Chapter 44: Future Trunks Gaiden, Part V: The True Evil Emerges
"Alright, everyone… Everything is riding on this last battle! Please give it your all!" yelled Future Trunks as the group set off for Mu's laboratory.
"Oh c'mon, we already practically took down the final boss! The rest of 'em will be a piece of cake, I'll finish this in no time flat!" yelled Brapan as she sped up and immediately reached the laboratory, with the rest of the group quickly following suit.
Once there, Kaioshin said, "Babidi is trying to conceal his presence, but I sense a small disturbance next to Boo's shell, inside of the laboratory. He must be trying to channel damage energy caused in the ensuing battle to revive Majin Boo. However, luckily he appears to be biding his time and trying to not make his presence known. He hasn't yet tried to plug in the energy siphoning device into the shell, yet."
"No, Kaioshin-sama," said Future Trunks, "Mu without a doubt knows where Babidi is. He's probably refraining from killing him because he isn't entirely sure of the nature of our alliance. But with Rild and Dabura both dead, he's nothing but dead weight and a liability."
"Yes. Let us kill Mu swiftly, but the great Lord and I will keep an eye on the shell in order to ascertain that Babidi doesn't pull a fast one," said Kibito.
"Enough o' this mumbo jumbo plannin' talk! Let's fly in! My Fusion won't last all day!" yelled Brapan as she flared up an aura and charged straight at Mu, at which point he pressed a button and released a wall of half-solid, highly resilient plaster that immediately blocked her hit. Future Trunks, however, vibrated his Ki and phased right through Brapan and the plaster, quickly grabbing hold of Mu's throat and saying, "It's quite a bizarre feeling… I took your life in the other timeline, and here I am about to do the same. Regardless, your crimes shall see your life end here!"
Future Trunks then charged Ki into his fist and aimed it at Mu's head, only for Mu to press another button and switch places with Boo's ball.
"Trunks-san! You mustn't apply a strong shock to it! You'll end up awakening Boo!"
"Tch!"
"Allow me!" yelled Juruse as he quickly took out a dagger and swiftly swung it at blinding speeds, slicing Mu's helmet and the rest of his cranial anatomy into pieces. He then sheathed the blade back into his sleeve and said, "That takes care of that… Now…"
As Juruse reached to examine the inside of Mu's throat, a sudden, familiar and sinister voice rang from the inside of his shattered head, yelling, "Bwahahahaha! It isn't going to be quite that easy!"
Mu's headless body then levitated itself into the top of the opening created earlier in the battle and shot out hundreds of eggs, each containing a Tsufurian parasite that crawled into each and every person in the laboratory by entering their mouths: Future Trunks, Brapan, Kaioshin, Kibito, the two Babidis, Juruse, and his followers. Afterwards, a large purple discharge shot out of Mu's corpse, which then expanded and turned into a more cyan-ish green color, as it took the form the parasite Baby took in the final stages of his battle against Trunks, Goten and Pan in the other timeline…
"BABY!" yelled Future Trunks and Brapan together as they said, "You… You didn't die?!"
"Kha ha ha ha ha! You did hear Super #18 say that we resurrected the dead #18 that you destroyed three years ago, did you not?! The Namek Dragon Balls grant three wishes! With the other sets on Earth deactivated, it was the quintessential piece in my plan to rebuild the Tsufurian Empire! As such, I controlled the Machine Mutant agents of Mu to mature me into my maximally developed form, and then wish back the destroyed Planet Plant! From here on out, I shall simply seize from the pesky 'Resistance' leader the restorative plaster we need to restore #18's body, and use it for multiversal domination!"
"W-Wait, according to Juruse's intel that plaster is here in Mu's laboratory! W-What's going on here…?! I-I can't move, this egg is releasing a paralyzing toxin in my body! T-This can't be happening!" said Future Trunks in agony, at which point Juruse suddenly said, "The time is rife!" in a completely different voice than before. In addition, he flared up a golden aura completely similar to that of a Super Saiyan and suddenly charged at Baby, releasing a tail-like appendage out of his mouth with an eerily familiar stinger growing out of its end.
"! T-That tail! W-What is…?!" said Future Trunks and Brapan both, at which point the equally shocked Baby was stabbed by the appendage, and suddenly released a smoldering steam as his body began to crumble.
