Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z, or any of the characters therein. And this will be the only time that I mention that for the duration of this fic, since it's going to be quite long, and I don't really feel up to making a separate disclaimer for each chapter.

Inversion of Shadows

BOOK ONE, CHAPTER ONE

A pencil scratching across paper, quickly yet surely inscribing numbers and letters – though numbers, mostly – on the thin, ruled surface. Subtracting, multiplying, converting fractions into decimals, or vice versa. It was a soft sound, so soft in fact that a human would have heard nothing, but the wielder of the pencil was not human. Not completely, at least, though on more than one occasion, he'd wished that he were.

Beside the sheet of paper rested several other pencils, snapped clean in half, as though their owner had suffered a bout of ill temper and had taken it out upon them. Such was not the case, for their owner was a gentle boy, slow to anger; it merely was an effort to control his great strength enough to perform such fine actions as holding a writing implement, and he occasionally let slip a little too much. For this reason, his desk and closet held enough packages of such tools to shame a stationery store. And given how often he used them, he would likely need more before the passage of a year.

The life of a scholar, he supposed. Just like his mother had wanted from the start.

A smooth wave of ki, making its first movement in a little over an hour, began to slowly, yet purposefully, wander about the house. First, it made its way to the kitchen, stopping there for a moment, most likely to get a drink and perhaps a snack. It then came closer, accompanied by light, rapid footsteps barely audible even to his inhumanly sharp ears.

He pretty much ignored the footsteps and the ki, even when they both halted directly behind him. His homework occupied his mind right now, and if the figure behind him wanted attention, it wasn't, and never had been, shy about getting it.

This assertion was proven true a moment later.

"Niichan!" the figure called, and he suddenly felt a weight on his back and a pair of tiny, yet powerful arms encircle his neck; on any normal person, this would have been a devastating choke-hold, but to him, it was just an affectionate brotherly gesture.

Carefully, he pried the arms off his neck, gently setting his younger sibling on the floor before turning in his chair to face him. "Hey, Goten. So what's up, squirt?"

"I'm all done my sleepin'. I wanna go outside and play!" Goten said with classic four-year-old assertiveness.

Gohan chuckled. "Done with your sleeping, are you? Seriously, Goten, when was the last time you actually slept during your afternoon nap? I'm willing to bet about . . . maybe a year."

Goten blushed guiltily. "Well, I don't get sleepy in the afternoons anymore. But Mama says I still hafta take naps, an' I wanna be good an' do what she says."

Ah, yes. The afternoon nap ploy. Gohan and his mother already knew, of course, that Goten was no longer in need of them – both mother and elder son would contend that the toddler was, in fact, the purest incarnation of energy that had ever existed – but they were more for the sake of the rest of the household than anything else; otherwise, the family would have long since forgotten what quiet was and held it as a most unusual and unnatural occurrence.

"Sorry, squirt, but I can't take you out right now; I've got a lot of homework to do," Gohan replied, with a note of reluctance; today was too beautiful a day to be confined to the indoors. "Maybe a little bit later, when I'm finished. Or Kaasan might get home early and she can take you."

Their mother had, after enduring an unhealthy amount of badgering from Bulma, finally consented to a sort of "girls' day out" in the city to get away for a short while so as not to go completely insane trying to raise a young, hyperactive demi-saiyan child. She had put Goten down for his nap, leaving Gohan in charge of him, just prior to her departure and planned to be back around dinnertime.

"Aw, niichan, I can't wait that long!" Goten whined, spreading his arms plaintively. "Alls you ever do is homework, anyway, and that's boring! Let's go outside an' have some fun! C'mon!"

"Goten . . ." Gohan began, watching as his younger brother pursed his bottom lip and drew his brows upward and together; this woebegone expression was one that he frequently used to manipulate his family, the one that made them melt and give in to his wishes. Unfortunately for Goten, it was not going to work this time. "When I'm finished, squirt. I'm sorry, okay?"

Disappointed, Goten bowed his head. "Okay . . ." he mumbled.

"I promise I'll try to be quick," Gohan said, reaching out to tousle his brother's wild hair that looked so much like their father's. "So in the meantime, how about you – hey!"

Goten had taken the opportunity to snatch Gohan's notes off the desk and dash across the room; the little boy looked over his shoulder and waved the sheets of paper as high in the air as he could. "You gotsta come catch me if you want your homework back!"

"Goten!" Gohan tried, though it was in futility and he knew it. He started across the room, pausing momentarily as his brother proceeded to climb up the bookshelf; the structure teetered precariously under the weight imbalance. "Goten, get down from there; it's really dangerous!"

"Nope, you gotsta come get me!"

