Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters.

Chapter Twenty Six

Bulma walked around the city, a hustle and bustle around her. Everyone stopped and took a second to bow to the man on her right before returning to their duties. "I found you, being bullied because you had stolen something from a few boys. You then took me around this place explaining what you did to stay alive." the prince explained. The young woman looked around and got frustrated when she couldn't remember anything. They turned the corner down an alleyway behind a line of store fronts. "And this is where you told me that you slept at night." Bulma looked up at the building and froze.

"Where do you think you're going?!" An older man yelled at her as she held a broom. Bulma looked up and then looked at the ground. "You're not done cleaning! I open in half an hour!" Looking around, the young saiyan didn't know what she did wrong. "I have two reservations when we open and I don't see a single reserved table." The older man kicked her, making her stumble back and hit the wall with her back. "And don't get me started on the windows. If you think that this is okay, then I'm kicking you out and then you'll be living on the streets again. You don't want that, do you? Or I could report you to the officials and have you be taken away." Bulma went to speak but was interrupted. "No excuses. You dare try to talk back?" The man took the broom away from her and flipped it before hitting the side of her head, right above her ear. "You are beneath me. Now, get this place spotless!" The man left, slamming the door.

Bulma, regaining a memory, was now seething with anger. "I'll kill him." She took a step but was held back by the man behind her.

"Woman. The bar owner died many years ago."

"Good riddance." Bulma spit on the ground towards the building. "Bastard got what he deserved." Shrugging off the prince's grip, she continued walking.

Vegeta and Bulma continued to walk around the city and he tried to think of what might trigger good memories instead of bad ones. There had been more than one instance where Bulma had recovered a memory triggered by something they walked past and it was getting harder to hold her back.

"I must have had such an amazing life here." Bulma said sarcastically as they walked on a bridge. Stopping in the middle to watch the river flow, she sighed. "No wonder I was rescued."

"Kidnapped." Vegeta corrected. He hated how much of a shit life she had before they met. Maybe if she was shown the memories of her horse, she would be convinced her life wasn't so bad. "I have one last thing that might help." He grabbed Bulma's hand and they flew back to the palace. "I would like you to meet someone."

Bulma followed the prince and was highly doubting that this would help. There was enough evidence to her that she had been rescued from this planet rather than kidnapped. The anger in her wanted to explode but she knew that it couldn't, not when she had a mission to complete. Bulma smiled as an idea popped into her head to help aid her mission.

"Prince Vegeta!" A tall man with wildly spiked, black hair opened the door. "It's a pleasant surprise. What brings you here?"

"Bardock. I would like you to meet Bulma." The prince stepped to the side, revealing the proud woman with her arms crossed. "We are trying to retrieve her memories. She still has them, they are just hidden, blocked. I was hoping that we could watch Kathro's memories and that might help her memory come back."

The man looked at Bulma doubtfully but then nodded. "It's worth a shot. Come in, the boys aren't home but they will be in a few. Raditz has told me a lot about you Bulma. All good things." He turned around and Bulma raised an eyebrow at the prince.

"He's our top scientist and specializes in biology. He created healing tanks for us similar to the healing tanks on the ship. The healing slime, however, is a bit different. He's also the father of Raditz and his younger son is Kakarot."

Bulma nodded as they walked in and followed Bardock. Walking through the halls, and down a set of stairs, Bulma looked at the walls that had pictures hanging on them. She knew what pictures were but to have thiem hanging on walls, it was a forign concept. "What are these for?" She asked, pointing at a picture with a younger looking Raditz holding a mini Bardock.

"That is a picture of Raditz and Kakarot when they were younger. It's nice to remember good times, to look back and smile." Bardock smiled as he looked at the picture.

"I wouldn't know. The only memories that I have of this planet are bad." Bulma said coldly. Bardock nodded and continued walking down the hall before going down a set of stairs. The walls turned cold as they were no longer the warm brown coloring. The walls were suddenly the white metalic that she was used to and it brought her comfort. Bardock opened the door and Bulma was amazed at all of the technology in the lab. It excited her to learn how it worked. She started to examine the room and walk around, not paying any attention to the other two in the room.

