Chapter 10: Unexpected.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

A smooth rhythm was echoing in the space of darkness before the awareness began to sink in. Kakarot slowly opened his eyes to a very white ceiling above him. Now at the Look out point he had been very accustom to white. White walls, white ceiling, white carpets and the only things that weren't white were the plants and the blue tiled flooring. However the smell was what gave it away.

Hospital!!!

DOCTORS!!!

NNNEEEEEEDDDLLLEEESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He bolted up and looked around for an escape route but they found the Saiyan Prince's form entering the room. He watches he friend look utterly relieved to find Kakarot awake and well before he masked it with an annoyed face. He immediately calmed.

"I see you're awake" Vegeta said, crossing his arms.

"How long have I been out for?" Kakarot asked, still bit on the edge.

"A few days, that last attack you two performed was very powerful and very dangerous. Rip the shield wide open from the top." Vegeta said.

"Did anyone get hurt?" Kakarot asked.

"Depends on who you are implying that on" Vegeta said.

Kakarot looked at his Prince confusedly.

"Huh?" Kakarot said.

Vegeta sighed.

"You know when I told you about the problem we had earlier on. The missing planet on the battle zone where Frieza died?" Vegeta said.

"Yeah" Kakarot said slowly, not liking this.

"The blast that you and that amazon created destroyed a fleet that belong to his son, Kuriza." Vegeta frowned thinking "In fact I believe it was his entire fleet, Ice-jin's were never much of a giving bunch."

Kakarot blinked.

"And?" Kakarot prodded.

"And it means they know of Earth." Vegeta said. "We intercepted a transmission from the ship. Apparently we have a royal ice-jin still alive."

Kakarot was quiet at that moment. Oh he just did not like that.

"But at least we can rule out Kuriza, he was placed in the centre of the blast. That leaves his Grandfather, Uncle and Father, hopefully not the latte to any extent." Vegeta said. "What I really want to know what happen moments before you fell unconscious."

Kakarot shrugged "I have no idea…wait, where's Chichi?" alarmed he started to push the covers away "Is she ok?"

"The amazon is fine, still unconscious though. Her aunt and cousin has been a nuisance, rattling on abou–hey! Where are you going, baka?" Vegeta said.

"To find Chichi" Kakarot said, half way towards the exit.

"She is not here you fool." Vegeta said.

Kakarot turned around to face his Prince once again, giving him a look.

"The amazon queen decided to take her back to their home, gave her something so she would have been fit for the journey. Still was unconscious though." The Prince said. He frowns at his friend. "Why are you so concern?"

Kakarot looked apprehensively at him.

Then there was a huge rumble.

"Can we at least talk about it AFTER I've eaten? I'm famished!"

**************************************************

Chichi tried her best to ignore the migraine as her eyes seemed to pulse along with her brain. She had never experience such and awakening like this before, and she had been drunk plenty of times with her cousin, even her ki wasn't helping. She prayed to Diana to ease her pain, but it was not working at all. How was she supposed to function when she couldn't even think straight?

"Oh Kami, make it stop!" Chichi murmured.

At that moment Shashu entered the room when she felt her cousin stirring finally. She was starting to get worried and if she hadn't awoke she would have gone after the saiyan herself. She opens the bag attached to her hip and pulls out bottle of pills.

"Here, I managed to buy some pain killers in the city below the mountain" Shashu said.

"GIMME!" Chichi said, lunging towards it.

She snatches the pills from her cousin's hand, opened the bottle and popped two pills in her mouth, swallowing it dry. Her cousin looks amused at her then takes the bottle back. She senses now that Chichi begins send her ki into her stomach, breaking the pills down into microscopic sizes quickly before sending it into her blood stream and up to her brain. Roughly ten seconds passed before Chichi could look at her cousin without squinting, the pain had gone away.

"You're going to have to teach me that." Shashu said.

"Just a bit of practice really, Baba taught me." Chichi said.

"I see." Shashu said. "Like those other techniques."

"Yeah." Chichi said.

"So, are you going to tell me what exactly happened when you were fighting with that saiyan?" Shashu asked.

Chichi smiled awkwardly at her cousin. "Maybe after some food? I'm kinda hungry."

"We'll talk along the way to mother then. I believe she is in the middle of lunch." Shashu said.

"Oh. How long was I out for?" Chichi asked.

Chichi stands, brushing away any invisible dirt off her clothes. She notices now that she was in long loose clothing compared to her fighting gear and, from the looks of it, had been sponge bathed as the blood and dirt had been clean up.

"About three days. You would not believe what happened." Shashu said.

They both head out of the room and down the corridors to the Queen.

"What happened?" Chichi asked.

