Author's Note: I am SO close to finishing this! Now, I'm sure that you're going to complain about the short chapters, but I'm doing them on purpose. I want to keep you in suspense as to what will happen by the end of this story! Also, I know it's getting confusing --- the whole Videl-Gohan-Eiyu ordeal --- but there will be explanations in the second to the last chapter (the one before the epilogue). So if you have questions, feel free to list them down; if I missed those points, I will do my best to insert the answers to them somewhere in the last part. Things are going to be shocking, yes... so just prepare to get shocked. Maybe it will in this chapter, in the next, in the next to the next (I still don't know how many chapters more before the end), or perhaps the epilogue.

Please review!

Fueled by Anger, Driven by Despair
Chapter Thirteen: He Loved; He Lost


"Gohan, you can't do this! I'm your wife, damnit, you can't put me in jail! I didn't do it officer, I swear I didn't, it was Videl, it was Videl! Damnit, why don't you believe me?! I'm innocent! Gohan, please, don't let them do this to me! You gotta do something, you gotta help me! Come on, we've come so far, don't let our everything just go to waste! DAMNIT, I DON'T DESERVE---"

"Oh yes, you deserve this," Gohan snapped angrily, his eyes narrowingly significantly. "You deserve this very much. Think of it, Erasa. How many times did you lie to me? How many times did you use me? How many times did you take advantage of me? You... you..."

Videl laid a hand on Gohan's shoulder. "Calm down."

It was then when Gohan turned around to leave. "Officer, the charges stand as they are," he said sternly to the police officer before he walked away, anger evident on his features. On the other hand, Erasa continued to scream and wail, demanding that she be released; while Videl decided to follow the young man who was definitely on his way back to the hospital where Eiyu was admitted.

"You won't get away with this, bitch!"

The raven-haired young woman stopped, and then burst into laughter before she whirled around to face her former best friend. "Really, Erasa," she said in an amused tone. "But just in your dreams. There is nothing you can do to change things now; the tables have turned. You're going to be spending the rest of your life in a dark prison cell... alone. Don't worry, though." She paused to smirk, her cerulean eyes glistening mischievously and her voice dropping into a tone of pure sarcasm. "I'm going to make sure you'll receive your wedding invitation --- after all, you're my best friend, you should have your own copy."

"Damn you---"

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard that one before," Videl muttered waving an impatient hand. Then, she glanced at her watch. "Well. You've wasted enough of my time, and I certainly do not want to waste any more. I'm afraid I have to go and leave you to face your fears in the darkness, Erasa. Hasta la vista."

Trunks looked at his best friend worriedly, his blue eyes narrowed significantly. "So what do you think is going to happen now? I mean... it happened. Erasa's in jail, and she's going to be there for the rest of her life. But your brother... he and Videl got back in good terms, what's going to happen to him now?" he said tilting his head to the side slightly to indicate Eiyu, who lay still among the white sheets.

"I don't know, Trunks," Goten replied, shaking his head. "I actually don't understand what's going on already. It's like... one moment he's like this, the next moment he's like that, in another he's like this, and then in the next he's like that. Everything just seems so complicated."

"Maybe they're going to get divorced," the older boy suggested. "I mean, from the looks of it, Videl's still very much in love with your brother, and now that Erasa's gone... she might want to take the chance or something. After all, Videl only married him in the name of revenge, to be able to have enough wealth and power to get back at those who had hurt her in the past. Eiyu said it himself, didn't he?"

The younger of the two demi-saiyajins refused to comment on that.

"He's going to be okay, right?" the other asked, moving forward to look at the unconscious Eiyu. "Okaasan told me that the injury he acquired was a pretty serious one, as it affected quite a handful of nerves and blood vessels --- I think Erasa truly meant to hit him right through the heart, but she missed. Luckily, she missed."

