Disclaimer: No DBZ is owned by me. *Tra-lala* The only things I own are...Foreign, Squeegle, Houyoku, Creator, Phaythe, and Sanrioki! And all the other stuff I created within the depths/shallows of my mind.

Sierrakoi: And we're baaack...

Chibi Sierrakoi: Making a lint building, complete with lint people

Sierrakoi: My Chibi-- the talented one.

Random Dude: Ponders moving to Alaska

Last time: Cell went on a hunting rampage, and Gohan and the others discovered the cabin!

This time: Squeegle is offered something he would have never dreamed, and Cell raids the next camp!

Dreams Are What Define Us

"Loyalty, honor, and truth are fragile gems--Polish them, and let them shine bright--Don't let on them webs of abandonment lay."

Phaythe tried to suppress a shudder. Once more, doubt swarmed in her mind.

The cause of all this doubt? Watching Cell maliciously kill those humans.

"Of all things holy..." Phaythe muttered weakly to herself, sagging against her chair. Choosing Cell to be her player in this Game...it had been a big risk, a large roll of the dice. She had never before attempted to use a villain to be her player. But she had chosen Cell, because when she had researched him, she had felt that the qualities he possessed might be of use later on in the game. She had felt that somehow...he and Foreign might click, and form a friendship. And if that happened, there would be no killing or destruction...and technically, she would win the Game. But Cell was proving harder than she had thought to predict. She wasn't used to his cold calculations or cunning mind-set. But she would try...anything to keep her brother from winning.

Phaythe pondered downloading herself onto Earth again, to talk to Cell. She wasn't sure what she would say, and she wasn't sure how he would react.

-It's worth a shot...-

Absently, Phaythe placed her fingers in neat grooves etched into her control console. And then she closed her mind, her thoughts, and concentrated.

-_-_-_-

"Hnn?"

Squeegle squeaked as Creator nearly caused him to fall off his stool in his rush to get to the monitor. Regaining his balance, Squeegle righted himself and squeaked in apology to the hologram of Justin Timberlake and Avril Lavigne, whom they had just been playing cards with. Hey, Creator's odd card game sessions were nothing new. Last time they had played 'Go Fish' with the holograms of Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe.

"Something's afoot..." Creator said, waving his hand. Immediately the holograms disappeared.

Squeegle grunted. And he had been WINNING that card game too! "Shinteeka?" What do you mean?

"According to the computer, Sis is downloading herself onto Earth," Creator responded idly. He tapped a claw on his chin. "Perhaps I should go meet her, or at least spoil her fun."

Squeegle would have shrugged. He still felt bad about the card game being cancelled. Amazing he had been winning, considering he couldn't even hold cards.

"I think I will!" Creator announced, suddenly gleeful. Twirling and then landing in his seat, Creator clapped his hands together. "Yes yes yes! Do you want me to bring you back a Happy Meal, my dear Squeegle?"

"Neeut," Squeegle responded. Why did his master always insist on bringing back Happy Meals? Honestly, Squeegle thought that his master had some sort of fascination for the yellow 'M' that McDonalds uses.

"If you say so!" Creator answered. Suddenly going quiet, he proceeded with the procedure of 'downloading'.

Creator closed his eyes, as if in a deep state of trance. His claws were embedded into neat grooves carved into the consol edge. His body was perfectly frigid and unmoving, yet Squeegle knew he was still fully aware of what was going on around him. He was just 'downloading' himself into the plane of existence. He was downloading himself onto earth, probably going to use the image of that old man as a physical apparition.

Squeegle suddenly felt tired as he nestled uncertainly by his unmoving master. He let out a small 'Meeef...' sound as he grew comfortable. But he was always looking at the screen in front of him. The screen, with images of earth.

How he longed, just once, to feel wind. Or sunlight, or moonlight. Rain, or grass, or freedom and large spaces. All he had ever known was right here, in this little dome of a room. Dark, gray, shadowed, cold and rigid...with the nothingness pushing in on all sides. If there was one little crack in any one wall, the nothingness would seep through. And then he would die. Or perhaps he wouldn't die, Squeegle didn't know for sure. Maybe his little soul would become a mere memory that would haunt the ruins of this dead, forgotten and nonexistent plane. Or perhaps he would become a part of the nothingness itself.

Squeegle had accepted his fate long ago, when he had first realized that his purpose was to serve Creator. When he had first become AWARE...and had looked up at Creator with the instinct to serve him etched into his mind. Even though Squeegle knew he was just a creation of his Master's, and probably a failed one at that, Creator had kept him around and treated him almost like a....friend. And Squeegle was grateful.

