The Bond

They were finally close to Bulma, and Katima began to descend, spotting the narrow canyon her friend was hiding in. She had the Dragon Ball tied to her ankle, which Katima found rather funny. Touching down lightly beside her friend, Bulma jumped wildly and looked at Katima with wide eyes.

"Katima, you're okay!" she hugged her tightly.

"It's a long story, Bulma," said Katima, "I'm glad you're okay, I'll ask about how you got away later."

"What?" Bulma looked over to see Krillin untying the Dragon Ball.

"Sorry, Bulma, we need the Dragon Ball, we'll be right back," he said and looked over at Vegeta with the Dragon Ball in his arms, "Where's the rest of them?"

"Follow me," said Vegeta, and took off into the sky.

Katima smiled sheepishly at Bulma and then followed him, calling to her, "Just wait here! We'll be back!"

"Wait!" Bulma was screaming, but they kept going.

Too much at stake. She wish she could tell Bulma everything, but there wasn't enough time.

She caught up to Vegeta and he glanced at her then quickly away. She could tell he was seriously miffed that she was equal to him. She smirked lightly, but then focused on what she truly wanted to ask him.

"Vegeta," she began, and he looked back at her, "I have a question."

"What is it?" Vegeta snapped.

"I want you to remove my tail," she said.

Vegeta raised an eye brow, "Your tail holds a lot of power, Katima, are you a fool?"

"The reason I fell out of the sky when you caught me, it was because I was recovering from someone grabbing my tail," she said.

"Mmm," Vegeta looked away, "We'll worry about it later."

Katima slowed to fly next to Gohan and glanced at her nephew, "I had no idea you had so much power, Gohan."

"Are you kidding?" asked Gohan, "Have you any idea of your own? We might really have a chance now!"

"Will you stop your pointless chattering?" Vegeta snarled over his shoulder, "Even if Katima is some how at my level of strength, we still are no match for the Ginyu Force!"

They stopped talking, all looking at one another with worried eyes.

"We're nearly there," Vegeta continued, beginning to descend.

Katima landed lightly beside the prince and followed him toward a small indent in the six foot tall cliff face where five Dragon Balls were sitting, glistening in the sunlight.

"Okay, we have to hurry," Vegeta said, rushing toward them, "We don't have long before the Ginyu Force- hey?" he turned and Katima followed his gaze to see Krillin and Gohan had stopped, scowls on their faces, Krillin clutching the Dragon Ball tightly.

"What do you think you're doing?" Vegeta demanded.

"We don't trust you, Vegeta," said Gohan.

"Yeah," said Krillin, "You haven't pledged your allegiance to Team Fourstar yet!"

"Are you kidding me?" Vegeta shouted, "This is no time for trust issues! We have to make me immortal or the Ginyu Force will kill us all!"

Krillin looked down at the ball, seeming to think, "We use the wish on Gohan," he said finally, looking up.

"That kid doesn't have the fighting experience to do it!" Vegeta cried, "It has to be me!"

"Can't we just wish for the strength to beat the Ginyu Force?" Katima asked.

"Yeah!" said Gohan, "That's perfect!"

Vegeta turned to glare at her menacingly, opened his mouth to argue, but his eyes went to hover over Katima's shoulder, eyes widening in horror.

Katima whirled to see five beings standing between them and the Dragon Balls. It was the strangest bunch she had ever seen. The shortest one was green with four eyes, the extra ones on the sides of his large, scaly head. The next one was red-skinned, rather handsome faced, with long white hair. Beside him was the most human looking of them, but he was enormous, towering over her, with a fray of orange hair. Then, even taller than him was a blue-skinned scaly being, eyes all red, no pupils or irises or whites, just red. Then, the medium sized one, which was obvious the leader, his skin purple and two horns bursting from his skull, not unlike Frieza's.

"Hi Vegeta," said the leader, smirking.

"Oh, Goddamn it," Vegeta hissed, "You all just had to argue with me, had to get in the way!"

"Hand over the Dragon Balls, Vegeta," said the red-skinned man, "Or we'll have to take it from ya."

"Shut up, Jeice," Vegeta spat, "If you think I'm going to let you have this ball you're insane."

