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EndingHe had not visited his parent's graves in a long time and he felt a little bit guilty for not.
Trunks laid his hands on each of the tombstones. He let his fingers rest in the dents that his father made a long time ago in the stone. His fingers were bigger.
Vegeta had been dead for a long time now. 10 years now. He died proud and in battle, the way he wanted to die.
He still missed him and his mother though. I guess you never get over that, but he had been so busy with his family and Bra's and the company.
But now, he was retired, his youngest boy, Topaz was now the president of the company. Crystal was not even on the planet anymore, even though she did visit often, with that Brandon fellow that they helped out so long ago. Garnet had joined her on that planet when he was eighteen and had not really looked back.
He was a fighter to the core and that is what he did there. Train people and protect them. It would be a while before he ever settled down.
His little Gem… he sighed and shook his head. She was on her second marriage now. She was mad at him over a little incident with her first husband and wouldn't talk to him anymore, but the jerk deserved it. He cheated on her and he deserved to be scared a little bit. She had a daughter in her first marriage and he could understand why she was upset. He didn't want his granddaughter to be upset over loosing her father completely.
Life was just so complicated.
He sighed heavily and looked to the heavens.
It would have been easier to just be a fighter. But that is not how life worked. He wouldn't have changed a thing.
He still had his wife and his health and his friends. He thought that now that he was retired he would go and find his son Garnet and get to know him again. He was a man now and he never really knew the man that he had become. Pan had suggested it. She missed him too.
He was seriously considering it. He never thought that he would leave earth again. He had thought he had finished his traveling with the grand tour and the trip he had taken with Goten.
He would miss earth while he was gone, but then, earth would always be there.
They were the protectors now. The ones people went to when a tyrant was trying to take over part of the universe or a planet.
No one messed with the saiyians anymore.
………………….
Gohan sat marking papers at his desk. His eyes were getting sore. He leaned back in the chair for a moment and closed them.
He opened then and found his eyes fixed on to a picture of Videl. It was taken on their last anniversary together.
He missed her a lot.
She had only died a year ago. He was glad that it was quick, but they had been able to say goodbye properly before she passed. He was very thankful that Pan and Fry were around to keep his head straight. He would have never come out of that depression if it wasn't for them.
Fry moved him and his family in with him after her passing, so that he wouldn't be lonely. At first he said that it wasn't necessary, but he was glad that he did. Pan's family was all grown up. Fry's was just starting and it was nice having kids, even as destructive as they are, around the house. It kept him thinking about how things were when his kids were young.
Pan had told him that her and Trunks were planning on going to visit Crystal and Brandon and try to find Garnet. He was going to miss Pan coming over and doting on him.
He couldn't forbid her to go. He didn't want her to go and he almost asked if he could go too, but then, it would be intruding upon the couple.
He let out a sigh pulled the glasses back down on his nose and preceded to mark more papers. They had to be done for tomorrow.
……………………………
Goten panted and stared at the ceiling. The tiles were looking pretty bad. He would have to replace them soon. Soon he could see Flint looking down at him with that smile on his face that reminded him of his mother.
"I beat you dad," he said and offered his hand.
"Yeah. You did." He said and took his son's hand.
Flint may have had a slow start in the power department but he was sure making up for it now. "So," Flint said. "When can I take over the gym?"
He laughed. He always told Flint that once he beat him, he could take over the gym. It looked like he was going to have to retire soon.
"You have to beat me at the tournament and then you can have that title," he smiled and saw the frown on his face. He laughed at his son and clamped his hand on his shoulder. "Just to make it legal and all."
"It will be a fair fight right? Not sandbagging it. I want to win fair and square in the arena." He said. He had that pride in him.
"No holding back," Goten said and rubbed his right shoulder. The kid, who really wasn't a kid anymore, really did a number on it.
Flint seemed happy with that.
Goten felt old.
