Strange Stray Cat

Oh, yes...the Disclaimer: Of course I don\'t own DBZ.

He stood wondering for the tenth time in as many days, “Am I the only one who hasn’t grown complacent?” He had felt the power growing slowly over several days, as if it could somehow sneak up on him and catch him unaware. And for a while, he guessed, it had. However, on this day, the immense power he felt would not be ignored. It felt as if it consumed the whole world. He shivered thinking of the creature - or creatures - that would have so much power. “Surely the others have felt this,” he thought, while in the back of his mind, he knew that they hadn’t. If they had, the others would have come running to him. The knowing didn’t help the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. In fact, this knowledge had the opposite effect, adding credence to his theory that they weren’t meant to know. This was a beacon calling to him, and him alone.


Five Days Earlier

So many things had changed over the years. The Sayians had lost the humans that they held dear to old age, disease, and other ailments which Sayians seemed to be immune. They had enjoyed many years of peace, if it can be said that Sayians enjoy peace. They continued training, for what else would they do without their families and friends, without a great and evil foe to defeat. They socialized among themselves, fearing the loss of anymore loved ones. In other words, their lives were boring.

Vegeta began this day as he did every other day: breakfast, followed by ting ing in the Gravity Chamber (which he maintained with the help of Trunks). He knew his day would also end the same as it did every day: lunch, training outdoors wityoneyone who was willing, dinner, shower, and finally, bed.
“What a crappy life for a King,” he muttered to himself as he waited for Trunks to finish making minor adjustments to the Gravity Chamber. He kicked a rock lying on the ground near his foot and watched it sail until it was out of sight. Trunks walked out of the Gravity Chamber and flashed his father a brilliant smile, “All done, ready to play?”
“Play? Is that what you think this is, playing? If that’s all this is to you, you can leave!” Vegeta shouted at Trunks for the first time in years. They were both shocked.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Trunks knew that his father could kick the crap out of him if he chose to do so. Trunks also knew that if he didn\'t stand up for himself, he would.
Vegeta collected himself before responding. “Sorry, I haven’t been sleeping well and it seems to have made me a little short tempered.” Vegeta looked at the sky and hoped his son wouldn’t pry. Had he told the whole truth, he would have said, “Sorry, I’ve been having these horrible nightmares and they scare the shit out of me, so I’m a little jumpy and a lot anxious to train.” Instead of the barrage of questions he expected, Trunks said simply, “Yeah, me, too.” Vegeta raised his eyebrows at his son’s admon. on. It was his turn to pry. “What’s keeping you awake?” Trunks thought about the question and tried to figure out how best to put it in words, “It\'s mostly a feeling, I guess. Just when I’m about to doze off, I feel this - presence, I guess is the best way to describe it. But, when I try to reach out to find it, it’s as if there’s nothing there. It’s everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I don’t know any other way to describe it. Kinda weird, huh?” Trunks expected a snort and the roll of the eyes, but instead Vegeta looked concerned. “How long has this been going on?” Trunks though back, uessuess about 3 or 4 days.”
“Why haven’t you told me this before,” Vegeta demanded.
“I didn’t think it was a big deal. Are you having the same problem? Is that what’s keeping you awake, too?” Now the snort, accompanied by the eye roll, “Of course not!” and then, “But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to spend a little more time sharpening our mental skills, just in case.” With that, the two strongest warriors on Earth began to train, just as they had the day before.

Four Days Earlier


Goku had been left behind. Everyone had surpassed him - even Pan. He wouldn’t have believed a quarter-Sayian could even achieve Super Sayian status, alo alone ascend to the 6th level. No matter how hard he trained, he just couldn’t seem to reach new power levels. He was stuck. At first, everyone said it was due to the loss of Chi Chi and, for awhile, he believed that. Deep down inside, he knew that wasn’t the reason. As the years passed, he trained, sparred with everyone, and trained some more. Still nothing. Vegeta almost killed him twice before declaring that he would no longer spar with the suddenly inadequate Sayian.

