Nenai awoke slowly.  The artificial sunlight from the lamp in her quarters shone into her eyes, making her squint slightly, and she slowly rolled over and pushed her face into Taurus' shoulder.  Her two snakes were stirring slightly around her legs, sensing that she was awake; their scales felt cool against her skin.

    Taurus' arms moved to hold her against him, and Nenai looked up at him suddenly.   "Taurus...?"

    "Hmm?" the Saiyajin looked down at her.

    "I..." she broke off, blushing slightly.

    "What is it, m'dear?"

    The small term of endearment made Nenai blush even more, and she pressed her face against the warmth of Taurus' chest.

    "Silly thing," he chuckled, kissing the top of her head.  "What were you trying to tell me?"

    "Nothing..."

    "Nonsense, I know you--gah!  Cursed snakes!--I know you had something important to say, m'dear..."

    Nenai giggled, then shook her head.  "No, it was nothing..."

    "Hmm..."  Taurus used one strong finger to tilt her chin up, then kissed her lingeringly.  "Sure you don't want to tell me?" he murmured when he broke away, grinning.

    "No...really, it's nothing."  Nenai smiled and snuggled against him for a long moment, warm and happy.  The confusion of several months ago had dissolved on that fateful night in the snake-cave.  Vejiita no longer treated her in his strange, flirt/command way; he was all business with her.  She now had a daily schedule, comprised of fighting or other exercise, flight simulation practice, and instruction in mechanics and spatial physics.  It was not an easy schedule, but she was happy when kept busy, and since she spent most of her nights with Taurus, she had very little to be unhappy about.

    She had become rather resigned to the fact that she was never going home again, and in fact was a traitor to her people.  In her time on the base, she had discovered that many of Freeza's soldiers were in the same predicament:  their worlds had been taken by Freeza, and as survivors of the attack, they had nowhere else to go.  It didn't really make her feel any better, but at least she was not the only person forced to give up her culture and her past.

    Having the two snakes--she had privately dubbed the male Kikeroku and the female Tetyani, after her parents--made her feel much better, and having Taurus...that was a treat.

    The door chime rang in their comfortable silence, and Nenai sat up quickly, slipping out of the sheets.

    "Put something on, you hussy," Taurus chuckled, eyeing her nudity appreciatively.

    The girl blushed and snatched up her robe, wrapping herself as she walked to the door.  "Kuuru!"

    Vejiita stood there with his arms crossed.  "Are you going to sleep all day, little bird?"  He smirked.  "Although...perhaps you weren't sleeping..."

    Nenai blushed, then scowled at the admiral.  "Not as if it were any of your business, Vejiita..."

    The man snorted and walked in, uninvited.  "That's where you're wrong, Nenais'u," he said in a low tone.  "You're a member of my unit now, as is Taurus."  Abruptly, he roughly pushed her against the wall.  "Everything one of you does is my business," he grated.

    "Devil," Nenai snarled, her eyes narrowing.  "You have very little right to tell me what to do..."

    "You've given me the right..." Vejiita smirked.  "You're under my command now, little bird, and you will follow my orders, or those of anyone else of higher rank, for that matter.  Now, get dressed--and fetch Taurus, too.  You and I are sparring today."  He let her walk away, crossing his arms and moving to stand in front of the door.

    The girl took one angry look back, then flounced off to get dressed.  "Taurus!" she snapped as she walked through the bedroom.  "I'm to spar with Vejiita--he wants you up, too."

    Taurus hissed and sat up, looking for his clothes.  "Damn him...I think he's jealous."  He chuckled hoarsely.

    Nenai paused in pulling on her stationsuit.  "Jealous...?"

    "Of you and I..."  The dark-skinned Saiyajin grinned.  "You're a valuable sort of prize to a Saiyajin, Nenai."

    The girl bristled slightly at being called a "prize", but Taurus kissed her in apology.  "Enough of  your foolishness this morning," she said, her lips twitching as she tried not to smile.  "We've got business to take care of."

    Taurus lashed his tail in amusement.  "You'd be a terrible actress," he snickered as he started to dress.

    "As if you'd be any better..."  Pulling her stationsuit into place, she went to tame her hair, standing in front of the mirror and brushing out the night's tangles.

    "Vain thing, all that time wasted in grooming," Taurus teased her, standing behind her and watching in the mirror.

    "Hush, you," Nenai snapped, grinning.  "My hair doesn't stray like a thornbush all the time."  She tied her hair up in her customary ponytail and turned to leave.  "Coming?"

    "Hey, y'little minx, wait for me. And what about your snakes?"

    "I'll feed them when I get back, they're fine for now.  Come on, Vejiita's waiting."

    "So?"

    Nenai sighed and firmly pushed Taurus to the entryway, where Vejiita stood impatiently.

    "Bloody took you long enough," he snarled, lashing his tail.  "Come on."  The admiral turned and strode through the door, his anger crackling almost tangibly about him.

    "What is his problem?" Taurus muttered, following him out.

