"Woohoo!" Goku cheered leaning back in his seat and stretching his arms up. "That was great! I've not had food that good in ages!"
The Grand Kai chuckled as the servants set about clearing the table. "I shall remember to give your compliments to the chef. No doubt she'll be glad to know you enjoyed it, I don't think she's ever had to make that much food before that fast."
"Definitely a good way to end the day." Appla said, patting her stomach. It had only been a little over five hours since Trunks and Sakura had been revived and the three Sai-jins had been feeding themselves within the Grand Kai's dining hall at his request, and filling in both Kais on the events that had happened over the last month.
"So, that's when the Cell Games happened then?" King Kai asked.
"Basically." Bardock replied, stretching as well. "Cell gave us a couple weeks to train first, arrogant bastard. Must have gotten it from the Prince. Anyway, we took out Tao, Gero, and Super 13 easily enough but Cell was a different matter, as you saw."
"He didn't start off that powerful though." Goku yawned. "After Sakura blew herself up to try and kill him he reformed but, er..." he blinked, realizing he wasn't entirely sure what his explanation had been.
Appla picked up for him. "His DNA re-ordered itself to draw more power from the Tanarian in him. I suppose, in a way, he really was the perfect life-form."
Bardock smirked. "Perfect or not he still got his ass kicked by a Sai-jin. A child at that. That's gotta hurt."
The Grand Kai nodded. "Well then, that about catches me up I suppose. It's enough, at any rate. I must say, I am highly impressed. I never expected a mortal to ever exceed my power but Gohan..."
Goku perked up at this. "Wait, do you mean... you're stronger than Cell?" The Grand Kai merely nodded. "Alright! Hey, any chance I could train with you some time!?"
"Goku!" King Kai cried.
"Easy North Kai, he's a Sai-jin, I wouldn't expect anything less." the Grand Kai chuckled. "Hmmm, normally I require that someone trains here for ten thousand years before I take them on."
"TEN THOUSAND YEARS!" Goku cried, wide-eyed.
"Indeed. It usually takes that long before they're strong enough to gain anything from what I have to teach them. Hmmm, I think, however, that a slight exception is in order. North Kai, who was that fighter at the last tournament? The one that defeated Olibu?"
"Huh? Oh, you mean Pikkon?"
"Ah, yes, Pikkon. Strongest in Otherworld... er, I think. Not sure if he holds that title now, but there's only one way to find out. North Kai, summon the other Kais and have them bring their four best fighters, we're going to have a tournament in celebration of a disaster averted. Er, before you do that, who are you going to enter this year?"
"Oh, me, me, me, me, me!" Goku cried waving his hand around.
"Of course you Goku!" King Kai nearly yelled. "I'd say Goku, Bardock, Appla, and Olibu are my best fighters."
"Right then, they're in the tournament! Now, go get the others." King Kai nodded and hurried off. "And no sleeping on the job this time!" the Grand Kai called after him.
As Goku emerged from the dining hall stepping onto the grass outside, he pumped a fist into the air. "Woohoo! We're going to have a tournament!"
Appla laughed and glanced over to Bardock. "Someone's in a good mood."
Back on Earth time moved along. It seemed to be going at a crawl at first but it picked up day by day. Before long Gohan and the others were on their way to Planet Vegeta for the formal service. And then, as though in the blink of an eye, they were home again. Those that had been lost weren't forgotten but, as time passed, life got easier for those left behind.
Vegeta had awoken the night after the formal service soaked in sweat, the ghostly memory of his nightmare still drifting through his mind. It, and an odd sense that he'd see Kakkarotto again some day, kept driving him out to the Gravity Rooms for more training. And he'd had Bulma see to the building of several on Planet Vegeta as well.
Bulma had at first been sad about leaving the Earth behind. It was where she had been born, where she had grown up, and pretty much all that she knew. But, at the same time, she knew that a Queen, which she would be in only a few more years now, certainly couldn't rule from some other planet. And she had to admit, it'd be nice to see Vadora again. Plus, with Tien and Choatzu moving there as well she'd have some friendly faces around her.
They weren't the only ones that moved. Shortly before Bulma's ship made it's departure for Planet Vegeta, Yamcha was saying his good-byes to everyone as well. He would be taking up permanent residence in the Tanarian Palace and wasn't sure how often he'd be able to visit, though he did promise to come by as often as he could.
He and Hotaru were going to make a short stop at Planet Vegeta first. Both wanted to see Tien's baby, she'd been born that morning it turned out. And Hotaru had some offical matters to handle with King Vegeta. It seemed that, even though the actual shifting of power wasn't for another four years, things were already getting set-up for it. For the new King and Queen of the Sai-jins.
Raditz had, for reasons he wasn't even sure of himself, chosen to linger behind on Earth for a while. He'd not even gone to the formal service on his home planet for his mother, brother, and father. Three more names added to the Wall joining that of his brother Turles. It wasn't until Mango actually came to Earth herself that he finally left. But his destination wasn't Planet Vegeta, though he didn't know where he was going. They just took their pods and left for wherever they ended up.
