Val woke up the next day, hearing a knock on her door. "Just a second," she called out, quickly righting herself to answer the door. "Yes?" she said tired, opening the door. "Oh, Mr. Popo," she greeted. "What is it?"
"Sorry to wake you, guardian, but Cell's broadcast is about to start," Mr. Popo explained. "And you shouldn't miss it."
She nodded. "No, I shouldn't," she agreed. "I'll be out in a few minutes. Just need to get dressed," she explained.
"We're outside when you are ready," he said with a nod.
"We?" she asked, pausing in her movement to shut the door.
"Piccolo has returned," he explained.
"Alone?" she asked.
"Yes, guardian," he said.
She nodded. "I'll be out in a minute. Thank you."
She watched him step away before she shut the door, dressing and brushing her hair quickly. She left the room, grabbing up the staff instead of leaving behind intentionally this time. She hummed to herself, disappointed to hear Piccolo was alone. He had not found anyone down below to take over as guardian. Perhaps he did not even try.
She went out to the area, seeing both Mr. Popo and Piccolo there, standing before a TV hooked up to a small satellite. She bit back her emotions, guarding herself and focusing on the TV. She saw Cell standing in front of a newsroom with people panicking around him. Cell announced, "good day, creatures. I'm going to interrupt for a little while. Actually, this is good news for those of you who are bored living in peace. I'm here to tell you how your lives will be filled with more thrills and excitement. My name is Cell. I think you know how a few days ago, a monster made many people disappear. I was that monster. I want to thank them for their life force that allowed me to become what I am now. But you don't need to worry. I don't need anymore energy.
"Anyways, the great news I have is nine days from now, on the 17th at noon, a martial arts competition which I call the 'Cell Game' will be held. It'll be held at point 28K-5, northwest of the central capital. Unlike the Budokai, I will be the only opponent. I'll fight everyone who comes, one at a time. After all the challenger loses, I'll fight the next one. Therefore, the more fighters you send, the better for you. Strong as I am, you may just win through sheer numbers.
"The rules will be pretty much like the Budokai. If you give up or fall out of the ring, you lose. And I'll try to be gentle, but if you get killed, you lose, too. However, if all the fighters lose to me, I will kill everyone on Earth. I'll watch the fear on your faces until there's no one left."
Val gasped audibly, shocked at his last two sentences. "He wouldn't," she denied. Her hand locked tighter around the staff.
Cell was still monologuing, "all of you confident in your abilities should come." Then he aimed a blast behind him and let it go with a shout. The whole side of the building behind him was destroyed in the blast. "If you don't want to end up like this. I'm looking forward to the fight."
The screen when blank after that, a single tone echoing after his words. Mr. Popo bent down and flipped off the TV. Val stared at the screen, mind reeling. "He can't be allowed to do it," she said out loud. She gazed longingly over towards the edge of the Lookout and then looked down at her wrists. "If the fighters fail, he must be stopped from killing everyone." She scowled, hating once more that she was trapped up here, unless she could find a way to leave the Lookout for guardian related purposes, like when Kami went and asked Piccolo to take over the guardianship once. Or the time Kami entered the Budokai. She looked over at Piccolo. "Did you find anyone, down there? For a new guardian?" she asked longingly.
He glanced down at her, looking down at her almost too intently. "No one," Piccolo answered. "That was the problem Kami found himself in as well when Goku, then me, then you turned him down..."
She took a series of deep breathes to keep herself calm. "No one?" she breathed out. "There has to be someone," she twisted her grip on her staff. "I'm supposed to be interim," she reminded him.
He hummed, saying, "we'll figure it out." He looked over at Mr. Popo and then changed the subject, asking, "what happened to all the hydrangea tea?"
She blinked up at him, not sure what to say at first. She noticed Mr. Popo suddenly cleaning up the TV and satellite with haste. She looked at the two of them, realizing he already knew what happened. "Chiaotzu came to me, asking for the antivirals to the heart infection from me. His village is infected. He came to me for help, even though the village mostly doesn't like me." She looked down at her bare hands and bracelet covered wrists, cringed, and continued. "I gave him a note for Daiki and the tea and told him to go to him at Capsule Corps, and combine the medicine with the tea so more people would be more likely to take it. Without knowing it's from me of course."
