The assault on Dr. Gero's laboratory was supposed to be a carefully coordinated strike.
Key word: supposed.
Danny had spent weeks helping the Z-Fighters plan this operation. Reconnaissance missions. Energy mapping. Strategic discussions that went late into the night. They had identified entry points, analyzed defensive systems, and developed contingencies for every scenario they could imagine.
It was, by any reasonable measure, the most prepared they had ever been for anything.
And then Vegeta happened.
"I'm going in," the Saiyan Prince announced, approximately thirty seconds after they arrived at the mountain range containing Gero's hidden laboratory.
"Vegeta, we have a PLAN—" Piccolo started.
"The plan is for cowards. I am the Prince of all Saiyans. I do not SNEAK."
"That's not what sneaking—you know what, fine. FINE. Go ahead. Get yourself killed. See if I care."
"I won't be killed. I'll destroy everything in that laboratory and prove once and for all that no android can match Saiyan might!"
Vegeta blasted toward the mountain before anyone could stop him.
Danny-as-Zwart watched him go with a mixture of exasperation and amusement.
"Should we follow him?" Gohan asked.
"Unfortunately, yes," Piccolo sighed. "Someone needs to keep him from getting murdered."
"I thought you said you didn't care?"
"I lied."
The Z-Fighters took off after Vegeta, their carefully constructed plan already in shambles.
Danny followed, already mentally preparing for chaos.
Dr. Gero's laboratory was impressive, Danny had to admit.
Hidden inside a hollowed-out mountain, protected by energy barriers and automated defense systems, it was exactly the kind of evil scientist lair you'd expect from a man who had dedicated his life to revenge.
Vegeta had already punched through the main entrance by the time the others arrived.
"COME OUT AND FACE ME, GERO!" the Prince was screaming. "YOUR MACHINES ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO A TRUE WARRIOR!"
"He's going to die," Krillin observed.
"Probably," Goku agreed cheerfully.
"Should we help him?"
"Probably."
The Z-Fighters entered the laboratory, spreading out to search for threats. Danny hung back, his senses extended, trying to get a feel for what they were dealing with.
He could sense them. The androids. Two of them, dormant but present, their artificial life forces humming with potential energy.
And something else.
Something deeper in the mountain.
Something growing.
"Cell," Danny murmured to himself. "Still here. Still developing."
That was both good and bad. Good because it meant Cell wasn't at full power yet. Bad because any fight in this laboratory might accelerate his development—or worse, wake him up early.
They needed to be careful.
Which meant, of course, that everything was about to go horribly wrong.
Dr. Gero had not survived the destruction of the Red Ribbon Army by being unprepared.
When the Z-Fighters invaded his laboratory, he was ready.
"Android 17, Android 18—ACTIVATE!"
Two pods hissed open, revealing the androids within. A young man with black hair and cold eyes. A young woman with blonde hair and an expression of bored superiority.
They looked human. They looked harmless.
Danny knew better.
"Oh," Android 17 said, stretching languidly, "we have visitors. How fun."
"Kill them," Gero commanded. "Kill them all."
17 turned to look at the old scientist with an expression of mild contempt.
"You know, I've been thinking about that. And I've decided... no."
"WHAT?!"
"We're not your toys, old man. We never were. You built us to be weapons, but you forgot to install an off switch for our free will."
"I am your CREATOR! You will OBEY—"
Android 18 moved.
One moment she was standing by her pod. The next moment, Dr. Gero's head was rolling across the laboratory floor.
"He talked too much," she said simply.
Silence fell over the laboratory.
The Z-Fighters stared at the androids. The androids stared back.
"So," 17 said conversationally, "you're the famous Z-Fighters. The ones Gero was so obsessed with destroying. I have to say, I expected you to be taller."
"They just killed their creator," Krillin whispered. "They killed him like it was nothing."
"We should leave," Piccolo said, his voice tight. "Get out of here. Regroup."
"Leave?" Vegeta laughed. "Why would we leave? They're just machines! I'll destroy them myself!"
"Vegeta, DON'T—"
Too late.
The fight between Vegeta and the androids lasted approximately four minutes.
In that time, Vegeta went Super Saiyan, unleashed his most powerful attacks, and demonstrated the full might of Saiyan warrior pride.
Android 18 broke his arm.
"Is that it?" she asked, holding the screaming Prince by his shattered limb. "Is that really all you've got?"
