Disclaimer: I don't own YYH, DBZ, or the characters…just my many, MANY OCs (too many to list really XD) Also, thanks to previous writings, the OCs had never been described, so I get to do that now :3 lol

Kaiya and her friends were able to get their luggage easily. She had been thankful for a peaceful flight and airport experience. Usually there was more confusion with international flights. It seemed like someone in the universe was trying to give her a break. After everything that happened over the last few days, she needed it.

"Kaiya, are you alright?" Yukina asked in concern. Kaiya had not been acting like herself, and she wasn't the only one who had noticed. Both Mayonaka and Alexia had tried to engage her in conversation during the flight. Kaiya just waved them off and listened to her iPod the entire time. Likewise, Botan was chattering now and noticed that Kaiya was not chirping along with her. She only hoped that the girl did not have to deal with another of Koenma's challenging games. Kuwabara and Shizuru watched her closely. They could also tell that something was up with the girl.

"I'm fine, Yukina," Kaiya lied. She had really tried to be fine. Her mind tried to rationalize her the entire night before the trip. She had gotten in touch with Koenma with a communication mirror and asked him to book a flight for the seven of them to Athens. Mayonaka said that Kiense and Marissa would meet them at the airport and then the nine of them would take a boat ride to the island they needed to get to, Crete. There, Toshi, Suze, and the twins they had met before would be waiting at a large rented house that Kaiya convinced Koenma to rent for the three weeks. It was the least he could do for forcing them into this hell.

"Are you sure?" Botan pressed. "You've seemed off since last night. Actually, I was surprised you wanted to leave so quickly. You just told us about the mission a couple days ago."

Kaiya cringed and clung onto her bag, hanging from her left shoulder. Her katana swung slightly from her other shoulder as she grabbed onto the handle of her rolling suitcase. Shizuru and Kuwabara could sense that the girl was hurting and didn't want to talk about it. "If the kid says she's fine, we have no business arguing," Shizuru stated. "Now let's get out of this airport. I need a smoke."

"I didn't know you got nerves from flying," Mayonaka spoke up. "You didn't seem nervous on the plane."

"It's not nerves," Shizuru replied, "but if I don't do something to calm the rage I'm feeling due to this farce of a mission then Koenma will have to deal with me coming after him next."

Nervous chuckles could be heard among the group, except with Kaiya who was still clutching her belongings. She was feeling so much hurt and so much like a failure. The Saiyan princess kept telling herself that if she finished the mission quickly and could return to training, she could erase disappointing her brother. Would he forgive her for disappointing him?

"Kaiya, did you hear me?" Mayonaka asked her. Kaiya snapped out of her thoughts, blinking and trying to regain herself before looking at her irritated sister. Mayonaka sighed and said, "I'll take that as a 'no.' Listen for once, will you?" Mayonaka didn't notice her sister cringe at her tone of voice. "Kiense said that he'd be waiting for us at this great restaurant a few blocks away. He has a capsule car for us to put our luggage in while we eat and then we'll head to the boat…are you sure you're okay, sis? You look distant."

Kaiya shook her head to try to regain herself. Her thoughts and fears were all over the place. She managed to keep her mental block up, but honestly, if one of their new enemies had telepathic abilities, she'd be screwed. Also, if she couldn't focus on the mission at hand, she'd be screwed too. "I'm really fine," she lied again.

"Well, alright then," Mayonaka responded in shock. She couldn't believe the way her sister was acting. Never, and that means NEVER, had she ever seen her sister acting this way. It scared her, honestly. Kaiya would need to be in perfect control this entire mission or it would be like her first all over again. They didn't know the enemy well enough, and, if the enemy caught on to her behavior, it would be terrible.

Alexia, too, didn't buy it, and being trained with Kaiya, she knew. Kaiya was dealing with something, and it was something big. She remembered times where Kaiya would act like this, and the young fighter would make more mistakes than she'd be able to make against a true opponent. Where the two of them were trained to be rivals, Alexia had never truly wanted to kill Kaiya. When she found out that she was her cousin, somehow, she felt the protectiveness inside her grow. The two of them were the same age, but Alexia was more hardened than Kaiya, and had more experience with true spy cases. She did not want her cousin to go into this hurting.

