That was no different afternoon from any other.

Carly was waiting for her turn at Verny Town Hall, the fine to be paid in her hands; she had to put her face in it, since the Z4 was registered to her.

She had found a 20,000-zeni speeding fine in the mailbox, the infraction had been committed in the parking lot of the supermarket just outside North City: Carly had almost cursed herself, remembering that in June she had been the one sending Lapis to get that blasted basil ice cream.

"Imagine that, that one. I just can't trust him. "

What about her, with those leftover zeni she had wanted to buy a dress. And a scratching post for her cat.

Carly wondered if all the people packed in that stuffy room had to pay stupid fines for their stupid partners; Lapis didn't even answer the phone, Carly couldn't wait to tell him off.

It must have been so annoying to be sitting next to her, Carly figured: the chair was uncomfortable and she kept changing position, making it creak.

The queue at the counter was long and Carly decided to stretch her legs, walking around the town hall in search of a water fountain: she had done well to bring along her iron tablets, if she had left them at home she would have skipped a dose.

As she drank, Seventeen stormed in through the main doors.

"Lapis! A fine?!"

Carly walked to him waving the paper but Seventeen defused her, hugging her with all the love he was capable of.

"I love you so much," he said softly, catching her by surprise.

Not that Lapis never told her, but he wasn't the type to do it often. He never had been.

"I love you so much too," Carly wanted to look at his face. "What's happening?"

Seventeen kissed Carly like when they were kids, holding her close with possession and jealousy.

He inhaled her woman's scent, warm and reassuring, then dragged her with him to the door.

"You have to come with me, you can't stay here."

If what he thought had really happened, no place in the world would be safe, but he couldn't leave Carly around Verny. He had to get her away from him, ship her to Central City on the first available flight.

Carly asked him confused questions, but Seventeen didn't care that she understood.

It was an afternoon like any other in Verny, but as Lapis pressed her out of the town hall, it seemed to Carly that the sky had grown darker.

Out of the blue distressing sirens, those that signal an impending attack or cataclysm had begun to echo across the valleys of the region, from Verny to Jingle Village.

The top ranger found the cold blood to answer his cell phone, letting Carly hear what Lillian had just communicated to him: the RNP was all set, waiting for the military.

There was a quiet lane outside the town hall; Seventeen took Carly aside, got down on his knees in front of her, and kissed her belly.

It had never happened before.

That gesture moved Carly as much as it shocked her, "Lapis, what's going on?"

"Something terrible."

How would he explain it to her?

But Carly felt, before she understood.

And at that moment she felt that maybe there was still something she didn't know, in Seventeen.

Hacchan was waiting to take Carly away. The big cyborg had never met Eighteen's twin, he was surprised to see him in the company of that pregnant girl.

But of course, they had told him: #17 was the only one like Eighteen.

Hacchan and Seventeen had felt dire presences approaching, something beyond ki; there was an odd burning smell in the air, the ranger instinctively sought the column of smoke he didn't need to see.

"You got this."

Carly hugged Lapis. She embraced him with all her determination and love.

"You got this, cyborg 17."

"Go…"

Seventeen pushed Carly to Hacchan, with orders to take her to her father.

Carly muttered softly a goodbye that was not meant to be goodbye, staggering along with Hacchan, looking back to see Lapis.

/

Doctor Gero knew that the Masterpiece had located 17. And even he himself, albeit too late, had managed to track down his killer.

The insect-cameras had shown him a few very interesting frames: the actions of 17 had been as deplorable as those of 18, Gero did not understand what made his cyborgs want to put themselves on the level of pure humans.

But that had raised the stakes for Gero: now there were more cards to play, to hurt 17.

In his mad excitement, Gero had scattered destruction along his flight path; a ball of energy had fallen on a gas station, the gas pump had exploded shortly after.

The fire had already begun to rise through the mountain above Neuve Ville.

Soon no one in the RNP understood what the sirens were blaring for, a fire or an attack.

Nobody knew where the army was but everybody, on that ordinary afternoon in late August, everybody went out of their house to watch.

/

Eighteen hadn't had the nerve to ask Sixteen or Krillin to stay out of it. Even though she wanted one of them to watch over Kate and Marron, she knew that Sixteen and her husband wanted to be with her, out of love for her or of a sense of justice.

Eighteen had had to wait for Bulma to arrive with her aircraft from West City: then she had hugged her Marron close and had entrusted Kate to Bulma as well.

She had watched Krillin pick her mother up and place her in the aircraft. 19.2 had thrown her against the rock wall and a broken rib had brushed her lung, time now counted.

Eighteen was unable to say "Goodbye" to them when Bulma took off, taking Kate and Marron safely to her home.

Eighteen had to see them again.

/

It was odd to meet in the same place, all of them united by such an unhappy context.

Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen. And Krillin.

