Summary: After the Cell Games, Seventeen is lost. He realizes that Gero's sole purpose for him was to give Cell power to be the ultimate android. With Son Goku dead, he has no purpose anymore. As Seventeen tries to discover his reason for existence, can he discover more?
This is a story meant to entail the life of Seventeen between the Cell Games and the Tournament of Power, a 13-year gap. This will include how he ultimately became a park ranger, met his eventual wife, and many other elements.
Disclaimer: The Dragon Ball franchise and all of its characters belong to Akira Toriyama.
Chapter 1 – A New Beginning
Just as quickly as he had embraced his death, Seventeen found himself very much alive again. He looked around and realized that he was at the battlefield of the Cell Games, but with nobody else in sight. Around him was a crater, the site of an obvious struggle. However, Seventeen knew this crater had not been there when he had perished inside Cell.
Had that monster really been defeated? Or was this the beginning of the end? The cyborg truly did not know, as he was unable to detect ki. Seventeen shifted into an alert, fighting stance: if there really was nobody around, then perhaps Cell had won after all. Maybe that also explained why the sky was pitch-black.
Seventeen quickly did an internal diagnostics checkup and found that his systems were fully functional. How he had come back to life, he did not know, but everything was fully operational and in the right place.
Suddenly, Seventeen felt a small part of his body vanish, as if it had never been there. A quick follow-up scan revealed that his self-destruct device, which had existed just seconds earlier, had disappeared without a trace.
After a flash, the sky gradually returned to its normal blue color. Seventeen kept his guard up, tensed in case of combat. However, he was beginning to suspect that perhaps the fight was truly over. Despite this theory, it ultimately gave him no answers his questions.
What was happening? Where was everybody? Why was his bomb missing? Where was Eighteen? Why had the sky suddenly changed from pitch black to clear in an instant?
Seventeen surveyed the area again, looking for any signs of his twin sister. Was she alive? Dead? Unconscious? Safe? For a few minutes, Seventeen kept an eye out for someone: anyone, friend or foe.
Nothing. The only thing providing company to Seventeen was the slight desert breeze.
Suddenly, Seventeen heard someone approaching overhead. He tensed, in case it was Cell, but to his surprise, Eighteen descended to meet him.
"So it's really true. You really are alive, Seventeen." Eighteen remarked, with a look of relief on her face.
Relieved himself that Eighteen was alive and safe, Seventeen relaxed his muscles and felt the tension wash away.
"Surprisingly, yeah. I'm guessing Cell's gone?"
"Yeah. Goku's friends summoned this dragon called Shenlong and wished all of Cell's victims
back to life. It's apparently able to grant just about any wish."
Ah: so that was it. A magic dragon. Such a thing seemed logically impossible, but so was being alive after dying. One question answered, but so many more remained.
"The bomb inside me is gone. What happened, Eighteen?" Seventeen hoped to at least get the easy questions out of the way first.
"That little old guy asked Shenlong to do that for us."
"Little old guy?" A new question. In their databases, there was nobody who really matched that description.
"I think his name is Krillin or something."
The mini-monk?
"Why? What does he have to gain from that?"
"I don't know." Seventeen saw the slightest scoff and hint of annoyance from Eighteen.
'Funny way to phrase that, considering we have an entire database on Goku and his friends: surely she knows who he is. Besides, she did kiss him.'
Still, Seventeen felt...grateful? He and Eighteen had singled out Krillin as the one person among Goku's group of friends that they could mess with and tease. Seventeen recalled intentionally motioning towards Krillin immediately after killing Gero just to intimidate him. The entire ordeal had been highly amusing. He presumed Eighteen had kissed him on the cheek for similar reasons (though perhaps not to frighten him, although the short man had been quite terrified of her before the act).
And he had asked a wish-granting dragon to remove their self-destruct devices, over anything in the world?
"Seventeen, removing the bombs wasn't his original wish." He turned to Eighteen, puzzled, but curious.
"Wait, didn't you say that the dragon could grant any wish?"
"No: I said just about any wish. I guess your aural systems aren't fully functional. His original wish was for us to become human beings again."
Now there was a surprise. Perhaps his auditory functions really were malfunctioning. Krillin had tried to wish them into being human beings again? That guy had removed the self-destruct devices from him and his sister only because they weren't able to be fully human?
Humans really are a strange group. Krillin and his group of friends, although not entirely human, were the strangest group of them all, he was sure. Seventeen also knew that he was unquestionably grateful towards the short monk.
"Interesting. If I see him again, I'll have to thank him. Maybe I won't mess with him anymore." Seventeen smirked towards his sister, who seemed to want to do anything to avoid the topic.
Suddenly, a new question entered Seventeen's brain. The thought made him brighten up and smile for the first time since the Cell ordeal.
"Hey Eighteen, if I got wished back to life, then where is Sixteen? Shouldn't he be around here as well? It'll be great to get the gang back together!"
At that, Eighteen's expression dropped.
"I...I don't know, Seventeen. I didn't see him on my way here. If he got wished back, then he should have been brought back somewhere around this place, right? But it's just the two of us out here. Which means..."
