Welcome to my second story in the Dragon Ball AG Series! This is actually the third version of this story. I don't really need to say anything new here, if you read the previous story you know what I'm about, and if you didn't then why are you here? Go back and read the first story!

As always, I love to read your reviews if they're positive! If you have anything negative to say, then please let me know what I can do better to improve my storytelling abilities. I'm hoping the rewrites I have done for this story make it more appealing and entertaining. Please, enjoy!


Dragon Ball AG

Saga 2 – A New Life

Previously on Dragon Ball AG: The Journey Begins…

Noca left his home after a great tragedy set him on a path to find the great Son Goku. His quest would take him to West City. After being helped some of the way by his best-friend Holline, and the surprisingly helpful Android #17, Noca found that nothing was easy.

Along the way he was challenged by the likes of the evil wizard Dazir, and the mysterious scientist Omega and his android Delta. Noca managed to overcome those challenges and almost made it the whole way on his own, until his injuries got the better of him.

Fortunately, Noca was discovered by Trunks and Goten, and escorted the rest of the way to West City where he proceeded to meet a brand-new group of people. What new path will Noca's adventure take him along now that he has a new group of people to call allies. Will Noca ease into their lives and find a new place to belong, or will his mother's dying wish sit with him?

Meanwhile, Pan worries how Noca's presence will affect her life.


Chapter 1: The Start of Something Big

Saturday 27th January Age 792

Clouds. Fluffy clouds. That's what it felt like. After such a long time out in the wilderness, without any comfort, Noca felt like he had awoken amongst the clouds. There was peace. It was sweet. It all felt like a dream, none of it could be real. Noca felt that he was yet to awaken and once he did, he would just be back in one of those mountain caves, or deep in a forest somewhere. That was the feeling gnawing in the back of his mind, but he couldn't know the truth for sure until he forced his eyes open. The fear tried to hold him back, telling him to remain in comfort, to stay in the dream. Noca wouldn't allow it.

He opened his eyes and quickly adjusted to his surroundings. Okay. He was definitely in a bed. He sat up slowly and looked around the room. It was just as large as it appeared the night before, there were blinds covering the windows and no light was filtering in. Noca looked to his left and noticed a clock on the bedside table. It appeared to be digital but switched off. He tapped it and suddenly it sprung to life, a robotic voice speaking up.

"Good morning. The time is 9:17am," The clock said as the blinds on the window started to roll up, allowing the light to fill the room. Noca winced at the sudden intensity from the light but he had definitely been given a fairly decent wake-up call. He slowly moved to the edge of the bed and stood up. He was still surprised that his injuries had healed up so well. He stood up but remained in that one spot in the room for about thirty seconds. He was still so surprised by where he found himself and felt incredibly uncomfortable and out of place. It didn't seem right to be there, with those strangers.

He took a breath and moved towards the door, slowly and quietly. He tried to listen out for any other noises. The slightest bit of movement. Anything that signalled somebody else was around. Although that did lead to some more anxious feeling. Noca reached towards the door handle and slowly pulled the door open, revealing the well-lit hallway. He started to gather his bearings and vaguely remembered the route that Bra had brought him along the previous night. Noca barely noticed how heavily he was breathing, panic was setting in. He just decided to bite the bullet and moved.

He reached a staircase and started to head down. That felt somewhat right. As he arrived at the bottom of the staircase, he realised it had only led him to another strange hallway. It looked almost exactly the same as the previous one. Noca didn't understand how people could live in a place like this and not get lost all the time. He moved along the hallway in the direction he assumed was correct and before he got too far, he heard some sort of sound come from nearby. He froze on the spot.

It wasn't a completely strange or unfamiliar sound. It honestly sounded exactly like a glass being placed on a counter. Noca approached a large doorway and awkwardly tried to peer inside. Upon seeing a fridge Noca had to assume he had stumbled upon the kitchen. He had to admit he was a little proud that was the room he discovered. His stomach was certainly excited, although Noca himself felt he was far too nervous to actually eat anything.

He gingerly rounded the corner and noticed that Bulma was standing at the kitchen counter, wearing a fluffy white dressing-gown, holding her capsule pad in one hand, and a mug of coffee in the other. Noca didn't make himself known right away, he seemed to lose his voice, which was slightly odd considering he had spoken to her the previous night. Although that didn't mean he was instantly comfortable around her.

Noca settled for clearing his throat lightly to announce his presence. Bulma turned to face him.

"Oh, hi Noca. Did you sleep well?" She asked, displaying a friendly smile on her face. Noca felt a little more at ease.

