Chapter Twenty - What the Future Holds

The ground made a soft crunching sound with each step he took. Rocks and twisted, burnt, nearly destroyed metal turning to dust beneath his feet. As he walked he gazed at the world about him. The buildings were little more than charred rubble. Corpses littered the streets like a sea of dead. Thick black smoke hung in the sky which was as red as blood.

As he came to a stop he knew where he was. He could see the blue doorway that lead to the rubble of Capsule Corp. only a block ahead of him. Fires burned all around him, the stench of burning hair and flesh searing his eyes and nose. It was the dream. The nightmare. The vision. The... whatever it was. He was having it again. He didn't want to walk down to the other end of the road. To that intersection where he always stood. Because then the dream would play out again.

Suddenly a loud explosion sounded above him and he looked up into the sky. There were people up there fighting, he could only just make them out. Neither were him or the guy he'd kept seeing before. They were both female and had spiky golden hair. /Super Sai-jins?/ he wondered.

He only knew of one Super Sai-jin female and that was Videl. Neither of these warriors were Videl. And then he saw the sparks of blue and realized they weren't just Super Sai-jins, they were second level Super Sai-jins. "What is this? I've... never seen this before..."

His eyes took in everything about the two fighting women. The one was wearing torn up red pants and a black and red battle armor. The other had on blue pants and a white vest with black trim over a small pink top. Suddenly a hard kick from the armored woman sent the one in the vest surging down at the ground. Down at him. Instinctively he flinched but the impact never came.

Opening his eyes he saw that she was gone, both of them were. He hesitated only a moment before continuing down the road. Reaching an intersection he looked down to where the man usually stood but he wasn't there this time. "This has... never happened before." he said. "It's always been the same dream before. Why is it different now?"

His eyes suddenly widened as he caught, momentarily, a glimpse of a small form in the smoke before him. It came and went between curls of the thick, black, acrid smoke as though first conjured and then dispelled by it. The glimpse had been too quick, too sudden, to get a true idea of the figure's appearance. He had noted only that it was a child before it had gone.

Deciding he didn't really have much choice he walked forward toward that intersection. But as he neared it he saw something else that was clearly different than every other time he'd been here. The blue doors that had stood before, the only remains of the Capsule Corp. building, were gone now. Destroyed. One of them lay dented and twisted in the middle of the road, a body under it.

Vegeta froze only feet away from the door, his eyes locked on the face he could now see of that body, shock and disbelief flooding through him. "No... that's impossible..." he said softly. "How could..." He closed his eyes and shook his head to clear it and when he opened them again the body, his body, was gone. And so was everything else. He now stood in total blackness.

Then, from behind him, he heard a voice. A voice he knew from his other dreams. The voice of that unknown man, the one he believed to be Raven's mate. "And this is where it ends." he was saying. "Your time has expired, your power has gone." The Sai-jin turned to see where the man was and found him standing some distance away with two bodies at his feet. They were alive, but barely.

"I must admit, you came a lot closer than I had expected." he continued. "You were actually stronger than me. I never dreamed that would happen. No matter, in the end it still wasn't enough. Just the two of you never had a hope of defeating me. Perhaps if the others hadn't died already..."

His voice was fading, becoming muffled like it was passing through a wall. Again a form took shape before him. A silvery ethereal light around a child like form made of some sort of shapeless, substance-less, smoke. And as quickly as it came it was gone. Now blue light was seeping into the sky above as grass covered ground flowed out around him.

He watched as the darkness retreated from him and revealed a new sight to his eyes. He was standing not far from the Galactic Games Arena. And then the sounds of battle reached him from all around him and he looked about. Everywhere he turned he saw soldiers in armors, Sai-jin and otherwise, fighting odd creatures of different shapes, sizes, and colors.

