With a business-like disposition, Meta-Cell fiddled with some cranks and activated a handful of holographic control panels inside the room that he set up before looking up at Chayote. "So, are you dead-set on doing this? A fair bit of warning, while technically there should be no obstacles in you rescuing Trunks and coming back, my future, or rather, my past self might not see things your way. You might need to explain everything to it."
"Sorry, if the future you gets in my way, I'm pounding the other you into a pulp," Chayote punched an open palm with an aggressive and passionately excited gesture. "I don't see why that'd be a problem for you. You've already killed other versions of you before."
"Very well, you handle things as you see fit, however… Be advised that if the other me kills the other you in the future–you'll be the only link holding that universe together. You'll need to doom the future alongside your Trunks or stay there forever for the universe not to be destroyed. Try to avoid letting the other you get killed," Meta-Cell explained.
"I don't see why that should matter to me," Chayote shook her head. "You're sending me into the future, so the cause and effect of killing the other me won't affect me. In any case, I'm planning on extracting my Trunks from that time and bringing him into the present, so the fate of that future doesn't concern me."
"Well… It seems like you've got things all figured out, more or less," Meta-Cell smiled before curling his fingers and turning a holographic crank, activating the one-of-a-kind time machine fueled by a Time Ring that the Gods who alter time according to their whims wear. "Best of luck," Cell slipped in.
Electric sizzling made Chayote shiver with discomfort. The noise was so vibrant and potent that it seemed to drill through her skin and muscles and seep deep into her body, rumbling it from within. Cell's last farewells became distorted and Chayote didn't hear the end of that sentence. The words dragged and extended long and narrow, heightening in pitch and lingering, slowing down to where each note of Cell's tone was extraordinarily slower than the last, which was sluggish compared to the one that came before. Flashing lightning converged with gravity and surrounded Chayote, wrapping her in a cocoon of electromagnetic energy that beamed off through a transmitter rod and splashed against the fabric of space-time, soaking it through and leaking into the void behind it.
Chayote snapped out from the unconsciousness and haze with the help of a vocal crack of ten thousand lightning bolts, unified as one stroke. As her blurry vision returned to her, the Saiyan woman found herself surrounded by a slowly fading out bubble of electromagnetic energy, shooting off radiated stray jolts before the time-slipping dome dissolved around Chayote, releasing her into the doomed future where Cell trapped her Trunks shortly before this universe was deleted in this future.
"Something's wrong…" Chayote realized almost immediately. She could sense Trunks' energy and some weird Ki signature she'd never sensed before. It was like a convergence of billions of different souls, merged into one. But it also had the energies of Son Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, and everyone else. Did Cell screw her over? But… He specifically selected this time and place!
Gritting her teeth and bracing for a nasty shock to her system, Chayote took off, still feeling a bit numb and rusty from the jolt of being flung through the time-stream by unstable and experimental fusion between Time Ring divine magic and transcendental technology of the Four-Star. Enveloped in a white dome of energy, Chayote blitzed across the planet in a blink, closing in on the scene where Cell Max and Future Trunks had already met each other.
When Chayote flew to the scene, right above the gloomy outskirts of West City, drowned in flames and smoke, the sight of an enigmatic monster looking night and day different from the Meta-Cell that she knew. A humanoid creature with ordinary and soft androgynous facial features. Cell's skin matched the lower half of its armored carapace in a salad-green color. His eyes were soft and creamy yellow with black pupils and red irises. Cell had violet streaks running down its face, demonstrating some features of the traits of the Frieza race.
Cell's wings had grown sharp and slick, long and pointy. Wiggling up and down was a salad-green tail with a segmented fiery orange underbelly with a destructive, wrecking ball-like thumper attached to the tip. Cell's horns were sharp and pointed upward, matching the red color of the upper half of Cell's armored carapace. A large black jewel gleamed and reflected the limited light from the raging flames rampant in the city below on Cell Max's solar plexus. Around the creature's waist and joints were rubbery and pudgy black growths fully exposed from the armor to allow Cell proper articulation when clad in a thick insectoid carapace. Cell's body was dotted black. The armored parts of Cell Max had a metallic texture to them.
"What's going on here? Chayote!?" Trunks exclaimed upon Chayote's arrival. "But… I thought…"
Chayote's eyes softened and moistened with tears when they absorbed the heart-wrenching sight of a muscular man clad in cybernetic enhancements and body parts on the right side of his chiseled body, overcome by a very human stint of shock when he set his sights on his beloved stuck in a very wrong time and place. Chayote's hands began to quiver, and, somehow, seeing her react this way made Trunks realize without failure that he was looking at his Chayote.
"Will surprises never cease? Have I sent another time traveler from the past? Why?" Cell Max muttered with grumbling discontent. "Ah, I see… I've just finished explaining to Trunks how I've already killed you on this timeline, my mother, and all my siblings too. The reason my past… Well… Future self would have sent you here is because something went wrong in the past… Or, rather… My future. Well, out with it, Chayote. What's your objective for being here?"
