"krillen WAKE UP!" Screamed 18 as her husband nearly fell into her again.

Krullen's eyes shot open as he let out a startled scream and franticly looked around him.

18 sighed and continued walking. Krillen than ran after her realizing what had happened.

"um…sorry 'bout that hun…guess I was getting sleepy…heheh…" Krillen laughed uneasily. 18 turned to her husband and glared.

"you are the only man I know who can fall asleep while walking." she said in a threatening voice.

"hehehe um well that's a first for me…heheh…" he mutter in explanation.

"First, FIRST…THAT WAS THE THIRD TIME I YELLED AT YOU, AND THIS TIME YOU ALMOST TRIPED ME!" She screamed. Krillen cowered from her laughing nervously.

"well um…sorry?" he said unsurely. 18 was about to explode he could tell. Then she sighed and shut her eyes, crossed her arms, and began walking again.

"oh ya, know one can resist the Krillen charm." He whispered to him self cockily.

"COME NOW!"

"COMING DEAR!" He screamed out the ran after her.

"How much longer?" Krillen asked tiredly. His shoulders were slumped and he was dragging his legs.

"do you honestly think I know?" 18 asked in exasperation. He had been droning on and on 'are we there yet? How much longer? I think I have to pee?' If she had to hear one more stupid question she was going to kill something, and right now her husband was a tempting target.

"Babe I think I have to…" Krillen stopped abruptly. He straightened his back and looked around in caution.

"what's your problem?" 18 asked.

"did you feel that?"

"feel what?"

"that?"

"what?"

"You know, that?"

"WHAT?"

Suddenly the earth beneath them shook, abruptly stopping there conversation.

"THAT!" Krillen screamed out as he fell to the ground.

"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!" 18 cried as she tried to keep her balance.

The violent earthquake rattled on harder and harder. Trees toppled over and were uprooted. Huge cracks ripped through the earth creating bottomless riveens. Pillars on rock exploded from the ground, towering over everything.

18 and Krillen watched on helplessly as this happened. They were thrown relentlessly to the ground. They tried desperately to avoid the rock pillars and bottomless holes, while trying to stay with each other.

"18!" Krillen screamed as his wife was thrown violently from him by a newly made pillar.

"KRILLEN!" She cried back when he was shot into the air with a pillar underneath him.

Suddenly the shacking became worse. The ground beneath 18 began to split.

Krillens eyes widened when he saw this from his perch in the air. He watched in slow motion as the crack tore open underneath her swallowing her up into the darkness of the earth.

Her scream echoed around him mingling with his own terror filled one.

"EEEEIIIIIGGGGHHHHTTTEEEENNNN!"

The rock beneath him crumbled and he fell helplessly into the gapping hole.

Right now he didn't care.

"Wake up…get up…please…" A voice called into the darkness that surrounded him. It was soft and sweet, yet so fragile he new it would shatter if he questioned it.

He opened his eyes very slowly. His mind was aching and his body was numb.

'ugh what happened?' he thought.

Suddenly he remembered everything.

He just laid or stood there he did dent know or care which. He felt lost and helpless…he couldn't protect her. She was still screaming in his head. He could still see the fear and desperation in her eyes as she fell.

She was still screaming as he closed his eyes.

"open your eyes…open…" It whispered again. He opened his eyes dully. Clear blue sky met his vision.

"who are you?" he whispered. The only answer was a soft breeze.

"who are you?" he said a little louder.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?" He screamed at the sky and jumped to his feet.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?…WHY?…why?" The last of his sentence came out a whisper as he fell to his knees and fought the sob in his throat.

"Krillen?"

His head shot up at the sound of his name. His turned around quickly to find its source. He shakily stood to his feet with widened eyes.

"Eighteen?" He questioned uneasily as if the woman before him wasn't real.

"Krillen…what happened?" She asked him as she looked at her hands then at the surrounding area. Last she remembered she was falling to her death in a seemingly endless hole.

"Eighteen…" this time his voice broke and ran with all his might toward her, throwing his arms around her and holding her with all his might.

"I thought I lost you…" He whispered in her ear.

Her eyes softened as she hugged him back.

"As if you could get rid of me…you stuck with me que ball…forever." She whispered to him lovingly.

He broke out in a fit of laughter, pulling away enough to look into her eyes.

"ya…forever…" He whispered back smiling at her.

"Now…where are we?" She asked him.

He finally took a look around him. There was a clear blue sky and a luscious green forest surrounding them…what was it with forests?

Suddenly they could hear a pounding noise.

"What is that?" Krillen questioned.

"KRILLEN YOU COMING OR WHAT?" Eighteen cried out, already moving through the woods.

