We stand alone and yet together

Chapter 1: The Death of a Hero

This story has been in my head for some time now, and was distacting me from my other stories so I've decided to write it.

And of cause I don't own DBZ!

Hope you enjoy.

It has been six weeks since Goku finally returned from Namek. Six weeks since he'd finally killed Frieza. Now there was peace, and life was returning to normal for the Son family. Well as normal as it ever was.

"Son Goku!" Chichi's voice rang out, stopping Goku in his tracks as he was leaving the house. "Just where do you think your going?" Goku turned to his wife, and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, Chi, I was going to train with Piccolo." Goku said. Gohan looked up from his place at the table, at the mention of his old teacher.

"Gohan! Keep studying!" Gohan glanced at his father, suppressed a sigh, then returned his attention back to his books. "Goku I don't want our family to have anything to do with that green monster!" Goku winced as the end of the sentence turned into a scream.

"But it's only training." Goku pleaded. "It's not like we're good friends or anything!" Gohan almost chocked on the pencil he'd been chewing on at that remark. He looked up to see his mother turning red. He stood up, and gathered his books.

"Where do you think your going!?" Chichi yelled at him, Gohan jumped.

"To my room." He yelped and retreated from the room. Goku decided this was his chance and completed his move to leave the house.

"Goku!" Chichi screamed, as Goku launched into the sky.

"Sorry, Chi." He yelled down to her. "I'll be back before dinner!"

Goku sighed as he got out of hearing range of her screams. He loved her dearly, but man could she yell! He hadn't felt well yesterday, and when he'd got up this morning he'd felt dizzy. That had never happened to him before, and it worried about it for a while, but it didn't last that long. He hadn't said anything to Chichi as she tends to overact to these things. He'd decided that it must have been because he hadn't been training recently, he'd been spending a lot of time with Chichi and Gohan, because he'd felt guilty over leaving them for so long.

He arrived at the waterfall and saw Piccolo meditating. He landed and walked up to him.

"What do you want, Goku?" Piccolo asked without opening his eyes. Goku grinned, and rubbed the back of his head.

"I was wondering if you wanted to train." Goku said. Now Piccolo did open his eyes, he looked down at his old rival, his eyes unreadable. Goku shifted, he couldn't get rid of a feeling that something wasn't right. Piccolo smirked.

"Sure, just don't go super saiyan." He said, and landed in front of Goku.

"Woohoo!" Goku shouted and jumped into the air. Piccolo stared at him, how on earth did I ever lose to this guy, he thought. When Goku landed, which took longer than was normal, he dropped into fighting stance. "I'll go easy, don't want to hurt you Piccolo." He said. Piccolo dropped into his fighting stance.

"Humph. It won't be that easy, Son." He said. Goku grinned and launched into an attack. Piccolo was able to block all of Goku's attacks. He can't be putting much into this. Piccolo thought, this shouldn't be this easy. Piccolo saw an opening and took it, driving a punch though Goku's defences. Again, Goku should have blocked that! Piccolo shock away the thought and drove his advantage, Goku only just blocking his punches. When they finally broke apart, Goku was breathing heavily. Piccolo frowned.

"Are you alright, Goku?" Piccolo asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Goku said. "You've improved a lot." Piccolo shock his head.

"No I haven't." Piccolo was getting concerned. Goku didn't look at all well, he was sweating, and his ki was all over the place. Goku began to power up, and a golden aura appeared round him, his hair swept up and flashed gold for a second, before he fell out of super saiyan with a look of shock on his face. He clutched at his chest where he'd just felt the pain. A roaring sound filled his ears, he was thought he heard someone call his name, but ceased to matter as his eyes rolled back and he lost consciousness.

Piccolo stared at the fallen form of Goku for a while, he couldn't believe that Goku had just fainted. It seemed impossible, surely a super saiyan shouldn't faint, but it had just happened. Piccolo looked round, what was he going to do? He walked up to Goku, his ki was erratic, and he kept grimacing even though he was unconscious. Piccolo picked him up.

