A/N: Been busy with school and stuff. Here's the new chaptah.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or anything affiliated with it.

-MalRev

Spectre

17

No one moved for a painful amount of time. I must have looked like a deer in headlights—my entire body froze solid and I stared blankly at Bulla's self-satisfied grin. She took in my outfit that was in a severe state of disarray, cold blue eyes combing up and down my body critically. It could've looked like I rolled out of bed late. She had skipped school just like me.

Goku was the first one to budge. He dropped his shoulders slightly and smiled, backpedaling so he came between Bulla's eyes and mine. I finally broke free of her spell as he rubbed the back of his head, laughing. He was much better at playing it cool than I was. I wanted to crawl in a hole and die.

"Aw, that's not a funny joke," he said. "C'mon, I was just trying to get Marron out of bed."

He'd gone back to his goofy demeanor again now that the threat was dissipating. He knew her much better than I did. Then again, she was Vegeta and Bulma's daughter so she had eyes and ears like a hawk. She had to know what was going on, just like Goten. They were gonna tell everyone when the time was right and destroy Goku and me.

"Get out of my way, you buffoon. I know you're too dumb to get in a girl's pants, especially one who's smarter than you. Luckily Chi-Chi is just as dense and uneducated. A perfect couple." Bulla pushed Goku aside again and stepped towards me. "I came here to apologize for what I said to you. It was rude."

"Get in… pants?" Goku echoed. He looked genuinely puzzled. "Why would I want to get in someone's pants? Wouldn't I want to get them off?"

"It's fine," I said, keeping my eyes trained on Bulla with a small smile.

She rolled her eyes at Goku. "You're seriously so dumb. Daddy thinks you're retarded because you smashed your head against a rock. It makes sense when you think about it. All you think about is fighting and finding someone stronger to fight while your wife sits at home all alone and raises your kids for you. Only a retard would shirk their responsibility as a parent. Even daddy grew up and stayed with mom."

It flew over Goku's head. He had a feeling she was insulting him but he didn't know what to say. I watched him open his mouth and clamp it shut, deciding it was better to let Bulla berate him. There was a pattern forming when he talked to women: he'd let them say whatever they wanted. He tried to stay silent and take the verbal beating rather than talk back. It was ingrained in him like a cancer.

"Oh, clean that up." She gestured to a pile of broken glass and looked expectantly at Goku. "Marron and I need to talk so it'll keep you busy. Sort of."

He frowned, turning his curious black eyes to me. "Talk? About what?"

I shrugged helplessly as Bulla grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the door. When I turned, Goku was standing at the entryway to the kitchen with a sad expression on his face. Poor thing. He looked so lost that I considered trying to wrench myself free of Bulla to help him clean up her mess. But she was half-Saiyan—my strength meant nothing to her.

We got into her car and drove off down the street, headed for the busy traffic ahead. I folded my arms across my chest to try hiding the fact that I didn't have a bra on. Hopefully our chat wouldn't take too long because I really wanted to go back home and check on Goku. We'd only been apart for two minutes and I was already feeling homesick. Snap out of it, Marron. Come back to reality.

Bulla was silent for a long time. The radio helped ease some of the awkwardness but I grew more and more uncomfortable as time wore on. Where were we going? I only saw big, grey buildings flying by my window when I checked. I still wasn't very familiar with the city. She might have found a good place to go for lunch, even though I was in no condition to go inside a place. I looked trashy.

After a while she sighed heavily and ran a hand through her blue hair. She looked a bit disheveled, like she was more stressed out than usual. It must've been tough getting everything you wanted and having two happily married parents who let you do whatever you wanted.

We pulled over next to a dirty curb, putting us directly in front of a shady pawn shop. I peered out the window to watch the people walking by: none of them were happy being stared at. When a man with a gnarled grey beard flipped me the bird I quickly hid down low in my seat. As I waited in terror for her to decide to move, I heard the snapping of a lighter wheel.

I looked up to see Bulla exhaling a column of smoke while holding a long, thin cigarette between her delicate fingers. She flicked her ashes out the window and smiled down at me.

"I told you he's pushy," she said.

"Excuse me? Who's pushy? Can we not park here?"

"Goten. I told you he was pushy." She inhaled deeply, draining down a quarter of her cigarette, and held it in her lungs while she spoke. "He'll keep pushing until he gets what he wants. That's why he has so much money and it's why Capsule Corp. has never done better. He doesn't take no for an answer."

