Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z belongs to Toriyama Akira and will never be mine.

Discovering Gohan

Mourning

Goku was gone and Gohan knew it. But he had no idea how he could act as if nothing had ever happened? Well, not exactly 'never happened.' All the Z Fighters grieved over Goku's death, but that wasn't really unusual or that hard for them since Goku had left them before. However, at that time he had agreed to come back to life. This time, he declined the offer, desiring to stay in the Other World. He had claimed that the Earth would remain much safer without his presence. Gohan disagreed. How could one of Earth's greatest fighters just abandon the people? Gohan knew that the cause of all the attacks and mishaps were not because of his father, but Goku thought otherwise.

Gohan looked down at his hands. They were battle-worn and calloused after years of training and fighting. Gohan clenched his fists and then unclenched them again. Nothing would make the emptiness and sorrow within his heart disappear. He was just too affected by Goku's absence. The young saiyan looked around the room he was now in and felt his heart sink. Capsule Corporations was his new home now.

A few months ago, the Ox King died because of a heart failure. Shortly after, Chichi died in childbirth. Fortunately Goten was healthy and had survived. However, the downside to all of this was the dragon balls. One would think that with something as powerful as the dragon balls, any wish could and would be fulfilled. That was not the case here. If one had died of a natural cause such as the Ox King and Son Chichi had, then one would be condemned to stay in the Other World for all eternity.

Feeling more alone than ever, Gohan curled himself into a ball and lay on his bed, crying silent tears. Life was not fair. Then again, life never was. All the pain and grief he had suppressed within himself for the past few months finally found its way out. Gohan poured his sorrows out through tears of anguish and guilt. It was such a pity that young Goten would never grow up to know his biological father or mother. The closest thing Goten and he had now were the Briefs. After Chichi's demise, Bulma had offered to adopt the young demi-saiyans even though she already had her husband and Trunks to deal with. At first Vegeta had protested violently, but Bulma was able to persuade the saiyan prince with a few Gravity Room threats.

Gohan felt his world caving in quickly. Everything had gone downhill ever since Cell had appeared. He was behind in his studies and he couldn't function as well as he had been able to once so long ago. Gohan took a deep breath to calm himself down. He would not cry—not now, not ever. Gohan wiped the tears off his face and closed his eyes. He was trained to be stronger than that. The problem was that Gohan was trained to be physically strong, not emotionally. The young boy had no idea how easily broken and hurt he was till today. The Ox King died two months ago, leaving Chichi to wallow in grief for the remaining months of her pregnancy. Then yesterday, she too left this world after using up all her energy to give birth to the powerful young demi-saiyan, Goten. Her funeral was to take place in less than an hour. Gohan took another deep breath and exhaled. He opened his eyes to find himself still inside the Capsule Corp bedroom. He had hoped that everything had been dream, but reality hit him, hard.

He could not be as weak as he was now. What if another dangerous force had decided to come destroy the Earth? What was he to do? Cry at his stupidity for not doing anything and for everything that had gone wrong in his life? No, that would be intolerable. He must be strong like his father had been. He must be at his best if he were to protect the Earth as his father had done. Gohan was currently Earth's strongest warrior and he intended to keep that status by continuing with his training. His eyes darted over to the far wall where an empty bookshelf came to view. He would have to catch up with his studies as well. What good would brute strength do if you have no brains to strategize with? Not only will he make his father and mother proud for the protection of their home, but also for being one of the most intelligent beings on the face of the planet. From this day on, he won't be Gohan the little boy who needed protecting. No, he would be Gohan, the boy and soon to be man, who would be the one who does the protecting.

There was approximately half an hour left until the funeral. Gohan got off the bed and looked through the closet in his new home. He pulled out a black dress shirt, a tie, a pair of black slacks, and dress shoes. After changing, he went into the backyard where many of the Z Fighters had gathered around, talking and grieving amongst themselves. Today was also the funeral for Goku. They had never really thought of giving Goku one until Chichi had died. They thought that it would only be right if Chichi were given a funeral with her husband.

Gohan approached Piccolo who stood under a tree, isolated from the other Z fighters, and asked him a favor. The Namek agreed and held his hand over the young demi-saiyan's head. Gohan's body glowed for a second before a symbol was left on the back of his shirt; it was Goku's symbol. Gohan thanked his former sensei who only nodded in acknowledgment.

