Three years after Buu saga, and ignoring DBGT, since I've never seen it. A prequel to the story "Fierce Fire", coming soon to a fanfiction.net near you.
Prologue to Fierce Fire
Life was perfect.
Son Gohan might seem an unlikely advocate of that belief, considering all he had undergone in the twenty-one years of his existence. This included an often dead father, various near-lethal battles against dangerous foes threatening everyone he cared for, and a short stint as a dead man himself, along with the rest of the planet. But on this minute of this day, out here in this open field, blue skies above, a panorama of green and gold hills stretching forever in every direction, and the woman he loved most nestled in his strong arms and gazing to the horizon with him, he couldn't deny it. Life was perfect.
He meant to say so. He opened his mouth to share his feelings of absolute contentment. What actually came out was slightly unexpected. "Videl...will you marry me?"
By the time his ears registered what his lips had shaped, he was already hearing her say, in a tiny, rather un-Videl-like gasp, "Oh--yes!" And she promptly canceled any possibility of apology by pressing her mouth to his.
Apparently life hadn't been perfect, Gohan decided, because that ideal state would have left no room for everything to become a thousand times better, as it just had. But he didn't bother pondering the mechanism of that change as he lost himself in their kiss.
So involved were they with one another that it took them another minute after they separated to realize the formerly azure sky had gone pitch black.
"What the--" Piccolo stared up at the inky darkness. Someone was using the dragonballs, no doubt about it. And he didn't sense a familiar ki anywhere in the region of the dragon's appearance.
As an ex-deity, he in theory had no responsibility for the dragonballs. They no longer depended on his life to function, and whoever took the trouble to collect them and summon Shenlong deserved their wish. In theory, it was none of his business.
In theory.
Rising into the black sky, he shot off toward the source of the disturbance, a small sonic boom echoing in his wake.
Gohan and Videl, close enough to see the dragon appear, decided a better view couldn't hurt. There was something romantic about Shenlong's massive grace--or perhaps they were in the mood to see practically anything as romantic. Besides, if the collector of the dragonballs had less than pure motivations, two of Chikyu's foremost heroes might be needed. The Great Saiyamen 1 and 2 popped their capsules, donned their costumes, and exchanged one last peck on the lips before blasting toward the dragon, a pair of shooting stars in tandem.
At last...at last. It's about fragging time, she couldn't stop muttering to herself. Over twenty years since they had even gotten near the dragonballs--almost three decades since they had had anything resembling a success. And even that had been more of a failure, in the end...
But not now. No longer. They had succeeded, grandly, gloriously. It had taken them well over a year and an incredible amount of effort to gather the balls, but the fruits of their labor were marvelously reaped in the coils of the gigantic dragon hovering overhead.
They wouldn't, couldn't waste this wish. He deserved it far too much, and too long had been deprived of it. Too long had they strove for it. Too many years had passed to lose their chance to nerves, or foolishness, or plain stupidity.
In fact, they had put too damn much effort into it to throw a wish away on something as pointless as world domination.
She had decided it some months before, given it a week's worth of hard thought before realizing she was right. It was pointless. Who really wants to rule the world, after all? A whole lot of effort with little gain. Sure, they'd have money and power. But there had to be easier ways to get rich quick. Ruling the world, you'd have to make decisions for people all the time. Ensure things go right with the economy and maps get printed with the correct capitals and all. And you'd have to protect it from other people trying to take it over from you. Not to mention those who might try to destroy it, of which there seemed to be an inordinate number. Wanting to destroy a planet seemed as pointless to her as wanting to rule one, but it wasn't her place to judge.
At any rate, none of those tribulations seemed worth having everyone know your name and getting money printed with your portrait. Or whatever one expected from ruling the world. She certainly didn't know. And neither did he, she suspected, though she wouldn't dare accuse him of such openly. He was her boss, after all. And so much more, if only he would see it. If only he could...would he really want the world? She didn't, she had decided. There was only one thing she had ever wanted, and that was to see him happy...and the world wasn't the way to go. There was a much easier way.
She hoped.
It had gotten her pretty far, that hope. And she hadn't hesitated until she found herself standing on a cliff-face, the glowing dragonballs she had appropriated at her feet, and a dragon big enough to swallow a whale rearing up before her. Even then, one couldn't fault her for a slight case of the tremors. Who wouldn't be rattled, in the face of that.
She swallowed. Had to make this good. There wouldn't be any more second chances, not after this. It had seemed so simple, rehearsing it to herself...now, though...
She spoke. "Shenlong..." A mouse couldn't have heard her. That wouldn't do. This was for him, she reminded herself. Drawing the deepest breath her lungs could hold, she shouted, "O mighty dragon!"
Eyes larger than the moon focused on her, and a bottomless voice thundered, "You have a wish?"
"Y--y--y--Yes!"