"Why does he sound Australian?" Katima asked.

Vegeta didn't even answer her. With a cry of desperation, he threw the Dragon Ball he was holding away, and it rocketed between Gohan and Krillin, making them flinch. But a blue blur went flying by with such force it knocked Katima off her feet, but Vegeta caught her before she fell, and pulled her up, keeping his arms around her as he turned to see the blue blur returning. It whooshed past them again, making them hold each other in order to remain standing. They turned back to see that the large blue being had the one star Dragon Ball in his hand, and tossed it over his shoulder to add it to the pile behind them.

"Thank you Burter," said the leader with a smirk.

"No problem, boss," Burter replied.

"B-but I threw that as hard as I could!" Vegeta gasped.

"It's what I do," said Burter, smiling at them, "You can't beat my speed, I'm the fastest in the universe! By the way, Vegeta, I didn't know you had a love interest, I didn't think you could express that kind of emotion."

It took them a moment to understand what the alien was getting at. Vegeta and Katima looked at each other, let out yelps of shock and disgust and leapt apart.

"She means nothing to me," Vegeta spat, turning to look at the five some, "So you can throw that ridiculous assumption out the window, understand?"

"Why so defensive, Vegeta?" laughed the tall humanoid with orange hair, "She's sure pretty."

Katima blushed brightly and turned to look at Krillin, "DESTROY IT!" she shouted.

Krillin got the message. He looked down at the Dragon Ball, his face twisted in determination, then raised a fist, roaring with battle, and brought it down with mighty force. But suddenly, the Dragon Ball was gone. Krillin stumbled and looked at his empty hands in aw. Katima turned and saw with horror that the tiny green being had the Dragon Ball. But how did he get it?

"What the hell?" Krillin cried.

Vegeta snarled in anger, "It must be true then. I didn't want to think that a creature as weak as Guldo could possess power to stop time, but there was the proof right there."

"Stop time?" gasped Gohan, "How is that possible?"

Guldo laughed manically, and gave the Dragon Ball to his Leader, who added it to his pile.

"Well, men, I think that you can handle these four," said the leader, and the Dragon Balls all began to hover, surrounding him as he too rose into the air, "Do try to be careful, Frieza wants Vegeta alive."

"No problem, Captain Ginyu," said Jeice, smiling up at him, "We'll make short work of them!"

"Oh, by all means, do enjoy yourselves," said Ginyu as he flew away, "I'm sure Frieza will have all the time in the world once he's made his wish!"

They watched helplessly as Ginyu disappeared in the distance. It didn't matter now. Even if they survived the Ginyu Force, Frieza had all the Dragon Balls. They were officially screwed.

"Who gets to go first?" asked the tall humanoid.

"I don't know about you, Reccome," said Jeice, "But I think we should have Vegeta go first."

"Okay, who gets him?" Burter asked.

With that, they began in an intense game of rock paper scissors to decide.

Katima and Vegeta backed up to join Krillin and Gohan, who both looked terrified.

"They're treating this like a game," said Katima in horror, "They're not even taking us seriously. It's like they're not even worried!"

Vegeta gritted his teeth and growled in rage, "No! I can't die like this- I'm a prince!"

"They want you alive, you're lucky," said Krillin.

"Maybe we should tell them about the bond," said Gohan, looking at Katima, "Then they won't hurt you either."

"Are you insane?" Vegeta turned to face the boy, who flinched, "Let our enemy know my greatest weakness? Don't be a fool!"

"It was just a suggestion," said Gohan softly, bowing his head.

"Aw man!"

They all turned to see Guldo looking furious and Reccome laughing victoriously.

"I wanted Vegeta!" Guldo cried, "I owe him!"

"Calm down, Guldo," said Burter, "Tell you what, you can have both of the little ones. And we'll even let you go first."

"And you can put a few hits in on Vegeta too, if you want," said Reccome.

Guldo sighed, but looked over at Krillin and Gohan and seemed to cheer up, "Alright. Let's go!"

He stepped forward.

"It looks like you're going first," said Vegeta, "Do not head straight for him, understand? With Guldo's psychic powers, that would be suicide."

