Author's note: You all said I wouldn't be back. Here I am. I am indeed back. I've been through a lot of stuff in the past, what almost 2 years? School, romance, other such things. Listen though, the important thing is that I am back. I was busy, real busy. I wrote a novel. No joke, a real novel. 400+ pages. That's what I was doing instead. No excuse, but know that I was working on things. To those of you who stuck it out, sorry for the wait, but thanks for waiting. For those of you who didn't believe I'd be back, I just hope you actually find the story.

HHH

Without further ado, let us get started!

"Sheesh," groaned 18, "Why is this taking so long?" Trunks kept his eyes on the road, trying not to let his annoyance at 18's complaining seep into his voice.

"We're driving," answered Trunks. It had been a few days since he'd try to apologize. Since then, things had shifted from somewhat pleasant to tense at varying points. Right now was the latter.

"I just want to know why we weren't able to get closer the day of," said 18.

"I couldn't fly that far that day," explained Trunks. "I wore myself out fighting you two like an idiot. I was lucky I got you as far as I did. It didn't help that I was pretty much dragging you there the whole way."

"How far are we, anyway?" asked 18, ignoring Trunks's grievances.

"We were in a town on the opposite end of the continent," said Trunks. "We were essentially on the furthest point from home we could get. I can only think that we're halfway there, if that."

"Halfway!" exclaimed 18. "That's seriously how far we've gotten? That's it!"

"Not used to not flying, huh?" asked Trunks. 18 shook her head. "Well, me neither, but you don't hear me complaining do you?"

"Whatever," said 18. She looked out at the landscape. Still desert. They'd passed through some plains earlier on, and she thought that they'd finally escaped the desert, but it hadn't lasted very long. Trunks had promised that things in the immediate area around the city were green, but that there was still more desert after that.

However, once they got into town, 18 knew Trunks would have to make good on his promise. He owed her for destroying her vest, and for insulting her. She'd gotten him to promise a shopping trip. Sure, it was kind of silly, especially given their current and grave situation, but she knew they'd have to stop to shop for supplies anyway.

"How long's it gonna be til the next town anyway?" she asked.

"Should hit it by late afternoon," said Trunks. "We'll stay there for the night. Sound good?" 18 nodded. Any place she could get a shower would be great.

888

"Cell," said 19, not looking up from his work.

"Yes?" asked Cell, eager. 19 had said it would be finished today. His perfection was so close now. He could feel it.

"There has been a small hiccup," said 19. Cell frowned. "There was a complication with one of the sensors."

"And does this set you back?" asked Cell, irritated.

"Only slightly," said 19. "I will have the device finished by tonight, if not sooner. I had hoped to give it to you in exactly three minutes, twelve seconds."

"I see," said Cell, closing his eyes. He carefully stroked the sparrow perched on his shoulder. "Nineteen, I have a question."

"Yes?" asked 19.

"How accurate will the device be, if I may ask?"

"It would have led you to the precise point," explained 19, "if not for this error. It will allow you to find Eighteen's general location, but you will have to search for her from that point on yourself. I can do no more with the current parts at my disposal, and I know you wish to find her today." Cell smiled.

"Good foresight," he said. "Any further delay, and things wouldn't have ended well for you. I could have destroyed you for failure after I found her."

"Would you have?" asked 19.

"Not being able to achieve perfection wears on me, Nineteen. It makes me irritable. Make no mistake, I would have found her before I killed you. But, I thought of a better punishment."

"That would be?" asked 19.

"Condemn you to worse than the state I found you in," explained Cell. "Take away the arm I gave you, as well as your own. Then, leave you here to slowly leak power. I know you possess sentience. You would be alone here, unable to move, potentially for centuries given you have nowhere for the power in your body to go." Nineteen's hand trembled slightly. "Of course, I may not have. Still, it's a possibility. Don't screw up."

"Understood." Satisfied that he'd gotten his message across, Cell turned his thoughts to other matters. He now had a whole day to kill. What experiments could he perform today? He looked over at 19. Should he work on giving him legs? No, that would be foolish. What would it benefit 19 to have legs at this point? That could be dealt with later.

He stood up, heading towards the entrance. "I'll be back later," he said. "I do hope that the device is complete when I return."

