Disclaimer: I don't own any of the DBZ characters. i only own the setting and the other beings.

I hope you enjoy the story. Plz review, since your reviews help me become a better writer.

Note: this takes place a year after Buu.

It is the 24th century and humanity is at war. Not with itself, but with its creations. It's a war against the dreaded Nightmares and their hellish leaders. Next to humanity stand the Shadows, an ancient and powerful race of warriors, dedicated to war and the survival of the universe. With them the Huskers, a warrior race stands against Nightmares. Though the odds are against them, they stand united against the threat of Linda and her Nightmares. They are barely enough to stand against her monstrous swarms. This is their story, they fight not to win their place in the stars, but to survive.

Prologue

The Beginning of the End/ The Dream

The corridor was a dark, dark enough that 18 wasn't capable of seeing her hand in front of her face. The corridor had a distinct smell of dry sweat and the distinct laboratory smell. Looking around she could see machines running, several containers filled with beings of some sort, and a single human sized container. Inside it a figure stood frozen, the figure was as tall as 18. 18 couldn't place where she had seen the figure before, though it looked familiar. Walking down the rows of containers, 18 saw several copies of the figure, but instead of being frozen, they were floating in green liquid. As 18 was walking she began to remember why she hated labs, sides from being created in one, they always were capable of making her jump. This lab was nothing like Gero's lab; it was bigger and had a purpose. It felt as though this lab was built for learning and evolving. 18 couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched, she continued to walk down the row of containers. "Crash" was next thing 18 heard as one of the containers filled with the beings burst open. All across the room green liquid spilled across the floor, in the middle of it all laid a single creature covered in the slime.

18 gradually walked towards the slime-covered figure, getting closer 18 noticed that the figure wasn't human. It had shape of an average human, but looked nothing like her husband Krillin. It had tail, not like the Saiyans, it was pure black, and at its tip had a sharp blade. Having a closer look, 18 noticed the thing was pure black, its whole body muscular and it had claws for fingers.

"What is this thing? What kind of lab is this?" 18 silently wondered as she slowly stepped back from the black abomination. As 18 stepped back the thing rose up, its slime began to slide off its smooth but muscular body. Lifting its head, it revealed a row of sharp teeth, but what caught 18 attention where its eyes. Its eyes were a cold yellow color, with its black pupils dilated. Looking into its eyes, she could see an intelligent being behind them. The creature looked at 18 with smile and suddenly screamed an inhuman scream " RAHHHH!!" and charged at her with its inhuman speed. Noticing this 18 began to fire ki blast at the creature as it sprinted towards her. The thing dodged the blasts like they were nothing, never slowing down at its pursuit. Realizing this, 18 carefully tracked and aimed as the creature came towards her. Firing her blast at what was now point blank range. The thing dropped screaming as her ki blast hit the thing square in the chest. Where its chest once was, it was now smoldering hole with fluids leaking out. The thing screamed in agony as it slowly died from the impact. 18 realized she had stopped breathing, she began to breathe again and as she did this, she watched the black thing slowly die from its wound.

She looked up to see the laboratory was mess; her ki blasts destroyed parts of the ceiling and cracked some of the containers where that black thing came from. " Oh no…" 18 quietly said as she saw the glass around the containers burst open. As each container broke, more of those things came out, and all of them covered with the same slime. Realizing she was out numbered, 18 began to run towards the frozen figure, and when she got there the figure wasn't there. Instead in front of her stood the open container and there stood young woman staring at her, smiling.

Her eyes were a weird color; they were red, blue, while her pupils were still black. She wore a light grey cloak, your average military boots and had long dirty blonde hair. She was also tall with a beautiful face; she had a curved figure and smooth skin untouched by the sun. She stared at 18 and looked at the rising abominations behind her. 18 could swear the woman was calling to them with her mind, because the creatures didn't charge at her at all, they simply stood there glaring at her with their cold yellow eyes. A deadly silence filled the room as the two females stared at each other, looking to see who would make the first move.

18 noticed that the female across from her lifted her hand, looking behind herself 18 saw the black abominations began to charge at her. 18 began to fire ki blasts, dropping five of the creatures as they came towards her. As she fired she noticed that three of the five got up uninjured, even after taking a direct hit with a ki blast, As the things got closer, 18 swung punches at the creatures, killing some of them, while injuring others. But they Just kept coming towards her; eventually they overran her by their sheer mass of numbers. She screamed as they ripped her limb from limb. 18 looked at the young female, she was smiling at her, mouthing some thing to her. Before she able translate it everything went red and then black as the creatures ripped her apart.

The grey cloaked female was mouthing to 18 " this is the beginning of the end for all the living" over and over again as she laughed at the dieing little android.

That was when 18 woke up, sweating and screaming. Waking up everyone in Kame house.

" Honey, dear wake up!" said Krillin as she shook his screaming wife. She hadn't been having these Nightmares for the past 8 years, why start now? Krillin wondered as his wife quieted down and began to wake up

After several minutes of recuperating 18 went outside to think for a while. The dream she had was nothing like her past dreams, they had Cell and that maniac Dr.Gero. This dream felt real, like she was there. She could smell everything; she had felt those black abominations ripping her apart. 18 hadn't told Krillin yet about the dream; he was at the moment putting Marron into bed.

18 pushed her blonde hair back as she thought more of the dream, it felt real, it hadn't felt like any other of her dreams. She never truly believed in the omen garbage, but she couldn't help but wonder of her dream was sign of things to come. What scared her most was what the figure had said. She wasn't able to catch every word of it before those things killed her. All she got was "the beginning of the end…" before she had woken up.

After staring at the sunrise for a while, 18 went back inside and prepared breakfast, still thinking about that dream as she began cooking it.

The end for now. Plz Review.