"W-What is this?! I-I… The fully matured King of Tsufurians… He who should be the mightiest and most resilient being… M-My regeneration cannot keep up! My cells are committing apoptosis from energy loss faster than my regeneration… My regeneration can compenssaaaattteeeee fooooooorrrr…."
Baby began to slur his words as he almost fully decomposed and said with his last breath, "H-How…?! How… Can you still yet move… With my egg in your body?!"
"Bwa hahahaha! Do you not see the anatomy of this body?! I had changed the shape of my tongue to match that of my original form's tail just after I'd decapitated Mu! I had known all along through my intel that you had matured yourself on the Planet Namek, and knowing you, you had no doubt planted a double of your body to hide yourself… And if I were you, I'd have hidden in Mu as well! Since that is the exact same technique I used to deceive Trunks!"
"Deceive… me?! Same technique?! And… And that tail, this-this can't be!"
"Denial will get you nowhere, my friend! You know as well as I!"
"CELL!"
"Juruse" undid his transformation disguise, his aura still blazing, to morph himself back to his original form as the bug-type bio-android Cell, only he was significantly more muscular and broadly built than the one they'd encountered earlier on Earth. Just as quickly as he did this, he used his tail to quickly siphon the remaining, squirming chunks of Baby as well as took out a green plaster resembling Baby's liquefying form, at which point his eyes glowed as Super #18's half-destroyed corpse was brought before him with a powerful telekinetic force. Cell then split his tail into two ends, which with unimaginable speeds morphed into two fully grown tails in their own right. The two tails then struck the abdomens of both Rild and Dabura's corpses, and caused them to quickly disappear and decompose into mere clothing.
Cell then licked his lips and said, "Now for the final phase of my plan… Resurrect from the underworld, Super #18!" before applying the plaster into Super #18's chest, reviving her instantly. She then said in consternation, "W-What…? W-Was I just…" as Cell merged his two tails together and swallowed her whole and absorbed her into the core of his body. Cell then yelled in a blissful pain as he yelled, "Yes… Yes… YESS! The plan that I had been putting in motion for three years… IS FINALLY AT THE PHASE OF FRUITION! HERE, I SHALL OBTAIN THE ULTIMATE AND GREATEST POWER! I-IT IS SO IMMENSE, I CAN BARELY CONTAIN IT WITHIN MYSELF! BUT I WILL MAKE YOU MINE, #18! AS I WAS DESIGNED TO DO!"
"NOOOO!" yelled Future Trunks as he could only watch helplessly as the diabolical menace continued to morph and adapt his body to his new absorbee, as a power surge that could be visible across galaxies erupted and caused all of the remaining Machine Mutants on the planet to short-circuit and explode. When the surge of power subsided, in the eye of the storm, Cell stood in its corner, transformed into what appeared to be his Perfect form, only far more brawny with the spots on his carapace replaced by a sleek sheen.
Cracking his neck and then clutching his hand into a fist and opening it again, Cell then said with a smirk, "I've now attained the power on the realm of the highest Gods. You all have the honor to witness beautiful perfection!"
Cell then stretched his arms and legs out to significantly longer than shoulder-length as he took a breath and yelled, "HWWAAAAAAAAAARGH!" as a blazing, golden aura then erupted around him, as it was then accompanied by powerful bolts of green lightning. Before long, however, the aura intensified into a blazing, red-hot aura of fire before it heated up into a more intense, blue color as white bio-electricity erupted from it. From the maelstrom of power, Cell's transformation was boisterously complete. The green, sleek carapace had been lit a light, cyan blue and his eyes were now a deep aqua blue color, and his tail had once again grown out and its stinger had taken the shape of a drill with six pronged spikes protruding at the base. His insect-like wings had split in two with a Ki manifestation resembling a bat's wings blazing from the split ends.
"I have done it! I have transcended to uncharted levels! I am beyond a Super Saiyan, any Super Saiyan… Including the greatest of legends, the Super Saiyan God! A being of Saiyan ancestry who transcends to a level beyond that of God achieves… This magnificent blue shine…! I am Cell, no longer… I am not Perfect Cell… This is THE BLUE GODSLAYER, CELL-SAMA!" yelled Cell boisterously.
