Revision Began: 4-16-01

Disclaimer: The same, as usual.

Note: This is a complete rewrite of the other story. I wasn't satisfied with it at all.

I got the inspiration for this fic from Cherine's Rebirth of an Empire.

Warning: Completely AR (alternate reality). I just ignore everything from right before Goku's death in the Android Saga on so it doesn't really qualify for alternate universe. Possibly OOC Vegeta. Oh and sort of dark even though there are humorous parts. That's the biggest change from before.

Ages: Right now, Bra is 12, Trunks is 24, Goten is 23, and Pan is 10.

The New Age Empire
Death and Rebirth

~New Character Bios: Set Number One~

Vegeta Briefs Jr. (or V.J.)
Age: 20
Height: 5'7 1/2
Weight: 175lbs.
Eye Color: Blue
Description: He's got Vegeta's hair style in Bulma's color which makes him look a little weird. His facial features are more like Bulma's than his father's so they wonder why Veggie named him that. He is a martial artist just like everyone in his family except Jakina and Bulma but his little sis is too small to express much of an interest.
Hobbies: Playing video games, annoying his little sisters, hanging with Trunks and Goten, dating Marron.

Jakina Briefs
Age: 9
Height: 4'5
Weight:60lbs
Eye Color: Blue
Description: She has jet black hair in one of Bulma's styles from when she was a child. She loves to smile and have fun which makes Bulma wonder if she's going to be a partygoer when she gets older.
Hobbies: Playing with Pan and Bra & helping them both play tricks on the older two, being Vegeta's other favorite.

Son Mia
Age: 15
Height: 5'9
Weight:103lbs
Eye Color: Dark Brown
Description: Mia's personality is much like Pan's. They both are extreme tomboys and love to fight right along side everyone else. Her latest goal is trying to reach super saiyan level 3. She looks more like her mother than her father.
Hobbies: Sparring with her older bro Goten, Trunks, and V.J., flying, and chatting on the internet.

Son Moura
Age: 12 months
Description: She is Gohan and Videl's second daughter. More on her later on in the fic.

~Chapter One: It Could Have Been Different~

The rain fell silently -- as if the heavens were weeping at their fate --, attempting to wash away all of the blood and sorrow in the land. One man stood in the middle of the battle scarred terrain, looking upwards towards the sky.

The aliens had come silently to attack the world. They were masters of stealth, the Kamoku-jin, and they had successfully assaulted everyone without anyone even finding out until it was almost too late.

The earliest signs were the illnesses, taking the form of the old medieval plagues. These 'plagues' wiped out whole towns and cities and made everyone feel completely defenseless. This lasted for several weeks and weakened everyone's spirit. It was like the Kamoku-jin had an itinerary. Then again, they probably did.

As Vegeta looked to the gray sky, he thought about all of the blood and tears that were shed in order to protect their world. Because there were so many, he and the rest of the Z-senshi could not do it alone.

Now the planet was torn asunder. Vegeta just didn't understand why the strong people preyed on the weak in tough times like these. A few years ago he would have thought differently but he had never gone hungry before.

If Mirai Trunks were here, he would have said that it was just like his world. Desolate, dangerous, and full of despair.

He felt, rather than heard, his mate come to stand beside him. Turning he found that she was decked out in a bright yellow rain outfit that included matching boots and umbrella. Bulma moved to bring the umbrella over both of them and slid an arm around his waist.

"What are you looking for, Vegeta?" she asked softly, truly wanting to know.

He looked to the sky again, still searching. "Maybe I'm looking for a solution." A single tear slid down his cheek and mingled with the rain. He sighed and turned away back towards home. There was nothing he could do except go forward.

But, it could have been different.

***

It began several months ago in the city of Paris. Up till then, everyone had been enjoying a peaceful life and said that nothing else would go wrong for their remaining days. Of course, they were wrong but you can't blame someone for being optimistic.

People were becoming ill at an alarming rate, about fifty or sixty a night at first. The hospitals were filled by the end of the week with people all complaining of the same thing; high fevers, aching limbs, and vomiting blood.

By the second day, the victim's lymph nodes were swelling and becoming blackish. It looked like the Bubonic Plague, or the Black Death, had come to visit civilization again.

In the last stages, the swellings got larger and larger until they burst, spreading the disease even farther. All of this only took about three or four days. The plague was both disgusting and horrifying to look at in addition to being highly contagious.

For two weeks, no one Vegeta knew had caught it. At the time it was slowly spreading beyond Tokyo. Then Kamesennin went to the doctor's office for a checkup, and returned bearing the news that he was dying. It was then that the disease was starting to get personal.