As they began to leave the airport, Alexia placed her hand on Kaiya's shoulder, making the girl freeze in place. "Listen Kaiya," she chided gently, "I know you're going through something. Everyone can tell. If they can, our enemies will as well. I'm not telling you to get over it. We both know it doesn't work like that, but you need to bottle it for now. Bottle it and save it for when this mission is done, or else, Kaiya…you're going to get yourself killed again. No one will be able to handle that, especially that brother of yours that just found out you were his sister."

When Kaiya flinched, Alexia knew she hit a nerve. Whatever was bothering Kaiya had to do with Vegeta, but the dark-haired girl could not figure out what. Then Kaiya said sadly, "Vegeta would be fine without me. He doesn't need a disappointment in his life. Let's just get this mission over with."

Alexia's teal eyes followed Kaiya as she walked out the automatic doors. She didn't think Vegeta cared about her? That was a surprising sentiment to say the least. If there was anything Kaiya would have said in that moment, Alexia would have never seen that coming. All she had seen or heard about the Saiyan prince from her cousin was good, but now? What happened in less than a day that had her cousin so upset, and would she be able to get ahold of her already spiraling emotions before they had to do recon? Alexia shook her head from her thoughts. She couldn't let herself get out of sorts too, especially when so much was riding on this single mission. If Kaiya was going to choose now to break down, Alexia would take the lead.

Hiei had not run into Bulma the night before to tell her about Kaiya leaving for the mission. He had found food in the fridge and a note on the table explaining that she needed to take care of something at the company the previous night while her father and mother were on a trip. He wasn't fazed by the note as it had nothing to do with him. All it meant was that explaining Kaiya's absence would be prolonged. He could live with that.

Vegeta walked into the kitchen in the morning and saw Hiei standing in there, leaning against the counter with his foot pressed into it and his arms crossed. He was wearing a color other than black for a change, a pair of black pants but also a light blue tank top. He was tapping his fingers impatiently when Bulma entered the kitchen and found the two men just staring around.

"Oh, good morning guys," she greeted. "Hey, Hiei, where's Kaiya?"

Upon hearing his sister's name, the Saiyan's expression darkened. He wondered if Kaiya was going to try to avoid him for the day or if she would come to train at some point. He made his view on her training perfectly clear. Besides, it sounded like she still had a few days before she went wherever the hell she was going. When Hiei spoke, his theory was proven false.

"She's not here," Hiei explained in irritation. "She's on a mission for Spirit World. That idiotic ruler, Koenma, decided that in order to change the law that says we all go to Spirit World prison, including anyone Saiyan, she was to complete a blind mission with a team she formed. I'm not happy about it, but at least she was smart enough to bring a lot of capable spies and those with spiritual awareness to help her out. She was adamant about leaving last night."

"I wonder why she wanted to leave so abruptly," Bulma voiced. She didn't notice Vegeta glaring at her. He hoped she'd shut up and not reveal to Hiei what happened. He had enough to deal with and did not need his sister's boyfriend to bitch at him. "Maybe it was that argument she had with Vegeta."

"What?" Hiei asked quietly but curtly as Vegeta's glare hardened. The fire demon swiftly turned to glare at Vegeta. The prince was shocked to see such hate in Hiei's eyes. "What the hell did you do?"

"What are you going on about?" Vegeta growled. Bulma sensed an argument about to start and backed away from the two warriors praying that the kitchen wouldn't be destroyed by whatever was about to go down.

"Do you know that last time I saw Kaiya THAT torn up?" Hiei asked in anger. "It was when Jiro told her she was a traitor. That night, before she was killed, when she wanted to be alone. Before he showed up, she was telling me everything he had done or said to her in life and she was hysterical, and it took a long time to calm her down, and then even after that, she got killed because she was too hurt to come back inside with me. He did that!" Hiei didn't realize he had started walking towards Vegeta and stopping himself at the kitchen table by clenching onto the marble covering. "Last night…last night I couldn't even believe what I saw. She was hysterical, and seeing me only made it worse. All she kept saying was she needed to get away from here!" Hiei paused but Vegeta didn't get a chance to answer before Hiei's heated fists cracked the marble in the table and he screamed at him in rage.

