Chapter 3

Present timeline, 23 years after the Cell Games

They just landed at an area close to the city. She was here, they knew this.

Since his latest transformations 17 had the ability to detect her practically everywhere on the planet.

Eighteen however had also no intention to keep her presence hidden. She had invited them here after all.

The six of them were watching around.

"Eighteen," Gohan called out, "we are here. Come out."

It were only a few seconds until they heard a well known voice. They all had to remind themselves that right now Eighteen was not on their side, even if it was not by choice.

"Yes I see you have arrived," she said. "Welcome."

"18," Krillin addressed her, "I know you can hear me, don´t let it control you."

He didn´t knew if his pleading had even any chance. Eighteen was clearly far deeper under this thing´s influence than she had ever been before.

He had been able to bring her back to her senses once before. But that had been very early, when the Clone-Android had just began to take over. Now was a completely different matter, especially going by all what already had happened.

He recalled how the controlled 18 had blasted the Capsule Corp. building and killed maybe a dozen people. The Eighteen he knew would have never done that, not even in the time `before´ they had gotten together and she had still been hunting for Goku.

At least then they had not purposely targeted bystanders. But now things were different. She was not longer herself, just like 17 had been before.

He could only hope that it wouldn´t come to the worst.

But im the end, if it came down to Eighteen or the whole world, what choice did they have?

Krillin remembered how he had made the same choice once before, as he could not bring himself to deactivate 18 and Cell ended up absorbing her. His best friend Goku and hundreds of others died as an result, Trunks, Android 16. The entire world had nearly been destroyed.

He just could not made the same choice again, not even for her.

To that came that they did not have the Dragon Balls anymore. That meant whatever happened, nobody could reverse it later, unless of course they travelled to New Namek for theirs.

But even then, after what had happened with the Shadow Dragons they would think trice before ever using the Dragon Balls again. Not to save just a single person, even if it was her.

They didn´t even knew just how this had happened. If Seventeen was right, then Hellfighter had somehow survived the destruction of Super 17´s body and took over 18 instead. But how in the world had he managed to do that?

"Yes, your little `wife´ does indeed hear you human," the Android answered with a cold voice. "But you should not think that this makes any difference." The word human sounded like an insult out of her mouth.

For two of them it was not the first time they had seen this. Seventeen and Krillin had both been in this situation before. This time however the roles of some of them had been reversed. This time 17 was standing at their side and 18 was the `enemy´.

For both of them it was another nightmare come true.

"The question is what will you do now?" `Eighteen´ asked them.

"Is that a question? We will stop you," Vegeta claimed. "You didn´t think that we would hold back just because the Android woman used to be or ally, right?"

Krillin shot him a very quick uneasy look at his statement. But he didn´t say anything.

They all knew `holding back´ was exactly what they would do. Vegeta was bluffing.

They would do everything to get her back without harming her. Not even he would consider actually killing an ally, not anymore.

A few decades back he would have done exactly that in the blink of an eye. Gohan and Krillin both still remembered the fate of his old partner Nappa, who he had single-handely killed for failing him. But these times were over.

xxx

Now they were standing in front of an very dangerous Android, their friend and ally, Krillin´s wife, who had been turned against them.

Eighteen was just standing there, smiling.

In this moment they suddenly heard the sound of an explosion coming from... behind them, from the direction of West City.

"What was that?" Son Goten called out.

"That came from the town," Trunks responded.

They were all starring at Eighteen who was still grinning.

"What shall I say, in opposite to what you may think me and my `brother´ here are not the only leftovers of Doctor Gero´s legacy on this world," she stated.

"What?" Seventeen exclaimed.

"What does she mean?" Krillin turned to him. "Who else is there?"

"I don´t know," he answered. "I have no idea what she is talking about."

"Maybe if you think about it, you will figure it out `brother´," she commented.

"I am not your brother," he responded.

"No? maybe not but you will be again soon enough when you are back under control."

"Never."

"Enough," Vegeta called out, "she is just trying to distract you. Don´t you see that?" He addressed the three other Saiyajins. "Trunks, Gohan, Goten, go and deal with whatever has caused this. We will take care of her."

