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.

Notes : This is an AU fan fiction, beginning at the Buu Saga. I have the chapters planned out and this bloody thing will be 21 chapters strong, the longest fic I'm doing yet. Again I thank every one of my reviewers, and I will try to get the updates out sooner. It should work better now that I have it all jotted down and that I'm no longer working.

I'm debating on doing something like a doujinshi/comic illustrating this, who thinks I should?

Here's a picture of Jaxom and Gohan.

Shadows Within

Part 10

by Reppa

Gohan stared up at him in bewilderment for a moment. He couldn't believe some stranger out of the blue came up and kissed him like that. The teen wasn't going to say he didn't like it, though he wouldn't admit to liking it either. Hurriedly, he stepped back, still staring in disbelief, "What was that for??"

The slightly taller and broader man shrugged, grinning smugly as he combed a hand through his short, wild black hair, "I don't know. You're cute, what more reason do I need?" Jaxom snorted with a soft chuckle as he made his way past him, looking at him over his shoulder with his shaded glasses in place, "Oh well, I have a gig to do. Hey, I hope to catch ya at the front, toots."

Watching him walk away towards the open palladium, Gohan sweat dropped slightly, looking somewhat annoyed. Never had he had an encounter like that and part of him hoped it to be the last. :Toots…? The guy screams 'Big Ego' if you ask me, just like Vegeta….: He frowned, wondering just where the Saiyjin prince could be at the moment.

A heavy weight pressing into his side caused him to abandon his dreary thouts and whirl around in surprise, coming face to face with his uncle who looked a little more or less frazzled. And newly dressed. A pair of navy blue boots to match a short length, long sleeve blue jean jacket and a black tank top matching his black camping shorts. He raised a brow, blinking in confusion, "Where'd you get that…? How…?"

"Well, I was having an episode and I think people thought I was performing." That got another sweat drop to appear on the teen's brow as he could only imagine the scene and he wasn't going ask what brought on the spaz attack. But thankfully his uncle was in something less noticeable and easier to blend in. The long haired Saiyjin took a moment to take a look about the crowd, a great many of them heading towards the open palladium, "What is going on here exactly?"

"A concert I suppose."

"A what?"

"It's kind of a culture thing. It's a gathering of people to see a show or see a group play music. Get it?" Gohan explained, following his line of sight towards the structure before turning back to him, "I'd be saying we can't stay to see a show…but that's the only place we haven't really looked…What in the world happened to your eyes, Raditz…."

That caused Raditz to go crossed eyed, as if he could see the issue at hand now. "What? What's wrong?" He went from his comical expression to a fairly mellow one as he settled his gaze on his nephew.

"Um, they're blue now…" His uncle squinted at him, but Gohan shook his head. They had no real time for this at all. "Look, just forget about it. It's probably just me. Come on, we need to go search the concert area. You go and look about the eastern area and I'll go searching the western. We meet in the middle backstage."

Raditz blinked as Gohan ran off, slowly following after in a less rushed pace. "What the hell is backstage…."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He hadn't remembered exactly the last thing that happened before darkness descended, but Vegeta was fairly sure he wouldn't like it whether he knew or not. Sitting up, his shook away the haze in his sight to look around at the blackness surrounding him. The Saiyjin couldn't imagine being stuck in such a dark place. And it was cold, but not bitingly so, thank Kami.

Vegeta twisted this way and that as he looked around, nothing but darkness as far as he could see. He could sense nothing, no one. Snorting, the prince managed to his feet, he wobbled slightly, the floor he stood on was slick like glass and rounded down like a crater. When his hands reached out, they pressed against some wall which was similar to the floor. "Where did that sick fuck put me…"

As he looked over his shoulder, he could make out two small clouds of blood red mist and as he leaned back well enough, he could make out the shapes of stars. Two stars, round, spherical glass object…If he didn't know any better, he'd say he was in a Dragonball. But how that happened was beyond him.

"This is no good…" Aside from his predicament on how he got there, he had another of how he was going to cope. It was as if the object was sucking the life out of him. He felt tired and weary, and he was sure even if he tried with what strength he did have, there wasn't going to be anyway to get out. And even if he shot ki blasts at the barrier, he really didn't want them to ricochet off the surface and back at him.

Snorting loudly, Vegeta sat himself back down, legs folded as he rest his chin in his palms. The Saiyjin wondered what the others were doing and what the hell Vavage could possibly be up to. For the time being, he reasoned all he could really do was wait and see what came up next.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Man…this is one hot place…" Gokou grunted as both he and Piccolo stood in the very heart of Death Valley. The man wasn't sure, but the degree was probably off the charts. As he glanced around, he took in the sloping arid region enclosed by mountain ranges. There was sparse vegetation and very few animals he could see about. Holding up the Dragon radar they had earnestly convinced Mr. Briefs to give up, Gokou gave it a close look. "Well…"

The Namek sighed in agitation, drawing out his water bottle for a momentary drink before replacing it. "Where can we find the Dragonball? The sooner we find it, the better."

