I Believe in a Thing Called Love

"The Ginyu Force..." Rori barely gave voice to the words. Her eyes became wide in realization. Of course this was always a possibility, but she'd still never thought Freiza would be desperate enough to call on his father's army. During her time under Freiza's capture, she had come to know these men quite well and was not looking forward to fighting them. While Rori had been shocked into silence, Vegeta had taken a different approach for dealing with the bad news.

"Give me the dragon ball!" he screamed threateningly, while holding up Krillin by his collar and shaking him, "We don't have time for your stupid games right now! I need to wish for immortality! As we speak there are five men as strong as me... perhaps even stronger than I am on there way."

"No way!" Gohan shouted while clutching his fists in anger, "My dad's coming and he'll taken care of those guys!"

"Maybe one or two of them, but not all of them..." Rori chimed in pulling herself out of her silence, "He might be right this time..."

She kicked the ground frustrated by the way things were going. This wasn't the plan she'd had in mind, things weren't supposed to progress this way. "Dammit! ...Look those guys are so strong, not to mention Freiza's here as well... and Gohan... your dad's on his way but he's not here yet... We don't stand a chance without him... but I fear the same is true for him... we need to work together on this one... despite what we're trying to accomplish..."

"But if we wish him immortal, we won't be able to make the wish we came here for!" Krillin yelled still in Vegeta's grip.

"And a lot of good our wish of bringing Piccolo and Kami back to life would do if they're killed again in a few minutes because we can't hold our own against Freiza and the Ginyu Force..." She countered.

"If he wishes for immortality, can't you just use the other two wishes to bring back your friends?" Nail asked looking a bit confused at the dilema.

"What?!" The group questioned in unison.

"You mean to tell me, the Namekian dragon balls will grant us 3 wishes?!" Krillin asked hesitantly.

"That's what I said..." Nail shrugged as if it were common knowledge.

"That settles it, let's get going then!" Vegeta said looking to Krillin, then to Rori.

"All right... I'm in..." Rori finally answered.

It still took him a minute, but Krillin sighed, " I don't like this."

"You don't have to like it, but you'd better do it if you want to be alive long enough to regret it!" Vegeta yelled letting him down, before they all flew toward the location of the dragon ball Gohan had stolen.

After picking up the last dragon ball from Bulma, the four sped toward the location where Vegeta had left the rest of the dragon balls.

"We made it!" Krillin shouted ecstatic as they landed, but the second after they touched down, Captain Ginyu took his place between them and the dragon balls, followed by the rest of his men.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" Captain Ginyu smirked as he surveyed his opponents, "7 dragon balls, check... a monkey prince, check... ah and a phoenix, condition unharmed and ready for Lord Freiza, as well... looks like I won't have to go to any other stores today, my shopping list is complete."

Dammit! Rori thought as she made a sigh of relief, trying to keep up her role the best as she could, once she noticed the Ginyu force had scouters. If they had scouters, so did Freiza, so she couldn't afford to slip up.

"Took you guys long enough!" she said smiling at King Cold's army, "What does a damsel in distress have to do to get saved from these earthling around here, huh?"

Rori brought the ball she'd gotten early from Bulma and walked over to the Ginyu Force's side. Once she was facing away from them she winked at Krillin, hoping he would catch her drift. If she was with Freiza at least it would be possible that she could keep him from summoning the dragon or wish something else before he could get his immortality.

"You damn traitor!" Vegeta stared at her with as much hate as he could, " I am your prince and your future mate! You will get back over here this instant!"

Wow... glad I dodge that bullet when I met Piccolo... she thought to herself At least he's making it easy for me to be a jerk to him.

"Vegeta, it's over. It's about time you accept defeat." she said shrugging her shoulders and grinned, " Lord Freiza has won."

"I will NOT accept this!" he screamed before he threw one of the dragon balls as hard as he could with the hopes of losing it so no one would win, but within seconds Burter had gotten the ball and come back.

"Miss me?" Burter asked, barely having been gone a second. The rest of the group was still turned around when he touched down.

"No way! No one's that fast!" Gohan stammered in his amazement.

"You were really desperate there Vegeta." The Captain commented with a chuckle, "but even you should know that no one is a match for Burter's speed."

"It's pathetic really... he doesn't know when he's beat..." she scoffed and turned to Ginyu, "Are we done here? I'm really getting bored of his whining."

"In that case, I'll escort the phoenix and the dragon balls back to Lord Freiza..." Captain Ginyu said to his men, "the rest of you can have some fun with this lot."

"Woohoo!" "Yeah!" "I call Vegeta!" " No fair!"

