Chapter 2 When Death comes Knocking on Your Door

Meanwhile on a far away planet in the Southern portion of the West Galaxy (For those of you who do not know earth is in the northern portion of the North Galaxy. I think... if I am wrong sorry)

Ichigo Kudamono, Princess of all Saiyans swept the warrior's feet from under him and then nailed him in the small of the back with her other foot. Her victim slammed into the far wall of the dojo and left a bloody streak on the wall when he fell. She glared at the remaining men in the room and then waited as the various warriors she was fighting slowly got back up.

"Is that the best you can do? You call yourselves warriors? Maybe you need to be sent to nursemaid children, you MIGHT be able to challenge them!" When none of the warriors made any effort to reply she yelled even louder. "Are you weaklings just giving up? Attack me! I need a challenge if I am to improve!" She yelled at them to incite them to attack harder.

Ichigo had figured out long ago that it was more effective to train against other people than it was to just do physical exercises. The only problem was that since she was the Crown Princess, she had trouble finding worthy people to train against. 'I hate it when they don't fight at their best.' She thought as she casually invited the seven remaining warriors forward to attack.

"That will be enough." A baritone voice said from the doorway.

Ichigo turned to see her father and Meron, the Captain of the Palace Guards and General of the Armies enter the room. Of the eleven people already in the room, only Ichigo did not attempt to take a knee. She just patiently waited to see why her father had interrupted her routine.

"Lieutenant Budo, I am disappointed in your teams performance in this trial. Therefore, I am transferring you and your combat team to Orchard Point were you will guard the hallowed until such time as you learn proper discipline or muster out of service." King Kudamono said to the man in charge of the warriors Ichigo had been training against.

Lieutenant Budo shot to his feet. "With all due respect Sir, I was not aware that this was a trial of evaluation!"

The King causually scratched his goatee, "And your performance would have been different had you known?"

"By all means sir!"

Ichigo chewed on her lip for a moment while glaring at the man. 'Advancement in rank is worth your effort? But I am not? You had better hope you never return from Orchard Point.' Ichigo seethed.

Her father had slowly let his hand drop after hearing what the Lieutenant had said. He turned to glance at Meron and then looked back at Budo. "Allow me to set this very clear. Ichigo is my daughter. As such she is due every bit of honor and respect you would show me. By deliberately disobeying her orders you were in effect disobeying me. I will not tolerate disrespect. You have been warned. Loose your misplaced chauvinism or your next failure will be your last. Is that clear?"

Budo cringed, "Yes sir!"

"Get out of my sight before I change my mind."

Budo and his men didn't even take the time to comment, and they were gone moments later.

Ichigo inwardly cringed. Orchard point was a former summer palace on the opposite side of the planet. During the Kudamono-Vegeta civil war, it was the sight of a battle in which over 400,000 Saiyans had killed each other in bloody combat. A military honor guard was kept there at all times. Too guard Orchard Point was said to be one of the most honorable postings in the entire military. But it was also a dead end posting. Most warriors return from those haunted grounds only shells of their former selves.

Meron cocked an eyebrow toward her father, "I wonder if they realize that their careers as warriors are over, or if they think that you are testing them to see if they can regain what little honor they have left."

Kudamono laughed. "Ichigo, care to answer that for me?"

Ichigo was used to being put on the spot, so she didn't answer right away, but took some time to think about the comment. "Um, as you well know General Meron, the answer to that is most likely both. If they find the discipline that they now lack they will be welcomed back, if not, then their failure today will only be the first in a string that will doom them."

Her father slowly shook his head. "Yes, that more or less sums it up. Budo is not a bad warrior, he has just been influenced a bit too far in the wrong direction. Since I consistently rotate a few more trusted people out to Orchard Point on shorter stays, I hope to influence them back into the fold."

"Ah, the old 'guide them gently and let them learn and they will love you, scold them strongly and force them to learn and they will hate you' ideology?" Meron said with a smirk. "There are many who say that you are weak because you allow people to learn from their mistakes you know."

The King laughed, "Good, let them think so. Misconceptions can sometimes be the most dangerous and easily manipulated of things. For instance, Ichigo here does not realize she likes to leave an opening in her defenses on her left back side." He said turning to look at his daughter.

Ichigo bristled. "I do not have a blind spot in my defenses!" She said back to her father.

