Lingering Echoes

Gohan left Mount Paozu at three in the morning.

Chi-Chi was already asleep, and his dad's aura from the next room was as steady as a rock. That man could fall asleep the instant he closed his eyes. Gohan was so jealous his teeth itched.

He didn't wake anyone.

The scanner on his wrist was still vibrating faintly, that barely perceptible signal like some breath from the abyss. He had been thinking about it all day while Chi-Chi forced him to do math problems. Now he could finally move.

"Why is it always ruins? Couldn't Dr. Gero get a different aesthetic?"

Gohan flew north, suppressing his anger. The doctor's taste really deserved ridicule—caves, deserted islands, ruined buildings, and this time he had gone straight underground. That old madman had never learned what a "sunny work environment" was in his life.

The wind howled past his ears, and golden energy flared behind him in a long tail. He had no memory of this route. In his memories, there should have been quite a long period of peace after the Cell saga ended.

But that had been the original timeline.

He had changed too much. Piccolo hadn't died, Goku hadn't died, and even Android 16's sacrifice had brought about the final victory—a single punch through the chest, shattering the main core in Cell's chest.

That had been the most satisfying punch.

It had also been the most dangerous punch, because before Cell died, he had said, "The data remains."

At the time, Gohan had thought it was just a dying threat. Now, he wasn't sure.

The northern wasteland looked deathly gray beneath the moonlight. The entrance was a metal panel blasted open from within, its edges marked by purple energy scorch marks.

"Someone got here first?"

Gohan suppressed his aura and drifted into the entrance.

The underground passage was absurdly deep. Three hundred steps, four hundred steps... The walls were cold alloy, and most of the emergency lights had failed. Only a few still gave off a ghastly white glow, stretching his shadow into a twisted snake.

There was a smell in the air. Not rot, but chemical disinfectant, culture fluid, and some indescribable sourness.

At the end of the passage stood a security door that had been violently blown open. The frame was warped, and the metal edges curled outward with purple scorch marks.

"Someone got here first."

Gohan suppressed his aura and passed through the security door, his pupils abruptly contracting.

A massive underground laboratory. Circular culture tank slots lined the surrounding walls. Most were empty, but three at the center were still operating. Pale green fluid flowed slowly within them, black flocculent sediment settling at the bottom.

Cell's cells.

Gohan's stomach lurched. He knew those things all too well. A few months ago, he had watched similar material vanish into ash in the flames of Android 16's burning core. He hadn't expected backups to be hidden underground.

"The data remains."

That day, he had punched through Cell's chest. Android 16's sacrifice had been that punch. The core was shattered, but the data had not dispersed.

The holographic display above the culture tanks read:

"Reassembly Progress: 7.3%"

"Energy Supply: Stable"

A blurry lump of flesh writhed in the fluid. It had no body, no facial features—only the forming curve of shoulders, the outline of arms, and the core pulsing in its chest.

"Need to cut off the energy supp—"

"No need."

A voice came from above.

Gohan jerked his head up.

Vegeta dropped from a crack in the ceiling, landing steadily ten meters away from him. Moonlight leaked through the fissure, carving hard, cold angles across his face.

"Uncle Vegeta—"

"I got here before you."

Gohan froze. "You already knew about this place?"

"The gravity chamber." Vegeta spat out the two words, his tone mocking. "That thing used the doctor's technology. I used it for three months and noticed data streams that shouldn't have been there."

"So you've been monitoring it all along?"

"What else?" Vegeta sneered. "What did you think I disappeared to do yesterday? Go on vacation?"

Gohan opened his mouth. Pride and stupidity were not the same thing. He had forgotten that.

"You blew up the Northern Research Institute. But that was only bait, right?"

"Smart." Vegeta's smile grew colder. "The doctor's usual method—multi-node redundant backups. Destroy one, and the data automatically transfers to other nodes. This place is only the outer perimeter. The real core is somewhere else."

"Where?"

"Southeast." Vegeta raised a hand and pointed in a direction. "The primary node. There's one at Mount Paozu too."

Gohan's blood instantly went cold.

"What?"

"A relay station." Vegeta enunciated each word. "The gravity chamber at Mount Paozu is the transmission node the doctor buried in the backyard. Data has been continuously sent southeast, and the progress is roughly seventy percent."

Seventy percent. A seventy-percent-complete Cell.

"How do you know?"

"I cracked the gravity chamber's underlying code." Vegeta said it as casually as if he were talking about what he had eaten that day.

"Then why didn't you say so earlier?!"

"Why should I have said so earlier?" Vegeta countered. "Kakarot and his son had just finished a battle. They needed rest."

Gohan clenched his fists. "Were you testing me?"

"More or less." Vegeta turned around and raised both hands. Purple energy gathered in his palms, growing brighter and brighter. "At least you knew to follow the signal here."

"Cut it out."

"The real Cell hasn't been born yet." He stopped at the edge of the rift and glanced back. "That's when I'll truly make my move."

The purple beam erupted with a thunderous roar.

The incubation chamber was torn apart in an instant. Green liquid vaporized, black residue burned away, and the servers melted and warped in the extreme heat. A blast of scorching air rushed toward him, and Gohan instinctively raised an arm to shield himself.

The entire underground laboratory trembled amid the rumbling, like a dying beast letting out its final wail.

Vegeta lowered his hands, his back to Gohan.

"The data doesn't matter. What matters is making the main node think the data is still being transmitted."

"Then we can track it?"

"Yes." Vegeta walked toward the exit without looking back. "Don't waste the brains Kakarot's son ought to have."

He paused.

"In that battle, Android 16 entrusted his life to you. And that punch of yours didn't disappoint him."

Gohan froze.

Vegeta never praised anyone. This was the closest thing to praise Gohan had ever heard from him.

"...Was that supposed to comfort me?"

"Hmph." Purple light flashed, and Vegeta vanished into the night.

Gohan stood where he was, watching the lingering flames dance across the ground. That guy Vegeta... he was still as awkward as ever.

He turned to leave.

Footsteps echoed through the empty ruins. He noticed something in the corner glinting faintly beneath a pile of rubble—a metal box, with what appeared to be words engraved on it.

But at that instant, the detector suddenly began to vibrate. It wasn't a faint signal notification, but a rapid succession of urgent alarms.

Gohan looked down, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

Two red dots were flashing wildly on the screen.

The first was to the southeast, so far away it was nearly beyond the detector's range.

The second...

"Mount Paozu?!"

Gohan's blood turned cold in an instant. That familiar coordinate, the home where he had lived for months, was sending out some kind of signal.

"The gravity chamber... really is compromised..."

He dashed out of the underground laboratory and shot into the sky at top speed.

The moonlight receded farther and farther behind him as Gohan raced toward Mount Paozu.

The two red dots on the detector continued flashing, one to the south and one to the east, like two eyes overlooking the battlefield.

And behind those two eyes, something that had slept for three months was slowly opening its pupils.