Hi. It's been a while, but we're eventually nearing the end.

Thanks a lot for all the nice things.

Kalebxdd edited this chapter again.

Chapter 35

"Hey! Videl! Viiiidddeeelll!" a chorus of voices called in unison.

Videl interrupted her absent staring through the window. She was at Barney's with some friends, including of course Sharp and Erasa. They had decided to have a drink together and it had in fact turned out to be more than a single drink, which had resulted in the students growing loud and restless with Barney watching them from afar.

Gazing back at her companions, Videl realized someone had just said something to her but she'd been lost in her thoughts and she hadn't heard what it was. Her friends laughed at her, mocking her for her puzzled face.

Sharp snaked his arm over her shoulders and pressed her roughly against him. "Don't make fun of poor Videl. She got a hard time. Figure out she is heartbroken," he claimed in a voice faking compassion and reeking of alcohol.

The whole group giggled while Videl nudged Sharp's ribs in order to have him let go of her. "Shut up," she grumbled.

"But… Who? Who is the heartbreaker? Oh, Videl, tell us! Please!" a brunette sitting at the other end of the table exclaimed.

"It's nobody. Can't you see Sharp is wasted?" Videl snapped while taking a sip of her drink in an attempt to keep her composure.

The teenagers wouldn't buy her answers though. A boy next to the brunette stood up. "If Videl doesn't want to tell us, then we'll have to take guesses and Sharp will be our judge. What about that?" he offered in a chuckle.

Everyone agreed loudly, oblivious of Videl's glare. Sharp had a silly smile of delight at such attention. Videl leaned closer to him. "One word. Hear me well, Sharp. A single word and I swear I choke you to death," she murmured coldly in his ear.

He narrowed his eyes and stared at her, his moronic smile turning into a smirk. "What's the point of hiding it now that it's over, Videl? Your father won't be able to prevent anything any longer, right?" he mumbled in return.

Videl gritted her teeth at that. "No kidding, I'll beat you to a pulp if you say anything," she hissed.

Yet, Sharp just snickered at her threat. He crossed his arms and looked back at the group. "So? Who wants to take a first guess?" he asked.

"This game isn't exactly fun," Erasa complained in an obvious attempt to help her embarrassed friend. Her remark was rewarded with disapproving pouts and mockeries though. Feeling that the group wouldn't consider her opinion, she just bit her lips wordlessly with an apologetic glance at Videl.

A first name was suggested and welcomed with roar of laughter for the boy in question was a very unlikely match for Videl. Videl's blood was boiling in her veins and she glared daggers at her friends. However, her attitude wouldn't stop their silly game. She knew she should leave, but she was afraid to leave Sharp unguarded. He was pretty drunk and she knew that in such state, he could turn quite unpredictable and creative in what to say and do. As long as he would have Videl by his side, he might at least hesitate to spill the beans. Or so, she hoped.

"My turn! I know, I know!" the brunette exclaimed all of a sudden. She was a second year as well but from another class. She stood up in excitement while all the others stilled at once and turned to her with bated breath. A lump formed in Videl's throat and she almost choked on her beer.

The girl raised a knowing index up in the air as to focus everyone's attention. "Gohan Son," she claimed quietly.

The teenagers mulled wordlessly over her suggestion. Getting no reaction, the brunette carried on. "First, that would be the reason why Sharps is so well-informed. Then, I noticed that they used to have lunch together before, but now, they hardly talk to each other."

"Wow. That snooty nerd? I don't buy it," one of the boys objected.

"Beside, he's not athletic at all. Definitely not Videl's type," another girl added.

"Not to mention that he is a true bookworm. Does he even know what a naked girl looks like?" another boy chortled.

The debate about Gohan went on, spiced up with gross jokes and crude assumptions. The group had grown totally oblivious of Videl staring at them in shock, her cheeks pink with embarrassment and anger. After a short while, she couldn't take it any longer. Before she knew it, she jumped to her feet and threw her beer over the audience. Cries expressing a mix of surprise, disgust and amusement echoed and all the eyes turned to her in disapproval.

"You, dirty assholes!" Videl yelled in a voice vibrating with fury.

