Cell

Only a single corridor ran through the fourth underground level. Fluorescent tubes buzzed overhead, their ghastly white light falling across damp concrete walls. The air reeked of culture fluid mixed with rusting metal. At the end of the corridor stood a heavy blast door, pale green light seeping through its seams. Incubation Chamber B-7 lay behind it.

Trunks walked beside Talos, each step heavier than the last, his grip on his sword hilt so tight that his palm had gone white. The smell of culture fluid always reminded him of that future—his mother's back as she repaired a spaceship alone amid the ruins, Piccolo's final shout before he died, the moment Krillin's wristguard had been removed from his severed arm. Every memory condensed and fermented in that smell, becoming something heavier than fear.

The blast door was blown open by an energy wave. Incubation chambers lined both sides of the room, packed tightly together. Most were empty. Only the one at the very back was still operating—a glass cylinder nearly two meters tall, filled with pale green liquid medium. A curled humanoid creature floated inside. Its shell-like skin was dark green, its tail coiled against its abdomen, while two unfinished wings on its back trembled faintly. Cell, in larval form, was at the most primitive stage of evolution. It had no combat strength, and even its sensory abilities had yet to fully develop.

But Trunks knew what this thing would become once it grew up. He drew his sword and strode toward the incubation chamber, his blade aimed at the glass cylinder, ready to pierce it—when Talos reached out to stop him. "Wait. It hasn't finished growing yet. Destroying the embryo directly would be easy, but Dr. Gero's database contains Cell's complete cell-fusion blueprint. We need to understand its cellular structure first, to make sure nothing remains."

"Then hurry. I'll wait outside." Trunks's voice was level, but his fingers around the hilt had turned white. He turned toward the doorway, unwilling to look at that embryo for even another second.

The instant he turned, a string of red indicator lights came on at the base of the incubation chamber. The sound of an emergency power source activating was especially piercing in the empty laboratory—when Dr. Gero had built this lab, he had designed a hidden power supply independent of the main institute. Talos had destroyed his primary systems, but this backup battery had been hidden inside the only unmarked concealed compartment on the fourth underground level. Even Bulma's scan had failed to detect it.

The culture medium began draining at high speed. Cell's larva convulsed violently inside the glass cylinder, its curled body swelling at a visible rate. The tip of its tail came loose from its abdomen, and the embryonic wings on its back tore through their outer membrane and spread to either side. It opened its eyes—those eyes were not yet the crimson red of its perfect form, but a chaotic dark yellow. Still, they had already learned to focus.

Trunks spun around and drew his sword, slashing at the incubation chamber. Cell shot skyward through the shattered glass, evading the lethal strike. Its larval wings were still incomplete, but they were enough to let it glide at high speed over the floor flooded with culture fluid. It smashed through a ceiling vent and fled toward the upper levels.

Amid the ruins of the institute aboveground, Krillin was explaining the principles of the Qi Net to Android 17. On the other side of the ruins, Tien Shinhan and Piccolo were discussing their brief clash with Android 18. Vegeta stood at the edge of the wreckage with his arms crossed over his chest, his golden hair flickering faintly in Super Saiyan form. Goku had been squatting atop a broken slab of reinforced concrete when he suddenly stood. "There's a ki—coming up from the fourth underground level. It's not Talos, and it's not Trunks. It feels more like something familiar. It has Saiyan cells, Namekian cells, and Frieza's too."

Vegeta frowned deeply. He sensed it as well—that ki was like a shattered mirror, every fragment reflecting a different face.

A ceiling vent exploded. Cell darted out of the ductwork, its dark green body skidding several meters across the ground before stopping. For the first time, it opened its eyes beneath the sunlight and saw the people standing amid the institute ruins—Saiyans, a Namekian, Earthlings, androids. Its instincts began screaming. Absorb them. As long as it absorbed any one of them, it could skip the larval stage and enter its first form directly.

It targeted Krillin first. This short bald man had the lowest combat strength. He had none of a Saiyan's blazing ki, nor did he possess the androids' infinite energy. Cell sprang from the ground, its tail stabbing toward the back of Krillin's neck like a spear.

Krillin did not turn around. The Qi Net activated automatically, dozens of golden qi threads weaving into a defensive web behind him. Cell's tail struck the net, and the threads instantly tightened around its tip. Cell struggled, but could not break free. It did not understand the Qi Net—Dr. Gero's database only contained records of the Z Fighters from before Namek. It had no data at all on this kind of integrated offensive and defensive qi technique.

Vegeta and Goku turned at the same time. Two golden Super Saiyan auras erupted, making the rubble throughout the institute ruins tremble faintly. Vegeta drove his right fist toward Cell's chest. Goku teleported behind Cell, his hands cupped together like a flower bud as he began charging a Kamehameha—there was no need for a Kamehameha against a larva, but Goku had already developed the habit of going all out whenever he fought.

