It didn't take long for Acia to realize that Bulma, while genuinely terrifying when on the warpath, was not a great disciplinarian. Two weeks into her grounding, Acia was free to wander around the Capsule Corp. compound without protest from Bulma or her parents, who still thought Vegeta was making an unnecessary fuss about the whole thing. Vegeta himself was either locked inside the Gravity Room or outside sparring with Goku in the middle of nowhere, and as far as she could tell was unaware that she was roaming free, relatively speaking.

Still, her social interaction was now entirely limited to the Briefs, barring random drop-ins from Goku. He was the only one who had the balls, quite frankly, to visit her despite Vegeta's ban. Chiaotzu had sent her a few telepathic messages, checking on her and saying he was sorry he couldn't visit. Piccolo had sent her just one: "Keep training," he said. "I'll be testing you when you get back."

With Vegeta out training, Bulla at school, Bulma holed up in her lab most of the day, and Dr. and Mrs. Briefs doing gods knew what, this meant that Acia was largely left with Trunks. At first, the boy had seemed genuinely pleased that she was back, but the two cousins just rubbed each other the wrong way. It wasn't long before they were at each other's throats.

Trunks, frankly, was getting suspicious of his cousin. After the spaceship incident, he knew his father didn't trust her not to try something like that again, so the boy had taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the wayward girl. And he didn't like what he was seeing.

She was quiet. Too quiet. At first Trunks thought maybe she was just upset about being grounded. After, all, Acia had never been much of a talker to begin with. This, though, this was a different kind of quiet. This was the kind of quiet you got when you were deep in thought.

As if that wasn't enough, Trunks had sensed her in the lab one afternoon when his mother had been at a business meeting. Acia wasn't allowed in the labs anymore, at least not while she was still grounded. He'd rushed down to confront her, but in his hurry he'd forgotten to suppress his ki, and by the time he got there she was gone. A few days later, he overheard her talking to his grandmother about his father's first few years at Capsule Corp., and then he could have sworn he saw her coming of out of the guestroom his father had once used.

Acia was up to something, Trunks knew it. But he was no hothead. No, the ten-year-old resolved, he was going to bide his time and watch her like a hawk until he uncovered whatever it was she was planning.

And then he'd beat that stupid girl up.

Acia was looking for her scouter.

Bulma had softened over the two weeks Acia had spent locked up in her room, but the scientist wasn't going to let her near the labs anytime soon, that was clear. It didn't matter anyway, Acia fumed as she paced up and down her room. She clearly didn't know half of what was going on at Capsule Corp.; it had never occurred to her that they would have motion sensors in the warehouses, or that the spaceships would require a special access code. Who knew what else was in there? Lasers. Automated ki guns programed to fire at intruders. Who knew, with Bulma Briefs?

Damn her! Acia thought. She's a lot tougher than she looks, I'll give her that.

Time for Plan B.

So far, Plan B consisted mostly of Acia getting her scouter back. If she could get it to work again, she could call someone to come get her, or better yet, summon her pod from off her parents' ship…

Assuming her parents still had a ship…

Acia shook her head violently, as though hoping to physically dislodge the treacherous thought from her head. Of course her parents still had their ship. They were fine. They were a little late, that was true. But that didn't have to mean anything.

It means nothing, she thought firmly.

How to find the scouter, though, that was the problem. The most obvious place to look was Bulma's lab. Acia had seen a functioning scouter there before, and given the woman's insatiable curiosity over anything Saiyan-related, it was a safe bet that she had the device stuffed in one of her drawers.

Acia had been so convinced of this she'd risked potential ki guns to break into the lab and get it. She'd barely had ten minutes to look before she'd sensed Trunks coming at her at lightning speed and was forced to abandon her search.

The meddling brat had been following her every move since. What was wrong with him? How could a child so young and sheltered be so paranoid?

As far as Acia knew the scouter was still in the lab somewhere, hiding behind the piles of paper and mounds of mechanical parts that littered Bulma's workspaces. If only the woman were neater, Acia would have found the thing.

