Hello Everyone. Welcome to a new chapter of Changed Path, which is also in the 4th anniversary of this story. That's right, this story has officially been running now for four years and I know I still have a lot more to go with the ending of this saga and then my plans before the Buu Saga and then actually doing the Buu Saga. I have a lot of plans and there are many more years to carry on this story.

Also, I have started a new job that takes way too much of my time of day, draining me and taking my will to write a lot. I'm also starting another fanfic project that I'm writing chapters in advance, so I'm having a really hard time writing on. So I'm thinking of whether or not to start trying for the next year writing chapters in advance and not releasing them immediately and I want to know what you guys think. Anyway, happy 4th anniversary of "Changed Path" and I hope that I can keep this up for both myself and you, my audience.

I am thrilled that so many people has enjoyed reading the story thus far and I hope that the readership for Changed Path will continue to grow, as I am also growing myself as a writer with this fic, taking on more and more things onto my life. I hope that this story will continue on for a long time, because that is the biggest project I refuse to give up on until it is finished, no matter how long it takes.

This is also the last chapter before the Cell Games themselves begin, so after this chapter you can finally enjoy what you actually came here to read in a DBZ fanfic: the fights.

Anyhow, onto the chapter itself.


Chapter 66: The Last Few Days of Waiting

Artificial Humans Part 3: The Cell Games- Part 5

[Musical Cue #1: Opening- Time to Say Goodbye by Jeff Williams feat. Casey Lee Williams (RWBY Volume 2 OP)]

[Musical Cue #2: Ending- Creeping in My Soul by Cryoshell]


Kami's Lookout,

The Dragon Team stood on the lookout about half-an-hour after the three had arrived with Dende to the lookout. Aside from Vegeta, Tien and Katanaji, everyone else were on the lookout and stood in a circle around the small green-skinned boy as he stood over a miniature statue of Shenron, made specifically to revive the wish-granting dragon and reactivate the dragon balls so that they could collect them and use them when they finished dealing with Cell.

The boy seemed more relaxed than he was expected to be. He was even looking a bit out of it, but that was probably the effect of the plant that he had been smoking under the careful eyes of his attendant. "So what do I do exactly?" he asked as he looked at the statue while still a little bit high, which made Gohan especially concerned.

"Are we sure that Dende in a proper state of mind to perform the ritual?" the now Super Saiyan young boy asked as he looked at his green-skinned friend with a concerned look in his eyes, which everyone noticed and could sympathies with to some extend or another.

"Yeah, was it really a good idea to have our new guardian of planet Earth high before doing a ritual on the dragon balls?" Yamcha asked as he was also concerned for the well being of the child, a trait that he had gained from the fact that he himself was a father to a young girl.

Krillin also seemed very concerned over the actions of the lookout's attendant, as he was also a father to a young girl, much like his human friend and fellow Turtle School disciple. "Mr. Popo, is this really the morally righteous thing to do? Can Dende really do the ritual if he is high on weed?" the short, bald man inquired with fear in his voice, as it was very obvious that every word of doubt towards the djinn were filled with absolute pure, unadulterated terror of what punishment he would get for even speaking them. However, as a father he knew that he had to speak up, listen to his parental instincts and keep his ideal, just like the former desert bandit just did.

Unbeknown to them, two clouds formed above the true Turtle School disciples, with a few moments later they were hit by the full brunt of magical lightning, frying them and leaving them moaning in pain on the tiled floor of the lookout. "Bitch, I do what I want." Mr. Popo said as he snapped his fingers and another round of bolts of magical lightning hit Krillin and Yamcha on the spot, leaving them moaning for even longer.

Everyone just looked at the humans with beads of sweat falling from their brows as the guardian of Earth rubbed his hands and chuckled in a very weird way, fitting to someone who was under the influence. "Don't worry everyone, I'm fine." he said as he waved away the concerns. "Everything's gonna be fine." he said with a laid back tone to his voice as he waved away the concerns once again as he lowered his hands above the container with the statue. "I can do this, just give me time. We have at least days of that." he said jokingly as he smiled widely as everyone looked at him with concern. "Don't worry, I can do this with my closed." he assured them as he closed his eyes and silently chanted something, causing a magical pentagram to appear around his feat.

Everyone looked in awe at the child guardian as he prepared the spell, intrigued to see if the boy could live up to his own boasts. The guardian took one long breath before he started to chant. "Oh great dragon Shenron of Earth, your creator calls you to your life and bring your magical prowess to the world. To ignite the portal between our world to your own, I give you all of my magical power and push them to the seven dragon balls of myth." he chanted as the statue glowed gold and then white and then blue with mana as the base, before all of it transformed into magical prowess. "Istallamanga Porunga ne mateha kokuro aleveia." he continued to chant as the entire lookout was radiated with golden light, which flashed rapidly over and over.

Mr. Popo smirked at the display that was occurring in front of everyone. "That's incredible magical power. More than Kami ever had. You're making it easier for me to like you more and more, oh young guardian." he said with what seemed to be actual satisfaction in his voice as he smirked widely, which would have been noticed by everyone instantly with they weren't so enthralled by the spell itself.

