Chapter 2
Now let's try that again…

Plot elements:
1 human girl
2 Saiyan boys
1 pissed off Saiyan prince
1 unknown and yet-to-be-revealed bad guy

Conflicts: Man vs. Man - bad guy (duh)
Man/Woman vs. Himself/Herself - Vejita, Trunks, Risu, must I go on...
Love - self-explanatory

Can't we all play nice here?

It was one thirty in the morning. Risu was asleep in her new room. Or, at least, trying to go to sleep. She wasn't really used to this room, because it was kinda dusty and just so... different from what she was used to.

She covered her head with the pillow. She turned on her side. She kicked off all the covers, and then got up and put them back on the bed. This is not working she thought in despair. Risu finally got up and started pacing.

A light appeared under the door in the bathroom, which was connected to hers, Trunk's, and Bra's room. The water in the sink turned on, off, and a quiet click indicated that someone had closed a cabinet. Risu sighed. It seemed that someone else was as restless as she was.

Risu yawned and stretched. She had only been in Capsule Corp. for a day and a half so far, and most of that time she had spent hiding in her room. She wasn't really a people person, and she steered away from social interaction when she could. Unless it was with a cute boy... ... like Trunks she thought dreamily. She knew that she could never admit it to him, it would only scare him off, and anyway she preferred to keep her feelings to herself.

I keep more in than is healthy for me, probably, but who am I supposed to talk to? Ryan's back where I came from. Oh, I miss him she thought with pang of homesickness. It grew inside her chest, until she couldn't help but let a small gasp escape. Suddenly the bathroom door opened into her room.

"Are you okay?" Trunks' voice carried softly from the bathroom, his shadow falling across her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Risu said, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"Are you sure?" Trunks moved out of the light, blinding her for a few seconds until she realized that he was standing close to her.

Way too close.

She didn't move over, but instead shook her head. "Really, really," she told him. "Don't worry about me. I just can't sleep, that's all."

He gave her a look that said I-don't-believe-you-but-if-you-want-to-live-in-your-own-illusion-it's-not-my-problem. "If you say so. If you can't sleep here, you can sleep in Bra's room or mine. I don't know about you, but when I used to not be able to sleep, I always felt better not alone. You really hid out in here yesterday. That's not really healthy."

Risu dropped her guard for a few seconds and told him disbelievingly, "You don't really believe that load of crap, do you? That's exactly the same thing my mom used to tell me."

Trunks shrugged. "Mine too. Feel free, anytime, come in and talk to me or whatever. I'm going to bed." He walked into the bathroom.

Risu shielded her eyes from the light. "Maybe I'll take you up on that offer."

Trunks turned off the light. "Well, then, get your blanket and come on."

Risu grabbed the comforter off of her bed and rolled it into a little ball. Tucking it under her arm and grabbing her pillow, she followed Trunks into his room. He kicked some of his dirty clothes out of the way to make a space in his floor. "Here you go," he said in the middle of a yawn. And with that, he fell back on his bed and closed his eyes.

Risu spread the comforter down on the floor and rolled up in it. She started to hear the slow, heavy breathing of Trunks that signaled his sleep. It was comforting to not be alone. It made her remember...

...Ryan's warm, gentle arms around her. She could imagine him whispering reassuringly in her ear, "It's gonna be OK. Just go to sleep." Risu blinked. She wished she wasn't always stuck as the girl who had to rely on her men; she had always thought herself self-sufficient enough to handle herself. Man, I don't need somebody to tell me it's all right. I just want Ryan back she thought wistfully.

And it wasn't too hard to imagine that Trunks' sleeping form, dark against the darkness, was really her beautiful Ryan. Her locked heart opened, and for a split second, a glimmer of emotion roiled beneath the surface.

Trunks shifted in his bed, and instantly Risu's heart closed again, and she was hard again (or at least as hard as she could be), and she acted asleep. Soon she didn't have to act, and sleep took over her exhausted body.

It was still pretty early when Risu woke up. She looked up at the bed, and saw Trunks in a white t-shirt and red boxers, sleeping on his back with half of the covers kicked off of him. She grinned in amusement, put the covers over her head, and went back to sleep.

About an hour later, Trunks opened his eyes. He looked down at the floor, and saw a big lump under the navy blue comforter that must be Risu. He considered waking her up, but decided against it. He shook rebellious lavender hair out of his eyes and slowly staggered to his feet. Careful not to step on Risu, he walked into the bathroom to splash water on his face.

She pulled the covers down so that her head was uncovered. "So you're finally awake," she said quietly. He looked over at her from over the sink.

"I could say the same about you," he responded. "Are you feeling okay? It seemed like there was something wrong with you last night..."

"I'm fine," she said with finality, looking straight into and through his eyes and into the back of his head. He looked at her, with her eyes glowing catlike in the darkness, and looked away uncomfortably as she seemed to stare straight into his soul.

"Well, good," he muttered almost to himself. "You'll be training with Vejita and I this morning."

