Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well. Here is a brand-new chapter for you to enjoy. I also hope you like the interaction Piccolo and Gohan will have in this chapter. Happy reading!

Chapter 3: Preparations and Realizations

Chi-Chi stood by the entrance to the gravity room as Bulma was exercising on the pregnancy ball. Mai, Shu, and Pilaf were also in there, giving her encouragement as she worked on trying to go into labor. She smiled at her friend, seeing the blissfulness on her face. When the session was finished, Chi-Chi offered her friend a cool wash cloth and took the ball out of the room.

"Thanks, Chi-Chi," said Bulma as she patted her face down with the wash cloth. Chi-Chi merely nodded as they walked down the hallway into the living room and then out to the balcony where everyone was sitting and eating. Bulma pat her stomach lovingly and looked down. Her face became sad all of a sudden.

"What's up, Bulma?" said Chi-Chi quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"I was just…thinking."

"Don't worry, you'll go into labor soon," said Chi-Chi reassuringly.

"No, that's not it." She turned back to the door, facing Chi-Chi and trying to be as quiet as possible. "I just wish…Ellie could be here for this." She looked back down at her stomach and held it gingerly.

"Yeah, I know. She would be really excited for you," said Chi-Chi sadly.

"It just sucks! She was one of my dearest friends and we did a lot of things together. I can't believe she would hide so much about herself from me!"

Chi-Chi sighed, "I know, Bulma. I'm still upset about that, too. But look at it this way…she was a princess and a god. She never had to feel obligated to hang out with us at all. Of all the people she met on Earth, she decided to be friends with us. Also, I'm pretty sure she didn't take a lot of pride in hiding such big secrets from us."

"I guess so," said Bulma. "But still, I wish she could be here to see the birth of this little baby. I wonder if we will ever see her again."

"Oh, maybe," said Chi-Chi, giving her friend a smile. Bulma smiled, too.

"I hope so."

While the two women sat in the living room and chatted, Whis appeared in the doorway. "Excuse me," he said as he entered.

"Whis? What are you doing here?" asked Bulma. Whis didn't say anything, but took his staff and turned it toward Bulma's belly. The staff began to glow, and he muttered some words in a foreign language. Suddenly, Bulma's belly became enveloped in a warm blue glow and then, a little bundle appeared in the middle of the air.

"It's…my baby…" said Bulma as she reached out for the little bundle. It rested in her arms comfortably and from the blanket, she could hear a soft cry emerge.

"Oh Bulma, look how cute she is! Congratulations!" said Chi-Chi, staring down at the baby in her friend's arms. She helped Bulma off the chair and led her outside where everyone could get a better look at the newborn baby. Bulma's parents came out and took turns holding her and making funny faces. Goku also took a turn and held her. Soon, the poor baby started crying whenever Mr. Satan and Yamcha held her and Vegeta powered up to Super Saiyan Blue every time he heard her cry.

Goten and Trunks scampered outside to see the new baby too after Gohan went to tell them. While Trunks was holding her, Goten piped up "You should call Ellie and tell her that the baby is here. I'm sure she would love to see her!"

"Yeah, that's a great idea, Goten!" said Trunks, excited. "We haven't seen her in so long, we should invite her over, right mom?" He looked up at his mom with a big grin, but Bulma looked down at the boys, sadly.

Mr. Satan sidled up to Chi-Chi and whispered, "You didn't tell Goten yet?"

Chi-Chi frowned, "No, I never had the heart to tell him. I don't think Bulma could, either." She looked over at Bulma, who was still looking down at the boys with a serious look. Everyone became silent…even Beerus stopped eating to listen what Bulma was going to say.

"Well, boys, you see…Ellie isn't here…"

"I know, she lives far away, Bulma! That's why you need to call her," said Goten, hopeful.

"No, Goten, that's not what Bulma meant," said Chi-Chi. "She means…Ellie isn't here anymore." The boys' smiles faded and were replaced with deep frowns.

"You mean…she's dead?" said Trunks, his eyes filling with tears. Bulma turned away from her son and looked over at Whis and Beerus. Whis looked at the boys, expressionless.

