(Author's Note: Okay, copyrights are in the prologue, and I'm NOT repeating
them, I'm too lazy to! Anyhow, I forgot to mention that all songs, poems, or
propechies that don't have their creators after them are MINE MINE MINE!
*takes calming breath* Okay, I'll be quiet now. Enjoy! Ja ne!)
Chapter One: Time's a Warrior Tool-
A lone figure wandered through the crumbling hallways, frowning and
mumbling soft words that echoed eerily through the dark halls.
"Far beneath the hideout below
Lays the Four Last
Sleeping beneath a blanket of snow
Slumber the Four From the Past
Together the Four shall rise
Aided by the Last Prince
Woken by She Who Cries
They to fight she will convince
She Who Cries shall use the map
To find where the Dreamers dream
To awaken them from their long, long nap
The Ancient Battle Cry she must scream
Those for whom blood of Saiyans vibrate in their veins
Shall join the Last Prince to fight
As shall the Rain
And tear the darkness from the light
The battle is long and some shall fall
For the price is high
Echo through the empty halls
As the Dreamers mourn and the Last Prince cry."
As her words echoed through the deserted building, she stopped and pulled
something from her pocket. Carefully unfolding the yellowing paper, she
stared intently at the directions.
"So I go left," she muttered, refolding it and turning as she said the
words. Walking down the crumbling hallway, she stopped and stared at the door
before her. Slowly she looked at the map, then back at the plain metal door.
Finally she sighed and placed the map into her pocket.
"And so it begins," she whispered, a strange sorrow in her eyes. The girl
tried to open the door, and found it locked.
Frowning, she growled, "No door shall keep me from the Dreamers! Open!"
She slammed her fist into the metal door, and looked surprised as her hand
went through. Then she understood and smirked.
"Rust," she said, nodding. With her hands, she reached through the hole
and unlocked the door. Opening it wide, she coughed as twenty years of dust
and old air engulfed her. Once she stopped coughing, she peered around the
room. Half-annoyed that no light was on, she flipped the switch, and winced
as the bright light blinded her. Her hands shielding her eyes as they
adjusted, she waited for a moment until her vision cleared. When she could
finally see again, she pulled her hands away and gaped at the scene in front
of her.
Five large human-sized capsules lay before her, the buttons on their
sides glowing faintly. The last one didn't seem to be on. She peered into
that one, and noticed no one was inside. Shrugging to herself, she began to
sing a strange song, full of both high and low notes, wildly changing up and
down.
"Warriors, Warriors arise, arise!
It is time for your cries to fill the sky!
Time for your Saiyan blood to pound
As battle cries become the only sound!
Time for you to rise to fight
And send the darkness from the light!
Warriormaidens, Warriormaidens awake, awake!
It's time for your enemies to tremble and quake!
Let your powers rise to quench the enemy we both seek
And destroy the power-hungry and save the weak!
Let the Saiyan blood of your family unleash your power!
And unleash the strength you have inside, your superpower!
Warrior, Warriormaiden, arise and awake!
Your battle's beginning, there is no mistake.
Your power's unleashed, there's no turning back
Let the enemy die by your hand, alas and alack!"
As she sang the words softly, she pressed the largest button on each of the
capsules. Just as she finished the song, a loud hissing blasted her ears, and
she cowered away from the machines, covering her ears in agony and squeezing
her eyes shut in pain. As she cowered against the broken door, she heard the
capsules slowly slide open.
*************************************************************
A girl slowly emerged from the capsule, shaking her head as the cryogen
ice slowly melted from her body. Shivering, she wondered why she felt like a
block of ice. Her entire body hurt, as if she hadn't moved in a long while.
Shaking her wet head, she turned to stare in wonder as her friend climbed out
too, dripping wet.
"Bra, what happened?" the girl asked her friend, who shook her head in
bewilderment.
"I remember Otousan and your dad taking us to a room and......." Bra
began, then her eyes widened in shock, and she yelled, "Trunks! Goten!" The
girl whirled to face her uncle and her friend's older brother as they climbed
from their capsules. Trunks shook his hair as whitish liquid dripped from the
strands.
"Bra? Pan, are you okay?" Goten asked, frowning worriedly at his niece.
Even if she was only nine years younger than him, he didn't want to get into
trouble with Gohan for letting her get hurt......
"Gohan? Vegeta?" Goten asked, frowning and looking around. Then he
spotted the figure cowering against the door, hands protectively over ears.
"Oi! You're not Gohan or Vegeta! Or even Mom, Bulma, or Videl!" The figure
slowly uncovered her ears, and opened her eyes. The teenage girl that stared
at them in wonder managed a shaky smile.
"Pleased to meet you, Dreamers," she said in an almost musical-sounding
voice. Then all of the memories of Gohan and Vegeta knocking them out
returned to Goten and he staggered, leaning against Trunks for support.
"Where's my brother? Where's Gohan?" Goten demanded, frowning at the
girl. He didn't know how long they had been sleeping. The battle must be
over, but why had the others sent a girl to wake them?
