AN: Hey everyone! I wanted to clarify that I've altered Vegeta's age from the original timeline to give the story more of a coming-of-age feel, which makes itself far more relevant later on in the story. Vegeta was originally five or six years old when his planet was blown up, and I've matured him to be a late teenager/young adult for the assault on the throne to give him a higher sense of responsibility and involvement in his position as the Saiyan Prince.

Chapter Two - Liberty

Rosemary felt a burning pain in her right ankle shortly after she was dragged out of the ship by Zarbon's impulsive take off. The shackle around her foot aggressively dug into her skin as Zarbon continued to fly ahead at full speed without a thought of looking to see how she had held up. Nonetheless, she did her best to adjust accordingly, all the while fighting off some motion sickness that was setting in from being unable to see much of anything due to her long hair flapping about in her face.

Why did she have to have this stupid chain on, anyway? It's not like she could fend for herself if she tried to make a break for it on her own... She may have been fast enough to run or fly away, sure, but the minute she got caught she'd be marked for slaughter.

A risk that was simply unwise to take.

She needed help to escape safely, and Vegeta might just be the one to help her do it when Zarbon finally found him.

She took a moment to ready herself for a bigger move by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to prepare. Fighting against the nausea, she counted to five in her head and finally swung herself upwards with a small push of flight. She went on to maintain her flight speed as best as she could and successfully returned to Zarbon's side with an ample amount of slack on her chain.

Zarbon refused to look at her, unaffected even after feeling the tug on his side of the chain. He was aware of, but couldn't care less that he'd caused her discomfort, and had already disregarded that he had already maimed her earlier. His goal was to find Vegeta, nothing more, and nothing less.

He detested that the very mention of the Saiyan Prince got her going. He'd gone to great lengths to gain Rosemary's approval - allowing her to stay with him instead of a filthy captive cell, tending to wounds that could have ended her life in the high-priority urgent care infirmary, and prevented a ton of lab procedures to preserve this fine specimen…

And yet, this girl clung to a figure of her past like it was the only thing that mattered in her world. There was nothing he couldn't have if he desired it so, but as much as he longed for her gentle flame, she just simply wasn't interested in him, and he hated it.

He stubbornly looked forward, despite the heavy glare Rosemary was giving him at the moment, as if to beg for his attention. Uneased by the silence, Rosemary ignored his efforts.

"Zarbon," She gasped with a wince as the shackle rubbed the wrong way against her foot again. "If you told me you were going to take off like that-"

"I don't care!" Zarbon angrily blurted out. "And if you were wise, you would keep quiet, or else I might get rid of you before we find Vegeta!"

Her eyes quickly snapped forward again.

Rosemary's mouth gently hung open, hesitant to say more.

"...A-As you wish." Rosemary responded obediently, but couldn't help but think about his reaction as he spat Vegeta's name. 'Jealous as usual.' She sighed, grudgingly aware that Zarbon had known a good amount about their history.

She took a moment to imagine what the prince looked like after what must have been close to twenty years since they last spoke. He must have been more muscular for sure - he never forgot about his training and always insisted that he needed to be a powerful heir. Would he be tall like his father? Being the Saiyan Elite warrior that he was, he'd always been rather built despite his smaller size, but she could only assume that a couple of decades could have helped him out.

Her face flushed pink as she went on trying to make a visual for herself. The idea was definitely more alluring than she'd originally intended.

She dismissed the thread of her imagination by giving her cheeks a firm slap, but was left dwelling on just one other question.

'Would he recognize me?"

Zarbon huffed heavily after a few minutes of flight in complete silence and finally looked over to her. She was gently blushing, which could only mean that she was daydreaming.

"For your information, I don't plan to fight over you." He broke the silence with a blunt but firm tone. "Not with him. You're mine, and the Saiyan Prince will not change that."

Rosemary looked over to him again with a blank gaze. She didn't know how to respond, unsure as to if she should be grateful for his sudden change of heart, or worried that he was going to take any anger towards Vegeta that came out of him on her instead as they grew closer to the encounter.

Zarbon gave her a harsh scowl. Of course she didn't respond, she was too smart and knew her place.

"You could at least be thankful that you have someone in the fleet that cares enough for you to keep you alive and well, amongst all of this." He continued in a dulled, unimpressed gnarl. "It's clear that the results Frieza was looking for aren't coming, it baffles me that he even bothers with you. But after all I've done for you, you still don't seem to acknowledge that for some reason."

Rosemary ran an ongoing tally of things that she could truly thank him for on the spot - the list wasn't as long as he seemed to believe. He saved her life once that she could remember, but only because someone else tried to kill her and Frieza demanded that she stay alive. It was a noteworthy act, she supposed, if he hadn't loomed it over her for ages to come. Other than that, he stopped the guards from keeping her in a holding cell, so long as she couldn't leave his side and put up with his unconsented acts of affection and forced intimacy. Nothing else came to mind.

