Final Farewell-Divine Intervention
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Chapter 8: Final Farewell/Divine Intervention
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The sounds of the battle were deafening.
All of the Z fighters, Seventeen and Eighteen included, were giving it
their all in an effort to defeat the droids in time to stop Dr. Gero. Although
not even Seventeen and Eighteen knew it at the time, Goku sensed a radical
change of heart within the two. Eighteen had changed over to the "good
side" long ago, but Seventeen had remained a loner. Now Goku sensed his
feelings were starting to awaken. This was apparent by the intensity in
which he fought and killed the droids. He wasen't killing for fun as he
might have before, but he was killing to protect which he holds dearest,
his sister.
Unfortunatly for Goku, he was wrapped up
in his thoughts just long enough for one of the droids to barrel into him,
knocking him flat on his face. Before Goku could move, the droid raised
his hand and flung a Destructo Disk right at Goku's face. Goku turned around
in time to see the yellow blade come flying his way. Just before it hit,
a figure dressed in blue jeans, a black shirt, and a white long-sleeve
shirt appeared in front of him. It was Android #17.
Seventeen pulled his leg back and kicked
the disk with everything he had. Incredibly, the disk shattered into shards
of Ki energy which harmlessly flung off into the air. Goku gaped at him.
Seventeen turned to him and offered his hand. Goku blinked up at him before
taking his hand. Seventeen looked...well, about seventeen. Like a normal
teenage boy. For the first time, Goku saw that the Android looked frail,
like a piece of glass that would break the first time its hit. Only the
Z fighters knew that this "harmless teenager" was stronger than any human
living on the planet. Seventeen pulled up, helping Goku to his feet. Goku
looked at the Android boy, a look of gratitude on his face, "Thats the
second time you've saved my life Seventeen..." The Android could almost
see a glint of a tear in his eye. Seventeen then realized what the others
had been trying to get him to understand all this time.
Love is truely the greatest power on Earth.
Its stronger than any blast or attack, its stronger than any fighter, Goku
or himself, or Vegeta, name it. Seventeen then truely realized Goku cared
for him just as much as he did his other friends. Seventeen smiled then,
for the first time in life, a smile not of contempt or cockiness, but a
smile of happiness. Seventeen and Goku, backs to each other, then began
to fight harder than they had every before.
*****Just outside the lab..
Gero stood at the entrance to his lab,
watching the battle completly undetected. Not that he was invisible or
hiding, he was in plain view. Except the droids were keeping the fighters
so busy they didn't even notice him. He looked at the timer, 8 minutes
left. "Ahh Goku...why bother fighting it? In less than 10 minutes I'll
have realized my revenge. Then I'll move onto other planets and rule them.
And when I'm done with them, I'll just blow them up too.." he said with
a smile..
****Back at the battle..
Krillen and Eighteen were now fighting
as a pair. Krillen and Eighteen fighting harder than ever before. After
all the efforts of the Z fighters, the droids were now down to 35. Suddenly,
without warning, 6 droids jumped Eighteen and Krillen. Too startled to
react, they could do little as the droids beat them down to the ground.
Suddenly one of them blasted them both with a point-blank range Ki blast.
Stunned and injured, Eighteen and Krillen fell to the ground in a heap.
The Androids lined to, both hands outstretched. As Krillen opened his eyes,
he saw 6 glowing balls of evil power about to erupt and destroy him and
the one woman he truely loved. He suddenly felt her hand close around him..
"Krillen..." she said. Krillen closed his
eyes and prepared for the blasts to hit. They both knew neither one of
them had the energy to move. Holding each other close, Krillen and Eighteen
prepared to die together. Goten and Trunks saw what was happening, but
were powerless to help as they had their hands full. "Krillen, Eighteen,
RUN!!" Goten screamed. Eighteen laid her head on her husbands chest, glad
at least they would go together..
"TRI BEAM....FIRRREEEEEE!!!" someone
screamed from above. Krillen immediently knew who it was...Tien..
