Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Blinded ❯ Time Passes and Events Occur ( Chapter 13 )

Time Passes and Events Occur

When Vegeta woke up the next morning he found himself looking into Bulma's eyes. She looked as if she had been awake and sitting there looking at him for a while. Vegeta inwardly winced and closed his eyes, expecting an immediate tirade on how he was in trouble for not coming to bed last night and ruining her plans. When none came, he opened one eye to look at Bulma. She was still looking at him, but with an expression of hurt and sadness rather than anger. Seeing him looking at her, Bulma spoke in a quiet voice.

"Why didn't you come to bed last night, Vegeta? Was it because I threw that birthday party for you? Or did you just not want to?"

When, after a few moments of waiting, Vegeta still hadn't responded, Bulma sighed and started to slide out of the bed to begin her day.

"I'm sorry Vegeta. I meant to make your birthday something special for you, something you could remember. I guess I only managed to make you mad. You don't have to worry about me doing it again. I know better now."

Just as Bulma was about to leave the bed completely, Vegeta reached out and touched her arm.

"Woman."

The simple word made her stop, and Bulma turned back slowly. Vegeta could see tears gathering in her eyes. He mentally sighed to himself. He could deal with a Bulma that yelled and screamed, but he had no clue how to handle her when she cried.

"What Vegeta?"

Bulma replied, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to overflow. She hated to cry because she prided herself on being a strong person, but when she had planned such a nice surprise for Vegeta and he hadn't even bothered to come to bed, it hurt her far more than she cared to admit. Now he wouldn't even tell her why he hadn't come to bed. Bulma looked at Vegeta who seemed to be struggling to say something. A moment later he spoke in a tone that indicated he was carefully choosing his words.

"I was with the eldest brat all night, woman. Do you know anything about the gift he wanted to give me?"

Bulma was puzzled. Why in the world would Vegeta spend all night with Gohan? He tended to avoid the boy unless they were sparring. She answered the question, puzzlement showing in her tone.

"He wouldn't tell me anything, as a matter of fact. He said it was a secret, and that you could tell me if you wanted me to know. Why? What did he give you Vegeta?"

Vegeta let go of Bulma's arm and turned his gaze to the window as he answered.

"He took me to see my father in the Otherworld Hell, woman."

Bulma clasped her hands over her mouth in shock. After a minute she removed her hands. All the tears in her eyes had disappeared and she no longer wore a hurt expression, instead, her face was alive with curiosity. She was back to her normal self and much easier for Vegeta to handle.

"Wow Vegeta! That is absolutely amazing! How was he able to do it? You really got to talk to your father?"

Vegeta had the tiniest of smiles on his face as he looked at Bulma and answered her questions.

"He did it with his mind, woman. He linked his mind to my mind and took us both there. And yes, I did get to speak to my father as well as Kakarrot's father. It seems my father and Bardock are good friends and sparring partners. They set up a training ground in the outer reaches of Hell."

Bulma's jaw dropped. Goku's father and Vegeta's father were good friends in Hell. It was too much for the blue haired genius, and she began laughing her head off. Vegeta, for once, waited patiently until she stopped before continuing to speak.

"My father told me that Kakarrot's brat laughed his ass off when he first met them, and said something about the irony of the whole situation.

Bulma burst into peals of laughter once again as she responded.

"It is ironic Vegeta. You and Goku, ever since you have met each other, have been trying to tear one another's throats out - while in Hell your fathers are practically best friends. It's just too funny Vegeta!"

She finally managed to stop laughing and looked questioningly at Vegeta.

"So what did you and your father talk about Vegeta?"

Vegeta sat up, letting the sheets pool at his waist. Drawing his right knee up and resting his arm on it, he looked at Bulma with a serious expression on his face. Vegeta then began to tell Bulma most of what he and his father had talked about. The only parts he excluded were the ones concerning Gohan and what his father had told him about his feelings towards Bulma. Once he finished, Bulma sat staring at him speechlessly. Vegeta's voice startled her back into reality.