"Whatever you did or said…she's not ready for a mission, damn it!" he exclaimed causing Bulma to gasp and Vegeta's glare to soften as shock invaded him. "If you think she can't fight with a clear head against her relatives, it's even worse when she's hurting. She's left abruptly because she wants this to be over, and I get that, but she's not going to be able to fight back if she's upset. Her fire powers are linked to her emotions. She's at a disadvantage now, all because you got into an argument with her! What the hell were you fighting about? What was so damn important to fight over that you caused her to lose it like that?"

Vegeta did not like being yelled at by this demon. He didn't care if he deserved it or not. No one was going to speak to the Prince of all Saiyans that way. "It's none of your business," he replied curtly.

"Don't," Hiei spoke darkly, breaking off a part of the table. "Don't you dare try to say it's none of my business. That girl you hurt and chased away is someone I care about greatly, and I swear, if you did something to her that gets her hurt, I don't care how much more powerful you are than me. I will send you to hell even if I have to send myself there first. No one hurts ANYONE I care about!"

Vegeta was taken aback, but he realized he should have expected Hiei to act this way. Hiei had shown how much he cared about Kaiya in that fight they had had, as well as from his monologue after. The Saiyan figured Hiei's complaining was done, but he would have been wrong.

"Tell me!" Hiei demanded, banging on the table with his fist. "I demand to know what you did or said to her that sent her off in the manner she left in."

"She was asking to skip out on her training after only a day of REAL training," Vegeta said loudly and forcefully. "I hit her with a small ki blast and scolded her for being so reckless with her own life. She needs to train and not go gallivanting with her friends on a whim. She refused to tell me about the damn mission when I asked, so how was I to know what she was doing?"

Hiei shook his head. "Are you telling me," he said deathly calm, "that you actually hit and scolded her when she said she needed to pass up on something as small as TRAINING?" Hiei couldn't even look at Vegeta. Even Bulma was avoiding looking at the Saiyan in that moment. "Let's get one thing straight, Vegeta. I don't care who the fuck raised you. I don't care that the same creep that turned her into your sister raised you and forced you to purge planets. Hell, I was raised by killers myself, but there is one thing you've seemed to have forgotten.

"Kaiya is an earthling, and she is human! Those two things give her strong emotional ties to anyone she deems family or friend, even if that person is a homicidal maniac that KILLED her. And then you go and berate her for something she does not grasp the importance of because she was raised that way…Do you know how much emotional scarring you just caused for her? She was already upset before she came to talk to you. She didn't want to leave. She is doing this for all of us. There's something you need to know about her."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "And what, dare I ask, is that?"

Hiei shook his head. "She was proud of herself for being able to do this," he said quietly. "She hated leaving, but she knew she could do it and protect all of us and-"

"I don't need protecting."

"Shut up!" Hiei snapped. "You don't understand her. I agree that this is a stupid emotion to have, but it's hers. She felt proud, and she wanted you to be proud of her too. I bet you didn't even give her the chance to explain, did you?" Vegeta said nothing, confirming Hiei's thoughts. "Shit," he grumbled. Hiei was irritated. He knew how Kaiya was when it came to disappointing those close to her. He should have seen it before she left, recognized it from the nights she mourned her broken relationship with Jiro and listing all the reasons all of her demon friends should have hated her.

Hiei shook his head again and turned to face Bulma. "I can't stay here for a while either, or I may destroy more than your easily breakable table. I need to go to stay with Kurama to have phone access in case Kaiya calls. I'll be leaving right away. I can't stand here another second."

Hiei flashed out of the kitchen faster than lightning. Bulma and Vegeta were left alone in there, in this heavy silence that Hiei's rant caused. Neither of them knew what thoughts were now invading the fire demon's mind, so Bulma assumed Hiei was still furious at Vegeta and that Kaiya's hurt had something to do with his treatment of her the previous day. Eventually, the human looked over to Vegeta who was staring at the partially broken kitchen table.

"Vegeta," Bulma tried to say calmly. Her voice cracked, causing Vegeta to flinch. "She didn't deserve that. I know training is important to Saiyans, but on Earth, we don't abuse our hurting relatives because they ask for a break." Bulma laughed bitterly before continuing. "I hope you're proud of yourself. If that girl decides not to come back, it's on you."

