A.N

Chapter 2: Getting to Namek

Gohan stood at the bridge of a large spaceship as it flew at its top speed through the great dark void. It had been 2 days since they had left for Namek and Gohan knew that he was almost within flying distance, it should only be another day before he arrived close enough to his friends but he learned that the Saiyans knew of a planet only about as far from Earth as Namek but in a different direction. It was an inhabitable planet very similar to Earth. It was currently inhabited by some remnants of Freiza's Planet Trade Organisation, but it was very minimal and they planned to dispose of them easily and establish a connection with the Namekians and Earth. Though to do that they had to make contact with the Namekians and so opted to go to Namek with Gohan and so he had decided that he'd stay on their ship and train on the way.

At this Gohan decided he had taken a long enough break and radioed in with the scouter, "Going down to training section 2B." He told them and left the room, nodding to Jinto as he did so. Jinto nodded back and fell in step just behind Gohan following him. Jinto put on a proud face but deep down he was nervous since he knew how much stronger Gohan was than him. Jinto himself clocked in with a max power of about 500,000 standard Units which was quite powerful for the standards of this ship, and even more impressive back in the old days of Planet Vegeta, but it was barely a tenth of Gohan's power as a Super Saiyan and barely even compared to his base form.

However upon arriving at the training area Gohan matched his power output to almost exactly Jinto's. He recognized the confused look on the Saiyan's face and explained, "I won't get much of a boost out of beating up weaker opponents anyway. But this way, fighting on equal terms will make me a better and more experienced Martial Artist." Gohan elaborated for his training partner, who nodded in understanding and fell into his own fighting stance.

Jinto pressed for an advantage by suddenly bursting his Ki to pull power and flying at Gohan. Gohan ducked the swooping punch and caught Jinto's boot as the older man flew over him. Gohan turned and threw Jinto back the way he came and, leaning forward on his feet, pushed off and flew at insane speeds towards his sparring opponent. Jinto flipped in mid-air and slid along the ground, putting one hand on the floor to help slow him down. He looked up and saw as Gohan moved so fast it almost appeared that he phased in front Jinto with his leg pulled back. The kick flew forwards in an upwards arc, aiming for Jinto's chin but the more experienced Saiyan leaned back, barely making it out of the range of the kick in time. Jinto then stood up leaning forward, being careful to avoid a backlash from the leg that was still in its arc of motion, throwing a right uppercut at Gohan's exposed abdomen.

Gohan saw the punch coming as he pulled his leg back to avoid a counter or grab. Gohan leaned his body to his right and threw his own right hand forward in a hook motion but with an open palm, simultaneously deflecting the punch to the side and using it to push himself to Jinto's left. Gohan landed on his right foot and threw his left foot in the same manner one would kick a soccer ball. The foot was on target for Jinto's ribs but the man was much more experienced in close combat and dropped his elbow to block the blow before shoving the offending appendage to the side leaving Gohan off balance. Jinto hopped in the air and attempted a drop kick but Gohan slipped to the side, avoiding the blow and double hammer-fisting Jinto in the stomach, bringing his knee up stopping the Saiyan's descent quickly. Gohan heard the back of Jinto's armor plate crack upon contact with Gohan's knee, Gohan moved to continue the combo but Jinto rolled off Gohan's knee, barely landing right on his own feet, before pushing off the ground away from Gohan, springing off his hands and feet to get away.

He came to a stop and panted and coughed. Gohan may have lowered his power to match his, but the boy had speed and sheer strength on his side for sure. Gohan had been in a LOT more real, life-threatening, and epic battles than Jinto could even imagine. Jinto had been fighting longer but not to the extent of which Gohan had been and it was leaving Jinto feeling fairly outclassed.

The two dashed at eachother and Jinto unleashed a quick combo of two left jabs followed by a right side kick aimed at Gohan's head and a right cross followed that. Gohan easily stuck his right palm out open wide and stopped the first jab before bringing his left forearm up to stop the next jab that came at his solar plexus without taking his eyes of his opponent. Gohan ducked the kick and twisted his shoulders and head in a way that allowed him to face the punch as it flew past his face. As Jinto was pulling his fist back from that last attack before he could react Gohan threw a low roundhouse at the outside of Jinto's left leg, buckling the older fighter for a split second but it was all the time needed for Gohan to follow up with an uppercut to Jinto's gut which he followed up by dropping an elbow on the top of Jinto's skull, completely dropping the fighter to his arms and knees. Jinto surprised Gohan by, from his hands and knees, pushing forward and doing a frontflip, using his spin to aim an axe kick at Gohan's shoulder. Gohan barely dodged the attack by leaping to the side.

Jinto stopped his flipping and while still floating upside down immediately tossed a Ki blast like a baseball at close range. Gohan had just landed on his feet when he looked over and saw the ball of energy in his face, requiring him to lean back and backhand it upwards and to his right. When he went to focus his eyes on Jinto he noticed he was gone. Gohan reached out with his Ki and felt something behind him and he smirked thinking that he had the jump on the guy. Gohan spun on the spot and threw his fist out backwards in an attempt to backfist his opponent but his fist merely passed through thin air where he sensed Jinto a moment ago. Gohan looked down and saw Jinto crouched slightly. The older Saiyan put his two hands at point blank range at Gohan's stomach region and let loose a wide and erratic blast of Ki that exploded upon impact shrouding everything in swirling mass of smoke and flames for a long moment. When it cleared away Gohan was nowhere to be seen.

"That blast was nowhere near powerful enough to kill Gohan"Jinto thought immediately, falling into a defensive stance, his eyes darting about the place.

