Author's note: Wondering why I named Garlic Jr.'s kid Onion? Here's the answer. Garlic is a strong smelling food, is it not? So are onions(Hey, I like name puns and themes. Like the "cold" theme with Freeza's family and the vegetable or food themes for Saiyan names.) ^_^

"Only you would use a child for your evil purposes! And only you would give him a name as foul as your own." Kami spat angrily at the two small demons that had invaded his home. He clutched his wooden stick tightly in one hand and had taken on a defensive stance, ready for anything Garlic or Onion might do. Looking Onion over, he could guess the child was probably about ten years old, or at least the human equivalent to that age. Definitely older then Tategoto.

Popo groaned in the background as Garlic started to laugh his chilling cackle and flashed his small fangs. "Did you hear that, Onion? He called your name foul."

"I heard him." Onion crossed his arms and chuckled, his own fangs showing as he grinned coldly, a grin that held a ton of malice and bloodlust. "Can we kill him?"

"Not quite yet, Onion. We're going to kidnap him." Garlic ran his small tongue over his fangs and smacked his lips together as if the sound of his plan was a delightful food, "Then we'll find the Dragon Balls and wish for you to have eternal life like I have. And then we'll RULE THIS AND EVERY OTHER WORLD! MWA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

"You're an idiot if you think I'll go quietly!" Kami interrupted them as he slid forward, catching Garlic in the side of the face with a karate chop. Garlic flew backwards into the wall, and Onion sprang into action. The jewel on his forehead flickered slightly as he spun around, kicked Kami in the gut and flung him to the ground, the feat looking amazing because of their height differences.

"Stay down you old windbag! If you know what's good for you!" Onion sneered, putting his foot down on Kami's throat. The jewel flickered again and he turned his face down towards Kami's, and that's when Kami noticed something strange, and wondered if it was his imagination.

He didn't get a chance to complete his silent thoughts as he groaned, clutching his shoulder as a grimace pulled at his wrinkled lips. It was a fake out, however, because as soon as Onion let go, he used his stick to trip him and throw him face-first into the wall next to Garlic.

"You'll pay for that you old bastard!" Onion retorted as soon as he got up, licking the blood off his lips. "Father? Let's do it." He turned his head to Garlic as he got up, and Garlic snickered softly. "Cover your ears, father. Just in case you're not immune to this like I am." The young demon smirked, speaking low so Kami wouldn't hear it. Garlic did so, grinning as he watched Onion stand up once again.

Kami was just getting to his feet when he saw Onion was already up. He watched the jewel on his forehead start to emit a steady glow. Then it started to give off a maddening, high-pitched noise that was agony to the ears. Kami dropped his wooden stick and yelled in pain, grabbing his ears as the noise made his head feel like it was about to explode. The agony drove him to his knees as his vision started to waver, and finally his consciousness went dark. Onion grinned triumphantly and stood over Kami with his foot on his head as if to hold him down.

Unseen by everyone but Kami, Mr. Popo got up and snuck over to his magic carpet. He left the area in swift silence to warn Piccolo and the others of the danger that was present.

"So you're flying now, eh kid?" Vegeta snorted as Tategoto zipped past him in the de-activated gravity room. "Figures."

I bet I could catch you. Tategoto signed as he passed Vegeta for the tenth time. He knew that Vegeta was starting to understand some of the sign language by now, since Yasmine had tricked him into learning a little before he figured out what she was up to.

"Yeah right!" The short, wild-haired Saiyan burst into a round of his hyena-like laughter, making sure the boy could see him. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be. "You keep dreaming kid! Keep dreaming. Hahahah-OOF!" He was interrupted when Tategoto caught him from behind in a football-like tackle that drove him to the floor. Immediately after the tackle, Tategoto took off out the door with only a white contrail as a sign that he was ever there at all. Vegeta snarled, "You asked for it!" He rose and flew after the young Namek as the wind blew his wild hair back slightly.

Tategoto glanced back to see where Vegeta was, and realized a little too late that the Saiyan had phased in front of him. Only this time, having learned from his father, he quickly dodged around him and stuck out his tongue. Come and get me! He signed, making a 'bring it on' gesture with his hands.

