Chapter 2: Defying Fate
She was on a table, unable to move. Strangely, she couldn't feel any restraints holding her down. There was no anesthesia, and she certainly wasn't unconscious. She could see, feel, hear, smell. But for the life of her, she couldn't move. She couldn't even speak. It was terrifying. She was trapped within her own thoughts.
She saw an older man in a lab coat approach the table. She knew who that was, the "good" Doctor.
"Lapis and Lazuli. What a perfect pair of test subjects for my first attempt at making Cyborgs." He cackled. "The two of you were nothing but a bunch of runaway delinquents roaming the streets. No one is going to look for you, because no one is going to miss you.
I know the both of you are angry at me right now, but years from now you will be thanking me. I'm going to make you capable of amazing things!" He said.
But she had a feeling his idea of "amazing" was much different than what her and Lapis believed. This doctor was nothing but a mad man. She wanted to get off the table, take Lapis and escape but there was nothing she could do. The doctor approached her table and had a set of surgical tools. He grabbed a scalpel and looked down at her. "Now then…let's get started."
She could feel herself screaming internally as the tool came closer to her body.
"Eighteen! EIGHTEEN WAKE UP!" A voice shouted above her in concern.
Her eyes shot open to see Krillin above her, the worry on his face clear as day. He was on her bed, arm wrapped around her back to hold her up right. Eighteen was still frantic, breathing heavily, eyes darting all around the room. Krillin wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into an embrace with the hope of calming her down.
"It's okay. It was just a nightmare. You're safe now." He whispered into her ear with a soothing voice.
Eighteen wasn't particularly fond of the situation. She didn't want anyone to ever see her looking so weak. But here Krillin was, seeing her at her weakest. But she quickly didn't care about that anymore, and she buried her face into Krillin's shoulder and let her tears flow. Krillin said nothing. No words of comfort or anything like that because she didn't need that. Right now, all she needed was a shoulder to cry on. It continued for about five minutes before she stopped. When it was over, she had finally realized just how safe she felt in Krillin's arms. She raised her head out of Krillin's shoulder and looked at him. "Thank you…for waking me up." She said sheepishly.
A small smile formed on Krillin's face. "I made you a promise, didn't I? I said that I would always be here to help you." He said. He released her from his embrace and allowed her to sit up.
It's true. He did tell her that. It was one of the first things he said whenever she agreed to come and live at Kame House. She didn't ask him to make that promise, he made it himself. Krillin's smile went back to a frown and he asked "Do you want to tell me what your nightmare was about?" The question caused Eighteen to avert her eyes from Krillin's gaze. He cringed a little bit upon seeing that. He knew it was a very personal question. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
She thought about whether she should or not. Maybe it was about time she opened up to him. He had been nothing but good to her. He was kind and selfless. He had provided her a home, food, water, a bed to sleep in. He bought her clothes and other things she wanted. He had cared for her, and never asked for anything in return.
"It was about Dr. Gero. Before me and Seventeen became cyborgs. He was about to start turning me into one." She answered.
Krillin grimaced at the answer. He often forgot about her past as an experiment of Dr. Gero, even sometimes forgot that she was a cyborg. He just saw her as a person. To think of what her and Seventeen must have been through broke his heart. "I'm sorry…I can't believe what that bastard did."
"It's the earliest memory I have for some reason. I can't remember anything else about my life prior to being a cyborg. But if what Dr. Gero said is any indication, Seventeen and I were just a bunch of street rats. Our lives weren't even great to begin with. Nobody would notice or care if we just disappeared one day." She sighed.
Krillin wanted to challenge that, find some positivity. Say that they must have had someone that missed them, and even to this day misses them. But what position was he in to say that? He knew nothing about her life as a child. To claim otherwise would just be a lie.
"We were made with one goal, to kill Goku. Well we didn't really care to do it anyway, and even if we did, Goku's gone. Now there's nothing. I'm just a machine without a future." Eighteen sighed sadly, and a tear began dropping down her cheek.
That statement made Krillin snap. He would not just sit there and listen to Eighteen devalue herself. He placed his hands on her shoulders. "No…you're wrong." He said, his voice hoarse. He looked at her with a fierce passion in his eyes that shocked her. It was determination to make her realize she's more than an experiment. "You're not a machine. You're a human!"
Eighteen glared at Krillin. "How can you say that? My body is riddled with mechanical components. I am a machine!"
"Then what are these tears?" Krillin asked, referring to the stains of her tears on his shirt as well as rubbing the tear on her face. "Machines can't cry."
