Epiphany

Bulma wiped her brow with the back of her sleeve before pulling her sweater off and casting it aside on the ground a fair distance away. It wasn't exactly warm outside, but she was working hard and it was making her hot. Now cooler, she rolled her shoulders back and moved into her fighting stance across from her opponent, smirking. In a way she felt bad that she was getting special training that was giving her such an advantage, but she knew that at least some of what she had learned was rubbing off on her brunette sparring partner.

"Alright, Chi, give me your best shot," the blue-haired woman taunted, shifting her weight to her left foot as she readied herself for an attack.

If Bulma thought it was warm outside, Chi-Chi was feeling it even more. She couldn't understand where her friend's sudden increases in speed and strength were coming from; whereas they had been about evenly matched since they started sparring together, now she was trailing far behind the older woman. It was making her feel frustrated and inadequate, unable to keep up with someone she had always had a slight advantage over. Frowning, she pounced forward, ready to strike, but as happened every time before, she wasn't fast enough to hit her blue-haired opponent.

"C'mon, Chi," Bulma jeered from behind her. "What was that?"

Chi-Chi whirled around and, before Bulma could dodge her blow, struck her with a fast jab to her abdomen, followed by a roundhouse kick that landed on her hip, knocking her over. Bulma fell to the ground, but rolled over, landing on her feet. She jumped up and started her own barrage of punches that the brunette had difficulty dodging until finally she caught one of the flying fists and twisted her arm around in a submission hold.

"How's that, B?" the young housewife spat.

"It hurts, I'll give you that," Bulma growled. Then, much to her opponent's surprise, she swung her arm around, taking Chi-Chi with it, and slammed her into the ground.

The brunette sat there for a moment, panting. "How did you do that?"

"Just a new trick I learned." Bulma sat down next to her friend and brushed a few stray strands of hair from her sweaty face.

"I thought Vegeta wasn't training you anymore."

"He's not." Biting her lip, Bulma hugged her knees to her chest and looked up at the cloudy blue sky. Now that she wasn't exercising, she was starting to feel the chill of the March afternoon on her skin.

"What do you mean he's not?" Chi-Chi demanded. "You have to be training with someone! There's no way you've been improving so much without someone's help."

"You're right about that." Bulma sighed as she stood up and brushed the dead grass from her sweatpants. She didn't know if she should tell Chi-Chi about Nappa's involvement in her training since he wanted her to keep it a secret from Vegeta. What if Chi-Chi told Goku, and Goku told Raditz, and Raditz told Vegeta? "Promise not to tell anyone if I tell you who it is?"

"Sure. Tell me." Chi-Chi also stood up and took her hair out of the bun she had it up in and combed it a few times with her fingers before putting it up again, capturing the strands that had escaped in their spar.

Kicking the ground with her toe, Bulma told her, "It's Nappa. He's been helping me for about a month."

"Wait, did you just say Nappa? That big old Neanderthal?" Chi-Chi scoffed, resting her hands on her hips. She would believe that when she saw it.

"Don't call him that, Chi," Bulma said, defending her sensei. "He's really not all that bad once he stops acting like a grouch. We've actually been getting along pretty well. I don't know what made him change his mind about me, but I'm not complaining."

"If you say so."

"Well, does it matter if you like him or not? You can tell his training has helped me. Maybe I can teach you some of the things he's taught me, though I doubt I'm as good a teacher as he is. He's surprisingly patient. Did you know he's actually the one who taught Vegeta how to fight since he was just a baby?"

Chi-Chi shook her head as she took her fighting stance again, ready to start another spar. "He told you that?"

"Yeah," Bulma replied, moving into her own stance. She raised her arms defensively and waited for Chi-Chi to make the first move. "He's told me a lot about Vegeta. It kind of makes me have a new level of respect for him. It's unbelievable what he's lived through. Raditz and Nappa too, but really, Vegeta's had it the hardest, being the prince and all."