They all were looking at 18.

"What are you still standing around here?" he turned to the others as he realized Gohan, Goten and Trunks were still there, "go."

"Okay Vegeta," Gohan stated.

"Now, why don´t you just surrender?" Eighteen asked them mockingly.

Without wasting another second the three Saiyans blasted off the ground and left the others behind. Moments later they were already nearly a kilometer away.

"Forget it," Vegeta responded to her. "We will get you here and now, even if I have to beat you out of Eighteen´s body."

"You are open to try," she said.

"Seventeen, you are going from the right side. We fight together. Krillin, stay behind. If anybody else comes to interrupt the fight, blast them. As it looks she is not alone," he stated.

"We have to try to reach her somehow," the human fighter said.

"You can do that after we have beaten some sense into her," he replied.

Vegeta transformed into a Super Saiyajin. Both he and 17 attacked at the same time and 18 began to slowly fall back.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile the others had arrived back in the town, right at the source of the explosion.

Gohan, Trunks and Goten landed in front of the burning remains of a building. They all had already transformed as well.

Just a few feet from them was a dead body lying. It was a man. They saw that a ki blast had been shot straight through his chest and left a gaping scorched hole. In a short distance were two young women, both in a similar state.

It was another senseless waste of life, killing just for the sake of killing. One thing was obvious however. Whoever had done this was clearly dangerous, so much was clear.

They could not feel any ki close by, so probably another Android. That made sense. Was it the `other one´ 18 had just mentioned? they asked themselves.

To their luck this attack happened far away enough from the safe-house where Bulma and the others were. The other people however had not so much luck. They had to stop this and that as fast as possible.

In this moment they heard another blast, very close.

As they came around the next corner they finally saw the figure responsible for the destruction and froze in their tracks.

"But...how?" Goten stuttered.

"We should have known," Gohan whispered.

xxxxxxx

While all that happened, at `another place´, something else was going on.

Those events were happening inside Eighteen´s own mind. While part of her consciousness was completely aware what was going on outside, another one was trapped in her own body.

18 felt as if she was looking through a veil of smoke, as if she was watching the world over a line of monitors or through closed windows.

At the outside she was fighting Vegeta and Seventeen. During the contest she was drawing back, step by step, just like she or rather the thing in her mind had planned from the beginning.

At the same time however another battle was taking place inside herself.

Her body had just stopped using the tactic of falling back and was now holding them at bay with Invinity Bullet.

For her it was like she was looking out of a dark room, that she was sitting inside. Only able to be there and watch while her limbs were moving and her lips were talking.

But she knew she was not alone.

For the first time she had truly gained an appreciation for what 17 had gone through. Being controlled and send against the other fighters.

She deeply regretted every harsh word she had spoken against him back then, in grieve and anger. Now that she was in the same situation.

But she also knew that now she was confronted with the being who was truly responsible for Krillin´s death and all she had gone through.

"You," she mentally called out, "can you hear me? Answer me you bastard."

After a few short moments she got her reply.

"18," she was hearing a voice, "how nice of you to talk to me," he said smoothly. It was a voice sounding very similar to that of her brother, but yet different, his voice.

"How have you taken control of my body? How are you even still alive? Goku and me have killed you and Seventeen together. But I know only he got resurrected." At least in mind, she thought, recalling the liveless form of the Android-Copy.

"I don´t know what you are even so agitated about `sister´. All this here is only the result of your own actions," he told her.

"Nonsense," she replied. "Tell me, how did you manage to do that?"

"Don´t you already know? You and me share the same mind after all?"

Suddenly Eighteen had a flashback. It was as if she was seeing the events play out right in front of her.

Once again she was seeing the highway in that city. She saw herself for a short few seconds falling under Hellfighter´s control... until she heard Krillin calling out to her, bringing her back to herself and afterwards trying to do the same for her brother.

She saw the mind-controlled 17 killing Krillin and then herself attacking him, uselessly. Seventeen had been `working´ on his full potential back then, she did not. The gap between them had been small enough to surprise attack 17 and land a few `good hits´. But it was too much for her to have any real chance.

