Hey guys! First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the updates taking longer than usual to come in. College is.. pretty time consuming, so my time for this story diminished a lot.

So here's a little announcement: chapters will be reduced by 1k words in the future.

Updates will arrive a bit quicker, but you won't get as much. Tell me how you feel about this in a private message or in the reviews. I'm not entirely set on this but I'd like to know what you think before I decide on anything.

Anyways, enjoy. :D

"Hey! What happened, Krillin?" Goku asked, taking a brisk step forward to check on his friend in a concerned manner. "It isn't like you to fall so suddenly like that."

"Didn't you see for yourself, Goku?" the short fighter returned, almost incredulous. "She took it! All of it in one sweep!"

"Well, what'd she take? Was it the Senzu beans?" The Saiyan later eyed his being once more to check if they were present before continuing. "I still see them on you, I don't see what you-"

"My energy, Goku! SHE TOOK MY ENERGY!" he shouted impatiently, interrupting his friend in mid-sentence. Krillin took a moment to compose himself, then he let out a sigh. "We've got to think of something, and quick, I have a feeling she isn't satisfied with just my energy.."

"Videl, I think you need to leave," Gohan suggested, which was a borderline order. "Now, if this is going the way I think it is, this is going to be more dangerous for you than I thought."

The short-haired fighter gazed at him and saw his face. He was dead serious, almost perfectly mirroring the face he wore at the World's Martial Arts Tournament.

"I'll go with those guys," she replied, gesturing to Kim and the others. "Is that alright?"

"Yeah, try to get them out of here too," he answered back.

Videl understood, nodding before retreating to the main building where everyone else was. L saw her but paid her no heed. The energy she really wanted, was right in front of her, and she was planning on taking it all. No more hesitating. It will all end here.

Gohan stared at her until she left completely. When Krillin's energy was taken, a remembrance came over him, an especially important one. This situation could be handled easily and swiftly if his father just did what he had done before. It was especially delicate, so he had to play his cards right, and carefully. With that in mind, he turned to his father near Krillin.

"Dad, do you remember Yakon?" he asked, catching the attention of the Saiyan immediately.

"Is that the route we're taking?" Goku returned, having an idea of what his son had in mind.

"She must have a limit, and if this goes well, this should be over quickly," he responded.

Trunks turned to his fellow demi-Saiyan. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh, right, before Buu, we were up against a wizard named Babadi. We dealt with some enemies trying to stop him, with one of them being Yakon. He was able to take light energy from others. Dad transformed into a Super Saiyan and gave him more than he could handle, and he blew up."

"Aren't you taking into account what happened earlier? Father's attack didn't work, what makes you think this will?" Trunks further questioned, causing the black haired warrior to contemplate.

"He's not wrong, but I don't see what other option we have," he thought. "We'll have to give her far more energy than what was in Vegeta's attack."

The assassin narrowed her eyes and tried to pick who she should target next. The scroll finally accepted its fate; to be hers and hers only, which meant she could take as much as she'd like without consequence. Its powers were legendary, it could never backfire on her now, especially with its complete acquiescence and compliance.

With one hand, she curled all her fingers but one, her index pointing right at Trunks. "I think I'm going to finish taking your energy, considering, you know, I've only taken just a little to mend myself."

"And you really think a human such as yourself can handle that much energy?" Vegeta asked in a taunting manner. "The short one is a different story, but it should be impossible for you to take energy from him." The prince gestured to the lavender-haired teen before continuing. "I think you're indulging yourself a bit too much, you'd better dial it back a bit, or else."

Vegeta, in particular, irked her more than the others in the group he arrived with. Earlier when he constantly underestimated her and insisted she should be finished fairly quickly.

"Not anymore," she thought firmly.

The situation has changed; things should be different now, and more importantly, in her favor. She didn't care for what would happen when all this ended, she was fairly certain there'd be no consequences. One thing was sure though, all of their energy would belong to her; not excluding Kim and the others.

A smirk tugged at the ends of her mouth at his words. She finally had the power to show those who underestimated her that they were wrong, and in the best way possible. In a fluid motion, she reached out for Trunks' energy.

