Hey guys, Liz here! Before we begin, I just wanted to let you know that since I have no idea how to do the poll function on here, I just decided to do a one-shot in a little bit on one of the son kids you haven't gotten to meet yet. Don't worry, you'll like them I'm sure. Be on the lookout for that. Anyway, last time we left off, Chiyo was knocked out cold. Let's get back to the action, shall we?

The Son Squad Ch.8

Chiyo….Chiyo! Chiyo, you have to get up! Please, Chiyo!

Slowly, Chiyo started to wake up. She wasn't sure how long she had been out for. Was she dead? If she wasn't who was calling out for her? Who said that? She thought to herself.

Chiyo, Goku telepathically said to his daughter. You gotta stop Vegeta from getting to your brother! Hurry!

"Wha?" Chiyo muttered aloud. Slowly, her eyes fluttered open to find herself on her side, which was werid considering she thought she had fallen down on her stomach. The small girl sat up from her spot on the ground and noticed how her Father was farther away than she remembered him being, and Krillin was now on the ground too, slightly more injured than before. When she turned to look at where Gohan was, she gasped when she saw Vegeta heading over to her brother, looking ready to kill him. With what little strength she had left, Chiyo pushed herself off of the ground and fired a small blast directly at Vegeta's back, turning the Saiyan's attention towards her instead.

"You annoying little pesk!" Vegeta growled. "I thought you were already dead!"

"Y-You leave Gohan alone!" Chiyo growled at Vegeta before using her remaining strength to jump towards Vegeta and get on his back.

Vegeta tried shaking Chiyo off, but she refused to let go. She hung tightly and Vegeta thought that she might do what the other little warrior had done before in trying to take out Nappa. If she did that, he knew he wouldn't survive that. "GET OFF!"

"Not until you leave my brother alone!" Chiyo said as she went to hold Vegeta in a headlock. She didn't know what to do in order to stop Vegeta, but luckily for her, she didn't have to wonder for long.

"Gohan, look at the ball in the sky! Now!" Goku ordered while Vegeta was distracted.

"T-The sky?" Gohan muttered as he turned his attention upwards. As Gohan looked up at the ball in the sky like his Father requested, he felt his heart stop for a moment as his eyes turned from black to red. His heart rate then sped up and his body began to grow larger. His teeth sharpened and his body began to grow hairier as he continued his sudden growth with now fully red eyes.

Meanwhile, Vegeta was too focused on dealing with Chiyo to notice the transformation occurring not too far away. As Chiyo's strength began to leave her little body, Vegeta was finally able to pry the young girl off of his back and send her to the ground with a swift kick to her own back, causing her to cough up some blood where she laid. While lying there, Vegeta decided he would just crush her like Nappa had attempted to do before. He stomped on her head hard with his foot.

"AAAAAAAAAA!" Chiyo screamed in pain, tears running down her face as she felt the repeated pressure on her head.

When Gohan's transformation was complete, he turned his attention over to Vegeta and Chiyo. Even though Gohan was a raging beast, something clicked when he saw his sister in pain as Vegeta pressed down on her head harder and harder, trying to squish it like a bug. Gohan emitted a great roar and quickly smacked Vegeta away from his sister with his giant hand before the Saiyan could react.

When Vegeta was away from his sister, Gohan carefully picked her up his off of the ground and place her in his other hand. As Chiyo slowly opened her eyes to see what was going on, she found herself face-to-face with her now transformed brother. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Chiyo screamed when she first looked at Gohan, not recognizing the giant ape as her older brother. "W-Where'd this other giant ape come from?!"

Chiyo, it's okay, Goku reassured Chiyo through telepathic thought. It's Gohan.

The little girl became confused when she heard her Father say that her. This…this couldn't possibly be Gohan, could it? How on Earth did he turn into a giant ape? His tail was cut off before, right? "G-Gohan?" Chiyo stuttered as she looked at the beast. "I-Is that, really you?"

The giant ape let out a small grunt as his way of saying yes. He then used one of his big fingers to rub his sister's cheek in reassurance. (Who knew a giant ape could be so gentle?)

This caused Chiyo to smile. She knew right then and there that this really was Gohan. "Gohan."

That's when they both heard Vegeta getting up from that last attack by Gohan. Growling in anger, Gohan carefully placed Chiyo down next to Goku and focused all his attention on Vegeta. The little girl in question tried to get up but ended up falling down from the recent beating she had received from Vegeta and fell back into unconsciousness as Gohan let out a massive roar and tried smashing Vegeta with his giant fists, barely missing the Saiyan as he swung at him.

