AN: DBZ and all its respective characters are not my property; they're owned by Toei Animation and by Akira Toriyama.

Warnings for this story include, but are not limited to - strong language, dark imagery, disturbing and distressing imagery, character torture, and character death.

"We need help."

It was a simple statement, and one of the more obvious ones. The timeline had gotten jacked up – whether it was from Trunks' involvement or simply because the same events never unfold the same way twice – and now they were left to face a being ( a monster ) that was more horrific than he could have prepared them for. The disaster that they had narrowly avoided was going to come back full circle, only with no survivors this time; Cell was going to make damn sure of that.

A silence greeted Bulma's statement as the warriors sat mutely around the Kame house. The blue-haired woman glanced from her son – the man that was to be her son, rather – to her lover, feeling frustration growing. "Well, isn't anyone going to say something?"

"Well, yeah, we need help," Krillin said cautiously. "But where are we going to get it? Gohan and Goku are already training in the Chamber; we need to wait a day for them to finish before anyone else can enter and until then…"

"So you're saying there's nothing we can do out here other than sit and wait?" She shook her head, refusing to believe that. "There has to be something, there's always been something. We've never just been useless before."

"We've never been this out of our league before either, Bulma."

"What about the time capsule?" There was a pause after she asked that, obviously waiting for a response from Trunks. The violet-haired teen was lost in his own thoughts, focus far from the conversation at hand. "Trunks, the time capsule?"

He blinked and straightened some before frowning. "… I'm not sure what you would be planning to do with it, but it wouldn't help. There's no compatible technology in the future and no one left to use it and there's only enough energy left to make one jump. Someone could use it to save themselves, but my future hasn't changed. There's no help there."

Bulma stared at him oddly, lips pursed together as she took in what he was saying. "… no. That wouldn't help at all, would it?"

-----

The tiny replicas of Cell darted forth, laughing gleefully as they tore through the unprepared warriors standing watch and Gohan could only stare in abject horror as they fought back vainly. His father, tired from the previously fight with Cell, was lagging and slipping, something that the others realized, but there was little they could do to help him, not when their own hands were full dealing with the mess presented in front of them.

As he stood, shaking in horror, Cell smirked and waited for any reaction from the young teen. His convictions, his refusal to fight, had been shaken when the android 16 had needlessly sacrificed himself, and now to stand by and watch his friends and family suffer all because of his principles?

Why did you pick me Dad? I'm not strong enough to fight him…

"Fight to defend your friends." Gohan clenched a fist, energy building up inside of him as he struggled to hold back. "Give in to your anger before it's too late for th-"

Light moves faster than sound, something that travelled at the already impressive speed of 340.29 miles per second. Light moved at 299,792,458 miles per second, a speed that even the strongest warriors were not able to approach, even though to the naked eye it appeared that they were moving too fast to be tracked.

What happened next was so fast that Gohan was unable to properly digest the chain of events. Time, something that moved at an immeasurably fast speed – you would have to surpass the speed of light in order to break the time barrier, or so some theories said – seemed to freeze for a moment as every Cell Jr. simultaneously snapped back, their barrage of attacks on the rest of the warriors halted. The moment passed as a beam of light bounced down to land lightly on their backs, glowing white-hot as it spread out and molded into their flesh. Gohan blinked, feeling justifiably worried, and then they exploded.

The white energy had ripped through the midsection of the Cell copies, tearing them apart before bursting out in a wave. In front of him, Cell stood frozen in shock as his gambit backfired. "How… how could they… who could have…"

"Does he always have to be such a show-off?" Alarm-bells went off in Gohan's mind as a female voice spoke behind him, a voice that was definitely not familiar. "I know it gets the job done but still…" He could practically see her smiling as the laugh tinged the tone of her voice. "I shouldn't complain; I don't have to do the grunt work now."

Slowly – he felt now like he was standing between two incredibly dangerous, and possibly insane, individuals – Gohan turned to glance behind him. A woman was standing there, no older than her late teens. She had long black hair and black eyes that smiled when she looked down at him. "Hey, let me have a crack at him first, okay?" she said, winking. Too stunned to formulate a proper response – just who the hell strolls up onto a battlefield and thinks 'hey, this seems like a great place to be now?' – Gohan could only watch and stare as she patted him on the shoulder and stepped forward, leaving him standing rooted in place.

She didn't look like a fighter, not one he had ever seen, but she felt like one; certainly there was energy flowing about her, sharp and electric though she was managing to keep it all buried under her skin. Black pants with a zipper that went around each leg, the thigh on the left and the calf on the right, with the material turning white below, covering up black boots. Above that was a pale blue shirt tucked into her pants with a black mid-driff shirt above it, the sleeves trimmed in lace. Her right hand had a black glove, her left a white arm guard. Very mismatched, thrown together, but she carried herself casually and slipped a strand of hair behind one ear while smiling at Cell.

