Chapter Text
Mirai has very little to no idea what’s going on anymore. It was bad enough having the androids change so drastically, but then someone finds their time machine? And it actually is their time machine, just not the one they still currently have? So there’s two time machines because something used it three years in their future to come earlier in the timeline than she and Trunks did? And they don’t even know what used it?
Well. Mirai has a pretty good idea of what it was now, looking at this… thing.
But this thing just raises a whole new slough of questions! Like why the fuck does it feel like Frieza, Frieza’s father, Goku, Piccolo, and Vegeta? And why the hell was it– what – drinking people?! With its tail?!
Mirai’s head hurts.
“Get out of here!” She shouts to the… reporters, she thinks they were? And whoever was shooting at this– thing in front of her. “Run!”
One of the humans protests, making this thing’s eyes dart in their direction. Quickly, it rushes past her, likely to snatch up the human. Mirai grabs its tail and uses all her strength to keep it from the human. Before it can lurch forward again, Mirai swings on her heel and flings the thing away from all the energy signatures in the area. She makes sure to position herself in between the thing and the humans, keeping her eye on the thing and her senses alert.
“Don’t fight, just go! Now!”
They don’t argue this time, immediately scrambling away to their vehicles. Good. Now she just needs to stall and make sure that they have enough time to escape. That’s something she knows how to do.
The thing in front of Mirai stares at her. Its… beak? Whatever serves as their mouth scrunches up slightly, yellowed eyes narrowing at her. Already, it’s more expressive than the androids she knows and loathes.
“You’ll pay for stealing my meals, Gonan ,” it hisses at her. She blinks in surprise. This thing knows who she is? Though, looking closer at this things’ shape, it looks an awful lot like that molt she’d found earlier. Is this the thing that came from that other time machine?
If that’s the case… is that how it knows who she is?
She’s got a bad feeling about this.
“How do you know my name? What are you?”
Instead of answering, the thing raises its energy signature, showing off all the power it’s gathered. It only serves to make it so much easier for Mirai to sense everyone else’s energy merged into this one being. It’s… sickening.
“I am your father.”
…
Mirai… doesn’t know how to respond to that. She simply stares at the thing, the pounding in her head growing ever more intense the more she stands here, facing it.
She hates it here.
“Answer correctly, or not at all.”
The thing huffs, breath whistling slightly through its… beak. She’ll call it a beak for now. “Why would you need to know that… inside my stomach?”
Is it referring to drinking her through its tail? Is that where they all end up? In its stomach? Through the tail end?
Kami, none of that matters–
“Fine, whatever,” she barely resists the urge to roll her eye – it’ll only make her migraine worse. “I guess I don’t need to know in order to kill you.”
The thing laughs, somehow sounding startled into it yet condescending about it. “ You ? Kill me? Pathetic little Gonan is going to kill me?”
“I’m going by ‘Mirai’ currently.” Mirai rolls her shoulders and slips into a stance, flaring her energy and transforming into a Super Saiyan as easily as breathing. She brings her hands to her side and quickly pushes energy in between her palms, gathering as much as she can as quickly as possible, before throwing her palms forward at the thing and blasting it to hell. Hopefully.
Its eyes widen in the split second before the blast hits it, with them being so close and the way she forces the energy to spread, it’s impossible for it to evade in time. Regrettably, the city behind it is destroyed with the blast, but some sacrifices must be made. The humans that were here are already far enough to not get caught up in it.
The blast does nothing but push the thing away, but that’s fine. Mirai can already sense backup heading her way in the form of Trunks and Krillin. And… someone else is closer. It feels like Piccolo, but… not.
Questions for later.
The thing picks itself up from the ruble and charges at her, swatting at her awkwardly. Mirai narrowly dodges the swipe and kicks at the back of the thing’s head, sending it stumbling. It takes a cautious leap away from her and looks at her over its shoulder, hissing. Interesting. Mirai charges energy in her hand as she chases after it, pushing her energy into its chest and blasting it away. This time, it recovers quickly, landing on its feet.
This… feels wrong. Like she shouldn’t be winning this. Is she winning this? The thing seems frustrated with her hits, but is that because of the fact that she hit him at all or because it’s realized she’s stronger?
Is she stronger?
“Is that all you’ve got…?”
The thing grins, as much as it can with that beak of its. It chuckles, “Even considering that I’m not in my perfect form yet… you’re not bad.”
Mirai blinks. “Perfect form? Is that why you’re… attacking people?”
Its grin widens. “Very good,” it purrs. “I extract their life force as a source of energy.”
…
“You’re the thing from that time machine. Who sent you?”
…
The thing tilts its head, grin still resting on its beak. “I sent myself. The machine was too small for me, so I had to revert to my egg stage. I’m surprised you even know about the time machine… Well,” it huffs, sounding amused, and it slips into a familiar stance, hands held out in front of it in a mimic of the very same attack she’d done earlier. “I’ll bet you don’t know this… Ka…” It drags its hands to its side, and Mirai can feel the energy gathering between its palms. “Me…”
…
It’s doing the Kamehameha.
Did it learn from seeing her do it? Or did it know it beforehand?
“I am your father.”
… It does have Goku’s energy in it. What…
Just what is this thing?
Before she knows it, the thing is throwing its palms in her direction, a blast erupting from it. Quickly, Mirai brings a hand up in front of her, pushing her own energy out to shield her, and an extra bit to cause the thing’s blast to explode in the space between them rather than right on her. The shockwaves hit the shield with more force than she’d expected, and she’s blown back despite her efforts.
The thing catches her in its limbs before she can regain her composure. Arms wrap around her own and her torse, and legs wrap around her knees. Mirai looks behind herself to see the thing before movement catches her eye just barely.
“I have you now!”
When she looks forward, Mirai sees the needle tip of the thing’s tail aimed directly at her chest, right where her heart would be. She barely has the time and space to shift so its needlepoint hits her arm rather than her chest. Pain erupts and tries its damnedest to find its way out her throat in a scream, but she stubbornly keeps it down.
“Feh,” the thing scoffs, “Just your arm. But no matter, your life force is still mine!’
Instantly, Mirai remembers how the thing’s tail sucked the life out of someone she was too late to save, and too shocked to try to help. How she sensed that human’s life force syphon into this monster.
