A/N: Did you guys think I died? :D

When Kakarot returned to his normal size, his first thought was to make sure his opponent was still alive. Kneeling at his side, he placed a hand on his head, wincing at the site of some of the more obviously broken bones. He could still sense life from him… life, pain, and a LOT of anger. He moved his hand just as Turles came to the man's side. "Hybrid, huh?" he asked, having seen the battle for himself.

Kakarot frowned. "I think… he's Gohan," he said, causing Turles to send him an incredulous look as he used his energy to gently lift the man from the ground. Before he could make a remark, however, Kakarot lifted off the ground and flew towards the balcony where Vegeta was scowling at him, and where Bulma was covering her eyes.

"Kakarot! Clothes!" the queen lamented, and soon Tanmen was there, handing him a towel. Kakarot paid it no mind, however, his eyes on the king.

"Sire… did I do anything to you? Er… try to do anything?" he asked, not really sure how to phrase what he wanted to know.

Vegeta blinked. "What the hell are you on about, Kakarot?" he demanded grumpily. This last battle had been… less than satisfying. He knew Kakarot was capable of more than that, that battle had made him appear weak. And, since he was Vegeta's royal guard, that impression extended, of course, to himself.

Kakarot frowned. "I haven't been myself, King Vegeta..." he said, just as Maiz and Saru entered the room with a struggling human. "I've been that guy," he said, pointing.

"Wait… what?" Bulma asked, confused, as Vegeta began to quietly lose patience.

"He speaks the truth, Sire," Saru said, gripping the human's arm tightly. "Until a few minutes ago, the soul currently inhabiting this human was inhabiting Kakarot," he said. "You might be interested to know who the soul truly belongs to," he said, glancing between the two men, who were both watching him. "Do either of you know a Captain Ginyu?"

Vegeta narrowed his eyes at the human, but Kakarot frowned. "Captain Ginyu's dead. His head was thrown in the fire, after the battle with Frieza," he said, confused.

"He changed bodies," Vegeta growled, stepping towards the human. "I'd heard rumors that he had that ability, I didn't think there was any truth to them, though..." he said. "Speak, human. Make any attempts to change bodies again, and you'll never stop screaming. Are you Ginyu?" he demanded, needing to know for sure.

The human chuckled derisively. "I was so close to you, Vegeta. Close to your mate. For days. How does it feel, knowing how helpless you were, your life was in my hands, and oh, how you trusted me with it..."

Kakarot stepped forward, fury radiating from him, which caused the human to laugh even harder. "Oh, and I learned so much, too! For instance, Kakarot, I had no idea that pregnant woman my men raped and murdered was YOUR mate… I've been watching the recording my men made of it every night, and then, I took YOU much the same way… it really is a small universe, isn't it?" he laughed.

"Kakarot," Vegeta said, with the smallest of gestures, then took Bulma's arm and turned away. Kakarot scowled and stepped toward the taunting human, and in mere seconds stuck both hands into his laughing mouth and ripped him neatly in half. The girls screamed and backed away, except for Bulma, who stood beside Vegeta looking out at the arena, resisting the urge to turn around. Her mate had spared her the gory details, the least she could do was maintain an appearance of strength for him.

Once the commotion had died down and Kakarot had left, Bulma reached for her microphone and took a deep breath. "So, for our next fight..."

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Thirteen watched Lazuli pull out yet another outfit from her closet. "Okay, Thirteen, try this one on," she said, handing her a black and white stripped pair of tights, some cut-off denim shorts, and a large black T-shirt that had the RR emblem on it. Rolling her eyes, Thirteen took off the outfit she'd just tried on, and began to pull on this one, careful not to rip the fabric. Her mind was still reeling from everything that had happened, and from sleeping in that bed Dr. Gero had put her in… the words 'file download' came to her, and while she understood what it was on a mental level, she wasn't used to knowing the things she now knew. It felt… weird to have all this information, but to have no memories of learning it. How much of what she knew now had been written by Dr. Gero? Was she still Maca anymore?

Had she ever really been Maca?

Lazuli grinned at her. "Okay, yeah, THAT's the one," she said, and reached for an orange bandanna. Folding it into a long strip, she tied it around her hair, acting as a sort of, not-so-effective headband. "Good, good, here, just let me..." she tied the bottom right side of Thirteen's shirt into a small knot, then stood back and smiled. "Oh, yeah, that's better..." she said, looking the girl over critically.

