Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Grandpa Gohan ( Chapter 38 )

Gliding through the air at what was, for him, a leisurely pace, Bardock glanced down at the Dragon Radar in his hand to confirm that he was traveling in the right direction. Trunks had shown him how to operate the thing properly, not that it was all the difficult, so it only took a swift look at the screen to be able to tell that they were getting close to the location of the first dragonball. Tucking the device into the waistband of his pants, he closed his eyes briefly, enjoying the feel of the sun on his skin and the wind in his hair. With gentle breezes and mild temperatures, emerald green vegetation growing for as far as the eye could see, and only a bank of gray clouds on the horizon marring the sapphire blue sky, it was indeed a beautiful day on this strange planet known as Earth. So different from Vegeta-sei, and yet Bardock found himself growing increasingly fond of this alien world.

Bardock opened his eyes again and focused on the three youngest children in the group. He was amused to find that they were currently engaged in a friendly game of tag in which his son was losing. Badly. Poor Goku, he chuckled inwardly. He's still so new at flying, he doesn't even have a chance. In fact, it looks like Bulma had to slow her car down just to make sure he didn't get left behind. Bardock flipped over so he was flying with his back to the ground, crossing his arms thoughtfully. Maybe I should let Goku use that cloud of his now. He's only just learned how to fly, he's probably exhausted.

As he swerved in towards Goten, Trunks, and Goku, he found that he had been correct in his assumption that Goku was tired. The seven year old was hardly able to stay in the air, and this time it wasn't from lack of concentration. Seeing his father, though, Goku's expression perked up a little and he waved to Bardock, which brought a grin to the older Saiyan's face. "I think you've been flying long enough that you've earned a break, Goku," Bardock said as he flew alongside his youngest son. "If you want, you can call your cloud friend, or ride with Bulma. Your pick."

Giving his dad a grateful look, Goku cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, "Kinto'uuun!!" Within moments, the orangy-yellow puff zipped up and underneath the boy, who settled into the fluffy magical cloud with a sigh of relief. It really was tiring work to fly non-stop for a solid hour or more. Goku turned and looked up at his father, flashing a brief "Victory!" sign, then raced back to where Goten and Trunks had continued the game of tag. Bardock grinned as he watched the child reinsert himself into the game with renewed vigor. Probably doesn't want to be defeated without a fight, Bardock mused. Just like a Saiyan.

Now that Goku was riding Kinto'un, the pace of their journey picked up, making the landscape below seem to rush by in a blur. The clouds on the horizon grew, but Bardock wasn't worried. Judging by what the radar showed, they would find the first ball well before they met the storm front. Since Trunks had brought a rather large capsule house among the other things in his capsule case, shelter was also not a problem. The worst the storm would do was delay them a bit. Again, Bardock had no problem with that. The longer this hunt took, the more time he would have to spend with his grandson before the boy disappeared from his life forever. Bardock shook his head and mentally shied away from this line of thought. He didn't feel like being depressed, and there was no need to worry about the future until it actually arrived.

Meanwhile, Goku, Goten, and Trunks had given up their game of tag and were now discussing hide and seek. The two demi-Saiyans saw in Goku another playmate, not the future father of Goten, and had determined that while they were in the past, they might as well enjoy it as much as possible. Goku was just the right age to enjoy the games they did, if only he knew some of the basic techniques. He was already working on flying, but there were two other key problems. Ki sensing and ki suppression. While Goku might already have a basic sense of what ki was, he had no clue how to sense or hide it, two necessary things for a good game of hide and seek. Thus, it was up to the boys from the future to educate Goku in the principles of these techniques. They were confident that they could do a pretty good job of it, too, since they had already had plenty of practice teaching Bardock, Vegeta, and Radditz.

Figuring that enough time had passed since he had last looked at the radar, Bardock pulled out the green and silver object and clicked the button on the top until a small yellow blip appeared on the screen. A triumphant smile crossed his face as he realized just how close they were to their first target. Signaling the others to land, he started descending toward a clearing that should be able to handle the capsule car Bulma flew in. Once there, he waited for everyone to land before he spoke up.

"Okay, the first ball is pretty close to here," he said, gesturing in the general direction in which the dragonball lay. "You can either come with me or wait here as you like, it's up to you." Not surprisingly, no one opted to stay behind. Vegeta and Radditz were curious to see what these balls looked like, Goten, Goku, and Trunks just plain didn't want to be left out of any of the fun, and Bulma flat out refused to be left behind. As the blue haired girl capsulized the car, Bardock shook his head ruefully, wondering if this was going to set the precedent for the entire dragonball hunt.

As it turned out, finding the dragonball was no problem. Getting to it, however, was another matter entirely. They walked through the forest until they came to the spot that the radar said the ball should be and, looking around, found nothing except for a small hole set into the side of a low cliff. The hole was much to small for Bardock, Radditz, Bulma, or even Vegeta to crawl through and looked to be a tight fit for even one of the three littler boys. Determined not to let a mere hole get in the way of obtaining one of the dragonballs, Goku got down on his hands and knees and poked his head inside the hole.