He smirked. "Is that so? Meron, would you be so kind as to teach my daughter that she really does leave an opening to attack."

"I shall do my best." Meron said as he walked to the center of the training room opposite Ichigo.

Ichigo watched him warily. The only word that could describe Meron was the term massive. He stood 2.1 meters tall, and weighed in around 150 kg. Ichigo surrendered 35 centimeters of height and 90 kg to him. He had a good deal higher power level and a lot more combat experience. Warriors like him didn't find holes in their opponent's defenses; they made holes where they wanted them.

Ichigo creped back a bit and crouched some. She also turned to present her right side to him and slid her left foot back as she couched. This presented a far smaller target to him, and still allowed her to be just as quick and nimble.

Meron started to circle. "No Ki attacks, pure physical." He instructed.

Ichigo had turned with him to continue presenting him with her right side. She nodded at his comment and frowned. Denied the use of her ki attacks, she would have to move within his extensive reach to be able to attack. Then there was the fact that Meron was a grapple and throw type of fighter. If he got a handhold on her, the fight would be over. 'Then again, this is only a defensive exercise. I don't have to hurt him, just keep myself from being hurt.' Ichigo set her jaw and half squinted as she glared at Meron. 'Forget that, the best defense is a good offense.'

Ichigo dropped to the floor and lunged forward sweeping her feet in front of her. When Meron started to jump over the expected leg sweep, Ichigo rolled to her side and bouncing off her knee and right hand, she forced herself into the air. Pirouetting in the air, she kicked Meron in the face.

Meron tucked himself into a ball and flipped backwards. As he spun through the air, he lashed out with both legs and kicked Ichigo hard in the back. She spun through the air for several meters befor she regained control of her flight. Stopping in midair she turned to face Meron.

"Is that the best you can do?" He taunted, "I would have thought the Princess could do better."

Ichigo grimaced and glared back down at him. "Not going to work Meron. I know you are not a closed minded bigot, and I also know that I am fighting with an extreme disadvantage right now. You excel at close ranged combat."

Meron shrugged. "And your point would be? You are setting yourself up to lose this fight. I am not going to let you out the easy way by beating you quickly. If you don't actually try, I can make this very slow and painful."

"That hardly seems fair since you won't let me use ranged ki attacks." Ichigo retorted.

Meron chuckled. "Yeah, well life's a bitch isn't it?" He said as he flew at her.

Ichigo decided to change her strategy. She shot straight up to the ceiling ten stories above her and then flipped to push off of it. She then spent the next half hour bouncing from wall to wall avoiding Meron for the most part and only trying for quick hit and run punches, jabs, and kicks. Meron connected a few times, but for the most part, he just followed her around and blocked her attacks.

"You do realize that if you want to wear me out, you will have to keep this pace up for at least another several days, do you not?" Meron asked as she once again bounced off of a wall a few meters in front of him.

This time however, she performed back flip and flew straight at him. He blocked with his hands and caught her fists. This being what she wanted, she used the force of the collision to slingshot herself around and slammed her right knee into his nose.

Meron let go so she brought her left leg up to smash her foot into his jaw and then kicked him again in the neck with her left foot.

That was when he slammed the tip of his right foot into her back. The blow struck her on her left side right by her kidney. She felt something in her back pop and pain shot up her spine.

"Ahhh!" She gasped as the blow stunned her for a moment. That moment was all Meron needed to rap both of his hands around her left thigh right above her knee and throw her into the floor.

She landed flat on her back and made a nice Ichigo sized indentation in the granite tiles. Meron landed next to her and non-to-gently kicked her left hip with his foot. "Now what was this about not having a weak defense on your left side?"

Ichigo grumbled under her breath and sat up and rubbed her back. "Meron, please don't patronize me. You and my father have been able to do just about anything you wanted with me for as long as I can remember. Tomorrow you will claim I have a blind spot to my right and I have no doubt that no matter what I do, you will find a way to prove it." She finished and finally looked up at him. "Ouch!" She said as she saw his smashed face. She had broken his nose and smashed his bottom teeth through his top lip. A fairly large stream of blood flowed down his face.

