Chapter 24

Videl stared at the black-haired youth who called himself Son Goten incredulously. Kami, he looks so much like Gohan! "Let me get this straight," she said. "You are Son Gohan's younger brother and Trunks Briefs from another timeline, and you came here in a time machine."

"Yes," Goten nodded gravely. Videl still couldn't believe it. A time machine? Impossible! She had the urge to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't still sleeping. "And this time machine," she continued, "belonged to a monster called Cell who went to the past and created your timeline." Goten shook his head. "No, he stole it from Mirai Trunks, but yes, our timeline exists as a result of his coming."

"Right..." Videl didn't bother hiding the disbelief in her voice, then stopped short as something clicked in her mind. Cell? Isn't that the name Bulma Briefs mentioned just before she died? And something about time... A time machine? Is that possible? Certainly, if anyone was capable of creating something as implausible as a time machine, it would be her. Videl looked at Goten again, this time more carefully. Goten looked back at her steadily in the eye. And then she remembered what it was that had bothered her about the face she thought was Gohan's in the crowd a few minutes ago. He was too young, as though he'd only aged four years instead of fourteen.

"How old are you?" she asked him. "Seventeen," he replied.

Videl nodded. "And you?" she turned to Trunks. "I'm eighteen," he replied. "I see..." she said, thinking. Trunks (the one from her timeline) was twenty when he died. That was a year ago. That means these two boys have time-travelled three years ahead of their own time, but to a timeline different from theirs. That explains why they referred to Trunks as 'Mirai' Trunks, but a million other questions remain unanswered.

"Why are you here?" she asked them. Why did Bulma Briefs create a time machine? What exactly is Cell? Did he/it kill Bulma and Trunks Briefs, and why? How does any of this tie in with the disappearance of the cyborgs, if they are related at all? So many questions, and the answer lay with the two time-travelling youths in front of her.

Trunks spoke. "We found the time machine among my mother's old stuff, and decided to try it out. I thought we'd be able to see Mirai Trunks, but we ended up in the wrong timeline. When I set it to a year after the date from which the machine came, I overlooked the fact that it came from the timeline Cell came from. In that timeline he killed Mirai Trunks before using the time machine to go to the past which became our timeline." In the end he still wasn't able to meet the alternate version of himself, Trunks found to his disappointment. Since they arrived at this world yesterday, they've seen enough of the destruction the cyborgs sowed in their wake. They saw the people who had suffered for years under the cyborgs, whose scars, physical and emotional, may never heal. They saw men, women and children, maimed and unable to work, begging and stealing for something to eat. Little children fighting to the death over scraps. No Kami, no Dragon Balls, no hope. This was the world Mirai Trunks grew up in. This was the world which forced him to become the hardened warrior Vegeta admired and Trunks envied. If it had been me, could I have done it? he thought. At least he had come to understand how harsh life had been for Mirai Trunks, and how lucky he was to never had to go through this. Now Trunks envied him a little less, and admired him even more.

Trunks glanced at Goten, wondering how this little trip had changed his perspective of things. They had visited the Son house yesterday, and found ChiChi in such a pitiful condition. She was thin and pale, and barely aware of her surroundings. She was so far different from the active and energetic ChiChi they knew in their timeline. Never in a million years would Trunks have imagined that ChiChi could look like that. She never even realised their presence, even though they'd spent the whole night there.

"I think...," Goten spoke, his expression thoughtful, "it's best if we don't stay here too long."

Trunks nodded in agreement. They had come here because they were bored, and had the means to do so. It had not occured to either of them then that their presence here might influence the alternate counterparts of the people they knew from their timeline in ways that that might not be desirable. How would this Videl react if she knew what she had lost, and what the Videl from their timeline had? It was obvious she had known Gohan, and possibly had a relationship with him, but didn't know that he had died. Maybe it's best not to tell her anything other than that the Gohan in this timeline is dead.

"Wait!" Videl exclaimed. "You can't go yet! I've got a lot of questions to ask you about the cyborgs, Cell, the Briefs family, ...and Son Gohan. I'm sure you've got all the answers I've been looking for all this time."

"Why are you so interested?" Trunks asked.

"Because, I'm the investigating officer, and I must solve the case once and for all, among other things. So you two must follow me to the station to help me in the investigation."

Trunks and Goten stared at her up and down. "You're a cop?" Goten blurted out incredulously, and Videl was reminded how uncoplike she looked at the moment.

She growled. Her headache was returning, what with the excitement brought by these alleged time travellers, and her patience was running thin. I hate teenagers, she thought to herself absently.

"Yeah. You got a problem with that?" she asked testily. Before either Trunks or Goten could reply, Videl repeated, "You two are coming with me willingly, or do I have to make you?" She produced a set of handcuffs from her multipurpose watch. The watch, made specially for the police was equipped with capsules for storing handcuffs, guns and extra ammunition, as well as a communicator and a database of people who live in the particular area.

Trunks shrugged. "OK, we'll follow you," he said. Not that a pair of handcuffs could restrain a Super Saiyajin, but just as Videl was intrested in knowing their story and its relation to her world, so was he interested to know more about how Mirai Trunks' world was like and how it fared after the cyborgs' demise.

Chapter 25
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