Chapter Four:

Krillin paced back and forth nervously across the white tile of Korin's tower, muttering to himself. He wasn't liking the recent turn of events in the least. Mostly because he didn't trust Piccolo, and because he felt quite suddenly protective of Gohan. As if, when he had convinced Kami to take the boy for training he had unwittingly assigned himself the role of protector, at least for now.

"Why did we have to make him climb the tower today?" he grumbled. "Why couldn't we have waited until it was a little warmer?"

"Maybe," Korin suggested with a shrug and a small smile. "It was fate."

Krillin sighed and continued pacing. He got pretty irritated with psychics sometimes, because they almost never explained themselves. They just did what they did and gave no explanations, and hoped it all worked out for the best.

The monk preferred to take a more cautious role in things. Like, say, not wanting to send a kid out to climb a few miles in a storm. But Kami had said to start right away, so they had started right away.

And now Gohan was with Piccolo.

Krillin wasn't the only one who was afraid of the former self declared demon, even though he had fought on their side against Vegeta and Nappa. There was just something about him that was too… untamed. Piccolo wasn't totally one of the good guys yet.

So having Gohan with him made Krillin plenty nervous.

Even so, Krillin would have gone to retrieve the boy despite his fear. He had been exactly where he was now one half hour ago when Gohan had fallen, and had been ready to dive down and save the kid, but Korin had forbade him.

That irked Krillin. Korin told him he couldn't go rescue his best friend's son, and he had listened.

Because on some level, he trusted the gods' judgement over his own.

So if Gohan was to be with Piccolo for now, no matter how dangerous it seemed, that was the way it was going to be. But he wasn't sure about it. Not at all.

+

The first thing Gohan saw when his eyes opened blearily was sky. Clear, blue sky. And he heard a strange roar, a sound that was familiar but that he couldn't place.

He groggily pulled an arm up to rub his eyes, wondering where he was. The last thing he could clearly remember was starting up the tower in a moderately wild snowstorm. But… he couldn't still be anywhere near there. There was no snow, no wind. And it felt warm.

He sat up, slowly, pushing a cover off that he hadn't even noticed was there. He glanced down at it.

A weighted cape.

Gohan's eyes widened a bit. What was going on? He moved the cape off of himself, carefully folding the portion of the cloth that had been covering him over the weighted part. He had no idea where it had come from, but right now he had bigger things to worry about. Like where he was, and who had brought him here.

This wasn't much of a mystery, however. His memory was coming back in a trickle now; he could remember that he fell off the tower, and that someone had caught him. But who?

He looked again at the weighted cape next to him, and then a little further down… there was a turban, made of something purple and wrapped in white cloth. He hadn't noticed it before.

Who wore a cape and turban like that? Gohan remembered easily enough, and his guess was confirmed when a voice said dryly, "So, you're finally awake."

The demi-saiyajin spun around to the source of the sound, and saw exactly who he had known he would see; Piccolo, sitting cross legged in the air, meditating. He had spoken without even opening his eyes. And the familiar roaring sound was explained as well, because there was a waterfall directly behind him.

"…Piccolo-san?" Gohan addressed the namek politely. "Where am I?"

"South." The namek answered shortly. "I took you south."

Gohan raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

"Because." Piccolo opened one eye, irritated. "You were coming down with a bad case of hypothermia, and you needed to get warm. Now shut up for a while, I'm meditating."

Gohan nodded, and sat back down, trying to stay quiet and think his way through this mess. South. Well, that could cover a lot of places, couldn't it? And how was he supposed to get back to Korin's tower?

"Piccolo-san?"

The namek growled low. "What?"

The boy shut his mouth, whatever question he had been about to voice unanswered. Evidently, Piccolo wasn't much of a conversationalist. Gohan didn't think about such things in any degree of real complexity, because even at a young age he had an exceptional ability for understanding things easily, his brain working them out without him almost. This actually made things easier sometimes, but other times it made them harder, because he understood a great deal, but in a more vague way than most people who would have perhaps been slower on the uptake.

He decided to follow Piccolo's advice and shut up for a while. Maybe he could do a bit of exploring, see what the surrounding area was like. He had no intentions of running. If he had known how to get back, he might have considered it, but even on nimbus, he wouldn't have a chance of finding his way to Kami's tower. He was so far away he couldn't even feel the kis of everyone there. He wasn't precisely sure how he was able to sense life force, or why, but the ability was so ingrained in his mind that he had never questioned it. Not being able to sense anyone he knew now made him uneasy.

Well…, he could sense Piccolo. Maybe the namek wasn't really friendly, but his ki was at least one that Gohan knew, and so he took what comfort from it he could.

He began to pace away into the woods, keeping himself focussed on Piccolo's ki signature so that he wouldn't get lost.

+

The namek felt him leave, but did nothing to stop him. Now that the kid was safe, he didn't feel the need to protect him so urgently. Although he knew in the back of his mind, without really admitting it to himself, that he would not hesitate to save the kid again.

It was probably a good thing for Piccolo that Frieza's empire had moved in so swiftly to take control after Goku's death. He needed something impossible to shoot for, and the goal of becoming as powerful as the planet pirate reportedly was would be a goal comfortably out of present reach.

And, of course, with someone so powerful ruling the planet, any faint urges he might have to attempt taking over as he had desired to before were quietly shoved aside as being impractical.

And now there was an interesting possibility that had occurred ton him, almost making him glad the kid was gone for a few minutes so he could have some time to think.

He had wanted to train Gohan very badly when it was time for the saiyajin to come. Almost badly enough to kidnap the kid. But he would never have done it against Goku's wishes. The rest of the z warriors' opinions mattered to him about as much as…. Well, nothing. But much as he hated to admit it, if they all ganged up on him they might have a chance at beating him, at least for long enough to get Gohan back.

So he had let it go, something he didn't do too often, and which he now regretted. He should have pushed it. Maybe then, Goku would still be alive. Maybe if he could have held out, somehow gotten Kami to back him up, they would have listened.

Should've, would've, could've. He hadn't done anything, and there was no point in dwelling on the fact now. The possibilities of the present were far more important than any past failings that couldn't be changed.

Now Gohan was here, with him. And Kami and the others must not intend to do much about it, or they would have already come for the boy. Now was the time to attempt to repair the errors of the past by trying with all his effort to improve the future.

It might not do any good. Gohan was a kid, and by the time he acquired anywhere near the power required to beat the various enemies that held them in check, many developments could take place. But maybe not.

He knew he had been right when he sensed the hidden power in the boy, and his estimates of before had no limit. Gohan had been able to more than triple his power at times of extreme anger. But his problem was that fear always held him back. It was as if in the heat of the moment he would forget to be afraid, but when the enormity of his power showed, his fear cut back in and cut it off. He was scared of himself, in other words. Scared of himself and what he might do, even if he was too young to realize it.

The first focus of training then, if he did indeed train the boy, would be to get him past that fear. Once he was able to teach Gohan to use the power he had, then he could instruct him in some of the finer points of combat.

Piccolo was not a teacher by nature. Or at least he didn't think so. He was aware that trying to explain how to perform techniques that came naturally to him would be hard, especially when the person he was teaching was young child.

But the difficulties were far outweighed by the results he wanted and needed. He had to train Gohan, and he wasn't going to let any doubts get in his way.

A/N: Sorry I've been so long in updating this fic. I'm trying to pick it up again, so we'll see how it goes.