SailorStar9:This is the start of the Incomplete Cell Saga. Read and review.

Disclaimers: Only the plot is mine.

Chapter Summary: The episode begins, when Yamcha, Krillin, Gohan, Chi-Chi, Ami and Trunks are bringing Goku to Master Roshii's place in a Capsule Corp. aircraft. Trunks is on the phone with Bulma as she says, "A man in the mountains has found some sort of ship that has the Capsule Corporation Logo on it. He called here asking if he could keep it. I was wondering if you could see if you recognize this it." Bulma faxes a picture of it to them. Krillin takes it from the fax and hands it to the time-travelers. Trunks tells Bulma, "Yeah, this is my time machine." The picture shows a time machine covered in moss with an immense hole in it. Trunks decides that they should go check it out and says that they'll meet Bulma there. Trunks leaves the aircraft with Ami and Gohan to go and check it out. When they get to the area they decide they should go and look around for it. Gohan, Ami and Trunks split up and they start looking. Gohan is the first to find the time machine and he calls for the other two. The trio wait for Bulma. When Bulma arrives they decide to do more further investigating. Trunks opens up the capsule to the time machine he has in his pocket and decides to point out the similarities. On both of the machines is a message from Bulma in the future and that this is really his time machine. Inside the machine they find an egg shell that is split in half and on both of the halves are pink with little bumps. The rim of the two shells, which is where they connect, is yellow. Trunks decides that he should put the ship in its capsule, and so Trunks bends down and pushes a button near the bottom of the machine. There is a small explosion and the machine is back in its capsule. The four try to determine where this shell might have come from, but they don't draw up a conclusion. Then Gohan sees something unusual in the distance. He informs the other three about what he sees and they all go to find out what it is, and when they get there they are shocked to see what it is. They find that it is the skin of a huge bug. An unusual type of bug. Trunks put his hands into the sliced opening in his back, and he is disgusted to find that it is still warm and wet. There is all of this pink liquid all over Trunks' hand. "Whatever it was that just shed its skin couldn't have gotten far.", Trunks says. They decide that they all should go to Master Roshii's house and meet up with everyone. Bulma decides that she should take the shell and do more investigating. And thus ends this episode of Dragon Ball Z.

Prologue: Seized With Fear

"Does she know the exact location of of where this photo was taken?" Ami went into 'Earth Princess' mode.

"She asks if you know exactly where this time machine is?" Krillin conveyed.

"It doesn't say exactly." Bulma looked at the envelope. "But I think it has to be somewhere around 1050 West. Are you going?"

"Yes, I'd like to see this with my own eyes." Trunks replied.

"Well, I'm go too, it's not too far from here." Bulma declared.

"Understood." Ami nodded.

"See you later." Bulma ended the call.

"You're sure there's only one time machine, then?" Yamcha confirmed.

"Yes, positive." Trunks replied.

"Um..." Gohan voiced. "I'll go looking with you. Is it okay that I come?"

"Gohan!" Chi-Chi protested.

"It's okay, Mother." Gohan assured his mother. "We aren't going anywhere dangerous, so you needn't worry."

"That ain't it!" Chi-Chi snapped. "You're in the middle of studying." causing everyone to facefault.

"I'll do it all when I come back." Gohan assured.

"We can definitely get used to this timeline." Ami chuckled.

"Agreed." Trunks grinned, helping her up.

Opening the hatch, the three took off.

"Um, Trunks, in the future, you say your future was really devastated, because those two Androids." Gohan voiced.

"Yes, the world's population has been reduced to several tens of thousands." Trunks confirmed. "Most of Metro West lies in a state of ruin. Somehow, we managed to survive by hiding in secret underground bases."

"That bad?" Gohan blinked. "I sure hope we can find some weakness in the Androids."

"Yeah." Trunks agreed. "There was this time, the two Androids went against Dr. Gero. But he was so far in the corner by then, he had no choice but to use them. In the end, he was killed by them. However, Dr. Gero must have determined how dangerous they were, using progressively riskier tests. I think he might have had some kind of device to shut them down in an emergency. If he hadn't, do you think he would have reactivated them?

"Of course, that must be it." Gohan beamed.

"There's a slim possibility..." Trunks let out a smirk.

"I know that smile." Ami prodded. "You're plotting something."

"Section 1050 West should be under us." Trunks referred to his navigator.

"Let's start looking." Gohan suggested.

The two half-Saiyans hovered over the plains as Ami found a spot to land and expanded her Divine Ki. In no time at all, a bunch of forest animals responded to her call.