"RELEASE ME, YOU MACHINE BITCH!"
"Such language. I thought princes were supposed to be refined."
She tossed him aside like garbage, turning to face the other Z-Fighters with an expression of mild boredom.
"Anyone else want to try? Or can we go now? I want to find some new clothes. These hospital gowns are so last decade."
Danny watched this scene unfold and felt a strange mixture of emotions.
On one hand, seeing Vegeta get humiliated was kind of satisfying. The Prince had been insufferably arrogant ever since Danny had started training with the Z-Fighters, and a lesson in humility was long overdue.
On the other hand, the androids were clearly more powerful than he'd anticipated. They were toying with the Z-Fighters, not even trying, and they were still winning decisively.
This was bad.
But also...
Danny looked at the chaos around him—Vegeta broken on the ground, the other Z-Fighters tensing for a battle they couldn't win, the androids casually demonstrating their superiority—and felt something unexpected.
An urge.
A terrible, irresponsible, absolutely Danny urge.
The urge to make things even MORE chaotic.
"This is a bad idea," he told himself.
The urge grew stronger.
"This is a REALLY bad idea."
Stronger still.
"Screw it."
Danny dropped his Zwart transformation.
For one brief moment, he was a small child standing in the middle of a warzone. Then he reached for a different door.
A MUCH different door.
And everything went to hell.
The Z-Fighters felt it first.
A surge of energy unlike anything they had ever experienced. Not ki—something else. Something that felt like reality itself was being rewritten, like the fundamental laws of the universe were being temporarily suspended to make room for something that shouldn't exist.
"What—" Piccolo started.
Then the light hit them.
Blinding, overwhelming, a mixture of pure white and absolute black that seemed to contain every color that had ever existed and several that hadn't. It erupted from the spot where Omnimon Zwart had been standing, filling the laboratory with impossible radiance.
Even the androids paused, their expressions shifting from boredom to genuine surprise.
"What is that?" Android 17 asked, shielding his eyes. "What's happening?"
"I don't know," 18 admitted. "But I don't like it."
The light began to take shape.
Danny had transformed into many things since arriving in the Dragon Ball universe.
Omnimon. Omnimon Zwart. Beelzemon. Various Greymon evolutions. A handful of other forms he'd tested in private.
But he had never gone this far.
Lucemon: Chaos Mode.
One of the most powerful Digimon in existence. A fallen angel who had once ruled the Digital World as a god. A being of twelve wings—six of light, six of darkness—who embodied the duality of creation itself.
And Danny was becoming him.
His body expanded, transformed, became something that transcended mere physical form. Wings erupted from his back—radiant white on one side, abyssal black on the other. His face became beautiful and terrible, angelic and demonic, a visage that inspired worship and terror in equal measure.
Power flooded through him. Not just strength, but AUTHORITY. The fundamental certainty that he was MEANT to rule, MEANT to command, MEANT to reshape reality according to his will.
It was intoxicating.
It was terrifying.
It was exactly what Danny needed to completely derail this situation.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Krillin screamed.
The being that had emerged from the light was unlike anything the Z-Fighters had ever seen.
Twelve wings spread wide, filling the laboratory with their span. A humanoid form floated at their center, simultaneously masculine and feminine, beautiful and horrifying. Its eyes—one golden, one crimson—surveyed the assembled beings with an expression of divine amusement.
"Hello," Danny-as-Lucemon said, his voice resonating on frequencies that made reality itself vibrate. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything important."
"Zwart?" Goku asked, his head tilted in confusion. "Is that you?"
"Zwart? No, no. Zwart is... how shall I put this... a colleague. We serve similar purposes, but we are not the same being."
"Then who ARE you?!"
Danny spread his arms wide, his wings catching nonexistent wind.
"I am Lucemon. The Morning Star. The Pride of the Digital World. The First and Greatest of all who dwell in that realm."
He paused for effect.
"I am, in essence, a god."
Silence.
Complete and utter silence.
Then Vegeta, still clutching his broken arm, started laughing.
"A god?" he wheezed. "Another being claiming to be a GOD? This is absurd! How many 'gods' does the universe HAVE?!"
"More than you might think, Saiyan Prince. But that's a discussion for another time."
Danny turned his attention to the androids, who were watching him with expressions of wary interest.
