Lost Children

Part 1

A/N: Okay, first of all, I would like to thank AceAyane for her creation of the human characters I have used in this chapter. I know the focus of this story is the Saiyans, but in order to understand events that will follow, I felt we needed a taste of how the humans viewed the Saiyans.

Now, second of all, this episode will contain references to very adult themes, but I will not describe them performing sexual acts. That having been said, if you are too young for the rating on this fic, do NOT read this chapter or the next, skip ahead to a future episode. You have been warned.

Smoke and music filled the strip club as Korn walked in, feeling pleasantly warm from the liquor he'd bought from Baga earlier. His tail was carefully tucked beneath his tunic, as it usually was when he went outside the Ox Kingdom, and the scantily clad women and roudy men made him feel more at home than he had in a long time.

It wasn't that Korn didn't feel at home with his fellow Saiyans… there was a deep, primal part of him that felt more alive now that he was rejoined with his people, than he ever had keeping on the wrong side of Frieza's law. But there were some ways in which he was fundamentally different than they were, where his Delphos heritage wound through his life, indomitably, like a Genosian creeper vine. That part of him made certain demands, demands which would not be ignored, no matter how pure his intentions or powerful his will. He had seen his mother's struggles, and he refused to put himself through that, much less anyone else.

Korn smirked as he slid down into a bar stool, catching the eye of the bartender. One did not come to a bar and not drink, even if the stuff they offered here was barely a step above water to him. But then, that's why he'd paid Bardock's cub a visit before he came. That boy made a mean brew.

"Korn! How the hell are you gonna show your face here, after last night?!" the gruff bartender asked, pulling a tall glass out from beneath the counter and filling it to the top with rum, before sliding it towards the red mohawked Saiyan. Korn slid some zenni across the bar appreciatively, which the man pocketed.

Korn's expression was innocent. "Huh? What did I do?" he asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"What didn't you do? There's holes in the walls in one of the back rooms, and you broke that biker's arm! His posse was in here earlier, demanding to know where to find you," he said, narrowing his eyes.

Korn smirked. "Must've told them he got into a fight or something," he said, taking a large swallow of rum.

"Didn't he?" the bartender asked, eyebrow raised.

Korn chuckled. "Only thing we were fighting over was who got to be on top," he said, shaking his head ruefully. Humans weren't strictly monogamous like Saiyans were, but they could be a bit repressed when it came to sex, particularly when it came to homosexual sex. It was all the same to Korn, however, and he raised an eyebrow playfully at the bartender. "Turns out he liked the bottom. If you want, I can show you why later…" he said suggestively.

The bartender grunted at that. "Save it for the ladies, Korn. If those guys come back, just take it outside, that's all I ask," he said, shaking his head as he went to fetch a drink for another customer.

Korn's smirk grew, and he took his drink over to where one of the dancers was dancing, casting him suggestive looks. He smiled at her, watching as she gyrated and slowly began to remove her clothing, as men laid zenni on the stage before her, or slipped it into her undergarments.

Korn didn't bother putting any zenni down, but his glance told her there would be much more zenni to be had later. He had a deal with the girls here, the ones who were willing, anyway. He was aware humans had laws surrounding payment for sex, but he considered it more of an investment in one of his favorite establishments. And, it wasn't as though they didn't enjoy it at the time…

"Hey, Korn," a sultry voice said from behind him, and he turned to see another beautiful woman standing there. She was beautiful, with curly purple hair, bright blue eyes, and supple curves above a firm frame. She looked like she might have been a fighter, if she hadn't been a stripper. She was certainly strong enough to be one, Korn knew from experience. "Back for more?" she asked seductively.

Korn smirked. "Least I can do, after passing out on you last night," he said apologetically. "I don't usually lose stamina like that," he said.

The stripper smiled. "And here I thought I was just that good," she said easily, slipping her hand up his inner thigh.

