Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z or any of its characters blah, blah, blah don't sue me they belong to Akira Toriyama.
Last time on Dragonball Z…
Cell finally began to approach Vegeta, his legs making horrible squeaking sounds with each step. It seemed to be the beginning of the end of the Prince of All Saiyans…
…
Vegeta stare ahead without really looking at anything or anyone. He just kept replaying his last move over and over again in his head. He had just delivered Cell a direct blow to the head. It would have decapitated any other opponent he had faced in the past but it had barely made Cell's head tilt. That one blow might as well have been to his own head for Vegeta now knew the inevitable. He was going to lose. And it would hurt more than any of his other defeats… even more than Kakarot's victory. Glory had fallen into the palm of his hand and he had swatted it aside to once again try to satisfy his own pride.
"Impossible…" he finally choked out. "I put all of my energy into that kick."
"So, Vegeta, do you understand now what I mean by perfection?" Cell's smirk had turned into a full on grin.
Vegeta couldn't answer. The kick still stuck on replay, the knowledge that despite all of his training, all of his hard work that he was going to lose was still sinking in. He barely heard Cell say, "Or shall I have to educate you further?" before there was a sharp pain in his chest and his body was flying through the air. Vegeta crashed through five boulders before he could stop himself.
"I WILL NOT LOSE! NOT AGAIN!" The blow to the chest had reminded him of his death on Namek. He refused to die again. The water below Vegeta began to raise up and swirl around him as he began to charge up. He wasn't going to accept defeat. Not this time. He might have lost his planet and his revenge but he was not going to lose this. That was Vegeta's last thought before losing consciousness.
The anger inside Trunks rose to a new level as he saw his father's body go limp and fall into the water. It was becoming more and more difficult to stay on the sidelines. "Father, what have you done!"
When Vegeta came to a few minutes later, he scrambled for the surface. Never had he felt such a blow in his life. Between his own attacks on Cell and the pain from the latest hit, his body was exhausted. Pulling himself up onto the rocky shore, he let his forehead rest against the heat and tried to regain his breath. "Have to keep fighting. Can't lose!"
Not too far away, Cell was enjoying Vegeta's pain immensely. "Now look, you spent all that time saying I wasn't going to be a challenge and now you are giving up without putting up a good fight? That's very rude."
This was too much for Trunks. He had already lost his father in his universe and he wasn't going to let it happen again, Vegeta's pride be damned. "You just wait, Cell, if it's a good fight you want then it's a good fight you'll get!" Trunks's already large muscles began to bulge and grow to double the size. The armor his mother had made began stretched under his transformation. But still he was holding back. Maybe his father had a plan? Maybe if he just gave Vegeta a little more time he could turn this all around or at least get knocked out so that he wouldn't have to see that Trunks had surpassed him.
Krillin was once again begging Trunks to do something. "Come on, Trunks! If you wait any longer Vegeta is gonna be fish food!"
His father would rather die before someone interfered in his battle but what was Vegeta's approval to Trunks if the Saiyan Prince was dead?
"It's now or never, bro," Krillin continued, "Vegeta may get mad but at least he would still be alive!"
Sweat poured down Trunks's face, holding back seemed to be more tiring than actually fighting. But he was strong and believed in his father. "Wait!" He said through clenched teeth, "I can't do anything to help him until the moment he loses consciousness. That way he won't find out that I have become even stronger than he is."
"Forget his pride!"
"But I can't!" The desperation in Trunks's voice took the bald fighter aback. Krillin definitely wasn't used to people standing up for Vegeta. "I don't think you realize how much honor means to my father! It's the only thing that keeps him going! It's what makes him a warrior!" Since Vegeta had been their enemy in the beginning, Trunks understood why they didn't consider Vegeta's feelings but he knew a little bit more about his father's past – what he had had to live through to make it where he was now – and he couldn't ignore that. "Sure, some people might see it as arrogance but I think down at the core it is much more noble than that! I believe that is what my mother saw in him and it's what I see too."
