The All-Purpose "What-If " Thread

[JulieYBM]

“What if Trunks Killed Cell Before He Could Absorb Artificial Human No. 18?”

Trunks, having managed to kill Second Form Cell, slowly descends from the sky while he catches his breath. Vegeta, still damp from having been blasted away by Trunks, returns to the scene of the battle and clicks his tongue in annoyance. He wanted to battle the complete Cell so as to prove his superiority!

Trunks turns his attention to Kuririn, who is facing down Artificial Humans No. 16 and No. 18. With a deep breath, Super Saiyan Second Grade Trunks raises his ki back up and flies over to the trio to confront the Artificial Humans. Trunks holds a palm up, ready to blast them away, but Kuririn jumps in the way and pleads with Trunks.

Trunks cannot see the Artificial Human No. 18 before him as separate as the one from his future timeline. Kuririn, thinking, begins to slowly loosen up his wrists with small stretching motions that are difficult for someone as far away as Trunks to immediately notice. If he has to, Kuririn will use the Taiyou-ken to blind Trunks so that the others can escape.

Suddenly, Vegeta strikes Trunks from behind and a father-son battle breaks out. Vegeta's annoyance doesn't have him particularly trying to KILL Trunks, but Trunks' PTSD has him on edge enough that Trunks isn't pulling his punches, even if he spent most of his ki wiping out every last bit of Cell's many cells. After taking a good punch to the gut, Trunks vomits up blood, but manages to aim it into Vegeta's eyes before beginning to wail on him again.

With the two Saiyans distracted, Kuririn helps the two Artificial Humans sneak off again.

Meanwhile, Vegeta's annoyance with Trunks erupts into full-on contempt as he feels how weakened his son's punches have become after killing Cell. Powering up, Vegeta mercilessly beats Trunks to death.

Realizing what he's done, Vegeta feels a strange grief and his Super Saiyan Second Grade mutates into the true Super Saiyan 2. Sparks of electrical ki dance in the air around Vegeta as he mourns Trunks’ death and soon, he flies off in a daze.

Residual electricity in the air zaps Trunks’ body as it lies motionless on the uninhabited island.

Meanwhile, Son Goku and Son Gohan exit the Room of Spirit & Time. Both can feel that there is something wrong in the air and get filled in by Piccolo, Bulma and Tenshinhan while they change into fresh new clothes, courtesy of Piccolo.

Seeing how close the father and son are, Piccolo gives Gohan the same dougi as his dad (i.e. the dougi from Dragon Ball Movie #12).

Goku, alone, teleports to Vegeta's location, finding him in the wilderness, finishing a bear that he just ate. Goku tries to talk to Vegeta, but Vegeta is uninterested. Goku tries to explain that he will look for the Namekians and bring back a Namekian to revive the Dragon Balls. Vegeta remembers that he killed Namekians once, too, and attacks Goku in a rage.

Now that he sees how Vegeta's ki circulates in this new form, Goku reaches deep within and tugs at the same emotions he felt when Freeza killed Kuririn, nearly killed Piccolo and then nearly blasted Gohan. Drawing on those emotions, Goku transforms while trying to mimic what Vegeta's ki is doing, Goku transforms into Super Saiyan 2 and manages to exhaust Vegeta enough that he can't cause any major damage to the planet. From there, Goku teleports back to the Heavenly Realm to regroup with the others.

Once he has a senzu in him, Goku teleports to the Kaiou of the North to try and figure out where the Namekians are.

Meanwhile, seeing how devastated Bulma is, Son Gohan thinks about how there are now two Bulmas that have lost the same Trunks, just like the same Trunks apparently lost his future counterpart, the Son Gohan that trained him—a Son Gohan who lost his father, too. And now, he is a Gohan that has lost Trunks.

All the lives lost weigh heavily on Gohan. Gohan thinks back to the time he had to bury an entire village of people's corpses on Namek…after they had been slaughtered by Vegeta. And now, by instinct, Gohan was floating off of the tile surface of the Heavenly Realm to go bury one more person's body that Vegeta had turned into a corpse.

Elsewhere, Kuririn begs Doctor Brief to repair No. 16, convinced that the android is of no threat to the Earth. Brief agrees to do the repairs but realizes that he needs Bulma's help. Bulma is lured back to Capsule Corp without knowing why. When Bulma arrives, she wonders if Artificial Human No. 16 might not be useful in stopping Vegeta, so she agrees to repair him.

Artificial Human No. 18 talks to her fellow Artificial Human while they have a moment to themselves. 18 remarks that “that octopus” is confusing. 16 explains to the younger 18 that Kuririn is, at his core, a good man. 18 asks what a good man even is, prompting 16 to ask if Doctor Gero was a good man or a bad man for what he did to her and her little brother. 18 emphatically answers ‘bad’, prompting 16 to smile, which only makes 18 blush in response.

Meanwhile, Piccolo and Tenshinhan emerge from the Room of Spirit & Time after managing to survive a day inside. As they fuel up on food, Son Goku returns to the Heavenly Realm with Dende, the young Namekian that befriended Gohan and Kuririn five years ago on Namek. Dende promptly restores the Dragon Balls, allowing Goku to search for them and use them to bring Trunks back to life.

