Warnings: None, except for attitude and style of clothing.

Disclaimer: Darren and Ray are my characters; that is I own their name and personality when used together.

Rating: PG-13 for attitude and description.

Author's last-minute note: Read carefully.

Darren (Dah-rin) walked home under the questionable shade of the neighborhood trees. She was a strange girl. She wore black and white almost as much as she could, and it had nothing to do with style, but preference and personal reasons. Today, she wore tight black pants that flared ever so slightly at mid-calf and angled low on her hips, a white t-shirt that stopped just at her pants. She had on white sneakers, and wore a black hair bandana around her red hair. It was a dark red, with gold highlights created by the sun. Basically, she was a nutcase and a weirdo to the rest of the kids. Her friends attracted to her because she was so understanding when it came to natural things and problems, but firm when it came to problems. Thus she stood, walking home from a school she hated to a home life that sometimes irritated the hell out of her. She made it to her house, up the stairs to her room, and fell onto her bed with her backpack clutched in her hand. She hadn't gotten any sleep the night before, and had been hyper all that day. Her friends had told her to go home and 'crash,' as they put it, meaning laze the rest of the day, but she'd told them that she had homework to do and that 'crashing' was definitely out of the question. So what did she do? She promptly fell asleep. About an hour later, after a restless doze, she rolled over to try and find a better position, and fell off her bed onto something hard and sharp, hitting her head.

"Shit!" She yelled. It was one of her failings. Any time that something startled her or hurt, she would curse. She opened her eyes and sat up. She had fallen on a rock. Then she looked around. She was in a plain of some sort, with long grass and flowers and birds, and she had been sleeping on a rather large boulder. Her pack was still on it, so she assumed that she had been sleeping on it, rolled over, fallen off, and landed on this flat rock just below it. She cursed again as she stood, feeling her head get a rush of blood and making her dizzy. She angrily shook it off and reached up, taking her pack down and placing it on her back, holding one strap.

"What the fuck am I doing here?" She asked no one in particular. She looked around. There was a forest in the distance, and beyond that there looked to be some kind of building. At least the forest isn't thick, she thought as she made her way through the grass. Time to find out where she was. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep, and then of course she fell on a rock. She laughed out loud at the irony of it all. At school she was falling behind in her grades because she wasn't getting enough sleep and she was so confused at herself and life in general, and sleep; well, sleep was something she would have to look up in the dictionary or something, because she had completely forgotten the process. She kept waking up repeatedly, having nightmares about one thing or another. In her nightmares was the only place where she was scared, where she could feel her feelings take over. Then one day it happened, and she quit having dreams. She didn't know what had happened, but her dreams had completely gone, left her. She drifted all night, feeling time pass and aware of the fact that she slept, listening to the sounds of her room at night, and her body shifting on the bed for a more comfortable spot. Then her eyes would open in the morning and sometimes she would cry, and other times she would just stare at the ceiling for a while before getting up and starting her day. Sometimes she didn't sleep at all, and just lay there, letting the night slip away till the sun rose and her alarm clock did it's job, telling her it was time to get up. She wondered if she was insane or something. She suddenly jerked back to reality, realizing that she had stopped as soon as she'd heard voices. She looked up and immediately crouched down. There ahead of her, with their backs turned, where three people. One had green skin and antennas. Another one had on a spandex suit and flame-like black hair, and didn't look too happy at the moment. A taller one had wild hair that stuck out in every direction with an orange Gi on, and had a care-free smile on his face. They were all talking about something in hushed tones. Curious as ever; she inched closer, trying not to make a sound. She was fairly good at sneaking and hiding. She crouched low behind a tree when she was close enough, and listened with every fiber of her being.

"Oh, come on Vegeta!" She heard a curiously childish voice say. "Just once?"

"No Kakarotto!" A rough, gravely voice replied. "I will not baby sit your brat! I am not a nanny!" He said, indignation filling his voice. The childlike voice cut in again with a musing tone to it.

"Maybe I can talk to Bulma..."

"You would." Suddenly a new voice cut in. It sounded a lot deeper and somewhat more growling to her ears.

"There's someone watching us. I can feel eyes." He said, turning in her direction and looking around. She closed her eyes and let her attention wander, and soon the green one spoke again, calming her heart.

"Hmph. It's gone now."

"It could have just been a deer or something Piccolo." The wild-haired one spoke when she opened her eyes again. "They watch me all the time while I'm out here." He said. The one named Piccolo just grunted.

"You would think that Goku. It was something else." He said firmly. "I know you felt it Vegeta." He said, turning to the smaller man. He grunted.

