Disclaimer; I don't own DBZ so please don't sue!

A/N; FIANALLY! I am so sorry for not updating sooner, but as I'm sure you know, I've been busy and sick. Anyway, I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint too much, I've been working my very best to get it out sooner, but oh well, it's here now. Enjoy. ~D.B

And Then You'll Know

Chapter 5

There was an eerie feeling looming over the palace, something wasn't right and everyone knew it. 18 was sitting out in the garden, under a big shady tree. She was supposed to be weeding the garden but her theory was 'screw it' weeding the stupid garden could wait. It was extremely hot and she was in an extremely bad mood, but then again, so was everyone.

18 knew something was wrong, and she had the feeling that it wasn't only going to affect the people inside the confines of the palace walls, but every being on Vegeta-sei.

She opened her eyes and stood up, she could her someone coming. When the person rounded the corner 18 cursed under her breath. It just had to be her, didn't it.

"Madam Chi-chi" she said, trying her hardest to sound like she didn't want to scratch that bitch's eyeballs out.

"Yes 18," said Chi-chi as she smoothed out the short blue dress she was wearing. "I need you to find my brother and give this to him" Chi-chi handed 18 a folded piece of paper.

"Which brother?" asked 18, hoping against hope that it wasn't the short one. She was in no mood to deal with him right now.

"Vegeta," replied Chi-chi "And if you read that paper, I will kill you" stated Chi-chi flatly and she walked off.

18 shoved the paper in her pocket and went off in search of Vegeta.

She found him about 10 minutes later, he was just roaming the corridors doing nothing important. Though it looked like he had a lot on his mind.

"Excuse me, Prince Vegeta" she called out to him. Vegeta stopped in his tracks and turned to face 18.

"What?", he snapped "What the hell do you want?". 18 came to a stop in front of Vegeta and pulled the now crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket. "This is from you sister" she said. Vegeta snatched the paper off 18 and stormed off in the other direction.

"You're welcome. Prick" 18 muttered under her breath, then she headed back out to the garden.

***

"What's next on the list 17?" asked Tarie as she flipped her long brown hair over her shoulder. The sun was shining down on them, both 17 and Tarie were convinced it had to be one of the hottest days in Vegeta-sei's history.

17 squinted his blue eyes and looked at the list "I don't know, I can hardly read this hand writing". Tarie snatched the paper off 17 then looked at him disapprovingly. "You need glasses man," she said "It says herbs and spices"

17 shrugged his shoulders and followed Tarie to another section of the market place. "It all looks like scribble to me".

Tarie looked around and smiled, it was a rare pleasure to be allowed out side the palace. But once a month two lucky people were sent to the market place to get goods for the kitchen. This month it was their turn. She had thought about just running away and never returning to that hell they had to live in. But Tarie knew there were guard's following her and 17 around, she had seen them several times already, it was just because of the plain and simple fact that the royal family didn't trust the slaves as far as they could throw them. And judging by the weight of the slaves and the strength of the royals, that was pretty damn far.

"Ah here we are," said Tarie as she approached a wagon full of herbs and spices. "Just what we were looking for". Soon all the items on the list had been purchased and 17 and Tarie began the long journey up the big hill to the palace.

"Hey Tarie, did you notice something strange at the market place?" asked 17. While it was true he hadn't been to the market place very often, he knew when something wasn't right, and today, something wasn't right.

"Yeah, it was weird. There was no...," she couldn't think of the right word "it wasn't normal".

***

Vegeta sat down on his bed and unfolded the piece of paper.

Vegeta,

Papa told me to inform you that he wishes to speak with yourself, Krillen and I promptly at 3pm in the throne room. Under papa's orders you must not speak of this meeting to ANYONE as he says it is critical that no one knows unless absolutely necessary.

What do you thinks up? Must be big, huh.

Chi-chi

P.S. You tell Krillen

Vegeta fell back against the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. He had known something was wrong ever since he had opened his eyes that morning. Vegeta rolled onto his stomach and pulled open his bottom draw, he pushed some things out of the way and pulled out a photo of himself with his mother, Lumie. It had been taken shortly before she died. It was one of - if not the last – picture that had been taken of her while she was living.

"What should I do mother?" he asked. But when the picture didn't reply, he put it back in it's hiding spot and left the room to go and find his 'little brother'

***

Krillen was in the library sifting through books on the history of Vegeta-sei. Chi-chi and Vegeta may have finished their learning, being 20 and 25. But Krillen was only 18, he was still required to hand in one major assignment to his father per month, this month King Vegeta had chosen the history of Vegeta-sei, so that's what he was doing.

The library was huge, one of the biggest on the planet, yet Krillen couldn't find any books on what he was looking for. He heard the door creak open and he looked in that direction. But it was no one he knew.

"Excuse me, sir. Do you need any help?" asked the librarian.

"Ah I do actually. Where are your history books?" The librarian smiled warmly at Krillen and walked out from behind her desk. "Follow me".

20 minutes later Krillen was away, he had found the books he was looking for and now he was working like crazy. He was already on his 3rd page of writing.

The time flew by and before Krillen knew it, it was 3pm. He decided he had better get going. So he packed up his things and left the library. Outside it was still extremely hot, Krillen stood on the steps for a while and watched the village people running around going about their business. Krillen sighed, sometimes he wished he was one of these people, not having to be under the stress of palace life all the time and having to deal with a whole bunch of people he didn't know or like.

Sighing again, he made his way up the big hill towards the palace.

