Six years later…

Had a hiker been trekking through the woods that day, it would have seemed to him the perfect day. A calm sense of serenity filled the scene – the remnants of a strong wind blowing from the east, broken up by the towering evergreen trees into a gentle breeze while up high in their branches, birds sang their morning chorus as if powered by the fresh sun rays themselves. A stream flowed calmly nearby, the sound water trickling over large stones while fish swam with and against the gentle current, producing the occasional splash.

The serenity was broken by a loud cry piercing through the air, startling the birds, stopping the stream, killing the breeze.

"Gggraaahhh!!" The young boy screamed, feeling his throat clog up as he strained his vocal cords nearly tear. He squeezed his soft hands tightly into fists of steel, his knuckles protruding from underneath the pale skin. He collapsed into an exhausted heap upon the wild grass, bruising his knees in the process, but his body was in no shape to feel the pain. He gasped for breath as he lay there, trying in vain to ignore the fatigue that engulfed him, the stinging droplets of sweat flowing their way into his eyes, the damp locks of jet black hair clinging to the back of his neck and forehead. His chest heaved up and down for oxygen that felt as if it would never come.

A few feet away, Son Gohan sat hunched, resting his chin on his fist. His narrowed eyes and slight frown depicted not an expression of anger, but one of confusion. He looked at the exhausted form of his brother, Son Goken, folded in on itself lying on the ground between the stalks of wild grass, wondering why he hadn't seen the change yet. Gohan's eyes pierced little Goken's body, paying close attention to his physical attributes.

Small framed with the top of his head up to Gohan's own waist, a mop of straight black hair; the child was no different than any other six year old.

That was the problem. As the child of a great Saiyan warrior, he was no ordinary child. By this point, he should have learned to levitate at the very least, get a taste of the kind of power he had supposedly inherited from their father. Yet …

Goken's weak, tired arms trembled under the weight of his upper body as picked himself off the ground with visible effort. His hair fell in front of his face, obscuring his expression from view.

"The second son of every Saiyan warrior bears an uncanny resemblance to their father," Gohan recited to himself. Their father, the second son among his siblings, was a spitting image of their grandfather and his father before him. It seemed that Goken had put a stop to that trait. Gohan was no genetic scientist, but this rubbed him the wrong way.

After running his hands through his short black hair in frustration, he stood up and walked over to Goken, who didn't seem to take notice until Gohan's broad, muscular form cast a shadow over him. Gohan offered a hand which Goken accepted and pulled his brother off the ground.

"I don't get it," the boy said, brushing off the dirt off his small, skinny shoulders. "You can do it. You can change. I can't."

And by change, Gohan was well aware, he meant a physical change; one that allowed anyone of Saiyan blood to achieve a higher power level, causing their hair to take on a golden hue, their eyes into an emerald green, and an electric aura to engulf their entire bodies. Gohan was as perplexed as Goken was, yet fearing that he might appear unsure of himself, decided to ignore the question.

"There's gotta be something you're doing wrong," he said.

"I hate this," Goken replied, "why do I even have to learn how to do this?"

"Because the world will come to depend on it one day. We'll do some more training tomorrow, but for now, let's go home."

Gohan began heading toward the trees from the clearing where they trained, where the trail that would take them home lay. He expected Goken to be tagging along behind him, but turned around when he heard no footsteps.

Goken was still standing at the spot where he had collapsed minutes ago. He hadn't budged.

"Gohan," the boy began, "I don't want to do this anymore." His heart pounded in his chest, fearful of what his brother's response would be. For a week now, he had been taken into the middle of this secluded forest and forced to go through grueling strength and endurance training. Never had he thought of questioning his brother's intentions, but now, they were taking a toll on him and he wanted answers, but more importantly, he wanted to stop.

Gohan froze for a second, saying nothing. An uncomfortable silence hung over their heads for that moment. "What did you say?"

"I… I said I wanted to stop," Goken stammered nervously.

"You can't." The answer was sharp, delivered without missing a beat. He turned back around and continued walking.

"But why?" Goken pressed. "Why are you making me do this? This is stupid, and there's no point!"

Again, Gohan stopped in his tracks, this time, lunging forward and seizing his brother by the arm. "Because you will need it to protect the citizens of earth, just like Dad did before us! Do you have any idea what kind of family you come from?"

