Disclaimer: None of the things you recognize belong to me. DBZ and everything involved with it belongs to Akira Toriyama. Anything you don't recognize belongs to me.
Warnings for this chapter: Only the temper of the ever charming Piccolo to beware of here.
Chapter II: Teaching the Basics.
761 A.D. October the 12th.
Piccolo, in the mean time, had taken both Saiyans with him to where he knew they would be able to train in peace. Not that he expected anything useful to come out of the two children. They were pampered and spoiled, weaklings sheltered by their mommy. Piccolo snorted in disgust.
'I took them with me to train them, but I've more than likely just suckered myself into babysitting them,' he thought irritably.
He dumped the two black-haired toddlers on the ground and resolved himself to take things one step at a time. If Radditz had been any indication of the Saiyans' strength, he would never be able to defeat them on his own. 'Now that Son Goku has gotten his fool self killed,' Piccolo smirked a little at that, 'it looks like these two are the only hope I've got.'
-----
Gohan blinked as awareness returned to him. Slowly the memories returned and he cried out as he realized what had happened. He shot up faster than he should have and nearly fell down again, but stayed on his feet. He needed to find his sister. He glanced around and saw her, crying out again as he ran to her.
She was sitting up, looking around groggily as she tried to determine where she was. There was a terrible pain coming from somewhere. 'And I'm cold, and hungry, and...' Chiara's thoughts stopped when she saw Gohan, a relieved smile crossing her face, a smile that was quickly erased when she saw who was standing behind her brother. Gohan turned around and saw him as well, and they both swallowed hard at the sight of the glare on Piccolo's face.
"If you two are quite done sleeping," Piccolo ground out. "It's time to start training."
"Training?" Chiara repeated in a small voice.
"Yes, training," Piccolo snapped. "Now get up."
Chiara tried to do so but quickly fell down, and even with Gohan's help, she didn't manage to stay upright. Piccolo growled as she fell down again.
"What is the matter with you?" he barked at her.
Chiara flinched away from him, scared to death of the very large green monster standing in front of her.
"I can't get up," Chiara whimpered.
"Why not?" Piccolo ground out.
Chiara sniffed as she looked at her ruined tail, it was hurting more than she had known was possible. More than the time she had had her hand caught in the door, more even than the time she had fallen and bumped her head on the table.
Piccolo looked at Chiara's tail and when he saw the state it was in, he swore softly. 'No wonder it hurts.' He stepped forward, ignoring the fear on the small Saiyan girl's face, and grabbed hold of her tail. Chiara screamed as he grabbed it and wailed when he pulled it off. Gohan immediately stepped in front of her, instinctively wanting to fight Piccolo to protect his sister, although he too had started to cry.
"Shut up," Piccolo yelled.
Both children fell silent, tears still streaming down their little faces.
"The pain's gone now," Piccolo barked. "Now be quiet."
Chiara hiccuped as she contemplated her now missing tail and realized that the big green man was right. It no longer hurt. She wiped her face with her small hands and smiled slightly as she looked up at Gohan, whose tears were slowing now that his sister had stopped.
Gohan laughed slightly as he helped his sister get up, but when he let her go she fell down again. She tried again with the same result and tears rose in her eyes as she realized she couldn't get up.
"What's wrong?" Gohan asked, his small face pinched with worry.
"I can't stand," Chiara whimpered.
A growl from above startled the twins and they both looked up to see Piccolo glaring down at them.
"You can stand just fine," he snapped. "Your balance is off, that's all."
He none too gently picked Chiara up and walked to the side of the cliff, closely following by a protesting Gohan.
"Hey, where are you taking her?" Gohan cried, running after them.
Piccolo ignored him and roughly placed Chiara on a small ledge.
"Stay there," Piccolo ordered, before turning away.
Gohan quickly backed away as Piccolo turned around and walked to him, a glare on his face.
"Now, let's get started," Piccolo said, the menace that dripped off his voice startling Gohan into falling backwards onto his backside.
Gohan swallowed hard before putting on a brave face. "Okay."
-----
761 A.D. October the 14th.
Piccolo sighed in exasperation as he settled down at the campfire he had just built. Both Saiyan children were fast asleep, both recuperating, or trying to, from their training. The day had gone slightly better than Piccolo had expected it to and he knew that was all he could hope for.
The day he had brought the twins to the remote area they were now camping in, he had trained only Gohan. It had been the single most exasperating experience in Piccolo's life. The little boy had been clueless as to what Piccolo wanted, and had gotten on Piccolo's last nerve.
