Author's note: Hey, guys, thanks for the reads, & the reviews. I love getting those alerts. Please feel free to keep them coming, & let me know your thoughts as the story progresses.

Written by: SparkerLightning

Edited by: StevenBodner

Chapter 45

In space

Rippling out from the Night Blizzard, both the declaration of war and the power of the undefeated ruler were projected to the cosmos. While the energy eventually faded into the background radiation, the message was carried outward in all directions. Washing over every galaxy, every solar system, every planet, moon, asteroid, it carried onward and outward.

While specialist units had already been notified and sent into action, the empire in general did not know Cold's intent. Across the heavens feet hammered the floor, drinks were drank, and cheers were called out. Frieza had been accepted. Frieza had been obeyed. Cold? Cold had been respected. Cold had been honored. Cold had returned, and Cold was out for blood.

The empire was not the only ones who had received the signal though. Every civilization, every individual, with a way of electronically communicating, received the message. Every speaker voiced Cold's words. Every screen displayed his might. Everyone that had the ability to comprehend the situation, was made aware of it.

While the broadcast expanded out like an ever-inflating bubble from the streak of space Night Blizzard occupied when the message was sent, it was also instantly carried across the universe. Advanced mirroring technology copied every last detail of Cold, and projected his presence as if he were not just on the flagship, but speaking from the seat of power on every modernized planet in the empire. Across his territory, across reality, with little delay every sentient being was made aware of the coming storm.

Aboard Capsule Cosmos

"I'm rambling though. Let me cut to the chase. Let me tell you just how outclassed you are. My people, the Arcosians, we can transform, similar to Saiyans. We have four common forms, and my heir discovered a fifth. Each successive form is more powerful than our previous, and these increases of power are vast. I am currently in my second form. My power, at this level, is equal to my youngest son's in his fourth form. Where he was at his limits with this power, I am incapable of crushing it much lower than I already have. When we do battle, whether it be you and your supporters against myself, or myself against your planet. I will not hold back. I will not restrain myself anymore. I have never fought in my fourth form before. I wonder if I can achieve my fifth before we meet."

Jeice held the trembling Bulma tight to his chest. Her jagged nails left shallow cuts on his bare chest as she clenched her fists. She was forcing herself to breathe, slowly. Two seconds in, three seconds out. Two seconds in, three seconds out.

Jeice's scouter had been discarded to the floor beside the bunk they had claimed hours before. They had fallen asleep, a shallow yet restful slumber. But the loud series of beeps indicating an emergency message woke them up immediately, and their attention was solely on the voice coming from the scouter. It was quiet, but in the silence of their room they heard every word, and the killing intent behind them.

"Jeice?" Bulma kept her eyes closed, her fists tight, and her head on his chest.

Taking a moment to realize he had been addressed, he looked down at her in the darkness.

"Y-Yes?" He asked in a shaking voice.

She looked up. He was looking at her. She averted her gaze. "Are we going to be okay?"

Jeice shook his head, a difficult gesture as a majority of his hair was trapped either under his body or between him and Bulma. "I don't know."

She felt Jeice's hair move under her, but didn't care. "What are we going to do now?"

He propped himself up on his shoulders, and Bulma wrapped her arms around him, refusing to let go. Jeice leaned down and kissed Bulma's head. He took her hands in his and slowly began freeing himself from her grip. "We're going to get up, get dressed, and tell the others what we heard."

"No." She resisted. Bulma knew she couldn't overpower him, not even close. But if she willed it, and if Jeice allowed it, they would stay together. "Not yet."

She rubbed her cheek on his chest, refusing to break contact.

Jeice thought for a moment. Cold was out for blood, but oddly, he didn't feel any urgency. He wasn't calm, but he wasn't ready to jump into action.

"Okay." He said, letting himself fall back to the bed.

As his head hit the pillow, a hand hit their door. Three sharp knocks.

"Guys, emergency. Get up." Turles called through the metal.

