Chapter Two
17 stared in disbelief at his limp mate. How?! Was the only thought that echoed through his head.
Zarah and Sasoli gasped in surprise as their mother's head snapped forward to painfully connect to their father's.
Completely caught off-guard 17 fell to the ground clutching his face as he was pounced upon by his wife. He opened his eyes and saw the yellow boot stop a millimeter from crushing his throat.
17 blinked when the boot lightly rested on his skin before retreating. Ava hauled him to his feet before their gaping children.
"Remember, it is not always the strongest who wins but often the one who is more resourceful." Ava lectured the twins.
"Go do your warm-ups."
17 glared at Ava as the kids rushed outside to obey.
"You could have warned me!" 17's voice smoldered, "You scared the shit out of me!"
Ava blinked at him.
"The best way to teach is by example. If I had warned you the entire lesson would have been void."
"Don't EVER scare me like that again!" 17 yelled at her before yanking her into a forced embrace, clinging to her as if his life depended on it.
Ava smiled amused, her mate was so emotional sometimes. She rubbed his back soothingly.
"17, peace, I had to do it for Sasoli," Ava whispered softly.
"What do you mean?" 17 loosened his hold on her but didn't let her go.
"17, she needs to know how to survive and that will be one of the many things I teach her today."
"What else are you going to teach her today," 17 frowned not liking the idea of turning his Sasoli into a killing machine.
"17, I cannot tell you that," Ava grumbled as she pulled away from him to clean up the mess left from breakfast.
"And why not?"
"Ancient female secrets. If I tell you then I would have to kill you," she kissed his cheek, "Now leave and visit our prince."
"Your prince," 17 grumbled as he stepped out of the cave with Ava close behind.
"Zarah!" 17 called.
"Let's go visit your uncle."
Zarah grinned and for a split second he resembled 17 with an almost mirror like exactness.
"Let's go! Maybe Goten will be there as well!" Zarah's gaze became almost calculating and it was there 17 found Zarah's likeness to Ava, which only increased when he narrowed his eyes..
"Fight well," Ava smiled before turning to motion Sasoli to join her as she walked deeper into the woods.
"What are they going to do?" Zarah tilted his head to the side curiously.
"I can't say." 17 shook his head slightly, still a bit confused with the whole incident.
"Why not?" Zarah turned his blue gaze to 17.
"Because then I reckon I would have to kill ya," 17 slipped into a western drawl.
The two males grinned together before blasting toward Capsule Corp.
**
"What happens now?" Sasoli looked at her mother curiously.
"Tell me, Sasoli, what do you think of what happened this morning." Ava stopped walking.
"Well, you played a trick on Daddy."
"What happens if someone else tricks Daddy? But they're not playing?" Ava didn't face her daughter but gazed off into space.
"Daddy... he..." Sasoli frowned.
"He dies... " Black eyes met blue. "We must always be prepared if something should happen."
"No one can beat my Daddy," Sasoli pouted stubbornly.
"Is that so?" Ava waited for Sasoli to nod before continuing.
"If I had been an enemy, I would have killed him this morning."
"But..." Sasoli's eyes filled with tears.
"But?"
"You would never kill Daddy," she sniffed.
"No, but an enemy would," Ava touched her daughter's hair, comforting her.
"I, too, thought my father could never be defeated... Then an alien came and killed him. I should have listened to my Mother's teachings... Things might have turned out differently."
Ava's gaze turned inward for a moment before she shook it away, resolutely.
"Though, if I had then I wouldn't have you," she smiled gently at her offspring, "Will you learn what I have to teach, Sasoli?"
Sasoli nodded whole heartedly, blinking back tears.
"Yes, Mommy."
"None of that, this might save your life and your father's," Ava scolded gently.
"Really?" Sasoli brightened.
"Yes, really. We are saiyans, thus, we never go down without a fight."
**
17 landed softly with Zarah in tow.
"Trunks?" Zarah called hopefully as he took off into the compound.
17 smiled. The transformation the kids underwent every time they left their mother's presence amazed him. One moment they were as serious as adults and the next their blue eyes would widen in wonder as a butterfly flew by. Strange and wonderful. Those two words explained his whole relationship with Ava, only she could teach children how to dismember someone while still managing to preserve their innocence. It was as if they realized their mother's need for structure, only letting out their youthful exuberance through their fighting. In fact, the only time Ava had seen the kids act like kids was the day at the amusement park when they had been to hyper to care, and they had all seen how she had reacted to that!
"What did you do this time, Android?" Vegeta stood behind him with his arms crossed.
"I swear I don't even know why I bother with you." Vegeta growled softly as 17 turned to face him.