"Of course, I'm not unaware nor ungrateful that you have done me some favours." She admitted freely. "I don't expect you to understand this, General Zarbon, but I simply can't deny that the Saiyan Royal Family has done just as many, if not more…"

"Whatever," Zarbon sneered stubbornly, snapping his head forward once again to pout as they continued on their path. "I know you're involved with him. I'm not a fool."

'A decade or two ago, perhaps.' She replied to herself in thought, uncaring of his opinions.

Just then, something had collided to halt them in their tracks. As if a switch had been flipped, Rosemary frantically looked around in a newfound panic, already eager and ready to escape.

As if to meet her plea, the infamous Prince Vegeta appeared a good hundred feet away out of thin air.

Him and Rosemary locked eyes immediately, but no words could be had.

Rosemary's mouth gently hung open.

This was real.

This was actually happening.

Without another thought, she bolted towards him at a speed she'd hoped would break the chain she was attached to.

Determined to make her fail, Zarbon gave the chain a small tug with his leg to force her back. She pressed on and flew forward, wincing through her pain as the shackle continued to dig into raw skin.

The chain was starting to get on her nerves. Force alone wasn't going to be enough to break free - she needed to start being true to her abilities now, regardless of the cost.

She growled through gritted teeth and angrily kicked the air with her free leg.

'I hope this works…'

"Alright, I'm through with this!" She energetically shouted. "I'm tired of this chain… And I'm tired of being a captive!"

She curled her hands into tight fists, just as she had previously rehearsed on countless occasions with small inanimate objects. It was here, the moment she'd waited and spent an eternity practising to make sure she got it just right on the big day.

She gave the cuff around her foot an intense, desperate glare, feeling around for the touch of the lock pins against her fingers. She pushed her fingertips further into her fists as she prodded around. A faint prickling sensation was all she needed - she'd remembered every detail down to a science.

And then it arrived.

To her delight, there was a tiny poke against the top of her middle finger. This. Was. It.

She triumphantly pressed her finger ever so slightly more against the palm of her hand to slide the tightly fitted, single pin of the lock aside, and successfully set herself free.

Without a second to spare, she rocketed upwards at a speed fast enough to lose Vegeta and Zarbon's sight, leaving them to look around in a hurry, shocked and completely mystified.

Vegeta blinked hard.

'What was that?!' He thought to himself, stumped but pleasantly surprised. 'She... picked the lock? But how? This… This is new.'

Wide eyed and dreadfully perturbed, Zarbon was searching the area in a frenzy.

'How the hell did she break free?!' Zarbon furiously asked in a similar fashion. 'She didn't even touch anything! What is this ability?!'

Zipping around to ensure she remained unseen, Rosemary came to a halt just above and behind Zarbon's head.

Vegeta was the first to spot her, locking eyes with a resolute but tattered, older variant of a familiar friend. She looked back back at him for a moment, then continued on with her work.

"Looking for me?" She boldly pierced the silence with inflated confidence, beaming downwards at Zarbon to hide just how terrified she was that her life was about to change.

Zarbon threw his head up, only to catch a glimpse of Rosemary's foot as she confidently landed a kick to his face.

Rosemary retreated a few feet back and flared both arms in front of her to concentrate on Zarbon's body - his arms, his legs, the very flesh that confined his being. Yes, she could feel his repulsive, thick green limbs against her hands as if she was touching them herself, and was far too familiar with them. It was about to be a larger test of her abilities, but a good benchmark for her power at the very least.

She honed in even further, and as if to grab him out of pure will, she tightened her hold on him with clawed hands.

Forced sideways out of recoil from her kick, Zarbon went to respond with a lunge, but to his shock, couldn't. Perhaps he was just unable to fly around? He tried to shift his arms and legs, even his fingers, but nothing would budge.

His entire body wouldn't move an inch.

Rosemary could feel his efforts though forceful throbs in the side of her temple and clenched her hands even further. She grit her teeth to work harder - taking hold of much larger, living beings was exponentially more difficult, as she'd expected, but she'd never known to what extent she could manage. But she remained optimistic, with the assumption that Vegeta would help her should she begin to fail and that they would flee victoriously. As such, she stayed vigilant and attentive.

'I did it…' She told herself, still in shock. Her arms quivered in fright - the longer she kept her hold, the more she was gambling on her abilities. 'I can't believe I actually did it…'

She refused to move in order to keep her ground, but the air grew thick as she fought further and she started panting for air, exhausted.

Amazed, yet baffled, Vegeta ogled in disbelief towards the exchange. He couldn't piece anything together, there was nothing for him to see. Whatever the cause, Zarbon was simply unable to react to her kick, and he couldn't do anything about her hovering mere feet away from him in a seemingly safe, controlled manner. That must have been a whole different kind of torment.

'What the hell is that?!' He questioned further as he squinted. He needed a closer look - he couldn't find a shred of anything resemblant of a technique.

Rosemary could only imagine how curious Vegeta had been and finally darted over to him, her arms still stiffly held out on guard in front of her.

"Come on!" She politely urged in a harsh, strained tone. "We need to get out of here, or we'll have to take him on! I- I can't hold him for much longer…"
Vegeta grinned. Oh, the things he could do to the general while he was completely useless.

