Warning – this chapter contains time jumps from the present to the past then back to the present, these jumps will be highlighted by a new subheading.

Three Saiyans in a ship

Present day 11:19am, Vegeta landing back on earth.

"Make sure your fastened in son, this could get rough with the damage those weaklings managed to do to the ship." Vegeta advised his son.

Trunks didn't answer but tugged on his seat harness to make sure it was as tight as it would go, he could remember his father's last landing with a perfectly functional ship, it left him with both mental and physical scars.

"Vegeta to Bulma, we are on our final approach touch down in 4 minuets"

"I read you Vegeta, we have the medical team on standby bring her down nice and easy," there was a slight pause then she whispered, "I missed you princey"

Vegeta rolled his eyes at his wife's pet name for him then mumbled something inaudible into his mic blushing slightly,

"What was that dear I couldn't quite hear you" Bulma teased.

"I said I missed you too bunny, you insufferable woman" Vegeta screamed down his headset, it was a good job no one could see him because he was now a bright scarlet colour due to using his mates pet name.

"You know that would have been really sweet if you hadn't ruined it by being yourself at the end" Bulma screamed back, "Just get your saiyan ass down here so we can have some bedroom time, I need a good stress relieving session god damb it."

48 hours earlier, deep in space.

Vegeta was wrestling with the ship controls desperately trying to lose their pursuers, he darted through dust clouds and dodged through debris fields but he couldn't shake the swarm of ships that followed, occasionally they would fire a burst of lasers at the CC ship but due to the advanced hull plating Bulma had made to survive Saiyan energy blasts they had little effect other than winding the prince up even more.

"Damb these weaklings, what does it take to get rid of them" he ranted "Do they have no idea who they are dealing with?"

Just then a large explosion ripped through the ship tossing the two Saiyans in the cockpit around like rag dolls, Vegeta quickly turned to the diagnostic screen to check the damage to find the main space drive had been caught with a lucky shot from one of the larger cruisers in pursuit, leaving it badly damaged and down on power by about 1/3 of its total.

"That's it I've had it with these pests, where are the weapons on this thing" Vegeta flicked a few switches and the targeting systems came online.

The weapons for this new ship had been developed solely by Bulma and the CC team specifically for people with high Ki levels, these Ki cannons could use power generated by the ship or be powered by directing Ki into them, meaning they could be a very powerful weapon especially in the hands of a Saiyan.

Vegeta quickly powered up to super Saiyan and directed half of his Ki towards the cannons, the effect was quite incredible, as he swung the ship round towards their attackers the weapons instantly fired, even with only half of Vegeta's Ki they managed to vaporise each ship they hit.

"Ha fools didn't even know what hit them, look at them run HAHAHA"

"Dad I think they get the point now, can we go home?" Trunks sighed.

"Fine" Vegeta pouted "I never get to have any fun" he said under his breath "keep an eye on the auto pilot while I call your mother and tell her we will be a little late."

40 hours before touchdown, Son household.

Gohan and Lime had just returned from their evening training session, Lime, as usual, was being carried by Gohan bridal style however tonight she was out cold, usually she would be conscious and even stay up a bit to chat with Chichi but today she was fast asleep in the young mans arms, prompting Chichi to go into protective mother/nurse mode.

"Oh my Dende Gohan, what have you done to the poor girl?"

"Nothing mum, I was meditating and she was chasing Icarus, next thing I knew Icarus had brought Lime over unconscious and brought me out of my training"

"My god she's burning up" Chichi said placing her hand on Limes forehead, "If you have worked Lime into a fever your dead do you hear me Gohan Son"

"Mum she'll be fine I've seen this before, its happened to a few of the guys while we have been training, all she has done is use up too much of her energy reserves, all she needs is some sleep and in the morning she will have a huge strength and energy boost."

Chichi opened her mouth to voice her feelings on the matter further but thankfully the phone chose that moment to ring, Chichi gave Gohan a 'this isn't over' look and went to answer the phone, Gohan took this opportunity to take Lime to her room and place her in bed before making his way back to where his mother was on the phone, he sat in a chair on the adjacent wall to where his mother was speaking, presumably to Bulma as she was the only one that his mother would talk to for this long.

"Yes of course we will be there"

….

"No need to thank me Bulma that's what friends are for, even if your husband can be a bit of an insufferable jerk"

….

"Don't worry about a thing, I have a lot more experience at treating wounded Saiyans than any medical experts you could hire."

This caught Gohan's interest and focused his sensitive ears so he could also tell what Bulma was saying.

"You're the best Chichi, remember in two days time and be here for 10am so we can brief the medical team, if Vegeta has let anything happen to Trunks he'll be needing you guys more than their passenger."