When that wasn't working, Gohan switched tactics and decided to use a giant boulder to crush him instead. However, thinking quickly on his feet, Vegeta decided to that enough was enough and tried cutting off Gohan's tail. He waited until Gohan was in the air before sending an attack similar to the Destructo Disc at Gohan's tail, making the beast begin to regress back into a boy. However, Vegeta couldn't move out of the way quickly enough and ended up smashing down into the ground right underneath Gohan.

Had Vegeta finally been defeat? Nope. He reached for his space pod remote and pressed a button to summon it to him. When it arrived, he crawled towards the pod with what little strength he had left.

"Oh no, you don't," Krillin growled as he got to his feet. No way was he about to let this guy get away, not after what he did. His friends were dead because of this guy. Picking up the sword that Yajirobe had dropped while fleeing following cutting off Vegeta's tail, Krillin staggered over to Vegeta and prepared to deal the finishing blow to the fleeing foe's back.

Krillin, don't! A voice rang out in the bald warrior's head, stopping him from sinking the blade into Vegeta's back. It was Goku.

"G-Goku? Was that you?" Krillin asked aloud.

Yeah, that was me, Goku answered back. His injuries were so bad that he couldn't bring himself to talk very loudly with his normal voice, so he resorted to telepathic speaking for the time being. It's over, Krillin. Please, just stop. Let the Saiyan go.

"Are you crazy, Goku?!" Krillin argued back. "Once he gets back to full strength, he's gonna come back here and wipe out the rest of humanity! Piccolo may have had a change of heart, but this guy is just a monster!"

I know, but please, hear me out, Goku begged. He explained to Krillin how he thought he'd be a waist to just kill Vegeta after he pushed Goku to his absolute limit, something he thought he had reach under King Kai's training. He admitted that what he was asking was selfish, but he wanted to fight him again to prove who was truly better. Goku promised that the next time he would take Vegeta down all on his own.

Krillin sighed, not really understanding Goku's thinking. He made Goku promise to kick Vegeta's butt next time and his friend nodded his way. It was a promise.

Several moments following the Saiyan's escape, a larger ship showed up to the scene and landed not too far away. Inside the ship was Master Roshi, Korin, Bulma, Chinku and Chi-Chi. Upon the ship's landing and the hatch door opening, Chi-Chi ran outside and went to her children- completely forgetting about her husband- and snatching Gohan out of Krillin's arms and Chiyo off of the ground. "Gohan! Chiyo! Are you okay?!" Chi-Chi shouted to her unconscious children.

"They're fine, Chi-Chi," Krillian tried to reassure her. "Goku-"

Chi-Chi quickly took the twins and held them tightly in her arms. "I promise to never leave you both alone again!"

Meanwhile, Bulma, Korin and Roshi exited the ship and made their way towards Goku. Bulma held Chinku in her arms and as soon as the little girl saw Goku, she smiled and started reaching towards her Dad. Even though she barely remembered him, Chinku still had somewhat of an instinctive tug that told her who he was. "Dada, dada," She called as she reached her chubby hands out to the broken man on the ground. She wiggled her way of Bulma's hold and waddled over to Goku, almost falling a few times before reaching him. She couldn't exactly climb up to get to him so she allowed Bulma to pick her up again so she could get a better look at her Father. "Dada!"

"Hey Chinku," he greeted the little toddler, a light chuckle escaping him. He didn't have the heart to tell her to let go when she was so happy. Goku was glad too, happy that the little girl still remembered him after all this time. "You've gotten bigger since the last time I saw you."

Chinku giggled, not really realizing that her Father was severely injured.

"Looks like they really did a number on you," Master Roshi remarked as he looked down on his top student.

"It's not so bad," Goku tried to play it off. "But I'm sorry, he got away."

"We were lucky that the four of us were able to make it out alive," Krillin remarked as he went over to Goku. "I wish I could say the same about the others." He turned to Bulma who was bent down with the little toddler in her arms. How was he going to tell her that Yamcha was dead? "Bulma, I'm sorry but-"

"Krillin, I know," Bulma interrupted her friend. "It was all on TV." Tears started to gather in her eyes as she recalled seeing Yamcha's death on TV. And since Piccolo and Kami were gone…

Chinku slipped down and away from Bulma again and this time went over to Krillin, wanting him to hold her instead. He picked the small child up to hold while Bulma started sobbing.