"I'm not leaving." Vegeta replied firmly. His fighting spark was only beginning to ignite. "Not when I have a lifeless punching bag in front of me."

Rosemary sighed. She didn't know why she expected a different response.

"O-Of course." Rosemary moaned nervously. "It'd be just like you to take on a challenge…"

Vegeta held his wide smile with pride, but took to assessing her before he advanced. She knew him well, after all.

'She's scared to try and fight, aside from what she's done with this new power of hers.' He noted quickly, then slid his gaze downwards. She hadn't gained any apparent muscle, aside from her calves perhaps, which had a meatier look to them. She was known to run, after all, he wasn't at all surprised there, but it had meant that she hadn't been training. She was still exactly leveled with him, thank goodness, and her hair still graced her backside like a veil - all the way down past her behind, along with the same tall, messy cowlick she could never manage to have control over atop her head.

It was her, all right. What a day this was shaping out to be.

To his relief, it didn't look as if she was starved during her time 'away', her limbs still had a healthy structure to them, despite having no apparent muscle mass. More to his imagination, to top everything off, it was rather evident that she'd matured and it treated her well, now having more defined hips and likely a bust hidden under her banged up armour - a male soldier model, now that he'd taken the time to look.

He grew awkwardly stiff as he took everything of hers in as quickly as he was. She was a woman now.

'Dodoria wasn't lying about her appearance much, I suppose.' He remarked honestly, eyes front again. '...Back to the task at hand.'

"This will hardly be a challenge, let's finish this." He tossed an arm out to gesture her to move behind him. "Stay back, and keep doing whatever it is you're doing to hold him still."

The thought of having to engage in a full out fight made Rosemary dreadfully tense. Her head was pounding, and she worried what pushing her body would do if she'd tried to hold up for much longer.

She just wasn't prepared for this.

Her courage diminished as she reminded herself how weak she was compared to the prince many moons ago - perhaps it would be wise to inform him of her limits before he got the wrong idea.

Disheartened, she let out a heavy sigh.

"Listen, Your Highness, agh- I don't know if I can." She warned through stifled breaths. For a moment, she swore she'd seen spots as the pain in her head grew more and more distinct. "I've never done this much until now."

"Do more, then, you'll get stronger." He shot back with little thought. "There is little risk, I'll take what I can get. Just do as I say."

Rosemary's mouth dropped open, stunned.

"Y-Yes, sir..." She sighed anxiously.

Vegeta moved in on Zarbon, leaving Rosemary to do whatever she had to in order to keep up this daunting new power of hers.

And she obliged. With the occasional wince of pain, she stayed true to her word and pressed on.

'Little risk?! Our lives are at stake here!' She restlessly thought to keep busy, anxiously awaiting what was to come. 'As much as I want to believe him, Vegeta's battle logic has always been impulsive and unpredictable… I must say, he's developed an unwavering lust for fighting.'

She forced her eyes shut to fight off another painful thump to the side of her head. 'Once this starts, it's not stopping... I suppose it's time to consider that I might not make it out of this safely, after all.'

She began to tremble, her body getting annoyed that she ignored it's signs to stop.

But, she insisted on continuing. She needed to.

'...But I'll be powerful for once!' She went on, hoping to outlast the pain just a bit longer. She refused to be done in after she came this far. 'Yes, all those times Vegeta teased me because I wasn't strong like him, I can finally show him that I have power!'

Concluding her thoughts, she hardened her stare on Zarbon as much as she could.

Vegeta shot Zarbon with some energy blasts in amusement while he irritably gawked back. 'I could get used to toying around with Frieza's top soldiers like this.'

Rosemary's forehead screamed in distress as the impacts meddled with Zarbon's mass. She curled up her knees in discomfort with a quiet yelp in hope that Vegeta would be done soon.

Zarbon noticed that she was beginning to struggle and attempted to wriggle around once again. He never thought he would enjoy the sight until now, he used her pain to his advantage and managed to move his limbs with less resistance.

'Oh, wonderful.'

He flexed his fingers in fascination, and Rosemary's glare on him intensified.

This was shaping up to be quite the turn of events, it seemed - it only took a fight to the death for Rosemary to finally give him a decent amount of attention, and what a delight it was.

Rosemary cursed under her breath for breaking her grip, took a deep breath, and got ready to go at it again.

An invisible weight seemed to lift from Zarbon's body, and he charged the prince, only to slide to a still once again shortly after.

Tears began to fall down Rosemary's cheeks, followed up by a quiet whimper.

Vegeta's eyes instinctively widened. He knew that sound. That was the sound that almost always led to inevitable submission.

'What in the world is going on?!' Zarbon questioned himself in anguish. "I've never had such... inertia before!'

Vegeta looked over his shoulder to check on her before he dove in for an attack. He wasn't all that shocked to see that she was noticeably pale and looked somewhat ill, but she really was pushing herself. Considering what he'd known for ages, that, to him, was new. That, to him, was the first indication of a new Saiyan warrior coming to surface, and he gladly welcomed it, though it meant that he had to cut his play time short.

