Gohan stood stiffly as the guard at the desk fumbled for the right key card. It wasn't a saiyan, which surprised the young captain. This was, after all, the highest security prison on the planet if not the entire Empire. Some of the warriors contained in here could cause Gohan trouble. Guarding them was not a task to be entrusted to an inferior species.

"Ah!" Said the guard after a moment. He looked like a crocodile of some kind. "Founde it me lorde. Righte this waye." Gohan rolled his eyes and followed the creature.

"Prisoner 24601." The guard announced as they stopped outside a cell in one of the lowest levels. "Solitary." The door was flanked on both sides by two third-class saiyans. They recognized Gohan and nodded their heads in deference. Gohan smirked.

The crocodile guard came forward and reached out to touch Gohan's armor. Gohan frowned at the invasion of personal space and the alien froze.

"What do you think you're doing?" Gohan asked coldly.

"Ahhh…I'm supposede to pat ye downe…me lorde." The guard said hesitantly.

Gohan merely glared, and the guard slowly backed away.

"Right." The guard cleared his throat. "Well, here ye go." He slid the key card in the lock and scanned his hand after entering a pass code. There was a chink of heavy machinery unlocking, then the door slid open with a woosh. "Ye got thirtye minutes."

"I'll take as long as I need." Gohan said, blowing by the guard and entering the cell. He did not glance behind him as the door closed at his back. The cell was dark, and he let his eyes slowly adjust to the dim light.

"Back again, kid?" Came a voice from the shadows. "How long has it been this time?"

Gohan smirked as a cloaked figure came into view, floating legs crossed in meditation. Green skin shifted under folds of purple and white cloth. Deep black eyes opened to coolly regard Gohan under a meticulously wrapped turbin.

"Seven years, I think." Gohan replied. "You're not as big as I remember. Only just as green."

Piccolo snorted. "I hear you beat Cell."

"News must travel slowly in solitary, huh?" Gohan smirked. "But yes, I did. No thanks to any of your help."

The namekian warrior chuckled. "If you unlocked the second level, then I helped you more than you will admit. What is it you fight for, kid?"

Gohan raised his chin. "For the glory and pride of my King and my Empire."

"And to protect them." The namekian amended.

Gohan scowled. "Of course to protect them."

The namekian smirked. "Then that makes you more human than you could ever know. Like your father."

Gohan debated the merits of executing prisoner 24601 on the spot.

"My father was a saiyan." Gohan said.

Piccolo's smirk deepened. "Don't you want to know more?"

"I do not need to." Gohan growled.

Piccolo just continued to smirk. The minutes stretched.

Gohan tired of beating around the bush. "I need you to teach me." He said. "For real, this time."

The namekian sighed. "What else does anyone ever come here for? I have been meditating in this darkness for twelve years because I would not pass on the Z-Warrior's techniques. What makes you think I will change my mind now?"

"I am going to Earth." Gohan said. "To live among the humans."

"Oh?" Piccolo questioned. Gohan could tell he was piqued. King Vegeta was right.

"I need to hide my ki." Gohan said. "Or they'll probably kill me on the spot." He chuckled.

"I wouldn't blame them." Piccolo replied. "You are, after all, the Gold Fighter. The human's greatest enemy."

Gohan laughed dryly. "That stupid nickname really does get around, doesn't it?" He said without real mirth. "Even you know it, stuck in the bowels of a maximum security prison."

"It's a running joke with my guards." Piccolo explained. "Kid, even if I teach you how to suppress your ki, how are you going to blend in when you're such a famous figure."

"I've never appeared on the battlefield as anything but a super saiyan." Gohan said. "That's why I'm the 'Gold Fighter.' As far as I can tell, the humans don't even know my real name."

Piccolo closed his eyes again. "And what will you be calling yourself on earth?"

Gohan frowned. "Son Gohan." The young captain said. "King Vegeta seemed to find it amusing." In fact, the king had thought it downright hilarious.

Piccolo's eyes flew open. "Son Gohan?" He repeated.

