Rifts and Changes

Chapter Two: "This is a very elaborate hoax or…" Vegeta paused. "I'd better get Kakarrot on the phone."

Disclaimer: I only own characters and places that I made up, okay? Good! ^_^ I ain't making money off this you know!

A/N: Ooh, I'm so glad you guys liked the first chapter. Questions will be answered in due time, and Jason, I will be writing some more stories of the guys as kids but you'll have to wait until this is over. Let the confusion ensue!

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A month later …

Trunks was busy in the kitchen when the phone started ringing. Trunks sighed and picked up the phone, mentally hoping it was not his father.

"Hello?"

"Hi Trunks, it's Goten."

"Hey, thank goodness. I thought it was gonna be my dad demanding that I stop being so weak and train."

"Actually, it's me asking if you wanna train." Goten laughed sheepishly. "You busy?"

"You know it's mine and Marron's wedding anniversary."

"No, it's not Trunks."

"Yes it is Goten, I think I'd remember my own wedding date."

"Trunks, you guys got married in the spring. It's August for goodness sakes."

"Hmm, then why is she so mad at me? I didn't forget the anniversary…"

"Maybe it's because you've been training and not paying attention to her."

"But I'm training to save the world!"

"Women are funny like that." Goten said. "Hey, if you're taking the night off then so can I."

"Great, my marriage dilemmas have become an excuse for you to play hooky." Trunks said, as he diced some onions. "Are you going to see a certain young business tycoon?"

"Maybe, maybe not. It's none of your beeswax what I do on my night off." Goten replied.

"Ooooh!"

"Trunks, if you cut the onions like that they lose all taste. I'll see you later."

"How did he…? Sometimes I worry about that boy." Trunks said, starting on a fresh onion.

Meanwhile, in a field near the mountains…

"Time out!" Vegeta yelled. Goku looked at Vegeta with wide eyes.

"D-d-d-d-d-did you just ask for a time out?" Goku asked.

"No, I demanded a time out. There's a difference." Vegeta said. "Something's wrong with my leg."

"Oh you got a leg pain thingy!"

"Thank you for your diagnostic doctor."

"Gohan calls them a Charlie Horse. Although, I'm not sure why he felt the need to name it."

"It's the fault of this planet, I've spent too much time relaxing and playing happy families." Vegeta sighed.

"C'mon, you know you love living here. If you didn't, you would have left years ago."

"Sometimes you can come out with statements that actually make sense. It is in those moments that I question the state of the universe."

"Shut up!"

There was a brief silence.

"Do you think we're getting too old for this Kakarrot?"

"Nah. You're only as young as you feel. Chi-Chi's always cursing me for not looking a day older than 25."

"You lead a strange life Kakarrot."

At CC…

"Trunks! What's the occasion?" Marron asked, as she looked at the lovely spread.

"No occasion, I just wanted to treat you." Trunks said, pulling out a chair so that Marron could sit down. He poured two glasses of champagne. "To you, my beautiful and understanding wife." They chinked glasses.

"Okay, now I'm nervous. What do you want me to be understanding about?"

"Honey, you know about this threat to the Earth."

"Yes."

"And I know that it's gotta be hard on you." Trunks said. "You've got to stay behind and just worry. I know it's not fair, I wish you didn't have to be in that position but I'd rather that you were instead of on the battle field."

"I know Trunks. It doesn't stop me from worrying about what's going to happen to you." Marron said. "I need to know that you're going to come back to me."

"As long as you believe in me, I will come back." Trunks said, taking her hand in his. "Nothing short of death can ever keep me away from you." Marron smiled.

Elsewhere…

Goten looked at the hotel and took a deep breath. He was dressed in a black tuxedo but without a tie. His jacket was undone as was the top two buttons of his shirt.