"Yes, that was when the bond between us had been first established," the voice told her. "But that is not everything, by far not. You want to know?... Remember."

Eighteen remembered. She saw and heard.

A scene appeared, Doctor Gero and the other one, Doctor Myuu, standing in front of a desolated landscape, Hell. Next to them stood another large figure with blueish skin. General Rilldo, she knew, a Machine Mutant with the ability to turn all sorts of matter into metal and manipulate it on molecular level.

In front of them was an unspezified lumb of metal, that was reforming itself under Rilldo´s power until it had taken a special shape, a shape identical with Android 17.

They were working on it with tools that the Wizard Babidi had conjured for them. 18 knew all this. But the knowledge didn´t belong to her, it was his.

"Very good," Gero said in the memory, "your General Rilldo is really as capable as you have promised."

"Of course he is. Have you doubted me?"

"No my friend I did not," Gero replied.

"And it is very good that you still possess the designs of your `Project Number 17´," Myuu stated.

"Of course I did," he responded, mirroring the words of his partner from a moment before. "This is the first step to our common goal."

Yes, Eighteen remembered how this `common goal´ had ended for him. This had to be the first time she nearly felt sorry for Gero, nearly.

"The day of my `birth´," Hellfighter stated. "But that is not important right now. Only the great goal is"

"There is no `great goal´," 18 responded. "Gero and Myuu are dead again, by your and 17´s own hand."

"You are right, my masters are gone and I am not longer able to bring them back," he admitted. "All what left is for me to fullfil their dreams and revenge. You did not think I would forget what 17 and you did to me?

I had Son Goku right in front of me, helpless. We had defeated him, me and 17, until you had interferred. You have turned 17 against me...and..."

"What we did to you? You have killed my husband," 18 shouted angrily.

"A worthless human," he commented. "What is his life against our great goal? What are all their lives? I will kill him again very soon. Your daughter, I will break her bones and crush the life out of her. Then I will continue with all the other humans on this planet, just like the great Doctor Gero has wanted it. And I will use your body to do it."

"You are sick," she yelled at him.

"That is your fault. You and 17, you have infected me with your emotions. Before that I had none. You have ruined everything, but there is still a chance..."

Eighteen saw other scenes.

She watched a cave, a large underground complex, a...computer. No, more than one. People were working on it... then they were all gone. The place was abandoned.

She saw Gero´s lab and the basement below it. Here, another computer, identical to the first one. Then she watched two men appear, her husband, many years younger and the other she recognized, Trunks the one from the future and they began to blow the entire complex up.

At last she saw the other cave, empty, but now with a stasis capsule, with a body inside, looking exactly like her own. But she knew she had never been there.

"Do you understand now?" he asked her. "Doctor Gero´s maybe greatest secret, the `Networked-Mega-System´, first created back in the days of the Red Ribbon Army and the heart of their secret empire.

There are three consoles at different places around the globe - every of them one of the most highly developed computers on this world - connected. Together they were the most complex computer intelligence that had ever been created.

It was this system that was responsible for the creation of Cell, that took care of the projects that Doctor Gero had not enough time to deal with personally. But then one day your `husband´ and this Saiyan appeared and destroyed one of the three consoles. They left the system crippled, barely a shadow of what it had once been, but still functional.

And so it continued to work in secret for years without anyone noticing, not even you and 17. It was using Doctor Gero´s old spy drones to follow the events.

Yes, it was the computer who had, as Super 17 had been destroyed, downloaded my consciousness into another body."

"Not mine," 18 realized.

"No, but very close. It had also watched Doctor Gero´s return from the dead and his newest, greatest, project, Super 17 and it took advantage of the data."

xxxxxxx

Vegeta was one of the most powerful beings this universe had ever seen. Admittedly, he had not always been this strong. In opposite to others, like Freezer, he had not been born with all his power.

While his birth strength had been immense for a Saiyan of that time, it was nothing to what he was now. But most of it he had reached by constantly improving, over years and decades.

Mostly through hard training days by day, but also through transformations, zenkais and even mystical and technological assistance. All that to bring out every single bit of his potential that he could.

