Tien watched in horror as one of his closest friends completely disappeared in a matter, too weak to even move to stop it. "Yamcha!"
Krillin, on his way to meet up with Bulma, felt the sudden disappearance of Yamcha's energy and closed his eyes tightly. "Yamcha.."
Goku, Gohan and Nappa were all frozen as they were aware of the disappearance of Yamcha's energy. Gohan looked like he was in the midst of a breakdown of anger, Nappa was already furious that there was too little that he could do to help. Goku was the most level-headed despite how frustrated he felt about the situation. "I'm sorry Yamcha."
Raditz's eyes shot open as he felt what everyone else did. He forced his way out of the healing tank, busting off the hatch of the machine and jumped out, the healing fluid splashing across the floor. "Damn you Cell, you chose the worst time to piss me off even further! Screw waiting, I'm coming for you!" He ran for the control room and climbed into his chair, flying off for where he could sense that bastard, Cell's, energy.
Piccolo growled as he stared at Cell. There was very little he could do since he used up the last of his energy in that last blast. He managed to get to his feet and assume his fighting stance, albeit unsteadily due to him being so weakened. "Come on Cell, this fight isn't over yet!" Just a little bit longer. If I can just stall him a little bit longer, the others will finally exit from the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and should be more than powerful enough to take on Cell.
Cell took a quick glance at Piccolo and smirked before looking forward at 17. "Oh but it is. It's plain as day that you lack the energy to put up a fight anymore and 16's too damaged to make a move. With those conditions met, anyone capable of stopping me is no longer able to keep me from reaching my perfection."
"You're forgetting one important detail." said 17, having one hand behind his back constantly building up energy in preparation for one final, desperate attack. "You claim to need both me and my sister to reach your perfection, and she's been gone since before you even showed up."
"And you seem to have forgotten one basic fact. The mightest warriors of this planet are all gathered right here and I've reduced them to uselessness. Even absorbing just one of you will make me unstoppable. After that, it'll be very simple to take my time to hunt her down." Cell began to walk forward, forcing 17 to walk backwards to the edge of the island. "Besides, judging by the data I have on the both of you, you're similar enough in personality for me to assume she's not that far away considering you're still here."
"Then I guess you leave me with no other option." Sorry 16, 18, I don't see any other way out of this. He brings up his barrier around himself and brought his hand to his chest. Cell quickly realized what the android was up to and pierced the sharp part of his tail into the barrier, trying to break it open enough to let his whole tail through and absorb the android before he can blow himself up.
"Cell you bastard, die!"
Everyone froze for a moment when they heard the voice and looked to where the it came from. It was directly above Cell and the bio-android was too late to dodge an incoming energy blast from the sky, landing directly on his head and plunging him face-first into the ground. Raditz, already in his Super Saiyan form, appeared quickly after and kicked Cell away from Android 17.
"Raditz?! What are you doing here, you're supposed to be finding a way to preparing to destroy Cell!" shouted Piccolo.
"There's no time for that! Grab Tien and get the hell out of here!" The saiyan then turned around and glared at the android. "You need to get out of here as well! It's you he wants after all." He sharply turned his head as he heard Cell get back onto his feet.
Cell clenched his fists with anger, his perfection so close yet everything seems to get in the way whenever he's a step away from reaching it. "Raditz, I would lie and say it's a pleasant surprise to see you, but you it seems you're perfectly aware to why I'd be in a terribly bad mood."
A visible vein could now be seen on Raditz's forehead, the look on the saiyan's face to scare even Piccolo. "You're in a bad mood?! You just killed one of my friends!" His energy erupted, his aura enough to form a crater around him. "With every fiber of my being, I swear that I'll be the one to kill you! Double Sunday!" He fired two beams directly at the bio-android.
Cell retaliated and fired his own beams at the Double Sunday, resulting in a beam struggle. Cell was astonished that the saiyan was on even terms with him, his energy truly depleted from his earlier fight. "It's no use Raditz! I am an android engineered from the cells of the most powerful fighters every to appear on this planet, you stand no chance!"
