At the site of the Cell Games, Cell stood in the middle of his arena waiting for his challengers. It was very quiet in the area, and had been since the failed attack with the army. Nobody dared get any closer.

"Today's the day I prove my power." Cell smirked to himself. Unknown to Cell - or at least ignored, a reporter and cameraman had posted themselves on a cliff overlooking the arena.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are here at the Cell games where the tournament of the worlds strongest fighters will meet and battle against the horrid monster Cell," the reporter said quietly into the microphone. In the distance, a car sped towards the ring leaving a trail of dust behind it. The cameraman focused on the limousine as it came to a halt. The doors opened, and from the car emerged proudly a man dressed in a white cape, brown fighting clothes and a championship belt. "Ladies and gentlemen! Our hero and the world's champ, Hercule!" The reporter said in an excited, but still quiet tone.

Hercule walked onto the platform of the arena and stared at the monster. Cell peered at his new 'foe' Hercule. The 'champ' then pointed to the cliff were the reporter and cameraman was stationed. The reporter started to shake as Hercule singled for them to come down.

"Does he want us …to go down there?" the cameraman asked, looking as scared as the reporter. The reporter nodded slowly and gulped. The two climbed down from the cliff and ran across to the arena.

"If I don't survive this, I would like to say thank you to all those who've sent me letters and for all my years as your faithful news reporter…" The reporter panted as he and the cameraman ducked for cover a lot nearer to the base of the arena. The reporter and the cameraman slowly raised their heads to see what was happening. Hercule was still pointing to them, this time on the arena. The reporter swallowed hard and slowly crawled onto the stage. "Any comments you'd like to make to Cell, Hercule?" the reporter asked, standing next to the world champ. Hercule nodded and grabbed the microphone.

"Alright Cell! I don't care about your fancy light tricks, you still just a wimp to me, ha ha!" Hercule laughed, pointing to Cell, who wasn't really paying any attention to him.

The city people started cheering their hero, watching his every move on the big Television broadcast screen.

"Hercule can beat Cell, easy!" A young man shouted at the top of his lungs. The crowd started cheering louder.

"Cell's going down!" Another person screamed. Again the crowd cheered louder. Even as Hercule started throwing stupid insults at Cell, they still cheered.

Above the ground, the Z gang continued soaring towards the Cell Games, meeting up with Yamcha and Tien along the way. They hurried toward their destination, not knowing what would happen if they were late. As they were flying something came to the surface of Gohan's mind that he'd been thinking about for a while. Link. What was doing here? Why did he come here? The questions had occurred to him when they first met but the question had left his mind in favor of more important things. He looked toward the new fighter.

"Link!" He called, moving in between Link and his father.

"What is it?" Link asked, following the boy until he was level with him.

"I've just been wondering…why are you here?" Gohan asked. Goku turned and peered at Link, also curious. Link slowly turned away from them, and tried to move faster, to put some distance between them. He'd wanted to keep away from this subject. Goku could see the denial in Link's actions.

"Link? Please tell us." Goku spoke, trying to coax Link out of hiding. Link slowed down till the group was just behind him again and began to speak.

"Back where I come from, my world was in peace. It was beautiful. I was living my life to no end. Till…" Link paused all of a sudden and his expression turned sour. He clenched his fists, shaking at the mere thought of him. "Ganondorf! A powered hungry man came to the castle to pledge allegiants to the King of Hyrule. Rubbish!" Link dismissed the thought of Ganondorf pretending to be nice. "In my world there is a realm which contains my world's most powerful item - the Triforce. I was sent to gather the three stones that are like a key to the realm, and keep the Triforce from him." Link paused again, but managed to continue. "But instead, he used me to get inside the realm, and stole the Triforce. He attacked the world I knew, turning it into a hell burnt world full of his evil!"

"Then what happen?" Krillin asked. Link closed his eyes. His answer was not so easy to tell.

"I fled!" he confessed, with both anger and sadness. The group became silent. Link didn't need to turn to know what they were feeling; the feeling of their eyes on him was enough.

"You left!" Goku exclaimed, sounding concerned, and also a little confused. Link felt himself crumble.

"Why? Why did you run?" Trunks asked.

"At first, it was to find help, but then I found myself here… soon I didn't want to leave" Link explained, sounding cross with himself.

"That no excused!" Piccolo snapped. Link turned his head slightly to see Piccolo's robe. "I've never heard of such a disgraceful act!"

"I didn't have any choice in that matter, Piccolo! It was be killed or run! And I choice to live!" Link augured. Piccolo just frowned and turned away.

"Link." Trunks spoke up. "If it's any constellation, I also came to seek help, but no matter how long I stay here, I'll have to go back. So must you. Face your demon, and I'll face mine." Link could feel something lift. A burden that somehow didn't seem so heavy. Link started to think; maybe he had taken this the wrong way. Suddenly, a dreaded feeling befall him. It started to eat at his chest, a burning heat that felt like fire to his heart.

"Link? What's the matter?" Goku asked, noticing Link's hand clutched to his chest.

"I just need a few minutes to myself. Go on ahead, the Cell games are waiting" Link told them, not hinting the pain in his chest. Goku looked at Link, green eyes full of concern. Link just looked back at him, insisting with his eyes that he was fine.

"Well…alright then. Hurry up soon, Link!" Goku called behind him as he and the others overtook him. Link watched as the z gang left him be alone, floating in the air.