~1-22-00~

Additional disclaimer: Akira Toriyama owns the Z-Senshi, I take the credit for everyone else.

I was going to take a short break between books, maybe use the time to finish some other fics but this would not step to the side. So here you are, book two!

Oh yeah, short apology. I know that Vegeta-sei has ten times the gravity of Earth but I sort of forgot that when Bulma got included in the group. Oopsie.

Ages (only because I forgot before): Bra is twelve, Goten is twenty-three, and Trunks is twenty-four.

She sat there, suspended in space, just staring out into the impenetrable darkness trying to see something other than the blackness. It was the silence and darkness that were driving her insane.

She cried out loudly, her voice also not making a sound. The act of shouting created mute ripples in the darkness itself and the waves rolled over her in a sensation of odd feelings that made the hair stand up on both her arms and her tail.

As she floated there, in the darkness, she began to plead silently with any higher power that existed to please let her out while she still retained some form of sanity. She did this for several minutes, not receiving a response.

And, at the precise moment that she had given up all hope, the darkness parted like a great river and it abated as quickly and as silently as it had come.

She blinked in utter shock at the developments, parting her lips to speak but a soft sound made the words die on her lips. It was both beautiful and awful, that song, the words almost incomprehensible. One voice sang it sweetly as it rose in pitch at the crescendo and the words slowly died away only to linger just slightly in the air. The figure who sang that strange song moved closer to her, an invisible source of light shining into their face. She peered at the person as she tried to recognize the face but nothing could come to her at all.

"I welcome you Katrinka," He -- it was most definitely a male -- said softly with a smile. He fell silent as he studied her, his eyes lit with some unfathomable emotion.

The platinum blond-haired, blue-eyed man took her hand gently and began to lead her from that place of silence out into the warm sunshine. She found her voice then and asked the question foremost in her mind.

"Who are you?"

His eyes lit with mirth as he answered. "Why Katrinka, do you not know your advisor?"

She blinked and then blinked once more as the words registered themselves in her mind. "You were the one who gave me the orb and showed me the world?"

He nodded and stood still, tall and straight. "I am Michael." He continued on his path then, gently guiding her along.

"Where am I?"

He avoided her question skillfully and asked one of his own. "Do you want to learn more about yourself?"

"What a silly question! Of course!"

He nodded, almost absently, and still walked down the stone path to a small cottage near the edge of the sea. He opened the door there and motioned for her to enter, all the time keeping his brilliant blue eyes locked with hers.

"Your friends are here." He spoke as lights flared up along the walls as if hailing his return. "The others were not as fortunate as you."

"What do you mean?"

Sitting down at desk, he folded his hands. "You were stabilized in what we call the 'Transmission Zone'. It is where all travelers begin when they cross planes."

"What do you mean?" She sat in a chair nearby. "Cross planes? Did you bring me here?" She stretched her arm wide to encompass the area, clearly meaning the entire plane or wherever she was.

He smiled then, a secret smile. The kind people use when they know something that you don't. "I had nothing to do with your arrival. You activated the transporter yourself."

"I activated..." She trailed off, remembering. "That book!"

"Yes." He agreed. "The Book of Legacies."

She narrowed her eyes. "You say that I brought us here, but how come it did nothing of the sort when Bra touched it."

"Because, my dear, she was not the first member of the Royal Family. There is one older than she."

"Vegeta!"

"But he was only part of the catalyst. You made up the other part."

"Why me?"

He gave her a knowing look. "I believe you can answer that."

She sighed deeply. "Because I am the Time Warrior."

"Yes, of course."

***

Kat and Michael were sipping tea an hour later when the first confused cry rose in the next room over. It was a thunderous roar that just about shook the small house on its foundation. Kat raised one red eyebrow and calmly placed her cup back onto the table.

"The prince is awake."

Michael did the same. "So I see."

They stood then, in one perfectly synchronized motion, and began striding towards a door not far from where they had been exchanging pleasant conversation.

Vegeta was confused and that frightened him. He was the leader of the Saiyans! He should always know what was going on about him. Then he fell silent, his silent proclamation dying as soon as it had begun. He had no race left, not bothering to count Goku. He would never have a race again. The proud warriors known as the saiyans had become extinct, their glory now but a tiny pebble in the vast Sea of Time.

He frowned then, the already prominent frown lines becoming deeper. He sat up on the sleeping mat he had been lying on and looked around.

