Worlds Collide
Chapter 29: Breakdown
Gohan could hear Haru crying, it was as if he knew that they were all done for as Cell stood up straight, his eyes now as crimson as Frieza's. Everyone froze as he looked around at them all.
"Well this is... exhilarating," he said, looking at his hands. He looked at them all evilly as he clenched his fists together and got into stance. He looked ready to attack, but something wasn't right; he was merely tensing his muscles in an attempt to power up - but it wasn't working. "Why can't I - "
Cell fell onto one knee clutching onto his head as if he was in pain. Gohan was the only one who didn't seem afraid; in actual fact, he was terrified. But nobody else moved. Gohan took a step forward as Cell got onto his feet again. This time, his eyes were back to their normal shade of fuchsia.
"He's trying to get me to power up," said Cell. "So that he knows where we are."
His eyes clenched shut again as he tried to block Frieza out. When he got into Gohan's head, he missed the opportunity to power the boy up, choosing to take his anger out on the android instead. Controlling Cell was proving to be difficult - he was a lot harder to push aside in his own head. The android was indeed a lot mentally stronger than Gohan. Cell's eyes soon turned red again, causing Gohan to jump back into a defensive stance.
"Halfbreed! Do not power up!" yelled Cooler, seeing Frieza's trap. Frieza was at the surface again, scanning his audience from Cell's mind, until he fixed onto Gohan.
Gohan didn't even see Cell move until his fist made contact with his face, sending him into the wall at the side of him. He could hear everyone gasping and screaming. Haru was crying even louder. Gohan could hear Cell laughing maliciously as he walked over to him, he looked up at him to reveal his bloody lip.
"Letting him control you? I thought you were better than that!" said Gohan, attempting to push the right buttons.
Cell stopped again, reverting back to his original self. He once again clutched onto his head, trying to get rid of him.
"Cell, push him away! He must not find out where we are!" said Cooler firmly, praying that Cell was strong enough to fight him off. In all honesty, not one of them knew what Cell was capable of, or what went on in his head most of the time - not even Gohan.
"He really hates you..." said Cell, looking at Gohan.
"Cell, fight it!" Cooler carried on encouraging the android from a distance.
"He wants to make you suffer..."
Cell began to stutter as he tried not to power up. He had to fight this without his powers. Gohan attempted to conceal the fact that he was currently having flashbacks to when he was with Frieza, but he got up and tried to reach out to Cell by standing right in front of him. Thinking that Frieza was on his way out, Gohan reached out to touch him, not expecting Cell's eyes to go red once again.
Before he could move, Cell yanked him towards him by his upper arms, causing Gohan to squeeze his eyes shut to avoid looking at him. He could hear him laughing quietly.
"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to get my hands on you again... well, in a manner of speaking," he said, speaking so quietly that only Gohan could hear him. "Next time we meet, I'll make sure we carry on where we left off, saiyan." Gohan accidentally let out a whimper, which only earned him a sickening smile. He felt lips against his ear. "I will rape you until it destroys you for good... I promise." Before Gohan could react in the form of a power up, he was pushed to the floor. He looked up to see that Cell was finally himself again, the drugs must have finally worn off. He looked at them all, almost looking scared.
And then he collapsed.
Gohan avoided everybody, resorting to locking himself in the bathroom after wandering around trying not to remember what Frieza said to him. He desperately wanted to forget about it, but if Frieza ever found a way to them again then it was going to happen.
After locking the door, he opened the cupboard on the wall, causing everything to fall out onto the floor. After rummaging around the cupboard's contents, he found what he was looking for. He slumped back against the wall, staring at the small razor blade in his hand. He went to pull off his wrist band, stopping when all he could see on his wrist was scarred, mangled skin - the result of years of abusing himself.