Eighteen was struggling to finish her sentence, as the implications were ones she wished weren't true.
"But we can't be certain, Eighteen. Just because we haven't seen him doesn't mean Sixteen isn't around, right?" The black-haired cyborg cut in, attempting to find even the smallest sliver of hope to cling to. His friend had to be alive: he had to be. After all, Seventeen himself was standing, living, and breathing after having perished, so why couldn't Sixteen?
"Seventeen." Eighteen's voice was cold as she reached into the pocket of her jeans and held out something towards her brother.
A chip. One familiar to the both of them. The chip they had seen when their captor had mercilessly stepped on the head of their only friend.
Seventeen took the last remnant of his friend from his sister, staring blankly at the cold reminder of his friend. Hope slipped away and the color drained from Seventeen's face as he quickly arrived to the same conclusion as his twin.
Sixteen really was gone. For good.
"Oh."
The twins made eye contact after Seventeen's single word died into the desert wind. In his shock, Seventeen dropped Sixteen's chip into the sand.
Silence remained between the two twins before Seventeen raised his voice, brimming with rage and disbelief.
"That's a load of bullshit, Eighteen. What do you mean he wasn't brought back? If the damn dragon can bring me back from death, why can't it do the same for Sixteen?"
"Don't lash out at me, Seventeen! I don't know how the hell the damn wishes work, and you know damn well that I want Sixteen back just as much as you do!"
Seventeen was on the brink of entirely losing his composure.
"Not one of us deserved to a chance to live more than Sixteen. What's the damn point of any of this if he isn't here?"
And then, he snapped. In his fury, Seventeen couldn't help but form energy blasts and fire them haphazardly at the deserted area around him.
"Damn you, Cell! Damn you, Gero! All you did was ruin all three of our lives! I should have been the one to kill both of you! Both of you can rot!"
It didn't matter that Seventeen was causing a scene, that Son Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, or any of the others could have responded to the scene and terminated his life on the spot. All that mattered was his hatred reaching his tormentors in Hell.
"Seventeen, STOP! Cool your head, damn it! If you keep this up, someone's going to notice, and you'll be killed!" Eighteen seized her twin brother by the wrists, momentarily stopping his rampage.
"You want me to be cool, Eighteen? Why don't you-"
*SMACK*
Eighteen's slap reverberated with the aftershocks of the numerous explosions around the twins. Smoke and shock filled the air.
"Seventeen, stop being so damn selfish! You aren't the only one who lost Sixteen, and you sure as hell aren't the only one who's hurting too!"
Silently, Seventeen was seething. Selfish? How was he being selfish? All he saw was the cruelty and unfairness of the world, and he just wanted to express his anger. If this represented selfishness, then Seventeen would be glad to wear that title with pride.
"Damn it, Seventeen! Sixteen was basically a brother to me too, and I lost him! We lost him to that monster! But I'm not about to lose you too, not immediately after finding you alive! Not after I thought I'd never see you again when you got absorbed!"
Eighteen's words finally reached Seventeen, and he fell to his knees. He was being selfish, only thinking of how he felt and ignoring his sister in the process. The sister he had put in danger and done everything in his power to free from Cell. He knew Eighteen was not one to show much outward emotion, but he could tell from her voice that she was on the verge of tears.
"Then what the hell are we supposed to do, Eighteen? They took everything. Our purpose, our reason for existence, our only friend: there's nothing left for us here."
His voice came out so meekly. How pathetic. The "strongest android" was reduced to this pathetic state. Seventeen truly felt small and powerless when facing the reality that he really had nothing and was nothing.
Eighteen herself felt lost. She knew that she struggled to handle emotional situations well. But what could she do now? Seventeen had a point, that the twins were put into the world only to be cast aside and thrown away for a newer ambition. They were deemed expendable, branded as failures.
Knowing that, she made a silent resolution to herself. Taking a deep breath, she began to voice that resolution to her brother, who seemed to need the direction more than she did.
"We live, Seventeen. We make our own reason for living, and we go for it. Gero never had control over our actions, and he sure as hell isn't going to win. Not with me, anyway."
Eighteen steadied herself before steeling her gaze at her younger twin. This might be harsh, but Seventeen needed to hear this, and if not from her, he might never hear it at all.
"Gero can't ever have the last laugh over us if we never give him an opportunity to. We're free from everything now, aren't we? We can live our lives and overcome some damn programming and commands. We can live without being ordered around. If Sixteen overcame his programming, wouldn't he want the same for us? Wouldn't he want us to continue living in the world he gave everything to protect?"
Seventeen still wouldn't look up at his sister, but Eighteen continued to pace herself towards the finish line.
"Sixteen didn't die so that we could throw our lives away. And no amount of self-loathing or guilt will bring him back if a magic wish-granting dragon can't. So I'm going to do the only thing I can do: accept it and move forward, no matter how terrible it is. Because it's not good or bad: this is just how things are. And I'm going to make sure that his memory never dies by actually living and making him proud, wherever he is."