The dragon's head dipped closer, until she could count the scales along its colossal snout. "Go on, then."
"Shenlong--" She had to take another breath. "I want--"
"Hold on!" Something dropped like a missile out of the sky to plant itself midair between her and the dragon. A great white cape snapped in an inexplicable wind, and fierce eyes regarded her from under a heavy green brow. "Just what are you doing?"
She stared at him, her mouth suddenly dry. The demon! but hadn't he been killed? Piccolo Daimao was supposed to be no more--certainly not here, interfering.
In that moment, two more figures glided down to land on either side of her. She tore her eyes away from the shocking form of the demon to glance at them, recognized their costumes from the paper. No, what were they doing here, she wasn't breaking any laws--
Then behind her she heard a shout that galvanized her as nothing could have. "The dragon!" he cried, and she heard him run forward on his short legs, tripping over the rocks and his own robes in his haste, and there was no more time--
Before the heroes could grab her, before the demon could muzzle her, before he could state his own wish, she shrieked, as quickly as she could, at the top of her lungs,
"Shenlong, make him happy!!!"
Gohan was trying to work out what the woman had cried when Shenlong threw back his mighty head and roared to the heavens, "Your wish is granted!"
"Good," Piccolo snapped immediately, ignoring the brilliant light which flashed into being around them all. "Now please depart, we'll bring the balls together again when we require your second wish."
The light faded, and the dragon vanished with it as the balls dispersed in a second, smaller explosion. Pushing back his sunglasses, Gohan rubbed his eyes in a vain attempt to clear the afterimages and asked anxiously, "Videl-chan?"
"I'm fine, Gohan-kun. You?"
He reached for her, found her hand and squeezed, wondering who reassuring who. Then he turned to the woman who had made the wish.
And blinked again. Where the middle-aged matron had stood now knelt a young lady of perhaps their own age, black hair glinting in the restored sunlight and her loose blouse not hiding her agreeable curves. Had the wish been simply for youth--
"What the hell?" His mentor's gruff voice recalled him from his thoughts. Piccolo was gazing at the women with a puzzled frown some would find disturbing in the extent to which it revealed his pointed fangs. She looked none too comfortable beneath it.
"What is it, Piccolo-san?" Gohan inquired. "Do you know her?"
"I'm trying to remember," Piccolo began.
Only to be interrupted by a shout behind them. "Mai!! What the--"
The woman spun around, scrambling to her feet. "Oh my--" she gasped when she spotted the speaker. "Oh my...oh my..."
He was a fairly tall man, whose angular features and long blond hair must be decently handsome, Gohan thought, not that he was any judge, but he guessed it from the way Videl rocked back on her heels with an appraising cock of her helmeted head. He evidently meant more to the woman, who was staring up at him with something between worship and adoration, overlaid with a supreme joy. Which the man's face was slowly beginning to reflect.
"Mai," he said. "Did you..." He stopped. "You used..." he started, and quit again. "This was your fault?"
She nodded, obviously struck wordless.
"I don't know..." He frowned, confused, as if listening to something inside of him that had too quiet for too long. His heart, perhaps. Then he smiled, hesitantly but growing. "Mai...will you..."
"Always--of course--yes, Pilaf-sama!" And she leapt into his arms.
The thud which immediately followed was Piccolo landing heavily after losing all ki control while hovering ten feet in the air.
In the end they decided only congratulations were in order. The two heroes flew the two happily united lovebirds back to their friend, waiting in a vehicle on the next hill over. Then, re-capsuling their costumes, they returned to where Piccolo was dourly regarding the patch of ground where the dragonballs had formerly lain.
"That went well," Gohan remarked. "A lot better than it could've been."
"I suppose." The Namek unfolded his arms. "Hopefully we won't need Shenlong in the next few months."
"We haven't in the last couple years," Videl said. "Why would we now?"
Piccolo grunted.
Gohan grinned suddenly, bouncing on his toes as he grabbed Videl's hand. "Piccolo-san, I wanted to tell you first, and in light of what just happened--"
An unlikely smile crossed Piccolo's face. "You and Videl, eh? It's about time."
"Hai!" Gohan agreed, beaming. Videl shook her head, but her own smile was brimming over the edges of her face.
"You can come to the wedding, right?" Gohan asked eagerly.
"Tell me the date and place. I'll be there," Piccolo said. He glanced them both over. "Congratulations," he stated, then took off in a rustle of white cloth.
Gohan turned to his fiancee, eyes sparkling. "I wish I could've asked him to be best man, but I don't think he'd enjoy it much. And I bet Goten will."
"I think my dad would prefer Goten, too," Videl admitted. "But only if that's what you want."
"It is," Gohan assured her. He rose a few feet into the air and extended his hands to her. "Come on, we have a lot of news to tell a lot of people!"
Laughing with him, Videl took his hands and shot upward, pulling him along with her into the open sky.