The Saiyan Chronicles

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dragon Ball Z or Animorphs.

CHAPTER 1: Awakening and Confrontations

(Gohan)

Pain. That's the first thing I became aware of. My entire body seemed to be saturated with it.

I groaned, putting a hand to my forehead.

"W-Where am I?" I said out loud.

I opened my eyes, and even that small action took a lot out of me.

As far as I could see, I was in some sort of infirmary. There were medical instruments in the corner of the room displaying vital statistics in some kind of weird alien language. As I willed effort into my weary body to move, I noticed that I was sitting on a hospital bed. How had I gotten here?

Okay, this is getting a little too weird, I thought. What am I doing here? What was the last thing that happened to me?

And then, in a flash, it all came rushing back...

My name was Gohan. I was a Saiyan. And ever since the Cell Games over two years ago, I haven't been training at all. I never wanted to be a warrior like my father is. Others beyond my control had decided that long before I was born. All I ever wanted was to have a normal life. But it just never happened. And ever since they were born, it seemed as if I was destined to suffer. But I had messed up. How could I have been so stupid? It was my fault my father had died, and by refusing to train and keep up with the others, I couldn't help them when another new threat presented itself, and because of that...

"No," I whispered as hot tears welled in my eyes. "It's my fault. It's all my fault..."

I couldn't help it. This had been happening for too long. And now, because of me, my world had been destroyed by Majin Buu. Millions of innocent people. My friends, and my mother. I had let them all down. Damn it! Why did this have to happen?

"It's my fault! Damn it!" I cried, tears falling down my cheeks. "Oh God, Mommy! No! God, no! No! Please, no..."

I covered my face with my hands. The hot, burning guilt was too much. I was ashamed to even show my face. I had promised after my daddy died to never let it happen again. A promise that I had broken today.

"No..." I whispered. It was too much. I couldn't take it. "No... I wish it would have been me. It should have been me..."

"Get a grip, wimp!" a gruff voice demanded inside my head.

I froze. I knew that voice well. It was a voice that had haunted me ever since Cell.

"O-Oniari?" I asked, cursing the quiver in my voice.

"Damn straight, wimp," Oniari replied. "So you lost. Big deal. Guilt tripping yourself won't change that."

"I didn't just lose!" I said hotly. "I failed! Millions of innocent people died because of me!"

"And?" Oniari demanded. "Those weaklings are inconsequential to us."

"How can you be so cruel?" I asked, blinking away my tears. "They didn't have to die! And I'm responsible!"

"That is how nature works, wimp," Oniari said, unfazed. "The weak perish at the hands of the strong. If you're really upset about all those insects, you should become stronger and get back at that wad of chewed-up bubblegum for tarnishing our reputation as Saiyans."

I sighed. Oniari was right, though for all the wrong reasons. I had failed to protect my world, but maybe if I could find a way to defeat Majin Buu, their losses could be avenged. And there were still the Dragon Balls on New Namek. If I could somehow get to them, I still might have a chance to wish them all back, but not as long as Buu lived.

"I guess you're right," I said. "But there's no way I can..."

The next words I was going to say died in my throat as I remembered something important. My heart jumped in terror.

"OH MY GOD!" I yelled. "Goten!"

As Majin Buu was charging up his blast to blow up the Earth, I had grabbed Goten and held him close to me. I expected to die in seconds, but clearly that was not what had happened. So where was my baby brother, the boy I had worked so hard to protect...?

I got off the bed and looked around the small room, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Goten!" I cried desperately. "Goten, where are you? Goten, speak to me!"

There was no answer, but apparently my shouts had attracted some kind of attention. A second later, two big, muscular creatures stomped into the room. They seemed very reptilian, with long, snakelike necks and so many blades they looked like walking razors. Their power levels weren't all that high, but they were impressive nonetheless. However, that wasn't what caught my attention when I first saw them.

"You have two ki signatures!" I gasped.

The creature on the right turned to his friend.

"Ghafrash fit human jalesh kra?" he said.

"Goresh haffnad flagrach," the other one said. "Norda know."

I stared at them. With the language they were speaking, they had to be aliens.

Who are they? I wondered, my brain going into overdrive. For that matter, what planet am I on? Is this still Earth?

All my questions were put on hold, however, as a human stepped into the room.

"Ah, good, he's awake," she said. "Now we can get some answers."

I blinked in confusion. Like the aliens, this woman had two ki signatures. That suggested that she had something in common with them. But what? And then, a thought occurred to me, something I hadn't realized yet.

Did they take Goten?

If so, what did they do with him? If they had hurt him in any way, I don't think I'd be able to control myself...

"What do you want?" I asked the woman, frowning.

She smiled. It was not a nice smile. I could detect a faint malice emanating from her second ki. And now I was convinced that whoever these people were, they were not friendly. I tensed up my muscles in case a fight broke out, ready to take them all down, but not giving any outward indication that I was doing so. I wanted to keep the element of surprise on my side.

"I could ask the same of you," she said. "But don't worry. We'll find out soon enough."

She glanced at the two aliens and nodded.

"Take him," she ordered.

They moved for me. I hunched down, holding my arms out in a defensive posture. When they reached me, they each took hold of one of my arms. This was it. I didn't want to fight them, but they left me no choice.

"HIYAH!" I cried, spinning around as they maintained a tight grip on my arms. I went with the motion and threw them effortlessly off of my arms, sending them slamming into the opposite walls. One went right through the wall and the other smashed hard into his wall, leaving tiny little cracks indented all around the point of impact. He slid down the stone surface and sank to the floor, unconscious.

