Dear my loyal readers,

With the last update of SotF, I promised you all that my decision regarding the fate of this story would ultimately be uploaded on the one year anniversary of its release(12/27/13). However, I didn't feel completely comfortable with my decision at the time, and so it has taken me until New Year's to come to my ultimate choice. However, your wait is over. Scroll downward until the end of this chapter to read about this story's status.

Namek Saga – Part 6: Brotherly Bonds

"And now, Vegeta, it's time for you to meet your demise like the little bug you are!"

All the prince could feel in his lower abdomen was pain… agonizing, searing pain that prevented him from even moving a finger. Just next to his maw was a puddle of fresh blood, which he'd been forced to expel from his body when he'd made contact with the dirt once more. The scent was nauseatingly powerful, a constant, incessant reminder of his inability to kill Turles.

To say it infuriated him would be a massive understatement. He was Prince Vegeta, the mightiest Saiyan warrior to ever live! How could he ever be defeated by such a weakling—a renegade, no less?! He was furious with the spiky-haired Saiyan, he was furious with his current predicament… but most of all, he was furious with himself for losing.

He was the prince, the epitome of Saiyan power. Strength gained a new definition whenever he walked into the room; his power dwarfed all others in comparison. There was never one he strived to defeat, for there was no one who could ever challenge his power—even as a young child. Even adults of the highest Saiyan caliber fell to the prince's power without the royal exuding a modicum of effort; his power was simply unrivaled by anyone. That was the natural order of the universe; it would never be tampered with.

But Turles… Turles had outclassed him in raw power not once, but twice. He was an enigma—most low-class Saiyans like him would never turn out to be anything special, yet he had risen so far to defeat Saiyan royalty.

How had it happened? How could this insolent pile of trash, who he had left in the dirt to suffer a warrior's death, usurp him in strength, much less in under a year's time? Had he truly seen and discovered the honor of the Saiyans, who were known to throw themselves into training as much as possible? Had he devoted himself to the ways of honor and class, just as a true warrior would?

'N-no…' thought the prince, his strength fading further and further by the second, '…I can't… accept this! I… cannot… be surpassed…'

Even as he thought these words to himself, however, he knew them to be false reassurance—indeed, he had been surpassed, and even beaten in combat by the doppelganger. There was no denying that Turles was the better of the two warriors; there was no denying the outcome of today's battle. While there had been many contributing factors – for both parties involved – in their first clash, the same couldn't be said for this bout. It was nothing less than a no-holds-barred brawl, and Vegeta had emerged as the loser.

It sickened him. It really sickened him to know that his life would be snuffed out on a remote planet without any semblance of honor, that he would leave his fellow Saiyans – Kakarott and Raditz – alone to serve Frieza, without their leader to keep them going.

Suddenly, a fire was ignited within Vegeta, a fire unlike any other. This fire enveloped him, causing him to shake with fury. His fingers balled into fists; he ground his teeth as a small growl escaped his lips. A feeling of anger flowed through his body, from his skull all the way down to his feet. The royal tried to muster up the strength to stand, tried to will his way onwards, but his body simply couldn't take it. His arms buckled on him; he collapsed to the ground with a grunt of pain, beaten.

Across the field of battle, Turles watched the struggling prince with a wild grin plastered across his features. The prince was subdued, helpless—and it was all because of him. The one who had fled Planet Vegeta, the one who had fought and clawed his path to power from virtually nothing, had defeated the mighty Vegeta, Prince of the Saiyans. He'd done what he'd set out to do—Vegeta lay broken and helpless at his feet. At last, he'd be able to repay his debt to the flame-haired Saiyan and even the score between them.

Oddly enough, however, that wasn't the only feeling running through his mind. He almost felt… hollow, in a way. Now that he knew his rival, the one he'd strived to defeat for nine grueling months, would no longer stand in his path, it caused something to stir within him—something he couldn't identify. After he ended Vegeta's life, he would no longer have anyone to challenge him. No battle would be able to stimulate him as this one had: a battle of pride, of honor, and retribution.

