Author's Note: I'd appreciate to see what you guys think, so please review. Thanks!

All DBZ characters portrayed are owned by Toei.

The group ate in Bulma's kitchen; the only noise heard was the clattering of empty dishes and food being consumed with lightning speed. Piccolo decided to stand to the side, nursing a bottle of water. The new Saiyan had trouble using chopsticks, but once he got the hang of it he quickly caught up with the others. Goku was finished with his last plate, when he noticed a piece of salmon sushi sitting by itself on a plate. With a sly look, his hand reached for it when it was quickly poked with a pair of chopsticks.

"Come on Vegeta, you weren't going to finish that," Goku rubbed his hand, eyeing the lonesome piece of sushi. Vegeta moved the plate closer to himself protecting it with one arm, his face daring anyone to try for it. Goku turned away glumly and looked over to Cilan's side to see if there was anything he could pilfer. Finding nothing of interest, he was about to look away when he noticed a circular patch on the left arm of Cilan's shirt. It was black, and featured the grim reaper with its scythe drawn back about to strike. The only words on it were two lines below the image, in white lettering: '1st S.O.G.' & 'Ghost Recon'

"What's that?" Goku pointed at Cilan's arm, drawing the attention of the others. Cilan looked at his arm, and gulped down what he was eating before he spoke.

"It's a patch of the unit I served with," he removed the patch, revealing it was velcroed on, before handing it to Goku.

"Unit?" Goku looked up from the patch before handing it to Vegeta.

"Military unit," Cilan answered simply.

"What military?" Vegeta asked mildly interested, as Bulma snatched the patch from his hand.

Cilan removed a second patch from his right arm passing it to Goku. This one was a square black patch, which featured a spiral galaxy that had a pair of swords crossed over it in an 'x' formation. Below it was the acronym 'G.F.S.F.' in yellow lettering.

"I was a Lieutenant Commander in the Galactic Federation Space Forces."

"Never heard of them," retorted Vegeta.

"They aren't active in this galaxy; they're based in the west galaxy."

"How did a Saiyan like you end up there?" Bulma spoke up.

"It's a long story," Cilan really wanted to dissuade them from prying further.

"We have plenty of time," Vegeta cut in, he wanted to know where this so-called Saiyan came from.

Pushing away the plates, he began his origins. He changed some details around, specifically who his father truly was; instead he said Cinna's personal guard was his father. He also left out Cinna's special ability, the true reason she was sent away. Cilan then described their life as nomad's in the east galaxy, how he and his mother survived by trading and stealing for the first ten years.

"So where's your mother now?" Bulma asked.

"She's dead," Cilan deadpanned looking her straight in the eyes. Bulma recoiled in shock, "I… I'm sorry."

"How did she die?" Vegeta cut in, not wanting to hear Bulma's blubbering.

"After I turned 10, we were in the southwestern quadrant when we were ambushed by space pirates. We were in our ship when it happened, we fought them off as much as we could, but the ship took critical damage." Cilan's eyes were boring a hole through the table as he remembered that day.

"The ship's emergency escape pods were disabled, so my mother told me to get into her old space pod and take off. When I refused, she knocked me out, gathered some of our belongings and put me into the space pod, then jettisoned me into space. I woke up just in time to see the ship explode," his voice was controlled, but his hands were clenched and his eyes furrowed.

"What happened after you were sent away?" Goku could sense the rage the other Saiyan was suppressing.

"The pod was set to land on an uninhabited planet nearby. I landed about an hour later, however the pirates landed right after. They saw the pod and followed to finish the job. There were about 80 of them including their leader."

"What did you do then?"

"I dealt with them," Cilan answered tonelessly.

Piccolo was eyeing him, knowing from his tone that he killed them all. He was trying to imagine how a 10 year-old Saiyan could fight off that many enemies and only coming to one conclusion. He finally decided to speak up, "Did you go Super Saiyan?"

The others looked at Piccolo, then back at Cilan, waiting for his reply. His face changed from scornful to thoughtful before he looked at the others.

"Is that when you get a massive ki boost and you have a golden aura?"

The Saiyans nodded. Cilan contemplated this for a few moments before he asked, "Are all of you able to go that that state?"

Again all the Saiyans nodded. Bulma cleared her throat to get his attention, "Why did those Space Pirates attack your ship anyway?"

"We did business with them for a couple of years. However some months before the ambush, my mother found out they were planning on using us as scapegoats for a heist they pulled off on a banking outpost. So she managed to double-cross them and steal their best ship," he smirked remembering that day.

"Anyway," the smirk disappeared. "After that, I took one of their ships. I decided to leave the eastern galaxy. I still wasn't sure about the state of the northern one and headed for the western one instead. When I got there, it was in the middle of a war."

Bulma asked, "So you signed up with the military then?"

"No, I didn't care about the war." Cilan put the patches back onto each sleeve of his arm,

"I was just interested in continuing in stealing what I could to continue on. Unfortunately, I didn't last long as the local security forces detained me after a couple of heists. Before I was sentenced to some prison colony, the GF took an interest in me and drafted me into their forces. I was deemed a valuable asset for the war effort as I was a Saiyan," Cilan had his arms crossed.

"How did they know about Saiyan's?" Gohan interrupted.

"They learned about them from other prisoners," he looked away scowling. "That's also why they cut my tail off shortly after I was captured." The others looked closer at him noticing he didn't have a tail wrapped around himself.

"Why would they want with a Saiyan anyway? Who were they at war with?" Vegeta spoke up.

"They were at war with the Planet Trade Organization," Cilan looked at Vegeta awaiting a reaction. He got one as Vegeta looked surprised then asked, "Freeza?"