"And you two. The artificial humans. Created by a madman to destroy, now freed from his control. How... fascinating."
"We don't know who you are," Android 17 said, his casual demeanor replaced by careful assessment, "but you're clearly powerful. Are you a threat?"
"A threat? That depends entirely on your perspective."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means," Danny said, floating down to their level, "that I am neither your enemy nor your ally. I am simply... here. Observing. Interfering when it amuses me."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"No. It doesn't."
Danny smiled, and the expression on Lucemon's face was equal parts beautiful and unsettling.
"Tell me, artificial ones—what do you know of the Digital World?"
The question caught everyone off guard.
"The Digital World?" Android 18 repeated. "What's that? Some kind of virtual reality?"
"In a sense. But also so much more."
Danny gestured, and suddenly the laboratory's walls seemed to fall away. In their place appeared a vision—a vast, impossible landscape of islands floating in an endless sky, of forests made of data, of oceans that flowed with pure information.
"The Digital World is a realm parallel to your own," Danny explained, his voice taking on the tone of a patient teacher. "It exists in the space between thoughts, in the electrical impulses of your machines, in the fundamental code that underlies reality itself."
"That's... not possible," Bulma said, having arrived at some point during the chaos. "There's no scientific basis for—"
"Your science is limited, Dr. Briefs. Brilliant within its scope, but blind to what lies beyond. The Digital World has existed since the first beings in your universe developed the capacity for abstract thought. It grows when you dream, expands when you imagine, strengthens when you create."
The vision shifted, showing creatures. Digimon. All manner of shapes and sizes, from tiny blobs of data to massive dragons, from angelic beings to demonic horrors.
"Within the Digital World dwell beings called Digimon—Digital Monsters. We are born from the accumulated data of countless worlds, shaped by the beliefs and imaginations of organic beings. We evolve, we fight, we die, we are reborn. It is our nature."
"So you're saying," Piccolo said slowly, "that beings from this 'Digital World' have been coming to our universe?"
"Not quite. We have been... drawn here. Something about your reality creates resonance with our own. Certain Digimon have found themselves pulled across the dimensional barrier, manifesting in your world."
"Beings like Omnimon," Goku realized. "And Zwart. And Beelzemon."
"Precisely. And others. We are not invaders—we did not choose to come here. But now that we are here, we must find our own purposes."
Danny was enjoying himself immensely.
This was the most elaborate lore dump he had ever delivered, and he was making most of it up on the spot. The Digital World did exist in Digimon canon, of course, but its connection to the Dragon Ball universe was entirely his invention.
Still, the Z-Fighters were buying it.
And the androids seemed genuinely curious.
"So you're... data?" Android 17 asked. "Like us?"
"In a sense. Though your data is fixed, programmed. Ours is fluid, evolving. We change and grow in ways your creator could never have imagined."
"And you're really a god? In your world?"
"I was. Once. Long ago, before the Great Fall."
Danny's expression shifted into something melancholic—a performance, but a convincing one.
"In the ancient days, I ruled the Digital World as its sovereign. I brought order to chaos, peace to conflict. Under my guidance, Digimon flourished."
"What happened?" Gohan asked, apparently forgetting that they were in the middle of an enemy laboratory.
"Pride. My own pride. I became convinced that my vision was the only correct one, that any who disagreed were simply too limited to understand. I sought to reshape the Digital World according to my will alone, without consent or compromise."
Danny spread his wings wider, the light and dark sides seeming to war with each other.
"I was challenged. Defeated. Cast down from my throne and sealed away for eons. When I finally emerged, I was... changed. Humbled. Though perhaps not as much as I should have been."
He laughed, and the sound was beautiful and terrible.
"The Lucemon you see before you is not the tyrant of old. But neither am I the benevolent ruler I once believed myself to be. I am something in between. Something still figuring out what I want to become."
Vegeta, who had managed to prop himself up against a wall, interrupted the mythology lesson with characteristic grace.
"This is all very fascinating," he spat, "but we came here to DESTROY THE ANDROIDS, not listen to bedtime stories about imaginary worlds!"
"Imaginary?" Danny turned to face him, one eyebrow raised. "Prince of a dead race, you of all beings should know that imagination and reality are not as separate as you believe."
"What's THAT supposed to mean?!"
