(Gohan and Videl's house)
It was a quiet afternoon. Inside the house, Gohan was sitting in his study, reviewing a paper written by one of his collegues. He should have been done by now, but his mind kept wandering.
Whenever he was about to immerse himself in the paper and consider the theories presented in it, he was sucked back into his memories of the Tournament of Power. And it wasn't memories of his own battles, his team-up with Piccolo or even his father's extremely taxing trials – no, it was the twin gods of the multiverse casually erasing realities, as if it was perfectly natural.
He could sense the defeated fighters' ki vanishing as if they never existed, their last expression full of terror and regret, or a sort of defeated acceptance – there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. And Gohan knew the twin Zenos would have done the same to his universe, to his family, and the Grand Priest would have announced their deaths with the same cold smile.
Inside him he could feel an old anger awakening. Rage at the death of innocents, caused by villains who didn't even consider their victims' lives meaningful. Gohan's ki rose without him noticing it, and waves of power started radiating from him into the house. The power streamed throughout the rooms and corridors of their large residence, and Pan suddenly started crying downstairs.
Gohan's rage subsided, and he left his study to check on his wife and daughter. Videl was comforting Pan, who relaxed when she saw Gohan approaching. "There, there, baby", Videl whispered as she held Pan close. "Gohan, what happened? I could feel you powering up, is everything alright?"
Gohan smiled at her, but didn't answer. Videl raised an eyebrow. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right? We're here for you, whatever it is".
"I know, thank you. It's just... I can't forget what happened at the tournament, it's... giving me a hard time," Gohan said.
Videl considered this. "Perhaps you need to talk to someone? Normally I would have suggested a therapist, but knowing you and your family, maybe you should talk to Piccolo, or your dad?"
Gohan couldn't help but smile, thinking about how a normal human therapist would react to his story. "You know, maybe I just need a little break. Will you be alright if I leave for a while? I'll clear my head and come right back."
"Of course, honey". Videl gave Gohan a kiss. "Go relax, we'll be fine". She grimaced as Pan gripped a lock of her hair and pulled. "Luckily I can still keep up with her". Gohan kissed both of them on their foreheads, and flew away.
(Space, above the Earth)
Gohan floated high up in the atmosphere, looking down at the blue-white-green marble that was Earth. Surrounded by his ki, he easily resisted the extreme cold and the vacuum of space, while the sensation forced him to focus and snap out of his melancholy, at least for a little while.
Ever since his recent training with Piccolo he had gained most of his muscle mass back, and now his clothes were stretched around the arms and at the shoulders, almost to the point of bursting. A strange thing to notice only now, he thought, but it seemed to him to be a good analogy for his own life. He had changed. The things he had seen in the tournament changed him forever, and there was no going back. He wasn't a fighter like his father or Vegeta, he didn't have their passion for combat, but he did want to protect people. And feeling all those lives getting wiped away shook him to his core.
His father, Vegeta and the rest seemed to have accepted it as part of the natural order, but he just couldn't. Slowly, still floating about the Earth, he came to the realization that he wanted to do something about it. Things could not go on this way.
Gohan remembered feeling this way before, when he was a child. It was the first time he had resisted his mother, back in that hospital room. He felt this way before going into the Room of Spirit and Time with his father, like it was his duty to fight, to protect all these innocent people from an uncaring, murderous villain who was much more powerful than they were. Even now, after all these years, that basic need to protect the innocent never changed, and he knew he had to act. A singled thought pierced through his overloaded consciousness: The gods had to be stopped.
Gohan froze as he realized what he was thinking. What he was considering was nothing less than an attack against the gods - those who had allowed villains like Freeza to snuff out so many civilizations, those who destroyed planets on a whim, the angels who laughed and ate pudding while billions of innocent lives were slaughtered, the cold smile of the high priest as realities were erased, and finally, the uncaring, murderous innocence of the childlike god of the multiverse. All of them had to pay for their crimes.
Having accepted this, at least for now, Gohan moved on. How? How could he do it? He was so weak compared to them all... Their feats flashed through his memories, but even as Gohan started to despair, his sharp mind presented him with a plan.
"Of course!" Gohan thought to himself. "Super Saiyan God! I'll tell the others that I want to undergo the ritual, and then I'll start training like father and Vegeta." And after that... well, who knows what power he'll be able to reach, he did it once on his own, Gohan was sure he could do it again. It's like Vegeta kept saying, sometimes while looking at Gohan with disapproval, Saiyans had no limits.
[A/N: Welcome to the story! Hope you enjoy it. I'm a Gohan fan through and through, and I didn't like the way he was treated in Super. This storyline has been cooking up for a while and I just had to write it down. Feel free to give me your honest reviews, I'm trying to become a better writer.
Anyway, just had a guest review asking if this is Gohan Blanco vs. El Grande Padre played straight. There are some similarities to the meme canon, I guess, but I wasn't really thinking about it when I came up with the story. It's my own personal interpretation of what happened in the tournament, and how it might have affected Gohan if Toriyama decided to let him make an actual comeback.
Gohan Blanco, Gohan Calvo, Shaggy, God of Destruction Scooby, El Grande Padre, the Jiren family and the rest won't be featured in this story. Caulifla isn't weaker than literal dirt, and you don't grow stronger by mastering additional languages. Sorry, Dragon Ball X fans.
