A/N: So I've posted another chapter and this one is PRETTY LONG, I've introduced new characters...and don't get to confused...this is switching between two scenes that are happening simultaneously! Keep in mind that Yuroichi has already been added into the mix, and she is just falling into her character. Hopefully, you remember what side she is on! :) Also, so I had a question asked about where I came up with this story plot- I can't answer that yet but at the end I WILL. Because of that muse I've come up with this story, and I hope you all enjoy it! Don't be afraid to leave a review, I enjoy reading them between Anatomy class!

Chapter Twenty Two

Vegeta….Bulma…Past and Present

Grunting, Radditz tugged the chains that bond his hands together and kept him deadly close to a bog, and Goku nearby. "Smart idea, huh? I thought this village wasn't one of any kind of threat?"

Pensively, Goku stood feet away from his brother trying to forge together a way of escape. He couldn't be distracted from the task at hand, not even with another failure. Three nights and days he watched this village, and never once had any left with weapons of any sorts. He had seen a woman leave a few times, and a few children, but none alerted him at all. How had that slipped by him?

A large black man stood before them, arms crossed over his chest with a scowl. He didn't move in the least bit so much so Goku wondered if he was breathing at all. A turban sat on the top of his head, and a javelin nearby.

"You big monkey can't you understand a word? What are you waiting for? Who have you gone for?" No answer.

Suddenly a wave of people were heading in there directions, and cheers sounded. What had these people planned for them? Goku glanced in the direction of the shouting crowd, and he could see a man in the distance. Following the man was the woman that had left them shortly after they were dragged in the town and chained.

There were small hunts scattered about the village, and a towering wall enclosed it. There was no way out of the barricade village aside from the large gates that were currently closed and located directly before them with great distance. The shouts were growing by the seconds and the mysterious man becoming more visible.

"I think we are about to find out what is going on here" said Goku, his eyes never wondering from the ever approaching man.

"Commander Vegeta!" was sporadically shouted through the crowd with hoorays following. Goku's mind was circling with questions, as the man now stood before them.

"Piccolo you may depart" commanded Vegeta, and at once the silent man bowed.

"Yes, sir" grunted Piccolo and left their side.

Radditz huffed at how quickly the silent solider was to speak at the words of the peculiar short man. There was nothing about the rather short man that made him tremble in the least, and by his appearance he could see the reason for Goku's assumption.

"Is this the great commander that gives orders and determ-"

A hard uppercut into the abdomen from the shorter man silence radditz, and had him double over. Size had certainly not been a hindrance for the commander, and Radditz was feeling the repercussions of his remark.

"You try to invade my camp? Then you want to mock me, well I don't think you have the least bit of sense. You do know your messing with the commander" the short man turned around, arms fold across his chest, walked back in the direction he came from. "Throw them in the bog."

"Radditz" teeth Goku, annoyed.

At once Piccolo made his way back over grabbing hold of Radditz first, and then Yuroichi helping. It had been the death of any man that dealt wickedly, a slow and crushing death. The mud would slowly pull them under like quick sand, and then they'd be depleted of all source of oxygen, a terrible way to die.

The room was spinning, and ChiChi's head was pounding. Where was she? Wherever she was it was dimly lit. Mustering much of her strength she managed to sit up right, and found herself in the center of a large room.

The floor consisted of dirt, and the only thing inside the room was a small table in the corner. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was having a spear pointed deadly closed to her forehead. Then after hearing the voice of a woman, everything went black.

"Where are you?" she shouted. "Why didn't you kill me? If you are part of Teriok don't think that I'll feed you any information."

When all she could hear was silence she stood up, and started to walk the span of the room. The walls were concrete, and the door appeared to be made out of a thick metal. How long had she been in the room?

"Great, great, great…." She whispered, pacing. "When will something go right? When will I stop letting my guard down? Papa, if you were to know that I let myself get so easily carried away you would certainly lock me away. I'm certain you'd never let me outside of the castle walls then."

