Sorry for the long wait. I had to move and pack all in one week. It was quite...an experience. Well, I know its short, but its progress.
Echo
umarekawari - rebirth
kawari - substitute
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* LAST TIME *
"The reason I smell like him, JERK, is because I ran out of clean clothes, so he let me use some of his! Do you have a problem with that?!" Everyone could clearly see how she was related to Vegeta with a temper like that. Serena knew that Gohan needed to be protected even against his own father sometimes. "Now what do you say to Gohan?"
Lita was beyond amazed that Serena even had the guts to stand up to a man so large in stature. She wouldn't have even *thought* about doing such a thing and here was her best friend, who was quite smaller than she, yelling at someone who could easily beat her down.
If looks could kill, Goku would have been dead a long time ago. He sat there trying to decide whether to submit to pride or love. It was an easy decision, especially since he wasn't Vegeta.
He cleared his head and spoke slowly. "I'm sorry son. I just can't help it sometimes...its like something else is taking over me and I can't control it yet." Goku growled in frustration as he held back the overwhelming desire to battle against his son. All aggressive thoughts subsided once Serena launched herself into his arms.
"Thank you Goku." She teased him with her lips and pulled away before things got too hot. "Let's go home."
Goku easily lifted her into his arms princess style. "As you wish, princess."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CHAPTER 26: NIGHTMARES
Things almost went back to normal after Serena returned to the present. Mirai and Gohan had returned to Mirai's dimension, which they named Umarekawari or 'rebirth'. He claimed that there was more work to do. Gohan knew his father was in somekind of phase that he didn't want anything to do with, so he stayed by Mirai's side telling everyone that they would be back before they knew it. Serena gave the boys a preset. It was a copy of the book of Saiyans. She had made it for the younger ones so they would be able to learn about their heritage and culture, thus preparing them for their future.
It was yesterday that the boys had left for Umarekawari and right now, Serena was in Bulma's lab, helping her on the secret project for Vegeta. It had been two weeks without any major problems to her health or energy, but still she didn't have enough energy to be moving around a lot. Serena had grown a bit stronger without Lita in her, taking up a lot of her energy. Lita, one of the strongest Senshi, controlling the power of lightning and plant life, required a lot of energy, making Serena tired most of the time she was healing.
Her love life was going very...slow. She couldn't do much with Goku because any sort of activities with Saiyans normally required a lot of energy that Serena just wasn't capable of attaining anymore. The first night she had been back, she had returned to Goku's bed but all she was capable of doing was sleeping in it. Even though he didn't want to accept the fact, Serena and he couldn't create a bond between them because she probably wouldn't be able to recover. There was a great chance that she might not even live through it because of her low ki.
Not wanting to sit by and do nothing, he spent his time romancing her
'One boy down, one more to go!' During the whole time, the princess of two worlds wasn't really thinking about how much she would miss her friends. She was thinking about how happy she had been since she came to this world and how she would like her friends to find joy in living here as well. 'Those two won't know what hit them when I'm through.'
Serena had explained to Bulma what her friend was like and her plan to hook her up with Gohan. Bulma was ecstatic and already had ideas running through her head. It was the end of the week and Serena's health was digressing. Bulma had Arem play Serena's nursemaid after finding out her extensive medical knowledge. There were many things about the modern world that Arem had no idea of, but there were many things of the old world that equaled its healing abilities.
Bulma had insisted that Serena use a wheelchair or some other means of support besides herself. Having the proud Saiyan genes in her, she refused, not liking the idea of being dependent when she could be doing it herself. She had caused Bulma a lot of gray hairs, but refused the offered help. Of course when Vegeta had heard about this, he totally supported her.
"Bulma..." a shaky voice called over the intercom. "Bulma. It's me, Arem. Serena's ki level has dropped very low. I think its time again."
Before Bulma could say anything, Goku had appeared by her side along with her husband. When she looked, she noticed that Vegeta wasn't hanging on to Goku like he usually did when they did the instant transmission.
"How..."