"ugh, come on Ginyu..." Rori said acting annoyed with the group rather than letting show her truly worried emotions. She could only hope they could hold their own. Vegeta had been getting much stronger since he arrived... she wasn't exactly sure how... it was almost as if every time he lost he became stronger. But if that was actually true, they might stand a chance.

The two flew off towards Lord Freiza and the pit in her stomach began to grow the closer they neared to his location. Before long they landed next to Freiza, who was so impatiently waiting for the dragon balls to arrive, like a kid on Christmas morning.

"Well done Ginyu! I should have called upon you sooner, but it seems as if you've brought all that I've asked for."

"Pshh, I'm the one that found them" Rori complained, but to her surprise Freiza didn't respond to this and just immediately began to call upon the dragon. This made the pit in the bottom of her stomach grow even larger, until she realized that nothing was happening.

"Am... am I immortal? Nothing happened."

Rori fought the notion of just telling him that yes he was, assuming he was a bit smarter than that, "there's probably a password. The Namekians trust me... I'll just go and-"

"Wait a minute there, pet" Freiza's voice called her and she stopped in her tracks.

Shit shit shit... don't tell me he knows...

"You know Rori... I was inclined to believe you initially..." he said walking around her like a shark stalks their prey, "and yet I have seen no results from you, only talk... but I am a merciful Lord as I said, so I gave you a chance... it would seem you have failed me..."

" Lord Freiza, I-" she started moving towards him, but when she went to take a step, she found herself surrounded by a cage made of ki. The whole time he'd been walking around her, his tail had been slowly letting out a pattern on the ground to box her in, " Hey... what are you doing let me out!"

"Ginyu, watch the girl and the dragon balls, I'll be a back shortly." Freiza commanded before walking up to the cage, "And when I'm back... love, we can discuss that punishment you seemed to be so looking forward to... and I don't think you'll be disappointed..."

It wasn't long before Jeice had come to warn Captain Ginyu that the rest of his team had been taken out. The two left to take care of Goku and the others leaving Rori with a bunch of underling, who had no idea what she was planning. As soon as they weren't looking she threw a ki blast to the ground and had it make a tunnel under ground leading out of her cage.

"Where do you think you're going?" one of Freiza's men asked holding up his arm with a ki blast gun.

"Adorable... Look I don't want to hurt you guys ...so... solar flare!" she shouted blinding everyone and then headed in the direction of Nail and Guru.

By the time she had reached Guru's place, Freiza and Nail were already gone, but she stopped anyway seeing that the glass dome covering Guru's throne had been broken.

"Guru!" she cried looking around her, "Are you okay? What happened and why do I sense Nail and Freiza in the distance?"

Guru coughed and took in a deep breath, "I'm afraid I'm not long for this world, but Nail is buying the earthling time, while Dende is on his way with the password. If we're lucky, they will make their wish before any harm comes to them."

"Wait... Nail is distracting Guru?! That's a death wish! I have to go help him!" Rori's heart began to race feeling like she'd been doing nothing, but chasing people down and now she was on her way again to find Nail. He wasn't her Piccolo, but they'd become friends while she had been there. She couldn't lose him too.

After what seems like forever, she sensed that Nail and Freiza had finally chosen a spot to fight and she had showed up only moments after they had started fighting.

"Stay out of it" both of the men said in unison as she landed. Their promptness threw her off a bit. She had expected this from Freiza, but not from Nail.

"Nail... I can help... he's too powerful... and your missing an arm..." she tried taking a few steps towards him.

"If I fail, then he's all yours... but for now..." he started and grew back his arm pausing to cry out as it reached its full length, "... you're on the side lines."

"My, my... what a useful trick that would be if you weren't about to die." Freiza retorted and looked over to Rori, "I'd take out your notebook, dear. You're about to learn a very important life lesson: what happens when you don't know when to give up."

Punch after punch, blow after blow, Rori kept trying to interfere, but Nail kept telling her to stay back, until finally he seemed down for the count and yet he was laughing.

"Oh, my, I think I've literally knocked the sense out of him... he's gone mad" Freiza murmured to himself.

"Oh, I'm not crazy..." Nail started laughing, "while you've been here trying to get the password out of me, Dende's probably made it to the earthlings with the password. They're probably about to summon the dragon as we speak."

"What?!... that kid I passed... oh for fuck's sake! The one time I don't kill a kid!" screaming as he blasted off, not even bothering with Rori, with such little time to waste.

Rori however ran to Nail's side kneeling next him. "That was very brave of you... you know he could have killed you."

