* Finding Pain *
He wasn't sleeping very well.
He couldn't really help it even though he knew it was making his mother worry, something he always hated to do. As far as he was concerned, he'd caused Son Chi-chi enough grief without making her fuss even more. Piccolo too, but unlike his mother the Namekian wasn't fooled when Gohan blamed his restlessness on having too much extra energy now that his body wasn't constantly forced to keep up with a Super Saiyan transformation. Thankfully, Piccolo also didn't push Gohan to talk about the nightmares that plagued him every night since his father's death.
Gohan really didn't want to talk about his nightmares. He tried his best to stay upbeat and cheerful for his worried friends and family during the day, but in the cover of darkness when exhaustion finally overwhelmed the young half saiyan, the guilt and pain he tried so hard to mask sank their claws deep into his subconscious and tormented him night after night. After a week of waking up chocking back screams or blinking away tears, Gohan finally began to realize that he wasn't going to shake the dreams this time.
So he began trying to find ways to avoid his dreams, pushing off sleep for as long as possible and getting his rest in brief spurts throughout the day, naps that were too short to be truly restful, but also too quick for him to start dreaming. At night, after his mother had finally drifted off, Gohan left his bed behind and flew. He never had a destination in mind. He just wanted to fly. Feeling the wind in his face as the ground blurred past him hundreds of feet below was somehow therapeutic. He tried to keep his energy as low as possible and steer clear of the other warriors, but sometimes he sensed himself being tailed on his nightly extrusions. Usually by Krillen, who was closest to him, but Yamcha had followed him a few times too, and Tien as well.
Most surprising of all was when Vegeta had taken flight after him.
None of the warriors ever approached him as he flew. Mostly because whenever Gohan sensed them getting too close, he picked up speed until he lost them. Vegeta hadn't been easy to shake the one night he tried to follow the young half saiyan, forcing Gohan to go Super Saiyan 2 in order to lose the prince. In retrospect, that probably wasn't smart considering how proud Vegeta was and how much it would bruise his ego to be outstripped by a half saiyan who didn't even like fighting, but Gohan really couldn't bring himself to care much about Vegeta's ego. Not when he was trying so hard to escape the reminders of what he had done. Not when his home was so conspicuously missing his father's ki.
Closing his eyes, Gohan put in an extra burst of speed, the wind rushing past him at a speed that would kill a normal human, but still not fast enough to shake those thoughts. As much as he tried to pretend otherwise, and avoided talking about it with the others, the loss of Goku still felt like a fresh wound to his half saiyan son, one which hurt more when people tried to get him to talk about it. He knew his friends were all worried, and that they only wanted to help him, but he just couldn't deal with the pain of talking about his father every time someone came to see him.
I don't want to forget him. Gohan thought sadly as he slowed down to a more reasonable speed. But remembering hurts so much. I just wish things could be different.
Unfortunately, that was one wish even the dragonballs couldn't grant.
Sighing quietly, Gohan turned his eyes to the horizon before him, where the first light of dawn was just starting to appear. He'd circled the globe three times in the last few hours, and was now nearing his home on Mt. Paotzu again. If he wasn't back before his mother woke up, Chi-chi would worry and send Krillen out to find him. With that thought in mind, Gohan turned back into the direction of his house, where he could sense his mother's ki still dampened by the weight of sleep.
Just as he was about to jet back to the little house that seemed far too big without his father's presence, a familiar scent wafted up to the half saiyan's nose, making him freeze in midair.
Blood.
Human blood.
Snapping back around, Gohan followed his nose down to the earth, through the canopy of the trees to land on the ground. Looking around in the dim light, the half saiyan's eyes landed on a crumpled form lying amongst broken tree branches and leaves some ten feet away. Gohan approached warily, his stomach turning.
The smell of blood was practically overwhelming.
Gingerly, Gohan brushed aside a lock of hair to inspect the face of the person he'd found, grimacing at the sight that greeted him. The person he'd found was a girl, but the only reason he could tell that was because half her hair was still caught up in a pigtail. The other half appeared to have come free, allowing her inky black tresses to fall around her. She was so bruised that Gohan almost had trouble believing that her skin wasn't naturally blue and purple, and where were cuts and lacerations all over her face, including an especially nasty one on her lip. Her teeth had been stained red with blood, which was starting to seep out of the corner of her mouth, and blood was also dripping out of her nose, which appeared to have been broken.
Judging from the angles some of her limbs were at now, it probably wasn't her only broken bone either.
And yet, despite all of that, much to the amazement of the young half saiyan, somehow or another she was still breathing. And from her chest, Gohan could hear the girl's heart still beating weakly to try and pump precious blood through her injured body.
