Chapter 13

Freezer´s Empire Universe

Freezer was trying to charge up another attack. But he noticed instantly that something was wrong. Somehow he was not able to channel his energy correctly.

"What have you done to me?" he growled.

"This is a technique that I have taken from an old enemy," Trunks told him. "I have injected a small bit of my own especially manipulated ki into you. Manipulated for a special purpose," he explained. "It is right now disrupting the energy-flow inside your body."

"What? No - that can not be..." that was the last thing the the alien overlord would ever say in his life.

"Goodbye Freezer," Trunks said stoically.

Without another word, he charged up a powerful Burning Attack, that he fired and completely obliterated him.

"Good job Trunks," 17, who was still standing on the ground, commented.

xxx

That meant one of their two opponents was gone. The other one however...

Cell-X knew that against all of them together, even with his enormous power, he was outmatched. Even more with the fact that the two other Androids will never tire out. In opposite to himself.

All of his Cell Juniors had been destroyed and creating more would only cost him even more of his already faning energy. Too much.

And the saiyajin had just eaten one of these beans and was once again at nearly full strength.

So he decided for the most `logical´ course of action... Go for the weakest.

He moved instantly and reappeared right behind 18. Like the rest of them, she had been concentrating on Freezer and his attempted attack down on the planet. So she an the others didn´t notice him until it was too late.

Before 18 had even fully realized it, Cell had grabbed her and twisted one of her arms on her back. And at the same time, with his other hand, he was charging up a blast and aiming it at his captive.

"None of you moves," he said to 17 and Trunks. "Or your friend here dies," he threatened. "I will leave this planet now. If one of you tries to stop me, I will shoot her."

18 starred at him in anger. And, as she admitted, embarassment that she had been caught off-guard like this.

"No - don´t let this bastard get away," she told them.

Trunks and 17 exchanged a short silent look.

"Well, I guess that leaves us no choice, right?" Seventeen stated. "Trunks - you remember what we have talked about during your last visit in our timeline?"

He nodded.

"I do," he replied.

"You don´t need to do this Cell," 17 told him. "Doctor Gero is dead. You don´t have to follow what he had programmed you to anymore. You never had to. Me and 18 broke free of him. So can you if you want to."

"Be quiet," Cell replied. "You two have betrayed your purpose. We Androids were created for world domination by the great Doctor Gero. By turning away from it, you and your sister have spurned his gift and your potential. Why would I choose a worthless existence like you? I say it again, let me go or I will kill her.

I was created directly from the AI of Doctor Gero´s super computer. I am the living embodiment of his ambitions. And I won´t be denied."

"I see," 17 answered. "I guess it was pointless to try to reason with you."

"Worthless?" Trunks called out. During their short exchange, he had moved a few steps further away from 17 - subtly trying to corner Cell from two angles at once. "These two have broken free from someone else control. They have made their own lives and founded families, have children. And you call that worthless?"

"A foolish human mindset," the being called Cell-X replied. "Nothing of it has any meaning in the great scheme of things."

"I think we have talked enough," 17 said.

He begann to charge up a blast. Since he wasn´t loosing any energy, he didn´t have to hold anything back. So he powered up his attack more and more.

"Stop it," Cell called out. "Right now. Or your sister dies."

"Oh, have we forgotten to mention it?" Seventeen said, now suddenly grinning. "This woman is not my sister."

"What?" Cell now called out in surprise. "That is impossible. She..."

"You know that just like you, we are capable of travel between the universes, right?" 17 stated. "My true sister died over eleven years ago. She is an alternate version of her. One I couldn´t care less about," he told him.

"No. That..." Cell said aghast.

"So I won´t have a problem to kill both of you," 17 declared coldly.

He now raised his hand and aimed to blast, ready to shoot right through 18 to get to him.

"Wait - 17 don´t do this," Trunks called out as well, seemingly in panic.

He knew that Seventeen didn´t like his timeline´s version of his sister. Even if Trunks himself came to love her despite everything what happened in their past. Even if Marron came to see her as a second mother. 17 never really warmed up to her. But he would be willing to kill her like that just to take out an enemy?

