Time Warriors Chapter 17

He stole it – he stole it right out of my soul, and he kept it, and he won't give it back… he took a piece of my soul from me and refuses to give it back…

I will have it back, or die trying …

Allyssa grabbed Theo by the shoulders and hustled her through the doorway and out of the control room as fast as humanly possible, glaring at the Saiyan prince and the rest of his company on the way.

Get her out, get her moving, get her away from that monster – do it now before he changes his mind…

"…'lyssa," Theo managed, rasping the sound out of a throat hoarse from screaming. "…'lyssa …" She stumbled against the wall, her eyes red rimmed and fever bright, hair damp with perspiration plastered against her forehead and cheeks in tight, sweaty ringlets, her body still shaking with reaction.

"Shhh – don't talk, Theo," Allyssa murmured, her arm wrapped protectively around the smaller woman as she herded her down the hallway toward the opposite end of the TARDIS. "I'm getting you the hell out of here."

Whispered sounds scratched their way out of the Guardian's throat again as she shook her head. "No. Listen. Can't leave. Must … protect Elyse. Get Aunt Stranna – tell her –"

…find her… tell her I need her…

"No worries, dear," Allyssa said grimly, pulling the smaller woman closer to her as they hurried down the hall, her green eyes snapping in anger as a vein pulsed in her throat. "That's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to get your mother, and that bastard's going to pay for what he—"

"Not Mama," Theo breathed, leaning heavily on Allyssa as she shuffled next to her, "…Aunt Stranna." Her eyes looked odd – wide and unfocused with color swirling slowly, her gaze turned inward, seeing something appalling. "Can't talk – he's active. You know where—"

"Yes, I do," Allyssa interrupted, snagging a better grip on her friend as she pushed her to move faster. "We'll get whoever you want. Don't think about it. Don't visualize it – I'll handle it. It's dangerous for you to think about things when –" and she stopped, choosing her words carefully, not wanting to trigger a cascade of memories for her, "—when your thoughts can be overheard. You must be cautious."

Run, run, get away from the control room, away from the gates of hell …

Theo was panting; short, quick breaths lifted her shoulders in rapid succession, her face grimacing in misery. "I know – I know. I'm trying to fight, Allyssa. But – gods. I – I couldn't throw him out, he was too strong, so much stronger than I remember. And he …" Her breath caught in her throat and her grip tightened on Allyssa's arm.

"Shh, now," the Gant comforted her, the warrior woman's mouth drawn in a tight line of fury. If I do nothing else, I'm going to make sure she's as far away from that beast as possible. "Not much longer – we're almost there …"

They disappeared noiselessly through one of the many doors lining the hallway.

Complete and absolute silence blanketed the TARDIS control room; it was so quiet that the faint whirring of the electronics in the central column was audible.

Idiot woman – why did you attack me? Why did you attack him? You knew I'd have to hurt you …

The Saiyan prince scowled, his arms folded across his chest and his expression closed and forbidding. Despite his appearance, he was reeling from the events of the last hour. As incredible as it seemed, the woman who had freed his mind from its moorings when he was a child, the person who had unwittingly opened his soul to authentic mind-to-mind combat and communication was very much alive – and, apparently, still bound to him.

Vejiita was not the same person who had taken possession of her many years ago. That child had died and been quickly replaced by another, more hardened Saiyan, one that was able to withstand the cruelty and brutality of the culture he had been thrown into – that of the court of Freeza, the lizard tyrant. Ironically enough, it had been that glimpse into the world of psychic power that had saved the prince on more than one occasion – and it was also that latent psychic talent, along with the arrogance he wore like a shield, that drew the tyrant to Vejiita.

The prince had survived those years by virtue of his quick mind, his incredible power, and an enhanced ability to read his opponents on and off the battlefield. Those skills had stayed with him throughout his life, although his dependence on his psychic abilities lessened as the years passed. He never entirely abandoned them, though, and continued to practice on unsuspecting subjects as the notion struck him.

Subjects such as his wife, Bulma, and that fool of an Earthman, Kuririn.

