Jessica idly played with some Barbie and Ken dolls, the Malibu Barbie set with the tans, and waited for her mother to return home. Occasionally, Bura would look in on her to see if she was okay, or to offer her a soda or a snack or something.
Bura popped her head around the door. "You Okay sweetie?"
"I'm fine Ma'am. I just wish there were someone here to play with. Dolls aren't much fun without someone playing with you." Jessica said.
"True…" Bura said thinking of her own childhood. The only ones that Bura had to play with were Trunks and Goten until she was an early teen. Bura smiled as she remembered the few times that she was able to coax her father into playing dolls with her. Bura learned at a very early age that as tough as her father was, he was a sucker for tears. Bura used this to her advantage on more than one occasion. Vegeta would do just about anything to keep Bura from crying, including dolls, checkers, and pin the tail on the donkey, or pin the tail on the Kakkarot as Vegeta liked to call it back then. One Sunday afternoon, when Bulma, Trunks, and everyone else was out for the evening, Bura tried to wheedle Vegeta into playing dress-up, and almost succeeded until Vegeta seen the Clothes that Bura had picked out for him to wear. Bura had gone and gotten her mother's orange chiffon evening gown, some black stiletto high heels, and a tiara that belonged to her great grandmother. Vegeta blanched upon seeing the outfit, and refused to play dress-up. Bura cried and Vegeta finally compromised by letting Bura apply make-up to his face. Bura then proceeded to apply some of Bulma's make-up and lipstick. Naturally, Vegeta swore her to absolute key-lock secrecy forever and a day. Key-lock secrecy forever and a day is a code her and her father used to mean that they would never tell another living soul. This usually meant, mostly, either Bulma, or Kakkarot/Goku. Not even Trunks knew about key-lock secrecy forever and a day.
"Dolls are total imagination toys." Bura continued. "Oh, and don't call me Ma'am, my name is Bura."
Jessica smiled. "Ok Bura. Can you answer a question?"
"Fire away Jess." Bura smiled.
"Um.. How do I word this?" Jessica concentrated. "Why is there a dead spot in this building?"
"W-what? Dead spot? What do you mean?" Bura said a bit surprised.
"Yes. Here, let me draw it for you." Jessica said. "I can feel all the rooms, especially the rooms that people are in. This place has a whole lot of energy in it; some of that energy has been absorbed by the walls, and furniture. Vegeta's energy is all over the place, so is another that if very similar to Vegeta, but different. All of this energy is very, very strong. Not like normal humans. I can feel that energy in all the rooms of this place, except for right here." Jessica pointed at her complete drawing.
Bura was amazed! The drawing before her was a crude but accurate representation of the residential and private lab sections of Capsule Corporation. Down inside Bulma's lab was one section that Jessica colored black.
"What is that place?" Jessica asked pointing at the black area.
"That room was designed years ago so that the walls helped absorb energy, and special force fields blocked any energy from getting in, or getting out." Bura answered honestly, if not fully.
"There is some… some.. thing in there, isn't there?" Jessica asked.
"Yes. It is a demon from the Demon Realm that was sent to spy on us." Bura answered.
"Can I see it?" Jessica continued.
"No, oh no honey, I don't think that would be a good idea." Bura answered.
"Can I ask Goku?" Jessica asked.
Bura looked at the girl for a few moments. "Sure, if Goku says it's ok, then he can take you." Bura smiled. Do you need anything? A drink? Something to eat?
"No Bura, thank you very much for offering." Jessica said.
"Such a polite girl." Bura thought. "Kind of strange."
"Okay then, I'll check up on you again a little later. If you need anything then use the intercom and someone will come to see you." Bura smiled as she left the room.
Jessica's eyes remained glued to the door after Bura left. "This is it isn't it? My dreams are coming true."
