some disobedient child!"

"There is no time for breaks right now!" He shot back, stepping towards her again. "You got enough of a vacation when you ran off to that village like an irresponsible idiot!"

"Stop using that against me, damnit!" Bulma crowed, but she was growing short of breath and starting to huff now. "I've heard enough of that!"

"You have not." The saiyan replied. "Going out and doing something that could potentially get yourself killed - the foolishness! You will hear of this for the rest of your days, if I see fit!"

"Really?" Bulma reared back, as if readying herself to make an explosive retaliation. Vegeta smirked in anticipation, folding his arms over his chest. But instead of an ear shattering scream, as he had come to expect from her spiking ki and hateful facial expressions, he received something much more wet instead.

It was her glossy eyes, which had been sparkling more by the second as he yelled. Locked on his own, she was staring at him with those large eyes that seemed to glisten with tears. "And who says getting myself killed would have been such a bad thing, anyway?" She finally barked, but her voice was crackling too much to hold any type of intimidating tone.

Vegeta turned his nose up at this, his eyes wrinkling with repulsion. "You don't actually mean that, do you?"

"What I mean-!" She spat. "Well, what do you care if I get myself killed?!"

The saiyan's eyes went wide at this, and his mouth slammed shut so fast that he accidentally bit down on his tongue. There was a consequential taste of metal forming in his mouth as blood began to ooze through the wound, but he ignored it. Was she really asking him something like this? What did she honestly want him to say to that?

But it seemed she didn't care to hear his response, for she continued on her rant without missing a beat.20

"You've had the biggest stick up your ass ever since we got back, and if I had known this was how you were going to start behaving then I never would have gone! All I wanted to do was have one nice day! You've been acting completely cold towards me, and my parents are fucking dead, and I CAN'T take this right now!"

"Well my parents are dead, too, so-" Vegeta began, but then he paused. As if registering what she had just said, he raised a suspicious eyebrow. "I thought I told you that they live..."

"Yeah, you did, which also makes you a liar on top of everything else!" The Bluehead scowled. She turned back around and gestured towards the monitor on the phone system. "All I was trying to do was check the drone I sent out to check on them, when you came in here yelling at me! Because I am just so lazy, right?! Being concerned for my family's well being makes me such a sloth, doesn't it!"

Vegeta's upper lip twitched as he focused on what was displaying on Bulma's monitor. "What is this?" He demanded, though his tone had softened considerably. "What are we looking at?"

A loud clapping noise sounded when the Bluehead slammed her palm down on the desk. "What do you THINK we're looking at? That's MY house!"

"Yes, because it is completely recognizable in its state! I should have known!" Vegeta spat sarcastically, an uncontrollable reflex that always came from being barked at.

"It's unrecognizable, and that's exactly the point!" Bulma crowed, flinging herself into her chair and throwing her face into her hands.

Stepping closer to the monitor, Vegeta narrowed his eyebrows. Rather than the bright and eccentric scenery that he had grown to associate with the Capsule Corp home, what he was now looking at resembled more of a crop field that had caught on fire.

Any remnants of the building were now a blackened looking pile of ash, with the odd sparkle of steel peeking out from the rubble in random spots. The surrounding land was in no better shape, looking more like a muddy swamp than the green tract that the house had been standing on. All grass had been disintegrated, leaving behind a bubbly crater of muck in its place.

"Kami, Vegeta..." Bulma groaned, her voice muffled from the hands that were still holding her face. Her hostility had given way to the sadness that was undoubtedly welling inside, and the saiyan could hear it when she spoke. "Why did you tell me they were alive? I would have been better off if you hadn't said anything at all. Why did you have to go and give me false hope?"

"I wasn't." The saiyan replied, but he knew it would do no good. Bulma, as brilliant of a creature as she could be when she wasn't being absolutely careless, was still limited with the unfortunate condition of being human. While Vegeta still couldn't grasp how one such as Krillin could he capable of flying and tracing ki, he knew enough about the species to understand just how little they could achieve.