Elsewhere, Vegeta—his strength restored—begins changing up his Final Flash so as to wipe out all matter in the solar system. Goku realizes that even with his teleportation ability, he won't be able to teleport around the planet finding the Dragon Balls in time to revive Trunks because he's the only one that can keep Vegeta at bay.

Goku teleports to Vegeta's location and resolves to kill him. Vegeta, consumed with madness, continues to grow stronger and stronger. Goku matches Vegeta blow for blow, but then realizes that even if he injures Vegeta he still has to deal with the Final Flash that has been fired off towards the sun.

Artificial Human No. 16 arrives to help Goku kill Vegeta. As things begin to look bleak, a single Kamehame-Ha is fired into the sky and consumes Vegeta's Final Flash, preventing it from destroying the sun. Goku and 16 turn to find that the blast was fired off by Gohan, who is also a Super Saiyan 2.

Enraged yet again, Vegeta prepares to blast at Gohan before a mysterious hand grabs him at the wrist. Vegeta turns and is shocked by what he sees.

Earlier, Gohan arrives at the sight of Trunks' body and begins digging a grave for him. With the grave finished, Gohan wonders if he shouldn't just take Trunks to Capsule Corp to be buried in peace, there. After all, the Namekians are in hiding, so there's no guarantee that his father can find them. As Gohan grabs Trunks to lift him up and over his shoulder, he remembers doing the same for Piccolo back on Namek—only then, Piccolo was at least alive. Suddenly, Trunks’ body twitches! Gohan searches deep within Trunks to find a spark of ki keeping him alive. Getting Trunks to fresh water, Gohan nurses him back to consciousness.

Back in the present, Trunks pleads with his father to stop. Reluctantly, Vegeta stops and passes out from the emotional strain of the last few days.

When Vegeta awakens a few days later, he finds himself at Capsule Corp. Trunks explains that Gohan found him and nursed him back to health. Vegeta feels discomfort at having to express happiness that Trunks is alive, seeing it as a weakness. Trunks counters that it was his rejection of Trunks’ supposedly non-Saiyan ‘weakness’ that got Vegeta into the mess in the first place, which leaves Vegeta with only more to think about.

Later, Vegeta apologizes to Bulma and Trunks. Bulma accepts his apology after realizing that Vegeta's grief was what drove him to nearly destroying the Milky Way.

Vegeta thanks Gohan for saving Trunks’ life but Gohan retorts that there was a stubborn ki that was able to resonate with Trunks’ ki because of their familial bond and that was what did the majority of the work. Vegeta rolls his eyes at having a ten year old flatter him like that.

A few more days pass. With the mood beginning to return to normal again, Trunks and Vegeta train together and begin growing closer in a more healthy manner, which only improves Vegeta's standing in Bulma's eyes. Eventually, after learning how to use the proper Super Saiyan 2 from his father, Trunks thanks ‘Gohan-san’ one more time for protecting him from death and then bids everyone farewell, using his time machine to return to his future timeline.

As Gohan watches his future self's student disappear, he glances at the baby Trunks who will—unlike his future counterpart—get to be raised by his father, who is a better man now than before.

As Goku walks up behind him to place a hand on his shoulder, Gohan looks up at his father, then back up to the clear blue sky, and remarks that he's glad that he didn't have to fill any graves this time.

THE END

[SonicRider]

“What if Trunks Killed Cell Before He Could Absorb Artificial Human No. 18?”

Trunks, having managed to kill Second Form Cell, slowly descends from the sky while he catches his breath. Vegeta, still damp from having been blasted away by Trunks, returns to the scene of the battle and clicks his tongue in annoyance. He wanted to battle the complete Cell so as to prove his superiority!

Trunks turns his attention to Kuririn, who is facing down Artificial Humans No. 16 and No. 18. With a deep breath, Super Saiyan Second Grade Trunks raises his ki back up and flies over to the trio to confront the Artificial Humans. Trunks holds a palm up, ready to blast them away, but Kuririn jumps in the way and pleads with Trunks.

Trunks cannot see the Artificial Human No. 18 before him as separate as the one from his future timeline. Kuririn, thinking, begins to slowly loosen up his wrists with small stretching motions that are difficult for someone as far away as Trunks to immediately notice. If he has to, Kuririn will use the Taiyou-ken to blind Trunks so that the others can escape.

Suddenly, Vegeta strikes Trunks from behind and a father-son battle breaks out. Vegeta's annoyance doesn't have him particularly trying to KILL Trunks, but Trunks' PTSD has him on edge enough that Trunks isn't pulling his punches, even if he spent most of his ki wiping out every last bit of Cell's many cells. After taking a good punch to the gut, Trunks vomits up blood, but manages to aim it into Vegeta's eyes before beginning to wail on him again.

With the two Saiyans distracted, Kuririn helps the two Artificial Humans sneak off again.

Meanwhile, Vegeta's annoyance with Trunks erupts into full-on contempt as he feels how weakened his son's punches have become after killing Cell. Powering up, Vegeta mercilessly beats Trunks to death.

Realizing what he's done, Vegeta feels a strange grief and his Super Saiyan Second Grade mutates into the true Super Saiyan 2. Sparks of electrical ki dance in the air around Vegeta as he mourns Trunks’ death and soon, he flies off in a daze.