Now, however, everything was coming back to him with a vengeance, and it had all been triggered by a chance encounter with the very being that had accidentally coaxed his latent abilities to life.

Idiot woman, he thought again, anger at her rebelliousness hot in his mind. You knew what would happen and you did it anyway. I hope you learned something useful …

He was extremely aware of the various emotional states of the people in the control room. Kakarotto, on the one hand, was just on the edge of a righteous rage; his horror at what he suspected the Saiyan prince had done was only tempered by the knowledge that he had no direct proof. Predictably, Kakarotto's idiot son was in the same state – even more so, as he had that Guardian woman's daughter standing next to him. There was a strange sense of protectiveness and loyalty directed at that woman coming straight from Gohan.

Vejiita closed his eyes briefly in exasperation. How stupid can he be? he thought irritably. I've already explained the danger many times over. These people have been fighting this way for centuries…

The Namek was standing next to the wall, saying nothing, as usual. That brought his attention to Theo's daughter, standing stock still next to the tall Saiyan, eyes lowered to the control panel in front of her. Vejiita's glare lingered over her; as he watched, a slow blush moved through her cheeks and her hand were trembling slightly in front of her, but she kept her gaze stubbornly locked on the board. There was no emotional aura surrounding her at all – absolutely nothing – and that told him volumes.

Just like your mother, he thought as he watched her. Headstrong and insolent, with an iron control over your feelings. You'd try to manipulate the paths of the planets if you could…

His son, he was happy to see, was standing back where he had been ordered, lightly holding onto Gokuu's arm. There was confusion and hurt in his gaze, but a strong sense of duty and allegiance toward his father kept him rooted in that spot, holding Gokuu back.

"Vejiita."

Gokuu shrugged off Trunks' restraining hand and stepped over to the other Saiyan, any outward awkwardness and hesitation gone. The teen tried to recapture Gokuu's arm in his grip, but was gently and firmly pushed aside as the larger man planted himself in front of the prince with his arms folded, scowling. He appeared every inch a self-assured Saiyan warrior, one who was influenced enough by the actions of his friend to view him as bordering the wrong side of insanity. "What's going on, Vejiita?"

Vejiita turned, frowning at the larger man, watching Gokuu's transformation from the unassuming Saiyan to a take-charge fighter with a practiced eye. "None of your business, baka - it had nothing to do with you," he snapped, sounding irritated.

"No, you're wrong," Gokuu objected, plainly becoming more disturbed as he stood in front of the prince, moving his hands to his hips. "You just made it our business. Why'd you treat her like that? I know you said that she's dangerous and all, but we could've handled her if anything had happened."

If anything had happened? Vejiita sneered to himself, keeping his manner stoic and cold. You mean nothing did?

Gohan nodded vigorously from his position at the control panel. "That's right, otousan – I agree. We could have easily stopped anything Theo started – she's not that big, and neither is her chi. It's much, much smaller than mine or otousan's or yours. So – why?" He frowned, looking intimidating. "I stayed out it this time, Vejiita, but I'm telling you now that there won't be a next time – I'm not going to allow you to treat Theo, or anyone else, that way again. I don't care WHAT your reason is."

He thinks her chi is SMALLER than Gokuu's? Piccolo wondered, standing with his back to the TARDIS wall and his muscular arms folded across his chest. He obviously can't see what I can see -

Unexpectedly, Dron chimed in from the far side of the ship. "Isn't that just great? Nice of you people to decide you're going to help her after the fact," he said sarcastically, glaring at Gokuu and Gohan with a mixture of anger and disgust. "I'm sure she'll feel much better knowing that you jumped in to defend her after she was whipped to a pulp by your friend over there."

Gokuu and Gohan simply looked at him, surprised. Vejiita turned his head to the side to look at the human as well. Heh, I forgot about you, he thought. The man's emotional control was nearly as complete as the woman's - impressive for a mere human - but the prince imagined he could see streaks of angry red shimmer around him every few seconds. Strangely enough, the man's anger did not appear to be directed at him, but at the others who stood by and watched Theo writhe on the floor.

Interesting, he thought, smirking. Very interesting.