At least that was what it looked like for everyone watching. This was the moment Trunks made his move. He charged forward to wrestle 18 out of Cell´s grasp.

Cell, who was still completely surprised by the sudden revelation, was caught completely off guard.

Cell-X´s mind might have started as that of a computer. But since his data was copied into a body of flesh and blood, he was also affected by things like shock and surprise and could be distracted by them. Like now.

He didn´t even notice Trunks until he had reached him and ripped 18 out of his arms.

"You," Cell shouted. He realized he had been tricked.

Trunks had already moved again and was now already a few meters away from him, holding 18 in his arms.

In this moment 17 unleashed his attack and Cell had no more time to deal with the two, he had to counter Seventeen´s blast with one of his own.

The two energy attacks clashed in another beam-struggle.

"Not bad 17," Trunks remarked.

His last meeting with Seventeen during their last visit in their past timeline, he remembered. The Android had told him that, while he made it clear that he still disliked Future 18, if it ever came to it, he would do anything to protect her for Marron´s sake. And by bringing up this conversation, he had made sure that Trunks knew that he was bluffing about threatening to kill her.

A second later he and Mirai 18 joined 17´s attack with their own.

Three blasts were now targeting Cell from different directions. The Bio-Android knew he had lost. Even he had no chance to survive or evade this.

"Why?" that was all he said quietly. `Where did he and Doctor Gero go wrong?´ he asked himself.

He should have been invincible, unfailable. But he had turned out to be neither. Was he in truth just aother flawed creation?

While other versions of Cell would have shouted and screamed loudly - claiming that this couldn´t be, denying their defeat... this one just accepted his fate quietly.

His questions were never answered, as the other two blasts hit him at the same time and started to disintigrate his body.

He could not longer hold back Seventeen´s attack and it united with the other two, helping to finish what they started. A few moments later nothing of Cell was left.

"We have done it," Trunks said.

"You know? For a moment you had me actually worried 17," Mirai 18 told him. "You truly looked like you wanted to do it."

"Oh - believe me, the temptation was there," Seventeen responded with a slight grin.

"That is enough you two," Trunks said to both of them. "We have acually done it." He sighted. "Thank you 17. Your distraction worked perfectly. Even if you had me scared as well for a moment."

"I do my best," he replied. "Well, we came here to find you."

"And as it looked we didn´t come a moment too late," 18 added.

"Yes - I admit without you two, I would have been done for," Trunks stated.

"Well - but it seems it gave us the chance to take care of Freezer and our other enemies as well. So the danger to our world is gone now. If only 16 succeeds with his mission to find the Namekians, we can hopefully restore our Earth," 18 said.

"Marron and Pan will be glad to see you are okay," she told him.

"Yes. But first we still have a few thinks to take care of here," Trunks responded. "Even with Freezer gone, this Earth here is still under the control of his troops...

... and that has to change."

xxxxxxx

It was now one day later.

Trunks, 17 and Mirai 18 were getting ready to leave to leave.

In front of them was standing a small contigent of the local resistance against Freezer´s rule.

A bit to their surprise, they found not only regular humans armed with guns and riffles and several aliens, but also this universe´s versions of his mother Bulma (who was leadig the group), Muten Roshi and Goku´s old friend Android 8 under them.

Obviously they had survived not only the invasion by Freezer´s forces, that had wiped out a large chunk of this Earth´s original population, but also the long occupation afterwards.

xxx

After their victory the Trunks and the two Androids had contacted the closest base of Freezer´s forces on the planet and informed them that both Freezer and Doctor Gero were dead. This were the news that nanaged to turn this world around in only a few hours.

After hearing about their Emperor´s death and the fact that they were the ones responsible for it, the garrison had surrendered very quickly.

A short time later they had been contacted by the group who introduced itself as the resistance movement against Freezer - who had then began to spread the information about the tyrant´s and his chief scientist´s demise to the rest of the planet... and then further, to the other worlds of the Empire.

As it turned out, while it seemed that many of Freezer´s soldiers seemed actually happy to see him gone and get out from under his rule - that meant constant danger from his murderous moods - others staid loyal to their manical ruler, even in death.