Korn growled low in his throat, and soon his lips hovered over her ear. "Oh… you are," he murmured, and she giggled as he followed her into one of the back rooms…

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Two children played ran around the laboratory, completely ignoring the large hulking combination of flesh and machine lying on the table as the blond haired girl tried to catch the black haired boy. Mischievously, the boy ducked beneath another table, and ran up to a door, slapping the panel at the side of it. Slowly, the door slid open, and he stepped in the doorway.

"Lapis! We're not allowed in there! Dr. Gero said!" the girl protested, her eyes wide.

Lapis smirked. "She's not here right now, is she? Come on, Lazuli! If you're too chicken, I win," he taunted.

The girl frowned, then scowled. Never one to be outdone by her twin, she walked up to him, into the room, and slapped his chest. "Tag. You're it!" she said, but made no move to run. The twins shared a look, then turned to peer into the room they had been forbidden to enter.

Inside, there was another table, with a large man lying on it. Only, part of his head was gone, and inside it were a bunch of wires. Interested, the two climbed up onto a bench to better see the large man-shaped machine.

"Another android? Why keep us away from this one? Dr. Gero let us see Android 14 and Android 15," Lapis said, scratching his head.

Lazuli looked the android over, poking it in the side. "It looks better than the other ones. Whoever heard of a purple-skinned android?" she said, rolling her eyes.

"I don't know… Android 14 looks pretty cool. Dr. Gero said he's gonna be a power house, whatever that means," Lapis said.

Lazuli put a hand on her hip. "He's got silver skin. Everyone's gonna know they're androids, just by looking at them. What's the point of making machines that look human, if they don't look human," she said, scowling.

"Maybe it's artistic preference," a smooth voice said from behind them, and both kids froze, turning slowly to see the purple-haired woman in the white bath towel standing there, her hair wet and her arms crossed.

"S-sorry, Dr. Gero," Lapis said, gripping his sister's hand tightly. "We didn't mean to- we'll get out of here," he said, hoping against hope the doctor was in a good mood and wouldn't use those things in her hands to stop their hearts, like they'd seen her do to so many others.

The doctor looked them over for a moment, then sighed. "Well, you've already seen him. Might as well show you what I have in store," she said, turning on more lights so they could see him better. "He's almost ready. This is a project I've been working on for a while. Children, meet Android 16," she said proudly, smiling down at the man on the table.

Lapis and Lazuli looked him over critically. "He looks strong," Lapis said.

"Is that approval I hear in your voice, Lapis?" the doctor said smoothly. "He is strong. He's the strongest yet, he'll even be strong enough to take down the Saiyan leader, if he has to," she said, smiling. Then she scowled. "But he never will," she said firmly, casting her glare at the children. "Android 16 is not meant for fighting. I want him to survive, long after all of us do. So, believe me, children, when I say that, should anything happen to Android 16, anything at all, I will not hesitate to kill everyone responsible. Got that?!" she asked dangerously.

The twins nodded quickly, their eyes wide. "Yes, Dr. Gero," they said in unison.

The woman then smiled, and opened a metal locker, pulling out her nurse's uniform. "Well, I need to get ready, then I'm off to the clinic. You children keep this place safe for me. You can wake up Android 14 if you have to, but leave Android 15 turned off, he's still got some bugs in his programming I have to work out first," she said, and picked up a syringe laying on the table, that was filled with a mysterious white liquid.

Lapis bit his lip. "Dr. Gero… you said we'd get to go on a mission soon. With the androids. When will we get to go?" he asked, desperate for a chance to leave the laboratory.

Dr. Gero smiled down at the eager children. "Soon, little ones, soon. Let me finish fixing Android 15. Then you'll get to go retrieve what's mine. Then you'll see the proof of my genius!" she said, her eyes twinkling.

Lazuli smiled. "A baby android. And I get to help pick out her outfits, right?" she asked hopefully.

Dr. Gero laughed. "Of course you can, my dear. After all… we want only the best for our Android 13," she said, patting Lazuli on the head. Then, she turned and left, locking the door behind her.

Lazuli sighed. "I can't wait. Maybe Dr. Gero will let us name it something besides Android 13," she said softly.