If that wasn't enough, then came the message from Kaio-sama a few weeks later that aliens were approaching the planet at an incredible speed.

At first there were only a couple of ships in the atmosphere. Vegeta and the rest were relieved since Kaio-sama had warned them there were a lot. But that relief was short-lived because only a few hours later, around ten-thousand arrived to join their brethren.

The battles were intense for their speed was close to being unmatched. Immediately, groups of ships left the main force and flew off toward other parts of the world. They found out later that it was mostly Europe.

They all left Goku to come up with a plan as usual. He told them that they should split up, one extremely powerful person to a group, and go off to where the aliens had landed. They did so, but that left one group extremely weakened in Japan. That was where the mothership attacked.

A large beam of energy shot from a cannon on the ship's underside, blowing cities and towns to bits. Then it landed ten minutes later and waves of Kamoku-jin emerged from the spaceship's interior.

They were big, blue, and almost transparent with big, red eyes and hands and feet that ended in sharp claws. It looked as if they were a no-nonsense race, and they proved it by swarming around both Krillin and Yamcha and killing them on the spot.

Goku, flooded with grief at having his friends dead.... again, attacked them head on and managed to kill a good many before he was murdered as well.

Those from the mothership were the elite of the race. Once Trunks and Goten fused into Gotenks, however, they proved to be rather weak. The humans helped to take care of the remaining Kamoku-jin and the war ended. This took about three days.

But, it was not without consequences.

***

"So what do you want to do?" Trunks asked his father over dinner the next evening. "Do you want to save the world?"

His answer surprised them all. "Hai."

"Why Papa?" Vegeta Jr. asked. "This world is dead! No one can save it now."

"I knew something like this would happen," Vegeta muttered almost to himself. "I knew that this planet was too disorganized and that *one* attack from outside forces would tip the scales. But these pathetic humans were too wrapped up in their own wars to listen to a good idea."

Bulma turned to him, anger in her eyes. " 'These pathetic humans' as you put them, tried their hardest. But not every human can be super strong like saiyans. Oh wait! Frieza conquered you, now didn't he?"

Vegeta didn't even bother to look up. Or even respond for that matter. He turned to his sons, brow furrowed even more than usual.

"I don't know what to do," he told them. "This is beyond my understanding."

"First you need to decide why you want to help," Bra told him.

"In the time that I've lived on this planet, I've come to," he hesitated only slightly, "like it. No one can just come and blow stuff up." He waved his arm around to indicate an area that included the house they were living in and the entire city. "You see this? It's a complete mess. Those stupid aliens came, poisoned our air and attempted to kill off the entire human race. Why would someone do that? I don't understand it at all.?"

"But you're saiyan," V.J. said, "You destroyed races and planets before."

"But we've always had a reason before. Frieza was like a planetary real estate agent. He had us go to planets that looked wonderful and purge them of its inhabitants so he could sell it to the highest bidder."

"Really?" Jakina asked, eyes wide.

Her father just shrugged. "Well, we didn't have any choice. Anyway, these aliens attacked us without any goal whatsoever. Now we're left to the task of rebuilding everything they destroyed. It's like getting the short end of the stick."

Bulma sighed. "No one said that life was ever fair."

"It at least could be a little more even." Suddenly he stood, throwing his napkin down onto the table. "I'm going for a walk." Leaving his family behind but going off to face troubling thoughts, he walked out into the night.

***

Basically, Western Capital had been destroyed. Only a few buildings remained, one of those *not* being the Capsule Corporation. Before the final battle, however, Bulma and a few other scientists managed to salvage come things before it went. Fortunately not many people were killed in the blast that worked there. The rest of the city was another story completely.

The death count for the entire world was well within the millions. This includes all victims of the Kamoku-jin, whether it be from the plague or the blast. It would have been much higher if not for good evacuation plans and some people's extended battles with the plague. It gave scientists enough time to develop a cure.

With these thoughts going through his mind, Vegeta began to walk towards where his home used to be, not realizing that he was doing so. The Kamoku-jin were clever, he gave them that much, but they shouldn't have come in the first place.

Strangely enough he found himself missing Goku. He was a baka, sure, but he was one of the best fighters he had ever seen. Other than himself of course. It had only been a week since his death but everyone was so busy recovering what they had lost that they hadn't tried to wish him back yet. They didn't even know if the dragonballs had gotten destroyed or not. But once the madness calmed, he was sure someone would take it upon themselves to try and get him back.

Maybe he would do it himself. Stranger things have happened.

So, how does everyone like this one? I thought that before the whole 'Vegeta rules the world' thing was too easy. So I thought and thought and I came up with this. It might take a while to finish this seeing as I have three others to complete, but it will get done.