She'd been faced with a choice, the terrible, heart wrecking choice between her brother, who, despite everything, had always, in his own special way, shown her that he cared about her, and that wonderful brave man who'd refused to destroy her so Cell couldn't absorb her and then, after Cell had been defeated, had wished the bombs inside her and her brother away. The man she'd ended up marrying and who'd given her the most precious gift ever; her sweet little, innocent daughter.
But when her brother had killed her husband she'd made her choice; she could never be like her brother. Never! So she had assisted Goku in killing the monster her brother had become after he'd merged with his hell fighter clone.
"I think your brother was still in there, somewhere!"
Ooh Goku. She'd gotten Krillin back. But at what cost? Goku was gone, for good this time. Still she couldn't help smiling one of her very rare smiles, even as a child Goku had a special kind of wisdom to him, it wasn't the wisdom for living for centuries watching over the world, like the one the Kais (even King Kai) possessed but the wisdom one would get from living in the world for good or bad. Goku understood people in a way she never could.
Krillin was back. So why was she still grieving? Chichi, Gohan, Goten, Pan maybe especially Pan, she'd been so close to her grandpa, they all had greater reason for grieving than she had. After all, she'd never really been close to Goku, having been created in order to kill him. She knew why she was grieving. She wasn't grieving for her husband, or for Goku. She was grieving for her brother. Her brother whom she'd lost in a way far worse than death. He was lost to her.
Sighing to herself 18 realized that her thoughtful flight- yes, she had been flying all the time- had brought her to the area in which Gero's lap had once been situated. The place where she'd been born. No! Not born! Created. She'd been born somewhere else, a long time ago, as an ordinary human girl; she'd been born along with her brother. The brother she'd lost.
"You got your revenge in the end, Dr. Gero! No matter what you did with us you could never destroy the connection of twins between us. But in the end, you did. You broke it with such a force I feel I've been shattered as well!"
She hadn't realized she'd been speaking out loudly until a voice carried off towards her:
"Don't be broken!"
A very familiar voice. Stopping dead in her tracks she turned and saw. Him.
"You!" she all but spat the word out. She would've attacked him if it hadn't been for Goku's words ringing in her mind:
"I think your brother was still in there, somewhere!"
Maybe he'd been right. They'd only wished the good victims of Super 17 and the Shadow Dragons back. And there he was; completely alive.
"Are you… yourself again?"
"Yes! I am. I'm really sorry for what happened. Can you ever forgive me?"
Could she? Somehow she doubted it. Her brother had done the impossible; he'd broken the heart of someone who'd already gotten her heart replaced with cybernetics. So could she forgive him?
"I… don't know…" she began uncertain.
"I don't expect you to really care about me again." he said, his eyes filling with something, was it, tears? "Just don't, hate me!"
Did she hate him? She supposed she'd hated him for a while. But did she really still hate him?
"I don't think I hate you anymore. But I need time to sort my feelings out. Please, give me time to think!"
With those words she flew off, back towards Kame House not noticing 17 breaking down to his knees behind her. Sobbing uncontrollable, like he'd never done before.
