Free From Time

Chapter One: Scrambled and Lost

"You killed him! Y-You killed them all!" Articho grieves, rage bubbling to the surface.

"Yes, I did. It was fun to watch them run in terror," He says with a twisted smirk, "Especially the little ones. Those are the most fun to watch." He laughs cruelly, knowingly rubbing salt in the raw wound.

"Y-You sadistic wretch!" Articho yells out, "I'm going to make you pay!" Her rage-filled screams echo in the hollow darkness. A large burst of ki encases Articho, her power physically exploding. Suddenly Articho, and what's left of the ground around her, fall into a unanticipated wormhole to somewhere else; another time, another place.

As sudden as she had been taken, Articho had been spat back out abruptly on both a green world and on a poor individual. Luckily for the trio she landed near, and on, having her power awakening then being forced to stop had drained her leaving her weakened.

"Ow..." Comes a voice; a young man, maybe 20.

"Huh? Who is this? And how did they get here?" Says another voice; a young child, maybe 9.

"I don't know, but they either aimed very well or got unlucky," Says the first voice. Articho starts to stir, scaring the two.

"W-What happened?" She asks, weakly sitting up. Taking a better look at the girl the group notice her battered and torn outfit consisting of a mix of bandages, worn down armour and some 

"Y-You, uhh, y-you landed on me," The bald human stutters out. Articho remembers the Earthlings from her time working with them. She starts worriedly looking around, as if she's looking for someone.

"Is there anything wrong?" The younger kid asks her.

"He w-was just here..." Articho looks around, wide-eyed, but then turns to the kid and smiles slightly, "It's n-nothing for you three to worry about."

"So who are you, anyway?" The bald human asks; emboldened by the kid, perhaps?

"I am Articho, Elite Fighting Force. For whatever that means now," She stops smiling, and looks down with a solemn look on her face, "I don't even know how I got here."

"W-Wait..." The bald one says, noticing her black tail, "A-Are you a Saiyan?!"

"Yes, I am," She responds calmly, wrapping her tail around her waist. Their views were conflicted. The last Saiyans they dealt with were hostile to them, whereas Articho seems to be the opposite. It would be rather rude, and hypocritical, of them to attack her, especially considering her wounds. Suddenly, the kid pipes up.

"Shouldn't we be trying to stop them from getting the dragon balls?"

"Oh yeah, right," Says the bald one. Swiftly, they grab something from the woman and fly off.

"Hey! You can't just leave me here!" The woman shouts out. Articho leans back against a rock, and tries to think about what happened.

"It looks like you have something I want. Give me that dragon ball," Says a confident voice. It reminds her of someone, but a name escapes her. She opens her eyes to look at who spoke; a tailless Saiyan, or at least she thinks so. His black hair spikes up from a widows peak on the centre of his forehead.

"Uhh... W-Want to trade for one of yours?" The bald human says, shielding the dragon ball.

"Ooh... no," He steps forward.

"What have I told you about picking on little children?" Comes yet another voice. Articho sits up.

"Oh and here comes Frieza's little lapdog," The first one smirks, looking back. Articho tries her best to think of who it is that Saiyan reminds her of, to no avail. She loses focus, and looks at what the Saiyan is doing.

"W-Wait, Vegeta! W-we could tea-"

"I've heard that story before," 'Vegeta' says, "Now, I think I'll be repaying you." He fires a blast into the larger alien's stomach, killing him. He turns back, and walks towards the bald one holding the ball. Articho looks him in the eye and continues to wonder who he reminds her of. 'Vegeta'. That name; she's heard it before, but where? Suddenly, he flies off with the dragon balls. Articho watches him as he leaves, still wondering. She knows that she's not supposed to be there, on that planet, but that is close to all she knows.