The RNP was saved again when, inexplicably, one of the executives of Solway Solvents submitted her resignation and confessed her attempted crimes to the police.
But once one threat was removed, another immediately took over; a long and intense summer was on the horizon, the unexpected heat melting the surface of the Great Eden faster than usual. Like winter avalanches, torrent floods were an ever-present risk and the Dorée soon overflowed from its banks, sweeping away all the agricultural/forestry work that the village of Épinel had carried out in recent years on those acres. Cattle had been killed, the levees and walls had completely crumbled, the pastures and newly planted wood became one deep puddle.
Elliott said it as a joke, secretly believing there was a grain of truth. -Did you want to come here to spy on how we handle things, then reveal it to the commander?-
Defiance was just curious, -Look, my boss is my mother, not Malina.-
-Her Highness Erica Long?- Elliott smiled.
-Rikki.-
-But I, poor plebeian, can't call her with a nickname!-
-That's her name; it has been for twenty-three years, legally.-
The MIR chief muddied herself, walking close to a barn.
-What a disaster. Do something, for Christ's sake, this will take months…-
Defiance saw the situation from a technical point of view, on Monster Island that aftermath only would be a code orange: yet no one on the site of the flood was in a hurry, park rangers or civilians, as if they were waiting for the intervention of divine Providence!
Elliott himself did not appear disturbed.
Maybe Northern people were used to it and knew how to take it serendipitously, without making a scene. Eventually, what could a girl from South City understand.
-But what months,- tubby boy sanctioned. -Just wait for Seventeen to fix everything.-
-17 miracles?-
-No, with a capital S, our top ranger; he's like you on steroids, we call him the terminator.-
How strange that Rikki had no intel about any other equivalent of her daughter, besides Lillian Dahl.
-Dang he's even got the model number.-
Defiance thought again that Northerners were generally weird; she had thought that Malina's baby girl, Nastya, had a weird name...
-That's why,- Elliott laughed. -But never say that in front of him.-
/
Carly was still looking for a way to tell Lapis, he would be home any moment. In her heart the fear was starting to take, like she was going to prison for life.
But perhaps Lapis would put aside the disappointment of not having learnt the news immediately, in favour of the news itself.
Carly mused, vacuuming the hallway.
She felt a gentle draught of air seep from the stairwell, even though the bedrooms' windows were closed.
Carly checked room by room, fearing she would see curtains flutter, reflections in the mirror, or hear ominous noises.
It must have been just a draught.
"I'm really crazy ..."
Carly laughed at herself; she couldn't turn the corner, that she felt someone grab her from behind and lift her.
-Let go of me! Help!-
She screamed at the top of her lungs, kicked, punched, exhausting herself in a struggle as desperate as it was fruitless.
Whoever was attacking her couldn't have chosen a more wrong victim...
-Carly, come on, stop!-
The young woman heard laughing; she stopped shouting and hitting only when she found herself, almost without realising, with her face against the aggressor's pectorals; the jewel-blue of his gaze stared at her shocked face with an affectionate expression.
Carly broke down in tears, -Lapis ?! Are you nuts?-
She gave him a slap on the arm, instinctively holding a hand to her belly.
Her sobs were overwhelming, -Don't do it again, don't do it again.-
Emotions in caps lock: Carly wanted to stay serious, but Seventeen was moved to see her. As proud as her academic or shooting range skills made him feel, he couldn't resist the charm of his truly sweet woman. He took her back, kissing her forehead, her wet cheeks, and finally her mouth; her lips too were wet with tears.
Seventeen felt her surrender to him, grabbed her hips and lifted her, just for the pleasure of being tickled by her long red braid.
And Carly had never resisted the details on Lapis's face, even the "out of place" ones: the fluttering locks, the adorable snag fangs.
-Be careful, dear, don't squeeze me tight…-
Her voice came out sweet, full of love.
It undid Seventeen: he really wanted her. To feel her, even before having her.
-Don't squeeze me too tight…- Carly tried again, briefly touching the spot where she had tied her sweatpants.
-Did I hurt you?-
Carly seemed to light up with the new words she wanted to say. -No,…-
She couldn't say anything else, Lapis's cell phone rang.
-Ahhh...work,- Seventeen pitied whoever was calling him.
Carly followed his every move with anxiety.
"Not now, forget it. It's already gone out and back in. All right, at 5am."