With a shout, Mirai throws her head back into the monster’s beak, ignoring how it throbs, and forces her energy into tiny destructo disks just big enough to slice through this thing’s tail. The pain from both attacks drives the monster to let her go, and Mirai quickly takes the opportunity to throw herself forward and away from the thing. Quickly, Mirai pulls the needlepoint tail out from her arm, ignoring the pain that brings, too. She squeezes the pound of flesh she’d cut from the monster and pushes her energy into it. With a final burst of energy, she makes the flesh explode, destroying it in her grasp.
Already, she is way too winded. Did it manage to take some of her energy? She resists the urge to check if her arm is too wrinkled to be healthy, remembering how that last human had shriveled up like a prune until they no longer existed as their own person.
The monster’s hissing again, though it sounds more like screams as its tail thrashes around. Slowly, the thing regains some of its composure, black slits zero-ing in on Mirai with clear rage. “You… You…!” It seethes, energy levels rising in its outburst, until suddenly–
A gross, mushy sound tears through the area. The monster gasps as its energy suddenly decreases and it starts panting. Its tail slows its thrashing until it’s hovering in front of the monster once more.
…
Its needlepoint is back, only now it’s covered in slime. Both Mirai and the monster stare at it, dumbfounded.
“Huh.” The monster hums. “I did not know I could do that.”
…
It didn’t know it could regenerate?
…
Oh, fuck, it can regenerate–
The monster laughs, delighted. “Well, if that’s the case–”
“Could you humor me before you kill me?”
It pauses. Mirai tries not to hide how even she’s not sure what she’s doing. But she can sense the other energies heading towards her position, she knows she’ll have backup soon. She just needs to stall, and maybe she can get more information in the meantime? It’ll help to keep this monster’s focus on her and not Piccolo or Krillin or Trunks.
A huff, “All right. How can I refuse a meaningless last wish?” Seems it took the bait. “My name is Cell and I’m an artificial life form.” It’s another android…?! “I was created by Dr. Gero’s computer.”
Oh for Kami’s sake–
“Long ago, the good doctor began experimenting with creating a lifeform out of samples of cells he gathered from great fighters… but progress was slow, and he finally put it aside. His computer, however, never gave up. Cells from Son Goku… Piccolo… and Vegeta were harvested when the latter came to Earth. We were lucky that Frieza and his father came to Earth so we could take samples from them, too. We could’ve added yours and Gohan’s cells to the line, but we had enough Saiyan samples.”
Mirai would like to nap. Or be in a coma. Or just die, so long as she doesn’t have to deal with this bullshit anymore.
Trunks’ energy heading her way reminds her of why she can’t just do that.
“How’d you harvest the cells? There wasn’t anyone else around then…”
‘Cell’ crosses its arms over its chest. “Dr. Gero must’ve told you that spy robots were following your every move. A tiny robot the size of a bee. No one would’ve noticed it. It scraped the cells as it studied you all. Look closely,” Cell points to a spot over its shoulder, where Mirai can see what, indeed, looks like a bee, just barely. Her eyesight isn’t the best. “It’s here right now and sending data to the computer. Maybe it wants your cells…”
Mirai huffs and blasts the damn spy bee- bug- whatever out of the sky. The monster laughs.
“It’s too late now… It’s gathered all the requisite cells and the research has begun. Though I won’t be completed for another 24 years, of course.”
“We destroyed Dr. Gero’s lab,” Mirai grits out.
“The computer was under it. In the basement.”
Well, at least they know where to look, now.
Mirai takes a breath and continues. Next question… “Why did it take three years after you came back to this time?
“Three years as a nymph beneath the Earth… That’s how long it takes for me to mature from an egg.” Cell says… wistfully? Or annoyed. Some odd mix of the two. Mirai doesn’t often have the opportunity to read an android’s expression, much less one so expressive despite the lack of facial muscles. “Did I answer everything? Good. Time to absorb you.”
“Wait,” Mirai raises a hand up as if it’ll care that she gestures for it to wait. It does, anyway. She brings her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Just one more. Why did you come here from the future? What’s the point?”
The monster humors her still, gaze moving somewhere above her head as if to think of the proper answer. “Human life forces aren’t enough for me to complete my growth. I need to merge with 2 especially powerful life forms… The computer told me whom I needed to merge with…” Cell’s gaze lowers back to Mirai. “... Dr. Gero’s creations– androids 17 and 18!”
Mirai pinches the bridge of her nose harder and squeezes her eyes shut. It only serves to make her migraine worse. “What?”
It steamrolls through her question. “But when I was activated in the future, nos. 17 and 18 were gone. I don’t know how. Defeated by…” Cell tilts its head at her, considering. “You, perhaps. Or Trunks. I’m not sure, I wasn’t completed yet. But luckily, you both had the time machine.” It grins, sending a chill down Mirai’s spine. “I killed you both, took the time machine, and came here looking for nos. 17 and 18… and here we are.”
…
This thing… killed Trunks…?
She… failed…?
… fails…?
…
Mirai hates time travel. She hates Dr. Gero, she hates the androids he makes, she hates that she’s the one that has to deal with all this, she hates that this filth she’s looking at exists at all and the fact that it killed Trunks–
Questions, question, she needs more time, more answers, just focus –
“Why did you choose three years ago from this point in time?”
“I didn’t. Trunks–” stop saying his name, you don’t have the right– “ –had preprogrammed the machine to that year, and I just pushed the button.” The monster uncrosses its arms, looking far too pleased with itself– “The computer also told me this– that when I am complete, I will have powers unimaginable!”
“Why?!” She can’t stop herself from blurting out. “Why do you want so much power?!”
“Why?” It scoffs. “Stupid question. The computer was programmed to create the strongest being in the cosmos. Or maybe it’s just the blood of the Saiyans or Frieza… or Piccolo… flowing through me.”
Mirai breathes, or tries to, and tries to focus on her surroundings. Tries to focus on what she should be doing. Tries to– just focus . She catalogues the energy signatures and their distance–
Oh.
She takes one last breath, glaring daggers at the monster before her. “Thanks for the information. Now… Get this filth out of my sight, Piccolo.”
