Honor Trip

(Season III)

- a Dragon Ball Z FanFiction -

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Reckoning

Disclaimer: Dragon Ball, the glorious franchise it is, is not in any way a property I control. I can only wish to supplement its mystique with stories such as the one herein. The same is in regards to related characters, symbols, plot elements, etc.

With that said, I hope you enjoy the story!


Special Announcements:

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MORE THAN 400 REVIEWS AND FOR ENABLING CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT TO HAVE BEEN DRAGON BALL: HONOR TRIP'S MOST SUCCESSFUL CHAPTER PREMIERE YET! There were more unique visitors to Chapter 38 before the release of Chapter 39 than there were for any other Honor Trip chapter before the release of the immediately subsequent chapter.

It is with sincere gratitude that I want to thank you, the fans, for continuing to read and enjoy Honor Trip more than three years after the story's first chapter was released in December 2008. The fact that you care about enhancing the Dragon Ball universe in quality, logical ways is indicative of your own integrity as fans and your noble cherishment of substance over superficiality.

On behalf of Genescritor, Roketto, Ruga-Rell, and me, thank you so much for being awesome. I also want to sincerely thank my three colleagues, who have enriched Honor Trip tremendously with their superior abilities.

A 300th/400th review special is coming relatively soon, and I'm looking forward to writing it.

Art Update:

I am greatly pleased to announce that Ruga-Rell has completed a series of "future-shifted" art pieces for the Honor Trip universe. What exactly am I referring to? Check out his deviantART profile page to find out!

Quite soon, the cover for Chapter 39 shall be completed and available on both Roketto (RyunoOhi) and Ruga-Rell's deviantART accounts!


And now, the journey continues …


Timeline III, Earth, West City, Age 767, about 46 relative days after Trunks and Cell were involuntarily vaulted forward in time to Timeline IV …

The setting sun had been an unexpectedly beautiful one, as the forecast had predicted torrential rain.

Smooth rays of orange-red were engulfing the city in calm succession, while an increasing presence of artificial lights was further encroaching upon the twilight.

In the midst of this scene of seeming serenity, two warriors were standing upon a balcony of the main Capsule Corporation compound, with one observing the bustling streets below, and another looking toward the dimming sky.

The warrior who had been looking toward the roadways, perturbed by the comparatively blissful and mundane lives that so many people of Earth had been afforded, grunted out of frustration while redirecting his gaze toward the sky.

"It's unfair, Kakarot," Vegeta said, as he continued looking at the darkening mural of clouds and air.

The warrior to his right had kept his elbows upon the balcony railing, morosely pondering not just his fellow warrior's words, but also many other issues of great importance.

"There are many things that aren't fair, Vegeta," Goku said. "But, obviously, few things could be more unfair than not knowing if your son is alright."

"I've been able to search many planets around the galaxy thanks to your decision to accompany me with your Instant Transmission technique, even though all the while, I knew that my search would probably be in vain," Vegeta said, while gripping the balcony railing with force. "I feel more powerless now than I've ever felt before! It infuriates me to no end! We even went to Otherworld using Instant Transmission, and not even the Grand Kai could help us find him! What the hell happened to him and Cell, Kakarot? Did they really travel through time, as Bulma thinks might have happened, or were they perhaps erased from all of existence forever? We've been unable to sense their energy anywhere! How can a father live with any sort of pride when he doesn't even know how to help his own son, or if he even still exists?"

Goku let a few moments pass, while thinking of the best way to respond to Vegeta.

"We need to focus on the possibility that Trunks and Cell traveled to the future even without Trunks' time machine taking them there," Goku said. "If they aren't in our timeline at all, that would explain why we haven't been able to find them."

"I don't want to delude myself with hope," Vegeta said. "You and I have both heard Bulma say many times, Kakarot, that if the broken time machine's time-shifting trigger truly activated after Trunks was revived with the Dragon Balls of New Namek, with Cell going along for the ride because he was in contact with him, that for all we know, the two of them could have gone to the distant past or future of this timeline or any of the others. There's no way of knowing where and when they are. I want with all my strength to make sure my son is safe, but the pitiful reality is that I may never know for sure."

"Hope is all we have, aside from Bulma's genius mind, of course," Goku said. "And she said to me last week that she thinks, much more than she did before, that Trunks and Cell went to Timeline 4, as Trunks would have done had his time machine not malfunctioned."

"It's wishful thinking," Vegeta said. "Despite the fact that Trunks had programmed the time machine to go there, the Dragon Balls could have thrown off the erroneously delayed time travel command from what Trunks intended. After all, the Namek elder said that the Dragon Balls likely weren't made to handle anything involving time travel. That whole consideration has made me even more worried that the two of them somehow ended up outside of time itself. Damn it! Why the hell, out of all the things I could have kicked out of frustration with having to live with the androids, did I choose to kick that blasted time machine? All of this is my fault, Kakarot! I couldn't possibly have failed more as a father!"

"Stop being so critical of yourself, Vegeta. As I've said to you before, you had no idea this would happen," Goku said. "We need to have confidence in Bulma's opinion that Trunks and Cell managed to make it to Timeline 4. If Trunks and Cell really went there, then we should be able to find them."

The screen door behind them suddenly opened, causing Goku and Vegeta to redirect their attention. Bulma walked through the door, with baby Trunks in her arms.

"So, how's work on the time machine going?" Goku asked.

"Working on it has been far more difficult than anything I've ever tried building before," Bulma said. "I obviously have the ability to somehow build this thing, since 'Future-me' did, but I just can't seem to figure out how she built it."

