A/N: The moment you've all been waiting for: chapter 21! Read and review!

Nova Flame: thanks for your review! I have been thinking of making the entire collective thinking of nothing but food or something like that, but I don't believe Goku is really that dumb, in the series, he's sometimes very clever. Emphasising the word sometimes, lol.

Ratty: Thanks, I'm trying to be original and I hope I'm doing a good job at it. You're Dutch? Da's een opluchting, dan ben ik tenminste niet de enige (doet dansje).

Chapter 21: Identity revealed

"Let go of my head and I just MIGHT show you some mercy!"

"Nice try Cell, I can sense you're lying!"

"That's not a very smart move you just made…"

"Well, maybe I'm just not that smart and…uhm…no wait…that didn't come out right…"

"GAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Hey, what are you...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

After a long struggle of Cell to grab Lara, who used all of her speed and agility to stay out of his hands, he finally managed to get her of his back my wrapping his tail around her leg and sending her flying through the corridor. Unfortunately, the corridor was very long and he could faintly hear a huge crash in the distance. He wasn't worried about her escaping, because he was a lot faster now that he had absorbed more humans, but he was worried about her life. She might have superhuman speed, but she did not have a superhuman body. In his anger, he had thrown her pretty hard, and the chance that a normal human survived that, was zero to nothing. If she died, he had wasted a lot of time he could have spend on searching for the androids. Also, he had raised his powerlevel and therefore, possibly alerted the Z-fighters for nothing!

"Ooooohh…"

Thanks to his Namekian hearing, he could hear Lara groaning. Apparently, her quick reflexes had enabled her to slow herself down just in time to soften the blow. He hurried to the end of the hall and stopped when he spotted an enormous pile of debris where there used to be a wall. On top of the rubble, a broken slab of concrete slowly started to move. When it finally slid of the pile, a hand emerged.

"Allow me, my dear"

Cell grabbed Lara's wrist and pulled her out of the debris.

"Ugh…" Lara mumbled, "next time, Susan can play the hero…"

Cell snickered.

"I'm afraid there won't be a next…huh?"

He looked up, and noticed a strange woman standing behind him. She was wearing white bodysuit and a matching helmet with a blue visor.

"I strongly advise you to let her go," she said, her voice distorted by a device in her helmet.

"And you are?"

"That is not important"

"You're right… it's not"

He shot his tail at her, but she just disappeared. Cell blinked, confused.

"Where did…"

"Over here, slowpoke!"

Suddenly, he felt something on his head. He reached for it with his hand, and was barely able to touch the mysterious stranger's feet before she jumped away and gracefully landed right behind him.

"Sorry, you'll have to do better than that!"

"What the… who are you? I demand to know!"

"There is no time! The fact is, that at this very moment, this building is crawling with Borg and I don't intend to let you stay here and get assimilated again"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I have more important things to do than listening to your little story"

"Well, you're not the only one with a things-to-do list, so I'll give you two choices: one, you will get out now and destroy this building or two, I will make you. Also, I want you to give me Lara."

Both of them looked at her, she had already passed out.

"She would have survived this anyway even if I don't intervene now, but it would be at a very high price, I know she's not willing to pay"

Cell was becoming more and more confused every second. Who was this woman, what was she talking about?

"What do you mean by 'she would have survived this anyway' and how exactly are you planning to make me…AAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHH"

He suddenly felt like his head was going to spit in two. A sharp, almost unbearable pain pierced his skull and he felt like he was going to die right there and then, when the pain slowly started to fade away. In complete horror, he looked at the strange woman, who had not moved an inch.

"So Cell, what's it going to be? You've got three seconds"

Cell didn't even wait until his time was up. Immediately, he fired a huge ki blast at the ceiling, just before they left the building, he could see three men entering the corridor. Their skin was a very pale grey, and they were covered with implants. He could only barely sense their ki.

"Quickly!" she shouted as they hovered above the roof of Capsule Corp. "Destroy them, but don't use any of Goku's attacks!"

"Why can't I…AAAAAARRRGGGH! ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT!"

He placed his middle and index finger on his forehead, and began charging his attack.

"SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!"

In the blink of an eye, Capsule Corp was completely destroyed.

"Now go," she said. "Leave this place, I don't think the Queen will send more drones until she knows what happened, but we can't take any unnecessary risks and…oh! One more thing…" She reached for a pocket on her leg and took out a strange green device. It was about the size of a stamp and now that he took a closer look, it appeared to be completely organic. She placed it on his chest, and it sunk deeper and deeper into his skin until it was no longer visible.

