***Hey All, Sarah the Author here! I was gonna put this in chapter one, but totally spaced! Anyway, this is a work in progress and I'm not totally up with all the DBZ plots- I started watching during the Majin Buu Saga and I've played DBZ Budakai. So, this story may not be totally accurate and it's definitely not following the TV plot lines. So I'm counting on you readers to tell me where I totally screw up, okay? And let me know if I should keep going. Now, ON WITH THE FIC!***

"What did you say?" Everyone looked over at Gokéa, who had awakened during Vegeta's story and heard what was said about her name. Before Vegeta could reply, the girl continued. "You were saying something about my name- is that really what it means?" Vegeta nodded.

"Yes, that is your name's true meaning." Gokéa gave a soft smile and pulled a necklace out from under the collar of her shirt. It was a silver chain with a small winged heart charm of the same color dangling from it. Gokéa removed the chain from her neck and cautiously handed it to Goku. It amazed her how gently the man took the necklace from her hand: in her recent experiences, really big muscular guys never did anything gently- Goku was different. He gave the necklace a going over before tossing it to Vegeta, who looked closely at it as well. On the front was her name, written in fancy lettering: Gokéa Li.

"Look at the back." Goku told him. Vegeta flipped the heart over to see, in the same fancy lettering as the front: Heart of the Tiger. As he looked at the necklace, Vegeta felt as if he had seen the necklace somewhere before- a long time ago, on his home planet of Vegeta-sei... but where had he seen it?

"That's why I asked," Gokéa told him, bringing him to reality once again. "Arale... Mom found me when I was very young- she said I didn't look more than a year old. This necklace was around my neck, but neither of us really knew what to make of it."

"Are you all right?" asked Gohan, bringing everyone back to the present. Gokéa then remembered that only moments before she had fainted suddenly, probably scaring her rescuers at least a little bit.

"I'm fine," she replied. "I'm sorry if I frightened you but..." She looked directly at Vegeta. "I never thought I'd see you again." Vegeta figured that she was either scared of him or she blamed him for Arale's death. But there was no trace of fear in her eyes- instead, there seemed to be guilt. "Who are you, anyway?"

"My name is Vegeta." Gokéa was positive she had never heard his name before, but for some reason, it sounded so familiar to her. Not only his name, but his voice, another thing she had never heard before, was familiar as well. She didn't know why.

"I don't remember much of the fight we had, Vegeta," Gokéa continued after a moment. "Only that this surge of power went through my veins and I saw this orange light surround me. Then sometime later, I found myself alone and I started thinking about what happened. You never saw me there, Vegeta and that's why you fired at that man- I think you called him Karanin?" Vegeta nodded. "I don't blame you for my mother's death, Vegeta- I blame Karanin. I should probably be out looking for him, to avenge Mom's death but... something tells me if I just spend my life seeking revenge, my life won't have any meaning when I finally get it." Vegeta looked at her, confusion expressed on her face.

"Granted," he said. "You couldn't have been more than three years old back then, but that was over twenty years ago- you don't look much older than twelve." Gokéa cracked a smile.

"You're right," she said. "I was three at the time- a tormented three-year-old girl, without family; without anyone. So I locked myself in a state of constant training- for six months I was forced to train with the constant annoyances of everyday life... until I discovered the Time Warp Chamber."

"Time Warp Chamber?" asked Trunks. "What's that?" Gokéa shifted her gaze over to him and her smile widened.

"The Time Warp Chamber is a special room that slows down the aging process of whomever is inside, while the outside world continues as normal." He smile turned into a sly smirk. "Twenty years ago, I went in there at three- when I came out ten years later I was six." Goten thought for a moment- if his calculations served him well, Gokéa was a twenty three-year-old woman in a sixteen-year-old girl's body... way out of his league.

There was a silence that fell over the group. For a moment, Goku thought he could see into Gokéa's mind- there was not a bit of evil anywhere, no revenge filled her thoughts, nothing but peace... and a bit of sorrow. It had been a long since Arale's death, but Goku sensed that it hurt Gokéa as if it had been yesterday. A moment later, Goku began to speak.

