Disclaimer: Dragon Ball and all its characters belong to Akira Toriyama.

Author's Note: English is not my first language so I apologize in advance for any grammatical mistake I made. Thanks for reading.

The Last Saiyan: The Beginning

**Chapter 001 – Earth goes back to normalcy, but…**

His eyes searched for a beam of light hidden among a group of clouds in the distance where the sun was shining bright, and when he found it, Gohan let his head loll to the left side so that the light could illuminate his profile. A few cuts and bruises crowded it but they weren't too noticeable for he just now took note of them, as he hadn't been able to during the fight. Even though Dende had healed his wounds right away, it had been a while since one of them hadn't caused him this much damage after a fight. However, the most important thing now was that everything was over. Cell had lost. Peace had finally returned to Earth once again.

"I see the bastard's ki is gone for once and for good." Piccolo said, his eyes on the sky.

There was distrust in his voice, as if he still couldn't begin to grasp what had become of the super android.

And he wasn't the only one.

After a brief gathering at Kami-sama's temple, where all those who had died were wished back to life thanks to the Dragon Balls, some of the Z warriors had returned to the battlefield just to confirm what they already knew. That Cell's era had finally ended. The ki which had made the entire planet shake and tremble no longer existed and another time of rest was approaching for the Earth, similar to the one they had had before the arrival of Frieza and his father.

But would it last?

"Unfortunately, Cell's powers have caused great desolation in this place." Krillin said, inspecting the place with his arms crossed around his chest. "But of course, it's only us who know what really happened. For the rest of the world, it was Hercule who defeated him."

"Let them." Piccolo ordered. "None of us have any interest in becoming heroes on the news. It's best if the secret is kept within our group."

"Yes, Piccolo. But Gohan deserves…"

"It's fine, Krillin." Gohan said, shooting half a smile at his best friend. His cheerful expression, though also tired and full of optimism, was very similar to Goku's at the time. "It's like Mr. Piccolo says. I do not wish to reveal my identity to anyone. Especially if…" Gohan trailed off.

"If what?"

"If we are not sure peace will last much longer." Piccolo finished, a touch of subtle cruelty following his statement. It drew Killin's eyes towards him and he blinked up at Piccolo, perplexed.

"What? What are you saying, Piccolo? We dealt with one of the worst threats in our lives just minutes ago. And now you're saying there's gonna be more?"

"What I am saying is that we have to be prepared for next time and not get carried away by peace and neglect training. You too, Gohan. I hope you get over this and don't slack off again because Goku won't be here to help us out next time if something bad happens."

At his words, both Gohan and Krillin looked down at the same time with a heavy heart.

"And you, Krillin…" Piccolo continued, his eyes on the far-off place where the sun touched the horizon line and unfazed about his companions' silent grief. "You should know this better than anyone else since it was your call to leave that android alive who will only do more damage than good here on Earth."

Krillin's face glowed red and his eyes grew in size, clearly fighting an internal battle with himself and wondering why he didn't have hair so he could emphatically scratch his head.

"What? Oh, you mean, 18?" Krillin laughed nervously. "But, don't worry, Piccolo. Her power level doesn't even match Gohan's. Besides, Vegeta, Trunks, and yourself can put her in her place if she shifts back to her old ruthless self. Though, if you ask me, I don't think so since–"

"Alright, you can shut up now."

"Mr. Piccolo, what will you do now?" Gohan asked, looking up curiously at his mentor.

"I will continue with my training in the mountains." Piccolo didn't look at Gohan but there was a special fondness to his words that spoke of a surfacing of emotions in the warrior. After all, Earth was a sacred place to him and it was only second-nature of the Namek warrior wanting to protect it and keep it safe from now on. "In recent times, we have had to fight very strong enemies who have given us a hard time to defeat. I won't stop praising their abilities, but I can't ignore the fact that we haven't used the time we've been given to train properly. And as I said at the beginning, the Earth may be the target of more guys looking for trouble."

Gohan lowered his chin and despite the fatigue of being right in the same place where he and his loved ones had debated life moments ago, he did not fail to recognize that Piccolo's words resonated with a future very similar to a present in his life. And it wasn't just his dad's life that had been lost. Also Trunks's and that was also a very difficult weight for him to bear since Gohan's power had been far superior to Cell's at that time. Luckily, they'd had the Dragon balls with them to revive him.

