Chapter 43 The Truth

In the city of Trost, the Garrison headquarters was still busy after the recent Titan attack. The city had been evacuated, becoming near a ghost town save for the soldiers who remained. Many were being tasked with either the repeated sweeps of the territory between Wall Rose and Sina, while others were returning to their original positions in other towns.

However whilst the town soldiers were still busy, it had been little trouble for Pixis to arrange a private meeting place for them. It was actually not the headquarters itself, still under repair from the battle of Trost, and he had everyone arrive at a nearby tavern, one he was allegedly quite familiar with. None had felt the mood for making a joke, as the senior command personnel were all in their professional mindset, while many of the 104th cadet graduates had noticed the clearly tense mood.

After delivering unconscious woman into Garrison hands for medical care, Ymir had taken the time to privately tell Eren and Mikasa all they had needed to know. It had gone… poorly. While the same information had been relayed to the rest, it had been decided for Mikasa and Eren to hear the rest privately to allow them time to process it all. Not just the truth of their enemies, or how Eren had gained his Titan powers, but about the curse. Only a short eight years of life remained for Eren and Ymir.

Mikasa had been broken, deathly quiet and still as she had processed it all in silence. Eren had ran from the room, finding a place in the street to vomit in disgust. Gohan was there, rubbing his back soothingly with pity as he felt useless. When he finally stopped, Eren slumped against one of the walls, numb and in shock.

"I ate my father…" He finally muttered.

Gohan sat with him, unable to think of anything to say to comfort the man. Instead, he pulled him slowly into a hug and held him, gently brushing his hair as he choked back sobs.

"Eren…" It was Armin's voice, as he and the rest of the squad had come out after they themselves had heard the news. They all stood at a distance, clueless about what to do as they watched their friend suffer. Armin joined the hug with Eren, clutching his friend tightly as he openly cried.

"Eight years…" Franz muttered, still disbelieving what they had been told. He looked inside to where the only two members of their team who hadn't come outside were. Sasha and Connie were sat in silence, having heard the suspected truth about the source of the Titans first.

They had all been there for Connie first, the time he'd had to think about it all having somewhat prepared him for the worst of it. The news that his mother was still technically alive had relieved him somewhat, but he was still a broken boy being cared for by Sasha as she cradled him gently.

For the rest of them, the news of Eren's upcoming inevitable death was disturbing. For so many of them, their deaths in the scouts had once seemed inevitable when they'd enlisted, but with both Gohan and Eren's powers, a hope that otherwise might be true had begun to build. But to have it snuffed out was… heartbreaking.

"Eight years." Jean spoke up, echoing Franz' sentiment. His voice was less melancholic, as he hesitated before speaking. "I don't know Eren, I don't think it'll matter."

The others looked to him in shock, and Eren broke from the hug to stare at him in surprise. Jean coughed awkwardly before continuing. "Come on, with the way you act you were bound to throw yourself inside a Titan's mouth long before then."

The team looked at him appalled, Mina snarling at him. "Jean…"

"Suicidal guy that he is. Come on, eight years wouldn't matter, that'll be a goal for us to see if we can keep him alive that long."

The team began to speak, but were cut off by a chuckle, breaking out into a full body laugh as Eren lost it. It was clear he was still devastated, but there was a level of… relief that he felt quite apparently. Jean sagged as the tension left his body, the attempt to break the ice having been a very awkward one for him. The others all began to relax, and even a few other chuckles began to build.

"I won't make it easy for you." Eren promised, his sadness fading behind his dark smile as he laughed.

"Easy? My life has been nothing but hard since I met you Eren." Jean shot back, as more laughs echoed out, everyone remembering all the arguments the two of them had during their time in the cadets.

Eren stood back up, wiping away tears with one hand and a sniffle. "Thank you, Jean. You're such an asshole…"

"Yeah, fuck you too Eren…" He held out his hand, and the two shook hands. With the tension dropping away, they moved to return back to the inside of the bar. On the way in, Mikasa was waiting to pull Eren aside and hold him. Gohans hug had been warm, caring, and supportive, but Mikasa's was desperate. She held him tight, never wanting to let go as she held him like her life depended on it.

