Chapter 2 for Altered Paths, and the What If we are looking at today is a different one. This one is a bit different than most What Ifs, so I wanna start this one really quickly.

So let's start.

He huffed. This was infuriating. He really wanted to hurt Cell for what he did to his friends. He changed the rules and created Cell Jrs that targeted others. That wasn't in the rule. He wasn't playing fair. He even killed 16, triggering a new transformation for Gohan, ascending past Super Saiyan Grade 4, killing the Cell Jrs, and facing Cell one on one, as it was before.

He wanted to hurt Cell, make him suffer like how his friends suffered, how Trunks suffered. Earlier, Cell had all the power, to do whatever he wanted, to hurt whoever he wanted. Now, Gohan held the power. Cell was the whimpering one. Cell would be the one begging for mercy.

He would be the one to torture him, Cell would beg for mercy to him. He tighten his fist, however, he heard his father scream, "END THIS NOW GOHAN!"

He stopped as he tried to understand why. Cell had been hurting them for too long. That monster relished the pain he gave others, and tried to make it seem less so by the false sense of equality. He knew that Cell would always cheat. Why was his father clamouring to end it quickly?

"Why?" He asked.

This caught Goku off-guard. His son wanted to know why he wanted Cell to suffer. "Because Gohan, you have the power to end this all!" He shouted.

"AND LET HIM GET OFF SCOT FREE!" Gohan yelled, "AFTER EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE SO FAR?" Cell used this moment to attack Gohan, who easily dodged the attack and launched a flurry of punches and kicks to send him into a mountain. "WHY DO WE HAVE TO SUFFER AND HE GETS THE LAUGH?"

"WHY CAN'T HE SUFFER FOR ALL HE HAS DONE?" Gohan continued, "WHY DOES HE GETS TO CHANGE THE RULES TO SUIT HIS NEEDS? WHY DO WE HAVE TO KEEP PLAYING BY HIS RULE?"

He yelled, even more, his power skyrocketing even higher, making the wind blow harder, making it harder for them to see and hear him clearly.

"WHY DO I HAVE TO FIGHT BY HIS RULES?" He screamed, "WHY DO WE HAVE TO FIGHT BY HIS RULES!"

Cell groaned as he got up. "Enough with your games!" He screamed, which was his last mistake.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP!" Gohan screamed as he landed a devastating punch to Cell's abdomen, making him bow over with pain. He seemed to then hurl up something.

Wait, it wasn't something, but rather someone. Soon the figure's yellow hair became more apparent as the rays of the sun fell on her. "Android 18!" Gohan said in shock, alerting everyone else.

Apart from the exclusion of one of the Androids, Gohan also noticed that Cell had changed shape. "What's going on?" He asked no one in particular, yet it was Cell who answered.

"Please Gohan," He said with a huff, which already pissed Gohan off even more, "Let me reabsorb her so we can be on even grounds once again." He smiled as he said that, motioning to the unconscious Android right in front of her.

Gohan closed his eyes as he could sense his father's worry even more. Cell was a slimy one. The Saiyan Hybrid really wanted to beat Cell down at his best, but he knew that if given the opportunity, Cell would use this moment to gain the upper hand once again by unfair means.

It was tempting to beat Cell after giving him all the advantages he could, but he knew that the fate of the world depended on him. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. "Gohan, it's okay." He heard his father say, "I know you don't want to fight anymore, so I am taking over." This left him speechless, as his father teleported Android 18 to safety.

"You know this isn't in the rules, Goku." Cell stated. "Once you're out, you're out!" He said with finality. This ticked Gohan off the wrong way.

"Just like there weren't any rules about your 'kids' attacking us." Gohan murmured, "Why is it that you get to change the rules just for your own benefit?" He asked Cell.

"Why I never!" Cell replied, offended at this.

Goku smirked at what Gohan was doing. "He is right, Cell." He started as well, "Even though you may claim to have the DNA of us Saiyans, you never act like a Saiyan, at least the ones I know of."