Vejiita's face settled into its habitual scowl as he looked at the other Saiyans, his eyes calculating and cold. "You great fools," the prince snarled, his voice tinged with disgust. "Did either one of you listen to a single thing I said? Did any word penetrate those genetically thick skulls of yours? Do you remember anything at all?"

"Well, you said she was dangerous," Gokuu repeated patiently. "But she didn't do anything to us – I mean, we didn't see anything happen—"

Vejiita rolled his eyes heavenward in frustration. "Kakarotto, listen carefully and don't interrupt. I said she was evil. Evil. Remember the scores of dead warriors outside this vessel? They're all dead because she killed them with her mind. The woman is a psychic warrior – a psychic fighter – do you understand? You will never see her power as you can see mine, or yours, or your idiot son's, because it simply isn't made that way. Her power is inside her mind – she projects it to other people's minds, where she wreaks havoc by burning their brain from the inside out. Or stopping their hearts. Or doing what she did to kill scores of people at the same time."

Dron rolled away from the door of the TARDIS, shuffled forward until he stood next to the control console near the center of the room, leaned on the machine and crossed his arms in front of his chest, his eyes piercing and cold. "Listen, you," he said, speaking directly to Vejiita, his voice rubbing against his vocal chords like gravel, "I know you can blast me into the middle of next week without as much as a thought – and I'm sure me and my guns are just a big joke to you. But I don't care - I'm going to tell you something you probably don't want to hear. I hate to see anyone maligned like this."

Vejiita regarded him with a level stare. "Well?"

"If you're talking about that woman Theo being this all-powerful psychic warrior, then yeah, I agree with you, she's pretty dangerous – but she is not evil, not at all. Those animals out there—" and he jerked his head toward the door "—that you keep talking about had kidnapped that woman, did you know that? and they were going to sell her with a bunch of other sorry-ass people to some lousy alien for slave labor, or food, or sport. She used her power to free me, herself and all those other captives – and she didn't kill anyone outright. They did that themselves." Dron spat on the floor in disgust. "Those things were rotten to the core, and someone should've killed them long before today."

One eyebrow shot up as he listened, interested. "Is that so?" he murmured. "How, exactly, did she do that?"

The tech frowned. "I'm not entirely sure, but ... she said she went into some of the warrior's minds and told them to fight each. She never told them to kill each other, though – she said that was entirely their idea. In fact, she told me she tried to stop them."

Perfect, Vejiita thought, his sharp eyes growing brighter as he stared at the spacer. That's perfect. I've got you now, Guardian.

Gokuu thought, then said suddenly, "I remember – when we first flew over the area, there were all these bodies – it looked like there had been a war. And it smelled so bad …"

Dron nodded. "There had been – but it was between those creatures. We tried to escape, but all of a sudden there were more of them dropping out of the sky – and then she did something else that I can't remember –"

"That's very interesting, human," Vejiita interrupted, looking at the man, "because something like that comes up in what I'm about to say." The prince pointedly turned toward Gokuu, fixing him with a piercing stare. "I'm going to give you a little history lesson, Kakarotto, because I'm in the mood to do just that – and because you're being more dense, if possible, than you usually are."

"What are you talking about, Vejiita?" Gokuu asked, confused.

The prince sighed, watching Gokuu carefully. "Listen, Kakarotto, and listen well. I first met that woman when I was a child – no more than five. Her people were slaves on Vejiitasei; my father found them several years before my birth, hidden on a rock in a backwards system, and relocated as many as he could to our planet. Why? Because of the legends surrounding them – legends of power and immortality and the possibility of attaining them both. My father believed he could tame and control them, and then the women and their power would be his for the asking. But he was wrong."

"Immortality?" Gohan wondered, but a baleful look from the older man silenced him. Vejiita continued, still glaring at the young Saiyan.

"It was a fierce battle – many Elite soldiers died, as did many of their own people – but an invention by a long dead race won the day for us. Large golden collars, controlled by small bursts of chi applied to several areas of the device at once, shut down all psychic emissions from each woman. Without that power, they were helpless – you can see they're physically weak –" he said, pointing at Elyse, "and so were pulled from their planet to ours."

