Prime Objective Chapter 4: Where It All Began, a dragon ball z fanfic

Chapter 4: Where It All Began

AN: As always, Prime Objective is not beta'd. Instead it's presented with only my correction, and I usually miss a lot of things. I was finally able to return to this story for those few of you that actually enjoyed the first three chapters. Since A Daughter's Difference usually takes up the lion's share of my free time, this chapter was pushed back. Still I'm sorry it took this long for the next chapter. I do suggest reading the last chapter to make sure you know what is happening because we hit the ground running. I want to also thank everyone that reviewed, and let me know if this chapter was hard to comprehend.

Within a span of a few second, everything had descended into chaos once again. The maroon-haired son of Gohan, Rize, continued to push his advantage against an unprepared Vegeta.

"YOU WILL PAY… YOU WILL PAY…!" he repeated over and over. The inferno produced by Rize's body made any attempts to get close to him near impossible. "For every life you have taken!"

Rize's large fist slammed into the ground where the Saiyan Prince had landed, while Vegeta back flipped from that area. With a little space Vegeta assessed quickly the situation presented in front of him. All he knew was that the woman was greeting the other weaklings before he was blindsided by the enraged armored teen.

The others immediately jumped to stop the fighting; most just couldn't understand what had ignited it to begin with. Though the Z-fighters of this time just figured it must have been something Vegeta had done, as he had the personality to grate anyone. Both the children of Gohan and the Z-fighters tried to stop both fighters, but touching Rize was difficult as the flames had any of them pulling their hands back quickly.

Ryoko continued to yell for calm and for an end to their quarrel, but it fell on deaf ears. The only ones that remained in their original positions were Bulma holding Trunks by the back of his Gi, the school companions of Gohan, the twins, the tailed-Saiyan, and Fuyu not that far. They just watched as everything played out in front like if it was theater.

The cloaked Ryoko turned to the twins and snapped, "Aren't you going to help stopping those idiots?!"

Rem turned to his brother before they shrugged. "Not really. It seems they have it under control." Both ducked as Vanee flew over their head, having been sent out of the fray by Vegeta. Erasa rushed to aid the dark blond young man.

Ryoko shook his head in disbelief before turning around and stalking towards the ones impeding him from finishing the story and, most importantly, his sleep.

The tailed-Saiyan walked next to the auburn-haired twins. "You guys like chaos, don't you. I like you two," he stated with a little laugh. "My name is Cerevak, please to make your acquaintance."

Vasco took Cerevak's extended hand. "You speak too formally. I'm Vasco and this is my brother Rem."

The onyx-haired Cerevak scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry, old habits die hard. Mother had me always meeting with important figures that it's ingrain into my everyday life."

"No problem man. We understand upbringings are different for everyone. Still it's hard to believe that we all came from one father, different times, but still one man," Rem added. All three stood watching as the human Z-fighters tried to hold Vegeta back, only for them to be sent in all directions by the angry Vegeta.

"Wha—DUCK!" Vasco yelled as the three lowered their head, as this time Krillin passed overhead. The three children of Gohan laughed as they shook their heads. "What do you think caused that over there?"

"You mean what caused flaming knight-in-shining-armor to go crazy, I got no clue," commented Cerevak with a shrug. "But because he attacked Vegeta, and he keeps screaming about Vegeta killing someone, maybe Vegeta is not a good guy in his world."

"Or he is just a prick, like in our world," countered Rem. "That guys has a special talent for piss off anyone, even Dad, and Dad is one of the calmest persons we know." Vasco quickly nodded with wide eyes.

The tailed-Saiyan also nodded. "Huh. And here I thought Vegeta might have been different in another reality. Guess Vegeta is Vegeta through and through." Cerevak noted that Fuyu was making her way to the battlefield, so he quickly bid goodbye to his new friends, "If you'll excuse me guys, I'm needed elsewhere." He flew to intercept the walking Ice-jin hybrid.

