Trunks

"Rise and shine pretty boy, nap time is over."

Pain shot through Trunks' limbs and his head throbbed as the world blurred back into focus, revealing a pair of worn, grimy black boots. His eyes trailed upward to find they belonged to a hulking Saiyan with wild, long raven spikes, he had sharp hawk-like eyes and a fierce, unpleasant scowl on his face. Beside him stood a taller but younger Saiyan male with an equally stern expression and short black spiky hair, clutching an old scouter, it's shattered lens smudged with red.

A glance around his surroundings told him he wasn't on the King's Pride; he was in a small, unfamiliar, dimly lit room, with nothing in it save for a bucket in the corner, a cell. Fuck.

A slight sniffling sound sent a trill of panic through him and he realized that Marron was bound and seated on the ground against the opposite wall, her crystal blue eyes wide with fear, looking every bit like a rabbit in a trap.

Unthinking, the Prince lunged forward, only to be walloped right across his face, the metallic taste of blood bloomed across his tongue as he was flung roughly back against the wall. Pain screamed through him, radiating from his shoulder snaking all the way down to the tips of his fingers. His arm was broken, he was sure of it. It was probably crushed beneath one of the many cases of Klangite that crashed into him before he'd lost consciousness. His arms were bound behind his back, ki cuffs, he noted, he could feel them steadily leeching the energy from his body.

"Trunks!" Marron cried out.

"Not so fast," the older of the two pirates tsked, his tail, that he'd used to whip him across the face sweeping lazily through the air at his side.

Trunks scowled up at him, wanting nothing more than to wipe the smug expression off his face. "If you hurt her…"

"The human female's longevity depends entirely on you, boy." The long-haired saiyan said in an unsettlingly calm tone.

"Take whatever you want, take it all back, just leave her alone."

"Oh I will be taking everything, the Klangite, and your ship and everything on it. Shame it won't be in flying form anytime soon. That was a rather nasty meteor shower you all got caught in. Fortunately it should still bring in quite a profit after I strip it down for parts."

Breathe, just breathe. He couldn't afford to panic, not when the girls depended on him.

The girls…

And then he realized, Bulla was nowhere to be seen. Was she in another cell? Had they hurt her? The memory of his sister tussling with the Saiyan male with the cybernetic arm flashed through his mind.

"…Where is my sister?"

Their captor let out a derisive snort, "That is an excellent question. A question I may even entertain answering if you tell me this…what did you do with my nephew?"

Trunks' gaze flicked to the bloodied remains of the scouter clutched in the quiet Saiyan's hand. "Nothing. We fought, but I didn't kill him if that's what you think."

"When we searched your ship, there was only you, and that one," his gaze slid over to the blonde cowering on the floor, "My nephew and your sister were nowhere to be found … and one of the escape pods from your vessel is missing, launched just as the worst of the meteor shower hit."

Fuck, fuck, fuck. White hot terror rolled through him. And Trunks thought he might actually be sick. Never, not once had he and his sibling been separated. But now she was gone, flung into the dark, cold void of space, in the thick of a meteor shower with an enemy.

"But… why?" He muttered, more to himself than their captors, Bulla wouldn't have abandoned them, perhaps the one with the metal arm had taken her.

"You tell me." The long-haired male replied coolly.

Bulla was missing, with some stranger. The ship was trashed in a meteor shower, and now he and Marron were currently being held captive by an enemy band of Pirates.

"I don't know. I was unconscious."

The older Saiyan gave Trunks a calculating look, before a sly smirk curled his lip and he made his way over to Marron, crouching down to the cowering human's level. He reached a hand out to finger a strand of her fine blonde hair, "Such a lovely shade, humans are quite the commodity nowadays and they're very expensive. If not for the lack of a tail, at first glance, one might even mistake this one for a Saiyan. Interesting. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing one up close myself until now."

"If you want to keep drawing breath old man, you'll go on not seeing her." Trunks snarled.

"Temper, temper. You're not really in a position to make threats though, are you?" He chuckled dryly, "It's a shame. I imagine she'll fetch quite a price to the right buyer."

