In memory of Johnny Carson. While he never had anything to do with fanfiction or Dragonball Z, we still love him anyway. Thank you and goodnight.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z.

Author's Notes: …

hides behind wooden crates, then peaks out

What, no rotten fruit?

Anyway, I know I've taken an unseemly amount of time away from fanfiction, so much so that people have been scolding me. I didn't get it until I reread last chapter. I can't believe I left it on a cliffhanger! I am so evil! No wonder everyone hates me…

All right, enough self-deprecation. I have been extremely busy for the past few months. But I'm happy. I have some more people to tell the good news.

I might as well just put the announcement here. On June 11, Howler Wolfe, my co-writer and long-time boyfriend, and I will be joining hands in marriage. Yes, you heard right. We're getting hitched. Don't worry… I won't abandon fanfiction with wedlock. Just don't expect any updates of any of my stories in June… or July… or August… ; )

Right, now that I've completed my self-involved rambling… on with the show!

Chapter 49: Alive

Vegeta squinted in the intensifying light of the new day. The world was changing from blood red to a deep intense orange. Vegeta swallowed back the bile in his throat and reached out, just to make sure.

It was there.

Vegeta breathed a quiet sigh of relief. The pulse was there. The boy was still alive.

No one was watching the crystal anymore. Jita was staring ahead, her eyes seeming to vibrate with unexpressed emotion.

"Jita," Shin said quietly, "are you…"

"I'm fine," Jita said sharply.

She couldn't even look at Jiten anymore, or her brother. She'd forced herself to watch almost all of the "fight." In some crazed way, she hadn't wanted Jiten to be alone. She wanted to watch over him, feeling that at least could offer some protection.

Jita had seen her brother like that before. It was not the way he'd acted on most planet purges they'd been through together. On those times he'd let go, finding some kind of solace in the blood of others, practically rejoicing in that semblance of control in a life in which he had no other. And in some ways, she'd been the same way.

There were also times when he was majorly pissed. She understood those times, too. Those were the times when he was pure destruction, either of others or of himself. Jita got the feeling that that was the side of Vegeta most people on Earth had first seen.

But then there was this, something that she had bore the brunt of upon occasion. He wasn't pissed. Well… maybe a little. No, Vegeta was perfectly in control of everything. This was him teaching a lesson the only way he knew how… the only way he'd ever experienced.

And, Jita had to admit, it certainly was an effective learning experience to get the crap beaten out of you.

Jita shook her head, wondering why she was suddenly so detached. All through what she had just seen, she had felt like screaming… crying… exploding… something other than watching while her son was beaten to within an inch of his life.

But at least he left him alive. He killed me before, when I rebelled against Frieza and went against Vegeta's plan. But he left Jiten alive.

As if that made her feel any better.

Pikkon held a straining arm to Goten's shoulder as he tried to keep the demi-Saiyan flaring his ki uncontrollably. Goten was breathing hard, sweat standing out on his face. A few dead warriors were bringing in another screen.

"It'll be alright," King Kai said soothingly, although he wasn't sure if that was an outright lie.

Goten was shaking in outright rage. "How the hell can you say that?" Goten said in a harsh whisper.

Not many were speaking. Even those who didn't understand the situation fully were simply afraid of provoking the obviously volatile Saiyan.

Pikkon was a little less cautious. "Goten, you're going to have to regain your balance and focus. You're going to be wished back any minute, and you need to prepare for battle."

"Oh, I'm focused, all right. I'm focused on what I'm going to do to that bastard when I get wished back to life."

"Which one?" Olibu said casually.

Goten knew they were just trying to bait him, so he deigned not to answer.

Which one…

Goten honestly didn't want to think about that. Right now all he saw was Vegeta embedding his fist into Jiten's gut. All he saw was Jiten coughing up blood.

But Jiten had denounced them all.

Stop! I don't want to analyze it! I don't want to understand! I just want to do something! I want to save my son!

Vegeta betrayed me. Vegeta betrayed me when I was a child and Vegeta betrayed me now.

He's always been there… unlike my father. Why is he doing this now?

I don't understand a damn thing.

The screen flickered to life, settling on the sight of Vegeta standing over Jiten's broken and unconscious body. Maybe corpse. Goten didn't know. He'd destroyed the screen before he could see.