    "'The two stallions will fight to the death, for there can only be one--but then there will be none'," Nenai sighed to herself as she followed the two men.
 
 

    The room where the Saiyajin liked to train was known as the World Room, a true wonder of technology that could create true physical landscapes and even programmed opponents.  Its purpose was to prepare a fighter mentally, as well as physically, for combat.  A good exercise program could do the latter, but only a wide variety of training techniques, many of them unavailable to soldiers in a military base, could achieve the former.

    Taurus and Kariifuuru sat in a control booth about the room, monitoring the fight and setting the "scenery" to make things more interesting.  The two fighters were on the floor in the room itself; Vejiita stood with his arms crossed, waiting for Nenai to finish stretching.

    "In a real fight, your opponent would not give you time for such," he said acidly.

    Nenai looked up, eyes narrowed.  "In a real fight, I'd already be prepared.  I don't need these...preliminaries, Admiral.  I merely prefer them."  She leapt up into the air and executed a sharp triple kick at an invisible enemy, then landed and glared at the Saiyajin.

    "Ready?" Karii called.

    "As always," Vejiita said with a smirk.

    "Very," Nenai snapped at the same time, jumping up and landing in a crouch.

    "All right," Taurus said.  "Here we go."

    A blinking red light signaled the start of the match, and suddenly the opponents were standing on a dry desert plain.  The ground beneath them was cracked like dried mud, and there was no ground cover whatsoever.  The walls of the room were outlined as a tall chain link fence.

    Nenai did not have much time for observation as Vejiita, as usual, took the first attack, dashing forwards and lashing a kick at the girl, who leapt up to avoid it and came down with a sharp elbow towards Vejiita's head.  He slapped her arm aside and brought his leg up high to axe kick her, but she caught it and landed on the floor again, throwing the Saiyajin sideways.

    "Cute," Vejiita snarled, flipping into a combat crouch.  Nenai could see that he was rather annoyed; he hadn't sparred with her in a while, and had probably not been expecting her to be able to block him so easily.  She grinned and stood at defense, waiting for him to attack.

    He zipped by her in a sudden burst of speed, and came at her from behind with a flurry of punches.  She was hit several times before she hopped away, turning around to face him again.  Before he could change his attack, she rolled to the side and came up on his left, grabbing him around the neck and swinging herself over his back, then slamming him to the ground in the same motion.

    Quickly she leapt back to avoid Vejiita's lashing kick as he rose.  His teeth were bared in extreme anger; it was rather frightening to Nenai, who backed off slightly and moved her arms in a figure-eight pattern, warily watching the irate Saiyajin.

    Vejiita hissed through his teeth, his tail lashing sharply from side to side.  Sometimes he smiled when he fought, but he was not smiling now.  He had not landed a single strong blow on her, and she had thrown him twice.

    Well...there's certainly ways to even this up, he thought.  Leaping into the air, he shouted and fired several energy blasts at Nenai without warning, throwing up a cloud of dust and smoke around her.

    "Dog!" Nenai screeched, soaring out of the smoke, trailing little clouds of the thick stuff behind her.  She crossed her wrists over her head and fired a wide shower of narrow beams at Vejiita, striking him many times with the hot, needle-like rays.  He roared in anger and moved so fast that Nenai lost sight of him for a moment, then reappeared behind her and slammed his elbow into her back.  The girl was dashed to the ground, and Vejiita continued to hit her while she was down, his teeth bared in a silent, feral snarl.

    "Vejiita," Karii said sharply.  "She's down, that's enough!"

    Vejiita hissed and continued to pummel Nenai, who made a muffled squeal with each strike.  "Think you can beat me," the Saiyajin growled under his breath.  "Think you're better than a Saiyajin, huh?  Think you can beat an admiral?  Ensign Nenais'u?!"

    Nenai tried to raise her head and stare at the apparently mad Saiyajin, but he kicked her in the ribs, and she coughed hoarsely, her eyes wide in surprise and pain.

    "Vejiita!" Taurus snapped.  He had left the control booth and now stood in the room with the two combatants, his tail lashing sharply from side to side.

    "Stay out of this," Vejiita snarled, firing a warning blast at the other Saiyajin.  He turned back to Nenai and pushed her chin up with is foot.  "Well?  Do you submit, Nenais'u?" he said coldly.

    There was silence for a long moment.  Vejiita stood with his arms crossed, and Taurus crouched a short distance away, staring in disbelief.  He had been training the girl hard, and he knew she should not have been defeated so quickly.  Vejiita was fighting for real, not sparring!

    "Well?" Vejiita prompted.

    "...N..never..." the hoarse reply came from Nenai's bloody lips.  "Never...NEVER!"  Without warning, her power flashed into full effect; the sudden, violent burst of her aura knocked Vejiita backwards as Nenai turned turu, her wings stretching out hugely.

    #Damn you, Vejiita,# she said in the odd double-tone that came with her transformation.  Her anger crackled around her in the form of bursts of electricity as she rose to float calmly in the air.

