Lights

Chapter 6: Memory

Science was always an interesting subject to study. His books didn't quite accept or line up with the reality he had experienced. Travel through space didn't have to take that long. Other planets with life most certainly did exist. People could fly and harness the energy flowing inside them. There was even a way for someone to teleport. His father was proof, even if Gohan had never gotten an explanation about how that Instant Transmission ability worked.

Regardless, when Gohan studied science he had to step lightly. The truths he knew may not break any rules, but the limit of general human understanding was clearly evident. He was planning to go to an actual high school and study with his peers. He'd have to be careful to appear as normal as possible. Smart, of course, but normal. So, no talk of things that normal wouldn't understand, which was kind of a hard line to find when he'd rarely, if ever, interacted with people outside of his family or his dad's friends.

He shook his head and sighed, closing the book in his hand. If he wasn't going to read or study, he might as well walk and enjoy the view. He had decided to take a trip into the nearby city without taking Nimbus – and without flying – so as to avoid notice. When his dad was around, Gohan was more apt to taking risks like that, but as he grew up he realized neither flying nor the magic cloud were normal. So, he did errands for his mom, stopped by the library for a new batch of books, and took the big trek back to the house in the mountains.

It was actually sort of refreshing to be able to act like a normal boy his age. Or, teenager now, he supposed would be the correct term. He still couldn't believe time had gone by so fast, though his mother swore she felt it going faster than he did. With all that time they'd both wanted to spend in the past, it was a wonder they'd moved on at all.

Yet, here he was, feeling fine. The ache of his father's death had finally run its course. Had he really stayed in the stages of grief for that long? Or was it still that any inkling of a reminder hurt? He'd at least stopped blaming himself. His father had been proud of what he had accomplished. He hadn't seemed upset at all about having to stay dead, just treating it like another journey. Heh. He would…

So he supposed the only thing sad was how Goten would never get to meet his father. The boy was growing up without one. Krillin and Yamcha came by every so often to say hi and help his mother with stuff, but Krillin was busy with his own kid now. And Yamcha kind of did his own thing anyway. Most of the group did. Everyone went their separate ways unless it was necessary or they were having a reunion of some sort. A reunion normally organized by Bulma.

Oh, Bulma had formed a better relationship with Chi-Chi over the years. Gohan had seen a lot more of her lately, especially, thanks to how Goten and Trunks were practically best friends joined at the hip. Those two…

He shook his head and smiled. It was good that both Goten and Trunks got to have a playmate. Gohan never had that luxury growing up. It was good that Goten and Trunks got to grow up in such a peaceful environment. Nothing had come to bother the Earth. No major battles had been necessary. Maybe Goku was right about attracting trouble. Either way, he was glad that little kids got to grow up without having to deal with all the heartache and trauma-inducing issues.

Gohan was amazed that he hadn't exhibited any signs of living through traumatic times. Though he supposed he had his mother, and father to thank for that. As well as his father's friends and his own mentor, Mr. Piccolo. He probably didn't visit Piccolo as much as he should, though he had taken Goten up to see him a few times now. It was just so much easier to sit at home and fall into routine, even if it was different from the crazy days of training and impending death battles.

Of course his routine would be broken soon. In the next year. He'd be going to high school. Trying to pretend to be a normal kid. It would be so nice to be normal, to fit in with other teenagers his age, to go through what they go through. He couldn't wait, even if his stomach was still a mess of knots over his nervousness. And it wasn't even that soon. He still had to take the test to get in. Maybe that's why he was nervous.

As he approached his house off the country road, Gohan frowned at seeing his brother sitting outside all alone. Was he in trouble? Or was he just bored? It was hard to tell with that kid. Chi-Chi claimed Goten's antics were a sign that he'd been influenced by Trunks, but Gohan was pretty sure his little brother had a mischievous side to him all along. Still… to be sitting in the grass looking so forlorn… had Mom yelled at him over something?

"Hey, bro," Gohan called as he walked up to Goten. "What are you doing out here by yourself?"