'W-What is this?' Turles suddenly frowned, the euphoric sensation in his conscience suddenly fading. All he could feel was utter emptiness, everything seeming so… pointless, useless. It almost felt like killing the prince would rob him of a part of himself. 'Am I… feeling pity for him? No, that's foolish. Why would I ever feel a sliver of sorrow for this arrogant bastard?'

"W-What's the matter with you?!" Vegeta barked back, still a bloody mess on the ground of Planet Tormos. Though his vision was beginning to grow distorted, he could still quite clearly make out Turles' hesitating form—why was he hesitating? "F-Finish me off! If you're anything like a true Saiyan, you'd take your shot right now and end it!" Should he go out, he'd go out as a Saiyan warrior would: with a bang.

'W-What's happening to me?! Urgh!' Turles internally growled, his hands beginning to tremble from some unseen force. 'Every fiber of my being wants to slaughter the prince and end his life right now, but… some force is telling me to do the exact opposite!'

He couldn't explain the sensation; it was simply burning within his mind, telling him to spare the prince. Perhaps it was the desire to fight him once more, or maybe he just didn't want to lose another of his kin—

The pale-skinned Saiyan hissed internally at that thought, disgusted that he could even think such a thing. He was almost tempted to spit at the concept; it was truly that repulsive. After all he'd been through, after all the hell his loss to Vegeta had caused him, he could never want to adapt the Saiyan mentality. It was for nothing more than mindless brutes and overconfident imbeciles, fools who hadn't even a single brain cell.

'Frieza was right to call them monkeys, for they truly didn't know any better—they were just idiotic, simian bastards who had strength at their disposal. Other than power, however, they had nothing—absolutely nothing.'

Suddenly, everything refocused itself, almost as if he hadn't been distracted at all. Vegeta still attempted to stand on his feet – to no avail – while Nappa was still standing atop a cliff, observing the battle carefully.

His mind suddenly cleared of all doubts, reality and reasoning restored, Turles flung his arms forward and fired his Kill Driver with a mighty shout, watching silently as it detonated against Vegeta's back. Instantly, the yellow skies of Tormos were filled with an orange hue, a high-pitched whine immediately starting to reverberate around the field of battle. Throughout it all, the renegade kept a solemn mien as he watched the smoke clouds begin to rise into the air; not even the debris forced him to look away. He stared into the epicenter of the explosion unblinking, almost as if he were tracking something.

Suddenly, before the smoke cleared, Turles looked up and gave a small smirk. "I knew this fight wasn't over quite yet."

And with that, he wrapped himself in his pale aura and dashed upwards to resume the battle.

Vegeta hovered in the high atmosphere of Tormos, panting heavily due to the overexertion he'd put on his body. Though he had fully accepted his death, there was something further within that pushed him – no, forced him – to push onward. Searching deep within, he'd found an extra reservoir of power, which he promptly used to flee into the air. He was still quite wounded, but this second wind had helped him greatly.

'Could this be… the power of the Super Saiyan?' Vegeta asked himself, his mind ablaze with possible answers to his miraculous recovery. 'Have I truly… ascended? I must have—there's no other way. I, Prince Vegeta, have finally become-'

He was stopped mid-thought by a firm kick to the abdomen and an uppercut to the chin, both of which sent solid waves of pain into Vegeta's central nervous system. This was quickly followed up by a series of brutal blows to the skull, snapping the prince's cranium to the right and causing him to hack up a fresh spray of blood. The sight allowed Turles a sense of confidence as he gave himself a moment to recuperate, certain of his victory.

Unfortunately for the renegade, the flame-haired Saiyan wasn't about to up and quit. His head still firmly snapped to his side, Vegeta chuckled lowly.

"If you think I'll be finished because of a few punches, you're in for a rude awakening, Turles. I am Prince Vegeta, the mightiest Saiyan to have ever lived!" This seemingly magical recovery was all the proof he needed—he must have been the Super Saiyan; there was simply no other plausible explanation.

"Now… are you ready to see a power not seen for thousands of years?"

