Chapter Thirty-six - Aftermath
North Kai smiled as he watched the on going... spar. Well, that's what he and Chaotzu were calling it. Really, it was more of a one sided pounding. Chaotzu hadn't even been touched yet while Tien, Enzeru, and Mitsuki were all bruised and exhausted. It was the same thing that had happened every time they'd spared over the last nine days. Of course, the little guy had the advantage of a dead body, of being stronger than even Enzeru, and of course there was...
"Kaioken!" Chaotzu called, surging in toward Enzeru, faster than the blue haired woman could see, and kicking her in the stomach, doubling her over. He then zipped up above her and smashed his foot into the back of her head, driving her down into the ground of the Kai's small planetoid, and into unconsciousness. Meanwhile Tien and Mitsuki charged at him together but he suddenly vanished from where he'd been, appeared behind them, and fired off twin blasts of blue energy that slammed into their backs with a loud bang.
Tien wavered in the air for a moment and then fell from the sky as he passed out as well. Mitsuki, however, whirled on the small Human and fired off a stream of energy but Chaotzu blocked it with ease and then was suddenly in front of her slamming the elbow of a short arm into her face. As the woman wavered and then fell to the ground with the other two the North Kai turned his attention back to the moral world for a moment. 18 and the others were due on Saiya soon and he wanted to see how far away they were. "Oh, closer than I thought." he thought, spotting their ship descending through the planet's atmosphere.
Turning his focus back to his own world he quickly moved about the fallen fighters, channeling a little power into them to bring them back to wakefulness. As Enzeru stirred he turned to where Yamcha and Krillin were still trying to hit Gregory. "They've arrived." he called over.
Krillin lost his hold on the mallet and it went sailing off and smashed through one of the windows on the Kai's small house, but he ignored it and hurried over to the Kai's side. Marron clambered out of her seat and hurried over to join them as well, nearly tripping over her own feet in her haste. A moment later they were looking in on Saiya during the conversation between the two sides.
"You have to understand." Gohan was saying. "We..."
"I understand just fine." Bra interrupted.
"I... never dreamed... they'd tear apart from the inside." Krillin said softly.
"Especially not over something like this." Enzeru added.
Marron couldn't help but agree with them, especially since she was the reason this was all happening. More than anything that had happened since waking up on Saiya two months ago she found this the most unbelievable. She still couldn't think of herself as anything but just another random person, no one special. So the idea that her death could cause something like this... it seemed crazy to her.
"Marron was my Mate." Bra said, drawing the blonde's attention back to the on going conversation on Saiya. "You can't honestly think I'd just roll over, let you get away with killing her? I intend to see justice done." Marron couldn't help it, she started crying again. Fortunately, through the link the Kai was providing, tears didn't seem to impede her vision any.
A few moments later 18 began to glow. "What... is that!" Krillin cried as the Cyborg finished her transformation.
"She transformed?" the Kai wondered. "Not the natural transformation, though. Altered by Gero's genetic tweaking, perhaps? This is quite unexpected. I had thought that her genetic alterations, as well as her power being from a generator and not her own ki, prevented this."
"When did... did that happen?" Marron stammered. She'd never seen it before and Vegeta apparently hadn't either.
"Hard to say." said the North Kai as 18 slugged Vegeta. "Though I would assume it's how she was able to kill Trunks."
They watched on in silence for a while until... "I... hadn't realized she'd picked up so many of our moves." Yamcha said as 18 fired off the Kamehameha.
"It makes sense." said Krillin. "She'd already had the generator then so she could use energy attacks. She could practice everything she saw in private."
"What's with the odd energy, though?" asked Enzeru.
Mitsuki glanced over at her sister for a moment before looking back at the battle again. She was still getting the hang of sensing ki so she'd thought it was just her poor skills. "That's not just me, then?" she asked. "I can't focus on it for long with hurting my head."
"No, I can feel it too." said Tien. "Any ideas, North Kai?"
The Kai pursed his lips a little. He'd noticed the odd nature of the energy coming from 18 as well but had no idea what it meant. "Maybe its related to her generator. Some sort of over lap between her ki and the artificial energy she normally uses." he suggested. It was the only theory he had and it made some level of sense. The unnatural energy could easily be distorting the flow of her ki causing the power fluctuations and pattern shifts they were feeling.
They watched in silence again then until 18 unleashed her final attack. "A-amazing!" Marron cried in shock.
"She... stood at the center of that?" Chaotzu wondered in shock.