Residual electricity in the air zaps Trunks’ body as it lies motionless on the uninhabited island.

Meanwhile, Son Goku and Son Gohan exit the Room of Spirit & Time. Both can feel that there is something wrong in the air and get filled in by Piccolo, Bulma and Tenshinhan while they change into fresh new clothes, courtesy of Piccolo.

Seeing how close the father and son are, Piccolo gives Gohan the same dougi as his dad (i.e. the dougi from Dragon Ball Movie #12).

Goku, alone, teleports to Vegeta's location, finding him in the wilderness, finishing a bear that he just ate. Goku tries to talk to Vegeta, but Vegeta is uninterested. Goku tries to explain that he will look for the Namekians and bring back a Namekian to revive the Dragon Balls. Vegeta remembers that he killed Namekians once, too, and attacks Goku in a rage.

Now that he sees how Vegeta's ki circulates in this new form, Goku reaches deep within and tugs at the same emotions he felt when Freeza killed Kuririn, nearly killed Piccolo and then nearly blasted Gohan. Drawing on those emotions, Goku transforms while trying to mimic what Vegeta's ki is doing, Goku transforms into Super Saiyan 2 and manages to exhaust Vegeta enough that he can't cause any major damage to the planet. From there, Goku teleports back to the Heavenly Realm to regroup with the others.

Once he has a senzu in him, Goku teleports to the Kaiou of the North to try and figure out where the Namekians are.

Meanwhile, seeing how devastated Bulma is, Son Gohan thinks about how there are now two Bulmas that have lost the same Trunks, just like the same Trunks apparently lost his future counterpart, the Son Gohan that trained him—a Son Gohan who lost his father, too. And now, he is a Gohan that has lost Trunks.

All the lives lost weigh heavily on Gohan. Gohan thinks back to the time he had to bury an entire village of people's corpses on Namek…after they had been slaughtered by Vegeta. And now, by instinct, Gohan was floating off of the tile surface of the Heavenly Realm to go bury one more person's body that Vegeta had turned into a corpse.

Elsewhere, Kuririn begs Doctor Brief to repair No. 16, convinced that the android is of no threat to the Earth. Brief agrees to do the repairs but realizes that he needs Bulma's help. Bulma is lured back to Capsule Corp without knowing why. When Bulma arrives, she wonders if Artificial Human No. 16 might not be useful in stopping Vegeta, so she agrees to repair him.

Artificial Human No. 18 talks to her fellow Artificial Human while they have a moment to themselves. 18 remarks that “that octopus” is confusing. 16 explains to the younger 18 that Kuririn is, at his core, a good man. 18 asks what a good man even is, prompting 16 to ask if Doctor Gero was a good man or a bad man for what he did to her and her little brother. 18 emphatically answers ‘bad’, prompting 16 to smile, which only makes 18 blush in response.

Meanwhile, Piccolo and Tenshinhan emerge from the Room of Spirit & Time after managing to survive a day inside. As they fuel up on food, Son Goku returns to the Heavenly Realm with Dende, the young Namekian that befriended Gohan and Kuririn five years ago on Namek. Dende promptly restores the Dragon Balls, allowing Goku to search for them and use them to bring Trunks back to life.

Elsewhere, Vegeta—his strength restored—begins changing up his Final Flash so as to wipe out all matter in the solar system. Goku realizes that even with his teleportation ability, he won't be able to teleport around the planet finding the Dragon Balls in time to revive Trunks because he's the only one that can keep Vegeta at bay.

Goku teleports to Vegeta's location and resolves to kill him. Vegeta, consumed with madness, continues to grow stronger and stronger. Goku matches Vegeta blow for blow, but then realizes that even if he injures Vegeta he still has to deal with the Final Flash that has been fired off towards the sun.

Artificial Human No. 16 arrives to help Goku kill Vegeta. As things begin to look bleak, a single Kamehame-Ha is fired into the sky and consumes Vegeta's Final Flash, preventing it from destroying the sun. Goku and 16 turn to find that the blast was fired off by Gohan, who is also a Super Saiyan 2.

Enraged yet again, Vegeta prepares to blast at Gohan before a mysterious hand grabs him at the wrist. Vegeta turns and is shocked by what he sees.

Earlier, Gohan arrives at the sight of Trunks' body and begins digging a grave for him. With the grave finished, Gohan wonders if he shouldn't just take Trunks to Capsule Corp to be buried in peace, there. After all, the Namekians are in hiding, so there's no guarantee that his father can find them. As Gohan grabs Trunks to lift him up and over his shoulder, he remembers doing the same for Piccolo back on Namek—only then, Piccolo was at least alive. Suddenly, Trunks’ body twitches! Gohan searches deep within Trunks to find a spark of ki keeping him alive. Getting Trunks to fresh water, Gohan nurses him back to consciousness.

Back in the present, Trunks pleads with his father to stop. Reluctantly, Vegeta stops and passes out from the emotional strain of the last few days.

When Vegeta awakens a few days later, he finds himself at Capsule Corp. Trunks explains that Gohan found him and nursed him back to health. Vegeta feels discomfort at having to express happiness that Trunks is alive, seeing it as a weakness. Trunks counters that it was his rejection of Trunks’ supposedly non-Saiyan ‘weakness’ that got Vegeta into the mess in the first place, which leaves Vegeta with only more to think about.