"I bet." Chi-Chi darted forward and feinted a right jab, then caught Bulma with a left hook. Bulma quickly retaliated by dropping into a sweep kick. Chi-Chi fell to the ground, but immediately jumped back to her feet and dodged a blow aimed for her chest.

Bulma jumped over a kick and, while airborne, clasped her hands together and crashed them down on Chi-Chi's left shoulder, temporarily numbing her arm. "I know you don't really like any of them, but they're fighting on the good side now. They're going to defeat that Frieza creep."

Chi-Chi scoffed as she blocked a low punch with her forearm and spun around, catching Bulma with a back kick. "You mean Goku will defeat him. You know he's the strongest."

Rolling her eyes, Bulma back-flipped over another kick and landed a few feet away in a defensive crouch. "Actually, I'm pretty sure Vegeta is still stronger. And it's going to stay that way."

The brunette fighter charged forward and ducked under a punch, then landed her own directly on Bulma's solar plexus. She jumped back, waiting for the coughing heiress to recover before resuming the fight. "What, are you in love with him or something? You defend him enough. And he's all you ever talk about when you come over."

Bulma wiped a dribble of saliva from her lip with the back of her hand and glared at her friendly adversary. "Just because I talk about him doesn't mean I'm in love with him. Besides, it's just that I've been learning a lot about him lately. Nappa tells me things Vegeta never would."

"Really?" Chi-Chi blocked a punch, but missed the kick that knocked her off her feet. She grunted as she hit the ground. "Does he tell you all the horrible things they did? Did he tell you they were mercenaries?"

"I already know about that," Bulma snarled. "They were forced to do what they did."

"You think you know about it," Chi-Chi corrected her, standing up to start again. "I know more about it than you do. Goku's told me about it. Raditz talks to him too. And did you know saiyans are telepathic? Yeah, Goku and Raditz have some sort of mental connection, and Goku's seen some of Raditz's memories. They're ugly, Bulma. You don't know the worst of it."

"I know they killed people, what's worse than that?" Bulma took the offense this time, running forward and starting a flurry of punches and kicks that kept Chi-Chi on her toes trying to block, dodge, or counter them all. Her indignation was fueling her fighting, making her want to pummel Chi-Chi for claiming to know more about the saiyans than she did. She lived with the three of them! She knew more about them than Chi-Chi ever would, and she would understand them better too. They weren't monsters. She refused to believe they were.

"Do you know," Chi-Chi shouted, catching a punch and deflecting another jab at her ribs, "how many people they killed? They destroyed entire civilizations! They decimated whole planets! That's billions of people, Bulma!"

Bulma paused just long enough for Chi-Chi to kick her in the gut with her knee. Breathless, Bulma collapsed to her knees and held her stomach with both hands. "I – I knew that, Chi-Chi."

"Did you?" Chi-Chi wiped her brow. "Or did you refuse to believe it? You think they couldn't do something like that."

"I know what they did and I know they had to do it or be killed." Bulma slowly rose to her feet and spun into a roundhouse kick that caught Chi-Chi off guard. "You don't have to remind me of it."

Chi-Chi yelped and covered her side with her hands. She was sure she heard one of her ribs crack with that blow. "Kami, Bulma, take it easy!"

"Sorry." Bulma turned away from Chi-Chi, trying to rein in her anger.

"I just think you have a right to know what kind of people you're housing," Chi-Chi ground out through clenched teeth. She was seeing stars from the pain in her side. "They didn't just kill people they were ordered to kill. They blew up other planets for fun."

Slowly shaking her head, Bulma turned around again, unable to form words to refute the other woman's claim. It was outrageous. They weren't killers by choice, they weren't! Especially not Vegeta.

"They – they…" Chi-Chi stopped, coughing a few times. "Tortured their victims… they enjoyed it. They drew it out, just to hurt them more…" She collapsed to the ground.

