Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Where do I belong? ❯ Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, it characters, or anything in it; nor do I own any other licensed product/item that may appear throughout this fan fiction piece.

AN: ::runs to a corner and hides before yelling:: SORRY!!!!!!!!! READ NOW, THEN I'LL EXPLAIN . . .

Chapter 11

A faint smile played upon his face as he glanced around him. Brushing a stray strand of fine lavender hair out of his face, Trunks prepared to say his goodbyes. In this world, peace had been won for the world. Sitting there made him want to remain in their time, away from the worries of the Androids of his time. But it was about time that his world had peace. And now, he had the power to deliver it to the people of Earth in his own time.

Glancing about the room, he viewed the people that his own sensei had known and lost. The people who had shaped the Gohan he knew. Things were so different here. Here Piccolo lacked the side he had only shown Gohan. The side that his mother had told him about. Here, there was no little boy running around stirring up a bit of trouble and being forced to study. Here, his sensei was dead. Here, no one knew the great man he had grown to admire so much. Here, the one man who had lived through the androids had died. And here, the ones who should and would have died, lived on.

Goku was everything his mother had said. A brave, outstanding man, tinged with an eternal innocence. A brilliant fighter and a dear friend. He was everything his mother had said and more. But deep in his eyes, there was a shadow, a haunting, that plagued him. Trunks could only attribute this to loosing Gohan. He could certainly relate.

Blinking back any tears that might have surfaced, Trunks tried to think of something other than his dead master. Yet, this world just wasn't the same. When he had come to the past to help, he had done it, not only for a chance to alter the death and destruction, but to see his best friend before the darkness had come into play. His heart ached with the thought of Gohan. Oh how he wished he could see him again, to hear the deep timbre of his voice and the rich music of his laugh.

Shaking these thoughts from his head, he moved to follow the Bulma of this time to his uncapsulated time machine. Exchanging the final goodbyes and good wishes with the men of the past, he made his way to his machine. A simple two-finger salute from the father he never knew, a steady hug from the mother he did, a firm handshake from the man his mentor had loved so much and nods from the rest.

Seating himself into his machine, he moved to the control panel to prepare for launch. With a final wave to those of the past, he headed back to the future, back to his life, back to the androids. He now had the power to win, the power to avenge so many people's deaths. It was time. He had made a world where the destruction had never occurred, a time where the original savior lived. His job there was done, but he would never forget the men who had shaped Gohan and Bulma's life, and in turn, who had shaped his own.

~*~

Small series of beeps echoed through the room. The smell of disinfectant was strong in the air and a rush of noises was blocked out by a tightly closed door. Within the small room, a single figure lay silently. Her soft breathing permeated the silence of the room, displaying that she was asleep. Her dark hair was fanned out beneath her as she lay on the hospital bed.

A loud squeak echoed through the room as a hulking figure slipped through the doorway, cuddling a small bundle close. Silently, he seated himself beside the woman in bed and began to study his bundle closely.

Tucking a stray strand of ebony hair behind the woman's ear, he studied her as well. "Chi-Chi," he whispered. "Chi-Chi," he said with a bit more force.

A pair of onyx eyes fluttered open at the sound of her name. "Goku?" she questioned. Upon seeing his famous grin, she gave a small smile to her husband. "Where is he?"

"Right here." he stated as he seated himself on her bed, showing her their new son.

Chi-Chi merely gasped at the site. Out of everything she had expected, this was far from it. Snuggled in the soft blue blanket was a spiky haired baby boy sucking on a tawny brown tail. He was a mirror image of his father. The hair, the eyes, the face… everything. He looked just like Goku.

Looking up at her husband, she flashed a brilliant smile at him. "He looks just like you." she said with a slight laugh. "Let's hope he doesn't eat like you!"

Goku laughed heartily at his wife's joke. Smiling softly, he handed their son to her and watched as she held him close. "I was thinking. We never picked out a name…"

Chi-Chi's full attention was on her husband at these words. Choosing a name had been impossible. With Gohan, they had waited for a while before naming him, and Gohan had virtually chosen his own name. Nodding at him to continue, she awaited a name from the husband who couldn't come up with one for his first son.