Later, Vegeta apologizes to Bulma and Trunks. Bulma accepts his apology after realizing that Vegeta's grief was what drove him to nearly destroying the Milky Way.

Vegeta thanks Gohan for saving Trunks’ life but Gohan retorts that there was a stubborn ki that was able to resonate with Trunks’ ki because of their familial bond and that was what did the majority of the work. Vegeta rolls his eyes at having a ten year old flatter him like that.

A few more days pass. With the mood beginning to return to normal again, Trunks and Vegeta train together and begin growing closer in a more healthy manner, which only improves Vegeta's standing in Bulma's eyes. Eventually, after learning how to use the proper Super Saiyan 2 from his father, Trunks thanks ‘Gohan-san’ one more time for protecting him from death and then bids everyone farewell, using his time machine to return to his future timeline.

As Gohan watches his future self's student disappear, he glances at the baby Trunks who will—unlike his future counterpart—get to be raised by his father, who is a better man now than before.

As Goku walks up behind him to place a hand on his shoulder, Gohan looks up at his father, then back up to the clear blue sky, and remarks that he's glad that he didn't have to fill any graves this time.

THE END

That's actually pretty deep, nice rewrite

[DanielSSJ]

What if Vegeta wasn't brought back to life at the end of the Freeza arc and the series had to continue without him or Trunks?

[JulieYBM]

What if Vegeta wasn't brought back to life at the end of the Freeza arc and the series had to continue without him or Trunks?

Spoiler:

Unbeknownst to everyone, Vegeta did not fully die until after Mister Popo used the Earth's Dragon Balls to revive those killed by Freeza. As a result, Vegeta is unable to be revived by the Dragon Balls of Earth. In a strange twist of fate, his heart fully stops beating only after Mister Popo makes his wish.

Nearly two years later, Son Gohan wistfully awaits the return of his father from outer space. Between his studies, Gohan sneaks away with Piccolo for exercise. One day, while sitting down for a water break while training with Piccolo, Gohan wonders aloud about what the 'future' means. Piccolo, raising an eyebrow at such a philosophical question from a seven year old, asks Gohan to elaborate. Gohan, staring up at the blue sky that backlights fluffy, gliding clouds, explains that he wonders if, in the future, will he still need to fight again?

Piccolo asks Gohan why it is that he asked him to train him again, leaving Gohan to take a beat before answering. Hopping back on his feet, Gohan tightens his sarashi before taking his fighting stance again.

Suddenly, a familiar, foul comes straight from outer space: Freeza has managed to survive, somehow. Piccolo and Gohan hurriedly fly toward the position that they sense that Freeza will land at. On the flight there, they inevitably link up with Kuririn and Yamcha and by the time the four arrive, Tenshinhan and Chaozu are already waiting.

Not far from the section of the wasteland that the Dragon Team has met up at, Freeza, his father Great King Cold, and their forces land in a large space ship. Freeza, now held together with cybernetic pieces, sends his soldiers across the planet to find those that Son Goku loves so that he might see them all brutally murdered. Cold, amused, reminds his son not to destroy the planet so that they can resell it.

Sensing that Freeza's men are spreading across the planet, the Dragon Team take off after them. Gohan, still thinking about the meaning of 'the future', abandons the hunt for Freeza's soldiers and flies straight toward Freeza's location. Gohan arrives at the ship and finds Freeza and his father. Gohan's ability to sense ki screams at him to not get too close. There's no way he could ever beat either of them, let alone both! After all, every time he flew off the handle on Namek, he just got himself hurt worse. Gohan wonders, is this what 'the future' means? Living life cautiously?

Freeza notices Gohan and shows off his great speed, immediately brutally pulverizing the young boy. Piccolo arrives to save Gohan and manages to draw blood from Freeza. A brutal battle between the two unfolds and while Piccolo manages to damage quite a bit of Freeza's cybernetic parts, Freeza still manages to put Piccolo on the backfoot and then outright knock him unconscious.

Watching Piccolo's battle with Freeza, Gohan wonders if this, too, is 'the future'. Does the future, for a boy, mean only watching those before him die before their time? Instead of flying off in a blind rage, Gohan's focus sharpens while he is still able to tap into that same burst of incredible ki and he deals a critical blow to the part of Freeza's enhancements that Piccolo had managed to damage earlier.

Seeing his son withering in pain, an unamused Cold kills Freeza for being weak. Gohan, having never seen a father kill his son before, is deflated. How is he to feel sorrow and pity for a man like Freeza? Cold approaches Gohan to slaughter him up close, explaining that it is a father's duty to kill his weak so as to maintain the strength of the bloodline. Gohan struggles to recognize Cold as a father, knowing only of the love of his own, however eccentric he might be. Gohan—in control of what great power that he can still muster out from deep within—makes his last stand, but Cold swats his rear attack with his tail and sends Gohan flying into a rock formation.

Finally, Goku arrives on the scene out of nowhere. Transforming into a Super Saiyan, Goku saves Gohan and Piccolo from certain death and kills Cold before he can destroy the planet in a rage.

