Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball/Z/GT.
Aftershock
Gohan's hand was shaking.
It had started 4 years ago. 2 years after Cell. Inexplicably, his hand would start shaking. Rarely, it started with his feet. But the result was the same. The shaking would overcome his entire body and then... and then he would change.
Gohan reached out with his steady hand, finding the bottle of pills that he always kept on the upper left of his desk. He popped open the bottle and tipped it to his mouth.
He swallowed two pills.
His hand stopped shaking.
School was not a spur of the moment thing.
Gohan and Chichi had often talked about it, analyzing reasons and, once they had agreed to send him, rules.
No super powers.
No Super Saiyajin.
No anything that made him something more than a stereotype.
He would be normal, if only for half a day.
Standing in front of the class, pills comfortably nestled in his pocket, he had felt anything but normal. He bowed shyly to the class and walked to his seat.
By some twist of fate, he ended up sitting between a blond ditz and the daughter of Hercule Satan.
The faucet squeaked as it was twisted to the off position.
Gohan placed his hands on the ceramic sink and leaned his forehead on the mirror, closing his eyes. He stayed there for a moment, breathing deeply. He grabbed his bottle of pills, replacing the cap and shoving it in his pocket.
Then he went back to class.
"How was your day?" Chichi had asked Gohan when he had arrived.
His hand started shaking again.
He raised it eye level and stared at it, mystified. He met his mother's eyes, and then swallowed another two pills.
A few months passed without any incident. Gohan had developed a friendship with Videl Satan, Erasa, and Sharpener. Gohan was always the silent, intellectual one in their small clique, the one that talked about politics and economic failure and the descent of humans into obscurity.
But then, the day came.
Gohan couldn't pay attention to the lecture on geography.
His father died this day.
His father died.
His father died... because of him.
Gohan shot out of his seat, his eyes widening slightly. He felt a tingly feeling running up and down his back, and he looked around him, finally noticing his surroundings. Everyone was staring.
Staring at him.
"Son Gohan, do you have a problem with my class?" the current teacher demanded.
"No, sensei." Gohan's voice broke in the middle of sensei, and he sat down.
The teacher nodded once and continued his lecture.
A note landed, with a soft ruffling sound, in front of him. Gohan turned to stare at Videl, who winked at him.
'Why so glum? My dad saved the world 7 years ago this day.'
Gohan read the note again.
And again.
And again.
By now, he noticed that his entire arm was shaking.
My dad saved the world 7 years ago this day.
My dad saved the world 7 years ago...
My dad saved the world...
My dad...
My dad...
My dad is dead.
Gohan stifled a cry, reaching into his pocket.
It was empty.
He searched his other pocket.
Empty.
Empty.
He had forgotten his pills. On this day, of all days.
Gohan raised his hand. Almost his entire body shook. Only his upper torso and head were saved.
"Yes, Mr. Son?"
"May I go to the nurse's office? I don't feel good," Gohan said. A flush had come onto his face, and he was sweating.
"Yes, you may." Gohan walked calmly down the stairs, ignoring the stares and whispers. He grabbed a hall pass and walked, in the same calm manner, to the office.
"I need to make a phone call," Gohan told the secretary at the desk.
"What for?" the secretary asked in a bored tone.
"I forgot my medication."
"You don't have any medication."
"Yes, I do."
"Not on the school records. Sorry kid, but you can't call."
"I need to. NOW."
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do..."
"NOW!" Gohan slammed a fist onto the secretary's desk, breaking bits of paint. He withheld his strength, trying not to scare the secretary TOO much.
"You have to go to the nurse's office," the secretary said with an undertone of fear.
"Kami!" The nurse felt her back hit the wall. She wasn't the best nurse, and she only had this job because it paid well. She had no idea what to do when Gohan had started having a seizure.
First, he was only shaking violently. Then, his legs had crumpled beneath him and his arms shook violently. His breathing became erratic, and strange gurgling noises came from the back of his throat.
His eyes were unfocused and blank, staring unseeingly at the ceiling as his body went wild.
And then, it was over.
"Are... are you all right?" The nurse timidly crept closer.
"Fine," Gohan said, standing up slowly. "Better than I have been in awhile."
"I better call your mom."
"No, I'll be fine for the rest of the day."
"But it's school poli-" The nurse didn't have a chance to finish her sentence as she was immediately shot through the heart with a thin, concentrated beam of ki.
Gohan stomped through the hallway, crushing the tiles beneath his feet. It felt good.
Very good.
His ki was visible around him, forming a dark purple flame that grew progressively darker with each step.