"It's normally a planet destroying attack." the small Kai said. "Fired from an altitude it can blast its way down into a planet's core and rip the world apart from the inside with relative ease. Especially with her new level of power. Detonated on the surface like this there's little chance of planetary destruction but it would be devastating to anything caught in the blast. That bubble that formed around her, though, was a safe zone. The attack wont hurt her." As the light faded, and he saw 18 on one knee, he frowned. She obviously hadn't been harmed by the attack but she seemed exhausted. "Maybe she's just not used to having expendable energy and burned through it too fast." the Kai thought.
Marron suddenly smiled as Bra flew out to shield 18. "See?" she said. "I told you Bra would protect her." Krillin didn't say anything, but he smiled as well.
"And so another leaves..." Enzeru said in shock as she watched Videl enter the saucer ship right before the Kai cut the link. "If they keep this up we wont even have to fight them."
"Yeah, well, I'm not going to hold my breath." said Yamcha, turning back toward where Gregory was now laying on the ground napping. "Time to get back to work."
XXX
Bulma had nearly fallen over when the explosions had shaken the palace. And then the sirens had sounded and she knew. They'd come at last. She'd rushed over to her terminal and watched the battle, start to finish. She was scared for Bra, but the fact that Vegeta didn't launch his attack at her made her feel a little better at least. As she watched Videl and Buu follow after the four of them she sighed in relief, Bra would be safe now, for a little while longer. Turning from the screen she looked over at her equations again. "Though... this might explain a few things..." she said to herself. Ever since Bra had left she'd been working on her equations almost non-stop, going from the events of Gorneo onward. Both to know what effect it would have and in the hope of learning Bra would stay safe.
She'd first noticed the issues shortly before Videl had come to visit her that day eighteen days ago. Things weren't adding up. That was still normal with the predictive model, she'd not yet gotten the Dragons properly factored in so discrepancies were still rampant in it. But her stability model wasn't adding up anymore, either, and that hadn't made sense to her. She'd factored in everything, she'd thought. She had thought the deaths of everyone on Gorneo, including Marron and Trunks, had been the only major power shifts that day. At least, in innate strength. The power dynamic of the entire universe had shifted then, with the departure of four Masters and the death of a fifth.
At first she wondered if what had happened to Cold and Inferna was related to the discrepancies. She'd run a model factoring that in but it still came out wrong. More wrong than it had with them out, so she'd removed them again. She'd even worked in Marron's power spike, giving her a level matching Gohan's since she didn't have exact figures for her. She couldn't figure how a Human, one without any training at all at that, could have had so much power though. And her stability equation agreed. Putting Marron in with anything more than the 9 that was in her civilian record file skewed the results. As far as the universe was concerned that was Marron's maximum level of power.
That also had her confused. The fact that Bra had witnessed the power spike told her that it had actually happened, Vegeta hadn't just invented it as an excuse to eliminate Marron. But it made no sense. Trunks and Bra had sensed the power spike which meant it had to be ki. But ki drew upon the natural Ether reserves of the universe and returned to the natural Ether reserves when the wielder died. If Marron's power had spiked to over nine million then she should have released nine million back into the system when she died. But she hadn't. The skewed results were proof of that. She had a few ideas for what might have caused it, but nothing solid. She'd even gone over the DNA file Capsule Corp. had on her from the girl's application, but nothing on it seemed to account for the power either.
She decided to put it aside for the time being, however. 18's transformation was a new factor, something she could work on. One that Bulma thought might account for her distorted equation. It was a power shift she hadn't previously known of. So she quickly set about re-working her math from the Gorneo period and beyond. Previously 18 hadn't drawn upon ki at all, her actual ki level had only been 4. Now, however, she did. Bulma wasn't sure how much of the woman's power was still supplied by her generator, not that it really mattered. That power was artificial. Created by the generator and fully dissipated afterwards, no effect on the Ether or universal stability.
But her ki level had increased. She'd checked with the scanners while watching the fight, having noticed the odd aura. The highest level she'd read during the battle had been 250,000,000, though it hadn't stayed there long. Constantly fluxing between 235,000,000 and 250,000,000 and sometimes dropping even lower. Since it had never gone over the 250 mark Bulma figured it was a viable maximum to put her at and began plugging it into the equation. She wasn't sure how the absorption and dissipation would work with 18, though. She figured she'd have to reverse engineer that bit from information she gathered around it.
After about a half hour she finally finished working out the equation and stepped back to look it over again. "Hmmm?" she wondered, blinking. She moved her gaze back and went over it again. "What? But... that's not..." She moved back a step further and gave the boards another look then moved over to her SyncScope to look at it. It was now displaying a red 85. She twisted the knob back and set it to just before the battle between 18 and Vegeta and the 85 became an 87 and she stared at in shock. It was the first decrease she'd seen in... years.