Vegeta sighed.

"The equations to make the thing work are still giving you a hard time?" he asked.

"For all I know, I could solve them in a matter of days, and for all I know, it might take the rest of my life for me to realize how to solve even one of the equations that needs to be used to properly program the time machine," Bulma said. "'Future-me' somehow managed to figure this out, even with far fewer resources, but I don't really understand how she did. Figuring out how to enable something to move through time is something that seems to defy human comprehension itself! There must be a way, … rather, it's been proven that there is a way to do this, … but I need more time to figure it out. The whole process is so uncertain that I still wonder how the hell 'Future-me' managed to successfully determine that the time machine would work before she gave it to Trunks."

"Obviously, as we've all talked about with each other before, if Trunks had left us with blueprints for the time machine, this all would be much easier," Goku said. "He obviously didn't because he never thought we'd need them."

"That's right," Bulma said. "I doubt he would have thought that we would want to go to his decimated version of Earth. Maybe he even thought it would be too horrifying for us. I just … don't know."

"He probably never thought that we'd want to travel through time, due to the quality of the Earth in our timeline in comparison to its fate in the others," Vegeta said. "But speaking of other timelines, … Bulma, are you sure there's nothing else from the other time machine that you could use to help you build the new one?"

"I'm still not sure," Bulma said.

"Wait, … what!" Goku shouted, looking quite astounded. "What are the two of you talking about? The two of you never mentioned anything to me about another time machine!"

"Kakarot, how do you think Cell arrived in our timeline?" Vegeta asked.

Goku blinked twice, and was astounded at the revelation.

"Wow, … we actually have the time machine that Cell used to travel to our timeline?" Goku asked.

"Before we knew anything about Cell, a guy who lives in the countryside to the northwest of West City called me about a vehicle with a Capsule Corporation logo on it that Trunks, Gohan, and I later determined to be virtually identical to Trunks' time machine. However, it was weathered through exposure to the elements for four years and had a cracked dome due to what we later determined was Cell's emergence from within," Bulma said. "With all the things that happened after that, including the battles with Seventeen and Eighteen, the more tumultuous battles with Cell, and Cell's enlightenment, the capsule with the other time machine was probably among the least of things that Trunks had been thinking about before he decided to go back to the future without telling any of us. Remember when I gave you, Trunks, Vegeta, and Gohan your new Saiyan armor on the lookout, and then Vegeta stormed off to fight Cell on his own? Well, since your clothes and Gohan's weren't already torn to shreds through a year of training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, you kept them at the Lookout so you could put them back on after your year of training, since the Saiyan armor I gave you would predictably have some wear and tear. But I took Trunks and Vegeta's clothes with me so I could repair them, since they were badly damaged through their year of training. Trunks had left a white box containing numerous capsules in the upper left pocket of his Capsule Corporation jacket, including both a capsule for his time machine and a capsule for the time machine that Cell commandeered, each marked with a number '7.' You have no idea how angry I've been with myself over the fact that I missed the opportunity to copy the data from Trunks' working time machine when I had the chance."

"Hindsight is only useful long after you need it," Goku said. "It seems that you probably took the capsule for the second time machine at some point during the 10-day wait for the Cell Games."

"Well, … I wanted to clean it off and restore it to good working order, but we got distracted with so many other things, like repairing Sixteen, that I didn't finish the job," Bulma said. "Had I gotten further in cleaning it off and repairing some of the less advanced parts, like simple motors, I would have then opened up the capsule for Trunks' working time machine and copied the data to finish repairing the one Cell stole. But Trunks unexpectedly left before I had the chance to finish the job, and even after the conclusion of the Cell Games and Cell's trial, repairing the broken time machine that Cell stole was so far down on the list of my priorities that I didn't tell Trunks I was doing it."

"Score one for miscommunication," Goku said. "So, I'm assuming there's a reason why you decided to not simply repair that one instead of building the new one."

"Those parts are so worn out that I might as well build a new one, especially since we want to build a time machine that can fit multiple people," Bulma said. "Cell couldn't fit in the old one anyway, and if he wants to come back with you and Vegeta, and whomever else ends up going, he'll need a bigger machine so he doesn't have to do something drastic to fit inside. Besides, if my theories on time travel are correct, Cell's time machine is linked with the original timeline, Timeline 1, which is the not the same as Trunks' timeline, Timeline 4. There's too much of a risk of going to the wrong alternate future if we use the machine Cell stole instead of making a new one. As it is, I'm going to need to figure out how to fixate the new time machine on the time signature of Timeline 4 instead of Timeline1, and that's been extremely difficult for me to figure out how to successfully achieve."

"All the more reason to build a new one, then," Vegeta said. "We won't be able to help them at all if we don't go to the right timeline. As I've told the both of you before, if they did, in fact go to Timeline 4, the fact that neither of them have returned to inform us that they're alright either shows that they were unable to acquire the parts needed to build a new time machine, or much more likely that something went horribly wrong in that timeline which has been preventing them from returning."

"Well, they might have gone back too far and unintentionally created a new timeline," Goku said. "If that's what happened, we'll probably never see them again."

"I doubt they'd be so foolish as to let that happen, and simply neglecting to come back at all would be against all they believe in," Vegeta said. "The fact that an entire infinity of that timeline potentially exists in which not a single person from that timeline has come back to our own to tell us of what happened is ineffably troubling. I don't believe that Trunks, Bulma, and Cell would have wanted us to worry so long if they had the means to travel back and inform us of what happened. Even though there have been more than 40 days since Trunks and Cell disappeared, only a single instant needed to pass in our timeline before one of them could have returned in a new time machine without creating a new timeline, no matter how long it took in Timeline 4 to build that machine, even if it took years. But we've seen no one travel from the future again. If Trunks and Cell indeed went to Timeline 4, something appalling must have happened that has prevented them from returning."

