Chapter 39: Gohan's Suffering, Tania's Decision
My body was hardly able to move; It was if I was being restrained with huge chains. My eyes were seeing little circles and I was getting dizzy.
"Goku, you're son is lost in his own past memories." King Kai stated, making everyone confused.
"What's that suppose to mean?" I hear Tien ask. "That he's having a nightmare or something?"
I assumed that Shenron had granted his, Yamcha's and every good persons life back.
"You can sorta say that, but except he's actually living and experiencing every single most painful memory he can remember." King Kai explained. "For some reason he is completely terrified of events that had already passed. His own memory is haunting him to the point where it's beginning to have an effect on his body."
"You're not serious..." Goku gasped. Even though my sight was slightly blurry, I can see his concerned face as he looked at his son.
"I don't understand, Gohan's being cursed by his own thoughts?" Older Trunks questioned King Kai.
"Well yes... You see he's been secretly blaming himself for every bad thing that happened during battles with past enemies you guys fought. For example, he felt responsible for the death of Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, and Piccolo's death during the battle with Nappa and Vegeta because he was too scared to fight." King Kai clarifies to the future hybrid along with everyone else in the room.
Piccolo grunted.
"He was only five-years-old at the time." Krillin stated with an understanding expression. "It was completely understandable as to why he was so frightened."
The bald short man then sadly looked at the tiles. "It wasn't his fault..."
"Is there anything else he felt responsible for?" Goku wondered.
King Kai took a deep breath before answering, "At the Cell Games, Gohan felt that you dying Goku, was something to blame himself for. Because he didn't finish Cell off early, you was forced to save the earth and die from his explosion and that caused Gohan great grief and guilt."
Goku clenched his fists. "No. He didn't know Cell was going to do what he did. Besides, that was my decision I made on my own. I didn't have to transport Cell if I didn't want to. It was only for this planet and it inhabitants."
After Goku expressed how he felt about the situation, ChiChi asked if there was anything we could do to help him.
"Unfortunately, I don't think there's nothing we can do for him. There's a barrier that Gohan put around his soul so none of us can reach him. He's eating away at himself without even knowing. His body is reacting to this violently and i'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news everyone, but if this keeps up, his body will shutdown for real this time." King Kai announced to everyone's horror.
I couldn't really hear pretty much anything afterwards. The only thing I could hear was the thuds Gohan's heart was making. I listened to each beat. They were way faster than normal and I could almost hear his heart slowly dying as it tried its best to pump blood through his veins.
I then heard King Kai saying something about my lost powers but I was too tired and distracted to listen. Why is Gohan blocking communication with me? He needs to accept what happened in the past whether he believes everything was his fault or not! If he doesn't, he's gonna die...
Gohan... Please... Let me help you. You're my best friend; I love you. I don't wanna lose you to your own self. I just want you to be awake, happy, and healthy again. If you'll only let me be there for you...
Suddenly, there was a sparkling white pillar of light circling around Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Goku, Wisheater, and I. My body was still completely drained of ki, but the sudden light had allowed me to finally move around.
"What's going on?!" Piccolo wondered after seeing the bright light shining on him. Goku and Krillin just looked at the aura around them.
"If your planning on helping Gohan, I will guide you..." I hear Thornkin speaking to me telepathically. In a second, a vortex had appeared next to the bed. It seemed like only the ones that was surrounded by the light could see it.
"Thornkin, you must've found a way to that kid's inner mind..." Wisheater mumbles to himself.
"Goku, Piccolo, Krillin, Tania, go into that vortex now!" King Kai suddenly demanded in a very serious voice. "You'll be able to reach Gohan if you go in. It's an entrance to his mind; A portal!"
"I don't see any blasted vortex!" Vegeta growled as he tried hard to see it. Tien, Yamcha, Trunks and the others were also trying to find the portal, but couldn't.
The portal began to get smaller and smaller.
"Get moving! If you want to save Gohan's life, this is your only chance!" King Kai quickly warned the five of us.
"Hurry Goku!" Piccolo rushed just before flying into the portal. "Right behind you Piccolo!" He says proceeding to hop in the portal.
I grabbed Wisheater, but just as I was about to go in, Gohan lightly held my hand. I turned and looked at him as he stirred a bit. "Don't worry Gohan, i'll save you."
"Tania!" Krillin called out catching my attention, "Run! The portal is closing!"
"Please take care of Gohan! I promise we'll bring him back to his senses!" I vowed to everyone else who couldn't come along. The portal was getting smaller by the second and Krillin jumped out the portal, took my hand, and flew full speed just in time to make it through the vortex.
We were now floating in complete darkness. Goku had changed into a super saiyan so that we could see where we were going. Krillin had let me climb on his back since I didn't have enough ki to fly on my own.
