~~~~~
Ark cast her vivid blue eyes to the darkening sky.

"Odd." she murmured, sliding back the glass door that separated her penthouse's living room from it's extensive balcony. "Koibito," she called back into the living room over her shoulder. "Is there supposed to be an eclipse today?"

"How the Hell should I know, woman?!" came the responding shout from the general direction of the kitchen, where one could clearly make out the sounds of a Saiya-jinn rummaging through a half-empty fridge.

Annoying, considering Ark had filled it only that morning.

"It's YOUR damned planet," the voice continued, muffled around food, "You've been on it longer than I have!"

Ark sighed and rolled her eyes heavenward once more, then glanced down at her wristwatch. "It's only three." she told no one in particular. "Why is it so dark out? No where near dusk..."

She mused for a few moments then leapt up to balance on the edge of her railing, eyes still on the rapidly blackening sky.

"I'll be right back!" she shouted into the kitchen, and received only a grunt in reply.

Shrugging, she flared her ki - that familiar electric jolt of power and pride shivering over her skin and heart because she was the only female on the planet with this ability - and leapt up into the sky.

She intended to get up high enough to gaze over the horizon and try to decipher WHY a perfectly lovely afternoon sky would suddenly bleed into black. Deciding that she was up high enough, she hovered in place, preternaturally sharp vision sweeping the panorama of Tokyo.

She saw nothing out of the ordinary. No fires to create a thick, light blocking cloud of smoke, no accidents to vent smog, not even a tell-tale glow or scream from the nearby branch of the Capsule Corps.

Nothing.

Nothing, that is, until she turned her eyes to the sky.

What she saw filled her long-dead heart with terror.

What she had mistaken for a cloud of lazy blackish smoke was, in fact, a thick oozing substance that seemed to have anchored itself in the very air. It seemed to have torn through the very fabric of reality itself. And it seemed to be oozing towards her.

It only took Ark a few seconds to power up enough to speed towards the distant roof tops and out of the thing's reach.

Those few seconds, however, were a few seconds that the thing did not grant her, and before Ark could complete powering up, it reached out with swiftness that belied it's cold-molasses appearance, and enveloped her in cold inky darkness.

Ark screamed, every nerve-ending sizzling, her body feeling as if it were trying to flip inside out. Her eyes fluttered, and flushed and involuntary red, fangs sliding down, her throat raw from a sustained high-pitch cry that never pierced to cold silence of the blackness.

After endless and immortal seconds of soul-searing and heart bursting suffering, she slipped out of the darkness and back down to her balcony, plummeting to the concrete and tiles, cracking them on impact.

The darkness had released her, because she was now the embodiment of darkness herself.

She stood slowly, plodding listlessly and seemingly without purpose into the living room. The noise from the kitchen attracted her, and she turned in that direction, an evil smile spreading across her now sallow face.

Her eyes were no longer a sparkling crimson, but a bottomless black, as Kuro-Ark sasheyed into the kitchen to confront the man still rummaging in the fridge. Had she been herself, she'd have noticed how cute he was with his rump up in the air as he bent over to check the fruit-bin, a sausage half-sticking out of his mouth.

"Ah, you're back." he mumbled around a bite of the meat, eyes on his ‘snack'. He registered in his peripheral vision her nod, bot not her changed appearance, nor the whispish black – stuff – that rose from her yellowed skin.

She reached out slowly and tucked her feelingless fingers under his chin, turning his face. She bent slowly to press her lips to his.

He swallowed his mouthful of food, and was only happy enough to return the kiss back.

Only then did he realize that his mouth was an absolute riot of pain...

Thus, The Black claimed yet another reality, making it all the more important that Chibi Trunks receive the 8th DragonBall, and somehow, someway, summon forth Gai.

Confused? Maybe you should read "Dominion: Reprise" first, then come back. Here, I'll even give you the addy:

.com/dominion

Enjoy!