Narrowly evading Frieza's tail by shifting his body weight to the left, Goku threw his left hand forward, releasing an azure energy sphere that immediately exploded on contact with the Arcosian, throwing up a minor shield of dust. However, the Saiyan didn't hold out any false hope; he immediately tried to flee his immediate positioning, knowing that Frieza was unscathed by his attack.

'This is all going wrong…' Goku ignited his aura, trying to dash towards his brother as quickly as possible. '…Frieza wasn't supposed to be this strong, damn it! I thought that, together, we stood a chance… but we couldn't be farther from the truth. We've got to run—even if we go out as true Saiyans, that'll leave nobody else to stop Frieza!'

Suddenly, in the distance, he could see Raditz's prone, unconscious form in the dirt. To this, he gave a small grin, and prepared to use Instant Transmission to speed up the flight. Almost there…

Just as he did so, however, he felt pressure on the back of his skull; the next thing he knew, he was sent plummeting down into the asteroid-like ground of Frieza Sixty-Seven. A stinging feeling still remained within the Saiyan's cranium as he stood, almost preventing him from doing so outright.

"I… can't let you…" Goku hissed, stumbling forward as he tried to regain his balance. "…all those children… all those people…"

Frieza landed abreast him with an innocent look on his face, merely lifting his brow with mock amusement. "Oh? Dear Goku, I believe I must've hit your skull too hard; you must be forgetting that you were responsible for quite the number of deaths yourself—we can't forget all those children that can identify you as their murderer, can we?"

"D-DAMN YOU!" came the cry of Goku, who immediately launched himself forward and swung a clumsy left-handed fist towards the side of the tyrant's skull. Lazily, Frieza jumped about a foot into the air to avoid the roundhouse blow, lifting his three-pronged foot upwards to catch Goku with a kick to the chin. The blow immediately sent Goku into the dirt once more; this time, however, his vision faded to black.

"It was fun while it lasted, monkeys," Frieza said, beginning to walk forward in a sadistic fashion. His garnet eyes, cold and icy, stayed focused on his prey, preparing for the kill. "But I think it's time you finally learned your place in the world. Oh, wait, I apologize… you lot should've been exterminated with the rest of your race a while ago." Finally stopping in front of the semi-conscious Raditz, he grabbed the simian by his long hair and placed his index finger on his forehead. "There are three things I refuse to tolerate: cowardice, bad haircuts, and military insurrection. It's quite unfortunate that both you and your miserable brother possessed all three of these traits."

As the all-too-familiar pink light of Frieza's Death Beam began to illuminate his finger, Raditz realized that he was staring death in the face, just as he had on Earth just about a year ago. However, something was different – before, he was only worried about himself, but now… now, he had a brother to worry about.

And, he realized, they both were to die if he couldn't think of something. Weakling Raditz, who had always been bullied and ragged upon by the elites, had to finally prove his worth.

It was truly a do or die situation.

"Say hello to daddy for me, Raditz…"

Raditz's heart skipped a beat in anticipation; could he really do this? All he knew was that he had to try. His brother had a knack for picking up techniques he'd seen performed simply once or twice—this technique, however, he'd seen demonstrated hundreds, if not thousands, of times. He just simply hoped he could do it.

Focusing a small amount of ki into his eyes, the long-haired Saiyan made his move; he fired twin red bolts of energy that drilled their way into Frieza's eye sockets.

Frieza immediately dropped the long-haired Saiyan to the ground and clutched at his eyes, screaming as loud as his lungs would allow. Furiously howling in pain, the Arcosian was unable to see as he tripped over a small pebble, falling face-first into the ground.

"H-Heh…" the Saiyan chuckled lowly as he watched his former master writhe in agony, feeling as if he'd enacted a small portion of revenge. "N-Now… you'll learn n-not to under-underestimate the Saiyans…"

Immediately, he crawled over to his brother and laid a hand on his shoulder, transferring a portion of his energy to the spiky-haired Saiyan. Immediately, the latter of the duo sat up in a daze, blinking a few moments to ensure he was fully conscious. As soon as he was aware of his surroundings once more, Goku turned to his brother.

