"No. 8, take Dr. Flappe away from here. Get him to Bulma's at Capsule Corps," Lapis glanced at Super No. 8 while Piccolo, Super No. 8, Lapis, and Cell stared each other down.
"Thank you, that might be an excellent idea," the Super Artificial Human nodded with a kind-hearted smile before turning around and approaching Dr. Flappe. "Fighting off Cell while it continuously preys on the poor doctor will be troublesome."
"Don't get any wrong ideas," Lapis dismissed Super Android No. 8's worries. "I'm not worried about the old crone's lapdog or anything. I just want Cell focused on me as opposed to enthralled with its target."
"You? Interesting, what might you offer me that I don't already possess? I'll let you in on the know that upon returning from Trunks' doomed future I had the choice of retaining any one set of cells since I had to revert to my larval form to fit inside the time machine. I chose the Artificial Human set, meaning that your cells are entirely useless to me," Cell interjected while Piccolo and Lapis stepped in front of the Super Android as a protective wall to give Super No. 8 and Dr. Flappe a bit of time to retreat from the battlefield.
"I'll give you my offer once Dr. Flappe is out of here and after we put a proper beat down on you and you're more manageable and willing to listen," Lapis punched his open palm in a show of force.
"That's an interesting approach from a ranger," Piccolo snickered with a display of his fiendish fangs.
"You'd be surprised how many monsters I need to bully into coming with me to the reserve," Lapis shrugged Piccolo's friendly jabs at him with indifference.
"Let's go, Dr. Flappe. You should be safe in Capsule Corps," Super No. 8 picked Dr. Flappe off the ground into his chunky arms and prepared to take off when Cell suddenly plunged its tail into the snowy ground underneath. At incredible speed, the tail burrowed underground and the stinger burst forth directly in front of Super No. 8 like a lunging snake, ready to kill its prey with the Super Android's arms fully occupied by his precious cargo.
"I won't let you get out of here alive and leak intelligence on me!" Cell exclaimed in a triumphant tone.
Lapis became a blur, dashing in front of the lunging tail and grabbing the stinger before it could plunge into the cradled scientist. Lapis' free arm lit up with an emerald electric crackle as the Artificial Human swiped it like a blade in a chopping motion and split the tail horizontally in half. Cell croaked in pain and terror, stumbling back and withdrawing its tail back to him as it splattered thick, violet blood in all directions.
"It's dangerous for you two here, go already," Lapis turned to Super No. 8, who only nodded in confirmation and took off with Dr. Flappe in his hands.
"Those were some nice instincts," Piccolo commended his partner. "I got a little stiff and lowered my guard since I thought you'd attack me if I made a serious move on Cell…"
"Don't be ridiculous," Lapis ran his hand through his hair to settle it down in place after it picked up because of his rapid move. "As I've said–let's beat this guy's face in until it's more talkative. We're still partners, as long as you don't try to obliterate Cell."
"You…" Cell hissed, seething with sheer hatred. "I won't let my survival be jeopardized, do you hear me!? After all I've sacrificed, after every hurdle I've overcome, I will survive. No matter the price, I will live on! I'm entitled to it, as is everyone who was born!"
With a fleshy crunch, Cell's severed tail burst forth from the splattering wound, good as new and coated in a layer of murky green fat and violet blood that took no time at all to dry out and crumble to the snowy ground below. Neither Piccolo nor Lapis seemed surprised at this incredible feat of regeneration, they did just see Cell repair its entire body just now after all.
After letting out a desperate battle cry, Cell charged at the surprised Lapis and Piccolo. The pair wasn't at all disturbed by Cell's vitality and regenerative properties, however, the instinct of Cell to lash out with violence like a cornered rat by attacking two extremely powerful opponents at once flabbergasted the pair. Without blinking once, Lapis shuffled out in front of Piccolo and leaned aside, avoiding the point-blank Ki wave that beamed off to the far-off hills and detonated with a ground-shaking blast.
Lapis elbowed Cell in the gut then proceeded into an all-out mugging. Lapis' arms became blurry and when the relentless barrage of chained punches got going, it seemed as if Lapis was punching with a dozen pairs of arms simultaneously. A powerful right to Cell's jaw sent the creature flying off and dragging across the tundra in a burrowing ridge of dirt.