With that, she grabbed her stuff and dashed angrily to the exit of the bar. She did her best to ignore their sarcastic replies, but she couldn't prevent herself from hearing them ask Sharp for more details as she walked out of Barney's and she was relieved when the snap of the door closing behind her back cut off the echoes of their talk. She stood still on the sidewalk for a while, savouring the stillness of the night until the biting cold had her shiver. She slipped hastily in her coat and buttoned it with tembling, nervous fingers.

The moon was round and with no clouds shielding it, it was able to cast a light even brighter than the streetlamps. When she was done knotting her scarf, Videl stepped away from Barney's place.

She was still shaking and her eyes were watering, but it wasn't only out of rage. A mix of confusing feelings was overwhelming her. She decided to walk home with the hope that the quiet cold night might help her sort things out and calm down. Yet, after a few steps, she was caught off guard by a voice calling her.

"Videl!" It was Erasa. She was out of Barney's and rushing up to join her. Videl paused to wait for her.

"Don't be mad at him. He didn't mean to… You know how he is," the blonde girl sighed in an apologetic voice.

She was talking about Sharp of course. At that moment, Videl hated him and she truly felt like punching him. However, as usual, Erasa's sorry eyes were enough to have her melti down. Yes, Videl knew exactly how Sharp was. He liked to be blunt and loud, and he liked to be right. He hated things to be left untold, at least things about other people than him because when it was about him he liked it better when things stayed unsaid. In that case, the surface was enough for him.

Videl repressed her bitterness for Erasa's sake though. "Don't worry Erasa. I guess he's somehow right, it doesn't matter that much now if people hear of Gohan and me. Just, don't let them say bullshit about us."

Erasa's face eased off. "You know you can rely on me to stand up for you, Videl. How do you feel? Are you okay?"

Videl forced a weak smile. "I feel like killing Sharp, but otherwise, I'll make it."

Erasa looked at her with sadness and nodded before running back to Barney's. Videl resumed her tired walk. She couldn't help but wonder if Sharp had really been that drunk when he had started his stupid game, or if he had somehow done it to piss her off, as a sort of revenge for Gohan. Sharp was a moron. Videl had no doubt that he was clueless about her reasons for leaving Gohan. If he'd known, he would have shut his damn mouth.

Either way, she was mad at the dirty way her relationship with Gohan had been exposed. Not to mention the dumb remarks she'd heard about him. Every word had been hurting and unfair and she realized that no one knew Gohan like she did. The icy night cooled down her temper with each step and her fury soon turned into a mere irritation. As another feeling took over in her mind, the tears she'd fought all the time rolled down her cheeks.

In fact, she didn't give a damn if people knew about her relationship with Gohan. She couldn't care less. However, hearing such a disgusting depiction of his personality had upset her to no end. Videl had been deeply offended by the mocking words. She missed him sorely. So sorely, she knew now that resentment wouldn't be enough to chase him out of her life and mind. Even though she'd been hell bent on never talking to him again after she'd found out who he really was, things had turned out much easier said than done. She'd understood it at the police station.

When the cops had turned up at her home in the middle of the night, she'd panicked. They'd come about a man's death. A murder. And Videl was truth and righteousness. Lady Justice. What should she do?

"It's formal process, Miss Satan. We don't believe a split second you're guilty of anything, so don't worry. Just come with us, tell us the whole story and you'll be back home in no time," the cops had said as they had handcuffed her.

They had sounded so calm and so confident about her telling them everything about the murderer, it had been somehow freaky.

They hadn't even planned to lock her up in a cell. She had been led in an office with a cup of tea and biscuits and a cop had seated opposite of her in wait for her explanations about Zhang's death. Things could have been indeed as simple as that. She had two words to utter and it would all be over. Only two words. Gohan Son.

And yet, her lips remained unexpectedly sealed.

She had called him a monster, she'd looked at him like a monster too, and as things stood, it might be very simple to get rid of that monster. It would only take two words. She just had to tell the cop these two words and things would definitely be settled. From his prison, Gohan would no longer be able to hurt anyone, neither her, nor anyone else. So why couldn't she utter a single word? Her mind was blank while all she could do was stare absently at the detective sitting stiff in his chair in front of her.

Seeing her unable to talk, the cop had finally asked questions. Videl could only nod or shake her head.