"Keep going." Vegeta commanded. "I'm going in."

"R-Right." Rosemary sobbed, taking another deep breath in to prepare herself to endure the fight. Vegeta must have been giving her the cold shoulder to see what she could do.

Vegeta let loose a barrage on Zarbon where he stood without even a flinch in return. He was morbidly lifeless, to the extent where only his extremities seemed to react. He made a small retreat backwards to observe him for a moment - he still couldn't decipher what kind of energy or power was at play to force a notably strong foe into such a compromising state.

He looked back to Rosemary over his shoulder once again. Her cold, hard stare on Zarbon was still there, along with quivering hands and breaths heavy enough to indicate that she was struggling enough to give in any second.

"How are you even doing this?!" Vegeta called over to her.

Rosemary furrowed her brow. Did he enjoy the sight of her pain? Of all times to be interested, did it have to be now?

"Patience- agh, and a sharp focus." She told him through bared teeth, angrily fighting with her body to stay focused. "Please don't distract me, I'm at a point where I will lose control very easily!"

"What?! That's just-"

"Abnormally powerful, I know!" She snapped. "Well?!"

"Well what?" Vegeta asked. He'd be lying to himself if he wasn't enjoying her bickering.

"Are you going to keep attacking him or what?!" She growled through a whine and then a pained shout. "My energy is not infinite!"

"Fine then, let go!" Vegeta yelled back with a punch to Zarbon's gut, accepting that she'd had enough. "I'll deal with this myself!"

With a final heavy breath, Rosemary obeyed and released Zarbon with relaxed hands.

"Pleasefinish him off… I've had more than my fair share of him over the years." She moaned tiredly as the two of them exchanged blows. "You have noidea how long I've wanted to do this! He's all yours now, I need to rest for a bit. This... really hurts."

"Rest?!" Vegeta shouted bitterly, recklessly taking a jab to his jawline. "We're in the middle of battle and you wish to rest?!"

"Please, Vegeta!" She yelled back with difficulty, "Please, just kill him before I faint!"

She briefly stumbled over her own weight to maintain a decent position while hovering, with Vegeta still eagerly fighting away.

"I will stay close," She went on with a heavy sigh. "Just please, take caution."

Without another thought, she fled the scene to find some place to touch down and take some time to recuperate.

Her eyes absent-mindedly glossed over the open ocean below her for what felt like forever as her consciousness began to falter. Unbearably restless, she made the call that she'd flown far enough away to land safely and descended towards a nearby island.

She touched down as gently as she could manage, folded her legs to sit down and massaged her head. An odd euphoria overcame her as she worked her fingers up and down her temples. Satisfied, she laid down in the Namekian blue grass, tucked her arms behind her back, and gazed up at the green sky. She was completely drained - this had to have been the most tired she'd ever felt in her life.

'Hang in there, Vegeta…' She told herself as her eyes began to droop. "I'm so, so glad I've found you. I'm finally free…'

She could tell that the two of them were still fighting closeby - they were muffled, but she could still make out the loud booms of powerful hits and short spurts of wind in the air above.

'I promise I won't be long… But this is my limit for now, and I'm more than happy to call it at that.'

Finished with the thought, she nodded off to sleep peacefully and undisturbed.

About twenty minutes into her nap, Rosemary began to dream uncontrollably. There, in the realm of her semi-conscience, she spotted Vegeta, lifelessly floating through something hazy and translucent. Was he hovering? No, the surroundings were too cloudy for it to be air.

He gently descended towards the ground, bobbing around a couple of times before laying flat against the...sand?

Crap, this was water.

He was unconscious at the bottom of a lake, or possibly even an ocean.

But where was Zarbon? The only person to be seen was a roughed up Saiyan Prince, covered in what looked to be haphazardly cleaned wounds.

The dream honed in on Vegeta more closely now, he was definitely scratched up and bruised. Not a single pocket of air escaped him, which only meant that he was no longer breathing-

"No!" Rosemary suddenly gasped for air as she shot upwards from where she lay, immediately taking to the air with hope that she would reach him in time. Vaguely recalling landmarks as she went, she found herself in the same area that the fight took place, but Zarbon nor Vegeta were present.

Looking below, there was an island almost directly underneath her, and she dove down to inspect it. Not even bothering to slow down, she held her arms out to hit the ground first, easing herself into a rally of flips and came to a halt with a tuck and roll. She paced the area in search for some body of water aside from the wide open ocean she'd flown across on her way here. She hadn't remembered one being there before the fight had started, and yet, after a couple minutes of search, she came to the edge of a surprisingly well-shaped, no, perfectly circular small lake.

This lake was man-made.

She dove in immediately with little resistance from the water, efficiently swimming downwards in search of Vegeta. While she may not have been necessarily powerful, agility and movement happened to compensate for what she lacked in strength, and she planned to use it for her original purpose - retrieval and aide.

Just like she'd seen in the dream, the floor of the lake became visible as she plunged deeper, and there, lying unconscious at the very bottom, was the prince himself.