"Sorry, we're a bit too experienced for you to get a drop on us," Lapis ran his hand through his slick black hair. "Have you had enough already? I'd like to talk to you about something, but I need you to first understand that I'm your only chance at survival."
"He's not hearing you anymore," Piccolo sighed in frustration. "He's escaped."
"Huh?" Lapis turned to the burrowing ridge which Cell was just laid out in, only to see an empty, dirt-colored metallic shedding. "So, he's slipped underground again…"
"Hmm…" Piccolo grumbled out as he vanished away into a green and white blur. The sound of the rustling cloth of Piccolo's cape alerted an acute listener to the true location of the invisible and swift threat as Piccolo positioned himself to a far-off corner of the tundra and punched his extending arm into the ground, shooting off a stray Ki blast that decimated the landscape and burst outward from underground with blasting energy pillars. One of these bursts smoked Cell out as well, this time having lost some of the humanoid shade in his skin and any humanoid features to it. "So, you can shed your sets of cells you've acquired like a reptile can shed its skin?" Piccolo observed nonchalantly, staring at Cell recuperating in mid-air.
Something that Piccolo didn't expect, however, was for Cell's shedding to suddenly burst to life and fling itself at Piccolo from the side. It wasn't an exact duplicate of Cell, instead; it was a mindless, bellowing abomination with the raw body structure of a horned, bipedal beetle, however completely coated with human skin and facial features somewhat resembling those of a human. Also, just like Cell, this reanimated shedding had a tail coated with human skin with a bony stinger at the outer end, however, the tail was noticeably slimmer, yet also stiffer, similar to the extended tailbone that humans once had but lost during the millennia of evolution.
The Ultimate Namekian thrust his foot out, catching the mindless and screaming humanoid who had a bulging beak for a mouth that was fully covered by the membrane of human skin and therefore could only emit muzzled cries off-guard. Piccolo jumped into the air and turned his whole body into an elbow shot that flattened this Cell's disturbingly human-looking clone before catching it by the heel and flinging it into the air off the ground. Just as Piccolo extended his arm to obliterate the shed doppelgänger, Cell's own stinger plunged into its chest from the air and quickly slurped it up, assimilating the shed set of cells back into the full set and regaining some humanoid facial features and a more human-like color to the skin underneath the armor.
"I see, so it's not just any shedding. You can split yourself into clones by shedding the separate cells you've gathered. In other words, you create Cells of your own by splicing them together from cells you've accumulated," Piccolo noted the little shop of science fiction horrors he had just been exposed to.
"It was clever to try to give us the slip by dropping some cells you've accumulated. Heck, it was clever of you to choose to abandon human cells, since those are the ones you can probably replace the most easily. Earth is full of humans, after all," Lapis joined in on the observation. "However, we're onto you. You can drop the attempts to give us the slip. It doesn't matter if you kill Dr. Flappe or not, we've got all the information we need on you from Dr. Puri."
"Dr. Puri you say?" Cell laughed out. "How could Dr. Puri know what I am, if the Cell in her laboratory that I destroyed was only in its infancy? It was barely past the testing stages…"
"Tsk… You're saying that you destroyed the lab where your present version was in? In other words, you came back in time to kill your own past self just to convince the world you were dead?" Piccolo sneered at the inconceivable lows to which this loathsome creature could sink to.
"That's right, in case that wasn't clear to you yet, there isn't a single thing I would not do for the sake of my survival! I would kill any creature, man, woman, or child, I would kill myself or my creator, I would doom the entire universes and timelines just for the sake of survival. That's because a cursed world, timeline, or universe in which someone has to kill to live doesn't deserve to be preserved. Back in my time, I've known nothing but cruel experiments, constant torture, and the narrow line between life and death. That which is born deserves a proper life, don't you think so? That is why I killed Chayote in Trunks' timeline and doomed that universe as a means of my revenge!" Cell replied. "Even now, while I would rather not kill either of you, I wouldn't hesitate to do so if it meant survival. Knowing of my existence will mean very little to your friends when they lack a way of tracking me down."
"He's not wrong," Lapis looked at Piccolo. "If we lose track of Cell now, we might not find it again."
"You mean you're still thinking of containing it for your Monster Island reserve?" Piccolo lashed out at Lapis. "Do you even hear what this creature is saying? We're better off destroying it at once!"
