V groaned as she heard people moving around her, "Gohan?" V pushed herself up "I'm okay, I'm ready." V forced her legs under her.

"Sorry, V, but you'll get hurt." Gohan said. V heard a splash.

"Gohan, no!" V screeched leaping after him.

"V, don't!" Krillin caught V's tail, V hit the ground. It didn't hurt but she was already weak.

"Why'd you let him go?" V whimpered, she was too weak to be any help at all, she knew when she was beat, that was the worst for her, knowing she didn't have a chance.

"He's the best chance we have." Krillin said "if you want Piccolo back then you've gotta let Gohan do this, you're sick and frankly Gohan might be stronger than me at this point."

"He's just a kid." V whined, she promised their mom one thing, that she'd bring Gohan home safe.

"So are you." Krillin muttered.

I'm okay

Gohan swam as fast as the suit would allow him. He felt the essence of V rather than her energy like he did with the others. It was like she was right there next to him, only she was upset. Gohan did feel bad about tricking V but there was no way she was going to let him do this. She felt bigger than she was, she seemed older than she was, but in the end V was Gohan's sister and he wanted to protect her just as much as she wanted to protect him.

I'm okay Gohan hoped the thought made it to V but there wasn't anything he could do about her right now, he needed to get the dragon ball and then she could be mad at him as much as she wanted.

There it is! Gohan pulsed his energy to send him to the bottom of the lake with the dinosaur's skeleton. The dragon ball was completely unharmed among the bones yes Gohan cheered Alright, one more down. Gohan felt something strange then, he glanced down at his arm, the acid was beginning to eat through the suit Oh no! Gohan held the ball in one hand and powered up a Mesenko in the other. He fired at the ground and the blast sent him piercing through the water.

Gohan burst through the water just as the rest of the seat disintegrated.

"Gohan!" V called out pushing her wobbly knees under her, she stumbled toward Gohan "you lied to me." V yelled at him "you could have gotten hurt, or killed or-or" Gohan's face was the only thing V could bring into focus as she calmed herself down "and Piccolo will be proud when he hears about it." V sighed and let herself fall to her knees but Gohan didn't. Gohan reached out and caught V "thanks, V." Gohan smiled and pushed the hat back down over V's eyes.

"Did you get it?" Bulma asked hopefully.

"Yeah-huh." Gohan held the beautiful orange orb up to the sky and flashed a smile.

V just really wanted to puke and get it over with. Why couldn't she just throw up whatever was upsetting her stomach and making her feel so weak and be done with it, she wasn't so sure she could handle sitting on the sidelines much longer[GM1]

"Would you do something, Krillin!" V yelled at Krillin as Gohan leapt into a tornado to find the next dragon ball. "I know you don't like Piccolo but the other ones are your friends too." V grabbed Krillin by the shirt and yanked him down to her level "don't you care about them?"

"Look here." Krillin smacked her hand away, V stumbled and fell flat on her butt, she narrowed her eyes up at Krillin but had to squeeze them shut when the dizziness became too much.

"I've known Gohan's dad when I was younger than you, I've been friends with the others before you were even born." Krillin snapped "Gohan is more my family than yours and I care about him more than you can fathom." Krillin knew it was wrong to yell at a little girl but V wasn't just any little girl, she was an alien trying to insert herself into a family she doesn't belong in.

"Shut up!" V screamed slamming her fist into Krillin's gut. V closed her eyes and followed her link to Gohan. She felt the winds pick up around her as she neared the tornado.

"Gohan!" V called out.

"Get out of here, V." Gohan yelled at her "you can barely stand." Why can't she just leave this to me? Gohan didn't want to be irritated with V but she was sick.

"This is dangerous." V said to him, Focus Piccolo's voice was like an alarm on repeat. He was always butting into her head when she was in the middle of something. Focus

"Fine!" V stopped trying to feel Gohan out, she stopped being angry over her inability to help. She listened and she felt the atmosphere around her, the dizziness subsided, she peeled her eyes open and found a desolate planet, strange energies swirled all around her.

