A/N: Hi there! Finishing this story was one of my new year's resolutions. I just finished re-watching all of DBZ, since I forgot many details about the show. Next, I need to re-read this story to remember where my head was at when I started writing it. I'm sorry for the long... Very long... Three year delay, but this story is still on my brain and I intend to update it in February. Thanks for continuing to read and review, because that more than anything has convinced me I need to continue writing. - updated 1/14/2015

Chapter 6: No Way Out

...

Bulma stayed quiet as she followed behind Vegeta. She was hyper-aware of his vulnerability with his backed turned to her, but something told her it could never be so easy. Any shot she got in would be a lucky one, and it would take more than luck to save her. He had her now, and it was his plan all along - with Yamcha and Krillin hidden in space, she could do nothing but grudgingly cooperate with his every wish. Too bad it wasn't in her blood to take commands.

When they descended below deck, Vegeta securely closed the access door leading back up to the others. A thin outline of light from above surrounded the door, and it was the only light source in the room. An involuntary chill ran through her when Bulma turned to face her captor. The dim light cast his stony features in shadows.

"First..." Vegeta started to say, before a swift movement behind her captured Bulma's attention. She heard the distinct crunching sound of tearing ligaments before she felt the pain. She cried out in shock and fell forward on her hands and knees. The pain was everywhere at once, and for several frenzied moments she could not detect the epicenter of the intense aching. As it faded, she pinpointed the origin to her lower back and felt around for the wound, finding only a short stub of fur where a very familiar appendage had once been attached.

"My tail!" she moaned, struggling to stand upright. She already felt off balance without it.

"You'll get used to it," Vegeta said. His grip loosened on the the now useless extremity and he let it drop to the floor. Bulma eyed it enviously.

"Why?" she breathed.

"Because you're not a Saiyan. You're a human."

"But I thought you said... ?"

"You will play human if you want to survive. You don't know the history of the Saiyan race and I don't care to provide you with a lesson, but here's the short version: Frieza is threatened by us. Can you imagine what he would do knowing there is a female Saiyan in existence? Do you know that you're the only one?"

Bulma tried swallowing, but her throat was dry. "I gathered that. Are you saying that he's afraid we might... re-populate?"

Vegeta nodded; she was quick, at least.

"Is that why you... need me?" The very idea sent waves of nausea through her body.

Too quick.

"Intriguing idea, but no. It would take too long... even though Saiyans do have much longer life spans than your average human." The lie was effortless. She didn't need to know about his eventual plans, not yet.

"Alright, then how can I help? I can hardly stand for Kami's sake!"

"We need numbers. Frieza is mine, but he has dozens of loyal followers we need to bypass before we can get to him."

Bulma shook her head in disbelief. "I don't get it. I can hardly take you on, but you expect me to make a difference here! I don't care which galaxy you're from, this plan of yours makes no sense in any of them."

Vegeta's face betrayed his growing frustration. He was disturbed by her nonchalance. He knew she should fear him; after all, she had many things at stake. Her friends. Her life. Still, these things she was willing to set aside in order to assert her dominance, which on a weak planet like Earth was something she was probably used to - being stronger, better, more agile and more skilled than everyone else. Earth had spoiled her. This was the driving reason behind her insolence. She refused to be intimidated, even after he destroyed her planet and stranded her friends on a dangerous, nameless planet. Instead of inspiring fear, he only strengthened her determination. Although his attempt to gain her cooperation would be successful, since he knew she would do anything to rescue her comrades, he was gaining it at his own expense: by commanding her services, he was inadvertently asking for her help, a weakened state with which the Saiyan Prince was almost completely unfamiliar. He had her temporary allegiance, but she still had the power. Did she know that?

"When we return to Frieza's ship," Vegeta said, "You will mask your chi. I know you did it on Earth, so don't bother denying it. I also know that you can sense a chi presence without a scouter… You will teach it to us. It may be the only good thing to come out of that weakling planet."

