A/N: Thank you for the reviews. I promise, there are reasons that I've "humanized" the four bullies. They won't come to be known for a while yet, although from here on, I'll be dropping more and more hints. If you're sharp, you may find them and realize them for what they are and what they reveal.

This chapter is one in which I've done something that I don't normally do often. That is, outline one scene from two different people's perspectives. Gohan and Videl are the focus of this chapter, and I wrote it that way somewhat on purpose. The chapter morphed itself partway through me writing it, and now we'll all just have to go along with the new direction the story's going in from here.

Enjoy the chapter.

The title comes from part of a lyric from "Broken" by Seether and Amy Lee of Evanescence.

Disclaimer: None of the characters that are recognizable belong to me. Avery Ratcliffe, Michelle Belafonte, James Pickett, Jenifyr Stone, all their relations, and any other unrecognizable characters are original characters, and any resemblance between them and characters found elsewhere are purely coincidental.

His Saving Grace

Chapter 7 - And We Can Breathe Again

It wasn't until Thanksgiving vacation came around that Gohan managed to find a way to tame the fire. It should have been no surprise to him that Videl was the one who helped him.

"You know, Gohan," she said idly as they were sparring - Mariya had decided that the best way for them to continue growing was to encounter those who were trained in the different focuses of her discipline - causing Gohan to drop his guard. She jabbed at his solar plexus, and out of reflex he twisted to one side and thrust his fist forward, intending to catch her in the xiphoid process. She jumped backward, performing a backhand spring and landing in her favored stance.

"Yes, Videl?" Gohan inquired as he assumed the same stance Mariya had assumed the first time they'd fought a couple of months prior.

"You have a lot of determination," Videl said in that same idle tone, as though she were discussing the weather.

Gohan blocked her next strike as he pondered that. 'Do I have a lot of determination?' He supposed he must, since he'd managed to keep the id dragon at bay as well as he had. He also had managed to keep the Bear and Eagle in their proper places when necessary. Additionally, the woman, leader, instigator, attacker, and daughter had all stayed unharmed.

Gohan had kept the id dragon and the others at bay by holding them under the steel determination he'd found in the black depths. He simply imagined it stretching over them, pressing down like an immovable blanket made of his will to keep them suppressed.

Yet that wasn't enough. The id dragon still managed to find ways around the determination, and then the Eagle would have to follow, and the Bear would have to be free as well, in case the Eagle failed.

Gohan ducked under a high roundhouse kick from Videl and continued the pivot in a low roundhouse that caught Videl's foot and dragged it out from under her. Before she could react, she was on her back on the ground with Gohan's foot on her midsection.


Videl had the odd experience of falling to Gohan when he was working with the dragon in him instead of fighting against it. It looked as though he radiated a thin red aura around him, making his eyes glint dangerously as the deep red light reflected off of them.

Maybe that was just Videl who saw it then. Matt, Emily, and Greg didn't act as though they noticed anything. Then again, maybe it was that Mariya-sensei was somehow blocking their perception of Gohan and Videl. She was an odd one, Mariya Stone.

'But she isn't the one dealing with three formidable animals constantly battling for control of his mind,' Videl thought, with a touch of condescension. Though she'd never tell Mariya-sensei, she also thought that Mariya would never be able to handle the conflict as well as Gohan had been.

'But even now, Gohan isn't handling it as well as he can,' Videl thought next, and that thought brought her back out of her thoughts to find that Gohan's foot had moved and he was holding his hand out to help Videl stand.

"All right, my students," Mariya said, clapping her hands once to get their attention. "You have sparred well today," she continued, catching Gohan in a glance that, to Videl, lasted a little longer than it should have. There didn't seem to be any hostility or anything other than acknowledgement in the glance, though. 'She must just be wishing to tell Gohan in less-than-obvious ways of her pride in him,' Videl surmised. Even with that reasoning, there was no explanation for the calculating look in Mariya-sensei's eyes as her focus shifted from Gohan to Videl.

Their eyes met, and Mariya's eyes widened slightly in what could easily be identified as surprise. However, for the strangest reason, Videl felt…challenged by their eye contact. Mariya seemed to be saying, "Are you suspicious of me, little girl? Well, look all you want, but you won't find anything. I'm entirely innocent."

Videl didn't buy that for a second, and let her eyes narrow slightly to get her intent across to Mariya-sensei. 'I won't let Gohan be pushed around by you,' she thought. 'Not when he's had enough of that his whole life as it stands.'

It was true that Videl had only known Gohan since kindergarten. But she'd done a lot of watching him that first year. And from what she'd seen, Gohan had already been far too used to being put down. Judging from his reactions to Avery and the others when they all were five, of all ages, experience had taught Gohan to take the hits silently and stoically, because crying wouldn't do him any good.

When Videl had become old enough to understand what that meant, her heart had nearly broken on Gohan's behalf. Though he had never shown any bruises or evidence of physical abuse, his eyes showed the scars of other sorts of abuse that were every bit as damaging, if less obvious.

However, in those eyes she had also seen a fierce determination, and a fragility that she never would've been able to guess at had she not watched him as closely as she had for the seven years she'd known him. She still didn't even know why he'd always held such a fascination for her, but she knew that he did. And when she'd learned what his family and life had been like, she determined that she would become his friend.

