The Nimbus scooted along through the sky like a sled through fresh snow. Goten stuck his feet out over the front of the golden cloud and looked down at the tiny houses and trees peppering the green land below.
"Are we there yet?" Goten asked his brother.
"If you are that bored, count some more sheep," Gohan told him, his face pressed forward as he flew even with the Nimbus. Gohan had roused Goten awake during the wee hours of the morning to start them both on this uneventful journey, and Goten had initially taken the opportunity to finish out his sleep cycle. Now, though, the little boy was fully awake and tired of sitting still with no entertainment. "Who are we going to see, again? He asked.
"Piccolo and Dende," Gohan shouted over the roar of the wind. "They are very good friends of mine."
"And why are we going to see Pick Hollow and al Dente?"
Gohan twisted his face into a lopsided grin and shook his head, his dark hair splaying in all directions from the force of the wind. "Piccolo was my first teacher. He also knew dad when he was a kid. Sort of."
"Is he strong?"
"Yes."
"Did he ever beat dad in a fight?"
Goten sensed Gohan's humor change as his black eyes trained on his little brother. It was not an aggressive look, or even an unfriendly one, but that peculiar stare never failed to put Goten on edge. Something about Gohan would close itself off when he was asked certain questions, and it had been that way since the little boy could remember.
The child had thought that, after his brother explained the mysterious circumstances of Son Goku's life and death, those moody gazes would become a thing of the past. So far, Goten had learned that the Son men were aliens, his father made a lot of enemies because he believed in mercy, and that his brother thought that a big monster blowing itself up and taking Son Goku with him was somehow his own fault.
And now Goten's brother wore that expression almost constantly, even when he was hiding it under a smile.
The little boy did not totally understand it, but he decided that he would let Gohan talk about their dad's history as he saw fit and focus only on the topic at hand. Goten made up his mind to ask his big brother to explain the Cell story again later, when he was not giving that soul-piercing stare.
"He beat dad within an inch of his life," Gohan finally answered. "And then some."
"He must be super strong, then." Gohan nodded. "Can he beat you? Is he stronger than you because he's your teacher? Is he a Saiyan, too?"
Gohan flew above the Nimbus and plopped down onto it behind Goten. "If you are going to ask me so many questions, I'll sit here where I don't have to shout the answers," he said. "No, Piccolo is something called a Namekian, or a Namek. He's green. And he is the most skilled warrior I know. So, in a test of technique, he absolutely could win. In a test of raw, unbridled strength? Not so much."
"Uh-huh." Goten nodded again. "Okay. So why did he teach you but didn't teach me?"
"Well, squirt, mom doesn't exactly like him very much."
Goten flipped around to face his brother and pulled his feet beneath him. The wind forced his unruly hair into his face. "Huh? Why? Because he is green? Or is it because she is mad that he beat dad in a fight?" Goten grabbed his black locks and forced them behind him.
Gohan's enigmatic eyes bore into the little boy. "You could say that."
"Could Pickle Hose beat Trunks's dad?"
Gohan shrugged and looked at the horizon. "In a battle of skill, probably."
"I don't get it! Who is stronger? You said your teacher beat dad, but he can't beat you, but you say you can't win against dad, and dad and Trunks's dad are as strong as each other, but your teacher can't beat Trunks's dad!" Goten slapped his palms onto the Nimbus's golden top while his hair danced in the wind, unbidden.
Gohan, in a rare moment of annoyance, rolled his eyes. "Does it even matter?"
"Yes!"
"You have much to learn, young grasshopper," Gohan muttered, and picked his brother up to turn him around and face forwards.
A thin pillar of red and white cut the sky in front of them into two halves. Goten craned his neck upwards. He could not tell if it ever ended, or if it sliced all of the cosmos above it in twain.
"That's Korin's Tower," Gohan said. The Nimbus tilted dramatically and ascended. Goten tumbled into his brother's stomach. "We are going to the top."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Dende stood in the center of the Lookout, bouncing on his toes. He could feel Gohan's energy on the wind along with another, smaller, brasher one. Surely it was Son Goten. Dende never had the opportunity to meet the boy and found himself greatly excited at the prospect. Gohan spoke of him so fondly. Dende felt sure that they would be wonderful friends, and wondered if perhaps Goten would frequent the Lookout in the future to visit with him and train with Piccolo.
The Sons's energies summited the Lookout from behind Dende. "Hello!" The Guardian greeted, turning. "You must be Son Goten. I am-"
"I challenge you to a fight to see if you are as strong as I think Gohan sort of doesn't say that you are!" A startlingly large power erupted along with the decidedly young voice. "Here I come, Pick Your Nose!"