"Right I got it Bulma, and don't worry after nursing Goku and Gohan back to health all those times I can handle pretty much anything, we'll see you then bye." Chichi hung up the phone and turned to Gohan.

"Gohan we need….."

"I know," he said cutting her off "Bulma's house two days at 10am, I'll let Lime know she can have the day off from training, im going to bed night mum."

Gohan stood and walked out the room, Chichi was a little taken aback by this odd behaviour she hadn't seen him look this serious for a while all her anger at him disappeared and was replaced with curiosity, but decided not to disturb him from his thoughts as he left for his room.

Present day 11:24am, Capsule Corporation.

Lime stood next to Gohan watching the very battered looking space ship descend towards Bulma's back garden, it looked to her to be going a little too fast for a safe landing, she took a step up to Gohan took hold of his arm and took cover next to him, Gohan turned and smiled down at her.

"Don't worry it will be fine" he said as if reading her mind.

A few seconds later the landing thrusters on the bottom of the ship fired causing Lime to jump and she buried her head in Gohan's chest, he put his arms around her to comfort her. The ship landed hard causing the earth to shake slightly and leaving a ring of burnt grass with a small crater and the ship began to hiss in relief as it powered down from its long hard flight.

A whole minute passed where nothing happened allowing Chichi, the medical staff and Bulma to approach the ship safely, as they approached the door seal hissed as the air tight seal was broken and the door lowered itself to the floor like a ramp, much to the relief of everyone, but especially Bulma, a perfectly fine Trunks appeared in the doorway and bounded down the ramp towards his mother.

"Hi mom, I missed you" he yelled as he launched himself from halfway down the ramp into his mother's arms.

"I missed you too sweetie" she replied smiling widely "where is your father?"

"Im right here woman" Vegeta huffed making his way down the ramp he handed over the child in his arms to a fussing Chichi before turning back to Bulma, "Its good to see you" he managed to say rather uncomfortably.

"Oh come here you handsome hopeless idiot" she yelled pulling him into a passionate kiss.

Meanwhile Chichi and the medics rushed the young girl to the infirmary, Gohan picked up Trunks and took both him and Lime inside to play while Bulma and Vegeta had some alone time. Chichi stood over the girl and gave her a quick once over, and although unconscious she didn't seem in that bad shape.

"Ok the first thing we should do is remove that pesky tail, we don't want a giant ape wandering around destroying everything in sight anytime soon" she ordered.

24 hours before touchdown 11am, Son household.

It wasn't like Gohan to sleep in especially since he was supposed to be training Lime, Chichi was starting to get worried when neither of them had woken and decided to wake Gohan as Icarus was sat outside the front door whining worriedly and for once she was in full agreement with the young dragon this definitely wasn't normal.

"Gohan, Gohan wake up sweetheart" Chichi spoke softly in his ear, 'hmm I didn't think that would work, guess I'll have to wake him like had to wake Goku' she thought to herself, "Gohan breakfast is getting cold."

This had an almost immediate response, Gohan bolted upright in his bed and his stomach began to growl loudly gaining a giggle from Chichi and a confused look from her son.

"Get up and get dressed sleepyhead and I'll have breakfast ready for when you get down, then you can tell me what has been eating you since that call from Bulma."

Gohan threw the covers off him once his mother had left and stretched his half asleep body, he heard her open the door and talk to Icarus who gave out a happy squeal and took off towards the lake, he figured he had come up to the house to see why he hadn't been at the lake earlier.

Gohan walked into the kitchen to find his mum at the stove and a half asleep Lime sat at the table, he greeted Lime who just smiled and let her head fall to the table and started to snore she obviously hadn't fully recovered from yesterday. A few minuets later breakfast was served and Lime woken back up by Chichi who was forcing her to eat the meal in front of her.

"So are you going to tell us what's wrong now Gohan?" Chichi asked.

"Well I guess I should cos it will probably affect Lime at the Tournament" he stated getting him a worried look from Lime, "for the past few days I have been sensing a strange Ki, its kind of twisted and dark, last night while you was on the phone to Bulma I could feel it stronger than before, like it was listening in on the conversation, I've not let it sense me yet because I want to catch it off guard" this gained confused looks from the two women at the table so he elaborated.

"It's waiting for something, something big where it can make itself known, and I think that it's the world tournament and its checking out the stronger Ki signals like you and Lime." Gohan paused to take a drink then continued, "last night after you was asleep I went to the look out to ask Piccolo and Dende to keep an eye on it for me, I think there is a lot more to worry about at the world tournament than Hercule's ego, that's why im entering too."