"Now that you know everything, woman, go downstairs and fix me breakfast."

Bulma glared at Vegeta and responded hotly.

"No way, dear prince! I am going to take a nice hot shower. If you want breakfast, cook it yourself, or have a robot cook it for you."

With that, she stomped off to the bathroom. In doing so, she totally missed the smile that crossed Vegeta's face briefly as she stomped away. Stretching, reveling in the pull of muscles throughout his body, Vegeta was content. Finished stretching, Vegeta got out of bed and padded over to the closet. Pulling out a normal blue spandex training suit and pulling it - along with his normal gloves and boots - on, Vegeta was ready to start the day with his normal morning training. He left the room and headed towards the kitchen to tell the robots to cook some food so he could get started.

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As I slowly woke up, I could feel the morning sun coming through my window. After Vegeta had left last night, I had fallen into a dreamless sleep. The fact that I had no dreams was amazing in itself. Ever since I defeated Cell and dad died, I've always had dreams or, rather, nightmares. The first year after Cell, the dreams were so bad that I would wake up in Super Saiyan 2, or would start throwing ki blasts. After that, I learned to somewhat control things. The nightmares still came, but I no longer had such violent reactions. Sure I would still wake up several times a night, sweat pouring down my face and terror making me shake, but it was quickly controlled and I would go back to sleep.

As I lay there basking in the warmth of the morning sun, I was trying to decide if I wanted to get up yet or not. I was still totally exhausted from taking Vegeta to Hell last night. It had been a lot harder than I thought it would be, and I don't think I'll do it again anytime soon - probably never again. Still, I was glad I was able to give Vegeta something he liked. I thought one of the best parts had been when Frieza ended up with banana mush all over his face.

As I thought about last night, the conversation I had with Vegeta when I woke up earlier came to mind. I had major misgivings at first about the wisdom of telling Vegeta everything, but in the end I was glad that I had. Of course Vegeta had been impatient at first, but he'd listened to everything I said and hadn`t dismissed it as nothing. I hadn't expected Vegeta to really understand everything I had talked about, so it'd amazed me when he was able to understand it and, in the end, find something I'd overlooked. When Vegeta had made the connection between Super Saiyan powers and all of the power I kept locked away, I couldn't believe that I'd been so stupid as to overlook it. It was the most obvious connection and I'd missed it completely. I guess I'd been expecting things to be a lot harder, so I overlooked something so simple.

Oh well, at least now that I have some sort of plan I won't be stressing over losing control so much. Sure I'll still have to worry if I get pissed off and accidentally open that door in my mind, but I won't have to worry about the door opening on its own. My thoughts drift and settle on Piccolo. I haven't seen my former mentor and friend in a couple days. Most likely he's up on the Lookout helping Dende with something. Images and feelings suddenly interrupt my thoughts. I smile to myself as I recognize Goten, Trunks, and Marron's signatures. Apparently 18 and Krillin are here for a visit and have brought Marron. All of the chibis are quite insistent that I come hold them and play with them. It looks like I'll be getting up after all.

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Time began to pass once again. A few days after he had taken Vegeta to Otherworld, Gohan made the trip to go see his parents in Heaven. With his new found revelations regarding his father, Gohan found it awkward to be himself, or at least the self that his father and mother would remember. He only managed to stay for a half-hour before he made an excuse and went back to his body. During that half-hour, Gohan had mostly talked to his mother, because Chi Chi kept asking questions about his schoolwork and Goten. Goku had asked a question or two here and there, but they were all about the Z-Senshi and friends. As he left, Gohan couldn't help thinking that one day he wouldn't be able to hide how he felt, and that he and his father would eventually have a confrontation.

