Master Gohan had long ago given up on the world, isolating himself in a small one-room cabin high up in the mountains. He had had a good life, had traveled all over Vegeta, met many people, good and bad, and done many great deeds. Now all he wanted from life was to be left to spend his last years in peace.

He still exercised daily, of course. Old habits die hard, and physical health was of supreme importance of one wanted to live so completely alone as Gohan did. Climbing was a good form of exercise and his favorite form, one that the mountains made all to affordable for him. And so every day he climbed up from his mountain home, looked down on the world and its goings-on from the highest point he could reach, reflected on how fortunate he was to done with it all, and climbed back down again.

It was on one of these climbs that something moved him to look down into a ravine he often walked past. Not just glance, but really look. And something moved him to not simply dismiss that tuft of what would turn out to be black hair peeking through the rocks as not simply some vegetative growth, but as something more, something that was, perhaps, important.

That was how he found the boy.

At first he thought he was dead. He certainly looked dead – there was blood everywhere, and Gohan was sure he could see bone through the gaping wound in the boy's head. But he wasn't dead. Somehow, he had been saved.

As soon as he realized the boy was still alive, still breathing, Gohan acted quickly. He tore off a piece of his tunic and wrapped the boy's head up as tightly as possible, then lifted him up and flew him down to his small cabin, resting him gently on his bed. Then he did something he had not done in a long, long time. He went down to the village.

His memories, now, of that day are blurry. He knows that he rushed down, flying as fast as he could and grabbing the first person he saw, demanding to be shown the doctor's house. He'd grabbed the confused man, who'd been in the middle of a meal, and taken him to back up the mountain to examine the injured child.

It was then, and only then, as the doctor peeled back the makeshift bandages and began cleaning and sterilizing the wound, that Gohan realized that boy he'd found was a Saiyan.

A few days after Bardock arrived, the family went to his hometown, Ter-Kader, to visit his mother.

Ter-Kader was a small village nestled against the mountains. Most of its full-time residents were employed in either mining or textile manufacturing. Higher up in the mountains there was a small human settlement surrounding Fire Mountain where people raised goats and other animals. Unlike in Arkisbe, the Saiyan and human populations in Ter-Kader were very much separate, although the two did maintain some level of cooperation.

It was here where an unconscious, bleeding Kakarot had been found nine years ago at the bottom of a deep ravine by an elderly human man named Gohan.

Bardock was not particularly fond of the old man. He was, like Master Roshi, a hermit, living much higher up in the mountains than the other humans, almost completely isolated from everyone and everything. He was an old man when Bardock was still a boy, and there'd been rumors back then that he had special powers and practiced magic.

Unlike with Master Roshi, however, Bardock kept his dislike for Master Gohan to himself, largely because it seemed so unreasonable in the face of the old man's kindly smile and twinkling eyes. There was no doubt that he'd saved his son's life when he found him lying in the dirt, barely breathing. That one incident had created a bond between Gohan and Bardock's family, a bond that changed the people on both ends.

Kakarot formed a deep attachment to the old man, and that attachment brought the human down from his small home in the mountains to see the little boy. Over time, his visits had expanded to the human village around Fire Mountain and the Saiyans in Ter-Kader. So when Bardock arrived at his mother's house, he fully expected to see Master Gohan somewhere in the village. What he didn't expect was to find him having tea in the living room with his mother.

"Master Gohan!" Kakarot cheered, running to the human with his arms opened wide as the man got up to his feet.

"Whoa now!" Gohan chuckled as he gathered the boy into his arms. "Careful, I'm old enough to be your grandpa!"

Bardock snorted. The man was probably old enough to be his grandpa.

Master Gohan looked up at Gine and Bardock, who were still standing awkwardly in the doorway. "Master Bardock, Miss Gine! It's so nice to see you!"

The two Saiyans bowed to the older man. Bardock was not particularly happy to see him, but he was raised better than to disrespect an elder and a guest in his own house. Especially not in front of his mother's already unhappy gaze.

"Yes, it seems he finally remembered he has a mother!" Carma was not elderly by Saiyan standards, but she acted as though she were on death's door.

"I've only been here a few days Mother!" Bardock said, exasperated already. "You're the first person I've visited."

"Hmph! Toma came to see his mother the very day he arrived," the short woman retorted. "I have to hear from the neighbors my son's news."

Bardock sighed to himself and mumbled an apology. Why couldn't they ever have a nice, quiet visit?

"Master Gohan, let's go outside!" Kakarot said excitedly. "I wanna show you something really neat!"

Master Gohan chuckled. "Alright, alright."