"Well you know that shield that Lady Bulma made to keep the crowds safe? It tore up from the top when you guys blasted each other with all you got!" Shashu said.

"Goodness! Was anyone hurt?!" Chichi asked. She knew Bulma would have made sure the shield would hold with the calibrations of more than two saiyans, but maybe the weakness was on the top…she hoped no one got caught in the blast.

"Well here's the fun part!" Shashu said pointing towards the ceiling. "Apparently there was a whole fleet of aliens up there about to blow us to smithereens until you guys blew them up instead. How ironic was that?"

"Very, um, how were they there in the first place?" Chichi asked, bemused at that.

Shashu shrugs at her cousin.

"According to what Lady Bulma thinks, they must have picked up on their sensors your power levels, then decided to eliminate the problem." Shashu said. "I knew I felt something bad whenever I looked up at the stars, I just didn't know till now. Wonder what that was all about."

Chichi realised what that fleet was, or more precisely, who that fleet belonged to.

"Freiza." Chichi said.

"Who?" Shashu asked, confused.

Chichi became very serious at that moment, looking at her with a frown.

"You remember when we were farming those senzu beans?" Chichi asked.

"Yes, the humans were engaged in a war and we delivered mass supplies for them." Shashu said. "Is this to do with the alien fleet?"

"Yes. Shashu, do not repeat this to anyone but those senzu beans aided the saiyans." Chichi said then added on Shashu's confused face "Then humans and the saiyan had made an alliance to fight this enemy. He was beyond the words of evil and to be stopped. Lady Bulma had confided in me that the sayains did not have the advance technology like they have and but had a vast army that would have been decimated if they had tried anything."

"And that's were our magic and herbal skills comes in." Shashu finished. "Senzu beans could heal the worst of any injury and replenishes ki power to the maximum. Human technology and Amazon magic plus Saiyans physiology equals one defeated enemy." Chichi stares at Shashu, a bit stunned "You're not the only one that sneaks into that castle, I had to see what my little cousin was up against."

Chichi looks at her cousin in suspicion. "You said 'sneaks', that's plural, you've done that more than once and if you needed information you would have only to be in once. So, spill!"

Shashu looks forwards and away from her cousin but watches her from the corner of her eye.

"I find that hardly of your concern when I know you like a certain someone." Shashu said.

Chichi flushes, stares at the doors that leads to the Queens chambers. How did her cousin pick that up? Surely she couldn't. She had been so careful in not revealing anything.

"Why would you think that?" Chichi asked.

"You forget Chichi, my eyes are the sharpest of all Amazonians. It's the reason for my supreme dexterity and nothing ever gets pass me." Shashu said.

"I don't see this any of your concern" Chichi growls.

"Hmm, and I suppose it wouldn't really matter as I would become Queen when mother dies" Shashu said.

"What?" Chichi said, stunned.

"What you do is your own business Chichi, I get that. Just as long as it does not harm you or our people, I do not mind." Shashu said.

"You speak as if you felt such things before, maybe even greater." Chichi said with concern. "Were you in love with him?"

Shashu smiles grimly at her, her eyes a little tinge with sadness.

"Once, but I had to give him up, for our people." Shashu said. "So much sacrifice for them. He said he'd give up everything to be with me but I knew my place."

"Why did you not tell me before?" Chichi asked in dismay.

They arrived at the Queens chambers and stood there.

"Because it wasn't the time to, you were always running off with Lady Bulma on those adventures and I wanted you to have fun. You were still very much young and silly." Shashu said.

"Was not." Chichi pouted.

Shashu smirked at her cousin dubiously "Who ended up in the stomach of T-Rex thinking it was the best way to cook the thing from the inside out only to blast it apart, decorating the hunting team with its entrails?"

Chichi sheepishly cringed at the memory.

"Shashu I was fourteen at the time, give me a break."

"Hmm" Shashu continued to smirk before opening the doors.

Bulma was mulling over a cup of coffee when Krillin and Tien came into her laboratory. She had been thinking of the recent fight, the collapse of the specific design of the shield and Kuriza's arrival. She had no idea how Kuriza knew of earth but now that transmission had been sent the Saiyans had to stay on the planet.

"Hey Bulma" Krillin said.

"Hey, any luck in sensing?" Bulma asked.

"Kami has just informed us that both warriors are awake." Tien said.

"And?" Bulma asked.

"Kakarot and Chichi are now informing their liege on who had won." Tien said.

"You're never going to believe it." Krillin said.

Both warriors from different locations looked at their respective liege as they ate.

"We drew."

"WHAT!!???"

"How did that happen?" Bulma said in disbelief.

"Because of the blast. You know it destroyed that fleet of Kuriza's?" Krillin said.

