Disclaimer: Nope, I still do not own Dragon Ball Z. If you sue me, you will be extremely disappointed, cuz you will still only get a fishtank, a bunch of cats, a noisy dog, and a bunch of worthless stuff that you'll only get about $0.50 for... in fact, you'll probably lose money from having to feed the pets. heh.

A/N: Thank you all for the wonderful reviews and the encouragement throughout the story. I always look forward to reading you guys reviews. And thank you for the reviews on ch 32, they were all very sweet. And so here it is, the epilogue, you guys asked for it.

A/N: To Yari- This is definitely not the last anyone will see of me here. I don't ever plan to stop writing, it's my hobby. I'm only presently in the progress of writing one other story though- Ersatz. The star character is six year old Vejita. A cute little fic about his childhood. The first chapter isn't that good though. It'll get better. And thank you very much for that extra sweet last review. That was very kind of you, what you said.

Yeah, I had to go back and edit chapter 32, I forgot to post the ending where they are walking together into Eden. lol. I was tired. I spent six hours writing that chapter you know.

This epilogue is titled cuz this is the original ending I had in mind when I first started writing this really long fic all those years ago (the original ending as in when you scroll down to where Bulma and Zarbon are alone). I developed doubts about this ending though, and changed it in ch 32. That chapter wouldn't have ended with them walking into Eden if I hadn't. And I don't regret that.

Epilogue- In Another Life

(A/N: Takes place thirty years after chapter 32, but before Vejita and Bulma die and go to heaven together at the end. So Vejita and Bulma are in their late forties, early fifties, and Neko/ Kakarrot/ Chi Chi are about the same age.)

(Character list:

Bulma & Vejita had- Zarbon, Trunks, Bra

Zen & Neko had- Laila, Zena

Chi Chi & Kakarrot had- Bardock, Goten

Toji & chef wife- three unnamed kids

Shiro & Shira married twin wives- each one infant son

Lailith- unmarried, no kids, dating a young lady

Goten is with Bra

Trunks is with Zena

Bardock married Laila

They all still live in the palace)

A young kid in his early twenties trotted up to the group sitting in a circle on the floor holding cards in their hands, and with a large goofy smirk dropped a photo album in the center on top of the remaining stack of cards sending them flying in every which direction.

Chi Chi looked up from her hand full of cards. "Goten! What are you doing?! You are making a mess." She scolded the young boy.

Goten blushed and brought an arm up behind his head, rubbing it. "Sorry, mom."

Bardock (A/N: that's Gohan, him and his wife are in their late twenties) looked up from his deck of cards as well and began laughing at his brother. His wife, Laila, smiled sweetly and looked over to Bardock.

"Aw, lighten up Chi Chi. Besides, it's been a while since we looked at the photo album. It will be fun." Kakarrot chided in as he reached over the cards and opened it up.

"Yeah, let's look at" Shiro began, finished by Shira adding, "The pictures! Wanna see it!" The two twins were holding the same hand of cards, one holding one side with the right hand, the other side with the left. They insisted on playing together as one.

Neko rolled her eyes. "Not again. Laila always makes me look at it." She then looked back down at her hand of cards. "Chi Chi, you got an ace."

"Go fish." Chi Chi smiled.

"Damn it. I don't like this game anymore. Why couldn't humans invent a different kind of game?"

"Hey, Neko, check it out, here's a picture of Laila and Bardock's wedding. Your daughter sure looks pretty in that dress." Kakarrot piped up, oblivious to the continuing card game.

Neko leaned over and smiled. Sure enough, there was her eldest child, Laila, standing next to Bardock in her slender blue gown. Laila was the spitting image of her mother down to a T, and just like her in personality. Her face was red and flushed, and she looked rather irritated to be in a gown. Bardock was smiling sheepishly in his tux.

Laila's face went red and she quickly leaned over to turn the page. "No one wants to see me in a gown, Kakarrot. Especially me." She said in a semi threatening manner.