Bulma growled as she pushed herself up, over her partner. She took a deep breath, slowly pushing it through gritted teeth.

"What is it?" She called out. I'm contemplating our inevitable death, she added internally.

"We just got a message." Turles responded. "King Cold."

He waited for a response, none came. "He's sent us a message, and we need to figure out what we're going to do. Chamber, now."

They didn't hear him walk away, but sensing the Saiyan's energy, Jeice could tell he had left. "I guess they got the message, too."

Jeice scooted out from under Bulma. "Come on, we need to get dressed."

He pulled back the curtain, not looking back at Bulma's body. She wouldn't like that, and she was already stressed enough.

In the gravity chamber, a monitor was paused at the end of King Cold's speech. It had been on repeat, and eventually Chiaotzu stopped it once all viewers present had seen the full announcement. He glared out of the screen, unblinking. Krillin nervously drummed his fingers on his leg as the rest of the team took their seats. They waited for Bulma and Jeice, but didn't have to wait long. They took the same bench as before, wearing the same clothes as before.

"Okay, we just got this message from Cold." Turles said, hitting play and picking up in the middle of the looping message.

Bulma held up a gloved hand. "We've seen it. Or, rather, we heard it."

She pointed her chin to Jeice's scouter. "I'd rather not hear it again."

Turles grunted in understanding and re-paused the receiver. Cold was back in his typical form, sitting on his throne, armor glistening in the starlight.

"So..." Nappa started once everyone was seated.

"So..." Goku picked up. "So Cold thinks he's creating a utopia?"

"Yeah." Jeice answered, fiddling with his scouter. "A utopia for those who survived. Built with bricks molded from the ash of those who didn't, on the graves of those who resisted, or were found unworthy."

He shook his head. "Life without conflict. At the cost of any of those who would stand against it."

Goku thought on that for a moment. "Does he consider himself to be a good guy? Obviously, we consider him evil. He's committing genocide, time and time again. He's destroying planets. He's ruling the universe with an iron fist. Does he really believe himself to be in the right? Or does he know he's lying to his subjects?"

Jeice nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I think he believes it. And the people believe it too. If he dies, if we kill him..." He scoffed. "If we could kill him, it would be open season on us, on humans, Saiyans, Brench-seijins, all of us, all of our people."

For moments the death sentence hung heavy in the air.

"Bulma?" Turles asked. "Your father told us that any message we send back to Earth would take an incredible amount of time to reach them. Of course, the time is actually depending on how far we are from Earth. If we only met up a few hours ago, and the news has already reached Cold, and he's already been able to put together a reply, which reached us... I'm not asking for a precise answer, but how far are we from Cold? A few light hours at most?"

"I don't know how long we were asleep, or how fast we're moving, but maybe as far as Neptune is from our sun. So if this ship is as fast as the one we took to Namek... maybe a few minutes away. But we'd be outpacing any signal, so he must have gotten ahead..." Her eyes widened in fear, before glazing over and finally settling on her feet. She then palmed her cheek and rested her elbow on her knee. "I, I don't know. This doesn't make any sense. I don't get it."

"We can't know how far he is." Jeice put an arm over Bulma once more. "All throughout the empire are communication relays."

He closed his eyes picturing his former favorite four-eyed freak. "Guldo came from one of them. Or he worked in one before his powers were discovered. He said that every planet had a network of receivers and projectors, each one forever the same as all the others in its group. Vibrating one-on-one planet would immediately, without delay, vibrate all its pairs in an identical manner. That's why it doesn't matter where you are when using a scouter, you can talk live to anyone else, anywhere else, in the empire."

Jeice held the scouter out to Bulma and she took it.

"Quantum locked communication centers? The empire has quantum technology?" Bulma eyes glazed over again. "Why, why wasn't I told about this? This, that, that's on a completely different level than anything I was working on... I, I reverse engineered a scouter on Earth. I integrated the power detection software into our first ship. I, I didn't see any unusual technology in there?"