Bulma couldn't sense the aura of her parents like he could. Even as he watched the destruction on the monitor he was feeling their ki. It was subtle in the distance, but still. It was nevertheless there.

This Woman hadn't been able to feel her parents' energy force, which had been constant and healthy since the last time she'd said goodbye. All she could rely on was the physical proof she had, which was undeniably bleak. Vegeta had been truthful, despite what the Bluehead was now accusing him of, and he knew there would be no way to convince her otherwise. All she had to go off were the images on the screen, which did a strikingly good job at telling an unspoken story that was strikingly untrue.

And this was it - the first thing that made Vegeta realize how much of a disadvantage it was to be without his old scouter. As much as he hated it, the truth was so evidently clear.

While being able to mentally trace energy gave him an advantage in self-sufficiency, it could only do so much. In a close proximity, if he knew his surroundings well, the saiyan could tell exactly where a person was located based on the reflection of their ki. That had been the first thing he'd realized when he started practicing this, hadn't it? When he had first attempted to reach out and feel for the Bluehead, Vegeta had been pleasantly surprised that he was able to tell she'd locked herself in the bathroom to brood!

But, to know the precise location of someone who was kilometers away? Bulma's parents were on the other end of the planet! Their ki, which was already weak even when even in the same room, was considerably less pronounced in the distance. He could recognize their auras and their approximate vicinity, but that was it. There was no way to determine where exactly they were located, or if they were even moving somewhere else.

If Vegeta still had his scouter with him, he would have been able to zero in on their ki and calculate their exact physical coordinates. He would have been able to tell Bulma precisely where she needed to send the drone in search of her family. He would have been able to prove to her that he did not lie.

But the saiyan couldn't. He just couldn't tell her a damned thing, and in that moment he was far too aware of this. Bulma now believed him to be a liar, and anything he said now would only leave her doubting him more. Not to mention, it would also make him look pathetic…

"Vegeta..." Bulma was saying now. She'd pulled her hands from her face to look at him with those accusatory eyes. "Why? You knew I was going to find out anyway. Why would you lie to me about something like this? I would have rather known. I would have rather faced the facts so I could stop questioning everything and start moving on. All this did was prolong my own pain. Why?"

So now she not only was accusing him of manipulation, but she was interrogating him as well? Another reflex was erupting in the midst of his already bad mood, and there was no way he was going to be able to keep it at bay. Feeling the heat rise to his cheeks, the saiyan reared back. "You were doubting me anyway!" He shot defensively. "What does it matter what I say!"

"What matters is that I trusted you!" Bulma snapped. "I might have been doubtful – of course I was! I was scared for them! I just wanted to see for myself to know it was really real! But deep down, I wanted to trust what you said!"

There it was again - the saiyan's least favorite word to ever leave that stubborn Woman's lips.

Trust.

"And how is that my fault!" He barked. "How many times have I told you not to TRUST! I TOLD you the only thing you should ever trust is the brutality and evil that every living creature will inevitably one day face! Hoping for redeeming qualities will only result in exploitation and abuse! You choose to ignore my advice like an ignorant idiot, and you give in to such foolish ideals anyway! Your ineptness is your owned fault!"

The room was silent when he finished his rant, and this wasn't the first time Vegeta had instantly regretted screaming at this girl like he just had.

He refused to show it, though.

He just couldn't.

Not when she was accusing him of such things. Not when she was talking to him as if he'd intentionally hurt her. Not when he knew just how much of an oaf it would make him look if he dropped to his knees and expressed sorrow immediately after saying such things...

But the way she was looking at him now only added to the tension inside, leaving him both more confused with himself and angry at this situation than ever. He glared at her, trying to mask the painful doubt brewing inside, and he waited for her to say something hostile back.

He wanted her to yell at him. To tell him why he was wrong, and stand her ground as she always had when the subject came up before. Yet he knew this time was different.

The look in her eyes said it all, even as remained silent.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Bulma shook her head. "You son of a bitch."

That was all.

