Gohan was on the floor paralyzed by fear while Cell was killing everyone around him starting off with his father. He tried to stand up and fight but he just couldn't do it, it felt like someone was holding him down on the ground. All he could see was Cell mercilessly beating all his friends to death, all he could hear was the screams coming from all them and laughter coming from Cell. Cell was having the time of his life right now as he was proceeding to toy with Piccolo who was trying his best to fight the android off, there was no point in this and Piccolo knew that he was completely outmatched but he was not about to go out without a fight. Cell then got bored of Piccolo and finished him off then moved to fight Vegeta, Trunks decided he was gonna try to help his father fight but it was no use, Cell made quick work of them. First finishing off Vegeta with a Big Bang Attack just to add insult to injury and he a Buster Cannon at Trunks with the intent on killing him just as the attack hit Trunks and Gohan heard his scream of agony he woke up. Looking around to see where he was Gohan realized he was in his room, he felt a small sense of relief at the familiar surroundings of books, although he was dripping in cold sweat and was shaking from his nightmare he felt safe for the first time in a while. Gohan had only been sleeping about an hour before he woke up but he wasn't about to go back to sleep and risk finishing that dream, he couldn't really think about why he was having nightmares about Cell he was dead now him and his father made sure of that but he decided that he would think about that later and decided to go fishing to clear his mind and get some food.
Gohan flew for a short while until he found the body of water he was looking for a relatively small pond compared to some other ponds spread throughout the mountains, but he and his dad always seemed to have good luck at this 1 so he came here. Both to hopefully catch a big fish and to just try and process everything that has happened to him in the past 24 hours, he lost his dad for good this time around he almost lost his life and almost caused the death of the whole planet by not taking Cell out right away. Right now Gohan just needed some time away from everything to just sort through all these events. He finally caught a fish that he decided was big enough for him and his mother and started on his way home, it was only a few hours but he figured his mom would be worried that he didn't leave a note or anything saying where he was going so he decided to get home as fast as possible to avoid her getting mad. 10 minutes later he arrived home with the giant fish and to his surprise Chi-Chi was standing in the kitchen acting like it was another ordinary day, just humming a song while cleaning up the place until she noticed Gohan had arrived home that is. "Hi honey" Chi-Chi greeted Gohan in an unusually calm voice "where did you go?" she asked in a curious tone. "I went fishing so we could have a nice lunch." Gohan said in as cheerful of a voice as he could muster not wanting to upset his mother who seemed to be in a good mood. "Oh, well did you catch anything?" Chi-Chi asked with even more curiosity in her voice now, "yea I did I only managed to get 1 but it should be big enough for both of us." Gohan said laughing. "Good I'll get started making lunch you gotta be hungry, after all, it's been a while since you last ate right?" Chi-Chi asked as she started making her way out the door not even waiting for a reply while she went to go start processing the fish Gohan had caught.
The next few weeks went by much the same with Chi-Chi being in a very happy mood and Gohan slowly coming to terms with his dad deciding to stay dead although Gohan still wished he would come home but he understood why Goku couldn't. He couldn't argue that most of the people that have come to earth have been there for his father with a few exceptions. Gohan was finally becoming his happy self again he even started studying like his mother wanted him to, life was beginning to become normal again except for one thing he was still having nightmares almost nightly about Cell. Sometimes these nightmares consisted of Cell killing everyone around him other times Cell was just standing there taunting him. On one particularly bad night, he was being forced to watch as Cell would torture the people around him that couldn't defend themselves, civilians, his mother, Bulma no one was safe from the monster. Luckily Gohan woke up before things got too bad, although on that night he woke up in his Super Saiyan form. That was enough for him to get help it's been almost a month he couldn't even understand why he was having these nightmares still.