"Yes, thank you," Noca replied, nervously, nodding his head. "It was nice to sleep in a proper bed."

"I'm happy to hear it," Bulma said, chuckling quietly to herself before motioning to the fridge. "Help yourself to a drink, if you would like."

Noca looked up and over to the fridge. He seemed too anxious to actually just get himself a drink in this stranger's home but the friendly nature that seemed to ooze from Bulma helped him to feel a little more at ease.

"Thank you," Noca said, moving to the fridge and opening it to reveal that it was in fact just a very large drinks fridge. It was stocked full of almost every drink ever made. Noca was almost certain of that fact. Some brands he didn't even recognise. He decided to save himself from any more shocks and grabbed a bottle of spring water. "Thanks again, Mrs. Brief."

"Oh please, call me Bulma, I insist," She said, a smile on her face, before returning to looking at her capsule-pad. "Mrs. Brief makes me sound old."

Noca noticed she was trying to make the situation more bearable for Noca and he had to admit to himself that it was helping. He was settling into the moment and he knew that his day with these people was just beginning, even though he had no idea where it would really take him. Noca's mission was his primary focus. It had to be. This day would go down as an anomaly in the grand scheme of things, but Noca knew he required some rest, so rest he would. It couldn't do any harm to regain some energy.

Bulma noticed Noca had stood in the same spot, bottle of water in hand, and she chuckled to herself. She suggested Noca go into the next room, one of the living rooms, and sit with Bra and Pan, who were working on their homework at that time. Noca nodded, thanked Bulma again, and headed into the next room.

Again, it was a large room, and even though it was out of the ordinary for Noca he was slowly coming to terms with the knowledge that this was the way things were in Capsule Corp. For all he knew, everyone in the western regions lived this way. He noticed Bra and Pan sitting together at a table by some very large windows that looked into the Capsule Corp. garden dome. Noca was taken in by all the nature that he spotted. There were many different animals. Noca slowly moved towards the window, eyes fixated on the garden.

Bra heard some movement and turned to see Noca was headed towards them.

"Oh, hi, good morning, Noca!" Bra exclaimed in a cheery tone. Pan didn't react. "Did you sleep well?" Bra asked, motioning for Noca to sit beside her, but the boy didn't notice.

"Yeah, I did, thank you," Noca said, still looking at the garden. "I didn't know someone could keep such a full garden inside…" Noca wondered out loud. Bra turned to look at it.

"My grandfather loved his nature. He kept all these animals safe and looked after, so that's what we do now," Bra explained. Noca shook his head away from the garden and looked at Bra.

"Sorry, I don't mean to be rude," Noca said, smiling weakly. Pan rolled her eyes, luckily, she wasn't facing either of them. "I'm just very unfamiliar with the way things are in this part of the world."

"A lot of the world is like this," Pan said, matter-of-factly. Noca picked up on the tone but didn't address it. He assumed something else was wrong. Bra shot a very quick look Pan's way, with her eyes, but faced Noca.

"Well, Capsule Corp. is the richest company in the world, so we have a lot of really nice and fancy things, but most big cities are similar," Bra explained, further enlightening Noca. The boy nodded, looking into the garden again.

"I guess things really are old fashioned in the mountain villages then," Noca said, smirking to himself. "I guess I didn't expect it to be this… huge…" There was a twinge of nervousness in his tone, which both girls noticed. Pan set down her pen, not realising she was really paying attention to what he was saying. "I guess I'm a little… uh…"

"Overwhelmed?" Pan finished for him.

"Yeah, that's the word," Noca confirmed. Bra chuckled and took Noca's hand.

"Well, we can help you settle down," She said, beaming up at Noca. The nervous boy scoffed, but he didn't get a chance to say anything more as Bra pulled him towards a chair. "Come on, sit down, we're just writing these essays. They're easy."

"Speak for yourself," Pan said, huffing, and getting back to scribbling some more words on the page.

"Oh, come on, it's not like they're making us write about a difficult topic," Bra said, taking a look at her own paper and her own, completed, essay. Noca glanced at the page and read the title, aloud.

"How Mr. Satan won the Cell Games?" Noca said with a questioning tone. Both girls looked at him. He noticed this and was taken aback. "Uh… who or what is a Mr Satan?"

Bra giggled at that statement and Pan couldn't help the smirk that crossed her face as she looked back to her paper.

"He's my Grandfather," She said, rolling her eyes again. "I don't know why I need to write this essay about him. I grew up around those stories."

"But wasn't it a Saiyan that beat Cell?" Noca questioned. Both girls looked to him again.