He was looking down at her in an almost overbearing way. "Why did Tien go with him?"
She grimaced, looking away from him from the same of it. "To save Aiko," she choked out.
He hummed, pressing, "why?"
She turned and faced him again. "I don't know why," she snapped. "I'm smarter than she is. I'm stronger than she is. I'm more beautiful than she is. And yet he chose her," she confessed loudly, even though they were close enough to be heard. Her breath shook as she strove to calm herself.
He grunted. "And humbler than her?" he asked. She scowled up at him. "What made him think there was a choice on the table for him? When you should have shoved the time line back on track to restore it as best you can."
"You didn't give me a choice, so I gave him one," she confessed evenly. "I told him the future timeline that Future Trunks told me. He even found a moment to be jealous of you in it since you were the first in that timeline to attack the androids in retaliation for my death. I told him you advised me to get back together with him, and yet the moment he found out Aiko was sick with the heart virus, it didn't matter. I didn't matter." She swallowed thickly. "You didn't give me a choice, so I gave him all the information I knew, all the information I had wanted, and so I gave him a choice. I gave him what I had wanted. Whether I wanted him to chose her or not, he made the choice."
He furrowed his brow, ears twitching. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"About what?" she grumbled out.
"About the other timeline. How do you know I attacked next after the androids killed you?" he pressed.
She frowned at him, puzzled. "Trunks told me when he told me the old timeline's history," she recalled.
"He never told Goku that when he first came to this timeline," he explained.
She blinked up at him. "I'm not lying. If you don't believe me, ask him the next time you see him."
He looked away from her, over towards one edge of the Lookout, deep in thought. "You're certain?"
"Yes," she nodded in emphasis.
He brought a hand to his forehead and grunted. "We need to sort out this timeline, this future. It's changed far too much."
"Or just let it be," she countered. "Let the future run its course rather than pushing it the way you imagine it ought to be."
They stood there, looking at one another. Val gripped the staff tightly, closing herself off but not wanting to be the first one to look away. She felt her mind reeling over what Cell said, over what Piccolo said, and over what Tien decided. So many things had changed, some for the worst, but Goku was still alive, so it could not be all that bad-
She gasped, looking off towards the edge of the Lookout, seeing Trunks, with shorter hair now, and Vegeta landing nearby. Val nodded at them as they walked over, and then looked back up at Piccolo, daring him, "ask Trunks yourself."
"Ask me what?" Trunks asked.
"Is Kakarot out that room yet?" Vegeta said.
"Not yet," Val answered and then straightened up. Vegeta grunted, stepping away from the set of them in annoyance. She asked, "in the other timeline, when Android #17 and #18 surfaced, who did they fight and kill first?"
Trunks blinks over at her. "I told you, you were," he answered.
She did not look away from him, asking, "who did they fight and kill next?" She kept her breathing under control, but noticed Piccolo was watching her. She reached up to her shirt, gripping it.
"Piccolo," Trunks said, nodding over to him. Now Piccolo was watching him. "At least that was what Gohan said."
"Why?" Piccolo asked.
Trunks blinked up at him and shrugged. "Well, Gohan said by the time everyone got to Val and the androids, she was dead. Father was bickering with Tien and Yamcha because Tien was crying over her dead body. Gohan could said he could also tell Piccolo, that timeline's Piccolo anyway, was angry, gripping his shirt above his heart. When #17 taunted Tien, it was that Piccolo who attacked first. Gohan always thought it was he was angry his adoptive sister had been murdered."
Val listened carefully, ears drawing back. She found her hand had been on the front of her own shirt, gripping it above her heart as she listened. She looked down at her hand, seeing Piccolo noticing it as well. She slowly released her hand down to her side and stated. "See, I didn't lie," she said, breaking the tense silence between the two of them.
He looked away from her and back at Trunks, bidding, "talk with me privately." He walked towards the building, going past Vegeta, who had been sitting on the steps, tapping his foot in annoyance.
Trunks watched him go at first, looking over at Val in confusion. "Go. Talk to him. Be honest," she instructed. She felt a wave of hopefulness brewing up inside of her that she willed to be kept to herself. She watched them walk out of earshot, into the building, where their discussion could be going any which way.
She stepped over to where Vegeta was sitting, sitting herself down beside him. She set the staff on opposite of him, shaking her leg nervously in there settled silence.