"What... is this?" he wondered. Then he heard an odd crackling sound from by the arena and looked toward it. His eyes widened in shock. A large portion of the arena wall was missing and some sort of pulsing blue and orange light was floating a few feet above the ground. The light suddenly flared brightly and expanded. Vegeta caught a glimpse of a planet through the light, another world in the midst of battle against more creatures.

And then five more of these beings surged out of the light and it shrank back down again. "Spread out!" one of them, a female, called. "Remember our orders, find the strongest first!"

As he tried to comprehend what he was seeing a searing pain tore through his mind. White hot light flared behind his eyes as waves of sounds and images surged through him. There was too much all at once for him to make out any details. Again he saw that child like form, silvery light emanating from it, and then the bright light vanished and he saw...

Vegeta let out a loud cry and sat up straight, the sheet falling away from him as he did, sweat covering his body. He swallowed and then jumped as a hand touched his shoulder. Turning he saw Bulma looking at him worriedly. "Again?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No. I mean, yes. But... different..."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

A small form stood atop the remains of a former wall. The building it had once been part of was gone, blasted into rubble. The entire city around the girl was decimated. A wasteland of steel and concrete. She gazed about her in a mix of wonder and fear. This was a new scene. This was something she had not before witnessed.

Akemi turned and looked behind her as she heard a voice yell out "Come now! Is that all you've got?! I thought you were supposed to be the greatest Sai-jin?" She saw a man standing on the street surrounded by fire.

And then another voice sounded from above. "You dare mock me! You will pay for what you have done!" She looked up and saw a golden streak surge downward. There was a loud crack and the man with the golden aura surged down the road toward her. He slid and came to a stop only feet away and she recognized him.

Frowning she looked toward the other man again. He was walking toward them but stopped when a new voice came from behind him. "Not so fast!" the new voice cried. Two more streaks of gold surged at him but both were knocked away.

The man turned toward them, his red tail swishing behind him. "You can't beat me." he said simply.

"We'll see about that." one of the men said as they climbed to their feet. "Fuuuu..."

Suddenly there was a loud crash and bright flash and the world around her vanished. She was standing on a beach now. A beach she knew well, it was the one at the lake back home. The forest was burning, people were yelling for help, and then in another loud and bright flash it was gone and she was in darkness.

"And this is where it ends." a voice said near-by. "Your time has expired, your power has gone." Akemi looked around and found that man from the first vision standing only feet away. Laying on the ground before him were two people she didn't know. "I must admit, you came a lot closer than I had expected. You were actually stronger than me. I never dreamed that would happen. No matter, in the end it still wasn't enough. Just the two of you never had a hope of defeating me. Perhaps if the others hadn't died already you may have had a chance."

"You... wont..." one of the ones on the ground wheezed.

"Wont what? Win? I'm afraid I already have. Everyone's dead. Everyone that challenged us, challenged me, is gone. It's over. No, not over. It's only just begun. My new empire, that is. An eternal empire. And in time I'll be able to have my revenge. Even the Shugotenshi will fall before me for what they've done!" His red tail lashed behind him in agitation as he finished.

Akemi cringed as a wave of time washed through her. Flashes of events, snippets of sounds, bursts of places. It was almost too much for her despite her abilities. Faces rushed passed her. Evil looking ones, friends of her parents, her friends, a guy made of metal, a small blue bald guy, another guy with blue skin and red or orange hair, her mom (at least, she thought it was her but she looked a lot different), and hundreds more she couldn't discern.

Voices flowed around her, too many to pick out anything more than a few of the words that were being said. "Die!" "I don't..." "Goku..." "Help!" "Impossible!" "His power..." "Razor!" "Not again..." "No!" "Forgive me..." "...the legacy..."

And then in a rush it was all gone and she was standing in the grass near the Galactic Games Arena. She knew that's where she was because it's where she always was for the last six months. And as the sounds of crying reached her ears she closed her eyes tightly. She didn't want to look. She didn't want to see. Not again.

