June 19th, AA 001

The New Age Empire
Book Three: A Journey Through Time

New Character Bio (Remember her?):

Katrinka
Age: Unknown
Height: 5'9 (175.26 cm)
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Blue

Description: One year younger than Vegeta, this woman was his best-friend from childhood. She took Vegeta, Bulma, Goku, Trunks, Goten, and Bra on a trip into Vegeta-sei's past. There they stopped the saiya-jin from becoming evil and barbaric and she learned that she was a demi-god and the Creator.


~Chapter 1: The Thief of Time~

Katrinka was lost though she didn't want to admit it to herself. She was the Time Warrior, a master! How the heck could she be lost? But she was and it was all because of her Time Key.

The device had been invented for the sole purpose of making her job easier. Well, it *would* make her job easier if she knew how to use the darn thing. She hadn't been a Time Warrior for long when she was notified about the Thief and went on a mission to stop it.

"I'm going to try again," she said as she took a few deep breaths, "and this time I'm *not* going to fail." Once again bending time, she opened yet another portal and stepped through. The light of it blinded her for a moment and she emerged high above a city. She looked around at it for a moment before breaking out into a huge grin.

"Satan City! I'm finally here!" Locating the Capsule Corporation in the distance, she flew off in its direction with her tail waving behind her.

***

"GOHAN! COME HERE QUICK!" Bulma shouted with excitment as her project partner hurried into lab.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "Did something go wrong?"

She shook her head while motioning to the computer monitor. "Everything's right! Very, *very* right!" Gohan looked at the information on the screen and broke out into a smile to match Bulma's.

"We've finally done it!" he cheered while hugging Bulma. "We're going to get Nobel prizes for this one!"

"Now wait a second, Gohan," she said. "We haven't tested this on anyone yet so we don't know the side-effects. Helll, we don't even know that it works!"

"But we've tested and tested on plants, living things, and nothing ever happened to them."

"They're plants, Gohan. Not human beings." She twisted a ring on her finger in worry. "I'm going to ask Vegeta to be the first to take it. He's saiya-jin so if something should go wrong he might be able to fight it off. He wants immortality anyway."

"What are we going to call them? I would suggest "Pills of Immortality" but that really sounds stupid."

She smiled. "We'll come up with something."

No one knew what they had been doing with the water Goten and Vegeta had brought back from the springs of Agalar but, then again, no one ever asked. There first project had been on the water from the Spring of Longevity and, after many long months, it was successful. At least, both Bulma and Gohan *believed* that it was. They had strived to create a pill of immortality that, after one dose, could safeguard a person from natural death. It wouldn't stop death by physical violence but it did increase the standard of living. The two scientists had studied extensively the properties of the magical water, calling Kallen when they needed help. She warned them about the possible negative effects that could occur when science and magic met but so far they had encountered nothing. Then Bulma put the finishing touches on the project and gave them a reason to celebrate.

"Vegeta-san's a full-blooded saiya-jin, Bulma-san," Gohan said with a frown. "It might not work on him. We *did* create this for ningen after all." Walking over to the small refrigerated unit they kept the final project in, he put on gloves and undid the latch that held the door closed. "I will test it out."

"Gohan no!" She stopped his hand. "Let me do it."

"You have children, Bulma-san."

"So do you!" They stared at each other for a moment before staring at the pill. "Do we trust our skills?" she asked him.

Goha nodded. "I trust both of our skills."

"Then we have nothing to be afraid of." Gohan didn't hesitate. He placed the pill in his mouth and swallowed it dry. "I hope."

Nothing bad was happening that they could see but it could all be internal anyway. Then Gohan flinched and that made Bulma study his face.

"Are you trying to hide the pain?" she asked with worry. "Don't act so tough, Gohan. Tell me where it hurts."

He shook his head and took a deep breath. "I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

"No you are not!" She pushed him toward the examination table in the back of the room. "I'm checking you out right now."

Gohan gave in. "It's my stomach but it just feels like gas pain."