"Later," chorused the twins as their eyes never left the fight. "Ooh," added Vasco as he cringed after watching a hard hit. "That is going to leave a mark on Vegeta."

"Look, Ryoko is crazy enough to getting in between them," Rem supplied.

The tailed-Saiyan landed in front of a startled Fuyu. "Where do you think you're going?"

The Ice-jin frowned, "Where I please, now get out of my way. You may be my brother, but I will not hesitate to put you down, even if you're family."

Cerevak clenched his fist as he shouted, "You are nothing of mine! I refuse to believe that my father would stoop so low as to lay with a dirty Ice-jin! This must have been your mother's doing, and my father was a victim to her ploy!"

Fuyu's whole body twitched as her tail continuously slammed the ground. Her veins were visible in the areas not covered by the exo-skeleton. Eventually her anger boiled over and she punched the angry tailed-Saiyan. "How dare you, insinuate that my mother forced her hand on my father! For your information my parents are happily together, and have been so since my father arrived at my mother's domain when he was a boy!"

Cerevak cleaned the small trail of blood at the corner of his mouth from his seated position on the ground. His eyes only saw red around the Ice-jin, and Fuyu was at the forefront of the party responsible. He stood up and got in his preferred fighting stance, "Let's do this, now!"

"You took the words out of my mouth. I'll make you regret saying such things about my family. No one is allowed to speak like that, in my presence no less, brother or no brother."

Ryoko watched Pan blasted Rize back, but he only got back up rushed towards the restrained Vegeta. At this point Vegeta had already turned Super Saiyan to brush back some of the blows inflicted by the rage-oriented young man, making his confinement all the more difficult by the Z-fighters.

His attention was pulled from the current debacle to another area where he saw the tailed-Saiyan and the Ice-jin hybrid, engage in battling one another. His volume increased with each word spoken, "Ohh, for the love of everything good in this world! Come on!"

Ryoko grabbed the Bō staff wielder's arm as she passed him to return to the battle. She turned to him, and he directed her gaze at the new fight. "Grab a couple of people, and go stop those morons!" he shouted over sound of explosions as Ki orbs impacted the field. What was once a calm and serene plain was slowly morphing to a scarred battle ground, where the land, was on the receiving end of the worst punishment.

The Bō staff user didn't like the way he screamed his directions at her, but still she saw the importance of stopping this new fight, so the lavender-skinned beauty ran to get a couple of the others to help.

Ryoko closed his blue eyes as he rubbed his hand over his face in an agitated fashion. If he was irritated before, now he was damn near putting everyone in the ground. He hated screaming at his lavender-skinned half-sister, but he was beyond pissed right now. Before he knew it, he started floating up above all the chaos and let the anger swelling inside out the only way he knew how to. A golden aura surrounded him.

"Rize, you need to stop!" shouted desperately Gohan as he lay his hands on his armor. For the second time in one day, Gohan's hands were being burned again, but he needed to stop this fight.

"Father, he is responsible for the demise of many! Of my soldiers, and putting a black mark on the remains of my platoon! My men are now being subjected to treatment as if they traitors! King Vegeta must DIE!"

Its days like today that Gohan wished he would have kept his training up more rigorously. Over the years he had grown soft under his mother's tutelage. He still tried to get some hours of training, but it was nowhere near what he used to do as a child. "I don't know what happened in your time, but Vegeta is not king in this time. At least maybe not yet, but if we talk about it we can come to a reasonable conclusion."

Not far away growled Vegeta sporting some bruises. "Let me go Namek! I'm about to teach this brat the meaning of respect! He dares think he can get away with sucker punching me, and I won't do anything about it."

Piccolo had elongated his arms to coil around the Saiyan Prince. He rolled his eyes at his demands of freedom. "You're making a fool out of yourself. So the kid hit you, so what? You need to get even? Act your age Vegeta."

"I swear Namek let me go or I'll do it by force, and I'd rather not sully this suit with your disgusting blood, but I will."