Soon, Goku was carried back onto the ship on a stretcher and laid in the back while the others sat in seats in the front. Chi-Chi held the unconscious twins in her arms while Bulma sobbed next to her. Krillin sat up front with Chinku in his lap and Master Roshi steering the ship. Then, in the back with Goku was Korin and Yajirobe, keeping Goku company so he wasn't all by himself for the ride.

Before heading to a hospital though, the crew stopped at the battlefield to retrieve the bodies of the fallen Z-fighters. Master Roshi, Krillin, and Korin saw to putting the bodies in the sealed coffins and bringing them back onto the ship. Bulma watched the proceedings from the ship's hanger and tried to not to break out into sobs again. It was a heartbreaking scene for all involved and something that just brought down the spirits of everyone.

As Bulma now flew the ship towards the hospital, Gohan and Chiyo began to wake up from their injuries. "Huh?" They both said as they sat up, shocked to find themselves being held by their Mother.

"Gohan! Chiyo!" Chi-Chi cried when she saw her children were awake. "It's okay now! You're safe!"

"M-Mom?" Gohan stuttered. "Is it really you?"

"How'd you get here?" Chiyo questioned.

"Oh, my babies!" Chi-Chi sobbed before pulling her children into a tight hug. "You must've been so traumatized by everything you went through!"

"You both did really good out there," Master Roshi complimented the two children.

"We couldn't have done it without the both of you," Krillin remarked, giving them both a thumb's up with little Chinku sleeping in his lap.

"But, what happened to the Saiyan?" Gohan asked.

"Yeah. Did Gohan smash him while he was a giant ape?" Chiyo questioned, earning a confused look from Gohan and concerned one from Chi-Chi. (Chi-Chi started thinking her little girl had been bonked too hard on the head from all that fighting with talk like that).

Krillin explained how Vegeta got away but he then tried to reassure the two that he probably wouldn't come back after the beating they had given him.

That taken care of, the twins frantically looked around for their Father and were relieved to find that he was safe in the back of the ship.

With all that settled, there came the issue of what Krillin had said before about how there might be a chance to bring everyone back to life after all. He explained how he theorized that since Piccolo and Kami were aliens, then that meant that there had to be a whole planet full of Namekians. He mentioned how Vegeta remarked that Namekians had strange powers, so he thought that that might include another set of dragon balls, which meant that there was a shot to bring everyone back. All they had to do was get a space ship and head to the Namekian home-world and ask them for their dragon balls.

Of course, the plan was easier said than done. Bulma pointed out that they needed a spaceship and the location of the Namekian's home world. King Kai helped with the coordinates, but Bulma pointed out that they needed to figure out where they would get a ship fast enough to get there, but then Krillin showed everyone the remote for Nappa's space pod. There was not only a plan but hope that their friends could be brought back to life.

The next day, at the hospital, spirits were still high for everyone. Gohan, Chiyo, and Krillin were given a prognosis of walking out of there in about three days to a week considering their injuries weren't too bad. Goku, on the other hand…well they gave him the window of about four months, at the very least. Luckily for him, he only had to wait about a month instead since that's when the senzu beans would be back to heal him up.

Sitting on Gohan's hospital bed, Gohan and Chiyo were playing go-fish with each other while Chinku sat and watched them both.

"You got any threes?" Gohan asked, holding the cards up close to his face so Chiyo couldn't see him.

"Go fish," Chiyo replied, smirking at kicking her brother's butt in the game.

Chinku sat there and watched with a stuffed bunny on her lap. "Play next?" She asked after Gohan had drawn a card from the stack.

"Sure, Chinku. You can play next round with us," Gohan replied, patting her on the head.

The little toddler giggled with delight at the sound of that.

Across the room, Goku couldn't help but smile over at his three kids hanging out together like this. This was what he wanted all along for his children. He wanted them to live in peace and harmony, not have to worry about saving the world. Well he did want them to fight, but not like the ordeal they had all just been through, seeing him die and then being separated from each other and their parents for so long. Still, he was proud of Gohan and Chiyo for being so brave.

There's still hope for bringing back the fallen Z-Fighters after all! Can they possibly build a ship to get them to this planet Namek? Find out next on the Son Squad!

Quick note: Thank you all so much for the support you've been giving for this story. I'll be honest; I've gotten a lot of negative feedback on a different platform for this AU, so it's nice to know that you guys are really enjoying the story so far and are being so supportive. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it seriously means a lot to me that you guys are enjoying the story so far. I hope you guys continue to like it and maybe share with others. Thank you and have a good day!