This chapter is dedicated to Seruleyan for helping me out! I was stuck on some things, and she helped me figure out what to do and how to get there!

I also, have to give Android 18 a special shout out! I had no idea that she put a link to my story in her profile! ~feels so special~ I think I need a tissue! Thanks so much Android 18!

Such a wonderful response again! I'm so proud of this story, and my awesome reviewers! Thanks guys! I got to talk personally with Seruleyan and Crimson, too, which really made my day!

Tmh-Froggie- God, I hope I can keep this up! Thanks a lot!

Adbzfan2k03- I'm not sure if dedicated is the eight word. Haha maybe crazy, or neurotic! Hope I didn't make you wait long for this chapter! ;)

The Tragic Priestess Kikyo- Don't worry. Trunks can't stay mad at Bulma for too long!

Seruleyan-Wings- Hmm?! Where to begin with you? Hahaha! It was really awesome to talk to you for SO long! ;) and I'm so thankful for your help! I hope I can catch you on AIM again sometime! Thanks for reading, thanks for reviewing, thanks for being just as crazy as me!

Ccfluersdelys: Thanks for all of you reviews. I'm glad your not lost anymore, and I'm sorry you got lost in the first place! ;)

Videlchan 313- Haha, yeah! She ran super fast!! Thanks!

Joelie the Messenger of Death- Bulma was freaked out?! Dude, I was totally freaked out! Haha j/k Thanks so much for reviewing! ;) (Gotta wink at least once every few lines)

Shades of Crimson- I'm so happy that you love my fic! They more you type that, the more I want to just write my fingers off! Hahaha! You asked an important question about Marron and Bulma's appearance, so I hope everyone reads this line here: ~*~Marron and Bulma are for the most part identical twins in this fic, but I'm not tell anyone how to tell them apart until later mu hahahaha~*~ Anyhow! It was cool to talk to you on AIM, and really appreciate your reviews! ;)

Draegon-fire- Thanks for the review! I'm so glad you like this story!

Nicka- Thank you!

Gravidy- Hmm, what DID Vegeta do in his cell for five years?!?! That's a really good quiestion. Mostly, he just brooded and did some push-ups! He's got a figure to keep ya know! Hahaha ;) (Again!)

Melina- Awesome! Thanks a lot!!

Takuma- What?!?!?! No biscuit! ~plan an evil guilt trip~ ~sniffles~ It's fine, I don't really like biscuits anyway! :-p (not a wink!) Thanks a lot for the review! Dopey- Thanks so much! I can't complain about my review numbers. Tell be honest, I'm pretty happy with them. Heck, I'd be so freakin' hyper if I got more reviews you guys wouldn't know what to do with me! Hahaha!

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AIM me @ CHALICE001 if ya wanna babble on for hours with me. Just ask Seruleyan and Crimson! I don't bite.......................hard! muhahahaha

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Chapter 7: Suspicions

Arro stared out the window at the courtyard below. "I heard Prince Arthos left in the middle of the night." He sighed when he heard Akira groan. He imagined her plopping down on the throne and dismissing the guards with a wave of her hand, which is exactly what she did. "Want to talk about it?" He asked after the doors were closed, and they were alone.

"Not particularly," the royal reagent replied. (Wow, say that one five times fast! haha)

"You two got into a fight again," the prince guessed correctly.

Akira closed her eyes and pulled the silver tiara from her head. "Why can't he just take no for an answer?" She suddenly found the small blue jewels to be very interesting.

"Because there's no logic behind that answer. You love him."

"So everyone thinks," she muttered back.

Arro turned around to face her. "A marriage between you and Arthos would strengthen our alliance," the nine year old reminded her.

"Riessei is our closest ally," she argued. "If we got any closer, we'd be attached by the hip."

"Arthos' council would be a big help to us right now," he yelled. "Vegetasei isn't doing as well as it used to, Akira, and you know it! I'm not my father, and I'm definitely not my brother."

"Neither am I," she screamed back at him. "You're not the only one that has to try living up to his name!"

They stared at each other in regretful silence for several excruciating minutes. Both were afraid to speak, fearing they might hurt each other further with their words. The doors of the throne room were thrown open, causing them both to jump. Nor walked into the room and sent them both a nervous glance.

"We have a problem," he announced.

Akira sat back down on the throne and sighed. "When don't we anymore?"

