Prologue-

Pan's Point of View

Pan sucked in a deep breath of the chilly humid air, futilely attempting to cool the blaze of fire that had risen in her gut. The stone wall behind her was frigid beneath her thrumming fingertips as she braced herself in the trembling grip of the predicament in front of her. In hindsight she should have expected this to turn out badly, but there had been no other way to act.

It was her first time in Pepper Town. It was the biggest town she'd ever been in, large enough for the roughly patched houses to squeeze allies in between walls. Her boredom at the capsule shop had spawned curiosity, and she'd taken it upon herself to explore the bustling streets.

Less than two minutes ago she'd spotted two young girls heading home from what appeared to be a successful shopping trip. They cradled arms of groceries in their graceful limbs. They had long flowing hair and bright eyes...the picture of innocence. They couldn't have been more than three years younger than her. Adolescent; a flower coming into bloom.

They had turned down a secluded dimmed street, unaware of their ominous onlookers. With her keen senses, Pan could have spotted them from a mile away. Two thugs had stepped out of the alleyway, suggestively blocking the girls' path. They had tall builds, dressed in black. Pan's instincts screamed 'suspicious' and 'danger.'

"What is a pair of lovely young ladies doing out here all alone?" Came a mocking growl. The other snorted. "Have you come to play?" The girls took a hesitant step back as if deciding on how high their chances of a successful escape were. As they reached an aggressive hand out to grab one of the girls, Pan appeared, standing protectively in front of them, her ragged grey trench coat settling after her quick movements. Her feet were steady and unmoving on the firm ground. With a pair of surprised yelps, the girls fled. Pan stood alone in front of some of the most worthless excuses for men. Didn't they know life in that world was sacred? Humanity had been pushed nearly to the brink of extinction under the androids' wrath. Now they were going to continue raising the death toll? Four years of peace was not nearly enough time to recover from the damage the earth had received. With a new fire in her eyes, Pan let the duo cackle and throw her against the wall of the alley.

Pan blinked, her thoughts caught up with the present. Her slim dark brows furrowed over piercing black eyes. Her ferocious scowl caused her captor's face to falter in surprise. He quickly arranged his features into a leer, not about to get caught showing a sign of weakness. "How about you, little girl?" he sneered. His partner snickered off to this side. "Do you want to play?" Pan struggled to hold onto her sanity. She wouldn't lose control. Not again. She was helpless to stop her conscious's descent. Adrenaline slid down her veins, heightening every sensation. A blaze grew in the pit of her stomach. She effortlessly knocked away the thug's grip on her jacket. The sixteen year old martial artist that had stood before them only mere moments before was gone, replaced by something much more dark and powerful. Pan's lips curled up into a smirk and the men began to back off in disbelief and confusion.

"What the…" Pan winded back her arm, feeling her power swell in her tight fist, as she prepared to throw a punch that would deal much more than a fatal wound to the cretin in front of her. "This'll teach you not to harass innocent young girls" she spat, preparing to launch her fist headlong into the man's face. Something warm slid around her wrist in a tight vise. Pan should have sensed his presence long ago, had she not been so drunk on her own power. She turned to deal with whoever was holding her back and found herself pinned beneath large green eyes. All rationality came flooding back to her and she was overwhelmed by a sense of dizzying relief. Her knees shook as he towered over her. "Takako" she breathed. He turned his gaze on the men behind her. "If you have any self-preservation you'll leave right now" he commanded in a voice so calm and authoritative that the men were scrambling away from them before the words had finished leaving his mouth. Pan shot her brother a wary look, steeling herself for a lecture. He sighed and a dropped a heavy hand onto her shoulder. "Are you alright, Pan?" Pan averted her gaze and huffed indignantly. "Do I look hurt?" she countered. Takako gave her a withering look. "You know what I meant. Next time just come and find me" he suggested. "You wouldn't have made it in time" came the flat reply. Pan couldn't keep the memories at bay as they relentlessly flooded her mind.

Her strength was a strange thing. Whenever she found herself up against something she didn't want to face, or when her emotions swung out of control she would snap. Her power would blind her and rage out of her conscious control. Her actions only ensured her survival and afterwards she would be weak and drained, sometimes even nauseous. Once, she fainted after a "fit." It had only been an inconvenience in her life until that day a few years prior, when she attacked Takako. They had been arguing about his mother, a tender subject, when he pushed her too far and in her anger, she lost control. Five broken bones had been the price Takako had to pay when he faced her wrath. She had just meant to bat at him in irritation, not shatter him like a fragile piece of glass. Takako had been in bed for months and Pan had all but exiled herself out of guilt. It had been a long time until she was talking and eating again, and even then, she had never fully regained the small amount innocence she'd maintained as a child. She wondered if there was something terribly wrong with her. Did her bloodlust come from her biological father, Son Gohan, or did it originally surface in her like an unwarranted glitch?