"Where's Frieza?" he whispered, concerned that the tyrant could be silently lurking in the shadows.

With a prideful grin, Raditz answered, "Temporarily blinded him. Either way, Goku, we need to get out of here—something tells me that Frieza, upon his recovery, won't be too happy to see us lying about."

"R-Right," muttered the Saiyan, pressing two fingers to his brow. In his groggy state, he was struggling to find an energy signature to lock onto—Frieza's was so powerful that it simply dwarfed any other. However, that wouldn't stop him from trying. 'Raditz is counting on me… he's done his part for us to survive; now I've got to do mine!'

"Whoa!" Raditz suddenly cried out, dropping to all fours to avoid a Death Beam from piercing his shoulder. Turning to his right, he could see Frieza, furiously stumbling about, firing a barrage of blasts from his outstretched index finger in all directions. "We have to hurry, Goku! Speed it up!"

"I-I'm trying, damn it!" came the reply of the armored Saiyan, who was sweating from the combination of fatigue and stress. "I… can't just find any random power level! Frieza's is canceling out any common energy, and the only other significant power I can feel is you!"

Suddenly, a thought blazed across Raditz's mind, which was running a mile a minute. Fueled by nothing but adrenaline and determination, the long-haired Saiyan could only think of one possible solution. "What about Prince Vegeta?! He's off on a mission right now; can you sense him?!"

"C-Come on…" thought Goku aloud, closing his eyes as he tried to feel out for the prince's energy signature. He'd been accustomed to it for nearly a year now; all he needed was the faintest trace of it, and they'd be home free.

However, this was unlike any other trip—this time, they'd be traveling across space. Vegeta wasn't too far off from their current location, yet Goku still had never attempted a trip with Instant Transmission farther than across a battlefield. It was truly a risky maneuver; however, there was simply nothing to lose. Everything was on the line against Frieza—they had fought him with everything they had, and they had lost. This was their only escape, their only reprieve… they had no choice but to take it.

Suddenly, a familiar energy flickered across the back of Goku's mind, and he grinned wildly. "I've got it!" he cried triumphantly, holding his stance to ensure he didn't lose it. Firmly gripping onto it mentally, he prepared to transmit both himself and his brother off the planet. "See you in hell, Frieza!"

With that, the brothers immediately vanished away from Planet Frieza Sixty-Seven and began their trip towards their comrade's current location.

Though Goku may have known Instant Transmission – and possessed a decent knowledge of the skill – it didn't mean that he had a complete mastery over it. When one learns a technique, especially one as complex as the Instant Transmission, it must be continuously practiced and worked upon, much like how one would gain power during their lifetime. In order to grow closer and closer to ultimately perfecting a skill, one must take baby steps in order to grow more proficient with it.

Goku had failed to do so, using the technique in only the most dire of situations – and this time, he had pushed the technique to its very capabilities and beyond. Being so inexperienced with it and his body being so weakened, Goku should've known that it was only natural something fail with the trip.

As such, when Goku and Raditz were traveling through hyperspace, they encountered problems with their travel. Goku's energy suddenly was drained by the extensive travel, which caused them to suddenly vanish from hyperspace and sent them plunging into the realms of the unknown…

Vegeta immediately lunged forward with a fist, testing the renegade's defenses with a mighty punch; it was immediately blocked and parried away before Turles countered with a vicious right hook that sent the prince spinning to the side. From there, the spiky-haired Saiyan dashed after his opponent, firing a bolt of purple ki in an attempt to momentarily stun his opponent.

Unfortunately, the prince quickly dissipated it with a small kiai and somehow regained his senses in time to block a roundhouse punch with his knee, which he would then fully extend to catch Turles with a firm kick to the chin. The latter of the two was sent sailing backwards with his head snapped upward, leaving him prone to a brutal headbutt to the solar plexus that caused his armor's chestplate to suddenly crack.