"This is serious, Akira. Five of our flagships were raided by pirates."

Arro growled. "Yamcha?"

"The one and only," Nor replied with disgust.

"God not him," Akira groaned. She stood up again, leaving her tiara on the throne and walked toward the doors. "I cannot deal with this too."

Nor watched his sister leave and shook his head. "What is wrong with her?"

"We got into an argument. I should go apologize to her," the prince said. "It isn't my business to interfere with her and Arthos."

"So that's why he left." Nor shook his head. When was his sister going to allow herself some happiness? "She needs to make a decision about the raids. The men need to know what to do."

"I can see to it. She needs some time alone." He followed Nor out of the room. "Besides, she'd have to run it by me anyhow. She's just my reagent."

"I suggest you double the watch and send out scouting droids to check for cloaked ships within the vicinity of the planet."

Arro sent him an appreciative look. "Thanks, I didn't have the first clue what we should do," he admitted quietly.

Nor chuckled and gave the young boy a pat on the shoulder. "I understand. Your not your brother after all." With that said, Nor walked off to issue the orders.

The crown prince stood alone in the hallway, feeling sorry for himself. He wished he were just a regular nine-year-old boy, not a prince that was struggling to keep his planet together after loosing his big brother and both his parents.

~*~

Chichi placed a glass of water in front of Bulma and squeezed her shoulder in reassurance. "Just try to calm down," she whispered. "If he were going to kill you, I think he would have done it by now."

Bulma knew her friend meant that as a joke, but it didn't help sooth her fears. It only compounded them. "What does he plan to do to me then," she groaned. "I cannot sit here and wait for him to exact some sadistic revenge on me for something I didn't even do, Chichi!"

"Goku won't let him hurt you, and Trunks would never forgive him." Chichi sat down next to Bulma. "Vegeta's not stupid. I'm sure he's noticed by now how much Trunks adores you. He won't risk loosing a relationship with his own heir by harming you."

The blue haired woman covered her face with her hands and sighed. She let her hands move back and ran her fingers through her long, curly hair. "What am I going to do?"

~*~

"You defied my father, Kakkarot. There isn't going to be any easy punishment for you when we return." Vegeta rubbed his temples and groaned. "I'm not sure what I'll do with you."

Goku looked up in confusion. "What do you mean? Your father will sentence me, not you."

Vegeta glared at him. "You've really cut yourself off from the universe. My father died almost five years ago."

"What?! How?"

"If you remember, my mother was pregnant before my imprisonment," he replied through gritted teeth. "She was so stressed by the news of my 'death' that she died during the birth. The bond took my father away a few days later," he added, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Goddess, that means."

"Akira rules as reagent for my brother until his eighteenth birthday," Vegeta cut in. "I need to regain my strength and return to Vegetasei as soon as possible."

Goku nodded. "I can only imagine the hell Arro has gone through. He was only four."

Vegeta remained quiet. He hadn't really thought about what his younger brother might have gone through over the past five years. He assumed things were fine, what with Akira guiding the boy. The prince glared at the table. "We're getting off topic, Kakkarot!"

"Marron's changed, Vegeta. She's definitely not the same person she was five years ago." 'If only you knew!'

"So I've noticed. She seems far worse now!"

"That's not what I meant."

"She slept with Freeza," Vegeta yelled, not noticing Bulma and Chichi standing in the doorway behind him. He slammed his palms against the wood table and it broke into several pieces. "She slept with my worst enemy behind my back. If it weren't for Akira's visions, I never would have known," he growled.

"Vegeta, calm down, please."

"I will not. The humiliation that I have suffered because of her has cut too deeply. I was always faithful to her, damnit! I gave her everything she ever asked for, and this is how she repays me."

"She did it to save you. Freeza planned to take you away as his prisoner," Goku yelled back, but his voice held doubt.

Vegeta laughed. "No, my friend. If anything, Freeza used her with the hopes that I would find out about their affair. He wanted me to attack him. It justified him taking me away. Use your brain. He never would have been able to just take me away. My allies would have fought him every step of the way."

"Are you suggesting that that sh-I was in league with Freeza," Bulma shouted.

"You're right," Vegeta said. "That's giving you far too much credit." He glared at her. "Since we're on the subject, why don't you tell me the name of the other man you were sleeping with, Marron."