"Where do you think we are?" Goku asks as we continued flying in complete darkness. His bright golden aura was the only thing allowing us to move forward without worrying about accidently bumping into something.
"I don't know Goku, but we should keep our guards up just in case things go south." The namekian suggested.
"I agree." Wisheater replied. "It's best to stay cautious in a situation like this."
The sword was strapped around my back. I smiled and said, "Well, even though this place may become dangerous, i'm just very relieved that there's hope for Gohan to live another day."
"That is something to be happy about." Krillin expressed with a grin.
"You've said it." Goku laughed joyfully.
"I think I see something up ahead!" Krillin informs everyone. I looked in front of us to see a bright light coming closer to us.
"I guess I don't need to be a super saiyan then anymore." Goku then dropped to his basic form.
When we made it to the other side of the light, we were in what looked like a battlefield. There was lots of grass and two people who looked like Piccolo and Goku were standing side-by-side while a third person with long, black, spiky hair, wearing saiyan armor was standing across from them. I then also noticed a huge crater that had a white pod in the middle of it.
"It can't be?!" Piccolo's eyes widened in shock.
"Looks like it..." Goku then spoke as he intently watched the battle that was now taking place.
"This is when you and Piccolo were fighting your brother Goku, Right?" Krillin questioned his saiyan friend.
Goku nodded. "Yes. This is the day Gohan was kidnapped."
"And the day you died, sacrificing yourself to kill Raditz." Piccolo added.
I could hear a wailing sound. It sounded like a crying child. But where was it coming from?
While the others were focused watching the fight, I squinted my eyes to see that a little crying boy was banging on the window to that pod thing.
"That little boy is trapped in there!" I exclaimed. Though we were still in the sky, I jumped off Krillin's back and gracefully landed on the ground safely. I then began running to the little boy while the other three were busy with eachother to notice.
"Tania!" Krillin yelled after witnessing me hop off his back. "What on earth are you doing?!"
"There's a crying little boy in that pod! I got to get him out of there!" I responded as I continued to my destination.
I heard Goku and Piccolo exchanging words and they raced towards me before Thornkin magically appeared in front of them. They stopped.
When I reached the pod, the boy was still crying until he saw me.
"Don't worry little fella, i'll get you out of here." I say as I began trying to pull the door open by holding the door's edges. Ugh! No good, with my power gone, I can't open this thing.
"Please help me miss!" The child boy cried as he banged on the window. "I wanna get out of here and be with my daddy! This big bully is hurting him!"
I looked behind me to see the guy with long hair was stomping on Goku's ribs. The Goku that was up in the air was silently watching what was taking place as Thornkin, Piccolo, and Krillin stood next to him.
"Lady please hurry!" The boy began to cry once again. I could feel something deep within me that words cannot express. My heart went out to the boy. I suddenly had an idea.
"Listen to me kid, i'm gonna need you to turn around, duck, protect your head by covering it with your arms, and close your eyes. I'm gonna bust this window open okay?"
The kid nodded and followed what I instructed him to do. "You ready for a swing, Wisheater?"
"Let me at it, master."
"Here goes nothing!" I shout before smashing the window completely with Wisheater's sheath.
"Hurry!" I demanded. "Let me pick you up and get you a safe distance away from here."
"Wait, what about my daddy?" The boy asked as he got into my arms.
"Tania, behind you!" I hear Piccolo shout from the sky in great concern.
I turned around to see that the man with the long spiky hair was coldly glaring at me while he had his foot on a younger looking Goku. "You! How dare you set that little brat free! You'll die along with him! Take this!"
The tall man then threw an energy wave at the little boy and I. OH NO! There's no way I can get out of the way in time! I don't have enough speed!
"TANIA!" Screamed Goku, Piccolo and Krillin as they saw the wave coming towards us.
"Get him Gohan." I hear Wisheater say to the young boy. Gohan?
Just as the blast was about to hit the boy and I, the kid had suddenly deflected it with his own strength. He front-flipped out of my arms with tears in his eyes, hard gritted teeth, clenched fists and a very, VERY angry look on his face.
"Gohan, you gotta get away from here. D-Daddy can't get up right now." The Goku who was injured told the kid.
I looked at the boy a little surprised. So, this kid is Gohan when he was a toddler?
I then noticed that little Gohan's power was increasing. I was able to sense ki again finally... That's a good sign that my powers may be beginning to slowly come back to me.
"Wait... WOAH!" I stared at Gohan a bit in awe as I felt his power rising dramatically.
The guy who was wearing the saiyan armor just watched in amazement as his gizmo thing was calculating Gohan's increasing power.
"Power level 1370; That's impossible for a little kid!" The guy announced as it seemed like he was trembling in fear. "And it's still going up?!"
