Look. Plot development. Mr. T pity the foo' who wants nuthin' but fightin'. In any case, destiny, and thus this entire situation, is going to get put on hold for a while, due to an outside force. And there will be more fight scenes, though far fewer than usual. Also, this next plot arc is one of my favorites. Thanks to everyone who reviewed.



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Vegita and the others materialized back in the Afterlife. Piccolo was waiting for them, hovering with a slight smirk on his face.

"So, how'd it go?" he asked innocently.

"Don't say anything," Vegita growled, marching past him. Piccolo smiled.

"Embarrassed that Goku has what you don't?"

"Kakkarrot will never be better then me!" Vegita roared, powering up. Trunks and Gohan both flanked him, powering up as well. All three of them went Super Saiyan and flew toward him. Despite himself, Piccolo was a bit intimidated at having three Super Saiyans all charge him at the same time.

But not for long. Zipping to the side, he rammed Trunks off course, then held up a hand, Vegita ran into it and fell to the ground. Whirling around, Piccolo clothes-lined Gohan. Vegita came at him again, Piccolo leaped over him entirely and brought his feet down on his back. Vegita was down for the count.

Trunks tried a head butt from behind, and seriously hurt his head on Piccolo's back. The Namek grabbed him and hurled him by his father. Just then Piccolo heard Gohan, who was standing behind him.

"Masenko!"

The beam flew from Gohan's hands and sped toward Piccolo. Holding out one hand, Piccolo knocked the beam aside. Rushing forward, he kneed Gohan in the stomach and tossed him with the others. Smiling at their repetitive stupidity, Piccolo went back to Dai Kioshin's place to train.

Glancing up, Goku saw he was resting, head in his arms, on the computer desk. It was blinking, the chip was done being programmed. Getting up and stretching, Goku struggled with what had happened in the red plane as he added the last chips to the orb.

He glanced at the scalpel in his hand a second, which could have killed a person, then tossed it out the door. Pressing the blue button beneath the transdemensionalizer, he waited as the orb vanished. When it was gone, power began coursing through the neuros, flooding into 18. This would take a few minutes. Goku waited patiently. He could wait, he had waited most of his life. But most of his life he hadn't had thoughts like these either.

Rubbing his eyes, Goku realized there were tears in them. Wiping them off, Goku looked back at 18. Yes, he was forced to say love. But were his feelings returned? Goku sighed and waited. What sort of thoughts were these going through his mind? He needed to clear himself before she awoke.



18 felt energy flowing into her. She felt totally energyless, but the power was revitalizing her. She didn't feel very different, but it must have succeeded. Goku was standing by the foot of her bed, smiling down at her. 18, feeling better now, took off the neuros at Goku's nod.

"So, did it work?" she asked.

"Yes." Goku nodded. "Your power level can be raised now. But we had some unexpected surprises in the meantime."

"Like what?"

"Oh, Vegita and a few old friends of mine dropped by to pay a call. They were trying to get me to destroy you, but they failed."

"Oh, that's good."

"Yes." There was a pause, then Goku spoke again.

"More importantly," he was instantly completely serious, "I have to ask you a question."

"What is it?"

"During the two-year period, did you and 17 destroy planet Vegita?"

She stumbled, her mind screaming hundreds of contradictory messages at her from every direction. How did he suddenly know about that? There was no possible way, and yet it seemed that he did. The thought briefly occurred to her to lie, but she instantly decided against it. Let whatever was going to happen happen.

"Yes," the words barely escaped her mouth. Goku just nodded and started to turn away.

"Are you angry?"

He didn't turn, but his voice did have its usual bitter quality, "No. There is an end to all things, and I suppose that it would have happened eventually. Ironic that the saiyans, a race who made a living committing genocide and selling planets, would find themselves entirely wiped out. I can imagine their horror at having two warriors destroy all of them. But I suppose they're all gone, now."

"Not all gone," 18 said, on a split-second whim. Goku looked back at her, and for a second his eyes seemed to clear, and he nodded, turning away once more.

"Not all...," he murmured softly, walking away. "And where there's life there is hope. For new beginnings..."

Walking from her field of vision, he didn't turn back. She wasn't sure if she had been helpful or damaging, but she thought that he was thankful. Bending down she looked at something on the ground, something that shone softly. There was a drop of clear, nearly crystalline saltwater. It gleamed brightly a second, and 18 smiled.



18's Journal Date: 55.20.4

Things have been interesting around here ever since the operation. Goku has continued his research, but the man he's going up against is the most brilliant genius the world had known, and saiyans aren't noted for intelligence. Still, this stuff is way beyond me, and he seems to understand it- well, the operation succeeded, didn't it? This next one will be a lot more difficult, according to him, though, he says the first was child's play. For now, however, this one has done enough, as I'm already considerably stronger.