The Dorée had come out of its levees and the flood site had to be cleaned up, nothing Seventeen couldn't do at dawn.
-Who they take me for, I don't know. Now I want to be here with you.-
Seventeen forgot that Carly had started a conversation that the call had interrupted.
And Carly, such was the carefree joy of the moment, she postponed; she wanted to enjoy Lapis in all his panache, before tackling serious topics.
Wonderful, but serious.
/
Elliott was always at the Saint-Paul flat with his MIR, Brent had been kindly thrown out.
Lillian hadn't been able to stop herself from telling Brent once they were in bed together.
-Are you joking, our Carly? Double-D's Carly?-
Brent's appellations were so cryptic...if anything it was double G's Carly.
Brent was the one who had come up with the terminator, -Fuck Lilli, can you imagine Sev's sperms? Instead of swimming they have a jet pack.-
They both burst out laughing.
Brent didn't know what he was saying; Lillian was always the only one aware of Seventeen's hybrid physiology, but she thought in that respect he didn't differ from any other healthy young man.
Brent couldn't help himself and had to text Elliott.
-Oh wow. He kind of knocked her up with his gaze.-
Listening casually to Elliott's recorded vocal note, Defiance nearly choked on her spaghetti in broth; she had almost understood he was talking about them.
"God save me."
-Oh, oh Def, hear me out! The best friend of Brent's girlfriend got pregnant, bythe terminator guy.-
-Sperminator,- she corrected him, rolling spaghetti on her fork.
Elliott howled with laughter.
"Hold her tight and never let her go, she's unique." He told himself.
Defiance had the same sense of humour as he and Brent.
She was the whole package.
/
Seventeen had only been away a week, but he had missed home; perhaps he was getting old, he had grown fond of four walls.
-It's not the house itself, but what it represents,- Carly explained, patting his back. -Will you come and help me with dinner?-
Seventeen calmly dressed; meanwhile, he noticed that the usual blister of pink tablets was missing from Carly's bedside table. -Didn't you take the pill, Carly?-
Caught off guard she felt struck by lightning, on the threshold of the bedroom.
-...I stopped, Lapis.-
Dismay overcame Seventeen, -You know you didn't tell me to come outside, don't you?-
Carly took a deep breath and sat back on the bed. She was past the third month, the time had come.
-It's ok now. I'm expecting anyway.-
Lapis's expression convinced Carly to lift the sweatshirt she had never taken off with a shaking hand, and dispel the "How?", "When?", "It's not possible!"
For a split second Seventeen felt a killing pain in his chest, -How long?-
It hadn't taken him long to give her a child: in fact, it had happened as soon as Carly's body had given him the chance.
When Seventeen saw Carly's belly, unmistakably round, his heart stopped.
It was something that concerned him in the most intimate way he could imagine.
-And you didn't tell me?-
-I found out late too! Two weeks ago, I can explain,-
-Yeah, you took me for a fool.-
Carly could only see a sliver of his jewelled eyes, behind his eyelids.
She sought a connection with that low stare, -I couldn't tell you! What if I lost the baby?-
-Would you pretend nothing happened?- roared Seventeen, leaping to his feet, making Carly jump.
If that had happened, would the matter have died in silence, as if it had never been?
For the first time since they had reunited, Carly felt fear. The eyes of her beloved, which she normally found so irresistible, were now eerie.
At that moment, if she hadn't already been, Carly was certain that Seventeen wasn't totally human. It was easy to forget, in everyday life she never found herself thinking "Now I'm walking around with my cyborg boyfriend", "I live with my cyborg".
Love made her forget what Lapis was in his entirety, and that was how it should be.
But now his pale and very, very cold eyes had little of human.
-Lapis…-
The future mother held that glare, without crying: she told him with simplicity and sincerity that she was desolate.
That she had tried not to expose him to hypothetical heartbreak.
Seventeen had always been honest, even if it cost him pain. It had not been easy to talk to Carly about the whole cyborg thing, but he had done it for himself and for them.
In his indignation, Seventeen noticed how his change of mood had scared Carly.
For the past two years he had tucked away the "killing machine" side he always knew was hiding somewhere (he wasn't so naive as to think he got rid of it).
Carly had helped: she had always had that power, to make him feel at peace with himself. To her Seventeen owed the serenity he had managed to reintroduce into his broken and mended life.
