The Hunter Captured by the Game

Author: Mei TwoMoons                                                                   Rated: PG-13

I've read allot of pairings in Dragonball fics, but it came to the attention of me and my fellow muses (whom I adore) that both Android 17 and Lime, a little girl about Gohan's age from just before the Cell games, are usually left out of the fun. 

Special thanks to all my beloved muses, who kept my butt in front of the computer writing, and in particular Lexxie, who gave me awesome insights and inspirations for this piece.

Disclosure: I don't own any of these characters.  And if I did, would I be writing fanfiction?  I think not.

Part 1: Fallen

He walked the game trail as it cut through the darkening forest, his icy blue eyes flickering from one side to the other.  Tracking.  Searching.  Hunting. 

He lived for this. 

His black hair brushed over his shoulders slightly with every step he took, but he made not a sound.  He paused as a startled flock of birds took flight from some distance away, and he smoothly removed the rifle from his shoulder, the strap making a swish sound as it slipped across the leather coat he always wore now.  It was getting colder.

He silently slunk through the patches of light and dark being made by the canopy of leaves overhead.  He was sure his quarry was large, a bear or maybe even a tiger.  And he was in no mood to pass up big game today.  Not that he ever was really.  The bigger the better.  None of it was a challenge to him really, not that it ever had been, and that was the only reason he used a gun now.  It gave his quarry a slim chance of getting away.  

The hunter may have looked like a teenager, but he had been created to become killing machine, a bringer of death and chaos.  And he would have been had his creators dreams been realized.  As it turns out, the only person he ever killed WAS his own 'creator'.  The old fool had sealed his own fate the moment he had activated him and his sister.  No one controlled them, told them what to do.  And he had proved it. 

Life had been a grand game from the start.  Cities, cars, and even humans merely playthings.  The right was theirs alone.  But everything changed violently when he was absorbed by cell, and he himself had become a mere possession, a prize.  And when he was finally snuffed out of his existence when cell finally met his end, he welcomed oblivion.  Better to die than merely exist as someone else's pawn, powerless to fight back, to live as in individual…  

And then he was granted a restoration to life.  And he still had no idea what to make of the generously bestowed gift.  The carefree and energetic attitude of his earlier days had left him forever.  His life had no purpose, meaning, direction, or place.  Humans were no longer simply weak helpless creatures there for his amusement, but they certainly weren't his equals.  He knew he didn't belong with them, even if his sister had married and had a child with one.  Something he still found almost impossible to believe.  Except for him and 18, there were no others like them, there never had been, so where could he belong except with himself?

So now all he wanted to do was to hunt and be left alone.  A lone hermit, trapped eternally in the body of a teenage boy.  God, Fate certainly had a sick sense of humor.

A large apple tree came into view.  It was overgrown and dense, never having been cut back by human hands.  A few leaves rustled, despite the total lack of wind, and the android boy raised his gun up to eye level to take aim.  The muffled sound of the river flowing past it couldn't hide the sound of a limb groaning with a great weight from his incredibly sharp hearing, and when the next cluster of leaves shook he squeezed the trigger.  The hammer dropped and the air was suddenly filled with sound and smoke. 

And then 17 saw a flash of color as something fell heavily from the tree.

//got it//

He walked calmly over to what had fallen.  It was not a bear, nor was it a tiger.  It looked almost ..

Juu's eyes widened a bit.  It was a human, a young woman, early 20's maybe, it was hard to tell through the curtain of long auburn hair splayed around and over her face like the feathers of a downed hawk.  A dark scarlet stain was seeping outwards from her side, leaving a crimson stream flowing past the windfall green apples lying around her.

He shook his head, not out of sadness or regret, but out of annoyance.  "What a stupid girl."  He then shouldered his weapon and started back the direction he came from.  Humans were always to find clever ways to get make themselves extinct.

 He had gone only a few steps when he heard a weak mewing sound from behind him, and he turned to look back at the creature.  She was still alive, for the moment it seemed.

He gave an amused chuckle, oblivious to how inappropriate it would be considered to do so.  "So, she survived the fall.  Resilient little thing."  Then his brow creased in thought.  The fall hadn't killed her, nor had the initial shot, but she was still just as dead if she remained here. Not that it mattered.  If the wound didn't kill her, the unforgiving forest would. 

He was going to leave her where she fell.  So what if he was responsible for killing her?  It had never bothered him before, the idea of killing someone weaker than him.  Well, until he was 'killed' by someone stronger.  And after all, it was her own fault that she had gotten shot in the first place.

But when he looked at her again, her freckled face flecked with her own blood, her mouth drawn slightly into a grimace, and he reconsidered.  He could see she was fighting to stay alive.  She was just a frail, weak, worthless human woman… and yet she was fighting. 

He could admire that. 

Junanagou shrugged and picked the bleeding girl up effortlessly, tossing her none too carefully over his shoulder.  He grabbed his gun with the other hand and started back to his cabin.