An involuntary shiver went though Elyse's hands at the control board. Vejiita noticed the movement, but chose not to remark on it.

"They appear weak, but they are not, Kakarotto - not at all. They are one of the most dangerous and evil species in the galaxy. Why else do you think we imprisoned them on Vejiitasei? Unleashing them on an unsuspecting cosmos would have been the worst thing we could have done.

This woman – this woman you so fiercely want to protect – stood in front of one of the Elite common rooms one day and did exactly what that human just described. Totally unprovoked, she stood in an alcove outside the garrison's common room, chose her victims and plunged into the minds of Elite warriors. Without their knowledge or consent, she manipulated something in their brains that made them want to fight and kill each other – and she did this without anyone detecting her presence. Remember, these were Saiyan warriors that supposedly had been trained to withstand the worst any race could offer - they were Elites, the best and finest of Vejiitasei. Over thirty of them were bested by one small, weak woman who wasn't even fighting.

Do you know what she did, Kakarotto? She whipped those soldiers into such a frenzy that they destroyed that room and each other – they actually blew the walls to bits. She stood there and watched them slay each other, and smiled as they died. And – so that you don't misunderstand – she was wearing the device that supposedly stopped her psychic emissions. She wasn't supposed to be able to do that, Kakarotto, but she did."

He took a deep breath and continued. "The evidence was clear. This woman was evil - a threat to the Saiyan race, and should have been destroyed. I watched the whole thing from a small stairway - she had her back to me, and at first it just looked as though she was only watching the fight. But then I felt this itching in the back of my head," and he rubbed his head for emphasis, "itching that wouldn't go away … do you remember you said the same thing not long ago, Kakarotto? That your head itched?"

Gokuu rubbed the back of his head and frowned, thinking hard.

Vejiita nodded, his eyes narrowed. "Good. Think about it, Kakarotto. Never forget that feeling – it means that she or others like her are wielding their power near you, and can also mean you are being attacked."

Gokuu's eyes widened in shock and recognition. "But Vejiita – I felt that before –"

The prince smiled sourly. "Is it becoming clearer to you now, baka? That she's not as innocent as she looks?" As he gathered himself to continue his story, he glanced over at Elyse and almost laughed out loud. Her face was flushed and she was breathing rapidly; that iron control he had noticed before had slipped. She was watching Gokuu intently – her eyes had started to change color, from a sky blue to a darker, more somber blue, showing some inner turmoil.

Good, he thought. Let's see how much you can take.

"When I watched her from that alcove, I saw that she wasn't just looking at the action, she was guiding it – and actually enjoying it. Well – I was young and cocky, and had heard all the rumors about those people – and I was curious. So I surprised her." Another mocking smile touched his lips as he remembered. "I gave her a choice – either declare to my father and the rest of the Elites how it was that she could use power without an Elite's permission – and therefore deactivation of at least part of the collar – or show me how she did it. She chose the latter."

Vejiita stared at each of the Earth senshi in turn. "So – here's a woman that, by all accounts, appears completely helpless – can't fly, doesn't run very fast, isn't physically very impressive at all – but she ends of killing scores of people. And she does it without moving a muscle or powering up, the way we do." In one natural motion, Vejiita turned away from Gokuu and pointed accusingly at Elyse, drawing everyone's attention to the adolescent across from him. "I'm sure that's not the first time you've seen that happen, is it?"

Elyse jerked her head away from his hand, the colors of her eyes changing furiously. "That's none of your business, you nasty piece of—"

Vejiita smirked unpleasantly as he stared at her. "Well. I thought as much. Power, coupled with absolute malevolence like your mother's, doesn't stay unused for long." Turning his back on an indignant Elyse to face the other senshi, he snorted, "Now tell me, Kakarotto – even your dim mind should be able to grasp this – exactly how dangerous is a weapon that can strike anytime, anywhere, at anyone, and can't be seen?"

"Pretty dangerous," Gokuu acknowledged, shaking his head.

"So why would you permit this weapon to move around, unsupervised, or even change hands? Aren't you risking other people's lives when you do that, and allowing the evil to spread?"

