Yes, this scene happened in GT. I'm telling this so people gain a new appreciation for this particular event, since some things were really hard to spot in the episode, but I wanted to make clear to people, so people notice things when they see this episode of GT again. This is a flashback. These events occur the same time that Pan is celebrating her birthday all the way across the galaxy/universe.

This chapter and the next are meant to explain what has happened with Piccolo this entire time. This chapter is directly based on an interpretation of a GT episode. The next chapter is my own.

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CHAPTER 35:
Flashback #1:
Gohan Falls (The Story of Piccolo)

Piccolo watched the fight from a distance, frowning thoughtfully as the two demi-Saiyans fought with unrelenting power. He could feel Goten's ki almost distorted as Gohan desperately tried to reason with his brother. Piccolo knew it already was too late for Goten, and he knew that Gohan was next, but before he could jump in, he had to know what this thing controlling Goten actually wanted with them. What were the parasite's intentions? What was he aiming for? The fact that Goten was stalling immediately set off alarms in Piccolo's mind that this entire battle was a trap of some sort, and he could only hope that Gohan was able foresee it.

Goten had gone blonde early on in the battle, and Gohan's hair was still dark. Piccolo understood that Gohan was a Mystic Saiyan, and had been ever since he was a teenager, so the Namekian did not question why Gohan never transformed… that is, until he realized that Gohan's power was incredibly low compared to Goten's. Gohan was holding back a great deal, most likely from the fear that he could kill his baby brother.

Piccolo grunted and frowned more deeply at the thought. He thought he taught Gohan better than that. Obviously the parasite using Goten as a host had no intentions of killing off the body yet. If it did, it would not have had Goten survive this long. The parasite's intentions were not to claim Goten, but rather, Gohan. And until achieving Gohan, that parasite was not going to risk Goten's life. Obviously, since it attacked Goten first, the parasite was not strong enough to fight Gohan in its original form. The thing was just playing mind games on Gohan. And Piccolo was disappointed in the kid. Gohan should have known better than to fall for the parasite's trick.

But what was the trick? There obviously had to be one, for the battle to last this long but for no reason backing it up. There was a twist here, and Piccolo feared that Gohan might be susceptible to the parasite potentially, but hadn't given the thing the opportunity it desired yet.

If the parasite intended for Gohan to transform before claiming his body, the thing would be in for a very unfortunate surprise. Piccolo smirked slightly at this. Obviously, the parasite had never heard of Mystic powers. Piccolo couldn't blame it, though. Kami, himself, had never known of the powers either. When the Ancient Kai was sealed away in the Z-Sword so long ago, that entire legend was sealed away with him.

The fight began to get more intense. The possessed Goten began to show signs of impatience. His swings at Gohan were getting sloppy, his shouts were failing to intimidate the older Saiyan. Suddenly, Goten stopped, and Gohan did too. Piccolo adjusted his ears slightly to be able to catch the conversation, but it was too low for him to hear. Because he didn't want to be spotted, he had hidden in the mountains, waiting until Gohan was in serious danger before willing to jump in. He still didn't know what the parasite's intentions were, and the battle hadn't seemed to be life-threatening to either of them yet.

Goten shouted something, but his voice was muffled by the high-pitched drone of ki that began to erupt from him. Goten began to scream and his ki expanded from him like a giant bomb of energy, growing with every second.

Piccolo's eyes widened as he saw what was happening. He had seen this before, twenty years ago, when Vegeta pulled a very similar move against Majin Buu. He growled and tensed, unsure of what to do, suddenly fearing something horrible was going to happen to Goten if he didn't stop powering up like that.

Obviously, Gohan was afraid for his brother as well. His voice shouted over the rising ki, "Goten, stop this! STOP THIS! You're going to kill us all!"

Gohan was caught on the ball of ki which was continuing to expand, trying to push it back and speak to Goten at the same time. That was enough for Piccolo. It was time that he intervened. Gohan still wasn't powering up enough, and Goten was going to die if Piccolo didn't somehow find a way to stop him.

Piccolo flew as fast as he could toward the battle, and was almost there before Gohan suddenly spiked his ki and right before Piccolo's eyes, he turned blonde. BLONDE! Piccolo's eyes flew wide and his breath caught as his mind raced in confusion. That wasn't supposed to happen! What was wrong with Gohan? He should have still had black hair at this point.

