It's been a while. I've been busy with life just like everyone else has. I've reedited all my past chapters and have added and removed material, although there's still bound to be mistakes. The first chapter is completely new, except for the prologue. If I update again, it'll be a long time from now. Yes, I removed chapters 11 and 12 from long ago. That's not where I truly wanted to go.

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or Harry Potter. You can thank Akira Toriyama and J.K. Rowling for that.

Italics: Thoughts

Bold: Flashback

Book 1: Gohan, Harry, and the Chamber of Secrets

Rest well

Remind me of your power

To be my constant bell

Of light and right, like a shower

Of Stars

- Anonymous

Poems for Grief

Prologue

Tears and pain mixed so well that day. Sunlight bright and strong, the spring breeze whispering through branches, deer and oxen lounging around almost listlessly.

Mother and son stood together, their arms tightly wrapped around each other. They stood under the sun—its light so bright it taunted the darkness that indwelled within them—both of them lost in grief. To lose a husband again, to lose a father again—one was never desensitized to the loss of a loved one, even if that loved one somehow died a second time.

Gohan saw a sendai-mushikui lying helplessly on the ground. Its wings were colored brown, its body small and white. From a kiss-shaped gash on its tiny chest, blood flowed out. He watched it die. He left his mother's arms. Chi-Chi turned slowly to look at him and then stiffened as her son crushed the helpless bird with his cold hands.

"As fragile as life itself," he whispered, his eyes brimming with tears, his hands letting go, letting its brown feathers fly away with spring breeze.

Chapter 1: I've Missed you Gohan!/ We Will Fight

One month after the Cell Games

Gohan smiled as he looked at the sight before him. He loved the plains, the forests, the lakes, the mountains. Despite having lived here all his life, he could never shake off the awe and delight he felt whenever he flew over the mountain area in which his quaint home resided. Perhaps flying itself was what made it that much more spectacular, but he knew that was only one part of it.

It was a beautiful fresh day, a welcome break from the oppressive summer heat. Speaking of comfort, Nimbus was as comfortable as he last remembered. It had been a while since he had ridden his father's cloud, but today he had gotten the urge to. "I've missed you, buddy," he said to the cloud. The cloud picked up speed at that and did a few somersaults, Gohan's laughter whipping through the air.

As the village he was looking for came into sight, Gohan grew excited. It hadn't been a long time since the last time he was here but it sure did feel like it. Still in the sky, he leapt off Nimbus. "See ya, Nimbus! I'll call you when I'm done here!" The cloud flew off to the east. Gohan used his ki to slow his descent.

The village was bustling with activity: kids frolicking around; a few couples strolling about, hands interlocked; merchants haggling with customers over produce, meats, and trinkets. The last time he had been here it had felt like a ghost town. He smiled, happy that all these people were once again enjoying life and proud that he had helped give them back the opportunity.

He walked into a familiar old shop and set his eyes on the back of a familiar old man. "What can I do for you today …"

"Good morning Mr. Lao. How have you been?" The old man now facing him, stared at Gohan, slightly startled by his bright young voice.

"Gohan? I'm better than ever! I didn't recognize you for a second." smiled.

"Yeah, I know. My hair and eyes change when I raise my power."

nodded. "Oh, I thought you were just going for the dark and handsome look. Lime told me that'll probably be back in style once everyone gets over the gold fighter." His eyes were full of youthful mirth.

Gohan laughed. "I'm glad people liked our style." Gohan looked around at all the people in his shop. "It looks like business is going well."

"Absolutely. Everyone is relieved that Cell was destroyed and they're enjoying every minute of it. Thank you, Gohan."

Gohan just smiled, unsurprised. Mr. Lao was too wise to not have known. "Of course Mr. Lao. I just did what I had to do. I couldn't let such evil continue living."

"You're a remarkable young man. You must have made your father proud. How is he? He put up an amazing fight." His smile faltered as he saw Gohan grimace and clench his hands. "I'm sorry, Gohan," he consoled.

