"Come on, I don't wanna have to kill you." Goku said. "Are you gonna stop this?"
"N - Never!" Maple growled. "I'll never let either of you get away with what happened to Zarbon!"
"Kakarotto, just kill her!" Vegeta protested. "She's just like her brother, she's trouble."
"Go on then!" Maple yelled. "Betcha can't!" she smirked at Goku. "You don't have the guts."
"Kakarotto, finish the little brat!" Vegeta ordered.
"And you," Maple looked at Vegeta. "You're so weak! You may have defeated Zarbon, but you're no match for me or my sisters! Even if I die, they'll make you look like road kill!" she smirked at him, too. "Hey, but they wouldn't have to do much, would they?"
"That's IT!! Move over, Kakarotto, I'll kill her!"
"Vegeta, no -" Goku cried out as Vegeta pushed him off her. Vegeta glared at Maple.
"You little - "
"Ha!" Maple punched him. She climbed to her feet. "I tricked you! You're so proud, it makes you dumb!" she started attacking him.
"Didn't I tell you not to?!" Goku protested. He rescued Vegeta from her again.
"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!" Maple roared angrily as Goku held her to him by her arms.
"Calm down." he ordered.
"Let GO OF ME!!!" Maple screamed. She started to kick, thrashing her legs to try and escape his grip. "Let go let go let go LET GO!!!"
The door opened.
"Hm?" all three of them turned their heads to see who it was. Piccolo stood there. He noticed Goku and Maple.
"I guess she's already arrived, then." he made his way over to them. He looked at Vegeta, and smirked. The saiyan prince was covered in cuts and bruises. Mostly around his face.
"Geez, when she said she'd kill you she wasn't kidding."
"You knew she was coming?! Why didn't you say anything?!" Vegeta demanded.
"Because I knocked him out." Maple boasted. "It was easy, he's SO weak!"
"Shut your mouth brat!" Piccolo snapped, glaring at her. "Anyway, if you're so hellbent on avenging your brother, why didn't you just kill me? I was responsible for him and his friends, too."
"She can't kill. She doesn't have the guts. She just tries to show off." Vegeta said snidely. Maple jerked her head to glare at him.
"I can kill you, Turnip Head!!"
"You - -" Vegeta shot her an angered look.
"I don't think you're capable of killing. I don't care how strong you are, you're just a puny little girl when it comes down to it." Piccolo said to Maple.
"Shut up!!" Maple shouted. "I can too kill you!"
"Goku, let her go." Piccolo ordered.
"Are you sure?" Goku looked at him.
"Let her go."
"...." Goku released Maple. Maple pulled away, and stood opposite Piccolo. She watched him.
"Come on, then. Kill me. Didn't you just say you could?" Piccolo challenged. Goku and Vegeta watched the two of them. Maple stood, staring at her opponent. Piccolo did the same.
"......" Maple frowned, and got into her fighting stance. Piccolo remained motionless.
"Well?" he said. "I'm waiting."
"...." Maple relaxed, and retrieved back to her standing position. "I'm a little tired now. I'll do it tomorrow." she said.
"No." Piccolo replied. "Do it now."
"...... After I've built up my energy." Maple headed for the door, walking in a way that still gave her her pride. "I like to be at my best when I fight someone - even someone as weak as you." she left the room.
The three remaining bodies just stood there for a few seconds.
"Geez, that girl has issues ^_^" Goku commented.
"You should have killed her, Kakarotto." Vegeta told him.
"But she's not a bad kid. I really don't think she's that much of threat. She's just a lonely girl who loved her brother."
"She's hardly lonely. She's got two sisters." Piccolo argued.
"Yeah, but she's still an orphan. She's not like you, Vegeta, she never even knew her parents."
"How do you know that? She could have gone to that orphanage when she was a kid, for all you know." Vegeta replied.
"I guess...."
~~~~~
"So how do you know this girl?" Bulma asked. They were all in the living room. Maple had stormed out of Capsule Corps. Who knows where she'd gone. Although they all knew she'd be back.
"I met her and her sisters when I was seventeen." Vegeta began. "Nappa, Raditz and myself had been sent to purge her home planet."
"My brother knew her?" Goku asked.
"That's right." Vegeta nodded. "Probably fancied her, actually."
"Huh?!" Goku's eyes widened. Vegeta smirked.
"He fancied her and she fancied you. Geez, it's like a soap opera!" Bulma exclaimed. "Next you'll be telling me that you only met her because one of them fancied Frieza!"
"Yep. Her little sister. Leela." Vegeta said.
"Oh, this just get better and better." Piccolo rolled his eyes.
"Okay, start from the beginning. You three are on their planet, what happened then?" Bulma asked.
"I lost Nappa and Raditz. When I was on my own, I bumped in Leela. A saiyan."
"A saiyan?!" Goku gasped.
"A super saiyan. She did it like it was nothing." Vegeta replied.
"What, does everyone on that planet have superstrength?" Piccolo mumbled sarcastically.
