Chapter 3

It had been three and a half years since Bulmas death. Gohan had buried her outside next to her sons gravestone. He'd never had a funeral for Trunks when Bulma was alive, he'd been too busy trying to keep her alive and find food for them both. With no body to bury, he had placed his most prized possessions in the grave and buried them instead. Trunks's first training gi, a set of his fathers Saiyan armour, and the broken sword that Trunks had carried into his final battle. Gohan had gone back to that city in the hopes of finding some reminder to keep ahold of. When he'd found Trunks's sword, lying damaged in the rubble, he'd fought hard not to breakdown again. When he had buried mother and son, side by side, Gohan was surprised when he felt something unusual...acceptance. They were gone, there was no dragonballs to undo their deaths. There was only him, and his goal. To build Bulmas time machine and travel back in time, to fix things.

With the androids gone Earth began to recover. Nature had regrown and fought back against what was once civilisation. The once great cities were now nothing more than desolate buildings and rusted metal, slowly disappearing beneath grass and trees. The animals had retaken their place in the world, with hundreds of species of animals extinct, Mother Nature had fought hard to readdress the balance. Regardless, many species were becoming over populated. Lacking any predators, all manner of bugs and birds were becoming an infestation. Gohan had done his best over the years to try and kill off any over populating creatures, however it proved to be a lesson in futility. The rise in creatures did however give Gohan plenty of food to eat and he had managed to put on what weight he had lost. With the new weight came more efficient training and whilst he had focused on the time machines completion, he always took time to keep his strength up and become even stronger if he had to beat the androids again. Progress in both the time machine and training had been slow due to his handicap. He'd had to completely change his fighting style, now emphasising a large amount of ki blasts to make up for his lacking in melee combat. It had been easier to adapt in his working environment rather than with his fighting as a large amount of the jobs he had to do, didn't really require two hands. Sure, it would have been easier to write equations and solve problems if he didn't have to keep stopping to move the paper back to its original position, but he'd adapted.

A bigger problem for Gohan however was psychological. Being alone for two and a half years and combined with survivors guilt left Gohan not completely switched on. Bulma hadn't disappeared since the last time they spoke, preferring to 'hang around and protect the saviour of Earth'. Gohan had given up on arguing with himself over whether she was real or not, a ghost or just his mind playing tricks on him. He hadn't seen his family or friends, despite how badly he'd wanted to, that put another point in the 'ghost' category.

Gohan gave one last check on the computer before switching it off. The machine was ready. He was finally about to go back in time and fix everything. He set the planned date into the machine and it began to hum with power as it charged up. He pushed the machine out of the wrecked garage and into the open air, then turned back and picked up his bag of meagre supplies which contained a few spare gi's and some food, but more importantly, the antidote to the heart disease which killed his father. Hopping into the pod he through one last look towards Bulma. She leant against the wall, shimmering in and out of existence. "Ready for us to go save the world hun?" She smirked. Gohan shook his head at her. "You won't be coming with me Bulma, you're a ghost, you belong in this world." "Maybe." She conceded. "Or maybe I'm just a part of your imagination, then I'll follow you wherever you go." She flashed a smile at him and walked over to him. "I guess we'll see when you land hun." Gohan sighed and began closing the cockpit on the bubble like time machine. It began to rise into the air as the humming grew in intensity until it blocked out all other noise. Bulma stood on the ground waving up at him. He waved down at her and took one last look around the battered landscape, the graves of the fallen buried behind Capsule Corp., the regrowing forest in the distance, the grazing herd of animals. The time machine reached full power and a blinding light engulfed his surroundings.

Gohan blinked awake inside the time machine, the blinding light having somehow knocked him unconscious. As he looked around he spotted dents and broken glass inside the machine. 'Guess the landing was a little rougher than expected.' He thought. He reached his remaining hand up to his eyes and rubbed them, pleased to find no blood on his forehead. 'Ok then, no bleeding, only slight dizziness, arms still gone. Just fine.' He looked out of the windowed pod to see himself stranded somewhere in the desert. Letting out a sigh he pulled on the lever to release the glass bubble on the pod. A hiss and pop later and the glass flew of the pod and crashed into the ground a few metres away. 'Alright then, time to assess. I'm somewhere in the desert.' He checked the display on his pod to confirm he had arrived at the right time. 'Alright then, times right, that should mean that he should be somewhere around...there.' He jumped out of the time machine as he sensed the high power levels. When he landed, he was greeted by none other than Bulma.

"Hey there kiddo." She said, flashing a smile.

Gohans mood dropped considerably at the sight of her. "Bulma! You're...not a ghost then...I'm really losing it."

"Sorry kiddo, you'll have to worry about it later though. A certain somebody needs an ass kicking."

Gohan looked away and nodded before powering up and blasting off.

"Lord Frieza! We've just detected a massive power level, it's heading this way!" Frieza turned his head to look at the grunt. He looked terrified at the power on its way, how pathetic.

"Oh, how high?" Frieza asked with only a minimal amount of interest. It was unlikely to be the super Saiyan, is he showed up it would be with his friends and the minion had only mentioned the one power level.

"I-It's at 700,000 sir!"

"Oh?" He raised a hairless eyebrow.

