He pounded on the door.

Tears flowed freely as his father's screams echoed through the grasslands. Even trapped in the space pod, Gohan could hear the agonized cries with increasing clarity. His small hands began to shake, and he felt his anger grow. His daddy had always been there for him. His mommy and daddy had always protected him! Gohan didn't care about the obvious power differential. His daddy needed him.

"You're such a disappointment, little brother," Raditz admonished. Raising his finger in the air, he prepared a fatal energy blast. Goku cried out in pain as the heel of Raditz's boot dug further into his chest. Raditz merely toyed with the Earth-raised Saiyan, wasting time until he had gathered enough energy to destroy his brother once and for all. Hearing Goku's screams become dry and haggard, the warrior decided the game wasn't fun anymore- not when Goku couldn't fight back.

"It's time to die!" Raditz yelled. A brief look of surprise interrupted his cruel laugh as a high power reading flashed across his scouter. Before he could react, a small explosion erupted from behind him.

Startled at the unexpected commotion, Raditz's long nest of hair whipped around. Attention similarly captured, Piccolo and Goku turned to see the child flying through the air. Large chunks of molten metal and circuitry flew around the boy with the monkey tail, the space pod damaged beyond repair. Landing on his feet, Gohan twitched with rage. His brown tail puffed out behind him, giving the mild-mannered 4-year-old an almost feral look.

"I don't believe it," Raditz said in shock. His entire body went rigid at the sight of the enraged child. The way the toddler's soft, plump body seemed to pulse with power unnerved him… something about the boy disturbed the older man. As Gohan stared his uncle down, Raditz stumbled backwards, removing his foot from Goku's chest in the process.

Several of his ribs broken, Goku struggled to move. The devastating pain of his collapsed lungs had lessened, but the thought didn't concern him. He knew he had to move before something happened to his son.

Piccolo shuddered as a few of the Demon King's memories filtered into his consciousness. Looking at the half-Saiyan boy in utter disbelief, the Namekian knew he had seen that exact expression before.

His chest rising and falling in shallow breaths, Goku tried to keep the pain out of his voice. "Gohan," he said weakly. "Daddy wants you to run. Run as far as you can, Gohan."

"His power level," Raditz breathed, brow furrowing in awe. "It's still going up!"

An orange aura trickled around Gohan, bathing him in a warm, glowing light. Between clenched teeth, he shrieked, "Stay away from my daddy!"

His power still somehow rising, Gohan sprang forward and dove straight into Raditz.

A loud crack reverberated through Gohan's ears, and for a brief moment, he wondered if he had broken his head. Before his young mind could further wander, the grasslands and everyone surrounding him disappeared in a flash of painful white light.

The face of a humanoid fish solidified before his eyes. Though the bulbous lips didn't appear to move, Gohan knew the gravelly speaking voice belonged to the being.

"The one who seeks the power- Frieza- will never have it," the creature rumbled.

Raditz shouted as his armour cracked, the initial crevice splitting outward from the centre of his breastplate.

"But I have given it to you as a gift, Bardock," the strange voice told Gohan. "So that you could see."

Pain shot through Goku as he forced himself to sit up, the overwhelming concern for his son overriding his mortal wounds.

Gohan quivered at the sight of the fish man, who stood swathed in ethereal white light, slivers of blue flame dancing along the edge of his form. "See what?" He asked, in a voice that didn't belong to him. He sounded… older.

"See the horror of your end," the creature roared. "Just like we had to!"

Frozen in fear, Gohan couldn't move. Yet the words flew from his lips before he could stop himself: "Shut up!"

He blinked once, then twice. With a sore bottom, the little boy realized he was sitting on the ground. Dazed, he looked up only to meet his father's incredulous gaze.

"Daddy?" he asked, unsure of what had just happened to him.

"Gohan?" Goku sputtered. Though still fairly new to fatherhood, he was astounded that his son had survived such a blow to the head, let alone the boy's breathtaking surge of strength. But who had his toddler been talking to, and where had he picked up that kind of language, anyway?

"Daddy-"

"You dare strike me?" Raditz seethed, shuddering with each inhale. Back on his feet, he attempted to regain his composure and hide the true extent of his injuries. "You- a disgusting, half-breed child!"

"Stay back!" Goku warned, his anger flaring through him once more. "Don't come any closer!"