This ticked Cell off. "I DO ACT LIKE A SAIYAN, A PERFECT SAIYAN!"

"Then why do you keep on changing the rules?" He asked, "Why are you afraid of facing the odds?"

Cell was quiet, "You know what? I am still strong enough to face the two of you quite easily."

Both father and son smirked at that, that was the Vegeta in Cell talking. "If you insist," Gohan said, rushing forward to attack Cell with a devastating punch that shocked Cell to the core. This did not last long as Gohan continued his assault on the Artificial Life Form.

"Alright, here goes nothing," Goku said since he was planning for this for quite a while. "I hope this doesn't kill me." Gohan heard what his father said and wanted to stop him, but what happened next shocked him, "KAIOKEN!" Goku screamed as the red aura burst forth and surrounded the yellow aura of Super Saiyan.

His father's ingenuity had caused him to be on equal grounds with his ascended state. Without a word, Goku joined the fight with his son, the two yellow auras against that of Cell.

They did not let the bug creature get any moment of rest as when one-stop attacking, the other tagged in and continued. "THIS IS NOT FAIR!" Cell screamed at the two of them.

"LIFE ISN'T FAIR!" Gohan yelled at him as he punched him in the face. "LIFE SOMETIMES MEANS NOT GETTING WHAT YOU WANT!" He continued his assault as he launched upwards, and moved fast enough to teleport fast behind him and sent him crashing back down to the ground.

On the ground, Goku rushed in, his red and yellow aura mixing with each other, giving his whole body a reddish hue as he gave a painful blow onto the abdomen. One might have thought that due to the massive power difference, Goku would have attacked blindly, but he wasn't like Gohan, who was attacking like a charging bull. Goku's attack were precise. He needed them to be. He had deduced that due to the damage Gohan had done to Cell, he had expelled Android 18 and reverted to his semi-perfect state. Some may say that Goku just needed to punch the abdomen since that's what Gohan did to get that result, but he knew that it was a lucky punch that Gohan landed. His emotions ran wild and he didn't think clearly whenever he was in a state, but Goku wasn't Gohan, he had trained for decades to get where he was.

The punch was effective and within seconds, Android 17 was on the ground. "WHY YOU-" Cell screamed, but it was cut short as Gohan came crashing into Cell and launched him upwards, hitting the now imperfect bug fighter with a Soaring Dragon Strike, launching him up even more.

"NOW GOHAN, THIS IS IT!" Goku yelled as the two cupped their hands in a familiar position. "KA!"

"ME!"

"HA!"

"ME!"

"HA!" The two collectively yelled as they released the deadly energy beam, attacking Cell. Soon, nothing was left of the enemy as the beam launched off into space, dissipating.

Both of them powered down to their base form as Goku coughed up some blood, the use of Kaioken on top of Super Saiyan taking a strain on his body. "Easy dad," Gohan said as he helped his father stand.

Goku nodded as he looked somber. "I am sorry Gohan." He said. "I wanted to protect you all so much that I forgot that not everyone is like me."

Gohan looked down as he remembered how much trust his father placed in him during his fight with Cell and how close he was to foolishly let that all go. "I am sorry dad." He confessed. Goku looked at his son in surprise, "I really wanted to hurt Cell. All the games that he played, it infuriated me." He looked at his father, "And I nearly blew it."

Goku looked at his son and hugged him, while others regrouped and went to Kami's Lookout to fix the damages done by Cell.

(A couple of days later)

Gohan sat as he felt the soft blades of the grass touch his legs. It had been a wild few days. After coming back home, his mother, Chichi, revealed that she was pregnant with their second child, and his father could not be more elated. Though she was also very angry at Goku for letting Gohan fight that monstrous Cell.

He do wonder what life would have been like if he hadn't ended the whole fight as quickly as possible. Oh well, that's a story for another day, a timeline for others to know about.

Well, chapter 2 is done, and the What If is: What if Goku and Gohan attacked Cell together? Since Cell wasn't playing fairly, I made the heroes not play fairly with Cell as well.