Chapter Eighty-seven
Humanity's Desperate Struggle! The King Returns!
Krillin felt the absolutely monstrous surge in Cell's power and a cold dread ran through his body. One of the twins had been absorbed. He'd already messed up with his indecision and put the world in danger. He couldn't afford to screw around anymore! He flew toward the source of the power and grit his teeth as his grip on the trigger tightened.
'You can do this, Krillin,' he told himself solemnly. 'You have to!'
OoOoOoO
Cell admired itself as the light faded, looking up and down at the ways its body had changed. It was taller, more broadly built, and its horns had straightened on the sides of its head. Its strange beak-mouth had morphed into a green face with an orange streak across its jawline, with a black nose and pink lips. The green skin of its biceps, neck, and thighs had lightened, and the skin of its forearms and shins had hardened and turned black. Its toes had also morphed into a pair of yellow boots, it tail changed colors to half black and half orange, and its wings had receded completely into its back.
"Hm hm hmm," Cell chuckled to itself as it flexed its fingers and snapped its tail in the air. "Nearly there. Nearly there." Less than a thousand feet away from it, Lazuli stared off in horror, as if the nightmare of what just happened to her had finally set in. She wasn't even looking at Cell. She couldn't.
"Lapis…" she whispered. "No..." He was just… gone. Her legs buckled and she fell to her knees, her arms hugging around her chest. It didn't make sense. Nothing about this made sense. How could that happen? How could she let it?
OoOoOoO
They had been homeless for almost a week. It had been raining that day and Lapis had stolen an umbrella from a street vendor to keep them dry.
"Lapis," Lazuli whimpered as they huddled under the umbrella in an alleyway, "I'm hungry." Lapis nodded, one arm around her as the other arm held up the umbrella.
"I know," Lapis sighed. "Me too, sis. Me too." Lazuli looked up at him sadly.
"How long is it going to be like this?" she asked.
"Not long," he promised. "But as long as it is, I'm going to look out for you."
"But I'm a better fighter than you," Lazuli pointed out with a weak smile. Lapis rolled his eyes.
"So you look out for me. But I'll still be looking out for you. We'll have each other."
OoOoOoO
Those words echoed in Lazuli's mind as tears she didn't even know that she had begun to shed were running down her cheeks. She'd failed him. They had promised to look after each other and she'd failed.
"Lapis," she whispered as she looked down at the ground. "Lapis, I'm so sorry…" She heard Cell's footsteps coming toward her and for a moment she wondered if she should just let it happen. Lapis was gone. What was there to stick around for?
"What are you doing?!" Piccolo roared from behind her. Then Piccolo's arm snaked around her body and he yanked her away before flinging her toward the west with all his might. Lazuli could see the coastline off in the distance as she sailed through the sky. The coast, Lazuli thought to herself. She could get to an island and just hide. That was all that there was left for her to do now. She narrowed her eyes, squinting through the tears, and flew as fast as she could.
Cell turned back to Piccolo and sighed as his arm retracted back to its normal size. "Come on now, Piccolo," it said irritably as it crossed its arms over its chest. "You've made me lose my lunch." Piccolo grit his teeth and got into his guard.
"You'll lose more than that when I get through with you!" Piccolo declared with a clenched fist. Cell threw its head back and laughed before fixing Piccolo with a menacing glare.
"Ooooh," Cell shivered in mock terror that quickly shifted to condescension, "I quiver with fear!" Then it offered its chin to Piccolo with a smirk and tapped at its chin. "Go ahead, Demon God. You get one free shot." Piccolo bared his fangs and lunged at Cell, getting right on top of it… and zapping it with a blast of paralyzing electricity from its antennae. "Sonuvabitch!" Cell muttered as its body went rigid. Piccolo flipped over to Cell's left and drew back a fist and his whole arm exploded into giant size. He gritted his teeth and swung with all his might, smashing into Cell to send it flying, making sure he was sending the monster north as opposed to west after Lazuli. Piccolo shrank his arm back to its normal size and brought his hands together, touching his fingertips together and charging a ball of malevolent yellow ki in the space between his hands. He grit his teeth and snarled as he charged the blast, gathering all his energy into the attack.
"Gekiretsu Koudan!" Piccolo roared. The blast exploded out of Piccolo's hands, flying at Cell like a meteor. The attack hit Cell dead on, creating a tremendous explosion. 'I put everything I had into that blast,' Piccolo thought as he stared into the dust. 'That had to have done something!'