Any further comments came to a halt as everyone's senses overloaded by a force from above. It took a moment for most to realize this was in fact Ryoko, through the intense golden aura and blue electric bio-field surrounding the man.

"I…said…ENOUGH!" thundered the cloaked Saiyan. "The next person that moves out of turn, and gets in the way of my long awaited nap, will have to face me! And right now, I'm pissed enough to break… every… last…bone!"

Gohan rubbed his hands now that Rize had stopped his forward momentum. He hissed at the blackened hands and slightly burned areas.

Rize took a couple steps back when his sight returned to his younger-looking father, and the damage he had inflicted on him. His eyes lost their glow and returned to their crimson irises, while the flames dissipated. "Oh no, father! I'm so sorry." He took a step towards him, and immediately the blue-skinned Zene and onyx-haired Chika landed in between them ready to attack Rize.

"That's close enough Rize!" Zene ordered, effectively stopping the armored young man.

Ryoko landed once again, but he had yet to let go of his transformation. "Now that I have your attention; I'm calling an end to these little spats until at least I'M done speaking. Is that clear?"

Fuyu and Cerevak threw back their respective captors. Their scowls were still very present as they continued their starring contest. Finally each turned away from the other, but each promising that this wasn't the end.

"This … is insane," commented Sharpner as looked up from his position on the ground, having seen that all the explosions had stopped.

Videl just bit her nail as she looked at everyone slowly making their way towards the new Gold Fighter, but this one looked different. Somehow he had the special effects to make it seem like electricity was flying around him. She knew that at the center of this mystery was Gohan, and he held the answers to all the crazy events that happened today.

She would have rushed to demand her answers from her classmate, but she has seen of these people trying to get closer to Gohan, only for the others to immediately jump to defend him. This was a hostile environment, and any sudden moves could bring this agitated group to another fight. So for the time being she would bide her time.

The gruff voice of the tired Ryoko echoed across the field, "Honestly, I have seen children conduct themselves in a better fashion. To think that this is the group tasked with the important mission of protecting father! Instead of getting an army of people ready to protect, I get ten hot-heads that only care about their own squabbles!

"Let me make this very clear, whatever happened in your universe, DIDN'T HAPPEN HERE! This is a different universe from where you belong, and as such even though some people may look familiar, they aren't said person from your universe! Understood pony-tail?!" He directed his eyesight at Rize.

"Do you need a Senzu bean kid," asked Piccolo when he stood next to his ex-pupil.

Gohan shook his head. "It's okay. I'm sure it will heal on its own, and if not I'll just go visit Dende after this. We may need those Senzu beans later on," he stated while Chika kept massaging his burn hands. Gohan turned back to the angry storyteller in the middle.

"How about you return to what you were telling us, you know, before someone else gets the bright idea to start a new war," chuckled Vasco.

Ryoko exhaled as he released his transformation. He stumbled for a moment before standing up straight. Now that energy boost faded with the transformation, Ryoko felt an added pressure to finish this talk to get some real sleep. "Where was I?"

Rem rapidly asserted, "You said that your prototype, or as you called it your prized possession, was completed and you were able to travel through the endless worlds for a year." After getting some odd looks from the others, since most had forgotten where Ryoko had left off, he smiled, "What… I pay attention to what is being stated."

"Thank you," nodded Ryoko. His tone had significantly fallen from where it used to be. "As I was saying, we were able to travel through many worlds and see what made each ticked. To say it was an amazing sight would be the understatement of the century. I saw how a small decision made hundreds of years ago would shift their universe in a whole different direction. I met many great people along the way, and even met some of my counterpart, like yourselves, or siblings as I call them.

"Eventually my travels lead me into the hands of two guards. My universe-hopping had attracted their attention, and they came to investigate who I was. You see they were looking for two people in specific. They introduced themselves as guards of Prime World, or as I would later find out 'the Original Universe'. I begged and pleaded that they allow us to travel with them, as I wanted to know more about this Prime World, and hopefully more about 'multi-verse' as they described the infinite universes.