Gohan couldn't wait any longer. Panicking, he pulled his gi down over his shoulder, and dragged the blade down numerous times on his shoulder where he could conceal it from his friends. He stopped when the adrenaline began to wear off. The pain was relieving to him. He closed his eyes so that he could feel it in full, ignoring his withdrawal again as his hands shook.
Gohan soon regretted cutting himself there, as the blood began to stain his clothes. He cursed to himself as he instinctively grabbed a towel, got onto his feet and ran it under some cold water. He placed it onto his shoulder, hissing as it stung him.
"Stupid," he said to himself. It seemed that he had more than just one addiction to overcome. Three in fact; antranide, self harm and his relationship with Cell.
Gohan walked into his room, where the Ginyu's had put Cell on the bed over an hour ago to let him rest. Jeice had objected to having him anywhere near Gohan, but they had nowhere else to put him. He closed the door and turned around to see him still unconscious. He lay down on the bed, his head resting on Cell's shoulder. He felt more alone than ever when he didn't receive a reaction. He felt so weak that he couldn't seem to function without him.
"Why are you doing this to me?" he whispered, resting his hand on the android's chest. "Why do you make me love you?"
Gohan rested there for the next two hours until he felt Cell stir. He lifted his head off his shoulder to witness him finally open his eyes. He looked confused for a moment.
"He got me, didn't he?" said Cell, frustrated with himself.
"For a few minutes, yeah," said Gohan, who just felt relieved at not being by himself anymore. Cell let his head fall back onto the pillow.
"The antranide lets him in," he said, finally understanding how and why Frieza got into his head. "What did he do?"
"Nothing really... just grabbed me and threatened to rape me."
"Figures... tying to take what belongs to me." It was a rather heartless response, but it made Gohan feel safe as he rested his head on Cell's shoulder again. "Frieza meant it, you know. What he said." Gohan closed his eyes and held on to Cell even tighter. Cell was beginning to remember everything, feeling angrier by the second. "The things he wants to do to you..."
"Stop..." whimpered Gohan, not wanting to hear anymore, holding on still.
"You're shaking." Cell could feel him shuddering under the hand he had on his back.
"I've stopped taking to pills..."
"A wise move, considering that he's on to us."
"I got rid of mine, I think you should do the same."
Cell ignored him, but also knew that it was for the best despite how ill he was going to feel for the next few days; but at least he'd managed to drag Gohan down with him. The android didn't realise that he was now holding Gohan in both his arms in a subconscious attempt to let Frieza know that Gohan was his.
"How did you know that it wasn't Frieza?"
Gohan was confused when he lifted his head up to look at him.
"What?"
"Last night. How could you be sure that it was me? Doing those things to you." Gohan had been wondering that all day, until he realised it himself.
"I guess it was the way you were touching me. Only you could make something that weird actually feel good," he laughed, attempting to make light of the situation.
If Cell was under Frieza's control, he would have definitely done a lot more than he did. Cell suddenly pulled him forward into a lustful kiss, more to reassure him that Gohan wasn't going anywhere. It infuriated him that someone was threatening to take what was rightfully his. Gohan got on top of him properly to deepen the kiss. Cell hand moved from Gohan's jaw and down to his shoulder, causing Gohan to pull back abruptly.
"What is it?" Gohan didn't answer as he continued to wince. Cell pulled down his gi over his shoulder to find out that Gohan's habit of self mutilation hadn't disappeared entirely since he was granted the privilege of dying. They were straight, shallow cuts that started at the end of his collarbone, the longest on ending just shy of his right nipple. The skin around it was a nasty hue of pink that contrasted to its usual pale shade. Cell had accidentally reopened one of them.
"I got lost for a second... I didn't know what to do."
"Wrists not good enough for you anymore?"
Gohan didn't have an answer to that question. It was as if he'd subconsciously done it on purpose so that it would be seen. Like a cry for help. He suddenly started to feel Cell's fingertips begin to almost tickle him, but both of them looked at his hand to find it trembling.
"And so it begins..." he said, trying not to let on that the withdrawal was beginning to affect him. Gohan was still shaking too, subtly.