But in the face of the three warriors who defeated Freezer - not to mention Cooler, who was the second strongest warrior in the Empire and Doctor Gero´s strongest creation - the far majority of the Freezer Force surrendered nearly instantly.

During the last day, not only resistance fighters, but also civilians and even a few now disarmed members of Freezer´s forces who hated serving under him, had been more than a bit enthusiastically thanking them for freeing them from the tyrant.

But while Trunks and 17 accepted their thanks with a smile, 18 felt visibly uncomfortable with it. For reasons that were all too understandable given her past, Trunks knew.

He knew a great part of her still hated herself for all the things she had done and probably always would. For the greatest part of her life she had been a monster, not that much better than Freezer. She was not used to people thanking her and seeing her a a hero. It was clear to him how her conscience was still hounding her, whenever she heard someone thanking her for `saving´ them.

All that however was one of the reasons that he finally came to accept and even to love her. Would he ever accepted her if she didn´t hate herself for killing Gohan and all these other people? Certainly not. If she hadn´t put her life on the line to save the universe from The Priest, Freezer and many other threats? If she hadn´t so completely changed? No.

But she did. He had fallen in love with the good side of her, that he had first seen in the past timeline´s 18. And it were moments like this that reminded him of it.

xxx

After everything had settled down and the resistance had taken full control of the planet, they were now ready to depart this world.

From that point on, Trunks and the others would leave the rest to the resistance fighters.

"I have to say, we were more than lucky that you three showed up here," the local version of Bulma told them. "To be honest, we might have been calling us a resistance, but with Freezer´s immense power, there was never actually much we could do. Our only hope had always been that Freezer would some day attack one world or dimension too much and we would find allies who could actually match him."

Trunks had not told the woman that another version of her was his mother. In this reality he never existed, because the planet had been conquered and Vegeta killed, before he would have been born. And he saw no reason to burden her even more with things that could have been.

"Exactly like it actually came to be," Muten Roshi added. "We are sorry that we could do nothing to help your world against Freezer´s attack. But, as Bulma said, we were barely holding out ourselves."

"I know Master Roshi. I understand," Trunks replied. "I would not have expected you to do the impossible. But now I hope things will change for the better in your world... and that for good. Goodbye."

Trunks activated the Portal.

On the other side, they knew Mirai Bulma, Pan and Marron were awaiting them. Together with the Bulma, Vegeta and Gohan from 17´s and Marron´s home-timeline. The same timeline they had all originally attempted to reach, before the malfunction had scattered them across several worlds.

xxxxxx

After they had arrived, Pan literally flew into her father´s arms.

"Dad, you are back," she called out. "I knew you were okay."

Marron and his mother were holding back a bit more, but they as well were hugging him and praising Kami at seeing him back and unharmed.

For the time being, they settled down in the past-timeline. Just like the hundreds of refugees that they had evacuated from their Earth literally in the last minutes and who were at the moment being taken care of by Capsule Corp.

Trunks had not seen or heard the voice of The Priest again. Had it truly only been leftovers of memories in his subconsciousness? Or had a small fragment of his old enemy truly survived somewhere inside his soul? He wasn´t sure. But if whatever was left of him would ever rise up again, then with the help of his friends and family he would overcome it. Of that, he was sure.

After a short while they used the Portal once again to contact 16 on his mission to New Namek.

Just as they had hoped, he had found the Namekians. And just as they had also hoped, they had - like in the past - upgraded their Dragon Balls after Freezer´s original invasion on their old home-planet.

That meant they would be able to restore their own Earth and bring all the people back to life who had been killed during the invasion by Freezer´s forces and the planet´s explosion.

The Namekians remembered Bulma of course and agreed to let them use their Dragon Balls

Some of the people they had evacuated would probably rather stay in the past, they knew, than returning to their own Earth, that had been devastated several times and was barely recovering. They could not truly blame them.

They would give everyone of them a choice.

Trunks for his part was happy, since he knew that his home - that he fought for his entire life - would come back.

End