He blinked.

"What was that?"

"Well, the race that has invented it gave it a name I can not pronounce without breaking my jaw, but I call it a Borg Blocker. To make a long story short, it will make you invisible to their sensors. If they decide to transport you to one of their cubes, they will have to find you first and this will make it almost impossible for them to do so."

Cell suddenly noticed two small dots on the horizon. One of them was Susan, but didn't get a chance to take a better look at the other one because his new 'friend' quickly got in front of him and blocked his view.

"GO!"

Cell hesitated for a few seconds, but decided not to push his luck. He would see Miss Mystery again soon enough once he absorbed the androids, and then that disrespectful girl would pay for her insolence…

"What was that!" 17 exclaimed when they suddenly saw a huge explosion

"Capsule Corp!" Susan gasped in horror, "It's gone!"

"Is that Cell?"

"Where?"

Susan looked, but all she saw were two tiny dots. She had been able to see the big yellow dome that was CC, but her eyesight wasn't nearly as good as 17's.

"The green one with the tail"

"Uh oh, that's him alright… who's the other one? Is it my sister?"

"I don't know, but she is holding a girl with pink hair"

"Lara! She's alive!"

Susan tried to get to her, but 17 held her back.

"Stay where you are, I'm going to show that thing who's the stronger android here, and I DON'T want you to get in my way"

"And what about Lara! If you attack that creep now, my sister will get caught in the middle! She'll never…"

Susan stopped when 17 gave her an icy stare. There was no love, no friendship, not even a little bit of kindness or compassion his eyes. Against better judgement, Susan had still hoped he would change his mind. That the forces of evil had not consumed him entirely and maybe, just maybe that there was a chance they could be together. Now she realised Trunks was right. 17 and 18 maybe had been human once, but Dr. Gero had turned them into androids. Ruthless killing machines, that would not show mercy to anyone or anything. It broke her heart, but she would not let him know that. Maybe she would lose her life, but she was not going to lose her dignity.

"Like I said before," 17 continued in a cold emotionless voice, "don't get your hopes up"

"Kill me." Susan heard herself say. 17 looked at her, the way someone would look at an UFO that was about to land in their backyard.

"Don't pretend you didn't hear me," she continued. "Kill me, because that is the only way you are going to keep me from coming with you"

The android blinked at the Susan's sudden boldness.

"You can't be serious…"

"Just try me"

"That won't be necessary"

"Huh?"

"He's gone"

Lara looked at the ruins of Capsule Corp, now there was just one small dot above it but it was getting bigger and bigger.

"I'm bored" 17 said, suddenly feeling the urge to just get away from this strange girl as fast as possible, but determined not to show it, "I'm going back to see how my own sister is doing."

Susan frowned. What was he up to?

"I don't feel like blowing stuff up right now, use your extra time wisely because it won't be much." He smirked and took of in the direction of Piccolo and 18, leaving Susan behind.

Yeah… she thought. He has definitely lost his marbles…

"Hello Susan"

Startled by the strange voice, she turned around and saw the now-not-so-tiny dot that was still holding Lara.

"Your sister's going to have a major headache when she wakes up, but it could have been much worse"

"T-Thanks…" she stammered, "who are you?"

The mysterious woman reached for her helmet and slowly removed it from her head. Susan froze on the spot, unable to believe what she saw. She just stared, blinked a few times and when she pinched herself to make sure it wasn't a dream, fainted.

"I should have seen that one coming…" the woman mumbled, as she laid the two Uranians down on the grass below her, only a few feet away from her ship. She brushed a few loose strands of pink hair out of her face. It was a lot longer now, it almost came down to her waist. Her light pink eyes gazed up at the sky, it would not be long before the Z-warriors would show up to check out the explosion. She entered her vessel and left it again, this time while holding an unconscious Namekian in her arms. Just before she had arrived at Capsule Corp, she had managed to squeeze a little bit of power out of her broken ship. Just enough to transport one person.

"Sorry for beaming you out of there, but 18 was using you as a punch bag and her brother was going to return and join in on the fun if it had not been for me"

Piccolo groaned, but he was still out cold. Carefully, she laid him down next to her younger self. He would probably be okay in a few more minutes. Mirai Lara stepped back, and looked around. It felt good to be back…

A/N: ACK! Two Lara's? Someone wake me up from this nightmare! Why is she here? How did she torture Cell like that? And what's with the long hair? Find out text time, on DBZ!