"You've done this before?" asked Gohan, now wondering why he was given the antranide in the first place.
"You haven't wondered why I look like this?" asked Cell, seeing Gohan finally click.
"You've been addicted to them for years haven't you?" he said, at last realising that Cell purposely got him hooked on them too.
"I was once. It was Frieza that got me back on them again. But I've kicked them before... and I can do it again." Cell half expected Gohan to leave after figuring out that it was Cell's fault that he was feeling so ill. But instead, he held onto him tighter.
"How do you make it stop?" he asked, trying to keep himself together. He was feeling more woozy by the second.
"Keeping myself busy."
"How?"
"Training mostly."
"We can't train here... he'll sense us." Cell smirked at Gohan's apparent naivety. The boy was so caught up in his delirium that he wasn't thinking straight.
"There are more ways to keep distracted."
Cell turned to his right, causing Gohan to roll off him. They both lay on their sides. Cell began to look heavy eyed as the withdrawal began to take hold, but carried on regardless, pulling Gohan's gi down further over his shoulder to reveal the full extent of his injuries. Without much hesitation, he leaned down and took Gohan's right nipple into his mouth.
It felt strange at first, as he felt quite disoriented, but it began to feel good. His skin was currently on fire, making it more sensitive to every single touch. He began to feel fidgety, tugging at the covers as his shirt was pulled up just enough for Cell to get his mouth the other nipple for a while. The android's trembling hand found itself between Gohan's legs to keep itself busy. Gohan began to feel himself sweat thanks to his sudden fever. He decided at that point that he'd never do drugs again. He hated feeling so ill.
As soon as Cell's mouth moved up to his neck, Gohan's hand found itself between Cell's legs, and everything seemed to blur as the fever got worse. But he was on top of him again, keeping his quivering hand busy by pleasuring him rather aggressively. He was so fixated on not stopping that he only snapped out of it when Cell came.
The sensations only calmed the android for a minute or so, but he too began to feel as unwell as Gohan did. Not wanting to make a run for his pills, he lifted Gohan's shirt off completely and pushed him onto his stomach.
Gohan's vision blurred just from those mere movements, but the hairs on the back of his neck stood when Cell pushed his fingers into him. He couldn't even recall having the rest of his clothes removed, but it didn't matter as his rhythmic shallow breathing began to ease the symptoms a little.
Cell was already hard again, his body still clearly needing some form of stimulation. He soon pushed himself into Gohan all at once, ignoring that it blatantly hurt him; Gohan was beyond caring as he began to moan. Cell lay on top of him, holding onto his shoulder until he found a animalistic pace that only got more hostile with every movement. Gohan was even attempting to slam his hips backwards to use up all of his restless energy. Gohan could feel him hitting him in the place where it enticed him the most, hearing him grunting louder as if he was on a mission.
Cell could feel Gohan tightening around him. Not wanting him to finish yet, he sat up and pulled Gohan onto his knees until the boy was more or less on all fours. He could feel him twitching as his skin got even clammier. He carried on where he left off, banging him so hard that he could hear the bodies slamming together. Cell still didn't want him to come yet, feeling him tensing up again, but couldn't hold himself back like he usually could, picking up more force and speed until he came again accidentally when Gohan tightened around him again.
Deciding to show him some mercy, he flipped him onto his back and began to jerk him off. Gohan clutched onto the covers as he writhed around. He found himself swearing loudly when he felt fingers enter him again, causing his already heightened senses to go into overdrive. His tormented body began to twitch thanks to the speed the Cell was going. Gohan's body was acting as if it was trying to get away from him by the way it was jolting around, but Cell's hands, were keeping him firmly in place. He was getting so hot from the fever and pleasure, longing for it to be over. It was taking him so long, but moaned louder as Cell found a short, fast rhythm with his fingers, as well as his other hand.