Bulma rushed to her side and knelt down next to her. "Chi? Are you okay? Oh no, Chi, can you hear me?" The blue-haired woman looked around frantically, searching for Goku or Gohan, hell, even Piccolo or Raditz. They were all off somewhere else training. The gravity room wasn't in use. No one was around.

Giving up on her search for help, Bulma decided to get Chi-Chi into the house where she could examine her to see what was wrong. She worked her arms under Chi-Chi's back and legs and picked her up, glad that she had gained a lot of strength since starting her training with Nappa. She ran into the house and carried her friend to her room and gently laid her down on the bed before pulling off her top so she could see her chest. She cringed when she saw her side, already swollen and bruising. She hadn't meant to kick that hard; she just lost control of herself in her anger.

"Oh, Chi, I'm sorry," Bulma groaned, gently prodding the woman's ribs. She heard a sharp intake of breath and a hiss of pain. "I think you've got a fractured rib. Hold on, I'll go get you some painkillers."

She stood up and ran out of the bedroom to the bathroom and started rifling through the medicine cabinet above the sink. She found a bottle of painkillers and grabbed it before filling a cup with water and took it back to the bedroom and helped Chi-Chi sit up so she could take the pills.

"Kami, this hurts," Chi-Chi moaned.

"I know, Chi," Bulma said, stroking her dark hair back from her face. "I'm going to go find Goku and he can help me get you into my jet. You're going to need some x-rays, just to make sure nothing more serious is going on, okay? I'll be back in a minute."

Bulma ran out of the house and headed toward Goku's usual training grounds to find him and tell him what was going on. Long before she reached the area, she could hear the booms of colliding fists and felt the ground shaking under her feet. "Goku!" she screamed as she got closer, "Goku, I need your help!"

A few seconds later, Goku appeared in front of Bulma and caught her before she ran into him. "What's wrong, Bulma?"

She panted for a moment before taking a deep breath to tell him, "It's Chi-Chi, I accidentally kicked her too hard… I think her rib is broken. I need to take her to get an x-ray. Can you help me get her into my jet?"

"Chi-Chi's hurt?" Goku's expression went from concerned to shocked before he grabbed Bulma's wrist and took off at a dead sprint back to the house, dragging her behind him. Not a minute later they were back at the house with Bulma leading the way to the bedroom where Chi-Chi was resting on the bed, groaning in pain with each breath.

"Goku?" Chi-Chi smiled when she saw her husband as he knelt down next to the bed and stroked her cheek. "I'm fine, I just got a little banged up in our spar."

Goku nodded as he picked her up and followed Bulma outside where her jet was parked in the valley. After she opened the side door, Goku laid his wife down on the floor while Bulma got her a pillow to keep her more comfortable. "You'll be fine. Bulma will take care of you. Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, you stay here with Gohan," Chi-Chi said, squeezing his hand. "I'm not hurt that bad."

He nodded again, then kissed her forehead and jumped out of the jet. Bulma closed the door and walked around to the door to the pilot's seat. She paused before stepping up into the jet, frowning. "I'm so sorry, Goku," she said. "I didn't mean to hurt her."

"I know," he said. "People get hurt in spars, it's not your fault."

She forced a small smile before turning and climbing into the jet. She fired up the engines and waved to Goku before lifting off and headed northwest back to West City. She could take care of Chi-Chi in the infirmary at the compound.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" she asked hesitantly after a few minutes of silence broken only by Chi-Chi's wheezing and whimpers of pain.

"No, Goku was right. Injuries happen when you fight. I would like it if you wouldn't do it again, but I'm not mad at you for it." Chi-Chi sighed and stared up at the ceiling of the jet. "I know you were mad about what I told you about the saiyans."

"A little," Bulma admitted.

"You like to think they're not bad people, they were just forced to do evil things," Chi-Chi said quietly. She didn't say anything else for a few moments, then continued, "Whether it's their nature or it's because of their circumstances, they're not good people. They killed so many people…they tortured them. They – they raped women, Bulma. Then killed them."

