Attachments

Vegeta opened a drawer and rifled through its contents before slamming it shut and pulling another open. He couldn't find what he needed. How hard could it possibly be to find a coil of wire with a width of ten microns? He growled in frustration and kicked the drawer closed when he again failed to find any wire of a small enough gauge. He pushed the button on his scouter and waited for it to connect with the base planet he managed to contact. After waiting a few minutes the transmission went through.

"Prince Vegeta? Do you have the wire?"

Vegeta rolled his eyes. He was thankful that he got in contact with a technician willing to help him, but he was still very annoying. "No. I can't find any the right size. Are you sure it has to be that small?"

"Yes. Larger wire will not fit in the available space once you reinstall the tracking system."

"Why do I need the damn tracker?" Vegeta growled. "I'm going to return to a base and get a new pod anyway."

"You have to have the tracker in case you don't make it to base."

Vegeta sighed, knowing the technician was right. If he crashed again, having a working tracking device could save his life. He still wasn't happy about it, though.

"Fine. I'll keep looking, but I don't think I'll find any."

"You could wait until the team reaches you."

Vegeta growled again. "Yes, I'll just sit on my ass waiting for someone to come rescue me so Frieza will beat me to death when I finally get back a year later!"

He heard the technician sigh in resignation. "Let me know when you've got the wire." The transmission was cut.

The young saiyan pulled the scouter off and raked his hand through his hair. There were no more repairs he could make until he had that one elusive material. It probably didn't exist on the mudball if he couldn't find it at Capsule Corporation. He frowned. He had no choice but to ask the old man if there was any. Grumbling to himself, he stalked out of the laboratory to find Dr. Brief.

"Veggie! There you are! Mom sent me to get you for lunch," Bulma yelled down the hall when she saw the flame-haired boy coming her way.

He scowled at her. "I'm not hungry."

She put her hands on her hips and quirked an eyebrow. "You expect me to believe that? You're always hungry. Now come on."

"Fine, I'm hungry," he ground out through clenched teeth, "but I don't want to eat. I have something I need to do."

"You need to eat. Whatever else you're doing can wait."

Vegeta's tail uncoiled from his waist and twitched behind him. He wanted to hurt her for her insolence. Really, he did. But something he couldn't name was holding him back. So instead of strangling her as his hands were itching to do, he snarled and went with Bulma to the kitchen to eat.

"Hello, sweetie," Mrs. Brief greeted him when he went in to sit at the table. She finished mixing up the tuna salad and carried the large bowl to the table. There were already a few loaves of bread and bags of potato chips set out.

"What you been doing all morning?" Bulma asked as she sat down next to Vegeta.

He grabbed a bag of chips and started eating without answering. What he was doing did not concern her and he wasn't going to humor her this time. He watched Mrs. Brief as she smeared the tuna salad on a slice of bread and put another slice of bread on top of it. She was merrily humming to herself and, as usual, smiling way too much. He accepted the sandwich she gave him and sniffed it before deciding it was safe to eat and took a big bite of it.

Seeing she wasn't going to get an answer to her question, Bulma tried a different approach. "So I was wondering if you'd go to the park with me today."

Vegeta shook his head, never pausing in his eating. He had no interest in wasting another whole afternoon with the girl. More often than he liked to admit she coerced him into doing trivial activities like swimming, playing childish games, watching movies, or reading books. His curiosity kept getting the better of him, but today he wouldn't let it. No way.

"Come on, Veggie," Bulma whined. "It'll be a lot of a fun."

"That's the same claim you always make that never persuades me."

"You're such a grouch."

"How observant. Where is your sire?"

"Dad? Why do you want to find him?"

"That is none of your concern."

Bulma sighed when he gave his typical response. "He's probably in the indoor garden if he wasn't in his laboratory."

Vegeta nodded and pushed his chair back from the table. He needed to find the old man and ask about the wire. He left the kitchen before anyone could protest his hasty departure and unfinished lunch. He ran to the indoor garden and practically tore the doors off the hinges in his hurry. He walked into the garden and looked around for the old man, not immediately spotting him.