"Hey, how did the kid get on that cliff wall?" someone asked.

Goten cocked his head, trying to see what holding Jiten onto the red rock. He could see a slight glowing… apparently Vegeta had bonded Jiten onto the rock with ki.

Apparently a lot had gone on since Goten had broken the screen.

What is he doing… checking a pulse? So now he worries about Jiten?

"Well, at least he's alive," King Kai said. "I was worried for a minute there, but I knew that Vegeta couldn't kill the boy. He freaked out enough earlier when he thought that Eighteen had killed him."

Goten frowned at Jiten's obviously mangled body. Some consolation…

Vegeta felt Jiten's ki flickering, low yet steady. He was relieved. He'd calculated the force just right.

He checked everyone's ki. The leech hadn't moved from Capsule Corp, and his ki was getting stronger.

"All right, leech," Vegeta mumbled. "If you won't move, we'll have to up the ante."

Vegeta closed his eyes, relaxing his ki. He dimmed back from Super Saiyan to his normal state. Ki only inhibited what he was about to do.

Jiten… are you there?

Vegeta relaxed his mind, repeating the message to the boy in front of him. Even though Jiten was unconscious, a portion of his mind automatically twitched in answer. Vegeta smirked. The boy was a little more schooled in telepathy now, owing to the bond with the leech.

There…

The bond was there, wrapping around Jiten's mind like a vice. It was sophisticated, something that Vegeta couldn't even begin to go about breaking without destroying both of their minds. And he wasn't about to do that.

No, it was up to Jiten to break the bond between the two. Vegeta calmly analyzed the bond, seeing what he had expected. The bond was partially supported by Jiten, though reinforced by the leech. Parts of the bond looked far from natural, as if the leech had forced it on the boy.

"So…" Vegeta said quietly, "you didn't completely give yourself over to him. That's… good to know."

Jiten's subconscious didn't acknowledge, apparently too wrapped up in a dream to be bothered.

"Well…" Vegeta braced himself, "here goes."

Carefully, the Saiyan wrapped his own brain waves around the young Saiyan's brain, effectively shielding his mind from all others.

Jiten frowned and twisted, yet didn't regain consciousness.

"Hold on, Jiten," Vegeta said distractedly. "This will take just a few more minutes. Be strong."

Vegeta grinned as he felt the fluctuation in ki. The leech had finally given notice.

The leech noticed the change immediately.

The others didn't… couldn't. They kept attacking the leech, trying to avoid Gohan's captive body in their flurry of attacks. The leech didn't even feel their fists. He was looking toward the other battle that everyone had been trying so hard to ignore.

"Gods… he's really going to do it…" the leech said in a whisper.

What are you doing? the leech asked himself. You don't have enough power yet. There's plenty right here that you can drain, and they can't do a thing about it.

But Jiten is dying. I can't feel him in my head anymore. He's fading…

Suddenly the power flying all around him didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered except preventing Jiten's demise. With a simple burst of ki, the leech blew back the struggling warriors. They landed hard on the ground, but the leech didn't notice. He barely remembered to drop Gohan's almost-drained body.

Trunks picked himself up, shaking his head wildly. He didn't have a clear idea what had happened, except their target was no longer there, and Gohan was lying unconscious on the ground.

"Krillen!" he heard Piccolo's gruff voice call out painfully. "Senzu… no, not for me, for Gohan!"

After a moment of staring about wildly, Trunks regained his ki-sense. "Wha… why did he run away?!" Trunks exclaimed.

Piccolo was a little calmer now that Gohan had a senzu in him. "Don't know. Best guess is Jiten, though I don't know why."

"He's headed for Jiten," Krillen commented. "And Jiten's still alive. That's a miracle in itself."

Trunks turned his head sharply. "Oh, honestly! You can't possibly think my dad would murder Jiten! I mean, come on!"

Piccolo and Krillen looked at Vegeta's son, and didn't say anything. They didn't say Vegeta used to commit murder at the drop of a hat. They didn't say Vegeta had killed an entire village of Nameks not that long before he'd turned "good." They didn't even say that Vegeta had killed within Trunks's own lifetime – wasting a slice out of the crowd at the Budoukai… twice.

"Of course he wouldn't," Krillen said.

Piccolo said nothing.