"Y-Yes sir, he is almost here now-ARRGH!" An explosion cut off as yellow light consumed him and blew him apart. Three more hit the rest of his grouped soldiers. Frieza let out a growl and looked in the direction the blasts had come from. As the dust began to dissipate a silhouette appeared.

"Hello Frieza."

Present day Gohans eyes went wide as he felt a large power level appear followed by several others near Frieza disappear. "It's my dad!" He shouted with joy before jumping up and down with laughter.

Krillin was more apprehensive. "Well I mean uh...it sure seems like him, but why didn't he come to us?"

Gohan stopped jumping and thought about it. "Huh? Hey yeah, wouldn't he have said hi?"

Vegeta let out a snort but said nothing. "Krillins right Gohan." Said Piccolo, earning a surprised look from Krillin. "That ki, it's definitely similar, but it's not Goku."

"Well, if it's not my dad then who is it?" Gohan asked with worry.

Vegeta however, had grew restless. "Well we're not going to find out waiting here!" He raised his power and flew up the cliff towards the edge to get a good look, the others quickly following with Yamcha flying Bulma up. Down below they saw a figure clad in the traditional turtle school gi, with short dark hair and a missing left arm, stood opposite him were a metal clad Frieza and what looked like Frieza's second form whom they assumed to be his father.

"Huh? He looks just like my dad too, only...different." Murmured Gohan.

Frieza was momentarily taken aback by the mans unusual introduction but quickly recovered. "Ah, I see my fabled reputation precedes me." He said with a smirk.

"It's your fabled reputation that's signed your death warrant." Responded the man.

Frieza bit back a growl at the disrespect. "And I suppose your the one that will complete it, right?"

"You have no idea."

King Cold stepped forwards. "So son, is this the super Saiyan? I must say I'm disappointed, beaten by a cripple?"

Frieza couldn't hold back his growl this time. "No father, although the resemblance is uncanny, I've never seen this one before. Perhaps he can provide some entertainment until he arrives though."

"Oh so it's a super Saiyan you're after then? In that case, perhaps I can provide." Replied the man. Frieza let out a gasp before he could stop it. He was about to retort when a surge of electricity shot up the mans body. He got into a charging like pose and the rocks around him began to move away as winds built up around him. A low growling left his voice as the winds picked up, even making Frieza and his father cover up their eyes out of annoyance. The growl quickly escalated into a yell as his eyes began to change colour.

'No!' Thought Frieza. 'Not those eyes!'

The yell reached a crescendo as his hair turned blonde and a shockwave was released from his body, shattering a nearby stalagmite. When completed, a golden aura had enveloped him and power seemed to resonate from his being. Frieza thought he could almost feel the power rolling off of him. Taking an involuntary step back Frieza fought to control himself as he looked into the eyes of the beast which had terrified him. Standing his ground, Frieza let put a snarl and charged.

Gohan saw the attack coming at slow motion, being at full power meant he was approximately three times as powerful as Frieza and therefor, moved three times as fast. When he was almost wishing punching range, Gohan suddenly leant back, dropped to the ground, tilted his legs up and pushed himself off the ground with his hand. A two footed kick caught the prince in the jaw and sent him flying off into the air. Flipping up onto his feet, Gohan quickly leapt after him and shot up into the air above him. He dropped a elbow down and caught Frieza in the throat, sending him flipping backwards out of control. When the prince had righted himself he launched back at Gohan who began to casually dodge and block the wild attacks. Lashing out, Gohan caught Frieza with a punch to the stomach, severely winding him before raising a leg and kicking him down to the ground.

As he prepared to fire an energy blast down to finish him off he suddenly dived to the left as a fist appeared from nowhere. He had heard it before he sensed it, the blast of wind signifying king Colds incoming attack. He'd dodged it with ease as well as the follow up blows. This however, gave Frieza enough time to recover and join back in the fray with his father. Now facing two opponents, he began to discover that despite his superior speed and strength, having only one arm was making this fight far more difficult than it should have been. Deciding to end it quick, Gohan let out an invisible kiai from his body, blasting both of the ice-jins back from him. Gohan raised two fingers to his head, sparks quickly appeared on the tips and he shot a special beam cannon out from his hand and through king Colds body. Gohans version had been less beam like than his green mentors and had instead carved a large hole through the kings chest. Sensing Frieza behind him he turned and was greeted by a hard punch to the face which caused him to stagger backwards. Frieza stopped to smirk at his handiwork before stopping in fear as Gohans undamaged head reared back, looking even angrier.

"No..." He muttered to himself before Gohan charged a blast of energy in his hand and launched it forward at him. Frieza's scream quickly faded beneath the sound of the one handed Kamehameha. Gohan stopped to gather his breath and turned off super Saiyan. He wasn't tired really, his numerous fights with the androids had left him with terrific stamina, but he wanted to look his best when he went to meet the rest of the z warriors, warriors who's shocked faces were pointed firmly in his direction.

Hey guys, sorry bout the delay but I had a mid term test come up at uni and was studying, all done now so I hope you enjoyed!

spazzygaz: Pretty much, this trip was only designed to be one way so going to have some serious repercussions.

LizBreifs: Thank you! I feel kinda bad that that makes me proud.

Pir84lyf: No where near.