The world was hazy as Gohan woke up, dreamlike and fluid, like warm crystal clear water running through his mind. There was a great deal of confusion about where he was or what he was doing, but some things were very certain in his mind. Videl was near him, he was sure of this, he could feel her heartbeat close to his, pounding slowly in rhythm with his own, her breathing deep and soft. Her short dark hair would be splayed across the white pillow, her blue eyes shut tight with long eyelashes fluttering gently against her smooth cheeks. It would be warm and dizzyingly sweet there with her, and he would wrap her in his arms, careful not to wake her, and spend the morning watching her sleep. Pan would eventually come in to wake them up, toting one of her favorite stuffed animals, climbing into bed with them and snuggling beneath the warm covers, giggling. Gohan sighed.

“Gohan?” Videl’s quiet voice asked. “Gohan are you awake?”

Slowly, the world became more focused, and the first thing Gohan noticed was the biting cold. It was so terribly freezing that it took his breath away, and he came into consciousness with a start, shivering. Instead of their nice warm bed, they were both seated on a very dirty, very cold stone floor, their hands chained up above them in sturdy metal locks. It was a circular room, small enough so that he could clearly see the faces of everyone there; no more than ten feet across the room from his was Juunana-gou, who looked as though he were half asleep. All of their arms were chained up to the stone wall, each two feet away from the other. They could move their legs about, but they had been tied together with a silver rope that seemed to shimmer in the dimly lit room. The only light came from a single torch at the head of the room, slowly burning down to nothing, flickering gently in the darkness.

“Gohan?” Videl asked again, whispering. She looked cold and tired sitting next to him, and her face was full of scratches and bruises, as if she had just survived a very harsh beating. Her teeth were chattering with the cold.

“What happened?” He asked and everyone in the room lifted their heads to see him. They all had the same look on their faces: tired desperation. Gohan bent his head down to brush the hair out of his face with his arm. “How did we end up in here?”

“We just woke up in here.” Kuririn answered him in a low voice. “We think the guns they used to paralyze us must have knocked us out as well. We were taken prisoner. Except for Gokuu….” He bit his lip. “We don’t know where he is.”

This hit Gohan hard. First his mother had disappeared, being kidnapped by strange Saiya-jin monsters, and now his father was missing. Again, guilt swept over him in hot, slick waves. He hadn’t been there for either of them lately, had spent so much time with his own family that he had nearly forgotten them. He knew that he was grown up and on his own, with other people that he needed to take care of, but he should have never forgotten his parents. His mother especially, who had seemed to need him so very much lately. And now he could have possibly lost his father too, and though he would always love him, he knew he hadn’t spent as much time with him as he could have lately. He trusted his father’s fighting capabilities, and knew that he would be able to hold his own against an enemy, but against an entire army might be tough. The last he had seen, Gokuu had turned Super Saiya-jin. That was the last thing that Gohan remembered about the battle before he fell to the ground with Videl in his arms, trying to protect her from one of the paralyzing rays.

“Kakarroto can take care of himself.” Vejiita snapped, and his eyes were dark and full of malice. “Quit bringing it up, you little gnome. I’m sick of hearing you worrying about him.”

Bulma, who was chained next to him on the wall, shot Kuririn a similar look. “Hai. Son-kun is definitely okay. No one can beat Gokuu. And if you bring it up one more time, I swear I’ll chew off my own arm just so I can get out of these restraints and beat you to a pulp!”

Gohan closed his eyes briefly. “Look, can we just try to remain calm. I don’t think we’re in a very good situation right now.”

Across from him, Juunana-gou snorted. “That’s rather obvious, don’t you think? I can’t think of anything good that would come from being chained to a wall on a foreign planet awaiting torture and death.” He rolled his blue eyes and laughed haughtily. Unlike most of the people in the room, his face was completely clean and his clothes looked un-rumpled and fresh --- like he hadn’t been in a fight at all. It was strange how the jinzouningen could escape a battle completely unscathed and unshaken, as if they had been created solely for that purpose, the perfect killing machines. Juunana-gou laughed again. “I don’t see a point in trying to organize the situation and calm everyone down. I say from here on out it’s every man from himself.”