"Okay Goten, this is it." He said, as he walked into the hotel and then to the banquet hall. He looked around and then he saw her. CJ. She was standing near the food table, talking to some official looking men. Her company was holding this banquet and Goten knew that he would find her here. Goten stopped walking for a moment to look her over. Her hair was up, with a few stands around her face. She was wearing a strapless burgundy dress and a smile so fake it looked like it was going to fall off her face. Goten took a deep breath again and walked towards her. He walked up behind her and tapped her shoulder. "Excuse me?"

"Yes?" CJ said, as her fake smile turned into a genuine one. "Goten! Won't you excuse me gentlemen?" CJ walked away from the businessmen with Goten. "Thank you so much, I was dying over there."

"Yeah, you looked so bored." Goten smiled.

"You'd better be careful Goten, someone might think you were stalking me." CJ smiled.

"Not stalking, just casually running into each other."

"Yeah, like at my office?"

"At your bank, your front garden and at your country club. But hey, who's counting?" Goten said. CJ laughed.

"This is such a surprise, but a nice one. I mean, I'm glad you're here but why are you here?" CJ asked. Goten looked at her intently.

"I just had to see you one more time."

"Oh…" CJ smiled. "You look great by the way." Goten smirked slightly.

"Had to, since you look that beautiful. You do look beautiful by the way. I especially like that necklace. Guess I have good taste." Goten said. CJ blushed furiously. "I like this song, you wanna dance?" CJ nodded mindlessly. As they were dancing, Goten looked at CJ and could not stop staring at her. He found himself smiling and she looked at him and blushed.

"What is it Goten? You look as if you just saw the world's biggest pizza." CJ laughed. Goten moved in closer to her.

"I saw something more important than that."

"More important than food? Are you feeling okay?"

"Better than I've ever felt in my life. Funny how that happens whenever you're near me." Goten could feel his heart beating faster. He knew this was what he wanted to say but even he couldn't believe he was saying to this to her. CJ, the girl he had been in love with since he was a kid.

"Goten..." Was all CJ could say. She felt speechless. She had to stop from pinching herself. Was this really Goten? Was she just dreaming? She shook her head, in an attempt to wave away her soap opera-esque thoughts.

"Ceej, meeting up with you again after all these years...it's like it was meant to happen. I've been waiting for the longest time to tell you how I felt."

"I already knew."

"No, you heard from someone else. You don't know that every time I look at you the rest of the world goes fuzzy, and I feel like I could go on looking at you and see something more beautiful as I do. I like you a lot CJ, you know that. We never got to see what could have been between us because of circumstances at the time."

"Because you fell in love. With Paresu."

"Paresu was my wife. I cared for her very much, but never half of how much I care for you. All my old feelings for you are rushing back, and this time I'm not a little boy. I'm a grown man, and I'm going to deal with this maturely. I will not give up but I need to know, do you have any remote feelings for me? At all?"

"Goten, I..." Before CJ could say anything, one of her employees came up to the couple.

"Miss Fujitaka, there are some clients who want to talk to you. Should I ask your brother to fill in on this one or do you want to go?" CJ looked at Goten and then at the clients.

"Ask Brian to cover for me." CJ replied. "I need to talk to my friend."

"Yes Miss."

"Sorry about that." CJ said. Goten smiled.

"Don't worry about it." Goten replied.

"Goten, about what you said…"

"Sshh." He put his finger on her lips. "We can talk about that later. Let's just enjoy dancing for now." Goten said, as he put his arms around her and pulled her as close as was possible. To Goten's happiness, CJ did not resist.

Next morning…

"DAAAAAAAADDDYYYYYYYYYYY!!" A girl's voice yelled. Son Gohan moaned slightly and looked at his bedside clock. It was 7am. On a Sunday. No doubt, Gohan was going to lose his temper. He got up, put his glasses on and went downstairs. He looked into the living room and saw his son, Cory, chasing his daughter, Pan. Gohan sighed.

"Not again…" Gohan groaned. "CORY!!" Cory stopped dead in his tracks and a small grin appeared on his face.

"Hi Papa!" Cory smiled, the infamous Son Grin™. He was a carbon copy of his father, right down to the shaggy hair that Gohan had as a child.