"Why do you always assume it's me? Maybe your sister made me mad this time," 17 frowned.
"Royalty can do no wrong," Vegeta smirked at 17's disgruntled expression, "Come, tell me where the women are."
"They're doing survival skills day or something," 17 followed Vegeta into his gravity room.
"Ah, I see," Vegeta nodded as he set the controls to three hundred times normal gravity.
"Hey!" 17 stumbled under the sudden increase of gravity before adjusting.
"Too much for you?" Vegeta asked amused.
"Please, as if you toy could defeat me," 17 took a step and then another, "What exactly is Ava teaching Sasoli?"
"Ancient female secrets," Vegeta replied as he started doing warm-ups of his own.
"Yes, I know that but what are they?" 17 grumbled, he could never get a straight answer from these saiyans.
"Oh, the usual things... How to pleasure a man, where a man is the most vulnerable, when a man-"
"WHAT?!" 17's mouth dropped open.
Vegeta chuckled at his reaction.
"Seriously, Android, I do not know. No male is to know, not even a royal one." Vegeta smirked as the android sagged in relief.
"Why?"
"Tradition," Vegeta shrugged, "Come I need a punching bag."
"Me, a punching bag, I don't think so," 17 grinned, well this should be interesting.
**
"What do you do when an enemy corners you?"
Ava quizzed Sasoli on her basic fighting experience. They were sitting on the ground facing each other.
"I attack him."
Ava lifted her eyebrow.
"I... don't attack him?"
"You check their power level. That is always the first thing you do, if you are stronger than they are then you attack and destroy them. However, if they are stronger, you pretend to be weak."
"Why?" Sasoli cocked her head to the side.
"If your enemy thinks you are weak than he will underestimate you. The more they underestimate you better the chance you have to take advantage of their mistake."
"So you trick them," Sasoli laughed.
"Right you trick them," Ava smiled, the innocence of her children never ceased to amaze her, "You understand."
"Yes but what happens if you make a mistake and they're really strong?" Blue eyes sparkled curiously.
"Well that depends on several things, what your captor is and what they want you for," Ava's gaze became thoughtful.
"I don't understand," Sasoli frowned.
"Well, if the enemy is out to kill you then you're dead but there have been some rare cases when we haven't been hunted. Once a group of scientists tried to take a family, they had wanted to do experiments to see what made our race so powerful."
"What happened?" Sasoli leaned forward.
"The females served up the scientists for dinner," Ava laughed softly when Sasoli scrunched up her face in disgust with a tell-tale ,"eww".
"You will be surprised what you will eat if you are hungry," Ava teased her daughter, "I once ate an alien twice the size of your father and uncle put together. He had fins for hands and was the color orange."
"Really?" Sasoli was part horrified and part fascinated.
"Really," Ava said with a straight face.
The two females' eyes met before bursting into laughter.
"Then there was the case of your uncle and me. Frieza wanted us to fight for him." Ava became serious again. "We escaped eventually."
"Ok, so what do I do if the menemy wants to do experiments on me and is stronger?"
"If your captor is male, then half of your work is done for you. Males are notorious for believing that females are weaker and this makes them easier to defeat."
"How?"
"Well, as soon as you are defeated you pretend to be more hurt than you are, pretend to heal slowly. Always hide your true power make him think it was a fluke and cry if you can, tears have weird effects on males. Make them pity you become submissive and they'll make a mistake."
"Then you attack?"
"No, you wait and gather any information that might be useful. Then, if he is a fool, he will trust you, which is the biggest mistake of all , and his last. Though, Sasoli, you must always be especially careful around males."
"Why Mommy?"
"That's a talk for another day... If he touches you in any way that we have not touched you then.... You bit off your tongue and bleed to death first!" Ava reigned in her emotions. "Do you understand?"
Sasoli shook her head a bit alarmed at Ava's harsh tone.
Ava bit her lip.
"I... When your Uncle Vegeta and I were taken... I was imprisoned inside a wall... A group of soldiers took me out when I was of age and tried to touch me... I bit off his tongue as well as my own... They would have to take what they wanted from my dead body... The soldiers panicked and rushed me to the medical facility where the doctors managed to reattach my tongue with the help of a regeneration tank... Frieza found out and killed them before returning me to the wall. He had strict orders regarding me..."
Ava trailed off and looked into her daughter's stormy blue eyes before dropping her head. She had done her best to tell the story without the violence and explicitly of the act corrupting her child. Ava pushed the memories back down into the recesses of her mind, no one else knew what she had just confessed to her daughter not even her husband. Ava flinched in surprise, Sasoli had gotten up without her noticing to give her a hug.