"The ki that been swirling in the shield had knocked them both out." Tien said.

"Haven't got the foggiest on how it didn't kill THEM in the first place." Krillin said.

"So does that mean they have to have a rematch?" Bulma asked.

"Not in our current predicament." Krillin said. "Unless Princess Chichi decides to actually tell what Prince had said. I mean technically she didn't lose."

"Nor did she technically win" Tien said.

"They are both so powerful. Kakarot had so much ki in him but Chichi was able to redirect some of it back at him along with her own. Making it equal." Krillin said.

"That would explain why the draw though and how they survived. Chichi was able to redirect some of Kakarot ki to go along with her own, mixing it together. It's like mixing Ammonium nitrate and TNT in a contained area and since the shield contained the ki the only natural force for it was to go up." Bulma said.

"Ah" Krillin said.

"And the reason for their survival?" Tien said.

"It's their own ki, duh" Bulma said. "May do them harm if directed at them but wouldn't really harm them cause it's from their own body."

"Uh, yeah, that must it" Krillin said as he and Tien looked at each other doubtfully.

She senses their uncertainty in her logic, why would they? She's supposed to be a genius for crying out loud.

"You don't think so?" Bulma asked.

"Well, it's a little farfetched. From my experience, when ki is used as a weapon it stays like that; whether it hits your opponent or yourself." Tien said.

Krillin nodded in agreement.

"Well it's the best idea I got, okay?" Bulma huffed.

"So you just, drew. Just like that?!" Vegeta said in dismay.

Vegeta and Kakarot were sitting by a large table that recently held a banquet of food until they got their hands into it. All that was left on the table were two large empty plates in front of them and pile of massive bowels on the side.

"Pretty much. She was a tough opponent." Kakarot said, sitting back to digest the food. "But I was so close in beating her, I just know it."

"Except for the whole double knockout" Vegeta said acidly.

"Well, at least it's over." Kakarot said.

"No it's not, baka. We still have that problem of her babblering mouth." Vegeta said.

"Not entirely." Kakarot said.

Kakarot begins to rub his chin thoughtfully as Vegeta looked at his friend carefully.

"What do you mean?" Vegeta asked.

"Chichi only wishes to protect her people from the humans. She does not want war between the two but if Prince Yamcha declares it when he becomes king she will take action." Kakarot said.

"And you can count on this." Vegeta said.

"They are only a race of women Ve, the need the human men to breed with. If they kill them off it would discontinue their race." Kakarot said. "And I don't think they want weak ones either."

"True, but just hold them against their will, kill off most of them and leave the rest to do their bidding." Vegeta said.

"They barely tolerate them. It just wouldn't happen that way." Kakarot said shaking his head at the thought before he stilled again. "Chichi is a good person and I doubt her Queen would leave her out of the loop with the ice-jin fleet appearance. With this I also doubt she'd tell them about what Yamcha has said, it would not be fair and it may cost her people's lives. We all worked as a unit to destroy Frieza's armies once, if you take one of us out I'd doubt we would survive. I know she knows this as well as a friend had informed me during my training."

Vegeta took in consideration what Kakarot was saying, even noting that he seemed to be on the friendly terms with her with just calling her 'Chichi' and without the 'Princess' part. Maybe there was hope. He then smiles softly at the thought. And maybe if he was lucky this would all over soon and he could go home to find his father finally proud of him. What a day would be.

"I knew you had to have some brains to be a General and my guard." Vegeta said.

"Why would you question it in the first place, Vegie" Kakarot grinned.

Vegeta twitched at the nickname. "Don't ever call me that you baka."

Kakarot just smiled on.

At the Lookout Point, Baba watches from her crystal ball she was worried at the future but she could several possibilities. Then looks up at her old friend, his worn out green face looks eager for good news.

"It's hard to say how this would end Kami" Baba said.

"I sense it Baba, I sense it will not be good." Kami said.

"The Z-Warriors will have to help as much as they can but they are human and the ice-jin is sure to beat them. There is no possible way to defeat him without the saiyans help." Baba said.

"What of the Amazons?" Kami asked.

"Chichi will help in due time but for the rest of them? She isn't the one that is leading them." Baba said.

"Then you must persuade the Queen." Kami said.

Baba looked a little uncomfortable by that.

"I already messed up a little in my relations to them. Queen Melanippe and Princess Chiyo were close sisters and considering she still feels anger towards me as I had not told her of her sister's demise…" Baba trailed off.

"So you would let all of earth suffer all because of that little titbit? I thought you had some backbone Baba; after all you're a witch. A very talented witch in the crafts of magic and fortune telling. Surely you are not afraid." Kami tried to persuade.

