The night was far from quiet.
The steady ticking of the clock echoed like a drum as the constant hum of the cricket and frogs, a usually melodious serenade of the night, roared like an angry beast. Goku lay on his bed as he wondered when the night had gotten so loud.
Sighing, he sat up in bed and ran an uneasy hand through his black hair. It was almost dawn anyway and it was obvious that he wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore.
"Goku?" Chichi asked, softly. Her dark eyes glimmered in the dim light as she looked at her husband. "What's wrong?"
"I just can't forget the way he looked," Goku mumbled, more to himself than to Chichi.
"What?" Chichi said up in bed and put a worried hand on Goku's shoulder.
"Vegeta," Goku clarified, "I can't forget the way he looked – or what he said. I shouldn't have left when I did."
Chichi sighed. "Why are you letting this bother you so much?"
"I should have listened," he continued, "He needed to talk, but I left. I told him I couldn't listen to the end, but I should have tried." He got out of bed began to get dressed.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm going to see Vegeta."
"What? Now? But it's the middle of the night."
"It's almost dawn," Goku answered, "Besides, I have a feeling that Vegeta's not asleep anyway."
Without saying another word, Goku left the room and stepped outside in the rapidly fading night. Quietly, he flew towards the mountain cave where he had last saw Vegeta. "I wasn't ready before," he whispered, "but I'm ready to listen this time."
As if on cue, Vegeta stepped from the cave. He didn't seem to notice Goku as he started to fly in the opposite direction.
Goku could have caught up to him easily – Vegeta wasn't flying very fast – or he could have called out to him. Yet, Goku did neither. He just followed from a constant distance, curious as to Vegeta's destination. However, when the cemetery came into view, he no longer had to wonder.
As Vegeta gazed at Bulma's grave, Goku hovered above, feeling somewhat helpless. I'll talk to him when he's done, Goku thought to himself as he watched.
All at once, Vegeta spun around and started off and Goku saw a dark figure began to run. Vegeta easily knocked the individual down and the figure's hood fell back. As Goku landed and approached the two, he was surprised to see that this stranger was a woman.
"I'm sorry," she cried, "I'm so sorry. I'm the one who killed Bulma Briefs!"
"What?" Vegeta roared. He grabbed the collar of her cloak and lifted her up from the damp grass. "What did you say?"
"Vegeta!" Goku called out, rushing over to them.
"Kakarott, what are you doing here?" Vegeta demanded.
"I came to talk to you," Goku explained, quickly, "but that's not important." His gaze turned to the woman.
"Did you hear what she said?" Vegeta asked.
"Yeah, I heard."
"Then she should die!"
Tears began to flow down the woman's pale cheeks as she watched Vegeta with frightened eyes. Yet, she neither struggled nor begged for her life. Something about her demeanor confused Goku.
"Wait, Vegeta," he said, softly. He looked at the woman closely. "You killed Bulma?" he asked, "But why? How?"
"I didn't now what I was doing!" the woman cried, "I wouldn't have done it if I had known!"
"Answer his question!" Vegeta yelled, shaking her by the collar.
"Please," she whimpered, "Just let me tell you my story."
**************
The small white house was very neat and tidy, but somewhat impersonal. The flowers outside seemed to be planted there only because it looked appropriate and not because the homeowner particularly liked the blossoms. Inside was the same story. Everything seemed to be exactly in its proper place, but more like the setting for a play rather than a real home. Goku looked around and noted their a few pleasant looking paintings on the walls in the appropriate locations, but not a single personal photograph. Didn't this woman have any friends or family? He sat down on a small couch in the living room, careful not to disturb the perfectly arranged cushions while Vegeta chose to stand nearby. Meanwhile the woman, who had introduced herself only as Melissa, rummaged in the small kitchen.
"Would you like some tea or coffee?" she asked.
"No thanks," Goku responded. He liked to eat, but he had never been that much of a tea or coffee drinker.
"We're not here for a tea party," Vegeta growled.
"Of course," Melissa responded, humbly. She came into the living room carrying a glass of ice water and sat down in nearby chair.
Goku watched Vegeta carefully. It had been a volatile situation at best since Melissa had blurted out her confession. Vegeta had wanted to kill her right then and there, and Goku had understood how he felt in a way. Still, a part of him knew they had to hear Melissa's story. It hadn't been easy, but he had convinced Vegeta to listen, at least for now.
Melissa cleared her throat and looked directly at Vegeta. "I've watched you before," she blurted out, in lieu of an introduction.