Cell blinks, eyes widening ever so slightly in its confusion. Its beak opens, but it doesn’t get the chance to speak. Instead, it whirls around and gets met with a blast full of energy. The Demon Flash, if Mirai remembers correctly.
She tries not to get too much pleasure from the strangled yelp the monster lets out.
It doesn’t take long for Trunks and Krillin to land nearby, and Mirai immediately steps closer to the boy. Frankly, if Cell could kill a version of both her and Trunks who had enough power to destroy the androids, she’s not sure how she survived this battle or how she managed to damage it as much as she had. Did reverting back to its egg form reset its strength?
She didn’t know.
All she knew was that she couldn’t let this thing kill Trunks again.
“Watch its tail,” Mirai warns as Cell gets back to its feet. “That’s how it absorbed everyone.”
Krillin gulps. “Wh-Why… am I feeling Goku’s energy from it…?”
“Worry about finishing it off, first. I’ll explain later.”
“Finish me off?” The monster questions, tilting its head at her. “Do you think it’ll be that easy?”
Mirai ignores Krillin’s question about it being able to talk and glances at Piccolo. The Namekian nods and takes a step closer to the monster. “I don’t see how you have a chance in this situation.”
Cell hums. “True. I’ll have to retreat for now.”
“You think we’ll let you? That Kamehameha you pulled off earlier was pathetic. It won’t help you.”
“The Kamehameha?!” Krillin yelps. “It can do that too?!”
“Not just the Kamehameha, Krillin,” Cell gloats, clearly relishing in the way Krillin yelps at his name being said by it. “I could probably do a Spirit Bomb too, if I feel like it.”
“H-How did it even know my name…?” Krillin mutters. “Goku will be shocked when he finds out…”
Cell perks up. “Son Goku is alive?” Of all the things for this thing to not know… “Of… Of course…! So he’s alive in this reality. History has changed a bit from what I knew…”
So… Cell isn’t the reason things have changed…?
“I will acquire nos. 17 and 18! You won’t be able to stop me from becoming complete! Not at long as Piccolo is the only one who can fight the androids!” Cell swiftly brings its hands up to its face, the backs of its hands facing them with its fingers splayed out. It’s an all too familiar stance.
“Solar–!”
Mirai’s arms are immediately covering her face, covering her remaining eye especially, and squeezes her eye shut. She can already feel the heat from the technique, even though it hasn’t been used yet.
“– Flare!”
She doesn’t move, even after she senses Cell flee. Her head pounds as the rest of the group grunts with annoyance and frustration. Shakily, after a solid thirty seconds, Mirai lowers her arms from her face and pries her eye open. She can still see. Her head is pounding, and her eye aches, as does the space her left eye used to occupy, but she can still see. And even if she couldn’t, she’s already got ways to function without her eyesight. It’s fine. She’s fine. A glance at the people around her show her that they’re fine, too, if agitated.
“Curse him!” Piccolo growls, glaring into the distance where Cell’s energy went. “I thought the Solar Flare was Tienshenhan’s maneuver!”
“It’s not that hard to do…” Krillin explains, squinting at Piccolo. His pupils are still readjusting. “Goku and I can do it, too.”
“Yeah,” Trunks agrees, blinking harshly. “Gohan and G–Mirai taught me, too, despite…” His face scrunches up a bit in a cringe, and his eyes immediately dart to Krillin, then to Mirai. Mirai shakes her head.
“Despite what…?”
Mirai glances at Krillin, who’s looking between her and Trunks. She considers him for a moment, then sighs. Settles for a half-truth. “I’ve got enough blind spots already, I don’t want to lose what’s left of my vision.”
Krillin grimaces, but doesn’t look surprised. He must’ve noticed the emptiness of her eye socket when he’d given her a Senzu bean earlier.
“Enough!” Piccolo shouts, flying into the air. “It’s dead!” Before he can make good on his word, he stops in the air. He takes a glance at their surroundings, looking lost. Then, he lets out a shout and lands on the ground once more, teeth grit and looking like he’s about to pop a blood vessel. “Curse it all! I let down my guard! I should’ve beaten it down quickly while I had the chance! That thing… I can’t let it reach its final form!”
Oh, so he did listen in. Mirai wasn’t sure if he was close enough to hear their conversation. Speaking of people being near enough, Mirai finally acknowledges that Vegeta is almost here, and it seems Tien’s heading over, too. It doesn’t take too long for the both of them to join their little group. Once they do, Mirai lets Piccolo explain what he heard, then fills in the gaps.
“So that’s the story…” Piccolo states once she’s finished. “To stop Cell from attaining its final form, we have to either find it and kill it, or find and kill androids 17 and 18. I’d rather try to squash Cell while he’s not so powerful.”
Finally, they’re all taking this as seriously as they should. She hopes.
She doesn’t want to think about it too much. They’ve got simple enough goals, it’s just a matter of completing them.
“First thing’s first,” Mirai starts, once again pinching the bridge of her nose. Trunks grimaces, but doesn’t hand her any more pills. She turns to the boy anyway. “Trunks, can you check Dr. Gero’s lab for that basement? Make sure this timeline’s Cell is destroyed before it’s complete, and check if it has any notes for that emergency shut-down thing you mentioned earlier. Or whatever you can find.”
Trunks nods, clenching his fists with familiar determination. “Right!”
“I-I’ll go look, too!” Krillin offers.
Vegeta scoffs. “All you have are petty plots. If it wants to merge, let it! There’ll be less to beat down! It saves us trouble! I don’t care what my enemies do… I’ll just kill them all!”
Mirai sighs. Piccolo can deal with this one.
“Don’t underestimate it, Vegeta. Cell is far stronger than the androids– and you were powerless against them.”
“Don’t you preach at me!” Vegeta snaps. “Do you want me to start with you?! I will top myself… mark my words!” He clenches his fists, unwittingly mimicking his son only far more viciously. “I’ll transcend the Super Saiyan…!”
…
Transcend the Super Saiyan…?
… Is that possible?
The Saiyan prince drops his clenched fists to his sides, lips curling up into a grin. “Kakarot will do the same. I’m sure of it. You guys piddle around among yourselves!”
Without another word, Vegeta flies off once more.
