King Kai stood on the hood of his classic street rod, concentrating on the situation far below on Earth. So far, it had gone rather well, considering that at the heart of the matter was Vegeta. The selfish Prince alone could put this to rest, and that make the Kai very uneasy.

He thought back to the day that Goku had arrived on his world. The Saiyan had died defending Earth from his own brother, and sought to train so he could go back and fight an even greater menace: Vegeta. One of the most feared warriors in the universe, and in the service of Freiza no less. Planets had fallen under him, destroyed by nothing more than a whim. And here he was now.

The entire outcome of the situation at hand rested in the Saiyan Prince's hands. King Kai hoped that his ego and selfish nature would not come into play. But again, he also knew that pride could be used to grow stronger.

Violent explosions of energy filled the air as the two blood rivals laid into each other. Punch after punch, kick after kick, on and on in a neverending dance. When the two would seperate, they unleashed powerful energy blasts towards each other. Some collided in mid air, others found their target only to be brushed aside or blocked away. It was very clear that they wanted to kill each other.

"You've terrorized people for the last time, Amazon!" Rico pulled his hands into position and charged up for another shot, intent on destroying his target. "If it takes my life in the process, I will stop you." A huge three meter ball of energy formed in front of him, and his eyes grew wide with anger as he sized the Amazon up. With a scream that could move a mountain on its own, he threw the ball of energy towards his foe.

The Amazon looked at the energy blast coming at him and suddenly began sweating. He'd never seen a Saiyan throw something like this before. "What? What's that?" He threw his arms up as the blast came closer, trying to defend himself as best he could. The ball connected and forced him slowly backward as he pushed back at it. With a final yell, he was slammed into the wall.

Rico looked down from above to where the Amazon had impacted. If it weren't for the fact that most of the walls in this enormous hangar were 15 foot thick and surrounded by solid earth, they would have surely collapsed under the strain of the blow. When the dust settled, he caught sight of his opponent. "Face it, Amazon, it's over! Surrender now and I'll at least spare your life." He raised his hand and pointed it at the Amazon, ready to strike the final blow without thinking twice.

The Amazon looked up at Rico and smiled. "You're asking me to surrender? Do you honestly think that I'd simply give myself up to a weak excuse for a Saiyan? Your race isn't worth surrendering to. To do so would be a great dishonor and would make us the laughing stock of the entire galaxy. We're the only ones powerful enough to take you down, Saiyan. Face it. Your time has come. The presence of the Saiyans in the universe will cease to exist very soon."

"You'll regret those words, you monster." Rico charged up another blast and sent it flying at the Amazon. The creature narrowly avoided the blast this time, and sent one of his own back at the Saiyan. Reacting quickly, Rico swung at the blast and managed to swat it away at the last possible moment. The two drew into close combat yet again, and the fight continued at a fevered pace.

Vegeta watched in awe as the two blood rivals fought a fierce battle. It impressed him, really, and he actually respected Rico. Though he wasn't that big and didn't appear to be much of a threat, he gave it all he had and turned out to be a very strong warrior. But he was sure that the Saiyan wouldn't survive this battle, let alone win it. The opponent was most assuredly stronger and more vicious than he was.

He turned from the battle for a moment to look at his crew. Mizuki was still going off on Krillin, turning away for a moment here and there to shoot an angry glare at the Saiyan Prince. Bulma, on the other hand, seemed to be relaxed and level-headed. This confused Vegeta, as he was used to her being somewhat flakey and unorganized. But there she was, not crying, not complaining, showing no fear whatsoever. She wanted to stay with him, to see this through to the end. For a moment, Vegeta thought back to when he had first felt himself falling for her, how he saw that she was much more Saiyan than her humanity would have allowed. The fact that she wanted to remain here with him solidified that belief, and the love that the Saiyan Prince had allowed himself in such small doses to become more whole, more exacting, and most of all, stronger.

"How can they go on and on like that? Not even you and Goku fought like that, Vegeta." Bulma was watching the battle just outside, and asked without turning away.

"Someday, Kakkarot and I will fight. And I assure you it will go far beyond this kind of battle. But for the most part, it's just like a battle between us would be. These two hate each other. They are blood rivals, and will fight to the death if necessary. That is why they carry on as they do. They are warriors. Just like Kakkarot and I. And though he may not hate me, he still knows that I am his greatest rival, and that it will take everything he has to defeat me." For a moment, Vegeta looked at the battle before him, a battle he knew he'd join soon enough, and saw himself and Goku instead of Rico and the Amazon. He envisioned the moment they would collide, and how great a battle it would be. They would make their Saiyan ancestors proud.

"Vegeta, why do you need to keep going on about fighting Goku? Can't you two work something out some other way? It upsets everyone when you go on like that." Bulma finally turned away and gave Vegeta a distant, wondering look.

The Prince looked and saw the sadness in her eyes. It clicked in his mind that he was making her upset by wanting to fight his Saiyan cousin, but in his heart, he knew his pride would win this battle. Goku had defeated him, and he would not rest until he had avenged his loss and bested his rival to settle the score. But then again, he did owe the 3rd class runt his life. Though he had stolen the honor of defeating Freiza, that had allowed the Prince to live according to his own free will, and led him here to Earth where he found her...

"Let's not worry about that now, Bulma. It's not the time to be thinking about anything other than finishing the task at hand and getting the hell out of here. This vacation has already caused us all enough headaches. It's time to end this and go home."