"Look Pan, I don't want to see you like that again. Maybe it wouldn't bother you so much if you just talked to me" Takako nearly pleaded, yanking Pan out of her thoughts. She looked at his mess of black hair, splaying around his ears. There were distressed creases in his forehead and his mouth was drawn down in a worried frown. He was her brother and he loved her and all she did was make him hover around her like an anxious mother-hen. Pan let out a long breath. "I'm sorry. You're right, I should have gone to retrieve you." Takako reached up to ruffle her raven hair with a half-hearted chuckle. "It's alright, kid. It wasn't your fault. Hey, look what I've gotten us" he said, moving to pull something out of his pocket. She curiously appraised the small object he cradled in the palm of his hand. He held the small plastic case out to her, encouraging her to take it. Pan turned it around her strong slim fingers, opening the clasp with a small "pop." A small capsule was nestled in the foam lining, labeled "R3 HoverJet 68."

It was the reason they had come to that town in the first place; a small step of victory in their grand plan to revive Takako's mother. That jet could take them anywhere, which would be the case as soon as they had a rare device called "The Dragon Radar" within their possession. She desperately hope that the Dragon Balls were real and not just the fairytales she was told as a child by Takako's mother. She wished for nothing more than the Eternal Dragon erasing the agony the Androids had put her and Takako through for the past nine years. She could still hear Takako's screams and the thunder in her ears as it sounded that night. She could still see her adoptive mother's body crumpled and broken in the mud and smell blood and decay in the air.

Pan felt a stinging in her eyes and forced a determined smile. "This is excellent, Takako! We are that much closer to success!" Takako's own smile was bittersweet. "It's been a long wait and we still have much to do but…It'll be worth it" he promised. Pan opened her mouth to inquire about when they would depart for West City when she heard the first scream. Seconds later they could hear an enormous crash and the ground began to shake roughly beneath their feet. Pan and Takako instinctively reached out for one another to steady themselves. The air was vibrating and began to thicken with the smell of burnt earth, concrete, and rubber. Once the ground was through shaking, Pan abandoned the alley and slid to a stop in the middle of the road. She could see people fleeing and shouting from what must have been the source of the destruction. Clouds of smoke billowed up above the buildings, blotting out the sun's rays and the bright blue sky.

"What the hell…?" Pan breathed, taking a hesitant step forward. She was stopped when Takako took a handful of the back of her jacket and yanked her back. "Pan, no! We need to leave Pepper Town!" Pan whirled on him with wide eyes. "We have to find out what's going on! What if someone is hurt?" she countered. Takako's face was stern and unbendable. "Pan what if it's the Androids? What then? They are unstoppable" came the grim reminder. Pan shook her head defiantly. "They've been gone for four years, Takako! They've been defeated. They are gone!" she insisted and took off for the end of the street. She could hear Takako give a reluctant huff before following on her heels. They slid around the corner and Pan spotted a mass of fire eating away at a series of shops and homes. Nothing but blazing rubble was left behind, as if a ball of fire had rained down from the sky. The inhabitants of Pepper Town were in a panic, scrambling away from the heat. Pan heard a cackling sound from far above and lifted her eyes, narrowing in on a pair of silhouettes shrouded by smoke.

The clouds slid away, leaving behind three people that seemed to be hovering in the air. One in the middle, obviously the leader, had a shock of silver hair that brushed his shoulders in the gentle breeze. He was clad in a vest and dark pants tucked into combat boots not unlike her own. His head was topped with an old truckers hat and his eyes were a dull lifeless blue. He looked ominous with a cold smirk gracing his lips. He was flanked by two lackeys that resembled circus clowns what with their odd skin coloring and unusual clothing. One wore a pair of darkly tinted sunglasses and the other had black hair woven into a braid so long it brushed the back of his knees. Pan gaped up at them as they hovered at least forty feet above the ground. Humans couldn't do that. With a faint sense of dread, Pan heard Takako curse next to her. The strange silver-haired leader's eyes connected with her own and Pan's skin crawled. There was something definitely wrong with his gaze.

"Ah, there she is. Finally the little mouse has crawled out of the shadows" he chuckled, dropping to the ground a few yards in front of her. He surprised her with his thick southern accent. Pan clenched her fists warily. "What are you?" she whispered. "That's none of your concern. It's obvious you're a Saiyan. The question is whether you're the Saiyan we're looking for." He appraised all five feet and a half feet of her with his icy eyes. "Fifteen! Identify" he commanded.

The shorter oddball took a lazy step forward and adjusted his sunglasses. There was a distant beeping sound and then a creepy smile crawled onto his purple face. "Takizawa Takako. Male. Twenty-eight years of age. Son of Launch and Takizawa Tenshinhan. Human." "And the girl?" the leader barked. "Son Pan. Female. Sixteen years of age. Daughter of Son Gohan. Mother's identification unknown. Descendant of Son Goku. Distinction…Saiyan hybrid." Pan swallowed hard at this discovery. Was the dwarf trying to say she wasn't human? The silver-haired leader seemed pleased with this information. "Excellent. Maybe you can help us? We're looking for Son Goku" he hissed. Takako moved, pulling Pan protectively behind himself. He spoke before Pan could. "You won't find him. He was killed by a heart virus over twenty years ago. Leave now" he insisted solemnly. There was a dejected sigh. "I was worried you were going to say something like that." There was a flash of movement and suddenly Takako was gone and there was an iron hard grip on her neck. Pan's breath suddenly became very shallow. "You know what I think" the silver-haired man murmured, his fingers hard on her neck and his face close to hers. "I think you're lying." Pan didn't have any doubt now. At his proclamation, she decided that this man was an Android and he had every intent on killing her. "Pan!" Takako cried but she couldn't turn her head to find him. She heard a scuffle and a grunt and new that the other Androids had him. "Tak-ako" she choked, clawing at the Android's grip. He laughed and shook her. "You're hiding him. Tell me where Son Goku is!" She blinked around her blurring vision. "I don't know what you're talking about!" she tried to scream, but the words only came out in breathy gusts. "Girl, I'm not someone you want to irritate. Tell me where he is! Now!"

