When Kakarot awoke the next morning, the man with the golden halo over his head was gone.

The boy sat up, pushing the blankets away and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Yesterday had been extremely confusing for a boy whose life had been the definition of simplicity thus far.

Kakarot got out of bed, trying to organize his thoughts. Grandpa had said, a few times before, that a time would come when he wouldn't be around anymore. But Kakarot had never taken that too seriously – after all, no matter where Grandpa went, he would come back eventually. This was their house. Where else was there to go?

But then that strange man had shown up and said that Grandpa wasn't coming back ever. Except (and this is where it got confusing) Grandpa was also still here…

Grandpa! Gripped with a sudden panic, Kakarot lunged at the bed and began rummaging through the sheets as he remembered the golden ball that was all that was left of his grandfather. Fortunately, it had rolled up under the pillow, safe and sound.

"Grandpa!" A huge smile lit his face as he held the ball aloft in both hands. "Wow, for a second there I thought I lost you. Don't worry Grandpa, I'll take good care of you." Looking around, he saw another purple pillow laying on the bed.

"Aha! This'll work!" Grabbing it, he placed it on the small table next to the bed and carefully put his Grandpa's ball in the middle, centering the pillow with a level of care and attention to detail so uncharacteristic of him that, had his grandfather been able to see it, would have shocked the old man so badly he might have dropped dead right there.

Finally, Kakarot stepped back, admiring his work. "There!" He smiled in satisfaction. Now Grandpa would be comfortable and safe.

"I wonder where that man is. I should go find him…ooh," Kakarot groaned as his thoughts were interrupted by the rumbling of his tummy. It was time for breakfast. "Wherever he is, I hope he has food."

Kakarot never did find the man, and as the years went by his memories of the whole incident became hazy and blurred. But it was okay. He had his grandpa, and that was all that really mattered to him.

It would occur to him, that morning as he fished for his breakfast and caught sight of his reflection in the river, that the man's spiky dark hair closely resembled his own. But for all he knew, all boys had the same kind of hair.

Well, except for his grandpa. But he had always been a strange man.

Just one hour earlier, Bardock had returned to Otherworld. King Yemma was not happy to see him.

"You look terrible," the judge told him by way of greeting, glaring down at him and his dirty, torn outfit.

"Indeed."

Bardock turned to find the mysterious man, the Supreme Kai, as he said he was, floating above him with that infuriating smile on his face.

The Supreme Kai lowered himself to stand in front of Bardock. "I see you have completed your mission successfully."

Bardock gave him a curt nod. "What happens to me now?"

The Supreme Kai shrugged. "You will return to your punishment in Hell."

"That's it?"

"Did you have other expectations?"

Bardock shot the angry red man a look from the corner of his eye. He obviously couldn't make these people do him any favors, but that had never stopped him before. The warrior drew himself up to his full height. "I want to know what happened to my family."

"Really?" The Supreme Kai cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Why?"

Bardock's gaze never wavered. "I want to know."

"Huh. Well then," he turned to King Yemma, "I'm sure you can assist us with this…"

Impossibly, King Yemma's face seemed to turn even redder. "Really, I must protest! He has done absolutely nothing to deserve special consideration…"

"Yes, yes, yes, I understand," the Supreme Kai waved a hand at him dismissively. "Now please, if you could look through your records quickly, I'm sure you want to get him back where he belongs as soon as possible."

Huffing, King Yemma reached for a stack of files piled behind him. After a few minutes of flipping through them, he pulled out several. "Here we are," he said, "the Saiyans. These family members of yours got any names?"

As Bardock gave him a list of his relatives and friends, King Yemma went through their files. All of them where in languishing in Hell, except for…

"Well, isn't this a surprise. Gine is in Heaven. Who's she to you anyway?"

Bardock glared at him, crossing his arms. "She's my mate."

King Yemma snorted skeptically. "I can't imagine what she saw in you. Now is that all?"

"My son, Raditz."

King Yemma opened what was left of the files. "There's no Raditz here."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," King Yemma huffed, "that he hasn't come by here."