"Gohan! Kill him!"

Gohan bit his lower lip.

Dimly, he flared up his ki, not violently but as a way to compare it to the ki he used to have when he was a child. Piccolo noticed it, he just raised an eyebrow puzzlingly but didn't question him about it and Gohan was grateful. He could sense and track large amounts of energy in and around Earth, the most important being Vegeta's in the direction where Capsule Corp was located. But there were many others, cold, distant. He still remembered the surprise he had the first time he saw Trunks in front of his eyes, seeing him defeat Frieza and his father as if they were nothing and discovering that he had the same power level as his father.

That he was the second legendary super saiyan to ever exist in history.

The universe was a very vast place. Would there be more fighting opponents with the same powers as them? Would there be subjects with higher levels?

Would there be more Saiyans?

Vegeta had said no, but Gohan wasn't so sure now.

The time of peace had begun. But also, it was a dark time where Goku's ki would not be there to offer that ray of hope to a sleeping threat that may or may not be abandoning its long sleep at this very moment right behind their backs.

–

It was late when Krillin had said goodbye to them, using a great jump to then invoke the flying technique and immediately leave for the big city. Before that, he would stop by Kame House to see Master Roshi. His visit consisted of talking about the fight, but he also wanted to pick up his office clothes that he had left there before the battle and hang up his training outfit forever. As he waved goodbye to him, Gohan couldn't help but think he didn't know the next time he would see him again.

Standing under an orange sunset and watching his friend's figure flying off until it became just a tiny dot in the distance, Gohan clenched his fists and hardened his expression.

"Go home, Gohan."

Gohan almost fell face-first to the ground due to the unusual order his mentor issued. Piccolo was also watching Krillin but his body language was non-existent. His gesture left nothing to interpretation.

"What–? But, Mr. Piccolo!"

"I know what I said earlier about you having to train more from now on, but you don't have to rush into it now. You can take a few days to think about it."

Gohan shook his head stubbornly. "No. This is not the time to rest. Please take me with you."

"You have your mother waiting for you back home. And you've earned these moments of peace with her."

Enjoy her while you can, he seemed to say and Gohan could only shut his eyes tightly, believing that the reality he was seeing now was like only a mirage of his own mind.

"I know she will understand. Or she will decide that the best thing for me is to study right now. But after my fight with Frieza, something that was dormant inside of me has awakened and I can't be the Gohan I was before. The one everyone wants me to be. I have to take my dad's place and protect the Earth. I have to do it to prevent more senseless deaths."

There was a time where Gohan believed that he would never get stronger and saying otherwise were just words in the wind. Since he was four years old and all throughout his short life he had always been the object of messages that announced his hidden potential, rather they predicted that there was a power dormant within him and that it was not minor, first it had been Piccolo, which was natural being the one who had trained him, but then he was followed by Radditz, Frieza, the Grand Patriarch of the planet Namek, then his father and finally Cell. Gohan believed that it was because of his Saiyan ancestry and that he was the future of a race lost forever, but he always felt that it was more the poetry of that phrase than the content it really held. Every time he fought, he felt that his strength was not enough. That if there was something slumbering within him, then that same thing was getting further and further away from him.

And then, his father had achieved the first super saiyan transformation in history.

After feeling his dad's ki for the first time, Gohan knew that all his efforts to be a worthy fighter were in vain.

But that didn't mean he gave up.

And from then on, a desire was born within him not to fight out of obligation as he's been doing all his life. And not to be the strongest either. It was his body that was asking to fight and expel as much energy as possible. It was the Saiyan part that lived in him. It was his instinct. Thanks to that, to that part of him that understood that fighting was not an obligation but something that came from the deepest part of his soul and that such power was not strange to someone like him, Gohan had ascended to another, much higher level.

They called him the Super Saiyan phase 2.

