"So, after this...truth, you'll lead me to the water?"

"Do I sense a hint of reluctancy, Son Gohan?" The voice asked. "Do you not trust me?"

"It's not that I-"

"There is no need for explanation." The voice continued, "To trust the unknown is something very few are willing to do. And so, it is good that you are not in a position to refuse my request, and thus, trust is not necessary. If you choose not to do as I say, or go where I command, you will wait here until your energy is depleted from lack of food. From there, without the little warmth you gain from your ki, I take it you will freeze in a matter of minutes."

Gohan said nothing and tried to express as little as possible, despite him being off-put by the voice's matter-of-fact way of speaking. He knew that provoking it could put him in an even worse position so it was best to bide his time and do as it said.

"Now, you must move quickly. Please step out of the cave's entrance and out to the obelisk on the left."

Gohan complied with the voice and walked out back to the start of the bridge. He stepped to the left and stood by the base of the tall, blue obelisk, just as requested.

"Good, now, do you see the solid ice banister connected to the backside of the obelisk? Climb over it and hang off the side."

"A-are you sure?" Gohan asked. "If I fall, I don't know if I can get back up. Flying will be really hard with that- that humming."

"The what?...Oh yes, the humming...There is no need for concern. You will not need to use your ki for any portion of this short journey."

Gohan carried a worried expression as he climbed onto the thick icy banister, just below the bridge was nothing. Nothing but more mist which he had seen enough of already. He hesitated a moment, the banister wasn't the sturdiest thing in the world which made him nervous. Still, he kept his mouth shut and hunched down, placing his hands firmly on it. He figured he was better off not risking offending the voice by questioning its instructions.

He moved his fingers along the snow that was dusted along the top of the ice, and from what he could tell, there seemed to be a decent amount of grip. He just hoped it was enough to keep his fingers from slipping.

He took a deep breath and faced the obelisk. Without much confidence, he lowered his legs down first, followed shortly after by the rest of him. His hands slid across the ice and stopped halfway up his fingers, the snow had done its job well and he had a firm grip. He waited impatiently for the next order.

"Well done, now, shimmy over to the ice wall on your right, back towards the cave. After that, you will most likely be able to feel, but not see, a small platform beneath you, drop onto it. And do be careful when doing so, the platform is very thin."

He grunted as he moved across the banister. When he felt the edge of the massive glacier touch his shoulder, he stopped and extended his foot. To his surprise, with the tip of his toe, he could feel a platform. He closed his eyes and let go, praying to land on solid ground. He felt an incredible sense of relief when he landed firmly on the small platform that, just before that moment, he wasn't even sure could hold his weight.

He looked towards his feet which had been absorbed into the white cloudy mass below the bridge.

"Take your next step carefully, the platform is thin because it is one of many. There are more than a dozen of them before you, each lower than the one previous to it. I wish for you to descend them. After that, I will share your truth."

Carefully, he took one light step with his right, and sunk a little deeper into the mist, and then another with his left. He continued on, sinking deeper and deeper into the mist until it had absorbed him completely.

"I should commend you, Son Gohan. You were quite clever in deducing the reasoning behind that 'hum' as you call it."

Gohan continued walking as the voice paused, seemingly to ponder something.

"Actually...now that I am on the subject, you may be the first to ever discover its meaning. I suppose that is only fitting seeing as you are so intelligent. As you hypothesized, it is indeed a guide, and will get louder or softer depending on where you are in...this place. But, it also acts as a deterrent for you ki users; it scrambles the mind, making it difficult to focus, as you no doubt already know."

"Why did you make it?" Gohan asked.

"It, very simply, keeps ki users who come here from doing things I do not wish for them to do and going places I do not wish for them to go."

"I see." He said distantly.

"Stop here." The voice commanded. "We have reached where I wish for you to be."

Gohan nervously cleared his throat. "W-what now?"

"There will be a small dark opening by your feet. Once I clear away the mist you must crawl into it. It is within there that we will observe your truth."

In one smooth continuous motion, the mist cleared around him and he could see the small opening near his feet. He laid on the ground and used his arms to push himself into the tiny crevice, only making it about halfway through when the ice began pushing on his shoulder blades. Still, despite its discomfort, he pressed onward, using it as motivation to move faster. Eventually, his front squeezed through and, while kicking up the little snow hidden in the crevice, he got his legs in as well.

Inside of wherever he was, he felt some semblance of deja vu, like he'd already been here before. Using the little light spilling in from the opening, Gohan looked around the room. It was circular, just like the first, with cloudy white ice walls that flaked off a little when scratched. He felt his stomach sink and a serious unease soak his spirit when he saw the same two passageways from when he'd first arrived.

"Do you recognize this place?" The voice asked.