Bardock's eyes lit up. "So he's still alive?!"

"Well, since you can either be in Otherworld or the Mortal Realm," King Yemma said, with the attitude of one speaking to the mentally challenged, "and he's not here, then he must still be in the Mortal Realm, meaning he's still alive. Are we clear?"

Bardock gave him a look of pure hate, while the Supreme Kai chuckled behind him. He hated being patronized at.

"Now, if we're done here…" King Yemma gave the Supreme Kai a pointed look.

The ruler sighed. "Yes, fine. King Yemma, you may take him away…"

"Wait!"

The two beings stared at Bardock curiously. The warrior braced himself for his next request. "I want to see my mate."

"Oh no!" King Yemma reared up in his chair angrily. "Absolutely not! That is completely, entirely, totally out of the question!"

Bardock turned to the Supreme Kai – he was obviously the one in charge here.

The Supreme Kai sighed heavily. "I will consider this request."

"SUPREME KAI! I MUST PROTEST…"

"King Yemma, take him away."

"But…"

"King Yemma!" In a movement so instantaneous all Bardock saw was a purple blur, the Supreme Kai was standing in midair directly in front of King Yemma's face, his voice quiet but intimidating nonetheless. "I said take him away."

King Yemma leaned back as far as he could, his eyes wide with a combination of fear and surprise. "Y-y-yes, yes Supreme Kai," he stammered.

And with that Bardock was gone.

Many Earth years afterwards, the elderly Gohan would come across a young lady hanging from a tree branch...by her tail. He would strike up a conversation with her, and tell her all about the time he'd gone out to investigate a huge crash in the middle of the forest where he'd made his home, only to find a baby boy with a tail crying near a round metal pod. The woman would tell him about her tailed people, the Saiyans.

"I always wondered if someone would come looking for him," he would say to her.

"I doubt it," she would respond. "Our whole planet was destroyed. There's no one to come for him now."

In the present, on Earth, a young blue-haired girl sat in her classroom, staring absentmindedly out the window. She sighed deeply to herself. Her life was so boring. She wanted to go on an adventure, see the world, meet cool people – maybe even a cute boy! She was old enough now to realize that she lived in a very sheltered world, and that there was so much else out there. She wanted to see all of it, every last village…

"Miss Bulma!"

The sharp sound of her teacher's voice snapped her out of her daydream as she stumbled to her feet. "Yes?"

"Question 12, Miss Bulma." The teacher gave her an expectant look.

"Oh." The girl glanced down at her open mathematics textbook. "Seventy-five."

The teacher gave her a pleased smile. "Very good, Miss Bulma. You may be seated."

Bulma sat down again, lowering her head to her desk as she sighed again. School was so unbelievably dull, and way too easy. If only something interesting would happen…

Meanwhile, in a town just a few miles away from Bulma's school, another blue-haired girl was sitting in a jail cell, sniffling. It was just so unfair. That other Launch was always getting into trouble, and who was the one who ended up paying the price? Launch! Except not that Launch, her Launch…

The girl stifled a sob. She couldn't even express herself properly! All because of her! The other her!

From the corner of the cell, two larger women were whispering to each other and chuckling. They were giving her some seriously menacing looks too. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the first time she got jumped in a cell.

Well, she wasn't putting up with this! This was the other Launch's fault – she could handle it. Wiping her tears, she ran her fingers over the bench she was curled up on, bringing them up for inspection. Just as she suspected, the place clearly hadn't been dusted in months! It was completely unacceptable, but it was convenient. She smacked the bench with her palms a few times, raising dust up to her face.

Ah-ah-ahCHOO!

"Alright ladies, you wanna piece of me?! Come and get it!"

On a tiny, distant island, an old man reclined in his seat, watching a brand new exercise tape.

"I tell ya," he said, addressing the turtle dozing quietly next to him, as he watched the lithe young ladies raise and lower their legs, "this is the life!"

"Is it?" The turtle raised his head. "It's rather dull, don't you think?"

"Believe me, dull is better than the alternative. I've had enough excitement to last me a lifetime!"

