A/N: Sorry for the delay. This chapter is a bit slow, but the one it's building up to is worth is, I promise ;)

Chapter 4:

Rooftop

The next day Pan's grandfather was still there. She woke up early to go to school and saw him and his student sitting in front of her grandmother's house as the morning haze hovered low over the grass. They just sat there and talked, appearing a bit serious. For some reason, it made her feel a pang of jealousy.

Her father sat at the table reading the newspaper, but Pan noticed his eyes didn't move from side to side. Her mother was frying eggs, filling the house with a burned scent. Pan had no appetite. The mood was heavy, like when her grandfather left, and then when uncle Goten disappeared. It reminded her of those unpleasant times, so she nibbled on something, drank some orange juice, and went to school although it was still early.

She went up into the air, but flew a very short distance before she had to stop again. Someone was calling her name tentatively, so much so she could barely hear him at first. She stopped and turned back to see her grandfather's student catching up on her.

She looked him up and down. She remembered him from the Martial Arts Tournament when her grandfather had left, only now he wasn't so thin and miserable looking, but higher and more muscular. She knew for sure he was several years older than her, at least three if not more, but when confronted with him she didn't feel she was younger. He was so insecure, you'd think she was the older of the two.

"What?" She asked impatiently. After her grandfather, Uub was the last person she wanted to talk to.

"I... Uh... Um..." He began to stutter, looking at the ground.

"What is it? I need to get to school."

"Well... I just wanted to... I mean... I don't want you to be angry at Goku. If you want to blame someone... You should blame me, not him."

Pan wasn't impressed. "He told you to say that?" She asked suspiciously.

Uub shook his head, his cheeks flushed.

Honestly, Pan didn't know what to say. She wanted very much to let out the anger she felt toward her grandfather on Uub, but she knew it wasn't his fault that her grandfather had left. He was only a kid, he had just taken the opportunity. It wasn't his fault that he had natural talent, and she didn't...

Puffing angrily, she turned and went on flying. After a few minutes Uub caught up with her, flying by her side at a safe distance. She clung stubbornly to her silence, and he also didn't speak. After a few moments they arrived at the city. Pan landed on the roof of her school, Uub right after her, hesitating.

"Stop following me," she snapped.

Uub spoke firmly although his tanned shoulders tensed, his eyes shining, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you treat Master Goku that way!"

"And if I won't stop? What you gonna do, hit me?" Pan replied nastily.

Uub looked shocked. "No! Of course not!"

"Why? You're afraid to lose?" Pan didn't know why she was behaving that way, but she felt a strong need to land some punches into Uub's face.

"No! I - uh... I mean..."

"Come on!" Pan called aggressively and stormed Uub.

The older boy came to his senses in surprising speed and blocked her right away. Pan didn't surrender, continuing to attack relentlessly while the boy dodged her.

"Please, stop - " He almost pleaded. She seized the opportunity and rushed down, but he changed position quickly and caught her with her arms behind her back, paralyzing her. "Please, I don't want to hurt you!"

"It's not fair!" She yelled as she struggled wildly against his grip. "Grandpa Goku always promised to train me, to teach me to be strong like him! But he chose you instead!"

Uub's grip loosened slightly and Pan pushed him away from her.

"Pan..." he murmured, looking at her strangely.

It irritated her that he said her name like that, as if he knew her. As though they were friends.

"You're no better than me!" She found herself shouting. An electrifying feeling shook her whole body and a wind that came from nowhere blew her hair. The feeling was overwhelming, amazing, liberating. She felt something inside her growing as if hatching from an egg –

"Miss Son!" A shrill voice called her name.

She turned in surprise, feeling the electricity disappearing from her body. One of the teachers was standing in doorway that lead to the roof, giving her a stern and disappointed look.

"To the principal's office, now! You too, boy!"

After ten minutes there was no trace of the energetic euphoria Pan felt on the roof. She was leaning in defeat in a chair in the principal's office, arms folded across her chest. Uub was sitting beside her, tense and sweaty although the room wasn't hot.

"It's only the first day of the week, classes haven't even started, and you already got into trouble," the principal lectured Pan from the other side of her desk. "You know I have to report this to your parents."

Pan sighed. "I know..."

"I hate to do it - you know how much I admire your grandfather, Mister Satan - but it seems that this time there is no other choice, I have to punish you."

It didn't really bother Pan. "Okay..."

"You broke three school laws this morning!" The principal went on to preach. Pan just wanted to leave. "You got up on roof, which is strictly off limits, than you quarreled violently, and all this with a boy who isn't even a student of this school!"

Her investigating gaze focused on Uub, passing on his rural clothes and strange haircut. The village boy jumped to his feet nervously and bowed to the principal in an outdated manner.

"I apologize, ma'am. It won't happen again," he promised formally.

