Waring of sorts: Vegeta is kinda cruel in this chapter. Not any more than he is in the main series, but some people might cringe at his actions. So, yeah. Sorry about that.

Vegeta glared down at the sword in his hands with scrutiny as he sat down on his bed in the darkened room. The illusion of the ever expanding cosmos slowly rotated in all its celestial glory on his ceiling as it always did, but the prince ignored it as if it wasn't even there. His gaze was focused on the well worn weapon of his old master. Even as he pulled it out of its sheath and felt the cool, alien metal that made up the blade, he still found it hard to believe he was holding it again. It had originally disappeared sometime around Rose's death, but no one knew exactly when. For obvious reasons they had all been a little preoccupied at the time. However, when they had found out about its disappearance, they had all been just as enraged as if it had just happened.

They had been looking for it for years, hoping to restore her honor by returning it to its rightful place in her armory. They thought it had been lost forever...and yet it had somehow wound up in the hands of her son Steven...all because of that damn lion.

Vegeta growled in frustration as he noted that. He had always been suspicious of that cat. He knew that there was something wrong with it. He had seen a lot of strange creatures in his lifetime, but somethings are just too difficult to believe are normal. And this new information made it even harder to believe. Particularly with the sudden interest the Diamond Authority seemed to be having with the little planet. That peridot showing up in the galaxy warp with her robots had set him on edge, and because of that, Vegeta had been having some very interesting revelations...like how that lion had shown up only a few weeks after the red eye came to Earth…

It seemed so clear now that he thought about it that the beast probably had something to do with the gems. It seemed too smart for its own good sometimes. And now it seems the creature has a pocket dimension inside it. No organic life form can contain entire dimensions insider their bodies. It's impossible for most species to even build something that could...except for gems. Vegeta knew that gems were known for being able to create amazing illusions. It wouldn't be hard to believe they could disguise some machine as an Earth creature to gather intelligence. His fist clenched at that thought.

A small part of him couldn't deny that the lion could have been Rose's, but a larger, much more skeptical part of him still refused to believe that. That part of him had saved his hide multiple times under Frieza's, allowing him to dodge around assassination attempts and plots to frame him for another's folly, so he wasn't about to brush that voice to the side. And right now that voice kept repeating one question: If Rose did know about Lion, then why didn't she tell any of them about him, especially if she left something so important with him? To Vegeta the answer was simple: because she didn't.

And that was why he was now sneaking out in the middle of the night to find the beast. Whatever that thing was here for, he was going to find out one way or another. He's wasn't going to take anymore chances and let their security be breached. He slipped silently out of the house, making sure he didn't cause Steven to stirr. Goku was at his house with his family and Piccolo had retired to his own room, so no one was around to see him step out. He found it underneath the staircase of the house as usual. Vegeta had never felt so glad he made sure that animal had stayed out of the house.

The "animal's" ear twitched slightly as he felt Vegeta approach. Lion opened one eyelid to gaze lazily up at the Saiyan. The creature seemed completely relaxed, not sensing the prince's hostile intentions. This allowed the Saiyan to grab the beast roughly by the back of his mane with little more than a startle grunt, to which Vegeta quickly silenced with a hand clamping down forcefully on Lion's muzzle. He attempted to struggle, but stopped as the Saiyan jabbed him in the side with a knee.

"Don't try anything…" the saiyan warned quietly, "I know you can understand me, so you better cooperate." When he didn't get a response, Vegeta continued. "We are going on a little road trip," he said as he began to hover into the air while still holding Lion, "and once we've reached our destination, you're going to give me all the information I want, or I'll be having to explain to Steven how you 'ran away to a farm'." A deeper frown formed on the Saiyan's face as he heard the large cat growl. With another quick jab to the side, the animal was silenced again. With that, Vegeta flew off, the big cat dangling helplessly beneath him like a mouse in the clutches of an eagle.

….

Vegeta flew for miles and miles out into the middle of nowhere until he found the perfect spot to land: a large pit in the middle of the desert landscape. He dropped Lion inside as he was still hovering a few feet above the ground. As soon as the cat hit the ground, he turned around and arched his back, growling at the Saiyan as he unsheathed his claws. Vegeta glared at the cat as he touched down. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way," he said cracking his knuckles, "You can either voluntarily show me what you really are, or I can make you."

Lion lunged at him, attempting to tackle the prince to the ground. Vegeta quickly dodged him, before grabbing him by the leg and flinging the cat into the wall of the pit. "They hard way it is, I guess," Vegeta said with a smirk.