The triangular beam of yellow-orange energy
rained down upon the 6 droids just before they fired. The blast completly
destroyed them all. Tien, in an effort to avoid being sensed, kept his
power level pushed so far down it couldn't be detected, even with a scouter.
He smiled down at Eighteen and Krillen, who were looking up at Tien with
amazement. Next to Tien, Yamcha appeared. He smiled at them, next to him
Bulma appeared. Not using Ki, but the machine she invented they could transport
items. "Uh..Bulma, what are you DOING here?!" Yamcha asked, obviously unaware
Bulma was going to do that. "Thats MY man, and MY kid down there Mr. Loud-Mouth-Yamcha!
I have a right to be here if I want!" she declared. Yamcha blinked and
then smiled a bit. 'Yea..thats the same rude, abusive, courageous Bulma'
he thought with a proud smile. "Just don't get in the way and get hurt."
Yamcha said aloud.
Bulma nodded and took off running for the
nearby cliff ledge where she could watch the battle without getting hurt.
She produced a capsule and pressed the button. Throwing it down, it exploded
in a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, a dome of highly tough, transparent
material was over her. She smiled to herself. Having logged all of Vegeta
attacks and studied the power behind each one, she was able to produce
a substance that could withstand any attack up to a Big Bang. She was confident
nothing stronger than that would hit her.
Back on the battlefield, the Z fighters
had taken care of all but 12 of the droids. Trunks and Goten lined up,
both making highly odd hand motions. The 2 droids that were coming after
them suddenly stopped, their eyes blinking as they attempted to recognize
the attack. The two boys stopped maving their hands and pointed their palms
towards them, their thumbs and index fingers touching to make a diamond
shape. The droids eyes suddenly flashed a warning.
*Warning: Finish Buster Immident. Immedient
Retreat is advised. Repeat: Finish Buste--* The screen was cut off. Goten
and Trunks fired. The blasts not only destroyed the two droids, but blew
a gigantic portion of the mountain to bits. The Earth itself shook with
the power of their blasts. Bulma was rattled inside her dome, but was unhurt.
The other Z fighters, seeing only 10 left, picked up the pace. Tien, Gohan,
Goku, Krillen, Vegeta, Eighteen, Seventeen, and Yamcha each took
one apeice. Goten and Trunks double-teamed one. Piccolo had stopped fighting
to look for Dr. Gero. While he was looking, he sensed a high power attack
coming his way. He turned in time to see a Special Beam Cannon come zooming
towards him. He raised his right hand and grabbed the beam itself! The
droid, clearly confused, could do nothing but continue to fire at Piccolo,
who was holding the beam like it was nothing more than a teddy bear.
"Allow me to show you how to do this properly"
he said with a evil grin. He wound up and fired the beam back at the frightened
droid. With no time to react, the droid took the blast right in his face.
It promptly exploded his head and the droid fell to the ground in pieces.
Looking around, he saw that the Z fighters had just finished destroying
the remaining droids. With a little help from Krillen and Yamcha, Goku
had beaten the droids into one pile and, using the Kame Hame Ha technique,
had swiftly destroyed the remaining droids.
"How much time is left Gohan?" Trunks yelled.
Gohan looked at his watch. "Plenty! We still have a half-hour left!" he
yelled back. The other fighters began to cheer. Goten and Trunks did victory
dances. Vegeta produced the biggest, cockiest smirk he could ever muster.
Eighteen and Krillen held each other happily, Seventeen and Piccolo, although
not showing it on the outside, were overjoyed.Yamcha and Tien cheered loudly,
announcing the downfall of Gero and praising themselves and the other Z
fighters. Goku breathed a deep sigh of relief. "Alright then, we have plenty
of time to find and defeat Dr. Gero!" He yelled.
"On the contrary Goku, I have plenty of
time to defeat YOU!" Gero yelled. Everyone was too busy celebrating to
notice Gero had appeared a little ways behind Goku. Goku growled a bit
at Gero, "Enough Gero! Stop this! Turn the balloons off now, we don't have
to kill each other over this!" he yelled. "Oh your right on that Goku,
we don't HAVE to kill each other. I could play nice and disable the explosives...but
I won't. You see, I'm going to enjoy watching you all die. And once your
all dead then I can go on and make myself master of these other planets!"
he laughed. Goku's golden aura flared around him and he charged Gero, slamming
his fist directly towards his face.