As he felt the pain coursing through him, Turles couldn't deny that the thrill of battle also found its way through his mind as well. Though he should've been scowling in the face of his opponent, he couldn't help but allow a sinister smile to overtake his features as he quickly smashed Vegeta downwards, sending him spiraling towards the ground. After watching his opponent freefall for a few moments, the renegade took off in mad pursuit of him, cackling menacingly as he fired a set of twin energy spheres.

However, the flame-haired Saiyan managed to regain his senses just in time, scowling at his opponent before drawing his arm backwards. "You're a fool if you think something like that could ever hurt ME!" He accentuated his words by swinging his arm in an arc, slapping the first blast away from harm; the second soon followed with another flick of his wrist.

This, unfortunately, left the prince quite open to attack, which he only realized at the last moment. Turles exploited this opening perfectly, drawing his arm backwards and punching straight through Vegeta.

Turles' eyes widened at the sight—surely, the prince wouldn't be so easy to kill, would he? 'What's goi-'

THUUUM! From above, Vegeta swung his leg downwards and made firm contact with the spiky-haired Saiyan's cheek, causing the latter to be interrupted mid-sentence. The prince, ever the opportunist, continued to pummel Turles with a series of high-speed blows before dropping back and firing a double-handed blast that sent the pirate into the ground.

"As if you could ever defeat royalty!" Vegeta howled, a pale violet aura immediately encapsulating his figure as an orb of raw energy began to accumulate within his outstretched palms. Twisting his body to the side, the prince felt his body tremble with anticipation. This was it—all or nothing.

The orb of energy suddenly expanded into a pillar of ki, just waiting for Vegeta to unleash it. The sensation of wielding such power sent a rush throughout the flame-haired warrior, reminding him that he truly was the Prince of all Saiyans. He could only grin as he watched his opponent struggle on the ground; there was no doubt he had realized that the end was drawing near. "It's time I finished you off, you space trash! GALICK…GUN… FIR-"

The pulsing energy in his hands suddenly dissipated into thin air, rendering him powerless against whatever had impaired him. His vision began to swim violently; the ground became the sky and vice versa. Colors began to wildly distort as darkness crept up the corners of his vision, slowly but surely consuming him as the prince fell further and further into unconsciousness.

He could feel his body freefalling toward the ground, but there was simply nothing he could do to stop it. In one swift movement, he had been incapacitated and overwhelmed—what had done it, though, he would never know.

In that very instant before he slammed into the planet's crust for the final time, Vegeta lost consciousness...

Turles knew that his demise was upon him the very instant he had made that foolish blunder. It was apparent now what had happened—using one of the simplest tricks in the book, Vegeta had managed to fool him with an afterimage, leaving him susceptible to a painful blow to the sternum that sent him spiraling into the ground. Upon contact with the cold, hard ground, the throbbing pain in his skull told him that he could continue the battle no longer.

All he could do was look up at the prince's triumphant grin, watching with a defiant scowl as he charged up his energy for the finishing blow. He was sure that Vegeta knew it too—the end had come. Though he shared no telepathic connection with the flame-haired Saiyan, nor did he like him in the slightest, both Saiyans knew that they had given it their all and that Vegeta had emerged victorious.

A small smirk spread Turles' face as he realized that he had truly fought like a Saiyan, and for once in his life, he didn't reject the pride he felt. He embraced it in his final moments, almost satisfied that he could go out feeling like a true warrior—

And then, all of a sudden, fate would be rewritten forever. Vegeta suddenly pitched forward, unconscious, and began his involuntary fall from the skies. What had happened? Surely the prince wasn't that wounded from their battle; he had more than enough energy to deliver the final blow.

Suddenly, Turles found the factor that had changed it all, the one who was responsible for his illegitimate victory over the Prince of All Saiyans.

And in that moment, Turles had never felt such contempt and disdain for another person as he did his comrade, Nappa.

Nappa lowered his arm, feeling smug as he realized just exactly what he had done to his former comrade. At last, he had gotten the revenge he had so desperately craved against Vegeta—all that was left to do was dispose of the bastard and the job would, at last, be done.

After watching the flame-haired Saiyan's body hit the ground with a loud THUD and being convinced of his unconsciousness, he immediately turned his gaze towards Turles in order to help him eradicate Vegeta once and for all.