'No one should have to stand alone,' Videl thought. It was then that she realized that she remembered what had happened at the end of their first day of kindergarten. Gohan had gone running to his father, who had picked him up and started comforting him. And Gohan had been crying. Not just crying, but really sobbing. Granted, he was five at the time, but Videl had a suspicion that Gohan had somewhere in his life been forced to grow up beyond his years.

She was just glad he'd had his father there for him. If he'd had no parents at all, then he probably wouldn't have lasted to the seventh grade. The people in her age group could be that cruel, Videl knew. She'd never been a victim of it, simply because she didn't talk to too many people, and those she did talk to tended to be slightly outside of society as it stood.

"Videl!" Videl blinked. Gohan had apparently been calling her name for a good while now, and she'd been too deeply entrenched in her own thoughts - 'Again.' - to hear him. She gave her head a little shake and asked him, "What is it, Gohan?"

"Well, Videl, you were talking about my determination, and then you got lost in your thoughts while our battle continued," Gohan responded, sounding infinitely patient. "Then, Mariya-sensei halted us, and you got caught up in some sort of staring contest. Then everyone left, except you. You were still here."

"Why are you here as well, then?" Videl asked, looking around to ascertain that, indeed, everyone else had left.

"I couldn't leave you here alone," Gohan replied, giving Videl a small smile. She saw his smile, or, at least, a true smile, so rarely that it always gave her a tiny thrill to see it. He really did have a nice smile. And the fact that she was the one who'd managed to put a real smile on his face spoke worlds of what he thought of her. At least, that's what Videl hoped.

She gave her head a tiny shake again, and began to outline her idea that she'd formed on the basis of Gohan's determination.


"Your determination is great," Videl said, and Gohan nodded. 'She already told me that,' he thought, but didn't interrupt. He'd learned in the almost four months that he and Videl had been friends that whenever she said something she thought was important, it usually was.

"Have you ever thought of using your determination to hold the dragon and eagle and bear?" Videl asked, and Gohan blinked before he nodded.

"I already do," he said, and continued in the face of Videl's raised eyebrows. "I use it to weight them down. And as long as I don't think about…them," he paused at the oblique thought of the woman and the others, and his voice wavered as he kept speaking. "I don't have an issue with any of them."

"But what happens when you do ?" Videl asked, and Gohan closed his eyes.

"Don't make me think of them, please," he said, his tone nearly a beg, but Videl shook her head. 'She's one to talk about great determination,' Gohan thought grudgingly.

"Gohan, if you don't do something, then you'll always be fighting," Videl said quietly. "Have you ever thought of using your determination in a different way?"

"Different how?" Gohan asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Different like instead of suppressing them, what about containing them?" Videl inquired, and Gohan blinked again.

"Containing them? Like, with cages?" He knew that wasn't what she meant even as she shook her head.

"Not exactly. There can be holes in the container, if you want, but you'd have to be careful that they didn't leak out those holes. No, I mean like…boxes. Boxes that you use to contain them and maybe even trick them."

"Trick them into not coming out?" Videl nodded, and Gohan thought, 'That makes sense. But the question is, how do I trick them?' He asked Videl this same question, and she appeared to think for a while.

"Well, the dragon is the only one really giving you a problem, right?" Videl asked, and Gohan nodded. "So really, you wouldn't need to contain the others, just the dragon."

"Right, because then the others wouldn't have a reason to come out," Gohan said, already thinking of ways to keep the id dragon contained.

"Is it possible to distract the dragon?" Videl asked, and Gohan shook his head.

"I don't think so," he said distractedly. "Not unless it's capable of being distracted with itself." Just like that, he had an idea. Looking at Videl, he thought he could see that she'd had the same idea.

At the same time, they both said, "Make a box of mirrors." Gohan nodded and closed his eyes, delving into his mind.

To do this, he realized he'd need to deliberately think of someone he'd rather not. Somewhat to his surprise, the face that came to mind was Jenifyr. She hadn't really done anything that bad to him, other than give him nasty glares. But the id dragon associated her with Avery, James, Michelle, and ChiChi, and therefore, her face was enough.

Her face materialized in the black depths, and the id dragon came roaring toward the image, spitting fire. Gohan dove past the id dragon into the black depths, searching for that dull glint he'd found the last time he'd gone so far into his mind.

He looked around, unseeing, until suddenly, a glint caught his eye. He snapped his head in that direction and found the band of steel he'd been looking for.

A half-smile formed on his face as he ripped a piece from it. It was a lot like a ribbon, and he imagined the bottom side of it becoming reflective. He looked at it and saw himself in the bottom, and was satisfied. He directed it to wrap around the id dragon.

The ribbon did what he asked, although it did it somewhat differently than he'd intended. It flew in a wide arc around the id dragon, then wrapped back around and arced around another way, then came back again, wrapping itself around and around the id dragon in what was quickly looking like a ball of ribbon.

