Chapter 1: The Call for Action
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, or any of its characters. All rights reserved to Akira Toriyama and his buddies.
AN: I apologize to anyone thinking this was an update on 'A Daughter's Difference.' This is a different story with no ties to that story. At the bottom I'll be explaining the reasoning and whys this story came to be. If this chapter bores you then please scroll down to just read the other AN. As for 'A Daughter's Difference', it is being worked on, but I needed a small breakaway from that story and this was one of the stories that I had been developing. This story has no Beta, so if there are a lot of mistakes then I apologize. This is not a Xenoverse story, I swear just in the last week there have been so many Xenoverse ties in.
Perched high above a buzzing metropolitan city below stood a young man looking down at the ambient lights that city had to offer to the castle. He wore a rather heavy looking gold encrusted armor, though the armor seemed more for show rather than practicality, a sword connected to his hip, a large regal cape that billowed in the afternoon wind. He gripped the edge of the balcony where he stood, and let out of breath of air.
"Uahh," he growled as he roughly scratched his maroon-colored hair. He turned his back and rested against the edge of the balcony. Behind him he could see the entrance to his luxurious room.
From the other side of his room, the other door leading to one of the many walkways of the castle opened and entered a person that could only be described as one of the many caretakers of the palace. Though she didn't seem as young as she once was, her purple eyes and smile radiated the young spirit still inside. Dressed in a long dress and an apron on top, she made her way towards the armored young man.
She quickly bowed before speaking to the young man, "I see you're observing the kingdom. I'm glad to see you're in your room, my liege."
"I asked to not be disturbed Akram," he coldly replied.
The older caretaker, now identified as Akram, deeply frowned at the young man's dismissal, but as quickly as the frowned form it was replaced with a neutral expression. "Your mother, our Queen, has instructed me to be by your side at all times. I'm sorry young Prince, but the order comes from the very top."
The Prince growled but in the end just huffed, "Just to add to my humiliation, Akram, I don't need a babysitter. I haven't needed one in many years, so please leave me be. I'm not that boy anymore." He turned his back on the old maid.
"Young Prin— No, Rize listen up; I know you have been having a hard time, and confinement is probably the last thing you want right now, but you have to suck it up." She walked up to Rize and placed a hand on his shoulder to turn him around, "Look at me when I'm speaking to you boy. Don't you forget who raised you from the ground up. You may be in line to throne, but you are still little Rize to me, and I think that is what your mother see as well and why she placed you in my care once again. I won't easily bend to your whim."
Akram could see trails of tears on Rize's face. She sighed, "I—uh," she licked her dry lips, "–I'm sorry about you platoon, but it wasn't your fault, you know that right? There was no way you could have known it was a trap."
She hugged him the best she could, but thanks to his oversized armor it was a rather difficult task, "I know the decision by your parents and the council may seem unfair and too strong of a punishment, but they are trying to help you, you got to believe me."
Rize pushed Akram away, and wiped the tears from his eyes, "I'm okay. I'm okay. Just…please Akram…please let me be for a while."
Akram exhaled as she walked to the other side of the balcony to look at the city below. The castle has been built at a higher range than the city, and easily overlooked the entire capital. "I'm sorry Rize, but I have my order. I have to stay by your side at all times to make sure you don't leave.
"How about we change topics? I hear our benevolent King is on his way to meet with the leaders of the Katteru Alliance on Planet Koru. He left early this morning, and apparently the Koruz are ready to forfeit and to negotiate a treaty to join forces. Ohh I hope this works out," she said while interlocking her fingers and raising her hands under her chin as she looked up to the sky above. "You know what this would mean right?"
"The wars in this quadrant of the universe would end, and my father would move from being leader of the 'Allied Planets of the West' to 'Supreme Commander of the West Quadrant Allied Planets,' boy that's a mouthful. I hate to be the one in charge of announcing his title whenever he enters a room," answered Rize with a roll of his eyes as he announced each title. "Yeah I know; the council wouldn't shut up about it yesterday."
Akram walked towards Rize. Once she was standing next to him she jumped to close the height difference between them and slap him upside his head. "You know you could be a little more supportive of your father. This is a big deal after all. With this alliance we can finally place an effective stand against the invading Planet Trade Organization scum and their vile leader King Vegeta," she asserted with a raised fist. "Hell, we may even take them down once and for all."
Rize rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, yeah I know. It's just hard for me to be excited right now. I'm proud of my father don't get me wrong, but this was a long time coming. We all knew it was going to happen. It was only a matter of time."
They both leaned over the balcony, and could see and hear the sound of the busy city below.