In a way, it did. She still devoted so much of her life to keeping him safe, to pay him back for all that he had done for her. To hear that no matter what, she was doomed to fail in eight years' time was nearly breaking her. Eren held her tightly too, no judgement against her as she showed herself so vulnerably.

"If you have eight years." Mikasa whispered, squeezing him tighter. "Then I'll give you eight of mine. Every year I can… I'll never let you go."

Once, Eren might have bristled at that. He might have fought against it, argued against her. But that wasn't who he was anymore, as instead Eren only squeezed her back just as tightly and accepted her promise.

Gohan left them to their privacy as he re-joined the senior staff who were waiting patiently.

"Well, now that they're all caught up, I think you need to get to your explanations." Captain Levi's foul mood had not improved after being forced to sit through the former 104th Cadets being brought up to speed on the rest of their knowledge. The rest of his team had sat through the explanation in silence, but they were still moved as they had the first time around. The news was… world shaking. Levi gestured for Gohan to take to the stage as people re-took their seats, including both Commanders Erwin and Pixis.

The two of them had been rather quiet and patient with the matter, not begrudging the younger ones their reactions. However, it was clear they were waiting for Gohan to get to the truth of the matter. And so, it was showtime.

"Okay, so… As you all would have figured out by now, I was the monster you saw last night." He scratched awkwardly at the back of his head. "I'm sorry about that by the way. When Annie and Reiner were loose, and Hange and her team were dead, I didn't see a better way to stop them. I didn't… did I hurt anyone?"

"Only my pride." Oluo spoke up. He wasn't blushing, but it was clear the man was still embarrassed about it all and was trying to play it off as if he wasn't fazed by the experience.

"Sorry about that."

"Your tail," Erwin cut in, "why hasn't it regenerated like the other Titan shifters?"

Gohan mentally braced himself as he readied for the explanation. "Well, that's because I'm not a Titan shifter. I'm actually… not fully human."

Silence.

They stared at him in bewilderment, especially Ymir who had likely expected she would be the least shocked of them all.

"What…?"

Gunther had spoken up, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"I'm half human on my mothers' side, on my fathers I'm half Saiyan. They're a race of… well, aliens. A race of people from another planet."

It was quiet for a moment, until abruptly Oluo stood up in anger and disbelief. "What the hell is this!? I thought you were going to start confessing, not telling us fairy tales!"

"I'm not lying!"

Gohan was surprised at how defensive he was. As too were the others, caught off guard by the anger in his tone. He swallowed down the anger before he continued. "I'm sorry, but I'm not lying. My father, Goku, he didn't know until I was four but he was sent to another planet as a baby. He was raised by my grandfather Gohan until he was a child, that's where I got my name."

"An alien…?" Erwin wondered aloud. "It's possible to travel between planets?"

Gohan nodded. "The Saiyans were a warrior race who worked for a monster called Frieza. They would send out the babies in pods to various different planets, like my dad."

"They sent babies out on their own?" Sasha gasped, appalled at the very idea. "Why would they do that!?"

'Oh boy…' Gohan thought to himself, knowing they would not like what was coming next. "They were sent out so they would transform into what you saw last night. Then they would… exterminate the planets they landed on."

The room was deathly silent.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, it was decided they would take a break to process everything and get some food in themselves. The Garrison had supplied food upon request, but Pixis had kept their presence to a minimum as the information was being kept top secret. By the time Gohan had explained the origins of his father, the Saiyans, the Oozaru form, it's moon specific trigger, his needed tail, and a little about Frieza, everyone was feeling weary.

The emotional toll was far more than any physical one, and few had any kind of appetite to eat. Some did to distract themselves, others merely nibbled. Sasha had dropped to a slow devouring of anything she was given, for as food crazy as she was she had a lot on her mind. It had been a perfect reminder of Gohans' insatiable appetite however, and he'd taken the time to explain how it had been a genetic feature of his Saiyan heritage. He'd also reminisced about how this was nothing compared to his father.