Thirteen gazed at herself in the mirror, then looked down at the red strip of cloth still tied around her arm. Lazuli followed her gaze, then glanced at her. "So… I know it's not my business, but… your brother sounds like a prick, and your sister pretty much told you to go get revenge. You're not worried about that, are you?" she asked.

Thirteen glanced at Lazulis's reflection in the mirror, meeting the girl's eyes. "You're playing dress-up with a monster who feeds off humans. You're not worried about that, are you?" she asked in response.

Lazuli glanced down, fiddling with one of her earrings. "I guess I hadn't thought about it," she said softly.

Thirteen's eyes went to her earrings, then to the reflection of her own ears. "Same earrings," she said softly, her eyes sliding to Lazuli's. "Same fate."

Lazuli said nothing, but let her eyes go cold, as she pushed her fears deep down. "That's tomorrow's problem," she said, and looked at Thirteen's feet. "Right now, let's talk shoes," she said, allowing herself to smile.

Thirteen blinked at that. The girl knew she was in a bad place, but she'd chosen to make the most of it. It wasn't as though Dr. Gero would ever let them leave her… no, not any more than she would allow Thirteen to leave. Lazuli and Lapis were as stuck as she was. As they all were.

She had the right idea. The only thing to do was make the most of it. Thirteen returned her smile. "Right. Shoes," she said, causing Lazuli's smile to widen.

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Beet gazed out the viewport at the blue-green planet. "Namek, huh?" he asked, glancing at Doragastu. "Go ahead and land," he said.

Doragastu slowly shook his head, eyes widened in horror. "That's a bad idea. Look," he said, enlarging the image of the planet to show what his scanner had detected.

Floating above the planet were large bubbles of water, various animals and fish, and corpses of some kind of green alien…

Thousands of them.

"It's… missing its atmosphere. The planet is completely devoid of life… and gravity," Doragastu said, as Beet's eyes widened.

"How… is that even possible?" he whispered in horror.

"It's not," Engie said, ripping his eyes from the viewscreen to run some calculations. "The planet is still there, by definition it should still have mass, and therefore, gravity. The science doesn't support this, it's an impossibility," he said, shaking his head.

Beet's stomach clenched. "Like bringing everyone with Saiyan blood to Earth?" he asked softly.

Both Engie and Doragastu's eyes widened, and they spun around to regard him. "Those… those things, those dragon-what's-its, there's more of them?!" Engie demanded.

Beet's jaw clenched. "The dragonballs. That's what we came to find. But it looks like someone beat us to them," he said, frowning as he gazed at the devastation before them. "Someone who's a real sick bastard."

Engie gritted his teeth. "Does King Vegeta know? About there being more dragonballs?" he asked dangerously.

Beet met his eyes. "No. I didn't tell him," he said, bracing himself for what was to come.

Engie punched him full across the face, sending him flying to the other bulkhead, then spit on him. "You're a damn traitor, Beet, and you've probably gotten everyone you care about killed. We didn't have to come here like this, we could have used Instant Transmission. But we didn't know why we were coming, so we took our damn time, and now..."

Beet pulled himself up. "We need to warn King Vegeta," he said, just to be backhanded again by Engie.

"I'm not taking the orders of a traitor. What were you even planning to do with the dragonballs, anyway? Take over the kingdom?" Engie demanded.

"To right past wrongs," Doragastu deduced, gazing at Beet intently.

Engie scowled at that. "That human city you blew up? THAT'S what this is about, what me and Doragastu have been risking our lives over? You weak-minded, selfish little brat..."

Doragastu glanced at Engie. "This battle takes time, as a greater enemy approaches," he said.

Engie sighed. "Yeah, I know. Doragastu… I'm going back to warn King Vegeta… Beerus knows if you tried, he wouldn't understand a damned thing you said. Your job is to bring Beet and this ship back home, to face up to his treason. And if there's one ounce of pride in this coward's body, he won't resist," he said, glaring at Beet meaningfully. He got a nod from Doragastu, as well as one from Beet, who was looking down in shame. With that, he placed two fingers on his forehead, and a few moments later, disappeared.

Beet glanced at Doragastu hesitantly. "I was just doing what I thought was right," he said weakly.

Doragastu didn't look at him, going back to the controls instead. "Words spoken in the aftermath of every tragedy," he said softly, and set the ship's coordinates for Earth.

Slumping to the floor, Beet cried. For West City, for the Namekians… and for everyone else his foolish actions would get killed.