A/N: A TREMENDOUS thank you to Devon Aster (another one of the select few whose writing makes me feel like a rookie! I don't plug for favors, so take me seriously when I say to read Even the Blessed by Devon Aster. It's incredible) for taking so much time to school me on Namekian lore/background.

SETTING : READ THIS! The PROLOGUE takes place DURING the disaster that wiped out all the Nameks except GURU, and is told from his point of view. The rest of the fic will take place in DBZ time frame, and will be my usual love story/drama. Cool?

And to orientate you on the DB family tree, the 'Piccolo' mentioned below is not our DBZ Piccolo. It is the person Kami was before he split into two people. In short, Katatsu had a son named Piccolo. Piccolo went to earth and decided he wanted to be guardian. To do that, he purged himself of evil, enabling his good half to become Kami, and his bad half to become the Demon King Piccolo, who later gave birth to DBZ Piccolo. So. THAT SAID…. (btw - it's personal preference to use the translated English names/terms, since I figure that's what most readers are familiar with…)

And finally, Sab and Nak (piccolosfire and namek kaia). This one's for you.


PROLOGUE

"Nnngh…!"

Guru bit back a snarl as the medic did the biopsy of his heart. Far too big for any operating table, they laid him on the floor with a handful of brethren pinning his limbs down. The probing instrument hurt, but he would sit through the pain a hundred times over if it meant finding a cure for the virus that was sweeping across Namek, killing their people.

The genetic anomaly that caused his gigantism had somehow protected him against the minute, but deadly organism, enabling him to walk out of a village where the great Katatsu himself, patriarch of the Dragon Clan, had fallen victim to the organ-dissolving disease. With their leader's death, the dragonballs were rendered useless, and now, just two days later, only a smattering of nameks, still lived.

It was that quick, and that deadly.

His arms spasmed on reflex, tossing two of the brethren across the room. Fortunately, the medic had just extracted the sampling of his tissue, and he exhaled a shuddering breath.

"Done," she breathed, the light reflecting off the sweaty sheen of her smooth, green scalp. "Heal him, Rin."

Guru's sister, his only living relative, shouldered her way through the desperate on-lookers, and knelt by his side. With a quick, worried glance at his eyes, she placed her hands on his chest. No sooner had the aura surrounded her frame than he felt the hole in his heart close up. Guru imagined he would have been grateful for the physical respite, had the pain not been a welcome distraction from the holocaust of his people.

Rin's face paled, and she swooned. He sat up and braced her, his one, massive hand encompassing the whole of her back. She gave him a weary, forced smile. "It takes a little more to heal you than others, brother."

He observed how tiny she was compared to him, and winced. "I would have kept the pain-"

She held a hand up, and looked at him sternly. "If they can single out the cause of your mutation, and adapt it to a serum for the rest of us, then I'd spend the remainder of my days keeping your mighty ass young, Guru."

He smiled ruefully, understanding in no uncertain terms the grave importance of his immunity to the virus. If only they'd seen it coming, he could have been studied sooner… As it was, the few survivors were weary and traumatized, and almost insane with anxiety - he and Rin included. Looking at the tension in the medic's shoulders as she worked over a counter, or the red-veined sleepless eyes of the brethren in the room only reinforced the overwhelming sentiment of fear. Of terror…

Suddenly, the quick patter of footsteps, and rasping of breath perked his ears. He tensed as one of the brethren burst into the room, a frenzied look on his face.

"It…it hit the warrior clan…in the valley below," he panted desperately. "It's… coming…"

As though on some twisted cue, a soul-piercing scream was heard in the distance, followed by another…and another. Rin gasped and clutched at Guru in blind panic, burying her face in his vest. The others in the room sprang to life, scuttling into each other, weeping…

Images of the quick but violent deaths Guru had already witnessed flitted in brutal detail across his mind, and he looked down at his frail, sweet sister. She was all he had left. In an irrational protective surge, he picked her up, cradling her in one arm, and smashed through the wall to the outside.

It was chaos. Nameks ran aimlessly, going anywhere and nowhere, as though the bug that rode the air currents like a wave would be partial to those sitting still.

"It's over, Guru," Rin sobbed, her tears wetting his chest. "Death has come!"

He growled, and scanned the mountaintops. His gaze fixed on the interplanetary communication tower on the nearest peak. If the disease was air born, then perhaps he could seal them inside the isolated building, in hopes that the globe's gravity would keep the virus at the lower altitude.

The wails were getting closer and he turned his head to see brethren and sisters falling to the ground like winged mammals not fifty yards away. "Hold on, Rin."

She gasped as he abruptly bolted in the opposite direction, towards the mountains. He regretted not ever learning to use his ki to fly, and had to rely instead on the intrinsic resources that Porunga had given him. His long legs carried him faster than five nameks combined, and the wind whipped and protested about him as he sliced through it. He ignored the cries behind him, focusing only on the female in his arms and his destination.

