Refocusing

Frieza never cared much for his older brother, Cooler, so he was more than aggravated when, shortly after he made his wish on Namek, his father contacted him and ordered him to report to Planet Cold. While he was not against visiting his home planet, which he rarely got to see, he was not thrilled about the 'meeting' with his father and brother. Mostly likely Cooler was flustered about Frieza's rapidly growing empire while his grew slowly. In effect, Frieza's empire was overtaking Cooler's, and soon enough the smaller empire would be unable to grow at all without breaking the treaty between the brothers. It had been agreed many years ago that neither of Cold's sons could cross the other's territory to conquer more for himself. Of course Frieza saw that as his opportunity to limit Cooler, and he was working to do just that. He had expected Cooler to figure it out, but he had hoped for better timing. Right now all he wanted to do was travel to 1076XR and punish his pet monkey for his disobedience.

Even more irritating was the distance between Planet Cold and 1076XR. Frieza's home planet was in galaxy AA, far from XR. He had to spend four months traveling home, attend the meeting, which could last anywhere from an hour to a year, and then spend another five to six months traveling to 1076XR. If not for the fact that his ship was much faster than the space pods the rest of his army traveled in, he would be looking at a two and a half year holdup in his plan to destroy the monkey race once and for all.

The tyrant did consider ignoring his father's summons, but in the end he figured it wasn't worth the trouble later. Though he was more powerful, he did still respect King Cold enough that he didn't want to raise his ire. Cooler he couldn't care less about, but if he had gone crying to daddy about the unfairness of Frieza's spreading empire, there was little Frieza could do about it. He liked to believe he was his father's favored son, though he was younger, but that did not mean he was able to easily weasel his way out of punishment when the accusations against him were serious enough. Unfortunately, manipulating the treaty to his advantage probably counted as a serious offense against his brother.

Oh well, at least he could boast to his foolish brother that he had been granted immortality. It would be satisfying, indeed, to see the expression on Cooler's face when he heard that his little brother had risen to a level of glory he could never hope to achieve.

…

"Girl!" Vegeta roared as he kicked the door to her laboratory open. "These training bots you created are less than adequate."

Bulma spun around in her desk chair and looked up the stairs where Vegeta was standing with his arms full of broken and mangled robots. Seeing that he had her attention, Vegeta dropped them all over the rail, smirking as she winced at the clatter and clanging of metal hitting the floor below. He came down the stairs then, tail flicking behind him.

"What do you want this time, Vegeta?" she sighed. "I just finished those yesterday morning. If you can't be careful enough to keep from breaking them right away, I don't see why I should bother building more for you."

"It's not my fault you built such fragile units." Vegeta hopped onto one of the workstations and crossed his arms over his chest. "I need more."

She huffed as she turned back to her computer to finish the email she was writing to the head of cardiology research. "You're going to have to wait. I'm drowning in work at Capsule Corporation because I keep putting everything on hold for you."

"You consider that more important than living when Frieza comes to destroy this mudball?" Vegeta shook his head as he slid off the workstation and started pacing around the laboratory. "By now the pods have reached the base and he knows we're still here. I have no way of finding out where he is at this moment. He could be on his way here right now, maybe only days away."

"I thought you said we would have two years," Bulma said, still distracted with the email. "It's only been one year. There's still time. Besides, what good would training for a few days with my bots do you? You're not going to increase your power that much in a few days, even if I give you the best training equipment you'll ever have."

"That's not the point!"

"Vegeta, honestly!" Bulma snapped, exasperated with his demands. Ever since she broke up with Yamcha he had been in her laboratory almost every day ordering her to either build new training bots, fix the gravity simulator, or make upgrades to increase the gravity. She was at the end of her rope with him. "I understand that you need to get stronger, but I can't keep dropping everything to serve you! You're such a jerk! Go ask my dad for new bots if it's that important to you. I'm too busy right now."