"We don't know what happened to her," he told them. "She disappeared when we were with her and…we don't know if she is still alive or not." Beerus gripped his chopsticks tightly, staring down at the plate of rice in front of him.

"You were with her when she disappeared…?" said Trunks, incredulously. "So, why didn't you do something?!" He began to get angry.

"You guys are supposed to be very strong, so you couldn't help her?!" said Goten, becoming equally angry.

"Don't you think we would if we could?!" yelled Beerus, standing up. "The person that took her away was stronger than you could ever imagine! None of us could have helped her!"

"But who would take her away?" said Goten, meekly.

"Now isn't the time to discuss this," said Whis, defiantly. "We have more important matters to attend to." He looked over at Goku, who nodded slightly. Then, Whis turned toward the baby in Trunks' arms. "You also have another matter to attend to as well," he said, nodding toward the baby. Trunks looked down at his baby sister and then looked at his mother. She smiled sadly and motioned toward Vegeta. Trunks nodded and took his baby sister over to his dad, so he could see her too.

After a few minutes, Goku and Gohan took off into the air to go recruit some of their friends to take part in the Tournament of Power. Goku went off to find Krillin and No. 18 to ask them to join and where to find No. 17, 18's brother, to see if he wanted to compete, too. Gohan took off in the opposite direction to find Piccolo.

It didn't take Gohan very long to find Piccolo. He was in the usual training grounds, which were in the mountains. At times, he would train in the forest, but he only did that when he wanted to truly be alone. As Gohan flew through the mountains, he noticed his mentor sitting on a cliffside and he appeared to be meditating. "Hey, Piccolo," he said, softly. Piccolo opened his eyes and looked up at his former student.

"Hello, Gohan. What brings you here?" said Piccolo in a melancholy voice.

"I have a very important question to ask you. Would you be able to compete in a tournament that will pit you against warriors from other universes?" Piccolo uncrossed his arms and legs and stood up.

"Does this have anything to do with this tournament that Goku was been waiting for that Lord Zeno to have?"

"Yes, that's exactly right. So, what do you say?" Piccolo became silent and looked off in the distance…he was thinking.

"Sure, I think that will be something I would enjoy doing…fighting against other warriors from different universes. It would be a great challenge for me."

"But…I think you need to know the catch before you completely agree. Each universe needs to have 10 warriors to compete and only 8 of the 12 universes will be competing. It's because of mortal levels…I'm not too sure what that means, but if the universe has all of their fighters tossed out of the ring, then that universe will get erased."

"So, the stakes in this fight are very high…" murmured Piccolo. Then, a thought came to his mind. "Did they say which universes were going to be exempt?"

Gohan scratched his head momentarily, trying to recall the numbers. "I think it was "Universes 1, 5, 8, and 12. Yeah, I'm pretty sure those were it." Piccolo slowly nodded his head.

"So that means the Fantasians are not fighting…" he said quietly. Gohan lowered his head and stared at the ground. He was wondering if he should tell Piccolo about the Fantasian king they met at the Zen Exhibition Match. He figured his friend had the right to know, especially if he was going to be at the Tournament of Power. Piccolo needed to be prepared for whatever he was going to see.

"Speaking of the Fantasians…we met one of them during the Exhibition Match," he said. Piccolo turned back to Gohan, his brows furrowed. "We saw and met the King of Fantasia."

"Ellie's father was there?"

"Well, Whis and Beerus said the man we met wasn't her father. Beerus swears it was…someone else." Gohan didn't have the heart to say it might possibly be her new husband. Piccolo suddenly bent down and grabbed something that was propped up against his water canteen. It was a notebook. He began flipping through the pages and landed on one near the end.

"Did he look like this?" said Piccolo, pointing to a drawing of a young man with no color in his hair. Gohan stared at the picture and his eyes widened. The young man Piccolo was pointing at looked exactly like the man they had met during the Match.

"Yes!" exclaimed Gohan. "That is definitely him! But, wait…how do you have drawings of…"

Piccolo closed the notebook instantly and set it back down on the ground. "That man you met was definitely not her father. The man I pointed to was one of Ellie's brothers."

