Time Distorted

Epilogue

By: Mara Roberts

"Thank you, Kibito. I appreciate your assistance," Mie said to the teleporting servant of the Kais.

"You are quite welcome, Mie. Congratulations in your victory, the five of you." His nod took in the other four as well. They were back on Earth, each about to head on a new adventure. Bardock was provided with a spaceship – courtesy of his friend Dr. Briefs. Gohan Sr. was going to become a wanderer, as Gohan had told him of finding an alien boy he would adopt and raise to be the savior and hero of Earth. As for Gohan himself, he and Piccillo would be returning to the future.

Bardock climbed into his spaceship with a final round of good-byes and departed with a smile on his face. He would be returning home! Albeit, several thousand years after his death, but home nonetheless. Upon reaching space, he plotted in his trajectory, and activated the hibernation gas; he would sleep the whole way there. Once he had fallen asleep, Mie slightly altered his course to take him slightly nearer a black hole, to prolong his journey and make sure he'd end up there at the right time, and relativity would keep him young, besides.

She turned to her time-traveling companions. "We must be going now."

They nodded, and Gohan gave his grandfather a farewell hug. Mie took one hand each of Piccillo and Gohan, and the world rapidly spun around them and faded to white. When the haze cleared, they were standing on Roshi's island, and the darkness from the dragon was fading. As they stood, the dragonballs flew up and sped away.

"Mom! Dad!" Gohan ran to his parents, and Goku picked him up into a bear hug, with Chi-Chi latching on just as tightly in a family embrace. Piccillo gave a soft snort and his mouth twitched in what might have been a smile, or a trick of the eye.

He turned to the goddess, but she had vanished. He nodded. It was not a bad idea to do, he decided, and took his leave.

"Oh my! You're skin and bones," Chi-Chi exclaimed. "I'll just go inside and fix you up a proper dinner, alright?"

And with that she bustled off, most everyone following, deciding to either help her out or give father and son some space. After all, they had not reconciled what had happened at Namek and after.

Gohan started to explain why he had put his father on that ship, but Goku gave him a wry grin and a shake of the head. No words were needed; he understood.

"You aren't angry then?" Gohan asked.

"I was afraid, and terribly proud. But I'm not angry that you took a stance and fought. How could I ask you to do anything else? I might have wished you were a bit older first, but events forced our hands, and it was ultimately your decision to make. But Gohan, you don't ever have to fight if you don't want to. There are plenty of warriors out there who would gladly pick up the slack for the thrill of a fight, myself included. I can't promise I'll always be there, but while I am, you can always count on me."

A burden seemed to lift from Gohan's soldiers as Goku acknowledged his son was really a pacifistic boy.

"I'm glad," Gohan said. "So what happened while I was gone?"

A huge smile split Goku's face as he thought back with pride to what Kami had told them.

(o)

"…Gohan was wondering down the Corridor of Time when the wish to have him revived was made. Because he was in the Corridor, and because of its special properties, he was brought back to life in the year by which he was standing and also had the closest connection to his own time."

"Just what are you saying!" Chi-Chi asked half-hysterically, screeching in such a manner that Goku covered his ears.

"Gohan's alive – he's just in the past," Kami replied, ignoring his own ringing ears.

"In the past?" Bulma snapped quickly. "What does THAT mean?"

"Exactly what I said – time travel, if you will."

"Then let's wish him back here, to the present," Chi-Chi said, more calm now that her baby was safe and alive.

"We can't right now. There's something that needs to be accomplished in the past if we are to retain a future-"

"NO! I want my baby boy back home safe and sound! I don't give a damn about the universe, or the world, or whatever it is, I just want him home." She pleaded with her eyes.

"If Gohan is not allowed to do this, he will not have a home to come back to. In fact, he will never be born in the first place. You will never have known him or even what you are missing. The universe will descend into paradox and be destroyed."

"Then what do you need the dragonballs for?" Goku spoke up for the first time since Kami had finished his tale.

"To send Gohan a protector; he will be in dangerous times. And we can only send one, I dare send no more."