"How dare you – my mother's not a weapon – she's not like that at all!" Elyse burst out, her hands clenched in fists and her eyes blazing in fury. "Stop saying things like that, you horrible man – you're the monster, not her! You and – and everyone else here!"

Gohan leaned down toward her, concerned. "No, no, Elyse – we're not your enemies – we're here to help you."

She glared and him and drew back, angry. "You're listening to him - you're practically agreeing with him!"

"So, we're the monsters? Vejiita murmured, turning back to regard the woman behind the control panel. "Then tell us - what's your mother really like?" The senshi collectively turned their attention toward Elyse again.

"Watch what you say, girl," Dron warned, sliding his gaze toward Vejiita. "This one's no friend of yours."

She is young, isn't she? Vejitta thought, watching the Guardian gather herself to launch a verbal attack against him. Not mature at all. Heh – that's an advantage.

"I can take care of myself, thank you very much," Elyse snapped in Dron's direction, never allowing her gaze to waver from Vejiita's. "I don't need anyone's help."

Arrogant, too, the prince thought with amusement as he kept his face expressionless. I'll bet she can't restrain herself when she's angry, either. So much the better…

"I know all about Saiyans," Elyse snarled, staring hard at Vejiita across the instrumentation, "and especially about you, Vejiita no ouji. Your name is hated – hated, do you hear me? – among my people. The things the Saiyans, and particularly you, did to my people were abominable." Her anger and hostility peaking, she shoved Gohan out of the way with a surprising strength and stalked around the control panel until she stood in front of the prince, her wrath barely contained. Rage made her eyes sparkle as their color changed and shifted – from maroon to velvet blue to a royal purple streaked with pink, and then back again. She appeared to be a small, compact, red headed fury, standing with her arms akimbo and her legs planted slightly apart, slight tendrils of hued energy licking around them.

The hairs on the back of Gokuu's neck and Gohan's arms stood straight up as the energy potential in the control room slid from slightly more than zero to tremendous in a moment. Trunks' fine lavender hair was floating around his head, as if he was in a static electric storm. Piccolo watched impassively from the side of the control room, his arms folded across his chest. Dron stood next to the control panel, his face set in an emotionless mask.

"I'm … itching," Gohan murmured, wide-eyed, as he clasped the back of his neck. He looked over at Gokuu and then at Trunks, who both nodded at him in shocked agreement, their hands nervously rubbing the backs of their own necks . Gokuu shifted his large bulk, moving so that he could keep Elyse directly in his line of sight. "It … it started when she –"

"I know, Gohan," Gokuu said, watching Elyse with his mouth slightly open. "I'm feeling it, too. Vejiita, what do we do? How – how do we know if—"

"Be still, Kakarotto," the prince ordered, a enigmatic expression on his face. "I'll take care of this. You just remember that you're seeing only a small part of the power these women wield."

Gokuu, Gohan and Trunks stood still, watching, feeling extremely uneasy and exposed. Moving, fighting enemies were something that they all understood; but an enemy that didn't move, didn't dodge, and didn't even appear to be fighting was simply … weird. How could she be an enemy?

Elyse ignored everything Vejiita said to the Earth senshi; instead, she concentrated on the villain in front of her. "I couldn't do anything while you were torturing my mother – and why you did that, Kami only knows – but I can certainly do something now." She glared at the senshi ringed around her, dimly realizing that she was in the center of a circle of Saiyans – do I really know what I'm doing? – and not caring in the least, only wanting to vent her spleen at the man who had hurt her mother.

"You – and everyone else here – are guests on our ship," she bit out, scowling furiously at him. One long, carefully manicured finger jabbed at Vejiita's chest several times, her hand unconsciously swathed in multihued power, trails of energy hovering in the air. "Guests, mind you. But you – you horrid, awful man – tortured and then defamed my mother right in front of me. In front of me!" Her anger seemed to burst out of her eyes as she wrinkled her nose and hissed at him, "Get. Out. Now. You can just drag your ugly Saiyan carcass out of here before I throw you out."