She waded above him for a moment to plan how she would get him to the surface, knowing that she would have to be careful as she swam back to the surface. Water was a wonderful thing for this particular situation - had it been air, she likely wouldn't have been able to carry him.

She crouched beside him and took care in scooping him up, letting out a sizable portion of the remaining air in her system as she struggled to position him over her shoulder. She shifted him gently to keep her weight off of his chest, and draped an arm over his back. Content, she swam up to the surface as best as she could.

She emerged from the surface with a huge gasp and quickly rolled Vegeta onto the grass. She lifted his feet out of the water to sprawl them over the ground and give him a thorough inspection, taking note of all of his wounds and lesions. He'd been injured pretty badly and his clothes were torn, with a scratch or a bruise spread out around every few inches of his body.

"So much for Zarbon being an easy contender, huh." She spoke to Vegeta's motionless mass.

She took to his side and came to a kneel, starting with a gentle nudge to see if it would be enough to wake him.

He wasn't breathing in the dream, she'd be surprised if it were that simple.

She went on to get his vitals, firmly pressing her left ear onto his chest, desperate to get a pulse from anything that wanted to show itself.

Nothing.

She re-positioned herself higher onto his shoulder and adjusted the amount of pressure she was giving. After a dramatically long second or two, she picked up the faintest pulse from within him.

She let out a sigh of relief.

'Thank heavens.'

She brought her hands together and vigorously pressed on his chest as hard as she could in an attempt to dislodge the water from his body.

'Okay, at least he's still alive…' She deduced as she tried to calm down, growing tired again as she continued to jab at him. 'Just some cuts and bruises here and there, his heart is still going… I can do this...'

She hoped she wouldn't have to assist him in breathing.

She impatiently scrambled to take mental notes on how she would tend to him when he finally woke up.

"If it was me fighting Zarbon," She continued to talk to him gently. "You would be extremely lucky if I was still in one piece."

She shook her head with a tiny chuckle - he never liked to say when he was wrong.

"I don't want to say that I told you so, but I made a good decision to run when I did. Thank goodness I have no power to trace, otherwise Zarbon would have found me with his Scouter."

As if to attest what she'd been saying, Vegeta coughed up a heap of water and began to take choppy but audible breaths, still asleep.

Rosemary's brief chuckle turned into a relaxed smile. She waited for some further sign of acknowledgement from him out of spite, but there was none. She finally reasoned that Vegeta was likely as drained as she was and let him rest.

"Let's get out of here, before Zarbon realizes that he didn't finish the job."

. . .

"Lord Frieza!" Zarbon hastily greeted the back of Frieza's towering chair, bowing with a disappointed scowl after returning from his mission. "I have both good and bad news, sir."

"Don't waste your breath. It's clear that Lady Rosemary has escaped." Frieza responded dully, drearily staring out of the massive, bubble-like window of the main ship's cockpit. "You must be disappointed. She's powerless, anyways, I was going to dispose of her soon."

Zarbon looked off to the side for a moment, conflicted.

"Well, I beg to differ, sir." Zarbon reluctantly went on. "She does in fact have power, she's been hiding it from us all this time."

He paused to think of how to describe it. What exactly was it that she was doing to him, anyway?

"Just not one that you would expect, well, from a Saiyan."

"Oh, come now, Zarbon!" Frieza teased with an obnoxious laugh. "I'm beginning to think that she's made you a tad delusional! What kind of power could she possibly possess to have you so shaken?!"

"She can, well…" He trailed off to ponder further. "Manipulate things…"

He wouldn't have minded being manipulated under his own terms.

"Without touching them." He trailed off. The fact that she wasn't alongside him at the moment, suddenly made him want her there even more. "It's like she can just look at you with the most amazingly fierce stare and you're completely paralyzed!" He let out a dreamy moan.

"It was breathtaking."

Frieza sighed, bored. Zarbon was beginning to sound like some overly excited fanboy now.

"Interesting." Frieza remarked while pondering the idea doubtfully. "But if she couldn't do this before when we forced her to during experiments, how is it that she can perform such abilities now?"

Zarbon didn't have an answer for him this time. He shifted his gaze away from Frieza once more, and stayed quiet.

Frieza got up from his chair, turning to address him on more serious terms.

"Also, since you're here, a Scouter reported back that another village was wiped out about an hour ago. It would have been just before you must have encountered Vegeta, if my math is correct." Frieza continued as a matter of factly. "And, you know what was odd about it? Unlike all of the other villages on this pathetic planet, there was no Dragon Ball there."

He smugly tilted his head.

"Do you know who could have been responsible for that?"

Zarbon blinked hard.

"Hmm… Vegeta, perhaps?" Zarbon replied nervously.

"That's right." Frieza replied, his anger becoming more apparent. "So if anyone were to know where that Dragon Ball is, who would it be?"

"V-Vegeta, sir?" Zarbon answered again.

"Excellent, so you have a head on your shoulders, after all." Frieza calmly responded back. "Now then, you said you had good news?"