Chayote dashed onward. Cell's eyes followed her full of boredom, observing as Chayote tackled Trunks and wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing him with greedy tightness, as if attempting to devour the man and never let him go. Baffled by this, Trunks wrapped his arms around Chayote too, slowly and a bit confused at first, but answering his beloved's affectionate greeting with the appropriate gratitude. This nefarious scheme of Cell's had almost made Trunks fear that he'd never see his beloved or their son again.
"While this is all very touching, please keep in mind that the only reason you're not drowning in your blood right now is because I must know your reason for being here to make sure I don't repeat the mistakes of my past… Well… Future self," Cell Max groaned, looking disgusted by Chayote wasting her time on affections rather than briefing him about the mistakes that led to her being sent to this time and place.
"Your only mistake…" Chayote replied while slowly turning back and glaring at Cell Max with a death-inducing stare. "Is fucking with my family, my friends, and my home!"
"Very well, if you cannot think straight enough to focus on your objective, I will take away the toys that are distracting you from what's important," Cell Max glared right back, matching the intensity of Chayote's hatred.
"If it's possible, I would like to know why you are here too," Trunks interrupted an inevitable conflict between the two. "I realize that I'm just incredibly out of the loop, merely a figure in Cell's inter-temporal scheme, but… Understanding what's going on here would help me a great deal."
"Wait, you said that Cell already killed me on this timeline?" Chayote mumbled out, aiming it mostly at Trunks, though she did not doubt that Cell could also hear it via his enhanced Namekian hearing.
"It would appear so. That's what Cell told me right before your unexpected arrival," Trunks nodded.
"That fucking asshole!" Chayote gnashed her teeth, clenching a shaking fist as she seethed in bottomless hatred for the treacherous parasite. "He betrayed me! He sent me here too late, I was supposed to rescue you and prevent Cell from stealing your time machine. Now that I'm the only Chayote on this timeline, I'm trapped here with no chance to return!"
"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cell Max exploded into mad laughter, covering up its face and wrapping itself in the cover of its right arm. "I see… So, your presence here isn't a warning to me. It's evidence of my plan going perfectly! Excellent! In that case, I can dispose of Trunks and leave them on his time machine, leaving Chayote stranded here."
"I don't… Understand…" Chayote winced, still feeling the sting of betrayal in her gut.
"Don't you? You are by far the most troublesome pest in the whole hive of your friends and family!" Cell Max pointed out. "No matter how powerful I become in any timeline, I cannot ever be rid of you. Your end means the end of the universe, which simply doesn't work for me because I intend to live in it! Obviously, as long as a troublesome knucklehead like you draws breath, you'll keep on resisting. Dr. Puri may have had a neat option figured out, but I've neither the need nor the want to take care of some miserable vegetable for the eternity of my remaining life! It appears that my other self has figured something out by sending you here. However… I wonder…"
"No way!" Trunks objected. "This can't be what Cell's doing! Even if he traps you in another timeline, that means you're out of your own! That means that you're no longer a part of the universe where you were supposed to be. Chayote… Your universe, your history, it will all be destroyed now that you're gone!"
"Exactly," Cell nodded, looking a bit peeved and pouty. "I almost cannot believe any version of me would have been stupid enough to send you through time in an attempt to trap you in this doomed future. That's why I'm still wondering if your presence here isn't a warning for me to stay in my own time. If I know that time travel splinters the timeline and branches it out, meaning that you've left your own timeline and doomed your universe to destruction, so should have my future self…"
"The Time Ring…" Chayote muttered in disbelief.
"The… Time Ring?" Trunks stammered in response.
"What is this… Time Ring? Talk, you extend your life and the life of your precious Trunks for as long as you're useful to me," Cell Max said.
"Maybe it's better we don't tell him?" Trunks' face soured as his hand moved to the hilt of his sword and he prepared to fend off the indomitable Cell Max from the future. A version of Cell that's accumulated countless genetic samples and maxed out its potential for limitless evolution.
"It's a piece of jewelry that lets you send a person through time the correct way. Forward or backward through their own timeline, without creating new ones," Chayote answered, leaving both Cell Max and Trunks shocked.
"U-Unbelievable! I didn't know about such a thing! Just… Just what kind of knowledge and power did my future self accumulate!? It… It can't possibly… Be even greater than mine, can it?" Cell Max uttered in complete disbelief.
"Sorry, Trunks," Chayote sighed. "I let Cell deceive me. It told me what it did to you by sending you here and trapping you in a doomed timeline while hijacking your time machine and jumping back to our past. Cell's the other time traveler we've been looking out for all this time. All it needed to say was that there was a way to save you and…"
"It's okay, Chayote, I'd have done the same for you," Trunks hugged Chayote again before nuzzling her away from him while holding her in his hands. "But even if Cell's tricked you and trapped both of us in here, there's still hope for us to stop it. By stopping Cell here in this future, right?"
"Shit!" Chayote's face soured like a prune. "It won't work!" she cried out. "The bastard's studied the Time Ring and coated its body in its alloy. It's removed itself from temporal cause and effect, meaning that even if we delete all traces of Cell from every timeline, it would still exist in that one instance of space-time."