My eyes was beginning to widen in shock from how much power Gohan was emitting from where he started; Which was even lower than mine when i'm this weak.
A red aura was surrounding Gohan's entire body and when he finally had enough, he snapped.
"Leave us and my daddy... ALOOOOOOONE!"
The power that came flowing out of this younger Gohan had caused me to be pushed back, rolling a few feet onto my back. When I looked at the boy again, his head had made contact with that guy's saiyan armor, cracking it.
"WHAT?! HOW?!" My eyes were about to pop right out of its sockets as I witnessed that toddler having that much damage on that guy's armor. He looked as though he was in a huge amount of pain.
Gohan then landed on the ground and went over to Goku. It amazed me even more when his power just suddenly dropped back even lower than mine again. I looked up at the sky to see Goku, Piccolo, and Krillin smiling proudly while Thornkin began laughing the second he saw me pushed back from Gohan's true strength.
"Master, I believe its time that we got rid of this punk!" Wisheater insisted.
"But how? I don't have my powers yet.."
"All you need to do is kick the guy in the face and then point the tip of me at his heart. I'll handle the rest." Wisheater claimed. I smiled "Alright. What's that guy's name though?"
"His name is Raditz!" The Goku in the sky answers.
I began sprinting as fast as I could to save Gohan from getting slapped silly. "Hey Raditz!"
He looked at me and smirked. He attempted to jab me on the head, but luck was on my side; I slipped and dodged his assault. I then regained my balance and twisted my body around, brought my leg up and whacked Raditz right in the chin. I was surprised to see that my kick had some effect, but Raditz only tumbled a few steps back with blood dripping out his mouth.
"Argh!" He screamed, "That will cost you your worthless life!" He then came rushing towards me.
In a rush, I lifted Gohan up and told him to close his eyes. The boy did just that and I pointed the sharp end of my blade at Raditz. Immediately, a strong energy blast had pierced right through Raditz torso, killing him I think.
As I let Gohan free, the ground had began to crack and even the sky.
"Thank you so much for saving my dad and I; I really appreciate your help." Tiny Gohan bowed out of respect; I smiled. "Your welcome, Gohan."
"Gohan, who are you talking to?" The Goku on the ground asked. I don't think him nor Piccolo could see me. Only Raditz and Gohan could. But why them?
Finally, the ground gave away and I was falling into the darkness. Gohan and the other two disappeared from sight.
"I got you." Thornkin exclaims as I felt someone grab my wrist. He then threw me up high and I landed onto his back with Wisheater sliding perfectly back into his sheath seconds later.
"Hyah!" Goku shouts before returning to his super saiyan state, thus allowing us to see in the dark..
Him, Piccolo, and Krillin then catched up to Thornkin and I. They all smiled.
"That was pretty brave of you Tania to jump off my back to save Gohan even with your powers gone." Krillin comments.
I grinned. "Actually, I didn't even know that kid was Gohan until before he deflected that energy wave. He was awsome out there! For a toddler to do such damage... I was speechless. Not even Goten or Trunks has that kind of power right now. What was that sudden boost in power?!"
"That was his hidden strength that was locked within him." Piccolo replied. "It was a great help for Goku and I in that battle."
"Indeed it was." Thornkin agreed. "Stage one of your task is complete thanks to you and Wisheater, Tania."
"Stage one? What are you talking about?" I questioned the spiky hair saiyan.
"What we were in back there was simply an illusion based upon Gohan's memory. In order to prevent anything bad from happening, like preventing his father's death, you and Wisheater needed to work together and defeat the enemy, before Goku dies." Thornkin explains. "During the battles you experience Tania, you will also regain your power back from Gohan."
I paused. "Wait this whole time, Gohan was the one responsible for taking my powers away?"
"You didn't hear King Kai's explanation?" Goku asked me. I shook my head.
"Your power was taken away by Gohan, because without your pure energy, he would become very impure. Your purity is the only thing keeping him from going out of control." Wisheater explained to me in a serious voice.
"Wouldn't allowing Tania to get her powers back make Gohan still become impure?" Piccolo asked Thornkin out of curiosity. He kept flying further. "You guys sure do ask a bunch of questions... But no, it won't make him become impure. You see, if Tania manages to change a scenario that was meant to be bad but flip it to the complete opposite, she gains a certain power back."
"So then that explains why I was able to sense Gohan's power rising. It was because I got him out of that pod." I say.
"Correct." Thornkin responded. "Also, if you didn't notice you also gained a little bit of your strength and speed back. Only a teaspoon of it though."
"I did? Oh, no wonder why I was able to get to Raditz when I was yards away from him and why I was able to land a good hit to him on the chin. I thought that was strange..."
"We must hurry." Thornkin exclaimed. "We must get through these stages before we run out of time."
With that, we continued on our journey to save Gohan's life.