She said nothing more, leaving her words to dwindle in the air as she stood. She was making a line directly for the bathroom, and Vegeta only felt he'd be a hypocrite to try and stop her as she left. Just before slamming the door, the Bluehead poked her head out to speak one last time. "Some of those bots are ready, and some aren't. Have fun figuring out which is which, because I'M done!"

And that was the last thing she said. Vegeta could her emotions pulsating from the other room, could feel as it all boiled over behind that door. The saiyan was so beside himself that he was drenched in sweat and huffing with anger, as he marched towards the workstation where Bulma had been tinkering on the battle bots. He snatched them up into his arms, which somehow only made him feel worse.

These things she had been slaving over felt so wretched, and he refused to look down at them as he moved.

The metal of the robots clinked dangerously as he growled, and the sound sobered the saiyan only slightly as he charged back out for the gravity room. When they weren't powered on, these things were laughably weak. He needed to be careful before he broke the damned robots again before they even had the chance to put up a fight.

This was what he'd been wanting all along, wasn't it? For once Bulma had actually listened to his lecture about trust, and she hadn't had some feeble retort to shoot back in her defense. He'd been telling her the same thing for weeks, so why did he feel so repulsive now?

He'd made his point - finally - and he shouldn't be giving a damn about how he'd done it. It shouldn't matter to him if he'd yelled at her as a defense mechanism to her prying questions. This whole situation was her own damned fault for not being able to sense her parents like he could! It shouldn't have mattered to Vegeta that the reason why he had gotten so upset in the first place was because she had thought he'd maliciously misled her, and had been looking at him with such sickening disappointment.

No, none of this should have been bothering him at all - and yet he couldn't stop thinking about all of it. The words he'd yelled replayed in his head, along with that morose gleam in her eyes. It wouldn't stop, not even as he clicked on a battle bot and watched it rise to life. Not as he powered up in preparation for the impending sparring match.

Even as the battle bot slammed into his gut before he'd had the chance to see it coming, he was still too distracted thinking of her.

"This thing is three times as fast as before. It's brilliant..." He said breathlessly with recoil from the blow. "I knew she would fix it! That damned... Woman..."

.

She was done working on the bots?

Even as Bulma slammed the bathroom door shut, she knew what she said was untrue. What else was she going to do to occupy her time in this horrible chain of events?

It had been minutes, and she was still alone. The Bluehead had actually expected Vegeta to go after her when she had stormed off. To demand that she complete her work. To sling insults her way about how irresponsible she was, just as he had been doing so frequently up until that point.

She had expected something.

And yet, all she received was silence. By the time she had finished running her bath and angrily plopped into the water, the saiyan had already disappeared back into his gravity room. The house was ringing with nothing more than her own thoughts as she soaked, and Bulma couldn't decide if she resented this or if she actually appreciated it...

What in the world had gotten into that man?

The saiyan had always been a bit of a rough asshole, that was to be certain. But lately his behavior towards her had been completely off the wall. It was as if nothing that had occurred between them over the last month had actually taken place. As if they hadn't spent many nights talking to one another until the late hour, which almost always ended with her falling asleep to the sound of his strangely calming voice.

She'd seen a different man in the glimpses of vulnerability he'd shown her, and he has suddenly walled it all up again. Lately he had been acting just as he'd been when they'd first met.

Vegeta was being a hardass, and Bulma didn't understand why.

Sure - he kept alluding to their trip in town, and he kept ranting about how stupid it was for her to do. But he hadn't been too objective at the time. He might have resisted, but he had been open to it in the end. He'd even seemed happy when he'd been stuffing his mouth with all of that food he'd found! Vegeta had been acting so tender towards the end of their day – at least, until they had fallen asleep in the car and he'd woken up yelling.

Whatever it was that was up his own ass, nothing could excuse it. Bulma knew what Vegeta was capable of, and she knew how comforting he could be if he had the mind for it. Just because something was bothering him off didn't mean that he had to be such a mouthy jerk to her. It didn't excuse any of his recent behavior.

It especially didn't excuse the way he'd blown up at her just now.

Her parents were dead, for Kami's sake!