Jessica had long been aware, even before she learned to talk, that she was different than the other kids. She knew what was bothering the other infants when they would cry next to her in the hospital nursery. She knew the names they had been given, and once, when a nurse picked her up and the infant next to her up at the same time, their arms accidentally touched for just a moment. In her mind, she watched him grow up, play, go to school, work, love, marry, have children of his own, grow ever older until he was bouncing grandchildren, then great-grandchildren off his knee. Then illness, senility and finally, death. Just as suddenly as it started, the contact was broken and she was taken to her smiling mother. Unlike most normal seven-year-old children, Jessica remembered the womb, birth, and every moment of her life as if it happened a minute ago. Jessica, through her own efforts, learned to block the mental intrusions that physical contact with others brought. More importantly, learned when to block, and when not to block. Abigail was well aware of her daughter's gift to sense certain things, but Jessica sensed that her powers scared her mother, so Jessica had never told her of some other abilities. Such as sense other people's energies, and with some people, read their thoughts. When her school bus pulled up to drop her off this afternoon, she had practically been knocked back into her seat by the energy she felt outside of the bus.
"Are you alright Jessica?" Bobby Barns asked her "You look a little sick?
"Y-yes, I'm fine." Jessica smiled recovering.
Jessica walked towards the front of the bus wondering what that energy was. She reached the door and found that the energy was coming from her mommy. No, not from Abigail, from right next to Abigail. "Who is that?" Jessica wondered as she went to give her mother their traditional home from school greeting. Looking over her mother's shoulder she took in the man that turned out to be the source of the energy. He was a big man with a strong and powerful build. Then the man shook her mother's hand. Her mother was a tough woman who was proud of her strength and who worked out ritually. Jessica felt the man's energy decrease dramatically as he seemed to be weakening himself as much as possible before taking her mother's hand. Yet, Abigail still winced in his grasp.
Then Raditz and Abigail said their goodbyes and went there separate ways. The big man smiled at her and her mom lead her away. Jessica was sorry that she didn't have a chance to come into physical contact with the man, but she couldn't think of a way to do so without raising questions. Abigail and Jessica turned the corner to head for their flat in the residential district of West Fork and Abigail stopped just for a second and peered back around the corner, gave a low whistle and looked vaguely disappointed.
"I hope we see Mr. Raditz again." Abigail absently said.
"Don't worry mom. He will find us." Jessica said without really knowing why.
Jessica didn't tell her mother that she had been having dreams and nightmares for a little over a year that had featured, among other people, Raditz. Raditz, reaching for her, trying to pull her back, save her. Save her from what?
Abigail turned away from the corner and continued on her way with Jessica in tow. Jessica's revelations always disturbed Abigail. Sometimes she figured she was better off just not pursuing it.
"Well then.. How was your day at school?" Abigail changed the subject as they walked home.
"Fine…" Jessica started to describe her day. Scholastically, Jessica was as close to the perfect student as any teacher could find, so Abigail never worried about grades. However, in the area of social skills, Jessica was far too advanced to mix well with kids her age, and there was something else as well, Jessica could hardly stand to be touched by other kids, and most other adults besides her and her grandparents.
As Jessica was talking, a hover-car had silently crept up along side her and her mother. A man opened the back door, grabbed Jessica by her hair, and dragged her back in the car. Jessica heard her mother scream, and the engines of the car race as the car sped away from the curb. Jessica tried to climb out of the opposite window, but the man grab her and punched her along side her head.
That's when Jessica noticed the energy. Raditz was back. Even though he had to have been at least 12 blocks away, he was suddenly at her mother's side. Then she felt something more, something impossible. Raditz's energy suddenly grew exponentially. It was like a supernova against her senses. She suddenly laughed and looked into the eyes of her assailant.
"Raditz is coming." She said without emotional inflection. "You guys are in a whole lot of trouble." Jessica felt Raditz land on top of the car. After that, everything was kind of a blur. One second she was sitting in the back seat of a car, the next she is back in her mother's arms. Even with her special abilities, she could not keep up with Raditz's super speed.
Then Raditz was with them again, and he was going to take them to safety. Raditz wrapped his tail around the little girl, and when he did, his whole life opened up to her. She saw all the faces that have been in her dreams for the past year. He had names to go with the faces. Goku, Vegeta, Bardock, Roger, Yambia, Trunks, Trunks Jr., The Supreme Kai, and quite a few more. But more importantly, he had a name for the great darkness that has plagued her nightmares. Cordell.
Jessica had been feeling a great evil for quite some time. Until she met Raditz, the evil had been vague, formless, shapeless thing. Now it was real.
