Author's note: Back again, folks! Now we get to see what Vegeta wants with them...

Chapter 4

Goku and Bulma made their way early to the training room, both theorizing about what the purpose of their further instruction could be. They really didn't know. Would this early arrival be a daily thing? If that were the case, they would both need to retire sooner. That first night there, the new group ended up gathering together in the mess hall after eating and got thoroughly smashed. She had noticed at the time that the senior Elites did not—now she understood why. Her head was throbbing…

The two of them entered the space of the Elite's room, both of them squinting in bright light. They saw only two other people in the room—Nappa and Prince Vegeta. Bulma's eyes immediately went to the prince's whose eyes also swung to hers. This seemed to be a particular pattern with him—well, now it seemed with both of them—that she didn't quite understand. It was almost instinctual, like opposite ends of a magnet drawing her blue orbs to his.

Nappa stepped forward and addressed Goku. "We want you to lead training on the group in terms of instructional sparring and how to sense attacks coming. You have proven adept at that. Follow me, and we will go over how best to teach these strategies." He took off across the room, and Goku gave his blue-haired companion a look before following him. Leaving her alone with the prince.

She shifted slightly on her feet, not sure what was going to be requested of her. "What can I do to be of assistance, sir?" she finally asked to break the silence.

"I read your file after your tryout and then monitored your performance yesterday," he said finally. Well that explained the eyes she felt on her the whole day. "You have a background in science and invention, and your father is one of the scientists who makes and designs the drones the third class soldiers use to train."

"Actually," Bulma interjected before she could stop herself, "he designed the AI that is used in all of the drones, but because he is third class, he does not get the credit for it."

Vegeta's eyes widened only slightly. He shifted a bit and tightened his arm cross. "Noted. Regardless, I would assume you were at least brought into the fold when all of that was happening."

"I was intimately involved. I helped my father design it," she replied matter-of-factly. Vegeta nodded.

"Perfect, because I want you to upgrade our drones' AI."

Bulma blinked. "Forgive me, your highness, but don't you have first class scientists, who are supposedly so much smarter and better than us lowly third class plebs? Why can't they do that?"

Now it was Vegeta's turn to blink. He wasn't used to that kind of attitude being thrown at him. "Apparently our scientists cannot improve on the current AI, I have been informed," he said dryly.

Bulma smirked in response. "That's because they didn't design it. They can't improve it because they didn't create it. They don't know how it works, so they can't alter it. They just chuck it into their latest physical model and call it a day. You are working with new models filled with old technology." She was in her element—talking technology and her own prowess—so any compunctions she would have about speaking so informally with royalty were out of the window. She was just being herself.

The prince's eyes sparkled, and his lip twitched. "Well, then it's a good thing we have you to bring us up to speed with our technology. We will need it for the upcoming battle."

"When do I get started?" she asked, ready to get her hands on some metal and computers.

"Now. You will be working on this every other day and training with the rest on the off days. When you have an upgrade, I will be the judge of if it is good enough and what improvements are needed. So you will be working with me. Come." Off he went through the doors he entered from the day prior. She glanced back in Goku's direction, who was working with Nappa and not paying attention to her, and followed him through the door.

They spent the day in a separate training room. Bulma had access to amazing technology in the form of computers and various tools and materials to alter drones in new ways. The computer itself was such that she could alter the AI and immediately send it to the endless supply of drones and send them after Vegeta. She first did test runs with the base model and AI to see how best to improve them based on Vegeta's demolition of them. He made requests for different edits, and they were able to get through a few iterations of AI manipulations before it was time to call it a day.

"You will return to this room for training the day after tomorrow at the normal time," he stated, dismissing her and turning away to towel off and do whatever it was princes did.

She entered the main training room just as the rest of the group was on their way off, presumably to clean up and go eat copious amounts of food. She saw Goku hanging back with a few of the group, seeming to be finishing up some last minute pointers. He noticed her approach as he sent the stragglers off.

"Where have you been this whole time?" he asked, his eyes darting to the door she came out of.

"Special project with the prince. He's having me upgrade the AI on the drones so they can present more of a challenge and help us improve faster," Bulma explained.

Goku wiggled his fingers at her. "Oooo Bulma working on a special project with the prince!"

She scrunched her face at him. "Fuck off, Kakarot," she spat at him, emphasizing his given name and turning on her heel to walk away. He jerked back as if slapped.

"Hey! You know I don't like that name," he whined.

"Well I don't like my good name being besmirched," she called behind her as she continued on her way out of the room.

"I was only joking, Bulma," he conceded, catching up with her. "He's just been watching you a lot, that's all."

She shrugged. "I'm used to that. I think he was just assessing. He knows I am a genius," she smirked over at him, "so he had to make sure I was also good enough with the rest of it that taking me out for this project wouldn't cause me to be a liability when the time comes."

Goku nodded, smiling a bit. "I guess that makes sense."

Bulma could hear the incredulity in his voice and rolled her eyes. "Let's just clean up and get food."

"I thought you were a genius, woman?" Prince Vegeta cursed as he dropped a mangled drone at her curled up feet where she sat on the floor, tools in hand, working on different designs. "You call this an upgrade? It took me no longer than a few minutes to dismantle them."

She glanced at him, annoyed, over the drone she was working on. "Then grab more. Don't be so needy. You are self-sufficient," she shot at him and returned to her work.

His eyes narrowed, and he continued to stand in front of her. "I have you here to improve these junk heaps, not for you to play in the scrapyard. If these are so easily defeated, they will be useless to us in real training—we will not improve."

She gave an exasperated, exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes so hard she could feel it in the back of her head. "I need to upgrade the external parts of their drones to make them able to function with the AI I have programmed for them. They are not currently able to withstand the different programs I have designed. Plus," she added, throwing some deliberate sarcastic sweetness into her voice, "just because you destroyed them so quickly doesn't mean the others will, what with your superior strength, Your Supreme Highness." She plastered a big, obviously fake smile on her face.

A corner of Vegeta's mouth twitched up for a second before returning to its typical scowl. "Damn right. Proceed," he said, turning away to return to his task of destroying drones.

Her eyes returned back to the task at hand, but a corner of her mouth remained upturned in amusement.

It had been a month since starting this post with Goku, and it had evolved into a steady routine—she would either spend the day with the group doing regular training where she was often tapped to assist in training (particularly strategy and drone training) or she was with Vegeta working on drones and trading insults and looks, then she would eat with their group and relax together, talking and laughing, until retiring for the night.

Her gaze often drifted from her work to the prince, lingering on him as he was setting up more machinery to destroy. She enjoyed mocking him in response to his insulting tone toward her—and, to be sure, he at least enjoyed it a little as well considering she hadn't been killed yet. When they got in their verbal spats, which was frequent and often over the fact that he lacked any amount of patience when it came to upgrading technology and what that entailed (mainly time and skill), she saw his eyes almost sparkle the way they did when she had gotten a punch in on their first meeting. He acted like he brooked no argument, but she could tell he actually enjoyed a bit of a challenge. Royalty or not, he was a saiyan.

Focus! she yelled at herself in her head, dragging her eyes from the shirtless prince to the work in front of her. She had been nearly staring, lost in thought. How embarrassing if he had noticed…

On the other side of the room, the flame-haired prince glanced in her direction, a smirk on his face.

Author's note: Shorter chapter, but that's gotta happen every once in a while. :) R&R!

- Trixie-chan