He whirled around when he heard someone behind him, a ball of ki ready in the palm of his hand as he prepared to defend himself against an attack. He released his breath and allowed the ki to dissipate when he saw the old scientist riding his bicycle while humming an off-pitch tune to himself. There was a stinking trail of smoke following after him as his cigarette slowly smoldered away under his mustache.

"Vegeta, my boy, what are you doing in here? Shouldn't you be eating lunch?" Dr. Brief asked when he saw the young saiyan standing in the garden watching him ride by.

Vegeta shook his head, refusing to let himself get distracted by the man's wandering thoughts and questions. "I require something that I could not find in your laboratory to make repairs on my dhastrot."

"Your dhastrot? You mean the device Bulma helped you fix was something else?"

Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head again. The old man was a genius, but he had the memory of a goldfish. "Yes. Anyway, I need a wire that has a width of no more than ten microns. Do you have any?"

Dr. Brief stopped riding his bike and rubbed his chin as he thought about the boy's request. Wire that small existed, but it was generally only used for computer chips. "How much do you need?"

Vegeta shrugged one shoulder. "No more than a foot total, I would guess."

Dr. Brief stroked his mustache before dropping his cigarette in the grass and grinding it into the dirt under his heel. "I could probably manage that. Come with me and I'll see what I can find."

The scientist and the saiyan walked to the laboratory in silence. Dr. Brief led Vegeta to the far side of the laboratory where most of the cabinets and drawers were locked and the most expensive, rarest, and top secret materials were kept. He unlocked one of the cabinets and pulled out a roll of what appeared to be practically invisible wire. It was exactly what Vegeta needed.

"Now I can't give you too much of this, son," Dr. Brief said as he measured out a foot of the tiny wire. "So be careful with it."

Vegeta took the wire and carefully coiled it up and tucked it in his pocket for safe keeping. He didn't plan on wasting the precious material if he could help it. It would be hard to work with, being so small and nearly invisible, but he was determined to do it in order to get his space pod working again. With a nod of thanks, Vegeta turned on his heel and dashed out of the laboratory to get back to his space pod and contact the technician who would tell him what, exactly, he needed to do with it.

Dr. Brief watched the flame-haired boy leave, his mustache twitching as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his lab coat. He was a hard one to figure out, for sure. He was a brilliant boy, cold, aloof, maybe even paranoid, but something about him was endearing. Perhaps his need for love and respect. Perhaps his mysterious past that he never willingly mentioned. Perhaps it was just that he was, whether he realized it or not, becoming friends with Bulma. Either way, the Briefs considered him a part of the family. That was why Dr. Brief was so uncomfortable providing the materials he needed for his 'dhastrot.' Somehow he knew it wouldn't end well, but he also could see it was something the boy needed to do. He was caught in the middle, not wanting any harm to come to him yet not knowing what else he could do but help.

'There's something strange about that boy,' he mused as he shuffled to the kitchen for his lunch. 'I just can't place my finger on it.'

When he entered the kitchen, Bulma, who was rather downcast after their houseguest left, perked up with a cheerful smile. "Hey, Daddy. Did Vegeta find you? Where is he?"

Dr. Brief sat down at the table and started making himself a sandwich. "Yes, he found me. He's gone to work on his dhastrot, I believe."

"His what? Oh, that thing he keeps talking about when I try to get him to play with me." Bulma frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. She was starting to take on some of Vegeta's mannerisms after being around him so much. "Do you know when he'll be back?"

"I haven't a clue," Dr. Brief replied.

Bulma sighed. Vegeta was good at the disappearing act. She didn't know how he could leave so fast or how he got to wherever his thing was. She didn't even know what it was. Maybe, if she had been able to help him fix his communicator, she would be able to help him fix his dhastrot, though she had no idea what it might be. Maybe she could ask him if he needed help next time she saw him. Until then, she needed to find a way to entertain herself for the afternoon.

"I wish he wouldn't leave so often," she grumbled as she stood up.

Mrs. Brief giggled at her daughter's complaint. How easily she overlooked the fact that Vegeta had spent every day with her for the past two weeks even when he insisted he had more important things to do. Have him leave one day to do his own thing and Bulma would perceive that as his regular behavioral pattern.

"If you still want to go to the park I could take you," she told her daughter as she started clearing the table.