Decisions the very cause of everything that befell her and she had no one to blame but herself alone. Why did she want so bad to make choices? She was never good at it, and being inside prison walls was proof of that.

"If I never left the castle, and never wanted to escape. Not to mention turn down the charming, PRINCE ABSALOM. Oh, if I would have just been the silent princess like required and married him, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Maybe if I never wanted to choose my own gua…no…no, no certainly that choice was right."

ChiChi rubbed her temples trying to ease away the throbbing. Why was her head pounding so much? "This is so stupid…I can't believe I actually just thought of marring that jerk. Goku, Goku…you are the one I love. I certainly don't regret teaching him to dance, or the way he held me." Her entire face flared red at the memory of fitting so comfortable in his embraced.

She hadn't noticed then how wonderful it felt to be held so close, his breath blowing against the tops of her head, till now. Her head placed against his chest, and how possessively he held her close. Why didn't she pay attention to her growing affections then? She had pushed them off as nothing more than the effects of harmless flirting.

She had loved him even then. Why was it so quite? Now the unsettling feelings in her were surfacing, and with it the overwhelming need to cry. It felt like hours that she was walking around in the room, and try as she could she couldn't shake the thoughts.

"Oh Goku where are you?"

Goku looked once again over the area, and with the parting crowd he finally noticed a tall tree nearby the gate. How had he missed it before? It wasn't too far from them, and he was certain they could close in on it given time. He needed to escape and his brother as well. He needed to make atonement for not only the death of his mother and father now, but ChiChi. Suddenly, wheels were turning in his head and he saw the clear route for escape!

He couldn't jeopardize the soldiers knowing his plan, so he'd decided to speak in their native tongue. "When they untie you from the tree taunt them, and when they untie me you follow me. Don't stop following me, and keep a watch…they are wide open" shouted, Goku.

Radditz held his breath but with no plan of his own, he had to trust Goku. Yoruichi cut the rope that bound Radditz to pole, his hands still tied tightly together. He glanced over at Goku cautiously as Yoruichi pushed him forward towards his impending doom, and then mumbled a short prayer. "You look a little too fragile to be some guard, you look like you'd fit more in my bedroom."

A hard fist to his stomach was the only reply that Radditz received, and he chuckled. She followed with a slap and Radditz a smug appearance. "Now, now can't you hit any harder?"

"To bad you have to die, I could have cut you limb by limb and fed you to the wolves if not" spat Yoruichi.

"Oh, somehow I don't believe you'd pass up a man like me in your bed…eh?" he teased, and again she slapped him. Fire was in her golden orbs, and he knew that a little more crud remarks would set her over edge. "Such a shame I couldn't place woman like you in real submission…"

"That is it" she growled, baring her teeth. She tugged Radditz towards her, pulling her blade from its sheath.

"Yoruichi" scold Piccolo, cutting the rope tying Goku to the pole. "Your orders are to push him into the bog nothing else."

The fiery dark hair woman glanced over at Piccolo with a glare that could kill, the blade pressed deadly close to the smirking Radditz's neck. She would cut him limb by limb and then throw him into the dirty pit if it was up to her. "Certainly blood will draw the same reaction the commander implied" she countered, shifting her deadly gaze back to Radditz, she thrust the knife forward.

Insanity had certainly consumed her, and all ChiChi could do was crumble to the floor. She felt completely open, and at lost. It was one thing to know that she'd be killed in an instant and be well with that, but another to be locked away in solitude.

There was something very troubling about the silence that the four walls brought to a person's mind. Tears wouldn't stop, and the haunting memories of every mistake in the past few months wouldn't stop replaying. She grabbed her ears pulling them, a panging scream erupting from within her. She couldn't take it any longer.

Her cries had drowned out everything around, and when two arms wrapped around, she was startled. She hadn't the slightest clue who the arms belonged to all she hoped was that they belonged to someone of help. Rocking back and forth, burying her face in the crook of the person's neck, as they soothingly rubbed her back.

