"We've been here for a day and a half, and all you've done is cook."

"I am your personal chef, Prince Vegeta," Gine pointed out, not even turning to look at him while she basted.

"You're a Saiyan Warrior, Gine. Here we are on a battlefield, surrounded by fights, and all you're doing is cooking? What's wrong with you? Where's your pride?" he demanded. Gine spun about, and shoved the spoon she was holding into his mouth; he let out a quiet yelp when she did so.

"At the tip of this spoon," Gine said, "Doing something I love, for the greatest warriors in the galaxy, including my son. If you are displeased with my service, Prince Vegeta, you need only say the word."

Vegeta took the spoon, scraping the sauce off it while he considered Gine. She'd served with him for ten years now, and he still didn't know what to think of her.

"The only time I've seen you fight in real battles is when one of the weaklings gets themselves into trouble, and they go crying to the woman. You're making them weak."

"Well they can't get stronger if they're dead," Gine pointed out, "Would you rather be surrounded by Saiyans or corpses?"

"Better the corpses of the weak than the whining of the pathetic," Vegeta said, "Your son went to go rescue those other fools who went to attack the Gellow High Command. I'd say they're being torn apart right now by the Gellow's defenses. We'll see which ones of them are stupid enough to get themselves killed, won't we?"

Gine stabbed the baster into the meat, and started to float.

"What about my dinner? I thought you were just my cook!"

"It'll keep until I get back!" she snarled at him, flying off to the nearest power levels.

"You-You're Saiyans! Why? Why come here? We're no threat to you!" the Gellow commander pleaded. Gine wanted to just let him go. This fight was pointless, just a bit of money from the Frieza Force for subjugating this place, and not even all that much. She didn't care about the money. She looked over her shoulder at the devastation they'd left behind. It had been exhilarating, sure. But the purpose to it all? The reason they were here? It was hollow.

Her eyes fell upon the Saiyans she had saved: Shive, Meys, Avacada, Celtus, and of course, her son Raditz. They were beaten, burned, and blasted, but they stood tall, together, before their now-defeated enemies. She turned back to the Gellow.

"And now you never will be," she told him flatly, "Now, I'm really hungry, and if I'm hungry, then Prince Vegeta is hungry. Which means I'm not in the mood to chat, and you don't have a lot of time before he gets angry, and trust me, you do not want to deal with a hungry Vegeta. So why don't you declare your surrender to Lord Frieza, and our leader won't have to come over in search of a meal, got it?"

The commander nodded.

"Good. Glad we understand each other."

As they were flying back, Shive flew up to her.

"Thank you for the save, Gine-erm, again."

"You all almost died."

"Eh-yeah, so thank-"

"I cannot come to save all of you. I am the cook."

"We thought the Prince would cover our attack! He would take out the defenses while we rushed the soldiers! It was supposed to be a coordinated assault! Just like Nappa taught us! None of us are strong enough to take out those guns, we needed help!" Avacada insisted.

"I was going to, but I took a hit," Raditz pulled at the hole in his armor, "If you hadn't arrived, mother…"

"Prince Vegeta will not help you," Gine said, coming to a stop, "He cannot be relied upon. You need to stop thinking of him as your leader, because he expects you to do everything yourselves. He expects you to be powerful enough to blow those guns without his help, because if you need it, you're too weak for him to care."

"But-that's how it's done! It's how we were trained, to work as a team!" Celtus said, "Taking out powerful targets like those gun emplacements is what High-Class Warriors are supposed to do! That's their tactical application, it's been that way since we conquered the Tuffles."

"I didn't say he was right, I said that's what he expects. These things come effortlessly to Vegeta, and he expects everything to be like that. The rest of us? We've got to work for it, and he will not have our backs, do you understand me? And I cannot fight your battles for you when you get into trouble."

The Saiyans exchanged glances.

"If Nappa and Vegeta aren't going to do their jobs, what do we need them for? Us low-class warriors just took that fortress, and we were led by a cook. We don't need them if they're going to refuse to play their part and get us all killed," Meys said, "I say we turn in this planet, collect the reward for ourselves, and start running our own missions. The Saiyan Squad! Let Vegeta and Nappa have fun on their own if they're going to leave us out to dry to do this ourselves!"

Gine glanced at Raditz, who was keeping his mouth firmly shut through all this. She gestured with her head towards Meys, and Raditz nodded. He floated over to Meys, and head-butted the other Saiyan on the forehead.

