Prologue: Homecoming

"Ladies and gentleman, welcome to West Capitol City Airport. The local time is 2:34 p.m. and the temperature outside is a beautiful and sunny 88 degrees Fahrenheit."

Son Pan pulled the headphones off; there was no point in wearing them now when all the music stations had been replaced with the voice of the flight attendant as she gave the landing speech to the passengers. She leaned down and pulled a brush out of her bag, using it with quick and efficient strokes to fix the hair that probably looked like crap from using the headphones and sleeping a few hours on the ten hour flight from Shenlong Shores to West Capitol City.

The flight home would have actually taken a little over two hours had she chosen to actually fly instead of taking a plane. Yet Pan had deliberately made the choice to take a plane, something she knew would have baffled her family and friends. Even the slowest of the Z gang would have chosen to fly on their own power because it was just that much faster travel, not to mention lacking the irritation and trouble of air turbulence that planes experienced.

The young woman made a face, remembering a particularly ugly bit of air turbulence a few hours earlier. For someone who had been literally been flying since the age of four, it was a bit disheartening to know that she could get air sick. She could at least console herself that it was only because they had passed through a nasty storm system that had caused her to get nauseous and that she had at least been able to keep the contacts of her stomach where it belonged.

"For your safety and comfort, we ask that you please remain seated with your seat belt fasted until the Captain turns of the 'Fasten Seat Belt' sign when we have parked at the gate. Please check around your seat for any personal belongings you may have brought on board with you and please use caution when opening the overhead bins, as their contents may have shifted during the flight."

She had been gone for little over six years, if one didn't count the occasional visits that she had made; which she didn't since she rarely stayed more then a few hours at a time much to the dismay of her mother and grandmother. They had tried several times to get her to stay longer, but she had always pleaded school and then work. They could have pushed harder, but there must have been something in her face that had stopped from pushing her too much, just as it had stopped any idea of surprise visits to see her on the other side of the world.

Pan suspected that her mother and grandmother, while not knowing the why or what, had known that something had changed her and that same something was what she was hiding from everyone. Although today the hiding would come to an end.

Six years ago she had needed time to come to terms, to work through her emotions and the results of all that had happened to her. To do that she had needed time from everyone she knew and loved because she had known that they wouldn't have been able to leave her alone once they realized that something was wrong. Then there was the fact that there were some things she couldn't hide from that would force her to share what she hadn't been ready to share then.

It had been Dende-send that the timing had occurred so perfectly when it had been time for her to go away to college and that one of the places she had applied for had been so far away to give her the distance she needed. She had immersed herself in her classes, or at least only so much that the excuses she gave for not coming home, were half-truths that were believable. So she had used school and then the work that followed to keep herself on the opposite side of the world of her loved ones, to keep them from finding out the secret that she hadn't been ready to tell.

But now it was time to face the music.

One or two years would have given her a reasonable amount of time to come to terms and deal. In fact, they had been. But she had dragged her feet, letting the years roll by because having to face her family and friends and explain everything… well the thought had been daunting and truthfully she'd been afraid to do it. It had only been in recent months that she had forced herself to take the steps to move back home and do what was right. To do anything else would be cowardly and selfish of her. And while sometimes she needed a moment to step back, one thing Son Pan had never been was a coward.

"On behalf of Bevelle Airlines and the entire crew, I'd like to thank you for joining us on this trip. We hope to see you again in the future the next time you fly. Have a good afternoon!"

"Mommy, mommy! We're here! Look! We're here! We get to meet Grandpa and Grandpa and everyone else now right?"

Pan glanced over to the two children seated in the window and middle seats in the row. Two identical sets of blue eyes, the only thing that was identical about her twins, stared up with her with barely contained excitement.

"Yes my darlings," she answered. "You'll finally get to meet everyone." She then added silently, 'And Dende please don't let this turn out okay and not like I think it will.'

Final Thought from Pan:
Now how to go about explaining those two to everyone…

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story was formerly known as "Always & Forever", however as I began editing and revising it along with my other stories I realized that the name didn't quite fit any more (plus my iTunes was playing and the different songs were giving me ideas). So thus the name change.

Now I'm certain someone is going to point out to me that, despite revising and editing, there are mistakes in the story. I'm sorry for that, but as I am currently lacking help to catch these mistakes, it is just my eyes and after a few times going through it, my brain won't catch those mistakes (at least not until I don't look at it for a few weeks). If anyone is interested in becoming a Beta for me (note I write in various fandoms) send me a message or email.

Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z/Dragon Ball GT or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Toriyama Akira and anyone else he says has rights to it.