Before Your Eyes
AN: I-way on't-day own-way Agonball-dray Ee-zay. An-cay ou-yay ead-ray ig-pay atin-lay?
Chapter 1: The Victim of Anger
The sun rose that fateful day. If it hadn't, everyone would be really confused and probably nothing much would have happened. Gohan awoke and immediately expected the worst. Over the course of the last two weeks, everything had seemed to be going wrong in his life. It had all begun two Wednesdays ago when his mother suddenly decided that he had been wasting all of his time on nothing and forced him to come directly home after school. Since then, her only words to him had been of either cruelty, sarcasm, or of possible punishment.
But there was more to it than that. Chi Chi wasn't the only one who had been treating Gohan like crap. He had completely given up on Capsule Corp, as Bulma seemed to agree whole-heartedly with his mother and apparently agreed with her modes of executing this by doing exactly what Chi Chi was doing to him. Vegeta was being more of a jerk than usual, and Trunks had suddenly decided that he didn't have time for Gohan anymore. Gohan had been hoping that this was just a weird phase they were going through. But it had gotten much much worse four days ago.
Gohan had gone to school that day and once again heard everyone talking about the mysterious disappearance of the Great Saiyaman. Knowing that he couldn't explain it without totally giving away his secret, he was forced to listen to everyone talking about how horrible the crime rate had gotten in only the last few days. To make matters worse, Videl came rushing into class twenty minutes late, her clothes tattered and her hair disheveled. After a brief explanation to the teacher about a hold up, she turned and gave Gohan a mean glance that said, "We're talking about this."
He braced himself throughout the day, getting ready for the worst from the girl. But at lunch things were to get more confusing. For some strange reason, Piccolo had decided to come and land on the roof of the building, knowing that Gohan would sense him and come to see what was up. When he did, Piccolo grabbed him by his ear and dragged him behind the opening that came from the inside.
"What do you think you're doing?!" he hissed at Gohan.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't give me that crap, I know you know what I'm talking about!" was the response. "Stop being such an idiot! Why the hell would you pull something like that, anyway?! I can't believe you!!!"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Damn it, Gohan, stop denying it! I know that you know what I'm talking about and if you don't knock it off, you don't wanna know what I'm gonna do to you!" He flew off in a mad rage, Gohan standing there in shock.
Still wondering about Piccolo, he totally forgot that Videl was going to confront him. While getting his things together in his locker, a tap on his shoulder reminded him of his impending doom. He turned around to see Videl standing there with a look on her face that would have killed lesser men.
"Well," she began, slowly, "where have you been?"
"Uh, yeah, um, that, uh, I can explain..."
"You'd better...."
"Well, um, uh, er, (cough), ahem..."
"I'm waiting..."
"Yeah, um, you see, uh..."
"For Kami's sake, Gohan, what the hell is going on?!"
"Well, um, Videl, uh, it's kinda... you see, my... my... mom kinda won't let me..."
"...Is that the best excuse you can up with?! Leaving me to fight off all these thugs by myself?! Why the hell do I even bother with you?!"
"But Videl, I'm not..."
"I don't wanna hear it, you self righteous, no good, stinking, son of a..."
"Videl!! Why would I lie to you?"
"Why would you lie to me? WHY WOULD YOU LIE TO ME?!!!!! I think I know why!! Don't have time any more, do you? Too busy with that all important school work, or maybe it's your girlfriend from across the street!"
"Videl, I live in the middle of no where."
"So?! I know you don't care anymore! Just leave the poor little girl to fight off all the bad guys now that your done with her! I hate you, you bastard!" She stormed off, leaving Gohan standing there without any words.
Gohan had stayed home from school the last four days to think everything over. The pictures of everyone yelling at him were still as clear as they were when they had happened. And once he had gotten home that night, things were even worse.
Videl's outburst had taken a substantial amount of time, and the time it took him to get over it made him even later to getting home. When he arrived, Chi Chi was ready to skin him alive. And, even more horrible, Krillin and his family just happened to be over that night, and had heard Chi Chi's entire side of the story already.