Detecting quickly, Goku shouted, "Move!" as he sprinted to the side, causing everyone else to dart away in hopes their energy wouldn't get taken.

The invisible appendages moved swiftly, twisting and turning to catch its intended target. Trunks, whose energy she already had a feel for, was easier to go for. The others were foreign, but his energy was definitely recognizable. Trunks finally took notice of this and tried his best to evade them, and drive them away from the others.

Meanwhile, Videl introduced herself to the others, awkwardly, but quickly. "Hey, name's Videl, um, we should get out of here."

"We can't leave yet," Kim cut in. "Look, there's something you need to know, something they need to know." The redhead gestured to the moving fighters outside.

"Yeah!" Ron agreed. "Besides, even if we leave, we'd still probably, maybe, possibly, kinda get caught in the explosion."

"I'm afraid not, Stoppable-san, we are sure to get caught in it, should it occur," Sensei added, to the freckled teen's dismay.

"Explosion?!" Videl returned incredulously, doing a retake of what they were saying. "What do you all know?"

"If L manages to get all of their energy, Japan is as good as gone!" Kim responded firmly. "Or worse; the Earth. I mean, I guess it would depend on how strong they are.." Her eyes darted to Videl for some confirmation—any confirmation would do her good.

The young fighter began to sweat a bit. "Ye-yeah, I think you've got the right idea. Maybe it wouldn't really matter if we left or not."

"Sensei, you said you knew this would happen," Ron started, turning to the old man once more. "What do we do? What should we do?"

Sensei shook his head. "Once more, it is not my place to interfere. Telling you all this information is just as included."

The freckled teen nearly let out a scream at the answer. It wasn't helping, and it only made him more upset. What do they do? What do they do?! The teen hyperventilated as he began to panic.

"Ron, calm down. Okay? Calm down." Kim grabbed her boyfriend by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. She waited a moment for him to compose himself, and when he did, she began to speak again. "He probably has a good reason why he's withholding info. If this is going the way I think it is, then sooner or later we're going to come up with the solution ourselves."

Ron stared at her for a moment, trying to find the reason why she was siding with Sensei. "I don't... I don't understand."

"This might sound crazy, but maybe.. maybe this was supposed to happen," she continued. "Everything that's happened, that led up to this very moment."

"KP, you're right about one thing," he started to say, after hearing her sudden epiphany. "That does sound crazy."

"Just hear me out," she said quickly. "Maybe what's been going on is supposed to teach us something or-or you know, make us see something different than how we viewed it before."

"Kim, did you hit your head?" Ron asked worriedly, checking through her ginger hair to make sure there weren't any apparent injuries.

The redhead just let out a small chuckle and moved him away slightly. "No, but an epiphany like this sure does feel like it."

"So basically, from what I'm hearing, we're supposed to come up with something ourselves?" Ron asked, looking at his girlfriend for further confirmation.

"Yeah, I'm assuming we're not always going to be spoonfed the answers. Isn't that right, Sensei?" she asked, turning to look at the old man.

"More or less, Miss Possible," he answered her with a smile, causing the redhead to return the action.

"Well, then that's all I need to hear."

A strangled yell could be heard from outside. Everyone's attention was now on the scene in the sky. A frozen Trunks in mid-air, struggling to move his body and control his energy. It was like something grabbed ahold of him, but he couldn't feel anything wrapping itself around his body or his limbs. He couldn't quite comprehend what was transpiring at the moment. It was as if something was paralyzing him, keeping him fixed to one spot in the air.

"Gotcha," L spoke with glee.

"Trunks!" Kim rushed forward, halting shortly after to think.

"I can't just go in blindly, I'll get killed on the spot!" she thought. She darted her eyes elsewhere and tried to find a solution to Trunks' current situation. Nothing, there was nothing! She couldn't come up with anything substantial that could prevent the time traveler from getting his energy taken. It appeared finding her own solution to this problem was harder than she thought—not that she ever thought it was simple, mind you.

"Goku, what do we do?!" Krillin asked, casting his eyes on his friend quickly for answers.