But then, as Bulma pondered it all, she sank deeper into the water. Who was she kidding? The guy came from some foreign planet on an end of the universe she never had known to exist, and he had lived a lifestyle she couldn't truly imagine. One of the first things he had told her about himself was that it was unwise to trust him. Actually, in his opinion, she shouldn't trust anyone - and yet here she was.

Sitting in a bathtub and brooding over his callous actions. Her parents were dead, Vegeta of all people was the thing she was concerned about? What was wrong with her?

"I've been such an idiot." She sighed, opening her hand in the water and watching small waves ripple from the movement. She really was a fool, wasn't she? Somehow she'd let herself build up so much faith in that man, even when he himself had told her not to.

And that was that.

As scorned and betrayed as Bulma felt, she wouldn't let herself lose grip over that man. She had her parents to mourn! Why should she let Vegeta add to her grief? She just wouldn't let it happen!

The day was already growing late, and the saiyan was still presumably locked in the gravity room when she pulled herself out of the bathroom. Seeing that he'd taken all of the battle bots with him, Bulma shook her head. She really had absolutely nothing to do. Not caring to see the saiyan when he finally returned from his training, and dreading the burden of consciousness, the Bluehead decided the best course of action would be to go ahead and lock herself in the bedroom for the night.

It seemed as if hours passed as she lay in bed, staring into the. She heard when Vegeta eventually let himself into the house, the sounds of his footsteps as he moved about. She listened to the deep of his voice as he muttered something to himself that she couldn't quite make out.

It seemed as if it was hours that passed before she fell asleep, but she eventually did.

.

Piccolo and Gohan were greeted before they even had the chance to knock and announce their arrival. In fact, they had barely landed in the green pasture that the house was planted on when the door swung open and out popped a blur of blue.

She was carrying something bulky in her arms, and Bulma had started to head towards the large gravity room that had been set up beside the capsule house. She was quick to notice that she had company, though, and so she began a detour towards her guests instead.

"Hi Gohan!" She called. There was a smile on her face, yet no cheer in her voice.

"Miss Bulma." He nodded back, stepping ahead of Piccolo so he could formally meet with one of the few acquaintances he had left.

"I'd hug you, but my arms are full." The Bluehead commented, shooting a wink at the child before turning up to address her green guest. "Hello, Piccolo."

"Bulma." He replied, not caring to offer the same smile that she was forcing at him. What struck him as interesting was that her demeanor had completely changed since their last encounter. That time she had been squeaking and hiding behind Vegeta like a coward, but she'd at least had a lot of life in her eyes. Today she almost appeared robotic, speaking as if her mind were kilometers away. Too far gone to even remember to be afraid.

He didn't care anything about this woman in front of him, but still. The contrast struck him as odd. It had only been a week - what could have happened in seven days to make such a difference?

"What do you have in your arms?" Gohan was asking now.

"Battle bots. I just finished two new ones. It's all I have to do." Bulma replied curtly, as if just speaking the words was conjuring some pent up resentment that she didn't want to remember. "Whether I want to or not, this is all I have to pass the time."

"That's good, anyway." Piccolo grunted. "The more you make, the better."

Bulma looked up from the boy to eye Piccolo, her brows raised with surprise. She watched him for a few seconds, as if she were offended by what he'd just said and was trying to determine how to handle it. Whatever she was thinking, she must have thought better of saying something snide. Because instead she simply sighed and shook her head before turning away. "Come on, then. I was just bringing these to the Sir Bitch-a-lot. I'm sure he knows you're here and is just waiting for me to bring you to him, anyway."

"Are you okay, Miss Bulma?" Gohan felt compelled to ask, but the Bluehead had already started trailing towards the gravity room and did not reply.

Just as she had predicted, Vegeta had shut off the gravity machine and was leaning against the wall expectantly when the three walked in on him.

"... And here he is." Bulma said, waving a hand towards the saiyan without actually looking at him.

"So you've finally shown yourself." The saiyan said then. His eyes were locked on Piccolo as he pushed himself back from the wall and slowly began to walk across the room. "Ready to be humiliated, then?"

"Yeah, sure." Piccolo grunted. "Are you?"

