Author's Brief Comment: Wow…how lucky are you guys? You get 3 chapters in one day ;) Enjoy them. Honestly, I have no idea when I'll get to start up #11, but I will when I get the chance…next week? This one's long, but 10 is a little shorter—so I guess it's evened out that way. I think you'll like both of them…yeah…you will ;)

Chapter 9: The Devil Inside

It seemed like days that I stood there and kept my eyes locked on his unfaltering face. He made no comment, no expression, and no movement for a long time. I had no idea what he was thinking, which gave me a reason to have no idea what to think for myself. Did I just seal my death wish? Or was he just going to walk away and pretend nothing happened? I highly doubted the latter would be true, but I was almost willing to bet the first wasn't true either. The only thing I could do, though, was stand there and wait for some sort of reaction.

But when that reaction was delayed beyond my point of patience, I decided to break the silence. "What, cat got your tongue?" I said stupidly. For that, I deserved anything he threw at me.

He continued his self-made vow of silence and stared at me, but I realized his eyes became more willing to stare me down until I finally started to melt—in the literal sense.

"Well, I'm not going to stand around until you decide to break out of your coma," I said and attempted to walk around him.

I knew this would work—his hand darted out and grabbed my upper arm, pulling me back into my corner between him and the pillar. He looked at me with a face that said he was truly unsure on how to react to what I had just done to him. I don't think he had ever been verbally abused like that, and maybe it had frightened him. Then it occurred to me—was it possible for Cell to feel fear?

"I want you to explain to me why you believe I have no emotion."

I blinked. Then I blinked again and again until I realized he was waiting patiently for my answer. His voice was still calm and smooth, like that of an early 20th century gentleman. I was stunned that he was able to hold onto such willpower—by now I would've been flipping out if I were in his shoes.

"What the hell for?" I asked rudely.

"I want an explanation for your accusations," he replied simply. "You say I have no emotion other than anger. Why say such a thing?"

"Because it's true," I returned. "You don't have any emotion. The only thing on your mind is yourself. Everyone else around you either doesn't exist or you care nothing for them other than a good time if you take their lives."

"You are mistaken."

"No I'm not," I defended quickly. I could feel that part of me that wanted to lash out and attack him start up. "Don't you start that 'I'm so perfect' thing again. If that's the only thing you can go on about, then what I've just said is true—you care for nothing but yourself."

"And what if I said I cared for you?"

I almost choked on his words. What did he just say?

I shook my head quickly and my hand came around from behind my back, wanting so very badly to slap his face. "You don't care about me."

"What makes you think that?"

"No, what makes you think that Cell?"

"I'm growing tired of you answering my questions with ones of your own, but very well. I've allowed you to live, haven't I? My amusement with you has grown to the point I want to get as much out of you as I possibly can. I care to see what makes such an average woman tick."

"That's a bunch of bullshit," I said with a small laugh. "It doesn't even make any sense! That's not how you should care for someone."

"I brought you to Nikki Town and allowed you to eat and bathe—that's care enough for me."

"Then obviously you were never 'programmed' with the emotions you claim you have. Caring for someone means you love them and want to protect them. It means that you'll do anything for them no matter what the consequences." Wow…did I just say all of that?

"This love thing you speak of is nonsense. It's what makes people weak and vulnerable, which makes me all that more powerful."

"Which means you have no emotion," I finished softly. This time he let me walk away. He had nothing more to say and neither did I.

I had curled up somewhere on the opposite side I normally sat and took a brief nap. It's funny on how tired you can get when you don't do anything for days on end. Unfortunately, though, I had been woken by something other than my body telling me I was done sleeping. In fact, my body had jerked awake to hear the sound of not one, two, three, or four helicopters and planes, but probably a dozen or more. My eyes opened up immediately when I saw several of them fly over, one with two men (one of which appeared to be holding a camera) hanging out the side door.

I sat up quickly and realized what was going on. Someone had decided to trigger an army to invade Cell. How stupid could people get? They had no chance! It made me get to my feet and shout up at them to get away. I stopped within seconds, though, when I heard a chuckle.

Cell stood in the center of the ring again, his arms crossed and his head cocked up towards the helicopters. He had a big smile on his face and every once and a while he let out an evil giggle. "Maybe they're here to rescue you," he said, his head nodding towards me.

"Shut up," I said and looked around. Hummers, Jeeps, tanks, foot soldiers, you name it, they were closing in all around. My heart's pace quickened and I became nervous. Armed forces of this magnitude had a good chance of blowing up not only Cell, but me as well. I'd be pissed off to no end if they killed me instead of saving me.

"Look, all these men still playing with toys," I heard Cell say. He smiled and turned towards me. "Time to move, darling."

"Darling?" I said, temporarily forgetting that hundreds of forms of weaponry were aimed in my direction.

Cell didn't reply; at least, not in the way I wanted. He scooped me up in his arms, holding both my back and legs, and flew off. I had no choice but to lean up against him in fear that I'd fall out of his cradled embrace. At first I thought he was running away, but then I realized he wasn't when we landed on a rock formation a few miles away.

"What, are you scared they might get you?" I asked.

"Please," he said with a wave of his hand. "I just don't want those idiots to ruin my ring."

I looked out at the armed forces turning and making their way to our new location. "Cell, they're going to try to kill us!"

"I'm not worried," he replied.

"May you're not, but I am! I can't survive an attack!" I started to panic, but again, I was powerless to do anything about my current situation. I was getting very tired of feeling that way.

