Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction / Starcraft Fan Fiction / Batman Beyond Fan Fiction ❯ Tassadar's Legacy: Rebirth ❯ The Cell Games Intervention ( Chapter 12 )

Dust swirled around the cliffs where I stood. The winds howled, the sun glared, and I stood there staring dumbfounded at the sight before my eyes. Legend of Zelda being real I could kind of understand. Even Starcraft is acceptable. But this? I'm starting to think it's quite possible that every single story heard on Earth might be nonfiction somewhere out in the universe.

 I stared down at the white tiled square of an arena sitting in the middle of this barren wasteland, an utter example of the middle of nowhere. I stared at the two fighters facing off, hardly daring to believe my eyes. I instantly recognize both of them. How could I not? Goku and Cell are pretty iconic figures after all. The other Z fighters are standing on a cliff of their own overlooking the stage. They're all talking, but I can't make out the words from here.

Quickly, I scaled down the steep side of the cliff, using my memories of doing just this as Tassadar during training. Good thing too, cause my memories as a human would have me paralyzed in fear at the height. Getting a bit closer, I could tell when Piccolo noticed me, but he didn't say anything. He's just watching me from the corner of his eye. I try to get close enough to hear what they're saying, but I'm too late to hear anything, since Goku and Cell suddenly are ripping into each other.

 I felt myself going slackjawed watching their fight. I thought it had been incredible to watch on TV. Watching it in front of my eyes is another thing entirely. It's also kind of nice to be able to follow their movements with my abilities too, since they're moving way too fast to see. A few times I nearly got blown away by the sheer force of power the fighters are putting off, but like the rest of the spectators, I held fast to watch.

 After a while, both fighters came to a standstill. Unfortunately, I'm still not close enough to hear what they're saying, but it looks like it's about time for Goku to switch out. He looks exhausted despite looking smug as I imagine him telling Cell about the fighter who's going to beat him. Suddenly Goku calls out, “Gohan! Come down here!” I smile a little bit as all the other Z fighters stare at Goku as if he's gone insane. Goku flies up to the others and I see him talk to Gohan. I wish I could hear what they're saying, but I don't try to get any closer. Piccolo is still shooting me glances, and some of them don't look friendly. Granted, I doubt he could look friendly even if he tried, but I'm not interested in starting a fight on accident with these guys.

 I looked over at Gohan, who decidedly looked a little ill, but he did go down to meet Cell. While they were talking, and my incredulity of actually being here at the Cell games from Dragonball Z finally fading, I started to wonder. Why am I here? How did I get here? Thinking back, I realized I'd warped from Hyrule to here somehow. I didn't even know I could warp though. I guess I know how to now. And who were those three women I heard talking while I warped? Were they the ones who made me warp? Why did they send me here? With a million questions and no answers forthcoming, I simply watched as Cell and Gohan fought, or to be more exact, I watched as Cell started to thrash Gohan. It was rather painful to watch.

 Feeling a little angry on Gohan's behalf, I felt glad I already knew that Gohan would completely destroy Cell in the end. Still, I wished there was something I could do. I winced at a particularly hard hit as Gohan crashed straight through a mountain not far from my spot. Cell abruptly pinned him and started crushing him. I could hear Gohan's screams all the way up here. I gritted my teeth. As Tassadar, am I powerful enough to intervene? Should I intervene?

 Suddenly, Cell threw a shot at the other Z fighters. They scattered and Gohan's horrified look satisfied Cell. I still couldn't hear what they were saying, but then Cell started convulsing and his tail spread open and spat out a number of blue smaller versions of himself. Seeing it up close for real is far more disgusting than on TV as a drawing. Something seemed out of place though. Doing a quick head count of the Z fighters, I realized he'd created one extra Cell Jr.

I didn't have long to wonder at the implications of that as the Cell Jr's flew towards the Z fighters, one of them heading straight for me! Bracing myself, I concentrated on my memories, casting about for something to do in this situation. I knew Tassadar had a special attack called PSI Assault that he'd used in Starcraft... do I have that ability now?