"It shouldn't come as a surprise to either of you that I only plan on teaching you what a true warrior is capable of." Vegeta shot back. He had an intense look on his face when he eyed the boy standing at Piccolo's side, raising a brow as if only seeing the child for the first time.

"Well, now you guys are reunited and everything. How cute." Bulma chimed. She had already taken the opportunity to leave the two new battle bots on the floor, and was currently making her way back to the door. "I'll be in the house."

"That is fine." Vegeta replied. He pulled his eyes from Gohan so he could look at the Bluehead. Her rear was gyrating as she quick-stepped away, her shoulders tense as she tried to urge herself to move even faster. "Woman. Just one thing."

Bulma stopped in the doorway to glance over her shoulder. Vegeta was looking into her eyes, his arms folded over his chest. "My name is not Sir-Bitch-A-Lot."

"Oh, you heard that." She scowled back. Truth be told, she actually wasn't surprised at all. In fact, she had hoped he was listening when she said it. "You HAVE called me Bulma before, but now all I am to you is woman. Perhaps someday you'll start referring to me by my name again, but until then Sir-Bitch-A-Lot seems like a fitting alias to me."

His eyes widened, clearly not having expected her to act so boldly in front of his guests. The two had hardly spoken in days, and yet he still managed to be taken aback by her hostility. Before he had enough capacity to open his mouth with a response, Bulma had already disappeared behind the heavy door, slamming it as she went.

"Damn, man." Piccolo couldn't help but comment. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing!" Vegeta snapped, blood rushing to his cheeks. "You shut up!"

"Whatever. I don't care, anyway." Piccolo shook his head. "You know why we're here, so let's cut to the chase. The boy is ready for the exaggerated gravity."

The saiyan had already regained his composure in Bulma's absence, and Vegeta was staring down at Gohan with marked interest once again. "Oh, you're ready, are you?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I..." Gohan timidly looked to Piccolo for affirmation, unsure if Vegeta was testing him on some way.

"Well?" Piccolo said with a frown. "Don't look at me, kid. Tell the man."

"I..." Gohan sighed, looking back to the saiyan. "I want to spar with you, Mr. Vegeta."

"You..." Vegeta might have smirked if the boy had told him this during their last encounter, but this time was different.

"No increased gravity." Piccolo chimed, setting the boundaries of the sparring match. "Outside. You two will fight in the conditions that Gohan has been training with so far."

"And I don't suppose you expect the boy to actually develop useful instincts by limiting him to one environment." Vegeta replied, but he didn't decline the request. This didn't surprise him too much. The only thing he was wondering in that moment was if those two took him for a fool.

Did they really expect him not to know what those two were planning? He'd been sensing their training sessions all week! And, as much as it irritated him to realize what Gohan was capable of, he'd be an idiot to not acknowledge it.

In fact, he'd been mad about their sessions for days. It was what he had been angry about before he walked in on Bulma and got into the huge blowout with her. He couldn't help but to put blame of his current status with the Bluehead on these two! He had been anxiously awaiting the moment to get his revenge. He'd teach his two guests what would happen if they tried to one-up him. He'd make them regret their attempt…

They thought they had the element of surprise on their side, and that only added to Vegeta's irritation.

The fools.

He led them outside, only making a slight detour to poke his head into the capsule house and tell Bulma not to go while he was gone. He thought this was a pretty reasonable statement to make. Of course, coming from Vegeta, what he actually said was "Woman, we are leaving for a few hours. Do NOT even THINK about stepping foot from this house! Do you understand?!"

"Oh, buzz off!" Bulma had shouted from the bedroom. "I'll do whatever the hell I want!"

She'd been saying things like this to him all week, and yet she hadn't made another attempt at taking off into town. At this point, though her attitude was a trial to his patience, he had grown used to it. "Right." He grumbled, stepping back out into the green pasture and resuming his position as the leader of this small and hostile group.

Piccolo had his arms folded over his chest, his eyes on the saiyan as he walked back over to them.

"Do NOT ask me what I did to her again." Vegeta warned, his teeth clenched.