"Yeah… it was my father," Pan confirmed. Noca thought on it, Gohan beat the evil being known as Cell? And he was the Son of Goku… Noca's mind was going down its own little rabbit hole while Pan continued on. "How do you know it was a Saiyan?"

"My… uh…" Noca stalled himself, unsure of what to say to explain himself. "Well, because of the, uh, Saiyan that lived in my village, I guess we never entertained the idea that this, uh, Mr. Satan did it."

"But you grew up hearing about the Cell Games?" Bra asked. Noca was starting to get even more nervous, but he had his next response lined up.

"Well, my mother already knew about Son Goku, and admired him, so she told me about a Saiyan saving the world, many times," Noca explained, hoping it was a satisfactory explanation. "I guess I just always thought the Saiyan in her stories was Son Goku. It didn't cross my mind there were that many others fighting for us."

The girls were satisfied enough with that response. They clearly didn't have any of their own suspicions and just let the conversation reach a natural closing point. Noca was too uncomfortable sitting there while they worked, and even though he knew Bra wanted to find out everything she could about him Noca wasn't sure how much he could tolerate. He knew the questions would keep coming his way and needed to get some freedom, for a little bit at least.

"I think I should go wash up, have a shower and that, I shouldn't really have slept in these clothes," Noca said, chuckling to himself.

"I can get you something fresh?" Bra said, standing up. Noca was taken aback again but he didn't want to reject her help. It was true he needed some fresh clothes. He accepted her help and led Noca back to the room he had used. She said she would grab him some clothes and leave them on the bed for him for when he finished in the bathroom.

Noca went into the room, grabbed his bag, pulling out his toothbrush and went to the bathroom. There were plenty of towels for him. Everything he would need to scrub up properly. He also saw a brand-new toothbrush sitting in the cabinet. Unopened as well. He looked down at his flimsy, old toothbrush and knew he was in need of an upgrade. He dropped it in the trash and jumped in the shower.

Thanks to the wash he had the previous day he chose not to spend as much time in there, even though he could admit that he would have loved to stay in there forever. It was so comforting and gave him time to think.

When at last he stepped out and looked at himself in the mirror, he noticed that he had a couple of marks left from the damages he had sustained, not just on his face, but on his body. They had started to heal though, which was a good sign. The help they had provided him was definitely taking effect. Noca messed with his hair while looking in the mirror, noticing just how long it was getting and he smiled weakly, some tears coming to his eyes. He shook them off and left the room.

Just as she had said, Bra left some fresh clothes on the bed for him. White socks, underwear, a pair of black jogging bottoms, and a plain white Capsule Corp. t-shirt. He got dressed and headed out, down the stairs again.

As soon as he re-entered the living room from before he noticed more people were around. Videl was sitting with Pan, helping her with the essay. Gohan was talking with Bulma. Goten and Trunks were also there, talking with Bra. And someone else was there. The short guy from the night before. He was the first to notice Noca and approached him.

"Hey, kid!" He called out. Noca froze and slowly faced him. Krillin walked up. "I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

"Noca," he answered. Krillin's tone seemed friendly enough, so Noca started to let his guard down a little.

"Well, my name is Krillin, in case you didn't know," he said, laughing. "So, you're here looking for ol' Goku, right?" Noca nodded, still feeling the nerves. Krillin shook his head, smirking. "Man, I remember those day, the good ol' days. Training with my buddy. They were tough times."

"You trained with Goku too?" Noca asked. Krillin chuckled and nodded.

"I've known Goku since we were both about your age. Good times," Krillin said, as his demeanour changed a little. "Your mother must really have a lot of faith in your abilities to suggest you find Goku."

Noca tensed up again. How did he know that it was Noca's mother that sent him? He only told that to Gohan and Bulma the previous night. Krillin seemed to realise his mistake, revealing that he knew something more than he maybe should, but he didn't know the full story and considered it an honest mistake.

"Sorry, I'm just wondering what kind of threat there could be for your mother to send you all that way alone to find someone you don't know," Krillin seemed to be showing some genuine concern, he was trying to be friendly, but Noca couldn't take it in at that time. He could feel himself getting a little worked up, and he wasn't the only one. Gohan glanced over, seeing Krillin talking to Noca.

"Your mother must really think highly of you to believe you can do this," Krillin continued, trying to lighten the conversation, and going about it the wrong way. Noca cleared his throat and stepped back.

"Excuse me," He said, turning and walking off, as quickly and discreetly as he could. Gohan walked over putting a hand on Krillin's shoulder.

"What did I do?" He asked, genuinely concerned.