The young guardian then gave one last powerful scream as he started to push every little bit of his essence into the stature, from mana and magical power to the very ki and life force that help him running, as shown when he ignited a blue-white aura around his frame. "Now wake the heck up and do you goddamn job, or I'll have Porunga come here and beat the shit out of you until you do." Dende threatened the dragon as suddenly from the statue a golden silhouette of the magical dragon of the dragon balls erupted upwards and flew to the skies, before separating itself into seven pieces, every piece going and searching for a different stone orb that used to be a part of Kami's dragon balls to inhabit.

Everyone's eyes widened as they saw the grandstanding of the ritual as the skies were colored by a golden hue for a long while as each of the seven separate parts of the dragon had found their stone inhibitors. eventually the skies returned to their normal blue color as the guardian started to waver as he no longer had any energy in him left. However, before he could fall down and crash into the floor, he was grabbed by his djinn attendant.

"Dende, are you okay?!" the Super Saiyan child ran to his friend as he showed concern for the new guardian as he witnessed said guardian collapse into the arms of his attendant.

The Namekian child panted heavily as he was sweating buckets and on the verge of losing consciousness. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just did some big modifications to the dragon balls." he said as he fought his hardest against his lack of energy and his exhausted body as his eyes constantly tried to close themselves.

"What exactly did you do?" the noseless monk asked with a raised eyebrow, as he was extremely interested to hear what exactly were these "modifications" that the new guardian had spoken of.

"Well let's see," the guardian started talking, using this as a way to keep himself awake for a little bit longer before his body and mind would finally give out. "First of all I made the artifacts themselves much tougher and harder to break, then I reset all the revival numbers that Shenron did, meaning everyone can be brought back to life once and for now there is no concern over the "can't be revived twice" rule." Dende explained as he constantly huffed and puffed as he spoke and everyone nodded. "Most importantly the dragon can now grant two wishes and things like immortality or eternal youth cannot be granted without my specific approval. So no more of that Freeza crap is going to happen on Earth." the young guardian finally finished explaining as giant, merry grins appeared on all the faces of the Z-Fighters.

"Dende, that incredible! You're the best!" the young Mastered Super Saiyan complimented his friend as his voice was filled with jubilation upon hearing the modifications to the dragon balls.

Dende simply nodded his head. "Thanks, but I think I will now... go to sleep..." he said as he finally fell into a state of unconsciousness with a tired, yet peaceful expression on his face.


[Musical Cue #1: Opening- Time to say Goodbye by Jeff Williams feat. Casey Lee Williams]


Many, many hours had passed since Dende had revived and modified Shenron, which caused the reactivation of the dragon balls. In the time that had passed since then, Goku went to get the dragon radar from his lavender-haired friend, but never came back to the lookout. Apparently he had dropped by his house in Mount Paozu and throughout all these hours he never left his house. Gohan had tried to check on him once, but returned a minute later and didn't open his mouth since, which gave the adults that gathered there an idea of what he saw.

"So... what's the plan right now?" Krillin asked around, trying to take the initiative as everyone else were completely silent, just waiting for the sound of the two Z-Fighters coming from the time chamber. "Are we just going to wait all day for Tien and Katan to just leave the room so Archako and I could enter?" he asked the group, who all looked at him now to hear what he had to say. "Even if they do come out now, there will still be an hour left until Mr. Popo restocks the room for an entire year." he explained to the group as they just sat around and looked at him with perplexed expression.

"He's not wrong." the voice of the djinn came out of the temple, speaking his words very loudly so that everyone could hear him, all while speaking in a calm and monotonous way as usual.

"OW!" Dende cried out, the sound of which also came from inside the temple. "I have very good hearing, you know! Shouting hurts like hell!" he shouted with an enraged voice as everyone now looked at the temple on the floating ring on the lookout, listening to the new shenanigans as they heard something being smashed into pieces against the wall, which made a bead of sweat form on all of the foreheads of the defenders of the planet.

After a few seconds were they just listened silently to the noise coming from inside the temple, it was the long-haired, burly brother of Goku that broke the silence as he stared at the noseless best friend of his younger brother with a smirk on his face. "Well you do have a point." he said, which made everyone look at him. "Once Tien and Katanaji come out, we will have to wait an hour. So we can use that to make as many bags of Sensu Beans that we can take from the garden here and from Korin's stock. We can also use this time to take from Bulma as many vials of F.A.D. as she can make and voila, we will have a giant stock of instantly healing equipment to use both in the Cell Games and for you and Archako to use inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber." he explained a suggested idea that just popped to his mind to the rest of the Dragon Team, who immediately perked up with smiles on their faces.

"That's a great idea, uncle Raditz!" Gohan said as a smile appeared on his face, finally talking. "I'll be going to Korin's tobringSenzubeans. Good? Good, good, good, goodgoodgoodgoodgood BYE!" he suddenly shouted and flew off after mumbling very quickly to the point that his words were almost inaudible and nonsensical. By the blush on his face it also appeared that he was still embarrassed.

