DBZ X-Readers, Vol. 2

Cell x Reader Pt. 2 'The Female'

It'd been a year, and things were...well, not that much different. The thing that Gero was calling Cell was growing at a surprising rate, and in this time had increased to the size of what you'd guess was a child of six or seven. Everything was proportioned correctly, and his vitals remained as stable as ever.

You'd dealt with everything as well as you could. Gero'd done a few more experiments on you and you were finding to your disgust that the tail was taking up a little more of your back and had gotten a little bit longer. Your skin's green tinge had gone from a sickly shade to a darker one. And the spots...well, they'd spread.

Every time you looked in the mirror, all you saw was a monster.

But you went on. There were the stars (you'd always loved watching them, and astronomy was one of the few hobbies Gero seemed to allow you to have). Oddly, you'd been allowed to convert an empty room into a hydroponics bay of sorts, and pretty soon you had all kinds of food growing. Considering the rocky landscape outside, this was your best option--he'd said this would cut down on his need to leave the lab. You shook your head. As unethical and evil as he was, he was still a scientist at heart. If he didn't have to leave the lab, he never would.

Funny, you thought--you went through school for what would ultimately end up as being a scientific nanny/glorified housekeeping job.

As Cell began to get bigger, though, Gero made a new demand: your blood. Until Cell was physically able to leave the tank, he needed more sustenance than what he had been getting, and this was one of the ways to get it to him. Despite the fact that he seemed to have more than enough blood from...wherever the hell he was getting his supplies, Gero continued to approach you every nine weeks for this little "donation."

Time went on.

You spent more time around Cell's tank, continuously checking on his vitals and so forth. As he grew, you noted the similarities between the modifications Gero'd made to you, and the way he was developing. It took a while, but finally, it clicked--he hadn't been doing this to you merely out of some malicious cruelty (well, that was probably part of the reason, but still), he'd been doing it to test things out on you before he moved on to use them on Cell. You weren't just being changed for the sake of changing, you were the guinea pig to see if these things would work on his growth of a new being.

It was small comfort, but anymore you got that where you could.

Another year. Cell continued to thrive and was now nearly the size of a grown man, and Gero strangely seemed to be in a far better mood than he usually was. You wondered what innocent life he'd snuffed out to be radiating smug happiness like that.

You sat down across from the tank with your labcoat off and your tail draped across your knees as you stuck the needle into the vein in your arm and let the process of collecting the allotted portion of blood go on. When it was over you shut the thing off, removed the needle and put a bandage over the tiny wound.

And then, suddenly, you heard a rattling sound. A few seconds went by, then thirty, then a minute...it wasn't letting up.

It wasn't mechanical in nature--at least, you didn't think so. In fact, it sounded a little bit muffled. You stood up wearily, and munched on the Snickers bar you'd brought in to help you recover from the blood loss. You double-checked the input areas of the nutritional system Gero had set up for Cell, and all around the room, until finally, you wandered back over to the tank itself and looked up.

He was looking at you. Cell's eyes were open and he was looking at you.

And it was from him that the rattling sound was emanating.

You could see his tail flexing, just as yours had, and his head tilted very briefly when you raised your tail--taking it in your hands to show him. You wanted him to realize that you were a safe person and that there was no need to fear you. Not that you were the same, but that...well, you weren't sure, exactly, but you wanted him to trust you. The rattling continued.

What on earth was that about? Was it his only means of communication? Perhaps he was capable of speaking, but chose not to. Or perhaps he was listening to Gero's recordings and saw you as being unworthy of speaking to. But you hadn't heard Gero saying that he'd spoke...

He raised one of his hands to touch the glass and the rattling got even louder--and then suddenly stopped. The lab door had opened, and Gero was heading towards you, buttoning up his labcoat.

Why had it stopped?

"Have you finished up yet?" he asked.

"No," you said quickly, "There was a weird noise from the console and I was checking it out. A key was loose, that's all."

"Good," he replied, glancing up at Cell--who'd shut his eyes. "Go ahead and get it into the nutrient system."

"Alright."

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The rattling sound kept coming back--sometimes you could be across the room and he'd start it up, then it would get quieter as you came closer. As the next year wound on he seemed to watch you constantly. You felt like you were making real progress--or at least as much as you could feel that, seeing as how he wasn't able to speak or really communicate at the moment outside of that noise.

And then one afternoon, as you were switching one of your five minute recordings (Danse Macabre...or rather, most of it) in over Gero's lectures, the man himself walked into the lab.

Your pulse quickened and you walked over quickly. "Is there anything you need help with, doctor?"

"No," he replied, "And yes. I want you to remain down here with him for the next day. I have something extremely delicate to work on in the upper lab and I don't wish to be contaminating the results with too many hands."

You just nodded. You could do that. You had a cot in a supply room and of course you kept food down here as well, so there'd be no issues with keeping yourself occupied and fed and such. Privately you wondered what he was doing that required so much secrecy, but...prying would do you no good.

He left. For an hour or two there were no sounds outside of the norm, which had changed to include Cell's rattle. You were heading to the supply room for a nap when you heard the first of several explosions.

You moved under a doorway, and wondered what the hell was going on. But before you could react any further, the next one kicked off. There were raised voices. Yelling. Yet another explosion.

Aside from everything being shaken down here, though, it was all fine. Everything that could possibly fall over near Cell was bolted down in any way possible.

You hardly dared to make a noise, but after the last explosion the voices' yelling stopped, and there was silence again.

It wasn't until the next day that you were able to gather the courage to see what all the commotion had been about. You went to the upper lab...

The front doors were gone. Absolutely gone.

"Doctor?" you called out.

Nothing. No reprimands for coming up earlier than expected, none for doing so late...there was simply no reply to be heard.

You looked around the room further, wondering if someone had found him out. But if that were the case, wouldn't this place be swarming with agents or cops or who knew what else? You noticed one thing for sure, though--17 and 18's pods were empty.

Finally, though, you found Gero.

Or at least...pieces of him.