Chapter Eighty-eight

Behold the Might of Super Vegeta! All Hail the King!

"We weren't really imprisoned," Trunks said as a much taller, long-haired silhouette stood beside the spiky-haired one. "You could have left at any time."

"Silence, boy!" Vegeta barked. "You ruined my moment!"

OoOoOoO

Cell ground its teeth irritably as it soared toward the coastline and frowned down at the chain of islands beneath it. Well this was just great. Lazuli could be on any one of those islands. It couldn't sense her energy and it couldn't risk blowing up the islands to try and flush her out. If she was distraught as she was all the other times then there was a perfectly good chance she would just let it blow her up and that would just ruin everything, wouldn't it?

Cell stopped and hung in the air, taking a few deep breaths to collect itself. It was alright. It was fine. It had never lost before. It would never lose. It was smarter than this. It just had to think clearly. Cell closed its eyes and listened, turning its head toward the islands, using the superior hearing it had inherited from Piccolo's Namekian DNA. It heard something and its lips curled up into a smile. Well, that was interesting.

OoOoOoO

Suno and Krillin were floating slowly between the islands between West and South City, wanting to make sure that they didn't raise their ki high enough to be sensed and also flying low enough to actually be able to see Lazuli.

"She's not gonna go all the way to South City or Papaya Island," Krillin muttered as they looked for her. "I don't think she'd wanna put other people in danger." They came to the island off the northern tip of South City and Krillin pointed a finger down at the ground. "Hey, there she is!" Suno followed the path of Krillin's finger and, sure enough, they found Lazuli pressed against a rock, hiding underneath its shadow.

"Huh," Suno observed, "That didn't take long at all. You should volunteer at my school next spring, Krillin. You'd be great at the egg hunt!"

"...The heck is an egg hunt?" Krillin asked as they floated down toward Lazuli.

"I dunno," Suno admitted with a shrug. "It's something they organize for the little kids at the school. It's got something to do with some holiday they have in the East. I don't really know what it's about, something with eggs and candy… I think it's for children. We never had anything like that in Jingle Village." Despite this chattering, Lazuli was startled when she heard Krillin and Suno touch down behind her. She spun around to look at them, her eyes wide with panic. Krillin's finger froze on the trigger and his heart stopped beating for a few seconds. He hadn't expected her to look at them.

"What are you doing here?!" Lazuli asked frantically, trying not to scream. "Cell is after me! Piccolo got hurt! Tenshinhan got hurt! If you stick around me, Cell will kill you! Get out of here!"

"It's okay," Suno assured her calmly. "Cell won't hurt you. We promise. It's going to be fine." Krillin nodded and Lazuli noticed how badly his hand was shaking.

"What is that?" she asked, pointing at the trigger in his hand. Krillin swallowed nervously and lifted his hand up slowly.

"It's a detonator," Krillin explained numbly. "Bulma says it'll shut down the nanites in your body so Cell won't get any power if he absorbs you. But…" Krillin swallowed again and turned his eyes downcast. "The nanites are so ingrained in your cells that your body will go into shock. Then, without the nanites to regulate the Infinite Energy Reactor, it'll explode."

"So I'll die," Lazuli said bluntly. Suno and Krillin nodded slowly. "You guys don't want to kill me," she observed, "Even though it'll stop Cell and save billions of lives." They nodded again. Lazuli shook her head with a sad smile, tears in the corner of her eyes. "Sweet and stupid," she sighed wistfully before holding out her hand. "Give it to me. I'll do it."

OoOoOoO

Trunks and Vegeta walked out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, the door slamming shut behind them. Without the blinding glare of the infinite void, the others could see them more clearly. Vegeta's gi was looking patchy, as if it had been torn and re-sown several times, while Trunks' pants were ripped and torn, his boots were scuffed, and now his sword hung off his left hip. His hair had also grown much longer, most of its touching his chest while the back was tied up with a strip of cloth he'd torn from his pants. He had also grown several inches taller than Vegeta. Most importantly, Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Tenshinhan, and Launch noticed that the pair of them had grown significantly more powerful.

"Oh my gosh," Bulma cooed as she pushed her way in front to look up at her son, "Look at you! You got so tall!" She ran her hand through Trunks' hair, frowning. "Your hair's a mess, though. What's with this hack job?"