"I'm going to examine you anyway, Gohan. Maybe the pill just screws with your digestive system a bit. It'll be great if the only side-effect was severe gas." She motioned for him to remove his lab coat and shirt while she gathered some things. "Tell me exactly where it hurts." She poked and prodded his abdomen and noticed his body shaking. "Am I making it worse?"

"Iie..." he gasped out. "You're tickling me!"

She rolled her eyes at him. "I'm taking an X-Ray so we can see for sure." Two X-Rays and twenty minutes later they, indeed, discovered that it was only gas. She made him go lie down for a while and he promised to return later for a full examination to see if his body was altered because of the pill. If things went well there could be a full-scale production by the end of the month.

***

Trunks was struggling with three boxes of files and his briefcase as he left the Capsule Corporation that afternoon. Early summer was always the time people wanted to invest in Capsule stock though he had no idea why. Now Trunks, as the President of Capsule Corp., had a lot of paperwork to do.

He hated paperwork.

"Why can't kaasan do this stuff? She's better at it than I am!" He reached into his pocket for his capsule car. It was hard to fly home with paper: the wind tended to blow them everywhere. He pressed the button at the top and, with a small explosion of smoke, his red sportscar appeared. And so did someone else.

"Trunks!" Katrinka shouted as she ran to him. He blinked in confusion and eyed her warily.

"Who are you and what do you want? Is it an autograph or something?"

"You don't remember me?" she asked. "Why don't you remember me? It's Kat-chan! Vegeta's best-friend!"

Trunks was shocked. "Papa has a friend?"

Laughing she said, "That was your exact reaction before."

"Before? Before what?" He unlocked his trunk and stuffed everything inside. "Now listen, lady. I have no idea who the heck you are. I don't even believe what you say about being Papa's friend." He got into his car and started the engine. "But you might as well get in and come along. We'll clear all of this up."

Now it was her turn to be confused. "Come along? Come along where?"

"To the palace of course!" He glanced at her. "You act as if you don't know that papa is king."

"King? As in king of *Chikyuu*?!"

"Hai, lady. Where have you been the past seven months?" He pulled away from the curb and zoomed down the street, doding traffic like a pro. "Where are you from? I've never seen you around before."

"I was born on Vegeta-sei," she told him, beginning to realize that he truly didn't know her. "Just lately I found out that I'm half saiya-jin."

"Like me?"

"Yeah, like you... in a way. But my other half isn't human. It's god."

That made Trunks slam on the breaks and stare at her in amazement "You're *WHAT*?" he asked, expecting her to say that she was just kidding.

"I'm half god," she repeated. "You really need to get your hearing checked out."

Cars began to honk behind them and Trunks began to move again. "I've got to speak to papa about this one. He usually senses the godly things. He, Goku-san, and Piccolo-san."

The palace rose into the view behind shining black wrought iron gates. Katrinka's eyes widened as she saw the beauty of it and, for once, was left speechless. Trunks opened the gates with a remote control and drove his car up to the house.

"Can you help me carry this stuff inside? I don't want to accidentally drop something and get it mixed up."

Kat shook the awe from herself and nodded. "Sure."

There was a small crowd of people at the stairs when he entered the main hall. Trunks set his stuff in a nearby chair a walked over to join them. Katrinka did the same.

"Are you absolutely, positively sure that tousan is going to be okay?" Pan asked Bulma.

"At this point I would have to say, hai. He only had gas! You people act as if he were dying."

Goten spoke up. "We're just worried seeing as they're still out there." "They" were the Kamoku-jin.

"What's going on? What happened to Gohan?" Trunks asked them. "I'm guessing that it was something lab-related."

"We invented immortality in the form of a pill but didn't know how to test it. After a small argument, Gohan took it himself. The only side-effect, so far, is indigestion. I'm going to check him out later to see if it worked." It was then that she noticed Katrinka. "Oh hello. Who are you?"

"I'm confused," the woman said in frustration. "I studied, I tried, and still I'm not where I should be!"