She left Vegeta alone in the kitchen with nothing but his thoughts. The prince had not done anything wrong, he continued to tell himself, but then their words, Hiei's and Bulma's, that Earth had different customs…

He thought about what Hiei had said and then reflected on Kaiya's thoughts and fears from the night before. He had hurt her, from how Hiei made it sound almost beyond repair. Vegeta had crossed a line with Kaiya yet he didn't understand it. He refused to admit that he was wrong to the others or to her; he still had his pride. He could admit he wronged her to himself, but that was it. So what if they thought him callous and cruel. They all had to stop living in this Earthly delusion that Kaiya was not at risk being out without the proper training. Maybe when something would happen to the girl, they'd see that, but Vegeta didn't know if he could live with himself if something truly did happen to her. The healthy thing to do at this point would have been to talk about it with someone who could understand his thinking. Vegeta was not one to do the healthy thing. Instead he planned to do what he did best. He was going to train the day away in the GR without any distractions. Maybe then, he would get rid of this annoying twinge of guilt he rarely felt and hated so much.

"Kiense!" Mayonaka exclaimed before jumping into the arms of a young man with dark brown hair and green eyes.

"Maya," he greeted lovingly. "It's been forever. Remind me that I need to move back to Japan when this is all said and done. I've been lonely without you."

"He really has," a tall girl with straightened, long, black hair said. Her lavender eyes looked among the team. "I see a lot of new faces. The only three I know are Maya, Kaiya, and Kuwabara."

"We'll do introductions inside, Marissa," Mayonaka said as they loaded their luggage into the capsule car. Kaiya was the last to put her luggage in and lingered in the trunk for a moment longer than she should have.

"Maya, babe," Kiensa whispered tightening his arms around her, "is your sister okay? She's not still upset with what my alternate form did to her, is she?"

"I have no idea, honestly, Kien," Mayonaka replied. "She seemed fine when I offered to contact you. We just talked about it two days ago and she was fine with it. Now she's out of it and seems really depressed, and last night she wanted us to drop everything to leave and come here. I have no idea what caused her to act this way, but whatever it is, it's bad. She needs to focus or she'll be-"

"Don't say it," Kiense ordered. "I will make sure she's safe. I owe it to that fire demon boyfriend of hers. I owe him for what my counterpart put them through. I will make sure my debt is paid and that I keep you sister in the living."

"Thanks, Kien," Mayonaka said quietly as she lightly kissed his lips. "I trust you completely."

Mizuki couldn't sleep at all the previous night. She continued to have violent dreams about Demon World and that broken mirror that Jiro ordered Jake to acquire. All she saw in her dreams was blood and corpses of the demons. It was not a pretty sight to behold when you were just trying to get by the anniversary of your parents' deaths.

She needed to stop worrying about Jiro and his schemes for the day. Instead she had a brother and sister to look after. Today was her day off since nothing was going on with their little group anyway. Tristen and Kala would be up soon and she needed to do everything to distract them from the date. She loved those kids and she didn't like them mourning every year. Their parents wouldn't want this for them on this day for the rest of their lives.

"Morning Mimi!" Kala said as she ran into the kitchen. Tristen, her twin brother, followed her in. He had a smile on his face, though Mizuki could tell the boy was trying to mask his pain. Despite being young when the attack happened, he recalled a lot of it, and made a point never to mention around his sister why their older sister was raising them.

"Good morning, you two," Mizuki greeted, still trying to block out her dreams. "I made you guys pancakes, and then we're going to hit the amusement park. What do you say?"

Tristen shrugged and nodded to her, smiling slightly, while Kala cheered excitedly. "Oh, and by the way you two," Mizuki spoke up again, "Happy Birthday."

"Missing…what do you mean it's missing?" Koenma screamed when his ogres reported the disappearance of the Forlorn Hope.

"Well, sir," an ogre reported, "we were going to go clean the relics in the vault and found one of the three artifacts was missing. The alarm hadn't been tripped up. It was just gone."

Koenma sighed and shook his head. He only knew of two demons alive that had broken into the vault before to steal those artifacts. Unfortunately, he knew they would be less than thrilled being brought in for questioning. "I hate to do this, but bring in Hiei and Kurama, and heck, bring in Kuronue too. I need to ask them a few questions."

