Tanta: All right! After much arguing, debating and not-talking-to-each-other between my muse Irvine, my computer and myself, I have finally created something which should satisfy all of you who were screaming and crying because of the ending to "When I Grow Up." It's not a sequel; not exactly, but it does use "When I Grow Up" as the back story. I would recommend that you read that before you attempt to tackle this story. The story is set after Dragonball GT, but I think most of it will still make sense if you haven't seen Dragonball GT.
Irvine: Right. Standard disclaimer and warnings etc. Tanta does not own Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta, Kakarot or any other canon characters that appear in this story. Neither is she making any money out of them, so it would be pointless to sue her.
Also, a short warning that this story is shounen-ai, which means two men being romantic, hugging and kissing etc. If you don't like it, then don't read it. The story is rated for language, violence, and possibly in the not so distant future, sexual references/scenes.
And now, on with the show!
Another Horizon
Chapter One: All the Power in the World
A sharp pain in the chest as you realise that he's gone, with no intention of coming back.
A scream that echoes ten-fold in your ears, but seems to go unnoticed by the crowd of people around you.
Someone steps on your hand, but you don't notice. All you can care about is the fact that he's gone.
A dull pain which seems to settle in the part of your heart that used to be reserved for him.
Your brain aches as you realise that no matter how hard you wish he isn't coming back. He doesn't want to come back.
A few of his last words to you echo throughout your mind…
"You've shown me that all the power in the world is nothing if not guided by love…"
Tears fall to the ground.
You know, someone once told me that you never miss your water until you're dry. I now know that it's true. I just think of all those years that you were alive. I could have gone and visited you any time I liked, but I tried to ignore you and my own emotions for you instead, kind of like a fish that tries to deny the water around it.
The water was painfully obvious to me then. The gap in my heart where you had once been seemed to grow each day until it threatened to swallow up all of me, leaving nothing behind but an empty shell.
"What's wrong with you?" I kept asking myself. "You've got a beautiful wife, a lovely daughter, a nice house and car, and a fairly good job." It should have been enough for anyone, but the more Itold myself, the more I was forced to admit that my problem was that I had lost you, the one person I loved more than life itself.
I realised then that I'd been placing too much emphasis on what society, and what my mother expected of me. I don't know why, butmy mother'salways hated you.
I'd been trying to live a normal, perfect life, in which every man gets a house, wife and children, and no-one even contemplates falling in love with a green-skinned, antennaed being from another planet.
Once you were gone though, all I knew was that I missed you so much that I didn't care what was normal anymore. The truth was that I never really missed you until you were gone for good, and worst of all; I never got the chance to tell you. I was too blinded by my mother's prejudices and society's expectations of normalcy to walk up to you and say, "Piccolo, I love you."
I don't know what day it was that the black clouds began to appear in the sky, although my guess is that it was a year after Dr. Gero and Dr. Mew made a gateway between HFIL and Earth in a desperate attempt to get revenge. Of course, they didn't achieve much except to get killed by their creation again, and as I was to find out later, seriously screw-up the space-time continuum.
So then, exactly one year (or so I'm guessing) after the black warp hole that they created appeared in the sky, these other, smaller, black clouds began appearing on and off over the course of about a week.
Someone had talked to Dende, Namekkian guardian of the Earth. Apparently he had looked around nervously, announced that they were just harmless side effects of the doctors' experiment and that they should disappear in time, before whoever it was that had gone to see him realised that they weren't going to get anything more out of him and left, ignoring the fact that Dende seemed to be sweating with worry.
A few days after the clouds had started forming, we all found ourselves at Capsule Corp, attending one of Bulma's famous get-togethers. Over the past year or so, I had managed to get on with my life reasonably well, but I couldn't be myself that day. The lack of a certain somebody with green and pink skin had really gotten to me. Just when I was starting to think that I could get on all right without you, I found myself missing you again.
I leaned against a window and watched as a particularly large and dark cloud rolled across the sky.
"Dad, are you all right?" the voice of my eight-year-old daughter floated up to me. I glanced down to see her worried face peering up at me. She can be so adorable sometimes.
"I'll be fine," I assured her, but she wasn't fooled, nor were any of the other people in the room.
"Come on; tell us," my younger brother Goten said from the lounge chair he was sitting on. "You've been down all day, Gohan. What's up?"
"It's just…" I started, looking around at the expectant faces in the room; not sure whether I wanted to say anything. As I had grown I had realised that I was the only one, apart from maybe my father, that really cared about you. In fact I was probably the only one who had missed your presence at the gathering.
"This is the first time we've all gathered together at Capsule Corp since…" I took a deep breath. "Since Piccolo died."
I didn't mention that ever since I had hit puberty and realised that having a crush on you wasn't entirely normal, our gatherings were practically the only time I was able to see you and talk to you without feeling strange or guilty. Of course I missed you then; missed you like a fish misses water.