Vegeta smirked. "You can't possibly think that I would depend on Kakkarot for everything could you?"
Arem and Bulma got right to work on Serena, attaching the necessary tubes and needles to her arms. After 10 minutes of still time, Goku was beginning to wonder what was going on.
"Don't worry, Goku. She's just recovering. I'm pretty sure something will happen pretty soon. Trunks and Goten quietly stepped into the room, taking their places next to the blue and purple-haired ladies. They were powered up to SS2 and waiting to be a part of the action that they knew was coming.
Goten quietly stepped down from the stool at Serena's head and walked towards another bed not too far away. On his way back, Vegeta questioned him about his actions.
"Someone else is coming."
Vegeta had no time to comment. "Dad, you and Goku need to power up to level 2," came Trunks' tone-less voice. Obeying in faith, Goku and Vegeta teleported outside to power up, to prevent major destruction to C4 and then returned to Serena's bedside.
When they returned, Serena was shaking and the little boys were standing over her already transferring energy to her body. Goten could read his father's thoughts and his body language.
"Not yet dad. Just wait, we'll give you the signal." Bulma and Arem stood to the side, watching the readings and listening to the beeping of their machines. A long beeping sound killed the silence and sent everyone except the two boys into a panic.
"Serena's flat-lined. Quick, get me the fibs and get the other IV set up for her." The boys' ki levels sky rocketed and the two older men jumped to their sides. A few seconds with the extra help got the rhythmic beeping started again.
"Now!" came little cries for help. Vegeta and Goku stepped to Serena's side, next to their sons, and lay their hands over her passing their energy on to her. After a good 10 minutes the silver and blue aura around Serena began to split. Once they were completely separated, the blue lights settled onto to the empty bed that Goten had pushed to Serena's side.
It began to take shape and as the males concentrated on Serena, Bulma and Arem watched stunned as a woman appeared in what used to be an empty bed. Long blue hair spilled onto the floor and a pale body covered in a silver toga lay still.
"Dad. Help Ami." Assuming that Ami was the stranger, Goku moved over to her and started transferring his energy. He noticed how pretty she was and a random thought about her and Gohan looking nice together popped into his head for a few seconds. The girl under his hand began to stir so he took it as a sign to stop. Serena's heart rate and ki level returned to normal for her at her current stage so they stopped transferring energy. Bulma moved in and checked her over patients before declaring them well enough to leave.
The next 4 days were spent in slumber for Serena and Ami. Lita came in everyday to check on them and to help however she could. Everyone in the house was coming to appreciate Lita very much because of the way she dealt with her stress. She cooked and cooked from morning till night until she was too exhausted to cook any more. That was the only way she could keep her mind off of worrying, something she knew Serena wouldn't want her to do.
4 days didn't seem like a short enough time to be reunited with her friends. Bulma subtly found ways to praise her future son. She knew of Serena's match-making plans and totally supported the people she thought should be paired up.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN ANOTHER PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE...
Queen Serenity and Chi Chi sat in the sky, watching Gohan and Mirai rebuilding their lost world.
"Chi Chi, your son is growing to be a very handsome young man. Him and Prince Trunks are growing to be such gentlemen, very responsible."
Chi Chi sighed as she looked to earth's surface for her son. She watched him building shelters for the handful of people they had found so far in Japan. Mirai and Bulma had been so excited to see some of their friends that had survived the massive destruction the androids caused.
The two women had been watching the boys for the last two years work on the devastated planet. They had made great progress and seemed to have lost track of time.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PRESENT DBZ UNIVERSE
To say that Ami was astounded by the technology in this world was a great understatement. Every minute not spent sleeping or recovering was spent at Bulma's side. She had her nose in everything trying to learn how things were done in this time. The capsules took up most of her first two days. She had been studying the plans for the capsules until headaches came. The first time she saw one it was like a child with a new toy. Bulma could only laugh. She forgot what life was like before the world had been introduced to capsules.