"I will do everything in my power to make it so," said 19.

"You'd better," said Cell. He left the hidden lab and flew up to perch on a rock formation. He looked around, seeing if there were any creatures around that he could work on. He didn't see anything nearby, and turned his thoughts to what he had at his disposal. He knew he could take the DNA of a creature into his own body, and then produce a copy, provided he kept it separate. But what else could he do, if he really wanted too?

888

They had made it into town, and for once, Trunks truly regretted being a man of his word. Besides all the stares, the confusion of seeing Earth's great hero standing next to what appeared to be one of it's great villains, and the over all fear and anxiety Trunks could see in certain civilians, there was the huge stack of clothes sitting before him.

"Did you really... I mean... was this..." Trunks was nearly speechless. 18 ignored him, looking at herself in a mirror, holding up a shirt to get an idea of how it looked on her. She shrugged, thinking it was cute, and tossed it on top of her stack. The man behind the counter was beyond fear of his strange customer. Was she the infamous Android 18? It looked like it. But just look at how much she was getting!

18 turned to the man, grabbing a shirt and a black vest. "How do you think this would look on me?"

"I think it would look excellent on you, my dear," answered the shopkeeper. "Please, try it on!" 18 gave him a smile and a wink, and turned to walk towards the dressing room. She saw the look on Trunks's face and paused for a moment. Trunks looked at her, and she looked back at him, looking suddenly sympathetic. Then, she stuck her tongue out at him, smirked, and walked into the dressing room.

Trunks and the shopkeeper waited for her to come out. The shopkeeper, feeling there was now an awkward silence in the room, decided to try and start up a conversation. "You know," he said, "She really is very pretty."Trunks slowly looked over at him. "And I meant what I said about how she'd look in that outfit."

"Oh, I know," said Trunks. He looked from the stack of clothes to the man behind the counter. "But, I have to ask... was it absolutely necessary to agree with her on EVERYTHING SHE PICKED OUT!" The man twiddled his fingers, looking around the room as if he hadn't heard trunks at all. Trunks was about to go on, when the dressing room door opened. Both men looked over. Trunks's eyes widened.

18 really did look good. She was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt with a black vest, possible made of silk, and a pair of black gloves. She was also wearing new jeans. "Well boys, how do I look?" she asked.

"Stunning," answered the shopkeeper, eager to please.

"Uh, fine," said Trunks, looking back at the shopkeeper. "You about done?"

"That's rude Trunks," answered 18, smirking, "And here I was thinking I looked good enough even for you." Trunks didn't answer. Satisfied that she'd tortured him enough for now, 18 walked over to her stack of clothes and confirmed that she was done shopping. "How much will this run?"

"Well," said the shopkeeper, "you really did pick out top of the line things here. That vest, this pair of pants, that skirt you found earlier... I think we're looking at about ten thousand yeni here."

"Ten thousand!" exclaimed Trunks. 'That's more than I payed for the truck!' 18 smiled deviously. Trunks was bound by his word to buy her whatever she wanted today. But, she looked at the shopkeeper, bending over the counter as she did, and placed her chin on her gloved hand. She gave the shopkeeper a sultry smile.

"Is it really going to be ten thousand?" she asked. The man blushed.

"Er, uh, n-no, actually, yes there's a sale today, of course, how could I have forgotten," the man stammered. "Half off, so, uh, five thousand." 18 smiled brightly.

"Thank you very much," she said. Trunks payed the man, and they bagged up 18's clothes. Trunks didn't have a capsule to spare on him, so he had to carry everything. As they left the store, Trunks couldn't help but look at 18, somewhat confused.

"If I was paying anyway," he asked, "what was all that about?"

"What was all what about?" asked 18.

"That whole flirting with him thing," asked Trunks. "Why get him to reduce the price?"

"Well," said 18, "I just felt like what he was asking was a little too much, that's all." In reality, she had actually felt like giving Trunks a break. He WAS paying for everything, after all, and she decided that maybe she shouldn't push it too far. It might actually get them back on decent terms, and make the rest of the trip bearable.