"I didn't know," Krillin whispered, too shocked to say anything else. He had thought Bulma had just gotten really drunk one night.
"How could you?" Trunks asked. He didn't want it to becoming a pointing fingers conversation about how Krillin and the others hadn't given his father much of a chance but he had to make clear why it was so important that he wait until his father was unconscious.
"Well, for your sake, I hope he passes out soon."
Vegeta had pulled his entire body out of the water but was still unable to stand. As he tried to recover his strength, Vegeta's mind raced for some sort of strategy. Direct attacks weren't working but Cell's sole focus was on him so a stealth attack didn't seem possible.
"Vegeta, I hate to interrupt your little nap but I think it's time we should continue." Cell stood over the prince, his huge spotted green arms across his chest.
"Why… You…" Vegeta tried to respond menacingly but he could barely push these small words out.
"But first there is one thing I would like to mention," Cell said, "I must thank you for sparing me before I became complete. Regardless of how utterly foolish it was."
"That's. Fucking. It!" Vegeta thought, as he pushed himself to his feet, his face course with lines of rage.
Cell continued to prattle on, "You see, I have been waiting for this for a long time and it's always nice to receive a helping hand."
While Cell chuckled at his own not-so-clever joke, Vegeta saw Android 16 approach from behind. "Clunky fool. Does he really think he can surprise Cell like that?" And just as the thought had formed in Vegeta's head, Cell said in his usual patronizing tone, "Na uh uh, 16. If you value what's left of your head, I suggest you stay right where you are."
Vegeta rose into the air. He knew that Cell wasn't going to wait much longer. Once again, he thought strategy. He had tried outright attacks with no success… "But stealth just isn't my style. No, time to end this freak show with a bang." The Prince spread out his arms and legs so that his body made an "X" in the sky. Letting out a piercing roar, Vegeta began to charge up, blinding gold energy surrounded his body and made a crater in the shore below.
With his spiked hair, furrowed brows, large muscles, gaping mouth, and barely visible pupils, Vegeta looked nothing short of a demon in the sky. Trunks cried out, "Father!" while Krillin trembled with fear, "What does he think he's doing?"
Even Cell stopped smiling as a shadow began to cover the island and the four fighters below. Finally, with the clouds zooming over his golden head, Vegeta brought his palms together. His body pulsed and shook as a giant energy ball began to form in his hands. As if personifying Vegeta's own uncontrollable rage, streaks of energy lashed out from the ball easily shattering any rocks in its path. The crater beneath Vegeta grew until the land that Cell and 16 stood on began to sink. Cell smiled again. "This will teach you to underestimate the PRINCE OF ALL SAIYANS!"
Even Trunks and Krillin were being pushed back. "Don't do it!" Trunks yelled, shielding his face from flying rock particles and clouds of dust.
But Vegeta couldn't hear him. He couldn't hear anything except the high pitch ringing of his own anger in his ears. "Now if you really want to test your strength… STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!" Vegeta bellowed down to Cell, who remained smiling and still.
"So that's what he's doing! He's trying to provoke Cell into challenging his attack!" Trunks yelled.
"Okay, that's one explanation," Krillin stammered, "How's this one? Vegeta's lost his mind and he's going to fry us all!" Considering Vegeta's past of planet destroying, it wasn't that outlandish of a statement.
"You are going to destroy the whole planet, father!" Trunks screamed at the top of his lungs, "You've got to stop it!"
Cell uncrossed his arms, his hands forming firsts. He was ready. Vegeta smiled and let out his infamous maniacal laugh. It was time for glory. "FINAL FLASH!"
Cell's eyes widened as he gasped, "What is this?"
In an instant everything was white. The blast of energy scorched everything in its path before shooting off into space.
Author's Note: Short chapter just getting to the Final Flash. Will have another update up soon. Please Review! I like them :)