Bulma thought about her mother's offer for a minute. It wouldn't be as much fun without someone her age to play with, but she had been cooped up at the compound for quite a while and she wanted to get out into the city and do something different for a change. She nodded and smiled at her mother. "That would be great, Mom!"

"Alright, honey. Help me with the dishes and then we'll go."

Bulma skipped over to the sink and started washing the dishes while Mrs. Brief continued bringing them over from the table. It wasn't long before they were all washed, dried, and put away, ready to go for dinner. She practically dragged her mother out the front door in her hurry to get to the park to have some fun.

"Bulma, dear, you need to slow down," Mrs. Brief said as she fought to stay on her feet behind her blue-haired daughter.

"C'mon, Mom," Bulma whined. She let go of her mother's hand and ran around the car to get in the passenger seat. If she were going by herself or with Vegeta she would just walk to the park, but she knew her mother wasn't as big a fan of walking two miles.

Mrs. Brief climbed into the driver's seat and before long they were on their way to West City Park. Bulma was bouncing in her seat with excitement, completely oblivious to her mother's failed attempts to sing along with the songs playing on the radio. She just wanted to get out in the sun and play somewhere away from the compound. Even if she didn't have her only friend with her, she would still manage to have fun by herself. She always managed before he came into her life.

Vegeta landed next to his space pod and put his scouter on and pushed the button to make a connection with the same base as before. Now that he had the wire he needed he would be able to make quite a bit of progress on his repairs and then it wouldn't be long before he could leave the worthless mudball and return to his slave-driver and theoretically be saved a more severe beating. After waiting a few minutes the transmission went through and his scouter crackled to life as a technician on the other end established the connection.

"Prince Vegeta?"

"Yes. I have the wire," the saiyan boy reported when he recognized the voice of one of the few technicians in Frieza's army who would help him.

"Very good. Now, you should see a transistor switch in the bottom right area of the space where the tracking system was. Do you see it?"

Vegeta peered into the small space and found what he was looking for. "Yes."

"Disconnect it from the microchip."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that without breaking it?"

"Don't worry about it. It's broken anyway."

Grumbling under his breath, Vegeta pulled the transistor free from the microchip and turned it over in his hand. "Alright, it's disconnected. Now what?"

"You should be able to open it and see the inside now. Can you tell me what you see?"

Vegeta opened the transistor and inspected its innards. It was all so tiny it was hard to describe what was going on – or not going on. He mentally berated himself for not thinking to bring a magnifying device that would make work with such small electronic parts much easier. But the last thing he wanted to do at the moment was take the time to return to the Capsule Corporation compound to get such a device and return to continue with the repairs. He would have to make do with his superior saiyan vision.

"It looks like the old wire is burned out and something is melted near the bottom."

"Good, that shouldn't be hard to fix. I need you to pull the old wire free and replace it with the new wire you have. It should fit. Don't worry about the melted part, it won't affect anything."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. Why would they put something in there that wasn't important? He wasn't going to argue, though. He pulled out the old wire and cut off a piece of the new wire that was just long enough to go where it needed to go with no extra length. "Done."

"The transistor should be functional now."

"That's it?" Vegeta wondered aloud. He shook his head and put the transistor back on the microchip as he had found it. "Now what?"

For the next couple hours the technician on Frieza's base planet walked Vegeta through many of the repairs in the control board of his space pod. By the time they were finished, the pod was finally able to at least power up, which was a great improvement from its previous state. There were several more subsystems that needed to be fixed, but it would require Vegeta going to gather more supplies, and the technician had other transmissions coming in that needed to be attended to. In any case, Vegeta was a big step closer to getting off the earth and back to his life.

Once the transmission was cut, Vegeta sat back in the seat of his space pod and stared at the floor between his feet. The longer he stayed with the Briefs the less he wanted to leave. Not that he had ever been thrilled about going back to his life of slavery, but he knew it was inevitable. It was go back or be killed. He was not allowed a life of peace no matter how well he could fit in with the humans and pretend to be one of them. No, destiny was pulling him away from the family that had accepted him as one of their own. Why he was so reluctant to leave them was what confused him the most. Why should he care? He didn't see them as family. The only family he had was dead. His home was gone. This place had nothing to offer him.

