Piccolo groaned as he was hit across his jaw. He landed hard on the floor, and stared at the woman before him. No...not a girl at all, but a woman. Her shoulders were back, posture exquisite, and her chin lifted defiantly. She was almost goddess like. He saw her tail wagging back and forth angrily, her gaze spiteful.

This wasn't Mia...

Piccolo shut his eyes, knowing and trying not to believe that all this time, her alter ego was fighting to free itself...

The first instance forced it's way into his mind...when Mia first sensed Krill coming. Back then, he didn't believe her...he thought she was haluscinating a power because she was growing stronger...

"My butt hurt's so much." Mia said softly. Piccolo had forced her to remove her tail early in the training. She closed her eyes and suppressed her need to complain about the unbearable pain on her rear as she remembered how Piccolo had just pulled it off. Though it was already healing, Saiya-jins always recovered quickly, she still felt that extra bone in her backside where her trademarked tail used to be. That made the pain worse.

Piccolo grunted. "Stop complaining and get some rest. Maybe that will put you up to performing a descent battle tomorrow."

'Why is he so cold?' Mia wondered feeling, once again, hurt by his comment, though she knew he didn't mean to. 'He acts like I'm not even trying. He must know that I've been giving this training my all the past few months, but it's as if he's oblivious to the fact.'

She stared at her feet in front of her. Here, she found the Saiya-jin she and her brother were looking for all of this time. But it wasn't as she had expected. What was missing?

"If I may ask you something," Piccolo glanced her way and she nodded, "then why exactly did you come to Chikyuu?"

Mia shrugged, debating whether or not she felt he really needed to know. But in short, she didn't mind telling him.

"Rio and I came here looking for other Saiya-jin. For some reason we both felt we needed to find them. We heard rumors that a Saiya-jin was here, so we came."

"Understandable." Piccolo stated without giving it much thought. "It's only natural to long for the company of others that are like you." He remembered how out of place he felt at times during his youth and sympathized, "It can be difficult, not understanding what you are or what you must become."

"You were like that?" Mia asked.

"For a time, when I was weak."

Mia, in her disappointment, shrugged, as if understanding what he meant by his comment was that such things, when strong, would no longer concern her. 'But do you have to sacrifice the your heart to be strong?' She thought. Looking at him, she wasn't sure. He was so concealed and never admitted to weaknesses that she had felt when she first met him. Even then she would never call them weaknesses, but rather, refer to them as common traits that all races and species had. Why did he shun them so much?

Mia lied down a few feet from the fire as Piccolo crossed his legs and closed his eyes. He had noticed her effort to be strong, even though she still refused to give up her claim on such petty emotions and desires that would cost her dearly in battle. But he saw and felt the effort in his heart, and he knew it was there. An inner strength like none he had sensed. Of course everyone has inner powers, but the trouble is unlocking them. And her effort would reward her. More than even she realized.

'It's not that she's not trying.' Piccolo thought. 'It's just she's far too inexperienced for her age. I say she's too old to be trained. She's obviously not a fighter and for that reason, why should I waste my time. But there does seem to be something missing in her. Like there's something strong there that I can't uncover.' He opened one eye and looked at her as she tried to sleep. 'But this is what Rio wanted for her, and I owe him this training for her in the least.' Closing his eye again, he thought, 'It'll take a miracle for her to learn how to fight properly.'

Faintly. Just barely, Mia felt subconsciously a familiar ki approach Earth. 'What?' Mia cracked her eyes open, and for a moment, concentrated. 'Please let it not be him. Oh, let it be something else.' With the ki consistently staying the same, Mia sat up. "Oh no." She whispered.

Hearing her stir, Piccolo stopped his meditation and glared at her. She sat up on one elbow, lying on her side.

"I told you to get some rest." He snarled in agitation.

"No." She raised her voice from the sparse whisper and replied, "No. You don't understand what I just felt. It's that same ki. The very same one! And it's heading here!"

Piccolo suddenly seemed interested.

"What do you mean?" he asked looking at the sky where she too, was looking.

"It's Krill! It has to be!" Mia scrambled to her feet and showed signs she might panic.

Piccolo suddenly saw the pattern she was forming and stood.

"Listen to me Mia." He began following her as she stumbled into the forest. "You need to calm down and tell me why you're so skittish all of a sudden."

She didn't reply.

"LISTEN TO ME!" He bellowed, teleporting in front of her and roughly grabbing her arm. "You must get a hold of yourself!"

At that very moment he was blasted back by a ki.

"What the…!" He exclaimed unable to react. He had been undoubtedly forced onto the ground by the sudden rise of energy in Mia's ki. He didn't recognize her at first, with the energy seeping into her as if it were metal attracted to a magnet. 'This girl is a Saiya-jin!' He thought while he admired the sight with his jaw hanging. 'But how is she doing this? No one as weak as her can absorb energy like that!'

