Chapter 16: Day 12 — Counting Coup

*COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO*

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Morning came and the camp went through the routine like a well-oiled machine. The exception was trying to get the eggs from the chickens. It ended up being a two-person job, Hassim distracted the chickens while Sugar Petal searched their nests for eggs. She found three and placed them in her blue bag

Hassim took a banana and added them to scrambled eggs made in the wok. The jerky was chopped and the leftover moringa leaves from boiling tea was added to the eggs as well.

"Are you sure you're not a chef?" Vegeta asked after finishing his egg and gnawing on a strip of goat bacon.

"I singed the eggs," he said, confused.

Vegeta shrugged. "I didn't notice."

"Me neither," Sugar Petal said.

"Besides, if they are singed, we know they're done, right?" Vegeta chuckled.

"I guess," Hassim said.

Vegeta swallowed the last of his goat meat and stood up, "Ok, I'm going to feed the fish and catch a few so I don't eat everything." He walked into the hive, grabbed the fish spear and two loops of blue rope, then left towards the outhouse.

"So… what do we want to do now?"

"Hmm…" Sugar Petal thought. "Oh! Why don't we make more chairs? Maybe some little tables we can store away? You know, the folding ones?"

Hassim looked confused, "I think I do… but how would we even make them?"

"Oh, give me a moment," she got out of the hammock and climbed Vegeta's ladder. After some rattling around, she came back down holding something grayish white. It wasn't a leaf, but it is all he could compare it to.

She handed it to Hassim, "See?"

Hassim looked at it, and it had been written on with what looked like charcoal. It was a picture, crude but it got the point across.

"And here I thought Vegeta was a bloody Robison Crusoe." He looked up. "Ok then. Let's check the bamboo pile first before we go cut fresh stalks."

Sugar Petal smiled, raised her fists to her shoulders and bent her knees for a fake hop. "Yes!"

Vegeta walked towards the fish pond, but even at this distance, he could see something was wrong. He dropped the spear and cup of maggots and ran, leaving the camera crew in his dust.

It was destroyed. The bamboo grates were broken and left on the trail and the stone walls were thrown down, not tipped over; someone took the effort to remove all the large stones and scatter them. The fish were missing too. Even the ones that originally lived in this little pocket of the stream appeared to have vanished. Then he smelled something rotten. He looked around and spotted the fish. They had been caught and thrown into the bushes on either bank.

EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

The film crew caught up with him, but immediately backed up. Vegeta was red faced, twitching and his fists were formed so tight he had white knuckles. Vegeta looked at them. They thought this must have been the last thing the people he killed ever saw.

Vegeta then saw something and walked to a tree next to them. It had a dick carved into the trunk with a stick figure sitting on it. The figure had a triangle coming off the head circle.

The crew filmed him digging into the tree like a mad man pulling the bark off with his fingernails. After he pulled off the drawing, he stood there breathing heavily as his shoulders moved up and down with each breath.

After several minutes, Vegeta pushed his way through the crew and began walking back to camp. He picked up the spear and the cup of maggots, which was still half full, along the way.

Back at camp, Sugar Petal was carving holes in the second leg of the table using the tip of the machete. Hassim was working on making another stool with the stone tools.

Vegeta came storming into camp looking like he was about to murder the next thing that moved.

Sugar Petal startled but luckily did not cut herself with the machete.

"What happened?" Hassim said standing up.

"Someone," Vegeta began struggling not to shout, "found the fish pen, threw every single fish onto the banks to die before tearing down the wall and smashing the grates."

Sugar Petal gasped, putting her hands over her mouth.

"Michael?" Hassim asked.

"Considering there was a dick carved into the bark of a tree on the bank. Yes, it was."

"Hey Vegeta," Nathan walked into camp holding his radio, "Producers just called back. Said since it wasn't an attack on the camp itself, it doesn't fall under the retaliation warning just like the palm leaves. Sorry dude."

"What do you want to do?" Hassim asked.

"What I want to do is kill them, but since that is presently not an option, I'm going to head to the ocean and blow off some steam and see if I can murder some fish as a substitute." He walked over and threw the cup of maggots into the chicken cage. "Here! Eat these you bastards." He then stormed out of camp.

Then, he stormed back into camp, "Forgot something."

Vegeta walked into the Hive and came back with the wagon, the full spear set, the stone knife and the fishing ropes. He swung the rope to the spear set over his shoulder then walked towards the grove and not the main path down. He went to the boxes.