The next day, while resting up, Gohan thinks about the future more while watching the cloudy blue sky. As a massive cloud finishes passing over the sun, Gohan feels the warmth on his skin and realizes that he would miss the feeling. In the future, Gohan hopes that he will be able to feel the sun a lot more, no matter the cost.

Three years later, Artificial Humans No. 16, No. 17 and No. 18 begin a spree of light mayhem around the planet after killing Doctor Gero and damaging—and not destroying him as a sign of respect to a fellow Artificial Human—No. 19. It's very much just a light ruckus, in the grand scheme of things. Elsewhere, No. 19 seeks to avenge what was done to him and Doctor Gero and unleashes Cell. Cell, playing coy, uses No. 19 to help him lure in prey for him to absorb so as to build up enough strength for his true goal: absorbing Artificial Humans No. 17 and No. 18.

Meanwhile, Goku, Gohan, Piccolo and Chi-Chi are visiting Bulma and Yamcha in West City. As usual, those two are on the rocks. Suddenly, the Artificial Humans polycule finally arrives in West City, Yamcha confronts them while Chi-Chi is dressing up Goku, Gohan and Piccolo at the department store. No. 18 lightly toys with Yamcha before breaking the same leg that Tenshinhan once broke. Sensing that Yamcha has been injured despite not sensing any "strong dudes with ki," Goku—despite feeling a bit under the weather—decides to investigate and finds himself peeling an unconscious Yamcha off of the city streets.

Artificial Human No. 16—who is programmed to kill Son Goku—slips into a fugue mode and immediately attacks Goku, which the siblings—No. 17 and No. 18—find to be a bit odd, given how chill he normally is.

Super Saiyan Goku helps No. 16 out of the city and the two do battle streaking just above the ocean surface. Finally, the two arrive in a region full of icebergs and Goku goes all out. Gohan and Piccolo, who managed to follow the other two Artificial Humans, watches as Goku struggles against No. 16. Piccolo confirms with Gohan that Goku definitely seems off. He's been training with Goku and Gohan for three years, so he knows Goku's true ceiling is far above what he's currently showing. In fact, he's fighting in a way that seems completely unlike himself.

Eventually, Piccolo and Gohan step in and save Goku from certain death when he drops out of his Super Saiyan form. Piccolo distracts No. 16 while Gohan flies away to safety with his father laid over his shoulder. With Goku no longer in the area, No. 16's fugue state ends and he comes to his senses. Piccolo asks what this guy wants, having long already noticed the Red Ribbon Army marks on them. No. 16 explains that he was built for the express purpose of killing Son Goku to avenge Doctor Gero and the Red Ribbon Army. Piccolo is contacted psychically by God, who tells Piccolo that these three have been causing trouble across the planet. Piccolo rolls his eyes, not really caring since they aren’t exactly causing the destruction of the planet or anything big like that.

Still, the death of Son Goku would be a bit of a problem, considering how their relationship has changed thanks to Gohan’s influence. Piccolo readies to go all-out, but No. 16 reveals that he has no interest in fighting anyone other than Son Goku, who is not currently available, anyway. Piccolo comments that he finds No. 16 to be annoyingly straight-laced.

No. 17 decides to step up to the plate, having decided that he would like a little exercise. As Piccolo battles No. 17, he realizes that he has zero chance of winning because no matter how hard he fights, No. 17 never weakens. Growing bored, No. 17 kicks off one of Piccolo’s arms and decides to head off with his big sister and their big, green-wearing friend. Regrowing his arm, Piccolo realizes that he’s going to need to grow stronger fast if he wants to face the Artificial Humans again.

A few days later, Gohan watches as his father passes away from a mysterious disease in a hospital bed. Later, Gohan watches the clouds crawl across the blue sky while laying down on the roof of the hospital.

A few days later, Piccolo and Gohan train again. Piccolo notes that Gohan is distracted, while Gohan absent-mindedly replies that Piccolo-san has grown stronger recently. “I can tell, even if you’re hiding it.” Piccolo, of course, chuckles at this. The two take a break for water, which gives Piccolo the time to ask Gohan how he’s doing after the death of his father. Gohan shrugs, still feeling numb to it all. Piccolo admits, even by the day that they first met, Piccolo thought that he still desired to kill Son Goku, but now that Goku is gone for good, the Namekian wonders if perhaps even six years ago, what he really wanted was to be the one to defeat Son Goku decisively, even if it didn’t mean death. “Then again, perhaps for people like us, ‘decisively’ means death, so that we can never grow stronger again and fight on.” Then, Piccolo recalls that even in the Afterlife, there is a place for people like him and Son to raise their levels further.

Elsewhere, Artificial Human No. 16 has realized that Son Goku has died. According to his programming, he is supposed to self-destruct…but when he sees No. 17 and No. 18 enjoying the springtime of their youth, No. 16 finds himself fending off the programming that urges him to end his own life.

Elsewhere, in Ginger Town, clothes are littered across the town. The sounds of gunfire, shrieks and a funny little stepping sound reverberate increasingly over the increasingly empty city.