"Chirp!" came a bird's cry as it landed on her finger.

"Twitter, twitter." this came from a pack of squirrels on the grass.

A pair of hares nuzzled her leg, causing the 'Terra Princess' to kneel and use her psychometry on the two rabbits. "Thank you." she smiled, after receiving the information she needed.

"Boys, I've found it." Ami called to the two half-Saiyans in the air.

"That's great." Trunks noted as both he and Gohan landed.

"Okay, chibi-chans, lead the way." Ami told the rabbits and the hares pounced off.

"Way to find it." Trunks looked at the abandoned time machine.

"Thank you, chibi-chans." Ami gave the two hares a kiss on the forehead each and released them.

"Must be Bulma. I'll go and bring her here." Gohan declared, the trio hearing the plane. "I'll lead her down here."

"Guess I'm rubbing off you." Ami joked, as Trunks played with a group of squirrels.

"I think they're here for you, more than for me." Trunks admitted, handing a squirrel another hazelnut.

"Sweet-talker." Ami accused playfully.

"Oh, hush it." Trunks grinned, claiming her lips in a soft kiss.

"Hi, Trunks!" Bulma called. "It's your beautiful mother!"

"Indeed." Trunks blinked.

"Well?" Bulma prodded. "Let me know what you think, seeing your mom all young like this."

"It's just... Mom, you don't really change that much." Trunks flushed as Ami stifled a giggle.

"I don't change?" Bulma blinked. "That means that I'll keep my beauty for decades to come. I hope no one blames me for it."

"More to the point," Trunks stated. "Please take at this." he opened the capsule that held his time machine and released it beside the aged time machine. "This is the time machine we came in, and had reduced to a capsule." he state.

"Gee, then there's no way this older one could be yours." Bulma noted.

"Not exactly." Trunks corrected. "You only built one time machine in the future. This is also the very same time machine we used to come back in."

"No way." Bulma gasped.

"Look at this." Trunks removed the moss on the older machine's leg.

"'Hope'." Bulma blinked at the word.

"Yeah, these are the letters you wrote here when we took off." Trunks noted. "Naturally, they appear on the other time machine as well."

"But how can that be?" Bulma wondered. "It looks like this one has been here for quite a while."

Flying up, both Trunks and Gohan was stunned to see the cover was melted off.

"Hm?" Gohan blinked. "This hole is strange. It's like the glass melted from the intense heat. But this hole is made from the inside."

"So what?" Bulma inquired. "Was anyone inside this one?"

"In any event, let's open this up." Trunks stated. "Excuse me." and opened the hatch. He then jumped into the cockpit, finding two shells, one on the driver's seat, "There's one here too." he spotted the other beside the control panel.

"What's that you've got?" Gohan blinked. "It doesn't appear to be a coconut."

"What?" Bulma reached out. "Say, give us a look."

"Here." Gohan handed the shells over.

Taking the two shells, she placed them together.

"No doubt about it" Ami concluded. "This is some kind of eggshell."

"Eggshell?" Gohan echoed. "If that's an egg, I've never seen another egg like it."

"Trunks?" Ami blinked, sensing his change in demeanor.

"Do you suppose that whatever made that hole hatched from the egg?" Gohan wondered.

Trunks leapt into the cockpit and looked down at the energy detector, "The energy reserves are almost one zero. It came here from… Age 7...? That's three years later than the time we left." he gasped. "Three more years into the future. It arrived in this era..."

"Nearly four years ago." Ami finished his sentence. "Pluto's really going to have my head."

"This arrived here fully a year before we appeared the first time." Trunks ranted. "What could have come back in here, and for what purpose? Could this be the reason history has changed so drastically"

At Master Roshii's house...

And that's how it went." Krillin finished.

"All that happened, huh?" Master Roshii noted.

"It'd be great if Goku were able to get better before they come looking here." Krillin admitted.

"All we can do now is pray that he does." Master Roshii admitted.

"Just a minute." Oolong voiced. "If the Androids are after Goku, won't this house be the very next place they come looking?"

"Yeah, probably so." Yamcha agreed.

"So, doesn't that make this place the next most dangerous place on Earth?" Oolong panicked. "I got not patience for being in harm's way."

"Hey, I'm still here, you know." Master Roshii reminded. "I won't be defeated by them so easily right, Krillin?"

"And I just supposed to rely on you, then?" Oolong deathpanned.

"What did you dare say?" Master Roshii snapped. "I am still Master Roshii, spoken as the God of Martial Arts! I've even won the Tenkaichi Tournament, you know! "

"That all happened a long time ago!" Oolong argued. "Now, you're simply a lecherous old man! You plan on defeating the Androids with lechery?"

