"Namek?" Chichi asked the tall stranger named Kakarot.

"It's a very peaceful planet and the residents are very friendly. I'm sure you and your friend would love it," he answered her with the most genuine smile she'd seen in awhile, his chocolate brown eyes reflecting the feel sincerity of his statement.

'Wow, he's so charming and he's not even trying.' Chichi shook herself.

Kakarot became confused a serious look crossed her face. "Is something wrong?"

Chichi jumped at his question. "Sorry, I was just thinking about something. In any case, thanks for your offer. I'm sure it's troublesome for you to have to look up the coordinates for such an unknown planet."

"Oh I don't have to look it up. I have Namek's coordinates memorized since I go back there every once in awhile."

"Aren't you in the Sayian Empire?"

"Yes, but a few years back I landed on Namek and lost part of my memory. During my time there they gave me the name of Goku which means 'tailed one from the sky' or something along those lines in their language," At Chichi's stifle giggle, he looked back to her. "What's so funny?"

"Um… it's just that our planet has a similar meaning. There's a tailed creature called a monkey so the name Goku fits you quite well really," she finally lost the battle to not laugh and hoped that she didn't offend the man.

Kakarot on the other hand was far from offended, rather he was pleased to see such a genuine laughter in place of the cruel mocking his name normally received. 'She's really pretty when she's happy. I'm glad she's not as nervous anymore.'

Chichi looked away with a blush when she saw Kakarot, no Goku really did fit him better, smiling at her. This day had been so frustrating but for some reason she wasn't thinking about it anymore since right now felt so good. 'Stop goofing off, Chichi,' she chided herself. 'So what if he's sweet and cute. You need to hurry back to the ship and talk to Bulma.'

Little did she know that Bulma was not on the ship but in a close proximity to a very dangerous man.

'There's no way he knows who I am, he's just really good at guessing. I'll just tell him he's wrong and hope that he believes me.' Bulma swallowed the lump in her throat and stood up straight, "I'm sorry, I think you've confused me with someone else," she stated.

"Oh?" she felt a shiver run through her body at the amused chuckle that followed his question. Despite this man's claims of not being one of Frieza's men she instinctively knew that he was just as dangerous. "My mistake then," he causally said with a shrug of his shoulders.

She watched as his eyes scanned her face before moving lower. Looking down, she realized that he was looking at her necklace. She tried to jump away when his hand reached for it but his other hand was still holding her by the arm. "That was quite a crash we had, wasn't it? I'd be more than happy to buy you another necklace if you take me to where you bought it," he finished with a charming smile that made her weak in the knees for a reason she didn't quite understand.

'It would be impossible for him to know what this necklace really was. Even if he knows about the ki suppressor Dad made, I'm the only one that knows that this is the enhanced version. Just play dumb and take the fact that it's flimsy and use it to strengthen your excuse. He thinks that pretending to be charming can make me drop my guard? Well two can play at that game.' Bulma smiled as she tried to pass the necklace off as being unimportant, "Oh, this little thing? It's nothing an important man such as yourself should worry about," she gently grazed his fingers with one hand while using her other to twirl a strand of hair around her finger playfully.

She watched as he raised an eyebrow in question, his eyes moving from her fingers gently brushing his to her hair before finally meeting her eyes as she watched him from a shy, lowered gaze. She had never flirted before but she did her best to mimic the ditzy manner of speaking her mother had when she was still alive and since it seemed to be working so she decided to keep playing up the ruse.

"It's a hobby of mine to make things out of what I find lying around. When I found this metal on the ground and saw that it was so shiny and flexible I thought that it'd be easy to work with to make something pretty. I didn't even think about how it would be so easy to break but I can easily make myself another one," tossing her hair back before looking directly into his eyes with her brightest smile hoping that it didn't look forced.

He stared at her silently for a moment, seemingly awestruck before catching himself and smiling at her again. "You made it yourself? That's quite impressive."

Bulma laughed lightly, hoping that she wasn't coming across as a total airhead. "No, anyone could make something as simple as this."

"Really?" He leaned in closer, his nose nearly touching hers. "I don't think that's possible. You know why?"

'Too close. Way too close.' She was shaking again but she couldn't help it. She had never been this close to anyone other than her parents and Chichi. But that wasn't the only thing that was affecting her. At this distance she could only see his dark eyes as they stared at her intently. He wasn't physically forcing her to look at him but for some reason she couldn't look away. 'Hold it together girl. Fainting won't help anything.' She couldn't trust her voice not to shake so she just shook her head without breaking eye contact.

"You see," he pulled back a bit so he could look at her necklace again, "unlike Frieza and his men, I can sense energy without the use of radar. Yet despite that ability, I couldn't sense anyone in this alley. That is," he pulled the necklace up so that she would not only have to look at it but him as well, "until I heard this break. When this fragile scrap of metal broke I was suddenly able to sense your energy, as if you came just suddenly appeared. That could only mean that this necklace was responsible for hiding your energy from my detection and that would mean that you, having made the necklace, made it capable of doing that. Now what do you say, Ms. Briefs?" He used her name as if it was the most amusing name he had ever heard.

'Damn it, I didn't know it was possible to detect ki without radar. Dad said that Frieza's men could only find people with their scouters.' If she had been aware of that fact she would have just said that she didn't remember where she bought it. 'Come on, think of some way to turn this around.'

He seemed to catch on to her mental attempts to save herself so he pulled back a bit to look behind her. Worried that the men from before had entered the alley, she quickly turned to look for herself. Seeing no one, her body relaxed bit but it quickly stiffened at his chuckle.