That memory had saddened Gohan, but he'd pushed it back just as he did every time he remembered them. The ache of missing them was too painful for him to think about. He kept to himself for the most part, or at least he'd tried to. Neither Eren, Mikasa, or Armin had been willing to let him be fully by himself, still seating themselves by his side as they ate. It was clear that they had a million questions, but they forced themselves to wait until they recommenced.

When they did, it was Pixis who took the first question. "These Saiyans, will there be any more coming?"

From how Gohan had described them, it was clear the man was concerned for the safety of Paradis in case any other exterminations were headed their way.

"No. Around the time my father was sent away from the planet, they were all killed by Frieza."

"How the hell did he do that? An entire planet of people as strong as you?" Eld looked like he wasn't happy with the possibility of facing a creature like Frieza, and Gohan certainly didn't blame him.

"He blew the planet up."

"That's-… that's not possible!" They were all horrified, as he'd expected, but even if Mina didn't initially believe him he knew they all trusted he wasn't lying.

"It is. He blew up the whole planet and killed them all. Only a few of them survived. My father, my uncle, Prince Vegeta, and Nappa."

He saw people begin to open up their mouths for follow up questions, but they were cut off as Erwin held up his hand to silence them. "Before we continue on with your history, I had some more questions about this… Oozaru form you described. This form increases your power ten-fold by your own description, and yet you never transformed at will before last night. Why not? If you could control this form like Eren could his Titan, then there would be nothing that could stop you. Wall Maria could be retaken with one last operation."

"In the cadets I made sure to never look at the moon. When I'm careful, I can sense when one is in the sky. So I was careful to never look and control myself. But before I came back… the Oozaru form takes a lot of mental power to control, and there is a great deal of risk to it. However, I did try to control it."

Gohan shifted his gaze from Erwin to his friends, to Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. His eyes sorrowful, as he said the next words as a way of apologizing for all the time they'd spent thinking he was dead.

"When I was in wall Maria. I did try to control it. I spent two years, trying to reclaim the wall by myself."

Gohan had awoken in the familiar location of a giant dirt crater. It had been a year since he had arrived in this world, and he had spent a year trying his best to deal with the creatures that laid within. Last night had been his most recent attempt, and just like every other it had ended in failure.

He stood, bracing against the cold windy morning as he had once again been forced nude by his transformation. He was running out of clothes that he'd been able to scavenge from homes and had long been forced into needing to fashion his own from hides and furs of animals. He thanked Piccolo once again for the survival training and experience, without it he would have been dead a long time ago.

He took a moment to orient himself, spying the ever-present wall in the far distance. He'd ended up further than he had liked, but he was thankful he had still not destroyed it. His plan to control the Oozaru form like Vegeta and use it to drive out the Titans and reseal the wall wouldn't work if he was punching more holes in it at the same time. He hesitated as he looked at the wall, turning back to look in the opposite direction.

A land, which featured no walls.

He had moved onto the far side of Wall Maria, out into the open lands as he'd torn his way through the Titans. This was not the first time, and he was far happier to be on this side of the wall, as there was far less risk to the people within the walls this way. He contemplated what lay beyond the horizon, before resuming his walk back towards his new home at Wall Maria.

Even after a year, he seemed no closer to getting control or having his strength return. It seemed no matter what he did, he could do nothing. He had even tried removing his tail, but to no avail. A working theory of his was that the tail had acted like a power limiter, as a large amount of gained strength had to be absorbed into the power of the tail so that it could be unleashed, slowing the actual gain of power in his body.

He had come to the conclusion reflecting on the changes in power of his friends, needing to boost his strength as fast as they had. His father had lost his tail some time into his early teenage years and had become much stronger at a faster rate than he previously had, especially after his uncle had arrived on Earth. But the big change had been Vegeta, a Saiyan that had progressed well, before exploding in power on their time on Namek. Given the prince's history, he must have taken repeated near-death experiences like on Namek before but hadn't grown in power anywhere near as much back then.

