Disclaimer: No DBZ is owned by me. *Tra-lala*

A lot of stuff has happened, I know you hear that from every other author/authoress, so I'm not going to go into detail. But I do hope you're still with me and reading this, and that you'll drop a line or two. Thanks!

[ shameful plug ] I wouldn't mind if you also check out my newest fiction, 'Bleed the Sky'. It's a Buu fanfic, but I hope it can turn out to be a pretty good piece of work ^^; [ /shameful plug ]

Synthetic

Installment 5

~Synthetic solution
Synthetic, I'll become
Synthetic, if it makes this go away ...

... I have become synthetic.~

Urami's mouth hung open in a perfect 'o' as her eyes widened.

Thump. Thump.

Her heart was making a reappearance. And boy was it putting off some emotion.

Fear.

A low, ebbing flow of fear. And it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. She rarely felt fear, but of all other emotions it was one that did not fade as quickly as it came. It had a tendency to linger.

Especially when facing seven foot monsters.

That ate people.

Or so the media said.

Maybe he just disposed of the bodies?

Urami's thoughts whirled in her head, none of which made sense. She took a step back, half of her face concealed in the shadows of the night. She wanted to say something along the lines of, 'You!', but not a word dared to slip from her tongue.

The monster was still perched on the railing, like a misplaced demon cat. Streetlights washed over half of its body, revealing it's odd body shape and horrible elongated tail. Then suddenly, in swift motion, it was off of the railings and standing straight on the concrete just a few feet away.

Urami stumbled back, her lips twisting back into an almost feral snarl. One of her hands reached out a little, as if she was prepared to bolt back into her apartment.

Foolish thinking. There was no way she could escape.

-_-_-_-

Cell was enjoying every moment of this. Prolonged torture amused him highly. Due to his sadistic nature, he rarely let a chance slip by without getting some entertainment out of it. And watching this human squirm while under his gaze proved satisfactory. She did not scream, or attempt to run--at least, not yet,--but she did not also stand like a stone, or yell vulgarities at him.

Cell decided to break the silence as a siren sounded through the air not far away. "Remember me?"

It was an obvious question. But then again, the blow to her head might have distorted her memory.

"Of course."

Cell wasn't expecting an answer so soon. But still, his beak twisted into a smirk.

"Is it pleasant seeing me again?" the android inquired, playing the role of a gentleman.

Urami's eyes flickered briefly to her apartment door, but a moment later she forced them back onto Cell. "...How would you...like me to answer?"

Cell frowned.

"Either way...you'll kill me."

Unable to help himself, Cell chuckled maliciously, his chest rumbling in sadistic pleasure. "My, my...you're a more intelligent brand of human."

Urami stared blankly at Cell. She had to accept her fate. She was no different than any of the other people this monster had already killed. She was going to die. Vanish, without a trace.

And still, the night was dark. A perfect backdrop for her demise.

"Though I haven't made up my mind just yet, little human" Cell continued coyly. He had been planning on killing the human either way, just like she had predicted. But since it was obvious she was already expecting this, it wouldn't be as fun. So, Cell was going to play with her mind a little and get her to believing he'd let her live--THEN he'd absorb her.

Besides, not like he had anything better to do.

Urami's heart slowly sank from her throat. This monster...was more than just a monster. Furrowing her brow, she couldn't help but study him. He was intelligent, cunning...and well, evil.

Where had he come from?

What mad man had created him?

"...Urami."

Cell took his gaze away from the street lights and bore his gaze into Urami's. "Repeat."

Urami swallowed, frantically wanting to tear her eyes from the monster's, but unable to. "Urami...a human...but Urami."

Cell suddenly chuckled. "Oh, I see. Your name, I assume."

The android whipped his tail behind him.

"You're not getting any special freebees for telling me your name," he snapped.

Urami felt sweat in the palms of her hands. "...I didn't expect as much...though the term 'human' is a little..."

She swallowed again. Here she was, conversing outside her apartment to a mass murderer like he was an old friend.

"...bland."

Cell's beak twisted into frown, a low hiss emanating from him.

"You think of me as stupid, human?"

"No," Urami replied, surprised at how quickly her reply came. "If you were stupid you wouldn't have been so successful."