Letting out an exasperated little growl – he loved his brother, but Kami he was annoying sometimes – he levitated a couple of feet until he was level with Goten. The younger boy tried to squirm away, but Gohan was too quick, and pried him off the bookshelf –

"Whoa!" the brothers cried in unison, and Gohan hurriedly jetted backward as the bookshelf crashed to the floor, its contents scattered about the bedroom. A stunned silence ensued.

Gohan found his voice first. "Are you okay, Goten? I told you it was dangerous."

"I'm okay," Goten responded, staring down at the mess they'd created. "But Mama's gonna be real mad at us."

Wearily, Gohan sighed. If they kept going like this, the house would be nothing more than a hole in the ground by the time Kaasan returned. It seemed like a no-win situation: either he let the house be destroyed or he didn't finish his homework. Though these two options now seemed diametrically opposed to one another, neither one would leave Kaasan very pleased.

And Kaasan's displeasure was something to be avoided.

At last, he shook his head. "No, Kaasan's not going to get mad. I'll clean this up, and we just won't tell her it happened; it'll be our secret, okay?" Gohan lowered himself to the ground and carefully set Goten on his feet. "You go out front and wait for me, and then we'll play hide-and-seek."

Goten's face lit up. "You really mean it, niichan? All right!" He started to charge out of the room, but Gohan's hand caught the back of his collar, and he looked back, blinking.

"My notes, first, please?" Gohan smiled, nodding toward the rumpled sheets of paper in his younger brother's hand.

Absently, Goten shoved the papers at him, and he released his hold. Gohan knelt to collect and organize the pages as Goten's excited footfalls trailed off through the house, but stopped, and added as an afterthought, "And be careful not to –" A thud interrupted him, and he finished half-heartedly, " – knock the door down again. Oh, well."

Notes gathered, he gingerly returned the bookshelf to its original position. A miracle it's still in one piece, he thought as he quickly and efficiently slid each book into its proper place. Goten usually does more damage than this.

Living with a toddler that could very literally rip the house apart was quite a trying experience, one that few would envy. From unhinged doors, to split chairs and tables, to shattered dishes . . . the household hadn't wracked up such high maintenance costs since Gohan and his father had had to remain in Super Saiyajin form in the days immediately preceding the Cell Games. At the very least, it kept things from being boring while the world wasn't being threatened by aliens, cyborgs, or anything else this seemingly insane universe managed to concoct.

With his books in hand, Gohan made his way across the now prostrate front door to find Goten bouncing up and down from foot to foot and clapping his tiny hands in glee.

"What took you so long, niichan? I been waitin' an' waitin'!" the toddler chattered so quickly that Gohan could scarcely understand him. "Okay, I get to hide first." Goten yanked on his arm until he'd forced him into a sitting position against the wall. "You gotsta sit here with your eyes closed and count to a million."

A soft chuckle escaped Gohan's lips, but he quickly smothered it under an amused grin and closed his eyes at his bother's impatient scowl. "Okay, Goten. Here we go. One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . ."

Gohan continued to count for a few minutes, keeping a string of awareness on Goten's ki; when he was certain that the boy was out of earshot, he stopped the count and opened his eyes – and his textbook, wherein rested his notes and pencil. While Goten busied himself with trying to find a hiding spot, Gohan figured that he may as well finish off his homework.

About an hour or so ought to be enough . . .


Leaves rustled under his fingers as he pushed them aside. Goten poked his head through the space he'd cleared, looking this way and that to see if his brother had come looking for him yet. Seeing nothing, he smiled. Good. He still had time to find a better hiding spot.

He stumbled through the bush, stopping to brush off a bunch of leaves that had stuck to his clothes. One leaf, however, he instead picked off and brought it so close to his face that he went cross-eyed. A tiny black bug – probably an ant, though it was a bit tough to tell when he saw two images of it, the fuzzy one slightly overlapping the clear one – crawled across the small green expanse. After a minute of staring, his eyes started to hurt and he absently tossed away the leaf, all interest gone.

Aimlessly, Goten wandered through the woods, half-tripping over roots and clambering over fallen, moss-covered logs. All the while, he kept his eyes open for a good hiding place. Bushes, ditches, foxholes . . . Nah, those were no good; he'd get found quick. Stopping, he sighed huffily and put his hands on his hips. He probably didn't have too much time left; a million was a super-high number to count to, but counting was sort of a school thing, and Gohan was real good at school things, so he could probably do it fast.

Goten thoughtfully tightened his lips, shifting his gaze upward as his mind worked . . . His face brightened. Up. The treetops – they would be perfect! Since he couldn't fly yet, Gohan wouldn't think to look for him up there.