Wet trails cut across the blonde's reddened cheeks. She was rattled but it didn't appear as though their captors had physically harmed her. Trunks felt a trickle of relief at that. Her safety was all that mattered at this point, and he couldn't risk the two strangers using her as a weapon against him, so his best bet was to feign compliance, for now. He'd gotten out of worse situations than this. He just needed to wait for the right moment, and an opportunity would eventually present itself. Maybe he could charm his way into their good graces, and then when their guard was lowered, he would make his move.

"I don't know what happened. I swear it."

"Hmm." The long-haired Saiyan rose to his feet once more and the blonde let out a squeaky sigh of relief. Their captor's sharp gaze raked Trunks' frame up and down, burning into him, searching for any hint, any trace of deceit. He strode over to the other male and the pair exchanged a look that did nothing whatsoever to quell the rabbiting heart in his chest.

"What are you planning to do with us?" Trunks grit out.

"Fortunately for you, my first priority is rescuing my idiot nephew. You and your little human will have plenty of time to stew in the brig while I… consider my options…" his swaying tail curled around his thigh and settled there, "for your sake he had better be alive, or you will truly regret crossing me."

Marron sobbed, her shoulders shaking, and he knew just what was going through her mind. At that moment he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and assure her that, no matter what happened, she would be safe, he would ensure that even if it cost him his own life.

Unable to do little else, he glared at the man before him.

The other male, who had been silent up until now, let out a gasp, "His face, I've seen it before …"

Oh fuck.

The older Saiyan's eyes narrowed before roughly seizing the lavender-haired Saiyan by the chin, angling his face upward, and studying his features intently. "There is something oddly familiar about you isn't there? … What was it you called him, Female?"

Marron was silent.

He'd been so out of it when he came to, it hadn't even registered that Marron had called him by his true name. He couldn't blame her though, as she stared at him with those fearful, teary eyes.

"I'm going to get it out of one of you, one way or another. Save yourself some pain and tell me your name, friend."

Trunks straightened as much as his bindings would allow, meeting his captor's gaze in defiance. "Fuck you."

Before Trunks could suck in another breath, white flashed across his vision as the hand holding his chin cracked him right across his face. Trunks did his best to remain silent as pain flooded across his cheek.

"No, that wasn't it." The long haired Saiyan sighed crossing his arms over his chest as he considered the bound male at his feet.

"Torankusu! His name is Torankusu please don't hurt him anymore!" Marron cried out.

"A lie, and an obvious one." The older Saiyan hissed. Slowly, the corners of his lips drew up in an almost mad smile as he gazed upon the lavender-haired Saiyan with stunned fascination. His shoulders began to shake, and then he threw his head back, and laughed.

"Well well well, isn't this rich, If I had known we'd be entertaining royalty I would have dressed for the occasion! Nephew, allow me to present the Crown Prince, Trunks of House Vegeta!"

Oh fuck.

Goten

Drip

Drip

"Exterior damage detected. Immediate Maintenance required."

Drip

Something cold and wet splashed onto Goten's brow and slithered across his cheek. He reached a hand up to wipe away the unpleasant feeling, wincing at the sharp pain that throbbed there. He opened his eyes, noting the red sticky blood that decorated the back of his worn brown glove.

Another cold, wet splash dropped onto his cheek from above and Goten's gaze lifted to the top, or rather 'front', of the pod. Dim light spilled in through the glass, bathing the interior in crimson as the cracks slowly spread over its surface like a web, with little droplets of fluid slowly trickling inside.

There was a small groan, followed by the sound of soft little breaths. Beside him, in the shallow puddle of gathering water, Brasha was curled up on her side. There was a nasty gash on her forehead and her hair was mottled with blood. She was completely still but for her chests soft rise and fall.

He considered the murky, darkness just on the other side of the glass, they'd landed in a large body of water on some planet and they were rapidly sinking.

This is not how he imagined things panning out when he'd snuck aboard Brasha's ship. Not at all. And Goten found himself, not for the first time, deeply regretting not listening to his sibling.

All the lights on the small console were flashing red, and Goten vaguely remembered the vessel being hit by something or several somethings before his memory went blank. His eyes flicked back to the steadily spreading cracks overhead, it was only a matter of time before the glass gave away entirely or they ran out of air.