After Goku ascended to the 4th level, he just went flat. He now understood how Vegeta felt all of those years when they were young. At the time, Goku thought Vegeta to be too proud, too arrogant, and that he should just “get over it”. Now, having been left behind by everyone -n hin his granddaughter, for crying out loud - for Goku, pay back, as they say, was a bitch. When Vegeta first exceeded him, Goku was certain he would be smug and wave it in his face at every opportunity. In a way, he did. Vegeta was more than willing to exchange blows with Goku every chance he got. After Vegeta ascended to the 6th level for the first time during one of their sparring sessions, Goku felt…confusion?…panic?...desperation?...he didn’t know precisely. He only knew that he had to find a way to catch up. Rather than attaining Vegeta’s level, he watched as everyone else raced past him.

That was when Vegeta almost killed him - the first time. Goku attacked full force. Vegeta had responded exactly as he expected, hitting him with everything he had. Neither of them realized just how much more powerful Vegeta had become. Goku had refused the senzu, reminding Vegeta that he would get stronger if he recovered on his own. Vegeta ranted for days that Goku had baited him and lost on purpose just to get stronger, and for months refused to scrap with him. After several months, Goku convinced Vegeta that he had grown significantly stronger and he was ready to fight on an equal level. Vegeta agreed. This time around, it was Goku with something to prove. Instead of the gradual building of power, as was standard in their sparring matches, Goku immediately ascended to the pinnacle of his power and hit an unsuspecting Vegeta full on. He gave Vegeta a sound thrashing for a moment, but once Vegeta’s battle instincts took over, there was no stopping him. He quickly ascended to the 8th level, more than doubling Goku’s power, and commenced pummeling him until Trunks and Goten finally managed to get the dominant Sayian under control. This time, Goku was in no condition to deny the gift of the senzu bean. Nor did he argue when Vegeta had him sent to medical for a week.

That was the last time Goku challenged Vegeta.

Goku sat alone in his favorite “thinking spot” in the forest. A part of him wished that some evil tyrant would come to Earth and kill him. Not that he wished to be dead, but he did like the idea of being able to train with King Kai again. He thought that might help him achieve higher levels of ascension. He had tried The Hyperbolic Time Chamber several times to no avail. In fact, Kami had she hhe had been in too much and would not be allowed back unless a world-threatening event was about to take pla The The Chamber, he had said, was not meant to be used on a whim. In short, Goku had tried everything else, and death was the only thing left.

But death wasn’t what weighed heavily on Goku’s mind this day. It was the nagging suspicion that something big was, in fact, coming. He had always trusted his instincts, and when they told him something was up, he listened. Unfortunately, he didn’t trust his instincts anymore. More than that, he didn’t think anyone else would. For several days, he had considered talking to Vegeta about this feeling, but dismissed the idea as he was sure Vegeta would. He tried putting the thought out of his mind, but no matter how he tried to occupy his attention with other things, he couldn’t get past his gut feeling that something very powerful would make itself known soon. He knew that if his instincts were correct, he simply wouldn’t have the power to defend himself. He remembered how valiantly Krillin and the other humans had fought against past evils, even knowing they didn’t have the strength to be much more than a nuisance to said villain. They were almost always repaid for their bravery with death. It was these very thoughts that caused his mind to invite the idea of death. Goku, ever the optimist, saw this as an opportunity.

Still, Goku wrestled with whether or not to discuss his increasing feeling of dread with anyone else. He was certain that he would be patronized and ultimately the sharing of information would make no difference. After a long while, Goku decided he was likely wrong and should just keep his mouth shut. He also decided that if the opportunity to reunite with King Kai presented itself, he would rush to meet it head on.



Three Days Earlier

To say that Vegeta had mellowed over the years was like saying that Piccolo had a bit of a greenish tint to him. He was not the Changed Man that most people believed, but rather the embodiment of potential realized. Vegeta had become exactly what he was expected to be. Granted, it took longer than it should have, but given his time with Freiza, it was amazing he hadn’t become a raving lunatic instead. With the clarity of hind-sight, Trunks believed he could pin-point the beginning of his father\'s evolution.

During the ordeal with Buu, Vegeta bego ceo cease behaving as the arrogant, spiteful, angry (and, in Trunks’ opinion, bratty although he would never say so aloud) Prince of All Sayians. It was at that time, he began to transform himself into King Vegeta. After Bra was born, The Arrogant Prince was no more. At the time, Trunks was jealous of his father’s relationship with his younger sibling. Now, as a man older than Vegeta was at the time of his birth, he understood. Vegeta had simply been too young to deal with the pressures of the events that were transpiring around him and fatherhood. Reflecting on the stories he had heard about what went on during the time spanning his conception and his 1st birthday, he had to chuckle, “It’s a wonder I’m not a raving lunatic.”