Trunks' face reddened and he pulled away slightly, embarrassed by the first affectionate contact and positive conversation he'd had in a year. "Uh… I had to cut it with my sword," he muttered. It actually would have been longer but his father made him realize that he needed to cut it when he'd been swung around by it during the sparring matches they had once every four months. It was also why Trunks had switched the way he wore his sword.

OoOoOoO

"Dead," Vegeta told Trunks firmly as he jabbed him in the chest with three fingers when he reached an arm back to draw his sword. "Dead, dead, dead, and dead." He struck Trunks in the ribs, armpit, neck, and stomach as well. "If you draw across your waist, you'll be able to defend yourself and not get killed like an idiot."

OoOoOoO

"Well don't worry," Bulma assured him while Vegeta stared at Goku and Gohan incredulously. "Before you go to the future, I'll take you to Barbara. She's my specialist, she's like a hair wizard. She'll fix you up." She took the hair-tie out of Trunks' hair and tied it back with a blue scrunchy that she fished out of her pocket. That just made Trunks' face even redder.

"What in the Ten are you wearing?!" Vegeta asked Goku suddenly.

"Bulma made it," Goku explained helpfully. "It's like the armor you used to wear when–"

"I know what it's supposed to look like, you peasant!" Vegeta snapped. "I meant why?!"

"So their clothes don't get messed up like yours did," Bulma pointed out while handing Trunks and Vegeta each a set of armor that she'd taken from the capsule crate they were stored in. Trunks zipped into his armor with super speed while Vegeta swatted the armor away in disgust. "Seriously?!"

"I refuse to dress myself as a slave!" Vegeta snapped. He turned and scowled at Trunks and looked as though he were going to tell his son to take the armor off. Then he decided that it wasn't worth the effort as Trunks could hardly embarrass him anymore than he already was.

"You look like an idiot," Bulma scoffed as she gestured to Vegeta's gi. Although, honestly, Bulma was surprised that it looked like Vegeta could sew. "I mean, look at you! Do you even know what you look like?" Vegeta looked down at his patchy gi and shrugged, wearing the blue bodysuit in the blink of an eye and redoing the wrapping around his hands.

"For the record," Vegeta told her smugly, "I know exactly what I look like." Vegeta flexed his muscles and instantly and effortlessly became a Super Saiyan. "A king." Bulma swore under her breath, wondering how he could be so frustrating and attractive in the same sentence. "Now stand aside, fools. I'm off to kill Cell and assert myself as the most powerful mortal in the universe." Then he turned to Goku as she and Gohan made their way toward the Time Chamber's door. "So prepare yourself, Kakarot. Because once I have finished with Cell, you and I are going to settle this once and for all and you will accept your natural place at my feet." He turned again and flew off of the lookout in a streak of golden light, with Trunks looking back at them and giving an awkward and apologetic shrug before transforming and following after his father.

"Heh," Goku chuckled as she opened the door to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. "He cracks me up." Gohan followed after his mom and the door slammed shut behind him.

"Gosh," Gohan muttered as he and Goku walked out into the infinite void, "It just goes on forever, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Goku agreed as she started stretching. "I guess I didn't really have time to appreciate that when I came in here the first time as a kid because I couldn't really breathe." She got into a fighting stance and Gohan quickly got into his own stance. "We've only got a year in here," Goku reminded her son, "So we don't have time to have fun. I'm gonna go all out and push you past your limits to help you break through and become a Super Saiyan. No holding back, Gohan! Got it?" Gohan nodded and the two sprinted toward each other, their fists colliding explosively.

OoOoOoO

"Are you serious?" Krillin asked warily as Lazuli held out her hand for the trigger. "I mean, thinking about what you're saying!" She nodded with a sad smile on her lips.

"I'm sure," she told them, "And I know what I'm saying. It means a lot that you guys don't want to kill me. I mean, I know that sounds really weird, but it does. But this has to be done. If this is the only way that I can save people then I will. Besides," she added sadly as her face fell, "Lapis is gone so… why not?" She looked up again, still holding out her hand. "Please. This is my decision." Krillin swallowed and nodded, slowly handing the device to Lazuli. Then he blinked and the device was gone.

