A/N: Sorry this took so long, but, uh, stuff happened? I wanna say a quick thank you to everyone who faved, followed, reviewed (I'm glad you're still here dcsonic 10 :) ), and put me in a community! I am so honored, much thanks.
But yeah, imma stop wasting y'alls time lmao, here y'all go.
Chapter 2: It's All Coming Together
Gohan pushed his oatmeal around with his spoon. He couldn't shake the memory of the nightmare he'd had. He frowned deeply as he dropped his spoon entirely. Was it even appropriate to call it a nightmare? It had seemed so real. Then there was that girl in the vision. She looked so familiar from some kind of distant memory. Not just because he'd seen her in the Beifong house, but she'd awakened some memory from before that. Years, maybe.
He shook his head with a small groan. Why couldn't he just be normal. . ?
"What? Gohan's not devouring his food for once?! It's a miracle!"
Gohan glanced over at Shen who'd apparently been talking through a mouthful of oatmeal. "I'm just not hungry right now."
Shen stared at him with a bit more interest. "What's bothering ya, honestly?"
Gohan paused, staring down at his long cooled oatmeal. Should he tell her? Was it even that big of a deal? Would Shen make it a big deal?
A series of snaps brought him out of his reverie. "You're doing that spacing out thing again. We've talked about this. Either spit it or don't say it, kid. Simple."
Gohan fought the urge to shoot her a glare. She wouldn't understand. She couldn't understand. It was so mind-numbingly terrifying and frustrating having to discern reality from fantasy within his own mind. To be able to see so many horrible atrocities but not be able to do anything. It was maddening.
But then he looked up to see Shen's expectant gaze, and he found himself, not for the first time, thankful for her friendship. She didn't care if he said the weirdest thing imaginable. She just wanted him to say something.
And just like that he told her everything.
When he'd finished, Shen paused with narrowed eyes before she swallowed her mouthful of oatmeal in a single gulp. "So, we're going to be invaded by aliens soon?"
"Well, I dunno if it's gonna be soon, but these visions usually aren't like years away or anything. It might not even be a vision." Gohan hardly believed himself even as he said it.
Shen waved a hand in her familiar 'stop talking' gesture. "And you had a vision about that girl, right? The one we met yesterday?"
"Yeah, I dunno what this all means. I'm pretty sure I've seen her before yesterday."
"You sure it isn't like some kinda nightmare. You've never gotten a vision while you've been asleep."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I just. . . I dunno. I'm so confused!"
Shen raised her hands. "Hey, don't lose your shit."
"Language, Shen."
Shen rolled her eyes. "What are we gonna do, though?"
The stress seemed to mount back onto Gohan's shoulders as they sagged. "I dunno. I think we should wait for another vision? To make sure that it's actually gonna happen not some weird nightmare."
Shen stared at him as if she was having trouble not slapping the mess out of him. "What do you mean wait?!"
"Well, I just think-"
"Do you think that was a vision?"
"Yes, maybe, but-"
"Then, we're leaving now. You need to get stronger, and we've gotta warn people."
Shen suddenly paused, a Cheshire grin sneaking onto her face. "We'll need to get that girl, too. The Toph person. I still can't believe she's a blind earthbender! That's so cool! Maybe we'll meet her at Earth Rumble IV!"
"Wait a minute! Blind?!"
Shen gave him a perfect "are you joking" stare. "Her eyes were all cloudy, and she wasn't even looking at us! Not really anyways. Somehow I don't think that was just an 'I'm too good and rich to look at poor kids' thing."
"Whatever. We can't just go asking her if we're not certain about this."
Shen crossed her arms, leveling him a glare. "Oh yeah? What do you suggest?"
Gohan bit his lips, racking his brain for anything. He brightened immediately, breaking out into a wide grin. "The library!"
"The library?"
"Yes!" Gohan continued. "I'm pretty sure that was a spirit that I'd heard about. Maybe they've got something on the spirit or something."
"Alright, after that we're going to Earth Rumble IV."
Gohan rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you. You're still set on going?"