His brother may have been the better mechanic, but Goten knew enough to realize that this pod was finished, and it wouldn't withstand the amount of pressure that would await it at the bottom of an ocean.

"Exterior damage detected. Immediate Maintenance required." The pod's computer droned out once again.

The only option he had was to get out of this pod and take his chances outside.

He'd have to blast the hatch to bits and swim to the surface as quickly as possible, assuming the air on this planet was suitable for breathing, if not, a very different death awaited him given that he had no equipment for such a turn of events.

His eyes flicked back to the unconscious Saiyan woman beside him. She was an enemy, the clock was ticking and her life was entirely in his hands.

He could leave her, and save himself. That would be the smart thing to do. It was one of the first lessons his Uncle had taught him, look out for yourself above all. Would she save him if she were in his place and he in hers? Likely, not. She and her crew had pillaged his family's ship without a second thought, leaving them to drift in space for days.

But as he looked down at her sleeping, serene face, blissfully unaware of the precarious situation they were in. The stubborn, stupid part of him won. He couldn't leave her to drown, to such an awful, terrifying end. Unbidden an image of the blunette floating in a dark abyss, her eyes frozen open in silent terror as the life left them flashed through his mind. He wouldn't. Perhaps she'd end up murdering him in his sleep. Perhaps his uncle was right, and he really was a fool.

"Brasha, wake up." He firmly, but gently shook the blunette, when she didn't respond, he absently wondered how bad that wound above her brow was.

Carefully, he slipped his cybernetic arm under her back, pulling her smaller form against his, using his other hand he gently tucked her head under his chin. Immediately he was met with that maddening scent of hers, mingled with the metallic smell of blood.

He took a deep breath, bracing himself; he raised his hand over his head, directing it at the circular glass window above.

A luminous, glowing ball of white blue ki ignited in his palm, illuminating the cramped space before surging out and exploding around them. All at once the pod shattered and water violently rushed at them from all sides, ripping and shoving at their bodies. Goten clung to Brasha with his cybernetic arm as tightly as he could as the current whipped them back and forth, all the while fighting to hold his breath.

When he finally managed to right himself, cradling Brasha in his arms he began kicking furiously toward the surface, above there was only the faintest hint of muted green light, and he realized just how far they'd sunk. It would take far too long to swim.

Rallying another blast he threw out his left hand, adrenaline surging through his veins, and fired another bright burst of ki below, the force of it propelling them upward, he threw every bit of his strength into the blast, feeding it more and more of his energy. The green light grew brighter and brighter until, finally, they broke through to the surface. The waves whirling and crashing violently as they were flung into the air by the force of the blast and Goten greedily gulped down lungfuls of air once again.

He grasped Brasha to his chest, taking to the air, looking for somewhere, anywhere to land. The sky was a strange auroral magenta, the green ocean they'd arisen from stretching for miles and miles. He whirled, scanning the horizon until he spotted a large rocky island, with vast, towering mountains in the distance.

Without a moment's hesitation he shot toward it, flying over the water at breakneck speed. He immediately dropped to his knees when he touched down, laying Brasha down on her back in the rough, shimmering violet sands. Her hair was soaked and plastered to her face, which seemed paler than it should be and her chest …

Her chest was still. He pressed his ear to her slightly parted lips and he couldn't feel her breath on his flesh or the pitter-patter of her heart. Shit… she's dead.

Panic briefly stole his senses, but he willed himself to calm.

With slightly shaky fingers he hastily pulled down the zipper to her leotard, intertwining his fingers and pressing them into the bare flesh of her chest, pushing down again and again and again, wincing inwardly when he heard a small crack.

Carefully, he pinched her nose between his thumb and index finger, before pressing his lips to hers, forcing air into her mouth. Once. Come on. Twice. Breathe damnit!

But nothing happened.

He could practically feel his Uncle scowling down at him, wasting all this effort on a female that wouldn't have thought twice about letting him perish. Perhaps it was better this way, he'd done everything he could, hadn't he?

He stared hard at her pale, still features.

Fuck it.