Lapis scowled. "It's a baby, not a doll, Lazuli. Besides, do you know who she's gonna make change it's diapers? Us!"

"Do android babies need diapers?" Lazuli wondered, frowning. "Do they even poop?" Lapis snickered at that, and Lazuli hit him in the arm. "I'm being serious!"

"That's the problem," Lapis said, and smacked her on the back. "Tag! You're it!" he called out, and ran out of the room.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

A young girl with wet orange hair, a wet gray t-shirt and shorts, and a large turtle shell on her back pulled herself out of the water and onto the shore with great effort, coughing and sputtering. Once she was mostly out of the water, she laid there for a long moment, gasping, and doing her best to cough all the water out of her lungs. Once she could breathe again, she looked up at the sky, and managed a smile. "Thank you, Guardians, for keeping me safe," she rasped out, and with great effort, pushed herself up to look around. She frowned. "I don't remember this part of the forest…" she murmured, her eyes scanning the trees surrounding her. Then she smiled. "I'm sure I'll find camp if I just start walking," she said optimistically, and standing up shakily, began to walk up towards the tree line. "Oooh, maybe I'll find some blackberries!" she said, her eyes glancing around hopefully as she walked.

Training at the Turtle School was hard work, but Maaya knew she was getting stronger, she could feel it. Every night she prayed to the Guardians to help her get strong enough to protect her planet from aliens, and every day she did her best to do what was asked of her, even though she seemed to fall behind at times, and even though the other kids made fun of her. She didn't let it get to her, though… she knew the Guardians were watching over her, and she knew that one day, she would be strong enough to save everyone.

Never again would she have to stand by helplessly while her friends and teachers were killed.

Shaking the memories of the orphanage they'd been rescued from out of her head, she focused on the here and now, scanning for blackberries. When she spotted some, she smiled, and began to pick them, popping them into her mouth hungrily. She was always hungry lately, Master Tien said it was from training so hard, their bodies needed to eat more to replace the energy they used. Master Tien was really smart when it came to training. Master Twelve was smart, too, and he taught them stuff they would have learned in school, if they'd stayed in the orphanage, like how to write and add big numbers. Master Chiaotzu wasn't as strong or smart as Master Tien and Master Twelve, but he was a lot more fun, and he was a really good cook. Maaya spent a lot of time with him, since the others didn't really talk to her much. They didn't like how much she prayed to the Guardians, and thought she would tell on them whenever they did something they weren't supposed to. Like, when they took off their turtle shells sometimes when the teachers weren't looking, or when they drank some of the milk and hid the bottles to make it look like they delivered all of it.

Maaya never did those things. She knew she would never get any stronger if she did, and she wanted to get strong, really strong, so when the aliens did come back, she'd be able to beat them once and for all.

Once she had her fill of blackberries, she picked some extras for later, placing them in the pockets of her baggy shorts, which were still damp. That done, she began looking around for anything familiar, that would help her find her way home, but the more she walked, the more she began to realize that she was horribly lost. By the time the sun was at the top of the sky, her optimism started to fade, and she began to wonder if she would ever find the Turtle School again.

Just then, she heard something that sounded like someone crying. Following the sound, she made her way through the trees to some thorny bushes, where a little baby seemed to be trapped. Maaya's eyes widened at the sight, the little girl had long, black, messy hair, and a dirty pink jumpsuit. She was completely tangled in the thorns, and Maaya had never seen anyone look so scared. "Oh, dear, you poor thing, shhh, it's okay, I can help you…" she soothed as she worked frantically to free the child from the thorns. She couldn't be more than two years old, maybe even younger, she realized, as she was finally able to reach the child. Gently, she eased the baby into her arms, removing the last of the thorns from around her, only to realize that the baby also had a furry brown tail trapped in the bush.