"I'm going to kill him," Hiei stated plainly as he, Kurama, and Kuronue were making their way through the halls of Koenma's fortress. "I'm just going to kill him whether he's the king of Spirit World or not."

"Hiei, be calm," Kurama ordered. "If you didn't take it, you have nothing to fear. He's only doing this because we stole them before."

"And he's bringing me along for the ride because why?" Kuronue asked. "I was thought to be dead then."

"Because we had three of us then, and you are, like us, a former thief," Kurama explained. "He just needs to cover his bases."

"Use the damn footage they have of everything in that place before making assumptions," Hiei snapped. "I do NOT want to deal with him right now."

"Hiei, what's wrong?" Kurama questioned. "You've been acting more irritable than usual. Is everything okay with the girls?"

"No."

Kurama and Kuronue exchanged curious looks, but Hiei did not try to diffuse their curiosity. Already at Koenma's office, Hiei entered leaving his friends both concerned and confused. Something had happened and the only ones Hiei dared to open up to were in Greece on a mission that the deity they were about to see forced them to take. This meeting was not going to go well.

"Ah, Hiei," Koenma greeted confidently. He sifted through his paperwork, approving the requests he was presented with, marking them with his royal seal. He wasn't looking at Hiei when the fire demon made his way around the large desk and wrapped his bandaged hand around Koenma's small throat.

"Hiei!" Kurama shouted in shock. He and Kuronue quickly ran into the room, but Hiei held his other hand up. They knew the fire demon was planning to attack them if they took another step. Watching was all they could do as a dark flame surrounded Hiei's fist waiting to be lost.

"I will say this once," Hiei spat, his voice laced in venom. "You've made too many bad calls. You've sent Kaiya on some mission you don't even know if she could complete. Then you drag us here, away from training, to accuse us of stealing objects. Yes, we may have stolen them before, but do you honestly think we'd be stupid enough to try again while Kaiya is fighting for us. Check your damn video cameras. Then question us."

Hiei released Koenma, and the deity placed his hand on his neck. He didn't need to gasp much for air as Hiei hadn't squeezed that hard. It was the fire demon's warning telling Koenma he was already on thin ice. He would have told the demon that it was treason, but he did make a good point. Maybe before he would interrogate them, he should watch the vault security footage.

"Ogre, bring me the vault tape from last night!" he called from his office. Seconds later his usual ogre shadow entered with the tape.

"Here it is, sir," he said handing it over.

Koenma moved to play the tape, and when the fuzz on the video cleared, they saw the untouched vault. Ogres had made their rounds and left the vault unguarded as they exchanged shifts. While they had their backs turned, someone in darkened clothes easily breaking into the vault. Before the ogres came back, the being was already in the vault and removed his mask.

"I repeat," Hiei growled at the Spirit World ruler, "I'm going to kill you, especially if anything happens to either Yukina or Kaiya." His eyes flared with hatred as he faced the deity. "You let Jake escape, and he found a way back in. You better find a way to fix this before Jiro even thinks about using that mirror."

Hiei disappeared from the room and Koenma cringed under the accusing glares of the fox and bat demon. Kuronue shook his head as Kurama's hardened green eyes flashed gold. Koenma knew that he caused a lot of problems for them in the past, but now, with everything going on, he couldn't afford to lose them.

"I'll get to work on this right away," he said sincerely. "Just make sure he doesn't destroy anything."

"Fine," Kurama replied in a deep and dark voice. Kuronue slightly smirked at the sound of Youko Kurama's voice. "But I agree with him. If any harm comes to any of them, we will be coming for you."

Kurama turned away from the Reikai ruler and Kuronue followed as they made it to a portal to return them home. They hoped that they'd find Hiei in Kurama's room ready to contact Kaiya instead of burning buildings in the city. They were thankful to find him right where they hoped.

Kaiya was in a room of the large house that had been rented on the island of Crete. She had already seen the rest of Kiense's team. Toshi was as comical as she remembered him after their whole first meeting. The black-haired teenager had certainly grown sturdier since she had met him. Suze was as bright as she always was with her short, golden hair and blue eyes, her refreshing attitude matching that brightness. Kiri and Akio, the twins, looked a lot different than what she remembered of them. The pigments of their purple hair and blue eyes became lighter on Kiri and darker on Akio, matching their attitudes. When Kaiya had asked Mayonaka about it, she said something along the lines that since they were aging and were the two halves of the same power, one held the darker aspects of their power, and the other the lighter.