Toji leaned over from his place on the floor and laid his cards down. "Well, sweetie, I must be going. The wife and kids will be worried if I'm not home soon, you know darling." Toji spoke in the sweetest voice to Chi Chi. He then turned to the twins. "Your darling wives will be worried too, children, and didn't they just have your first born sons? You shouldn't keep them waiting, loves."

Shiro and Shira got a rather irritated look on their faces. "We are not" Shira began, cut in by Shiro adding "Children!" Their faces began to go red beneath their fur. "Besides, we all" Shira continued, followed by Shiro adding, "just live on the fourth floor," Ended by Shira finishing with, "Of the palace."

"I still can't believe the twins managed to marry twins." Neko said in mild astonishment. "And did you see each of their sons? They could easily pass for twins even though they're just cousins."

Followed by Kakarrot adding. "I can't believe Toji managed to marry a chef! I mean, wow! And the food tastes even better now that there's two!" Kakarrot began rubbing his belly and smacking his lips day dreaming of food.

Toji just smiled and waved good bye followed bye the twins trailing him out the door.

Kakarrot glanced down at the pages and another huge smirk plastered itself on his face. "Hey, Goten! Check it out. It's you and Bra on your first date. You know, your girlfriend." Kakarrot leaned over and nudged Trunks in the ribs.

Bra blushed and glared over at her brother. "Trunks, don't you dare." Goten suddenly leaned over and pecked Bra on the cheek causing her to blush even more. They were both in their early twenties.

"Hey, and here is Trunks with Zena on their first date." Kakarrot pointed to another picture. Trunks and Zena were both in their early twenties as well. Zena looked like a girl version of her dad, with the same markings and hair.

"Alright, that's enough Kakarrot. You are embarrassing the kids." Chi Chi cut in, when she noticed Trunks roll his eyes and Zen do the same.

Zen snaked his arms in around Neko, who eagerly leaned into her husband's arms. "It's getting late. I believe it's time we go."

Neko giggled and nodded. The two stood up and left waving good night to the others.

"Isn't it a bit early to be going to bed." Goten asked innocently.

Bra chuckled. "They aren't going to bed you dope."

"Hm?"

Trunks rolled his eyes again. "Don't bother explaining. He'll never catch up."

Zena, being the blunt one in the group blurted out, "They're going to have sex." Causing everyone else's face redden. "What? It's a natural thing."

Laila began rubbing her temples, "Oh, god, are we really related."

Lailith finally spoke up with a light chuckle. He was sitting elegantly reclined in a sofa off to the side being the only one not participating in the game. His voice flowed through the air like silk. "You are aware your mother and father fought like this when they were young, and now look at them. They match perfectly." Zena was the exact image of her father, both in looks and personality, and the same went for Laila and her mother. To Lailith, they were the perfect balancing forces. A Yin and a Yang.

"Anyways, don't you have a date tonight?" Gohan asked, trying desperately to change the subject before a cat fight broke out, literally. Zena and Laila were now shooting each other death rays.

"Why yes. I met a lovely young woman at the theatre last night. We have a meeting together in a couple of hours." Lailith spoke smoothly in an even tone, with no hint of being flustered.

"What movie did you see?" Kakarrot asked. "Man, I never pictured you for the movie type."

"Kakarrot, he means the theatre, as in a play." Chi Chi corrected.

"Hey, who's that dad." Goten pointed to a picture of Yamcha in the album he had been looking through on his own.

Trunks looked down over Goten's shoulders. "He looks like a doofus."

Chi Chi and Kakarrot both laughed hysterically. The younger ones looked up from the card game they had been playing silently in surprise. Lailith merely raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, that. That's Yamcha, an old friend of ours. He went off and joined some rock band right after Zarbon was born. We haven't heard from him since." Kakarrot said still lightly laughing.