"You saw the killer, didn't you, Miss Satan?" he insisted

She couldn't say how many times he asked that damn question, and she was somehow willing to say yes, to yell it, but she kept her mouth shut more surely than if she were dead.

Then, after a couple hours, Gawin showed up. He entered the room carelessly, a cigarette stuck between his lips, and he leaned his back against the wall behind his colleague, oblivious of the other cop's disapproving glare at the smoke. Videl tensed up as her eyes meet the faded blue-green ones.

The cop that had been questioning her glanced at Gawin over his shoulder. "I think she's in shock. She didn't say a word so far."

Gawin didn't answer and just took a drag of his cigarette with a silent nod.

"Miss Satan, were you harmed at some point? Do you want to see a doctor maybe?" the detective resumed, uttering each word as if speaking to a half-witted.

She blinked and looked up at Gawin standing wordlessly behind his coworker. "I need some sleep," she murmured.

It was past three o'clock then. She was brought to a barren cell and left alone. Unsurprisingly, she had a hard time falling asleep. She kept staring at the dark ceiling above, wondering what exactly was happening to her, but she was dozing before she could find the faintest clue.

She'd dreamt about Gohan that night. She still remembered this dream very accurately. It had felt so real that she'd sought for him in the room when she'd waken up.

In that odd dream, Gohan was standing in front of her and he was speaking. She wouldn't hear his words though. She was completely deaf. A comforting, warm aura was shining through Gohan while he kept talking. At some point, he grabbed one of her locks sticking to her cheek and put it back behind her ear. She wanted to say something, but she was unable to word a single sound. Then, he interrupted his speech and reached out for something behind her back. Glancing over her shoulder she figured out a door was gaping just behind her. It was opening onto a dark corridor, more like a hole actually. She hadn't realized that she was standing so close from that door and she felt relieved when Gohan grabbed the knob and shut the door. When he was done, he smiled softly at her and kissed her lips.

She sat up straight on the bench of the cell as soon as she woke up. She needed some time to dispel the strange feelings of her dream. Rubbing her eyelids to get used to the brightness of the neon, she was startled by Gawin's figure watching her silently on the other side of the gate. He greeted her with a gentle grin, as if he'd been a friend checking her during her sleep. She didn't return the smile and stared back at him fearlessly.

"You talk in your sleep, Videl, did you know that?" he stated by lighting up a cigarette.

She flinched. Videl. For some reason hearing him call her by her first name made her nervous. "Do I? So? What do I say?" she grumbled.

"Nothing important, it seems," he replied calmly. "Do you want to see a doctor?"

"Yes."

Anything but a cop questioning with Gawin's blue-green eyes locked on her. Actually, the state of shock the detective had suggested during the night had activated Videl's brain. She knew now what tale she'd tell and it was a tale without Gohan.

She played the part well enough with the doctor. He declared a post-traumatic state and gave her pills she took care not to swallow.

Back in the chair facing the detective and his men, she was even able to have her eyes water. The exhaustion, the stress and the painful memories of Gohan helped faking to be a scared and confused teenaged girl. Her father had been concerned by the fact that she hadn't been released yet and he'd sent a lawyer for her. She took it as a comforting company.

"I saw the killer," Videl sobbed. "I heard some strange noise, so I stepped into the room and I surprised him."

"Was he alone?" the detective asked.

"I think so. Zhang was already dead but I tried to prevent him from running away and we had a fight. Then… I… He must have knocked me out. I remember the window, then a shock and I blacked out. When I woke up, I was on the roof of a nearby building," she stammered.

She studied the cops' reaction through her tears. The detective and the other cops around looked half-puzzled, half-skeptical though. Gawin was among them, standing behind the detective again with his back leaned against the wall, and unlike his coworkers, his features were emotionless. "What did the killer look like?" he stepped in coldly.

"Brown hair. With a black rag hiding his mouth and nose. That's all I could see," Videl whispered.

The detective started to take notes all of a sudden, as if Gawin's question had dragged him out of his numbness.

"Did you see him… fly?" Gawin carried on.

"Fly? Like a bird, you mean? Huh, of course not," Videl mumbled.