Shen snorted. "And you're still afraid of going! We're gonna be doing far more dangerous shit sometime soon. We might as well get some practice with it."
Another good point from Shen. He hated to admit, but he was going to be doing a lot of dangerous things in the future. Maybe even slightly illegal things. The very thought of it made his hands sweaty and his stomach do somersaults.
But then, he remembered his more confident self from the night before. The him that didn't back down even from some weird, evil cosmic spirit. Gohan took a deep breath as he nodded slightly. "OK. We'll check the library and then check out Earth Rumble IV."
Shen smiled, rubbing her hands together. "Now we're talking, kid!"
She hopped out of her chair and raced for the door, making Gohan have to work a little to catch up. Once she was out the door, Gohan finally fell into step with her.
Trying not to seem to peeved he asked a question that had been bothering him. "Shen?"
"Uh huh?"
"Why'd you think Toph would be there?"
"What earthbender wouldn't want to go to the earthbending tournament?"
"A blind rich girl?"
"Yeah, whatever."
The two kids who had broken in yesterday were strange. Well, anyone who strolled into someone's home unannounced was strange, but still. They were only kids, like her, by the sound of their voice. They didn't seem to be harmful, but they'd given her quite the surprise.
Toph couldn't help but sigh at the laughable security. It didn't matter too much to her though. She was laser-focused on Earth Rumble VI.
Or as she liked to call it, her crowning ceremony.
It was freeing being able to be so powerful and in charge of her own life. She could topple anyone look good doing it with a crowd of adoring fans. It made her feel warm inside just thinking about it.
The only downside was the hiding from her parents part.
"Can't get distracted," muttered Toph. "It's almost time."
With that she made her way out of the Beifong Estate.
"C'mon, how much longer is this gonna take?"
Gohan frowned at the irate girl. "It wouldn't take as long if you'd help me."
Shen just grumbled and started drumming her fingers against the table, her chin rest on her free hand.
Gohan drew a deep breath as he focused back on his work. As much as he hated to admit it, Shen had a point. They'd gotten virtually nowhere despite the droves of books that he'd scoured. Nothing had even vaguely referenced anything called Raava or Vaatu.
"Darn it!" Gohan hissed, glaring down at a tome. "Why can't I find anything?!"
"Maybe it was all a nightmare after all," she seemed far more dejected than relieved about the prospect. "Sucks, too. I wanted to see some aliens."
Gohan shut yet another dusty old book, lounging back in his chair. It could've all just been a bad dream. Heck, he wanted it to be fake.
But at the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was a little too real about that "dream". Something about his future self, Vaatu, and the clearing itself felt all too real.
Always the observant one, Shen sighed and crossed her arms at him. "What? Do ya think it's real?"
Gohan shrugged, gesturing lazily with a hand. "All this lack of evidence should be enough to disprove my dream."
"But. . ."
"You remember the vision I had? From when I was six? Vegeta had just left a planet after getting beat up by Frieza."
Shen made a show of stroking her chin as Gohan fought the urge to throttle her. "Hm? Oh yeah, I remember. Ya wouldn't stop talking about it for days."
"Yes!" Gohan exclaimed, pointing at her. He winced apologetically when he attracted quite a few annoyed glares. "I was talking about how I couldn't believe that he was still alive. If he's still alive, then he could still come here."
Shen stared at him in deadpan. "That's not enough proof that Vegetable's gonna drop by just cause he exists."
"I know, I know, but I just can't write it off."
Shen shrugged with her arm spread wide. "If it bothers ya so much, try and have a vision or something. It beats getting dust up your nose."
Gohan stared at her through half-lidded eyes. She just gave an exaggerated shrug. "You asked for me to help."
"You know I can't do that. The visions don't work that way."
"Nuh uh. Ya remember that time when ya focused hard on it, and then ya found out about Li stealing Ms. Zhang's candies?"
Gohan pressed his hands to his temples, praying that the Spirits would give him strength. "That was a coincidence, Shen. We've never been able to get that to happen again."
"Just try it."
"It won't-!"