He casually wiped blood off of his face, "Yes, I commend you on your attack. I was expecting something along those lines, but you got through my guard far better then I did to you. However, that is of little importance, you still would be dead if this had been real combat. Don't let a lucky string of attacks blind you to your opponent's actions."

"I will try harder."

"No doubt, I fully expect you to beat Meron shortly, but do me a favor, Ichigo. Don't kill him; I really would miss his advice. All three of those kicks were powerful enough to kill just about anyone." The King said as he walked over carrying the clipboard onto which Ichigo had posted her training notes.

Ichigo shuddered. "I wasn't trying to kill him, but he was the one who insisted on purely physical combat. How else was I supposed to hit him hard enough to get him to stop?"

Kudamono laughed. "Indeed, I tend to have the same problem when I spar with him. Just be careful not to let your need to win overshadow your judgment. This exercise was about blocking and defense, not attacking. While your strategy almost worked, you would have probably been better served to let him go on the offensive."

Ichigo nodded and turned to look at Meron. "You know you're bleeding all over the floor. There's a medkit right over there" She said pointing.

"Don't bother with the medkit, go to the infirmary and see if you can get that checked out. If you can, meet me at the Parade Grounds in twenty minutes or so." Her father ordered.

"I'll be there." Meron said befor quickly leaving the room.

Once they were alone, the King turned and looked at his daughter. "You are trying too hard. You don't have to prove yourself to anyone Ichigo."

She looked up at him. "Yes I do. You saw how Budo acted. And then there is Captain Banana and many many like them. Meron would do anything for either of us. He doesn't share the ideologies of most of the troops. In a few years I am going to be expected to be able to order warriors to their deaths. I have no doubt that they would follow those orders, but I want them to WANT to follow my orders. You hardly ever even have to order people, they just do it because they trust you and practically worship your lead. If I cannot even prove I deserve their respect, how am I ever to gain their trust?"

"By being who you are, not who they think you should be." He father said as he grabbed her shoulders and directed her towards the door. "What the men like Captain Banana forget is that you no more chose to be female, then he chose to be male. We are what we are. We can, however, make choices that change who we are. By those choices you will win them over one by one, dear."

"But they don't care, they look no further then my title Princess and they hate me for it."

Her father sighed. "Ichigo, what those fools forget is that we have 5,000,000 warriors on this planet. Almost 2,000,000 of them are women. They fight just as well as the men they are stationed with. Many of them fight better. What you both forget, however, is that there are well over 200 million people on Saiya. We have a strong warrior tradition, but that is not all we are. Just because Crown Princesses are rare, does not make them unfit to rule."

Ichigo looked up at her father. 'Rare? Dad, there are 2 males born for every one female. The last time a Crown Princess was born into the Royal family and actually lived to take the throne was 1,241 years ago!' "Father, what has it been, eight generations since the last time there even was a princess let alone a Crown Princess destined to inherit the throne?"

Kudamono laughed. "Okay, so you have me. Rarity and time do not change the fact that there is absolutely nothing that would make you unfit to lead. You let them get to you far too easily. My suggestion: beat the crap out of them."

This brought a smile to her lips. "And here I thought you were scolding me for being too willing to fight."

King Kudamono just shook his head. "At times you are just a bit, anyway, now we can get back to your training." He said as he brought out the clipboard from behind his back. "I notice you have a lot of combat drills planned but almost nothing for speed and endurance drills."

'That would be because I hate speed drills' Ichigo thought to herself as she waited to see what her father had planned.

"Well, I need to correct this. Follow me, I have something special set up." He said as he turned around and walked out of the room.

"Great, that man had this planned the entire time. I have got to learn how to manipulate people like he can." Ichigo said to herself as she started out the door.

--

A few minutes later Ichigo and her father arrived at the Palace entrance to the Catacombs.

'Why did I know he was going to make me do a Catacomb run?' Ichigo thought as she grimaced.

The Catacombs were not actually catacombs. They were a massive network of tunnels that meandered around under the Capital city of Hayashi. Since her father wanted Meron to meet him at the Parade Grounds, she guessed that that was where she would have to go. The Parade Grounds were only 10 km from the Palace, so it would take her father next to no time to get there. Through the Catacombs, however, it could be anywhere from 500 to 5000 km away depending on which traps, dead ends and side tunnels her father had ordered to be used for this exercise.