Everyone was so excited to be together again and to meet the other members of this thrown together team that Kiense's team hadn't met back during that first mission. Kaiya slipped away to unpack in her room, but really she needed to avoid the scrutinizing eyes of her friends and relatives. She was trying and struggling to get ahold of herself, and she was failing miserably. How was she going to get through this mission?

As she unpacked her belongings, she noticed her cell plop down onto the bed and realized that she had yet to call Hiei like she promised she would. She knew she'd better do that before she worried him too much. She quickly grabbed the device, turning it on, so she could call Hiei.

The second she dialed… "Kaiya!" Hiei exclaimed into the phone as if he had been waiting by it. "Where the hell are you?"

Kaiya inaudibly chuckled, a ghost of a smile appearing on her face. "Hey yourself, Hiei," she teased lightly. She already felt a little better hearing his voice.

"What took so long?" Hiei snapped before Kaiya heard Kuronue yell in the background, "Yeah, Kaiya…if you didn't call him any sooner, Kurama's room'd be toasted."

"Sorry," Kaiya muttered with humor in her voice. "We just got to the rental house. We met up with Kiense and Marrisa at a restaurant close to the airport, and I wasn't thinking. I forgot to turn on my phone."

"I know, Kaiya," Hiei said in a surprisingly soft voice.

Kaiya was a little shocked by his change of attitude. "Hiei, you okay?"

"Kaiya," he tried again, "I know."

"W-What?" he heard her stutter on the other line. Kurama and Kuronue were staring at him questioningly, but he refused to meet their gazes as he spoke into the phone.

"Yeah," he replied. "When I told Bulma you left, she mentioned a fight with Vegeta, and I know what happened. I know what you're feeling. You feel like you've done something wrong, don't you?"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Kaiya voice said, starting to get upset. He sighed, hoping she wouldn't cry again, but he needed to bring it up so he could explain to her, yet again, she wasn't at fault.

"You know that's not true," he assured her. "I know you think Vegeta's disappointed in you for you missing training, but he knows about the mission now. You didn't do anything wrong, okay. It's going to be fine, Kaiya. You're going to be okay, but you need to focus and not let this bother you."

"What if you're wrong?" she asked sadly. "What if I'm just another disappointment to him?"

"I can't speak for Vegeta," Hiei admitted, "but you are NOT a disappointment and I don't believe he sees you as such. You're letting Jiro's words get to you again and applying them to now. You can't do that. You need to focus and put this aside for now. We can figure things out when you get back."

He heard Kaiya laugh and felt hopeful. "You sound just like Alexia, you know," she replied. A short sigh could be heard on her end. "I know I have to focus, especially since everyone can tell something is bothering me."

Hiei didn't like hearing that. If everyone could tell she was upset, that would be horrible for her when facing the enemy. "Don't think about it for now," Hiei ordered. "Just forget it and get some rest, okay?"

"Okay," Kaiya agreed, much to his relief.

"Good," he responded. "I love you, onna."

"Love you too, koi."

Hiei closed the cell phone and sighed in irritation, trying to reign in his frustration in all of this. After cooling down, he thought about Vegeta and realized that the Saiyan probably thought he was still blaming him or that Kaiya was still upset with being hit. Kaiya didn't really care about the hit; it wasn't a big deal after everything else she had been through. She was just afraid of being seen as a disappointment in another relative's eyes. Where she was getting her fire back in dealing with Jiro, his words still affected her and probably would continue until either the human was dead or even once she talked to Vegeta.

Kurama cleared his throat, calling the fire demon's attention to him. Hiei gave the fox demon a death glare, questioning the scrutiny. "I'm surprised how cool headed you were and that you expressed sentiment with us in the room," he said sincerely. "Usually you avoid public admittance."

"She needed to hear it," Hiei replied simply with a shrug. "Tell the detective and you're dead. That goes for you too, bat."