Growling, Vegeta stalked over to her desk and whirled her chair around so she had to face him. "I don't have time for this! Build me new training bots at once!"

Bulma stood up and put her hands on her hips, brow furrowed in a scowl. "Now listen up, Vegeta, 'cause I'm only going to say this once. You are obsessed with training and it's not good for you. You're driving me crazy coming in here every day expecting me to build you better training equipment when you break everything I make for you. I am sick and tired of you ordering me around, so you can just go to my dad from now on!"

Having finally told him off, she sat down and spun her chair around, intent on ignoring him if he continued arguing with her. She was done listening to him. He thought she was a brat? He was acting worse than a spoiled child. She indulged him too much and now he was used to it and wanted more. She didn't mind helping him – really, she didn't – but he had pushed her past her breaking point. For the past month she had been constantly building bots and upgrading the gravity simulator, spending hours and hours every day helping him without receiving a single word of gratitude. No longer busy trying to balance her work and social life, Vegeta figured she had more time to devote to his training equipment, and for a while she allowed his demands to take the place of her former social life. But when that time started consuming her entire days without leaving a single minute for work at Capsule Corporation, she had to draw the line whether he liked it or not.

Seeing she wasn't going to budge on the issue, Vegeta turned and stormed out of her laboratory to go find Dr. Brief. The fact that she was forcing him to ask for upgrades from him was made worse by the fact that the old scientist was almost always at headquarters, and today was no exception. Though it was almost lunch time, Vegeta left the compound to go to the headquarters building to discuss training bots with Dr. Brief. It only took him a minute to fly across the city. He landed in front of the tall building and walked in, giving a warning growl to the receptionist before she could give him a cheerful greeting, and stalked over to the elevators. He still hated them. They were small, confined, smelly, and often crowded, but they were the easiest way up to the president's office suite on the top floor.

He only had to wait a few seconds for one of the elevator doors to open, a small crowd of scientists pouring out to leave on lunch break. Vegeta stepped onto the elevator once it was vacated and pushed the button to take him to the top floor. He felt the small lurch as it began its ascent and leaned against the wall to wait, watching the numbers displayed above the buttons steadily increasing until it came to a stop at the top. Once there, he had to put his finger on a small scanner before the doors would open, allowing him entrance to the office suite.

Vegeta stepped off the elevator and, without giving any verbal greeting, strode over to the oversized mahogany desk where Dr. Brief was sitting, talking to someone on the phone. The saiyan stopped in front of the desk and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for the old man to look up and acknowledge him. His tail flicked behind him impatiently as he glanced around the office while he waited. Leather furniture, a kitchenette, a bathroom off to the side, and the desk where Dr. Brief sat in front of a wall of glass, providing an overlooking view of West City. It was essentially the same as Bulma's office, just larger.

Finally, after a few minutes had passed, Dr. Brief hung up the phone and folded his hands on the desk. "Hello, Vegeta. What brings you here?"

The prince wrapped his tail around his waist again, though it continued its agitated flicking. "The girl told me she won't build me any more training equipment and to ask you to do it instead."

Though he wasn't at all surprised, Dr. Brief also wasn't entirely happy with his daughter for shoving her extra work onto his shoulders. He was busy enough as president of the corporation, and while he didn't mind helping out where he could, he didn't want to be the one solely responsible for Vegeta's training bots and gravity room. He sighed and scratched his cat, ever on his shoulder, behind the ears. "Alright, son, I'll help you until she cools down a bit and catches up on her regular work. Now, what do you need me to do for you?"

"I need new bots since I destroyed them all today. I will also require an upgrade in gravity level soon. I have almost reached the current limit."

Dr. Brief nodded thoughtfully and cleared some papers off his desk, pulled out a pad of paper, and started jotting down notes. "The current gravity is 400Gs, isn't it? We'll have to find a way to increase it without endangering the structural integrity of the room. As for your training bots, do you have the, er, remains of them?"