About a week later, Gohan tested Vegeta's theory about controlling his power and found that it definitely helped keep better control over himself. He dedicated himself to his training more than ever. Most often he would warm up in the gravity room in his normal form in a couple hundred g's, then he would power up to Super Saiyan and have a spar with Piccolo, then he would go to Super Saiyan 2 and have his usual spar with Vegeta. After a few weeks of sparring with Gohan while he was in SSJ2, Vegeta Ascended as well. After that their spars were more evenly matched, and Gohan would get a good training session. Ever since Gohan had started training in the gravity room after moving in with the Briefs, he'd been breaking it as often, if not more often, than Vegeta. It seemed he was starting to catch up with Vegeta's number. Bulma made sure that he studied as much as he trained. She was forever inventing things to help him, since he could only read Braille now. Gohan didn't mind all of the studying, as long as he was able to train too.

More time passed, and four months after Gohan's fifteenth birthday he reached Super Saiyan level 3. It happened during an unusually vicious training session with Vegeta. Gohan had been powering up as far as he could in response to an attack by Vegeta, when he began to transform. Apparently once again, the power he'd acquired was too much for his current form. After the glow of transformation and the screaming from Gohan had stopped, there in the middle of the gravity room stood the newest level of Super Saiyan. Vegeta was completely dumbstruck, and a minute later the gravity room door was thrown open as Piccolo appeared, panting and out of breath. He'd felt Gohan's ki rise alarmingly and come to investigate. As he caught a glimpse of Gohan, he too was dumbstruck.

Level three looked so much different from the other two forms that Piccolo and Vegeta had trouble recognizing that it actually was Gohan. From the long gold spiky hair to the Neanderthal eyebrows, everything made Gohan look ten times meaner. The eyes were the same as when he was a Super Saiyan all whote with blue lighting dancing around them. The first time he transformed, Gohan was only able to hold the new form for ten minutes. The new form was at least twice as strong as SSJ2 but for some reason took massive amounts of energy to maintain. From that day on, Gohan did his usual workouts with the GR, Piccolo, and Vegeta, but he'd also take an hour or so to train in the new SSJ3 form, trying to improve how long he could hold and fight in it.

By this time, Goten had turned four, and Trunks was five. The two had become holy terrors around the house because they loved to get into all sorts of thing. They were also able to talk quite clearly now, and worshipped both Gohan and Vegeta. Ever since he had talked to his father in Hell, Vegeta had started to spend a little more time with Bulma and baby Trunks. He could be found, occasionally, in Bulma's lab with her, watching her work on some new invention, or watching Goten and Trunks. Gohan had noticed all this, but decided to keep his mouth shut. Bulma was just happy that Vegeta was spending time with her and their son, and she didn't really care what his reasons were.

The two chibis constantly convinced Bulma to take them to watch Gohan and Vegeta spar. A few weeks earlier, Bulma had told both Vegeta and Gohan that Goten and Trunks could not start training until Trunks was six and Goten was five. Gohan had agreed, as had Vegeta, albeit a lot more reluctantly and after several loud arguments with Bulma. Gohan had extracted a promise out of the Saiyan Prince as well. Goten and Trunks would not be allowed into any real battles until they were sixteen. Gohan didn't care about sparring sessions, mock battles, or tournaments. He just didn't want the two chibi's to go through everything he'd had to during his young life. He wanted them to actually enjoy their childhood, not always having to fight in life or death battles. Surprisingly enough, Vegeta hadn't really argued about promising that, which came as a surprise to Gohan. He had expected to have to fight tooth and nail to extract that particualr promise from Vegeta.

