Author's Note: Obviously I'm not as new as I said in the beginning, but I still feel like a stranger to all this to some degree haha. Wow, I can't believe I'm activating this project after so long of prolonging it... I feel really proud of myself. In my view, what's started must be finished and I pushed this far enough. Also if you were interested, the picture was made by TempestVortex.

Warning: This fanfiction will contain explicit scenes and disturbing images, that's why it's rated M, you have been warned! But if you don't believe me go on and read. :P

Disclaimer: I may not own DBZ but that doesn't mean I can't write about them. :3

The Journey Begins

Weeks passed since he had found the rundown apartment. Although it wasn't much, the supplies were sufficient enough to satisfy his needs. His stay, on the other hand, was anything but pleasant due to his slower than snail-paced recovery. Days would pass and drag till he passed out in exhaustion. Impatience and insanity were his newfound friends. Without the help of the senzu beans, he was left to the prolonged wait, even with his Saiyan blood.

Fortunately, he wasn't alone or he would've succumbed to insanity quicker. The storms looming over the desolate city was there to accompany their friend. Relentless as they were, they held their grasp upon the city, with each passing day only getting worse. Mobility was rendered useless as he had to sit and wait for his wounds to heal. He could hear the rain rhythmically drumming their bodies onto the streets commemorating the once populous area. It was amazing how much danger surrounded the world. With the amount of cruelty, he guessed the idea shouldn't be much of a stretch.

Danger lurked at every corner with shadows concealing their fiendish smirks. At any given moment, a person could vanish off the streets never to be seen ever again. For the most part, the androids were the ones responsible. But they were not the only ones.

It was basic human instinct to kill and take what others had in great abundance. Resources became an issue as the supplies ran scarce. Gangs formed and groups conglomerated, killing each other for their selfish need to survive. Only those who had maintained their morals and sought for justice held these gangs in check. But even they succumbed to corruption at one point or another.

Thunder roared belligerently shaking the foundations of the already tenuous city. Lightening, its partner in crime, whipped the streets and houses with devastating electrical bolts. It shocked anyone foolish enough to challenge them. However, this all went unfazed by a somber teenager who sat by the window resting his cheek upon his palm. His eyes trailed off into the distance in hopes of distracting himself from remembering the past. The boy was known as Son Gohan.

It was years after the android invasion with 17 and 18 wrecking havoc upon Earth, blasting anything or anyone who crossed their path. Too long ago was the memory and too painful it was to reminisce any of it. Year after year, Gohan would go from his hiding spot and tackle the menace in hopes of their demise. The years of fighting however, had not been so kind to his physical attire; his innocent face was molded into a deathly grim one that caused people to jump when looked upon. His eyes, once the symbol of shimmering purity, were now dull, devoid of energy, promising death, to any that dared approach. To the people he was their savior, their last line of defense, their last hope.

He heavily sighed for what seemed like the millionth time, as his charcoal eyes disinterestedly roamed over the violent storm outside. His mind was elsewhere however, trapped in horrific memories that were antiquated, yet still raw in the young teens' mind. He could still remember with awful clarity, as his mentor and Vegeta took their last breathes in West City…

Flashback

"...Look out Gohan!" Piccolo screamed, pushing the eleven-year-old youngster out of the range of 17's blast.

Time seemed to slow down at this point. The concentrated beam tore right through Piccolo's chest, and ripped from his back effortlessly. He stood for a second with a terrified expression, staring down at the hole, before falling to his knees and collapsing.

The expression on his face was one of sheer horror.

"Nooooooooooooo Piccolo!" Gohan cried, dashing towards his mentor and good friend with tears flowing down his bruised face. He crouched down to his level and grabbed him, his hands trembling as the purple blood continuously flowed. Piccolo blinked up at the boy and forced himself to smirk in the boy's direction, but the amount of pain he was going through, prevented him from twisting his mouth any further.

"Gohan...I'm...not gonna...m..m..ake...it...p.l..ea..se.." Piccolo coughed out purple blood.

"No Piccolo you can't die!..." Gohan cried shakily, tears falling nonstop from his eyes. "We need you...I need you...please Piccolo!... Not you too...first...it was Yamcha...then...Tien..then...Chiaotzu... and..even...Krillin..." Gohan sobbed while pushing his tear stricken face into his mentor's blood stained shirt. Piccolo was helpless to do much but shake his head sadly at his young friend.