Talos and Trunks rushed up from the fourth underground level. Trunks still had his sword in hand, but when he saw Cell's tail caught so miserably in the Qi Net, he froze slightly. In his timeline, Cell had been invincible. Perfect Cell had killed every Z Fighter with a single finger. But this larva before him—this thing that had not yet even taken shape—was trapped so thoroughly by Krillin's Qi Net that it could not move.

"Trunks." Talos landed between Cell and Trunks. "This Cell is not your Cell. It hasn't absorbed Android 17 and Android 18. It hasn't become perfect. It's still only an embryo, a larva that just opened its eyes. In your timeline, no one could stop it before it became perfect. But in this timeline—we arrived early."

Trunks held his sword as his fingers slowly loosened. He looked at Cell's tail tangled in the Qi Net, at the larval face twisted by struggle. Then he raised his head and looked around at the people surrounding him. Krillin's Qi Net was still pouring out power. Tien Shinhan and Piccolo had already completed their encirclement. Nappa had blocked Cell's only escape route. Android 17 and Android 18 stood at the edge of the ruins, coolly watching this larva that called itself the "ultimate weapon." Goku and Vegeta's Super Saiyan forms bathed the entire ruin in gold.

Everyone who had died in his timeline was standing here now, forming a circle around Cell. Not one person—a net.

"It isn't my Cell." Trunks slowly sheathed his sword, his voice clearly audible in the silence of the ruins. "My Cell was already destroyed in that future—destroyed ahead of time by all of you, in this timeline. Mom, did you see that? This thing got pinned down before it could even grow up."

Talos stepped forward and pressed one hand against the top of Cell's head. A pale golden Evil Containment Wave formation unfolded in his palm, rings of light winding around the larva's body layer by layer. Cell let out a piercing shriek and struggled desperately, but the double restraint of the Qi Net and the Evil Containment Wave left it unable to move even a finger. The sealing formation abruptly tightened, shrinking the larva's body into a sealed sphere the size of a fist that slowly fell into Talos's hand.

"Contained. We'll destroy it after Bulma finishes studying its cell-fusion blueprint." Talos put away the sealed sphere and turned to Android 18. "Last time, I said we'd talk after dealing with Cell. Now we've dealt with it. Android 17, Android 18, you can choose to leave. You can stay at Turtle Hermit House. Or you can choose to join the Z Fighters. But the choice must be yours. Not Dr. Gero's orders, and not our suggestion."

Android 17 looked at Android 18. After a brief silence, she stepped up to Talos. From close range, she looked into this Saiyan's eyes. There was no fear in them, no greed, none of the expressions she had ever seen in Dr. Gero's laboratory.

"I'll stay. Not to join the Turtle Hermit School—I'll stay at Turtle Hermit House. I want to see whether what you said is true, or just another lie." She paused, her tone still cool. "Also, my name is Lazuli. Android 18 is the number Gero gave me—I don't need a number."

Android 17's lips curled up slightly. "Then I'm Lapis. Since 18 is staying, I'll stay too. But let me make this clear—I'm not doing it to protect the Earth. I just don't have anywhere else to go for now. If you people bore me, I'll leave whenever I want."

"You can leave whenever you want," Talos said. "But before you do, Krillin can teach you the basics of using the Qi Net."

"Qi Net?" Android 17 raised a brow at Krillin. Krillin scratched his bald head and grinned. "It's the really annoying kind."

Nappa strode in through the main entrance, still carrying the spoils from earlier over his shoulder. He glanced at Dr. Gero's defensive robots, which had been dismantled into parts amid the ruins, then at Android 17 and Android 18 standing side by side, and grinned. "This trip was a good fight. That Cell larva was just too weak. It was over before I even got to make a move."

"I'll save you a bigger one next time," Talos said.

"What do you mean, save me a bigger one? I'm an elite Saiyan warrior, not a substitute! Let me take the lead next time! That Android 17—you can be my opponent!"

Android 17 looked at him expressionlessly. "I don't fight meaningless battles."

"What do you mean, meaningless? Fighting itself is meaningful!"

Android 18 did not join their bickering. She stood at the edge of the ruins as sea wind poured in through the institute's blasted-open dome, lifting her golden hair. She watched the group in orange uniforms—the short bald man was earnestly explaining the structure of the Qi Net to Android 17, the three-eyed warrior leaned against a ruined wall with his eyes closed, resting, the young Namekian was expressionlessly flipping through a combat manual he had just picked up again, the two Super Saiyans were still arguing over who would take the lead, and Trunks had returned his sword to his waist and softly said something toward the sky that only he could hear.

She did not know what Turtle Hermit House was, nor did she know why these people could shield one another from attacks and cover each other's retreats. But after spending so many years in Dr. Gero's laboratory, she felt for the first time—there were some things worth staying to see.

Vegeta stood at the edge of the ruins, watching the noisy group, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. Goku came bouncing over and patted Trunks on the shoulder. "The future changed, right?"

Trunks looked at the setting sun gradually sinking over the distant sea and remained silent for a long time. Then he smiled—not a polite smile, but the smile of someone who had carried a burden for twenty years and could finally set it down.

"Yeah. It changed."