Blood dripping from his mouth, Raditz dismissed his brother's empty threat as he neared his nephew. The characters on his scouter whirled as the device worked to recalculate the boy's strength.

"Gohan, go!" Goku urged. "You have to get outta here. Now!"

Turning, Gohan saw the towering figure of his uncle standing before him. Losing all of his courage, a fresh stream of tears spilt down Gohan's cheeks. The gravity of the situation finally dawning on him, Gohan shook with fear in his large, dark eyes.

"Boy! What happened to your power?" Raditz demanded.

His mind flashing back to what the strange fish man had said, Gohan sniffed, "Power?"

"Whatever," his uncle spat, any semblance of patience now gone. "Your life ends here."

"Daddy," Gohan whimpered, frozen in place. "Daddy!"

"Leave him alone!" Goku yelled, struggling to lift an arm in defence of his son.

With a powerful backhand, Raditz sent his nephew spiralling through the air. Gohan's exclamation of pain ended abruptly as he hit the ground.

He sat up, scanning the exotic landscape before him.

"What- where am I?" Gohan gasped, realizing he couldn't be on the same planet anymore. The skies were green, and the grass was blue- the total opposite of Earth! In the distance, he could see several figures squaring off in defiance, one standing apart from the rest.

The lone individual captured Gohan's attention first. The creature's long, white tail whipped through the air in obvious displeasure. Dark spots of colour sat across the thing's chest, shoulders, and head. Smaller patches of the same colour adorned its forearms and knees. Gohan reasoned it must be some sort of lizard.

The lizard man pointed toward the opposing group, and Gohan's dark eyes followed the rippling beam of energy as it shot forth from the creature's finger. Shouts rang out from the small group. A large green man pushed a comrade out of the way, and the red energy impaled him instead. The deafening silence filled Gohan's ears as the green man slowly fell to the ground, and after a few moments, he stopped moving altogether.

Gohan knew, in theory, what death was. His mother had briefly explained it to him when one of the butterflies he had been playing with suddenly collapsed. She had made it sound peaceful and instant. But from the panicked cries of one of the fallen man's friends, Gohan only wanted to cry.

He felt his bladder loosen slightly in fear, and a wetness ran down his inner thighs. "Did I just watch someone die?" He wondered, a tremor racking his small frame.

"Son?"

Upon hearing his surname, Gohan's head jerked sharply to the right.

"Daddy? What are you-" the boy trailed off as he noticed a half-healed scar on the man's face. And that voice- it sounded familiar, but this man wasn't his dad. The new man seemed to realize his error as well.

Gohan quickly looked back, only to see that the stand-off had disappeared. He scanned the horizon, but didn't even see a body. Had he imagined it all?

He turned once more to the person he mistook for his father.

"You're not-" the older man stuttered, his proud posture crumbling in visible disappointment. "You're not Kakarot."

Cocking his head to the side, the little boy looked confused. "Kakarot," Gohan muttered, the foreign word roll slowly off his tongue. "That's what the mean man called my daddy."

Eyes wide, the man had clearly heard this statement. "What?" he demanded. He took a step back, wary of the newcomer. "No... that's impossible."

The little boy hesitated, but something told him he could trust this man. His father's dark eyes stared back at him through a stranger's face, and Gohan felt a sense of calmness wash over him. He put one foot in front of the other. Soon enough, he found himself staring up at the scarred man, merely a foot away.

The man's large, tanned hand gently settled on the top of his head. Starved for attention, the boy closed his eyes.

"Son?"

Gohan's eyes shot open.

Piccolo stood towering over him. "Playing dead, just like your father, eh?" he snarled.

Spitting water from his mouth, Gohan found himself in a small lake. The mean, green man looked down at him, and Gohan began to paddle away in terror. Overwhelmed with panic, he immediately forgot about his strange dream. What had happened while he was unconscious?

"Daddy, daddy, help!" He wailed. "Another scary man is here! Help!"

With a scowl, Piccolo plucked the child from the water and flung him onto the grass. After debriefing the frightened child on his father's death and the impending Saiyan invasion, the monster grinned.

"They'll be here soon, and we need all the help we can get," he said, the sunlight reflecting off his sharp fangs. "So I'm going to teach you to fight."

The boy trembled.