Goten hummed to himself as he busied himself over the big shiny stove in his restaurant. His own restaurant; he could still hardly believe it. The past five months had been a whirlwind for him. He never in a million years would have dreamed that his restaurant would become so popular in such a short amount of time. It was like he was living in a daydream every single day of his life. Things were busy, hectic, but he loved every moment of his life.

He smiled as he heard his mate grumbling to herself from the office. The television was going in there; she'd turned on a martial arts match to distract herself from the stress of the day. As always, Chichi had to stir up trouble. It irked him what she'd done, but he was far too excited to let it bother him. Just a few days before, his restaurant had earned five stars. And he was determined not to let anything his biological mother did get him down. "Who's winning, babe?" he called out.

Paige slammed her fist onto her desk as she watched Hercule Satan running rings around his opponent. "I think Hercule must have been a ballerina in a past life because the way he twirls around these buffoons in the ring. He's just about to dynamite kick this guy into next week." She snorted. "I'm imagining the other guy as Chichi. Makes me feel better," she said loudly back at her mate. "That smells good dear. What are you making? One of everything?"

"Steak and those mushrooms you like so much," he answered as he flipped the meat and listened to it sizzle. He shook his head. "Try not to think about what she did," he answered. "She isn't worth it. She's just looking to draw attention to herself." He sighed; he loved that his restaurant was so successful, but he'd never expected to draw the attention of the tabloids. Or rather, Chichi had drawn the attention. She'd given an interview, bragging about how proud she was of her son, how it was her that had inspired him to go into cooking, how she always knew he would be a great chef. He shook his head as he pulled the steaks off the grill, seared to perfection. What a crock of shit that magazine article was.

He cocked an eyebrow and looked over at the open office door as he plated their food. "Why are you watching Mr. Satan?" he asked, wrinkling his nose. "You know that guy is full of shit. I can't stand to watch him."

"Blame my mother," she said as she switched off the television and stood up, stretching before she rubbed her belly, smiling as she felt the baby kick. "She'd always watch it when she needed to relax and have something to laugh at. So now its my go to as well." She came out into the kitchen, breathing deeply the fragrant smells of the food he had cooked. She frowned at her well done steak. She knew it would be cooked correctly, still juicy in the middle, but still. "Damn, the first thing I'm going to do as soon as this kid pops out is eat a steak bloody rare. Gods, I hate all these blasted diet restrictions. I want to eat everything they tell me not to. Do you have any idea how good a subway sandwich sounds to me?"

Goten chuckled at her. "I know, babe," he said as he turned to her and placed his hand on her belly, smiling as he felt the little one move against his palm. "And as soon as that baby is born, I'll cook you as much rare steak as you can possibly stand." He ran his fingers through her shocking pink curls before he cupped her cheek and drew his thumb across her smooth pale green skin. "Gods, you're gorgeous like this." He pressed his lips to hers, kissing her softly, but the next moment the door to the kitchen banged open and made him jump.

"Gods, would you two get a room?!" Phoenix teased as he crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, his tail flipping behind him. He sniffed at the air as his stomach growled. "Goten, that smells awesome, dude. You need to be named the youngest five-star chef in the world more often if it means we get to eat like this!" He grinned widely and nearly skipped over to the plates of food. His smile fell a bit when he saw four there. "Oh great, let me guess. Alice is coming."

Paige whapped his arm with her hand. "Hey, you play nice. This is the first time in forever that I've been able to convince her to take a break from the whole Guardian of Earth thing. She needs days off more often but she wont take them. Says she wants to make Dende and Rose proud." She sighed and leaned back, watching as Goten took out some delicious looking melty cheese appetizer out from under the salamander and surrounded it with several slices of crusty bread. "Mom says Alice has hardly been sleeping these past few days. Just keeps walking around the Lookout non-stop."

"Why?" Phoenix asked as Goten handed him the tray of cheese and bread to carry out to the dining room. "Doesn't she get dizzy doing that? All she does is walk in circles around that place. She's going to cut a rut in the tile or fall over the edge," he said, thinking of Paige's younger sister. He let Goten lead the way to the best table and sat down, his stomach rumbling again. "She'd better hurry up and get here or I'm gonna eat her plate, too."

Goten shook his head as he set the plates down, but smiled when the door opened again. "Hey, Alice!" he grinned. "We were just wondering when you were going to show up. Better hurry, Phoenix is threatening to eat your food." He chuckled and pulled out a chair for her, then pulled out Paige's chair and helped her to sit, making sure she was comfortable before he sat down in his own.