Serena was bed-ridden since Ami's return. Bringing Lita and Ami back had taken its toll on Serena's health. Goku suggested that she take the Senzu beans to speed up recovery time, but she told him that it was the power of the crystal, magic powers and not physical strength that was making her weak.
One day, while Serena was reading in bed, Bulma came in and gave her a report on their new friend. Arem could spend about 2 hours outside now with lighter-shaded lenses. Bulma was surprised when she had even attempted to go outside without them. It was a dark, cloudy day when she had, but it was still more than what she saw through sunglasses. Her improvement was great and after one month, she could walk through the house without sun-glasses.
The boys had missed Serena since she had left for Umarekawari, which they nicknamed Kawari. Trunks and Goten brought Serena wild flowers every morning before she woke up and would stay with her after their long days of training. At night, after training all day, they would go to Serena's room and teleport her outside so she wouldn't get depressed from staying in there all day. Even though all she did was sleep, she still missed seeing the green and colorful world of nature.
Lita and Ami spent a lot of the day with her, but at night they retreated back to Bulma's house, across the yard. They were well-informed about Serena's situation with Goku and made sure that they were out of the way when he came home. Goku kept his little tradition of feeding Serena breakfast in bed every morning and made it home every night at a reasonable hour to feed her dinner. As the days passed, Serena's love for her Saiyan grew more and more.
Serena couldn't wait for the day that she would finally be strong enough to bond with Goku. She could feel it in her heart everyday when she woke alone and every night when she waited for him to come home, that he was her soul-mate. He was the one that would love her for the rest of her life and take care of her. Goku was the one man in the entire universe that would make her absolutely happy. Now that she thought about it, he had it pretty easy. She wasn't hard to please. That kept her amused for the rest of the week.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Lita continued to train under the boys' wings, growing stronger and stronger than she was after she went through training in the "Training Room" at the Gates. After the last two weeks of training, she had far surpassed Amara in strength.
With the differences and advances in technology, the kitchen barely changed. The only thing that was different in this time was the way food was made. You just asked for it and it appeared and if Sam couldn't make it, you just told him the recipe and it would appear. She kept herself busy by training with the boys, cooking lunch for the women and entertaining thoughts about a certain purple-haired young man who she hadn't seen in a long time.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SERENA'S DREAM
Serena was on the moon again, in the moon palace to be exact. As she looked around the room, she noticed she was in the ballroom. Couples swirled around the room, the scene looking oddly familiar.
As she looked around for anything familiar, she saw a dark-haired man dancing with her look-alike. Her eyes widened when she realized that this was the night of the attack on the Moon Kingdom. Serena ran to the dual thrones to try to warn her mother. Her attempts were in vain when she realized that she couldn't be heard.
Serena tried to warn the rest of the people in the room of the on-coming attack, but no ear could hear her screams of warning. She closed her eyes as she tried to push away the memories of what happened that night. When she opened them again, she was in the battle field on the moon's surface.
She watched for the second time as Beryl's forces attacked the Moon Kingdom. She looked around for Vegeta and Kakkarot before remembering that they were fighting their own battle on Vegeta-sei.
Serena watched in horror as her friends fell, one by one, to their deaths. Out in the courtyard, there were two people still standing. Darien was kneeling over his lost love, mourning for her as the evil one descended from the sky. Serena looked up from her kneeling position over her cousin's body.
"Beryl." Serena remembered the hate that was coursing through her veins when she saw Beryl for the first and last time.
"Hello, Princess Serena. What a pleasure to finally meet you." Beryl eyed up the princess that had surpassed her in beauty and grace long before she was born.
"Wish I could say the same." Serena said, uncharacteristically.
Beryl looked over to where the prince was and feigned a hurt look. "Oh dear. What happened there?"
Darien turned around with the most disgusted look on his face. "You. Will. Pay."
The red-haired witch laughed at him as if he were the most amusing thing she had ever seen. "Dear boy! You amuse me. I have a proposition for you. Join me and I will give you anything you could ever want!"
Serena screamed Darien's name when she heard the witch's voice. Hearing Serena's voice broke him out of the spell Beryl had put him under. Blue met blue and his senses returned.