………………………
Cyrus had never seen his mother squirm so much. It was quite amusing. All over a question of what made her fall in love with Goten. He had just come to pick up his boy when he heard him ask her the question. He watched with great curiosity.
The wide eyes of his youngest boy, Loki, looked up to her, waiting for an answer.
Cyrus knew the answer was not easy one.
"Well," she said. "Your grandfather was quite persistent."
"That's how you get a girl. You be persistent?" Loki said and rubbed his small chin.
"Well, he wasn't just persistent, he was always there for me and …" she sighed, "He was willing to wait for be to be ready for him."
"Ready?" Loki looked confused. Was that how he looked when he was little? He was told all the time that Loki looks just like him.
"When I met him…" her voice trailed. He knew this wasn't easy for her. How could she explain that she had a husband that betrayed her and she never thought she would love anyone again. "When I met your grandfather, I wasn't quite ready for a relationship and I did everything in my power to push him away short of killing him." She said and paused for a second.
"So he stalked you?" Loki asked.
He refrained from laughing.
"Sort of, but in a good way," she said and shook her head. "We became friends first."
"Friends. Can a boy and girl just be friends?" Loki asked. He knew why his son was asking these questions. There was a girl in his class that he liked. His uncle Legen and Benot had been asked these same questions and he had to explain a lot of things to him that he shouldn't know about until he was older.
"Yes," she said. "Shouldn't your father be here soon?"
"Yeah," Loki said. "So I should be friends with her then."
"Who?" He smiled brighter. He was glad that mom had dropped the ball on something. It was getting annoying when she seemed to know everything ahead of time.
He walked into the room. Soyna had squirmed enough.
He had never seen his mother look so relieved in his life.
…………………
Junior blinked at his daughter.
Was that his daughter?
"What do you think daddy?" she said in her sweet voice and twirled in the amazing dress.
He was speechless.
Marron piped up with a teary voice. "It's beautiful Jade. You couldn't have a better dress for your wedding."
His little girl was really getting married.
God.
"Dad?"
He smiled at his little girl and gave her a huge hug. "You could look beautiful in anything." He said. "Are you happy with it?"
"Oh yes! I love it! It's not to much is it?"
It probably was. "No. It's fine." He said.
Bulma came around the corner with her mother wearing a pale blue bride's maid dress that matched her hair. Benot followed behind with his hands deep in his pockets, Rose, his wife was busy fussing with the hem on the dress. The women squealed about the dresses and began to talk in wildly high voices that hurt his ears.
The women disappeared into the dressing room again. He blinked a bit. His daughter was getting married. She was a woman. When did that happen?
Now, he understood what Trunks had been talking about when Gem and Crystal started dating and thinking about guys. He felt… well… left out.
Benot walked beside him and looked at the closed door.
"I think they all have gone insane. It must be the perfume they put in the ventilation system." Benot grumbled.
He smiled at his nephew.
"Well, if it makes them happy." Junior smiled.
"Yeah. What we do for our kids." Benot said.
He smiled. He would do anything for his daughter and he knew Benot felt the same.
………………………
Goku smiled as his granddaughter. Flare was with her two new children. Twins. A little boy and a little girl. They were only a month old.
He was holding the newest little boy. They both had furry dark brown-red tails and they were the most adorable things he had ever seen in his life. He was sleeping. Which he was thankful for. The little guy was being quite cranky in the last hour or so. He just wanted to be held. Flare was holding her little girl. She looked tired.
The children looked their father.
Well, the guy that he thought was their father. She had not really announced who the real father was yet.
A real sticking point in the family. Goten was furious over it. Soyna just grit her teeth but stood by her daughter. Flint was ready to kill as soon as he got a name. Benot and Legen weren't too bad about it, nor was Cyrus. They figured they would tell them when the time was right.
He didn't even know for sure, but they sure looked like that guy that she had been hanging around with on that Planet Kerlor about ten months ago. He was a nice guy and all, but he didn't think they were that serious.
