Age 805, Future timeline

In a small log cabin near Goku's former home on Mount Paozu, Goku and Zamasu sat at a table. Zamasu was sipping tea, while Goku was scarfing down an animal he had recently killed. He had never really liked this tea stuff. After gulping down the last of the animal, he said to Zamasu,

"I still can't believe we let the imposter and the others get away."

Zamasu stopped drinking his tea and replied,

"Her fate doesn't matter though, does it? They've seen they can't win and will stay away if they even have half a brain."

He took another sip of his tea and continued by saying,

"In fact, It's best if Rikku survives as long as possible. On the off chance we need to increase your power via the saiyan's barbaric near death power ups, then fighting her seems to be the best way to do it. Don't kill her too quickly now, you understand?"

Goku replied while punching his fist,

"I don't plan too. Not yet. I'm getting excited just thinking about fighting her again. I'm fired up."

Zamasu was a little bit surprised at this reaction, but brushed it off. Despite a version of him being inside his head, this was still ultimately a mortal. He'd have to do something about that once Rikku was taken care of. Regardless, he took yet another sip of tea and asked,

"But you are still aware we have business to attend to, my friend?"

Goku refocused and replied,

"Oh yeah, the plan! We'll succeed."

Zamasu took another sip of tea, but then frowned as if something bad had happened. Was Goku…faltering? No matter for the moment. If all else failed, he would just put on his potara and fuse with the mortal. Due to the other Zamasu in his head, the future Zamasu would take full control of the body.

Goku then surprisingly got up and said,

"Well, until they get back I'm gonna go look for versions of them in other timelines to fight."

Zamasu was surprised by this, but let Goku go. It could be good for him. Goku then activated the time ring and stepped through the portal, disappearing. He began exploring timelines, first finding the one where Cell originally came from. Goten had become defender of Earth after Trunks's death, but he was easily killed by Goku. The saiyan, unsatisfied, quickly made his way to another world…

Age ???

A black portal appeared in a dark alleyway of West City, and out of it walked Goku. He looked around, trying to sense any ki. After a few moments, he thought to himself,

'That's weird. I can't feel any strong ki on this planet. Except…'

Goku's eyes narrowed as he realized who this energy belonged to. He began sprinting down the streets of west city, his super speed allowing him to make his way to Capsule Corp in only a few seconds. When he arrived, who he was looking for was already outside waiting for him. Gohan. He looked a little bit older than Goku remembered him, but he would recognize his son anywhere. But this wasn't his son. Gohan looked at him in confusion and asked,

"Goten? Why are you back on Earth already? And why do your gi and energy look and feel like-"

"DON'T. Say another word."

Goku then rushed right in front of Gohan and put his hand on his head. He began reading his mind, and saw that this timeline was…no. It couldn't be. THis was…his history. History nearly identical to what he had gone through after the fight with Buu, except he was replaced with Rikku, and their version of Gogeta had actually killed Omega Shenron. But Rikku had still left.

Apparently all of Earth's other fighters were in space looking for 100 dragon balls at the moment, but that didn't matter to him. His ki began to flare and he muttered under his breath,

"That little bastard…He had the gull to…my family…"

A confused and worried Gohan asked,

"Hey, what are you doing? You're not Goten, are you?!"

Goku didn't respond and roared to the heavens, unleashing a huge ki explosion. Gohan barely had the time to go super saiyan 2 and form an energy shield, sparing him from the blast. As the smoke cleared, Gohan collapsed to his knees and looked around, seeing the rubble of West City. He tried to sense Bulma's energy, but couldn't. She was gone.

The half saiyan turned his attention to Goku in a rage, charging at the saiyan who was just standing there giving him a death glare. Gohan attempted to punch him in the face, but Goku took to blow with no damage, telling him,

"I'll admit, I'm impressed you survived that blast. You're a good bit stronger than my Gohan was. But you're still too weak."

Goku then placed his hand with his index and middle fingers out near Gohan's chest, and before the son of Rikku could react, Goku made a fist and delivered a hard punch to his gut. Gohan coughed up blood and was sent flying back into the shattered remains of a building. As Gohan struggled to his feet from the blow, he saw Goku walking towards him menacingly.

