Andriods07

Uneasy Allies

18 once again found herself floating in a giant glass tube; she struggled in vain to move against the amber liquid surrounding her. Mentally she began to swear violently-this was not where she wanted to be.

Her field of vision was distorted by the shape of the glass, but she could make out Krillin's broken body laying on a nearby table. Tubes hooked to machines ran in and out of a gaping hole in his chest.

How did that happen? She wondered. What have they done to him?

A jet of bubbles floated upwards, obscuring her vision. Through the cloud of air she thought she saw a little girl standing in front of the tank and staring up at her.

What the-run get out, it's dangerous!

The bubbles cleared and there was no child. The mirage slipped to the back of her mind as a figure stepped out of the shadows and walked to the table where Krillin lay. She felt she ought to recognize him, but could not.

The man took a syringe and prepared to dig the needle into Krillin's skin. Furiously 18 tried to yell, but the liquid flowed into her mouth. She raised her fist in a vicious punch that would have shattered stone, but the liquid resisted and she barely managed to tap the glass.

She screamed internally with frustration.

Rana glared blearily at the clock, it was well after midnight. She turned back to reading the memory files of the broken machines.

She had sent Simpson and 17 down to the warehouse to search for some silicon petrol oil. She had claimed to need it for the memory reader, but it was more a ruse to get them out of her hair. 17 had been looking over her shoulder and been all around obnoxious about how slow the process was, and she simply did not trust Simpson as far as she could throw him, so she had sent the two to keep each other out of trouble. She knew for a fact that it would probably take the better part of an hour to find the SPO. She had stacked the only crate of it under twenty boxes of thallium gears.

As she continued the tedious task of processing the data her mind began to wander. The schematics of 17 and 16 flashed in her mind. There were several flaws in their systems that she would have liked to work out. Of course, she knew she would have to be certain the androids would not put her improvements to a bad use. 16 did not worry her, but 17 was another matter altogether. She was not entirely certain he would not try to cause trouble if he thought he could get away with it.

Too bad I can't hook him up to these things and let him read them himself, she thought sarcastically, holding on of the battered droids in front of her face. She mentally reexamined his schematics on a whim, and a wily grin lit her face, Maybe I can.

She reached over and thumbed her intercom system on; "17, forget about finding that stuff, I need you back up here, I have an idea. Simpson, if you will please keep looking for that oil..."

17 worked rapidly; moving through the broken robots and selecting one to hook up to. Rana moved more slowly, carefully inspecting each machine to decide if it was useful, then handing her selections to her droids, who either took them off to be discarded or brought them to Simpson who plugged them into the reader.

It annoyed 17 that she still insisted on working when he could do it much faster.

He pulled the cord attached to his arm out of the machine he had been reading and tossed it into the growing pile of robots he had already been through. Rana's droids rushed busily about, attempting to gather them up. Rana had discarded almost as many as useless after a physical inspection.

17 plugged into the next machine that looked likely to him and widened his eyes in surprise as the data was dumped into a temporary file in his memory.

"I found something."

Rana glanced up at him calmly.

"Whoever was responsible for that attack had an agent watching over us."

"I suppose that would make sense," remarked Rana.

"There's an address! We should go now and check it out."

"Don't you think it would be wiser to wait and see if we find any more information first?" asked Rana, indicating with her hand the broken robots.

"No, every minute we waste is another that this guy has to get away! We go now!"

"Who died and made you boss?" sneered Simpson. He was getting a little fed up with this teenage boy ordering him around.

"Perhaps we can do both," Rana gently placed herself between the two as she spoke. "Simpson would you please keep running the reader on these battle droids, 17 and I will go check on this address."

"Fine, whatever you say, boss," Simpson snorted, twisting the last word as it came out.

"Is everything in order?"

"Yes, Doctor, I did everything just like you said."

"Excellent, they should soon know exactly what I want them to know. They are playing into my hands perfectly."

The phone was dropped abruptly into the cradle. The doctor swiveled in his chair to face his assistant, "Everything is going exactly as I planned."

"Have you informed your agent he is dealing with an android?"

"I see no point in it. It would only interfere with his work if he knew."

"You realize he will probably die?"

"Sometimes sacrifices must be made in the name of science. How is the joint cloning operation going?"

"Slower than we had hoped."

"Then quit babbling and get back to work on it."

"Yes sir."

The door opened and closed and the doctor was left to his own dark thoughts. 17 cursed under his breath as he tried to pick the lock on the apartment door again. He did not want to make a mess of the door if he did not have to, he would like to be able to surprise the occupants of the room.

"What's the matter, android? Having a little trouble breaking in?"

17 whirled and found himself staring into the hard indigo eyes of the half- saiyan from the future.

"I figured if I stayed around long enough, one of you might show back up."

"18 was kidnapped, and 16 was badly damaged. Whoever rented this room knows something about it."