"You still miss him, huh?" Goten asked me, being rather more understanding about it than I had expected. My brother never knew you as well as I did, and was too young to remember all the time you and I spent together when he was an infant.
I nodded silently, and was surprised when I heard a snort come from another corner of the room.
"He's been dead for over a year, Gohan," my mother scoffed. "I really think you need to move on with your life." I stared at her in disbelief. Even Pan, who had only met you a few times, knew that I cared for you enough to be allowed to still be grieving. I was even more horrified when she continued. "I don't know why you miss him so much anyway," she said. "He was a monster that never did anything except distract you from your studies."
I honestly couldn't believe she would say something like that. Her words made me so furious that I found myself having to keep my power level down lest I damage something.
"Mother," I said, simply and coldly. I knew that I was going to start crying soon, but I also knew that I had to get this out. I had to say it. "Piccolo has saved my life more times than I can count, and now he's sacrificed himself so we can have a chance at living peacefully. Never talk about Piccolo like that again."
With that, I stormed out of the room, knowing full well that I would start crying as soon as I went through the door. I collapsed against the wall and tried to stop the tears running down my face. Grown men don't cry after all, and besides, you always hated it when I cried.
The door opened, and my mother came out, looking a little shaken. Idon't think I've everstood up to her like that before.
"Gohan, look," she said softly.
She was probably going to apologise, but I was just so frustrated with myself, and what she had just said, and I really didn't want to hear it.
"No mum, you look," I said, staring up at her with as much defiance as I could muster. "You've always hated Piccolo! You've never given him a chance! And because of you I've spent almost my whole life denying who I was and who I loved all because you didn't want people saying that your son was gay! Well, guess what? I'm sick of denying it, I'm sick of trying to act normal, and I'm sick of you talking about Piccolo like he was no better than a criminal!"
I honestly wouldn't have wanted to be in her position right then, especially since I knew that as soon as the shouting started everyone in the nearby room would have crowded around the door trying to listen. One of my mother's worst fears had just come to realisation; I had just outed myself.
Only half aware of what had just happened, I flew out of Capsule Corp as fast as I possibly could. I needed to get away from everyone, find a spot where I could vent my frustration and anger, and then collapse peacefully. I knew where I wanted to go; the desert where you had trained me when I was a child.
I flew higher than I normally did, speeding around the clouds. As I passed the darker ones I noticed that something wasn't quite right with them. It wasn't just their colour. There was something deeper inside them, like when you look into someone's eyes and you think you can see their soul inside.
I steered clear of the darker clouds as much as possible. I was sure I missed them all, but before I quite knew what was happening, it felt like I was falling. My vision began to blur, and the strangest tingling sensation began to crawl up and down my arms and legs. My senses all seemed to black out at once, being replaced with the most excruciating sense of pain I had ever experienced. It stretched right down to my toes and right up to the top of my head. I closed my eyes against the pain.
As quickly as the pain had come, it disappeared. I opened my eyes to find that I had indeed fallen a little, and as far as I could tell, I was still probably in the same place I had blacked out. Looking below me I saw the beginnings of the desert landscape I had flown so far in search of.
At first I thought to just continue my original plans; find a good place to train and blow up some rocks; but then I felt something. I could sense a very strong energy reading not too far from where I was. It was tainted with the presence of someone that I recognised as being my father Goku.
That's impossible, I told myself. My father Goku had been to all intents and purposes dead almost as long as you had.
I know what you're thinking now. Why didn't I miss my father as much as I missed you? The answer is fairly simple. My father has died several times before. Admittedly, the other times there was always at least a small chance of wishing him back with the Dragonballs, but the truth still remains; I've been completely desensitized. My father's there or he's not. I've learned to live with the difference.
Still, I couldn't help but be curious. I immediately flew off in the direction the energy was coming from.
As I grew closer I could sense that there were two other powerful beings with my father. One of them I thought was Vegeta. The other felt just a little like you did. I could also sense there was something subtly different about the energy signal I had at first taken to be my father's.
Things were getting more and more confusing by the second. I was beginning to wonder if something serious had happened to me when I had blacked out.
I had hoped that when I arrived at the source of the power, a few of my confusions would be cleared up, but I had no such luck.
I saw my father and Vegeta first. They were both flying a fair way above the ground at Super Saiyan-jin level; nothing unusual there. The fact that the two of them were both sporting a full set of Saiyan-jin armour and a tail just served to make me even more confused. I didn't even want to think what my father appearing as a fully grown man again could possibly mean.
My heart then skipped a beat as I followed the Saiyan-jins' gaze to the ground. When I had felt the third energy signal before I thought the similarity between their energy signal and your own must have meant that they were a Namek, but there you were, holding a bleeding stump where your left arm must have been up until a couple of seconds ago.
It was then I realised that my father was powering up an attack; one which was being aimed directly at you.
Before I had time to wonder why you were fighting the two Saiyan-jins, or question what I was doing, I found myself flying directly in front of you. I powered up to Super Saiyan-jin two just as the blast hit me.
Then everything went black.