She had also seen Raditz earlier life, growing up, the planetary purges, Frieza (shudder), and Raditz's and Goku's deaths. Then the future, which started to become cloudy and very hard to see. It was as though several possibilities for the future was trying to play themselves out all at once. In one sequence of events, she saw her mom in a wedding dress smiling brightly at a tuxedoed Raditz. Other sequences were not so cheerful and filled Jessica with fear.
"Raditz told me not to worry. So I'm not going to!" Jessica steeled herself against the memories. She looked down and she had unknowingly squeezed Malibu Ken's head off.
Jessica concentrated on the good future. Her mom looked so happy with Raditz. Raditz looked uncomfortable in that Tux, but happy nonetheless. He had gotten a haircut. Jessica really loved his hair so she wondered why he got it cut short like that. Goku was standing to one side of Raditz, with Bardock, Vegeta, and Nappa standing next to him, all looking decidedly uncomfortable in their tuxes. By mom stood Betty, mom's best friend, Aunt Sophia, mom's sister, Debra, A woman that Jessica had only just met a week or so ago who worked with her mother and Edna, Jessica's older cousin who had turned 16 the summer before. Off to the side, Jessica herself was holding a pillow with the couple's rings on them. She was the ring bearer! This made Jessica smile even wider.
"I know Raditz isn't exactly 'off the shelf' father material, but I'll work on him." Jessica giggled.
Just as that thought crossed her mind, she felt them return from the police station down stairs next to Bura. Eager to find out what happened, Jessica bounded down the stairs towards the kitchen.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Hmmmm… Interesting." The Ultimate Kai (Tao Kaioshin from now on) said as he looked at the Earth.
"What is it?" Goten asked.
"The Z-Warriors has just been joined by a very interesting little girl. I gave humans some latent telepathic and intuitive abilities. This little one seems to have highly developed abilities, far beyond the average human." Tao Kaioshin explained.
"You seen surprised by this." Trunks said. "Don't you know everything that's going to happen?"
Tao Kaioshin ruefully smiled. "Yes, and no. Do you know how boring, and incredibly, stuplifyingly, boring, it is to know what is going to happen each and every minute of all of existence? Yes, I have that power, but being the Ultimate Kai, I switched it off and I created the eternity pond over there. If I get curious, I can go and look, but it isn't intruding on just taking things as they come. Can you imagine what it would be like to have no surprises in your life?"
"Answer to the ages old question, 'Could God create a rock so heavy that he himself could not lift it?" is…" Trunks trailed off.
"Yes, if that's what I wanted to do." Tao Kaioshin answered with a bit of a smirk.
Tao Kaioshin looked back towards Earth in the Eternity Pond. "Listen you two, there has never been a threat like this before. We need one or two others here, including that little girl, to train for this mission."
"We don't know her." Goten started. "Even if you are The Ultimate Kai, you would ask her parents first? Right?"
"Of course Goten, I'm not a kidnapper!" Tao Kaioshin chuckled. "But that will mean that I will have to do something almost totally unprecedented in universal memory."
"What's that?" Trunks asked.
"I will need to go to the Mortal Realm." Tao Kaioshin stated flatly.
++++++++++++++++++++
Goku, Vegeta, Raditz, and Abigail finished their tale of what transpired at the police station. Vegeta was still laughing about the looks on all of the reporter's faces when the doors suddenly flung open free of their ki. Abigail was torn between laughing, and being somewhat worried about Vegeta's somewhat sick way of deriving humor. Goku sensed this and leaned over to Abigail. "Don't worry, he really is one of the good guys." Goku smiled.
"Now…" Jessica suddenly said from behind them. Jessica had accidentally (Well, sort of accidentally) brushed up against Goku's hand. Surprisingly, she didn't get a whole lot from him except that his heart was as pure and as clear as Waterford Crystal. Other than that, he seemed to have the ability to block her out.
"You can't know everything about everybody, little Ms. Curious." Goku turned and winked at her, smiling broadly.
Jessica was momentarily taken aback. Never before had someone read her with such ease. There was one thing that Jessica did feel from Goku, but it was hard to explain. Words didn't truly justify what it was. It was just a huge sense of…. Greatness.
She then wandered around towards Vegeta with the intention of making 'accidental' contact with him.