"V!" Raiti called to her, she felt something strange pressing against her mind, the dizziness ebbed in and Gohan's voice broke her concentration. V felt as if a door had been slammed on her mind, she screamed and fell toward the ground.

"V!" Gohan snatched her out of the sky, V hung over Gohan's arm, pain throbbing in her head as Gohan held the dragon ball in his other hand,

"I said I'd do it, V." Gohan said gently, concerned for his sister.

"I know but…" V shook her head "something is wrong, I'm not sick, it's something else." V held her head in her hand and squeezed her eyes shut, more from the pain this time.

"Careful, Gohan" Krillin warned holding his stomach "she can't control her temper very well."

"What's wrong?" Gohan asked Krillin.

"She punched me, that's what." Krillin grumbled glaring at V, V didn't have to see to be able to know what was written all over Krillin's face. It was weaker than what she was used to feeling but it was still there. Krillin hated V.

"She's dangerous and we never should have brought her." Krillin declared.

"No, I just- there's-" V growled in frustration "something is wrong." V finished weakly I wish Piccolo was here V found herself wishing that more than anything else.

"Why'd you hit him?" Gohan asked, V didn't detect the slightest bit of blame or anger from him, just a genuine neutral question.

"He said I wasn't your family." V whimpered. Caring really is more trouble V thought thinking back to Vegeta's words, one of the few things he tried to teach her. Maybe I should have just stayed with him, especially after he saw how strong I got.

"V, you know that's not true." Gohan smiled knowing she could feel it. "You're every bit as part of the family as Piccolo and Yamcha and even Krillin and Bulma and they've been with my dad forever."

"Gohan, I really think you should give this more time before you go around making promises." Krillin warned. Gohan just shook his head "no, I shouldn't." Gohan looked down at V as she lay limply draped over his arm "I know V's meant to be my sister, I felt it the second we met."

"What do you mean by that?" Bulma asked, these Saiyans sure were a strange race.

"I don't know, there's just the feeling I've had since I met her, only, it gets stronger and stronger the more time we're together." Gohan smiled "I felt it before I could even feel energies and now that I can feel that it's like I'm feeling V twice, her energy and then her. I can feel how she feels and sometimes it's almost like I can hear her words but they're not words, it's a really strong feeling of her mind." Gohan titled his head and puckered his face, man, explaining this is harder than I thought it'd be.

"How do you know she hasn't done something to make you feel this stuff?" Krillin demanded.

"You can't understand it unless you've felt such strong connection to someone, someone you were just meant to meet." Gohan nodded "almost like it was destined." Gohan being the intellect that he was didn't believe a lot in destiny, he believed in good over evil, the magic of the dragon balls and good and evil alien races but he believed that you paved your own path. Except with V, some force pulled them together.

"Do what you want, kid." Krillin sighed "I just can't trust her."

"I trust her." Gohan said firmly "I don't think she could lie to me even if she wanted to anyway."

"I sure hope you're right." Krillin groaned and rubbed his stomach man that girl hits more like a full grown martial arts champion.

"Look, we can argue about this all day or we can find the dragon balls and get home with our friends." Bulma finally interjected realizing she had promised to look after both V and Gohan on this trip and as the adult she should probably be keeping V and Krillin from getting into another spat.

"Fine." Krillin said glaring at V I know there's something wrong with you and I'm going to find out what.

V sat in the grass Gohan can do this V chanted to herself as she tried to shut everything out again. There was something going on here and V was determined to find out, but she needed to focus and she couldn't do that when she was worrying about Gohan for no reason, he was a saiyan too, just because she knew more about fighting didn't mean Gohan was helpless, she fought with him, she watched him fight and he had a warrior's spirit.

Focus! Piccolo's voice was like a shout in her head, instead of arguing with it, as V had become used to doing, V tuned even that out and closed her eyes. Again, the dizziness subsided, this time V ignored the namekian's' shouting and Gohan and Krillin's struggle with the giant, Gohan wasn't in any real danger, he just didn't want to hurt anyone, he wanted to do things gently, if he could. V closed them out. It felt lonely, she couldn't hear Gohan or even feel him. it was like she severed the link they shared but I don't want that to go away.

