Chapter 31: Buried

When Gohan woke again, he didn't expect to be alone in his room. What he had expected was the pain that spread its way through every part of his body; that didn't surprise him. Questions still swam through his mind, causing inner turmoil to surface. What exactly had happened with Drew? Where had he gone? Had he escaped or was he…? Gohan didn't want to finish the last one, finding that the truth might be too hard to bear. Despite the fact that he was an enemy, no one deserves that. Even your enemy can become your friend.

Gohan had been thinking so intensely that he didn't realize that someone else was in the room with him. Said other person jumped onto the bed, startling him for a moment, until he realized who it was.

"Goten," relief ran through him when he saw his younger brother, "are you alright?"

Goten nodded his head with a childish smile. "I'm all fine," his brother's expression turned a bit sad, "I didn't like that game though."

"What game?" Confusion ran through him, making him wonder if Trunks had brought over some sort of complicated board game that Goten couldn't understand. Goten's answer made him realize it wasn't anything close to that though.

"Drew said we would play a game to see how long it took for you to find us. I didn't like it. He was scary."

"I don't think you'll need to worry about him anymore, alright?" Goten smiled again at his words and ran out of the room to who-knows-where. Gohan sighed, knowing that what he had told his brother could be both true or not. Either way, he felt the weight of the words as he thought over them again.

It seems like everything from the past is coming back, he mused, turning to look out the window. It was still dark out, giving him no clue of how much time had passed.

You have no idea how much you are right, Gohan smiled a bit at his other self's sigh, too tired to really take it seriously at the moment.

First there's my friend who turns out to be a Cell Junior and now this? What else could go wrong? As soon as the thought entered his mind, he paled. Never mind, a whole lot could be worse.

At least there shouldn't be anyone else coming after you for a while; Gohan sat up when his mind registered his other self's words. What was that supposed to mean?

How do you know that? He asked, knowing that one of the possibilities was out of the question. Time now was different than his other self's, considering he had been informed that everything was the same up until the Cell Games.

I… let's just say that there is a certain predicament I'm hoping to avoid.

Before he could ask any more questions, five people entered his room: Krillin, Tien, Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and Future Trunks. Normally, he would have felt on edge, but the sight just made him smile. Maybe I hit my head or something. I'm getting a really strong sense of nostalgia…

"Hey Gohan, how are you feeling?" Krillin was the first of the group to break the silence. Gohan felt sort of bad about not being around them all of a sudden. Almost like they'll disappear…

"A bit better. Everything's a little foggy though," his answer wasn't all truthful; he probably remembered most of what had happened. Just not what happened near the end.

"What do you remember then?" Tien's question was laced once again with a certain amount of unease that Gohan felt through their Kis.

"I remember going to find Goten, and Drew… wasn't all that he had first appeared to be," Gohan laughed, finding that he felt a bit nervous too. His mother had informed the other Z fighters about the lost boy in case they could have found any information on his parents' whereabouts. And now I know why they couldn't.

"'Wasn't what he appeared to be'? What's that supposed to mean?" Yamcha's inquiry made it hard to explain. They had faced a lot of aliens in the past twelve years, but this… the memory of what Drew had done made him sick.

"Drew was similar to Garlic Junior," Gohan decided to leave the relations out; the thought made him shudder and he was pretty sure he couldn't get through explaining it without there being consequences later, "he wanted revenge for the Makyo Star incident, but… it was like it wasn't him. He… took over someone and used them instead." He faltered a few times, still feeling unsure about the whole incident. That was what Drew had explained, so why did it seem so strange?

My whole life is like that, so why is this any different? He wondered, his gaze traveling to the floor for a few moments. He looked back up at his friends.

"What exactly happened after I passed out? All I remember is that Drew wasn't going to solve things quietly."

The rest of the Z fighters understood the implication of a fight, even if it had been partial. They had probably seen some of the damage when they had arrived.

"You seem to be passing out a lot, kid!" Yamcha gave him a smile, teasing a bit. Gohan laughed, feeling as though things had gone back to normal. Except…

A strange, dulling feeling entered him, causing any uplifting emotions he had been feeling to dissipate. Trunks seemed to sense the change in mood and said something quickly, which Gohan for some reason didn't catch. Everyone else left, causing confusion to enter him. Something didn't seem right.