Mirai sighs. Whatever.
“We’ve got a bunch of androids to hunt down, and hopefully some blueprints. Let’s get to work.”
Mirai’s never had androids run away from her before. It’s absolutely frustrating. The thing keeps detecting their energy and running as soon as they get too close, and if they try suppressing their energy, then they can’t get there fast enough. Mirai could usually detect it using her energy to map out the area and finding the monster’s shape within it, but the monster caught on too quickly for her comfort.
Is this how the androids felt when she and Gohan had escaped them before?
She’s not sure if that’s a comforting thought or not.
They’ve already been searching for a whole day. Unlike the androids Mirai knows best, Cell has a mission, and as such isn’t playing around. She’s not even sure if it's taking breaks. Does it need to sleep? She’s not sure. Either way, if it does, they can’t find it or reach it in those down times between cities.
All they’re met with is piles of clothing and the occasional firearm.
And… other things.
Mirai looks over at Tien when his energy spikes just slightly. She finds him staring at a tattered stuffed bunny that he’s clearly picked up from the ground. Not too far from his feet is a small dress with small, black dress shoes to match. There’s even a couple of hair ties.
The child must’ve been wearing her hair in pigtails.
“How bad did it get?” Tien’s voice snaps her out of her thoughts. She looks to him. He’s looking at her with a pained look in his eyes. “How–” His words cut out as he glances back down at the stuffed bunny still in his grasp. Slowly, his eyes drift over the rest of the city, stopping at every pile of clothes he can see from where he’s standing. His adam’s apple bobs as he swallows and forces his gaze back on her. “Were there any survivors when the androids attacked? Besides you?”
She blinks. Ah. He must be conflicted since every city or town they’ve checked has been completely devoid of life. She supposes that happens when the android hunting down humans can actually sense their energy signatures.
Mirai looks over the street, eyeing the piles of clothes. It’s… surreal, seeing only piles of clothes, and not… bodies… within them.
Or just humans, still bleeding and dying.
She takes a deep breath, closing her eye. “Yeah. Sometimes. But, that wasn’t always a good thing.” She can practically hear and see Tien’s confusion. Before he can ask, she continues. “The androids saw their destruction as a game. The method changed often, but the goal was always to see who could rack up the most kills…”
Oh, the amount of times she’d reach them, only to find 17 driving haphazardly throughout the streets, mowing people down. The amount of times she’d find them standing on the edge of a building, pointing their fingers and shooting at as many humans as they could, counting whatever number they’d gotten with that last shot. 17 either shouting out whatever amount of points he’d earned for his carnage or complaining that 18 hadn’t kept count for him.
Mirai works the tension out of her jaw halfheartedly when she realizes she’d been clenching her teeth. She clears her throat and continues. “Not every wound received, whether it be from the androids directly or from buildings collapsing, was immediately fatal.”
Because they weren’t always aiming for the heart or the brain. Sometimes, they toyed with their prey. Like the worst kami-damned cats.
“What are you saying…?” Piccolo asks. He sounds cautious, like a part of him knows the answer already, but it hasn’t fully clicked for him yet. Tien looks to be in the same boat.
“ … Sometimes… Far too often… all I could do was ask if they wanted company, or an end.”
She wasn’t sure which option was worse. Was it when they had asked for an end? Begged her to make the pain stop? When children too young to have to deal with such things begged for it to stop? Or was it when other children had simply asked for company, whether they were in pain or not? When the kid or young adult or the elderly simply asked for her to tell them a story? When they asked for a smile because they’d wanted to see something vaguely nice in their final moments? Because if someone could manage to smile despite being in the world they’d been in, maybe there was hope after all?
She didn’t know.
It all tore her down.
“Gonan–”
“Mirai.” She corrected, turning away from the two. “Let’s just keep looking.”
A couple days into the fruitless hunt for the monster, Mirai was benched in favor of ‘watching over Goku’ at Master Roshi’s house. All because she’d had one of her bad migraine days and refused to take a Senzu bean for it and Trunks was off ‘training’ with Vegeta (she hadn’t once sensed either one of their energy rise to suggest that they actually were training) so she didn’t have easy access to her migraine pills.
Neither Piccolo or Tien were pleased when she wouldn’t explain why Trunks was the one to hold her migraine pills. She knew they wouldn’t be any more pleased if she’d told them the answer. (It only took one bad migraine and one bad decision to make Bulma decide that she shouldn’t be allowed to keep her meds with her anymore. She’s not sure if she can blame her.)
So she’d been benched ever since. Her migraine still hasn’t lessened, but she’s also used to dealing with that sort of pain. There’s not much choice but for her to begrudgingly accept this new role. It’s fine. It gives her more time to wrap her head around whatever the hell is going on and make plans for how to deal with such things. There’s more fighters now, more variables, so she needs to make sure everything is in order.
As she thinks, she speaks her thoughts out loud to Goku, despite how he’s been unconscious. Both in hopes that speaking out loud will make the ideas easier to pick through, and that Goku would hear her. Even if he wasn’t able to understand and retain what she says in the state he’s in, maybe her voice would coax him out of his coma-like state. It sometimes worked for her and Gohan, maybe it’ll work for him too?
She doesn’t know. She tries not to feel too crazy about the entire situation, even as her head pounds.
Then, one day, Goku wakes up.
“You’re awake…” Mirai manages to say through the lump in her throat. It’s weird, and it’s dumb, but Mirai can’t help but feel… relieved? Surprised? It feels surreal to have Goku wake up seemingly completely fine after dealing with the heart virus. But also… reassuring? It means she’s successfully changed things.
Goku smiles at her. It makes the lump in her throat grow. “Sorry I worried you all. I’m all better now.”
“Right…”
Her father walks over to his clothes neatly folded next to his bed roll by his wife and starts putting them on. “I heard you and everyone else talking in my sleep, so I’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s going on. Thanks for that, by the way.”
Mirai blinks. She wasn’t sure if he’d retain anything, but it seems that he has, supposedly. At least she won’t have to explain everything again. But… “You should still be staying in bed, though. A virus attacking the heart isn’t something to brush off so quickly. You can’t possibly be thinking of going to fight right now…”
“Don’t worry,” he reassures, sending a smile her way. “I won’t fight yet. If Vegeta can’t win, I can’t either. I plan to conserve my strength… to transcend the Super Saiyan!”