"Well, I think it might be a good idea to shake things up around here. I was thinking of going out to the mainland and seeing what's going on in the outside world."

"Hey!" The old man leaned forward in his chair excitedly, his sunglasses falling to the tip of his nose. "If you go out to the mainland, you could find a nice girl to bring back here! A nice, beautiful girl…" his eyes got a far-off look in them, and he began to drool slightly.

It's hard for turtles to look disgusted, but this one managed it. "On second thought, I think I'll stick around here and keep an eye on you."

The old man glared at him, settling back into his chair. "You spoilsport!"

And finally, in a distant village to the east, a little boy in monk's uniform was hiding under the trees, crying quietly to himself. Those boys were so mean to him, just because he was small and had no nose. It wasn't his fault! He didn't know why he didn't have one, he just didn't! But they said all sorts of nasty things to him, that his mother had left him at the temple because he was a freak. And then they'd all ganged up on him. He could've shown them, if they'd come at him one at a time like real fighters!

The boy rubbed at his eyes, his whimpers finally quieting as his hurt was replaced by a sense of outrage and determination. Those guys…he would show them! He'd train harder than any of them, and then he'd be able to take them on all at once. He'd beat them all up!

"Oh Krillin!" The mocking sing-song was closer now, he could tell. "Come out, come out wherever you are!" Cruel laughter bounced against the trees. "Come on, you little pipsqueak," another boy called out, "we won't hurt you too bad!"

As quietly as he could manage, the boy lowered himself to his hands and knees and began to crawl deeper into the trees, hoping to escape.

Later, as one of the temple's keepers tended to his various wounds, grumbling about spoiled, overactive boys, it occurred to Krillin that he might have to find another place to train.

A/N: Ta-da! Thanks so much to all of you who have read this story and reviewed it. I really hope you enjoyed my version of pre-Dragonball events. The idea for this story occurred to me when I was watching the episode of Dragonball where Goku fights Fortuneteller Baba's mystery warrior, who of course turns out to be his grandfather. That episode raised a lot of questions for me. By the end of the first season of Dragonball, we know that Goku accidentally killed his grandfather when he transformed, and we know that the four-star ball was left to him by his grandfather before he died. We can assume that the dragonball was special to Gohan and so Goku treasured it as well, although why that would translate to him believing that his grandfather's soul or essence was somehow in the ball is unclear. It's possible that that's what Gohan told him, but again, when and why is unclear.

The Fortuneteller Baba episode raises, for me, two questions. First, when Goku sees his grandfather, he tells him "I looked for you everywhere but I couldn't find you." Why would he look for him, if he already knew his grandfather was dead? Secondly, when Goku shows him the four-star ball and explains what it is and what it can do, Gohan says, "Oh, that old doohickey!" From his casual attitude, it seems that Gohan never attached any importance or significance to the four-star ball at all when he was alive. So why would Goku treasure it so deeply, to the point where, even after this encounter, he makes a point to grab it after Upa makes his wish before it can disperse along with the other balls? I'm working off the English anime here, so perhaps the original Japanese makes this more clear. Nevertheless, by the end of this episode it seems to me that Goku's attachment to the four-star ball is something that happened after his grandfather died, and didn't come from some kind of conversation or implication from the older man himself. But then who gave him the idea that the four-star ball was his grandfather? He says himself in the first episode that, before Bulma, he'd never met another person except his grandfather, yet it seems unlikely that he came up with the idea on his own, especially since again, his grandfather doesn't seem to attach any importance to the ball himself.

Also, I couldn't get my head around the idea that poor sweet little Goku woke up one morning to his grandfather's dead (and probably broken) body and his destroyed house. It's just too cruel, and I don't think he'd been the kind-hearted, trusting young boy we all know and love if he'd gone through that experience. I also think, given Goku's deep sense of justice, that he'd probably have spent the rest of his life bent on revenge against the monster who did this, making Dragonball a drastically different show.

So that's it! I hope you enjoyed the story and my little commentary. Share your thoughts in the reviews!