Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball; I'm not affiliated with anyone that has anything to do with it; some/many of the subsequent chapters will have violence, alcohol, probably drugs, and sexual innuendo (if not more).

College giveth, and college taketh away. I've generally had a lot of work, and all that stuff that I've been crooning about. Anyway, I'll start on the fic, already.

The Pasuko-jin continued their research peacefully, not attacking the Humans or taking any valuable resources. But, even though the Earthen fighters turned down the offer of a military position, they did decide that sparring every so often with them would be beneficial. They found that the small faction had 15 or 16 men all together, and roughly a dozen were fighters themselves. One on one, they were enough of a problem to deal with, but when group went against group, the Saiya-jin and Ningen found themselves at a great disadvantage. The aliens had a superior formation from the years of fighting in an army, and the main strategist, Dr. Arufuredo, was the best of these motives, even though he was one of the weakest fighters.

Of course, this spawned the idea of contacting Piccolo to try to even the numbers a bit more, but no one was able to find him. He wasn't at any of his normal training areas, nor was he at Kami's temple. They asked Dende while they were there, but he shook his head, saying that Piccolo's presence had left Earth months before. He knew not to where or why. When Mr. Popo was asked, he wouldn't give a straight answer and would tend the gardens instead of elaborating.

Arufuredo didn't seem to want to share his knowledge of strategy, saying that it went against military law to speak of such things to those outside the army. They could tell that he was lying, but regardless, he refused to tell them, consistant that he could be tried for war crimes for doing so. This, they didn't seem to doubt as much.

Regardless, the time that they spent with them provided them more exposure to the knowledge of the war between the empires. The Pasuko Empire was only recently inherited by Queen Komugiko from her uncle (as she was the only heir). Previously, the empire was named Penne (after an older emperor of it several generations back), but as most of the soldiers were now Pasuko-jin, it had been changed when she took power. Queen Komugiko was in her mid-to-late 20's in Earth's years, and the Pasuko-jin age a little more slowly than Humans, so when she acquired the empire just 8 or so years ago, she was still a young maiden.

Komugiko-joou was sought after by several bachelors (before and after her inheritence), but she had refused them, saying that it was her obligation to remain unbound until the Puroeriun Empire was dealt with. But, even such a young, strong woman, so vibrant with life had been severely effected by the war. She had fallen ill not too long after she acquired her title (a phase called "royal transition", where the emperor or empress gains the strength to lead). She gained her strength, apparently, but she had been physically wrecked through the transition. Some said it was because of her youth; some said it was because she was female; but most agreed that it was because she took the position unmarried

Arufuredo showed the Earthlings a picture of her.

It was a beautiful woman, adorned with armor and a strong expression. Her cheek glowed with a youthful shine, and her posture was nothing under commendable. She was certainly an important figure, and a mere still of her practically radiated her brilliance. She stood alone before her throne, gesturing outwards with her sword, allowing light to shine all around her and her armor like she was a jewel in a museum. Her brilliant red hair and almost greenish-golden skin only seemed to accent it even more.

Then another picture was shown to them. It was the same woman, but the youthful skin had become leathery and dry. The skin was flat and paled, even dusty, and the only shine on her was where moisture hung around the corner of her lips and the edges of where clear tubes full of liquid were connected to her skin from a tank that had been formatted into her throne. She looked old and bent, and sat with her wiry arms outstretched upon the oversized armrests, clasping with long, thin fingers. The starry eyes had turned into a dull, frightening glare.

Rabiori said that he fought so that the queen may be happy and feel free to marry. When the Earthlings rose inquisitive brows to the thought of why someone would want to marry her now, Arufuredo explained that there had been an emperor who didn't marry till after the transition, and he same thing happened to him. His physical anatomy returned not long after. Besides, there were still several suitors that wished for her hand, even if it was only political.

It wasn't long before Rabiori found a place to brag. "And it will soon end. Yes! I finally defeated General Atsarute, a feat that, even though many brigades and full legions had gone to accomplish and failed, I managed to do it!" He proceeded to explain Atsarute's death, noting the strategy that he (or rather, Arufuredo) devised, taking it upon himself to ally with a small sect of people who had recently been robbed of a powerful talisman.

"We tracked Atsarute by means of the light and energy that the talisman emitted. It was to be used for some unknown purpose of sorcery, but we managed to interrupt the spell in such a way that completely obliterated anyone and anything within a 10 meter radius (which Atsarute was in) and it was too sudden to escape." Rabiori grinned proudly. Arufuredo rolled his eyes.