"I'll go," Chi-Chi said firmly.

"No, Chi. I will. I can protect him better."

"Like you protected him on Namek? No. There's only one person I trust with Gohan's safety now and its me!"

"Neither of you are going, for several reasons," Kami interrupted.

"Nani? How dare you-" Chi-Chi stopped as Kami put up his palm, demanding silence. She would have kept talking anyway if she hadn't suddenly come down with laryngitis. She glared at the god for what she deemed gross misuse of powers.

"First of all, both of you are too overprotective. Chi-Chi, you have always been and are more so now in light of Gohan's death. Goku, you will try to take your son's destiny upon yourself and keep him from his birthright – his own awesome power, and you will fail to rise to the challenge while hindering your son from doing so. Secondly, Piccillo needs to be rid of Bibidi's influence. Sending him to face Bibidi is the quickest and most effective method of doing so. Thirdly, he will push Gohan to his limits and not hold Gohan back. Fourthly, you both exist in that era whereas Piccillo's predecessor has yet to show his face. If you meet yourselves you would be your own undoing. Fifthly, that is how I remember it. To take any other recourse or action would create paradox."

"Can Picillo keep my baby safe?" Chi-Chi asked, allowed to speak once more.

"I do not know. Despite everything, the past is yet unwritten. Anything can happen. However, the fact that we are all still here bodes well for us, and Gohan. When Piccillo is sent into the past we will know more."

"How so?" Bulma inquired.

"If Piccillo succeeds, nothing will happen. If he has failed, we will cease to exist. We – and time itself – will have been destroyed long ago. Again, paradox."

Piccillo stepped forward, relieved to be the one to protect Gohan. Goku looked over to him, a demand in his eyes, acceptance written on his face. He could not protect his son today, and would entrust Piccillo with Gohan's life.

Kami looked around, and everyone nodded agreement, though some were reluctant. "Then let us begin. Dende, if you please, I think you should have the honors…"

Dende led them outside, to the waiting dragonballs. He spoke the Namekian tongue: "By your name, I summon you! Porunga!"

(o)

"So that's what happened in our time?" Gohan asked his dad.

"Yeah, that's how it happened."

"I had been wondering why I hadn't returned home before now. At least there won't be anymore fighting."

For a second Goku had a vision of sorts, of a strange monster cloaked in green skin, surrounded by a purple aura. He shook the image away, slightly disturbed.

"No. There won't be anymore fighting…" Goku looked away. He'd just promised his son that would be his job, and he meant to keep his word. He spoke quietly as Gohan ran to the house, entranced by the smells of dinner, Goku's voice audible only to himself. "We're safe now; we're all safe."

And if they weren't, well, what's what warriors like him were for right? He'd just have to train harder, is all. It's what he did second-best. As for what he did first-best… Goku followed his son in to dinner at the site of his family gathered round the table, which was covered in platters and cloth. He found he had a light bounce in his step and a weightless feel to his heart, and knew all was right with the world, as it would continue to be.


Bibidi, Babidi, Buu Chronicles, Pt. 3 (untitled)

I am clearly never going to write part three (well, never say never, but the chances are statistically insignificant, so, yeah…) so I'm going to summarize my plan.

Gohan kept training in the interval till Buu showed up when he was sixteen. Most everything is according to canon, except Gohan's a cool nerd, and Goku's alive, etc. When Buu is brought back, Mie shows up to help. The Corridor makes a cameo as Gohan and Mie return there to study Buu's past techniques. After some all-out, incredibly dramatic series of battles, Gohan frees his mind from Bibidi's dark seed through Babidi, he and Goku kill Buu and they takes on the mantle as Earth's co-protectors.

Gohan and Videl live happily ever after, and Videl does not shirk on her training and grows more powerful everyday. The end.


Because my chapters have a different numbering system than uses because of the interlude, I will post review responses according to chapter as designates the chapter. So for example, the Interlude review responses are under Chapter 1 Review Responses.

