Hi all, we're back with another part of the Lantern Corps AU series! This part will cover from the end of the last story through the three years training to fight the androids. Which means we get Future Trunks in this one! Yay! Also a lot more rings. Like. A lot. You guys have no idea how many rings there are going to be it's insane send help.
son-gohans-light on Tumblr has waaaaay more info and art about this AU!

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

Full Summary: Just when Gohan's starting to get used to this whole Green Lantern thing, a young man from the future shows up, bringing with him terrible news, several years worth of problems, and a ring scarily similar to Gohan's...

Chapter 1: Look To the Stars

"So that's where that thing went."

Gohan could practically hear Kojass running a hand across its face on the other end of the line. About two days after Kojass had left, it demonstrated a ring function it'd forgotten to tell Gohan about: the communicator function. It nearly scared the pants off Gohan the first time Kojass's disembodied voice came through his ring, but now he was almost used to it. Kojass called him every few weeks to keep him updated on various Lantern news, particularly the search for Gohan's rogue ring. With Yamcha's return, though, it seemed that particular little mystery was solved.

"So what should we do with it?" Gohan asked. "Do you need to come get it?"

There was a long pause. "The Guardians may curse me for this, but I think it would be alright if you kept it."

"Are you sure?" he said, privately relieved. Now that Bulma had a second ring to research, one that practically lived with her, she'd eased up on dragging him out to her lab when he visited Capsule Corp.

"No," Kojass said merrily. "But what the Guardians don't know won't hurt them, and if you say this Yamcha person is a reliable ring candidate, then I trust you. But it'll be up to you, as creator of his ring and senior ring-bearer - " Gohan snorted at the idea of him being "senior" to anyone. He was still only six. "I know, I know," Kojass said, "it sounded silly as soon as I said it. But it will be your responsibility to train him and teach him about the Green Lantern Corps. Can you handle that?"

Gohan fidgeted. "Probably?"

"If there's anything you don't know," it said kindly, "you can always ask me."

Taking a deep breath, Gohan nodded, even though he knew Kojass couldn't see him. "Okay. I'll do my best."

"I do not doubt it." Even though he couldn't see it, he knew Kojass was smiling. "Say hello to your mother for me."

Chi-Chi ushered Gohan towards Dende. "Go play, honey. I need to go talk to Bulma."

Beaming, Gohan rushed off to where Dende was sitting with Cargo, listening to one of the older Namekians (what was his name again? Katatosho?) tell a story. Gohan sat next to Dende gently, smiling when Dende leaned over to press into his side briefly in greeting. The older Namekian nodded at Gohan to acknowledge him, but continued his story. "That was when the Grand Elder knew there was something special in this young Namekian. He helped him unlock his latent potential, and it was a good thing he did, because not long after that Kuji was offered the chance to join the Green Lantern Corps."

Gohan started. He hadn't realized exactly what the story was about. He glanced at Dende, whose eyes were flicking from Katatosho to Gohan's ring.

"Joining the Corps was a great honour, we were told," Katatosho continued, "and it was particularly fortunate that Kuji was of the Warrior clan. Someone from the Dragon clan might not have fared so well."

"Did Kuji ever come back after he left?" Cargo wanted to know.

Katatosho chuckled. "He did, several times! But not for the last fifty years or so. Apparently, there was some kind of crisis going on at the Lantern base that took up much of his time." He smiled sadly. "Before all that, though, he came to visit Namek as frequently as he could. Being the guardian of one planet is a hard job - being guardian of twenty star systems is another thing entirely!"

"I don't know how hard it would be to be a guardian of one planet," Dende piped up. "When we went to visit...um…" He looked at Gohan for help.

"His name is Kami," Gohan said.

"Kami," Dende said, "when we went to visit Kami it didn't look like his job was that hard."

"You shouldn't say that," Gohan admonished, but Katatosho just laughed aloud. "It's not funny," Gohan said indignantly, folding his arms. "You don't know what he does up there all day!"

Katatosho smiled down at him. "Do you?"

Gohan floundered. "That's...besides the point," he said, using one of Chi-Chi's favourite phrases.

"I'm not sure it is."

"What was the big emergency?" Cargo asked, apparently bored with arguing about what someone he didn't know did all day. "The one that kept Kuji from visiting? Is that why we never met him?"

"Yes, you younger ones never met him because he stopped coming home." Katatosho's face became sombre again, and he glanced towards the pod Bulma had built that now housed Kuji's body. Moori had insisted that they take him with them when they went to their new planet, whenever that would be, to bury him properly. According to Moori and Katatosho, that meant burying him and planting a tree over his burial site. It wouldn't be quite the same as burying him on his actual home planet, but it was better than burying him on a completely alien planet - at least this way his memorial would be around those who remembered him most. "He never went into specifics," Katatosho continued, "but he said the crisis was something that needed the attention of the entire Corps. Something to do with yellow." He shrugged. "I don't know what that was all about, but if he was leaving there they must've solved it."

