The mountain was cold, even in the comfortable warmth of the summer night. It was even cold the middle of the afternoon, in the height of the sun’s glorious rays. The cold seeped in through his skin; powerful and penetrating, it triggered memories of another place and another time. Memories that he did not want to recall. He did not want to think of his mate again, did not want to remember her death or his grief. He had not come here to this mountaintop to dwell on the past; he had come there to think about his future, and what that future might hold for him. He came to think about the future life that he needed to start living. He could not do it yet, could not bring himself to descend the mountain’s peak and start to live again. But he knew that there would be a time when he would finally rejoin his family --- He could not stay in this lonely world forever. He just needed time to think.

Though the cold was uncomfortable and brought many memories to mind that were uninvited, he stood tall and proud. He had needed to be by himself today, away from such distractions such as food and the annoying antics of Kakarroto. There was no other place for him to go except for this familiar mountaintop, a place that he had come to often during the course of his life here on Earth. Here, high above the rest of the world, he could be alone. There were no other people for hundreds of miles, and no wildlife had ever dared to climb up this high. This place where summer seemed non-existent, was cold and uninviting, and there would be no one here to bother him today. His only company was the bitterly freezing air that swirled around him, gently swaying the flame of jet black hair atop his head. His face was a mask of pride: his chin was down, almost touching his strong chest, but his dark eyes remained trained straight ahead. Arms at his side, fists curled, fingers twitching, the Saiya-jin no Ouji stood contemplating a memory.

She appeared before him, this woman who was an enigma that he could not begin to dissect. She confused him, perplexed him, made him wonder if there was more to this human race than he had originally thought. The woman was strong, but not strong in a way that the Saiya-jin females had once been. There were no muscles outlining her arms and legs, only soft and downy flesh. And her face was not adorned with a perpetual scowl either; sometimes, to his amazement, she would smile. Her entire face light up when she did this, and her deep blue eyes sparkled with innocence and mirth. He liked it when she smiled in such a way, but he enjoyed her glares and her tantrums perhaps more than anything. Their arguments were passionate and loud and vicious, just the way that a good argument should be. He didn’t mind the onslaught of insults and name-calling at all; in fact, he found it rather appealing. Most females, even those of his own race, had been too terrified of him to consider a verbal attack. This human woman, however, did not seem threatened by him at all. This was fine with him, because he did not want her to feel threatened. And that was the part that confused him. What was it about this woman that affected him so? How had she managed to see him and break down all of his carefully constructed walls?

She stood in the doorway of his gravity chamber now, interrupting his practice, and her arms were crossed tightly over her chest. She had turned the machine off, using the manual switch on the outside panel, and had come in uninvited and unwanted. He almost smiled as he thought of this. The woman obviously knew him well, for if she had asked him to turn the machine off, he never would have stopped training. As interesting as their arguing was at times, he felt that training was more important at the moment; the androids were coming, and he still had not yet attainted his goal. It was unfortunate that the woman had chosen this point in time to start showing a heightened interest in him. He had too many other things on his mind at the moment to be able to enjoy this new twist of events.

“We need to talk.” She said, speaking in a tone that he could not decipher. Was she angry, as she so often seemed to be? No. It was not anger in her voice, but something more like pride. It was not the kind of pride that he was used to, however; it sounded like the kind of pride that had been pressed on to protect a bottom layer of hurt and fear.

“Fine. Talk.” He agreed, and crossed his arms as well. As she faced him off, he began to feel slightly uncomfortable. Not just because of the seriousness in her voice, but because of the fact that he was sweating profusely and had blood and dirt all over him. One pant legs was ripped and tattered all the way up to his mid-thigh. He must have been quite a sight to behold, especially since she was showered and impeccably clean. He could smell her scent from here, sweet with perfume and whatever she used to shampoo her hair with.

She looked every bit as uncomfortable as him as she began to speak, taking a deep breath as she brushed a piece of her turquoise hair back behind her ear. “I have been hiding this from you for quite a while now and I’m not quite sure how to say it. Well, I know how to say it….I’m just not sure that I want to.”

He hated the fact that she couldn’t just say what she wanted to say. With all of these Earth people, everything had to have a huge explanation before they could even say something worthwhile. There was a story and a feeling behind every action. It was simply irritating, especially since he had work to do. Time was very precious now that he knew the androids were on their way. He scowled at her. “What is it, woman? If you’re not going to say anything to me now, you might as well leave. I’m too busy to be annoyed by you right now.”

“I’m not leaving! I need to talk to you!” She cried, exasperated.