She didn't dare ask a question, nor looked to the person, in fear. Had it been days that she was locked in the room? "Shh…it's okay, I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"

Was it her mother? That had been the exact thing her mother said to her once before. "Mother?" she coughed out.

"ChiChi" came the soft whisper, and the voiced sounded strangely familiar.

Curiously the dark hair woman pulled back and looked up to the woman that was knelt before her. Blue hair like the ocean poured over the woman's shoulder, and eyes to match in color; looking at her delicately. Yet she couldn't remember who the woman was, and instinctively she cowered back.

"ChiChi, don't be afraid…it's me…Bulma...its Bulma, ChiChi. Remember me? Do you?"

ChiChi froze in her tracks, and looked over the woman more closely. Bulma that had been her childhood friend, mischievous and brilliantly minded, black hair Bulma. She rubbed away the tears with the back of her hands, squinting; she took in the sight of the woman.

Suddenly it clicked in her mind, and all the anxiety in her slipped away. "Bulma! It really is you" she whispered coughing away the tears, still frozen in place.

"Yes it is…I look different I know…" she laughed.

"Very different….blue hair...how did you manage it?"

"Well it a rather simple concoction actually of blue dyes, equal portions of water, alcohols. Oh and some…I see I'm losing you there so I won't go any deeper in that." Bulma raked her hands through her hair, smiling, sheepishly. "Oh, and I'm sorry about that gash on the back of your head."

"Gash?" instantly ChiChi reached for the back of her head, and Bulma's words were confirmed when she felt the small mat of hair. "No wonder I had a headache…so you were the one that cornered me? Who would have thought, there is a first time for everything."

"Hey, what exactly are you trying to say" pouted Bulma, crossing her hands over her chest.

"Not trying, but stating. You know very well you were never able to pin me, or get me cornered when we were younger. You weren't that well with tactile movements…only the thinking" said ChiChi, a matter –factly.

"Well I suppose you are very right…I had to leave and work on a few things, and I didn't want you to run away before seeing you. This room is the only place I could have thought of that would keep you in" informed Bulma. "I didn't think you'd wake up before I returned."

"I did…I was just a bit overwhelmed by the eerie silence…how did you knock me out?"

"I didn't…um, see I was asking who you were and a solider gave you a pretty hard blow. In fact you were inches from certain death hadn't I notice him, because you would have fall straight into the spear. When I noticed it was you I couldn't believe it, I would have been devastated to know I killed you."

"Well if you did just know you weren't the first way that I would have died in these past months. I've been having a lot of near death experience to be honest" sighed ChiChi.

"Wow, sounds pretty bad. What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere, anyways?"

"Long story" exclaimed ChiChi. She looked down at the palms of her hands that were full of dirt, and she was certain her face was smeared the same.

"Well you have time, and how about as you do that I'll take you to the bathes."

"Sounds good, only did you take my mask?"

"Mask? Hmm…well I can't quite say I remember seeing you with one on."

"Great…do you have anything I can use for one? I can't let anyone know who I am until the war is over. It's very imperative."

Bulma rubbed the bottom of her chin pensively until an idea formulated. "I have just the thing to help then. So how about you tell me what has you on this end of life, I'll show you the bathes, and then I'll make you a mask. I can have some new clothes for you as well."

"Sounds fair enough" said ChiChi, as she stood, and begun to fill Bulma in all the details of the recent months skipping nothing.

Yoruichi's hands were steady and her eyes locked with the fearless warrior before her. Grazing only Radditz skin with the sharp blade, a battle car yell from Piccolo caught Yoruichi's attention, and surprised knee to her stomach had her crumple to the floor in pain. Shouts sounded through the crowd. Goku had broken free from Piccolos' hold and he split the rope that bound his hands together with piccolo's knife.