Chapter 1 Review Responses:

Marshmellow13Dragon – Your guess is pretty good, but you're off. Sorry. Thanks for the compliment. And yeah, poor Krillian is dead, now. Hey, that just gave me an idea if I ever go back and rewrite this… Instead of having Kami fix everything, I could have Mie do the Third Magic… sort of. Cause she'd still have to meet Gohan and he ought to remember what he learned while he was there… (and the Third Magic idea is from 'The Third Magic' my Molly Cochran (sp?), so this is my disclaimer). College is… going. I love Chem, but strangely I'm being really lazy with Calc (because it's usually what I want to do first, being my favorite subject in HS) but I guess teachers are an influence on that. I HATE geography. He's a really bad teacher and here's why – it's his first year teaching it! We now have an impossible test on Monday, of over 200 pages of text to learn from, and I also just learned this week that going to lecture is a waste since he doesn't make the tests, he has a CD made my the textbook author to generate test questions or something, and it makes me so mad and ooohhhh! (:Deep breath:) And tech. Writing's not good, but it could've been worse. It was bad enough they didn't warn us there was a public speaking component…

Anyway, how's boarding school? It sounds interesting to me cause, well, it's like college but it isn't. I hope you're happy there. Oh, and before I forget, Congrats on the first review.

Tocole – I'm glad you like it. (:sheepish grin: I meant to update yesterday, but I have this huge test on Monday and everything else flew out of my mind… Sorry I made you wait an extra day). Actually, if you or anyone else reviews my story in Friday, I'll see the e-mail from that I got a review and it'll remind me to post. So if you want to make sure I remember, that would work.

DBZ Chick1 – Me, too

Samara-chan – Hehe, yeah you guessed it.

Luna's Meow – actually, that's what I meant, but I didn't word it very well. When I said space, I meant all of the third dimension, not just Earth, but since time is space anyway, I guess I didn't make much sense… I guess I should have said it this way: Trunks and Bulma are not gods, so they cannot truly affect Time. By going through time, with their own power (or inventiveness), their very presence in the past creates an alternate reality. Anything they do in that reality to shape its future will have no effect on their own. If it did, the people they are would not come to exist as their world would be replaced with a different future, and the potential for paradox is huge. But Mie's a goddess, so the rules don't apply to her. I'll fix that right now.

Chapter 2 Review Responses:

Marshmellow13Dragon – I'm sorry for the confusion. Someday I'll go back and rewrite this thing, and that will be something I fix. I hope the meeting with Bardock lives up to your expectations. As for Goku and Yemma… That would be funny, but Goku is too naïve and good-hearted to do something like that. Chi-Chi, on the other hand… As for being nervous about Gohan… the question of his purity (or lack thereof, hehe) will be answer way later on. You'll have to wait and see which path I choose for our favorite demi-Saiyjin. As for Gohan killing Bardock… it's so funny you should mention that, cause a scene popped into my head the other day kinda like that, but not really. I can't explain without giving spoilers, so you'll have to wait on that, too. Your guesses are really good, I have to admit. And I squeaked by in Geography with an 80 on the test. (good things to, it's 30 of the final grade). I actually enjoyed Calc 1 a LOT (yeah, I'm a bona fide nerd). I loved the challenges of trying to integrate different derivatives and figuring out which path to take, since there are so many… Calc 3 isn't boring; it's just that I'm getting lazy. Bad me, I know. But I got a hundred on our second test! Now I just have to do good on the third, so I can drop my first one (we take the best two out of three test scores, cause each test is thirty points, and the final is forty, for a total of 100 points) and on my first test I only go 20 – that's 66 2/3 ! Agghhhh! (Okay, I'll admit. Arrogant stupid me didn't study much…)

Chris – I'm glad you're entertained; it means I'm doing my job. As for Buu… try and imagine what would realistically happen if Buu were released (well, as realistic as DBZ gets, anyway) and that should answer your question.

Shukumei no Kagi – nice name. What's it mean? I know it would be confusing – I tried writing it that way at first… Let's just say it didn't work out. Then I realized Gohan couldn't use his real name anyway, so I took some liberties. As for POV, I remember reading how an author should stick to one, at most two, POVs, but I just can't seem to manage with this story; I can't see it working any other way, unfortunately.