His retort died on his lips as he felt the familiar tingling feeling wash over him.
He was in a frozen land.
Snow was falling fairly heavily through the sky and wind was buffeting any water that hadn't yet been frozen. It was almost impossible to make much out of anything else in the wintry haze.
"What am I seeing this for?" Gohan murmured.
He knew this kind of stuff happened from time to time. He'd have a vision of something absolutely trivial and nonsensical, but, recently, they'd been far more important.
Gohan blinked as a sudden light caught his eye. It was faint, but it was there; a light pulsating every now and again under the frigid ice not too far from him.
The half-Saiyan headed over to the light, carefully despite being in a vision. He felt a chill crawling up his spine that had nothing to do with the weather. The flashing lights, although enticing, set off so many warning bells in his mind that he almost turned back. Once he got close enough, he carefully peered through a crack in the ice.
"Gah!"
Gohan scrambled away from the crack in surprise. Had he seen that correctly?
Gathering his courage, he crept back to the rift and peeked inside. Sure enough, a pair of glowing blue eyes were staring straight at him. It was hard to tell through the ice, but it looked almost like other parts of it were glowing as well. Not its entire body, but certain parts of it seemed to be rhythmically pulsating with light.
In the flashes of illuminated light, he could catch a glimpse of something just under it. If the blinking light had him mystified, he had no words to describe what looked like a giant beast perched beneath the light source. It didn't look like anything that he'd ever seen before.
He felt his breath catch in his throat and his hairs stand on edge. He wasn't sure in the slightest what he was looking at, but there was one thing that he knew for certain.
That glowing object looked human.
"Hey, Gohan!"
The boy yelped in surprise before his eyes focused on Shen. She was watching him with a curious and borderline impatient gaze, as if his stunned silence was inconveniencing her.
"What'd ya see?"
"Glad to see your concern," Gohan muttered, rubbing at his temples. He was only dimly aware of the more than irate fellow library-goers. For once, he didn't have the energy to care.
"Well?" she pressed.
"I saw some weird glowing human thing encased in ice." Gohan could feel his head shaking back and forth even as he talked. "At least it looked human. Nothing like the beast I saw below it, though. I have no clue what any of that was!"
"Ice? Where were you?"
Gohan gave a one-armed shrug. "A frozen wasteland? I wasn't able to tell with all the snow."
Shen's corners quirked up, ever so slightly. It was a telling sign of when she was pleased with something she'd thought up. "The evil spirit thing said Raava was in the Southern Water Tribe, right?"
Gohan shifted uncomfortably at the reference to the spirit. "Yeah, why?"
"The thing ya saw below the human thing might be Raava! Or even the human thingie! That'd be weird for a spirit, though."
"Why are you so happy about this? It might not have even been the Southern Water Tribe!"
Shen rolled her eyes, hopping from her chair. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It's only the fate of the planet at stake."
Gohan's stomach had to have been in a pretzel at this point.
Shen didn't give him a second to respond, already moving towards the door. "C'mon," she hollered over her shoulder, "we've got a tournament to watch!"
"This is great! I can't believe we found such great seats!"
Gohan frowned, only partially due to the commotion that the girl's library exit had caused. He'd be lucky if he'd even be allowed to even look at that building again. "I dunno, Shen. I don't think we're supposed to be here. I mean, this is a little too good-"
Gohan felt himself dragged to the ground just before a loud crash rang out behind him. He slowly dared to look behind him, coming face to face with a sizable boulder embedded into the stands.
"Ha," laughed Shen. "I guess ya were right! These pansies are afraid of a little boulders."
Gohan looked at her, disgruntled as he sat in what was left of the stands. His hands were in a death-grip on the metal. "Ye-yeah, a little boulders."
"Hey, I think it's about to start!"
Sure enough, a man jumped down onto the stage. Gohan didn't notice the hitch in his breath as he took in the host. He looked exactly like one of the two men in his vision. The one with the long hair and stern face, to be specific. He tried and failed to fight off the familiar churning feeling in his gut.
"I am your host, Xin Fu! You all know what we're here for, right?!"