"Initial both guards, also known as Post V and Post X, yes that was their names, didn't want to take anyone else on their expedition. They stated they were far too busy to take anyone under their wing, but I insisted that I could be of some help. Both as another set of eyes and help if things went awry, or when I would eventually depart I could search on my own for the two individuals they were looking for." Ryoko saw the bored look on some people so he quickly added, "The point is that I traveled with them for a time."

"They explained a lot about the technology within my machine, and how primitive it was compared to their standard issue. They had mastered the technology to travel through time and different universes, mine could barely do one, and so they helped improve my prized possession on our down times. But technology wasn't the only they taught me, they also taught about Prime World, its inner working, and why there are so many timelines.

"Essentially they said that at the beginning of time, one story played out. It foretold an amazing tale of power struggles, rise and fall of civilizations, and even legendary battles between good and evil. One notable detail, Post X mentioned, was that Prime World, and by extension its universe, is sentient. They have never been able to understand it completely, but it always appears like there is something or someone behind the curtain that is watching. When the first story played out completely, the conscious universe restarted to see the whole story once again, but there was something different this time. The events weren't the same, and as the story progressed it diverted more and more from the original story.

"Furious, is how they described the sentient universe that things were different, it scraped the story and restarted the universe, and so Prime World would continuously be restarted as each time the story would be slightly altered."

"What happened to universes that were scraped? Were they just destroyed?" Gohan asked.

Ryoko looked in his father's direction before responding, "That was my question as well, but please let me tell the story or the questions will slow us down. They aren't destroyed as the guards initially thought, but instead a copy of all the inhabitant of Prime World was made, and that would become a universe that splintered from the original in its own direction. Imagine this process done over and over, and that is how we get to the multiple timelines of today. There is more that I learned, but what I have stated is all you really need to know before we can continue. Basically we are all connected to the Prime World. If you want to know more then I can sit down and talk with you individual later on, but for now let's move on.

"The next important thing I learned was about the two individuals these guards were looking for. They are inhabitants of Prime World. Every so often, an original or Prime would disappear from the Original Universe, and they would land in the endless sea of timelines. But you can't even comprehend the importance of these people, these originals. They are connected to every version and counterpart in the multi-verse, because every version of them spawns off this original. They are forever linked to any past, present and future version of themselves. As such, when an original lands in the stream of timelines, they are encapsulated in a bubble separate of any one universe and time. They are then given a world that is very similar to Prime World, so they can live there until one of these guards finds the lost Original and brings them back to Prime.

"The first Prime we were looking for was someone by the name of Tights Briefs. Does anyone…anyone remember her or even heard her name once?" Ryoko looked around, but all around displayed the same confused expression.

"Her surname, its Briefs, so I'm assuming she may be an alternate version of me perhaps," Bulma inquired.

"Not alternate. She was your older sister, and these lost for words expressions, is what happens when a Prime dies. I don't remember meeting her, but I have this journal that documented my travels and find, and within it I talk extensively about Tights Briefs as the first Prime we were trying to locate. I wrote that I met her, but I don't remember." He pulled a small journal from under his brown cloak. "You see, the Prime Dragon Balls are exclusive to its universe and it can revive anyone from its universe only, but when a Prime leaves the safety of Prime World and they die, nothing can bring them back. The dragon can't reach the lost soul. Even worse, since they are connected to every version of themselves, then all versions are erased and any children disappear. All universes forget this person ever existed.

"Now I'm sure anyone with even half a brain has probably already connected the dots, and realized where I'm going with this. The second Prime is you, father." All eyes were on Gohan after the latest declaration.

"I-I- I don't remember this. I'm from a different universe." Gohan began to hyperventilate under the pressure of knowing that one wrong move and he could be responsible for the deaths of all versions of him and those around that claimed to be his children. "How?! How did I get here?"

Ryoko calmly responded, "I don't know. The guards don't know why people suddenly disappear, but they do, and they go looking for them."

"Then I have to return! I have to return to Prime before it's too late!" Gohan shouted.

