Chapter 18: Destination: Hell
What came over me was very unexpected. My heart pounded inside of my chest and I cursed myself for being so careless. Yet, I couldn't understand why her life meant so much to me. She had indeed annoyed me and I had wished that I could take her out only moments ago. However, I knew I wasn't purposely aiming for her. Seeing her, however, dead from my own hands struck me harder, it seemed, than Gohan's fist against my mouth.
"You stupid android," I heard from behind me. I could tell he was close, but I didn't look at him. "You see now why I must kill you? You can't control yourself."
"Shut up," I said quickly.
"You're finished, Cell," he continued.
"I said shut up!" I yelled, my eyes shutting tightly. I turned to him and stared him down with fierce rage and more than a high level of hatred and disgust. "You are the one that will meet his demise. You cannot win!"
"Whatever," he said and flew up.
I left Layrial's dead body to collect dust as I followed him. I started to raise my energy level to its highest potential. "If I have to prove myself one more time, then so be it."
The memories that followed are not what I like to reflect upon. I know that I had ruined myself the instant I took the short moment to pause when I killed Layrial. As much as the boy was foolish and arrogant, he was right about something—I couldn't control myself. I knew that raising my power level was one thing, but to inflate my size was another. It slowed me down; it made me weaker.
I had doubled my size in order to intimidate the boy. I should have known it wouldn't work since he was much too confident in his own abilities. He had quickly shown me up and nearly broke multiple bones in my body. His strength was unreal. Never in a million years had I considered the idea that someone could overpower me.
The most mind-boggling blow, though, was the one he delivered to my abdomen. He must have hit me just right because mere seconds later I could feel something come over me that was the strangest feeling I had yet to experience. He dislodged something deep within me and I started to choke. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see and I couldn't tell what was happening. The pain that rushed through my chest was unreal and I can't even begin to explain it.
Horrified as I am to recall it, I had regurgitated Android 18. Without her my body couldn't maintain its complete form and I was shoved back into the reality of the hideous essence I donned with only Android 17 inside of me. There was no mistaken that I had one last resort that would still finish the job I had been given by Dr. Gero. I had to self destruct.
And then…Goku had to act like the hero. He used his little 'instant transmission' technique to bring me somewhere else. I have no idea where it had been, but the course of my actions had followed through and I killed myself. The only good thing about that was that I killed Goku as well…I had at least achieved one thing.
To my most pleasant surprise, however, I hadn't died. My core cell had remained and I was able to bring myself back. The best thing of all was that my body had remembered the status of perfection I gained with Android 18 and I was able to return to that stage. And…I had learned of Goku's transmitting ability.
I returned to Earth. I had killed Vegeta's son quickly and easily. I had shoved massive shock and apprehension into each Z Fighter that remained alive. I decided to not allow them a chance to save their planet—I would destroy it before anything else could happen. I would not make the same mistake twice. Gohan tried to counter my attack with the same version I had thrust forth, but I was stronger.
However…failure seemed to be the theme of the day for me. I was overpowered. I wouldn't have been if those other stupid fools hadn't tried to distract me, not to mention the sudden burst of energy Gohan pushed into his attack. I lost control…I lost my fight…and this time I lost my life.
I hadn't completely realized that there was a world beyond the living realm that Earth and other planets lived in. I soon found myself standing on a long path with my hands bound in green-glowing shackles that I was powerless to break no matter how hard I tried.
"Keep it moving," a strange looking man said as he pushed me from behind. He was taller than I, bulkier in size, but I knew he had no supremacy over me. Yet I couldn't break his control over my arrest; I found that I was powerless to escape. There was a second that followed him and they both laughed when I stumbled from another shove they gave me. I growled at them and shot a deathly glare, but they seemed less terrified of me than they should have been.
I continued walking dully down the long path that lead to a very large, intricate building. I looked around to see yellow clouds everywhere and I realized that this must be the afterlife. The people I saw around me save for my two ugly friends here had golden halos hovering over their head. If I were to glance at my reflection I was sure I had one as well.