Trunks turned away, knowing they were being condescending to him. The problem was, he didn't know the same man they knew. He only knew his father, and even at Trunks's age, his father was infallible.

Trunks!

"Yes, father," Trunks said immediately, ignoring the strange looks.

The leech is gone, isn't he?

Trunks nodded, but then immediately amended. "Yeah, he's gone and headed your way. What did you do?"

Piccolo and Krillen had by now figured out what Trunks was doing. Krillen rolled his eyes. "You know," he commented, "I'll never get used to that whole telepathic thing."

"What is Vegeta saying?" Piccolo demanded, ignoring Krillen.

Trunks held up a hand to silence so he could catch everything.

…so I isolated the boy's bond from the leech. I'll stall him as much as I can, but I don't know how quickly he'll try to leech off my power. Wish Goten back now. He'll have probably learned how to guard against the leech.

"Got it," Trunks said. He turned to the others. "We're going to have to wish Goten back. Dad is stalling right now."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Gohan interjected weakly from the ground. He was trying to push himself up.

Trunks rushed over. "Hey, take it easy, man. Take it slowly."

"No time if we want anyone to live," Gohan grunted. He reached into his pocket and drew out the dragonball. "Gyah! I couldn't bear sitting on that thing any longer."

Krillen grinned. "Great!... uh… where are the other dragonballs?"

"Uh… excuse me?"

The four looked over to the Spider students. They hadn't even realized when the students had regained consciousness.

"What is it?" Piccolo growled.

Darjili held up the dragon radar. One dot was right on top of them, while six dots were moving steadily away from then, and had been for some time.

Pecon shifted. "I think they were on the plane."

Piccolo groaned. Krillen laughed incredulously. Gohan thumped his body heavily on the ground again in frustration.

But Trunks simply jumped in the air in the direction of the plane. "I'll get the dragonballs!" he shouted. "Go help Dad!"

"Trunks-san!" Darjili shouted, and threw the dragon radar, which Trunks caught adeptly.

"Thanks," he said, and disappeared.

The group stayed a moment to collect their thoughts. The entire night had felt like a wild goose chase, and they were nowhere nearer to winning than before.

"So," Danton said, not liking the stop in action. "We go?"

The students knew something was wrong when the warriors stared at them. Piccolo had a hard look, Gohan's more leaned toward pity, and Krillen's was obvious compassion.

Gohan grinned. "Um… looks like Trunks forgot this dragonball," Gohan held is up in proof. "You guys will probably need to guard it. We've had enough with chasing it down."

The students stood there, white-faced. They understood what was happening. They'd been expecting it for a year. They knew that they didn't stand a chance against the leech… but neither did anyone else! They'd seen the ineffectual battle the warriors had waged against the leech. And now they were just going to go rushing off and supplying more power to the leech? He already had Gohan's power!

Before they could respond, the warriors were gone.

Krianan laughed, tossing the dragonball up in the air and catching it. "Damn… well, it was bound to happen, wasn't it?"

"Useless humans," Pecon supplied under his breath.

Darjili's eyes hardened. "Come on." She rose in the air.

Danton raised an eyebrow. "What… are you doing? We were pretty much told to stay put."

"By whom?" Darjili smirked. "We don't really know them. Who made them boss? Anyway, if we meet Trunks in the air, it'll just be sooner than we can wish Goten-sensei back to life."

"Besides," Pecon took it up, "we need Pan."

The students grinned together. They were going to be whole again.

Vegeta didn't turn around. First rule of throwing your opponent off-guard. Make them feel unimportant.

"What have you done?" the leech growled.

Vegeta smirked, raising his head. "He's important to you, isn't he? You went about making him your slave, but you went and got attached to him."

"Is he alive?!" the leech demanded.

Vegeta slowly turned around, releasing the hold he had on Jiten's mind. "Check for yourself, Hoja."

Vegeta couldn't believe the relief he saw in the leech's eyes. This is one screwed-up guy. He's taken Jiten for a son instead of an underling.

"What do you care?" Vegeta asked pointedly.

To his credit, the leech's face remained immobile. "I don't. I've invested a lot of time and effort in that kid. Wouldn't want to see it all go to waste."

Vegeta smirked. "Of course." He paused, suddenly switching tracks. "You know I'm not going to forgive you."

