"Enough! That's enough! He's going to die!" Bulma screamed at the two, "Vegeta! Goku! Stop!"

Surprisingly enough the two men stopped and backed off. Bulma checked the janitors pulse before talking to someone on a walkie talkie. She then went to Nira and covered her with a jacket.

"What happened?" she asked testily.

"He – that janitor- he tried to…" she held Bulma's jacket closer.

"That filth has been stalking that girl for two days, we're lucky we heard her screams." Vegeta snarled viciously, " She completely froze up, screaming her lungs out, before biting that man's thumb off."

Oh, Nira thought absently, so that's what I bit.

Goku walked over to Nira, "Hey, are you okay? Pretty shaken up, huh?" He held out a hand, "Here, don't worry. He won't hurt you again." The black haired girl hesitantly took Goku's hand and he helped her up. "I'm Goku." He introduced himself, "And that's Vegeta over there. We're sorry you had to go through that."

Nira shook her head slowly, she was still shaking but she knew the danger had passed, "It'll be fine." She whispered.

"C'mon, Nira. You too, Vegeta, Goku. Lets get Nira some clothes.

Bulma brought Nira into her office and gave her some extra clothes for her to wear. While she had been triggering that man had ripped half of her clothes into shreds! After she was done Bulma invited the other two inside.

Nira was sitting on the couch and Goku plopped beside her. He smiled at her in a friendly way before watching Bulma and Vegeta, neither of them had taken a seat.

Bulma took a deep breath before turning to Nira, "What on earth did you think you were doing?!" she nearly shouted, "Walking the halls at night?!"

Nira swallowed, no one had yelled at her like that since her mom died and she felt intimidated by it, "I do it all the time." She answered truthfully, "But tonight I had an odd feeling that that would try something tonight and I didn't think my room was safe." She twirled a lock of hair in her nervousness, "I wanted to stay with you, just in case." She ended shyly, afraid she was going to get yelled at again.

Bulma took another deep breath, "I'm not mad at you, okay? I'm just upset, I wish you had told me that this guy was bothering you before." She added sternly, "And whats this about roaming the halls at night? Why do you do that? And don't you lie to me." She growled.

Nira looked nervously at Vegeta and Goku. She wasn't sure about revealing things about herself in front of two strangers. Then she sighed inwardly, she had gotten these two into this so she owed them with the information.

Nira nearly pulled some of her hair out in her anxiety, "I have nightmares." She admitted shakily, "So I don't sleep."

Bulma has her hands on her hips but she dropped them, "Nightmares?"

Nira nodded, her eyes darting to the two strangers, "Yeah, they're pretty… vivid."

It was quiet for a moment before Vegeta exploded, "AND WHAT ABOUT THAT PATHETIC DISPLAY OF COWERDICE!?" he shouted, "FREEZING UP LIKE THAT – HOW DISPICABLE-"

"Vegeta!" Bulma commanded.

The man whipped his head to glare at the woman before submitting, "Whatever." He grunted.

"But that's a good question." Goku pointed out, "Why did you freeze up like that, Nira?"

She sighed, rubbing her head, "I triggered, okay? I'm sorry but its not something I can control." She spat out like some kind of poison.

"Triggered? Whats that?" Goku asked, curiously.

Bulma stepped in, "It's a sort of flashback." She explained, "If someone had suffered from a traumatic event a certain smell, action, sight, or sound can make them feel what they had felt back then." She gazed worriedly at Nira.

The black haired girl nodded, her face contorted into a mask of pain and hate.

The room was silent for a moment before Goku gasped, "So – that means you were-"

"No." Nira answered, "No, it wasn't that… I…" she looked at Bulma, waiting to see if it was okay to continue. Bulma nodded, "Go on." She said softly.

Nira began twirling her hair anxiously again, she licked her lips before continuing her previous sentence, "When I was five two men broke into our home. One of them attacked my parents – we were all in the family room – and my brothers and I tried to run. We got to the other room but the other guy got to us." Nira started shaking, "He back handed me and I nearly passed out but I saw… I saw..." she started hyperventilating – pictures of her experience flashing before her eyes.

Bulma sat beside her, "Its okay. Deep breaths."

Nira slowly regained control of her breathing before going on, "I watched that man kill my brothers."