Suddenly the Cell Jr. was in my face, and nailed me in the stomach. It hurt unbelievably, but instinct kicked in and my mind separated from the pain and automatically felt for the waves of mental energy being poured from myself. Concentrating on them, I waited for one to pass straight through the Cell Jr and made a move to supercharge the wave. To my surprise, the Cell Jr just sat in midair as if unaffected.

Then it's eyes rolled into the back of its head and pitched forward. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, but not taking any chances, I continued to assault it until it was nothing more than bits, and even then I continued until those were gone. Looking around on automatic, now fully settled into the role of a battle, I cast around, identifying my enemies with a ping. Somehow the destruction of one of their brother's had drawn no one's attention except Cell's.

I eyed Cell with some trepidation, but he made no move towards me, so I hurried forward and scrambled down the cliff toward the other fighters. I hadn't been sure about getting involved, but Cell took that choice from me with the extra Cell Jr.

Reaching the area of the other Z fighters, I started hitting Cell Jr's left and right. Interestingly enough the one's hit, froze like the other's and suddenly they became laughably easy to defeat. Another thing I noted is that even though they were destroyed, none of them regenerated.

"You. What did you do?" I spun around at Piccolo's voice. "Yes, I'd like to know that myself." Came the arrogant sneer of Vegeta. "Now hold on guys. Shouldn't we introduce ourselves first?" Came Goku's failed attempt at placating two of his allies. I shrugged and said, "It's ok. My name is Tassadar. What I did was an attack involving mental energies that I simply amplified. Normally it'd hurt like a burn from lightning or something, but for some reason it stunned those things and even blocked their ability to regenerate."

Vegeta snorted at this while Goku smiled and said, "Thanks for the help." I nodded and said, "You're welcome Goku." Krillen said, "Hey, how'd you know Goku's name?" I scratched my head, but before I could answer Goku said, "I bet you read my mind." I smiled placatingly and shrugged. Piccolo made a, "hmmm." Before turning back to the fight, during which Cell seemed to be extremely pissed and talking to Gohan.

Swallowing, I muttered, "This is bad..." Suddenly I spotted Hercule chucking Android 16's head toward the two, then running away. Would it still work? I watched as Cell crushed the head in front of Gohan's eyes. This is it. Gohan should now commence in kicking Cell's butt now... so why isn't he? Is it because of what I did?

Casting about in frustration, a sudden thought occurred to me. If it's a mental block that's keeping Gohan from unleashing his full power, isn't that my specialty? With the idea fixed in my head and before I lost my nerve, I scrambled down the cliff towards the pair, despite the shouts from the other Z fighters.

Reaching the two, Cell eyed me with distaste and said, "You pitiful worm. You dare destroy my children? Or has Goku decided to send me another fighter supposedly stronger than himself. Foolish." I shook my head and said, "No Cell. Funnily enough, I'm here to help you unlock Gohan's power. I destroyed your Cell Jr's with mental energy. I'll remove Gohan's block against his power. Then you'll have a challenge worthy of your power."

Cell considered this then out right laughed and said, "All right worm. If you can do as you say, then maybe I won't kill you... first." he smirked and I knelt in front of Gohan. He looks in even worse shape up close and I know this isn't even the worst of the injuries he's supposed to get from this fight. He groaned and said, "What are you doing?... Cell will only h-hurt you too..." I shook my head and said softly, "Relax Gohan. You have enough power to wipe Cell in the dirt and then some. I'm going to help you with that."

Quietly, I put my hand on Gohan's forehead for Cell's benefit and reached into his mind and planted images of what would've happened in the past 20 minutes if I hadn't shown up. Tears started to fall on Gohan's face, and I knew I only had mere moments before the ensuing explosion, so I stood up and ran off shouting behind me, "It's done."

Unfortunately I didn't get far enough away and the resulting blast took me off my feet and hurled me nearly a hundred feet away. Groaning, I lifted myself up on shaky limbs. Next I knew, Gohan had grabbed me and deposited me by the other Z fighters. Groaning and turning around, I witnessed the most glorious sight of Gohan slowly but surely destroying Cell.

