Laymen's Terms: I don't own Dragon Ball Z.
NOTE: Some of the characters might be slightly OOC, or very OOC.
NOTE: It's an A/U happening right after he defeats Cell.
Another Time
"NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!!!!!!!!!!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
With a final pulse of energy, Gohan pushed all of his power into the final showdown between him and Cell.
"PUSH ON THROOOOOUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
With a final push "the ultimate being" was destroyed, every single cell within his body annihilated…
Moments later, as Gohan's blast died down a silence filled the surrounding area.
Cell was gone. Saying that he would live forever, a lie. Saying that he was invincible, a lie.
But there was also another lie that was being formed. One that the entire world would believe. The entire world, except for 13 people, would believe that the world was saved by a fraud.
They would never know about the noble sacrifice a hero has made.
As some put it, that a mere child had saved the world. But at the ultimate cost, his father.
Gohan dropped to his knees with his head in his hands. Mulling over the simple mistake that he made. Everyone accepted that he made a mistake that had cost his father's life. But what's done has been done. There's no going back to change it without dire consequences.
Everyone, including the victim to this mistake, had forgiven him. Everyone, but him.
The rest of the Z Fighters wandered over to the young Saiyan.
"Gohan, my man, you did great!"
"Yeah, you totally trashed that green freak!"
Gohan didn't move, didn't act as if he had heard any of their praise.
"Listen to them kid. You did great out there."
"Yeah Gohan. You did great," Goku agreed, using King Kai as a telephone again.
The demi-Saiyan didn't reply. Instead he got up silently and flew off. Not really knowing where he was going, only that he had to get away from them. Believing that he had to get away from all of their praise that he didn't deserve.
Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha and Tien lifted off to follow him.
But Gohan had something else on his mind, when he felt them lift off behind him he turned around and gathered his energy into the palm of his hand, "LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!" With that, he threw the ball of energy at the ground hard enough to conjure up a dust storm.
Then he sped off like lightning. Piccolo was the only one who was able to catch the sounds of his heartbroken sobs.
"GOHAN!!!!!" Krillin moved to race off after him but Piccolo grabbed him roughly by the shoulder, "Just let him be. He needs to calm down after that."
The four of them landed softly on the ground.
"What do we do now?"
"Just leave him be. He'll come back, once he calms down."
"But what do we tell Chi Chi?"
"I'll leave you guys to take care of that."
"Coward."
That last comment was ignored, "Should we summon the dragon now or later? He'd want to be there when his father comes back."
-*-
"I can't believe this! If only I had acted sooner, Dad would still be here with us. I just know it! How many people can say that they're responsible for their father's death! How many times has he died now! What, 3?! We'd have to go over to Namek and use their Dragon Balls. What happens if something were to happen to them in the time it took for their Dragon Balls to recharge! What if Dende's power wasn't enough to help them! Dad, why'd you have to go sacrifice yourself like that? It would've been better if it were me. At least then, you wouldn't have had to go to Namek," at the speed he was going (flying, not accusations) Gohan found himself at a park and decided to land in the clearing, seeing as no one was around. Or so he thought.
"I've never acted in time to save anyone from dying have I?! I didn't do my part in the plan and Piccolo got killed trying to save me! We had to go to Namek just to get him back to life!" as his feet touched the earth he fell to his knees and pounded his fist into the ground, "I never act in time to save someone. Never! I was careless, I could've easily defeated him then and there, instead I let my powers go to my head!" He pounded his fist into the ground, again, with even more power causing an earthquake, "Why Dad? Why… you've always been noble and brave. Willing to sacrifice your life for anybody. If I'm your son how come I'm not like you. I don't deserve to be called your son. I don't deserve to have your blood flowing through my veins. Your genes within my body!" he kept his hands bunched up into fists resting on the ground. His weight held up by his arms and his legs, he just stayed there. Letting his tears drop onto the ground with the softest, pit-pat.
He was still in Super Saiyan mode. His last ounce of strength was sapped out of him as his arms and legs collapsed and the gold hair turned back to black, the green eyes back to the onyx colour they normally were. His body on the ground in a collapsed heap.
He kept sobbing as the same thoughts went around and around in an endless cycle, torturing his young mind.
If only he had defeated Cell at the first chance he had.
If only he hadn't of let his powers go to his head.
If only he had just listened to everybody when they had said to kill him then.
If only he was the one instead of his father to have taken Cell to Other World.
If only he would act in time to save the ones closest to him from dying.
If only he was more like his father.
If only he wasn't such a wimp.
The last one stung the most. How is it possible that he can go into space and battle with an evil alien tyrant who had been feared for decades through the entire universe? Whose name when even a slight whisper was mentioned would strike fear into the hearts of everyone who heard it… how was it that through all that, being only five, friggin', years old, that the word wimp comes up in his mind as he does battle within himself?