"W-Wait!" Zarbon urged. "Please, sir! I-It may be possible that I just left him knocked out!" He frantically begged, doubtful that Vegeta would still be alive - he'd just returned from leaving him at the bottom of a lake, but he needed more time. "I can go fetch him!"

"Very well." Frieza sighed, unamused. "If he is not here within the next ten minutes, I will ensure that you meet the same fate as Dodoria!" He shouted angrily. "Go!"

. . .

Rosemary returned to the same island that she'd rested at previously, placing Vegeta down as slowly and carefully as she could muster in the grass. She was pushing herself to ridiculous ends - trying to learn how to control the movement of a person's entire body on the fly for just the second time truly took its toll, all the while still drained from the fight earlier on. It was like she never rested at all.

With Vegeta finally brushing against the grass below them, she kneeled beside him to check his vitals to ensure he was still with her. She pressed an ear to his chest once more, to hear a much stronger, louder pulse coming from his heart. She backed off and placed a finger under his nostrils, to feel a warm but light breeze over her knuckles.

'Thank goodness, he's stable now.' She noted. She could relax now.

"Hey!" She whispered harshly. "Vegeta! Hey come on, wake up!"

Vegeta moaned with a pained growl as he tried to sit up.

"Hey, take it easy," She warned, "You're hurt. I just retrieved you from the bottom of a lake, you must have had, um... quite the fight."

"I'm fine." He snapped at her half-heartedly. She had been telling the truth, though, he could still recall his consciousness fading as he sank through some body of water. He finally opened his eyes to see a familiar bright red stone dangling from her neck by a dark hide rope as she reached over him.

"How in the world... you still have it?"

"Have what?" She asked him to clarify, following his gaze downwards to see what he meant. Thankful that he wasn't looking even slightly lower, she took the stone between her fingers, unaware that it had come loose from it's usual spot of being tucked away inside of her armour. "Oh, you mean the stone you gave me..."

She smiled with a nod. "Of course I still have it, I still have the original chain, too, um…" She let go of the stone gently and gestured down at her damaged chestplate. "Hidden away. As you requested, I've refused to part with them unless my life went as well. And that's then Frieza's army came..."

"And destroyed our planet, yes, I remember." Vegeta finished bluntly. "And I still remember watching you scream in your sleep as you dreamt about it happening."

Rosemary's focus slid away from him in shame. Of course he wouldn't pass up the opportunity to mention such a detail.

"Yes, well," Rosemary replied, somewhat offended. "That dream just happened to have come true… I also just had one about you drowning, and now we're here."

She let out a heavy exhale.

"It's not exactly something I ask for…" She looked back to him and hoped for a different expression on his face, but was left disappointed. "Anyways, we should have a proper rest to tend to our wounds. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it out of that encounter safely, and I definitely wasn't sure if I'd be able to save you and get you to safety after the fact. I'm grateful, and quite honestly, baffled, that I've managed both successfully."

Rosemary left Vegeta's side, limply walked over to a nearby rock, laid down and closed her eyes without another word.

Vegeta watched her from where he sat and silently agreed with her. He'd been busy since he showed up on the planet, it was time to take a break.

It'd been a while since he'd had to consider the words of someone else, for his own sake.

He pouted stubbornly, laid back down in the grass, and dozed off.

As he drifted into sleep, as if triggered by recent events, several scenes from his past came to fruition.

The first of which was a time when he was a young teen - he'd been snoozing away in his bedchamber until a cry of distress from down the corridor forced him awake. He recognized the sound of the voice with ease… That particular incident had been growing more and more common.

"Rosemary!" He'd shot out of bed in a startle. "Something's wrong!"

A young Vegeta rushed to her room with haste in just the underlayer of his armour, the door already opened by someone else, to find his Advisor in the middle of a fitful but unconscious episode.

He crept over to her as quietly as he could. He was somewhat tempted to wake her to relieve her torment.

"Don't wake her!" One of his nurses told him in a harsh whisper from a corner of the room. "She will have a breakdown!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" Vegeta retorted angrily in a similar fashion.

A young Rosemary shot up from where she laid and broke down to tears, doused in sweat and panting for air

"Oh, that was awful…" She trailed off. She rubbed her eyes and met the concerned gaze of her friend. "Oh, hello… I'm so sorry for waking you, Your Highness..."

"Rose, what happened?!" Vegeta had asked, mortified. "You were going insane in your sleep!"

"I-It happens occasionally…" She'd explained with a cracked voice, shaken. Yes, her whole body trembled. "Not usually this often, though…"

"Miss Rosemary, are you truly alright?" The nurse asked her softly. "You certainly don't look it."

"Yes, ma'am, I should be fine now. Thank you for coming to check on me." Rosemary politely replied with a respectful bow of her tired head and looked back to Vegeta once more. "Forgive me, sir, I really didn't mean to scare you awake… It's not good for you, especially."

"I don't care about sleep that much, surely you know that." He told her reassuringly. "You're a Royal Advisor now - while still fresh on the job, your health is as important as your role."

"Y-Yes, of course." Rosemary nodded. "I'm alright now. Thank you for your concern for my safety. Please, get some rest."

