I don't own DBZ or Linkin Park.

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Points of Authority

Chapter 2

I've had been dreaming of the androids for a few weeks. Every night, without fail, they would appear suddenly in my dreams. But, unlike my dreams, they didn't show up in the real world. Except one day, I saw 18 shopping. She saw me and stopped walking to stare at me. Both of us were locked in each other's gaze, waiting for the other to do something. Finally, 18 turned and kept walking to the next store on the street. People ran away from her, afraid for their lives, but she paid them little attention and walked into the store. Every person ran out of the store, even the manager and 18 went on picking out clothes. I pushed through the crowd running out of the store to get inside to talk to her. Why? I don't even know. But all I know is that I needed to talk to her, to see if 17 gave up fighting.

"Aren't you afraid I'm going to kidnap you again?" she asked. She did not even look up from the clothes rack. She picked out a pink jacket and tried it on.

"Yes. A little. I wanted to talk to you though."

"About?"

"17." She glanced at me then took the coat off and put it back on the rack only to take out a dark blue dress.

"What about him? You must not be asking how he is doing, are you? Why would you even care?"

"I wanted to know if he's decided to stop fighting. I haven't seen him or heard of him in so long…"

She put the dress on her arm and picked out a green suit. "You really messed with his mind. He's not happy about that."

"What has he been doing?"

"Sitting at home, staring at your enclosure and your blood stains on the floor. He's barely said a word. He didn't even yell at me for telling you. But I can tell he's very, very mad at you, his treasured pet."

She pushed past me to the doorway, clothes still in her possession.

I followed her outside as she walked to the next store. "But when I last saw you, you said that he would be even worse. Do you care that he will get worse? I never really understood why you said that."

"I said it for your benefit. All you did was achieve the opposite of what you wanted to do. Now that you have messed with 17's mind, he's going to get back at you. I just wanted to make you understand what you had done. But, I suppose in a way, I do care because then I wouldn't be able to shop anymore."

I knew she was hinting that 17 would destroy the world. For some reason, I refused to believe her, even though I knew that it was a very real possibility. "Tell me everything he has done, I want to know."

She scoffed. "Why should I tell you? That information won't help you."

"Please, I just want to know. If the information won't help me, then why not tell it to me?"

She sighed as she finally reached the next store. "I told you already. He's been sitting around the house, concentrating on you and how he will get you back. All he does is look at where you used to sleep, your blood, hell, he probably goes over in his mind everything you have said to him to piss himself off even more."

"Do you think I've changed him at all? Have I gotten through to him?"

She smirked. "You did for the first few days, but after that he got over it and started his 'Campaign of Revenge on that Purple-Haired Freak' as he likes to call it." Seeing no clothes in the store that she liked, she walked back out and flew away, throwing a energy ball at me that knocked me back into the store. Once I recovered and went back outside, she was no where in sight.

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18 opened the door to the lab and locked it with a code once she was inside. She looked directly ahead of her to see 17 still sitting on the couch in front of Trunks' old enclosure, just as she had left him.

"Well, I got some new clothes," she said, trying to draw his attention away from all his planning.

"Good for you," he muttered.

18 walked by the couch and into her room to model her clothes for him. "What do you think?" She came back out wearing the dark blue dress.

"Wonderful, beautiful, spectacular," 17 answered in monotone, not even glancing in her direction. His eyes were fixed on Trunks' blood stains.

"I like it," 18 said, used to 17 ignoring her.

17 got up and walked over to the blood stain and crouched down next to it. "I wonder what it would be like to drink his blood…"

18 raised her eyebrow. "You are getting stranger every day. We don't drink or eat either, so just forget about that. Come on, stop thinking about him for a minute. I have news for you."

He stood back up, still keeping his eyes on the stain. "Doubt it. You just want to keep showing me all your clothes."

"As a matter of fact," 18 answered testily, "I saw him today."

17's head snapped in her direction, his eyes wide. "What did he say?"

"He wanted to know about you. What you have been doing, if you've given up fighting."

He walked up to her. "What did you tell him?"

"That you are planning to kill him. That you've been staring at his cell ever since he left, that you've hardly said a word and have been plotting your evil schemes."

"You have a soft spot for that boy, don't you, 18?" 17 squinted his eyes.

"What?" She asked, appalled. "What would ever make you think that?"

"He mentioned to me one time how you were nicer to him. You fed him, washed his clothes, talked to him. You never did any of that with any of the others."

"That's true, and all the others have died, haven't they? The only reason why your toy lasted that long was because I helped keep him alive."

"That's exactly what I mean, 18. You didn't have to do that. We could have went out and got another pet. You like him."

She shook her head. "I can't believe this nonsense." 18 pushed past him back into the other room.

"You have always been the weaker of the two of us, and not just in strength."

She came back out, gritting her teeth. "That will be the last time I ever do you a favor then, 17, if you're going to say those things."

He smirked and sat back down on the couch.

After a few minutes of silence between the two androids, 18 had calmed down. "So what do you plan on doing to him?" she asked as she sat next to him.

His gazed was focused on a rotting apple core near the back of Trunks' enclosure. "I'll find him, torture him and then kill him."