"It means that your entire species was reduced to a handful of survivors because your king imagined he could trust Frieza. It means that you imagined yourself to be the strongest in the universe, right until someone stronger came along. It means that reality is shaped by belief, and your beliefs have consistently proven... inadequate."
Vegeta's face turned purple with rage.
"I'll KILL you—"
"With what? Your broken arm? Your shattered pride? You couldn't defeat these androids, and they are CHILDREN compared to what I am."
Danny floated higher, his wings spreading to their full span.
"Know your place, Prince. You are not the apex predator here. You never were."
The laboratory trembled. The very air seemed to thicken with Lucemon's presence, pressing down on everyone like a physical weight.
Then Danny relaxed, and the pressure vanished.
"But that's not why I'm here," he said, his tone shifting back to casual amusement. "I didn't come to fight you. I came because I sensed something in this mountain that concerns me."
"The other signature," Piccolo said. "The one that's been growing. That's what you're here for?"
"Indeed. There is something in the depths of this laboratory. Something that does not belong in either your world or mine. Something that, if allowed to mature, could threaten both."
"Cell," Bulma whispered.
"Is that what it's called? An appropriately simple name for a monstrously complex creation."
Danny descended toward the deeper levels of the laboratory, and after a moment's hesitation, the others followed.
The androids came too, apparently more curious than hostile.
"Why are you helping them?" Android 18 asked, falling into step beside Danny. "I thought you said you weren't their ally."
"I'm not. But the thing in this laboratory is a threat to everything—including me. Self-interest is a powerful motivator."
"At least you're honest about it."
"I find deception tedious. It's so much easier to simply tell uncomfortable truths."
They descended through layers of the mountain, past abandoned experiments and forgotten projects, until they reached a massive chamber at the very bottom.
And there, suspended in a vat of bubbling liquid, was Cell.
The creature was horrifying.
Even in its incomplete state, Danny could see what it would become. A bio-mechanical nightmare, composed of the genetic material of the universe's greatest warriors. Saiyan cells, Namekian cells, Frieza's cells—all merged into something that should never have existed.
"What IS that thing?" Krillin asked, his voice shaking.
"Dr. Gero's ultimate creation," Danny replied. "A being designed to evolve indefinitely, to absorb other life forms and add their power to its own. In its current state, it's relatively weak. But if it were to absorb, say, these two androids..."
He gestured toward 17 and 18.
"...it would become something capable of destroying this entire solar system."
The androids exchanged glances.
"It absorbs people?" 17 asked, looking at the creature with new wariness. "And we're specifically on the menu?"
"You were designed to be compatible. Gero created you, at least in part, to serve as fuel for this thing's evolution. Isn't that ironic? The weapons meant to destroy Goku were also meant to become food for an even greater weapon."
"That old bastard," 18 muttered. "Even dead, he's still trying to screw us over."
"So we destroy it," Vegeta said, having limped down with the others. "Simple. One blast and it's gone."
"Not that simple," Danny countered. "The creature has regenerative abilities derived from Piccolo's cellular template. Destroying it requires complete and total annihilation—not a single cell can remain, or it will regenerate."
"Then we annihilate it completely. What's the problem?"
"The problem is that this laboratory is filled with genetic samples, backup data, and fail-safes designed to recreate Cell if the primary specimen is destroyed. To truly eliminate this threat, we would need to destroy the entire mountain—and possibly a significant portion of the surrounding countryside."
"So we do that," Goku said, as if it were obvious.
"And the people living in the nearby villages? The wildlife? The ecosystem that depends on this region?"
Goku paused. "Oh. Right. Collateral damage."
"Precisely."
Danny was having fun, but he was also genuinely trying to help.
The thing was, he COULD destroy Cell right now. Lucemon Chaos Mode had the power to annihilate the laboratory and everything in it, precisely and completely. It would be easy.
But where was the fun in that?
The Android Saga was supposed to be a challenge for the Z-Fighters. A growth opportunity. A chance for them to push beyond their limits and become stronger than ever before.
If Danny just solved all their problems for them, they'd never develop the strength they needed for future threats.
So instead of destroying Cell himself, Danny was going to do something much more annoying.
He was going to TEACH them.
"The solution," Danny announced, "is not brute force. It's precision. The creature must be destroyed in a way that eliminates all possibility of regeneration, while minimizing damage to the surrounding area."
"And how do we do that?" Piccolo asked.
