Recreating Freeza's feat of energy control proved to be much more difficult than anticipated. Freeza could control very small amounts of his ki in an environment that was, to him, the worst possible place to meditate in. While Gohan found it easy to show the others what he felt when Freeza was in King Yemma's hall, actually performing the feat was an impossible task. Eventually Goku, Vegeta and Gohan gave up for the night and went their separate ways, although Gohan promised the older men he'd come up with a good way to train like Freeza did.
Videl was happy to have Gohan around the house for a few days, even if he spent most of his time meditating, training and researching. These few days passed quickly, however, and eventually Gohan returned to Capsule Corp. HQ to talk to Bulma. Like many times in the past, Bulma was the one who solved their problem.
Bulma used to smoke when she needed to think, until Vegeta got angry and demanded she put a stop to it. She was used to winning most of their arguments, but this time he refused to surrender. Vegeta even began destroying any cigarettes she bought or sneaked in, until she admitted defeat.
"So," Bulma sighed in annoyance and flexed her smoking hand uselessly, "you need to have almost no ki in your system, and somehow manipulate it without losing focus?"
"Yes," Gohan was pacing, deep in thought. "The problem is that we can't really power down that low, and even if we could there's no way to maintain mental focus. Every little distraction completely ruins whatever you're trying to do. I still don't understand how Freeza did it."
Gohan stopped and looked at Bulma. "The easy part is powering down. We need to fire of a continuous energy attack for as long as possible, until we're exhausted. Since it's too dangerous to do it on Earth or in space, we could do it in the hyperbolic time chamber if we tone it down a bit. But then what? When you're that exhausted you can't really concentrate, and every little noise or movement disrupts your focus. I even popped back to King Yemma's palace and asked if he could put us in one of the cocoons he used on Freeza, but Yemma said it won't work on us since we're alive."
He neglected to mention that when his father heard Yemma's answer, Goku actually suggested they kill themselves. This led to a prolonged and excessively violent sparring session with Vegeta, after which Goku admitted this might not be a good idea.
"Hmm..." Bulma had plenty of ideas, but most of them involved injecting, inhaling or drinking various substances that affected the brain. She couldn't see Goku, Vegeta or Gohan agreeing to any of that, especially when it came to Goku and injections. There was only one solution left.
"What about isolation tanks?" asked the blue-haired woman. "We have sensory deprivation equipment in one of our labs, you can jump in after you lower your energy. The most difficult problem you'll have is not falling asleep."
Gohan's eyes opened in surprise. He was so busy looking into magical or meditation techniques that he neglected technological solutions. "Of course! Bulma, that's perfect! Is there any way to bring the gear up to the lookout?"
"Sure," Bulma said, "It's going to take a day or two to set everything up." She looked at Gohan and smiled, "I swear, what would you saiyans do without me?"
(Dende's lookout, morning, a few days later)
Gohan and Piccolo stood on the lookout's edge and looked at the horizon for a while. The half-saiyan arrived a few minutes earlier and delivered some high-quality vegetarian sushi to Mr. Popo, along with an apology for neglecting the rotund genie during the day of the ritual. Behind them, near the temple entrance, were six large, metallic tanks, currently open and empty. Each tank had been set up with its own control equipment, and the entire assembly looked completely out of place on the white tiles of the lookout floor. Gohan's training plan would soon go into action, but the young man wanted to talk to Piccolo privately before that.
"Piccolo, I have a problem."
Piccolo looked at the isolation tanks for a moment before turning back to Gohan. "Is it about those things?"
"No, no," Gohan shook his head, "a totally different problem. See, I was talking to Jaco about his galactic patrol, and it turns out they sometimes destroy entire planets with biological weapons. Even worse, his government used to buy planets from Freeza. I can't allow any of that to continue, but I'm not sure what I can do about it. I mean, I don't want to spend the rest of my days watching everything they do, but I'm not going to destroy them either."
"Why come to me with this?" asked the puzzled Piccolo. "Let me remind you, my father was the one who wanted to rule the world, I'm not interested in rulers and armies. And if you're asking me if it's alright to interfere with their actions, I'm not a moral authority on that either." He paused for a moment, then continued, frowning. Gohan knew all this already. "Wait, you already came up with a solution, didn't you? And it involves me somehow."
Gohan smiled and nodded.