***

Inside the throne room it was crazy. The king and many of the planets elites were running around like mad men. Chi-chi stood in the doorway like an idiot, she had never seen such unorganised chaos in all her life

On the other side of the room the king looked up and saw his daughter. "I need a minutes Nappa, you take control here until I get back". The king then pushed his chair back and walked away from the table towards Chi-chi.

"What's going on daddy?" asked Chi-chi.

"Where are your brothers?" asked the king.

"I dunno," replied Chi-chi "I told Vegeta to tell Krillen to be here".

"Well come with me" said the king, and he pushed open the door, almost knocking his eldest son over.

"Watch it" said Vegeta as he fixed his shirt. He looked up, only to see the king and Chi-chi halfway down the hall, he quickly followed after them.

10 minutes later, Chi-chi Vegeta and the king were all sitting around in their private living room waiting for Krillen all of a sudden the door burst open and in he came.

"Sorry I'm late guys. I was in the town". Chi-chi scowled at him and Vegeta swore to beat the snot out of him later.

"It's ok. Your here now" said the king

"Well daddy. What did you want to talk about?" asked Chi-chi. The king took a deep breath and looked each of his 3 children in the eye.

"It's Frieza. He's coming, and he is not happy with us"

"What!" Vegeta stood up and slammed his fists down on the table "We've done everything that prick has told us to. Why is he coming here?"

Chi-chi stood up and placed her hand on her brother's back "Vegeta, calm down. I know how much you hate him. I do to. But getting mad isn't going to result in anything useful," Chi-chi turned to look at the king "When is he coming"

"We have a week to prepare".

Krillen sat back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. He was positive that out of all the kings children he hated Frieze the most, after all he had been in the room when it had happened, years of hurt and grief had been building up in him. And he didn't know how much longer it was going to stay inside him.

Krillen stood up and looked at his father. "I have to go". The king nodded and Krillen left the room silently

***

18 stood up and stretched her arms up to the sky. She could see the short prince on the other side of the garden picking flowers. 'What the hell is he doing that for?' she thought to herself, as her feet left the ground. "What the hell!" she thought out loud, she hadn't meant to fly, she quickly dropped back to the ground and made she no one was looking at her. She was safe. Something was definitely going on around here and it was beginning to annoy her.

Krillen was strolling around the garden looking for a few particular flowers, he could see the girl –18- watching him. And he had to chuckle when she had gotten so mesmerised by him that she had started to float, once he had all his flowers he tired them up with a piece of string and walked over to the pretty blonde girl.

'Great' 18 though to herself as she saw Krillen approaching her – with those stupid flowers.

"Hello 18," said Krillen, he realised it was one of the first times they had actually spoken "would you like to come for a walk with me?"

18 raised an eyebrow "no" she quickly replied. Krillen shrugged his shoulder, he didn't seem to care "Ok then," he said "you looked board, I just thought you might like some company for a while. That's all. You sure you don't wanna come?"

18 rolled her eyes, but on the inside she was in deep though, she was board and – wait! Why would she want to walk with him. She didn't like him. But one little walk couldn't hurt. Could it?. She looked up to give Krillen his answer, only to see him halfway across the garden. She quickly raced to catch up to him.

"So, where are we going" she asked.

***

Vegeta was making his way to the G.R for some much needed stress relief training, but he only made it halfway before he nearly got knocked over for the second time in an hour.

"Watch it woman" he snapped.

"So its woman now is it?" asked Bulma as she flipped her long blue hair over her shoulder.

"Whatever," said Vegeta "I'm going to the G.R" and he walked off

"I hope you don't plan on training in there" Bulma called out after him. Vegeta stopped and turned around "Of course I do"

"Good luck. The G.R's broken. I could use an extra pair of hands to help me repair it" suggested Bulma, her tail curling and uncurling as she spoke.

"Fine" said Vegeta, he needed to do something, anything to get his mind off Frieza.

"Great," said Bulma happily "Meet me in the G.R in 10 minutes. I need to grab my tools and get changed ok"

"Whatever" Vegeta muttered and he walked off.

15 minutes later Bulma pushed open the door of the G.R and looked around. She was dressed in a pair of denim overalls with a white tee shirt underneath, she was also clutching a blue metal toolbox.

"You ready to work Veg-head?" she asked as she dropped the box and tied her hair back. Vegeta looked up from his spot on this floor. Had she just called him Veg-head? Shaking his head, he stood up and walked over to Bulma, she was down on her knees trying to pull a panel up off the floor. Vegeta chuckled to himself and pulled it up with ease.

"Thanks Vegeta," said Bulma and she got onto her stomach and then to Vegeta's amazement climbed into the whole in the floor. "Can you pass me the screw driver please?" she called out. Vegeta blinked himself back into reality and sifted through Bulma's toolbox, once he found the necessary item he passed it down to Bulma, only to have it come flying back and hit him in the head seconds later. "Not that one you dummy!" she said, having a good old laugh at the same time.

***

"Why are we here?" asked 18. Krillen had led her to a very unpleasant place. A graveyard.

"Be careful" said Krillen as he came to a stop in-front of a rather ordinary tombstone. He got down on his knees and placed his bunch of flowers on the ground. "This is where my mother is buried". 18's eyes grew wide. And because of that one sentence a large portion of 18's dislike for Krillen disappeared. She knew what it was like to loose your mother, it hurt more that any physical pain imaginable.

"I'm sorry," she said "I have to go" she quickly turned and ran away, she didn't want Krillen or anyone else for that matter, to see her tears

A/N; Reviews would be greatly appreciated. I'll have the next one out sooner than this one. I hope. ~D.B