Delighted by the prospect of outsmarting his older brother, Goten hurried over to the biggest, fattest tree he could find, and tried to wrap his arms around it so that he could shinny up the trunk; unfortunately, his tiny limbs did not even fit around halfway.

"Hmm . . ." He paused, thinking. "Oh! I know!"

Backing up a bit, he straightened one hand into a flat blade, just like Mama had taught him in their sparring lessons, and drove forward, into the trunk – then blinked as he found that he was now elbow-deep in the tree. Frowning – that wasn't supposed to have happened – he tried to pull his arm out, but failed.

"Aw, shoot! Now I'm stuck!" he huffed, and pulled harder. Still nothing. Goten braced his feet against the trunk, and grabbed hold of his immobile arm; he began to pull once more, bending backward for more leverage. Slowly, his arm started to give –

A rush of wind passed over him, abruptly freeing his arm, and sending him to a rough landing on his rear end; the tree crashed down just barely beside him. He winced at the loud noise and the tremors that it sent through the ground.

Wide-eyed with surprise, Goten sighed, relieved. "Phew! What – Waugh!"

He'd glanced over his shoulder in time to see a rather vicious-looking dark blur lash out at him, and sprang into the air, barely evading it. Twisting and somersaulting in mid-leap, he landed on the newly-created stump, and adopted a tight defensive crouch – once again, learned from Mama. Narrowing his eyes to look more like a warrior – or at least Trunks always said that narrow eyes did that – Goten took a moment to assess his attacker.

It was a weird-looking creature, quite unlike any forest animal he had ever seen – and he had seen plenty. Not very big, it nonetheless appeared quite strong, with its thickly muscled legs and arms – at least Goten thought they were arms; the whatever-it-was was on all fours. It was furless, and its skin was light grey, interrupted by huge blotches of a darker shade of the same colour. Bright orange eyes, glowing like embers, fixed menacingly upon him as the thing gnashed its sharp yellow teeth.

It was, quite simply, the neatest, most wonderful creature that Goten had ever seen.

Giggling, Goten abandoned his combat stance. "Hi there! My name's Goten. What's –" He'd extended his hand in greeting, but the creature swatted at it, and he was forced to jerk it backward. Unfazed, he finished, " – yours?"

He smiled, patiently waiting for the thing's response . . . but it merely continued to stare at him, though the stare was different; the eyes no longer glowed with hatred, but instead looked more confused than anything else, and the creature had quit gnashing its teeth.

After a moment, Goten nodded in resigned understanding. "Oh. Guess you can't talk, huh? Too bad. 'S'not as fun when you can't talk." He calmly sat down on the stump. "I –"

The creature bolted into the woods.

"Hey!" Goten called out, offended. He lightly sprang to his feet and charged after it. "No fair startin' a race without warnin' me first!"

Keeping the creature in sight was easy, for it wasn't very fast, and the grey of its body stood out plainly against the greens and browns of the woods. Swiftly, deftly, Goten followed it, ducking and weaving around trees, through bushes, and hopping over roots. The chase continued for several minutes, and he was just starting to tire when it abruptly ended.

The creature suddenly halted at the far side of a clearing, and he stumbled to a stop on the near side, panting, yet smiling once more.

"That was pretty fun!" he said. "But next time you gotsta wa –" He cut himself off as he noticed that the creature was paying him absolutely no attention. Rather, it had its head stuck in the bushes, and was making all sorts of weird little grunting, growling, and gurgling noises. Concern worked his way onto his features; those didn't sound like good noises. "You don't sound too good. You okay?" He received no answer, but he continued anyway, an idea having occurred to him, "I know. Maybe niichan can help . . ."

Without warning, the creature turned back to him, causing him to blink. Its eyes were glowing again as it advanced upon him . . .


With a contented sigh, Gohan closed his textbook much earlier than he had expected. He should have expected it though, as it was only chemistry – something at which he'd found himself to be rather good.

He headed back into the house, his mind calmly travelling upon the thread of awareness he'd attached to Goten's ki. It wasn't that he was worried, for he knew for a fact that the toddler was okay – the ki had neither spiked nor dropped; he would have noticed that instantly---but he really ought to have been keeping closer tabs on him. After all, he was his brother.

Ah. There Goten was. Not much more than a quarter mile away from the house and his aura was laced only with curiosity; he had probably found some small animal and become fascinated with it: an almost daily occurrence. Idly, Gohan considered waiting a while before going off in search of him. Extended periods of peace and quiet were so rare that he should enjoy the opportunity while he had it. He could stretch out with a favourite book, or go outside and rework one of his old katas; it had, after all, been a few years since he had done any sort of training whatsoever –

Gohan froze abruptly, standing over his desk, eyes wide. Along his thread of awareness, something was wrong. Goten's ki was no longer alone. No there were other presences about him. Five . . . no, wait . . . six unfamiliar powers. And it wasn't just that they were unfamiliar; they felt . . . odd.

