A/N: Thank you reviewers, I love you all. And please forgive me……
Chapter 8
A small drop of water fell on the table, followed by another and another one.
Krillin was crying.
He knew that it was stupid, he knew that it was pointless, he knew that it didn't get him any further, but he couldn't help doing it anyway. It was like his mind had turned into a great storm, filled with thunder, and rain, lots and lots of rain.
Krillin had been sitting like this for half an hour now. Mr. Yamoa and his crew had left after they gave their horrible explanation. Number Eighteen and Seventeen, no, Mina and her brother where about to be destroyed.
It was them or the planet, them or 6 billion other innocent people. Krillin knew that it was the best thing to do. If you had to choose between two and 6 billion the choice was easy, in theory it is anyway.
In real life, things where never easy.
Krillin looked at the table, a small puddle of water had formed there from his tears. Krillin scanned the room trough his watery eyes, making the room look like it was full of fog.
Goku was in the room, he was standing against a wall, arms crossed and lots and lots of pity on his face. The others where upstairs. They couldn't bare to see Krillin cry this much, knowing that they where responsible.
After Yamoa left Krillin wanted to run after Mina, warn her about her horrible fate and protect her. But the others wouldn't let him go. They decided that it was for the best that he stayed here and that things would go as the way they where supposed to go.
Mina was a robot, nothing more. And that robot formed a treat to the world, so she had to die. It was not like they where killing a human being, it was just a robot.
But Krillin knew that it wasn't true, Mina wasn't just a robot. She was real, she had kissed him, he had loved her, he still loved her for crying out loud. And he had to stay here in stead of saving her.
Something had to be possible. The Dragon, the guardians, anyone had to be able to help her. Why did they all accept this like it was nothing.
Krillin started to look at the table again, it was the only thing he could do right now.
"Krillin" Goku's voice came.
"Goku please don't start it. Don't say it's for the best, or it's the only way or something like that. Just don't."
"Krillin I want you to go after her." Goku said.
Krillin looked up from the table. Goku was standing in front of him right now.
"I can't promise you that things will become ok after that, I won't help you and I won't protect her from Yamoa, and I can't promise you that you will do that either. But I thing she deserves a chance to tell her part of the story. Yamoa may have told us what she is, but she alone can tell you her side. Only she can do that."
"You'll let me go?" Krillin said.
"Be careful buddy." Goku replied.
Krillin smiled, and like a madman he jumped out the window and flew after Mina.
A group of men was hiding in the forests, weapons ready. They where all well trained military men. All of them obeyed orders without question and all of them where willing to die for the greater good. They knew that their boss had made the right decision by ordering them to kill the monsters. Even though they didn't knew the whole story, they knew that they where protecting the planet, and that was enough for them. Two lives in exchange for 6 billion, a fair trade.
One of the men looked at something that looked like a radar, he made a few signs in the sky and the group followed him.
Fifteen minutes later they found their targets. Two youngster sitting on the forest ground, not aware of their surroundings or of he people around them.
The man who had looked at the radar a little while ago started making signals in the air again using his hands, not making a single sound. His group started to spread out trough the forest, surrounding the two youngsters who where still sitting very quiet on the ground.
One of the two started talking in an odd language, the other one replied. The men in the forest seemed not to understand the language, yet they tensed as they heard the two speak.
All of them began preparing their weapons. It didn't take more than a few seconds for them to do. However, it made a sound. And that sound was just enough.
The two youngsters on the forest grounds jumped up, both of them ready to fight. The men surrounding them aimed their weapons at the youngsters, but it was too late already. The two had jumped in the air, ready to fly away.
"Shoot them!" the leader shouted.
The men began firing, however the two could easily avoid the strange small objects that where shot at them. They flew towards each other and after that they flew away.
The leader of the group said a few rude words and started taking out a phone. "Targets number Seventeen and Eighteen are flying North West. Their expected goal is the ocean, we are following but send more crews."
The group of men packed up their weapons and ran towards the helicopter they had left earlier.
"Ky ni uta?" Number Seventeen asked.
Eighteen simply nodded in reply.