She spun the scouter around before handing it back to Jeice.

Jeice crossed his arms over his lap and leaned forward, not taking the device back. "I don't know how it works, I don't know what parts in there make it work. All I know, is that it works."

"Back on subject." Turles got everyone's attention. "Jeice, what you're saying is that message could have come from anywhere? We were under the impression Cold was nowhere near here, and that information was..."

"Most likely correct." Jeice finished his sentence. "Cold didn't go out of his way to announce himself while traveling, nor did he go out of his way to hide himself while traveling. If you heard that he was half a galaxy away, or a dozen galaxies away, you probably heard right."

"And I knew he was powerful, more powerful than Frieza was but, after what Goku and Nappa told us, Frieza was far more powerful than he used to be." Turles nodded towards the fellow Saiyans. "How does Cold compare?"

"Not a clue." Jeice leaned back and crossed one leg over the other. "I've heard rumors, but I'm sure you've heard the same."

Turles shrugged his shoulders.

"Back on subject." Goku stood and walked towards the center of the room. "What are we going to do? It's our fault the Earth is in this situation, and we need to figure out how we're going to get it out of it."

Bulma's stomach ached at that. It wasn't their fault that Cold was coming. No, it wasn't. He's only coming because Frieza died. Frieza only died because she interfered in their execution. No, if it's anyone's fault, it was hers. No one made her defy her master. No one made her betray the empire. If she hadn't, she'd still be on Frieza Planet 314. She'd be safe, she'd be comfortable, and she'd be in her lab, spending her free time guiding the other top minds of the empire.

But instead, she stabbed Frieza in the back. He trusted her, and she killed him. And why? Where was she now? On the run from someone far more powerful, who was rightfully irate at them, and if he knew what she had done, her in particular? No, it wasn't their fault. It was hers. If she had stayed there, stayed out of it, the Earth would be just a blip on the radar, and she likely could have talked Frieza out of moving on it, as a favor to the woman behind his revolutionary tech.

But how revolutionary was she, really? She made glorified batteries. She used their super computers to clone a neural network. She didn't even realize they were using quantum technology. Her pet projects, her ambitious projects, were almost all failures. Synthetic Dragon Balls? Useless paper weights. Invisibility? Only functioning when motionless. Mono directional growth? Well, the sword wouldn't cut through even the oldest of battle suits, so yet again, useless.

"The way I see it, we have a few options." Goku held up a hand, raising fingers as he spoke. "We go to Earth, we make our stand there. I don't want to do that, put everyone else in any more danger than we have already have. We could announce ourselves here. He said he'd listen, so we tell him where we are and we face him here. I don't want to do that because, no offense, Bulma, but you should NOT be involved in this fight. We could try to track him, get the jump on him, and hopefully with the element of surprise, we may be able to win. Or we could..."

Goku held his three fingers up, fourth one half curled. He was out of ideas.

Gears were rotating in Bulma's head. Thoughts shifting, rotating, and sliding into place.

"We split up." She said, making all eyes turn to her. "If you can't fight him now, because of me, we get rid of me. Jeice and I, we head to Earth. We, uh, we prepare a defense there. In the meantime, you face Cold here. You kill Cold here, and, and we welcome you home? We get to the nearest planet, Jeice and I take pods, and you could wait there, prepare there, for Cold."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jeice smile.

Goku unfolded his fourth finger.

"Okay then. So that's option 4. Anyone who wants off this ride, heads to Earth. The rest of us stand and fight, and we stop Cold before he gets anywhere near Earth." He closed his fist. "I like that idea the best so far. But I don't like the idea of leaving you alone in space, Bulma."

"I wouldn't be..."

"She wouldn't be alone." Jeice cut her off, meeting Goku square in the eye. "I'll be with her every step of the way. We'll probably be in different pods, but I'll be there, if she needs anything. I'd be more concerned about you. I saw how easily Frieza picked you apart before Bulma got involved. You know you aren't going to survive a fight with Cold, don't you?"

