Upa stared up at the tower from the inside of his small tee-pee, he pictured the struggle Goku was facing as he scaled it. The aches and pains from climbing for so long must be taking a toll on his new friend. He longed for that sense of determination and will to do what is necessary. He wished that he had the strength and bravery to face Tao himself and was frustrated that he would have to put his faith in almost complete strangers. As he exited the tent he took notice of Gohan who was also looking upwards at the tower.
"It's well carved Upa, I've never had the chance to look at the tower up close before...the engravings are so beautiful." He kept a hand on the tower as he circled it. From what he could see, the base of the tower was detailed with the many faces of old chieftains.
"You've seen Korin tower before?" Upa asked surprisedly.
Gohan cursed himself for his inability to keep his mouth shut. He figured he'd try and answer but attempted to keep it vague. "Well, I mean my dad told me stories about it from when he came here a long time ago and he gave me a sense of what it would look like."
"Oh..." Upa said.
Gohan stopped and pointed to one chief that seemed to jump out at him. The old man's face was long with a square jaw and a cleft chin. His manly features were reinforced by a long scar that dragged from his upper forehead down to his lower lip on the left side of his face. The only piece that betrayed this warrior persona was the man's eyes, they were soft and stared back at him with a strange gentleness.
"Who's this, Upa?"
Upa walked over and stood on his toes, he could hardly make the details out on the face but the scar was enough to identify him. "That is Yaiba, he was a mighty warrior in his younger days but a wonderful storyteller as he grew older. My dad told me that he would sit with his brothers and listen to the old man's tales of those who came to climb the tower. He said that many of them came for very selfish reasons like impressing girls or to try and take whatever treasure the guardian might have."
Gohan's gaze drifted from the chieftain over to Upa. "Have you ever thought about climbing the tower?"
"M-me...no, no I couldn't I'm scared of heights." Upa ashamedly stated.
Gohan remembered when Piccolo had first dropped him into the wilderness and how he managed to get himself stuck on top of a plateau on the first day. "That's okay, when I was younger I was scared of heights too. As soon as I got into any place even a little high up, I broke down and started crying."
"How did you get over your fear then?" Upa asked.
Gohan thought back to the six months of survival on his own, he had forgotten many of the struggles he once faced but remembered the sense of loneliness he felt throughout the entire experience. When Piccolo came back to train him he felt genuinely happy, he lacked any human connection for so long that the constant beatings and minor small talk were a welcome change from isolation. Of course, as his training progressed and he grew stronger it was less beating and more sparring, even the small talk turned into a more personal conversation as the once Demon King became his master and friend.
"I had a good teacher."
The two spent the day roaming around, avoiding the camp at the base of the tower. Gohan understood why Upa wanted to stay away considering his father was buried just a couple of yards from their home. The little boy showed Gohan the different paths and rivers of the land. He pointed out numerous different holy areas that his people, which were once more numerous, safeguarded. Gohan listened intently to Upa's stories They reluctantly had to return to the camp for dinner as the daylight gave way to darkness.
Gohan struggled to roast an elk he had wrestled for them, burning the fat on the edges of the chop to a crisp and slightly overcooking the meat. Neither minded though, the roast was a fine alternative to going hungry.
Shortly after dinner, while Upa was beginning to get ready for bed, Gohan felt a queasiness overtake his stomach. He felt the androids unsettling ki once again. There were three approaching him this time, but they were still a ways off. Waiting until he was sure Upa had retreated to his tent for the night, Gohan discretely made his way out of camp.
He gathered some sap from a few nearby pine trees and made a makeshift torch. He held it firmly out in front of him as he walked through the forest.
It was quiet, without a noise to be heard from anywhere, aside from the crunching leaves beneath his feet. He walked a few miles before he met the androids. They were all lined up side by side, shoulder to shoulder. The ill-looking Tien was in the middle and stepped in front of the others, acting as the one in charge. Gohan could see in his peripheral vision Krillin on the left and Yamcha on the right.
Gohan's intense stare was initially focused on Tien, but he took quick glances at the other two androids. They looked healthier than him, the Krillin android actually carried the muscle mass that the real one had and looked almost identical to him. Gohan found it impossible to find any distinguishing feature aside from Krillin's emotionless face and empty eyes.
"You haven't attacked me yet." Gero said through the voice of Tien.
Gohan stuck his torch into the ground and responded harshly, "You haven't attacked me either."
Gero laughed ominously. "I intend to shortly."