"I'm taking you home." He said and took off.

Chichi opened the door and saw Piccolo holding the unconscious form of her husband and screamed. Piccolo walked passed her and found a sofa to lay Goku on.

"You monster!" Chichi yelled at him, now finding her voice. "What have you done to my Goku?!" Piccolo glared at her.

"I haven't done anything!" He said. "He fainted!" But Chichi wasn't listening, she was to busy fussing over her fallen husband. Gohan rushed into the room, he paused when he saw Piccolo, and seemed about to say something before he noticed his father.

"Dad!" He said and rushed to his side with Chichi. Gohan looked over at Piccolo. "What happened?"

"I don't know, kid, he just collapsed." Piccolo said. Chichi turned on him.

"You did something to him!" She yelled, Piccolo raised his hands and backed away, at her fury. "Your going to make it better, or I'll..."

"Mum!" Gohan said, "Dad's waking up." Chichi instantly turned away from Piccolo. Goku's eyes opened just a crack.

"Chi?" He asked weakly, then his eyes opened fully.

"Oh, Goku!" Chichi cried and flew into his arms. "Don't scare me like that again!" Goku gently pushed her of him.

"Chi, I'm o...AHHH!!" He yelled in pain and clutched his chest in pain, he fell back down, and thrashing and groaning in pain.

"Goku! Goku!" Chichi cried out, but Goku didn't seem to hear her.

"I'm calling Bulma!" Gohan said and ran to the phone.

It was half an hour before Bulma arrived, and there had been no change in Goku, in fact he seemed to be getting worse. She entered and was followed by Yamcha, Krillin, Vegeta. Piccolo was still there, leaning against a wall, looking at the floor. Chichi fell on Bulma.

"You can make him better." She pleaded of her friend. "You have to!"

"I'll try, Chichi, I promise." Bulma said and knelt by Goku who was delirious from the pain. Bulma placed a hand on his head, he didn't have a temperature. She watched his movements the way he was thrashing and his hand covered his chest... Bulma suddenly got to her feet, an expression of horror on her face. She'd see this before, at Capsule Corp. a new virus, it... it was fatal! She shock her head, this isn't happening, not to Goku!

"Bulma!" Chichi said. "You know what wrong with my Goku, don't you?" Bulma swallowed, and nodded.

"It's a new heart virus." She said. "It's deadly."

"NOO!!" Chichi howled and fell on her husbands chest.

"But Goku's not human, maybe it won't kill him." Bulma said, trying to save her friend some pain.

"That's right Chichi! He'll be fine." Krillin said.

"Yeah, no virus is going to get the better of Goku." Yamcha said. But as he said that, they felt Goku's ki start to slowly drop.

"Dad!" Gohan cried out in fear.

"No." Vegeta said. "Kakarot can't die, not like this!" That made Chichi howl again.

"No! Son Goku, you can't leave me!" She said. "I'm pregnant! You can't leave your children!" But Goku's ki continued to drop and then disappear completely as his heart gave out.

"NOOOO!!" Chichi screamed.

Gohan stood, and stared at his fathers body, then suddenly ran for the door, when he was clear of the house he launched into the sky. He flew with no direction he just had to get away, get away from the pain, but it was following him. He landed in the middle of desert, and screamed. He put all his anger, pain and fear into the scream, it lasted along time, but he didn't feel any better afterwards. So he powered up and sent energy balls at the surrounding mountains, creating large holes in them.

"Gohan!" Piccolo called out to him. Gohan turned to face the only other person who'd been like a father to him. "It's alright to cry." Gohan blinked then felt the tears start to fall. He ran into Piccolo, and cried into him, Piccolo held him close. They stayed there till Gohan tears dried up, with was well into the everning.

There we are! Please review.

And yes the child Chichi is pregnant with is Goten.