"They're so strong because their mother's a billionaire." Vegeta answered. "She's famous. Ever heard of the Samedin Arena? The universe's most advanced, nigh - tech training facility is owned by her. In fact, she owns a whole city on that planet. An orphanage, clubs, restaurants, the arena. It has everything. And that's why they're so strong. They train a lot. Especially Maple. But her older sister's still stronger than her and she doesn't even train as much."
"Her older sister?" Bulma asked.
"Zarbon's biological sister. He and his sister were the first to go to the orphanage. I think he was about five and Silvia was ten. Samedin loved them so much she adopted them. Then, Maple came. She was eight, the same age as Zarbon. Finally, Leela came along. But she was a baby. Abandoned on that planet. She's my age."
"So Leela took you back home with her?" Goku figured.
"I was amazed at her strength, and convinced that a super saiyan would be able to kill Frieza." Vegeta continued. "So, we found Nappa and Raditz, and waited. Frieza had given us about six hours to purge the planet. After our time was up, he came down to see where the hell we were."
"But she wasn't strong enough." Piccolo said.
"I don't know, she never tried to kill him." Vegeta replied. "She has this thing about fairy tale princes. He was a prince. Rich, and in her opinion, handsome. She fell in love with him at first sight and asked him to marry her. He would have refused but then he realized that he was on the planet famous for the Samedin Arena. He pretended to love her so he could meet her mother and get the blueprints for the arena. So Nappa, Raditz and I went with Frieza back to her house. She insisted that we all come. And that was where I met her sisters, and found out about Zarbon. Zarbon came, too. They had a nice little reunion."
"Did Frieza get those blueprints?" Bulma asked.
"Wait, Maple said she helped you...?" Goku said.
"Yeah..." Vegeta mumbled. "Maple and Silvia were talking about Leela and Frieza.... She was a saiyan. A saiyan in love with a changeling. I... they gave me ideas. Saiyans and changelings can mate, believe it or not. I was afraid that Frieza would fall in love with her and, as Silvia put it, the saiyan race would be "revived."
"Saiyans with scales and lizard tails." Goku smirked. Vegeta reddened.
"That was exactly what she and Maple said."
"So basically, they helped you stop Frieza from falling in love with Leela." Bulma guessed.
"That's right. They wanted to stop him falling for her, anyway, because they didn't want to lose her to him, too. Zarbon had left them to work for Frieza. Also, Zarbon wanted to help."
"Why?" Goku asked.
"..... Zarbon kinda... wanted Frieza for himself..."
"... Oh."
Piccolo leaned back in his chair.
"This all sounds like a bad teen movie if you ask me." he said.
"I suppose it would sound kind of stupid. Looking back on it now, it seems childish." Vegeta shook his head. "Anyway, in the end, after we'd gone to the Samedin Night Club - where Zarbon and his sisters perform - we pretty much left. Frieza didn't fall for Leela. Samedin didn't give him the blueprints he wanted, and Leela and her sisters basically just scared him away."
"And now Maple wants to kill you." Goku mumbled. He looked at Vegeta. "How strong are her sisters? Is it worthwhile getting ready for them?"
"Well, if Maple's that strong now and when she was thirty she was..." Vegeta seemed to be working it out. "We could take on one her sister if we both fought her together. But two of them? We're screwed. Her older sister's probably stronger than you, Kakarotto."
"Yeah, but does she have the guts to kill anyone? That girl just seemed to fake it." Piccolo said.
"I.... don't honestly know.... possibly..." Vegeta mumbled.
"Wait, but how's she gonna get her sisters to come help her?" Bulma asked. "Didn't you say she crash - landed? Everything she had to communicate with is broken, right?"
"Oh yeah, that's true..." Goku muttered. "Well, maybe we should be careful anyway."
"She won't do anything." Piccolo stood up.
"But it's still worth getting prepared." Goku replied.
"I guess so. You know where to find me, anyway." Piccolo left the room.
~~~~~
Maple leaned back, her legs out in front of her and her arms holding her up. She stared up at the sunset as she lay under the sky. Earth was quite similar to her home planet, except there weren't half as many different races. The Samedin Orphanage had different races coming from all over the universe. Mostly because of its high reputation, but also because some planets didn't have orphanages because the majority of the popularity preferred to just kill any unwanted children, and because they didn't like to adopt. Maple and her siblings had all gone to Zeek for the first reason. Zarbon and Silvia had been sent to Zeek because it was a good orphanage, and Maple had been sent there because nobody seemed to have the time for her. Leela, sadly, was just abandoned. It seemed that her saiyan mother had been on vacation or something on Zeek when she'd given birth, and hadn't wanted the child.
"Leela..." Maple mumbled. She sighed. Oh, if only Zarbon and Leela had gotten along a little better... but she hadn't had the chance to tell him.... And Silvia and Maple, they'd just taken him for granted. His death was the cruelest way to teach them that every opportunity should be taken. Maple followed that now like a religion. She believed so strongly that you should never take things for granted, never put things off 'til tomorrow or the day after or the day after. Because you never know what's round the corner. You could never have another chance.
She lay down, staring up at the sky.
"I'm sorry, Zarbon..." she promised. "But I'll avenge you. And you know me. I always keep my word."