First chapter of two I'm putting up today. The extra is a gift for your patience.

The black mountains rose in jagged peaks over the sands, and the desert Saiyans stared uneasily at the towering mass before them. The enclosing mountains were alien to them; legends and dangers had long walked the Cassesa peaks, and while the desert-dwellers may not like to admit it, they feared those dark ranges.

Avia and Cyrane leaned forward over the railing, each straining to see Torganga first. It was not deep in the mountains, having long served as the point of trade between the desert and mountain Saiyans. The women's excited voices carried back to the men, where Grandfather Vegeta watched them with something of a smile. Turning to his son, he remarked, "This certainly has made them happy."

King Vegeta shrugged. "There have been rumors of trouble down in some of the wilder passes," he replied, "and there was no reason not to bring them to Torganga on the way."

"So you'll drop them off and immediately head deeper into the mountains?" Grandfather asked.

"I'll see that everyone is settled first, then I'll lead a hunting party," Vegeta said wryly, smirking at his father. "So you'll have to wait a couple of days to be rid of me."

"Who is in the hunting party, Father?" Prince Vegeta asked from Vegeta's right side.

"Whomever wants to go," King Vegeta said, giving his son a crooked grin. "Does this mean that you're volunteering?"

"Yes, Father!" Prince Vegeta chirped. Realizing that his remark had been too eager, he quickly added, "That is, if you think that it will be interesting at all."

"Oh, I think that it will," King Vegeta answered, casually draping his arm over his son's shoulder. Prince Vegeta flushed with happiness then tried to school his face to nonchalance. "At the very least, we'll have fun looking for something to kill."

Grandfather Vegeta added quietly, "I'll go, too."

"You?" King Vegeta barked. "What makes you think you can keep up?"

"I'm old, not dead, boy," Grandfather Vegeta snapped, and King Vegeta took another look at this father. The old fart had gotten some of his old fire back, and contrary to what Vegeta had always thought about the matter, he found himself privately comforted the thought of fighting with his father at his side again. "Of course," Grandfather continued, "if you're concerned about my health, then bring Trunks along."

"What?" Prince Vegeta gasped, twisting to look at his grandfather. "He's just a slave! I don't think that would be very safe." Behind him, he saw Trunks twitch.

"He's a decent medic, should you need one for my fragile aging body," Grandfather Vegeta shrugged. "I think that he can handle himself." He turned to Trunks. "You're smart enough to stay out of trouble, right boy?"

"Prince Vegeta's right," King Vegeta said suddenly, shaking his head. "It is too dangerous for a slave to go along. If you don't feel safe without him, Father, then stay behind."

Grandfather Vegeta grunted irritably, but he knew that tone of voice. There was no arguing with his son now. "It was just a thought," he grumbled, muttering more to his beard than to his son.

"Bardock will not thank me to return his slave injured or dead," Vegeta sighed, then added icily, "If you wanted the boy around, you shouldn't have given his mother to Bardock." The mood around the three Saiyans immediately went from content to tense.

Grandfather was momentarily surprised by the attack, but he recovered and turned on his son. "If you had told me the truth about her," Grandfather Vegeta snarled, "instead of just taking my crown, then maybe I would have kept her." Prince Vegeta watched them closely, concern clear on his face. Some of the closer nobles eyed the growing dispute, unable to hear but curious anyway. Trunks was an uncomfortable, silent shadow behind the men.

"And perhaps," King Vegeta seethed, his tail starting to lash, "you could have asked me about her instead of reacting to what was happening."

Grandfather Vegeta pushed his son's shoulder so that they were facing. "Brat," he growled angrily, "if you had told me she was--"

"Torganga!" Cyrane's voice sang out as she pointed ahead of the ship as the distant city arose from the towering mountains. The arguing men fell silent and looked ahead – Torganga was indeed looming ahead of them. Cyrane was laughing, her arms wide as she embraced the image of her city, but Avia was looking back at them, a worried frown on her face.