OoOoOoO
Back on the Lookout, Tenshinhan and Launch were standing on the edge and staring off toward the direction of the battle. Bulma arrived with outfits based on Saiyan Armor for Goku and Gohan for their training and for Vegeta and Trunks to change into when they came out. Suno arrived a few minutes after her with… a box.
"Trust me," Suno explained as she walked toward the temple, "Goku's gonna need these if she's gonna be by herself for a year." Then under her breath she added, "Just gotta make sure she knows not to use 'em around Gohan." Once she was gone, Launch poked Ten hard in the ribs.
"Hey," she said once the triclops looked at her. "What's wrong with you? You've been in a funk since the twins kicked our asses. I know you're thinking of doing something stupid, so talk to me."
Tenshinhan sighed and looked down at his hands. "Lazuli was right," he admitted disdainfully.
"About what?" Launch asked.
"I've never… accomplished anything. I haven't won any tournaments since the 22nd Budoukai, I haven't won any battles, I haven't contributed, I haven't done… anything!" Launch rolled her eyes and put her hands on her husband's shoulders.
"C'mon," she groaned, "Not this again. I thought you were over not being the strongest like ten years ago!"
"It's not about being the strongest," Ten told her sharply as he pulled away from her, "It's about doing anything. I feel so useless! This is my home and I've done nothing to defend it!" Ten looked down at his hands again with serious contemplation. "This may be the only thing I do that matters."
"Fighting Piccolo didn't matter?" Launch asked incredulously. "Fighting the Saiyans didn't matter? Saving me didn't matter?" There was heartache in her voice as she reached for Tenshinhan again. "What are you even talking about? What are you planning to do?" Ten turned his gaze away from her and her eyes widened with realization. "No, Ten," she told him firmly. "No, you can't! We've talked about this! It would kill you!"
Ten gave a small shrug and a bit of a sad smirk. "I've been dead before," he reminded her. "It's not so bad." Launch clenched her jaw and let out a high-pitched frustrated whine before punching Ten in the arm. "Ow!" he cried out and rubbed at his bicep. "That hurt!" Then Launch grabbed the back of Ten's head and yanked him down into a kiss, their lips crashing together as she stood on tip-toe to meet him. Ten was stunned for a moment before he returned the kiss, one hand sinking into her thick and vibrant green hair while the other rested on the small of her back. "I'm sorry," Ten whispered when their lips parted and Launch's forehead pressed against his chest.
"I just… I can't lose you again," Launch whispered as her fists bunched up hard on Ten's gi.
"No," Ten replied softly, one hand still on the back of Launch's neck. "I mean I'm sorry this is going to hurt when you wake up." Then he drove a quick, short chop at the back of Launch's neck with the edge of his hand and she immediately went unconscious. Ten caught her before she hit the ground and she slumped in his arms before he laid her down a safe distance away from the edge of the Lookout before blasting off into the sky. He had to do this.
Inside the temple, Suno was talking to Bulma after she'd given the box of pads to Goku. "So," she said, "Looks like the gang's all here." Bulma nodded and glanced out the temple window.
"Well, y'know," she remarked idly, "What better place to wait out the end of the world than the top of the world, right?" Suno nodded before she realized that someone was missing.
"Hey," she said suddenly, "Where's Krillin? I mean, I know Yamcha's fixing his house or whatever but you figure Krillin would be there." In fact, Suno had even called Yamcha on the way over to see if he'd be coming up to the lookout.
"No can do," Yamcha had explained. "Gotta put in a new door, get a new couch, and a new car. Then I gotta make sure everyone's packed up and take them out to Fry Pan Mountain."
"Seriously?" Suno had asked drily. "The world could end and you're worried about your door?"
"Well, given our track record," Yamcha had retorted just as drily, "The odds are pretty good that the world won't end, in which case I'll still need a front door again." Suno guessed she could understand that and it was nice that he had faith in the team, so she left it at that.
"Oh, he's probably off looking for either Lapis or Lazuli, whichever one's left, with that device I gave him," Bulma explained. Suno slowly raised an eyebrow.
"What device?" she asked suspiciously.