Transcend the Super Saiyan… Vegeta was talking about doing that, too. “Is that even possible?”
“I dunno,” Goku shrugs. “But I don’t think there’s any other way I can win. I’ll train for one year, and give up if that’s not enough.”
… There’s a lot wrong with that plan. She’ll ignore the giving up portion of it for now. “I really don’t think we have a year to spend training.”
“It’s okay. There’s a place where I can spend a whole year in a day.”
… What.
“I’m gonna go ask your mother if I can bring little you and Gohan with us.”
What?
Before she can ask him to elaborate, he’s already walking out of the room to ask Chi-Chi if he can bring their kids to go train for a year in a day. Mirai… is really tired of having all these curve balls thrown her way. Her head hurts.
She takes a deep breath and presses the heel of her palms to her temples. No amount of compression, warmth, or massaging will abate the pain. It’s fine. She can deal. She will deal. She has no choice.
By the time she joins Goku downstairs with Chi-Chi and Master Roshi, he’s seemingly finished asking for permission. Goku turns to her and holds a hand out to her, his other hand pressing his pointer and middle finger to his forehead. “Let’s go!” he says. She wordlessly takes his hand and focuses on the sensation of the technique as they’re transported to the others.
Piccolo and the others had the idea to chase Cell down in an aircraft since it’s relatively fast while still keeping their energy signatures suppressed. The group greets them loudly in their excitement to see Goku up and about. It sends a pang of pain through her head, but she ignores it.
“H-How’d you get here?!”
“You teleported?!”
“Yup.”
“You’re all better now?” Krillin asks, hopeful as he gathers near his friend alongside the kids.
“Yup,” Goku answers with an easy smile. “Hungry, though.” His eyes scan over the group before landing on Piccolo. “Kami-olo? Or Pic-ami?”
The Namekian scowls. “Don’t merge the name too! I’m mostly Piccolo anyway… Just call me that.”
Goku hums in acknowledgement before moving onto business. “I don’t think I could beat the androids or Cell the way I am now. I’m going to go train with the kids. Where you can train for a whole year in one day…”
Piccolo perks up, apparently realizing what Goku means. “The Room of Spirit and Time! Of course… But nobody has been able to stay for the whole year in that room. You could barely stand a month in your youth…”
Huh?
“I’ll take Vegeta and Trunks, too. They’ll be able to handle it.”
“You better go quickly. Cell is killing many people and gaining power…”
“I will!” Goku turns to his kids and holds his hands out for the both of them, Mirai having let go a while ago. “Here, grab onto me.” The kids take his hands and Goku glances at Mirai. She decides to place a hand on his shoulder.
Before they can leave, Krillin gets Goku’s attention. “Goku, tell us. This thing’s even stronger than Frieza. Are you scared by that? Or excited?”
“... Both.”
… Mirai’s not sure if that’s reassuring or not.
In an instant, they’re transported to wherever Vegeta and Trunks are ‘training’. Trunks looks back at the small group from his perch atop a rock. A distance away from him is Vegeta, standing at the edge of a cliff and looking out in front of him.
Mirai sighs and looks at Trunks, removing her hand from Goku’s shoulder. “How’s training going?”
Trunks sighs just as heavily. “It’s no use. My father looks at me as just a mistake.” Mirai’s eye twitches. “He’s just stood there for the past three days.”
Goku hums, looking at Vegeta. “Vegeta’s a genius, all right. He’s starting to see beyond Super Saiyan power.” He flies off towards Vegeta to go tell him about his idea. They’re too far for Mirai to hear the conversation, so she takes the time to try and relax her jaw and eyebrows. Keeping them tense does her migraine no favors whatsoever. She takes the pills Trunks offers and idly wonders if she’ll have enough for the entire trip. Probably not if this whole ‘train for a year in a day’ thing is real.
Time travel was weird enough with the time machine, and now they’re throwing in rooms where time passes drastically differently. Yay.
Goku had managed to convince Vegeta to go into the Room of Spirit and Time with Trunks for the year/day, with the condition that they get to use the Room of Spirit and Time first. Which was fine, mostly. Hopefully Trunks was alright spending a whole year with Vegeta and only Vegeta. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much for them to do outside of the Room of Spirit and Time aside from waiting for their turn.
They’d decided that after Vegeta and Trunks had gone through their year/day, Goku would go in with Gohan, then, if Goku was up to it, he’d go in with Mirai to try and teach her the Instant Transmission technique, at least enough so that she was actually able to pull it off in the first place, then he’d swap out with her younger self so they could train together, and Mirai would continue to practice Instant Transmission. Depending on how things were going with the androids, they’d send whoever had already had their turn in the Room of Spirit and Time to go and deal with it if they’d gone awry.
Overall, it… wasn’t much different from what Mirai had been doing before, just now she has different scenery.
Almost a whole 24 hours passed since Vegeta and Trunks had gone into the Room of Spirit and Time and nothing had really happened. Which was good. It was good that nothing had happened, because then nothing bad was happening. Right?
(Except that with every hour, every minute that passed was another moment where Cell was likely getting stronger. No, it just was getting stronger. Mirai could still feel entire cities of life energy just… disappear. She knew the culprit. She knew what was happening. She hated it.)
Then, that changed. Piccolo’s energy signature spiked and flew off somewhere uninhabited. The energies he’d left behind (Krillin and Tien) had been somewhat raised, as well. Like they’d been cautious about something, like they’d grown defensive. But Mirai couldn’t sense anything else around them.
Piccolo’s energy spiked higher, aggressively, like he was preparing for battle. Then, it moved, charging at something Mirai couldn’t sense and… fighting.
Piccolo was fighting something. Piccolo was fighting the androids .
They’d caught up.
“It’s started!” Goku’s sudden claim startled Mirai out of her thoughts momentarily. “Piccolo’s fighting somebody…”
“Do you think…” Gohan swallowed, tense as he stared in the direction they could all sense Piccolo’s energy signature from. “... he’s fighting Cell…?!”
Mirai shook her head. “If he were fighting Cell, we’d be able to sense it, too. He’s fighting the androids.”
