A/N: Here's the first chapter of the sequel to connections! Enjoy!

Fifty years ago Yukari died in an 'accident' caused by xenophobic Humans. Amano followed her to the next life shortly thereafter of a broken heart. Their children - grown by then - grew angry at the people who had done this to their family. One of them took that anger and directed it towards making a positive change. The others followed.

Fourteen years ago the 'accidents' stopped happening to people who weren't - or were not entirely - Human. The forward progress continued. Since the time that Earth and Gaea had merged into one world (which was now called Terra) one-hundred years had past. In that time the Dragon Clan has grown stronger than it has ever been.

International politics were taken care of by Hitomi, while Van took care of in-country affairs for the most part. Because of the way Hitomi did her politics the Dragon Clan's allies grew in strength with them, rather than being dwarfed or overshadowed. This made them a very popular country to be allied with and meant that Hitomi and Van had to pick their allies very carefully. It was a tiring job. As such Nual wasn't overly surprised to find his mother asleep at her desk when he came to tell her that Sakura (Yukari's great granddaughter) had just been accepted into the university she had been hoping for. The young woman had used a false name to make certain that if she got in it would be because of her own merit and not because of her family name. Things would be cleared up with the appropriate people before she started.

To say that Sakura was excited was something of an understatement. Even so, he knew that she would understand if he waited to tell his mother the good news.

Oh well, Nual thought, giving his mother a bemused and sympathetic smile, I guess it will just have to wait.

His youngest sibling - twelve year old Aiden - peeked in around him and asked quietly, "Did mom fall asleep again?"

"Yup, looks that way."

A pureblooded Draconian woman could get pregnant about once every ten to twelve years. Because Hitomi was a mix of River Clan, Dragon Clan and Human her breeding cycle was once every fifteen years when she would have three children over the course of a decade. Nual had a lot of siblings.

"Go let Dad know." Nual instructed.

Aiden went from perfectly still to taking off like an arrow. He was like that all the time. Perfectly still one moment and then nothing but rapid motion the next. Most people found him difficult to deal with because of it.

Nual sat down on the couch to wait for his father.

Hitomi watched from a distance as life on Terra died. In spread like a ripple across water, leaving behind nothing but rock, sand and barren dirt. Even the water turned putrid, the plants and animals dying almost instantly.

She moved closer, unerringly aiming for the empicenter. It took only took the length of a thought to arrive. At the center was a figure and when she approached to get a better look-

Hitomi woke up and looked around. She was in her bedroom. Alone.

Another one... She thought, then decided that she needed to talk to Van.

He was the only one who knew about the dream-visions she had been having for the last month and talking to him helped. He didn't have visions like her, but he did occasionally see the future, so he understood her when she talked about them. Van's own powers had proven to be just as strong as her's, if more subtle and varied. Most of the time. A few decades back another country had tried to drop a bomb on a city that he and Hitomi had been in at the time for diplomatic reasons. He had stopped them mid air, shut them off and put them down in a nearby field. The local government - after determining that they were never going to work again - had then packaged them up and shipped them back to their home country.

Said country then tried to do the same thing again, but from the coast and straight into the Dragon Kingdom. Van, again, stopped them. That time, however, he set the missiles down on the decks of the ships, completely disarmed. They never tried it again. The Japanese government had never been quite so happy as they were then to be on very friendly terms with Van and Hitomi. The general population had no idea that the incident had ever even taken place.

A little later that day Hitomi talked with Van about her latest vision. Both of them were worried.

A/N: So what did you guys think? Do you like it? Sorry for the info dump.