Luna's Meow – I explained how Bardock came to be in the past… Do you mean how does he get to when he needs to be for Goku to be born? Hint: see the prologue in Part 1.

Korrd – I won't be writing in the BBB Chronicles-verse again for a long while, but I do have some side stories planned, one of which involves Ox-King. I don't know if Roshi will fit in there or not, but if not there, not in any of the other planned side stories. Sorry.

DBZ Chick1 – Thanks.

Silence's Siren - :Blushes: Sorry I took so long to get back to you. I was studying like mad until Wednesday, when I had a math test. After that, I shut down. But I'd love to have you beta my stuff. I'll e-mail you the next chapter, and I'll beta Dreams, if you want, but I can't promise weekly. In my experience, the two main determinants of a beta's workload are the length of the chapters, and the skill of the writer. Thank you so much for the offer!

Chapter 3 Review Responses:

Marshmellow13Dragon – Well, she is Gero's mother/grandmother/something. I didn't do the math, so I can't tell you how many generations apart they are, but yeah, you pretty much got it right on the nose. Piccillo… we won't be seeing him again for a while, sorry.

DBZ Chick1 – Thank you.

Shukumei no Kagi – glad to be of service. Um… technically it's Gohan II, not Gohan Jr. since he's not Gohan Sr.'s son, but his grandson. (I learned that at my sister's graduation. There was this kid something the II and Mom laughed at his arrogance and my sister explained how it worked. Pretty cool, huh?) Anyway, as for Gohan II's timeline, it will show up at the end when he goes home, and it will be the setting for Pt. 3 IF I ever get around to writing it. Since that doesn't look like it will happen any time soon, and it does tie up a few loose ends, I will instead write a detailed summary of my outline for Pt. 3, including how it will end, and if I ever get around to actually writing it I'll remove the summary.

Luna's Meow – actually, it was Kami who remade everyone's memories, not the dragon, and then the point you brought up is just playing with semantics. People rarely say exactly what they mean, but they are still understood by the common bond of experience and language. So even though Mie's language was ambiguous, Kami knew what she meant.

Chapter 4 Review Responses:

Korrd – And here's another. I hope this makes you smile.

Marshmellow13Dragon – good luck in class!

Shukumei no Kagi – Thank you for the compliment. I was worried mine weren't okay. And I know "II" is more awkward than "Jr." but I just can't knowingly put in a mistake… well, I guess there are exceptions. One's tickling the back of my mind right now but I'm not sure what it is… oh well.

Kajeth – Bardock doesn't know Gohan II is from the future. And as Bardock knows, he never had any children, much less grandchildren. However (and this is a fic I plan to write one day, Bardock's back-story in my universe) he did have a younger brother, also named Gohan. So given the common name and the strong scent of familial blood generations, Bardock figured Gohan II is descended from his brother Gohan. It's a mistake on hs part, but there's no way for him to know any better. The fact that the scent is so strong after "so many" generations is a great source of pride to Bradock. It means, to him, his family is of an exceptionally strong line of never-before-heard of proportions.

Luna's Meow – Thanks. And I agree about the dragon taking things literally, but I kinda wonder if that was on purpose, if he was helping the good guys out. Cause if he hadn't put Piccillo where he did, he wouldn't have stumbled across Nial, gotten more power and knowledge of Freezer's technique, etc., which was a great help.

Chapter 5 Review Responses:

Marshmellow13Dragon – Now do you really think I'm the sort for unhappy endings?

Korrd – Nimbus wasn't needed before, but he was floating around somewhere, waiting to be called.

Luna's Meow – I don't believe in the series that he was partial, not really, but it does make you wonder if in the bonds of what he's able to do if he's helping the good guys out. However, I do believe that in canon, the dragon is neutral, and I intend to keep him that way. But it does make for interesting possibilities.