The leech smirked back. "You cared for her, didn't you? You still do."

Vegeta raised his eyebrow. "I won't deny it. That's what family is all about."

"That's not exactly the impression I got." The leech bowed mockingly. "Shall we begin?"

Vegeta was suddenly golden with power. "I think so."

The air was brown with dust as the two powers collided. The battle was on.

Fighting with the leech was interesting, to say the least. Vegeta really wasn't sure what the best strategy was: physical attacks so the leech couldn't suck the ki from his ki attacks, or ki attacks so the leech couldn't suck the ki from his skin. He drew comfort in the fact that the leech didn't seem particularly interested in sucking power right now. The power he had gotten from Gohan was formidable enough.

Vegeta dodged attack after attack, ruminating he would usually be going all out on his opponents. At least, that's what he would do in his youth. But now he had no delusions about defeating the villain all by himself. He didn't even know how to go about it. No… he was just stalling for time.

A stray punch caught him on the back of the head and sent him skidding along the ground. He quickly caught his balance. Not that I have to fight badly just because I'm stalling, he berated himself, and plunged ahead.

The leech was stronger than what he'd sensed before. Obviously he had Gohan's power now. So why isn't he taking a chunk out of my ki? Unless he wants to take a chunk out of my flesh for beating on Jiten.

Vegeta had a feeling that plenty of people were going to be angry about that little stunt.

Vegeta moved back enough to try out a wide-spread ki attack. He reasoned that he could experiment now so there would be no surprises for whoever fought him later. The attack was formidable in its scope, but required little of his own energy. It was best for planet purges, but it could definitely work here.

His vision seemed to go negative as he launched the bright attacks. The leech was a black outline, deftly dodging each tiny attack. Vegeta condensed the attack just to see what would happen.

Some attacks scored, but nothing happened.

Vegeta scanned the leech's ki. Just as he thought. There was a miniscule power upgrade.

But then why was the leech dodging all the attacks. Vegeta was giving out free ki by the bucketfuls, decreasing his own while potentially increasing the leech's. And the leech surely couldn't have reached his limit already. If he had, their battle would by easier than he'd thought. And he had a feeling there was more to the leech than that.

Vegeta stopped his attacks abruptly and moved in to grab the confused leech. Taking him by the heels, Vegeta swung the leech around repeatedly until letting him go to crash into the ground.

He waited patiently for the leech to pull himself out. There was no telling what the leech had up his sleeve, and Vegeta knew that he'd have to test his opponent more before he could come even close to being confidence.

"What's the matter, Vegeta?" came a voice behind him. "Run out of ki attacks? And they were so weak, too."

Vegeta turned around and raised an eyebrow. "You know, I hate teleportation. It's really a cheap trick."

The leech smiled. "Maybe I moved too fast for you to see."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Please. At your ki level?"

The leech shrugged. "Or maybe I'm just playing around. Like you are."

"So you want to begin the real fight now?" Vegeta said nonchalantly, dusting off his sleeves.

The leech gave no reply, and Vegeta had to dodge fast. The leech wasn't playing around. Vegeta could tell. The leech was really angry at him. Vegeta still couldn't get it. All this for an underling – a tool for the leech? That's just not the way murderous kidnappers worked.

The fight was fast-paced, and Vegeta finally had to push himself up a level to have a chance at the upper hand. The leech was obviously getting used to Gohan's extra power. It must take a while for him to assimilate new ki…

… which is probably why he hasn't taken mine yet. Of course!

Vegeta got the smirk he got whenever he got a stroke of genius. He'd found a weakness. It was small, and he still didn't know how long the leech had to wait to drain more ki, but the weakness was there. If they got to him early, they'd be able to defeat him.

Forget Goten. I can handle this guy on my own!

With that, Vegeta punched the leech square in the jaw with all his strength, sending the leech careening into the distance like a cartoon character.

Bulma had calmed down now that she and her daughter were out of harm's way. No matter how many times the earth had been threatened, as well as her own life, Bulma still kept her rigid self-preservation. If there was any way to keep out of danger, she took it.

"We should be at Chichi's place in about ten minutes," Bulma commented to her daughter.

Bra didn't answer. She hadn't spoken since they'd boarded the plane.

"Bra?" Bulma asked tentatively.