The crowd let out a deafening roar, several people stomping their feet. Gohan was all but certain that he'd lose his hearing within minutes. "In case you don't know, the rules are simple: stay in the ring, you win. Fall out of the ring, you lose! Now, how about we get this show on the road!"
If it was even possible, the crowd's cheers raised all the louder. He didn't have the slightest idea why people would voluntarily submit themselves to such noise.
"First, we have the Earth Meister versus the Gopher!"
The battles moved along pretty quickly with a challenger called the Mountain Man winning every bout. Gohan would've been at least interested in the earthbending, if it weren't for the stray rocks and bodies that hurtled toward him every now and again.
He glanced over at Shen every once in a while, hoping that she'd had a change of heart. He would be sorely disappointed each time when she gave a holler with her wide, face-splitting grin.
"Here comes our last challenger!" boomed Xin Fu.
The crowd's cheers elevated to a roar as people began to stand, pumping their fists wildly. Gohan watched them with surprise. Who was this last challenger?
"You all know her name! The defending champion, The Blind Bandit!"
A small girl stepped into the light holding a championship belt overhead. He wasn't too focused on the belt, though.
"What the-?! Isn't that the girl from before?!"
Gohan nodded, numbly. "Yeah, I think so."
Just his luck. It seemed his vision might've been arriving a lot sooner than he'd expected.
The Blind Bandit smirked at the man, cracking her knuckles. "I hope you're ready to lose!"
The man scowled, before sliding into a stance. "Tch. Don't count on it, kid."
Gohan felt absolutely conflicted. On the one hand, he'd seen her hold her own in his vision and her championship belt. But on the other, she was just a kid, probably his own age and blind, fighting against a towering giant, quite aptly, named Mountain Man.
"Begin!"
What happened next was something Gohan would not soon forget. The Mountain Man raised his foot and lowered it in a powerful stomp. The second his foot hit the ground, the girl's hands flashed, and a pillar raised under his foot.
The man's eyes bugged out of his skull, likely from the pain and shock of being put into an upwards split. The crowd silenced in awe save for a few sympathetic winces.
The Bandit's hands flashed again and rock shot out from under the Mountain Man's other foot, launching him out of the ring.
The crowd erupted into cheers and whoops, filling the arena with deafening sound.
"It seems The Blind Bandit wins again!" Xin Fu stated, returning to the ring. "Unless, anyone wants to challenge her. . ?"
Suddenly, Gohan couldn't help the sinking feeling that Shen was going to do something monumentally dumb. But thankfully, Shen proved him wrong.
"Well then, applaud your reigning champion, The Blind Bandit!"
She raised her championship belt proudly overhead. She looked like she was completely in her element, basking in praise and attention. With her tight smirk, Gohan felt something within him stir. Her aura of confidence was practically suffocating.
All doubts about that being the same girl from yesterday were erased. And that was terrifying.
"We have to go there! This has to be a sign. Your dream vision thing, the girl, the weird frozen human light thingie! It's all gotta be connected!"
"You just want an excuse to do something illegal again."
"That's not the point! Ya did say this vision was important, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then, c'mon! We're either gonna do this, or we're gonna let the world get blown up."
Gohan let himself be dragged out the door and past the other questioning orphans.
It didn't take long for the duo to find themselves standing before the wall to the Beifong clearing. Shen made her tunnel and started off, not even looking to make sure Gohan was following. Something told him that she was a little too excited for an excuse to break into the Beifong house again.
"I mean, what if she isn't there?" Gohan muttered as he squinted through the falling gravel. "She said she was a family friend, right?"
"Family friend my ass," Shen laughed. "She's smart, but it's too bad she doesn't know what I do."
"What do you mean?"
Shen turned her head, facing Gohan with an easy smirk. "Didn't I tell ya that I scouted out the place? The servants in this place wouldn't stop talking about "the Honorable Beifong's daughter"."
"Well, how do you know that's her? It could've been anybody."
"See, that's the thing. They also said she was blind. Y'know, who else was blind? Little miss 'family friend'."