Goku held Jeice's eyes. "If he's as strong as everyone says, then, at this point, as long as I take him with me, I'm satisfied."

"Don't say that." Nappa butted in. "I don't know how, but we're going to make it through this."

Goku stopped himself from shaking his head, deciding to smile instead. Negativity wasn't going to help anything.

"Thanks, Nappa. You're right." He looked back to Jeice. "I'm not going to worry about what I can't control."

Turles clapped his hands together once as he got to his feet.

"I'm in." He said. "Nephew, I'm with you."

"I'm in." Nappa pushed himself to his feet. "I don't want to be in, but I can't say no to this."

Goku placed a hand on Nappa's shoulder. "If you don't want to come, we're not..."

Nappa gently took Goku's hand off of him. "I'm coming, end of story."

Chiaotzu watched the others. Standing, ready to fight, with no hesitation. He did the same before. He was brave, and in those fights, he mattered. He was part of the team, he was valuable. But now he wasn't interested in fighting. He hated to admit it, but he wasn't interested in the others either. He wanted to be alone, and nothing sounded better than an isolated pod, and a year of stasis. But Tien wouldn't run away. Tien wouldn't hide, so neither would he. He floated to the three Saiyans.

"Me too. I want to help. I won't abandon the Earth, not now, not ever."

Chiaotzu turned to Krillin and raised an eyebrow.

Krillin gulped. On Earth, against Cooler and his goons, he helped. He thought he helped. He couldn't actually remember. The battle was a blur. He remembered Gohan transformed, he remembered Goku transformed, but did he even fight? And against Frieza. He was disregarded, he was ineffectual, he was incapable of influencing the outcome of the battle. His Kienzan, what did Frieza say, scuffed? Yeah, his Kienzan scuffed Frieza's armor, and Cold was leaps and bounds more powerful.

And in the arena, Goku and Nappa were barely able to hurt Frieza. Chiaotzu? He was barely able to withstand attacks from him. And now they were going against his dad? On purpose? No, there was no way he'd survive that. He was lucky in the arena, he was still knocked out, he didn't become a target, he didn't get crushed under the foot of a god. But if he jumped into battle, he couldn't do that again. No, he'd be killed, no doubt.

But Goku didn't care. Goku knew the odds just as well as he did, and Goku was still there, standing tall, rallying the troops. If Krillin was standing, if he was asking for help, no matter how slim the odds, Goku would be there. If he wanted to go home, Goku would still be there, fighting for him, and for everyone. He couldn't let him go alone, because Goku wouldn't let him go alone.

"I'm in, old buddy." He got to his feet, leaving only Bulma and Jeice sitting.

"Good!" Goku cheered. "Next point of order, find the nearest planet with a pod, so Bulma and Jeice can get back to Earth and start working on defenses there."

"Goku." Turles sighedthe ship detects

. "We have an Attack Ball already. Remember? It's how we tracked Frieza down?"

"But don't they need two?" He asked. "I mean, Gohan and I fit in one, but he's just a kid."

"No, Goku." Turles smiled. "The ship detects how much biomass, and what kinds of biomass, are inside of it, adjusting the stasis gas accordingly. They'll be fine."

"But will we both fit?" Bulma asked. "Those ships aren't exactly spacious."

"Yes, they are." Jeice winked. "They're in space, so, they have to be spacious, right?"

Bulma slapped his arm and shook her head.

"To answer your question." Nappa said. "Yes, you'll be fine. Think, when Raditz went to Earth to retrieve Goku, he only had one ship. It's not ideal, and you wouldn't want to share with me, but you, and someone Vegeta's size? Yeah, you'll be fine."

"Perfect, let's get going then." Goku clapped his hands again. "The sooner you're out of here, the better."

"Wait." Bulma held up a hand. "I'm not ready yet. I, I want to take another look at the scouters. If we can duplicate the quantum technology, we could communicate without delay, no matter where we go."

