#

*******

Goten sat down with his one suitcase as two cats came down the walkway to greet the little boy. He started to pet Artemis, but he fell over backwards when the cat said "Hello."

"ACK! MINAKO!!! EVIL TALKING CAT!!!"

Minako patted him on the head. "It's okay, that's just Artemis. The gray one over there is his daughter, Diana. Don't worry, they're suppose to talk."

"Hmmm....o-kay...if you say so....."

He bent down to pet Diana when the front door of Minako's house swung open to reveal a much older Chibiusa, standing in the doorway.

She grinned. "So this is the famous Goten Aunt Minako tells me so much about, I hope you like it here."

Goten stared curiously at her. "You're shorter than I thought you'd be."

She glared at him. "Well so are you."

"I'm short because I'm five. You're ten years older than me and you're still short."

"No I'm not!"

"Sure you are."

Hey now, I-" but Minako cut her off.

"I just wanted to drop Goten back off at the house before I go back to work, pain never sleeps....or is that crime? Tsk, well, surely you can baby-sit Goten while I'm gone, can't you?"

Usagi's eyes widened. "WHAT?!!! I just met the kid and you want me to baby-"

Minako (once again) cut her off. "And don't forget to give him a bath, he hasn't had one in a while...."

"Wait!" she yelled, but it was too late as the blue aircar road off in dust.

"Damn," she muttered to herself. She looked down at the boy as she sighed. "Come on, lets get you cleaned up."

She shook her head as he teetered behind her into the house, the two felines following close behind. Once in the house, the two looked at each other indefinitely in dead silence, neither one of them being able to think of something to say, until Usagi broke the silence and said:

"Do you want something to eat?"

Goten's face lit up. Food. The one thing he would never get tired of. In an instant he lept into the kitchen and into the refrigerator. Ham, cheese, pickles, Coca cola, all down the hatch. Usagi's jaw dropped down to the floor.

Finally, Minako got a garbage disposal

She continued in awe to watch him eat, until...

"Erm...Goten, maybe you shouldn't eat that...."

Too Late.

Goten stuck out his tounge. "Eww....what is that?"

"That Goten, is what most people would like to call baking soda."

"Oh, I don't think you should eat that."

"You're not suppose to."

"I see...."

Thirty seconds and Goten choking on Arm&Hammer.

And then...

"Auntie Minako told me to give you a bath....when was the last time you had one?"

"Three-"

"Three days? That's not too bad..."

"-weeks."

Usagi's eyes widened. "Three....WEEKS?!! What's WRONG with you?!!! Get in the bathroom!! NOW!!!"

Usagi ushered him into the room of the porcelain throne, he squirming and resisting the whole way, but of course Usagi had the upper hand. However, she had a hard time trying to run the bathwater and trying to get him to stay put at the same time. She crossed her arms. She had been arguing to get this kid to cooperate for about an hour and a half to make him bathe himself, but no avail.

"Goten....just get in the tub...." she said, pushing a strand of hair away from her face.

"No."

"It's not like it's going to hurt you."

He glared at her stubbornly, like one of those squirrels that were about to become roadkill, but still wouldn't get off the interstate.

She sighed. "If you take a bath, then I'll...umm....get you ice cream..."

Goten's eyes perked up at the notion of the frozen treat. He quickly relieved himself of his clothes (Usagi looked away), and hopped in the tub, causing some of the water to spill over. Usagi reached in the cabinet to get something.

"Here," she said dully, plopping a rubber duck in the water. "This used to be mine."

He started to hum "Rubber duckie, you're the one." from Sesame Street (he watched many episodes while in the hospital) as she tried to wash his hair. Every time he tried he got soap in his eyes, although she wasn't much help in that department either. She stopped though as she saw a strange look cross over his face.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

He turned to her. "What's the difference between dingdongs and whatsits?"

"What?"

He tooka deep breath as if he were about to tell a story. "My Uncle Kurillin said the difference between boys and girls were dingdongs and whatsits. Boys have dingdongs, girls have whatsits.....they also have whoo-has too."

She raised an eyebrow. "What-has?"

"Whoo-has." he corrected her.

"Your Uncle Kurillin sounds like a funny guy, can I meet him sometime?"

She watched as his eyebrows narrowed and his mouth turned into a frown as he looked down at the bathwater.

"He died."

She looked away. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was he at Capsule Corps when it was destroyed?"

He whispered a "no."

"The what happened to him?"

"Evil Lady."