Maaya's breath caught. "You're… a Saiyan baby?" she asked, feeling a moment of uncertainty. Master Tien said the Saiyans were bad, that they were trying to take over the world, and that they needed to get stronger so they could defeat them once and for all. However, her hesitation only lasted a moment, and then she continued freeing the child's tail from the thorns. "Well, you're just a baby, I don't think you're going to try to take over the planet right now, are you?" she asked, smiling at the little one, who curled up in her arms. "There, there, it's ok. See? Maaya's got you. Everything's gonna be okay, don't worry," she soothed, holding the baby close as she worked the thorns out of her black spiky hair. "Where are your parents? Where's your mommy and daddy?" she asked, glancing around for any sign of other, more dangerous Saiyans. Fear shot through her as she realized that, should the baby's parents show up, they were likely to kill her. That's what Saiyans did, Master Tien told them. They killed anyone who got in their way. They completely destroyed West City, Maaya had seen it, Master Tien had taken them there to show them what the Saiyans were capable of. This baby's parents might kill her just for touching their baby.

But, on the other hand…

Maaya sighed, and closed her eyes. "Guardians… please help me to be brave. And please help me find this baby's parents, so she'll be safe," she prayed, and then opened her eyes, smiling down at the baby. "Don't worry, little one. I won't give up. I'll find your mommy and daddy, no matter what. Okay?" she asked brightly.

The baby whimpered, but seemed to calm down. Maaya had an idea, and reached into her pocket, pulling out some berries. "Here, want some?" she asked, holding them out to the little one. Belatedly, she wondered if the baby was too young to eat them without choking, but the little girl quickly snatched them up, shoving them into her mouth. Giggling, Maaya gave the baby the rest of her berries. When she was done, she looked up at Maaya hopefully, her mouth and hands stained purple. Maaya smiled. "Sorry, little one, that's the last of my berries. Maybe we'll find some more on our way to find your parents," she said, and stood with the girl in her arms. Holding the baby close, who was heavier than she looked, she made her way through the forest, trying to find any signs of civilization.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Central City was a grave yard, a large metropolis of empty buildings and rotting corpses, but it didn't sound like a graveyard. Machines still whirred, radios and televisions still played, and the sounds of wild animals could be heard, as they fought over the meat that was so readily available just about everywhere in the city.

Maybe it was the background noise that kept Saki sane.

The girl was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, with her black wavy hair pulled back in a high ponytail. She wore a tool belt slung over her shoulder and across her chest, and strapped over the other shoulder was a holster with a gun in it. She had a large hunting knife strapped to her right leg, and wore a backpack filled with odds and ends she'd scavenged. She stepped over the body of a woman in the hallway of the apartment complex she was currently looting. She didn't even see the bodies anymore; they were mere annoyances, sources of stench to be avoided, but not given a second thought.

It had to be that way. If she thought about them as people…

Coming up to another door, she placed a white plastic card she had made herself against the sensor panel, and the door lock clicked, allowing her to open it. The smell inside was stronger than the smell outside, and she stepped over the corpse of the dog, which had apparently scratched at the door until it died of starvation. She shook her head, trying not to think about the fact that, if she had gone through this apartment complex last month or the month before, the dog might have lived.

She had enough guilt for one person to bear as it was.

Five months ago, she had been a normal kid, playing a trick on her little brother. She was going to hide in the closet and scare him. For fun. It was supposed to be fun.

Kids were supposed to have fun.

Only, when he never came to the door, never called out to her, she had peeked out, to find…

Not just him. Her mom. And her dad, at work, she found out later. Everyone. Everyone in the whole city was dead. Everyone except her.

Well…. almost everyone. She had heard screaming, and had looked out the window, and she saw a group of women in armor fighting against aliens. Aliens, aliens had killed everyone, and those women were fighting them. Saki had thought they were super heroes, and had been transfixed. She couldn't look away.

Even when they lost.

What happened then… those poor women…

But not her. Not Saki. Because she hid. Everyone else died, and she got to live, because she hid in the closet, because she didn't come out and try to stop the aliens, even when they were doing that to those women. She didn't even come out when they were screaming.

Then those men came, the men with tails. One of them was a little boy with a tail, a little boy who looked like he was her little brother's age. They came, and killed the aliens with ease. They rescued the women, the women who were brave enough to stand up to the aliens who killed everyone in her city, who killed her family. They took revenge for her, while she did nothing.