"Too late, witch." Serena watched as Beryl flinched at his words. "You've already taken away the only thing I've ever wanted."
Beryl laughed again and an enraged Terran Prince pulled his gleaming sword out of it's sheath. "My dear, charming Prince Darien. I have not taking everything of yours away, but I could if you want me to!" Serena watched as Beryl's gaze drifted to...herself, her past self. She remembered the feeling of horror that passed through her stomach when Beryl looked at her over a thousand years ago.
Darien noticed what Beryl was talking about and felt his rage surge even higher as Serena started backing away.
"Don't you dare!"
He lunged at her while trying to protect the only family he had left. His princess and best friend. Darien powered up and fought a battle he knew he was going to lose. He was already past exhausted from having fought a 4-hour battle with her minions and she hadn't even lifted a finger in the battle, not counting the hand she used to drink her blood-red wine.
Serena watched in horror as her best friend protected her until the bitter end. A child-hood promise resurfaced in her memories.
* FLASHBACK *
It was 9-year-old Prince Darien's first time visiting the Moon Kingdom. His mother, Queen Gaia, was in a meeting with the other 'Royals' from the sister planets in the Silver Alliance.
As far as matters of the Alliance, he didn't have to be a part of them. He was here to make friends with the young Moon Princess. The palace was extremely safe and so the youngsters were allowed to go anywhere they wished within the palace walls.
Prince Darien had always loved nature and had heard tales of the gardens on the moon. They were filled with many exotic plants both native and alien to the silver white planet. He followed a worn path that led from a patch of moon tigers at the entrance to a section of lilies from earth.
He came across a square of striking blue flowers and bent down to smell them. As he sniffed the flowers, he could taste the sweetness on his tongue. Darien couldn't seem to get enough until he heard a soft cry coming from somewhere further in the garden. He quickly made his way, following his ears and heart to try to find the person or thing making the whining noise.
The whining grew louder until he found a small girl sitting on a stone fountain with her head tucked into her hands. He carefully made his way to her side and inspected her. She had blonde hair that came to her shoulders and was wearing a small pink dress with white shoes.
"What's the matter, small one?"
Serena's head slowly rose and met the ocean blue eyes of the boy.
"Raye said that if I didn't watch out then the boogie man would come after me and take me away."
Darien felt his heart melt for this little girl and he pulled her into a hug. A feeling of protectiveness washed over him as he tried to soothe the little 5-year-old to his small body.
"Don't worry little one. I promise I'll protect you."
Serena wiped her eyes and looked up at her new friend. "You promise?"
Darien smiled at her. "I promise, from now until forever."
* END FLASHBACK *
Serena screamed as she watched Darien fall under the dark queen's magic. She watched as her self from the past screamed as well as she watched her best friend die.
'Not again!' "Darien!" She cried his name over and over again, long after she watched the princess kill herself with the same sword Darien held. She ran to her best friend's side and cried for him as he died again protecting her.
Serena could feel someone behind her, calling to her.
"Serena...Serena wake up."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Goku was woken by the sound of Serena screaming. She hadn't had nightmares for a while and to have them start up again probably wasn't a good thing. He tried shaking her but it didn't work.
"Darien! No!" Goku was getting angry at this Darien whose name she had been screaming for the last couple of minutes. He was apparently the one she was having a nightmare about.
After several tries, he had finally waken her. When she opened her eyes and saw Goku there instead of Beryl, Serena latched on to him and sobbed into his chest. He sat up in bed and cradled Serena in his arms. He tried kissing her tears away but there were too many for him.
"Serena, love, what's the matter?"
"D...Darien."
Goku growled at that name. It was that man who had made her cry.
"She killed him. He died protecting me. I had to watch it again." Serena began hiccupping and Goku did his best to comfort her.
