I was nervous as all hell. I was sitting in the living room, hands clasped between my knees. My left leg was bouncing up and down uncontrollably. I could hear Pan moving around in her room. Despite the fact she had agreed to this, and that it really wasn't much different then two friends wandering around the fair, I couldn't help being worried. I jumped when Gohan laid his hand on my shoulder. I looked up, grinning my embarrassment, and he sat down in the chair to my left.

"You're ready, I take it?" I nodded and he sighed theatrically. "Like mother like daughter, I suppose. They say they don't like all the girly stuff, but then we wind up sitting around for half an hour waiting on them." He smiled and pulled off his glasses. He folded his shirt over the lens and wiped absently at it. "I remember once I was waiting for Videl to get ready, back when we were first dating. She was running back and forth through the house so fast and frantic that she ended up running right into a door." He grinned. "I never let her hear the end of it."

I spoke. "I hope you're ok with this. I mean, I've been…" I trailed off as he shook his head.

"Uh uh, don't start. I've had a feeling about you for a while. I'm not worried." He smiled again. I felt a little thrill at his acceptance. I didn't think he'd have any problem with me taking his daughter on a date, but it was still reassuring to hear it.

Just then I heard Pan's door slam and her light footfalls coming down the stairs. I stood and turned in time to see her step into the room. She was dressed in jeans and a light green blouse, with a black light jacket over it. It was casual dress, but she still looked…Oh, just say it…well, she looked gorgeous. I was finding it disturbingly hard to speak. She took up the slack.

"OK, I'm ready. Bye daddy, we'll be back in a while." She kissed her father on the cheek and grabbed my arm, pulling me out the door. We took to the skies, the chill wind blowing by, starting our coats flapping like ship sails. We flew in comfortable silence. I watched the sun disappear slowly below the horizon, turning the sky a dark dusty orange. Soon enough we found ourselves nearing the fairgrounds. I could hear the sounds of the fair; machinery clanking, carnival music, and the delighted screams of ride patrons. We landed a fair distance away and walked the rest of the way to the entrance.

We reached the ticket booth and I pulled out my wallet. I had discovered to my amazement that the debit card I had had several thousand Zenni on it, so I wasn't even close to using it up. I had pulled a hundred or so out for tonight; knowing how Pans family ate, I could be buying a lot of snacks. I bought two tickets and we headed inside.

We wandered around for a little while, taking in everything. As I had expected, shortly after we went in Pan asked for a snack. We got in line and I got a pair of elephant ears; sugar coated pastries that seemed as big as an elephants ear, hence the name. We ate and walked. Pan suddenly stopped short.

I looked at her, then followed her gaze. She was looking at a carnival game. It looked like the object of the game was to throw a ball into one of a couple dozen holes in a grid pattern on a piece of plywood. The holes were numbered, probably a point value. Pan spoke softly.

"I do not believe it." I glanced at her, confused. She pointed. "You see that doll there?" I followed her finger. She was pointing to a doll of a man in costume. He looked to be wearing a black body suit with a green tunic on top of it, with white gloves and boots. He had a red cape attached at the shoulders, and was wearing an orange helmet with a black visor. I looked at Pan.

"That's my dad," she said wonderingly. I stared at her. She looked at me and shook her head. "Remember the stories he was telling, when he and mom tried being superheroes?" I nodded. "That's him. That's his superhero." She stared at it for a moment longer before pulling me toward the booth.

"Woah, hang on. Are you expecting me to get that for you?" She smiled sweetly at me.

"Oh, come on, don't you want to be the big man, impress the girl?"

I shook my head. "These things are rigged. The ball probably just barely fits through those holes. I doubt I could win."

"Maybe not normally, but you've got a trick or two." She grinned evilly.

I looked at her and smirked. "So you want me to cheat the cheater?"

"Something like that."

"You're evil, you know that?" She nodded but didn't say anything, since we'd made it to the booth. The guy behind the counter stopped his constant stream of greetings and invitations and turned to us. He was wearing a pinstriped shirt, white and red, tucked into khaki pants. His gaze was bright and full of mirth and mischief.

"Hey there, little lady. Does your boyfriend there want to try his luck, win you something special?"

I blanched at the descriptive the man had used for me, but Pan just nodded. "Yup. He's got it in his head to win me something. I told him it's not possible, but he insists." I glared at her, she smiled innocently.

"Well, that's a good choice, sonny. Here, this is what I'll do for you. I'll give you one free throw, then it'll be 5 zenni for 3 balls. Sound good?" I nodded and he slapped a ball into my waiting palm. Pan stepped aside, as did the man. I looked at the board, then at the doll, checking the points I'd need to get it. I aimed for one of the holes that would get me the doll in one and threw the ball.

I didn't use any powers to help, I just wanted to test, see what the throw felt like. The ball bounced off the wood to the right of the hole. I looked at Pan, who was glaring a little. I gave her a 'hang on' look. Her glare softened, but didn't disappear. The man in the booth gave an exaggerated exclamation of sorrow.

"Well, you gonna try again?" I nodded and pulled out my wallet. I fished out the money and handed it to him, and got 3 balls in return. I threw them one after another, using the Force to get each one a little closer to going in, nudging them gently. The last one I took complete control of, guiding it in a shallow arc directly through the hole. Pan let out a small shout, pumping her fist. The man smiled.

