I don't own Final Fantasy IX. I don't own Dragon Ball Z. I just DON'T! *runs away, bawling* It's not FAAAIIIIIR!

Contrary to what SOMEONE *ahem* who will remain nameless, and although they're very annoying, they're right. I'll add a few DBZ charcters like Tien, and Yamcha. Maybe Puar, if he behaves (hehe). But only EIGHT characters from DBZ and eight from FF9 will be, um, well, important in this fanfic. For a GOOD reason, too. Don't worry -- I'm not brushing off the few characters that some may wanna see take part, it's just....one at a time! lol.

(Ah, we begin as Amarant tells his tale....Too bad he's not much of a storyteller. I'm sorry. I really really am, but there will be no crossing over just yet. It's a long, long fanfic, let's just say. This chapter's mainly a big discussion about what's going to happen, on both worlds. "Another world" and Gaia are being threatened by some kind of power....What will happen next? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z.....! Hehe, ok, enough kidding. It's just, the two groups of people can't just leave without discussing it, can they? Right, they can't. *grin* Ehehe....sorry. Will Zidane give in? Will Vegeta agree to this "foolish" plan? *suspenseful music* Ack! *hugs her stereo* Why do I find that I have to protect my evil/suspenseful/happy music player all the time? NO kick! *sigh* I'm always like this. Too hyper to be true, eh? )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"If anyone interrupts me, I'll leave. Just keep your mouths shut, and I'll be more than glad to explain in peace. Of course, I'll make it short. I don't like details, anyway. To be brief, Terra is alive. Don't look at me like that, Zidane -- I'll get to point. I know two definite things. One: Terra is alive. Two: There's someone there that is.....putting it frankly, calling for help. It's sad, actually. They're crying, and calling for help, literally sounding torn to pieces, in pain, dying perhaps. Like anyone would hear them. Stop glaring at me, because I'm just being honest. If I were in the middle of a vast, burned-out world that probably supplies no food or regualr breathing air, I'd call for help, too.............Damn, you know me too well. Quit stalling me, or I'll cut the explaination here."

"How do I know this? There's an obvious question -- How I know all this. Out of all people, Dagger, you have to be the bright one. I've been having dreams. Shut up, I'm warning you, I'm not interested in being scoffed at. The word 'dream' is the closest I can come to what I've experienced. Out of all people, they have to reach me. I'm sure you all understand. Yeah. Thank you. They're very close. I don't know what that means -- it's just what they said. I'm hoping, no I'm assuming that they're still alive, despite the fact that these.....dreams stopped more than three days ago. That's right -- the fourth night after leaving Alexandria, the visions hit me."

Everyone stared for what seemed to surpass minutes. Amarant followed up with a rather, know-it-all smirk, "It's in ruins, but it's crawling with monsters. Somehow, they survived. However they managed that is actaully beyond my way of thinking. So, if anyone has any questions, I'll take them now."

"What the HECK are you talking about?" cried Zidane, so suddenly that it seemed to make the entire room echo with his voice.

"I won't repeat myself," Amarant growled.

"That accursed planet!" grumbled Steiner, breaking the awkwardness of the matter. "I mean, no offense, Zidane, but this is truly too terrible, on such a day! Prin....Your Majesty, please, take no heed of this....this can be sorted out well in the end...."

"But Steiner...." said Dagger softly. "Amarant mentioned somehow seeking help, didn't he? What if this person is in a terrible need? What if he or she dies?"

For a moment, the knight looked rather humbled, "It....it is no concern of ours. It is probably a trap....Your Majesty, this is a happy day for you. Do not-"

"I think I'm actually beginning to understand," Zidane interrupted. "When I was at the Iifa Tree....well, you all know what happened. I have...we have Kuja to thank for it and all, but hey, he never said anything about how he managed to survive Terra's 'destruction'. Maybe it wasn't destroyed completely after all."

"So what do you intend to do?" said Amarant, leaning carelessly on the nearest available wall. "'I can't just walk away. It goes against my nature,' Zidane. That's why I came to you."

"So you can ruin the happiest day of my life?" Zidane grumbled, and planted his hands on his hips. "You came to me because you thought that I'd run headlong into my homeplanet to save some poor soul crying to YOU for help? Think about it carefully -- isn't that just a little childish?"

"Amarant's always acting like a child!" came a new, familiar voice. A head of violet hair and a single horn appeared at the lip of the last stair. Eiko grinned as she knelt on her step, resting her head in the crook of her palms and staring almost boredly at the group of 'coversing adults'. "Of course I've never heard him talk so much at one time."

"Miss Eiko, you should not be-" began Steiner, shaking a fist.

"Steiner, please," said Dagger, shaking her head. "She has a right to be here than anyone else......It's the fact she's eavesdropping that bothers me."

"Sorry," said Eiko, sullenly. Slowly, she stood up and lifted her eyes first to Dagger, and then Amarant. "Don't worry, I heard every word. But I thought you guys knew that Terra wasn't destroyed. That's why I never told you."

"..........."

"..........."

"..........."