Dende registered a child, hair like ebony and eyes like twin coals, rushing towards him before pain exploded in his jaw and he blacked out.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Sevoya's basement doubled as the break room for the restaurant employees. The nice television and a beat-up old couch were its only permanent residents besides the rows of movies and Tenkaichi Budokai tchotchkes suspended on the wall.
Sevoya never went down there if she could avoid it. She could care less about her father's favorite sport and preferred to use the tiny television in the living room rather than suffocate beneath The Lucky Egg's kitchen like she used to as a little girl.
Unfortunately, her options died out with the living room's channel reception. Sevoya smacked the side of the mini TV and fiddled with its antennae before sitting back down and accepting that the static on the monitor might be permanent this time.
She retreated into her room and planted her face into her comforter. Perhaps she should have tried to entice that jackass Sharpener on a date just so she would not be stuck at her house and saddled with working the lunch shift at the restaurant once it opened.
Sevoya turned to her dresser and saw the cleaned bento box sitting by her mirror. Rows of tiny dinosaurs waved at her from the fabric wrapping. Gohan had brought her this one on Friday, and had been pulled from lunch on some kind of personal errand before she could return it to him.
The little stegosaurs and brachiosaurs proposed that dating Sharpener was a horrible idea. The tyrannosaurs seconded the motion.
Would it be too forward to presume that Videl or Erasa might want to hang out with her outside of school? Sevoya supposed she could offer them a free meal to sweeten the deal.
But then, what would they even do once they finished eating? Go to a store? Talk about whatever girls talked to other girls about? Play a board game? Sevoya had no idea. She only knew how to make others approach her, not how to make them stay. Good food usually had something to do with it. That, or...
Sevoya untied the bento box and looked at its empty lacquered compartments. Cookies. She would fill it with cookies.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Piccolo deftly overtook Dende's attacker and sent a blow to the side of his neck with his foot.
The Namek lessened his force just in the nick of time when he registered the familiar Son hairstyle. Goku's youngest still collided with one of Mister Popo's palm trees, but his head was still firmly attached to his body. "Teach your brother some manners," Piccolo growled when Gohan appeared. Dende lay unconscious in his arms.
The older boy ignored Piccolo and zeroed in on the stunned child. "Goten! How could you?! You just punched Dende in the face!"
Son Goten, as Gohan had christened him, made some kind of noise and then stopped trying to explain himself. He let his head balance his body against the trunk of the palm.
Piccolo strode over and picked the boy up by the leg. The child was Son Goku made new and possibly stupider.
"So this is what you were thinking about doing when you asked if Piccolo was strong or not?" Gohan was working double time, cradling and examining Dende's swelling jaw while reaming his brother a new hole in the back in one go. "If you ever ask me- or, God forbid, try to test if someone is stronger than dad like this ever again, I will personally make it clear to your behind that I am the strongest person in your entire universe, no question!"
"Not to worry. God forbids it," Dende silently telegraphed to Piccolo as the Guardian slowly awoke to his swollen face.
"Dende, I am so sorry," Gohan said.
Mister Popo rushed over to the scene with bandages and ice, but Dende held him off with a raised palm. Then, the Guardian peeled himself away from Gohan and generated a healing glow around his broken head with his two hands.
Piccolo looked at the child he had suspended upside-down in the air. Son Goten stared back at him. "Your brother's threats are empty, but mine will not be," Piccolo told the boy. "I am the one Gohan calls Piccolo. Remember that. And if you ever say it wrong again, you won't get the chance to utter another word." He plopped Goten onto the ground and marveled at how small the child was from behind a stalwart glare.
Judging by the look on Goten's face, the boy was thinking more or less the same thing. The little one gaped at Piccolo like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Boo," Piccolo said.
The child leapt to his feet and scurried behind Gohan. "I'm sorry!" He squeaked, peeking out from behind his brother's pants.
"Apologize to Dende, too!" Gohan all but hissed at Goten.
"I am sorry, mister Dandy," Goten managed, still trying to make his purple outfit camouflage with his brother's tan and blue one. "I didn't mean to hurt you so bad!"
Dende tested his reworked jaw with a smile and kneeled down to Goten's level. "It's alright, Goten. I am fine. Just be careful next time, okay?"
Goten's two wary, black eyes studied Dende.