"Maybe." Then he turned and left. "I have better things to do. We should all be training, not discussing weird feelings!" he said angrily. They stared after him, but then left, the green man giving the clearing one last search with his eyes before he left. She let out an explosive breath and then began to tremble as she let what she had seen register on her mind. Green men, men with tails, what was next? And what kind of names were those? She had never; well, maybe she'd heard them somewhere before, but she couldn't pin it. She leaned back against the trunk and shivered. Remembering something, she pulled her jacket from her bag and wrapped it around herself. She had no answers, she was cold, tired, and angry and scared at the same time. Well, she thought. This was just great. And because she was sixteen, cold, and fed up, she fell asleep. But all too soon, she woke again. Her body jerked and trembled in the common throes of the nightmare. Finally, she managed to wake in a start of terror, sitting up and sucking in a breath to scream, but never finishing as she realized where she was. She slowly put her head in her hands and cried. She cried herself to sleep again, and, like clockwork, had another nightmare. It happened like that the rest of the night, and she had one dreamless time before the sun rose. She awoke to the sound of birds and leaves falling. She sighed in irritation as a leaf fell into her face, and stayed there. She looked up at the tree.

"I guess that means 'get up and off me' eh?" she asked it pensively. It, of course, did not answer. She got up, grumbling about the local flora and went searching for a lake somewhere. She needed a good dip in cold water. If her body didn't want to cooperate and feel better, then she'd stick it in some cold water. It sounded like a good plan to her. She stumbled through the woods till she heard water running, and headed toward that with her pack held tightly on her back. When she reached the clearing, she could have cried. There was a lake there, which seemed to feed out to somewhere, and a gentle waterfall. She sighed and began removing her clothes, hiding them in a nearby bush that was close to the water along with her pack, and then slowly walked in, savoring the icy feel of it. Then she disappeared beneath the surface to swim under water for a while. Just as her head was submerged, a pair of teens came out of the forest and wandered over to the lake, sitting down on the shore. They were both tall and one had shoulder length lavender hair while the other had spiky black hair. They were both very handsome and muscled, with jeans and t-shirts on. The one with lavender hair sighed, his dark eyes closing. A pair of onyx eyes lazily looked over at him from where the other teen had lain down on the grass.

"What's the matter Trunks?"

"Nothing Gohan. Just glad to escape the house for a while."

"That bad huh?"

"Yeah. Mom and Dad still fight about stuff, and of course it's in the loudest voice possible." He sighed as his other friend chuckled.

"I know what you need."

"Really? I wish you'd let me in on it."

"A girlfriend."

"What?"

"Maybe a mate, since you're old enough."

"Gohan, I think you've lost it." He said seriously. Then he was distracted by bubbles that came up from under the water, surprising them both into silence.

"I thought we were alone out here." Gohan said. Trunks nodded. They both shot to their feet as a woman came up out of the water to her hips, pushed upward from momentum, and then lowered back down, wiping her dark hair out of her eyes. When she opened them, she stood stock still. Trunks finally managed to find his voice and tear his eyes away from the naked woman's upper torso, which was only partially covered by her hair.

"Gohan," he choked. "Did you do that?"

"No!" The woman edged over and grabbed something from under a bush.

"All right," she said in a low, sultry voice that literally slapped Trunks' brain. "Turn around so I can dress. And if I catch you peeking, I'll beat your brains in." They both quickly turned, their cheeks flaming.

"No. I definitely didn't do that." Gohan said. Trunks felt his knees beginning to gain their strength back, and he took deep breaths.

"Ok. You can turn back around now." She said harshly. Trunks sighed and turned, but then wished he hadn't. Her outfit clung to her like a training suit, and that loose shirt made her look somehow sexier. Her hair was thick and layered in a short, mane style that liked to delicately curl from the top all the way down to the middle of her back, as he saw it when she bent to retrieve a backpack. She stuffed a black and white jacket into the pack. Trunks wondered if her outfit was black and white for a specific reason, then fought down a blush as she looked him directly in the eye, and then at Gohan.

"So who are you two?" she asked, slinging her pack onto her shoulders. Trunks cleared his throat.

"Um. I'm Trunks and this is Gohan. We just came out here for a breather." He said. Gohan nodded. She shrugged.

"Okay. I'm Darren."

"Where are you from?" Trunks asked. She gave an ironic smile and rolled her eyes.

"Sorry. I couldn't really answer you. See, I don't really know how I got in this place." Trunks blinked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the last thing I remember is falling asleep on my bed, and then I fall and land on this rock."

"Ouch." Gohan winced.

"Something like that. Anyway, then it looked like I had been sleeping on a boulder and fell off because my bag was still on it. Then I went into the forest, spent the night there, and then decided I'd go for a swim." She finished, smiling as both boys blushed again. "Of course, you two know the rest." She said flippantly. Trunks sighed and looked at Gohan.

"Well, we can't just leave her here. You know what both our mothers would say, and your dad certainly wouldn't approve." Gohan nodded and then shrugged.

"We could fly her back. It'd be much easier and faster. Besides, I don't feel like racing on foot again." Gohan said, looking down at his shoes. Trunks grinned and looked over at Darren.

"Well Darren, my mom can probably explain why you're here, at least there's a good chance she can, so why don't you just follow us?"

"All right. But try anything funny and I'll bury you." She said. Both boys nodded, and then rose off the ground, waiting for her to follow suit. She stared at them.

"Wait." Trunks said. "You can't fly, can you?" he asked, seeing where this was going to lead. She shook her head dumbly.