"Yeah. But it might be hard, the thing's moving around…" The Earth Saiyjin squinted at the device before he looked up straight ahead of them. It wasn't that far off from where they were thankfully. Stepping off from the ground, the two levitated up and flew in the direction indicated by the radar at a slow pace. "Hey Piccolo…"

"Hm?" The Namek glanced to his old friend, frowning at the slight worry etched in his brow, "What is it?"

"You think Vegeta's okay? We don't know half the things Vavage can do and the half we've already seen I know we don't like in the least. I can't help but worry." As he spoke, Gokou growled lowly, how good it'd feel to have his hand wringing that demon's neck right about now.

"I'm sure he's fine. We are talking about the big shot, prince of all Saiyjin." That got a nervous chuckle from the Saiyjin next to him.

They paused soon as they came to the top of an especially large slope to check the radar. According to the small machine, the Dragonball was just a few meters away and had ceased moving. Gokou scanned the sands with his onyx eyes as Piccolo did the same but he stopped, blinking funny, "Hey Piccolo, what in the world is that…?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Krillin groaned softly, rubbing the back of his neck. He and the boys along with the robot were at the peak of Japan's Mount Fuji. Personally, he would have rather gone to the central park in Tokyo but he had to make do. He was just glad that the volcano was pretty dormant, otherwise he would have had some severe objections. He remembered the last time he'd fallen into a volcanic crater.

The boys were searching through the ice layered on the summit of the mountain, having little luck finding the Dragonball they were after. Trunks had pointed out a while ago that knowing what color it was now would have helped a whole lot more. He was sifting through the ice, melting some of it sometimes, other times he just picked up chunks to throw aside.

Goten was trying to dig down into the ice and rock, as they were getting mixed signals on where it really was from Phobe. According to the robot, it wasn't on the surface, but it wasn't too deep down. But how deep, he hadn't specified. Whether the chill up at the top messed with his circuits or if it was some glitch, the Trunks really couldn't tell.

Soon Krillin came sliding down to join them, frowning as he mumbled to himelf, looking briefly under a large rock, "What's the good of a Dragonball tracking, fighting robot if it gets so wonky…."

"Phobe isn't wonky! You are!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Music blared around the open stadium as the bands played on. As the heavy metal and melodious singing filled the air, Gohan was carefully looking around his designated portion of the structure. So far, he was coming up fairly empty handed, but there was this small feeling in his gut that the Dragonball he was looking for was very close. And at the moment, he wanted to go with that strong gut feeling.

He wondered vaguely how his uncle was doing. The music was probably driving him up the wall, he could only imagine and he wouldn't really blame him for sitting the search out.

There was still nothing as he came closer and closer to the very back. His gut feeling getting stronger now though it was also accompanied by a great feeling on unease. He was sure something was going to go wrong soon.

His search was eventually bringing him towards center backstage and indeed, his uncle was no where in sight. But at the time being, that really didn't matter now. Of all things, there sat the Dragonball. But the way it was, it was too obvious there was something amiss.

The small orb sat perched on a large box, nestled in red fabric. It was a soft apple green color with five stars inlaid in it, the color of forest green. But why in the world was it just sitting there like that? It was practically screaming 'Come take me now! No fuss!'. Nothing was ever that easy, Gohan was very sure of that.

Gulping slightly, he moved within arms reach of it. Nothing happened. Nothing at all. His heart was practically running the mile race now as he slowly reached for it, hand resting down on it softly. He could feel a soft warmth through his white glove. Nothing yet again, maybe it was just that easy despite how unlikely. Knowing his uncle, he would have run up and grabbed it before running like mad, which was what he should have been doing by now.

Slowly he relaxed as his hand gripped the orb and made as if to take it before a black leather gloved hand slammed down on his, but not too hard, practically scaring him to Other World and back. The half breed jerked his head up, onyx eyes locking on apple green eyes. It was the stranger from before, Jaxom. Gohan breathed softly in relief despite the jump his heart gave, looking down and blushing furiously at his hand under the other's and quickly removed it, "I'm sorry, ah…but I really need that Dragonball…"

"Oh, I know." Jaxom smiled at him, an almost eerie smile as he picked the Dragonball up in his hand. Something was definitely wrong as the singer stepped around the crate, causing Gohan to step back slightly. "I know you need this, that's why I'm here, pumpkin."

End of chapter 10