Chi Chi looked to Kakarrot. "Speaking of Zarbon, where is he? And Bulma and Vejita?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bulma walked with Vejita, Zarbon walking between them holding each of their hands despite the fact he was thirty. They walked a small, beaten path around a lake, with large gray trees whose branches twisted out over the water dropping small pink pettles on it. The wind blew, and the pettles began to dance along the lakes surface.

I stopped suddenly, entranced by the pettles, causing both Zarbon and Vejita to stop.

I looked from the lake up to Vejita and smiled. "Vejita, do you remember when we first kissed?"

A small smile crept along Vejita's face. I walked past Zarbon to him, and leaned into his body, as his hands cupped my face gently.

"I am not sure." He said teasingly. "If I remember correctly it was your birthday, and I brought you to a place similar to this, because cherry blossoms are your favorite flower, right woman?"

I chuckled slightly as I stared into his face. He was still so handsome after all these years. Saiyans certainly had good genes, they aged well. Almost fifty years old, and not a single wrinkle. His skin is still silky smooth, his eyes still just as vibrant and dark. The only proof of his age is the small spots of salt that now dot his jet black hair. I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair down to his face. Vejita immediately leaned into my hand. And his hair is still just as soft.

I looked down to my reflection in the lake. I have not aged quite as well. My skin is lined with wrinkles, and my hair is not near as vibrant a blue as it once was. No, it is now a pale, weak blue lined with silver streaks. My lips are a pale pink matching the pale, dry skin, and my eyes are a dull blue lined with silver puffs around them from the years of stress and anguish I suffered as a teen. Oh yes, the years have not been as kind to me, and all the abuse I dumped upon my self as a teen was now showing.

I reached up and touched my face. The cream had worn off over the hours, and the wrinkles were even more apparent. A fretful look appeared on my face. How could someone as handsome as Vejita even still love me? He could easily trade in for a younger, prettier model. No need to stay with an old lady.

(Vejita's POV)

I watched Bulma as she raised a hand to her face, a worried look dancing in her eyes, as her brows furrowed and cheeks became sunken. I knew what she was thinking. I knew her well, better than anyone, even myself. I see it, I see it all, I can see her lips slowly moving, forming silent curses at herself as she stares enviously at her reflection.

I see the cracks in the mirror,

And hear the curses following the years

As you lust for what you were,

And shed a journeys full of tears.

I swept my hand up and cupped her chin, lightly turning her face back to mine. I would lie to her if I told her she still held the beauty she did in her youth, for she doesn't. She is much older now, and that beauty has faded over the years. I can still place each part from memory, though, I can remember where her skin use to fill in the cheeks, giving a much healthier, fuller look. I can still trace the smooth lines of her milk white skin.

I remember the woman of youth.

Life has slowed with coming age,

And one can no longer intricately weave

The masterpiece you once made.

But this new woman that stands before me, she holds a beauty all her own. She holds the wisdom she earned from the years of suffering, how she has grown slowly over the years as the cracks and wounds have healed. And now she has blossomed into a beautiful flower. I can see her eyes questioning me now, searching into my own, begging for reassurance. I gently trace her skin along her cheek, no longer picturing the woman of youth.

Creams now try to hide

The gracefulness of your face,

And silver now lines

The wisdom you've earned to date.

How can I wish for the past, when such a beauty stands in front of me. She can not see it, but I do. The way the silver lines her face, the vibrant youth that still shines from her eyes like the stars I first fell for. It is the spirit that shines from her eyes that I first loved, and it is that spirit I still love, and so much more as the years moved on. It is the lines of her face that etch even further that imperfect beauty which I would love to stretch over my eternity.

Your silhouette is still one

That can humble me to weep,

To have one strong enough

To follow me to my dying weeks.

I traced small circles into her skin, then leaned forward and gently tasted her lips. I felt her lean into me, as she deepened the kiss, enjoying my taste as well. I carefully held her jaw line, and pulled her back breaking it.

