Chapter 22

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"Videl-san? Are you OK?"

The voices sounded distant. She opened her eyes to a blurry vision and a splitting headache. "Ugh... What happened? Where am I?" Slowly, her senses cleared, and she was aware of the two young men beside her. She took a look at their faces and nearly passed out again.

One of them promptly caught her before she fell while the other peered at her in concern. She stared at him.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Trunks," the lavender haired  young man answered her. He was the one she saw just before losing consciousness in the street. Videl glanced around at her surroundings. She noticed that they were now in a shaded and more secluded area. It wasn't far from the street where she had fainted. Apparently the two young men had carried her here, and for some reason they knew her name. Videl turned her attention to the one who called himself Trunks.

"Trunks? The son of Bulma Briefs?" she quizzed, looking at his face carefully. He nodded.

She sat up promptly, her face nearly collided with his. He backed away. "You're lying!" Videl cried out vehemently. "Trunks Briefs is dead. He and his mother were murdered a year ago. I saw the body myself!"

Trunks froze in shock when he heard her words. Videl glared at him, challenging him to try to explain his existence here. She recognized the face positively. It was Trunks Briefs, or somebody who looked exactly like him and for some as yet unknown reason, was claiming to be the dead Capsule Corporation heir.

"Videl-san..." The voice came from the other youth, who had supported her back as she was about to faint a moment ago. She turned around to face him, and it was her turn to be shocked. That was the face she had sought in the street before coming face to face with Trunks. Son Gohan!

Shock quickly turned into some unexplainable emotion which threatened to overcome her. "Gohan? Is it really you?" she whispered, reaching out to touch his face.

He looked at her sadly and shook his head. "Iie, Videl-san. I am not Son Gohan."

Videl blinked as her face fell. "Who are you, then?" she asked, realizing the slight bitterness in her tone, but not being able to help it.

The black haired teenager looked past her, into the eyes of his lavender haired companion. She didn't see what they communicated between them, but then the black haired youth turned to her again.

"Videl-san," he spoke. "My name is Son Goten. I am Son Gohan's younger brother from another timeline. My friend Trunks and I came here in a time machine belonging to Mirai Trunks, which the cyborg Cell used to come to our timeline twenty years ago."

Chapter 23
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