Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own the characters from Dragon Ball. I like to mess with 'em though.

Summary: The world was not a happy place, not anymore. Crime and depression had hit an all time high even while education and health hit an all time low. Son Gohan often wondered what had happened to everyone. Did they all just decide to become this way or was something else entirely behind the general hopelessness of the people? Maybe the answer would ease the constant loneliness felt by the departure of his father. Maybe it could comfort him the way nothing else could.

Or maybe it would lead him on an adventure the likes of which he had never known before.

Notes: Utterly and completely AU. Almost nothing in this universe matches the other. Shounen ai alert too later on (*very* later on actually). Violence alert pretty early on.

Parings: Goku x Vegeta, Gohan x original character

Feedback: I would *really* like reviews on this fanfic. I've never written anything like this before so I would like to know how I'm doing.

Homeward Bound
The Pathway to Destiny, vol. 1

Prologue: Happiness Remembered

Things had been pretty bad for Gohan ever since his parents divorced on the grounds of 'irreconcilable differences' and his mother got custody of him. It wasn't as if Son ChiChi was a bad mother, oh no she was far from it. It was just a little matter of her going back to school for her doctorate degree to teach Literature in the largest university they had on Chikyuu. She was so busy that she had no time for him and Gohan was often left alone.

No, it wasn't as if ChiChi was a bad mother; it was just that she focused on one single thing and neglected the rest. The house they lived in, one that she had purchased, was often cleaned by the son instead of the mother. Gohan scrubbed and dusted the house, cooked the meals, and handled the bills. ChiChi had made sure that her son was as intelligent as possible and those skills were coming in handy to keep the bill collectors from calling. All of their money was going toward the college classes that would enable his mother to get a better job and improve their lifestyle. 'That's in the future, though,' Gohan sighed mentally as he poured the dirty water from the bucket outside the back door. 'Right now I just want my kaasan back.'

Their house was modest, five rooms on one level. It was one that looked remarkably like two others right next door on either side. Gohan considered them "cookie-cutter houses". After placing the mop and the bucket in the utility closet, he went in search of his mother who he hadn't seen in quite some time. The last place he saw her was the living room where she was musing over something on her laptop. The small boy assumed that it was a report for class and chose not to bother her.

Gohan remembered happier times when both his mother and his father had been around, before they constantly screamed at each other. He thought that everything was perfect; just he, his parents and sometimes his best friend and her father. They used to take him to the park on weekends and let him play with the other children. That all ended when he started school.

"I want him to never have to want for anything, Goku!" His mother had always exclaimed when defending her decisions. "Gohan can only achieve that by high grades. If he studies now there's no limit to what he can do." Gohan hated his daily lessons but tolerated them only because if he satisfied his mother, she spent time with him.

His father would do the same thing he always did: look at ChiChi as if she were losing her mind. "He's four years old!"

"So what? The earlier they start, the higher they achieve."

That had been what he did every day as soon as he came home from school for the next three years. He and Videl had drifted apart so much that he didn't know how he would salvage their friendship. He would see her outside sometimes, skipping rope or playing tag, and would greet her from an open window. She would always wave back but he knew as soon as he backed out of sight she forgot him very easily. 'It's my fault,' he thought miserably as he stood in front of the window and watched the children play, 'I never gave her any reason to remain friends with me.' The thought ran rampant through his mind, making him ever more depressed than he already was. He wished that once, just once, someone would tell him otherwise but he didn't dare voice his thoughts to his mother. She didn't have time to hear them.

"Gohan?" He heard his mother call out. A tiny glimmer of hope rose in his heart as he made his way as fast as possible to the living room. ChiChi typed still, her head bowed, and only looked at him briefly to give him a piece of paper.

"What's this, Kaasan?" he asked, peering at the words. His dark eyebrows rose when he recognized it. 'A shopping list. She wants me to go shopping.' He silently wondered why he even hoped she had been calling him for something else.

"Can you go to the store for me, honey?" she asked, pausing to hand him the money. "We're all out of several things."

Gohan forced a smile on his face and hoped that it appeared sincere. "Sure, Kaasan. No problem." 'Some people would think that sending a seven-year-old shopping by himself was odd.' He snorted. Not his kaasan.

"That's my good little boy." She smiled and returned to her work. "Don't take too long. I get worried with you out there all by yourself."

A rush of anger rose in Gohan, something so unfamiliar that it left him pondering. He hardly ever got angry at anything or anyone but his mother had just crossed a line. How could she claim to get worried when she had barely acknowledged his existence for so long? The anger was quickly replaced by pain. Raw, emotional pain. Some children were lucky enough to receive loving parents that always made time for them. He had been unlucky enough to receive ChiChi. Was he being punished for something that he had done in a past life or was it just bad fortune? 'Stop thinking that way,' Gohan mentally scolded himself. 'Some kids don't have any parents at all. You're *very* fortunate.' He told himself that and tried to believe it, but the emotional scarring ran too deep. He knew that he did have one parent who cared a lot about him, one parent that would kill himself before he let anything happen to his son. Unfortunately his father lived too far away for him to be with and the courts would not let Goku have custody of his son. Gohan had no idea why not and thought that it was evil of the judge to rule the way he did but that's just the way things were.

Gohan often dreamed of a day when he was happy and loved. He wasn't too clear on many of the details but he knew that his father was there, laughing, and so was he. His mother was not there but she had been, once. Over the years, Gohan's mind slowly erased her from the sharp image that she had once been into a hazy blur into finally nothing. ChiChi wasn't in his dream, but her son didn't mind at all.

The sun's warmth washed over him as his father swung him around in his arms; he always remembered that detail. It was always sunny and warm with a cloudless blue sky above and white sand below. They had done lots of fun things that day, but Gohan could only remember being held in his father's arms and feeling safe, happy, and loved. He experienced that feeling a lot before the divorce and it was the main thing he missed after his father moved away. The trips were nice and so were the gifts, but nothing could replace the feeling of his father's love. ChiChi had taken that away from him, and nothing she could do would earn his forgiveness.

He looked at his mother's fingers moving rapidly along the computer keyboard and suddenly hated the sound of the keys. He gazed at his mother's face and suddenly hated the single-minded determination he saw there. His dark eyes swept around the house and suddenly he hated the place to which he was constantly confined. Gohan felt as if he had to get out of the house and no short trip to the store was going to work. He was going in search for the love that had been stolen from him. He was going to find his father and nothing -- not fear, not the police, not his mother -- could stop him from achieving his goal. Gohan had a healthy portion of that fierce determination that drove his mother forward and a quick, intelligent mind on top of it. He had calculated the risks and the benefits, finding only that the benefits greatly overbalanced the risks. 'When such a thing happens,' Gohan mused, 'the task becomes a possibility.'

And the word "possible" usually equaled "go for it!" in his young mind.