Hooooo boy. This is an AU that I've been working on off and on for a while now, and I'm only just getting around to posting it here despite it being up on AO3 for about 4 months as of this writing. I'm not sure if it counts as a crossover so we'll see what happens when I put it in the regular DBZ tag I guess. This is going to be a full-on series, spanning multiple fanfics. Send help. (Might make this AU its own separate Tumblr like I did for WCPL. We'll see I guess.)

Thank you for reading; I hope you enjoy it! I'm always open to feedback if you have any.

Full Summary: It's been a few weeks since Gohan, Bulma, and the others got back to Earth after Namek exploded. It's a time of relative peace, during which all six-year-old Gohan has to do is wait for the Dragon Balls to be ready so they can wish their friends back to life and get the remaining Namekians a new planet. He spends his time divided between studying with his mother and playing with Dende. Except then an alien crashes into the planet, hands Gohan a ring, and dies, leaving behind a legacy Gohan is definitely not prepared for and a million questions.

Chapter 1: Kuji of Namek

Three weeks.

Three weeks had passed since her baby boy had come home from space, bringing a whole slew of aliens with him. Her Goku hadn't come home with him, but she took comfort in knowing he would soon. And Gohan was home, he was safe, he was with her, and she could breathe easier knowing that. As a matter of fact, he was sitting at the kitchen table while she tidied up, working on a book of math problems. They seemed rather advanced for a boy of six, but her Gohan was a smart kid, and he'd hardly had any problems with it so far.

Yes, life was going just fine for Son Chi-Chi now that things had settled down a little. But she couldn't help but wonder when everything would be thrown into chaos again. That always seemed to happen to her family.

No. For right now, she was going to clean her kitchen and spend time with her son. If anything happened, surely it wouldn't be drastic enough that they couldn't handle themselves without relying on Goku.

"I'm done," Gohan declared, pushing his book away. He was still so little—his feet dangled off the chair, a good foot off the floor, as he looked at her expectantly. Chi-Chi always checked his work when he was done, then they went over any problems he'd gotten wrong together so he could learn what he needed to work on. She wondered how long she'd be able to keep doing that, though—he was quickly becoming better at scholarly pursuits than she and Goku had ever been.

"Alright," she said, drying her hands on her apron. "Let's take a look."

Gohan had only gotten one question wrong: "91-_=36" was 55, not 56. She beamed at him. "Good job, honey! Well, the rest of the afternoon is yours! What would you like to do?" She knew exactly what he wanted to do, but asked anyway.

Just like she expected, he smiled up at her and asked "Can I go to Capsule Corp and see Dende?"

Chi-Chi fought back a sigh. She didn't like Gohan spending so much time there. Nothing against Bulma or the Briefs family in general, they were all lovely people. Or even anything against the Namekians, Piccolo excepted, they were generally peaceful and always had a kind word for her when she was there. But Piccolo was also at Capsule Corp most of the time, and so was Vegeta. Chi-Chi wasn't ready to forget what those two had done. They were dangerous, and she didn't like Gohan being around them so much.

She also didn't want Gohan getting too attached to Dende. He'd be leaving eventually, and when he did she knew it would break her son's little heart. But it was a little late for that, if she was being honest. Gohan and Dende hadn't even known each other for a month and they were already practically inseparable. She wasn't that surprised, if she was being honest with herself; bonds forged in times of crisis can be very strong.

But she didn't have a real reason to say no, so she nodded. "Be sure to call if you're staying there for dinner," she said.

He leapt to his feet and hugged her around her middle. "Thanks, Mom! I'll be back later!"

"Be safe," she called after him as he flew out the door and took to the sky.

The tiny craft hurtled through space, movement jerky and haphazard, mirroring the condition of its single occupant. He struggled to keep control of his ship, but it was difficult with a gaping wound in his side, dripping purple blood all over the cockpit seat. His vision blurred and his body throbbed, and for a moment he was sure he was too late, he wouldn't make it, but he blinked and the moment passed.

