He would become one with the stars almost every week, yet Tora could never stop being amazed by the vastness of it all. The tall Saiyan reclined in his seat with his hands behind his back, occasionally glancing away from the window shield at his drowsy copilot. "Damn. Crazy, isn't it?"

A single vein pulsated on Fasha's forehead, unsure as to why her partner kept disturbing her rest. She kept her eyes closed tightly and slumped down further. "What the hell do you want now!?"

"Yikes," Tora chuckled and raised his hands in front of him defensively, although Fasha couldn't see. "No need to sound so annoyed. I'm talking about...this. The planets we're passing, the stars, the universe... It's like, we're so small compared to it all. I don't think I've ever felt so insignificant in my life until I started looking out the window during these flights instead of sleeping!"

At the mention of the 'S' word, the low class warrior punched the woman on the arm. Before his balled fist could reach her flesh, Fasha snapped her eyes open and caught it. Tora laughed nervously as he looked into the serious eyes of an exhausted female Saiyan.

"Can you just shut up for one minute!? One damn minute!?" she clenched his fist tighter and inched closer to his face with every word. "Nobody cares about the damn stars, nobody cares about how many damn planets you see, and nobody cares about how small you are! Just. Shut. UP!"

"Be prepared to make landing on Planet Stratreon in ten minutes."

Startled by the sound of the automated voice coming from the control panel, Fasha dropped Tora's fist without waiting for a response and glared at the machine. "What does that even mean? 'Be prepared'? Do we have to land this stupid thing ourselves!?"

Tora smirked while brushing Fasha's fingers away from the panel. "I'm surprised that Miss Know-it-All-and-Do-It-Myself doesn't understand much about the rescue ships," he chuckled when he felt the wrath of her fist against his temple, although it was much more playful than he expected. If she were truly offended, he would have flown out the side the window. "Since the rescue ships are much larger than our usual pods, self crash-landing could cause an entire hole through the planet and damage the thing. We've got to land in gently on where the map detects a safe spot."

"Mister technical today, aren't we?" Fasha scoffed, but her cheeks were slightly pink from not realizing it before. She absolutely hated when Tora, Tora of all people, were smarter than her. She could accept Bardock, hell even Shugesh being the smartest of the crew. But Tora was the idiot! "Whatever, just land the damn thing..."

"No need to mumble your defeat," Tora whistled, but became silent when the ship began to rock from turbulence. He eyed the map carefully while gripping the wheel tightly. He was no pilot, but he had learned basic training about these ships prior to joining Bardock's crew. The poor bastard never had to rescue someone before, though, so he thought he'd never need to remember it. "Alright...Easy, easy..."

Fasha sweatdropped while watching her copilot talk to himself. "Can't walk the walk, big guy?" she gulped, clenching the sides of her seat as the ship continued to rock while the descent began. "Please tell me we're going to survive this..."

"Just relax, ol' girl. I got this," Tora was trying to build his own confidence up instead of the nervous woman beside him. He took a deep breath and turned the wheel in the direction of the coordinates. "If we survive this though, you owe me a kiss."

"In that case, dying doesn't sound so bad after all."

Tora laughed, and began fiddling with the control panel to the best of his memory. "I may have to close my eyes for this."

"WHAT!?" Fasha screamed as the pilot blocked his own vision, smiling the whole time as he sent the ship towards the planet whose colors made it look like it was on fire. The female Saiyan could feel her chest beating so hard she could feel it in her ears while clutching her heart and Tora's bicep at the same time. The ship was beginning to beep like crazy and flash red, something the poor woman had no idea about.

But red was never a good color.

"I WAS KIDDING ABOUT DYING YOU KNOW!"

As the ship was going down faster and faster, it was also growing hotter and hotter. It was getting so hot, that Fasha believed they were soon going to burn up into nothing. Her forehead and hair were beginning to become drenched in sweat, her heartbeat increasing so much that the sound was deafening...

She finally closed her eyes as darkness took over.

Starting to feel a little guilty about leaving her leader behind, Gine had finally calmed down enough to slow down. Panting heavily, the tiny female lowered herself to the cold grass until she was sitting cross-legged.

"Gosh," she breathed out, talking to an insect that resembled a little ladybug that scurried across the ground. "Where the heck did Bardock go? I couldn't have been running that fast...could I?"

A breeze rolled by, kissing various parts of her body that it definitely should not. "Oh, no!" the mortified female frantically got back on her feet, covering her bare chest with her forearm and using her other hand for the spot she'd rather not give a name to. Her face completely dropped once a rustling began in the bushes, realizing that being naked was the least of her worries.

There was still the issue of the snake.

"I-I don't want to hurt you!" she called out, trembling out of fear rather than frigidness. "But if you come out of that bush right now... I have no choice! I'll make you snake stew! OH YEAH! My boss looooooves snake stew!"

Truthfully, Gine really had no idea if Bardock liked snake stew. She'd have to remember to ask him once this whole ordeal was over.

Unless...

Removing the hand that covered her chest, Gine rested it against her face in worry. "Oh no...What if...What if it killed Bardock?"

The rustling continued, reassuring Gine that the snake had done the deed. It was the only explanation as to why he wasn't with her yet. Dropping to her knees due to a heavy heart, the poor woman began crying silently until it erupted into a full-on sob. "Oh, you evil snake! How could you!? I never even had the chance to tell him!"

