Space is overwhelming. The vast blackness dotted with the light from faraway stars. Seeing it close up is even more so. Knowing that if this space pod were to malfunction that he would freeze and wither away and die. Seeing those lights he saw every night up close. Watching the universe pass him by at such speed that all he can see of the other planets around him is a blurry moment of color. Yes, space is overwhelming, So overwhelming that for a few moments it distracts Gohan from the fact that home is gone. That he has been kidnapped, torn from his family and stolen away to the stars by his long lost Uncle.
Once that moment is gone he panics and starts to cry. "Shut up runt." Raditz says and casually backhands him across the face. Gohan cries out and sniffles, more tears pouring from his eyes, but he dutifully closes his mouth and instead cries silently.
He returns his gaze out the window and there isn't even a hint of Earth, or any of the planets he has learned about from his mother. He falls asleep to the worrying epiphany that he doesnt have his hat anymore. Without his hat his father won't be able to find him. He is well and truly on his own.
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Raditz had stopped at a smaller star base first, saying he was going to meet up with someone, but when they arrived they were already gone, so Gohan and his uncle had stoped long enough to eat, clean up and refuel and then they left again.
"Freiza want's to see you." says the brute of a man who is waiting for them when they dock on the huge space ship.
Raditz pales and stammers out "L-Lord Freiza wants to see me?"
The other man smirks and folds his arms over his chest, casually leaning back against the ship that Gohan has just disembarked from. "You were supposed to be off purging planet Forinthum, but last we checked, everyone on the planet is still happily breathing, so what were you doing during that whole year you were gone?"
Raditz's eyes harden and he growls out "That's none of your buisness." And straightened his posture and walks past the man. "I report to Freiza, not you Usemi."
Usemi waves his hand lazily. "Then by all means, go report to Freiza, I'm sure he's dying to hear your report."
Radtiz growls at the man and starts walking away. When he sees that Gohan isn't following him he turns around and says, "With me brat!" Gohan who has been frozen inside the pod since they had landed, quickly gathers his wits about himself and hurries out of the space ship.
Gohan follows behind Raditz taking three steps for every one that Raditz takes. Trying to take in everything around him as they make their way throught the base. They walk down a white hallway passing doors with yellow frames on either side every few feet until Raditz suddenly turns down a hallway and comes to a door no different from all the others. Raditz places a hand on a panel by the door and the door opens. Raditz goes in and Gohan rushes in behind him before the door can close and shut him out.
As soon as the door shut Raditz spins around to face Gohan. He considers him for a moment something regretful on his face. Then to Gohan's shock the older man crouches down to look Gohan in the eye. "This place is not like your life on planet Earth with your parents. Earth was soft, easy, and life in the Planet trade organization is anything but. You will need to do exactly as I tell you to if you want to survive, do you understand?"
"But I don't want to be here, I want to go home." Gohan says, his eyes filling with tears again.
Raditz lifts his hand and Gohan flinches ready for another hit, but Raditz simply places his hand on Gohan's shoulder, the massive hand covering it completely. He squeezes in a way the Gohan thinks is supposed to be comforting, bit it just hurts. "Your life on earth is over, there is no going back, you have to make the best of what you have out here."
Gohan's tears overtake him again and his small body shakes with the force of his silent cries. Radtiz stands and sighs. "Stop crying. Tears are a sign of weakness and if you show any of that here you'll be eaten alive. Now we are going to see Lord Freiza, the head of the PTO, he wants to talk to me. You must be completely silent, only speak if he speaks to you. if you speak out of turn you will be severely punished, do you understand?"
Gohan nods shakily, wiping his eyes. If Raditz hitting him isn't being severely punished, Gohan doesn't want to know what it would be like "Good" Raditz says "Now follow me."
Raditz leads him back into the white hallway and Gohan follows him down a labyrinths of twisting halls, passing aliens of every shape and color. All too soon they arrive at a door with two burly aliens standing guard outside of it. A purple alien with four bulbous green eyes smirks nastily at Raditz and says, "Freiza expected you sooner, you know he doesn't like being kept waiting." Raditz pales but bares his teeth at the man and confidently walks into the room. Gohan scurries in after him.
The room is much larger than the one Radtiz spoke to him in and it has a huge window on the left looking out into space. Gohan stares for a moment at the countless other ships outside of the window, all circular and painted in white and yellow.
"Raditz, so nice of you to finally check in." A drawling voice that sends chills down Gohan's spine draws his attention away from the window. A reptilian-like being is seated in a white throne in the center of the room.
