Chapter 1 Strange New Worlds
"Release it Gohan, release everything. Remember all the people he's killed, all the pain he's caused. Make that your power!" His father's words echoed through Gohans mind, the cacophony of the beam struggle between him and Cell doing nothing to halt his guidance.
"Say goodbye!" Cell's face adorned with a smug expression, his only threat about to be destroyed before him. The beams began to draw closer and closer to Gohan, blue death almost upon him.
Suddenly, a yellow ki blast descended from above, striking Cell directly in the back. Up in the air, Vegeta hovered, panting with the exertion of his last remaining power.
"Vegeta!"
"Now's your chance!" Goku was right, Cell was distracted. With an ear splitting scream, Gohan expended every last drop of energy towards his target. The beams were no longer struggling with each other as Gohans final attack dominated Cells, blasting through his defence and beginning to strip away the beings body.
"No! I refuse!" Despite the explosion going off around him, Cell could still be heard. A small piece of him, almost inconsequential in size, dropped from his body and buried itself in the rock below.
"If I'm going to die, I'm taking you with me!" Cells final words and promise were drowned out however, as he was finally erased from his existence. The Kamehameha which held so much power, now flying off into space, dissipating harmlessly into nothing.
With a final pant of exhaustion, Gohan dropped out of Super Saiyan, and fell towards the ground.
"He…he did it." Krillins words were filled with disbelief. "He…he's dead. Cells finally dead!" A cheer ran among the Z warriors.
Gohan laid exhausted on the ground, a small smile adorned his face. It was over, it was finally over.
A small organism in the ground however, begged to differ. The small speck and multiplied and grown, not enough to become Cell, it had no energy for that. It had one purpose, to activate its failsafe method. The Illusion method. The small sludge, for that was what had been formed, crept through the ground towards its target. It could sense the Z warriors approaching, not quickly, but it still had to hurry.
It was almost there, but so were the Z warriors, if it could surprise them it may have just enough of a chance to enact its plan. With its sudden rise in energy, the Z warriors stopped, disbelief and fear frozen on their faces. With a single leap, the being forced its way out of the ground and towards its target.
"Gohan!" Gohans eyes opened at the sound of his teacher's voice. Why was Piccolo shouting him? It was over wasn't it? Wait! He could sense it. It was…not quite Cell, but it was similar, and it was close! He saw it rise in front of his eyes, heading straight for him.
With extraordinary effort, Gohan began to raise his arm, a small ki ball appearing in his hand. He let the ball fly towards the sludge, which promptly morphed and dodged.
No! Gohans final thoughts were cut off as the sludge landed on his stomach and began to rapidly spread around him. As his whole body was covered, the being began to glow bright gold.
"Gohan!" Piccolos scream ran throughout the wasteland as the light grew brighter and more intense, before disappearing beneath a blinding explosion of yellow light.
Gohan had never died before. He had been close, memories from his beating at the hands of Vegeta when he first arrived, or having his neck snapped by Recoome on Namek flooded his mind, but he had never died. From what his dad had told him, it was very different to where he was now.
He stared up at the impossibly tall trees. Where were the clouds? Or the other souls? A forest was never mentioned during his father's trip to King Kai's. With a grunt of effort, he attempted to sit up, only to immediately collapse in pain. Everywhere hurt, particularly his arm. It was still broken by Cells attack. Wait that made no sense. He was dead. He should have been healed. Unless…he wasn't dead? His friends must have moved him them.
"Guys?" He called out to them, his voice weak and his throat dry. "A little help please?" Nothing. Strange, that wasn't like them. Particularly Mr Piccolo. He would have never left his side unless it was an emergency. He stretched out his senses only to find nothing. Where were they? His senses were incredibly weak right now, so they must have been just out of range.
Once more he tried to sit up, changing his mind halfway to simply rolling onto his side. Laying on his side, he took stock of his situation. His arm was definitely broken, and his clothes were torn almost everywhere. His coccyx also throbbed painfully, he must have hurt himself quite badly when he fell from the sky with no power.