Hunched over as he sat in the grass, Goten looked up slowly, wiping at his eyes a bit. "N-nothing!"

"Did Mom do something to upset you?"

Goten shook his head and looked down at the grass again, pulling a few clumps out of the ground. "No, I think I did something to upset her."

"Oh?" Gohan asked, crouching down to be at his level. "What'd you do?"

To his surprise, Goten glanced away. "I don't wanna talk about it. Not yet."

Taking in a deep breath, Gohan decided to brush it to the side. No point in digging deeper if Goten wasn't in the mood. Somethings were best left to yourself to handle, after all. Besides, knowing his little brother, it would probably pass in no time. He could help him along, though. Maybe if he found something to distract the boy. Like visiting someone?

He shrugged at the thought. Well, it wouldn't hurt. He hadn't seen Piccolo in a while and he'd been thinking about the Namekian mentor earlier anyway.

"Hey, Goten," he said, "you want to go with me to see Mr. Piccolo?"

Bright eyes found his immediately. It was almost laughable how easy it was to get his brother's spirits up. Even the little things could make him smile again. Or at the very least, it wasn't too big of a deal whatever he'd done to be upset over. Or whatever their mom had fussed at him for.

"Yeah!" Goten exclaimed, hopping to his feet. "Can I ride Nimbus?"

Gohan laughed. "Sure. Nimbus knows how to get there, so I bet we could even race, if you want."

"I bet Nimbus is faster than you!"

"Hah, you think?" Gohan grinned, climbing up to his feet and brushing his pants off. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Hang on a second, though. I need to tell mom we're leaving and uh, drop a few things off. Wait right here. It won't be long."

"Mmkay."

Well, Goten certainly seemed happier now. That wasn't hard at all. Smiling to himself, Gohan opened the door to their house and stepped in, surprised that his mother wasn't in the kitchen like normal. A few steps down the hallway revealed why. She was sitting on the couch in the living room, flipping through a photo book. Glancing over her shoulder, he noticed there were pictures of his father among them. Strange. He thought she'd packed everything away in storage to avoid the harsh memories.

Maybe she was getting better too. Grief was harsh and it could take forever to climb up out of its depths, but they'd done well to make the climb anyway. Goten was a lot of help. He was sure of that. A little light of a blessing in disguise. Keeping them going.

"Hey, Mom," he said, drawing her attention. "I'm going to take Goten to see Mr. Piccolo."

Chi-Chi nodded and let out a breath of a sigh. "Oh, good. That'll give him something fun to do."

"Did something happen?"

She shook her head. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with. You're both your father's sons. That much I'll say."

"Oh," he blinked and then shrugged. "Okay."

A quick run to his room to drop off his bag and books, and then Gohan returned back to the outside to grin at Goten. His little brother was up and chasing a butterfly, even though he didn't have anything with him to try catching the thing. He ran around in circles, reaching for what was currently out of reach. Gohan half expected his brother to call the butterfly Daddy or something, but that phase had long been past now.

"All right, bro, you ready?"

At his voice, the little tike stopped running aimlessly and faced him with a grin. "Yeah!"

Grinning back, Gohan put his hands at either side of his mouth and shouted as loud as he possibly could. "NIMBUS!"

The fluffy family cloud didn't take too long to appear, pulling up right in front of Gohan, almost begging the teen to jump on. Maybe he should fly Nimbus more often. He wondered if a cloud could ever feel upset if people weren't riding him. But no, that didn't make sense. He was sure the magical cloud loved having his time off. It wasn't like Dad had used Nimbus all too often when Gohan was growing up anyway. They could all fly so why bother, right?

Though there were still plenty of opportunities to give the precious cloud a workout. "All right, Goten, go ahead and hop on and I'll race you to the Lookout. I'll even give you a head start, Nimbus."

"Hah!" Goten exclaimed as he jumped aboard the flying cloud. "We'll beat you there for sure this way, Gohan. Don't be sorry when we get there first!"