"I.. I don't know," he responded honestly, and hesitantly. Clenching his fist, he thought dodging her invisible appendages would be enough to extend the time so a solution would arrive. Unfortunately, he thought wrong.

"Dad, we have no other choice than to give all we've got to overwhelm her!" Gohan shouted from the air.

The Saiyan glanced up at him, contemplating his words. He was right, there was no time left. If she took in Trunks' energy, there would be no guarantee their power would be enough to do her in. He didn't know how powerful Trunks had gotten in his timeline, but he certainly was a powerful warrior just like the rest of them.

"Overwhelm?" Kim inquired with a raised brow, turning back to the others for answers.

"Perhaps they are thinking that giving her all of their energy will destroy her," Yori suggested, causing the redhead's face to pale a bit.

"We can't let that happen!" she practically shouted back, almost pulling on her hair. "Guys? Any ideas?!"

"Se-Sensei, is there anything at Yamanouchi that'll keep us safe from a pla-planetary explosion?!" Ron inquired the old man frantically, glancing back with a pleading look and hoping for dear life he'll change his mind.

Sensei simply looked down and shook his head, almost sighing right after. "In due time."

"In due time, what?!" the freckled teen continued in a panic.

Amidst the panic, Betty looked outside. "The whole planet will explode?" she mused to herself, almost asking rather than stating it. She glanced outside and observed as her old partner was focusing on the time traveler above. Did L know this? That accomplishing her goal would destroy her and everyone in the process? It was at this point that she started accepting that the person she once knew was long gone. This woman was so far gone, she was risking the lives of even the entire population to get what she wants. She didn't know if L knew, though, but it was something to think about.

The person she had known her whole life seemed so unfamiliar. She remembered that she used to be such a shy, reserved person who had trouble making friends. She was selfless, and many times she had gotten injured almost to death to protect her. The director at the time would get so furious at her incompetence. He would incessantly berate her and verbally abuse her in front of agents and future cadets. It was that "incompetence" that saved the director's daughter, but he didn't care for that fact. It just seemed he cared that she was on the receiving end of it.

L always stood tall, even after that. She never changed even after all of the constant, undeserving rebuking. Her sanity and the way she held herself remained as it always been. It was only after she left the organization briefly to go to Yamanouchi and return was when she changed. Now, she was merely a ghost of her former self, someone who was just a stranger now.

It was hard to think it, more so accept it. Even so, she should've accepted it the day she killed their father.

"Possible," Dr. Director spoke aloud, her firm voice spooking everyone for a brief moment.

Kim turned to the brunette, almost in surprise when she spotted her. Somehow during the commotion, she had forgotten about the woman. Although, with everything going on, she thought it was fair. She even forgot Shego was lingering around for a bit until she suggested that L would become a bomb just earlier.

"Ye-yes?"

Betty strolled past everyone and put a hand on the heroine's shoulder. "How long has it been since you've been five feet away from a doomsday device?"

The redhead mulled on the question, which wasn't long when she said her next reply. "Before Cell, um... not long, if I'm being frank."

"And how many times?"

"Way too many to count," she responded, the once sudden pit of fear she was in gradually disappearing.

"And how many times have you successfully escaped?"

"Every time..."

"Do you feel better?" she asked with a small smile.

Kim nodded. "Yeah, I guess with everything that's been happening, I kind of forgot..."

"...what you've always been doing?" Betty finished.

"Ohh yeah," she replied with an awkward laugh. "Because I was so focused on insane things like Cell and L, I started putting them on a much different scale than what I'm used to dealing with. So.. you know, I guess my life hasn't really changed at all."

With that last part, the woman raised a brow. "How so?"

The heroine grinned. "Well, I'm still here. That's got to count for something."

A loud thud interrupted their conversation, and they turned back outside once more. Trunks fell to the ground, feeling empty just as Krillin had. He quickly got to his feet and tried to fly, but was not able to.

"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath.

Once more, L's hand shook with the intensity of his energy. Both hands shook in fact, and a sudden burst of light shot out of one of them and out into the sky. An explosion occurred, but nothing too bad to affect the area below. The energy she had collected gradually become more difficult to control... this could be told by the way her body began trembling from the immense energy that was building up inside of her.