"Sorry I'm late to the party. I didn't really have an exact time to go off of and you know how these things go." The woman did seem truly apologetic and as she stepped closer to Cell she held her hand out for him to shake. "It's not going to permanently affect our relationship in the future, is it? I know first impressions are always the most important ones so I want to make sure I make a good one."

Cell could only stare.

He wanted to shout out some sort of warning as the insect-like creature adjusted to the change in situation, a smirk now spreading across his features as he reached out to grasp her hand. If she was lucky she would only meet the same fate as the other two faux fighters, a simple swat as she was thrown to the side. If she was unlucky…

There was a crunch, a snap, and Cell was flipped over and lying on his back while the woman had her foot planted firmly against his back, arm twisted about from her grip on his hand. She yawned while Gohan blinked and stepped back, stunned by the ease at which she handled herself. Cell planted his hand against the ground and pushed himself up, causing the woman to release him and jump back. She landed neatly, foot barely scrapping the rocky ground before darting forward. The green man twisted about, energy building in the palm of his hand as he drew it back, but she slammed the butt of her palm up against his chin before he had a chance, sending him flying back.

It was clear that, before, Cell had simply been 'playing', so to speak – his attempts to block and fight back against the strange woman had been minimal at best. Seeing that she actually knew what she was doing though, and was now making a mockery of him for it, enraged him and he lashed out, a volley of energy blasts thrown in her direction before darting over toward her. She seemed prepared but still was unable to dodge everything thrown at her, the energy bolts burning away patches of her shirt, jeans, and ripping through the guard on her arm. She stepped back and caught his fist as he lunged at him, the smirk that had vanished from her sudden appearance slowly making its way back to the perfect being's face, and Cell swiped his leg out to send her collapsing back to the ground.

The woman jumped, knee coming up to bury itself in his stomach, before twisting about to slam her elbow into his face. He grabbed at her arm and she used the rest of her momentum to push off of him, effectively flipping over and landing behind the fighter.

Gohan continued to watch uneasily – the female's power level was steadily rising though she was showing no outward sign of any exertion. She was holding her own, that was what mattered right now, and as the two continued in their twisted ballet he edged nervously away before breaking and running over to his father's side. Goku was recovering from the beating, first from Cell and then from the Jrs., but the injuries were all mostly superficial, nothing that wouldn't be healed with time.

"Dad!" Concern overriding every other emotion the young saiyan knelt down next to his father, slipping under one arm to help him stand. "Dad, are you okay?"

"Gohan…"

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?!" This question, directed at him so eloquently with the oh-so subtle rage and fury, came from Vegeta. The 'prince' was limping over, blood dripping from a wound on his forehead while he held his left arm awkwardly. "First you insult me by choosing your brat over me to face Cell next-" This part of the statement was aimed at Goku, though his father seemed unfazed by Vegeta's furious rantings. "- And then you abandon the fight to allow some woman take your place?"

"I didn't abandon it," Gohan responded heatedly, Goku slowly standing beside him. "She just- she took over! "

Though he said nothing, Gohan could feel the waves of disapproval coming from his father. He turned slightly, looking back with eyes wide in worry. "D-dad?" he asked, voice lowered some. "I did the right thing, didn't I?" Goku didn't respond, his face shadowed and unreadable as he kept his focus on the ground. That confirmed the worst for Gohan and the knot that had been slowly tightened in his stomach suddenly clenched, cutting off all air.

Oh kami, my one chance, I nearly killed everyone and now someone else is going to die because of me…

"Well, I can't judge." The feeling from before, of nameless terror from being trapped by an unknown force, sudden came surging back through the young teen's veins. This voice was eerily familiar but Trunks was still lying prone on the ground, too weak from his fight to even claw his way back to his feet. "It's not my place since this isn't, you know, my time. But since you're the ones that went and asked us for help, shouldn't you be a little more grateful we're here and a little less 'Grab the shotguns, the zombie apocalypse is at our door'?"

Gohan turned and stared. The absurdity of the situation was finally setting in, forcing Goku to shake from his sullen revere and gape at the figure standing less than five feet away, the sun casting a halo behind his image. They all gaped, the silence only broken by the muttered curses and the energy discharges from the fight behind them.

Trunks was standing there, a Trunks who was whole and healthy and who appeared slightly older than the one they already knew, a Trunks who was dressed in black and white just like the woman, a Trunks who still had a sword strapped to his back, and a Trunks who winced when the woman hollered out: "Yo, Candy Floss! Get your ass out here and help me for fucks sake!"

"… Such is my life," he quipped, a forced smile dancing over his lips before he darted away.