Gohan nodded. "It's okay . It's still hard to accept, but right after he died I talked to him. He's in the Other World. He's having fun up there with some friends and he's watching over my mom and me. That's all I needed to hear." 's expression warmed at that.

"Well Gohan, I'm sure you didn't come all the way here just to see this old man. Lime is home right now. She lives with her parents on 5th street. It's the house with the gnomes out front."

Gohan raised a sole eyebrow. "Gnomes?"

"It was Lime's idea. She said they're 'cute.' Keep this between you and me: I think they're dreadful."

Gohan said goodbye. It had been a while since he'd seen Lime. Whenever he thought of her his mind would always wander back to when they had first met. He still had no idea why she had gotten so angry with him for saving her. She was a bit hardheaded, but not to the extent that her pride would get hurt like Vegeta's if she were saved. He didn't really want to ask though. She might yell at him and females were always scary when they yelled.

He was glad her parents had been revived. He was also sure knew that it had something to do with Gohan and his friends. Gohan arrived at the house and knocked on the front door. He heard footsteps rush down a staircase and reach the door. Not much later the door whipped open with youthful energy. Gohan smiled brightly at the ten-year-old. "Hi Lime!"

Lime looked confused. "Who are you?" After a few moments a flicker of recognition lit up Lime's big blue eyes. "G-Gohan?"

Gohan chuckled. "I'm glad you recognized me Lime. I was starting to feel offended."

She threw herself at Gohan, tightly embracing him to his surprise. "I missed you so much! I was wondering if you'd ever come see me again!"

Gohan awkwardly returned the embrace and nervously chuckled. "Wow Lime, I didn't know you liked me that much. We only talked to each other for one day a month ago!"

Her body stiffened and she pushed him away, a blush of anger and embarrassment on her face. "Listen here, butthead! We had a lot of fun that one day and you saved me from dying and then saved my grandpa from dying! Of course I'm going to miss you. But I don't like you like that. If anything you're the one who likes me!"

"But I thought we both liked each other."

"I mean 'like like.'"

Gohan gave her a blank look. "I thought there was only one type of 'like,' well aside from the 'like' used when comparing one thing to another. "

Lime sweatdropped. "Unbelievable," she whispered, Gohan still being able to hear her with his Saiyan hearing. "You're a year older than me, Gohan. How do you not know what I mean?"

"I'm not sure," Gohan said, his innocent eyes marked with confusion.

Lime giggled. "It's okay, Gohan. I'm sure some day soon you'll know what I mean."

"If you say so."

"Don't just stand there. Come in." The living room, its wooden floors old and rugged, was small, cozy, and simply decorated. The lone tan couch in front of a modest television set looked as comfortable as any other couch. Gohan saw the kitchen and immediately thoughts of food filled his mind. He shook them off, his mom having made sure he was well fed so as to not be an inconvenience to Lime's parents because of his voracious appetite.

"You're lucky, Gohan, we don't have to pay rent or make mortgage payments. Nearly all our money goes to buying groceries. If we had these obligations like other families do, you'd probably have to eat like a normal adult" Chi-Chi remarked.

"What do you mean by normal?"

"I'm sure you've seen Krillin eat. He's a healthy man about your size." Gohan shuddered at the thought.

They walked upstairs to Lime's room. It was a comfortable size for a bedroom. Her bed sheets were a baby blue, a good color for summer he thought, and there were tons of pillows on her bed to his bewilderment. He only used one for his bed back home. Framed pictures of her and her parents and others of her with her friends stood on what appeared to be a table she studied on and her dresser. An autographed poster of a martial artist in his late teens was tacked on to the wall adjacent to her bed, a bunch of pink hearts Lime drew on it making Gohan raise an eyebrow.

"Should I sit in your chair?" he asked.

"That's a funny thing to ask. You're not going to stand are you? If you want to, but you can sit with me on my bed too."

"Okay, sure." They sat Indian style on the bed. "Are your parents home by the way?"

"Nope, they're at work."