"You did seem familiar to me," admitted Vegeta, "but why were you watching me."
"Ever since I found out that I was responsible," Melissa started, tears welling up in her already swollen eyes, "I went to her grave. I saw you there, but I didn't have the courage to face you. I just watched from a distance. I think a part of me wanted you to see me. I don't know. I wanted to apologize. I figured out when you visited the grave, and I watched you each time."
"Well, now's your chance," Vegeta said, gruffly, "but don't expect my forgiveness."
"I don't," Melissa said softly.
"But how is it your fault?" Goku asked, "How are you responsible?"
She wiped her eyes with a nearby tissue and took a deep breath. "I never knew my father," she began, "When I was young, I would ask my mother about him. She would just always say that she was my mother and my father. When I got older, I thought that maybe my mother had been raped or maybe my father was a married man." She smiled bitterly. "I had a million different stories about this man who didn't even seem to exist."
"What does this have to do with Bulma?" Vegeta demanded.
"Everything I'm afraid," Melissa responded, "For you to understand my actions you have to understand my story. But, you must understand. I'm not like one of those people you see on talk shows." She gestured with one hand towards the small television set in the far corner of the room. "I didn't know my father, but I don't blame all my life's mistakes on that. I did well in school, was never really in any trouble, and was once one of the top scientists in the country. Yet, it felt like a part of me was missing. I tried to ignore that and eventually even gave up on ever knowing who my father was. Then, when I was thirty-two, my mother died of cancer. On her deathbed, she finally gave me the first clue as to who my father was."
**************
Melissa looked out the third story window and felt her breath catch in her throat as the beautiful scene that stretched out before her. The sun was just rising, painting the world with its first beams of liquid gold. Below her, a small park lay, its soft summer grass was still coated with early morning dew, and the blades sparkled like tiny shards of glass. A small mallard lazily swam in the golden pond as tiny birds chirped cheerfully in the nearby trees. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.
She turned away from the window, to look at her mother lying on the hospital bed. At one time, her mother's beauty could have rivaled the upcoming day's, but not now. She lay silently in the hospital bed, the cancer aging her far beyond her years. Her once luxurious blonde hair now spread out in a limp, colorless corona about her head. Beneath the sheet, her body appeared to be no bigger than a child's, and the arms, which were exposed appeared painfully bony. Melissa felt a pang of guilt as she gazed at her mother. Only minutes earlier she had been examining the glory of the upcoming day while here her mother lay, the sun of her life preparing to set for the final time.
She walked over to her mother and looked down at her. "Good morning," she said softly, "Did you sleep well?" Melissa knew the answer before she asked. She had been by her mother's side the entire night and knew that she had to receive several strong pain relievers, besides her morphine drip, before she finally rested. However, the doctors had encouraged Melissa to talk to her mother as much as possible. Although she rarely responded, it was unknown just how much her mother heard and understood.
Her mother shifted her milky blue eyes towards Melissa for a moment, as if recognizing her, but soon turned her attention back to the small television set in the upper right corner of the room. Melissa sighed as she also turned towards the television. For some reason, her mother wanted the television on constantly. If it was turned off, she would moan, until it was turned back on once again. Melissa wasn't sure why this was, but kept the television on so as to appease her mother's apparent wish. As she looked at the screen, a tall, sandy-hair reporter appeared in front of a smoldering wreckage that almost looked like a mountain.
"Although it's too early to tell," the reporter said, "Authorities believe this may have been the secret mountain laboratory of the scientist Dr. Gero. Dr. Gero went underground years ago after questions were raised with his affiliation with a military group. Witnesses said it looked as if the mountain just exploded but, as you can see behind me, there seem to be large chunks of metal among the rock. We'll have more on this story as it develops. Back to you, Miko."
The camera switched back to the interior of a newsroom where a dark haired woman was sitting at a desk. "Thank you, Yukashii. We will be updating as this story develops. In other news, there seems to be…"
Melissa spun around, ignoring the newscast when a new sound caught her attention. This low, raspy sound was anything but pleasant and it seemed to be coming from her mother. It took Melissa a moment to realize that the older woman was laughing. "Your father never was very careful," she croaked.
"What?" Melissa cried.
"Your father," her mother repeated, "Gero…" Her voice trailed off as her eyes slowly closed.
"My father!" Melissa turned towards the television and then back to her mother. "Was this Gero my father?"
Her mother didn't answer. In fact, those words were the last words she ever said in this world.