Serena calmed when she felt his energy enter her body. As she pressed her head against him, the purring coming from his chest had a soothing effect, helping her to fall asleep again. Goku's tail wrapped around her upper leg protectively and his arms snaked around her stomach and chest and neither woke until morning.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Echo
umarekawari - rebirth
kawari - substitute
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* LAST TIME *
"The reason I smell like him, JERK, is because I ran out of clean clothes, so he let me use some of his! Do you have a problem with that?!" Everyone could clearly see how she was related to Vegeta with a temper like that. Serena knew that Gohan needed to be protected even against his own father sometimes. "Now what do you say to Gohan?"
Lita was beyond amazed that Serena even had the guts to stand up to a man so large in stature. She wouldn't have even *thought* about doing such a thing and here was her best friend, who was quite smaller than she, yelling at someone who could easily beat her down.
If looks could kill, Goku would have been dead a long time ago. He sat there trying to decide whether to submit to pride or love. It was an easy decision, especially since he wasn't Vegeta.
He cleared his head and spoke slowly. "I'm sorry son. I just can't help it sometimes...its like something else is taking over me and I can't control it yet." Goku growled in frustration as he held back the overwhelming desire to battle against his son. All aggressive thoughts subsided once Serena launched herself into his arms.
"Thank you Goku." She teased him with her lips and pulled away before things got too hot. "Let's go home."
Goku easily lifted her into his arms princess style. "As you wish, princess."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CHAPTER 26: NIGHTMARES
Things almost went back to normal after Serena returned to the present. Mirai and Gohan had returned to Mirai's dimension, which they named Umarekawari or 'rebirth'. He claimed that there was more work to do. Gohan knew his father was in somekind of phase that he didn't want anything to do with, so he stayed by Mirai's side telling everyone that they would be back before they knew it. Serena gave the boys a preset. It was a copy of the book of Saiyans. She had made it for the younger ones so they would be able to learn about their heritage and culture, thus preparing them for their future.
It was yesterday that the boys had left for Umarekawari and right now, Serena was in Bulma's lab, helping her on the secret project for Vegeta. It had been two weeks without any major problems to her health or energy, but still she didn't have enough energy to be moving around a lot. Serena had grown a bit stronger without Lita in her, taking up a lot of her energy. Lita, one of the strongest Senshi, controlling the power of lightning and plant life, required a lot of energy, making Serena tired most of the time she was healing.
Her love life was going very...slow. She couldn't do much with Goku because any sort of activities with Saiyans normally required a lot of energy that Serena just wasn't capable of attaining anymore. The first night she had been back, she had returned to Goku's bed but all she was capable of doing was sleeping in it. Even though he didn't want to accept the fact, Serena and he couldn't create a bond between them because she probably wouldn't be able to recover. There was a great chance that she might not even live through it because of her low ki.
Not wanting to sit by and do nothing, he spent his time romancing her
'One boy down, one more to go!' During the whole time, the princess of two worlds wasn't really thinking about how much she would miss her friends. She was thinking about how happy she had been since she came to this world and how she would like her friends to find joy in living here as well. 'Those two won't know what hit them when I'm through.'
Serena had explained to Bulma what her friend was like and her plan to hook her up with Gohan. Bulma was ecstatic and already had ideas running through her head. It was the end of the week and Serena's health was digressing. Bulma had Arem play Serena's nursemaid after finding out her extensive medical knowledge. There were many things about the modern world that Arem had no idea of, but there were many things of the old world that equaled its healing abilities.
Bulma had insisted that Serena use a wheelchair or some other means of support besides herself. Having the proud Saiyan genes in her, she refused, not liking the idea of being dependent when she could be doing it herself. She had caused Bulma a lot of gray hairs, but refused the offered help. Of course when Vegeta had heard about this, he totally supported her.
"Bulma..." a shaky voice called over the intercom. "Bulma. It's me, Arem. Serena's ki level has dropped very low. I think its time again."
Before Bulma could say anything, Goku had appeared by her side along with her husband. When she looked, she noticed that Vegeta wasn't hanging on to Goku like he usually did when they did the instant transmission.
"How..."
Vegeta smirked. "You can't possibly think that I would depend on Kakkarot for everything could you?"