Cracks appeared in the walls as he passed them.
The lockers he passed were hopelessly burnt.
As soon as he passed a classroom, the door opened and 30 people popped their heads out, staring in shock at Gohan.
He stopped walking, glaring ahead with teal eyes.
"What the fuck are you looking at?" Gohan demanded, raising his upper lip slightly. His eyebrows slanted in and the back of his left hand rested in his right.
All the students and teachers immediately closed the doors of their classroom, escaping Gohan's glare.
He pivoted on his foot, facing the door to his classroom with a cold stare. He raised a fist.
Pulled it back.
Entered the room through the new hole in the wall.
Mutely, everyone stared at him from the other side of the room.
"Gohan? When did your eyes turn green?" Videl asked, stepping forward.
Gohan's eyes narrowed, making him look as if he were half asleep. His upper lip lifted again, and a very animalistic growl escaped his throat.
Videl didn't flinch, instead, she fisted her hands and raised them, sliding her feet apart.
"Videl Satan, son of the famous Hercule." His voice was cold, calculated, with an edge of anger.
"Yeah, so?"
"Do you remember the Cell games, Videl? Did you watch it on TV?"
"Well... not all of it. The camera broke, remember?"
"I never saw the taping," Gohan growled lowly, "but I do know that your father refuses to acknowledge the greatest fighter alive."
"Himself?"
"My father. Son Goku."
Whispers erupted. "Son Goku is geeky Gohan's FATHER?!" "No way!" "Goku fought at Cell Games?"
"Shut up!" Gohan glared at the class, who immediately tried to step backwards, but found a wall in their way. Gohan started pacing, his eyes never leaving Videl's. "Hercule this, Hercule that. Hercule saved us. Those other guys were amateurs," he mocked, pitching his voice high.
"But compared to Hercule, they were," Sharpener said, boldly stepping forward. "They used fancy light tricks and fake martial arts."
Gohan removed his eyes from Videl, instead staring down at Sharpener, who refused to flinch.
Gohan raised a hand.
He began to draw forth his ki, forming a purple sphere in the palm of his hand.
"These light tricks?" Sharpener nodded mutely. "I see." His ki shot forward in a huge beam, completely covering Sharpener. Everyone covered their eyes from the harsh purple light.
A twisted, burnt carcass thudded wetly onto the floor, smelling vaguely burned. Its mouth was open, but his tongue and parts of his teeth had been burnt away. The back of his mouth had a neat circular hole carved into it, showing the tiles beneath it. His eyes were closed and welded shut. His legs had fused together, with strange lumps at odd places. All of his hair on his body was gone.
It had happened so fast that Sharpener had no time to scream.
Immediately, students started vomiting. Some couldn't bend over fast enough and ejected the bile onto their shirts. Others tried to cover their mouth to stop it from coming, but the vomit bled out the small openings, letting the bile run down their faces.
Videl had been one of those that had managed to vomit on the floor, not herself.
"Sharpener!" Erasa slid down onto the floor, not caring that she was in a pile of vomit. She began crying.
Videl turned to Gohan. "That was sick."
"Thank you." Gohan bowed, smiling. "It was nothing."
"You sick bastard!" Videl lunged at Gohan, swinging her fist. Gohan suddenly seemed to disappear, reappearing behind her. He grabbed her waist and tugged her backwards, sending her crashing into the students and then into the puddles of vomit.
"What about Goku?!" Gohan demanded. "Do you ever think about him, who gave his LIFE to save Earth? Who saved ALL OF YOU MORE THAN ONCE?! DO YOU EVEN CARE?!" Gohan's clenched. "WHAT ABOUT GOKU?!"
"Gohan..." Videl managed to get up, wiping blood off of her face.
"IT'S NOT FAIR! NO BODY CARES ABOUT HIM! ALL THEY CARE IS ABOUT A FUCKING LIAR!" Gohan's ki had swelled into a giant flame, flickering wildly and agitatedly. The floor cracked and caved in. "WHAT ABOUT MY FATHER?!"
Amazingly, his hair turned gold. His eyes were a more vibrant teal. No tears were in his eyes, they were burned away by his scorching ki.
"It..." Videl coughed up blood. "It was you, wasn't it?"
Gohan turned to glare directly at Videl. She was standing on her right leg, letting her left dangle uselessly. Her right arm was also limp.
"You were... the boy..." Videl walked slowly towards him, flinching at every step. "You... saved us..." She was three feet away from feeling the burning heat. "Not... my father.. you..." Videl coughed up more blood. Her good leg gave way and she collapsed, letting loose a bark of pain as she landed on her left leg.