"That depends on you. What techniques do you have that could achieve total annihilation on a cellular level?"
"I... don't know."
"Then you should probably figure it out. I'd suggest starting with energy attacks that can disintegrate matter completely, rather than simply destroying it. There's a difference, you know."
"Are you going to help or just lecture?"
Danny smiled.
"I'm going to supervise. Consider it a learning experience."
The next few hours were an exercise in frustration for the Z-Fighters and entertainment for Danny.
They tried various attacks on Cell's containment vat. Ki blasts. Energy beams. Physical strikes. Each time, Danny would observe, comment on what they were doing wrong, and suggest improvements.
"More focus on the energy dispersion. You want to break down the molecular bonds, not just push them apart."
"That technique has promise, but you're losing coherence at the edges. The cells on the periphery are surviving."
"Better! But still not complete. I can sense regeneration beginning at the micro-level."
It was like a very violent science lesson.
The androids, meanwhile, had settled against a wall to watch.
"This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen," 17 commented.
"A god from another dimension teaching martial artists how to vaporize a monster," 18 agreed. "It's definitely different from what I expected when I woke up this morning."
"What DID you expect?"
"Honestly? Murder and mayhem. Maybe some light destruction."
"There's still time."
"True."
Eventually, Goku figured it out.
"What if we combine our attacks?" he suggested. "Like, layer them on top of each other? My Kamehameha for power, Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon for precision, and... uh..."
"And Gohan's Masenko for coverage," Danny finished. "Yes. That could work. The three techniques, properly synchronized, should create a composite attack capable of total cellular annihilation."
"Really?!"
"If you execute it correctly. Which is not guaranteed."
"Let's try it!"
The three warriors positioned themselves around Cell's containment vat. Danny floated above them, his twelve wings spread wide, observing with genuine interest.
"On my mark," Goku said. "Three... two... one... FIRE!"
"KAMEHAMEHA!"
"SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!"
"MASENKO!"
The three attacks merged in mid-air, forming a spiraling beam of destructive energy that hit Cell's vat with impossible precision.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the vat exploded.
Not in fire and destruction—in light. Pure, brilliant light that spread through the liquid, through Cell's incomplete body, through every cell and every strand of DNA.
When the light faded, there was nothing left. Not a trace of the creature that would have become the universe's greatest threat.
"Did it work?" Krillin asked nervously.
Danny extended his senses, searching for any sign of Cell's continued existence.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
"It worked," Danny confirmed. "The creature is destroyed. Completely and utterly."
The Z-Fighters cheered. Goku and Gohan high-fived. Even Piccolo allowed himself a small smile.
"Now," Danny continued, "we just need to destroy the backup systems, the genetic samples, and the automated reconstruction protocols."
The cheering stopped.
"The what?"
"Did you think Gero would create something like this without redundancies? There are at least three backup systems capable of recreating Cell from stored data. We need to find and destroy them all."
Goku's expression fell. "That sounds like a lot of work."
"It is. I suggest you get started."
The cleanup took another six hours.
Danny directed the Z-Fighters through the laboratory, pointing out hidden data banks and concealed genetic storage facilities. Each one was destroyed with the same combination technique that had eliminated Cell.
By the end, the entire laboratory was a smoking ruin.
"Finally," Vegeta groaned, his arm having been treated by a Senzu Bean at some point during the process. "It's over."
"Not quite," Danny said.
"WHAT NOW?!"
"Now we discuss what to do about them."
Danny pointed at the androids, who had been watching the cleanup with expressions of mild interest.
"They killed their creator and expressed no interest in the mission they were built for. But they're still incredibly powerful and potentially dangerous."
Android 17 raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting they kill us?"
"I'm raising the question. What ARE you going to do, now that you're free?"
The siblings exchanged glances.
"We hadn't really thought about it," 18 admitted. "Gero woke us up, we killed him, you all showed up, and now we're here. It's been a busy day."
"So you have no plans? No agenda? No burning desire for vengeance or destruction?"
"Honestly? I just want to find some decent clothes and maybe see what the world looks like. We've been asleep for years."
"And you?" Danny asked 17.
"Same, I guess. Drive around. See sights. Maybe find some strong opponents to fight. That programming's still in there somewhere."
Danny nodded slowly.
"In that case, I have a suggestion."
The suggestion was simple: the androids would be given a chance.
