It was a week and half before she spoke to him again.
Krillin and Tien were sparring in a clearing, and looking past Tien for a moment, he saw her standing on top of a distant hill. His surprise caused him to hesitate and get kicked in the face. Hard.
Tien helped him up again kindly.
"What happened, man? Why'd you stop?"
Krillin leaned heavily on Tien and waited for his vision to clear before answering.
"Oh… I uh, I…"he looked up at the hill in the distance again; she was nowhere to be seen.
"Um, it was nothing… I guess I blinked or something," Krillin joked.
His jaw ached terribly, making it difficult to talk. Tien had really knocked him a good one.
"I think I'm gonna take off for today," Krillin said, "I've got some errands to run."
"Okay, man. You sure you don't wanna have a late breakfast with me?"
"Nah…thanks, though."
"All right, see you Friday, then."
"Later, Tien."
Krillin and Tien sped off in opposite directions. Tien in the direction of his home, and Krillin in the direction of where he had last seen Eighteen.
He slowly dropped below the canopy as his eyes searched the ground between the trees.
"So what's with the hair?" he heard her say.
He dropped to the ground, seeing her step out from behind a tree.
His hair wasn't nearly long enough to run his hand through, but he did it anyways, because he was nervous.
"I guess I've kind of retired. With Gohan and everyone being so powerful, there's not much I can do these days. I just can't keep up with those saiyans, I guess."
Her eyes narrowed at him again. He was aware of his own limitations. That was good. The male ego often overruled reason.
"Does it look good?"
There was nothing conceited about the question. He just wanted to know if he looked like a fool or not.
"It looks fine," she said, barely even smiling. It was difficult to ignore the large red footprint on the side of his face.
There was a small pause.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Krillin said.
"Yes," came the immediate response.
Krillin fell silent once again.
Another long pause.
"I didn't mean to interrupt your training session," Eighteen wasn't used to apologizing, so it was somewhat difficult for her. Even though she didn't know why she should be.
"Yeah, you really startled me," chuckled Krillin.
Eighteen continued to regard him carefully. She had found herself looking forward to this meeting all week, and it was really only an accident that he had seen her. She hadn't intended to be seen.
An alarming thought entered her head.
"You didn't tell Tien about me, did you?" she asked rather vehemently.
Krillin took a step backwards. He still couldn't quite anticipate her mood swings.
"Oh, uh… no, no, I didn't say a word!"
He still wasn't completely sure that she wasn't going to kill him if given reason. However, she calmed down considerably once he had spoken.
Funny, she thought, I've been anticipating this conversation all week, and now I can't think of a thing to say. I've forgotten everything I wanted to ask him now.
She turned and walked away from Krillin.
After a few steps, she turned and looked back at him. Her eyes were not as hard and piercing as they once were.
"You coming?" was all she said. The harshness was gone from her voice, as well.
Krillin hurried to follow her. She continued walking.
Krillin was extremely confused. She just kept walking in silence. So many questions raised themselves in his mind. Where are we going? Why isn't she saying anything? Why doesn't she want me to tell Tien? So many questions, but she had just about forbidden him to ask any. The last thing he wanted to do was drive her away.
They walked out of the small grove where they had spoken, and now up the slope of a low, grassy hill. She led the way, if ever there was one, and he followed at her side.
After quite a while of walking in silence, when Krillin found himself just settling into the situation, becoming comfortable with the silence, she spoke.
"You are not to tell anyone about me."
Her voice kind of scared him at first, coming out of the long silence, and it took him a moment to figure out what she had actually said.
"I wasn't going to," came the response.
She looked at him and was once again faced with Krillin's overwhelming honesty. Truth dripped from his words.
"Why are you so honest?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, you sound so completely honest and truthful, that I can hardly imagine you lying."
Krillin laughed out loud.
"Heh, heh, that's an easy answer! The reason I'm so honest is because I'm just a horrible lier!"
He was right. Krillin was horrible at lying, and because of it, she could see he had become used to telling the truth and able to convince people instantly that he was indeed, telling the truth.
She smiled slightly.
"I guess you're right," she said.
Krillin was still chuckling slightly to himself. To his surprise, she continued.
"Seventeen was always talking. He never really lied, but I always got the feeling that he wasn't telling me the whole truth. He always was holding something back, something for his own personal gain. I always felt that he was plotting something bigger than what we were currently doing, and not letting me in on it."
He looked over at her. Her eyes were down, her face lost in the past.
Krillin let her lose herself, and was content to walk quietly beside her. Long minutes passed in the silence. It was half an hour before she spoke again.
"See you next time," she said out of nowhere.
Without further comment, she leapt off the ground and disappeared into the sapphire sky.
Krillin was utterly confused.
"I'll never understand women," he thought to himself.
***********************
Eighteen sat alone, thinking, as was her usual pastime these days. Really, she was tired of it, but so many questions plagued her that she could not help but ponder them. At points it grew more exhausting than fighting. At least fighting she was good at. Nothing made her feel more helpless than sitting there for hours on end with the question "Why?" in her head, and not being able to come up with an answer.
Insight visited her like a butterfly landing on her shoulder.
What had Krillin said? That there are some questions that don't have answers?
She tried that. Accepting that there would never be an answer to the question of why she was alone.
It helped.
A little.
This emotional stuff was still somewhat new to her. She had all the data processors she needed to do any mathematical computations she needed. Even those processors and enhancements that guided her advanced fighting ability worked on the basis of a mathematical formula, incorporating almost every law of physics without her even thinking about it.
But her emotions did not fit nicely into one neat, numerical package. Apathy would quickly exchange itself for anger and desire. It bothered her to no extent that there was nothing she could do about it. Releasing her anger in violent gestures only worked some of the time, and lost its potency after too many paroxysms.
Here I am, probably the most advanced machine on the planet, and I can't even figure out if I'm hot or cold.
Even more advanced than Sixteen and Seventeen. The latest model, the most updated version. During their time together, Eighteen had noticed subtle differences between herself and Seventeen, most often relating to their encounters with humans. Whereas Seventeen seldom understood or even thought about the reasons behind human actions, Eighteen could usually see people's motivations and cues for certain actions. Seventeen would often need it explained to him why people groveled a certain way, or why one store manager would show no fear where another would falter.
Exactly what had she been given that had been missing in Sixteen and Seventeen? Not emotions, though they were lacking somewhat in Sixteen. Seventeen had his moods and pet peeves. What had Gero been working toward? Something in her mind suggested that it was not just the destruction of Goku.
If it wasn't emotion, then what was it?
Compassion?
The thought rumbled around inside her head for a while, neither affirming nor denying any of her suspicions and conjectures.
She decided to save the question for Krillin.