V, Focus, you have to focus to maintain this kind of mediation.

Piccolo? Looked around but she couldn't see him in the endless space that surrounded her. I don't want to be here; I don't want to be alone again.

V, listen please.

I can't see you, Piccolo

I don't know how but we've intercepted each other's meditations

I really need to go, Gohan might be in trouble V felt the connection with Piccolo weaken as she pulled away

No, wait, King Kai has been keeping an eye on you, the planet you're on, it's not right

What do you mean right? V asked.

I mean-

"V, help!" Gohan's voice shattered V's concentration and yanked her back to her body, V glanced around in a daze and found the same image she had seen before "what- what's this?" V got to her feet and took a few steps "is this even the same place?" V wondered, it couldn't be, this planet was dead or dying, it wasn't the Namek she knew.

"V!" Gohan's voice rang out thrpugh the desolate landscape and V lost all her thoughts, she blasted off following their rekindled link.

PICCOLO

V wait, no, the planet you're on isn't Namek! Piccolo's body was thrown back with the force of V's departure.

"No, I didn't get a chance to tell her." Piccolo slammed his fist into the ground "I hope you haven't lost that saiyan instinct yet, you're going to need it if you're going to get out of this one."

"Interesting isn't she?" King Kai asked Piccolo seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

"She has a strong telepathic presence." Piccolo nodded, Sayains didn't have that, neither Goku nor Vegeta presented any kind of telepathic ability last he checked.

"No, it's not a saiyan ability." King Kai agreed reading Piccolo's mind, he had gotten so used to V doing it that it didn't even phase him. Piccolo pushed himself to his feet and met King Kai's eyes "you have to let me talk to them, Gohan and V, I have to warn them."

"I'm sorry, Piccolo, I can't just open up a line, it's against the rules."

"Screw the rules!" Piccolo growled "I need to warn them."

"Don't worry so much, someone might think you really care for someone other than yourself." King Kai gave Piccolo a bit of a snide look.

"That's- you- I'm-" Piccolo stuttered over the right words, he couldn't lie to someone who could read his mind.

"Let me ask you something, Piccolo." King Kai said "who do you think V and Gohan will side with when you get back to Earth in time to take it over?" King Kai cocked his head at Piccolo "you, their mentor or Goku, their father?"

"I…" Piccolo hadn't honestly thought of taking over the world once since he got there. After everything he, Gohan and V had been through it felt like they were their own entity but of course they weren't, Gohan was Goku's son and Goku had taken V in. Where did he fit in in all of this then? Piccolo wasn't so sure he knew, not right now, not thinking about being evil again when he had put so much effort into saving that ungrateful planet. Not after all the time he spent training that pampered kid and listening to V chatter at him endlessly day and night.

"Shut up, old man." Piccolo spat "what would you know about me?"

"A lot more than you know about yourself, Piccolo." King Kai snorted "come and spar with the others, I think you'll find them more of a challenge than last time." It was a challenge, Piccolo knew it was and he couldn't turn down a challenge, not against Goku's weakling friends. Funny, I almost forgot that hate them.

Piccolo followed after King Kai. It couldn't hurt to get a little training in, they had to have made some kind of improvement.

V

"Gohan!" V called as she flew over the desolate plains, the dizziness was completely gone. "Gohan!" V could almost grab the line connecting them.

Where is, V

V caught the stray thought and pulsed her energy "I'm coming!" V called and sent the thought out as well.

"Great, the one time we need V butting in." Krillin groaned wrestling with the tentacles.

"Maybe she's hurt." Gohan tried to find V's energy but it had disappeared where are you, V? Gohan thought worriedly but he couldn't think of that right now, he had to get out of this mess first. Gohan looked on at the red long limbed aliens standing on land, safely out of the sea creatures reach.

