As Raditz and Nappa took their first step out of the Time Chamber, the first thing Nappa did was take a deep breath, re-familiarizing himself to the fresh air of the outside world, even if it was thin this high up. Raditz on the other hand struck his own cheek to ensure that entire year in the chamber wasn't some illusion caused by insanity. Once he was certain that the durability he'd spent so long building up was the real deal, he wiped his cheek and lips and grinned. "Alright, we actually survived our year in the chamber. And I can still sense everyone's energy, so Cell has kept to his word and hasn't started killing everyone."

Nappa looked around and saw Vegeta currently sitting on the steps in front of the chamber. Walking over to the prince, he noticed that Vegeta had fallen asleep waiting around. It made sense, since none of the others were atop the Lookout. He placed an arm on his former superior's shoulder and started to shake him awake. "Vegeta, we're out. If you want another turn inside the Time Chamber, you best go now."

Vegeta jumped up in surprise, clearly a little on edge as he noticed Nappa. He sighed and stood up. "I gave it some thought, and I don't need it. What I need is a proper sparring partner to get me ready and keep me sane until Cell's tournament." He crossed his arms and stared at the floor. "I'm not demanding that you help me with that, but you're the only one I can rely on to keep me in line Nappa."

Nappa and Raditz looked at each other in shock, neither of them expecting such a moment of vulnerability in the Saiyan prince. After getting a nod from Raditz, Nappa grabbed Vegeta by the shoulder again and started walking forward. "Very well, though I hope you can keep up with the new me. It'd be a shame if you couldn't keep up." Vegeta would be shocked to see little hesitation in Nappa's acceptance and gladly walked with him, standing up straighter to look more confident as he goes off with the larger Saiyan.

Raditz smirks and shakes his head. "Even when things change, they always stay the same." He started walking around the Lookout until he found Mr. Popo and.. Dende?! Raditz would look completely perplexed and start asking questions on why the small Namekian was on Earth. After several minutes of explanation, Raditz had been informed of the failed attempts of the human military trying to destroy Cell, Goku retrieving Dende from New Namek and the restoration of the Dragon Balls. "Well, at the very least we can rest easy that we can bring people back once this was all over. It's good to see you Dende, you gotten any better at healing?"

"Oh yeah, ever since we arrived on our new home, the grand elder chose me to heal all of the warrior namekians after they've trained. With how much training they've done, I think we could take on anyone less powerful than Freeza!" The small namekian declaring excitedly.

Raditz couldn't help but feel proud of the namekians, making a mental note to visit them if they succeed to destroy Cell, maybe have them help teach Nion when she's older. He turned his head to the edge of the lookout as he saw both Krillin and Tien fly up and land on the floating structure. He could tell from the serious look in their eyes, they weren't here to welcome him back into the real world. "Long time no see, at least for me anyway. Care to share what you're here for?"

Krillin lowered his head as he clenched his fist tightly. "Me and Tien have been doing some thinking. The two of us can't stand it anymore, always left on the sidelines when you guys take charge of the battle." He lifted his head, tears in his eyes with a glare filled with determination revealing his resolve. "Even if we can't come close to matching Cell, we need to get stronger so we can at least support you guys!"

"He's right, even if it's just a little, we need to prove that earthlings aren't just food for that monster!" Tien says, also clenching his fist as he looks at it. "Yamcha died to give us this chance, we need to make sure it doesn't go to waste. So if you don't mind, we'll be spending the next two days inside the time chamber."

The saiyan nods his head in understanding, knowing both of them must have been hit hard from Yamcha's death. He wasn't around to know the level of relief when they learned they got the Dragon Balls back to revive him, but doubts it was very much, knowing that nobody is aware if Cell can be beaten or not. He walks over to the both of them and pulls out his ship's capsule, handing it to Krillin. "If you're really planning to spend the full two year limit inside the Time Chamber, go for the full benefits. The chamber provides you with the food you need, so you can focus on training in the gravity chamber and healing yourselves up when you need it."

The both of them look at the capsule and nods their heads, Krillin clutching the capsule tightly. "We won't let you down. We'll try to avoid breaking it." The two of them then start to make their way to the Time Chamber, saying hello to Dende as they walk by.

Taking a deep breath, Raditz started flying off the Lookout and back to the world below. He had a destination in mind, but first needed to make a quick stop. He made his way to West City, specifically to Capsule Corp. He pulled out a card from the other side of his capsule container and use it to open the front door, something Bulma gave him to give him easier access into the building. After a brief hello to Bulma's parents, he made his way to Bulma's workshop. "Hey Bulma, are you in here?"

