Dragon Ball Z: Alternate Timeline

The Last Son

By: ParalaxKaine

Note:

The characters in this story are the property of Akira Toriyama and Bird studios, not my own. The alternate future characters are my brain child, yet they are not of my own design. They are my own interpretation of the previously existing characters, only in a new set of circumstances. In other words, I am borrowing these characters and events to tell a story which I came up with.

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Chapter 2:

Inside of an expansive tunnel of colors, which seem to rush by at incredible speeds, Gohan begins to rest within his capsule. He looks at the digital readout in front of him. He sees a timer that slowly counts down. "Five more minutes." He thinks to himself. He thinks back over the events of the last few hours. He remembers watching himself and the other earth warriors as they awaited Freeza and his father. He thinks of how easily he had destroyed all of Freeza's men followed by Freeza and King Cold. He still remembers the feeling of finishing off the alien warlord, absolutely nothing. It didn't surprise him, he never believed that killing Freeza would change any thing from his past, but when he saw the small petty creature he felt as if he had to end it once and for all.

As Gohan rests he removes a capsule from his case and opens it revealing a Capsule Corporation brand Scouter. He places it on his head and taps several keys, bringing up a schematic of Freeza's cybernetic body parts. The Scouter then breaks down the scans it took revealing several flaws in the parts as well as the exact configuration of the parts. Gohan removes the Scouter and smiles. "Finally." He thinks to him self. He looks down at his left arm, or more accurately where his left arm would be. Gohan rolls up his sleeve and looks at the charred stump just below his shoulder.

Gohan stares at the wound and his mind shifts to the memory of how he had lost the appendage in a battle with the androids. They had been fighting in an amusement park, and he may have come out of it a great deal more intact, had he trained Trunks better. But instead Trunks, the young purple haired Saiyan warrior, had been to weak, and unskilled to ward of the female android's attacks. Gohan was forced to abandon his battle with the male android in order to protect the youth. When the two androids destroyed the entire theme part one well placed blast had severed Gohan's arm and as luck would have it, cauterized the wound simultaneously.

Gohan had been struck with energy blasts almost all of his life. From the first time he had seriously trained with Piccolo, to the planet Namek where he battled the alien warlord Freeza. Yet none of them had ever hurt the way in which that one single blast had. The pain was so intense, so focused, it is something that Gohan will not forget for as long as he may live. It is one of two pains which he will never allow himself to forget. Gohan snapped his thoughts away from the past, he stops thinking of the battle so long ago and turns his attentions back to the present, to the ship and it's journey.

For the next four minutes Gohan thinks about as little as possible until finally there is a flash of light all around him and he then appears in the sky above the Capsule Corporation building. He lands in the back and quickly jumps out of the ship. He returns it to its capsule form, and he walks inside of the building. He sets his capsule case down on the kitchen table, and he walks out in to the main hallway.

As the tall Saiyan walks down the hall, he quietly walks searching for Bulma and relishing in the silence. As he continues he soon hears the soft noises of Bulma in her workshop. He walks in to the lab and slowly approaches the older blue haired woman. She notices him but keeps working until she finishes with the wiring of the mechanical hand on her table. She then turns to Gohan and smiles, wiping her brow and setting down all of her tools. "So I take it, you went to the past?" She asks turning to the other door and opening it.

Gohan follows her handing over the Scouter in his hand. "I was more than successful." He replies solemnly. "I also killed Freeza, his army, and his father. I even gave my father the cure to the heart disease."

"You know interfering too much can have negative consequences." Exclaims Bulma as she takes and removes the memory unit from the Scouter. She places it in the small computer in the little office. She boots up the schematics, and is quickly relieved when she notices the missing component from her own schematics. "This is excellent. Finally I can finish your arm. I also started to build a small energy projector, so you can fire energy from the arm. The whole thing will also be powered by your own body energy."

"Good, even I f I can't help in the past, than I at least have a better chance of defeating the Androids here." Replies Gohan in anger. "How quickly can you finish the arm?"

"I don't know. No more than a couple of days. Why?" Asks Bulma a little concerned.

"Because Dad and the others are all going to battle agenst the androids in the past, and I plan to help them. "Besides spending any time in the past with the others, fight along side with them may be enough to make me stronger. And then, with any luck, I can destroy the androids here."