-Haha. No.-
Seventeen held Carly an arm from him. He disappeared from her sight without her noticing, only the sound of the slamming door of another room indicated that he had barricaded himself there.
-Lapis?-
Carly knocked repeatedly on that door, -Please! Please…-
Getting no response, Carly gave a kick for the relief.
All the other times she'd wanted to rage at him, when he was still a gangster and got into trouble, when he'd withdrawn into himself and treated her coldly, she hadn't; but now, pushed to the limit, Carly felt explosive anger within her.
It was certainly not how she had pictured that moment. Her patience was a very deep well, perpetually drawing from that boundless love she felt for Lapis.
But there was a limit to everything.
Puzzled about her own feelings, Carly walked out of the chalet when it was already getting dark outside. She hurried to downtown Verny, and when she felt secluded enough she called Leni. If she was looking for a person who certainly wouldn't defend Seventeen, it was her.
"Hey baby girl. In the end, Lillian and I give you veto power over what to eat instead of sushi on Sundays."
"Leni ..."
There wasn't much to understand, "I'm gonna choke him."
Carly was beginning to feel the tingling of tears: she didn't want to cave, she wasn't a crybaby anymore, she was a mother; even though the baby was unborn, she considered herself a fully-fledged mother, "I was sure he wanted the baby. He was always the one who thought about it the most..."
Cursing the distance, Leni spoke softly to her:
" Okay, Carly, let me be honest. Seventeen can be a great... but you kept the truth from him, he's pissed at the very least. "
"Are you justifying him?"
"No, I'm gonna choke him. But you should have put your fears aside to take a leap of faith. If you don't trust him, why are you two together?"
"It was my body I didn't trust."
"It's understandable. But don't assume Seventeen doesn't want the baby just because you've bombarded him with news like that, only now."
Leni told her that as much as she believed in her good intentions, Carly had made a mistake.
"Carly? You still there?" Leni gave her the only advice she found relevant. "No use crying over spilt milk. Let him assimilate this emotional mound, when he's done understanding how he feels he will come to you. Have a little faith in him. I could do it, imagine you."
Carly had another panic attack: all Leni could do was listen to her cry helplessly, waiting for her to calm down.
"The office is about to close. Come over to my house, we watch a stupid movie and order dinner like the old days, you and me. Will you?"
Carly was feeling very weak and a little nauseous, she was so nervous that she wasn't even hungry.
However, she knew by now that it was certainly not the time to skip meals.
"Yes, sure. See you soon."
/
When Seventeen became aware of his wrath, he sought isolation. And as he was leaning against the closed door that his Carly hammered with kicks, he wanted to let a part of him enjoy that dream come true.
With that kind of truth he could no longer feel dehumanized, it was the ultimate victory against Gero.
And thinking about it, Seventeen rejoiced.
Therefore, not even he himself could understand the will to be angry and brew in that anger. Surely Carly was suffering from it.
Why had she kept it from him, Carly?
The fact that she had made him fall from the sky had put him on the path of dark meaningless thoughts: perhaps Carly didn't say anything to him because, unconsciously, she knew that he was not a normal man, in spite of blood running through his veins and semen taking.
#17 was a terminator who happened to put a baby in a human woman.
#17 could not be a good companion, a good father; he was dangerous, he could kill without even trying.
Yet Carly had stayed: he had never told her how good it had felt that she had stayed.
Unconditional love.
Perhaps he should talk to Eighteen, but he held back. Apart from her impending wedding, he could not always depend on Eighteen, like a dummy not even capable of taking his own responsibilities. His sister would have laughed at him, at how immature and weak he was.
Pencil approached, a look from her master commanded that she turn around and so she did. But she stood staring at him, discontented and contemptuous, as if she wanted the last word.
Seventeen hooked up his cell phone to the stereo, letting Systems Of A Down play. They fit his shitty mood: his account on that site, containing a playlist named just like that, knew a lot more about his way of handling anger than the people around him.
Seventeen threw himself into a wild headbang, to the beat of the song Toxicity.
A hasty and energetic knocking on the front door interrupted the fun.
-What do you want?- he grunted at whoever stood on the other side of the threshold.
It was a young woman, short hair dyed black and boyish allure.
-Um, I'm from the house at the back...everything okay?-
-Yes I'm fine.-
Lie.
Seventeen found the ways of the Centre convenient: asking "How are you?" among strangers was a formality answered with "Fine, thank you."
