"They're coming" Gohan announced to the others. He could feel two large energies coming towards the three of them, but suddenly another appeared. "But wait there's three."
"That can't be..." Rori said with a shake of her head. "There are only two of them..."
Before long Krillin came into sight causing the three of them let out a sigh of relief. "You guys want some help?"
"Krillin!" Gohan yelled, excited that one of his father's friends was there to help.
"Wow, Gohan. You've really grown in a year. You look like you've gotten much stronger."
Gohan laughed at this averting his gaze to his trainer, "Yeah, Mr. Piccolo trained me."
Rori walked over to the two with a smile, "Gohan's really gotten much stronger. It's amazing at such a young age."
"He's just like his dad, huh?" Krillin asked with a smile. Rori smiled and nodded. She walked over to Piccolo, leaving Gohan and Krillin to their own devices and the two began to talk in hushed voices. Krillin eyed Piccolo to make sure he was distracted before he turned back to Gohan, "So how was training with Piccolo? That must have been scary?"
Gohan shook his head. "It wasn't that bad. I learned a lot from him... and I got to know my dad's sister when she wasn't training on her own."
"Well I'll agree that that part seems great, it must have been nice training with her..." Krillin smirked to himself. "Hey, Gohan... when this is over maybe you can help me out a little... I'd like to get to know her... I mean wouldn't it be great if your father's best friend and sister got together?"
"I don't think Mr. Piccolo would like that..."
"Why does-" Krillin looked up to find Rori breaking from a kiss with Piccolo, causing the Namekian's face to turn a shade of red, "...wow... Bulma wasn't joking..."
Piccolo's face suddenly turned serious, "They're here."
Rori backed away from Piccolo before the two other saiyan's came into sight. It had been over a year since she'd seen either of them, but they hadn't changed much, but she was looking at them completely differently now. She was looking at them from the point of view of someone who about to fight them for her life. The two saiyans touched down before the others. Their presence seemed daunting. Nappa was as big as ever, but she knew better than anyone he was stupid. That could work to her advantage. "Looks like they've been waiting for us, Vegeta."
Her eyes shifted to the smaller one, she had only met him a hand full of times, but she knew better than to think lightly of him. Vegeta was the one who would be a problem. He was small but he was their Prince and one didn't become a prince without receiving the best training. She stepped out in front of the rest of her group. It was pointless to try, she knew that, but that didn't stop her from wanting to solve this with words.
"Look our little princess is all grown up... looks like she's got something to tell us Vegeta..." Nappa taunted her with a chuckle.
"Shut it, Nappa." Vegeta silenced him quickly, wanting to hear her out. After all, she was going to be his mate.
"Vegeta..." she started trying to find the right words. She'd thought of what to say for a year and even will all her practice, she still didn't feel ready. "...I hope words will be enough to solve this matter... I-"
"Let me stop you there Rori" Vegeta interupted as he walked out towards her, "You are the last saiyan female... and a phoenix at that... I'm not here to fight you."
With a sigh of relief, Rori's face brightened to this, but he wasn't finished. He reached out and took her hand in his, "you will come back with us... and you can explain what you were thinking when you left so recklessly, but this planet is going on the market regardless once we get our wish."
Rori pulled her hand quickly from his and backed away, "then there is nothing to talk about... this is my home now... not only do I refuse to be under the same roof as that tyrant, but these people are my friends, I won't let you destroy their home."
"I'm sorry, I must have made this sound like it was a request, but this is not negotiable." he then turned to Nappa, "get out the saibamen... let's see how strong these earthlings are."
"The what?" Krillin asked looking to Piccolo as if he might know.
Before they could ask any more questions six saibamen popped out of the ground ready for a fight. "Now I'm going to give you all this one opportunity to tell me where the dragon balls are."
"We're not here to negotiate. We're here to fight." Piccolo responded catching Nappa's interest. "Hey that one's a Namekian right? He must be the one who killed Radditz..."
"Namekian..." Piccolo repeated looking to Rori for an explanation, but she knew little about the Namekian people.
Vegeta called attention to the saibamen, "now, make sure not to kill the green one or the girl. You can exterminate the rest of these pests."
Before they could begin to fight, three other men show up: Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu.
"Thought you guys could use a hand!" Yamacha said with a smirk.
"Why don't we make a game out of it... how about one on ones" Vegeta suggested. The men all fought over it for a moment, but Krillin spoke out the loudest, "Guys we need to buy Goku some time. Let's just play their little game."
Rori agreed, "these guys are strong. We need to buy as much time as possible."