He had to make it to the closest planet in his sector, if nothing else. He thought of his home planet, with its beautiful green skies and lush foliage, the people he'd left behind, and though it saddened him to think he would never see them again, it would take too long to get there and he would definitely bleed out before he arrived. Checking the small diagnostic screen again, he allowed himself a small sigh. He—and the ship—would last just long enough to the closest planet, Earth.

He'd avoided Earth for much of his tenure, as had his predecessor. He'd been told that Earth's Guardian didn't like either visitors or outsiders, and he was both. Besides, the little blue planet had a Guardian. Surely it could take care of itself.

Strange, then, that it would be the last planet he saw.

Holding the ring on his right hand in front of his face, he started recording. "To the Green Lanterns who receive this message," he began, "I am Kuji of Namek, Lantern of Sector 2814, and I am about to die."

Gohan's mom worried about him too much. Although, he supposed, she did have good reason to. Just over a year and a half ago he'd been a shy crybaby. But he was six now, a big kid, and he'd been to space and he and his dad and his teacher were aliens and that was a lot to take in. But, he thought as he touched down on Capsule Corp's front lawn, things were looking up! They'd saved most of the population of Namek, and Piccolo was back, and his dad would be soon too. And surely nothing crazy could happen right now. They were all still winding down from this bout of craziness.

Mrs. Briefs was the one to open the door when he knocked. "Why, hello there, Gohan!" she exclaimed, ushering him inside. "Just you today? No Mommy?"

"Mom said I could come," Gohan quickly assured her. Once he'd snuck out to see Dende and the others without Chi-Chi's permission. Once.

"Alright, sweetie. Dende's out back. I'll bring you a snack later!"

He waved frantically, trying to dissuade her. Mrs. Briefs was always so generous when he came over, and he was there almost every day. "Oh, no, Mrs. Briefs, you don't have to do that, I'll be fine." Gohan's stomach growled loudly and he blushed. He hadn't eaten in over an hour.

"Nonsense!" She smiled at him, and he flushed darker and dug a toe into the floor. "You go on out back, now. I've just made lemonade for Bulma and my husband; I'll bring a glass out for you soon." She shooed him down the hallway and disappeared into the kitchen. Deciding not to waste any more time arguing, Gohan scarpered down the corridor. The sooner he got there, the more time he'd have to spend with Dende and Piccolo.

Earth had deserts.

Kuji's pain-muddled brain decided that was an important fact to file away. His craft had crashed in a sea of sand. From space, which was how Kuji had seen the planet until just now, Earth looked like it was mostly made of water. But apparently there was enough land space to not only support its booming populations, but to have deserts. He would have found that fascinating if he'd been in almost any other situation.

It took three kicks, which was admittedly only one kick more than usual, to get Kuji's cockpit door open. His breathing was heavy and his vision was getting spottier and spottier. There wasn't much time. Pressing the ring on his finger into the lantern next to him, he took a deep breath. "Find an heir," he rasped, "one who can overcome great fear. Bring them to me."

A burst of green light shot out of the lantern and disappeared, and all Kuji could do was wait and hope.

Piccolo liked to pretend he wasn't glad to see Gohan when he came to see him, but Gohan wasn't fooled. It had taken a while, but he'd learned that while Piccolo either ignored others who came to see him or turned away from them, when Gohan came to see him he would actually engage him in conversation, terse as it was. Sometimes he even allowed himself to be dragged into games of tag or hide and seek with Gohan and Dende if they could convince him it was training. Very seldom were the times when Gohan wouldn't see Piccolo out of his peripheral vision when he was visiting Capsule Corp, even if Piccolo thought he was being stealthy. If he asked Piccolo about it, he got huffy and denied all knowledge.

Dende, on the other hand, came running to Gohan the moment he appeared like he hadn't seen him less than a day ago. "Gohan!" He immediately had Gohan by the hands. "You're back!"

"Sure I'm back." Gohan swung their arms side to side. "Do you wanna play or read today?"

Dende's brow furrowed and he stared at the ground in thought. When he looked back up, his eyes were full of mischief. He reached out and bopped Gohan on the forehead. "You're it!" he declared, bolting away.