As Lion picked himself up, Vegeta grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and slammed him against the wall of the pit. "Now, are you going to cooperate?" he growled. Lion snorted at him, to which Vegeta slammed the cat again against the wall of the cavern, this time with enough force to create cracks in the rock. "Show me what you really are, dammit!" he snapped, "Do you think I'm some kind of idiot? Did you think I was just going to brush aside that you had one of Rose's most prized possessions? I know you aren't from here. So stop pretending and start explaining! What are you, and what the hell are you doing on this planet!"

Lion remained silent, fear clear in his eyes. Vegeta growled before throwing the animal to the ground. As the cat scrambled back onto all fours, a large ball of ki started forming in the Saiyan's hand. The cat backed up as Vegeta aimed it at him. "I'm done playing games!" he snapped, "Now show me what I want to see!"

Lion's ears folded back and he bowed his his head as his mane started glowing. Vegeta raised an eyebrow as something protruded from the cat's mane: a brown cardboard box. Lion backed away from it, still eyeing Vegeta nervously as the ki energy dispersed from his palm. He approached the box carefully, still eyeing the wild cat. He picked it up and examined the contents. His eyes widen as he saw three VHS tapes in the box. To his surprise each one had a name written on it. One was labeled "Goku", another "Piccolo", and the last had his own name written on it. He picked up the tape and examined it. He nearly dropped it from surprise. He recognised the handwriting. How could he not? It was Rose's.

He glared at the plastic rectangle containing film. But that was impossible! Rose hadn't kept anything like this in her armory, and nothing had been stolen from the temple, because no one could get in besides her, Goku, Piccolo, and himself. The only answer was...she had put it there herself.

Vegeta felt like an idiot. The answer had been staring him in the face, but he had been too caught up in his own stubbornness and skepticism to see it. On top of that, this created more questions. Why didn't Rose tell them about Lion? What reason did she have for hiding him from them? The thought left a slight sting as it entered his mind. Maybe whatever was on this tape would explain. Speaking of which…

Vegeta turned to the big cat who was now glaring at him. Vegeta sighed as he placed the box under his arm. Getting the cat home was going to be tedious. Hopefully he won't make too much noise.

…

It had been a long time since Vidalia had someone knocking on her door in the middle of the night. Generally it only happened when she was young, when Vegeta had done something reckless and/or stupid in a fit of rage and was too tired or wasn't in the mood to deal with Rose's scolding at the time. Even then, those times had been few and far-between.

Now it had been over twenty years since that had last happened, but all of a sudden, here she found herself again, answering the door to find the Saiyan prince standing on her doorstep. "Vegeta?" she asked, rubbing her eyes, "What the heck are you doing here? As much as I enjoy your company, it's past midnight and I'm already not a morning person."

"I need your TV," he stated.

"Why?" she asked. He held up a VHS. "Wait, don't you have a TV with VHS player?" she asked.

"I can't watch this at the temple," he explained, "Steven can't see it. It's private." There were several reasons as to why he didn't want Steven to see the film. Mostly, he didn't want to explain how he acquired it. But also, it had been made specifically for him. Vidalia raised an eyebrow at him and she gave him a wry smile. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Vegeta glared at her and cut her off. "If you're going to make a dirty joke about Steven not being able to watch it, don't. I'm not in the mood," he stated.

Vidalia pouted. "Aw come on! You woke me up in the middle of the night!" she complained, "At least allow me one dig at your ego…" Vegeta gave her an unamused look as she allowed him in. "So, can I ask what's actually on the tape?" she asked.

"It's a message from Rose to me," he explained.

"Woah, really?" Vidalia said, eyes widening, "Where did you find that?" Vegeta averted his eyes. Vidalia raised an eyebrow at him. "Acquired illegally, immorally, or both?" she asked, leaning against the door frame.

"Possibly both," Vegeta stated, walking over to the TV.

"I guess it wouldn't be one of your midnight visits if you weren't guilty of doing something wrong," Vidalia said with a shrug, "Want me to sit down and watch it with you?"

"No," he said simply as he put the tape in.

"Ok," she said, "I'll make sure the boys stay upstairs. Just keep it down alright?" Vegeta nodded in compliance and immediately went to adjust the volume settings. Vegeta sat back on the couch and pressed play on the remote. The screen switched from the neon blue to the start of the tape. Vegeta's mouth twitched slightly as Rose's image appeared on the screen as she adjusted the camera. It had been a long time since he had seen her face anywhere outside a photograph. It was almost strange to see her moving in front of him again, doing normal things and honestly not looking photogenic, but frustrated and slightly exasperated as she muttered while she fumbled with the Earth technology.