Gohan's hair turned golden and his eyes turquoise; he still found himself incapable of pushing himself to the next level, but he stayed confident. "Then go ahead, I'm ready."
Gero ignored his threat, looking almost wistful; as if his mind was in some faraway place. "This will most likely be our last engagement, Gohan. I've run the numbers and the odds of you beating these new machines are very low; I have developed numerous techniques that have increased both the durability and the strength of these new androids. They dwarf the old ones in terms of both power and efficiency, a true force to be reckoned with." He paused showcasing the androids' healthful-looking skin and proper muscle mass.
"I must admit you have grown on me from our first meeting. That is, from when your father was struggling with the heart virus he 'mysteriously' caught. Your will and determination in the face of overwhelming odds was and is most admirable, even now you prepare yourself against the inevitability of my victory."
"Nothing is inevitable Gero, and you should know I don't intend on losing." Gohan said as he raised his ki and readied for the Doctor to make the first move.
"Good, keep that defiant spirit strong! It will be the last thing my androids break!"
They all charged Gohan at once, Tien clearly lagging behind the others.
Yamcha and Krillin were incredibly fast, getting in a couple of hard-hitting punches before Gohan had time to react. The battle took to the air and the three swarmed around him like wasps.
Gohan caught a break when Tien went for his neck, he grabbed the machine's arm and punched into his elbow, breaking the metal bones and ripping the appendage off entirely. His move did not go unpunished as a kamehameha from Yamcha ripped deeply into his left arm.
The pain from the wound radiated and blood leaked rapidly, making Gohan light-headed and obstructing his focus. He decided a one-on-three wasn't going to work and focused on the trio's weakest link. He pushed through Krillin and Yamcha and managed to kick Tien's head right off of his shoulders. The bot's body disappeared into the darkness of night as it fell from the air.
Yamcha and Krillin doubled their efforts, both sending massive hits into Gohan's abdomen followed by a spinning kick that sent him flying into the forest below.
He pushed himself up from the small crater that the impact had made. He felt his cracked and broken ribs, ignoring the blood spilling from his arm and falling onto his blue pants, staining them. His lungs burned as he struggled to gather the air he desperately needed, it was the most physical pain he'd ever felt and was almost unbearable. The two androids landed in front of him and seemed to hesitate, apparently Gero was giving him a chance to breathe.
He found his feet and defiantly stood in his fighting stance, struggling to stay conscious.
The hot searing pain in his arm and the stinging, pulsating pain in his ribs were the only things keeping him awake at that point. "Let's keep going, I-I'm not done yet..." he stammered out.
The Yamcha android stepped in front of Krillin, still keeping a good distance between himself and Gohan. Gero then spoke through him. "I've been doing a lot of thinking since first bringing you to the past and I have come to the conclusion that you and I share far more than I originally thought. We both come from broken pasts, robbed of our childhood by retched, uncontrollable systems of circumstance. And we both were steeled by life's cruel disposition, finding strength where many others would find despair. In light of these realizations, I will do you one single kindness: After I kill you I won't erase you from existence by killing your father now. I will allow you to see your 'Daddy' in Otherworld."
"W-Wouldn't killing me in the past s-send me to the otherworld here?" Gohan asked, despite the agonizing pain he felt from speaking.
"Ah, now that was the first in a line of mysteries I had to solve." He said with a smile, pacing back and forth in front of Gohan. " You see, we are technically no longer objects in a timeline. We are no longer from the present nor are we from the past so if you created a paradox, or if you parished here, then your body and soul will be ripped from this time and thrown back into the present regardless of any variable. However, once you are back in the present the impact you've made in the past will 'stick', so to speak."
Gohan was surprised, to say the least. He knew Gero hated him and his father, but this sign of respect, of willingness to let him be and not wipe him from the fabric of time, it was the most human thing he'd heard ever from the doctor. Still, he didn't say anything and used all the time Gero was willing to wait, to catch his breath.
He used this few seconds worth of time planning. He decided he'd go for Yamcha first considering his arms were slightly longer than his own which made trading blows harder, then he'd attempt to take on Krillin. In less than a second, he gathered as much energy as he could and threw his arms back
"KAMEHAMEHA!"
The blast caught Yamcha off-guard, vaporizing the left half of the machine as only part of his body was able to avoid the blast.
Gero's voice then came from Krillin. "Tenacious little-" He was thrown back as Gohan punched and broke the machine's nose. Despite being extremely wounded somehow the boy had found the strength to keep going.