Gohan moaned and arched his hips up as he shook violently. Cell felt his fingers being suffocated as Gohan's body tensed up. He finally reached an incredible lengthy orgasm with what sounded like a satisfying scream as the android didn't slow down, letting him move and ride it out completely. His eyes were closed as he continued to writhe against Cell's hands. He didn't want this feeling to end... but it soon did.
He felt better for about a minute, then felt sicker than ever.
"Its not enough... I can't..." Gohan ran out of breath just from talking. It was too much. He rolled over and got onto his feet, feeling as if he was walking on air. He could vaguely see Cell still sat on his knees, not really moving.
The android didn't remember the withdrawal feeling this bad. And it was only getting worse. The both of them were dripping with sweat, feeling their chests getting tighter. Gohan somehow managed to put his clothes back on and spent a good few seconds patting the door down to find the handle. He opened the door, almost hitting himself in the face with it, and stumbled out into the hall.
He found himself on autopilot, he could hazily see two of everything. He figured that if he was still alive, he'd be long dead from the withdrawal by now. He staggered around the corner and doubled over when he felt an excruciating pain in his stomach. His body started to work against him, fighting something that wasn't there; he violently retched for a few seconds before vomiting. His body managed to expel just about everything from his stomach to try and detox itself, but it only made Gohan feel even weaker. He just wanted to collapse there and then and never wake up.
But something was stopping him, keeping him going. Every time he felt like giving up altogether, all he could see was his tiny newborn brother reaching out to him with his delicate little hands. It kept him awake, and kept his stomach from contracting persistently - he had nothing left to throw up.
"Haru..." he gasped. "I'm coming... where are you?" Gohan didn't even know what he was saying, but he could hear people despite his hearing being impaired. "I need you..."
"Kid?"
Jeice could see him at the entrance to the lookout, just about keeping himself up using the wall. Jeice and Trunks ran over to him just as his knees gave away.
"Gohan, what's happened?"
"We stopped taking them..." he stuttered, now heavily delirious. "Haru... where are you?" Gohan's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he finally passed out. His body suddenly went limp as Trunks eased him onto the floor to lean onto him.
"Stopped taking what?"
"Antranide... fuck!" yelled Jeice, realising that what he was witnessing was a bad case of withdrawal. "Where's Bulma, does she have anything to counteract addiction at all?"
"Yeah. What's antranide?"
"It's a drug. Gohan's been hooked on them for a while. And so has Cell."
"Krillin! Go and find my mother! We'll take him to his parents' room."
They found the room empty, laying Gohan down onto the bed. His clothes were now soaked with sweat with the fever. His temperature was so high that it would have killed him ten times over by now if he were still alive.
Bulma soon arrived with supplies.
"How bad is it?"
"Pretty extreme..." said Trunks. Jeice soon realised that they'd also have to locate his dealer as well. Jeice was one of the few that secretly knew about Cell's previous addiction to antranide. He saw Bulma pull out a cannula as she filled up a clear bag with a green substance to counteract the withdrawal.
"We need to get Cell hooked up to one of these..." he said, wishing that they didn't have to.
"You've got to be joking!" said Trunks. "He's responsible for this!"
"Listen! Whether you like it or not, we need him if we're going to make it through this!"
They employed the Vegeta, Goku, Piccolo and Ginyu's to help them. They went to Gohan's room, on guard in case Cell was violent, but when they opened the door, they found him on his side on the bed, looking like he'd been trying to sleep it off, but something was odd.
"Cell?" said Burter, running over to him. There was no answer, but as the alien got closer, he could hear him mumbling something quietly to himself. The android was shaking slightly. He had his hand on the pillow by his face, which was twitching a lot more than the rest of him was. The shaking got more aggressive with each passing minute. "Uh... he's talking to himself..."
"Hmph," was all Vegeta could say, not really caring. Trunks moved Burter out of the way taking a closer look.
"Cell?"
The android just continued to shudder violently, not acknowledging him at all.