King Kudamono looked at a clock which on a near by wall. "Meet me at the Parade Grounds in ten minutes.

Ichigo rolled her eyes. "Sure thing, don't be late." She said back as she darted into the dark tunnel.

Ichigo brought her ki to the surface of her skin and produced a bright pinkish red aura. The maze of tunnels had no light. Since it was strictly forbidden to take lights or scouters down in the tunnels, her aura was her only source of light.

Being forced to fly very fast in a timed trial through hairpin turns, dead ends, traps that could wound or kill, and various other Saiyans who had been posted as "hunters" made the Catacomb run one of the most dangerous if not the most dangerous training and trial grounds in the Saiyan military. Normal warriors were not even allowed in them until they had finished their first tour of duty at the age of 20. Ichigo almost had the locations of the more dangerous stationary traps memorized.

As she practically flew into a wall in a dead end, however, she realized that the other problem with the Catacombs was that doors could open or close, walls could move and traps were never really the same twice. It was never the same so memory was not an aid.

Ichigo was starting to grow tired. Keeping an aura glowing took massive amounts of energy. Flying very fast also took a lot of energy. Doing both at the same time while avoiding laser beams, ki blasts, falling nets, titanium darts, acid jets, and fire traps was not the easiest thing to do. She knew she was getting closer to where she needed to be because every several km, there was a map that had a you are here sticker on it. The map was of the city above, so stopping to look at it would not help her one bit. But, the dots were generally moving towards the Parade Grounds.

Ichigo had to totally stop twice. Once when she flew into a box trap and had to beat her way through a meter of titanium. And once to make sure she had not accidentally killed a misfortunate warrior who had jumped her near a spike trap and had been knocked in when Ichigo had not even slowed at the sight of the woman.

As she neared the exit, she flew into a room with thousands of pipes and bars running from floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall. Ichigo quickly started using her hands, feet, and tail to swing and slingshot from bar to bar across the room.

Then she saw Captain Banana waiting for her in front of the exit. 'Fubar! First my dad makes me fight the second strongest after him, and now I have to get past the third strongest warrior. How can my life get any better?'

Ichigo got set to fight Banana when she realized something, 'all I have to do is get past him. If I drift to the left, I can grab that pipe and slingshot behind him to that other pipe and then use it to slingshot out the door.'

A smirk formed on her lips as she juked to the left and Banana mimicked her movements. She grabbed the bar with her right hand and shot around in a tight arc. As she flew towards the last pipe, she shot twisted in the air to avoid a ki blast, and shot several ki blasts at Banana to keep him back.

Ichigo's smirk turned into a full-blown grin as she arced her back and reached out with her tail to slingshot around the last pipe and out the door.

Her tail grabbed the pipe and Ichigo howled in pain as thousands of volts of electricity shot through her tail and up her spine. The muscles in her tail wanted to spasm and grab tighter to the pipe, but she forced them to relax. Her momentum threw her against the far wall and she bounced rather roughly out the door of the Catacombs and flopped onto her face in the freshly fallen snow.

Someone grabbed her arm and rolled her over. The next thing she knew she was looking up at Meron and her father. "Am I allowed to say that that really hurt?" she asked feebly.

Meron laughed. "Well, she's still alive." With cotton shoved up his nose, and a stiff dried skin growth gel on his lip, he sounded strangely stuffy.

"Yes, and she even made it here in less then 12 minutes. Not a bad time for covering 3,000 km.

"Sir, King Kudamono, I am sorry to interrupt, but you have an important diplomatic message incoming sir." A young aide said as he suddenly flew up.

"Hmm, well duty calls." He said. He looked down at Ichigo, "Get your tail looked at, you took enough energy there that you could have nerve damage."

Ichigo watched as her father and the aide flew away. 'Nerve damage is the least of my worries' She thought to herself. 'Speaking of worries, here one of them comes now.' She thought as Banana walked out of the Catacombs.

The warrior sneered at her. "Is that the best you can do Princess? Pathetic. Had your father not lowered the power use of that conduit, we would be sweeping up ashes rather the worrying about you poor tender tail."

Ichigo heard several joints in Meron's hands pop. "Ignore him Princess, that conduit is at maximum capacity."

Banana snorted. "Impossible."

"No, what is impossible is the thought that you won't be put down like the slime you are if you don't stop this treasonous line of thought" Meron said threateningly.