Chapter 6 Review Responses:

Marshmellow13Dragon – S'okay… just nag me next week, is all. I e-mailed you so you'd have my address. About Bardock's visions, I only kne about them from other fics when I wrote this, so I didn't know the real story. Instead, I made up my own reason for his visions. Remember in Chapter 1, Mie said "Time is somewhat imprinted on his memory" because he went through the wall of the Corridor of Time? That's my explanation for it.

Well, that was my only review. :sobs quietly: but I guess I have only myself to blame for updating late. I'd love to hear what more of you thought of that chapter – I can't improve without your input! So c'mon, gimme a review.

Chapter 7 Review Responses:

This Guy – Here you go, and thanks!

Marshmellow13Dragon –Sorry, but good guesses, all.

Chapter 8 Review Responses:

Kotrd – glad you spoke up; I don't want anything to bother you. Please remember that Goku has not yet been born. The only Gohan Bardock knows is his brother (my own creation). Bardock was suspicious at first, but he can definitely smell the relation (after all, it's only been two generations) although Bardock thinks that (Son) Gohan is descended of his brother Gohan, many centuries dead, but chalks up the strong family smell to equally strong bloodlines. A few years ago I had a whole backstory planned to my version of Bardock and his family and all this other cool stuff, but my computer crashed and I lost everything, including all the sidestories to the BBB Chronicles. Sucks, don' it? Anyway… What's going on in G2's timeline isn't important. If it were, I promise, I'd show it. They did their job by summoning the dragon and making the wishes. As for Gohan going Super Saiyjin… wait and see

Marshmellow13Dragon – did I make you happy? I brought in Piccillo.

Chapter 9 Review Responses:

Korrd – Last time you asked how strong Gohan2 is, and I forgot to answer, so even though you didn't leave a review yet for this chapter, (yet being the operative word, right?) I thought I'd give you an answer anyway: I'd say he's at least as strong as Vegita, but not Frieza. Frieza was severely weakened by fighting Goku; Gohan would be no match for him at full strength.

Marshmellow13Dragon – I'm glad you're glad. Lucky dog – only math to worry about. But I came out of it with three A's, a B and a B. But I'm gonna contest the B. Unless I got a 70 on the last project, I should have had an A, and the teacher did say everyone in the class got an A on that project, so…

Luna's Meow – I try. And I LOVE Sword of Truth series, especially the ideas presented in Faith of the Fallen and the philosophy and sometimes-humor of the Wizard's Rules (i.e. "People are stupid"). What's your favorite part?

Chapter 10 Review Responses:

Marshmellow13Dragon – The time thing is complicated, but yeah that's kinda it.

VB – I'm sorry you hate me. Was that serious, or were you joking? Well, here's the end to your cliffhanger. Read my A/N and you'll see why you had to wait. And blame it on Mom.

Chapter 11 Review Responses:

VB – I'm glad you don't hate me. Um… I don't think you'll be mad. It's not a real cliffy. I don't think.

MarshmellowDragon – what happened to your number? You did change your penname, right? I'm not insane? And that was great advice, alas it was no use. Have fun skiing? I love skiing. We went to Beaver Creek this year, but the weather was very uncooperative. Icy conditions. And the trails weren't labeled too well, which didn't help. Almost did a black run by mistake.

Luna's Meow – I like 'Mat' scenes the best; he's so much fun! Drink the wine till the cup is dry… But yeah, the Great Game can be interesting. Confusing as hell, but interesting. What's your favorite part of Sword of Truth?

A Shout Out To:

Falconzord, Freyr Van'ir, Granite54, Haze Tax, Kakkabrat, Lara Roberts, Luna's Meow, Marbus, MarshmellowDragon, New Dye, SilentStardust,Phoenix-Flame-Fantasy, and The Lone Warrior, Thedarksavior, TwilightSakura, VegetaPrinceofDarkness, and W.V.Ffor putting me on 'my favorites' list.

Also to Calumongal, Freyr Van'ir, Geminia, Marbus, MarshmellowDragon, demonman21, KatinkaV, SilentStardust, Borachio, korrd, and Schway Al-Thor (hmm… Batman Beyond and Wheel of Time; interesting combo) for putting me on their author alerts.