Arem and Bulma got right to work on Serena, attaching the necessary tubes and needles to her arms. After 10 minutes of still time, Goku was beginning to wonder what was going on.
"Don't worry, Goku. She's just recovering. I'm pretty sure something will happen pretty soon. Trunks and Goten quietly stepped into the room, taking their places next to the blue and purple-haired ladies. They were powered up to SS2 and waiting to be a part of the action that they knew was coming.
Goten quietly stepped down from the stool at Serena's head and walked towards another bed not too far away. On his way back, Vegeta questioned him about his actions.
"Someone else is coming."
Vegeta had no time to comment. "Dad, you and Goku need to power up to level 2," came Trunks' tone-less voice. Obeying in faith, Goku and Vegeta teleported outside to power up, to prevent major destruction to C4 and then returned to Serena's bedside.
When they returned, Serena was shaking and the little boys were standing over her already transferring energy to her body. Goten could read his father's thoughts and his body language.
"Not yet dad. Just wait, we'll give you the signal." Bulma and Arem stood to the side, watching the readings and listening to the beeping of their machines. A long beeping sound killed the silence and sent everyone except the two boys into a panic.
"Serena's flat-lined. Quick, get me the fibs and get the other IV set up for her." The boys' ki levels sky rocketed and the two older men jumped to their sides. A few seconds with the extra help got the rhythmic beeping started again.
"Now!" came little cries for help. Vegeta and Goku stepped to Serena's side, next to their sons, and lay their hands over her passing their energy on to her. After a good 10 minutes the silver and blue aura around Serena began to split. Once they were completely separated, the blue lights settled onto to the empty bed that Goten had pushed to Serena's side.
It began to take shape and as the males concentrated on Serena, Bulma and Arem watched stunned as a woman appeared in what used to be an empty bed. Long blue hair spilled onto the floor and a pale body covered in a silver toga lay still.
"Dad. Help Ami." Assuming that Ami was the stranger, Goku moved over to her and started transferring his energy. He noticed how pretty she was and a random thought about her and Gohan looking nice together popped into his head for a few seconds. The girl under his hand began to stir so he took it as a sign to stop. Serena's heart rate and ki level returned to normal for her at her current stage so they stopped transferring energy. Bulma moved in and checked her over patients before declaring them well enough to leave.
The next 4 days were spent in slumber for Serena and Ami. Lita came in everyday to check on them and to help however she could. Everyone in the house was coming to appreciate Lita very much because of the way she dealt with her stress. She cooked and cooked from morning till night until she was too exhausted to cook any more. That was the only way she could keep her mind off of worrying, something she knew Serena wouldn't want her to do.
4 days didn't seem like a short enough time to be reunited with her friends. Bulma subtly found ways to praise her future son. She knew of Serena's match-making plans and totally supported the people she thought should be paired up.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN ANOTHER PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE...
Queen Serenity and Chi Chi sat in the sky, watching Gohan and Mirai rebuilding their lost world.
"Chi Chi, your son is growing to be a very handsome young man. Him and Prince Trunks are growing to be such gentlemen, very responsible."
Chi Chi sighed as she looked to earth's surface for her son. She watched him building shelters for the handful of people they had found so far in Japan. Mirai and Bulma had been so excited to see some of their friends that had survived the massive destruction the androids caused.
The two women had been watching the boys for the last two years work on the devastated planet. They had made great progress and seemed to have lost track of time.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PRESENT DBZ UNIVERSE
To say that Ami was astounded by the technology in this world was a great understatement. Every minute not spent sleeping or recovering was spent at Bulma's side. She had her nose in everything trying to learn how things were done in this time. The capsules took up most of her first two days. She had been studying the plans for the capsules until headaches came. The first time she saw one it was like a child with a new toy. Bulma could only laugh. She forgot what life was like before the world had been introduced to capsules.
Serena was bed-ridden since Ami's return. Bringing Lita and Ami back had taken its toll on Serena's health. Goku suggested that she take the Senzu beans to speed up recovery time, but she told him that it was the power of the crystal, magic powers and not physical strength that was making her weak.
