Clinging to the Past (a DBZ fanfic)

Ch. 21 - Minor Change In Plans

Long A/N, sorry.

So! The Cell Games are finally here with the final battle! This took me a while to figure out, but once I got to it, it mostly just came to me and spilled from my fingertips, with help from the manga as a reference. The reason this took as long as it did was because I wanted to get the whole final battle written down before posting any chapters for it, since I really wasn't sure how it was going to go down and I wanted to be able to make changes should I find them necessary. And, what do you know, I did. Several times. But I've gotten it down!

So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna post the chapters I have written once per day until I run out (there's, like, five? In total?) though some may come in pairs, like these first two since one was a bonus chapter of the past.

Don't be afraid to ask questions or mention some inconsistency, I'm honestly kind of expecting some confusion. Just because I refrained from posting chapters to keep things most consistent, doesn't mean I did a very good job of it.

Oh, and one more thing, as a warning.

Mirai's not nice here. Like, almost at all.

Hope you enjoy!

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"A-Are you?! Mirai, tell me you aren't-" Trunks was growing frustrated with Mirai's lack of a response as she kept her gaze glued to Goku. 

Below them all, Goku stood confident as he spoke to Cell. "The Cell Game will probably end this next match. Because if one of them can't beat you, no one else will be able to."

"'One of them'?! Who exactly is he talking about? I can't stand the suspense!" Krillin stammered as he stared down at his friend, his words gaining Trunks' attention.

"'One of them'...?" He pondered out loud, trying to narrow it down to figure out who was going to fight. That was when he remembered, Gohan and Gonan were usually referred to like that, quite a lot actually. Perhaps that was just how it was in his world seeing as they were all there was left to fight the androids for a long while, but he couldn't help but feel that he was right. He looked towards the twins and disbelief as he had pieced things together, uttering "No..."

"They won't be going to fight Cell." Mirai finally gave some sort of response, gaining Trunks' attention again. "I won't let them."

"But..."

"But I know," Goku had continued down below. "After trying my hand against you... that one of them can beat you."

He had more of an opinion on Gohan's strength since he trained with him in the Room of Spirit and Time. Odds were, Goku was going to send Gohan to go fight Cell.

"That's why I'm leaving it all to hi-"

"I'm facing you next, Cell!" Mirai declared quickly as she heard the dreaded 'him' that was about to leave Goku's mouth. "Right, dad?!"

Goku flinched at the tone that was remarkably similar to Chi-Chi's in that moment, and slowly looked to Mirai with wide and mildly frightened eyes. He flinched once more as he saw the threatening look on her face, also reminiscent of Chi-Chi's and choose to look at a very interesting rock formation instead.