Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z
Chapter Two: I'm not normal.
Three and a half years after the destruction of the androids, six months after the death of Cell.
My school year started out the same as usual, with the first day back beginning with assembly.
"Pan Satan," my newest form teacher called, and upon hearing my name I walked over to join the rest of the girls, all a year older than me, that stood in line behind her. I had been put up a year when I entered high school, and even with that I was still top of my class in every subject. Part of it was because I'm naturally bright, but it was also because I studied hard. For a number of reasons, including the age difference, I always felt alienated by my peers. Although I could have polite conversations with some of the girls, I didn't have any real friends, and spent the majority of my lunchtimes reading in the library.
I go to Stellaris, the only private all girls school in Orange Star City. Although my mum has never explicitly said, I think her reasoning for sending me here was to keep me away from all the boys, after all, she did give birth to me at the tender age of fifteen.
I've never known my father. In fact, I don't even know his name, as my mum refuses to tell me. My birth certificate is blank where you're supposed to write the father's name, and I don't even know if he's on this continent, or if he's even alive. It's very strange to think that he could be out there somewhere, or that he could even be close by. What if he was the man I saw every day at the bus stop, or the guy in the electronic store? If my mother has her way, I will never know.
One of the main things that bothered me was the fact that because of this, a whole branch of my family tree was unknown to me. What if I had uncles and aunts, cousins and grandparents out there? Didn't I have a right to know them? It wasn't just that, what if the family I didn't know had the answers I needed to know? What if they could tell me what was wrong with me, and explain why I was not...normal?
Ever since I was little, I've been able to do things that shouldn't be possible. At first, it wasn't too noticeable. So what if I could lift a chair above my head at the age of three? But I kept getting stronger, and faster, and soon I could jump higher than I should have. By the age of ten, I could lift a car above my head. I could jump higher than the tallest trees, and I could run faster than any car. And none of this even made me break a sweat.
There were a few other things too. My sense of smell was far keener than any other human's that I had ever met, and my eyesight was better too. I could see things in the dark when no one else could, and I had better hearing, good enough to hear whispers from the opposite side of a classroom.
Of course, I realised something was seriously wrong with me. None of this stuff should have been humanly possible, and yet I could do it. I could tell that it scared my mother, although she tried to hide her fear from me. Before I turned ten, I had realised that I had to keep my abilities a secret, not only from the rest of the world, but also as much as I could from my mum.
Still, sometimes I slipped up. When I was fourteen and in gym class, I accidentally jumped too high to catch a softball. My audience was practically stunned silent. The year before that I had accidentally broken a classroom door clean from its frame, and just last winter I had kicked a soccer ball so hard that it had exploded.
This was the other reason for the alienation at school. I was a freak of nature, and as such, no one wanted to know me.
On this first day back, it was relieving to thing that this was my last year. Despite the fact that I was only sixteen, I would be graduating at the end of the school year, and I could kiss my dull high school life goodbye. I still had no idea what I would do after that, with my good marks there were endless possibilities open to me, and it seemed like there was too much to choose from. Sometimes, I found myself wishing that I wasn't quite so smart, that way there wouldn't be this great expectation for me to go to university. Instead, I would be free to do whatever my heart desired, or at least I would be in a perfect world.
But the world is not perfect.
I was unfortunately reminded of that fact after school, as I walked through Orange Star City. My mum was working til six, and I decided to kill some time by window-shopping. I was walking along the less popular parts of the shopping district, where all my favourite little stores are, when I finally realised why I had been feeling a little on edge.
I had learned from a young age to trust my instincts, as they never seemed to lead me wrong. I don't think my instincts are the same as other people have, I've heard of people who regret not trusting their gut feeling. For me, I have to trust my instincts, once I have a gut feeling, it's so strong that I don't see how I could disobey it.
Right now, my gut was telling me I was in danger.
I hadn't been aware of it before, but now that I was alert I realised my ears had been picking up the sound of the same two pairs of feet for at least the last fifteen minutes. Although I was hoping it was merely coincidence, instinct was telling me I was being followed.
Looking behind me, I saw two big, burly men walking about fifteen meters back. Quickly, I ducked into the closest shop, one selling mobile phones, and pretended to look interested in the products on sale. I was hoping that I was just imagining things, but I looked up to see that the two men had entered the store, and as I did one of them met my glance. He was staring at me like I was a piece of meat, as if he would eat me any second now. Crap.