"Chi-Chi, would you please stop?" Bulma snapped. Hurt or not, Chi-Chi didn't need to go digging up the past and throwing it in her face. Honestly, she hadn't known that much about what the saiyans did. She knew they killed people to sell planets, but they did it under Frieza's orders. She didn't want to think about the fact that maybe they didn't completely hate it, that they entertained themselves by killing people, torturing them, raping them, and whatever else they might have done. Such thoughts made her stomach turn.

"Afraid of the truth?"

"I'm not afraid," Bulma huffed. "How do you know this anyway? Goku told you?"

"Not exactly." Chi-Chi turned to the side, looking up at her blue-haired friend. "He would never tell me all the details, but I can figure them out from the way he avoids answering me when I ask."

Bulma shook her head. "If he didn't say it, it might not be true. Unless Vegeta admits doing it, then I won't believe it. I can't. He's not like that, Chi."

"If you say so."

They didn't speak for the rest of the flight to West City. Bulma shifted uncomfortably in her seat, not liking the silence, but also not wanting to continue their conversation about the supposed immorality of Vegeta and the other saiyans. How could she believe such lies? Vegeta was not a bad person, he wasn't a monster! Sure, he made some mistakes, and yes, he was forced to kill people to survive, but it wasn't by choice. None of it was by choice. He just wasn't like that. He wasn't. Still, as much as she tried to reassure herself, she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that, perhaps, Chi-Chi was right. There were secrets Vegeta was keeping from her, tales he would never willingly tell. Why? Because he was ashamed? To protect her? Or to protect himself because he knew she would have more trouble forgiving him if she knew the full extent of his past sins?

With the seeds of doubt planted, the only way she was ever going to find resolution was to confront Vegeta about these things. She knew he wouldn't lie to her, but she also didn't want to hear the truth if what Chi-Chi said was, in fact, true. Still brooding over her dilemma when she touched down at the Capsule Corporation compound, she called the infirmary to have some medics come with a gurney to get Chi-Chi taken inside to have x-rays and other necessary tests run. Bulma got out of the jet and walked around to open the door and sat next to Chi-Chi to wait for the medics.

"I'm going to have my doctors take care of you. Do you want me to stay with you?" she asked, wringing her hands in her lap.

Chi-Chi shook her head, though Bulma wasn't facing her. "No, I'll be fine. But you'd better visit me once everything's checked out, got it?"

Bulma smiled. "Sure, Chi." She looked up and saw the medics running over to the jet. "Well, they're here. I need to go talk to someone. I'll come see you in a few minutes."

She slid down until her feet touched the ground, then hesitated a moment, looking up at the sky. Gray clouds blocked out the sun, making her aware of the coldness of the early March afternoon. She rubbed her arms – covered in goosebumps – and glanced over at the gravity room. Her curiosity was gnawing at her thoughts, but she didn't know if she was ready for the answers he might give to her questions. 'So what if he did rape people and stuff? That won't change how I feel about him. I still love him. He's my brother, and he's allowed to mess up.' She tried to picture him, standing in the doorway of the gravity room scowling at her, hair damp with sweat, body glistening in the dim sunlight, arms with bulging biceps crossed over his finely sculpted chest. And then she imagined asking him 'How many people have you killed?' and hearing him answer, 'Billions.' She shuddered at the thought. Okay, maybe it wouldn't be as easy to accept as she liked to think. Still, she had to know.

Taking a deep breath, she started her trek across the yard, the dead grass softly crunching under her feet with each step. She stopped when she reached the door, then clenched her hand into a fist and knocked on the metal door twice. When the sound of the gravity simulator powering down came, she felt her heart pounding in her chest as she waited for the door to open. Then, a second later, Vegeta appeared before her, looking exactly as she had imagined him. She swallowed and averted her eyes to look over his shoulder, not wanting to make eye contact with him. No, she definitely didn't want to look into those piercing black eyes and see the horrors she was about to ask about.