Meanwhile, Piccolo interrupts his sparring with Gohan, explaining that he is receiving a psychic message from God. Eyes widening, Piccolo tells Gohan to stay behind as he rushes off. Soon, Piccolo arrives in Ginger Town and finds it basically a ghost town. The creature that killed everyone? Cell, who displays his ability to absorb organic life through the needle-esque stinger on the end of his long tail and then add their power to his own. After getting Cell to reveal his secrets to him, Piccolo stops feigning weakness and powers up so much that Cell grows concerned. Piccolo ki, additionally, does not feel like the flavor that he knows to expect. Piccolo smirks as he hears Dende—the new god of Earth—tell him to be careful. Quickly cutting harmony cels showing Dende deciding to stay on Earth and learn from their God as well as be near Piccolo—who had absorbed Nail into him—connect shots of Piccolo’s smirk and Piccolo’s counterattack against Cell.

Realizing that he is at a disadvantage, Cell uses the Taiyou-ken to blind Piccolo, which allows for No. 19 to sneak up behind Piccolo and absorb some of his ki. Weakened unexpectedly, Piccolo falls to a knee and is then pierced by Cell again, this time being absorbed from the chest. Despite having merged with his other half, the previous God of Earth, Piccolo cannot handle the simultaneous drainage and is eventually consumed by Cell, never to be able to test the full limits of his power.

With Piccolo now consumed, Cell feels like he has more than enough power to handle the other Artificial Humans, so he blasts No. 19 to smithereens and sets off to find the triumvirate.

Later, Gohan mourns the sudden loss of his surrogate big brother so soon after losing his father. The Gyuu-maou comforts Gohan as he pounds a rock into dust, too broken from all the loss as of late to just melancholically look up at the sky. The Gyuu-maou gives his grandson wise words about the foolheartiness of running off to be a ruffian, a lesson that Gohan’s father taught him when they first met, and manages to calm Gohan down a little. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but at least—thanks to Dende—Gohan knows who to look for. But first, Gohan needs to complete his secret weapon.

Meanwhile, Kuririn, by the suggestion of ‘Kamiccolo’, has been following the Artificial Humans around the planet for days at this point, kindly and passionately pleading with them not to cause too much of a ruckus. As a result of this, No. 18 has begun to take a liking to “this bald old man” and teases him or puts him through little games in exchange for not leaving a city a pile of rubble. Exasperated at how they’re just making a fool out of him, Kuririn snaps and challenges No. 18 to a game of billiards, since they’re inside of a game center already.

No. 18—impressed by Kuririn’s sudden backbone—agrees and uses her sex appeal throughout their game to keep Kuririn off-balance—and horny, of course. Kuririn perseveres, however, and actually manages to beat No. 18. Impressed, No. 18 gives her “bald old man” a kiss and agrees to stop. No. 17 complains that if his big sister stops causing trouble he doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on to keep doing it himself, so he relents because the idea of doing so “to be a good little brother” is amusing to him.

No. 18 gets bored and decides to find a place to eat, impressing upon Kuririn to pay the bill, since it would be rude to just steal food or threaten the restaurant with violence. Kuririn, no saint himself, sends the bill to Capsule Corp, where he has a part-time job as a maintenance worker, which he reckons is better than being a cop or somethin’.

During dinner, Kuririn—akward and small as he is—gets to know No. 18 and the others better. Amused, No. 17 starts jokingly calling Kuririn by ‘Nii-san’, implying that Kuririn is basically his brother-in-law now.

No. 16—who is usually so caught up in appreciating nature, like birds—pets a small bird absent-mindedly while watching the three interacting before him with just as much interest as he normally reserves for nature. His programming is still running, trying to command him to self-destruct, but No. 16 continues to hold it at bay, even as it makes his processor overheat.

Kuririn asks who these three are, really, but the siblings just shrug. Their old lives are well-and-truly behind them, even if they hadn’t been kidnapped and modified by Doctor Gero. No. 16, according to No. 17, is an android built from scratch, while he and his big sister are modified humans—cyborgs. They were taken as teenagers and turned into cyborgs for the purpose of killing Son Goku, but even though he’s dead, it doesn’t really matter because the programming never actually worked for the siblings. Gero could modify a body but he couldn’t change a heart, ironically enough.

After dinner, the Artificial Humans realize that they’re going to need to find a place to stay now if they’re going to turn over a new leaf. No. 18 turns to Kuririn and charms her way into rooms at Capsule Corp, much to Bulma’s chagrin. No. 16 uses this opportunity to ask Bulma to take a look at him, which Bulma does. Bulma discerns that she can’t tell HOW No. 16 is managing to avoid fulfilling his programming, but by doing so, he is unfortunately causing overheating that will eventually destroy him. Bulma asks to study him longer, since doing so without shutting him down and preventing him from holding his programming at bay will take some careful work. No. 16 readily agrees.

That night, No. 17 catches Kuririn watching the stars and joins him while everyone else sleeps. The two bond, revealing that his sister has always protected him and he owes it to her to try and protect his big sister anyway that he can. Kuririn nervously agrees, assuming No. 18 will even have him, but No. 17 just laughs and tells Kuririn that unless he’s some secret bastard, it’s probably inevitable that a ‘responsible’ woman like his sister would take a liking to a guy like him. For the first time in his life, Kuririn feels like a real adult and resolves to make a real attempt at romancing the seemingly mercurial woman.