Vegeta followed Bardock to a wall with different old tapes. "Here it is." Bardock said after pushing away a few tapes. "I really should digitally upload these to the database." He said to himself before walking to his desk and putting in the tape. "Bulma." Bardock called over his shoulder.

Putting down a small device, Bulma walked over to the older saiyan. "And this will help me get my memories back?" She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"If it doesn't, I can always try to get in your head and unlock the hidden memories." Bulma growled inwardly. There was no way that she would allow anyone in her head. She didn't even like that she couldn't really hide her feelings from the prince. She sat down, looking at the wall that the projector was pointed at. The film started playing and she saw herself as a young girl. The boy standing next to her resembled the prince enough to say that it was probably him.

"Girl! I got you something." Vegeta said, pulling her towards the horse. Bulma fought his grip, not liking how he handled her. "Stop squirming. It's something you'll like."

"Let go of me! I can walk on my own." Bulma yanked her wrist out of his grip and rubbed the red part of her limb. "What did you get me?"

The young saiyan stood in front of the horse. "This." He pointed up.

Bulma's frown flipped into a bright smile as she hugged Vegeta. "Thank you! Vegeta, this is really mine? All for me?" She laughed and giggled.

Present Bulma smiled but, when the recorded memory cut, she remembered what had happened afterwards. The prince had only given her the horse because he was leaving her. It was so she had someone to talk to while in hiding. Why was she in hiding? Why was she being hidden?

Vegeta looked at Bulma, hopefully. He, for some odd reason, couldn't feel what she was feeling. The soft smile on the blue saiyan's lips reassured him though. This was a good memory of hers. She remembered it.

Bulma looked up at the two men and nodded. "That's good. Can I see more? I want more good memories." She felt odd as she recalled the flash of memory. She couldn't remember the memory she was shown on the wall but she could remember the bad reasons behind it. Were these memories she was being shown edited so they looked like good memories? Only one way to tell and she sat, watching the memories for several hours.

Unfortunately, for every memory she had been shown, it triggered some bad memory that had happened either right before the good memory or right after. These had to have been modified.

"And that's it." Bardock said, taking out the tape. Bulma smiled, knowing he was lying. "How are you feeling?"

"Great." Bulma stood and hugged the older saiyan. "I know I still don't have all of my memories back but I definitely can remember some good things from when I was here." She looked at the prince. "I just wish that I could remember when I left." She said sadly, knowing that something was being hidden from her. She just needed to say the right words to get it out.

"Did you want to go to your parent's house?" Vegeta asked, hoping she would say no. If anything, he knew that the house held her worst memories. He had been going to avoid it all day.

"Do you think that it will help me remember anything?" Bulma held back the first memory she had remembered of finding her mother and father dead. If she focused on it too much, she knew that she wouldn't be able to hold back her emotions and that the stronger the emotions, the stronger the prince could feel them. This wouldn't work if he knew she was lying.

"I think we should try other places and if you still think that you want to go there, then we can but I must warn you that bad things happened in that house. Things that you won't like." Vegeta sighed. She'd be able to tell if he was lying as he had been able to tell if she was earlier.

Nodding and smiling, Bulma looked back at the wall the projector was pointed at that was now blank. "What's your plan next?" She turned back around and heard her stomach growl. Though she had tried hard, she still was unable to control and ignore her hunger.

"We should get you something to eat." Vegeta smirked and looked at his Bulma. He had gotten a part of her back. For how long, he didn't know but he would make the most of it. He knew that the longer he held on, the easier it would be to talk and get information from the other side, the darker side of her.

AN: I'm so inspired. It helps that I have nothing better to do than write while at work though. I hope everyone is happy and healthy and if you aren't, that you get there soon.

Taino Delsan13, I'm glad you're invested. It's going to get much worse before it gets better. :) Hope you enjoy!