Dragon Ball Alternate Dimension - Generation Z
A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah
Chapter Five
Adonai was the first out of the ship. His friends stumbled after him.
"Ado, Wait! We have to test the environment!!" Korosette screamed after him.
"If Yaffa came here, it's fine." He breathed deep to prove his point.
Korosette threw down her testing equipment and caught up with him. "Fine. Die."
Kashtan and Okano exchanged glances and followed Soma and the others.
Before them lay a vast desert. Rocky prominences jutted out occasionally and strange varieties of plants were scattered in their shade. Just ahead on the horizon was the outline of a city. The sky was pale, almost white and the sand was just as colorless. The heat was stifling. Korosette mentioned more than once as they trekked across the desert that the temperature was exactly 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
The city lay along the banks of a wide, clear river in a fertile valley. Plants grew in abundance and people went about their daily business.
The teenagers looked around as they walked up one of the main streets, passing merchants hawking wares and food. The people were fairly dark-skinned and dark-haired. They wore loose-fitting garments made from a rough fabric. Among the crowd Adonai noticed people dressed in black from head to toe. Their clothes were tighter and only their eyes showed through a break in the fabric that was wrapped around their heads. They carried large Arabic-looking broadswords. He was about to turn and mention to his friends that they might want to stay away from them when he saw his sister approach one of them.
"Excuse me, could you direct us to the person in charge?" she asked in her usual, sweet tone of voice.
The masked man cocked his head to one side and stared at the pink-haired girl with the star on her forehead. "The Emperor resides in the Palace," the man replied.
Korosette popped up next to Soma. "Where exactly are we?"
"In the market district."
"Um, no. I mean, what planet are we...?" she was cut off as Adonai covered her mouth.
"That's enough, Korosette."
"Are you aliens?" the armed man asked.
Kashtan laughed as he noticed how different his colorful friends looked from the locals. "What makes ya think that?"
"Follow me. I shall escort you to the palace."
"Thank you so much!" Soma cheered.
Adonai rolled his eyes and pulled his sister aside. "You cannot be so trusting, Soma."
"He seemed nice." She pouted. Okano furrowed his brows.
They followed the Imperial guard to the Palace.
.x.
In the throne room under a high, vaulted ceiling and on a throne made of a lustrous platinum-colored metal, sat the Emperor. His head was as shiny as the throne and his girth fit it snugly. He nervously rolled a ring made of the same metal around his index finger with his thumb and stroked his long beard with the other hand.
"Well? What does it say!" he barked at a woman wearing a fine, linen cloak that obscured her face. In front of him, she passed her hands over a wooden bowel filled with hot water and various herbs and animal parts. The Emperor waved his hand in front of his nose. "Hurry! That smells horrible!"
The soothsayer spoke. "Emperor, the day shall come when in a golden flame your reign will be undone by the one who knows your name."
"Damn it all!" he roared and stood up.
The soothsayer remained in her pose. "Sire, what I see, I see."
He slumped down into his throne again. The sound of footsteps made him look up. "Ah! Yaffa. Report."
"Emperor Donburi. I have brought you the man called Vegeta from the planet Earth. He is sedated."
"Very good." Yaffa paused. "You are dismissed."
"Sire, you promised you would let them go..."
"I do what I like!" he barked. "Your service to me has not ended. My guard has just informed me that you were followed by another ship and five aliens are on their way here as we speak."
Yaffa's eyes bulged. 'Adonai!'
"Do not concern yourself with anything but service to your Lord." The Emperor warned. "You are dismissed, for now."
When she had left the room, the soothsayer spoke up. "Sire, if she is so irksome, why do you continue to keep her as a slave to you?"
"It amuses me." He grinned again and let out an evil laugh. "I don't care how ridiculously powerful the Prince may have gotten since last I saw him. Soon, I will kill Vegeta myself and nothing will stand in the way of my greatness!"
The soothsayer bowed her head but said nothing more. The cloak obscured any reaction she might have had to his proclamation.
Fifty Years Ago
It had taken decades to build Bistro-sei into a decent habitat for its new inhabitants. Donburi's Palace took the longest to construct. It was immense and carved by lasers from the living rock. He strode down its corridors to an elaborate bedroom only he was allowed access to. Inside, on a bed, was a cryogenic chamber.
Donburi ran a finger along the glass, still fogged up from the freezing process. The figure inside was almost imperceptible but definitely feminine.
"Tonight my dear," he whispered. "You shall awaken and rule along side me. Would you like that, My Queen?" Looking out of the tall windows at the stars he was suddenly reminded of an appointment and quickly left the room.
In the throne room a young woman wearing a long cloak bowed before the be-tailed monarch. "What do you see?" Donburi asked in a hushed and reverent tone.
She muttered and incanted spells over a pot of bubbling magical ingredients. "Emperor, the day shall come when in a golden flame your reign will be undone by the one who knows your name."
Donburi furrowed his brows and rubbed his thick lips with his forefinger. "So, what does that mean, exactly?"
"What I see, I see."