Both Kurama and Kuronue chuckled, knowing the threat was halfhearted. The red-head stood up and took a few sheets from his closet. "Well, I guess we have to set up the couch bed in the living room for you, Hiei, since Kuronue has the guest room."

"No," Hiei replied. "I think I'm going to turn to my old sleep arrangements."

"Which is?" Kuronue questioned.

Hiei flashed him another halfhearted glare before Kurama sighed. The fire demon opened the window and disappeared outside. When the two demons looked out the window, he was already lazing back with his eyes closed using a tree branch for his bed. "Interesting arrangement," Kuronue said to Kurama.

"Indeed," the fox replied.

Vegeta entered the compound around three in the morning and made his way to the kitchen. He fed himself quickly, knowing that there was more food since Kaiya was not there to feed on her share. When he thought of his sister, the food began to leave a bitter taste in his mouth and he decided to be done with the food.

He found Bulma, asleep on the couch with her hair all over the place. The light from the TV reflected off of her. She didn't continuously haunt him that day, which led Vegeta to believe that she was still angry with him. The Saiyan didn't care, though. He had more important things to be worried about than a weak human being angry with him. He had to worry about his sister staying angry with him.

If he could take his attack back, he knew he wouldn't. As he said earlier, the girl was too reckless with her own life. He didn't care what caused it. If it was her naivety, she needed to grow up. If it was her fears, she needed to move past them. If it was like Hiei said and the girl was simply afraid to go against how she was raised, they would need to work on it together. But she needed a wakeup call and she needed it now. If he could easily attack while he was trying not to harm her, her enemies would do much, much worse.

Still, he did wish she would have told him about the mission. He would have been a little more lenient on her, maybe, but instead she made it sound like she was going on some random three week trip out of nowhere. Vegeta didn't understand what he purpose was in keeping the truth from him.

He considered poking through her thoughts, but since he was unsuccessful earlier in the day do to her forced mental block, he couldn't. Part of him wish he knew how to do that so that his thoughts would not be an open book to his sister. This connection was a hassle to deal with. Still, it couldn't hurt to try again.

This time it worked. Her mental block was down. Vegeta assumed it was due to her being asleep, but the thoughts that cycled through her head told him she was awake but that the mental strain of keeping her mind blocked was too taxing. He tried mentally nudging her mind, but he had no idea what he was doing. Kaiya had to have sensed him there by now. She was ignoring him, which angered him greatly. Then something happened that explained her behavior. He could hear the conversation around her.

"She looks catatonic right now," a male voice said.

"Yeah, that's my cousin," he heard a female reply. It sounded like that Alexia girl he had met.

"So what happens if she stays like this?"

"Eh, don't worry; she'll fall asleep soon. She's just lost in thought. It's happened before."

"Why isn't that making me feel any better?"

Alexia sighed. "Kiense, I'm going to tell you this and you better not say anything to the others. It's kind of an invasion of Kaiya's privacy, and mine to be honest, but it's something to do with our past…those classes."

Vegeta's expression darkened when he thought about the "classes" his sister had been forced to take on Frieza's orders. He was surprised his sister was not responsive at all to the words being spoken around her. Her cousin and this Kiense guy were discussing it right in front of her, and she wasn't doing or saying anything.

"I swear I won't tell, Lexi. Not even Maya. What's wrong with Kaiya?"

"Okay," Alexia breathed. "Our friends know that we were trained to fight each other. Really, it's deeper than that. Two people were assigned as training partners or whatever, but eventually, they'd have to fight it out and the strongest of the pair would have to defeat and kill the other. We didn't know we were cousins back then, so it was easy for me to stay detached from her, but she refused to disregard me so easily.

"We got ourselves into a lot of trouble, her more than me. One time, I did something I really shouldn't have done, and she took the fall for it. That was before she disappeared. I would bet my life on saying that her punishment was becoming Frieza's experiment. I mean, how else do you explain it?"

"I still don't get the whole thing," Kiense told her. "Maya tried to tell me, but I didn't get it."

"Kaiya's memories were blocked, but when she came back, she was a whole different person. Something happened to her. Sure, she was still softhearted, but she was more closed off. There were times where before we had a case, she's zone out just like this. Eventually, we as training partners became spy partners as well. I got to know her better than anyone else there. I knew when he mind was going somewhere before we prepped for the mission."