"Whoa." Gohan said under his breath. Fortunately for her, he was used to the grim and gory sights that came with war, so her appearance didn't phase him as much as it would've someone else. "Something did a number to you, huh?" glancing up, Gohan frowned at the sight of freshly broken branches on the trees above, one of which had a tattered rope hanging limply from it, swaying innocently in a passing breeze. The girl must've fallen from quite a height, to have sustained such injuries, but he hadn't seen any planes or helicopters or anything in the air above when he was flying, and there weren't any signs of a crash nearby.
Shaking his head, Gohan decided that figuring out where the girl had come from would have to wait until later. She wasn't going to last much longer if someone didn't help her fast. Peeling off his shirt, Gohan began tearing the fabric into long strips, which he used to bind the girl's injuried the best he could. It wasn't much, but it would at least last until he could get her back to his home, where their well-stocked first aid room would once again come in handy.
Now came the tricky part; getting the patient to the care she so desperately needed.
Gohan didn't dare pick her up, as bad as she was injured. If he tried moving her, he'd probably only make things worse. Leaving her along to the elements and wildlife so he could get a stretcher wasn't a good idea either, since he could already sense animals lurking out of sight, drawn to the scent of the girl's blood just as he was. He was fast, but he still didn't want to take the chance of something hungry happening upon the girl while he was gone. He could try building a stretcher out of what was available to him, but that would take time, which the girl was rapidly running out of.
I could always try that… Gohan thought, frowning. He'd seen Piccolo, Krillen and his dad do it, and always thought it looked like an interesting technique. Piccolo had explained it to him once, but Gohan had never tried it himself, so he didn't know it he could actually pull it off. Guess there's no time like the present to find out.
Stepping away from the fallen girl, Gohan held both hands out in front of him, fingers spread, and concentrated his ki all around the girl's body. Focusing, Gohan willed the energy to obey him. Slowly, the girl rose into the air, her injured body cushioned by the half saiyan's ki. Carefully, Gohan mentally urged the floating girl forward, and to his undying relief his energy obeyed with little effort. Determination swelled in Gohan as he pushed onward as quickly as he dared with the girl, headed toward his house.
He might not have been able to save his father, but maybe, just maybe, he could do something to help this girl.
As soon as Gohan was within sight of his house, Son Chi-chi was out the front door and storming towards him with a scowl on her face that normally would've sent the half saiyan running. For the first time in his life though, Gohan was thrilled to see that look on his mother's face.
"And just where have you been, Son Gohan?!" Chi-chi demanded hotly. "Do you have any idea how worried I was when I-!" Whatever Chi-chi was going to say dissolved into a startled gasp when she finally saw the form floating next to her son.
"Mom." Gohan said, straining with the effort of keeping the girl floating for nearly two hours. "Get my bed ready. She's hurt really bad." To Gohan's undying relief, Chi-chi didn't question him, merely turned and hurried back into the house to prepare her son's room for their surprise guest.
As soon as the girl was safely on the bed, Gohan collapsed into his chair, darkness creeping into the edges of his vision. Chi-chi shot him a worried look, but pushed back on her urge to mother him. Whatever weakness Gohan had was only temporary, he'd recover soon enough. The little girl her boy had found, on the other hand, was in much worse shape.
"What on earth happened?" Chi-chi demanded.
"Don't know." Gohan confessed, shaking his head. "I found her all on her own in the forest, just like that. There weren't any villages or anything nearby, and it looked like she fell out of the sky or something."
"Fell out of the sky?" Chi-chi repeated, exasperated. "Gohan, children don't just fall out of the sky, you know better then that." Gohan raised his eyebrow minutely at that. "Don't give me that look, Son Gohan. You know what I mean." Turning back to the girl on the bed, Chi-chi frowned worriedly. "I really don't know how much we can do for this girl, though. She looks really bad Gohan, we might have to move her to a hospital in the city."
"She wouldn't survive if we move her that far." Gohan told his mother grimly. "Even bringing her here was cutting it pretty close. I had to keep sharing some of my ki with her to keep her heart from stopping." Chi-chi winced at that. No wonder Gohan was so drained when they finally got to the Son's home. Even for her super-powered son, something like that would be incredibly taxing, since his powers weren't geared towards healing.
"What about Dende?" Chichi asked. Gohan's eyes widened at the reminder of his Namekian friend. He'd forgotten all about the new Guardian of Earth.
"That's right!" Gohan exclaimed. "He's still pretty drained after all that Cell stuff, but he should be able to help!"