"You forget one thing. I have intimate knowledge of all the fighters that are a part of you!" For a split second, his power suddenly amplified, pushing that new power into his beams, overpowering Cell's and sending his foe flying, causing a splash in the ocean. He stiffened as his energy back to normal, his entire body stinging in pain.
Piccolo noticed that pained look on Raditz's face bit knew he couldn't do anything to help, flying slowly to where Tien was currently lying and picking him up. "Damnit, is he really desperate enough to throw his life away just to buy some time?" Making sure Tien was safely perched on his back, he flew started flying away, primarily to Korin's Tower to get some senzu beans to restore the energy that Tien rapidly depleted his life force to unleash.
Cell erupted from the water and dashed right for the saiyan, who was still stunned from the pain. He launched his tail right for the saiyan, clearly aiming to replenish his power and add to it. Before making contact, Cell crashed against the spherical green barrier that Android 17 was getting the hang of projecting around others. Cell screamed in pure rage and slammed his fists against the barrier, slowly but surely cracking it.
Raditz jerked as he reestablished himself from the pain and didn't wait, rushing in as his yellow aura surrounded his right arm, howling in pain as he slammed it through the barrier and directly into Cell's chest, launching the bio-android backwards with enough speed to send him out of view within seconds. Grasping his arm in pain, he turned to look at Android 17. "What the hell are you doing?! I told you to get out of here!"
17 looked off in the distance, the wind starting to blow in, causing his hair and what was left of his tattered clothes to flow in the wind. "You guys seem to be doing whatever it takes to drag things out against him. I take it you're waiting for something?"
The saiyan took a deep breath and clenched his fist, forcing himself through the pain. "That's right. At any minute, Vegeta and Trunks are to make an appearance, stronger than ever before."
"Vegeta? After what happened last time, are you sure you're willing to put your faith in him to take something like this on?" 17 couldn't help but feel a little nervous about that little plan of theirs.
"I understand how you feel." Raditz walked forward, already building up energy in his hands as he waits for Cell to reappear. "But despite how much I hate him, he's a talented and powerful enough fighter for me to place all bets on him." I just wish he'd hurry up.
Everyone on the Lookout was now overflowing with worry and anger when they were able to sense Raditz's energy down where Cell was fighting. Even Goku was on the verge of going down there to help his brother out. It was Mr. Popo's arrival from the back of the Lookout that finally calmed everyone down. "Everyone, Vegeta and Trunks have come out of the chamber!"
The saiyans didn't even hesitate to make their way over to the time chamber. 2 things they'd immediately notice about the emerging saiyans was that both of their clothing were torn up beyond belief, other than Trunks' jacket that somehow didn't have even a scratch on it, as well as Trunks being a bit taller with longer hair. "Sorry we took so long." said Trunks.A
"Are we glad to see you, a lot has happened since you went in." said Goku, wanting to explain everything but things were already looking quite bad.
"It didn't take long for dad to surpass the level of Super Saiyan he was before, but it took until a month ago to master control of it. After that we decided to spend our remaining time on increasing our strength." said Trunks, taking a deep breath as he was readjusting to the Earth's atmosphere.
"Trunks, do not waste your breath explaining to them what they could very well figure out for themselves." Vegeta looked around, noticing the lack of a saiyan. "Where did that clown Raditz go?"
"He's busy keeping Cell from absorbing the androids, waiting for you guys to take care of the bastard." answered Nappa. "Things have been pretty bad over the last hour."
"Yeah, I hate to ask you this, but I'd appreciate it if you'd go down and help my brother before he gets killed." said Goku.
Vegeta chuckled and crossed his arms as he started walking outside. "Very well, I'll save that idiotic fool, though I don't plan to let him hear the end of it." As he walked out, he looked at his own hand and smirked. "I'll crush Cell and those androids without any effort at all."
Everyone looked a bit stunned at Vegeta's cockiness despite what happened the last time he fought the Androids. As they stepped outside, they heard the voice of Bulma calling out to anyone. The first thing she noticed was Trunks' new height and grown out hair. "Trunks, what happened to your hair?"
