I really appreciate your reviews, Dreamwraith. I am also grateful to the others who reviewed, I feel as though people are actually reading my story. Also, I certainly hope that you don't think this is the end. There's a lot more to come...

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18 stood surprised, watching where they had been. In the last second, Goku had somehow warped Cell away from the planet, to some unknown location. Would he really give his life to save the planet? That sort of conviction made her head spin. Wiping away a tear that came unbidden, 18 turned to go. What was her life to be now?

An energy appeared on the battlefield, and she whipped around, hair flying, to see Cell arrive, glowing with power and once again in perfect form.

"The fool didn't understand that I can regenerate from even a single one of my cells," Cell said softly, triumphantly. "And one did survive. It is a shame that I didn't destroy the planet in the blast, but now there is no one here who can stop me."

He looked up at her significantly, an evil smile playing on his lips.

"Using my saiyan genes, I have become far stronger than I have ever been before. Nothing can stand in my way."

Before 18 could do anything, another form appeared on the battlefield. Goku appeared between them, holding one arm and looking battered, but very much alive. For an instant Cell looked surprised, but he quickly covered it up and smirked down at him. Staring back impassively, Goku said nothing.

"Well, now you are weakened, and I am stronger than ever. You stand no chance. But even if our positions were reversed, you couldn't beat me." Cell laughed. "I have seen it. In the space between worlds, a gap in existence, I've gained knowledge beyond your wildest dreams. The only person who can defeat me is another. You need your allies here, but they aren't. The Earth will be destroyed, everyone on it annihilated. Everyone you care about, your family and friends. I'll kill 18, too, you realize that, don't you? I don't need her anymore."

Unable to take the pain and confused by Cell's words, Goku fell to his knees and out of Super Saiyan.

"The only person that can defeat me is your son, Gohan. I have seen it! He is not here, so you will perish. Your little boy is the only one who can attain the level beyond Super Saiyan, and you cannot. And without you there, he cannot defeat me on his own! Yes, your precious little boy, the one who loves you so much, will-"

"Stop it!"

Goku erupted in anger. Not because of what Cell threatened, because it was obvious that he had no idea what he was talking about. No, his anger flowed because of what Cell thought was true. In his words, Goku was getting a cruel glimpse into what his future might have been, had things gone right. Krillin was still his friend, everyone else liked him, almost everyone on Earth was still alive, Piccolo was alive, his family was still together, Chi-chi loved him. A pain worse than anything his body felt wracked his spirit. Worst of all, the words "the one who loves you so much-"

"Nooooooo!" This yell echoed off of everything, surprising even Cell. Dust flew over everything, rocks levitated and exploded in the air as energy flooded out from the now obscured saiyan, making a dazzling display of power. 18 watched, amazed; Cell watched, bored and unimpressed after his initial shock.

When the dust vanished, Goku stood there, his Super Saiyan hair even larger than it had been before, a few locks across his face, waving in his self-generated wind. Cell laughed at him and charged forward in a flying punch. Goku didn't try to dodge; Cell hit him right between the eyes. Nothing happened. Goku didn't flinch or even move.

"Owwww," Cell barely gasped out, clutching his hand. Goku smirked and made a violent gesture up. Energy blasted his opponent into the air. Cell was too damaged to fly and fell to another punch before falling directly down to the ground again, just barely getting up. He flew up slowly, already worn out, then faced off with Goku.

"I have reached the level beyond Super Saiyan," Goku said calmly but tightly. "I am an Ascended Saiyan. This is Super Saiyan 2. You can't hurt me any more. You may be able to regenerate from a single cell, and that's fine. I'll take you down to less than atoms. It is time to finish you."

"Wanna bet?" Cell taunted, somehow refusing to believe the truth. Goku's only reply was:

"Kaaaaa-"

Cell fired a Big Bang. It hit Goku's aura shield and snuffed out like a candle.

"Meeeee-"

Powering up, Cell launched a Kamehameha of his own. Hitting Goku it did nothing, bouncing off him.

"Haaaaa-"

Cell fired a few rounds of Triangle Cannons at Goku, they merely slid off, energy dissipating harmlessly.

"Meeeee-"

Cell took all of his energy and fired a giant Kienzan at Goku. It passed through his shield and struck him, but when energy met flesh it bounced off, doing no damage whatsoever.

"HA!

The giant beam sped toward Cell, who was too drained to dodge and was hit by it dead on. The sheer intensity of the blast left lines across everyone's vision. There was nothing left of Cell, not a fraction of a single cell in his body survived as the energy from the blast dissipated. Goku stood there, surrounded by his golden flames, which burned around him. 18 stood, looking shocked, having barely kept her balance from the gigantic blast. Turning, Goku looked at her, and for a second their eyes locked. There was a flicker of fear that ran through 18's mind, but then Goku powered down, black locks falling back into place.

"You are free," he said dryly. "Do whatever you want. I trust that you'll make the right decisions."

Raising two fingers to his forehead, Goku vanished, leaving 18 alone with herself.



Dai Kioshin grated his teeth. Why was this happening? That evil Cell being was gone, but Goku had proved that his determination was even more than the green monster could stand up to. That despicable determination allowed him to beat a perfect warrior, a battle that should have been impossible. Could Goku's determination make him even stronger than the Legendary One? If so, Dai Kioshin knew that he was doomed, for even if he himself became the Legendary One, he wasn't sure that he could defeat this Goku. While he wasn't the Legendary One, if he managed to become strong enough, that distinction could mean nothing.