Gohan's wounds oozed more blood, moving that quickly worsened their conditions. He winced as he covered his arm with his hand in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding. Seeing as the android was still on the ground, he opened a new dialogue with him. "Y-you know Gero... you almost s-sound like... you don't want to kill me."
The Krillin android rose from the ground, apparently when Gohan broke its nose, he also tore a piece of synthetic skin off as well. The intricate machinery was in full display, it looked like the many muscles of the human face had been perfectly intertwined with a mechanical endoskeleton. A robotic voice came from the machine, the vocalizer, although damaged, still kept Gero's words intelligible. "You don't know what you're talking about boy. I am the perfect copy of Doctor Gero. He implanted every single memory meticulously, and perfectly into my mechanical mind. He instilled in me, an irreversible hatred for both you and your father. To destroy you, would mean my life's goal, my very reason for being has been completed"
"Can't you see, Gero?... You're not a perfect copy. Look at the past five minutes... you've talked to me... gave me a chance to catch my breath... I thought I even felt you pull a punch once or twice. The original Doctor Gero w-wouldn't do that."
Gero was surprised, was it pity that forced this compassion from his mortal enemy? Was this a ploy to get him to lower his guard? Could it be that the son of the man his creations murdered, that he had tried to murder for so long, actually cared about him? No, he refused to believe such foolish sentiments, it must be a trap. He decided against more conversation, he couldn't risk Gohan charging up another surprise attack.
Gero leaped forward kicking him to the ground, he bent over and punched Gohans stomach, causing him to cough up more blood that inevitably fell back onto his own gi.
Deciding that the battle had gone on long enough he charged the killing blow. He fired a purple ki blast just inches away from the boy's chest. Gohan barely managed to throw himself to the side but not before the purple ball blew a hole straight through his kidney. The adrenaline kept him from feeling the pain and he shot a ki blast of his own towards Krillin's exposed circuitry which erupted his head into flames.
Bits of wire and circuitry shot around him, and Gohan breathed a sigh of relief knowing that this encounter was finished. He laid on his back looking up into the night's sky, he could tell his vision was narrowing as darkness crept in on the sides. There was no way he could stand in his condition so he forced himself to crawl. He dragged a crimson line across the forest grass, making it only a few feet before being forced to stop. He whimpered, the pain was too much for him. He leaned up against a mossy boulder and covered the wound on his stomach with his hands.
In his final moment of consciousness, he spoke into the night, hoping someone, his father, Piccolo, Krillin, Bulma, Yamcha, or even Vegeta were somehow listening in. He wanted to say something, something important but struggled to find the words. Instinctively the two most natural and heartfelt came to mind.
He breathlessly whispered, "I-I'm sorry."
Goku threw himself from his mat, startling Korin who rested only feet away from him.
"Jeez, Goku you tryin' to give me a heart attack? Eight hundred years on this Earth and I die of fright from a twelve-year-old boy!"
He saw Goku run to the edge of the tower, somehow he'd sensed Gohan's diminishing ki far before Korin did.
"Master Korin, something's wrong! I've got to go!"
The cat approached the edge of the platform. It was pitch black, no earlier than midnight.
Not wanting to give a name to what Goku was feeling, Korin decided to play dumb. "What's the matter Goku?"
"I don't know. I-it's Jack or Upa, one of them's in trouble!" Goku said while gripping onto the metal railing so tightly he nearly bent it.
Korin sighed, there was no way he could allow Goku to see Gohan in whatever state he was in. His power was dropping way too fast for the sight to be anything pretty. "Relax Goku, relax, you've just finished climbing for over a day. You're exhausted. I haven't taken a trip off my tower in oh...say five hundred years give or take a few, so I'll go take a look at whatever is bugging you."
Goku pleaded, "But Master Korin I need to be down there too! There's this mean guy named mercenary Tao and he's-"
"I already know, and I still believe you should stay here. It's not Tao down there I can guarantee you that. It's probably just some poachers or something, they like to come around here sometimes. Usually, Bora keeps them away but without him here they probably think they can just waltz right in and take a midnight stroll on my land."
"But Master Korin..."
Losing his patience, the old cat nearly hissed as he yelled. "Stay here. Got it? It's my land and I'll deal with the damn poachers!"
Goku hung his head, he never meant to upset the usually even-tempered cat. he responded remorsefully "O-okay."
"Good, now hand me the bag of senzu beans over there. And don't think about drinking the sacred water, you have to take it from me remember?"
"I remember." Goku said as he handed the small white cloth pouch to Korin.
