Fifteen: Shattered Dimensions! A Dazzling Surprise!
Cell, Goten, and Arame stared each other down from a distance of fifty yards.
Arame knew that she and Goten were in dire straits, and she was almost drained of power. Fusing into Gorome had taken what little she'd had left. She could barely muster up any strength at all.
Cell raised his hand and prepared a Ki blast. "I have to say you've been mildly entertaining though. As a reward, I'll make your deaths swift and as painless as possible."
He fired his energy blast.
Arame shut her eyes and braced herself.
But something warped in front of her right before the blast hit. There was a flash of light, and an eruption of dirt and energy. Then she heard the familiar sound of a Super Saiyan aura. Arame dared to open her eyes and saw a girl standing there.
She looked to be around eleven or twelve years old. Her long hair was spiky and golden, and her hand was outstretched. She'd stopped his blast almost effortlessly.
"You," she hissed. "Why are you here?"
Cell narrowed his eyes. "Who the hell are you?"
"The fact that you ask me that tells me that you're from a different timeline," the new girl said. "That's something we have in common. In my timeline, I ended you."
"And in mine, I destroyed this miserable ball of dirt when Goku's brat failed to show me his power," replied Cell. "My, how things differ across dimensions."
"The timelines and dimensions are infinite," the girl said. "I thought you would have known this."
Cell's brow furrowed. "I feel that if we go any farther along this line of conversation we're going to end up debating semantics, and I don't have the patience for that."
Arame stepped up next to the girl. "You're from a different timeline?"
The girl looked at Arame. In that instant, Arame thought she might have seen the girl before. Her facial structure looked familiar. "Who are you?" The girl asked.
"Arame," replied the other. "I'm a Saiyan who's relatively new to Earth."
"Another Saiyan?" said the girl. "Interesting. Well, we can discuss it later. Right now we have a bug to squash. Can you still fight? You look like you've done your share already."
"I have," replied Arame, "but I can still throw a punch." She stared for another moment. "Who are you exactly though? You look familiar."
"I can assure you we've never met," said the girl.
"Answer the question," Cell interjected. "I want a name!"
The girl stared Cell down. "My name…is Gohan!"
Cell's eyes went wide in shock. As did Goten's and Arame's.
The girl named Gohan readied herself for battle. "I am the daughter of the Saiyan Goku and the Earthling Chi-Chi. Does that answer your question, insect?"
"Goku's brat is male, not female!" Cell retorted.
"Maybe in this timeline," girl-Gohan yelled back, "but not where I come from!" She charged Cell faster than one could blink. Her power was astonishing to Arame, and far beyond what she was capable of. Even Cell was caught off guard, pushed back on the defensive.
But that didn't last long.
Arame watched with awe as Cell's guard was broken and he was sent crashing into the ground. He backpedaled to gain some distance and recover his battle posture, but it was useless.
Girl-Gohan smashed into him again, sending his entire body into the air and then slamming him down into a tailspin that tore a tree in half. She then rushed down toward him, grabbed him, hurled him into the air, and launched him into the air with a mighty throw. What followed was a Kamehameha to end them all. A wave of blue energy as wide as three jet engines engulfed Cell's entire body.
When the energy died away, there was nothing left.
Girl-Gohan lowered her hands.
Arame and Goten stared in wonder. Over in the distance, Trunks was beginning to rise to his feet once more.
"Ow, that hurt something fierce," Trunks said.
"Trunks!" Goten yelled. "You alright?"
Trunks looked up and saw the female Gohan first. His eyebrows went up. "Who-?"
"A female Gohan from another dimension," interjected Arame. "The timelines are—"
"Arame!"
Piccolo's voice shot right into her head. "Piccolo? Geez, you surprised me!"
We've got a serious problem, replied Piccolo, as if not even having heard her. There's trouble in the northern mountains. Goku and Gohan have their hands full, but there seems to be a rupture in the time stream. We need everyone out there now!
"We've had some trouble of our own here," Arame replied. "We just had a run in with Cell. If not for some outside help, we would have been finished."
Sounds like another rupture, but from what we can tell, they're converging in the mountains, replied Piccolo. We can discuss all of this later.
Then Piccolo was gone.