Goku after a moment, shouted for Gohan to finish it. Gohan answered that he wouldn't and would make him suffer. I understood his position, but I knew what that would do to Goku. But if I prevented Goku's death... what would happen then? I watched as Gohan's latest punch had Cell spewing out Android 18. Making up my mind to change things, when Cell started to swell up and exclaim his victory, I pulled on Goku's arm and said, "I know you're about to transport him to King Kai's planet. Take me with you." Goku looked at me startled, but he didn't try to shake my grip on his arm and said, "Alright."

With that, I blinked as I suddenly found myself next to Cell and the energy pouring off him nearly throwing me over. grabbing hold of Cell, I shoved Goku away as he made his goodbye's and used my own newly found warping ability and using my abilities to keep some of their Earth's atmosphere in a ball around me, I deposited Cell onto a nearby habitable planet and warped back. Goku just stared at me in shock until Cell blew up, then they all looked up at the sky in even more shock. I shook my head and went over to Gohan, who I could tell was slipping in his powers.

"It's not over." I shouted to Gohan. With that shout, I sent Gohan the location of where I left Cell and what he would do to regenerate. With a grimace, Gohan quickly shouted, "Kameameha!" and the resulting blast knocked me off my feet. Nearly a minute later though proved it ineffective as Cell suddenly appeared, whole and newly reborn, with powers just a bit under Gohan's, since my warning picked his power back up again.

Cell laughed. I have to hand it to him, he has the maniacal laugh down pat. Grimacing, I said, "It's all you Gohan. Finish him." Goku then grabbed my arm and warped us over to the other Z fighters. I could no longer hear what they were saying, but their rising power levels and their sudden Kameamea waves heading towards each other had Goku grabbing me and pulling back along with the rest of the Z fighters to a safer distance.

Feeling the power pouring off of the two, I watched in amazement at the stalemate before my eyes. Quickly pulling Goku's shoulder till he bent down, I whispered, "Gohan's going to need your help as well as the other's help. You guys need to get behind Cell and hit him with all you've got while he's distracted." Goku nodded at the plan and quickly relayed it to the other Z fighters. Flying off, I braced myself to send a message to Gohan as soon as the others started their attack.

I didn't have to wait long when suddenly a bright flash of the other's combined energy's hit Cell and I sent a mental message to Gohan, "NOW Gohan! Hit him with everything you've got!" Suddenly Gohan's output energy increased incredibly, but to my shock, Cell matched it, and practically swatted the others out of the air with his energy. Crap. Did I change things too much?

The others quickly stood back up and hit Cell in the back again. Cell just swatted them down, expecting it. Praying that my attack would do the same thing to Cell like it did to the Cell Jr's, I concentrated again and sent a PSI Assault on Cell, pouring as much concentration as I could, and literally fried Cell's insides.

At first, to my horror, it didn't do anything, but then Cell's energy faltered, and Gohan overtook him, pumping even more energy out than before. Mere moments later, the blast ended and Gohan collapsed from exhaustion, and I now have a headache the size of Texas, but at least the attack worked. Casting about, I remembered a lesson from Khala training to minimize the effect of over straining your mind. Putting the discipline into effect lessened the pain considerably, and going much more slowly, I made my way over to Gohan, only to be picked up by Goku and taken the rest of the way.

As soon as we made it I said, "Thanks Goku." He smiled and said, "Don't mention it." I nodded slowly as Gohan started laughing, happy that it's finally over. Everyone else started laughing and it slowly dawned on everyone that it's finally over. Piccolo smiled down at Gohan and said, "Good job Gohan." Krillen pumped his fist and said, "Yeah! You did it kid!" I smiled at the easy atmosphere they had.

Suddenly attention shifted towards me as Gohan looked at me and got out between breaths, "Thank you for saving my Dad." I smiled and said, "No problem." Vegeta crossed his arms and said, "Yes, we're all happy with the results but that doesn't change anything. Who are you and what are you doing here?" Goku shook his head and said, "I'm curious to know that myself, but that can wait, can't it Vegeta? We have some things we still need to take care of first."