Up to this day, Gohan didn't really know how he had achieved that legendary transformation so miraculously. The only thing he knew at the time was that he had trained like never before during that brief time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and that his dreams had been plagued by catastrophic scenarios where everything he had experienced with Frieza as a child reared its head again, this time being too late to act. It didn't help that months before Trunks had appeared in their lives, confirming that the future was everything Gohan feared it would be and the confirmation of Goku's death had been like the blow of a dagger to his chest, too heavy to take.

It's here...

It is now... when the Earth needs me...

In this timeline they had been fortunate to change what at first seemed impossible and they had not only Goku as the only super Saiyan in history, there was also Vegeta, also Trunks and now himself. Things were different. Tomorrow existed…

Would there be subjects with a ki greater than his in the universe? For sure, yes.

Would this transformation be enough to be able to face them? Or…?

Gohan clenched his fists tightly, searching in the silence of his mind for the answer, at the point where he and his ki became one. The sunset was here and the day was drawing to its end...

With it, an innocence that had already been lost forever.

Casting a quick glance to his left for a brief time, he saw his master's cloak blocking his eyes. Piccolo's feet left the ground and he began to levitate alongside Gohan, his ki tracking the location of those northern mountains that were his favorites for his training. In another time, Gohan would sadly ask him when he would see him again. In another circumstance, Gohan would ask him if he could visit him there and if he could tell him how his days were going behind a desk full of books.

Now he simply lifted his chin, and his eyes gave off the same glow of enthusiasm that Goku's did in the past.

"Mr. Piccolo?"

"Tell me, kid."

"Well, the thing is… Those two apples that you threw at me when I was trapped at the top of that mountain, before the Saiyans arrived on Earth…"

Piccolo turned to look at him curiously. Gohan just smiled at him with his hand behind his head.

"I think we are going to need more."

–

"I SAID NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Mom, please…"

"Chi-chi, you have to calm down…"

"Have you lost your mind? You still have blood on your clothes and you want to go fight again? Go to your room now and leave that backpack and that jacket right away because I wasn't locked in this house during the tournament of who-knows-who so that you come back and already want to leave again! Did you hear me, Gohan?"

Gohan sighed. The night before he had had a telephone conversation with Krillin and it was in it that he revealed his plan to train with Mr. Piccolo. After offering his sympathies, Krillin had warned him that his mother would not be easy to convince and that he better forget all about fighting for a while. Living with Goku away from home was not something new for her but this time he definitely would not come back and that was something strange and difficult to assimilate for a single mother and her son.

Or so Gohan thought...

"Well?" Chi-chi crossed her arms in front of him. The aroma of miso soup permeated from the kitchen of the small Son house, and the bubbling sound of what his mother was preparing could make even the best warriors in the universe fall to their knees for just one bowl of that tempting recipe.

Curiously, Gohan wondered if Vegeta was eating so deliciously at Bulma's mansion.

"…Well, what?" Gohan bit his lower lip. The tapping of Chichi's foot began to sound insistently in the hall of the house.

"I had already told you to go to your room. I don't want to hear you talk about fights anymore."

"It's difficult with all this nonsense from the TV, don't you think?" Ox King said, his eyes on the device that occupied the Son's living room and broadcasted the latest news that shook the world. "That guy keeps bragging about his victory to anyone who has the galls to listen to him…"

"I don't care, dad. In this house, starting today, we will only talk about academic studies that my Gohan will have to do in order to enter a good educational center. I have before me the difficult task of raising a child alone and I will make the best of it, even if all of Goku's friends criticize me and–"

"What?" Gohan blinked up at his mother.

Chi-chi sighed, a deep frown growing visible on her forehead. With a flick of her hand, she blew her hair back over her shoulder and spun her body to face the window.

"Well, what did you expect?" Chi-chi defended herself. The cold of the mountains was already beginning to push from the north and this did not go unnoticed by the Son wife who adjusted her shawl more tightly around her shoulders and fixed her fiery eyes on the glass. "It was obvious that your father's friends would call on this house and try to convince me to let you go to training. Krillin, Yamcha, Master Roshi, even Bulma."

"Is that… true?"

"Yes, it is. But I told them to mind their own business and do something useful with their lives. No threat will ever set foot on Earth again and if it does, we will be under Kami-sama's protection for…"

"Yes, mom. But Dende can't handle everything alone." Gohan protested, his fists clenched and his eyes fixed and stern on his mother. "My dad is no longer here to protect the Earth, it is my duty to do so and prevent another tragedy like the one in Trunks's timeline from happening."