"Gokéa, you said an orange light surrounded you that day," he said. "Has it ever happened again?" Gokéa nodded.

"Yes, it has," she replied. "I don't expect you to believe me, but whenever that happens, I became this incredible fighter- I'm a fair fighter, I'll admit, but when that light turns on, I become ten times better." Goku smiled causing Gokéa to ask him another question. "You believe me?"

"I believe you, Gokéa. It's known as powering up to a Super Saiyan- I do it myself."

"Goten and I did it to get the rocks off you," said Trunks, before introducing himself. Gokéa bit her lip, then stood up. Suddenly, an orange light surrounded her- her short black hair grew a bit longer and turned blonde; her brown eyes went to a bluish-green. The Z-fighters looked at her in awe- with the exception of maybe Vegeta, none of them had ever seen a lady Saiyan before- not even Pan could do this.

"Is this it?" she asked. Goku nodded.

"Amazing," he said. "Simply amazing. And you don't need to be mad to achieve this?" Gokéa shook her head.

"No," she replied. "Why?" After Goten explained that he and Trunks were the only Saiyans they knew of that could power up without being angry, Gokéa just nodded. She then powered down to regular Saiyan and looked at her clothes. "I'm a bit of a mess, aren't I?" Goku nodded.

"Come with us to my house," he said. "My wife will be glad to help you freshen up." Gokéa smiled and gave a nod.

"Okay. Where do I go?"

"Can you fly?" asked Goten. "If not, I'll be glad to carry you." Gokéa smiled and slowly rose into the air. Goten's jaw dropped. "Well, that answers that question."

Meanwhile, watching to group from a nearby cliff was a black haired muscular man. He was watching Gokéa very closely and gritted his teeth.

"You're supposed to be dead, little one," he said. "But no matter." He smiled. "I'll let you have your reunion, Vegeta. But it shall be brief- when the time comes, I will finish the job I started twenty years ago."

Gokéa felt more than a little strange when she walked into Goku's house and saw all the people there. Considering the fact that she lived and traveled alone, she wasn't really used to seeing so many people at one time.

"Chichi," said Goku. "This is Gokéa. She's going to be staying with us for a while. Gokéa, this is my wife, Chichi." Chichi was a very pretty woman, with her black hair rolled in a bun on top of her head. She smiled very pleasantly at Gokéa, reminding the girl of her mother. But it was the little girl that caught her eye- black hair, brown eyes... adorable.

"Hello there," Gokéa said. "What's your name?"

"Pan," the girl replied with a shy smile. Gokéa nodded, then looked over at another girl- she was a bit older than Pan and had blue hair and green eyes.

"My name's Bulla!" she said excitedly, causing Gokéa to laugh, but before she could say any more, Chichi's motherly instinct took over.

"Pleased to meet you, Gokéa," she said. "Come with me and we'll get you cleaned up and I will find you something to wear."

"Thank you ma'am," Gokéa replied, politely and followed Chichi to the bathroom, which was in the back of the house. As Chichi started a shower, Gokéa got a good look at herself in a full size mirror hanging on the bathroom door. That's when she realized her tail- it had been showing. She usually tried her hardest to hide her tail, mostly because those who saw it usually tried to pull it off- not only did that hurt, but it drained her power a great deal. She was about to try and hide it again, when Chichi turned around to face her.

"There," she said. "I hope that isn't too hot for you..." She noticed Gokéa was trying to hide her tail, causing her to laugh. "Oh, you don't have to worry about your tail, Gokéa- Goku and Gohan used to have ones just like it... you know, I think I have some of Gohan's old clothes with the hole for the tail still in them. You just get yourself cleaned up and I'll see if I can find them." Chichi rushed out the door, muttering something about "until I can repair yours," leaving Gokéa to herself. The girl smiled as she prepared to hop into the shower.

"These are some crazy people I've landed with," she thought. "But they're pretty cool anyway."