He would have done something about it if he had known.
Goku, Flare, and Topaz had met up with Garnet to help safe the planet Kerlor from some demons that tore out of their own dimension barrier.
The boy, Quinn, had a full head of bright red hair, like his mother, but the blue-green eyes of his father. He even had two little fangs coming out of his gums already and he was only one month old. (it was why the breast feeding stop almost immediately and the bottles nipples for the milk were always torn up.) He even had a slight point to his ears. Queen had a tuft of the greenish hair that seemed to shine a bit.
Just like her father.
He was sure that that boy was their father. Who else could it be? He wanted to ask but he didn't want to pry.
He looked to Flare.
She was crying.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
She gasped and wiped her eyes. "I made a mistake," she sniffed. "I should have told him. I miss him so much," she said and went into all out tears. He put down little Quinn in the bassinet and went to her. He took the sleeping Queen from her arms and placed her beside her brother and then gave his granddaughter a hug and let her cry.
"We could go to him," he finally said as he sobs calmed down a bit.
"How?" she said. "I can't just show and say, 'look, we have kids!'."
"I am sure we can get Soyna to watch after your little ones for a while. We can just, you know, go," he said and brought his fingers to his forehead. Her eyes flashed with happiness.
"I forgot about that!" Flare said. "But… you don't… you don't know who their father is?" It was more of an accusation than a statement.
He just grinned. "Well, they do look a bit like that guy, what's his name, Kip? Yeah. He was a good kid."
She flushed.
Bingo.
"So. Do you want to go?" he asked.
She sighed. "He was supposed to marry this girl that he was betrothed too a long time ago. I know he wasn't happy about it but he couldn't disappoint his father." She looked at the two sleeping children and looked like she was going to cry again.
"You can go check it out," he said. "I know that he liked you." Goku said with a smile. Yeah, Kip nearly fell out of his chair when he first saw her walk into the room. He really liked her.
Well, I guess that had been obvious.
"I'll go talk to mom," and she was gone from the room.
He smiled and began to rock the bassinet. Kids should not grow up without their fathers.
…………………………………..
"Quit it!"
Garnet looked to his sister and frowned. "What?"
"You got to stop beating yourself up over that! It wasn't your fault! You couldn't do anything to stop it. You were hurt too, remember." Crystal said and glared at him. She had her arms crossed and was trying to look imposing. She knew what she was talking about but didn't want to talk about it with her. It was about Grandfather's death. The thought of his death never left him. He had been there. Crystal had been there. They all had been there. He couldn't stop it and he had lost control.
He could not forgive himself for that day.
"Grandpa knew what he was doing!" Crystal said. "He had to take care of some older demons from his past in the fight as well. There were people that he used to fight along side of there. He had to face that part of his life all over again and it was rather hard for him."
He stood up and tried to walk away.
He knew that Crystal had tried to warn Vegeta if he went into that battle that he could die. She didn't tell him until later. He would have made sure that his grandfather was still around, if he could have known more about what they were facing.
Crystal was blocking his exit.
"Garnet. Don't let that destroy you," she said with an oddly concerned tone. He looked down at her and met her eyes. He was much taller than she was now, not that his height ever threatened her. They were still at Par with each other when it came to fighting. "He with grandma. I know that you don't understand all that, but he really loved her and her death, weakened him quite a bit. She was his reason to fight. Cyrus could explain it to you better. He explained why he could get so hurt like he did when we fought Drak. It is all confusing and dealing with time traveling stuff. Quite strange indeed but…" she let out a sigh. "You should take a visit to earth. You need to be reminded of home."
"I would rather not." Garnet growled. Earth was nothing but pain. Old and new pain. He would never admit to her that he missed it and had not thought about earth or … or her every day that he was gone. But she didn't understand how his life had to be. How he had to fight.