In a flash, the cloud was off into the sky, Goten clinging on and shouting in glee as the cloud took him through the air at maximum speed. Gohan watched for a little while, then floated up into the air and gathered his energy about him. He wouldn't even need to transform for this. He wanted to make it seem like a real challenge, otherwise Goten might be disappointed.

Another breath of air and Gohan was off, soaring through the clouds in the sky to catch up to the little yellow line in the distance. Eventually, they approached the Lookout hovering high above in the planet's atmosphere, a place where one could look down and see just about everything happening. A place where the Guardian of their planet resided. Granted, he knew that Guardian. Dende was like a close friend to him. Another thing he wouldn't be able to tell any of his friends at school once he went to high school.

What crazy person would admit to being friends with God? He'd get labeled a freak or weirdo in no time. But, still, this part of his life was so different from everyone else, and it was nice to keep it to himself, too.

Before Nimbus could actually beat him to the Lookout, Gohan pushed himself forward quickly with a burst of energy and flashed in front of Goten and the yellow cloud. Just in time to touch down on the tiles before Goten could hop off Nimbus. Then he turned a grin to his brother.

"Told ya it would be hard for Nimbus to beat me," he said as Goten huffed. "But it was close, huh?"

"Yeah," Goten said, hopping from the cloud to land beside him. "We'll beat you next time, Gohan."

Gohan smiled. "Sure thing. You can keep trying however long you want to, Goten."

"Well right now we need to find Mr. Piccolo."

As if being summoned by his name, Piccolo walked out from the depths of the Lookout and stepped across the tile, arms crossed and frowning as he looked between the two boys. Gohan grinned and waved. And Goten did the same.

Well, Goten did more, actually running up to the green alien and reaching out to tug on his white cloak. "Hey, Mr. Piccolo, could you tell me a story about my dad?"

Piccolo glanced to Gohan, and Gohan found himself shrugging. He didn't know why Goten had asked for a story. The most he'd thought about was giving his brother some time away from the house.

"Why are you asking me?" Piccolo asked, voice gruff as usual. "Gohan has better stories for you, I'm sure."

"Aw," Goten whined. "But you fought my dad once, didn't you? Can't you tell me about that?"

Gohan blinked. Sure, he had told Goten how Piccolo and Goku had fought once in a tournament, but he didn't think he ever wanted to know the details. He'd spent a lot of time feeding his brother's head with all the good things Goku had done. All the evil that his father had saved the world from. The ways he acted like a hero. The sacrifices he made. He hadn't really spent time on fights, especially not the stuff from before Gohan had even been born. He barely knew about those anyway.

Glancing to Piccolo, Gohan found himself wanting to hear the story as well. And so he spent the next couple minutes working with his brother to convince the Namekian to share a story of the past. A memory of a time long gone now. From before Goten and even Gohan was born.

They sat and listened closely, though Gohan started to drift into other thoughts after a while. His mother had seen this brutal fight play out before her eyes. No wonder she wasn't comfortable with him fighting all the time. No wonder she wanted something better for him.

And no wonder she'd been so startled when Piccolo had come over as a training partner. Gohan had seen the goodness inside Piccolo when he was just a small boy in the wilderness, when he had endured Piccolo's harsh training in that wasteland. But he'd never imagined that there had been so much hatred boiling inside him for years.

It really was a miracle that Piccolo and Goku had become friendly. But Goku just kind of had that effect on people, didn't he? Even Vegeta had come around in the end, showing up to help them fight Cell, even if his motivations had been different. And even Vegeta had acted a little torn up after Goku's sacrifice. Piccolo…

Well, he was hard to read, but he really had come a long way in all this time. It was hard to imagine what he would have been like if Gohan had never reached out or if Goku had never accepted him.

But that's the kind of thing heroes did. They changed people. For the better.

Maybe Gohan was his father's legacy after all. Maybe Goten wasn't the only one carrying a bright light around ready to share with anyone who needed to be pulled from the darkness.