But, as she always did, she hoped things were different now. And with the hope she might see something she'd not seen before she opened her eyes and turned around. And there she saw herself, her face burried in the fabric of her sister's shirt, crying. And her sister was...

Akemi's eyes flew open and she sat up, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Sakura..." she called, barely above a whisper. "Sakura." louder now. She turned and looked at the bed on her right where her sister lay sleeping. "Sakura!"

Sakura rolled over, her eyes only half open. "Akemi? What is it?" she asked.

"I had it again. The vision..." she said, wiping her eyes. "There was other stuff there too but at the end it was the same vision."

Sakura sat up and looked at her sister for a moment before moving over and sitting down beside her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "The one where I'm..." Akemi nodded. Sakura closed her eyes and sighed. She'd hoped that it would stop, especially now that they were on the world and at the place it was going to happen.

They'd tried telling their parents about it but they'd both written it off as just a dream. But Sakura and Akemi, they knew better. Akemi had gotten a few visions before and they knew they were real. They could be changed, they didn't have to happen as she saw them, but they were real.

"It's ok Akemi." Sakura said, rubbing her sister's back. "We wont let it happen." She looked down at her little sister and then kissed the top of her head. "You said you saw other stuff?"

Akemi nodded. "Yeah, but... b-but I don't th-think it was f-from the same th-thing." she sniffed. "First I w-was in a destroyed c-city with th-this guy with a t-tail who was fighting V-Vegeta. And th-then it was all dark and the t-tail guy was fighting two o-others. After that I was on the b-beach by the l-lake at home and the f-forest was b-burning."

She swallowed and wiped her eyes again. "And I saw all th-these people. You and mom and dad and their f-friends and strange people I've n-never seen b-before. It was... weird. It's never b-been like that before. It was l-like... like I was g-getting other people's s-stuff."

"Other people's... wait, you think you were getting someone else's visions?"

"Maybe." Akemi said softly. "But not r-really. It was l-like... like they w-were taking me t-to the t-time but I w-was controlling it. It felt l-like someone el-else was th-there and that they were c-confused."

Sakura nodded. She wasn't sure what it meant, though. It sounded like her vision and someone else's got crossed. "Was it like..." she paused as she fished around for a description. "Like you tapped into someone else's vision?"

Akemi shook her head. She'd calmed down enough now she could talk a little better. "N-no. Like they were using my... my powers. They sent their vision through m-me and I saw the time they saw but n-not what they saw..."

"We should tell mom and dad." Sakura said after a minute.

"But they don't believe us!"

"They'll have to soon, wont they? Unless we can change it..." Akemi didn't answer, just sniffed again.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Sai-jin Palace, Garden

Nova sat in the midst of the garden with her legs crossed, hands cupped, and eyes closed. It was well after midnight now and all the commotion over the day's events had ended a couple of hours ago. She was now meditating and enjoying the peace and quiet of the nice cool night. There had been... problems, immediately following Kuriiza's death. Not the least of which had been his remaining followers.

Apparently he'd come with more troops of his own than she'd thought. Right after his death chaos had broken out in the crowd as several people went nothing short of crazy and started attacking at random. The arena security, Vegeta, and the others, had dove into that chaos and brought it to an end before anyone had been killed. Though there had been several injuries. By now, though, they'd be out of the Regen Tanks and good as new.

A problem that wouldn't go away nearly as quickly was public reaction to the fact Kuriiza had been there at all, and her presence among Vegeta and the others. Word had spread beyond planet Vegeta quickly that the new queen of the Changelings was on world and, apparently, a guest of the Sai-jins. And neither Vegeta nor the others had said anything to the public yet so rumor was the only information they had.

There was currently, as there had been all night, a gathering of protestors outside the palace gates. Sai-jin and alien alike they were all demanding her execution. Meanwhile those who she'd met in the palace seemed to be doing their best to avoid her. All in all it had been an... eventful outing so far.