He called out to his friends once more. Where were they? They had to be around here somewhere. He wasn't dead and they wouldn't have left him if he was alive. But he couldn't hear them. All he could hear were the tweeting of the birds, the galloping of two horses in the distance, and the rumble of the carriage they pulled.
Wait, carriage!? Someone was coming! It must have been his friends coming to help him. But wait, why were they using a horse and carriage? The Z warriors could fly and Bulma never went anywhere without an aircar capsule on her.
The carriage burst through the foliage before him. It wasn't his friends, it was a man. With rimmed glasses, a pencil thin moustache and a strange ponytail. While Gohan hadn't been expecting to see this strange man, he was clearly not expecting to see Gohan. With a sharp pull on the reins, he brought the horses to a full stop and quickly dismounted.
The man stared at Gohan in shock while Gohan stared back awkwardly. What was it his mother always said? Never talk to strangers, but if you have to, always be polite.
"Uh…hello sir? Can you help me? I can't seem to find my friends."
The stranger snapped himself out of his stupor. "Oh…uh yes of course. Don't worry young man, I'm a doctor and I'm here to help you."
A doctor? Well that explained why his friends weren't here, they had gone to get help. But why this man? Why not Dende or a senzu bean? "Did my friends send you?"
"Uh…yes, yes they did. Now let's get you onto my carriage and back to Shiganshina and we'll get you all better okay?"
"Okay then." Gohan tried to move himself, to make his way towards the carriage, but was quickly stopped by the doctor.
"NO! Don't move young man you're very hurt. Here, hold still for a moment." He disappeared towards his carriage and came back with a stretcher, before laying it down next to Gohan. He gently lifted his legs onto it before moving towards his upper body.
"Now this may hurt a bit." The man warned, before lifting Gohan completely onto the stretcher. The throbbing near his coccyx grew to a stabbing pain, a small yelp escaping his mouth as he was moved. He must have hurt himself more than he previously thought.
A hint of regret flashed across the doctor's face before he steeled himself. Awkwardly, he dragged Gohan towards the back of the carriage, lifting on end up and resting it at the edge, before lifting the other end and sliding him on. The doctor paused as he finished moving his patient, there was something underneath the boy. Like a thick brown belt. He ignored it however, he had to get the boy to his home so that he could help him, and the belt wouldn't cause any serious damage, though lifting the boy to remove it could.
"Alright young man, my name is Dr Grisha Jaeger. Can you tell me your name?"
His name? Shouldn't his friends have already told him that? Maybe it was one of those medical techniques he had read about. Keep the patient awake and focussed on something so they wouldn't notice the pain so much. While Gohan was no stranger to pain, he thought it best to listen to the actual doctor. "My name is Gohan sir."
A small snap could be heard and the carriage began moving again. "That's a nice name Gohan. Can you tell me what happened to you?"
Strange, he should know what happened. Cell televised the whole tournament. Oh well, it was best to play along. "I was fighting Cell. I thought I had killed him, but he attacked me when I was down."
"You were fighting alone?" Grisha was very concerned now. Someone had the gall to beat a child to this extent, and then leave him to die! How could they!
"N-no. My friends were with me. Shouldn't they have told you?"
"Uh…of course. It's a doctor technique Gohan. I'm just making sure you're okay."
Ah, so he was right. That set his mind at ease. Though he still seemed very awkward when he mentioned his friends. "Dr Grisha sir, are…are my friends ok?"
The doctor was silent. He began to speak, but tripped over his words, with only a stuttered, incomprehensible sentence formed.
"I know that Cell killed my dad but…but everyone else is okay, right?"
Grishas heart clenched in pain, this poor, poor boy. His father and friends must have been killed before Grisha arrived, their bodies lying somewhere in the forest, waiting to be found.
"Don't worry Gohan, they're all fine. We'll get you to Shiganshina, get you fixed up, and you can go play with your friends okay?"