"At least you don't believe anymore that Cell's responsible for them not returning," Bulma said, causing Vegeta to focus on those words. "He seemed sincere about wanting to be one of the good guys, and I'm glad you overcame your relapse into thinking he might be trying to deceive us. After all, the Dragon Balls enabled him to stay good. I sincerely doubt he betrayed Trunks."

"Well, regardless, if they ended up in Timeline 4, something unfavorable must have happened to them," Vegeta said. "But with Cell and Trunks' combined power, it's hard to believe that anything could have given them much of a challenge, especially since the androids of that timeline, as Trunks said, are even weaker than the androids of this one. Is it possible that there is yet another future enemy Trunks knew nothing about who's even stronger than Cell?"

"Anything is possible, Vegeta, especially with the fact that there are probably millions of inhabited worlds out there, each with the potential to produce a fierce opponent," Goku said. "If Trunks and Cell unfortunately met their ends as a result of fighting some unknown opponent, the very least we could do is find out about it and then return to our timeline to stop it before it becomes too powerful, if it hasn't become too powerful already."

"And if it has, then we might do something similar to what Trunks and 'Future-me' decided to do and warn ourselves in the past," Bulma said. "Goku, are you sure that bringing Gohan with you wouldn't be a good idea, assuming I can actually get the time machine to work?"

"I've placed him in too many precarious situations recently, Bulma," Goku said. "I don't want to lead him straight into what might be a disaster even for him."

"I may be brash, Kakarot, but I'm not suicidal," Vegeta said. "I wouldn't allow Trunks to have died in vain just so that I would die too. If I didn't think that I could at least competently escape from whatever might be in Timeline 4 and make my way back to the time machine, I wouldn't advise either of us traveling to the future. If I'm confident that I can do that even in my Ascended Super Saiyan form, why are you so hesitant in letting Gohan, a full-fledged Super Saiyan 2, join us?"

"He's been through so much already, Vegeta, that I don't want his life to end before it truly begins," Goku said. "Gohan has achieved the recognition for his efforts that he's always deserved, and Chi-Chi and I are quite proud that he's handling all the fame in a dignified way. Because of everything that happened on the day of Cell's trial, the world recognizes Gohan as its true savior, not Mr. Satan."

"Yeah, … whatever happened to that big lug?" Bulma asked. "Last I saw on Z-TV, he was in some sort of legal trouble, but I didn't pay much attention to the coverage because I obviously was preoccupied with more important things."

"Well, I wish I could say that I wasn't watching T.V. as often as I am, but Chi-Chi insists that we watch often to make sure that no one is saying anything bad about Gohan," Goku said. "You don't want to know what she told me to do to anyone who says anything remotely negative about him."

"Knowing your woman, none of that surprises me," Vegeta said.

"Anyway, since I've been watching the news and entertainment channels so often, I've learned that Mr. Satan was sued for mass fraudulence, and that he owes a lot of money. The whole thing is unfortunate, really. He has a young daughter about Gohan's age, and she doesn't deserve any of this. He keeps saying that on T.V., actually. I mean, he doesn't seem like a total schlemiel. I don't think he would have claimed that he defeated Cell had he realized that his lie would quickly be exposed and that she would be harmed by it."

"He got what he deserved, Kakarot," Vegeta said. "As for the girl, I hope she grows up to be a better person than her father."

"So do I," Goku said. "But, as I was saying, Gohan has been battling the forces of evil all his life, and now it's time for him to have a bit more fun, the way kids are supposed to. At least in the early days of when I was a kid and fighting the forces of evil, I had at least a little fun while doing it. The enemies Gohan has faced throughout his life, from my good-for-nothing brother to Morsmordom back on Planet Harfava, have been far more sinister than any I faced in the early part of my childhood. Even though Gohan is a Super Saiyan 2, he is still younger than I was when I first started fighting bad guys."

"Emperor Pilaf doesn't count as much of a bad guy," Bulma said.

"He did try to kill us, remember?" Goku said. "We would have been dead had I not been born a Saiyan."

"Is Pilaf still alive?" Vegeta asked.

"I'm … not sure. Why?" Goku asked.

"If so, I'm going to teach him a lesson," Vegeta said, with a smirk. "No one tries to kill my woman and gets away with it."

"You sure didn't show that attitude when Dr. Gero blasted my plane out of the sky," Bulma said.

"Like I told you before, I was acting foolish!" Vegeta shouted. "Let that error go already!"

"Fine!" Bulma said with a scowl, while baby Trunks didn't know what to make of their squabble.

Goku let a few moments pass before speaking further, enabling the tension to ease.

"Like I was saying, Gohan deserves to live a good life, and I don't want to put him in any more danger that he shouldn't have to face," Goku said. "He's about to start a movie career, all thanks to the director who spoke with him and Chi-Chi after Cell and Gohan's press conference that followed Cell's decision to storm out of the courthouse to save your life, Bulma. I want him to have as many excellent opportunities as possible, and while I'll always encourage him to fight, his life needs to have a broader scope to be a truly good one."

"I see what you're saying," Bulma said, while Vegeta decided, at least for the moment, to not protest.