Krillen quickly caught up to her.

They both ran, following the noise.

"What do you think it is?" asked krillen as he jumped over a large rock.

"Sounds like…something hitting something ells…something hard." Eighteen answered.

The noise got louder and louder the further they ran.

BAM…BAM BAM…BAM BAM BAM…

"Come on this way!" Yelled Eighteen as she picked up speed.

Finally they broke through a patch of branches and stopped.

There stood a young woman facing a huge rock wall. Her long black hair was pulled back into a high pony tail. She wore a dark blue Gi with black Gi pants and black slippers. Sweat poured down her body in rivers along with blood from various cuts and scratches. Rips covered her dirty and raggedy clothes. Her breathing was labored and forceful.

Eighteen then realized what the pounding was and turned her head.

The young girl pounded relentlessly at the rock wall with her clenched fists.

Blood.

Blood was everywhere. Every hit caused crimson waves to splatter against the rocks surface.

BAM BAM BAM…

Still she continued as if she dident know…or did dent care.

"Harder…faster."

The new voice startled the duo slightly. They looked to their right to find the owner.

There sitting cross-legged on a boulder was a very old man. His withered face was covered by a white beard and mustache. His beard was braided and clipped at he end by a read bead. His slicked white hair was covered by an ornate green hat. He wore a fancy green Gi robes and white silk pants. Tiny jewel covered slippers covered his feet.

"You are pathetic child. Harder, faster!." He screamed and she complied.

Her breathing became faster and more ragged. Blood oozed from her fists and dripped down the wall with every hit. The tiny fractures in the stone multiplied with every hit.

"Enough!" He screamed. The girl fell to her knees gasping for breath. Her hole body was shacking.

"You truly are pathetic…DID I SAY YOU COULD REST!"

She slowly tried to stand. Her legs quivered and her vision became blurry but she stood anyway.

"Look at you! You are nothing. Cant even take simple exercises in secession. What are you thirsty? Hum maybe your hungry? Well I would be to if I hadn't eating any thing for two days to hehe. Well may be your sleepy? Well which is it?" He asked a sickening smile on his face.

She just stood there.

"what no answer? Are your muscles sore? Are they burning from the strain of working them for two days straight. Can you feel the effects of your blood loss? Can you feel the blood leaving your wary body?" He asked as he circled her like a vulture to his pray.

"Well answer? ANSWER!" He screamed in her face.

"yes…" she whispered weakly. The fatigue was really getting to her.

He took out a long thin rod he had tucked into his belt. with it in hand he began to beat her.

He lashed it across her back, over her arms and legs every ware but her face. It ripped through the thin clothing and bit at her tender flesh. More blood spilled from the fresh wounds.

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK OUT TO ME WOMAN!" He screamed. A sickening smirk coiled on his face. The power he had over his student was amazing.

Finally he stepped back patting slightly. A frown then replaced the smirk. Why wouldn't she scream or cry out?

"Come now its time to get you cleaned up. We wouldn't want the dear king to see you so…dirty… now do we? Than when your done I want you to scrub every last bit of my home until its spotless. If you don't get it done before your due to see the king I will make your next lesson hell on earth do you understand?"

When she said nothing he continued.

"Good now…" He pulled out a capsule. It exploded into a hover car. He jumped in and started it up.

"run…" he stated his smirk back in place.

He took off in the car with her trying to keep up.

Eighteen and Krillen just stood there shocked.

"Tell me I didn't just see that?" Krillen whispered.

"That was not training. That filthy little man is torturing her!" 18 growled out.

"18 why couldn't they see us? I mean we were standing right in front of them and they acted like we didn't exist. They…" Krillen was still talking she knew but she couldn't hear him anymore.

Her attention was back on the rock wall. Slowly she walked towards it until she was standing just a foot in front of it.

So much blood was smeared over it. Layers of dry blood was under the fresh blood, and layers of black blood waited under that.

If the blood was black that meant it was old…she done this before.

Slowly 18 brought her hand up the walls face. She gently trailed the tips of her fingers of the blood.

It was captivating this blood. The blood of a girl no more than 15 or 16. No this wasn't her blood…this was her pain…her punishment for existing…

As blackness surrounded her once again one thought penetrated her mind.

They were a lot alike.

"Daddy?" Said Gohan meekly.

"Ya son?" Asked Goku as he brought his attention to the child beside him. They had been walking mindlessly for hours but awhile ago Gohan stopped talking. So now to hear his sons voice it broke the tension Goku didn't Evan know he had.

"does…does mommy hate me?" he whispered. Goku stopped dead in his tracks. Gohan kept his head down when he did'ent answer.

Suddenly Goku whirled around and grabbed his shoulders.

