Gohan clenched his fist in anger as Raditz flew farther and farther away, he let him keep flying because he was in no danger of losing him, the android seemed to be too panicked to try and hide his power level. He growled and swung his fist to his side.

"You Coward!" He screamed, before charging up his ki and beginning his aerial pursuit.

He charged forward, with a long trail of yellow aura behind him. He knew it was only a matter of time before he'd catch up to Raditz but he sincerely hoped it would be enough for him to get to the rest of the androids; this anger he felt growing inside him needed some relieving. And right now, the only surefire way to relieve some would be to beat the life out of whichever android got in his way first.

This feeling of absolute hatred for something that wasn't even alive was completely alien to Gohan. He had never hated any of the other androids like this, not even Android 19.

Deep down some part of him was scared of what he'd do when he got to them, but the rest of his mind and body screamed for violence. Maybe this intense anger stemmed from his Saiyan DNA, maybe he was tapping into that dark power that let him defeat Cell, or maybe, it stemmed from how much he hated himself, he honestly didn't know. That too frightened him. What if after he was done with the androids he still felt that thirst for blood? What then? No one else could spar with him to help relieve his stress, not that anyone would want to anyway. He'd be forced to try and cope with it on his own, which he knew he was incapable of doing.

He was now close enough to see Raditz flying in the distance, he could hardly contain the hatred he felt for him, but he stayed back. They had been flying for a little while now, there's no way it could take too much longer, especially with how fast they both were going.

Raditz suddenly flew vertically and disappeared into the clouds. Gohan was quick to follow him, but as he was traveling through the fluffy, cotton-like clouds, he was met with a barrage of ki blasts. He deflected the first few that were coming directly at him, just to prove that he could, and then dodged the remaining oncoming blasts. He was grinding his teeth the entire time, these cowardly tactics were just what he'd expect from Raditz.

When he did make it through the clouds he was surprised to see several more androids floating next to Raditz, they were waiting there, hiding their power hoping to lure him in, and it worked perfectly. Gohan recognized some of the faces like Vegeta and Trunks but most of the androids looked rather generic, mostly because they all sported tails and wore matching body armor.

"You've miscalculated nephew! You may have bested Nappa but he was one of the earliest models, just like me. So I ask you, can you best all of us at once?"

Gohan had already heard enough of this insufferable monologue. Out of pure anger, he dug his fingers far into his palms and shouted, "When I'm done with you there won't even be enough parts or tissue to rebuild one single android! And if you weren't such a coward I would have already blown you to pieces! You prance around in your stupid armor and make such big claims because you're weak! You rely on others to do the fighting for you but it doesn't matter now! There could be a million of you and I'd still rip you all apart!"

Gohan, completely enraged, began charging up his ki. The light from the sheer amount of energy he was focusing was both hot and intense. He continually discovered that he could reach even deeper and pull out even more energy, so he did so, even causing arcs of electricity to appear around him, but then he felt a cap. And once he reached that cap, he knew no one there could stop him. He charged forward as fast as lightning and rammed the first android with his shoulder. Instantly the innards of the metal and flesh monstrosity were visible and Gohan wasted no time in blowing him away.

He carved through the generic types like butter, they were clearly the weakest, most likely because the Saiyan portion of their DNA was cloned or partially synthetic, but Gohan didn't know and he didn't care enough to theorize, they were his stress relief. Eventually, he was attacked by someone he did recognize. Vegeta had decided to try and sneak up on him while he was busy literally ripping the arm off of an android, and kick him in the spine. It was the biggest mistake of his shortlived life.

Gohan loved breaking his wrist, seeing him scream in pain. Deep down, he'd harbored a distaste for Vegeta, he never said it out loud because he knew the man was trying to be better but now Gohan could live out his horrible inner desire of breaking him like he broke his father. Back when he was only five.

