Piccolo found Super Artificial Human No. 8, Dr. Flappe and Bulma in Bulma's lab. It looked like they had just finished something important when Piccolo returned to report about what had happened. Something in Bulma's monitor entranced all three of them before they heard the door opening and glanced to check who it was.
The three were a curious site, Super No. 8 hunched up in front of Bulma's main lab computer while it ran some background diagnostics and analyzed relevant data, Dr. Flappe standing tall in what appeared to be his natural element, sipping on some hot cocoa with marshmallows while Bulma was taking the helm. Whatever illusions of organization one might have weaved together were dashed and sprinkled by the dimly lit room that only permitted the luminosity from Bulma's main lab computer to give it light. This made the mess of cluttered gadgets, metallic parts, and pieces and discarded tools scattered all over the floor or loosely hanging on crafting tables and inactive conveyor belts even more perilous.
"Good, you're here," Piccolo said, gaining everyone's full attention.
"We didn't encounter any trouble after fleeing from Cell. Young Bulma is well-deserved of her reputation and the high esteem in the scientific society, I must say…" Dr. Flappe reported while scratching his chin.
"It's high praise coming from someone who's considered a peer of my father's," Bulma nodded with a polite smile after turning around in her chair. "We've just received permission from Baby to let Dr. Puri traverse through previously Saiyan-controlled space that now has been transferred to the New Tsufurians, I guess… Dr. Flappe and Super No. 8 told me Cell attacked them. What happened out there?"
"Cell did attack them. Cell believed we were closing in on it and it decided to eliminate Dr. Flappe because Dr. Flappe was involved in Cell's creation and could feed us intelligence on its nature, background, and abilities," Piccolo replied.
"Well, that's hardly true," Dr. Flappe lightly tilted a cup of hot cocoa that Bulma's mother equipped every visitor with and kept on refilling them as well as supplying them with enough cookies to dry one's mouth and drown them in the crumbs. "Cell was mostly Dr. Puri's pet project. However, I've seen the blueprints, and she ran a few issues in its creation through me a few times. She played them off as purely theoretical issues related to the invention of a new model of Artificial Human. If only I'd have known the type she was talking about…"
"Well, whatever the case, Cell thought you had information that it didn't want leaking out," Piccolo shrugged.
"It was so fortunate that you and No. 17 interfered when you did!" Super Android No. 8 exclaimed, pumping his fists like an excited child admiring their hero. "Cell wasn't all that tough, but he had far too many strange abilities to keep track of and I don't think I could have kept him off Dr. Flappe's back for long."
"It's because you can't think like a hardened killer, thank God for that…" Dr. Flappe waved with his hand. "There were enough sadistic Artificial Humans as it was. Out of them all, despite being the roughest around the edges, you're by far the one I'm the proudest of having helped to create."
"You look awfully calm, did you and Lapis actually destroy Cell?" Bulma wondered, looking surprised by how easily someone who could have turned out to be the source of another grandiose universe-spanning catastrophe was dealt with.
"Not quite…" Piccolo looked away, wondering how best to explain this. At that moment, he hated Artificial Human No. 17 for giving him the slip alongside Cell to deal with clueing Bulma and the rest in on Cell. "Cell and Lapis, well… They struck a deal."
"A deal?" A smile vanished from Dr. Flappe's face, however, the prodigious scientist didn't look too worked up about it either.
"B-But… Cell is dangerous! Dr. Flappe isn't safe with that thing alive and roaming free!" Super No. 8 exclaimed in outrage.
"Calm down, it's not like we just let Cell go," Piccolo grumbled back in response, pacifying the situation somewhat. "Lapis always intended on capturing Cell and acclimatizing it to the Monster Island reserve. To Lapis, Cell was another one like him–someone whose childhood was stolen from them, someone whose life was ruined by Dr. Puri and who deserves a second chance. Having met Cell and having been able to reach it, I don't entirely disagree with that assessment."
"Hmm… That certainly is interesting," Dr. Flappe pondered to himself. "I wouldn't agree with that assessment, however, it's not like I can do anything about it either. If Cell has tricked all of you and comes after me again, then maybe it's long past fate coming after the dues that were long deserved on my part. I only worry that the creature will not stop by merely doing away with me."
"It's not completely lost on me," Piccolo assured the bunch. "It irritates me that there's no way for us to track Cell when he's got an Infinite Energy Reactor after assimilating Artificial Human technology. I didn't like how easily Cell decided it could live with everything it had done. However, I cannot attest to the opposite either. I cannot say that Cell, as I left it in the hands of Lapis, is a threat either. I cannot say for certain that Cell's case is much different from Baby's or that of Vegeta's. It feels like Cell did what it thought it had to because that was simply the way Cell knew how to handle things. When being offered an alternative, Cell didn't object to dismissing violence."