Krillin felt out of place, but he didn't care.

Eighteen let out a faint moan.

Seventeen, just beside her, touched her torn shirt and the web of veins on her neck, the only visible signs of the attempted violence.

A sight that made him roar, under his breath. "What did he do to you?"

Eighteen had no doubts about her brother's intentions; she looked him straight in the face, serious and dramatic. "Don't forget. I have to kill him, with my own hands."

And finally, Gero too descended from the sky, into that little wood dangerously close to Verny.

Eighteen drew her blade, Sixteen and Krillin prepared to attack.

From his single functioning eye, the doctor looked brazenly at her: he hadn't gone all the way and he would have, hadn't it been for the mother.

Gero was still all bent, his back still gnawed by the super jet of water.

Those new physical shortcomings made him even more furious, he struggled to concentrate.

However, it did not escape him that his killer was distracted. 17 was standing in front of him, but his mind was elsewhere: his distressed gaze (yes, Gero had seen it! And that unexpressed fear was already a victory) analyzed everything around him, except the doctor.

He was waiting for something.

Gero took a good look at the familiar face of his killer. As handsome as hers, however nothing but pure symmetry.

He remembered having chosen the twins also because they looked like that, but with #17 there were no pulsions: in front of him Gero was seething only with revenge, a sincere smile appeared on his face.

"Yes, illustrious creation, I know what you are looking for: I'll satisfy you immediately."

Gero gestured with his hand and the four remained awaiting an attack.

Instead, all they heard were footsteps. Unmistakable, like his aura.

"But that's ..."

Krillin felt all the feelings of the first time: when Bulma and Future Trunks had shown him those photos of the time machine, when news of people disappearing had started to circulate.

A silhouette stood out against the dense semi-darkness of the fir trees, Eighteen tried not to look away.

Silently, her limb branched out into many blades.

Sixteen looked on with the same frown as the first time; his legs had carried him in front of the cyborgs, just a step forward.

The Creature emerged from the woods, the movement of its tail so fast it was only a whistle.

Seventeen didn't react, Cell looked at him as he had looked at him the first time.

"I think he's angry, for letting you two slip away last time."

Gero walked around Cell who remained motionless, limiting himself to fierce glances: his presence alone was enough.

Imperfect Cell was the same but his nearly glowing eyes and ribs sticking out of flaps of skin, frayed like old flags, made him look like a zombie.

And so, Gero had rebuilt him.

"It was a real accident that not even I had foreseen. But now he'll reabsorb you, and with his new physiology it won't happen again. You will no longer exist. "

"Do you think the same trick will work twice with me?" Seventeen finally proclaimed, feeling that this time he could really defend himself.

Gero actually wanted to start with him.

"We'll see. However, do you think I don't know that you wasted the seed for ... what do you call her, your beloved? "

The anguish which had hitherto been theoretical took the definite form of an abyss.

And Seventeen, who wasn't expecting it, sank into it. "None of your business."

"And that #8 is on the run with her?"

Satisfaction shamelessly dominated Gero's face; Cell began to search, to turn its head.

He levitated, following a direction. The only direction.

And as Seventeen set out in pursuit of Cell, Gero shot a stream of electricity from his palms: absolute pain that pinned Seventeen like electrocution.

The doctor sat in peace, once again admiring the effects of the shock on the deactivation device.

/

Hacchan moved faster than a car, following the route of the main road but not exiting the forests that bordered it. Carly sat safely on his shoulders, aware that something bigger than her was happening, but unable to not be in pain. Then that big cyborg had stopped.

"Hacchan?"

"He's coming."

"...?"

"Cell."

Hacchan pointed to a metal structure, higher up on that same mountain.

It was an aqueduct, perhaps a fairly safe place: Hacchan jumped up there with Carly, easily broke the chain that blocked access to an interior compartment.

"You stay here, don't say a word. Suppress your aura."

Carly didn't know how to suppress the aura. "Don't leave me!"

She reached out to Hacchan as he already closed the doors.

Hacchan had promised Seventeen to keep her safe: waiting to take Carly to the airport, he bolted the door again and stood by her side, hoping that if Cell found them he could defend them both.

/

Gero had risen stronger: Krillin felt frightened to see him fight Sixteen and Eighteen, and at the same time torture Seventeen. Every now and then the beam grew brighter and a cloud of electricity surrounded Seventeen, who then held back screams and dropped limply.

In spite of everything, Gero couldn't get the same sadistic pleasure from him that he got with 18, the same excruciating pain and physical damage.

As soon as the other two creations and Krillin had rushed to help, Gero had raised a hand and a dense flock, the bug cameras now equipped with ki spikes, had rained down on them, cutting, breaking, injuring.

Krillin managed to free himself from that cloud that wanted to give him death by a thousand cuts, he shot a kamehameha that Gero could not completely absorb.