Time began to pass once again. Gohan had his sixteenth birthday. Goten was still four and Trunks five, and baby Marron was now two years old. Ever since Goten and Trunks started talking in sentences, Gohan had stopped entering the two chibis' minds in order to respect their privacy. He could still talk telepathically to them, and they could talk to him as well, but he didn't know exactly what they were thinking. Since Marron was only two, Gohan still had to look into her mind to understand her. It didn't matter that Marron lived at Kame house, a ways away from Capsule Corps, the young girl still mentally sent Gohan images and emotions, and Gohan still checked on her. Every other day he would try to make the trip out to Kame Island to spend some time with Krillin, 18, and Marron. Krillin and his family also came over to Capsule Corps to visit quite a bit, and it wasn't unusual for Gohan to baby-sit all of the chibis while the grownups did something together.

One day something happened that made both Krillin and 18 very grateful that they had let Gohan form a mind bond with Marron. Krillin and 18 had gone to the city to pick up some groceries and supplies. Oolong was away visiting Puar and Yamcha, who had finally gotten back from America. And Marron was left in the care of Turtle and Master Roshi, mostly Turtle though. About an hour after Krillin and 18 had left, a lobster came to the island with a message for Turtle. Apparently one of his children was hurt or sick. So Turtle, after lecturing Master Roshi firmly about watching out for Marron, left to go to his children's place. Marron was playing happily in her little playpen on the edge of the beach while Master Roshi fell asleep in his lawn chair, naughty magazine over his face. Unfortunately Roshi had placed Marron's playpen too close to the edge of the beach, and the wake of a passing whale's wave knocked the playpen over. Little Marron tumbled out with a scream, straight into the path of the next wave.

Back at Capsule Corporation, Gohan was in the gravity room sparing with Vegeta when he felt a tickle in his mind - a niggling feeling that something wasn't right. Just then, little Marron began to send him images of the waves and the beach Gohan, realizing something bad was happening to Marron, stopped in the middle of the spar and used Instant Transmission to get to Kame Island. Looking around, he didn't sense anything at first until he heard a loud wail from Marron that was abruptly cut off. He then realized that the images of waves he got from Marron were because she was too close to the water. He immediately located her ki and scooped the child out of the water. Little Marron was crying, choking, and spitting out water as Gohan held her close to him. Searching the island with his senses, Gohan only found Master Roshi asleep on his lawn chair. Apparently the old man hadn't heard Marron cry out because he was asleep, not paying attention and watching Marron like he should've been. Gohan was boiling mad, but decided he'd better take care of Marron, who was still sobbing, first. He then IT'd back to Capsule Corps and Bulma's lab.

Bulma was shocked when Gohan appeared with a dripping wet and sniffling baby Marron. She was even more shocked and pissed when Gohan told her what'd happened. Gohan asked Bulma to check Marron to see if she was really ok. Since Marron wouldn't let go of Gohan, Bulma performed her examination with Marron cradled protectively in Gohan's arms. Finally she pronounced her ok, and Marron had relaxed enough to let Bulma handle her. Gohan handed Marron over to Bulma, and immediately started walking out the door. Bulma thought about calling him back, but remembered how pissed Gohan looked, and thought better of it. Sighing, she placed Marron in the old playpen she used when Goten and Trunks were still babies, and went to call Krillin and 18 on their cell phones.

Meanwhile Gohan decided he'd better fly to Kame Island rather than use the IT, because he was still angry enough to want to kill old man Roshi. As he walked out the main door of Capsule Corps, Vegeta, pissed because Gohan had disappeared in the middle of a sparring session, stopped him and demanded to know where the hell he was going. Gohan turned around and stated quite calmly that he was going to barbecue himself an irresponsible turtle hermit over a slow ki fire, then blasted off in the direction of Kame house. Vegeta was left wondering what in the hell had gotten Gohan pissed enough to want to roast the old man.

