Krillin jolted up in bed, his muscles tense. What the hell was that?!
"What is it?" Eighteen groaned, her voice muffled by the pillow her face was smothered in.
"I just felt this huge surge of energy," Krillin said. "I think it's coming from somewhere near Bulma's place."
Eighteen rolled over to face him. "It's probably just Vegeta checking himself out as a Super Saiyan."
"At," Krillin turned to look at the alarm clock on his nightstand, "2:30 in the morning?"
"He's a self-absorbed nutcase. Just go back to sleep."
Krillin lay down, trying to settle back into sleep. That power – it sure didn't feel like Vegeta, but maybe it was just hard to tell from so far away. After all, who else could it be?
In a matter of minutes Acia had transformed completely into a giant Oozaru, her form towering over the trees.
Acia had been trained by her father to control her Oozaru form, but her training was far from complete. She could form a few words and she could focus, to some extent, her destructive powers, but resisting the urge to kill and destroy? That had never been on her father's agenda. And on top of it all, she hadn't used this form in over a year, not since Finn…
She beat her fists into the ground, trying to focus the energy, desperately resisting the instinct to level everything she laid eyes on. Even as the monster took control, Acia could still think and she knew that Capsule Corp. wasn't too far away – in this form she could crush them all under one foot.
She roared again, pummeling the Earth with her fists, tearing up trees and launching them at the mocking stars.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?"
Piccolo was floating above her looking horrified and shocked.
It's me! She tried to scream. Please, help me! But all that came out was grunting.
"Why did you do this Acia?! Are you insane?!"
She shook her head violently, trying to indicate that she didn't mean to transform. She opened her mouth to try to speak, and Piccolo dodged away from her.
But instead of the ki blast he had been expecting, Oozaru-Acia only made more grunting sounds. Finally, he could make out a word.
"He…Helppp…Help."
"Help?" Piccolo repeated incredulously.
"Puh…puh…plea…please."
He stared at her, bewildered. What did she expect him to do? How could he possibly help her when she was in this form?
Piccolo looked up at the moon. He didn't want to have to do this again, but it looked like there was no choice…
"YOU LITTLE BITCH!"
Oh great, Piccolo thought as he turned to face an enraged Vegeta.
"HOW DARE YOU!" he screamed at her, his face contorted with rage and his arm raised as he formed a flat ki blast that closely resembled Krillin's Destructo Disc, although the wise carefully refrained from pointing out that similarity to him.
"Vegeta, what are you doing?!" Piccolo yelled at him as he tried to block the Saiyan's path. "Calm down!"
"I'm going to cut off that damned tail! Now get out of my way before I slice you in half along with it!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Acia roared, rearing up and lashing out at her uncle. The back of her hand hit him hard, slamming him through some nearby trees.
"Acia, what are you doing?!" Piccolo yelled. She roared again, beating her chest.
"Acia?" Goku appeared seemingly from nowhere, his face confused and worried as he made his way over to Piccolo. "She transformed? Why?"
"I don't know," Piccolo replied as the two watched Oozaru-Acia pound the ground beneath her into a deep crater, roaring and screaming. "I think it may have been unintentional. She asked me to help her."
Goku frowned at her. "She sounds like she's in pain. What are we going to do?"
"Well," the Namekian said as he once again began to aim for the moon, "there's two things I know of that we can do about this, and since I vowed not to touch her tail," and since I just saw what she did to the last guy who threatened her tail, he thought wryly, "we only have one choice."
"Wait," Goku said, grabbing his arm. "I have another idea." Slowly, he moved closer to the transformed Saiyan. "Acia?" he called out. "Acia, do you know who I am?"
The girl could only grunt in response, but Goku took that as a 'yes.' In fact, Acia had latched onto Goku's voice – when she had trained this form with her father, she would sometimes focus on his voice when she felt herself losing control.
"You don't want to hurt anyone, do you?" Goku asked, moving closer. Oozaru-Acia shook her head, then roared violently, trying to convey to him that she didn't want to harm anything but in this form, she couldn't help it.
"Okay Acia, here's what I'm gonna do," Goku began to form a ki blast in his hands, "I'm gonna knock you out, okay? Don't resist."
Quickly, Goku focused on his ki ball, trying to use his estimation of her power to gauge how much energy he would need to knock her out, but not really hurt her. As she reared up again, Goku blasted her in the chest.
Oozaru-Acia flailed backwards, losing her balance and falling onto her back. The breath had been completely knocked out of her and for a moment her eyes closed and she thought she would fall into a blissful blackness. But it wasn't to be. Slowly she staggered back onto her feet. Now, Oozaru was pissed and Acia was terrified, and together they wanted to destroy everything in sight.