"Too bad, I was hoping to meet them."

"I guess that means you'll just have to come visit me again, cutie." She gave him a wink.

Gohan blushed. A girl had never called him cute before. Lime giggled. Success.

"Embarrassed, Gohan?"

"No…" She gave him a knowing look. "I've just never had a girl my own age call me cute. Some adults have though." Gohan's played with his thumbs as he struggled to come up with something to say. He was actually feeling a little embarrassed.

"So, what happened to your hair and eyes, Gohan? Did you dye it or something? You looked so cool!"

"Oh yeah. My hair and eyes change color when I fully power up."

"That's a little weird, but I guess that's just really advanced martial arts."

"Uh yeah, really advanced martial arts." He chuckled nervously. "Wait, do I still look ok? I mean, like this?" He even felt a bit self-conscious now. He was confused why he even asked the question.

Lime smiled. "Aww of course you do, Gohan. You just look more like a good little boy now." She teased.

He was for a moment regretting having come to see Lime. "Anyway, your grandpa is looking great!" he said, attempting to lead the conversation elsewhere.

She perked up. "Yeah, grandpa is better than ever! It's like he's not even an old man anymore. He's even been teaching me martial arts!" Lime's expression grew serious as she clenched her fists and then proceeded to throw a few punches. "Hyu hyuuu!"

Gohan grinned. "Awesome! Hey, if you want, I can you teach you some moves too."

Lime shrieked and Gohan almost fell off the bed. "Ahhh! That'd be amazing! Being taught by the boy who beat Cell!"

"You know?"

"Of course I know. I'm not a dummy like everyone else. It was amazing what you did. But I was really worried when your dad picked you to fight. After seeing his fight with Cell I thought you didn't stand a chance and Cell was going to kill you…" she trailed off, recalling how anxious and sad she had felt. "And then when he had you in that bear hug, I just couldn't look away. I felt so scared for you, Gohan," she ended with a whisper.

Gohan shut his eyes and his whole body started shivering. He remembered. He would never forget. The bear hug and the merciless beating of his friends at the hands of Cell's children—he had had that nightmare every night for the past month. That was one of the most physically painful moments of his life, only topped by Recoome breaking his neck on Namek. When Cell released him, he thought he was finally going to die. But at least he managed to delude himself into believing his father and his friends would avenge him. Somehow, someway. All that mattered was Cell being destroyed. But Cell wouldn't have any of that. Cell wanted to release Gohan's hidden power and he'd do whatever it took. As he saw Cell's spawn fight his friends, his delusion was ripped apart. He realized that if he didn't kill Cell himself all his friends and his father would die and it'd be his fault for being a pathetic weakling who wouldn't fight.

From that point on the nightmare would show flashes of Gohan in his new ascended Super Saiyan state (Super Saiyan 2 as he now called it) toying with Cell, Gohan's usually kind innocent face now that of a sadist. "You're not a boy. You're a monster!" Gohan had mused on that statement every day since then. It made him feel disgusted with himself. How could he reach such a point of utter depravity that Cell himself called him a monster? Even though he never let anyone know it, it was eating him alive. He didn't know how to properly construe that statement. Maybe I really am a monster was all Gohan would think sometimes.

The nightmare would then make him relive the saddest moment of his life: his father looking at him with his brave, fearless eyes standing next to the monstrous creature Cell, grossly ballooned to revolting proportions, his body's energy surging, his very life force flowing through his lizard like figure, hot dry winds swelling around them and billowing out along with sparks of energy. Gohan didn't care about death anymore. He looked into his father's eyes. Those were the eyes that would make Gohan always feel safe, that would make him know everything would be all right. But Gohan knew what his father was about to do. Nothing would be all right; nothing could ever again be all right. He saw a last glimmer of pride and love in his father's teal eyes as he said his goodbye. He vanished and Gohan's heart shattered.