"Are you terrorising your sister again?" Gohan asked.

"No, I'm just playing with her." Cory said.

"He is not!" Pan yelled. "He is chasing me with his mouth filled with choco puffs and he's threatening to spit them on me! Daddy!"

"Yes, I heard you sweetie." Gohan sighed. "Cory, no spitting food on your sister."

"Okay Papa."

"Pan, no yelling at 7am. Daddy is very tired."

"Okay Daddy." Gohan returned to his bedroom and got into besides his sleeping wife. He looked over at her and smiled. Suddenly, Videl's face started to twitch violently and she started muttering.

"No, get away from me! No…no…"

"Videl?" Gohan asked as he tried to wake her up. She sat upright and was breathing heavily. "Honey, are you okay?"

"No, I had this dream! And there were explosions and…oh god, everyone was dead." Videl said, as she sobbed into Gohan's chest. He did his best to soothe her.

"Don't worry honey, it's probably a déjà vu type dream. You've had dreams like this before…after…"

"I know, I remember." Videl said. "I'll be okay honey, you'd better get dressed."

"Okay, if you're sure you'll be okay." Gohan said. Videl nodded and Gohan went into the bathroom.

"I hope it was just a dream…" Videl sighed.

Capsule Corp…

"Vegeta! You'd better come and take a look at this!" Bulma yelled.

"What is it woman?! I was having breakfast!" Vegeta asked, as he walked into the living room. Bulma pointed at the television, with a pale face. Vegeta looked at the television screen with wide eyes. "Holy shit…" The news channel was showing an amateur recording of the sky in Kenya. There were a lot of different coloured lights in the sky, and they were all aligned as if waiting for something to strike. To the average person of course it looked like an impressive lights show, but to the Prince of all the remaining Saiya-jins it was something completely different.

"What do you think it could be?" Bulma asked.

"A very elaborate hoax or…" Vegeta paused. "I'd better get Kakarrot on the phone."

At CC…

"Is it serious?" Trunks asked. Goku was pacing the living room floor. Goten rushed in the door and sat on the couch with the others.

"Sorry, got here as fast as I could. What's the sitch?" Goten asked.

"Okay, I've called Gohan but he says he can't make it so we should go on without him." Goku said. "As far as we can assume right now, those lights on the news this morning aren't just lights. They are indeed spacecrafts."

"But how do we know if they're the guys Dende was talking about?" Krillin asked.

"If they were friendly there wouldn't be that many of them. They're not moving, which probably means they're waiting for orders or…" Vegeta said.

"Just waiting for the right time to attack." Goten finished. "Well, if they attack us we can take them right? I mean, it's not like it's gonna be a problem."

"You should never underestimate your enemy son." Goku said. "We all know what happens when you do that."

Meanwhile…

"Sir, everything is set." The young man said. His boss smiled, his time had finally come.

"They shall see what happens when they cross a member of my family." He said. "Get my broadcast to the hybrid ready!"

"Yes sir."

At CC…

"Goku! Vegeta! There's someone here to see you!" Bulma yelled, fearfully. Everyone ran into the technical unit of CC and saw that all the monitors had the face of a young man on it.

"We'd better approach this carefully…" Goku said.

"Who the hell are you and why the hell are your ships stationed over our planet?" Vegeta demanded. Everyone face-faulted.

"Very bold indeed." He smirked. "Allow me to introduce myself, Medilan Stearylin. I am the chief commander of this army, sent by my emperor. We do not want to start war with your planet. We have come here looking for justice." Medilan said.

"Okay, so you want peace and justice. What does that have to do with us?" Trunks asked.

"We are looking for the ones who have wronged us. And one of them is among you." Medilan said. "Although I can see he is not with you right now."

"Are you talking about my son?" Goku asked.

"Yes. If your son is one named Gohan." Medilan said. "You see, he killed my father."

"What are you talking about? Gohan would never kill anyone unless it was self-defence." Goku said.