"Avia, are you all right?" Grandfather Vegeta asked softly, and her golden eyes came to rest on him.

"I feel a touch sick, Grandfather," she replied softly, then looked past him to Trunks. "Trunks, you can't see very well back there. Come stand next to me; I want you to see this."

Trunks glanced at Grandfather Vegeta, who gave him a quick nod and a quiet smile, a touch concerned; if Avia claimed sickness, then it was Trunks who looked it. As Trunks moved past them, King Vegeta added idly, "It's not like it matters anyway; the boy is going back to Bardock's when this trip is over."

Trunks actually stumbled and glanced at the king, his face stricken. King Vegeta ignored both, while Prince Vegeta frowned at his feet, his expression conflicted. Grandfather Vegeta opened his mouth, then closed it. What was there to say? It was his own hand that had put the boy there in the first place – how could he remove him when he was not even King any longer? At the rail, Avia grimaced and put a hand on her stomach; as her mother put a comforting hand on her shoulder, Grandfather Vegeta frowned, the moment triggering a suspicion.

Trunks, seeing that the King was ignoring him, went to stand at the rail with Avia. "What's wrong?" she whispered to him, wishing she could openly comfort him.

"Later," he murmured as he lifted his eyes to the city. "Is that Torganga?" Like most things the Saiyans built, Torganga was a massive, pretentious structure that soared above the black rocks from which it was carved. Trunks could see many of the desert-dwellers where gaping at it, awed that their supposedly inferior mountain cousins had built something so familiar and yet so alien – the architects had clearly been inspired by the mountains around them and had topped the building with jagged angles and deep slopes. In contrast, most of the desert-dwellers were used to seeing curving roofs and graceful sweeps up to the top of buildings.

"Yes," Avia breathed, her voice content. "My home, my birth land."

"Birth land?" Trunks queried as her words sunk in. "You were born here?"

"I'm Montessi," Avia answered, her tone both simple and proud. "Where else would I have been born?"

"I thought you were born in the palace in the desert," Trunks said. He was silent for a moment, before saying, "It is beautiful."

"Well, you actually haven't seen anything yet," Avia announced gleefully as she took his hand. "And I'm going to show it all to you."

Trunks knew that he should pull away, but her hand felt so right in his, he couldn't object. Besides, he thought bitterly, you won't have her forever. Get as much as you can now.

The first fight began before they left the airship.

"How could you embarrass us like that? Hanging all over that slave!" Prince Vegeta hissed at his sister, his golden eyes nearly glowing in the dim light.

"Embarrass? Embarrass!" she snarled. "Why are you embarrassed of Trunks? He's our friend."

"No, Avia, he's not," Vegeta growled. "He's a slave. For the love of All, sister, he's not even a Saiyan!"

"I do not care what he is," Avia snapped. "He is mine!" The prince's mouth dropped open, and he actually was at a loss for words.

In the silence that followed that statement, King Vegeta's voice carried clearly from the door. "Avia, may I have a word with you?" Prince and princess alike spun, their faces flushing as they realized that not only had they been arguing in a room with an open door, but that they had been arguing with raised voices. If King Vegeta was amused by catching them in this situation, it didn't show in his face or voice.

"Of course, Your Highness," Avia recovered with a formal bow. "I always have time for you."

"How gracious of you," the King replied, his comment not quite a rebuke. Avia swallowed back a response and followed him down the hall, her head arrogantly held high.

To her surprise, the King showed her to his bedroom, holding the door for her. Uncertainly, she shot him an evaluative look; he merely gestured for her to go into the room. She moved into the room and settled down on one of the chairs, her back to the wall.

"Avia," King Vegeta said softly, "I wanted to speak to you about something of great importance." He smiled at her, and Avia instantly tensed, knowing that look from long years under this man's thumb. It meant that she had pissed him off, and he was going to make her pay. His words, however, were a surprise to her. "I understand that you've taken up with Bardock's blue-eyed slave."