The girl frowned, and said, "So General Son Gohan is your brother?"
"Son Gohan is my older brother!" Goten snapped, his sogginess making him
irritable. The girl blinked, and began to frown back. "Now where the hell are
Vegeta, Gohan, and the others?" The girl began to scowl.
Crossing her arms defiantly, she said curtly, "The Earth's Fighters are
either scattered around Earth or dead. Which ones exactly are you looking
for?" The four blanched.
"Dead?" Bra squeaked. "Is my daddy dead?"
"Who is your father?" the girl asked, a strange look on her face.
"Vegeta. Prince Vegeta is our otousan," Trunks said, putting a protective
arm around his baby sister.
"Prince Vegeta is currently missing in action, believed to have been
killed seventeen years ago," the girl said slowly. Bra moaned and buried her
head in Trunks' shoulder as he flinched from the girl's emotionless message.
"And Gohan? What of my big brother?" Goten demanded hoarsely.
"Yeah, what about my dad? And Grandfather Goku?" Pan demanded.
"The Great Son Gohan is currently somewhere near the old Ginger City,
searching for survivors," the girl informed them, faint pride in her voice.
Then her pride faded, and she looked downcast. "Son Goku was injured saving
Son Gohan's life five years ago, and has been in a coma ever since." Goten
squeezed his eyes shut, fighting against the pain.
"Wait a second," Trunks said suddenly. "Otousan disappeared seventeen
years ago, and Goku's been in a coma for five years? How long have we been
asleep?" The girl sighed, and stared at them, her eyes darkened with an
unreadable emotion.
"Ah, Sleepers, you have missed much, these long years," she said softly.
"Perhaps Son Gohan and Prince Vegeta were wrong to let you be cryogenically
frozen for twenty years." The group stared at the messenger in horror.
"T-Twenty years?" Trunks groaned.
"Twenty?" Bra retreated dumbly.
"Twenty?" Pan echoed with terror.
"Twenty?" Goten exclaimed hoarsely.
"Twenty," the girl said grimly, her serious face silencing any comments
of playing a joke.
*************************************************************
The girl led the somber group through the darkened and musty hallways,
explaining that she knew a safe space for them to sit and talk. When they
came to the space, Bra was startled to recognize the couch she had sat in a
few hours before she had been forced into the cryogen capsules was now coated
with ancient dust. With one sweep, the girl dusted off the couch and motioned
for the girls Bra and Pan to sit down. They excepted gratefully, their
ice-numbed limbs aching. The two called Trunks and Goten settled on the arms
of the couch as the girl stood in front of them and began the tale she had
waited so long to say out loud.
Her name was Rayne Sirec. She was seventeen. Twenty years ago, on July
23, five androids had attacked the capital. Piccolo, Tien, Chaozu, Krillin,
Yamucha, and Goku had went to the capital as soon as they had heard about the
attack. Vegeta and Gohan, however, had put to life a plan Vegeta's mate,
Bulma, had thought of. Unwilling to let their offspring be killed during any
battle, they resolved to put the four into cryogen capsules, which would keep
them safe. Then Vegeta and Gohan had joined the fight. But the five androids
were even more powerful than Perfect Cell that they had fought so long ago.
During the long two days of that first battle, Tien, Chaozu, and Piccolo were
killed. The remaining five World's Saviors scattered across the globe. Gohan
and Vegeta planned to wake the four from their sleep, but then the androids
did something horrible. The androids hunted down and killed their loved ones.
Within a distance of five hours, Chi-Chi, Videl, and Juhachigou had been
killed, and Bulma and Marron had been nearly beaten to death. (The four cried
out in horror. Their mothers, their grandmother, their aunt, their friend,
dead?) Grief-stricken, Gohan had sworn to Vegeta that he wouldn't wake the
four until the right time came. The Saiyan prince had agreed. Then the
Android War had begun. The androids had tricked, threatened, and forced men
to form a huge army. Not that they needed one. Together the androids and
their army rounded up or killed almost 2/3 of the rest of the world's
population. The remaining one-third began hiding underground, using the ki
concealers which Bulma had created to hide from the androids and their army.
The underground survivors formed a rebel group, which waged guerrilla warfare
on the army. The Earth's Fighters fought too, and managed to kill the weakest
android. But to no avail. One by one the Earth's Special Forces dwindled.
Three years after the first battle, Vegeta disappeared after a large battle
against two of the androids. He is believed to have died during the fight. A
year later, Yamucha was killed protecting Bulma against one of the stronger
androids. Four years after Yamucha's death, Krillin was captured by the
Android army, and is thought to have been executed. Seven years later, Goku
was critically injured during a battle with Gohan against three of the
androids, and has been in a coma ever since. Gohan has been the leader of the
rebel guerrillas ever since, striking when the androids least expected it.
As Rayne spoke, she studied the Four Dreamers. They were nothing like she
had expected.
The one called Trunks, son of Vegeta and Bulma, was about twenty-six,
with bright blue eyes and short lavender hair. He wore a pair of long dark
blue jeans and dark blue shirt that looked brand new. He had a seriousness
about him, but he also had a light in his eyes that showed a bright spirit.
