After the end of the Cell Games, Future Trunks was back in his timeline. He had seen himself as a child in his mother's arms, he had met his father and shook hands with the warriors who no longer lived in his world; he had encountered fake enemies #16, #17 and #18 and then the real threat, Cell. He had even died and come back to life.

Strengthened by this experience he had sped away, leaving that world in a state of truce.

What the boy from the future didn't know was that yet another time travel would have implications for the timeline he had just left.

The consequences of Future Trunks's last journey had remained unknown even to the inhabitants of Earth themselves. No one had noticed anything, not even the warriors.

While people still celebrated peace, ominous figures loomed on the horizons of cities, hidden by the grasses of the prairies, waiting in dark caves for the signal to rise.

The only one who had glimpsed suspicious movements here and there in the world had been the young Kami.

Dende had been restless for a long time, short of answers to that state of mind of his. One day he had looked out, standing at the edge of his white floor, and he had seen them.

Sixteen in all, scattered about in the world and ready to strike again. Stronger than before. They had returned, those that had been slain and those who had been destroyed by the very hands that had created them.

A horde poised to reclaim Earth, Cell had been defeated so recently…

Dende knew that facing them wasn't his call. All he could do was use his Kami powers to allow his friends, the Z Warriors, to avoid yet another threat of extinction.

-Sir, this is the enchanted parchment you asked for,- Mr. Popo stepped closer and bowed to Kami. When Dende turned he saw the parchment already in the hands of his assistant.

-Sir. If you allow, I think that among all the warriors out there we have three or four who can help us with these enemies. One of them is easily accessible.-

With the enchanted scroll stretched out at his feet, Dende nodded to Mr. Popo and focused on recalling the images he had seen from the Lookout. He saw with satisfaction his hands light up and imprint his thoughts on the parchment.

Dende squeezed his memory like a lemon, until the last images moved from his mind to the scroll. By the time the spell was cast, the scroll resembled a hit list.

-Everything is here. Their looks, the data I as Kami have about them. The first ones will strike in a few weeks' time near South City,- declared the young Namekian, dabbing the sweat on his forehead and rolling the parchment between his hands.

-Like last time?-

-Like last time, but they may not be the same. Here, Mr. Popo. Bring the parchment to her.-

/

From a high ground, Sixteen and Eighteen looked suspiciously at the whole area of Saffron Town, large and peaceful, drunk with fog in that December afternoon. The cyborg and the android were witnessing a scene they had never seen before, but which Bulma had informed them about.

The site of the attack had moved a few miles and the enemies had changed, but history was repeating itself.

The two figures advanced towards the city from a nearby depression in the ground, probably the entrance to their lair.

-Ok Sixteen, I got two. Let me try, first.-

Eighteen hadn't even gotten started and was already gripped by stress.

-Relax. You know how to, you were very proficient yesterday.-

Sixteen's peaceful smile, which she and Seventeen had found so strange at the time of the skirmishes with the Z Warriors, now reassured her. Sixteen could certainly feel the tension in her nerves, perhaps her few circuits were also heating up. But surely Sixteen wouldn't show her his appreciation just to flatter her. For this, the android was a guarantee.

Eighteen thought that her family's safety depended on her, and focused with a deep sigh. She let the damp air, heavy with winter storm surges, sink deep into her lungs. With that sigh she tasted a few splashes of salt and prepared to concentrate her artificial ki in the arm she wanted to turn into a weapon.

The cyborg girl felt every cell in her limb: it was a further evolution of her augmented tactile sensitivity. Now she could feel her cells changing, rearranging, becoming something else; and the more her infinite energy flowed, the faster her skin and veins turned. The silvery glint of something that looked like metal, at first glance, satisfied the girl's excited and distressed gaze. Her mind wandered as soon as she saw that glimmering mass break down into many tiny cubes, in clumps less and less bright, blacker and blacker.

"Oh no!"

Watching her limb collapse and shatter into fragments, silver and black like shards of mirror, Eighteen lost all her momentum. Her mood plummeted and she wondered how she had succeede, just the day before. By now she believed she was beyond the cubes phase.

Eighteen sadly bowed her head, while the black and silver fragments gathered as if attracted by a magnet, until her arm looked again like a regular human limb.