She blinked at him, and then found her voice. "I have," she said defiantly, jutting her chin forward. "And it is not a big deal; I can think of a dozen other Saiyan nobles in the past few years who have dallied with slave, and those were just the obvious ones. Why should this be important?"

"Because, I have seen this game played before," the King sighed, his expression troubled, "and your mother is concerned."

"Game?" Avia asked, frowning. "What game?"

Vegeta moved to the edge of the bed and sat down, clearly uncomfortable. "When this boy's mother worked in the palace, she seduced a Saiyan noble. He became obsessed, and in the end, it forced my father to quietly give her away so to save this Saiyan's honor," Vegeta met her eyes, a surprising amount of understanding in his own. "Your mother sees the same pattern, and she worries about you."

"I have my feelings under control," Avia said coldly. "I am not some weak desert-dweller, who falls apart when faced with some pretty eyes."

"Very good, then," Vegeta said brusquely, standing up and gracing her with another disturbing smile. "I can tell your mother that there will be no problems. She was particularly worried since I'm sending Trunks back to Bardock when we return to the capital."

Avia's face paled and her hands twitched but she held control of her emotions. Her voice though was another matter, and both Saiyans heard it shiver as she replied, "Fine. Sounds good."

King Vegeta nodded and said, "I'm glad we had this talk, and that we understand each other."

"Yes," Avia said, her voice a bare whisper. "We understand each other. May I go now?"

"Of course," King Vegeta said. "I think you and your brother had a conversation to finish?"

Avia shot him a glance at that line, the pain in her golden eyes giving way before her anger. Vegeta was again reminded of Cyrane on that fateful day so long ago, and he thought again that he should have just waited until the daughter was of age rather than taking the mother. Avia was young, but she would grow into as much strength as her mother, in time. But that was not what had happened, and he now smiled at the woman who was by law his daughter and said, "But don't take too long talking to your brother; we'll be disembarking in less than five minutes."

"Of course," she said, anger lending her voice steel. She slipped past the King and made her way toward Grandfather Vegeta's cabin, her feet leading the way as if they were creatures of their own. At the door, she knocked, and Grandfather Vegeta opened.

"Avia?" he inquired, his expression becoming concerned when he saw her. "Is something wrong?"

"Trunks?" she said, and her voice sounded terrible – too hollow, as if something were emptying her out. "Is he here?"

Grandfather Vegeta stepped back to let her see Trunks; he was straightening up from the trunk, packing away the few things that Grandfather had brought. Avia dashed forward and threw her arms around Trunks, who, despite throwing his grandfather an apologetic, embarrassed glance, held her back just as tightly. "He's sending you back to Bardock," Avia whispered to him after a moment.

Trunks nodded and buried his face in her hair. "I know, he told me earlier today."

Grandfather Vegeta watched the couple, fighting with conflicting emotions. While he didn't want to see them hurt, would he be doing them a disfavor by encouraging them, and making it all the harder to say good-bye? While Avia would certainly be able to visit Trunks at Bardock's, she couldn't fraternize with a slave owned by another – though she was technically already doing that. Finally, he cleared his throat and grumped, "You kids! That kind of smoochy crap has no place in my room! Go somewhere else, hopefully where you won't bother anyone, like off the ship."

Avia pulled away from Trunks, not angry because it was clear that his rant was all bluster. "We can't leave the ship until King Vegeta does, and then I'll be pulled into all sorts of opening ceremonies," she sighed, keeping one arm looped around the slave. "So I guess it will have to be tonight."

"You can leave the ship, and should now if you want to escape all the pomp and crap," Grandfather grumped. "Just go from one of the balconies, and be careful not to be seen."

"But the tradition – the King--" Avia began, only to be waved silent by the older Saiyan.

"Screw tradition, Avia," he said, his gruff voice full of sincerity and regret. "The gods know that I wish I had done so for your mother, Trunks. Call this my attempt to make things right."

"Alright," Trunks said, nodding at his grandfather, ignoring Avia's questioning glance. "Thank you."

Vegeta waved away the thanks. "Just get out of here before you get all sappy again."