**************
"Dr. Gero was your father?" Goku asked amazed.
"It would seem," Melissa answered. She glanced around the small room. "After Mother died," she continued, "I gave up my apartment and moved here – her home. For a long time, I couldn't investigate what she had told me. There was the funeral to arrange along with other responsibilities." Tears welled up in her eyes. "Then, when I was cleaning the basement so that I could put a lab down there I found my mother's journal. Although my mother never went into the details, even in her own journal, I learned that she had met Gero while working as a new scientist at NewWorld Computech. I guess she loved him, and thought that he loved her. Yet, his work took a different direction than Mother's, so they parted ways. All my mother had of him was me." She stopped talking as the tears rolled down her face and unto the carpeted floor.
"What does this have to do with Bulma?" Vegeta demanded, "I have been patient, but I didn't come here to hear your life's story."
"I was getting to that," Melissa said, and Goku winced at the sudden sharpness of her voice. The last they needed was to make Vegeta angrier. "But there was one other thing that my mother did," Melissa continued, "She learned that he had a secret laboratory in the mountains. She wasn't sure where, but she had a general idea. To tell him about me, she journeyed to the mountains, but she didn't find his lab. Instead, she found him at the base of another mountain, under a strange, crooked tree. He was burying a safe of some sort and seemed upset when he saw her there. He told my mother that their relationship was over and he didn't care if he had any children – at least that's what it said in her journal."
Melissa stood up and walked over to a nearby window. "I decided to find this safe. I don't know how to explain this, but I still wanted to know something about my father. I had been a confident 32 year-old woman up to that point, but suddenly I felt like a scared little girl again. I knew the only thing I could do was to find that safe.
"I followed the directions given in my mother's journal and I found the spot she indicated. The police had been combing the area for clues, but the place where Gero had buried his safe was far away from the lab itself. Intent on finding some answer, I found the safe and dug it up. All that was inside was a few hurriedly written directions and small fragment of some sort of being that he had invented. I had no idea what it was – the directions were far too sketchy and there seemed to be some evidence that this sample wasn't complete. Still, I brought it home to my lab and decided to find out what my father had been working on." She turned to face the two Saiyans with a sad expression. "And that is how I recreated the creature known as Cell."
"What?" Both Vegeta and Goku cried.
"Of course, I didn't know what it was at the time," Melissa added, "It takes a very long time for the creature to develop."
"How did you find out?" Goku asked.
Melissa smiled bitterly. "I had a visitor one night," she answered.
**************
It was dark night, but not unusually so, and it was not stormy. Yet, even without these elements, Melissa felt as if she had been caught in some sort of old horror movie. She wasn't sure why, and it was certainly an unusual sensations for one as analytical as she was, but she couldn't dispel the feeling. Shivering slightly, she made herself some tea and decided to settle in with a good book. She was just getting interested in the book when –
SCRAPE! Melissa jumped from her seat, her book falling to the floor as her breath came in ragged gasps. If was just a branch rubbing against the house, she thought to herself, trying to control her breathing. She bent down to retrieve her book, when she happened to glance out the window and screamed. There was something there – some hideous creature peering in at her. Even in the dim light, she could see that it had green skin, but something appeared to be wrong with it. She was just backing towards the phone, when the creature burst through the window.
"Help me," it moaned. Now that she could see it closer, she was sure something was wrong with this creature. Its green skin appeared to be melting right before her eyes and it's hands and feet looked shriveled. "Help me."
"Who," Melissa began, "What are you? What do you want?"
"Help," it repeated, "You must help. I'm dying."
"Why should I help you?" Melissa demanded.
The creature smiled slightly. "Because you are the one who created me," it answered. It managed to stand up on it's crippled feet and shuffled over to the frightened Melissa. "I am Cell. You gave me life," the creature continued, "Only you can help me."
"But I would never," Melissa began, but stopped suddenly. Slowly, her gaze slipped towards the door that led to her basement laboratory. The creature from her father's experiment – surely this couldn't be it.
Cell smiled as he followed her gaze. "Ah, where I was born," he said.
"I don't care if I created you," Melissa announced with every ounce of courage she could muster, "I'm not going to help you."
"If you don't, I'll kill you," Cell growled.
"But I thought I was the only one who could help you," Melissa retorted.
Cell narrowed his eyes and started forward, but his feet could no longer support his body. He fell to the floor with a loud thump and it became obvious that he wasn't getting up again. "So this is where it ends," Cell said, with a bitter chuckle, "At least I killed that meddling Briefs woman. Used her own time machine to kill her. They knew I was around in my time, but not here. No one suspected." He smiled at her. "And I have you to think for that."