"Well, since you guys are a little tied up at the moment, we'll go ahead and use your ship to get off this retched planet." Raiti smiled as if he were doing them a favor "but tell you what, if you get away from these guys in time, we can all catch the Steller Winds and leave together." Raiti laughed.

"How did you even know what the Dragon balls or the Nemekians looked like?" Gohan grunted wrestling with the tentacles.

"We read your minds while you were passed out." Zaacro said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world "although that little girl's mind was impossible to read."

"V?" Gohan asked

"yes, that little brat, she couldn't see straight because she could see through the lie, every time she opened her eyes we had to re-imprint the images of the landscape onto her mind, it was exhausting!" Zaacro exclaimed

"You'd better not have hurt her!" Gohan yelled at them.

"we didn't touch her." Raiti rolled his eyes.

"We left her just where she was, she was in some deep meditation, I don't know what for but it kept me from having to waste valuable energy." Zaacro huffed.

"Sorry to be such a burden." V slammed into the ground before the two aliens, eyes blazing. V's hair stood on end, her energy swirled "you tried to kill my brother." V said, V radiated dark energy, Gohan watched almost afraid as V advanced on the aliens "that is the mistake that's going to cost you your life." Light filled V's hands, her energy rising.

"V-" Gohan's scream was cut short when both he and Gohan were dragged under water. V cast one glance at the two aliens "I will finish this the next time we meet." V swore just before diving into the water after Gohan and Krillin.

"Hurry." Raiti took the lead back to the ship "that one is different."

"Dangerous." Zaacro agreed "I wonder how something like that wound up with a set of goody goodies."

"it doesn't matter anymore, they're all going to die on this planet while we make a safe getaway." Raiti laughed as the ship came into sight.

Gohan sank down struggling. Focus, Gohan V chose to ignore the irony in herself telling someone else to focus. You're strong enough to beat this thing, focus V dove down deep after them dodging more tentacles as they reached out to grab her. V powered up and energy blast and aimed for the tentacles around Krillin who was already blue in the face, Earthlings, they were so fragile. Krillin broke free and struggled to fight his way over to Gohan but Gohan pulsed his energy like he had seen V do a hundred time to get something away from her, the tentacles retracted away from Gohan but only for a moment. V and Gohan brought the hands to their heads, bubbles escaping from their mouths as they yelled "Masenko!" Krillin joined in with a Kamehameha wave. The threesome floated side by side, more tentacles gathering around them and screamed "haaaaaaaaaaaaa!" They flew toward the surface taking every sea creature out as they made their departure from the underwater world.

"Hurry." V felt the planet losing it's stability, it was going out down. "Where's Bulma?" V asked as the three flew side by side toward the ship.

"She's back at the ship already." Gohan said "she's trying to stall them."

"The only person who can fly that thing is with the bad guys?" V asked "the one who can't fight and can't protect herself."

"…yes…" Krillin answered before Gohan could. "yes, we sent Bulma back to try and do what she could to stall them." Krillin narrowed his eyes at V, she seemed different.

"Meet me there." V said kicking up the speed to her max. V blasted off ahead of the others, she could stall them, even if they had to stop to mess with her head again, she could at least stall them better than Bulma can.

"V. wait!" Gohan called after his sister, very quickly Gohan was learning what lengths V was willing to go to to win her fights. He wasn't so sure what had happened back there with the aliens, she didn't seem like V then, she seemed like… a bad guy…

"We have to hurry." Gohan said to Krillin "V's going to get angry with them again."
"So what." Krillin said "they deserve that girl's wrath."

"Krillin, you had to of seen the way she was acting before." Gohan said frustratedly "that wasn't her."

"Or maybe it was her and she's finally letting her true colors show." Krillin countered. Gohan hit the brakes directly in front of Krillin forcing him to stop.

"No." Gohan said "she's not bad. She saved you before she saved me." Gohan reminded him "she's just never had family before and she's afraid she's going to lose it now that she does." Gohan narrowed his eyes at Krillin "she's a scared little girl, Krillin, just like I was a scared little boy when the Saiyans came."

"It's not the same, Gohan." Krillin tried to reason with him "and we don't have time to do this now."