The two where now hiding in a great collection of rocks somewhere near the ocean. It wasn't really a cave, but it might as well have been one. They where completely invisible form anyone outside, even from the ocean you couldn't see the two.
Eighteen stared over the ocean, trying to remind how it was to float there, completely helpless. But all she could remember was Krillin. The way he pulled her out of the water, gave her a place to stay, gave her food, kissed her.
Even when she closed her eyes she wasn't filled with the usual nightmares, all she could see was him. What had that guy done to her?
She felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned around. Her brother was looking at her, he didn't say anything, but she could see it in his eyes, he knew, just like she knew it.
They where dying.
Suddenly the twins where frightened by a terrible explosion, destroying nearly all the rocks surrounding them. Eighteen jumped into the ocean, it had after all saved her before. She wanted to scream to her brother that he had to do the same thing, but the moment she came back above water she saw him.
In stead of going down, he went into the air. But the flying rocks blocked his sight and he couldn't see the enemies coming.
He was first hit in his right shoulder. The object hitting him was tiny, but deadly. It was a small arrow, especially created to take him out.
The next arrow to hit him went in his leg, after that one followed in his heart. He turned his head, his eyes saying only one thing: "run!"
Eighteen could only scream as she saw her brother being killed by the horrible arrows. But she understood the message in her eyes and she dived underwater. There she screamed again. A power rose inside of her, a power she never felt before. And suddenly she emerged from the water, and with a speed even too fast for a superhero she flew away, leaving the men alone with her brother's body.
Krillin's hand moved to the left side of his chest. Suddenly he felt an intense pain in his heart, as if someone had done something terrible to him. But he knew this wasn't his pain, it was Eighteen's. She was in trouble, and somehow her knew where to find her.
He turned south in the air and began to fly, hoping that he would reach her in time.
It took him less than five minutes to find her. She was sitting on a mountain, dangerously in the open. He landed beside her, she turned around and smiled.
"Mina.." he began.
"You know what it means by now, I suppose" she replied.
Krillin nodded.
They both where silent for a few minutes.
"You can ask me" Eighteen said. "I know you want to."
Krillin smiled, he looked down at the ground, as if somehow ashamed, then he blurted it out: "what are you?"
Eighteen smiled back. "Do you really want to know?"
Krillin simply nodded.
"I used to be human. I was born, together with my brother about nineteen years ago. Our mother died giving birth to us, so we where raised by our father." Eighteen gave a sigh. "We where never normal kids, strange things happened around us. The closed on which the cookie jar stood broke down once, for instance. Or a plant that looked like a monster at night died without any explanation. My father thought it was coincidence, but it wasn't, and there where people who found out real soon about us."
Eighteen was silent again for a while.
"My father got visitors once, strange men who asked questions about us. They pretended to be doctors, coming from the local hospital, wanting to do some tests on us because they where concerned about our health. But my father didn't trust them, he threw them out. We where four that day, and after that we where followed."
"The men where everywhere, sometimes obviously, sometimes hidden. But they where always there. My father tried going to the police several times, but he had no prove so they couldn't help him. But even with the men we had a fairly happy time together. But when we got older, things got worse. The strange things became scarier. Cars that woke us up at night had accidents. People that where mean to us got sick. We never wanted it to happen, but somehow it did. And when we where five years old, it went terrible wrong."
My brother and I where bullied at school by the other kids. Most of the time we coped with it. But this time things got worse. The other kids started throwing stuff at us, calling us names, the teacher couldn't ignore it any longer and she made some of the other kids stay, and our father talk to their parents. I'm not sure how it exactly happened but it turned into a fight. My father was shouting, the parents where shouting. My brother and I tried shutting it out, but we got so scared and angry. Things started falling down, the entire place began to shake, and then the place broke down. We destroyed the entire building without realizing it, and everyone in it."
Eighteen held her hands in front of her face for a while.
"It was a disaster. So many people where dead, my brother and I where unconscious. Don't know what exactly happened after that. But my brother and I where taken. The men who followed us took us someplace, to protect the rest of the world against us. They did all sorts of tests on us, they didn't even know what we where, but somehow they managed to figure out what was wrong with us."