Shocked silence greeted Elyse's command. Dron stood up a little straighter and dropped his hands into his side pockets. Small bulges appeared on the sides of his legs, bulges that had a suspiciously snub-nosed look to them.

I can't believe she said that, the prince thought, stopping himself from laughing out loud. "Are you threatening, me, woman? You are going to throw me out of this vessel?"

"You're damn right I am," Elyse hissed, her eyes appearing even larger than they had been, the color suddenly solidifying to a uniform, impenetrable black. She moved forward until she was inches away from Vejiita, her head slightly tilted up to look into his eyes, her hands loosely dangling from her sides. "Now. Get. Out."

Vejiita threw back his head and roared with laughter, finally controlling himself enough to stare back at her and grin, "No. I'm not leaving. You'll have to throw me out."

A hateful smile whisked across her face as her eyes sparkled at the prince. "Excellent. I was hoping you'd say that," she murmured as she pulled wellspring power into herself, hued lightning crackling and leaping around her arms.

Vejiita smiled.

Trunks' eyes grew even larger at her display. Any hair in the room that hadn't been standing straight up immediately did so; Elyse's red curls floated gently in the air, waving as though a breath of chi delicately tousled them with sensitive fingers. She was the picture of innocence and beauty as she faced Vejiita – except for her eyes. Her eyes were dark, threatening and deadly, boring into the prince.

Do you see this, bakas? Vejiita sent to the Saiyans, underscoring the difference between her appearance and her true intent. Make sure you remember.

Vejiita folded his arms across his chest and stared at her. "Well?" he asked softly, gesturing at her with one hand. "Ladies first."

Elyse needed no further encouragement. Power surged from her hands as she simultaneously attacked Vejiita mentally and physically, slamming into his mind as hard as she could, trying to force her way in as a large, dazzling fireball lanced from her fingers toward his face and burst in a fiery display.

"'Tousan! Watch out!" cried Gohan as he threw his forearm across his face, shielding it from the blinding light.

As her vision cleared, though, a sense of horror settled around Elyse's heart. There was the prince – not even singed, not even a little – smiling in front of her, while her precious psychic energy ball was spread across the walls of the TARDIS, stray lightning licking up and across the sides of the room.

And she couldn't even pierce the shielding around his mind. It was so strong – it felt like her mother's shield in some way …

"So – it's my turn now, isn't it?" Vejiita said, grinning at her dismayed expression. Faster than she could see, the prince smoothly placed one hand along the curve of her neck so that his fingers rested on her nape. Elyse gasped and jerked back; however, Vejiita was having none of it and held her firmly in place, his fingers like gloved steel.

"I want to personally thank you for saving my son from your mother. That psychic net was an inspired piece of work – you knew she'd try to kill him, too, didn't you?"

"What?" Gokuu said, nonplused. "She tried to kill Trunks?"

The Saiyan teen turned to look at Elyse, his mouth turned in an O of surprise. "Your - your mother tried to kill me?" he asked, his voice rising on the last word of his sentence. "But - but - why?"

Elyse's body was rigid; she stared up at Vejiita with an unreadable expression, her gaze darting back and forth between Trunks and the prince. Any residual power licking around her arms faded abruptly. "What … what …" she stammered, her curls floating to the side of her face as she swallowed and shook her head in denial, "I - I don't know what you're talking about."

Shuddering, Elyse could still feel the vibrations pulsing through her nerves from the impact of her mother's psychic lance. She was so … ferocious, Elyse thought, swallowing. If I hadn't thrown the net over him, the boy would've been dead. Very, very, dead. How did he know about that?

"Well, really," Vejiita chided, moving his fingers from the nape of her neck to the juncture of her skull and spine, "it was obvious. Your mother was trying to kill me; my son was trying to protect me, and when she turned toward him, her intent was clear. It was your net that protected him against her attack, and that gave me enough time to recover."

"She tried to kill Trunks?" Gokuu repeated, louder than his last proclamation, his eyebrows drawn together in a thunderous frown. "Trunks? That's how she decided to repay him for saving her daughter?"

Vejiita's gaze slid over Gokuu's angry, taut body with a sardonic grin. That's right, Kakarotto. Think about it that way.

