Hey guys! Remember this fic? Yeah, my very first one… I decided to pull it down and revamp it. It hurt seeing people reading it, knowing that it was full of mistakes, short icky sentences and whatnot… so I'm improving the fic! Special thanks to Springandbysummerfall for beta'ing this bad boy ;)

Also, if you haven't already, check out Mallie_3 and my Bulma and Vegeta fanfic video podcast. And add yourself onto our community, the links are on my profile page.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, that is why I'm poor.

Pain. She was in pure pain.

'Where am I?'

Her left eye cracked open but her right stayed stubbornly shut, and she couldn't budge her arms or legs. Looking down, she spied a wood beam on top of her. Her vision was hazy, probably due to a concussion, and the smoke and cinders floating in the air hindered her vision even more as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.

She glanced down at herself. Her arm looked like it was hanging on by a thread, and every time she took in a shallow breath, there was a gurgling noise that came rattling up from her chest.

And, she tasted blood, lots and lots of blood.

Yelling could be heard a short distance away from her and an alarm that made her already throbbing head want to explode.

"BULMA!" A man frantically screamed.

"Maybe she's not in here," another man's voice called out.

She tried yelling to them, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a weak moan which the alarms in the distance drowned out.

"No, she is, she said she needed to grab something- THERE! I see her, Kakarot!"

She closed her eye, listening to feet scramble over the wreckage. The pain she was in was lessening. The feel of the sweet darkness pulled at her, making her body go numb.

"Help me get this beam off of her!"

The darkness called to her. She wanted so very much to succumb and drift off into nothingness, but knew she should hold on.

She sighed softly when she felt the weight of the beam lift off her and again when warm, calloused hands softly touched her battered face.

"Gods, Woman… Please be alive." The husky voice of the man above pleaded. She felt him feel for her pulse. "She's alive. Go to the med wing, get Dr. Lance." She heard the other man run off. "Woman, stay alive." She knew whoever he was, he was important to her. He meant a great deal to her, but in her dazed state, she was unable to comprehend who he was, not to mention her name or the date.

Shell shocked.

The man sounded like he was trying hard to keep it together as he growled. "Damnit, why didn't I go with you? Stay alive Bulma."

She felt him pull her up into his arms, cradling her gently in his strong arms.

Safety enveloped her as he lifted her up off of the ground. She knew that the man that held her would make sure she would live.

The darkness was pulling at her, more so than before, and she was too weak to fight it anymore. She exhaled in relief…and then, there was nothing.

Months Earlier….

Bulma sat happily in her and her father's favorite place: the weaponry development lab that was located on their compound.

Her father was one of the largest weapons specialists, developers, and brokers in the universe. Ever since Bulma could remember, she spent her time down in the depths of the R&D wing of the labs, watching her dad design and develop weaponry. She learned how to dismantle and reassemble a proton bomb by age six, proving that she too shared her father's legendary smarts. She was enthralled with how weapons worked, and she loved testing them even more, to her father's chagrin, and she was a frequent visitor to the medical wing because of it.

He always told her she was lucky she hadn't blown any limbs off. She mostly suffered from concussions, gashes, blown ear drums…nothing too major.

She was happily tinkering on a new gun, something that she was developing for the military of a far off planet. Just when she was getting into her project, her vidcom chirped. Looking up at the screen on the wall closest to her, she smiled, seeing that it was her father.

She hit a button, answering the call. "Dad! How's the contract bidding going?" she asked, without looking up at the screen. She was too busy fiddling with a tricky mechanism and didn't want to stop her progress.

"Bulma…" His voice seemed stressed and somewhat panicked.

She looked up. Her father's worn face looked at her. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"Bulma, listen to me." He said sternly, his eyebrows furrowing as he spoke. She knew that look; it meant let him speak, don't interrupt, this is super important. "I need you to take the Genesis project file, copy it onto a thumb drive and destroy any and all research, notes, anything that has to do with it. Keep the thumb drive with you and keep it safe. Do not under any circumstances let it out of your possession." He looked behind him and then looked back. "I need you to contact King Vegeta. Tell him that the Emperor has intercepted my ship. He will help you."