"I...ca.n't..." He stammered breathlessly "...T..Ta..ke...ca..re...of...you..rself...kid.." he forced himself to get the words out, blood splattering out of his mouth. And with his last ounce of strength, he reached out and patted Gohan's head affectionately. With one last smile, his eyes expanded with pain and then went dull.

"P..P...Piccolo..?" Gohan's voice quivered as he picked up his head from the shirt when he could no longer hear a pulse. Using his small hands, he began to shake his mentor awake with pleading eyes. "Piccolo!" he shouted, more tears running down his face, and as realization of his loss sunk in, something in him snapped.

A gush of pain and rage induced power suddenly engulfed him. "PICCOLO!" he screamed to the heavens, as deep within his depths a burning power erupted, and in the blink of an eye the once onyx eyed, black haired youth was suddenly enveloped in golden flames. His body radiated with intense heat, as hot current of electricity coursed through him. But as quickly as it came, its power was too much for his untrained body to handle, and in an instant, he blacked out altogether, unable to withstand the form.

End Flashback

A single tear formed in his onyx eyes and made its journey down the side of his cheek, leaving behind a trail of sadness in remembrance. Ever since then, he had nightmares all throughout his childhood with no one but sadness to comfort him.

Life spiraled southward since that day, with all his friends and comrades gone, he had to endure yet more pain because shortly after, his mother died of cancer and loneliness. She had not taken the news of Goku's death well. Nothing seemed right or even justified after that; there were simply too many deaths and too much pain.

He could still hear his friends' cries of agony as each of them were blown away by those fiends. Shutting his eyes tightly and clenching his teeth together, he restrained from exploding.

"It's just not fair! It should've been me!" Gohan bellowed to no one in particular. The nightmares not only haunted him in his sleep but during his waking hours as well.

The one troubling fact was how he had survived the android encounter. That is until he exchanged words with Bulma. That's when he learned that the Prince of all Saiyans had died valiantly in an effort to save him, the last protector of Earth. That was the last straw. After that he went to attack the androids day and night, and even though he kept losing each and every single time. He had nothing left to lose but his pride after all.

"Piccolo, Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, Krillin, Vegeta…..they're all gone!"Filled with renewed anger, Gohan slammed both his fists on the window ledge that he was previously leaning on with such force, it wrecked right through the floor.

Frustrated for breaking yet another ledge that he replaced, he stood up sending his chair into the wall with the same fate as the window ledge. Ignoring the problem and pain, the teenager began massaging his temples to calm himself down.

"Come on Gohan, let it go, you survived for 4 years like this, now does not make it any different than the others. That's it let the pain flow out."Breathing out his frustration he looked around the apartment that he was now accustomed to calling home.

Gohan had all the necessities a man would need to survive by himself. Then his gaze stopped all together when it hit something all too familiar.

Looking sadly to the side at the nightstand where a picture was taken, too long for him to remember, the gang with their smiling faces and goofy expressions stood. His eyes traveled a little to the right where his father stood with too prodigious of a smile.

Dad…why did you leave us….especially...ME, your own son...just when we needed you the most. His eyes welt up at the memory with tears again dripping from his eyes. He left the room in haste to get his mind off of the old haunting and traumatizing memories.

Every so often he would wonder around his rather run-down apartment while in the state of recovery. He knew the derelict building was only temporary, but it served its purpose when he came back bloodied. The fights almost always left him wounded and depleted of energy. Even though he knew all the rooms by heart, he checked and rechecked the organization of the rooms to see if anything was stolen. Not that he needed to, but it kept him occupied.

Usually on a rainy day, he easily sensed thieves with rags barely covering much of his body, snooping through the house in an attempt to find any valuables. But instead they always came face to face with Gohan. The intruders tried threatening him with nothing but a spreader or sometimes if they were lucky they were equipped with a gun loaded with two or three bullets.

It was futile attempt however as Gohan's power had far surpassed them. He was partially alien and human after all. He would make them leave with a puff of ki here and there. It was simple enough to scare them off. But even for his tough and aggressive attitude, he still gave them a small portion of his food and pointed to the nearest safe center. Those were the lucky ones however…

As he searched each room he was surprised to find, that on this day, not a single thief or person had taken it upon themselves to break into his apartment. With a nod of appreciation he moved to the front door tying his sash. His healed body was sufficient enough for another beating. Swinging the door open he was met with the fierce wind and rain, twisting and swaying outside. He stepped out onto a puddle of water that had formed near his door, and scanned the area. The skyscrapers that greeted him was the all too familiar ruins of what was once known as Satan City.