-Don't be so hard on yourself, Eighteen. It'll be easier with the enemy before you,- Sixteen turned to the sudden burst of energy that broke the vaporous calm of Saffron Town. -Let's go.-

/

All the peoplw who had been brave enough, or stupid enough, to stand and watch that battle like it was a football match or the Tenkaichi tournament, were almost amused by the pairing of fighters. When the golden-haired woman and the giant with the mohawk had arrived and engaged the creepy men in a fight so fast it bordered invisible, she had thrown herself on the bigger one and he was left with the midget.

As he dodged the laser beams shooting from his opponent's glasses, Sixteen didn't lose Eighteen out of sight.

He hoped she would give the new move a try anyway. She had to at least attempt it, because her enemy was keeping up too well.

Even if he had wanted to, Sixteen couldn't have supported her at that moment.

- #15, you leave me no other option but to destroy you,- Sixteen scanned the inside of that other android, that creation built like the ugly imitation of a child, with purple skin and clothes that resembled those of a clown.

-Provided that I don't kill you first, #16. You're a failure.-

#15 hit the giant with his little hands, and the whole town shook when Sixteen fell on the tarmac, tearing a hole. -Remember that. Even if you have found friends.-

The crowd produced a single wail of astonishment as the purple-skinned android grabbed the giant again and hurled him through a skyscraper.

#15 had no time to waste: #16 was what he was, but he shouldn't be underestimated. Never.

He flew up to intercept him and charged and energy blast:

-Goodbye, #16.-

The crowd could no longer see, but the ginger giant now lay motionless on the ground with a huge hole eating his torso from collarbones to groin.

#15 leered with satisfaction. His opponent's reactor was now destroyed.

/

Meanwhile Eighteen had witnessed all the action, between a blow to the face for her opponent and his sword slashing on.

That swordsman and his weapon were much more challenging than Future Trunks and his blade, that had chipped against Eighteen's arm. The weapon of #14 had not yet pierced her, but it had removed a lock of her hair, left scratches and wounds on her limbs.

Did he want to inflict her death by a thousand cuts?

No one had asked those androids to return. And if Eighteen hadn't read Dende's scroll, she would never have understood why they had returned.

When that eerie Popo creature had showed up at the Kame House with the precious document, Eighteen had realised she had to find a way to strengthen her skills. She had talked about it with Sixteen.

"You have to get stronger than you are now. Right now you won't be able to defeat all those androids, but Kami trusts your potential,"

Eighteen had been outraged by Sixteen's words. Wasn't she strong enough?

"Are you telling me I need to upgrade? What about Seventeen?"

"Seventeen can already produce weapons. He is already stronger than you."

Eighteen had swallowed all her pride. Taking advantage of Marron's sleep, she had followed Sixteen, who seemed to see already more clearly than she. They had flown to Capsule Corp.

What was Seventeen's weapon? Sixteen could do that thing with his detachable arm and could turn both arms into cannons, but Seventeen?

Eighteen thought about this as she studied silent #14. With inhuman speed the girl created two destructo disks and hurled them simultaneously at the burly android. She chased after him and grabbed his long braid of black hair, preparing a third destructo disk.

The deal was clear: she and Sixteen would kill all of Doctor Gero's androids, reborn with that time travelling glitch, and in return they could continue to live in peace. It was a simple job she had to do for free, but at least it would help her build a reputation. And those wrecks had to be smashed anyway, better do it herself than giving the task away to the occasional Vegeta.

Eighteen had been relieved to know that there were only sixteen enemies for her and Sixteen to take down. They would shut them down forever one after the other, like bounty hunters. At least there were no other versions of herself, Sixteen, of Seventeen and...

When Eighteen's giant disk smashed against #14's artificial skin, she remembered.

"Force fields. Damn it."

Seventeen could project shields. Sixteen was right, he was stronger than her. But maybe, not anymore.

Eighteen let out a strangled sigh as #14's large hand wrapped around her neck, lifting up her whole body.

It hurt! Eighteen couldn't breathe, the sword cuts on her skin throbbed and opened more and more…

But it wasn't she who was at a disadvantage.

Luring #14 so close to her Eighteen had given herself a chance to hit him point blank.

