Gohan

"This is all I could find in their sleeping quarters. The rest of it's just clothes and toiletries." Gohan dumped a crate of assorted junk at his uncle's feet. They'd landed on a planet they frequently used to hide various high ticket items and spent most of that day searching the King's Pride looking for any supplies that might aid them in their search for his brother. Most of it was moderately valuable goods, some of it was useless junk, though Gohan had found his brother's fancy Makyan dagger.

"We keep looking, there's always more." Raditz groused as he settled the last of the Klangite into a neat stack and secured its repaired tether to the floor of the cargo-bay. Raditz got to his feet, his brown tail trailing lazily behind him as he made his way back into the corridor, feeling along the metallic wall and tapping it every so often, looking for hidden compartments.

"Their galley isn't much better than ours, just some old ration bars, but there's plenty of fuel we could transfer over to the Nimbus." Gohan nodded to the open doorway to their left, a small storage closet, "this is mostly scrap metal, and old power cells, they're drained but the alloy they're made of is worth something."

"It was kind of the Prince to break them all down for us." Raditz snorted before nodding to the door across from it.

"What's in there?"

"Not sure I haven't looked yet." Gohan replied.

Raditz tapped on the panel beside the door and it slid open, revealing a room that appeared to serve as both med bay and storage room. Most of the space was occupied by an old, regeneration tank, though a blinking red light at its base signaled that it was out of the medicinal liquid that sped up the healing process. There was a worn-looking cot attached to the wall, a few haphazardly stacked crates in the corner and a small stool and desk with various bandages, wraps, and cleaning supplies neatly arranged on its surface.

Raditz ran a cursory finger over the top of the regeneration tank before moving to the desk and pulling open the top drawer. "How is his majesty fairing?"

"Neither one of them said a word when I looked in on them earlier." Gohan shrugged. "Looks like he's got a broken arm, though. What's the plan for them by the way?"

"After we get your brother back, we'll dump them on whatever sorry shit-ball they landed on and be on our way. Simple as that."

"I thought you might turn him over. There are several bounties in the Guild's database matching his description under various aliases,… it could be a quick payday."

"I considered it," Raditz said as he eyed a pair of ration bars that were well past their expiration date with a scowl before tossing them back in the drawer. "It would be easy, but… marooning him on a planet in the middle of nowhere instead seems a more fitting punishment." He opened the second drawer. "I'm surprised the little shit is still alive. I may be guilty of a lot of things but I…"

The older Saiyan pulled out a weathered metallic case and opened it. Inside were three silver oblong shaped pods, each topped with a small button, all marked with a different number painted on its belly. "Well, what do we have here?"

Goten drew up beside his Uncle, Raditz ran a hand over the baubles, a strange look on his face. Carefully he plucked one out of its casing for closer inspection.

"What are those?" Gohan asked.

"Dynocaps."

"I don't think I've ever seen those before."

"You wouldn't have. They were still being developed back home before everything went to shit. These little babies can store just about anything.

"Anything?" It wasn't every day that Gohan ran across unfamiliar tech. Perhaps his uncle would let him take one of them apart so he could figure out how it worked and duplicate it.

"More or less, that was the general idea. An easy way for squads to carry supplies on missions."

"These two are empty," Raditz nodded to the remaining capsules in the case, "but this one…"

His uncle paused, his gaze flicking back toward the drawer. Slowly, he replaced the dynocap into the slot in its case, setting it back on the desk.

Gohan watched as Raditz fished a small jar out of the drawer. On its lid, someone had carefully painted the words 'accelerated healing salve' in old Saiya-go.

Raditz opened the jar and gave it a sniff, and a strange look bloomed over his uncle's features as he considered it. His brow was pinched and his lips were set in a grim line. A beat passed and Raditz screwed the lid back on the jar and pocketed it before snatching up the discarded case on the desk and marched out of the room.

Curious, Gohan followed his uncle back into the cargo hold, wrinkling his brow in confusion when the older Saiyan approached the main panel and tapped in the sequence to open the bay doors, letting in a blast of scorching hot air and sand. "What are you doing?"