Eighteen's eyes widened with that statement. The hostile glare she had given Krillin was gone.
"Your body may be mechanical in some areas, but your heart is human. You have emotions, desires, fears like human's do." He explained to her, his conviction clear in his words. "What Gero did to you was terrible. But you don't have to let that define who you are. He no longer controls you. It's you who gets to decide what kind of person you want to be. The kind of life that you want to live."
Eighteen felt a lot of things from hearing Krillin's speech. She was shocked, and dare she say…moved by his words. She never thought about things the way he did. Gero had designed her and Seventeen with a specific objective in mind, designated their fate. And yet, while he was able to capture them, he was not able to control them. Her and Seventeen were not mindless machines that only served the purpose of their master. They could think and decide for themselves. The first thing they did once released from their pods was kill the old man, defying his orders and rejecting any notions of fate that he had in store for them.
She was her own master now, she just never took the time to really think about it. Finally realizing her freedom and the power that comes with it, she smiled, which made Krillin smile as well. But she soon frowned, because she also began to feel overwhelmed. "You're right Krillin. I am a human, and I can choose what I want to do with my life…but…"
Krillin looked at her with concern. "But what?"
"I don't know what I want to do. And it…scares me." She reluctantly admitted to him. Krillin just smiled and held her hand.
"That's alright Eighteen. It's common for people to feel the way you're feeling right now."
"It is?"
"Yeah! A lot of people struggle trying to figure out what their place in this world will be. It can take time to figure it out. This isn't a decision you have to make right now. You can just keep going one day at a time and it will eventually come to you." He assured her. "And I'll be with you to help, every step of the way. Okay?"
She smiled and nodded. "Okay." She already was quite fond of the small man. But after tonight and all that he had said and done to help her, she began seeing him as something like a very good friend, and she'd be lying to herself if she didn't also think of him as something possibly deeper than that. Suddenly an unrelated thought popped into her mind.
"Wait a minute…how did you get in here? I always lock the door when I go to sleep." She questioned with a raised brow. Krillin's face reddened and he rubbed the back of his head nervously while giving her a sheepish smile.
"Um…about that…"
They both looked at the spot where her door is, or "was" more specifically, as Eighteen saw that the door had been knocked down. She looked back at him.
"Look, I'm really, really sorry, but I heard you screaming! I knocked and called your name but you didn't answer so I thought you might be and trouble! I was worried s-"
She cut off his nervous rambling by wrapping her arms around him and whispered "Thank you." She let him go and they both got off her bed. "But that does leave a problem. No door means that I can't sleep without having to worry about one of the two perverts sneaking in here and trying something with me."
"That's alright! You can have my bed for the night! It's got a working lock and everything! And I promise that I'll have your door fixed by tomorrow!" He offered.
"Okay then."
He led her to his room and opened the door for her. He watched as she got settled in his bed. Once she was relaxed, he was preparing to leave the room. "Good night Eighteen."
"Where are you going?" she quickly asked. Krillin was confused. He thought this was the plan.
"I'm going sleep downstairs so you can have the room to yourself."
"I never said you had to leave, Krillin." She reminded him with a grin, chuckling a bit as she could see him get flustered. "This bed is big enough for two, so come on."
"I-I mean…are you sure?"
"Get in the bed." She said sternly.
"Alright! Getting in!" he complied and got himself under the covers, not before locking the door behind him of course.
Eighteen smiled. "Just don't let your hands wander anywhere they shouldn't be."
"You know I would never do that." Krillin said, sounding somewhat offended that she would even think he would do something so egregious.
"I was just joking, don't get your feelings all hurt." She said. She turned herself around to face Krillin, causing him to raise an eyebrow. Without a word she wrapped an arm over his body and rested up against him. His eyes widened and body temperature spiked. At this rate he felt like he might get a heart attack. "Good night." was all she said before finally closing her eyes.
"Yeah…good night."
Krillin was glad that everything worked out. He was able to comfort Eighteen when she needed it and also show her that she had humanity in her. He couldn't deny that he was practically smitten with her, but that wasn't the reason he did all the he did for her. Providing her food, water, shelter, and material goods wasn't done with the intent of getting her to fall for him. He did this because he sincerely wanted to help her. This poor woman had years of her life taken away from her by a madman. Now she had a chance to make a new life, and he wanted to help her do it. She could leave Kame House for good, and while he would be undoubtedly sad, he would still be happy as long as she had found her place in life.
But now it seemed like some of those feelings he felt for her, she was reciprocating them. He smiled.
He could really get used to this.