Bra's head popped up, as if hearing her mother for the first time. "What?"

Bulma resisted the urge to look Bra in the eye, knowing she had to keep watching the road… uh… sky. "What's wrong?"

Bra curled up in the copilot's chair, loosening the seatbelt in the process. Bulma resisted the urge to correct her. "What isn't wrong?" Bra said quietly. "I mean, I thought all this 'saving the world' stuff would be exciting. Like an adventure on TV, or one of the stories I hear at reunions. But this seems nothing like Frieza, or Cell, or Buu even. It just seems so…" She paused.

Bulma closed her eyes briefly in the pause. "Uncontrollably terrifying? Like you can't get your bearings, and you might die in the meantime?"

Bra shrugged, keeping her face pointedly in the other direction. "Nah, not exactly."

Yes, exactly, Bulma thought. "Bra… those stories at the reunions. You have never heard the whole story. You probably never will. Even if I told you the whole story, I wasn't there for everything. And everyone else would gloss over the terrifying details… especially your father."

"Yeah, but you guys always knew what you were doing."

Bra looked up in surprise at her mother's laughter. "What?"

Bulma smiled. "When I was on Namek, I hid in a cave. I was harassed by soldiers, terrified by the fact that my spaceship was broken… I had no idea what was going on. The only people on the planet I knew were Gohan, who was five at the time, and Krillen, who was just as scared as I was. I couldn't bathe, could barely sleep, it was always daylight, and then the planet started breaking under my feet. That combined with a maniacal body-switching frog, and that was the most terrifying time of my life. As people who don't fight, we usually don't know what's going on until the very end. In the meantime, we just have to trust our crazy fighters, most of whom would rather have a fair and exciting fight rather than kill the enemy."

Bra cast her eyes down as the thought inevitably wedged itself in her head. "I could have learned to fight…"

"Now's not the time for 'what-ifs,'" Bulma interjected suddenly. "I'd rather have you on the sidelines than running off to get killed. I never liked Trunks going off all the time, and I wouldn't want to suffer doubly like Chichi does. Besides, you have a good life, and you don't have to fight to prove yourself."

Bra smirked. "So don't be like my father?"

"You got that right."

A knock at the door interrupted them.

The bizarreness of the occurrence had to sink in. Bulma cleared her throat. "Um… Bra? Why don't you answer the door?"

Bra gave a half-laugh, but then shakily got up. She strode over to the door and released the locking mechanism.

Suddenly she realized why there was a locking mechanism. They were moving near the sound barrier. She felt the gut-wrenching sensation of being sucked out of the plane, the wind grabbing at every molecule. She only felt that for a second, though. Strong arms wrapped around her, and the door was shut just as quickly.

"Hey, sis. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to open a door when the vehicle is moving?"

Bra regained her feet, careful not to show how shaken she was to her brother, who had nonchalantly been flying sideways next to the door, as if he were simply waiting at a front door on the ground. "Mom told me to. Blame her."

"What do you need, Trunks?" came the irritated response from the pilot's seat.

"Well, it is nice to be alive, and thank you for asking," Trunks smarted off. "Oh, and by the way, we might need those dragonballs."

Bra laughed. Bulma smacked her own head against the dashboard. "Stupid."

Gohan, Piccolo, and Krillen set their feet firmly on the sidelines, having learned from their previous experience, as Vegeta and the leech matched each other perfectly.

"So what do we do now?" Gohan complained.

"Vegeta'll get pissed if we move in on his fight," Krillen explained. Vegeta had certainly mellowed over the years, but Krillen didn't want to test that out the hard way.

"So?"

"We get the kid," Piccolo interjected.

They all looked over to where Piccolo was indicating. There, fairly far away from the fighting, was Jiten, bound to a cliff. From where the warriors were they could tell that he was breathing and alive, though completely unconscious. He had lost all the ki he had previously stolen, and seemed like a simple kid taking a nap at the moment.

"Take him while the leech is distracted," Piccolo continued. "This is no place for a kid, and he could only be an asset to the leech when he wakes up."

"Since when are kids barred from fights," Gohan commented bitterly.

"Since I said so. Now come on," was Piccolo's rough reply.

Gohan and Krillen shrugged and followed. They had no desire to fight the leech, or to get in between Vegeta and his target, so they figured this would be the safest thing they could do.