"What Cell is saying isn't entirely wrong," Lapis replied calmly. "The only reason that Cell is acting this way is because Dr. Puri screwed its life up from the get-go. Cell needs to know that life isn't like that, that it doesn't have to be that way. If Cell has a chance at a proper life, there's no need for it to run, hide, and kill anymore."
"What? Just what is it you're saying?" Cell squinted, turning its full focus on Lapis. "Whether or not I live a free and happy life, I will still need to kill. My body requires a recharge of energy, meaning that I need to consume the cellular energy of bio-organic material once in a while."
"It's no different from feeding," Lapis crossed his arms and stood his ground. "Plenty of predatory animals in the Monster Island reserve need to feed. They have that chance there. Through many years of trial and error and careful population control, we've established a self-sustaining ecosystem. With the rangers fending off the threat of poachers, even when the inhabitants of Monster Island feed on each other like they would in nature, their species are in no threat of extinction. We've also got plenty of more common wild animal species so that the one-of-a-kind individuals don't become food. You can live a peaceful and happy life there. A life without running or staining your hands with the blood of innocents."
"Monster Island…" Cell croaked with frustration. Out of the blue, the Bio-Android lashed out and charged at Lapis, thrusting a resounding right cross into Lapis' jaw before locking his arms together and slamming them down with a double ax handle. Crossing its arms together and spreading them apart, Cell knocked Lapis away while thrusting its tail in pursuit of the soaring Artificial Human. "Still, you would see me as a monster, treat me as an animal! Still, I would be a test subject for you to establish your precious self-sustaining eco-system!"
Lapis yelled out in pain as Cell's stinger stabbed into his right peck and drew out gleaming blobs of sparkling white energy from Lapis' body. Shocked by this sudden, throbbing pain and a stint of unexplained weakness as the very energy from Lapis' Infinite Energy Reactor began leaking away into Cell's system to provide it with a surplus of limitless energy surpassing even Cell's own infinite supply, Lapis felt the skin around the area where Cell impaled him withering and wrinkling away. It was almost as if the area where Cell stung him had aged thousands of years in a millisecond and the withering effect began expanding further, degrading the very cellular structure of even a partly artificial organism such as Lapis in no time at all.
"Get off him!" Piccolo bellowed, extending his right arm as he whipped it across the devastated tundra, smacking Cell in the backside and knocking him away while forcefully dragging Cell's stinger out from Lapis since the Artificial Human was visibly too weakened to extract it himself. "Even when offered a chance at living a free and fulfilling life, you would spit at it and bite the hand that's offering you food!? Kami Upa was right, you are a dark omen on this planet!"
"N-No, wait, Piccolo…!" Lapis called out from a kneeling and collapsed position. With stumbling and struggle, the Artificial Human rose to both feet. "Cell, please… I'll be the first one to admit that the name "Monster Island" is judgmental, but… We don't treat those who live on Monster Island as monsters or experiments. We seek to create an environment where each mythical creature or rare animal is truly free to live out their life the way they were always meant to. You're a special, one-of-a-kind specimen. As such, you're invaluable to Earth's biodiversity and we must preserve you at all costs!"
Seeing Lapis too weak to fend off Piccolo's attempts at obliterating Cell, the Ultimate Namekian began wailing on the Bio-Android with extended limb strikes, before grabbing him by the horns and pulling him in for a push kick, a high kick to the face that spilled mouthfuls of violet blood all over Cell's face and decorated its armored carapace with it, and a devastating knee to knock Cell prone on the ground and crawling on its back for its own life. With his arms tucked by his side, Piccolo dashed off into the atmosphere before crash-landing on top of Cell with a sharp stomp into Cell's solar plexus with his boot, then punting the crippled Bio-Android aside.
"Piccolo, stop it! It's had enough!" Lapis called out to the Ultimate Namekian who hesitated for a moment to unleash all his power and exterminate the writhing and crippled Cell before it could regenerate and allow its Saiyan cells to bolster its battle power even higher.
"That's some… Incredible power!" Cell croaked out through a mouthful of violet blood spitting out from its flattened and pudgy, puss-leaking beak. "When I saw you hunting after me, Piccolo, there were a few times when I considered killing you to shake off attention. I would have died trying, your fists are uncompromising and your energy is like a raging ocean. The way I am now, there's no chance of me ever overcoming you and you're leaving no openings by showing me your techniques."