Kuririn heads inside to get back to sleep while No. 17 stays up a little longer to watch the stars. The next morning, nobody can find No. 17 anywhere. No. 18—although worried—brushes it off as her kid brother is just goofing off somewhere. Bulma wonders aloud if he won’t go causing trouble again, but Kuririn firmly shoots that idea down, a faith that surprises even No. 18.

No. 18—ever subject to wanting to have a little fun—makes Kuririn take her to the amusement park. Hours of fun between the two pass by once No. 18 manages to get Kuririn to come out of his shell a little bit. During lunch, Kuririn gently investigates, talking to No. 18 about her side of the story. No. 18 reveals that she and her brother left home as teens because it was a better alternative to just staying. As a result, she wonders if she grew up too fast and that’s why—since No. 17 killed Doctor Gero—they went on their little chaos spree across the planet, trying to recover some of that lost time. Kuririn mentions how, when he was a monk with the Orenji Temple, he had been bullied by older peers in a bit of a cruel twist on the closest thing to having older siblings. When he thinks back to those days, it feels like they were somehow worse than whatever he’s seen the Artificial Humans do in a misguided attempt at reliving their youth. No. 18 calls Kuririn an old man for his pep talk but the giggle that underscores the insult feels very disarming.

As the day of fun at the amusement park continues, No. 18 begins to realize that fewer and fewer people are at the park despite how early it still is in the day. Kuririn absent-mindedly looks around, which distracts him enough from all the fun he’s been having for his senses to kick in. Kuririn begins to realize that something is definitely off here: ki signatures are steadily disappearing for some reason. Concerned, Kuririn grabs No. 18 by the wrist and tries to fly off with her, but just as they turn, they are confronted by a transformed Cell?!

Second Form Cell introduces himself, referring to No. 18 as ‘Nee-san’ in a disturbingly No. 17-esque tone. Cell politely explains that he would kindly like for No. 18 to allow him to absorb her. No. 18 refuses, kicking Cell away and attempting to fly off, this time holding Kuririn by HIS wrist so as to pull him, but Cell quickly appears before her and cuts the pair off, disturbingly still referring to her as ‘Nee-san’. Kuririn uses the Taiyou-ken to blind Cell long enough for No. 18 to make a run for it and stays behind so that Cell cannot sense him and thus sense her, too. Beside herself with guilt, No. 18 flies away at full speed so as to lose Cell.

Cell explains that he has been following Kuririn for quite some time and thanks him for keeping such good tabs on the Artificial Humans for him. Sickened by how he is why No. 17 was absorbed, Kuririn does his best to delay Cell from starting his search for No. 18, but Cell just finds it all the more entertaining. Using his incredible speed, Cell appears behind Kuririn and whispers, “Right behind you, Nii-san,” into Kuririn’s ear before piercing him with his tail and absorbing him, too.

Back at Capsule Corp, Yamcha—who has healed from eating a senzu shortly after his leg was broken—senses Kuririn’s slow death and passes the information along to Bulma. No. 16, realizing who is responsible for this, gently cuts Bulma’s analysis short so as to join the fray himself.

No. 16 and Yamcha find Cell steadily blowing up little hamlets outside of West City, screaming for No. 18 to show herself if she doesn’t want their blood on her hands. No. 18, of course, thinks to herself that the whole planet is doomed once he finds her, anyway. No. 16, overheating his internal hardware even more by actively choosing to battle Cell, pushes his body to its limits trying to kill him. Yamcha, acts as support for No. 16.

After a tussle, Cell breaks free of No. 16 long enough to absorb Yamcha and then uses the additional power to stall No. 16 longer. No, 18—knowing that No. 16 is pushing himself too hard—shows herself to try and double team Cell and kill him for good, but Cell—using No. 17 and Kuririn’s voices to whisper things to her—breaks No. 18’s concentration long enough for him to absorb her, thus reaching his completed form.

Now complete, Cell decides to destroy the Earth. Suddenly, a golden warrior appears on the scene and knocks away Cell’s ki blast: it’s Son Gohan? With tremendous strength as a Super Saiyan, Gohan pushes Cell to his brink, which only invigorates him to fight even harder. Feeling how hard Cell is fighting, Gohan asks him what his future is going to be. Cell explains that he was developed so as to become the most complete living organism in the universe, so he will continue to travel the universe learning new martial arts and absorbing new living organisms to grow his power. Gohan asks Cell if that’s really what he wants for his life, but Cell explains that he doesn’t care: he won’t be alone if he adds the rest of the universe to himself.

No. 16, floating up to Gohan’s side, explains to the boy that Cell might be a living organism, but that does not make him relatable to other living organisms. His bug-like appearance in his first form betrayed the truth of the matter: Cell is a parasite.

As they fight Cell, No. 16 begins to break down from overheating. Gohan, confused, asks No. 16 if he’s okay. Gohan learns from Cell that No. 16 is pushing himself against his programming, which is actively deteriorating his hardware via overheating and thus destroying him. Remembering No. 16’s words, Gohan finds that his desire to see the sky, feel the sun and hear the running waters are no different from No. 16’s own desires. In fact, No. 16 even had friends that he cherished.

Eventually, No. 16’s motherboard burns to a crisp and he effectively ‘dies’. Gohan’s sorrow mutates his Super Saiyan form into a new transformation and he kills Cell once and for all.