First he had become a Super Saiyajin, then a SSJ2, then a SSJ God. He had learned to completely integrate the godly ki into his own and just continued to train. Then he even became a SSJ4 for a short time.

Today he could show the results of all this efforts. Even in his normal state without transforming he could easily destroy opponents like for example Majin Buu. As a SSJ he was even stronger than that. SSJ2 had become practically useless, but he had still access to all it´s power.

Right now he was fighting with everything he had and he was still not winning. 17 and 18, he grudgingly admitted, were far more than just simple Androids or even Cyborgs. He had seen the blueprints and listened to Bulma´s explanations as well.

They were beings genetically warped beyond imagination to bring out every bit of strength possible. And that combined with a practically infinite supply of artificial ki. You could hardly imagine a worse opponent.

He and 17 had just withstood the barrage of ki blasts 18 had been raining on them.

Vegeta had now changed into his SSJ2 state. It was only a very small power up in comparison to the normal SSJ anymore, but he needed every bit of strength he could get.

Otherwise he would maybe have to rely on 17´s help to bring her down and that was something he really didn´t want. He still was the Prince of the Saiyans after all.

Now he was overwhelming Eighteen once again. He landed a hard punch and send her flying backwards. But he also knew he could not hold up this level of strength forever.

He knew there was one last thing he could do to end this here quickly. But he wasn´t sure if he would succeed.

xxxxxxx

West City

Gohan, Goten and Trunks were standing before the being who had attacked the city. They could not quite believe it.

"How can that be?" Trunks said.

"Hello guys, I see you have come," the second 18 greeted them. This one was wearing the same clothes and looking nearly identical to the original as she had been activated. But none of them could have known this.

"Doctor Gero is back in Hell," Gohan stated. "There is no way he could have created you as well." Not with Piccolo watching over him as he had been told, he thought.

"True, but there is someone else who is doing the same work," she replied.

"Who?" he asked her.

"You don´t need to know," she answered. "All you need to is...die." With this words she fired a massive quick blast at them which Gohan barely managed to block.

"Stand back," he said to Goten and Trunks.

"Yes, stand back boys, this is way out of your league," the Clone-Cyborg mocked them.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile Vegeta was pushing back the original 18 even further. He had kicked her in the side and nearly send her into the side of a mountain, similar as she had done it with him all these years ago.

But instead she just caught herself in mid-air.

"Impressive, you actually seem to be a bit stronger than me right now. But how long do you think you can hold up this?" she taunted him.

Vegeta frowned. Not for much longer, he knew, but did not let it show.

In this moment suddenly 17 appeared right behind 18 and tried to grab her.

She barely managed to avoid it.

"Now now brother, attacking someone from behind is not exactly fair," she addressed him.

"Neither is controlling someone´s mind," he responded.

"I told you to stay out of this," Vegeta said to him.

"Hey usually I am all in for a fair fight," 17 answered, "but this is my sister here and she is only fighting you in the first place because she was brainwashed. You know that."

"Oh yes right, you would not hurt your sister wouldn´t you?" 18 spoke now to 17.

Suddenly however her expression changed.

"No," she shouted, "he is in my head...let me, leave me alone...17 help me. Don´t let him get me again, please. I am sorry. I am sorry for all the things I said to you, but please protect me from him," she pleaded.

For a moment 17 hesitated, not sure what to do and let his arms sink down.

Only to be punched in the face. `Eighteen´ was laughing viciously.

"I had not thought that you would actually fall for that one `brother´. This `emotions´ are really trouble, right?"

xxx

Deep inside her mind the real 18 faced a similar situation with the being that now existed inside her mind and was controlling her actions.

"The computer wanted my knowledge, my experience, 17´s experience that I had taken over from him," Hellfighter explained. "So it had isolated my consciousness and transferred it into the unfinished body of the new Android it was creating, based on the surveillance-data from Super 17 and your design. I suppressed and partly replaced `Neo 18´s´ still developing personallity and from there I then took control of you."

"I see," she replied. "All that because this blasted super-computer is still following the vision of this madman."

"Be quiet," he said to her. "You don´t know what you are talking about...no you don´t. Right now the computer should be constructing a new body for me as well. Soon we will be standing side by side...over the ruins of this world."

