Thank you so much to Ashton for sending the new chapter! Although it's my fault why this took quite sometime to get out. I'm really sorry, but we had our midterms --- and we still have to go to school for the last two exams tomorrow --- so I didn't have much time to edit and upload the chapter and all.

Anyway, same thing goes for the next chapter! If you want to write the continuation to this one, feel free to do so! You can email me at dragonmistress_kaz@hotmail.com for the completed next chapter, or if you want to inform me that you're doing it, since it's a first-come-first-served basis. If none will write, then it's either I'll write the next installment, or we will go back to waiting.

Now, let's get back to the story...

Dragonball Z: Back to the Future
Chapter Four: One Step Closer To The Truth
By Ashton Toope (m_toope@hotmail.com)


It was about 11:00 when Goten and Trunks got back to Capsule Corporation in the midst of West City. "Trunks do you think your mother will mind if we have some food?" Goten asked his best friend's future counterpart rather hesitantly, for even if he felt comfortable with him, part of him remained unsure of the lavender-haired saiyajin's attitude in the timeline he was stuck in.

"No problem! Um... was it goten?"

"Yup, that's me!" Goten replied, wolffing down a heapful of food.

Trunks could not supress his curiousity, not when a kid from some other time was here --- a kid who could transform into super saiyajin without trouble and claimed to be his sensei's younger brother in that other world. "You said that Gohan is your brother... but he didnt mention any Goten ever, only a Goku."

The raven-haired saiyajin swallowed the food that was left in his mouth --- after all, his mother told him not to talk when his mouth is full, and then, he addressed the other. "Well... I was born after the androids attacked," he explained with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"I'm sorry," Trunks quickly apologized, and then he asked, for there was one thing that confused him greatly. He did not just want an explanation --- he needed one. "I have another question... how exactly do you know me?"

"Well..." Goten stammered as he started, not sure how he would explain things to the other without giving away what was supposed to happen in the future and mess things up. "We grew up together. If... uh... someone from this time did not come back to warn our families about the androids, we would have died, and things would have turned out just it is here now."

It still confused Vegeta's son, in a way, but he decided that it was time for bed, and that his newfound friend needed to rest. "We better go to bed, Goten. In the morning, I'm going to introduce you to my sensei. Alright?"

"Sure!"

Back at the 439 East Mountain District, Gohan and Chichi continued to ponder about the young boy they saw. His resemblance to Goku was the one that struck them the most, and that's precisely the reason why they could not stop thinking about him. "Gohan... I have something to confess," Chichi said all of a sudden, surprising the young man.

"What would that be?"

"Before your father's death, we discussed about having... another child."

"WHAT?!" Gohan exclaimed, his eyes widening in disbelief as everything began to fit in. Although he wasn't sure, but what had been happening was beginning to make more sense. Or so the young man thought. "Mom, you should have told me earlier!"

A sigh escaped Chichi's lips. "I know dear. But it just struck me now, when we talked about that young boy. He... he said he wasn't Goku... and he, too, asked me something about a certain Goten. Could it be...?"

Hmmm... Bulma's trying to build a time machine, the young man thought, then he rose up as if something just struck him as a fatal blow from the androids would. "Mom, I'm going to Bulma's, please rest and make yourself comfortable," he blurted out before he kissed his mother goodbye and flew off towards Capsule Corporation.

Two hours after they went to bed, Trunks' eyes snapped open upon sensing the arrival of his sensei. It confused him, for it was practically very late, and yet Gohan was up and about, apparently up to something. Soon Trunks began to feel nervous. His sensei strictly warned him not to go anywhere near Goten... did Gohan finally find about it?

Swallowing, Trunks got up and went to the window to watch his sensei and his mother talk.

"Bulma... any progress on your time travel machine?"

"I just started a couple of months ago, and I don't know if I'm indeed progressing, from the looks of it."

Gohan nodded, then asked, "What do you plan to do with it?"

"Well..." the blue-haired genius and wife of the deceased Vegeta began rather unhesitantly. "... I was planning to go back to when Goku arrived from space. If I'd make it there, I will be able to give him the heart medicine, and I will also be able to warn him and the other Z-Senshi about the androids. Then they'll be able to train and prepare for their arrival, and with Goku around, they might just be able to beat those mechanical demons."

Those mechanical demons who killed Vegeta... and made our lives a living hell...

Suddenly, they heard a scream, and their eyes snapped almost immediately towards the source of the sound: Trunks' room. Alas, it wasn't him who spoke in his sleep, for a short while after the surprising yell they heard the lavender-haired boy's warning call --- and to add to their already-surprised state, he called out the name Goten.

Gohan's eyes narrowed significantly at that, and without hesitation he flew up to his student's room...