Bulma smiled. "Well hi Confused. Welcome to the Royal Palace."

"Kaasan, this is..." He turned to her. "I can't call you Kat-chan since I don't know you that well."

"Katrinka," she bowed. "Time Warrior at your service. I came here following the Thief but I seem to be in a different dimension than I thought."

Trunks held up his hand to stop the questions from coming. "This calls for a family meeting, don't you think?"

"I'll go get Bra and Jackie-chan. They should be somewhere with Magori." Pan ran up the stairs and down the hall. Bulma volunteered to get the rest of the parents and Goten went after Mia and V.J.

"I hope this isn't *that* different from what you were looking for," Trunks said as they carried his work up to his room. "But I have a feeling that it is."

"Definitely," she said. "You're the same exact age as the one I knew but seeing as I've never met Gohan or his daughter before..." She shook her head. "I'm just going to kill the Thief and be on my way. I have a husband to get back to."

In the family room the kids were already there. Pan was explaining about her tousan and the meeting when she looked up and smiled.

"I'm Pan," she said. "This is Bra, Jakina, and Magori."

"I've met Bra before and Goku mentioned you, Pan. But I've never even heard of Jakina or Magori before."

"Jackie-chan's my little sis," Trunks said. "Magori's been adopted by Mia." "Who?"

"Goten's little sis."

"Oh...." Katrinka was trying to process all of the new information that she had been given. "See where I come from V-chan only has two kids. So does Goku."

Soon everyone was assembled in the family room. Katrinka was staring at Vegeta, trying to will him to recognize her but of course he didn't. She sighed and decided to just finish her task and get back to the dimension where people knew her.

"I came here following the Time Thief," she began. "Not a very good adventure, believe me. Anyway, it's a being that steals bits and pieces of time and either alters them or destroys them completely. Think of it as a virus. The Thief has no other purpose other than to ruin lives."

"Why did it come here?" Bra asked. "Do we attract all of the evil things or something?" Kat shook her head. "If that was true it probably wouldn't have shown up here. There are many other parallel dimensions with Z-Senshi in them. This sure isn't the only one."

"I don't need to know the reason why it came here," Vegeta said. "I only need to know how to kill it."

"See, that's the problem. No one knows how to kill it. I'm descended from the gods, remember? They're just as clueless in Heaven."

Vegeta snorted. "All things can be killed. I only need an idea. What does the Thief look like?"

Again, she blushed. "We don't know that either and it's not because we're incompetent!"

"Why is it then?"

"It's invisible. No one has ever seen him but we've seen what it can do." She stood up focused her energy on a spot on the wall and used it like a projection screen. "You see this here?" she asked as she brought up a image of the symbolic River of Time. "This is the great River in which everyone's lives flow. I'm talking *every* single possible dimension here and there are infinite possibilities. Think of every water molecule as someone's life. But these rocks in here," she focused on some, "prevent the flow of water in that one area. It displaces the water. That's what the Thief throws in the river once it's stolen the time. The River flows right on around the rocks and tries to keep going. Get too many rocks in there and they act as a dam and halt time completely. We're trying to avoid that."

"When the River stops flowing," Magori asked with more than a little fear, "will we stop too?"

"The worst possible scenario is the stopping of Time. If it, in fact, does stop it will be the end of the universe for the mortals. All godly beings continue on because their fates are not governed by the River."

"We have to do something then," he said. "I don't want to stop!"

Mia put her arm around him. "No one does, Magori-chan. But how are we supposed to fight an enemy that we can't see?"

"That's where I come in," Katrinka said as she dispelled her image. " I can sense the Thief, you see? I'm the only one who can kill it."

"Why is that so?" Gohan asked. "Sensing is sensing."

"The Thief has a unique energy only someone with god blood in them can sense but I still can't do it alone. The Thief commands armies none of which mortals have ever seen the likes before. Once I find it my concentration will be completely focused on it and it alone. That's where you guys come in."

"We're your guardians then." V.J. spoke. "Fine with me. There was nothing good going on around here anyway."