She smiled, as the tingling in her arm became a pleasant sensation…

/

The crowd remained hidden and watched with bated breath as the giant fell on his back.

He was dead, for sure. No one could survive without their chest.

Puny #15 had become the giant, towering over the supine mass of Sixteen, ready to destroy his head too.

But his database didn't include the most recent info. The circuits of #15 did not register the reason why so many thick threads filled the void he had left in the body of #16, forming a weft dense like several layers of cobwebs.

Those black threads perfectly restored the missing parts of Sixteen and he rose again, under the shocked gaze of the hidden crowd.

Other terrible blows shook heaven and earth. The androids battled hand-to-hand, dodging laser beams and tanking punches that shook the air around them.

Momentarily tired from the recent confrontation, Eighteen took up post on a skyscraper and, like that time two years earlier, watched Sixteen unfold his power. But this time Sixteen hit the enemy with a beam of energy that did not touch the city, getting lost in the hyperboreum.

Sixteen watched his energy pulverise #15; he sat down on a reinforced concrete spike and scanned the hot ashes scattered on the ground, the only proof of an enemy standing there moments ago.

Sixteen didn't have time to complete the scan: the top of his head rolled to the ground, sliced clean.

-You claimed victory too soon, man!-

The real # 15 came out behind him. Sixteen learned just now that he could double. If only he could perceive artificial ki...

#15 didn't get to finish his work. The last thing he saw was the figure of # 18 hurled to assault him, her human muscles tense in impetus.

The crowd let out another sigh as the body of #15 broke through the street, trodden by the girl's.

-You're just a little more than a human. You can't compete with me and #14.-

- #14 was neutralized,- Eighteen focused, speaking in a laconic voice.

She thought of how that coward had treacherously attacked Sixteen, coming out behind him, and she grew furious.

Energy began to flow down her arm and the cubes, fragments of mirror turned into a long, smooth, sharp blade.

From the dust, Sixteen watched proudly. The enemy android could not be dismayed, but Eighteen was certain that hers was a move he could not have foreseen.

-I'm not just a human. I'm Super 18.-

/

Every time she had to reassemble her matter in that sharp blade, Eighteen felt a slight shake in her head and for very long moments in her mind, which were only seconds for the world, she floated in a state of hypnosis in which she saw scenes from the past in a vivid and almost violent way.

Before piercing the eye of the sneaky #15 with her blade-arm, Eighteen reviewed the scene of the water hole.

Sparks and golden particles danced suspended around her in silent bubbles. Air escaped from her mouth, she gasped and descended, swirling in the water pocket, the light of the day more and more distant and the bottom of the sea closer and closer.

Sixteen fired a beam of energy that incinerated what remained of the real #15; only at that moment the crowd rushed into the streets where their heroes were passing, dying to see them up close, touching them, in short wanting them to know they existed. Everyone wanted the girl and the giant to know that they had saved lives. People wanted them to know that they all existed.

There were so many faces around her. The crowd poked Eighteen as if to make sure of her presence, or perhaps for the simple pleasure of feeling her. She and Sixteen, blade and mechanic skull in plain sight, walked like triumphant generals out of Saffron Town and did not look back to greet its grateful inhabitants.

/

-Do you know #15 was mine?- Sixteen demanded, seeing that Eighteen was finally relaxing. The cubes had once again fragmented and the mass of the blade had fallen to the ground, before reassembling itself into the usual limb of the young woman.

-Sure. I just wanted to help,- she winked slyly, already knowing that Sixteen wouldn't believe her.

Next time she'd give him the satisfaction of taking down at least one android.

Sixteen waited patiently for the upper part of his skull to regenerate.

-And indeed your body is exhausted.- Sixteen realised that Eighteen would soon pass out and picked her up before she fell.

She tired much faster now. Her energy was perpetual, but that new transformation was a massive drain.

When Bulma had tested the kachi katchin combined with Eighteen's core, she had told her that only the infinite energy models could bear the cost of a metamorphic upgrade. Especially for a cyborg with a distinctly prevalent human component, reorganising her physical structure into a weapon and adapting it to the rhythms of a battle was an effort that could have damaged her.

In the post-fight torpor, cradled in the arms of Sixteen, Eighteen wondered when she would die, by dint of exhaustion. However, in the meantime she was enjoying the interesting aspects of that boost she had asked Bulma as soon as Popo had left her all alone with the scroll.