Ryoko cringed for a moment. "You see that's the hard part. I have no contact with the guards, and they are the only ones that can travel to and from Prime, so I can't help you until they come here themselves."

Videl was finally fed up with all this nonsense. She gave a couple of disingenuous claps as she stepped forward. "Okay, okay I'm done. This is a wonderful story, and I'm sure if you type it out it can be worldwide phenomenon in the fiction section, but come on. Prime World? Mass extinction of Gohans across multiple universes; what kind of bull are you feeding us?"

Rem rolled his eyes as he whispered to his brother, "She is talking about feeding bull, what irony." Most in the surrounding area heard his comment, and while a couple chuckled, Pan found no amusement in that comment and made her displeasure known by glaring at Rem.

Videl continued, "Us in the real world don't buy it. All I want to know is how you perform your tricks, and what secrets Gohan has been hiding from us, not some make-believe story about how Gohan is the key to the universe and crap like that! I have been standing here, patiently waiting, for something with even an ounce of truth, but all I see are more lies. So yeah, maybe you are Gohan's kid, because you are nothing more than a liar like him."

After her tirade, the cloaked son of Gohan approached Videl. "The real world? I don't know who you are, or what you are doing here. I sense no blood relation to my father, so I can assume you are not my family or his child, and it makes me wonder why such an ignorant person; who thinks they know what the real world is when they don't even know something as simple as Ki, can lecture me on the real world."

"I'm Vid—"

Pan cut her off before she could enter one of her introduction speeches, "Lay off man. She came with me."

Ryoko's line of sight left Videl and connected with Pan a few meters away. He scrutinized Pan for a few second before speaking, "Ah I see. She is your mother, isn't she?"

The orange-bandana wearing girl gave him a dumbfounded expression, "Dude!"

Ryoko made his way back to the center but turned his head over his shoulder. "It doesn't matter if she knows. Now if you'll excuse me, I have the last bit of the story to tell, and keep your mother under control. If she is not up to date on the 'real world,' then that is her problem, but I won't waste my breath trying to explain."

"Hey! I'm right here!" Videl exclaimed. Pan walked up and pulled her back to her original position. "Let me go! I'm not done with him. I don't care what kind of lies he is spewing about you being my daughter. I don't believe him."

"Will you promise to stay quiet if I promise to give you all the answers you seek, after this reunion?" Pan asked quietly trying to compromise with her mother.

Videl mulled the option for a few second, and even though she would rather just beat it out of the man in the center, this way at least she got the answers she was looking for. "Fine," she grumbled.

Fuyu cleared her throat. Almost instantly those around her became wary of her. She simply rolled her eyes. "How about you tell us what Roosen Forces were doing here, so far from home?"

"I'm assuming you are speaking about the clucking green-skinned foes we encountered earlier today. You know them?" Ryoko posed.

Fuyu closed her eyes and nodded. "I do. Low-level cockroaches from the East Sector border in my universe, what they don't have in power, they have in numbers. Their leader is Roosen, feathery little punk."

"Aw, is that love I hear," Cerevak teased. He couldn't resist the simple jab.

Fuyu turned to him with a dark stare, "What did you say?! I would rather be eaten by maggot before I let that disgusting creature anywhere near me! He has cost me many good patrolmen, and I live for the day I can tear him limb from squawk-ity limb! If anyone sees that green-skinned scum, you send him my way so I can take the kill."

"Fuyu and Roosen sitting in tree…" the tailed-Saiyan singsong, all the while Fuyu looked ready to reignite their fight.

Rize came from his place to stand in between them. He gave Cerevak a warning look. "Enough!"

The cloaked Saiyan let out an extended sigh at the mere notion that this people would have to be working together. "Just remember that this Roosen might be from an alternate universe from where you come from but it's very similar to yours. Moving on, after our failure with Tights' recovery, Post V and Post X returned to their world to report what had happened. I returned home for the first time in one year. The good thing about having no one back home is that nobody is worried about my long departures or returns. There was an issue though, over the year I stayed, I began fighting this other Saiyan-hybrid on my planet. He called himself, Dekaido. He and I would battle and every time our fights would become more and more ruthless until the point he was out for blood, mine.