"It's a trigger switch," Bulma explained, "Based off of Gero's designs. It'll shut down their nanites so Cell won't get any extra power when he absorbs them. But then their bodies will go into shock and the infinite energy reactor will explode without the nanites to regulate it, killing them." Suno groaned and ran a hand over her face while Bulma looked at her incredulously. "What?"
"You gave Krillin a death button?!" Suno asked explosively. "Krillin's never gonna push that!" She ran out of the temple and hopped over Launch before flying off the edge of the Lookout. She spared a moment to wonder what had happened to Ten and why Launch was on the ground before pushing it out of her mind. She had to go do something about this since she knew Krillin wouldn't. Then again… could she?
OoOoOoO
Piccolo winced and looked down at his arm while he waited for the dust to clear. It was in worse shape than he'd feared. Inflating, stretching, deflating, and retracting it so rapidly had done damage he wasn't aware of being possible and punching Cell as forcefully as he had had caused severe injuries from his knuckles to his elbow. Deciding it would be better to fight with a slightly lower power level than with one functioning arm, Piccolo focused some of his ki into repairing the damage to his arm. Once it was healed, he looked up to see Cell striding toward him out of the dust. Completely unharmed.
'Well,' Piccolo thought with dull dread, 'That's a pro–' He hadn't even had time to finish the thought before Cell was in front of him. Piccolo took a startled step back, giving Cell the opening to attack. Its arm flashed out and struck Piccolo with an uppercut. Not an actual, physical blow and not even a kiai. Merely the wind from the movement of Cell's arm was so powerful that it sent Piccolo flying back and nearly shore the left side of his torso from his body. As Piccolo's arm flopped uselessly in the wind with a fair portion of his abdomen hanging by tendon, muscle, and skin, Cell was behind Piccolo and flicked two fingers at the back of his head, causing him to instantly collapse to the ground.
OoOoOoO
Gohan moved to sprint out of the temple and Goku sighed regretfully. She was behind Gohan in an instant, her arm getting around Gohan's neck. She applied just the right amount of pressure on his throat and Gohan immediately went slack against her grip. Goku sat her son down carefully in a chair by the door and held his hand. It should only put him out for about five minutes.
"I know, Gohan," she muttered, "I know." There was nothing more frustrating than knowing your limitations when the ones you cared about were in danger. Goku couldn't let Gohan get hurt, though. She couldn't just let Piccolo die, either. What could she do? "Usually people are waiting on me to save them," she reflected. "Now I'm waiting for Vegeta."
OoOoOoO
Lazuli was nearly to the coast. Just a few hundred miles to go and she could hide among the islands out at sea, maybe get lost around Papaya Island. Heck, she didn't have to breathe, she could just hide under the wa–
"And where do you think you're going?" Cell asked, immediately putting itself between Lazuli and the horizon. Lazuli glared at it and got into a fighting stance, balling her fists. "Oh, come on," Cell laughed. "We both know how that's going to go. There's no reason to fight me and you know it. Let it go, 18."
"You killed my brother!" Lazuli spat angrily. Cell shrugged and nodded as if she had a point.
"I did," it agreed, "And I could kill you just as quickly. But I haven't yet because this doesn't need to be a struggle. What has this world ever given you, 18? It took everything from you and kicked you while you were down. People lied to you and pretended to be their friends but think seriously. If they were really your friends, wouldn't they have tried harder? Wouldn't your brother still be alive?"
"They did try," Lazuli retorted defensively. "They tried to tell us not to fight you and… and we wouldn't listen." Her own words crashed down on her and Lazuli was reminded again that Lapis' death was her fault. She should have told him to listen to the others. Convinced him to run sooner while Adrian and Piccolo were fighting, when it was obvious that they didn't stand a chance against Cell themselves. Now he was gone and she was all alone.
"And now your brother is dead," Cell reminded her, echoing her thoughts as if it could read her mind. Lazuli's shoulders slumped and she started to fall weakly out of her fighting stance. "I'm not a monster, 18. You miss 17 and I understand that. So I'm offering you a chance to be with him again. To be closer to him than you've ever been as a part of me. As a part of the most Perfect being in all of existence. More than that, I'm offering you a chance at freedom. Freedom from all the pain that life has brought you. Freedom from worry, hurt, hunger, and strife ever again. All you need to do," Cell raised its tail and its stinger blossomed out again like it had against Lapis, "Is close your eyes." Lazuli still held up her fists reluctantly while she chewed her lip in contemplation. Before she had a chance to make her decision, however, intervention came from an unlikely source.