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cell Max burst with laughter again, stroking a pleasurable tear off its eye. "Marvelous! I truly have thought of it all, haven't I? Well, time for me to take the time machine and go claim my legacy, do my part in my glorious history, so to speak. Who knows, knowing I'm destined for unfathomable greatness will only make me bolder and more passionate to live up to it!"
Cell Max blinked, vanishing from place and dashing to where Trunks' time machine was, but, before it could approach it, it found itself trapped in place. When Cell looked back, it saw Chayote's firm grip wrapped around its tail. With a quaking neck and twitching muscles that stressed the tattered remains of her space suit, Chayote turned back to glare at Cell Max with whited-out eyes and bestial scowl of her mouth while her hair gently washed upward, as if she was submerged underwater.
"YOU… TRAPPED US IN HERE… AWAY FROM OUR SON! I'LL… KILL YOU!" Chayote exclaimed, releasing a wild howl that eclipsed the gloomy town panorama and drowned it out in shade, contrasted by a vigorous eruption of jade-green energy from every pore in Chayote's body.
"Chayote…" Trunks blanked out in disbelief at what uncanny world of power was leaking forth from Chayote. Stunned, the time traveler gulped down, wondering just how much time had passed between his disappearance and this version of Chayote. She didn't look that much older, but… Her level of battle power was beyond what Trunks would have imagined being achievable in a thousand lifetimes.
Ripping through the shade and carrying the jade light alongside her, Chayote smashed into Cell Max's jaw with a dashing right fist, following it up with another right jab, then a hook to Cell's gut, and a straight kick to its face that sent Cell Max flying. Vanishing from the place in a snap, Chayote appeared behind Cell Max, fully clad in the brilliance of her Wrathful State, and punted Cell in the back, sending it flying into the air. Vanishing again, Chayote crashed into Cell with a flying lariat before rolling through the air after the hurting creature and slamming both her arms down with a double ax handle slam, crashing Cell into the burning city and sending a shockwave pulse that flattened most surrounding buildings in the district at once.
"I-Incredible!" Trunks mumbled to himself. "So much power, even Cell is shaken!"
With squeaky, rubbery taps, Cell Max walked out of the smoke and collapsing buildings without a scratch on its pristine red and green armor. Wiping a trace of slobber off the corner of its lip, the creature glared at Chayote with its red eyes and sighed, regulating its escalating breathing and heartbeat.
"You put me in a good mood earlier, telling me all those incredible things about my success in the past. And so I planned to leave you two lovebirds alive, merely taking your time machine. However, you've ruined that good mood of mine. I think I'll take that time machine after killing Trunks and you. I have no need of this timeline after all, and it will be the other me's problem when their universe, your old universe, begins to unravel because of it," Cell Max replied while hovering above the ruined city and taking its place in front of Chayote and Trunks. "I had little opportunity to test this peerless body against a worthy opponent. My mother and my siblings didn't provide much of a challenge, after all. This should be at least a bit entertaining, even though, if this is the best you can do, it won't amount to very much."
"You should stay back," Chayote asked Trunks, who glared back at his beloved in utter bewilderment. "Hitting that guy just now, it's like he barely dented at all. I haven't punched anything this tough and faced pressure like this since I fought Frieza. This has all been to protect you, so if you get killed, it'll have all been for naught."
"No chance!" Trunks exclaimed, clenching his fists and erupting with a golden gleam that turned him into a Super Saiyan, elevating his spiky long hair and revealing the enhanced right side of his face. "If I'm going out, I'm going out fighting and giving this asshole everything I've got! It's attacked me from behind, trapped me on this timeline, and meddled with my future and the future of the woman I love! I'm just as pissed off at Cell as you are!"
"I see, well… It should be easier keeping an eye on you if you're sticking close," Chayote cracked a grin, realizing that asking Trunks to stay back and let her handle this was pointless. She wasn't sure if Trunks could dent this insane version of Cell at all, but, at the very least, he'd keep Cell's attention wandering, looking for that cheap shot to take him out and render Chayote extremely distressed. Off her game. No matter how many times they have to deal with each other, Cell still won't learn that Chayote's at her most dangerous when she's distressed and off of her game.
"Hrrrgh!" Trunks' eyes whited out, his mind blacked out while his hair spiked up even more intensely, becoming a raging heap of golden spikes wildly sticking over his head and utterly defying gravity while Trunks' musculature swelled and his golden radiance attained a powerful electrical surge of crackles. "This is a new level of Super Saiyan I've discovered while defending the past! It's only just that it helps me save the future too!" Trunks proclaimed, pulling out his claymore and pointing its tip at Cell.
"Of course, come at me all at once," Cell Max smirked. "It'll be easier killing both of you that way."
Another climatic battle against Cell had erupted in a wholly different time and place, yet not a single bit less tough and explosive one raging for much more personal stakes. A battle to decide if Chayote and Trunks deserved to be happy and make their joyful return home to their son. A battle that, if both Meta-Cell and Cell Max were destroyed, would've deleted every trace of Cell from across history and rescued their universe from its conquest.