Gohan got done his studying before lunch and then went to see his mother to ask if he could go visit Piccolo on the lookout. "NO, YOU CAN NOT!" Chi-Chi screamed off the top of her lungs "you have to do your studying today, and besides I don't want you hanging around him he's the one that kidnapped you! Chi-Chi didn't yell the last part but her voice was very clear, calm and authoritative. "But mom Piccolo is my friend and he saved my life countless times!" Gohan pleaded to his mother, "besides I already completed all my studying for today anyway so it's not like I'm just blowing it off" he was waiting for the onslaught from his mother that never came. After a few minutes of silence Chi-Chi decided to be the one to break it, first with a sigh then by talking "alright I guess if you want to go that bad and your work is already done then there's no stopping you, but be warned if I go over your work and there are any mistakes you will be doing double the amount tomorrow." Chi-Chi said in a defeated voice. Gohan said thank you then ran out the door before she had a chance to change her mind, the second he was out the door he blasted off into the sky straight towards the lookout. He was getting close when he started to sense Piccolo "Piccolo must be training, or else I wouldn't be able to sense him." Gohan thought to himself, and sure enough, when he arrived he saw Piccolo sparring with a body double. The second Gohan stepped foot on the lookout Piccolo fired a masenko at him which Gohan wasn't expecting but managed to narrowly avoid the blast. "What was that about Piccolo!" Gohan yelled at him, "you know I don't like being disturbed while training so what did you expect." Piccolo replied with a smirk. "What brings you here anyways kid?" The Namekian asked, "just wanted to see if maybe you could help with a problem?" Gohan asked looking at the ground and rubbing his head not really sure if he should ask for help anymore. "What do you need help with? You're the strongest out of all of us?" Piccolo asked Gohan in his normal monotone. "Well, strength wise I might be, but not mentally." Gohan managed to get through that sentence a lot easier than he thought he would be able to. "You want help calming your mind." Piccolo stated more than asked, "yea if you wouldn't mind helping I would be extremely thankful Piccolo!" Gohan was very excited to get started and was now bearing that signature son smile with his right hand behind his head. "Sure thing kid" Piccolo replied without any emotion in his voice "but first you have to tell me what is causing the problem so I know what we have to focus on" Piccolo spoke with an even clearer voice than usual now that he was in teacher mode. Gohan sighed but then started to explain everything to his mentor "I've been having nightmares every night about Cell. I thought they would go away eventually but they just seem to be getting worse as time goes on." he did his best to try and keep a monotone voice just like Piccolo has always done but he couldn't help his voice breaking during the sentence. Piccolo just nodded in response as he seen a look of fear and determination in his student's eyes, a few moments passed and Piccolo said: "let's get started".
"First things first you need to clear your mind of every single thought" Gohan did as he was told when Piccolo spoke up again "now think about one of these dreams and focus on it as hard as you can". Once again Gohan did as he was told but as he started to think about the nightmares he started shaking from fear "Don't let something as stupid as fear stop you Gohan!" Piccolo yelled at his student and that seemed to do it for Gohan as a new look of determination took over instead of fear. "I'm not about to lose to some stupid dream," Gohan thought to himself before refocusing on the dream, "Good now just banish the dreams and thoughts from your mind!" Piccolo once again order. A few moments passed by with Gohan looking like he was struggling doing what he was told this time around, sweat was literally pouring off of him as he tried to banish all the nightmares out of his head but he just couldn't do it no matter how hard he tried he just kept failing. After about an hour of trying to rid these nightmares Piccolo him to stop for now to which Gohan happily obeyed, his body now feeling exhausted like he just went 12 rounds with his dad again like they used to in the time chamber. Gohan sighed at the thought of his dad and looked up to the sky and said "I'm sorry I failed you dad, and I'm failing you again now you must be so disappointed in me, even in death I am letting Cell continue his path of terror. At least its only on me this time." as tears started to well up in his eyes he heard someone coming from behind him "I figured you must be hungry so I made some food for you, it's in the main room." he heard Mr. Popo say to him before retreating back the way he came. That was Gohan's daily routine for about a month until he one day managed to actually banish all the thoughts and nightmares about Cell from his mind. Doing this didn't completely take away all the nightmares but it made them a lot
less frequent, only happening about once every week or two. "That's all I got left to show you, kid." Piccolo told his student "just keep meditating like that as often as possible and you should be good, you can even raise your power level by meditating once you're good enough I'll show you how" Piccolo said hoping that his promise of raising his power would keep Gohan interested in meditating. "Wow really?! You promise you'll show me?" Gohan asked with a huge grin on his face, he couldn't wait to grow stronger than he already was.
Authors Notes.
I am really enjoying writing this a lot can't wait until I have time to write the next chapter.
if you find any mistakes or have any questions or comments I'm sure you know what to do, I will be looking forward to your reviews and opinions on what I can do better!