"Gohan!" Chi Chi exclaimed, knowing that she would have to watch her language due to the presence of children. "What did I tell you last week? WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!"
"Uh, be home by five or I don't get dinner...."
"That's right, young man! And what time is it now? WHAT TIME IS IT?!!!!!"
"Six-thirty, ma'am," he replied meekly.
"What is wrong with you?! Why don't you ever listen to me?! What were you doing out that late, anyway? Fighting the stupid idiots in the city?! Or maybe you were off on a date with your girlfriend!!"
"Um, Mom, I kinda had a bad day, so if you would just..."
"Oh, your day's gonna be nothing compared to what I'm gonna do with you!! Now, go to your room and I don't want to hear another peep out of you for the next week, do you understand me?!"
Gohan turned and looked at Krillin and 18, who were both scowling at him (though that was what 18 normally did anyway). Goten looked really scared and Marron really confused. "Yes, ma'am," he replied, and slowly walked to his room.
"Oh, yes, and Gohan," Chi Chi finished calmly.
"Yes?"
"No food and no school for a week either! Ha!!!!" Gohan hung his head. He hadn't really planned on going to school anyway, but that food thing was going to be tough. He took one last glance at his father's angry best friend and his wife and went into his room.
"Why does everyone suddenly hate me?" he said, trying not to cry. "What did I do to them?"
One good thing did happen after that. About an hour later, the door opened a crack and Goten's head poked through. "Gohan," he began, "what's wrong with Mom?"
"I don't know," he replied. "I think she's just in one of her moods again."
"Well, why is everyone else in her mood?"
"I don't know, bro. I think a lot of things got messed up and now Mom, Krillin, the Brief's, Piccolo, and Videl all hate me."
"Why do Videl and Piccolo hate you?"
"I'm not sure. Well, Videl's mad because Mom won't let me help her fight people anymore and I don't know what's wrong with Piccolo."
Goten gave his brother a big hug. "I still love you."
"Thanks, Goten," he said, with a slight smile finally coming to his face. "I love you, too."
"Oh oh oh!" Goten suddenly exclaimed, jumping up and down excitedly. "And I'll sneak you food every day, I promise!"
Gohan smiled a little more. "Thanks, bro," he said, messing up his little sibling's hair. Goten laughed a little bit. "Now, you better get out of here before Mom sees you or we'll both be in trouble, okay?"
"Okay!" Goten replied, and ran out of the room. He took one last glance in. "Good night, Gohan!"
"Good night," he replied softly, and finally laid down to sleep.
Goten had kept true to his word, but Gohan could still not be comforted. Having absolutely no contact with the people who had been upset with him, he had no idea what any of them were thinking. In the last four days of pondering all this, he had finally made a decision. He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a long message on it, then opened his window and flew off. He didn't look back. He knew that he couldn't if he was going to do this.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Videl came rushing up to the Son residence and knocked on the door. Chi Chi answered.
"Oh, hello, Videl!" Chi Chi said. "How are you doing?"
"I've got to talk to Gohan," she said breathlessly. "I said some pretty awful stuff to him the other day and I've been feeling horrible ever since."
Chi Chi looked down at the floor. "I hate to admit it, but I've done the same thing. I've been keeping him in his room for the last few days. I was actually going to let him out in a little bit. Why don't you go up and talk to him?"
"Thank you so much, Chi Chi, I will," Videl replied, and ran toward Gohan's room.
"Gohan?" she called as she opened the door. No one was to be seen. The window was left open and there was a piece of paper sitting on the desk. Videl picked it up and read a little of it. Her eyes widened and the paper slipped out of her fingers.
It took her a while to find her voice. "... Chi Chi!" she finally exclaimed, running down toward his mother. Goten next awoke to the sound of his mother screaming. Getting out of bed immediately, he saw her and Videl talking and crying about something. He ran into his brother's room and looked at the paper on the floor.