"My problem is that there's a police force out there in space, an entire government, who are basically civilized versions of Freeza. They are much less brutal than him most of the time, but they still use terrible weapons and the only thing they respect is overwhelming strength. Take a look at Jaco, for example."
Piccolo grunted, he didn't really like the short alien, but one had to respect Jaco's knowledge and highly developed senses. "What about him?"
"He originally came to Earth years ago, and his mission was to bascially murder my father while he was still a baby." Gohan put all the pieces together after talking to Tights, Bulma's sister. "During his visit he casually threatened to extreminate humanity a few times. And he's supposedly a 'super-elite', whatever that means, the best they have to offer."
Piccolo considered this while Gohan continued. "He did saved Tights' life, though, but you see what I mean."
"How can I help you with this?" Piccolo asked, once again puzzled.
"Well..." Gohan gathered his courage for a few moments, and finally just blurted out the question. "How would you like to become the guardian of our galaxy?"
Piccolo mouth and eyes opened wide. "What?!"
"I'm serious. Everyone else is either too weak, not responsible enough or not a good candidate for other reasons."
"Gohan, this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."
"Why is it so ridiculous? Your... umm... original parent... became Earth's guardian, why can't you become the guardian of the galactic capital?"
"Why do you assume I want to become a guardian?" Piccolo smirked.
Gohan stopped and considered his answer. "You're one of Earth's most dedicated protectors. You died for Earth and risked your life for the world more times than I can count, and you did that even when your father's memories and goals were fresh in your mind."
"Earth is my home," Piccolo admitted after a few moments of silence. "I don't want to rule over it like I once did, but I also don't want to leave. My legacy is here, with you and your family. I will train Pan, if you allow it, as I trained you, and as I trained Goten when Buu was threatening the world."
Gohan nodded, touched by Piccolo's words. "To be honest, me and Videl have been worried about you ever since Pan was born."
"Worried? About me?" asked the surprised Piccolo, "why?"
"Well... it's not easy to talk about, but... we both feel you should have your own legacy." Gohan took a long breath and continued, "we don't want you to be just a teacher for our children. You're always meditating on the lookout or visiting us, and we both think you can do more."
Piccolo frowned. "Wait, what are you saying?"
"It's not just about being a the galactic guardian," said Gohan. "Me and Videl think you should have children of your own."
Gohan was extremely relieved to finally bring this up. He and his wife have been talking about Piccolo for years now, but whenever Gohan or Videl tried to bring it up, the awkwardness of the situation prevented them from talking. This time was different, though. Gohan had to find a solution that could save billions of lives, and there was no more room for awkwardness and shame.
"If you were human," Gohan smiled, "we'd be setting you up with Videl's single friends until you got married to one of them."
Piccolo was too stunned to talk. He never even considered creating offspring, and it was not a topic of discussion he was prepared for. Coupled with Gohan's idea about becoming the guardian of the entire galaxy, the tall namekian was left completely speechless.
"Look," Gohan continued, "namekians were a spacefaring race in the past, so dealing with galactic affairs isn't that strange. But it's more than that. As far as I know every namekian on New Namek is one of Guru's children or grandchildren. There are so few of them, and they're all determined to follow Guru's dream of turning their world into a forest paradise. You're the only one who isn't part of Guru's... tribe? Nation? I don't really know what the best word is. What if what you're missing is an entirely new legacy for you and your offspring? Why not create a new namekian nation whose legacy is to be galactic guardians?"
Gohan looked down, slightly embarrassed after his long speech. "I know it sounds cynical to bring this up when I need something from you, but I really have been thinking about this for a while. What's happening now is more of an excuse to finally talk to you about it, it all seems to fit together somehow..." Gohan trailed off and left the rest unsaid: As if it was your destiny.
"Gohan..." Piccolo managed to speak after a few moments. "Becoming a guardian means being a part of the... hierarchy of gods. It means the gods have to agree to this."
"I'm sure the gods won't have any problems with it," Gohan answered. He was relieved that Piccolo was even considering his proposal. "But even if they do, you can be a guardian in the mundane sense of the word, a protector. The main idea is to keep the galactic government from doing brutal things like they used to, it just has to stop."
Piccolo examined Gohan for a long while. "I need to think about this," he said eventually. "You gave me plenty of things to consider and these aren't decisions that can be taken lightly."