"We better get him down here fast though, I don't think this girl is going to last much longer without divine intervention." Chi-chi murmured, pulling away from the injured girl to snatch the phone off of the cradle. "I'm going to call Krillen and get him to go get Dende and come back here. Gohan, you-!" Before Chi-chi could finish, a blast of energy blew her hair around her wildly and sent papers flying from where they had been stacked neatly on her son's desk. Stomach dropping, Chi-chi turned around to find the window open, Gohan missing, and a glint of gold in the sky heading toward's the Lookout.
Dropping the phone, Chi-chi ran to the window scowling at the shine in the distance.
"Son Gohan, you get back here right this instant!" She screamed into the sky, to no avail. Sighing irritably, Chi-chi closed the window and turned back to their mystery foundling with a flat look. "Do yourself a big favor, sweetie." She told the prone form dryly. "Never have children with an alien. It's nothing but trouble." Shaking her head in dismay, Chi-chi left her son's room and opened the door to the small storage room, which she had turned into a rather impressive collection of first aid supplies that had proven all too necessary in keeping her husband and son alive.
That thought felt like a spear through the heart for the Son matriarch. Swallowing back a sob, Chi-chi ran her fingers gingerly over a bottle of disinfectant. Just months earlier, she'd used the very same bottle to treat some wounds Goku got sparring with Piccolo. She'd yelled at him at the time, furious over the black eye Gohan had gotten in that same training session. Just as she was demanding to know how Goku expected his son to study when he only had one good eye, her husband had surprised her by scooping her up into a hug. She had struggled for a bit, but eventually gave up fighting and settled against her husband's chest with an angry huff, which just made Goku chuckle before pressing a kiss against her neck.
"Everything will be fine, Chi-chi." He reassured her with utmost confidence. "I won't let anything bad happen to Gohan. Promise."
Idiot. Chi-chi now thought, wiping angrily at the tears the memory had brought. You stupid, stupid fool. How is Gohan even remotely okay with you dead?
How was she supposed to be okay, without her husband there?
Taking a deep breath, Chi-chi composed herself the best she could, blotting away the last of her tears with her apron. Grabbing the disinfectant and a few other necessities, Chi-chi left the first aid room, closing the door behind her a little harder then was really necessary. On her way back to her son's room, Chi-chi gave a frown in the direction of the kitchen, where the breakfast she'd prepared for her and her son were probably already starting to get cold. Sighing, Chi-chi decided that there was nothing she could do but serve her son a cold meal. After all, she wasn't sure she could just get back to cooking and pretend that some poor little girl wasn't lying at death's door in her son's bed. Her maternal instincts just wouldn't allow that.
Reentering Gohan's room, Chi-chi was unsurprised to find the girl in question lying exactly as she'd left her on the bed. Taking a rag and some warm water, Chi-chi began to gently clean away dirt and blood, her stomach turning as she inspected the child more closely.
Much like her husband and, unfortunately, her son, Chi-chi was no stranger to battle or injury, either to herself or others. She'd been hurt more then once herself training, and her superpowered husband and son had- unintentionally- injured her a few times, and she was quite accustomed to the task of patching up Goku, Gohan and even Piccolo after intense sparring sessions (the surly Namekian had always protested that he didn't need her help, but had never been able to escape the Son's home without his injuries treated to, to the undying amusement of both male Sons and his own silent irritation) But as a mother, something in her cried out at the sight of a child in such a sorry state.
She'd probably be really pretty if it wasn't for all the blood and bruises, too. Chi-Chi thought absently as she carefully undid the girl's last pigtail and began wiping the rag through her hair to clean it of matted blood, eyes sharp and hands gentle as she inspected the girl's scalp for injuries. As much as she loved her son and was proud of all his accomplishments, she couldn't deny that part of her had always longed for a little girl. Goku had picked up on this somehow, and the two of them had talked a little about the possibility of adding to their little family once more after Cell had been defeated.
It was a sweet sentiment, but unfortunately such a thing was no longer possible.
Smiling sadly, Chi-chi absently ran her fingers through the girl's hair a few times before reluctantly letting go to see to the rest of her injuries. Slowly but efficiently, Chi-chi cleaned the blood off of the girl's face, neck and upper torso, working her way downward and wincing every time she found a new injury or noticed another broken bone. It wasn't until she got to the girl's wrists, though, that she found something that made her heart stop.
Much like the rest of her body, the girl's wrists were bruised and broken. But there was something else to this injury as well, something that made the Son Matriarch tremble with blind rage.
Someone had tied this little girl up.
Someone who had better pray to whichever deity was twisted enough to listen to such a sick bastard that Son Chi-chi never, EVER found them.