By the time the id dragon was able to ignore the image of Jenifyr enough to realize what was happening, it was already too late. The determination connected its end to a random point on the ball that had formed, and then the whole thing shimmered, and Gohan found that he could see into it, and could see the id dragon twisting and undulating, trying to find a weak point in the ball to get out.

It couldn't find one, the way Gohan had known it wouldn't be able to, and then the id dragon seemed to look right at Gohan, startling him. But then the id dragon fell still, and Gohan realized that it had seen its reflection. The ball worked a lot like a one-way mirror, allowing Gohan to see the id dragon, and the id dragon to see only itself all around, no matter where it went.

Satisfied, Gohan retreated from the black depths to stand on the wasteland that The Fog had hidden, and found himself face-to-face with the Bear. The Eagle had seen what he was doing and had approved, since it had a container of its own in the sky. The Bear, however, was a different story.

It looked him in the eyes, all shining light, and Gohan found that the Bear was demanding a container like the id dragon and the Eagle.

"Why would you want a container?" Gohan asked the Bear, and it tilted its head to one side as though to ask why it wouldn't want a container.

"I must be equal to the id dragon and the Eagle," it said, and Gohan gave another start as he realized that it could speak. 'Well, of course it can, since it's my mind,' Gohan thought in the next second. 'And even if it weren't, I could still understand it.'

Nodding, Gohan thought about how to answer the Bear's request. Suddenly, a voice that sounded like Videl's said, "Why not give the Bear a place to live like a real bear would have?"

"What do you think?" Gohan asked the Bear. The Bear nodded, and Gohan closed his eyes again. He imagined a cave forming by blasts of water and wind, and felt the ground shifting as it mimicked the picture he imagined.

Finally, he opened his eyes to find a cave opening into the ground. He looked to the Bear, only to find it shaking its head. "What, what's wrong?" Gohan demanded. "I thought you wanted a cave."

"I desire a place where I, the id dragon, and the Eagle can all co-inhabit," the Bear said, and Gohan felt revelation come crashing into his head. A burst of sunlight shone on him suddenly, imitating the light of realization in his thoughts.

"What about a mountain?" Gohan asked. "That way, you can live there, the Eagle can make a nest and roost, and the id dragon would go in the center of the mountain."

"That would make it akin to a volcano," the Bear noted. "What would happen if the id dragon were to escape its confinement and make the volcano erupt?"

"I don't intend to allow that to happen," Gohan said determinedly. "The id dragon is watching itself in a mirror constantly, and that should keep it distracted enough so that it won't be able to break out of the ball. What's more, the ball is made of my own determination to keep the id dragon contained. The id dragon is not my master."

The Bear nodded slowly, then said, "You look fatigued. I will not request that you make the mountain at this time. It constitutes a complete restructure of your mind. You do not have the faculties to deal with such an ordeal as of now. This cave will suffice until you are able to remake your mind. Bring the Eagle Girl with you, as well, when you are able."

'The Eagle Girl?' Gohan wondered. The next second, he thought, 'Videl. Of course. It can't be anyone else. Her eyes are as blue as the Eagle's, and her style in Mariya-sensei's discipline is that of the Eagle. And, obviously, she's a girl.' Immediately, the question of how Gohan would bring Videl into his mind presented itself, but Gohan didn't worry about that just yet. The Bear had given him time to make a mountain, and he would make use of that time.

He retreated from his mind and opened his eyes to find Videl watching him much like she had ever since their first day of kindergarten. Gohan took a deep breath, and Videl said, "Did it work?"

Letting out his breath, Gohan said, "I think so."

"Test it," Videl said instantly. "Think of them."

Gohan cringed from habit, and brought up thoughts of ChiChi, Avery, James, Michelle, and Jenifyr. 'Which reminds me that I still don't know why the black depths picked Jenifyr to bait the id dragon, as opposed to Avery or ChiChi,' he thought.

He looked at Videl, who had stood, and saw that she was smiling. He frowned in a confused manner, and said, "What's the smile for?"

"Are you thinking about them?" she asked.

Gohan shrugged. "Just Jenifyr, Avery, and my mom," he said. "About how I don't know why Jenifyr was used to bait the dragon instead of Mom or - " he trailed off abruptly.

"Do you feel the dragon or any heat?" Videl asked, though from the smile on her face it was obvious that she could tell that he didn't.

"No, I don't feel anything at all," Gohan said, slightly marveling. "It's really odd." Indeed it was. He'd gotten so used to the id dragon's constant presence and heat that now that he wasn't dealing with it, he felt sort of cold.

But he also felt extraordinarily calm. Like he could breathe and think about the things he really needed to think about, and not have to constantly repress his more…irrational side.


Gohan smiled at Videl again, and if she'd thought his smile before was nice, then this one was dazzling. It lit up his entire face, and made his eyes twinkle.

Videl realized rather abruptly that she liked seeing Gohan smile. She liked seeing him smile a lot. Maybe if she spent more time with him, she'd get to see him smile like that more often.

She felt a faint spark of attraction toward that idea. She wondered what she could do to get him to smile like that often enough that it would erase the bad aspects of his past. She wondered if his father ever made him smile the way he smiled at her.

-TBC-

A/N II: Review, please. Reviews make for happy authors.

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