But still...

Squeegle glanced at the screen again.

Living life...like those humans...like that girl, Houyoku....seemed so...

Fun...

-_-_-_-

"This is the last one, right?" Foreign asked as she flew side-by-side with Cell. Houyoku was firmly attached to her back, and whimpering still.

"Yes," Cell answered monotonely. Then he smirked, glancing to Foreign. "Why do you ask? Does my technique of hunting disturb you?"

Foreign wanted to say 'Yes!', but instead she said, "Not really. Just watching the human gets tiring."

"As I've said before," Cell mentioned as he lazily turned onto his back in mid-air, "Just dispose of her."

Houyoku shuddered, obviously knowing the meaning of those words.

Foreign frowned, feeling that odd, maternal protectiveness again. "I'd rather not go through the trouble. Besides, the child...interests me. One of my main reasons for BEING here is to study humans, anyway. She's a good subject...she doesn't make any noise."

"She's just a filthy, parentless brat...but whatever you say," Cell muttered as he shot Houyoku another look. Blast that human!

-Jealousy...-

Cell frowned at the words that crept into his mind. Jealousy? Absurd! How could he be jealous of a worthless human brat?

-She gets more attention than you do...

-...You feel threatened...

-..Don't you?-

Cell snorted mentally. He didn't feel threatened, especially not by a mere human child. Thought the bio-android had to admit to himself, he did feel agitated by her more than he should.

Yet Cell's spirits immediately rose as he picked up the gathering of human ki signatures in the distance. "We're here," he announced, practically licking his beak.

Foreign kept her gaze steady, sighing lightly. "Good."

-_-_-_-

"So...we're just going to SIT here and WAIT for whoever was here to come back??" Vegeta grumped at his estranged wife as she sat idly in a dusty chair.

"Exactly," she countered. "What else are we supposed to do?"

"What if they don't come back?" Vegeta pointed out. "What if this isn't even the being we're looking for?!" Being idle was not helping the saiyajin prince's mood.

Gohan sweatdropped from the cabin roof. He could hear those two bickering from there!

"Stop being so pessimistic!" Bulma snapped. "Honestly, you can be such a kid!"

"I could be TRAINING right now!" Vegeta growled. "Instead I'm here waiting for...for Dende knows what! Of COURSE I find it agitating!!"

Taking a chance, Gohan let himself halfway off the side of the roof and peeped into a window. "Hey, you two...can you quiet down a little? I mean...we wouldn't want the dudes to hear us before we saw them..."

Vegeta shot Gohan a poisonous look, but Bulma nodded in understanding.

"Hear that?" Bulma said smugly to her husband. "Pipe down, or you're sleeping on the couch tonight."

Vegeta grumped, but went silent.

Gohan shook his head slightly, and resumed sitting cross-legged on the cabin roof. He only prayed it didn't collapse under his weight.

But he felt that was the least of his problems.

-_-_-_-

Phaythe hopped from one branch to the other, craning her neck to look around. Huh, that was weird, she could have sworn these were the coordinates of Cell. She had found herself in raven form, appearing in the middle of some human camp, perched on a tree. What would he be doing here, unless...

"AHHHH!"

Jerking, Phaythe used her razor sharp bird vision. As she had feared, beyond the line of trees leaped Cell in all of his lithe fierceness. The woman in which had screamed, who had undoubtedly seen him first, took off at a run as she continued to scream in terror.

Immediately, people rushed out of their tents with guns at hand. And more than half of them, upon seeing Cell, dropped those guns and took off running themselves. The fear in their eyes was evident--they remembered the Monster of Nicky Town.

"Come now..." Cell chuckled raspily, advancing upon the woman who had backed herself against the tent. "Whatever's the matter, my dear?"

The woman, too afraid to move, only screamed again.

Growing tired of this prey, Cell lanced his tail outwards. It hit it's mark, pierced the woman right through her stomach with little resistance, and within moments she was a part of his very being.

All the humans who had been in doubt before were in doubt no longer. Like a stampede they turned tail and ran screaming for the far trees, leaving all their belongings in place.

Phaythe could only watch in horror, pity for the humans was nearly overwhelming. But she could not interfere...it was against the Rules...

Cell frowned. There were more people at this camp then the last ones he had raided. More room for a chance for a human to escape and inform the media of him being there...

"Foreign!" Cell called out sternly. "Herd the humans who have disappeared beyond the tree line back!"

Foreign heard Cell's call from her idle perch in a nearby tree behind him. She frowned. Oh, he needed HER help now?