As they walked back to the hotel, they passed a jewelry shop. 18 stopped dead, something in the window catching her eye. Trunks kept walking. In a moment, he noticed that 18 was no longer following him and turned around. She was right up next to the glass, looking at something intently. She walked to the door and went into the shop. Trunks sighed and made his way to the shop. He walked in just in time to see, her looking in a mirror, holding up a string of pearls.

Trunks groaned internally. Jewelry now? How much was he going to spend here? Without a word, 18 put the necklace on. She gave a small smile. It looked good. It tied the outfit together, really. She looked over at Trunks, who looked exasperated. She mouthed the word "please" at him. Trunks sighed and shook his head yes.

"Yay!" she said. She walked over to the counter, and Trunks payed for it. Trunks was surprised that the necklace was the only thing she wanted. He had expected to be there for another few hours while she tried on who knows how many different combinations of jewelry. But, 18 now looked really happy and content. Trunks decided that he would take this 18 over the one he'd fought with days before any day.

However, Trunks still felt bad about what he had done. Sure, he had bought her everything she'd asked for today, but he felt like that didn't quite make it up to her. He knew that they were enemies, he really did, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he had truly been in the wrong to insult her. The problem was, he didn't quite know how to make up for it. He looked around, trying to find some hint of what to do. he had to... he caught sight of a store. That was it!

"Hey Eighteen?" he asked. She stopped. "Would you mind holding these for a second? I have to go check on something."

"Um, okay," said 18.

"Thanks." Trunks gave her the bags and quickly headed to the store. He was back in a few minutes. He picked up the bags and they continued on to the hotel. All the while, they both tried to ignore the stares. They both knew it was inevitable. Not every place could be like the last town, small enough and secluded enough that no one knew who 18 was, or who Trunks was for that matter. This was a larger city, and as such had been hit by the Androids before. walking among them now was strange for 18. She could see the fear and anger in people's eyes, and for the first time it began to bother her.

They finally reached the hotel and got a room. It was a suite, really, with two bedrooms. 18 was thrilled. "A suite, really Trunks?" she asked happily. Trunks nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "Had to get something with two rooms, after all. And this is what was available." What Trunks didn't tell her was that there had been other two-bedroom setups available. He'd chosen the suite intentionally, because he felt that 18 might as well have a nice place to sleep for once. After all, when it came down to it, the reason they were on the run was because 18's life was on the line. She might as well get some compensation for it.

They put 18's new clothes in her room, and got themselves situated. It was just getting dark, and neither of them were ready for bed yet. They sat on a couch in the main room of the suite, trying to think of something to kill time. After a while, 18 spoke.

"What were you doing in that store earlier?" asked 18.

"Oh," said Trunks. "Yeah, I... it was nothing."

"Uh-huh," said 18. "Bull. What were you up to?"

"Nothing," answered Trunks. 18 narrowed her eyes at him.

"You're up to something. Admit it."

"Don't know what you're talking about," said Trunks, smirking. He sat back in the seat, resting his head on his arms.

"Tell me."

"Tell you what?" asked Trunks, innocently.

"Oh you are such a pain," said 18, folding her arms. "Are you always this stubborn?"

"Yep."

888

Cell came back to the lab after a full day of experimenting, quite content with what he had accomplished. He looked over at 19. "Is it done?" he asked.

"Exactly five minutes, forty-six seconds until completion," answered 19. Cell smiled.

"Good," said Cell. "Then tomorrow, I will finally go after them. And as for you, I may just give you legs tomorrow."

"Really?" asked 19.

"You never know," said Cell. "It really depends on what happens tomorrow, doesn't it?" With that, Cell left 19 to complete his work. He had to rest up for tomorrow. Today's experiments had left him feeling a bit drained. He remembered what the purple haired one, Trunks, could do, and knew he couldn't take him in this condition. But tomorrow, he was sure he could do it.

Yes, Trunks would die tomorrow, and Cell would become perfect.

HHH

What could Cell have been doing all day? What could have tired him out? Does he have a new secret weapon for when he attacks Trunks and 18 tomorrow? And can Trunks and 18 keep up this level of civility much longer? Find out next time!

How's that? And there's more where that came from, I assure you. I can totally get this thing back on track. But, I have Spore now, finally, and so don't be surprised when I get distracted. But I have everything planned out. It's just a matter of getting it done. Till next time!