"I suppose you're going to tell me Krillin was also kidnapped," Trunks crossed his arms over his chest, as though daring the android to lie to him.

"I don't know," shrugged 17. "He was involved in the battle, and the last time I saw him he had been injured badly. I do not know if they took him or he is dead."

"Right, and you had nothing to do with it. Tell me another."

17 crouched in a defensive stance as the half-saiyan took the offensive.

"Trunks, he might be telling the truth," Piccolo interrupted before the first blows could be exchanged.

"What, you're just going to believe him? Just like that?"

"No," remarked Piccolo, stepping forward to reveal Rana who stood just behind him. "But I believe her."

"Who is she?" asked Trunks.

"I told you to stay in the car," 17 said in his usual monotone. "These people are dangerous."

Rana smiled innocently at him, "So are you."

"I still need your help and I don't have time to waste trying to protect you."

Rana ignored him and turned to Trunks and offered him her hand, "I'm Dr. Rana Morrison."

Trunks shook her hand, still keeping a suspicious eye on 17.

"Trunks Briefs," he turned to the android. "What makes you think someone here knows where 18 is, if she really was kidnapped."

"What makes you think I'd tell you?"

"Because my friend is missing so I'm involved too!"

Rana cast a patronizing look at Piccolo and bent down to examine the doorknob, shaking her head at the arguing youths behind her.

Piccolo watched Rana out of the corner of his eye as Rana bent over the doorknob. Her finger went transparent and seemed to pass through the doorknob.

He wondered if she had told the android.

With a triumphant smile Rana turned the doorknob and entered the room. 17 and Trunks stopped arguing and stared after her.

"How'd she do that?" asked 17. "I tried for 30 minutes to get that door open."

Piccolo just smiled and followed Rana into the room. They were huddled together in the dinghy room the three of them shared.

"They'll be coming for us soon," Rana worried aloud.

"Hey Nix, don't worry about it. We'll make it through. We always do, don't we?"

"Yeah," Rana looked searchingly into Savahn's light blue eyes. "How do you know?"

"We just will, I promise. As long as we have each other we'll be ok."

"Yeah, I guess so. When will Adrian be back?"

"It should be anytime now, they said it was just a shot."

Savahn ran his fingers through Rana's plum colored hair, "I have a question for you."

"Yes."

"I know we're not old enough for it now, but I want to always take care of you. When we get old enough will you marry me?" he held out his hand and showed her the ring stretched out in his palm. "It was my mother's. There's whole other world outside of this complex, and when we get out of it, all we'll have is each other. I don't want you to go away. I want it to always be the same, and I'm sure Adrian would feel the same."

Without speaking Rana reached out and took the ring, placing it on her finger, the metal felt cold against her skin.

"Thank you."

He pulled her close to him as tears brimmed up in her eyes. He and his sister were the only family she had left. Her mother had died, and her father did not care, she was just another experiment to him.

Rana leaned up and kisses him chastely on the cheek. He smiled at her warmly.

"I'll always take care of you. I promise."

"Hey, wake up!" 17 was beating on Rana's bedroom door to wake her. Rana sat up in bed, trying to clear her bleary vision.

"Wake up already," the android repeated anxiously. The door suddenly popped off its hinges and fell onto the floor.

"Did you intend to knock down my door?" Rana asked wearily as she rose from her bed.

"Not really, just a little too much force."

"What's going on? Why'd you wake me up? Not to mention taking down my door?"

"We were finally able to decrypt the information we found on that computer, and there are coordinates for several different locations we ought to check out for clues."

"Really?" Rana asked.

The apartment had been empty, apparently abandoned in some haste as the spy had left behind a laptop filled with encrypted data. Rana had brought it back to the lab, and showed 17 how to work the decryption software so that she could get some sleep while he figured out if there was anything helpful in the files. At least theoretically, she had hoped it would take him a little longer to decrypt the files, she would get a chance to sleep, 17 had kept her moving trying to find 18 and she'd had little rest.

"Let's go."

"Now?"

"Yes now," 17 replied in exasperation. "These might lead us to 18. Come on."

17 grabbed her hand and pulled her from the room, she managed to snag her cell phone off of her bedside dresser as they left.

"I'll fly us there, I already told Simpson to get a truck and meet us there, in case we need it."

He scooped her into his arms and lifted into the air as soon as they left the complex.

"What are the coordinates, I told Piccolo I would let him know as soon as I found anything."

After 17 relayed the coordinates to her, Rana dialed Piccolo's house and left a voice mail. Piccolo never picked up the phone, but he kept one so she could get hold of him in emergencies. A few seconds later Trunks returned her call to let her know that he and Piccolo were on their way.

Rana and 17 got there first however.

"It looks deserted," 17 stated, regarding the worn out shell before them.

"I think it is. Isn't that a red ribbon symbol over the door? This must be one of their abandoned facilities."