"Actually," Cell said from their left, "It's mine." The trio spun to see Cell standing there with a smirk on its face and the detonator held firmly in one hand.

"Ah, crap," Suno muttered as Cell crushed the detonator in its hand, grinding it into dust. Then it opened its hand and chuckled as the dust was scattered into the breeze.

"So now what do we do?" Lazuli asked nervously. To her shock, Suno and Krillin moved in front of her while moving into their fighting stances. "...What the hell are you guys doing?!"

"Buying you a couple seconds," Suno told her, "Now run!" Then she looked at Cell with a lopsided smile and shrugged. "What the hell," she muttered, "I'm one of the only people who hasn't died yet. I was starting to feel left out."

"Don't worry," Cell assured her while raising a hand to blast them, "The afterlife's about to get a lot more crowded." Suno and Krillin prepared to make a charge headlong into death before something caught their attention.

"Abomination!" Vegeta bellowed down. Everyone looked up to see Trunks and Vegeta hovering as Super Saiyans in the air, Vegeta wearing a blue bodysuit with his white hand wraps and white sandals and Trunks bizarrely wearing full Saiyan armor. Vegeta scowled down at Cell with his arms crossed over his chest. "Your very existence is a blasphemous affront to my entire race and to my bloodline. Today I rectify the cosmic mistake that was your birth." Vegeta slammed down to the ground in front of Cell, the small island quaking under his feet as Trunks drifted slowly down after him. "So make peace with whatever freak gods you believe in," Vegeta told Cell, "And for the sake of whatever amount of Saiyan blood there is in you, die on your feet." Cell chuckled and shook its head as its tail swished from side to side.

"Come on now, Vegeta," it said in a mocking tone. "I know you're upset that you'll never be as powerful as Goku, no matter how hard you try, but is suicide really the answer?" Suno was surprised when Vegeta just closed his eyes and chuckled. Usually Goku was a pretty sensitive subject for him. Then Vegeta's eyes snapped open and he glared menacingly at Cell. He opened his mouth and out came a lion's roar. The ground beneath Vegeta's feet cracked and shattered as his muscles bulged with power. His aura raged around him like a golden inferno, reaching into the sky as a white light seemed to be coming out of Vegeta's body, bursting out like electricity and flowing all around him. Suno and Krillin were reminded of when Vegeta nearly went Super Saiyan against Freeza. Only this time, whatever was happening seemed to be sticking. The veins in Vegeta's neck and temples bulged against his skin and throbbed as he continued to roar, his face contorted in rage. Trunks watched on impassively in sharp contrast to the others, who all stared at Vegeta with wide-eyed and open-mouthed shock. A blinding explosion of golden-white light shot off in all directions, reaching high up into the sky as Vegeta's roar reached its crescendo and his power continued to skyrocket.

OoOoOoO

High atop the Lookout, Piccolo, Ten, and Launch sensed Vegeta's power skyrocket with an uneasy feeling resting in the pits of their stomachs.

"Soooo," Launch observed, "Vegeta's way stronger than Cell."

"Looks to be that way, yeah," Tenshinhan agreed.

"Is that good or bad?"

"Hard to tell for now," Piccolo admitted with a shrug. "We'll have to see what happens after Cell's dead."

"Sure hope Goku comes out stronger than him," Launch muttered. The other two nodded as a chill wind blew and made Piccolo's cape stir and made Launch hug herself. She really should have brought a coat.

OoOoOoO

Yamcha had finished sanding down the door frame and patching up the wood that had been torn up when the screws had been ripped out of the door. He propped the door against the wall and lined the hinges up with the new holes he'd put in the wall when he sensed Vegeta's ludicrously high power level.

"Huh," he muttered with screws in his mouth. Then he shrugged and went back to work. He knew that they'd be able to do it.

OoOoOoO

The light faded and the four continued to stare, their mouths still open, as Vegeta stood before them, his muscles bulging, his spiked hair even more defined, and his body radiating with a golden light.

"Holy shit," Lazuli whispered. Suno and Krillin nodded dumbly while Cell tried to cover up its shock and put on a smirk.

"So you pumped up your mu–" Vegeta was on it in a flash, smashing his fist up into Cell's chest and making its eyes bulge wide.