And yet there he sat, wishing he never had to leave. Wishing he could return to Capsule Corporation and never come back to finish fixing his dhastrot. Wishing he could live with the Briefs for the rest of his life and never have to think about Frieza again. But that was impossible. Even if he didn't have to worry about anybody ever finding him to take him back or kill him, what about the last of his proud race? What about Nappa and Raditz? They weren't much. Brainless oafs, really, but they were all he had left. They were the last survivors of his people, and as their prince it was his responsibility to look after them. Obviously he couldn't do that when he was on Earth and they were with Frieza who was more than likely putting them through hell because of his disappearance. As if they had anything to do with it. It didn't matter. The lizard would use any excuse he could find to abuse the saiyans, and Vegeta's pod malfunctioning provided the best opportunity he'd had in a long time to beat them senseless. So it was Vegeta's duty to return to protect the helpless idiots. Even if that meant being a distraction from them and receiving punches on their behalf.

But could he really return on his own? That would give away the fact that the little mudball had at least some sort of technology that Frieza could take advantage of. There might be some great minds there to enslave and bend to his will and he would destroy the rest. Not that Vegeta really cared about the human race all that much. They were weaklings, fools. But he knew that the 'great minds' included the old man and the blue-haired girl. Could he live with himself if they were taken by Frieza and used for his evil purposes? He shook his head. Why should he care? Why?

He couldn't shake the thoughts that were invading his mind. He couldn't let Frieza get his cruel hands on the Briefs. He wouldn't let him touch Earth. It was a planet still free of the tyrant's rule and it should stay that way. He tried to console himself, telling himself that the only reason he cared was because of his rebellion against his master. He only wanted to prevent Frieza from spreading his empire, even if it was only keeping him away from one measly little planet without many valuable resources or a suitable location for a new base planet.

Who was he kidding? He was growing attachments.

Vegeta discovered that he was scared of his own feelings. They were something he had been suppressing for most of his life. Emotions. Attachments. Concern for others. He ignored it all until he lost touch with it. Even his 'attachment' to Raditz and Nappa was based solely on his duty as prince to protect them. He didn't care about them because he particularly liked them. Not that he hated them, but their lives meant little more than anyone else's. The only thing that made them stand apart from the rest was the fact that they were the last of his dead race.

But these feelings he had in relation to the Briefs, that was different. He didn't want to protect them from Frieza because of duty. It wasn't even in return for their hospitality. It was a genuine concern for their well-being. He wanted them to live in freedom. He wanted them to never know the hardships he faced his whole life. He wanted them to stay just as they were: Innocent, naïve even. Untainted by the debauchery of the lizard.

And that was why he had to leave. More than to preserve his own life, he had to keep the lizard away from Earth. He had to make sure he didn't chase his 'pet monkey' down, find the planet to be suitable for sale, and have it purged and sold. Or if he found it unworthy, destroy it as he destroyed Vegeta-sei. He found a sort of surrogate family in the Briefs. He never wanted a family after his parents were murdered by the lizard. He never looked for love and acceptance from anyone. He didn't want it or need it. All he wanted was the respect of the other soldiers in Frieza's army. And revenge. He desperately wanted revenge. That desire alone kept him going when every other part of him was screaming at him to end his miserable existence.

'What the hell is wrong with me?' he wondered. 'I shouldn't care about them. I learned long ago that concerning myself with others only leads to further pain. Frieza will rip them away from me in the worst way imaginable. And then what? I'll have destroyed them and let their destruction further tear me apart. I can't allow myself to have this vulnerability. I'm afraid it's too late to change it though.'

He stepped out into the hot July sun and sighed deeply. He was at war with himself inside. He knew he needed to be a cruel, heartless bastard to survive in Frieza's army, but he was unable to rid himself of the strings of attachment binding him to the Briefs. He wanted to leave to protect them but also wanted to stay with them and live in freedom. In the end his honor won out. He would ignore his childish desires in order to protect those he cared about. He had to leave Earth. And the sooner the better.

He strengthened his weakening resolve as he took to the air to head back to West City. It would be best for everyone if he returned to Frieza and took up the burden of a life of slavery. It was the only way he could protect the Briefs, his saiyan comrades, and grow stronger through battles to finally be able to avenge his fallen race. It was far from ideal, but it was his only choice. Someday, perhaps, he would be free. But until then, he had the responsibility of serving Frieza in unwilling obedience.