He grabbed the white and blue-flagged crates and put the notebook, its pen, and the blue bottle along with the knife and ropes in them before putting the crates on the wagon. He began heading down towards the ATV track.

"What are you doing?!" Leticia shouted.

"Nothing in the rules about moving the boxes," Vegeta said walking away.

Leticia grabbed the radio. "Crew 9 to the producers! Vegeta is taking the trade boxes with him to the blue beach!"

*fuzz* This is Reynolds…. *fuzz* came over the radio with cries of "Yes! Yes! Yes!" and things about beer and pizza in the background. *fuzz* Moving the boxes is within the rules. *fuzz*

Vegeta headed east up the ATV road, dragging the wagon and carrying his full spear set over his shoulder. Towards the end, he came across several members of the blue team.

"Ollie Ollie Oxen Free!" he called out.

They looked towards him.

"Vegeta," Jamal raised his hand. "What are you doing over here?"

"Michael and his goons destroyed our food in a raid," he said, finishing walking up, "And last time two times I went to that side of the peninsula, I was attacked with a machete."

"Holy God," he said, "And he hasn't been kicked out?"

"Nope. Didn't constitute an attack under game rules."

"That's full of shit!"

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it."

"Why are you dragging the box with you?" Daisuke asked, very confused.

Vegeta smirked deviously, "Nothing in the rules say you can't move the boxes, just that you got to put the bottle in it."

"You're a freaking genius," Casey said, amazed.

"Is that allowed?" one of the blue team's field producers looked to Leticia.

"Yes, it is," Leticia said, stepping off of her Segway. "Keep this short, Vegeta."

"So, you're going to start fishing over here?" Jamal asked. He did not sound approving.

"Everything above the stream is fair game."

"I figured," Jamal said pleadingly, "Bob won't be here for a few days. So, you got a grace period. But I think even he'll relent after this."

"There's some really nice fish out there, big ones too," Daisuke said. "Especially the groupers. Some of those have to be at least 100 pounds."

Vegeta smirked, "A hundred pounds, really?"

"Those things eat sharks. Even if you can bench press it, it's not worth wasting time. Good luck out there."

They turned to walk away.

"Thanks for the tip," Vegeta said. "I'll pay you back with some fish so we don't get in trouble. Need to give even trades."

"Oh," Jessica said stopping, "Does that mean we need to give you something for the tip about scavenging?"

"Ah… I didn't think about that… Umm…" Vegeta thought. "Do you have any clear plastic 2 liter soda bottles, the straight kind not the curvy ones?"

"We didn't want to mess with the pile," Casey said. "Looked too polluted and we don't have soap."

"Vegeta," Leticia warned.

Vegeta glanced at her. "Hypothetically. Nothing's stopping you from writing soap in the bottle, even if it doesn't exist," Vegeta smiled, "Hypothetically." His smile faded, "But honestly just search the netting while I fish? I'll take as many as you can find. I'll take some green ones if you can't find a lot as long as they're see through."

"Why do you need so many?"

"Sugar Petal thinks the huts are too dark and stuffy and asked for windows. I'm going to use them for the glass."

"You're going to cut the tops and bottoms off and flatten them over the heat of the fire!" Casey said, amazed again.

"Ok, I agree with Casey on the genius part," Jamal said.

"No, I just have a good memory."

"Not that it's not cool, but why are you still putting so much work into your shelter?" Jerry asked. "Casey couldn't tell us much except it's awesome."

"Boredom. We solve it with the HGTV bug."

"Oh, Conner told us what you guys did. Thanks for throwing the game. Now we have an actual football to play with instead of tossing coconuts."

Vegeta's eyes widened, "Making footballs from coconuts. I'll put that in the boredom list."

"I don't recommend it," Jamal said.

"If it's Vegeta, he'll MacGyver something and make it work," Casey said.

"Well, if Casey thinks you can pull it off, what's your plan," Jerry asked.

"I just massacred a herd of goats. I got nine hides stretching. Cut one up, sow it together and stuff it with coconut fur."

"NINE goats?" Jessica asked.

"And probably gave the film crew PTSD in the process," he chuckled.

"Not funny," Ted said.

"If you pull that off. We got to talk the staff into a game," Jamal said.

"Well, I have fish to catch. You guys find those bottles." Vegeta walked past them.

"Don't forget to write everything in the bottles," Leticia said. "Make it official."