"I am very excited to meet you," the Guardian continued. "Your brother tells me that you love to play in the woods and like catching beetles. There aren't any beetles up here, but Mister Popo takes good care of all the Lookout's butterflies and caterpillars. He might show you if you ask him. Do you want to see?"
Piccolo could see the wheels turning in the child's head. "Are all of the other caterpillars as big as you two?" Goten finally asked.
Piccolo watched, split between amused and offended, as Gohan rounded on his brother. "Goten! Dende and Piccolo are not caterpillars! You know that- I told you! They're from Namek! Did you forget all of your manners or what?!"
Dende consulted his caretaker. "What do you think, Mister Popo? Will I turn into a butterfly one of these days?"
Mister Popo laughed. "After Piccolo. Maybe."
Piccolo felt himself change color.
Meanwhile, Goten slowly crept closer to Dende. "I want to see the caterpillars."
The Guardian held out his hand and Goten took it. "This is Mister Popo," Dende said, gesturing to the genie. "Why don't you ask him if it is okay for us to go into his garden?"
"Mister Popo, may I see your bugs?"
Mister Popo chuckled and nodded. He and Dende lead Goten to the butterfly garden and left Piccolo and Gohan to their own devices.
"You are officially the only Son male to not mistake someone else for me and try to blow a hole in them as a result," Piccolo said.
"I am also the first and only Son who has never even wanted to blow a hole in you for any reason," Gohan pointed out.
"Never?"
"Not that I remember."
"Not even as a kid?"
Gohan made a peculiar noise. "If I had really wanted to, you probably wouldn't be here today."
"Hn," Piccolo admitted. He heard Goten pronounce his name as "Pig Of Flow" in the distance. "I can't believe your mother decided to name that little moron "Goten" and leave you with "Gohan"."
"Given that they almost named me Einstein, I think mom and dad picked as well as I could hope for." Gohan shrugged.
"Son Einstein. Terrible." Piccolo shook his head. "So why did you bring him, anyway?"
"I had to explain to him what Saiyans were last week. I decided it would be a good idea for him to learn about Namekians, too, but firsthand." Piccolo could tell that Gohan wanted to leave it at that, but his teacher knew better than to let him.
"So I take it Goten doesn't know about May the Eighth."
"No," Gohan admitted, avoiding Piccolo's stare.
The Nameless Namek frowned. "Gohan, are you ashamed of me?"
Gohan kept his eyes trained on Dende, who had turned to show that he was listening to them from across the Lookout. "The truth is, I barely know about May the Eighth. I barely know about Piccolo Day. I barely know what my father hoped to realistically accomplish by staying dead, and I barely know what or how to tell Goten."
Piccolo had never been entirely comfortable whenever Gohan wore his more serious expressions, not even when the latter was still a tiny boy. Now that Gohan was older, their unsettling effect held even more sway over his teacher.
"What would you say about any of that?" Gohan asked, finally answering Piccolo's even gaze with his own.
"May the Eighth is something I regret, and I mean that with the entirety of my being," the Nameless Namek said. "Creating Piccolo is something I still regret," something like Kami added, "but we are fortunate that the world did not end by his hand and that he survived with us to see this day."
Gohan sighed. "How do I explain to my brother that Piccolo dedicated his life to destroying everything I love and then gave his life for me because I am everything he loved?"
Piccolo crossed his arms. "Kid, let me know when you figure that one out. It might help me understand how to teach Dende that someone can have both God and the Devil inside of them and not constantly be at war with themselves over it."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Goten excitedly looked at the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Beetles and Other Insects that Dende had found stashed away in the back of the Lookout and babbled to the Guardian about his own personal favorite insect catches back on Mount Paozu for almost the entire ride to the cherry blossom fields. When they finally arrived, Gohan raced Goten around the area a few times and then produced a late picnic lunch of Chi Chi's leftovers from a little blue capsule.
Once Goten had stuffed himself, he promptly set off on his own to search for some of the native beetles he learned about from Dende's book.
"You're some kind of wizard to have actually gotten Goten to enjoy reading," Gohan said to Dende as they watched the little boy search for knotholes in the gnarled tree trunks.
Dende laughed. "Hardly. It was something he was interested in." The Guardian placed his hands behind his back. "That, and there were pictures on every page so he did not actually have to read very much."
The uneven valley sprawled out in front of them like the gentle, rolling waves of a calm ocean. A fresh carpet of fragile green grass poked out from between the rocks and ashen roots of the trees populating the earth beneath the Tsumisumbri mountain range's faint, distant outline. Everything else was soft flower pink.