They hadn't asked to be created. They hadn't chosen their purpose. Now that they were free, they deserved the opportunity to decide their own fates.
"But," Danny added, "if they cause problems—if they hurt innocent people or threaten the peace of this world—I will personally ensure they are destroyed. And I will not be as... gentle as the Z-Fighters might be."
"Fair enough," 17 said. "We're not interested in destroying the world anyway. That sounds boring."
"Agreed," 18 nodded. "What's the point of destruction? You can't enjoy nice things if everything's ruined."
"Then we have an understanding."
Piccolo looked like he wanted to object, but Goku spoke first.
"I think that's a great idea! They don't seem evil to me. Just... confused. Maybe we can be friends!"
"Friends?" 18 repeated incredulously. "We just broke your ally's arm."
"Yeah, but he was being rude. I probably would have too."
"HEY!" Vegeta protested.
"What? It's true!"
The group emerged from the ruins of Dr. Gero's laboratory as the sun was setting.
It had been, by any measure, an extremely long day. They had invaded a villain's lair, witnessed the death of said villain, fought his creations, destroyed a bio-engineered monster, dismantled a laboratory full of dangerous experiments, and reached a tentative peace with beings who had been designed to kill them.
Danny was exhausted.
Maintaining the Lucemon form for this long was draining, even for him. The power of the Chaos Mode was immense, but it came with a mental strain that was starting to wear on him.
He needed to leave. To rest. To return to his normal life before anyone noticed he'd been gone for almost twelve hours.
"I believe my work here is done," Danny announced. "The immediate threat is eliminated. The androids have agreed to... behave. My presence is no longer required."
"Wait," Goku said. "I still have questions! About the Digital World and Digimon and—"
"Another time, Son Goku. I have other matters to attend to."
"But—"
"ANOTHER TIME."
Danny's voice resonated with divine authority, and even Goku fell silent.
"We will meet again," Danny promised. "This universe has become... interesting to me. I will be watching."
He began to rise into the air, his twelve wings carrying him upward.
"And if you're wondering about Omnimon, and Zwart, and Beelzemon—we are all part of the same order. The same purpose. We protect, we guide, we interfere when necessary. Consider us... guardians."
"Guardians of what?" Piccolo asked.
Danny smiled.
"Of everything. And nothing. Whichever is more amusing at the time."
And with that cryptic non-answer, he vanished in a burst of light and shadow.
The Z-Fighters stood in the ruins of the laboratory, staring at the empty sky.
"So," Krillin said finally, "that happened."
"Another one," Vegeta growled. "ANOTHER impossibly powerful being from that Digital World. How many are there?!"
"Lucemon, Omnimon, Zwart, Beelzemon," Gohan counted off on his fingers. "That's four now. At least."
"And they're all 'guardians' who 'interfere when necessary.' What does that even MEAN?"
"I think it means they help us when they feel like it and disappear when they don't," Piccolo said sourly.
"That's not helpful!"
"I didn't say it was helpful. I said it was what they do."
Goku, as usual, had a more optimistic take.
"I think they're cool! They keep showing up and making things more interesting! And that Lucemon guy taught us a new technique! That was really useful!"
"The technique that only works when three of us attack together?"
"Yeah! We should practice it more! Maybe we can make it even stronger!"
Piccolo sighed. Sometimes Goku's relentless positivity was exhausting.
But also, maybe he had a point.
The Digital World entities—whatever they really were—had consistently acted in ways that helped Earth. Omnimon killed Frieza. Zwart trained with them. Beelzemon... well, Beelzemon mostly just showed up to fight, but he hadn't hurt anyone.
And now Lucemon had guided them through destroying Cell before it could become a threat.
Maybe they really were guardians.
Or maybe they were playing some longer game that none of them could see.
Either way, there wasn't much the Z-Fighters could do about it except get stronger and hope for the best.
"Let's go home," Piccolo said. "We've done what we came to do. Gero is dead. Cell is destroyed. The androids are... handled. For now."
"And my arm is healed!" Vegeta added, flexing experimentally.
"Yes. Congratulations on that."
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"
"Nothing. Let's go."
Danny landed on his thinking island about an hour later, finally releasing the Lucemon transformation.
He collapsed on the sand as a small child, breathing heavily, completely drained.
"Okay," he gasped. "Note to self. Lucemon Chaos Mode for twelve hours straight is TOO MUCH."