"Impressive, you almost got me that time" the disembodied voice of Gohan remarked from somewhere around Jinto. As the smoke cleared entirely Jinto saw Gohan floating some ways away without a scratch on him, shocking the older Saiyan who was sure his attack had made contact, "Now we can get started for real." Gohan remarked with a mischievous grin on his face making Jinto shudder slightly.

Namek: Currently

Videl stood and marveled at the lush blue fields of grass and the bright green skies of the planet Namek. It was like the opposite of Earth and it was amazing to see, it was so beautiful. Every human marveled at their surroundings the minute they stepped off the ships and were even further mystified by the inhabitants of the planet. They were a tall, seemingly all-male species with Green skin, Pink muscle tissue and antennae on their foreheads. At first the people seemed fearful of the visitors, remembering their last encounter with another race, but after seeing the familiar faces of Bulma and what appeared to be a child with the face of their savior Goku, they knew they were safe and approached in a welcoming manner, greeting the Earthlings to their planet.

From there life had continued smoothly. The Nameks gave them permission to use the Dragon Balls the minute they were able to be used in order to get their planet back, in repayment for Earth giving them back their planet. However it would be roughly half a year before they could be used. At hearing this information most of the humans turned grim but just then they saw what appeared to be another ship flying towards Namek.

At this, one of the stronger, young-looking Namekians got into a defensive stance and hopped into the air, floating and charging a Ki blast in his right hand for all to see, seriously confusing and shell shocking the Human audience. Bulma saw that it was a Capsule Corp Ship, with a fair amount of damage to the hull. The genius inventor turned and waved her hands at the Namekian frantically, "Wait no don't shoot it down that's one of us!" Bulma cried out panicking.

Fortunately the Namekian's super hearing allowed him to hear her even as high as he was and he looked back at her, "Oh, I apologize but I sensed multiple extremely high powers and I got defensive." the alien explained, floating back down and allowing the Ki in his hand to fade away. At hearing these words Bulma's eyes lit up.

"High powers?! Hey you guys! It must be Gohan and the others!" Bulma called back to the members of the Z gang who were already here such as the kids, Master Roshi, 18, Chi-Chi, Ox king, Oolong and so on. The gang heard this and they all began jumping for joy. Videl heard this and turned to Bulma, running up to her, her two blonde friends close behind.

"Did you just say Gohan!?" Videl asked more desperately than she would ever admit to being. She was barely able to believe her ears. The raven-haired teen thought she would never see Gohan again.

"Yeah! He must have done it! Wooh Gohan! Just like his dad!" Bulma exclaimed excitedly as the crowd moved over to the ship, cheering and whooping. The doors opened and several beat up fighters streamed out. Mirai Trunks, Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Piccolo, Dende and Chiaoutzu emerged from the machine, obviously having seen better days, but overall okay.

Bulma saw her oldest and hugged him madly. Marron ran straight into Krillin's arms who laughed, happy to see his daughter alive and well. 18 hugged her husband. Everyone was happy. Videl continued waiting for Gohan to come out of the ship, staring at the doors expectantly. After a few minutes it became apparent that Gohan was not coming out of that ship. She looked at those who already came out and saw that Mirai was the only one she knew and so approached the tall lavender-haired boy. He seemed to see her coming and turned. "Videl, long time no see, though I wish it could have been under better circumstances" he half-joked with a care-free smile on his face.

However, Videl didn't smile in kind and immediately asked in a wavering voice, "Where is he Mirai?" and immediately the time-travellers face fell into a grim one. As soon as the others saw his face they all enclosed on the newly arrived fighters.

"WHERE IS MY BABY!?" Chi-chi wailed hysterically, and her panic passed onto the two younger Saiyan kids, and they started tearing up.

"Where's my big brother Trunks?" Goten asked, wiping his tears away with his long Blue sleeve and a sniffle. And the look on Gohan's family's faces tore him apart. But he knew he had to tell them all he knew, for better or for worse.

"Well, our ship managed to get off Earth only minutes before it exploded. Our ship as you can see sustained a fair amount of damage from the debris left of the planet" Trunks started, gesturing to the large dents that most people had noticed before. "Gohan's Ki survived the explosion but he was unconscious. After the shockwave though and our beating at the hands of the enemies I had no energy to help him, I passed out shortly after. When I woke up Gohan's Ki was awake but erratic as if he was panicking and it was moving fast. It was possible he was still in combat but I don't know. It slowly dropped to almost nothing and he stilled out there. I thought I sensed another Ki near him but they soon both disappeared completely." Trunks told the story, in as much detail as he could for his friend's family. Trunks noted the confusion on Videl's, Erasa's and Sharpener's faces and realised they didn't understand, and neither did the normal human population. Trunks figured that they would all have to be given a lesson on how the world really worked at this point. Mr Satan (who must be hiding somewhere in the crowd) couldn't keep these people from the truth any longer, shit had officially gotten real.

"So what does that mean? Is Gohan okay?!" Sharpener asked urgently, hoping for an explanation that made sense.

"Well, I don't know. It's possible but unfortunately we have to come to grips with the possibility that Gohan is…..dead" Trunks said, forcing himself to strain the last part. It had been a gut-wrenching experience when he thought his friend was dead last time. Even for the third time facing Gohan's death it wasn't any easier and Trunks was seriously hurting. However he knew there were others who were hurting more over his possible death right now, and so he put on a strong face for them.

Videl however couldn't accept this. She couldn't help but get a strong feeling of déjà vu from this but the girl shrugged it off. She just would not allow it to be true. The young fighter looked to the sky and wished to Gohan wherever he was, "Gohan…please be okay"

AN. And that's a wrap folks I know it was pretty short but I was short on time and I couldn't set up a better place to end it without it feeling wrong so I decided to cut this here. Stay tuned for the next chapter!