Gawin wasn't daunted by her tone hinting his question was absurd though. He came closer to the desk and leaned slowly forward until his balled fists rested on the desk. Something disturbing was flaring in his blue-green eyes as he locked them on Videl. "We know he came out through the window and we have good reasons to think that he came in that way too. How do you do that at the 20th floor, without a balcony to help? How come you woke up on the roof of a nearby building by the way? I mean, why a roof? Why such a hard place to reach?"

The other cops grew somewhat restless, giving him disbelieving side-glances, but no one came to Videl's rescue. "I was unconscious, how should I know?" she exclaimed in a feigned sob, "He was so strong, at some point I believed he was about to kill me as well," she added in a raspy voice. She was able to cry again. She did her best to be as loud as possible and was rewarded with the cops' embarrassment. Only Gawin remained unaffected at the sight of her fake tears.

"I think we're done for today or do you intend to press charges?" the lawyer asked dryly.

At that moment, Videl knew that she'd win the game, because, of course, no one would charge her for Zhang's murder. She was the hero of the town while Zhang was an unsympathetic character whose murder was unsurprising. Nobody would mourn him anyway. The idea that Videl could have anything to do with his death was pure madness in everyone's opinion.

She wished that everything would have turned as easy as the part she'd played for the cops.

Yet, three weeks later, Videl still couldn't explain why she'd been so hell bent on protecting Gohan's secret. Before she met him, she was used to catching criminals and putting them in jail. She'd always done that, without the slightest second thought and without questioning her acting. Now, she had come to leave criminals free and best of all, she lied to protect them. What she had done that day at the police station would have sounded unthinkable six months ago.

Actually, she'd done something even worse than covering for Gohan. She'd forbidden him to surrender. When she'd seen him at the police station as she'd just been released, she'd turned frantic. She had instantly understood what he was about to do and she had decided he mustn't do it. He had no right to do it, had he? No, he hadn't. She had rejected him but she couldn't cope with the idea of losing him completely. She was aware of how contradictory it sounded but it was how she'd felt and it was driving her mad.

That evening at Barney's, Videl had once again experienced these conflicted feelings. She'd been reminded how badly she missed him, how unbearable it was to hear anyone else judging him or speaking ill of him. She didn't want to be with him anymore, but he was still hers alone.

With vacation starting ten days before, things had grown worse. Videl could see him every day at school. She could somehow keep an eye on him from afar and despite her cold demeanor it was still a form of link. Yet, due to the holidays, she hadn't heard of him for ten days. He'd gone back to his mother's and he'd totally deserted her world. It was as if he just stopped existing and it felt terrible.

She hadn't dared to question Sharp about him. Actually he seemed to hold a grudge against her about the split-up and, except tonight at Barney's, Sharp never mentioned Gohan as if he had become a quiet disagreement Videl and him should avoid to talk about for their friendship's sake. Gohan hadn't tried to call her either. She had to admit that she'd rebuffed him in a harsh way at each attempt he'd made to patch up, but still, she couldn't picture that he'd already moved on. Or maybe he had, after all.

She felt void and it somehow scared her. The vacation had her eventually figure out the real meaning of her decision to break up and it hurt so much that the talk at Barney's had felt like a ton of salt on her wound.

As she was walking in the deserted town, tears had found their way down her cheeks. She wiped them with the back of her hands and stepped up her street. She had to pull herself together and the best way to soothe the pain was to list all the reasons why she should stay away from Gohan.

First, he was a killer. He'd said that he had only killed evil people, but still he had no right to take away their lives. It wasn't him to judge who was to live and who was to die. She was still surprised that he could be smug enough to believe otherwise. On top of it, he used his inhuman might to do his nasty job. It wasn't even about a fair fight.

Then, he was also Preston Misk's murderer. This detail made Videl especially mad. Preston Misk was Sharp's stepfather, and Gohan had kept acting like Sharp's best friend even after the killing. He was deceiving Sharp while Sharp would still stand for him. Damn, he'd even attended the funeral and he had gone to the lawyer with Sharp as a support to face Maya. He also paid for Sharp's grocery bills and he helped him to study in order to get Misk's money... Videl found it definitely sickening. Gohan had said that he wasn't Preston Misk's killer, but he'd lied all along, so why would she trust him? He might as well still be hiding his darkest side, like he'd always done from the beginning.