He'd also never known a Super Saiyan to have a tail.

Neither his father, Vegeta, Trunks, or he had had a tail when they transformed. It likely required a certain level of power as well, but now knowing of four Super Saiyans it seemed strange that none on planet Vegeta had been able to become one. Instead, all they had known was a legend.

Reaching the wall, Gohan reared back a fist and struck the hard material. It cracked and dented inwards as it always did, Gohan repeating the method a few times until he had enough indentations for hand holds. He begun to climb, pondering his limitations once again.

His efforts to improve his strength without his tail had continued to fail. No matter how many times he cut or ripped it off, within a few days it had returned. Perhaps he had needed to be of a certain level of strength for it to stay removed, or that there was some other secret to allow him to progress. But alas, he had found nothing.

Reaching the peak of the wall, he climbed over and allowed his aching muscles to rest slightly. He kept some small stockpiles of clothes on the wall given his frequent transformations forcing him nude, and there was only so much his Ki would help keep him warm. Shortly after, he was dressed and looking out across the land.

He could make out the wandering figures in the distance, the Titans roaming aimlessly in search of prey. He'd noted how his transformations always left him far away from the Titans and had assumed at first that he had simply killed any nearby before he changed back. However, watching how consistently the creatures would be bunched up and approaching from a consistent distance from any angle, he had come to realise that his form drove them away from him.

He knew nothing about the creatures and had no way to hypothesise why they did that beyond a survival instinct, but they did. Something for him to continue to ponder as he took out a few other supplies he kept safe. A small journal marking his days and notes, as well as some other books he'd been able to scavenge from the destroyed city.

Learning the language of these people had been a relatively simple adjustment, it was his own language only written upside down and with peculiar exaggerations that made it look messy. Mimicking it had been the next step, then practicing so it would be natural in case he one day returned to the walls. Once he'd learned to read more fluently, he'd taken to studying the lands history and culture.

He'd already shown himself to be odd during his meeting with Mr Jaeger and had long since decided against telling these people his true nature. How would he ever get them to believe him? Pausing, he took the time to look at the second wall far off in the distance, Rose it was called. He wondered about the people inside, whether the Jaegers were safe, and whether he would ever meet them again.

He hoped he would.

He hoped when the time came, he could help them.

Explaining his time between the walls had taken time, and much further than that had been answering more specific questions about his Oozaru form. The most prominent of which was whether he would be willing to use it again, more specifically against Marley or its forces.

His answer, had been an emphatic no.

He had no answer yet about what could be done about Marley, and from Ymir's tale the internment zones there were horrific, something he would not abide. But at the same time, he would not unleash upon them the same horror that had terrorised the people of Paradis for a hundred years. He would not condemn them to a helpless slaughter against an unstoppable monster, and he would not reside himself to being a weapon.

He was not a weapon.

He was also, not a soldier like they wanted him to be. Truthfully, Gohan knew he was a rather poor soldier by some standards. He had far too much of a heart and his own determination to follow orders obediently, like a good soldier.

But neither was he a warrior, like Annie, Reiner, or Bertholdt had been. He did not pride himself on strength, or desire to prove himself as the best. Gohan knew what he was now.

Gohan was a fighter.

He would fight to protect these people, to bring about peace. He would kill when he had to, spare when he could. When there was a chance for goodness, he would see it flourish. Gohan was a fighter to protect them all.

Which did not sit well with his commanders.

Captain Levi had not been shy about expressing his anger at Gohan's consistent defiance, once again showcased by his insistence for his friends to be present as he confessed the truth about himself. Both Erwin and Pixis had kept silent on the subject, but he could tell that neither were truly comfortable with his level of wilful independence. But they would accept it, for now.