"They're at the compound."

"Very well. I'll look at them after I get home tonight. Until then you'll have to train without them. I have some pressing matters to attend to today that I can't set back, but I'll try to get those bots built for you as soon as I can."

Vegeta growled, but he didn't argue. At least Dr. Brief was willing to work on them when Bulma wasn't. Figuring he had already wasted enough precious time, Vegeta nodded and turned to leave. He wanted to get back to the compound before all the food was gone and with time to eat before Mrs. Brief wanted to go grocery shopping.

He arrived back at the compound and went straight to the kitchen to eat lunch. Bulma and Nappa were already sitting there, and Mrs. Brief was at the sink washing dishes. Vegeta took his seat next to Bulma and started eating, ignoring her completely. He was still angry with her for her refusal to build his training equipment. Bulma, sensing his foul mood, didn't attempt to make conversation with him and left the kitchen as soon as she was finished with her lunch to return to her laboratory to catch up on Capsule Corporation business.

Soon after her departure, Nappa finished his lunch and left the kitchen, leaving Vegeta alone with Mrs. Brief. The old saiyan wasn't interested in returning to his training right away. He still spent most of his waking hours training in the yard of the compound, but when he felt how much power the younger saiyans were gaining in the same amount of time, he began to lose his former self-confidence. He wasn't surprised that their gains were greater and faster; he was, by normal saiyan standards, an old man, though he still had many years – decades, even – to live. He was at the end of his prime; most saiyan warriors, especially those of his caliber, never reached his age, being killed in battle or in fights with young upstarts. While his power had still grown dramatically since beginning his stay on Earth, he was far behind the rest of his race when he had formerly been at the top, second only to his prince. Now, with a power level peaking at 85,000, he felt inadequate, nothing but a pawn among titans.

Of course that didn't mean he didn't still have much to offer. He still knew many techniques that he could teach the others if they would take the time to spar with him. More than a soldier, he had become a trainer. At least now he would stand a chance against most of the Ginyu Force, Frieza's elite squadron. Perhaps he wouldn't be able to take on the captain, but the rest of them would be easy kills for him. So no, he wouldn't be completely useless in the fight when Frieza came to Earth, but he wouldn't be much help at all against the tyrant himself, not if the rumors he heard about the lizard's true power were true. Nappa had never believed himself to be the one to gain vengeance for his people; that was always Vegeta's task in life. Still, it hurt to know he was the weakest of his comrades despite being so much stronger than he ever thought possible for any saiyan other than a super saiyan. And it was because of that hurt that he was so discouraged and disinclined to train at the moment. What good would it do? Missing an hour or so of training wasn't going to make any significant impact on the outcome of the battle.

Nappa walked down the main hall of the compound as if to head out back, but he paused when he reached a metal door with a keypad on the wall next to it. He glanced over his shoulder and then fixed his gaze on the door. Slowly, he raised his fist to the metal door and rapped his knuckles against its cool surface.

Bulma jumped when she heard someone knocking on her door. Sighing, she set down the power core for the robot she was building and went up the stairs to open the door for her visitor. Her eyebrows raised with her surprise when she saw who was standing on the other side of the door, waiting to gain entry to her laboratory. "Nappa? What are you doing here?"

Shrugging nonchalantly, he answered, "Just thought I'd stop by for a visit."

"A visit?" she asked, trying to mask her skepticism. After a moment of awkward silence, she nodded and turned to go back down the stairs with the large saiyan following her. "Was there something you wanted to talk about?"

The saiyan looked around the laboratory as he descended the stairs, taking in every little aspect of the unfamiliar environment. When he didn't answer her question, Bulma continued, "If you want training equipment, you'll have to come back some other time. The shop is closed for business for a while until I can get back on my feet at the company."

He grunted. "Do you honestly think training equipment would really help me?"

Shrugging, she leaned against the workstation where her robot was laid out in pieces. "I don't know, would it?"