Gero cursed when, taking advantage of the distraction, # 17 injected enough energy into the shock-ray to dissipate it.

The Creature had slipped out of sight, Sixteen understood that he had to be the one to distract the creator: he drew him away from that small wood, dodged the shock-rays and stormed him with fists and balls of energy.

/

Krillin and the twins flew to intercept Cell, who promptly reappeared from the forest: it seemed that this time he was not in such a hurry to absorb.

The mid-air face-off between Cell and the cyborgs and the heavy struggle between Sixteen and Gero had attracted the attention of civilians.

The people of Verny and the surrounding villages still waited for the army; in the meantime, they watched with admiration that battle that no one could understand.

"Look at the sky! Are they birds?"

"Are they planes?"

"No," Brent broke out, after Lillian had confusedly told him about an attack. "They're superhumans! My mates Seventeen and Eighteen."

/

Cell started that dutiful battle with two simultaneous, flaming makankosappo.

The twins dodged and parried; Eighteen vibrated her kachi katchin blade, with her other hand she threw tiny darts of the same material. Every time Cell dodged they rained on the roofs, turning the gneisses into black shiny slabs.

Krillin didn't want to be on the sidelines, gawking at the strong ones. He recalled the day Cell had deprived him of Eighteen, he had believed forever.

He flew fast upward, to face the sun.

But Cell understood: he aimed the stinger at the warrior and fired a jet of the same liquid that had melted stones, the time Sixteen had ripped his tail.

Seventeen moved in front of Krillin to shield him, but knew he had failed when he heard a cry: Krillin's arm, now a lump of bone and blackened skin, smoked and burned.

Seventeen had also been hit: the sleeve of his shirt had dissolved and his skin was red, burnt.

"Krillin!"

Eighteen ran, as did Cell, tail wide open; Seventeen broke in with a hoarse growl, his fist glowing green and colliding with the plate on Cell's chest.

The impact sounded low and deep, thundering in people's ears like bass at a concert.

The monster crashed, piercing a mountain.

Eighteen supported Krillin, Seventeen panted in mid-air, eyes restlessly looking for his nightmare.

This time it was Seventeen who made an important request.

"Go away. Now."

Eighteen dropped her arms to her sides.

Gero would not have been stronger than them but Cell, on the other hand, was not an enemy Seventeen could fight alone.

This was a second chance and there was no time to be afraid of Cell, but how could Eighteen leave Seventeen to his fate once again?

"Trust me, sister."

She had never seen Seventeen fight like that. Irony and mockery had always been a part of him, but now even the way he flicked his hair was aggressive.

Fear had turned to anger, Seventeen had to kill Cell as much as Eighteen had to kill Gero: Carly was on the battlefield, nothing was like the first time.

But...

Eighteen saw that, for a millisecond, Seventeen had rolled his eyes back. He had coughed and sniffed, a few drops of bright red had fallen on his lips.

Seventeen was more resistant than she, who knew how much, he had freed himself from Gero's shocks.

Seventeen hadn't had any under-the-skin bleeding that left branch-like patterns, his wounds were internal.

And his deactivation device, perturbed by the shock, acted almost like a switch. He probably didn't realise it.

However Eighteen, already a victim of that attack, had understood.

"No! You will be killed."

She recognised the same words she had said to Sixteen.

Seventeen took the head of his twin in his hands and compelled her to look at him.

"Trust me. Trust me."

Everything could be lost: Cell was reborn and changed, if she and Seventeen had been absorbed there would have been no way to reverse it.

Eighteen understood, however, that there would always be new Cells and that Seventeen wanted to take a stand against them.

For himself. For his child.

That child who didn't deserve to be born in a world where Cells and Geros could destroy and create pain without anyone daring to tear them apart.

The elder twin felt her heart sink in her chest, but she knew she had to give Seventeen the right to protect.

She left the battlefield with Krillin, Cell couldn't follow them: a multitude of force fields made him bounce between earth and sky, stunning him, blocking him. Moving lightning-fast among the four cardinal points Seventeen hit Cell with all those barriers, extensions of his limbs, wearing his devilish grin again.

/

Meanwhile, Sixteen had landed ruinously among the gneiss and wood of a dilapidated hamlet further down the valley.

Gero could no longer catch anyone in his shock-ray: out of spite he had started to move large pieces of rock and let them fall on the suburban houses of the former capital.

People had started running, screaming and Sixteen had remained between Gero and the city, like an ancient guardian.

The people below had done everything they could, they had rounded up rangers, policemen, firemen. The multitude of bullets that had been fired from the ground hadn't injured Gero, but had contributed to the confusion that had disrupted his actions and his presence of mind since Kate had shot him.

Without his being aware of it.

/

Going to meet Eighteen and Krillin, Eight was shocked by the latter's injuries.

"Hacchan!"

