Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z.

Author's Note: This may look familiar to anyone who has read any of my stuff before, and with good reason. It started when I was trying to do a little surgery on my fic, 'Morgoth the Demon'. (my apologies to anyone who was reading it, I've taken it down) I ended up trying to redo so much, and had so many new ideas that I ended up with a whole new story, and only a few similarities. So, here it is. This takes place after DBZ, negating GT altogether. Enjoy.

The Golden Moon

by Rev. Vampyre

PART ONE: The Vampire Osiris.

Chapter One:

"Boy, Goten, if only your dad could see you now." Trunks laughed, helping his best friend off the grass. "You haven't been training that hard lately, have you?"

Goten shook his head and brushed the dust off of his shirt, and tightened the pony-tail his hair was tied back in. "I have other things to worry about. Geeze, it's not like I'm you or anything. I have places to go, people to see..."

"You mean girls to see." Trunks laughed. "I still don't understand why you have to say yes to every one of them that asks you out."

Goten shrugged. "Well, I don't get how you can't."

"If I did, I wouldn't have any time to sleep." Trunks laughed, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "Anyway, it isn't fun if you're with someone different every night. What if you call her by the wrong name?"

Goten smiled. "I do that a lot, actually."

They laughed together for a while. It had been weeks since they had been together. Trunks helped his mom run capsule corp, and Goten was always busy keeping his dates, so they rarely got time to train together anymore.

"Besides, I have Marron." Trunks said.

Goten shook his head. "I' supposed to be the naive one, Trunks. She's fifteen, you're seventeen. How can you take her seriously?"

Trunks and Goten proceeded to argue playfully, never noticing the thing with no face watching them from behind a tree.

It was shiny black all over, and it's face had no features whatsoever, but other than that, it's body was basically human.

It's computer brain ticked off data.

Demi saiyajin males, warrior class C.

There were a few barely audible clicks inside it's head as it's computers worked.

Possible threats. Radioing information to ship.

A small panel opened on the back of it's shiny black head, and an antennae popped out. Radio signals began to broadcast from it, sending the information out into space.



Gohan was paying a routine visit to Dende's lookout to see his father. It was something he did at least once a week.

After Goku had gone with Uubu to train, Gohan had made it a regular task to visit. It kept him in shape, as he could hardly help training with them, and he liked to visit with his father anyway.

He liked to train, even though something in him hated fighting. He had stopped after Cell, but now he did it nearly every day. Not as intense as, say, Vegeta, but he kept in shape. He had to watch himself, or he would startle his students on accident. He worked as a teacher at Orange Star High, where he had gone to school.

He landed on the lookout, and immediately rushed past Mr. Popo with a quick hello, and down the stairs into the training room.

As he expected, his father and the mohawked boy Uubu were in the middle of an intense spar.

Not wanting to disturb their training, he sat cross legged on the floor to watch.

It was something to see, too. Uubu really did have Buu's power, that was clear. And Goku was an excellent teacher. Gohan had no trouble keeping up with the kicks, punches, and small blasts that made up the fight, but anyone else besides Vegeta probably would have. They were fast. And they weren't even going all out. If Uubu had powered up to his full potential, the resulting spar would easily cause severe damage to the training area. And Goku... well, if Goku powered up to his full power, that is, SSj3, just the rush of energy would have destroyed the tower and the surrounding land for miles.

Gohan sat and watched the two with interest. It was a good fight, but not near some he had seen them in. Once a month or so, Goku and Uubu would go out to some desert or another and train at full power. Or at least at Uubu's full power. Now those were good fights.

Goku was on the defensive, as usual. He had taught Gohan the same way. He would teach a few basic moves, and then let you attack. Once you were able to get through his defenses a couple times, he would start to fight back.