"You don't have a master plan?"

"Oh, yes, the master plan. I'll tear him limb from limb and make him know what he has done. I'm going to find him tomorrow and do it."

"So he did hit a raw nerve." 17 didn't answer. "Well, I'm going to go back out again to get more clothes." He again said nothing as he had sunken back into his planning.

"He definitely has some short circuits in his system," 18 thought as she left the lab.

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I was sitting in my room and it was late at night that day. I was writing in my journal when I heard something tapping on my window. I didn't look up from my writing right away because Gohan always got my attention by doing this. But then I realized that Gohan wasn't around anymore and I snapped my head towards the window and my eyes locked with a pair of cold blue eyes. My eyes wandered over the features, finally realizing that it was 18 who I was looking at, I relaxed, but not entirely. She was still a threat.

I walked to the window and opened it the slightest bit to talk to her. "What do you want? And how did you find out where I live?" I demanded.

She ignored my questions and said, "I saw your mother downstairs. Now I know who she is."

"What have you done to her?" I yelled. "She better not have done anything to Mom," I remember thinking.

"Relax. She just passed out when she saw me."

"Why are you here?"

"To give you a little information…at a price of course."

I looked at her blankly. Was the information she had to give worth risking anything? "What's the price?"

"Does it matter? My piece of information is invaluable to you. It could save your life," she said with a hint of mockery in her voice.

"Then why the hell would you tell me?" I was getting more and more suspicious of her motives by the minute.

"He plans on killing you tomorrow. He said he is going to tear you limb from limb and torture you as much as possible before he kills you. I think you should get away before he finds you. I will have to tell him where you live you know."

"Fine. What's your price?" Even as I asked her those questions, my mind was racing, trying to figure out where Mom and I could hide for a few days. We would probably have to find some remote place on the other side of the world, or at least far away. That had it's problems though because if I flew, then 17 would find me for sure. I had to keep my ki lower than an ant's if I wanted to live.

"Planning already, hmm? Well, my price is a simple kiss."

Nothing could have prepared me for that, nothing at all! "What?! You've got to be kidding. I would never kiss you! You've destroyed the world, killed millions of people-" quicker than I have ever seen her move, she threw up the window, reached threw, grabbed my shirt and dragged me towards her and locked me in a kiss. I was too surprised to move, but she quickly drew back. I spit on the floor and wiped my mouth off on my shirt. She grinned and flew away laughing.

As much as I hated it, that was my first kiss, I'm sad to say. Now she's ruined another part of my life. Those thoughts still on my mind, I gathered up a few clothes of mine and of my mom's and ran downstairs. I picked Mom up and ran as fast as I could to a lake that was 50 miles away from my house. Mom had woken up by then and I told her to hold her breath as I dived down into the water and surfaced in a cave hidden in one of the mountains. As far as has ever been known, that was the only entrance to the cave, since it was closed on all sides. It was hollow all the way to the top of the cave, with no tunnels inside, just a ledge about 7 feet by 18 feet to sit on. I had always thought that someone had made it, because it seemed perfectly suited to hold someone in it. And living there, going under the water and surfacing to get some food every now and then was how I spent the next week.

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"I have more good news for you, 17."

He didn't answer, yet again.

"I know where he lives."

He smiled. "Good. Let's go pay him a visit now."

18 led the way to the Capsule Corp. building and showed 17 where she had seen Trunks' mother. 17 kicked the door in and walked into the house. He sniffed the air, savoring every moment, just waiting to kill Trunks. He walked up the stairs to the second floor and found his way to Trunks' room.

"He sleeps here," he commented. Then, "No one is here right now, but he does live here…Did you talk to him?" He turned around to study 18's reaction.

She looked at him without any expression at all and asked, "Now why would I do a thing like that?"

"Hmm…Yes, why would you?" He turned away from her, not bothering to wait for her answer, but instead studied the room carefully.

18 glanced over at the desk, at the still open book Trunks had been writing in. She walked over to it and pretended to notice it for the first time. "Look at this, 17."

He turned slowly around, studying the cracks in the ceiling, the door to his closet that was falling off the hinges. "What do you want? I'm busy." 18 picked the book up and carried it over to him. He looked down at the neat handwriting. "A journal." He grabbed the book roughly out of her grasp and flipped through the pages, pausing every now and then to read a passage. Finally he closed it and said, "I think I'll be taking this with me. Let's look for more things that he has written."

They searched for a few hours, finding notebooks filled with his thoughts and pictures he had drawn of their eyes, of Gohan, of trees, flowers, and waterfalls. One wouldn't think that a warrior, plagued with the burden of keeping the world safe, would have time to draw, much less be such a wonderful artist. His sketches were practically flawless, looking very much like the real things he had gotten the ideas to draw them from. 17 took all of this back to the lab where he studied everything Trunks had written, completely forgetting that he was going to kill Trunks the next day. Trunks came out of hiding, but never saw or heard anything of either of the androids until he went out searching for them once he returned for good from the past with every intention of destroying them.