"It's the same and you need to give her a chance, a real chance." Gohan said.

"We don't have time for this, Gohan." Krillin tried to avoid the whole thing but Gohan was getting to be as stubborn as his father.

"Fine." Krillin gave in "I'll give her a chance, but that doesn't mean I trust her." Krillin slipped passed Gohan and rushed after V toward the ship. Gohan had gotten what he wanted, now was the time to get back to the ship and get off this fake planet.

V breezed inside the ship almost silently, the only sign of her arrival was the gust of air and energy now surging through the room. "Going somewhere." V asked.

"Why'd that one have to get here first?" Raiti groaned.

"She's different than the other but she's got the biggest weakness." Zaacro reminded him, grabbing V's mind, V felt the dizziness come over her immediately.

"Not again." V slammed up the few mental defenses she had actually learned from Piccolo, when she listened. V fought off the dizziness but it was a constant pressure against her mental abilities.

"That's not going to stop me." V took a few steps forward and fell to her knees as they broke through her mental defenses.

"you simple Kyu Shim." Raiti laughed.

"What did you call me?" V snapped

"She doesn't even know what she is." Zaacro laughed seeing the confused expression on her face.

"What are you talking about?" V felt them lose their grip on her mind and she leapt at them grabbing Zaacro by one of the spikes on his head and throwing him into Raiti. "What did you call me?" V demanded.

"Nothing you're going to live long enough to care about?" Raiti grabbed V's tail and threw her into the wall.

"Get away from her." Gohan yelled as he and Krillin burst into the ship, Gohan and Krillin grabbed each alien and threw them off the ship with ease.

"Where's Bulma?" Krillin asked.

"Over here." V flipped herself over and pulled Bulma out of the pile of clothes and bags.

"Let's get out of here!" Bulma shrieked "Piccolo!" she screamed, the door closed.

"wait." V scrambled toward the closing door but Gohan grabbed her first "No, V, we have to leave."

"But they called me something." V said "I-"

"We don't have time for that." Krillin shouted at her.

"Don't worry about that." Gohan said a bit more gently "we've got to get out of here and get to the real Namek, for Piccolo remember?"

"Yeah…" V watched the planet disappeared behind them as Bulma flew the ship back on course. But I want to know what that means. V thought, the endlessness of space closed around them again.

PICCOLO

There is no way they've made so much progress in such a short time Piccolo thought, that last hit from Tien actually rattled him. Piccolo smirked, of course, King Kai was holding out on him, why wouldn't he? He just didn't like Piccolo's attitude. Piccolo lifted his weighted cape and turban off and threw it to the ground "alright then." Piccolo said looking at the others "no more kid stuff."

"No, that's enough for today." King Kai said tilting his head just so that his glasses reflected the light. Piccolo narrowed his eyes at the Kai.

"Sure, wouldn't want to bring them down, would we." Piccolo grabbed his cape and turban and started to walk away.

"The foods inside." King Kai said "why don't you boys go grab a bite." King Kai suggested. Tien, Yamcha and Chioatzu didn't need to be told twice, they bolted for the house.

"Piccolo." King Kai said, Piccolo hesitated "They're okay, they made it off the planet."

"Why should I care?" Piccolo asked "I knew they would, I trained them." Piccolo said a bit arrogantly.

"yes, and you did well." King Kai had a serious expression on his face that Piccolo rarely saw "but there's something about V that you should know." Piccolo turned just the slightest bit, he wouldn't want to give the Kai the wrong idea. "What could possibly interest me about that girl, we fought together for a mutual cause. That's all."

"Piccolo, you can tell yourself what you want but if those kids didn't interest you wouldn't spend so much time trying to watch over them, even from the otherworld." King Kai called his lie, this game was getting old. "V's ancestry could be very dangerous to everyone if she doesn't learn to control it."

"What are you talking about?" Piccolo growled "we already knew what V was, she's got the tail to prove it."

"You must have wondered why she doesn't transform under the full moon?" King Kai challenged.

"I'm listening, old man." Piccolo said.