"Hey!" Tenshinhan's voice called from the heavens. "Up here!" They both looked up and stared at him in surprise, neither having noticed he was there. He was glaring down at Cell with intense focus, six arms raised to the sky.
"Tenshinhan?!" Cell asked incredulously. "What're you doing here? Aside from committing suicide, I mean." With Cell's focus off of her, Lazuli slowly began to drift away from it. "Wait," Cell muttered as it squinted up at him. "Are you trying to perform the Genki Dama?" It threw back its head and let out a bark of laughter. "Do you honestly think I'd let you stand there and charge it up for ten minutes?"
"Actually I've already been here for a couple minutes," Ten called down with a smirk. "You didn't notice 'cause you really like the sound of your own voice." Cell chuckled as if admitting that was actually funny.
"Fair enough," Cell conceded, "But even so, I know for a fact that you haven't mastered the Genki Dama. In fact, you never do." Tenshinhan wasn't entirely sure what that last part meant but he shrugged with six shoulders.
"Maybe you're right," Ten replied. "I don't know how to use the Genki Dama. But I know how to gather geki, which is enough for me to do this!" He laid all six hands over his chest, one pair over the other, in a diamond pattern. "Kaiouken times ten!" he cried, gritting his teeth as red energy exploded all over his body. "Shiiiiin… Genkikouhou!"
Cell chuckled and spread its arms out wide, daring Ten to hit it. This quickly backfired as a massive pillar of yellow energy barreled down towards Cell and blasted it into the ground, creating an enormous square crater below.
"Lazuli!" Ten cried out as he turned his attention to her. "Get out of here! Now!" Lazuli nodded furiously and flew off toward the sea as Cell came rocketing out of the crater, screaming with rage. "Genkikouhou!" Cell was immediately blasted back down.
'Damn,' Lazuli thought as the sky behind her flashed yellow over and over, 'Maybe you were right, Lapis. Ten's pretty badass!'
OoOoOoO
Krillin saw the flashes off in the distance and could hear Ten's voice carried on the wind. 'Damn,' Krillin thought. 'Didn't know he had it in him.' Then he realized that Ten was probably doing this to buy the remaining twin time for an escape and there was no point in flying towards it. 'Now if I was terrified for my life…' Krillin paused to reflect that he often was, 'I would be moving somewhere that Cell wouldn't be able to find me…' He turned sharply, heading toward the sea and the horizon, trusting his instincts of terror.
'Damn,' Suno thought as she followed after Krillin's ki contrails. 'Go get 'im, Ten!' she just hoped he wasn't going to explode.
OoOoOoO
"Gen! Ki! Kou! Hou!" The sound of Tenshinhan's cries snapped Launch back into wakefulness, the mixture of rage, pain, and defiance giving her a start. Launch rubbed at the back of her head with a wince and gasped as the pieces fell together in her head.
"Ten!" she whispered in terror. "No!"
OoOoOoO
Ten gasped as he finally let his attacks stopped. His body was drenched in sweat and, as he finally let the red aura of Kaiouken fade away, his muscles began to ache. Still, it wasn't as bad as he had expected. He supposed that all of that training with the Kikouhou all these years had prepared his body for the strain of Kaiouken.
'And I'm still in the air,' Tenshinhan thought. 'Guess that Genki worked after all.' No sooner did he think that than he began to drop out of the sky. 'That's more like it.' Still, he managed to catch himself before hitting the ground and landed on his feet on the edge of the crater. He couldn't even guess how far down he had blasted Cell under the ground. He was hoping he gave the bastard a killer headache.
A massive blast of green ki nearly knocked Ten off of his feet and he stared with wide-eyed, open-mouthed terror as Cell rose slowly and dramatically out of the crater, an expression which he quickly steeled away as the light faded and Cell floated down to stand in front of him.
"Congratulations," Cell growled as it rubbed at the space between its horns, "You've successfully aggravated me. Even Piccolo didn't do that much. And now I have to go hunt down 18 again. Have you got anything left to say for yourself before I wipe you from existence on the subatomic level?" Tenshinhan slowly brought up his fists as he got into his guard and Cell laughed. "Really? A fighting stance? You can't be serious! Haven't you figured out the limitations of human ability yet? I am made from the DNA of the greatest warriors of the universe! Your martial arts training avails you nothing! It's useless, useless, useless, useless!" Ten just glared at Cell and gritted his teeth, gathering his strength for one moment.