The tanks, helicopters, jets, and everything else drew closer, missile launchers still aimed at us. I started to shake. There was no way—

I heard a few rockets launch. I saw them heading straight for me. I yelled out wildly and curled my body into a huddled ball on the ground. I'd rather be choked to death than feel my body explode with intense heat.

But I didn't feel anything. In fact, I barely heard the explosions all around me. I looked up a tiny bit, peaking between my arms that covered my face. Then my head popped up to get a better view. Cell stood perfectly still in front of me…as if protecting me? All around us was a strange greenish glow and beyond that was a thick cloud of dust engulfing the surrounding area. He was protecting both of us. I have no idea how he was doing it, but whatever the military men threw up couldn't make a dent at the force field-thing Cell held so easily.

Maybe he was perfect…

No. He had no emotion…none. He didn't care about anything but himself. Sure. That's why he was protecting me from all harm. No…that was why he was keeping me from being saved by one of those men down there.

I argued with myself for the entire time Cell held the barrier while we were being attacked. Then finally, the greenish glow disappeared very slowly until the brown dust became more visible until that too, faded away.

I became extremely nervous again, though, when I realized the rock we had been on was no longer there. I looked down to see hundreds of feet separating me from the ground and I instantly became terrified, even though I was just hovering there without knowing why or how.

"I suggest you sit still for a moment," he said. I looked up and figured out that if he was able to create that barrier or whatever to protect us from harm, then he was able to create some sort of invisible floor to keep me from falling to my doom?

During that moment I spent to come up with a reasonable explanation as to how I was suddenly able to float, Cell had thrown back his arm over his shoulder, his hand spread out as wide as it could go. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that look of pure evil wash over his entire face, his eyes glittering with anticipation and excitement.

"What are you—" I started, but my words were cut off the second his arm came swooping down making a tidal wave of light dive all around us. I held my hands over my ears as I heard shouting and explosions below where I sat in midair. Whatever had just happened was terrible enough that I couldn't get myself to open my eyes. I was much too afraid of what I'd see if I did so.

My ears and eyes were forced open, though, when Cell grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. The way he had done so made me rock towards him and lose my balance enough where I had to grab on to his waist for support. Before backing away from him, however, I took a chance to look down. To my ultimate horror, I saw nothing. At least nothing I could make out except a bunch of debris littering the desert floor. Pieces of metal, rubber, and such lay scattered, but no signs of human bodies could be pulled out from the rubble. He had destroyed them; every single one of them. An entire army had been wiped clean by one man…creature…machine.

While I stood horrified, Cell had lowered us back to the ground. I was forced to stand where thousands of men had just been murdered in one sweeping blow. Cell looked around with a satisfied grin.

"How could you…" I said softly.

"How could I what? Kill all those men? Easily," he replied smugly. "No weapon in the human world is enough to even inflict a paper cut on me. Pathetic fools."

"You just killed all of them right before my eyes," I said stunned.

"So I did," he said with a smile. "Aren't you proud that you witnessed my power and didn't have to be a part of the devastation? Oh, and wouldn't it count as a form of protection since I didn't let them harm you?"

"Is that what this is all about? Protecting me?" I looked up at him, my eyes blinded by a pool of tears that quickly started draining with the slightest jerk of my head. "You're the pathetic fool—they had no power over you! Yet you still killed them unmercifully."

"If I hadn't they would've tried attacking to get to you," he replied.

"And I wish they had! At least I would've known that I might've had a chance to get away from you!" It was then my feet finally found the power to move and get away from him. I walked as quickly as I could back to the ring, but about halfway there I decided to forget everything. I didn't care what happened—I ran. I turned to my right and just ran as fast as I possibly could with no care that I would be killed, whether by nature or Cell. The only thing I wanted to do was get as far away from that place and Cell as I could.

It didn't take long for a sharp burning sensation to shoot down my calves and thighs. I also started to feel a stitch in my side that was threatening to clog my breathing in some terrible way. Tears still trailed down my cheeks and that made everything worse since crying and running weren't a good combination on the body. Parts of me were yelling to stop and just give up and pray to anyone who would listen to just let me die. The other parts persuaded me to continue to get as far as I could before he stopped me himself.

Through my blinded vision, though, I saw him appear out of thin air. He stood there with his arms hanging at his sides, but I wasn't about to find out what would happen if I continued running until we met. I skidded to the right and ran in the other direction. I'd make him work before he had a chance to kill me. And sure enough, he appeared again in my path. I skidded to the left this time, tripping myself, falling over halfway, but pushing myself up quickly to continue running.

My tumble was my downfall, though. When I had jumped back to my feet to go on he was there to meet me. His hands locked over my shoulders and held me still. I yelled whatever came out of my mouth—what it was, I really don't know—and my hands came up in balled fists to start pounding on his hard chest. I cried like a little kid did when they were having a fit. My knuckles started to ache from clashing together as I hit him over and over again.

"Let me go!" I cried. "Just let me go!"

He must've been waiting to act until I grew tired. That didn't take long. My yelling subsided and my fists stopped and loosened. I sunk down to my knees and sat there, my eyes barely focusing on his black shins. I had exhausted myself to the point I could barely breathe. The tears still managed to escape my eyes, though, and that's the only way I knew I wasn't completely numb—I was still able to feel them running down to my chin and then fall.

I became sleepy very quickly. I felt my whole body just relax and want to lay back and jump into a peaceful sleep. I was so tired…and I had no cares in the world. I felt something wrap around me, but I didn't know what. I felt my face leaning up against something warm and smooth, but I didn't open my eyes to see. Somewhere in the far distance I heard squeaking every second or two, yet it didn't matter what was making that sound. I just wanted to sleep and forget the world existed.