Rayne had expected a man in his thirties, with a seriousness about everything.
The one called Bra, daughter of Vegeta and Bulma, was about seventeen,
with eyes that matched her brother's, and bright blue hair exactly like her
mother's. She wore a light blue tank top with khaki shorts, which were also
brand new. Her face held a tragic look, as if she was disbelieving everything
Rayne was saying. Rayne had expected a grown woman with the same sort of
willpower San Bulma had.
The one called Goten, youngest son of Goku and Chi-Chi, younger brother
of Gohan, was about twenty-five. He looked exactly like his sleeping father
with his glossy black hair and dark eyes. He wore a white T-shirt and long
blue jeans, which looked slightly faded. Even though he looked sad and
grief-stricken, she could tell by the slight wrinkles around his eyes that he
was used to smiling a lot. Probably goofy like his father. Rayne had expected
Goten to be exactly like his brother and mother, serious and stern.
The one called Pan, only daughter of Gohan and Videl, was about sixteen.
She looked a lot like her uncle Goten, with dark eyes and black hair she kept
partially hidden beneath a bright orange kerchief. She wore a sleeveless
white T-shirt with an unbuttoned black vest and long blue jeans, all of which
looked worn in. She had a grim acceptance around her, as if she knew that
this was true even if she didn't want it to be. Rayne had that she would be
exactly like her father and grandmother, serious and without any humor at all.
*************************************************************
"So, Gohan is the only senshi left?" Goten breathed after Rayne Sirec had
finished speaking.
"Technically, no, because Goku is still alive and Vegeta and Krillin
haven't been proven as dead," Rayne informed him sadly. "But Gohan is the
only fighter left who is able to fight." Trunks swore and pounded his fist
into the couch arm.
"Demo where do you tie into this?" Pan asked suddenly, her voice shaky.
Her eyes shone bright with unshed tears as she asked Rayne, "Why did you
wake us?" Rayne closed her eyes and leaned back, not answering for a moment.
Then she opened her eyes and stared into Pan's stare steadily. There was an
odd brightness to her dark brown eyes as she smiled an unreadable smile.
"You wouldn't understand, Lady Pan," she said quietly.
"Try us," Bra challenged. Rayne smirked slightly.
"Together the Four shall rise
Aided by the Last Prince
Woken by She Who Cries
They to fight she will convince
She Who Cries shall use the map
To find where the Dreamers dream
To awaken them from their long, long nap
The Ancient Battle Cry she must scream," Rayne said softly, watching
their faces with a faint smile. Pan frowned, trying to understand the words.
Bra and Goten just looked blank, while Trunks frowned thoughtfully.
"If we're the Four, then you'd be She Who Cries," Trunks said after a
long moment. Rayne's eyes lit up, and she nodded, clapping her hands.
"Well done, Prince Trunks!" she said, smiling.
"Why She Who Cries?" Goten asked with confusion.
"In an ancient language, my last name means Weeper," Rayne said,
shrugging.
"What map did you use to find us?" Pan asked curiously, parts of the poem
clicking.
"This one," Rayne said proudly, taking a yellowing paper from her pocket
and handing it to Goten. As Goten scanned it, Pan studied the girl called
Rayne Sirec.
Rayne's dark brown eyes seemed to hold a secret as she smiled and pointed
out where they were on the map. Her blond hair fell into her eyes, and she
quickly brushed it back so it swung down to her shoulders. She looked only
around eighteen or nineteen, tall and slender. Her clothes, a dark green
sleeveless T-shirt and ripped dark blue jeans looked worn and slept in. Pan
couldn't help but notice the dark circles under her eyes and bloodshot look
to her secretive eyes.
"Lady Pan?" Rayne asked, snapping the one-fourth Saiyan from her musing.
"Hai?" Pan said, blinking.
"I could take you four to see Son Goku if you wish. I know where he
sleeps," Rayne said seriously.
"Why do you call them Lady Pan and Prince Trunks?" Bra asked, even as she
brightened at the thought of seeing a familiar face. Rayne's eyes widened
slightly.
"Because Trunks is a Saiyan Prince, as you are a Saiyan Princess," Rayne
said, her slightly surprised eyes meeting Bra's. Bra blinked slowly.
"Oh," she said quietly.
"Are you going to call me Prince Trunks the entire time we hang out
together?" Trunks questioned, beginning to frown. Rayne smirked and curtsied.
"I'm going to call all of you by your respectful titles. Lady Pan.
Princess Bra. Prince Trunks. Lord Goten," she said, her slightly cheerful
look fading to once again seriousness. "The Four Last. The Sleepers. The
Dreamers. The Four from the Past. The Past Saviors."
"Saviors?" Goten echoed. "Maybe Bulma can explain this all to us better."
Rayne smiled slightly, and bowed low to the ground.
"After taking you to see Son Goku, I shall take you to see Doctor
Briefs," she said, then turned and walked out of the room. Looking at each
other helplessly, the four shrugged and followed the girl called Rayne.
To be continued…