    Taurus had backed up against the fence, staring at Nenai in a mix of fear and wonder.  He had never seen her so angry, flaunting her power in such an aggressive way.  "Nenai..." he whispered.

    She looked at him with a faint smile, then turned to glare at Vejiita.  #Well?  Do you want to continue?#

    Vejiita's eyes narrowed.  "Of course."  With that, he settled in his stance and powered up.

    The sheer violence of the admiral's aura made Nenai's feathers prickle, and she shivered, crossing her arms over her chest.  Large pieces of dried mud from the ground broke free and floated into the air, shattering upon contact with Vejiita's power.  Half of the light bulbs in the room exploded, showering shards of glass into the illusory desert.

    Nenai shrieked, covering herself with her wings. These people are so destructive! she thought, afraid. I may be more powerful--but not as deadly...How can they be so violent?!

    "Nenais'u!" Vejiita roared.  "Turn around and fight!"

    The girl unfurled her wings and turned around in the air.  Vejiita floated above her, his aura surrounding him, a sickly yellow nimbus flickering like fire.  "This," he said, his lips moving back from his teeth in a hunter's grin, "is for real, girl.  Are you sure you want to continue?"

    Nenai raised her wings in defiance and gave the shrill cry that had so hurt the Saiyajin before.  Taurus and Vejiita immediately curled their tails and covered their ears, and Karii turned off her audio feed in the control booth.  Still screaming, Nenai created a bright ball of energy between her hands and shot it at Vejiita's chest.  He flew backwards and was slammed into the fence by the force of the attack.

    Taurus looked at the Amon in wide-eyed disbelief as she stopped making the terrible wailing sound and hovered serenely in the air.  "My Nenai..." he said in a near-whisper.  "I never thought..."

    "Bitch!" came Vejiita's voice, cutting off Taurus' quiet speech.  He flew at Nenai at top speed and fired a rain of ki-bolts at her, throwing up a large dust cloud.  There was no movement within for several long moments.

    "Heh, that'll teach her..."  The Saiyajin crossed his arms and smirked.

    "Damn it, Vejiita, you could have killed her," Taurus snarled, his tail whipping from side to side.

    "So?  Are you going to fight me over it?" Vejiita sneered.

    Before Taurus could reply, a shape shot out of the dust towards Vejiita.  Nenai grabbed his head between her wing-claws and held him that way as she struck him, her teeth bared to expose her sharp canines.  Any attempt to hit back was easily blocked, and after several terrible minutes the girl stopped, using her arms to throw the Saiyajin to the ground.

    Karii switched on the intercom.  "That's enough for both of you!" she said firmly.

    "Definitely," Taurus agreed, his voice a little shaky.  "Nenai, change back."

    "Give me a few minutes."  Her breath came in short, quiet gasps as she tried to calm herself.

    "All right...sit down, m'dear, and relax."  With that, Taurus went to check on his admiral.

    Vejiita was fighting unconsciousness.  He was bleeding from half a dozen cuts on his head from Nenai's talons, and his armor was cracked in several places.  He batted Taurus' hand away as the taller man tried to help him to stand.

    "Vejiita, you really got yourself into this one," Taurus murmured.  "C'mon, maybe you need to get checked out in sick bay."

    The admiral's eyes widened, then narrowed dangerously, and he began to rise unsteadily.  "I don't need...to go to the sick bay!" he roared, glaring at Taurus.

    "Ore na katesh' shikau," Nenai said in a mocking tone.  She had returned to her normal state while Taurus and Vejiita were talking.

    "What was that?" Vejiita growled.

    "I said, you sounded like a wounded buffalo," the girl replied sweetly, turning to leave.  She looked relatively uninjured.

    Vejiita looked like he was going to explode in rage, but Taurus shook him roughly.  "Drop it.  Come on, you at least need new armor and another stationsuit."

    "Come on, Vejiita," Karii called.  "We haven't had breakfast yet!"

    "Yeah," Taurus agreed, "that's right.  Let's go eat."  He half-supported Vejiita out of the room to the locker room where he could get a new uniform, after a shower.  Karii met them in the hall, and they went down to the galley to get a quick meal.

    "Where's Nenai?" Vejiita asked as they walked along.

    Karii shrugged.  "Probably with her snakes or something.  She disappeared after the spar."

    "Heh..."  Vejiita did not say anything more.  Taurus looked sidelong at his admiral; the man's eyes were strangely lit with what Taurus recognized as nitekta, a Saiyajin mental condition of obsession with the defeat of an enemy.

    This is bad, Taurus thought. He won't rest until he's completely defeated--even destroyed--Nenai...

    He whispered these suspicions quietly to Karii, who watched her brother carefully during their meal.  Her expression grew troubled, and she confirmed Taurus' guess later.

    "Things could get very dangerous here," she said gravely when they were alone.  "We have to monitor them at all times when they're together.  Tell Nappa and Raditz.  The condition can fade away in time, so we can only hope...because if it doesn't, Vejiita may kill her."

    Taurus shut his eyes against that thought.  "Pray it doesn't come to that," he said quietly.