"No we won´t," 18 gave back, "they will destroy you."

"Even if that means destroying you as well?" he asked. "They can´t anyway," he stated. "Now that I have used you to destroy my old body and the machine that allowed Vegeta to turn into a SSJ4, there is nothing in this world anymore with the power to stand in our way, now that Son Goku is gone."

"They will find a way."

"We will see. You know, while I admit, it had not absolute complete data of Super 17, the computer was actually able to make one or two improvements. One of them was a far better control over the `secundary body´. Something like with 17 will not be repeated."

Eighteen, her mental representation, felt from one moment to the other as if she was paralized, as if chains of cold iron were locked around her.

"You 18," she heard him saying, "belong to me."

xxxxxxx

Gohan was clashing with the Clone-Android as SSJ2. The ground was crumbling and breaking beneath their feed as they tried to overpower the other.

Trunks and Goten exchanged a look.

"Damn it and we are just standing around," Goku´s second son cursed as he saw his brother fighting.

"I know what you mean. But I fear we are in the best case distractions here," Trunks replied. A second later however a thought came to him. "Unless, we could try the fusion again," he suggested.

"We haven´t tried that in years and we were still children back then," Goten reminded him.

"It can not hurt to try right?"

"Actually it can if we end up in a messed up form," Goten responded.

"Okay, but we could still try if you want to do something."

Slowly but for sure Gohan was getting weaker and the Android so far seemed completely unfazed by anything he had done. In fact Eighteen´s copy looked as if she had not even really been trying. She had just waited for him to run out of energy. I didn´t look good.

But suddenly his problem was solved, in an completely unexpected way. Another energy was approaching quickly. It was Uub.

Damn it, Neo 18 realized. This fighter called Uub was since he had merged with the Demon Buu according to the data far stronger than Gohan or any of the others here, even far stronger than her in her current state.

And he was coming closer quickly. But the data also suggested her a solution, a technique the Z-fighters had used very often in the past.

"It was a good fight Gohan," she said, "but I guess we should end it right here...and now look out," she told them.

"Hey that..." Trunks called out, realizing what she was doing. But it was already too late.

"Solar Flare," she shouted and created the to them well known bright light.

Still she took them by surprise and blinded the other fighters.

Without a moment of hesitation Neo 18 blasted off the ground and was gone.

"Damn, why do we fall for this every time?" Gohan asked nobody in particular.

"I ask myself the same thing," Trunks commented.

Seconds later Uup landed next to them.

"Hey, what is going on?" he asked them as the three could finally see again. "I felt your energy from across the planet and now I find you here. Why are you fighting Miss 18? What is going on?"

"It is good that you are here Uup," Gohan told him. "We will explain everything to you on the way, we have to go after her."

"Wait a moment," Trunks interrupted him. "There is something we want to do first." He and Goten started the fusion-dance.

xxxxxxx

Vegeta had landed another strike on 18 and this time the blow threw her to the ground.

"Why don´t you give up?" he asked her. "Even if I should run out of energy, there is still 17 here to take care of you. You will loose either way."

"So you admit that you might actually not be enough by yourself. Not exactly words fitting of the `Great Prince Vegeta´," she commented.

"What does it matter?" he asked. "What counts is that you are finished."

"Here you are wrong," she stated with a cold grin.

In this moment someone shot both Vegeta and Seventeen in the back. They had been concentrating on the opponent in front of them and there hadn´t been any ki to detect. They had no chance to see it coming. Another Android, they had trusted the others to deal with it, but obviously they had not been enough.

Seconds later they saw who it had been and barely believed their own eyes, another copy.

"Goddamnit," Vegeta yelled, "just how many of you had this nutjob Gero created," he called into Seventeen´s direction.

"I have no idea. I don´t know where this one came from."

"You will understand soon enough brother," both Eighteens said nearly simultanously while their bodies seemed to move closer and closer together. It was beginning.

Both 17 and Vegeta had just recovered from the last ki attack, but it was too late to do anything to stop it anyway. It was the same display as the last time.

The two bodies were literally merging together until there was only one figure standing in front of them.

