Sorry once again. I feel I must explain the delay in this chapter coming up. I would advise everyone who writes a story to plan and then stick to it ... I decided that I didn't like the flow and so left my plan (Tao was going to play a slightly bigger part and Videl wasn't going to learn about Gohans lack of sight that early). Because of this I haven't been fully sure how to approach this chapter.

As an additional note, I haven't yet had Gohan use the stance learnt from Chi-Chi in a proper match. This is because I am slightly worried about it, in the hands of a skilled fighter it can make limbs numb in a couple of blows, what would it do when the hands can block blades or can crush mountains?

...

Gohan snapped his eyes closed, he didn't even remember opening them. He let his mind race, trying to think of a way out of the predicament he had placed himself in. He knew that he wouldn't be able to talk her out of her conclusion, she was smart enough to know what she was talking about.

At the same time, Videl was also thinking hard. She was picturing everything she had seen Gohan do over the week. She wanted to fire a volley of questions at him, but she wasn't sure he would be honest with her. It was also a challenge to think what questions she should ask. Both were pulled from their thoughts by the ringing of the school bell. Videl felt that she would have to make do with one question, and she knew what she was going to ask. "Who was that man, the one who tried to attack me?"

Gohans' face showed slight confusion, this was not the topic he thought that she would be questioning him on. "His name is Tao, a former student of the crane school of martial arts."

As he finished, he started to walk away. Videl nodded slowly, the name rang a bell but she wasn't overly sure why. Noticing that Gohan was nearly out of earshot, she said, "I won't tell anyone about your secret, but I will want to talk to you later."

Gohan merely responded with a one word answer, "Sure."

Videl waited for Gohan to have gone before pulling out her phone and dialling the police station. It rang a couple of times before being answered. After a short conversation Videl felt that she knew as much as she would learn about Tao. A merciless killer who was hired at massive cost to remove select targets. She felt slightly honoured that someone was that desperate to have her killed, but there were still puzzles to be solved. Why would he flee from Gohan, she knew he was a good fighter but surely she was better ...

Her internal thoughts were forced to end when her gym teacher walked in, looking concerned. "Are you ok? What went on here?"

"Someone broke into the school, but they didn't manage to do anything." Videl tried to keep her voice calm, choosing her words carefully so as not to reveal that it was down to Gohan that she was still alive. She thought that there was something odd about the teachers face, something that she couldn't quite place.

Tien had felt Gohan's ki flare, and was glad that Piccolo had caused the school bell to ring early so that he could get here. He knew that Gohan had gone, but he had suppressed his power and it was impossible to follow him. He needed to know if Gohan had done anything odd, but he didn't know what the best way to ask was. Finally he gave up, how could he ask a question that might jeopardise Gohan's chances of settling in to the class.

...

The weekend had been uneventful, Videl had spent the entire time trying to dig up information and finding that there was very little to go on. She had learnt that Tao was a former WMAT competitor, but had been defeated by Tien Shinhan. The name wasn't anything similar to Gohan, but the face looked slightly familiar. It was only on her way school on the Monday that she finally placed him, he was one of the people at the Cell games. That was something that she felt needed following up, but when she walked into the classroom she saw something odd. The principle was standing at the front, motioning for the class to quiet down. Videl sank into her seat looking at her two close friends. Sharpner and Erasa were busy chatting away, they hadn't even noticed that she had turned up on time for once. Gohan also hadn't greeted her, he was sat impassively facing the front.

The principle waved a person in to the room, a tall and attractive woman. Well, Videl guessed she was attractive based on the response of most of the guys suddenly staring at her. Gohan was the only one not to be dumbstruck but she supposed that was to be understood as he couldn't see what the woman looked like. Videl leant back with her pad of paper ready, wondering who this lady was and why they had departed from the normal routine. She seemed to be glaring across the class, her eyes lingering on each of the admiring students. Much to Videls surprise, the gaze of the mystery lady softened markedly when she looked at Gohan.

Finally the lady spoke, "Good morning. I have been asked to talk to you all by Capsule Corporation on the subject of Biomechanics and Robotics. This field has shown many impressive developments over the years, even though a number of them have been overshadowed by the capsulation process and different innovations. It is through a number of these developments that some of the Capsule corporation inventions have been possible."

