Warning : The content of this fiction includes extreme violence, foul language, sexual situations, and non consensual situations.

Disclaimer : All characters here in are property of Toei animation and Akira Toriyama, save the characters Vavage, Phobe, Coma, Jaxom, and Wani; which by the way, means crocodile in Japanese.

Notes : This is an AU fan fiction, beginning at the Buu Saga. I have graduated High School, yay! And now I'll work as fast as I can with this fic despite the writer's block. Lemons coming up soon, I know none of you people will object! ~_^ Oh, and I got the attack 'Saturday Crush' from the DBZ PS2 game (Boudakai) as I needed a special attack for Rads and all of his on the game have to do with the days, week and year. ;

Shadows Within

Part 9

by Reppa

The taste of the sea's water was enough to send him reeling dizzily as he sloshed on his way out. Letting the crocodile beast eat him sounded more appealing than choking on salt heavy water. I am not drowning in this oversized teaspoon of salt…Forget this, thick or not, I'll just blast my way through! With that, Raditz charged up to fire out before something clamped around his ankle, stopped him and dragged him back with a violent wrench. Frowning, he looked back down with a scowl to see a gory, half massed Wani who didn't seem too happy with him.

Oh dammit….he thought to himself, still holding what little breath he had left while he twisted around to free himself, kicking at the claw that wouldn't give. Why all the bad things happened to him, he didn't know, but he didn't care as long as he managed out of this one somehow.

Wani let out a loud grumble as he tugged him downwards even more, maw opened to bite at him the instant he was in reach. The Saiyjin tried wriggling free again with about as much success as his last time before he gave up in frustration and sent out a long tommy of ki blasts. It was apparent the beast wasn't to thrilled at that, the creature's claw jerked him forward momentarily before throwing him away. If he didn't need to hold his breath, Raditz would have breathed a sigh of relief, but he couldn't and he didn't have the time to relax as he charged up an even stronger blast to get himself out.

The freak crocodile was beginning to recover, causing him to wonder if it was half cockroach too. In his opinion, that would suck so much it wasn't even funny.

It didn't matter though anyway as he used the greatest fire of energy he could muster where his current power level was concerned, which had enough power to send him backwards out of the water. He barely missed bowling a shocked Krillin over when he surfaced before hitting the ground meters away with a jarring thud. The dark haired alien woozily propped himself up on his elbows, shaking his head fiercely, he was probably seeing stars now.

"Whoa! Raditz, are you, um, okay?" The short human inquired when he and the Namek approached him.

Raditz settled them with a hard glare, still looking quite dizzy and he clumsily pointed a finger at them, "You try…fighting a damn roach lizard in there…tell me if you're okay then!" His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he promptly passed out with that final note, leaving the two to look at each other with considerable surprise.

*

Gokou groaned in pain, shifting slowly. Shaking his head the Earth Saiyjin looked up to examine their surroundings, he knew they weren't on Snake Way anymore, it looked like they fell into Hell. He sat there for a moment as this all sank in until his round eyes slowly widened. Then his face faulted, jolting to his feet and staggering, Gokou looked about in alarm, "Oh no! We're in Hell! He knocked us right off of Snake Way!!"

That he did. The Saiyjin looked up at the fluffy yellow clouds they had passed through. He knew full well that even if they did find a way back up, they would be too late. If Vegeta hadn't run from the demon, he was sure that by the time they made it back, there'd be no one there. Forcing himself to focus and think more positively, the man turned to see how his oldest son was. The teen was starting to come to.

"Ow…Dad? Where the heck are we?" Gohan demanded once he was back on his feet. While he worked a kink in his shoulder out, he let his dark eyes survey the area about them. It was the strangest place he'd ever really seen, and that was truly saying something.

"Vavage knocked us into Hell…We have to get out of here and see if the others are all right!" His father glanced skyward towards the marigold clouds above. The tall Saiyjin shook his head, frowning deeply, "But we can't go up the way we came…by the time we get back….no one will be there, damn it!"

Gohan frowned at him, following his gaze for a moment before going back to looking about, scratching his head thoughtfully, "So…this is Hell? Really looks like it."

His father nodded quietly as he went a hunting the exit he remembered taking the last time he had visited, Gohan followed after at a slower pace. If Gokou was right, they were going to come back to nothing but crumbled road. Suddenly, he came to a halt just shy of his father's back, "What is it?"

"Possibly some trouble…" He squeaked as Gohan leaned to the side to look past him. Before them stood a few old acquaintances ahead of them. Namely, Frieza and his small bunch of lackeys along with his father. Not anything they had to truly worry about, but it was going to prove bothersome anyway.

"I thought I smelled monkey. Don't you think we have enough here?" The pasty alien hissed, his hulking tail swishing back and forth, thumping onto the ground loudly.

"Nah, can't have too many of us! Admit it, you love us." Gohan replied with a lopsided grin, his carefree attitude causing the alien to scowl further. Suddenly a pair of onis toddled up, waving signs at the occupants of the damned region. One was blue with a horn protruding from the top of his head while the other was red with slicked black hair and two horns jutting out. They watched as Frieza and his cronies were ushered away by the hulky blue one, the red turned to them grumbling.

Then he stopped at the sight of Gokou and he started to grin a little, "Hey, you're back…again. What in the world's going on around here?!?!?" The ogre shrieked at him, Mez, fists flailing in the air, "First we lose the Demon King, then we get some nut down here before he just plows into Other World…!!"

"Some nut…?" Gokou asked in puzzlement before he frowned, his face abruptly serious, "You mean Vavage??"

"Yeah, that's the kook. He ransacked the palace for something on the Tower of Yami. Then he took off."