Nobody really cared about other people's lives, and thank goodness.
The young woman smiled uncomfortably, -Are you sure? Anyway, can you not blare your music like we were at the North City Open Air? Which I love, but I'm trying to get my son to sleep. And to watch Netflix.-
She held out a hand, -Iris, anyway.-
Seventeen clicked his tongue, in a derisory way, -...Scots pine?-
Instead of shaking her hand he brushed back his hair, staying away from her.
The young woman remained patient with the boy with the foreign accent.
-... that's my name! Iris Cheney. Well, take care.-
When the neighbour got out of his hair, Seventeen went back to the bedroom to listen to the music.
"Coming out of my cage and I was doing just fine..." he hummed in unison with the first line of a song.
Carly had left the chalet; Seventeen was left with the bed wide open, the scent of her skin and hair on the pillow that he held in his hands. He dipped his nose into it to calm down.
He wondered where she was, Carly. She had run away from him.
Seventeen sat up, "... 'cause I'm Mr. Brightside!"
He chewed the lyrics of the song with an ironic grin, finding them the apotheosis of hypocrisy.
He flung the alarm clock at the stereo and cell phone, the whole thing fragmented before it got to make a hole in the wall.
Silence fell.
Perhaps now Iris Cheney could have done as she pleased.
/
At 3am Seventeen felt drained enough to attempt a short nap, if only to take a symbolic break from his life.
But sleep didn't give him the comfort he sought, his mind created eerie images of a ferocious separation between Carly and him; and of Carly who, within a week of giving birth, aborted his child just to spite him.
He awoke in the salty sea of his own sweat, shivering, breathless. Pencil had disappeared, the house was still deserted. Why didn't Carly come home?
He waited restlessly until almost dawn.
And then he got ready for his shift.
/
At 5 it was cold enough to wear the blue parka. The three musketeers, summoned by John to fix the Dorée flood site, walked along a ridge: Lillian and Brent confabulated, hand in hand, while Seventeen was barely there. The only signs of life his colleagues could perceive were the inertia gait and the condensation of his breath misting his sunglasses.
-Hey bro, how are you doing?- Brent attempted.
Lillian hurried down the path to keep up, -My phone...I can't lock the screen. Will you fix my phone?-
-Who, me?-
What made Lillian think that he knew anything about electronics? Wasn't she thinking...
Seventeen stamped his feet and took off his glasses, -No…-
-Yeah…-
-No.-
Lillian struggled to ease his spirits, -Sometimes I imagine you can sync. Like, mind commands.-
Seventeen didn't consider her in the least, and Lillian felt like going back to the early days when he ignored her, except when making fun of her.
She tried to leave him alone, he must have something else on his mind.
And she also knew what.
/
For Elliott and Defiance, it was almost time to separate. But before the great farewells, on her way to the North City airport Defiance had herself dropped off at the police station: there was one more matter she wanted to resolve before heading back South.
-Do you have a licence plate, Miss?-
Defiance handed the paper to the gendarme, -What will you do now? Will you look for a match in the database?-
-We'll try, if nothing else.-
The policeman wondered whether to smile in compassion at such a strong sense of justice, or to admire it.
-You're lucky Miss,- declared the gendarme, after a quick search of the database. -The plate is not ours, but the owner of the vehicle lives in the North.-
Defiance reached for the monitor: the photo and data of a woman, in the electronic file, were not what she had expected.
-Officer, this is a stolen car!-
The policeman waited to call directly the person to whom the car was registered.
-The day of the infraction I saw the culprit, it wasn't this girl. I'm sure.-
As if that complaint were a Cluedo match, the cop decided to play with zeal, -Describe this culprit to me. Age?-
-About twenty.-
-Ethnicity?-
-What should I answer?-
-Height?-
-Like me.-
-Any distinguishing marks?-
Defiance still remembered every feature of the chav 's face: including eyes piercing like she had never seen in person, but perhaps only on certain family photos that were prehistoric to her, and that Rikki jealously guarded.
/
The Dorée had flooded acres and acres of fields and forest. The rangers soon got to work.
-Can you count these slabs of gneiss for me, Sev? We have to redo the embankment.-
Brent stared at him, laughing under his breath.
Seventeen gave the surroundings a flat look that resembled those bluish stone slabs.
-52, so what?-
-No, count them.-
Seventeen was growing annoyed, -4,8, 12…-
-No! One by one.-
Seventeen narrowed his eyes in an affected smile; he began to stack the gneiss slabs on his hand and disappeared.