"NO!" a tiny voice cried out insistently, and Master Gohan turned to reveal a small Saiyan girl hiding behind his wide trousers, her face scrunched up in an intense glare, her tiny fists holding on tightly to the old man's tunic.

"No!" she repeated. "Finish your story first!"

"Kaela!" Carma yelled sharply. "Shame on you! Come say a proper hello to your uncle and his wife!"

Very reluctantly, the little girl loosened her grip on Gohan's shirt and stood up, making her way over to where Bardock and Gine were still standing and bowing to both of them.

Gine returned the bow with a smile, and Bardock got down on his knees to greet his eight-year-old niece. "Are you having fun at your grandmother's house?" he asked, and the two exchanged knowing grins, grins that had lived in this house and knew just how unlikely fun was here.

Kaela was Turles' only child. When his wife died two years ago, the girl had been entrusted to the care of her mother's mother, who lived in a nearby village. Lately, however, it seemed she was spending more and more time at her father's family home.

"Can you believe the gall of that woman?" Everyone was now seated once again, Bardock and Gine around one side of the table and Kakarot, Master Gohan, and Kaela around the other, as Carma busied herself preparing lunch and swatting away her daughter-in-law's offers of help. "She says she can't afford to take care of her own grandchild, after all the money your poor brother sends her. She said I wouldn't understand, since I have two living children to take care of me! Can you believe that! As though she would like for you to die so that we'd be even. How dare she?! The nerve of her!"

"I'm sure she didn't mean it like that," Master Gohan said.

"And then she said she was getting too old to take care of such a little child!" Carma continued, as though Gohan had not said anything. "As if the whole world doesn't know that she's 10 years younger than me! At least! And I'm feeling very ill lately."

"Have you seen a doctor?" Bardock asked.

"Hmph! Certainly not. Not a man among them knows what he's saying."

"Well," Gine said, turning to Bardock, "perhaps we could take Kaela for a few days? To give you a break?"

Bardock nodded. Truthfully, the idea of another child in his house made him want to cut his vacation short and go back to Frieza's army, but he couldn't help but feel bad for his niece, who clearly wasn't wanted in this house.

The girl, however, was still frowning. "You have to finish your story," she said to Master Gohan.

"What story?" Kakarot asked.

"It's about the legend of the dragon balls," Gohan said.

Kakarot's eyes widened in horror. "You mean some poor dragon…"

"NO!" Kaela yelled, leaning across Gohan to smack at her cousin's knee. Unfortunately her arms were too short, so she mostly just waved her hand around ineffectually. "It's about magic stones that make a big dragon and give you wishes!"

This caught everyone's attention. Even Bardock and Gine were listening now.

"Legend has it that on a distant planet far, far away," Gohan began, lowering his voice a little to lend his tale an air of mystery, "there lives a mysterious people with strange powers. The greatest leaders are called the Dragon Tribe, and they possess the power to create a huge magical dragon."

"Magic is evil. Dangerous," Bardock interjected.

"Yes, of course. But this is special magic that is only given to the wisest and most virtuous of their kind. The great Dragon Elder creates the dragon within seven magical stones called dragon balls," Gohan continued, "and disperses them throughout the known universe. If you gather all seven, you can call up the dragon and he will grant you one wish."

"Throughout the whole universe!" Kaela said.

Master Gohan nodded. "Many great warriors and adventurers have sought the dragon balls, but all have failed in their quest."

"What would you wish for," Gine asked the table at large, "if you ever found them?"

"Better sons," Carma said immediately, giving Bardock a pointed look. He lowered his gaze and tried to look as penitent as possible.

"I would wish for enough money so you and Raditz wouldn't have to work so far away," Gine said, putting her arm around her husband.

"I suppose I'd like to be young again," Gohan laughed. "What about you Kaela?"

Kaela was quiet for a moment, then said, "Can you wish someone back to life?"

Master Gohan reached over to hug her. Gine looked like she was about to cry, so Bardock spoke up quickly. "I'd wish to be able to see the future."

Gine raised an eyebrow at her husband. "Really? Why?"

He shrugged. "It would be useful." He turned to his son. "What about you Kakarot?"

Kakarot scratched his head as he considered the question. "I don't know," he finally said. "I don't really want anything. Kaela can have my wish," he smiled at his cousin.

"Well, that's very generous of you," Gohan patted him on the head.

The change was sudden. One day he was isolated from the world. The next day, the world was at his doorstep and in his house.

The boy's mother was staying with him now. There was nothing for it, since the doctor had advised them not to try to move him, and the woman was desperate to be with her son. Gohan felt sorry for her. It was a terrible thing to have to go through, not knowing from one hour to the next if your son would live, if he would ever wake up from the endless slumber he was in.

