Another chapter in little over a month. Something must be wrong with me. Added to that: what was I doing while trying to write this? Studying materials to insure accuracy? Going over past drafts to fix grammatical errors? Reading Shikamaru/Ino fics instead of doing homework for actual real time classes? Would this author do such a thing? All too often, methinks.

I was so wanting to title this chapter, "Let's get ready to rummmble!" because Videl is just too much fun to write as standoffish. But I thought that might completely kill my effort to make this a somewhat serious fic and undermine the character development. Ah well.

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Beyond the Clouded Dawn

By Phoenix Cubed

Chapter 6

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Well this was a right mess she was in.

Videl stood on the edge of the huge boulder that jutted out from the mountainside, peering downwards at the long, long way down it was to the ground. Not only was it very far, it was very steep and unstable looking. The wind that blew perpetually so high up would lessen occasionally, and she would be able to hear the crick, crackle crackle of rocks breaking away and bouncing a crash course down the slope. It soured Videl's attitude to know that if she hadn't managed to climb down the cliff where her cave was tucked away, it went without saying that this climb was probably out of her league yet. It also went without saying that the next time Daddy offered to pay for rock-climbing lessons, she would be taking him up on the offer.

Not that, Videl admitted, she would leave the spot she was at even if she could. There was still the issue of the pteradon that gave an occasional twitch and groan from its resting spot not three hundred yards from where she crouched; Videl didn't fancy becoming another item on the breakfast menu if the dinosaur awoke, was still hungry, and saw her clinging to the rock face.

"And then there's you, Mr. Fly Boy." Videl turned from the mountain drop to her unconscious rescuer. "Some hero you are."

He'd collapsed immediately after he'd unceremoniously dumped her on the boulder, and he had yet to awaken. Gohan—and she thought the boy's name strange, she guessed his family really liked food—was a man of a strong build and unique abilities. She imagined the muscles and power it took to be able to take on and win against a desperate, full-grown adult pteradon. He must have worked very hard and trained equally so his entire life if he was able to carry out such a feat. And to fly! There was no way powering through the air like that had to do with just muscle alone. Videl was almost ready to acknowledge that her rescuer was not an android, but she'd never seen a human that could fly before except...except in those old tape videos she used to watch that featured a segment on alien invasions. Aliens, really. Just as Daddy said, they were nothing more than bad actors with even worse hair, thrown around on strings erased from view in the editing room. Certainly the media could think of something better than a warrior race from a planet named after vegetables coming to conquer Earth and sell it to the highest bidder. And the people who had come to "save" Earth had looked exactly like the "aliens!" Except for, and Videl wasn't really sure about this, that green looking guy with funny things sticking out from his forehead.

But that was beside the point. The man before her was certainly not green, and at the time the tapes were taken he would have been just a little kid, same as her. She hadn't even won her first Martial Arts tournament then, and Daddy was just beginning to get recognition. Impulsively, Videl wondered what Gohan had been doing...then, anytime, back then. Had he always been a fighter? Eating, sleeping, and breathing the dojo life? Maybe he had been a whiz at school, or a slacker, and martial arts was his hobby that was encouraged by his mom and dad when his studies were over. She wondered what his parents were like; he'd mentioned his mother a few times but never his father. Did he have a home life like hers? A one-parent household that might as well be asexual for all that the missing member was mentioned? Or maybe there was a personal tragedy, some horrific accident that would render the tough Fly Boy to tears if mentioned. Maybe his parents just had a divorce and were comfortable with each other but he lived with his mom. Maybe maybe maybe.

Videl crouched down beside his body, the balls of her feet taking the weight as her hands braced her chin, lending the appearance of a person in thought. She stared down at him and brooded, and wondered, and then decided it didn't matter. The past did not come forward to help the present; therefore it was the here and now and the tools that were available that dictated possible answers to current problems.

Therefore, problem: she was stuck in the middle of nowhere high atop a mountain she couldn't climb down from with an unconscious man she didn't know anything about except that he was her ticket home, next to a bird that had tried to eat her and could wake up at any minute.

Solution? Wake up the man and demand that he take her the hell home. Yes, Videl decided that idea was the most logical and practical answer to her current predicament, except for the issue that had sparked her long thoughts of speculation in the first place.