He let him experience and understand that pain, allowing Vegeta to float a few feet back and feel his twisted hand and ruined wrist. Another android tried to interfere, Gohan just disintegrated him with a single blast, no one would ruin this moment. He cracked Vegeta's metal sternum after that, and in a quick succession of strikes, broke every single rib he had. At this point the android could no longer fly, Gohan was holding him by the shoulder strap of his body armor. He looked afraid, like how the real Vegeta always looked when he knew he was outclassed. Once Gohan knew he broke his spirit he splintered his sternum and collapsed the whole ribcage onto Vegeta's innards. Blood and coolant came flooding out, soaking the inside of his skin-tight suit, but Gohan didn't get the chance to see, he had already let go of him.

The next android he faced was Trunks. Even in his bloodlust, he didn't enjoy killing him, he was a dear friend and an invaluable ally during their fight with Cell. He quickly decapitated him and turned the rest of him to ash. He didn't think much of it though, at least not at first. He had plenty of other androids to deal with.

Like lambs to the slaughter, Gohan killed every single one that dared to try and attack him, and the very few that tried to flee received no better treatment, they were blown apart as well. With each kill, he added one more android to his mental count, of which eventually totaled 43, but his lust for violence wasn't satiated yet.

It was down to just Raditz and Gohan. Gohan had a mixture of sweat, blood, oil, and coolants dripping down his arms, he was breathing heavily as he stared at Raditz from a few feet away. In between his thoughts of imaginative ways to kill Raditz, he wondered why he didn't run during the fight, maybe he was stupid enough to believe his forces would actually win, maybe he was frozen stiff.

Raditz crossed his arms. "H-here's the deal nephew." He said, trying to eliminate the sound of fear in his voice. "If you spare me I-I'll take you to Gero. After all, I played by the rules remember? Rather than just kill you where you slept, I gave you the chance to fight! You remember, don't you? That shows my respect for you. You're a warrior! A real Saiyan!"

"You think I care that you didn't kill me?" Gohan could feel more anger welling up. "As far as I'm concerned you should have!"

"L-look maybe you need a minute to consider my offer. Think about it! You find the doctor and you get to go home right? Wouldn't that be nice...after all this time?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about." Gohan said, charging up his remaining energy and focusing it into his hands. "You're just trying to save your own skin!"

Raditz, realizing what was coming, turned tail and began flying erratically in the opposite direction.

Gohan pulled back his hands, forming a large ball of blue and white between his palms. "KAMEHAMEHA!"

The beam was enormous, and no matter how Raditz moved it always followed. It was perfectly centered when it slammed into his back and consumed the entirety of his being.

Gohan panted, holding his arms extended out in front of him. He waited for any more surprises. The sound of the wind was the only audible noise, the skies seemed perfectly clear now, serene and peaceful. Gohan dropped his arms to his sides, which now ached slightly, prompting him to do a little self-assessment. He felt his sides, he knew for a fact a few ribs were broken, but other than that there didn't seem to be much damage done to him. He felt his right hand's knuckles, and although they were covered in blood they didn't feel that bad, especially compared to after he first punched Nappa.

As his power level dropped, the anger began to disperse as well. He decided he'd try and calm down as much as he possibly could, starting with landing on the ground. He slowly floated down through the clouds and once he could see the earth below them, he frowned. Dozens of body parts were sprinkled throughout the meadow, some sparking with electricity, others leaking their different vital fluids.

He landed in the tall grass, gently placing his two feet on the ground. Right next to him he could see half of an android, he couldn't remember killing him, let alone ripping him in half. He stepped away from the corpse and continued to tread through a graveyard of his own making, and as he looked over the bodies he noticed he hardly remembered doing any of this to them. He tried to count the number of bodies but lost track shortly after starting. He knew he counted them before, as he was killing them, but, how many was that again? He couldn't remember.

He didn't necessarily feel bad about not remembering them, they were just machines after all. That was, until he came upon a few clumps of purple hair, floating in a tiny puddle of old rainwater. He crouched down and lifted a few strands; he couldn't believe he did all this. He never took such immense pleasure in killing anything before or since Cell, but he felt so much when he was killing them today.

Gohan's eyes filled with tears, his own cruelty was too much to look at. His hand was shaking but he tried desperately to lower the strands of hair back into the water gently. He did it without disturbing the water too much and then slid away from the puddle.