Surprisingly, though, Turles' reaction would be far from what he expected it to be.

"What've you done?!" the spiky-haired Saiyan hissed, seemingly livid with his ally for his actions, which utterly confounded the cyborg—wasn't the goal to eliminate Vegeta? "Do you realize that you've just robbed me of my rightful victory?!"

"What're you talking about?!" yelled Nappa back, furious that his comrade seemed not to appreciate his actions. He'd stuck his neck out to save his life, and he was treated with only the harshest and coldest glare Turles could muster up. "He's down and out, Turles! You've beaten him!"

Clutching his head, the renegade began to growl in frustration, trying his best to keep his rationality intact. "He had beaten me, Nappa! Don't you understand?! He defeated me fairly when everything was on the line. I… I deserved to die then," Turles conceded. "I finally understood… I finally comprehended what Vegeta was talking about. That thrill of battle… I absolutely relished it."

Then, suddenly, he snarled, pushing his comrade backwards. "But you had to just swoop in and rip that feeling of honor to shreds, didn't you?! You took away my pride, just as Vegeta had done to me during our last battle!"

"T-Turles…" Nappa started, actually feeling somewhat ashamed for his actions. Being a Saiyan himself, he could somewhat empathize with how the renegade was feeling—with every passing moment, he grew more disgusted with his actions. "I-I…"

"Save it," coldly replied Turles, crossing his arms as he looked towards the prone, helpless form of the unconscious Vegeta. "As far as I'm concerned, this battle didn't end fairly. There's no honor in killing him while he is defenseless—I will take him on again someday, and when that day comes, I will gain my retribution against Vegeta."

Though he had been assisted to victory, Turles felt as if he had lost his own sense of honor yet again. In his mind, Vegeta was the true victor of their second clash.

But he vowed that the third would be different.

I'm back! Sins of the Father has returned with its twenty-first installment, and it was one that radically altered the fate of all the characters involved in the space arcs. For those who are concerned with the lack of the Earth plot development, rest assured that this is the end of all the space pandemonium—next chapter, we will finally focus on Son Gohan and friends as they prepare for their voyage to Namek. And if you're still wondering how the heck all these roads will converge into one cohesive adventure on Namek… well, be prepared for many surprises!

On another note, I would like to thank all of you for continuing to favorite, alert, review, and just reading this story in general. I know my updates are extremely sporadic and that I don't update as fast as other fics do, but I'd like to think that I consistently provide you all with quality chapters that you can all enjoy as much as I do. This may be only the twenty-first chapter of SotF, but it's been such a long journey since the very first chapter that I can't help but feel proud of how far I've come as a writer.

Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to just quickly take a moment of your time to introduce my new Bardock story, Shimmering Crystals, to you all. It's a story where Bardock gets a psychic vision of himself dying against Frieza; subsequently, after literally SEEING he can't defeat his former overlord, he flees the planet moments before its destruction. However, he soon falls into a coma due to all his injuries, and when he wakes up, he finds himself in a time where his sons are fully grown adolescents and have grown into their new lifestyles. It's primarily a Bardock redemption fic, but instead of him becoming a hero at the drop of a hat and being Earth's ultimate protector, he becomes an anti-hero of sorts that fights for his own ambitions. It takes a lot of characterization and evolution to get him to this point, which should be a great challenge for me - according to reviews so far, I'm succeeding!

I would really appreciate you reading and reviewing SC, as it's gone pretty far in a short amount of time and will be my other current writing project.

Once again, guys, thanks so much for continuing to stick with me. I really appreciate your readership from the bottom of my heart.

The best is yet to come.

How will Gohan respond to his new baby brother, Goten? How will Chi-Chi react upon seeing her child for the first time in a year? What is of Yamcha? Find out on the next Sins of the Father!

Hello, readers, and allow me to wish you all a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year! 2013 has been a big year for me(and I'm sure for all of you as well), but 2014 proves to be an even bigger year with many excellent times to come.