Piccolo didn't appear to want to wait, giving her an annoyed look, but he kept silent. She didn't want to lose him just because he was itching for a fight with these guys. They needed to play it smart.
The saibamen did buy them some time, but only at the cost of Yamcha's life and Rori's respect for her prince. She'd never had any for Nappa, but Vegeta had always had hers and now she was seeing him for the true heartless beast he was. When Yamcha had fallen he'd mocked the warrior, calling him trash. It made her blood boil knowing that she came from a race that could be so cruel. The fact that she'd been stuck on Frieza's ship had shielded her from any of Vegeta's cruelty, but now she was seeing it first hand.
"Control yourself" Piccolo said after killing the last saibaman with little effort. "Don't let your anger get the best of you, Rori"
Rori bit her bottom lip, trying to follow his instructions while Nappa had fallen back on his own deciding to have his fun with the group randomly picking fighters to battle. It wasn't long before they'd lost two more: Tien and Chiaotzu. Despite the action going on around her, Rori had kept her eyes glued to Vegeta and him on her. She couldn't get over it, no matter how hard she tried. How could he be so amused by all of this. Finally Vegeta smirked at her and called Nappa to a hault. "Nappa! We're going to wait three hours and give Kakarot a chance to show up."
Nappa merely shrugged and started back in on the warriors, "sure let me just get rid of this trash real quick."
"NAPPA!" Vegeta yelled causing him to stop in his tracks, "Do you really want to defy me?"
The bigger man quickly fell back as ordered and the waiting game commenced. It was three hours spent mostly in silence with Vegeta and Rori glaring at each other like two children. Vegeta was the first to break the silence. "Well... while we're waiting... Why did you leave?"
"Frieza of course." but she wasn't in the mood to explain.
"I checked on you every month or so... you seemed fine..."
"You can't just expect me to be fine while I was with Frieza of all people... he was going to rape me Vegeta! He had it all planned out and you weren't there. What was I supposed to do?" she practically yelled at him.
"Frieza... promised you to me." Vegeta said staring at her not sure what to believe.
"Surprise, Vegeta. The man who destroyed our home planet lied to you."
They became silent again. Vegeta closed his eyes waiting, Rori paced until her eyes met Piccolo's. She could tell he was uncomfortable with the whole exchange she was having with Vegeta. Vegeta was the one meant to be her true mate. She could see worry in his eyes, but she knew he wouldn't act on those feelings after having doubted her the last time. Now that Vegeta's eyes were closed she let her fingers link with Piccolo's giving him a brief smile, making sure he knew his trust wasn't misplaced. There were just some loose ends she needed to tie up.
After the three hours were up the fight commenced again. Things were looking pretty hopeless without Goku, until Nappa had knocked Piccolo out. That was the last straw for Rori. She'd held herself back for most of the fight with Gohan, per Piccolo's request, but seeing Nappa knock Piccolo out pushed he over the edge. "Nappa!" she yelled and she found he stopped for her much like he had for Vegeta, "That was a big mistake."
He turned to her and smirked, "I see you finally put on your big girl pants... come on brat let's see if you've improved any."
Rori took one last look at Piccolo before she raised her gaze back up to Nappa and the two began to fight. Nappa was strong, but Rori was surprised at how well she could keep up with the big oaf. She got in a few good blows, whether it was fueled by rage or she had actually improved she couldn't be sure, but she didn't have time to think on it. Vegeta however did. His eyes made connections from Rori to the motionless Namekian, then back to the brawl. Unlike Nappa, Vegeta was smart. He could put two and two together and boy had he. The prince couldn't believe he hadn't seen the signs earlier. Rori had stuck close to the Namekian the whole time. She listened to him when he told her to stay back and now that the man had fallen, she was attacking Nappa like he'd killed her mate.
Vegeta began to walk toward the fallen warrior looking over his limp body. I'd better put an end to this before this gets anymore out of hand, he thought to himself while he raised his hand to put an end to Piccolo.
Before he could raise his arm any higher to release his deathly blow a blast came towards him and he quickly dodged it. The shake from the blast was enough to pull Piccolo from his slumber and cause the battle to cease. Gohan had seemed to let his rage take over him and his next target was Nappa. He unleashed a blast at the large man, shooting him back through several layers of rock.
When the smoke cleared, Nappa was irrate. "Hey kid! Look what you did to my face!" There was no time. Rori could not stop him as he sent a deadly blast toward Gohan.
"No! Gohan look out!" Rori screamed trying to push Nappa so his blast would miss but he was too late and the child was frozen with fear.