The winds picked up and Trunks would be dead a heartbeat later. Gohan's blood ran ice-cold; that laugh—he heard that evil febrile laugh that made his insides churn in utter disgust. A fury he had never felt before consumed him whole and then it just ended. He would wake up to the sight of bloody sheets, his hands having clenched them so tightly he had ripped the skin of his palms open. Every night it had been like this.

He felt a warm comforting embrace. "Gohan, I'm sorry for making you remember that. It's ok, now though. Cell's gone and you're my and everyone else's hero, even if the fools don't know that."

He broke free from her embrace, Lime reluctantly letting go. Tears were flowing from his eyes uncontrollably. He felt shame and wanted to put a stop to his crying, but he couldn't. How could he let Lime see him like this? "No Lime, you don't understand. It wasn't just the mindless suffering my friends and I experienced. My father…" He couldn't say it. It hurt too much to acknowledge the mistake he made, but he had to. "I killed him," he choked out.

Lime's eyes widened. "Gohan…" her voice breathless. "There's no way you killed your father. I know you would never do that."

Gohan began to feel rage rise up through his body. "I killed him! I managed to gain the power to kill Cell. But I just wanted to torture him so he would feel the pain and torment of all the people he killed. I took it too far. My dad told me to kill him, but I didn't listen. I wanted to prolong his pain like a sick freak… Cell himself called me a monster." He looked into Lime's eyes, expecting something entirely different from the concern and care he saw. "And then Cell revealed to me he was going to self-destruct and destroy the planet. There was nothing I could do at that point and I fell to my knees, crying like a helpless child. But my dad knew what to do. He always did. He knew this technique that instantly teleports you to places and so he teleported himself off this planet, took Cell with him, and died a hero."

Lime grabbed Gohan's hand and held it consolingly. To Gohan's surprise, all of Lime's gestures were making feel him better, comforted. He hadn't thought it was possible. "But then that revolting creature came back. My father's death was in vain. I ended up killing Cell and saving the world. My friends thanked me, told me that my dad was proud of me, but I knew deep down it was my fault he died."

Lime hugged him tightly, Gohan's body tense and hot with rage, but Lime unperturbed. "Gohan you didn't kill your dad. You saved the world. Without you, we'd all be dead. Yes, you made a mistake but you're only eleven. Eleven year olds shouldn't have the fate of the world in their hands. As long as you learn from your mistake, it's ok, and I know you will. You're not a monster. You're the sweetest boy I've ever the other boys I know are total jerks."

Gohan couldn't help but smile a bit at that. He knew she was telling him the truth, and finally revealing everything that happened to someone who wasn't affiliated with the Z fighters made him feel better. He did keep crying, softly now though. He was releasing all the pain, all the sorrow of the past month and it felt good to let go while in the embrace of a girl his age that cared about him. They stayed like that for several minutes. All Lime could think about was soothing her friend and being there for him.

Eventually, they let go of their embrace, Gohan now with a warm smile on his face. "Thank you, Lime. I really needed that. I didn't think doing all this would make me feel this much better, but it did."

"Of course, Gohan! I know we've only known each other for a short time, but I really like you. You're an amazing person and fun friend."

He grinned. "Then let's go out and have some fun!" Gohan pumped his fist into the air, Lime soon following suit.

"Yeah!"

They hung out for next two hours as Lime showed Gohan around town, talking about anything and everything. Lime told him that she had only been to the city once, her mother going to meet an old friend. She brought Lime to show her the city and keep her friend's daughter occupied with a new friend. The city crept Lime out, but at the same time she couldn't shake off the feeling awe. She kept on having dreams about it. One day she decided she wanted to move abroad and make it big in a foreign city. She wasn't sure how, especially since she didn't particularly like school much, to Gohan's amazement.

"But how can you not like school?"

"It just isn't for me."

"But it's fun!"

"Well, I guess if you're a nerd it is."

"Hey!" Vegeta had called him that a lot when Gohan talked about his studies.

"It's okay, Gohan. At least you're a cute nerd." Gohan blushed and Lime giggled.

They talked some more.

"There's this TV show I really like. It's called Family Dude" Lime quipped.