"You'll see." Raditz walked a few paces out into the golden sands beyond the bay doors of the King's Pride. He pulled out one of the Dynocaps from the metal casing, quickly depressing the button atop it and tossing it into the sands a few feet away and as it hit the ground, a plume of white smoke billowed out…

Revealing that ridiculous red junker of a ship they'd found Brasha on.

Gohan could scarcely believe his eyes, an entire space ship, concealed in something no bigger than his thumb.

He glanced over at his uncle to see a look of utter bewilderment on his face. His eyes were wide and his jaw slack. The older Saiyan's tail gave an agitated flick, and he motioned for Gohan to join him outside.

As soon as Gohan was out of the ship, Raditz began tapping out sequences on the ship's exterior panel, seemingly looking for something. For what, Gohan did not know.

And then, in a flash of light, the ship vanished, seemingly into thin air.

He was just about to ask what happened when Gohan spied it…

A tiny silver capsule shining in the sunlight nestled amidst the granules of sand, identical to the others.

"Things just got a lot more interesting." Beside him, Raditz barked out a laugh and strode forward to pluck the dynocap from the sands and slipped it into a pocket at his belt. "It seems we flew out here for nothing, after all."

Bulla

Every muscle in her body hurt, and it was hot. It was so hot Bulla could feel her hair and the material of her leotard sticking to her skin unpleasantly. She was vaguely aware of the sound… water? Or was it… waves? She cracked an eye open, hissing at the unexpected brightness that stung her eyes, squeezing them shut once more.

"Ah, what do ya know? She lives." A deep, male voice chuckled nearby.

Her eyes snapped open, and she scrambled to her feet- or rather tried to, but her limbs wouldn't cooperate and she clumsily fell onto her side. What the hell? A panicked gasp fell from her lips when she realized her wrists were bound behind her back. She struggled, but she was so tired, and they felt so, so heavy. Ki-cuffs, she thought bitterly, that son of a bitch had bound her with ki-cuffs that were steadily draining her ki.

"You sleep like the dead, you know that? I was getting worried."

Her eyes darted toward the source of the voice, and there he was. The bane of her existence, sitting criss-cross on the sand, nude from the waist up, with a pile of steaming little white crabs, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"YOU!" she snarled. "Take these off! Immediately!"

His dark gazed flicked briefly to hers, unbothered. "Maybe. When I feel like it."

"And Maybe I'll just stare at the sun until I turn into a great ape and then I'll squash your ass like the pathetic little insect that you are!"

"You could do that," He shrugged, cracking open the shell of one of the little crabs with his metal hand, revealing a bounty of steaming, flaky white meat. "You could also wreck all the natural resources the planet has to offer, along with any possibly remaining tech you might use to call for help."

He dug out a chunk of meat with his fingers and popped it into his mouth. "And that's a possibility even if you can control the Oozaru, assuming you've taken that form before." He chewed thoughtfully for a moment and then shook his head letting out a low whistle, "that first transformation is a real bitch. And then what will you do when my Uncle and Brother come to retrieve me? Can't imagine they'd take too kindly to a woman that murdered me."

He gave her a cheeky smirk. "And that's assuming that we're actually alone on this planet. If we're not, I'm thinking a great ape trampling all over the place could draw the kind of attention that neither one of us wants to deal with in our present situation."

He swiped a thumb over his lips and continued. "Furthermore, it's not like I wouldn't transform to defend myself. And let's not forget, you're still injured and I've already beaten you once."

"With a cheap trick." She hissed. She was going to murder this man. Slowly and painfully. He was going to regret the day he crossed paths with her. But as much as she loathed to admit it, he was right. Very well, she was a patient woman. She could wait for the proper moment.

"That you fell for." He laughed, and she wanted to punch him. "but I'd really prefer not to go down that road. It's a beautiful day, and I'd rather enjoy this tasty meal instead."

With as much dignity and grace as she could muster with her hands bound, she righted herself, leaning back against a large rock as she considered the male before her whom she would be trapped with for who knew how long.

"How's the head?" He asked in between bites.

Her head? She hadn't realized it until now that there were bandages on her forehead. She must have injured it at some point, that would explain the dull ache there. Apparently, he'd tended to it at some point while she was unconscious. That was just dumb on his part. It would have been smarter to leave her as weak as possible. Instead of answering him, she turned up her nose and looked back to the shores of shimmering violet sand, watching the emerald waves leisurely rolling in.