He sobs even harder as, in his mind in his reality, the word 'wimp' describes him perfectly.
For more then just a few moments, Gohan remained on the ground in a hopeless bundle.
He's practically trapped himself into his own world where he is a total and utter wimp. That he doesn't deserve to take the next breath he does. That he should just be in the Home For Infinite Losers with Frieza and the Ginyu Force.
He's confined himself into that world that he doesn't feel the hand that gently shakes his shoulder. He doesn't hear the soft, gentle voice trying to wake him up, out of the terrible world that he created. Nor does he feel as both of his shoulders are gripped tightly and as his body is shaken roughly in a futile effort.
But then as the image of his father comes up. As he sees him walk up to him as if absolutely nothing had happened and it was just another sunny day that the whole family was together.
His father starts to beat him senseless. He can't fight back as he is quickly and easily over-powered. But part of that ease was the fact that he couldn't go Super. He couldn't make the transformation to Super Saiyan. Now he wakes up.
"You're awake," a voice, next to him, comments gently.
"Huh? What, where am I?"
"You were unconscious, I found you just lying here."
Gohan slowly gets up and opens his eyes to look at the person who had decided to help him.
"Who are you?" he asked, "Why are you helping me?"
"Satan Videl. I found you just lying here and thought you needed some help. Your eyes are red," she commented.
He brought his hand up to rub his eyes.
"You've been crying," she observed.
"No need to state the obvious," he grumbled.
"Sor-ry! I try to help someone and they decide to go all grumpy on me!"
Gohan shook his head, "It's my fault. Heaps of things have been happening in my life. It's just…"
"Just what?" she pressed, "Heaps of things have been happening to everybody. With Cell and everything."
Gohan bit his lip in discomfort. Cell was part of the reason he was so miserable.
"You want to tell me what's been happening?" she offered, "They say that it can really help when you share whatever's been bothering you. Get it off your chest."
"Even if I told you you wouldn't believe me."
"Try me."
"No, I'm serious. But if you really want to. My father wasn't born on Earth."
"Nope, don't belive you."
"Told you so."
"But that would be because you're not telling me the truth."
"Believe what you want. It's not my problem that when you're being told the truth you refuse to accept it."
"Fine. Tell me everything that's been happening and whether or not I accept is not important. At least you got it off your chest."
"'kay. But no interruptions. It started, I spose, when I was four and a half. This guy came and told my father that he was born on another planet and that he was needed somewhere else. My father refused and the guy kidnapped me. From what I heard, my dad had teamed up with his arch-enemy and got into battle with this guy. He was immensely powerful and in the end my father died, but so did him. His arch-enemy was warned that there would be two more people coming. So he trained me and taught me how to fight and everything. Then they, you've heard of the legend about the Dragon Balls right?"
"No…"
"Well there are 7 magical balls that when brought together. You can summon a Dragon who will grant any one wish within its creator's power. So a year later, they summoned the Dragon and wished my father back to this dimension after his training in the afterlife. So he traveled back to the Earth, but unfortunately he took too long. There was a huge battle and when he arrived at the battlefield he was too late. 4 of the 6 fighters who started out had died. There was a plan before though, before the last one of them had died. I had my part to play. But I panicked. The plan back-fired. Then a bit later on I was viciously attacked but my father's arch-enemy. The one who had trained me, he saved my life. He took the attack head on and died because of it. I was too scared and too damn weak to dodge it in time. Then the bad guy that had done all of the fighting was killed and after a long and extremely tiring battle, my father let him escape.
"Us three were taken to the hospital and then after a bit of a complication here and there we went off to a planet called Namek. The Namekiens were the ones who had first created the Dragon Balls. We were going there to wish the fighters back to life. Then we got caught in too many battles. I didn't act in time and we were badly injured like 95% of the time. We wished my father's arch-enemy back to life but he had changed. He wasn't evil anymore. And even more, he was my best friend. So after some really bad clashes we were all sent to earth. All of us except for my father and, how should I put his, an evil alien tyrant. My father transformed into this legendary being which had almost grown into a myth over the millenium. In the fight I could feel that my father had died again, but then somehow he was brought back to life. And he was stronger then ever now. So the tyrant was taken down but not killed. Planet Namek had exploded because the tyrant had grown desperate during the fight and decided to blow up
the planet because he could survive in space and he knew that my father couldn't.
Namek who had created the Namekien Dragon Balls was also sent to Earth and we wished the other fighters back to life.
A year later my father came home and we received a warning about these evil androids who would kill all of us except for one who was yet to be born. But this would happen in 3 years time. So we all trained over those 3 years. And another of our fighters had transformed into that being that my father had first achieved after a millenium. Then we faced the androids but it turned out to be the wrong ones. These two were destroyed but only after the two right ones were released. Skipping a whole heap of time travel details Cell's first form came. He swallowed the two proper androids that we were warned about and transformed into the Cell that had started the Cell Games. Then he gave us ten days to prepare. So we trained and I achieved the legendary status.