"Sir, you seem like a smart man. Please don't underestimate my intelligence, as I have not underestimated yours." Medilan said. "My father was sent here around 10 years ago, your time. He came to survey the planet to see if we could do business with you but your son and others attacked my father and ended up killing him. There were four others with him."

"Look, let me find my son and hear his side of the story. I want this to be cleared up just as much as you do." Goku said. Medilan looked a bit annoyed, but smiled through his teeth.

"Very well sir, I tried to be diplomatic but I see you are just going to be difficult." Medilan said.

"Difficult my ass. He just wants to get both sides of the story!" Trunks protested.

"Your hot-headedness is not helping matters." Medilan said. "I hear you Saiyans like combat, think of this as my present to you for being so polite." The connection cut off.

"What the hell did he mean by that?" Krillin asked.

"I have no idea, but I didn't like his tone at all." Goku said, in deep thought. He turned over to look at the television. The news was showing three people, one woman and two men, in some kind of military clothing. They were attacking some people outside an office building in another country. "That was fast. I think he anticipated that we weren't going to hand Gohan over. That bastard."

"What country are they attacking?" Bulma asked.

"It says it's Manchester, England." Goten said. "We need to get there and help those people."

"Krillin, I want you to find Gohan and try to get some light shed on this. Trunks, Vegeta and Goten, we're going to England."

At Gohan's house…

"Oh no…" Videl said, as she stared at the TV screen in horror. "Gohan, it's the same people…from before. They must be back for revenge. David was right!"

"It's not the same guys, although they're from the same place. They're wearing the same uniform." Gohan said. "This must be what Tousan wanted to meet about."

"What are we going to do?" Videl asked. "This is our fault! If we hadn't…"

"Look! Tousan is there. And it looks like he's going to fight them."

"We can't let him fight them alone."

"He's not alone. Besides, there is no way that I can leave you on your own. Not after last time." Gohan said. "The others that we fought before, they could barely handle me let alone my father. Trust me, he'll be okay."

"I don't know Gohan, it's been a while. Maybe they've been training…"

"Hey Papa, they're in Manshesta right?" Cory asked.

"Manchester, yes."

"Well isn't that where Maria lives?"

"Oh…crap."

"Mama! Papa said a bad word!"

Manchester, England…

"This is so boring!" Iloxane moaned, as she fired her gun with every word to emphasis her boredom. She was a tall slender woman, with pale cream skin and shocking blue eyes. Her hair was jet black and waist length. She was wearing a one-piece military costume much like her companions Dimethic and Anthius. Dimethic was medium height, with dark purple hair and brown eyes. He was not as muscular as Anthius and just seemed to let Iloxane and Anthius to do the dirty work. He was just observing. Anthius was a towering figure, at 7ft on the dot and with a build that could rival that of most bodybuilders. He had black hair, blue eyes and dark tanned skin.

"You know what the commander says Iloxane, we've got to keep doing this until the Saiyans arrive." Dimethic said. "And when they get here, they won't know what hit them."

"Really? We'll be the judges of that." A voice said from above.

"And in the classic cliché style, here comes the cavalry." Dimethic smirked.

"For someone from another planet, you sure know Earth customs pretty well." Goten said, as the Saiyans landed. "Random property damage, nice."

"Spare us your folly." Anthius said. "You gonna give up Gohan, or are we going to have to kill you?"

"And please let it be the former. I really don't want to have to get blood on my knuckles." Iloxane said.

"You're pretty confident girly. I'll wipe that smirk off your face." Vegeta said, flaring up his chi and getting into a fighting stance. "I'll take them all. If I need any assistance, Kakarrot can take the massive one."

"C'mon Dad, let us fight too!" Trunks said.

"You? Please. While you've been playing happy families with that wife of yours some of us have been training." Vegeta said.

"I did train! You were there!" Trunks protested.

"Dimethic, they chose the latter." Iloxane said rather annoyed. She turned around and blew up all the news cameras. All the news crews proceeded to leave hastily. "That was too predictable."