She looked up at Goku as she began fiddling with a scouter. "It wouldn't be private, they'd hear everything we say, but in case of emergency, it would be nice if we could communicate, right?"

"Or." Turles held up a finger. "We could just use the scouters we have on hand. Instead of wasting time and energy duplicating them, why not just use them? We have Jeice's, and one was in the ship that Nappa got for us. The rest are from Earth. They'll work on short range, we'll keep those, but just take one of the actual scouters, leave the other, and we can communicate that way."

Bulma looked towards Jeice and he gave her a subdued smile. "Okay... then, all we need to do is respond to Cold. Get his attention."

"We'll do that after you leave." Goku said. "I don't want you anywhere near us when we announce ourselves to Cold."

"I need to be seen when we respond." Bulma shrank into her seat. "He called all five of us out. If he blows us out of the sky, it won't matter. But, if he thinks I slipped away, he'll continue his hunt. He needs to think we're all on board, or the Earth will still be in danger."

Goku shook his head slowly. "I don't like it, but okay. We'll have the Attack Ball ready though. As soon as we get the message out, you're off the ship. Deal?"

Bulma shot a quick glance to the computer.

"Deal." She crossed her fingers in her sleeve before pulling her hands back out. "I, I want to take a look at the systems first though, on the computer. I want to see how far my father has taken our technology, so I can brainstorm while awake in the pod."

Turles lifted an eyebrow at that. "You want to poke around while we write a reply?"

Bulma nodded. "Yes. If that's alright?"

"Of course." Turles gestured towards the door. "Complete access is available through the cockpit. Don't take too long. I don't want to keep Cold waiting."

A little later...

Bulma sat in the pilot chair of the ship, alone in the cockpit. She had cut small pieces off her gloves, so that the pad of each finger could interact with the touch screens, while still mostly hiding her skin. Not much time had passed, but Bulma had been able to scan through the systems, finding what she had hoped. While the design was new, the functions were almost identical to the ship she had designed, at least where she needed them to be.

Jeice entered while Bulma was still typing away. "The Attack Ball is in good condition. They've got a remote kill switch on it, but hey, tit for tat, right?"

"Why did they do that?" Bulma glanced over her shoulder. They were still alone. Peaking at the monitor she saw Goku, Nappa, and Turles in the gravity chamber.

"The short one." Jeice shrugged. "The shortest one. He said it was so Vegeta wouldn't steel the pod and go off halfcocked. We'll take the remote with us though. Can't have someone sabotaging us, right? How's it going in here?"

"Everything is like I expected, fully automatic." She smiled.

"So, you're really going to do it, huh? And how will it be triggered?" He crossed his arms, failing to interpret her screen.

"It's the only way." She said, taking a deep breath. "If Cold finds out I'm not here, he won't stop hunting me down. It'll be automatic, six hours."

She held up her wrist, as if to show a watch. "Go get the others, let's get this message recorded and head towards Earth."

As Jeice went to retrieve the others,, Bulma covered her tracks. She didn't think it was necessary, but she figured it was better to be safe than sorry. By the time Jeice returned with the others, she had the camera pulled up and was ready for their omnidirectional broadcast.

"Okay, guys." She spun her chair around and stood. "Someone else take the captain's chair. I want to be seen, but not up front."

Turles took his typical seat, Nappa sitting beside him.

"You scripted a reply?" She asked the pilot.

"I allocated the task..." Turles looked at Chiaotzu.

"Krillin and I discussed it." Chiaotzu smiled. "We came up empty. Can we just wing it?"

"Sounds good to me." Bulma smiled as she scooted to the back of the cockpit, bumping Jeice out of view of the camera. No need for him to out himself as a traitor too.

Turles looked at the monitor. Him and Nappa were up front. Goku and Krillin took the rear seats. Bulma was between them in the back, and Chiaotzu floated in the center of the room. Due to the elevated camera, all six of them were clearly visible.