"No fair!" Gohan shouted, starting after him—

And suddenly he was enveloped in a ball of green light. He was knocked onto his backside and scarcely had enough time to register Dende's terrified face on the other side of his energy prison before he was whisked upwards and onwards. He shouted and kicked at the sides of the ball, but to no avail. Firing ki at things made of pure energy probably wouldn't end well - best case scenario he'd break through, worst case his blast would bounce back and hit him. He was trapped.

Son Gohan of Earth. The voice was in Gohan's mind, like the few times Piccolo had talked to him telepathically, but it was definitely not Piccolo's voice. You have the power to overcome great fear.

"What?" said Gohan, right before something slammed into the front of the sphere. It was Piccolo, arms braced in front of him, throwing his entire body weight against the ball to make it stop.

"Don't worry, kid, I've got you," he heard him say. But he didn't have Gohan, not really, because despite Piccolo's best efforts, the ball was still hurtling along at breakneck speed. Gohan's heart beat wildly and he listened intently to see if the voice would come back and explain itself. It didn't.

Just as suddenly as it appeared, the energy ball disappeared and Gohan was dropped unceremoniously onto the sand. Piccolo was immediately in front of him, staying just far enough away that it was clear he wanted to reach out and make sure Gohan was okay, but wouldn't. "You're alright, kid," he told him instead. Shaking, Gohan nodded and pulled himself to his feet. He didn't trust his voice not to squeak just yet. What had just happened? "I think I recognize this place," Piccolo continued, looking around. "I used to train here sometimes."

Gohan pointed at something behind Piccolo. "Was the spaceship always here, or is that new?"

He shouldn't have enjoyed the double take he got out of Piccolo at that as much as he did. Startling Piccolo was hard. "That's…new," he conceded. It certainly didn't look new. It was beat up and pieces were falling off, and sand had fused into glass in a trail behind it, probably from when it crashed into the sand dune.

Something inside it was moving.

Gohan scampered up the dune to take a look. "Hold on," Piccolo started, but Gohan was already at the open door and peering inside.

There was a Namekian lying on the floor inside, bleeding badly from a wound in his side. Gohan's hands flew to his face. "Piccolo!" he shouted. "He's badly hurt!"

"You're the one it chose?"

Gohan blinked as Piccolo appeared beside him. "Pardon?"

The Namekian squinted up at Piccolo, then his eyes widened in recognition. "Nail? What are you doing on Earth?"

Piccolo scowled. Every so often, one of the Namekians staying at Capsule Corp would refer to him as Nail, and it inevitably ended with him snarling and stalking off. "No. I'm not Nail, but I recognise you from his memories. You're Kuji. You left Namek around a century ago."

Kuji's ear twitched. "Yes, that's right." He started to say something else, but started coughing instead. Purple blood trickled down his chin.

Gohan looked up at Piccolo. "How far is it to Master Korin's?"

Piccolo shook his head. "Too far. He wouldn't make it."

Kuji suddenly grabbed Gohan's hand and pressed something into it. When Gohan looked, he was holding a green ring. "The ring chose you, Son Gohan of Earth," Kuji said. "You are one with the power to overcome great fear."

Gohan shuddered. He now recognized Kuji's voice as the one in his head on the way here. "I don't understand," he said, trying to hand the ring back. "Chose me? Great fear? Piccolo, don't you have any Senzu on you?"

"Oh, right, because I just carry those around all the time. Yeah, I won a lifetime supply of them a while back, didn't you know?"

"Please, listen," Kuji pleaded, "I don't have long left."

"What happened to you?" Gohan asked.

"I left Namek over a hundred years ago to become a part of the Green Lantern Corps." He turned the ring over in Gohan's hand, and he saw a simplistic lantern design carved into it. "We are an intergalactic team protecting the universe from evil. I need you to take my place."

Piccolo snorted. "Fat load of help you lot were against Frieza."

"The Galactic Patrol has rejected our offers of help countless times. That's on them."