He felt so childish and weak, letting his emotions get the better of him like they so often do. Sure they saved his life but at what cost? He had the location of Gero's hidden base at his fingertips and he didn't realize it. He threw it away like it was nothing.

He then wondered what would have happened if his father was here, what if he saw how much he enjoyed killing every single one of these androids? What if he saw the gleeful smile he wore when he smashed Vegeta's chest in? How disgusted would he be? How disappointed would he be? But most of all, how horrified would he be? To see what his son had become. To see how far his happy little Gohan had fallen.

Gohan looked at his hands. They were covered in mud, coolant, oil, and blood. He needed to wash it off, now. Because if it dried there wouldn't be any getting it off, it would stick to his soul forever.

He looked around, that puddle couldn't be the only water nearby, the meadows were too thick and green for this to be dryland. He turned about and quickly spotted a larger lake roughly a mile into the distance. Eagerly, he flew over and landed near the edge of the water. He slowly crouched down, carefully so he wouldn't upset his fractured ribs. He sunk his hands into the water and scrubbed thoroughly.

The crystal clear water began to cloud with a mixture of liquids.

He kept scrubbing until he was sure there was nothing left on his hands, and even did a quick inspection just to be sure, then he cupped the water and splashed it onto his arms, he rubbed them to help quicken the removal of the drying fluids.

When he was done he sat back. He looked around the lake and at the birds flying in the near distance.

He needed someone to hold him now more than ever before.

He could dismiss plenty of things as him just overthinking, or being overly emotional, but this was real trauma, he knew that for sure.

He rubbed his sides and winced, he might not get a hug, but maybe he could get some advice and some senzu beans from Korin.

He took a look at the sun and made some approximations before heading southwest, he knew at some point he'd hit the coast and he'd be able to follow that south until he came across the Land of Korin.

When he began flying, it didn't take him long to get there, his sense of direction was especially good that day. The tower seemed as peaceful as it always did. He made sure to land on the observation deck just to be polite.

"Hello? Master Korin?" He called from the top of the stairs. "M-may I come in?"

A displeased Korin replied, "Yes Gohan, just come down the steps already."

Gohan walked down the steps at a leisurely pace, he didn't want to seem like he had only come for the beans. "Something wrong?" He asked as he hopped off the final step.

"I realize now why I have so little beans in the future Gohan."

"Really?" Gohan hesitantly asked. "W-what's the reason?"

Korin sat next to an empty jar and sighed as he tapped it a few times. "A few weeks ago a rare form of fungi developed on one. I thought I was able to get it away from the rest before it could contaminate them but I was wrong. It just ate them all Gohan. Three hundred years worth of beans gone in just a few days." Korin frowned and his whiskers drooped a little. "So much work gone in so little time." He cleared his throat. "Thank goodness it didn't get to my plants, otherwise there wouldn't be any more senzu beans ever again."

"But Korin, you can see the future. How didn't you know this was coming?" Gohan asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.

Korin rested his hand on the inside of his empty jar, rubbing the smooth glazed inside. "Well Gohan the way it usually works is my jars allow me to see things in the future, they could be distant or they could be close, but it only shows me certain things when it wants to. Aside from that, I can read people from the future, as I found out when you first arrived three years ago." He stood up and lifted the jar back up as well. "But it there's no way I could have seen this coming."

Gohan went to crouch beside the cat but his ribs stopped him from doing so."Korin? I hate to ask but do you have any left. I think my ribs are broken."

"Yeah I know kid, I can hear the ones snapped in half rubbing up against each other. Your knuckles are broken too, although they may not hurt that bad yet, you still have a lot of adrenaline flowing." Korin walked over to his desk and began looking through the drawers. "You're real lucky I had one bean sitting in my desk at the time of this whole mess, otherwise you'd be stuck with those injuries for the next month and a half." He pinched one out of a small and now empty bowl and quickly tossed it over to Gohan. "Eat up."

Gohan popped the bean in his mouth and swallowed it whole. His ribs felt better almost immediately. "Thank you." he promptly said.