Early on, Trunks hypothesized that it was Goku’abilability to keep up physically that caused everyone to look to Vegeta for leadership. He was, after all, the strongest. Later, he concluded that they all turned to Vegeta because he was, truely, their leader. Goku had never been able to even come close to his father’s intellect. It really had been a matter of time before Vegeta took his rightful place as King of the Sayians. It saddened Trunks that there were so few of them left, with almost half being Vegeta’s own offspring. Sometimes he imagined what life would be like if they were all on Vegeta-sai, his father the king and he the heir…Of course, he knew that had he grown up on Vegeta-sai he would never have been allowed to socialize with Goten, and, of course, he knew he likely would not even exist, but it was his fantasy and he indulged in it every chance he got.

Remembering his duties in the real world, he shook off his reverie and got ready for the day. His duties as President of Capsule Corp were minimal. He attended board meetings and counted the money. That was usually the extent of it; however he had one other duty and today was the day to attend to it. It turned out that much of Capsule Corp’s success was due to the generosity of an anonymous scientific research facility. They would make the discoveries, and then, through an attorney, would sell them to Capsule Corp for a tidy sum.

There were very specific rules regarding ttrantransaction. Capsule Corp was to take full credit for the discovery, patent it, and, above all, keep the origins completely secret. Trunks was the only person the attorney would meet with. Before him, it had been his mother. He paid them out of his personal account, so there would be no record of the transaction in accounting. Today, he would meet with their attorney, tomorrow, Capsule Corp stock would sky-rocket, and, in October, Trunks would likely win another Nobel Prize.

He was told by his mother that this was a private research facility all working for one very wealthy person and that neither the owner, nor the scientists had any interest in notoriety. Occasionally, however, their research was beneficial to the public at large and so, they made Capsule Corp the means by which their discoveries were presented to the public. Trunks didn’t know how long this arrangement had been going on, but he was certain his grandfather had been attending these meetings before his mother had taken over. Once his grandfather had intimated that the only thing he had ever done was to develop the capsulization technique and improve on the technology given to him from “other sources”.


Two Days Earlier

Pan was having the time of her life. Although she was into her mid-thirties, she had the appearance and stamina of one in her early twenties. She knew that her Sayian heritage would keep her young for a long time, and she planned on taking full advantage of that fact. With what she had been through since her junior year in High School, she felt that not only did she need it, but she deserved it.


Pan had the picture perfect childhood. Perfect, doting parents, lots of great friends and family, and all the martial arts training a girl could want. She fell in love with The Arts as a small child and everyone was more than happy to train her. When she wasn\'t training with her Grandpa, she always had her parents, Uncle Goten, Trunks, or, when she was older, even Vegeta. She was an exent ent student and very well liked among her classmates. In her junior year, two weeks before Prom, her life collapsed.

Her mother had been out shopping for her one Saturday afternoon while she was out with friends. Videl had wanted to surprise Pan with a new dress and shoes for her first Prom. Pan got home around 10:30 that night; Videl never reed. ed. Around 11, Gohan received a call that would change their lives. Videl had been hit by a drunk driver while she was crossing the street to return to her car. She didn\'t even make the trip to the hospital.

Pan fell apart. She blamed herself for her mother’s death, after all if she hadn\'t made such a big deal out of that stupid prom her mother would still be alive, right? At least that was Pans reasoning. Gohan retreated completely into himself, becoming distant and throwing himself into his work. Pan began drinking heavily (to point out the irony was a waste of time), then drugs and sex. Anything to cover up the pain inside. If anyone noticed, she wasn\'t aware so it added to her feeling of despair. In her mind, no one even cared about her.

When she was 19, her boyfriend had gotten her pregnant (or so she assumed, though she couldn\'t swear that it had been her boyfriend that was responsible). She was a complete wreck and now pregnant on top of everything else. Not knowing who to turn to, she sought advice from the only person she thought would be able to give it objectively. Vegeta. Pan knew that Vegeta would be angry, for he did not tolerate stupidity. She knew that she had been stupid. She had made the rest of the Son family look genius by comparison. Pan was not prepared for the response she actually got from him.