"Brothers? Wait…how do you know Ellie has any brothers?!" Piccolo closed his eyes and sighed.

"I have been keeping Ellie's secret for a long while. She told me everything about herself after Frieza was killed and I was brought back to life. And that notebook," he pointed down to the ground, "are all sketches that Ellie drew herself. The other people in that picture are her real family."

Gohan suddenly blew a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good because everyone was thinking that man was her new husband." Piccolo grunted at that statement. "But, where did you get that notebook from?"

"Ellie left it at her house when she disappeared." Again, Piccolo picked it up off the ground and held it gingerly in his hands, almost as if it would break in an instant in his fingers. He opened it to the back and showed the picture of Elyon and her family. Gohan stared at the picture in awe.

"So, that's what she looks like in her true form? She almost looks the same, except without the pointed ears." He and Piccolo stared at the picture for a while. The Namekian reached over and touched Elyon's image gently. It was Gohan's turn to sigh.

"Piccolo, I have something to tell you. I…I was pretty short with Ellie after you were killed by Frieza. I accused her of causing your death because of her overconfidence in fighting him. And even after you came back, I became jealous whenever she wanted to train with us. But, now I really regret everything I told her, and I want to have the chance to rebuild our friendship, if I get that chance." Piccolo reached over and put a hand on Gohan's shoulder.

"It's not your fault, Gohan. You had no idea what Ellie's intentions were deep down, and you only reacted like any other person would have. So, don't beat yourself up about this." Piccolo took a deep breath in. "But, now's not the time to dwell on the past. We need to focus on this upcoming tournament and getting stronger to face these new opponents."

Gohan looked up at his mentor with a serious look. "Right."

Piccolo smirked. "So, let's get to our training." For the next several hours, Gohan endured some of the hardest training he had been through in years. Soon, the rain started coming down, making the mountainous terrain around them very ominous and foreboding. Piccolo shook his head and began criticizing Gohan's technique. "You are becoming overeager. If you keep this up, you will not have an assured victory." Piccolo yanked off his turban and threw it toward the ground. Then, he took off the rest of his weighted clothes and threw them. "Okay, this has been enough of a warm-up. Now, let's get down to business and have a serious fight."

"Right," said Gohan as he powered up to a Super Saiyan 2. Piccolo and Gohan began fighting again, but Piccolo disabled him by using his Demon Arm attack, holding his student's arms back and choking his neck.

"When did…you become…so strong?" said Gohan, struggling to speak.

"What do you think I was doing after Ellie's disappearance?" He let go of Gohan and stared him down. "Become a warrior now! Whoever you face in battle, fight with everything that you have. Awaken that power you used against Majin Buu!" Gohan became tense and stared up at Piccolo. Suddenly, he began powering up again, but this time he was taking it to his absolute limit. As his power exploded around him, the clouds above them separated and the bright yellow sun shone down on them.

Piccolo smiled as he hovered before his student, who was now giving off a shimmering white aura.

"This time, I'm not holding anything back," said Gohan.

"Bring it on," smirked the Namek.

It was already dark when Piccolo and Gohan had stopped their training for the day. Gohan ended up finding a sleeping dinosaur and cutting off part of his tail, so he could have something to eat. The dinosaur tail was roasting nicely over the small fire that was built and Gohan poked the wood with a stick as he waited for the tail to cook. "So, Piccolo, I kinda have a personal question to ask you?" Piccolo turned toward the young Saiyan. "After Ellie's disappearance…it's been a year already…I was wondering…do you still…love her?"

Piccolo turned back to the fire. He grabbed a stick and started poking at it too. "Gohan…Ellie was the first woman I ever fell in love with…that's something hard to forget, at least for me. Basically…yes, I do still love her. I've thought about her every single day since she left. My training has become more intense because I can still hear her voice motivating me to become stronger."

Gohan smiled warmly. This was one of those rare moments when Piccolo put down his guard and was complete honest and vulnerable. "So, how are you going to feel when you see her at the Tournament, knowing she isn't the same person as before?"