"Wait, but how did she know we were there? Did you bump into her or something?"
Shen shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe she has good ears or something."
The rest of the way was spent in silence. Gohan mulled over the visions in his mind. 'If Vegeta really is on his way, then how will I stop him. Dad couldn't stop him, and the Avatar is nowhere to be found. I don't even know the first thing about fighting. . .'
"Hey, kid, I think we're here."
Gohan jolted as he looked above them to see a whole leading into the garden. He shook some grains of dirt out of his hair as he pulled himself out of the hole. "OK, now what?"
"We go talk to her? Duh."
"But where is she?"
Shen pointed towards the far side of the garden, close to the mansion, where the girl was crouched down by a cluster of Jasmine flowers. Gohan gulped as he glanced at his young friend. "Do you think she's seen us? Er, heard us?"
Shen shrugged as she walked towards the blind girl. "Probably not, but come on."
Before Gohan could utter a rebuke, Shen was already hollering, "Yo! Blind girl!"
Toph's jaw set as she almost robotically turned to face them. She had a look of rage set deep into her sightless eyes that made Gohan want to bolt. They were like two swelling storm clouds just barely being held back. At the same time, they were intriguing and easy to get lost in. He was so busy mulling over those thoughts that he didn't notice Toph had arrived.
"I thought I heard something strange. Why are you both here again? I thought I told you to leave and not come back."
Shen just grinned cheekily. "Sorry, I don't do well with directions. Anyways, I wasn't expecting to find you here again. Y'know being a family friend and all that."
Her voice was practically dripping with sickly sweet sarcasm. The girl was apparently no slouch at detecting it. "Yeah, well, it's a long business trip. My parents said that I'll be here for a while."
Gohan absently noted that she really didn't look them in the eyes or anything. She just cast a long glare in their general direction.
"Uh huh," Shen said, "that's a pretty long business trip, huh, Blind Bandit. Or should I say the 'Honorable Toph Beifong'?"
If she seemed mad before, she was absolutely furious now with her fists tightened into little balls. Gohan tensed in preparation of a ground bending attack or getting pelted with high speed pebbles or something. So it came as a surprise when Toph settled on a different plan of attack. "Mommy, Daddy there-!"
Shen jumped forward to tackle Toph to the ground. Or at least she tried to. The second her feet left the ground, Toph raised an arm and a wall shot up in response. The poor girl jumped face first into the wall of earth and landed with a thud. In an instant, her arms and legs were encased in solid rock.
Gohan stumbled back in surprise, only to fall flat on his arse. He glanced down in surprise to see his legs bound in rock, not unlike Shen. From the creeping sensation he felt on his arms, they'd be completely bound in seconds. Just like that Toph's makeshift wall fell and she was glaring at them with her now familiar hazy eyes. The whole thing just seemed to happen in the span of a heartbeat.
He was definitely never going to doubt her bending ability again.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Shen cried. "We just want to talk! So chill with the bending, please."
Toph's brows knit together as she kicked her leg along the ground. The result was Shen collapsing with a graceless yelp. Thankfully, her arms and legs were freed. His own, not so much.
Toph glared ahead with what Gohan was starting to think was endless vigor. "Why are you here?"
Shen just grumbled as shoved herself to her feet, wiping the dust off her arms in the process. "I was gonna ask you to join us."
"Join you?"
"Yeah," beamed Shen, "we were gonna go on an adventure, all over the world to get my buddy to stop an alien invasion."
"What?"
"I know it sounds hard to believe, but Gohan can prove it! He can see the future! Show her, Gohan!"
He appreciated the fact that Shen had refrained from calling him a kid, but he couldn't stop the incredulous glare that he leveled Shen's way. "What the heck-?!"
"Hey, stop stalling, kid!" Well so much for that. "Go on! Tell her."
Toph was just watching them with a powerful stare. A part of Gohan absently wondered why she was giving them the time of day instead of moving to get security or something. Surely she didn't believe such an outlandish claim?