She shook her head. What the hell is going on? "Are you in danger? Dad-"

"Bulma," he said sternly, making her stop. "Please, I don't have much time left. I have about 2 minutes until the Emperor's men breaches my ship and takes it over." His hardened look softened. "I want you to be strong. Listen to King Vegeta. Do what he says. He'll protect you." He paused and took a deep breath. "I love you daughter. You've made me proud."

"You're talking like we won't see each other again! And why do I need protection? Dad please, just tell me what the hell is going on!"

He gave her sad smile. "This will most likely be the last time we speak to each other. I am hoping that you will not be pulled any further into this than you already are…" He looked over his shoulder as an explosion went off behind him. "Be strong Bulma. I know you are. You have a fantastic life ahead of you. I love you."

The vidcom went black.

Bulma sat there, staring at the black screen, dumbstruck.

Just what in the bloody hell just happened? She was dizzy from the information her father just laid upon her...let alone the fact that he was sure he wasn't going to survive much longer.

'NO!' she screamed mentally. 'I refuse to believe he will die!'

She got up from her chair, pushing the thought to the back of her mind. She did what her father had asked of her; she saved all files pertaining to Project Genesis onto a thumb drive and stuck it in the back pocket of her jeans. She then destroyed all files that had to do with the project, without bothering to go through the files she had saved, figuring she'd go through them later.

When she finished the task, she walked over to her vidcom again and hailed King Vegeta. A woman answered the call. From what Bulma could see, she was dressed in a black uniform, the Saiyan insignia on her chest.

"Your code and the purpose of this call?" She said in a business-like tone.

"11488-e," Bulma replied. "This is Bulma Briefs. I must speak to King Vegeta. It's an emergency."

The woman looked at something off screen, probably checking to see if Bulma was who she said she was and if she was on the list of people able to speak with the King personally.

"One moment, I'll connect you."

Bulma reached in her back pocket and took out the thumb drive, fiddling with it while she waited for the King. Just what was the Genesis Project anyway? She wasn't familiar with it. When she was copying the files she had noticed that the file was just as old as she was… that was probably why she wasn't aware of its existence.

"Miss Bulma." The Kings rough voice made Bulma jump. She turned her attention to the screen.

The King's scarred face smiled at her warmly. She had known the King since she was three. He and her father were good friends, old Military friends, and, of course, business partners. She often found herself traveling with her dad to many planets and working closely with many of the leaders of the northern and southern galaxies, helping them beef up security, upgrading their military's weapon arsenal and such. But she found her visits to King Vegeta's planet the most memorable… mostly due to King's son, Prince Vegeta, who was 4 years older than she. He always made a point to pick on her or goad her into some sort of physical brawl. But as they got older, the physical brawls had turned into verbal assaults. They couldn't be in the same room without both their parents having to separate them. The King and her father always thought their rivalry was hilarious. Bulma and the Prince thought otherwise.

She hadn't seen the Prince in 9 years. Since he turned 15, he joined the royal military. It was tradition on their planet for the crowned prince to be active in it, and he had been off world every time Bulma visited his home planet, which was fine with her.

"This must be important if you are calling me." He raised an eyebrow and rubbed his goatee.

She took a deep breath, telling herself to stay strong. "My father just called, told me to tell you that the Emperor has breached his ship, and to destroy all files pertaining to the Genesis Project. And that you would know what to do."

The King's eyes twitched at the mention of the project and his hand paused on his chin. "Have you saved the information before you destroyed the main files?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"No one else knows of this, correct?"

"Correct."

He pinched the bridge of his nose and gave a gruff sigh. "Alright. I need for you to pack up, immediately. As of right now, you are in need of protection. You are not safe."