She was confused. "Evil La-"

But she was cut off as an 8x12 mirror on the wall fell, and came to a crash on the floor. Nobody pushed it, no one had even touched it, but it had fallen all the same. This would scare the average human shitless, but we all know Usagi is no average human. Minako had already told her all about Goten's abilities. In a way, he reminded her of a friend she once had...

She looked back down at Goten, a flicker of blue in his eye. "Hey, I'm sorry, lets get you toweled off..."

He shook his head a little and the flicker of blue faded, and the smile returned.

"Okay."

She couldn't do anything but stare. That power.....he definitely had power.....and lots of it. But she was a little wary about the fact that he didn't know how to control it, or even aware that he had any. She had seen enough aliens in her past as Sailor Chibi Moon to know whether the person in front of her was one or not. She was sure he had extraterritorial blood, she just wasn't sure of what kind.

What is this kid?

She put a towel around him, but as she did, she noticed something wasn't quite right....

"Goten, what's that on your back?"

He looked behind him, and said the next thing like it was the most casual thing in the world.

"Oh, that's just where my tail used to be."

Her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted dead away.

Goten sighed to himself. "She acts like she's never seen tail before..."

*******

Near the bank of a river, a boy, almost a man, but not quite yet, knelled down to drink. He hadn't had anything to eat or drink yet today. His dark eyes surveyed the water, seeing if there were any fish. There weren't. Oh well. He could still rest here for the time being, he was so tired. He had been running, or flying, whichever he preferred that day, for three entire years.

He was such a coward.

He had left his baby brother, scared and alone, on the Briefs' doorstep. He was only thirteen then, he couldn't have taken care of him, he was too irresponsible.

Such a fool.

He still couldn't believe he killed....oh damn, he didn't want to think about it. For now, all he wanted to do is rest, but not for long. He knew that she was still looking for him, hunting him, watching his every move. Even in his many years of battle and war, never in his life had he seen such a raw sense of evil. Like she was straight from the fiery pit of Hell.

But what had disturbed him most, what chilled him to the bone, was what she had said to him that day.

***flashback***

She had him by the throat. She could have killed him right then, if the fancy struck her, but it didn't. Even as high as he could raise his ki she could still kill him. It was because of all those people, his friends, that she had consumed. Kurillin, Juuachigou, their new baby, oh, what was he name? Oh yes, Marron. She had gotten Piccolo, Dende, (which meant no more Dragonballs), even Mr. Popo. Yampcha, Tien, Yaijerobe, Karin, and eventually the great Saiyan Prince and his son, although they struggled the most.

In fact, she had even consumed the entire building, which would later be called the Capsule Corps Massacre, but she didn't care. Evil would never care about anything besides themselves. And now she had caught him.

She licked her lips as she had him pinned against the ground.

"You know what I'm gonna do with you Saiyan?"

She spit out the name of his race like it was some nasty kind of disease. He couldn't answer. He was too afraid, and the way she was pressing herself up against him was beginning to suffocate him.

"Normally I'd let you join the rest of your friends within me, but because you're such a pretty little bitch, I'm gonna let you go. You hear that lover?"

And then she proceeded to press her lips against his, a deep growl in her throat. Then she ripped him from underneath her and flung him against a tree, cackling like a lunatic.

"What are you waiting for boy? Run."

So he did so, anything to get away from her, that pure force of evil, even if it did cost him his dignity.

He was such a coward.

And even then, as he was at least a mile away, he could still hear her voice, that sound of a crumpled leaf saying:

"Run before I eat you up."

***End flashback***

He dipped his feat in the cold water of the river. It was probably time to get on the move again, she was tracking him. He picked himself up and began to trudge through the woods, he was tracking someone as well. Because that woman, if you could call her that, had sealed the Earth's greatest warriors within herself, she had taken their powers as well, making her next to invincible. He couldn't fight her alone, he need someone to fight along side him. To his knowledge, there was only one person left who could help him.

He was going to find Goten.

He was going to find his brother.

*******

To Be Continued......

(A/N: Yes, I know, parts of this were a little....nasty-ish...but, I sort-a warned you at the beginning of this that this was NOT a fluffy-little-bunny-saves-the-day, now didn't I? Alright, even though I didn't actually say the name of the person in the second part of this chapter, you should be able to guess who it is. Now, if you can't, you've officially been branded the dumbest ass on the face of the globe. Thank you and goodnight! R&R ~Flirtatious Flamingo~)