And then…there she was, alive and well. She walked in the opposite direction the masses were, being ushered by a smaller version of the two brutes that guarded me. I smiled at her as the distance between us became smaller. Finally, though, I stopped and looked at her lovely face, forgetting that I was the reason that she was here.
"Well Layrial, it seems that things have taken a complete turn around, much to my dismay," I told her. Yet, I couldn't allow the conversation to end without knowing one thing…"But one question still remains on my mind. Did you love me in life?"
"Yes."
I was surprised. When presented with that question earlier she claimed no and it didn't faze me. After all, what human in their right mind would want to be even remotely close to someone such as me? I would have questioned her seriousness had I not detected the tone of her voice that told me that the single word she spoke was true.
"Go!" The ogres behind me commanded and pushed me forward. I continued without argument and left Layrial standing behind me, never to be seen again.
"Cell!" I heard her call. I paused, my escorts growling viciously (as if they thought that scared me), and waited for her to continue. "Did you love me?"
I stood there for what seemed like the longest moment before answering her. Did I love her? I was sure I never felt anything for her; but if that were true then why had I tried to go after her the moment before she died? Why had I felt angry with myself for killing her when I had tried to do so many times before? The only difference this time around was that although I hadn't directly and purposely tried to kill her I had done it.
"If that's what you want to call it," I said and started to finish walking down the path once again. I had looked at her briefly while I said it and her image was permanently etched into my memory. I would never allow anyone else to know that Layrial was the only creature in this universe that I would have spared.
I had ended up in a large room where I felt like I was scaled down to miniature size. The man (who resembled the type of being my two escorts were) had been sitting at a desk larger than any Earthly structure I had seen. He was monstrous and I would have to admit that I wasn't quite sure how to take him. He didn't look at me; instead, he seemed to be reading from some large book opened in front of him.
"Cell, an android from Earth," his booming voice said. "You killed 18,469 humans and one Saiyan during your life, which I see was spent in two time periods."
"That's all?" I asked dissatisfied.
He growled and finally looked at me with heavy black eyes. "You tried to destroy the planet Earth and had every intention of continuing a slaughter of planets in other galaxies, am I right?"
"But of course," I said honestly with a sly smile.
"Cell, I hear-by call you a bad soul and you will spend the entirety of your death in Hell," he said and pounded the desk with a wooden hammer. "Now down you go!"
I had no time to react, which was becoming a constant thing that day. The floor opened up into a large hole beneath me and I found myself falling into a black abyss. I tried to fly, but I had no power to do so. I couldn't even try to defy gravity no matter how hard my attempts were. The darkness grew brighter and soon I found myself falling through a reddish-orange sky towards a pool of what looked like blood.
As embarrassing as it was, I splashed into the grimy water and found myself sinking further and further. I realized that I finally had control over my body and I was able to swim up to the surface where I found several people staring at me from the shore.
"Well, well, what have we here?" The person who spoke this was a small creature with a long thick tale; his body was white save for a few spots of glossy, glass-like purple. I knew that it was Frieza, one of the beings whose cells I had as part of my structure.
The tall man next to him was King Cold, his father and then there were four others I didn't recognize, all varying in sizes and appearances. I jumped out of the water and allowed my wings to relax behind me. "I take it you're Frieza," I said with a smirk.
He sneered at me and contorted his face into uncertainty. "I see you know who I am, but I am not familiar with you, my friend."
I smiled and glanced at him knowing that he was about to realize he was no longer the strongest being in Hell. "My name is Cell."
My Thank-You: I thank all of you for staying with me and reading this. I promise I will never take on such a task as to rewrite a story of that length from a different perspective than the first. It was long…and tedious XD But its done now; and actually I am still hoping to write a fourth installment, though I can't be sure as to when that'll be. Maybe this week, maybe a month from now, yet I do believe it'll happen no matter what. I just have to find my notes XD Best wishes to you all! And here's the main question that's probably horrible to ask of those of you that have read both stories—which P.O.V. did you enjoy more?