Goku's eyes widened while Vegeta's narrowed.

"Then the man that killed my parents came to kill me. I killed him. But I was too weak to go after the other. He mistook me as dead and went to the other rooms to steal a bunch of things while I called the cops. He escaped before they got there.

And ever since then." She continued, "All I've ever wanted is to make that man suffer as my brothers had suffered. I want to kill him."

Again, it was silent in the room.

"My grandpa was killed too." Goku said softly, his eyes were sad. "By a monster."

Nira looked at the tall man and she felt sympathy for him. She knows that no amount of I'm sorry's or I'm sure he's in a better place's could fix it. She touched his arm and looked up at him.

Goku smiled down at her and held her hand, "See, you're not alone."

"That's right." Bulma said, "There are people who've lost people they love too. Like Goku and Vegeta."

Vegeta huffed.

"Vegeta." Bulma said softly, "Its okay if you don't want to talk about it. Sorry I brought it up."

"Pah." Vegeta grunted, "I'm no coward." He stepped before Nira, "My uncle killed my mother and father and made me watch. I killed him and have killed many people since then."

"Why?" Nira asked. If he had already killed the man that killed his family why would he kill so many others?

"Because they reminded me of him." She smirked evilly, "People like that janitor struggling for his life out there. They disgust me like no other and I relish in seeing the life leave their pathetic eyes."

Nira nodded, she got where he was coming from. She herself doesn't like killing, she still had nightmares of killing that man when exhaustion took her in its clutches but she understood the hate in Vegeta's eyes. She see's the same look whenever she looks at mirror.

Bulma sighed as if the answer had disappointed her. Of course it probably did, she was trying to help him to get out of that state of mind.

A security officer poked his head through the door, "Care to tell me what happened here?" he asked.

"One moment." Bulma asked before looking back at the three, "Vegeta, Goku, please take Nira back to her room. Then change out of those clothes, they have blood on them. Good night." And she walked out of the room.

Goku got off the couch, still holding Nira's hand. He tugged it, "C'mon, we'll protect you."

Vegeta was still staring at Nira with a weird look in his eyes, "Come on. We don't have time for you to be hesitant and I need to sleep."

Nira wasn't fond of Vegeta's attitude but she was feeling exhausted. She hadn't slept in a week and the events that night had taken a toll on her mental state. She was afraid of the night terrors that will no doubt haunt her that night but there was no use fighting it.

She got off the couch and followed the two men out.

The security officers gave the three scary looks but didn't do anything. Bulma must've explained what had happened. A blond haired officer walked up to them and didn't look too happy.

"Oh, hey Officer Eighteen." Goku greeted, albeit a little nervously.

"What the hell did you two think you were doing? You're reputation is already bad enough. I can't protect you guys for forever." She said coldly.

"But that guy was going to do bad things to Nira here!" Goku explained frantically, stepping out of the way so Juu could see Nira.

Juu blinked, "Nira, is this true?"

Nira hung her head in shame, she had gotten them in trouble, "Yes, ma'am. Please, don't blame them. They were just trying to protect me."

Juu shook her head, "Damn. Who bit the bastards thumb off?" she asked, jutting her thumb to the appendage sitting a few feet from them.

"I did." Nira answered.

Juu smirked, "Good job. I wish I could've beaten the creep myself. Now, go. Before I have to arrest you."

Goku and Nira nodded and the three started walking back to her room.

DBZ

"Well, here we are." Goku grinned, "Try to have a good nights sleep, okay? And remember:" he dropped to her eye level, "Those nightmares are just there to scare you. You have to learn to control whats going on in your head, okay?"

Nira nodded, "Okay, Goku. Thank you." She turned to Vegeta, "And thank you too, Vegeta."

Goku smiled kindly, "Don't worry about it. Now off to bed." He said pushing her gently inside and closing the door.

Vegeta stared at the door with a stern look in his eyes.

Goku yawned, "Well, I'm going to bed. And by the way," he looked over his shoulder at Vegeta, "I think I'm going to hang around her more often. She's seems really nice and I'd like to be friends with her. You can be her friend too. She seems to have some respect to you. I mean, she did thank you." And he was gone.

Vegeta growled. He was no ones friend. Friends are for weaklings. And he too, turned his back on the door and went to his bedroom.