"Rubbish!" he screamed and ran a hand over his balding head. "Tell me, if you value your life!" Donburi tried to sound as frightening as possible "Or I shall show you tailless weaklings my power!"
The soothsayer bowed. "It seems that the person who knows your secret will be your undoing."
"Eh, what secret?" he asked nervously.
"I would assume you, like I, have changed your name?"
"Ah! Yes, that's it. But no one alive could possibly know that!" Donburi's heart went into his throat. 'The Queen!' he thought. 'She knows my Saiyajin name! If I wake her up I'm done for! This prophesy will come true and all I have will be gone!' He labored over this issue for a few hours before returning to the room.
"I'm sorry, my dear. This is for my own good." He lifted a sledgehammer up over his head and brought it down on the western wall of the room. He carved a niche out and placed the stasis chamber inside. "Perhaps when my fortune changes we can be together. You'll still be young and beautiful, just like the last time I saw you, Kalifura." He kissed his fingers and touched them to the foggy glass before sealing her in.
Present Day Bistro-Sei
The teens from Earth followed the guard up the steps to the Palace. Adonai wasn't the only one who noticed that more and more guards appeared to 'escort' them as they got closer.
"Man, I don't like this!" Kashtan whispered to his cousin.
"Yeah, it pretty much sucks," Okano agreed. "I'm not detecting too hefty a power level from anyone, but that doesn't mean they're not sitting on it."
"Relax," Adonai hissed. "Leave everything to me. You just make sure the girls don't get hurt."
This didn't comfort Soma at all. She clung to Korosette's arm as they walked up the steps.
.x.
"Welcome to Bistro-sei!" a large, bald man with a bulky middle threw his arms out wide in greeting. He wore a long, flowing tunic to try to hide his lumpy girth but the effect was quite the opposite. The crown on his shiny head seemed out of place but by the way the rest of the Bistrojin around him acted, he must have been their leader. "I am Emperor Donburi. We receive so few visitors to our world and..."
"Where's Vegeta?" Adonai blurted.
The others struggled to stay on their feet. Okano noticed that a few of the guards had a similar reaction.
"Uh... come again?"
"My grandfather was taken to this planet by a woman named Yaffa. Where are they?"
"I'm sorry!" The Emperor grinned and layered on the treacle. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but perhaps if you accept my hospitality we can find him for you!"
Adonai narrowed his eyes and Korosette stepped forward. "That would be great! And I apologize for my cousin's rudeness."
"Cousin?" he asked. "You're related?"
"Yeah, we sort of all are."
"To this Vegeta you speak of?"
"In one way or another, yeah."
"Well, then you must all be very anxious to find him. First, let us accommodate you!" He clapped his hands and servants escorted them to their quarters.
.x.
Adonai, Okano and Kashtan were in one room next door to Soma and Korosette's. The first thing Adonai did, even before arguing with Okano, was break a hole in the wall between the two rooms.
"Adonai, you're gonna get us thrown outta here!" Korosette bellowed.
He didn't answer. Instead he pushed a tall wardrobe in front of the hole. "Alright, I'm going to look for Grandfather." He pointed at the boys. "You stay here. Anything happens to Soma, I kill you." Without waiting for an agreement he left the room.
"I'm sorry, Soma," Korosette hissed. "I hate him." She grabbed her cousin's hand and headed out into the hall. "Ok, boys. You go that way. We'll go this way."
"What?!" Kashtan and Okano exclaimed in unison.
Korosette ignored their protest. "We'll spit up. We can cover more ground that way. Ado is right about one thing, that fat, bald Donburi jerk is hiding something. I have a feeling Grandfather is in this palace somewhere. We'll go snooping around and meet back here in an hour."
"B-but b-b-b-but...!" Kashtan stuttered.
"Oh, what are you so afraid of? You're a Super Saiyajin for cryin' out loud!"
"Oh yeah!" Kashtan grinned and before he could argue the girls were gone. "Come on, O." Kashtan ducked back into the room.
"We should go after the girls!" Okano suggested as he watched them walk away.
"Pff," his cousin scoffed. "Korosette's invincible. Let's think of a plan, go out there, find Vegeta and get the hell outta this creepy place."
"You mean, have me come up with a plan, you lazy bastard."
"Well, yeah!" Kashtan laughed and put his hands behind his head. He found a nice spot against the wall next to the wardrobe and leaned back. Already weakened by Adonai's make-shift passageway, the wall collapsed and Kashtan fell into it.
When Okano recovered from laughing himself silly, he walked over to give him a hand. "You are so predicable!"
"Dude, there's something in here," Kashtan whispered. Okano blinked at the tall, bubble-like object in the cavity of the wall. It was dusty so Kashtan wiped the glass cover.
"It looks like it's been in there a long time," he said as his cousin was about to press a button. "And it's probably been sealed up in there for a reason."
Too late to heed the warning, Kashtan looked up sheepishly at Okano. "Oops." An electronic voice barked out briefly from a tiny speaker in a language they didn't understand. "Auto-wake initiated. Defrost time in 3.7 cycles." The boys looked at each other for a beat before bolting out of the room.
To be continued…