"No, Cooler."

Goku's eyes widened, remembering both times he had fought Cooler, "What was Cooler doing in that galaxy?"

"From what intelligence was able to gather from some of the POW's. It looked like Cooler wanted to take over the Western Galaxy by himself. However, unlike the northern galaxy, the western one was more technologically advanced, and was able to hold off his forces in the opening stages of the invasion. Though when Cooler and his personal guard were involved, they quickly made short work of them. Cooler gained about a third of the galaxy before he disappeared with his personal guards."

Cilan glanced at Vegeta, then at Goku, "Apparently one of you killed his little brother."

"That was me," Goku said sadly. He still didn't feel proud in taking lives of anyone, no matter how evil they were.

"Right, so when I showed up he had already disappeared, but the remaining forces still held on. In fact they were backed up by the last of Freeza's forces. The ones that escaped from your wrath," Cilan glanced at Vegeta, who simply grunted.

"As I said earlier, the western galaxy was advanced technologically, but it had few races that could manipulate ki. Most of the fighters the GF had were killed off by Cooler and his men. So they jumped at the chance of using me in the war. After a year in boot camp, I was sent to infantry where I fought on the frontlines," his eyes were distant as he recalled the first few battles.

"After a couple of months, someone high up in the organization saw potential in me and created a new Special Operations Group. Using myself and the last of the remaining fighters. "

"So you were put into special forces?" Gohan had studied war history and came across stories on the creations of special military groups that were used in times of war, so he was familiar with the concept.

Cilan nodded, "I was sent on a crash course in officer training, and on covert operations. That's the unit you saw on the patch. We were called 'Ghost Recon', as our jobs were to infiltrate deep into enemy territory and either run reconnaissance on enemy troops or lay the ground work for the main forces to retake the planet; which usually meant on taking down the command structure in any way possible.

"Thanks to our group's efforts, we weakened them enough for the main forces to retake a majority of surviving planets. The last of their forces were defeated, about four years ago."

"That still doesn't explain why you're here," grunted the Prince.

Cilan scowled at him before continuing, "After the fighting ceased, our unit was disbanded and I was kept on active duty to deal with any remaining splinter cells that remained. About two years ago, I had officially been in the service for 8 years, so I decided to retire."

"Why did you do that?" Bulma asked. Cilan was about to reply, when Vegeta interjected with a knowing smile.

"I know why," the Prince glanced at him. "If you're a Saiyan, then you have an appetite for combat, but without any war to fight, you probably got bored. Correct?"

Cilan glanced away, his silence was all Vegeta needed. Clearing his throat, he continued, "After I retired, I decided to come to this galaxy, to see what had happened to Cooler. I was following leads for a while, when I heard Cooler and Freeza disappeared when they came to this planet. Some of Freeza's survivors told me that a Saiyan or two were living here. So with nothing else left to do, I decided to come here and investigate."

"Why were you looking for Cooler?" Goku asked.

Cilan smiled cruelly as he balled his left hand into a fist, his knuckles cracking. "I wanted to kill him."

The adults looked at him in shock, except for Vegeta, he smirked as he found that as an acceptable answer.

"Mr. Cilan," Goten raised his hand, jumping on the silence between the adults. Cilan turned his head to the young Saiyan.

"If you were a soldier, did you get any medals?"

"Some."

"So you're a war hero?" Goten asked excitedly. Cilan grimaced, but simply nodded at the smiling boy's question. He then felt a tug on his sleeve and looked over to see that it was Trunks.

"What's that you got there?" he pointed at the holster that contained the dark cylinder he recognized the new Saiyan was holding earlier. Cilan looked at what he pointed at and smirked; he stood up and went to an empty spot in the kitchen asking for some space. He un-holstered the object and held it in both hands in front of him.

"This," he activated a button on it and a plume of blue and white energy flowed from the hilt, "Is a beam sword."

The plume was about 3 feet long, and made a humming noise. Cilan deactivated it after a minute when Trunks looked suitably impressed. Trunks eyes were as wide as saucers, and his jaw swung open. Bulma's mind was trying to figure out what kind of power source that used.

Vegeta had a raised eyebrow, "Why do you have such a silly toy?"

"It was custom made for me by the GF armory," Cilan began to explain as he re-holstered the hilt. "It was pointless to issue me a beam rifle, so they decided to make a beam sword; to give me an edge in combat."

"Let me see it, let me see it!" Trunks begged as he pointed at the beam sword.

"You already saw it," Cilan replied.

"I mean let me hold it."

Cilan glanced at Bulma, "I don't think your mom would like that."

Bulma nodded, "You already have a sword sweetie."

"Yeah, but his is better and it doesn't need to be sharpened." He looked up at his mother with his eyes lit up, "Mom, can you make me one?"

Goten jumped up from his seat and also asked for one. Bulma only shook her head wondering why boys always wanted destructive toys.

"I don't think your mom would like you playing with weapons son," Goku said with a smile, before his face took on a pained expression. He remembered he was supposed to till the field, but spent the last few hours eating and listening to Cilan's story. Goku looked worriedly at his eldest son. "How mad was Chi Chi?"

"Mom seemed really angry, she might actually kill you this time." Gohan replied as he rested back, with his hands interlocked behind his head.

Goku grimaced before he turned to Bulma, tapping his index fingers together. "Hey Bulma."

"Yes?"

"Can I stay here for a couple of days? Until Chi Chi calms down?" He looked down worriedly. The strongest fighter in both the living and afterworld wanted to hide from his wife.

To be continued.