"! H-His power… This is without a doubt the Ki of the Gods! B-But how?! H-He's just a lower world being!" yelled Kibito, at which point Cell replied, "Heh heh heh heh heh… I suppose an explanation is in order. Trunks… I couldn't have done it without you. You have my utmost gratitude for allowing me to reach this pinnacle."
"! H-How… How are you… Even alive?!" yelled Future Trunks in horror.
"Feh heh heh heh heh… You do recall that when Mu took the #17 from this timeline, he opened a large distortion that linked time and space together between all the worlds?"
"T-Then...!"
"YES! It was YOUR actions that allowed me to plan ahead and reach the pinnacle I have assumed, Trunks! When you entered the distortion to give chase to #17, I knew that destiny had now gone and opened for me a door to reaching the ultimate power! For I quickly flew to that very spot in search of the two cyborgs I was always supposed to absorb… But in exchange for failing to obtain them, I obtained valuable information… FAR, FAR, FAR MORE VALUABLE INFORMATION! BWHAHAHAHA!"
"J-Juruse… Ju-Junia… Seru Junia… The Cell Juniors!" yelled Future Trunks in an epiphany.
"Ho? So now you come to realize the true nature of my alias?! Yes, TRUNKS! ALTHOUGH I HAD NOT YET OBTAINED MY PERFECT FORM, I WAS STILL ABLE TO CREATE CELL JUNIORS IN THEIR LARVAL STAGE TO SCOUR THE ALTERNATE TIMELINES, AND RELAY THEIR INTEL TO ME!"
"A-AND THEN YOU LEARNED?!"
"Yes, now you're getting it!" yelled Cell in a mad, ecstatic tone, "Through their hive mind function, they were able to learn of events yet to come from the other timelines… And my own destined future, where you were supposed to kill me in my immature form… But more importantly, I had learned of Baby's plans, and of the modified Super #17! Although my Cell Juniors may not have had the power to infiltrate Capsule Corp. and obtain Super #17, I knew all along that Mu had been spying on Earth in search of samples he could obtain of Gero's infinite energy technology and cybernetics! As such, I killed the shapeshifting animal named 'Pu'ar' and harvested its DNA for myself, took on the form and name of 'Juruse' and then split myself in two using Piccolo's blood within myself, to have my clone serve as a distraction!"
"J-Juruse-san! How, how could you?!" yelled the followers of "Juruse" from the Resistance, "Y-You used us, all along?!"
"Heh heh heh heh heh… Since Trunks was fulfilling the role of the Resistance in the stead of that dead soldier, I merely transformed myself into the shape of one of Mu's patrol agents and killed him, then fed you the cover story about being Mu's chimeric mutant. It worked marvelously. Sparring with you all in my weakened, split state allowed my power to rise greatly over the past three years, as I had planned in order to have the kind of body I need to integrate Super #18's body. Although, I admit that it may have been cutting it close had I not also absorbed the likes of Dabura and the others."
"I-It all makes sense now! W-Why that Cell we encountered was so much weaker than the one in the other timeline… It's because you'd just split yourself in two prior to all of this happening! Y-You… YOU SET ME UP!" yelled Future Trunks in desperation and utter frustration.
"Don't feel bad, Trunks… Everyone fails. The difference is that your failure will have assured the demise of all that you hold dear as I take pleasure in every second of watching them squirm… AS I DELIGHT IN TEARING THEM APART WITH MY POWER!"
"I'VE HEARD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH!" yelled Brapan as she broke free from the gelatin plaster by powering up to the highest power of her maximized Super Saiyan 2 form, at which point she spat out Baby's egg, as it burst and squirmed and withered on the floor before dying.
"Hmm… You're still here? You didn't seem all that powerful, before. Will you really serve as my first opponent?" said Cell with a calm and unemotional poise.
"AS IF! THAT CRAPPY EGG AND THE STUPID FUCKING GOO IS ALL GONE! NOTHIN' HAS CHANGED, I JUST HAVE A NEW TARGET! YOU INSTEAD OF MU!"
Brapan quickly charged in Cell's direction while simultaneously yelling, "Nyoi-bo, extend!" and retrieving it from where it had been lodged before, at which point Cell simply gut punched her without budging from where he stood, causing her to immediately fly a hundred feet into the air and drop her staff, as Cell then jumped and kicked her out of the stratosphere, before quickly appearing behind her and landing a crushing elbow, knocking her out instantly. Brapan, with her face lodged deep into the steel floor, reverted to her normal form before ceasing all movement.