To top it all, Gohan had cheated on her. For Videl, what he'd done was worse than dating another girl. He'd let her believe he was a hero, but he was nothing near a hero. He'd fooled her and he'd coaxed her into letting him into her bed that fateful night after the murder of Preston Misk. Slaughtering his best friend's stepfather must have somehow kindled some kind of guilt in his sick mind. Maybe he'd figured out for a moment how miserable he was. Definitely not the same Gohan she'd fallen for.

Mentally listing everything she could blame Gohan for was usually enough to have Videl stick to her decision. The feeling of hurtful void would fade a bit and her mind would be back to a strong resolution to have him out of her life. Yet, it wouldn't work tonight. The talk at Barney's had rekindled a vivid pain and brooding over Gohan's flaws wasn't making any difference. It wouldn't even anger her enough to overcome the grief.

Her house was dark and quiet and she assumed her father was already sleeping. She entered quietly and took off her shoes. As she was peeling off her coat and scarf, she thought back about another lie Gohan had said. He'd said he had killed Cell. He'd said a lot of incredible things actually, like the fact that he wasn't exactly human. It sounded so unbelievable that she hadn't paid much mind to his words, but now, for some reasons, she was remembering his odd confessions.

As a matter of fact, Gohan's might was special. Videl had been practicing martial arts since she was a child and she knew how to gauge a fighter. Gohan was definitely an outsider. His ability to fly, or the way he could summon such powerful energy that his hair and eyes would change color, were quite unique.

She sneaked into her father's office. It was actually a room he had arranged without any real need. The place was furnished with a wide desk of varnished mahogany and decorated with refined trinkets all around as to suggest – wrongly – that he was a great intellectual. Truth was Satan mostly came here to watch TV, or sip whiskeys of great brands while smoking the cigar when he had a guest he wanted to impress. To complete the show, he had all his cups and trophies standing in rows on several shelves, along with photos of him with famous personalities. Videl knew that room was also where he kept the recordings of his tournaments, including of course, that of the Cell Games.

Videl had only seen it once or twice, a long time ago. Yet, the clash between Cell and her father hadn't been filmed, and the quality of the footage was very low, so it had never sounded like anything interesting. Either way, even though she was proud of her father, Videl had grown fed up with his fame and she had stopped enjoying that story about Satan beating the Monster since the age of twelve. You know it, Videl.

She knelt down in front of the cupboard where Hercule piled up his videos and rummaged through the tapes for a while until she got ahold of the famous fight – or at least the small part that had been filmed.

She turned on the player and the giant TV screen came to life, casting a bright glow in the dim room. The picture was bad just like Videl remembered and she turned off the sound at once, wary of its irking crackling.

The start had been hard for her father and his disciples. Hercule had told her a thousand times that he had sorely been caught off guard at his first contact with Cell, which had always been the opportunity to lecture her countless times about the importance of never underestimating an opponent. Then, this unknown fighter had come to stand up to the monster. Videl didn't know his name, but she knew somehow that her father had met him before in tournaments. Could it be Gohan's father? He looked exactly like him when he increased his energy level and his hair turned to platinum blond.

The movie became quickly quite boring, as the cameraman was unable to follow the movements of the fight properly. Videl pressed the forward button until the fighter gave up and turned to a kid. A kid. Videl's heart skipped a beat. She paused the video. There was a kid among that mess. How did that detail slip out of her mind? You know it, Videl.

She was dumbfounded, sitting on the ground in front of the giant picture of a blond boy. Gohan. Her brain was slow to process the sight. The remote control dropped from her hand, but she didn't even notice it. It was actually Gohan. He was younger, but it was him without any doubt. She pressed her hands over her mouth as the realization hit her like a shock wave. Did he really kill Cell?

She had to clear up that matter. She resumed the video and followed the fight nervously. Everything was like Gohan. Power, stamina, a certain sense of sacrifice. A stone had dropped into her stomach and she had to look away from the screen. You know it Videl. His father hadn't been the one to kill Cell. No human could have done it, it was obvious. She ran her hand over his face. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had certainly understood this truth for a long time and that was maybe the reasons why she had stopped being part of her father's worshippers for all these years.

So, Gohan was indeed a hero. A hero, and a cold-blooded killer. How was that possible? Confusion overwhelmed Videl's restless mind.

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