Bulma stopped typing on her computer and turned to look at him. "Oh hey, glad to see you're in one piece! I was worried you were gonna go insane and try to kill Goku like when you first showed up. What's up?"

His eyebrow twitched hearing that and an irritated but not angry look spread across his face. "Listen here, I didn't come here to kill my brother, I came to recruit him for a mission with the rest of us Saiyans. I only tried to kill him when he didn't listen to his big brother. Now, as for the reason I'm here, I-" He cut himself off as something at the corner of his eye caught his attention. He saw Android 16 lying on a worktable, eyes closed and motionless with some patchwork done to his chest where Cell blasted him. "I see you're working on getting him back to full condition. You currently downloading his blueprints or something?"

She sighs and stands up. "Close but not quite. Unfortunately his schematics weren't among the data you brought back to me from Gero's secret lab and he doesn't have it in his internal database. I'm currently downloading his internal memory as a booster for your ridiculous long term plan." She straightens a stack of notes she made while repairing the android's chest. She was hiding the fact she found a bomb inside Android 16's chest close to where the android was hit since she didn't want Raditz coming up with any backup schemes including it. "So what are you really here for?"

Raditz pulled out from his armor his scouter and set it on the computer's keyboard. "I want to re-calibrate the scouters to be able to read even higher. You've been keeping the room and instruments in peak condition right?"

Bulma looked at the scouter and nodded her head as she picked it up and started leading her to a room deep under Capsule Corp that she had built not long after their return from Namek. The purpose was for Raditz to unleash his power to his utmost limit while the instruments in the room to measure his power level and record it, using the collected data to upgrade the scouters to read that level of power and even higher. She once tried reading both Raditz and Nappa's power at the same time but that caused the instruments to malfunction and overload, resulting in them exploding. She entered a side room where she'd be safe from the power coming off Raditz and any potential explosions.

Raditz looked through the shatterproof glass into the room Bulma was in and saw her adjust some things on her end. As soon as she gave him the thumbs up, he powered up to Super Saiyan and started screaming loudly, upping his power output to their limits. Bulma inside was actively adjusting her equipment to keep up with his growth in power, especially when there was a sudden spike that caught her off guard, the instruments nearly overloading. After about 30 seconds of measuring the limit, she hit a button triggering a quick alarm, notifying Raditz to stop. Once the saiyan heard the alarm, he instantly powered back down to his base form.

"Geez, you could give me a little warning with that sudden increase in power. What did you even do anyway? I've never seen that kind of a spike in our readings before." Bulma said as she came out of the room, a flash drive in her hand containing the collected data.

"That isn't important right now. Besides, it's complicated technique stuff that would go right over your head. I just need you to upgrade my scouter with that data before the Cell Games." He starts leading her back upstairs, making his way for the front door. "I really appreciate all that you're doing for me. If you ever need someone to watch over Trunks whenever you head out of town or something, let me know and I'll take care of it."

The woman sighed, placed her hand on her hip and shakes her head. "I appreciate it, but you've got enough on your plate as it is. Who knows, maybe when he's old enough I'll have Trunks train with you, assuming we get through this."

"I'd like that. Nion could certainly benefit from a training partner. Though he doesn't have a chance in hell in hooking up with Nion in the future." The both of them laugh, Bulma returning to her workshop while Raditz makes his way outside. The saiyan takes a deep breath and starts flying back home. It's been a whole year for him and he could really benefit from seeing his wife and daughter again. After a while of travel, he lands in front of his house and takes a deep breath, reaching out to grab the handle but hesitates. Remembering his last conversation with his family, he felt extremely guilty about his plan for tomorrow. After all, he didn't have any guarantee that he'd survive his fight against Cell, and even if he were revived with the Dragon Balls, he doesn't think he'd be able to look his family in the eyes. He grit his teeth and shook his head. I need to get through this. If I break my promise to them, then I'll cut off my tail as payment. He thought to himself as he reached for the door handle.

Just as he was about to grab it, it opened up with Nion standing inside, a look of excitement already on her face as she ran and jumped on her father. "Daddy! Welcome home!"

Raditz, completely surprised by his daughter's knowledge of returning even without giving a word to anyone, wrapped his arms around his daughter and hugged her. "Yes, I'm home, stronger than ever. How.. How did you know I was here?"

Nion looked at her father and tilted her head, confused at the question and didn't know how to answer it. "I don't know, my tail told me?"

The saiyan shook his head in disbelief, unsure if this was either some latent potential in his daughter or an overactive imagination. "Well, the important thing is that I'm home." Carrying his daughter with one arm, he walked into his home and closed the door behind him. "Where's your mother? She didn't start drinking in worry for me, did she?"

