Acia woke up early the next day – the sun had not yet risen fully and the house was quiet. Taking advantage of the stillness, Acia pulled out her scouter, which she'd placed in a drawer in the nightstand. Her uncle had told her to get rid of it, so she'd resolved to stop wearing it around the house. However, she could still use it as a communicator. Carefully, she placed it over her face and turned it on, hoping against hope that she would pick up her parents.

After a few silent minutes, Acia sighed wearily and removed the device. She wasn't picking up anything at all on the communicator, which meant that her father had disconnected her from the main communications hub that connected the Crusher Corps' scouters.

Again.

He called it a 'safety precaution,' so that if someone got access to the main hub they wouldn't be able to see or find her. All it meant to her was that he thought of her as a liability – and that the danger her parents were in was much larger than they were willing to admit.

Fighting to contain the rage of emotions inside her – anger, humiliation, fear – Acia focused on preparing for the day. After a quick shower, the Saiyan examined the clothes Bulma had left her once again. Removing her towel, Acia tackled the pants first. They were as bad as she had imagined. The fabric scratched at her skin and was uncomfortable to move in, despite being loose on her body. The top of the jeans hit her lower back right where her tail grew out, pressing painfully into the furry appendage. No, she decided, this clearly wasn't going to work. She removed the pants and put her dark gray leotard back on, pulling the straps up and over her chest and arms.

Much better, she thought.

Suddenly, the door opened. She turned to find Vegeta standing in the doorway, frowning at his young niece. "We need to talk," he said to her in Saiyan, walking into the room and closing the door.

He paused, arms crossed. "You need to understand that you are here against my wishes. Therefore I won't tolerate any misbehavior from you. I don't know how you were raised or what was expected from you while you were with your father's band of lowlifes, although I can certainly guess," Vegeta sneered. "This planet is a peaceful one, and we've worked hard to keep it that way. I've worked hard to keep it that way.

"You will not leave the premises without my express permission. If you do go anywhere, and that's a big if, you will be accompanied by someone I approve of at all times. You will not interact with the humans in any way. You will not harm anything or anyone. You will absolutely not transform at any time under any circumstances. You will not attempt to contact any of your space pals." He glanced around the room. "Where's your scouter?"

Acia moved slowly towards the drawer where she kept the device. "If I want to contact my parents…"

"You will do no such thing," Vegeta said firmly. "You will see your parents when they come to retrieve you, and that's final. I'm not risking whoever it is that's after them coming here to pick a fight."

Acia bit her lip but said nothing, handing the device over to her uncle's waiting hand.

"Finally, you will respect Bulma's authority in this house. She may be human, but she is my wife and I expect you to treat her as you would treat me. Is that understood?"

"Yes, your highness," the girl said in a small voice. The title, said in his native language, took Vegeta by surprise for a minute, but he recovered quickly.

"Good," he said, then left the room.

Later that morning, Acia joined the Briefs' for breakfast in their spacious kitchen, wearing her gray leotard and, in place of her traditional Saiyan armor, an oversized light blue t-shirt emblazoned with the Capsule Corp logo provided to her by Bulma. Avoiding her uncle's gaze, she nodded politely at the cheerful greetings that came her way and quietly helped herself to some food. Some of it was unfamiliar but it all smelled good, and she hadn't had much to eat the day before.

Bulma smiled as she observed the young girl eating. "Well, you're not as bad as Vegeta or Trunks, but that's still quite an appetite you got there!"

Acia looked up from her food to see that humans at the table were eating significantly less than the Saiyans. Suddenly she felt embarrassed.

"Well you better eat up 'cause we're sparring after this."

"Trunks, your tutor will be here in an hour."

"Don't worry mom," the child said smugly. "I don't think this is gonna take too long."

"I would also like to see them spar," Vegeta said suddenly. His eyes met those of his niece. "Let's see if your mother managed to teach you anything useful."

Acia bit the inside of her cheek. Her mother had warned her that her uncle could be a grade-A dick and told her to be patient, but Acia wasn't used to being taunted like this and her patience was rapidly running out. She may not be able to talk back to Vegeta, but she'd be happy to snap his little brat's neck in retaliation. Wiping her mouth with a napkin, she got up from the table and motioned towards Trunks. "Lead the way."

Trunks, Acia and the rest of the Briefs gathered in Capsule Corp's spacious back lawn. Trunks and Acia faced off as Bulma and her daughter sat on the grass while Vegeta leaned against the wall, arms crossed as usual.

In a blur of movement, Trunks launched himself at his older cousin. He was much faster and stronger than Acia had expected, but she was still able to block his attacks effectively. After a few minutes, however, it became clear to the teen that despite his small size, she was not going to be able to simply overpower the young boy.

Acia felt her frustration mounting. I'll be damned if I let this little brat shame me in front of him, she thought. Trunks may be faster and stronger than her, but Acia was older and, growing up with her father's mercenaries, had been in a lot more battles than the ten-year-old, many of which she had to fight for her life in. If she couldn't overpower him, she could sure as hell outmaneuver him.