Before I uploaded this announcement to you all, I took the time to read - or, rather, relive - the SotF experience. Though the first few chapters have been heavily edited from their original format, reading about the adventures this particular universe took was truly a pleasant time. Along this journey, my writing has drastically improved from what it once was, I learned how to properly plot out a story, and most of all, I was able to share with you a story I was truly passionate about exploring.

However, that is not to say that my motivation is what it once was - yes, it was a fun experience, but can it ever become a joy to write again? SotF was great to write for me at the time due to my interest in telling the story, but could I really get that spark back?

My mind has often wandered to Turbulence when I pondered this question. You see, as a few close friends of mine on this site would be able to tell you, I have planned and discussed Turbulence with a passion that has been honestly long-forgotten in my writing. Ever since it was started, the idea just simply clicked for me, and I think the high-energy and motivation that I'm bringing to Turbulence is evident in my storytelling - the narration is much, much more improved, the storyline more heavily fleshed out, and the characters more authentic than in SotF. While SotF was honestly written on a whim, Turbulence has had careful, careful planning in its plotting stages and is already looking to be the superior tale.

And, to be truthful, Turbulence is honestly the spiritual successor to Sins of the Father. The similarities are quite clear - Goku ends up with a radically different persona, the Earthlings have to adjust to life without him, and the story drastically diverges from canon to tell its own tale. I'm not sure whether this was subconsciously done or not, but I must admit that my writing spark has truly stuck with me all throughout Turbulence's planning stages. While everything is certainly not set in stone quite yet, I must admit that the majority of the story, the characters, and their differences have been plotted out extensively.

But despite the temptation to solely stick to Turbulence, I honestly still feel some sort of attachment to SotF. I may have lost my edge with it and it may not be my finest work, but it's still something I once cared about and loved. I'll be truthful with this - back when this story was my primary writing project, it honestly had a reputation for being known as the 'weaker' of my stories and was criticized very often. It had become the subject of jokes among me and some of my peers, and I think that I may have let that ultimately get to me in the end. However, I still vividly remember trudging through and writing the story over that period of time, still enjoying every second of what I wrote.

There's also the matter of my time management and priorities. As you most likely know if you have read my profile, I am a college student that has quite the amount of work, not to mention an active social life and other interests that I pursue often. Time constraints have played a part in how much time I've devoted to writing, and it's certainly likely to do so again. In addition to just thinking about my motivation for this story, I needed to consider my real life - Turbulence is an epic, meaning that it is likely to cover the entire DBZ timeline. I couldn't be so blind to think that I would be able to finish not one, but two of these epics.

Something would have to be cut, and once I recognized this, my decision became that much harder.

However, after spending a great deal of time reflecting on the matter, I have finally, after two months of careful consideration, come to my ultimate decision regarding this fic.

It is with the passing of one year and the beginning of another that I declare SotF to be neither cancelled nor active, but officially rebooted as a fanfic and officially re-done. Instead of merely editing the story, I will be attempting to rekindle the flames of what was once my proudest work and seeing if I can't find enjoyment again in writing it. While the premise will surely remain the same, I'm going to take the ball and run with it as far as I can. I don't know when it'll be up, nor do I know exactly what's going to happen, but I do know that I want to take some time considering all these changes and writing the actual chapters. I'm not going to push myself to be a writing machine with these chapters; they will more than likely take a while, considering I want to get a few chapters done before I even consider uploading. It may be that it's simply not in the cards for me to actually rewrite the story, but I'll never know until I try, right?

Thank you all so much for eagerly waiting on my decision, and I promise you that I will give it my best effort to revive SotF for your reading pleasure once again. If you have any comments, suggestions, or simply would like to say something regarding my decision, I encourage you to PM me and/or review with these thoughts. In addition, make sure to click the "follow author" button so you'll be notified of when I do upload the rewrite!

While you're waiting for the rewrite to be published, I'd strongly recommend you check out my other story, Turbulence! It's been a great ride so far, getting to write Kakarot on Namek and the Earthlings going through the DB era without him, so I hope you can check it out at your earliest convenience!

Sincerely,

Rott