It was like hitting a giant blob of rubber.
Goku was instantly flung backwards like a toy. Vegeta's aura also flared
up and he too charged Gero. This time everyone watched closely. Right before
Vegeta touched Gero a green wall appeared and flung Vegeta on his back.
Krillen, Piccolo, Goten, Gohan, Trunks, and Yamcha all together charged
at Gero. They were all flung back as well. Tien, slightly puzzled, fired
a Ki blast at Gero. It connected right in the face..or rather, WOULD have
connected right in the face. The green energy appeared again and Tiens
blast harmlessly deflected into space.
"Behold!" Gero yelled, pressing a button.
Suddenly in the sky, at least a half-dozen large, silver balloon like objects
appeared. The Z fighters looked up in amazement. "Behold, my Death Balloons"
he declared, "They can withstand any attack you can muster because their
energy shields are fed off your own Ki energy!" he cackled with laughter.
Goku, Yamcha and Gohan all three cupped
their hands to their sides, Vegeta raised his palm to the balloon, Goten
and Trunks made their signature Finish Buster hand movements, Piccolo touched
two fingers to his forehead, Tien cupped his hands in the shape of a triangle
and Krillen held his hand out as a glowing energy blade started to form.
Not having any special attack, Eighteen and Seventeen prepared to fire
their strongest energy blast.
"KAAMME HAAAME HAAA!!" Yamcha, Goku, and
Gohan yelled as they fired.
"BIIIG BAANNG ATTACKKK!!!" Vegeta yelled
as he fired his attack.
"FINISH BUSTTTERRR!!!" Goten and
Trunks yelled as they fired their attacks.
"TRI BEAM FIREEE!!!" yelled Tien as he
fired his signature move.
"DESTRUCO DISK!!!" Krillen yelled as he
flung his whirling energy blade.
"SPECIAL BEAM CANNONNNN FIREEE!!!" Piccolo
screamed as his screw-shaped blast erupted.
Seventeen and Eighteen fired as well. All
of the blasts seemed to blend into one big white sphere as they reached
the balloon. The blue from the Kamehamehas, the red,orange, and yellow
from the Special Beam Cannon, the yellow of the Destructo Disk,Finish Busters
andTri-Beam, and the red from the Androids blasts all seemed to come together
to produce one big white blast about the power of Goku's Spirit Bomb.
All the Z fighters held their breaths as
the ball crashed into the balloon. The explosion could have rung the ears
of the deaf and cause the already blind to be re-blinded. The explosion
shock-wave was so powerful it flattened the remaining mountains and rattled
Bulma's "Ki-Proof" shield. For a second there she felt as if it would shatter
on her. The Z fighters, who had their eye's closed, slowly began to open
them. Then their hearts fell to their feet.
The balloon remained, not even a scratch,
not even after all they had done. To make matters worse, Gero announced
they now had 1 minute left until they exploded. "You did have 5, but the
blasts just rattled the mechanisms and because of that you only have 60
seconds left. Too bad, enjoy it while you can!" he yelled with satanic
laughter. Enraged, Vegeta charged Gero again, only to have himself flung
back on his face.
"When will you learn? This shield detects
incoming Ki and automatically blocks it. And since all of you have a life
Ki, none of you can get to me!" he yelled, his voice mixing with his laughter.
The Balloons overhead started to glow red slightly. "Just think, in 45
seconds this will all be over. Say goodbye to everything and everyone you've
ever loved Goku!" He started laughing. This time, his laughter was cut
short.
Faster than light itself, Seventeen appeared
next to Gero, grabbing him in a bearhug. Within a split-second, Eighteen
was also at his side, bear-hugging, or rather restraining, Gero. "WHAT?!
How?! I don't get it, how the hell did you do that?!" He screamed outraged.