"What do you want, girl?" he growled.

She pushed an imaginary strand of hair behind her ear and cleared her throat before asking, "I wanted to ask you a couple questions."

"Can't this wait?" Vegeta quirked an eyebrow, wondering what could possibly be so important that she would interrupt his training for it. Judging by the way she was wiping the palms of her hands on her pants, her fluctuating ki, and rapid breathing, he could tell she was nervous about something. But what?

"No," she mumbled. "It's important."

Shrugging, he stepped aside, allowing entrance into the gravity room where it was warmer. Her nose wrinkled with the stale scent of blood and sweat and she took a step inside, then jumped when he slammed the door shut. Biting her lip, she went a few steps further into the room, pretending to scope it out, survey the damage, anything.

"What is so important you had to interrupt my training to ask?" he asked, walking over to lean against the gravity console.

"It's about Frieza. Well, sort of…" she trailed off, taking another deep breath before continuing, "I wanted to know… he made you kill people, didn't he?"

Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her expressionlessly. She came to ask him that? She already knew the answer to that question. "Yes, girl."

"How – how many?"

Sighing, he rubbed his forehead and braced his arms back against the console. She could see the tip of his tail flicking against his hip. "I don't know how many I killed," he told her. "I lost count on my first purge."

"Oh." She scratched the back of her neck, noticing it was damp with a cold sweat. "So what are we talking? Hundreds? Thousands?"

He snorted, shaking his head. "I know you're not that naïve, girl. We're talking billions. Tens of billions. Maybe hundreds."

Bulma swallowed, but her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. "But you had to. Frieza ordered you to kill them. All of them. And – and you didn't do it all by yourself. Nappa and Raditz and the rest of Frieza's army helped, right?"

He looked over at her and frowned. She couldn't hold his dark gaze long before she averted her eyes again. "I was ordered to kill most of them. I destroyed several planets for my own amusement or for practice. At least a few of them were inhabited by sentient species. I didn't care. And when I said billions, I was only talking the people I personally killed. If you include those Nappa and Raditz killed, it would be almost three times greater."

She stared at him in shock, all words lost every time she tried to think of a response. Wrapping her mind around that many deaths was impossible enough when she was detached from it, but when she was trying to think of how many people her brother had killed… no, she couldn't do it. She shook her head furiously, refusing to believe it. "Even if you killed as many as you say," she said weakly, "Even if you killed them all, you did it fast? Mercifully?" She prayed to Kami that his answer would be yes, but when she saw his hesitation, she knew she wasn't going to like the answer he was about to give.

"Not all of them died fast." His tail uncoiled from his waist and slowly twitched, revealing his discomfort.

"Why not?"

"For many years I killed everyone swiftly, ending their misery before it could begin. I killed them the way I wanted to die. But then, after one of my missions, something changed. I didn't care about honor or mercy or anything, I just wanted…" He stopped, turning around so he wouldn't have to face her anymore. "I started dragging their deaths out, at least the stronger warriors."

Bulma backpedaled away from him until she slammed into the wall. "You – you tortured them?"

He shrugged. "Sometimes."

"Why?"

"Why not?" He sighed. "Are you finished asking me questions now, girl?"

"No, I have one more." Bulma felt bile rising in her throat even as she thought about her last question. She dreaded his answer, but she had to know. Swallowing back her revulsion, she asked, "Did you rape any women?"

The silence that ensued dragged on for many long, painful moments before she heard him release a deep breath. "Yes, girl. Thirty-two."