After several long minutes, Vegeta turned and looked at her, arms crossed over his chest, "how long until Kakarot and his son come out?"
Val took a second to think. "About three more hours until their day is over," she estimated.
"They don't have to take the entire day!" he griped. "Otherwise, that's being greedy."
"Don't be too anxious," Piccolo said, walking back to them with Trunks. Val's eyes flicked from one of them to the other. "There're still nine days left before the Cell Game begins. After those two are done with there day, you ought to rest a while more while I go in and train."
"That's a waste of time! Only Saiyans should be using the room!" Vegeta grumbled standing up.
Val rose up next to him, grabbing the staff without thinking to do that first. "Anyone can use it, and he hasn't had a turn yet. You have."
"I won't use it the whole day," Piccolo said.
Vegeta grunted, "fine, you can use it, but then I get it for eight days."
Piccolo shook his head, explaining, "sorry, but the Room of Spirit and Time can only be used for two days per person at a time."
"Why? What happens if you stay for longer than two days?" Val asked curiously.
"The door will disappear and you won't be able to come out again," Mr. Popo warned, walking up to the group of them.
Vegeta paled at that. "Shit," he swore.
"But at least we can use for more than a day," Trunks pointed out.
Val turned to look towards the building, as did the others when she sensed Goku and Gohan emerge from the Room of Spirit and Time. "That's Goku and Gohan's kis!" she cheered out loud, impressed by them, especially the boy's. "They're coming out now!"
"What? Why so soon?" Vegeta asked.
Val watched the father and son pair come out of the room, battle armor in disarray, and still in Super Saiyan form. "Vegeta and Trunks are here!" Goku said. He looked at them gathered nearby. "Hey, where's Tien?"
Val answered after a pause, "he went home."
"Good riddance, the weakling," Vegeta muttered.
Goku hummed. "And I can still feel Cell's ki... He's alive... What happened? What's happened? Tell us about it!"
"Well...," Trunks started, and then he explained what happened when he and then Vegeta battled Cell and the announcement of the Cell Games. Vegeta scowled, but said nothing during the retelling. Goku listened in earnest.
"I see..." Goku hummed when Trunks finished his explanation. "A final competition? Good idea!"
"You said 'good?'" Piccolo asked.
"Mr. Popo, where's my shirt?" Goku asked him.
"Ah, over there," Mr. Popo said, pointing to the capsule box that Bulma had brought the Litt Armor in.
Goku took up his old clothes, disappearing into the building real quick to change and come back out. Trunks offered, "if you want, I can ask Mom to make a new suit for you."
Goku shrugged and shook his head. "No! I prefer my old uniform better," Goku responded. I'm going to fight as a human."
Gohan stepped up to Piccolo, requesting, "Piccolo, I also need new clothes, I'd like one like yours, please, if you wouldn't mind?"
Piccolo flashed the boy a fraternal smile. "All right... I'll make you something stylish." He reached out his hand over the boy's head and magicked him an outfit that matched his own.
"Aha, thank you, Piccolo!" the boy cheered, appraising his new outfit.
"Well," Vegeta said, cutting through the revelry. "Can you beat Cell now?" he asked Goku.
"I don't know..." Goku answered thoughtfully. "I haven't seen his perfect form yet. I'm going to Cell for myself now." He brought his two fingers to his forehead and disappeared.
Val stared at the spot where he had been standing, feeling jealous that she could not do that herself. In a few short minutes, he reappeared on the Lookout. "What do you think about him?" Trunks asked.
"I can't believe he's that strong. Judging by his ki, it's hard to guess his exact strength. I won't know without fighting him. Even though I don't think I can beat Cell," Goku rambled.
"What?" Val asked.
"How?" Trunks said at the same time. "Are you sure?"
Piccolo advised, "you've still time to go back into the Room of Spirit and Time. After you, then I'll go. Then Vegeta. Followed by Trunks. Then you can go again."
Goku shrugged. "It's okay! Gohan and I are going to train here on Earth. There's still nine days left... It'll work out."
"What?" Piccolo asked.
"You don't want to go into the Room of Spirit and Time again?" Val asked him.
"That's right!" Goku said, nod emphatically.
"Why? You can still go for another full day!" Piccolo insisted.