"Gohan, you are not the only one who can stop them. I can still rebuild the ship your father took to Namek. You can ask them for assistance." Says Bulma, trying to change Gohan's mind. " Surely they have at least a small group of warriors..." Gohan abruptly cuts her off.

"NO!" He yells in defiance. "I refuse to let any one else die at there hands because of me. First I watched as all of my friends and allies were killed, no matter how hard I tried I was useless. The androids simply cast me aside, because I was so weak. They only saw an insignificant child, not even worthy to die with his friends. I was so angry at those monsters. But I was even angrier at my self.

"I was angry at my self because I was too weak to help any one. It took all of their deaths in order for me to become a Super Saiyan, yet that wasn't even enough. I fought theme for years as A Super Saiyan, and I never even wounded them. I stopped them on occasion, but only because they didn't feel like continuing. They were bored with me, that was all." Gohan smashes the wall with his right hand, tearing at the metal.

"They were able to destroy so much of this world, and kill so many innocent people, yet I was only able to do so little. I fought for so long alone, that I feared they would never be stopped. Then, Trunks showed me his strength. I thought that if I could train him on how to use his natural powers, that he could help me finally bring there terror to an end. His strength was so great for his age, I became to over confidant. that I greatly over estimated his skills.

" I didn't want to fight alone any more, it was too painful to keep going by myself. I couldn't see that Trunks wasn't ready because I didn't want to. I didn't want to see that he needed a great deal more training because I thought that it would take far too long to train him. So, I allowed him to fight with me, and he almost died as a result. I also lost my left arm, a permanent reminder of my failure as a teacher. Yet that wasn't enough. I still hid the truth from myself, and as soon as I had recovered from my wounds, I went right back to training him.

"As we trained the androids attacked yet again, and as a result, Trunks died. I tried to keep him out of the fight, you know that I did. But the blow to the back of his neck, wasn't enough to keep him down. He recovered faster than I expected, and immediately came to my aid. The problem was, that I never intended the fight to last long enough to involve Trunks. I had intended the fight to end much faster." Gohan drops his head and he sighs as Bulma finally realizes what Gohan had planned that day.

"You mean that you had meant to die?" Exclaims Bulma. "You wanted the androids to kill you!"

"That's right. I meant to let them kill me. I knew that if Trunk's had found me dead, than it would be more than enough to send him over the edge. He would finally become a Super Saiyan. With the amount of energy he possessed at his age, I knew he could take them down. I mean, it may have taken him a little while, but I knew he could do it. But no, I was wrong yet again, me arrogance got the better of me. The fight lasted too long and he took the fatal blow that was meant for me. It enraged me enough to finally injure one of them and get the hell out of there, but, I couldn't save Trunk's."

"Gohan..."

"As soon as you get the arm ready let me know. I'm going to get some rest."

Gohan walks out of the lab and slowly shuffles down the long hallways of Capsule Corp. He continues until he reaches a single metal door. He steps inside and sits down at the old wooden desk. Gohan opens a thick leather bound journal and he begins to write in it. He writes about his trip to the past and the long discussion in Bulma's lab. As he writes, he can't help but think of all the possibilities. What if he had died, what if Trunk's had lived? What if?

Gohan wakes up several hours later and sits up looking around the bedroom. As his senses return he looks down at his Notebook and he closes it tying the thin leather straps on the side holding it shut. He walks out of the room and wanders around the massive building. Eventually his path takes him to the kitchen and he whips up something to eat. As he sits at the empty table he ponders what his excursion into the past has done to change things. He imagines returning to a world where the Androids have arrived early and upon his return a world devoid of his own life. He stops thinking of this and turns his attentions to the immediate problems facing him.

Gohan finishes his meal and proceeds to Bulma's lab in order to finish work on his new arm. When he arrives, he doesn't see Bulma anywhere. He looks at the arm laying on her work bench and he sits down reading over the available blue prints. After several minutes he sifts through the available materials at the work station, and he begins to work on the remaining portions of the arm. As he works he sees how Bulma is adding the energy unit and he begins incorporating his own ideas in to the arm. He adds several spare energy units as well as some extra energy buffers in order to lessen any feed back. As the half-Saiyan warrior continues to work on the arm, he doesn't notice when Bulma enters the lab.

"I should have known you would end up in here." She exclaims as the young man continues working. "I knew you were set on going back there to stop the deaths of the others but I never knew you were so intent on fighting."