"Behold the king," Vegeta growled smugly as he pushed his fist forward to send Cell rocketing up into the sky. Vegeta was over Cell at the apex of its ascent, a golden streak across the sky of Papaya Island. "The King of Kings," Vegeta added as he knocked Cell out of the sky with an axe kick. Cell dropped out of the sky like a meteor and crashed into an island off the coast of Papaya Island with enough force to make waves rise twenty feet high.

'So,' Cell thought with a groan as it staggered slowly to its feet while rubbing the back of its head with one hand, 'This Vegeta's one of the stronger o–' Vegeta was on top of Cell instantly again, smashing his knee into its gut.

"On your knees, dog," he commanded smugly. Cell let out a gurgling gasp and collapsed to its knees while holding its stomach and Vegeta chuckled.

OoOoOoO

"What the…" Suno started to ask, "What the hell was that?!"

"My father's new transformation," Trunks explained. "He's ascended beyond the level of Super Saiyan. He calls it 'Super Vegeta.'"

Suno couldn't help but snicker. "Of course he does," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. Trunks shrugged and flew off into the sky.

"Gotta to make sure he doesn't screw anything up," he told them warily.

"So…" Krillin asked as they watched Trunks take off after Cell and Vegeta at a leisurely pace, "Should we… go? Or are we following them? Or what?"

"Are you kidding?" Lazuli asked with a grin. "Let's go check this out! I wanna see Cell's face get turned inside out!" She moved to fly off before Suno held out an arm to block her.

"Nope," Suno told her firmly. "I'll go check it out. You stay back. Krillin, keep an eye on her. I'll let you know if it gets ugly." She flew after Trunks and Lazuli pouted, kicking a rock.

OoOoOoO

Cell was back on its feet and swinging wildly at a hundred Super Vegetas moving around it in a circle, all of them laughing their heads off as it came nowhere close to hitting the real one. Every time Cell threw a punch or a kick or stabbed with its tail, the real Vegeta would hit it in the sides, the back, the back of the head or the back of its knees.

"Stop it!" Cell demanded furiously. "Stop mocking me!" It threw out its arms and a green dome of energy exploded around it, wiping out all of the afterimages. The real Vegeta walked casually through the dome without so much as mussing his hair and smashed a forearm into Cell's face, sending it flying back. Cell stopped itself in the air and threw both hands out, unleashing a rapid-fire volley of ki blasts at Vegeta that choked the air with a massive cloud of dust, screaming with fury as it continued its assault.

"You call that an attack?" Vegeta asked from behind Cell. It spun around quickly and caught a left body hook into the ribs, driving the wind out of it. "You were just firing blasts randomly. How would you even be able to tell if you were hitting me?" He followed with a right body hook and a kick to the chest to send Cell stumbling back. It caught itself and dug its feet into the ground with a snarl.

"You want me to hit you? Fine!" Cell snapped before it fired back with a series of lightning-fast jabs that Vegeta evaded so effortlessly and so quickly that he barely seemed to move his head.

"Me," Vegeta observed while casually dodging Cell's punches. Cell snarled and switched to kicks that Vegeta effortlessly outmaneuvered. "Kakarot." Cell threw elbows and knees with murderous intent, Vegeta blocking all of them with one hand. "The Namekian." Cell swiped with its tail, swinging it like a whip that Vegeta hopped over and, ducked under, and side-stepped to avoid. "Freeza." He grabbed Cell's tail and yanked it forward into a jumping knee under its chin, smashing Cell's teeth together and sending spittle shooting out of its mouth. "You are no warrior," Vegeta spat in disgust as he let go of Cell's tail and slapped it across the face. "You are a machine. A program. You collect data and regurgitate all that you have seen." Cell let out a seething scream of rage between its teeth and swung a wild right haymaker that Vegeta ducked under, retaliating with a swinging axe handle blow to the left jaw that nearly took Cell off its feet. "You are pathetic. How could something like you ever kill me?" He caught Cell in the throat with a backflip kick that sent it flying into the air but Cell caught itself in the air, scowling at Vegeta while it massaged its throat.