Goku hummed, "if I don't do anything in that room, my body will get weaker. It's better to rest for now."
Vegeta scoffed "Ha ha, Goku can't take take it. Is the pain too much for you to handle?"
Goku replied, "maybe, but right now, trying to build up my strength isn't the solution. However, you can still go back in if you want."
"What?" Vegeta said irritably. "Are you trying to imply that you're stronger than me?"
Goku nodded simply. "As a matter of fact, I am."
Val blinked and gasped, looking between the two of them, surprised by Goku's boldness. "What?!" Vegeta hissed at him.
Goku shrugged it off. "Enough! Let's just work together. See you at the competition!" He turned to his son. "Let's go, Gohan!"
"Okay," Gohan said, nodding.
Val watched as both of them waved goodbye, flying off towards the ground. Val watched, wishing she could do that herself once more. She sensed they did not go very far though, landing on Korin's tower below. She thought over what Goku said and then how he looked. "Hey, why was Goku Super Saiyan just now? I can't be sure..." she asked aloud.
"They were definitely Super Saiyans," Piccolo answered her. "But they've trained to stay Super Saiyan, even in normal circumstances."
"If... If... When they fight... Can they get stronger?" Trunks wondered.
"Oh," Val said, sensing at them, wondering how much stronger that could make them then. Then wondering if Vegeta should try himself before he faced off against Cell a second time. She looked over at him curiously.
"Stupid to think about it!" Vegeta grumbled. "This is the best way! If he gets used to this form, when he increases his ki, his body weight won't be that heavy."
"Are you certain?" Val asked him curiously.
He grumbled under his breath, not giving an intelligible answer.
Val felt the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stand up. She sensed Goku power up, higher and higher down at Korin's tower. The wind on the Lookout wiped around in a frenzy in time with his ki signature. "What?" Val gasped in awe, mind shifting to think perhaps Vegeta was not going to be the one to finish Cell off properly after all.
"Where did that ki come from?" Trunks asked.
"It's, that's Goku!" Piccolo half cheered, half cringed.
"Shit!" Vegeta swore in a mix of annoyance and jealousy. He clenched his fists taunt at his sides. Val sensed the ki dissipate not long after it fluxed. She still felt a thrill go through her at sensing it. "Piccolo!" Vegeta shouted, drawing attention back to himself. "If you're going to use that damn room, hurry and do it! There's others waiting to use it!"
Piccolo hummed to himself, nodded, and walked towards the building. Val watched him go, wondering if he as well would have enough strength to match up against Cell now if either of the Saiyans failed. She backed over at the edge of the Lookout, sensing Goku and Gohan fly further and further away, back towards their village. Her mind wandered, making her recall how she missed the village more than she realized. It was quieter than Capsule Corp and the Southern Capital had been, but not as quiet as Tien's mountain village had been. She remembered the Capsule house she had stayed in, long forgotten. She wondered if Piccolo still used it or not-
"Guardian Val!" Trunks said next to her.
She blinked, looking over him next to her. "What?" she asked.
"I said I was wondering what you told Piccolo before Father and I got here, before Goku and Gohan came out of the Room of Spirit and Time?" he said, surely for the first time.
"I told him what you told me before you and your father went into the room," she explained. "Did you never tell Goku all the details of what happened the day the androids showed up in the other time?"
"No, just the gist. He didn't insist on details like you and Piccolo just now did. Just took the hearsay I reported from what my mom and Gohan from my timeline had said," he explained.
Val drew one foot back in surprise. "So, Piccolo just now found out he attacked the androids first after I died?"
Trunks looked at her, bewildered. "What does that matter? I came back and saved Goku, that was the goal. The timeline has changed. So why are the both of you fixating on it so hard?"
"Him, too?" She rushed out. "What did he ask you?"
Trunks looked up and away from her and sighed. "He asked what relationship the two of you had in the other timeline. I reminded him Gohan said you two saw each other siblings, Demon Clan kinfolk. Nothing more." He sighed, confessing, "but then, he just asked what my mother said." He frowned, seeming annoyed.
"What did she say? In the other timeline?" she pressed. "What did you tell him?"
He sighed. "That there always could have been something more, if he had wanted it to be," Trunks answered. "But- where are you going?"