"He's probably playing you, Trunks," said Piccolo, skeptical and dangerously unaware of the affects of the antranide. Cell's hand began to move erratically again for a few seconds when Trunks realised that Cell wasn't delirious at all - he was having convulsions.
"We need to hook him up to a drip as soon as possible guys, go and get my mother!" The Ginyu's ran out of the room to do so as Trunks sat down on the bed.
"What's happening to him?" asked Goku, now knowing that Cell wasn't dangerous at the moment.
"He's having a seizure..."
"Can't we just leave him? He can't die from it," huffed Vegeta passively.
"We don't know how long he's been having it for. He may not die from it, but if we leave him, it could seriously damage his brain."
Gohan stirred slightly, opening his eyes slowly to see his mother lying next to him, Haru sleeping soundly in her arms.
"Gohan?"
He slowly regained focus, but found himself itching horribly. He went to bring his hand to his chest to scratch it, but he couldn't bend his arm properly. There was a cannula in it.
"Gohan, can you hear me?"
It soon registered that it was Bulma, then everything became clear.
"Yeah..."
"Do you remember what happened?"
"I was sick... and then... I can't remember," he said. He turned to see a drip stand with a bag containing a green liquid.
"That's just helping you with the withdrawal."
"Cell? He was sick like me... where is he?"
"He's on one of these too in your room. The Ginyu's are keeping an eye on him. But when we found him he was having a seizure. You were starting to have one yourself when we found you."
"Where did you get the pills from?" asked Jeice, needing to know what caused them to have such a bad reaction from stopping.
"I got mine from Cell."
"And where did he get his from?"
"Frieza... I think." Gohan looked at Jeice, who seemed to have reached a conclusion from all the evidence they'd gathered. "What is it?"
"They were tampered with. It looked like Frieza gave him some really dodgy ones. I doubt Cell would have known either."
Chi Chi didn't really want to listen to any of it, but if she wanted a shot at getting her eldest son back, then she had to try and understand everything he'd been through. There was only Gohan, his mother, Haru, Jeice and Trunks in the room as Bulma left to give them some privacy.
"How long have you been taking them?" asked Trunks. "We know that Frieza's been using you both as gateways to try and find us."
"Uh... a couple of weeks maybe."
"How many would you take in a day?"
"At first, maybe a couple. But lately it would've been anything between four and ten. I don't really remember. Cell just let me take them at first, then it got worse and I started taking more. Then he hid them from me."
"So you've been going without?"
"No...", said Gohan, no longer looking at any of them. Trunks didn't want to push him anymore, but he needed him to open up if they had any chance of getting him back.
"Gohan, its okay," said Chi Chi, encouraging him to keep going, despite not wanting to hear it.
"I carried on getting the drugs from him... in exchange for sex."
"But, I thought you guys were already..." said Jeice, trailing off.
"We were, but this was different. We were both always so high that it got crazy and really out of hand. I got hurt a lot. Last night was when I realised that we had to stop. For the first time, I could actually see what it was doing to us. I can't remember what it felt like to be sober..."
Trunks and Jeice took the hint and stopped, seeing the regret in Gohan's eyes. He was a wreck. He'd been scratching at his collar bone all the way through their conversation. He was still withdrawing.
"We'll give you both a couple of days, but we think we have a plan to get us out of this. My mother's built a new radar and its working."
Gohan felt a small glimmer of hope. But at the same time, he just wanted to see Cell. But at least he was tackling one of his addictions. That was progress.
Bulma switched on the dragon radar for the first time, Goku and Vegeta leaning over either shoulder.
"Well, they're showing up," said Bulma optimistically. "Which means that Dende is still alive somewhere!"
Goku seemed relieved, but Vegeta looked in closer. He saw four dragon balls travelling together at a high speed. He felt a horrifying fear rise in the pit of his stomach.
"Frieza... he's collecting the dragon balls!"
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