The two continued to stand there for a few more minutes, comfortable in each other's company. Soon the others arrived, not just Goku and Vegeta but also Tien and Krillin. Gohan had invited the rest of the warriors to try the training, but only Piccolo, Tien and Krillin were interested. Seventeen said he might give it a try if the others succeeded.
Something was apparently wrong with Buu, and the majin seemed to ignore Mr. Satan when the champion asked if Buu wanted to go to the lookout. This behavior was unusual, and Gohan promised Satan to try and help their friend. Any drastic change in behavior was a reason to worry, especially when that person had enough power to be considered a universal threat.
After a short session of image training to show Krillin, Tien and Piccolo the basic idea, the group entered the time chamber and began firing their energies into the distance. Tien became exhausted first, followed by Krillin and then Piccolo, and ,much later, Gohan, Vegeta and Goku. Gohan became exhausted before the other two, so Vegeta and Goku were the only ones who remained standing. The two saiyans refused to give up, both holding on as much as possible, but ultimately Vegeta failed first. Every collapsed warrior was escorted to a tank by Mr. Popo, who also turned the tanks on and closed the cover.
It took them a few hours of frustrating failure before Vegeta figured out how to control whatever ki he had left and recreate the strange patterns of ki Freeza had used. The prince then smugly invited the others to examine him with their ki senses so they could see what he was doing, and after that they all returned to their tanks to do it themselves. Gohan assumed Vegeta's skills were slightly higher because of the way he had achieved his mastered blue form, but there was no way to tell for sure. Piccolo and Tien were the next ones to master whatever inner ki they had left, followed by Gohan himself and then Krillin.
To Gohan's surprise, Goku couldn't do it. The exhausted saiyan kept falling asleep in his tank, and even when he didn't fall asleep he just couldn't muster up the necessary focus. It was much easier, relatively speaking, to divert and control the chaotic energies of the kaioken, than to calmly and precisely control a few wisps of inner ki while having only that tiny amount of ki to work with..
Much later, after resting for a little bit, the warriors met outside the temple. Vegeta looked at the disappointed Goku with an expression of supreme smugness, but said nothing. Unlike many of their battles before, this was a definite victory for the prince, and he was gracious enough to only rub it in non-verbally.
"Oh well," Goku shrugged, after a while, "I guess I'll just have to master ultra instinct again."
"What?!" Vegeta's expression changed from smug to annoyed at record speed. "I thought you said you couldn't do it anymore, Kakarot!"
"That's right," Goku nodded and smiled at Vegeta. "But that doesn't mean I can't try."
Vegeta almost snarled in annoyance, then nodded to the rest and flew away. This form of training was very different from anything he had experienced so far, but he felt confident that it might unlock some hidden power or advantage. Was that enough to compete against Kakarot in his ultra instinct state? Vegeta will just have to prove that it was. The possibility that Goku won't be able to master ultra instinct again never even occurred to him.
Tien nodded to the others. "I think I'll leave as well, but I'll come back until I can train without the isolation tanks. I don't think this will improve my strength, but I might be able to come up with some new techniques."
"Same here," said Krillin. "This might have some surprising uses later on."
Krillin and Goku left soon after Tien, leaving only Piccolo and Gohan outside the temple entrance.
"So," Gohan began awkwardly, "did you get a chance to think about what I said?"
Piccolo remained silent for a while, looking away into the distance. Eventually he turned to look at Gohan. "Yes. I'll do it."
"Really? That's great!" Gohan smiled at his friend.
Piccolo nodded. "I have to visit New Namek for a while, though."
"Oh?" Gohan looked at Piccolo curiously, but decided not to ask why. Some matters were too private to be shared. "I'm sure dad can take you there, no problem. Elder Moori wanted to see Dende, too." Gohan enjoyed the late afternoon breeze for a few moments, then continued. "Well, it's time for me to leave. See you again tomorrow, Piccolo. We'll talk specifics later."
"Gohan," said Piccolo, then paused. Gohan was the first earthling that made him realize he was not a monster, and now, years later, the young man made him realize that something else was missing. In the dark silence of the isolation chamber Piccolo felt his loneliness more acutely than ever before, and it made him see rifts in his life that needed to be bridged. Gohan was right. Pan was not his own child, and acting as her godfather was not a true way to make his life whole. He had a lot to say about forging a legacy, ignoring one's true nature and their long years of friendship, but eventually condensed it into one word.
"Thanks."