When he arrived back on Kame Island, Gohan could sense that Master Roshi was still asleep on his lawn chair, oblivious to everything that had happened. Gohan was still very angry, but he knew he couldn't actually kill the old master. Instead, he decided to do something else. Walking around to the back of the house, Gohan found the old barbecue pit his father used to use for when he caught a big fish in the ocean. Gohan tossed large amounts of kindling into the pit and began to set everything up as Master Roshi snoozed on contentedly. When he was done, Gohan inspected the device that he'd rigged up so that it would turn the spit even when he wasn't there. Gohan then walked around the house to Master Roshi's lawn chair. Picking the old man up and shaking him furiously, Gohan woke the old man up and outlined what exactly had happened while he'd been snoozing. As Roshi paled, Gohan then outlined exactly what would happen if something like that ever happened again. Then he took Master Roshi over to the barbecue pit. A couple minutes later, Gohan took off towards his old training grounds. He still had some anger he needed to vent.

Back at Capsule Corps, after receiving the call from Bulma, Krillin and 18 had rushed right over. Bulma explained everything as Gohan told it to her. Once she was done, 18 went and got Marron out of the playpen as Krillin asked where Gohan was. Bulma said she didn't know, but that he'd been pretty pissed off when he'd left. Krillin and 18 thanked Bulma and told her to thank Gohan for them before flying back to the island. Both Krillin and 18 were furious and couldn't wait to get their hands on Master Roshi. However, when they arrived at the island they found that Gohan had already been there. Namely because Master Roshi was tied to a slowly rotating spit over the lit barbecue out back. He was secured to the spit by gold ki rings, and another ring was covering his mouth so he couldn`t scream. He was suspended high enough that he wouldn't burn, but low enough he could definitely feel the heat. In the sand in front of the barbecue pit was a note.

"I hope you enjoy your dinner. Do what you wish with him. He knows what I will do to him next time something like this happens."

The note was signed from Gohan. Krillin and 18 looked at each other, then Master Roshi, then walked into the house without so much as a backwards glance. Master Roshi was eventually taken off the barbecue, but after that whenever Krillin and 18 went somewhere, they either took Marron, or left her with Bulma or Gohan at Capsule Corps.

Over the next two years things were more or less normal. True to his word, Vegeta held off training Goten and Trunks until the stipulated age. Gohan was also involved in their training. Gohan was teaching the boys ki control, while Vegeta taught them technique and style. Their training sessions would always end with Trunks sparring one on one with Vegeta, and Goten one on one with Gohan. The two chibis were fast learners, and had impressive power levels for their ages. Sometimes Piccolo would come and help out with their training. Piccolo was probably the only other person besides his family and Gohan's that Vegeta could tolerate. Piccolo and Vegeta's relationship had settled into the `sparring partners when no one else is around' category.

Gohan had continued his regular training sessions as well as his study sessions. He had already far surpassed most humans in basic intellect, not to mention reasoning and logic. Sometimes after a study session, Gohan and Bulma would get together and talk about some obscure subject that would most likely baffle anyone but the most advanced physicists in the world. He still had his ritual Friday mental training that consisted of checking on all of the Z-Senshi and trips to Otherworld: he'd grown to be a common sight in heaven. He was usually seen talking to the Grand Kai, King Kai, or King Yemma. He was also well known in Hell for his constant teasing of Frieza and the others stuck in that particular cage. He still visited with Bardock and King Vegeta, and learned quite a bit about Saiyan rituals and customs.

As well as continuing his weekly visits to Otherworld, Gohan made his yearly visits to his parents as well. He would never stay long, never for more than an hour and a half. He had a feeling that they knew he could stay longer but chose not to, and he was always uncomfortable when he visited them. Chi Chi would go on and on about how she hoped he was studying and getting little Goten started on his studies as well. Goku would always ask about the other Z fighters and Vegeta, wanting to know if they were still training etc. When he was with his parents, Gohan reverted back to hiding all of his emotions and feelings behind a cheerful attitude and concentrated naiveté. He quite honestly didn't know what to feel about his parents. Sure he loved them, he respected his mother for having the courage to raise him practically on her own, and he respected his father for what he had done for the Earth - but beyond that he didn't know what to think. He supposed he would end up having a talk with them one day and sorting it all out, but he didn't want it to be any time soon. He wasn't nearly ready for it.