I settled back down on my feet, turned sideways to the woman. I suppressed a wince with difficulty; I was dismayed to learn that even with the apparent healing I had undergone, there was still lingering aftereffects from the fight against Majin Buu. But beside some residual soreness, it wasn't anything serious, and I didn't want the woman to know how deeply it had affected me.

I shot her a warning glare. She stepped back in surprise.

"You're stronger than you look," she admitted. "You'll make a good host."

"Just try it," I told her. "You saw what I did to your two friends."

She reached to her belt and pulled off a small black object. It looked suspiciously like a gun. She smirked.

"Oh, you may be tough, but you're only human," she said, twisting a small dial on the side of the weapon. "I'll put you to sleep, then we can make a Controller out of you. Visser Three will be reward me greatly!"

And she pulled the trigger.

TSEEEEEWWW!

A red beam lanced out of the weapon and smacked into my chest. I didn't even feel it.

The woman's eyes widened.

"What? No way," she said, the disbelief all over her voice. "That's impossible!"

"Maybe for you, but not for me," I said simply.

I turned back and started walking towards her. Looking a little panicked, the woman turned the dial on the weapon and shot again. This time, the beam felt like a soft caress, barely brushing my skin. Steam rose from the place that it had struck me, but other than that, nothing. She wasn't very strong. Aside from the extra ki, there was nothing really significant about this woman.

I sighed. I didn't really want to hurt her, but I wanted some answers.

"So what are we going to do now?" another voice in my head asked me.

I jerked. I also knew that voice, but I hadn't heard it in over a year...

Makai?! I demanded, dreading what would happen.

The demon side of me who had been born through my parents' connection to Sun Wukong and Gyuumaoh had been reborn as Makai, and from the moment he was born inside me, I was doomed. When Bojack and his crew came to Earth, Makai had done horrible things to them. I was horrified by what he'd done. Yet despite my disgust, he was a part of me. I couldn't really be mad at him. I was the one who had let him take control. It was my punishment for all my failures. Having him be stuck in my head was what I deserved. Yet there was always the risk he could snap and hurt someone else... again. If he ever did, I knew that I would never forgive myself...

What do you want? I asked him.

"Are we gonna have some fun with her or what?" he asked, his voice dripping with malicious glee.

W-What? I asked. No! No, I NEVER want to hurt anyone like that again!

"The freak has a point," Oniari said. "That little twat deserves a lesson in respecting us, preferably by breaking a few bones."

I groaned. No, please, just go away!

Oniari scoffed. "Wimp."

"Oh come on," Makai insisted. "I haven't eaten anything in a year! And she looks tasty... in more ways than one."

I clutched my head, trying to clear it of the madness.

"STOP IT!" I screamed. "SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!"

When would they ever go away? When would they stop tormenting me and just leave me alone?

"Party pooper," Makai whined.

"Hey, are you gonna keep bitching, or are you going to do something?" Oniari said.

What? I said, not really getting it. What do you mean?

"Weren't you going to find out what happened to your brother?" Oniari asked.

He was right. I couldn't focus on Oniari and Makai now. My brother had to be my top priority. With enormous effort, I turned my attention back to the woman. She was looking pretty scared, not sure what to make of me.

"Where's Goten?" I asked her.

"What are you talking about?" she wondered. "Who's Goten?"

"My brother!" I said furiously. "What did you do with him?"

I took a step forward. My foot made contact with the ground and shook it slightly. The woman cringed.

"If you mean the other human who was with you, he's being treated for his wounds right now," she said quickly.

I closed my eyes and sighed in relief. So Goten was okay, for now.

"Go, now," I said quietly. "Before I lose control completely."

There was a sound of running footsteps and I sensed her ki moving away. She had left. Once she was gone, I started breathing in and out, focusing on that. After a few seconds, I had calmed down enough to concentrate again.

I looked up.

"No, can't stop now," I told myself. "I've got to find Goten."

I reached out with my senses and found there were a lot of ki signatures being emitted nearby, thousands of them. While most of them were relatively tiny, a few seemed to be joined power levels, exactly like the woman and those creatures. This confused me to no end. Why did they have merged power levels? What did it mean?

Then something the woman said came to mind...

"You'll make a good host," she had said.

Host? Two power levels? I repeated.

"Oh my God," I said as it dawned on me. "Those people are being possessed!"

"Bah, who cares," Oniari muttered.

I ignored him. This made a lot of sense. And they could be doing the same thing to Goten right now!

Hoping I wasn't too late, I rushed to the door and looked out. And once I did, I gasped.

I was standing in a gigantic open cave. There was a large, gray colored lake in the middle of this open cavern. The lake teemed with thousands of weak ki signals. Hundreds of small buildings stretched out along the edges of the cave.

As I watched, I noticed that there were two piers leading over the lake. On one, those strange reptilian beings stood guard over humans and other aliens who docilely walked forward, stuck their head in the water, and then a second later, the creatures hauled them up, kicking and struggling. On the other side of the lake, they marched resistant humans and aliens across the second pier and stuck their heads in the lake. A second later, they stopped fighting and calmly got up, walking away.

The sheer horror of it hit me in an instant.

That lake is filled with the beings that possess them! I realized. The bladed aliens lead them over the lake, where they deposit their other ki. They probably need something from the lake. Then they lead the people back out there, where they're forced to take them back! That's why they get so quiet afterwards! They've lost control of their bodies again! I gasped. They're being infested by parasites!

"Oh God..." I whispered, sick to my stomach.

And as I stood there, listening to the screams of thousands of innocent people, I felt my anger beginning to grow...

Special thanks are in order to the always wonderful LSSJ2 Gohan for giving me permission to use both his composite characters, Oniari and Makai, as well as the storyline they fit in and for helping me get their characters down correctly. You rock, man!