Krillin gulped as he saw this version of his wife. He didn´t knew if he should be horrified or attracted or both.

She was now nearly one head taller as the regular Eighteen, however not as tall as Super 17 had been and much sleeker than his statue had been, had longer hair and a more defined `built´ as you could say or more simply spoken, a more impressive figure.

She was, if Krillin had to put it into one word, stunning.

They were all dead, he realized somewhere in the back of his mind. If she was as dangerous as he heard it of Super 17, then there was nobody left on this world who even stood a chance.

"Now who wants to be first?" the merged Android said to them.

But before she could say anything else, she was hit by a large ki blast that someone had fired from the sky.

"How about me?" the newly arrived figure, who was in SSJ3 mode, asked just as he landed next to them.

Seventeen had never seen him before, but by his appearance it was clear that he was obviously the fusion of Trunks and Son Goten. Vegeta and Krillin also recognized him instantly.

The energy radiating from the newcomer was immense, not as high as one of the two SSJ4, but impressive.

A few seconds later Gohan and Uub landed a short distance behind him.

"Gotenks," Krillin called out in surprise.

"Hey Krillin, long time not seen," he greeted him. "We will talk a bit later after I have stopped your wife and brought her back to her senses." With that he fired an entire volley of blasts at the newly created Super 18.

"You idiot, stop it," 17 shouted at him. "Did you not know that she can absorb energy? Or had Goku not bothered to mention that?"

"What?" Gotenks called now out dumbfounded and instantly stopped shooting. "No, he didn´t say a single word."

"Well, father couldn´t have known that another Android like that would appear," Gohan reminded them, "and we had other problems at that time with the Shadow Dragons running amok."

Eighteen was now surrounded by an aura of glowing energy that slowly vanished as she absorned it.

"Good job you two," Vegeta commented, "you made her even stronger than before. You have really taken a great moment to use the fusion again."

"Sorry Vegeta," Gotenks replied.

"Now, why don´t we start start with you?" Super 18 stated. "As I remember you had a duel before with my old self. You know Vegeta there had always been something I wanted to tell you. You are truly pitiful, aren´t you?

All this years you have been pretending to rival Son Goku, while the whole time you were using the high-gravity trainer, a trainings method he had invented.

You needed the Room of Spirit and Time to surpass me and you only had the chance to train there in the first place because Son Goku told you about it. You trained there twice as long as he did and were still weaker.

But you instantly grew arrogant enough to sacrifice my life against Cell because you thought you could take him in his so called perfect state and you got not only Son Goku but also your own son killed.

You had the Wizard Babidi give you more power just to match Goku and you still ended up weaker than him.

And then finally you needed a machine to finally become his equal. One that I have destroyed with a single shot. Prince of the Saiyans? You are a joke. You are nothing without Son Goku and Bulma who had been helping you along at every step."

"You know," Vegeta replied, not showing any reaction at the outside, "this words would actually mean something if they were coming from the real 18 and not from the creature who is controlling her like a puppet."

"You wound me Vegeta."

"Whatever," he said, "in one point you are right, Son Goku and Bulma had always been helping me a lot and I never have appreciated it.

Maybe you are right. I have been a pitiful little man in the past. But this time is over. I am standing on my own now."

As he said this, he was transforming before their eyes into a SSJ4.

"Vegeta," Uub exclaimed.

"You have done it," Gohan congratulated.

"I see I have underestimated you. You have learned to make this transformation without the help of the machine," 18 observed. "But you should not think that this will change anything. You are still unable to use ki attacks against me and you will still run out of energy sooner or later. Not to mention that your friends there will not stay fused for much longer."

Vegeta hated to admit it but she had a point here. There were several disadvantages for him, especially if he wanted to stop her without killing her. He still faced the same problem like a short time ago, he would run out of energy and she not. To that came the energy Gotenks had unknowingly given to her. Even as a SSJ4 he was not sure if he could win.

"We will just have to overpower you together before that happens," he said to her confidently.

"Oh really?"

Vegeta, Uub and Gotenks attacked at the same time. But they were trying not to cause any real damage to her, 18 no longer had such reservations.