No one said a word. The silence nearly became overwhelming, before Eiko's sigh split the air. "Great," she mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Dagger inquired, sounding rather innocently confused.

"Well if you'd asked, I could've TOLD you that Terra was alive!" Eiko accused, rolling her eyes. "That's what Mog told me, anyway. Or....or Terra, should I say. You know....Terra Homing is the name of my eidolon's.....Mog.....do I have to explain?"

"No," said Zidane, and crossed his arms. "But you do have to tell us what Amarant can't."

"Who said I can't tell you anything else?" demanded the bandit.

Zidane turned around again to glare at him, "......There's more?"

"Of course there's more. What kind of visions do you think I have, Zidane?"

But the genome just shook his head, appearing more confused than poor Dagger, even, "Just....explain, Amarant."

"All right, fine."

Everyone was quite silent as Amarant stood straight once again, and turned his eyes around the lot of them. Another minute of silence followed, before he picked up where he left off.

"There's not much more to say," he said, shrugging. "A great deal of Terra was destroyed by Kuja, thought not all of it. When I first heard this 'voice' or whatever the hell it is, I figured it had to be coming from some untouched part of the planet. Somehow, I got closer to those areas, but the farhter from the destruction I went, the fainter the voice. Get it? This 'voice' is somewhere in the middle of a heap of flames, embers, and crushed crystal. That's exactly why I'm leaving this little journey up to you."

"Me," confirmed Zidane, almost placidly.

"No, Zidane, he's leaving it to me," said Eiko, rolling her eyes for the second time. "Of course, you! I mean, you wouldn't really be going alone, or whatnot, because I'm going, too! Dagger'll come, right, Dagger?"

"I think I'm missing the point..." said Dagger, still lost. "We're leaving, so soon? But....there's Alexandria, and the kingdom to take care of....and the banquet's tonight. What about the celebration?"

"I agree with Her Highness," said Steiner solemnly. "Queen Garnet cannot go anywhere at the present time. She has the most important meetings and matters at hand to discuss. And Zidane would not want to leave, I am sure. He has only returned-"

"Then perhaps, if you're finished interruptin' me, I'll say the last bit," said Amarant, snorting.

The rest of the group fell silent.

"You don't have much of a choice, Zidane, Dagger...." Amarant continued. "This isn't something you'll want to ignore. This is your average, not-every-day phenomenon. I'm surprised at you all. For all of the time we've wasted here, none of you have even thought to ask me what that 'voice' just might be saying. Never mind, I'll tell you now. It was, like I seem to be repeating, asking for help. But it mentioned something like 'unexpected disaster', and 'Gaia's destruction'. That's not the most shocking part, in fact....Another world was mentioned, and some kind of 'evil power'. It's like this: Don't go, be killed along with the rest of Gaia while some 'evil power' takes over the world. Go, and just maybe find out what the hell this is all about."

"Evil power....Another world? Gaia's destruction?" Zidane repeate, eyes slowling widening in completely shock. They soon clouded over with sarcasm. "Geez, Amarant. Don't you think you could have informed us of this a little earlier?"

Amarant didn't say anything.

"Another world....another world?" Dagger thought aloud. "But Amarant, there are no other worlds. There's just Gaia, and Terra, isn't there?"

"Until we went to Oeilivert, that's what we thought about Gaia," commented Amarant, smirking. "'There's only one world, and that's Gaia,' You won't believe how many times I've heard it, and, very much like the rest of you, believed it....until we went there. It's annoying. If there's another world we didn't know about, there could be yet another. And maybe even another after that....Hell, there's probably thousands of planets that none of us know about. Don't give me that 'There's only Terra and Gaia' crap, because I am officially not interested in hearing gibberish."

All, save Dagger, stared at Amarant in bewliderment. The bandit had a peeved, take-no-nonsense expression on his face, as was always expected, but he was also serious about what he'd just finished saying. This was hard to believe -- Amarant never cared about things like 'other worlds' or even another persons thoughts for that matter. All of a sudden, he did? It wasn't like him. At all.

"Well I, for one, am interested in this new world," said Eiko, crossing her arms stubbornly. "What's it called, Amarant?"

Amarant glared down at the seve-year-old, and thought carefully, remembering the name that the 'voice' had described to him. He leaned against the wall again, his regular smirk returning, almost mockingly, "Earth."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Gohan's mad again."

Goten's pouting voice reached ChiChi's ears. Surprised, she turned around, still holding the plate she'd been scrubbing and found a very upset little super saij-in leaning on the kitchen doorway. His mouth was set in a stubborn line, and his eyes were cast at the floor. ChiChi felt her nerves begin to break, "Goten, for the last time! You're not to be a super saij-in while inside the house! Get out of the ridiculous form before you break something, young man."

Pouting all the more, Goten's hair returned to normal, and he sighed his depression, "But Mom, I'm not even doing anything."

"Nonsense," said ChiChi, returning to her chore. "What do you mean, 'Gohan's mad'? I thought you went to train with him again."

She didn't want to be so uncaring. It hurt her to see Goten so upset, but she was still angry at them both for losing the tournament, and the fact that Gohan continued to train Goten didn't help either. Maybe if she made her disturbance clear to them, they'd at least apologize.