"Honestly? No." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. "I don't think anything is going to help me gain more power. I've been at the same level for over three months. I made big gains when I was using the gravity room…"

"But?"

"But I've reached my limit." He gestured to the robot. "What's that you're building?"

Ignoring his attempt to change the subject, Bulma prodded, "Your limit? I didn't think you saiyans had a limit. All of you just keep getting stronger and stronger. It's unbelievable."

Nappa snorted, shaking his head. "How old do you think I am?"

"Huh?"

"I'm over 70 Earth years old."

Bulma's eyes shifted from her work over to the bald saiyan. "Over 70? Damn, you look good for your age. I would've pegged you at 50, tops." She smiled and resumed assembling the robot.

He shrugged again. "Saiyans age slower than you humans so we can fight longer. But I'm hitting the end of my prime. It came faster than it would have naturally due to my excessive amount of battles, beatings, and starvation. Serving Frieza aged me. Point is, I'm not getting any stronger."

"Oh…" Bulma again set down the power core to brush her hair back over her shoulders. "I'm sorry, I guess."

"Don't bother pitying me."

"You sound like Vegeta."

"Who do you think taught him?"

"Right." Bulma sighed heavily and sat on the stool at her workstation. "Well, if it helps, I know how you feel. You know how Vegeta was training me for a while? I hit a roadblock or something. I could never get past it, so I just gave up. I still spar with Chi-Chi now and then to keep my technique from getting rusty, but I'm not getting any better."

"You could grow stronger." He pushed away from the wall and started pacing around, much like Vegeta did whenever he visited her laboratory. "I've seen how strong humans can become. You are nowhere near your potential."

Chuckling, Bulma shook her head and picked up another piece of robot to finish building. "My friends are special people, Nappa. No normal humans could ever get that strong. They've got some sort of innate strength or affinity for fighting, kind of like saiyans. I don't have that."

Nappa paused, facing away from the blue-haired scientist. His brows scrunched as he contemplated what she said. What made her friends so special? Was it just that they were willing to go out of their way to train as hard as they did so that they could become so strong? Were they some sort of mutants, capable of manipulating ki unlike the rest of their pathetic species? Or was it something else? Did all humans have the same potential, locked away somewhere, not accessed because of ignorance or apathy? "How willing are you to test that theory?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you had a proper teacher, you could probably overcome your current limits."

Bulma was silent for a few minutes; the only sound in the laboratory was of Nappa's boots as he paced and the clinking of metal as she put the robot together. Finally, she looked up at the large saiyan, her head cocked to the side. "Are you saying Vegeta wasn't a good teacher?"

"Not really," Nappa answered. He rubbed his head and turned to face her. "He's a great learner, able to master any fighting technique, but he's never been good at teaching what he's learned to anyone. He can show you how and tell you what you're doing wrong, but when it comes to telling you how to fix it, he's not the best. It's like he can't wrap his mind around your inability to figure it out on your own because he never has that problem."

Bulma laughed quietly as she finally inserted the power core into the robot's body. "Yeah, that's basically it. So where might I find a better teacher?"

"Are you really interested in learning?" When she nodded, Nappa opened his arms wide and smirked.

She stared at him blankly. "You? No way, you'd kill me!"

He huffed and lowered his arms to his sides. "Would I make the offer if I didn't think you were capable of handling my training?"

Bulma lowered her gaze to the table. "No," she murmured, "I suppose not."

"Then you accept?"

Biting her lip, she nodded. If Nappa was the one who trained Vegeta and maybe even Raditz, then he was probably a good teacher, right? She did want to grow stronger. Her interest in fighting wasn't what it had been when she was a teenager, but if nothing else, she was motivated to train by her fear. Frieza was coming, and she had no idea how long it would take for him to reach Earth or what he would be like or how strong his soldiers could be. She wanted to be ready for anything, she wanted to be able to help her friends, if only by being able to take care of herself while they fought the big guns. Aside from that, a small part of her still wanted to impress Vegeta with her strength. She knew he put a lot of stock in someone's power; though she knew he still liked her despite her weakness, she thought he might like her (and respect her) more if she was stronger.