"He's right, Chi-chi." Ox King nodded. The chair on which his weight rested creaked in protest, threatening to break, as the former ruler of the Frypan Mountain turned his massive body to look at his daughter and grandson through his thick-framed glasses. "Who are we going to turn to if the Earth is in trouble again? We must be grateful that Goku left his teachings to Gohan and he still wants to increase his ki for a future battle. Gohan, I haven't told you yet but I am very proud of your victory against Cell, an enemy of unmatched powers and who almost destroyed this planet if it weren't for you."

"Thank you, grandfather." Gohan smiled.

"Are you two done?" Chi-chi asked, with thinning patience. She sighed then, quickly drawing her eyes away from the window and spinning again to face both her father and son. "What is at stake here is Gohan's education, not the future of the Earth."

A drop ran down Gohan's forehead.

"But, Chi-chi…"

"That's enough. I don't want to listen to you. The only thing you are doing is siding with that rebel Master Roshi and his friends who are only a bad example for Gohan."

Gohan's expression saddened, lowering his shoulders in defeat. It was obvious that his mother would never let him go training like before, and even if he thought of sneaking out like he had done as a child this time it would be different since he felt guilty as at the end of the day it wouldn't be the three of them, sharing a delicious meal after a very exhausting workout. But was that why he had to put his own dreams on hold?

"And let's not bring up what Goku did behind my back," Chi-chi rambled on, her hands making a gesture as if she wanted to have him in front of her to strangle him. "Forcing Gohan to fight that monster alone, risking the life of an eleven-year-old boy with all his friends there. If he were here, I would send him to the Other World myself and he would spend his entire existence without trying my dishes to which I dedicated myself with great care since I became his wife."

"Gohan was the best choice to fight Cell, Chi-chi! He has become the most powerful being in the universe!"

"Most powerful being in the universe or not, he is still a child, dad! Who wants to go to bed early to get up at dawn and have a decent job as an accountant or lawyer and be the pride of the family!"

Chi-chi stalked up to Gohan angrily. With a frowning face, she extended her hand in front of him and began tapping her foot against the floor again. Gohan had not moved from his spot by the door.

"Your backpack."

Gohan sighed but didn't budge.

Chi-chi frowned again.

"Gohan… Don't beat around the bush. Will you cause your poor mother more trouble?"

Ox King shooted up from his chair then, ready to defend his grandson again if necessary, but Chi-chi's hand fell hard and heavy on Gohan's shoulder first, she grabbed one of the straps of his backpack and pulled... Nothing.

"Urghh!" Chi-chi''s face turned purple. She began to pull with all her might, the red of her skin turning blue, but even so the backpack did not move.

Gohan lowered his gaze, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, mom."

"Chi-chi, you are going to hurt yourself."

"I don't care!"

With some remorse, Gohan lowered his ki a little bit so that his mother wouldn't get hurt, but the backpack still didn't leave his shoulder. He was getting stronger than he thought.

"Well, I better obey her. I'll only cause her more pain if I leave." With a heavy sigh, Gohan raised his hand, ready to rid himself of the item when…

"Gohan!"

Gohan blinked. That voice was…

"Dende?"

"Hi! How are you, buddy?"

"Dende, are you talking to me–?"

"Yes, through telepathy. No one can hear us." Through the mental link, Gohan could perceive the young God's commiserating smile at him. "I see you're having difficulties with your mother, Gohan."

"That's right. She's upset with me because I want to go to training."

"I know. Krillin and Mr. Piccolo told me. That's why I decided to intervene."

"What? Really?"

"Yes, it won't be a problem for me. It's the least I can do for you, Gohan."

"Wow, buddy. Thanks!"

"There's no reason. Just come to the Temple to visit me from time to time. Mister Popo really wants to see you too. We want to see how strong you've become."

"Yes, I will! Thanks, Dende!"

Gohan smiled internally. Sometimes he forgot all the valuable friends he had made along the way. Dende's voice faded then, and instead he heard his mother's screams again but this time closer to him. When he blinked slightly, he saw her above him but was being held back by the waist by Ox King.