Eighteen smiled at him, "You said it detected
Ki, thanks to you, me and Seventeen don't HAVE Ki anymore." She looked
over at Seventeen, who nodded knowingly. Seventeen looked at Goku and Goku
instantly knew what was happening. Quoting 'A Tale of Two Cities', a book
he had been given by Bulma once, Seventeen looked at Goku with a tear forming
in his eye and said, "Tis a far, far better thing I do, than any I have
ever done.." Eighteen looked at her husband, her own tears falling
from her face. "Krillen...I love you..my love..please forgive me, but I
will not allow him to destroy all that I hold dear.."
Krillen, clearly about to go into shock,
screamed for Eighteen and Seventeen not to do it. The two Android twins
looked at each other and nodded and held Gero, who was screaming, kicking,
and thrashing to try to get away, even tighter. The twins both started
glowing, right when the glow became blinding, Seventeen whispered to Gero,
"Thanks...Dad..for everything" there was sarcasm and contempt dripping
in his voice. Then he took one last look at Eighteen, "I love you..sis...".
Then the self-detonation came. The initial
explosion was only a flash of light, like Tiens Solar Flare, but then the
Plutonium Reverse Fusion kicked in. The explosion was bigger and more Earth-shaking
than even the biggest Spirit Bomb Goku could ever muster. The shockwave
of the blast knocked out electronics for 100 miles in all directions. A
space shuttle on the way back to Earth nearly crashed into an asteroid
because the craft's pilot was blinded by the flash of energy. Way up on
Kami's lookout, pillars and stone tiles cracked and crashed. On King Kai's
planet, King Kai's house collapsed into rubble and his car exploded into
fragments of metal and glass. Screaming that it was the end of the world,
he ran for cover under a tree, Bubbles and Gregory hiding under his robe.
Bulma's Ki Dome shattered into a billion
pieces and she was thrown out of her refuge and into the dust. The Z fighters,
Goku included, were flung into the rubble as if they weighed nothing at
all. The entire Earth shook in a violent Earthquake that took almost a
full minute to subside. Glass from the buildings as far away as Capital
City exploded, leaving people injured from the flying glass shards. All
around the world, people felt the effects of the blast in one way or another.
The Death Balloons, on Earth, Namek, Yardrek, and all the other places.
sizzled, sparked and then fell to the ground, nothing more than hunks of
garbage now. The energy from within leaked and poured into the Earth. You
could clearly tell where a Balloon landed because there was no dead trees
or grass for about a mile outward from the spot.
Back on the battlefield, the blinding light
had subsided. The stunned Z fighters struggled to pick themselves up from
the rubble. Bulma had recovered and staggered over to the fighters, her
leg cut and bruised. They looked around. No sign of Gero, or Seventeen
and Eighteen. Everything around for miles had been wiped out. No mountains,
no lab, nothing. Just sand, rubble, and a surprisingly shallow crater in
the ground that marked where Seventeen and Eighteen paid the ultimate price
to stop Gero. For a long while no one said a word, then a glimmer caught
Krillens eye.
It was a locket that he had given Eighteen
a long time ago. It was in the shape of a heart, one side held his picture,
grinning and flashing a "V", the other held Eighteens, smiling with a look
of pure happiness. Yamcha, swallowing a lump in his throat, was the first
to speak. "Seventeen and Eighteen sacrificed their lives to save this world
from destruction.." he said with more than a bit of saddness in his voice.
That was all that could be taken. Krillen broke down and fell to his knees
crying. Goku also started crying, leaning on his best friend for support.
Gohan blinked back tears, remembering how Eighteen had helped him study
and how he had learned so much from her, then he too began to cry. Goten
and Trunks, remembering how Seventeen was the only one who ever bothered
to play video games with them, started to cry also. Bulma buried her face
in Vegetas chest and started crying. Even Yamcha and Tien had tears in
their eyes. Although he wasen't about to show it, Vegeta was close to tears
also. 'I thought those tin cans were uncaring, selfish assholes...instead
they gave everything they had and MORE, to save our lives." Vegeta felt
a tear well up at the corner of his eye, a tear of gratitute that the "scrap
heaps" he had scorned so much had destroyed themselves to keep not only
him and the rest of the fighters alive, but his wife, his wifes family,
and all the other people on the planet.