Alice smiled as she watched Goten be the gentleman and help her sister sit down. "I am sorry I am late," she said, rubbing at her eyes, "Something has been unsettling me as of late." She looked to Phoenix as she answered his question. "There is a bit of a rut there, I'll have to change my path so it wears out evenly," she said with a small smile, looking down at her food. It smelled divine. "I could never miss this. Youngest five-star chef in the world," she marveled, "I don't suppose Gordon Ramsay has accepted your invitation yet?"

"Ah, maybe it got lost in the mail," Goten chuckled. He nearly rolled his eyes at the thought. Yeah, right. As if the famous chef would ever grace his doorstep. Although, now that he was drawing some attention to his restaurant… He felt an excited swooping in his stomach and he shivered, turning his attention back to Paige's sister. "So what's bugging you?" he asked as he popped a bite in his mouth. "I thought everything was starting to settle back down again."

Alice reached out, dipping a slice of bread into the cheese, moaning out softly as she ate a bite. Oh gods, it was like a little slice of heaven. "I'm not sure I want to know what you charge for this really," she said and finished the bite before she looked over at him, "I thought it was too, but I'm not sure. Something just feels off to me. As if the very earth is holding it's breath."

Phoenix fought the urge to roll his eyes. Did she always have to be so mysterious? Even now, with just the four of them hanging out alone in Goten's restaurant, she was wearing her guardian's clothes and talking about the earth holding its breath. "Yer killin' me, smalls," he said to her around the large chunk of steak in his mouth. He reached over and gave her shoulder a poke. "You need to chill. We took out the last of the Atlantians. What could possibly come up now?"

As if in answer to his question, the restaurant was suddenly thrown into pitch blackness. Goten gave a jump and looked around, trying to get his eyes to focus. "Way to go, Phoenix," he grumbled and threw his napkin on the table as he got to his feet. "You fucking jinxed us. I swear, I can't take you anywhere."

"It wasn't my fault!" Phoenix protested, following his uncle's silhouette through the darkness with his eyes. He huffed and took another bite of his steak, groaning in appreciation. "Screw it. I can eat in the dark." He snickered to himself as he chewed, debating for only a moment. He just couldn't pass up the opportunity to annoy the half-namek sitting next to him. "Oh! Alice! Stop it, your sister is right here! Mmmmm, yeah baby! Just like that!" he cried out obscenely.

Paige snorted and punched Phoenix in the shoulder as she ate her steak. "Dude, I really don't need that image in my head right now. My stomach is touchy as is right now and I'd rather not waste this great meal," she said as she speared a mushroom on her fork.

Alice turned her head, her stomach growling, but it was the sounds outside that were drawing her attention. "Something isn't right. I think I'm hearing that the power is out in the whole city." She swallowed hard and looked back down at her plate a moment before she closed her eyes and focused on the world. She didn't like it, there was something there, a presence she couldn't put her finger on, she couldn't read. "I think the world just exhaled," she said sadly, "I should get back to the Lookout."

Paige sighed, "Alice, relax. Someone just probably blew the generator or something. Hercule Satan must have like, blown up the arena with fireworks or something like that." She rolled her eyes. "Mom will kill me if you don't eat at least this one meal, so come on. Relax."

Goten set some candles on the table and lit them before he sat back down. "Yeah, c'mon and stay, Alice. You never take a moment for yourself anymore. You're not going to let all my cooking go to waste are you?" he asked and turned to her, pouting his lip and giving his best puppy-dog-eyed look. "It'd really hurt my feelings if my favorite sister-in-law didn't stay for dinner."

"Yeah, stay, Ally," Phoenix teased. "You know you don't wanna miss out on this dinner. Look! It's so romantic now with the candles," he said as he gestured to the candles and flipped his long black hair over his shoulder before he wagged his eyebrows at her.

Alice couldn't help but laugh softly at their encouragement. She gave Goten a look. "You are worse than your father with that expression," she scolded as she picked up her utensils again and shook her head at Phoenix. "And you are just incorrigible," she teased back at him as she cut into her steak, part of her happy to be welcome among friends and family. Happy to take a break. The other half was curious of this new feeling there was in the world and wanted to get to the bottom of what was making the earth feel just so.

Goten beamed at her before he sat back in his chair and sipped at the plum brandy. "I have spent many a year perfecting that look," he said matter-of-factly. "No one can resist. Not even Tien. And he's almost immune to Dad's look."