Everyone simply sighed as they saw how quickly the boy had decided to fly away from there, probably needing anything to occupy him. On the other hand, the female Saiyan simply chuckled at this. "Isn't this just adorable? Now if he would only spill the details." she said to herself aloud as she tapped on her chin and looked up to the sky, while the rest of the present Z-Fighters groaned and rolled they eyes in annoyance as a reaction to her behavior.


A few hours later and everyone had gathered together on the lookout after making a large stock of beans and F.A.D. containers, which resulted in a huge amount of the former, to the point that they took out as many small bags as they could and started filling them with the magical beans, while the scientific elixir was in a much small amount and already had containers.

Even Goku had returned and he was now sitting along with everyone else from the group, with the exception of Vegeta and Trunks, and putting senzu beans into the bags, with the world's greatest martial artist looking bored out of his mind. "Aw, shucks. Why can't Kamiccolo and Tien come out yet? It's about time that the twenty four hours have passed, right?" he inquired as he slowly picked up a bean gently in his Mastered Super Saiyan form, trying his best to be delicate as possible not to accidentally break it. "And why do we have to put the senzus in the bags? Can't Korin or Mr. Popo do it?" he asked as he continued to whine and complain with boredom expression filling his entire face.

"Because I say so." the new guardian said with authority and annoyance in his voice as he also sat among the group and packed the beans into small, brown bags. "You didn't show up for hours and we have a huge amount of these so that you idiots don't die like a bunch of bean-munching morons out there against that Cell guy." the green-skinned child and new guardian of the planet explained as he was slightly irritated. "Besides, the last god didn't do much, did he? I intend to change that." he said as he started to put in beans faster.

Goku then pouted as he crossed his arms. "Honestly, it wasn't my fault. Chi chi forced me on the issue. She said she would allow Gohan to come to the Cell Games if I let her have another kid. Not that the thought of having another kid to train." he said as he put his head on his chin, thinking. Then there were stars in his eyes as a huge grin formed on his face. "Maybe it'll be a girl?" he thought to himself with excitement as he kept on imagining as the others looked at him with a bead of sweat on their brows, especially Gohan, who's skin was now completely red from head to toes as he was blushing.

The hero of Earth then looked at the female Saiyan warrior in the group with a big smile on his face. "Hey Archako, how do girls look with Super Saiyan?" he inquired with intrigue and a strange sense of thrill in his voice.

The woman simply shrugged nonchalantly. "I actually don't know since I haven't achieved Super Saiyan yet." she said as only a few seconds later she grabbed the noseless former-monk, pressed him against her chest as she hugged him and smirked. "But you'll probably get your answer in another year-day since Krilli-Billy and I are going into the chamber next, and he will help transform." she said with a huge grin on her face as she was slightly bouncing again.

The tall, spiky-haired baritone Saiyan simply scoffed at what the Z-Fighter said. "Yeah, you could. Unless of course you do something stupid like you usually do. If you just focus on training, you could possibly master Super Saiyan as well." he said without saying something too offensive to the woman like he usually did.

Suddenly they all felt two pretty large signatures coming from inside the palace on the floating lookout, which matched both the three-eyed human and the newly formed Namekian. The group could tell that the two had finally came out of the chamber and were now probably much stronger than ever, even if they were holding back right now. Some members of the group, such as Goku and Archako were so glad that they actually took a large sigh of relief and slumped down with a huge smile on their faces.

"Yay!" Goku said aloud as he lied on the tiled floor with his arms spread out. "They're out!" he declared with a happy and relieved tone, which merely got him a stink eye from his son and from the green-skinned guardian of the planet. His two human friends and fellow turtle disciples simply smiled while rolling their eyes at the sight of their impatient friend being silly while the new exited Tien and Katanaji simply looked confused at the mountain of senzu beans that the group were hanging around.

"...What's going on? Why is there a literal mountain of senzus on the lookout?" the bald, human martial artist asked as he walked to the other two humans with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow, tone willed with a mixture of confusion and interest in the whole situation that was going on.

However, the green-skinned warrior quickly walked over to the two kids as h noticed that Dende was now on the lookout with the rest of the Dragon Team. "Dende, are you now the new guardian of the planet?" he asked as he quickly got from the Namekian kid a nod with a smile on his face, causing Katanaji to smirk with pride as he also crossed his arms. "Good. We do need dragon balls and you are a good friend of Gohan, so I believe that you really are the perfect candidate to replace Kami in due time." he complimented the new guardian, making the boy blush in embarrassment and glance aside.

Around that moment a plane-like transportation vehicle flew up to the point that it could land on the lookout, which confused everyone until they saw that it was Bulma and her children in the plan-like machine, waving her hand to the rest of the group, who had most of them simply wave back.

After landing on the circular floating platform in the sky, the scientist exited her vehicle and stored it in a capsule after all of her kids, including both baby and Future Trunks, were out of the vehicle. The scientist then looked at the large pile of beans that the warriors were gathered around and whistled.