Eighteen had reacted first to that familiar voice: looking along a rocky wall, she had seen the light bulb that was her sister in law's head protruding from the aqueduct.

"What are you doing here? I thought you took her away! " Eighteen scolded Hacchan, paying no attention to Carly.

Eighteen wasn't aware of the tension of the situation corroding her usual calm: she couldn't stop verbally attacking the poor giant, who failed to react.

Hacchan sat aside in a corner of that narrow space, his head between his knees.

"Eighteen! Love!" Krillin, his head resting on Carly's lap, had raised a hand. "There are already Cell and Gero who want to attack us. We cannot divide."

He was right.

Carly took courage in both hands, nodded at Hacchan.

"It's my fault, Lazuli. I asked him to stay. "

"You can't stay!" Eighteen silenced her. "I don't know how long Seventeen can hold out, alone against Cell!"

Everyone was talking about Cell, but Carly couldn't figure it out. Cell, the one who had killed so many people before Lapis returned to her?

Lazuli gave her only a brief nod of assent.

Krillin touched his corroded arm, assessing the situation from Carly's point of view: the aqueduct was flanked by a precipice, it would be impossible for her to jump.

She didn't know if running away from there would mean certain death for her: Cell and Gero would have noticed every move, Gero wanted her dead.

"Eighteen, I'm sorry." Hacchan said, now demoralized, from his corner. 'I can't defend her. "

Battles like theirs were rich in thrills and drama, but it was also very easy to lose hope.

Eighteen felt guilty: Hacchan was one of the most sensitive creatures she knew, and she had treated him badly. Just when all of them needed to be united.

Eighteen suffered to admit to herself that no one, in that compartment, could defend themselves against Cell.

Cell obeyed Gero and Gero had ordered him to find Carly. How much time would they have before Cell overpowered Seventeen and followed the orders?

Eighteen had to go back to Seventeen, she had an inhuman need to fight alongside him.

But Hacchan said he couldn't defend Carly, there was only one thing Eighteen could do.

"I can. Use me. "

Eighteen looked at the serious face of those present, at Carly's belly.

She made a cut in her arm, let the blood flow to the ground.

Eighteen was not an android: depriving herself of body parts took away her blood, nerves, life.

That last year as Super 18 had been too little time and she wasn't ready, but did she have any other choice in front of that harmless girl?

She couldn't let her die.

She couldn't do that to Seventeen.

Still in the aftermath of the attack in the caves, Eighteen didn't feel strong.

She wondered if depriving herself of so much life force could kill her.

When Cell had taken Seventeen Eighteen had watched in shock, realising that he would have died for her.

Now it was her turn.

Eighteen would do anything for love.

Carly didn't notice everything her sister in law felt, in her heart and head.

Lazuli, in fact, had only grown a tone paler.

Eighteen's blood was now solid, it had taken the form of a weapon that the cyborg girl placed in Carly's hands, "I heard you're a good shot."

That was the last thing she said.

/

It was inexplicable, inadmissible, but it was happening: Seventeen felt his strength and also his state of consciousness come and go, changing direction in his circuits and veins like alternating current.

It had to be something fleeting, because he couldn't feel that way.

Seventeen already knew that the one before him was an unforgiving enemy, but he had to find a way. He felt the bitter thrill of history repeating itself as he watched Cell increase his terrible aura and break the force field he was locked in.

"Remember you are my brother, 17: you helped me achieve perfection, but then I lost you ..."

Seventeen was moving so fast he looked like whirlwinds: blows, bursts of energy rained down on Cell like a storm, but the Masterpiece did not lose his cool.

"You want to emulate a human life, brother."

In the vortex created by his own movements, Seventeen was surprised by the ember eyes of Cell, materialising so close to his face.

There was no time to be afraid. He couldn't afford to be afraid.

"But you will always be more like me than them, 17: even if you force yourself not to express it, deep down you will always be evil."

The cyborg didn't even hear him; Cell was not worthy to speak to him.

Eighteen had arrived, running through the forest, just in time to watch the grand finale.

Before the wide eyes of his sister, and of the city of Verny, Seventeen did something that no one could explain: in a rush that seemed completely senseless to everybody, he threw himself at Cell.

He was still watching the tail, which had remained folded behind the monster's back.

He was yet to feel the force of the blow that had pierced his body and severed his spine.

Seventeen looked in shock at the beam of light cutting him side to side: a monstrous gash, still filled with the energy of the enemy, split him from throat to belly.

And with the violence of a tsunami that sweeps everything away, the pain came all together.

Seventeen's eyes widened, but the cry drowned in blood.

The world began to go black, Cell's face grew farther and farther away, voices and noises mingled in vertigo.

Eighteen and a whole city fell silent as, there in midair, Cell removed the beam of energy from Seventeen's unconscious body.

Then the cyborg fell dead weight from above, with a thud that broke the ground.