Radditz sped off in the direction of his brother pushing, side stepping, and sliding under a few soldiers in attempt to keep his brother's pace. Where were they going too? "That was a little close back there, don't you think? Where are we going?"

Goku had closed all distant between him and the tall slender tree, and with grace he leaped into the crook of it. He ascended the tree quickly leaping from branch to branch, he couldn't stop to think. A glanced below, he seen Radditz a few branches beneath him and then a few soldiers; including the commander, in tow.

Inches from the top of the tree and nearly to freedom, all hope had drained as Goku noticed the hindering difference of the tree to the top of the wall. He had no rope, and no way to get to the other side of the wall except…

"Let me hoist you up brother, and you pull me over…" shouted Goku in their tongue.

"What?" Radditz had just made it to top after pushing a few solider back down. Where was his brother's mind at? He was the elder brother and he had no intention of letting his younger brother take his honor. "No, you go…I'll hoist you up and if I don't make it you go…"

"No, I couldn't" he argued.

"No time for that …let me hoist you up and I'll …" the sudden pull from beneath knock Radditz balance and he fell.

"That is a lot of stuff to go through, and I'm very sorry to hear everything. I wish so many things would have been different" exclaimed Bulma, handing ChiChi the newly made mask.

"Thank you." ChiChi took the mask and slipped it on, pleased with the expert hands of Bulma. "This feels much lighter than the one I had before, almost like I'm not wearing anything at all."

"A trick of trades I picked up over time…and it great because it allows your hair to be out. Not only that but the material will keep you from unnecessarily sweating, I really think I've done it again with this one." Bulma smiled triumphantly at her handy work, clasping her hands behind her back.

ChiChi could see through the plastered smile of her old friend, it seemed that though years had separated them, they were both the same. "What do you wish was different…other than us losing touch."

"So much" she whispered. "No use in talking about it though…"

"Now, Bulma Alexandria Brief, how dare you try to avoid my question when I've answered yours." A firm stare from ChiChi was always the remedy to get her friend talking before, and she hoped it hadn't changed.

"My marriage…I've done something terrible…so terrible and now everything is at a standstill."

"Like what? Honestly, we all make mistakes in life- and if you're living and breathing you have time to make right your wrongs."

"Oh how I wish my mother's words were true…but she never met my husband. He is a callus, pompous, stubborn man! It would be so easy if I wasn't in love with him. Also she never did anything I had…"

ChiChi pulled over the spandex black shirt that Bulma brought, and in her opinion fit entirely too snug. "I can't possible think of anything too bad that isn't worth saving a marriage…don't have me beat at the beehive all day, tell me."

"Well I'll start with the hard part- I had a miscarriage."

"Oh, Bulma, I'm sorry to hear that. I can't imagine at all what that feels like…" said ChiChi, sympathetically.

"It's ok, I've learned to accept it…it's been about four years now. It just wasn't expected, his mother told me of this wonderful family we'd have. She told me I'd have a son and a daughter, and then bam I lose the baby. Needless to say, my husband was devastated. He spent days, which then turned into months away. When he came back he didn't even touch me…and one day I met Yamacha again. You remember him?"

"Yamacha…Yamacha...YAMACHA!" ChiChi squealed as the memory of the palace guard came crushing down. Yamacha and Bulma had spent hours flirting, and making goggling eyes at one another when they were younger. Bulma's father had caught wind of the growing affection of the two and had Yamacha removed from duties, and they had never seen one another again. "Really?"

Bulma shook her head.

"Yes, and he was handsome. Only I knew I was married, and I wanted my relationship with my husband to work. We just started to hang out innocently every once in a while …and before I knew it was daily. We were reminiscing about the past, and one day it came to 'What if'…and I stop a while after that. Only Vegeta had left and came back, and I tried to talk to him- he brushed me off. I was going through so much, and I just really needed to feel something…someone…" Bulma's face had drained of all colors as she stared off reliving the moments.