The fight raged on behind them. Vegeta was controlled, and seemed to be leading the fight further away. He obviously knew they were there. On the other hand, the leech was enraged and crazy. It seemed unlikely he knew anything was in the world except him and his opponent.

This was certainly a change from many of the fights they had witnessed in the past.

The ki-bonds around Jiten were amazingly easy to dissipate. Piccolo snapped them quickly, letting the boy's broken body fall over his shoulder. But he wouldn't give Jiten a senzu. Not yet. Not when everything was still so unpredictable.

"But where are we going to take him?" Krillen whispered ridiculously in light of the ongoing war above them.

"Capsule Corp.? Kame House?" Gohan suggested. "The middle of nowhere? Mom and Dad's?"

"Middle of nowhere sounds good out of those choices," Piccolo rumbled. "But we'd best go to Kami's Lookout. There are places there were we can secure Jiten, and he can do no harm to himself or anyone else."

"What are you suggesting? Padded walls and a straight jacket?" Krillen commented sarcastically.

"We don't have time to argue, Krillen!" Piccolo argued hoarsely. "We have to leave before he finds out…"

Piccolo trailed off as he, as well as the other two, realized that they no longer heard any fighting, and no threatening or blustering that usually went on in such a pause. They looked up just in time to see the leech, eyes ablaze, descending on them.

"Trunks-san!"

Trunks heard the call from the air and sped to its source on the ground. The dragonballs immediately glowed in his arms, reacting to the proximity of the final one. The spider students were clustered around, waiting impatiently.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Krianan yelled.

Trunks carefully unloaded the dragonballs, which was ridiculous since they were fairly indestructible. "I thought you kids would be waiting at Capsule Corp."

"What, where it's safe?" Darjili asked incredulously. "No place is safe right now, and we're running out of time! So make the wish already!"

The air suddenly stirred with excitement. There they were, facing the gathered dragonballs, which were shining ominously. They finally had the tools to wish Goten back… and it almost seemed like too huge a step to take.

"So what's the password?" Trunks asked in the stunned silence.

There was a beat.

"How should we know?!" Pecon screamed, finally losing his cool. "You're the one who knows everything!"

Trunks glared at the younger man. "It's not like I've ever used the dragonballs before! I never needed them… and other people gathered them when we did."

Danton stepped in. "Calm down and ask someone already. The dragonballs have been used enough that someone on this planet has to know the password."

Trunks immediately went to the first mind he could touch. Dad!

There was a pause, and waves of frustration over interrupted concentration. Finally, a what?!

Trunks ignored whatever circumstances were distracting his father. Do you know the password for the dragonballs?

Trunks winced as a few choice and decidedly foreign words were flung his way. How am I supposed to know… hold on…

"What the password for the dragonballs? Anyone know?!" Vegeta screamed out over the sounds of battle. Thankfully, the leech was too interested in prying himself out of a mountain to hear what was being said.

"I never used them," Krillen replied. "Piccolo? You should know. You're half Kami, after all."

Piccolo was trying to regain his energy and had little patience for these questions. "As Kami I never had to use a password. I just called the dragon. Gohan, you were there for most of the resurrections after Frieza. What do you remember?"

Gohan tried to remember, and then glared. "OK, I was, like, five at the time. I don't remember! Besides, why do you want to know, Vegeta?"

Vegeta didn't answer, but mumbled something about his idiot son. He was far too interested in the rejuvenated leech making time to their position… as well as Jiten who was slowly regaining consciousness.

Trunks waited, the Spider students waiting rather more impatiently.

I don't know, boy! Ask your mother!

Trunks laughed. Now there was an idea.

"OK, I'll be right back. Gotta ask Mom what the password is," Trunks said hurriedly.

"Wait a minute, Trunks-san…" Darjili said distractedly. Unexpectedly, she was holding a cell phone to her ear… and it was Trunks's cell phone.

"Hey," Trunks complained. "How'd you do that?"

Darjili shushed him and put a hand over her other ear. "OK, thanks Mrs. Briefs. Yeah, I'll be sure to tell him." She hung up the cell phone and tossed it to Trunks.

"How'd you do that?" Trunks repeated.

"You were distracted in that telepathic thing," Darjili said casually. "It was easy." Then she turned around…

"Dragon, come forth! Grant me my wishes!"