Fly Boy was hurt. Lying on his stomach, Videl had a clear view of his ripped clothing and shredded back. Two long gashes furrowed their away across his exposed torso, and a small, less vicious looking wound curled away from the other two like a curious whorl in a riverbed, trailing lightly away before disappearing under a flap of cloth at the small of his back. Videl had seen some horrific injuries in her life—both on the street from her early childhood living in the inner city and as a fighter in the high-level martial arts tournaments. As this wound went, it was ugly looking but not serious. She didn't see any bone fragments or gushing veins or arteries, so there was no reason for trauma to take his consciousness, especially for a body that otherwise looked perfectly fit. There was only one other conclusion that Videl could reach—Fly Boy had a weak constitution.

And if that was the case, then he'd get no pity from her! He'd dragged her into this mess, after all, with his own feelings of sympathy for her and that oversized foodbag!

Her stomach rumbled.

God. She muttered in her head, why did I have to throw all that chicken away. Maybe he'd get her more, if she was nice to him. Maybe the androids would spontaneously combust tomorrow.

"Hey! Wake up!" Videl grabbed the man's shoulder and began to shake him. "Come on! Nap time's over!"

"Mu—huh?" Gohan's eyelids contracted and squished together to form a pained frown. His hands flexed against the rough stone and his body gave a shudder as Gohan came back to the world, one sore inch at a time.

"About time," Videl muttered, leaning back to give him room to groan and writhe. "You've been out forever."

"Huh?" came the succinct answer. Videl watched as the Fly Boy used one arm to brace his upper body off the cool surface of the boulder, wincing as he did, before pushing his body over to rest on his back.

The reaction was immediate. "That...hurts." Gohan's voice came out quiet and strained and his face scrunched up with pain as sweat began beading on his temples.

"Well duh," Videl snorted, "you've only got big gashes on your back. Wasn't really smart of you to roll on them."

"Thanks for telling me now," came the response, followed by a long suffering sigh. Then, "how are you doing?"

"Uh? Fine, I guess." Videl was surprised that the man would even think to ask about her condition when his own seemed a much more pressing and attention getting. "How're you doing?"

"Stupidly for rolling over." Gohan replied, wincing as he attempted to sit up. Propping one hand against the ground, he reached back with tentative fingers to explore his wounds. "But it seems otherwise, well."

He is well, what a statement. Videl wondered if he'd gotten that from long and painful lessons in manners or too many hours studying books.

"Give me a minute," he continued, "then I'll take you home."

A loud, throaty krii passed through the air. Videl looked over to see that the pteradon was now more than just twitching with the idea of wakefulness. The ledge that Gohan had dropped her on was large and stable, allowing the dinosaur to totter and flap her wings in an effort to more fully realize wakefulness and balance. But that she was recovering faster than Gohan seemed to be made Videl distinctly nervous. One close encounter with a humungous, voraciously hungry dinosaur was enough, thank you very much.

"You think you can hurry that minute up a bit?"

"Why?" Gohan asked, scooting in a slow and painful looking manner to a rockside where he could rest while sitting up.

"You don't think that thing waking up is any reason to hurry?"

"No." Now Gohan had his eyes closed and was breathing deep and even breaths from his angle on the boulder.

"No."

"Yeah," Gohan cracked open one eye and looked at her. "No." The eye shut.

Videl wondered if he'd fallen asleep again. Fly Boy was treating this situation way too lightly.

"But what if it comes after us?"

"She won't."

"But how—"

This time, he didn't bother to open either of his eyes. "Just watch," he said.

"Jerk," she growled, "Exactly what am I supposed to 'just watch'?"

Another warbling cry from the waking pteradon caused Videl's fighter instincts to kick in and turn to face her opponent. It never did to take your eyes off the enemy, and Fly Boy was annoying but little else at this point. She watched as the raptor struggled to its feet, using the fingerlike digits on its wings to push itself up and stagger about. Feet beneath her, she gave a few experimental flaps before tucking her beak under her wing to preen and straighten unseen feathers. First her left wing, then her right. Finally, she straightened herself out and stretched, then her great big eye turned and looked across the divide to the boulder where Videl crouched, watching the creature in fearful fascination. The eye and Videl regarded each other for a moment before the black iris slipped away. The pteradon shook her head and spread her wings wide; she kriied again to the skies and flapped hard before throwing herself into the air.