"That's a pretty rude assumption to be making about your wife you know!" Launch declared from behind Raditz, a small basket of fruits and vegetables in her hand. "I went over to Goku and Chichi's to get stuff for tonight's dinner."

Raditz stiffened up at hearing that and set Nion down before walking over to his wife. "And you left Nion alone by herself?! I know we dont live far from my brother but that's still over 10 minutes of being unsupervised!"

Launch glared up at her husband, pressing up against him with the basket being the only thing keeping them from touching chests. "I knew she'd be fine! She's a smart, strong girl and we live all the way in the mountains. Nobody was gonna break into our house!"

Raditz grunts and takes the basket from his wife and the two of them move inside as they continue to argue. "Yes, she's strong, which is why you should have brought her to help carry the basket so she wouldn't be alone!"

"Oh please, you're only saying that because you want her to already start on training despite saying you'd wait till she was 4!"

"I intended no such thing! I'm just saying that Nion shouldn't be left alone during these stressful times!"

"This past week has been stressful! From your brother almost dying of a heart disease, to everyone going off to fight murder bots, to you almost getting killed by the bug monster that is now threatening the entire world!"

"All the more reason you shouldn't have left her alone!"

The both of them stopped fighting when they heard Nion giggling to herself, the young girl always finding amusement in seeing her parents bicker when they aren't actually mad at each other. They each sigh and shake their heads in unison, smiling as they got all their frustration out of their system, the two starting on cutting up the vegetables to ready them for dinner.

The family then proceeded to have a nice dinner, Raditz eagerly listening to everything his wife and daughter did in the past day while he was away. It was a little disorienting for him to hear about so few events when it's been an entire year for him. Launch offered to take care of the cleanup of dinner and dishes to let the saiyans of the family personally catch up. Raditz started doing one armed push up with Nion on top of him. The small child didn't really feel like any weight at all compared to his time in the gravity chamber. As he finished his 50th push up, he turned his head to look at his daughter. "Hey Nion, I need to go somewhere tomorrow for something really important. Do you want to come with?"

The young girl's eyes widened with joy as her dad offered to take her somewhere, bouncing up and down in uncontrollable excitement on her father's back. "Of course! Where are we going, to miss Bulma's house?" She then accidentally slid off but landed on her feet.

Raditz chucked as he sat up, grabbing his daughter and placing her in his lap. "No, it's not to Bulma's house. It's a secret until we get there tomorrow." He then looked around to whisper to Nion. "We're gonna have to leave pretty early in the morning though so if you want to see something good, might be good to head to bed soon."

Nion nodded her head, hopping out of her dad's lap and started running towards the kitchen, giving her mom a hug before running upstairs to her room. Raditz on the other hand walked over to his couch and slumped down onto it, his favorite place to rest aside from his bed. He stares out the window, seeing the starry sky and remembering the old days, clenching his fist as he recalls the villain he used to be. He snapped out of such thinking as he felt Launch take a seat next to him.

"Do you ever miss it? Travelling through the stars?" She asked, already aware of his past. When she first heard it when they were dating, she immediately broke up with him. She came back to him however when she realized she wasn't exactly innocent either, being an ex-robber. Neither of them had told Nion of their pasts though, thinking she was much too young to know about both her parents being ex-criminals.

The saiyan shook his head, wrapping an arm around his wife and pulling her close gently. "Nah, not really. I mostly remember sleeping a whole lot, since our pods were really slow compared to what we have now. Though it has got me thinking. With our ability to fly, we're able to visit any place on the planet with ease, so maybe after all this is done, you, Nion and I should take a trip off world. I think I can recall some nice worlds not under control of the Freeza Force. And if they do show up to get in the way, I'll take care of them."

Launch chuckled hearing the confidence in her husband's voice, knowing he can back up his words. "Fine, but we should probably wait a couple years before then. We don't want Nion getting hurt because she's too young and you're the only one who can fight anything off. 3 years, would that be enough."

"3 years huh? Long enough for me to get a year's worth of training into Nion. Alright deal. In three years, we'll take a family trip."

The two of them then got up and went upstairs to their bedroom. Launch went to bed pretty quickly but Raditz struggled to sleep as quickly. He knew it was a stupid idea what he was doing tomorrow. Not only was he planning to have a private one on one fight with Cell, but he was bringing Nion to watch. What if something went wrong? With if a stray energy blast headed her direction? What if Cell chose to use her as a hostage to prevent himself from potentially losing? There were too many unknown factors going into this and he really didn't want to drag his daughter into this, but knew he needed her to be there to inspire him to not lose. After about an hour of worrying, the saiyan finally managed to bring himself to sleep, though he'd still feel pretty restless throughout the night.

