Hey everyone—welcome to my first fic—Its going to be a good sized one—and I certainly hope that you'll have as much fun reading it as I had writing it. This prologue has important events that need to be set in motion before the main story can take place—it all connects together and will probably last a few chapters by itself.

Disclaimer: I don't own "dragonball z" or any of its characters or settings etc, but the plot is mine all mine! Mua ha ha!

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The knock on the back door was nearly imperceptible amid the rumbling of the equipment in Bardock's lab, but he had been expecting it. He opened the door on the first knock, and hurried the king inside as though he were hiding a convict from prying eyes.

Grimly, he reminded himself that that might soon be the case.

King Vegeta cast an irritated glance at Bardock's back as he checked the alley behind his lab, and glared at the gleaming machinery around him mistrustfully.

"You better have a good reason for calling me here" he growled.

A knot tightened in Bardock's stomach. For the thousandth time he prayed that his words wouldn't fall upon deaf ears.

"The conference room is set up for us." He tugged the heavy iron door shut and locked it. "Not a word until we're inside."

He led the way to the small room in the corner, Vegeta's footfalls rapping the cement briskly in his wake.

The conference room was where he held meetings with the science guild and sweet-talked investors interested in his work. But today it looked less…. business-like then usual. What with the crystals and all, it looked more like a low-budget fortune telling booth then anything else.

The king eyed the room suspiciously before following him in.

A chain with little dangling crystals and jewels was strung all the way around the room near the ceiling. Another was strung around the floor, over a border of duct tape. A huge diamond glimmered in the center of the table, and small tiles of stone (which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be coasters) sat at each corner.

They sat at the conference table. Bardock took a moment to think. He had rehearsed this meeting in his head several times every day for the last week. Because he had to be absolutely SURE—

"Vegeta, I need you to listen to me very closely, because what im about to tell you is gonna seem hard to believe."

"Does this have anything to do with the tuffle investigation? If it does, then I've got more than enough to-"

Bardock took a deep breath and plunged in. " Dynasty's in some kind of trouble."

Vegeta became very still. Was it just his overworked imagination? Or did he pale slightly?

His gaze was piercing. "What have you heard?"

Bardock sighed. "I'm not worried about Tuffles getting her—I haven't heard anything in that regard. Forget about them for now."

This was it…

"The Pentacle hasn't forgotten about her…they've been sending her threats for months now. She hasn't told you because…technically there really isn't anything you can do to stop them, anyway. She made me swear not to tell you—or anyone else—

"But I found something out that changes everything.

"To be blunt, I found out that they can use possession—"

"Rubbish. No sentient being can be possessed. Dynasty told me herself. All who have been foolish enough to attempt something so intensive as taking control of another living being lose their lives in the process of separating their spirits from their bodies."

"That's only if the one attempting it is corporal in nature. I have proof. I was going over confessions for heinous crimes—with Rio. For her research on criminal psychology—and…"

He reached out and grabbed a white binder, turned a few pages, and pushed it before Vegeta. He'd written this out because a document couldn't be interrupted. No one could feign deafness either. He submitted many reports this way.

It was a list of statements from the killer's. Several parts were highlighted, as were the dates of testimony.

Bardock sat in silence, watching him read. Here his brow furrowed slightly, there he skimmed a page when he should have read it more carefully, and to his relief he backtracked to it a few pages later…

He looked around the room, knowing he'd distract him if he kept watching too closely. He had written several notes in there himself, underlying obvious connections in the documents, showing him the winding logical trails he had traveled to get to that one final, absolute conclusion.

For a long time, the only sound in the room was the occasional turn of a page. At length, Vegeta sat up. His expression was unreadable.

"How long have you been working on this?"

Hehad been expecting any response but that one. "From my first observation to the last bit of data? A week."

Vegetanodded, looking at the binder sitting innocently before him, and then he focused a tiny bit of energy in his hand, and vaporized it.

Bardock gaped from the pile of ash and melted plastic to the angry face of the king, and as if on cue, they both stood up.

"While your consideration of our safety is appreciated, after a fashion…it is sorely misplaced. My wife is perfectly safe.

"All you've done is waste one week's time—better spent on the data recovered from that Tuffle lab in Mensa. Do you have any idea what could have happened in that week?"

Bardock felt his tail bristle slightly. "Has anything happened?"

Vegeta's dark eyes flashed dangerously. "That isn't the point."

No…it isn't, is it?Bardock thought. You just want to find some way to control the issue…I don't blame you, stupid, but for the love of god open your eyes!

Outwardly, he only said, "Just use the diamond shard. What do you have to lose?" he didn't like the rising edge creeping into his voice in the last sentence, but he was unable to keep it out.

A long considering silence was his only response, and for a little while he thought maybe, just maybe, he had listened to him after all.

"You know, maybe you should take an off day, Bardock. All this…" He gestured broadly to the lab "seems to be driving you a bit mad. Get some fresh air before you get on those reports."

"Damn it all" he fumed, "this theory is valid—and I'm not going mad!"

Vegeta cast an amused glance around the bejeweled conference room, and raised an eyebrow at him.

"That was in the report."

"No, it wasn't."

"The purpose of this is—"

But Vegeta had raised his hand. "I really must be going now. See you around."

He opened the side door, frowning at the duct tape seal that had been placed around it with an expression that seemed to toggle between disgust and concern, and was gone.

Bardock collapsed into a chair at the table again, and put his head in his hands, as the fading echo of the king's footsteps was lost in the constant hum of machinery once more. He had blown it. His one chance to persuade the king of the great danger at hand…but he still had one more option open to him. One, and only one.

He laughed grimly to himself "fresh air indeed"—loath to leave the one safe place left in the whole city where he could be sure the pentacle wasn't watching his every move… he would have to go to the mountain villages, to the wild men who lived there, and plead his case to their king… if he could survive long enough after saying 'hello'…

He moved one of the stone coasters nearest to him, revealing a tiny sliver of diamond, smaller then a splinter, kept clean in a small plastic bag. He thought of that day when Dynasty had come to speak with him, when she had broken down under the pressure of keeping her secret for so long—the possessed birds and insects following her…the threats that the corrupt remnants of the ancient council had been sending her to wear her down and get her to drop her guard. Her worries about the baby…that her stress level alone had to be affecting him badly—the fact that she was sure the baby was going to be a boy and how she wasn't sure if she could protect him…

He couldn't banish the picture of her tearstained face, and the prospect of anyone treating her that way made him furious.

And now this…now what he had found out…it was too much to take—thank God that she didn't know or she really would lose all hope.

His hand itched to hold a pen. He wanted to write all of his frustrations out on paper to clear his head—but instead he got up, tucked the small bag with the diamond shard inside his shirt, and left the small stuffy room, pretending not to notice the fly that buzzed after him.

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Please R&R – and no flames allowed! Ill update as soon as its ready, offhand I'd say a few days maybe a week. See you next chapter! Take care!