"So this is part of your big stockpiling plan?" she asked as she walked to the group while holding her baby in her hands, noticing the already full bangs alongside containers of the rejuvenation liquid of her own making.

Future Trunks was surprised about this whole thing that the Z-Fighters were doing, not to mention confused and curious at the same time, pushing him to delve deeper into asking about it. "So what are you guys doing anyway? Why are you gathering so many beans?" he inquired as he picked up one of the full bags with a raised eyebrow.

"Simply put, we want to know the amount of resources that we have and gather them in a way that they will be available during the Cell Games and when future threats arrive." the tall, burly brother of Son Goku explained the idea to the time traveler as he continued to put beans in a bag that he was holding, not even looking away from it as his tone was serious and straight-to-business in attitude. "Right now we've finished twenty seven bags of senzu beans and over ten packs of F.A.D, each carrying four vial tubes of the liquid. Right now we can send you back to the future with several bags of senzu so that you could plant them in your timeline, while also giving Krillin and Archako about ten bags to use inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to make their training more efficient." he kept on explaining as he brought examples as to what they could do with so many bags of beans, which surprised the two lavender-haired adults.

This made the time-traveling swordsman raise both of his eyebrows as his eyes widened as he reached some sort of realization from the points that the eldest son of Bardock mentioned. He thought and pondered on those ideas a little until he finally gave a nod to the man. "Yeah, that actually sounds like a very good plan." he said as he sat next to the younger version of his master, took a brown bag and started to pick up beans from the pile and put them in the bag.

Bulma then noticed the small Namekian child and smiled. "Dende, it that really you?" she asked as she walked over to him and pinched him on the cheek, much to his annoyance and embarrassment as he started to blush. "Are you the reason we have dragon balls again? Thanks a lot, kiddo. Now I don't have to keep the dragon radar in storage." she told him while she was still pinching his cheek playfully, to which he just grunted and nodded while glancing at his half-Saiyan friend, who chuckled at what was going on, which got him a stink eye from the guardian.

"Moooom, leave him alone!" the lavender-haired girl, who had also joined her mother and brothers said as she was carrying in her hands the scanning device that her mother had been working on for a good while now. "You're embarrassing him. Isn't he now the new god of the planet or something like that?" she inquired as she tried to get her mother to stop acting the ways she did towards the Namekian, showing that she herself had not that much information on the whole "Guardian of Earth" title that Dende now possessed.

The green-skinned child simply shrugged his shoulders as a response as he looked at the lavender-haired girl. "Kinda? It's hard to call myself god if this title doesn't give me any godly power and simply leaves me on a floating building in the middle of the sky and just watch passively. I would say I'm more of an observer who will now have to tell them if anything bad is happening." he answered the previous question as he pointed at the group of the planet's defenders with a scowl on his face. A small smile then formed on his face. "It's also really good to see you too, Bra. You've also grown like Gohan." he told her with a happy and slightly surprised, as it had been nearly five years since he had last seen the two kids from Earth prior to gaining his new role.

This immediately got Katanaji to raise an eyebrow. "Hey Dende," he addressed the young guardian, which immediately managed to get the attention of everyone, who looked at the giant Namekian. "how come you look the same as you did over four and a half-years ago?" he inquired with curiosity in his voice. "When Piccolo was born, it took him just three years until his body reached adulthood. So why is it different with you?" he questioned as the green-skinned fighter wondered how come aging was different between the Namakian child and the "evil" half of the original incarnation of the Son of Katas.

The guardian of Earth tried to think of an answer that could satisfy the Namekian warrior, but when he tried thinking about it, he couldn't figure out as to why Piccolo aged differently than he did. Upon about an entire minute in which he was trying his best to think of an answer, he simply shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know." he simply said as he glanced aside, which got him a glare from the giant Namekian, who didn't looked convinced at all, much to the boy's offense. " Hey, you don't see me with a master degree in Namekian biology, do you? Why don't you ask Gohan? He's the smart one." he snarked with an offended tone to his voice as he returned to working diligently on filling bags of beans while he puffed his cheeks.

"So..." the lavender-haired scientist said as she tried to lighten the mood. "I heard Gohan's gonna have a birthday party soon." she said with a jovial tone to her voice as she started to playfully pull the half-breed's cheek, making him turn completely red as the green-skinned guardian laughed at the misfortune of his friend. The heir to Capsule Corp. then looked at the orange-clad Super Saiyan whom she called her friend since their youth. "So Goku, when's the party? Bra has been quite insistent on coming. Oh and also Trunks." she said with a big smile on her face as she glanced over to her daughter and son from the future, both of whom blushed when their mother mentioned that fact.

"Moooom..."

Mother..."

The two said as they glanced aside with their faces showed that they were embarrassed of being mentioned in that specific conversation, making their mother chuckle with amusement over her children's embarrassment.

Goku simply rubbed the back of his head as he thought about the question that he was ask. After a few seconds his face lit up as he seemed to remember something that he had in mind. "Oh right, I remember now." he said with a happy smile one his face as he spoke with a tone of voice to match it. "I planned with Chi-Chi to do the party after we finish collecting the dragon balls and leaving them on the lookout." he said as he he started to chuckle a little bit, making his son take a deep sigh.