"But I'm not going to be able to train a lot," she told the giant saiyan. "I'm still really busy with work, as you can see."

He grunted and leaned against the wall again. "Fair enough. I need time to do my own training anyway. Another thing, I don't want Vegeta to know about me training you."

"Why not?"

'Because I don't want him to figure out I'm trying to make you more appealing to him.' Nappa shook his head and stroked his mustache with his thumb. "He wouldn't like me spending time training you instead of training myself. He knows my strength hasn't been growing and he probably thinks it's because I'm slacking off already."

"Oh." She shrugged one shoulder. "I guess that's fair enough. So when do you want to start?"

"Now."

Bulma dropped the robot arm she had picked up. "Now? Nappa, did you hear anything I just said? I'm busy!"

"And now is the perfect time to train, when Vegeta is out with your mother. He won't be here to feel our ki together."

The blue-haired woman glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. Nappa was right. Grocery shopping was the only time Vegeta ever left the compound; it was the only time he was gone for a predictable length of time. "Alright, Nappa, you win. Let me go get changed. Where do you want to meet?"

"Back yard."

"In the middle of winter. Of course." Bulma groaned as she stood up and went up the stairs to exit her laboratory. She was going to have to put on some warm clothes. Since Vegeta and her mom were already gone, her training session probably wouldn't be very long and her body wouldn't have time to warm up from exercise. 'I hope this is worth it. I'm already overloaded with work and if Vegeta finds out what I'm doing he'll be even more mad that I refused to build his stupid training bots.'

…

"Hey, green man, why don't you let me train the kid for a while?" Raditz laughed when Piccolo's body slammed into the ground courtesy of Gohan's double axe handle.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Piccolo picked himself up from the ground and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He glanced up at Gohan, then over at the long-haired saiyan who was taking a break from sparring with Goku. "Be my guest."

"How 'bout it, kid?" Raditz levitated off the ground, facing off against his nephew. "Ready for a real spar?"

Grinning, Gohan nodded and shifted into his fighting stance. He loved his spars against his Uncle Raditz, though he had never won one and ended up unconscious almost every time. Still, he knew he learned the most from the experienced warrior, and, as much as he respected his old sensei, he realized that his uncle was an even harsher teacher who wouldn't pull any punches. It was his spars with his uncle that helped him grow the most in power because it was after those spars that he had to recover the most. Only half saiyan, his physiology still made his power grow dramatically after severe fights.

"Alright, Gohan," Raditz said, taking his own stance. "You know the rules, right?"

"Anything goes."

"Right. Now give me your best shot."

Immediately Gohan shot forward and punched at Raditz's face with a right hook, but his fist passed through an afterimage. A second later, he was smacked down to the ground feet from where Piccolo had recently landed. Not one to give up, Gohan leaped to his feet and darted into the air where he felt his uncle's ki and started furiously punching and kicking, but the large saiyan was too fast, easily blocking and dodging every one of his attacks, no matter how refined his technique was.

Raditz waited for Gohan's energy to drain somewhat before he went on the offensive. Seeing his nephew panting with the effort it took to keep up his speed of attacks, he blocked one final kick and swung his left arm around, feinting a jab to the ribs, then caught Gohan with a right kick to the side that sent him spiraling to the ground. The boy landed roughly, but again he got up and, raising his small hands above his head, started gathering energy for the attack he learned from his first mentor.

Gohan was still powering up his masenko when Goku strolled out of the house, having just finished his snack. He went over and stood next to Piccolo, watching the fight with his hands resting on his hips. "He's getting so strong."

"Yes. I can sense a deeper power somewhere inside him." Piccolo watched as the small boy fell to the ground once more. This time, he was slower in getting up, coughing up a glob of bloody phlegm.