"He was well known in my world for being a destroyer, and I was the only one that did battle with him. About a year ago, I went into my lab and noticed that my prized possession, the Dimension Breaker, was missing. It didn't take me long before I figured who had taken it, and Dekaido still mocked me as he left my universe using the heavily modified, by the guards' technology, gauntlet. I worked day and night to find and bring down Dekaido, but he had the lead and was hopping between universes wreaking havoc; while I worked from scratch to produce a similar gauntlet to follow." Ryoko growled as he thought about that day.

"Eventually I was able to create an intermediate device; it had been a side project that connects with the original Dimension Breaker so another person could technically use if we get separated. The only problem is that I could only use it when Dekaido used my device to create a hole for himself, and there is a bit of delay between when Dekaido broke through to another universe and the time I could follow because this device is searching for the hole." He raised his hand where the gauntlet remained. "I can't travel until it has located the bridge or hole to the universe Dekaido is going to. Most of the time I would arrive to see the universe in shambles.

"With every universe we traveled to, I started seeing a pattern, a sinister one at that. It wasn't just him leaving the destroyed universe, but he was recruiting army after army from different universe. What he told them, I have no clue, but I saw that they were joining him in loads."

Ryoko stopped for a moment to look up. He sighed and brought his head down and continued, "That leads us to three weeks ago. I finally got my first break, when Desem, another son of Gohan but he was half-demon with horns and all, contacted me" He noticed the stupefied expression on a couple people present.

"Really…demon is where you draw the line," Ryoko stated with a chuckle. "Anyways, he and I were able to communicate thanks in part to one of the gifted technologies the guards gave me to replicate. It works as a communicator, and its blueprints were the base for the bottled message I sent each of you. It connects me directly with someone that is my counter-part in any universe. Desem called me because he said that Dekaido had reached his world. It allowed me to hone in on the bridge quickly because I knew the general area to his universe.

Flashback:

"What do you mean 'he is here'? Desem?" the connection was shaky but Ryoko called out to his brother.

"I mea—" the image froze on the red-skinned young teen. Finally it returned, "—is here and he is destroying everything. He arrived on his ship, and we are barely holding them back. What is he doing here, and why is he attacking us?"

"He is trying to get to me through you! Listen, you have to get out of there. I'm already trying to locate you, and I'll be there in a few. Just, hold up and we can get together to face them," begged Ryoko.

Desem rubbed his black eyes sniffling, "I can't. The bastard killed mom! I will never forgive him, ever! Father is still fighting, and I will stand by his side to the very end! We will avenge my mother!"

"DON'T BE STUPID! What good will you be to her if you die!" yelled Ryoko over on his side. The lights in the gauntlet turned on ready to be used. "I'm on my way!"

"I'm sorry Ryoko, but I have to do this. You were a great brother." Desem's image disappeared.

Ryoko called out his name a couple of times to no avail. Finally he picked up the prototype and ran aiming the device forward. The black whirlpool opened and he dashed into it.

Eventually he came out on the other side, and instantly his nasal canals were assaulted by the smell of a burned town. He rushed towards the home of Desem, hoping to still find him. Ryoko arrived at the entrance of his home at the base of a dormant volcano. The telltale signs of a massive battle were evident by the gaping holes, scorched ground, and bodies all around. He didn't see Desem anywhere, so he flew up to get a better view.

At the top of the dormant volcano in center of the concave laid a body. A body he couldn't identify from here, but he hoped it belonged to some random soldier. As he slid down the side to the center he saw the last person he wanted to see.

"Des…"Ryoko picked up his smaller body. "Why didn't you wait?"He exhaled loudly trying to control the tears, but he remembered the twelve year old boy running around him when he first arrived. He laid his face in Desem's neck as he released the floodgate.