"What are you talking about?"
"I tried to kill both of him, but the poison didn't work on Vegeta. Maybe, he just didn't like strawberries." He laughed again. "At least I did kill her though. She deserved it the way she bragged about how it was her machine that destroyed me." With a final, bitter laugh, Cell died, melting into the plush carpet as thick, green goo.
Both relieved and scared, Melissa slumped to the floor and looked down at Cell's final resting spot. Suddenly, she knew more about her father than she ever could have wanted to.
**************
"I don't understand," Goku said, "What did Cell mean about the time machine and how did he kill Bulma?"
"I didn't understand it all at first myself," Melissa said. "Of course, I had heard of Ms. Brief's death but I didn't understand how that creature had been the one to kill her. However, in the next few weeks, I was about to piece it together.
"Obviously, Cell continued to grow in my lab downstairs. When he was finished growing, he was determined to kill all of you. Yet, he soon found he had another target. Have either of you read any of the articles that Bulma submitted before her death?"
Both Saiyans shook their heads. "I could never understand them," Goku admitted.
"The articles are meant for the scientific community," Melissa said, "The general public usually can't understand them. Anyway, in a very controversial article, she talked about time travel. She claimed that it was her time machine that helped defeat a monster at a great battle. There was an uproar in the scientific community about it. There was no proof of it and it sounded more like a fantasy novel than a magazine article. It she hadn't been the daughter of Dr. Briefs, I doubt it would have been published at all. Still, when I read it again I realized that this monster was Cell. It seems that Cell read this same article and figured it out as well."
"But what about the time machine?" Goku questioned.
"From what he said, I think that somehow you guys discovered his existence. He couldn't fight against you, so he decided to travel back in time to catch you by surprise. However, I don't know where he got the time machine from."
"Bulma was building a new one," Vegeta spoke up.
"She was?" Goku was surprised.
"She said she wanted to see if she could," Vegeta explained, "I told it was foolish since she had built it in one timeline, but she wanted to try it anyway. She wanted to make this one even better."
"That explains the time machine," Melissa said. She walked over to a small bookshelf and retrieved a vial. "I found this after Cell disintegrated. It's contains a powerful poison that it impossible to detect unless you are looking for it. The victim just appears to have had a heart attack. I suspect he got it from the future. It sounds like he planted this in some food that Bulma ate. He was confused that it had no effect on you, however." She directed her last comment towards Vegeta.
"He didn't know I was allergic to strawberries," Vegeta mumbled.
"What?" Goku asked.
"Nothing," Vegeta answered quickly. "What did you do with the Cell that was in you lab?"
"I destroyed it, of course."
"Which leaves us right back to square one," growled Vegeta. He walked over to Melissa and grabbed her collar again. "I don't care how or why, but you are still responsible for Bulma's death!"
"She didn't know," Goku quickly intervened, "She wouldn't have done it on purpose."
"And it's your fault too, Kakarott!"
"Me? What did I do?"
"I wanted to wish her back," Vegeta answered, "with the dragon balls. Do you remember that? You told me it couldn't be done, but it could have. You stopped me from bringing Bulma back to life!"
Goku opened his mouth, but quickly closed it again. Hurt was clearly stamped in his dark eyes. "You're right," he said, "I did do that. I'm sorry."
"Sorry doesn't bring Bulma back does it!" yelled Vegeta.
"No, I guess it doesn't," Goku replied.
With a roar, Vegeta shoved Melissa down onto the floor and stormed out of the house. Goku followed him outside, and was surprised to see him standing there, looking up at the sky. "Vegeta," Goku began cautiously.
"I thought it was my fault," Vegeta said, tonelessly.
"What?"
"She had trouble when she was pregnant with Trunks," Vegeta answered, "Then when she started the whole marriage thing again, I should have realized she was pregnant. If I had known, I thought I might have been able to save her."
"You couldn't," Goku said, "It's not your fault."
Vegeta started away. "I am going to save her this time," he stated.
"But how? You can't wish people back to life after they have been dead for over a year, even if they were killed."
Spinning around, Vegeta faced Goku. "I listened to you once when you told me there was no way," he said, "I'm not listening this time. There must be a way to save her and I am going to find it." Without saying another word, Vegeta took off, flying away from Goku.
Goku watched him as he flew away. "If there is a way," he whispered, "I hope you find it."
End Part 3