"That's it!" Cell bellowed as it moved into a stance that Vegeta found very familiar. "You want to know how I killed you?! It went something like this!" Trunks, who had caught up to the pair and had heard Cell's ki-projected screams, wondered what the hell that was supposed to mean while Cell's body began to glow pink. The sky began to take on a pink–purple hue like a sunset that had come several hours early. Meanwhile, Vegeta merely watched with his arms folded and an incredibly offended expression on his face. "Galick Gun! Fire!" Cell thrust its arms forward and an absolutely enormous beam of pink light rocketed down towards Vegeta, thousands of times larger than the blast that Vegeta himself had fired down at Goku half a decade before. Vegeta scoffed as the beam came barreling down toward him and casually backhanded it off into the sky.

'Damn,' Suno thought as she watched the blast roar past her and out into space while shielding her eyes with her hands, 'I really need to buy some sunglasses.'

"That is exactly what I'm talking about," Vegeta called up. "You cannot create anything! Do you honestly expect that kind of an attack to kill me?" He grinned and raised his palm up towards Cell with one thumb tucked in. "I have upgraded my arsenal," he explained. "Let me show you!" A white light began to glow in Vegeta's hand and he pivoted his body to one side to thrust his palm forward. "Big Bang Attack!" A massive ball of white ki exploded out of Vegeta's hand, as if he had thrown a small star at Cell, and hit the bioandroid before it had a chance to defend itself with enough force to send it hurtling over the horizon. Vegeta was on top of Cell in an instant, however, and kicked it back up into the sky at a slight angle. He was there when Cell came up again, knocking it across before sending it back down at a different angle. Vegeta continued his blistering assault, ping-ponging Cell across the sky, faster and faster, until Cell became a green blur, a ten-pointed green star that was surrounded by a glowing golden ring, the air shaking with every collision and every blow making the sound of a thunderclap.

'Earplugs,' Suno mentally added to her checklist while covering her ears. 'Need to buy some earplugs if I'm gonna keep doing this.'

Vegeta caught Cell in the center of the star, driving his feet into Cell's back to bring it to the ground. He carried the momentum, one foot on the back of Cell's head and the other on the small of its back, literally skating across the island with Cell's body, tearing up the landscape as he dragged Cell along before kicking it away. Cell bounced and skidded painfully across the ground before coming to a stop with a groan.

'I can't believe it,' Trunks thought with slowly-widening eyes, unable to stop himself from daring to hope. 'We're going to do it! We're going to win! Cell is finally going to die!' This timeline would be saved and he'd be able to go home and defeat his own Cell! His nightmare was nearly over!

"Get up," Vegeta demanded as Cell struggled onto its hands and knees. "I'm not done with you yet!" Cell let out another groan and nearly fell down into the dirt again as it struggled to its feet.

'Alright,' Cell thought to itself, 'Time to get tricky.' It lunged forward and swung at Vegeta with a desperate right hook only for Vegeta to effortlessly catch the punch and start crushing its hand. Cell cried out in pain and fell to its knees as Vegeta continued to apply pressure.

"I truly am disappointed," Vegeta admitted, looking down at Cell distastefully while it whimpered in his grasp. "All that work I put in inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and I worked up more of a sweat powering up than I did killing you. Hardly a challenge worthy of a king. Honestly," he continued, "I blame the boy. He made you sound like this great terror, this insurmountable threat, a demon from the future who had come to slaughter us all." He scoffed and chuckled sourly. "What a joke." Cell whimpered and Vegeta's lips curled in disgust. "Oh Gods," he muttered, "Are you crying?! Have some respect for yourself!"

"I-it's not fair," Cell whined pathetically. "It's just not fair! How did you get so strong? How did you know?! It doesn't make sense! This just… this isn't how it's supposed to work! I was supposed to be Perfect!" Vegeta rolled his eyes before Cell said something that caught his attention. "If I were Perfect, I could destroy you!" Vegeta's grip held firm but he did raise an eyebrow. "If I had been able to absorb Cyborg 18 before you had arrived then there would be no way for you to challenge me! I would be the most powerful being alive!"

"You mean to tell me," Vegeta inquired, "That if I let you go kill the blonde one that Kakarot's bitch and the bald one were guarding, you'll become strong enough to actually be worth my time?"

Cell looked up into Vegeta's eyes with what could only be described as a desperate loathing. "If I became Perfect," it promised him, "I would give you the fight of your life."

Vegeta's lips curved up in a devilish grin and he slowly began to open his fingers from around Cell's wrist. "Then let the hunt begin."