"You're a tough little bird, I'll give you that," said Cell as he stabbed her in the back with his tail and then said, "However, this is the end. You've served moderately well as a guinea pig for my power."
"You fiend! GET AWAY FROM HER!" yelled the horde of Resistance soldiers as they all aimed plasma weapons at Cell, with some of them gritting their teeth and mumbling, "Ju-Juruse-san…"
"Ah, yes. The Resistance. You've served as invaluable tools to me. But your role is over."
"J-Juruse! No, Cell! We drank together, laughed together, and fought together for three years…! A-Are you telling me… Are you telling me it was all just a big farce?! Our camaraderie?!" yelled Cell's lieutenant from the Mother Resistance Army.
"A means to an end."
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!" yelled the lieutenant as he leapt at Cell, at which point Cell threw Brapan's half-dead body at him with such force, he completely disintegrated. He then swiped his tail at the rest of the Resistance gathered in the laboratory, cleaving them in half into a thousand pieces.
"I am starting to get bored now… Is anyone willing to oblige in entertaining me? The paralyzing effect from the invasion of Baby's eggs should be wearing off already for all of you… Will anyone not be a brave trooper?"
Future Trunks, even with Baby's egg losing its life as a reaction to its progenitor's demise and bursting out of his mouth and bubbling into a lifeless, tiny cesspool on the floor with the rest, could not move a muscle. He was overcome with such intense regret at having allowed this to happen, and paralyzed completely by fear. A fear so intense, vomit was gushing from inside his throat, even as he was paralyzed in a defeated, kneeling position…
"G-Get ahold of yourself, Trunks-san! I-It's not over yet!" yelled Kaioshin, at which point Babidi suddenly appeared above him and yelled, "Yes! You're quite right, Kaioshin! If I have him as my right-hand, there will be no need whatsoever for Majin Boo! Paparapapa!"
Waves of dark magical energy shot out of Babidi's hands as he tried to brainwash Cell, which completely dissipated before Cell's almighty presence. Babidi then yelled in complete and utter awe, "I-It can't be! When that machine half Mu created through my clone was destroyed, all of his enhanced magical energy returned to my body!"
"Die and disperse, pathetic little insect!"
Cell quickly cut Babidi in half with his tail with such force that his body was completely erased. He then turned around and slouched before Trunks saying, "What's wrong, Trunks…? This isn't what the original leader of the Resistance has to offer, what happened to all that tenacity…?! Eh?! HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Cell quickly grabbed Trunks by the collar and headbutted him as gently as possible, which still sent him flying with such force that he was immediately knocked out of his Super Saiyan 2 state. He then fell powerlessly into the ground, still blank-faced. He had the face of a dead man.
"Now this is just boring… I think I'll just end you, now," said Cell as he faced the other way and shot a finger beam through his left index finger at Trunks, completely vaporizing everything in the vicinity. Just then, however, he turned around with a frightening, malevolent grin and yelled, "BWAHAHAHAHA! KAIOSHIN! KIBITO! DON'T THINK YOU CAN JUST GO AND ESCAPE ME!"
Cell suddenly warped himself straight into the Kaioshin-kai where Kibito fled carrying Kaioshin and Future Trunks nanoseconds before Cell shot the finger beam, yet they were still grazed by the beam. Kibito had lost his left arm, and Kaioshin his right. Future Trunks had a gaping hole in his right arm, which was hanging by a thread.
"Hm… It appears that I have copied your destination as well as your teleportation technique. A perk of having the power of the Gods. Where is this place?"
"K-Kibito! I will hold him off, you fly to the hill of the Z Sword! And heal Trunks-san, while you're at it!"
"B-But I can't leave you here, master!"
"Do it! It is better than all of us dying here!"
"Y-Yes, I-I shall!" yelled Kibito, while bursting into tears. He quickly used Kai Kai to teleport himself into another corner of the planet, before healing Future Trunks with the last of his strength and collapsing, saying, "Y-You are… our last hope… You… Only you can wield… the Z Sword…"
Cell had merely grabbed Kaioshin by the head and followed Future Trunks' Ki at teleportation-speed, knocking the deity out in the process. He then dropped him unceremoniously onto the ground below him.