His breath became ragged as he ascended the mountain path at breakneck speed, and his lungs screamed for air. But Guru would die before he slowed.

What seemed like the longest run of his entire life was finally ended as he barreled through the tower's metal doors, sealing them shut behind him. The windows were already closed, and he set Rin's rigid form down as he went to peer out the nearest glass pane.

From up there, he could make out the tiny dots of namekians, convulsing around like poisoned insects. They were dying. All of them. He rested his forehead against the window and closed his stinging eyes. "Damn our technology," he spat, his ragged voice sounding like churning gravel to his sensitive ears. "And the exploration ship that returned with the cursed bug!"

A pained hiss made him spin around. Rin was doubled over on the floor, her eyes wide with pain and terror. "Guru…"

His stomach dropped out, and his heart sank. Porunga, no… He was by her side in an instant, hovering over her like a canopy. "Rin," he gasped. "Talk to me."

She yelped as the convulsions started, her face purpling from the strain. "It…hurts, brother…"

He bit back a sob and curled her trembling form in his massive arms. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words of comfort couldn't make it past the lump in his throat. Let me take this from her! he silently cried to whatever deity was listening. I'd rather die ten deaths than to sit helpless while the virus claims her!

She stiffened as her eyes rolled up in the back of her head.

"Don't leave me, Rin!" he choked.

For all his protest, the symptoms ruthlessly ran their course. What couldn't have been more than a few moments seemed an eternity as her shuddering finally slowed, and then stopped. Her lifeblood oozed out her ears and eyes in dark rivulets, soaking his clothes and collecting in a puddle of blood on the floor.

"Rin…"

Dread horror filled him, and the agony of watching his sister's death dropped one word on his consciousness like a steel anvil.

Alone.

Completely, totally…

…….alone…

Guru threw his head back and roared in anguish, hot tears searing his cheeks with their significance. His breath came and went in great hiccupping sobs as he collapsed over her limp body and cried until his wind pipe felt like it was going to collapse - until the macabre sensation of embracing death pushed him back.

Then he leaned to the side and retched his guts out. When the dry heaves finally stopped, he inched over to Rin's body. Shackled in the surrealism of a nightmare, he rocked back and forth next to the corpse of his sister until the three suns of Namek sank below the horizon.


.

Morbid acceptance touched his awareness at some point during the night, unexpectedly rational after so many hours of pondering suicide. He was alone, but he wasn't the only survivor. Two keepers of the Dragon Clan were sent out the day before on scouting missions to find habitable worlds in anticipation of the worst. Etrack, mentor of the tribe's warriors, and the Great Katatsu's own son, Piccolo.

And someone needed to inform them that the worst had already happened. His muscles were slow to respond as he lifted himself off the floor and shuffled to the control panel. His position in the clan had placed him in high ranking with the technological workings of their people, and he knew the systems well. Using the tips of his fingernails, he keyed in a communication to both the departing ships, and waited until the faces of his comrades appeared on the monitors above the panel.

They blipped up almost simultaneously, Piccolo and Etrack, with the same quiet reaction when they saw his haggard face.

"Don't…come back," Guru managed, his voice raw. "You'll die if you return. The virus killed them all…"

Piccolo hissed and bowed his head while Etrack wept outright. It took several seconds for the warriors to compose themselves, and when they did, it was Piccolo that spoke first.

"Guru, listen to me," he said. "You must create anew the dragonballs."

Guru frowned at the idea, and Etrack voiced why.

"But how? He was never taught," he said, sounding more dubious than argumentative.

A few moments of silence passed. "I was taught," Piccolo relented.

Guru gaped. The law-breaking privileges of nepotism would have made him spit in disgust on any other day. But in the moment, the words fell like life-giving water from his lips. Piccolo continued.

"Much time remains before I reach earth, and even more so for Etrack to arrive on Rameumptum. So to spare us the agonizing wait, and for your own sanity, I'll walk you through the process so you can wish our people back."

The hope that coursed through Guru's body right then almost burned, it was so fierce. He nodded mutely, and a small relieved noise sounded from Etrack.

"Alright. This is how you begin…"


.

"Evolution?" Guru choked, as all his earlier hopes were swallowed up in a vortex of despair. "Natural selection?" he felt his voice raise as he stared up at the massive dragon. "How can you call that malignant virus natural? It slaughtered our entire population in TWO DAYS!"

Porunga growled, but at the moment, Guru wasn't concerned with Eternal Dragon etiquette. The god had just informed him that he couldn't wish his people back, and he was near hysterics.

"It is beyond my power," Porunga said again with finality. "Choose another wish, namekian."

Another wish… Guru was still reeling from the shock of not getting his first one. His beautiful people - gone. Just like that. And without namekian females it wasn't like he could take on the responsibility of fathering the race…from…scratch…. He blinked.

Or could he?