Piccolo shook his head, but otherwise did not say anything.

The saiyan cleared his throat, glaring at the two. "Right. We will fly back from whence you both came. The boy will show me what he is capable of, and you will not intervene at any time."

"Think you'll be okay, Gohan?" Piccolo asked with a smirk.

The bastard. Piccolo was mocking him, and right to his own face. 'We'll see how long you're grinning for...' Vegeta thought, though his expression didn't reveal his internal musings…

.

.

Thirty minutes later they had landed in the exact spot were Vegeta had originally met the two. The saiyan, who had no doubt about his suspicions in the first place, could quickly confirm them by seeing the state of the land around him.

The lake, looking rather tranquil with its calm water, was surrounded by footprints and small craters that had been formed in the shore during Gohan and Piccolo's matches. In the forest to the west was a path of cleared trees, extending farther than Vegeta could even see. There was a faint odor of burned wood in the air, loose branches and tree limbs strewed about.

"Are you ready, Mr. Vegeta?" Gohan asked carefully. He had already taken his position across from the saiyan, falling into his battle stance - just as Piccolo had instructed him to do.

Vegeta, who had still been analyzing the destruction, turned to eye the boy. "Me, ready?" He replied sarcastically, an eyebrow raised. "I am hardly prepared. I wonder how I shall ever prevail..."

"Okay." Gohan nodded.

And then, despite the sinking feeling that had been forming in his stomach all day, the child continued to do exactly what Piccolo had advised him to. 'It's just a sparring match... It's just a sparring match.' He thought to himself, exhaling a deep breath of air to try and calm his nerves. With one more deep breath, the boy jumped and began to fly at Vegeta at half speed.

The saiyan prince folded his arms as he waited for the boy to approach. And as he drew closer, Gohan lifted his fists. He was heading directly towards Vegeta's left shoulder, focusing on making sure his hit would be hard enough to knock the saiyan off his feet.

The closer that the boy grew to him, the more Vegeta would smirk. It was clear what the child was planning. The boy was easier to read than the dragon radar…

… And, just as Gohan was about to land his blow on Vegeta, he quickly swirled around to be on the saiyan's backside – again, just as Piccolo had told him to do. The child was lifting his leg to land a kick on the back of Vegeta's hips, when the saiyan prince whirled around and caught the boy by the ankle.

Using only one hand, Vegeta squeezed Gohan's leg as he raised the child upside down. Gohan wailed in surprise, fighting to kick himself out of Vegeta's grip.

"A jump kick..." Vegeta commented, furrowing his brows as the boy groaned. "...Is predictable and will not work when you move at such laughable speed."

This sad attempt at attack only soured the saiyan's mood as he shook the child. None of this made any sense. The boy's capabilities weren't collating with what Vegeta had predicted at all. This was Gohan's one chance at winning over the saiyan prince, and that was what he had chosen to do? Vegeta could feel his anger bubbling over. Not only had Piccolo and this boy taken him to be a fool, but he'd also been wrong.

He'd been expecting something more. He'd been anticipating something - anything that might be somewhat challenging! He'd thought he'd at least be surprised, and he couldn't believe these two had actually managed to do even that to him!

If this child wasn't the one whom's ki he had been sensing, then WHO was it?!

Everything was making less sense by the minute, and he was pissed.

"Stupid boy!" Vegeta spat, lifting the child higher so the blood would rush to his head. "Did you really think that, in all my experience, you'd be the first to try something like that?! Did you REALLY think I wouldn't see it coming?!"

The child was screaming now, yowling in pain as Vegeta's calloused finger tips dug into his leg.

"Now do you understand how inferior you are to me?!" The saiyan prince scolded. "Will you admit to me that you are weak?"

"No!" Gohan yelled, his cheeks turning pink as the blood rushed to his face.

"Are you sure about that?" Vegeta replied, lifting the boy even higher. "Are you sure?"

"NO!" Gohan crowed.

And then, still following with what Piccolo had instructed him, the boy did it.