"I-I do... but how?-"

"Things do not quite work the way you might expect them to in here; there are no rules, no guiding principles of logic, no consistent patterns. You could travel for miles, just as you have, and still, find yourself in the same place as when you started. You only really reach where you intend to go when I wish for you to."

Gohan had heard enough, whatever this thing was that was guiding him clearly had no intention of helping at all, if anything all it was doing was wasting his time.

"What was the point of this?" Gohan asked, keeping a leash on his anger for the time being. "You already know I don't have a lot of time so why bring me back here?"

"Walk through the straight passage, Son Gohan." the voice politely requested.

"I don't want to." He said with an undertone of defiance. "Can't you just bring me back to my dad?"

"The only way back now is through that passage. The entrance you crawled through now leads to nowhere, and the passage to the left leads only back here."

Gohan's anger subsided as he remembered that the voice he was speaking to controlled everything around him. A sudden flooding wave of nervousness washed over him. "Back here?" he asked.

"That is correct."

He anxiously rubbed his hands together trying to think through his options, but there wasn't much to ponder over. He couldn't leave, he couldn't fight, and he couldn't reason his way out of this, but what options did that leave him with?

"Please..." He pleaded, "Please don't make me go in there. I-I'm scared."

"Whatever for? You do not even know where it leads."

"I know, b-but I don't want to go inside alone. Can you please just bring me back to my dad? I just want to be with him."

He waited a moment for the voice to respond, hoping his request would be heard.

"Hello?" He asked, hearing in response, his own voice echo off the walls. "Are you still there?"

Only silence followed.

He frowned and crossed his arms tucking his hands underneath them. Unsure of what to do, he glanced between the two passages. Eventually, his eyes settled on the left passage. He knew it might lead him right back to where he was, but that didn't matter, at least it would delay having to take the other one.

He walked through, and, just as it did when he first passed through it, the corridor veered off to the left and extended past what he could see. He could feel it getting colder as he continued moving forward, so much so that he had to lower his head closer to his arms and move up his shoulders to try and consolidate his warmth.

Maybe it was the cold numbing his perception, but the passage seemed so much longer than before. The first time he'd walked through there, the walls gradually changed from white to some blacker material, but he'd been stumbling along for a while now, and the walls were still as white as when he'd taken his first step.

And now, some new noise up ahead accompanied him as he walked, it wasn't irritating, but it sounded strange; like the grating or perhaps crackling of ice. No, no, that wasn't right, not grating or crackling, but stretching. It didn't make any sense, but it sounded like the ice itself was stretching and reshaping, like it was forming something new.

He traveled further and further and the sound grew louder and louder until after one odd step, it suddenly ceased. He had walked right back into the same circular room, with the same two passages. One veering to the left, and one continuing forward into the dark.

Looking towards the two passageways Gohan couldn't help but feel a sense of defeat and powerlessness. Despite all his strength and training, he was helpless to get out of this situation without relying on some entity that now refused to speak to him. He reluctantly took a step towards the straight passage.

While placing his hand on the arch just before the passage Gohan said, "O-Okay, you win. I-if you want me to go through here, I will."

The first few feet were the most reluctant, but the further he walked, the more it became apparent there was no danger, at least for now.

A gust of wind blew around him and with it came the voice, speaking to him from just behind his ear. "See? What did I tell you? You did not even know what was down this hall. Now look at you, walking alone, as brave as could be."

"Was this my truth?" Gohan asked.

"Not entirely, but it was a piece of it. You see Son Gohan, your greatest strength and, ultimately, your greatest weakness are one and the same: Your mind. Your interpretation of the very things around you clouds the truth."

Unsure of what the voice was specifically referring to, Gohan asked, "What truth is that?"

"Travel further up ahead and I will show you."

Just as requested, Gohan continued walking, and, far out in front of him, he noticed a small flashing light pop into existence, its brightness fluctuating slightly as he drew closer to it.

Once he had reached it, he realized that it was no light at all, it was only the reflection from something coming from his left. He looked over towards the origin of the reflection and saw an opening to another room in the cave. He entered, and it revealed that the light he'd seen was actually coming from some large, transparent crystal that had been wedged into the floor.

"Sit by it Son Gohan. It will be the vessel used to show you your truth."

When Gohan sat by the crystal, he felt a comforting heat radiate from it.

"Look carefully now, look and think carefully about what you see."

Gohan sat on his knees and leaned towards the crystal. A mix of colors flooded the quartz, forming a landscape all too familiar. He could see himself, in his purple gi and wild messy hair, cowering in fear as Nappa focused his energy into his left palm. Piccolo was standing near him.

From the expression on Nappa's face, he looked like he wanted to rip the both of them in half, and he continued to look that way, especially when he threw his hand forward, loosing a large energy beam towards them. Gohan could hardly watch as Piccolo stepped in front of him, crossed his arms, and blocked the entirety of the blast, preserving his life at the cost of his own.