Eighteen carried on in the same vein for half an hour, her gaze always managing to locate a student who was thinking about misbehaving. Her flow was finally interrupted by one of the students who asked, "Would it be possible to make someone better at fighting using these improvements?"

The response was spoken in an icy voice, "It has been tried. Currently Capsule Corp have successfully lobbied for any research into this field to be banned."

One of the lads in the front row laughed, "Just like Capsule Corporation, getting laws passed to make sure they cannot be challenged."

Eighteen didn't seem fazed by the interruption, continuing, "This is due to a number of violent criminals having been aided by robotic enhancements. The most famous one is a man named Tao, who has been amplified in a number of ways. He is the weakest of all those who have been assisted by this science, and also the first one created by Doctor Gero. After him Gero tried to push the boundaries even further, and created a further five androids. All five of them were designed to kill, four of whom actually succumbed and tried to. Four of those five have been destroyed due to the dangers that they pose, they were all much stronger than his first creation. After that, Gero turned to bio-engineering, and created Cell."

With that name, the class looked at each other, it was no longer funny. The talk continued for a short while longer, but most of the class were ignoring it having decided that they weren't interested in robotics. Finally Eighteen let them go, the class filing out quietly. Videl also left, but knew she needed to talk to the mystery lady. She wandered off to grab some food before rushing back to find the lady.

She was found in the gym, talking to Tien. Videl hesitated as she heard some of the words being said.

"You are insane if you think he will start hurting people, you saw how long it took him to recover after Goku died."

"It is in his blood, he will become more aggressive and dangerous. I hate to think what will cause him to snap."

"Well, I wish you luck. I doubt it will happen, and if it does, I'm on his side."

"Are you insane? He would be a threat to everyone on the planet."

"I am only alive because of him, my daughter only exists because of him. He has shown he can adapt to anything that happens to him, look at how he copes without his sight. He is Goku's son, he couldn't become evil and start to kill."

"I hope you are right."

Videl backed away, her heart heavy. She knew Gohan had secrets, but why would anyone think he would kill people. Furthermore, if they thought that why didn't they ask her for her help? There is only one thing to do, I need to talk to Gohan about this.

...

She found him in his customary position, sat on the roof resting. If she didn't know better, she would say he was staring at the clouds. She moved over and sat next to him, waiting for him to acknowledge her presence. It took a few seconds, but then she heard his unmistakable voice as he whispered, "Something wrong Videl?"

Videl felt her face heat up in anger as she responded, "No, why would there be?"

Almost emotionless, Gohan said two words, "You're crying."

Videl rubbed her eyes, surprised to find moisture there. She brushed that away, switching tact, "You know the gym teacher and the new lady are talking about you in the gym, right?"

That did draw an emotion from Gohan, a faint frown appearing. "What would they be saying?"

"The teacher seems to think you are dangerous, but the lady disagrees. Why would they think that way?" Videl sounded slightly sad, it was affecting her more than she realised.

Gohan paused, thinking carefully. "What I say here you cannot repeat, ok?" His request was met with a nod, so he continued, "The teacher, Tien, and some others seem to think I am going to become dangerous, they are watching me carefully."

Videl stared at him before asking, "Did you say Tien? Our gym teacher is a former World Champion?"

This question drew a nod from Gohan, but Videl was thinking about other things she had heard. She was sure that the lady had said Goku. Is Gohan the child of Goku? The stance he used against Tao was the same as Goku used.

Finally Videl decided to probe further, "They talked about you coping without sight. Does this mean that you at one point could see?"

Gohan smiled, something that you didn't see him do too often. "You are right, I was born able to see perfectly fine but lost that gift. It took time, but I learnt to live without it. I would say that I have become a lot better since, and I have learnt a lot about myself."

Videl was still curious, but she couldn't think how to ask why people thought that Gohan was going to be dangerous. It was also puzzling her that this meant that a former champion was needed to keep an eye on him, surely they could have asked her or her father to stop anything that happened. She looked at the cause of her confusion, saying softly, "I'm not going to talk to this to anyone, but I want more answers."

Gohan smirked, something that started Videl's heart racing. Why do I feel like this, how can he make my heart act like this. Her issues almost caused her to miss the answer that accompanied the gesture, "I am aware of that. Whatever you ask I will try to answer, but not now and always in private."