"Ok," Vegeta said, dropping the handle. "So how'd the wheel go?"

"Great." Jessica said. "The clay was perfect. The pots are great."

"If you're still able to make more, I'd be interested. We have a few side projects that if they work, we could trade with them instead of me feeding you all the time."

"We have some too," Jessica smiled. "If it works today then we were going to add it to the list."

Vegeta ripped off the page, rolled it up and slipped it into the bottle. "and into the crate." He pulled on the string raising the flag. "And up it goes."

"Ok, let's get these plantains back to camp then let's hit the mangroves," Jessica said.

"Make sure you leave time for Nick to freak out," Jerry said.

Everyone chuckled as they went their separate ways.

Vegeta jumped in the water once the boat arrived.

The water was a little dirtier from the red beaches, but there was a major river nearby. The lack of a substantial reef was more than made up by the mangroves. There was a large amount of fish here, including mantra rays and sharks. Then he spotted something jumping out of the sand that grabbed a small fish as it swam by swallowing it whole. It was a fish about a foot and a half long. Vegeta stabbed it with the fish spear. He stabbed it with his knife and gutted it right there. He slipped it onto the rope loop and moved on.

He spotted a school of fish of the kind he got last time, but he was more interested in finding more of these larger fish that hid in the sand. He stabbed three more, then added four of the small sharks following him eating the guts. Then he spotted a large fish, this one easily two feet.

It was another large mouth, but definitely a different kind from the coloring.

"This isn't a fish for the dinky fish spear."

Vegeta grabbed one of the goat spears, sharpened into a single point. Vegeta hurled it and ran it through. It struggled wildly until Vegeta swam up and flicked its head with his fingers. He gut it.

Another shark appeared. This one was as large as him with black tips on its fins. It did a half circle around him before bolting as fast as it could swim.

"Smart fish," he thought.

Vegeta swam closer to the small reef. Then, he saw it. All beautiful 40 inches of it.

"Yep. That can actually eat a shark," he thought as he studied this big mouth. Vegeta let his spear swim. It pierced, but the fish bolted and bolted fast.

"No you don't!" Vegeta charged forward at Olympic speeds and got alongside. He threw another. This one pierced dead center in the ribs. The fish sputtered out and Vegeta swam forward and flicked its head to stop it squirming.

He swam to the surface and gutted it there. The water turned red.

"What the hell did you just kill? Oh my God," the boat producer asked.

"Malabar," the local man on the outboard said.

Vegeta threaded it on its own rope. He looked at the sun. It hadn't colored the horizon yet, but it was getting close. "I think this is good for today. Time to head back."

Vegeta came ashore on the blue beach. He spotted their shelter. He smiled at its ambition. The Malabar, and what turned out to be a smaller type of Malabar, proved awkward to carry, so he threaded his spears through their mouths and down their empty cavities to carry them over his shoulder. They are both heavier than a full banana bunch, making him worry if the spears were thick enough to hold them.

"Hello!" Vegeta shouted.

Jamal poked his head out of the middle of the shelter and Casey stepped out from behind it.

"We thought you were eaten by a shark!" Jamal shouted.

"Naw! They took one look at me and swam off!" he said, beginning to walk over. "What bottles did you get?!"

The group headed back into the shelter and returned with two rings of bottles tied on vines.

The two groups met halfway.

"Oh my goodness, you caught the big one!" Daisuke said. He leaned and looked past him, "And an even bigger one!"

"Yep. Bit of a thin haul on your end. And most are green…"

"Those brands just aren't popular around here," Casey said. "I couldn't find a Max if my life depended on it, even at the resort. These probably floated over from hundreds of miles away."

Vegeta sighed frustrated, "Ok… I'll need to rethink my strategy." He held up the ring of smaller fish, "Well, take your pick."

"Definitely one of the sharks. I want a tooth necklace," Jamal said.

"Do you even have string?" Vegeta asked.

"We can manage," Casey said.

"I think two of the groupers is fair considering the poor haul we got," Daisuke said.

"Oh? The boatmen called them malabar?"

He shrugged, "Maybe it's a local word."

"Ok, three fish and another for telling me where to find them." Vegeta looked at the crews, "So I put these in the blue box, right?"

"Correct," Leticia said.

"Ok, I'll be waiting over by the boxes." Vegeta turned around to walked off.

"Wait, Vegeta!" Jerry said. "How are you planning to preserve that much fish? That's over a hundred pounds."