"Of course." the boy whispered silently as he got up and started to stretch his arms and legs. "So how are we gonna get the dragon balls, dad? Will we just teleport quickly and take it away just to get this over with already?" he inquired as he didn't seem very enthuse about all the attention that his dad put on giving him a birthday party.

However, Earth's greatest defender quickly shook his head with a huge grin on his face. "Nah. There's no sense of adventure that way. We're going to do it the old fashion way of traveling. Each and every one of us is going to fly across the entire world everyday with the dragon radar and try to find the dragon balls. We can do that in about two or three days." he said as he started to come up with a plan on how to get the magical, wish-granting orbs.

Everybody simply blinked quickly several times out of the sheer shock of what they heard just being spoken, only for the Super Saiyan to continue his plan of action. "Of course, if there is something going on in the location of the dragon ball, like helping a village with a shape shifting pig or a lost turtle, totally help them out." he said as he kept on grinning like an idiot.

At this point Raditz simply got up, walked behind his baby brother and slapped him across the head, making the Mastered Super Saiyan cry out in pain for a second from the hit. "You idiot! That will simply take too long! We don't have the time to do things like that!" the burly warrior shouted as he showed just how irritated he was with his brother's idea.

Bulma immediately crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Seriously Goku? I know that it sounds nice on paper, but there isn't really a point of doing a nostalgia trip when we are so short of time." she told her best friend as she immediately agreed that that plan was a no go. "Gohan's idea of teleporting is simply the quickest way to get all the dragon balls to the lookout before the Cell Games." she added as she was completely calm as she spoke.

This demoralized the Earth-raised Saiyan immediately as his shoulder's slumped down and he groaned, sounding completely bummed out. "Awwww, come on guys. Let's have fun. Why be so serious all the time?" he asked as he looked at everyone from the group.

The one who answered the question was the female Saiyan, who herself started grinning. "Well, I know that I'm going to have fun. Isn't that right, Krilli-Billy?" she asked the small, bald former monk as she rubbed his bald head while carrying a huge grin on her face while he simply sighed in defeat.

"Then I believe that I have a better idea." the long-haired Super Saiyan said as he looked at the rest of the group, crossing his arms in front of his chest as there were still several veins throbbing on his forehead. "The first thing we'll do is that everyone aside from Krillin and Archako will fly out across the planet searching for the dragon balls while Kakarot and Gohan carry the dragon radar." he stated as he started to explain his own idea as to what the group needed to do, much to everyone's confusion.

However, Katanaji immediately smirked as he seemed to understand what the plan was. "And they would use their enhanced sensing capabilities to sense where we all are and look where the dragon balls are, correct?" he inquired as he seemed to be on the same mind as Bardock's eldest son.

The long-haired Mastered Super Saiyan gave a smirk of confirmation as he looked at the giant Namekian and nodded. "Correct. They could help us navigate towards the location of the dragon balls using telepathy and if there is a need to use Instant Transmission, then they'll teleport to us and show us where the ball is. That way we can do this quickly and use the rest of our five days before we kick Cell's bug ass to relax or train further." he finalize the explanation of his idea as his smirk grew of pride.

Everyone else nodded with agreement as they had big smiles on their faces as they seemed to like this idea, though Goku was the most disappointed as he couldn't have any more adventures.


And so the Z-Fighters went on to their way of collecting the magical orbs, as both Goku and Gohan stayed on the lookout with Dende, Bulma and Bra sitting with their legs crossed and meditating to focus their sensing capabilities just so that it was simple for them to follow how the rest of the group were and how close they were to the orbs themselves, with the lavender-haired girls looking at the radar with their full attention focused on the seven dots that appeared on the round-shaped device. All the while the short student of the turtle school and his girlfriend had entered inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for their intensive one year of training.

With great coordination and efficient work between all the parties involved in the search, the group had managed to gather all of the dragon balls on Kami's Lookout in just barely over a single hour after that the entire group had started their search.

As they all stood on the floating palace in the sky, with the seven orange balls gathered in one place in a pile on the tiled floor, they all stood in a circle around them and watched as they orbs glowed brighter than they ever did before when they had gathered them in all of their adventures or times of need. Truly it was a showing of how much more powerful they were compared to the old set that Kami had made centuries ago.

"So... what the do we do now?" Yamcha asked as he looked around in order to see the reaction of everyone around and see what everyone has planned for the orbs. When he looked at the group, he saw that they all had a stern and serious expression on their faces, with the only one who looked any differently was Goku, who looked at the dragon balls with starts in their eyes as the glow in the orbs came and went over and over and over. "Hello? Guys?" he tried asking again, but he noticed that he was being completely ignored like everyone.

After a few more moments everyone looked at the former bandit, which surprised him. "That's actually very easy to answer. We'll use them once we kill Cell." the short, spiky-haired Saiyan said as he looked at the human with a pretty soft expression. He then thought about something for a few seconds and then continued to speak. "Of course we'll fight fairy and give him an honorable death. We're have standards to keep when it comes to our honor as warriors." Bryco added with a smile as he was adamant over adding this little detail.