"Kaiouken times twenty!" Tenshinhan roared. Cell's eyes widened momentarily in astonishment as Ten flew at it in a blind rage, slugging it across the jaw with a right hook before swinging for the fences with a left roundhouse kick. The kick went right into Cell's forearm, who glared at Ten as the the Kaiouken energy rushed out of him.
"You done?" Cell asked, more irritated than injured. Blinding pain screamed through Ten's muscles and he passed out, crumpling into a heap. Cell chuckled and pointed its palm down at Ten with a smirk. "Yeah," it told his unconscious body, "You're done."
OoOoOoO
"Hang on," Goku said to Gohan, who was just at that moment waking up, "Be right back. Go get some senzu." Then she touched two fingers to her temple and blinked out of existence.
OoOoOoO
Cell prepared to erase Ten from the face of the Earth when a Son Goku appeared in front of it, making it stagger backwards in shock and fall back into the hole.
"Gookuuuuuuuuu?!" it called out in shock. Goku shrugged and slung Ten over her shoulder before Instant Transmissioning over to Piccolo's barely-hanging-on body and slinging it over her other shoulder. "Hey!" Cell called out, rushing out of the hole and flying toward her. "Where do you think you're going?!"
"I'm not here to fight you," Goku informed Cell while Piccolo bled on her shoulder. "I mean, I'm not stupid. I can tell I'm not as strong as you right now. I wouldn't have a chance." Then she glared at Cell with such a steely gaze that actually gave Cell a start. "But you are going to die." Then she was gone. Cell got over its shock and chuckled.
"We'll see about that."
OoOoOoO
Krillin, having slowed down drastically to lower his ki while he was searching among the islands for Lazuli, finally realized that Suno was behind him.
"Suno?!" Krillin asked with surprise as he turned around to face her. "What the heck are you doing here?"
"Bulma told me what she gave you," Suno told Krillin as she held out her hand. "Give it to me. I know you don't want to do it."
"What," Krillin retorted sharply, "And you do?"
"Of course not," Suno shot back, "But I know it has to be done. You're a good guy, Krillin. You can't do something like this. Besides," she added with a tiny smile, "Lazuli kissed you." Krillin narrowed his eyes at Suno, his face contorting in disgust.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Krillin asked in an icy tone that actually made Suno drift back. "You think I'd throw away the safety of this planet because of a kiss on the cheek?! What do you think I am, some stupid, hormonal kid? I'm a grown man, Suno! I know what's at stake here! All that we've been through, all the times we've fought together, I thought you would trust me by now!"
"I do trust you, Krillin," Suno assured him. "You're my friend and you're a good person. But that's why I want you to give it to me. You're too good a person to do something like this."
"If you trust me and you think I'm a good person," Krillin told Suno bluntly, "Then trust me with this. Trust me to do the right thing. I can do this. I know I have to." Suno sighed and dropped her hand.
"Alright," she muttered, "Alright. But I'll at least help you look for her." Krillin nodded and they started flying again. "You'd think Bulma could have given this thing a wider range."
"I know, right?!"
OoOoOoO
Back on the Lookout, Tenshinhan and Piccolo sat up suddenly and gulped in air, the senzu having undone the damage that their bodies had taken, both self-inflicted and wounds taken in battle. Piccolo took a moment to inspect the movement of his shoulder before Gohan immediately tackled him, his arms tight around the Namekian's neck. Ten slowly got to his feet before Launch tackled him back to the ground, beating his face and chest with her fists.
"Don't you ever do that again, you hear me?!" she screamed down at him, her voice hoarse with worry and anger. "Do you know how worried you made me?! If you ever do something like that again, I'll kill you! Got it?!"
"Got it," Ten replied as he brought up his arms to shield his face. "Don't try to get myself killed or you'll kill me." Launch immediately went from attacking Ten to hugging him, although the strength of her grip meant that it could be seen as an attack. Ten sat up and hugged her back, holding her close. They were all startled from their reconciliations and reunions by the sounds of the doors to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber creaking open slowly. Blinding white light blasted out of the Chamber doors and a spiky-haired silhouette stood dramatically before them.
"I! AM! FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"