Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ

...

Videl had no idea what she would find on this strange place she had woken up in. Considering she had seemingly been teleported whilst standing in a room with a giant pendulum swinging above her head she had no real clue as to anything much these days. Arguably the simplest thing which actually made something reminiscent of sense was casually meeting Kami, or Dende as he liked to be called.

Was it wrong that her whole view on reality had been shifted? Not too mention this was all due to one person which had altered her life unlike any event prior. Since her father was the man who defeated Cell, this was a big call. So was the call that she no longer believed her father could have taken out the demonic creature which had threatened the Earth.

Recalling when she had first discovered of the monster it had been on the television when he had burst his way onto the set of a news station. She had been with Erasa at the time as her father had been out on promotional work. Her mother had been in the living room and the shrill scream she had made still sent shivers down her spine. She arrived just in time to see Cell kill the reporter like it was nothing.

Erasa had clung to her side, her fingers tightly gripping into Videl's forearm as they watched on as he proclaimed that he would destroy the world unless someone could best him in single combat. At that point she had truly believed that if anybody would defeat that monster it would be her father, the recently crowned champion of the world. Her naivety at the time was soon shattered as Cell pointed one hand over his shoulder and what her father would call a 'light trick' burned through walls, buildings before exploding a mountain range.

Many years prior to that incident she had done a report in School where she had researched the Invasion of the Saiyans and how they had laid waste to an entire city in a matter of seconds. This attack was far too similar for her liking and she hated the idea that her father would charge at someone who could remodel landscapes to his liking. She had begged him not too go but when then he had pulled her into a comfortable hug and said that everything was going to be okay. She knew they weren't though; there was no way that everything would be fine.

Then he won.

Several years on from that miraculous event though she questioned everything that she knew and theories, both conspiracy and otherwise, began to scratch at her thoughts. She found herself distancing further away from her father and eventually began training for the police force. To become somebody who wasn't the daughter of Hercule Satan.

Videl crashed out of her thoughts when her foot snagged the root of a tree, tripping over and falling face first into the ground. While potentially comical from an outside perspective she was in no laughing mood as she cursed under her breath. "Are you alright?" asked someone nearby, a child judging by the tone of the voice.

Pulling her face off of the ground, Videl found herself looking at a young boy who could have been no older than five years of age. He had shaggy black hair and looked as if he hadn't had a proper clean in quite some time. Despite his small structure it didn't look like he was malnourished, going so far as to even have some muscle definition which was quite impressive for his age.

"I'm fine," said Videl as she got to her feet and looking down at the boy. "Where are we?"

"An island, there's nobody else here," said the child. "It's just me and Mister Tiger."

"Mister Tiger?" repeated Videl before she was taken completely off guard as a saber tooth cat burst through the nearby foliage and tackled the child into the ground. Acting on instincts she went to help the boy before he became lunch for this creature but when there were no sounds of limbs being shredded she hesitated before the boy started laughing.

"Stop it Mister Tiger, we have company," said the child as he pushed the beast off of him, a feat which Videl thought she wouldn't even be able to do. "Pretty lady, this is Mister Tiger."

"A pleasure," said Videl playing along, figuring so long as she played on this child's terms she was more likely to get the answers she was after, whatever her questions eventually were. "I'm Videl."

"Nice to meet you Videl, I'm Gohan," said the boy, a broad smile on his face as Videl's jaw dropped.

"Gohan, as in Son Gohan," said Videl unable to believe what she was seeing.

"That's me," beamed Gohan, seemingly not caring about how she knew his family name. Videl meanwhile was struggling to collect her thoughts, everything just seemed so wrong at the moment. Gohan for some reason was a decade younger than what he should have been, they were stuck in the middle of nowhere and she had no idea how long she would be here. "Are you okay?"

Videl blinked twice at the question thrown her way. "Yea, I'm fine Gohan, just trying to get my head around a few things."

"Do you need to sit down?" he asked.

"I'm good," assured Videl despite wanting to crawl under the shade of the tree she had tripped under, fall asleep and hope to wake up in the real world once more. "So how long have you been here?"

"I stopped counting the days a while ago," said Gohan. "I was trying to work it out by the lunar cycle but the moon kind of vanished. If I was to guess I'd say I'd been here for at least three months."

"Three months, here, by yourself!" exclaimed Videl in shock. "Just how are you still alive?"

"I may or may not have caused irreparable damage to this island's original ecosystem," said a Gohan with a vocabulary that was way too complicated for someone of his age. Since it was Gohan however it made more sense than it should have.

"So…you basically ate a species to extinction," said Videl putting her hands on her hips, trying to look like a mother scolding her son.