Goku's older brother smirked as he nodded his head. "I couldn't have said it any better." he said as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, which he puffed. "I'm just glad that we managed to gather them all so quickly." he said with pride, which he obviously took from the fact that he had made the plan that helped them gather the orbs so quickly.

At this point Goku put both of his hands behind his back and reverted back to his base form. "Welp, we gathered the dragon balls, so now we can at least have Gohan's birthday party." he said with a small smile on his face as he prepared himself to teleport.

At this point the half-breed Super Saiyan rolled his eyes and scoffed as he also reverted back to his base form as well. "Seriously dad, why are you so obsessed with giving me birthday party?" he inquired as he was beginning to become quite annoyed with his father's insistence to give him a party.

"Because it's fun." the adult, Earth-raised Saiyan said with a big smile on his face as he put his hands on his waist. "It always has lots of food and everybody sings songs, Chi-Chi will make plenty of food and we can all relax and have fun. Plus we almost never have birthday parties." he explained as he tried to convince his son to go along with having a party, to which the other pure-blooded Saiyans, Trunks and Dende simply sweat dropped as they listened to said explanation, as they never had a party like that to celebrate a birth.

This actually made the boy and the other humans to nod with understanding as a big smile appeared on his face. "Yeah... that does sound awesome." he said as he seemed to like the idea more, much to the joy of his father. "Usually we don't have birthday parties because you keep forgetting my birthday, by the way, so it's kind of surprising that you're deciding to do one now. But I don't mind." the half-breed said as now he had a big smile with stars in his eyes.

After a few seconds of silence both the former desert bandit and his lavender-haired daughter raised their hands innocently. "I kinda like to sing birthday songs." they both said in unison, making them both blush innocently with embarrassment. The rest of the group snickered and laughed because of that, with the time traveler from the future looking like he was trying his best not to laugh.


Mount Paozu,

And so the entire group of the Z-Fighters went on to Goku's house to have the party that the Earth's greatest defender had anticipated. The small house that served the family had been decorated completely with flowers and many more decorations. There were tables both inside and outside the house, all filled with food for the entire crowd.

The entire group had been there and were actually having a good time by either eating the food that was on the table or simply talking with one another for. One example was that of Tien and Yamcha reminiscing on about some of their fights and achievements, with the tri-clops nervously bringing up their own fight in the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai. Naturally the scar-faced bandit was less amused by that memory.

Katanaji had just been drinking glasses of water over and over again as he leaned against the house and stayed a little bit farther than everyone else and stayed very quiet throughout the whole party the entire time it had been running so far, a trait that he had acquired from both Piccolo and Nail.

In the biggest table that Bulma could have brought in such a short time sat Gohan in fancy traditional clothes has he was in his base form with a huge smile on his face. His parents stood over him with proud and joyful smiles plastered all over their faces, especially Goku, who didn't even eat any of the food at all and just stayed close to his son as he congratulated him constantly and showered him with a lot of love and constantly told him that he deserved the good things that had happened to him and will happen to him. It honestly shocked the boy that his father had gave him much love openly, as he showed that just mostly when they were training.

Alongside the Saiyan child sat both the new guardian of Earth and the future heir of Capsule Corp. and her own mother even sat with them, rubbing their heads from time to time, much to their annoyance and embarrassing. Future Trunks himself was just walking around smiling as he saw how everyone was having a good time, imagining how it would look like in his timeline. He imagined that in the big table where the younger versions of his master, his half-sister and his mother were sitting alongside the new guardian of Earth, he imagined Pan sitting with his sister and mother of his own timeline, all smiling alongside the girl's half brother. A happy future that had no androids or any of Gero's evil ambitions.

After a while of imagining, he spotted his father somewhere leaning against a tree with his arms crossed and a grumpy expression on his face as he seemed like he didn't want to be there at all. Their eyes locked and they both narrowed their eyes in unison as they glared at one another. Vegeta then raised his hand and flipped the time traveler without much change in his expression. Trunks didn't really make a huge fuss about that, instead he just raised his hand and flipped his father back, both frowning as they did. His father simply turned away his head, but even then the lavender-haired half-Saiyan could notice a small smirk of pride rising on the man's lips. Maybe he finally got something from the guy that he still deeply desired, no matter how much he disliked his father now.

It was then that Goku called everyone to the main, large table as Chi-Chi and Bulma put on a large birthday cake with the number 11 written on it. "Hey guys," the palm-haired warrior said as he waved over to the entire group. "I just wanted to say thank you for coming to Gohan's eleventh birthday party." he started to make a speech as he put his hand on his son's shoulder, who happily accepted the hand, despite blushing with embarrassment. "I know that he has been with us for as long as Raditz, and that's clearly saying something." he joked as this caused the long-haired Saiyan to chuckle.