Risu was silent for a few seconds. "Why don't you call him Dad or Father? Why do you always just call him Vejita?" she asked quietly, sensing taut nerves and a sensitive subject.

Trunks looked back at her. "I can call him whatever I want."

"But he's your father... you can show at least a little affection," she pointed out.

"No, I can't," he replied hotly, barely holding his anger in check. "He's not my father. He doesn't act like it, and so if he has to believe that he was never weak enough to produce a half-breed, then so be it. I am my own."

She turned onto her stomach, boosted onto her elbows, and then shook her head. "Bastard son of a bastard. Who would've figured?"

His angry glare pierced part of her heart. "Do you have a problem with my heritage?"

"No." Risu looked away. "I'm just in a weird mood. Sorry."

He smiled bitterly. "Aren't we all?"

"Did you dream last night, Trunks?" Risu said, still looking down at her pillow, warm from her recent sleep.

"I never dream," he answered with little emotion, studying his face in the mirror as if he had never seen it before. "What about you?"

"I dreamed of a girl. I dreamed that she was fighting, and she was losing, almost dead. Her right hand was cut off at the wrist, and her left arm was ripped off right above the elbow. I could feel the pain." Trunks looked at Risu, and was startled to see her head hanging down. She was clutching her left arm painfully tight.

"Her throat was cut and bleeding, and blood was seeping out of her mouth, too. She was on the verge of death, and then something happened. There was a bright light, so bright that I couldn't see. Then I could see her again, except it wasn't her, it was a woman. She was more muscular than you, and her hair was glittering and reached down past her ankles. Then her arms grew back, and she felt her throat. When she found blood there, she smiled all evil, and tasted it..." Now Risu was holding her throat, and her voice wavered a little.

Trunks sighed, putting his hands on the sink and looked at her reflection in the mirror. "Don't emotionally drain yourself before you train. It makes it harder," he interrupted quietly. "Let's go. Vejita expects you to know exactly when you're supposed to be there, and that's now."

Risu was silent for a moment, and then slowly climbed to her feet. "What should I wear?" she asked as she gathered her pillow and blanket.

"Something that doesn't restrain you movement. Nothing tight unless it stretches."

"Fine. I'll be downstairs in a few minutes." She walked past him through the opposite door into her room.

Trunks glanced at her. "Hurry up."

She threw her pillow and blanket on the floor, and turned around. She stuck her face through the crack and nodded solemnly before closing the door quietly.


A few minutes later, the two restless teenagers sat at the kitchen table, avoiding looking at each other. Risu was staring at the cabinets like they were a fine work of art, or a puzzle to be solved. Trunks looked at the ground in the other direction.

Vejita stalked into the kitchen, his short, muscular frame somehow filling the room with arrogance. He didn't seem at all surprised by Risu's presence. Instead, he seemed almost... angry. Imagine that.

"Why is she here?" he snarled at his son, refusing to look in her direction.

Trunks looked up at Vejita, easily meeting his eyes. "I invited her to train with us." He seemed expectant of the explosion, even though Vejita was as unpredictable as he was violent.

Vejita looked at girl, who also had no trouble meeting his fierce gaze. "Good. Maybe she's learned not to provoke me. Maybe she wants to see real men fight."

Risu just looked at him woodenly. "Maybe I have, and maybe I do."

Vejita smirked. Then he looked sharply at Trunks. "Hurry up, then! We don't have all day, you worthless idiot. Move it!"

Trunks shot an irritated glare at his father, and got to his feet with deliberate slowness. Vejita snarled, and backhanded Trunks across the face. The boy took the blow without so much as a wince.

Risu was already standing when Vejita looked at her again. He led the way out the door, through the house, and into the chill morning air.

Vejita took a deep breath of fresh air before stretching out his arms. Then, he looked straight at Risu. "So, no training whatsoever? Not even martial arts? What a pathetic excuse, not even..."

Risu cut him off. "I said I don't know anything about power levels. I didn't say I had no martial arts training."

Vejita nodded expectantly. "Enough so that you can follow me and Trunks?" Risu nodded. "Good," he said with a sneer, "because I wasn't about to teach you the basics. Let's go, boy!"

Trunks dropped into a casual fighting stance, but Risu thought he was tense, almost nervous, inside. Suddenly, Vejita charged him. Trunks didn't move a muscle until Vejita was very, very close, and then they both vanished. Risu knew enough to figure out that they were moving fast - faster than the speed of light, or close to it. Every once in a while, she would catch a glimpse of them, but it was only fleeting.

She suddenly had the feeling that they were right behind her, close enough to touch, and that if she didn't move she'd get beaten. She threw herself to the ground as Trunks flew backwards right where she'd been, almost as if he was flying back from the impact of a punch or kick. Vejita materialized behind him, and kicked (a front snap kick, her mind informed her), hard enough that Risu suspected that Trunks' back would be broken if it landed. Of course it didn't, because Trunks twisted aside at the last possible instant.