Goku smirked. "You sensed it too?"

"Why do you think I trained him in the first place?"

"Here I always thought you took him as pupil out of the goodness of your heart." Goku gave a shout of praise when Gohan finally landed a solid punch to Raditz's gut.

"I don't have much more to teach him."

Goku watched the Namekian from the corner of his eye, still keeping up with the ongoing spar with his other senses. "What do you mean?"

Piccolo crossed his arms over his chest. "He's an exceptionally fast learner. I've trained him for over two years. He's mastered about everything I know, and I'm sure he's stronger than me already."

"You might be right about that." Goku shifted so he was facing Piccolo. "Well, what do you say we have a spar? No sense wasting time watching those two."

"If you think you're up to it." Smirking, Piccolo took a few steps away from Goku and whirled around, his cape billowing in the wind. He sank into his fighting stance and raised his power level to match his old rival's.

"We could take it to the gravity room if you think that would be a better challenge."

"No thanks." Piccolo shot a look of contempt toward the capsule room. "It's too cramped in there for my style."

"Suit yourself. Ready?"

Instead of answering, Piccolo started the spar by firing a quick blast of energy at Goku, then phased from sight. Seeing the tailless saiyan following him, he stopped mid-flight and waited to begin a flurry of rapid hand-to-hand combat. Shockwaves rocked the house below as their fists collided with incredible speed and strength. Piccolo took a hard hit when he had to dodge Gohan's body as it flew toward him.

Both Piccolo and Gohan hit the ground, but whereas Piccolo was only slightly dazed from the hit he received from his sparring partner, Gohan was out cold, having finally taken one too many hits from his uncle. Piccolo gave him a pitying glance before he again darted into the air to resume his fight against Goku. What he wasn't expecting was for Raditz to join the spar, fighting on neither side. Thus, a three-way spar started between the three adults, none of them terribly concerned about Gohan's state. As long as they could feel his ki, they assumed he was fine without their aid. There was no time for coddling when they were training; it wasn't that they didn't care about him, but he needed to learn that people wouldn't be around to nurse him whenever he got hurt in a fight. Each of them had learned that lesson many times.

…

Bulma flipped over a sweep kick and landed in a crouch to duck under a left hook. She was only a few minutes into her daily training session with Nappa and she was already panting and sweating profusely. He didn't go easy on her, but she had to admit, she took a lot fewer blows when training with him than she did with Vegeta. He didn't go any easier on her, but he taught her how to avoid attacks a different way than making her experience what happened if she didn't avoid it first. She rolled out of the way when the saiyan redirected his fist to crash down on her shoulder, again landing on her feet facing him.

Most of what he had taught her were techniques especially useful for small warriors, those who relied more on speed and agility than brute strength to win a fight. She appreciated that he recognized her particular abilities and used them to her advantage; though he was obviously a very large, bulky warrior, he still knew the techniques she could master easily and improve for her own purposes. It had only been a couple weeks that Nappa had been teaching her for a little over an hour a day, but she could tell she was already getting stronger and faster. He'd been right about her needing a better teacher, it seemed.

"So you taught Vegeta like this?" she asked, catching his fist with both hands before it could slam into her chest and break her sternum.

"Yeah." Nappa pulled his fist back and shifted his weight to his left foot before swinging his right around to kick her. "As the general of the saiyan army, it was my duty to train the prince. When he was handed over to Frieza, I was assigned to be his bodyguard."

Bulma dropped to the ground as his leg swung around. "Why was he given to that creep anyway? I thought the saiyans hated him." She leaped back to her feet and dodged a right feinted punch, then caught the left uppercut.

"They did, but he threatened to destroy our planet if the king didn't comply with his demand. King Vegeta was left in a tough spot. Either give up his son or let all his people be killed." Nappa aimed another kick at her gut.