Pushing a button on the side she let the scope flow forward through time again and watched closely. Suddenly the line on the scope started going crazy and the 87 began to drop. 86... 85... 84... 80... 75... 69 "What... the..." The number finally stopped at 65 and held there as the line on the screen stabilized again. It held for a few moments and then began to slowly tick up again. When it hit 74 it held there for several minutes before the line on the scope flat-lined for a second, then the number jumped to the 85 it had been at when Bulma had approached it.
The Human rubbed her temples as she stared at the screen of the scope. That just didn't make any sense, but neither did her equation. The equation refused to accept the 250,000,000 reading that 18 had put out. It was skewed off even more now, with the Cyborg's new power added in, than it had been before. Just like with... "Wait a second..." she said, twisting the knob back again. Once more the scope rewound in its records of the universe's energy levels. Back and back she went, back eighteen days to Gorneo. She watched the time display in the corner and stopped about an hour or so before Bra had broken into the meeting. The red number was now 72.
Once again she watched as the scope suddenly went crazy, though not nearly as much as what she'd just seen. And again the numbers dropped. 71, 70, 69, 68, down to 62 before stopping. And then, a few moments later, they climbed back up. But it stopped at 71, it didn't go all the way back up. Swallowing a lump that had formed in her throat Bulma twisted the knob again and went back further, all the way back to the day that Kakkarotto and Buu had fought, the day that Marron's power had spiked. She made a guess as to when that was and set the scope to a few minutes before it.
The number at the bottom now read 65. She watched closely as the time on the display ticked away, waiting, holding her breath. And then it happened again. The scope went crazy, the number on the screen dove down. 64, 60, 55, all the way down to 50 in a fraction of a second, and then right back up again, but stopping at only 62 instead of 65. She remembered her conversation with Marron that day, following Buu's defeat. Marron had read it at only 63 then, she'd seen the 62 reading now on the screen but not the higher reading from before.
"But... why?" Bulma wondered, setting the scope back to the present. "How? How would Marron's power spike restore the flow of Ether? Why would 18's transformation do the same?" She turned and looked over at her equation. "And if the two of them were adding to the fl..." Bulma's eyes widened and she hurried over to her board again, quickly erasing the equation she'd done factoring in 18's transformation. She could think of only one possible explanation for what she'd seen in the scopes. It made no real sense to her, it should be impossible, but it was the only answer. No matter how improbable it was if the equation supported it...
It took her nearly an hour to work it all out, factoring in just what she knew. Marron's power spike, 18's transformation on Gorneo and again on Saiya... And it worked. It wasn't perfect, she could tell that, there were still holes, but it was correcting the errors she'd found in her equation. Errors that hadn't made sense before, but did now. "By... the... Kais...!" Bulma breathed, eyes widening as she dropped her chalk.
XXX
"Interesting." Gero mused, rubbing his chin. He'd brought up a recording of the fight between Vegeta and 18 and just finished viewing it. "I'm not sure what could have caused that. It wasn't something I designed, that much I know. And it certainly couldn't have been chance, something that complex... no, not chance. With all the missions she's been on, though..." he shrugged.
"Outside tampering?" asked Vegeta.
"Possible. Not highly likely, but possible." Gero reached out and flicked off the monitor. "Not that it really matters."
"No, I suppose not." replied the Sai-jin. He'd only just gotten out of the Regen Tanks a little while ago. He hadn't been seriously injured but he'd been sore and hadn't felt like waiting days for his injuries to heal. The first thing he'd done after exiting the tank was head down to Gero's labs to speak with him. "This changes things with pursuing her and the others, though. I don't think your plan will work, now."
"Oh, it will work." Gero said. Vegeta raised an eyebrow at that as the scientist turned from his computer to face him and continued. "I've already made all the needed adjustments and modifications. I even took into account the unlikely chance Pan would ascend to the fourth level during my design work, thus 18's new power is still well within range. Of course, this makes the control all the more important. At peak power they will be even stronger than you are. Near comparable to Gohan's maximum, I would expect. It depends on how much energy loss is incurred while running in combination, something I can't fully anticipate or adjust for without more time. Unimportant, though. Even without full calibration it'll be more than enough to get the job done."
Vegeta frowned. He knew that Gero knew what he was talking about but he found it... hard to believe that a machine could possess more power than him. Though 18 had certainly come close to matching him, and she'd definitely done better in the fight. He'd have lost for sure if she hadn't worn herself out so fast. "Do you have something in mind for that control?" he asked at last.