"Apparently there is a power hiding within us. A strange power that has only one purpose: to destroy. History has some records of strange accidents and deaths occurring around our ancestors. The power is genetically transmitted, but because it is so destructive, most people bearing it don't last long. My brother and I are the last in the world. The group that held us captive saw potential in us. If they managed to control our powers, they could turn us into dangerous and powerful weapons. So they started turning us into androids."
Eighteen stopped talking once again. Tears began to form in her eyes.
"It began with a few small operations. But it soon got worse. The put stuff in and out of us daily. At night we where put in a small cell together and watched by camera's. We developed a language together, to prevent them from hearing what we said. I forgot to speak the normal human language a long time ago, but somehow the memory came back to me."
"When we turned twelve, our powers had developed incredible. We where trained into martial arts, and even the strongest masters couldn't beat us. The combination of our powers and the mechanics into us made us unbeatable. But the people there where afraid that we would rebel, so they split us up. If we behaved properly, we where allowed to see each other once a year."
"After a few more years I couldn't take it anymore. The pain, the fear, it became too much for me to take, and I escaped, jumped into the ocean, and well, you know the rest."
Krillin simply looked at her. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't. What could you say to a person who had suffered so much?
"Eighteen…Mina…I"
She smiled, "thank you Krillin. You've shown me some wonderful things in the past few days. You've given me so much, more than anyone has ever given me. And I'm really glad that you helped me."
"I can still help you Mina, we can hide together, and figure out a way to free you from all of this"
Eighteen shook her head, "no, we can't."
"This power inside me Krillin, it's growing, it's becoming instable. And in less than one hour, it'll destroy this entire planet. The only way to stop this power, is to stop the person bearing it."
Krillin shook his head "No, that's not true. We can use the dragonballs, the dragon will be able to free you from this power."
"Free me perhaps, but he can't destroy it. So it'll search for another bearer and the same thing will happen, but I'm the last person bearing it. If I die, this evil will be destroyed for good."
Krillin looked at her. "No, no way. That's not fair and I won't let you, you don't have to die Mina you don't."
"I know it isn't fair Krillin. I love you, and if this would be any different, we could've been great together. We could get married and be together.."
Eighteen was crying now.
"We…we could have a beautiful baby girl, and grow old. And I'm sure that it can happen in another world, but not in this one. Every moment that I live I put this earth in more and more danger. If I have kids, they will spread this evil across the planet even more. Don't you see, I have to die."
"I won't let you" Krillin whispered.
"Kiss me" Eighteen said.
Krillin looked at her for a moment, then he placed his lips upon hers. For one brief moment they both where truly happy, away from the world and all the pain. Just away, and together. Eighteen gave a small sigh.
"I won't let you" Krillin said between the kissed.
"No, I know you don't" Eighteen replied. She pressed her eyes together real tight. "Forgive me" she whispered. She moved her arm, and with one quick blow to the head Krillin lay still on the ground.
She stood up, looking at him. The only man she ever loved apart from her brother and father. The only lover she has ever had. She gave a smile, and after that she jumped into the air.
The beach was completely silent when Eighteen landed there, even though there where hundreds of people on the beach. The men tensed as she landed, she looked up to them one more time seeing their frightened faces and their enormous weapons. She gave a small smile, and a single tear fell from her eye.
One of the men shouted something. After that a flash of light came and hundreds of tiny arrows flew towards Eighteen, she looked up again, seeing the faces of her brother, her father and Krillin, then, nothing.
Mr. Yamoa was sitting in his office. He had made a mistake, a terrible mistake. His main goal should've been to protect the planet. In stead he nearly destroyed it. He knew that they where coming. The people that helped number Eighteen would come, demanding more information. If things would get really bad they might even expose him. He had to prevent it.
The safety of the world came first. And there was only one last thing he could do to achieve that.
He looked at his computer and typed in a few codes.
The message on the screen was bright green.
"All systems and buildings will self destruct in, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ……….."
The end
A/N: Please tell me what you thought of this story.