"I do not care about High Class or Low Class. We are the last of the Saiyans. Our lot in life sucks. I am not a warrior. I am a cook. I am a mother. Those are the things I love. But until we are powerful enough to earn the things we want, for the things we love, we fight. We train. We stick together. If Nappa and Vegeta are going to disregard us because they think we're worthless, we prove them wrong, because if we drift apart, we go extinct. I have no intention of going extinct, so you will fall in line, you will get more powerful, and next time, you will blow up those guns yourselves. Not because of what should happen, but because if you don't, we all die."

She glared at them; their heads were hanging in shame. She sighed, "Vegeta is right, you do need pride. Being told you need something isn't the same as getting it. We are stronger together. Earn that pride. Fight harder. We're Saiyans. We'll learn what that means. But it won't matter if we perish."

"I'm proud to follow you, Lady Gine," Meys shouted, rubbing his head.

"You were there for us when Vegeta wasn't, you and Raditz!" Shive said, "I'll take you over the Royal Brat any time."

"We'll stick with Nappa and Vegeta, but as far as I'm concerned, you're our leader."

Oh by the Moons of Old Sadala this is the last thing I want, Gine groaned to herself. The Saiyans were all saluting her.

"I. Am. The. Cook," Gine hissed.

"And you saved our lives," Avacada said.

"We'll cover for you, mother," Raditz said, "We'll go back, and take Vegeta's anger, and finish the cooking, and we'll celebrate our victory. We'll have to cheer Vegeta, but our toasts will be to you."

Gine never missed Bardock more than that moment.

Kneeling for extended periods of time was not good exercise. It was just uncomfortable. But when expecting to be in the audience of the Emperor Frieza, you knelt as long as it took for him to deign to appear.

And so they knelt.

For five hours.

While Dodoria snickered and watched them squirm.

Finally, an Elite Guard appeared, "Presenting his eminence, Lord Frieza!"

The Emperor floated in on his hover-chair, a smirk on his face as he glanced over the lot of them. None of the Saiyans dared even twitch until spoken to. Gine took heavy breaths; she tried to not think about the fact this was the slime that killed her planet.

Killed her people.

Killed her Bardock.

She started to recite recipes in her head.

"So, Vegeta, you and your monkeys took over Gellow?"

"Yes, Lord Frieza."

"Took you long enough."

Vegeta did not reply; he had not been asked a question. Frieza stared at the Saiyans, waiting for a reaction. Gine was too busy imagining cooking a casserole to look at the reactions of the others.

"I'm given to understand they had some powerful guns to deal with. How did you deal with them, Vegeta?"

Vegeta glanced back at the other Saiyans; they were still covered in bandages from their battle with the Gellow.

"We took them on in a coordinated head-on assault. Once the guns were destroyed, we made short work of their soldiers."

"What's this we, Vegeta? I was given to understand your low-class warriors did all the dirty work," Frieza said.

"It was a simple matter to deal with, so I left it to them," Vegeta insisted, "As you can see, it worked out."

"Very well. So who is the hero of the hour, then, Vegeta? You'll have to point them out, I have a hard time telling you monkeys apart."

Vegeta froze, trying to think of the best answer.

"Lord Frieza! It was Gine who led the attack, my lord!" Meys declared. Gine suddenly stopped breathing.

Not. Helping. Meys.

"And which one is this Gine?" Frieza asked. Vegeta lifted a hand, hesitated, and then gestured to Gine.

"She is the...Squad Leader of the low-class Saiyans, Lord Frieza," Vegeta did all he could not to choke on the words.

"Wait, I was given to understand that you only had one female, and she was a cook? Tell me, Vegeta, are you sending your cook to do your job for you?" Frieza asked. There was silence, until Nappa spoke up.

"I've been training her, Lord Frieza, and she has proven a greater warrior than expected," Nappa insisted, "Surely, the potential of even the lowliest Saiyan is of great worth to you, my lord."

"A cook who can conduct war? Very interesting. You know, I've been wanting to taste something a bit new. I may just take her off your hands, Vegeta," Frieza said.

Gine turned cold at the prospect.

"If that is your will, my Lord," Vegeta said.

Why did he have to call Frieza's bluff?

"You wouldn't want me cooking your meals, Lord Frieza," Gine heard her say.

What am I doing?

She looked up and smiled at him, "You know us Saiyans, we'll eat just about anything we pick up off the ground. I'm sure anything I could smear onto a plate would be far beneath your grand pallete, your majesty. Really, I just roast the meat."

The scream in Gine's head was the loudest thing in the room.

Until Frieza burst into laughter.

"Well at least one of you monkeys knows their place!" Frieza chimed, "Good work with Gellow, Gine. You'll receive the full payment for the takeover. I expect your next conquest to go even smoother."