Still, she was determined, and she began crawling, coming closer to the flame of ki. Gohan's eyes were unreadable. Videl cried out as she felt the flame start to burn her hand, but she continued on. She let her eyes fall closed and she stumbled, then fell.
The skin began to peel off from her hand, destroying and cauterizing blood vessels in her hand. All of it burned away until all there was left was bone. The skin began to peel away up her arm, past her elbow...
Gohan let out a strangled cry and released his ki, falling out of Super Saiyajin. He stared in horror at the mess that Videl had become.
A smaller flame of ki formed around him and floated upwards, his ki destroying the roof, allowing him to fly away.
Bulma was surprised, to say the least, when Gohan appeared on her doorstep. He looked, for all the world, like a scolded puppy.
"I didn't mean to," Gohan babbled, "I just couldn't help myself. I forgot them today, and then look what happened? I'm too dangerous to be near anyone..." Bulma steered Gohan inside, tuning out most of his babbling. She closed the door, and Vegeta came marching in.
He stared at Gohan.
Then Vegeta grabbed Gohan's arm and dragged him into the Gravity Room.
Gohan ducked under a punch, danced out of the way of a flurry of kicks and stepped out of the way to avoid a ki blast. "I don't understand," Gohan said quietly.
"This could have all been avoided if you had at least trained once a week," Vegeta growled. "Don't you ever wonder what those pills the Woman gives you do?"
"I never actually thought about it," Gohan whispered, stiffening. His eyes grew progressively bigger. "You mean, that... it's my Saiyajin half?"
"Your damn mother doesn't let you train, leaving you no outlet for your anger. That's why you developed your other personality," Vegeta growled. "At least Kakarot's second brat trained."
"I..." Gohan slowly let his eyes drop to the ground. His hand started shaking again.
"See? It happens when you feel bad or angry." Vegeta crossed his arms. "Back to training, brat." They began to spar again, Gohan letting his movements be automated.
For awhile, no one spoke.
"They'll be looking for me, you know," Gohan said. Vegeta grunted. "I've got to go away."
"No you don't," Vegeta said. "We could fake your death."
Gohan was silent, his face a mask of thought.
The next day, Chichi screamed when she found Gohan had hung himself with one of Goku's belts.
__________
Like? Hate? Please tell me, guys!
Aftershock
Gohan's hand was shaking.
It had started 4 years ago. 2 years after Cell. Inexplicably, his hand would start shaking. Rarely, it started with his feet. But the result was the same. The shaking would overcome his entire body and then... and then he would change.
Gohan reached out with his steady hand, finding the bottle of pills that he always kept on the upper left of his desk. He popped open the bottle and tipped it to his mouth.
He swallowed two pills.
His hand stopped shaking.
School was not a spur of the moment thing.
Gohan and Chichi had often talked about it, analyzing reasons and, once they had agreed to send him, rules.
No super powers.
No Super Saiyajin.
No anything that made him something more than a stereotype.
He would be normal, if only for half a day.
Standing in front of the class, pills comfortably nestled in his pocket, he had felt anything but normal. He bowed shyly to the class and walked to his seat.
By some twist of fate, he ended up sitting between a blond ditz and the daughter of Hercule Satan.
The faucet squeaked as it was twisted to the off position.
Gohan placed his hands on the ceramic sink and leaned his forehead on the mirror, closing his eyes. He stayed there for a moment, breathing deeply. He grabbed his bottle of pills, replacing the cap and shoving it in his pocket.
Then he went back to class.
"How was your day?" Chichi had asked Gohan when he had arrived.
His hand started shaking again.
He raised it eye level and stared at it, mystified. He met his mother's eyes, and then swallowed another two pills.
A few months passed without any incident. Gohan had developed a friendship with Videl Satan, Erasa, and Sharpener. Gohan was always the silent, intellectual one in their small clique, the one that talked about politics and economic failure and the descent of humans into obscurity.
But then, the day came.
Gohan couldn't pay attention to the lecture on geography.
His father died this day.
His father died.
His father died... because of him.
Gohan shot out of his seat, his eyes widening slightly. He felt a tingly feeling running up and down his back, and he looked around him, finally noticing his surroundings. Everyone was staring.
Staring at him.
"Son Gohan, do you have a problem with my class?" the current teacher demanded.
"No, sensei." Gohan's voice broke in the middle of sensei, and he sat down.
The teacher nodded once and continued his lecture.
A note landed, with a soft ruffling sound, in front of him. Gohan turned to stare at Videl, who winked at him.
'Why so glum? My dad saved the world 7 years ago this day.'