"Oh this? Me and dad were just training in a weird magic room where a year goes by within the span of a day." Trunks looked a little awkward, especially seeing his infant self sleeping in Bulma's plane.
Bulma turned her head to Vegeta, noticing the saiyan prince's hair was exactly the same. "Then what about Vegeta? His hair is hasn't changed a bit."
Vegeta groaned, hating this idle chatter. "A pure blooded saiyan's hair doesn't grow anymore than it's maximum length and will return to it's natural length as quickly as possible." Everyone's head immediately turned to Nappa, who looked away nervously. Before anyone could question the saiyan elite, Vegeta spoke up. "We have no time to talk about such trivial things. Why are you even here?"
"Geez, I know it's been a while since we last talked but there's no need to act so harsh." She pulled out a capsule. "I brought extra sets of the armor you asked for. Even brought additional sets that match the type that Nappa and Raditz wear." She clicked on the capsule and tossed it to the ground, creating a container holding the mentioned armor.
Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and Trunks changed into the the simple Vegeta-style armor while Nappa picked up a spare of his own armor, not needing to change yet since he hasn't been in any recent combat. "My Kakarot, that look suits you." After giving his rival the compliment, he began to walk over to the edge of the Lookout, taking a moment before locking in on Raditz's energy and flying in that direction.
During that same time, Raditz and 17 got sent flying backwards after taking a heavy blow from Cell. Their advantage over the bio-android had dwindled fast as they were running low on tricks to use against him. Raditz was mostly in pain for using his incomplete tactic and damaging his body greatly in exchange for very quick bursts of power. 17 was losing openings to create barriers in which to either defend themselves or imprison Cell. As the both of them got to their feet, Raditz felt his tail twitch as he felt a strong energy heading their way, a grin sliding onto his face. "Looks like we're saved after all. Leave now, I'll handle the rest while you escape."
"Are you crazy? We can barely keep up with him together, telling me to leave now would be suicide." retorted 17, turning his head to see Cell walking closer.
"Vegeta doesn't know you're basically on our side now and he'll likely kill you before he kills Cell." He held his right arm behind his back, his aura beginning to gather around it once more. "Besides, I just need to keep him from moving for a little bit. By using my trump card, I can guarantee that happening."
17 groaned, not liking this idea one bit, though knew it was probably the best opportunity they'd get. He flew over to where 16 was still trying to keep his body stabilized. "We need to get out of here right now. Where's 18?"
16 weakly turned his head in the direction he last saw Android 18. "I believe somewhere in that direction."
Raditz watched Cell slowly approaching and growled, the veins popping up on his head and all his muscles tensing up as he felt severe pain, the aura around his arm starting to gather to his hand. "It's time to end this Cell! Doo-" He was cut off as he felt a sharp pain shoot into his back, a Death Beam penetrating into his back but luckily not through his body. The energy in his hand dispersed as he collapsed to the ground, screaming as all the pain finally caught up to him, powering down from Super Saiyan.
From the shadow of a hole, another Cell climbed out, smoke coming from his finger as he had shot the Death Beam. "Poor Raditz. You claim to know the fighters in me so well and yet you didn't expect me to use Tien's Multiform technique." The other Cell that was just walking started laughing as it merged back into the other Cell.
17 watched in horror as Raditz was unable to move anymore as was on the verge of being absorbed by Cell. 16 quickly realized what 17 was thinking and grabbed his ally by the arm. "You can't. You'd just be giving Cell exactly what he wants."
"He told me that he's willing to put all his bets on Vegeta. And I already know that Raditz guy is smart. His life is worth keeping around more than my own." He grabbed onto 16's arm and tossed the fully-mechanical android in the direction his sister was. He then rushed directly at Cell. "Cell! I'm the one you want right?! Well I'm right here!"
Cell growled as his instincts were overtaking him, simply kicking Raditz away as his flew at 17, his tail expanding wide enough to engulf the android. "At last, my perfection is a step closer!"