“Then spit it out, baka!” He snapped. “I haven’t got all damn day. What do you think I’m doing in here? Lounging around and relaxing? Can’t you see that I am trying to train?!”

“I’m going to have a baby!” She yelled suddenly, and her eyes flashed in anger.

“What?” He asked her sharply, needing to hear it again in order to believe it.

Her cheeks took on a deep red hue, and she placed her hands on her hips, leaning forward to yell at him. “A baby! I’m going to have a baby. I’m expecting, I’m with child, I’m going to have a baby! Would you like me to announce it over the Capsule Corporation loudspeaker? I’m pregnant!”

He was amused by her reaction, and he smirked at her. “And?”

“And,” she said, turning away from him so that he could only see the elegant profile of her face, “it’s your baby too.”

He paused. The smirk fell off of his face, replaced with an expressionless mask. This he had not expected. He had not expected it all. It hit him just like a fist to the gut. He was well aware that Saiya-jin and human blood could mix to form an offspring because of Kakarroto’s brat, but Kakarroto had a mate. He was expected to produce offspring. This woman before him, on the other hand, was not his mate….yet. It had been one time, only one time. All at once, he felt very confused. He did not know what to do with any brat, let alone a half-breed brat of his own.

The woman shifted her feet, not meeting his eyes. She spoke in a low voice that was a mixture of pride and hurt. “Look, I don’t expect any help or anything from you, okay? I’m perfectly capable of raising him on my own, and I’m going to. I’m not asking you for anything --- I just thought that you should know.”

One word caught his attention, and his heart leapt as she said it. “Him?”

“Hai. It’s a boy.” She answered. Her arms were crossed again, but she toward him slightly so that he could see her face. Her deep blue eyes looked as though they were almost on the verge of tears, though he could see that she had far too much dignity and pride to cry in front of him. She stood before him tall and proud, but he could sense that inside she had already shattered into a million pieces. Though he had never felt any sympathy for these Earth people before, he suddenly began to feel sorry for her. He couldn’t imagine why, but for some reason he never wanted to see her deep blue eyes well up with tears.

Avoiding her gaze, he looked to the side, to the floor. “And you’re going to raise him on your own?”

“I figured you wouldn’t want anything to do with a child. You don’t exactly seem like the parenting type, so I’m not even going to bother asking for your help. I’m already embarrassed enough about the whole situation and I thought that I would spare myself any further humiliation. I don’t need you to tell me what I already know. So, I am going to raise him on my own. I have plenty of money to take care of him with and I can pick just about any room I want to be his nursery; Kami knows we have enough rooms in this house. I already talked it over with my parents, and they agreed to help watch him while I am busy with work. So, I don’t need any help raising him; I just wanted to let you know.”

He could walk away. She had given him a chance to leave and not take any responsibility. He could leave right now, never look back, and things would be fine. He could see in her eyes that she would take good care of the brat, that she would raise him well. He knew that she would be proud and strong and not let his leaving kill her spirit, or the brat’s spirit. She would bring up their brat alone, and she would do a damn good job.

But he didn’t want to walk away. And he wasn’t going to.

He had never thought about what it would be like to have a brat of his own. Throughout his entire lifetime it had never even once crossed his mind. He lived his life only for him, only thinking about what he wanted and what he was going to accomplish. But with her words, another thought had occurred to him. All of the sudden, he didn’t just care about what he was going to accomplish. He cared about what he wanted his lineage to accomplish as well. There would come a day when he would no longer be living, and his soul would be ripped away from him. And when his soul left and there was no more life in his body, who then was to be the Saiya-jin no Ouji? Who would be left to make certain that all of his accomplishments and all of his power would be remembered until the end of time? Would the most powerful, regal bloodline in all of the universe be defeated and simply forgotten? Or would he have a son? A son that would make that bloodline stronger; a son that would one day surpass everything that he himself had already accomplished, and one day become the most powerful warrior in the universe.

So that was it. He wanted this brat. He wanted to take him and make him into everything that he could never be. And yes, one day, this brat that had yet to be born would be powerful and strong, and he would strike fear into the hearts of others --- much like his father had so long ago. This was what he wanted, and as he stared into her beautiful blue eyes, he knew that he would have it no other way.

“Don’t be stupid, woman. You can barely even take care of yourself, let alone raise another life form.” He told her.

She put her hands on her hips, highly insulted as she turned to face him with fury written all over her face. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?” She demanded.

“You are not going to raise the brat by yourself.” He informed her simply. “I refuse to let my son grow up and become just like every other pathetic human being on this planet. He will be trained, and trained properly.”