Dende suddenly gripped Gohan's hand, the one bearing the ring, and locked eyes with him. "You will be careful when you join the Corps, right?"

Gohan blinked. "Well...yeah. Of course."

After searching his face for a moment, Dende nodded once, satisfied, though he didn't let go of Gohan's hand. "Good. You have to stay safe." His fingers brushed against Gohan's ring and he knew Dende was thinking about the fate of the last person to wear it.

"I will," he promised. Well. He'd do his best, anyway.

Dende had asked him to.

Chi-Chi barely glanced up at the giant glowing green dragon speeding past her window. She knew it was just a construct of her son's, and he knew to keep those away from the house. Ever since Yamcha had come back to life with a Green Lantern ring of his own, the two of them had been training together constantly, with Bulma complaining good - naturedly that Yamcha spent more time at the Son house than hers.

Oddly, Chi-Chi didn't mind this training as much as she did Gohan's martial arts training. Or perhaps it wasn't so odd - Piccolo wasn't involved, after all, and she knew Yamcha to be a respectable man (after all, he was friends with her husband) who would never subject Gohan to the harsh training that demon had. (She still didn't understand why Gohan liked him so much and insisted he was such a good person.) And when Gohan was using his Lantern powers, he tended to hang back and let his constructs do the fighting, so there was less chance of him getting hurt. All in all, if her baby boy was going to be fighting at all, this was the way to do it.

And his training with Yamcha was good for another reason as well. Chi-Chi glanced at the calendar on the kitchen wall as she stirred the soup she was making. Today made four months to the day since Goku had refused to come home. She missed him so much, and she knew Gohan did too. At least Gohan had Dende to play with and Yamcha and Piccolo (when he could convince her it was okay) to train with to help keep his mind off it.

She walked to the door of the house and leaned in the doorway to watch the two of them for a minute. Gohan still couldn't properly control larger constructs by himself, something that continued to frustrate him, but if he and Yamcha worked together at it they could get them under control. They'd both suited up for pracise, Yamcha insisting that they needed to wear the proper uniforms if they were going to train. Gohan didn't seem to mind, in fact he kept making changes to the uniform every couple of days. Adding or removing accents and patterns, mostly, but it made him happy.

Now Gohan was clinging to the construct Shenron's neck, laughing as he soared through the air while Yamcha directed from the ground. Yamcha grinned at her when he noticed her at the door. "Want a turn?" he asked.

Chi-Chi laughed. "I'll stick to the nimbus, thanks. Lunch is ready."

Yamcha nodded and looked up. "Gohan," he called up, "breaktime."

Construct Shenron disappeared as abruptly as the real Shenron did, and Gohan dropped to the ground, landing gently in front of the two adults. Chi-Chi's hand had flown to her chest when she saw her son dropping out of the sky and she glared at Yamcha. "You be careful with him! You can't just stop the construct he's riding on - what if he - "

"Mom," Gohan said.

"Not now, Gohan. What if he'd landed badly? Don't you - "

"Mom," Gohan said again, more forcefully. "It wasn't Yamcha's construct."

She paused. "I thought Yamcha was controlling it."

"I was," Yamcha said. "We both were. But it was Gohan's construct. He got to decide what it looked like and I just helped make it do what he wanted."

"Yamcha's really good at energy manipulation!" Gohan beamed. Yamcha blushed and curled a finger into his hair at the compliment. "So he's teaching me about it and I'm teaching him about all the stuff Kojass taught me."

Chi-Chi blinked, immediately feeling silly for lecturing someone she didn't need to. "Oh. Well. Be more careful, Gohan." Turning, she hurried back into the house to hide her embarrassment.

Yamcha wasn't far behind her. "I didn't think he'd just drop the construct entirely," he said. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head, sighing. "No, no, don't worry about it. I overreacted - Gohan's been flying so long now; I shoulda known he'd be fine."

Yamcha chuckled. "Well, it's only natural to worry about your family! Kami knows I worry about Puar and Bulma often enough."

Chi-Chi looked over her shoulder at him. Yamcha had switched off the ring, and was back in Turtle orange, hands in his pockets and an easy smile on his face. Shaking her head, she smiled as she hefted the enormous soup pot off the stove. "Well, it's good to know there's someone who understands. Enough of that - this soup ain't gonna eat itself!"

"Gohan, I have news."

Squawking and falling backwards were the only reason Gohan didn't get hit in the face by Piccolo. "Pay attention!" Piccolo growled. "We're supposed to be sparring, not gossiping with your coworkers!"

"Is that your Namekian friend?" Kojass's voice asked through Gohan's ring. "The grumpy one who acts like your parent when they aren't around?"

Piccolo flushed, which didn't surprise Gohan at all. "I do not!"

"Kojass," Gohan said, trying to change the subject, "you said you'd send a warning when you wanted to talk."

"I'm sorry, but this was important. I have two pieces of very big news."

Settling into a seated position in the air, Gohan looked up at Piccolo. "This may take a minute."

Piccolo huffed. "Fine. I'll be meditating. When you come back, your job is to try to catch me off guard and attack me. If you don't, I'm extending training time."