Some weeks pass by. Gohan and Bulma bid a visibly pregnant Chi-Chi farewell to travel the world in search of the Dragon Balls. Via the power of harmony cels, we see the familiar sight of Bulma and a Son boy getting into various misadventures across Earth in search of the Dragon Balls. Once they finish collecting all seven Balls, they wait for Dende to meditate and try to increase the power of Earth’s Dragon Balls so that they might be able to revive those who have died before. Reflecting on the wisdom from the experiences he has had across his entire life, Dende manages to power up the Dragon Balls so that—if someone is killed—they can be revived multiple times. By the power of the Dragon Balls, all those killed by Cell are, thankfully, revived.

A week later, Piccolo finds Gohan fishing at the same spot that he’s seen Goku take Gohan to to fish dozens of times before. Piccolo and Gohan reflect on the battles that have passed by and on the melancholy of knowing that Goku and No. 16 are the two lives that could not be recovered. After catching a fish, Gohan stands up and Piccolo notes how much taller he’s gotten since they last had time to talk like this. Gohan smiles, and says that he spent two days training in the Room of Spirit & Time. Piccolo mentions that ‘two days’ outside of the Room of Spirit & Time is two YEARS inside of it, which would explain the change in Gohan’s height and age.

Gohan takes the fish home to Chi-Chi to cook. Gohan, Chi-Chi, Piccolo and the Gyuu-maou sit around the dinner table and seemingly interact as normal. Watching Gohan, Piccolo imagines that Gohan—like any adult—was probably changed by the experience of spending two consecutive years inside of the Room of Spirit & Time. Gohan has both lost time and somehow experienced more time than any kid his age. Piccolo resolves to keep an eye on the boy, like he had been planning on, anyway, and thinks to himself that Son would be proud of Gohan’s fighting spirit in sticking to his own morals.

Some months later, Son Goten is born. Gohan takes Goten outside with him to give his mother time to herself. Gohan introduces his little brother to the clear blue sky, high up above, and tells him that someday, he’ll teach the boy how to fly up there and see the sky—and the rest of the world—from its point-of-view.

THE END

I might've overdone it by sitting down and hashing out 4,285 words in just a few hours, but it was a fun practice session lol

[DanielSSJ]

snip

Regarding how Vegeta would've been excluded by the wish, my thought was that God and Popo could've worded it to not revive anyone too evil to avoid risking bringing Nappa back to life while the Earth was defenseless or something. But the idea of Vegeta hanging on out of sheer stubbornness just long enough to die at the exact wrong time is really funny actually.

I like the greater focus on Gohan growing up and having to deal with a world without Goku, and Kuririn's relationship with #17 and #18. Also, characterizing Cell as a parasite who just wants to consume everything beats the hell out of his canon characterization (not exactly the same, but I had the thought that after he attains his complete form, Cell's motive could've been to sate a biological urge to spread and multiply by repopulating the Earth with Cell Jrs or something)

Overall, a pretty good read.

[JulieYBM]

snip

Regarding how Vegeta would've been excluded by the wish, my thought was that God and Popo could've worded it to not revive anyone too evil to avoid risking bringing Nappa back to life while the Earth was defenseless or something. But the idea of Vegeta hanging on out of sheer stubbornness just long enough to die at the exact wrong time is really funny actually.

I like the greater focus on Gohan growing up and having to deal with a world without Goku, and Kuririn's relationship with #17 and #18. Overall, a pretty good read.

That probably would have been a smarter way to go about it, although my thought was mostly just "wouldn't it be darkly funny if..."

But yeah, like, with Gohan, it just feels natural to tell a story about growing up for a kid character. That was my primary driving force: trying to find ways to put this kid through the gauntlet of growing up and experiencing the sort of things that we all experience, only in as slightly more heightened way, since it's a battle series lol.

For the Kuririn and Artificial Humans: I liked the idea of pulling from what Super establishes, like with No. 17 calling Kuririn nii-san and No. 18 being the bigger sister. Since I didn't want to just repeat the Future Trunks Special, I decided to do a bit of a curve and not have those two be super terrible. They're a bit closer to the main timeline, really, but I wanted to give them a bit more depth, so their poor decisions still count, but you can see how "bad childhoods plus power" makes them out carelessly. With Kuririn, I figured that I could give him interesting scenes without relying on annoying decisions. I'd rather just watch two characters talk it out for a while.

Since the original arc heavily relies on 'the future' and Gohan, a kid, is the very idea of the future itself, I thought that it would be best to do a recurring question of asking the question, "What really IS the future?" At that age, we either expect it to be better than things are now or we don't even consider it. Since Gohan's in a weird place as a kid, it seemed natural to have him be very reflective of that. The recurring imagery of the sky ties into that, because the sky is this big, vast thing that is seems almost difficult to comprehend. If this were, like, an actual series that got made somehow, the audience would probably wind up being young to some degree, so I tried to keep that in mind. What did I want to see to the young? Or to adult reflecting on youth, perhaps? I like the open-endedness of it all, because even as you get much older and could theoritically be old enough to be the parent of a kid of Gohan's age, it really makes you realize how you don't stop trying to figure out what the future is.

Hopefully that makes sense lol