"I felt his energy spiking when you were talking to him, a sour topic maybe?" Gohan suggested.

"Oops, that's my bad," Krillin said, walking away and sitting down, feeling a bit annoyed with himself. Gohan went to go upstairs and talk to Noca, but he was stopped. He looked to see his wife holding his arm.

"I think maybe he could deal with someone a little, calmer," Videl suggested. Gohan smiled and nodded. Letting his wife take lead. Videl walked on and went up the stairs. Pan had taken notice of the whole ordeal, and Bra noticed that Pan had noticed. The blue-haired girl appeared beside Pan.

"You have to admit, he's a little cute, right?" Bra asked her friend, as if trying to pull an answer out of her. Pan wasn't paying much attention.

"Yeah, I guess…" She said, before what Bra said finally resonated with her. "Wait, you're kidding, right?"

Bra giggled and nudged her best friend. Pan grunted and turned away, frustratedly.

"Why would I like him? He took all the attention away on my birthday and now my parents are more focused on him, he's in the way," Pan snapped. Bra was taken aback by Pan's little outburst.

"That's a little unfair Pan… he's not doing anything on purpose, you saw him yesterday, he has clearly been through a lot," Bra tried to reason with her friend, but Pan just huffed and continued with her essay.

Back upstairs, Noca was sitting at the end of the bed in that bedroom. In his hand he held the photograph of he and his mother he had taken with him when he left the Kayu Village. The two of them, smiling together. Happier times. When they were both alive together. He was smiling weakly while looking down at the picture, his tears dropping down. He sobbed quietly as he stared at it. He had held in a lot of his emotions along his travel, spurred on by the motivation to fulfil his mother's dying wish, his new purpose. This was the chance he had to finally let it all out.

That was until there was a soft knock at the door. Noca quickly hid the photograph and wiped his tears away, clearing his throat.

"Are you ok in there, Noca?" A woman's voice said. Noca felt his breath get trapped for a second due to a brief thought that the voice belonged to his mother, but that thought was quickly dashed. He sniffed and cleared his throat again.

"I'm fine," Noca said, finding it difficult to stifle the light sob that escaped at the end. That was enough to convince the woman to step in. Noca didn't react as Videl stepped in, seeing Noca sitting there.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" She asked. Noca looked to the ground and nodded. Videl closed the door behind her and walked over to the bed, sitting down beside Noca. "You don't have to talk to me about anything that you don't want to, just know that none of us mean you any harm. We don't know anything about you, so if we say something to hurt you, you need to tell us."

Noca sniffled as more tears started to form, he wiped them away.

"I…" Noca couldn't find the words. There was no way he could make Videl understand until he told her the truth about his reaction, but he wasn't sure he wanted to. But would they ever be able to trust him otherwise? Noca sniffed again and sat up, pulling out the photo of him and his mother. He handed it to Videl. "That's me and my Mother. My twelfth birthday."

Videl examined the photo. The mother had he arms around her smiling son, clasping him in a tight embrace. Both appeared to be incredibly happy. Videl glanced at Noca, who was staring ahead again. She could tell a great difference between the Noca in the photo and the Noca before her. A lot had happened to this boy.

"She's very beautiful," Videl said, smiling. Noca slowly looked at Videl and took in her face. Her caring eyes.

"You remind me of her… a little," Noca said, nervously looking away again. Videl smiled weakly. "She died the day I left my village." Noca dropped that information, finding the courage to say it, but he didn't know where it had come from. Videl looked down at the photograph and then back to Noca. His eyes filling with tears. "I was out with a friend and… there was an attack. I got back there. Fire, everywhere. My home had the worst of it. I tried to help her, but she said it was too late. I needed to find Goku and… and she…"

Videl moved closer to Noca and tool his hand in hers.

"You don't have to say anymore," She said, trying her best to calm him down. He couldn't hold it in anymore and started to cry. He let down his guard and he couldn't bring it back.

"I failed her. I wasn't strong enough."

Videl pulled Noca into an embrace and allowed him to freely express his emotions. She could tell it had been bottled up within for far too long and this was the moment he needed to finally strip it all back and let it out. Videl was starting to get upset herself, but she knew how to keep on a brave face. Her mothering instinct was kicking in. She let Noca carry on until he finally started to calm himself. He finally stopped crying and sat up.

"I'm sorry…" He muttered.

"Please, don't apologise. You did nothing wrong. You are allowed to feel upset about this. Don't hold it inside, it isn't healthy," Videl tried her best to explain to this boy that it was better to face his grief head on, not run from it. "You can take as long as you want to grieve your mother, but you need to stop blaming yourself. You are not the cause of her death. I believe that."