He looked away from the crystal before he could see Piccolo fall to the ground. The pain of letting his teacher die right in front of him while he sat there and did nothing was still just as painful now as it was when he was five.

He closed his eyes and tried to think about anything other than that painful memory. He tried to remember what his father had said to him before they had entered this strange place.

"No more blaming yourself. You're trying your best to do what's right, and that's all anyone should ever ask you to do." That's what he said, wasn't it? Gohan tried to center in on that and treat it as fact, but he just couldn't. The crystal's image reminded him too much of how weak he was when he was younger and of how little he mattered in the fight with the Saiyans.

That image and that memory reminded him that no matter how much he tried, whenever anyone relied on him, they always paid for it. After all, on top of Piccolo and his father, he had three more people to prove that: Krillin, Master Roshi, and Chiaotzu. They all trusted him, and when they needed him most, he wasn't there. They paid the price for relying on him.

"Why'd you show me this?" He asked.

"Why do you believe I have shown you this?"

"I-I don't know." Gohan leaned away from the crystal, struggling to speak. "Please, just tell me."

"That is not how this works, Son Gohan, but if you truly do not understand why I have shown you this then perhaps you should look back into the crystal. It can provide more than just that moment in time."

Gohan shook his head and cleared the little moisture that had collected around his eyes. "I can't...I can't watch anymore."

"Then you at least believe you know why I have shown you this."

He kept his palms on his eyes and shook his head once more. "Mm-mm."

"Ah, so you are lying then? Hoping to avoid this conversation perhaps?" The voice sighed. "How very sad, your father would be disappointed."

That was the final straw, he could handle being directed around like some circus animal, he could handle being forced to walk blindly through clouds of cold white mist, and he could handle being forced to walk alone down a passageway he had no intention of ever going down, but he refused to listen to this voice lecture him about what his father thought of him.

"Fine! You want to know why I think you showed me that? I'll tell you! You showed me Piccolo dying just to make me feel guilty! You separated me and brought me down here just so you could tell me what I already know!" He screamed, straining his vocal cords. "I already know that I let Piccolo die! I already know I let Krillin die! I already know I let Master Roshi die! I already know that I let Chiaotzu die! And I already know I let my daddy die!"

Gohan threw his fists toward the floor, cracking the ice below him and shaking the entirety of the cavern. A few sizable chunks of ice dropped from the ceiling as the tears rolled down his face.

The voice waited for Gohan to try and get some semblance of control over his emotions before responding, making sure to speak with a noticeably softer tone. "You misjudge me, Son Gohan, I did not bring you here to torture you. I am trying to show you that the guilt you carry for your friend's deaths is unwarranted."

Through his whimpering, Gohan managed out a few words. "I-I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"Please, I implore you, look into the crystal once more, it will show you exactly what I mean." The voice said, sounding oddly empathetic.

Gohan leaned forward and looked back into the crystal. It was the same scene as before, with Nappa focusing his energy into his hand before releasing it towards the two of them.

"N-nothing's different." Gohan said.

"Look closer, Son Gohan, do you notice how quickly everything happened? How little time there is between when Nappa releases the blast and when Piccolo jumps in front of you? Do you not see, it was impossible for you to move out of the way. Piccolo's death was not your fault."

"It is my fault! If I hadn't been there then he would've had more time to focus on the fight. If he hadn't had me there as a distraction, I know Piccolo would have protected Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu long enough for my dad to get there. I just got in the way!"

"That is simply not the case. Without you there, it would have been even easier for Nappa to kill them. You did as much as you could, as you always do, and for your efforts, Krillin survived. I can guarantee that without you there, no one would have walked away from that battlefield, not even your father. The same goes for many of your battles."

The voice paused, further allowing Gohan to compose himself. "I know that the battle with the Saiyans is only a portion of the guilt you carry, and that there's so much more. From the planet Namek, from the androids... from Cell." The voice lost its train of thought, seemingly for the first time since it started speaking to Gohan. " I do hope you can see what I am trying to share with you."

The voice waited for some reply but Gohan just sat there silently, sulking.

"Come now, speak. Try to find me even one example, in any battle, where you could have done anything to improve the situation beyond what you already had."

Gohan whispered his reply, "I always could have done more."

"No, no you could not have. Once you realize that, you will be free of your guilt."

The light from the crystal faded away, and with it, so too went the image. The clear crystal quickly clouded and became indiscernible from the icy walls that surrounded Gohan. He pushed up off the floor and stood in a slouchy manner.

"Then I'll never be free. Not when all I ever do is get the people I love hurt." He sniffled. "But I think I know how to stop myself from hurting them again..."