When Pan told Vegeta about her predicament, he was indeed very angry. He was so angry, that for a moment she thought she would have to defend herself physically. He told her that she couldn\'t go around \"spitting out mongrel children whenever she felt like it\", and that she was \"an embarrassment to the Sayain race\" and that if they had been on Vegetasai, he would have killed her where she stood. She was hysterical and he was boiling over. After a few moments, he calmed himself and did something she w nev never forget. He picked her up, put her in his lap, and comforted her. When she had calmed down, he told her that she was like an adopted daughter to him. She had spent so much time in his home growing up that she seemed like one of his own. He expressed disappointment in her for not talking to him about her problems sooner, before they got so far out of control. He told her that he knew about the drugs and alcohol. The sex, he had assumed, was just a part of her Sayain heritage, but he saw that it was just another symptom of the greater problem - her inability to deal with the death of her mother. He insisted that she get help for her addictions and that they, together, would talk to Gohan. At the mention of her father, Pan freaked. She didn\'t want him to know what she had done to herself. Vegeta reminded her that it would be difficult to explain her entering a rehab facility without telling him why she was there. She agreed to tell him about the alcohol, but not the drugs and not the pregnancy.
\"Am I to assume that you do not want this brat?\" Vegeta asked. She nodded and burst into tears again. Vegeta continued to rock her on his lap, while he placed his hand on her stomach. He sent a small Chi blast into her, stunning her for a moment. When she recovered from the shock, she looked at him questioningly. \"That, as they say, is that,\" was his reply to her unspoken question. \"I won\'t ever do that again, so it is up to you to be responsible for the consequences of your actions.\"

That evening, Vegeta called Gohan to Capsule Corp and they all discussed Pans drinking problem. It was agreed that Pan would check into a rehabilitation program immediately. She checked in the following morning and stayed for a year. She was in therapy for another year after being discharged form the hospital.

After a series of destructive relationships, Pan had decided to give it all up for good, until the man of her teen-age fantasies asked her to dinner one night. She had been training with Vegeta that day, doing her best to get back in to physical form. Vegeta seemed to take this as his personal duty, so at his insistence, she lived in a small apartment at the Capsule Corp compound. They both agreed it was best that she not move back in to her parents house and that she focus all of her energy on becoming more powerful. That night at dinner, Trunks had asked about her progress. Vegeta snorted, \"In another month or so, she\'ll be able to kick your skinny ass.\" They all had a good laugh over the comment. Trunks turned to her and said, \"It\'s good to see you smile,\" and held her hand for a moment. Pan\'s heart skipped a beat as she looked into his eyes. Her feelings were confirmed later that evening when, during a long walk, Trunks asked her to dinner that Friday night. She tried to play it cool by saying, \"Sure, I guess that would be OK,\" but her heart leaped with joy.

Pan remembered the very day that Trunks had become the object of her lustful teenage fantasies. When she was 14, she was spending the night with Bra, as usual. They were up very late watching their most favorite movies. Pan was quite engrossed in the movie when she heard Bra squeal, \"Dad! I have company, could you at least put some shorts on!\" Pan\'s eyes immediately shot up, and there was Vegeta, making his way across the living room, wearing absolutely nothing. He waved his hand in a dismissive manner, and kept going. Pan\'s jaw must have hit the floor. When he came back through the living room with a glass of milk in hand, and a box of cookies under his arm, she couldn\'t stop staring. Oh sure, she was horribly embarrassed and really wanted to look away, but she just couldn\'t. Bra rolled her eyes at her father and this time threw a pillow at him, which he disintegrated without out even looking up.
\"Sorry about that, Pan,\" although Bra didn\'t seem too distressed, she did add, in a tone dripping with sarcasm,” Dad’s just very \'comfortable with his body\', as he puts it.\"

Pan barely heard a word she said; she was busy replaying the image in her mind for fear that she might somehow forget it. She had known that Vegeta was attractive \"for an old guy\", but...wow...that was the only word that she could think for another 20 minutes. Some would believe that this would have caused Pan to develop an infatuation with Vegeta, and it might have except for one thing. The next day at breakfast, Trunks took the time to stop and eat with the girls, teasing them mercilessly as he usually did. The big difference to Pan was that when she looked at Trunks, she saw his head on Vegeta\'s naked body. That did her in, and Trunks was forever after the center of her imagination.