-You'll take the next one, Sixteen.-

The body knows when it's time to quit. Eighteen would hunt another android another day, it was time for her to go home. The machine-woman moaned softly, feeling her swollen breasts. Her hand got wet with milk, her chest was about to burst now. It was time to go home and feed her baby.

/

Marron stared in amazement at the faces hovering above her. She couldn't figure out who they were, but they smiled and looked good; they certainly couldn't be bad faces.

The head of one of those people was crowned with a mega bun of blond hair; the hair looked a bit like mum's, but she wasn't mum.

The other person had bright eyes, very fun to look at, like mum's. But those dark eyebrows certainly weren't mum's...

In any case, no one around there smelled like mum, so it wasn't worth going from angel to devil, demanding milk with very loud screams and making anyone in the room panic.

-Sweetie...she's blonde,- Sara tenderly stroked the thin tufts of whitish hair that sprouted here and there on the head of her best friend's daughter. -A baby Lazuli.-

She resented when, on the other side of the crib, she saw Lapis disagree with theatrical gestures.

Now Sara remembered his ways, -What's the matter Lapis? Don't you think she looks like your sister?-

"For shit. It's the gnome in a wig."

Seventeen stifled another laugh. It occurred to him that if he said what he really thought, he would have to take a lecture from the two women in that room.

-No, I don't. She only has her hair and for me it's not enough.-

-He's right, even I don't think she looks like Lazuli. Not even the complexion is hers.-

Kate walked over to the crib and peered critically at her beloved granddaughter.

She confided to her son and Sara that when Lazuli was born, the doctors were almost shocked at the whiteness of her skin.

-Lazuli came out white as chalk. Marron is rosy like her dad.-

Kate loved watching Marron and secretly looking for similarities. But she never communicated them aloud, you never knew how they could take it...

Lazuli lived so far from Central City that Sara had used her end-of-year holiday to visit her. She would stay at the Kame House for a week before returning to Bruno and Amelia for Christmas.

Seventeen on the other hand had only taken the day, mostly to serve as a vehicle for his mother.

-Speak of the devil…-

The young man turned to the bedroom door and saw Sixteen and his sister plod into the room, he with a peaceful smile, she with her shirt all wet and an angry grimace.

When she got home, the housemates hadn't dared to stand in her way, even Seventeen and Sara stepped aside when they saw her looming over Marron's cradle. The little girl was happy to be picked up and then, having ascertained that it was her mother indeed, she remembered that she was hungry and began to whimper faintly, a prelude to a wild cry.

Marron carried on screaming at the top of her lungs as Eighteen took refuge with her in another room.

Later, while Marron slept and Sara and the other housemates were entertaining themselves, Krillin, Seventeen and Kate were eager to hear about Saffron Town.

-Did you meet our doubles, by any chance?- Seventeen wanted to know.

-According to Dende's visions there are no doubles of us three,- said Sixteen.

-But there must be Doctor Gero's somewhere,- Eighteen recalled.

Kate shuddered as she heard the name of the madman who had stolen her children. By now she knew secrets normally closed to basic humans, she knew there were androids roaming free around the world, she also knew who Kami was (in her homeland, Amenbo Island, people simply called him God), but the words Doctor Gero still filled her with angst.

-I was going to say that I would like to kill him again, but maybe she wants to do it…-

Kate got even madder at the slightly derisory tone her son had just used; if her strength would not allow her to do so, her wrath was as valid as that of her cyborg children.

Kate dismissed those thoughts and focused on a question that her son in law, Sixteen and the twins had not yet cleared up:

-Kami spoke of sixteen out of twenty androids. Why are the doubles of you three and…?-

Silence descended on the beach. Yep. The three of them and ...?

Krillin, who had hitherto been thoughtful, lit up: -# 8.-

Four pairs of very cold eyes looked at him as if he had said nonsense. But the monk did not let himself be intimidated:

-You guys don't know him. #8 is a cyborg by Gero I met as a boy, together with Son Goku. He has lived in peace for years and I think he's still alive, that would be why he doesn't figure among the sixteen of Dende. -

-A cyborg? So we're not the only ones,- Eighteen looked at Seventeen and then at Sixteen, bewildered.