Briefly, the android was torn at what to do. She wasn't really that thrilled about herding humans to their doom, but she wasn't that thrilled about being yelled at later for not doing it.

"Houyoku," Foreign instructed to the child that was playing with the tree roots below her. Houyoku looked up in wonderment.

"Stay here," Foreign ordered. "I'll be back."

Houyoku nodded meekly, not quite understanding.

Standing and brushing pieces of bark off her legs, Foreign launched herself from the limb.

-_-_-_-

"Huzzah!"

With a light 'plop', Creator landed in a clump of leaves and twigs. Brushing off the odd clothing he wore, he scurried out of the mess in which he had landed in. He was embodied as the image of the old man once again, and the only negative thing about that was the fact it was difficult to frolic about in such a form. Not to mention a little bit disturbing.

Phaythe jerked, nearly losing her perch as she craned her neck around to see what had made such an atrocious noise. Her gaze fell on Creator, and she recognized him immediately.

Creator waved merrily up at his estranged sister. "Hello, Sis! How goes it?"

Phaythe couldn't think of anything to say. The screaming from the human camp was diverting her thoughts, and the surprise of Creator popping up behind her had caught her off-guard. "...You. What are you doing here?"

Phaythe hadn't directly spoken to her brother in well over fifty years.

"Just dropping by to say hello, you know, just to say greetings, hola, aloha, and so forth!"

A piece of Phaythe wanted to scream at him. Another piece of her wanted to cry for him. She ended up doing neither. "..."

So much she wanted to say to him.

Nothing would come out.

Creator shook his head. "Now now, don't look so GLOOMY. Find a meadow, and frolic!"

Sometimes Phaythe missed the real Ironee more than normal.

-_-_-_-

Meanwhile, Foreign was busying herself. She had landed right in front of a swarm of on-coming humans, leaning lightly against a towering tree.

At first, the scurrying humans did not see her. But after a moment, they did.

Not recognizing her, a man at the front attempted to roughly brush by her. "Run, you idiot!!"

Humans normally didn't bother Foreign. But not when they made such degrading statements as THAT.

With minimal effort, Foreign reached out and snatched the man by his shirt collar. With a flick of her wrist, she sent him careening backwards into four other humans who had frozen behind him.

"That wasn't nice," Foreign purred.

The humans, there must have been at least ten, froze and glanced at each other. The man whom Foreign had thrown scrambled up, bleeding slightly from a cut along his arm.

"You freak!" The man yelled at the complacent android. He turned around to the sweaty, confused humans behind him, his eyes frantic. "She's a friend of that monster!!"

Foreign sighed, clicking her tongue. "Be good little humans, and turn around and march back to the camp. It'll save you the trouble of having to run, THEN get caught. Why waste energy?"

A small feeling of guilt tugged at Foreign's hardened heart. Guilt at the fact she was enjoying doing this.

Frantically, a man at the back whipped out his gun. "M-MOVE!" There was a click as he aimed it dead-center on Foreign.

She frowned. Perhaps these humans really did need to die. It would save them from their idiocy.

"I...dare you," Foreign sneered.

The man with the gun, too shaken up to even comprehend what he was doing, hastily obliged.

Foreign could see the bullet flying towards her as if it had been launched in slow-motion. Frowning slightly, she caught it just before it would have struck her right through the forehead. The humans stood in complete silence as they watched the android open her hand and let the crumbled remains of the bullet hit the ground.

"I must admit, you have good aim," Foreign purred while brushing a few strands of hair form her eyes.

The man dropped his gun, sweat breaking out across his brow.

"She's not a human!" a frantic woman announced.

"And neither am I."

There was hardly a second for any screams as Cell dropped right in the middle of the crowd from a tree above, cackling madly and lashing out with his scorpion-like tail.

Foreign lifted off the ground and hovered a few inches in the air, unable to take her eyes off the way Cell mercilessly stalked his prey.

One by one, without resistance, each human fell as they attempted to flee. It only took perhaps two minutes, at the most.

When the last human was gone, their clothing billowing loosely along the ground, Cell looked up to meet gazes with Foreign. His eyes were gleaming with a type of hunter's pride, his claws flexing idly. For a brief second, Foreign feared Cell might attack her then and there.

But he didn't. Instead, he chuckled softly. "That was refreshing."

Foreign said nothing at first. "...Good to see you had fun. I certainly didn't."

"Don't tell me slinging that human away wasn't fun," Cell countered.

Foreign perked an eyebrow. Bah, so Cell had been watching her after all. "Maybe it was."

"Then you had fun," the bio-android answered smoothly. Once again, Foreign wondered if Cell knew her better than she knew herself.