Uub was the strongest under the Z-fighters with the exceptions of the SSJ4. But the gap between them was wide and here, as shown before with Super 17, he was completely outmatched.

He was holding her on one of her arms while Gotenks and Vegeta were trying to throw her down. But she shook him off quite easily and then shot a ball of energy at Gotenks who was blown off her.

She was then left struggling hand to hand with Vegeta.

Seventeen was watching his `sister´. By the data he was receiving she was, in her original state, actually a bit weaker than Super 17 had been. Whoever had constructed 18´s copy had probably copied the original design but it seems he was unable to completely replicate Doctor Myuu´s alien technology.

Still the energy she had absorbed from Gotenks should be more than enough to make up for that. He wished more than ever that he had not let her fool him into letting her destroy his own double.

But he had another idea, something he would maybe be able to do.

In this moment the time-limit of the fusion had ended. Gotenks was again separating into Trunks and Goten. The two half-saiyans were now standing next to each other on the battlefield.

Enough was enough, Vegeta decided in this moment. Ally or not Eighteen needed to be stopped before even more people died, even if it meant killing her.

This was however also the moment in which Seventeen decided to get active. Like once before he was using the systems that he had quite ironically adopted from Hellfighter.

He send out a mental call and connected himself with Eighteen´s mind, trying to reach his sister inside of the being before him.

"Vegeta, Uub," he said to the others, "I have an idea how we can stop her."

"18," he called out in his mind, "do you hear me? Answer me?"

"Seventeen," he finally heard her answer. But he could also detect another presence in her, the same he remembered from his time as Super 17, Hellfighter.

"Eighteen, fight back, free yourself. I did the same thing, with your help."

"I can not, they have improved the control, because of the last time."

"I will assist you," he answered.

And while he thought that he connected his implanted systems and also his own mind nearly completely with Eighteen´s deeper and deeper and at the same time, Super 18 froze in her movement. She had stopped fighting.

17´s eyes started to glow red and 18´s did the same.

He mentally projected the picture of a hand reaching out to her and her reaching back.

"Krillin," he said to him, "talk to her, try to reach her."

He of course instantly followed 17´s words. He had been waiting for a chance to do exactly that the whole time anyway.

"Eighteen, please come back to us. Marron wants to see you. We miss you. We know you are not responsible for what had happened."

"Be...be quiet...human," Super 18 stammered. It was clear that she was reacting to his words. They were nearly sure they could see tears flowing out of her eyes.

"Good Krillin, you are reaching her," 17 stated.

Super 18 was now standing in front of them completely motionless, literally frozen in place. While her mind was being forced into two directions, her body was now not longer showing any reaction, completely standing still.

"Vegeta," 17 addressed him, "Prepare your best shot and when I say it...blast her with all you have."

"What?" Krillin called out.

"You knew that it would come to this," he replied. "Either we get Eighteen back or nothing.

"No you won´t," 17 heard another voice in his mind. It was Hellfighter.

"You know she would rather die than stay like this," he said to both of them at the same time.

Next to them Vegeta prepared his Final Flash attack. After a few more seconds he was ready to fire.

And he was aiming at the Android who still seemed to be unable to move.

Seventeen knew that Eighteen´s own consciousness was holding it in place, with a bit help of himself.

"You are not leaving," both of them said mentally to Hellfighter´s presence.

"Do it," Seventeen said to Vegeta.

"No," both both of the twins heard a voice calling out inside her heads. In this moment the fused Android separated once again back into two before their eyes.

Two Android Eighteen were being thrown to two different sides.

"Now... this one," 17 called to Vegeta and pointed to the 18 at the right.

"No," they heard the voice shouting once again as the replicated Android, who was also Hellfighter´s temporally host-body was hit by the Final Flash of the SSJ4 and vaporized.

The other 18 was now lying on the ground before them and was slowly standing up. They saw that she had indeed been crying.

"Eighteen," Krillin asked her carefully, "are you back?"

"Yes," she answered I am back. Thank you," she said first to 17, then to the others, "for everything."

xxxxxxx

Two weeks later

By now Bulma had, just as she had promised, found her way to integrate all the parts and cellular components of their doppelgangers into their own bodies, to make it impossible for Gero or Myuu to control them in this ways again.