Bulma choked on a sob as she ran to the door and forced it open. The rush of cold air was a small relief as she felt her stomach twisting, ready to heave all its contents on the ground. She ran across the yard back to the compound and headed straight for her bedroom, locking the door behind her before she went over and collapsed on her bed. How could he have done such awful things if he didn't have to? Was he what she so desperately wanted to believe he wasn't? A monster? She tried to hold back the tears, but before long they were flowing freely as she sobbed until her chest ached. She thought she knew him. She thought he was a better man than that. It didn't matter how many he killed, how many he raped, how many he tortured. What hurt the most was the feeling of betrayal, her trust broken. He never said he hadn't done those things, but she made herself believe he hadn't, and now, knowing the truth, she couldn't bear it.

Vegeta did not immediately resume training after Bulma left. Instead, he turned, staring at the open door, listening to her rapid footsteps growing more distant until he heard the back door of the compound slam shut. He sighed heavily, then trudged across the gravity room to close the door. Normally he didn't mind telling what he had done in the past, but with Bulma it was different. With her, it hurt to know that she was so disgusted by him, so revolted, so… so afraid. She was the last person he ever wanted to be afraid of him. The door closed, he went back over to the gravity console and turned the simulator on, cranking it up to the maximum: 450Gs. With his body weighed down, it was harder to think about the girl and all her questions, or even why she had suddenly become so interested in learning about his exploits as Frieza's slave.

He wasn't stupid enough to believe his revelations would have no effect on her opinion of him. Her reaction wasn't any more than he could expect; if anything, he was surprised it hadn't been worse. Still, that didn't mean she was going to have an easy time forgiving him for his past, assuming she ever did. Maybe she wouldn't be able to. Even compassion as deep as hers has limits, and he wasn't sure he hadn't exceeded that limit by telling her the truth about his past. The scent of her fear still lingered in the air, and as hard as he tried to ignore it, he couldn't get it out of his head. Afraid of him. Perhaps for the first time, she was genuinely afraid of him. He was disgusted with himself, but more than that, he regretted past choices because he was seeing them affect Bulma. He couldn't explain why that made him feel like his heart was dropping through his chest or why his stomach was tying in knots, but he knew it was because of her reaction, her feelings toward him.

It really came down to one simple fact: He couldn't live with himself if she hated him.

Thoughts of Bulma continued breaking his focus while he trained until finally he couldn't take it anymore. He slammed his fist down on the button to deactivate the gravity simulator and stood there, breathing heavily, trying to calm his mind. So she knew the truth now, what of it? What did it change? Why feel remorse now just because she knew? It didn't make sense. Groaning, he picked up his towel from the floor and wiped the sweat from his face before leaving the gravity room to find Nappa.

Sensing his ki, he quickly found the older saiyan inside, but as he followed the signal, he found himself in front of the door to Bulma's laboratory. More perplexing was that Bulma was also in the laboratory, but what would they be in there together for? They weren't exactly friends, at least not that he knew of. Scowling, he punched in the code to unlock the door and stormed inside.

"Nappa, what the hell are you doing in here?" he demanded as he descended the stairs. It wasn't until he reached the bottom that he looked around and saw Nappa standing next to Bulma, who was sitting at one of her workstations facing away from him. If that wasn't strange enough, Nappa had his hand on her shoulder, which was shaking.

"Vegeta!" Nappa pulled his hand away from her and took a step away from her.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Vegeta repeated, his eyes shifting from his former bodyguard to his pack mate.

Nappa rubbed the back of his neck and walked over to his prince. "Nothing. I wasn't doing anything. I just came to talk to the girl about something."

Vegeta raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Bulma, who had turned around to face him. He dropped his gaze to the floor. "Talk? What do you have to talk about? You should be training."

"Leave him alone," Bulma spat venomously. "Get out of my laboratory."

"What?"

"I said get out!"

More shocked than annoyed, Vegeta silently complied, gesturing for Nappa to come with him. The two saiyans left the laboratory, leaving Bulma alone as she requested. Once the door was closed behind them, Vegeta rounded on Nappa and pinned him against the wall, fist raised and ready to strike. "I know you didn't stop by for a nice little chat. Tell me what you were doing! Why were you touching her?"