Banana bristled. "My duty here is finished, I am returning to my normal duties now Sir."

"Very well." Meron deadpanned as Banana took to the air and flew away.

Meron looked down at Ichigo and shook his head. "Well, child, let us get you out of the cold before you freeze in it."

"I am not a child!" Ichigo scolded.

Meron just cocked an eye at her in an expression of sarcastic mirth. Had he been anyone else she probably would have beaten him to a fraction of his life for it.

--

Ichigo moped back towards her private rooms in the palace. Her examination had gone well. Other then singed fur and tender skin; her tail was no worse for wear.

'I just made myself look like a fool in front of Banana. I am sure to hear about this again. Probably for the rest of my life.' Ichigo thought as she walked up a sweeping grand staircase.

Ichigo stopped to look at the painting that hung at one of the balconied landings overlooking the Grand Hall. The woman in the painting was clearly a warrior. She wore navy armor with a white bodysuit, and a cape that was the color of fresh blood that was just starting to dry. Her long wild hair was held in place by a simple platinum coronet. Her cape was latched to a platinum and gold pendant that bore the Royal Crest and a symbol for the planet Saiya. The woman had high cheekbones and a smallish pert nose. Her navy eyes matched the color of her armor and held the look of mischief. Finally, her mouth was set in a smirking yet stoic smile. It made her look as though she was trying to look formal, yet was inwardly laughing her head off about something. A placard on the frame stated the woman's name simply: Nashi Kudamono.

Ichigo's eyes filled with tears. 'Hi, Mom. I miss you.' She thought as she wiped the tears from her eyes. 'You always knew how to cheer me up. You were always so happy. I hope you are watching us from wherever you are now. I could really use a guardian angel.'

Ichigo shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. 'Stop it. Even here you can't allow yourself to indulge in childish fantasies.' She mentally scolded herself. 'Well, a bit of reminiscing never hurt anyone.'

Ichigo didn't really know why, but talking or in this case, thinking to this painting always made her feel better. The painting was a wedding gift from her father to her mother. However, it was supposedly painted before the wedding. It was painted with her actually modeling herself illegally decked out to look like the queen that she would not be for several days. Just so that it could be shown to the people after the wedding. 'Dad always said you hated this painting. He said you were so mad at for forcing you to waste your time and get painted. Oh, Mom, I remember when this painting hung in Dad's office. He misses you even more than I do. He loved you so much.' Ichigo smiled as she looked at her mother's face. 'I remember the first time I heard Dad talk about what you are laughing about. I was 8. He was talking with several men, and he said that after the painting was done, yet before you were actually married. He said that you said that he could marry the painting if he liked it so much. He told Meron and a few others that after the wedding you wouldn't sleep in the same bed for a while. He said that you said he could get his pleasures from the painting.' Ichigo laughed to herself. 'Took me awhile to figure out why all the men laughed so hard.'

Ichigo chuckled, shook her head and looked down at herself. 'Well, you didn't keep him waiting for long, and he has had to put up with me ever since.'

Ichigo smiled and gently brushed her fingers along the frame of the painting. "I hope I am making you proud, Mom. I miss you." She finally said aloud before turning away and walking up the stairs.

Ichigo had once actually held long drawn out conversations with the painting. Momo had forced her to stop talking aloud to it. Ichigo was seen as odd enough, people didn't need to think she was insane.

Upon entering her rooms, she opened the double doors leading to her balcony and walked out onto it. From her balcony she could see almost all of Hayashi. Snow was gently falling, and it was starting to grow dark. Children played in the street far below the palace. Their laughter carried on the wind as they pummeled each other with snowballs. At the sight and sounds, Ichigo smiled and hugged herself in the wind. 'Oh to be innocent and carefree again.'

She next walked into her bathroom and took a long hot shower. Wrapping herself in a towel big enough to hide an elephant, she walked into her bedchamber flopped onto her bed, and quickly fell asleep.

--

Ichigo was awakened by Momo as the woman slammed the balcony doors shut. "Dear child, that towel may be comfortable, but if you expect it to protect you from the night's chill you will catch your death of cold!"

Ichigo made sure she was still wrapped in the towel and sat up in her bed. "Momo, every race we know of catches what every race we know of calls the cold. To my knowledge, no Saiyan has ever been made sick for more then a few hours by this illness."

