Disclaimer: Basically, I do not own Dragon BallZ… even though the little voices in my head tell me that I do, I know that I don't.

Chapter 1: Return from Hell

A spacecraft landed from the sky onto Earth's dusty, soil surface. When it made contact, it let out a great amount of steam and opened.

"Hang in there Gohan!!" A voice came from the tall narrow spacecraft. A struggled yell of pain followed.

A purple-haired young man jumped out carrying a small preteen boy. He got a running start and then jumped into the air and flew away.

Gohan… hang in there!!, Trunks thought. He looked down at Gohan and saw him gritting his teeth with his eyes shut tightly. He had tons of scratches, cuts, and bruises. Each wound burned with pain as warm blood dribbled down from his mouth.

"It's ok Gohan, we're almost there!" Trunks yelled reassuringly. The Lookout was in clear view.

"PICCOLO! DENDE!! COME HERE QUICK!!"

Piccolo and Dende ran out of the building and ran to Trunks who gently put Gohan on the ground. Dende instantly brought out his hands and began healing Gohan. His wounds began to mend as his energy slowly returned.

"He's pretty beat up. What happened to him Trunks?" Dende asked.

Trunks let out a long sigh before he said, "It was a close battle… I almost thought he wouldn't make it. Well… when we first got there, Gohan had already sensed Cell's energy. We flew towards it and saw Cell killing people. Then Gohan said something like 'Hey Cell!' or 'CELL!'. Anyways, he said something to get his attention and Cell stopped. The battle began and I was knocked out pretty quickly, but I remember Gohan swearing revenge."

"Revenge?" Piccolo repeated, "How did you get knocked out Trunks?"

"I can answer that…" Gohan said. He was sitting up but his face was grim, "Well, we were teaming up against Cell to begin with. Cell looked at Trunks and said 'This is a battle between fighters out of your league Trunks. Why don't you just rest until we're done.' Then he appeared behind Trunks and did a karate chop to the back of his neck. Apparently, he got what he wanted, because Trunks had this shocked look on, he slowly lost his Super Saiyan form and fell to the ground. And then I said that for ever single life he's killed, for ever little bit of pain he's given someone, I would give it back to him with 10 times the pain."

"I see… a bold statement made. Did you fulfil it?" Piccolo asked.

"I… I don't know," Gohan said.

"What? You don't know? Gohan, it's a simple question, did you kill Cell or not."

"No Piccolo, you don't understand," Trunks said, "The final part of the battle was intense. The entire planet was shaking. I had awoken just in time to see huge craters everywhere. I could sense both Cell and Gohan close by and when I looked into the sky, I found them. Gohan was in his Super Saiyan2 stage but I could sense that both their powers were even. All I remember next was seeing a flash of blinding light and then waking up again in the time machine."

"What? So… you don't remember how you got there or anything?"

"No. But when I looked out the window, I saw Gohan in his regular form being chased by Cell. I quickly opened the hatch for him and as soon he was in, I closed it. Cell seemed to be infuriated and for some reason, he didn't try to stop us from escaping. I set the coordinates and we came back but during the short trip, Gohan had fallen to the ground and was way too tired to stand or to even keep himself up in a sitting position."

"Gohan, do you remember what happened?" Dende asked.

"No… I remember the blinding flash and something strange had happened. I woke up and someone was holding me. He was glowing so brightly, but there was something familiar about him… something I couldn't really put my finger on. He smiled at me and said 'Good job Gohan.' Maybe I was just imagining things… but I think that was my dad."

Piccolo was about to say something at this point, but let Gohan continue when he saw that Gohan was deeply concentrated with his tale.

"He vanished and I slowly fell to the ground. I heard footsteps coming, but I was too tired and too shocked from what I had just seen to do anything. I soon regretted that when I saw Cell look down at me. He reached down and grabbed me by my throat and started choking me. It was just then that I realized that I wasn't even Super Saiyan anymore so I knew I had no chance. Cell began to chuckle a little bit and then he said 'And so ends this game of cat and mouse,. In the end, the cat will always win against the mouse. It's about time you realized that I am perfect and that a little boy could never stop me. Good bye, Gohan.'"

"How did you escape??" Piccolo asked out loud, "It seems impossible to have escaped from something like that."

"Well… to tell you the truth… I just had to power up. I powered up, became Super Saiyan2, and he let go in shock."

"What? But how is that possible? It sounds like you were completely exhausted… too exhausted to have even enough power for a Super Saiyan form," Trunks said.

"That's what I thought and I was extremely tired. But… that's what happened. He let me go, and I ran towards the time machine. I don't know why I didn't stay and finish it… something told me to run away, my every instinct told me to go back to my time before the real fight began so I obeyed it."

"Hmm… it seems like we're getting some extra help," Piccolo said looking to the sky.

"So, you really think it was Goku?" Trunks asked.

"Yes. In fact I wasn't surprised that you mentioned that part Gohan. I knew your father couldn't stand just watching from above. He wasn't going to just stand there and let his son die."

Gohan looked into the air with a serious yet concerned look and said to himself, "Dad? Was that really you?"

"Gohan, I think you should go back to the future. You didn't kill Cell so he's still alive and destroying the planet," Piccolo recommended.

Gohan slowly looked away from the clouds, and with the same expression on his face, he nodded while saying, "Right."

"This time, we'll make sure to bring some Senzu beans!" Trunks shouted.

"Yeah, cause you're definitely going to need it," a harsh voice came from the side.

Everyone looked and saw Vegeta floating in the air with his arms crossed.

"Father! What are you doing here?" Trunks asked.

"I was here the whole time listening to your story. Heh, so, Kakarot, even in death you can't stop helping people," Vegeta smirked, "Keep it up and you'll never become a real Saiyan warrior."

"So, when do you guys plan to leave?" Dende asked.

"Probably tomorrow," Trunks said seriously, "Is that ok Gohan?"

"Yeah… that's fine," Gohan replied.