Chichi opened her mouth to protest, but the look Gohan gave her told her that this wasn't up for discussion, to Chichi Gohan had never looked more like his father so she dropped it.

14 hours before touchdown 9pm, the lake and Son household.

Gohan hadn't meditated during training today, he had sat intently and watched Lime chase Icarus till she was worn out but instead of calling it a day he kept getting her to eat a senzu bean and then continue, this had gone on for 7 hours straight and at last it seemed Gohan had seen enough.

"Good I think we will call it a day at that" he strode over to Lime and picked her up bridal style, "you are progressing a lot faster that I thought you would, about another month of this and you should be ready for the next stage of my training."

"Which is?" Lime asked weakly.

"Ahh well I can't tell you yet, I need to work some things out with your next training partner." Gohan answered mysteriously. "But that's enough about that for now, and there will be no training tomorrow because we will be visiting Bulma, but you still need to wear these weights."

Lime sighed but didn't argue since she knew she couldn't win, Gohan carried Lime back to the house where he took her straight to her room which was odd as he would usually leave her to talk to Chichi for a while, Gohan placed Lime on her bed, removed her weights with his mind then sat on the bed next to her piquing Limes interest even more.

"Lime I want you to know that no matter what happens at the world tournament I wont let anything happen to you, I will always be there to protect those I love and care about, so what im trying to say is I don't want you to be scared about it, go at it with everything you got ok?"

Lime stared at Gohan for a while letting his words sink in, then looked up to meet his shining teal eyes (as I have said before Gohan is practicing being in his ascended super saiyan form all the time) and gave into temptation, she reached up to Gohan's face and pulled him down to meet her lips and kissed him with all the passion she could muster, to say Gohan was surprised would be an understatement but he didn't pull away he waited for Lime to finish before he addressed the situation.

"Wow, what was that for Lime?" he asked blushing profusely.

"Just for being you and always making me feel safe, your going to make a great big brother" Lime managed to get out before exhaustion overcame her and she fell into a deep sleep.

Gohan sat there for a little while longer with a massive grin plastered on his face, he composed himself and left the room to find his mum still up in the living room, they stared at each other for a while before Chichi broke the silence.

"How is Lime doing?"

"Sleeping like you should be mum, we have a big day ahead tomorrow and you need your rest I can feel an imbalance in your Ki." Gohan stated in a very Gokuish way that left no room for negotiation.

Chichi stared at her son a little while longer before getting to her feet.

"Fine im going, your growing up so fast for a second I could have sworn it was Goku stood there, you know he stood in the exact same spot and said the exact same thing when I was pregnant with you" Chichi said with obvious pride.

Gohan watched to make sure his mum went to bed then retired to his own room, all of a sudden he was incredibly tired and dropped to his bed lost in his dreams.

"Im so proud of you my son." came a distant voice that had watched the recent events unfold.

Present day 6:40pm, Capsule Corporation.

Everyone was waiting outside the infirmary waiting for Chichi to give them the all clear so they could come in and see the new arrival, even Vegeta and Bulma had rejoined them after spending hours locked away and some very interesting noises coming from their room, Gohan was openly avoiding Vegeta so the prince could not question him about his powered up state and challenge him to a spar. Amongst those gathered was Gohan, Lime, Krillen, Roshi, 18, Vegeta and Bulma, Tien and Chiaotzu were unreachable and Yamcha was off being famous somewhere.

Eventually Chichi came to door and made it clear they could come in but had to behave themselves, as they entered the girl in the bed recoiled slightly faced with all these strangers around her, but being a Saiyan she composed herself and found her voice.

"Where am I and who are you? You should know my people will look for me and destroy you all for capturing me." She said in a confident tone.

The group looked at each other and came to a silent agreement that Vegeta should do the talking, silently and to everyone's surprise he took a seat next to the bed and spoke softly but authoritatively.

"What is your name girl? We can hardly have this conversation without knowing it."

"M-my name? It's Kumiko, what's yours?" she didn't know what it was but something was telling Kumiko to obey this man.

"My name is Vegeta and I am the prince of all Saiyan's"

Kumiko's jaw dropped this was one thing she didn't see coming, it was going to be a long day, it was then she noticed he didn't have a tail and absently felt for hers only to find it was gone.

"I don't care if you are my prince, tell me where the hell my tail has gone" Kumiko screamed at him.

"Very well, make yourself comfortable I will tell you the whole story."

Sorry for ending it there but I didn't really want to spend ages explaining stuff we all know so lets just imagine Vegeta sat there and filled her in on everything, ok?

Thanx for reading please tell me what you think, I know it's a little different from my other chapters but wanted to try something new

Matt.