'I will get stronger. I will have my revenge. And I will gain my freedom. But not yet. Until then, I only have to survive. It will be miserable. I will want to die every day of my life, but I will not. I will go on until I can break free of my bondage.'

It was the same speech he recited to himself every time he wanted to give up. It hardly ever helped anymore, but it was better than nothing. It helped steel his resolve and thicken his skin when he had to endure senseless beatings at the hands of his master. It was his last defense against lapsing into insanity.

He flew over West City, watching with mild amusement as the pitiful humans went about their daily lives. Were they so pitiful? At least they weren't someone's slaves. In a small way he envied them. He would never give up his power to be one of them, but he wished he could live like them. He dismissed that thought, tired of his own whimsical foolishness.

"Let go of my baby!"

Vegeta slowed in his flight back to Capsule Corporation and looked down again. He saw a small area with dense foliage surrounding a lake. He recognized it as the park where the blue-haired girl had dragged him once. He couldn't figure out what caught his attention. He never paid much attention to it before when he flew over it.

"Mom! Help!"

His eyebrow raised. It must have been the humans screaming down below. How someone's voice was shrill enough to reach him so high was beyond him. Must be some real loudmouths. He shrugged and readied himself to continue in his flight. He wasn't a hero; it wasn't his job to save some stupid humans from the trouble they got themselves into.

"Bulma!"

He paused. Was that…? He looked down again, but he couldn't see anyone below. The scuffle must have been taking place somewhere in the forest out of sight.

'I was imagining things,' he concluded when he didn't hear any more screams. Flaring his ki, he resumed his flight toward the compound, but the nagging thought that he should go back wouldn't relent. Both the park and the compound were in view when he stopped again and looked over his shoulder. Would it hurt to go back and confirm his thoughts? It wasn't anything. But what if it was?

"Why does it matter anyway?" he asked aloud.

'Because you care about them,' his inner voice answered.

"I shouldn't."

'But you do.'

"Damn it all." Vegeta spun around and headed to the park to find out what was going on. Barely a minute had passed since he heard the last scream. The girl's name. He dropped down into the trees and landed on a low branch to survey the area. He didn't see anyone around. He had no idea where exactly the screams had originated from, so he jumped to a nearby branch and started swinging and leaping through the trees along the dirt path that cut through the forest.

When he heard another ear-piercing scream up ahead he quickened his pace. That was the unmistakable screech of the blue-haired girl. There was no denying it; she was in trouble and she was helpless to save herself. Her idiot mother was equally useless.

"Would you stop struggling you crazy bitch?" he heard a deep voice shout. There was the sound of someone getting backhanded and a muffled cry of pain.

"Mom!"

Vegeta could now see what was going on. There was one man holding the girl's arms behind her back and dragging her away from the trail while another man was standing over the fallen form of Mrs. Brief. She was, perhaps fortunately, unconscious. From what he could tell, they put up quite a fight before they reached this point in the action.

"Come on! We've got to get these two away from here before someone catches us. You know the boss won't be happy if we mess this up!" the man holding Bulma barked at the other who was now picking Mrs. Brief up.

Vegeta sprang from one branch to another, catching it with his tail and letting his momentum swing him around once before launching himself onto the trail in front of the two men. He landed in a crouch and growled deep in his chest when he saw the female Briefs being manhandled.

"Let them go," he snarled.

"Get out of the way, kid," the man with Bulma ordered, his hand moving to the gun at his hip.

"Vegeta be careful!" Bulma cried out before the man slapped his free hand over her mouth to silence her.

Vegeta's tail bristled and uncoiled from his waist and lashed behind him. Fires of raw fury burned in his obsidian eyes and his lips curled in a snarl, revealing his long canines. He looked more like a feral animal than a child. His growl deepened and grew in volume.

"Release them at once or I will kill you," he hissed.

The men took a few hesitant steps backward. Though he was obviously young and small, it was unnerving how he seemed to radiate power and hatred in waves. Not only that, but he sounded sincere in his threat. Even without weapons, he didn't look like a pushover if they had to contend with him.