"But," Elyse started, confused, "I - I never said—"

"No – you never said anything," Vejiita agreed as his fingers unerringly found the hollow at the base of her skull and pushed gently. "But you didn't have to say a word. I can see there's something your mother obviously didn't share with you."

The Saiyan looked directly at the young woman, his fingers exploring the contours of the base of her head as he accessed her psyche.

Your mother and I are linked – she is my psychic, and has been since I was very young. I know exactly what she does, when she does it, and who she's doing it with – and I don't tolerate any insubordination on her part. Ask her if you don't believe me.

A sadistic smile spread across his face as he watched her expression. And yes, I can communicate mind to mind with you. That was a gift to me from your mother. I'd imagine that since she's my psychic, you must be mine, too – by extension. What do you think?

His mental voice reverberated smoothly inside her head, resonating along pathways usually reserved for her family and friends – and here was this alien, this Saiyan, talking with her as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world to have him inside her mind …

Elyse gasped and slapped Vejiita's hand away from her neck, backing away from him and into the TARDIS control console in shock, shaking her head in emphatic denial.

Also – that was the first and last opportunity to attack me that you'll ever have. Don't be a fool like your mother - if you try something like that again, you will most certainly live to deeply regret it.

Oh, no ... Elyse stared at Vejiita with wide, terrified eyes, desperately erected smooth mental walls around her mind, and scuttled to the opposite side of the control console. A heavy sense of guilt and grief weighed on her as she put as much physical distance between the prince and herself as possible. Oh, gods, Mama, what did I do ... what did you do...

"No," she panted, staring at him, dismay and alarm plainly written across her face. "That's not right – no one told me –"

Vejiita smirked at her. "I'm sure no one told you. There's a lot about this universe that you don't know."

"Why don't you leave the kid alone, buddy?" Dron said, moving his body between Vejiita and Elyse. "She's upset enough without you pushing at her. Anything else is just cruel."

"Shut up and mind your own business," Vejiita said evenly, staring at Dron until the spacer lowered his gaze. The prince stood his ground and smirked again. "Well?" he demanded, looking from Gokuu to Gohan to Trunks, ignoring the Namek in the background. "Are you convinced? Or do you need to see more?"

"No, Vejiita, I believe you," Gokuu said heavily, looking at Elyse in sorrow and shaking his head. "But what're we gonna do? I dunno how to stop someone who attacks like that –"

"Well, Gokuu – you can see something happening around her hands and arms when she's doing something with her power," ventured Trunks, blinking at his father, "so if one of us stayed with her all the time while she's here, then we'd be able to see what they were doing, and everything would be all right." Trunks finished and looked around at he three older senshi, a small shred of hope in his voice.

Vejiita and Gokuu exchanged glances and frowned. "We'll have to do something like that, Trunks," Gokuu said finally, looking back at the adolescent. "Right now, I just don't know what that'll be – but whatever it is, they're gonna hafta stay with us."

"Permanently," Vejiita said, his matter-of-fact manner more threatening than any bluster.

Elyse gaped at Vejiita, leaning on her elbows, not believing what she just heard. Permanently? What does he mean, permanently? He's not expecting that we'll – live – with him, is he? As she tried to absorb this latest shock, she looked down at the control board and audibly sucked in her breath.

Oh, no, Mama ...

"Look – don't worry – I'm sure he didn't mean—" Gohan started, solicitous again as he bent toward her.

Elyse shrank back against the control panel, her hands flat on the board. "I – I don't understand – really, I—"

Another pair of hands larger than hers deftly lifted hers off the board and spun Elyse around. An inconspicuous yellow light was flashing next to a label, neatly stenciled, that read, "Aux Control Room Power" – and next to the light was a small holograph of a woman murmuring, "Transfer in progress – seventy-five percent complete."

Vejiita stared straight into her eyes and gave her his dangerous, killing smile as he quietly said, "You will take us to this other control room – and you will do it quickly, or else I will destroy you, your mother and this vessel completely. Now."

Elyse stood for an interminable moment, swallowed and finally nodded. "Hai," she whispered. "This way."