As he had been hanging upside down, Gohan had been channeling within. Trying to dig into the internal corridor that held the key to his power, he had finally found it. He opened his bloodshot eyes, his hair flying out as his body burst into a bright flash of gold.

Vegeta yelled, ripping his hand from the boy's leg and jumping back. Suddenly Gohan's skin had been uncomfortably hot to the touch, and as Vegeta looked down at his palm he saw that the flesh had been burned to a bright pink hue.

It was as if the boy had suddenly turned to fire!

He looked back to the child, half expecting to see the boy laying as a charred pile of ash on the ground. Had the kid just spontaneously combusted? He'd only meant to teach the half-breed a lesson. He wasn't intending to actually kill him!

What he saw, though, somehow seemed exponentially worse.

"You..." He gasped. "YOU?!"

This was it.

This was that aura he had felt.

THIS was what he had suspected all along.

He thought that perhaps the child was simply a genius at disguising his ki. He'd assumed the boy would use that in order to land a surprise attack on him. Thinking such a thing was what had been so infuriating to the saiyan. Vegeta had been suspicious that the person with such notable ki had been the boy after the last time he'd sensed it, but he hadn't been expecting this.

"So, Vegeta, did you see that coming?!" Piccolo jeered from the sidelines.

Gohan was now hovering in front of Vegeta, his cyan blue eyes locked on him. Wordlessly, he flew at the saiyan prince. Vegeta was still in shock, and his reaction was delayed as he lifted an arm to block the punch from the boy.

Gohan didn't relent, throwing blows at Vegeta as if he'd been starving for such an altercation his whole life. Vegeta was dodging each attempt the boy made, backing away slowly as he mentally struggled to grasp what was unfolding.

How could this half breed be one of the legendary?

It didn't make any sense at all!

"That's enough, Gohan!" Piccolo was screaming. But the boy wasn't listening to any of it. 'The idiot!' Vegeta thought. Of course the child wasn't going to listen! He was just that, after all! A child!

Legend had it that even the strongest of warrior would lose any sense of conscious upon making the change. Much like when one would take on the oozaru form, if a saiyan managed to transition into super saiyan then he would relentlessly go on the hunt for blood. There would be nothing to stop him until his energy ran out!

"Gohan, DAMNIT! I said that's ENOUGH!" Piccolo was barking as Vegeta blocked another kick, but instead received a punch to the side of the head. It was a hard enough blow to leave his ears ringing, the saiyan's eyes widening from the pain.

Foam was forming at the sides of his mouth and Gohan was snarling now, flailing his legs wildly as he desperately attempted to land more blows on the saiyan prince.

"Get a grip, boy!" Vegeta spat, slamming a fist onto the child's leg as he dodged it. He could hear the crackle of the child's bone, which fractured from the force of the impact. And yet the boy didn't even flinch, instead just opening his mouth to let out a primal yell of frustration before continuing his launch.

Kami, this wasn't good. The saiyan was actually starting to feel winded from this altercation, and the boy wasn't showing any signs of letting up. With Gohan's current power level, Vegeta could easily see himself getting badly injured if he miscalculated any of the kid's movements.

He could hear Piccolo approaching from behind to try and assist in the situation. "You idiot!" Vegeta barked at him, still working to dodge the boy's blows. "Look what you've encouraged!"

Piccolo lunged forward to grab Gohan's bicep. "Enough, kid." He warned, but the boy only growled and ripped his limb from his mentor's grip. He turned on Piccolo then, his teeth clenched as he moved. In an instant he was attacking him with just as much vigor as he had been going after Vegeta with, and the saiyan prince took this as his chance.

"Gohan, I told you to stop!" Piccolo was barking. He had just caught both of Gohan's fists in his hands. Relentless, the child simply chose to headbutt him instead.

The sound of two skulls slamming against one another might have made the average person cringe with second-hand pain. Piccolo, gritting his teeth from the blow, was stunned that the kid would be bold enough to do such a thing. Surely that would have hurt him, too! The boy was going to give himself a concussion!

Gohan had managed to break his arms free during the blow, and he was now moving on his mentor again. Ready to tear his esophagus out, the child's heart was racing as he anticipated the feeling of a victim's blood on his skin.