With Trunks on her tail, Acia had decided not to risk another lab break-in. Instead, she turned her attention to her uncle. He'd taken the scouter, so it was likely that he was the one who'd hidden it. She'd scoured the compound as discreetly as she could manage, prying information from Bulma's parents about where Vegeta liked to spend his time. The gravity room was the most obvious place, but a conversation with Dr. Briefs convinced her that it would be a poor hiding place. Then she'd searched his old room with no luck – the place was spotless.

All that was left now was to look in the bedroom he was currently using, the room he shared with Bulma.

Acia chewed on her lip nervously. Of all the places that were dangerous to break into in this house, that was the one she truly couldn't risk. There probably weren't any cameras or lasers set up in there, although clearly with Bulma you could never be too sure. But her uncle would pick up her scent in the room if she touched anything. There would be no way to hide it from him.

Yet the more she thought about it, the more Acia felt sure that the scouter was hidden in that room. Vegeta had taken the scouter from her. Bulma was obsessed with all things tech, especially if they came from space. This was the one place the two shared.

And it was the one place she couldn't go.

Damn, they're good.

A sudden rapping sound made Acia practically jump out of her skin – she'd been so deep in thought she'd be oblivious to her surroundings. Looking around wildly for the source of this intrusive noise, she caught sight of a dark-haired young man hovering at her window.

Gohan.

He was waving at her, gesturing for her to open the window and let him in.

Acia felt her heart clench uncomfortably in a strange concoction of anticipation and dread as she made her way to the window and unlatched it. Truth be told, in her single-minded search for her scouter she'd almost forgotten about the half-Saiyan.

And now he was climbing into her room in what she guessed were his school clothes – beige trousers and a plain black long-sleeved shirt.

"Hey!" Gohan offered once he was inside, a nervous smile on his face.

Acia stared at him, her mouth parted slightly as her brain tried to put together all the potential reasons behind this unorthodox visit.

"What are you doing here?" she finally asked.

Gohan's face fell. She was angry at him. Of course she was. He'd wanted to call, to come and see her, but Vegeta had come to their house the day after she'd gone back to Capsule Corp. and had a huge fight with his father. It was clear that he wanted Acia under lock and key for the foreseeable future, and he wasn't willing to concede a single point in her favor. Gohan had frankly been too afraid to suggest the idea of a friendly visit to the irate prince. Since Buu, he wasn't sure who would win if he were to face Vegeta, and he would rather find out in less tense circumstances.

It had taken him a while to work up the nerve to sneak over to Capsule Corp. while Vegeta was sparring with his dad in the mountains, leaving the coast clear. But still, he had promised that he would see her all the time, and instead he'd abandoned her for two whole weeks. Gods, he was a terrible person. He'd offered her affection only to take it away at the time she needed it most! He wouldn't be surprised if she hated him.

"Look, I – I'm really sorry," he said. "Vegeta came over and he was just so mad…are you okay?"

Acia blinked back at him. That didn't answer her question at all. "I'm fine," she shrugged.

"Are you sure? You're not mad at me?" Gohan was looking down into her face, concern etched in his own.

"…No." Should I be? "Seriously, why are you here?"

"Well," Gohan smiled, "Vegeta's out training with my dad, so I thought I could sneak over and see how you're doing."

"I'm fine," she repeated.

"Are you sure?" Gohan asked. "My dad said you've been pretty much stuck in your room since you got here."

Acia shook her head. "It's not really that bad. I can do what I like so long as my uncle is away. Bulma doesn't mind, and her parents hardly notice."

"Well that's good."

The two teens stood in front of each other in an awkward silence, each trying to figure out what the other was thinking and feeling. Suddenly, Gohan stepped forward, his arms spread out, and took her into a hug. He lowered one hand to her lower back, just above her tail, and began to rub her back in slow circles.