...

Shortly later, the two had met the rest of the class in the gym where the teacher had asked for the specialist to talk about self-defence against enhanced opponents. The blond instructor talked about the need to be innovative, citing the way that the same sequence of moves would soon get memorised. Tien was aiding her, demonstrating different methods of creating unusual angles of attack. In a couple of cases this involved dropping low to land punches to the knee. Videl was seated off to the side with Gohan, and was finding this interesting, whispering "Could my father hold his own against an android?"

Gohan froze, his mind thinking fast. If I say that he couldn't then she would be wondering why we are talking like they can be beaten. He finally answered "He might, but to beat an android you need to do so quickly. If you take time, the android has an advantage. They don't tire, they process your techniques mechanically."

Videl nodded slowly, aware that something was being concealed. She turned her blue eyes to stare at him, asking softly, "Why do you lie to me?"

Gohan was caught off balance, he had half-expected her to realise he was lying but found her approach unusual. He sighed, "I would doubt he could beat you, let alone an android. Tao is a lot stronger than most humans, he was even before he was given the upgrades. The later androids make him look powerless, they are very tough to fight."

Videl stared at him, thinking that he had gone crazy. "Tao was scared of you, are you saying that you are stronger than my father?"

Gohan lowered his head, knowing that anything he said now could cause more trouble for him. He thought, picking his words carefully. "I have fought Tao before, and the result was not the one he expected."

Videl snorted, she could see through the words. He really thinks he can beat my father. If that was the case then I could date ... what the hell am I thinking, I don't want to date him. I don't date anyone. She turned back to see the class being let out, and joint the crowd. With a flick of her hand, she motioned for Gohan to follow. She didn't understand how he could react to those motions, but she knew he would. She led him through hallways, her pace rapid as if she was worried someone was following her. Finally she opened a room which revealed an empty room with no real furniture. She perched on one of the desks and then smiled at him.

Gohan stood uncomfortably next to the door, he was unsure what she was expecting. As she started to speak, his heart felt heavier. "I want you to tell me, exactly how strong are you?"

He spoke softly, almost as if he regretted his words as he spoke them, "I am stronger than most. The last time I fought Tien, I won. I have beaten each of the strongest on this planet in fair fights."

The words made Videl freeze, she was sure he had never fought her father or her, yet he claimed to have beaten the strongest. She felt insulted, and let him feel some of her fury, "My father beat Cell, you should show him respect."

Gohan stared at her with his sightless eyes, his words loaded with scorn, "If that is what you believe, then it isn't my place to correct you."

Videl felt hurt, where did this aggressive attitude come from. She suddenly realised that Tien was at the Cell games, so Gohan might know quite a lot about what happened. She wondered exactly how she should approach the topic, especially after his odd reaction to her earlier statement. She finally settled on apologising and trying to charm him. "I'm sorry Gohan, I just don't see why you act like my father is nothing. I'm sure you would give him a good match if you challenged him."

As she finished, a quiet voice said in her mind, plus if you win I could date you. She shook her head vigorously, she couldn't think where that came from. She looked at him as he thought it over, but he then sighed, "I don't know. I don't really want to fight against him."

Videl glared again, her mind racing. Does he mean that he couldn't win? The way he talked before would suggest he is confident he is better than my father. I know he isn't interested in my dad, but surely every fighter wants to test his strength against the man who bested Cell ...

So lost in her thoughts was Videl that she didn't see the blond lady walk into the room. Her eyes flicked to Gohan as she said, "You are hiding well. The others are sure that you have gone home."

A soft laugh from Gohan drew Videl's attention. Before she could act, Gohan was talking, "Eighteen, it is good to see you. I gather that you have also been told that I am meant to be going insane and killing everyone." Seeing the look of shock appear on the usually impassive android, Gohan continued with a smirk, "I worked out that I was being followed, and found out why. I hope you won't let the others know I have found out."

Eighteen nodded once, but any words she would have said were cut off by Videl asking, "Eighteen is an odd name, may I ask why it is you have such a name?"

Eighteen glanced to Gohan and saw a slight nod which prompted her, "I am an android, I was the eighteenth one created. It is because of Gohan that I am alive, he saved me from Cell."