"You are beautiful. Even more beautiful now." And it was the truth.

Bulma blushed. "You are lying."

I could only smile.

For I kept my promise years ago, I gave her back her innocence.

And I have protected it.

(Bulma's POV)

I looked up from my blush to meet his eyes, and in them I could see the same adoration, the same undying love he held in them the day we first kissed. It has not faded over the years, and it never will. I smiled back.

"Wait here." Vejita whispered.

He leaned in, pecked my cheek, and disappeared through the trees. I knew what he was leaving for. He was going to get food to eat by the lake again. I sighed and sat down on the ground followed by Zarbon sitting beside me. I looked over to my eldest son. He was staring up at the clear sky with a grin on his face. I looked over his features, he was the spitting image of his father. His long, dark green hair, lighter green skin. His handsome features that drove all the girls on this planet crazy, yet he didn't date any of them. The only difference was his eyes. He inherited my sky blue eyes.

"What are you so happy about?" I asked him in a playful manner, shoving his shoulder.

"Oh nothing." Zarbon answered staring up at the sky. "I'm just happy seeing my parents so in love with one another."

In one smooth motion, he leaned over and embraced me in a tender hug. It didn't catch me by surprise. Zarbon had always been overly affectionate to me. When he was a toddler, he would grow jelous over anyone else getting my attention. It concerned me at first, greatly, because I never neglected him, yet he acted starved for affection and cried constantly, like I had tormented him. But as the years passed, the acts faded, and now he was only affectionate.

I laughed lightly, hugging him back affectionately, enjoying his warmth for a moment, before we parted. In a passing moment, I wished Bardock and Goten were that affectionate still. It was those small moments of childhood I am sure every mother misses. But everything passes with time.

I tucked a loose string of green hair behind his smiling face. "You certainly are affectionate today." I joked.

"I'm just happy, that's all. I'm just happy I have my mother's love." Zarbon looked down at the ground and began tracing designs in the dirt. "I know this will sound strange, but I feel like I searched a life time for that love. I feel like I was suffocating from it. Like it was some kind of unattainable dream, something I could never breathe, but now I have it..."

Zarbon looked up at me and met my eyes, and in that moment I felt my blood run cold. I could see in his eyes the same look of his father. The same scream my eyes have shouted for so many years to finally be silenced only just recently in the arms of the love I so eagerly obtained.

It is a look of pure torment. A soul thrashing through its past life into this one, drowning in its own tears, losing control quickly. An invisible torture, brought on by crowds that never part, just walk all over you, and storm clouds that break to blind you in the fog. And when the spirit finally drowns, the cycle begins again to clench a young mind in a new life.

Zarbon smiled as he reached up and cupped my face. His eyes danced with a thousand dreams that all ended at the same place. Love. A dream he never reached in the past. And I now know that is her name, Love.

I couldn't help but wonder, while I stared into those shining eyes, the same eyes as mine that screamed and whispered for an entire life the same hell as mine...

If Zarbon's mother had only loved him, if he could have only obtained that love, would he had turned down the same path as me? Would he have been healed like me, had a happy life in the end as me? Would he have buried all that pain in the grave? Would he have turned out like this, the happy peaceful adult sitting in front of me, so well rounded that there are no pointed edges?

My eyes saddened a bit, and Zarbon instantly softened, and he leaned forward and kissed my forehead. I stiffened momentarily under the minstration, my mind flashing back to Zarbon on top of me in the bed, laughing in my face.

Zarbon watched my sad eyes for a moment, before he spoke. "I just wanted to say, I'm sorry. I'm not sure for what, but I just feel sorry. And I love you, mother."

I thought back to the small child in tattered clothing, strangling his mother on the floor screaming at her for her love. My eyes softened a bit.

Zarbon smiled again. "I have your love now, mother. And you are all I could possibly wish for."

