Disclaimer: I claim no responsibility for the actions of anyone in this story. Especially not rock girl. You'll see what I mean. Oh, and the names belong to Toriyama-san.

Chapter Three

A week later, the situation in Otherworld was largely unchanged. Goku and his brother and his father spent their time holed up in the dungeon. Despite a few tensions, Goku was generally on good terms with his family after the first day, and they were making a concerted effort to completely eradicate Hell's food supplies. Kuririn was coping with being suddenly in charge of everything, and Yamcha was dealing with Bulma's loss. At this point, Hell (I'm speaking of the realm's people in general) believes that Prince Vegeta is dead, killed by Goku. Heaven (see note for Hell), on the other hand, thinks that Goku and Bulma have both been killed or captured by Hell. How little they know.

Vegeta had begun exploring the caves as a way to rebuild his endurance, and additionally as a way of getting away from Bulma, who stirred some very strong, conflicting feelings, mostly of dislike, but there was something else in that mixture which he wanted very much to suppress…

However, the exploration technique failed in the latter purpose, since Bulma was nearly as bored as he was (after all, there were only so many times one could re-read a book), and was only too ready to tag along, even if she spent most of the time fighting with Vegeta rather than getting any real exploring done. Today they had gone farther that ever before, and were in the midst of a huge, grand cave, filled with impressive stone formations and echoing with the sound of dripping water. Bulma looked around in awe, then hurried after Vegeta and his ki ball, the only light in the subterranean caverns.

"Slow down, can't you?" she snapped. "I want some more time to look around!"

"Then make your own ki ball, angel," he snapped back at her. "I'm not a tour guide."

Bulma subsided into silence with an offended snort, and then they were in the next cave.

"Hey," Bulma said, stepping forward. "That stalagmite looks just like a person." Prompted by some universal urge to touch odd-looking things, she laid a hand on it…and drew back with a gasp.

"What's wrong, woman?" Vegeta asked scornfully. "It's just a rock."

"It moved!" Bulma exclaimed. At Vegeta's look of disbelief, she snapped. "It did! Take a look!"

Still looking skeptical, Vegeta approached the formation and touched it…and blinked. This time, it didn't just move. Color and life spread from the point of contact, and the stone…no, the girl, it was plainly alive now, took a deep breath and looked up at the angel and the demon.

"So you're the ones, eh?" The girl was dressed in a plain, blue-gray robe, with short, light brown hair and curiously penetrating eyes the same color as her robe. She looked at them both, and smiled oddly. The girl then pointed to a circular pool in the center of the cave, and a flame sprang into existence above it. Vegeta found his voice at last and scowled at her.

"Who the hell are you? And what do you mean, we're the ones? The ones for what? Would you give a better explanation than that, girl?"

Bulma added her glare to his, for once in agreement with the demon prince. "Yeah! And what were you doing as a rock? You nearly scared me to death, moving like that!"

"I was waiting for the ones who would come. You." The girl frowned at the flame, made a few passes at it, and nodded in satisfaction. "My task is to explain to you the beginning of things, which has long been forgotten."

The angel and demon exchanged glances, their thoughts running along very similar lines, something like 'Humor the crazy person, or at least demand more of an explanation before pounding her.'

Vegeta growled, "Why would we want to know about the beginning of things? I have enough problems."

"Yeah," Bulma agreed. "I've never particularly liked history anyway."

"It is important for you to know," the girl said gravely. "Soon, if the future is not altered, the Kaos will come again."

"The Kaos?" The question came from demon and angel together, and they glared at each other for daring to have the same train of thought.

"Watch." The girl gestured at the flame, and Bulma and Vegeta, their curiosity overcoming their suspicion, looked into the fire.

At first, they saw nothing. Then Bulma realized that this was the point. They were looking into a fire, but they didn't see flames. Instead, they saw nothing. Pure, blank, absolute nothingness. Bulma blinked, and then nearly panicked as she realized that she was no longer in the cave. She was floating, touching nothing, hearing nothing, and seeing almost nothing. What little she could see consisted of one demon prince, pissed, and one really weird girl, smug.