He pressed his mouth to hers once again, offering her two more puffs of air.

He wouldn't let her die, not like this, not if he could help it. Even if she was the source of all of his family's current woes, she didn't deserve that.

Come on. Come on. Breathe. Open your eyes. He began chest compressions again when her aqua eyes suddenly snapped open and she let out a loud gasp. Hastily he rolled her over onto her side as she coughed and sputtered up water in between deep, heaving breaths.

Goten watched with bated breath as she lay there, chest heaving, hands trembling, clutching at herself as she sucked down one deep breath after another.

Slowly, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, her eyes darted around wildly, from him, the sand, to the vast viridian ocean stretching as far as the eye could see and then back to him. She touched a hand to her chest, frowning in confusion at the feel of her bare skin before quickly zipping up her leotard. Her cheeks a furious shade of red as she scowled at him, seeming to suddenly remember who he was and what had transpired before they'd both lost consciousness amidst the chaos. "Where … what the hell did you do!?"

Goten felt such a strange and surprisingly tremendous rush of relief at the sight of her alive, angry but very much alive, that he was unable to resist the urge to be somewhat cheeky. "Standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation."

Brasha snarled, "You know what the fuck I mean, where are we?! Where is the damn pod?!"

"Gone." He said simply and rose to his feet.

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Her aqua eyes narrowed and her whole body went very still. "Where. Is. It?"

"What's left of it is at the bottom of that ocean." He nodded to the gently rolling waves of green.

"What?" Brasha's eyes widened and she whipped back around to face the water as if she thought it would miraculously rise up out of its depths. "You're lying…"

Goten pulled off his boot, turning it over to shake out the water, along with some sludgy sand and a tiny white crab that skittered away back into the waves."I wish I were. The pod was trashed and we were sinking, I did what I had to."

"No…" She stood on shaky feet, wandering back into the surf. "No, no no no no no…"

"You need to sit down. You nearly didn't make it back there, and I have a med-kit. If you'll let me, I can take a look at that wound on your head." He had one himself just below his eye, courtesy of her but he doubted she'd be willing to give him a hand with that.

"I'm… trapped." Her hands curled into shaky fists at her sides, and she spun back around to glare furiously at him, "I'm fucking trapped on an island in the middle of who knows where!"

"It is what it is." He replied with a shrug, stuffing his foot back into his boot.

"No, it is not! I cannot be stranded on some mud-ball in the middle of nowhere! This is all your fault! You have no idea what you've done!"

"I seem to recall you putting me in a similar situation, you know, when you drugged me and robbed my family for everything we had." He snorted.

"Don't try to make me feel sorry for you buster, as if you've never done the same to someone else? Of course we robbed you! We're pirates! That's what we do! We steal shit! It happens! You should have considered yourself lucky I didn't take your whole damn ship! A kindness I am sorely regretting now!" She seethed as she stomped out of the surf and wrenched a clump of a strange orange seaweed like plant out of her wet aqua hair, throwing it to the ground with a wet slap.

"You're welcome, for saving your life by the way." He snorted, watching her fume with amusement.

The look she leveled at him was so furious, so venomous, that he was almost intimidated by it. Almost.

"What the fuck did you just say to me? You're the one that nearly got me killed, you piece of shit!"

"And I'm also the one who saved you. You're welcome." He mockingly took a bow and her features contorted into a look of pure loathing.

"Yeah, well you're gonna wish you hadn't!"

With a furious cry she leapt into the air like a bullet and shot straight for him. He barely managed to block her sudden attack, crossing his arms in front of his chest just in time to shield himself from the punishing blow, the metal plating on his arm groaning under the impact.

"Calm down." He grit out, briefly forcing her back with a jolt of his ki.

Brash unleashed a furious volley of swiping punches and kicks his way as Goten zig-zagged backward through the air dipping and dodging to avoid them. For a girl who was dead only minutes ago, she was certainly giving him a run for his credits.

"Are you too much of a coward to fight back? Or is it just because I'm a woman?" Brasha growled and abruptly flew skyward, using the sun's bright rays to obscure her movements, forcing him to look away from its blinding light.