"Leave me alone, dad! I already told you that I'm not going to let them transform my son into a rebel with Master Roshi's ideas in his head! They'll have to deal with me if–!"

A loud shout came from the living room, where the television was located, and the three turned their heads to watch the advertisement full of colors and grandeur that was been displayed in the device at full volume, with the image of Mr. Satan at its center, waving and reviewing some combat katas that used to be familiar to Gohan although in a somewhat exaggerated and clumsy manner.

"Dear audience, greetings from Mr. Satan! You are all invited to take part in the Martial Arts Tournament for children that will take place this early spring. There is no better honor for me, the World Champion, than to crown a future heir or heiress who wants to follow in my footsteps and stand out in the world of combat from an early age. Whoever wins this Tournament will go down in history as the number one disciple of the great Mr. Satan and will receive training classes for a year. They will also receive a great financial bonus that will be given to their parents at the end of the tournament, part of my personal fortune. Who has the guts to go for eternal glory at the hands of the great Mr. Satan? Don't miss out on this great opportunity or you'll be regretting it!"

"Oh, it's that clown again." snorted Ox King. He stood up from his position and smoothed down the wrinkles in his clothes that had been left awry by his daughter's antics. "Speaking nonsense on television again, don't you think, Chi-chi?... Chi-chi?"

But Chi-chi had her gaze lost, hypnotized by the great eloquence of Mr. Satan on the screen in her living room. Gohan moved his eyes from the television to his mother and a confused frown appeared on his forehead.

"Did he say…?" Chi-chi stammered, unblinking. The corner of her mouth lifted ever so slightly and then fell back down uselessly. "Did he say… great fortune of money?"

"Yes, that's what he said." Ox King agreed, putting his eyes on the ceiling. His bushy eyebrows curved upward pointedly. "We know that he is a sham, but his fortune must be greater than Bulma's and if we talk about–"

"GOHAN!"

Gohan practically fell to the ground from the roar that shook the Son house. Chi-chi turned to her son scathingly and with a ring of fire surrounding her, making her aura nothing but scary.

"You have to participate in that Tournament!"

A large drop ran down Gohan's forehead.

"What…?"

"You heard me! You must participate so we will get the money that Goku promised me his entire life! This is our chance to get out of poverty and have a good economic life after your father left us!"

"But mom," Gohan looked at his mother with confusion in his eyes, wondering if she was suffering from frequent blows to the head. "You just told me that fighting was forbidden and that I should dedicate myself to study."

"Forget that! You will be able to study after the tournament ends!"

Gohan and Ox King were speechless. The noise of a commercial airliner filtered through the window, along with the chirping of forest birds, but inside the house a deep silence had settled in.

"I…" Gohan began to say, not being very sure of his words. He thought about it for a minute before sighing again and giving in. "It's just… mom, I had a very different training in mind."

"I can't fight humans." he thought with mortification. "And much less children."

"Chi-chi, you have to reason a little. Gohan is a saiyan and his powers are greater than those of any ordinary human being. It would be unfair to all of those children if he participated in a children's tournament."

Chi-chi folded her arms around her chest and blew her hair back again in an annoyed manner.

"Well, that's my condition to let you train, Gohan," she declared coolly. "And if you want to meet with Goku's friends, you can do that too."

Gohan looked up at her in surprise. He didn't expect that.

"Really?"

"Really." Chi-chi pursed her lips. "I don't like it in the slightest but I will be flexible with you this time. The only thing I don't want is for you to be fighting evil beings mindlessly and using your ki in a very brutal way. That's why I think this will be a good learning experience for you, after all, your father and I fell in love at a Martial Arts Tournament."

The Son wife had said the last thing with awe in her voice and her eyes flew to the old photograph of her husband and son that was located atop one of the tallest shelves in the house. Gohan knew that she stopped in the middle of her tasks to look at it often and it was to this day the only object in the house that was dust-free at any given hour of the day. He felt guilty for abandoning her to go training, but something deep inside told him that his mother would be more than fine here by herself.

"Well? What do you say?"

Gohan sighed, and then smiled slightly to himself.

"Okay, mom." He grinned. "I will participate in that tournament."

To be continued...