A/N:
Once again thanks to Kylah Eide for being such a good beta-reader.
And thanks to Chibi Tsuki, December Jewel, and DBZ Chick1 for their encouraging reviews. Here comes the next chapter.
Chapter 2
Over the next few days, Gohan returned to the field where he had found the android for the first time, and every time she had been there in the exact same spot in the exact same position. They never exchanged more than a few words; the rest of the time, they spent thinking, lost in their own thoughts. But gradually, he discovered that he was developing some kinship with the android-woman, as she was struggling with her heritage as much as he was.
Still, every day, she was in the same position, not moving an inch. She didn't know what she was waiting for. Maybe for her chips to cease bringing her attention to her task of eradicating all Saiyans. Maybe for something else. And maybe for the boy, who seemed to be not as happy as her probability calculations suggested.
As it was, her senses were becoming more and more attuned to his presence, able to pick up increasingly detailed nuances of his physical and emotional state. He was a living organism, and those always were prone to irrational and unpredictable change. But gradually, she began to see patterns in his behavior, those calculations and extrapolations taking enough capacity to deprioritize all other alerts and messages.
That was how she knew that today something was different. The Halfling boy didn't feel right as he came closer to where she was lying in the field. His ki was spiking strangely, as if he was either fighting or loosing control over his energy. Was that one of those incidents he had told her about?
She watched him touch down next to her, putting the food he insisted on bringing every day onto a small rock nearby easily in her reach. But instead of sitting down a few feet away, he kept standing and pacing, as if he had too much energy within his Saiyan body. Which was no wonder, as high and fast as his ki was spiking.
Clenching and unclenching his fists, he was becoming more rigid, his neck muscles becoming more prominent as he gritted his teeth. Then, suddenly, it seemed as if the dam holding him back had burst. "Why are you always lying there, never doing anything?" he growled.
Internally, she raised an eyebrow. The Saiyan Halfling had never talked to her before in that tone of voice. She didn't answer as she didn't know it herself, keeping her eyes to the sky in thought. But that seemed to make him angry.
"Answer me …"
He ground out that sentence and stopped it as if he had choked it off with all of his might. She had almost expected him to add some explicative like 'bitch' or 'wench', but seeing as he never was much around the Saiyan prince, he probably didn't even know those words. Her program that was responsible for annihilating Saiyans didn't quite kick in, but his anger made it harder for her to resist following her orders.
Suddenly, he was in her face, looking down at her menacingly. "Didn't you hear me? I said answer me!"
It was interesting to see how his voice deepened to a hiss at the end, grating on her battle programs like nothing else so far. Still, she didn't fight, even as he extended a flat palm to her chest, charging up some energy. His current conduct was so far outside any normal parameters of his character as to throw off any probabilities. If he hadn't visited her so often over the past few days, she would have immediately switched into defense mode, but all data she had gathered on him spoke of him loathing any form of violence.
So she waited as to what would happen.
A fist slammed into the ground right next to her head, leaving both of them on the bottom of a crater, showering a cloud of dirt and soil onto them.
Looking up at the angry Saiyan, she tried to reduce his current level of aggression by complying with his demand for an answer. "I don't know. There is no logical explanation for my behavior."
"Oh? First, you don't want to answer, and then, you don't know?"
His other hand charged further, and her sensors registered waves of heat emitting from his palm, fluctuating in intensity together with his ki. All her circuits were screaming danger at her, but just like the urge to try and kill the Saiyans, she merely ignored it. "Why are you threatening me? Nothing in your psychological profile hints at aggressive tendencies."
That strangely seemed to make the boy even more livid; he was practically snarling into her face. "Psychological profile? I'll show you what psychological profile!"
With those words, he shot a brief, concentrated ki-blast right into her chest. Her heat-sensors went into overload, her mechanical brain flashing damage-reports, and the few human nerves she had retained were screaming in agony as she silently doubled over while the Saiyan was laughing maniacally. Her self-defense programs triggered, she slammed her fist into his face, but it had no more effect than making him smile even more. "See, can't even hit me anymore. Now, what am I going to do with you …"
The light gleaming in his eyes forced the few human instincts she still possessed to recoil in the closest thing she knew to fright, and she quickly put some distance between her and the boy. He apparently didn't want to let her go; he came after her so fast that she barely had time to blink, and once again, she found herself doubled over in agony, this time because of his fist buried in her stomach. Despite his heavily fluctuating ki, the next barrage of shots didn't miss either, her programs simply too slow to decide on a conclusive way of action.