They finished their meal, laughing together, talking about what plans Goten had for the future of his restaurant to keep it going successfully, griping about the undeserved credit Chichi had taken. Goten was just about to go get each of them some dessert when a commotion outside drew his attention. He exchanged a look with Alice before he got to his feet and went to peer out the window. "Uh, Alice? Maybe you were right," he said.

Phoenix hurried over to peer over Goten's shoulder. The street was filled with people, shouting and rushing about, bumping into one another. "The hell's going on out there?" he asked, tipping his head in confusion. He narrowed his eyes at the uniformed officers he saw who were trying to corral the people. They didn't look like any police force he'd seen in the city before. His tail whipped behind him as his concern grew. This didn't look good. The people were starting to riot, fights breaking out in the street as someone picked up a bench and smashed it through a business storefront window.

Alice winced as she stood up and walked over to the window, peering out. She wavered on her feet; the feelings of fear and anger were strong. "I don't know what's going on…" she said as she looked to the strangely dressed officers and she froze, their thoughts wrapping around her like cold water. "We need to get out of here. Those are no humans," she breathed and looked to Phoenix. "Wrap your tail around your waist and cover it with your shirt," she said quickly before she looked to Goten, "We need to get out of here unseen. NOW."

Goten nodded. He never did understand how Alice knew the things that she knew, but he wasn't about to question her. "Come on," he said, grabbing Phoenix by the arm and pulling him towards the kitchen. "Paige, we need to go now." He stopped to blow out the candles and took his mate's hand. "We can try to get out the back way." He chewed his lip for a moment as they hurried through the kitchen. He really didn't want Paige out in that crowd in her condition. "If there's no one out here, take to the sky. We'll fly home as fast as we can and see if we can figure out what's going on. If not, then we'll try to slip through until we can fly off without being noticed. I don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

Phoenix frowned as he tucked his tail under his shirt. "Since when does my tail offend you?" he hissed at Alice as Goten opened the door that led out to the alley behind the restaurant. He didn't have time to hear her answer; there were people running down the alley, looking fearfully over their shoulders. "Fuck."

Paige grasped Goten's hand tightly, a sudden fear lancing through her. She knew her sister was a serious person and she only sounded like this when she was concerned. Maybe even scared. "Alice," she hissed back as she listened down the alleyway, "What did you hear?" She could hear the frantic shouts, gunshots, glass breaking, feet pounding on the pavement. She laid a hand over her belly and looked to Goten. "We need to get out of here. Where can we go?"

Alice looked around. "I heard their thoughts. Those aliens. I think they are looking for Saiyans. I don't think they are going to be very friendly either. Their feelings. It makes me sick to my stomach," she whispered.

"Saiyans?" Phoenix asked, blinking at Alice. "Aliens? Are you sure?" At her nod, he peered out the door again. "Well fuck." He chewed the inside corner of his mouth, thinking furiously. "Let's just run for it. The longer we're in here, the more time we're giving them to find us. Or should we just blast the shit out of them?"

Goten shook his head. "We don't know what they want yet. Let's get home, see if we can find something on the news or radio. Maybe fire a call off to Bulma and see if she knows what's going on," he said. "Let's just run." He scooped Paige into his arms, cradling her against his chest. "Ready, baby? Hold on."

Paige held tightly onto Goten as he ran for it, sticking to the shadows and avoiding the main streets. Her eyes went to the sky as she searched for something, a ufo or anything that would tell them that they were being invaded. "Don't suppose they're just here to talk," she muttered. She knew why they had to run for it. Taking to the sky would paint a big, WE ARE OVER HERE, on their backs and they would possibly lead them back home.

Phoenix fought to keep pace with Goten while making sure that Alice wasn't left behind. Alice was slender and fast, but she was no fighter, and he worried about getting separated from her. He paused and reached back to grab her by the wrist through the crowd of people. "Come on!" he urged. He pulled her closer to him and turned to run after Goten again, but he'd lost view of his uncle. "Dammit," he hissed as he stopped to look around, trying to catch sight of him again.

Phoenix's heart stopped as he saw a small group of the officers walking their direction. They wore black uniforms and helmets with their faces covered and he could only imagine what might be hidden behind the dark glass. He cried out as someone slammed into him and knocked him face-first to the ground. "Dammit," he repeated as he got to his feet, his tail flicking irritatedly behind him. His eyes went wide as the officers made a beeline for him and Alice.