Finally she sat down and smoothed out her dress before smiling at the camera. Then she spoke. "Hello, Vegeta," she greeted. He had almost forgotten what she had sounded like. Vegeta folded his hands and rested his chin on them as he continued. "Or at least I hope you're the one watching this right now," she continued in a knowing, motherly tone, "Steven, if this is you, I hope you realize that you're invading Vegeta's privacy by watching this. Now turn off the video and return it to him." Vegeta smirked at the light scolding. He remembered she used to scold Piccolo and Goku like that. He, on the other hand, usually received a far worse tongue lashing, though she usually tacked on a "I do this because I worry about you," at the end to try and balance it out. Oh, if Steven had seen what Rose had acted like when he misbehaved. His whole perception of his mother might change.

"Now that Steven has hopefully stopped watching or he'll be in big trouble," she continued, "Vegeta, I want to start off by telling you how proud of you I am." The kind words suddenly caught him off guard and his amused smirk fell. "Over the years I watched you grow and change," she continued, "I watched you stagger and fall back at times, but never give up, and I am so glad to have seen you turn into the amazingly loyal and dedicated young man you've become." The Saiyan prince felt a tightening in his chest. He didn't know what to think about this feeling.

"I'm proud to have watched you become stronger than any other creature alive on Earth," she continued, "But most of all, I'm proud to have seen you make yourself into you're own person." His eyebrows knit together in confusion at that. "It's hard for people to let go of the past," she clarified, as if reading his mind, "It's hard to not let it define you. To not fall into old habits and states of minds. But you've overcome all that. You aren't a monster. You haven't let Frieza rule your mind. In the end, you really didn't let me do much more than gently guide you. You don't take orders, you make your own path."

"Also, I want to thank you," she continued. Vegeta's eyes widened slightly at that. "Thank you for looking after the Earth all these years with Goku and Piccolo," she said, "I know you don't care for the people of the Earth like I or Goku, but I appreciate all you've done." "And because I assume Steven gave you this after he found where I hid it for him," she continued and Vegeta averted his eyes from the screen for a moment, "I want to thank you for looking after him. I can't even begin to express how glad I am that you promised to be there for him."

"But I don't want you to feel like you're trapped here," she said. Vegeta sat up in surprise. "When you came here, you were determined to stop Lord Frieza, and it has driven you in all you've done since, and I don't want you to stop yourself from doing so," she explained, "Once you feel like you're ready to take him on, I want you to do so. Protecting the universe from him should take priority over the promise you made to me to stay here." "You're strong Vegeta. Strong and determined. If anyone is going to be able to stop him, I know it'll be you," she said with a bright smile, "You can do it, I know you can. Now go on and live a good life, my super Saiyan." The video cut out and the screen went blank. The room was filled with silence as the prince processed everything that had just been said.

When she couldn't hear anymore noise,Vidalia reentered the room to see him sitting in silence on the couch, his expression unreadable. Her brows knit together slightly. "Hey," she said, "Are you ok?"

"Hn," was the only response she received as he nodded. He then got up and pressed the eject button on VCR to eject the tape. He walked past her and gave her a nod of "thank you," before leaving without another word.

….

Goku entered the temple the next morning to quite a surprising site: lion was lying on a comforter in the middle of the room, purring as Steven played with him. He blinked in confusion as Steven noticed him and waved at him. "Hey Goku!" he chirped.

"Hey..." he responded either a half smile, "Uh...Steven? What is lion doing in the house? I thought Vegeta didn't like him inside the temple."

"He did, but this morning he said Lion could come inside whenever he wanted! Isn't that great?" Steven said excitedly.

Goku's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah….Great! Ahahaha…" he said, laughing nervously. He really had no clue what was going on. None of this made sense. Why would Vegeta let Lion in the temple? Particularly after yesterday? Did something happen while he was with Chichi and Gohan last night? Goku shook his head and shrugged. Whatever the reason for this change of heart was, he should just be glad it happened. After all, if Vegeta was finally warming up to the big cat, that had to be a good thing, right? Right.

Ok, so a few things: First, I'm finally done with school. That means I can get back to writing this regularly! Once I get my graduation stuff taken care of...Still I should be able to write more. Secondly, I do hope I kept people in character for this chapter. Let me know if I need to fix anything. Thirdly, Did you guys seen Super Watermelon Island/Gem Drill? Weren't they awesome? :) Let me know what you thought in the comments below. Finally, in regards to those episodes, I have a few things to say: I'm afraid I'm going to be avoiding writing anything for those episodes for a while. While there are things I want to change in this series as apposed to show cannon, I don't want to write myself into a corner by glossing over or changing something important. One of the main reasons for this is Jasper. There is a lot I want to do with her in the series, but until I find out what her role is going to be in the future of the show and what effect she has on the plot, my hands are tied. That being said, I will still be writing. I'll be going back to fill out more of the episodes in season one and two, and write a few more chapters on the Z warriors before Steven came along.

Anyways, Thanks for reading you guys! let me know what you think and have an awesome day. :)