"Then it was finally the day of the Cell Games. Today. My father first faced him. He gave up and chose me to fight next. I ascended to a level beyond my father's and Cell's. So I toyed with Cell. Tortured him, I had unimaginable power. And I let it get to my head. I was being told over and over again to just kill him and get it over with. But I wouldn't listen. I was being blinded by own power. Then Cell decided to blow himself up like a balloon. If he went pop then the whole world would be destroyed too. So my father-" his voice cracked.
"It's a really great story. Are you sure you want to continue?"
"You told me to tell you everything. That's what I'm doing and remember, no interruptions."
"Fine."
"My father, he transported himself and Cell into the afterlife and Cell exploded. Killing my father again. But Cell wasn't destroyed. He had the power to regenerate and was also able to absorb a cell from my father which knew the transportation technique. Anyway, when Cell had exploded all of the molecules was meant to explode in his body. Except one cell remained intact. And he regenerated himself with the transportation technique. So he came back to Earth and we engaged into the Final Showdown after he told us his little story about how he survived. But when he arrived, he also seriously injured one of our best fighters. From the afterlife my father urged me on during the Final Showdown telepathically. Then I destroyed Cell and now I'm here. Telling you my life story."
Videl clapped. This kid had one crazy imagination, but he could tell a pretty good story.
"I still don't believe you but great story!"
Gohan scowled.
"I just realised something," she stated.
"What?"
"I don't even know your name and you, apparently, told me your life story!"
Gohan paused, "True. I'm Son Gohan. And thank-you. What you said was true. It did help. I feel a bit better," he smiled briefly.
"What's the problem now?"
"If you would've been listening. My mistake killed my own father!"
"Right. That would be terrible. I'm so sorry," she answered, in a disbelieving tone.
"You don't believe me. I was right. You won't believe the truth when it's handed to you bright and clearly labeled."
"That's not true! And anyway, you weren't even telling me the whole story so what do you think you're saying?"
"If I told you the whole story, it would take quite a lot longer then that little bit did. That was an extremely brief story leaving out a lot of detail and names."
"So why didn't you tell me the whole story like you said you would?"
"Because I knew that it would take too long," Gohan replied, glaring at Videl, "We don't have forever."
"But we could. If," she started, then rolled her eyes at the thought, "If that legend was true and we gathered up the Dragon Balls and made a wish. We could wish that you did have forever to tell me the whole story. But then again we couldn't since it's only a legend."
"If you're gonna just keep making fun of me for no reason then I should just leave. There's no point in staying here and talking to someone who refuses to believe over half the words out of my mouth."
"Fine, prove it to me. Let's see this legendary status, this power which hadn't been seen for over a millenium."
"As you wish," he stated coldly, then made the transformation to Super Saiyan quickly. Somewhat surprising himself as he remembered what he couldn't do when being beaten up by his father in his reality.
"Woah! How'd you do that? How'd you put those contacts and that wig on so quickly?"
"It's part of my heritage, these aren't contacts and I'm not wearing a wig."
Gohan felt his anger quickly building as with each passing second Videl refuses to believe the truth presented to her.
"I might as well go," he said getting up, wincing slightly, as he feels pain shoot through his entire body, "If you refuse to believe me then I shouldn't waste my time talking to a non-believer who's just gonna mock me and my heritage. Since it appears that you were listening, you'll know why I have to go, I need to think about what had just been happening. There's no telling what else I might have to save the world from, if not from evil then from snotty brats like the one I was just conversing with."
"You little…"
Gohan lifted off, "Farewell, may we meet again when you choose to believe what I have to say."
"Farewell," she mimicked, "May we meet again when you choose to tell me the truth."
Gohan flew off with absolutely no sense about where he was going.
"Di-did he ju-just f-f-fly!"
She just watched him fly off with her mouth hanging open.
When she finally came back to her senses she whispered, "Son Gohan, I will believe you next time. But only if you decide to tell me the truth."
"I spose it would be hard to grasp that if some stranger told you some really weird story," Gohan mused, wind zipping past, "Maybe another time."
ThE EnD
First of all, is it just me or did I make Gohan either way too OOC or extremely mature for his age? But, like, what is with that? My English teacher says that my thinking is very mature. This twenty-year-old I was talking to said that I talked very maturely for my age. My friends say that I talk older then I really am. I had one girl think I was in Year 12 and this guy thought I was 16! Hello! I am thirteen years old! Gomen, I just wanted to get that off my chest I spose.
Secondly, I have no idea why I made him say, "Farewell," I mean WTF was I thinking?!
Thirdly, I was planning the ending to be something like that but not like how it ended up to be. I might've ended it too soon, I'm not sure.
Last of all, review review review! Man I sound way too perky!