"You can't do that? It's basic!" Bulma exclaimed, almost snickering to herself. "Amazing how lazy technology can make you. You never needed to sense chi on your own, so you never learned." She nodded at the scouter fastened to the side of his face.

Vegeta emitted a low growl, and Bulma quickly backed up. "Hey, calm down. I'm just saying… It's nice to one-up the enemy every once in a while."

"Spend five minutes aboard Frieza's ship, and I guarantee that your definition of enemy will change," said Vegeta. Bulma frowned.

"And what if I don't?" she said.

"What if you don't what?"

"What if I don't want in on this plan? What if I don't want to hide my chi? What if I don't want to step foot on that stupid ship at all?"

Vegeta smirked and stepped forward, leaning over so that his mouth was inches away from her face. Bulma stayed very still.

"What if we never go back for your friends?" he whispered.

Feeling his warm breath against her face sent another chill down her spine, and Bulma indignantly watched his back as he returned to the upper deck. No; he wasn't vulnerable. Not even for a moment.

...

"It's no use, Yamcha!" Krillin said, dropping to his knees and letting his chi fizzle out. "We've been flaring our chi for two hours now. No one's coming. It's hopeless."

Yamcha fell to the floor beside Krillin, weak and defeated. "Maybe you're right. I never thought it would end like this..." He fought back desperate tears as exhaustion and hunger finally took over.

"I think it will be quick, when the sun rises. I doubt this planet has much of an ozone layer. It'll be like one really really bad sunburn..." Krillin said, letting his body go limp. It was freezing, but his body was going numb. It wasn't entirely unpleasant. He wondered if it would be anything like the first time he died... when Tambourine had kicked him so hard in the forehead that it ended his life instantly. But back then, they had the dragonballs...

"Hey, is that the sun?" Yamcha asked, interrupting Krillin's reflections. He blinked several times, focusing on a faint flare in the distance.

"It doesn't really look like sunlight, but what do I know? Maybe it's a mirage."

"I think it's moving! What is it?"

Yamcha was right; it was moving, and it was approaching quickly. It didn't take long for them both to sense the life energy coming from the light source.

"What do you think, Krillin... Friend or enemy?" Yamcha asked. His numbing body grew tense, and he arched back into a defensive crouch, bracing himself.

"I'd say we're about to find out..." Krillin said, following his comrade's example.

The foreign being was only a few meters in front of them now, and they could just make out its appearance. It was shrouded in a bright golden light and had a humanesque figure, except that it was covered in dark, leathery skin. Krillin found himself comparing the being to a flying crocodile wearing body armor.

It came to an abrupt halt in front of them, and when he spoke, his voice was clear and deep. "Who are you?" He narrowed his yellow eyes suspiciously.

Yamcha nudged Krillin. "Go on, answer the guy," he said. Krillin rolled his eyes.

"I'm, er, Krillin, and this is Yamcha. We're from Earth," he said.

"How did you get here?"

Yamcha piped up. "Some crazy monkey-Saiyan guys left us here and took off with our other friends. We're stranded... Please don't kill us."

The creature looked thoughtful. "Frieza's henchmen," he muttered, then turned his attention back to them. "I am Luklar. I have also been imprisoned here. Follow me - we must get underground before the sun rises."

Krillin and Yamcha did not need to be told twice. They mustered up the remnants of their strength and took off in the air, following Lucklar and hoping they weren't flying towards death.

...

"What did he say?" Chi-Chi asked as soon as Bulma returned and sat beside her. Bulma mouthed "later" and stayed silent, staring into space from the window. She replayed the horrific image of Earth's explosion again and again in her head.

"We're stuck, Chi," she whispered at last, still staring out the window. "They want my help, but I can't do anything. I'm not... I mean, you saw what those Saiyans can do. How can I help? It's ludicrous."

