I don't own DBZ. Or Anything really, including JL.
A New Dawn!
Deep in the mountains of the Ox Kingdom, a young girl stared up into the starry sky, a frown etched on her face. Reddish-brown, shoulder length hair spread around head, which was currently being propped up by her arms. Flickering lights splayed across her form, as her green eyes tracked a small boy flittering about the vast expanse above her. With a sigh, Lime Lao lamented another night of lost sleep as the boy appeared at her side with a growl. Silken locks of gold jutted from his head, as teal eyes focused on her, filled with a savage fire undimmed by the wetness that threatened to spill over onto a face much too young to be marred by the pain that it currently held. Son Gohan, a boy of 11, only a few months older than Lime herself, was no stranger to pain though. Lime turned away, unwilling to offer him support for the insanity he put himself through. A thud drew her attention back to the boy, now lying prone besides her, once blonde hair now nearly obscured by the night as they resumed their natural ebony coloring. Though his eyes were closed she knew they, too, had undergone a similar change to onyx.
These nightly excursions had become a normal part of Lime's life, three months after the Cell Games, and while Lime was somewhat touched that the boy who had saved her life and her town had sought her out after the horrible tournament, she knew that something had changed within him. No longer was he the carefree innocent boy who tried to act tough that she had only briefly met. He had explained it when she asked why her, and a small smile crept its way onto her face at the memory. "Because, you were so brave to continue after your loss" the boy had said "and I want to feel that"
He had been so honest when he said it, so thoroughly transparent that Lime couldn't help but find the situation funny. The monster, the one this very boy beside her had slain, was responsible for said loss, the death of her parents. Parents who, miraculously (and partially because of the aforementioned boy), had returned to her life, smiles and tears and hugs at the ready. The very same monster Lime couldn't fathom standing before without sniveling, the one this boy who praised her courage in the face of loss so readily faced. It was odd, to her, that a boy so seasoned in battle had such trouble handling loss.
"Then again, I thought my parents would stay dead, and I moved on… I couldn't imagine mama choosing to stay away" thought Lime. It had taken awhile, but eventually Lime had managed to coax what bothered the boy from him, between his bouts of training "more like self-mutilation" she thought bitterly, and his father's death, a death he foolishly blamed himself for, was the cause of these near nightly sessions.
She didn't have to sit through them, she knew. He had even asked her not to, on more than one occasion, but always the tiny, almost unnoticeable tremor in his voice swayed her better senses into abandoning the concept of sleep for another night. Her parents, unknowing of the trips, were beginning to worry their daughter had taken their deaths harder than thought. Even her beloved Grandfather was showing signs of worry, discontinuing her martial arts lessons until she had "adjusted" to life with her parents back, to a time when her "shock" was gone. But she couldn't abandon this strange boy, who she knew little about, hardly more than a name really.
"Gohan… You awake?" she asked, to be rewarded with a nearly inaudible grunt. "Youre going to come over tomorrow after lunch and meet my family.". Another grunt, but Lime knew he'd be there. She hadn't asked for anything of him, nor was there a need to, but still. She knew it was an odd friendship she shared with Gohan, but she couldn't help but want to nurture it.
Besides… She wanted to know what he thought about these new people who had begun to spring up after the Cell Games. The other reason for his training, she supposed, as stories flooded local news channels and gossipmongers of strange individuals wielding strange powers, or performing amazing feats. Superheroes, they were being called, masked and caped individuals who have slowly began to clean up the criminal elements left over from the various gangs and armies of the past 40 years.
Order was being restored to Earth, slowly, at the hands and implementations of these heroes, but she knew that Gohan, a boy who had been trying to bring peace for a long time, was distrustful of them, like many. Lime knew as much, even if she found it slightly odd that of all people, he should be more accepting of super strong men flying from the sky to save damsels in distress.
Lime Lao was a young girl… But still, even she knew change was coming, a new world with new rules. The monster Cell was gone, and with him, the last relic of The Red Ribbons legacy, assuming Gohan was telling her the truth of Cell. With a glance over to her odd friend, she smiled… he was snoring…albeit lightly, and it was good to see him sleep. With a sigh, she looked back up to the sky, littered with stars, and thought of the future.
Yeah, so… Let's do this.