"We're going to keep this short and sweet." He spoke quietly as he prepared to broadcast.

"Before we hang up." Bulma began, not sure if Turles would get the figure of speech based on outdated Earth technology. "I want to explain something about the ship to him. Make him hesitate when approaching. Give you a chance to prepare, so he doesn't just blow you out of the sky."

"I don't think Cold is that kind of man." Nappa told her. "But, alright."

"Alright then." Turles said. "We're live in five, four, three, two."

"Greetings, Cold." Turles spoke smoothly as he relaxed in his seat. "Let me make proper introductions. Beside me is General Nappa, who you likely know. Behind him is Kakarot, or Goku as he prefers to go by. Together, these two Super Saiyans killed your son, in self-defense. He was attempting to murder them, and Frieza had previously abducted a dear friend of ours, Bulma. If Frieza had not taken Bulma, he would still be alive."

Turles paused to let his opening statement sink in.

"Kakarot, in addition to the rest of us fighters, Krillin, Chiaotzu, Nappa and myself, fought and killed Cooler. Again, this was in self-defense. He came to our home, looking to kill us for initially killing Frieza, even though we revived him. We defended ourselves, and we killed him too. If he had not come to Earth, he would still be alive."

"I do not know this, but I assume you are the one who sent Cooler to us." Turles continued. "I do not know this, but I assume you are the one who saw Bulma's usefulness. I do not know this, but I assume you are the one who disregarded the fact that WE REVIVED YOUR SON. We brought him back from death, to be by your side. Because of you, your sons are dead."

Turles held his hand out, presenting his allies. "We are a small group, acting alone. We did not want war. We did not want death. We killed your son. We revived your son. You could not leave well enough alone. Now, the six of us, together and united, accept your challenge. You are not capable of running an empire. You are not worthy of being king. I am Turles. I am the dominant Saiyan. When we kill you, I will take your throne. I will take your skull as a crown. I will be king. The Saiyan Empire will rise from the ashes of the Cold Empire."

Turles blinked. for the first time during this reply.

"Your family died. It was your fault. Your empire will fall. It will be your fault. You couldn't leave well enough alone, and soon, you will have nothing." He looked off to the side, making eye contact with Bulma in the reflection of the monitor.

Bulma stepped forward.

"King Cold." She bowed at the waist. "I am sorry to have caused the death of your son. It was not my intent, although I know that does not matter at this point. While I know you will kill me on sight, I wish to warn you. This ship is of my own design. It is highly capable, both defensively and offensively."

She coughed to, hopefully, disguise a slight stammer. She had never been good at public speaking, or improvising. "We will coordinate to meet you on a planet, with atmosphere, without life. If we encounter you in travel, we will destroy your ship, we will destroy all aboard your ship. This includes you."

She took a deep breath before a stroke of genius hit her. "I have modified this ships weaponry with technology I created while working under Lord Frieza. Each blast of our cannons will be at a power level in the tens of billions. I know you are strong, but technology is stronger. You saw what it did for Lord Frieza. You saw what it did to Lord Frieza. "You want to fight? We will fight you. We will fight you with fair terms, for the throne. If you disagree, we will simply erase you from existence. We will take the throne."

When Bulma took a half step back, Turles continued speaking. "Right now, we're alone. Everyone that supports us, is on this ship. Everyone that supports us, is here, opposing you. I can guarantee you this is not forever. If we do not hear back from you promptly, if we do not hear of your acceptance to our terms, we will start recruiting from inside your own ranks."

Turles blinked for the second time. "Anyone, warrior or not, can shoot a blast in the millions. Anyone with a ship, even an Attack Ball, can fire blasts in the billions. If you do not accept our challenge, we will raise an army, we will hunt you down, we will destroy you, as you have destroyed everything you hold dear."

"Transform." Chiaotzu spoke into Nappa and Goku's minds, and in a flash they both obeyed.