The Viking felt compelled to justify himself to Lillian, -I was curious to hear how Sev counts!-
-How do you want him to count?-
-Like '15, 16, me'.-
The Viking kept in mind the slabs Sev had taken and counted the ones he had left.
It really was 52.
/
Later, Brent had to run and tell the story of some ruins to a group of tourists and Lillian got a call. She put the speaker on and Seventeen had to hear it all while working on the embankment.
"No, Commander, I will not abandon my ship and your first mate does not want to abandon yours; Elliott is another compartment in her life.-
Seventeen couldn't care less, but he couldn't help overhearing.
-What does a Southerner want from you, Lill?-
-Do you remember the book Sailing For Beginners?-
-Yup.-
-She wrote it. You were reading it on Halloween.-
Seventeen chuckled, -Do you remember what I was reading on Halloween?-
-Mm mm.- Lillian nodded, unsure if it was something positive or not.
-What else do you remember?-
-Everything.-
Lillian suffered with the aggressive flashback of Seventeen and his hair falling past his collar and his hands on the dimples on her back; she experienced again their second kiss, the taste of strawberry vodka in his mouth, or in her own; she saw herself again on the roof of her jeep, Seventeen's lovely dark brows against her cheek.
A long, long time ago.
The worst thing was the lack of choice in the face of memories: one could not always choose what to keep and what to forget. And Lillian felt guilty for remembering.
-Anyway, if I went to Monster Island I'd get more money. But I'll stay here.-
-Do you want to join those MRI guys?-
-MIR!- Lillian laughed. -No, I'm staying. But how did you know I was talking to a Southerner?-
Seventeen just wanted to be alone but since the work had to be done, he knew that chatting with Lillian would distract him.
He was grateful that Lillian was there, even if he would never tell her.
He gave her a sly smile, -She had that accent. Like my mother.-
-Come on, are you from the South City area?-
As if Lillian didn't know he was born and raised a stone's throw from Central City!
-Not me. My mother. I believe my father too.-
He believed…
Spontaneously, Lillian felt sad for him, but it was not the time to add defector fathers to the mix.
While the rangers kept on drywalling, Seventeen struggling to work in synergy with Lillian at her snail pace (instead of getting rid of her and avoiding spending the whole day on a stupid embankment), a family of four passed by and waved hello.
-Have a good afternoon!- Lillian trilled, glancing at her taciturn colleague and speaking to herself, -And don't mind him, he's crabby, he must be on his period. Unlike his girlfriend.-
Lillian was still standing on the edge of the ridge when Seventeen materialized behind her; she sensed what would soon happen and he stared at the lout with an incredulous and indignant look, -Fu- -
And then, with a flick of Seventeen's wrist she flew off the ridge, down to a calm and deep spot of the icy Dorée.
/
Dripping water, Lillian ran to her car to get a blanket to wrap herself in. The blanket didn't warm her and Lillian went down to North City for a cup of hot coffee. Walking down a street, she saw Bronwyn crying outside her home.
Someone else was having a shitty day...
Bronwyn refused to make conversation and continued to sob, but left her cell phone in plain sight.
Ok, but next time you show up in my grandma's nude underwear I'll send you back.
There was no need for Lillian to guess the sender.
-Bronwyn. You don't have to take this.-
-Now he will change me for some other girl!-
It was not the first time that Joel had something to say about her: lately he criticized her for the fragrance of her bubble bath, the colour of her underwear, her height!
-Why don't you just dump him? That piece of shit. You know very well what he wants from you.-
-'Just dump him'? Then I'd be alone…-
-Better being alone than suffering from the disaffection of an idiot.-
-But I want him,- Bronwyn sniffed.
Though she didn't like it when, in front of everyone, Joel called her "little bimbo."
-Everyone has someone. You've got the Viking now, even Gontier fatso with that snotty lumberjack of his…-
There was no one among their acquaintances with whom Bronwyn had not been poisonous: Lillian remembered about Bronwyn bashing her, she had called her a whore in front of a room full of people.
In the end, Bronwyn was just someone insecure who couldn't be alone.
-I'm just the occasional pretty girl, that's all.-
Bronwyn considered herself a little bimbo. Her parents had told her too, so had other boys.