Somewhere in the not too far distance, another krii answered. Then another, though smaller, higher pitched. Then again, one more like the second. Very quickly Videl saw another large pteradon flying through the skies accompanied by two very small miniatures of the adults. Videl gasped as the pteradon that had been causing such a ruckus for her and Gohan cried out a greeting to the newcomers and angled her wings to join them. In an instant Videl knew that the female was a mother and that her family had come looking for her. The four of them circled overhead for a few minutes as the babies flapped their wings and dived in and out of clouds. The mother and father flew a more sedate reunion as they twirled close together, wingtips reaching out like dancers' hands seeking the touch of their counterparts.

"How beautiful," she whispered.

"Of course it is." Not expecting a response, Videl started and turned towards the strong, familiar male voice that she was surprised to see belonged to a standing, walking Gohan.

"Well that was a quick recovery," she commented; her eyes carefully studying his features in the fading light. By the way he stood and moved he looked strangely healthy. The sweat and pinched look on his face were both gone, his eyes were sharp and observant, and as he walked towards her he showed no sign of the usual restraint people with back injuries exhibited. "How did you do that?"

"Magic," he grinned at her. Then his face sobered as he looked at the sky. "We'll give them a few minutes and then go. No sense in scaring them right now."

Videl turned back to the family, which had now broken away from its circle and the female, the larger of the two adults, began to fly higher and drift eastward as she rose on the last thermals of the evening. "That's why you didn't kill her, isn't it. You could have stopped her at any time," Videl didn't look at him as she talked, not wanting him to see the dawning of comprehension she was gaining about him and the situation. "But you knew she had a family."

"No," he shook his head. "I didn't know if she had a mate or chicks or anything. But I didn't not know, either. Even then, killing her never occurred to me."

"But why not?" Videl retorted, "You've got all that weird strength and you shoot bombs from your hands! And you nearly got killed because you didn't want to hurt her. Don't you think it would've been easier to just take her out?"

Gohan didn't respond to her tirade immediately. His eyes continued to follow the path of the pteradons as if he was making a note of the direction of their nest, like a zoologist tracking a study subject. Finally, he sighed and scratched the side of his nose with a close cut nail and said, "I've never known a time where it was ever easy to take a life, Miss Videl. Deciding who should live and who should die isn't a question that should be answered by just anyone, if any one person at all." Gohan looked down at her with piercing black eyes. "I don't know what kind of family you've grown up with, but in mine we respect life. The 'easier to' mentality is what gets you the androids..." The sharpness in his eyes faded and he took his gaze away from her to stare at the mountains, though Videl wondered if he actually saw them, "among others."

Abashed at having her upbringing questioned, Videl worked up a snappy retort; but it died on her lips as Gohan turned around to further follow the now dot-sized pteradons in the distance. "Oh my God, your back!"

"What about my back?" Gohan twisted his head around to peer sideways down the length of his body. "Its not bleeding again, is it?"

"No!" Videl gasped, "It's not anything!"

Which was true, more or less. His back was smooth and unblemished even through the tears of his gi, which did nothing to hide the muscled length of his torso or the slightly too prominent ribs for someone of his size and obvious activity level. The ends of the ripped shirt had crusted bits of blood, but that was the only evidence of what have should have been at least freshly scarred, marked flesh.

Despite the physical evidence, Videl was unwilling to believe what she saw and stalked up to him to poke him in the spot where the largest of the claw marks had furled over his spine. When he didn't gasp in pain or otherwise react, she became bewildered. "You were hurt just a second ago, what did you do?"

"Do?" Gohan looked confused, "I didn't do anything."

"But that's impossible," Videl sputtered, "you can't, you can't—" the sentence died on her fumbling tongue as the young woman looked at the amusement dancing about Gohan's face. By the look of his expression, he'd obviously done something even if he didn't get what Videl was trying to get at There was no way he couldn't have an idea.