"Yeah, I do," came the reply, "But we're living in a time of peace. We don't need to continue fighting."

"I highly doubt this time of peace will last a long time," Gohan replied. "We have to prepare for anything that might happen. Don't you understand?"

Saying nothing, Goken continued to glare angrily back.

"Fine, just think whatever you want," Gohan said, "but whether you like it or not, you're coming back here tomorrow."

XXXXX

The darkness was all-encompassing. Floating there in a black oblivion, the Firebird saw everything, felt everything. The energy sources of the universe danced across his skin in a wide variety of heat and pressure. The Firebird existed in this black oblivion, carefully analyzing each and every sensation of the universe's energies flowing across it, looking for the one he sought with eternal patience. In fact, he did have all eternity. He had been doing this since time began, and would continue to do it until the end of time.

Every planet had its guardian, its own Devotee. And it was this Devotee's duty to die for their planet. And with a rare gem of a planet like Earth, its guardian had to be powerful beyond all measure to protect it. This wasn't just a conclusion that the Firebird had come to, no. It was prophesized by the spirit of the Eight Star Dragon Ball itself, the very being that had spawned the Firebird, the very being that would also spawn Earth's Devotee.

Somewhere within the Firebird powerful being, there was a hollow that needed to be filled. A hunger so great not even the collective power from the stars, planets, even galaxies could satisfy him.

The Firebird's first guess was that the Devotee had to have been a Saiyan Warrior, however they were a nearly extinct race. He had heard stories about a certain Son Goku, who had defeated many enemies who threatened the safety of Earth.

Upon discovering that Goku was dead, and that he had not been a child of the Eight Star Dragon Ball, the Firebird continued his search, feeling certain his target was out there somewhere. As a child of the Eight Star Dragon Ball himself, he had a connection to this Devotee. Following the link, the Firebird hoped to it would lead him to his target.

Because of his connection to the Eight Star Dragon Ball, the Firebird also had a pre-determined fate of purity, strength and justice. However, purity and justice didn't appeal to the likes of him and as a result, he was cast out of the Heavens by the Gods and forced to live the rest of his spiritual existence in oblivion. But after finding the Devotee, he would change all that, and the power of both the Heavens and the universe would be his to command.

The thought fueled him further to continue his search for the Devotee. Once he was found, he would be rescued from this eternal oblivion and freed upon the Earth to wreak whatever havoc he desired. It wasn't that the Firebird felt any animosity toward the planet. He found the sheer variety of life that called the planet home was overwhelming. It most certainly was a diamond among the planets.

But through Earth's destruction, the Firebird could achieve something greater – fear from the Higher Gods, who believed that casting him from the heavens would render him weak, leaving him to shrivel up, letting the energy that he was made up of burn itself out of existence. He couldn't wait to see the look on their faces when they found out that he'd not only destroyed Earth, but harnessed the powers of its Devotee.

And the day he was waiting for finally came. It came in the form of a powerful energy source piercing the Firebird's sensors to the point where it had physically hurt, catching him off guard at first. This was the first time he'd felt something so powerful, so intense, that it had to be what he was looking for. He scanned the Earth for the most likely source of the energy and found it in a second, housed within the unlikeliest humans – a young child nowhere near its teenage years. At such a young age, this energy hadn't been put to use and seemed to lie dormant within the body that held it except for that moment when the Firebird had felt it. The energy surge had last a second at best and had retreated back into its body but had allowed the Firebird to feel everything it was. And everything it was, he knew, would be far too much for him to absorb in one sitting. All that power lying dormant in that tiny little body and ripe for the picking. This seemed far too easy …

"You're coming here tomorrow, I don't care if you don't want to!" a human teenager screamed. It seemed the child wasn't alone. That teenager … a guardian, perhaps?

No matter, the Firebird felt the link between him and the Devotee child grow immeasurably. This was it! He had found him! "Perhaps it would be best for me to confront this child," he said to himself.

The Firebird was a being made up completely of energy. And as such, the energy from the boy could severely damage him. But in physical form, there was a change that flesh could serve as a kind of shield.

Shattering the barrier between his energy and physical form, the Firebird descended to the earth within a ball of flame, ready to seize the prize he had kept his eyes on for all these years.