He had tried everything to get the boy to do something, anything, but it had been hopeless. He was too scared or too dumb – Piccolo thought it was probably both – to do anything. Piccolo had called it quits for the day when it started to rain, and had barked at the two of them to go to sleep after throwing them a newly made cape. They had thanked him for the cape and he had told them to shut up.
'It wasn't a gift,' Piccolo thought in disgust as he threw another branch on the fire. 'I just don't need them to freeze to death.'
The twins had huddled together at the fire he had constructed as Piccolo brooded over what he had gotten himself into. As he was wondering whether he would ever get anything out of them, he was suddenly hit by a brilliant and positively evil idea, an idea that came to him when he saw Gohan trying to keep Chiara warm by sacrificing his part of the cloak.
'So the little brat's protective instinct is that strong, huh?' Piccolo thought with a smirk, before chuckling quietly. 'Perfect.'
The next day he had executed his idea. Picking on Chiara to get Gohan to do something. It had worked, the boy had flown at him, and though he hadn't been able to do any damage, the attempt was enough to satisfy Piccolo. More picking on Chiara had meant another outburst from Gohan, until finally Piccolo pushed him too far and the burst of energy coming from Gohan had nearly knocked him off his feet.
Seeing he was finally getting somewhere with Gohan, Piccolo continued to train the boy throughout the day, but the next day, it was Chiara's turn. How was he going to get her to do anything?. He decided to just try and get her to do what he had wanted Gohan to do all along. 'Who knows?' he had snorted to himself. 'The squirt might have more brains in her than her little brother.'
The training session that followed had been slightly more satisfying than Gohan's initial session. He had told the twins to get up that morning and had told Gohan to stand back as he prepared to work with Chiara.
"Pay attention," Piccolo said gruffly. "Close your eyes and focus on your energy."
Chiara didn't quite know how to do what he told her to but she was too scared to say so, so she closed her eyes and tried to find energy inside of her.
"Raise your arm forward," Piccolo said.
"Which one?" Chiara asked softly.
"Doesn't matter," Piccolo barked, making Chiara jump.
She trembled as she raised her left arm forward and tried once more to find her energy.
"Gather your energy and channel it through your arm," Piccolo said.
"How?" Chiara asked in a trembling voice.
"You'll know how," Piccolo snapped. "Just do it."
Chiara's lip wobbled as she did as she was told and concentrated on finding her energy. She felt something change inside of her and as it spun its way through her, she lost her concentration and dropped her arm.
"What are you doing?" Piccolo demanded. "Why did you stop?"
"I got scared," Chiara sniffled. "I've never done this before."
"And you never will if you don't stop your whining," Piccolo barked.
At those words, and for the first time ever, Chiara's temper flared. "Well, if you'd stop barking at me," Chiara snapped, before clasping a hand over her mouth.
She expected Piccolo to snarl at her again, maybe even hit her, but he did neither. He just smirked and crossed his arms.
"That's the proper spirit, kid," Piccolo said quietly before yelling, "Now do as I say, raise your left arm and channel your energy through it."
Chiara spun away from Piccolo and raised her left arm. She once again found the energy inside of her and channeled it through her arm, this time hanging tough. Piccolo could feel her energylevel going up, and although it was still weak, he knew it would be substantially higher by the time they were done.
Chiara's hand started glowing and she trembled as the foreign feeling spread throughout her body but before long she had quite a large energyball in her hand.
"Good," Piccolo said approvingly. "Now release the ball into that mountain."
"Uh..." Chiara said nervously. "I don't know if I can."
Piccolo went to bark at her again but Gohan cut in.
"Don't worry, Chi, I'm right behind you. Just let it go," Gohan said.
Chiara smiled at the sound of her brother's voice and fired the ball at the mountain with all the strength she could muster. It didn't go all the way through the mountain but it left a big hole nonetheless. Chiara turned to look at Piccolo and as she gazed up at him, craning her head all the way back to be able to do so, she wondered what he was thinking. Piccolo just stared back, his expression emotionless.
"Was it any good?" Chiara asked hesitantly.
"It was good enough," Piccolo said simply. "Certainly good enough for your first energy ball."
Before long both Chiara and Gohan were practicing their energy balls and their martial arts. As they sparred with eachother, Gohan dominating for the most part, despite his efforts to be gentle with his sister, Piccolo looked on, deep in thought. 'Such a strange mixture these two are,' Piccolo thought, 'the belly-aching of a Human, and the brutality of a Saiyan. Maybe they wont be such a waste of time after all.' Piccolo snorted in disgust at his own thoughts. 'Yeah, and maybe they'll actually stop whining some day.'
-----
Note: I hope I've succeeded in portraying Piccolo properly. He's not exceptionally difficult to write, not like Vegeta is at times, but he's still a very complicated character.