Piccolo furrowed his brow and stared deeper into the fire. "I don't know. Many things will be different this time. Now, we assume she has her family, her friends, and her home back and how will that change her perception of me, having that influence back in her life? Will she have forgotten me? Will she still remember me? Did she tell anyone about her experience on Earth or is she too embarrassed to talk about it? Will anyone accept the fact that she fell in love with a mortal or will she be brainwashed into believing our love was never real?" Piccolo could feel his voice crack slightly, but he held strong. "I don't know what will happen when we see each other again, Gohan, but for now, my focus is on keeping this universe alive…and training you to become much stronger."

Gohan nodded sadly. He could feel the pain in Piccolo's voice, even though he didn't want to show it. "I'm sorry, Piccolo." Then, he grinned. "Thank you for training me all this time. I hope when the tournament comes, I can make you proud." Piccolo looked up and smirked.

"Well, I don't think you have shown me the extent of your power, so now, the real training will begin." After training a little while longer, Gohan and Piccolo found Goku in a restaurant located in a small village where Tien's martial arts dojo was. In fact, Tien and Master Roshi were also there when Gohan and Piccolo arrived. Gohan asked Goku to fight with him in the mountains close by, to which Goku willingly agreed. The match between father and son was quite beneficial for both of them, and Goku was greatly impressed with how far Gohan had gotten in such a short amount of time.

"Actually, I think I have found the perfect leader for Universe 7 and that's you, Gohan!" said Goku, giving him a thumbs up. Gohan's eyes widen and he bowed his head toward his father. Once the sparring was over, Goku and the others went over to Bulma's house to begin planning a strategy for the Tournament. Unfortunately, Bulma received a phone call from Mr. Satan, stating that Buu had fallen asleep and wouldn't wake up for another two months. Goku even flew to Mr. Satan's house to try to wake Buu up himself, but it was no use…Buu was sleeping too deeply.

Once Goku returned to Capsule Corporation, Beerus went off on a tangent about limiting their search to only the Earth and when he began mentioning Frieza's army, Goku got an idea.

"Frieza! Frieza could be our tenth fighter!" Everyone standing on the porch stared at Goku with their mouths agape.

Krillin, who had arrived while Goku was gone, spoke up first. "You can't be serious, Goku! Besides, he's dead and he's one of our biggest enemies."

"But that doesn't mean he can't compete," said Goku confidently. "He's very strong…we can all agree on that, right?" No one spoke. "And also…if he gets out of line, I can put him back in his place."

Beerus rolled his eyes. "You are requesting something very risky for the survival of our universe."

"But I think it can work…with the right amount of persuasion."

"Whatever you say," said Beerus.

At this very moment, in a universe far, far away from Earth, someone was pacing back and forth across the floor of a big, elaborate ballroom. Beyond the glass windows, darkness enveloped the land and the stars shone down from the sky. Inside the ballroom, two big golden staffs with candlesticks attached to them had brightly lit flames burning from them. In the background, three musicians played a quiet, melodious tune on their stringed instruments. The person who was pacing the floor came to a stop at an old piano at the edge of the room. He grazed his fingers across the gold and ivory keys. He soon began playing a tune with one hand that imitated the tune he was hearing from the other instruments in the room.

He looked up and smiled at the musicians, who in turn, smiled back at him. Suddenly, he heard the large double doors of the ballroom open, and in strolled a person hooded and cloaked. The man at the piano turned and looked at the visitor who entered. The stranger was clothed in all grey except for a beautiful silver brooch attached to her cloak. It was shaped like a feathered wing. The hooded figure stepped farther into the ballroom, but stopped after a few steps. The man left the piano and walked over to the stranger. They were the same exact height and when the man removed the stranger's hood, long raven hair fell onto the figure's shoulders and back. The man smiled when piercing blue eyes looked right into his equally blue eyes.

He put his hands on the person's shoulders and sighed. "Welcome back…...my sister."

Well…guess who's coming back?! I'm sure you all can figure it out! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and check out Chapter 4, which I am currently working on. It's going to be a big deal! I'm hoping I can make it extra long for you. Thanks for reading and have a great evening! ~goldenbelle75