Chi-Chi said nothing, the expression on her face fixed and blank. Suddenly, both women were shaken from their reveries as their small spaceship sputtered and jerked, and the lights flickered on and off.

"Holy fuck!" Radditz cried from the pilot's seat.

"What the hell was that?" Vegeta cried angrily, rushing to Radditz's side to examine the control panel.

"This piece of crap just shorted out," said Radditz. "Don't worry, the power's back on. Maybe it was a fluke..."

"Idiot! Did you have this ship fully serviced before we left?"

The look on Radditz's face told Vegeta the answer was clearly a negative. Vegeta cursed under his breath and pushed Radditz out of the cock pit.

"Don't get all worked up, Vegeta," said Kakkarot. "Everything's fine now."

As if on cue, the ship began shaking more violently than before, and the lights went out again. They did not come back on. Suddenly, the atmosphere was eerily silent.

"You were saying, Kakkarot?"

"Well... no gravity means no crash landing, right?" said Kakkarot feebly.

"Oh, sure. But then there's the issue of our oxygen supply running out. No big fucking deal, really," growled Vegeta.

"Oh right. I didn't think of that..."

Silently, Bulma and Chi-Chi watched the four Saiyan men argue and fret over the faulty space ship. Several times, Vegeta attempted to fix the ship by re-wiring the controls, but to no avail. Radditz also made an attempt, but he was equally unsuccessful. Nappa took his frustrations out on the ship by kicking the wall furiously. Nobody would let Kakkarot near the control panel, as they all agreed he would do more harm than good. They started debating over which one of them should go outside the ship and examine the engine.

The whole time this was happening, Chi-Chi kept shooting furtive glances at Bulma, wondering when she was going to intervene. "Bulma," she said quietly. "You can fix this, can't you?"

Bulma frowned. "Most likely. I don't know for sure, though. It's an alien spaceship! And do these guys really deserve to be saved?"

"Are you kidding? If they die, we die! And I'm human, I'll die before any of you, I can't hold my breath for more than a minute," Chi-Chi exclaimed, eyes wide with worry and fright.

Bulma sighed. "Right, I know. Obviously I'm going to try to fix it. But watching them squirm is... gratifying, you know?"

"Well if you're done getting your kicks, Bulma, I think I'm already starting to get light-headed."

Rolling her eyes at Chi-Chi's melodramatic comment, Bulma rose to her feet and approached the men.

"Excuse me! I think I'll take a look. Give me a suit and some tools and I'll check the engine out," she said, intercepting a very heated argument between the four Saiyans.

They all stared up at her, bewildered.

"What are you talking about? You think you can repair this ship?" Vegeta asked, his voice thick with suspicion.

"Look, I'm not going to make a run for it, or whatever you're thinking. I'll have you know that the man who raised me was a renowned inventor and mechanical engineer on Earth, and he taught me everything he knows. I guess you could say I'm technically a genius."

"You mean, you can fix shit?" said Nappa incredulously.

"I guess you could say that. Yes, I can fix shit."

Vegeta narrowed his eyes at her. "If you even attempt to get away, I'll make sure you never see your human friends again."

Bulma scoffed. "Blah blah blah. That threat is getting old. Get me suited up and I'll fix this junky spaceship."

Grudgingly, Vegeta allowed Bulma to don the only space suit they had on board and he and the rest of the ship's inhabitants watched her float slowly through the surrounding atmosphere with a rusty old toolbox tucked under her arm. She disappeared for several moments underneath the ship, and within five minutes the lights were flickering back on and the engine roared to life once more.

When Bulma returned to the ship, she discarded the musty old space suit and proclaimed happily, "Piece of cake. I thought alien technology would be more sophisticated."

She took her seat next to Chi-Chi, who looked relieved but weary. After several seconds, Kakkarot spoke up.

"So... she's even more useful than we thought, huh?" he said, a wide grin spreading across his face. His comrades' stunned expressions told him they silently agreed.