"Hey, I think I see it!" he called out excitedly, his voice muffled by the dirt and rocks surrounding his head. Before anyone could protest, he wriggled his body further into the tunnel until only the tip of his furry brown tail could be seen. Pretty soon, even that disappeared from view, leaving only the scuffs and scrabbling sounds as the only proof of his continued existence. All of a sudden, he yelped in surprise. "Ah!! There's something in here!" Bardock was about to blast the side of the cliff to rubble to rescue his son from whatever trouble he might have gotten himself into, but stopped himself when he heard Goku give a delighted laugh. "It's just a badger," he said. "I bet this hole is its home. It's okay, little guy, I won't eat you! I just want that orange ball behind you." Bulma made a disgusted sound, knowing from experience that, under other circumstances, Goku might very well have been tempted to eat a badger. Apparently, from the angry sounds it made, the badger also thought Goku might be intent on making it his next meal. "Ow! Hey! Don't bite me! I'm not gonna hurt you. There, see? All I wanted was the dragonball. You can go back to sleep, now, 'cause I'm getting out of your home. Bye, mister badger!"

A few moments later, a much dirtier Goku crawled backwards out of the badger hole, the fingers of one hand curled tightly around a small orange sphere. Bardock found it hard to suppress a grin as he took in the proud smile on his son's dirt smudged face. Goku held up the dragonball and whooped victoriously, "I got it! I got our first dragonball!" The boy lowered his prize and took a look inside the sphere, counting the stars within. "One, two, three, four... hey! It's the four star ball! It's Grandpa!" If the chibi Saiyan had been happy before, he was absolutely ecstatic now. "I can't believe it! I got my grandpa back!" Clutching the dragonball to his chest, Goku jumped up and down with glee, his tail joyfully swishing back and forth.

"Wow, Goku, that's great!" Bulma cheered, pleased to see her friend so happy.

"Uhh..." Bardock scratched the back of his head in confusion. "I seem to be missing something here. What grandpa?"

"My grandpa Gohan!" Goku clarified, grinning from ear to ear. "He's the one who found me and raised me. When he died, he left this ball behind, and sometimes he even talks to me! Only he's not really talking, but I can tell what he's saying, so it doesn't matter."

"Your grandpa, huh?" Bardock mused, glancing up at the sky. He was surprised to find that the storm front that he'd noticed earlier was now directly above them, blotting out the sun to the point that it was almost as dark as dusk. Part of the darkness might be due to the overcast clouds, but it was late enough in the day that it might also be due to the setting sun. Either way, it was time to set up camp. "I'd like to hear more about your grandpa, Goku, but it looks like we're about to be rained on. If Trunks would open up that capsule house of his, we can get you cleaned up, eat dinner, and you can tell me all about him, okay?"

"Yeah!" Goku quickly agreed. The thought of food and the opportunity to tell his father about his grandpa combined with the euphoria of recovering the four star dragonball was enough to exhilarate the seven year old boy. Even the thought of having to take a bath again couldn't dampen his spirits in the slightest. Once Trunks popped the house out of its capsule, he practically dashed through the door just as the first fat drops of ran splattered in the dirt. The others were soon to follow, no one wanting to get soaked by the cold water that was now slashing down from the blackened sky in sheets.

"....and I looked at the full moon by accident when I went to pee and the monster came!" A wide eyed Son Goku waved his arms dramatically while Bardock listened attentively, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, as his son described the death of the man who had raised him. "I didn't actually see the monster, 'cause I was asleep, but when I woke up the whole house was smashed and grandpa was dead! That monster squished my grandpa!" Goku sounded angry at this thought, clenching his small hands into tight fists. "An' that's why you shouldn't look at the full moon, only there isn't a moon anymore for some reason. Maybe that means the monster can't come out anymore. I hope not, 'cause then he might squish someone else's grandpa." Having finished his story, Goku sipped from his steaming mug of cider. They had all eaten and those who had needed it cleaned up in the bath that was installed in the capsule house. Now they were sitting in the living room, drinking hot cider and listening to Goku tell his father stories about Grandpa Gohan.

An uncomfortable silence descended on the group, affecting mostly Bardock, Radditz, and Bulma. Goten and Trunks were oblivious to the meaning of the hints that Goku's story contained about the true cause of Grandpa Gohan's demise. One look at Bulma's ashen face told Bardock that she somehow knew exactly who the monster really was, perhaps from an encounter with Goku in his oozaru transformation sometime since they'd met each other. Bardock and Radditz glanced at each other, a silent nod passing between them, and they agreed that now was not the time to tell Goku the truth.

