POV - Jamall
"Jamall, I have a question for you, and depending on how you are going to answer, it could be the last... are you the one who killed all of those criminals in the last couple of days?"
I widened my eyes fractionally, for just a moment, but recovered my bearing quickly enough for me to be noticed by anyone but the most attentive observer... of course was Piccolo so it was likely that my reaction had been noticed by the Namekian.
Several thoughts crossed my mind in that split moment; what did Piccolo uncover?Did i leave some clues around? Or was it because of something else?
Of course, the most important question was: could I lie about this too?
No... in the same way that i couldn't appear to be cornered by the question, nor could i lie about it in the hope of not being found out later, because if the opposite was going to happen i would then lose the trust of the group even faster... Also, the fact that Piccolo asked about those deaths, meant that he had proofs that i was connected to them in some way, or he had at least something from which to base his suspicions, but since i didn't know what that thing was that made me suspicious, i couldn't be sure which part of the events i could omit and which ones i had to tell the truth about.
And you know it's just like Piccolo to do something like this even in Cannon.
Well played, Piccolo.
Well played
Nonetheless, i won't bend, and while coming out of this predicament with hands totally clean was pretty much impossible, i could attempt to make up a story that would lead them to see me as someone having the cleanest hands as possible in such a situation maybe I should have been reborn as Light Yagami....huh....oh well.
"Yes."
... Predictably, my answer spiked the tension in the room, as well as the hostility of some of the people there, but i was happy to notice that they were not as openly hostile as i expected them to be. Most of them seemed to expect me to provide a valid explanation for my actions first, probably deciding to reserve the final judgment on the matter once they heard the whole truth.
Playing the part of the oblivious guy misguided in his intentions of doing good could be a possible option. After all, they already knew that i was sent by his mother to save the world from evil forces, i was also "young" and "inexperienced" in the matter of good or evil, so it wouldn't be a stretch that my actions were only to make an attempt of purging evilness from the rest of the world.
It was the easy option, but it still painted me as a willing murderer, and while that was perfectly in theme with the actions of at least half of the Z Fighters, it was still bound to slow down any possible integration in the team in the eyes of the other half of them... Still, the damage was already done, so there was no turning point, but the only way for me to remain as good as possible in their eyes despite the situation, was painting it as if i did kill those criminals... because i was forced to do it.
Yea cause thats was the only truth they will ever get out of me.
"Why?"
While Piccolo question was short and direct, it wasn't as confrontational as i expected it to be... was it because the Namekian genuinely cared about the lives of those people and was simply asking to know or confirm the reasons of my actions? Or was it only because Piccolo did already suspect a possible valid reason for which i could have done it and merely wished for confirmation? Or was it simple curiosity? Man why am I were thinking this it couldn't be any of those options, but Piccolo probably suspected about a possible reason and i couldn't ask directly about what the Namekian believed those reasons to be though, or i could risk appearing even more suspicious in his and thier eyes, looking as if unable to come up with an excuse on my own and attempting to use whatever reasons they may have thought of... but there was something else i could ask, that would give me some clues about the knowledge the Namekian had, without asking for them directly.
"I'm going to answer that, but first I'm genuinely curious. You are not bound to answer if you don't want to, of course, but I have to ask... How did you find out about it?"
Asking the how and not the why, would help me understand what Piccolo did know or suspect, probably without tipping him off of his reasons for doing it. The fact that i said that the Namekian wasn't bound to answer my question if he didn't want to and that i would answer either way, also helped to cement the fact that I had no intention of hiding anything and that my question was one of mere curiosity, so there wasn't any valid reason for Piccolo to not answer my question given those premises, because whether he would answer or not, i said i was going to give him an explanation in either case. Of course, the Namekian could suspect about any of that and wouldn't answer his question regardless, but in that case, i wouldn't lose anything anyway.
And that's what I call Checkmate and just like I predicted I got my answer
"... You said you come in this timeline four years ago, and that only recently you recovered your Adult form, but didn't say anything about the way you recovered the power you had to sacrifice to being able to use the time machine... your power is now even higher than mine, so you had to find a way to recover it quickly. Also, Kami did tell me that he felt a presence in the world four years ago, but that it did lie dormant until recently. When he felt that people were dying because of it, he accepted to fuse with me to increase our power. All of this, paired with the fact that you can absorb individuals like you did with the Android in the fight that happened earlier on, is what tipped me off about such a possibility... Now answer my question: why?"
Well, Piccolo didn't have any solid proofs, if what he said was all the truth, but those were more like circumstantial shreds of evidence than anything else... still I've already chosen my path and now i have to walk it.
"Because I had no other choice."