"It only did so to avoid defeat and peril!" Super No. 8 insisted.
"Maybe," Piccolo shrugged. "Though it was certainly strong enough to push us farther. By the time Cell surrendered, it had already caught Lapis off-guard and reduced his battle power significantly. Who's to say that Cell couldn't have given us the slip or defeated us both the same way? It's a lot more resourceful than I can give it credit for, and I've been seeing Cell as the imminent end of the world for the past two years. It's occurred to me that perhaps it's that devotion to seeing Cell found and destroyed that's skewed my view. At the end of the day, I'm no Kami Upa's soldier. I'm a martial artist and I act however I feel like. I don't particularly enjoy disposing of opponents that are weeping on their knees in surrender and are all around miserable."
"Hmm… Well, I won't say that something good won't come out of it," Bulma showed her pearly-white smile while rubbing her hands. She turned around and contacted Dr. Puri the same way she did before, this time Bulma had a feeling that Dr. Puri would pick up and entertain Bulma's attempts at reaching her.
"Bulma, I assume you've spoken to Baby then?" Dr. Puri turned to the screen with her legs crossed while she pinched her lower lip as if tempting her beholders with her long and polished fingernails.
"I did, sadly, we couldn't strike a deal," Bulma shrugged, feigning disappointment. "However, that'll be just fine. Piccolo and Lapis ended up destroying Cell by themselves. You were right–Cell attacked Dr. Flappe to silence him from revealing information on it, which led to Piccolo and Lapis interrupting the assassination attempt and dispatching Cell rather quickly and easily."
"Really? Is that so?" Dr. Puri seemed irked by this revelation as her eyebrows sharpened the angle of her eyes while her cool and reserved façade broke, her hands unraveled and her right leg slipped off the top of the left with Dr. Puri sitting up straight in front of Bulma, unable to hide her frustration. "It appears that Cell hadn't gathered that many cells in that case. If it's been active for so long, I'd have thought Cell to have been more efficient. Perhaps it was a flawed project, to begin with?"
"I must say, Puri-san…" Bulma fixed a look of the world's most faked expression of gratitude while addressing her longtime business rival. "It's only because of the kindness of your heart that we could stop Cell in time. If it weren't for your irrational and completely unnecessary bit of cooperation, we'd have been forced to try harder in striking a deal with Baby and we could have lost Dr. Flappe."
"W-Well… I thought that we'd left our differences behind us and that you've accepted by now that I only did what I did because I was trying to help the Earth in my way," Dr. Puri muttered out a disgruntled reply. "Don't be a stranger in reaching out whenever you need me, Bulma-san. You have my contacts now."
Having just barely kept her cool together, Dr. Puri hissed out the bare minimum that was necessary to feign politeness before turning off the communications herself while still maintaining a favorable relationship with Bulma for the Capsule Corps president to contact Dr. Puri again in the future if the case of mutual need ever was to arise.
"Was that really necessary, Bulma?" Piccolo hissed in distaste of Bulma's pettiness. "You've basically slapped her in the face with that refusal, then flaunted the fact that her kindness was the reason she didn't get what she wanted…"
"Yes, and?" Bulma showed the Ultimate Namekian her tongue and blew it, like an immature brat.
"By giving Dr. Puri flack for being kind, you're discouraging her cooperation in the future!" Piccolo chastised Bulma for her petty behavior. "If you didn't pull this stunt, who knows, maybe Dr. Puri would have helped us again, no strings attached, merely out of the kindness of her heart again?"
"That fiend? No way!" Bulma crossed her arms and turned away in her large leather chair. "The only thing she cares about is that deal with Baby. Little does she know–I've already struck it. That means that I've got a bargaining chip in the future! Whenever I need Dr. Puri's help, I can dangle that over her head," Bulma ground her teeth with a malevolent and sheepish look on her face while rubbing her hands together. This was the first time that it was she who had Dr. Puri in a bind such as this and not the other way around, and Bulma intended to fully enjoy this occasion.
"You may be a genius in terms of your scientific mind, but you could still use some of your father's wisdom and experience, it seems," Dr. Flappe observed, sprinkling it like a golden nugget nobody asked for.
"If you're going to just be a freeloader and gobble up all of my mom's snacks, you may as well be useful and help me out with something, old man!" Bulma showed she took some umbrage from that last remark of her father's peer.