"Got it," said Krillin, stepping forward, "His power level is the weakest. Maybe we stand a chance. Come on, Gohan."

"We can't let them fight alone," Katima said, making to step forward, but Vegeta grabbed her arm.

"We're playing by their rules, Katima," he said when she looked back at him, "We'll live longer if we go through with their little games."

Katima sighed and relaxed. She couldn't believe she was listening to Vegeta's orders. How so much could change in so little time.

She knew she could take that Guldo easily. She was relatively sure that Krillin and Gohan were stronger than the alien, but with Guldo's ability to stop time, things could get hairy.

"Don't start the fun without us."

"Perfect," spat Vegeta as four new comers landed beside the Ginyu Force.

"Rilan's Pride?" Burter turned and smiled, "Well, how perfect! It's been a long time, brother."

Among this new group was what looked like a miniature Burter, the same height at Jeice, and another that looked just like the red-skinned alien, only as tall as Reccome.

"Hey, bro!" Jeice went to the tall version of himself, though the taller one had shorter hair than him, "Leir! I didn't know you were on Namek!"

"Long story," said Leir, looking down at him with a smirk.

Katima was paying more attention to the blue-haired man in the front of the new group. His eyes were narrowed as he stared at her and Vegeta. He had strange dark lines on his face that traced from the outer corners of his eyes to his chin line. He seemed very serious, more than any of the Ginyu Force.

"What gives?" Katima demanded, "Is the entire band wagon coming?"

"That's Rilan's Pride," said Vegeta, "They're weaker than the Ginyu Force, excluding the leader," he gazed at the blue haired man, "Rilan himself. He is the last of his race, and he grows stronger as he ages. He is over a hundred years old."

"Is he strong enough to kill us?" Katima asked.

"He's about even, but I'm sure he thinks he's stronger than us. Scouters are so unreliable for an accurate power read, and he hasn't discovered how to sense life without one yet."

"He has two men on his team related to two on the Ginyu Force," said Katima.

"Yes, the four of them went through camp together, but Ginyu took the stronger ones. But Rilan seemed to see potential in the weaker two," Vegeta scowled, "That Sequan that attacked us with Zarbon? He was part of Rilan's Pride," Vegeta then smirked, "I suppose he's so straight faced because he knows I killed him."

"Who's the big guy?" Katima asked, just now taking notice of the tall broad blond humanoid beside Rilan, one that hadn't spoken yet.

"Wes," said Vegeta, "Then there's Leir and Nicron."

"You're having a game?" Rilan asked, looking back at Jeice, "Where's Ginyu?"

"He's takin' the Dragon Balls to Frieza," said Jeice, smiling at him, "And yeah, you guys can join in if ya like, but afraid the only opponent left is the girl."

"That female is a Saiyan," said Rilan, turning to look at Katima, "I've been given orders to destroy her for Frieza."

"Fantastic," breathed Katima, taking a slight step back, "Now what?"

"Hold your ground," Vegeta snapped, "Don't show fear."

"Oh no, you're not ruining the game, Rilan," said Burter, "Ginyu's sitting this out, its only fair that the leader of your group does too. Where's Sequan, by the way?"

Rilan scowled, "Vegeta killed him."

"What?" the Ginyu Force all looked at each other for a moment in shock and then began to all laugh hysterically.

"How could Sequan let himself get killed by such a wimp?" asked Reccome.

"Excatly what we're wonderin', mate," said Leir, "By all means, continue with your game, but Rilan has dibs on delivering Vegeta to Frieza."

"Aw fine, but I'm the one who gets to beat him up," said Reccome.

"Not so fast, I'm going first!" said Guldo, stepping forward.

"Get this game going, Burter," said Nicron to his taller brother, "I haven't had lunch yet today."

Krillin and Gohan stepped forward and both held themselves at the ready.

"Keep you guard up," Krillin muttered to Gohan.

"That's right, keep up your guard," said Guldo, "Don't drop it- not even for a instant!"

The next thing Katima was aware of was the great rock that was suddenly above Krillin and dropped down to smash him. The rest of them stared in horror at the boulder laying where Krillin had been moments ago. Guldo laughed victoriously, but then Krillin appeared, pushing the rock off of him, blinking in surprise.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"That was supposed to crush you," Guldo said, looking put out.