The cat pushed the drawer closed slowly. "I probably have more lying around here somewhere but I'll need some time to look." He said before walking back over to Gohan, twisting his whiskers as he stepped.

Gohan could tell just by the strange, anxious way Korin was fiddling with his whiskers that he was going to say something unpleasant. "I know what happened between you and your father Gohan. That was a really bad move leaving him there. Those androids would have killed him if Tambourine hadn't nearly done it himself."

Gohan frowned, one more guilt to add to the growing list. "How badly was he hurt?"

"It doesn't matter anymore. Sense for him now Gohan. I know you don't want to but you should; he's fighting King Piccolo as we speak, and he's losing badly."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner Korin!" Gohan said, quickly searching for his father's ki.

"Because it just started." Korin said.

Gohan felt Piccolo's evil energy first, it was fluctuating slightly while his father's ki was declining much faster.

Gohan fiddled with his fingers, he wanted to help, but how could he show his face after what he'd done? He crouched down and looked at Korin's nearly closed feline eyes. "Korin what do I do? I-"

Korin smacked Gohan's knee with his wooden staff. "What kind of stupid question is that? You go out there and help him obviously!" He said frustratedly. Korin quickly stepped behind him and enthusiastically poked his back with the staff. "C'mon already, get movin' kid! Hurry, hurry!"

Gohan nodded, he was filled with anxiety, but he knew this was the right thing to do. He powered up to super saiyan and discovered that he could go even further, that new unknown form was still available to him. So he ascended and tapped into that power, using it to blast off from the tower and speed towards his father as fast as he could.

He could sense Goku's power level dropping fast, either he had just used up a lot of it to try and shift the odds in his favor or he'd just suffered a massive blow, and judging by Piccolo's stable ki, he'd say it was the latter. He wanted to speed up, but aside from the fact that he was so fast the environments he passed through merely looked like a mess of blurred color, and he risked not stopping at the exact right area because of it, he couldn't physically go any faster.

He could feel those kis get closer and closer until he was practically on top of them. They were only a few miles away when Piccolo's ki spiked massively and Goku's vanished.

His heart rate skyrocketed, and his luck worsened as he just ran into a massive storm of black clouds. He raised a hand above his forehead, and slowed down, attempting to keep the water out of his eyes. He knew the battle was done, Piccolo had already begun to leave the area, but he was still close enough that Gohan could use his ki to approximate where his father was last.

Flashes of lightning illuminated the darkened ground, and by pure chance, he spotted an orange gi in a small clearing. He flew downward so fast that when he hit the ground it was like a mortar shell, blowing water, mud, and stone all around him. He ran over to his father, he was on his right side, concealing his chest. Gohan rolled him onto his back and saw that his shirt was slashed open and a long but shallow wound on his chest was bleeding.

"Goku?!" he said, lifting his father's upper body. "Goku, can you hear me?!" He asked to no response.

Gohan placed his head against Goku's chest, it was eerily silent. Gohan knew exactly what he could do, if he needed his heart to beat, ki would be the perfect tool to use. He focused as much loving ki into his hands as was safely possible and transmitted it to him, praying that the charge was the right amount to reset his heart.

"Goku, if you can hear me say something!" He cried, placing his head back against his chest. Still, there was nothing.

The rain continued to pour on top of them, soaking Gohan's gi and further drenching Goku's

He charged up more ki into his hands, cupping them together and placing them right on top of his father's heart. He distributed it and pressed himself against his chest again, his heart was still completely silent.

Gohan was close to crying now and trying his best to put another round of ki into him. "Goku, please!" He pleaded. He placed his head back against his chest and still there was nothing. Why was there nothing? It shouldn't be taking so long for this to work.

He tried it one more time and collapsed into tears when all that followed was silence. He bit his lip, he couldn't put any more ki into him, he had already put in way more than he should have.

He struggled with the fact that there was nothing he could do now. He didn't want to believe that he was powerless to help but hopelessness was already settling in.

Gohan lifted his father up by his shoulders and began to shake him. "Daddy, please! Don't leave me!" He screamed.

He tightened his grip, now hugging him, and holding him as closely as he could. "You're all I have!"