I panicked. I should have told the shopkeeper my problem; he could have taken me out back, called the police, done something to keep me safe. Instead, like an idiot with a death wish, I walked back out of the store. Now I wanted to run, but my brain didn't seem to have control over my body. What was the point in superhuman abilities if I couldn't even use them when needed! At best, I managed a bit of a staggered run, only at usual human speed. I could hear them running behind me, and as the fear took over my breath became more laboured, my heart was pounding and I felt sick.
In my panicked state, I missed the turn I should have taken. It would have led me onto a crowded street, and I would have been safe. Instead, I mistakenly ran down the next left turn, and realised too late that I was headed into a deserted alley with a dead end. I spun around to see my pursuers standing there, evil grins on their faces, blocking my only chance of escape.
"Hi, sweetheart," the taller of the two called, "we just wanna have a lil' fun with ya, why don't ya be a good gal an' come here?"
I backed up further into the corner, too paralysed by fear to think of any other options. I wanted to scream, but my mouth felt dry, and I couldn't seem to make any noise at all.
The smaller of the two men started towards me, slowly moving forward like a predator closing in on its prey. Like a deer in headlights, I just stood, frozen to the spot. He pushed me up against the wall, and with a scowl on his face, he spoke. "Just stay still and this'll all be over soon enough."
When his hand went to move up my uniform skirt, something inside me snapped. One moment the man was right in front of me, the next he was laying in a crumpled heap on the opposite side of the alley. I took me a second to realise that I had been the cause of his apparent injuries.
"Hey you crazy bitch!" the other man, who I had momentarily forgotten, called out, "what the fuck was that!" I realised a little too late that he had a gun in his hand, and vaguely registered that I was screaming as I heard the shot fire.
Time seemed to slow down; although I think the true explanation is that I got faster. Either way, I could clearly see the bullet leave the barrel of the gun, and come flying through the air towards my head. Instinctively, my hand moved in front of my face, just in time to catch the bullet.
It should have flown right through my hand and into my head, killing me instantly. Instead, I opened my hand to see the crumpled bullet sitting there, in my undamaged palm. I had caught a bullet shot at my head from a close range, and I had survived unscathed. The thought was too much to handle, and my legs gave way.
Slumped on the ground, I was in too much of a daze to realise what was going on around me, but I did hear the man with the gun leaving, yelling obscenities on the way. I'm not sure how long I sat there, but it probably wasn't any longer than a few minutes.
"Miss, miss are you alright?" Someone's worried voice broke me out of my reverie. I looked up to see an angel looking down on me; maybe I was dead after all. His golden hair rose above his head like crown, and his eyebrows were furrowed in a deep frown. His eyes were the most beautiful I had ever seen. He didn't appear to have any pupils, and the colour of his eyes was the richest teal, nothing on Earth seemed good enough to compare the colour to.
"I, I thought I caught the bullet," I mumbled to the gorgeous creature, "but you're here now, so I must be dead. At least it wasn't painful." I gestured for him to look at my hand, to see the little bullet inside. Maybe he put it in there, to trick me so I wouldn't be so scared. I didn't think I could ever be terrified of this magnificent creature, something about him seemed wholly good, and I felt a sense of comfort now that he was near.
The angel looked down at my hand, and gasped at what he saw. He looked back to my face, and I could see he was confused too. What was going on? Shouldn't he have known that I was shot? That was why he was here. As he continued to stare at me the look on his face changed, like he had realised something that had been eluding him for some time.
I didn't have any energy left, and the world began to get dizzy. I felt warm arms around me, and opened my eyes to find myself cradled in the angel's arms, his face full of love smiling down on me.
"Its okay, I'll take care of you," he said in his beautiful voice. I sighed, feeling content to be near him.
Then the world went black.
AN: I'm sure you have all figured out that my main character is the daughter of Gohan and Videl, conceived when they were only fourteen. I just want to explain that although she is named Pan, she is not the same Pan as we know in the main timeline, as that Pan was conceived much later in Gohan and Videl's lives (so they can't possibly be the same).
Instead, please think of this Pan as a sister to the girl we see in DBZ/GT. My Pan has blue eyes, the same colour as her mother's, with straight black hair. I called her Pan because I love all the TP fics out there, and wanted to do one of my own, and also because I figured if Videl called her first-born daughter Pan in the normal timeline, wouldn't this Videl do the same?
Basically you can see this fic as a sort of AU, but hey, no one knows what Gohan got up to in the future timeline, and this is just my idea.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. :)