"To be honest, I haven't been too much of a father to Gohan. Piccolo did that for me." the Earth-raised warrior said with a bit of a sheepish chuckle to his voice as he rubbed the back of his head, while also looking nervously at his wife as she sent daggers with her eyes towards him. "I have been mostly training or being dead, mostly both. So I just wanted to take this time before the Cell Games to actually act like a father towards him once in my life. Because if I die again, will I be even deserving of another chance?" he asked he actually seemed to be asking himself that question, which was enough to ruin his spirit a little bit.

Gohan, completely surprised and unnerved by the words of doubt that his father just spoke of, put his hands over the hand that was on his shoulder and gave his father a huge smile. "Don't worry dad, I love you and I always believe in you. I know that you will beat Cell and bring peace to the world again, like you always do." he said with confidence to his soft, black eyes as this made his palm-haired father smile with reassurance on his face. He however did not something that his father was planning for the Cell Games, but someone else did notice that not everything about the Earth's greatest fighter was as it seemed.

That person was Raditz, and he knew that his brother had a plan. A big plan since the very moment that he had came out of his coma from the heart virus. He had plans for everything, and he assumed that there was still one more plan in his younger brother's mind. He just didn't know what that plan was.


On the Lookout,

The next day the entire group of the Z-Fighters was on the Lookout after having a very long, very tiring party which had completely emptied the food stock in the Son resident. The party had lasted long after midnight, with everyone playing party games, singing songs and telling stories about long-passed adventures that Goku had with searching the dragon balls and fighting various people and organizations over the years, to Tien, Yamcha, Puar, Chiaotzu telling stories of their earlier lives with one another. Even the Saiyans got to tell a bit about their adventures and conquests, which some took less joy speaking of while Vegeta bragged about all the slaughter he had caused while drinking heavily. Those particular stories horrified Trunks and Bra and eventually the night nearly ended in a drunken brawl between all the full-blooded Saiyans.

But now they had all been on the lookout, with some suffering from a strong hangover as they waited for both Krillin and Archako to be the last to come out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, while inside the palace they had their stash of senzu bean bags and vials of F.A.D. ready to be used.

When the human and the Saiyan came out of the chamber, they both looked a lot different than what they looked when they had entered a year ago. Krillin's entire upper body clothing had been destroyed, with his body showing a lot better muscle definition and a few scars along the torso. He also had a small silver goatee coming from his chin, showing that he was in the Mastered Burst Limit form that both Yamcha and Tien had obtained beforehand. To confirm this change, his irises were also blood-red, but he carried a friendly and relieved smile on his face. He truly looked glad to be out of that room.

Archako on the other hand looked much more different. For one, she was a Super Saiyan, with her neck-length hair spiking in every direction. Her golden hair was also slightly lighter in color and her eyes had no sort of anger within them, showing that not only had she obtained Super Saiyan within a year, but also mastered it. The entire pink spandex that she had wore over her body had born torn in so many places, that there were only a few spots that did not show her skin. Thankfully those areas included her most of her breasts and her groin. But the armor that she had worn over the spandex suit was not one, making the group realize that it was mostly destroyed during training. Her expression was that of a person that felt refreshed and freed from something. She also looked truly happy.

"Woah! You look much more mature with that mustache, Krillin." Goku complimented his best friend, who shyly rubbed the back of his head and blushed.

"Thanks, Goku. It took us a really long time to reach where we are now, didn't we." he said as he walked to his taller best friend and nudged him with an elbow to his side. "Remember when we were just a pair of kids arriving on Master Roshi's island to learn martial arts?" he asked as he had a big smile filled with pride all over his face.

That smile soon rose to Goku's face as he also started to reminiscent about those simple times. "Yep, and look where we are now. We've become probably some of the strongest people in the galaxy. I really hope that there are people out there who are stronger than Cell and hope for a good fight. That would really make me happy." he said as he spoke out loud about his hopes for more fights in the future, which almost everyone, aside from Gohan and maybe Yamcha agreed on, since they were all warriors or martial artists who desired to improve themselves.

After a bit of a pause as everyone thought about what Goku had just said, Krilling cleared his throat as he returned to standing next to the female Super Saiyan. "Um, I also want to announce that Archako and I decided that it would be better for the both of us if we break up." he announced, which actually caught all of the group off-guard.

There were a few seconds of silence before Bryco walked up to the former monk and patted on his shoulder and smirked. "Hey, good for you for finally getting rid of that load of baggage off your shoulders." he said jovially as he pointed at Archako, once again insulting her, making her simply cross her arms and puff her cheeks as she looked aside.

Krillin then quickly waved his hands nervously. "No, no, it's nothing like that." he reassured as he tried to be respectable about the whole affair. "We had a lot of time inside the chamber to talk about things, and we did." he started to explain the whole situation to the group. "I finally got to understand that she wasn't really the type of person who fit the girlfriend/wife category that we live by on Earth. I understood that she just wants to make her own choices in life and enjoy her freedom in whatever way she wants." he said as he looked up at the mother of his daughter and gave her a reassuring and caring smile.