"Besides, with all of the benefits of Gohan's fame, and with a baby on the way – "

"So, she is pregnant!" Bulma shouted with joy. "That's wonderful news!"

"Yeah," Goku said, with a blush that Vegeta snickered at.

"Well Kakarot, it looks like Trunks is going to have a sparring partner of similar age," Vegeta said. "I'll bet that my son becomes a Super Saiyan long before your upcoming kid."

"No fair, Vegeta. 'Future' Trunks already became a Super Saiyan in our timeline," Goku said, with a laugh.

"You know that's not what I meant," Vegeta said.

"Well, as I was saying, with all these developments happening, we've decided to move to West City," Goku said. "I think it would be good for all of us, although we'll keep our place on Mt. Paozu for old times' sake."

"And you can use it as a weekend and vacation retreat," Bulma said. "But yes, I think your family is going to have a much better of quality of life once you all move here, Goku. And Trunks and your kid can have play-dates all the time! Isn't that right, Trunks?"

She smiled at her baby boy, and he giggled with blissful glee.

"Come on, Trunks," Bulma said, while hugging her son tenderly. "Now, we need to get back to work on the new time machine so we can help your daddy and Goku find your big brother and 'Pointy-Head!'"

As baby Trunks continued to giggle with joy, Bulma turned toward the screen door, then opened it, walked through, and closed the door behind her.

"'Pointy-Head?'" Goku asked, with amusement.

"For some reason, she called Cell that in front of Trunks, and because Trunks laughed, she's kept on referring to him by that ridiculous name," Vegeta said. "Cell didn't seem particularly amused by it."

"I can't imagine that he would have been," Goku said. "Unfortunately for him, if and when he comes back to our timeline, he's going to come back to a planet whose populace is growing more and more aggravated that he hasn't yet paid for his crimes by neither doing the community service work that the judge ordered him to do, nor rebuilding areas that he destroyed. Gohan has tried to tell people what really happened to Cell, but even with that, people are still furious."

"The fact most people are accepting the story is in Cell's favor, but the longer he's absent, the more people will question why his period of repenting has not yet begun," Vegeta said.

"If someone as capable as Cell was defeated, I shudder to think of what we might find when we finally get to Timeline 4," Goku said. "We could have had the option to help the future by bringing either set of Dragon Balls or both sets within our timeline to Timeline 4, but it's simply not a good idea. There are far too many concerns about how the Dragon Balls might be affected by time travel. According to Namekian legends, the wishes granted by the eternal dragons involve adjusting reality beyond what readily appears, and from what I've gathered, the Namekians of today have enough knowledge to create and operate eternal dragons, but they don't truly know how the wishes are granted. Bulma told me she thinks the wish process has something to do with manipulating space-time, and that if a set of Dragon Balls was created to manipulate the space-time of a timeline, there's too much of a chance that something could go horribly wrong if we use the Dragon Balls of one timeline to act upon the space-time of another timeline, especially given what we know about how horribly unreliable the Dragon Balls are regarding stuff related to time travel. We can't risk the safety of our timeline's versions of Shenron and Porunga, and we can't risk the safety of Trunks' timeline by using our sets of Dragon Balls there."

"It amazes me that the Nameks are so fundamentally unaware of what seems to be extremely important information about the way their own Dragon Balls work," Vegeta said.

"Unfortunately, Vegeta, it seems that there are many things that the Nameks of recent generations don't know about the Dragon Balls," Goku said, to Vegeta's further surprise. "I asked Grand Elder Guru about this point when I saw him in Otherworld, and he, too, said that even he lacks knowledge about many important aspects regarding how the Dragon Balls work. It's one thing to know how to operate something, and it's another to understand how and why it works."

"I guess it's like learning how to build and turn on a lamp without learning about how and why the lamp's power source works," Vegeta said. "Learning how to build a lamp and turn it on can be quite easy, and many lamps can be set to different levels of energy output. Understanding how and why the lamp's power source works is not necessary to know in order to use the lamp, and I don't pretend to understand the wiring and voltage systems that supply power to a lamp, or even how electrons are used in the system. Likewise, the Nameks evidently learned how to create and use Dragon Balls of varying strength and access whatever the power source is that enables wishes to come true, even though they apparently don't know a lot about that source. This makes me agree that they likely are being truthful in that they have no idea if the eternal dragons are truly part of the power source or the Dragon Balls themselves. And Kakarot, I agree that since the Dragon Balls weren't designed with time travel in mind, we simply cannot risk what might happen if we disconnect an eternal dragon from a set of Dragon Balls through bringing the Dragon Balls to another timeline while potentially leaving the eternal dragon's spirit in our timeline. We'll have to go without the Dragon Balls, despite whatever challenges we might face."

"Hopefully, the Dragon Balls of New Namek in that timeline will still be there and we'll be able to use them, but there's really no way to tell before we get there," Goku said. "And, for all we know, Trunks and Cell might not have been able to come back yet because of some reason we haven't yet considered. Maybe they haven't encountered any trouble at all, and maybe they defeated whatever enemy they needed to face. I just don't know what we should expect."

"Until Bulma enables us to travel forward in time, all we can truly do is pray for their safety," Vegeta said.

The two warriors looked toward the evening sky, resolute in their desire to ascertain the truth of what had happened in an ominous alternate future….


Timeline IV, Earth, outskirts of Orange Star City, Age 786, about 46 relative days after Trunks and Cell involuntarily emerged in Timeline IV …

His greatest achievement had been dependent on abusing an enlightened version of himself, who had long since discarded the evil of their mutual heritage and had begged him for peace.