"What's it about?"

"It's really funny. It's about this really stupid American guy and his weird family doing all sorts crazy things."

"Oh, wait, I think I saw it once! But my mom turned off the TV and grounded me for a week. She told me she was very disappointed that I was watching 'such vile filth.'"

Lime whistled. "Wow, Gohan. Your mom is harsh. No wonder you're such a goody two shoes."

"I'm not a goody two shoes!"

"Oh yes you are!"

"You take that back!"

Lime stuck out her tongue and boisterously declared, "Never!" She ran off into the woods and Gohan chased after her, although he made sure to exercise restraint and really slow himself down. Lime found it funny how much he was holding back. "You'll never catch me alive!"

"We'll see about that, slowpoke."

"Oh you… I can run faster! You watch." She started sprinting away only to have Gohan slide right next to her, yawning as he jogged.

"Is that the best you can do?" Lime growl became a yelp as Gohan decided to end the game. "Gotcha!" Gohan got on top of Lime and started tickling her.

"Gohan! Hahaha! Gohan please stop it. Hahaha! Have mercy ha!" Lime struggled underneath Gohan. She tried to push him off but he wouldn't budge even a millimeter. Kami, he's insanely strong!

"Never!"

"Oh come on! I'll give you some more hugs! Haha! Haha! I can tell you like my hugs."

Gohan did like Lime's hugs. Just as he was about to answer, he heard an arrogant voice ask, "So, when's the wedding?" Gohan paled as he turned around. There he was, the prince of all Saiyans, the smirking Vegeta.

"Eep!" Lime flailed a bit, trying to get Gohan off, shocked by the sudden appearance of the strange man.

"Vegeta?" Gohan was both confused and embarrassed, his face quickly turning a beet red, and when Lime realized Gohan knew the guy she felt comfortable enough to turn a beet red with him in response to the man's mocking question. Gohan turned his head to look at Lime. Noticing how close his face was to hers, he instantly jumped off of her, fifteen feet in the air, to Lime's amusement. She picked herself up and dusted off her clothes.

Vegeta snorted in disgust at the sight of the two. "Well brat, it seems your mate is already learning how to use her female powers as a bargaining chip. The woman does it to me all the time. Make sure to put her in her place as your subordinate before she gets too comfortable and becomes a nagging bitch."

"Oh my god, what's wrong with you!" Lime shrieked. Vegeta growled, annoyed by how loud she was, and gave her a mean look, making her shrink back a little.

Human females are so irritating.

Gohan looked at Vegeta, horrified. Is he trying to ruin my life? "Vegeta! She's not my mate! I'm only eleven and she's ten for Kami's sake!"

Vegeta cackled. "So? Here's a little history lesson for you, half-breed. Marriage did not exist on planet Vegeta because we were a warrior race who found the idea of signing a contract to enjoy one vagina or one penis for an entire life ludicrous. Most of our people started having sex in their early to mid teens. Just like fighting is in your blood, so is sex."

Gohan felt sick. He didn't know exactly what this 'sex' thing was (his Mom always made him skip that part of the biology book), but he knew it was inappropriate. Well, we're not even teenagers yet, Vegeta. Sheesh.

"What are you even talking about now?" Lime asked, very alarmed.

Vegeta grunted. "Tell your mate to shut up brat. She's getting on my nerves."

Gohan glared at him. "For the last time Vegeta, she's not my mate. She's my friend."

"Whatever, brat," he said, all the while chuckling.

"Gohan, what does he mean by 'your people' and 'planet Vegeta?' "

Oh no… I hate you Dende. Mom specifically told me not to tell Lime anything about me being half-alien. I just made my first real friend my own age and now she's going to think I'm a freak!

"You still haven't told your mate about our Saiyan race?"

I hate you too Vegeta. Gohan just chose to ignore Vegeta's flagrantly inappropriate use of the word, although he did notice Lime's slight embarrassment. "Umm, well Lime… you see…"

"Out with it brat! Be proud of your Saiyan heritage!"