"Vegeta looked over his shoulder, "In our smoker just like the meat."

"You need salt," he said, "Jessica, go get the pot. All of it."

Jessica ran back.

"Jessica has NOT been adding sea salt to our food," Nick looked at Jerry.

"No," Daisuke intervened, "We only started boiling this morning while waiting on the second round of pots to finish in the kiln.

"Why?! We already said not to because of the gasoline!"

"Is it polluted?" Vegeta asked.

"No more than normal sea salt," Jerry shrugged. "Water here looks a lot cleaner than the water Dad boiled when my brother forgot to bring salt fishing that one time.

"Back," Jessica said, holding a pot. "Everything we've made today."

"Remember the glass bottles, please," a blue field producer said.

Meanwhile, at Berapi…

Sam was sitting at the fire watching the two fish he got.

"This is great," he said. "Finally, real food."

"Yeah, really," Michael said, leaning back.

"If we keep eating like this, the fish should last four more days until Ichiro gets back," Sam said. "Having a second hand will make the next fish raid go better."

"What are you talking about?" Becky asked. "There are no fish left. We destroyed everything."

"What?!" he looked at Michael. "Michael?!"

"Yeah? What's your problem?"

Sam sighed. "Well, at least the fish will still be in the stream to catch later. Maybe he'll get the pond fixed by then and restocked."

Becky snarled, "Do you really think we'd be that dumb? We threw everyone we could on land before we knocked down the wall."

"What?! Michael, what the hell?!"

"What's your problem? We all went in to destroy everything, right?" he glared.

"No! heck no! If I knew you two were going to kill everything, I would have taken more fish! I only took enough I thought would go unnoticed!"

Michael sat up, "Are you serious?! I take everything back. You're a fucking moron!"

Meanwhile, at the Maroon Bay pavilion…

Ichiro was being distant, to Bob's surprise. Even trying to talk about their lives before the show was met by terse responses and Ichiro excusing himself.

Finally Bob had enough and hid the bread and peanut butter and jelly. The jelly would probably go bad if it stayed out too long, but plain peanut butter sandwiches were fine.

Bob waited in the hammock for Ichiro to come in for dinner.

Ichiro came back as the sun was getting low, but not staining the sky yet.

Ichiro frantically looked around.

Bob faked coughed.

Ichiro turned around.

"Looking for something?" Bob smirked.

"Really Bob? Really?"

"I'm not going to get answers otherwise," Bob said sternly.

"I'm not one of your students."

"A child almost died, and you saw what happened. Who hurt her Ichiro, that's all I want. It's not like you're the one who hit her."

Bob's teacher instincts noticed Ichiro's slight flinch.

"Ichiro," Bob's voice deepened, "You did not hurt her, right?"

"She had eaten bugs," Ichiro said defensively. "We were trying to get her to throw up."

"That's not how you induce vomiting!"

"It worked!"

"What else has been happening? What else did you do to that child!"

"She's 18, Bob."

"So are most of my seniors! They are still children!"

Ichiro sighed, "Sugar-chan tried to leave and make a camp like Vegeta. It was near a cliff. Becky found her and threw her off onto the sand and rocks at the waterline."

"Ichiro!"

"I'm one of the people who saved her! Don't blame me! Becky's psycho! She set fire to the forest where she camped and they had to get a helicopter water drop to put it out!"

"Then why did the host say otherwise? What else happened."

"Sugar Petal is anorexic and was already a skeleton when she came here. Michael came up with the idea of pushing her into a medevac by overworking her, but she held out. Even after the fall."

"And you participated in this?!"

"She doesn't deserve to be here! Blame the producers, not me!"

"I've SEEN anorexia, Ichiro. I work with teenagers. Sugar may have been thin going into this, but she had a huge appetite and didn't once try and throw it up, so she's not bulimic either. She tried to run away from you and eat behind your backs. That doesn't just sound like overworking to me, Ichiro! You had food the first few days, and she already was looking like crap the first challenge!"

"And how is that my fault?!"

"Brother's keeper!"

"I'm not Christian!"

"Every religion has a version of it!"

"Then I have bigger Brother Keeper's problems than worrying about Becky drowning Sugar-chan! If you had the slightest idea what—"

"What?! Becky tried to drown her?!"

"That's not what's important here!"

Bob clenched his fists. "And here I thought you were a good person. But all your charities are just for show like every other celebrity, aren't they?!"

"If you knew what was really happening here, you would feel the same way, because I know you're a good person too!"