The sweet moment came to an end when Ryoko heard a voice all too familiar to him from behind. "Hello Ry… long time no chat"

"It had been a trap for me. Dekaido and generals were all there waiting for me, and I fell for it. They used the boy's death to lure me in and drop my guard, but Dekaido's pride would not allow him to just end me from behind. He needed to know I was watching, so he called out my name. Within second the whole sky was covered by his goons' soldiers. Not a single space could be seen as like a black cloud they descended." Ryoko snarled with each word spoken.

"Still, like all evil guys he just had to monologue. In this instance, I'm glad he did because he let out a little detail that had my stomach plummet to bottom of my feet. He said, 'You see, I have on good authority the location of the second Prime. You know what this means right?' He said this with wide grin across his mug, and I knew exactly what he meant.

"I barely managed to escape that trap with my life intact, but I knew it doesn't end there. With Dekaido rushing towards father, I worked for the last three weeks straight on the messages and I sent them. The only way I was able to send them was with one of my previous prototypes that could open portals, but they were not big enough for someone to go through it. I sent hundreds if not thousands of messages in the hope that I could raise an army against Dekaido. The messages would be delivered as soon as Dekaido opened the next portal, this world."

Ryoko shook his head. "You can imagine my surprise when I arrive and find only ten, and they are fighting amongst themselves. I understand this may be difficult for some of you, but for now put your difference aside because if we fail this task, we don't just lose, we're dead."

He searched inside his cloak for something, and began walking in the direction to some plains that still remained. "Now you know my story and why I summoned you here. This war is not to be taken lightly, since it's for our personal father's protection back home, as well as our own." He pulled out a small capsule. "We are facing thousands upon thousands of soldiers, that while some are weak, in time they can take each one of us out. As I said in the beginning, the people around you will be your only allies. We are siblings, and we need to trust upon one another if we ever hope to come out of this one alive."

He threw the capsule forward and after a little smoke, a domed house stood on the plain. "This is an uphill fight, and we can succeed as long as we work in union, so for now bury any hatchet and learn from one another."

Ryoko arrived at the door and opened it, but not before turning around one last time, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have three weeks of 'Zzz' to catch up on." He entered and slammed the door behind him.

AN: Mostly it was Ryoko monologue-ing. I know it might have been difficult to follow, but this laid the groundwork of why they are fighting, and who they are against. Any comments on how to better work on my writing style are greatly appreciated. I hope the next one doesn't take this long.

Dear Swisher,

Thanks...

Dear Guest,

Some will sit down and talk about their past, while others will tell bit and pieces as the story progress, but it is my hope to explore each of their back stories. I have already written their back-stories; it's just about when to add the bits and when to have them speak openly about it. Their back-stories are just bonuses to the general story anyways.

Dear Nancy103,

Yeah I tried to use all possible girls within reason. You'll see that there are some canon females that weren't added, and it's not because I don't see said female with Gohan, but because I had to limit the amount of people so it's not to convoluted and bloated. There might be references to those children though. Ryoko traveled for a year so he must have met at least many different types of scenerio.

Dear Egohan,

Thank you. It means the world to me that people enjoy what I write. You're right about the possible mothers, but now you have to link them to their child. Though some have yet to be named in the story, so I understand the reason for not being able to name them off.

Dear nancy103,

Honestly I like Videl a lot, well maybe not so much when she was very interrogative, but given the time and place, I have to write Videl in this fashion to better fit her with her current mentality. She doesn't believe and thinks it's all one big joke, but in time she will see the error of her way.

As for Vegeta, there were a couple things Rize said in this chapter, and maybe you can piece what Vegeta did, but remember that in the first chapter it was noted that Rize's parents were alive. Soon Gohan will have a talk with the tall young man, and maybe then we he will explain what he meant.

Dear Smithback,

You're right about the first two, but I won't answer the last question. I want to leave a little ambiguity around Ryoko's family past for the time being.

Dear 123GOHANZ,

Thanks a lot man