About Time

by April CK

Part 1

767 A.D.

Smoke blotted out the stars and smeared across the horizon. Against the darkness of the night sky the rising plumes of clouds resembled nothing so much as a can of spilt gray paint that was, in defiance of physics, dripping upward through numerous small streams. Far beneath the haze, close to the ground, a dull orange trail of energy hung in the air. It was a broken trail that tapered off in places before starting up again with the orange molecules sometimes flashing gold or white before fading out completely.

Directly under the narrow wave of fading light, the ground held a broken trail of its own. Marked in red.

Gohan had taken a beating. He was still alive though - which was considerably more than could be said for anyone else that had been in the area. Already Gohans mind was blocking out the more traumatic scenes that he had witnessed earlier today.

Among the few things that the ten year old could remember clearly about the bloody massacre was the unnatural way that the sky had kept changing color, as if a nice harmless fireworks display was taking place. Except that everyone had been running away from the show and there had been a pair of nearly identical smirking figures hovering above the hysterical crowds.

There was a significant gap in his memory right then. But after the gap, Gohan remembered flying away from the place. He remembered feeling lost in more than the directional sense. What he didn't remember was the noise. The entire memory replayed in silence and slow-motion, becoming distorted and vague as if it had only been a dream. A dream...

Sleep. Gohan hovered, yawning. He tried to snap out of the fog that was clouding his mind - unaware that the fog was the direct result of his nervous system shutting down to prevent him from feeling any real pain. Some tiny part of Gohans mind was conscious of the fact that he was bleeding to death and urged him to keep flying in search of help. Gohan ignored that part. He was too weary to continue. His body was one giant ache and he didn't fully understand why since in the darkness he couldn't see his own injuries. And he was beyond feeling them.

Taking a break just seemed sensible. Yawning again, Gohan decided that he would rest for a little while and sort everything out later. He thought that maybe getting some rest would help clear his mind. Then he'd at least be able to figure out where he was and where he should be going.

The ground wasn't comfortable. Yet as soon as Gohan had curled up there, he dozed off. His last firm thought before his brain surrendered to the overwhelming urge to sleep was that he knew where he couldn't go. He couldn't go home.

"GOHAN!" ChiChi nearly choked her son as she engulfed him in a fierce hug, tears of relief running down her face. "I was so worried!"

While ChiChi continued her somewhat garbled motherly rant with comments like "Are you okay?" and "Don't you EVER do that again!", Gohan realized that this wasn't a dream. He was fully awake. Half laying across the front step of his own house.

How the heck?

Instinctively Gohan knew that he'd fallen asleep somewhere else. Even if he hadn't been able to see where he'd been at the time, it couldn't have been his own house. Could it? Suddenly Gohan wasn't entirely sure that he would have recognized his home. Which disturbed him almost as much as the realization that his judgement had probably been impaired by the sheer amount of pain that he'd been in.

A quick self-inspection showed that his clothes were still torn and that he was still covered in splotches of blood which his mother was hastily wiping away with a tissue while lecturing him about being more careful. But the blood that covered him now was old and had dried out, he wasn't bleeding anymore. He wasn't even scratched or bruised or tired. Gohan blinked. Senzu. It had to be. So someone found me and...

In the space of a few seconds, every emotion known to man rushed through Gohans system with such speed and intensity that it left him feeling dizzy. Nevertheless he abruptly scrambled to his feet, eyes widening as the implications struck. Someone had found him! Someone that knew about senzu beans. Someone that must have been able to track his ki. Someone that knew where he lived and that had left him on the doorstep of his house.

The faintest of smiles managed to work its way into the features of the boy who had, not so long ago, felt that he would never be able to smile again. Someone else is alive! Gohan turned to his mother and gripped her shoulders. "Who left me here?"

Gohan wasn't sure which warriors name he was hoping to hear the most but he would have traded a decent portion of his life to hear a group of names.

ChiChi shook her head sadly and Gohans heart sank into his toes. "I wish I knew." ChiChi sighed the weary sigh of someone who hadn't slept well for the past several years. "They didn't leave a note or anything - they just left you here. And I didn't even realize you were here until I had to get some fresh air..."

That's right. She'd been hiding in the basement, as per Gohans own suggestion. The basement was both reinforced and concealed. Thus - in theory - if anything either came into the house or blew the house away, the basement should remain undisturbed.

ChiChi hugged her son, leaning against him for support. "I was so afraid that you wouldn't come back."

"I'm back." Gohan said the words in a comforting tone without putting much commitment into them. Although he was glad to be home, he didn't know how long he'd stay.