Then the smell of freshly cooked meat hit her and her mouth watered. Her gaze drifted back and despite her utter fury at the male sitting before her happily feasting, as if they were on holiday, it smelled amazing. Fresh meat. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had it. Her traitorous belly growled and Goten's eyes flicked to meet hers.

"Are you hungry? I've caught plenty of these little guys and I'm more than happy to share," he said in a singsong voice, waving the bit of meat teasingly at her. "Gotta fill your belly when you can in these circumstances, ya know?"

A small, stupid part of her wanted nothing more than to take that food. What was he playing at? Did he really expect her to just roll over and pretend he hadn't just completely de-railed her life and play the good little captive?

No, she would not accept his offering. That would mean she was accepting the notion of being at his mercy. And she was not about to do that. Better to rebel in any way she could until she was free. She'd rather starve with her dignity intact.

"You didn't even think to grab the emergency ration bars before you blew up the pod, did you?" She leaned back against the rock. He shrugged, helping himself to another bite of crab, and her stomach gave another angry growl. "No, of course you didn't… That would require using your brain, assuming you have one."

He snorted. "Sorry Sweetheart, I was thinking on my feet. Would you have preferred to drown?"

"Don't call me that." She snapped. He grinned at her words, as if needling her was a fun little game. The minute she was free, she was going to wipe that stupid, smug look off of his face. "So, what's your big plan?"

"I think the first order of business is finding fresh water." He said, tossing an empty shell over his shoulder.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"I wait for my uncle to come rescue me." He replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"How do you know he'll come for you at all?"

"He always does." He didn't sound the least bit concerned.

"Why bother saving my life and holding me hostage? You could have left me to die. What are you planning to do with me? Sell me to flesh peddlers? Or bounty hunters? You can't exactly turn me over to the empire. They'd just take your head along with mine. So, why?"

"Is it so difficult to believe that I saved you just because it was the right thing to do?"

"Yes."

He shook his head. "Are you sure you don't want something to eat?"

"What I want is to get off this stupid planet and get back to my life, but I can't because some moron blew up my pod!"

He sighed, closing his eyes, at last showing a modicum of the irritation that was currently coursing through her entire being. Good. She was going to make every minute of her captivity as grating on him as it was on her. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be reunited with your mate soon enough."

"… My what?" What in the world was he talking about?

He rolled his eyes, digging into yet another shell. "The male that oh-so-bravely rushed to your defense back on your ship."

Trunks?! He thinks Trunks is my mate?! "Eww! That was not my 'mate', for your information, that is my brother!"

Goten paused mid-bite, a ponderous look on his face. "Interesting. Something else you lied about."

She scowled at him. Was she supposed to feel bad about lying to him? She'd done far worse. Would do far worse to survive and protect what was hers.

Fuck him.

"I have to pee."

Gohan

Their captives were quiet as Gohan led them into the cargo bay of the Flying Nimbus, the human female, doing her best to stick as close to the Prince as possible.

They drew to a stop before his Uncle who was standing casually beside the bay door's control panel. Raditz turned, his eyes immediately landing on the lavender-haired Saiyan. "Tell me, your highness, where have you been hiding out all these years?"

The Prince swallowed, seeming to consider his answer carefully, "here and there. Probably not unlike yourself."

Raditz pulled a holo-pad from atop a nearby crate, drawing up beside the prince, leisurely scrolling through the items on the display. "We found this on your ship. This is a very interesting list… a crew of three could live off this amount of food for a year."

The Prince's shoulders tensed at his uncle's words, but he remained silent.

"And these power cells… definitely too big for a cargo ship." His Uncle went on, studying their captive's face with a hawk-like intensity.

Trunks shrugged, wincing slightly. That arm was definitely broken, Gohan noted. "It's not my place to question why a paying client wants something."

"So I'm to believe this is a list of supplies for a 'client'?" Raditz smirked, "It's possible. Not likely, but possible."

He set the pad down, reaching into his pocket, and pulling out the jar of ointment they'd found in the med-bay.

"Where did this come from?" Raditz held up the jar before the Prince's face.