She had gotten to her feet at this point, and was wondering absently what determined the end of these training sessions, when someone was thrown to the ground hard enough for the dirt to fly out of a foot-deep trench. Trunks launched himself out of the ditch with enough time to grab Vejita's leg, throwing the Saiyan prince to the ground with the momentum of an unsuccessful kick.

Risu followed the battle for a few more minutes, discovering that if she almost extended her feelings out instead of her eyes, she could sense their position much easier. She could also almost sense something like the level of anger within them, a black ball of rage within each that was being unleashed in careful amounts on the other person. Is that their power level? Is that all it is? Just the amount of anger within each? she thought to herself.

Finally, Trunks dropped to the ground, panting. "I'm done... for now..." he said in between heavy and forced breaths.

Though Vejita hid it well, Risu could tell that he was as tired as his son, if not more so. "That was a nice warm-up," he said with the usual sneer. "Let's see how good you are, girl."

Risu was a bit nervous, but she supposed that Trunks would stop Vejita before she was injured too badly... or dead. She hoped.

She extended her senses, and locked onto the red fury that was Vejita, so much different and yet so much alike to the cold hatred locked within Trunks. Now, how exactly are you supposed to do this? she wondered idly as Vejita's fist caught her under the chin in an uppercut that her teacher would have called 'spectacular'.

She picked herself up off of the ground and dusted off. "No, no, no," Vejita scolded. "Pay attention, or you'll get knocked out."

Risu nodded as she dodged the next blow, and then the next. "Now stop jumping around, girl, and attack!" he yelled as he launched a fierce combination of kicks and punches. She was hard-pressed to block them, and she just knew that bruises would form where he hit her. As soon as she thought that, his foot came out of nowhere and knocked her into the dust.

"Concentrate! You do almost well, and then you think something and get hit. Don't think! Just act!"

"Don't think, just act," she muttered to herself. Hey, maybe I could do that same thing with the power levels as them... As Risu staggered to her feet, she felt inside herself for the little ball of built-up rage that was present in Trunks and Vejita. She was startled to find a pulsing, frozen flow of force within herself. It wasn't Vejita's fury, or Trunks' hatred. Instead, it was more like... well, like a frustration, when you want to do something so badly that you clench your fists and look up at the sky and scream until your voice is hoarse. Tightly woven in with this... frustration... was pain.

She buried her arms in this tightly packed bubble of emotion, until finally it burst open, and molten power coursed through her veins. I feel so... powerful she thought in wonder.

Vejita's punch seemed in slow motion, and she could feel his satisfaction, believing that he would knock her out easily with this one punch, to which she was not reacting. With a sigh, she easily grabbed his arm, and used his own momentum to throw him over her shoulder and onto the ground.

He landed with enough impact on his back to make him grunt. Risu planted a foot on his stomach. He twisted around to grab her foot. She sprang back easily, and then wove forward to land a kick to his jaw.

Vejita faded before the kick landed, moving quickly through the air. She still couldn't fly, or float, or levitate, or whatever, so she was on the defensive. Unfortunately for him, the harder he tried to hit her, the faster she dodged.

Finally, he paused in midair. "Since you think you're so good, girl," he half-panted while trying to hide it, "let's see how you do against a fresh warrior. Trunks, it's your turn."

Trunks stood where he had been sitting on the grass, watching their fight. He shrugged out of his tank top, revealing a sculpted, muscular torso. He smiled at her. "Let's go."

Risu charged him, fading in and out so fast that he almost missed the punch coming in his direction. He grabbed her arm and yanked her to the ground, pinning her down with his knee. She reached back and caught hold of a muscular arm, literally throwing him a good twenty feet away. She leapt to her feet in seconds and stood, waiting for his attack.

Trunks landed on his feet, and started at a dead run towards Risu. She faded out of sight, darting around him faster than he could follow. He ended up with a fist in his chest that sent him flying into the air. She caught his foot as he tried to fly higher, and somehow slammed him hard into the ground. The impact knocked the wind out of him.

She had him facedown in a full nelson before he could think. "I win," she whispered so softly that he could barely hear with her lips an inch away from his ear. Trunks tried to wriggle out of her hold, but it was impossible.

A little voice in the back of his head jeered at him silently. You failed again, boy. You couldn't possibly be of my blood. Even something half Saiyajin couldn't be as weak and pathetic as you. Each word stung like a hot knife, sliding softly into his skin again and again in burning agony.

A wordless wrath rose up inside of him, and he flew into the air and then down again, bringing her down to the ground under him with bone crushing force. As they sailed towards the ground, she let go of him and jumped away as he drove himself deep into the ground.

"If you do it that way," she taunted, "you'll beat yourself up before I get the chance to."

Vejita called to them from a few feet away, "That's enough for today, children." He motioned to them. Trunks climbed to his feet as Risu walked back to her house. With a half-embarrassed, half-angry look directed at her back, he grabbed his tank top and slipped it on. As he walked past Vejita, the older Saiyajin put a hand on his shoulder (rather painfully tight). "Don't embarrass me like that again," he hissed quietly into Trunks' ear.

Trunks pulled away and kept walking towards the house, not once looking back at his father.