"They don't know how strong they are," said Katima, "Foolish."

"Don't under estimate Guldo," said Vegeta, "He may be a weakling, but his psychic powers are not to be trifled with."

The battle truly began, and it was obvious that Krillin and Gohan had the advantage here. They landed hit after hit, but every so often, Guldo would seem to teleport away from them, however Katima knew it was his stopping time that achieved this. But even with his powers, Gohan and Krillin were obviously going to win. However, the boys' confidence seemed to get the better of them.

With battle cries, Gohan and Krillin charged, but they had ignored Vegeta's advice, they were going head on. Guldo smiled and held up his hands and pinched them in the air, and suddenly, Gohan and Krillin stopped moving in midair, a strange orange aura surrounding them both. They were struggling, but it appeared that they couldn't even budge their limbs.

"Fools," spat Vegeta, "Why didn't they listen to me?"

Katima watched in horror as Guldo laughed victoriously and a tree behind him uprooted on its own. The top bit with the branches and limbs was ripped off, then the bottom where the roots were. Now both ends resembled that of a sharpened pencil, and it floated up and twisted to aim directly at Krillin. Guldo laughed wildly, "Sorry, Q ball, but that bright shiny head of yours is just the perfect target!"

"Vegeta, we have to do something!" Katima cried, turning to face him, but Vegeta was gone.

Blinking, Katima looked back toward the fight, and only saw a flash of light, and Vegeta running past Guldo, his arm out like a blade. When he relaxed, Katima watched as Guldo's head slid from his shoulders. Gohan and Krillin fell to the ground, along with the tree. Katima rushed forward to check if they were okay, just hearing Guldo's disembodied head mumble, "Why can't I feel my everything?"

Vegeta loomed over Guldo's head with a smirk, looking down at his remains with satisfaction. Katima would never understand the terrible joy Vegeta felt when killing.

"I hate you…" Guldo hissed up at him.

"I know," said Vegeta, aiming an open palm down at him and releasing a quick burst of energy that reduced Guldo's head to nothing.

"Thanks, Vegeta," said Krillin, getting to his feet.

"Yeah, you really saved us there," said Gohan.

Vegeta's smile faded as he glared toward them, "I did not do that to save you. I saw my advantage, and I took it, that is all."

"What a hard ass," Katima muttered.

"I feel kind of bad," said Gohan softly, "I mean, we just killed their team mate. They must be devastated."

Katima looked toward the watching group and frowned, "Don't be too sure."

"Oi, is that Guldo?" she heard Jeice ask, "Is he dead?"

"How tragic," laughed Reccome.

Rilan was watching Vegeta with narrowed eyes now. Katima knew he had no clue how Vegeta's power had risen so much. She could sense that this Rilan was hiding something. She had a terrible feeling about it.

"Looks like you're up, Reccome," said Nicron, looking up at the burly man, "But be careful, that Vegeta is fast, but not as fast as me, because I'm the fastest in the universe!"

"Hey, no way, I'm the fastest in the universe!" Burter snapped, glaring down at his brother.

"You're the youngest," snapped Nicron, "There's no way you're faster than me!"

They growled at each other and by Katima's astonishment they began to battle. And by God, the movements… they were incredible! It seemed the brothers weren't kidding about being so fast. Katima's eyes, despite her new found power, was finding it difficult to follow their movements. It simply looked like a blue blur raging across the landscape. When it began to head in their direction, Katima was tackled out of the way just in time for them to roar by.

Expecting to see Krillin, who had been closest to her, Katima looked up to see Vegeta over her, shielding her and looking over his shoulder at the brawling siblings with wide eyes.

"Get off of me!" Katima pushed him off and stood, placing hands on her hips, "I can take care of myself!"

Vegeta opened his mouth to reply, but it was Katima's turn to pull Vegeta out of the way as the two aliens came soaring by again. He hissed in anger, but paused in whatever he was going to say and pushed her to the ground again as the blue blur of battling came back. Streams of insults were coming from the brothers as they called each other every name in the book.

"You're so short you'd need a ladder to punch Guldo in the face!"