At home, he began to have a somewhat tentative relationship with Vegeta. He'd talk to Vegeta about Saiyan culture if something puzzled him, so they began to have regular talks about their race. Vegeta was also teaching Goten and Trunks about their heritage and teaching them to speak Saiyago. Gohan had learned to speak Saiyago from Bardock and King Vegeta a while ago, so he was very fluent and able to help the chibis out. Ever since he had started to actually learn about the culture, traditions, and history of the Saiyan's Gohan had developed some pride in his race. He no longer thought Saiyan's were a barbaric bloodthirsty race and now took pride in knowing that he was half Saiyan. Vegeta slowly settled into the mindset that he and Gohan were sparring partners, not deadly rivals like Goku and Vegeta had been. With that understanding, the two were more comfortable with each other, and didn't always try to blow each other to pieces at the end of their sparring sessions. Gohan could even - somewhat - tease the Saiyan Prince without getting his head blown off.

Gohan's eighteenth birthday came and went. Goten was now six and Trunks was seven. The two had become real pranksters, and very creative ones at that. They were constantly getting into trouble. Their favorite target seemed to be Gohan or Vegeta, though occasionally they would prank Piccolo or Krillin when they came to visit.

Then came the yearly visit to his parents in Otherworld. Unfortunately on that particular visit, Chi Chi had gotten an idea that no amount of arguing from Gohan would change her mind about. She even used poor King Kai as a telephone to relay her idea to Bulma. Chi Chi wanted Gohan to go to Orange Star High school for his senior year of high school. Because, as she said it, he needed to learn some social skills as well as meet people his own age - and no doubt living with Vegeta seriously limited opportunities. Gohan was not happy in the least. He was doing just fine with his life at the moment. No evil had come to threaten the earth lately, Goten and Trunks were still on restriction from the last prank they pulled, Vegeta hadn't blown up any reporters lately, and Gohan himself was getting along very well with his training. Now he was faced with the fact that he had to go to a public high school and interact with `baka ningens' as Vegeta called them. Plus he would have to hide his powers and strength so he didn't scare the crap out of everybody. Not to mention the problems he would have explaining that he was blind, yet could find his way around perfectly without a cane or a guide dog.

Finally Gohan returned to Earth and Capsule Corps. There, he once again tried to argue his way out of it, but surprisingly enough, Bulma had agreed with his mother. As soon as they found out, the chibis got angry because now Gohan wouldn't be able to spend all day with them and help train them. Then Vegeta heard about it, and stated that wasting time in some ningen school was worthless when he could be improving his training. Finally Bulma screamed at them all and, after they fell silent, quite calmly stated that Gohan would be going to Orange Star High school and that was final. There was a school in West City, but Chi Chi wanted Gohan to go to Orange Star because it was supposedly a better school.

There was still two months until school started, and in those two months Bulma designed all of the different gadgets he would need for school, as well as taken him shopping. Over the years, Gohan's wardrobe had basically consisted of gi's, with only one good outfit. Bulma decided to remedy that, and took him shopping one day. At the end of the day, Gohan was carrying over two hundred bags, and Bulma had bought out three stores. The next thing Bulma did was enroll Gohan in the school. The principal was skeptical about Gohan being in regular classes because of his blindness, but once Bulma explained that she had created devices for Gohan to use so he could do his work, the Principal relented and Gohan took the entrance exams. The only thing that the Principal was still worried about was P.E. Bulma sent Gohan out of the room as she and the Principal talked. When she finally came out, Gohan asked what had been decided. Bulma just told him it was a surprise. All too soon, the night before his first day of school came, and Gohan had to admit he was nervous. As a matter of fact, he hadn't been this nervous since he'd explained to Goten that Vegeta and Bulma weren't their real parents. After brooding for awhile, Gohan finally drifted off to sleep.

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