As for the others… he couldn't truly tell who would still accept him or not. His cadet comrades were all in shock about his story, and his comrades in Captain Levi's squad were reflexively following their leader in his distrust. Save for one.

Petra would not look at him. She did not doubt him, or distrust him, but neither did she seemed to accept him as Mikasa, Eren, and Armin did. She looked thoughtful, for his entire explanation.

So he decided to cut to quite the heart of his explanation.

"Eren, do you remember what I had told your father on the day he found me? About my injuries and how I was in the forest."

Eren thought for a brief moment before recalling that day clearly in his mind. "You said that you were in a fight, with someone called Cell right?"

"That's right." Gohan remembered the monster every night, haunting his dreams as he remembered the carnage he'd wrought. All the death he had caused. The final words of Android Sixteen. "That fight, I thought I had won it. But he used a technique I'd never seen before. One moment I was in the fight, and the next I was in the forest."

"The hell does that mean?" It was Ymir's turn to speak up in confusion. "Did he knock you out or something?"

"No, I think he teleported me. Transported me from one location to another in an instant." He added the explanation as he realised some may not have even heard of the word before. "And I've had the time to think and come to terms with that… he didn't send me to another country. I think he sent me to another universe."

There was silence, as people stared at him dumbfounded. Hesitantly, Sasha raised a hand and began to speak the question that was on everyone's mind.

"What's a universe?"

"Are you sure this will work?"

Bulma had never known Goku to be a man who fretted. He was a man of either action or bemused confusion, but never a worrier. But after five years of his child being missing, Goku had only broken further and further from his original pure self.

"I've told you already, I'm not promising you anything but there's a chance."

Bulma stood from her desk and began to input her calculations into a nearby computer. She loved the man, she really did, and she loved and missed Gohan. But having Goku hovering over her shoulder every minute of every day was beginning to fray her patience.

She couldn't even get Vegeta to go and distract him with a fight anymore because the man was also waiting in her workshop. He didn't say it, but he cared too about finding Gohan. Perhaps not out of any familial love, the closest he ever said was that he was the prince of all Saiyans. But Bulma knew there was in fact a small amount of guilt that kept him interested. Guilt, and perhaps respect.

"How long to go? You keep swapping from computer to computer, aren't you done yet?"

Bulma groaned and bit back the explanation of what she was doing, knowing he would neither understand nor be calmed. Whenever it came to Gohan, the man was a bundle of anxiety, regret, and anger. If she couldn't get Vegeta to wear him out, then she would have to just wait it out.

"If you want an explanation, go and ask Bulma. I'm busy."

On cue, Bulma walked into the workshop.

A few years older, and all the wiser for it, her future counterpart came in with a box of supplies in her hands followed by Trunks, Goten, Videl, and Trunks. She really needed to come up with names for their future versions at some point.

"Right where I left it." Future Bulma said proudly, dropping the box of scraps on the desk and digging through for a select few items. "Dad never cleaned out any of my old projects so I still have the prototype we need."

She held up her find with a happy smile, the very first model of dragonball radar. It was chunky, impractical, and she had surpassed its design before she'd even met Goku. But, it was also exactly what they were looking for.

"Trunks, go plug it in to the computer on the far end."

"Which one?"

The two of them spoke in unison and were not talking about the computer as one big, and one small Trunks pointed to each other in confusion. The future Bulma rolled her eyes and tossed the device to her actual son.

"Big Trunks, now hop to it."

He did as requested, placing a box of notes in the counter as he went.

"Videl, did you get those blood samples?" Future Bulma continued, not missing how the younger Trunks rubbed at his arm in memory.

"All three are here."

It was adorable how eager to help she was, holding up three test tubes with labels marked on them all. Trunks, future Trunks, and Goten. Goten wasn't rubbing his arm like Trunks was, wanting to look tough in front of his big sister. The girl had truly been a life saver, showing up wanting to learn about the saviours against Cell and train under Goku.

It had been the influx of joy and love that the Son family had needed, and was probably the only thing that kept them together. It was not something that could be said for their group as a whole unfortunately. Piccolo had permanently kept his distance from Goku since that day.