"I don't get it…" the words left his mouth without any register, almost as if he hadn't said it at all. Future Trunks turned to look at him with some confusion. For some reason, Gohan didn't say anything else. He felt like, for some strange reason, that he didn't have to.

The Saiyan from the future came to sit beside him on the bed. Gohan felt as though his thought process was muddled more than usual. I guess that battle must have done more to me than I thought…

"So… what exactly do you want to know?" Future Trunks seemed unsure of how to continue the conversation. The demi-Saiyan wasn't even sure if he had been there or not.

"Drew… something he said doesn't quite sit well with me," Gohan frowned, thinking back to all of the cryptic messages that had been said… however long ago the battle had been.

"What was it exactly?" he knew that the other Saiyan was trying to help as much as he could, considering this most likely hadn't happened in the future where he had come from.

"He said something about me being different…" And a whole other ton of weird stuff… "But I don't know what he was referring to. Obviously I'm older since the Makyo Star incident happened a long time ago, but… I can't think of anything else and it's starting to bother me."

"Would he have known you back then?" Gohan gave Trunks a confused glance, causing the other Saiyan to continue, "well, is it possible that he could have just been Garlic Junior, but in another form?"

"Is that even possible?" he mumbled, but then shook his head. "I don't think so. He said something about being related to Garlic Junior, but I don't think it would go as far as that."

Future Trunks shrugged, partially smiling. "It was a guess. I'm not sure what else he could have been referring to though. If he didn't know you then, he could have been observing you. Maybe he was meaning your ascended form?"

"He seemed to know about that too," the more Gohan thought about it, the more concerned he became; "He actually seemed to know a lot of things he shouldn't."

They sat in silence for a few moments, neither of them being able to think of an answer. The next thing that happened was probably what Gohan should have expected, but didn't.

So… did you rule out the factor that he could have known? Trunks jolted a bit in surprise, signaling that he had heard the voice too. Gohan gave an apologetic smile, wishing that he would have had a bit of a warning beforehand.

"I forgot about the voice in your head," the way Trunks said it made it seem like a bad thing, but he decided to ignore that for the moment.

What factor? He asked, forgetting that it wasn't just himself and his other self in the room.

That Drew could have known about the Lotus. You wouldn't really want to outright ask him, but it did seem like he was a bit… odd. And Trunks kind of stinks, so I think he needs to go shower. The last comment was followed by a brief bout of laughter from his other self.

"What? That's just rude," he mumbled, looking over at the mentioned Saiyan and seeing confusion on his face. He must have not heard that, or any mention of the Lotus… then again, I did ask him about it and passed him out…

Gohan suddenly realized a lot of pieces were missing from this puzzle. Nothing was adding up.

"Uh, sorry. We… I mean I can't think of anything," he racked his brain for another subject; "so, what exactly happened with Drew? Is he still…?"

"We found him at the bottom of the crevice, but we're not sure how he got there…" Trunks seemed hesitant to continue, "It didn't seem like you injured him much, so we weren't really sure what happened."

"That rules out one answer," he sighed, trying to recount what he remembered, "he actually almost won, but for some reason his Ki just ran out all of a sudden. I'm not sure what caused it."

"Well, I guess that's something we'll have to look into," after saying this, Trunks stood up and walked to the door, "I'll let you rest for now."

"Thanks," he smiled as Trunks shut the door behind him, feeling slightly more at ease. Despite the fact that a lot of questions were going unanswered, he felt like he could actually rest for now.

It wasn't long after he had tried to fall back asleep that he realized the strange feeling he had felt during the battle was gone.

So, yeah, this chapter took me a while, huh? Sorry about that. I started writing it, and then I got writer's block, and then my computer got a virus so… please don't flame me? I started looking over this fanfiction again and realized that a lot of the other Z fighters haven't really been in it since the Cell Games, so I want to try and bring them back in it more. Any ideas? The next few chapters might be filler for a bit, but they are important. Anyway, please review and if there is anything you would like to see in this fanfiction, please let me know and I will (hopefully) try to incorporate it!

-AnimeWolfGirl9