Sorry guys, I know this is overdue and really short, but I just wanted to tie up some loose ends and get this thing up. So enjoy, and please leave me some feedback!
Piccolo landed in the desert beside his water source and lifted the boy in front of him by the back of his shirt. He shook him firmly. "Hey, wake up!" he snapped.
Nothing.
Already annoyed, Piccolo threw the boy into the water, which instantly woke him up, and the crying began, barraging Piccolo's ears.
"Shut up!" he shouted immediately, fighting the urge to slap his hands over his sensitive ears. Gohan stopped instantly, startled. "Quit your incessant crying, you annoying little twit."
"W-where's my daddy and mommy?" Gohan stammered, wiping his eyes of tears and water.
"They're dead," Piccolo answered bluntly.
"W-what?" Gohan asked shrilly.
Oh great, here is comes...
Gohan began to cry again, great heaving sobs wracking his small body. The occasional anguished scream escaped his lips, and Piccolo immediately regretted his decision. He tried yelling again, but all that did was encourage more crying. At a loss, he glanced at the mid-afternoon sun. It would be too late to start the boy's training today anyways. Ears ringing, and only feeling slightly guilty, he stepped out into the water and pinched the boy's neck, instantly silencing him as he fell limp into Piccolo's waiting arms. He grunted, and rose from the water, the boy slung under his arm as he headed for his usual perch in the arid mountains.
Angry with himself, the situation, and the universe in general, Piccolo dropped the boy onto the ground and took up his usual lotus position slightly above and to the left of his little ward. Sighing, he closed his eyes and finally felt the abuse his body had taken for the day. For a moment, he allowed himself to wallow in a bout of uncharacteristic pain before remembering the senzu bean Krillin had given him. He stared at the other for just a second, trying to figure out why he had two when he only needed one, when he remembered the boy had taken quite a beating too.
And it was for that reason he was training him.
He grunted and began to meditate, wondering just how he was going to train this sniveling little brat.
A small noise snapped Piccolo out of his meditation. The light of the full moon bathed the land in a white glow, and Piccolo had no problem seeing the boy sit up.
"About damn time you woke up. Listen brat, we have a few ground rules we need to set and... are you even listening to me? God, you're as dimwitted as you no good fa- What are you doing?" he asked in annoyance and slight confusion as the boy paid him no heed, staring straight at the moon. "Snap out of it!" he shouted at last.
And that's when all hell broke loose.
With a feral growl, the boy's body bent in on itself before gradually becoming bigger, and bigger, and covered in fur...
What the hell was happening to this kid?
Finally, the creature stopped growing and revealed itself.
A giant ape...
Piccolo had never felt such power, such uncontrollable rage emanating from the creature as it began to destroy the mountain on which it stood and the land around it, roaring in anger. He was preparing to kill it before it found him before he restrained himself. This was just the kid. But if he killed him... no, he couldn't kill him. Something wouldn't let him. Frustrated with himself, it occurred to him that the moon probably had something to do with this...
Yes, the moon! The boy had been in a trance, staring at the moon! If the moon were gone...
That was all the reasoning Piccolo needed to actually do it. He let loose as much energy as he could into the blast, sending it straight for the moon. In a matter of seconds, the area around the moon shone brilliantly with ki before everything turned a stark white as the mass exploded.
Problem solved.
Piccolo smirked at his own genius as the monster quickly became the boy once again.
"Do you always take habit in destroying things?" a calm voice asked from behind him.
Piccolo whirled around, ki raised in his hand, ready to strike out at whoever dare have the gall to sneak up on him while he was busy... "Huh?" the undignified word of confusion escaped him before he could stop it, and the ki disappeared from his hand.
Before him stood a woman, tall and lithe, with skin as pale as milk and hair the very color of the moon itself. Blue eyes looked coolly into his own, filled with wisdom and power.
"Who are you?" he asked finally, shaking himself of his slight trance.
"My name is Tsuki," she answered slowly, waiting for him to make the connection.
"The moon goddess? But you're...you're just a..."
"A legend? So the kais would have you believe. But no, I am very much a reality, for some."
"I...I remember your voice..."
"As well you should, Piccolo. I destroyed what you could call your sire," she answered coolly. "I do not usually make my presence known."
"Then why are you here?" Piccolo asked sharply, snapping out of his stupor.
"Every fate of every galaxy is planned out in accordance to the realm of time. Every once in a while, a kai will try to interfere, but all it does is gain the planet a little more time. It is I who hold the power to alter the course of fate, should I so desire, if the outcome is more beneficial to the overall good of other galaxies. Every planet in every galaxy has at least one moon, and it is there that I dwell. Your sire, King Piccolo and his counterpart Kami, made a deal with me long ago that if I allowed them to split, they would keep the Earth in her balance of good and evil. But should they ever fuse again, they would knock her out of her proper realm, into a dwelling that would take a good century for me to fix again. Upon their fusion, they had to be destroyed, but you, you I allowed to be borne of their death. You hold a very special key to this planet's future, Piccolo."
"What is it?" Piccolo asked, wary now. She pointed one long finger at the boy laying unconscious on the cold ground. "The boy? What of him?"
"That boy is the key to this planet's survival in years to come. You hold a very special task, Piccolo. Protect the boy, train him, help him unleash his inner power, and everything will fall into balance."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then you will die."
"Is that a threat?" Piccolo practically snarled, raising his lip.
"It is fact, Piccolo. Plain and simple. That child is the future of this planet, of this galaxy."
"Then why didn't you let someone else train him? I want no part in this."
"It was not my decision that fate drew you two together. I merely had to help it along."
Realization struck Piccolo like a ton of bricks. "It was you who made me say those things to Goku! You made me weak! You should've just let Goku live instead."
"I needed him to trust you, to endow his son upon you. I can only meddle so much in the fates, Piccolo. It was not my decision to have Goku and Chi-Chi die; that path had already been laid out. It is not compassion that will make you weak; remember that. Now clothe the boy, for the night is cold. And next time, do try not to destroy my domain. It takes a lot of energy for me to make a new one. Remove the root of the problem, not the instigation."
"What's the root?"
"The tail. The secret to a Saiyan's power is his tail. But remember, not all individuals share this." She smiled then, and waved her hand in the direction of the child. In a blink of an eye, his tail was gone. She nodded her head to Piccolo and made to leave.
"Wait. When this is over... if we win against the Saiyans, I can leave him right? I'll have completed my task?" Piccolo asked, hopeful.
"We shall see. You'd be surprised what time will do." And with that, the goddess faded from this realm.
Piccolo grunted and shook his head, wondering if just maybe, he had been knocked unconscious during that fight with Raditz, and this was all a dream. Sighing in annoyance, he walked over to the naked boy and rested his hand over him. In an instant, a purple gi with a white collar clothed the boy, and small shoes identical to Piccolo's own encased his feet.
There. At least now he didn't look like an infant in that ridiculous garb he had been wearing. Sudden light came from the sky, and he looked up.
The full moon was restored, seemingly brighter in all its glory.