Cyborg Gothic

Part 8

I followed 18 and I was very surprised to find that Goku's friends were all hanging out on a huge platform that was in the sky. Out of all things that could have crossed my mind I spent a moment wondering if any aircraft had ever nearly collided with this place.

As my fellow cyborg and I landed I saw more of the place, and I discovered that there were buildings up here too. Heck there were even trees growing.

I couldn't understand how as the air should be too thin at this altitude for plants, or for people to breathe. Yet here they were, even a baby, looking healthy enough.

Of course I didn't spend too much dwelling on such things as I had come here on important business, and since I couldn't sense any power levels here that equalled or surpassed my own I figured that Goku still wasn't back from where he was hanging out. Which meant that right now I had a huge advantage and therefore I would be able to dictate terms.

"Krillian now!" I heard someone shout.

The bald dwarf pressed a button on a remote and Eighteen just dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. I however was physically fine although I was confused on a emotional level as I didn't understand at all what had just happened.

::Android 18 Has Been Deactivated::

Now I understood that the device the short guy was holding was a device meant to switch us cyborgs off. Only it hadn't worked on me due to the changes I'd undergone upon absorbing Sixteen, or at least that was what I assumed.

For a moment I'd forgotten that she was part machine as it was impossible to tell just by her outward apperence. Neither of us looked as if we'd been assimulted by the Borg.

::Android 18 Will Reboot::

That was good to know, but I was still pissed off, and I didn't want them messing with Eighteen again so I moved with all my considerable speed and grabbed the remote.

Then I crushed it with my one hand and placed the other around the short guy's neck. It would have been simple enough to kill Krillian, but that would be counter productive so I took the little man as a hostage.

Since I'd moved so fast it was only now that the fighters had gotten over the shock of the device failing to switch me off, and when they realised that I had their friend in my grasp the group got ready to fight.

"You know I could kill you all right now" I told the warriors "But I didn't come here for that. I came to make peace".

They got me a round of gasps. It was dramatic.

"You don't expect us to believe that do you?" some woman I didn't know the name of, asked "You killed Vegeta!".

I had a valid reply.

"He attacked me" I said "It was self defence, and he nearly destroyed the whole planet rather than surrender so I didn't have a choice".

I wasn't sure the defenders of this world accepted that as the truth, but they were still listening so I kept talking.

"Here's the offer" I stated "You leave Eighteen and me alone, and we won't do anything to harm the innocent people of this world. We'll only fight to protect ourselves".

I would not promise to never hurt anyone, as I had a feeling that sooner or later someone would try to harem us, and if that happened then I didn't want to start another fight just because I had been defending myself.

"How do we know you'll keep your word" the three eyed fellow asked "You were created by Doctor Gero to kill Goku. You might be planning something. We won't let our guard down".

Even though I was outnumbered quite a bit I could still kill them all without much trouble. I'd far surpassed their levels of power.

"Because if you refuse my offer then I slaughter you all" I told them "And then I'll take my chances wih Goku".

The fighters started to exchange glances and I figured they were going to attack me, only they didn't because that was when Trunks arrived, and he was not a happy camper. He was holding a fully charged ball of Ki energy at the still rebooting blond haired cyborg.

"Let Krillan go or I'll destroy 18" he said.

At this point it become too dangerous to hold the dwarf hostage so I let him go. Trunks was surprised by this, as were the others. They didn't seem to grasp that I wasn't a bad guy.

"You know if Goku were here he'd destroy you" the woman with the baby was now saying "Even if Vegeta couldn't".

I wasn't so sure about that, I figured I had a chance at winning, however I simply wasn't willing to take the risk, and really there was no need to. It wasn't like I wanted the guy dead.

"Well sadly for you he isn't here" I pointed out.

Nobody spoke for a while so I decided to do the talking thing.

"Look I know that if we agree to not fight each other anymore then you will all honour the deal" I said "And as for Goku it was Sixteen and Seventeen who wanted to kill him, and they are both gone now".

I gave the a few moments to think about what all that meant.

"Eighteen and I really don't care about what Gero wanted" I then informed "He didn't finish our programming, so we're free to chose, and even if Eighteen did want to kill your friend I wouldn't let her".

Not that I would need to as the female cyborg hadn't really been that interested in killing anyone. Seventeen and Sixteen had been the driving force behind that mission, and what they wanted didn't matter anymore.

"I'll sweeten the deal" I went on stay "I've got plenty of files on you people so I know you've faced a lot of bad guys before. If you agree to peace then I will promise to help you against any future bad guys".

A few of them looked to be considering my offer.

"Fine we agree" said the green guy.

Everyone was surprised so the alien explained his reasoning.

"We don't stand a change without Goku, and he's not here" the alien reminded his friends "But he will be soon, so if the androids try anything in the future he can deal with them".

Trunks was the loudest objection.

"He killed my father!".

This I did not deny.

"It was self defence" I argued "You know that you were there. Vegeta wanted to kill me, and I simply protected myself".

Then I mentioned the other reason why I'd killed the Saiyan.

"Vegeta was even willing to let Cell eat 18 just so he could get a good fight" I informed the fighters "If that had happened we all would have died. Vegeta was insane".

Plus he'd nearly blown the planet.