"It is a saying, and you know that. Even if you wouldn't get sick the cold night would still freeze you to death if you let it." Momo said as she walked around the bed to sit near Ichigo. Momo immediately started fussing with Ichigo's hair. "How many times do I have to tell you not to sleep with your hair loose if you expect it to go back into a braid? Nashi took such good care of her hair."

Ichigo turned away from the shorthaired woman. "I stopped counting. Now would you please let me go back to sleep?" Ichigo asked petulantly.

Momo made a tsk sound and gently pulled Ichigo's head around to look at her. "You may be the Princess, but your father really needs to teach you better manners. Is that anyway to treat your only aunt?"

"Yes. Especially when you won't let me sleep!" Ichigo said sullenly.

Momo laughed. Momo was Nashi's older sister. She was a non-warrior. Actually, she was something of a healer or nurse. She couldn't use her ki to actually heal people, no one could do that, (at least to Ichigo's knowledge), but she could soothe the pain and ease the mind. She worked in the palace as Ichigo's primary tutor in all things non-martial arts or governing. She was, however, in reality Ichigo's surrogate mother. This was really all part of a game the two of them played. Momo would nag, and Ichigo would whine back.

Ichigo loved her as much as she allowed herself to love anyone. Momo was always there, even in the few moments when her father could not be.

"Well, I just came up to warn you, the palace is in an uproar. The Changelings have made some threats and people are panicking. I just thought you would want to get dressed before your father or one of his men comes up here to get you."

She looked down at her towel. "Good point," she conceded.

--

Less then five minutes later, Ichigo was in her father's private office.

"This is the message I received earlier. I thought you would like to see it." King Kudamono said as he pushed the play button. The message started and the terrible blue, purple and white face of Blizzard appeared on the screen.

"Ah, so nice to see you good King Kudamono. I am coming to visit you. I have put up with your existence long enough. And I am not going to let a stupid monkey kill me like Cold and his son Frieza did!"

'Huh? What is he talking about??'

"You see, I captured an unusual ship near the Firbald nebula. There was a pathetic green man who called himself a Namekian inside. I was going to interview him, but he seemed to know what I was. He made a ludicrous statement that a Saiyan had killed all of my kind. Unfortunately for him he stopped talking after he realized that I had no idea what he was talking about. I had to kill him. "

"I will not allow any stupid monkeys to challenge me even if your Super Saiyan is just a myth! I am coming to kill anyone with a power higher than 10,000 and enslave the rest!" Oh, please attempt to resist me! That would make it, oh, so much more fun!"

Ichigo sat there staring at the now blank screen for what seemed like forever before her father spoke. "What options do you think we have?"

Ichigo jumped. 'Why is he asking me?' "Father, I don't know. We have to fight them. There is no other way."

King Kudamono stroked his goatee. "I know, but we cannot hope to stand against a Changeling and their brute squads. You have a power level of just barely over 26,000 and you are in the top 1 percent of all Saiyans. From the Cartesians, we know that the Changelings are at least more powerful than 500,000. Even with a full moon which is impossible without a moon we would not last."

Ichigo felt her jaw drop. 'Father sounds defeated. He never gives up. What is going on?' "But we could make a stand!"

"Yes, we could, but there is something else we can do."

Ichigo couldn't think of anything at all that would help. 'Nothing can stop a Changeling when they had their mind set on destruction. Even if Blizzard was afraid of the mythical Super Saiyan, that was all it is, a myth.'

Seeing that Ichigo wasn't going to start guessing, the king spoke, "Blizzard is afraid of Super Saiyans. From the information he gave us we can be fairly certain that he was talking about the Saiyans that traveled with Cold and his sons. If one of them really is a Super Saiyan they might be able to save us all. I am going to send you through the wormhole to search out the surviving Vegeta renegades."

"WHAT!? You can't be serious! They were as bad as the Changelings are! How can they help? Besides, I have to stay and fight! We can hold them off for a little while if we try!"

"Yes, a little while, but in the end you and I and any other Saiyan with a power level higher than 10,000 will be dead. I cannot trust the followers of the Vegeta family, but I can trust that if they did kill their changeling masters, they might want to kill more of them."