The others were lying nearby, in various states of rest. Bulma and Bra slept deeply, oblivious to everything for the most part. Goten and Trunks were restless, shifting position and fidgeting often. Goku was expressive. He had a faint smile on his face as if laughing at an inside joke and that made him seem the completely and utterly relaxed. Vegeta was focusing so hard on the others that when the door opened, he jumped as if waking from a trance.

"Vegeta? Are you okay?" Kat's worried eyes looked at him. The short Saiyan got to his feet, navigated his way around the sleeping bodies, and exited through the door.

"I want an explanation and I want one now," He hissed angrily. She smiled nervously.

"Well you see, I had no idea that book would do that. Something urged me on, like a instinct." She transformed her expression then, fluttering her eyelashes. "You forgive me?"

Vegeta sighed. He didn't have time for her 'cuteness'. That was when he noticed the other man. "Who are you?"

He bowed low, very formally, the hem of his robe sweeping the tiled floor. "I am Michael, Lord Vegeta."

Vegeta's dark eyes lit up and he stroked his hairless chin thoughtfully. "Lord Vegeta? I think I can learn to like that."

Kat rolled her eyes and looked in at the others. "How long are they going to be asleep?"

Their host's lips pursed as he thought. "It varies from person to person but it's safe to bet that the other members of the Royal Family will be next. The other man and his son, as well as the woman, will take just a little while longer."

"Why were we asleep in the first place?" Vegeta asked.

"V-chan, you and the others reacted differently to the plane change. I didn't go to sleep but that room of silence was driving me nuts. Michael, here, was the person guiding me." She stopped. "Where are we exactly?"

"You are in a plane that is just a sort of 'rest stop' or 'connecting flight'." He smiled. "You real destination lies just one plane over and back about two-thousand years."

"Back? As in 'back in time'?" Kat looked confused. "Why would we go back in time?"

"I have told you before when you agreed to undertake my quest." He paused, waiting for remembrance to dawn in her eyes. "You have heard the Song of Legacies, you must sing it when they awake."

"Sing it? I barely understood it!"

"You will, given time."

"Time this and time that!" Vegeta crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "What's so good about time? We don't even *have* time! For this or anything."

"If she wills it, you would have all the time in eternity." He stepped away from the door and towards the low wooden table where the tea pot still sat. "As of now, we have to wait. Would you like some tea?"

Half an hour passed as they sat there, Kat and Michael speaking in low tones and Vegeta wondering what was going on exactly. The first stirrings came quietly from the next room, a grunt here a yawn there, until Bra came out through the door.

"That book had something to do with this," She said with firm conviction. Kat nodded.

"Sure did."

"Lord Vegeta, the child is sharper than you are." It wasn't an insult, just the plain truth.

Instead of glaring fiercely at the one who had said such a thing, he nodded. "It's her mother's genes."

Bra took kneeled on a satin pillow at the table and politely declined the offering of the herbal tea. "Are the others going to be okay?"

Michael nodded. "Just fine. I'm surprised that you didn't wake sooner."

"Kaasan and Niichan are awake but a nuclear war couldn't wake Goten-niichan and Goku-ojisan." She smiled when she said this.

"How am I going to do as you request?" Kat asked then, while setting her now empty cup down. "And wouldn't doing so change history?"

Vegeta frowned, his gaze going back and forth between the two. "What the hell are you two talking about?"

"Is it okay to tell him?"

Michael shrugged. "It's your decision."

"I just don't want to say anything potentially dangerous that I can't take back."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO TALKING ABOUT?!"

Kat turned to him, a sparkle in her eye. "Nothing really. You don't need to know."

Bra groaned and shook her head. She knew her father wouldn't attack his friend. Or would he? She looked over at him. Vegeta looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel. Things might get a little bloody if she didn't say anything.

"Papa, just wait until the others come okay?" Her eyes pleaded with Kat's.

Bulma and Trunks made their entrance. Trunks looked a little dazed but his mother was past furious and into deadly. She and Vegeta were a lot alike if you thought about it.

Kat held up her hand to stop any protests. "Wait a little while. At least until Goku and Goten wake up."

Trunks shook his head. "I know Goten and since he's a lot like Goku, that won't be happening for hours. The only way you can wake them now is food or a battle."

Bra nodded in agreement. "I tried to do it before I left the room, but Goku-ojisan just whined something and Goten tried to swat me like a bug."

Vegeta rose and began to stalk towards the room. "That's it, he's getting up if I have to beat him." A slightly sadistic look came into his eyes. "Though that wouldn't be a bad idea."