His entire body ached. His mind felt like it had been put through a blender. The power of the Demon Lord form was incredible, but maintaining it was like trying to hold the sun in his hands.
But he'd done it. He'd guided the Z-Fighters through the Android Saga—or at least, this version of it—without revealing his true identity. He'd eliminated Cell. He'd established peace with the androids.
And he'd given the Z-Fighters a comprehensive (if slightly fabricated) explanation for all the Digital World entities they'd been encountering.
Now they thought Omnimon, Zwart, Beelzemon, and Lucemon were all separate beings from the same dimension. Four different guardians with four different personalities, all working together (sort of) to protect the universe.
Danny's secret identity was more secure than ever.
And also more complicated than ever.
But that was fine. He was getting good at juggling multiple personas.
The next few weeks passed peacefully.
The Z-Fighters trained, preparing for threats that might or might not come. The androids wandered off to explore the world, apparently content to just... exist. And Danny returned to his normal routine—orphanage by day, Digimon transformations by night.
He appeared as Zwart occasionally, maintaining that identity. He showed up as Beelzemon once or twice, just to keep things interesting.
He did NOT appear as Lucemon again. Once was enough.
But the mythology he'd created—the Digital World, the Digimon, the guardians—had taken on a life of its own.
Bulma, apparently intrigued by the concept, had begun researching the theoretical possibility of parallel digital dimensions. Her preliminary findings suggested that such a realm COULD exist, which only reinforced the Z-Fighters' belief in Danny's fabricated lore.
Gohan had started keeping a journal of all the Digimon encounters, trying to piece together the relationships between the different entities. His notes were impressively detailed and completely wrong.
Even Vegeta had been affected, though he would never admit it. The Prince had started training with renewed intensity, determined to become strong enough to challenge these "digital beings" and prove Saiyan superiority.
Danny, watching all of this unfold, felt a complicated mixture of pride and guilt.
He'd created something. A mythology. A belief system. A framework through which the Z-Fighters understood his various appearances and interventions.
It wasn't TRUE, exactly. But it wasn't entirely FALSE either. The Digital World DID exist—in fiction, in his memories, in the power he wielded. And Digimon WERE real—at least, as real as anything else in this universe.
Danny was just... connecting dots that hadn't originally been connected.
Creating meaning where there had been none.
Wasn't that what gods did?
Three months after the laboratory assault, something unexpected happened.
Danny was at the orphanage, eating dinner, when he felt a familiar sensation.
Power levels. Converging. Moving toward Earth at incredible speed.
But not hostile. Not threatening.
FAMILIAR.
Danny excused himself, transformed into Zwart, and flew toward the source.
What he found surprised him.
The Omnimon copy—the one Danny had created during his "fight himself" escapade—was descending through Earth's atmosphere.
But he wasn't alone.
Around him, flying in formation, were dozens of other beings. Warriors of various species, all radiating determination and purpose. They looked like a fleet. An army.
No—a RESCUE force.
"Zwart," the Omnimon copy said, landing before Danny. "I have returned, as I promised."
"Returned? From where?"
"From the stars. After I left Earth, I traveled the galaxy, seeking purpose. I found... more than I expected."
He gestured to the beings behind him.
"These are survivors. Refugees from worlds destroyed by remnants of the Cold Force. People who had nowhere else to go. I've been protecting them, relocating them, helping them rebuild."
Danny stared.
"You've been... doing humanitarian work?"
"Is that not what Omnimon is supposed to do? Protect the innocent? Defend the weak?"
"I... yes. That's exactly what Omnimon does."
"Then I have fulfilled my purpose. But now I have a new mission."
"Which is?"
The Omnimon copy's eyes gleamed with determination.
"These refugees need a permanent home. A place where they can live in peace, protected from those who would harm them. I have heard that Earth is defended by powerful warriors—warriors who stand against injustice."
"You want to bring refugees to EARTH?"
"If the defenders of this world will accept them. Will they?"
Danny was speechless.
He had created this being as a joke. A combat exercise. A way to mess with the Z-Fighters and test his own limits.
And that being had gone into space and become a genuine HERO.
Complete with refugees.
"I... I need to talk to some people," Danny managed.
"Of course. We will wait."
The Z-Fighters' reaction to the sudden appearance of an Omnimon copy with a fleet of galactic refugees was... mixed.