Vegeta moved to grab Tategoto, but Tategoto backflipped in mid air and took off in the opposite direction. Grinning at the challenge, Vegeta tore off after him, catching up quickly. He phased out and reappeared just above the boy, already in a straight dive. Tategoto shrieked in surprise as Vegeta's momentum carried them straight down into the puddle of mud that surrounded one of the trees by the gravity room.

SPLAAAAAAAT!

Tategoto sat up with a coat of mud covering all down the front of him, making his skin look more brown then green as the wet soil started to soak into his clothes. Vegeta sat up a moment later; his face looked like someone had gone crazy while applying a cosmetic mask, and the brown mud was all in his hair and down the front of his clothes. Tategoto started laughing his head off, and Vegeta just snarled and grumbled under his breath about how humiliating this was.

Picking up a piece of mud, Vegeta chucked it at Tategoto and said, "Shut up kid! This isn't funny!"

The mud hit Tategoto square in the face, and for a moment, the young Namek made a "deer-staring-at-headlights" expression. Then he wrinkled his nose, picked up a handful of mud and lopped it at Vegeta. The mud caught Vegeta in the side of the face, and he snarled as he reached over and shoved Tategoto's face into the mud as revenge. The Saiyan prince snickered as he climbed out of the mud puddle altogether.

Tategoto climbed out a moment later, looking more like Swamp Thing then a Namek.

"That woman is going to kill us." Vegeta muttered about Bulma as he spotted the hose. "Or maybe not…" He smirked as he walked to the hose, turned on the water and watched the sparkling water spray out the nozzle. He started spraying the mud off of Tategoto, ignoring the loud grunts of protest. Once that was done, Vegeta hosed himself off, then turned the water off and tossed the hose aside.

One thing he did forget to hose off was his and Tategoto's feet. Two sets of muddy footprints led in from the kitchen to the living room where the young Namek and the Saiyan were arm-wrestling. When Bulma came home a few minutes later and saw the mess, she freaked out and screamed. "VEGETA!!!!!!!"

"Oh shit!" Vegeta snarled when he heard the scream, which caused him to lose his concentration and the arm-wresting match with Tategoto. He got up and went into the kitchen, scowling, "What is your problem woman!?"

"Look at this mess! It'll take me hours to clean it all up! The carpet! AAUGH! Take your shoes off right now! Get Tategoto's shoes while you're at it! Grr!" Bulma wiped her hair back and threw her purse down on the kitchen table. "Wait…I know how to make you two pay for this…" She said in a strange tone. "I love revenge…"

Five minutes later, a barefoot Tategoto and Vegeta were stuck scrubbing the muddy footprints off the tiles of the kitchen floor. Vegeta was grumbling that a prince shouldn't be doing slave work, and Tategoto just sat there looking forlorn as he scrubbed away. "This is all your fault…" Vegeta was grumbling, pointing at Tategoto. "You started the whole thing!"

Tategoto's eyeridges went up like 'yeah right' as he watched Vegeta's lips move. Vegeta finally got up and went into the gravity room, seeing that five minutes of humiliation was all he could take. Tategoto followed, thumbing his nose at the house as he went to go spar with Vegeta.

"You've got to be kidding!" Piccolo was commenting with wide eyes and a sweatdrop running down the side of his head as Yasmine laughed. "I do NOT take baths with bubbles in them!" He snarled.

"Well at least a shower then. Sorry to say this…buddy…but oftentimes, people don't smell themselves." Yasmine covered her face with a brown hand as she giggled softly. "Besides, after getting all sweaty like you do, you should at least clean off." She watched Piccolo's expression get even more adamant and angry. "If you're all afraid of me seeing you naked, just remember that I did a few days ago when we…when I found out that you actually did have a…" She blushed and trailed off.

The last comment seemed to have a mixed effect on Piccolo. He was delighted and angry upon remembering what had happened. A moment of weakness, perhaps…just a moment… "That was different." He said quickly, suddenly looking away.

Yasmine scooted closer to where Piccolo was standing, watching as he tensed when she came closer. "You always act so nervous when I come close to you like this. Why?"

The tall Namekian inhaled quickly and replied, "I told you. Being sentimental isn't my thing."

"Intimacy and sentimentality can be two different things at some times." Yasmine said gently as she took his hand and gently traced a vein from his middle knuckle to his wrist. "I'll give you a choice then, and you decide. Take a shower while I wait here or…" She paused a moment and blushed, "Or I can take one with you." After speaking, she watched Piccolo's expression to see if it would offer any clues to his decision, but the Namekian's expression remained stoic. She changed the subject, seeing as she was only making him angrier by talking about taking showers. "Everybody has their own little soft spots. You're one of mine."