Videl glared at him and looked again. Nope, no scars, no pink freshly healed flesh. Nothing! "—You—"

"You can't just accept what you see?" Gohan asked, still very much amused by Videl's reaction.

"You can't just heal yourself like that!" Videl retorted. "It's not human!"

"Not android, either," Gohan countered. "Or do you still think that, too?"

Videl frowned, "I don't know what to think. Androids would have killed those birds, but, but humans just don't heal like that."

"Not any that you've seen, at least."

"Oh, and I suppose you've seen lots of people just jump right up after doing whatever you did—"Videl poked him hard in the back for emphasis—"to make that better."

"Yup."

Videl didn't like the way Fly Boy's grin threatened to cleave his face in half. "You annoy me."

The grin didn't falter an inch. Instead, his hand reached up to scratch the back of his head as Gohan chuckled a bit, "some things can't be helped, I guess. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes," Videl's blue eyes became like flint in the now near darkness. "I am so ready to go."

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It was a long and troublesome flight back to the cave Videl called refuge. Not willing to approach with any length pole the wild and near rabid, angry animal known to the world as the Satan heiress, Gohan had again called upon the services of the Nimbus. Unfortunately, the cloud had also been somewhat reluctant to go near Videl in her then current state of anger, an emotion the generation of which Gohan knew was mostly his fault, though he wasn't sure why. Nonetheless, the very visible waves of energy and irritation that had flowed off the young woman had been enough to make the cloud shy away until fifteen minutes of coaxing and soothe-saying had passed. Gohan was simply thankful that Nimbus hadn't written them both off for the tribulations he and Videl had put the poor airborne vehicle through in the past few days. But that Nimbus allowed Videl, despite her deep set anger and mistrust, to still hop aboard and not fall straight through was a testament to the truer nature that Gohan knew must lie somewhere deep inside the wily and wild, Satan Videl.

"You're not coming back again, are you?"

Somewhere deep, deep inside.

"Miss Videl," Gohan said again, but perhaps for the last time as he saw her safely off the Nimbus cloud, "I would like nothing better than to let you lead your life peacefully and as isolated as you like, but you're by yourself several hundred feet from the nearest solid plane of earth, with no food and no idea of when your father will return. If I didn't come back it'd be a death sentence for you." He looked her directly in the eye, "do you really want to die that badly?"

Videl raised her chin and looked at him squarely, "I wouldn't die."

"But you wouldn't live, either," he gave her a pleading look. "Please allow me to escort you to a shelter—"

"No!" Videl's emphatic response was so strong it was almost violent, "I'm not a drifter or a needy, I can take care of myself! I don't need charity or hand-outs, got it? You're not taking me from here!" She rocked onto the balls of her feet and raised her hands into a defensive position, "I'll fight you first!"

"Whoa," Gohan eased, "I don't want to fight you."

"Then leave me alone, why don't you!"

Gohan fought the urge to rub his temples; he could feel a headache coming on. "Because you'll die!"

"No I won't," Videl asserted once more, "give me that and I'll be fine."

"Give you that..." Gohan followed where Videl was pointing, "the Nimbus?"

"Yeah, the cloud." Videl smiled at the fluffy bit of stratus that bounced against her hip. She patted it and continued with her reasoning, "we get along okay. I promise not to yell at it anymore. Nimbus can take me down and I can get supplies and you don't have to come back here everyday. So everyone's happy, right?"

Gohan looked at Videl very closely, "would you promise me, promise me that you would only take Nimbus out for food and supplies?"

Videl didn't hesitate, "of course. Now, deal?"

"No."

"God damn it!" Videl snarled and Gohan wondered if he had imagined the extra long canines he thought he saw peaking out of her mouth. "Why the Hell not?"

"Because," Gohan really wanted to pinch his nose, the headache emerging from deep within his very tired brain was going to be a doozy. He wished he hadn't eaten that senzu bean with such a nutritionally depleted body. "I don't believe you'd keep your promise."

"I would, too—"

"Ah," he held up a finger to stop her short and took any trace of joking out of his demeanor. Holding her in judgment with his dark eyes, he commanded her integrity. "Tell me, Videl, honestly. If I gave you a means of freedom and a way to find your father, would you really leave only to find food?"