"My, my… I would simply love to be of use," Dr. Flappe seemed to be genuinely excited to be able to pitch in with his excellent scientific insights and make the world a better place after spending the last few decades doing the opposite, even if it wasn't quite according to his wishes.
"I've got no intention of staying here and being a part of this immature triviality," Piccolo observed out loud. "I'm going to go clue Kami Upa in on what happened. Yet another annoying conversation I'm left with, because I'm the only one unburdened by primitive paltriness."
"P-Perhaps I could come?" Super No. 8 volunteered to come with Piccolo. "I've never seen the God's Temple before and it sounds like you could use my assistance more than Dr. Flappe and Bulma-san can over here."
"Hmph… Suit yourself," Piccolo washed his hands off of everyone in this room. "However, the temple might still be protected by Kami Upa's mystical barrier. You might need to wait in Korin's temple while I talk to Kami Upa and he finally lowers it."
"Korin… I don't believe I've met that person either," Super No. 8 clapped his hands, rushing off after Piccolo while clumsily tripping over the chaos of junk and treasure alike scattered in Bulma's laboratory. A feat of clumsiness that caused some loud ruckus but no permanent damage to either Bulma's work or their relationship.
"Wait here while I speak to Kami Upa. This place should be more than enough stimulation for you already. If Kami Upa lowers the barrier and takes you in–Korin will know," Piccolo instructed, leaving Super No. 8 to part ways with him and hover off to Korin's temple. The divine white cat seemed aggravated by the powerful jets that carried Super No. 8 around, only gulping down easier when the Super Artificial Human disengaged the blazing thrusters and thudded firmly on the temple floor with both of his wide feet.
"Sheesh, you're a big fella, aren't you?" Korin exclaimed, desperately waddling around to balance himself as Super No. 8 made the entire majestic structure shake and rumble after his landing. "Careful with the head."
While Korin initially looked like a cat, that's found an unbearable little canine brother which it needed about as much as a car needed a fifth wheel, the ecstatic wonder and childlike glee that the Super Android wore on its face while examining all the mystical wonders on the Korin Tower, experiencing them all for the first time ever, made the divine feline appreciate the respect and adoration for the architecture and rich history that was being shown.
"I've never seen a place like this! This is amazing! Dr. Flappe and Dr. Gero made me in the Muscle Tower all the way on the farthest reaches of the northeastern part of the continent, right where the continent ends and the endless glaciers begin. Besides the lab, I've only known Jingle Village. I've been away on errands, seen a little of the continent, but never something like this!" Super No. 8 clapped his hands while looking around with eyes gleaming like diamonds.
"You think this is something else? Just wait… Why don't I show you something really impressive? Do you want to see what your friends in Jingle Village are doing?" Korin spoke up with a sly smirk after letting the initial impressions of the lively and massive fellow who ended up on his temple go down. For whatever reason, Korin felt obliged to one-up the majesty of his own mystical tower by showing this lug more and more mystical goodies.
Meanwhile, Piccolo's arrival at the God's Temple was met with a stern look from Kami Upa's part. Mr. Popo looked worked up about an impending and unavoidable conflict. Dende appeared to be somewhere in between. He didn't look like he knew whom he would stand behind if a quarrel broke out: the fellow inheritor of Planet Namek's legacy in the Ultimate Warrior Clan Namekian, or his mentor in becoming the next Kami of Planet Earth in Upa.
"Piccolo," Kami Upa spoke up, approaching Piccolo. Something that Piccolo couldn't help but notice and respect was the sheer increase in size that Upa had gone through. In his physical prime as an Earthling Kami, Upa was every bit as large and muscular as his father–the protector of the Sacred Land of Korin.
"You know why I'm here," Piccolo crossed his arms and turned away from a direct confrontation with Kami Upa. "We've found Cell, but we chose to let it live. It's too late to do anything about it, Cell's gone now, so how about you spare me your moral chaff, I tell you that you're no master of me, and we part ways?"
"Is that what you believe is about to happen here?" Kami Upa asked without compromising his stern stare or as much as twitching. "I know you better than to assume you've let Cell live after pursuing him with such devotion for two whole years. You were the only one in this world whose obsession with Cell and the dark omen he cast upon this planet matched mine. In seeing the reflection of the existential fear for everything we know and understand in your face, I felt like my terror was justified, in a way. Perhaps I can serve you the same way?"
"Cut the crap!" Piccolo hissed. "You know you wanted Cell dead, well… After meeting Cell, I've come to realize that Cell was just like Lapis! If we let Vegeta just walk around and live his life, if we trust Lapis and Lazuli, why not also extend that same trust to Cell?"