The old maid smiled and said, "Would you like me to call La'vuren. I know it's been a long time since you have seen her, and I know for a fact that she certainly has missed you," she added with a wink. "I may even try to convince your mother to let you two lovebirds a little time to reconcile and catch up without this ol' bat in your way. I'll just tell your mother that La'vuren will be tasked with my order while she is with you."
Rize's face began to heat up at the mention of her name. He quickly shook his head, "I can't face her right now. I-I really want to see her as well, but not right now." He inserted his hand into his pectoral plate and took out a picture. It was a picture of the two of them together. He would often take it out to remind himself the reason he was fighting in the first place.
"Have it your way Rize, but that just means you're stuck with me," she commented with a shrug. "You younglings, when I was your age we weren't so afraid. We took life by the horns because it's the only way to move forward. Sure, sometimes it might be easier to hide or to walk around, but can you really call it living if you're always afraid?"
"Oh, not this again," he muttered. Whenever she got into this tangent there was hardly anything that ever stopped her hour long chiding. "Okay Akram call her…Akram...!" The old maid continued her tirade.
"Akr— Watch out!" he quickly pulled the caretaker into his embrace as a small spike passed right by them and inserted itself into the wall of the palace.
"What was that?" Akram questioned shaken by the sudden movement.
"I don't know, but I intend to find out." He peered over his balcony and looked in all direction the spike could have come from. "Akram, please go inside."
She nodded and ran inside, "I'll call the guards! Please get inside as well young Prince. This could be an attempt on your life."
"I'll be fine. I just need to see if I can find where it came from." He kept running back and forth, but couldn't see anything. Behind he could hear Akram's desperate calls for the guards to come at once.
Finally he saw in the distance a small dark whirlpool floating vertically facing him. At this moment he heard a hiss behind him. He turned around she could see the imbedded spike begin to give of multiple lights in all directions before the all combined on the ground of the balcony. A figure began to take form until Rize saw a virtual man standing where the projected lights pointed.
"Okay, this is new," commented Rize. At that moment Akram and a group of guards came rushing through his bedroom doors and running towards the balcony.
The figure bowed and began to speak, but it was a language Rize did not know. He could have sworn he had heard this language once, but couldn't quite place where. He dashed at full speed into his room to retrieve a small box with translators by his nightstand, and quickly placed one in his ear while running back towards the hologram with the box of the other translators in hand.
The translator immediately began to identify the language, and within second Rize could hear what the man was stating. He could hear the underlying fear in the man's tone.
"—no harm. This is an urgent message. I apologize for startling you, as this message is being sent as fast as possible, so I had no control on where and when it arrived. You are receiving this message because you are a child of Son Gohan."
"What is it saying," asked a terrified Akram. All the guards held their weapons pointed at the hologram.
'As if that is going to do anything' thought Rize. He took one of the translators and threw it at her, "It's a Northern language."
She caught it and immediately began attached it. Once it was ready she rolled the dial in the back of her ear to start looking through its Northern language selections.
"There is a great threat to him and all the alike, and it is heading to him as we speak. A great war is about to commence and his survival is key not only for his sake, but all of us as well. Sadly I cannot fight alone against an army of superior numbers. It is why I have sent this through the portal behind you in the hopes that you will respond. I understand your skepticism as I am but a hologram, but believe me the threat is very real. Please I beg of you, please help me. Help Son Gohan survive. There is not a moment to lose, the portal can't stay open for long, and even as I speak it is beginning to fall apart. If you care about him, please come. I will explain any other details once in the portal or in person on the other side."
At last the lights died down and the hologram disappeared. Rize went over to the wall and took out the spike. He looked back at Akram with what he hoped was a neutral expression.
"We should tell this at once to your mother. Our King is in danger. You," she pointed to one of the guards, "tell her majesty that we received word that our King is in danger, and he may be walking into a trap." The guard didn't need to be told twice.
She took the spike from Rize's hands. "Don't worry your highness," she reverted to speaking in formal fashion as there were guards around, "we'll make sure… No! No! No, don't even think about. Let's let the court handle this. We don't know who this person is or if we can trust his word." There's a reason the Queen has appointed her as his caretaker. She had cared for the young Prince since he was a baby and knew him better than anyone, save for his parents. At times she could almost read his mind.
The maroon-haired prince retorted, "You heard him, my father is in danger and I will not wait to see how things play out! If there is something I can do to help, then I will." Something about the hologram man's words reached out to him, whether it was the warning or the emotion the man was giving that somehow made him feel connected to him somehow. He looked out into the sky and could see the gate begin to close.
"Then I'm sorry young Prince, but I cannot allow you to put your life at risk. Guards, by order of her highness, restrain him at once!" she bellowed to the remaining guards. They looked at one another, since this was a simple caretaker telling them to restrain a royal member.