"You're way too fat to be the fastest!"

Katima and Vegeta made sure they brawled far enough away before entering an argument of their own.

"Goddamn it, Katima, pay attention!" Vegeta hissed.

"You're the one that nearly got ran over!" Katima snapped.

"Well if you hadn't pushed me, maybe I wouldn't have been in the path!" Vegeta shouted.

They glared at one another before they both seem to become aware of the fact that Vegeta was atop her, and his legs straddled around her hips.

Letting out yelps of disgust, they sprang apart in time to hear Rilan's voice shout, "NICRON! Stop this nonsense right now!"

The two brawling brothers paused, both panting, but it appeared that neither of them had any injuries. They must had dodged every hit the other made. Now that was speed.

"Fine," spat Burter, "We're both the fastest."

Both slouching, they went back to the group, and turned to watch as Reccome stepped forward, smiling at Vegeta as if the prince was a new toy in his playroom.

"Vegeta!" he called out, "You think just because you're the prince of all Saiyans that you're the best at what you do, but that don't mean a DAMN thing to this man!" he raised his flexed arms above his head, grinning, "Because the name's- Reccome- it rhymes- with doom- and you're gonna be hurtin'- all- to- SOON!" he then twisted around and did an very odd poise, balancing on one leg while the rest of his body made a perfect horizontal line.

"Uhm," Katima blinked, and looked at Vegeta, "Are you really going to keep playing their game, or shall we both take this all brawn and no brains bastard down?"

"If you even think about helping me, I'll break your pretty little face," Vegeta snapped at her.

Katima opened her mouth to point out how stupid he was to turn down her help, but he took off toward Reccome and slammed his fist into the side of the big man's head, sending him flying off into a small mountain in the distance. Reccome bashed into it, and vanished in a cloud of dust. Katima stared in aw. What a hit. Was Vegeta stronger than she thought? Could he really beat this guy?

"Well," panted Vegeta, walking back toward her, "Did that look like I needed any of your assistance?"

There was a whooshing sound, and a figure landed behind Vegeta. It was Reccome. His armor was completely gone, all that was left was the black undergarment which was in tatters, but it appeared that there wasn't a scratch on Reccome's actual flesh.

"Yes, I'd say it does," said Katima.

Vegeta let out a battle cry and leapt forward again, on the complete offensive, but eveyr hit he threw, Reccome dodged. They went soaring across the landscape, and Vegeta was taking a beating. Katima watched as he received an elbow to the face, a knee to the stomach, and a kick to the head. She could feel Vegeta's frustration pulsing through the bond. He wasn't used to losing, and especially not this terribly.

"I have to help him," Katima said, crouching to fly, but Gohan and Krillin grabbed her.

"No, Katima, you can see that you would be no match either!" Krillin said, "You would just be killing Vegeta!"

Just then, it appeared that Vegeta actually landed a hit. He slammed a fist into Reccome's gut so hard that the burly man doubled over. But he quickly recovered, and reached down and grabbed Vegeta around the middle, raised him above his head and began to race down toward the ground. Behind her, Katima heard Jeice screaming "PILE DRIVER! PILE DRIVER!"

Vegeta was panicking, but there was no tearing from Reccome's grip. Katima watched helplessly as Vegeta was slammed into the ground. As the dust cleared, she saw Reccome laughing over a pair of legs that were sticking out of the ground. Reccome reached down and grabbed one, pulling a bloodied and beaten Vegeta out of the ground and holding him up so that he could look at the prince's face.

"You seriously thought you could stand a chance?" Reccome laughed, "You can't beat the best! Because the name's-"

Vegeta's eyes suddenly snapped open and he shot out a heavy blast from his hand, sending Reccome flying backward. Vegeta landed roughly on his back, gasping for breath and holding his chest, one eye swollen shut. Katima felt a slight prick of hope, but then Reccome jumped up, as if he had just been pushed rather than hit in the face with a high power energy ball. He only had a small tuft of his orange hair left, but otherwise looked unhurt.

"As I was sayin'," he said, smirking, "The name's Reccome! It rhymes with doom!"

"No," said Katima, "I can feel him powering up- we can't let him make that shot, he'll kill Vegeta!"