"Yamacha was there when I was crying…listening, and then …then…we kissed. Well he kissed me first but I didn't stop, in fact I kissed him back. Then I hurried away…I stayed a few more days…but the need became so strong. I felt like Vegeta would never touch me again, and he left…or I thought he did. So when I couldn't fight it anymore I met up with Yamacha again at the spot we always did, and we were so close…so close. I didn't even hear anyone, not until Yamacha was thrown off me. Vegeta had seen it all, and since then everything just fall apart worst."

ChiChi hurried to her friend's side taking her into a comforting embrace. Life had truly redirected their lives from the plans they had once desired when they were younger. Tears drenched ChiChi's new shirt but she hadn't the slightest care, she wanted to comfort Bulma.

"Don't worry it will work out…"

"Work out? I've given up on that long ago, he is a ravening beast. All he is looking for is blood; he wants to take down the Terioken. Day and night the villagers train for that very purpose, and if I couldn't invent weapons I'm certain he would have kicked me out long ago. He hates me, and I can't blame him."

"Bulma that is no way to think…we all make mistake. Now that is just as much your husband's fault as it is yours, a marriage is between two people." When Bulma's sobs subsided into whimpers, ChiChi was glad to see her friend with a small smile.

"I'm so glad to have seen you again" whispered Bulma.

"Me too…only I wished we both weren't crying are eyes out so much" giggled ChiChi. Minutes they stood enjoying the silence and the comfort of the other's presence. "Hey I have an idea…that could help the both of us out."

Wiping away a few stray tears with the back of her hands, Bulma looked to her friend. "Sure tell me, and if I can help in any way I will."

"Good…"

Radditz's eyes were sealed shut anticipating the terrifying fall till he realized his hands were clutching the flimsy branch. One eye open he noticed that two branches above him Vegeta was standing reaching to pull Goku's footing out from beneath him.

"Brother, he is right under you" shouted Radditz in their native tongue, from below "kick down with enough force and you will knock him down."

"You speak Daven?" interjected Vegeta, and all three men were stilled.

Goku was at a complete loss of words and Radditz the same, for Vegeta had spoken in their tongue. How could he? They were the last of their people everyone else had died, or so they had believed all their lives.

"How do you know our tongue?" asked, Radditz. The tree was rustling from below but no one was paying the noise any mind. Radditz hung from the branch his toes barely touching the branch below him.

"Your tongue? So you are Gebentscht…"

"You are too?" Said Goku surprised, and he inched down to sit on the branch. Everything in him was in complete shock, and question long asked and reluctantly buried resurfaced. Where there more of his people still alive?

"How can this be? How can you…" an unexpected pull from below tore Radditz hold from the branch overhead and with little time to react he was certain to fall. Only he found himself saved yet again, only this time by the man that first pulled him down.

"I don't think I've ever understood when they said to keep ones enemy close till now" chuckled Radditz, nervously as Vegeta helped him up.

"I'm only saving you for the simple fact our people are little to none" spat Vegeta, and then climbing down. "You have no need to worry about your lives now, if you truly are the people you say you are."

Goku descended the tree last, a grin plastered on his face. Radditz stood nearby dusting off his clothes a scowl on his face, and the infamous Yoruichi near at Vegeta's side. "I think I've had the most near death experience than anyone I've met. Hopeful Krillen is faring better than we are."

The deadly glare from Yoruichi quickly silence's Radditz, and shifted his attention to Vegeta. "We will go to my home" he informed, and with no more words, turned on heels and made his way opposite of them.

The crowd had peeled away and were busying themselves with various task, glancing ever so often at them. It didn't take long before they made it to Vegeta's home which was the largest of all the houses, and they walked in. "Yoruichi you are dismissed I want to speak alone with my guest."

The woman bowed, and then walked out, brushing past Radditz. The room was silent till Yoruichi had left closing the door. The room they were in was large with a table and four wooden chairs around it, and a rug made from a bear fur.