The principal observed him suspiciously. "And who are you?"

"My cousin," Pan intervened before Uub could say something stupid. "He walked me to school, and I wanted to give him a tour..."

"This is unacceptable, Miss Son!"

"I know," Pan said in defeat, wanting very much to just leave. She would hear enough about it from her mom when she'd get home.

"As punishment, you'll have to write me a four page essay on the dangers of going up on the roof, and the prohibitions against the use of violence."

Pan nodded quickly and used the ringing of the bell as an excuse to go. She didn't know how she was going to write four pages on a subject so boring, but at that moment she had other things that troubled her.

Uub left immediately after her.

"Are you okay?" He asked, following her through the empty school corridors toward her first lesson.

Pan muttered a reply. She felt tired, defeated, as if her grandfather's return home put her down like an oppressive weight.

"Maybe I can help you with the essay? I don't know how to write, but - "

"Would you let it go already?!" She yelled at him, stopping and turned toward him. "This is all your fault!"

With these words she ran into the classroom before Uub could say anything else.

Pan's day didn't improve after the morning's events. She was late for the first class, and although she had a good reason to she was reprimanded in front of the whole class. She hadn't learned anything, since she was too absorbed in her thoughts to concentrate. And if that wasn't enough, during recess her classmates told her there was a rumor running in the school that she was alone with a boy on the roof that morning, and were anxious to know if he was her boyfriend.

At the end of the day, that refused to end, she finally returned home. She was so exhausted she didn't care about her parents' reaction to the punishment she received from the principle. She landed at the front door and entered with a tired sigh, only to find the house empty. She left her backpack at home and walked across the field toward her grandmother's house, where smoke rose from the chimney and laundry flapped on the ropes. She heard voices coming from inside. She entered hesitantly.

Her parents were sitting at the table, sipping tea with her grandmother Chichi and Goku. Pan's dad was dressed in training gi, although he didn't usually train during the week. She had no doubt it was related to the events of the day before. Uub was sitting on the floor and playing with the chubby cat that was Chichi's only company in the recent years.

Pan expected her mom to immediately start telling her off, but instead, everyone smiled at her and grandmother Chichi went to serve dinner. Uub didn't look up at her, his dark face flushed. Pan sat down between her parents.

"We talked to the principal today," her mom began.

"I -"

"It's okay, Uub explained to us exactly what happened," her dad assured her.

"Really?" Pan was surprised.

"Yes. He spent the last seven years with my dad, I'm not surprised that he isn't able to tell the right time to challenge someone to a fight," her dad said good- naturally.

"You should know that the school isn't the place to spar," her mom said seriously, not rebuking her nonetheless. "But at least it didn't get out of control. When is the essay due?"

This conversation was over. Chichi served the food and everyone ate together. Her dad and granddad talked about the Saiyans, the possible existence of the legendary warrior that Vegeta talked about, and how, if necessary, it will be possible to defeat these strangers.

Pan ate very little, sensing a heavy feeling around the table. It seemed that the only one who didn't feel the strangeness of Goku's return was Goku himself.

Uub was seated next to her, eating shyly but in a hurry, as if afraid that the food will be taken away at any moment. Pan drew a form in her rice and put the plate so Uub could see. He looked at the rice, confused for a moment, then smiled sheepishly. Pan remembered he didn't know how to read and write, so she drew a shape of a smiling face, to thank him for taking the blame for what happened. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

The next day Pan finished her homework the punishment essay hastily (she wrote the essay in extremely large letters to fill four pages on the boring subject), said goodbye to her mom who was immersed in an important phone conversation in her study, and flew west before she could call her back. She quickly flew to Capsule Corp, where her dad was training since early in the morning with the rest of the fighters. The house seemed empty at first glance, but the machines that washed a mountain of dishes in the kitchen indicated that this wasn't the case.

Pan found her dad training in Vegeta's gravity room. The sight was impressive; Goku was training Uub, while Pan's dad was measuring his strength against Trunks', both floating and exchanging blows, their muscles tense with effort. For some reason Vegeta wasn't training, just watching the other fighters from the corner.

The room was shaking with the fighter's energy. Pan had never seen her dad so grim, as though his pleasant face had aged by years. She was eager to attract his attention, just for a moment, to see him smiling at her and telling her that everything is okay, and that not everything had changed like she felt it had in the last few days. She intended to take a step into the room, when Vegeta's white-gloved hand stopped her.

"The gravity in the room is a hundred times the gravity of Earth," he said sternly. "You can't take it."

For once, Pan didn't argue. She continued to look at her dad and Trunks stretching each other's boundaries, Vegeta watching as well.

"Why aren't you training?" She asked him, not expecting to feel solidarity with the grave man.

