By the time Acia and Marron had finally come back inside the party was well underway. The other Z-fighters had arrived and everyone was in the Briefs' spacious living room, chatting and munching on snacks.

"Hey!" Krillin called out when he noticed his daughter come in. "How did it go?"

Marron shook her head sadly.

"I thought she wasn't coming in until she could do it," Trunks asked.

Acia shrugged. "I got hungry."

"Aww, it's okay Mar," Krillin smiled at her. "You'll get the hang of it."

"Oh she will." Acia glared down at the girl. Marron pushed her head against the older girl's side and Acia put an arm around her shoulder, squeezing gently. It lasted only a moment before Acia pushed her off. "Now go join the other children, I need to eat." Marron skipped over with to the corner where Bulla, Goten and Gohan were sitting on the floor talking.

After eating her fill in sandwiches Acia retreated to a corner, watching the Z-gang as they talked and laughed together.

"You're acting like Vegeta."

Acia looked up at Eighteen, and then to her right where her uncle was indeed standing with his arms crossed, observing the group from a distance.

She said nothing.

Eighteen stood in front of her for a minute, waiting for a response from the teen. Finally she gave up, rolling her eyes. "Fine. Be that way."

Acia rolled over in her bed for what must have been the fiftieth time that night.

Nothing she did seemed to help her get comfortable. Her room felt unbearably hot and stuffy and her blanket tangled around her legs like chains.

Frustration mounting, the teen got up and went over to her window, pushing it open and taking a deep breath of the cool night air. She pulled her hair from her neck and let the breeze waft over her skin.

She stood like that for a few minutes, leaning against the windowsill. It was a cloudy, cold night and the breeze helped with the heat she felt building under her skin, but Acia still felt suffocated in this room, this house, this planet.

Before she even realized what she was doing, Acia was crawling out of the window in the t-shirt and cotton shorts that Bulma had given her to sleep in and launching herself into the night.

Subconsciously she headed towards a forest she'd seen on her way to the Lookout that was about an hour's flight from Capsule Corp. Landing in a small clearing, Acia took a deep breath.

It didn't help. Somehow, even surrounded by trees and open air, her chest felt constricted and she felt nauseous. She pulled her knees into her chest, pressing her face against the impossibly hot skin and breathing heavily.

She shouldn't have gone down to the party. She should've just stayed in her room. The only reason she'd even come was because there was food. But it had been a terrible, terrible idea.

Acia felt her breath catch in her throat as tears started to form, and she pushed the sobs down. That atmosphere, all those old friends sitting together, eating, drinking, talking, laughing, teasing each other…

Once when the Crusher Corps had stopped at Quelda, Finn, Quaorin and DeeDee, the only other female in their group, had taken her out to tour the marketplace. Instead of a trading outpost, the troupe was staying in the main planet's capital city and the marketplace there never ceased to amaze then-11-year-old Acia. It seemed to her that there was nothing you couldn't get in that place.

She'd been so small back then, just reaching Finn's knees. Finn was about 5'10'' and Quaorin a whopping 6'7", and she had felt practically invisible walking between the two of them. When they returned to the guest house they were all staying in, she had hidden behind them as DeeDee knocked on her parents' door.

"Come in."

Her parents were sitting on the bed without their armor and scouters, her father drinking wine from a bottle.

"You two have been having fun," DeeDee said in a mocking tone.

"Oh yeah," her father laughed.

"What about you guys?" Cora asked.

"We've been having lots of fun! In fact," DeeDee said, gesturing to the two men standing in the doorway, "we have a little surprise for you."

On cue, Finn and Quaorin had shifted aside to reveal little Acia clad in a set of purple and orange traditional Queldan robes. Saiyan children were much smaller than Queldan children, and the smallest size the store had available was a good two sizes too large for Acia – the sleeves came over her hands and the bottom dragged behind her – but she marched into the room and struck a pose regardless.

Her parents had burst out laughing at the sight of her. "You look ridiculous," her father squealed, clutching his side.

"She looks beautiful," Finn countered as he leaned over his friend and snatched the wine bottle out of his hand, taking a swig.

"Yeah! I look nice!" Acia pouted, her hands on her hips.

"Especially with that angry face," Quaorin teased, scrunching his face to mimic her. Acia punched him in the shin.

"Where is our green friend?" DeeDee asked as she settled onto the couch.

"Let me find him," Finn plopped on the floor with the bottle. After a few minutes, he got up to open the door.

"Yes? What is it?" Bain stood near the door, arms crossed and a restless expression on his face.