Goku seems to be immersing himself in his work. For some reason, there's a lot on his mind. At training sessions, his eyes are locked just beyond me, off into the distance at nothing in particular. He still wins. But something is on his mind, and he isn't sharing it. He seems determined not to look at me.

During the day, I don't really have anything to do, now that our dome is underground. Goku sits there and reads when he isn't training, so I've been trying to think of what I should do. At last, I've come up with a solution. I need to watch how humans act in general. Goku says that he is not a very good example, and the only humans still alive on the planet are in the city.

Not that I'm ready to go into the city yet. But my idea will get me there. I intend to sneak into the city and watch from the building tops, I don't know if it will help. If I never observe how normal people act, though, how could I ever get back into normal life again?



The rock crumbled under 18's feet as she attempted to leap off the large rock face. Instantly switching to flying, she none-the-less wasted the time Goku needed to fly closer to her. She launched a punch quickly, and Goku caught her fist. To her surprise, however, he blinked and let go gently.

"What?" she asked, puzzled. Goku shook his head.

"I hadn't considered this. Drop to ground level, we need to talk about punching."

After landing on ground level, she asked, "Now what is this? You have me curious."

"I'll explain." Goku nodded patiently. "There is a distinct art to punching."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you haven't had to worry about it until now. Before, your fist was made to do damage at the level at which you were hitting. Now that you're getting stronger, things are going to be a bit different, and you'll have to adapt your style to best use your new power."

"So what am I doing wrong?"

"The technique is called the soft fist," Goku explained, holding out his hand to demonstrate, "if you clench your fist tightly you actually weaken the overall power of the blow. Letting it stay loose does the most physical damage, reduces strain on your own hand, and works best for your flow of ki."

"Seems simple enough."

"Because of how you were created, it will probably be relatively easy for you to figure out. But that doesn't necessarily mean you've instantly mastered it. Observe this."

Goku closed his eyes and did absolutely nothing for a while. Remaining completely silent, 18 waited to see what he was trying to accomplish. Nearby them, a butterfly began to float by softly. Goku's hand shot out and closed gently around the butterfly. Briefly he opened his fist to show her the butterfly. She nodded, curious. Forming a fist, Goku turned to the rock pillar. Then he punched forward, and his blow leveled the entire rock formation. Turning back to her, he opened his hand.

She had to force herself not to gasp as the unharmed butterfly fluttered its wings a few times and then flew away. Goku smiled.

"That was a true soft fist."

"I'm impressed."

"It shouldn't be a problem teach it to you. You won't be ready to do something like that for a while, but we have all the time we need. Right now, you have so much raw potential, and untapped power from our earlier training. I think that with a bit of time, we should be able to unlock a lot of that."

"I hope so."

"Alright then." Goku slid away, dropping into a fighting stance in the same motion. "Let's get started."



Goku's Journal Date: 60.4.2

I have continued working on Dr. Gero's genetic lock, and I feel that I am making progress. The doctor has so many holes and dead ends in his work that it seems that he has it set up to work against outsiders. Either that, or possibly he just wasn't smart enough to fix it? I get ahead of myself. Dr. Gero was, without a doubt, the most brilliant, if twisted, man on Earth. Or woman; he was probably marginally smarter overall than Bulma.

But I know that I'm just working to keep my mind off things in real life. Things are so much simpler when there is a solid enemy to fight, nothing is this complex. I long for the simple life I once had, but I know that I don't really want it. Living in a lie was much worse than a painful truth.

Gohan's last comment is still disturbing me. Love? Yes, unfortunately. Only by keeping myself imbedded in my work and not thinking about real life can I avoid the subject in my own mind. It's painful: Gohan may have done far more damage than he could ever know. How does this sort of thing come to pass? I never intended anything like that, but in all this time it sort of just materialized. Or perhaps, was transformed from our friendship. Right now I'll concentrate my small intellect on the task at hand.

My training with 18 is going well. Actually, my own power is nearing its next plateau. I might have to stop my research to break into the next level. What I refer to is the progress that 18 has made. Now that we are training in earnest, her skill and power have made incredible jumps. 18 has been sneaking around the city to view a bit of human culture. This surprised me, but actually it does make a minor amount of sense. She wants to know what humans are like before I change her back into one. I could have answered that question for her already, but she wouldn't like the answer I'd give. Even if it's true...

Eventually she'll run face to face with the evil on this planet, and that will have an effect on this balance, for good or for evil...