So he told her to stay. He even offered to sleep outside, if that would make her more comfortable in his tiny home, but she'd refused. They slept on the floor, each lying on a blanket at opposite ends of the room. Her husband came to see her, to see his son, about a month later. He stayed for two weeks, then left.

With time Gohan became used to her presence. Her name was Gine, and the boy was Kakarot, a rather old-fashioned Saiyan name. He was a little uncomfortable, truth be told, at the unexpected intrusion, and would have vastly preferred it if they were human instead of Saiyan. He did not have good memories of Saiyans. Gine, however, was mild enough, grief-stricken as she was. And Kakarot, of course was silent.

Sometimes, late at night, Gohan would sit next to the boy and watch his face. He looked so sweet, so innocent and peaceful, it was hard to believe that his destiny was to become a killing machine.

It was during one of those moments, four months after Gohan had found him, that Kakarot finally woke up.

Their eyes locked, and the boy blinked up at him, looking confused and tired, his mouth opening as if trying to say something.

Gohan got him a glass of water, lifting his head carefully to help him drink. The boy took a few sips then pushed the glass away, his eyes never leaving Gohan's face. Then he smiled at him. A wide, happy, genuine smile that Gohan couldn't help but return.

Things quickly went downhill from there. As soon as Gohan woke Gine up to tell her the good news, it became clear that the boy had no memory of the woman in front of him. He smiled at her, sweet as can be, but he had no idea who she was to him. It was too much for her. She broke down weeping in the darkness, her son staring at her confused and scared, clinging to Gohan for comfort.

The next day Gohan went down for the doctor, who performed several tests on the young boy. There was good news, he told them, and there was bad news. The bad news was that he had suffered complete memory loss. The good news was that the damage wouldn't affect his learning or his memory acquisition from this point forward – essentially, he was a clean slate.

Gohan had to admit, he seemed healthy enough. He was certainly more cheerful than any Saiyan he'd ever met, even in the face of his mother's continuing grief. And it continued, because the boy wanted to stay. He was like a baby duck with its mother, having latched on to Gohan from the moment he opened his eyes to a world made new again. Gine had neither the will nor the ability to force him to return to her hometown, and so the two stayed.

For four more weeks, little Kakarot followed Gohan wherever he went. And Gohan found that his heart opened up to him, like a flower after rain, that the boy's presence quickly became not just pleasant to him, but needed and desired.

It was as Gohan was making peace with these new feelings that the boy's father finally arrived, marching into Gohan's home to take his family away.

"Kakarot," Gine had said, bending down to her son and gesturing towards her husband, "this is your father."

"Fa-der," Kakarot repeated, grinning. "Hello fader!"

"You live with your father and me," Gine explained. "You have to come home with us now."

Kakarot shook his head. "No thank you."

"No thank you?!" Bardock repeated. Gohan couldn't help but feel something akin to pity for the man. This was clearly so beyond his realm of experience, and he just didn't have the emotional tools to handle it. "Listen boy," Bardock said, "your mother may have been willing to put up with this attitude, but you will damn well do what I tell you to!"

Kakarot frowned. "No yelling."

Bardock looked utterly bewildered now. His sons had never dared to talk back to him. It was unthinkable, in Vegetan culture, to so openly disrespect your elders and those in authority. He took a deep breath, then stepped forward towards his son, "You're coming with us."

"No!" Kakarot darted behind Gohan's legs, smushing his face between them to look up at this strange, tall, angry-looking man. "Here is nice! I wanna stay!"

Bardock looked at Gohan, his eyes burning with hate and anger and genuine fear. "What did you do to him?"

Gohan knew the rumors that abounded in the nearby villages. He knew many believed him to be some kind of magician. It had never bothered him, but now, somehow, this accusation stabbed at him. He had never once hurt a living soul, except in defense of himself and other innocents. And now this man, who could probably kill him now without breaking a sweat, was looking at him with unmistakable fear, accusing him of harming an as-yet innocent little boy.

So Gohan bent down and loosened the boy's grip on his pants, and told him, quietly and gently, that he must leave with his mother and father, and promised him that he would visit.

They left. Not quietly, of course – Bardock had carried a crying boy out the door, but nevertheless they were gone. And Gohan was alone in his home once again.

Two days later, Gohan made his way to Arkisbe and asked where he could find the home of Gine. He had to go. He had promised the boy that he would visit, and the poor child was probably still struggling to adjust to his new circumstances.

Gohan kept his promise that day, and he kept it for many months after that despite Bardock's suspicious looks. And somehow, through that promise, he became a part of the world again.