"C'mon Illy, you knew they would flee." Dimethic said, as he pulled out a small burgundy cylinder. "Besides, I'm getting tired of all this useless bantering. Speaking in this Earth tongue is making my brain turn to mush." Before any of the Saiyans could react, Dimethic threw it on the ground and a burgundy mist escaped from the cylinder.

"Shit." Vegeta uttered, before they all collapsed to the floor. When the smoke cleared, only Vegeta and Goku were unable to leave the floor.

"My chi, it's completely drained." Goku said, in shock. "I can't move."

"We seem to be okay." Goten said. "We're tired but can still fight. Bad news for you guys."

"Dimethic…" Iloxane said.

"Damn it. That chemical was supposed to drain anyone with Saiyan DNA of all their powers permanently." Anthius said.

"Permanently?!" Trunks exclaimed. "Did I just hear that Dad and Goku's powers have been drained permanently?!"

"NANI?!" Goku and Vegeta exclaimed.

"Geez, must be true. Vegeta can usually hear like a hawk…or a Namekian, whichever hears better." Goten said, as he and Trunks got into fighting stances and raised their chi.

"Anthius, this is your area of expertise." Dimethic said, as he and Iloxane stepped back. Anthius cracked his knuckles and waited for Trunks and Goten to charge.

As the two semi-Saiyans charged towards the giant, he disappeared before they could land a strike. When they looked back, he had reappeared behind them and punched them both in the back slamming them into the floor. Badly bruised, they got up and tried to charge at him again. Anticipating that he would disappear and reappear again, Trunks and Goten zanzokened and went behind where they predicted Anthius to appear again. When he did, they both charged up their chi ready to attack him.

"KA…ME…HA…ME…HA!" They both yelled, doing the Kame-sennin trademark attack. The attack hit Anthius in the back and threw him to the floor. After the attack had dispersed, Anthius got up and dusted himself off.

"A fine display of dust, if such was your intention." Anthius said. (**) Goten and Trunks looked at him in disbelief.

"We gave that attack everything we had." Goten said in disbelief.

"It's time to pull out plan F." Trunks said.

"He may have the skill but he's such an asshole Trunks! Are you sure he can do the job? I mean, our fathers are just about lifeless." Goten said, looking over to the two older fighters. He sighed heavily. "Make that unconscious. Tousan picks the worst times to go to sleep."

"We have no choice Goten." Trunks said, getting up. Goten pouted and got up also.

"Fine. Anything that happens is your fault."

"WHAT?! WHY MY FAULT?!"

"It's your personality that is dominant not mine."

"Nuh uh!"

"Yah huh!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Prove it!"

"Goten-ks! Your WHOLE name is in the damn thing!"

"No! Half! Gote-nks! The nks comes from you!"

"Oh get over it!"

"No, you get over it!"

"You!"

"You!"

"You infinity!"

"Arg!" Whilst they were consumed in their argument, Anthius came up behind them, grabbed their heads and banged them together.

"If it helps, you are both assholes." Anthius replied. "Besides, we already know about your little fusion technique and we weren't going to give you the chance to do it anyway."

"How do you know so much about us?" Trunks groaned. Anthius merely smirked, threw them both up in the air and blasted them both with a huge energy blast. Their bodies fell from the air, limp and lifeless with blood and burn marks all over them. Anthius smirked.

"It's so easy it's almost not satisfying." He looked over to the four defeated Saiyans and chuckled. "Almost."

"I'm glad that you are having so much fun Anthius, but it's time for us to report back to the ship. We've given Gohan enough of a taster." Dimethic said. "Besides, I can hear the ambulance sirens in the distance. The coroner is going to have a field day deciphering these goons." Anthius and Iloxane put a hand on Dimethic's shoulder and they disappeared as the ambulances arrived.

To Be Continued…

It's starting to look obvious who the gang have been hiding the secret from, any guesses? The secret however is not as evident. Until the next chapter anyway! Stay tuned.

(**) This was what Radditz said to Piccolo when they first met. At least, that's what my graphic novel says. I just thought it was funny.