"MORE of them?!" Vegeta screamed. "There are MORE?!"
"He's different from the other Digimon we've met," Piccolo observed. "His energy is similar to Omnimon, but not identical. Like a... a copy."
"That's because he IS a copy," Danny-as-Zwart explained. "He was created during the battle between myself and the original Omnimon. A manifestation of Omnimon's light, given independent existence."
"You can just CREATE new beings?!"
"Digimon are data. Data can be copied. It's not complicated."
"IT'S EXTREMELY COMPLICATED!"
Goku, predictably, was more focused on the practical implications.
"So there are a bunch of people who need a place to live? And they came here because they heard we protect the innocent?"
"Essentially, yes."
"Then we should help them! That's what heroes do!"
"Kakarot, we can't just accept REFUGEES from across the galaxy—"
"Why not? We've got plenty of room. And they're not hurting anyone."
"It's more complicated than that! There are political implications, resource requirements—"
"Sounds like Bulma problems."
"WHAT?!"
Bulma, as it turned out, was actually enthusiastic about the situation.
"Alien refugees? With knowledge of civilizations across the galaxy? Do you have any idea how valuable that information is? The technological advances we could achieve? The scientific discoveries we could make?"
"So you'll help them?" Goku asked.
"Help them? I'll give them a continent if they'll share their knowledge with me!"
And just like that, Earth became a sanctuary for galactic refugees.
The Omnimon copy—who Danny had started mentally calling "Omnimon Prime" to distinguish him—took charge of the settlement efforts. Bulma provided resources and infrastructure. The Z-Fighters offered protection.
It was, against all odds, actually working.
Danny watched all of this unfold from the sidelines, feeling a strange emotion.
Pride.
He'd created something good. Not intentionally—his original goal had just been to fight himself and show off—but the results were undeniably positive. Omnimon Prime was saving lives. Refugees were finding safety. Earth was becoming a beacon of hope in a galaxy that sorely needed one.
All because Danny had been bored one night and decided to see if he could make a copy of himself.
"Maybe I'm actually good at this," Danny murmured to himself. "Maybe I'm actually making a difference."
Then he remembered that he'd also accidentally started a religion, created multiple secret identities, and lied extensively to everyone he'd met in this universe.
"Okay, maybe 'good' is a strong word. But I'm trying."
That had to count for something.
The chapter of Danny's life that began with Trunks' arrival and ended with the establishment of the refugee settlement had been the most eventful period since his reincarnation.
He'd introduced new Digimon forms. He'd eliminated Cell before it could become a threat. He'd given the Z-Fighters a (mostly fabricated) explanation for the Digital World. He'd accidentally created a hero who was now running humanitarian operations across the galaxy.
And through it all, he'd kept his true identity secret.
Danny was a seven-year-old orphan. Omnimon Zwart was a dignified shadow knight. Beelzemon was a chaotic demon biker. Lucemon was a fallen god seeking redemption.
All different. All believable. All HIM.
It was getting harder to keep track of who he was supposed to be at any given moment.
But that was okay. Danny had always been good at pretending to be something he wasn't.
In his previous life, he'd pretended to be a functional adult with his life together.
In this life, he was pretending to be several different cosmic entities with mysterious agendas.
Honestly, the second option was way more fun.
Three months later, Future Trunks would return.
And when he saw what had become of the timeline he'd tried to save—Frieza dead, Cell destroyed, the androids peaceful, alien refugees settling on Earth, and at least four godlike entities from the "Digital World" apparently protecting humanity—he would have the biggest confused breakdown of his entire existence.
But that's a story for another chapter.
END OF CHAPTER 4
Author's Note: Danny went full Lucemon Chaos Mode and gave everyone a Digital World mythology lecture. He's now established FOUR separate identities (Omnimon, Zwart, Beelzemon, Lucemon) and the Z-Fighters think they're all different beings from the same dimension.
Cell got destroyed before he could become a threat. The androids are chill now. And Omnimon Prime (the copy) is running galactic humanitarian operations because Danny's creations are apparently more heroic than he is.
Next chapter: Trunks returns and has a complete mental breakdown trying to understand what happened to the timeline. Danny may or may not make things worse by introducing ANOTHER Digimon form just to mess with him.
Also, the refugee settlement is going to become relevant. Because apparently Danny accidentally created a new faction in the Dragon Ball universe.