It was the moment of truth... it came a little earlier than i expected or wished for, but it didn't matter. In the end i would have come clean anyway, because not doing so was risky for my cover: if someone among the gods, or anyone else, did know or discovered that i killed that enormous amount of people and then lied about it, and then this fact comes out later, whether or not they were criminals was going to be completely irrelevant, i would lose some, if not all, of the trust of the group, perhaps permanently... and the main reasons for that would have been that i lied about it.
I would have preferred coming clean on my own, possibly at a later time, after having achieved Perfection. In this situation tho, no one would have even attempted to give me any trouble, because doing so would be beyond stupid but that was unlikely I mean given the fact that i would have come clean on my own initiative. And would have asked for forgiveness for my crimes, playing the part of the "misguided individual" realizing only later that what he did earlier on was in fact wrong.
Sadly, that path was not possible to take anymore.
Still, my resigned tone and his answer lowered the tension in the room ever so slightly, the warriors were still on alert, but the curiosity of knowing the truth paired with the fact that i had apparently no other choice but doing that, made them pause long enough for me to think about the situation some more. Every second of thought necessary for this very moment.
"What do you mean when you said that you 'had no other choice'?" It was Master Roshi that asked the question, and while there were some traces of wariness in his expression, he seemed to be mostly curious. After all, i did admit to my actions, so he must have thought that i had what he believed to be a valid reason or i would have most likely just lied about it... or something along those lines.
I mean i could read these people like books in mere instants mainly because I've read them in books but now being here their body and facial expressions said everything about their thoughts, it was almost too easy. At this moment, they made a step back toward their first impression of me, and and they pondered on the reasons why i had been forced to do such actions, each of them coming to their own personal conclusions, deciding whether to paint me as a possible friend, a neutral ally, or perhaps an enemy.
This was the final obstacle to this integration, and if they needed a good reason, i was going to give them one.
"Exactly what I said. As you already know, the prime directive my mother gave me said that I must absorb Androids 17 and 18... there are no 'but' or 'except' in that simple fact. I HAVE TO. Sadly, having lost all of my power traveling to the past, I wasn't in any condition to do so. Androids 17 and 18 were too strong for me to even approach, and absorbing even only one of them, while being weaker than they were, would most likely not have worked, they would have teared me from the inside out... so I had to look for other means to gain energy in the shortest possible amount of time. The only weapon I had at the moment was my tail, and the only resource that was not only high in numbers, but easily found anywhere on this planet, were people."
I saw Bulma widening her eyes, as the realization that the death of hundred thousands was, at least indirectly was caused because of a mistake made by an alternate version of herself possibly making her think it was in some way kinda her fault.
I rose my right hand and placed it on her shoulder, and it was a testament to the fact that i played his cards well until that very moment, that she didn't attempt to move away from my gesture of comfort... or perhaps she was too shocked to pay attention to it, but either way, this gesture also seemed to calm the other people in the room ever so slightly. It's not like it was actually her fault cuz again I'm lying about all this but you know.
Now, that i told them the how, I'm finna hit them with the why and explain a bit. "Absorbing individuals give me a part of their energy, and there were two paths in front of me to take at that moment. I didn't want to do path one where i would hurt innocent people for my personal benefit, turning myself in the same thing I was sent here by my mother to neutralize, but my biological programming clearly said that I needed to do it in order to absorb the Androids and save those same people's lives. If I didn't gain strength quickly enough, there was a chance the people I was specifically sent here to help, which is all of you, would have been dead by the time I regained my strength using more slow and orthodox means. I was stuck on a road that separated into two different paths, so I did the only thing I could do in that situation."
Realization seemed to come upon Piccolo by the slight change or his facial expression... apparently, the Namekian didn't realize as much as Cell believed he did at first. "You followed both of those paths."
Cell nodded to the Namekian. "Yes, but I didn't want to hurt innocent people, but at the same time I needed to absorb people to defeat the Androids, so I picked the only option available to me absorbing those who weren't so innocents... I knew that it was not a good thing to do, a good path to take, but I also knew that I had no other choice but that one, or I risked not making it in time to save anyone else... Also..."
Now, it was time for something that would balance what i did, putting me in the position of someone remorseful for his actions but that knew of a way to make things better, to fix his own mistakes.
"... As I said earlier on, my mother spoke to me about some of her adventures with her friend Goku, including the fact that they hunted together the Dragon Balls that could grant any wish. I thought of absorbing those evil people as a temporary punishment for their crimes, and, once the world was saved from the threat of the Androids, I would have asked for them to be restored to life. I..."
The fact that I intended intended to use the Dragon Balls to wish the dead criminals back to life in the end, would make it harder for them to paint me as an evil being independently from the fact that the dragon balls were currently gone... which was something I wasn't supposed to know , of course. Finally, with that done, it was time for the finishing the finishing blow even something that would force them to accept my most sincere apologies, or they would be the ones in the wrong. Hold on I might be coming evil...meh whatever.