"There is only one that I won't refuse to mention." Piccolo stated tersely as he struggled with his thoughts, feeling at a total loss of what to say or do.

"Tategoto. That's obvious…" She smiled gently.

The Namekian answered her with a barely detectable nod, a frown drawing his brow ridges together. Though he was silent, the love that he had for the boy was just as apparent as it would have been if he had shouted it through a megaphone. He felt Yasmine's arms wrap gently around his neck, and once again, he seemed to peek out of the shell around his heart. His eyelids drifted shut and he slowly sighed as he asked, "Yasmine…how…why would you even want to have any remote feelings for someone like me. If you knew what I've done -"

"What's done is done and it's in the past." Yasmine interrupted softly, "What you used to do doesn't matter to me. What you do now does. And I know that you have a lot of things hidden inside of this…" She wrapped her long chocolate-brown fingers around his red-ringed wrist, elevated his hand and placed it over his rapidly pounding heart. "That's why I love you. Because I know that underneath all that rage and pain, the part of yourself that you lost a long time ago is still alive."

Piccolo was shocked into silence by her answer. Part of him was getting angry at her for punching past his defenses again, and the other part was almost relieved that she had been able to find her way back in. He resisted the urge to hug her back, and resigned himself to moving his hand around to grasp hers, holding it tightly against his chest as he opened his eyes and looked into hers.

Wrinkled green brow ridges trembled as a pair of dark eyes slide open slowly. Cloth rustled as clothing was disturbed by movement, and an old green form slowly moved into a sitting position with a quiet moan. A trembling hand reached up to touch an age-worn forehead, right between a pair of wrinkled antennae.

"Unh…" Kami moaned as his vision cleared, his ears still ringing from the noise that Onion's gem had made. He slowly looked around to find himself surrounded by what looked like a cage of pure golden light. Just across the room, there was a control panel that was briefly illuminated by a single blinking red light. It looked so out of place because the rest of the room seemed like the inside of a cave. "Where am I?"

"I see you're awake, old fool." Onion tittered with a grin as he stood in a shadowed spot near where Kami was trapped. There was a faint light just below him, and only his pale greenish-blue face was visible. The way the shadows fell over it made him seem more eerie and demonic, especially since that red jewel in his forehead glinted like an evil third eye. "I trust you slept well? Hah!"

"You will not get away with this!" Kami got to his feet angrily and grabbed onto two of the glowing gold bars. As soon as he touched them, they brightened, sending a shockwave of pain through his nerves. The old Namekian was thrown back by the surge of power, and landed back in the center of his prison as smoke rose from the burns on his hands. Rubbing his sore palms together, he sneered, "I suppose a brat like you feels quite at home in this darkness."

"So, you noticed that I am blind. Hah! That doesn't make me any less potent!" Onion snickered as he scratched the corner of his small mouth with his index finger. "Oh, and I think I should warn you of something, you wrinkled green freak. Those bars are made of pure energy. A technology I've developed that I call 'negative ki'. So don't try to power up or you'll be incinerated, because it counters any ki with an equal amount of 'negative ki'. The results are…explosive..." He started to laugh wildly as Garlic entered the room with something in his hands. "So have a nice day, old man."

Garlic snickered at Onion's last comment. "I see the wretch is awake. Well, he's nothing to worry about while he's in there. Your brains, power and inventions, along with my power, brains and immortality will make us the rulers of this world soon enough! Put your hands on this, Onion." He grabbed Onion's hand and let him feel the orange orb with a dark orange star decorating the very center of one side. The orb itself felt like a very large marble. "That's a Dragon Ball. Pretty soon, you'll be putting your hands on seven of these lovely things, and immortality will be yours."

"I like the sound of that." Onion rasped as he rolled the Dragon Ball between his hands. "Once I'm immortal, I'll let you finish off that old fool."

"When I do, it will take Piccolo down as well." Garlic rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Come on, let's go find the rest of those Dragon Balls!" Onion laughed too and followed his father out, leaving Kami all alone in the buzzing, glowing prison that he could not escape.

"Mr. Popo, please hurry…"