One day, while Serena was reading in bed, Bulma came in and gave her a report on their new friend. Arem could spend about 2 hours outside now with lighter-shaded lenses. Bulma was surprised when she had even attempted to go outside without them. It was a dark, cloudy day when she had, but it was still more than what she saw through sunglasses. Her improvement was great and after one month, she could walk through the house without sun-glasses.
The boys had missed Serena since she had left for Umarekawari, which they nicknamed Kawari. Trunks and Goten brought Serena wild flowers every morning before she woke up and would stay with her after their long days of training. At night, after training all day, they would go to Serena's room and teleport her outside so she wouldn't get depressed from staying in there all day. Even though all she did was sleep, she still missed seeing the green and colorful world of nature.
Lita and Ami spent a lot of the day with her, but at night they retreated back to Bulma's house, across the yard. They were well-informed about Serena's situation with Goku and made sure that they were out of the way when he came home. Goku kept his little tradition of feeding Serena breakfast in bed every morning and made it home every night at a reasonable hour to feed her dinner. As the days passed, Serena's love for her Saiyan grew more and more.
Serena couldn't wait for the day that she would finally be strong enough to bond with Goku. She could feel it in her heart everyday when she woke alone and every night when she waited for him to come home, that he was her soul-mate. He was the one that would love her for the rest of her life and take care of her. Goku was the one man in the entire universe that would make her absolutely happy. Now that she thought about it, he had it pretty easy. She wasn't hard to please. That kept her amused for the rest of the week.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Lita continued to train under the boys' wings, growing stronger and stronger than she was after she went through training in the "Training Room" at the Gates. After the last two weeks of training, she had far surpassed Amara in strength.
With the differences and advances in technology, the kitchen barely changed. The only thing that was different in this time was the way food was made. You just asked for it and it appeared and if Sam couldn't make it, you just told him the recipe and it would appear. She kept herself busy by training with the boys, cooking lunch for the women and entertaining thoughts about a certain purple-haired young man who she hadn't seen in a long time.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SERENA'S DREAM
Serena was on the moon again, in the moon palace to be exact. As she looked around the room, she noticed she was in the ballroom. Couples swirled around the room, the scene looking oddly familiar.
As she looked around for anything familiar, she saw a dark-haired man dancing with her look-alike. Her eyes widened when she realized that this was the night of the attack on the Moon Kingdom. Serena ran to the dual thrones to try to warn her mother. Her attempts were in vain when she realized that she couldn't be heard.
Serena tried to warn the rest of the people in the room of the on-coming attack, but no ear could hear her screams of warning. She closed her eyes as she tried to push away the memories of what happened that night. When she opened them again, she was in the battle field on the moon's surface.
She watched for the second time as Beryl's forces attacked the Moon Kingdom. She looked around for Vegeta and Kakkarot before remembering that they were fighting their own battle on Vegeta-sei.
Serena watched in horror as her friends fell, one by one, to their deaths. Out in the courtyard, there were two people still standing. Darien was kneeling over his lost love, mourning for her as the evil one descended from the sky. Serena looked up from her kneeling position over her cousin's body.
"Beryl." Serena remembered the hate that was coursing through her veins when she saw Beryl for the first and last time.
"Hello, Princess Serena. What a pleasure to finally meet you." Beryl eyed up the princess that had surpassed her in beauty and grace long before she was born.
"Wish I could say the same." Serena said, uncharacteristically.
Beryl looked over to where the prince was and feigned a hurt look. "Oh dear. What happened there?"
Darien turned around with the most disgusted look on his face. "You. Will. Pay."
The red-haired witch laughed at him as if he were the most amusing thing she had ever seen. "Dear boy! You amuse me. I have a proposition for you. Join me and I will give you anything you could ever want!"
Serena screamed Darien's name when she heard the witch's voice. Hearing Serena's voice broke him out of the spell Beryl had put him under. Blue met blue and his senses returned.