Gohan shook his head. "I can't. I can't be some sort of space cop! I'm only six years old! I'm still learning basic addition!"

"You can, and you will." Kuji pointed. "The battery. Take it, hold the ring to it, speak the oath." Gohan leaned over and just to the side, under the pilot's seat, was a battered green lantern. "Please. You must. There is no one else."

"There has to be!"

"There isn't," Kuji insisted. "If the ring chose you, then it chose you." He coughed again, then sucked in a reedy breath, and his eyes went glassy for a long moment. Then they focused intently on Gohan's face again. "The oath. Quickly."

Gohan swallowed. His eyes flicked from Kuji to the lantern to Piccolo and back to Kuji again. Overcome great fear, Kuji had said. He slid the ring onto his right middle finger.

"You don't have to," Piccolo started.

"I…" Gohan wet his lips and looked up at his teacher. "I think I do." He looked back at Kuji. "Alright, what oath - "

Kuji wasn't moving.

Shrieking, Gohan threw himself backwards, crashing into Piccolo and sending them tumbling backwards out of the ship. "Come on, kid," Piccolo grumbled as he picked himself up, "it's not like you've never seen a dead body before."

"It doesn't get any easier," Gohan whispered. He yelped when Piccolo grabbed him by his shirt collar and yanked him to his feet. "I can stand, I can stand!"

"Get your damn battery." Piccolo's language instantly went south whenever there weren't any adults around. "We're leaving."

Gohan pulled himself into the spaceship again, carefully avoiding contact with Kuji's body. "Shouldn't we, I don't know, bury him or something?"

"You think I know Namekian death customs? We'll leave him here and let the saps at Capsule Corp deal with him."

As soon as Gohan's hand closed around the lantern's handle, a million voices sounded in his head and he blacked out.

Dende flew up to meet Piccolo as he approached Capsule Corp. "What happened? Is everything alright?" He noticed Gohan's comatose body tucked under Piccolo's arm. "Gohan! Is he okay? What - "

"Stop yammering," Piccolo snapped. Dende's mouth immediately snapped shut. Piccolo landed and laid Gohan on the ground with surprising gentleness. He looked at Dende and pointed at Gohan. "You're a healer. Wake him up."

Dende twisted his hands in his robe. "I don't know that that's how it works - "

"Just do something!"

Dende looked up at him. Piccolo was angry, yes, but there was a lot of concern and a dash of panic in there as well. He was just as worried about Gohan as Dende, but wouldn't admit it even on threat of death.

He lit his hands with a healing light and cast it out over the boy who had become so important to him. It took a worrying few minutes, but finally Gohan's eyes fluttered, his face scrunched up, and he suddenly sat bolt upright with a shout. Dende clasped his hands together. "You're awake!"

"What the hell was that?" Piccolo demanded. Dende looked from Gohan to Piccolo, hoping one of them would provide an explanation. Neither did.

Gohan blinked groggily at his surroundings. "How did we get back to Capsule Corp?"

"Guess."

He scratched the side of his face and looked down. "I don't know what happened. There were a bunch of voices in different languages and there were so many of them I couldn't understand what they were saying." He bit his lip. "I wish Kuji could've explained more...I'm so confused."

Dende frowned. "Who is Kuji?"

To his surprise, Gohan looked sheepish. "Oh. Um. Right. Dende, where's Moori?"

"With the others," Dende said, pointing. "Why?"

Gohan stood up. "I should talk to him." He looked around. "Piccolo, what happened to the battery?"

Piccolo shoved a lantern that Dende hadn't noticed him holding at Gohan. "If you pass out again I'm leaving you here."

Tentatively, Gohan wrapped his fingers around the handle. Nothing happened. From how Piccolo and Gohan had acted about it, Dende had expected some sort of fanfare or explosion. Gohan nodded at Piccolo and ran off towards the rest of the Namekians.

Dende looked up at Piccolo. "What just happened?"

Scowling, Piccolo folded his arms, keeping his gaze directed at Gohan's disappearing back. "Apparently, Gohan just got a job."