"No, I just may have made myself Alpha," said Gohan smiling infectiously.

"Alpha?"

"Yes, I may have attacked and eaten the previous biggest threat on the island. Now the other animals know that I'm the one they need to fear the most. It makes hunting for food difficult since nothing has the confidence to come and try and eat me anymore," explained Gohan.

Before Videl could ask anything more, a huge roar sent shivers down her spine. The ground beneath her feet began to shake as she watched a huge dinosaur stroll into view but what would normally be an intimidating sight was somehow reduced by the fact that a huge portion of its tail had been hacked off. As it looked down at the two humans, it's eyes went wide before it started to sprint away.

"Give me a minute, I'm going to get us some lunch," said Gohan.

"What?" asked Videl but her voice failed to reach Gohan as he pulled the sword he had been wielding off of his back and started chasing after the dinosaur, Mister Tiger close behind. Videl could only watch as the five year old child charged off at a speed that was unheard of, sprinting after a creature a hundred times his size with the intent of feasting upon it. With his sword raised high, Videl found the situation both comical and eerily disturbing. If this was what Gohan was capable of before he'd even been old enough to go to school, just what were his limits now that he had nearly graduated?

Suddenly the world around her began to warp and bend, the entire landscape shifting before her very eyes. She tried to scream out at Gohan but no words escaped her mouth as darkness began to encompass her, the ground she had been standing on pulled out from underneath her. Slamming her eyes shut, Videl hoped that when she opened them everything would be back to normal and that it was all just a hallucination.

Opening her eyes she found herself in a familiar place but it was not of the lush green island she had previously been stranded on. Instead she found herself laying on the ground of the Pendulum Room, lying on top of the cold floor. The rhythmic ticking which echoed overheard was ever constant, every time it changed direction sounded like a clap of thunder.

"There, there, easy now," said Dende as he hovered over Videl, glowing hands spreading an unusual warmth through her body. "It takes a bit of time for the body and mind to get accumulated to the Pendulum Room. It took me four times before I could return from seeing the past until I was able to remain standing."

"So…that really was the past?" said Videl as she pushed herself into a seated position feeling a lot more energized than she should have been.

"To a point," said Dende as he stood in front of her. "Mister Popo explained to me that while we are able to look on and interact with the past it is actually not tampering with the past. Instead, the room pushes us into a time and place from time gone by but at the same time it is separated from reality, our experience there doesn't affect the outcome of the world at all. Unfortunately I can't really explain it much better than that."

"I think I understand," said Videl as she got to her feet. "So that really was Gohan I was speaking to when he was…a child, but it never actually happened."

"Precisely."

"That's a lot to get my head around," said Videl as Dende guided her towards the exit.

"There is much about today which you are still yet to understand," said Dende as Videl blocked her eyes from the sunlight which seemed much more intense after her immersion in almost complete darkness. "Having been flown up here without the aide of a machine, coming face to face with a deity and having spent time in the past are only a few things which weigh upon your mind. At least your time in the past was not as brutal as mine."

"You've seen the past?"

"It is my duty to watch over this planet, both through the highs and the lows. Trust me when the lows outweigh the highs in sheer volume, but the quantity of good cannot be overlooked; even down to the smallest action, including a doting father kissing his daughter's brow, telling her that everything would be fine once he defeated Cell."

Videl froze in place, Dende turning to look her in the eye. "I have watched mankind struggle through turmoil and devastation both natural and manmade, genocide on a scale that should never have been seen upon this planet. Yet my predecessor did nothing to stop this, truly believing that humans would learn from their mistakes and grow as a species."

"So he did nothing to stop Cell," declared Videl.

"He gave up his life to battle Cell, yet it wasn't enough," said Dende causing Videl to go wide in the eyes and once more she pictured the destruction she had seen the monster do with his own hands. Strong enough that even Kami was no match for him. "Your father, was also prepared to give up his life. Sure you may scoff at such a thing but other than a few certain individuals he was actually one of those who willingly crossed Cell's path and survived to tell the tale. His version of the tale may differ from the truth but that does not make him any less of a hero. Above all else, he truly believed that if he were to fail…then you would die."

Videl swallowed at the lump that had formed in her throat, unable to form words that could combat what Dende was saying. She tried to form words but to no avail, her mind having effectively shut down. Knowing that there was no more to say upon the topic until their next encounter Dende turned to one of the few people who lived upon Kami's Lookout. "Mister Popo, if you would be so kind as to escort Videl back down to the world below, perhaps to her friend Erasa's house?"

"It will be my pleasure," said Mister Popo as he looked to the side only for a Videl to watch as a flying carpet came into view before gliding next to where the man stood.

As if today could get any stranger.