"Yes." Gohan scowled. "It sounds very human, doesn't it?"

Piccolo's gaze seemed to be fastened somewhere over Gohan's shoulder. Slowly, his eyes focused on the saiyan captain.

"You don't know the half of it, boy." He said. "I can see why Vegeta is amused."

Gohan's ki flashed. "That's King Vegeta to you, Namekian scum."

Piccolo chuckled sadly. "King Vegeta is playing with fire. Sending you to Earth with that name is tempting Dende."

"Who?" Gohan asked.

"My replacement as Guardian of Earth." Piccolo dismissed.

Gohan blinked. "Hold up," he said. "You were Guardian of Earth?"

"No, I was not." Piccolo replied.

"That makes no sense!" Gohan complained.

Piccolo was unmoved. "What do you know, boy?" He growled. "What would make sense to you, living on only half your heritage…maybe even less. Do you want to hear about your father?" he offered.

"Don't change the subject!" Gohan snapped. Red hot rage flooded his veins, and Gohan let it flow through his fists into the wall in a punch that dented the cold steel of the solitary cell. Calmer, Gohan pulled his hand from the crater and shook out his stinging fingers . He frowned at the mark; the steel should not have given so easily. The material was designed to absorb ki and strengthen with successively more powerful blows. Gohan had helped Bulma design it himself.

"Feel better now, kid?" Piccolo asked, sounding amused when he should have been terrified for his life.

Gohan shot him a dark glare. "This is why I hate talking to you. Everything comes back to my father."

Piccolo barely shifted. Gohan wondered if the Namekian really had been meditating in that same floating position for the last twelve years.

"Perhaps that is because everything does come back to your father." Piccolo said after a moment. "Yet you don't even want to know who he was."

"I have no need to." Gohan spat. "I know he was a traitor to the Empire, and that is enough for me. Why should I care about a man I have never met?"

Piccolo smirked. "That's not true." Piccolo said. "You lived with him your first four years of life, on Earth. As a human."

Gohan's eyes narrowed. "Don't feed me lies again. I don't remember any of that."

Piccolo raised an eyebrow. "Do you remember your earliest years in one of your so-called saiyan 'nurseries?'"

Gohan bit his lip.

Piccolo's smirk resurfaced.

"I was born and raised on Planet Vegeta." Gohan insisted. "Not everyone remembers their childhood."

"Don't be stupid, kid." Piccolo countered. "You're not a fool. If your father was a hunted traitor and your mother was human, what was she doing on Planet Vegeta giving birth to you? Put it together, Gohan. Has anyone ever actually told you that you've been here all your life?"

"…no." Gohan said quietly.

Piccolo nodded. "Even Vegeta isn't stupid enough to overtly lie to you. He just encouraged you to assume. Your pig-headed saiyan pride has ensured the rest."

"Do not insult a saiyan's pride!" Gohan interrupted hotly. "It is the basis of our honor, our warrior's code!"

Piccolo raised his head skyward, as if pleading for patience. "Kid, that is exactly what I am talking about."

Gohan turned aside for a few moments to fume. This conversation was turning into a repeat of their encounter seven years ago, when Gohan was just a naïve little boy desperately searching for an advantage in his impending battle with Cell.

"Stop sulking, kid." Piccolo said. "It doesn't suit you."

Gohan had to give the floating namekian a little half-smile. "I'm not doing a very good job of convincing you to train me, am I?" He said.

"No," Piccolo growled. "You've done an excellent job. Sit down and learn."

A/N:

Soooo…Good news and bad news. The good news is I've written straight to chapter 16. That's like three months worth of weekly updates. The bad news is I still haven't written chapter five, so I can't post any of it until I bust that block!

I'm switching to Friday updates. I'm updating today, and chapter four will come out on schedule Friday next week. But if I don't write chapter five, nothing more will happen until I do. x_x

I want to thank everyone for their feedback on Gohan! It really helped me recognize him as a multi-faceted character. I hope most of you will be pleased with the way he develops.

Until next week!