"Then what is really happening here, if you're so certain?!"

"You heard the speaker back at the sandbar! I can't say shit! Not even hint at anything remotely similar to it!"

"He's right," a voice came from a hidden speaker somewhere, "And this conversation stops now. Bob, a boat will be arriving shortly with additional NDAs for you to sign. Nothing leaves Maroon Bay except the clue to the idol."

Bob looked down from the rafters and back at Ichiro, who had a smug look on his face. "See?" he said, crossing his arms. "I expect an apology and the food back on the counter after Mr. Reynolds is done with you."

Ichiro walked away.

He climbed into a hammock strung between two trees on the far side of the island. He put his hands over his face and gave a chuckle. "I can't believe I was able to pull that off…" he muttered.

Meanwhile, at Vegeta's camp…

It was dark in the trees when he returned.

"I'm back!" Vegeta shouted as he walked in.

"Nice ring of… wait. Oh my…! Look at that fish!" Hassim shouted. He ran up to the wagon. "Wait there's two!"

"I see sharks too," Sugar Petal said.

Vegeta looked around. There was a large and long table that was built around the supports to the tree house. It was closed off in the front like a kitchen counter or a bar. "You guys were busy. Is that big bar for raw food?"

"Yes! Let me get leaves," Sugar Petal ran towards the bananas.

"Table, stools," he looked to the hive, "and a bench."

"Wait till you see this," Hassim walked behind the counter and came out with one of the folding tables. He opened it out.

"You made TV trays," he smiled. "By the goddess."

"Sugar designed them and made them herself." Hassim said. "The bar was her idea too after you used your stool for goat meat."

"When I told the Blue team we cured our boredom with the HGTV bug, I wasn't expecting this."

"You ran into the Blue team?"

"I fished up there this time. I paid them for these bottles with fish. Seems flat bottle companies aren't popular here. I need to rethink my window designs." He looked behind him, "Got salt too. Grab that pot out of the crate. Jerry already did something called 'corning' to the big ones. There are instructions for the other special steps to smoking fish on the papers stuck in the pot."

"I'm back, Mr. Vegeta!" Sugar Petal ran in and placed the leaves on top of the bar. "You can put the fish down now."

Vegeta backed up and placed the ring of fish on the counter. He slipped the spear set off his shoulder. "Ok, let's get these 200 pounds of fish taken care of…" he sighed.

"Is that really 200 pounds?!" Hassim said in disbelief.

"90% of it's the big ones but yes. Jerry also said he wanted to look at it to make sure we did it right before Sugar eats it. Now, let's get these small ones scrapped and cooked. I'll do the big one since its mine." Then Vegeta noticed something on the fire. "What's that?"

"Banana fibers!" Sugar Petal said excitedly.

"So soaking it worked?"

"Only a little bit," she smiled. "You were half right. We needed to do both."

Vegeta walked over. It wasn't in individual fibers, but clumps of strings. But he didn't care. "I assume this is to your standard, Sugar Petal?" he asked, turning to her.

She nodded excitedly. Then Sugar Petal dashed into the Hive and came back out with two bamboo sticks with notches in the end. Vegeta recognized them from her mother-in-law as knitting needles. She was practically hopping with excitement.

"As long as you can use it for your projects."

"I want to try cleaning it better," Hassim said, "It's really starting to remind me of linen. Could get something really nice out of it if we can get the pulp out."

Leticia kept checking her watch every few minutes as the three sat on their stools in a circle eating coconut-cooked vegetables again on their folding tables, this time with something new.

"What leaves did you grill the fish in before adding it to the coconut?" Hassim asked.

"Too bitter for you?" Vegeta asked.

"I've eaten worse," he shrugged, "But you can tell it's missing some ingredients."

"So do you not want me to pick this in the future?"

"I don't mind," he looked at Sugar Petal, "Are you ok with this?"

She nodded enthusiastically shoving more in her mouth.

"Well if she likes the noni, that's all that matters," Vegeta said. "It's not like anyone else is going to pick from those trees."

"Why?" Hassim said.

"Because the producers never mentioned the leaves were edible," Vegeta smirked, "Noni is what they called vomit fruit trees."

Hassim's eyes widened, "Is this really… that thing they made us take a bite out of before the show started?"

"There's a reason they gave us the fruit and not the leaves," Vegeta said.

"I don't care," Sugar Petal said. "It's bitter like banana flowers. Just needs to be boiled, right?"