Gohan's ki rose even higher, and Piccolo recognized his second transformation. Blue sparks flew from Gohan as he tried to push the ball of ki back, even though his body was worn from the battle with Goten before. Gohan's ki was far higher than Piccolo's at this point. While Piccolo had reached a plateau after fusing with Kami before the Cell Games, Gohan had still been able to attain higher levels of power. If Gohan wasn't able to push the ki back toward Goten, then Piccolo would not be able to help. He'd just be getting in the way, and they all would die if Goten decided to trigger it.

Piccolo landed right by the battle, hiding in a gorge to observe the final moments of the fight. With Gohan as SSJ2, the battle would soon be over. Goten, even possessed by some being, wouldn't be able to handle that. Gohan had over twice as much power as Goten by this point, even though he would have had even more if he still had his Mystic transformation.

The moment Piccolo landed and raised his eyes to watch the fight, something strange happened. It would have been impossible to spot if he hadn't trained his eyes to see things that passed nearly the speed of light. A silver substance erupted from Goten's body and shot out through the dome of ki to envelop a startled Gohan. The metallic substance wrapped around him as he screamed in shock, and entered his body through every one of his wounds and pores, choking him as it went down his throat, immobilizing him as he lost control of his body.

Piccolo had no time to think. He had to save Goten. Throwing up a ki barrier, Piccolo thrust himself into the untriggered attack almost as fast as the silver liquid expelled itself from Goten's body.

Everything happened at once. While Gohan was becoming enveloped in the silver liquid, Piccolo dodged into the ki bomb, and Goten suddenly snapped out of it, long enough to realize with terror that he was emitting such a large attack, it was draining his own life. In a panic, he cut off the source of power from the bomb, but in the process, triggered it to explode.

A body jumped on his and brought him to the ground, sheltering him as the unstable ki ignited and in a gigantic nuclear explosion, blew away the entire mountain range around them. Rocks and debris fell like a meteor shower as the energy swept a thousand miles in every direction, shaking the entire planet in the process.

When it was over, Piccolo lay over Goten, panting, and painfully sat up to look at Gohan. He was still in the air, observing his hands with a smirk as he opened and closed them before his eyes. Piccolo looked down to Goten and saw that the poor kid was convulsing while unconscious. At least Goten didn't have that thing inside him anymore, whatever it was. Piccolo picked up Goten under his left arm and stood to face Gohan, who had suddenly erupted in triumphant laughter.

Piccolo bared his fangs and shouted, "You are a parasite! What do you want? Who are you?!"

Gohan snickered and turned in the air to face his new opponent feeling a revived energy within himself. "I have come to get revenge on all Saiyans!" His laughter began to become high pitched as he pointed to Piccolo with two fingers extended, "Two down! I think I'm making good progress, don't you think?"

Piccolo's grip on Goten tightened protectively, "You get out of Gohan's body and face me as your true form! Or are you too scared?!"

Gohan threw back his head and cackled gleefully, bringing his hands to his belly as if that were the funniest thing he had ever heard, "You fool!" Gohan snickered wildly, "I'm sorry, insect, but you're going to have to wait. I have other priorities on my list."

Piccolo growled and shook his fist at Gohan, "You come down here and fight me right now! I will put an end to you once and for all!"

Gohan sneered, "Well, if that's the way you want to be, then… let me try out a nice family tradition." He brought his hands together and chanted excitedly, "Ka…me…"

Piccolo's eyes widened as he felt the surge of power being accumulated at a single point. His brow ridge lowered as his antennae tensed. Gohan had never used a Kamehameha against him before, but he knew what it felt like from the past, with Goku, and it was not something he wanted to experience again.

"Ha…me…"

But it wasn't for his sake that he was concerned. He adjusted Goten in his arm, thinking of how weak the kid was, losing most of his energy like that. It was a wonder that he was even still alive.

"HAAAA!!!"

Piccolo raised his ki as high as he possibly could as he turned to shield Goten from the blast. The heat from it was incredible, and he felt his body being ripped apart. He could feel Goten being torn from him, but gripped tighter, as tight as he could to save the kid. It was as if his entire essence, his whole being was being swallowed by energy, wanting to become energy, to be absorbed by the never-ending blast. His entire soul was being shredded by the heat as he could feel his power being absorbed in the blast.

Piccolo lost his footing and went flying through the gorge as his body traveled with the attack, threatening to break apart with the beams. Weakened and worn, Piccolo felt his grip loosen and fail as Goten was almost swept from his arms. No! Piccolo had to endure the blast for Goten's sake, and put everything he had, even his own life energy on the line as he tried to shield them from the incredible power of a Super Saiyan 2 Kamehameha. This was the same Kamehameha that destroyed Cell. Piccolo brought Goten back down to the ground and covered his body, taking the blast in full.