"In the beginning," the girl intoned, and, as if on cue, something sprang into being. "There was created the dark and the light." Light sprang into being, and where there was light, there was darkness. And they danced. "The light and the dark were together, in harmony, and from this harmony there came the angels and the demons." The image zoomed in, revealing the forms of the newly-created beings. "And the angels and the demons lived together for centuries upon end. And they were happy." The image showed angels and demons being sickeningly happy. Vegeta snorted with cynical amusement, and even Bulma looked skeptical.

"Okay, maybe not that happy," the girl admitted. There was a brief image of what was apparently a fight in a bar. "But anyway, for the most part, things were pretty peaceful. And then," The images grew foreboding. Bulma caught herself listening for the evil swoop of background music. "There came…" dramatic pause. "The Kaos!" The image showed a…well, it was largely indescribable, but it was a sickening gray color and it slid along the ground like liquid given form and direction. "The Kaos infected members of both races, causing them to go to war!" There were images of battle and death. "Of course, some demons and angels attempted to reunite the races," Here there was a still picture of a band of bloody but determined-looking angels and demons. Bulma noted that the lead one looked rather like Goku. "But it was all in vain. However, they did succeed in driving the Kaos out of the Otherworld and into a prison, where it remains. But, in recent years…" Here Bulma felt prompted to ask a question.

"Excuse me? How do you know what's been going on in recent years if you've been a rock?"

The girl glared at her. "IN RECENT YEARS," she repeated in a loud, I'm-choosing-to-ignore-what-you-just-said tone, "The prevailing state of war between the races has escalated. If something is not done, and soon, to bring the races together, the Kaos will break free once again, and wreak havoc on the land!"

Vegeta raised a skeptical eyebrow. "And why, exactly, have you chosen us to carry out this all-important task?"

The girl looked sheepish. "To tell the truth, mainly because you're the first people to come here in about three hundred years, and the last ones didn't touch me. Touch is required to trigger the transformation."

"Is it?" Bulma asked curiously. "Just what is this spell? How is it constructed? Does it use a pattern-recognition base, or…"

"I don't have time for this!" Vegeta growled. "You can stay here with rock-girl, angel, but I'm leaving."

"You can't leave!" the girl exclaimed. "You have to accept the task! If you don't, there will be terrible consequences for the otherworld!"

"I'm a demon, remember? I like terrible things!"

"Not if they're happening to you," Bulma muttered. The girl giggled. Vegeta glowered.

"I HEARD THAT!"

Bulma grinned at him. "Good." She turned to the girl, totally tuning Vegeta out, which made him even more angry. A vein started to throb in his forehead. "So," she asked. "Just what, exactly, are we supposed to do?"

The girl shrugged. "How should I know? I'm just the messenger. So do you accept, or what? If you don't, I need to tell someone, and if you do, I'm leaving."

"I accept it," Bulma said. Emphasis on the 'I'. Implication; Vegeta could do whatever he darn well pleased.

The girl nodded. "Good. Here, you'll need this." She handed Bulma an amulet, apparently made of black volcanic glass. It had been meticulously carved, and it was like one of those pictures that seem to be a young woman if looked at one way, and an old hag if you alter your view. The carving of the charm shifted between the shape of a demon and that of an angel. The outer edge of a feather became part of a profile, a demonic tail became the boundary of an angelic pinion. Bulma studied it, intrigued. She had never seen anything quite like it.

"Hey, what…" she started to ask, and then looked up. The girl was gone.

"Let me see that thing she gave you, angel," Vegeta snapped.

"Why should I?" Bulma demanded. "You didn't accept anything!"

"So?" Before she could yell anything else in her annoying voice, he snatched it from her grasp and examined it, frowning.

"What is this?"

Bulma snatched it back, and this time held on more tightly. "How should I know? You heard everything she said. Come on, I'm going back." Head held high, she stalked out of the cave. Vegeta glanced around, making sure rock girl was really gone, growled, and followed her, his ki ball popping back into existence as the flame suspended over the pool flared once and then died.