Bulma scoffed at his comment. She was very capable of taking care of herself. And she was getting frustrated with both he and her father underestimating her capabilities to defend herself.

"Wait, just wait." Bulma pounded her fist onto her work table. "Just what the hell is going on? Why all the secrecy? Why am I leaving? What's so important about this project? And why has the Emperor taken my father?" She was started to lose it. Her eyes were wet from the tears that had escaped her eyes and her cheeks were burning red. She quickly dashed them off her cheeks and stared at the King, waiting for his response.

"I'm sure it is no secret to you that your father was on the council for the southern galaxy alliance." He said matter-of-factly.

She knew. The council was made up of leaders and dignitaries of the 9 planets of south galaxy, her home planet Earth included. Their main objective was to keep each planet safe and to get away from the Emperors stronghold. The council had an intricate ring of spies, and her father had run some intelligence for the council a couple of times. He had the perfect cover. He was constantly going from planet to planet on weapon bidding trips.

The emperor was a tyrant that made Darth Vader look like a pansy. He enslaved planets that dared to retaliate against him, taking over the planet's trade and natural resources and taking all the profit. He would bribe the weaker planets royalty, and in exchange for slaves and the help from their military forces, the emperor would ensure their safety.

He killed, raped, and destroyed innocent lives for money and power.

He continued: "All that's left now for him to take over are the planets in the southern galaxy. He hasn't been able to do much to the alliance. But he's found a way... sort of."

"How so? I thought the southern galaxy alliance is unbreakable. We have the strongest military forces combined. He hasn't been able to do anything to us."

The King nodded in agreement. "Yes, but about 20 years ago, your father came up with a weapon that could destroy a planet with one shot. He never put it into production."

"Then why develop it?" She shook her head.

"He was asked to by the council of the alliance. It was a contingency plan just in case we ever needed to use it against the Emperor. One year ago your father found that a spy was working in the R&D department of your company. The spy got a hold of the plans of the weapon. Thankfully your father found out when the spy was in the middle of transmitting the plans to the emperor. Only half of the plans were transmitted and not the whole file. He knew that the scientists and weapons specialists the emperor has on his payroll are idiots and wouldn't get it to work properly. He knew it would be a matter of time until they would try again to steal it or take him away to try to force him to make the weapon."

"I can't believe he never told me any of this!"

"He didn't want you dragged into this." The King said. "Surely you understand, Bulma. He had only your best interest in mind."

Bulma grunted. "Please, I blow stuff up for a living, I'm in danger everyday… for god sake I've been on active battle fields!" She shook her head. Yelling at the King was useless. "Alright, so the Emperor has taken my dad to make him build the weapon, and since my father is as stubborn as a mule, he will die before he does… "

"That's for damn sure." He smirked. "You will need to be guarded. Once he finds out that your father will not help him, he might come for you. Besides your father, you are probably the only other person that is capable of making such a weapon."

She nodded again in agreement.

"Of all the planets, he fears mine the most. You will be safe with us. We will have to keep this information quiet; we don't need the whole universe knowing this information. We will have to concoct some sort of story that won't raise any eyebrows as to why you are staying with the royal family all of the sudden… in the meantime, let's concentrate on getting you here to my planet, safely… Let's see." He scratched his graying goatee and looked down at something Bulma couldn't see on the screen. "Ah, yes, you are in luck. My son is returning home from a mission, and he is in your quadrant. I will have him pick you up on his way home."

Bulma groaned. This was the cherry on top of the crap sundae of which was her day. "Your son. Prince Vegeta. The boy who but fish guts in my hair… that same guy?"

King Vegeta stifled a chuckle. "I promise you Bulma, there will be no throwing of fish guts."

She wiped her face with her palm. "Ok…when will he be here?"

"15 hours."

"Guess I should start packing my crap up."

The King nodded and smiled at her. "I'll see you in person in 5 days, Miss Bulma."

beta'd by Springandbysummerfall