"I—" Videl looked him straight on, trying to match his gaze. Her heart beat three times; she dropped her eyes to the side. "No," she said quietly, her hands running over the soft cotton of the Nimbus cloud. "No, I'd stop at nothing to find Daddy, if I could, even if it meant crossing the androids."

"And that's why I can't leave you Nimbus," Gohan told her, his voice softening with her acquiescence to his point of view. "You're strong, Miss Videl, but no one can stop the androids. They kill everything and everyone and only because it amuses them. If they saw you flying around on Nimbus, your death wouldn't be quick, it would be painful. And none of that would help you find your dad. But if you stay here," and Gohan touched the cave entrance for emphasis, "I understand why you want to stay, so I won't force you to go. He'll know where to find you here. You can't go searching for him, so you just have to be patient and wait."

Her hands dug deep into Nimbus, "I know. He'll come, and I'll wait. But until then..."

"Until then," and here Gohan allowed himself a small smile, "you'll just have to put up with annoying me for a couple of supplies. Sound fair?"

"No," Videl said, giving the Nimbus one last pet before pushing it away, "but it's what I have to work with; so we'll leave it at that."

"Good enough, I suppose." Gohan sighed and pushed off the ground, letting his much depleted reserves of energy carry him into the air a few feet. Nimbus coughed and puttered next to him, and Gohan gladly took the proffered invitation and hopped onto the ready cloud. "Take care, Miss Videl, I'm sure your father will return soon."

Videl humphed and turned her back to him, walking into the cave even as she offered her own goodbye. "Push off, Fly Boy. Leave the supplies at the door next time."

Thanks to God it was well into night and she was deep in the cave, otherwise there would have been Hell to pay if Videl had seen Gohan smack his hands together in deep prayer to the long departed Kami for patience, understanding, and the will not to strangle the young woman in front of him. As it was, only the Nimbus cloud saw, and as far as Gohan knew, the poor puff agreed with him.

Or he could think that, he needed some sympathy at that moment.

Not that he was going to get any in the middle of nowhere in what he now realized was a very cold night. The wind chill he'd be generating while flying home would be well below freezing; and in his newly ventilated short sleeved gi, the prospect of zipping home, even if it was to a warm bed and clean clothes, was just highly uncool.

Then there was the problem that he just didn't have the energy to get home. Even riding Nimbus through cold high altitudes wouldn't be enough to keep his eyes open. Gohan was in definite need of some restorative sleep—that senzu bean had really been a bad idea.

Even as he acknowledged his poor judgement, the headache that had threatened him at the cave exploded into the forefront of his consciousness and sent a wave of dizziness like a shockwave through his entire body. His stomach cramped furiously as he felt the familiar emptiness of hunger creep through him, looking for any bit of sanity left that might drive him to actually rejuvenate the overtaxed and under-fueled system that was Gohan. He needed to eat.

Which meant he had to get home. Which also meant that he would have to wake his mother, because there was no way he could bang around in the kitchen without alerting her to his actions. And then she would wonder why he needed to eat so soon after asking for lunch, when he hadn't wanted more than one meal a day in many, many months. Then it might come out that he hadn't actually eaten the lunch she had made, and that would begin a whole new set of explanations, arguments, guilt trips, etc...

By Piccolo's pointy boots, when had his life become so complicated?

Maybe Bulma had calmed down by now.

Actually, and Gohan wondered if this thought hadn't created a small, shiny light bulb over his head, that was a good idea. Trunks always had food in his room, and if he didn't have enough the kitchen wasn't that far away. An added bonus, if Bulma wasn't in the soundproof lab or the garage, she was sleeping like a rock in her room on the other side of the house.

All points covered, Gohan decided that a visit to the Briefs would be a good idea and angled the Nimbus in the direction of West City. Course set and speed moderate, Gohan almost enjoyed the stiff wind in his face. Then his stomach rumbled.

"Gah," Gohan face-planted into Nimbus's soft stratus, unable to continue sitting up. Oh, this was going to be a long trip.

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Next Chapter: Back to the Briefs! Trunks gets a history lesson. Insight on Gohan's hunger strike.