"Yeah, Dr. Puri told us that your artificial intelligence and sensory systems can work together to analyze information and replicate martial arts techniques by seeing them just once," Piccolo replied, standing by Cell's crumbled and broken body as its bones began popping back into shape and the gruesome wounds and bruises began closing before Piccolo's own eyes. "This power isn't just my own. It's the merged power of all the Namekian Warrior Clan fighters. It's the legacy of the strongest warriors of Planet Namek that I embody. And yet… That unruly regeneration ability seems completely alien even to me. The way you regrew your tail earlier was something akin to what I might be able to do, but this… This is different."
"Not as different as you might think," Cell chuckled through pain and still leaking alarming amounts of blood from the devastating internal injuries. Piccolo thought Cell would remain down for a long time because Cell's brain should have been mashed to porridge in its skull after the smackdown Piccolo gave it, but Cell propped itself up back on two feet faster than Lapis did. Just like Frieza, Cell appeared to have a lack of vital internal organs, however, Cell's unorthodox anatomy extended even to his brain, which proved to be Frieza's weakness back on Planet Vegeta. "The cells of Namekians, also Frieza's cells and those of his father, acquired from when they were captured here on Earth by Dr. Puri, also the demonic anatomy of the Evil Tribe… When all those cells come together, with a few interesting splices from the animal kingdom, Frieza's cells continue to mutate further, providing this uncanny regeneration factor."
"Hmph… I've heard that Frieza was a mutant of his species, but the extent to which his cells could mutate is surprising. We may have lucked out he was so lazy in life," Lapis smirked through pain while stumbling on both feet, still clutching the crippling injury on his right peck where Cell stung him.
"Damn it!" Cell collapsed on the ground on all fours, surprising even Piccolo and Lapis, who were fully prepared to continue their fruitless brawl. "All I wanted… All I wanted was to live! Instead, ever since my creation, all that I've known was experiments, perpetual updates, and mutations! Dr. Puri kept on improving me and then tried to kill me, like some sick and twisted challenge for herself and science itself! Is it so much to ask for life!? A life of something more than that? Something more than being a guinea pig!?"
Piccolo's stern look softened. He approached the whining Bio-Android and leaned down to it, placing his hand on Cell's shoulder from above in comfort. With a face full of genuine tears, an emotion that Cell was capable of because of the human cells it harvested, the Bio-Android looked up at Piccolo with a face, not unlike those of the children that the monster had snuffed out. Piccolo ground his fangs and grumbled something unintelligible to himself in frustration before sighing and letting go.
"I think you should take Lapis' deal," Piccolo said. "As long as you live on that island reserve and hurt no more people, you needn't fear harm from anyone else, either. Even if someone would want to do you harm, they'd have to deal with Lapis first, and he's a staunch guardian. Moreover, he truly cares for the plants and animals that live on that reserve and on this planet. I don't think I've met anyone who cares more. Your life will be in excellent hands under his protection."
With his tearful and miserable expression shifting to one full of hope, Cell turned to Lapis, who collapsed by a nearby cold rock, still clutching his chest. Despite the wear of Cell's sting on Lapis' body, the Artificial Human looked back at Cell without a hint of ill intent toward the creature.
"Damn, any clue if that sting of yours ever goes away?" Lapis winced in complaint.
"I've never stung an Artificial Human I didn't intend to assimilate the cells of and pretty much everyone I've stung degraded and died. However, that was not the case with Super Android No. 8. Besides, those I've stung before were all weaklings. In time, your body should revitalize itself and regenerate damaged cells and tissue, I believe," Cell replied.
"Alright then, I'll take you up on your word," Lapis smirked through the pain. "It feels less overwhelming now than it did while you were still pumping my genetic material and raw energy out of me."
"I… Oh no… I've done so many horrible things, I've killed people, I've killed aliens. I've specifically targeted the sick, the weak, and the children because they were easier to kill. I don't know if I can ever redeem all the atrocities I've committed," Cell stared at its own shaking hands while its face and battered body fully repaired itself, and all traces of blood that soaked Cell previously dried out and crumbled off his body like dry ash.