Flight was out of the question because he was faster than her and it could trigger some hunting instincts within him. Fight was not advisable, either, because it could trigger him to release all of his strength against her, which she wouldn't be able to survive. And her basic self-defense was not enough to stand up to a fighter of his caliber. Since the Saiyan didn't give her enough time to regroup and decide on a strategy, her body was getting damaged more and more.
Finally, one of her reflexive retaliations got through, and to her surprise, the boy's blond hair immediately turned black as he slumped over in unconsciousness. Reviewing the past few seconds she came to the conclusion that she had hit him just as his ki was at an especially low point, knocking him out immediately.
Ignoring the damage inflicted on her body, she stared down at the life-less Saiya-jin, somewhat annoyed that she had been forced to move from the spot she had lain in for more than 50 days. It probably would be best if she wasn't there anymore when the boy woke up, not knowing what state of mind he'd be in. If he was still caught in that strange state, there were no predictions of how he'd react, and it would be unadvisable to allow him to do even more damage to her body.
Her self-preservation programs finally made her leave. She had been created to be as strong as a Super-Saiyajin, but against him, all her strength had been naught. Sure, he had caught her by surprise, which let the fight turn in his favor from the beginning, but the boy had a lot more power than what he had just shown. Even in a fair fight, the outcome would have been certain. How else could he have defeated Cell when Cell had absorbed her without problems?
Alternately limping and hovering to a near-by forest, she took care to not leave a trail behind that could be followed. Together with the fact that she was invisible to his ki-senses, she would be safe hiding in the thick brushes. Always keeping track of the Halfling's state of energy, she finally let herself slump against the rough bark of an old birch. 46.27 minutes later, the boy regained consciousness, his ki apparently under control once again. He stayed around for a few minutes, but he didn't start looking for her.
When she finally felt the Saiyan boy leave the field, she waited until he had been out of her sensor range for nearly an hour. Then, she returned to her resting place, lying down onto the grass once again, a little bit away from the craters their earlier fight had produced. She would not let the boy chase her away from the spot she had chosen to stay in until she had found some purpose for her life.
--
The next day, the Saiyan returned to the meadow, and her self-preservation immediately rekindled its furious battle with her orders. However, she was unable to detect any fluctuating anger, so she let him come closer.
He touched down a long ways away, lowering his ki so much that he was not much stronger than a regular human. If they were surrounded by a crowd, she would have lost him almost immediately. Did he think he could evade detection through that? No, apparently he knew that she had sensed him, because he came in a straight line towards her, arms and hands clearly in sight, head lowered. A sign that he was unarmed, an unnecessary gesture as he could kill with his bare hands.
He spoke clearly, but softly, stopping when he was just out of striking range. "I came to apologize for what I did yesterday. I know an apology is not enough, so feel free to take any revenge you like, I won't stop you."
She looked up at the boy standing in front of her, his lips drawn into a taut line. If she struck at him now, she would kill him without a doubt, so low was his ki. Her programs screamed and screeched at her 'Now's the opportunity! DO IT!', but she ignored them as usual. Instead, she asked for information to add to his behavioral matrix. "Why did you attack me?"
The halfling's face twisted into a grimace, an expression she recognized as signaling pain and confusion. "I … I don't know … it was just … when you didn't want to talk to me, I suddenly became so … angry, I guess … furious that you were ignoring me .."
She studied the boy closer. He was pale, dark circles beneath his eyes. He had probably not slept well during the night, if he had at all. "Your behavior yesterday was quite contrary to all the data I have gathered on you."
She let that sentence hang in the air, judging his response. Closing his eyes, he nodded slowly, projecting all the signs of nervousness paired with ... fear? Before he could answer though, she continued. "And your energy was fluctuating strongly all the time you were nearing this place."
This drew a frown from the Saiyan. "My energy was fluctuating? But I didn't … do …"
His voice trailed off before he had finished the sentence. She wondered why he had been so surprised; somebody as experienced in using energy must either have been aware of his own energy level or have caused it himself. The possibility that such a practiced energy-user had lost control over his ki was negligibly slim, as none of the usual causes except for maybe excess emotions applied here.
Shocked, he looked at her. "That's the same Piccolo said. But how can that be? That's never happened to me before."