Baba frowned at him.

"I don't see you rushing off to do so" Baba said in a deadpanned voice.

"Ah. I'm a god. I look after the earth and I can not leave the Lookout Point." Kami said. "It's in the job description."

"No, you're just afraid they'll – especially the Queen – will bite your head off" Baba huffed in annoyance.

Kami looked at her is exasperation.

"Fine, I'll see what I can do, but I'm not giving you a miracle though." Baba grunted.

On the tallest tree in the forest sitting on a great mountain Chichi stares up at the night sky as rest on the branch. It was two more nights before the full moon and she could already feel its soft energy bathing her in its light. She had no idea why she had this sudden need to be outside of the mountain to stare up at the sky but it was an urge she did not deny it. She bit her lip.

She denied the actual reason as to why she stared up there. It wasn't really the stars and the moon she was look at it was the thought that Kakarot had actually come from there, somewhere in the big black pool called the universe. Chichi was worried about him. Was he okay? Did he hate her for the draw? Or did he feel useless because of it?

She just did not know anymore.

And her cousin knowing that she liked him did not help. Or maybe she knew she liked someone but wasn't quite sure on who it was.

Who was she kidding? Of course her cousin would know; it was too obvious for her.

Shashu was a pain in the butt like that and always so honest when something was up.

She wanted to smack her head against the mountain at her own stupidity.

How did it come to this? How did she fall for him?

"I don't want to fall in love" Chichi murmured.

Too late. The corners of her mind whispered.

Love was so complicated for her.

It was times like these she wished her mother had not died and left her alone in the world. She had no idea who her father was and who he may be but was not a source of comfort. Her aunt and cousins just did not fit the bill of a mother for her. Her mother would have known what to do, she just knew it. She remember her talking about love being wonderful when she was little, even saying it was grand at the best of times. But to feel it with your entire being and then suddenly loose that love and can do unimaginable hurt to your heart. It was best to love just a little and not a lot, that way you won't feel as much pain.

But she knew she was passed 'just a little' from the way her thoughts just drifted off to him. How she liked being in his company. How just her heart seem to flutter strangely when he kissed her.

"Still as silly as ever I was." Chichi muttered.

Her sense tingle as she felt him approach her from below and her heart just began pound in her just in nervousness. He hovers up towards the branch she was resting on before he lands in a sitting position next to her. She continues to look at the stars, afraid of what she may do if she looks into his dark eyes.

"Are you alright?" Kakarot asked.

"For now." Chichi said. "You?"

"For now." Kakarot said.

There was a space of silence between them as they both stare at the sky.

"Why me?" Chichi asked.

"Because I like you, very much." Kakarot said. "You make me happy."

"What can you give me?" Chichi asked.

"Happiness and me." Kakarot said. "And don't think you want anything else but that."

She finally looks towards him and him towards her.

"You like making things complicated for me." Chichi said, with a small smile. "I need know though, can we be friends if I can't have you?"

Kakarot frowns at her.

"You know you can have me." Kakarot said.

"I'm still a princess, my people come first" Chichi said regretfully.

Kakarot frown depends at that. "I want all of you Chichi, not just a little piece."

Love for her people was fine.

Love for family was fine.

Love for her friend was fine.

But love for this man?

Love was just complicated.

It was deeper. It was scary. You just could not protect yourself from the pain as much as you can from the other types of love.

She had tried to reject, tried ignore him, even tried to beat him up but he had manage to get under her skin.

Into every little pore of her body.

And it made her break into smaller pieces.

"I guess it can never be." Chichi said sadly.

"Chichi, no" Kakarot said and pulls her up against him and looks directly into her eyes "Do you want me Chichi?"

"I'm a Princess of–"

"I'm not asking a Princess and I'm not asking an amazon, I'm asking you as a man ask a woman" Kakarot said in determination "Chichi. Do. You. Want. Me?"

Didn't he understand? Didn't he realise of the possibilities of what may happen if she turned her back on her people? Was he that selfish just to be with her? Why was he so blind? And was why he just blinding her with that same stupid hope? Why couldn't he just understand?

She tries to blink away the tears that began to form in her eyes.

He was doing it again.

It was painful.

It was comforting.

He was getting under skin.

It was so quiet. So soft. Her heart was shattering at the one word that slips from her lips.

"Yes"

She was breaking into pieces.

So many little pieces that were too tiny to find.

And she doubted her heart even wanted anyone else but Kakarot to find.

Thank you for the reviews. Each and every one of you. They are very encouraging and I'm just happy to write. I'll try my best in completing this story but be patient with me as I do have a life that doesn't involve FF, so I hope you enjoyed this. Please leave some feedback.

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