Huh, seems like Vegeta has really become quite the nationalist in these last few weeks. Wait, no that's the wrong word. A racist? Oops of course not, that's not what I was going for, but now that I think about it… He broke out of his thoughts. "I'm half-alien." He did try to think of something else to say, but nothing else came to mind. Wow, all that schooling and that's the best I can come up with?

"Well put, brat."

Lime's eyes shot open. "Wait, what?"

Gohan realized he needed to explain more than that. "My dad was an alien. Saiyans are what we're called. We are a warrior race and we're naturally much stronger than humans and we have an insatiable lust for fighting, although we look exactly like humans, well I'm half-human but yeah, the only difference is we're born with a tail, although I got mine removed, so did my dad, Vegeta over there, and Vegeta's son. There is only one full saiyan left now that my dad died, and that's Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans, in other words he's the prince of himself. Great jurisdiction, huh?"

Vegeta growled and Gohan laughed. Rarely did he get the best of Vegeta. "If you include his son and me, we're half saiyans, there's a total of 2 saiyans currently alive. Some alien tyrant named Frieza destroyed the planet Vegeta, which was the Saiyan's home planet, and so wiped out almost the entire race. My dad killed Frieza." More like Mirai Trunks, but there's no point in explaining that too.

Lime looked at him blankly, amazed. "So… you guys are basically just humans but really strong and really mean?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Vegeta didn't like the comparison to humans one bit.

Lime smiled. "Well, that explains a lot!"

"Wait, you're not going to freak out?"

"No, of course not. I always knew there was something different about you, Gohan. How could an eleven-year-old completely human kid do what you do? How could any human do what you do? I don't care as long as you're not a weird alien looking thing just using a human disguise." She shuddered.

Gohan laughed. "No, definitely not! Are you thinking of that alien movie? I think it had the word thing in it."

"Yeah! That's the one. That gave me nightmares for like a year. I really shouldn't have watched that with her."

"With whom did you watch it?"

"I watched it with my mom's friend's daughter, the city one. I forgot her name, but she was really nice and cool too! More of a tomboy than even me, although I don't really think of myself as much of a tomboy. She said she managed to sneak the dvd from her parent's rated R collection, and well we ended up watching it. We both really regretted it."

"Yeah it was pretty scary. Even though I know I could in the real world defeat it, I still had a few nightmares."

"You know, it makes me feel a lot better knowing that we have you to protect the earth now that I think about. I mean, now that you beat Cell, I feel like nothing can harm us as long as you're here!"

"Thanks Lime."

"No, thank you, Gohan. By the way, how did you watch that movie? I thought your mom was really strict."

"Well, I sort of ended up borrowing a my dad's friend's dvd version of it a while back because I thought it looked cool. I just never got back to returning it or telling him I took it."

"So you aren't a complete goody two shoes, after all."

"Nope. There's more to me than meets the eye." He grinned and gave her a wink.

Vegeta growled. "Brat, let's go! We have more important things to do than standing around babbling all day." He was clearly bored.

"You haven't even told me what we're going to do."

"Let's go!"

"Fine." Gohan looked at Lime. "I'm going to get going now. It was great seeing you again."

Lime hugged him. "I had a lot of fun. Make sure to visit me soon, mister."

"I'll try!"

"You better do more than try!"

Gohan and Vegeta took off into the air, Lime staring at them wistfully as they flew farther and farther away. I want to do that. When Gohan starts training me, I'm going to make sure he teaches me how to fly.

Gohan followed Vegeta's lead in silence for a few miles and then turned to the Prince of No Full-Blooded Saiyans. "So why are you here, Vegeta? You're not the type to visit."

"I'm here to spar with you," Vegeta said.

Gohan grimaced and looked down at the ground. He couldn't bring himself to say it for some reason, but he had to. "I don't want to fight anymore." So few were his words, yet he felt so much shame for saying them to Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans. Although Gohan never truly felt like a Saiyan, saying such a thing felt like blasphemy to the heritage that was undeniably his. Revealing his intentions to this man made it feel like he was defiling his own Saiyan blood and betraying the prince himself. Such sudden strong feelings toward his Saiyan heritage confused him, as they didn't exist before the Cell Games, but they were there for whatever reason and that was all that mattered.