She looked down at him and smiled back. "And I got to understand what the whole boyfriend-girlfriend attachment means to people. It talks about loyalty and love and don't get me wrong, I really care and love about Krilly-Billy and our little Maron, but having this moniker of girlfriend feels more like shackles that I don't really want to have. I still want to be a mother to Maron, which I really haven't been so far, but I just want to be free. But my desires only really hurt Krilli-Billy." she told everyone as she spoke with her body language being more introverted than usual, as if actually admitting her faults caused her to lose a bit of confidence.

"And that's why we decided that while we were still going to be parents together, we're not going to be a couple anymore. We officially broke up." the noseless man finally finished the long speech that the two of them had started to tell the entire group. "And because we want to be better parents, we won't be attending the Cell Games, but stay at Kame House and be with our little Maron." he told the group with a resolute tone to his voice, which shocked everyone.

"What?!" Tien, Katanaji, Future Trunks and Vegeta almost shouted as they spoke up a response to.

"Why?" Yamcha and Goku inquired with a more composed but still interested in hearing as to why Krillin had decided to do this instead of going and fighting for the planet.

The turtle school disciple took a deep breath as he began to explain himself. "For the longest time Archako and I haven't been spending time with our daughter. We have trained a whole lot to become stronger and now I just want to be there for her, to protect her while I'm close to her." he said as he spoke up and sounded more like a father concerned for his daughter then a warrior concerned for the fate of the world. He then looked at Goku and smiled. "Besides, you always manage to find a way, Goku. I'm sure that you'll find a way to save us all now." he said as he gave his best friend a thumbs up.

The palm-haired Saiyan smiled and gave him a thumbs up back. "Don't worry, Krillin, I have the best plan ever." he said with complete confidence in his voice as this made the humans feel more relaxed and hopeful of their victory.


And so four days had gone by as the Dragon Team had spent their time enjoying themselves, resting or hanging around with one another. Yamcha had decided to spend those four days to have time so that he and Goku could spend as much time with their children and with Dende as a big and happy group, as they showed the entire planet, its cities and habitats to the young Namekian boy, all the while Bulma had locked herself in her workshop and continued to work on her inventions. Future Trunks and Android 16 had decided to join them, taking great pleasure in seeing the world around them just like the new guardian of the planet.

Others were isolating themselves from others and working on more relaxing and mental ways to improve themselves as martial artists, such as Tien and Chiaotzu, who were performing Tai-Chi katas on top of a mountain while doing very deep and steady breathing, as if they were meditating as their bodies were moving.

The Saiyans were continuing to better their Mastered Super Saiyan forms by simply staying in the form all day long and tried to control their energy output to not break everything around them, with some being more successful than others. This caused Vegeta to lock himself inside the gravity chamber for those four days as he continued on to train.

Krillin and Archako simply just stayed in Kame house and relaxed and enjoyed their time doing anything with their daughter while Master Roshi, Launch, Oolong and Turtle simply watched with smiles on their face. The two parents have truly shown that they meant what they had said about becoming better parents to their daughter, who was nearly four years old herself.

However, eventually the four days passed and the big day arrived. The defenders of Earth put up their gi and other fighting clothes such as armors, preparing to head to the desert wasteland where Goku had once fought the Saiyan prince to save the world. Now he was going another fight to determine the fate of the world once again.

In said wasteland, in a predestine and beautiful square and tiled area stood Cell as he patiently waited for the big and fated fight with Son Goku to start. For him it was the perfect chance to test the true limits of his very being as the ultimate life form. All he could do... was smile.

{To Be Continued]


[Musical Cue #2: Ending- Creeping in My Soul by Cryoshell] *Chorus Only*

Here I am
I am lost in your land
And I hope you will be
Creeping in my soul
Shadows fall, let me out
Hear my call
And I'll always believe
Creeping in my soul...


With the day of the beginning of the Cell Games arriving, the Dragon Team now has their greatest challenge yet in front of them. Can Goku defeat Perfect Cell and save the world once again? What is his plan that he has up his sleeve? Find out on the next chapter of Changed Path...

Well, this chapter took so fucking long to write. I honestly had a very big writer's block once again when writing this chapter, but I'm glad that I forced myself to finish writing it in time to release it to all of you. This is my gift to you all for this 4th anniversary of Changed Path. I hope you all enjoy as next year we begin the actual Cell Games and I'm pretty sure that I can finish them within one year.

Anyway, R&A right now so... Ikuzu.

R&A:

R: Keep it up I love this story please.

A: Don't worry, I am, I am continuing and you can continue loving this story.

R: Very good chapter, I wish I had the time to give a more in depth review but I really enjoyed this. Trunks and Vegeta's encounter was something that was extremely well written, for their characterizations.

Stay safe dude.

A: You stay safe as well man and keep reading and reviewing. Also yeah, Trunks is fully sick and tried of Vegeta being a prideful prick and soon he will be sick and tired of almost the rest of the Z-Fighters, and you can probably tell why.

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Anyway, I hope that all of you continue to love, read and review this story as I really want to hear more of your opinions. But most of all, I hope that you all stay safe and healthy in this ongoing pandemic that covers all over the world. Stay safe, bye bye and have a nice goddamn day.