Yeah, almost one more chapter until the end of this mini-story to my fully-developed story for next year! Okay, what's with the glaring contest?

Arina: He's upset about me not seeing him on that day!

Cell: You always give me an advance notice whenever you're doing something!

Y.A.R.: Seriously? All this for one freaking day?

Arina: He was so mushy when I came back!

Cell: I was NOT!

Y.A.R.: Oh boy...

Chapter 9-Mirroring Feelings

Tomorrow was the day of reckoning for Earth.

After this day was done, it was going to turn into the battle for the history books.

Although, after doing a whole lot of soul-searching yesterday, he was contemplating on whether or not he should leave with the girl that changed him.

With the final day of preparations for Earth's demise closing in, the android was awaiting the return of the girl that literally made him completely changed his morals about himself the moment he was created. It was absolutely insane, he thought, that in a matter of days since the announcement of his tournament that Arina showed up with a personal mission to fulfill, only to have connected with him without ever being like the average girl. However, the very question of why the female Sayian never showed up yesterday was still bugging him. If there was something that made her depart from the very grounds all due to his rough, if not harsh rejection to her feelings, he needed to know.

The sound of shoes clicking to the ground snap him out of his thoughts, sharply turning his head to see Arina landing on his battle arena. Cell wanted to find out everything about why the girl never appeared yesterday, and hold her so much within his arms. Walking towards the android, Arina was hoping that nothing changed since she didn't come by to visit and convince him to leave Earth yesterday. Of course, the female Sayian was absolutely upset about his reaction to her actions on that day, but knew nothing beyond that after she left the arena. In one fell swoop, she felt his arms around her own body, but pushed him away quickly, feeling that the android wasn't the same person that she met from day one.

"Eww! You got way too mushy since I left the other day!" Arina squirmed.

Cell grew several veins on his head, with his eyes violently twitching in anger. Did she just called him the last thing that he ever wanted to be associated with?

"Mushy? What insane thoughts were you thinking about the last time I saw you, you annoying little wench?!" Cell shouted.

"...Oh good; for a second there, you literally had me terrified." Arina sighed.

Now his anger went into complete confusion. Cell was looking at Arina like she drank one too many drinks at a bar. Did the girl not want him to change into a person that she didn't see before?

"What do you mean by that, woman?" Cell asked.

"It's not that I want to see you as a different person, but I'm not ready to be near someone with the intentions of crushing my feelings twice in my lifetime." Arina explained.

Ah, so that was it. After the forced rejection that the android gave to her the other day, the girl was reluctant to let him be near her. Well, considering that he was in a huge state of denial with his feelings towards Arina since the day they first met, he had his reasons to push her away. Cell didn't want to change himself either; he hated anything involving human emotions and now this bubbly girl just had to come into his life and just gave him something very inconvenient to his entire being.

That thing was indeed human emotions: more specifically, love.

Cell could lie about what he was thinking about what happened after she forcefully left him, but the fact that she can read his mind made that thought fizzle away. Damn, he had to come up with something to ask her about so that whatever thoughts were coming in his head now, disappeared completely before tomorrow's biggest fight for Earth's existence. Arina was becoming confused about the body language that the android was exuberating after she arrived from being away from him for an entire day. Sure, the girl was visibly upset about him pushing her away, but she had a huge reason for not even showing up to convince him. Since it was closing in on the day of the tournament, Arina needed to push everything that she had in her arsenal to convince him to leave with her.

"Hmph...for your information, I was going through a lot of deep thinking since the other day's events." Cell said. "Speaking of which, you never did show up to annoy me like usual. Care to inform me of why you decided to stay away?"

"I had two reasons. One: You pushed me away after our kiss, and it really hurt me in a very personal way. Two: Let's just say that I heard something about my parents and went to investigate." Arina explained. "The second reason kept me away for so long because I...really wanted to see either my mother or father in person. And the first reason, you already know the answer to that."

"..." Cell couldn't even find the words to speak. Sure, he didn't have parents; hell, he was created by a mad scientist for Kami's sake! But, considering Arina's abandonment issues, those reasons were good enough for the childish girl to keep her distance from him to at least know something about herself.

"So, what about you, Mr. Unhappy?" Arina asked. "Did you do anything while I was gone?"

"I just been in deep thought." Cell said.

"About what?" Arina inquired, walking towards him to be close to him...well, more like being close to his face.

Damn, he thought. Arina was that close to his face and it was provoking him to repeat the actions from the other day that made him push her away in the first place. Cell had to get her off his back about such a sensitive topic, and swiftly turned around to keep his eyes off the childish Sayian, but just like the earlier days that she got on his nerves, Arina was still looking straight into his eyes demanding an answer. Sighing in frustration, the prideful android took a couple of steps back and pinched his nose to prevent a headache from brewing in his mind. There had to be a better way to explain to her about what was brewing inside his head.

...Or not telling Arina about his strange epiphany was a lot better.

"Just about the fact that tomorrow's the day that Earth will standing for the last time, and when I'm done destroying those who dare to defy my perfection, there won't be a planet to hide on." Cell stated.

Arina didn't buy it. "You're not only half-lying, but you're also telling half the truth." she said with a half-lidded stare.