"Porunga!" He cried as the glint in his eye materialized into a brilliant wish. "Grant the remaining nameks the capability of asexual procreation…" He held his breath as the Eternal Dragon's eyes narrowed to slits. Then after a moment of scrutiny, the god's voice boomed an affirmative.

"It is done."

And he felt the change, alright. It was like a door unlocked in his physiology, and with it came a dim knowledge, like instinct, on how it was done. "Unbelievable…" he muttered, and wondered what Piccolo's and Etrack's reactions were to the change. Whether or not they felt it was indisputable. It was obvious.

"You have two more wishes." The dragon bellowed, somewhat impatiently.

Guru looked at the land about him, littered with the decomposing bodies of his people. Namek wreaked of death, and his spirits would never be lifted if he saw their remains at every turn, or if the threat of the virus wasn't eliminated to spare his future children. The next two wishes rang in his head with unwavering certainty.

"Alter all deadly viruses. Make them harmless to us."

"It is done."

"And bury the dead. Give them back to the planet, to strengthen it."

"It is done."

With that, brilliant lightning lanced down and scorched the earth around him as the Eternal Dragon snaked up into the sky, vanishing in a flash. The seven dragonballs he had created scattered, and he turned to see the green grass of the planet, growing lustfully as his kin's corpses dissolved into the soil, nourishing the planet with their decay.

Feeling more responsibility than he had ever felt in all his life, Guru walked gravely back to the communication tower to inform Piccolo and Etrack of what he'd wished for.


.

A month later, after he was certain that his remorse over losing loved ones wouldn't taint his ability to nurture, Guru settled down in his new dome-shaped residence to have his first child.

His last conversation with Piccolo and Etrak led him to believe they wouldn't be coming back for a while, if ever. He hadn't realized until he saw their hesitant faces and downcast eyes that coming home to an empty planet was something neither of them were ready to face. He understood.

But he wondered if they would take to having children with the new capabilities Porunga gave them. The chances of his namekian brethren being reproductively compatible with the females of alien species was slim, and that's if they even chose to go that route.

Either way, it wasn't his concern. He informed them that he wouldn't pass on their technological advancement, remembering all too clearly that it was just that which brought the virus to Namek in the first place. His children would be raised to depend on their intrinsic magics instead of machinery. It was better that way.

Taking a deep breath, Guru sat cross-legged on the floor, and tuned himself to his own body, remembering the knowledge that came with the given ability. His DNA flitted across his mind's eye, each strand in perfect detail - and with it, associated gene pools and all the heritage that had gone into his own creation.

The most astounding thing was that he had choices. Hundreds of them. From an entire genealogy of ancestors whose blood coursed through his veins, he could choose which traits to pass onto the embryo already forming in his chest.

Warrior, Healer, Nurturer, Leader… All there. And suddenly, he realized with a startling clarity that he could pass his memories onto this child. In doing so, the child would have a physically torturous maturity, but would be full grown in just a couple years. And he could use the company…not to mention the help.

Then a brief flashback of staring into his sister's lifeless, bloodied face interspersed his concentration. He grimaced. No. How dare he be so selfish. He couldn't taint his children's new existence with his agonizing past. It wasn't an option. He'd wean them from babes, all the way through the pubescent years so that they could have their own memories and experiences shape who they were.

Another choice made. He was feeling confident, and even enjoying the process so far. As he honed into the next step, the fact that he could only produce male children became clear. Naturally. But he could do so without giving them the same gigantism that he'd been born with. Thank Porunga. It was another thing he didn't want to taint his children with. It would have been an insult to his dead kin if he'd duplicated the mutation, as though insinuating that the original namekians had been flawed, or inferior…

He was about to pass over to the tribal affinities when something nagged at him. Re-doing his steps, it only took a moment to figure out what it was. Sex Drive. They wouldn't need it. Not only that, but the few crimes that ever took place on Namek prior to the disaster were sex related - an occasional rape, molestation, abuse…

No. He would nullify the biological urge. They would truly be a peaceful people without it.

However, upon attempting to suppress the male libido, he met resistance. Guru didn't know how long he sat there, weeding his way through the gene pool until he found a way to dampen it, but he finally succeeded. The magical restraint on primal desire would be fragile, albeit, especially in the warrior class. But the only female pheromones that could undo it would be those of a female namekian. And they were extinct.

When he finished with that, he lined up the tribal affinity for his first son - Nurturer. He would reproduce as often as possible, given he could handle the immense responsibility of raising his children until they were able to raise each other.

Then it suddenly hit him that he had to set up an order…a system of governing for his children, so that they each had their place. So not only was he going to be a parent, but a leader, an icon, and an oracle all at once. This would change him in no small way.

Saying goodbye to the last of his youthful innocence, Guru tensed his torso muscles until his face split from a wet, malleable egg that ejected from his mouth. He caught it in his arms and hugged it to him as the exhaustion coerced him into lying down.

The last conscious thought that Guru had before sleep claimed him was that it felt good to be a father.


.

A/N: The rest of the story will take place during DBZ.