"Hey, keep it together," she berated herself, more so toward the scroll, like it was a person. The firm warmth erupted from her core once more and her body ceased trembling. Albeit she won't admit it to herself, it was becoming increasingly harder to adjust to the energy within. It was as if she were squeezing more and more water into her already stretched out balloon that was her body.

"It has to be now!" Gohan yelled out.

"You heard him, everyone, give it all you've got until she blows!" Goku shouted at everyone.

Piccolo charged his own attack, meanwhile, Vegeta merely scoffed and decided to join in. He supposed dealing with Cell after all this was over would be sufficient enough. Gohan landed on the ground and grabbed Krillin and Trunks, heading in Videl's direction before spotting her still in the area.

"Videl!" he shouted in shock. "You have to get out of here!"

Videl, with Kim and the others, turned to her boyfriend. "No, wait! Gohan you can't go through with what you're doing!"

Gohan stared at his girlfriend with a puzzled look. "What? Why not?" he thought, wondering what she had in mind. There wasn't time though, he had to get those who couldn't fight out of here. He cast his eyes below and saw Cell still incapacitated on the ground. He was behind L, so he supposed when they fired their attack at L, he would perish with her. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

The assassin followed the demi-Saiyan's eyes and her own landed on the bio-android. Why hadn't she thought of taking his energy earlier? He was trapped in one spot after all; he couldn't run or hide, especially against her invisible appendages. With that delightful thought in mind, she went for his energy immediately.

After a moment, a confounded expression was plastered on her face. She used her new seeing abilities and couldn't detect any energy to take. It was like it was completely hidden away from her. Her appendages swirled around him once more and they couldn't find something—anything to take. Here was this all-powerful being with seemingly limitless energy, and she couldn't even take it from him.

Cell, having noticed this, smirked as he let out a haughty laugh. "What's wrong? Something seems to be troubling you, and I can't help but think it has to do with me."

"Shut it," she hissed, attempting again to swipe his power and failing.

"What? I'm only curious," he continued, wanting to push her buttons even further. "Is my energy too much for you? I mean, with my being the perfect being and all, of course, you'd fail," he paused to allow his smirk to widen, "you're only human."

This time, he could sense a barrage of those appendages of hers trying to get at him, and still failing to do their job. It seemed the human girl was right, the device did protect his energy from her. Kudos to her for even thinking such a thing could happen.

Her head faced below, trying to grasp why she was failing when the scroll was in her possession when the scroll accepted to be hers and hers only! "I just-I just need more power," the woman whispered to herself, nodding in agreement with what she was saying. "I just need more power!"

She looked up at the others charging their attacks. If she took theirs, her abilities would heighten, and she could find Cell's energy and finally take it and have her revenge. This seemed plausible, more power means being able to do more. This had to be right because Junior's own essence allowed her to perform attacks and techniques she hadn't known or thought of. Of course, it was different because she took it when he was dead. This time, when she took energy while they were still alive. Was that the issue? Did she have to finish them off to fully gain everything as she had with the mini chimera?

Gohan landed in front of Videl with Trunks and Krillin at his sides. "Take them and leave, we have to finish this off quickly so we can deal with Cell."

"No, Gohan, listen!" she said firmly. "If you guys give her that much energy, she'll blow up!"

"That's the idea!" he exclaimed, confused as to where she was going with this.

"Gohan, do you understand that by blowing up, she'll take us all with her?" she asked, her hands at her hips.

"Videl, why do you think I'm telling you all to get out of here?"

"If you could just listen-"

"Dude, there is no point in getting out of here!" Ron shouted out of nowhere, interrupting Videl as he shoved himself between her and Gohan. "The whole planet's gonna go kaboom! Uh, a-capiche?!"

The demi-Saiyan stared at the blonde with a confused expression. "Huh?"

"Am I speaking a different language or something?" he asked while scratching his head. "Okay, I'll try to dumb it down so this ought to get it through your head. The planet, go BOOM. We," he paused, gesturing to everyone and everything, "go BYE-BYE."