She could not hide her surprise. He didn’t think it was possible for her to look more shocked. She stared at him with her mouth hanging open rather unattractively and her eyes large and round. She looked absolutely, comically astounded. “You….You mean you actually want to be his father?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “If that’s what you want to call it. I am going to raise him the proper Saiya-jin way and train him to be a fighter.”

“You’re going to help raise him?” She asked, still shocked. He almost wanted to laugh at her. She had come into the gravity chamber expecting to be proud and strong and show him that she could handle everything on her own. She had probably rehearsed all of the lines that had been saying, expecting certain responses from him already. She had come in thinking that she was completely prepared, and he had knocked her straight on her ass. He smirked at her, knowing that he had once again won another of their silent battles.

“Do you ever listen to anything I say?” He asked in an irritated tone. “Yes.”

She was silent for a moment, thinking this new aspect on the situation over. Although she was barely showing it, he caught a glint of relief in her eyes. Perhaps she had not wanted to raise this brat on her own so much after all. Perhaps she had come in here subconsciously hoping that he would say exactly what he had just said. A woman less stubborn might have thrown her arms around him in thankfulness. Instead, she simply gave him a stern, potent glare.

“Now, I want you to know that I didn’t expect or ask for any of this. You decided to be this boy’s father on your own accord. I didn’t force you into anything. I don’t want to ever hear you say try to say that I forced you into being this boy’s father! I gave you the option of complete freedom and you turned it down. I want you to remember that.”

He grunted. “Woman, there are no options. If you honestly think that I would let you raise my son on your own and make him into some weak and sickly human, then you are more stupid than I originally thought.”

“Fine. But I don’t ever want you to forget that he is my son too. If I have to go through the excruciating pain of labor, I should at least have a say in how this child is raised. I will let you help me, but you had better take good care of him. If you’re going to put forth the effort to be parent, then I want to see some serious responsibility.

That was agreeable enough. There would obviously be things that he did not want to deal with. And besides, until the boy reached a proper training age, he didn’t really want anything to do with him anyway. “Fine.”

“And I don’t ever want to see you hurt him! Maybe things were different on planet Saiya-jin or wherever the hell you came from, but here on Earth we treat our children with a little bit of kindness. You don’t have to baby the kid, but at least respect the fact that he is just a child. You may or may not be aware of this, but children are very fragile things. It’s fine if you want to train him, but you’re going to have to wait until he’s at least at a reasonable age. If I catch you dragging my newborn out to that gravity chamber, I swear I’ll bash your head in. And it’s fine if you want to raise him in the ‘proper Saiya-jin way’, but don’t you dare turn him into another evil little version of you. Dealing with one of you is bad enough. I couldn’t possibly leave with two of you.”

“Fine.”

They were silent for a moment, an awkward silence that made both of them rather uncomfortable. They both stood as still as stone, their arms crossed, expressions mirroring each other perfectly. As he stared at her, he realized that this was something he had expected from a mate. He knew that he would never have a loving, normal relationship, not like Kakarroto and that annoying mate of his. He might have changed a lot in the past few months, but nothing could ever change him into that. With him and his mate, there would be no soft words and no false dependencies. He had always known that, knew it as he watched his own mother and father together. He was a Saiya-jin, and Saiya-jins did not have mushy, sickly sweet love stories. But they were loyal, fiercely loyal, and he knew that if he did indeed take her as his mate, there would be no turning back. And that was fine with him, because he didn’t think he wanted things to change right now. And he knew that it would be fine with her as well. Because whatever attachment he felt to her, she felt it too.

“Get out of my sight, woman.” He said suddenly, shaking himself out of his own thoughts. “ I have training to do.”

As she turned and walked out of the door, he watched her closely. He knew every curve of her body well; he had studied her often when she had not been looking. Her deep blue eyes haunted him every night when he went to sleep, he had memorized the sound of her strong voice perfectly, and he swore sometimes that he could feel her touch, even when he knew that she was not there. She had already affected him, already seeped in through his skin. He had been right, there were no options. This was the way that things were supposed to end up. With this brat, with their son, he would finally find discover what destiny had in store for him.

Back in the real world and out of his memories, Vejiita crossed his arms, looking down.

When Trunks was born, he had not even bothered to show up. He was not at her side when she went through the pains of labor, nor when she brought him home from the hospital and placed him in his nursery. There had been more important things for him to worry about then, more important things for him to concentrate on. Because after she gave him the news that she was carrying his son, he had to force himself to train even harder. He needed to increase his power and be able to face the enemy without fear; he needed to be stronger than he had ever been in his life.

Because he wasn’t just fighting for himself any longer.