Vegeta halted, raising his eyebrow and giving Gohan a dangerous look. "What was that?" he asked, his tone biting, probing.

Gohan took a deep breath. "I said I don't want to fight anymore."

"You will fight, boy! It's in your blood!"

He let his shame go and as his guilt overwhelmed it. "I don't care if it's in my blood! It's not who I am. I'm half-human. I don't care for pain or destruction. I don't care about being the strongest in the universe. I just want peace in my life and I don't feel at peace with myself when I fight. I become angry, resentful, violent, sadistic. You saw it yourself, Vegeta, when I fought Cell. That's not who I want to be."

Vegea looked at him with what appeared to be… empathy? Gohan wasn't sure what to expect now. Vegeta grunted, reluctant to say what he was about to say but he knew he had to. "I somewhat understand, Gohan. Immediately after the Cell Games, I remember saying that I would never fight again. I was ashamed that you, Kakarot's brat, and Kakarot himself surpassed me and saved my life many times. After your clown of a father died, I didn't know what to do. I had been training all that time to surpass him and reclaim my destiny, my status as Prince of All Saiyans, and become the strongest warrior in the universe. But with the death of your father I had nothing to train for. He died saving my life one last time and you also nearly died saving me. I was useless."

Gohan's looked at him, taken aback. Vegeta was opening up to him? He tried to look less surprised, lest Vegeta become angry. "Then why do you want to spar?"

Hesitating for just a second, Vegeta then said "You will never repeat this to anyone, understand?" He gave him his patented death glare to drive home his point.

"Yes."

"Good. This last month I've grown fond of Bulma and my son. I didn't care much for them before the Androids arrived, but spending time with my son from the future and seeing him die, well that changed me in some way. And so I allowed myself to grow fond of them. Now that I care about them, I feel like I understand your father much better. I had always known his reasons for fighting were not singular. He loved fighting just like any other Saiyan, he wanted to get stronger because he wanted to be the best he possibly could be, but he also fought and strove for strength because he wanted to protect those he loved." He stopped for a second and then continued.

"I had always thought his last reason was for the weak. I fought for myself and perhaps to avenge my people and make them proud, but that's it. But now I want to protect Bulma and my son. I couldn't care less about the other weaklings that inhabit this planet. The only other people I care about are Bulma's mother and father since they are her parents and you because you're half-Saiyan… and I guess your blasted mother as well because she's your mother and Kakkarot's mate."

Gohan couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had known Vegeta for five years and he would never have expected this to come out of the Prince's mouth. Vegeta was supposed to be too proud, too arrogant, too focused on himself to care about anyone else. He could understand Vegeta caring about Bulma and his son, but he had just said he cared about him and his mom! His dad was right to spare Vegeta's life all those years back. Gohan had known that for a while now. He had started to know that when Vegeta had fought alongside him, Krillin, and Piccolo against Frieza. But this was different. This was complete undeniable proof that Goku, his father, had made the right decision.

"So do you see now, Gohan? In order to keep this planet safe, which is our responsibility as the strongest on this planet, which is what your father wants you to do, you have to become stronger, by fighting, by training, by training with me specifically. We are the only Super Saiyans left. We are the only ones who can push each other to new levels, new heights of unimaginable power. And so we will train together."

Gohan knew Vegeta was completely right. It'd be selfish of him not to fight or train anymore just so he could try to live a normal, peaceful life. In the end, that peace would likely be disrupted and everyone would die, and it'd be his fault for not having trained. He was the strongest person on this planet and it was his responsibility to get as strong as he possibly could to protect it against any threat. That's what his father would do and so that's what he was going to do.

Gohan grinned. "We will fight."

Vegeta nodded approvingly and grinned as well. "We will fight."