Now, with the repentant warrior finally liberated from his system and free from his oppression, his dreams of dominance were being shattered even further than they already had been by the Saiyan race.

Future Cell felt himself shaking, with his mind and body engulfed in an onslaught of pain from having lost the key component that had been enabling him to maintain his present form.

With sickened saliva still trickling forth from his mouth, and the gargantuan size of his Power-Weighted form mocking him because of its significantly unanticipated design flaw, Future Cell reeled his head backward while staring down at the unconscious Cell, with his eyes afire from physical pain and unyielding dread.

The psychological horror of seeing Cell expunged from his system, now lying on the ground in a pool of saliva that Future Cell had emitted in sickness from Trunks kicking him with extreme force in the chest as a Super Saiyan 2 enhanced with the transferred essence of Goku, was far too much for Future Cell to endure. He knew that Cell's entrapment within him had been by far the predominant source of his strength and abilities, and feared the consequences of his omission, all too aware of what his increasing feelings of weakness were indicating.

If Future Cell's pride had not been fully lost when Trunks had fully dominated him in battle as a Super Saiyan 2, it literally had been lost upon losing Cell.

Future Cell momentarily braced his unstable body by placing a hand and knee on the ground, and he then unsteadily stood again.

Future Cell could feel the vast power he had acquired from Cell's incorporation within him fading fast. The strength from using Cell's power multipliers in addition to his own was significantly diminishing, as he could no longer utilize both his and Cell's analog forms of Super Saiyan together in the glorious display of Multiplier Madness.

Before the loss of any more of his power, Future Cell made one last, desperate bid to regain the power he felt should be his.

While getting back on one knee, he attempted to grab Cell's body as quickly as he could, but was stopped by Trunks punching him swiftly in the right hand, causing Future Cell's pain to skyrocket.

Future Cell seethed with anger as Trunks placed himself between his greatest adversary and the reformed friend who had unwittingly been victimized to empower him, and in an even greater accentuation of pain, Future Cell stood up straight, closed his eyes, and yelled upward toward the sky.

However, he could not maintain the stance for long, and he entered into a crouched position, with his eyes closed and his face turned toward the ground, and his fists tightened to help him endure the overwhelming pain.

He could feel his Power-Weighted form diminishing in strength and size, as a prelude to even greater degradation.

Trunks watched while Future Cell began to revoltingly groan further, with horizontal rings of negative energy emitting outward from his body.

The surrounding area became profuse with fleeting saturations of purple light, while the rings of energy carried clouds of dust outward from the epicenter of Future Cell's decaying might.

To Trunks' astounded expression, purplish smoke began to rise from various parts of Future Cell's body while his muscles shrank rapidly in size.

Then, Trunks observed Future Cell undergo even more drastic changes against his will.

Each of Future Cell's solid feet shifted form, such that three extended toe digits were now coming forth from a base of each foot, similar to what had been the case in each of Frieza's forms.

Predominantly green shins whose speckled patterns matched the prevalent appearance of the rest of Future Cell's skin superseded his blackened shins, which had been reinforced in defensive strength through a sort of organic armor but which seemed to become less fortified.

Future Cell's hands, which had been predominantly white like ivory, were becoming much greener, with each of his fingers much more pointed in form.

His blackened wings turned to green and became less sharp in appearance, his pectorals also shifted from black to green while the core at the center of his chest remained black while becoming slightly larger, his shoulders also shifted from black to green, and components of his abdominals that had been patterned green like most of his body became orange, with horizontal stripes.

His two cranial protrusions shifted form radically, losing their vertical, rounded shape and becoming much more pointed, and angled at diagonals. His cranial dome shifted form as well, becoming merely an armored cranial oval at the front of his head.

By far the most dramatic changes, however, occurred in and near Future Cell's face. The yellow line covering his chin and which had separated his face from his neck disappeared, and his ears, which had possessed the same yellowish color and had been somewhat rectangular in shape, shifted to circular structures of green. The purple sections toward the side of his face disappeared, as did all of the ivory white coloration of his face and neck. While his neck became predominantly green with a darkened central section, his cheek regions became green, with his human-like mouth and nose becoming totally replaced by an orange, curved protrusion that served as his mouth.

Future Cell then opened his eyes in the shock of what had happened to him, revealing that anything resembling at least a hint of humanity in his eyes had vanished, as his circular pupils had become more akin to demonic vertical slits within cold, unsympathetic fields of white.

Future Cell grunted in alarm at what had happened, then suddenly felt his tail reemerge from behind him without consciously choosing to make it so, completing his devolution.

Future Cell, exhausted from the pain of all that had happened, began to take many quick breaths to regain his composure.

His breath stopped suddenly and he refocused with alarm, upon hearing Trunks walking toward him.

"It seems that you've lost your so-called 'perfect form,'" Trunks said, while maintaining a facial expression of domineering strength.

Then, after a few moments of observing Future Cell's absolute fright, Trunks flared his aura, causing the horrid cretin to back up while Trunks walked briskly forward.

"You have lost everything, Cell, and you will suffer a justified torture for killing my family," Trunks said. "I have won. You were no match for me."

"I … I refuse to believe that this is happening!" Future Cell yelled, while feeling utter despair at how much power he had lost as a result of returning to his imperfect form.

He had never absorbed any version of Androids 17 and 18 himself, and as such, he had never achieved the intermediate semi-perfect form that Dr. Gero had designed him to achieve upon absorbing the first of either of the androids. His 'perfect' form had been attained through absorbing Cell's 'perfect' form while he, himself, had merely been in his imperfect form.