Unfortunately the latter couldn't help her, his database didn't include any #8.

A creation rejected by Doctor Gero as totally unsuitable for combat. He was docile and a pacifist, he hated clashes even more than Sixteen himself.

-Maybe we should meet him,- the android hinted.

Krillin tried to dissuade him, -He would feel threatened by you. And also by Seventeen and Eighteen. He would never join you.-

-Well, that wouldn't do any good,- chuckled the haughty Eighteen. -Rather, Seventeen, don't you feel compelled to do your part?-

Eighteen knew that Dende had chosen her out of all of them to carry out that mission, but if Seventeen had pitched in the enemy count would have reached zero more quickly.

-Ah, I don't know …-

The boy wanted to make himself want. -If you two need me, it means you're weak.-

Eighteen had regained her strength. Lightning-fast, she rebuilt her arm into a blade and soon Seventeen was watching fragments of his hair fall on the shoreline.

Kate and Krillin were left speechless. They knew Eighteen had been upgraded, but they had never seen her do it. Seventeen himself was impressed with the transformation. He felt a sting on his neck and when he saw the blood on his fingers, he knew that his sister was serious.

That razor-sharp blade was not a weapon used by her. It was part of her.

"Holy shit. Crazy stuff."

-That's a small cut. Don't push your luck…-

Eighteen was strong enough to tear through his reinforced skin. Maybe, maybe, between inner peace and work he had stayed behind...

-Ok, 18.2, I got the message.-

She snorted, gracefully moving a fluttering lock, -Troglodyte. Call me Super 18.-

She putting on so many airs made Seventeen want to make even more fun of her. But once again he remembered to hold his tongue, especially when Kate got in too.

Kate had in fact moved to her daughter's side and proudly placed her hand on her shoulder:

-There's not much to laugh about. Lazuli has every reason to put on airs.-

/

When it was time to leave Kame House, the male cyborg did not feel ready.

He glanced at his sister, sitting alone in the total darkness of the beach.

-I was joking. I'm proud of you.-

He had to admit it. At least Eighteen would stop with that long face.

But she just winked: it was only when Seventeen announced his departure that she decided to break the silence:

-Every time I transform I relive my fall into the water pocket. Every time the flesh becomes steel and the current of energy runs through my body, it happens again and again.-

-Oh, that!-

Not even Seventeen had forgotten it; Gero hadn't been able to erase from his mind the memory of the day his sister almost died.

It had been during that holiday in Rochelle village, the summer after their eighth birthday, that time he and Eighteen had seen the ocean for the first time. Kate had taken them to the Eastern coast, unaware that many of the beaches in the area had water holes, pockets hidden beneath the surface of the sandy expanse, very difficult to see. It was easy to sink into it when running on the beach.

It had happened to his sister: a minute before she was running towards him, preparing to win that badminton match.

A minute later he had lost her out of sight.

Seventeen had savoured the feeling of panic when he had run for Kate, when he had seen his mother obsessively dig the shore, until her feverish hands had found a patch of quicksand. The lifeguard had dipped his arms and pulled Eighteen out of the water hole.

She had already lost consciousness.

Only after a long session of CPR the lifeguard was able to make her expel all the water.

-Thanks to you they got me out,- Eighteen admitted, with a small smile.

-No, it was the lifeguard...-

But he had called Kate, he had seen her disappear underground.

Eighteen had been cured and that fall into the pool full of golden sparks had become just a heart attack episode to add to Kate's collection, along with their birth and the time Seventeen had nearly choked and many more.

So many adventures that both of them had archived, but which once again reminded them how important they were to each other.

Only the innate vigilance with which Seventeen always followed her movements had saved Eighteen.

/

Thoughts of the author:

As a DB fan I like transformations and since in Super we see a marked improvement for our dear Lapis, why not invent one for Lazuli as well. So we see T-1000 ehm, "Super 18" still in killer mode. The last time it was in chapter 15 with Cloe Mafia, a very different situation from this one but equally satisfying to write.

Here I also mention #8, the "Frankenstein" who appeared in Dragon Ball.

Some sources say he is an android like 16, others that he is a cyborg created from a corpse. I opted to have him as a cyborg when he appears here.