Thanks again for the reviews! Here's chapter 3.

Chapter 3: Face To Face

Present

The darkness wasn't too far behind their tails as the demi-saiyans worked on getting the houses prepared for their stay-in. It was decided that Hercule and Dende would stay in the smaller house, and Goten, Trunks, and Gohan would stay in the other. Piccolo would most likely meditate outside the two houses, just to be safe. As they worked on setting everything up, Goten and Trunks goofed off and Gohan had to roll his eyes a few times at them.

Soon, the younger boys got sleepy and they were able to crawl into bed and fall asleep rather easily. Hercule did the same. Gohan lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling for a while before sleep was able to claim him. Piccolo never moved from his spot that night.

When morning came, Gohan was the first one to wake up. He quietly went to join Piccolo, who opened one eye to look at him for a moment and then closed it. "You didn't sleep very long," he grunted.

"I know."

Neither said anything for a while until Gohan asked, "Think I could meditate with you?"

"Last time you tried that, it interrupted my meditation." Piccolo smirked a bit. Gohan laughed a bit at the memory.

"That was a while ago."

"You're welcome to try." With that, Piccolo fell silent.

Gohan went into the lotus position, much like his best friend and he closed his eyes. They both sat still for a while before a stomach growl broke the silence. Gohan jumped a bit, but it wasn't from him. "Goten and Trunks are up," he said, amused. All he got in response from the Namekian was a grunt. As if on cue, Goten jumped on his older brother, yawning.

Gohan caught him with ease and smiled a bit. "Morning, sleepyhead. Hungry?" Goten nodded.

"Can I go fishing?" Goten asked, his eyes bright. Gohan nodded.

"Take Trunks with you." Trunks groaned at this; he wasn't a fan of fishing, but he supposed it was better than starving. Suddenly, they grinned at each other and raced each other to the lake. Gohan watched and briefly wondered if he should go with. A second later, Hercule got up and went to the lake. Faintly, he heard Hercule start shouting about fish being tossed at him. Piccolo grunted knowingly.

After they ate, they went in search of the dragon balls, Goten, Trunks and Gohan taking turns carrying Hercule and his dog until it came to lunch time. They flew down to take a small break, Goten and Trunks running off to play and Hercule chasing after his dog. Piccolo and Gohan stood in silence for a while before both going in the lotus position, looking at each other.

Piccolo regarded his student and best friend silently, amazed at how he's grown. He seemed more…confident about himself. He remembered when he had first met Gohan, unsure of his capabilities; heck, he didn't even know he had any, because his rage usually blinded him. But now, it seemed he knew exactly what went on when he fought and powered up to his maximum.

-Now who's interrupting who during meditation?- Gohan thought at Piccolo, amused. He opened his eyes to look at the Namekian.

Piccolo's thoughts were interrupted and he looked at Gohan for a moment before smiling slightly. –Something's changed. You're different, but I can't quite put my finger on it.-

Gohan told him all about the Z Sword and what happened with the training and Piccolo listened intently, only grunting at the end of the story. If he had that capability to do that for Gohan, he'd have done it a while ago, but alas he did not. He was grateful, though. Hearing Gohan had "died" had torn the Namekian up inside. Now that they were all finally at peace, he wouldn't have to worry about losing his best friend. At least, he hoped.

The sound of Dende landing caught their attention and they turned to greet him when they saw a ki blast shooting towards him. Both Gohan and Piccolo widened their eyes in protest and braced themselves for the inevitable. From the forest, however, another ki blast shot out and blocked Dende. "What?!" A shout came from above them and they saw Majin Buu.

"How…?" Gohan murmured and noticed they wore something different.

"I asked that, too." Mirai Gohan walked up from the forest. Goten and Trunks both chose that time to land next to Piccolo and blinked.

"There's two of you?" Goten asked Gohan, bewildered.

"No, I'm from the future," Mirai Gohan answered. Buu huffed in annoyance.

"What are you doing here? This is supposed to be MY show!" Frustration showed in his features.

Mirai Gohan sighed and lowered his voice. "You need to stall him. I have an idea, but I need to go take care of things. Be careful. He's absorbed…" Not able to say it, Gohan said, "people we love. If things go right, you can overpower him again." With that, he flew off.

Goten watched and said, "What people?"

Trunks looked at Buu and then said, "Hey…that vest…isn't that our vest when we're fused?" The group realized that it was, in fact, that very vest and they both fell silent, Gohan going in a fighting stance.

Buu laughed. "Oh, this'll be great!" With that, he lunged at Gohan, and Gohan lunged back. Both were blocking kicks and punches and throwing punches at each other. Buu then used Gotenks' Super Ghost Kamikaze attack, which in turn caused Gohan to look at the ghosts with a confused expression on his face.

"Don't touch them! They'll blow up!" Piccolo, Trunks, and Goten yelled as Gohan was about to punch one. Each watched in anticipation as Gohan dodged some. Eventually they all caught up to him and left him in a whir of smoke.

The smoke cleared and Gohan weakly landed his feet in front of them. "Okay, well, this isn't exactly going as planned."

"In order for it to not go as planned, you need to have a plan. So tell me, Gohan, what is your plan to defeat me?" Buu laughed at its absurdity. "That's right, you can't now."

Gohan clenched his fists and wondered how Buu seemed to know exactly his fighting style. He recalled Mirai Gohan saying he absorbed a couple people. Goten and Trunks, obviously, but they didn't know his fighting style the way Buu seemed to at the moment.

Almost as if he read his mind, Buu smirked and put two fingers on his forehead. "I've wanted to do this for a while, Gohan."

Gohan's eyes widened as the Special Beam Cannon that Piccolo normally used came barreling to him, and he quickly covered his face with his arms, flying into the mountain and losing a lot of energy. Goten, Trunks and Piccolo watched with wide eyes, the trio getting angry at Buu now.

Gohan climbed out of the rubble painfully, glaring at the pink monstrosity. That last stunt Buu pulled had taken its toll on the demi-saiyan. He could only hope that Mirai Gohan had a plan, because they were all running out of time.

Mirai Gohan did and he was currently reaching out to Supreme Kai. Soon, Kabito appeared in front of him, looking quite unhappy at the fact that he was messenger boy, and bringing this future person to King Yemma.

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