The second man unceremoniously dropped Mrs. Brief on the ground and pulled his gun out of its holster. "Kid, you can't scare us. Get out of the way and we'll let you live."

Instead of getting him to back down, they were rewarded with the wild boy's bark of humorless – if not insane – laughter. The first man gulped and took another step back, his hand now firmly grasping his gun.

Bulma resumed her struggling when she saw what was about to happen. The creeps who were trying to abduct her and her mother would have no qualms about shooting a boy if he were in their way. Vegeta didn't look ready to back down. She had to admit he looked horrific the way he was glaring at the men, and she was glad that for a change his glare wasn't directed at her. She knew he was strong. Not just for his age, but for anyone. But that didn't mean he could take a bullet and not be killed. She had to get free and help him if she could.

"You stupid brat!" the man shouted before clobbering her in the side of the head and knocking her out.

Vegeta roared as he pounced on the man and tore a hole in his chest before he fell to the ground. He leaped off the dying man to the other one who was raising his gun to aim at him. He heard the gun fire before he struck the man to the ground and felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, but he ignored it. Straddling the man's chest, he took his head in his hands and quickly jerked it to the side, easily snapping the man's neck.

"Fools," he growled as he stood up and dusted himself off. He winced in pain and looked down to see a trickle of blood freely flowing down his chest from the gunshot in his shoulder. It wouldn't be deadly, but it wasn't enjoyable. Had he had a ki barrier around himself the bullet probably wouldn't have been able to pierce his skin, but at the time he wasn't thinking about protecting himself. All he could think about was saving the girl and the woman.

He stepped over the body of the man who had Bulma and picked the girl up gently and held her under one arm. He went back over to Mrs. Brief and picked her up with his free arm and slung her body over his good shoulder. It would be awkward carrying both of them back to the compound, but he could manage. He spat on the ground between the two corpses and took off toward Capsule Corporation with the unconscious females.

Vegeta landed in the front yard of the compound and carried his charges inside. He took them to the living room, which was the closest room where he could lay them down. He laid Mrs. Brief on the couch and Bulma on the loveseat. They weren't seriously injured, so he didn't see the need to take them to the infirmary. He growled again when he saw a bruise forming on Mrs. Brief's cheek. Pathetic, weak woman. Seeing her hurt infuriated him all over again. He turned away from her and felt his ki jump when he saw a growing lump on the girl's head where she had been hit.

Forgetting his own injury, he went to the kitchen and found two icepacks in the freezer and took them back to the living room. He put one on the girl's head and held the other to the woman's cheek to ease the swelling.

'Stupid, helpless humans. It's ridiculous how easily they're hurt.'

His head swam with dizziness after a few minutes, forcing him to sit down on the floor next to the couch. He took a deep breath and looked down at his shoulder again. It was still bleeding profusely. No wonder he felt dizzy. He shook his head to try to clear his mind, but that only made the dizziness worse and he blacked out.

He heard the faint murmurings of someone near him, but he couldn't make out the words. They all seemed to blur together and his mind was clouded, making all his senses dull. He cracked his eyes open but closed them again when he was assaulted with bright fluorescent lights overhead. He groaned when a stabbing pain erupted in his shoulder.

"He's awake!" Mrs. Brief squealed when she heard Vegeta's groan. She crossed the room in a flash and stroked the boy's flame of upswept hair gently. She was followed by her daughter, husband, and their family doctor. "Vegeta, honey, how do you feel?"

Vegeta tried opening his eyes again, blinking a few times to clear the blurriness as the faces of the Briefs and a stranger came into focus. He groaned again and moved to sit up but the blonde woman held him down firmly. "What happened?" he rasped.

"You were shot," Dr. Brief told him. "I found you in the living room and brought you to the infirmary. We had to remove a bullet from your shoulder and bandage you up."

"The hell's a bullet?" Vegeta slurred.

"This is the bullet," the medical doctor answered, holding up a tiny piece of metal.

"Who're you?"

"This is Dr. Nienstedt, our family doctor," Dr. Brief answered. "It's ok, you can trust him."

Vegeta nodded once. If they said he was trustworthy he would take their word for it for now.