"What's up, Arame?"
Arame looked to Goten. "Trouble in the northern mountains. Time stream ruptures are converging there, and Piccolo wants us to come as quick as we can."
"I'll follow," said girl-Gohan. "There might be a way for me to get back to my own timeline there."
Trunks flew back over to the plane, shrunk it to a capsule size, pocketed it, and then they took off toward the mountains. The four moved as fast as their Ki would carry them.
-Break-
"This is…all wrong," Arame gasped as they observed the scene before them.
Far below, their Gohan, Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo, were all facing down enemies that looked like they didn't belong here in the slightest. It wasn't just the time stream warping. This was something else. It was something entirely different from what could have been expected, if a problem like this could have been expected at all.
There were plenty of short green creatures, all with red eyes, that formed the basis of a swarm. Arame recognized them as Saibamen, and there looked to be more coming from…somewhere.
On top of the dire situation developing below, Arame noticed that the air was shimmering and slightly distorted.
The four of them descended as one to stand next to the other Z-warriors.
"It's about time you all got here!" Piccolo called.
"Saibamen?" asked girl-Gohan, stepping forward. "They can't be giving you this hard a time."
"They keep pouring through time rifts that open up out of nowhere," Goku replied. "Also, who're you?"
She looked at Goku strangely, as though she wanted to tell him right then, but thought better of it. "If I told you it would only confuse you. Let's save it for later."
"Do we have any way to stabilize the time stream?" Arame asked.
"Bulma's working on something with Whis to get this sorted out," said Vegeta. "We just need to buy time."
"Then let's get to it!" Goten yelled.
The eight warriors charged into the Saibamen and started destroying them one at a time. They were frail and easily destroyed, but for every one felled, two took its place. What's more, Arame, Goten, and Trunks were still exhausted from their fight with Cell.
The struggle went on for some time, and the Saibamen kept coming. More than one of them attempted to explode, but quick reflexes from the Z-warriors prevented anyone from succumbing.
Suddenly there was an eruption from above that had the Saibamen flying backward. Whis had arrived, and Bulma was with him, both suspended in a force shield of pure energy. Bulma was carrying a spherical device of some kind. The shield dropped and the device flashed, emitting a frequency that could just barely be heard at the edge of the senses.
At once, the warping seemed to slow.
The Saibamen were gone, all obliterated by Whis's power, and for the moment there was a lull in the action.
"This should buy us some time," said Bulma, "but we need one of those time rings to finish things out. Lord Beerus is with the Supreme Kai now. They're getting one here as fast as possible."
"So that's not a permanent fix?" Vegeta replied. "Great. What's next?"
Girl-Gohan stepped up. "Is that invention of yours using the same frequency your time machine used, Bulma? It seems like it has a little less power than before if so."
"It's similar," replied Bulma, "and based on my future self's design." She looked at the female Gohan and said, "Who are you again?"
Girl-Gohan just looked back at her. "No one of importance."
"Oh my," Whis said, concerned. "It seems we have a timeline distortion of a different kind on our hands. I know who you are."
Girl-Gohan looked at Whis in shock. "They don't really need to know do they?"
"It's not like it's going to change anything," replied Whis.
"So who is she?" The male Gohan asked. "She looks a little familiar."
"Well, she certainly should, Gohan," Whis told him. "She's you from a different timeline."
Gohan started in surprise. "What? Seriously?"
Whis chuckled. "Indeed. This girl is Gohan, right down to the DNA. The only differences are the gender and the age.
Girl-Gohan looked at her male self. Then, she looked at Piccolo, who was standing nearby. The look she gave him was one of understanding and firmness.
Piccolo smirked. "Yeah. No doubt about it. She's Gohan."
The air shifted suddenly.
"Do you feel that?" Arame asked.
"Yeah," said Bulma. "My device can keep the small scale stuff in check, but we really need that time ring."
There was a presence to Arame's right. An imposing presence. She turned just in time to block a slamming strike from a burly, hairless Saiyan warrior who she identified as Nappa. She'd seen him with her father several times when she was younger. But he'd had hair then.
"Well, look at this," he growled menacingly. "An upstart rookie in over her head."
Arame spread her arms and kicked Nappa away with a yell.