"Tell him what?" a voice came somewhere inside the bush, causing Gine to inch backwards.

"WHAT!? You can TALK!?" Gine narrowed her eyes and tried shaking her fright away. If Bardock truly had lost his life against this creature from the lake, she needed to avenge him. As sad as it was, she was on her own now until the others came to rescue her. She had to survive, for Bardock's sake. "Alright, you demon! Come out!"

Gine jumped to her feet and placed herself into a fighting stance as the bushes began rustling once more. Taking advantage of the opportunity of showing herself first, Gine charged towards the bush and began throwing her fist rapidly in front of her. Her eyes were closed tightly, but she could feel her fists clashing with something cold and hard.

"YES! I've got you now!"

"Gine. What the hell are you doing?"

The woman froze with her two balled hands resting against the snake's body. She opened her eyes slowly, finally recognizing the voice. Her eyes took in the sight of muscular pectorals, still dripping wet from a bath in the lake. She scanned upwards, and blinked into the eyes of her boss. "B-Bardock? You're...alive?"

The messy-haired warrior sighed in relief, noticing the sparkle in her eyes when she said the last word. She never figured out what the snake really was. "Yes, Gine. I'm alive. I killed the snake."

"OH, YAY!" the tiny female cheered, and jumped up so high that her legs wrapped around Bardock's torso. Only one of them remembered she was wearing her birthday suit. "So, the snake is gone forever!?"

"...Not if you keep holding onto me..."

Gine pulled her face away from his chest and blinked. Her leader was as red as the sunset sky, adverting his eyes and looking at something in the distant. "...Huh? What do you mean?"

With the naked monkey woman still clinging onto him, Bardock whipped around in the direction of the power level his scouter was starting to pick up. Protectively, he placed his arms on the small of her back and began backing away slowly. "Listen, this is the highest power I've detected on this planet. I thought everyone was dead... I must have been wrong."

"Thank goodness!"

"Shut up!" Bardock snapped, looking at her with hardened orbs as he continued to back himself into the woods. "I'm going to drop your stupid self off right here and you better stay here until I take care of it!"

"Hmph!" Gine huffed, tightening her grip on his neck as he tried prying her off him. "I just felt a breeze in a place I shouldn't! Did it ever occur to you to bring my clothes after beating up the snake!?"

Starting to feel his eye twitch at the strength that came from the weak woman's stubbornness, Bardock backed her into a tree to help against resistance. His scouter was warning him that the person was coming closer and closer. He still wouldn't be a threat to the leader of the lower-class, but he had just about enough of Gine's shenanigans. "Look, I don't have time to deal with your bullshit! You're going to stay here," with a quick power up, Gine's legs shook enough that they released their grip on the male. Her feet were on the ground, scrunching up in pain at the coldness of it while her hands remained locked on his neck. "We'll go get your damn clothes after I handle this situation!"

Unbidden, Gine's gaze rose. Her face contorted into a mask of sudden hatred she never felt before. When her lips curled into a snarl, Bardock raised his brows in surprise. It was only once before, back when they first got left behind, that he had seen her be anything but sweet. He actually felt like he was staring into the cold orbs of a Saiyan warrior.

"What are you going to do?" he smirked. "Cry?"

The immense trembling of her body would indicate so, but something was brewing underneath that wasn't sadness or frustration. It had been an emotion she'd long to release on all those who considered her nothing but dead weight. She knew she was more than people gave her credit for. Some messy-haired devil wasn't going to ruin that.

Her little fist connected with the jaw of her boss, but the action alone wasn't enough to move him. Bardock's smirk grew against her fist, looking down at her with an admiration that was rarely given to someone. His arms gripped her dainty shoulders, pushing her back against the tree while she huffed.

"Even with all that rage I caused you," he traced the outline of her cheek with his thumb, noticing her features immediately soften. "You're still...weak."

Gine sniffed, giving in to his touch. She just wasn't a fighter, never was and never could be. She gave him a faint smile and grasped his wrist. "Yeah, but you know what?"

"Hn?"

"Well, I don't think your inexpressive anymore!" Gine blushed and tried not to look down. "I figured it out... You didn't kill the snake..."

"H-o-l-y shit!" Tora laughed, while the startled stranded Saiyans jumped in response. A flushed Bardock had his back facing him, while Gine immediately dived her naked body into the bushes. "You two sure are lucky Fasha fainted during the landing! If she knew the mating was a success, you'd never hear the end of it!"

A/N: OHMYGOSH :-( This was the one story that hasn't been updated for months and months :-( I'm still so in love with it, college is just kicking my butt man. I hope my followers still read this, though. I'm planning on being more frequent with this as it is my favorite to write next to When the Sun Rose, which will be updated tomorrow or Sunday.

The plan for this is to end at the moment Planet Vegeta explodes, so baby Goku and Raditz will appear at some point. I JUST NEED TO GET THERE DARN IT ;( But i can't rush this because it'll be more horrid than now.

Still, I am going to make it one of my priorities to update this at least once a week or every two weeks, because it's a hobby of mine that makes me so happy. Thank you guys for taking a look at this! I appreciate it all the time!