"I've thought a lot about this one. I was thinking Goten." Chi-Chi's eyes lit up with this name. Not only did it suit their trend in male names, but the meaning was not lost. Their second son was heaven sent.

Looking down at the now sleeping child, she pushed back a lock of his thick ebony hair. "Goten…" she whispered. Pulling her husband closer to them, she looked into his dark eyes. "It's perfect."

~*~

Running a hand through his unruly spikes, Gohan stared at his easel. Since the Cell Games, he had slowly learned to accept his actions. While he was still quiet and reclusive, he did speak and show some emotion. The most emotion he would show was when Hercule appeared on the television screen. His parents were still worried for their son and they knew just what he needed. He needed to speak to someone. The boy had so much to deal with. He was physically and mentally different from anyone else in the world. He possessed unimaginable power at a young age, had physical abnormalities, and had gone through an emotion roller coaster ride.

Angel and Erik were still haunted by what they had seen on television for the Cell Games. The fighters, the golden one in particular, possessed powers that they had only seen in their son. There were so many clues, so many coincidences that just pointed at a relationship with those people. Could they be the boy's actual family? As much as they would have loved to see their son happy, they weren't sure if they could give up the boy that they loved so much.

Cassandra merely lurked in the shadows of the pained home. She would silently observe her parents and her brother. She also wondered of those mysterious fighters and of her brother's origin, but it really didn't matter to her. She loved him; he was her brother no matter what. Over the months she had watched as he submerged himself into art. Experimenting with different styles and subjects, he had used it to express himself. His pictures generally turned out to be dark abstracts, swirling black, dark blues and greens with traces of golds and reds. A few ended up with large parts of black, orange and royal blue. There were also his attempts of the unexplainable, always pictures he could barely recall.

Angry at his inability to capture his mental images once again, Gohan tossed a handful of black paint at the large canvas before storming out of the room. Pulling off most of his clothes, the exception being his boxers, Gohan jumped into the lake. Floating on his back, he watched as the white clouds passed him by. This scenic picture was interrupted as he was pushed deep into the water. Surfacing, he found himself face to face with his grinning sister. A smile slowly crept onto his face; Cassandra was the only one who could make him smile.

Pushing a large wave of water at her, he quickly dove back underwater. After a few minutes of splashing the other, the two siblings swam back to the edge of the lake. Lying on their towels, the two children's smiles slowly faded.

Hesitantly, Gohan spoke. "Cass . . ." All of her attention was quickly given to him, knowing that it was time.

Sighing, he forced the words from his mouth. "Do you ever think back to that night?" She merely nodded her head, allowing him to continue. "W-Were you scared . . . of me?"

Cassandra merely looked at him incredulously. "Gohan, how could you think that? You saved us that night. If you hadn't stopped them, our parents or us could have died."

"You didn't answer my question. Were you afraid of me?" He asked forcefully, his dark eyes swarming with fear and guilt.

Gently, she laid her hand on his arm. Looking at him, eye to eye, she calmly spoke. "That night was probably the worst night of my life, the worst night of all of our lives. When you turned into the golden warrior, I was afraid. Not of you, but for you. Your eyes, brother . . . your eyes spoke so much. There was so much pain and anger in them, it consumed you. It's not your fault. You've blamed yourself and placed so much guilt on your own shoulders for that night, but if you hadn't stopped them, we could be dead, or maybe someone else."

Gohan nodded at her words, silently acknowledging that he too had thought of this. Relief swept through him, for she hadn't been scared of him. "But I didn't have to kill them . . . so ruthlessly." He muttered.

"True . . . but that wasn't you." She said smiling. "It was your anger . . . no one blames you, Go, only you."

Again, Gohan nodded. He knew that what he had done was wrong, but he couldn't change it. Slowly, he was accepting it and move on. Smiling at his sister, he thanked her.

Cassandra merely smiled at him before her face turned serious again. "Hey Gohan, I was wondering, who do you think those guys were at the Cell Games?"