"Well... there's no reason both of us should die..."

She laughed and rubbed his side, "you're not going to die, I won't let you. If anything, when we get back to earth, we'll wish you back and the rest of your people... I've caused enough trouble for your people."

Nail reached up and cupped her face, "don't blame yourself for trying to get out from under that tyrant... he will be stopped... can't you feel it?"

Rori was taken aback by his touch, but her face softened soon. She nodded and placed her hand on his as she stared down at him. Their eyes locked and they watched each other silently. His eyes were so much like her mates and she had been without him for so long. She just wanted to look a little longer and feel like she was close to him. They both stayed silent and unmoving until it was almost painful.

"Tell me about your mate..." Nail asked her, his breathing was a bit shallow, yet somehow he could still make the words out, enough to ask her to talk to him and take his mind off the pain, " you said he was one of my people... seems impossible..."

"He was... is... will be again..." she stumbled over her words putting as much hope into them as she could muster, " as soon as they make their wish... he actually looks very much like you... did I tell you that?"

"well we all look alike... " he laughed a cough away.

"Not just because he's green, you know... but um... well... when I first met him... he was so... vengeful and angry... some of the others would even say evil... but to me he was just... lost I think... unsure of his purpose and himself... but there was something in him that I was just drawn to... something I've never seen in anyone else..."

"...It must be difficult to look at me..." he said realizing the intensity behind her eyes when she watched him, but she nevertheless smiled and shook her head, "no... you remind me that he's coming home to me soon... when I get back to earth. Thank you for that Nail..."

" You won't need to wait to get back home for that..."

Nail watched the look of recognition reach Rori's eyes as she heard the voice that came from behind her. She dropped her hand from his and ran to Piccolo, burrying her face into his neck, taking in his scent, and pressing her body as closely to his as she could. He lay there watching something he's never seen before. The people on his planet did not mate, so even in his pain and his weariness, he was still a bit curious about the two, but the Namekian Rori had attached herself to didn't hesitate to hold her as closely as she held him. He watched as she kissed up his neck and anywhere else she could manage to reach not even bothering with the tears streaming down her eyes.

"Don't you ever do that again Piccolo!" she cried between kisses.

As Nail watched them, he noticed the smile on Piccolo's face was faint, trying to keep up appearance, but he was just as happy to be rejoined with her as she was, but he could see what she had meant. This Piccolo had been separated from himself and his people for so long. It was written all over his face, if one was looking close enough. Despite that, what he saw that the two had seemed to surpass that confusion in Piccolo and give him something that Nail couldn't begin to comprehend, but he wanted to. This was something he was craving now after watching the two. He had a curiosity to know what it was like to be with someone like her.

The two parted after a few minutes of blissful kisses. Their time was dwindling and Piccolo's face became serious, "there will be plenty of time for this... but now we must take action, Rori."

"I know... you're right..." she answered her voice still breathless from their kiss.

"Rori!" Nail cried out, "Go on ahead... I need to speak to your mate for a moment... there's something he should know about our people."

Rori looked from Nail to Piccolo, but decided to leave the two alone, on her way to join the others battle, after Piccolo gave her a look as if to say she should do as Nail said.

"Brother... You have split with your other half have you not?" Nail asked, but didn't wait for him to answer, "Why would you do this? Freiza would have knelt at your feet had you not."

"Well even if it was possible now, we split for a reason. I wouldn't put myself back with that old fool, even if it could bring Freiza to his knees." Piccolo scoffed and turned to leave. He didn't have to put up with this. No one told him what to do.

Nail could see that he had struck a cord, but tried another approach, calling out Piccolo's turned back. "Then fuse with me."

This caused Piccolo to turn back, but not exactly change his mind. " I don't think so...I've got used to my autonomy. I'm not about to lose it now."

"It's not that simple... I will fade into your subconscious, only my strength will remain... This is a chance for you to make sure Freiza pays for what he's done to our people... and for all he's put Rori through. She's your mate isn't she... don't you want to make that bastard pay for what he's done to her? What he wanted to do to her?"

"This better be worth it..."

A/N: Hello all! Thanks again for the wonderful comments. It's very kind of you all and I'm glad you're all enjoying it. I'm sure you're all much happier to know Piccolo is back... even though we didn't get much from him this chapter. For a little preview of things to come in the next chapter: A dare I say super phoenix will take the stage and it may not be exactly what you think... Piccolo might have to calm her down... which will lead Piccolo down a darker path like we had in the beginning of this fic... and they will get some much needed alone time ;) Till next time. - Veil