Piccolo had continued to check in on Gohan every day for the first few weeks but his visits slowed and faded away as time went by and the boy's spirits lifted. For the half Sai-jin's part he was taking his father and grandfather's request rather seriously. He and Videl would head off into the woods whenever the chance presented itself in order to get in some training.
"Gohan!" Chi-Chi called, sticking her head out the front door. A moment later her son was landing on the walk-way, Videl right behind him. The two had become almost inseperable in the months following the Cell Games.
"Ya mom?"
"I need to go into town and do some shopping. You'll have to watch over Goten for me." she explained. "He's sleeping now so he shouldn't be too much of a bother."
"Ok, we can keep an eye on him."
"Thanks dear. I'll be back before sunset." she said, walking out and digging a capsule out of her purse. "If you get hungry there's a couple bags of fruit still in the fridge."
Up on the lookout Dende smiled as he watched Gohan and Videl go into the Son home. He had to admit, the Earth was a beautiful place in times of peace. He could see why Goku had loved it so much. Turning back toward the Shrine he saw Mr. Popo emerge holding a piece of stone in his hands. "Here you go Dende, Summoning Stone, just as you asked."
"Thanks Popo."
"May I ask, what is it you plan to do?"
"Well, Shenron was Kami's Dragon. Restoring him was fine for a short time but over time he'll lose some of his power since Kami and I have such different energies."
"Oh, I see. You're going to make a new Dragon then?"
Dende nodded. "That's the plan. I'm going to take advantage of the peace we have while it lasts. You never know when the Eternal Dragon might be needed again."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Unkown Location:
"Everything's proceeding as planned then?" Raven asked.
Razor nodded. "Aside from a slight misjudging of the strength to the barriers everything is fine. We've adjusted already so there should be no setback in his release."
"Good. What about the resource teams? Last report I heard said we were running low on food for the trees."
"They're all behind schedule. Unfortunately the loss of Slug and Recoome's teams came at a bad time. The incident on Klaish six months ago and the one on Hoven a year before that have reduced our teams by nearly half." Razor sighed. "Not to mention the issue with the communications net."
"The systems are old." Raven said, furrowing her brow slightly. "Outside of time or not they still take wear-and-tear. We don't exactly have the means to replace anything from here. Makeshift replacements and patchwork repairs are the best we can manage on our own. Are the supply ships in position beyond the Horizon?"
"They are. As soon as we breach the field and escape this little prision we'll have access to the best technology of the time. Repairs to systems should be a simple matter then."
"And our battle plans?" came a new voice as Raven's mate entered the room.
"Finalized and ready. It will be years yet, before we can even start to make our move. And then probably another 15 years to reach civilization from our current location. However, all combat plans, strategies, and procedures are in place."
"Any news from Mainframe?" Raven asked.
"It reports that the procedure is advancing ahead of schedule. The patient will be out of surgery in only another four years time, well before we're even free. I've left instructions to keep him off-line until the time comes, we don't want any unexpected mistakes from our own men again." came Razor's reply.
"No, Slug caused us enough grief." said Raven's mate, his tail flicking behind him and then wrapping around his waist. "Well, at least things are going smoothly enough. If the trees die at this juncture there's no real harm in that. I see little need for any more of their fruit."
"My thoughts as well." said Razor. "If you'll excuse me, I need to see about mending the stabilizers. They'll need to be in top condition if we want to survive the time displacement when we get free."
Raven nodded and Razor made his depature. "So, not much longer now." she said, turning and smiling to him. "Just a few more years and we'll be free, we'll be able to pick up where we left off."
He smiled back at her and nodded. "Only this time, we'll be doing it together. That's something the Shugotenshi never counted on. Seperated as we were by the thousand years between our empires we were strong, but not invncible. Now, however, the two greatest Sai-jin's to ever live are fighting side-by-side. The Empire we forge now will make the ones we had before look like anthills."
"Sir!" a female voice called as its owner ran into the room. "Sorry to... interrupt you." she panted. "There's a stasis field... issue with transport... 13." she finished, before taking a deep breath.
"Can't they fix it? They're on the outside, what do they expect us to do about it?"
"They said that it's a power overflow issue. They asked for schematics of the sixth generation supressors, they're still on fifth generation systems."
He pursed his lips in thought. There was a reason he kept technology like that tightly sealed away in the system computers. However, at this juncture, there was no harm in releasing the information. And he needed the cargo in that ship contained until the time was right. "Very well, give him access to the seventh generation system specs, that should contain things."
"Seventh generation?"
"Did I stutter?"
"N-no sir, sorry sir. Just making sure I heard correctly sir."
"Then go do it!"
"Y-yes sir." she said bowing. "Right away."
-END SAGA-