Ki, being as it was a person's life force, was energetic, in constant motion, crackling like electricity. Even as a person slept, though his ki was at a lower ebb, it still sparked. It simply felt alive, as though in itself it was a living creature. The new ki that Gohan was sensing was different, however. It was sluggish, even static, and had a peculiar sensation of . . . deadness about it. A contradiction so complete that he wasn't sure that the feeling could actually be defined as ki.

But whatever it was, he doubted that it could be good.

Not wasting another second, Gohan rushed over to his window, threw it open, and took off in search of Goten.


Head tilted to one side in curiosity, Goten watched the creature as it crept toward him, its eyes bright and teeth bared. It really did look mean, but he wasn't worried; lots of animals looked mean sometimes, but that didn't mean that they actually were. Besides, it had backed off once before.

Still, when it got really close and didn't stop, his muscles stiffened, a thrill of warning stretching them tight; his legs felt a sudden urge to step backward. He resisted the impulse, though, since it was a silly one. The thing wasn't going to hurt him. He just knew it.

There. He was right.

The creature halted two feet in front of him, and cast its orange eyes to the sky. A soft noise hissed among its teeth. Confused, Goten opened his mouth to ask what the matter was, but before even a half-sound could pass his lips, the creature darted into the forest, melting through the leaves without so much as a rustle.

Barely a second later, he heard his brother's voice. "Goten!"

Why had the thing run away? Was it scared of Gohan? That didn't make sense; sure, Gohan was real strong and everything – Mama said he even saved the whole world one time – but he was nice, too. He wouldn't hurt it.

Goten blinked to realize that Gohan was now standing in front of him, blocking his view; ignoring him – he had started to say something – he pushed past him and all but dove into the bushes through which the creature had disappeared. He searched all along the clearing, leaves around him rustling loudly as he crawled along the forest floor. There was no sign of the creature anywhere; it had vanished completely.

Disappointed, Goten crawled out of the bushes and stood. His brother stared at him weirdly, one eyebrow raised as if to ask him what in the world he was doing. Frowning, he scolded, "Niichan! You scared 'im away!"

Gohan's forehead wrinkled. "I scared who away?"

"My new friend!" Goten responded exasperatedly, but the mood did not last long; he smiled broadly, and gestured in excitement as he continued to speak. "Oh, you shoulda seen 'im, niichan! He was the neatest-lookin' thing ever! He –"

"You saw something?"

"Yeah!" Goten went on, not the least bit irritated at Gohan for interrupting. "It was kinda small, but had all these lumpy muscles, and cool glowin' eyes, and . . . Niichan?"

Gohan stood still, eyes abstracted; clearly, he wasn't paying any attention at all. In fact, it looked like he was doing that ki-sensing thing that he did all the time – something that Goten had been wanting to learn for a while now. Mama wouldn't teach it to him for some reason; he made a mental note to ask Gohan to teach him later.

At last, Gohan shook his head, and looked at him again. "Sorry, Goten. I thought I'd sensed something out here and –"

Gohan's voice broke off in a hiss, and he reflexively knelt down, pressing a hand to his right calf, his face contorted in pain.

"Niichan!" Goten rushed to his brother's side. Concern washing over his face, he lightly placed his hand on Gohan's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Gohan let out a heavy breath, and opened his tightly-shut eyes. He nodded, once, though his expression was still pained. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"What ha –" Goten started, but Gohan pressed the index finger of his free hand over his lips, and he obediently fell silent; Gohan was doing that ki-sensing thing again.

After a minute, Gohan sighed. "Still nothing. Whatever's out there is really good at hiding its ki."

Goten pushed his brother's finger away from his mouth. "What happened, niichan? Are you really sure you're okay?"

"It's nothing serious, Goten. Really. But I think we ought to head home now, all right? I'll need to clean this wound."

Normally, Goten would have argued about this; they hadn't been outside for that long, after all. Less than an hour, probably, and that was hardly enough time to have any real fun. But Gohan's getting hurt had spoiled his happy mood, and so he let Gohan scoop him up into his arms and jump into the air.

As they flew back toward the house, Goten glanced behind them, at the clearing. He had this funny feeling in his stomach that his new friend was the thing that attacked Gohan; that much he knew almost for certain.

What he didn't know for certain, though he would have liked to, was why.