It was this moment of hesitation that helped Rize make his decision. "I'm sorry Akram, but this is my redemption to my family and my kingdom." He took off at top speed towards the closing portal, with the small box translators in hand that he had forgotten to put down. His eyes began to flicker teal to give him an added boost of speed.
"What are you guys doing!?" she yelled at the guards. "If the Prince dies or is captured, then the King and Queen will have our heads for not stopping him." This was all the motivation the guards needed as they took off after the Prince, but by the time they were flying towards the Prince, he had passed the threshold of the Portal.
"Come men! The window is closing!" barked the guard in front. They flew as fast as they could, but it was too late. When they arrived at the location where the portal once was, it had just closed.
Akram fell to her knees as she saw the young boy she raised disappeared into the unknown gate. "RIZE!"
Behind Akram, an imposing woman blasted through the doors. "Where is my son?! Is he alright? I came as soon as I heard he was attacked," yelled the ruby-haired Empress.
She grabbed the kneeling Akram by her apron and dress and raised her into the air. She began shaking the poor maid, "Tell me where he is Akram?"
Like Rize, Rize's mother was also a tall individual. Not extremely, but enough to surpass the King by a head at least, so Akram's legs definitely dangled in the air. With tears in her eyes she revealed the fate of the Empress's only child to her, "I'm sorry my Queen. He got away before we could stop him. He is heading towards his father."
She just released the maid in shock. She turned around called out to the men and women in the vicinity, "Someone! Get me in contact with my husband NOW!"
"I'm sorry my Queen. Please I beg you to forgive me," Akram cried out Empress who was facing the other way.
She whirled to the floored maid, "It's not your fault Akram. That son of mine is just too impulsive. So much like my husband in his early years when I met him." She exhaled, "I just hope he is alright, and my husband will surely break out the whip when this is over. Come Akram, we need to find my reckless kid."
"There are weapons that were created specifically to attack and destroy Son Gohan no matter how strong he is. They attack him on a genetic level, so if you see any of these types of weapons destroy them first before attacking the enemies. They have been codified to find and tear apart his DNA, but they will do no damage to us since our code is slightly different. That's the best I can give you, given our time limit. I hope to see you on the other side. Find his Ki at once when you arrive and protect him until we can all get together."
Rize let out a suspired as he looked the multi-colored tunnel he was currently flying through. 'Don't worry dad, I'm coming.'
AN: I want to start by saying that this story won't focus on Rize and his life, if that worried you. There is a bigger picture at work here, and I was just explaining what he was doing when he got the emergency call. It will focus primarily on the war that was mentioned by the hologram. Rize, Son of Gohan, believes that he is aiding his father that is heading towards a treaty signing, but next chapter he will find out it isn't exactly the Gohan he thought. He is not the only one that had this thought.
I know that a lot of 'Time Traveling' and 'Reality Crossing' stories have come out recently, in part thanks to the new videogame, but this story has nothing to do with those games or stories. It was actually influenced by many epilogues that I have read over the years. In some of those stories Gohan didn't get together with Videl at the end of the story, and we got a glimpse at his new family life with 'X' person in that epilogue. So I always wondered what would happen if all those children crossed over and met on one playing field. The first time I saw something similar was in SSJ4Godot's 'Episode of Mint'. It's a great story, at least for me, and had some pretty funny moment, but I wanted to take it a step further and this story began it's long process of development.
Now for some that talk to me personally, I often mention some of the big stories that have been in development way before 'A Daughter's Difference,' this is not one of them. This story was but a simple plot bunny that grew until it was ready to become a full story in just a few months. Like 'A Daughter's Difference' this serves a purpose to my overall growth as a story teller. I feel that one area that I'm lacking is in writing battle-oriented chapter, and I hope that this story forces me to improve since it's primarily a battle-theme story. Whether that happens remains to be seen.
Now, *sigh* I understand why many might not be into this story as it even violates one of MY carnal rules of fanfiction, so I can imagine some might also feel the same way. It is my theory and rule that NO OC should ever be put in a situation where they have the main character status or as the main protagonist. OC should essentially serve as grease to help the gears of the story to move forward. (support roles) They can have pivotal moments, but the story cannot rely on them. Unfortunately this story will have multiple OCs and will revolve mainly on the life of one of them specifically and what his role was that led to this war. The OCs will be children of Gohan, but from different worlds. We were just introduced to one of them. The next chapter will begin where all meet, so don't worry about multiple chapters of backstory for all the new characters. Their backstories will be explained as we go.
To recap: This story is primarily about Gohan and his children from different worlds fighting the unknown army that has marked Gohan for dead. If that sounds interesting then I hope to have your support, if not then I can accept it and thank you for taking the time to open and read this chapter.