"Oh, Vegeta, I was so worried about you when I saw what happened," Mrs. Brief said, drawing him into a tight embrace that he was unable to fight against. "Bulma told me that you came to help us and I just feel so horrible that you were pulled into something like that. I'm so glad you're going to be alright. Oh, this is all my fault!"

"Not your fault," Vegeta mumbled. "Those lowlifes' fault."

As soon as Mrs. Brief released him from her embrace he found himself in a tight hug from the blue-haired girl. He sighed and waited for her to let him go, not having the energy to push her away. "Thank you for saving us, Veggie," she whispered so only he could hear.

"Hn."

"I think we should let him rest," Dr. Brief said, ushering his wife and daughter out of the small room. He gestured for Dr. Nienstedt to go with them and closed the door behind him. Then he turned and went back to the side of the bed where Vegeta was lying.

Vegeta raised an eyebrow, looking at him expectantly. He looked more serious than usual. Actually, he had an expression of deep consternation.

"Would you mind telling me exactly what happened?" Dr. Brief asked. It sounded more like an order.

Vegeta swallowed and stared up at the ceiling. "I was coming back to the compound when I heard someone screaming in the park. I went to investigate and saw two scumbags trying to kidnap the woman and the girl." He swallowed again when he felt bile rising in his throat at the thought of those cretins getting their dirty hands on his new family. "They were putting up a decent fight, but the men were overpowering them. They knocked both of them out and then I fought them. They weren't too hard to defeat. Then I brought the females back to the compound."

Dr. Brief nodded as Vegeta recounted his tale. "I called the police to report what happened when my wife told me about it. They went to the park and found the men you 'defeated.' They were dead."

"Yes."

"You killed them."

"Yes."

Dr. Brief's knees buckled. He collapsed into the chair next to the saiyan's bed and ran his hand through his graying lavender hair. He didn't want to believe it. How could a boy so young be capable of murder?

"You're upset with me for killing them?" Vegeta asked.

"Vegeta, how could you possibly think it's acceptable to take another person's life?"

"Would you rather me have let them kidnap your family?"

"If you were strong enough to kill them you could have just as easily knocked them out and gotten the police to arrest them!" Dr. Brief shouted.

Vegeta had never seen him angry before. He was stunned into silence. When a heavy silence fell he knew he was supposed to respond somehow, but what was he supposed to say? He did what he thought was right. He was defending his family – his pack – from those bastards.

After the seconds turned into minutes Vegeta finally found his voice again. "Where I come from, it is expected of a man of honor to seek justice by killing the unrighteous."

"I don't know where you're from," Dr. Brief said darkly, "but we don't do that here."

"Would you punish me, then, for protecting them?"

Dr. Brief sighed and shook his head slowly. "No, son. No, I won't punish you. I do not condone your methods. I'm horrified that you killed those men. But I won't punish you for saving my wife and daughter. This is going to be a mess to clean up, but I can do it. But Vegeta, you have to understand that you can never kill anyone."

"I won't," Vegeta said, then added mentally, 'if they don't deserve it.'

"Thank you for rescuing them," Dr. Brief said as he stood to leave, "but if anything like this ever happens again, don't take it into your own hands. Leave it to the law enforcement."

Vegeta nodded in feigned understanding and closed his eyes. He wouldn't tell the old man that if anything like that ever happened again he wouldn't hesitate to kill again. Maybe it wasn't customary on the mudball to kill the scum, but he would do it if he had reason to. He wasn't human. He was a saiyan. And if someone attacked his pack, he would do everything in his power to defend them.

His pack. That's what the Briefs were to him now. The closest unit saiyans formed with non-family members. They included immediate family, yes, but they became a larger family through the pack bond. And he would die to protect them.

A/N: Will Vegeta get his space pod up and running soon? Will he really leave Earth? I know, but you don't, so you'll have to keep reading. So I've noticed that in my stories Bulma always manages to get into trouble like this and Vegeta comes to the rescue. But, then, I also think Bulma seems to attract trouble in the canon, so it's all good. Anyway, I've reached a little bit of writer's block. Hopefully that passes soon so I can get on with writing more chapters for this and my other stories. Maybe you should review. Reviews always help writer's block.