It was a pretty good method. Gohan had seen a lot of teaching methods, and his father's had always been the best. When Gohan had trained with Piccolo, the namek had not really known how to teach. He had no experience. So, basically, he attacked, and Gohan defended himself. One of the reasons Gohan had always frozen up as a child was that he really didn't know that well how to attack. Once he had trained under his father, though, he was able to fight Piccolo on more of an equal playing field. Then he had increased by leaps and bounds.

He was snapped out of the daydream he had barely been aware he was having by his father's hand on his shoulder.

"You awake, Gohan?" Goku's beaming smile looked down.

Gohan jumped to his feet. "Oh, how's it going? I just stopped by to say hi. Ya know, see how you guys were doing."

Goku laughed. "You mean you didn't come to train?"

"Well..."

It was fairly obvious that was what Gohan had come for. He was wearing his orange gi that looked just like the one Goku used to wear. Now, Goku always dresses in a blue and yellow gi.

"Hello, Gohan." Uubu said cheerfully, bowing. "Nice to see you."

Gohan bowed back. "You wanna spar?"

Uubu smiled and looked to Goku. "Sensei?"

Goku nodded. "Go ahead. I need a rest anyway. I'm getting too old for this." he laughed.

Gohan walked out onto the large expanse that took up close to half of the inside of the lookout. Uubu walked up next to him.

"Half power okay?" Gohan asked.

Uubu nodded. Half power was still higher than Goku and him usually went inside, but it would be okay if they were careful.

Gohan summoned his mystic power in a flash. He only powered up halfway, like he said. He wasn't quite as strong as his father, in fact he wasn't really even close, but his full power could still cause the lookout to crumble pretty easily.

Uubu surrounded himself with his white aura, amazingly powerful for one his age. He was a few years younger than Goten and Trunks, but already more than twice their power.

Gohan grinned and flew at the boy.



Dende was very nervous. No, more like paranoid.

He told himself over and over again that he had nothing to be paranoid about. It was just a stupid legend.

But it was more than that. Even King Kai knew it, no matter what he said out loud. The Golden Moon was coming.

Kaio-sama had contacted the young Kami a few days ago. He hadn't really said much, but he had been worried, it was easy to see.

Dende could remember their conversation perfectly.

"Now, I don't want to worry you, Dende." he had said telepathically. "But there may be some trouble coming your way. Not very likely, but you should prepare, all the same."

Dende, now used to being contacted for something that wasn't likely to happen, had been a bit annoyed. "Kaio-sama, I realize that you love jokes, and I realize that you are much higher ranking than me, but please, this is not the time."

"Kids these days." the Kai had muttered. "No respect."

"Well, what is it?"

"Well, I can't really explain in a way that won't make you flip, so why don't you read up on it. You know all the books in the library. Look up the legend of the Golden Moon."

Dende let out a deep sigh. "Is this something important, King Kai? I'm pretty busy at the moment."

"Of course it's important!" Kaio-sama had yelled. "Would I bother to contact you otherwise!? Just look up the legend already!"

"Okay, jeeze!"

Dende stalked off to the library to look for the specified legend. But King Kai hadn't been quite finished.

"Dende?" he broke in, softer and more calm.

"Yes?"

"Just remember, it's only a legend. It probably won't happen. I just want you to prepare."

And the connection had been severed.

So Dende did what he was asked. That was why he was terrified.

It had only taken him a couple hours of searching through the nearly unlimited texts before he found what he was looking for. He had just finished reading the rather lengthy tale behind the legend, and then the legend itself, which was actually rather short.

"It can't be." he said to himself. "This Golden Moon, it's illogical! Impossible! No, it'll never happen."

He wasn't so sure though. He wasn't sure if the moon would be gold one month from now, or if the horrors that the legend predicted would actually happen. In all honesty, he feared it, but also doubted it.

So he said nothing to Goku, or anyone else. If he had, quite a bit would have been avoided. Or maybe not.

"If it is going to happen," he said to himself, "Best not to worry them. They can't stop it, so why get everyone worked up?"

While Goten and Trunks resumed their spar, the thing with no face in the bushes received a reply to it's information.

