-1Chapter Twenty-Six

Hera felt faint. Dende saw the blood drain from her face and reached out and steadied her before she fell over.

"Hera? Hera look at me?" That's where he'd heard that name before. In a book of Greek mythology. Hera was Zeus' wife, the queen of the gods, the queen of the earth.

Hera turned to look at Dende. Then she looked up at Piccolo. "You. You were the man I saw in my yard, standing behind the tree, watching me play."

Piccolo nodded.

"It was you who used to visit my bedroom when I was a baby, you used to sing me to sleep."

Again, Piccolo nodded for Kami.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Would you have believed it?"

Hera shook her head, "I don't know. But you could have taken me away! You could have ended my suffering."

Piccolo shook his head, "No, Hera. I promised your mother I would never interfere in her life again."

"But you saw how they treated me, how they hated me."

He nodded, "Yes. And there were times when I intervened. But for the most part I left them alone."

"Why?
"Because, even after all she'd done, I still loved her with all my heart."

Hera crumpled in her chair. Dende caught her and held her as she cried. He looked up at Kami, "Is it true? She's really your daughter?"
"Yes, Dende. She's really my daughter."

Gohan got a look of realization on his face, "That's why you can do all that stuff you were telling us about! How you can listen to the stars, and the stream and whatever else it was you were doing outside when Piccolo visited you."

Hera sat up, wiped her eyes and wrapped her arms around her. "Is that right?" She asked.

Kami smiled, "Yes. And there's so much more, child. So much more you've been forced to keep inside because of your mother's anger and hatred. So very much more. Your way with plants for instance. You're a healer, child. You're the daughter of a Guardian and the elements listen to you. If you were trained properly, you could do great good-and great harm- in the world."

Hera sat very still. "I am the daughter of a Guardian." She turned and looked at Dende. The weight of what Kami said hit her several times. Oddly enough, it didn't frighten her. She felt strangely at peace. "It makes sense, you know. All the strange things that have happened to me, that I've been able to do. My mother's reaction and my father-that man who claimed he was my father- beating me and hating me my whole life. No wonder he said he wished I'd never been born. I was a constant reminder of the love my mother shared with Kami." She stood up and walked over to where Piccolo sat. "I wish I could see you. You, the real you, just once more."

Piccolo smiled. And it was his voice that came now, not Kami's. "You can. But you'd better stand back."

Hera nodded and rushed back to where Dende and the others were now standing. Piccolo stood up and walked to the back of the Look Out, away from the decorations, away from the others. He started to glow and the yell that he emitted was frightening. Hera covered her ears and shielded her face from the intense glow. When she opened them, to her astonishment there were two Piccolo's standing there. Then one shifted, and it was Kami. Just as she remembered, only older, a little more wrinkled.

She took hesitant steps towards him.

"Kami." Mr. Popo said.

"Hello, Mr. Popo. You have been so very loyal to me even after my fusion with Piccolo."

"O, Kami. You are missed."

He smiled, then turned his attention back to Hera. She was slowly walking towards him. "It is you. I remember now. I told my mother about you once. She hit me so hard I flew across the room and into the wall. I still have the scar on my back. She told me I was crazy and threatened to have me sent away unless I stopped telling such evil lies. That was the last time I saw you."

"I couldn't bear to see you being hurt."

"Did you bring me here? Is it because of you the vase of flowers landed where it did?"

To her utter astonishment, Kami nodded, "I gave them a little help, finding you there that afternoon. I still had my eye out for you."

"But why? Why not just appear and bring me here in my time, in our time."

"Because, I knew the things that were to come. And I knew I had no right to take you anywhere you didn't want to be. You will live a very long life, Hera. That's the Namek in you. I didn't want you to have to see the horrors that were to come, the battles that were to be fought."

"But you were able to send me to here and now. How?"

"Even I am not certain of that. There are more things in heaven and earth than we can possibly understand."

Hera smiled, "Shakespeare?"
"Something like that."

Then she ran, ran into the arms of the old Namek, embraced him violently. "I never ever thought I'd be happy! And now, here I am, in a place where I actually belong." She looked up into his face, "my real father is a Namek!" She suddenly pulled away and looked over at Piccolo. "It's going to be really hard not to hate you now."

To everyone's surprise, Piccolo laughed. They all joined in. Suddenly, Kami began to glow.

"I can't stay like this for much longer." He took Hera's face in his wrinkled hands. That feeling, the soft leather of Dende's skin, that's where she'd felt it before, a century ago when her own dear father had held her for the only time. "I am very proud of you my daughter. Learn everything you can. You have a good teacher. Take care of yourself and those you love. Know that I love you very much and I'm here, if ever you need me." He then turned to Dende, "Take care of her. I will be watching." And then he was gone.