"Too late, witch." Serena watched as Beryl flinched at his words. "You've already taken away the only thing I've ever wanted."
Beryl laughed again and an enraged Terran Prince pulled his gleaming sword out of it's sheath. "My dear, charming Prince Darien. I have not taking everything of yours away, but I could if you want me to!" Serena watched as Beryl's gaze drifted to...herself, her past self. She remembered the feeling of horror that passed through her stomach when Beryl looked at her over a thousand years ago.
Darien noticed what Beryl was talking about and felt his rage surge even higher as Serena started backing away.
"Don't you dare!"
He lunged at her while trying to protect the only family he had left. His princess and best friend. Darien powered up and fought a battle he knew he was going to lose. He was already past exhausted from having fought a 4-hour battle with her minions and she hadn't even lifted a finger in the battle, not counting the hand she used to drink her blood-red wine.
Serena watched in horror as her best friend protected her until the bitter end. A child-hood promise resurfaced in her memories.
* FLASHBACK *
It was 9-year-old Prince Darien's first time visiting the Moon Kingdom. His mother, Queen Gaia, was in a meeting with the other 'Royals' from the sister planets in the Silver Alliance.
As far as matters of the Alliance, he didn't have to be a part of them. He was here to make friends with the young Moon Princess. The palace was extremely safe and so the youngsters were allowed to go anywhere they wished within the palace walls.
Prince Darien had always loved nature and had heard tales of the gardens on the moon. They were filled with many exotic plants both native and alien to the silver white planet. He followed a worn path that led from a patch of moon tigers at the entrance to a section of lilies from earth.
He came across a square of striking blue flowers and bent down to smell them. As he sniffed the flowers, he could taste the sweetness on his tongue. Darien couldn't seem to get enough until he heard a soft cry coming from somewhere further in the garden. He quickly made his way, following his ears and heart to try to find the person or thing making the whining noise.
The whining grew louder until he found a small girl sitting on a stone fountain with her head tucked into her hands. He carefully made his way to her side and inspected her. She had blonde hair that came to her shoulders and was wearing a small pink dress with white shoes.
"What's the matter, small one?"
Serena's head slowly rose and met the ocean blue eyes of the boy.
"Raye said that if I didn't watch out then the boogie man would come after me and take me away."
Darien felt his heart melt for this little girl and he pulled her into a hug. A feeling of protectiveness washed over him as he tried to soothe the little 5-year-old to his small body.
"Don't worry little one. I promise I'll protect you."
Serena wiped her eyes and looked up at her new friend. "You promise?"
Darien smiled at her. "I promise, from now until forever."
* END FLASHBACK *
Serena screamed as she watched Darien fall under the dark queen's magic. She watched as her self from the past screamed as well as she watched her best friend die.
'Not again!' "Darien!" She cried his name over and over again, long after she watched the princess kill herself with the same sword Darien held. She ran to her best friend's side and cried for him as he died again protecting her.
Serena could feel someone behind her, calling to her.
"Serena...Serena wake up."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Goku was woken by the sound of Serena screaming. She hadn't had nightmares for a while and to have them start up again probably wasn't a good thing. He tried shaking her but it didn't work.
"Darien! No!" Goku was getting angry at this Darien whose name she had been screaming for the last couple of minutes. He was apparently the one she was having a nightmare about.
After several tries, he had finally waken her. When she opened her eyes and saw Goku there instead of Beryl, Serena latched on to him and sobbed into his chest. He sat up in bed and cradled Serena in his arms. He tried kissing her tears away but there were too many for him.
"Serena, love, what's the matter?"
"D...Darien."
Goku growled at that name. It was that man who had made her cry.
"She killed him. He died protecting me. I had to watch it again." Serena began hiccupping and Goku did his best to comfort her.
Serena calmed when she felt his energy enter her body. As she pressed her head against him, the purring coming from his chest had a soothing effect, helping her to fall asleep again. Goku's tail wrapped around her upper leg protectively and his arms snaked around her stomach and chest and neither woke until morning.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -