Piles upon piles of rubble littered the ground. Where there was once a busy city filled with people was now replaced with deafening silence, devoid of the lives that once flooded the now empty streets. The sound of crackling embers was the only sound that could be heard, as everyone in the town had fled from the destruction of the place they once called home.

Most of the city's inhabitants however, did not make it out before the destruction of their city. The damage was too great to escape. Along with the smoke, debris, dust and what remained of the fire were the bodies of men, women and children, their bodies mangled and chard, burnt so bad that they could never be identified. Any hope for a proper burial for those lost in the blaze was impossible, for they could not tell one body from another. No one could even identify women from men.

Suddenly out of the sky a young boy landed on the ground placing his feet on the uneven surface of dust and debris. The boy looked around in astonishment at the scene in front of him, mouth open wide in shock of the amount of destruction he was seeing. The astonishment turned to horror as he fixed his eyes on the bodies of the dead littering the ground.

He continued to look at the bodies that were as black as his eyes in disbelief and despair. "I must be dreaming." He thought to himself, but he knew no matter how bad he wanted it to not be true, he knew that it was and that realization hit him and he fell to his knees, his emotions hitting him all at once and he cried for the loss of life. Along with sadness he felt anger and guilt. He should have prevented this; this happened because he had dropped his guard, because of him an entire city was in ruins.

He was in such despair that he failed to notice a figure approaching him on his left side. He was pulled out of his self-loathing by a small tug on his shirt sleeve. He was taken so off guard that he made a quick loud shout and fell back on his butt. Startled, his eyes were wide and his left arm was up in a defensive position ready to attack. He looked up to find no one there.

"Um, Mister?" he heard a voice from below him say. He looked down to find a little boy about 4 years old staring back at him with his big brown eyes. His eyes were puffy, from crying no doubt. "Who are you? What's your name?" the boy asked innocently.

He stared at him for a moment trying to come down from his shock. The little boy continued to stare, waiting for a response from the elder of them. "G-Gohan." He finally said, his voice stuttering from shock. Finally calming his racing heart, he asked, "and yours?"

"Aria" the little boy said through fits of silent sobs. Gohan got on his knees so he was eye level with the boy. "Aria, can you tell me what happened here?" Gohan asked gently. Aria had started crying again. Sobs racked his whole body, he began gasping in between sobs, trying to catch his breath and find his voice. Gohan pulled him into his arms and hugged him the way his mother did when he was small. He began rubbing the child's back in soothing circles, shushing him gently.

Finally the sobs died down and he brushed away the remaining tears. He took a deep breath and pushed away from Gohan so he could look into his eyes. "Some bad people came and made everyone go to sleep. Even Mommy and Daddy won't wake up."

Gohan thought back to all the bodies he saw scattered all over the ground and shivered. Aria didn't understand that his Mom and Dad would not wake up because they were dead. This realization hit Gohan hard. Tears ran down his cheeks at the thought and it wasn't until Aria said something that he realized he had started crying.

Gohan dried his eyes and looked at Aria, smiling softly, his face puffy. "Aria, would you like to come to my house?" he asked, "We have lots of room to play and my little brother would love a playmate. I can even have my mom make you something to eat."

Aria stared at him for a second before saying enthusiastically "OK!" this reaction startled Gohan. He hadn't expected the boy to be so cheery all of a sudden given his previous demeanor moments ago. After Gohan got over his shock he got up on his feet and smiled at Aria. "Ok, let's go!" he said and they went back the way Gohan had come.