And now, she stepped over the bodies of the people she did nothing to help.

Kids were supposed to have fun. But not Saki. She just survived. Every day, she left her apartment, which she had cleared of the bodies (family… she had cleared of her family, she reminded herself), and went out to scavenge. She mostly searched for unspoiled food and bits of tech, the stuff her parents never had the money for, that was now easily accessible to her. She figured out how to rig an apartment key so that it opened any apartment, how to set up an earpiece to pick up the radio, how to download any book she wanted on a tablet, without having to pay. She had found quite the computer setup, and spent many an hour at night on the internet, learning how to do new things to help her survive.

She had to survive. If she didn't… then what was the point? Why was she left alive, when no one else got to live? Not even her little brother? She had to survive, or nothing made any sense. Plain and simple.

Avoiding the refrigerator, which Saki knew was only partially responsible for the stench in this apartment, Saki went straight for the cupboards. "Let's see… no… no… yuck, asparagus, definitely no… what's succotash? Looks gross…" she murmured as she dug through the cans of food. "Lima beans. Okay, those are alright. Vegetables, check," she said, slipping the can into her backpack. "Got meat covered, got vegetables, got fruit… now I just need bread and dairy, and I'm set," she said, opening the pantry.

Her parents had often told her she needed all of the food groups, to grow big and strong. To survive. That's what she did. She survived. Every day, she gathered together the food she'd eat the next day, making certain to gather all of the food groups. Bread was a lot harder to come by, since most of the bread was made five months ago, and it was all moldy by now. Her eyes landed on something familiar, and she grinned. "Ramen! Bread group, check!" she said, filling her bag with as much of the ramen as she could. She loved it, and her supply of it was getting low. "Dairy…" she murmured, knowing she might be out of luck in that department. It had been at least a week since she'd last come across something from the dairy group that wasn't spoiled. Not finding anything here, either, she sighed. "Okay, no dairy. Looks like it's that nasty powdered milk stuff again tonight," she grumbled, and sighed, looking around the apartment. She saw something that caught her eye, and stepped over maggot-covered body of a man to get to it. "Holy crap," she muttered, a lifetime of training keeping her from saying an actual swear word, even in a world with no parents and no one to hear her. "M240 bravo," she murmured, looking over the machine gun in the glass case. After her first day of trying to fight off dogs, coyotes, and vultures, she had researched how to use a gun, and had quickly found the subject to be fascinating. Curiously, she opened the case and picked up the gun. It was heavy, extremely heavy, and it was all she could do to pick the thing up. She was about to put it down gently back into the case, when she heard something that she hadn't heard in months.

Other people's voices.

Saki froze. Were they back? More aliens? The radio was always going on and on about how the aliens were going to come back, how they were going to take over the planet. Her heart in her throat, she gently laid the gun down, trying to make as little noise as possible, and peeked out the window.

What she saw were five…beings.

They were covered, from head to toe, by thick red space suits, and wore black visors that hid their faces. There was no doubt about it… they were aliens. They had come back for her, to finish the job.

But this time she was armed.

Saki glanced down at her handgun. She had three in the chamber; she had found bullets, but none that matched the gun, so they wouldn't fit. She had planned to stop at the gun store again today and pick up some more of the right bullets on her way home. If she shot three of the aliens, the other two would attack her. And that was if she made three clean shots; it still took her a few tries to get the coyotes that attacked her, though she was getting better.

Her eyes went to the machine gun. This was her chance. This was why she had survived…

So she could take out the aliens once and for all.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Maaya had travelled with the baby in her arms most of the afternoon, yet still felt like she was no closer to civilization than she had been earlier. What was worse, she could have sworn she'd seen some of these same trees before. Sighing, she sat down on a fallen log, looking down at the baby clinging to her for dear life. "I'm sorry, little one… I think we're lost," she said, frowning. Biting her lip, she closed her eyes. "Guardians… I know you're watching over us. Please help us find our way…" she prayed.