"Those three are still a bit away though they'll be coming this way soon. Tell me, why are you running from them if you're not currently running from Frieza? It can't be something as simple as them trying to recollect an escaped slave, could it?" Bulma kept silent knowing that saying that she was an escaped slave wouldn't be a wise decision. "I suppose that if the humans were foolish enough to believe in Frieza's words of peace and equality," he quickly moved behind her, out of her sight but still holding her close by her arm as he moved them both forward a bit, "that they would be foolish enough to run right back to their captors."

Bulma's eyes widened as she saw the bustling activity in front of her. More humans than she could possibly count were being crammed together and pushed around by strange insect-like creatures as if they were cattle being prepared for auction. She remembered the men that had seen her and what they had said about taking her to the stockyard. She had thought that they were just joking but it was obviously true. 'If I hadn't bumped into him I would have been caught and sold into slavery.' She started to panic when one of the workers looked over in her direction but before eye contact could be made Vegeta pulled her back into the alley.

"Now, now, we don't want anyone to see you, at least just yet," he whispered in her ear, chuckling again as she tried to pull away. "As I told you before, the Sayians do not bow to Frieza but we do work for him from time to time, if the price is right. And wouldn't you know it, just an hour ago Frieza requested our help in finding a certain woman. She is the daughter of a supposedly brilliant scientist, one that was able to make inventions that are unequaled in the entire universe and Frieza believes that she is capable of doing the same. He wants her to be found so that she can work for him, making anything that his twisted mind could possibly desire, making him even more powerful so that he can take over more planets," he pointed to the path where Bulma could hear the cries of her people, "and take even more slaves."

Bulma sighed as she felt him pull away, still holding her by the arm but no longer pressed up to her back as he whispered in her ear. "The problem, however, is that Frieza and his men aren't very good at thinking things through. They know that this woman exists. They know that she was the lead scientist at her Father's company for 20 years. And they know that Dr. Briefs studied Frieza's ship and that there's a chance that she made her own ship and escaped the planet before the Frieza was even aware of her existence."

He moved around into the front of her vision but she refused to look up. "But they know nothing of the woman herself. They think that she may have purple hair like her Father or blonde hair like her Mother and that her eyes could possibly be black. And they believe that since she was the lead scientist for 20 years that she has to be well on in her years, since it would be uncustomary for someone to have such an important role before they were considered an adult, not to mention that most would have to work their way up to the top over several years before gaining such an honor."

Bulma turned the information in her head, trying to figure out what his game was. 'It would probably take years for people in the universe to understand human genetics or that children can gain recessive traits that their parents don't show but had gotten from the generation before them. Much like how a red flower can come from a pink flower because it gained traits from red and white flowers, her blue hair was a trait from her Grandfather; his wife having pink hair, the mix gave their son purple hair. And of course people wouldn't believe that anyone would give any sort of power to a 7 year old child but Dad was different and I could more than deliver.' Bulma could hardly believe what luck she had in that Frieza was completely off on what he was looking for. She could have walked by him completely uncovered and he wouldn't have thought twice about her. 'If only I hadn't decided to go out alone today. Stupid Bulma. Stupid stupid stupid Bulma.'

"He honestly doesn't know how wrong he is about you, does he, Ms. Briefs?" He chuckled as she flinched at her name. "Now I'm sure that Frieza would be more than happy to reward me if I were to take you to him, but there's one little thing that is stopping me:" he gently touched her chin and lifting her face so she could make eye contact with his suddenly serious face, "I hate him. I want to rip his throat out. There's not a day that goes by that I don't train myself to the breaking point with the goal of one day becoming strong enough to end his reign of tyranny."

Bulma blinked as she tried to understand the sudden change in his attitude. One moment he was mockingly charming, the next seriously enraged. She remembered back to Chichi telling her about the general opinion of the Sayians that the people here had and wondered if it was solely because of the fact that they had enough backbone to tell the monster no.

As quickly as his attitude had changed, it changed back and once again he was smirking at her. "So here's how it is. I'm not going to take you to Frieza. That prick can fret and search the universe looking for you until he dies for all I care."

Bulma took in a breath. 'He wasn't going to turn her over? Perhaps there's a little bit of good in him after all.'

"But there's still the little matter of what's going to happen to you."

'Or perhaps not,' Bulma thought with a twisted frown.

"You're angry at me but you're not thinking clearly. As far as I can see there are only two options for you right now. One:" he pointed to the path behind him, "you can go forward and be caught by the workers there and sold into slavery. Two:" he pointed to the path behind her, "you can go back the way you came and hope that those three goons don't catch you, possibly rape you, and then take you to be sold into slavery."

Bulma's face paled. 'I thought that he was just being a jerk but he's absolutely right. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place, being damned if you do or damned if you don't.' She wrapped her arms around herself, wishing for the hundredth time that day that she had just stayed in her secluded little world. 'You were wrong Chichi. I always knew that the outside world was a horrible place and it seems that the rest of the universe is even worse.'

"It's definitely looking bleak for you, but perhaps there is another option possible for you. That is, if we were to make a deal."

Bulma pulled her arms tighter around herself. She hated this feeling of helplessness that was engulfing her. She didn't know if his offer was going to be any better than the idea of slavery but she did know that she wasn't going to let him think that he could mess with her anymore.

She took as deep breath and straightened up. No longer were her arms clutching her sides but rather folded loosely across her chest. Everything about her said that she was a confident business woman fully prepared to take down her opponent. She may have never actually been in a boardroom but she learned how to keep control from the best in the business and she always got her point across. 'He wants to negotiate, huh? Fine. Who cares if I'm outside of the lab? Right now, it's just me and him. And I'm not going down without a fight,' mentally bracing herself, she looked him straight in the eye.

"You have a deal to offer? Alright then. Let's see, if it's worth my time."

A/N: Well I hope you all enjoyed it. Please feel free to read and review, I do love to get feedback from everyone.