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** The Day Trunks Returns to the Future **

I returned home after helping everyone in the past defeat the androids and Cell. I told Mom everything. I was so happy to see everyone, especially Gohan again, and I was definitely happy to finally meet my father, even if he did ignore me a lot. Now that I was home again, I knew I had to destroy the androids in my time. That wasn't a big deal, I had gained enough power to kill them and Cell by now. Then everything would turn out the way it should.

After talking with my mom, I headed out to search for the androids and in no time I found 18 destroying another city while 17 was about to kill a helpless old man trapped inside of a car. I shot an energy blast at him and he dodged out of the way just in time. 18 noticed my presence as well and stopped what she was doing.

"He's changed," 17 said, his eyes wide with shock.

"So, you've come back for more punishment? Good. I've been having a bad day and killing you will be just what I need," she said. She launched at me and I moved past her so fast she didn't even notice until she realized that her fist hadn't hit anything. I reappeared all around her as we fought it out and finally I kicked her back to where 17 was still standing. I don't know if it was just me, or if 18 wasn't fighting at her full strength. Maybe she just looked slow to me because of all the strength and mobility I had gained while in the past, but for a second, I thought I saw something different in her eyes in place of the usual coldness. Care. I didn't pay that any attention.

"He's definitely changed," 17 said.

"I hate you," 18 said with gritted teeth, but she paused for a second before she said hate. It was almost as if she forced herself to say it.

"You hate the fact that I'm stronger you and you are powerless to stop me. How do you think these innocent people have felt for all these years? It's time you pay for what you have done!"

"Oh I doubt that," 17 said. He crossed his arms defiantly. "Have you been missing something? A notebook perhaps? I took that. All of your notebooks with everything you have written, all your innermost feelings. All your strategies. Your journal. I've gotten to know you better, blonde-boy. I think you have things backwards. I think it's time you pay for what you did to me."

I smirked. What a fool. He thought he knew me. Too bad for him that he didn't know I had all this power. If he had known, I'm sure he would not have been so arrogant.

"Let's get him, 17," 18 said.

I fought them both, dodged all their attacks, deflected their energy blasts, all in all, I humiliated them. I cornered 18 and yelled, "This is for Gohan!" Her eyes were wide with fear once she realized she wouldn't escape this time. Just before the blast hit her, she looked up at me as if I had broken her heart. Once it had hit, I heard her scream and once the smoke had cleared, nothing was left of her.

"18…" 17 said, looking at the spot where his sister had been standing. Turning to me, there was pure rage plastered on his face. Not only had I messed with his mind, but I had taken his sister, his only companion, away from him. "You killed my sister!! How dare you!"

He growled and his energy level soared, but wasn't enough. He flew towards me with every intention of getting revenge on me for reminding him of his past, for killing his sister, and for ruining his fun that day. I had no sympathy for him. He had helped kill all of my family and friends except for my mom and Gohan's mother, Chi-Chi. It was his turn to die.

I tricked him and purposely did some of my old techniques so that he would think he knew all my moves and would think he would win. I found I liked playing with his mind, it worked so well. He grinned as he matched me blow for blow and blocked my attacks. I grinned at the thought that this would be over soon. Finally, I had had enough of toying around with him and kicked him in the gut. He hurdled down to the ground and lay still for a second. In that second, I took my chance and threw an energy blast down at him, just as he was sitting up. The next second, he was gone, for good.

Later on, I killed Cell easily and returned to the past to tell everyone the good news. When I returned I met all of my friends and saw that Krillen and 18 had gotten married. 18 was so obviously pregnant. I looked at her in shock, so she had changed after all. Our eyes locked when I told everyone that the androids and Cell from my time were dead. She didn't move to kill me, didn't even blink when the news was told, but I know she had to have felt some anger because I had killed her. Krillen looked very happy though and didn't seem to notice his wife's very, very subtle reaction.

"That's too bad," he remarked. "My 18 is an angel, maybe your 18 would have turned out all right. Oh well, at least I have this one and soon I'm going to be the happiest Dad in the universe!" He laughed and everyone laughed with him, except for 18 and I. We still looked at each other.

Looking back, I wonder if maybe Krillen was right. The 18 from this time did seem to be more caring than 17, at least to me. If I didn't know better, I would think that she had been in love with me. But it couldn't be possible, could it? Every time I think about it, I remember the look on her face when I killed her, the pain and rejection all in that second before she died. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had let her live. Would she have become a good android like Android 16 and her counterpart in the past? Would she have helped rebuild all the cities instead of destroy them? What if I had been sure that she had been in love with me and gotten married to her? These thoughts haunt me every so often, but I guess things turned out for the best. Maybe nothing good would have come out of letting her live. Maybe she would have been the same as she was before and would still be destroying cities to this day. At least 17 is dead, I know he would never have become a good android, there was too much hate in him. I'll never know now about 18, but it doesn't matter. Cities are being rebuilt, the population is starting to pick up. Things are how they should be.

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Hey guys! The story is over, but if you want, I can make an alternate ending. I was torn between making this ending and a different one that you can kind of figure out (it was a better ending for Trunks and the world *wink wink*). So if anyone wants me to add the alternate ending to this fic, let me know and I'll write that one. See ya!

~Lady Branwen~