"And when they're done, they will kill us and take over! How is getting one enemy to stop another any better?" Ichigo demanded.

"Because at least the other Saiyans might let us live! Do you really think Blizzard will stop before every one of us is dead? If you stayed, you would be one of the first to die. You are royalty. So I am sending you and our hope with you. Go and pack your things now. Say good-bye to Momo and any of your friends, but be quick about it. There is not much time. Hopefully, I will see you again." Her father said.

From the tone of his voice Ichigo knew that he thought that he was sending her out on a mission that he did not expect to work. She watched him for a few moments and then turned to leave. It felt wrong to leave. It was cowardly. But she couldn't argue with her father.

--

She ran up to her room and grabbed a few keepsakes and mementoes. Two sets of her formal armor and several sets of normal training clothes. She was taking one last look at her room when Momo came in carrying several books and looking quite upset.

"I've just heard. Oh, you poor dear. Being sent into the lair of the Enemy to save us from the clutches of a different foe."

Ichigo put her bags down. "Momo, I don't want to go."

Momo reached out and gave Ichigo's shoulders a squeze. "But you have to. Our hope rides with you."

"But..." Ichigo started to say, but was shushed.

"I have several documentary files, and books from the Civil war. You are to take them and learn what you can about the Vegeta Rebels."

Ichigo took the books and memory disks and put them in her bag. "I will be back, Momo. You can't fight, but I suggest hiding in the Catacombs if the Changelings start killing everyone."

Momo paused for a moment. "That is good advice, I will gather those that I can if things go from bad to worse."

"I will be back." Ichigo said as she turned towards the door. "I don't have time, but could you tell Sakura, Ume, and Ringo that I will be back. And that I will miss them."

"I know you will dear, and I will tell them. I have something else for you though. Please take this. It was your mother's. She gave it to me on her deathbed." Momo said as she gave Ichigo a simple golden ring with a dark almost black sapphire set into it.

Ichigo closed her fingers on the ring looked at Momo one last time and quickly headed for the spaceport.

Her father waited for her at the ramp of a fairly good-sized ship. He handed her a memory disk. "This is your mission briefing. I know you are not a simple warrior, but if you are to be accepted by the Vegeta rebels you will need to follow them very closely." He paused and pulled an object from a small velvet covered box. It was wrapped in felt, and Ichigo hadn't a clue what it was until he unwrapped it. "I want you to take this with you."

It was her mother's pendant. Actually it was the queen's pendant. It was ageless, it was priceless, and only the King or Queen could legally touch it. "Father, I can't. I can't take that with me. It would be wrong."

"No Ichigo. If you return, when you return, you will most likely be Queen. That is not a problem or even the reason for me giving this to you now. I am sending you away on a mission to save our people. To do that you need to remember what you are and who you fight for." He held the pendant up. "Never forget who and why you are fighting, and you will return home a savior."

Ichigo gently took the pendant and carefully wrapped it back up. She put it back into its box and added it to her luggage. After a young warrior had loaded everything into her ship, she came back out and hugged her father. "I love you, Father. I'm coming back for you."

King Kudamono said nothing but gently patted his daughter's back.

Twenty minutes later Ichigo wiped tears from her eyes as she watched the blue green world that was her home fade in the distance. 'Why do I feel like a rat abandoning a sinking ship? Why do I feel like I will never see my home again? And why do I feel so empty inside?'

--

To my fellow Americans who either do not know and therefore cannot think in International Units, or don't want to take the time, Meron is 6'11" and 325lbs, this would make Ichigo almost 5'9" and about 135 lbs. I work with so much IU, that I practically think in Metric. So since DBZ is Japanese, and they use Metric there, I thought it would be fitting to use metric.

Special thanks to Kitsune Maxwell, who has once again made this fic readable by editing it. Everyone go to kitsuneden. She has a cool Round Robin story going anyone with creativity is challenged to add to it. She also has the original version of this fic for those of you who would like to read it. Oh, and some good poetry.

Check out The Vegeta Redemption. Jimbo changed his sign in so I forget what his name is at the moment, but once search is up again just search for "The Vegeta Redemption." Good fic.

Other notes. The Mystic Cetra's fic What happened when you awoke is turning out nicely.

Well thanks all!! Please review or Email me. I want to hear your comments!