"Like I said, I will not let any one else die because of me. They died the first time because I was not strong enough. So this time, I won't hesitate to use every thing I have to stop them. I think the arm will be ready tomorrow, if you think you can spare me so soon?" Replies Gohan calmly.

"There is nothing I can't handle with out you if you're only gone for a few hours here. You do know how the return setting is set right?" Asks Bulma

"Yeah, for every day I remain in the past an hour will pass on the return setting. If I am there for a week than I will return in seven hours." Replies Gohan. "Now you installed the automatic return function right?"

"Yes, in the event that you don't return within four weeks than the pod will return all by it self."

"Good. I am going to finish working on the arm my self if that's okay." Replies Gohan, a little sad.

"What ever you say. I'm gonna go to the kitchen and make my self some breakfast. Look Gohan, you should probably tell your mom what's going on. She's worried about you."

"I know she's worried but I'm fine I promise."

As the next few days drag on, Gohan never leaves Bulma's lab. Instead, he remains in side not sleeping and perfecting the cybernetic arm. He finishes the energy storage units, he finishes the energy collection unit in the top of the arm, as well as the energy projection unit in the palm. The most difficult part was allowing for a regulator to alter the amount and intensity of the energy released. It took Gohan nearly fourteen hours to devise a working method of regulation, but finally he finished it. As soon as Gohan completed the arm he made all of the necessary alterations to the blue prints and copied them to a spare memory unit which he then capsulated and added to his capsule case.

After his work on the arm was finished, Gohan finally exited the lab and slowly walked to his home away from home in the Capsule Corp. He reaches the room and practically collapses on the bed. Gohan sleeps sounder than he has in several years. Finally he has done something which, he feels, can make up for all of the deaths which he was unable to prevent. With the time capsule and his new arm, he is now able to battle agenst the Androids and save the earth, even if it isn't his earth. The ultimate reward from these efforts is the chance to destroy the Androids in his own time and liberating his future.

The following morning, Gohan cleans him self up, and changes in to a pair of loose fitting black pants, being held up by two metal belt straps. Gohan then throws on a thick white T-Shirt with longer than normal sleeves. He walks out of his room wearing a pair of black boots and carrying his black leather Capsule Corp. jacket. Hidden in his right jacket pocket, is the vary same capsule case which he had taken before. As he walks down the hall, he contemplates the situation in front of him. "I'm going to have to field test the arm not to mention I have to help destroy the androids along with the others. With any luck Ill be able to talk to every one after this is over."

He steps in to Bulma's lab just in time to see Bulma putting some finishing seals on to the metallic plates and metallic muscles. She finishes and then hands the arm over to Gohan. He rolls up his left sleeve and then attaches the first half of the harness to his stump. He sits down and Bulma activates the artificial nerve implants, which she had previously placed in to his arm. Gohan screamed at the sudden and excruciating pain in his shoulder. Gohan steadies himself and waits patiently as the intense pain slowly subsides. Bulma then attaches the cybernetic limb to the nerves and then connects to the harness. Then amazingly, Gohan feels something which he hasn't felt in years, his left arm.

Gohan stands and maneuvers his new limb, putting it through its first trial. After the overwhelming success, he starts to walk out of the room closely followed by Bulma. As he walks down the hallways of the Capsule Corp. Gohan's face becomes more serious, and much colder. He soon reaches the back door and steps out looking one last time at the all to familiar surroundings of his second home. He steps out in to the grassy patio, and he swings his black jacket sliding both arms through the sleeves. Re soon removes the capsule case, and throws down his time capsule. Bulma watches as her last hope for this time begins to leave, possibly never to return.

The last of the Saiyan race steps in to his time machine. He looks at Bulma once more then closes the hatch. He begins manipulating the controls, and in the blink of an eye, the capsule is gone. Vanished in to the time stream. The last Saiyan warrior, leaving his time to an earlier era, to save a world long since destroyed. A world filled with peoples long since destroyed and a society long since vanquished. Gohan, son of Goku, trained by the great Piccolo, the end of the Saiyan line, one of the greatest warriors in the known universe. Yet even he fears for his future, and for the future of the very past that he wishes to save.

End Part 2:

What did you think? Send comments, suggestions, questions, or criticisms to me at ParalaxKaineMail. I hope you enjoyed my work, and if enough people enjoyed it I may in fact post further chapters of it. I may even post character sketches and possible battle scene sketches, depending on whether I have the time and energy.