Korin leaned his stick gently against one of the many marble pillars supporting his towering home. He stood next to the edge of the platform and jumped off with the beans held tightly in hand. He flew above the forest looking for any signs of fighting because, despite the boy's ki being absolutely massive, it had shrunk to almost an undetectable level.
Seeing a faint blinking in the forest, Korin dove towards it. Once he dipped below the trees he came upon three broken androids, the headless neck of one still sizzling with electricity.
Kid, what did you get yourself into?
The trail of blood then became obvious to him, he followed it until he saw Gohan completely covered from head to toe in crimson red. Korin immediately regretted not bringing any senzu liquid with him and made a break for the nearby river. He pulverized some of the beans in the bag and placed the rest on the ground. He then soaked the pouch in the river and brought it back to Gohan. Korin opened the boy's mouth and squeezed the bag releasing the water that had soaked with the beans. As he squeezed, he prayed the water had absorbed enough of the essence to work and was relieved when he saw the cuts beginning to heal.
Korin took a step back and sat on the ground, breathing heavily. He hadn't moved that strenuously in a long time and it took its toll on him.
"M-master Korin?" Gohan said, slowly opening his eyes.
The cat hopped up energetically. "Gohan you're awake! Here take this, I healed you with senzu bean water but it most likely wasn't enough."
He handed the bag of senzu mush over to Gohan and the boy eagerly emptied the bag into his mouth. The texture wasn't great but he could feel the beans literally bringing him back from the brink of death. He sat up against the rock, and felt the hole in his gi where Gero had shot him "Aw man...dad just gave me this."
For some reason Korin took a special interest in the gi, the way the fabric had ripped didn't look quite normal, rather than tattered and stringy the gi seemed to have a chunk missing in the shape of a square, he only knew of one fabric that ripped like that. "You said Goku gave you this?"
"Yeah, why?" Gohan asked.
"I've only ever seen this material in one place, Kami's lookout. This 'cloth', if you can even call it that, has many magical properties. For example, it is extremely durable and hardly ever rips, but even when it does if it's soaked in water it repairs itself."
"Really? This gi's pretty special then, huh."
"Yes, yes it is and somehow you managed to tear it." He looked over to the androids' bodies that laid only a few feet away "I assume that's because of Gero's androids over there."
"Yeah, they were unbelievably strong. The only way I was able to beat them was because one was an older model than the rest."
Korin held a contemptive expression. "You'd easily beat them if you were able to transform into that super saiyan two of yours."
"I know, but I'm not strong enough to go back into that form. I-I can't just go into it like I can with super saiyan."
"It's not a matter of strength, it's a matter of will. You aren't allowing yourself to reach that level Gohan."
Gohan attempted to defend himself. "I've been trying, honestly I have!... I-I just can't reach it again."
"You can Gohan, and you must. I'm certain that things will only get harder from here on out and you will need it if you're going to survive."
Korin looked up at the moon and was surprised by how much it had shifted. "Look, Gohan, your father is worried sick and I have to go calm his nerves. It won't take him much longer to get the sacred water from me so for tonight, wash up in the river, mend that tear, and if he asks any questions when he gets back, just say that some poachers were bothering the local wildlife. You got all that?"
"Yeah, and thank you, Korin, you're a lifesaver."
"Hey it's what I do, and speaking of lifesavers, the leftover senzu beans are over by the river if you want them." He looked up again at the moon, noticing even more time had passed. "Oh boy, now I've really gotta go, see you later kid."
Gohan tried to stand, but the lightheadedness from bloodloss threatened to drag him back onto the ground. He used the boulder as a crutch and waved goodbye to Korin who already began flying back up to the tower.
He walked in silence over to the calm, slow-moving river and laid in one of its shallow coves. The water removed the blood with ease and the gi that was stained crimson red quickly returned to its pleasant light blue. The square chunk missing in his shirt almost instantly filled with new cloth, manifested from seemingly nothing at all.
Gohan closed his eyes and relaxed in the water, it's cold embrace was welcome to his weary body and made him quite sleepy. He felt like he'd never want to leave its rejuvenating embrace.
After a few minutes of soaking, he lazily opened his eyes. Just by the riverside, he could see the senzu beans sitting dangerously close to the water. He reluctantly forced himself up and collected them in his newly acquired white pouch. After dropping the last bean into the pouch, he tied it onto his belt and began walking unsteadily back to the tower.
Gohan slipped back into Upa's camp a few hours before daybreak. He laid down next to the fire, which was now reduced to just a few warm embers, and rested his head against a nearby log. Before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep he wondered if he made an impact on Gero, he certainly felt like he did.