Acia stood rigid in his embrace, her brain short-circuiting as it tried to make sense of what was going on. The last time she'd been held like was when she'd first been brought to Capsule Corp., when her father had suddenly grabbed her just before he left. The time before that, she'd been a child. This was just so out of her sphere of experience, she simply had no reference point that would allow her to form a reaction.

Although she had to admit, Gohan was pleasantly warm. Slowly, she found her head bending forward, resting against his chest, her tail unfurling from around her waist almost with a will of its own, lifting up and curling against the hand holding her shoulder.

At the furry touch, Gohan released her shoulder and ran his fingers against her tail, slowly sweeping his hand upward until his palm was resting against the tip.

Acia pulled back and looked up to find him smiling.

"I miss having one of these," he said.

Acia grinned back, pushing her tail against his hand. "How old were you when you lost it?"

"Five. My dad didn't want to risk me transforming, so he asked Krillin to take me to the Lookout to have it removed."

The two stood against each other, watching Acia's tail move against Gohan's fingertips. After a few moments, Acia said, "You know, I lost my tail once."

"In a fight?"

"No." Her face reddened a little – this was an embarrassing story, but she suddenly felt moved to tell it. "It was after the fight. On this planet, I don't remember what it was called." She leaned against Gohan again. "I'd gotten in some mud, so I went into a nearby lake to clean off. This giant fish thing with huge teeth came out of nowhere while I was splashing in the water and bit my tail off."

"Oh wow, that's awful!" Gohan exclaimed, his face contorting in horror.

Acia nodded. "It was the most painful thing I'd ever experienced at that point. But I wanted to tell you," she looked up at him, "because my father was very upset about it, naturally. I still had a part of my tail, but not enough for me to transform, and he had just started to train me to control the Oozaru form. I was only ten when it happened, so it would've grown back eventually. But my father didn't want to wait, so he used this special technique he invented to grow it back faster."

Curiosity piqued, Gohan asked, "What kind of technique?"

"You said you saw the healing pods on Namek, right?" Gohan nodded. "Well, my father noticed early on in his time in Frieza's army that the healing pods would fix any injury except a lost tail, even though they were equipped with Saiyan DNA. He did a lot of research on it, and he found that tail growth is stimulated by a unique hormone. As children, Saiyans produce small amounts of this hormone continually, so that their tails continue to grow while they do," Acia explained. "But in high pressure situations, the hormone is produced in huge amounts, resulting in almost instantaneous tail growth. My father figured he could induce tail growth by synthesizing the hormone and then putting the person in a high pressure situation."

"So he used that theory to grow your tail back?"

"It wasn't a theory by then. He'd tried it before back on Planet Vegeta, although that was a long time ago."

"And it worked?" Gohan asked skeptically.

Acia rubbed her tail playfully against his palm by way of an answer.

"Wow, your dad's really something." Gohan paused for a moment. "What sort of situation did he put you in?"

"It wasn't really a situation. He just jammed his elbow into the base of my tail. It was very painful, of course, but that pain triggered the hormone's activation."

Gohan nodded slowly. "So, you think he could use that technique to grow my tail back?"

"I don't see why not."

Gohan considered the offer. It was a lot to take in so suddenly. He did miss his tail – when he was younger, he'd read about phantom limb syndrome and realized it was a perfect explanation for how he felt. Sometimes, he could feel his tail wagging behind him or drooping between his legs. It would be wonderful, he knew instinctively, to have it back.

And yet it was a big change to make. He hadn't fully understood, when he was a child, why he had to have it removed, only that something bad might happen to him if he didn't. But now that he fully understood the risks, could he take the chance that he might transform, even if on accident, and destroy everything he loved so much, everything he had fought so hard to protect? He'd never been trained to control the Oozaru form. He'd spent so long, too, without his tail. Would his body adjust to having it back?

Before Gohan could express any of these thoughts, Acia reached down with one hand and dug her fingers into the large, round, protruding scar that was all that was left of his tail.