Bulma smiled and looked at her Prince with adoring eyes. "Right." That was all she could muster. Seeing Vegeta this way - still the same old Vegeta, but this time fighting for something other than his own pride (whether he saw it that way or not) - made her own courage swell to new heights. With him, she felt less afraid of what was going on around her. She finally felt that she was more a part of the Z team than just being the "gadget girl."

Back in the main hangar of the old Red Ribbon base, the Saiyan and the Amazon continued their heated battle without rest. Punches, kicks, energy blasts, and more of the same. On and on they went, seemingly oblivious to either space and time around them. A battle born of another dimension, another time, another conflict.

"You know, Saiyan, when I killed your brother, he begged for mercy like the weaklings you all are. Before I snapped his puny neck, he pleaded for his life. He was a coward, just like all of you Saiyans. And now, when I'm finished with you, I'm going to kill your brother again. How do you like the sound of that?" The Amazon let fly an immense energy blast as he finished.

Dodging the blast and preparing for his own attack, Rico processed what the Amazon had said and returned his own judgment. "That's bullshit, Amazon. Saiyans are a proud race. We would never beg for our lives, we'd rather die in battle. My brother was a great warrior. He was the first Prince of a proud empire. He would have never begged for mercy from an evil and sadistic bunch of bastards like you. We're going to stop you, just like we did all the others. Your time is finished, you monster!" The Saiyan let loose a rapid barrage of smaller energy blasts, firing them off in automatic weapons fashion at his opponent.

The Amazon threw his arms up and began to evade the blasts, though his speed wasn't enough to match Rico's firing rhythm, and a few of the energy balls connected with their target, pushing him backwards a bit. When the blasts stopped coming, the Amazon launched himself at his adversary and the fight reverted to fast-paced, hand-to-hand combat. The battle continued on, seemingly without end.

"The other Saiyan is fighting a valiant battle, but I'm afraid he can't win. The Amazon is just too strong for him, Super Saiyan or not. These must be some incredible creatures if they can overpower Super Saiyans. As far as our gang is concerned, everyone is alright. They're waiting for an oppertunity to get Krillin and Mizuki out as soon as they can, and Bulma and Vegeta are planning to remain and finish off this nightmare once and for all." Korin listened intently to King Kai's words and relayed them, albeit very carefully, to the Brief family. With the exception of Bulma's mother, everyone seemed to be taking the whole thing rather well.

Yajirobi, on the other hand, was dealing with things like he always did: sitting in front of the TV, eating. "What's there to be worried about? I mean, Vegeta's there, right? I don't think these Amazon freaks stand a chance against him, you know. I garuntee that they're nowhere near Goku, and it took all he had then just to beat Vegeta back!" Everyone turned and shot the fat little senshi an evil look, making him sweat and retreat to speaking in a much hushed tone. "Well, I don't think there's much to worry about." With that, he went back to eating his mountain of scherbert with chocolate sauce.

"Hold on, everyone. King Kai has been picking something interesting up from both Vegeta and Bulma." Korin had heard King Kai's words, and didn't himself believe them. But who was he to argue with the Kai?

"Something from my Bulma? What is it? Tell me, you freakish little feline, TELL ME!" The Mrs. started flipping out, grabbing Korin by the scruff of his neck and shaking him a little bit before her husband managed to get her off of him.

"Well, it seems as though the Kai has been picking up thought patterns from Vegeta and Bulma, almost as if they manage to share their thoughts for a moment. It's like they're telepathically linked. I don't know if either myself or the Kai can really explain why or how they have formed this bond, but the Kai did notice that it helped Vegeta and Krillin find the girls alot faster than they would have without it." The little cat scratched his ears in thought as he tried to figure out what was going on.

"Wait a minute. I think I remember Chi Chi mentioning something like that when she and Goku were first getting together." Bulma's mother stopped her ranting long enough to explain what she had heard from the hero's wife. "She told me that as they got older and spent more time together, they would share thoughts without saying a word. The images would just appear in her head. And she could hear him speaking to her when he was far away training sometimes. It was almost as if their minds were one. Goku mentioned to her that he'd been feeling that way around her since not long after the incident at Fire Mountain. He kept seeing pictures of Chi Chi in his head, and could sometimes hear her speaking whenever she thought of him."

"Well I'll be..." The Doctor could only put his hand behind his head in amazement. "My little girl is bonding with Vegeta. How am I going to explain this to the shareholders?"

In his mind, Korin sent a message to King Kai. "Did you hear that, Kai? Goku and Chi Chi went through something similar. What do you make of it?"

"You know, Korin, it might be part of Saiyan biology, but I don't understand how that could affect the girls, who are human. But then again, some bonds span space and time. Humans are fond of thinking that somewhere in the universe, whether literally or figuratively, there is one person made for them, a destined love of some sort, and they always feel a bond to this person, even if they have no clue who the other is. This could be what happened to Goku and Chi Chi, and it could be what's happening to Vegeta and Bulma." He chuckled lightly after thinking a bit further about it. "You know, it's not much of a surprise that these two were made for each other. They're both pretty stubbourn and headstrong. And honestly, I'm a little scared of both of them when they're angry..."

Click Here to continue DBZ:UR with Chapter 7 - The Kidnapped Saga, Episode 16