She had actually constructed new components for 18, since her duplicate body had been completely destroyed. It had now been that hard with what they had found.

xxx

"Physically it will nearly be just like as when you had been fusionated. You will have the additional power and you will be able to absorb energy," Bulma had explained to them. "So essentially you will be Super 17 and 18 when the integrated systems are activated, only that you will be yourself now and not be controlled by someone else and free of Gero´s programming of course. And your design will be complete now, so that it can not longer be manipulated from the outside," she pointed out.

"I hope so, I am really not in the mood to have to stop this two again," Vegeta commented.

"But in everything else we will be exactly like before, even with the new components?" 18 wanted to know.

"Well, maybe you will look a few years older," Bulma stated.

"Okay, that is actually a good idea," Mari pointed out. "What," she asked, "do you have any idea how many people have been looking at me strangely when they see that my husband is still looking like a teenager after all these years?

I am lucky that we are living in the wildpark-area, but whenever we are visiting a town it is just awkward. Of course 17 always acts as if he doesn´t care," she told them all. "Krillin can maybe get away with this. What do I say? They probably think that he must just be some kind of great catch when they see him with someone like 18, but me..."

She was by now giving a glare to the former monk who was married to her husband´s sister.

"Hey, you can hardly blame me for that," Krillin defended himself.

Behind them some of the others had started to chuckly, even Vegeta a bit.

xxx

It was over, there was only one last thing to do.

17 and 18, both in their new super-forms, were now standing in two different mountain areas at different parts of the planet. Either of them was standing in front of an underground complex that contained a still working computer.

It were the two remaining components of Doctor Gero´s great AI system. With the information 18 had found out from Hellfighter, it had been easy to locate. They had also found the remains of an half-finished Android body inside of one of the installations, probably the `new body´ for Hellfighter he had been talking about.

"Are you ready 17?" Eighteen send him a mental message.

"Whenever you say 18," he answered.

Both of them threw at the same time a charged ball of ki energy at the two super computer and both parts of the Networked-Mega-System exploded nearly simultanously.

"Now 18, it is finally over," 17 said to her.

They both ascended into the air to fly back to their meeting place and from their to kame-house, where both their families where at the moment.

A few minutes later however, they all received another surprising telepathic message, all of the Z-fighters and their friends. This one however not from anyone on the planet, but from deep space.

"Hey guys," the voice spoke to them, "it is me, Son Goku. I only wanted to tell you that I have arrived at my destination. I am sorry that I had to leave you all like that, but you see, I am not exactly alive anymore. I am something else now.

I promise that we will all see each other again, but it is possible that it will be only in the Afterlife."

Son Goku´s final message would continue for another few minutes and he would also get a few replies from the others. They all knew it would be the last they hear from him for a long time.

xxxxxxx

Mirai timeline

An entire dimension away, the demi-saiyajin called Trunks had been watching detailed recording that showed him the most of what had happened during these events and various others.

Most of them were from the same timeline, the past he had travelled to before. But some were also from other realities, different worlds where things had happened a bit differently as he knew it.

The conclusion of some of the things he had seen were shocking.

Why was he even here? a part of him asked himself, cooperation with a being he had not the slightest bit of trust for. How had it come to this?

Trunks remembered:

xxxxxxx

Three days earlier

He was standing at a valley close to West City and watching over the landscape.

It was not all too often that he had some time for himself like that. He had just ended his training-schedule for today a few minutes ago. The earlier part of the day he had spend helping the people in the town with the rebuilding.

He was Trunks Briefs, the son of Vegeta and the last living Saiyajin in his world.

This was the way he was spending most of his days in this time.

It was by now five years ago that he had defeated the Androids, two years that he had destroyed his dimension´s version of Cell.

Since then the life on the Earth of his timeline had been peaceful. He did not knew yet that it would not be for much longer.


Autors note: This was by far the longest chapter I have ever written, over 7000 words and it will probably be the longest of this story. But I wanted to bring the first arc to an end here.

The next one will play in the Mirai timeline and Trunks will take over as Main Character.