Frieza turned and left, and one of his guards left a box in the middle of the room. Shive and Celtus rushed over to pick up their reward, and the Saiyans rushed out of the chambers, returning to the rooms reserved for them elsewhere in the city.

None of the Saiyans said a word on the way there. Once they arrived, Vegeta immediately went to his room. The rest of the Saiyans gave Gine nods, and they went off to their own tasks. Raditz went to his mother, but Nappa stepped in front of her, glaring.

"We need to talk."

"You cannot talk to Lord Frieza like that."

"Why not? He laughed. Better than what the Prince managed to do."

"Do you have ANY idea what he'll do if we talk out of turn Make him angry? What his goons will do? Not even Prince Vegeta can match Frieza's elites. You put us all in danger, and I won't have that."

"You won't have it? The only reason any attention at all was brought onto me was because I had to save the rest of the team! If you and Vegeta had done your jobs and provided some support, I wouldn't have had to get involved. Instead, Vegeta decided it was a better idea to taunt me about how my son was about to get himself killed."

Nappa crossed his arms, "They got themselves into that situation."

"Because they thought they could rely on you. Instead, I had to step in. They wanted to leave you and Vegeta behind, collect the reward themselves, and split off. I talked them out of it. You're going to be lucky if they listen to a damn thing you say, without me having to repeat it for you. If your loyalty is to Vegeta, and Vegeta alone, then as far as the rest of us are concerned, we're separate teams. Otherwise, you need to re-earn their respect."

"We're the only thing keeping Frieza and his men from slaughtering us all!" Nappa said. She sucker-punched him in the chest, firmly implanting him into the wall.

"Frieza made up his mind about slaughtering us all a long time ago, Nappa!" Gine stood before him, "Nappa, we CANNOT split apart. We need each other because we are dead if we don't stick together, if we don't have each other's backs."

"Just a bunch of low-class wretches," Nappa pulled himself out of the wall, snarling through his teeth. He grabbed her, slamming her onto the floor, and then kicked her across the room. Gine pushed herself back up to her feet, and breathed through the pain.

"You need to listen, Nappa," she said, and fired two blasts at him. The first, he saw coming, straight to his face, and tossed it aside; it was a weak attempt, but the second was a much more powerful shot, striking him in the leg and causing him to stumble, and she kicked him in the forehead, sending him reeling back .Nappa would eventually overpower her through sheer stamina and force, but she could fight clever.

"Do you REALLY think General Cubeb sent me to be the Prince's cook, Nappa? Did you not put two minutes of thought into that? I was on Planet Vegeta before I came to you," Gine said, taking steps back as Nappa began to loom over her, backing her against the wall.

She winced as his arm lashed out, at first to grab her, but instead, he pressed his hand against the wall, lowered his head to be at the same level as hers. When she realized he hadn't hit her, she regained her composure.

"What are you talking about?"

"General Cubeb didn't send me. My husband, Bardock, did," she said.

"Against the return order?"

"Because of the return order, Nappa. It's why I've been trying to keep everyone alive. Why I asked you to train Raditz. Why I've been training. Nappa, I hate fighting in war. It's disgusting and it's pointless. Half the time it's not even a challenge, I don't feel like a Saiyan slaughtering people!" Gine told him. She then sucker-punched him again in the chest, sending him skidding across the room.

"You had better stop that," he growled.

"Bardock knew that Frieza's men were looking into old Saiyan legends, Nappa. The general return was suspicious and pointless, but nobody questioned it! So he sent me to look after our son, Raditz, while he investigated, because he believed Frieza was planning on destroying us all. Nappa, Planet Vegeta wasn't destroyed by a meteor.

"Think about that! How would we have missed an incoming meteor, with every single Saiyan on the planet? Even if we did miss it, we had more than enough Elites and firepower to destroy such an object! To obliterate it! Think about how Frieza talked to us, talked to Prince Vegeta, just today! Nappa, I said what I did because I thought Frieza was going to kill us all. He's already made up his mind about us, so he's just toying with us, sending us on increasingly difficult missions until we either get ourselves killed, which means he profits, or until he gets bored and has Zarbon off us all. I'm only alive because Bardock was paranoid enough to send us off."

Nappa grinded his teeth and paced, his head running.

"But that-"

He paced.

"It would mean-"

He paced back, then looked over his shoulder.

"I need to look into something," he declared, and stormed out of the room. Gine slumped against the wall, and hugged her legs. A few moments later, Raditz opened the door, looking grim.

"Raditz?"

"Was it true? Everything you told Nappa?" Raditz asked.

"Oh Raditz, come here, He came over, and they embraced.

"I miss him," Raditz said, "I miss father. I even miss the brat."