Goku eyed the room carefully before taking a seat. The house didn't look at all like the houses in Ox Kingdom; there was nothing homely about it. There was a small fire place near the backdoor with a hook for the pot, a bench, and everything else was empty space.

"Where are your people? Where did you come from?" Vegeta broke the lingering silence, taking a seat opposite the two brothers.

"A small town, near Joppa…three days journey from Ox Kingdom. Your people?" asked Radditz, curiously.

"A small town also near Joppa, but two days journey from Ox Kingdom. My people were massacred by the Terioken army. My mother and I were the only ones to escape. I….everyone…humph" the cracking in Vegeta's voice was enough to show the reality of their ties.

"We thought all this time we were the only ones that made it out ….the only ones left of our people. We don't even know much, just memories that were hidden away in a box. Are there others? Is everyone in this village a Gebentscht?"

"No" tersely Vegeta answer. "These people only have one thing common with me and that is the thirst for Terioken blood. I was under the same impression that there was no other Gebentscht out there, but my mother was adamant there was. She said she knew it, for she spoke …what were you two doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"We are looking for a solider" answered Radditz.

"Solider?"

"Yes, a woman solider. She went to take a bathe in the spring but she never returned."

"She has black hair?" asked Vegeta.

Black hair? Goku and Radditz hadn't the slightest idea what color hair laid beneath the mask. "We aren't certain…she wears a mask usually, only we've found her mask and not her. Have you seen her?"

"My wife stumbled upon a woman but she wasn't coherent the last I knew of" he answered. "I wish to know more of your people- our people, in your town."

"There isn't much left to say, we don't know a lot. Radditz knows the most of what happened…but he doesn't talk much about it." Goku glanced over at his brother who sat hunched over the small table, perplexed.

"If you've survived there may be others…even from your clan" said Vegeta, austerely. "Talking may be the only way to find the others out there…I have an army here, and we are about to invade Teriok. We will take them and then our people will have their land again, and I'll be king. Join our campaign because with or without you we shall take that nation, and I will avenge the death of my people." His words laced with venom, eyes glazed over with revenge, and hatred radiated from every inch of his being. "Men, women, and children I will kill them all one at a time like roaches."

It had been the first time in months that Goku had a shiver of remorse creep through him, by listening to Vegeta, his heart ached. Something about the smaller man seemed consumed in the despaired of the past, and he couldn't help to wonder if he depicted the very same character.

The silence in the room was deadly. Radditz and Goku hadn't the slightest clue of what to say. They both were indeed preparing to invade the Terioken kingdom, but they had no desire of killing innocent children with such pleasure.

A creek sounded as the zinc door to the left of them open and a small woman walked out, supported by a tall stick. The woman had long black hair peppered gray, inset brown eyes, and large pale lips. A smile slithered to her lips as she locked eyes with Goku, and a sense of peace washed over his entire body.

"Good day…a good day it truly is. I felt the turn of God while in my bed, words of sweet comfort have come- and all is turning. Young man there is a wall so high between you and the one you love, but so close. If you trust your heart all will be well and you will find all you dream, but also listen to the still voice. There is a great test that comes for you and if you choose right, many lives will be saved." The woman's voice was soft, slightly over a whisper, but it was enough to send Goku in a daze.

Her eyes shifted over to Radditz who sat unmoved, and she smiled again. "Oh son of Bardock, your mother was the vision when you were formed. You are to protect your brothers, and to choose your thoughts or the ones that is right."

"How do you know my father?" interjected Radditz, wide eye.

The older woman chuckled, closing the distant between her and the table with the three men. She stood near Vegeta who sat with a scowl on his face, arms crossed over his chest. "Our people have different gifts young one, and that is only a speck of one of them. My son has a wonderful gift, but his heart is black at the moment…and until he loses this anger in him he won't understand."

"Gifts? Gifts from what…or where?" asked Radditz, curiously.