Vegeta huffed and said, "Very well. But I'm not finished with you yet boy. It seems very convenient that you just show up and seem to know all of us already." I winced and scratched the back of my head and said, "Well... that's a long story. But like Goku said, there's still things to take care of first. Is it ok if I come with?" Goku nodded and said, "Sure." I smiled and grabbing hold of him, Goku said, "Everyone grab hold." Everyone did, and we ended up getting to the Guardian's Lookout a split second later. I looked around in amazement. It's one thing to see it on TV, but actually being up here in the sky like this is amazing.

After getting some healing from Dende, Gohan came up to me with a big grin on his face and said, "Thank you. You helped me so much during that fight and you even saved my Dad... but I don't even know your name." I smiled back and said, "The name's Tassadar and you're welcome. It was my pleasure." Gohan nodded then his face grew pensive and said, "Those things you showed me... would they have really happened if you hadn't shown up?" I nodded and said, "That and more. Trust me. Your Dad wouldn't be alive right now... but in a way, that's not a good thing... I changed a whole lot by doing what I did..." Gohan asked, "Are you like Trunks from the future?"

I smiled at the convenient excuse, but I shook my head and said, "No." I'm actually from another planet called Earth. On my planet... well... how to describe this... you know those TV shows of fantasy worlds and stuff like that?" Gohan nodded and said, "Yeah." Clearly not following. I explained, "Well, on my planet, we have a TV show that follows the story about you Z fighters, starting from Goku as a kid up until quite a number of years into the future. Then the show ended after your next big fight so I don't really know what'll happen next..."

Gohan, for all the incredible things I was saying, seemed to be taking it rather well. I can't say the same for some of the others who were listening in though. Krillen was practically shouting how impossible that was. Vegeta thought I was lying. Even Piccolo looked skeptical. The only other one taking my words calmly seemed to be Goku, but even he had a look of surprise on his face.

Gohan however, seemed to pick up on the words of another fight and asked, "There's another fight coming?" I nodded and said, "Some years from now, thanks to the Cell Games, the World Martial Art's tournament will be reopened. Once there... well let's just say you run into some bad characters who make off with all of Gohan's energy in a capsule. You guys end up following them with some new allies to take down a wizard named Bobbidee, who is trying to ressurrect a monster called Majin Buu. At the time, you'd be significantly weaker than you are now Gohan, but your stolen energy would make up only a fourth of the energy required to revive Majin Buu. His strength is that massive and seemingly endless."

Gohan nodded and everyone seemed to take on a very solemn and serious air. I nodded and said, "As for saving Goku from death... that changes a lot of things. For instance, once Goku died, he would've gone on to establish himself as one of the strongest fighters in Other World, gain new training, and learn new techniques and abilities crucial to the fight against Buu, then he would come back to the living world for a day to compete in the martial arts tournament and see his family as a reward for good behavior. But now... that won't happen..."

Goku shrugged and said, "Well, this show you saw, you learned what I learned right? Can't you show me?" I thought about that and said, "I suppose I could, though I don't know how much good it'll do. I only know of two things that you learned up there that will really come in handy for the fight to come."

Goku nodded and said, "Later on, will you show them to me?" I nodded and said, "I'll try." Goku smiled and said, "Great! Now that that's settled, let's wake up Shenron so we can wish all the people Cell killed back to life!" Much enthusiasm was met with that statement, that is until it was interrupted by Android 18 waking up. The resulting argument and conversation that revealed Krillen's crush on 18 proved just as funny as the show, and I laughed along with the rest.

When 18 flew away, Dende then summoned the Dragon. I knew 18 would come back to watch, but I kept a mental eye on her anyway, or I tried to, what with the amazing sight of Shenron appearing before me. Goku gave the wish for everyone to come back to life. Everyone was at a loss about the second wish though. I knew what Krillen would wish for, and I waited for it, when I realized this would be a perfect opportunity to get some information since the Dragon didn't seem to treat questions as fulfilling wishes.