A small chuckle escaped his lips. "I don't think Vegeta would be up for that. He's always so serious." The light began to fade around him. That was strange, night time shouldn't come this fast. "Dr Grisha sir. Why's it getting so dark all of a sudden?"
"Gohan! I need you to stay awake do you hear me? Talk to me. Tell me about your family."
"My family? I have my mom and my dad. No brother or sister though. I guess Mr Piccolo might count though. He helped raise me when dad was away."
"Is that right? Tell me more about this Piccolo Gohan."
Whoa. Gohans vision blurred momentarily. Dots appearing across his eyes. He groaned before the nausea finally settled. "After my uncle attacked he took me for training. I had to help fight against Vegeta and…uh…Nappa I think it was."
Someone took a child to help fight someone? It was unbelievable to Grisha. He would never let Eren or Mikasa go fight someone who sounded as dangerous as Gohan implied. "Where was your father Gohan?"
"Oh…he was off training with King Kai."
A king! The only king he knew of was King Fritz. Oh dear, he certainly hoped that this person masquerading as royalty wasn't caught. The consequences would be…severe. "What about your mother Gohan."
Despite the large amount of effort it took, Gohan managed to scrunch up his face into an almost scowl. "She's…pushy. I love her, and I know why she wants me to study so much, but she barely lets me have any time to myself. She's always nagging at me…or dad. Heh…moms going to be so…annoyed…at dad…" The darkness finally overcame him, and he faded into unconsciousness.
"Gohan? Gohan!" This wasn't good. With another snap of the reins, the horses sprinted as fast as they could. He had to hurry. There was just no time.
"Eren, did you clean your room?" Carla Jaegers stern voice stopped her son dead in his tracks.
"Uh…yes?" His voice was nervous and his ears were red. He was so obviously lying that Carla didn't even need her mother's intuition to tell.
"Eren, go clean your room."
"Aw mom! I was gonna go see Armin! Can't I clean it when I get home?"
"No because every time you say you're going to clean it you don't, then I have to do it for you. Go clean it and then you can go play."
The young boy let out a groan before trudging off to his room. Mikasa sat awkwardly at the table before standing up. "I'll go help him Mrs Jaeger."
"No Mikasa, he has to learn to do it himself and not just stand around the corner waiting to sneak out the door." A small 'darn it' could be heard before being followed by rapid retreating footsteps. A smile crossed Carla's face as she turned back to Mikasa. "Besides, I thought you were drawing a picture for Grisha, he'll be back soon and I'm sure he'd love it."
Mikasa's cheeks reddened in embarrassment. "I'm not even that good."
"Nonsense dear, let me see."
Mikasa hesitated before showing her drawing. It was of a small village inside the wall, sat near a beautiful lake. It's natural beauty only slightly diminished by Mikasas drawing. She was in fact quite a talented artist to be sure. She hadn't improved much however since she barely drew pictures any more. Apparently she used to draw lots with her real family and the village was somewhere she had visited when she was very young.
"See Mikasa, it looks great. I'm sure Grisha will love it." A horse and carriage could be heard pulling up just outside. "Oh would you look at that. Here he is now."
Grisha did in fact walk through the door but a moment later, but he didn't look excited to see his family like normal, instead he looked tense and concerned. "Carla, clear the table, Eren come here, now!"
Carla was immediately concerned, he only asked for the table to be cleared when he had a patient to take care of. Working quickly she cleared the table of the plates for what was soon to have been their dinner, while Mikasa tidied away her pencils and paper, stuffing them in a nearby cupboard.
"Dad I'm already cleaning my room like mom said." Eren appeared in the living room once more.
"Eren, I need you to help me carry someone, Mikasa you can help too."
Erens eyes widened in surprise before he and Mikasa followed Grisha outside. In the back of his carriage sat a boy, only slightly older than Eren, but visibly beaten heavily. Blood and gashes adorned the boy's body, and his arm looked like it was broken.
"Mikasa, Eren, grab the other end." Grisha began to pull the stretcher out from the back, pausing only to allow Eren and Mikasa to grab the other end, before carrying the boy into the house.
