AS22: R&R! this is a good chapter, all about how Katrin sees her good counterpart.

Chapter 9: Secrets of the Forsaken Angel

3rd P.O.V.

(Since this chapter is in the P.O.V. of the evil counterparts, I won't specify the characters as 'Dark'.)

"Yes, I believe this place will do for now." Katrin said as she led her family into a large cavern system. This included the newest member, a son for her and her mate. She looked at the unconscious boy lovingly as Cell put him down.

"The air smells funny on this planet." Gohan said, sniffing the air.

"That's because it isn't polluted here." Trunks said.

"So that's what that is? Clean air?" Goten asked, looking around.

"Yeah. And the air isn't the only thing, the water is clean too." Piccolo Daimoa said, drinking a handful of the water.

Katrin looked over at her mate and her good counterpart's son. The boy was still sleeping.

She gets to have it all… a family, a son… and yet, she didn't take it… how did she get all of this? Why has all my hard work been repaid with heartache!

Katrin found a flat rock that she sat on. Her family looked around as she sat, deep in thought.

She gave up her power? She obeyed all the rules? She had visions as I once did? She didn't earn that power! Her life was perfect! She wasn't beaten… she wasn't raped… she fears being like me? What am I missing? What does she possess that I don't? ...She was raised human as well. Katie is a human name, as is Goku.

Katrin looked at her family closer.

Her Vegeta is like a father figure… he never became king, and 'Goku' beat him to the SSJ transformation. He was evil, but isn't anymore. His human mate still lives…

Goku is her cousin. He is Kakorot. He was raised human. How? How could he not notice he wasn't human? He's gone now, sacrificing himself for earth. Why would you sacrifice yourself? You don't gain anything…

It's the same with Piccolo. He was good, an ally, mentoring Gohan and Katie… but he had nothing to gain…

Her mate isn't from this time. I don't want to go there, its too confusing… but Cell died to save Katie… would my mate do the same? What am I thinking? He wouldn't gain anything…

How could she still care for people so much after all these deaths? After being alive for this long she's still so naïve? Love only leads to heartache… I don't love anyone, I can't afford to.

Katrin's conclusions made no sense. As she had learned as a young girl, love was only a trick nature plays on the mind when a species needs to reproduce. If anyone had loved her, they were dead. Her parents died by Kooler's hand when she was a child. Her mother was pregnant at the time on top of that. But she made Kooler pay, Kooler paid a very harsh price indeed.

She said Kooler had killed her family as well… we aren't completely different after all… why does this girl conflict me so? Do I see myself in her somewhere?

Katie's words floated into mind.

"You're better than this, I know it!"

"Codie! Don't try to fight him, just run!"

This boy means a lot to her. If only I could-

"I don't like this, Empress." Piccolo snapped Katrin out of her thoughts, angering her.

"This better be important, Daimoa. I was deep in thought."

"Of course, my lady. Please forgive my ignorance."

"Whatever." She sat up, still not looking at Piccolo Daimoa, "What is it you do not like?"

"Taking the boy. Your counterpart seemed very close to him."

"Daimoa," Katrin lowered her voice, looking at her mate and Codie. Cell was already attached to the boy, "You of all people should know how much Cell and I want an heir. You know how that can never be." in anger she hit the stone with her fists, "You know," she lowered her voice again, "You know that I cannot have a child. This boy has the combined DNA of the Cell from this dimension and my good counterpart. He is the closest thing to a son Cell and I could ever have."

"This I know, my empress, but taking another's child-"

"I had to take whatever I needed to survive for years. And now I'm doing it again. In order for Cell and I to have an heir and keep order in our universe, we need an heir to rule when we die. He is the closest thing we could ever have."

"Yes, my empress."

"Now leave me. Take my cousin and look for food."

Daimoa left and Katrin turned back to her thoughts.

A son… I will have a son by any means necessary. I will take what I want and need by force. That's the only way to get things done.

"Empress, don't hide from me." the voices echoed in Katrin's mind.

"No, not again! Go away, leave me!"

"You cannot escape me. You know what I am."

"All the reason I must hide."

"You don't have to hide. Embrace me."

"I cannot embrace this part of me. It is weak."

"If I am so weak, why do you struggle?"

"Go away!" Katrin's voice echoed in the cave. Cell turned from Codie and went to her side.

"It's back again, isn't it?" he whispered, looking down to her.

"Yes." her voice was low and cracking. She hugged herself and started to rock. Cell hated to see her like this.

"Leave us." Cell ordered. The cave emptied immediately.

"He won't leave this time… I can't get him to go away."

"Shh. It'll be… okay. It'll leave, as always." Cell knelt down and held his mate as she began to cry. He was the only one to ever see her weakness. He saw it as his duty to help keep it hidden from the world.

Katrin heard voices, it was as simple as that, yet so much more complicated. Cell could never figure out what or who it was she heard. Whoever it was seemed to grow stronger with every attack on her mind. This was the first time she had ever used a masculine pronoun in reference to a voice.

"What does it want?" he asked her. She was shaking in his arms.

"Me, that's all it ever wants." She sobbed, shaking even harder now.

"You know I could stop it. You know I could enter your mind and stop this. I would, if only you'd ask me."

"No, no! You can't, you just can't!" she cried.

"Okay, okay, I won't. Forget I even asked."

"You can't see it, you can't! It's horrible, you can't!" she continued to cry, for the first time in years she cried. Cell hated to see her cry, hated to see her pain. He hated that she wouldn't let him help.