Bulma dodged the kick and stopped the follow-up punch with her forearm. "Can see how well that worked out. He destroyed your planet anyway."

"It honestly didn't come as a surprise to any of us." He started punching faster, swinging his fists in such rapid succession that it became difficult for her to keep up. "The real question was when he was going to do it. Vegeta was a temporary appeasement."

"Why'd he want Vegeta anyway?"

"He knew our people believed he would be the one to ascend to super saiyan. He would overthrow Frieza. He's powerful, but the lizard is paranoid. He had to eliminate the threat, even if it was based on a legend."

Nappa finally managed to strike Bulma, knocking her to the ground. The blue-haired fighter groaned as she sat up, rubbing her aching jaw. Hopefully that wouldn't leave a mark; it would be hard to explain that one away. She rose to her feet and moved into her defensive stance, ready for another round against the giant. "What is a super saiyan anyway?"

"A legendary warrior, the strongest being in the universe." Nappa shifted into his own stance. "Attack me."

Bulma ran forward, fist raised, and started trying to hit the saiyan. As large as he was, he was quick and hard to hit. "Even stronger than Frieza, huh?"

"Much stronger. The legend tells of a saiyan warrior who transformed. He was so powerful his own energy destroyed him. No one knows how he transformed or exactly how strong he was. The only known super saiyan lived over a thousand years ago." Nappa easily dodged and blocked each of Bulma's blows, which became increasingly sloppy the more frustrated she became.

"Do you believe Vegeta can transform?" Bulma paused for a moment to wipe the sweat from her face.

"If anyone can, it's him. He's already hundreds of times stronger than any saiyan I've ever heard of. And if nothing else, he's got the sheer will and determination to reach it." Nappa blocked a punch, but he missed the swift roundhouse kick. Still, it hardly fazed him.

She snorted. "Determination and will he's got, yeah. He's obsessed with his training. He always was, even when he was a kid, but it worries me. I don't think he even sleeps anymore."

"You care about him." It wasn't a question. Nappa caught her fists and held them, waiting for her response. He wanted her to admit it, to realize how she felt about the saiyan prince.

Bulma tried tugging her hands free, but he held fast. "Well, yes… of course I care about him. He's been like a brother—"

"You care about him more than a brother."

"I…" Sighing, Bulma stopped struggling against her sensei. Was what he said true? Did she care about Vegeta as more than a brother? Maybe. She thought she did before Yamcha came back. Actually, even after he was revived she still entertained thoughts about Vegeta that weren't exactly appropriate for siblings. She shrugged. "Maybe I do. I don't know. Even if I did, what difference would it make? He doesn't care about me that way and he never will. The only thing he cares about is training and defeating Frieza."

Nappa released her hands. "Why do you think he trains so hard? Yes, he wants revenge for his people, but there's more to it than that. He's doing it because he cares about you and your family, more than he lets on."

"You think so?"

"They'll be returning soon. You should go in and get changed before he gets here." Nappa walked away from her and sank into his stance to begin his kata. Bulma watched him for a minute before turning and going inside for a quick shower.

A/N: I know there's been lots of fluff, but it's important for when the action starts. Hooray for first-time reviewers! Thanks so much for taking the time to drop me a review, it does mean a lot to me. Yeah, yeah, poor Yamcha, it was so unfair how they broke up... whatever. :) Sorry if the last chapter seemed short because it was actually a pretty long one, you know, word-count-wise. And thanks for the clarification on discrete/discreet, but I beg to differ on wrack/rack, which is more ambiguous in grammatical correctness. It can be argued that either spelling is correct in the way that I use it.

Update on writing... it took me several long days to write chapter 64 and now I'm trying to get started on 65. Easier said than done. Also, I recently came up with an idea for an alternate timeline AU that I'm kind of excited about, but it might require some reading up on Frankenstein, X-Men, and cryogenics...

Beta'd by lilpumpkingirl

Review!