The Saiya-jin soon grew tired of Rabiori's stories and opted to leave. Before they stepped out, one of the soldiers shouted to them that the scientists were coming very close to the conclusion of the research before they would be leaving. "It's just a heads-up for you so that you know there's not too many more training sessions, or if you decide to join us," the soldier said, with an almost bright air to it.

Three months after the landing, the project had come to a close. They left early in the morning, and ended up returning late the next night. The ship came back with damage and some wounded, and any inquiries by the Humans were disregarded until they brought everything back to order.

When everything calmed down, they explained what happened: a few Puroeriun ships were waiting on the other side of the Red Stream (a line in space of ionic storms, almost infinitely long, that separates the two "universes"), and attacked relentlessly. They took a lot of damage, but more importantly, they could not land anywhere close to the stream to do repairs, for fear of more damage from the storms or the enemy. So, they decided that it was safest to return to Earth. It turned out to be the best answer; the data acquired from the research was, on the most part, destroyed.

They were stuck on Earth, attempting to redo some of the experiments and fixing the ship, while they sent a report back to the base for further instructions. Since the scientists already had an idea of what was going on, they we're regaining the data with pretty decent progress. Repairs were going well, and everyone had healed completely. Tension turned out to be next to nothing (outside of their homesickness) until they finally recieved word. Then, Hell broke loose.

There were orders to return ASAP and present the data, then immediately track down an individual and present him with two options: join the Pasuko Empire, or die.

"Those are very gruff orders," Gohan said, putting his shirt back on after the training session, "How high up did this command come?"

"The queen herself," Rabiori said with his eyes closed and his head bowed, as if it were an oracle from the gods, "We cannot possibly go against her orders."

Gohan nodded but maintained a slightly anxious look on his face. "I know... but confronting one man and giving him only two options? Is it absolutely necessary?"

Arufuredo jumped in before he could let his superior gain a word of his patriotic rambling. "General Atsarute was to be dealt with by case, and this man that we're to go after now is presumed to be very strong." The doctor flipped through the pages of his report. "A Namekku-sei-jin male... I'm not surprised, they're everywhere. Those people reproduce faster than bacteria as long as there's a female about..."

The Earthlings looked genuinely confused and stayed silent for a moment. "So... wait... what kind of Namekku-sei-jin are these?" Kuririn finally asked.

Arufuredo glanced up from the notes. "Umm... I'm just talking about them in general."

Gohan kept his brow raised "And what do they look like?"

He scratched his head. "They're generally green with pointy ears and fangs... little antennae things on their heads... I'm surprised that you never saw one, but then again, this planet is sort of in the 'boondocks', so to speak."

They all just sort of nodded in unison, and Goku told him about Piccolo, Dende, Kami-sama, and all of the people that they met on Namekku-sei.

"So what's so confusing?" Rabiori seemed rather disinterested in the confusion of backwater planets. "You've seen one, you've seen them all."

"There are different kinds of Namekku-sei-jin, it's just the biggest amount is..." The doctor was ordered to cut off with a hand motion.

Kuririn gave a nervous laugh. "Well, you see, when we went to Namekku-sei, we were told that there... pardon if this is somehow incorrect... that there were no female Namekku-sei-jin."

The whole ship began laughing. Some of the men were shouting over the guffaw, "It seems damn near it because there's so few!" and, "The few there are end up hiding after they get a mate, anyway, so it doesn't matter!" It wasn't long before "Namekku-sei-jin jokes" were being told throughout the ship, and more than half were somehow sexual. This just freaked the poor Z-fighters out more than ever.

"If you really need it, I can explain the whole thing to you..." The doctor said between his dying chuckles, "but, regardless, they're a great asset to an army, no matter what kind of Namekku-sei-jin they are. This particular one happens to be a bit of a loose cannon. He's not particularly opposing anyone, but he just takes out anyone in his way, which happens to include one of our caravans. He's not one in the database, surprisingly, so we haven't a clue who he is, but we have a few rather decent photos here..." He shuffled through the report and pulled out a few stills. Had it not been for these circumstances, the Z-fighters might not have seen the report and found out exactly why Piccolo was not to be found on Earth. Had it not been for these circumstances, the group wouldn't have gone with Rabiori's faction across the Red Stream into the war. This universe is peaceful, but the calmest (yet most restless) of all the fighters went to the one across the line.

I've decided to have this rated PG-13 until the heavy stuff comes. End of A/N.