"What do we do?" asked Krillin.

"You two attack Reccome, and I'll get Vegeta out of there," said Katima, "Get behind him, sneak attack, and hit him as hard as you can!"

"Now!" Gohan cried, as Reccome opened his mouth wide and a glow began to form .

Katima blasted forward as fast as she could, her eyes on Vegeta. She saw out of the corner of her eye the heavy white hot beam of power heading straight for the prince. She recalled what Guru had told her. A fate worse than death if Vegeta were to be lost. No.

Katima wrapped her arms around Vegeta's torso and kicked off the ground to soar away just in time. The blast hit behind them, making them spin out of control and land roughly. Katima kept her body over Vegeta to protect him. She turned to see that Gohan and Krillin had slammed their hits to Reccome's face, sending him into the ground. The two boys jumped away and high fived, smiling at each other.

"Why did you save me?" Vegeta groaned beneath her.

Katima looked down at him to see him glaring at her, "I'm already one foot in the grave, you should have attacked Reccome, you're stronger than those other two combined!"

Katima gazed down at him with serous eyes, "Don't be a fool," she said softly, "With our bond do you seriously think I could let you die?"

Vegeta stared up at her in aw but before he could say anything, Krillin interrupted.

"Are you two okay?"

"Fine," said Katima, getting up and offering her hand down to Vegeta. He stared at it for a moment, then slowly took it. Katima smiled and pulled him up. He looked pretty bad off. There was no way that he could keep fighting. She would have to protect him, something she never thought she'd have to do.

Reccome was back on his feet, and he smiled toward them, several of his teeth were missing.

"Can Reccome get a mirror?" he asked, "He feels as if he may have chipped a tooth."

The group watching them all laughed and cheered. Reccome looked toward them, "Hey guys, can I have these three too? Come on, please?"

"Aw fine," sighed Jeice, "Since they did interfere. Go nuts, but you owe us lunch!"

"Thanks!" Reccome turned and went to Krillin who was closest, "Cheap trick, sneaking up when it wasn't even your turn," he said as Krillin cowered before him, "But at least I get to have more fun!"

He slammed a kick on the side of Krillin's head, sending him sailing away and landed rolling. Gohan chased after his friend, screaming his name. Katima kept between Reccome and Vegeta, ready to fight, but it appeared he was more interested in the boys than her or Vegeta.

"Gohan, have you done your homework, cause if you haven't Chichi will KICK my ass!" Krillin muttered, obviously knocked senseless by the kick.

"Krillin, are you okay?" Gohan asked desperately.

"Oh, it's okay, I don't feel any of the pain it was so fast… oh… there it is… owww…." Krillin quivered.

Gohan gritted his teeth and turned to face Reccome, obviously enraged.

"You'll pay for this!" he declared, "You may be stronger than me, bigger than me, and faster than me, but I will take you down!"

Reccome approached and grinned down at the boy, "I have to disagree," he said before punching the boy into the ground, making Gohan bounce up and several feet away.

"Gohan!" Katima cried, but stayed her ground. There was nothing she could do. She had to protect Vegeta.

However, Gohan was getting to his feet, and glared at the beastly man, "You talk about yourself all the time," he spat, "Reccome this, Reccome that, but you're nothing compared to my dad!" he began to stumble forward, blood running down his face, "I am the son of Goku! And he is the greatest fighter in the universe!" Gohan charged forward, yelling in ferocity, but Reccome threw up a kick that landed on Gohan's neck.

Gohan flew several yards away, and landed in a heap. This time, he did not get back up.

"N-no!" Katima shouted.

Her nephew… That was her nephew! She promised Chichi that she would protect him, and look at what happened…

Katima clenched her fists and an aura of power surrounded her, anger fueling it.

Reccome slowly turned to face her, smirking, "You're the last one, pretty girl," he said, walking toward her.

"Don't let him intimidate you," Vegeta muttered behind her.

Katima looked at him over her shoulder. His face was so beaten, body so weak. Did she really stand any sort of chance? No. But she would go down protecting her friends. She turned to see Reccome before her, waiting for her to make the first move.

"Let's see what you got," he taunted.