A bright but deep shade of bluish light poured from her body as she screeched from the stress within her. Her light brown hair danced above her in now copper-tinted spirals and her armor cracked from the unexpected increase. Throwing her head back and screaming, the ki got larger.

"Aurghhhh!" She bellowed as her energy finished accumulating with a burst of pure light, as if some light inside her forced it's way free, spilling away from her like light traveling through a spectrum, with much similar affects. Her hair fell back down and the blue aura that had engulfed her faded slightly. She clenched her teeth and brought her head back down. "Now Krill, just try to get me!" She yelled into the sky, fist waving in front of her.

Piccolo stood back up slowly, never once taking his eyes off her. 'How did she do it?' He thought in awe. 'She can't possibly retain all the power she just absorbed.'

With clenched fists, Mia waited. And still waited, never changing with blue ripples gently massaging into the air around her.

"Mia!" Piccolo interrupted, trying to get himself out of the daze.

At the sound of his voice, her power immediately dispersed and she looked behind her like a mouse cornered by a lion!

"Piccolo-san?" She asked with a trembling voice. "Did you feel it?"

He shook his head. "If there was something coming, I would have sensed it."

"I don't know how I just did that. I don't remember how…" She confessed turning to him. "But if Krill is coming here, you need to keep training me." She looked over her shoulder at the night sky. The ki she had felt was gone.

"It 's natural to power up like that when you feel intense stress. It's happened to myself and even Son Goku." Piccolo explained as they prepared for training. He didn't rest much that night, though Mia was out rather quickly from her draining power-up.

"I just don't get it." Mia rubbed her head and ran her fingers down the length of her hair. "Last night, I was so sure I felt Krill's ki. It was faint, but it was defiantly the same ki as him."

Piccolo watched as she slid off her damaged armor. "Well, it could have been your imagination."

She dropped her useless battle suit on the ground. 'It's not like it was going to be much use anymore.'

"Piccolo-san." She began as they walked to the area where they trained. "You don't believe I felt it, did you? The power I mean."

"That's surprisingly a hard question to answer kid. I want to believe that what happened last night was just one of those out of the ordinary things that happen during training. It just being a part of your body accepting the new powers you're learning to control…" Piccolo looked down at her walking beside him. "And I would also like to believe that the ki you felt exists. But the simple answer is that it could. But yet it could not. Your body could have made it up. I will just have to wait and see."

"This whole things got me on edge." She admitted while nervously tugging at the white tank top that was under her armor before she removed it. "You see, Krill is a mastermind of fighting. He's full of tricks and can easily defeat a warrior three times his strength by simply using illusions. He enslaves those who he defeats. He is very strong, but he doesn't rely on his power to win. He's just so dangerous!"

Piccolo listened with interest. 'Mia is at a point in her training when those who are half as strong as I seem infinitely stronger to her. But what if it's true what she's telling me. That he is massively strong and that he might be coming here.'

"And you don't believe me do you?" She said smiling at the ground. "Because I'm not strong, or because I'm not experienced…I understand why you'd think that." She stopped and looked up at him as her eyes glazed over slightly. "But I did feel it!"

Piccolo looked at her. 'She's as good as begging me to believe her. Maybe I haven't been taking her seriously enough.' Then he felt something. Concluding that it was sympathy, he kept walking again. 'She's pathetic.'

"Kid, I do believe you felt something, but I'm not ready to conclude that what you claim is the only answer."

"I understand." She said half-heartedly.

He felt like lecturing her for her sarcastic reply, but decided it would be best if he let her alone.

"Now, where would you like to start in today's training?" He seldom gave her the option of where they would begin, but feeling that today should be different he asked again, "Well? What do you want to do first?"

Mia looked up and smiled. 'Maybe this is paying off after all.'

'Yes, that was when it started.' Piccolo realized. 'Under all of her sweetness, her fear, and her helplessness, was a true Saiya-jin warrior waiting to burst free.' He stood, keeping strict eye to eye contact with her.

"Mia, you have to fight it! You can't give in to it!"

She stared at him smugly. "Why should I fight it? I'm stronger this way?" She looked at her open palms and smiled. "For the first time I can do the killing myself."

Piccolo growled. "Mia, this power is consuming you! It'll get you killed!"

She swirled forward and struck his face. Piccolo found himself on the ground, his face throbbing. He felt the warm trickle against his cheek where his skin burst from the impact. It was mesmerising. She actually hurt him!

"Shut up! I'm more powerful than you are now!" She exhaled smoothly and paced to him. She bent down and licked his cheek playfully. "Either way my mate, The old Mia is gone, and she is never coming back."

"No...she's in there." He protested, quick to hide his shock. "You're just scared she'll come back...just like last time."

Kami ran forward, kneeling beside the shocked younger namek.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Piccolo kept silent. Krill would come any moment and the others were no doubt waiting for them elsewhere. But the one he intended to rescue was gone.



sorry for the late update...crap goinf down you know. well lemme know how it is!