Closing his eyes, Gohan turned his attention to the world of energy. Reflexively searching for the ki signatures of his fellow warriors. Shuddering each time he failed to locate one. Maybe they've just powered down so much that... Gohan let the idea trail off unfinished. Much as he would have liked to deny what he knew, he couldn't. His memory was much sharper now. He could remember them dying. The memories were still somewhat fuzzy and replayed without sound but they were enough. More than enough.

There hadn't been any warning. Everyone had their own lives and had been attending to their own routines when the androids had first struck. So the warriors hadn't all found out at once and as a result, they hadn't reached the battlefield together either. Vegeta had probably confronted the androids first. By the time that Gohan had learned of the robotic menaces, the Saiyan Prince was already dead. Most of the Earths defending warriors had died one at a time while simply trying to reach each other. Gohan knew as much even without having seen all the battles. He'd felt each of their kis flare, slip and then fade. Alone. Vegeta, Krillen, Yamucha, Tenshinhan, Yajirobe, Piccolo...

Which left... Gohan tried to figure out who that left but now his thoughts refused to come as clearly as the memories. He was able to recall, in painful detail, how the former city had looked when he'd flown over it. The crumpled bodies scattered in the street... Gohans features lost all of their color. He could almost smell the grisly scene as it replayed in his mind and that was enough to make him want to retch.

"Come in, lets get you warmed up." ChiChi tugged him indoors by an elbow. "You'll catch your death if you go about sleeping on doorsteps."

Gohan followed her without any comment. He was caught up in his own thoughts. Or rather, thought. Just one that repeated itself over and over because it was a question that he couldn't answer. Why should I get to go home when they don't?

He'd always cared for his mother - and even moreso since his fathers death last year - but at the moment all Gohan could think was that he didn't deserve to be here. It wasn't right. Him, a warrior that had a slight chance of defending himself. Hiding in a safe place with family when there were Kami-only-knew how many helpless refugees out there who'd lost everything they owned and people they cared about and...

... Oh Kami, inwardly Gohan swore, Kami!

If Piccolo was dead then god was dead too. For some reason that hadn't registered before. Gohan had been more aware of the loss of the dragonballs when his mentor had passed. He rationalized that this was because he knew more about the dragonballs than he did about Kami. Which didn't make him feel any better about Kami being dead.

Although, Kami had been dead before. The barest outlines of a plan took shape in Gohans mind. If he could just find a spaceship somewhere... Not likely. Gohan admitted to himself as he headed towards his room, nodding at his mothers suggestion that he should get some clean clothes on.

To the best of Gohans knowledge, Capsule Corp had only ever built one spacecraft. Oh sure - they'd modified the ship that Kami had originally come to Earth in and had studied the ship that Raditz had used but those didn't count. Capsule Corp hadn't built those. The one spaceship they'd built had been the one that Goku... Dad... had used to reach the original Planet Namek. And that particular spaceship had been destroyed back when Planet Namek had blown up. Capsule Corp hadn't built any more spacecraft after that since the craft weren't profitable investments. Capsule Corp was a company after all, complete with bills to pay. Companies couldn't afford to build things that the general public couldn't afford to buy.

So as far as Gohan knew, there weren't any spacecraft on Earth. And even if by some weird miracle he did find a spaceship that he would be able to use... Gohan doubted that anyone would know what the coordinates for New Planet Namek were.

Curtains flapped. One of the windows in his room was open. Idly Gohan traced the window frame with his fingers. He'd thrown the window open yesterday, when he'd first sensed Vegeta dying. He'd shouted a warning to his mother before flying off. The memory of his own departure seemed surreal now. It was strange to think of how normal yesterday had been before everything had gone catastrophically wrong.

The unfinished homework laying on his desk was another reminder. Trigonometry seemed so trivial now. Homework in general seemed trivial. Gohan felt that he probably wouldn't ever go back to school because there probably wouldn't be any school to go back to. He spent a moment full of regret. He was disappointed to think that he'd never earn a high school degree, he'd always been proud of his education. Gohan missed the peaceful routines of school already. It had been nice to have an unexpected pop quiz in history class be his biggest concern in life. It had been nice not to have to worry about saving the world.

Again. Gohan was ten years old but as the heavy burden of the world sank onto his shoulders, he felt infinitely older. It didn't matter that he'd been involved in saving the world since the age of four - more than half his life - the burden wasn't something that he could ever really get used to. He'd never felt comfortable with it. Being a hero wasn't exactly something he'd chosen to do. The career had just sort of chosen him. Gohan wouldn't have minded being an ordinary kid but destiny seemed to have other expectations of him.