Gohan read the note again.
And again.
And again.
By now, he noticed that his entire arm was shaking.
My dad saved the world 7 years ago this day.
My dad saved the world 7 years ago...
My dad saved the world...
My dad...
My dad...
My dad is dead.
Gohan stifled a cry, reaching into his pocket.
It was empty.
He searched his other pocket.
Empty.
Empty.
He had forgotten his pills. On this day, of all days.
Gohan raised his hand. Almost his entire body shook. Only his upper torso and head were saved.
"Yes, Mr. Son?"
"May I go to the nurse's office? I don't feel good," Gohan said. A flush had come onto his face, and he was sweating.
"Yes, you may." Gohan walked calmly down the stairs, ignoring the stares and whispers. He grabbed a hall pass and walked, in the same calm manner, to the office.
"I need to make a phone call," Gohan told the secretary at the desk.
"What for?" the secretary asked in a bored tone.
"I forgot my medication."
"You don't have any medication."
"Yes, I do."
"Not on the school records. Sorry kid, but you can't call."
"I need to. NOW."
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do..."
"NOW!" Gohan slammed a fist onto the secretary's desk, breaking bits of paint. He withheld his strength, trying not to scare the secretary TOO much.
"You have to go to the nurse's office," the secretary said with an undertone of fear.
"Kami!" The nurse felt her back hit the wall. She wasn't the best nurse, and she only had this job because it paid well. She had no idea what to do when Gohan had started having a seizure.
First, he was only shaking violently. Then, his legs had crumpled beneath him and his arms shook violently. His breathing became erratic, and strange gurgling noises came from the back of his throat.
His eyes were unfocused and blank, staring unseeingly at the ceiling as his body went wild.
And then, it was over.
"Are... are you all right?" The nurse timidly crept closer.
"Fine," Gohan said, standing up slowly. "Better than I have been in awhile."
"I better call your mom."
"No, I'll be fine for the rest of the day."
"But it's school poli-" The nurse didn't have a chance to finish her sentence as she was immediately shot through the heart with a thin, concentrated beam of ki.
Gohan stomped through the hallway, crushing the tiles beneath his feet. It felt good.
Very good.
His ki was visible around him, forming a dark purple flame that grew progressively darker with each step.
Cracks appeared in the walls as he passed them.
The lockers he passed were hopelessly burnt.
As soon as he passed a classroom, the door opened and 30 people popped their heads out, staring in shock at Gohan.
He stopped walking, glaring ahead with teal eyes.
"What the fuck are you looking at?" Gohan demanded, raising his upper lip slightly. His eyebrows slanted in and the back of his left hand rested in his right.
All the students and teachers immediately closed the doors of their classroom, escaping Gohan's glare.
He pivoted on his foot, facing the door to his classroom with a cold stare. He raised a fist.
Pulled it back.
Entered the room through the new hole in the wall.
Mutely, everyone stared at him from the other side of the room.
"Gohan? When did your eyes turn green?" Videl asked, stepping forward.
Gohan's eyes narrowed, making him look as if he were half asleep. His upper lip lifted again, and a very animalistic growl escaped his throat.
Videl didn't flinch, instead, she fisted her hands and raised them, sliding her feet apart.
"Videl Satan, son of the famous Hercule." His voice was cold, calculated, with an edge of anger.
"Yeah, so?"
"Do you remember the Cell games, Videl? Did you watch it on TV?"
"Well... not all of it. The camera broke, remember?"
"I never saw the taping," Gohan growled lowly, "but I do know that your father refuses to acknowledge the greatest fighter alive."
"Himself?"
"My father. Son Goku."
Whispers erupted. "Son Goku is geeky Gohan's FATHER?!" "No way!" "Goku fought at Cell Games?"
"Shut up!" Gohan glared at the class, who immediately tried to step backwards, but found a wall in their way. Gohan started pacing, his eyes never leaving Videl's. "Hercule this, Hercule that. Hercule saved us. Those other guys were amateurs," he mocked, pitching his voice high.
"But compared to Hercule, they were," Sharpener said, boldly stepping forward. "They used fancy light tricks and fake martial arts."
Gohan removed his eyes from Videl, instead staring down at Sharpener, who refused to flinch.
Gohan raised a hand.
He began to draw forth his ki, forming a purple sphere in the palm of his hand.
"These light tricks?" Sharpener nodded mutely. "I see." His ki shot forward in a huge beam, completely covering Sharpener. Everyone covered their eyes from the harsh purple light.