"What is it you are illuding to Son Gohan?" The voice asked, sounding concerned.

"Leaving. I can just leave. I'll search for Gero, find him...deal with him...and go home. And then?...when I get there?... Leave home too. Then I won't be able to fail anyone ever again. Not daddy, not my little brother, or mom, or any of our friends. Then everyone can be happy again."

Silence followed once again, only to be broken by the voice a moment later. "You are lost in darkness, Son Gohan. More lost than any hero I have ever offered guidance to. Clearly, I am not the one capable of bringing you out into the light. So, if you would like to, you may rest here for a moment and think. Whenever it is that you are ready, step outside, and travel back the way you came, it will now lead you to your father and the ultra divine water."

"Okay." Gohan said, his shoulders drooping further as he approached the opening of the cave.

He walked out into the passageway and could hear that strange stretching noise once again. But now, he no longer wondered about it or questioned how it was possible. He didn't think about it or anything else for that matter. He just focused on moving his legs and going where he was told.

Before he knew it, he had come across seven corridors, each angled off in different directions.

Gohan heard the voice whisper over his shoulder. "Take the middle path."

His head angled towards the floor, he gave somewhat of a nod and swiftly made it into the corridor.

While trekking along, he began to take notice that the hum was growing louder again but to his surprise, it wasn't as bothersome as before. Hopefully, that meant he was near the water, he couldn't stand being in here any longer.

He quickly turned a corner and a warm orange light reflected off the walls in front of him. As he neared it, the corridor abruptly ended and opened into a large square room. The humming had now entirely ceased, leaving him with an eery silence.

Inside there was a table in the center of the room, each side featuring one chair, and on that table, there was a white porcelain tea set placed atop a thin white cloth. He could see a small amount of steam coming from the spout of the teapot. Clearly, this was what he'd come for.

He took a step inside and instantly felt warmer like someone had just placed a heated wool blanket around him. Looking towards the opposite end of the room, he could see another dark passageway, and out of it, his father appeared.

"Jack!" Goku said, starting into a jog to close the distance between him and Gohan. "How did you get here?"

Before Gohan could answer him, Goku noticed the distant look in his eyes, like he was shutting the world out and retreating into himself. He'd seen that look a hundred times before but something told him it was really bad this time.

"Hey...is something wrong?" he asked.

The voice interjected. "You two may converse in a moment. Please sit down at the table."

Goku looked towards Gohan, he'd already begun sitting down, all without a word or acknowledgment of his presence. Goku wasn't hurt, if anything it only made him more concerned, but he'd deal with that later, what mattered now was that he gained the power to stop Piccolo. He eagerly sat down and placed his hands on the tabletop.

The voice was loud and full of might. "Son Goku, drink from the ultra divine water if you dare. For only the pure of heart will survive to experience its power."

Goku reached out and poured some of the water from the pot out into a small porcelain cup with a thin golden handle.

Goku glanced up towards Gohan and locked eyes with him, although, he quickly looked away. He couldn't tell what it was, but Gohan looked ashamed of something. Goku tried to push it to the back of his mind for now, despite how much it bothered him to see him in pain.

He slowly lifted the cup and drank the entirety of its contents before placing it gently back onto the table.

"Son Goku, you are worthy." The voice said with a degree of satisfaction. "Now the two of you must return to the tower. Only a few hours have passed there and Korin waits for you both with dire news. You may exit through either of the corridors that led you here, both will lead you back to your pot."

"Um...are you sure it worked?" Goku asked. "I don't feel any different."

"It is making its way through your system. By the time you leave...this place, you will feel stronger than you ever have."

Goku rose from his seat. "Thank you. For everything."

"You need not thank me." It said graciously. "Now hurry, you both are needed elsewhere."

Goku moved towards his passage and found Gohan following quietly behind. He waited until they had left the light of the room to stop and speak to him.

"Jack, did something happen when we got separated?"

His voice was shaky and brittle. "Can we talk later Goku?"

"Jack..."

"Please?" He begged. "I just want to leave first."

Goku reluctantly began walking again. "O-okay, we'll talk later."

Just as the voice had promised, the pair eventually came upon their pot. It stood in the center of a perfectly circular domed room they had found at the end of the corridor. Goku motioned for Gohan to go first.

"Go ahead, Jack." Goku insisted. "But before you do, I wanted to say I'm sorry for losing you. I know you hate being alone and me being careless got us separated. I should have stayed closer."

Gohan placed his hands around the rim of the pot. "None of this is your fault Goku. The whole reason we even had to come here was because of me."

He tucked his legs and hopped into the pot. Through the top of it, he could faintly see his father peak in, but that image faded away into the dark as it grew more distant. Suddenly gravity shifted again, and he was thrown out in front of Korin.