She roared, grabbing a nearby tree, ripping it out of the ground and throwing it at the two men.
"This is hopeless!" Vegeta was back now, and being thrown through some trees had not helped his mood. "We need to cut off her tail, it's the only way!"
"No," Piccolo said, squatting down a little and forming his own ki blast, "I swore I would never harm her tail, and I can't allow you to either."
Vegeta grabbed him by the collar of his cape. "Listen to me, you green freak! My wife and children are asleep practically around the corner, and she is losing control of this form!"
"She's trying, Vegeta," Goku said quietly.
"Trying isn't good enough!" he screamed. "Do you have any idea the kind of damage she could do if loses control? She could destroy the whole planet!"
"We can do this," Goku said firmly. "Come on Piccolo, on three."
Together, the two friends launched ki attacks at the Oozaru, hitting her at the same time. Once again, she fell back with a roar of pain. The three men stayed on guard for a few minutes, but it soon became clear that she was not getting back up again anytime soon.
Slowly, they approached her. She moaned loudly, her legs twitching as she tried to turn herself onto her side. Quickly, Vegeta pointed his palm at her head, hitting her with a small blast that finished the job. Then, he turned to glare at Piccolo and Goku. "Now what?"
The first few rays of sunlight peaked out from behind the trees like the glint of hope in the darkness. Piccolo sighed deeply. Soon the sun would be up, its light camouflaging the moon, and this nightmare would be over.
The three men had agreed to keep watch over the unconscious Oozaru-Acia until the sun came up and she went back to normal. An hour into their watch, Goku managed to convince Vegeta to go home, promising that if Acia woke up in her Oozaru form Vegeta could beat him into a bloody pulp.
Sure enough, as the sun came up and the moonlight faded away, Acia's transformation began to reverse. She shrunk, losing her fur and snout until all that was left was her, naked in the crater she had made, her tail hanging limply against her legs.
Goku quickly closed his eyes and turned away – Chi Chi had been very clear early in their marriage about what things he was and was not allowed to see – as Piccolo landed softly in the dirt and made his way over to her.
The Namekian sighed again. As an asexual being, the sight of Acia's naked body stirred only feelings of pity in him. Exposed and helpless, she reminded him of a time not that long ago when he had stood over a four-year-old Gohan in the same state. He would do for her now what he had done for the boy then.
Conjuring an image in his mind of the girl in the last outfit he could recall – black leggings and a gray Capsule Corp. t-shirt – he aimed his palm at her. "Alright, you can look now," he called out to Goku as he examined his handiwork.
"How do you do that?" Goku asked curiously as he came over to him.
Piccolo shrugged as he picked her up. "We should take her to the Lookout. We hit her pretty hard; she may need healing."
The Saiyan nodded firmly and together they launched into the cool air.
Acia blinked slowly as she regained consciousness, her vision blurry and her head throbbing.
She was in a room, on a bed, but where? She pushed herself up heavily and was hit by a wave of nausea – she pushed it back as she tried to focus her vision and her mind. Where the hell was she? And what happened to her? This was ten times worse than the worst hangover she'd ever had.
Finally her vision focused and she was in a room with pale gray walls, sitting up on a small but comfortable bed. She moved over to the edge, allowing her feet to touch the ground. There was a large window, and through it she could see a bright blue sky and large white clouds.
Clouds. It had been cloudy, that was important somehow.
She blinked. If they were this close, she must be at the Lookout. So, she tried to think, she must've been hurt at the Lookout. Piccolo must have hit her pretty hard. Or Goku. Or both.
Oh gods.
Her eyes widened with fear and horror as it all came back to her. She had transformed last night, and Piccolo and Goku had been there. And, oh no, her uncle, and she'd attacked him. Was he alive?!
They brought me here to cut off my tail.
Panic gripped her. No, no, no, she could not, would not, allow them to destroy the thing that made her a true Saiyan! If they thought she was going to sit here and wait around for them to mutilate her then they had another thing coming…
Carefully Acia made her way over to the window, fighting the pain in her head and the nausea in her throat. She peeked out; luckily the room she'd been put in faced the back of the Lookout which was conveniently empty. She opened the window slowly and crawled out, landing gently on her feet.
She crouched behind the palace, suppressing her energy as she tried to feel out the presence of others. Mr. Popo and Dende were here, of course, and yes, Piccolo and Goku. She could hear their voices coming from inside the palace. They could discover her absence any minute.
Still crouched, she scurried over to the edge of the Lookout and jumped.
A/N: Aaaaand there you have it folks! Thank you so much to all of you reading this story, and to everyone who has left me a review. Please keep them coming!