"What is this hill? A sword? Is that pitiful toy supposed to kill… ME?!" yelled Cell in a tone of madness as he released a burst of energy, which completely shattered the hill itself along with a large part of the surface of the Kaioshin-kai. However, the cloak of sand that now enveloped everyone in the area was dissipated by a maelstrom caused by an aura burst as Future Trunks entered his Super Saiyan form. He then mustered up the greatest his Ki could manage to flicker in the face of overwhelming terror and transformed into his full power Super Saiyan 2 form, and grasped the Z Sword tightly before swinging it with all his might at Cell's throat. However, it failed to deal the slightest damage. Far from it, it quickly cracked before snapping in two.
"Heh heh heh heh… There was just too enormous a gap in our powers. Goodbye, Trunks," said Cell as he stabbed Future Trunks in the stomach, causing him to drop out of his transformed state and fall powerlessly into the ground, atop the unconscious Kaioshin. Cell then outstretched his tail and stabbed Kibito as well in the midst of the debris, before teleporting back to M2 and finding Future Trunks' sister Bra, her having defused since Cell had left the planet. He then stabbed her through her preexisting stab wound as well before hurling them both atop the other two.
"I suppose this spot will make a good cemetery for them all…" said Cell as he charged up another finger beam and said, "So long, Saiyans… And the two pathetic deities who've failed so miserably!"
However, suddenly a pale, elderly and pointy-eared person appeared next to the pile of defeated bodies. He had an appearance strongly resembling Kaioshin, causing Cell to be intrigued. He stopped charging the beam and said, "Who are you? Are you another deity residing in this planet?"
"Heh heh heh… *ahem* It is I! The Kaioshin from fifteen generations ago! Thanks to the Z Sword snapping in your earlier bout, I have now been freed!"
"And? Explain exactly why I shouldn't bury you in the same grave as them. From you, I feel no power of significance. Just what will you amount to in this desperate situation?"
"Ho ho ho ho ho… Yes, the situation is desperate! But Cell, that's your name, right?"
"Hurry it up and explain. You're starting to irritate me. Why. Should. I. Not. Kill. You?!"
"Patience, patience, my boy! Long ago, an evil and powerful being… Wellllll, not quite as bad as you, maybe, sealed me into the sword, fearing my all-powerful ability! I have the power to draw out a being's hidden power, to levels above and beyond their absolute limit!"
"Ho…! And it is your intention to go ahead and awaken Trunks… And the girl's powers… And have them pose a challenge to me!"
"YES! After all, you just acquired this power, and it'd be a shame if you could find no one on your level to test it out on in this universe, would it not?! Give me… Just one week! I'll power them all up and have them defeat you!"
"A week…? No. In the other timeline, my alternate incarnation went ahead and gave his adversaries ten days, and that was several too many. But I'd like a nice, clean number… So it shall be five! In five days, I shall hold an event… Let's see, in just the right setting! Doing it on Earth or M2 would be boring after so many battles were carried out there, so it shall be on the Planet Plant…! In five days, the Final Cell Games shall be held!"
"Planet Plant it is. I assure you, you won't be disappointed."
"Very well! This is certainly an unexpected turn of events! But be assured, this will be the final day you all draw breath, for once I defeat you all, I will simply destroy this universe with one blast! And go on to destroy all of the others as well, delighting in all of their screams and terror!"
"Then it's a date! You go ahead and prepare yourself for the event, Cell!"
"Heh heh heh heh heh… Enjoy these last five days, they're the final hour of your lives!" yelled Cell as he quickly teleported himself to the restored Planet Plant. However, just as quickly as he did so, he then aimed a blast at New Namek, completely erasing it from existence.
"I can't have any petty Dragon Balls be used to try anything funny… Now, I shall simply wait!"
As this was happening, Pan, who was left on the planet M2, had stumbled into the sealed ball of Boo, which was knocked several miles away. On her person was Babidi's energy absorption device, the function of which she learned from her father Gohan.
"W-We… Can't… Just leave… this… here…."
Pan collapsed as she said this, with blood seeping from her mouth and the stab wound on her stomach. As this was happening, the Rou Dai Kaioshin of this timeline had mixed a series of divine herbs into a powerful medicine, causing Kibito's wounds to rapidly heal.
"It's a shame I can't do this faster… But fear not, the little lady stranded on the Mother planet, you won't die on my watch…!"
To be continued…