Unfortunately, Vegeta agreed to no such thing. "Don't you know anything about your Saiya-jin heritage, you baka?" he growled derisively at Goku. When the boy only gave him a confused look, the young prince hissed between his teeth and pulled his tail out in front of him so Goku could see. "These things aren't just for decoration, you idiot gaki," he continued, ignoring the sudden glare that Bardock was giving him. "At the sight of the full moon, any Saiyan who has a tail will transform into a giant ape, or oozaru, and will go on a wild rampage. Do you get it now?" Leveling a finger at the stunned chibi, Vegeta spoke the final, damning words. "You were the only Saiyan on this planet at the time. You were the so-called monster that killed your pathetic grandfather." He lowered his hand, folding his arms in self satisfaction, and stared coldly at Goku, pitiless obsidian eyes boring holes into the boy's soft coal eyes.

"No." The word was a ragged whisper, accompanied by a fierce head shake of denial. "No!" he yelled, his own voice roaring in his ears. "It's not true! You're lying!!" Goku turned his face to look at Bardock pleadingly. "Tousan, tell him he's lying! It wasn't me. It-it can't be me! I'd never kill grandpa!" Unable to bear the hopeful glimmer in his son's eyes, knowing that what Vegeta had said was the truth, Bardock looked guiltily down at the table, silently cursing Vegeta for opening his damn mouth. At the sound of a glass being knocked over and liquid splashing onto the floor, Bardock lifted his head to find that Goku had stumbled out of his chair, accidentally overturning his mug in the process, and was staring at everyone gathered in the room in expectation. The glass continued to roll until it reached the edge of the table, at which point it lazily fell off the table and crashed to the floor, shattering into a million sparkling, razor sharp pieces. A flicker of horrified realization dulled Goku's eyes, his face becoming slack, then screwed up in a look of intense denial. "NO!!! I didn't kill my grandpa!!!" he screamed, tears spilling from the corners of his eyes faster than he could blink them away. His small frame shook with repressed emotion as he backed up slowly.

Just as Bardock stood up, intending to go to his son and do something, anything, to comfort him, Goku gave a heartbroken sob and whipped around to face the door. In the blink of an eye, he had the door open and dashed through it, slamming it shut so hard that it broke off its hinges. Cursing furiously in every language he knew, Bardock ran after his son into the icy, pelting rain storm, nearly tripping on the fallen door. Quickly adjusting to the dark gloom, his eyes darted about in every direction in hopes of catching a glimpse of his youngest son, but it was too dark and the rain was coming down too heavily to see more than a few yards in any direction. He had been too late in escaping the capsule house and Goku had already vanished into the oppressive expanse of the storm whipped forest. Picking a likely direction, he sprinted into the murky forest, desperately casting his senses to the howling winds in search of Goku's ki. He ran for several minutes in hopes of finding some sign of his son's passage, oblivious to the freezing rain that soaked his clothes and skin, chilling him to the bone. Come on, where are you? You can't have learned to hide your ki yet! No one's taught you! Unfortunately, either his son had learned to suppress his ki, or he was mortally wounded and close to death, or already dead, because Bardock's search turned up fruitless.

Sinking to his knees in helpless frustration, churned up mud seeping into his tattered black pants, the warrior pounded the soggy ground with his clenched fists. "GOOOKUUUU!!!!" he screamed, mindless of the storm's fury as it beat down upon him. His entire body was wracked with shuddering sobs, endless scenarios of everything that might have happened to his youngest child playing and replaying in his head. Throwing his head back, he gave a wordless cry of rage, anguish, grief, loss, every emotion within him. It was happening again. Another person he loved had been lost because he hadn't been there for them, had been too slow in coming to their aid, and too weak to do any good. Just as he had lost Sereri seven years ago, he had lost his second son, whom he had found scarcely two days ago. Again, he had lost one he loved, and he had been unable to do anything about it.

Brokenly sobbing the entire time, Goku stumbled through the forest, frequently slipping and sliding on rain slicked vegetation. With his ki pushed down as far as it would go, he knew that no one, not his father, his brother, Goten, Trunks, or anyone, would be able to find him. He had learned this particular technique easily enough, surprising both of his teachers, but had yet to master the ability to sense other kis. None of this mattered to his grief stricken mind. All he knew was that he had to get away from them, from his friends and family. Hot tears poured down his face to mix with the frigid rain that thoroughly drenched him, blinding his eyes to the dreary world around him. Thus, he didn't see the gnarled old root that lay in his path, didn't know it was there until his foot caught on it. As fast as he had been going, it was completely impossible for him to regain his balance and he was sent sprawling face first into the muddy slope, rolling a few times before he came to rest at the base of a tree.

Instead of picking himself up off the ground, the small child curled up into a miserable ball and lay on his side, his cheek resting in the cool mud and grass. Hugging his knees to his chest, he wrapped his tail tightly around his ankles and cried his heart out. "G-Grandpa..." he choked out, shivering violently from cold, shock, guilt, and the grief of reopened emotional wounds. "Grandpa!!"

So caught up in his own pain was he that he never even noticed the tree limb that came crashing down upon him from above, broken off of the tree it had grown from by the tearing winds of the storm.

End chapter. *smiles innocently* Why are you looking at me like that? ^_^