When he was inside the dining room he lifted the boy, with Eren and Mikasa's help, from the stretcher and onto the table. Carla was by his side moments later with his emergency medical supplies.
He took them with a small thank you and immediately set to work cleaning the boy's wounds.
"H-h-how?" Carla's voice trembled at the sight of the boy, only a few years older than her children-child, she mentally corrected.
"He was attacked. Not by something, but someone. Maybe one of the new crime gangs that have sprang up. Carla, I need you to go and get Hannes for me. I need to stay here for the boy, but this is a matter for the police."
She gave a shaky nod before leaving. Giving a mental prayer for the boy's wellbeing.
It was many hours before Carla finally returned with Hannes. The man had been surprisingly difficult to find. It turned out he had been sobering up in the back of a barn near the wall. At first he had been unwilling to move, complaining of a bad hangover. When she had mentioned about the boy though, he had quickly sobered up, somewhat, and was hotly following Carla back to her home. Despite what he had been told, he still wasn't ready for the sight that greeted him when he opened the door.
The boy, so clearly still but a child, lay motionless on their dining room table. His arm was set in a splint and his body was wrapped in bandages.
"Holy-" Hannes's words were sharply cut off by a stern look from Grisha, who indicated to the children waiting in the room. He had dismissed them earlier, deciding it better that they not see him, Mikasa in particular, but Eren had been too curious, and Mikasa too concerned, to leave. Instead he made them wait quietly in the corner while he worked. Grisha nodded in thanks to his wife before stepping outside to speak with Hannes.
"Wow. Where did you find him?" Hannes was still struggling for words, both due to the gruesome sight and the heavy pounding in his head. Had he been thinking clearly, he might have reworded his question to be more tactful.
"I saw him when I was heading back from the Pariass district. He was lying on the ground in the forest. Alone."
"Alone? What was he doing out there?"
"He wasn't awake for long, but I managed to find out somethings about him. His name is Gohan, apparently the person who did this was named Cell."
"Cell?"
"A strange name I know, I figured it could have been someone from a gang, they tend to change their names to those more weird than scary."
"Yeah, I'll have someone look into it, see if anything comes up. Did you catch anything else?"
"Nothing good I'm afraid. By the sounds of it, he wasn't alone when he was fighting this Cell character. His father, and some friends at least. I think something may have happened to them though, nobody was around when I picked him up."
"Not even bodies?"
Grisha shook his head slowly.
"Damn. I'll have some people take a look if I can, but if theres no one else out there, alive or dead, then he may have been dumped there and left to die."
The doctor looked miserable. Being a man in his profession, Grisha was no stranger to death. But the thought of someone so similar in age to his children being hurt like that. It sickened him.
Hannes was surprisingly quick to notice the doctor's sullen mood. "What can you tell me about him to help me find his parents? Or…just mother I guess."
"Well aside from his name, I didn't catch much. He knows someone named Picollo and Vegeta though if that helps."
"Weird names."
"That's not the strangest part. He has a rather…unique deformity."
"Oh?"
"He has a tail."
"A tail!?"
"Yep. Fur and everything."
"Wow. That's…well. It will help narrow down the list of missing people at least."
"I don't think he would have been declared missing yet. When I found him, his wounds looked very recent. It may be a while before we even hear anything."
"Damn it. Well what happens to the boy until then?"
"He'll have to stay here. It was a big risk moving him at all in his current state. I'd rather not try it again. Besides, he still has a lot of recovering to do."
Hannes let out a sigh before rubbing his temple. "Well thanks anyway doc. I'll see what I can do and get back to you. Let me know if anything changes."
"Will do. Oh, when we spoke, he was very polite and called me sir a lot. He mentioned his mother made him study a lot as well. Try some of the more upper class areas when you look around."
"Will do." With his final goodbye. Hannes turned and began walking towards headquarters. Tonight was going to be a busy night for the garrison soldier.
For the poor doctor though, tonight was going to be the first of many sleepless nights as he worried himself senseless about his patient. Don't worry Gohan. We'll take care of you.