The half saiyan thought to himself,

'This guy…he dealt this much damage to me, even while I'm in Super Saiyan 2?'

As soon as Gohan got up, Goku was on him again. He delivered 2 strong punches to Gohan's gut at lightning speed, and then delivered a strong kick that sent him sprawling. Gohan attempted to fire a barrage of ki blasts at his attacker, but they simply bounced off of him. Getting desperate, Gohan began charging up a full power kamehameha.

"Kaaaaaaaa, meeeeeee…."

Goku continued walking forward.

"Haaaaaaaa, meeeeeee….."

Goku stopped and braced himself for the attack.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

The beam of blue fight shot from Gohan's palms and slammed into Goku, causing a huge explosion. Unfortunately, once the smoke cleared, Goku was standing there completely unfazed. Gohan mentally damned himself, wondering,

'Just what am I missing?!'

As Goku began slowly walking up to him to finish him off, Gohan remembered. The Ultimate form the Elder Kai had unlocked for him. After he had briefly stopped training following the Buu incident, he had lost the ability to use the form. He needed that power again, and so tried to power up. However, he couldn't reach it. He thought about Bulma, who's ki he couldn't feel and had certainly been killed in the blast.

As he was doing this, another kamehameha was suddenly shot at him by Goku. Gohan reached his arms out and attempted to block the blast with his hands. At it pushed against him, he thought about everyone he needed to protect.

'Videl…everyone on Earth…If I lose this, you're all going to die! And Pan…mom….everyone in space…I didn't go with you because I had to stay behind. Why?! Why can't I defend the Earth myself?!'

He thought back to his previous battles. With Cell, he had grown overconfident and it had resulted in Rikku's at the time permanent death, and with Buu he had done the same and it had caused the entire planet to be destroyed. It always led back to his arrogance. Whenever he got a new power, he became drunk on it and toyed with his food.

As Gohan's resolve steeled, his aura began to flare with electric yellow energy. He wouldn't let them down again. He had been training for years and would prove that he could defend Earth. We would protect his family and everyone else. His hair began to flicker black, and as the struggle reached its zenith, he could hear the voice of the long dead Piccolo yell,

"REAWAKEN THE FIGHTER YOU TRULY ARE!"

Gohan didn't know if this was his subconscious using Piccolo's voice as the final push to allow him to break his limits, or if his father figure was really contacting him from the afterlife, but in the monet it didn't matter. Gohan's eyes flashed a piercing white glow, and he was engulfed in a blinding white light. A huge beam shot from where he was standing and pierced the clouds, clearing the smoke from the city's destruction and being visible from space, and Goku's kamehameha exploded.

Goku was shocked, but his shock intensified more as the smoke cleared. Surrounded by tiny particles of light was Gohan, seemingly in his base form, but with a white aura as well as a single bang being present on his face, making him look identical to how he did during the battle with Super Buu. Goku remarked mentally,

'That form…that's the power Gohan got when the Elder Kai unlocked his potential!'

He smirked.

'I never thought I'd see it again. This should be interesting.'

Goku then powered up to Super Saiyan 4, the transformation stunning Gohan.

"H-How do you know that form?! The only ones who can use it are…"

"That ain't important. Let's go!"

Goku then powered up his ki, and in response, Gohan did the same. The 2 saiyans assumed fighting stances, and after a brief staredown, charged at each other with fists extended, letting out powerful yells heard throughout the universe.

Author's note: Hey there! So, context on where Goku is, before making Why Can't the Gods, Bmrdbgt (the original creator of the Why Can't saga) created another continuation called "Why Can't They", which continued from GT with an original story, and seemingly ignored the whole thing being a story told to Goku by Shenron.

Like its DBS counterpart it was never finished, so I've decided to have Goku travel to it for a chapter or 2. Imagine that Goku arrives at the same time as the original story ends. I'll possibly explain why this timeline exists at the end of the fic. And before I go, a moment of silence for Akira Toriyama. This fic wouldn't exist without his story, and he's been a huge inspiration to so many around the world, including me. May he rest in peace.

"Go Toriyama, and teach a dinosaur to ride a ball!"

-TFS Goku, 2012