17 recognized the familiar symbol, not pausing to wonder how she had known what the symbol for the red ribbon army looked like, "You're right. It doesn't look like anyone has been here in years."

17 entered the deserted building, with Rana following close behind. The dust of years lay undisturbed on the floor.

"This is worthless!" 17 exclaimed angrily. "It's empty."

"Maybe," Rana mused. "but whoever took your sister is apparently connected to the Red Ribbon Army. We might be able to find some useful information here, even if your sister isn't here. All those locations may be empty facilities like this, but we might find some clues that would lead us to whoever took your sister."

"What should we look for?"

"Computers mostly, file cabinets, laboratory records."

"Why lab records?"

"Someone may be studying the android qualities, trying to reproduce Dr. Gero's work."

"Just what we need, more androids," Trunks said from the doorway where he and Piccolo had just arrived.

"Unfortunately, it may be what we're in for," Rana agreed. 17 studiously ignored his former enemies. "Although I have no problem with the androids themselves, I don't think we need anymore of them. And the process for making them is quite inhumane."

17 raised an eyebrow in surprise, what could Rana possibly know about the process of making androids. Dr. Gero had been the only person who had make androids, and he was dead. Even 17 and 18 did not remember the process. Maybe there was nothing for them to remember before the process anyway.

17 reached out to open a door to go deeper into the facility, but the door frame was so rotted and old that it pulled from the wall.

"What do you think you're doing, android?" demanded Trunks.

"I'm going to search the facility for any helpful information," he replied smoothly, striding confidently down the hall.

"I'm going after him," Trunks stated, turning to Piccolo. "I don't want him out of my sight."

Piccolo watched Trunks vanish into the darkness of the hall.

Rana grinned wryly as she watched them, "Will you be coming with me then?"

"I guess, I don't think it's safe for you to be without protection."

The search proved fruitless until the groups met up at a metal trap door on the floor of the basement level. While the rest of the facility was crumbling into decay the door was solidly intact and undamaged.

Trunks eyed it warily, "This looks like the only clue we have."

"Then what are we waiting for?" demanded 17, grabbing the handle and yanking upwards. The door swung up easily, and 17 levitated down into the waiting darkness.

"I guess he's right about that," commented Trunks as he followed the android, igniting a ball of ki to provide light. Piccolo also levered himself downward.

Rana leaned over and examined what she could see of the passageway. It seemed to go straight down. The rusted metal rungs of a ladder descended into the darkness. With a sigh she began to descend into the darkness, shivering as the cold metal came into contact with her bare feet. She had almost reached the light of Trunks ki when one of the rungs gave out beneath her foot and she plummeted the rest of the way to the floor.

The others looked up startled as the woman hit the floor with a small cry. Piccolo quickly crossed the room to her, realizing that the three of them had forgotten her human limitations.

"Are you alright," he asked, kneeling to examine her.

"I'm fine Piccolo," she replied, embarrassed. She tried to push away and stand, but he held her still.

"It looks like you cut your foot when you fell," he said, examining the nasty gash across the sole of her foot.

"Why aren't you wearing any shoes?" he demanded. He took a moment to study her, taking in for the first time the long white robe she was clad in. "Are you wearing sleeping clothes?"

Rana blushed uneasily, "We were in such a hurry to leave, I didn't have time to..."

"You mean he was in such a hurry to leave," Trunks glared at 17.

Piccolo raised his hands, causing a bandage to form over the cut; "That's the best I can do for the moment, when we finish here you need to go home and clean it out properly."

His words were accompanied by a meaningful glare at 17. The android shrugged and acted indifferent.

Piccolo once again raised his hands and light glowed out of them, transforming Rana's nightgown into a new outfit. He made her a skintight suit of black body armor that would be flexible enough for easy movement, but still offer her protection. Over the body armor was a plum midriff shirt and a matching skort that ended a fingerwidth above her knees. Comfortable black boots covered her small feet.

"PICCOLO!" she screeched. "What kind of an outfit is that."

"One that will provide plenty of protection and mobility if it comes down to a fight, which it might," he replied, amused at her reaction to the revealing outfit.

She tried to climb to her feet but winced from pain and almost stumbled. Before anyone had time to react 17 had scooped her into his arms and headed across the room, the others following.

A screen suddenly blared to life directly in front of them, the light temporarily blinding them. They stared in surprise at the figures flashing across the screen.

10, 9, 8,

"It's a bomb," Rana rushed out hurriedly. "We've got to get out."

7, 6, 5, 4,

The group turned to fly through the hatch...

3, 2,

But it was already to late

1.

The room exploded into a world of brilliant flame.

AN: Sorry this has taken so long, life kinda got in the way. Finals boyfriend, stuff like that. But, we finally got to see a bit of 18, I know everyone's been asking for that. Hopefully I still have readers after the horribly long time it has taken me to get back to work on this. sobs

Hope you enjoyed. (btw: many reviews encourage faster updating.) .

Sylvyr Elf