"Oh no," he said after scanning it for a while. "This is horrible! I really wish I could read so I knew what was so bad about it!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Gohan was flying; to where, he didn't know. But he knew that he must not be found by any one lest they try and stop him. This was his decision, and nobody would care from the way he had been treated these last two weeks. He continued flying until he found the most remote, most desolate place on the planet.
"This is it," he said to himself, looking around. "This is where I'll be spending the rest of my life." He went over to a rock and sat down, trying to sense the others' power levels in case they were on his tail. No one was headed in his direction. He sighed with relief. He knew they wouldn't come for him anyway, even if they knew where he was, though. As far as Gohan was concerned, for some reason he still didn't know yet and probably never would, everyone hated him.
"I'll be better off without them, and they me," he thought. "I'll sit here for a while before I do anything else, just to make sure they can't find me."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Everyone had gathered at the Son residence after Chi Chi called them all to get over there immediately. They were all assuming that Goten had learned the first letter of the alphabet or something and that she just wanted to show him off, but none of them were prepared for what they saw.
Chi Chi was knelt over on the floor, dissolved in tears. Videl was trying to comfort her, but not faring much better than she in the whole crying thing. Goten still didn't know what was going on, but looked very worried.
"It's all my fault!" Chi Chi was screaming. "I should have never been so hard on him, and now he's GONE!"
"What's wrong, Chi Chi?" Bulma asked quickly. Chi Chi could only hand her the paper, her words now unable to be made through her incessant screaming. Bulma looked at the letter, her eyes getting wider as she read.
"Oh... oh no!" she said, sounding as if she, too, was on the verge of tears. "This... this is just terrible!"
"What's wrong, Bulma?" asked Krillin, trying to read over her shoulder.
"It... it's Gohan..."
"What, did he run away or something?"
Bulma, too depressed and lost in thought, handed Krillin the paper so he could read it for himself. As some people are prone to do, he read it aloud so everyone else could figure out what had the women so upset.
"Hello everyone," it said. "I know that you probably won't even care, so I'll make this as brief as possible. It has occurred to me that over the last few days, all of you have suddenly begun to hate me. Though I don't know what I did, I've decided to get out of all of your lives forever..."
"He did run away," Piccolo said (of course he's there! Just call 1-800-777-O GOD).
"No, wait," Krillin said as everyone crowded around him. "There's more."
"Since I could not think of a more appropriate way to do this considering the reactions all of you give me whenever I see you, I will be dead before the sun sets today. I don't know when, where, or how just yet; even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. But the why is obvious. The fact that you all hate me is good enough reason for me. I will not be bothering any of you ever again if it clears your minds. Tell Goten thank you for all of his love, but that it wasn't enough to over come what I was getting from everyone else.
Gohan."
The girls were still crying. Goten had also joined in on this, especially after the last sentence. Krillin, Piccolo, and Trunks all hung their heads after realizing what they had done. Even 18 was showing signs of worry, though Marron (as usual) still looked confused.
Vegeta pondered everything for a moment. "Wait a minute," he said. "Who's going to back me up if we ever have a battle?! Are we all going to stand here whimpering like sissies or are we going out to find him?"
Everyone else, shocked by his suggestion, thought for a second. "He's right!" Piccolo exclaimed. "We can still stop him if we go after him now! Let's get moving!" All those who could flew off, while Bulma stayed behind to comfort Chi Chi and watch Marron.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Gohan looked at the sky, for what he planned to be the last time. He took a good look around once again, making the most of his last few minutes on earth. Once he had taken in all he wanted to, he turned to face the widest open space he could find at the time.
"Goodbye, world," he thought. "Goodbye Krillin, Piccolo, Bulma, Trunks, Mom and Goten. Goodbye, Videl. Maybe we'll all meet again." Gohan readied his hands.
"Ka- me--ha---me----HA!" he exclaimed, while firing the most powerful blast his ability could allow him to. As it shot off through the emptiness, Gohan dashed in front of it. The wave grew closer and closer, until it was only a second away...