"We-Well," Gohan stumbled out. "I had a vision that you, me, and Shen were all fighting these two guys while getting pulled on a cart by some kind of animal. One of them was the Xin Fu guy from the tournament. So, I-I figured that you were meant to come with us."
Toph stared ahead as Gohan glanced back at Shen. She gave him a slight thumbs up before he turned back to Toph. . . who was walking away. "W-Wait! Where are you going?"
She paused and turned her head, ever so slightly. "Away from you nutjobs. You better be gone before I get back here!"
Gohan didn't bother to explain that she could've let him out of his rock restraints. He honestly didn't blame her in the slightest. It didn't mean that her jab didn't sting a little.
"Hey, we're not nutjobs you crazy blind kid, we're gifted!" spat Shen, getting a little red in the face. "Tell her, Gohan."
Gohan stared at Toph's retreating figure with the strangest feeling. He didn't know when it happened or why it happened, but he finally remembered where he saw her.
"Wait, Toph! I can prove it. There was a-a cave! When you were a kid! Er. . . a younger kid."
Toph stopped dead in her tracks. Gohan took that as his sign to power on. "There were badgermoles. They found you when you were crying and alone. They helped you, I think. That's where you learned to see, right?"
Toph turned her head to the side. Her powerful gaze may have been focused on a far off wall, but Gohan was sure he had her full attention. "How is that possible?"
He gave a sheepish and abrupt laugh. "I'm not sure. I've had this ability for around seven years now. I'm certain that you're supposed to come with us. That's why the visions showed me you all those years ago."
Toph's face was screwed up into an unreadable expression. It was like a tidal wave of emotions fighting for control. It was enough to make Gohan falter slightly. Was his admission not enough to sway her?
"Look," Shen interrupted, "if we're lying, ya can kick our asses easy. If we're not, ya get the adventure of a lifetime. It's a win-win scenario ya got here!"
Toph's face tensed for a moment before returning back to a blank stare. "I'll go with you, but, if we get caught, I'll say you both kidnapped me."
Gohan blanched while Shen seemed to have no issues. "Deal!"
"So, where are we going?"
Shen for once looked at a loss for words. She had the gall to turn to Gohan with an expectant look on her face.
Gohan just glared back at her, ignoring the sudden urge to throttle her. He wouldn't have been able to do it anyway being bound and all. "What?"
"Do ya have any guiding visions that ya wanna tell us about?"
"No! It doesn't just happen on command, you know!"
"That's what ya said earlier!"
Gohan let out a long huff. "For the millionth time, it was a fluke!"
"Well that's great," Shen pouted, crossing her arms. "Why don't we just wing it? A little trial and error couldn't hurt."
Before Gohan blew his top about just how much a little trial and error could hurt, he took a shuddering breath. It did little to relax him, unfortunately. "Let's head to the Earth King. Maybe I'll get more visions to help us out on the way."
"Why the Earth King?" asked Shen. "I don't think he'll be much help against an alien psycho."
Gohan shrugged as much as his bound arms would allow. "Definitely not. But if we can talk to the Earth King and start peace between the Nations, we'll be better off than if they're divided."
Toph grinned. "Hey, works for me."
"Are you sure about this?" Gohan asked. "You changed your mind awfully fast."
"You wanted me to come along, didn't you?" Toph shot back. "Is he always this uptight?"
"You have no idea!"
Gohan blinked rapidly before stifling a groan. "Great, two against one. Just great."
Toph just gave him a cheeky grin before waltzing back to her mansion. "Give me five minutes!" She called over her shoulder. "I'll go pack, and I'll be right back!"
When she'd disappeared from sight, Gohan felt a whole new pit in his stomach. They were actually going through with it. "Oh Kami, what are we doing?!"
"Hey, don't go chickening out on me!" The half-Saiyan could see Shen in the corner of his eye. "The fun's just getting started!"
". . . Just get me out of here. My arms and legs are starting to fall asleep."
A/N: Thank you all for reading. Feel free to tell me what you think, favorite, follow, or whatever. Hopefully the next update won't take as long. . . Have a good one!
Uploaded: February 27th, 2021