"Pass them here, I'm ready to start the program."

Present day Bulma held up her hand without looking away from her screen. As future Bulma watched Videl pass them over she felt a wave of nostalgia, remembering when she was still young enough to pull the level of all-nighters that her younger self did.

They plugged in only the sample from the younger Trunks first, this would be a process that would take them quite a few steps and was still developing. It wasn't called research if they knew it would work after all.

"Alright, the program is ready to begin shortly. Trunks- big Trunks, is the radar plugged in?"

"All set mom- uh, moms…"

He blushed, but future Bulma placed a hand on his cheek as she moved to her next station.

"You're doing great sweetie."

Sitting down in her chair, she began uploading the new software program into the radar. It would overwrite parts of the existing program, but not everything. The plan was to use its built-in energy detecting program as a basis, but to rewrite what exactly it would search for.

When the software was finally uploaded, she unplugged the radar and brought it over to the machine her younger counterpart was working away at. She plugged it in, ran the software initialisation, and waited.

"Okay, radar is detected, time to commence energy re-calibration using Trunks standard."

A few button clicks later, and the machine whirred to life around the blood samples. It would trace through the genetic code of Trunks' DNA and pinpoint his Ki signature. It was a breakthrough in medical technology that would have taken the Bulmas' a lifetime to complete had they done so through study. One shortcut through Shenron later, and they'd both been gifted textbooks explaining the full knowledge of human, Saiyan, and hybrid biology.

There was a small beep on the screen, and their breath caught. On the radar, a small dot flickered to life and began to rhythmically beep the location of the youngest son.

"Okay… okay okay, we have progress! Whoo!" The two engineers shared a loud high five, the mood in the room rising as they all began to hope again.

"Now, running the analysis to find the time difference between our two Trunks'."

The machine continued humming, and though the process took quite a while longer there was eventually, another dot added to the radar.

"Holy shit…"

Bulma didn't dare to hope, not truly, but it was impossible to deny the massive leap forwards that they had made. She was immediately making notes on a pad with one hand while already sequencing the next step with the other.

"Beginning Goten analysis. Genetic markers identified and locked, beginning search."

She ran the time difference analysis at the same time, as the machine began to locate the unique energy signature of both Goten, and any possible genetic match whether they be in the same timeline or not.

Three dots came into view on the radar. Goten, Goku, and far away back home was Chi Chi. But as always, no Gohan. She couldn't have slumped harder in her chair if she'd tried. The hope she'd tried in vain not to give herself was snuffed out in an instance.

"Nothing…"

The mood was sombre, as the brief light of hope was extinguished for them all. Goku returned to being the shell of a man he had become, dropping to the floor as his knees gave out. No one said a word, as there was nothing they could do.

"Wait…" It was Future Bulma who spoke up, a pen in her hand tapping against her chin as she thought. "Goku, take Goten and instant transmission to King Kai. Wait ten seconds, then come back."

He looked like he wanted to ask why but didn't let himself waste time as he was up on his feet, before he and his son were gone in a literal flash. The clock on the wall ticked away, both Bulma's watching the machine carefully.

"There, do you see it…?"

She pointed a finger to a spot on the display, then to one of the readings as her younger version studied them carefully.

"I see it."

Goku and Goten re-appeared in the room. Goku was tense, his eyes hopeful that there had been a reason for his bizarre trip.

"Did you see anything? What happened?"

Bulma hit a button and the machine began to print off a long sheet of paper filled with data. Ripping it free, she was immediately highlighting the key areas her future version had noticed and was waving for Goku to come closer.

"This reading is yourself and Goten before you went to King Kai. Here is where you returned, nice and easy reading. But in between then, there's a trail."

She pointed to a few specific numbers on the list, it was all lost on Goku's mind as he struggled to even be able to read the sheet of scientific jargon.

"What do you mean? What trail?"