It wasn't long before everyone flew toward the cemetery for the funeral. After the ceremony was completed and tears were shed, Gohan found himself standing in front of his parents' graves. He couldn't tear himself away from the spot in which he stood rooted to. Gohan felt the grief overwhelming and he almost cried again, but he wouldn't. He couldn't. He shed the tears for his parents for the last time and that was earlier that day. He would be strong for his parents. He would make them proud. He and Goten would the sons that Goku and Chichi had always wanted them to be.

Bulma watched her best friend's child from afar. He was so young and had lost much. There was still so much that he could've gotten and had. But fate had chose to deprive the boy from any happiness. He was forced to fight when he was five and was trained tediously for a whole year by an alien who cared for nobody but himself. Then there was the trip to another alien planet where he battled a power hungry tyrant. After that came the androids and Cell. He was pushed to his max through fighting and studying, already excelling in almost every subject.

This child never had a really good childhood or a memorable one at that. She felt her heart sink. It was a really big burden to put upon an eleven year old. Bulma was puzzled at first when she saw the kid in a formal outfit and a familiar symbol on the back. Then realization dawned on her. The outfit was to worship Chichi, symbolizing the type of person he would become—a well brought up and intelligent young man. The symbol on the back was to worship Goku and his sacrifice to the Earth. Goku had done many great things for the Earth and wearing his symbol was Gohan's way of honoring his father. Bulma smiled slightly. For two wonderful people who had children with horrible pasts, she sure felt sorry for them. That was one of the reasons why she had offered to adopt the two boys. Not only was she doing that for Goku and Chichi, she also wanted to provide them with a home that would be comfortable in. She knew that Gohan and Goten would go straight to the orphanage and be forced to placed into a foster home. Bulma did not want that. She wanted Gohan and Goten to grow up doing what they wanted without any worries.

After what seemed like an eternity, Gohan finally turned away from the gravestones and looked at Bulma. His eyes were filled with sorrow and regret; though his face hid any emotion he might have been feeling. "Let's go home," he whispered to her as he got into the car.

Years later and elsewhere on a distant planet, a young girl around the age of sixteen stared cold-heartedly down at her parents' ashes. She had stood there for a few hours already and she had yet to shift positions or move. Her name was Victoria. Just Victoria. She had no real past except being locked up in a room to train with a hologram. Her parents had died through some alien disease a little while ago. For some odd unknown reason, the aliens had sent their bodies to her, even though she was thousands of light years away. Victoria never did like her parents. They were never really there for her. Heck, she could hardly even remember them. The most they ever did was provide her a place where she could get all the food she wanted, but was forced to train with this hologram and watch tons of videos of battles that took place over the millennium. After watching the hundredth video, she had finally gotten sick of it and began studying subjects from other worlds and planets.

It was kind of ironic actually. She was just reading about how her home planet had ceased to exist because of a tyrant called Frieza, when a foreign space shuttle attached itself to the side of ship. Obviously the shuttle contained the dead bodies of her parents.

Victoria frowned. She was all that was left. She was the last Raishuian out of the whole galaxy. Victoria punched the wall next to her. Nothing happened to the reinforced steel walls. She sighed and ran a shaky hand down her face. She released an angry yell and punched the open button to the windows. Victoria grabbed her parents' jug of ashes and threw them out of the window. It floated aimlessly around the space for a few moments, going no certain direction and toward no certain destination. Victoria narrowed her eyes and extended her arm. A golden beam of light shot out of her hand and disintegrated the jug to nothing but dust.

She needed a real sparring partner badly, and not like one of those that she'd seen on the television, but a real experienced fighter. The closest race to the Raishuians was the Saiyans. Not only were the Saiyans slightly stronger than the Raishuians, but they also had the same capability to grow stronger with each battle.

Victoria found no purpose in her life actually. She wanted to die, but knew that it was impossible. She had tried many times before and had failed at each attempt. She sighed. She loved fighting, but she hated being forced to train in this frustrating room. Nothing had changed since the day she first set foot into the room. Which was one of the reasons why she seek the Saiyans for her sparring partner. If they disagree to a spar, then an all out battle will have to do. Hopefully she would die in the fight. Victoria snorted. Like that was ever going to happen. She punched a few buttons on the ancient machine and watched as a hologram instantly appeared before her.

Well, that's it for chapter one. Think of this as a little revision for The Wretched Life of Our Hero if you have read it. This isn't all that great since I have not decided whether or not I will continue having a beta reader go over not only my grammar, but my story development in general. My current beta reader is really busy and I do not want to bother him and I do not want to go through the hassle of revising the whole chapter again. Until then, see you next chapter.