With Cell's expulsion from his system, signifying his loss of the single entity that had enabled him to advance beyond his imperfect form and achieve his perfect form, he had returned to his first, imperfect form, making a total mockery of his goals.

Before Future Cell could blink, Trunks disappeared from view.

Future Cell wouldn't even have been able to have seen Trunks move before he lost his maximum capability, and as such, he most certainly would not have been able to see Trunks now.

Before Future Cell could react, Trunks appeared behind him and punched a hole straight through his back, causing Future Cell to cough up a copious amount of purple blood, with his mind not even able to register the true pain he was experiencing.

Future Cell was in such pain that he did not make the effort to look down at the arm that he knew had broken straight through his chest, and when Trunks pulled his arm back, Future Cell stumbled forward, while barely breathing.

In a further psychological assault upon him, Future Cell could see the still-unconscious Cell lying on the ground only a few meters from him. Cell's body was still complete with his 'perfect' form, taunting Future Cell by emphasizing the power he had lost and which Future Cell earnestly felt that he, and not his foolish counterpart, deserved. Future Cell thought as though fate was making a mockery of his existence more than it already had, teasing him with astounding power within just a few meters of his reach, while making it clear that a version of him whom he despised was able to keep that glorious strength at his complete expense.

If only he could reach Cell and absorb him again! After all, Cell was indeed merely unconscious and not deceased, as his life force could still be sensed. It appeared as though the unconsciousness had resulted as a byproduct of the separation process, and as had been the case when Future Cell had absorbed his counterpart beforehand, Cell was merely unconscious and could once again be absorbed without Cell's own resistance. But the pain from Trunks' attack was so severe that Future Cell could barely move, let alone stand, and Trunks' advantage in abilities over him had increased far beyond what it had been.

In his Super Perfect form while using Multiplier Madness to siphon the power of Cell's Ascended Super Saiyan analog form in addition to his own, Future Cell knew he had still been only about one-fourth as powerful as the supreme fighter Trunks had become, while also outclassed in speed.

Now, the difference in their abilities was far too great for Future Cell to want to even ponder.

As Future Cell stumbled forward, in a futile attempt to reach Cell, Trunks grabbed his right shoulder from behind.

"You little insect," Trunks said, while squeezing Future Cell's shoulder, causing him to shout in pain louder than he ever had before. "You've made a fool of yourself. You attempted with all your hatred to dishonor my family and friends, but your defeat at my hands shall completely restore their pride."

Trunks flicked his wrist slightly, sending Future Cell soaring over Cell and causing him to drop about 10 meters away.

As Future Cell started to stand up, with the hole in his chest almost fully regenerated, Trunks walked toward him.

Trunks briefly stopped his path to look at Cell, and he contemplated his image. He recognized his appearance as the very same one of the murderer who had killed his mother and father, and yet he knew this individual, this person who had been blessed by chance to have the opportunity to change his ways, to be distinct from the vile murderer who had lost that image and who was now struggling to stand.

Trunks looked away from Cell and redirected his gaze to Future Cell, who had managed to stand up almost fully straight.

"Do you remember when you, Cell and I first met?" Trunks asked, as he continued his approach.

Despite his fear, Future Cell didn't know whether to be more afraid or angry. He wondered if he should even respond to Trunks, and what difference it would make. However, he then realized that delaying Trunks through responding, even by at least a little bit, could work to his advantage.

"What of it?" Future Cell asked, while unstably standing his ground.

"Cell and I outright told you that we could have killed you before you emerged from your growth chamber, and yet we didn't do that," Trunks said. "Despite my reservations, and what had been my desire to ensure the safety of us all by killing you before you had any chance to harm anyone, Cell convinced me to let you at least have a chance to pursue a peaceful life, as you had not yet done anything wrong. I knew that you were predisposed to murder, but Cell convinced me that we'd be able to overpower you if you refused to join us and uphold righteousness. We'd had no idea that you and him can regenerate from a single cell, as according to both you and Cell, Dr. Gero did not tell either of you of this ability. In fact, it's questionable whether Dr. Gero knew of it himself, or if it was an unintended byproduct of the way you were synthesized. Regardless, Cell, I want you, more than anything else, to not only die, but before your death, understand how dishonorable of a fool you have been. Cell and I decided to spare your life when we could have denied it entirely, and you repaid us by victimizing him and killing my family. In addition, you killed not just my friends, but countless innocents who didn't deserve to die. This universe could have at last been at peace, but instead, you decided to turn it into an absolute nightmare, despite the fact that you should have been grateful for your own life in the first place, and should have learned to respect the value of life through the fact that Cell and I decided to not deprive you unjustly of yours. You have no idea how much I've regretted letting you live."

Future Cell let a few moments pass, and he exhibited as much of a smile as his facial features would allow.

"I regret nothing," Future Cell said.

He waited a moment, with surprise that Trunks had not yet decided to unleash his power against him for such a comment, but it became clear that Trunks was expecting him to say more before taking further action.

"It is true that you enabled me to live, and because I value life so highly, I wanted to achieve my ultimate dream of becoming boundlessly perfect," Future Cell said. "To do that, I deprived others of their lives. I also genuinely enjoy depriving others of their lives because it is amusing to see their fear and it is quite gratifying to assert my superiority. After all, why should there be many imperfect lives when one life of greatness could grace the universe with its presence? I wanted to be the personification of perfection, and that fool over there can never truly achieve what I came so close to achieving. It's a farce that he has the form he has while I no longer do. I could have helped the universe achieve true glory through my absolute perfection, but you, Trunks, are denying its proper destiny."