Gohan dropped out of super saiyan and shoved his head under his fathers, placing an ear to his chest. He laid down beside him with his arms wrapped above his shoulders, at the base of his neck. The rain was pouring down on top of them so fiercely, he couldn't even hear his own whimpering anymore.

Strangely, at that moment, he thought of Trunks. He pictured those strands of purple hair by the puddle, of the friend he had made before the Cell games. He remembered that although he was stressed, those final days before the Cell games were some of the happiest he'd had in a long time. Those days he and his father spent in their valley, with their spring and their apple tree they were some of the best...but they seemed so far away now. Those strands of hair he lowered back into the puddle were just strands, they were only a portion of the man they belonged to. Just like Gohan. He was just a portion of himself now. Strands of what used to be.

He continued sobbing for what felt an eternity.

And then suddenly, he heard a beat.

And felt a soft hand touch his soaked hair.

He heard that voice he thought he'd never hear again. "J-jack?..."

Gohan pulled his head away from his father, tears were streaming down his cheeks but the rain absorbed them quickly, he had the biggest most genuine smile plastered across his face as he looked at his conscious father. "Goku!" He said excitedly, quickly placing his head back on to his father's chest just so he could hear the constant rhythmic beat of his heart. Its pleasant and strong thumping caused his smile to grow even wider.

Goku smiled and weakly hugged Gohan back. "I'm so glad you're okay..."

There was that selfless concern as always.

"I found that monster...the one that killed Krillin...while we were fighting the first time...he said was going to go after other fighters. After I lost, he knocked me out...and when I woke up...I thought he'd gone after you... Master Roshi...all of our friends. I found him a little while ago...and I beat him...but I didn't know if he'd already hurt you or not."

The rain began to let up.

Gohan didn't know what to say, maybe it was just because he was injured, but his father didn't seem upset with him at all. In fact, he still seemed so concerned for him. How was that even possible?

"Goku I'm so sorry. I ruined everything." he said.

"Jack-"

Gohan refused to let him speak. "No, it's all my fault. I never should have lied and I never should keep things from you. Krillin dying...it's my fault."

"You didn't know Jack...You couldn't have done anything." Goku paused. "You just...wanted some dinner." he said with a weak laugh.

Gohan smiled faintly but it didn't last. "And then I left you Goku. Y-you asked me to help you, you needed me to help you, but I just wouldn't listen. I just ran away."

"It's okay...I'm not angry."

Gohan heard him, but he didn't listen, choosing to focus on how he could fix things instead. "Goku,I promise I'll never lie to you again." he said. "Never."

"Thank you, Jack." Goku replied, allowing silence to then fill the air for a moment. "H-hey...do you have any water?"

"I'm sorry, I don't." Gohan gently pulled away from Goku. "Can you walk?"

Goku tried to sit up and as he lifted his back, that shallow wound widened and blood began dripping out. "I don't think so." He laid back down. "I wish I had some water... I'm so thirsty..."

Gohan scooped his arms beneath his father's legs and back, lifting him up easily. "Hold on Goku, we'll go to Korins and get you fixed up."

"But that monster...destroyed nimbus...a-and Korin's so far away...It'll take us hours to run there..." Goku said just before Gohan kicked off the ground and began flying towards the tower.

Although he was exhausted and had trouble even moving, Goku couldn't help but be energetic. His eyes widened and he looked in wonder, turning his head towards the ground which continued to get farther away. "Wow!" Goku exclaimed. "You can fly? Like Tien and Chiaotzu?"

Gohan blushed, "Yeah, I've been able to fly ever since I was five."

"So when I asked you...if you were hiding your strength...you were, right?"

"Y-yes." Gohan admitted shamefully.

"Jack please, don't be sad...I was just asking."

Gohan didn't respond, choosing to look in front of them so he could more clearly guide. He noticed his father was brainstorming a question, and it usually didn't take him this long to ask something, so either it was uncomfortable or very complex.

Then Goku spoke, "Jack, I know you're trying to be more honest...and I don't want to upset you...but please, I need to know...how do you know Piccolo?"