"He's nothing but a monster!" the purple haired guy called out "He's murdered millions of innocent people!".

I was rather offended by that.

"No I haven't" I protested.

I'd kill two people, and neither of them had been good guys, in fact Vegeta was the one who had slaughtered millions.

"No I mean in future!" Trunks yelled.

Well that did explain how he be fully grown when his father wasn't that old. He travelled back in time. Oddly that was easy to accept.

"You and the two androids killed everyone here, and then took over the world" the guy with the sword was now saying "But not before taking out entire cities".

The other day I had figured that I could come to rule the world by simply destroying any major settlement that refused to surrender. Apparently the idea had merit.

"Wait a second" I then said "Which androids?".

Vegeta's son looked ready to start hacking with his sword so I decided to keep talking so as avoid a bloodbath. If a fight started I'd have to kill them all and then hope I could defeat Goku. However now that the Trunks was here I wasn't so sure how easy it would be to kill the others. He could at least slow me down long enough for the others to escape, or he could just blow up 18 before I got done with his friends.

"In the future you along with Seventeen and Eighteen take over!" the warrior flying above explained "Anyone who resisted was killed!".

That didn't make any sense.

"Seventeen is dead so that can't happen" I pointed out "And I haven't killed anyone here. I'm trying to make peace".

That really didn't make any sense because if Trunks had changed the past then the future he lived in didn't exist anymore. So he shouldn't rememeber it that way.

"He's right" the green guy said "Seventeen is gone, and if Twenty-one wanted too he could easily kill us all, but he's only been defending himself, and he fought Cell with me. If Vetega hadn't gotten involved we would have won without losing Seventeen".

Well I was glad to see that at least one of them was somewhat sensible.

"Why don't you just go back to the future and see if I keep my word" I suggested "If I still take over then you can come back and tell Goku, and then he stop me in the present".

That might be possible. It depended on how time travel worked

"It doesn't work that way" a now calmer Trunks then told me "The androids in my time line are still there".

Which meant he came from an alternate time line. That explained why he hated me right from the start. The me in his world had done allthe bad things and he blamed me for it. Which was totally unfair.

"Which means that killing me won't change anything" I argued.

I had more to say, but that was when a door opened and out of it stepped Goku and a kid who my files told me was his son.

"Oh no" I heard 18 say.

I was happy to see that she had rebooted, but that was overshadowed by the fact that I might be about to die.

"Oh hey Gothic" Goku said with a wave "What are you doing here?".

He acted as if knew me, but as far as I knew we'd never met. So this was all very confusing to say the least.

"Did you come to help us fight Cell?" the fighter then asked me.

Thankfully somebody else spoke, because I simply couldn't.

"Cell's dead" Piccolo reported to his friend "And so is Vegeta".

That surprised Goku, and I considered attacking while he was distracted, but given the guy's power level I was less certain about beating him now. Also his son's level was nearly as scary.

"Who killed Vegeta?" Goku inquired.

Everyone looked at me.

"It was self defence" I said in a hurry "He was trying to kill me".

Oddly Goku didn't seem that upset.

"Well we can wish him back with the Dragonballs" the warrior said "We can use the ones on Naamk".

I had no what those were, but if they could wish people back to life then it made no sense that Trunks was so upset about his Dad being dead.

"But first we better stop those evil androids" Goku then said "We just need to find out where are they?".

We were right here.

"They're here, Goku" the green guy informed.

For once I didn't feel the need to correct anyone on the fact that 18 and I were cyborgs, not merely robots that mimicked the human form.

"Well I can't sense her energy" Goku said while point at Eighteen "So she's an android, but where's the other one?".

Everyone was still so confused.

"Seventeen and Sixteen are dead" Trunks told the older Saiyan "But Eighteen and Twenty-one are right there in front of you".

That didn't really clear things up as much as perhaps it should have.

"No that's Gothic" Goku said "I've met him before, his girlfriend brought him here for training. I'm sure I mentioned this".

Well clearly the world's strongest fighter was totally insane. That or I died fighting Vegeta and this was my messed afterlife.

"I've never been here before" I corrected the Saiyan "And I don't even have a girlfriend".

Somehow I felt 18 glaring at me. I was able to ignore it.

"Wait hold on your energy is different" Goku then said to me "You've changed".

Well my DNA had been modified and I had machine parts so that sort of made sense. Kinda.

"So you must be from another dimension too" Goku realised "And if you're anything like the Gothic I knew then your not a bad guy".

I actually understood that.

"So you've met a version of me from another universe" I reasoned "And he came here to train with you".

That was surprisingly easy to grasp. Although given that over the last few days I'd met cyborgs, androids, aliens and a time traveller, the idea of there being versions of myself in other realities wasn't that hard to believe.

"Yeah" Goku replied "He was a hero in his world, so if your anything like him then we should be on the same side".

Well that was what I wanted, sort of as I didn't think I would win being the bady, not if the son and father tag teamed me, and the good guys were better at the team work stuff than the baddies. So I figured that all the fighters combined would steam roll over me and 18 if it came to a fight.

"I would like to stop the fighting" I said to the warriors "I actually came here to make peace with you guys".

Trunks then got all pissed off again.

"He's evil!" the guy shouted.

I got the sense that talking this out was going to take a while. I was glad that I didn't need to eat or sleep.