Goten continued to stare at Eiyu; in fact, to Trunks' surprise, he rubbed the back of the older man's hand affectionately. Then, pushing back his tears, he whispered in a barely audible voice, "Please be okay. Don't die on me, please," before he turned around and exited the room, leaving his stunned best friend behind.

"But I love her!" a young man protested with both his hands clamped into fists at his sides. "Why can't you understand that?! Her social status and that of her family doesn't matter to me, but why does it matter too much to you?! I love her for who she is and not what she has, and that's what's important!"

His mother, who was sitting comfortably on the living room's couch, folded her arms in front of her chest indignantly. "You have no right to talk to us that way, young man!" she reprimanded in a stern, harsh tone. "You seem to have forgotten that we are your parents, and as your parents, we know what's good for you, so don't even try to talk yourself out of this matter."

He was persistent, however. "But she's what's good for me!"

"NO MORE BUTS!" the woman roared, rising to her feet, anger evident in her features. She glared daggers at her son, enraged at his stubbornness. "How dare you disobey us, when we have done so much for you! So much, indeed, and if we considered you in debt to us, it will take you more than your lifetime to pay us back! At least show us some respect and obey us without question! Don't force yourself into something that will get you a ticket to a horrible, miserable life!"

"Son," his father, who was leaning against the concrete wall behind the young man, pitched in. "Listen to your mother. She knows these things a lot more than you ever will. And try to understand, we only want what's best for you."

"You don't deserve someone like her --- I mean, take a good look at her family. Her mother's a whore, a slut who abandoned her family because she the man who wanted her was richer than he ever imagined. Her father's nothing more than a street rat, a brainless soldier of the dark alleys. And what about her? She's just some girl, wandering around hoping to find a future when she knows she doesn't have one---"

"I don't want to hear what you have to say about her!" the young man snapped, his eyes aflame, exasperation and frustration in his voice thicker than ever. "And I don't want you to tell me what to do! This is my life, where choices must be made --- MY choices --- and acted on! So stop treating me like a little boy and allow me to take control of my life!"

Eiyu's eyes snapped open, and he found himself staring at the plain, white ceiling of the hospital. For a moment he wondered what he was doing there, when it all came back to him. Gohan had grabbed the gun, and the bullet went off-course, hitting him... then when Videl went out to talk to Gohan, Erasa slipped by and drew it, and shot him right on his chest.

He forced himself to look at the injury he acquired, although he could only see bandages. How silly of me, he told himself, rolling his eyes. Of course I'm all patched up, I'm in the hospital, that's what this institution was built for. Then, something struck him as his gaze landed on the fresh flowers that were stuffed into the porcelain vase by his bedside, for there was a note by the vase that said Get well soon, from Videl.

What happened then?

He was about to doze off once more, to forget about the matter temporarily, when he saw something neatly folded by his side. He lifted it up to examine what it was, and he was pleased to see that it was the latest issue of Satan City Times. In fact, the smile on his face widened considerably in utter satisfaction as his gaze swept across the flashy headline,

Erasa Ruberu, Heiress of Ficus Enterprises, Arrested

His delighted expression, however, immediately darkened as he heard two voices from outside his room. At first he could not identify who owned the voices nor comprehend what they were saying, but eventually he was able to pick up bits and pieces of the conversation as the two came nearer and nearer to entering his room.

There was no mistaking then --- the voices belonged to Videl and Gohan. They discussed about Erasa and her imprisonment, judging from the phrases "deserved it", "couldn't do anything about it", and "alone in the dark for the rest of her life". To Eiyu's surprise, however, the tone of their voices dropped in a degree so low he could not make out what they were saying...

... until Videl let out a gasp.

Then, after a few more murmurs, Eiyu heard the words that tore his heart into pieces, and the words came from none other than Videl herself. She said them loud enough for Eiyu to hear --- although it was clear that she did not mean to do so --- and the words struck the young man so hard that they continued to haunt him even by moving about in a seemingly endless cycle of echoes.

"Of course, Gohan. I... I would be so honored to be your wife."