'Well, now aren't I just digging my own grave...'

"So you acknowledge my genius." Cell looked pleased. He had never quite been given a comment before. Though this changed absolutely nothing in his perspective.

Urami was silent. How she wanted to sprint into her apartment, lock the door, forget this had happened.

'Just kill me!' Urami's mind screamed. Make it quick, painless, but just do it.

Meanwhile, Cell was contemplating how he was going to play with his new toy. He was going to kill her, but first he had to disguise his previous murders of the employee and the drunkard and the security guard.

Why?

He had a plan.

"I'll return, human."

Urami jerked in surprise, shivering as a chill night wind wisped by. He was leaving?

..And returning?

Cell turned to the edge, arms still folded.

"Don't bother running."

His voice was cold, and of authority. Urami didn't even nod in response. She knew the he knew that she would obey.

And suddenly, he was gone.

Confused, Urami timidly stepped to the railing and peered over the edge. She thought she saw a streak of shadow, then nothing.

Another wind blew, and the young woman clutched at her arms and hurried inside her apartment, practically slamming the door behind her. She stood there for a few minutes, taking deep shaky breaths and exhaling faultily.

That's when all strength left her. She felt her knees crumple inward and Urami collapsed onto the floor by the door, shaking and coughing, her fingers shivering as they touched her bandages.

She had just...survived an encounter with a monster.

And he said he would 'return'.

He also admitted he would kill her.

All this, and she didn't even know his name.

-_-_-_-

It only took an hour before Cell returned to the apartment building. His work had been done - the evidence had been concealed. In order for his plan to work, he had to make everything seem like a coincidence.

Individually he had retrieved the clothing of the security guard, employee and drunkard. Rummaging through their clothes, he had found the guard's and employee's IDs. Using this he had found their addresses. The guard live alone in a small house by a drive-through, so Cell deposited his clothing there without hassle. The employee on the other hand had a wife and small dog, both of which were alive. Cell though, with little effort had killed both of them and deposited the employee's clothing alongside theirs. The drunkard had no ID on him, so the android deposited his clothing on a street he had already raided earlier that night.

When Cell returned to the apartment, he turned off the lights and even used his claws to lock the door. Now it looked as if the guard and employee had returned home for the night after locking up, and no one had come to replace them. And with the people living in the apartment still alive, no one would suspect Cell had anything to do with it.

Ah, Cell shocked himself sometimes.

And now, with nothing linking him to this apartment, Cell snuck back up the stairs to the door of Urami's apartment. It was nearing dawn now, it was so late. And though the android could not clearly feel the temperature, he knew it was slowly beginning to warm up. Smirking, he rapped his knuckles on the door.

-_-_-_-

Urami grunted as she heard a noise, and blearily peeled her eyes open. She had fallen asleep, curled up on the floor. Groaning with muscle pain, she staggered to an upright position. What had woken her up?

The door suddenly swung open without as much as a sound. It slammed into Urami's back and she coughed, pitching forwards and rolling a few feet,

Grunt.

She was almost too sleepy to feel it.

Looking up, she squinted and suddenly realized the monster from earlier was standing in her doorway.

Cell frowned in mild disgust. The woman looked dazed and confused, her hair frizzed in every direction and a fair amount of drool on her chin. Had she fallen asleep on the floor?

Taking his claw from the doorknob, Cell closed the door behind him and snorted. "Come humans, you should have better manners than that. Get up from the floor, you embarrass me."

Urami grunted but bit her tongue. She was so disgruntled--some of the medicine she had taken at the clinic was probably having side effects--she felt like ignoring the monster and curling back up on the floor again.

But alas, the young woman pulled herself up, albeit with a mild pain in her back and rubbed her eyes.

Cell's frown deepened. She looked so primitive.

"So why did you come back? I was so eager for death I couldn't help but sleep at the door."

Cell stared in mild shock at the human's sharp tongue. Even Urami looked a little surprised at her own words.

"Actually," Cell hissed coldly, "I have a better idea. Your apartment is going to be my home base."

It took a moment for Urami to process that information. Cell noticed the aware and witty--yet oddly distant and foreign--gleam come back into Urami's eyes.

"..What?"