Ava blinked back tears, motherhood had made her soft. "My sweet child..."
She pushed her daughter gently away.
"Do you understand?"
"Kind of, not really," Sasoli gave her mother a sweet smile.
"You will. You are to tell no one of this."
"Why?"
"We must always keep secrets from the men, Sasoli, it is our way and has been our way since the beginning of time. Keeps them guessing."
Sasoli giggled as her mother tickled her.
"Now, if your captor is female than you have to outwit her. Listen to everything, find a weakness, and then pretend to have the same. Pretend to be her friend, use any means to escape."
"That's mean, Mommy."
"Taking you in the first place is mean to make you do what she wants is mean."
Sasoli nodded.
"The goal here is to survive and if you really feel that bad then don't kill her just make sure to warn her if you ever cross paths again she's dead. So what do you do if someone attacks you?"
"I check their power level and if their stronger then I pretend to be weak and scared. I listen and wait for the chance to escape."
"Very good, and in your case you flash your ki so we can follow, find you, and retrieve you."
"What if someone takes you Mommy?"
"Well," Ava blinked in surprise, "I do everything I told you but I also play mind games. Remember, only play mind games if you can do it, you are too young, you do not have enough experience to play. Then I would call your father and tell him to move his robotic butt to come get me."
"How?"
"Well, Sasoli, since I have feelings for your father, we have a mental connection, in a way we will always be together."
"Do I really have to become submissive?" Sasoli pouted.
"Yes but don't over do it or they'll become suspicious, appear reluctant."
"How do I play mind games?"
"It's all about making someone do something you want him or her to do without them realizing it. You can practice on your brother when he gets home."
"Yeah?" Sasoli brightened.
"Yes, I practiced with your uncle all the time." Ava smiled remembering, "You should have seen some of the things I was able to make him do."
"Like what?" Sasoli sat in front of her mother, breathless with anticipation.
"Well," Ava grinned, "I told him he wasn't man enough to steal the crown from the throne room. We had a big argument and he snuck into the throne room. We were only five or six at the time, anyway, he stole the crown and the whole kingdom was in an uproar. Every room was searched so I convinced him to plant it under Father's pillow. Sure enough, they found the crown the next morning!"
"But wouldn't Grandpa have found it when he went to sleep?"
"That's what I thought but..." Ava trailed off, trying to control her giggles, "the next morning, right in the middle of breakfast, our Mom noticed something shiny in Father's hair so she reached right over and plucked the crown from his hair!"
"They argued for hours! Mother couldn't understand how father had got the crown stuck in his hair!"
"He had hair like uncle's right?"
"Right!"
They howled with laughter, bonding in the truest sense of the word.
**
"Dikon sir, I believe we located two saiyans," the helmsman informed the mercenary.
Dikon sighed relieved, he really had no clues to the saiyans whereabouts save for this blue planet, hell, he only had a vague idea of what he was looking for.
The mercenary rubbed his forehead with some frustration, this was the last time he took a challenge from an ugly dark green species that had no way of compensating him for his efforts. In fact, the only thing he had to gain from this at all was bragging rights. He was the most sought after mercenary in the universe and if it became known he had managed to kill a saiyan then he could double his already large fee.
"Are you sure?" Dikon forced himself to ask, though at this point he would settle for some unlucky inhabitant.
"Yes, the natives from this planet seem powerless and tailless. Our description clearly states that saiyans have tails. Both life forms have tails." The helmsman informed him stoically.
"Where are they located?" Dikon relaxed in his chair.
"In the wilderness just like King Fruin said."
"Ok, let's land and get this over with, these saiyans shouldn't be too much trouble," the elfin-eared man stood up.
**
"You understand?" Ava raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah!" Sasoli punched her fist into the air.
A rumbling filled the air causing both females to look up.
"What is--" Sasoli's eyes widened as her mother covered her mouth.
Ava put a finger to her mouth in a familiar gesture of silence before motioning Sasoli to get on her back.
Sasoli nodded. They had done this many times to sneak up on deer and other animals.
Sasoli rolled her small hands and feet into the back of her mother's shirt, wrapping her tail around Ava's waist.
Ava in turn wrapped her tail around her daughter to hold her in place. As one they ran stealthily through the trees to investigate.
End of Chapter Two
AN: Here you go guys and gals! Jeez, Ashton, a shot in the dark, eh? Well, you about stabbed me between the eyes! Thanks to everyone for reviewing! Remember I am only going to update on the weekends, school, sigh, well, review, huh, and let me know what you think! Thanks again to loyal readers! You know who you are! Bye!