A/N: So how is it so far? I hope its ok, its my first fic (like I said before) so please review and tell me what you think. O yea, and sorry, but sometimes it takes me a while to update.

Disclaimer: Yea, yea, I don't own DBZ, the story, or any of the characters. They belong to Akira Toriyama and Funimation, blah, blah, blah…

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Chapter 2



How could this be happening? Here I was, just sitting up at Kami's Lookout while Piccolo was down on Earth fighting Cell by himself. It wasn't fair! Why couldn't I have been down there with him? If I had been there, Piccolo might still be alive, but now he was dead. Why couldn't Cell have killed me instead of him? I couldn't take it, I just couldn't believe he was gone… My dad seemed angry and Mr. Popo had tears running down his cheeks. He was crying for his oldest friend, and if I had been crying, it would have been for my best friend. Piccolo was like a second father to me. He taught me almost everything I knew about being a great warrior and he had always been there for me when I needed it. How could I have let this happen to him? I couldn't take it any longer, I had to do something! "I can't take this anymore!" I cried as I prepared myself to take off.

"Gohan no!" My dad yelled as he wrapped his arms around me, holding me back.

"No! Let go! It's not fair! Let go of me!" How could he stop me when Piccolo was dead? I had to go help him by avenging his death, didn't my dad understand that? Didn't he know how I cared for Piccolo? "Piccolo needs me! Let go!"

"Gohan, you've got to listen to me," he said as I continued to yell. "I know its not fair, but we only have one chance to beat that monster: we have to play to win. If we don't, Piccolo's sacrifice will be in vain."

"But it hurts dad," I say through my tears as I drop to the ground sobbing.

"I know son, I know."

Wait, I could sense something. It was Piccolo! He was still alive! I had to save him. "No! I can't take this anymore! Forget the plan! Stay if you want to, I'm going now. Goodbye." As I took into the air, heading towards Earth, my dad appeared in front of me and knocked me back to the floor. "Man, gosh dad," I say as I sit back up, a little shocked that he had actually hit me.

"You would have been killed, son," he responded sternly.

"So? Wouldn't that be better then just sitting around here? Piccolo would never turn his back on you like this, Dad." He didn't say anything. He just turned his back to me.

"Gohan…" I turn around to see Mr.Popo kneeling next to me. "Your dad is hurting too, son."

"He is?"

"Just as much as you or I. You must know that, don't you?"

"Then why don't we attack?!" I couldn't believe these two. "Isn't it better than just wasting our time up here and letting that monster get away with it? Ugh!"

"Gohan, your dad's not letting Cell get away with it. He just wants to do what's best. Piccolo doesn't want you to die for him, he wants you to live. So, get the training first. Fight Cell when its to your advantage, not his." I guess Mr.Popo was right, but it sure was hard waiting. I looked over at my dad. He still had his back turned to me, but now he had a strange golden aura around him. "Daddy… wow…"

"Look at your dad, Gohan. I know its hard to believe, but I think its even harder for him to wait then it is for you." Man, I never knew that, but by the looks of it, Mr.Popo was right again. It was hard to wait. I shouldn't have exploded like that. I needed to apologize. "Uh, Dad? I'm sorry about what I said."

"It's ok, Gohan. I'm sorry that I knocked you down," he responded. "I know how deeply you care about Piccolo. I promise, I won't let his sacrifice be in vain."

*******

All I could do was watch as Cell took the life of my new ally. Piccolo hadn't deserved that. He didn't deserve to die. Cell wanted me, not him, so why did he have to take his life for it? Because he was a monster, a fucking monster! I wouldn't let him get us; I wouldn't let him get me or Juuhachi-gou! I would fight him, even if I didn't have a chance. I wanted to fight for my life, not just give it away. I would even rather die than let him get us, I could self-destruct if I needed. He began to walk towards me, all the while eying Juuhachi-gou and I as if we were prey. To him, that's exactly what we were. Suddenly he started running towards me. "Alright, let's play," I say to myself. "Here goes nothing!" I begin to run towards him. We were now on a collision coarse with each other, but neither of us seemed to care. Just as we were to collide, I leap into the air and dive right back down at him, trying to attack. As the dust cloud that had formed around us cleared, I noticed that he wasn't there anymore, but where had he gone? As I am looking around for the creature, not moving from my spot, I notice a strange shadow looming over me. I look up to see Cell hovering above me, bearing his fangs as he drops to the ground. I managed to dodge him, leaving him crouching on all fours like some wild animal. Immediately he spins around and raises his huge tail to swing it at me. I jump to the side just as it slams to the ground, again dodging his attack.

"Your not absorbing me, you freak!" I shout back at him with anger. Now he comes towards me again and as he gets close to me, he drops down to one hand and swings his entire body around to knock me down. Luckily, I am able to jump out of the way, and he again misses me. I realize that I am not able to elude him so easily when he quickly follows me into the air and begins to relentlessly punch at me. It was hard dodging all of his hits because they were so fast, but luckily I was faster and managed to get out of the way. Eventually he realized that simply punching me would not get the job done and backs up, swinging his tail around with such incredible force and speed that it sends me hurtling to the ground. That had caught me off guard, but I managed to stop myself before I actually hit. I open my eyes to see that the monster was directly in front of me and that he was starting to jab at me with the huge spike at the end of his tail. It's incredibly fast, but fortunately for me, I'm faster. Cell eventually tires of his game and lands his fist right into my face, which sends me back to the ground. I was taking a pretty hard beating, but I wasn't going to give up. I sit up just when Cell lands next to me and starts stepping on my face. Again, he swings around and whips me with his tail. I get shot into the air by its force, but before I get too far he knocks me back down. After he got a few punches in to my gut, he picked me up by my shirt. By this time, of course, I was in horrible pain. To add to that, Cell gave me one more nice hard punch to the back and let me drop. Just when I'm trying to get myself up, he uses his elbow to jab me in the back and I let myself fall back to the ground. I hurt so much that I couldn't move. All I could do was lay there and let him roll me over onto my back with his foot. Now he could see my beaten and bloody face.

"Juunana-gou, I never planned on humiliating you like this," he speaks to me. "It's a simple merger, that is all. Your resistance is the cause of your pain."