"Mez, we need to get back to Snake Way as soon as possible, which way was that exit?" The tall Saiyjin had no idea what this tower was, but at the moment he didn't care. He had to get back topside to see what had happened. The red ogre pointed the way and he and he son bolted off in that direction. It was indeed the same as they emerged in King Yemma's desk door. The giant just blinked down at them as the two took off to Snake Way.

They eventually arrived back to where they had been knocked off. Indeed the area was empty save broken road and blue blood spatters. Either way, even instantly transporting wouldn't have yielded any better a results, they had been unconscious for some time. Gohan knelt to retrieve the Z sword as Gokou continued to look about, "Feels like Trunks and Goten went elsewhere…same as Shin and Kabito. But I can't feel Vavage or Vegeta at all…"

"They aren't in hell, they're not here. And I think it's pretty pointless to say they'd be on Earth…" His son pointed out, rounding about to take a quick survey of the damage. "Think we should go after Trunks and Goten?"

*

"Next time we go get a damn orb, I'm making one of you go into the water and fight a giant, ugly lizard to get it." Raditz scowled, holding the Dragonball he aquired in hand. It was cerulean blue in color with three dark blue stars. He hadn't let Piccolo nor Krillin touch it, he laid claim to it himself and the only person he was going to hand it over to would be Vegeta.

The trio were on their way back to the Lookout, all three surprised when they came back to practically nothing. The Namek scowled darkly to himself, looking about, "Where is everyone else? Are we supposed to find the rest of those Dragonballs ourselves?"

"I don't even remember where they are…" Krillin mumbled to himself.

Raditz snorted, pacing about while looking into some of the corridors, his tail poofed with agitation. He didn't want to do anything else but eat a nice meal and go to sleep, but that was going to end up waiting, "I know, and I don't want to get them. Let Kakarrot do it. Speaking of which…"

They turned to watch Gokou and his son, along with the two younger boys and the android phase into view. Trunks had the white one star Dragonball in hand. With a slight smirk, Piccolo cast Raditz an appraising glance, "Well, looks like you've picked up on sensing ki, now? That was pretty fast."

"I did?" The long haired Saiyjin blinked, staring at him with a faint look of puzzlement, "Since when could I do that?"

The bald human looked to him now, "You mean you didn't sense them?"

"I sensed that." Raditz suddenly pointed at the one star ball in the young Briefs' hand. Everyone save the boys and the robot gave him a funny look, but they shrugged it off.

"We have the three star."

"And we lost the two star," Gohan informed them, sighing in defeat. "We lost it to Vavage and he got Vegeta too. We have no idea where Shin and Kabito are either." He watched the Namek and the other two groan at that, it was indeed bad news. Now all they could really do was find the rest of the Dragonballs. "Okay, where's the next one?"

"Well, that walking tin can said there's one in Death Valley, the other's in Tokyo, and another is in Mount Fuji. Just don't know where the last one is. Are we gong to end up splitting up and going after them all at once or one at a time?" Raditz crossed his arms as the others looked thoughtful, then he gestured to Piccolo, "If we're splitting up, I'm sticking with him. He's the only one with real brains out of you save my nephew."

"Thanks." The Namek grunted, looking to Gokou, "Well, what do you think?"

The Earth Saiyjin frowned, looking aside. He didn't want to look for the Dragonballs, he wanted to search for Vegeta. All the ideas of what the demon could be doing to the prince while they hunted for them. Slowly, he turned back to them, "Well…I guess we'll split up and look for them. Gohan and Raditz can go to Tokyo…Piccolo and I will go to Death Valley and Krillin, you take Phobe and the boys to Fuji."

Raditz looked to his nephew, "Okay, now what's Tokyo? If it's like that damn Dead Sea, you're on your own."

"It's a city. Shouldn't be too hard, it's probably in a gift shop or laying somewhere in the central park," the teen explained, levitating into the air, followed after by his uncle. They took off immediately while Krillin sighed, leaving next with his small group, which left Gokou and Piccolo alone on the Lookout.

"Why was Raditz saying that about the Dead Sea? Something happen?" Gokou inquired, trying to find the direction America would be in.

"There was a guardian under the water he had to fight and it nearly killed him. Vavage probably has some others guarding the rest as well." Was the reply.

That didn't bode well. But he figured Krillin and the others were fairly well off. If Raditz could hold his own well enough against something like that, then he didn't see whether they had much to worry about.

*

When they arrived, the central park of Tokyo was bustling. It seemed like a concert was on the way to start. Who the band or singer was, Gohan wasn't very sure. He and his uncle touched down on the edge, they decided to split up and search through carefully. Gohan squeezed his way through, having discarded his red cape after having it get caught on several occasions so he now wore the green and black of his Saiyaman costume. A few people gave him strange looks but he shrugged them off.

As he looked carefully in every booth, as best he could, he found a brochure on the performance scheduled. On the front was the picture of a young man, he looked to be as old as he was himself, short, spiked hair and emerald green eyes. He had a gold loop in one ear and wore a brown leather jacket over a tight black shirt. He was pretty good looking. The name 'Jaxom Windjammer' was scrawled below the picture. It was a familiar name.

Shaking his head, Gohan crumbled up the paper booklet and tossed it away as he continued his search. But it was growing more fruitless with each passing moment and he was starting to worry on whether his uncle was wreaking havoc in his new surroundings. Such a thought was rather frightening. Going to find him sounded a good idea about now.

He turned to leave when he rammed into another person. Strangely enough, the person's chest was so rock hard it surprised him a great deal. Shaking his head, he looked up at who he bumped into. The man was tall, wearing a leather jacket and white tank top along with a pair of sunglasses. Gohan started to apologize when the stranger leaned down and kissed him, tilting back and licking his lips. He could make out a pair of emerald green eyes over the shades.

The stranger smirked, "Jaxom. Thanks for the kiss."

End of chapter 9