A twisted, burnt carcass thudded wetly onto the floor, smelling vaguely burned. Its mouth was open, but his tongue and parts of his teeth had been burnt away. The back of his mouth had a neat circular hole carved into it, showing the tiles beneath it. His eyes were closed and welded shut. His legs had fused together, with strange lumps at odd places. All of his hair on his body was gone.
It had happened so fast that Sharpener had no time to scream.
Immediately, students started vomiting. Some couldn't bend over fast enough and ejected the bile onto their shirts. Others tried to cover their mouth to stop it from coming, but the vomit bled out the small openings, letting the bile run down their faces.
Videl had been one of those that had managed to vomit on the floor, not herself.
"Sharpener!" Erasa slid down onto the floor, not caring that she was in a pile of vomit. She began crying.
Videl turned to Gohan. "That was sick."
"Thank you." Gohan bowed, smiling. "It was nothing."
"You sick bastard!" Videl lunged at Gohan, swinging her fist. Gohan suddenly seemed to disappear, reappearing behind her. He grabbed her waist and tugged her backwards, sending her crashing into the students and then into the puddles of vomit.
"What about Goku?!" Gohan demanded. "Do you ever think about him, who gave his LIFE to save Earth? Who saved ALL OF YOU MORE THAN ONCE?! DO YOU EVEN CARE?!" Gohan's clenched. "WHAT ABOUT GOKU?!"
"Gohan..." Videl managed to get up, wiping blood off of her face.
"IT'S NOT FAIR! NO BODY CARES ABOUT HIM! ALL THEY CARE IS ABOUT A FUCKING LIAR!" Gohan's ki had swelled into a giant flame, flickering wildly and agitatedly. The floor cracked and caved in. "WHAT ABOUT MY FATHER?!"
Amazingly, his hair turned gold. His eyes were a more vibrant teal. No tears were in his eyes, they were burned away by his scorching ki.
"It..." Videl coughed up blood. "It was you, wasn't it?"
Gohan turned to glare directly at Videl. She was standing on her right leg, letting her left dangle uselessly. Her right arm was also limp.
"You were... the boy..." Videl walked slowly towards him, flinching at every step. "You... saved us..." She was three feet away from feeling the burning heat. "Not... my father.. you..." Videl coughed up more blood. Her good leg gave way and she collapsed, letting loose a bark of pain as she landed on her left leg.
Still, she was determined, and she began crawling, coming closer to the flame of ki. Gohan's eyes were unreadable. Videl cried out as she felt the flame start to burn her hand, but she continued on. She let her eyes fall closed and she stumbled, then fell.
The skin began to peel off from her hand, destroying and cauterizing blood vessels in her hand. All of it burned away until all there was left was bone. The skin began to peel away up her arm, past her elbow...
Gohan let out a strangled cry and released his ki, falling out of Super Saiyajin. He stared in horror at the mess that Videl had become.
A smaller flame of ki formed around him and floated upwards, his ki destroying the roof, allowing him to fly away.
Bulma was surprised, to say the least, when Gohan appeared on her doorstep. He looked, for all the world, like a scolded puppy.
"I didn't mean to," Gohan babbled, "I just couldn't help myself. I forgot them today, and then look what happened? I'm too dangerous to be near anyone..." Bulma steered Gohan inside, tuning out most of his babbling. She closed the door, and Vegeta came marching in.
He stared at Gohan.
Then Vegeta grabbed Gohan's arm and dragged him into the Gravity Room.
Gohan ducked under a punch, danced out of the way of a flurry of kicks and stepped out of the way to avoid a ki blast. "I don't understand," Gohan said quietly.
"This could have all been avoided if you had at least trained once a week," Vegeta growled. "Don't you ever wonder what those pills the Woman gives you do?"
"I never actually thought about it," Gohan whispered, stiffening. His eyes grew progressively bigger. "You mean, that... it's my Saiyajin half?"
"Your damn mother doesn't let you train, leaving you no outlet for your anger. That's why you developed your other personality," Vegeta growled. "At least Kakarot's second brat trained."
"I..." Gohan slowly let his eyes drop to the ground. His hand started shaking again.
"See? It happens when you feel bad or angry." Vegeta crossed his arms. "Back to training, brat." They began to spar again, Gohan letting his movements be automated.
For awhile, no one spoke.
"They'll be looking for me, you know," Gohan said. Vegeta grunted. "I've got to go away."
"No you don't," Vegeta said. "We could fake your death."
Gohan was silent, his face a mask of thought.
The next day, Chichi screamed when she found Gohan had hung himself with one of Goku's belts.
__________
Like? Hate? Please tell me, guys!