'Damnit.' Piccolo thought. The kid was completely off the wall! Gohan had no control of himself! Piccolo was going to have to blast him in the torso just to get him to sit still for long enough to calm down.

This wasn't how he had wanted things to go.

Yet he knew that Gohan was going to end up killing himself if he kept slamming his head against things the way he just had. Piccolo would rather the boy suffer traumatic injuries than to beat himself to death.

That was it.

Feeling responsible, Piccolo grit his teeth as he began to raise his hand towards the boy. The power was just starting to charge in his fingers, but Piccolo suddenly saw the fire leave the child's eyes.

Gohan, who had been in the middle of another jump at Piccolo, had paused in midair.

He was staring straight ahead, the cyan of his irises darkening slightly to something else, his mouth dropped open in bewilderment. It was almost as if he had lost all feeling or thought at all, watching Piccolo blankly as his primal instincts were put on pause.

"It doesn't feel good, does it?" Vegeta said then, a condescending tone dripping from his voice.

Piccolo, who had been reading his aim to shoot at Gohan's rib, lowered his arm. He looked to Vegeta, who was standing at the boy's side. Something long and furry was being held in Vegeta's hand, and Piccolo narrowed his eyes as he thought of what it could be. He tried to hide his surprise when he realized what it was that Vegeta was holding.

It was the child's tail.

Gohan slowly looked to Vegeta, his mouth still hanging open in a stupor. His golden hair was dimming to its naturally jet black state, shimmering sporadically like a street light that was about to go out.

"If you don't learn how to act in your state, then this will happen to you each and every time. Understand?" Vegeta said then, and he tightened his grip on the tail.

That was when it happened. Gohan threw his head back, letting out another yell. This time, rather than a cry of hunger, the boy was screaming out in pain. His entire body jolted, his arms tightening to his side. His legs went stiff, and the residual power left in his body was being flushed out. Any remaining signs of his legendary state quickly evaded him.

His eyes and hair completely black now, the boy collapsed to his knees, panting. Vegeta stood over the child, looking down at him and considering how dim his ki was once again.

"I can't believe it." He grumbled, throwing the boy's tail to the ground and stepping back.

Piccolo had watched it all from where he stood. A line of blood was trailing down the side of his face, a side effect from Gohan slamming his head against his own. 'So,' He thought... So, Grabbing the child's tail was how to restrain him when he was in this state. That was good to know...

"You fucking idiot!" Vegeta barked then, turning on Piccolo. "THAT was your plan?! To have the child become the legendary and then hope for the best?! REALLY?!"

"Legendary." Piccolo asked, though it came out as a statement instead. "What do you mean legendary?"

"You don't even-" Vegeta was snarling. He slammed a palm to his face, trying to keep his temper from blowing over. Not only had this wimpy child achieved something that no saiyan had accomplished in thousands of years - but neither of them even knew enough to appreciate it?!

"Tell me what you know about this boy's change." Piccolo demanded, but Vegeta shook his head. "If I explain the legend to you, then I will only tell it once. The boy will be awake to hear it as well, because I am not going to repeat myself."

"Fine." Piccolo growled, stepping toward the child, who was laying face-down in the dirt. "So, are you convinced that he is useful now?"

"Perhaps." Vegeta spat bitterly. "But you two don't deserve the right to experiment with something so grand. It's as if you think the legendary is a joke. How dare you encourage the child to change when neither of you are smart enough to even control it! How fucking disdainful!"

"Whatever." Piccolo muttered. He bent down and lifted Gohan, scooping him into his arms.

"I am going back to my home base." Vegeta said curtly. "Follow if you will, but don't do anything else moronic while you're in my presence. I might lose my temper and actually kill you!"

"You know, Vegeta." Piccolo said cooly, jumping into the air. "You talk big, but someday you're gonna get your assed kicked for it."

"Right." The saiyan prince spat. "This coming from you is hardly a threat."

And with that he took off for the Capsule house, Piccolo following behind with Gohan still in his arms.