He couldn't risk transforming into his Oozaru form on this tiny planet and potentially purging it of anything sustainable until his uncle came for him.

That brief moment proved to be a mistake when a shower of surging violet rays of ki rained down from the sky and he had to dodge and weave like a mad-man to escape the onslaught before he found refuge behind a large rocky outcropping over the water.

When the blasts died down, he peeked out from his hiding place, Brasha was still floating high in the sky above the waves churned up by the deluge of ki blasts. Her chest was heaving and her eyes blazed with intensity as she scanned every inch of the coast and sky for any hint at his hiding place.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" She called.

When he'd first laid eyes on her, she'd seemed so vulnerable and sweet… He couldn't have been more wrong. His uncle was right. He really was a fool. This woman was a force to be reckoned with, and the likes of which he'd never seen before.

"I SEE YOU!"

He swerved out of the way just as the rock he'd taken shelter under shattered in an explosion of luminous violet light. The concussive waves of the blast were so violent he could feel the shuddering tremors in his teeth.

That was close. She was really trying to kill him.

A flash of teal surged at him and he dove for the beach.

He dodged every one of her strikes as she advanced on him, vaulting back up and over the rough rock formations that gradually grew taller and more perilous looking the further they got from the shore.

For all her fury, her movements began to grow sloppy as she continued her assault on him as they barreled over the steep purple slabs of stone. Be it from the head injury she suffered or the rib he'd accidentally cracked while trying to resuscitate her.

He needed to put a stop to this, quickly before she needlessly injured herself further after he expended all that effort to save her.

"Stop!" He hissed through clenched teeth, catching both of her fists in his hands attempting to halt her assault. Goten continued to skid backward, his heels digging into the terrain, broken shards of it's rocky surface crumbling and flying in their wake.

"No." She snarled, teeth bared, blood trickling down the slope of her cheek.

"Let go!" she let out a sharp burst of ki attempting to barrel through the steely grip he held her in to no avail.

"You want me to let go? Okay." He smirked, and did just that, as he darted out of the way, a look of confusion flashed across her face. All of the force she had been using against him suddenly had nothing holding it back but thin air.

As her body lurched forward hereappeared behind her landing a measured blow directly into the curve of her neck and her body went slack.

Gohan

He knew he shouldn't have let Goten get on that ship. He should have knocked him out and dragged him back to the Flying Nimbus if that was what it took.

When they first caught wind of the massive Klangite transport he'd thought it sounded too good to be true. And he'd been right. It was cursed, and he wished Raditz had never convinced them to go after it.

Now they had come into the possession of a lost royal and a human and as he gazed at his nav screen he knew in his gut that things were about to get much, much more complicated. They'd bitten off more than they could chew this time around, and somewhere out there, his little brother was alone. And it made him feel the same way he did the day they left their home world twenty years ago. It made him feel helpless.

"What did you want, Brat?" His uncle groused as he slid into the Captain's chair, kicking his boot-clad feet up onto the console.

"Look at this." Gohan gestured to the screen.

"What? It's a bunch of floating rocks. Leftovers from the meteor shower." Raditz replied dismissively, flicking a stray speck of dust from his vest.

"Those aren't meteors… look."

Gohan enlarged the image, flooding the screen with inky black space dotted with stars and the occasional swirl of blue and green and… what appeared to be partially charred hunks of metal. That seemed to have once belonged to a ship or even a small space station. Some pieces bared old, faded markings. On closer inspection Gohan spied bits of clothing, a broken vase… what looked like a partially burned doll... and a severed alien arm.

"Hn. Poor bastards."

"There are also three ships circling the area."

"Imperials?"

"Not likely. Not this far out."

His uncle rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm. I'd say from the looks of this mess we can safely assume they aren't friendlies…"

"Probably not, I don't really wanna find out while we're hauling another ship and a cargo bay full of Klangite. Going off the trail Goten's pod left behind, there are three possible planets in the area they could have landed on, just a few hours away but I think we should go into stealth mode and change our flight path, then circle back around when the coast is clear."

"That'll push us back by several days." Raditz let out an irritated sigh.

"I know." The idea didn't sit well with Gohan either, but Goten would just have to hold out a little longer.