Goku was too lost in thoughts to hear all that was spoken. What had she meant? And how did she manage to evoke so many emotions inside of him? He felt warmth nearly as intensely as he did the many times he sat alone back in the old camp. What did it mean?

"Mother will you stop with your antics" huffed Vegeta, annoyed.

"My antics are the very same that told you these two would come, and here they are." The woman was completely opposite of her vengeful son, she had an ambience of peace about her.

"Assumptions" he added, simply "Which aren't always correct."

Another creek sounded and the front door opened wide, and in walked a blue hair woman. Goku and Radditz were both equally disturbed by the brilliant shade of blue, a color they never seen any woman have before. Tension grew as she glanced over at them, and the smaller man turned his gaze completely away from her.

"Mother" came the soft voice of the woman, as she tried to pat away accumulated dirt from her clothes. She glanced over at Goku and Radditz curiously, and then looked back to the older woman.

"My dear it looks like you've been working yourself to death again today, come. These two men are from the very bloodline of your husband and me, a clan away from ours." The woman pushed her cane out before her, struggling to make her way other to the blue hair woman.

Goku had seen the sorrow in the woman's large blue eyes, and strangely it reminded him of ChiChi. The woman's eyes were nearly the same shape as the beautiful princess, and ChiChi held that same sorrow in her onyx orbs they day he left.

The woman raked her hands through her hair nervously, and Goku couldn't help but wonder why she looked so sad. "My husb- Vegeta, has longed to meet someone who has survived. We didn't believe there was anyone else left of their blood line, and here you are. And look at me I'm a complete mess- working on a few gadgets I was. Well you two certainly have the handsome features of the Gebentscht clan for sure" she half chuckled.

"Woman don't you know there is a bathe out back that would find more use for you then we do" tiff Vegeta.

"Why I suppose anything would have more use for me than you would" she countered, the bridge of her nose wrinkled in anger.

"You suppose right" he said, nonchalantly, baffling the two guests.

"Why you no good vegetable head, sack of lard….I've only just step in and this is all you can say. I'd leave this stupid place without a second thought if it…"

"Bulma, dear, calm down" interrupted Vegeta's mother "let's leave the men and I'll help you clean up. I'm certain you've invented something wonderful."

One large breath inhaled and another exhaled, it took everything in her being to calm down. She could have rung every breath out of the pompous jerk that her husband was and celebrate over his dead corpse. "Why not? I hope you two forgive me…"

Goku was completely unsettled by the entire scene, and felt worse for the fragile woman. What was he to say? Nothing! His mouth had been sealed closed with silence, until the woman nearly disappeared behind the door. "Bulma? I'm not certain…but I think you may have stumbled upon a solider of ours. A woman…where is she?"

"Ch…" Bulma bite her bottom lip at the memory of friend's requested vow. "I've seen her…and I let her go a while ago, she said she needed to go back to her camp. She just left…actually that is why I came home. You've just missed her."

Goku and Radditz breathed a sigh of relief at the words of comfort. "Good, we had hoped nothing happened to her. We thought something happened when we found her mask."

Bulma smiled, arm hooked through Vegeta's mother, they both stood near the back door. "I assure you that she is well, and I've even made improvements to her little disguise. Our meeting wasn't as smooth as I'd of hope it to have been."

"Hoped? Did you know her before today?" asked Radditz, inquisitively.

"Indeed…we were very close friends at one time. It was refreshing to see her again, and it will be even more pleasant to see her when this war is finally over. "

"That is very shocking to hear, she is usually quite a feisty trouble maker in my opinion" snickered Radditz at the thought of Raven.

Bulma's smiled widen at the words and then she glanced over at Goku. "She is certainly feisty, but she is well worth everything to the right guy."

Bulma slipped out of the room, and Radditz couldn't help but noticed the unspoken words exchanged to Goku from Bulma- even if he hadn't. Something was very fishy, but for the life of him he couldn't quite yet put his finger on it.

…Who really was Raven?...