AN: Okay, the last chapter kinda sucked, so here we go with some actually stuff! Really, I feel bad when I don't update for a while, and I needed a little more time to revise this chappie. That's where Chapter 4 came from. Now we get on to Chapter 5—Videl wakes up! Uh-oh…read on. I don't own DBZ.

Chapter Five—A Painful Truth

Pain. Searing pain in her mind and heart, and an emptiness, where there had once been something else, something she'd never quite been able to identify or figure out. But one thing was for certain…

Something had happened to Gohan.

"No!" Videl screamed, fighting to sit up, only to have two hands grip her shoulders and push her back down, holding her there.

Now that was strange…whatever she was laying on was soft, not like the rocks, dirt, and sand of the battlefield. Which meant that she wasn't on the battlefield.

A gentle voice was saying her name now. After a moment she recognized it as Krillen's voice, softly coaxing her back to the real world.

She opened her eyes and stared blankly at her surroundings. She was in a bedroom, that much was certain, but whose was it? Where was she?

Krillen was sitting on the edge of the bed. Piccolo was standing by the door, leaning against the wall. Neither of them looked happy.

"What happened? Everything's kind of blurry…ouch!" she put a hand to her aching forehead, only to encounter a bandage taped across her forehead, and whatever was under it hurt when she touched it.

Nobody said anything at first, they all simply looked at her. Finally, Piccolo broke the silence and Videl's heart with only two words.

"Gohan's dead."

Everything froze—her mind, her body, time itself.

It couldn't be true. It just couldn't. Gohan—her best friend, her confidante…gone?

Videl looked at each of the three men in the room, hoping desperately that maybe one of them would tell her that this was a very cruel joke, that Gohan was actually hiding in the closet or something. But somewhere, deep inside, she knew it wasn't going to happen.

To her own surprise, she didn't cry. She felt too numb to cry. Instead, she just asked a few questions. "How? When? Where am I? What happened to me?"

Piccolo took the first two. "That thing came back, and he did the only thing he could. He killed it at the expense of his own life. Blew himself up to take that thing out. As for when, yesterday. The closest place was his house, so we brought you here. This is actually Gohan's room."

She nodded then. Somehow, now that she thought about it, this room felt like Gohan. "But why did you have to bring me here? What happened to me?" She was startled to realize that she couldn't speak in anything but a monotone whisper.

This time, Krillen answered. "We had to carry you back because you were unconscious, Videl. I watched Gohan give you a hit to the head to knock you out. He told us to get out of there and take you with us, Yamcha and me. You've been unconscious since late yesterday."

"So you just left him there?" Videl found her voice and began screaming. She knew it wasn't going to do any good, but she couldn't help it. "You knew what he was gonna do and you left him there to die?!? What kind of friends are you?"

Krillen's eyes sank to look at the floor. Apparently he'd had that thought too. He slowly rose from his perch on the edge of the bed and walked out of the room. Piccolo followed, leaving Videl alone.

She sat there for a few minutes, trying to gather her thoughts, but it wasn't working. So she decided to just get out of there. She flung open the window and jumped, taking to the sky, not sure where she was going, and not really caring.

After what seemed like a very long time, she landed. Almost instantly she recognized the place.

It was the battlefield. She'd been there only yesterday.

The place where Gohan had died.

She looked around, trying to remember. That thing had been over there…Vegeta had gone to see if there were any more of those things…Piccolo had been some distance away…she had been over there with Krillen, Yamcha, and Gohan.

Gohan…

"Um, Videl?"

She turned to see Krillen standing a few yards away. "What?"

"Um…I followed you out here because there's something I didn't get a chance to tell you," Krillen rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke. "After Gohan knocked you out, Yamcha picked you up and carried you out of here, but I stayed behind long enough to get a message from him to you."

"What did he say?" her voice broke slightly. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know.

"He said to tell you that he was doing what he did for you. He died bravely, he wanted you to know that," Krillen stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down at the ground. "He also said…" he faltered. "He said…"

"What? Krillen, tell me!"

"He said…he said to tell you he loves you."

Videl's face went completely unreadable, and she turned away. "Krillen, I think I need a little time to myself, okay?"

"I understand. You can come back whenever you need to. We're all at Gohan's house."

A slight woosh of air moving behind her told her that he had taken his leave of this place.

This haunted place.

Alone in this barren wasteland, Videl crumpled to the ground and finally wept.

AN: *sigh* I'm so sadistic sometimes. I love tormenting these characters! Oh well. Next chappie up soon!