"In fact, I do." replied Gero. "A system I developed several years ago but have not had the chance to fully utilize. I ran numerous tests with a variety of subjects so I know it works and is effective but I've never had need to use it in actual application. I call it the Mind Digitization System, or MDS. The MDS can effectively transfer a mind from a living organic being into a computerized brain of my design thusly transforming that person into a machine. The transfer isn't perfect, the end result is not an identical mind to the original, but the majority of traits and factors remain unchanged. I just need you to find me three people you believe are good for the task. One with leadership qualities and two others who will follow his orders."
"What about Gohan, Kakkarotto, and myself?"
Gero shook his head. "The process destroys the mind of the, er, donor." he said. "Renders them effectively brain dead. Besides, even if it didn't I figure it would be unwise to have two Sai-jin Kings running around. It is also important that they are willing participants with full knowledge of what is to happen. It is the only way to ensure they wont resent the procedure and defect in time themselves."
Vegeta had to admit that Gero had a point there about a second Sai-jin King. "Alright. I can think of a few who would be suitable for this. I'll check around, see if I can entice a few of them into it. How long before you can actually do the procedure?"
"I still have a few things to finish up." he said. "I'll be ready for our donors in about three days, you can bring down the volunteers any time after that." Gero then pursed his lips in thought. "You said that Videl has gone with 18 and the others, yes?"
"Yes."
"Hmm. Well, I didn't install any of the failsafes in her that I did in the twins, I figured she had little chance of defecting. And it was something of a rush job." he said, turning back to his computer. "However, her nano-bots do have their own built in tracers that I can track. It's not as accurate as the tracer systems I used in the twins, though. I'll be able to pinpoint an area of a planet but not an exact location. Still, a few hundred square miles to search is better than an entire universe." He typed in a few commands and then the screen switched to a computer rendition of space with a blinking green dot. "Seems Buu was right." he said after a moment. "Their current course has them on route to Xentron."
XXX
Pan sat on her bed resting her head back against the wall of the ship with her eyes closed, listening to the hum of the engines. Her pulse was only just starting to return to normal now and they'd made their escape from Saiya nearly three hours ago. She'd been sure, the entire time, that some sort of pursuit would happen. She couldn't believe that Vegeta would just let them go like this, especially as close as 18 had come to beating him back there. She opened her eyes again after a few moments, when she heard footsteps entering the room she'd taken for herself on the ship. She hadn't sensed any ki so it wasn't Bra, but that still left three people, though only two who she figured would walk in without knocking.
"Mom." she said, smiling a little. As upset and disappointed as she was with her father and grandfather, after what she'd learned on Saiya, she was happy her mom had come. It was bad enough that the two Sai-jins were now, effectively, her enemies. She wasn't sure if she could have taken losing her entire family.
"How are you doing?" Videl asked, sitting down on the end of the bed.
"I'm alright." Pan said, shaking her head. "It's Bra and 18 I'm worried about."
"Well, it's you I'm worried about." her mother said with a sigh. "Any idea what we're going to do from here?"
"Nope. We're sort of making this all up as we go." she said with a laugh. "17 said we're going out to the fringes, to some world called Xentron. From there... I don't know. I figure 18's going to want to take another crack at Vegeta eventually, before he has too much time to get even stronger..."
"I can't believe how close she got." Videl said slowly. "If she hadn't exhausted herself so fast..."
"Yeah." Pan looked from her mother to the door as it opened again and 17 came in. "Still no one after us?"
He shook his head. "And we're outside of tracking range of all the sensors in the Saiya system. I guess the ship was just too fast for them to even bother chasing. I've got it on auto-pilot now."
"I was worried they'd shoot us down once we got into space." Videl said.
"Ha, not a chance." Pan laughed. "That would work on you, me, and Bra but 17 and 18 could have just kept going under their own power. It's easier to follow and find a ship than a single person." She sighed again as she turned her gaze back to 17 who was now leaning against the wall near the door. "17... I'm sorry about... back there. About even asking..."
He waved it off. "It's fine. I know why you did." he said.
"How come you... never told me?" she asked, addressing them both.
"I didn't want to admit to having any part of it." said Videl, turning her gaze away.
17 shrugged. "I knew there was nothing that could be done about it. Telling you would have just... You're not like your father or grandfather. You're still... pure. I didn't want to ruin that, or ruin your view of them."
Pan laughed. "Pure?" she asked. "I wouldn't call myself that. I'm no where near 'pure'. I've done too much, spilt too much blood, killed too many people, for that."