Pan and Trunks dated fairly steadily for about three months before their relationship began to transform itself into something more serious. They had great fun together. Going to parties and clubs almost every night of the week. No matter what they did together, it was always fun, and always different. It seemed to Pan that Trunks would search for the newest, hippest clubs to take her to and they never went to the same place more than twice. One night they had been to the grand opening of an exclusive \"members only\" club downtown where they partied until it closed. Walking to the car, neither one ready to part company, Trunks asked her to spend the night. Pan thought, \"It\'s about damn time,\" but what she said was, \"I would love to.\" This was the night she had fantasized about for the last six years. It was also the night that everything changed for them.

Pan would never have said that Trunks had been a lousy lover, but he wasn’t anything near what she had expected. When they arrived at his house, he became tentative, almost shy. She certainly had not expected this from him. Trunks had always been so confident, bordering on reckless, that Pan wasn’t quite sure what to do. They sat together on the couch for what seemed like a hundred uncomfortable minutes before Pan finally decided that she would have to take the lead. She leaned into him for a kiss and when he responded by pulling her closer, she deepened the kiss and moved to place hlf slf straddling his lap. The kissing turned to touching and the touching led to the removal of clothing. Although everything Trunks did was technically perfect, Pan felt as though something was missing. Trunks finally took some initiative and stood up, with Pan’s legs still wrapped around his hips and carried her into the bedroom. Pan thought, “Alright, here’s where it gets good,” but it did not get good. He touched her as if she were a child who might break. His kisses reminded her of sixth grade spin the bottle. His pace was so slow, she thought she might have to just push him on his back and take care of business herself. There was no passion, no intensity, and Pan thought it was perhaps the most boring sex she had ever had. She had known girls who lamented their sexually demanding and aggressive boyfriends, but Pan liked it that way. She preferred the rough stuff. Trunks had been a terrible disappointment.

The next morning, Trunks asked her to move in with him. While he wasn’t the love of her life, it did seem preferable to spending nightsne ine in her tiny apartment. If Vegeta had any opinion on the matter, he kept it to himself saying, “This had better not interfere with your training.” She was glad of that because she knew if he had disapproved, she would have ended it immediately. Partially out of respect for Vegeta, and partially because Trunks was really just someone to keep her company. The changes weren’t subtle by a long shot. Trunks jumped into the “domestic guy” role right away. No more parties and clubs, just night after night of snuggling on the couch. He was never even so much as late home from work. Oh sure, most women dream of having a romantic, sensitive man to spoon with, but it made Pan want to gag. He was making her crazy. She was, after all, a Sayian warrior and not Martha Stewart.

They lived together for almost a year when she finally had enough. One night, Trunks came home at exactly 5:30 with flowers and Maid in Manhattan on DVD (for the third time, for the love of Kami!) When he kissed her softly on the cheek and called her “dear”, Pan lost it. She told him exactly what she thought of Maid in Manhattan, and what she thought of the deadly boring lifestyle in which she had been subjugated. And with that, she left and returned to her tiny apartment. Goten picked up her belongings a couple of days later.

Pan was devastated. She never expected a relationship with Trunks to end that way. She spent many hours on the phone with Bra trying to figure out what happened to the Trunks she had known. When Bra invited her to take a vacation with her in Amsterdam - all expenses paid for by Daddy, of course - she jumped on the next flight out.

That’s when things finally started looking up for her. She and Bra had a great time traveling and meeting people, shopping and just hanging out. Bra took her to many exotic places and Pan had a chance to explore while Bra did her research. They even trained together fairly often. After a few months with Bra, it was almost as if The Trunks Disaster, as she called it, had never happened. Finally, she met a man who was truly the one she had been looking for. All adventure, all the time. And now, she found herself in the biggest house she had ever seen, attending parties nightly, and surrounded by stars of all types. Movie stars, rock stars, and famous athletes, and some people she didn’t know but, by the looks of them, had to be famous some where. Pan was sure that this wasn\'t his house, and these weren\'t his parties, but she didn\'t care. She didn\'t even care when he would leave her for weeks at a time for business. That gave her opportunity to \"play\".