Raditz immediately drops down to one knee and bows his head. His uncle moving puts Gohan in the alien's line of sight and Gohan flinches as the alien's red eyes fall onto him. Gohan meets the man's eyes for a second and it feels like they bore into him. The young demi-siayan quickly looks to the floor. "And you brought a guest with you." Freiza waves a hand towards Gohan. "Well don't be rude, introduce us."
Radtiz looks up from his bow and says haltingly "This is my nephew, the son of my brother Kakarot, he showed immense power and promise when I met him, so I decided to bring him back here to you my Lord."
Freeza's eyes widen minutely. "Another saiyan, I thought your crew was the last. What of your brother?"
"Half saiyan actually, he is part earthing. And my brother was useless and weak so I killed him." Raditz replies.
Frieza says something in return but Gohan can hear nothing past the ringing in his ears. Dead. His daddy is dead. There is no one to come rescue him and if he goes home his dad won't- he wont-! What starts as a bone deep sadness morphs into a miasma of burning anger churning deep in his gut. All he wants to do is break something, and the best target is the man who killed his dad and took him away from earth.
"YOU KILLED MY DADDY!" Gohan screams and suddenly his feet have left the ground and he's flying into the taller man, he bowls him over and hits him over and over again, Fists and feet hitting any part of Radtiz that they can find.
"Oho! I see he does have some promise." Freiza says "But this display is no way to act in front of an audience is it. Kilatu restrain him please." Freiza says and a green four armed alien grabs Gohan and pulls him away from Raditz. He struggles for a few moments until his anger leaves him in a rush and he starts crying instead.
The man holding Gohan laughs and says "Look at you Raditz, you cant even hold your own against a toddler!" When Gohan looks at the man he feels a sick satisfaction at the state of him. He's covered in bruises and his new armor is cracked.
"I quite agree with Kilatu, Raditz, I knew you were weak, but not this weak. Or" Freiza says turning his eyes to Gohan and the demi-saiyan chokes back his tears remembering what Raditz had said to him "Is this runt really so strong. What is your name?"
When Gohan doesn't answer immediately Kilatu shakes him harshly "G-Gohan, My name is Gohan Son." Remembering the manners his mother drilled into him at the last moment he says "I-It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Freiza."
Freiza laughs. "How civilized this one is! I never thought a monkey could learn manners. It must be the influence of his earthing blood."
Raditz slowly levers himself off of the ground and gets back into his kneeling position. "Lord Freiza I am glad my present pleases you-"
"He does please me Raditz" Freiza interrupts "But you on the other hand have done the opposite. You were tasked with purging Forinthum, but you went off to a family reunion instead. I'm starting to think that young Gohan had the right idea." Freiza turns to consider Gohan. "You can put him down Kilatu, You'll behave, won't you?" When Gohan nods the big alien sets him down on his feet.
Freiza's eyes move to Gohan. "So young Gohan should Raditz be punished?" He asks, and Gohan being young and naive doesn't understand the sadism lurking in Freiza's eyes.
"He killed my Daddy, he needs to be taught a lesson!" Gohan yells.
Freiza's lips bloom into a smile and he turns his eyes to a trembling Raditz. "Well, the punishment should fit the crime should it not young Gohan? What say hm… I think it is a life for a life is it not?" and before Gohan can even process what the alien had said Frieza is pointing a finger at Raditz and a red beam shoots from it right through Raditz's chest.
His uncle falls to the side and reaches his arm out to clutch at Gohan's foot. Gohan just stares in shock as Raditz's blood runs red across the floor, the red liquid soaking into his shoes. All he can think is that his mom will be so mad at the mess he's made of his clothes. Frieza's laughter startles him and he goes to step back, but he trips over Radit's hand and he falls on his bum into the growing pool of blood.
"What do you think Gohan? Did I choose the right punishment?"
Gohan stares at the blood staining his pants and starts to cry again. "I didn't want him to die."
"Oh no? Then what should I have done?" Freiza asks.
"P-Put him in J-ail" Gohan warbles as sobs wrack his body. "Criminals go in Jail."
Freiza stands and leaves his throne and walks over to Gohan. He lifts Gohan's head with the tip of his tail and says. "Poor little Gohan, you have so much to learn don't you? Well let me teach you." His tail lashes back and slams into Gohan's small body and the demi siayan flys back and slams into the bulk head. "The universe runs on death, the strong take what they want and the weak die. And I am the strongest there is."
Gohan groans weakly and opens one bleary eye before his body gives in and he passes out.