"Of course, Miss." The nurse replied. "I wish the same for you."

Next, roughly two years after that night and days before his eighteenth birthday, he'd sat at his bedside in the very same bedchamber, indecisively staring down a shiny red stone as it lay on a regal violet cushion on his end table.

"I want to, truly." He spoke out to the empty air of his quarters, consumed with the thought of a daunting task. "But when?"

He stared at it in silence for a little while longer, pondering some more.

"I cannot think of any other person who should have such a role." He continued in an attempt to persuade himself. He wasn't used to thinking about such things.

There was a knock at the door.

"Your Highness?" A soldier asked from the hallway, peeking his head in through the crack in his doorway. "Miss Rosemary is outside to see you."

Vegeta stiffly shot upward, immediately having second thoughts.

'But, I haven't summoned her today, she's off-duty and we didn't have plans…' He mused, now curious. 'She must have news or something.'

"Very well, I'll see to her in a moment." He hesitantly called back. He looked back down at the gemstone, took it off the pillow by it's golden chain, and left his room with it in hand, incessantly rehearsing to himself as he headed outside to meet Rosemary.

He'd stepped out into the courtyard to receive his Advisor, who'd patiently sat on a bench of some rare substance he couldn't bother to remember with her usual high degree of etiquette, her long white robes flowing slightly as the wind swept under them.

She stood up to receive him, bowing respectively.

"Your Highn- Vegeta, sorry, I won't do it again, I swear..." She began nervously. "I-I can't help but feel strange today."

She bowed her head in what looked to be some level of disappointment.

"For a couple of months now, I can't help but think that something bad is going to happen…You know, because of the fits in my sleep lately. I can't put my finger on it, but there is something strangely ominous about today, and I'm concerned. Very concerned."

He sighed with a slight shake of his head. What a victim of worry, she was.

"Everything is fine, Rose." Vegeta calmly assured her, internally panicking as he got ready to take a leap he'd been planning for what felt like ages. "You're always so paranoid."

After a moment of hesitation, Rosemary crossed her arms, and frowned.

"Of all the times that I've been paranoid, sir," She began, slightly mad. "How many of those times have I had reason to be?"

Vegeta rolled his eyes to hide the truth in her words.

"That's not the point, Rose!" He snapped back. "If you would just try to enjoy yourself a little," Vegeta tried to calmly redirect her thinking, attempting to cheer her up again. "Rather than worrying about what is going to happen, these incidents wouldn't happen as much. Remember what the doctor said, your anxiety is only going to make your sleep fits worse."

He smirked, and raised an eyebrow. "You overthink everything, anyways, you could afford to lighten up. It's your day off, you should be savouring it. Understand?"

Rosemary blinked hard.

"Um, yes…" She answered, still not entirely convinced.

"Good." He replied finally. "Now then, since you're here, I have something I wanted to talk to you about..." He uncomfortably trailed off.

He let out a heavy exhale.

'Here we go…'

His dream rewound a couple years back again, to a scene where Vegeta had brought Rosemary along to spectate a Saiyan union from atop a cliff for a lesson that day. Yes, at that point, she was being primed to become his Royal Advisor, he remembered subconsciously.

Rosemary's eyes had been glued to the event down below and lit like the stars.

"Ah, they look so happy..." She sighed dreamily as she observed in awe. "I hope to have this feeling one day..."

Vegeta shrugged his shoulders from where he sat beside her, indifferent.

"It's peculiar and likely a unique desire. Because it's not explicitly in our culture to do, of course... I could live without it." He brushed it off lightly. "Not like I have much of a choice, though, being the prince. Royal marriage is complicated. Procedure is different and overly elaborate. I'm not looking forward to it when it happens."

Rosemary looked over at him.

"Really, the procedure?" She asked with a giggle. "That's what you call it? How different can it possibly be?"

"Well, as I was told by my father," Vegeta began, playfully holding up a finger to look like he was some kind of wise and intelligent instructor. "If the heir is a male, you know, like myself," He shrugged, nonchalant. "...then the current ruler would pass down a Jewel of Union as a form of approval, who then gives it to his desired mate as a proposal, as he did with my mother. He just had to start the tradition..."

Rosemary watched him with an eager stare, as if waiting to hear more.

Her endless desire to learn was admirable, as always.

"And if I were female, if someone desired me as their mate, they are to gain approval from the current ruler first, where they are awarded the pendant instead."

"It is an interesting and presumably an important process, surely it's to find a proper fit for the throne." Rosemary replied in wonder. "Being royalty seems to have a lot of these, well, important processes, I suppose that's why we have these lessons. I imagine your father doesn't want just anyone on the throne."

He laughed heartily. "No kidding."

"So, wait," She continued. "Do you know what this jewel looks like? I mean, your father must have one, then, right?"

"I do not, and it's not the same." Vegeta answered firmly. "My mother was the first and the last to possess it, and I don't know what happened to it after she, well…"

"It's alright, I understand." Rosemary hushed him. She probably knew exactly what he'd been referring to at the time. "I just assume you have lots of jewels and stuff, your father being the first king of our planet and all."