"Gohan won't train with me, Mom," complain Goten. "He keeps complaining that Vegeta's gonna turn Trunks against us, or something like that. And he trains so hard, that he cracked another cliff with his fist! He wasn't even super-saij-in, either. When I asked him, he said or me to go play in my room for today. He wasn't mean, but Mom...."

"Well, clearly he's just getting over your father's disappearance again, Goten," said ChiChi, softly this time. "You should leave him alone for the time now, and let him think about it. Vegeta being the way he is wasn't helping him, either, so if you see him again, tell him to stay away from there. You can see Trunks when he comes here, but I don't want you or Gohan going to Capsule Corp. again."

"Awwww, Mom!" argued Goten, getting to his feet.

"Don't argue, and go tell your brother that dinner will be ready in a few minutes," said ChiChi, placing another plate under her cloth. Just as Goten leapt out of the door, she remembered, "And don't get in the way of his training, Goten!" she cried after him.

"I won't!" he called back, and was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wow! This is so neat!"

Trunks tilted his head to look closer at the streaming, shuddering ball of blue light. In the bright, day sun, it's power was a lot calmer, and it's colour's much duller, but the cool radiance of it's ablilities could be felt clearly by both father and son. Vegeta stood behind both Bulma and Trunks, his arms crossed. He grunted at the boy's enthusiasm, and smirked, "Don't get too carried away, Trunks. It's power is meaningless. It's an empty portal, after all."

"I still haven't seen one before...." said Trunks, turning his back on the ball of energy. "I wonder where it led to before.....?"

"Some wreckage of an old alien ship," Vegeta snorted. "Certainly nothing to stand in my way of training."

"Useless or not," Bulma sighed. "It's on my lawn, and it has to go."

"It will go away on it's own. In time," said Vegeta, turning towards the training capsule. He was silent as he began to head for it. But Trunks' voice reached his ears, causing him to pause.

"I dunno, Dad....It feels....angry to me. I don't think that it's useless, like you said."

"What," said Vegeta, tone icy to show his bitterness, "You choose to argue against your father's words now?"

Trunks shrugged, "I'm not arguing. But you're wrong."

Bulma giggled, and quickly covered her mouth when Vegeta snapped his eyes towards her, "Sorry, Vegeta," she said, struggling not to laugh again. "But he gets his stubborness from you, not me. Blame yourself for this."

"I'll blame no one but you," growled the saij-in prince. "I'm not interested in some emtpy portal. If you do not wish to help me train, then stay inside, Trunks."

"I want to stay out here," Trunks replied. "This energy spehere....it's kinda wierd..." He slowly took a step forward, and then another. After a few more paces, he was but an arm's length from the ball of light. He seemed almost entranced by it. He didn't move as he studied it even more, almost as if the light were paralyzng him.

"Trunks!" warned Bulma. "Please be careful."

"Do what you want," spat the saij-in. "I am going to train."

He had failed to notice that Trunks' eyes had gone blank, and his arm was slowly reaching out to touch the blue sparks of energy. Bulma was the one to notice this, but it was, unfourtunately, much too late for her to dive forward and pull him back. Trunks fingertips brushed the edge of the sphere, and a low, almost haunting chill abruptly filled the air.

"Trunks!" cried Bulma, leaping forward. She stumbled and fell on her knees, "Don't!"

Vegeta turned around just in time to see Trunks' hand submerge completely into the swirling blueness. His eyes grew wide with shock, "Trunks, get away from there!"

The boy ignored him, still seemingly paralyzed with with the energy. He took another step forward, his entire arm gone from sight now. Another step. Trunk's right side had disappeared into the flashing light. Before either parent could say another word, Trunks had vanished, and the sphere had grown to twice it's normal size. It hummed with a hungry power now, beginning to swirl faster, and faster still.

Wordless now, Vegeta forgot who he was, for that brief instant, "Trunks!"

The saij-in prince leapt into the air and charged the sphere, fists drawn back for an attack. Mid-air, the saij-in's temper caught control of him, and in a fury, he transformed super saij-in. This all occured in about four seconds, for in the next instant, Vegeta had collided with the giant mass of energy. Bulma fell back, holding her arms to shield her face from the blinding flash. It lasted for about twelve seconds, and then disipitated, as if it never happened.

Vegeta was on his feet, his arms up as well to protect his eyes. Another moment passed before he finally lowered them, face clearl expressing his shock.

The energy sphere, or the 'portal', floated just inches above the ground, the same it had been before. The only signs that it had done anything at all, was the slightly charred ground and burnt grass.

And Trunks was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(OMG, what happened to Trunks? Hehe, I don't know. Truly, I kinda do, but I really don't. It's hard to explain, actaully. Hmmm...who should go? Out of the eight I mean....Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Bulma, ChiChi, Goten....any ideas? Give me a few more characters you want me to add, people! Pwease! *grin* NO old characters that don't exist in this stage, please. Just...someone you know is ALIVE right now, lol. Oh, and we'll see about Goku....*thinks carefully* yeah, leave a spot for him. I'll decided later.....*smiles*)