"I miss Bardock so much. And I miss Kakarot more than anything. But remember, Kakarot is alive somewhere. And we have each other. This is why I said we need to be strong, because Frieza wants us dead, not just because we're on our own. Raditz, you need to learn to be a leader, for the other low-class warriors. If I do it, Vegeta will see me as a threat. But you? He'll expect you to be the dominant Saiyan of the five of you, okay?"

"Do you think I'm ready?"

"No," she admitted, "But that doesn't mean it's not time, Raditz. You need to get more powerful. They need to get more powerful, okay?"

He touched his forehead to hers, "I just wanted to build scouters."

"And I just wanted to cook," she said, "Yet here we are."

"I won't fail us," Raditz promised, "I'm earning that liver sausage again."

Gine patted him on the cheek, and then pulled on his hand, "You know, what Raditz? It's time you learned how to do it yourself. Come on, follow me."

Raditz and Gine were up to their wrists in viscera when Nappa returned, looking glum and holding a datapad.

"Before you say anything, Nappa," Gine held up a hand when Nappa began to talk, "Raditz already knows. Anything you say, you can say in front of him."

Nappa looked at Raditz, and nodded, "Fine. But you don't repeat a word to anyone. Not even Prince Vegeta. You take this to your grave if you have to."

Raditz held up a bit of liver, and chopped it in half for emphasis, "To the grave."

Nappa put the datapad on a clean counter, "I just went through some mission records from back then. Did...Did you know Bardock's team?"

"Bardock's Buccaneers," Gine nodded, "I used to fight alongside them."

"Your husband's squad, they were recorded as KIA while on Kanassa, just hours before Vegeta was destroyed," Nappa said, "I found records that states they managed to get one message before their time of deaths."

Nappa rubbed his forehead, "It would have arrived just before you left the planet. Just before Dodoria would have returned from a neighboring system to Vegeta. Just in time to reunite with any...Theoretical assets that may have also been joining the general recall for a planned campaign."

"So you're saying that Dodoria killed Bardock's team, but not before they sent him a warning?" Gine said, not even looking up from her cooking. Raditz crushed the knife handle he had in his hand; she simply took it from him, and handed him another, "Raditz, keep focused on what you're doing."

"But that monster-"

"Will remain untouched," she told him, "No matter how much it might anger you to look at him, you will do nothing to Dodoria, understand me, Raditz?"

Raditz looked back to his work, "Yes, mother."

"You need to stay focused. Control yourself, Raditz. Dodoria's time will come-when we're ready," she assured him. Once the liver was properly minced, spiced, and mixed, they filled the casing and let the sausages cook on the frying pan; there was plenty even for the three stress-eating Saiyans.

"I wish we could tell Vegeta," Nappa confessed, "But I'm afraid what it would do to him. I think he'd fall apart. He's already so...Isolated."

"I'll stick to cooking as much as I can. I already made him angry today. Raditz will act as squad leader for the others. We all need to get stronger. Stronger than Dodoria, stronger than Zarbon, than the Ginyus," Gine said.

"Which means taking on stronger and stronger contracts," Raditz said, a slight tightness in his voice.

"I'll talk Vegeta into it," Nappa said.

"I'm going to get some rest, then, if we're going to be training as a team," Raditz announced, taking the last piece of sausage and earning a glare from Nappa.

"Good night, Raditz," Gine said.

"Goodnight, mother."

Gine began to clean up her little personal kitchen they were sitting in, while Nappa poked at the bits of sausage and liquid on his plate.

"You should get some sleep, too."

Nappa licked the juices off his fingers, and looked to Gine, "While we're promising to keep secrets, I've got one more."

She leaned over on the counter, "What's that?"

"I'm terrified."

Gine watched him stare off at the wall while he licked off his hands.

Nappa shook his head, "I'm terrified of Frieza, and of his men, and the idea of just...Getting killed. Without a fight. Without a chance, like everyone on Planet Vegeta. Just...Fire, and then...Nothing...I know I should be disgusted by my own fear. But it's hanging there like...Like a wall."

Gine picked up Nappa's plate, and placed it on the counter, then turned to him.

"I know, Nappa. I've felt that for the last ten years. Not just from Frieza, but from Vegeta, too. I don't know when he'll just...Flip and kill one of us because of the slightest failure,and none of us can control him."

He held out his hand; she took it, "I won't let him do that."

"I know you'll try," Gine squeezed his thumb until she watched him wince, "Bardock made that promise to me."

She pulled herself toward him.

"It wasn't enough."

"Together, then?"

Gine sat on his lap, and kissed him.

"Together."