"Ron!" Kim shouted in a berating tone.

"What, I'm just trying to tell him that if they give L all they got the whole planet's gonzo!"

"I think he was expecting a reason why we think that," she replied with her arms crossed and a brow raised.

"Look, we know she's going to blow up, that's why we're doing this," he responded. "Something similar has occurred already, so the planet should be fine."

"On the contrary, my friend, it may not be as you so think," Sensei started up, his voice reaching Gohan.

The demi-Saiyan raised a brow. "How do you mean?" He examined him and noticed he appeared similar to Master Roshi, yet he appeared so poised and mature unlike him.

"This similar event, how much energy has it taken for it to self-destruct?" the old man continued.

"Some of my father's energy," he answered quickly.

"A lot?"

"No..." the teen answered before it dawned on him, an expression of horror on his face. "Not even a quarter."

"As of now, L has taken energy from Junior, and two of your friends over there," Sensei said. "Yet, she remains here. Should she successfully take the rest, the energy, along with others she as taken before this, will erupt and take the planet, and us with it."

A sudden sense of emptiness could be felt within Gohan. He turned back to see that L had targeted him and continued to go for Cell's energy again.

"Really? You went for him?" Cell laughed, watched the assassin's face contort in absolute fury. "Are you that desperate for my energy? I should feel honored, but what I feel is an utter disappointment."

"No-just-just shut up! SHUT UP!" she screamed at him, trying to grasp what was transpiring at the moment. She continuously went for him again and failed. She was known for her terrifying determination after all.

"It has to be now while she's distracted," Piccolo announced to the others.

"Gohan, get them all out of here!" Goku yelled as he powered up his Kamehameha.

"I-I can't! My energy's gone!" he yelled back, almost to himself. He turned to the group in front of them, seeing if they had any answers as to what they should do.

"Don't worry, we-we just need to find a way to get that scroll away from her!" Kim tried to assure, then she turned to everyone else. "Right, guys?"

"But it disappeared!" Ron told her. "How are we going to find something we can't even see?!"

The heroine looked back in her memories and saw that he was right. Right after L had read the scroll, the words on it had disappeared until the very last tattooed itself onto her. After the last word had left the scroll, the entirety of itself was somehow gone from the world instantaneously.

She almost went to Sensei for aid but remembered that the old man said he wasn't going to give them the answers. Something about fate or interrupting how things should be was his reason, she didn't entirely understand it, but he was a wise man, she should trust his reasons. But she was also so frustrated! What was he expecting her to do?! Solutions didn't just pop into her head during missions, she just happened to be very observant, and the things she had done was usually so fast-paced that she found solutions based on instincts rather than contemplation. Only on some occasions did she ever think deeply on a solution, but for those Ron usually found the answer.

The redhead turned to her boyfriend, hoping he had something but he was in the same position as she. When she had no solution, he had one, but it seemed this kind of sitch was especially difficult.

"Look, I don't want to interrupt this... brainstorming," Shego started, watching everyone borderline panicking on what to do. "But something has to be done now! I am not going to become reduced to nothing because of you all gaping around like idiots!"

"Right," Kim muttered, almost to herself. Thinking quickly, she turned to the demi-Saiyan. "Hey, Gohan, right? Tell your friends to stop whatever they're doing! You know it'll go downhill if they go through with it!"

"Yes, you're right," he said briskly, turning his attention outside while cupping his hands around his mouth. He prepared to yell as loud as he possibly could, but the only sound that could be heard was the yell of Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo's voice combined. It was almost in perfect unison, even so, that didn't help the dread that followed within everyone in the main building as the attack hit L all at once.

The chapter is an example of how short future chapters may be. Also, I intentionally left out future details because I preferred them to be in future chapters because it felt far too early to include them in this one.

Thanks for reading! If there's an issue, please, please tell me! College has taken past information from both of these shows away from my head, including past events in my OWN story. I have to continuously look back in my story so the writing isn't inconsistent.

I may have to rewatch them too... anyway, thanks again. Until next time!