"When you used instant transmission, you disappeared from the radar. But for a few moments, Goten was still present. It picked up a few readings until you went out of range. It did the same when you came back, detecting Goten shortly before you. Goten left a trail because he teleported as a passenger, just like Gohan did."

It was still a working theory, but it was the best they had. That Cell had used a technique to transport Gohan away as wiping him from existence was far beyond his power.

"Does this mean…?" Goku grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Can you find him?"

"We don't have the range to find Gohan but… this is a start."

A slow start, and far from complete. They would need to expand the machines range, boost its power to ludicrous levels, and conduct timeline testing. They would need to cannibalise part of the time machine to make that work. It seemed that her future counterpart would be staying a bit longer than they'd originally anticipated.

But it was after all, a start.

Goku leapt into the air with a cheer, before running and wrapping Goten up in a hug as he span the boy around in his arms. The energy was infectious, and soon Videl was celebrating with the two versions of Trunks and the younger Bulma as well. The future Bulma took her chance to slink off to the side, where Vegeta had let his brooding masks lip and a small smile graced his lips.

"So Vegeta, looks like we have a reason to celebrate huh?"

His smile dropped down to its familiar frown as he looked at her.

"We've been over this. It's not going to happen."

She rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Can't blame a gal for trying."

It was night-time when Gohan took a walk out of the bar to stretch his legs. He'd finally covered everything he'd been through and answered every question he could. His history in his world, the truth about his arrival to this world and what little he knew, and of course the loss of his incredible power.

Describing the power of the Super Saiyan to them he had seen a hope in their eyes, that if he could re-awaken it he would be able to wipe away any threat to their people ever again. But he'd had to cut that hope, to explain how no matter how hard he'd tried, his power had been locked away.

Hours of answering questions and explaining his abilities, and finally they had been allowed to take another break. And so, Gohan was standing outside in the breeze, looking up at the night sky with a feeling he couldn't quite place. It felt like he had finally, let a weight fall from his shoulders.

The weight of pretence. Of hiding that he was an outsider, that he was something other.

The weight of not being able to truthfully talk about his family, how he missed them, how he'd failed them.

It was a peaceful night, but not empty. The Garrison forces remaining in the city had begun to enjoy the nightlife, as sounds of laughter and chatter echoed around him. Distantly, he heard the sound of someone strumming a guitar and singing a soft song.

"Chairs so close, a room so small. You and I talk all the night long…"

He let himself enjoy the tune in the back of his mind, so much so he almost didn't notice the person approaching from behind. Petra stood by his side, joining him in looking up at the sky without a word. Softly, she let out a deep sigh.

"I told you to open up, to share the burden you were holding. I didn't know how much I was asking that day did I?"

"Sorry." He apologised reflexively. "I shouldn't have pushed you away like that. You were right, I did need to be honest. I just didn't… I didn't know how."

"What you were hiding, I don't know how you kept it together so long." Her words were soft, and she turned to face him. Gently, she reached out and with a hand on his cheek, turned him to look at her.

"I'm sorry to hear about everything you went through Gohan, but I'm glad to hear you be honest." She hesitated, looking away briefly. "Hearing it all… it's a lot to take in."

"I know." He gently caressed her hand in his. "I understand it's a lot for you, I'm sure you must have a lot of questions."

She thought about them, she certainly had a lot on her mind. "A few, but if everything you said is the truth then…"

"And it's always so, we live under the burnt clouds. Ease our burden, long is the night." The singer continued in the distance, his strumming soft and peaceful.

"Are you going to be honest from now on? To me, and to you. If you will… then tell me what you want."

His thumb gently brushed over her hand. Pain gripped at his heart, the ache of lost love of his family and friends. But he would be honest, to her and to himself. He didn't want to be shut off from love.

"I want to take you on a date Petra. If you'll let me I mean…"

He blushed, and she smiled softly. Her other hand coming up to sit behind his head.

"I'd like that Gohan."

With a gentle tug, she pulled him down towards her. In the peace of the night and with hearts unburdened. His lips met hers.