He looked away from her. He hated her when she hit the right sensitive spots she always did that! He never understood why he kept coming to this planet anyway. He had tones of offers to stay at other places. He had thought that he could stay on that planet with Kip. It was nice there but… it was so like earth and Kip was having enough problems of his own to deal with.
"Mom and Dad miss you," she said.
He knew that. He had not seen them since the funeral and he had changed so much since then.
"Just go back to visit them for a bit. It would do you some good. Things will be calm for a little while yet," Crystal said.
He hated her knowing what was going to happen next. The oracle of the universe or whatever they called her now. Everyone knew about her and the dreams that she would have and she was pretty much in charge of making sure that the universe at least the parts that they knew about stayed at peace.
He heard his new title that he knew was still out there, but didn't like all that much. Guardian of the universe. A little too pretentious for his liking, but that is what they called him.
He also got, Destroyer. He didn't mind that one too much. He knew that he probably should but then, he did destroy things.
It was what he did.
It was why Cara…why she…
"You think about her all the time, don't you?" Crystal asked.
He forgot that she was still standing in front of him.
"Quit that!" He said. "I hate it when you do that!"
"I am just worried about you. I don't want to see you wandering forever," she said.
"I like wandering!" he snapped at her and pointed a finger roughly at her. "You just worry about yourself. Leave me alone. I can handle my own life!"
He pushed her back.
"I know you can Garnet, but don't throw your family away. We are nothing, if we don't all stick together." Crystal called after him.
He hated it when she was right but it wasn't like he wanted to hear it. He didn't want to hear it! "Damn it! I hate it when you do that! I hate it that you know everything! I hate that so much."
She didn't move. He was used to people being scared of him. He was used to people cowering when he hovered about them. Crystal did not do that. She never cowered in front of anyone.
She was just standing there smiling. Being annoying. Being his big sister. "Fine!" He snapped at her. "I'll go back home!" He raised two fingers to his forehead and was pleased to see a startled look on her face. Yeah, grandpa Goku taught him how to do the instant Transmission last time they fought together. He said it would be easier for him to wander the universe with it. "I'll go back and visit mom and dad! Happy. Happy?"
She raised her hand and was about to ask a question. He was sure of it but he was gone before she could say it.
Of course, he was surprised that he wasn't in front of his parent's house. He didn't know what house he was in front of until the front door opened.
Cara.
………………
Cyrus sighed heavily as Loki finally calmed down. He never thought having kids could be so tiring. He now understood what he mother felt with all of them constantly going on, when they were little.
Loki was watching a TV show. But that is not what he was thinking of.
He was thinking of the two that he left behind. The other Crystal and the other Benot. It took him awhile but he always seemed to know what was happening with them. He never forgot his travels with them like he thought he would. He never forgot the times that crumbled when Vegeta did not leave this one. He kept the memories and the knowledge that he acquired from all that.
He only told Crystal about that and mentioned it in passing to Vegeta. Crystal understood a bit but Vegeta just shook his head at him and called him a crazy kid.
It had it's advantages.
He could see battles that they could be encountering a bit clearer that Crystal sometimes did.
He could also see the battle strategy's that they should use. Of course, her husband, Brandon, was very good at that and they almost always thought of the same thing but it was good to have.
He sometimes wished that he didn't know what they were doing. He hated leaving them behind. He missed them quite a bit at times. They had shared things that he would never share with them here.
But then…
He sighed and looked at his boy kicking his feet and humming along with the show.
Things were better for everyone here.
And with the power of the dragon, partially given to his son, the universe would be safe for a long time.
………………………………….
The family that fought together remained strong and kind and kept the peace in the known universe. Kept the evil and injustice at bay and kept the strength of the Saiyian's going.
But the shadows were always there.
There was always something that would threaten the peace.
It would never truly end.
…………FIN……………..
I hoped you enjoyed this tale…. It took me awhile to finish the ending to get it this way… I wrote a much much darker ending but it didn't really go all that well.
Thank you all for reading.
Soyna