"In my years on earth I learned that battle isn't always the solution," he replied to her great surprise. "Being the most powerful... That's not everything. Cassius' arrival reminded me of that."

"Are you ill, mister Vegeta?" Pan asked, not sure whether she's allowed to laugh. Vegeta is admitting that being the strongest isn't the most important thing in life?

He squinted at her, coming back to himself. "If you tell nobody would believe you. Now go find the second brat so you could train with someone closer to your level."

Pan felt relieved and smiled. Vegeta's simple words calmed her. She gave her dad a last look, then looked at Goku and Uub who where also absorbed in their training, before leaving to look for Bra.

She found her friend with the rest of the gang in the back yard. Eighteen was sipping lemonade in the company of Master Roshi and Oolog, as the ice in Bulma's drink was melting in the sun; Her eyes were completely focused on her laptop monitor. Meanwhile Krillin, dressed in training clothes, was instructing for Bra and Marron, who were sparring over the mowed grass.

Pan watched from the side for a few minutes, until Marron sank wearily to the grass, gasping for breath. Bra looked pleased with herself.

"Great job, Marron!" Krillin said to his daughter, handing her a glass of lemonade. "You really got very strong."

"She can still beat me," Marron replied, wiping sweat from her brow.

"Well, Bra is a half Saiyan. And don't forget that she's Vegeta's daughter."

Only then Bra noticed Pan for the first time. "Hey! Why are you standing there in the corner?"

Pan shook her head and smiled at her friend. "No reason... Want to spar?"

Bra was filled with energy, as if the training with Marron was forgotten, and she agreed immediately. The other members of the gang watched them as they exchanged blows over the grass, creating energy waves that interfered with the peace of the flowers. Pan was delighted to find that training distracted her, clearing her head from unpleasant thoughts, creating stability. She punched, kicked, blocked, the faces of her grandfather, of Uub, of her dad and her mom passing in her mind. Had so much really changed in the last few days?

The answer was no. In fact, nothing had changed; The rustle of the cars in the urban roads still filled the city, crickets and birds buzzed around the fruit trees, Master Roshi and Krillin still debated as Eighteen rolled her eyes, and Bulma was totally focused on her work.

Pan and Bra's fists met in the air, creating a shock wave that knocked glasses off the table. Marron covered her eyes from a wave of grass fragments. Bra grinned at Pan, her blue eyes sparkling with delight. Pan laughed in reply. She felt liberated, free from the weight of the last days. Bra was her best friend, after all - she always helped her feel better, even if she didn't know what was bothering her.

The fight become faster and more valid, energy sparks flying around with each blow. Pan's blood was burning with energy, and soon the two began to aim at each other with bursts of energy, examining the limits of their power. They were so absorbed that they didn't notice how much time had passed. The rest of the fighters came out of the training chamber and watched them until they were finished.

Pan's dad was was sitting cross-legged on the grass in his orange gi. She was glad to see him as carefree as he usually was as he smiled at her.

"Well done, Pan!" He said proudly.

"Yeah, you were great! I can't believe how strong you've become!" her grandfather added, standing behind his eldest son.

Pan smiled gratefully, urging herself not to be rude to her grandfather.

"Did you see me there, Papa?" Bra asked her dad, who was sitting at the table with folded arms, thirsty for a praise.

"You should have been able to turn into a Super Saiyan by now," was Vegeta's cold response.

Bra's face fell.

"Vegeta!" Bulma said sharply.

"What? If she wants to become stronger she needs to hear the truth. She was born with an energy level so high that it's simply a waste she can't -"

Bulma wasn't listening to him. She said, "They're coming!"

Trunks looked over her shoulder at the computer screen. "When did you have the time to build an interface that detects intrusions to Earth?"

"Try to keep up, Trunks," she replied casually as she leaped to her feet and took the laptop. "Come on, what are you waiting for?"

"I can't feel any foreign energy," Krillin said, looking at the clear sky.

"It's because they are weak but many," said a deep voice behind him and he was startled.

"Piccolo! When did you get here?"

"Cassius said two days," said the Namakian from the shaded arc that led to one of the garden paths. "It's been exactly two days. I can sense their ships orbiting the planet. Their power is like that of ants - each is individually weak, but when they are many and united, they might be dangerous."

"So let's go," Gohan said, standing up. "Bulma, can you assess where they are going to land?"

Bulma nodded firmly. "Follow me." She took a capsule out of her pocket, which turned into a stealth plane as soon as it touched the ground.

"Pan, you and Bra keep your distance," Pan's dad told her while everyone else where taking off. "Marron – you too, all right? We don't know what will happen there."

Pan nodded in disappointment and Bra rolled her eyes, knowing there was no point in arguing.

"We're out of the game again, girls," Marron told them with a hint of bitterness. "Let's go watch the boys play."