"An interesting observation," Kami Upa scratched his stubbly chin while crossing his massive arms. "Indeed, we haven't considered that Cell would even appeal to our morality and that Cell would try anything other than exterminate all life. The visions of the future demanded nothing less of it."
"Screw your visions!" Piccolo barked out, clenching his fist, and shaking it in front of Kami Upa. "Chayote said that those were just potential futures, that knowing them led to different actions which led to different futures. She herself has claimed that she's changed our future several times already back in the day. She's never even looked into the faces of one of those mystical waters even once since. It shows that she puts more trust into shaping her own future and leaving us to shape ours!"
"While I don't share your dismissal of so many dark omens reflected upon so many different oracles of the future, ultimately, you've chosen to spare Cell and I cannot object to that. Not when I cannot find and destroy the creature myself. You're right in your assessment that I am no master of yours, even if your presence on this planet is only possible with my tolerance and permission, Ultimate Namekian Warrior," Kami Upa relented.
"So, you'd threaten me with exile because of this?" Piccolo sighed and turned away to use the Far-Seeing Arts from the edge of the temple to peer into the world that he'd be leaving behind.
"Not at all," Kami Upa shrugged and joined Piccolo in this tranquil ritual. "I'd much prefer to have you here, where you belong. I have a feeling that if your decision to spare Cell would end up backfiring, you'd feel a sense of duty to make things right this time. I wouldn't dare stand between you and that duty if that were to happen."
"Even though I have my doubts, my decision had to be the right one," Piccolo admitted. "We have no right to deny Cell its chance at redemption and a different, peaceful life when it was granted to those every bit as evil and with just as much blood on their hands."
"Perhaps you are right, though I sense a disturbance in you. As I've predicted, you've come to rely on my reaction as a source of confirmation or denial of what you should feel," Kami Upa glanced at Piccolo's side temporarily.
"And it irritates me that I can't get it," Piccolo replied. "I'd much rather have you yell at me, express disappointment, or give me crap for it. Or praise my ability to surpass my nature as a warrior and to seek opportunity to spare lives where that is possible, foster the good nature that's in me…"
"That would be too decisive, too judgmental of me," Kami Upa gently tapped the edge of the temple with his staff. "Because I am not going to serve as Kami anywhere near as long as my predecessor could, I am not allowed the luxury of being as brash and, at the same time, as conservative as he was. I must display peak maturity as Kami at the peak of my physical condition before my age begins rolling downhill before long."
"That's too much pressure on you," Piccolo smiled. "You've got good folks looking out for you and helping you out here. You should let them help you with the tough decisions."
"Maybe so, however, you shouldn't need my validation or denial to feel certain of your choices, nor should you let those choices reflect on the way you see yourself," Kami Upa decreed, turning to Piccolo and placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "Piccolo, who is an essential part of you, is not like Cell. Cell is not owed redemption or mercy just because it was granted Piccolo nor is Piccolo destined to become a source of its own dark omen in the future solely because Cell might or might not be. Your path is yours, Cell's is Cell's. Let's look and see where each of you will walk. I will follow your paths with grand eagerness to see where they will lead you."
Piccolo's face completely shifted. The angry, bony protrusions sticking out over his eyes, as well as his sharp and angular stare, lightened up and dulled the angles at which they hung. Piccolo's tense facial muscles relaxed and the Ultimate Namekian at long last allowed himself the luxury of a simple smile that had nothing dotted down underneath in the postscriptum section. At that quick moment in time, Piccolo was just happy, content with his decision, and looking forward with the same trust and anticipation that Kami Upa showed.
"You should lift the mystical barrier already. Maybe sometime Lapis, Lazuli, or Super No. 8 will want to visit this place. It's not like you've got anything to fear from them," Piccolo spoke up, completely relaxed as the two enjoyed their session of Far-Seeing together.
"I'm afraid I cannot do that. Not until I am sure that Cell has changed its way and has done more good for this planet than it's caused harm. Right now, if Cell were to act on its worst instincts again and start killing innocent people, Earth would need God's Temple to serve as its safe haven once more and it will become that kind of sanctuary for the distressed people once again," Kami Upa replied firmly. "With the Dragon Balls more filled with Negative Energy than they've ever been in recorded history, and with most Earthlings having been already brought back once after one calamitous conflict or another, we can no longer afford to leave it to the Dragon Balls alone to save the ordinary people."
Piccolo sighed, finding it difficult to disagree with Kami Upa. At least for now, Korin's Tower would be as much excitement as Super No. 8 would get to see for one day. Then again, something told Piccolo it would be more than enough for the big guy. At least for now, until Cell can mend all the collapsed bridges and humanity will have nothing more to fear from artificial life ever again.