"That's not fair!" But Piccolo had already flown off in a huff. "Sorry about that," he said to Kojass. "He's grumpy, but he worries about me."

"I do not!"

Kojass laughed. "It may be best not to let him know you're onto him."

"You said you had news. Is it good news or bad news?"

Its voice became serious. "A little of both. The better news is that I found a planet for the Namekians to live on."

Gohan perked up. "Great! I'll go tell Dende; they'll be so…" He trailed off. "Glad." Dende would be leaving. He'd leave Earth and never come back. An emptiness gripped his chest.

"Yes, well, it's a little complicated." Kojass paused. "You see, the planet is a Green Lantern."

Gohan blinked. "Come again?"

"The planet itself. Sayux is its name. It's a living planet, a world protected by itself. Few have seen it in action, and fewer have survived the encounter."

"And you want the Namekians to live there?"

"Don't get me wrong," Kojass said hastily, "Sayux is a wonderful planet! Lush, full of life, peaceful. If Frieza were still alive, his army would have quite a hard time taking the Namekians down again if they lived on Sayux. And it volunteered for the job, which is incredibly rare. Sayux is a solitary sort."

"I can imagine."

"If you could relay the message, that would be fantastic. The only problem is I have no idea how they would all get there."

Gohan thought of the Dragon Balls and shrugged. "I think we can figure that out on our own."

He could almost hear Kojass smiling. "Good lad. You're quite resourceful, aren't you?" Gohan blushed with pride at the compliment. "Anyway, the second news." Kojass took a deep breath. "I believe I found your father."

Gohan's hand gripped his pant leg. "What?"

"Your father is a Saiyan with no tail? And massively powerful?"

His breathing went funny. "Y-yeah, that's my dad. Son Goku."

"The very same. Yellow hair, for some reason. I always thought all Saiyans had black hair. But no matter. I found him on Yardrat, a planet in my sector. I was on a routine patrol when the ring sensed him. I tried to convince him to go home to you."

"You didn't have to do that." His throat was starting to close up and he swallowed. He was going to cry and he had no reason to.

"It didn't work anyway. He said he had to stay away, it wasn't safe for him to go home yet. I believe his exact words were 'I could hurt someone without meaning to, and if I hurt my little boy my wife'd have my head.'"

"Super Saiyan," Gohan mumbled. "He...he can't really control it that good. Well. Can't control it that well."

"He was learning a few techniques - one to keep himself under control, and another one he didn't elaborate much on. I helped translate between him and the Yardrats for a bit before I left. But I felt you should know he was safe and would come home when he felt you would be, too."

Gohan nodded, digging his fingernails into his palm. "Okay."

"Gohan? Are you alright?"

"I miss him." The words were past his lips before Gohan could stop them. He'd hardly seen his father at all in the last two years, and when he did they were always surrounded by fighting and death. He wanted it to go back to the way it had been before - maybe he'd been spoiled, sure, and maybe he cried at the drop of a hat, but at least then his family had all been together.

"I know," Kojass said gently. "But - and I don't say this about many people, let alone those I just met - I trust Son Goku. He will come back to you, Gohan. And if he doesn't, I'll put him in a bubble and make him."

That startled a laugh out of Gohan. "Okay."

"Alright. You go find your mentor and surprise him else he gets impatient."

"Oh, Piccolo's been here the whole time." He grinned in triumph at the annoyed shout from a few trees over. "He worries."

Piccolo stomped around the tree. "At least your ki sense is getting better - I had it suppressed as low as it would go. Now hang up and fight me."

Kojass chuckled. "Good luck, Son Gohan," it said. "I think you might need it."

Gohan gripped Dende's hands and did his best not to cry. "I don't want you to go," he said.

"Neither of us have much choice," Dende replied quietly, squeezing Gohan's hands. "I'm going to miss you."

Sniffling, Gohan nodded. "Me too. I'll miss you too."

The others stood a little ways off, respecting the children's need for a goodbye. Moori shook hands with Bulma and her parents, thanking them for their hospitality, Chi-Chi kept a watchful eye trained on Gohan, Piccolo stood as far away from her as he could and observed disdainfully. It was time for the Namekians to go to their new planet, and Gohan wasn't going to see Dende again for a very long time. And Goku still hadn't come home.

"Maybe you can visit," Dende suggested. "When you're a full Green Lantern. You can come to Sayux and see everybody and we can play together again."

"That doesn't change that you're leaving now."

Dende pressed their foreheads together. "We'll see each other again, okay? Promise me."

Gohan put his arms around Dende in a hug. "Okay. I promise."

"Good." Dende looked up at Moori and Katatosho, who had come to join them. "Are we going?"

"Yes." Moori gave a small bow to Gohan. "We can't thank you enough for all you have done. Please pass our thanks along to your father as well, when he returns."

Gohan swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to smile back. "Yeah."

In a few seconds, the Namekians were all gone, Porunga had disappeared, and Gohan was crying into his mother's apron.