"As someone who's got plenty of things to account for himself, someone who knows plenty of scumbags with incalculable body counts of their own, I think that what's important is–if you can live with yourself, knowing everything you've done. If you can, there's still hope you can live a better life and begin making amends, even if you've got a fat chance of ever catching up and purifying your soul. If you can't–we'll understand and I can promise you to deliver a swift death," Piccolo observed Cell, contemplating the full weight of what he's done to survive.
"But if you choose to live, understand that you're a unique case. Despite being a one-of-a-kind specimen, you can reproduce asexually, meaning that you can become a progenitor of an entirely new species here on Earth by reproducing like you did before. Interestingly enough, each of your descendants seems to possess a wholly unique genetic structure, which is a whole new can of worms. My boss and I would love to take a proper look at you and better understand you by observing you living free in the wild. You might be a progenitor not to just a new species, but an ancestor to an entirely new branch of species. You're not just a branch of the tree, you're the root of a whole new tree, Cell. As such, you're incredibly special and invaluable for biodiversity on this planet," Lapis pointed out.
"I'm… Special?" Cell stared at Lapis with reflective and wide eyes that bore an uncanny resemblance to those of a human, despite Cell's diverse set of features and somewhat insectoid overall appearance.
"It's up to you," Piccolo repeated. "This might be the first independent choice you're going to have to make–live bearing the weight of your past crimes or try to redeem them in death."
"Do you think that my death could make things easier? Make them any better? Would all these atrocities I've committed become any lighter? Could a soul like mine ever be redeemed and purified?" Cell wondered, not in a tone that questioned Piccolo's suggestion, but one that sounded genuinely curious if he could avoid the dark gloom looming over his head by merely dying and facing the purification of his soul in the Otherworld.
"To be entirely honest, I don't know," Piccolo admitted, closing his eyes in shame. "I've inherited the wisdom of the past Kami, yet even I am not sure if you could even pass onto the afterlife the way you are. I'm not entirely certain if artificially created life possesses a soul that can be purified and if you could ever reincarnate and begin anew, as a being innocent of your countless crimes. The only way to know that would be to find out firsthand. That's why you should only choose this if you are certain you cannot move on with the rest of your life and if all your murders are dragging you down under."
"No," Cell admitted, with brief hesitation. "I'm done being an experiment. If my fate is to become the seed of a new class of species here on Earth, with my descendants living free of the baggage I will carry to my grave, I believe I can live with that."
"Are we cool?" Lapis looked Piccolo in the eyes as if asking for confirmation that Piccolo wouldn't blast Cell to smithereens the moment Cell turned its back and lowered its guard.
"If Cell can live with what it's done, so can I. It would be hypocritical for someone who started his existence as the reincarnation of the Demon King Piccolo to judge Cell if it truly intends to live its life differently from now on. And if I were to act as judge, jury, and executioner of some sort, Vegeta should have gotten gone a long time ago. Neither you nor your sister are innocent of mass murder, either. And yet, when confronted by the living proof that both Vegeta and you two can do so much better, I'm willing to give Cell a chance at the very least," Piccolo shrugged. "That being said, if Cell ever escapes the Monster Island sanctuary or begins hunting and killing people or causing mayhem for any other reason than feeding and extending its life, consider this chance I'm offering blown."
"The duty of the Monster Island ranger is to protect nature from the inhabitants of the Monster Island as much as it is to protect the inhabitants from harm," Lapis nodded in agreement. "It sounds wrong to start this new chapter off with a warning, Cell, but it's something you need to know."
"I understand," Cell nodded. "You need to protect your own survival, as well as the survival of your pack. While I don't intend on becoming a monster ever again, I will not hold it against you if you attempt to kill me if I do."
Piccolo, Lapis, and Cell took off the ground, hovering in the air before splitting off to opposite sides.
"We'll leave defusing Dr. Puri to you then," Lapis waved his farewells and blasted off, only for Cell to hurry to follow the ranger back to Monster Island.
"Wh-What!? Don't you just drop this off on… Ugh… I'm talking to myself, aren't I?" Piccolo deflated after a passionate outrage, realizing that Lapis took off exactly because he wanted none of this conversation. Moreover, he knew that Dr. Puri would insist on Cell being exterminated to the point of conflict, whereas Lapis would risk the integrity of Planet Earth to protect a precious new inhabitant of Monster Island.
While the immediate threat to Earth's future was defused, for now, Earth has come to see some interesting times indeed.