"It's just a salve."

"I know what it is. I want to know where it came from."

"I bought it on-station during a supply run. Why do you care?"

"Lie." Raditz clipped.

The Prince didn't react with anything but a look of cool indifference.

Raditz's tail swiped lazily through the air, and Gohan couldn't help but feel the slightest bit confused. Why did he care about some stupid salve? Why wasn't he asking about the dynocaps instead? Out of all the junk they'd found on the King's Pride, those were surely more valuable than some random medicinal balm.

"How about this? You tell me what I want to know and I'll reward you with a soak in the regeneration tank and a meal, and not one of those repugnant ration bars you and your females have been subsisting on? How does that sound?"

The prince and his female exchanged a look, but remained silent, and Raditz let out an irritated sigh.

"I grow tired of these games." The older Saiyan moved to the control panel, punching in a sequence, and Gohan barely raised his hand to shield his eyes in time as hot air and bits of sand flooded into the cargo bay. "I didn't tell you where we are, did I, Princeling?"

They were hovering in place, several hundred feet in the air, overlooking the endless golden dunes cast beneath a menacing sky of blood red.

"It's called Dezaa III. Have you heard of it?" Raditz grabbed the Prince by the upper arm, ignoring his gasp of pain as he drug him close to the edge. If Raditz were to toss him over, he wouldn't be able to take flight and save himself while bound in the ki-cuffs.

The Prince didn't answer and his uncle went on. "It's just as well. It's not a place that anyone should ever go if they can help it. Its entire surface is covered in endless desert, water is scarce, the air is so hot that most races can't tolerate it for longer than a week and the closest thing to sentient life are the Akuma worms. Huge, monstrous fuckers, they'll eat anything with a heartbeat given the chance. An excellent place to hide something you don't want found, or to dispose of someone should the need arise."

The human female beside him let out a little gasp of fear. Gohan did his best not to look at her trembling form, schooling his face into a mask of indifference. He disliked many of the things he'd had to do in their life of piracy, and he especially didn't care for frightening defenseless females. Whatever game his uncle was playing, he hoped it would end swiftly.

"Just tell me one thing. Where did this come from?" Raditz held out the jar once again. The unspoken threat hanging menacingly in the air between him and the Prince.

"I already told you." Trunks said coolly.

Raditz released his arm, a calculating look in those cold dark eyes, and before Gohan could blink he snatched the female by her upper arm, she let out a shrill, terrified shriek as he hauled her toward the edge and the Prince's eyes widened in horror. "I'm curious. I have spent little time around humans and I'm wondering, which do you think will kill her first? The fall? The heat? Starvation? Or do you think she'll live just long enough to become worm food?"

The Prince was so angry Goten could practically feel it rolling off his form in waves, his body was taut and his teeth were bared as he glared furiously at his Uncle.

Raditz's face was the picture of nonchalance though. "I know what you're thinking. Why not just kill her here? Well, the truth is I'm on a tight schedule and I'd simply rather not deal with the cleanup. Come on, Princeling, one truth in exchange for your woman's life." Raditz taunted, and tears were now streaming down the blonde's face as she beheld the drop that awaited her.

"Just tell him what he wants to know and this will be over." Gohan urged quietly. Dreading what Raditz might do if the Prince called his bluff.

Trunk's face twisted with something akin to agony, his shoulder's trembling, as his gaze darted from the female and back to his uncle as if trying to decipher any other way out of this situation.

"Still not going to answer me? Very well." His Uncle jerked the female forward, and she let out a scream of terror as her body lurched over the edge-

"WAIT!" The Prince bellowed, and Raditz froze, yanking the female back to safety, pinning the Prince with that hawk-like gaze expectantly.

"It's my aunt's! It's my aunt's stuff! She gave it to me… Please!" The Prince dropped to his knees. "That's the truth! Please."

Satisfied with that response, Raditz shoved the female away from the edge. She let out a little whimper and crawled over to the Prince, huddling beside him, crystal blue eyes wide.

Raditz strode over to the control panel as if it were just another day. Once the bay doors were closed, he sauntered back down the corridor leading into the belly of the ship."See to it they're both fed a proper meal and put the Princeling in the regeneration tank for the night."