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Chi-Chi is distraught by the loss of not only her husband, but her son too. "We need to gather the dragon balls and wish Gohan Home!" She cries out again.
"Chi-Chi we can't do that. We need the dragonballs to wish Goku back to life, the Saiyan's are coming and if we don't have Goku here they could destroy the whole planet." Yamcha says again.
"I don't care about the damn planet, I care that my son is off somewhere in space where anything could happen to him. He's four, he can't take care of himself and Krillin siad the man that took him was a beast! He could be hurt! He need us, Gohan needs his mother!" Chi-Chi says dissolving into tears.
Bulma gathers Chi-Chi into her arms and holds her tight. "I know, Chi-Chi, we all know, but if we don't get reaidy for the rest of the Saiyans, then Gohan will have nothing to come home to. He's Goku's son, he can hold out until Goku comes back. After he beats those Siayans, he'll make them tell us where Gohan is and you can go get him yourself okay?" Bulma soothes.
But it isn't okay, nothing is okay! "He's not Goku though, he's softer than Goku. He doesn't know how to fight! He's never been away from home!" Chi-Chi sobs, falling to her knees. Bulma follows her down and places her hands on Chi-Chi's shoulders. When she looks up she sees tears in Bulma's eyes too.
"I know Chi-Chi, but we have to." Bulma sends her a watery smile "How about this, I'll start development on a long range space ship with my father now. That way as soon as The Saiyans are defeated we can leave okay?"
Chi-Chi trembles as sobs wrack her body. Leaving her Gohan alone with someone who was strong enough to Kill Goku, taking him out into space to do who knows what with him is killing her. But she can't do anything else, so she steels herself and says. "It better be ready because you bet yer ass I'll be going out to find him.'' Then she stands and dusts off her cheongsam and turns to face Krillin. "I haven't fought in a very long time, but if beating the saiyans is what we need to do to get my Gohan back, I'll need to get back into shape. You'll be helping me with that."
Krillin stares, his eyes widening comically and mouth dropping open. The rest of the fighters Goku called friends aren't much better. "What y'all think I can't do it? I made it into the twenty-third world's martial art tournament didn't I?"
"Yeah I guess" Krillin says rubbing the back of his head "But you couldn't even really land a hit on Goku."
Chi-Chi growls and hits Krillin on the head. "You wouldn't have been able to either after his training with Kami, So why don't you shut the hell up."
Krillin raises his arms in a contrite manner "You're right, You're right, I guess I just wasn't thinking, Sorry Chi-Chi. Sure I'll train -"
"If you think training under that weakling will get you anywhere near ready to go toe to toe with the saiyans, you're delusional. No I think I'll be the one training you." Everyone turns in shock to see Piccolo at the edge of the lawn of Capsule Corp.
"P-P-Piccolo!" Krillin stutters as Bulma shrieks and skuttles as far away from him as she can. Yamcha stands his ground but all the color has drained from his face.
"So what do you say? Will you take me up on my offer?" He asks, his eyes boring into hers, burning with challenge.
Chi-Chi takes him in, the son of the Demon king who her Goku had fought. He was the source of a few of her nightmares. But she just pulls out all of her mental fortitude. He's the strongest person on earth right now, and if anyone would help her get ready to face the saiyans it would be him. She pulls her shoulders back and raises her head presenting the picture perfect posture her mother had drilled into her. "Fine, I'll let you train me,"
"Chi-Chi do you really think that's such a good idea?" Krillin asks nervously, looking between her and Piccolo. But Chi-Chi just ignores him and says "But you better not go easy on me just because I'm a woman."
Piccolo laughs and says "Yeah that won't be a problem."
"Then let's go, We're burning daylight!" Chi-Chi says
"But the rest of the plan?" Yamcha starts.
"We already have a plan, train as hard as we can, then wish Goku back to life a year from now right before the Siayan's arrive. Now let's get off of our asses and actually get to work!" Chi-Chi yells and then stomps over to Piccolo. "Well let's get a move on already!" She says getting right up into the namekian's personal space.
Piccolo says "As you wish", then smirks and grabs Chi-Chi around the middle and shoots up into the sky. The rest of the group can hear Chi-Chi screeching as they fly away.
"Do you think that was a good idea?" Asks krillin.
"I don't really know, but do you really think there was any way we could have stopped her?" Yamcha asks.
"Good Point." Kirllin says as they watch the forms of Chi-Chi and Piccolo fade away into the distance.
Notes: You can also find a podfic for this ( an audiobook version) on ao3 under the fic of the same name