Disclaimer: DBZ belongs to Funimation, while Highlander belongs to Rysher. I make no money from this.

            Karen landed on top of the diner that her Watcher would usually meet her at. It was one of a succession of diners, or parks or any other innocuous place that could be arranged. She happened to like this particular diner, and since she would go only once about every ten years, the family that had owned for the past fifty wouldn’t notice that she was coming and going.

            In fact, she had known that particular family for a long time; they had immigrated to this area about the same time. She had kept a loose tab on them ever since, and when they had opened that particular diner; she had been a patron, at least at the beginning.

            Karen lost herself in memory.

            Her name had been Bran, then. The name meant Raven.

            She had been a wild child, much the way she was now. As a foundling, she had been given to the village wise woman to raise, and had been taught the arts of healing, how to use herbs, and rudimentary magic. She and the old woman had been the people that the others in their community had turned to in their pain, illness, and ease childbirth.

            Until the coming of the new religion, that is. They had burned her teacher, the only mother she had ever had, and then they had married her a brutal man. He had beaten her everyday when it became apparent that she couldn’t conceive. There was no love there. When he was done with her, and his eyes had gone elsewhere, he had her tried as a witch.

            Somehow, she would never understand how, she had survived, with her right half scarred for her eternal life.

            In the end, her first death had come from exposure, when she had run away.

            Karen shook the memory off. It was time to see how someone else was doing, and she could go back to the forest for another ten years.

            It was no problem for her to hop down off of the roof, and then, making sure that her sword was loose under her coat, she walked inside.

            Bura sighed with relief when the unchanging face of Karen entered the building.

            “What kept you?” she asked worriedly, when the tall woman sat down in front of her.

            “I got a little lost.”

            “Lost? You?” Bura said incredulously.

            “I get disoriented. You would too, if you had been walking in circles, at least, I think they were circles. I might have tried squares at some point.”

            Bura looked lost at the comment. Karen, seeing her Watcher confused, quickly changed the subject. Oddly, she felt affection for this kind, if ditzy woman.

            Gohan had been keeping an eye on Karen, wondering why she had stopped suddenly on the rooftop. From the look on her face, she had been thinking hard. She had then shaken it off, and gone inside.

            The Great Saiyanman had long ago worked out some disguises to go along with his costume that would activate with the click of his watch. Now, he stood in a business suit and glasses, unobtrusively watching the door of the diner. Glancing inside casually, he did a hard double take when he saw whom she was sitting with.

            Okay, he thought, this is bizarre, even for me.

            Taking a newspaper with him, he strolled inside, and took up a position were his back would be to them, but his Saiya-jin hearing would be enough to eavesdrop. He ordered some coffee, and then frantically tried to remember if he had brought his wallet. He sighed with relief when he found it.

            Gohan didn’t know if Karen had learned the technique of hiding your power level, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. Not with all the weird things that had been happening lately.

            He had taken up a position by a window, looking out it. Listening intently, he tried to make sense of what he was hearing. Immortals? Swords?

            Gohan’s interest more than piqued when he heard them mention how many heads she had taken in the past ten years. He was a little disappointed when he found out that she has only taken one, and that it had been about eight years before. She was definitely ruled out at the mad headhunter.

            His coffee arrived. Taking a sip, he almost spit it out before he put sugar and cream into it. He continued to listen hard as he doctored his coffee, took another sip, and this time actually did spit out his coffee.

            Vegeta was outside, smirking the same way that he had when he had first arrived on earth, looking for immortality. Considering the strange stuff that he had been listening to, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what he was going to do. Vegeta had somehow found out about all this immortal weirdness, and was trying to find out how he could do it himself. This day was getting worse.

            Inside the diner, the two women laughed and joked like two old friends. In a way it was true, they both liked each other, even if they had only met twice before.

            Karen had been thinking so hard that she hadn’t noticed when Gohan had come into to the diner, but she definitely noticed the immortal buzz. Her eyes opened wide, then narrowed as she tried to identify where it was coming from. Bura for the most part figured out what was going on, and offered to take the tab. Both women got up. Bura hated this part of her job.

            Gohan had watched this, and thought that there was chance that they were going after Vegeta. They wouldn’t have a prayer.

            Karen looked up. Since being able to fly herself, she had started to look up more for attackers, and saw her would-be challenger on a rooftop. He was looking at her with a sneer.

            “Oh Kami-sama,” Karen muttered. “Bura, get out of here, this guy is spoiling for a fight. Of all the stupid times…’

            “Do you think you can take this guy?” Bura asked in a worried voice.

            Karen rolled her eyes. Using her new ability to sense ki, she felt this guys potential, and was unimpressed.

            It was then that she noticed an absolutely huge ki. In fact, she felt two of them. Her eyes darted around, forgetting the person after her, as she tried to pinpoint those fighters. She had no idea who they were, and they could be a bigger threat than anything else. The old soldier in her came out, making her taut and wary, her entire posture going from the eased relaxation of confidence to that of the stalking, crouching wolf in a matter of moments. Bura noticed.

            “What is going on?”

            Karen didn’t answer, just flew off.

            Bura fainted.

Flashback-

            Bran could feel her horse heave underneath her as she took out another soldier who was unlucky enough to get within range of her lance.

            She didn’t see the enemy knight behind her, and with him a dozen pike men. As she was knocked from her horse, her leg is caught in the stirrup, and twists, breaking.

            Bran snarled, and the young man, so full of idealism and hope, glares back. He saw the monster that had destroyed his world, his home, and his family, and with a thrust through the chest, ended the existence of the Beast…

            Karen shuddered as the memory.

            Her bitterness had caused her to become a tyrant for a while. She smiled humorlessly at the thought. If there was one problem with eternal life, it was that you lost all hope. She had gotten mad at life, and was lashing out anything in her way.

            This had been when she was only a few hundred years old; a kid, really.

            She had eventually found her way back to the light. It had taken her a while, and the blood of so many was on her hands. Life had come to mean a lot to her, not her own, but that of mortals. Their lives were so short.

            Karen wondered if life would ever make sense to her. She also wondered if she was getting to be senile in her old age, as she kept going off into her old little world.

            Her eyes scanned the area, as she tried to find the huge power that had scared her so much.

            Vegeta cursed when he noticed the woman leap into the air. He hadn’t known she could do that. He wondered what had caused her to do that in such a crowded area. There was no reason for it, and she was making quite a scene.

            It was then that he felt it. A huge power was nearby. Looking around, he tried to find out what was going on, but no such luck.

            “Vegeta! What are you doing out here?” he heard a gratingly familiar voice say.

            Turning, he saw his mother in law. He wished the she hadn’t spotted him.

            Why me? Why can’t a person persue immortality in peace?

            Of course, the way that this strange power level had suddenly appeared made him wonder about his sanity anyway.

            Running into an alley, he decided to follow it.

To be continued….

• Email author
• Back to the Yin and Yang index page