Noca pulled out of the embrace and looked into Videl's eyes. He was starting to feel comfortable, at ease, and relaxed. He was still very upset, and angry with himself, but for the first time in months, he felt like he had a chance to get out ahead of it. He felt like he had a chance to carry on. He still had a firm focus on the mission, but now he was doing it with the determination to make his mother proud, to show that even in death she was his strongest source of motivation.

"Thank you, Videl. I really appreciate this," Noca said, smiling. Videl smiled at him and as he started to look down, she put her hand on his chin and pushed his head up gently.

"Hey, don't get stuck dwelling on the negatives. Remember the positives," She said, standing up and walking to the door.

"Um… Videl?" Noca said, before she could open the door. She stopped and glanced back. "Could you maybe not tell anyone else. I…"

"Of course," she replied, without question. "It stays between me and you." She smiled at Noca one last time and opened the door. "Take all the time you need. We'll be downstairs."

Noca waited for the door to close and got up and headed to the bathroom to wash his face. He wasn't about to shut himself away. He wanted to face the next big thing head on. He knew he didn't want to dwell on it all. There was a mission. He looked at himself in the mirror again and took a deep breath.

When he eventually returned downstairs, he noticed that Krillin was sitting away, looking very apologetic. Noca looked over and Krillin sent him a friendly nod. Noca returned to gesture, smiling in the process. Before Noca had much time to move anywhere he was quickly accosted by Bra.

"Hey, so do you know what would be really cool?" Bra asked, quickly, and excitedly. Noca's brow furrowed, signifying his clear confusion. "If you stuck around with us, maybe even joined our school!"

Noca stepped back and laughed nervously.

"I don't think that's going to happen, I'm not planning to stay here," Noca started to explain to Bra. She seemed upset but before either of them could say anymore, Gohan approached.

"You can look and look, but you won't find my father easily, if at all," Gohan explained, a smirk on his face. Bra seemed to pick up what Gohan was putting down and crossed her arms in a confident manner.

"So, what would you recommend?" Noca asked.

"You let me train you," Gohan stated.

"What?" Noca questioned. Pan stepped up also.

"Yeah, what?" She asked.

"I made the decision overnight. I thought about it and you seem to have a good enough reason to want to get strong, but seeing as no one knows where my dad is, there isn't a better option than for me to train you," Gohan explained. Noca's mouth was open as if he had something to say, as if he wanted to argue against it, but it didn't seem like a bad idea. Pan was ready to speak if Noca wasn't.

"Why would you want to train him but not me?" She asked. Gohan sighed.

"Noca needs our help so that he can return to his home with some sort of success under his belt, he will not find my dad," Gohan explained, but that was not what Pan wanted to hear. She was prepared to argue some more but Videl stepped forward and stopped her daughter.

"I really appreciate the gesture, I… I accept," Noca said, smiling. He had found a victory, albeit not the one he had hoped for, but it was certainly a big start. He had to admit to himself that finding Goku when he had no idea what to look for was going to be an incredibly difficult feat to achieve.

"The only catch is that we want you to take it easy on yourself and try to live as normal a life as you possibly can with us," Gohan continued. Pan could tell where it was going, as could Bra. "So, we will do what we can to enrol you at Orange Star High School with the girls, and you will also come and live with us."

"No," Pan said, feeling like she was being deliberately put through some sort of torture by her parents, or by the Gods. Bra, on the other hand, was thrilled.

"See, I knew you would be sticking around!" She said, nudging Noca. The boy smirked at her and looked over to Pan, who was shooting him a very evil look. Noca was uncomfortable with it but understood.

"Bulma will be helping us sort out some of the legal stuff, you will be registered as a member of her family, but we will become your legal guardians, for the time being, of course," Gohan continued explaining everything that would happen. Bulma stepped forward.

"When you start at school you will be Noca Brief, and you'll be Bra's cousin," She explained.

"Ooh exciting, we're gonna be family!" Bra said, excitedly. "We're gonna be great friends!"

Pan wasn't so sure about that, but she didn't have the energy or effort to fight everyone on this matter. As far as she was concerned, she had been turned against by her family. She was most unhappy. She would soon be returning to her home, with her mother and father… and the stranger, Noca.


Characters Seen/Mentioned in this Chapter:

Noca (OC)
Bra
Bulma
Pan
Son Goku - Mentioned
Mr Satan - Mentioned
Cell - Mentioned
Krillin
Son Gohan
Son Goten
Trunks
Videl
Emna - Mentioned