In the forest...

"You know, I really am a genius." Bulma boasted. "I built a time machine in the future, after all."

"In any case, we can't just leave these time machines sitting around." Ami noted.

"For now, let's turn them into capsules." Trunks agreed and returned the older machine into its capsule form.

"I'll return this on to a capsule." Gohan offered.

"Yes, please do." Trunks noted as Gohan reverted his time machine back into its capsule state.

"I'll take this strange eggshell with me." Bulma added.

"Yes, be my guest." Ami nodded.

"Bulma," Gohan voiced. "The rest of us, we've gotten together at Master Roshii's home."

"The Kame House?" Bulma echoed. "How come?"

"Long story short, 3 Androids have been activated." Gohan replied. "And are aiming for my Father's life. But since, Father is down with his illness, in his state, they took him there and hid him from them."

"Well, why don't the whole lot of you just get together and put them away?" Bulma wondered.

"You must be kidding!" Trunks snapped. "Dad, myself, Piccolo, and Tien, all took them on, but we were powerless against them."

"Wow, they really must be incredible." Bulma noted. "How's Vegeta? Is he alright? Did Vegeta go to the Kame House with you?"

"He survived with the help of a Senzu Bean." Trunks replied. "But Dad didn't join with us. He went off somewhere else."

"That's just like him." Bulma chuckled. "What's it?" she blinked when Ami walked off.

"Just as I feared. I was really hoping my senses were wrong." Ami sighed, her voice trembling in obvious fear as she walked over to a rock.

The other three looked at her.

Has your link with the Earth grown this strong, Ami? Trunks wondered.

"There." she added, pointing to empty shell on the ground.

Everyone else followed her finger.

"What's that?" Bulma gasped in shock.

They had found Imperfect Cell's moulted shell.

"It's huge." Trunks gaped. "What made this?"

"Is it dead?" Bulma stammered.

"It isn't dead." Ami corrected. "It's a shell that's been cast off."

"A shell?" Bulma echoed. "You mean the cicadas grow this big around here?"

"There are not cicadas like this." Gohan corrected. "Could this be..."

"Probably." Trunks nodded. "This is from whatever came out of the egg back in the time machine."

"Yeah, it must have started growing and then shed its skin." Gohan agreed.

"What does this mean?" Bulma wondered. "What could have possibly come out of a skin like this?"

"I don't know." Gohan admitted. "I've never seen anything like this."

"But, how did it come to be here?" Trunks wondered. "Who could have sent this egg back through time? For that matter, someone could have come back with this egg as well. I don't have any idea what's going on anymore. Whatever came out of here, it must have just barely happened." he concluded, reaching into the shell to find that it was still warm and wet.

"What do you think?" Bulma mused, as she climbed back into her craft. "In all honestly, you've got a bad feeling about this too?"

"Yes." Trunks confirmed.

"Well, I guess I should get out of here." Bulma remarked. "You guys will be at the Kame House, right? If anything happens, I'll be in touch."

"Right." Gohan nodded.

"Trunks, if you get the time, come visit." Bulma called before she took off. "Grandpa and grandma will love it!"

What exactly is happening now? Trunks mused as he and Gohan headed off to Master Roshii's place, Ami having separated off to Kami's Lookout. I don't know. I absolutely don't know.

At Kami's Lookout...

"Still peeping down on the lower realm?" Piccolo inquired. "Can't say I approve of your little pastime. I guess that ability will likely disappear once you become one with me. Enjoy it now, while you still can."

"So, the uneasiness I've felt in my heart these 4 years." Kami mused.

"You sensed it too, Kami." Ami stated, appearing before the aged Guardian in her full-winged glory.

"Yes." Kami replied."It was not the result of the Androids after all. I'm not sure what it is either. What did come back in that time machine?"

"What?" Piccolo echoed.

"All I know is that there is a life form down on Earth somewhere, one the possesses an even greater power than even the Androids." Ami finished, landing on the platform as she kept her wings.

"What are you talking about?" Piccolo demanded. "Tell me what's going on?"

"To be sure, the day when I turn to Piccolo and for the sake of my office as Kami, and we stand together as one has finally arrived." Kami declared.

"Very soon now..." Ami prophesied. "Very soon now, something terrible will happen to Earth. This is not the kind of crisis Earth has faced so many times before. I have a hopelessly dreadful feeling about this."

SailorStar9: Phew, another chapter down. Stay tuned for Chapter 1: The Reunion.