The next morning Raditz would wake up, rubbing his eyes and notices he was the only one in bed. Wondering what his wife was doing up so early, he got out of bed and got dressed in his armored gi. He went to Nion's room to wake her up but saw her door was already open and her room empty of the two year old. He headed down the stairs and saw both his wife and daughter outside the house, dressed up and in Launch's car, seemingly waiting. The saiyan walked outside towards them. "Where are the two of you going?"

Launch looked over at him, an angry scowl matching her blonde hair but didn't give off her usual aura of anger. "We're going to the Cell Games with you. I'll drive, I've packed plenty of food for you to eat on the way so you're at full strength."

Raditz went wide eyed as his wife not only easily saw right through his plan, but was also planning to tag along. "How the hell did you figure out I was going to do that? I didn't even tell Nion where we were going."

"Please, do you think I don't know what goes on in that head of yours, dear husband?" She leaned over to open the passenger side of the door. "Now just get in the car before the food gets cold. We've got a few hours before we get there."

Raditz sighed, shaking his head as he slid into the passenger seat. He noticed a lot of bento boxes at his feet and smiled, knowing his wife would never turn back on a decision once she made her mind on it. He started to heed her advice and starts to just scarf down the prepared food, box by box, hearing his daughter doing the same in the back of the car. Both Launch and Raditz had learned that the girl didn't experience motion sickness at all so they had no worries about her eating during the drive. The drive indeed lasted several hours, Launch forced to ask multiple times which way they were supposed to go. Every time Nion noticed her Dad start to look less confident, she would say that he was sure to win. Launch even added in to the encouragement a couple of times.

After what felt like the longest car ride of his life, which it honestly was, it took 5 hours and they could have gotten there a lot faster if he had just flown them there himself, they finally arrived at the arena in the middle of nowhere. Launch parked against a cliffside off the roadway, getting out to help Nion out of her car seat while Raditz got out and stared down Cell, who was undoubtedly staring back at them.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up. You always seemed the most eager to die early." Cell exclaimed, turning his head as he was now paying attention to the other two. His memory recognized Launch, deeming her not to be a threat, but he had no data on the young girl. Once he saw the child's saiyan tail however, everything clicked and he began chuckling. "The Cell Games were supposed to be broadcast to the public in a few days, but I suppose I can allow your family to witness the exhibition match."

"My Daddy's not afraid of you! He'll kick your butt and save the world!" shouted Nion, flailing in her mother's arms.

"She's right, Raditz is the most stubbornly tough guy I know! My husband is sure to put you in the ground!" also shouted Launch, struggling to keep Nion in her arms.

Surprised Launch was being so uncharacteristically supportive of his idiotic decisions, Raditz couldn't help but grin as he stepped up to the arena. He was tempted to break one of the panels upon his ascent but didn't want to rile Cell more than he needed to. "You heard it first Cell, I've got two great reasons why I can't die here today." He then dropped the armor from his gi, revealing his bare chest before crossing his arms.

Cell couldn't help but be amused by the saiyan's boldness to drop his extra layer of protection. "Very well Raditz, as testament to your declaration to fight me at such a disadvantage, I'll offer you a consolation. I'll ensure that the two of them don't get harmed in the process, on the condition that you give me a worthy challenge. Give me a lackluster battle and I'll wipe them from the face of the earth before your very eyes. But hey, that'll just get you angry and get your power level to rise. Either way it's a win-win situation for you."

Raditz clenched his fist as he heard Cell threaten him not to hold back for the sake of his loved ones. Luckily that wasn't part of the plan at all. The saiyan would proceed to transform into a Super Saiyan and stare down the bug-man. "Don't worry Cell, I'm walking out of this arena by the time we're done here. But not without ripping you apart!"

Boy has 2020 been a rough as hell year. Everything super busy and the trouble just doesn't end. Just couldn't get into the rhythm at all, but I thought I'd at least give you guys something before the year ended, right before Christmas too. This chapter was intended to go very differently at the end, never intended for Launch and Nion to accompany Raditz and for this chapter to actually have the fight but I wanted to switch things up. This fight is gonna be a bit more intense than something to cram into a rushed chapter so I wanted to save it for next time, and I've learned that it's easier to write this story with more than two characters in one place, thus Launch and Nion will add more dialogue options to next chapter. That's all I've got for this time. Happy Holidays and I hope to see you guys before next December.