“Well, if you had all listened to me in the first place, perhaps would wouldn’t even be here right now!” Bulma yelled to no one in particular, stomping her feet down on the ground in anger as best as she could. Her feathery turquoise hair had fallen into her face, and was shading half of it from view. She stared out at them with one angry, dark blue eye, as if daring any of them to defy her.

“So now it’s our fault?” Juuhachi-gou demanded, looking as clean and fresh as Juunana-gou, with her head leaning back against the stone wall.

Gohan sighed, knowing that it was about to get ugly. His head already hurt enough. There was a piercing pain in his right temple that pounded with every heartbeat. Bulma’s normally nice voice sounding like a seagull to his ears now, as her volume rose and her pitch took on an angry edge.

“Damn right it’s your fault.” Bulma snapped back. “I was the only one in this group with any sense. I told you that we should wait, I told you that we should make a plan, list our options, have some organization. If we had been organized, if we had known what we were getting into and prepared for it, this could have all been prevented. How many times did I stress the importance of being prepared, eh? How many times did I tell you that I thought timing and preparation and organization was the key?! I told you this wouldn’t be a normal battle! I told you that accidents could happen and people could get hurt! But no one would listen to me at all! You all thought that the best course of action would be to run right up to the city and pick a fight with about three thousand Saiya-jin soldiers!! I think you all deserve to be chained up here!”

“Last time I checked, you were chained up here as well!” Videl yelled. “You went along with everyone else. I’d say you’re as much to blame as any else in he---.”

“Shut up!!” Vejiita commanded suddenly. “All of you shut up!”

Everyone fell silent, but angry glares and sneers were exchanged, arms were crossed and heads turned in indignance. Gohan let out a breath of relief, his headache quietly subsiding with the absence of Bulma’s grating voice. They were in silence for a moment, thoughts running over in their minds. Gohan was struck by another chill and shivered, his teeth chattering with the force of it, looking up at the ceiling of the cell.

The Saiya-jin prince took a deep breath, and stared at each and every one of them with piercing eyes. In a voice that was much quieter than his usual tone, and much less threatening, he spoke. “There are guards right outside the door. I doubt you want to cause a disturbance that would bring them in here. I suggest you all quiet down.”

“Vejiita’s right.” Gohan agreed. “Until help comes, perhaps it would be best if we remained silent.”

Of course, he wasn’t so sure that help would come at all. If no one knew where his father was, and the others were back at the ship, it seemed as if no one could help them at all. Yamucha was a possibility, but he had ridden off into the city alone, with no protection whatsoever. Though Gohan hoped that the scar-faced warrior had made it, he doubted it. Without any kind of protection or help, Yamucha would have been caught for sure. This hadn’t turned out anything like he had expected it to. They were supposed to come to the planet to save his mother, not to be taken prisoner along with her. Which raised another odd point: if his mother had been taken prisoner, where was she? Shouldn’t she also be locked up in here? He shook his head slowly, and took in a deep, calming breath. There was so many questions that he needed answers to. It was very frustrating being locked up and unable to help, when he knew that his mother and his father were both out there, possibly alive, possibly needing him. Too many things had gone wrong since the very beginning, and he was starting to think that the mission been ill fated from the start.

Silently, he prayed for some sort of help; that something good would come along. Maybe Piccolo could hear him from way off in the distance, somehow know that they were in trouble and that they needed him and the others. It would be difficult to leave the girls behind on the ship, but if everyone else’s life was in danger, then perhaps Piccolo didn’t have any choice. He and Piccolo used to have a very strong bond, which Gohan missed very much. Perhaps that bond could be reawakened if he concentrated hard enough, was hopeful enough. And maybe if they made it out of this alive together, he and Piccolo could rekindle the friendship that they had lost. After spending so much family time with Videl and Pan, it felt like he didn’t have any free time at all.

His hands pulled at the chains a bit, as if to test them, and he found that the more he struggled in them, the more his strength was drained. The wrist restraints would glow slightly, illuminated with this new power that he had given them, and tighten up around his flesh. His eyes leveled with Vejiita, as if both of them were thinking the same thought. If they were restrained in this manner, with no way to defend themselves, it was far too easy for them to be killed off, one by one as they sat here. If they even attempted to struggle, all of their strength would be taken from them, drained like water into the restraints around them. He felt very, very vulnerable then, and weaker than he had ever felt in his life. Fear crept over him, white hot and burning red falling into his vision, casting everything in shades of crimson. He had no idea how they were going to get out of this mess, and no idea how things were going to end up. For once in his life, he had no hope at all.