"Banana flowers for tomorrow then," Vegeta nodded. He looked back at his table, "I still can't believe you did all this Sugar Petal."

"I just wanted to start pulling my weight, Mr. Vegeta."

"I never expected anyone to live up to the Taj Mahal of shelters. But this is very homey now. None of us will probably win, but I think we can all say we'll become LEGENDARY on this stupid gameshow." He chuckled.

Sugar became sad, "I hope we stay together…"

"I got a good look at the blue camp today while fishing up there. It's no royal palace, but it's a very nice suburban one-story ranch." Vegeta said, "We won't be hurting over there. If we weren't on the show, they would probably hold the record for best shelter."

"Do you really watch HGTV a lot?" Hassim asked.

"My mother-in-law watches it constantly. It's either that or my son's cartoons are on the living room TV." He rolled his eyes, "I may have picked up on a few things through osmosis." "Oh… but Sugar," he looked at her, "About the windows you wanted. I haven't been able to find enough plastic that can be straightened out. Would you be willing to settle for just ways to get light in without getting a clear view of the outside? Like glass block walls and windows in 80's and 90's houses?"

"Yes. That's fine."

Vegeta shoves more fish in his mouth. "Ok. That's tomorrow's project then," he said with his mouth full. He swallowed. "Oh! The football! Sugar, can you sew together some hides to make a ball? Jamal said if we can pull that off, we'll have a match. We can stuff it with coconut fur."

"Yes!" she said excitedly. "We can have a ball to kick around."

"Now is this American Football or World Football?" Hassim asked.

"There's two footballs?" Vegeta asked, confused.

"Americans call World football soccer."

"Oh, which does Jamal play?"

"American."

"Hmm… Well he said he won the reward and got his football. If that's most likely an American one," he looks at Sugar, "How hard would it be to make the soccer football?"

"I… thought we were… already, talking about making that one…"

"Don't feel stupid, Sugar. Vegeta didn't know that either."

Vegeta glared at Hassim briefly before shoving more food in his mouth. "Ok. Hassim and I on window duty. You're on soccer football duty."

Vegeta glanced at the smoker. It was lightly burning, just to chase off the bugs. The wok and the pot they were given were in there with the large fish in the special salt water Jerry called 'brine'. "Hope we did that right… But Jerry promised to guinea pig before giving it to Sugar Petal."

The full moon was high in the night as Sugar Petal snuck out with the lantern, her finished blue basket and the pronged fishing spear.

She stepped softly into the moonlight onto the narrow beach and gently walked into the water. Sugar Petal began systematically poking the sand with the pronged tip of the spear before moving on.

It took her over an hour of rocks and seashells before she found it: the bottom of the broken machete. She stuck the spear in the sand and backtracked to the beach and grabbed her bag. She waded back out and placed it in. Then she poked expanding circles around the spot and eventually found the top half.

Sugar Petal softly walked back up to the beach, and discovered the lantern almost out. She put some twigs and coconut husks in there and blew it back up into a flame. Then she made her way back towards camp.

"As much as I enjoy initiative—"

Sugar Petal yipped and spun around pointing the spear at the voice.

"—I would have preferred you told me." Vegeta stepped out into the light.

She lowered the end of the spear and caught her breath.

"Also, if you want to scare something," he walked up and tilted the spear up showing she had pointed it the wrong way, "the sharp end is much more intimidating."

"How did you know I was out here?"

"You know what ki is? Most Earthlings with your complexion have that word in their language."

Sugar nodded.

Vegeta held up a ki ball, "That's the closest concept this planet has to everything the rest of the universe takes for granted. But I actually learned the ability to track someone by their unique energy signature here." He doused the light. "I went to take a piss and realized you were gone. Now what were you doing out here so close to the red camp? Do you know what could have happened if they spotted you?"

Sugar Petal handed him the blue bag. He opened it and saw the two halves of the machete. His jaw dropped slightly.

"We're scavengers, right? One man's trash is another man's treasure?"

Vegeta chuckled. "Yes. Yes, we are." He closed the bag and lowered it to his side, "But next time you do some late-night prowling, please do it near the blue camp. Let's go."

The two walked off. Then, at about half way there, Vegeta began to speak. "So now…"

She looked at him.

"There was one project I was thinking about that I couldn't replicate with stone tools, but after I heard of the swap, I did not want to tie up the machete on something we may not get to enjoy." He looked at her, "But if you're willing to let me borrow one of your trophies, I might just try my hand at it. It will probably be an all-day project, but I think it's a good waste of time."