"I don't care about him. Goku will protect me."

"You think so, huh?" she said. "Well, there are a few things Goku doesn't know about his son."

Watching the way Bulla drawled was peculiar—it felt like she was a tired old woman who couldn't keep up with the struggles of life anymore. She finished her cigarette and flicked it out the window, promptly lighting up another one and offering it to me. I politely declined, waiting for her to speak.

She looked dead at me, uncharacteristically serious. "Marron, what I'm about to tell you is a secret. If you tell anyone, you'll destroy our quirky little family we have here. Everything will fall apart. Don't even tell Goku, dumb as he may be. He'll let it slip to Chi-Chi."

Why did they all think that? Goku wasn't dumb. Okay, maybe a bit, but he had good intentions. So what if he couldn't write his own name? He would love his family to the end of time and sacrifice anything to protect them. The Briefs family seemed more critical of him than anyone else.

"You know Goten is loaded by now. Like, he's seriously rolling in cash. It's ridiculous." Bulla seemed to choke up at this point and inhaled her entire cigarette in one fell swoop, chucking the filter out the window and rolling it up. "That isn't all from Capsule Corp. Some of it is, and he reinvests like my brother tells him to, but there's still so much he has left over. He's a great businessman and he saw a lot of opportunity in a market that not many people can appreciate.

"I had the same vision so we became business partners, I guess. We split our profits from our side venture pretty evenly but he keeps the bulk of it. It led to us dating for a while but it never worked out, probably because our personalities clash so hard. It isn't that cute sort of clashing that my mom and dad have—Goten and I literally cannot get along. He's such an asshole. I don't think he even has feelings and that's saying a lot. He's nothing like his father, except for the creepy charisma.

"Anyway, what Goten and I were doing isn't technically legal or moral. I'm almost completely backed out now but he doesn't want me to go because I'm the best headhunter. I can convince any dumb girl off the street to join our, ah… lucrative business. You moved back into town and the first thing he said to me was that he wanted you to be a main player. I gave it a shot but it was half-hearted, and you're not as dumb as you look. You've always had a feeling we were up to something."

They had an illegal business on the side? Oh no. Even more insanity.

"What is this business?" I asked slowly.

Bulla picked lint off the front of her shirt. "Prostitution."

I wanted to be tremendously shocked; to wonder what the hell was wrong with the two of them, but I wasn't terribly surprised. It made sense. From what I had seen, Goten played the role of a pimp pretty well. No, no, he wouldn't want to get his hands dirty. There was another figurehead and he hung back away from the business itself to pull strings behind the scenes. It made a lot of sense.

But I couldn't see Bulla debasing herself to that. She was proud like her father and Vegeta was the type of parent that would constantly be breathing down your neck like my mom did. It was a wonder she got away with anything, much less running a prostitution ring at sixteen with a family friend.

Bile rose in my throat as I began to realize what that meant for me. They were both trying to get me in on the business. I knew Goten didn't have any real interest in me. It was all a ploy to add me to their team—that was why both of them smirked at one another all the time. The Saiyan blood must have made all of them insane.

"He wanted you to take my place," Bulla continued idly. "You know, the one he flaunts in front of the other men. I've become more or a business partner than anything else. But you were too smart to fall for his bullshit so now he's left with nothing."

"I… I don't know what to say."

"I didn't expect you to. Anyway, I figured I'd let you know before you get yourself into something you're not prepared for. Keep an eye out, Marron. I wasn't kidding when I said Goten's pushy."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. "He's not going to kidnap me or anything, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "Obviously not, especially with Goku lurking around. He thought he'd have a chance to woo you with your parents gone but like I said, Goku being with you all the time doesn't make that possible. It threw a wrench in his plans."

Her cell phone rang and she started driving soon after she answered it, leaving me alone with my thoughts yet again. I couldn't tell Goku. He probably wouldn't understand it. But Bulla was way too young to be caught up in something so dangerous. I could tell her parents or even Trunks—he was Goten's main business partner so he'd set him straight.

We drove deeper into the city. I grew paranoid as decrepit buildings flew by my window and Bulla argued with whoever she was talking to on the phone. I wanted to go home; to tell an adult what was happening so they could make it better. I was too young to be dealing with prostitution rings.

Bulla hung up the phone and sighed. "That was Goten. He wants me to bring you down."

"What?!" I shrieked. "There's no way I'm going there! Bring me home now!"

The vacant look in her eyes didn't change. We were going, whether I liked it or not.