Chichi smiled from where she was looking out the large living room window. The sky was dark. Her son was coming home.

The warriors of Earth, from human to Saiyan to Namek to whatever else, had one thing in common. It wasn't the love of fighting, for so many humans had given it up, and a few of the truly strong ones didn't even fight. It wasn't bravery, for some had no claims to or delusions of bravery. Some knew when the terrified retreat was the best course of action, while others would stand there and let his head be chopped off rather than show cowardice.

The warriors of Earth, along with anyone else in existence, were overwhelmed by the dragon.

That's a reason that Piccolo, Sr. killed the dragon once. That's why even Vegeta had hesitated in front of Porunga, even for the most miniscule second, in his quest for immortality. That's why even Goku and Bulma, old pros at anything involving the dragon, would still stare in wonder at the green body curled around the black sky, and the red eyes piercing down at them.

"Speak your wish," Shenlong, the Immortal Dragon, pronounced in a rumbling voice. It was not a request or an offer. This was an unmistakable order. It meant that, since you have summoned him, you bear the responsibility for all the consequences of your wish… and any consequences in actually summoning him.

Darjili was the first to break out of the spell. "I want to wish Goten back to life!" she shouted, even though the dragon could hear the smallest whisper from miles away.

The red eyes flashed, and the small people on the ground shivered in anticipation. But they did not dare express any impatience to the monster in front of them.

"Your wish is granted," the dragon rumbled. "What is your second wish?"

But the second sentence was lost on the Spider students and Trunks. They were whooping in victory, relief, and happiness. Goten was alive again.

Hercule wandered around his old familiar Budoukai tournament ring. The ring, and adjoining temple, may have belonged to the monks, but the tournament itself had long been his, and he was already deep into planning for the next Budoukai. They were trying to find better security measure for the tournament. The problem was, too much weird stuff went on and too many people died during this seemingly innocent event.

"Mr. Satan," Tinted Rayban went on, "the tournament is always better with these 'weirdos,' as you call them."

"I know that!" Hercule retorted. "If you like the moon being blown up, the ring being eliminated, people attacking from the stands, people obliterating the stands, and people dying and getting kidnapped…"

The Budoukai announcer waved his hands. "All right, I get it! Your tournaments were safer. But we can't discriminate like that. We can't bar legitimate fighters and returning champions and the like. And, if we're talking about weirdos, then what about him?"

Rayban pointed his thumb over at Buu, who was turning somersaults and singing a song about chocolate. Hercule suppressed a good-natured laugh at his friend's antics.

"Hey, no one talks about Buu. Buu's no weirdo, he's just special."

"You could say the same about Goku."

Hercule wasn't about to argue with that.

Yet before he could get another word in, Buu suddenly yelled, "Yay! Yay! Yay! Boy's alive, yay!"

A second later, in a quick burst of light, Goten was lying on the tiles of the Budoukai ring.

I would like to thank all of my ever-faithful reviewers:

dbzneon: Yes, you are right about the Frieza thing. And yes, I really really really loved writing Vegeta in that way. I had that scene mapped out entirely in my head. It was really really cool, wasn't it?

zara m: Well, it's hard to tell if Vegeta's actions are going to make things better or worse. It certainly has pissed off a lot of people, though. And you know how pissy Goten can get.

Pannygirl: I wonder if you're singing that tune now.

Erica: Yes, I tend to make plenty of people suffer.

ilex9: Hmmm… Hoja's character is difficult. I think I'm leaning more toward pitifully psychotic than anything else… what do you think?

Engar: I like that description of Vegeta. He's a downright bastard… he-he. It's a tough balance to make him just enough of a bastard without completely alienating him from the group. But it's nice to cross the line every once in a while. About Goten… I think there's a lot he just needs to accept, such as that his father-figures have never been perfect, and were never meant to be perfect. While watching a man severely beat your son is hard to accept, I think it's something that he needs to do on his own, and no one can "put in a good word" for anyone.

Dark Wolf: Ha-ha!!! You thought Vegeta killed him! I faked you out! And then you can't get wished back, either…. Yeah, and Vegeta isn't that much of a bastard.

dbzneon: Here it is!!! Not before the end of the year, but let's not split hairs.