Raditz tried to reach his arm out, futilely trying to save the android. The moment before 17 was absorbed, he could hear the android say one last thing, directed towards the saiyan.
"Take care of that kid of yours."
The next moment, 17 was completely gone, Cell's body beginning to glow and his power starts to grow exponentially. Raditz somehow managed to pull himself to his feet but didn't have the strength to transform. Once Cell's body stopped glowing, his body had completely transformed, looking much more humanoid than before. Cell looks at his hands and then moved over to the ocean to look at his reflection. "Mhm, so this is what it feels to be half of my perfection. To think even with my power depleted so much, I would gain this much of it with just one of it."
Raditz grit his teeth and he grabbed onto his right arm, having lost feeling in it after his attempt to use his trump card. Is this bastard really that dense? He doesn't even realize the potential of Freeza's cells within him. The bastard was able to rejuvenate the injuries and stamina he'd taken whenever he transformed to a greater state. "This fight's not over yet Cell. Who cares how powerful you've become, you're still going to die."
"Even being this close to my unrivaled power and you still believe such nonsense." He stuck his arm out and held his palm in Raditz's direction. "I think it's time to correct where this timeline went wrong."
Raditz backed up and closed his eyes tightly, preparing for his inevitable death, a death that never came. He opened his eyes again and saw that Cell wasn't even looking at him anymore. Instead the bio-android was looking in the air directly at Vegeta, who just hovered there with his arms crossed. "You let him absorb one of the androids and weakened yourself that badly? You're a pathetic failure of a saiyan."
"You certainly took your sweet ass time. Were you really so incompetent you were incapable of surpassing Super Saiyan until now?" retorted Raditz, both the saiyans smiling towards each other before turning their attention towards Cell.
"You people don't seem to learn when you stand no chance at all. Listen Vegeta, as you can see I have far more power than I did before. I have no more reason to waste my time fighting you all when I'm already invincible." Cell then noticed both Trunks and Nappa soon arrive behind Nappa. "Do you really believe your numbers will stand a chance against what I am now?"
"Oh they aren't here to help me. They're here to bare witness to me tearing you apart." retorted Vegeta, immediately going Super Saiyan. He touched down on the surface of the island and grinned.
Trunks looked surprised as he realized his father's plan. "He's already planning to go all out?"
In an explosive roar, Vegeta's power started shooting upwards, his aura growing rapidly and dust flying everywhere. Raditz was pushed back by the aura but was caught by Nappa. "You look like you've seen hell. He really put you through the wringer that badly?"
Raditz coughed as he clutched his arm once more. "He put up one hell of a fight, though this is more caused by my own recklessness." He couldn't believe how strong Vegeta's power was growing, definitely surpassing the power he used against Cell before.
18 watched from her hiding place and just stood in shock as the guy who's arms she broke just a few days ago was planning to take on Cell in this new, more powerful state. "Come on 16, we should use this chance to escape."
16 stared intensely at Vegeta as the saiyan was powering up. "We should hold out a little longer. Vegeta's power seems to be far greater than it was before."
Once Vegeta was finished powering up, everyone witnessing it was amazed to see the saiyan's muscles were a lot larger and his hair had even expanded outwards. Just as Cell was about to question him, Vegeta thrust his fist into the android's stomach, shocking everyone present when they saw a look of pain on Cell's face.
"Now the real fight begins."
Oh boy, this took long enough to finally finish. I'm sorry to everyone who was looking forward to this chapter, but I finally managed it. This last week I finally managed to pick myself up from that funk, with a little help of finally getting a job and playing quite a bit of Dragonball Legends (Friend code is 7cbcq687 if you wanna friend me and go a round or two). Now since I have a job, it'll take me a while to get into the flow of working so uploads of this story will be irregular until I finally get the hang of it. Writing this chapter has helped me get back into the swing of planning ahead so I'll try to get another chapter out sooner than it took for this one. That's all for this time, tune in next time for the next exciting chapter of Dragon Ball Z: A Saiyan's Tail.