He stared up into my eyes, with his eyes, so identical, and I knew what he spoke was the ultimate truth. Such tender eyes, pouring out onto me an unconditional love that could only come from a child. The first love, the original, that was unquestionally given to me from the first moment I held him. And it is a love that will forever be eternal.

And I know when I die, we will walk into Eden together, hand in hand; Vejita on one side, me on the other, and he will be in the middle.

And he will never have to search for that first love again, because in this life, I held him first.

I smiled tenderly at him, and tucked the hairs behind his head, just like when he was a child. I looked into his eyes with a new love, because he is mine now, and I could not possibly hate him.

"I forgive you." I whispered to him, and watched as the relief flooded his eyes. And I saw the clouds part as he took his first breath of new life. "I love you to, Zarbon."

I embraced him in a tight hug, and a new scream rose inside of me, one that filled me with a peace I searched so long to hold, as forgiveness rained down on both of us. And anyone who looked into my eyes could see this hell was replaced. It rose through me and filled every fiber of my being as I held Zarbon deep in my embrace, and those words took on a new meaning all their own.

Never let go.

And I never will.

Vejita, my son.

I promise.

A/N:

An Interview With Lailith:

Sheol: Wait, wait. How can Zarbon be reincarnated as his son. Isn't that impossible?

Lailith: On the contrary. Each species has a different gestational period and way of conceiving their young. Zarbon's species only ovulate once a year, and in order to counter this, their sperm can stay alive inside the female for up to seven months. This made it possible for Bulma to conceive their son long after Zarbon had already died.

Sheol:... ... ... That is really gross. I really didn't need to know all that.

Lailith: You did ask, my lady.

Sheol: ...

Interview With Kakarrot:

Sheol: What's up with naming Gohan Bardock?

Neko: Kakarrot never knew grandpa Gohan. He can't name Gohan after someone he never knew in this reality. Doi.

Sheol: Shut up, Neko. No one asked you.

Kakarrot: Mphm mmm mph mf mmm.

Sheol: Ewwwwwww... swallow your food first. Chi Chi's right. You do have bad table manners.

Kakarrot: Mph mhm

Sheol: Eh, translation?

Neko: He said sorry. What's the matter? Don't speak pig latin?

Sheol: That's a really bad joke.

Neko: Shut up.

Sheol: ... I can't believe I'm arguing with myself. I really need a social life.

An Interview With Hope

Sheol: So Hope, was Radditz and Caliko reincarnated too?

Hope: No, both Caliko and Radditz knew me before they died. They experienced love and knew what it was, despite their mistakes. It was that love that carried them over to me in the next life.

Sheol: So then you are saying Zarbon didn't know you? He couldn't enter heaven?

Hope: Oh, he knew who I was. He knew my name, but he didn't know me. He only had the smallest taste of what love felt like in his life. He didn't deserve hell, but he couldn't readily be carried over to heaven with such a lack of love, so I sent him back for a second chance after he waited in heaven with me for his new body to be conceived.

Sheol: Oh, well okay then, if you say so. I won't argue with you. I don't believe in reincarnation though. But maybe when I die I'll find out I'm wrong. Whatever. It made for a good ending to my story though. :)

Neko: So Sheol, you actually wrote a sweet ending.

Sheol: Don't get too excited Kitty. It's a very rare thing. You'd know that if you read any of my other stories.

Neko: And the truth is revealed, you have a soft side.

Sheol: Didn't I tell you to shut up?

Neko: So did you like the ending.

Sheol: Yeah, actually, I like the epilogue. I hope the readers liked it too. Guess I'll find out if and when they review.

Neko: Hey, I got a question for the readers. Do any of you guys even read this garbage she types at the end?

And one final note, the poem I quoted in the story, I wrote it. It's an original poem of mine, titled Your Silhouette. I thought it fit so I stuck it in there. I hope you liked it.

The final end