Val was running before she realized it, into the building, sensing for where Piccolo was, wanting to reach him before he got to the Room of Spirit and Time. She reached him, seeing him by the door, which was opened. She glance up at his ears briefly wondering if he had overheard what Trunks told her or not. "What do you want?" he asked, voice low.
She stepped up to him, pulling her gaze away from. "I wanted to see the room," she asked, looking in there. She saw a blank, white void that made her ears draw back. The air coming from the room was chilly and thin, more so than the air from around the Lookout.
She shivered, stepping back. "You can't go in there," he told her.
"I know," she griped. "I can't leave the Lookout at all."
"Unless it is Guardian related," he corrected. "Why did you come down here?" he asked, sounding like he knew the answer already.
She looked up at him, mind planning in real time. "Because I want to know what your plan is for finding another guardian to take over permanently, like you promised me," she shifted the conversation. "I want to go back to Capsule Corps, back to my research work."
He looked down at her, seeming a bit confused. "Once we deal with Cell, I look on the Earth again for someone worthy."
"What if they can't be found?" she pressed.
"You really hate it up here full time, don't you?" he asked. She felt slightly humbled and nodded. "If someone else can't be found, then Kami's second choice will have to take over," he answered vaguely.
"Wait," she said, thinking fast. "But that was you," she rushed out, remembering.
He nodded. "We agreed you'd just be a place holder."
"But that changes the time line. The time line you said to shove back in place," she pointed out.
He hummed, "don't worry about that."
"You'd be trapped up here. What if another threat comes against the Earth?" she asked.
"Finally lost faith in Vegeta?" he teased. "Most former guardians enjoyed the solitude up here."
She frowned up at him. "Won't you be lonely?"
"I think Gohan would visit often enough, among others," he answered.
"I would visit," she thought out loud.
He looked down at her at that thought, reminding her of what Trunks had just told her. "Even though you hate being up here?"
"I don't hate it up here. I hate being trapped, unable to go where I want," she explained. "The idea of watching the Cell Games from all the way up here, just be a witness..." she said longingly.
He hummed down at her. "Like when you were trapped working for Frieza in his ship?" he asked.
She looked up at him, halting her mind from going to a vulnerable place at that mention. "Perhaps," she said dismissively. She stepped closer to him. "So you would really be willing to become the new guardian and change the future's time line?"
He stepped closer as well, seeming drawn to her. "It would be the better choice."
"So you would be willing to change something?" she pressed, mind planning her next move, hoping he would not catch and derail what she was planning. She brought one hand to her chest, gripping her shirt for a moment. His eyes glanced down to her movements. She stepped over to him, letting her shirt go, set the staff against the wall, and grabbing his shirt with both of hers. She kept her breathing calm and steady when he leaned down closer to her as well.
"We should really keep the future on track though..." she hummed softly. She intentionally brought her gaze to his lips when she said it though. "But so many things have changed already," she added.
She could feel his body, so close to her, lose a slight tremor.
She bit back a smile at his reaction. "Tien turned me down already, given the choice between me and Aiko," she said.
She made herself pout slightly, biting her lip. That drew his gaze to her lips, body stiffening with a challenge of self control. She raised herself up higher on her tip toes, bringing her face closer to his, but not quite close enough to his. He leaned down a bit more. She kept her face neutral as he drew him in more and more.
"And you..." she breathed demurely. He was leaning closer. "Always thought I would want to go back to Tien, no matter what happened between us. And that that would help set the future on track," she hummed, stepping to be a hair's breath away from touching her torso to his. The vibe between them was electric.
"Yet it didn't work," she commented. She craned her neck up, seeing him crane his neck down towards hers. Meer inches separated the two of them from kiss she was building up to. "So after Cell is gone, I guess once I'm no longer guardian..." she hummed, licking her lips ever slow slightly.
He was closer now, holding himself just back from kissing her. He was still acting out of habit trying to push her take the lead on the romantic decisions between them or not.
"I'll find someone else," she said coldly, clearly and confidently. She let his shirt go and backed away from him, even as he staggered two steps forwards towards her. She plucked up the staff on the wall, walking away from him. She forced herself not to look back, even as she felt a numbing sensation come over her chest in time with the sound of the door shutting. She leaned herself against the wall, hand over her heart, breathing deeply, and feeling hot and bothered. She looked back over at the door, wondering at how their next interaction would go.