He cheekily nodded his head from side-to-side in agreement.

"You're not wrong."

The next scene showed him and Rosemary finally going for the walk through the palace corridors that continued to plague his memories to the very day, chatting away aimlessly. He was trying to ease himself into serious conversation and struggling greatly, leaving him awkward, humiliated, and almost unwilling to speak at all.

Until she'd gave him no choice.

"So, what is it that you wanted to tell me, Vegeta?" Rosemary asked him, conveniently catching him off-guard.

Vegeta tightly grasped the stone in his hand and froze as she uttered the words.

'Come on, get it over with and just ask the damn question already! I can't believe I'm actually doing this...' He angrily scolded himself.

"Well, you see, it's, uh, kind of personal…"

"I see." Rosemary giggled, playfully leaning over towards him. "Well, as your Royal Advisor, it is my duty to talk about things that affect you, after all, so you've got the right person."

"Thanks for the confirmation." Vegeta grumbled, still on edge. "It's important and I've been thinking a lot about it lately, Rose. I'm just not sure how to express what it is I'm trying to say." He replied as he jerked away from her gaze, embarrassed.

"Oh…" She straightened up to take up her post as she would if she were on-duty. "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings… Please, continue."

"Anyways," Vegeta went on after a deep breath, looking straight ahead as they continued to walk. "I've been thinking a lot about my future, and, well, it has to do with you, too."

"A-Alright." Rosemary replied, a noticeable splash of worry in her tone. "Have I done something wrong?"

"Not at all." He answered dully. "In fact, it's exactly the opposite. I… consider you a good friend, you and I both know I don't have many of those…"

He hardened his stare on the hall ahead in hopes to alleviate his aversion to the topic.

"Seeing as though you live at the palace anyways, and you're now my advisor and I trust you, I've been hesitant but increasingly desiring to ask-"

He finally turned to her to finish, to find Rosemary's beaming eyes on him, burning with curiosity. He couldn't bear to take more than a second of it and quickly turned his head away, cursing under his breath and shaking his head in frustration.

"Your Highness, are you sure you're alright?" She carefully nudged.

He fisted his hands.

"Rosemary, as the heir to the throne, I-"

"Your Highness!" An Elite Guard called from down the hall. He ran over to them in a panicked frenzy. "Please, come this way! We're under attack!"

Vegeta grew tense with fear and followed the guard without any further hesitation, almost thankful that it dismissed the increasingly awkward tension. He dropped all substance of the conversation and prepared himself for combat, leaving Rosemary standing alone in the hall.

"Hey, wait for me!" Rosemary called over as she caught up quickly, then slowed down to stay beside Vegeta.

Vegeta looked over to her, stressed and critically impatient.

"I don't have to wait for you, you're faster than me!" He barked as the group of them ran down the corridor.

"Vegeta, I have a bad feeling…"

"That dream!" Vegeta remembered. Yes, the original reason for summoning him while she went about her day off-duty. "Remind me of what went on in it?!"

They barged into the throne room, to find the King, his father, lying unconscious on the floor in a pool of his own blood.

Rosemary took a harsh gasp and began to cry on the spot.

"T-That..." She whimpered through harsh sobbing. "Gods, I knew it…"

"Father!" Vegeta screamed, rushing to his side. "No!"

Just then, a large squad of armoured men entered the room, as if on queue, to close them in.

Rosemary looked around her in fright, ran over to Vegeta and cowered behind him, unable to defend herself.

"Vegeta, watch out!" She told him hysterically as she covered his blind spot.

He knew she wasn't going to be able to fight, she was entirely untrained. What she could do, however, was run. Yes, he should tell her to run away and flee to her room.

"Rosemary," He urged quickly, when his throat seemed to force itself closed to render him speechless.

She looked to him in horror, ready to hear whatever he was about to say, but he couldn't utter a single word.

Time was running thin.

Defeated, Vegeta took one of her hands, whipped the jewel out of his pocket and slapped it into her palm. Rosemary looked down to see what it was as she awaited further instruction, but was grabbed by a soldier from behind.

"Let-me-go-!" She flailed around to escape his grasp, tightly clutching the jewel in hand.

"Apologies, Miss." He replied smugly. "Orders, surely you understand."

Rosemary growled in defeat.

"Vegeta!" She screeched to him helplessly through tears.

"Rosemary, listen to me!" He called back fiercely as he fought with a few other men. "Shit- Whatever you do, guard that with your life!"

He could tell from the occasional opportunity to see her that she'd squirmed her hand free to reveal the red stone inside, the gold chain glimmering as it bounced around from the stone's secured hook.

She'd looked back up to him, refusing to take her eyes off of him as she was lugged out of the room under a soldier's arm.

He couldn't tell if she'd managed to truly figure out the weight of what he'd just given her, or if she would ever decipher what he was trying to accomplish in doing so, for that matter.

It was at that moment that he'd accepted that he couldn't save her and proceeded to unleash his anger on every remaining man standing around him until he'd lost all sense of himself.

It was at that moment that Vegeta shot out of his sleep.