-Who called you a bimbo, beside Joel?-
-They don't need to say it.-
Her ex had sent her on a shopping spree whenever she had wanted to seriously talk to him; a colleague she'd been texting with for a while had stood her up on a first date.
-And even that Centrie jackass with the earrings, when I went out with him that time, he didn't care shit for me.-
Lillian laughed internally with satisfaction as she remembered the time Bronwyn had tried to use her, and had been well rewarded, -Yes, but you really know how to pick 'em, what do you expect?-
It was not easy to get out of a relationship, the type mattered little; it had taken Lillian some time to "detox" from that same bastard, Joel.
-Leave him alone, don't cry and don't sigh for crumbs. It's all Joel can give and you are a woman, not an ant.-
When Lillian had understood and felt it too, it had been a liberation.
Bronwyn now dared to tell her to mind her business and that Lillian was envious that she was sleeping with Joel.
Seriously? Lillian's day kept getting better and better...
-But why do I even bother being the do-goodamn-gooder?- she shouted, still frozen. -I'm always the one in the middle, I always have to fix everything, console everyone, listen to everyone's problems and what do I get ? Who listens to me? I've had enough of this!-
With that rant aimed at life itself more than at Bronwyn, Lillian went on down the street leaving behind a trail of droplets.
What a fool she had been, Bronwyn thought of herself, to go and open up with that smug-ass Lillian.
Really, what a hellcat that one was.
/
Since they had fought, that afternoon in the bedroom, she had politely but unfailingly kept her distance.
At night in bed she had her back to him, she stayed in her corner on her cell phone, in silence.
-Good night, love…-
-Good night.-
Krillin never wanted to grieve her. Yet with that second child matter he had made her close up in such a hard shell that now, his wife Eighteen felt more unapproachable than the cyborg of three years ago.
Eighteen was not angry, but disappointed: she had grown accustomed to being understood by Krillin almost effortlessly.
Krillin was empathetic, sensitive, emotional, much more than her; a type of man the world considered rare.
He had witnessed her pregnancy, he had been by her side day and night, at home, in the Briefs lab while they sewed her up, in the Central City clinic. Krillin had known her torments, he had almost lived them with her. And he had the nerve to demand another child from her, to insist!
-Many fathers consider a second child. It's not a crime, you are treating me unfairly,- he said.
-How can you be so selfish? I won't give you such a high-priced consolation.-
They had almost toxic discussions, full of thoughts that they did not feel as theirs,but which they defended.
Eighteen had been disappointed by Krillin's insistence, by his unusual lack of perception.
All this, combined with the words that tormented her from the back of her mind, was putting Eighteen's patience and serenity to the test.
-You stand here stamping your feet, like Marron does,- she almost hissed, then pointing to the window. -The androids are out there!-
Since she had called herself Super 18, Eighteen had never expressed concern about any name on Dende's list. However, what 19.2 had told her had stuck with her.
Eighteen had noticed when, even with Hacchan, she hadn't wanted to talk about it.
And when Krillin asked her for an explanation, Eighteen repeated the exact words of the nineteenth creation:
"May Kami save you and whoever is like you."
Krillin thought about it, -Of course it's about us human earthlings. Those androids consider you a pure human.-
Eighteen thought back to when she had defeated #15 in Saffron Town. "You are nothing more than a human," he had told her, connoting the phrase of inferiority.
19.2 had simply alluded to the mission Dende had given her, Hacchan and Sixteen: to protect humanity from the rise of the Red Ribbon machines.
-If I were you, I wouldn't lose sleep thinking about 19.2.-
-I don't know, Krillin. That's the point.-
Besides the fact that 19.2 had survived her attack, Eighteen had had an unfathomable feeling that there was more to those words.
Between that and the whole story of the children, Eighteen needed comfort. She also had to do something that she had imposed on herself but forgot about.
And she did it with a heavy heart, knowing that the real reason wasn't the necessity to inform, but a need for comfort that she could no longer ignore.
/
Thoughts of the author:
Two words: team Defiance.
No. So AWKWARD!
Surely the pregnancy announcement was much more serene and romantic with Eighteen and Krillin!
In my interpretation, Seventeen has never been particularly careful not to make the people he loves suffer. I always try to stay IC: I think all of this suits the bad boy of Z, and here he's still at that stage of his life.
Passing on to Eighteen, what do you think 19's words really mean?
PS.
I think I also need a shitty mood Spotify playlist.