Both children whipped their heads in her direction like she’d just told them she’d killed Piccolo herself. They cried out ‘oh no!’ before beginning to run off to the edge of the Lookout. “They’ll kill him!”
“Oh, no you don’t!” Mirai swiftly picks up both children by the back of their gis. Immediately, Gohan starts flailing. Her younger self initially starts doing the same before looking up at her with an unreadable look on her face. Well, unreadable with the exception that she looks extremely baffled. Mirai tries not to think about it. She turns her attention to Gohan, even if looking at him brings a whole different hurt. “I’m not letting you run off to your death!”
Not again
.
“But–!”
“Listen to her,” Goku cuts Gohan’s protests off. “We won’t be of any help. We’re not in the same league! We’ll just end up getting in the way.” Gohan stops struggling in Mirai’s grasp, but she doesn’t let either of them go just yet. Their father steps forward to face the kids still being held in the air by their gis. “Vegeta and Trunks’ll be coming soon, way stronger than before. It’ll be okay! And give Piccolo some credit– he’s an incredible fighter, now.”
‘Now’.
Piccolo’s energy is certainly much stronger than Mirai’s felt it be before. Stronger than she’s felt in general, if she’s being honest, though she’s not sure how much that means when she can’t feel 17 or 18’s energy. Or 16’s, for that matter. And 16’s supposed to be stronger than 17 and 18, if what Dr. Gero said was true. Piccolo should be strong enough to handle 17 and 18 individually at least (hopefully she isn’t being too optimistic), but if they team up like they like to…
…
Hopefully Piccolo can handle himself. Based on how Mirai did against them earlier, she’s not sure she can offer any assistance of any kind.
“Do you think Piccolo can beat them, sis?” Gohan asks… No one answers. Mirai looks down to the kids in her grasp and realizes that they’re both looking at her. Gohan was asking her.
She lets go of the kids. They both yelp as they crash into the ground, unprepared. Mirai looks away from them.
“He’ll probably be fine, he’s stronger than anyone I’ve sensed. As long as they don’t tag team him, it’ll be fine, I think. And don’t refer to me like that, it’ll only get confusing.”
And his energy isn’t lowering in a way that would suggest he’s taken much damage or even stamina. So Piccolo’s fine. For now. It’ll be fine.
Then, they sense Cell’s energy on the move. Towards Piccolo’s energy.
Shit.
“It’s Cell…” mini Gonan says, sounding far too small for Mirai’s liking. “It’s on the move!”
Goku scowls, but only moves to sit down, legs crossed. He acknowledges Cell’s movement with a quiet ‘I know…’ and turns his glare towards the door. Mirai can’t help but follow his gaze, staring at the door to the Room of Spirit and Time. It’s nearly been 24 hours, so they should be exiting soon, right? If nothing else, she’s sure Vegeta would’ve utilized the room efficiently enough to have gotten strong enough to deal with the androids. And she knows he’d be itching to have a rematch. If they can at least kill the androids before Cell gets to them, then it won’t have its easy shot of becoming complete.
At the same time, Vegeta wouldn’t go for a rematch unless he was absolutely sure that he’d win without a doubt…
Urgh…
Cell’s moving too fast. Unless Vegeta and Trunks walk out that door right now, they’d be too late to kill any of them. She’s sure that Cell wouldn’t go after the androids unless it was sure it could absorb them, either, considering how it’s been running from them every time they try to confront it.
…
Cell arrives on the battlefield before Vegeta or Trunks walks out of the Room of Spirit and Time. It raises its energy in a show of power and… it’s stronger than Piccolo’s own energy.
Shit!
“We have to help him! Dad!” The twins plead with their father. Mirai keeps her senses on the fight. Piccolo and Cell are trading blows now, and it seems Tien is en route to their location already. Now, Mirai can sense Piccolo’s energy lower throughout the fight. He’s taking damage now. He’s going to lose.
“I’ll go,” Mirai cuts through the little family’s argument.
“You’re still not in the same league as them, Mirai.” Goku states sternly.
“And Piccolo’s outnumbered. He’s going to need help.”
“Didn’t you say that the androids took you out in one hit before?”
“I wasn’t prepared for that amount of power back then, I know better, now. They prioritize having fun, so if I work around that, I’ll be able to last longer.”
“It’s too dangerous! You shouldn’t be running off to your death either, you know!”
Mirai barely resists flinching at the statement. She… shouldn’t be doing that, no. But… she doesn’t think she is this time. “I’m not. I’ll leave as soon as it starts getting too much. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s when and how to run.”
Her father stares at her intently for a few moments. As if they had a few moments to waste. Thankfully, he seems to come to his senses a second later. “Fine. But if I feel your energy drop too much, I’m getting you out of there.”
Relieved, Mirai nods in agreement. She heads out immediately.
By the time she’s made it onto the battlefield, Piccolo’s energy has dropped to damn-near nothing. He’s nowhere to be seen, either, but proximity has allowed her to get the faintest sense of energy coming from the Namekian in the water not too far from the battlefield. Tien’s standing at the sidelines, observing, same as android 18. Androids 17 and 16 both appear wounded, clearly having been the ones to fight Cell while she’d been en route.
For a second, Cell is nowhere to be seen, either. In the next, it’s popping up behind 17, bursting through the ground like a particularly vicious plant. Its tail is poised above 17, but the needle-point has opened up to resemble a funnel, something Mirai hasn’t seen from the creature before.
She shifts her trajectory towards 17 and pushes herself faster. Mirai’s so close, but Cell is closer. All she needs to do is be faster than the thing’s tail. Mirai twists herself mid-air so she’s going feet first, hoping that it’ll help her wind resistance as she pushes herself faster and faster.
Feet collide with 17’s side, and the android is sent flying away from the bug-like monster. Mirai’s body follows, teeth grit as she lurches her body away from Cell’s tail as it continues its descent. The hairs on the back of her neck raise as she feels Cell’s tail catching the ends of her hair on her head as she zooms past. Luckily, none of it gets caught in Cell’s tail as the needle-point closes.
