Continuing from the previous chapter, and moving from then, to the story we love. I debated having these events take place since I started on chapter... 2? This leads to a lot of change in plot, but I like it.
Age: April 745
Goku stayed in his pod for the next few days. He tried to smell Gine on the armor that Gohan had placed there after getting Goku some lighter clothing, Bardock on the bells that had been placed in his pod. He licked at the metal, trying to pick up the long-dead taste. He cut his tongue once on the sharp exposed metal of a ripped-open door, but he only continued to lick, losing himself in long ago memories. He was almost a year old now, and he could only cry.
There would normally be celebration for this, he knew; he remembered that his brother had told him, and his Prince had been so excited, behind his hardening features, that soon he'd been a year old and finally considered mature. Not mature enough for he and Kakarotto to couple, but enough that he could become Prince Regent, and he would have true power on their world.
He returned his tongue back to his mouth, the pain of the harsh cut finally burning too much for him to handle.
Goku hummed softly, chittering as he reached further into his pod and sat down on the seat of the pod. He looked around, trying to analyze and remember everything that he could recall from his memories. A beeping sounded at his hip, and Goku looked down to see his scouter. Frowning in confusion, he lifted it, opened the small hinge and placed it over his eye.
Secured over his ear, the scouter beeped once, twice more, before remaining silent. Goku waited, anxious, and listened to the static of the scouter's speaker. The scouter had never done such a thing before, so this was a frightening experience for him. Possibly...
「Kakarotto.」
Tears were welling in his eyes again, and he whimpered at the feeling, the burning in his eyes and in his throat. He closed his eyes at the voice of Gine, his dam, and he brought his hands up to his ears. No, he didn't want to hear her voice! The first woman that he had cared for, and she wasn't here anymore! What would be the point of remembering?
'It hurts!' he thought.
「I programmed this to play when you were in the pod. Several months have passed and you have been missing us, haven't you?」 Goku opened his eyes and he could see Gine in the small eye-piece of the scouter. Her pale face was framed by her hair, and her deep, dark eyes looked so sad. Her mouth, however, was in the shape of a smile. She let out a small choking noise, followed by something of a laugh.
「Kakarotto. If we're still alive, believe me when I say that we're looking for you. We want to find you. My small one, we will find you.」 Gine looked down to the ground, and Goku finally saw what was behind her: the same pod that he was going to be placed in, had been placed in.
「If... If you are still alone, Kakarotto, know that we still care for you. We will always be in your blood. You are the younger creature to be inside of my belly, and you are my precious small one. Please... Don't be pained by your loneliness, my Karo...」 Gine lifted her head and smiled.
「Live for us. If you can't live for yourself, live for us. Live for me.」
The image faded, but as it did, he could hear Bardock mumbling something, and he could hear a strange whining noise.
Goku touched the face of his scouter gently.
"Gi... ne..."
His voice was hoarse. How long had it been since he had spoken? He couldn't even recognize his voice! He looked down at his hands that were broken and bleeding from how little he had been caring for himself. There hadn't really been a point since Grandpa had died.
'It had been the day that Grandpa had died. That was the last time I talked.'
"Gi-ne..."
'Kakarotto... that was my name.'
"Gine!"
'I'm all alone, but that's okay.'
He cried himself to sleep in his pod, and he kept asking himself the same question and the scouter could not answer him.
'Why did she leave me here?'
After gathering parts of his pod and tucking his scouter into a pocket on his pants, he went into the house where he and Gohan had lived. He felt the emptiness of it all.
There was nobody to be his pillow, nobody to help him read the books that Gohan had left on the shelf, and nobody was there to talk to him about the different stories that this world had to offer. Nobody was there to tell him when he first began to bleed or when he started having strange dreams about blue fire and blackened skies.
"Gohan..." Goku set his things down on the small table where his grandfather's box sat, the special box that held the orange ball with four red stars. For a moment, he stared at the black box before finally opening it.
He pressed a hand to the ball and froze. It wasn't cold.
It was warm, like his grandpa's kisses and hugs and the soup that they would make when the wind was strong. As Goku's tears graced the smooth surface, the ball only reminded him of the sweets that Gohan would buy when he would travel and leave Goku at home. Goku would wait like a good boy and keep everything clean for when Gohan came back from whatever place he had gone to, with sweets in his arms and books and sometimes, he would come with equipment to spar with.
He took the pillow that sat in the box and placed it on the table. The ball sparkled as he set it down, the sunlight able to finally hit it.
"Thank you, Grandpa... for taking care of me. I won't forget what you taught me... or what Gine did."
'I am Goku.'
Age: July 749
Goku smiled down at the pond, putting his clothes back on as the water splashed around the rocks. He heard the snickering of one of the animals around him. He looked up, saw a young doe and her fawn, and smiled.
"Koipa! How are you and your infant today!"
The doe bowed her head before going on her way, pushing her offspring away gently. He smiled and waved at her before picking up the tail of the fish that he had just caught. He hummed his own songs, words that told stories of long ago in his head. His scouter was placed on his ear and he mumbled to the wind that never spoke and always listened.
"After we get this fish ready t' eat, we should go on another hike through the woods. We can start drawing the maps again, and we can make sure we don't get lost like we did two days ago. I ain't getting lost again!"
The wind never answered, but it always listened. It listened to his voice, and it helped him remember that he really did have one.
He waved up at the monkeys in the trees. "Pisuno, Azuki! G'morning!" He smiled at the young monkey that he had seen the birth of years ago, and her own offspring.
But there was a different sound today.
"Huh?" He looked all around and he noticed a large object coming down the path. He cried out at the speed it was coming down the path, and a shrill noise came out of it too. It turned to show its flank and it didn't even hit Goku.
It hit his lunch!
"You monster! You're trying to steal my catch, aren't you?!" He ignored the sounds that came out of the monster - it seemed to have a metal armor of some kind - and slipped underneath it. "I won't let you get - ugh! - away with that!"
He threw it as far as he could, and it let out a strange noise again, like a scream. He pulled out his Nyoi-bo, and he hummed with interest as a weird fairy came out of beast. It looked like the fairy from one of the books that Grandpa had left behind.
"You little brat!" the fairy cried. In his shock at understanding the sounds - words, he realized - and in his ignorance, he wasn't able to dodge the small, bold projectiles that came out of the weapon that the fairy had pulled out. They weren't enough to break through his skin, but they were so painful.
It reminded him...
He gripped at his head at the pain from the projectiles and from whatever memory what trying to enter his head.
"Wh-What was that just now?! Some kind of magic?!"
The fairy's arms trembled, her eyes wide and face pale. "N... No way! Wh-Why didn't you die?!"
"Idiot! You think something like that would kill me?! I'm as strong as steel!" He felt his breath heavy in his lungs, and he raised his Nyoi-bo. "Time to see your end, Fairy!"
"Wait a minute! I'm not a fairy, I'm a human!"
"Eh?! A human?!" Goku set himself down, already prepared to jump and attack the strange creature that was coming out of the metal monster. "Really?!"
"Of course!" the human attempted to reassure him. "Just like you!"
He frowned. "But you look so soft and weak!"
"What, you've never seen a girl before?"
Goku hummed softly to himself. "This is the first time I've seen another human. When he was alive, though, my grandpa had that if I ever met a girl, though, to be really nice to her."
He invited her to his home, the little house that he had shared with his grandfather so many years ago. She looked like she needed to have some food anyway.
'Maybe... Maybe we can be friends,' Goku thought. 'Maybe she can visit us!'
"Grandpa, I'm home!" he greeted the small orange ball with four red stars.
"The Dragon Ball!"
If only it had stopped at that.