"Don't ever think that, EVER! Your mother loves you more than anything els in this world! Don't you know that?" He all but screamed, desperately.

Gohan was shocked at the seriousness in his fathers voice.

"But why does she always make me study and never let me fight. I want to fight I don't want to do school work…I want to be like you." he muttered weakly.

"No Gohan you cant be like me I wont allow it…my life isn't what you think it is Gohan! Cant you see that! Yes I have increasable powers, yes I am a hero to the world! But what does that get me at the end of the day? Nothing! God, do you know what it means to be everyone ells's hero? It means never knowing if you will see your family again. Never knowing if this is the fight you'll die in. It means never seeing your family and never being there for them…it means breaking there hearts…" He said the last part in a whisper as if just realizing it for the first time.

Goku sighed and looked his son in his eyes. He smiled and brushed his hand through his hair lovingly.

"I know why she makes you study Gohan…she was always waiting for me to see it…but I never did, tell just right now…Gohan she doesn't care if you're a scholar, she doesn't care if you become a doctor or any of that…she only wants you to succeed that's all…to have everything that we didn't…this world Gohan doesn't Evan know I exist and doesn't care what happens to me, but you and your mom do…you both love me…and i took that for granted…Gohan one day your going to fall in love and start a family and she doesn't want the same life you've lived to be passed on to them, because what happens when there is no one left to fight? what do you do then? I have no means to support you guys other than the tournament winnings but that only lasts so long…(sigh) Gohan there is more to life than fighting (Bitter half laugh) and I almost forgot that."

Gohan nodded his head, tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

"She loves you so much Gohan, she doesn't want you to leave her like I do…" He whispered.

"Daddy…" Gohan whispered then threw himself in his fathers arms.

"I…I know sh…she loves me and you…and I lo…love her more than anything…daddy…I don't want to loose my mommy!" he cried as he buried his face in his fatheres chest.

"shuuu shuuuuuu Gohan its going to be all right I swear it. I swear it…" he whispered into his son's hair as he cradled him.

Something moved in the bushes to their right.

Goku's head wiped into that direction and only saw a fluttering of leaves.

Gohan pulled back and wiped his eyes.

"What's wrong daddy?" he asked. Goku stared for a moment more than turned to his some with a smile.

"Nothing son…lets keep moving okay." Gohan nodded his head and began to walk again.

Goku stared into the trees once more than began to fallow him.

SNAP, CRACKLE

Goku and Gohans heads snapped in the direction of the sound. There bodies on high aleret.

The fog hissed at them as it passed. The wind moaned through the trees.

They waited, eyes scanning the area trying to spot any danger.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH!

Both sets of eyes shot in that direction. The branches shook for a second and another twig snapped.

Goku cautiously pulled Gohan behind him and slowly walked forward.

Leaves crunched again.

He reached his hands out to the bush and grabbed a steady hand full. He then turned his head to Gohan to see if he was ready. Gohan positioned his hands much like his fathers and waited for his que.

Goku mouthed out a count down.

One

Two

"THREE!" They both cried and ripped back the bush.

A blur of black flashed across the ground and in to a hollowed out hole in the base of a huge tree.

They both faced each other wide eyed and blinked a couple times.

"What…?" said Goku.

"Was that?" finished Gohan.

Both turned to the tree and began to move toward it.

"It must be some kind of animal" said Gohan as they kneeled down to the four foot high three foot wide hole.

"Gohan stay back I don't want it attacking you okay?" Goku said and he kneeled down beside him. Gohan nodded his head and backed up a little.

Goku put his left hand above the hole and leaned down, cautiously peering into the darkness. He squinted his eyes trying to adjust to the lack of light. Movement caught his attention.

"Hey there is something in here Gohan, poor thing must be scared to death."

"Come on little guy, its okay I wont hurt you…" he said calmly, slowly reaching his hand in only a little.

They could hear the creature thrashing as far back as possible. Goku quickly pulled his hand back and stared in.

"Poor thing is terrified…" He whispered.

"What is it dad?"

"I don't know Gohan its to dark." He brought his head down again an looked closer into the darkness.

All he could see were shadows and blackness but he could make out the movement of something. He stilled himself and listen closely. Soft breathing met his ears. It was right there if only he had a little more light.

"Hey, little guy its okay there is nothing to be scared about…we wont hurt you…come on out now okay." Goku whispered sincerely, while holding his hand out into the hole.

What ever was in there began to shift slightly and whimpered a couple times.

"come on it okay." He coxed again.

Gohan watched the hole intently and the shifting increased.

'its so scared…why?' thought Gohan as it

another chapter closer to the end

hugs and kisses