"Meet up, Cold. Five warriors and one scientist, against the ruler of the Cold Empire. We agree to your terms. We await your reply. Goodbye." Turles hit the end button and Bulma quickly approached, typing over his shoulders.

"What are you doing?" He asked nervously.

"Setting a beacon, of sorts." She said. "I want it to be as easy as possible for him to find you, so, I'm setting the message to repeat. Also, what the hell was that about raising an army?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Turles admitted. "It sounded good, and I didn't see a downside. If nothing else, it may make him paranoid about who he can and can't trust in his empire, and probably bump meeting us to his highest priority. I, I don't suppose we really do have ship mounted weapons that can fire blasts with power levels in the billions?"

"Not even close." Bulma told the truth. "I was contemplating building something of the sort for Frieza, but never got around to building one. It's possible, but that would take quite a bit of work to make into a reality. The biggest issue being that, while the cannon itself could exist, without someone to charge it, it'd be useless. And at that point, whoever is charging it may as well just fire an attack of their own."

"You know." Jeice reentered the room. "Bulma, you have some crazy, scary, ideas sometimes."

"It's only scary if used by the wrong people." Bulma hit one last button on the keyboard and stood up straight. "Now, Jeice, I do believe the most powerful being in the universe is on his way to us. We should probably get out of here, soon."

"Good point." Turles spun and stood, Bulma stepping back as he did so. "Come on, we'll see you out."

Minutes later, Jeice was seated comfortably in the only seat of the Attack Ball. A moment later, Bulma was on his lap.

"Do you have the scouter?" Goku asked from just outside the door.

"Yes." Jeice said, holding up the device and clicking it on his ear. "You guys?"

Turles held up the one confiscated from the pod. "Yeah. Now remember, emergencies only. If Cold suspects Bulma isn't with us, he'd start hunting her, and we can't have that."

"No, we can't." Jeice wrapped an arm around Bulma as he began hitting buttons on the console. "We're ready to go."

"Bulma." Goku spoke up, ducking into the pod. "Be safe, and tell Gohan and Chi-Chi I love them."

"You too." Bulma smiled. "And I will."

"Jeice." Nappa said. "Raditz is still on Earth. You may remember him as mine and Vegeta's third. If something happens, I'm taking his side."

"Understood." Jeice gave a mock solute. "I'll play nice."

He hesitated for a moment. "I'm sorry for how I used to be. Bulma has, enlightened me, to the value of less powerful individuals."

"Glad to hear it." Nappa slapped the top of the pod twice. "Travel safe, friends."

Krillin and Chiaotzu spoke their farewells next, and when all was done the pod was sealed. Next, the room they were in was emptied, the attack ball lifted off the ground, and the floor beneath them slid open.

Sliding down, Jeice and Bulma left the mother ship behind. Rotating freely in space the ship slid out of the window, giving way to the celestial trail to Earth. With no shift in momentum, no notable sign at all, they had left Capsule Cosmos behind.

"How much time?" Jeice asked.

"Five hours, thirty minutes." She responded.

"What's going to happen?" He asked, receiving no reply. "Are they going to be okay?"

"They'll be fine." Bulma answered, shifting to face her partner. "I wouldn't hurt them."

"You'd just disable them." Jeice helped her get situated.

"Turn off the light." She stroked his face, craving the feel of his skin against her palms, yet unable to remove her gloves.

"The light only goes out when I activate stasis. We'd have thirty seconds or so, but then, we're out." He started tapping the controls with one hand.

"That's all the time I'll need." She began pealing her gloves off, but not pulling them beyond her robe's sleeves until Jeice obeyed.

Once he did, and once she heard the gas start flowing, she pulled her gloves off the rest of the way. She wrapped her hands around the back of his head, feeling hit hot skin, his thick hair. She kissed his lips, gently, and waited for the slumber to take them.

Author's note: Next week, if things go as intended, we return to Earth...