Piccolo sat with his legs crossed, hovering above the tiled floor, his eyes closed in a deep mediation. His brows drew together, in concentration --- in confusion. In the dark blackness of meditation, surrounded on the edges by barriers of quiet clouds, was the world that he often went to, one much more lovely and calm than any he had ever been to. There were different shades of darkness, all as simple and harmless as the one before, inviting and smooth. It was a silent fortress of solitude and beauty, a place where he could take his heart to rest, to contemplate the mysteries of Earth and the strangeness of his companions. Now as he closed his eyes, deep in thought, he saw something out of place, something unusual. Normally his mind would float in this world of perfect peace, weightless and graceful, but now there was a haze of red creeping in over everything, a mist of crimson floating through his thoughts. It sharpened the angles of everything, buzzed with the intensity of a live wire, and created a disgusting sea of red and black that left Piccolo perplexed and a bit fearful.

The Namek snapped open his eyes, and the first thought that occurred to him, the first word that entered his expanded mind was Gohan. His friend was obviously in trouble, obviously trying to signal that he needed some kind of assistance. This had happened several times, whether Gohan was conscious of it or not, and Piccolo was certain of this because, save for Gohan, no one else had ever ventured into this world of his. Gohan was allowed to enter only because of the bond that the two of them shared, and because he knew that Gohan’s quiet gentleness would never disturb the serenity of his world. However, because of the deepness of their friendship, Gohan’s anger of sadness often crept into Piccolo’s thoughts, as if he could actually see and feel his pain. Now, the general feeling that Piccolo was picking up on was fear. Fear and desperation.

The air was biting cold and furiously thin as he stepped out of the ship and into the snow, his head held high, as if searching for some sign of what happened. It was frustrating to have only a feeling to go on, nothing but a feeling and the sense of Gohan’s ki, burning softly in the distance. He was well prepared, prepared enough to rush out into the flurry of snow right now and find the others, but he knew that he couldn’t. Gokuu and the others had left him in charge of the children, and though he could normally care less, he knew that they were depending on him.

He felt however, that the kids could take care of themselves. Trunks and Goten were twice as strong as he was, and although the girls had no real fighting skills, he could sense that they knew how to at least defend themselves, and would be able to hold their own in a battle. He couldn’t have possibly understood what Kuririn was thinking when he asked that they returned home because of Marron, but then had had never felt the connection between father and child. The closest he had ever come was Gohan, though he didn’t like to admit it. He couldn’t possibly know what it felt like to have a child and have them be in danger. He figured that the smartest thing to do would be to test the child, to let the child expand its knowledge and strength in battle. There were cautions to be taken, yes, but if you were raising a child under that kind of fighting influence, you had to be aware of the possible dangers. Marron had been around fighting and adventure all of her life, and to deny her of that was stupid. The girl had already experienced these things, why take them away from her now?

It wasn’t his choice, though. He had come along on this mission to help, because he had failed to protect ChiChi when he had his chance and he felt guilty about it. And he would do whatever it took to follow through with the mission, even if it meant staying here on the ship and babysitting for children that really didn’t need to be looked after. The point was, he had been assigned to a duty, and he was going to do it. The way he felt about it didn’t really mean a thing.

He shook his head to rid his thoughts, and became still and quiet, his mind searching, always searching. He squinted into the distance, and used his keen ears, searching for something, hoping to find anything out there in the sea of white. It was bleak, it was unlikely, but he knew that he had to try, even if it was all for nothing. Minutes passed, and he still stood as stone, watching and waiting. There was a sudden light, and something picked up on his senses, the basic senses of heart and spirit picking up the fact that some sort of hope was on the way. He wasn’t sure how he knew it, because he couldn’t hear it or see it, but he felt that there was someone approaching.

Chapter 59
Previous chapter

 My guestbook -- Sign it!