Piccolo had stopped by to smirk at him and make a few remarks. Dai Kioshin suffered and wished that Evil would just come so that he had something to fight, not an impossible saiyan and a mocking Namek. Of course, he realized, there was a third factor in the whole equation he hadn't considered, perhaps because he didn't want to. Darkness...

Goku landed back at his home, biting back a few tears and concentrating on the future. What was he going to do now? Cell was defeated, the androids were either dead or on his side. Of course, he would train, but that couldn't occupy his full time. He could help out the humans, who were struggling to rebuild. They had a tough time ahead of them, considering the fact that there were only less than 150,000 of them left, as opposed to the billions that there had been before. Over 50 billion, the fact came into his head suddenly.

But he really didn't want to. They could rebuild themselves, and it was partially their fault they were in such bad condition in the first place. It was their mentality that was so deadly to themselves. And the war they had been having didn't help much either. Goku shook his head, having a war in the middle of such annihilation was beyond him.

That was one good thing the androids had done, he supposed. With the armies gone, they couldn't keep fighting their wars and finish each other off completely. Goku didn't have to like the humans, but unlike all the others before him, he would let them live. And help them defeat any threats to their planet. And let them take credit for it, too. Hercule had still survived the androids. No, he'd get them out of problems that came to them, they'd get out of problems them made themselves. They'd get no help from him on that account.

Rebuilding struck a cord in his mind. Maybe he could make the makeshift home he already had into something a bit better. He would be spending a lot more time there, now that the newest wave of evil had been destroyed. That was what he could do, that'd last him awhile.

By this time he was almost at his house. Landing in the ruins of the huge city, Goku entered and looked around at everything quickly. It was all in order, his few possessions in a chest against the wall. The only furniture in the room was a bed in one corner and a chair in the other.

Moving back out, Goku first set out to find something he could build the base building off of. He needed a capsule house of the best issue, that could be a start. Where was the closest Capsule Corps store? Glancing around, he headed out to the city on a scavenging hunt. It didn't take him long to find it. Everything was in relatively good condition, at least in the back rooms. Goku winced as he saw a dead body, stiff and decaying. Blocking the image from his mind, he launched a beam and cleaned it off the floor.

Finding the right sort of house, Goku quickly took it and left. Moving back to his home, he cleared an open space with a few beams, then used the capsule. The house appeared. Goku nodded, it would suit his purposes just fine. Moving inside, he started rearranging things. Going back out, Goku got his stuff from his old house and moved it into the new one. It didn't take very long.

Glancing at his work, he was fairly happy with himself. It was a two-bedroom house; not that he needed the other one, but it was there. Odd, must have been intuition, but why? Unable to figure it out, he just ignored it. The rest of it was his living room and kitchen. That would work for what he needed. He decided to leave the second floor open for storage, but there was a nice little balcony he wanted to take advantage of. Now he moved back to scavenge in the city. What he needed next was a second area, one that he could train in. And a gravity machine, if he could find one...



It was dusk, and Goku felt tired, but it was a good tired. He had added an entire new section to his house, this one made for training. He had cleared it out and removed the walls, then made a connecting hallway between both sides. That had taken a while, and a bit of heating with his finger, but it had worked. With that done, he had added a gravity machine that could get up to 3000Gs and installed the net of wires through the training building. That was enough for today.

Going home (he already thought of it as his home), Goku slept like a rock for a few hours, then woke early in the morning to continue building. Today he wanted to try out his new training center, but he needed to do a few more things first.

Taking apart one of the giant skyscrapers in the city, Goku had gotten enough alloys to strengthen the training room so it could take his usual training. As long as he kept a lid on himself and never shot any ki blasts, it would do fine. He also got a bunch of metals together, as he wanted to coat the house with metal so that it could stand most things sent against it. But there wasn't time for that today, so he mentally set it aside.

He had gotten a lucky find while searching through one of the buildings. It was a large supercomputer with some of the most advanced systems he had ever seen. It was a bit damaged, but it didn't take Goku very long to fix it. Now he had placed it up on the second floor and set it to start monitoring conditions around. That could be worth a lot to him if he used it right.

After noon, Goku trained until six in the training chamber. It worked just fine for him. He didn't want to get tired out now so he just sent it up to 1000Gs. After that, he went back into his normal house and sat out on the balcony on the second floor. He started meditating, hovering a few inches off the ground. Goku understood why Piccolo liked this so much; it was actually a good exercise. It also calmed him down, bringing himself to a state of perfect balance, letting his mind clear of all problems.

Now, for the first time since after Cell had been defeated, he thought about everything with a clear mind. In truth, he admitted to himself, he had been keeping any of those thoughts away by rebuilding. But he wouldn't escape now. There were times when one needed to face oneself.

Cell was gone. It hardly seemed to matter. For so long, with the androids and then Cell, things had been different. Now, the threat was gone. It was over. Then why did he feel so empty? A cold blankness seemed to pervade his soul. None of it mattered. This had changed nothing, only stemmed a tide of destruction that would have destroyed the planet. Was that even a good thing? What would this much hate do to the universe? One side of him asked himself what the true difference was between Cell and the people that spawned him.

How often would it be like this? His victory meant nothing, did nothing to heal himself. It did nothing to heal the planet, for that matter. Would he always be left with nothing but this cold emptiness? Yet somehow, he knew that he would continue. When the time came, he would defend Earth again.

His thoughts were broken as he felt a ki coming. No, he corrected himself, it wasn't a ki, it was something different. But it was a person, an energy signature, and it was coming this way at a fair speed. That meant he knew who it was. Goku got up and flew out to meet them.