Gohan's face immediately strickened at the question. "They were powerful. Extremely powerful. Especially the golden one . . . I wonder who they are . . ."

Hesitating on her words, Cass studied her brother for his reactions. "Do you think, maybe, that they're family? I mean, they had powers and the golden thing, which you can do."

"I don't know. It makes me so mad, Cass. I don't know who they were, so I can't find them and ask them. But if they are my family, why am I here and not with them? Did they want me? Was I not good enough? I was only four years old damn it." Tears clouded his eyes as he gasped for breath. "Am I that horrible, that they wouldn't want me?"

Cass's dark blue eyes began to water at her brother's words. She had known that he was bothered by not knowing his parentage, but never did she think he was bothered this much. Between this, his physical abnormalities, the new strength, and Christmas night, Gohan's life was seriously messed up. At least now she understood the compounded problems that haunted her brother so much. Maybe this was why he shed tears at night. Maybe this was what had truly haunted him. Problems after problems after problems for her brother. Compounding and making the events of Christmas even worse. All weighing on his youthful shoulders.

"Gohan, I-I . . . I . . . I don't know what to say. I don't know why and I don't know the truth. I'm not God. I'm just a girl. But no matter what, you'll always have us little brother. We haven't abandoned you and we won't. Mom and Dad are still here, they are always gonna be here. Even in the bad times, we were together. We will always be here for you. We love you, we always will, forever."

With those words spoken, the two fell into an embrace as Gohan shed a few more tears. He had always worried about his parents. As much as he loved them, he couldn't help but feel like a burden on the family. He wasn't of their blood; he was just an abnormal boy, a freak with a tail. But deep down, his sister had just soothed some ache that had been gnawing at his soul. Tearing it, shredding it daily.

He was no longer an orphan, an outcast from one family, a pity and charity to another. He was a part of a family, with a sister that loved him no matter what. A family that had stood by him, even in the darkest moments.

Grinning, the two stood up and went back into the house. Immediately, Gohan embraced his parents, apologizing for his attitude, his solitude, and his actions. Begging for forgiveness of his actions and for just being him. Tears slid down his pale cheeks, his obsidian eyes haunted by so many fears and insecurities.

His mutterings called forth tears in his parent's eyes as well. He had thought they didn't love him, only put up with him, an act of charity. The four members of the family huddled together in a touching embrace. Angel and Erik pulled their children close to them, reassuring them of their love.

That night, peace fell on the Daemon house for the first time in months. Insecurities and fears that had haunted the family, lurking in the shadows, had been put to rest. Injuries, to both heart and soul, were soothed. It was love . . . and in that moment, it was all that mattered.

~*~

::peaks head from out of the corner:: I didn't really leave a cliffhanger this time. If my story were broken up into Volumes or Sagas, then this would be the end of number one. Not the end of the story, just the saga. Well, my bro's wedding went over fine and THANK YOU for your great reviews. It was a lot of fun to come back and see them. As for why the hell it took me so long? Well, I've been mad busy. Class, tests, essays, catching up on some much needed sleep, new DBZ episodes (can't forget those) . . . and much more. The point is, you got your new chapter. A little later than you would have preferred but you got it right? I must say, I got the most intriguing reviews ever. I had offers for a certain male to dress in lingerie for the new chapter . . . O.o hum. Lets think on that for a little bit. lol. Anyways, hope ya liked, now review!

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MAILING LIST: Wanna know when I update? Then email me or tell me in the review to add you to the WDIB Update List. And don't forget that email address minna!

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SNEAK PEAK: (do you guys read this at all????) The start of the . . . ummmm . . . Training and more Torture Saga?!?

"`He was an abomination, a worthless freak, a pathetic excuse for a human being and not worth calling a son." She said, her voice strained with hatred and disgust."

"A summer with no parents, a summer to explore his abilities, a whole summer to test his strength? Sounded good to him. Sure, he hated the power, but he was curious of just what it could do, plus, he didn't want to hurt anyone. Broken appliances and dishware paled in comparison to broken body parts and bones of his loved ones."