"There's more!" Piccolo called out.
"Well this looks like a party!" It was Cell's voice. Only this Cell was red instead of green. That didn't alter his smug look or his incredible aura however.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Goten yelled out.
"I have no idea how I got here," said a new voice, which turned out to be coming from a Saiyan that looked very much like Kakarot.
"Oh, great," Nappa grumbled. "Another low class Saiyan here to steal my thunder."
"Any differences we have can be settled later," said the new Saiyan. "My name is Turles. And I'm here to settle a score with that Saiyan over there!" He pointed to Kakarot. "The tailless wonder."
"I've never seen you before," Goku replied sharply. "How could you have a grudge against me?"
"We've never met in this reality," Turles replied. "But I assure you that my grudge is very real and will be satisfied today."
Bulma checked her device again. "Uh oh…there are more time stream fluctuations at play here. Where is that time ring?"
"They're too powerful for this to be normal," observed Vegeta. "This might actually be a real challenge."
With the time stream destabilizing, it was certainly bound to get worse.
Arame's mind returned to Chronos yet again.
He's the cause of all of this. That smug, self-righteous ass! Years of torture, hypnotism, and reprogramming all to turn me into a weapon. When that fails, he screws off leaving us with his mess. There has to be more to it than this. He's still planning something. But where is he?
(Author's Aside: The presence of so many foes guarantee that this is meant to be a knockdown drag-out brawl with very little to show for it that hasn't been seen before from other fanfictions. I usually shy away from writing fanservice so I'm going to skip ahead in this battle just a bit. However, I'm going to give some buildup before my final scene, and the next chapter is where this battle will shine as it's concluded and sets up the opening to the final struggle, or final arc if you will, of Arame's opening story.
(I apologize if the rest of this chapter is cut short, but there is truly little that I can add here.)
Arame was exhausted but launched another assault on the foe before her. Though she wasn't entirely aware of his existence in this timeline, she could be certain that he existed right in front of her in the present.
At full power, he was a monumental opponent. Arame had never fully recovered, and she could barely muster up the energy to stand, let alone achieve her Super Saiyan form. And there was no way the others were going to be able to help her out as most of them were busy with their own struggles.
From Nappa to the new red Cell, and Turles to Zarbon, the number of enemies that kept lining up from other timelines and dimensions was catastrophic.
There were only two opponents left, and only three fighters still standing.
Arame, Trunks, and Goku. The enemies opposite them were Turles (somehow), and the one Arame had been going toe to toe with, Freeza's brother Cooler.
There was an eruption of power near Arame's feet and she went flying.
"What's wrong, apes? Can't keep up?" Cooler called out haughtily. "I always knew you were disappointments. I'm not sure how my brother put up with you for so long."
Even as Arame hit the ground, she could feel something else. It was coalescing near her, and there was a sudden flash as another rift in the time stream opened.
Is this the end then? I guess Chronos gets what he wants then, she thought as she lay in the dirt. Arame looked up blearily at the silhouetted figure standing over her. As the light behind the figure dimmed away, Arame got to see who it was.
It was a young woman, with dark eyes and spiky black hair. Twitching at her waist was a tail, and that got Arame's attention. She sat up. "Who're…who're you? A…Saiyan?"
"Half," she replied. She leaned in and smiled at Arame. "Never seen you before. Nice to meet you. If only under better circumstances." She turned her head a bit, revealing a red ribbon in her hair. Then she looked back at Arame. "You've got your hands full, but I'm here to lend a hand." She held her own hand out to help Arame up.
Arame took that hand and rose to her feet. "Thanks…I guess."
"Don't mention it," the girl replied.
"Who are you anyway?" Arame asked as the girl turned to face their two opponents.
The girl turned her head to look back at Arame with a smile on her face, her tail twitching excitedly. "You can call me Ranch!"
-End of Part Eleven-
(Author's Endnote: If you're not aware of Ranch, she is a creation of MasakoX of Team Four Star fame. Based off of a concept in one of his many 'What If' scenarios, I decided to give the character a tribute here, if only for this part and the beginning of Part Twelve. [Ranch in MasakoX's story is the half-Saiyan daughter of Raditz and Launch])