"Come sit with us," Finn said.

The Namekian glared at him. "You said there was something important."

"There is!" Quaorin said. "What do you think of Acia's new look?"

Bain turned to look at the girl, who was sitting on the bed next to her father. His mouth opened slightly; crouched next to her father, Acia looked like she was being swallowed whole by piles of cloth.

There was a pregnant pause as Bain searched for words. "You see," Turles said, lowering his head towards her, "Nameks can't lie. It's one of the many strange things about their race."

"See, to me that sounds like an evolutionary flaw," Finn said.

"It sounds like bullshit," DeeDee said, giving the Namekian a skeptical look.

"Does she look nice or not?!" Quaorin demanded.

"She looks…smaller than usual," Bain finally said before turning away to sit on the floor next to Finn. There was a beat. Then howls of laughter. Even Bain cracked a small smile.

"STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" Acia's face was red as she crawled out from behind her father.

"You're making the angry face again," Quaorin laughed.

"Where'd you get those anyway?" her mother asked as the laughter calmed down. "Did you buy them 'Rin? How much were they?"

"Finn bought them."

"It's a present," the green-haired man said before Cora could offer to pay for them, smiling sheepishly.

"You spoil her too much," Turles said to him.

"She is a princess," Finn said. DeeDee rolled her eyes.

"My princess," he replied, flicking his tail in Acia's face.

"Father!" Acia squealed, giggling.

"Oh, now you don't like it?" He leaned over her, tickling her neck and side with his tail as she squirmed with laughter. He turned back to his friend. "You want one, get your own." Turles looked around on the bed. "Where's my drink?" he demanded.

Finn laughed, waving the bottle he'd swiped in the Saiyan's face.

"You see?!" Turles said, turning to his mate. "He keeps taking my shit."

"Good gods!" DeeDee glared at him. "Ci is not part of your shit. Honestly, you Saiyans are the worst parents." Bain chuckled.

"You got kids?" her father retorted. "No? Then fuck you."

"Fuck you!" DeeDee grabbed a pillow from the sofa she was laying on and launched it at his head, hitting him square in the face.

"Fuck you!" Her father threw the pillow back at her, but he'd been drinking quite a bit and missed her, instead hitting Quaorin who had been sitting next to her.

"HEY!" The Queldan tackled his attacker, wrestling with him on the bed. Her mother had carefully moved out of the way while Acia squealed, her father's spiky hair tickling her legs as the two struggled.

Finn was still laughing. "Watch out for the kid," he called out. But her mother had beaten him to the punch, pulling her out from under her father and throwing her onto the sofa. She landed face-down in DeeDee's lap.

"You see?" DeeDee said to no one in particular, gesturing to the 11-year-old as she pushed herself up on DeeDee's legs. "This is what I'm talking about." She turned to Cora, eyebrow raised. "Worst parents ever."

"Oh shut up," her mother said as she sat down next to her. She picked up another pillow and threw it at the fighters squirming on the bed as each struggled to gain the upper hand. "Gouge his eyes out!" she yelled.

"Who was that for?" Finn asked as the five of them watched the fight.

Cora shrugged. "Whoever wants to take the advice."

Tears seared against Acia's face, her breath shaking against her legs. Her nails dug into her wrists as she hugged her knees. She wanted to go home, would give anything, do anything…

She felt so abandoned, so alone. Finn had promised her that he would always be there to take care of her, and he was the first one to leave her. Her mother had told her once that on Planet Vegeta they used to send weak babies to faraway planets – either the children wiped out the planet and became stronger for the experience, or they died. Was that what they were doing? Leaving her to die on a distant planet because she was too weak?

Acia bit her lip so hard she drew blood. Her parents cared for her. She knew that. Of course they cared for her. They would come back for her. Soon. Maybe they were on their way now…

Acia looked up, for a second hoping that she would see their ship making its way to Earth. But the heavy clouds blanketed the night sky, blocking out the stars.

The teenager closed her eyes, wiping the dampness from her cheeks and trying to steady her breath. Finally she opened them again, looking up, and, as if on cue, the clouds parted to reveal a bright, beautiful full moon.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. NO!

Acia scrambled to her feet, squeezing her eyes shut, desperately trying to fight the transformation. But it was too late.

Her back arched and her fists clenched as the transformation took hold and her clothes tore away from the giant Oozaru she became. She could feel every part of it – hair, muscles, teeth, snout, claws and most of all, pure, raw power.

She roared.