Any possible threat or competition is to be destroyed, as ordered by Osiris-sama.

As this information processed in the robot's brain, it started forward through the brush. If Trunks and Goten had not been sparring, they would have seen it coming. But they were, so they didn't.

When it got to the edge of the clearing, it held out one shiny black arm. The hand opened at the wrist on a hinge, and two metal prongs extended out.

Demi saiyajin: danger level 8.4. Use of stealth recommended.

It crept forward, and the boys were so absorbed in their fight that they didn't notice it until Goten felt the metal prongs against the skin of his neck.

His reaction was a little slower than it should have been. He really hadn't been training much lately. If he had, he may have been quicker.

He tried to spin, an instinct his father had drilled into him, but before he could, enough electricity to run capsule corp. for close to a year came in a blue arc, passing from the prongs into his body.

The effect was horrible. He had been shocked before, but never like this. Every muscle in his body contracted with unimaginable pain. His hair flew up, like he was going super saiyajin. It let out a puff of smoke on the ends.

Then, it stopped. Goten slumped to the ground, as limp as a rag. It had taken less than a second.

Trunks' reaction time was little better, but good enough.

"Bastard!" he yelled out. His hair flashed gold and he slammed the hardest punch he could muster into the flat space where it's face would have been. It ripped through the thing's face like tinfoil.

He ripped his hand out, and the robot (it was plainly a robot, it had wires and gadgets sticking out of the hole Trunks' fist had made) fell over, sparks sputtering from it's destroyed head.

Trunks spit to one side, and his hair fell again, going back to the pale lavender it was naturally.

"Teach you to attack us."

Goten let out a groan. Trunks immediately knelt down and looked at his friend.

It looked like he would be okay. He had a nasty burn where the metal prongs had touched him, but he was already coming around.

Trunks sighed with relief. It looked like Goten would be okay.

He looked past his friend at the thing that lay further away. He wanted to take a look at it.

But when he looked up to see it, it was gone.

The Lowest Hells were nasty places. Usually the only beings that would even venture there were the Marshals, who were demons that were in charge of torture, and the very most powerful gods. The Lowest Hells were places where beings like Majin Buu were sent. Mortals never entered, but especially evil entities were condemned there for eternity.

It was a vast, bare plain of rock and hard packed earth. The sky overhead was a bruised purple-black. Lightning snaked all the way to the ground, at all times. There were pools of boiling magma, water, and blood at regular intervals. Any resident of the Lowest Hells knew to keep away from these. Unpleasant things lived in them. Things that had been born there and bred to do only one thing. Eat.

Aside from the normal torture centers where everyone was brought periodically, there were other places. They called them 'Houses of Correction', but what they were in all actuality were bloodbaths. They were reserved for the worst of the worst. The beings that were able to terrorize even the inmates confined in this place. Most were simply too powerful to be let loose.

One such being was Morgoth.

He was actually a demon, and had once been a Martial here. Eons ago. But he, unlike the others, possessed free will. Perhaps Enma had been unspecific when he told the smiths how to make this one, or perhaps it was an accident. But Morgoth was free. And he hated.

Hated the Houses of Correction, hated the other Marshals who had him imprisoned here, and especially hated mortals.

The reason he was incarcerated was that he had broken out of hell. As impossible as it seemed, he had done it.

Even that should have only earned him a week or so in the place. But, he hadn't just broken out and been brought back. He had broken out, killed off most of the population of the universe, and then played with what remained until he was finally killed himself.

None of the Marshals knew what had killed Morgoth, and he certainly wasn't going to tell them.

But when he died and was sent back here, there had been a mob. Every other Marshal had risen against him, on the orders of every god in the universe. And he was buried here, held down by bonds that shot him so full of electricity that he was stricken unconscious if he moved. He was growing immune to them, but it still hurt.

He could break out of hell again now, if he tried. At least, he had a good chance. But he was waiting for something.

He was waiting for the golden moon.

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