Every time he took a look around this city, it seemed to be worse off than the last, almost as if it was aging, just like his own haggard appearance. Rain poured bucket after bucket of cold water onto his still form from the pitch dark sky as if blaming him for the dwindling population, but he just stared at the buildings hanging onto each other indifferently. He shook his head slowly as if to disagree, and blasted off into the skies to begin his routine check for survivors.

Along the way, he just couldn't help but slow down, even though he had fought and almost died by the hands of the mechanical fiends, he just couldn't see why anyone would want to torture people like this. It was meaningless and completely irrational. After a while of flying, he halted and descended upon the street looking suspiciously right and left.

The appearance of garbage and ruble laying scattered throughout the streets intertwined with mangled vehicles was indeed a sickening sight. It was far from a picturesque scene. He couldn't help but feel a chilling sensation run up the length of his back. His face slid into a familiar frown as he began to walk, searching under and over debris.

Cautiously stepping over a severely bent light post, his attention was suddenly caught by a mysterious sound. It was the sound of something creaking back and forth repetitively.

Gohan stopped mid-step and whipped around, immediately falling into a fighting stance as he carefully surveyed the scene.

Hmm…what was that? There's nothing over there but a destroyed store.Narrowing his eyes he stealthily crossed to the suspicious building and laid his back up against the wall holding his breath.

With speed that could surpass human comprehension, he jumped through the hole in the wall only to see a battered helicopter with its propellers snapped, wheels bent at angular directions, and the back of the helicopter missing entirely. Relaxing a bit, he moved over to the helicopter to see if anyone was inside.

He examined the cockpit, but it was smashed by a rather large slab of rock. Shaking his head, he tried for the cargo side but a foul smell made him pause in hesitation. He slide the door open to reveal a gruesome sight. The walls were tainted with smears of ash and soot in a combination of distressing black.

But that didn't seem to faze Gohan; instead it was a woman protectively holding onto an infant on the floor, with both of them barely recognizable due to the severity of their burnt flesh. The burn was bone deep, and the corpses were well into decomposition, with flies and worms clinging close by.

In addition there were also other unidentified bodies, some split in half and others with missing body parts. Not one soul remained alive.

Gohan shut the passengers' door sadly. The horror of what he had just seen coupled with the pungent smell of rotting flesh was enough to make him vomit. The scene was like any other he had encountered, broken bodies and burnt flesh. But no matter how much he faced, it was never enough. The fact that he couldn't do a thing about this was eating him up.

"…Why?" he whispered devoid of any happiness. The silence quickly answered him unfortunately. Not a sound was heard, just the wind blowing dust into circles and leaves trailed behind them closely. "DAMMIT! I was late again! WHY!" Gohan bellowed with each syllable pronounced in animalistic anger. He could feel the familiar anger mounting within every fiber of his being. He knew the helicopter was downed years ago by the sign of rusting metal, but just seeing death reminded him of what he could've prevented. Death after death, he would've thought that he get use to the gruesome sights by now.

He clenched his fist till blood trickled down his hardworking hands.

"Where are those bastards…those damn bastards!" He growled demonically. I'll show them once and for all who they're really messing with!"

Then as if answering his call, two androids appeared both with similar smirks embedded on their faces. 17's face proceeded to contort into a sinister grin.

"Show us, huh? Show us what Blondie?" 18 purred cynically flipping her hair in a mock dare. "You going to show us that big bad bark? Save that for someone who will actually listen."

"I'll rip you to pieces, you asshole!" Gohan retorted dangerously clenching and unclenching his fist to stay calm and level-minded. "You think you can just destroy whatever you want to and not suffer?"

"We can and will do whatever we want," 17 teased with a haughty smirk increasing mischievously at Gohan's deathly glare. Content with his reaction, he settled upon the roof in a comfortable standing position. 18 followed suit with a stoic expression.

Ready to speed into action, Gohan tried relentlessly to remain calm.

"We'll see who gets the last laugh." He spat bitterly digging his feet into the ground.

"Oh, so what are you going to do about it, bad boy?" 18 grinned arrogantly putting her hands on her hips taunting him to make the first strike. "You gonna kiss our feet this time, or bark?"

With his battle-hardened body, Gohan readied himself for the assault he knew would come. He knew he was strong, but these androids were beyond him in every way shape and form.

"This may be the last breath I take, I only hope it'll be enough…"

Author's Note: And there you have it, the first chapter again! I hope you enjoy. :)