"Do you think it was her trying to remember?" Kiense asked. Vegeta glared questioningly at the question being asked.

"No," Alexia admitted. "If she were simply trying to remember her time with Frieza…she already has the memories back now. That's not it. I know that sometimes battles replay themselves in her head, but then she'd be fighting or a little more responsive. I think something else happened to her that her body remembers, and these spy missions just remind her of it. That's why this mission made me so hesitant. And that's a completely separate issue from what was bugging her today."

"Yeah, I know," Kiense nearly exclaimed. "Alexia, what was going on today? She was acting completely introverted and distant. I've never seen her like that, not even the day I was brought back from that other dimension. What happened?"

"I don't know," Alexia replied. "But I do know this. Something happened between her and her brother. I mentioned him and she completely shut down. Then she said he didn't need another disappointment in his life and walked away. I have no idea what happened last night, but whatever it was, I told her she needs to bottle it so we can make it through this mission with our lives intact."

Kaiya seemed to rouse after that and Vegeta could sense her confusion having been, as Alexia said, catatonic throughout that whole conversation. Immediately the barrier went back up now that she had control of herself. Vegeta didn't even realize that his mouth was agape and he was clutching to the top of the sofa. His sister thought she was a disappointment to him? That he didn't need her? Obviously that wasn't true or else he would have never come back to the planet. The hit was a warning, as well as a minor punishment for her recklessness, but he wasn't disappointed in her. He was just as reckless at times, although he could afford to be.

He realized that Hiei was right as far as the way Kaiya was raised and how she thought. Vegeta never looked at it from the perspective before. All he saw when he looked at her was another Saiyan, his sister, and he treated her as a fellow Saiyan and not just some science experiment. But there were times, he was noticing, that he had to treat her like an Earthling as well. He didn't like it, more so because he despised the majority of the Earthlings already. He only tolerated Kaiya's friends, and even tolerated Bulma and her family. The only Earthling he cared about fully was Kaiya. Everything else was out of some sort of obligation he felt because of her. It was proving to be troublesome for the Saiyan prince.

A/N: I feel like putting an A/N in here since I'm bringing back all my OCs from the previous stories. This is a reminder that this is the fourth story in a larger series. I will admit that the writing in this story is significantly better than the first few, especially since they were some of my first stories in writing fanfiction (actually Power Struggle was).

Kaiya and Mayonaka are OCs from the first story Power Struggle. Other OCs are mentioned occasionally from this story. This was the first story in the series introducing a few girls with psychic abilities to the world of demons. The twin sisters are currently twenty-one years old in the series, which means it is three years since they started in their journey.

Kiense and his team which includes Marissa, Toshi, Suze, Akio, and Kiri, and also Mayonaka which caused problems and unnecessary drama. The characters' abilities will be mentioned soon enough as the mission plays out. As far as ages go, it has been roughly two years in the story since they first appeared. Kiense is a demon, so age with him is irrelevant. At this time, Marissa is 18 years old, where Toshi is 17 years old. The two of them are a sort of couple. Suze is currently 15 years old and the twins are 12.

Alexia was a character that was added after the Jiro conflict in the third story of the series, The Hunted. This is where the demon hunters come into play. The two characters usually mentioned from this series are Kagami, though she has been referred to simply as Kaiya's other, and Nariko, he cousin. Nariko was the cousin who had dated the faithful servant of Jiro, though neither had known about Kaiya being related to his master until Nariko misguidedly told him absolutely everything she overheard when Kaiya explained to her mother what had happened to Jiro.

The new OCs added in the present story in the series, Sibling Ties, would be the young girl Mizuki and her siblings. The changes from DBZ canon are Kaiya being Vegeta's sister (obviously), but also ages. I will not list all of the ages as I hadn't decided on much more than Vegeta being 27 instead of in his thirties based on the ages he and Kaiya were when they met and the gap in between. The Saiyan prince is still older than Goku and Bulma like in canon, but what their ages are sort of irrelevant at this point and will be determined later if at all.

This guide should be a little bit more helpful, and to see more on these characters, the stories are somewhere on the profile XD I did this more for my benefit as well as an explanation since it has been four years since I started this series. It's hard to remember something written two years ago XD