"... I know, that what I did was not right. I tried to think of other solutions, but every minute, every second that I wasted in doing so put all of your lives in danger... I tried my best."
Bulma was openly crying now, and hugged me once again man I'm not good at this , bawling her heart out. "Oh, I'm s-so sorry! It's all m-my fault! I-"
Her cries were interrupted by Master Roshi, who seemed to have come to a decision on the matter.
"Bulma, it's not your fault, you can't be made accountable of actions out of your control made by someone who was not you... Also, I believe that Jamall is already ashamed of his actions enough as it is. He did avoid to hurt innocent people, and while this do not absolve him completely of his actions, he did in fact act with the final purpose of saving us all and he also wished to restore the lives of those who died once the crisis was passed. I believe we could forgive him for his past actions, if he promise in future to consult with us before doing anything that goes against his own morals, even if it is for a 'greater good'."
The group nodded their heads in response, giving me their assurance that they didn't fault me for my past exploits, and that once the Androids were defeated, they would find some way to restore those people lives back... since the dragon balls were now gone like I didn't know. Bulma was excused for the deeds accomplished by her alternate self, quickly assured that it was not her fault, and that seemed to calm her down after a while.
I, of course had to play the part. "Thank you, Master Roshi for your kind words."
Better not going as far as to promise anything though, you never know what the future reserves... well i did know, but still.
"This is all well and good, but he failed to give us any proof whatsoever, we have only his words. How do we know he is really who he said to be?" Yamatrash had of course to be a hard-ass and try to cause me problems. Was it because Bulma hugged me twice? Did the human still have some ridiculous hope she will leave Vegeta for him? Whatever
I couldn't care less tho i did contemplate incinerating the Yamatrash on the spot, but discarded the thought because it would probably paint me as the evil guy... and there was time for planning his downfall later for now though i had to give them some proof my of word 'THANKS YAMATRASH 👍'
Fortunately, l had something that could help me in this situation, so i nodded and in response said. "Yes, my mother knew that some of you may be... distrusting, especially given my non-human nature, so she told me a couple of things that only she herself knew, and that she never told anyone else."
Bulma widened her eyes comically at that, probably having realized where i was going with it, but but because of how angry I was at Yamatrash and cuz it was funny how wide her eye have gotten I continued.
"The first thing, is something that happened at the start of her adventures with Goku, when she discovered that Master Roshi had one of the dragon balls in his possession. In exchange of it, she had to-"
"NO NO NO NO NO SHUT UP!" Bulma instantly covered my mouth with both hands helping me to also calm down my laughter, cutting me off.... of course, i allowed her to, having predicted that she would have done something like this.
Fortunately, the event seemed to distract the Z Warriors from the previous discussion, the death of some hundred thousands people seemingly forgotten in the wake of comical relief... oh man do i love the Dragon Ball.
"... Bulma?"
"Mh? What is it?"
"I believe you can uncover his mouth now." Thanks, Master Roshi.
"Oh, right."
My mouth once again free, i assumed an oblivious expression as i turned toward Bulma... i was having fun with this.
"Oh? So that couldn't be said? What about that time when my mother was sleeping and Goku-"
"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
My mouth was once again covered by her hands, even harder than before and this time it was even harder for me to hold back my laughter.
"... Bulma?"
"Mh?"
"Jamall. Mouth."
"Oh... right." Bulma moved her hands away once again, but this time she decided to stop this thing from degenerating further. "Listen, Jamall, I'm your mother, you can't go around spilling my secrets to anyone, even if I told you so in a different timeline! Got it?"
...
Is she already referring to me as her son?
...
No way was it that easy.
I was honestly caught off-guard by her words, even more so than earlier on by Piccolo's question. "Uh... yes... mother."
As Bulma nodded once again, patting me on the chest a couple of times, she turned towards the rest of the group. "If any of you is going to try to get any classified information about me or my private matters from any of my sons, I am going to kill whoever that person is... slowly... did I make myself clear?"
Of course, everyone was eager to provide their positive answers...
Following this, i was in a pretty good mood; the people in the room seemed to have already put the drama behind them, even Piccolo seemed to favorite meditation over continuing the discussion, probably because it degenerated in socialization and he wasn't good with that. Even Yamatrash seemed to have put the situation behind him at this point... not that i cared, that useless prick... I got to make a plan for him or something sooner rather than later.
Just as i was thinking on a way to off him without gathering suspicions on myself, a scream came from upstairs.
"GOKU!"
... Apparently, someone was back on his feet.