"What do you mean trophies?"

"Sugar, you just practically snuck into the camp of the people who tried to murder you a few days ago and stole their machete. If that's not counting coup, I don't know what is."

"I don't know those words."

"Cowboys and Indians?"

"You mean country music from the western sector?"

"Yeah, that stuff. It's an ancient word that means doing something that's a combination of stupidly brave and just plain stupid in war and surviving. I've heard the word a lot on the History Channel." Vegeta stood in front of her.

She stopped.

Vegeta stood straight and folded his arms behind his back. Sugar thought he looked like a horror movie villain with the under light from the lamp.

"The word in my language for the same thing is 'Saiya'. It's literally what we call our own species, Saiya'jin. It is also the title we earn when a soldier kills their first enemy in battle, Saiyan warrior." He chuckled, "Now I don't expect you go sneak over and kill Michael or anything with those—"

Sugar Petal tensed to hide her trembling.

To Vegeta, it looked like she was just standing straighter. He smiled, "—But I know opportunities like this are rare on Earth and I believe you deserve a merit for bravery, imagination and ingenuity. It won't be worth anything monetarily on this planet, but I hope you will accept the emblem of my dynasty once we leave as a substitute, since under Earth law you cannot carry those on a plane."

"I will, thank you," she said not honestly knowing how to respond, but she knew this had to be important. He was an alien prince after all.

"He's an alien prince," it dawned on her.

This alien prince was giving her a medal. This man didn't just save her life out of human decency. He wasn't carrying her or feeding her or fake smiling at her or using her. He didn't give a damn, he didn't even want to be here. But he was giving her a medal, a COMBAT medal from the way he spoke about how important he thought taking this broken machete was. His wife didn't order him to do this, no one was even supposed to know who he was.

He wasn't a suit. She did not know rich men could be anything but suits, but here he was, the exact opposite. He wasn't playing any kind of long game that she needed to keep up with. She was…

"Am I really that important…." She choked up and was unable to add 'to you?'.

Vegeta frowned, "Emblems are not some gold sticker a teacher gives a preschooler for knowing the difference between an apple and an orange. Exile or not, I'm still the fucking Prince of all Saiya'jin."

Sugar Petal started to tear up.

"Now don't go getting sappy," Vegeta said, turning aside and crossing his arms, "You're 18. That makes you an adult on this rock. So stop crying."

She started to cry anyway. Then she fell to her knees and just weeped into her hands.

Vegeta started to panic and quickly pantomimed through the five stages of grief as Sugar Petal remained completely oblivious to his silent emotional fit. Finally, Vegeta stopped flailing and ripping his hair out and took a few deep breaths.

"Woman," he said forcefully trying to stay calm, "I am not from this planet, and I do not understand what happened to make you upset. You need to speak to me and not assume I just magically know what's wrong with this situation."

"I can't…"

"Why?"

"The cameras…"

She heard him sigh, "Well that's simple enough to fix." She saw the ground light up briefly accompanied by a buzzing noise that both disappeared when she heard Vegeta snap his fingers.

"What… did you just do?" she asked looking up

"Fried every piece of electronics nearby. Your scientists call it an EMP Wave." He crossed his arms, "Basically I just caused every camera close to us to explode and catch fire."

"But won't that cause attention? Someone might hear us."

Vegeta sighed frustrated and looked around. He spotted a cluster of dragon bamboo. He looked down, "Give me five minutes." He jumped, and didn't come back down.

She didn't flinch, which surprised her. She just saw someone FLY. She got off her knees and sat down tucking her legs in and hugging her knees. She looked at her watch.

Eventually, Vegeta came back down.

"That took 6 minutes and 54 seconds."

"You timed that?"

She holds up her wrist. "The watch has a stopwatch function."

"See, this is the perfect amount of cheekiness I don't see why Earth women suppress." Vegeta said apparently to no one.

"You've never ridden the Tokyo Subway, have you?"

"Whatever…" he picked up the lantern, "Come on let's go. On my back."

Sugar Petal stood and grabbed the spear and her bag. She wrapped her arms around him, then her legs around his waist. After placing his arm under her leg to secure her, he jumped in the air. They broke through the canopy and Vegeta stepped onto the platform he wove from the tops of the bamboo.

"Don't panic. This is going to sway."

She carefully slid off and held onto him as the platform moved with every shift of weight.