One Day Earlier

Ten years ago, Bra had convinced her father that her continued physical training was a waste of time. She had wanted to travel and study in as many countries as she could. Of course, she was a grown woman and could have left without this blessing, but she had infinite respect for her father and would never have done such a thing. Plus, without his support, how would she have paid for it all? It took about six months of arguing, manipulating, and pouting before he finally found the idea to be acceptable. She finally got her way by appealing to his sense of duty. She convinced him that it would be best for him, and all Sayians, if at least one of them studied other languages and cultures. She could become the Sayian Diplomat to Everywhere. Knowing that her father still believed he could restore at least some of the glory that was the Sayian Empire, it was easy to convince him that all Empires needed diplomats -especially an Empire without a country.


Vegeta would have a fit - like the ones her mom had told her about - if he knew how she had actually spent the last 6 years. True, she was traveling and learning languages and understanding customs, but that was secondary to her real goal. While studying history and folklore, she came across a legend that would change her life.

A woman had become possessed by a powerful demon who planned to bring pain and suffering to mortals using her body. However, the woman was strong, and stronger still with the demon’s powers inside her, so she suppressed the demon retaining his supernatural powers. She traveled the world fighting other malicious spirits and protecting mortals.

The first stories she found called her Teufelzerstörer. Bra didn’t think much about these stories at first, but she found so many of them and each more detailed than the last. It wasn’t until 8 months later, when she found similar stories in another country, that the tales piqued her interest. These stories named her Tueur DeDiable. Unlike the first stories, where Teufelzerstörer was used more as a title, or description, in these stories Tueur DeDiable seemed to be her proper name. She began to find stories with detailed description of her appearance, and stories that led to other stories with other names. She followed leads all over the world and her studies led to the occult where she discovered more legends, descriptions, and names. Two things were a constant, the description of her appearance and that she fought demons. The descriptions were vivid, and always the same no matter what language they were translated from. When Bra found a painting of Iblis Dewi, meaning Demon Goddess, she became convinced that her Teufelzerstörer was real.

The stories changed slightly depending on the region. Some stories would claim that she was a demon and only fought other demons to gain control of the underworld and that saving humans was just a lucky break for the person involved. Other legends said that she was a descendent of an ancient and secret race of warriors who were bound to defend the earth and its inhabitants. Others still portrayed her as a vampire, never making mention of demons of any kind. Bra followed these stories all over the world. She eventually found people who claimed to have had contact with the woman. It was very easy for her to separate fact from fiction. The story-tellers could either describer her accurately, or they could not. Bra soon discovered that most people who knew her name could, in fact, describe her perfectly.

Bra felt she had made a breakthrough when she heard of a small cult that actually worshiped her. They called her Nachtkonigin, meaning Night Goddess. Once she made this discovery, she found several cults worshiping Djavo Boginja, Deesse De Lune, Malka ka Ruh, Della Luna, or De Koningin Van De Nacht. When she finally met with a member of one of these groups, she immediately joined. It was here that she began to search for her in earnest. She, as well as her fellow followers of Della Luna (for it was the Italian cult that she had joined), believed her to be not only real, but alive.

So when Bra received a message from her father demanding that she return home immediately, she was more than a little nervous. She gathered every piece of evidence she had accumulated and prepared to defend her Goddess with everything she had. She hoped she had enough.


That Day

Vegeta stood alone on the edge of the cliff wondering for the tenth time in as many days, “Am I the only one who hasn’t grown complacent?\" He looked into the night sky and listened to the silence. \"Surely the others have felt this,” he thought, while in the back of his mind, he knew that they hadn’t. If they had, the others would have come running to him.

He had had enough of the wondering and the waiting. He threw his hands into the air and yelled, “Well, come on then! Quit fucking around and bring it on!” Only silence answered him. His arms dropped heavily to his sides and he sighed. Whatever the immense power was would reveal itself in its own time. Vegeta just hoped he didn’t die of boredom before that day arrived.






Author\'s Note: This is my first fan fic ever, so please be gentle. Please review, because I\'m needy. All reviews and comments are welcome.