"Good job, son. Now, which one will it be?" Pan pointed excitedly at the doll. The man laughed. "Ah, a true fan. All these years later and this old boy's getting claimed. Enjoy." He handed the doll to Pan. She hugged it to her chest and slipped her free arm through mine. I flushed a little, face warming from the feel of her beside me.

For the next few hours we wandered around, going on whatever rides struck us as fun (usually me going along with whatever Pan picked), snacking if we felt like it, and just generally taking in the sites. Eventually we started to feel tired. We were heading toward the entrance when I spied a bathroom.

"Hang on, gimme a minute." I split from her and went in. A couple minutes later I came out to a mass of people moving in a hurry deeper into the fair. I couldn't see Pan anywhere. I looked around, eventually spotting her in the middle of a crowd of people creating a semi-circle at the entrance to a space formed by the sides of two tents. I pushed through the crowd, slowly pulling up beside Pan. She looked over, a disturbed look on her face.

"I think someone's been killed." I stared at her, not comprehending. The unease I had felt in the store the other day had returned. I pushed farther forward, not knowing exactly why. I heard Pan say something, but didn't catch what it was before she was swallowed by the crowd. I elbowed through the last line of people and got to the front. What I saw stopped me dead, my stomach dropping to my feet.

A figure that may have once been a woman lay curled on the ground. She was no more than a charred husk. It looked like she had been burned alive. Or cooked by lightning. I shook my head, not knowing where that thought had come from. I stared at the body that had contorted unnaturally in its last moments, trying to comprehend. I couldn't. The crowd pushed forward, and I let myself be swallowed by it. I was carried backward by the forward momentum of the bodies around me. When the people cleared out, I found myself at the back of a large mob of bodies, Pan standing nearby, clutching her doll to her chest with both arms. I moved over to her, grimacing.

"Was I right?" she asked softly. I nodded and her eyes fell.

"Come on, let's get home." She let me take her arm and guide her out of the fair. At a suitable distance we took off and flew toward home. We were quiet the whole way back. When we got there Pan immediately went upstairs to her room, passing Videl in the hall. I explained to her what had happened. When I finished I followed Pan upstairs, going into my room and sitting down. After a few minutes I got undressed and slid into bed.

Dammit, I thought, a crappy end to a perfectly good date. Should have known something would go wrong. With that thought I drifted off to sleep.

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It was dark. Not a normal dark, an inky, shifting blackness. I could look around, little good it did me, but not much else. Off in the distance I realized I could see a small pinprick of light. After a few moments the light rushed toward me (or me toward the light, there was no sense of motion to judge with). It overtook me, blasting the dark away.

I looked around. I was on the street in front of my house. Not Pans house, Home. My world. But I was still the same as I had been for the past few months. I looked toward the house and saw the door opening and my mother stepping out onto the porch. She was a thin woman, good looking for her age, with short curly brown hair. The light yellow walls of the house seemed to stretch forever into the sky. The narrow road in front of the house was absent any cars, even the ones that were perpetually parked along the curbs.

There was no sound, even though my mother opened her mouth to greet me. She didn't greet me like I had disappeared for several months and suddenly showed up again. She walked down to the sidewalk in front of me and stopped, saying something.

I tried to talk, but couldn't. She finished whatever she had been saying and turned around. My arm began to rise on its own. I realized with a mounting horror that I was gripping my lightsaber. I screamed in my head, trying to get her to turn around, to run, something. But she didn't respond, didn't see or sense the threat until it was too late.

My thumb stroked the ignition switch and the blade shot out and through the middle of my mothers back. She jerked, stood still for a moment, and then crumpled, sliding off the end of my saber. I screamed again, the sound of my voice filling my head but not escaping into the world around me. I stared down at my mother's body, hatred and sorrow filling me. I screamed once more as I felt my mouth curve into a grin.

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I shot straight up fast enough to smash my head into the curved surface of the ceiling over my bed. I cried out and fell back, stars filling my vision and pain splitting my brain in half. I rolled onto my side and retched, thankfully not bringing anything to the surface. I coughed harshly and lay back, gasping. My vision cleared slowly and I saw my room, moonlight streaming in through the window onto my legs. The cover was thrown off the bed, the sheets sticking to me with sweat. I tossed the sheet off and bent to get my cover, pulling it over me.

I glanced at the clock; 3:26. The dream played over and over; the silence, my mother's smiling face, the bright green blade reaching out to stop her heart. I realized I was crying, and didn't try to stop it.

It wasn't a dream, though. Not quite. I blinked at the ceiling; the voice in my head wasn't familiar. At least, it wasn't mine.

OK, if it wasn't a dream, what was it?

A premonition.

I coughed, thinking about that. I did have the Force after all, and it wasn't all lifting rocks and throwing balls to win prizes. There was a darker side to everything, and this particular ability had quite a lot of darkness associated with it. I rolled over, feeling my head pound, and stared at the wall. I didn't think I'd be getting much sleep the rest of that night. I proved myself wrong; less than 10 minutes later I was out, sleeping a deep, mercifully dreamless sleep.