Stepping forward, I said, "I have a question for Shenron. Is that alright with you guys?" The others nodded and said, "Yeah." and "Sure." I cleared my throat and shouted, "Shenron! I need some information! Can you please tell me why I'm on this planet!?" Shenron's eyes glowed for a moment and then said, "One of the six is among you." I gaped at him, then looked around. One of the medallion holders is among the Z fighters!? I looked back up and shouted, "Who is it?" Shenron's eyes glowed again then said, "The one you're searching for is named Son Gohan." I stared at Gohan, wondering what medallion he would have as the other looked on confused.

Looking back up at Shenron, I shouted, "Thank you!" Shenron grumbled and said, "Your welcome. Now do you have a second wish? I run out of patience." I shook my head and said, "I don't, but does anyone else?" Krillen stepped forward and said, "I have one." Everyone gave Krillen the floor and he asked for the Androids to be brought back to life, got refused, asked for the androids to be made human, got refused again, then simply asked for the explosives in the androids to be removed.

The dragon then split into the Dragonballs again and they floated back down to earth. 18 promptly jumped from behind the pillar and shouted at Krillen that 17 was just her younger brother and his thoughtfulness did not make her fall over for him... "But it was a nice thing you did... thank you." and she promptly took off. I chuckled along with Goku, but then he turned back to me and said, "What was that about my son, Gohan?"

I took a deep breath and said, "This could take a bit longer to explain... maybe I should just show you when I show you the two techniques you learned?" Goku nodded and said, "Show me now then." I nodded and walking forward, and touched my fingers to Goku's forehead, even though I almost had to stand on tiptoe to do it. He obligingly leaned forward and closed his eyes and showed him the images of him going into SSJ3 and then performing the fusion technique and explaining both to his sons. Then I showed him little bits of what I'd just gone through, from the attack at home, to appearing in Hyrule, to the prophecy, and what it meant, and fighting Ganondorf, and then the issue with the Protoss and the Zerg.

Once done, I took my fingers from Goku's forehead, and he opened his eyes and didn't say anything for a moment, evidently digesting everything. Finally Goku nodded and said, "I believe everything you've shown me, and if you need it, I give my permission to have Gohan go with you." Gohan looked startled, and said, "Dad do you mean it? Should I go with him?"

Goku turned to his son and wrapped him in a hug and said, "Yes Gohan. Everything will be fine here and it shouldn't take you long to get back. With you there, what Tassadar is trying to achieve shouldn't take long at all." Piccolo stepped in saying, "Hang on. Where is Gohan going? I don't think we should just automatically trust you Tassadar, just because you can show us things inside our head, no offense."

Krillen said, "Yeah, no offense but if Gohan's going anywhere, he should have one of us going with him just in case. Gohan can handle himself of course... but still, right guys?" I shook my head and said, "I have no problem with anyone coming, but I don't know if I'm able to take more than one person with me when I warp at a time. Taking Cell while he was like that was hard enough..." Goku nodded and said, "It's alright. This seems like something only Gohan should choose anyway. Go ahead son. I think you should, but the choice is up to you."

Gohan looked between me and his Dad then said, "If it weren't for Tassadar, you wouldn't be alive right now Dad. Even if I was worried about going with him, I owe him." Gohan turned to me and said, "I'll go with you." I nodded and said, "Thank you." Goku smiled and said, "How about we have some food first before anyone goes anywhere?"

Everyone seemed very amenable to the idea, and pretty soon we all sat around a table stuffing our faces at Korin's place just below the Guardian's Lookout. I did just eat breakfast, but after fighting Cell, I ate four times as much as everyone, but only half as much as the saiyens. During the few breaks between bites, I ended up explaining the prophecy to everyone as well as a bit about the six, Hyrule, and the situation between the Zerg and Protoss.

Needless to say, it was very late when the meal finally ended. Gohan gave his Dad a hug, then said goodbye to everyone in turn, and apologized to Trunks for not seeing him off. Trunks waved it off and said it'd be alright. Then finally Gohan came up to me and said, "I'm ready." I nodded and said, "Let's go." Gohan put his hand on my shoulder, and I looked up, casting about for the tell tale path I took that brought me here in the first place. Finding it, I changed us both into energy and followed the conduit back to Hyrule.