Everyone was crying so hard they didn't
notice the ball of light appear behind them until it was glowing as brightly
as the sun. Everyone turned to face it. Goku immediently sensed a Ki much
different that anyone else..it was the Ki of Dende, the Kami of Earth.
Dende stepped out of what looked like a
doorway and faced the fighters with a smile on his face. Behind him, two
figures stepped out. 'They can't be Seventeen and Eighteen, they were Androids
and I sense Ki from these two........unless...' he thought. Then he stopped
crying and took on a look of total and utter amazement.
Seventeen and Eighteen stepped out from
behind Dende. Both wearing the same clothes they had before this fight
ever began. Seventeen in his usual black shirt over long-sleeve white shirt
with blue jeans, and Eighteen with a white and black striped shirt with
denim vest and blue jean pants. The crying immediently stopped for Krillen,
who ran forward and grabbed Eighteen in a hug. They fell to their knees
together, crying and holding each other. Goku looked at the small Dende
and started to open his mouth, but a voice stopped him.
"Goku...you know better than anyone else
that has ever lived, that people with pure hearts deserve a chance to live
on. Android 17 and 18 sacrificed their own lives to save the very planet
they were suppose to destroy, just as Vegeta did once. I will not allow
such creatures of pure heart to pass away so soon." the voice said. Goku
immediently recognized the voice as King Emma, Guardian of the Dead. Dende
smiled at Goku, "King Emma made them human, thats why you sense Ki from
them."
Without even thinking, Goku hugged Seventeen
and Eighteen, who this time hugged him back. Everyone, Goten, Trunks, Krillen,
Gohan, Bulma, Tien, Yamcha, even Piccolo and Vegeta, hugged the Androids.
For a long time, they just sat there and cried and held each other. Eighteen,
through her tears, reached out and took the locket from Krillens hand.
"I'll take that back if you don't mind" she said with a smile as he re-clasped
it around her neck. This brought even more crying from the group as any
feelings of hate or contempt they had had for each other was swept away
in seconds. Smiling, Dende, knowing that the fighters would be alright,
stepped back into the doorway and vanished, never letting the most courageous
group of fighters ever out of his sight. He smiled, confident that Seventeen
would be fully accepted as Eighteen is now.
********Later that night..
Back at Capsule Corp, there was no big
celebration party, no feast, just friends. Seventeen was invited to move
into Capsule Corp until he found a place to live, which he accepted. Vegeta
didn't even argue about it, he just gave silent consent. TV reports showed
the blackout was the cause of "Electromagnetic Radiation caused from the
nearby planet Venus's solar eclipse". Of course none of the Z fighters
believed it. They knew the blackouts were caused by Seventeen and Eighteen
when they destroyed Dr. Gero for the final time earlier. Krillen and Eighteen
never looked happier. Even Chi Chi had hugged Seventeen and Eighteen for
their heroic deed.
But one person was sitting alone on the
porch. Seventeen, happy to be human and even happier to be alive, went
outside to be alone for a while. He sat and for the first time in his life,
thought things through. He remembered Goku choking in the kitchen and him
saving his life by unchokeing him. He remembered the panic and fear on
Goku's wife's face when she saw her husband choking. He remembered the
tears his sister and Krillen shed with each other on the battlefield today.
He remembered Bulma crying in Vegetas arms earlier. He remembered the last
words he said earlier, "I love you..sis" Then a realization stuck him like
a bolt of lightning.
THAT..is what Goku calls 'love', he said.
His eyes welled up with tears as he remembered all the kindness that was
shown to him since he'd been with the Z fighters. He realized his love
for his sister and newfound friends was what prompted him to self-destruct
to kill Gero. Seventeen smiled despite his tears and whispered to himself,
"You were right Goku...love truely IS the most powerful force on Earth.."
THE END
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At last! Return of a Nightmare is
finished. This is my first EVER fanfic, a great feat for me, considering
my first had 8 chapters to it. Well how did you like it? Worth reading?
Please R&R to let me know!
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!
-Angel of Death