Though it was a dangerous move on his part, Nappa started laughing, even as Vegeta banged his head back against the wall. "What's your deal, Vegeta? Don't tell me you're jealous I was with her."

"Jealous?" Vegeta scoffed, but his scowl didn't slip. "What would I be jealous about?"

"You don't want me talking to your female, do you?" Nappa laughed again and pushed his now stunned prince away. "You're mad that I can talk to her without pissing her off."

"Stop your babbling!" Vegeta clenched both hands into fists. "You're a fool."

"Then I guess you wouldn't mind if I was doing more than talking to her, would you?"

"Why you!" Vegeta snarled and again pinned Nappa against the wall, this time giving him a strong punch to the gut for good measure. "She is off limits to you!"

Nappa coughed a few times before continuing, "She's a real looker, isn't she? And no one else has claimed her. Why shouldn't I pursue her? Give me one good reason."

Vegeta's tail unwrapped from his waist and lashed behind him as a deep growl rose in his chest. He was made even more furious when, instead of cowering, Nappa smirked at him. "You can't have her because I – because she's my – because I said so!"

"Why do you say so?" Nappa lifted his chin defiantly. "You'll have to give me a better reason than that if you want to keep me away from her. Just admit it. You're jealous, Vegeta. You want her all to yourself."

"Don't be absurd! Why would I want that banshee?"

Nappa laughed again, further infuriating the prince. "Then you wouldn't mind learning that we've been spending a lot of time together, huh? Yeah, that's right, every day when you go grocery shopping with her mother, we've been training together. And we talk—"

He was cut off by a swift punch to his jaw and Vegeta's free hand wrapping around his throat and squeezing. "Damnit, Nappa! You will stay away from my woman!"

Realizing what he said, Vegeta released Nappa and backed away from him slowly, unsteadily. He raised his hands to his head, tangling his fingers in his thick hair, and shook his head, not wanting to believe what he said. Nappa was right; he was jealous, jealous because some part of him had already claimed her as his own. When the hell did that happen? He raised his eyes from the floor and cringed when he saw the other saiyan smiling triumphantly, arms crossed over his chest. This was his goal the whole time. He wanted him to realize his feelings for the girl… the woman he wanted to be his mate.

"If you tell anyone, especially her," he warned, a deep growl rising from his chest, "I will kill you."

Sighing, Nappa nodded his assent. Leave it to Vegeta to try hiding his feelings once he realized he had them. Getting them together was getting even more complicated, but he was determined to see it through. They may not realize it at the moment, but they needed each other. They were just too proud to see it.

A/N: Yeah, there's definitely the start of a different kind of relationship between Bulma and Nappa than you're used to. Defeating an immortal Frieza will be complicated. I was complimented on deviantart? Cool. I know the B/Y breakup was emotionally dry, but I kind of intended it to be to show that it was a longtime coming and they knew it, so it wasn't surprising.

Approximate power levels:
Vegeta: 4.5 million
Goku: 4 million
Raditz: 2 million
Gohan: 350,000
Piccolo: 200,000
Tien: 100,000
Nappa: 85,000
Krillin: 50,000
Yamcha: 45,000

Reason for Gohan and Piccolo's relatively low powers... Gohan hasn't been pushed as far as he would with Goku or Raditz training him because he's not getting beaten up as much. Piccolo's power is a lot lower than canon because he hasn't fused with Nail. Also, Krillin and Gohan haven't had their potential power unlocked (by Guru).

Another important matter... I'm going to be in yet another wedding on Saturday (August 6). I highly doubt I'll have internet in the faraway land of Michigan - 7-8 hour drive, blah! - so I won't be able to update. I won't get home until late Sunday, so I'll just wait until Monday (Aug. 8) to update again. Sorry to leave you at this cliffhanger of sorts.

Beta'd by lilpumpkingirl

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