Shakily, Gonan rights herself in the air, keeping her eyes on Cell despite how she knows 17 is behind her right now. Every instinct demands that she keep all androids within her line of sight as often as she can, but she knows that Cell is the bigger threat currently. Slitted eyes meeting hers with no small amount of annoyance only solidifies that. An annoyed android is never a good thing.
Still, she can’t afford to ignore the other androids. “Either die or run away.” She growls 17’s way just as he starts protesting her. Without waiting for a response, Mirai throws herself at Cell once more.
To think, she’d done the same thing for a human just days ago. Who would’ve thought that she’d be protecting androids? Much less androids 17 and 18?
Kami, she hated this timeline.
Cell dodges every blow Mirai throws its way, eyes narrowed and burning into her very being. It isn’t long before it decides to retaliate, much too fast for Mirai to avoid it no matter how she can see it coming. Still, she gathers as much energy as she can to defend herself against the blow, and…
A large hand catches the green fist that had been headed her way, a loud ‘thunk’ ringing in her ears. Another ‘thunk’ sounds out, and suddenly, Cell’s thrown away from Mirai. A large form covered in black spandex and green armor steps in front of her. Looking up, Mirai sees android 16 glancing back at her with a small smile.
“Thank you.” The android says, ice blue eyes boring into her for a moment before they’re facing towards Cell. “For saving my friends.”
Mirai blinks, and 16’s gone. Or, he’s gone back to fighting Cell once more. But she can’t focus on that right now.
16, an android, thanked her. For saving its friends. Its friends, androids 17 and 18.
Mirai’s migraine is never going away, is it?
She turns to face androids 17 and 18, only to find that they’re both staring right back at her. It’s nerve wracking, having those piercing blue eyes focused on her again, but… It’s different than usual.
Well, mostly. 17’s looking at her like he’s never seen her before and seems a little peeved, but not like he usually would when she’d greeted them with a kick.
“I didn’t need your help.” 17 says, crossing his arms as he huffs.
Mirai breathes sharply through her nose. She needs to focus. “Just get out of here while you still can. Cell’s trying to absorb you. You don’t want that, do you?”
17 scoffs. “Like I told 16, I ain’t leaving! That thing humiliated me, and I’m not going anywhere without paying it back! I’m finishing it off!”
“This isn’t a game! Either leave or die, I don’t care which so long as that thing doesn’t absorb you!”
“I ain’t budging, lady! You want me to run so bad, you’re gonna have to make me!”
“17–!”
She doesn’t realize that Cell had broken away from 16 until he’s already performing the Solar Flare technique again. Blindly, Mirai reaches out for 17 to pull him away from Cell, but her hand reaches nothing but empty air. The sound of a body hitting the ground some distance away from them is accentuated with a gasp from 17, like the android had the air knocked out from his lungs.
All too quickly, 17’s muffled noises of protest die out and Cell’s energy begins to rise.
Tien’s almost regretting ever having followed Piccolo. It’s all too apparent that the situation is way too much for someone of his power, but he couldn’t just stand by. Yet, that’s still what he wound up doing as Piccolo took on android 17. He stood by when Cell appeared, and he stood by when Cell killed Piccolo.
All he’d done this entire time was shout a warning to 17, something that hadn’t even helped much until Mirai had come barreling in and saving 17 at the last moment. Not that such an action had lasted as Cell had merely evaded Cell once again and performed the Solar Flare technique.
It’s only because Tien is so familiar with the technique that he manages to evade the worst of the effects. As such, he’s able to faintly see how Cell grabs 17 and swallows him whole through his tail, just like he’d tried to do mere minutes earlier.
As Cell hunches over, energy rising higher and higher at a rapid rate, 16 dashes away, grabbing 18 on his way. Even still, 16 spares Tien a moment of attention as he warns, “You there! Run for your life! Take the girl with you!”
Before he even gets the chance to listen, Mirai’s already going at Cell in a clearly desperate bid to distract him, just as Piccolo had. Tien’s three eyes can barely catch how Mirai forms a blade of energy on her arm and swings the blade Cell’s way, only for Cell to catch it.
“Come now, Gonan,” Cell’s voice comes out smoother than before, but no less mocking. “If Piccolo couldn’t stand a chance against me before I absorbed 17…” In an instant, Cell yanks the arm in its grasp violently downwards, and a snapping sound echoes throughout the area. Another yank in the opposite direction results in another snap and a cry of pain.
Mirai’s arm is broken. But Cell still hasn’t let go, only raising the arm higher until Mirai’s no longer on her feet. Then, Cell leans in close, a proper grin displayed on his new features. “What makes you think you could do anything against me?”
Another jerk of the arm tosses Mirai in the air in front of Cell, the perfect distance for Cell to twist its hips and slam its foot into Mirai’s cheek, the force of the blow sending her flying in Tien’s vague direction. Finally, Tien forces his body to do something and manages to catch Mirai, or at least break her fall. When they finally come to a stop, Mirai’s head falls against Tien’s shoulder.
Tien looks down at Mirai and nearly recoils at what he sees. Her neck is broken, just like Piccolo’s was earlier. Wide eyes stare forward blankly, expression slack in what Tien knows is shock. Her energy fluctuates wildly like it’s not sure what to do but knows that it needs to do something. He flinches when those glazed over eyes shift to stare at him, clearly trying to focus.
Swallowing, Tien looks back to Cell, only to find that he’s with the other androids. 16, who had been about on par with Cell before, throws a punch at Cell’s face. The monster doesn’t even flinch. All he does is grin before directing an open palm to 16’s face and unleashing a blast, knocking the mechanical man away with chunks of his head destroyed.
A strangled groan comes from the time traveler in his arms, and Tien comes to the only conclusion he can.
They’re going to die.
Tien grits his teeth. “I’m sorry, Mirai. I’m sorry that we didn’t take your warning as seriously as we should have until it was too late.” Gently, he lowers the girl to the ground, mindful of her neck and her ruined arm, even if she likely can’t feel her arm anymore. “I’m going to do all that I can to stall Cell. If you survive this, don’t feel too guilty, okay?”
After sending yet another apology, this time to Chaozu, Tien takes to the sky while Cell’s distracted trying to convince 18 to let it absorb her, too. Inhaling deeply as he slowly gathers his energy, Tien brings his hands before him and forms a triangle with his hands. He focuses his energy as he aims the triangle he’d made with his hands in Cell’s direction, muscles tense with the force of his energy as it charges.