"Not necessary," Michael said softly. "They are awakening."

"Took them long enough," Vegeta muttered to himself.

Goku and Goten stepped from the room, yawning hugely. Goku rubbed his eyes and blinked at them. "This isn't Chikyuu. Why are we here?" He and his son found there way to the table and took a seat. They both declined the offering of tea and sat there as curious as kittens.

"My advisor over here," Kat motioned to the serene looking Michael, "has made me help him in exchange for some knowledge about my origin."

"What are we supposed to do?" Goku questioned.

"He wants us to go back in time and save the Saiyans."

There was silence for quite some time before Bulma broke it.

" 'Save them'?" She looked confused. "How are we supposed to do that? Stop Frieza from destroying the planet?"

Kat shook her head. "It's deeper than that. We're supposed to stop them from becoming evil. Though if we do, it will probably change history."

Vegeta held up a hand. "So let me get this straight. He," He pointed to Michael, "wants you," he turned the finger to Katrinka, "and us," he waved the entire hand around the table, "to save my people?!"

"I think it's a good idea personally," Goku mused.

"You just want us to turn out like you," Vegeta grumbled.

The other saiyan shrugged. "It might help your life spans. As you told me before, no saiyan lived to be over sixty."

"I didn't say that! I said that if a saiyan ever lived to be over sixty, there is no recorded knowledge of it. Besides, I don't even know how old a saiyan would live to be if they died of old age."

"Exactly."

Vegeta fumed silently but he let him have that one. Goku had a point.

"Can you explain to us sir," Bra said politely, "why we were asleep and Kat-chan wasn't?"

He nodded. "It's simple actually. She is the Time Warrior and therefore able to handle the shifts. The unconsciousness you experienced was merely a safety precaution." He stood. "Actually, we need to be going now."

"Whatever for?" Kat asked. "We're going to prevent something that already happened. Why do we need to rush?"

"Because, my dear, it wasn't supposed to happen that way."

***

He led them all to another Transmission Zone about three or four miles away from his small home. He hummed softly as they walked the path, bringing up everyone's spirits with the strange tune. Bra asked his something, about half-way through, about his job on the plane.

"Michael, what do you do here? Are you just a guide?"

He nodded, without looking back. "There are others like me, spread throughout this world. I handle all of the visitors from your plane. Depending on where you're going and where you've come from, you will have a different guide each time."

She nodded and filed the information away for future use. "Arigatou."

"You're certainly welcome."

By the time the sun was high in the sky, they came upon a building, covered in colorful abstract patterns and strange symbols. Kat nodded to herself, it was just like the one from before. Without being asked, the advisor began to explain the markings.

"Each color of the patterns stand for an element. Red for fire, blue for water, and so on. When you join every element of nature, the balance is complete and you will have no problems crossing planes. The words are for warding away evil presences and making up the fabric of the spell that creates the portal. Do you all understand?"

Not everyone did. Bra, Bulma, and Kat got the most of it, Trunks and Goku understood a little, but Vegeta and Goten were totally out there. But every single person present nodded.

He smiled. "You didn't have to lie but that's alright." He then led them up the stone steps and into the building itself. The only thing that was in the single room were tons and tons of books.

"Wait a minute," Bra began, "are we going to use another one of those strange looking books?"

"Exactly," He raised his hand slowly and one lone book removed itself from a shelf and began to float slowly towards them. "This is the Book of Legends. After you complete this task, you will have a decision to make. You can merge your plane and that one so that the time around only Vegeta-sei overlaps and creates a new history or you can leave it separate and live with the knowledge that you've saved one timeline. Each have their benefits and each have their drawbacks. The choice is entirely yours to make."

He opened the book then, and handed it to Katrinka. "I must step outside unless I want to be taken along for the ride." He smiled. "You must return to this plane in order to return to your home. I'll see you again soon. Farewell." And he vanished as if he were smoke on a wind.

Kat stared at the book. "He told me that I was supposed to sing the 'Song of Legacies' though I have no idea how it goes."

"Isn't that wonderful!" Vegeta said sarcastically. "We have a mission but we can't complete it because you don't know the stupid song!"

She glared at him, but said nothing. "I'm thinking so please shut up!" Slowly, word-by-word, it came back to her. It told of the flora and the fauna, the people and the places, and the bonds that held everything together. The last line, in particular, stuck in everyone's minds.

"And may our peace last for all of eternity."