Meanwhile, Cell felt like a content kitten. He was beaming with newfound energy, his hunger temporarily quenched, and he was one step closer to achieving his goal of Perfection. Or so, he hoped.

-I've got to strip away these doubts...they'll hinder me,- Cell mentally noted. Flicking his tail briefly, he quarter-turned and looked back to lock gazes with Foreign again. "Shall we go? I suppose that will do for Human-hunting today."

Foreign nodded, still frowning to show her slight contempt at being ordered around. But then something caught her eye.

Houyoku!

The small human child was standing only a few feet away, having been hidden by various greenery. The look on her face was pure horror, and undoubted fear.

-She saw everything!- Foreign berated herself.

Cell also noted Houyoku's presence. "Well well..."

Foreign landed on the ground, her thoughts spiraling as she attempted to look non-threatening as she tried to keep her voice stern. "Houyoku, we have to go, come on..."

Houyoku backed away, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Houyoku-" Foreign was interrupted in mid sentence as the child turned tail and fled into the wood. -..Damn!!-

Cell snickered. "Looks like she didn't like our little escapade."

Foreign turned on Cell. "You scared her!"

Cell narrowed his eyes, not trying to conceal his glee. "Oh...but you scared her too."

Foreign's icy gaze fell to the spot where Houyoku had fled.

It shouldn't have mattered...

She was just a human...

But why did it hurt so much to see her go...?

-_-_-_-

Phaythe and Creator had silently watched the whole scene with the humans, Cell, Foreign and Houyoku unravel before them.

Creator stirred, rubbing his wrinkled nose. "Interesting..." He picked at his beard and suddenly pulled out a bug. Eyeing it suspiciously, he then shrugged and popped it in his mouth.

Phaythe would have bit her lip if she had not had a beak at the time. "I don't know if this is good or bad..."

Creator shrugged. "Who knows? Fate plays, Fate takes, Fate does what it wants. But you shouldn't worry...I'm going to win this Game anyway!"

With a cackle, Creator abruptly disappeared.

Phaythe preened a wing in thought, trying not to pay attention to the fact that Creator leaving so soon tore her apart inside.

Giving a hefty sigh, Phaythe also disappeared.

-_-_-_-

Pain.

Gohan groaned, curling up while clutching at his stomach. Agonizing pain! He hadn't eaten in...dear Dende, at least more than an hour!

Bulma exited the cabin, brushing herself off. Stopping at the edge, she looked up at the young demi-saiyajin that was scrunched up in pain. "Gohan? Is something wrong?"

"Hungry..." Gohan moaned.

Bulma stifled a laugh. "Oh, fine. I'll get Vegeta to visit Sanrioki and grab us a snack. How does that sound?"

"Great," Gohan groaned.

Bulma stuck her head inside the cabin. "Vegeta! Mind going and grabbing us a snack?"

There was a grunt, as Vegeta had been woken from his slumber in a nearby chair. "Confound you, woman!"

"Will you?" Bulma asked again, using her sweet voice. "I'll give you the money, besides, I KNOW you've got to be starving..."

Vegeta's stomach growled in agreement.

"...." Grumbling to himself, Vegeta snatched the money from Bulma's hand and excited the cabin, taking to the air.

"Don't take too long," Gohan pleaded.

Bulma shook her head. Why do saiyajins always have to be so dramatic when it came to food?

-_-_-_-

Squeegle was rudely awakened from his sleep when Creator, back and in his original form, flicked him across the back. "Wake up, my dear Squeegle!"

Wriggling and jiggling, Squeegle yawned and looked up at his master. "Squeelk?"

Creator was rubbing his hands together. "New occurrences have taken place. I need you to do a job for me."

Squeegle turned to a faint purple shade. Huh?

Creator grinned like a Looney Toon. "I need you to monitor that girl, Houyoku. And in order to do so, you're going to have to take a trip to Earth..."

Squeegle's little heart skipped a beat.

((Whew! Hey again!

Good going, SMF--yep, 'ikari' means anger, or hatred! Such an enlightening word, ne?

No, there will not be a Japanese word for this installment. Instead, there shall be...a poll!

YES, a poll! *Lightning strikes*

THE POLL:

For the next installment's End of Episode Bonus, what should Roshi do?

1. Propose they play a new game (if you choose this, what game would they play? Examples: Spin the Bottle, etc)

2. Ask for a truth from one of the characters

3. Dare one of the characters to do something insanely embarrassing

4. Prance around in Hawaiian wear, singing about cocoanuts!

Whew! Many thanks--Ciao!))