Bulma glared back. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about!"

He moved close to her and leaned down so their noses were touching. "You admitted to Akira that you slept with one other. I want to know who it was," he whispered roughly. He lifted his hand to her cheek and caressed it gently. Bulma fought the urge to close her eyes and relish the feelings he was evoking in her. "Tell, me and for the sake of our son, I may just forgive you, woman."

'Oh god no,' she thought. 'Will he know if I make something up? Will he truly forgive Marron's sins?' She swallowed the lump forming in her throat. "I can't remember his name," she managed to say.

He released her so quickly, she though perhaps she had imagined his closeness all along. "We'll see what Akira thinks when we reach Vegetasei," he told them before walking out of the room in search of his son.

Goku and Chichi both cursed out loud. "Shit!"

"What?"

"My sister will see right through you the moment she lays eyes on you," Goku explained.

Chichi groaned. "We have to either come clean, or find away to pull the wool over Akira's eyes."

Bulma shook her head. "No, there has to be another way to get around this. We can't tell anyone who I really am!" She looked around anxiously and huddled them close together. "The Cold's will have me and everyone around me killed if they find out Marron had a sister."

Goku and Chichi frowned, not quite picking up in the significance of that statement.

~*~

June was sitting on the veranda, nervously playing with a strand of her hair. Trunks sat on the steps beside her. He was unusually quiet, but the pretty blond woman couldn't blame him. She would be too if she just found out her father was alive after believing him dead her whole life. It was times like this; she wondered where she came from. She was jolted out of her thoughts by the boy next to her.

"Why would she lie to me?"

"She didn't really lie to you, Trunks. She thought he was dead."

Trunks sighed. "I guess, but I don't get it! How could she not know for sure, if she saw our planet explode with her own eyes." He sent June a confused look. "How could anyone escape something like that? I know that my father was a great warrior, but how could he survive such an explosion and live in space with no ship or anything?"

Biting back a groan, June looked up at the setting sun. They had done a wonderful job of fabricating that story. 'Damn him for being such a smart kid,' she told herself mentally. Just as she was about to tell him she wasn't sure, She heard footsteps behind her. Turning slightly, she saw the topic of discussion standing behind her.

"Leave us," he growled at her, automatically assuming June was a bad person because she was hanging around Marron.

"Fine," she hissed back, not appreciating his harsh attitude toward her. She stood up and went back into the small palace.

Vegeta leaned against a pillar and crossed his arms over his chest. "What did your mother say happened to me?"

The young prince felt nervous around his father, so he averted his eyes back to the stones that made up a path through the garden. "She told me that an evil man name Freeza came to our planet and started a fight with you. You told mother to leave the planet because she was pregnant with me, and you didn't want her to get hurt." Trunks fidgeted with shirt collar. "When she was in orbit the planet exploded from your battle." He looked up at his father and frowned. "I don't understand how you could have survived." Then, in typical Trunks fashion, the little boy perked up and started babbling. "But then, you're the best warrior ever! Mother and Uncle Goku are always telling me all the cool things you've done!"

Vegeta sent a bewildered glance at the palace where the woman he believed to be Marron was panicking over the current situation. 'What was Marron thinking when she told the boy this bullshit story,' he wondered. This 'new' Marron seemed suspiciously out of character. 'Women like he don't change!'

"Did you really have a sword when you were five?!"

The saiyan prince returned his attention back to his son. "No, I did not," he replied, noticing the sad look on Trunks' face. He was suddenly reminded of his short time with his younger siblings, especially Arro. There had been quite a few years between them, but they had still had a strong bond. Vegeta let the corner of his mouth arch up slightly and he knelt down next to his son. He was determined to have the same kind of bond that he had had with his own father. "I was given my sword when I was born, and I knew how to properly wield it when I was five," he corrected.

"Can I get one?! Mother said no, but now that your back maybe you can get her to let me have one!"

Nodding, Vegeta responded, "I'll see that you have one soon."

~*~

Trunks and Vegeta are starting to bond! Yeah! Hmm, I wonder what I can come up with for the next chapter?!?!?!?!?! ;) Should I depress you?! Should I make you a little happy?! Should I put in further plot twists?! I don't know what I'll do to you all yet! Mu hahaha.

Please Review, you know you want too!!!! Hahaha

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Evil PANDORA ;)