Alice swallowed the block of ice that formed in her throat and she grasped Phoenix's wrist before she formed a bright ball of light in her hand and threw it at the officers where it became a blinding light in front of them. "RUN," she hissed and dragged him up into the air with her, leading the way to a dark alley a few blocks over before she dropped to the ground, taking off at a sprint through the dark backways, heading for the edge of the city.

"I thought we weren't supposed to draw attention to ourselves!" he shouted as they ran, glancing over his shoulder. For what, he didn't know, but now they were definitely being hunted. "Did you hear them? Did you hear what they said?" he panted, running for all he was worth. "I swore I heard one of them say 'They're here. The ones with the tails.' Are they really looking for us?" He couldn't figure out for the life of him what these new aliens would want with him or his family.

Alice breathed a sigh of relief as they finally made it to the edges of the city. The sounds of the horror behind them dwindling away and she could no longer hear any footsteps coming after them. "I could hear their thoughts, see what they were looking for. That's why I had you hide your pretty tail, DEAR," she said, a little annoyed but it was passing. "We need to meet back up with Goten and Paige. I need somewhere safe where I can meditate on the earth and see how far this is."

"Well Goten said they were heading home. Should we go to his place? Or do you wanna go to the Lookout and I can go there on my own. I can let them know you're okay," he offered. He concentrated a minute as he searched for Goten and Paige's energies. "I feel them. They're headed to their house. We're far enough out, we can fly." He turned and looked back towards the city, frowning. He'd never seen such panic. What on earth was going on?

Alice looked back towards the city, reaching out and steading herself on Phoenix's arm from the wave of agony and fear that seemed to permeate from everywhere at once. "Goten's house is closer. I am not certain I could make it back to the lookout in one piece. I have a fear that this is bigger than it appears," she breathed and lifted up into the air, "Let's go quickly."

"Okay," Phoenix said, feeling slightly uncomfortable. He'd never had Alice rely on him for anything before, but he let her hold onto his arm as they flew towards his uncle's house. "Who are they, Alice? What the hell do they want with Saiyans? And why would they just start, you know, doing the swat-team thing in the streets? Do they have anything to do with the power going out?" he rattled off absentmindedly. He looked over at her, seeing the way she looked almost dizzy and he pressed his lips together. "Sorry."

Alice shook her head. "No, it's alright. I'm not sure. They want Saiyans for something. A need I couldn't understand. I think it is too much of a coincidence with them showing up just as the power went out. I think it's just the beginning of something terrible." She wiped at her eyes, "I should have seen them coming. Dende would have known about them." She said sadly as the finally made it to Goten's house.

"Yeah, but Dende isn't here anymore," Phoenix said as he opened the front door without bothering to knock. "Comparing yourself to him isn't fair. He had more experience." He relaxed visibly when he saw Goten and Paige sitting together in the living room, looking thoroughly worried and freaked out.

Goten rushed forward to hug Phoenix. "Thank the gods you're alright. Gohan would've had my ass if something happened to you," he breathed before he pulled back to peer at both of them through the darkness. "Are you both okay?" He looked over his shoulder at Paige who was lighting more candles on the coffee table. "Looks like the power is out here, too. I don't know what's going on, but I'm just glad you both made it out here."

Paige looked up as her sister came further into the room. She could see the look of concern on her sister's face, the pain. "Come on, Sis, you need a quiet room, don't you?" she asked as she led her down the hallway and into one of the guest bedrooms that had used to be Goten's childhood bedroom. "You think you can do your thing in here?"

Alice nodded, squeezing her sister's hand as she went to the middle of the room and sat down on the floor, letting her eyes close. The earth was in pain and the force, the presence that she had felt was more pronounced. It came from all over, every corner of the globe. The beings were strange to her, it was going to take her a moment to really see what their motivations were.

Paige watched as her sister slipped into a deep meditation and she sighed, closing the door behind her as she walked back to the living room. "She's starting to scare me. I've never seen her like this before. And who the hell are these aliens? Why are they after Saiyans?"

"Because we're so damn sexy?" Phoenix offered, but oofed and bent double when Goten jabbed him in the stomach.

"I don't know," Goten answered Paige as he shot Phoenix a disapproving look. He scratched at the back of his head and sat down on the couch again. "Whoever they are, they mean business. I say we just hang out here and wait to see if Alice can figure anything out."