Vegeta sat down without issues. "Ok," he said frustrated. "What the fuck is going on?"

Sugar Petal looked around. "It is so pretty up here," she said slowly.

Vegeta scratched his lower back, "Yes, the water amplifies the full moon light perfectly. Now what the fuck is going on?"

She started to cry again, "My real name is Hwa-Young, and I turn 24 in December…"

"Well, I already knew Sugar Petal was your stage—"

"No. Sugar Petal's name is Hyo-jin and she is 18 years old."

"I… don't understand."

"My manager isn't my uncle…" she wept, "He bought me at a brothel when I was 15. I was so tiny he lied that I was 9."

"I fucking knew it!" he thought. "So, this is just a stress breakdown and not something I did wrong?"

She nodded as she wiped her eyes.

Vegeta looked away and blew out his breath. "Ok, that's good."

There was silence between them for several minutes. Vegeta continued to look away from her and she cried.

"Hwa-Young," Vegeta said, visibly uncomfortable. "Eighteen is the threshold for adulthood. These people can't control you anymore."

"Yes they can… I'm under contract."

"Signed under false pretense."

"That doesn't matter! This is the first time in my life I haven't had a man with a gun next to me. And when this is over, I'm just going right back."

"You don't have to—"

"Yes I do!"

"Then why are you even crying over it?!" Vegeta raised his voice. "Crying means part of you wants to escape this. If you do not act, then this is just a waste of energy. If you have no intention of breaking out of your golden cage, then stop wasting all of our time! Even yours!"

Sugar Petal curled up even further and gripped the back of her hair.

"Tsk." Vegeta looked away.

He listened to her cry for a few minutes.

"You are important… Sugar Petal…" Vegeta said, looking out at the water. "But tell me, when you sing on stage, meet your fans, and everything else that comes with it, do you feel free? Or does it feel like a chore your slave masters order you to do?"

"Why?" she asked, confused.

"After my parents were assassinated, I was no better than a slave in the palace. But I was also a soldier in the military, and I volunteered for assignments constantly. Because as awful as it sounds to an Earthling, while I was out on the battlefield, I was free."

He looked back at her from the corner of his eye, "Do you feel free?"

"Yes…"

"Then Hyo-jin is not Sugar Petal, YOU are Sugar Petal. Do not conflate the two. That is clouding your judgment." He looked away again. "A drowning person cannot be saved if they do not reach out to be grabbed. But if you cannot do that, then Hwa-Young is dead. You cannot be both Hwa-Young and Hyo-jin at the same time. You have to choose. You have to choose which of them gets to be Sugar Petal. That identity is not at risk here."

"Yes it is! No one will like me anymore! They will all blame me. No one will ever listen to music from a child bought from a brothel!"

"Then you have already chosen. Hwa-Young is dead. You murdered her. You just have not been able to admit that to yourself." Vegeta stood up. "We have been wasting time here, Hyo-jin," he said the name cruelly, "Let's head back to camp."

The two returned to the ground, and Vegeta treated her coldly until they returned to the camp.

Hassim was awake.

"Where have you two been?" Hassim demanded standing up. "You've been crying," he said when she got close. "What happened?"

"I accidently spooked her when I found her in the woods. She'll be fine, just a little overwhelmed and stressed out." Vegeta smiled, "Sugar Petal, show Hassim your trophies."

"Trophies?" Hassim asked, confused.

Sugar Petal opened her blue bag.

"Remember when I said I broke Michael's machete and threw it in the ocean? Guess who snuck out and found it."

Hassim grabbed her shoulders, "Do you know how dumb that was? Walking over a mile to a place visible from the red camp? What if—"

"That's enough!" Vegeta barked, separating them. "What's done is done. Ill-conceived or not, we now have 3 metal blades thanks to her and the fact she's walked that far means she's almost back to normal and doesn't need babying." He looked at her, "She's an adult. And her decisions are hers to make. We can't force her to do anything she does not want to do." He looked back at Hassim, "Let's all just get back to sleep and we'll worry about things in the morning."

Hassim sighed in frustration and entered the hut.

Vegeta's smile disappeared and he turned to Sugar Petal. "When this is over, I will contact you about the emblem." He held his finger up, "BUT, I expect to know the name of the person attending the ceremony by then."

Vegeta turned around, climbed his ladder and pulled it up.

Sugar Petal stood there alone, looking at the tree house for a couple minutes before entering the hive.