Kat stared at him. "Either you don't understand the seriousness of this or you don't care."

"That's my younger brother," Trunks told her.

"Aah, you're Vegeta's son. That explains everything then."

"What the hell is *that* supposed to mean?" Vegeta Senior asked. "Listen, onna, I have *no* idea who you are. As a matter of fact, I don't believe anything about you being my best-friend-"

"Strawberry ice cream," Kat said with a smile.

"Huh?"

"Your favorite food when you were six was strawberry ice cream. I remember because we used to raid the kitchen late at night after your father was asleep. He wouldn't let you have it because he said that it made you hyper."

Vegeta blinked. "How did you know that?"

"I told you. One of the Vegetas is my best-friend. Apparently I only exist in that universe alone."

"I believe you," Jakina spoke up. "No one would have known that about papa unless they knew him."

Kat grinned. "See? I told you guys that I was his best-friend!" Taking her Time Key from her pocket, she aimed it at the wall. "I'll return tomorrow so be ready. Right now I'm going to learn how to control this thing. Don't know where we could end up if I don't."

"Bye Kat-chan!" Jakina waved. "See you tomorrow!"

"You're a cute little girl, you know that?" Kat's grin grew even wider. "Don't know how you could ever be related to Vegeta." Her laughter grew faint as she stepped through her glowing portal and closed it behind her.

"That onna annoys me," Vegeta muttered as he left the room.

Bulma sighed. "What are we going to do? Do we believe her and stop the Thief or do we take our chances?"

"We stop him!" Magori exclaimed. "We can't lose this one. I don't want to stop."

Goku nodded. "You heard him. We stop the Thief. I don't see any alternative. But not everyone can go on this mission. I'm going, Vegeta's going, Trunks, Goten, and V.J. are going." He shook his head at the kids, including Mia. "You guys *aren't* going."

"Tousan!" Mia protested. "You're being overprotective. I thought that was kaasan's job."

"Fine then. If you want to go you have to prove to me that you'll be needed.

"I look innocent so people won't think I can fight," Jakina spoke up. "That's all I can think of."

Mia knew what she could contribute. "I can go super saiya-jin!" She begging her father with her eyes. "*Please* tell me that's enough."

"It can be," he said as she cheered. "The rest of you will have to stay here."

"I've decided to go too," Gohan told them. "It's time I helped to protect everyone. I'm getting weaker just by staying in the lab all of the time. I contribute my super saiya-jin ability and my mystic saiya-jin one to the cause."

"Gohan!" Videl's hands flew to her mouth. "Tell me that you aren't going."

"I have to, Videl. If the Thief succeeds then we will all no longer exist."

"You aren't coming, Gohan." Goku said. "You're needed here. If all of the fighters come then there will be no one left here to protect everyone." He stopped Bra and Pan's protests. "Hai, I know you two can fight but what if you aren't enough? You don't have nearly as much experience as Gohan does."

Gohan sighed. "Experience hard won."

Placing a hand on his shoulder, Goku said, "I would undo what has happened to you over the years if I could. You know that."

"I know, Tousan. But you can't and I had to do it." Everyone fell silent for a long moment until Pan broke it.

"You heard what she said! You guys gotta be ready tomorrow!" She turned to her father. "Tousan, can I fly to Karin's place for some senzu beans? I'll come straight back I promise."

He nodded and after a kiss on the forehead she and Bra were gone.

"Promise me that you're going to come back, Mia," Magori demanded. She kneeled down to his level and shook her head.

"I can't lie to you. All I can promise you is that you'll always be well taken care of. If I do die I can be wished back."

Tears began to flow down his cheeks and he threw himself at Mia with a wail. "Don't go!"

"Magori-chan..." She just held him, unable to think of something to say. She looked to her parents for help but they both shook their heads. She decided to let him cry.

"Is half a day enough time?" Bulma worried. "This is something you've never had to fight before."

"We will be ready," Goku said as he and ChiChi departed. "We have to
be."