Just as Cell’s head turns to his direction, Tien releases his energy at Cell.
“KI-KO-HO! HA!”
Tien’s very life energy punches through the ground Cell had been standing on, forcing the monster down into the Earth. Even with that one blast, Tien’s already feeling a little winded. But that doesn’t matter. That’s not going to stop him.
The only problem is, the androids aren’t moving. Tien grits his teeth and shouts at them. “What are you waiting for?! Run!” Before they move at all, Tien can already see Cell attempting to fly out of the hole he’d made. With a shout, Tien unleashes another blast of his life force at the monster, sending him hurtling back down into the Earth once more.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tien watches as 18 picks up 16 and finally starts running. Tien doesn’t let up, forcing more and more attacks at Cell to keep him in place. Not even when he starts to run out of energy to throw.
Then, Tien feels a rush of ki flood his being, like someone had turned on a back-up generator for his energy reserves. Baffled, Tien glances around to see if he can spot the reason, only for his eye to catch on Mirai’s. The cloudiness of her eye has cleared up with focus as she stares at him, and he can feel Mirai’s energy transferring to him.
Even as she lays there, broken, she’s still doing all she can to help. Her energy doesn’t waver as it transfers to him, no matter how much she pours in, like she’s resigned herself to the fact that this is all she can do. She could be saving her energy to fight another day, or even use her energy to move herself away, and still…
Tien grits his teeth harder and continues his assault on Cell, keeping him pinned in place. With Mirai acting as a back-up generator, he can keep going longer than he would’ve alone.
But neither of them are endless wells of energy, and they eventually run out. Tien can’t even keep himself up in the air anymore, nor is he able to slow his descent to the Earth. Painfully, he lands on his side. But he’s done his part. He bought time for 18 to run away, and now Cell has to track her down all over again.
That’s enough for him.
As Tien tries to push himself up anyway, he hears Cell lamenting the fact that the androids had run away. All too quickly, Cell’s annoyance is shifted towards him. “Stopped! Stopped by Tienshinhan of all people!” The monster’s energy rises slightly, energy gathering in what’s likely going to be a blast Tien’s way. “He’ll probably die anyway… but I want to finish him off…”
He braces himself for the killing blow, eyes screwed shut and muscles tense in anticipation. But instead of a blast engulfing him, Tien feels a displacement of energy at his back, the familiar sensation of Goku’s energy signature materializing there with a soft ‘pop’ sound. Sucking in a breath, Tien looks up from his place on the ground to see if he isn’t just imagining things. The familiar orange gi of the turtle school fills his blurring vision.
“Son Goku…!” Cell shouts. So he isn’t hallucinating. That’s good. Maybe they’ve got a chance of surviving, after all.
“So… you’re Cell.”
Tien can’t help but stare at Goku, blinking his eyes and hoping that his vision would clear. Or perhaps it’s his ears that need clearing. Because he’s never heard Goku’s voice sound so flat. Though, flat might not be the best way to describe it. There’s something with his tone, something low and dangerous.
Goku continues before Tien can wrap his head around it. “I can’t beat you now no matter how hard I fight. But wait… just one more day! Then…” The Saiyan practically snarls, “ Then I’ll turn you into a pulp!”
Tien’s never heard his old rival sound so animalistic. And yet, Cell doesn’t seem fazed. It merely laughs. “I certainly didn’t expect to hear that! You say you’ll beat me tomorrow?”
Cell only gets a hummed ‘Mhmm’ as a response. Even that sounds more like a growl than the hum it’s supposed to be.
“And what could change so much in one day?!”
Before Goku responds, if he was ever going to give him one, Goku’s head snaps in the direction Piccolo had been thrown before. “It’s Piccolo’s energy! He’s still alive!” Quickly, Goku crouches down to Tien and grabs his wrist, ordering him to stay close, and the world abruptly shutters around them. They’ve transported next to where he’d set Mirai down, and Goku promptly grabs onto her the same way he had Tien, and the world shutters again.
While Goku finds Piccolo, Tien turns his attention to Mirai. She hasn’t moved from the position he’d last seen her in (of course she hasn’t, her neck’s been snapped), but the forced focus in her eye has clouded over again. If Tien couldn’t feel the faint hint of her energy because of their proximity to each other, he would’ve thought she’d been dead. He swallows and reaches a hand out to her shoulder, having to drag himself closer to do so.
“Hang in there… Your dad’s here…”
The words have her expression shifting slightly, eyes widening ever so slightly as that cloudy look clears up just a bit. What clears up is only covered up by moisture as her eye turns glassy. Somehow, it’s then that he realizes that Goku’s not been in her life for the majority of it. She’d been fighting against these androids for years with none of them there to help her, much less her father that had died half a year before. There had been no one to save her.
“What are you talking about?! This isn’t a game! The Earth’s fate is riding on this!” Bulma had shouted three years ago when Vegeta had told her not to track down Dr. Gero’s lab to deal with him then and there. “Don’t you agree, Goku?! Goku?!”
“But… I want to fight, too…” Goku had said. “A-And besides, he hasn’t made anything yet, so it’s not nice to beat him up…”
“Augh! These Saiyans! They’re battle-junkies! At least you guys have some sense, right?! If you die again, you can never come back to life!”
“But I want to know just what I can do in battle… And if I die… then it was an honorable death.” Tien had said in reply.
Gods, what have they done?
“You’re all safe now!” Goku’s voice cuts through Tien’s thoughts. He’s got Piccolo draped over his shoulders. The Namekian’s wounds seem to have healed quite a bit in the time since he’d been ‘killed’ by Cell, even his neck seems to have fixed itself up. “We have some Senzu beans at Kami’s palace. You’ll be good as new in no time!”
Tien shifts his grip on Mirai’s shoulder to wrap his hand around her bicep and raises his other hand towards Goku, letting the Saiyan grasp it once again. Cell’s already shouting and charging at them, but the world shutters and the dirt beneath them changes to marble tile.
As Goku sets Piccolo down then bustles about, getting the promised Senzu beans, Tien shuts his eyes and laments on how horribly things have gone.
They should’ve just listened to Bulma.