Hearing the sound of crunching rock and dirt under feet she opened her eyes and looked toward the sound. She saw a person moving slowly through the garden, head tilted back a little and eyes gazing up at the stars. Not sure who it was she stayed quiet until they passed through a sliver of light from a window several floors up. As the yellow light passed over them Nova recognized her. Mijima, one of the more interesting allies the Sai-jins had made in recent years.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked as the woman walked passed her only a few feet away. She jumped, startled and turned to look. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh, Nova. That's ok." the Cyborg said, spying the woman sitting on the ground. She turned toward her and walked over to where she was before sitting down under a tree a few feet away. "It's what I get for not paying attention."

"You did seem rather lost in thought. Something keeping you awake?"

"No, not really." the blonde replied. "I don't actually need to sleep. I can power down my systems to rest if I want but it's not really sleep. What about you?"

The Changeling noted the other woman's artful dodge of the question and realized whatever was on her mind it wasn't something she wanted to discuss. "Changelings don't sleep." she said after a moment. "Not in the sense of other races anyway. We've got two separate brains, one for higher thought and one for more base thinking, and one of them is always alert, awake."

Mijima raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you have more hours of boredom a day than I do. I can at least get an hour or so of unconsciousness a day if I really want to."

Nova shrugged. "Perhaps. But the thought of being almost completely unaware like that has always scared me so it's probably for the best. Probably left over emotions from my days working in Cold's palace..." She turned her head and gazed at the other woman. "If you... don't mind my asking. How much of you is..."

"Machine?" Mijima finished. "Not as much as you might think. There's the power core, a bundle of chips and wires in my brain, a network of wiring almost like a second nervous system that carries the power from my core and out of my body so I can use it, and several trillion nano-machines that keep up repairs and what have you. I'd say, of my over all composition, about 5 percent of me was created by Gero."

"Not much difference for so much power." she said, looking away.

"No, I suppose not." Mijima said as she leaned back against the tree and closed her eyes. "How long do Changelings live?" she asked suddenly.

Nova cast her a glance again before answering. "It varies. The average is around six centuries."

Mijima smiled faintly. "Six hundred years..." she said softly. "Must be nice."

The Changeling glanced at her again. "Yeah, I guess. I've never really thought about it before. I know the average age for Sai-jins is seventy-five. What is it for Humans?"

"About the same. Eighty or ninety or so." Mijima replied. "Well, for normal Humans anyway..."

The way she said that, and the long sigh that followed, caught Nova's attention. "What do you mean? Is it different for some people?"

There was a long silence before the other woman replied. "For my brother and I." she said at last. "You asked before what was on my mind... it was this. The same thing that's always on my mind when I have time to myself to think on it. You see... Dr. Gero was... well, he was insane but they say there's a fine line between insanity and genius.

"The nano-machines in mine and my brother's bodies keep us in top condition. Normal aging occurs as cells divide and wear down over time as a result of the constant division. But the nano-machines keep the cells in perfect health no matter the number of divisions. We've stopped aging... which means..."

"Eternal life..." Nova said softly.

"Well, in a sense. We can die, but not from old age." Mijima sighed again. "I really don't see what the appeal was for Frieza. To living forever, I mean. Everyone else will grow old and die. Everyone but me, Gainin, Piccolo, and the old pervert."

"Piccolo? Old pervert?"

"Piccolo's father had eternal youth and then, just before dying, passed on his life force to create Piccolo." Mijima explained. "So Piccolo inherited it. And the old pervert would be Roshi. He's already over three hundred years old."

The Changeling watched the other woman for a moment. "Thinking about being left behind by everyone else?" she asked at last. Mijima nodded faintly. "Well, it's no good to dwell on what you can't do anything about." she said. She was quiet for a few moments as she thought. Finally she turned her head toward the Cyborg. "And it's not much, but I still have around four hundred years left." At this Mijima opened her eyes again and looked at Nova for a moment. And then she smiled.