And of course the annoying girl would see through his words; still, the fact that Arina didn't look into his mind when he spoke made him think that his thoughts were secure from her prying mind...

"So, was the kiss really that important to you?" Arina asked curiously.

Or she was going back into the annoying category after that very sentence, if the pink-haired Sayian didn't stop being so nosy this very instant!

"Do you not have any discipline on how to stay out of other people's business?" Cell barked.

"I was raised by animals on the very planet my mother left me on to protect me; what makes you think that I had any sort of discipline from either of my parents?" Arina retorted, feeling insulted by his remark.

"Hmph, there won't be any reason for me to even go with you if I'm victorious over this miserable excuse of a planet." Cell said. "And considering your actions, you should have at least some restraint or discipline when you're with somebody!"

"No way that you can defeat every one of the fighters on this planet!" Arina declared. "And to prove my point, I'm making a bet on you!"

"What kind of bet are you planning?" Cell asked in curiosity.

"It's a simple wager, nothing suspicious at all." Arina said, as the android in front of her raised an eyebrow in question. "If by the impossibility that every fighter that comes here is defeated by you, I'll leave this planet without you and let you have your little fun destroying this planet with no interference whatsoever. However, if even one of the fighters drives you to the brink of doing something drastic, you are to leave this planet with me and never come here again, unless for emergencies of any circumstances in the future."

So, basically he thought, this was a win-lose bet that Arina was making with the prideful android. Cell chuckled amusingly; this was a wager that was heavily on his side since anyone other than Goku couldn't match his abilities and power. There was no way that he would lose the bet, since the girl was willing to leave him alone to deal with Earth if the bio-android won his very own tournament. It was like killing two birds with one stone; after all, Arina wasn't even going to compete if she was going to keep her identity a secret from everyone who was coming to participate. Nothing will stop Cell from achieving his goal of proving that he was indeed the ultimate life-form ever to be created.

"Heh, this is a bet that I'll surely win by a landslide." Cell smirked. "Besides, the person that could match my strength is by far the only real challenge that this miserable planet can offer."

"What, I don't count?" Arina asked, feeling insulted.

"You live on a different planet; our fight was inconclusive, so I can't based on what I saw to know about your fighting techniques." Cell stated.

"Oh...that's right." Arina said. "So, do you accept the bet conditions or not?"

"Hmph, you should know the answer to that, woman." Cell scoffed.

"Okay then! So, by tomorrow, the tournament will start and I'll be there to assess the entire thing to know when you either win or lose our wager." Arina declared.

"You're leaving?" Cell asked.

"I'm not coming back alone; Iris and the rest of my friends are coming with me towards this very area to watch the fighting as it goes." Arina said. "You can call them the support watchers for our bet."

"Whatever." Cell grumbled. He really wanted Arina to go already, so that the mindset that he had in his head was focused on the tournament.

"Alright, then..." Arina sighed, as she started to take a few steps away from the prideful man. "I'll...um, be seeing you tomorrow, huh?"

An awkward silence filled the air and tension was already setting inside the both of them. Cell wanted to hold Arina in his arms again, but the reluctant aura that she was giving off from her body meant that she wasn't ready to start the emotional rejections all over again. Did his actions from the other day jeopardize what could have been something more with the bubbly fighter? Or was it the programmed orders of Dr. Gero that prevented him from functioning the way he wanted to since the first time he came into this time period?

All of the choices he made until this point was ultimately made by him, even though most of them were followed orders of his then-creator.

And yet, when Arina showed up following the day of his announced tournament, she brought so many things that he questioned within his soul.

Did he truly wanted to fulfill the deranged scientist's last wishes to take down his most hated adversary to avenge the fall of the organization that he once was a part of?

Or, did her words rang truth about him broadening his search into finding much more challenging fighters to test his limits?

Did Cell truly wanted to be his own person?

For the first time in his entire existence, the prideful man didn't know the answers bundling in his mind. Cell tried every scenario in his head, but no answer came into light as he felt two arms wrap around him from behind, shifting a glance from the corner of his lavender eyes to see Arina holding him, her head tilted slightly down in comfort as she detached from him and departed the arena, but not before Cell heard her last words in the whispering winds:

"You don't need to hold back anymore..."

And the questions so important to him in his mind at the moment, was why...?

Why didn't the destructive bio-android compel her to stay with him until tonight? Was it that Cell himself was actually afraid to reject her again after their first and only kiss? Did it meant that...

No, he shook his head vigorously to get that thought out of his mind. Tomorrow was his tournament, and the android needed to be completely focused. But, why his heart felt so...

Incomplete?

As the final day for preparation came to a close, a single tear subconsciously fell from the corner of his eye, mumbling incoherent words from his mouth, but three words clearly stood out from the rest:

"...Arina...loved...cherish..."

And in the opposite direction, Arina, who heading towards the location of her friends were stationed was doing the same thing, except her words were much quieter than his.

"Cell...precious...love..."

The stage was set for tomorrow's history-changing tournament as both parties were about to enter the arena for one major fight to remember.

Finally done! I should note that Arina rarely knows anything on the verbal stance of romance, but that doesn't mean she's clueless on the other side of the coin. So, for her to say the word love is along the lines of 'once in a blue moon' chance. Just to clear things up on that.

The final chapter and epilogue is upon us! R&R, people!