Pan was in a state of shock and denial. How could her world have turned upside down like this? That morning she'd been stronger than any person she'd known. Undefeatable. Takako used to be stronger than her when she was younger, but when they began to train in the martial arts, her strength slowly began to surpass his. He was bigger and taller and older than she was, but the physical differences between them didn't stop the increase in her power. She began to win in their spars and her power had even begun to spiral out of control to the point she couldn't control it when she lost her temper. She wasn't angry now, though. No, the fact that she couldn't even break free of the Android's grasp was enough to disbelieve.

She was slowly succumbing to the unfamiliar feeling. Fear. She hadn't been scared in a long time. Not since the Androids' supposed "disappearance." She didn't like the feeling. It stuck in her throat, and swam in the pit of her stomach. Her feet and fingers began to go numb.

"I don't know where he is!" she persisted. She heard the Android growl and he disappeared. She fell victim to gravity. Crumpled alone on the ground, she lifted her head and saw Takako struggling in the in the silver-haired Android's grip. "Takako" she gasped and shot to her feet, preparing to launch herself at the Android. Her fit of adrenaline dropped flat when she found the other two Androids holding her back. The Android's arm was locked around Takako's head, holding him steady, prepared to break his neck at any given moment. Pan's stomach flipped.

"Let's try this again. Where is Son Goku?" the Android snarled. Takako stared at her, his expression unreadable. Pan struggled against her captors. "I've told you before! I do not know where he is! I've never met Son Goku! Let my brother go!" she demanded. Takako's face turned hard and determined, his green eyes flashing. "It's useless, Pan! Go! Run!" She shook her head in despair. "No! I'm not leaving you!" she wailed, her eyes burning with inadvertent tears. "This is your last chance" the Android cackled, tightening his hold. Takako grunted in the painful position. "Don't worry. I'll catch up!" His feet began to leave the ground as the Android took flight, slow and torturing. Takako grimaced and choked, his airflow cut off. "Please! I don't know where he is! Please stop!" Pan begged, sagging in the Androids' grasp.

The tears flowed down her cheeks, hot and uninvited. She didn't want to showcase such a weakness. She had to be strong. She had to do something. She pulled and twisted and kicked, unable to free herself. The Android's face fell into some sort of mocking semblance of a frown. "Not going to talk, eh? Fine." He descended, and Takako's feet touched the ground. His grip loosened and Takako sucked in a lung full of air. Pan's knees shook in relief and her eyes met Takako's. He gave her a grim smile, but a movement at the corner of her vision had her eyes jerking up to see a malicious sneer on the silver-haired Android's face.

It happened so fast that her eyes were unable to follow, and a hollow crack sounded like the pop of gunfire in her ears.

Takako fell to the ground and Pan saw that there was something terribly wrong about the angle of his neck. His face was slack and his once fiery green eyes…were empty. The Androids released her and she strode over to his body like a ghost, not really seeing or believing. She sank down to his side and reached for his shoulder before something in her snapped and she quickly retracted her hand.

For a moment, all she could do was sit there while all rationality slipped away and her mind was consumed by fire. Whatever violent entity that had entered her body, pulled her to her feet and turned her around so she was facing the Androids. Her eyes had dried and the air began to pull at the ground beneath her feet and swirl around her. Her hair lifted and flapped alongside the collar of her jacket in the wind she emitted. Her power was a physical and tangible thing now as it began to take physical form in the air around her. Her skin glowed from the inside and her veins felt like live wires.

The Androids' faces registered this change first in surprise and then arrogance. Somehow she thought that this arrogance would be short-lived. Little did Son Gohan's daughter know, her ki lifted exponentially, and lit itself like a light bulb in the dark…alerting anyone on earth who was able to sense energy.

AN:

New author, new story. If you like, please leave me a review or maybe follow the story. :) If you liked this go check out the inspiriation for this fanfic, my favorite fanfiction, "A Broken Down Universe" by dragonbabezee.

Future Bulma gets herself and Trunks in a lot of trouble when she 'borrows' a time machine from a visiting time traveller. Her world is turned on it's head when the identity of the time traveller is revealed. It starts slow, but the pace picks up when the twists start coming. Contains time travel, sci-fi, romance and action! Rated M for language and sexual content.

Rated: Fiction M - English - Romance/Sci-Fi - Bulma, Vegeta