The second she did, she realized that she had made a terrible mistake. All of the pain, the abuse, the broken pride, all of it ran through her like a high voltage wire. In her years, Jessica had come in contact with kids that had been abused at home. This was like that, only the sheer power of Vegeta's will magnified it a thousand fold. She was in his childhood pain. Just as Jessica thought she could bear no more, Goku's face appeared in Vegeta's mind. And the guilt, and pain slowly began to ease. Vegeta slowly learned to forgive his tormentors, and himself. Vegeta slowly became what he was meant to be, a hero in every sense of the word. Then she saw his future, and smiled.
"What did you see there little one?" Goku's voice suddenly broke into her mind.
"A truly great man." Jessica answered.
"As I always knew him to be." Goku smiled.
"Raditz." Goku called
"Yes brother?" Raditz answered.
"Little Jessica here has been quite nosey and has learned everything about us." Goku said teasingly. "I think that you'd better explain everything to Abigail as well."
"Umm… Everything Kakkarot?" Raditz asked.
"Yes. For some reason I think that they have a part in all of this." Goku said. "I think that Jessica is here for a reason."
"You are absolutely right Goku!" Tao Kaioshin exclaimed.
Suddenly, the entire Z-Warrior Team appeared on a high mountain overlooking what seemed to be a ruined and abandoned temple of some sort. Goten and Trunks were at Tao Kaioshin's side. Everyone was in a bit of shock.
"WHO DID THIS? WHY ARE WE HERE?" Vegeta yelled in anger and surprise.
"Calm down father. The Ultimate Kai brought us here." Trunks said.
Roger and Yambia had dissolved from their fusion about 10 minutes earlier stood blinking into what appeared to be the afternoon sun.
Nappa and Trunks Jr. had also been yanked out of the Room of Spirit and Time by the great power of the Ultimate Kai.
Everyone was trying to talk at the same time. Piccolo was down on one knee before Tao Kaioshin.
Then Trunk's words sunk into everyone's heads. "The Ultimate Kai?" Gohan said.
Everyone then knelt and waited for the Ultimate Kai to speak.
"Everyone, please rise." Tao Kaioshin requested. "Everyone come over here for a minute."
All of the Z-Warriors gathered to cliff's edge and looked to where Tao
Kaioshin's finger was pointed.
"Vegeta, does that look familiar?" Tao Kaioshin asked.
Vegeta took a long look at the Temple ruins, but they were no longer ruins. There were people milling about, gathering wood, food, carrying skins. And they were all Saiyans!"
Saiyans, except they were larger, blockier, with more body fur than modern Saiyans.
"No." Vegeta said, but something stirred within him. Some sort of memory, and the feeling was shared by all with Saiyan or Human blood gathered there.
"What you are all looking at is a Temple that stood in the mountains of the Southern Wastelands of the original home of the Saiyans, then called Saiya, some 5,000,000 years ago. During that time, I was foolish enough to believe that people could be lead to lead peaceful and productive lives through belief in a higher power, or diety, such as myself. I took it upon myself to try and teach my values to the mortals in this dimension." Tao Kaioshin said.
The Elder Kai stepped forward. "This was doomed to fail, wasn't it?"
"Yes. Those that I taught turned my words into an excuse to seize power, and dominate others, in my name! Using my teachings to wield power over those that did not receive it directly, or did not believe" Tao Kaioshin said. "Look over there, on the plains."
Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Saiyan clashed along the western slope of the mountains. And if that weren't enough, it looked like a full moon was about to rise. Thousands were slaughtered, and yet they kept coming, kept fighting.. "These fights were a direct result of my interference into mortal affairs." Tao Kaioshin lamented.
"I became angered. Angered at the people that misused my words, and angered at myself for thinking I should interfere in their affairs. I did the only thing I could think of. I striped half of them of their powers and tails and left them here to live as best they could, and the other half I sent away as nomads." Just then, the scene changed back to the ancient ruins. "Those that stayed renamed themselves 'Human' and the planet 'Earth'."
All of the Saiyans and Humans stood with their jaws dropped to the ground. Even the Supreme Kai and The Elder Kai had not known any of this.
Tao Kaioshin smirked. "That's right fellas. Welcome home."