Quickly Acia disappeared, reappearing behind her cousin. Trunks sensed her movement, shooting back with a kick to her head. But Acia was ready for him; blocking his kick with her arm, she grabbed his ankle while sweeping one leg under his, flipping him over and grabbing his other ankle.

Acia smiled down at the boy as she held him by his ankles in midair.

"Hey, no fair!" Trunks squealed in protest, kicking his legs. Acia tightened her grip – for such a small kid, he was really giving her a hard time. "Give it up kid."

"Forget it! I'm just getting started," Trunks said as he reached out to grab her ankles.

"I don't think so," she smirked, whipping her tail out from under her shirt and wrapping it tightly around his wrists. Trunks squirmed violently against her, but Acia kept her grip. "Come on Trunks," she coaxed. "Don't make me hurt you."

"No. WAY!" Trunks yelled, flinging himself forward and out of her grip with such force she could barely believe her own eyes. Trunks hovered above her for a second before launching himself at her again with renewed vigor. Acia recovered quickly from her shock – after everything she'd seen it would take more than that to put her off her guard – and blocked his attack. But he was going at her faster and harder now and she was having to use a lot more energy and concentration to keep him from landing a hit. She was completely on the defensive now, being pushed back more and more by the lavender-haired boy.

Acia's brain was working on overdrive as she blocked hit after hit. He was strong and fast, but he was also small and fighting erratically, both things she could use against him.

When Trunks threw his next punch Acia leaned back and grabbed his wrist. Twisting his arm with as much force as she could muster, she turned him around, grabbed his hair with her free hand, wrapped her tail tightly around his chest, and, finally, brought her legs over and behind his, holding his ankles tightly in place with her own.

Despite being completely immobilized in midair, Trunks was still struggling against his captor. "OWWWW."

"Call it off Trunks."

"NO WAY!" Trunks tried to pull away as he'd done before, but Acia pulled him back by his hair, making him scream again.

"There's only one way you're getting out of this, and that's when I choose to let you go."

In truth, Acia was using every ounce of strength she had to keep the boy in place. How is he this strong? He's just a little boy! He's not even a real Saiyan! I mean, look at his hair!

"Alright, I've seen enough."

Acia looked down to see that Vegeta had left his place at the wall and was standing almost directly below them.

"But dad…" Trunks began to protest, but Acia had already let him go and drifted down to her uncle. She crossed her arms, unconsciously mimicking his posture. "He's not hurt."

Vegeta smirked. "I know." Actually, Vegeta had sensed from the spike in his son's ki that he was preparing to go Super Saiyan, and he didn't see the point in having the fight escalate any further. Besides, he'd already gotten a good sense of what his niece was capable of, and that was all he really wanted from this match. "You're not bad."

Not bad?! Acia resisted the urge to knee her uncle in the groin, instead giving him a terse nod.

"Aww dad!" Trunks was standing next to them now. "It was just starting to get fun," he whined, ruffling his hair in an attempt to fix it from the altercation. He glared up at his cousin. "You fight dirty. Grabbing someone's hair is a low blow."

Acia snorted. The concept of 'fighting dirty' was one she regarded with disdain. She fought to win, and she did what needed to be done to make sure she won. If she spent too much time worried about the ethics of her tactics she'd be dead. "You should learn to take defeat with grace," she said with the smugness of the victor. It was something her father always told her when she inevitably lost to him in one of their practice fights. It felt good to finally be the one to say it.

"Yeah well, you got lucky. Next we fight I'm gonna win."

"We'll see."

Bulma and Bulla came up to them. "That was so cool!" Bulla squealed. "I can't believe you beat Trunks! I didn't think anyone could beat Trunks except Daddy."

"Hey! You're supposed to be rooting for me."

"Alright Trunks, you'd better get ready for your tutor," Bulma said. "You too Bulla, time to go to school." Bulla was staring up at her cousin with hero worship in her eyes. "I didn't know girls could fight as good as boys!"

"Bulla! You know girls can do anything boys can do!" Bulma was appalled at her daughter's statement.

"Yeah, but only the boys ever fight," Bulla pointed out. Acia raised a brow. "You mean you don't know how to fight?"

"No. I can fly though!"

Acia looked at her uncle in surprise. Bulla was way past the age a Saiyan should begin training, and she couldn't believe the prince, of all people, had let his daughter miss this important milestone. So he's got one kid with the strength of full-grown man, and another kid who can't throw a punch? Gods this is strange.

"You could teach me, right?!" Bulla's eyes were shining.

"Umm…"

"You said you didn't want to train!" Vegeta glared at his daughter, recalling just how many times he'd tried to coax her into throwing a few punches with him.

"That's 'cause Trunks said you were a meanie." She turned to her cousin. "Come on Acia, say you'll train me! Please!"

Acia looked to her uncle, unsure of how he would react to this development.

Vegeta sighed wearily. Shrugging his shoulders, he said, "Its fine by me," before walking back into the house.

"Yay!" Bulla squealed. "After school, okay? This is gonna be so much fun!" she said excitedly as she ran towards the house.

Bulma smiled at Acia. "Looks like you've got a fan," she said before turning to follow her daughter.