"I don't think the Guardians can hear you all the way out here," a voice said. Maaya opened her eyes wide, and smiled to see a girl with a reddish-brown braid and a boy with white spiky hair emerge from the trees, both wearing turtle shells.

"Tasha! Ketsu! Gosh, I thought I was lost!" she said happily.

The girl with the braid scowled, crossing her arms over her torn gray t-shirt. "You are lost! Don't you have any idea how far you've gone? We're just outside the Ox Kingdom!" she said, glancing around furtively. "There are Saiyans here," she hissed.

Ketsu, who typically showed zero interest in what anyone else was doing, was looking at Maaya curiously. "What the hell is that?" he asked, pointing to the little girl in her arms.

Maaya suddenly realized her predicament, and held the baby close. "She's lost… I found her in the woods, tangled up in some thorns. I'm getting her back to her parents," she said, knowing what was coming next.

Tasha walked up to her, peering at the baby closely. "It's… it's a Saiyan!" she said, her eyes growing wide.

Maaya backed away from the older girl. "She's just a baby! She hasn't hurt anyone!" she protested, defending the frightened child.

"Yet," Ketsu muttered, scowling. "Well, now you can say you killed your first Saiyan. Snap it's neck, and let's get going," he said, sounding bored.

Tasha's and Maaya's eyes grew wide, and then Tasha scowled. "Ketsu, stop being an ass," she said, then looked back at Maaya. "But we should be getting back. Put that thing down, and come with us, before we get spotted by one of the bigger ones," she said, frowning.

Maaya scowled. "I'm not leaving her alone in the woods! She's just a baby! She needs to go back home. She's hungry," she said, frowning in concern at the baby in her arms.

"Absolutely not!" Tasha yelled, hands on her hips. "Do you have any idea what the Saiyans will do to you, if they see you anywhere near one of their young? Besides, you don't know what that thing eats… it might eat you!" she exclaimed.

Maaya frowned. "I don't care! Leaving a baby alone in the woods is wrong, I don't care what kind of baby it is! I'm taking it home. Don't worry, the Guardians will protect me, you just watch!" she said fiercely.

Ketsu snickered, and rolled his eyes. "I don't know what's more pathetic, the fact that you think the Guardians care about every little thing in your life, or that you think they have the power to change it if they did. The Guardians are safe and warm on top of their tower, and we're down here in the real world. Down here, it's kill or be killed. So, either kill that thing, or get ready to be killed by it's family. Either way, I'm going back," he said, shaking his head as he turned to leave.

Tasha scowled at him. "Master Tien said we had to find Maaya," she scolded him.

Ketsu shrugged. "We found her. If she wants to commit suicide, let her. She wasn't gonna cut it anyway," he said, walking away.

Tasha glanced back at Maaya, who was now walking in the opposite direction, and had a moment of indecision, before she sighed and went after Maaya.

"You don't have to come with me," Maaya told her softly as she continued to walk.

Tasha scowled. "The hell I don't. You don't even know where the hell you're going!" she protested.

Maaya shrugged. "Ketsu went the opposite way, and he said he was going back. He's got an excellent sense of direction," she pointed out. "That means, the Ox Kingdom's gotta be further this way," she reasoned.

Tasha sighed. "Look… what if we get her to the edge of the Ox Kingdom, and leave her there? Someone's bound to see her, and they'll take her to her parents. She gets home safely, we survive another day. Foolproof," she said, holding up a finger.

Maaya glanced behind her. "If you want to wait outside the Ox Kingdom, that's fine. But I'm not stopping until she goes to her parents. I made a promise. If it's stupid, then I die stupid. But at least I'll die being stupid and doing the right thing," she said, as she continued to walk.

Tasha blinked. She'd never known Maaya to have this much backbone before. Finding that cub really seemed to bring out the little goody-goody's fighting spirit. "That doesn't even make any sense!" she protested, as she followed her.

A/N: Okay, next chapter may be this weekend, maybe next. I'll do my best, and I hope you enjoy!