Yeah, so this is my first fanfic on this site yadyadayada. Please be nice blah blah blah. So yeah. One thing though, I'm a bit iffy on the power levels so if anyone could help me out that'd be great. I will be modifying them at various points in the story, because you know Vegeta wasn't always at 18,000. Not that I will be quoting power levels all the time. It's just for the Frieza arc.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z. I'm just writing about it with the wishful thinking that I do.

Prologue

Kaku moved around the hut, throwing punches and kicks in various combinations one hit per step. He was bare-chested, dressed only in white baggy pants. His brown hair was a giant curly brown mess on his head that fell down to the base of his neck. He went around another lap and stopped at the front door of the hut to take a breath. His fair skin was slick with sweat.

Next to him on the doorstep Nikki sat playing with her long copper hair and messing with a little baby at the same time. She was the cute, shy one and fairer skinned than her brother. The hut was made of simple gray stone and had very little features on it. It's owner wasn't much for decoration or luxury. The owner didn't even like the way Planet Vegeta was run, always calling them "Prideful Saiyan bastards." He always complained how all they ever seemed to do was fight simply for fighting's sake.

Kaku grinned to himself, well aware that he was a Saiyan too and would have done much the same had it not been for this old man teaching him the importance of being a warrior for his now drastically reduced family.

A warrior isn't just a fighter. It is what you fight for that makes you a warrior…

It was because of the old man that Kaku had stopped going to cock fights to earn money and rather farmed here with him for something to live off of. A five year old could only win so much to support his four year old sister and baby cousin. There'd been some good training thrown into the bargain too which Kaku, of course, excelled at. When you were a Saiyan, it came with the package.

He watched Nikki play with their baby cousin for a while. They really had no idea what to call him so they just used pronouns and adjectives. His parents had died and they both had no family so they had taken him along with them to the streets. That was until Ran came along and beat him to a pulp. Then he took them in and things moved from there.

While Kaku was taking a break the man himself stepped out of the hut. Ran was powerfully built despite not being particularly buff. He was all hard well rounded muscle concealed with a white toga and sandals. His bronze skin was healthy and smooth, belying the warrior he really was. His face was swallowed up by a bushy black beard and moustache and his hair hung in a black curtain over his forehead and some of his eyes. Could you have seen them, you would have noticed that even his eyebrows were bushy. He didn't look particularly strong or interesting. Mostly, he just looked confused.

"Hey, Ran-san," Kaku greeted.

Ran, turned his not very noticeable gaze on Kaku and sat next to Nikki on the doorstep. He pulled the baby's cheek absently, in a gentle manner. He inclined his head toward Kaku and just sat for a bit. Kaku noticed he wasn't speaking and raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"

"I've been called to a council meeting," Ran explained in his quivery voice, "But I feel really lazy right now and I don't want to go so I'm procrastinating. "

Kaku gave an amused sigh. Ran was like that sometimes. He could be a very strange sort of man if you weren't used to him. It was weird to see someone quite so honest about their wrongs.

"Why's he calling you?" he asked the older Saiyan. "What if it's important?"

"I don't know. Probably, King Vegeta has finally run into a problem that fists won't solve I think. Just go train for a bit, practice firing your Ki for a while and I should be back by evening. If anything happens, just wait for me in the temple and you'll be safe."

Kaku nodded. "So you're going then?"

"Yes, yes I am."

The old man said it like he was going to a funeral or something. He patted Nikki on her cheeks and stood up. She looked up at him and smiled, offering a little wave. "Bye. Get me a present, please?"

"No promises."

Stepping a few feet away, Ran flared his ki and blasted off into the distance surrounded by a strong blue aura. Kaku stared after him for a while and then proceeded with his training while Nikki kept playing with the baby.

By sun down, Nikki had gone inside with the baby and was presumably asleep. Kaku however was still training. He was doing his katas interspersed with the odd ki blast at pre-determined targets, but he was distracted. Ran was not back yet and he was getting worried. The wind was cold at night, and all the brown and red of the plains had become white and grey. The moon looked much, much bigger.

Kaku stopped his katas for a moment, looking up into the glowing night sky. Was the moon purple? The plains had taken on a very dark look and the night sky was not blue but purple. He sat down and just stared up into the sky admiring the glowing purple moon. The night was cold and many creatures had gone silent. Nikki and JR were probably long gone too. How long was Ran going to take anyway?

Without realizing Kaku fell asleep, only noticing he did when he found himself waking up to... a glowing sky? Since when did the sky here ever get this bright at night? Or glow purple for that matter? It was then that he noticed what was really going on. Even with his unhoned senses Kaku could feel incredible Ki coming towards him like nothing he'd ever felt. That had been no moon…

Kaku shot to his feet, knowing what this was. He began to run, tearing into the hut desperately.

"Nikki!," he shouted, even as he zoomed through the door.

He knew it was futile at this point. Where did you run? Where did you hide from something like that? The space pods were on the other side of the planet and that was further than he could fly in the amount of time left. Kaku felt defeated. He had no ideas. But he ran anyway, he woke his sister up anyway and he sprinted out of the house, dragging her with his baby cousin in hand anyway.

"Kaku, why? What's going on?" Nikki asked as he ran.

And he was about to answer.

But the moment he stepped out the door, the last thing he saw was the wall of flame that rushed to meet him.

AN:So, again help with the power levels. Also, I kinda feel like this was a boring prologue. But that's why I'm here isn't it? To improve. So please review so I know what's up. And review so I can respond. That means no guest reviews. Some times I do certain stuff on purpose, I'm spontaneous that way so I need a way to reach you to be sure that it wasn't something I intended to do.