A few moments passed before either of them said anything further, and then the silence was broken.

"But don't you feel that you owed Cell and I any gratitude for letting you live?" Trunks asked. "Don't you feel, at any level, even in retrospect, that the horrible atrocities you committed were unjust?"

"Everything I've done has been completely justified," Future Cell said. "You and my counterpart wanted me to pursue a false ideal that I abhorred, and while you enabled me to live, I feel that showing you how this life should truly be lived was the best way I could possibly have repaid you. The weak should die so the strong can thrive. All who are imperfect should suffer while only those who accord with my beliefs should live. I have enjoyed killing the innocent and obliterating their hopes. I have superb thrills in destroying fighters who dared to challenge my glory, and Broly's death, as well as what twice should have been yours, are among my fondest memories. The righteousness you preach is a lie. I have been living my life according to what I know to be the best ways in which to live, and no matter what you think about the quality of my decisions, only my own opinions are what matters. Every single person I killed deserved to die by my hands. The strong deserve to kill the weak so they can have the best quality of life for themselves. That is the true way to value life. You let me live, and I have lived. It is because of the way I have lived my life, Trunks, that no matter what you do, the true glory of what I've accomplished can never be defeated."

For the first time in quite a while, Trunks grinned.

"I'm glad you said all of that, Cell, because there's one last thing I wanted you to recognize before I rid the mortal realm of your miserable life," Trunks said. "You said yourself that the strong should have the right to kill the weak, and that this would uphold the warped vision of what you feel to be true respect for life. By your own sick and twisted logic, you have admitted that I have every right to kill you now. I'm far stronger than you ever were at your maximum power, and in fact, I'm probably stronger than Broly ever had been."

"Ah, but total abilities, and not just power level, are what I have meant by strength," Future Cell said, as he began to back away from Trunks, sensing that the situation was about to rapidly deteriorate for him even more than it already had.

"And look at you now, a worthless shell of a fighter whose path of evil and victimizing others for power has led him to lose almost all of it," Trunks said, with complete and total seriousness returning to his face. "There's no question that the sum total of the extent of my abilities is much greater than yours. Now that you've justified your own death, I'm going to kill you with no remorse at all, just like you killed my family."

Before Future Cell could verbally respond, Trunks used his superior speed, without needing to resort to Instant Transmission, to suddenly appear in front of Future Cell.

Future Cell gasped out of the sudden movement, then jumped backward, readying a fighting stance.

"I refuse to die in fear!" Future Cell yelled. "If I'm going to die, then I'll die with dignity! And at the very least, I no longer have to tolerate my counterpart's incessant bickering in my mind!"

"You refused to enable any of your victims to die in dignity, and I will certainly not enable you to have any," Trunks said. "Come on, Cell, try to punch me. You'll be just as helpless as my mother and father were when you slaughtered them."

Future Cell's facial expression showed as much of a sneer as it could possibly convey.

He soared forward without a word kicking Trunks in the chest with a flying right side-kick.

It had absolutely no visible effect.

Future Cell then proceeded to wail at Trunks with all his might, punching and kicking him rapidly, at various points all across his body, with Trunks purposely forgoing any opportunities to block the attacks.

"Your power level now is barely above what it had been when we met," Trunks said with complete composure, while glaring at Future Cell, who was struggling to do any damage at all despite his onslaught of attacks. "Many days ago, shortly after we met, when you tried to attack Cell at about your level of strength with a rapid salvo of similar pathetic efforts, Cell wasn't affected by them. I'm now far stronger than Cell had been then, as a direct result of the horrors you perpetrated. Now that you truly know how desperate your situation is, your time shall come to an end."

Future Cell saw Trunks catch his right arm this ease, and Trunks used his right hand to lightly flick Future Cell in the stomach.

Future Cell yelled with scorching pain while soaring many meters backward, then Trunks shifted behind him, catching him before he traveled farther.

Trunks then let go of Future Cell and flicked him in the left side of his mouth structure, utterly shattering much of its framework. Future Cell knelt on the ground in pain, and Trunks crouched low and placed a hand on his left shoulder.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Trunks asked, prompting Future Cell to manipulate his tail so that its stinger was aimed for Trunks' spinal cord.

Trunks rapidly shifted position so that his right arm was restraining Future Cell's tail at its midsection, while Future Cell grunted out of the further pain.

"You do realize that those two hits which damaged you so severely were with about the lightest force I could muster," Trunks said, causing Future Cell's eyes to widen. "I'm purposely giving you the least dignified death possible."

Trunks then let go of Future Cell's tail, wondering what the diabolic demon would choose to do next.

Trunks saw that Future Cell's mouth fully regenerated, and Future Cell then moved to strike Trunks at the front of his body with his tail.

With superior swiftness, Trunks blocked the attack with his left arm, causing the stinger of Future Cell's tail to be embedded in Trunks' forearm.

Future Cell grinned, then manipulated his systems to absorb Trunks' energy.

The instant after Future Cell activated his absorption, Trunks suddenly vaulted himself forward and used his right arm to squeeze Future Cell's tail at its base, while purposely sending a searing overcharge of Super Saiyan 2 energy straight into the tail.

The tail exploded from within, bursting apart many of Future Cell's muscles and sending organic debris in all directions.

Future Cell's scream was pleasant to Trunks' ears, and Trunks then smacked Future Cell across the face, breaking his left cheek structure.