Still, she was looking at him, calculating all the possibilities. "How old are you?"
The Saiyan boy stared at her as if she had lost her mind. "How old I am? But what's that got to do with it? But I should be … well, I was nine when … we were about 8 months in there … I think I am ten or eleven, not quite sure what. Why?"
Her calculations sped up quite a bit. "When did those incidents start?"
Scrunching his forehead, the boy was trying to think back. "I think … two or three weeks … But perhaps … perhaps I didn't recognize it earlier …" Suddenly, he turned pale. "Ah, I think, the first time was when fighting against Cell …"
She nodded, her chips having found an explanation with 83.59 percent probability. "Have you been growing lately?"
Now he was ogling her as if she had turned insane. "A little bit. Why?"
"Humans go through puberty at your age. This could be your version of it."
"But – I'm not human…"
"Partially, you are."
Gohan stared at the cybernetic woman in shock. Was puberty the reason for all the strange things happening to him? He had read about it before in his studies on human physiology; during the time the body grew to maturity, hormones swamped the blood stream, making emotions unstable while the body was changing.
Slowly, it became crystal clear. Unpredictable mood swings would affect his ki, too, and he couldn't control them. But one question remained. "Then why am I attacking people who I talked to just the day before?"
The android shrugged her shoulders. "You are only half human. The Saiyan half could be responsible for some side effects."
Mulling over what she had said, Gohan felt for the first time hope welling up in his heart. Maybe nothing was wrong with him, perhaps it was normal for demi-Saiyans. Considerably relieved, he thanked her profusely. "I'm going to ask Vegeta about it, perhaps he can tell me more about it. Thank you very much!"
Hurrying off into the sky, he shot towards Capsule Corporation, locating Vegeta's ki in the Gravity Room almost immediately. At the moment, he was so excited that he didn't care whether Vegeta was happy about his unannounced visitor not.
Urgently he banged at the door, the artificial gravity shutting off much too slowly for his taste. As soon as the door opened he stormed in to confront a disgruntled Vegeta.
"Hey, Vegeta, do Saiyans go through something like puberty?"
Vegeta just stared at him angrily. "I assume puberty is some weak human disease? Of course we Saiyans don't."
Looking at Vegeta, Gohan quickly realized what the problem was. But launching into a detailed explanation what puberty was would not make Vegeta very happy, so he decided to go for a frontal attack. "So you say that Saiyans don't mature after birth, and that they are already born with their reproduction abilities fully develloped?"
Vegeta growled, ignoring the mocking words in a way he would never have ignored an explanation. "Why do you want to know, brat? It's not like your messed-up behavior was the one of a Saiya-jin during khelar."
Gohan beamed, glad that they were finally on the same wavelength. "So there is Saiyan puberty! Please tell me more about it!"
Disgruntled, Vegeta started to lecture Gohan on Saiyan physiology, but Gohan knew that the reluctance was only a façade. Vegeta was actually happy that he could talk about the race he was prince of, although he would sooner die than admit it.
"When Saiyan children turn 13, their bodies prepare for the next full moon during which they are going to look for a mate. Every full moon, the mating drive returns, a time when all Saiyans return to Vegeta-sei. Is that enough for you?"
Mulling over what he had just been told, Gohan nodded. "I assume that the mating drive is coupled with increased hostility towards other males and that women are sought out?"
"Yes. Now leave, you're wasting my training time!"
Thoughtfully Gohan left the gravity room, not seeing the almost concerned look Vegeta shot after him. What did that mean for him? Mating habit every full moon … Now that the moon was back again, it would mean that every month … But … No, that stuff came up more often than once a month. And he was hostile towards everyone, not just males. Perhaps that was part of his human heritage, the uncontrolled hormones swamping his blood-stream.
Turning towards the main dome, he thoughtfully wandered into Bulma's lab. Perhaps she could help him.
Finding the genius bent over some new invention once again, he told her about his problems and what he thought the reason was. She immediately agreed to do a thorough check of his blood, but she cautioned him that recognizing the cause would be much easier than curing him. Nonetheless, she would try and do her best.
A few blood-samples later (with a lot of cursing, too, because the needle just didn't want to go through tough Saiyan epidermis), he was on his way home again, something like hope in his heart. Bulma was going to run every test she could think of, and then he'd surely know what was wrong with him – and how to fix it.
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