The blast never hit. Gohan opened his eyes once the bright flash of light dissipated to find Piccolo standing before him, most of his clothing disintegrated, his breathing ragged, his eyes almost transparent. Rori stared down in horror. "Piccolo!" she screamed as he fell and Gohan crawled over to him. "Mr. Piccolo... no..."
"I knew you could do it kid. I'm sorry I was so tough on you, but I knew you could take it. It's up to you and Rori now. Take care of her for me. You're the only friend I ever had Gohan. I'm proud of you."
Rori flew down next to Gohan, tears falling from her eyes, "Piccolo! You're okay... just be still..."
She was trying to reassure herself more than him, but he was already fading. She leaned down giving him a brief kiss, but he disappeared before their lips could touch for more than a second. Her eyes moved to Nappa, "mistake number two."
Rori looked down at Gohan who had as much anger in his eyes as she did, "let's not let his death be for nothing Gohan."
They were done playing games, this was no longer a fight, it was a massacre. IWithin minutes Gohan and Rori had Nappa within the edge of his life and Rori gave him a final disabling blow before throwing him to Vegeta's feet.. "Vegeta... take him and get out of here. This is the only opportunity I'm going to give you. I don't want to see either of your faces again."
"So it's true... you mated with that Namekian!"
"Yes." she replied without a second thought still enraged by her loss.
"Oh... I'm not going anywhere until you know your place..." Vegeta responded.
"Not if I have anything to say about it"
The three looked up to find Goku jumping off his nimbus cloud. He walked over to Krillin giving him half a senzu bean and the other half to his son before he stood next to Rori.
"I know you're itching to fight Goku..." she started as she could see it on his face, "...he killed Piccolo I need to finish this..."
Goku nodded stepping back.
"You're crazy if you think I'm going to fight you Rori, I would destroy you and despite your insubordination you are still going to be my mate."
Before she could argue any further, Goku had supplied enough of a distraction for Vegeta to move quickly behind her giving her a swift blow to the head knocking her out. She began to fall to the ground, but Vegeta quickly caught her and tossed her aside where she would be away from the action, "this is a man's fight Rori. I won't have you getting hurt."
There was a loud crash and the blackness began to burn white. Rori opened her eyes to blinding light that slowly came into vision. She sat up rubbing her eyes before everything started to come back to her. When she opened her eyes she found the only one left standing was Krillin who was closing in on Vegeta's space pod and the prince of all saiyan's himself.
"Wait!" two voices called. Both Goku and Rori looked at one another then back at Krillin. Goku was the first to speak, "let him go Krillin. Show him what it means to be merciful."
Rori couldn't say it better herself. Both Vegeta and her had lived their entire lives being ruled by a tyrant. As much as she wanted to she couldn't hold it against him. "I'm going with him. I want to make sure he makes it home all right."
She stood slowly moving toward Goku as Krillin stood in awe of the two. "Goku... Bulma used my space pod to make a ship... Meet me on Namek. I think we'll be able to wish everyone back if I'm right. It should take me about three months to get there. I have a plan that I think you'll like brother."
She gives Goku a hug and limps over to the space pod where Vegeta was waiting, but Krillin stops her before she can get in. "Are you sure Rori...? This guy... he's really evil."
"Goku's right. Eveyone deserves a chance Krillin... especially Vegeta... I should know better than anyone. Just look at Piccolo. If I hadn't given him a chance I would have never known him... I'm going to get Piccolo back, but first I'm going to make sure Vegeta gets home safe. He always made sure I was since I was a child. I think there must be some good in him." she explained before she hopped in the pod scrunching in next to Vegeta who had almost passed out at this point.
The pod left and started on its way to Planet Frieza 79. The two saiyans were in silence most of the trip, but before Vegeta could completely pass out he mumbled under his breath to her, "I didn't know you were so unhappy there... of course you were, but... I didn't know what to do... What kind of a prince can't even protect his people... he promised he would let you go when you were of age... I should have known... I'm sorry I failed you."
She stared at him furrowing her brow, "Vegeta... you only failed me by showing me you were like him... Don't be like him... make our people proud."
He coughed, spitting up a little blood, but she rubbed his back soothing him until he began to sink back into his seat. "Shhh, we'll be home soon."
"Thank you..." was the last word he said before falling unconscious. She could barely hear it, but he'd said it and she knew something was changing inside of him.
A/N: Again thank you for the lovely comments. I wrote a longer one this time to make up for my absense. I'm going to work on the next few chapters soon, so hopefully we can get Piccolo back in this quickly!