The bedraggled bio-android was sprawled on the ground in severe pain, and Trunks walked forward without pause.

Trunks grabbed the upper portion of Future Cell's body by placing his arm under Future Cell's back and grabbing the farther side of Future Cell's chest with his right hand, and he likewise positioned his left arm and hand under and around Future Cell's legs.

Trunks then brought his right knee up into a crane stance, and positioned Future Cell over his quadriceps and knee. He then proceeded to bend the upper and lower parts of Future Cell's body downward with force, contorting Future Cell's back into a dramatically arched shape while Future Cell screamed.

Trunks then manipulated Future Cell's body so that his back was again relatively parallel with itself, and he then bent Future Cell over his knee again, and then a third time.

After lowering his knee, Trunks then dropped Future Cell to the ground, and then shifted his position so that he was just one meter above Future Cell, suspended in the air.

Future Cell's stomach was face-up toward the sky, and with his eyes barely open, he anticipated with dismay what Trunks would next do.

Like a lance striking the heart of an unneeded blemish, Trunks rapidly shifted his energy such that he accelerated downward with velocities faster than Future Cell could see, with his two feet piercing Future Cell's upper chest and sending further organic debris all around him.

Trunks levitated out of the massive gash in Future Cell's body, then set himself on the ground and grabbed Future Cell's cranial protrusions.

Trunks lifted Future Cell into the air while maintaining hold of the protrusions and began to rapidly spin Future Cell around a horizontal circular path, at such a velocity that Future Cell was on the verge of becoming totally unconscious.

Sensing his enemy's energy wavering, and wanting the horrid beast to be conscious through the final events before his ultimate demise, Trunks flung Future Cell straight up into the air, then waited for him to drop.

Future Cell landed with a thud, barely breathing and barely conscious.

As Trunks walked forward to finish the job, he heard a voice.

While it was all-too-familiar, he had not heard its originator speak in quite some time.

"After everything that dishonorable killer did to your family and to this universe, I hope you will end his pathetic life with a demonstration of your absolute strength," Cell said, while approaching within one meter of Trunks, while Future Cell stared at him with fear and rage.

Trunks paused for a moment out of surprise, then responded to his liberated ally.

"I was wondering when your bout of unconsciousness would wear off," Trunks said, without a grin of any sort. "My focus on beating the soul out of this bastard must have averted my attention from hearing you stepping closer."

"I'm quite glad that I'll be able to see his end with my own eyes," Cell said, as he then thought about placing his right hand on Trunks' left shoulder out of friendship, but declined to do it, as a result of what he expected was still Trunks' high degree of unease with interacting with someone who looked and sounded exactly the same as the person who had killed his parents.

Too much had happened that Cell completely regretted, and he was beyond angered that unlike in Timeline 3, there were no longer any Dragon Balls in Timeline 4 that he could use to help the innocents who had died as a result of his unwitting empowerment of his counterpart.

Future Cell's features had regenerated from damage, and as he struggled to stand, he sneered at Cell.

"You have insulted me far too often and far too severely to deserve to live," Future Cell said. "Your power and abilities should be mine! I am the only one in this universe who deserves them!"

"You are nothing more than a disgrace," Cell said. "I did everything I could to help you see the light, and despite attaining my memories, and learning the truth of how horribly evil Dr. Gero's plans had been, you chose to use your life, and the powers you stole from me, for nothing more than murder and destruction."

"I was helping you fulfill your destiny," Future Cell said, with a grin. "And besides, you are nothing without me. Your power level has decreased dramatically, to just over what it had been on the unfortunate day we met. You're enabling Trunks to severely outclass both of us in power. If he's successful in killing me, you should do everything in your power to kill him and glorify our name!"

"Unlike you, I don't feel that my well-being and glory should ever come at the expense of the innocent and righteous," Cell said. "I have achieved a glory that Dr. Gero would have forever disallowed me, and which you have sadly been unable to realize through your ignorance."

"Letting you live was a mistake I'll live with and regret for the rest of my existence," Cell said. "All I wanted to do was repent for my evil deeds, and instead, I ended up empowering you to compound them and make the innocent suffer further under a vile oppressor. You've derailed my path of true honor for long enough."

Cell refocused his attention to Trunks, and then addressed him.

"Trunks, I'll forever be sorry for the horrors that were perpetrated against your loved ones," Cell said.

"Words can never bring them back," Trunks said. "You know that."

"I know," Cell said, as he then used his mental energy to limit the movements of the already severely-weakened Future Cell, forcing the malevolent murderer to stand in one spot. "Now, Trunks, bring peace to this universe by eradicating the life this monster lived because of me."

After a moment of pause, Trunks nodded, then turned toward Future Cell.

He started to gather energy, preparing for an attack of ultimate virtue, while Future Cell watched in horror as the energy coalesced.


Thanks so much for reading Chapter Thirty-Nine!

Up next in Chapter Forty: As Trunks prepares himself to unleash a grand attack, the universe awaits his triumph. With Cell's liberation at last, what shall become of Timeline 4? And what of Goku and Vegeta's plan to travel to the future? You don't want to miss what soon shall transpire – next, on Dragon Ball: Honor Trip!

Chapter Forty is scheduled to be released on Saturday, April 21, 2012, by 5:00 p.m. - U.S. Eastern Standard Time, (10:00 p.m. - Coordinated Universal Time [UTC])

In fun and fanfiction,

American Vigor

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Completed April 2, 2012

Edit Credit: Genescritor

Art Credit: Ruga-Rell

Art Credit: Roketto