Then, suddenly, it was over. All the heat vanished as if it never existed at all. Baby laughed maniacally from the sky and did a ki scan of the area to make sure the Namekian was finished. Sensing nothing, Baby smirked with a huff of pride and flew off to Capsule Corp. to await his second to final confrontation. After attaining Vegeta's body, with the help of Gohan and Trunks, Goku would never be able to stand a chance.

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The pain was incredible. He found himself drifting in and out of consciousness, feeling weak and battered. His entire body was numb from the burns of the blast, but he could feel himself regenerating, and as each successive minute passed, his body began to feel stronger and healthier again.

Piccolo sat up in a daze bringing his hand to his head as if he could somehow stop the splitting headache that erupted inside his skull. His entire body was sore, and even breathing caused his lungs to sting inside him.

He looked down to the body beside him and felt a pang of worry. He leaned toward Goten and turned him over to look at the kid's face. He almost seemed to be sleeping peacefully, except his body was still twitching as if undergoing a slight seizure. Piccolo brought his hand to Goten's forehead, understanding how some humans developed fevers, and confirmed that Goten was extremely hot.

Piccolo shook Goten's shoulders slightly, "Hey kid, wake up."

Goten moaned and turned his head to the side, coughing slightly.

Piccolo shook him harder, "Goten! You need to wake up and tell me what's happening! Goten!"

Goten groaned as his eyes fluttered, "No… Valese… Valese, no… Get away… stop… don't hurt…"

"Valese?" Piccolo frowned, "Is that the thing's name? Valese?"

"Valese…" Goten sighed and was still except for his twitching hands.

"Alright, listen to me, kid. I don't know if you can hear me or not." Piccolo did his best to stand up straight and weakly dusted himself off, "That parasite Valese has possessed your brother and he seems to have something else up his sleeve." Piccolo leaned down and picked up Goten as gingerly as he could, taking him under his left arm again. "And I still don't know what he's after."

Piccolo took to the air and headed toward Capsule Corp, where he knew Chi Chi was conversing with Bulma. He would have to race Valese there, since he could sense that his former pupil and best friend's body was also heading in that general direction, but making slight detours as if searching for something.

"Revenge on the Saiyans, huh?" Piccolo shook his head in confusion, "I thought we took care of all of Frieza's family and followers years ago. I wonder why they sent a parasite to Earth now of all times."

Piccolo flew faster when he realized it was possibly because Goku was out of town. Piccolo cursed him for leaving, and at the same time cursed himself for not remembering to destroy the black star dragonballs once Dende adopted his red star creations.

He didn't even know why he created the black star dragonballs in the first place. Ahh, I remember, Piccolo smirked to himself as he adjusted Goten in his arms. The black star dragonballs were the first ones he made, as a trial experiment, before he had separated into Kami and Piccolo, back in the day. He had kept them because he might had liked to use them on a rainy day. At the time, he was not aware that they would destroy the Earth if used, but even after he gained knowledge of black star dragonballs through Nail, once he fused with the other Namekian, he had forgotten about them once they returned to Earth. A lot of other things had been on his mind, and taking care of a past alpha test of dragonballs was definitely not on his list of priorities.

And now he and the rest of the world were paying dearly for his mistake. It was all his fault for forgetting about them. And now, because of him, Goku was a kid, and gone, and Gohan was possessed by some evil parasite named Valese.

Gohan was stronger than Vegeta. If Vegeta fought him, he'd have a tough time, but hopefully Gohan might be able to hold back somewhat so the Saiyan Prince could teach Valese a lesson or two. But if Gohan didn't hold back, that would lead to a great deal of trouble.

Piccolo knew what he had to do. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and, being the only powerful Z fighter that was still training other than Vegeta, and knowing that he was not powerful enough to defeat Gohan, he would have to take a trip to the Other World and train. But this time, it would not involve studying under King Kai. He needed someone stronger.

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Piccolo landed at Capsule Corp. and ran up the flight of stairs to the residence area. He had to be quick about this if he wanted to beat Valese to the punch.

He rang the doorbell and tapped his foot impatiently while waiting for someone to answer the door. It slowly opened and Bulma stood at the threshold, blinking in surprise.