"So Seventeen, get up. Honor our best friend's memory and overcome Gero's ambitions through your own life. Yes: it's unfair that we get to be here while our brother isn't, but if we don't live, then Sixteen tried to protect us for nothing in the end."
She was right, as usual. But it wasn't going to be that easy or instantaneous for Seventeen to accept things as they were in the way Eighteen had.
No, he was still in denial that he could be alive, but Sixteen couldn't be. His friend had to be out there, somewhere. Perhaps he had been brought back but left the site of the Cell Games immediately. Yes: that was entirely possible. Not likely, but...possible.
It was entirely unlike Seventeen to just abandon logic. But if logic failed to create a path where Sixteen was alive, then he would forgo it to find even the one illogical one that would lead to a life with his friend. Hell: becoming a cyborg, time travel, and resurrection were illogical in their own way, and Seventeen himself had experienced each of those in the span of these ten days.
That minute possibility was what Seventeen decided to cling to as he rose to his own two feet. Now, to play it off as if he were totally fine.
"Sorry about that, Eighteen. I got all that out of my system, so I'll keep my cool." A small smirk appeared on Seventeen's face.
Eighteen saw through the facade almost immediately and knew her brother wasn't entirely accepting of their friend's death, but she couldn't force the issue any more than she already had. Denial, after all, was a deadly and powerful force in its own way. Every individual dealt with grief and loss in his or her own way, and she would let Seventeen handle his emotions in the way he saw fit.
But perhaps it would be best if the two of them went their separate ways for the time being. As much as Eighteen understood that it would probably be best if the twins stuck together and could grieve together, she knew she'd get to be overbearing and mess up along the way. After all, handling emotions was something she was absolutely terrible at, and it would not surprise her if that were true in her human past as well.
"Seventeen, what are you going to do now?" Even with her mind made up to split from her twin, she at least wanted the comfort in knowing what her brother had planned, even if that were wishful thinking.
"I'm going to go look for Sixteen, in case he did end up resurrected. Do some exploring and travel. You know, human things."
Okay, now Eighteen definitely knew she wanted to split from this. She wasn't going to feed a delusion and try to put the pieces back together when things fell apart. She didn't realize just how deep Seventeen's denial ran, but the combination of that and her younger twin's desire to go back to being human was absolutely lethal.
"I see."
The gap between the twins wasn't much, but to Eighteen, it felt like a chasm was separating the twins, and that gap felt infinitely wide.
"Seventeen, you have fun with your adventure, but I don't want any part of it."
"Wait, didn't you just say you didn't want to lose me? And you're going to just turn your back on me? To do what, Eighteen?"
His sister turned away from him. "I don't know. Goku's dead, so we don't have any purpose now, right? I'm going to live my life freely." Eighteen paused momentarily, thinking of a small compromise before facing her twin momentarily.
"But, if you're going to look for Sixteen, then maybe we can meet occasionally to check in and make sure the other is still alive, you know?"
Seventeen couldn't believe this. But her sister was stubborn, and if she had no desire to search for Sixteen with him, then he was in this alone. Not surprising: she didn't really care for the human side of life much anyway. Too closed off from fun.
"I guess we're committed to doing our own thing. Fine. The closest place to here is Central City, so I guess every couple of months will do?"
Eighteen decided that would be fine. "Sure. The first of every other month, we meet at the entrance to Central City."
"Then I'll see you in August, sis."
"See ya."
And with that, she turned away again and took off into the sky, just as she came.
'Sorry, Seventeen. I really don't want to leave you alone, but I don't want to be caught in the wreckage when this crashes on you. Please don't hate me for this.'
Back at the 28-KS-5 region, Seventeen stood looking towards the direction his sister flew. His gaze fell to the sand, finding Sixteen's operating chip still there.
"Hey there, bud. I'll find you. You have to be somewhere on this ball of water, and we're going to have a great time once I do." And this adventure was going to start where it all began. Seventeen placed the memory chip in his pocket before bracing for flight.
"North we go, buddy."
A/N: I included Dragon Ball Super Chapter 31 verbatim in the chapter, although I took some major liberties filling in between the lines of dialogue for this. I haven't really cared for the Super manga much at all.
I understand Seventeen seems a bit OOC, since I made his emotional state a bit more volatile this chapter, though I tried to mostly keep his general character from DBZ. In both DBZ and Super, Seventeen is pretty even-keel, even when he's intense, but he genuinely lost it in this chapter (similar to how Future Eighteen went ballistic in Episode 194). He's entered a pretty dangerous state of mind, but the ways people cope with grief are extremely varied.
I feel part of why Seventeen changed so much between DBZ and DBS is because of how deeply Sixteen affected him. All throughout the franchise, Seventeen and Eighteen embody stoicism, level-headedness, and precision. Yet even they are fallible to their emotions: we saw that with Eighteen when Krillin was eaten by Buu, but not really from Seventeen (outside of combat).
Again, please remember to review and give suggestions on how I can improve this going forward! I actually had a few different ideas on how to start this story (I have the major plot points down, but how those points all get connected took time to nail down, so this chapter took a bit of time to write as as result).