What it boiled down to was that out there, beyond his window, the planet was full of creatures who were weaker than him. And that simple fact made Gohan feel responsible for all of them. Protective of them. Gohan wondered if his father had ever felt this way.

Then the haunting question came back, this time accompanied by equally haunting fragments of memory that flashed through his brain. Why should I get to go home when they don't?

He couldn't stay home. Innocents were dying out there. The issue was unresolved and even if he wasn't sure how, he had to solve it. Or at least try to solve it. For his own peace of mind if not for the welfare of the world. Gohan didn't know what exactly he could do to defeat the androids but he felt that if he didn't do something then he was part of the problem.

As soon as he had changed clothes, Gohan slipped out through the window and flew off. It just wouldn't be right to make the world wait.

He'd only flown a few yards from his house when he was knocked out of the sky. With a bone-jarring thud Gohan landed flat on his back and watched the energy shield that he'd flown into glow for a few moments in the place where he'd impacted it. The energy made a low hissing sound as it resumed being totally invisible.

Sorry. A soft voice spoke clearly in Gohans mind. But telekinesis doesn't work very well on anything moving of its own power.

Gohan recognized the voice for a full five minutes before he could pin a name to it. Ko... Kao... Gah! You know what I mean!

The owner of the telepathic voice winced at the mangling of his name. Chaozu. He corrected with a sigh. It's all right. Last time you saw me you were what - six?

Seems like eons ago. Gohan agreed as he sat up and glanced around. Hey... Uhm... Where are you anyway? And... Err... Gohan tried to think of a nice way to ask a question that was bound to sound unpleasant. Uhm...

"And why am I still alive?" This time the soft voice wasn't telepathic. Gohan was so startled that he jumped ten feet in the air and remained there, hovering. Chaozu seemed accustomed to getting this kind of reaction.

"How did you...?"

"I've been a politician before. Wasn't too bad of a job while it lasted." Chaozu shrugged absently, as if that remark alone should be able to explain his unique ability to sneak up on people. Nevermind that his best friend had been an assassin and that he was one of the most adept psychics on the planet. "As to why I'm alive - well, I try to stay out of fights that I know I can't win. Besides," And here something frightfully alert darted across the depths of Chaozus dark oval eyes, "it wasn't my time."

At this point Gohan concluded that a two foot tall martial arts master with a political history and skin white enough to make vampires jealous was nothing to be afraid of. What was truly scary was the way that Chaozu seemed to know precisely what he was talking about.

Which, of course, he did.

In a perfectly neutral voice Chaozu continued. "And about why I didn't warn everyone in advance..."

I didn't ask that... Gohan thought.

You were about to. Came the telepathic reply. Aloud Chaozu said. "It wouldn't have done any good. Nothing I could have said would have kept them from confronting the androids eventually. Habit I suppose. I mean after all, they were warriors - fighting is what they did."

"So now they're all dead." Gohan heard himself say with more than a hint of accusation.

"Had to happen eventually. Most of them are in heaven though. Can you think of a better place for them?"

Gohans brain drew an absolute blank. The question had more than surprised him, it had stirred up a long list of emotions, thoughts and memories that vied for his attention. Gohan simply wasn't prepared to think of death as being a good thing. Death was never a good thing, that's what Gohan had been raised to believe. Death left people lonely. It left worlds vulnerable. If death was a good thing then the warriors of Earth wouldn't have been wishing people back to life so much.

But it was the directness of the question that really got on Gohans nerves. The other warriors had only died yesterday! How could anyone that was a friend of theirs be so calm about it?

"The problem with being a true psychic is that by the time something actually happens, you've already seen it happen enough that you're just glad it's finally over with." Chaozu lifted his head as he spoke, as if he were gazing up at something that nobody else could see.

Which, of course, he was.

After a thoughtful moment of silence he turned to face Gohan, who was still caught somewhere between denial and outrage. Chaozu stared at the demi-saiyan youth with a patient bemused expression that probably could have made statues blink sheepishly. Gohan wasn't able hold that stare for very long, the boys outward anger melted into a blend of confusion and mild distrust.

"You ought to go home for now." Despite always being serious and level, Chaozus voice was never harsh. "We'll talk again later."

With that, in broad daylight, Chaozu snuck off just as effectively as he'd snuck up. Gohan was left wondering why he hadn't even seen which way Chaozu had departed.

Gohan regarded the sky for a bit then shook his head, deciding that he had no desire to see if the energy shield was still in place. He's too good at this. Gohan reflected as he turned homeward. It's like he's been doing this type of thing for eons.

Which, of course, Chaozu had.