"Oh hello Piccolo! Wow, it's great to see you! It's been so long!" Bulma smiled at him and then her eyes glanced down to what he was holding, "Oh no!" Bulma brought her hands to her face, "Did Gohan do that to Goten?! Oh, Chi Chi! Chi Chi, look!"

"What?! Where is he?!" Chi Chi stomped toward the door, "I'm going to teach him a lesson if Gohan didn't knock some sense into that boy!!" Chi Chi stood beside Bulma and raised her finger to lecture Goten, but dropped her hand and her eyes widened, "Oh no! Oh my baby!" Her eyes watered as she stood there, her heart wrenching inside.

Piccolo growled, "Listen, we don't have time for this." He stepped into the living quarters and lay Goten on the couch, "You two have to get out of here. NOW."

"Huh?" Bulma blinked and looked toward her daughter who had stepped into the room at the sound of a visitor.

"Who is… Oh, hi, Piccolo." Bra looked to him and to Chi Chi, who ran up to Goten and began fanning him, checking his forehead for a temperature.

Piccolo scowled, "I am only going to say this once. Get out of here. Stay away from Gohan. Something is very wrong with him."

"But you can't mean!" Bulma frowned and approached Piccolo, "Listen, I know that he beat Goten up, but –"

"Fine. Do what you want. Don't tell me I didn't warn you."

Instead of leaving through the door, Piccolo opened a window and flew out, landing in gardens and taking to a run.

Bulma watched him go with a quizzical look upon her face. That was strange. Bulma shook her head and looked again to Goten. Chi Chi was pawing over him, crying as if she somehow had been the one to do this to him.

"Oh Goten… Goten! Oh, Mommy's here, Goten!"

"Bra," Bulma looked to her daughter, who was just standing there, "Go get a thermometer for Goten. I'll wet some washcloths to put on his forehead." Bulma walked over to Chi Chi and put her hand on the woman's shoulder. "Don't worry, he'll be fine. I've seen Goku a lot worse."

Chi Chi sobbed to herself, "I can't believe Gohan did this to his brother. When he gets back here, I'm going to make him regret it!! Do you hear me!! He's going to REGRET IT!"

Gohan-Baby strolled through the door nonchalantly without knocking. He saw Chi Chi and Bulma leaning over someone, and walked forward to see. When he saw Goten's face, Baby did a double-take, "How! How did he get here?"

Chi Chi turned with a red face and tears in her eyes, "GOHAN!!!"

Baby felt a swarm of fear sweep his body. It was a very similar reaction to what he had experienced when inside Goten's. Baby forced the feeling down and scowled, trying to show this woman who was the more powerful of the two. "Did Piccolo come by here?"

"Piccolo?!" Chi Chi stood and fumed, "Who gives a damn about Piccolo when you almost killed Goten! Gohan, are you listening to me?!"

Baby was going to bare his teeth at her and teach her a lesson, but decided against it, realizing he still needed to play it low key until he attained Vegeta.

What would Gohan say in this situation? Baby tried to think hard and deeply concerning this situation. "Goten was asking for it. You, uh, you saw how violent he was before."

"Yes, but that's no reason to –!!"

Baby cut her off with a pretended afterthought, "Where's Videl?"

Bulma walked up to him with her hands on her hips, "She went out for a little bit. She'll be back soon." She smiled slightly, "Why don't you take a seat and relax, Gohan? Don't worry, we'll take care of your brother."

Baby sat at the nearest table and drummed his fingers against the wood. Piccolo survived that attack somehow, and he brought Goten back before he arrived. That meant the Namekian was still somewhere close by.

Baby huffed to himself. The Namekian was no problem for him. He was an easy kill. Next time, though, he'd have to be less sloppy and make sure the job was finished. He could easily be on his way right now to warn Vegeta. But, then again, that was impossible, because the Prince was masking his ki.

The second Vegeta spiked his ki for any reason, though, Baby would be on his tail. All he had to do was wait… and what better place to be than in the enemy's own home.

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-12/20/04-

Note, and this is important: As I said beforehand, this chapter is a flashback that not only explains what happened with Piccolo, but this scene, especially the part about Piccolo and Goten (how Gohan throws a Kamehameha at Piccolo while he's holding Goten), actually happened in GT. It's hard to see it in the episode, but if you watch closely, Piccolo IS holding Goten under his left arm. Just so people know, I didn't really make anything up this chapter. I'm just giving people a new interpretation of what actually DID happen.

Note 2: "Valese" is actually Goten's semi-girlfriend (but only Goten calls her Valese. Everyone else knows her as Paris).