"You care about all of them, though." said 17. "You still... have nightmares, about some of your missions. I don't think any of them have ever had a bad night's sleep."
Pan turned her gaze away, toward the floor, but her mother was looking toward 17 and missed it as she laughed. "I don't know if they have, but I do know they've probably been rather cold at night lately."
Pan blinked. "Huh?"
"After all of you... took off." Videl began. "I tried kicking Gohan out of our room, Bulma and Chi-Chi tried the same with Vegeta and Kakkarotto, but..." she shrugged. "It's not exactly an easy thing to accomplish. So we moved in to Bulma's study, we've all set up cots there. It's where we've been sleeping for the last couple weeks. I know Gohan figured I'd be back after a few days, I figure the others thought the same, but we've barely even talked to them since then."
Pan couldn't help but smile at that. Vegeta, Kakkarotto, and Gohan were all distinctly Sai-jin in mindset and personality. There were only two places you could hit a Sai-jin, outside of a fight, and make them feel it. The first was the stomach, but as the women had no control over what or how much the three men ate they'd chosen the second option. The bedroom.
XXX
Bra sat at 18's bedside, wiping the woman's forehead with a wet washcloth. The Cyborg was still in considerable pain. The Hybrid agreed with 17, this wasn't just a simple case of exhaustion. "You sure you don't want me to take you to a Regen Tank?" Bra asked.
18 nodded. "I'll be fine." she said. "I've felt a lot worse before. My internal systems are already dealing with it."
The Hybrid sighed. "I don't get it, father didn't hurt you this much. You had control of the fight, so why...?"
"The form, or the power, or something." 18 said, closing her eyes. "Whatever it is... it hurts to use it for long. It causes internal damage."
Bra's eyes widened. "What? You mean... you were hurting yourself during the fight with my father?"
"Yeah." 18 said, tilting her head slightly so she could look at Bra. "I'm not sure why but my guess is my body just can't handle the power. I am just a normal Human, after all, ignoring the cybernetics. My cybernetics are the only reason I'm still alive. The nano-bots were healing the damage as it happened, even if they couldn't keep up with it. Without them..." She shook her head. "Look, don't tell Pan or 17." she said after a moment. "I don't want them worrying. I need that power if I'm going to beat Vegeta."
Bra closed her eyes and sighed. "But what about your safety?"
"Not important." said 18, turning to look at the ceiling again and grimacing at a new wave of pain down in her legs. "I don't care if I die, so long as I take Vegeta with me."
"Don't say that!" Bra cried, startling the Cyborg and drawing her eyes back to her. "You can't just give up on living like that!"
18 blinked a few times and then smiled a little as she understood. "Bra, I'm not Marron..."
"I know that." Bra said. "I'm not trying to replace her with you. But... you're all I've got left of her. I'm not going to let you just die like that. No way."
"Like today? Jumping in between your father and I?"
The Hybrid nodded. "Yeah. He already took Marron from me, I'm not... going to let him take you, too. No way. Besides I... I promised Marron."
"What do you mean?"
"Back on Zendavou." Bra explained. "While I was... I was carving the picture on the stone. I promised her, on my life, that I'd look after you, keep you safe." She laughed a little then and wiped away the tears that were threatening to start again. "Of course, I didn't know about your transformation then, that you were like ten times stronger than me now. But that doesn't change the promise, I made it and I'm keeping it. I meant what I said to father back there, if he wants to kill you then he's got to go through me, first."
18 smiled and closed her eyes, tears leaking out at the corners. "Marron was lucky." she said softly.
"No." said Bra, shaking her head. "I was the lucky one."
XXX
The yellow crystal was now glowing bright enough to bathe the entire chamber in yellow light. Suddenly a crack snaked up from the base of the crystal to the top, more cracks snaking out all around the crystal from the first. And then, with a thunderous bang, the crystal shattered and exploded. The light remained, however, floating a few inches above the ground. Slowly it began to gather together and then, in a bright flash, the light was gone and a figure stood in the alcove the crystal had once occupied.
The person was about five foot nine and decked out in armor, like an ancient knight. The armor seemed to be made of crystal and was deep blue with bright yellow trim and a light blue cape. It was comprised of boots, shin guards, thigh guards, forearm and upper arm guards, breast plate, and helmet. There were slats going up vertical over the mouth so his voice could be heard, and a thin slat going across his face so he could see out. Beneath the cape were two crossed blue scabbards with gold trim. Inside the helmet the man opened his glowing white eyes, breath misted out through the slats in the face plate, and he turned his head toward the ceiling and the opening above him.
With a quick push of his legs he leapt up out of the chamber.