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Chapter 6
After leaving behind a very confused group, Piccolo and Gohan chased the boundary jumpers into a new reality.
'Uh-oh.' Gohan's alarmed thought had Piccolo scanning their surroundings. They had landed in a desert, their desert. That was not the problem. The problem was the shaking figure on a cliff above them. They had landed directly in front of this reality's Piccolo.
'Wait for him to come to us.' Piccolo ordered. Even at this distance, he could see the abnormally gaunt face gracing his twin. Gohan let his understanding rest in his mind, relaxing his stance. The Guardians waited silently for the Namekian to find his composure.
C.R. Piccolo gasped, trying to regain his breath. It was finally happening; his sanity was slipping through his fingers. Not only could he see his own visage, but Gohan was with him, a fully grown Gohan. Even the name brought him a stab of pain. The kid had been gone for six years now. He had never been able to move past the death of his only true friend. As he stared at the vision before him, C.R. Piccolo waited for them to fade away.
Gohan felt a wave of compassion for this Piccolo as they waited. His body language radiated sorrow. 'Piccolo?'
'Go ahead.' Piccolo could feel Gohan's need to go to the man. The kid never had been able to handle the thought of him being alone and apparently, that extended to any version of him.
Rising slowly, Gohan flew over to C.R. Piccolo, barely disturbing the air around him. "Are you okay Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan fell back on the old honorific, hoping it would help.
"G-Gohan, is…is it really you?" C.R. Piccolo reached out, touching Gohan's arm tentatively, as though he expected to pass through him. As his hand touched solid flesh, he grasped him firmly. "You, you were gone. The dragon wouldn't let you come back. I'm so sorry kid, I didn't protect you. Your mother died and your power…you exploded, I didn't protect you."
Kneeling beside the broken man his sensei had become, Gohan looked into his clouded gaze. "I'm sorry I left you Mr. Piccolo. I really, truly am sorry. You did not do anything wrong. I can't stay here Mr. Piccolo, I have to go."
'Piccolo, transport to Icarus's old cave, I'll meet you there in a minute.' No sooner had Gohan formed the request, than Piccolo disappeared from sight.
"No, you can't leave again." C.R. Piccolo whispered, horrified that he had just gotten his friend back only to lose him once more. To be left alone, isolated, again. Lunging forward, he wrapped his arms around Gohan. Clutching him tightly, he wondered why he had always been so aloof. Always refusing the affection the boy offered to him freely.
"I have to go Mr. Piccolo; I do not belong to this world." Gohan hugged C.R. Piccolo tightly; he could feel the tremors running through his thin body. "Before I go, you have to promise me something." He waited for the man in his arms to nod. "Take care of yourself. Drink your water, train your body and your mind. I need you to live Mr. Piccolo, not just be alive, but live. I need you to be able to tell me about your life when I see you again. Promise me that so I may go in peace." Gohan pulled back, staring into desolate eyes.
C.R. Piccolo nodded, the motion jerky and disjointed. Gohan squeezed him a final time, before moving back. "Don't forget your promise Mr. Piccolo." Holding his gaze, Gohan transported away.
C.R. Piccolo crossed his arms over his chest tightly, holding Gohan's lingering warmth to him. Glancing out across the desert, he noted that the vision of himself had disappeared as well. Maybe it was because that was how he saw himself, at the kid's side. Maybe a piece of him always would be. For the first time in six years, he felt a measure of peace as some of the pain faded away.
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Gohan joined Piccolo in the cool interior of the cave and promptly threw a ki sphere around them. Falling to his knees, he fought against the wrenching pain. He had promised Piccolo as a child that he would never leave him alone. Yet in this reality, it seemed as though he had committed suicide after his mother's death. In this reality, his mother was dead. It was mind-numbing and heartbreaking.
'There has to be a way to aim when crossing realities. To control the exact place we land at, instead of just the right planet and reality.' He thought viscously.
Piccolo was suddenly beside him, his hand on his shoulder. Reaching back, Gohan grabbed his hand. It was rare for them to touch like this. Piccolo had never been comfortable with contact in general. Then, after their bond had developed into the deep connection they now shared, Gohan had no longer felt the need for physical contact. He could show his affection for his friend with a thought from anywhere in the world.
Still clinging to Piccolo's hand Gohan asked, 'Did you find them?'
'No, I don't think they are here anymore. There are distortions about 100 miles away, but it is almost as though they simply passed through rather than stayed.' Pulling his hand away, Piccolo shucked off his training weights and sank into the lotus pose, floating off ground. Reaching out, Piccolo turned his younger companion, leaning Gohan's back against his shoulder and arm. The sound of falling water in his mind, that constant noise that was Gohan, began to calm. It slowly eased from the sound of a raging white water river, to that of his waterfall. 'Sleep for a while kid, we'll find them after you've rested.'
Gohan scooted down, until the back of his head was resting comfortably against Piccolo's shoulder. As he let sleep claim him, he had the random thought that Piccolo still made a comfy pillow.
Shifting slightly, Piccolo braced against the enervating sensation of the kid sleeping. He inwardly chuckled with wry amusement as he heard Gohan's last thought. Looking at his friend, he recalled a time when his reply to such a notion would have been a well-aimed ki blast.
Gohan had altered his very foundations in that first year and he couldn't say he was sorry for it. He could well understand what losing Gohan meant to his doppelganger. It was a blow that would be close to impossible to recover from. Piccolo found himself left with the morbid but grateful thought that when the kid went, he would as well.
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Gohan woke abruptly. Sitting up he tried to place what had disturbed his sleep.
'Me, you were about to take a trip down memory lane. I stopped you.'
Gohan scrubbed his face with his hands as he sent Piccolo his thanks. So much for Shin's theory that it all just rolled off him, leaving him untouched.
'Feh, foolish notion,' Piccolo said disdainfully.
'Well, since I'm up, I think I will go find something to eat. On our world, there is an underground lake deeper in this cave complete with fish. Want to come with?' In lieu of an answer, Piccolo stood and followed silently.
After they had cleaned up and Gohan had eaten, they once again sought the imbalance they were chasing. There were multiple sources, as though Maculo and Papula had skipped through several realities, but never stopped in one.
'There,' Piccolo latched onto the strongest imbalance they had found this time around.
'Want to take us this time?' Gohan offered, feeling Piccolo's desire to control the transport. He grasped the Namekian's forearm and dropped the ki sphere surrounding them.
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Gohan unconsciously tensed as they reached there destination. The familiar sight of the Lookout met his gaze. He felt Piccolo's silent groan at their location. 'Your aim is as bad as mine Piccolo!'
Piccolo's eyes blazed as he glared at his friend. 'Let's get out here before it's too late.'
"Kami, Kami come quick, Piccolo is here!" Mr. Popo shouted, spotting them.
Piccolo froze, even his breath stilled in that moment. Gohan's eyes widened in alarm as a ghost from the past stepped out of the temple.
'Well this awkward.'