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It came with a wave of warm light.
Just a pinprick in the distance to be honest. Easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it but Gohan had never taken his eyes off of the struggles of the earth he left behind. In a way, he never forgave himself for leaving Trunks behind even though there wasn’t much to be done about it. He’d not been strong enough and he knew it. But there hadn’t been much choice left.
Seeing how Trunks has prevailed since then...well, Gohan didn’t know if it was possible to be more proud than he was. While you couldn’t see everything from the Afterlife, you could see quite a bit and when he got the chance, he would look down on him.
King Yemma had said something was amiss on the Earth and not just the Earth but all over the universe. Something that had divine energy and yet not. He mentioned a set of Dragonballs that Gohan had never heard of and that had left an ominous feeling in Gohan’s heart.
Then Bulma had come through the Check In Station.
Oh, it felt like forever since anyone had seen her! Gohan knew it felt like that for him! As sad as the prospect of her death was, he was glad to see her again.
Then she’d recoiled from his dad like he was some kind of monster. The look that took on Goku’s eyes was heartbreaking; Bulma was his oldest friend. Not his only friend, not by far, but their relationship had always been a unique one.
Seeing her try to scramble away until Gohan had managed to talk her down, Goku had all but collapsed to the ground. When she finally managed to look at him again without utter terror in her eyes...it was unnerving.
Then Bulma had started talking.
About this Goku Black. What a horrific concept, Gohan thought. His father, despite his Saiyan blood, had always been a protector, someone that would risk himself for someone else. That someone was using his father’s image to commit atrocities made Gohan see red.
“Trunks will take care of him.”
He meant that. He meant that with every fiber of his being. He knew the depths of Trunks’ passion. If there was a means to destroy this Goku Black then Trunks would find it.
Yet as Gohan stood on the edge of Grand Kai’s planet, trying to sense what he could sense, he felt...fear.
So many dead. So much anxiety. So much hopelessness and the darkness of one ki—or was it two? Hard to tell—they felt identical but were separate and one had the ki of his father’s body—or a version of his father’s body—worn like a sick mask. The sickness underneath it bled through.
And he really wasn’t sure he was feeling ki. It was more like...well, like something was there and was vibrating with such a dark feeling that he was catching waves off of it rather than the source. Like a black hole was found by the reactions around it and not the hole itself.
“It’s Lord Zeno! He has deemed us no longer worthy!”
That statement, uttered by one of the Kaio, Gohan wasn’t sure which, was enough to produce mass hysteria. People shouting, running, pleading, asking for mercy.
A hand fell on his shoulder.
Looking up, he felt a sense of warmth at seeing his father there.
“Do you know who Zeno is, Dad?” He finally asked.
“Nope. Big shot, by the looks of it.” Goku faced that speck of white light that Gohan had been monitoring and closed his eyes. “I think I know why the panic though.”
Frowning, Gohan followed his father’s look. It was a rare thing to see his father’s face so serious and melancholy. But as Gohan focused his senses, he began to see why.
Ki. Vanishing. Just gone. Not dead. That was a different feeling. That was a transfer of energy. This was just...utter erasure. Completely and fully and in the blink of an eye. Human, animal, tree, rock, water.
Just...gone. Ceased. Emptiness in its place. Void.
And it all centered on that white light that was spreading like an all encompassing ocean, dissolving whatever it touched and spreading.
Inching over land, sky and everything in between. Down beyond what the mind could sense, into the bowels of the ocean. Leaving just empty whiteness in its wake.
Zeno...Gohan pondered the word. He knew there were a lot of possibilities but given everything, he didn’t think his assessment was wrong.
‘King of All.’
The warm light was getting closer and it carried a terrible wind with it, almost as if announcing utter oblivion. Despite its warmth, there was no joy to be had in it and fear took Gohan down to the depth of his soul.
Dying, he could handle. He’d done it without a second thought to protect this world and the people within it. He would gladly do it again. Because it left behind people to carry on in his place. People that would succeed where he failed.
But this?
This looming permanence of nothingness. Of being...of not being. Not just him but everyone, everything, everything that had ever been!
“Trunks got away.”
Goku’s words were spoken calmly without much gumption. “I felt his ki disappear but not like this. It kinda...popped. So, he went somewhere else. Not here.”
Oh course. The Time Machine he’d used to jump timelines. Made sense it could jump...well, wherever it jumped to. “Trunks is alive.”
Goku nodded, wrapped an arm around his son’s shoulders. “He’s got a good memory. He’ll make sure we ain’t gonna just...be gone.”
It was so close now. Hot, almost burning. Gohan trembled before it. “But...all we did. All we fought for. All for nothing.”
“Not nothing, Son. Everything you learned you gave to Trunks. He ain’t here. Not for nothing.”
Gohan could almost taste it. The emptiness that closed in on them like a wave that could not be stopped. He saw the pathway leading up to the planet vanish as if it had never been. He saw small figures, fighters he’d grown fond of, disappear and just...cease.
Fear took his heart. Fear unlike any he’d felt before and he wanted to run and scream and cry. He wanted to...well, he was dead so not live but exist. To be. To just...
His voice was quaking though he wasn’t talking. Not really. More like letting sounds come from his throat that he had not made in years.
Tears.
Yes, he was crying.
A hand fell on his empty sleeve and another cupped his cheek and turned him away from that white wave that looked ever closer.
Goku...his father...looked on him with eyes full of warmth and love. “Look at me. Not at that. Look at me.”
He did. He lost himself in those eyes he’d seen close forever that fateful day so long ago. Before that war against the Androids. Before losing everyone he cared about. Before losing the world he loved...
“...Daddy.”
He’d not called him that since the day Goku died. It felt so alien now. But right.
Goku pulled his son tight into his chest, one arm over his head and effectively blocking his sight. If this was how it was to end, his son would not go looking eternal death in the face.
“I’m here, son. I’m here.”
Gohan squeezed his eyes tight even as he held his father so close he swore they should have merged into one another.
“I’ll always be here.”
And to that, Goku kept his word, holding his only child as tight as he could until oblivion took them both—together.