Cell shook his head, pulling the curtains on the small apartment window completely shut as he double-checked to make sure he had locked the door behind him. "I shouldn't have to explain myself, imbecile. Figure it out yourself."

Urami stood, wobbling, but her mind was as aware as ever.

Oh...

"You're going to stay at the one place no one would think to look for you...with a human...in a human dwelling."

Cell sneered, pulling back his leap to flash his wicked fangs. "Correct."

Now Urami knew where Cell had been. Obviously he had gone to conceal any evidence linking him here.

But now she knew Cell couldn't kill her--not as long as he wanted to remain anonymous. But who knew how long that would last?

Cell brushed rudely past Urami and stalked into the kitchen. Urami could see him over the bar.

"Go get some sleep," the android instructed harshly. "Your appearance disturbs me."

Urami's mind immediately came up with more than a few smart and snippy remarks she could throw back at the monster, but she kept them to herself. She wasn't going to give him what he obviously wanted--a fight.

Instead she mutely stumbled into her bedroom. But before she collapsed on her bed, she shut and locked the door behind her, just for peace of mind. THEN she collapsed onto her bed.

What a day.

And she still didn't know his name.

Can You Guess? Contest

Wow! Thank Kami for all the bright and intelligent readers out there! A LOT of you gave some very good guesses and I'm impressed, and some of you were definitely on the right track! One of you was so close it nearly scared me. XD. Now, for another simple 'Can You Guess?' question!

Where do you think I got the inspiration for this fic?

And for everyone who answered the last question: Free cookies for all! *Showers them about*

Reviewers:

Yasha the Shadow Keeper - Hey Yash! Wow, that's a really great guess...but I can't tell you HOW close you got ;D I'm under threat of death if I do!

ReJeCteD AnGeL - Cellypoo, ah, the names we give the big scary android XD. Who knows what Cell's going to do! ...well, I do...but that doesn't matter?

Phoenix Rising - Wow...it was scary? Dude! I didn't know it would be even slightly scary, I just typed it out and figured it was okay enough to post. I've never written anything even remotely scary before.

Katie-Kaigirl - Hiya! Urami is pretty cool, I tried to take a break from the over used character personalities and create a new one. As the story progresses more aspects of Urami's personality will progress...and there's going to be a MAJOR plot twist (HINT HINT) that will definitely change everything. At least, I'd think it would.

Vaarj - Heh, I think I'm going to try and finish this ^^; But it depends on what the reviewers think. ^^ Thanks! I try to be descriptive... Who knows what could happen, Cell could go insane and kill her or he could turn into a pacifist and sip tea all day and watch Opera. ..o_O Let's just hope that doesn't happen.

Death Rider - Muha! Well, at least it wasn't a COMPLETE cliff hanger. I hate cliff hangers myself. I apologize for the mildly late update!

Majin Youkai - Wo0t! YES! You got it right! A message was, INDEED, on the paper! XD But...I can't tell you what the message was. In fact, I can't tell you if it was a message at all. I might just be kidding. Or I might not be. Or I might just be confusing you, and myself. .. .. ..Yep.

Raize - Thanks ^^

Lilmissgoten - Oh girlfriend! I will chit your chitters to chitin' chit. XD. Chit chit, chit chitter chitin. 'I have lost my acorn.'. Chitty chit, chit chit chitin chit. 'Have you seen the acorn?'. Chit chitin chitty chitter. 'Do you have my acorn?'.

condemned Hope - Thanks a lot! You might be right...or very close...man, I hate being secretive!

Doctoroc - Wow. I thought it meant 'psychologically damaged lintball'. Maybe I'm wrong. Ahh, Cell's personality. Well, you have to keep in mind that this is first form Cell, for one. He has a bit of a one-track mind, and though he feel more than one emotion he only deals with one emotion at a time. So thus, if he is feeling contempt any other emotions are temporarily placed aside and he dwells on that one negative. Right now Cell is still very much bias against humans and will remain so for quite some time. Maybe even forever.

Random Reader - Heh! I guess maybe it was a little scary...though I had no idea it was o_o Maybe I need to read over what I type. That could help.

Mirai no Majin Cat - It's to be pondered! I really don't know what they're going to do. Funky, huh? XD