"Thank you for bringing me here today," Dende said.
"Of course," Gohan told him. "I am really sorry that I did not warn you that Goten was coming. And that he, well, punched you. In the face."
Dende grinned. "He made quite an impression. Pun intended." The Guardian saw Gohan wince from the corner of his eye. "Don't worry about it. I am glad you brought him along. He's very enthusiastic." Across the field, a large insect buzzed into the air and out of Goten's grasp. The child leapt for it, but missed and fell face-first into the ground.
"Can he not fly?" Dende asked.
"No," Gohan said. "And I don't want to think about the kind of trouble he'd make if he could. Letting him use the Nimbus is already a headache for my mother."
The Guardian thought back to when Gohan and Krillin trailed through the sky and into his life. "How surprising. Were you more of a handful at home when you could fly at that age?"
Gohan playfully shoved Dende with his hip. "When I was his age, I spent all of my free time with you and then sat around with my nose in a book when you weren't around. I did not get the chance to make much mischief."
"Times haven't changed much," Dende mused.
The two of them stood there in silence for a moment and watched as the breeze gently pulled at the cherry blossoms on the branches. Gohan offered Dende his arm and the two walked beneath the ceiling of pink clouds.
"I wonder if New Namek has had its first bloom of agisa," Dende said. "I do not know how big they must grow before they bloom."
Gohan shrugged. "I don't know a lot of things."
"Yes, but you are a normal mortal. That is not so surprising," Dende teased. "It is my job to know everything."
"Everything about Earth, maybe, but I don't think you have to sweat knowing all about New Namek. It isn't your planet anymore." Dende could hear Gohan's teeth clamp down on his cheek as he realized how insensitive he sounded. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
Dende had not minded. "No, you are right."
The two resumed their stroll.
"Do you ever miss it?" Gohan asked. "New Namek, I mean. Or the old one."
In his mind, Dende saw Nail and their Grand Elder Guru bidding farewell to both he and Cargo as they went to live with Moori. "I miss some things, yes. But Namek itself, both new and old, is just a place. I have never found planets in and of themselves to be what are most important to me."
"This from the Guardian of a planet called Earth."
At that, the Guardian released Gohan's arm and encased his large hand with Dende's own two smaller, greener ones. "Earth is not just a place to me," Dende stated more severely than he had intended to. "It represents more than just a planet. It is the sum of all of the lives and hopes of its inhabitants, and all of their potential for good or ill. It is the place you were born, too," he continued, "and where you live and where you are, and it's something so important to you that you would give your life to defend it. All of those things make it incredibly important to me."
The trees around them kept silent and still with Gohan. "And what would you do if I did not defend it?" He finally asked.
Dende blinked. "Well, I'd be dead, for one thing."
Gohan stared at him, and then chuckled wryly. "Never mind," he said.
Dende wished that he was as all-seeing and all-knowing as most Earthlings prayed for their God to be.
Suddenly, the Earth let out a moan from beneath its crust far to the southwest. Dende turned to face it.
"What is it?" Gohan asked.
"There's been another earthquake," the Guardian said. "It's bigger than the others. It sounds like it happened near West City." Dende heard another far-off cry to the north. "And another one near the Jingle region?" He said, perplexed. "The tremors aren't running along the same fault- they are two different incidents. This second one sounds like something is... Trying to make a hole?"
"Do you know what it could be?"
Dende ground his teeth. "No."
"I'll go to Jingle," Gohan said, waving to Goten. "Bulma will make Vegeta take care of the city if something has happened. Dende," he said, looking to the Guardian, "I need a favor of you."
"Anything," Dende said.
"Please take Goten home. If something happens on Mount Paozu, can I ask you to take my mother and brother to safety on the Lookout?"
"Of course," Dende said, "but shouldn't I-"
The cherry blossoms frayed in the wind as Gohan burst into the air without another word.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Author's Notes:
Piccolo is particularly interesting to write because he is not only three people, but the space between three people. Hopefully that comes out well enough here. He's one of my favorites so I do try hard to do him justice.
Also, not all pairings are final (especially the ones pertaining to Gohan) because at this point they all exist to act as a catalyst for character development and conflict. But between you and me, Dende/Gohan is one of the options in the running to win. Hopefully this has been painfully obvious since chapter two, but I want to make sure we are all on the same page about that.
Your input is always appreciated, as is your continued support and the fact that you've read this far into it! Thank you so much and I hope you all come by to visit Heavy again when I update in like two days.