I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 22: Prison of Ice
Seventeen's jaw quivered about in many directions in awe of this green woman Kerrigan.
"What is wrong?" she asked. Seventeen didn't know how to answer, he just stared forward.
Kerrigan rolled her eyes after a moment, "Men, no matter what form I'm in I draw that kind of reaction! That's the problem with organic armor, sometimes it doesn't hide as much as one would think." Seventeen then realized what part of her he was looking at, and shifted his eyes upward towards her face.
"How did you know what I was thinking?" he barely managed to say.
"I'm telepathic, and since most men have the strongest thought waves yet weakness minds, I hear them quite clearly. Besides, it wasn't that hard to figure out," she said with a smile.
"What do you want with me?" Seventeen asked, eyeing her sharp talons on her back.
"Why nothing. I came here to help you, or at least try to help you. Unless you want those bloodthirsty Protoss to hunt you down and finish you off?"
Seventeen groaned, "No that's okay." Kerrigan sighed, bending down to examine Seventeen's broken knee as it sparked at her.
"You look to be in bad shape. I can seal this up, but it's going to hurt!"
"Just seal it if you can!" Seventeen shouted in pain as she poked at it. She then bent her head down just a little more and sucked up her breath. To Seventeen's surprise, she spat some sort of pale colored fluid onto his knee. Disgusting! He thought. She seemed to ignore that, and then blew hard across the spit. It gathered all over his knee and flooded the hole, then hardened and stopped the blood flow. Seventeen could hardly believe his eyes as he examined the clot of saliva.
"You won't be able to use it fully for at least another hour, but it should work well enough to walk for now!" she declared, standing to her feet. Seventeen got up slowly, but her seal had indeed worked well enough for him to stand.
"Need me to do the rest?" she asked.
"No I'll be okay for right now, who are you though?" he asked, trying to keep perverted thoughts from his head.
"I told you already, my name is Kerrigan," she frowned slightly.
"No offense, but what are you exactly?"
She scowled now, "Very well, I am the half demon half Terran daughter of Dabura the demon king, as far as I know anyway. I am also an agent of the Zerg!" Seventeen was back into his fighting stance once she said the last word.
"Argh, I see were going to get nowhere fast now that I said that! Can't you see I'm not your enemy at this moment, otherwise why would I heal your leg?"
"To trick me later for one, why should I trust you?" he snapped at her. A few Protoss flyers then passed by above, but didn't stop.
"That is one reason," she pointed upwards.
"How can you help me if you're Zerg?"
"The Overmind doesn't always have me under his control. When he is in a regenerative or hibernation state, he can't control his swarm. His other agents, the Cerebrates, control their broods accordingly, but my Cerebrate does not control me, I control him! Thanks to my mental abilities, I can operate freely as I wish until the Overmind is awake again, though even then he doesn't completely control me. And thanks to your Saiyan friend Broly, he won't be awake for another day. That gives me plenty of time to get away from the Zerg for an extended amount of time, so I decided to come out here and see what I could do to spice things up. Unfortunately, I could not track down the young Saiyan Verto, do you know where he is?"
Seventeen's eyes widened slightly, but narrowed, "The Protoss have turned against us! He and the others were captured, they may be dead by now for all I know!"
"You're kidding right? Tassadar actually turned his back on someone!" Kerrigan almost laughed at the thought.
"No, that wretch Aldaris got everyone to turn on him instead. He claimed that that Verto killed Fenix and the others instead of Borgos, and used edited video evidence to back up his claim. He had some sort of device that suppressed their energy for a short time, but I got away because I am a cyborg," Seventeen explained, glancing around for any activity.
"Oh I see. Yeah, I thought Tassadar had too much pride and honor to do that. Damn that Aldaris, now he's making things a bit more complicated!" Kerrigan grumbled as she hit the ground with one of her talons, leaving some dust in the air.
"Well he's planning to go after the rest of our friends in West City, I've got to warn them!" Seventeen said, lifting into the air. Kerrigan's upper talons caught his leg before he got far, and dragged him back to the ground.
"Wait you fool! There are numerous ships up there just waiting for you to come out of hiding. They are more than capable of killing you in your current state. I can call in more Zerg, but not the number necessary without causing unwanted attention to myself," she warned.
"I don't care about that, I need to warn my sister before they get there!"
"In that case, you're dead before you even get there! Is there any other way for you to contact her?" Kerrigan asked.
Seventeen sighed slightly, "There is one way, but it won't last long to get much of a message off. It's a long-range transmitter that our creator installed if one of us should be in trouble, but he never got it to work before it shorts out and nearly disables us. It will alert Eighteen in whatever state she is in, even asleep, but that's about all it can do. I haven't used it much because it may short out my circuits permanently and deactivate me," he explained.
"Hmmm, is it worth the risk to save your sister and the others if it works?" Kerrigan asked.
Seventeen didn't even hesitate, "Yes."
"Then if you want to save her, you had better transmit!" Kerrigan said as she turned and saw several hundred Protoss ground troops heading they're way, "And hurry!" Seventeen laid flat on the ground and concentrated.
"Eighteen………… Watch out!" he shouted before half of his arm exploded. Seventeen cried out in pain as this happened.
"Is it sent?" Kerrigan asked.
"I hope so, the transmitter just blew!"
"C'mon, I've got to get you out of here! The Protoss are nearly here!" she said, holding out a hand to help him up.
"No leave me here, my power reserves just blew along with the transmitter, save yourself!" Seventeen said.
"No I can't! The Protoss may be able to access your memories since you are robotic, or worse, rebuild you in their image!" Kerrigan shouted.
"Don't worry about me, they won't take me alive!" Seventeen said, powering up a different device within himself. Kerrigan managed to see what this device was since his armor was partially torn, and then took off running in the other direction when she sensed his thoughts.
"Get her!" one of the Zealots shouted. She then flinched for a second, and vanished as her cloak engaged.
"Forget her, there's the cyborg, capture it! Judicator Aldaris wants its files!" a second Zealot ordered. They surrounded Seventeen as he struggled with himself on the ground.
"Give it up robot, your time has expired!" the Zealot said.
"That's what you think you alien freak!" he shouted as his body glowed bright. Kerrigan turned around long enough to see the group of Zealots all vanish within a great ball of light.
"Well, I guess that's the best I can do right now," she sighed and turned back to the east, still invisible.
-
Eighteen woke up sweating in bed. She never had nightmares, but yet she awoke like she had one. She glanced over at her sleeping daughter, who didn't budge as she breathed softly. Eighteen sighed, getting her robe on and walking out of her room. She walked slowly through the hall, trying to make since of what she had just experienced. When she approached the lobby, she was surprised to see Bulma still up, drinking plenty of coffee.
"Can't sleep Eighteen?" she asked.
Eighteen shrugged her shoulders, "Never had a problem before. I must be malfunctioning somehow, but I don't know what it is."
"You're probably just worried about Krillin and Seventeen," Bulma said, sipping more of her drink.
"How'd you know that?" Eighteen asked.
"God knows I'm worried for everyone over there, I can't sleep either. It's a normal human emotion," Bulma said sadly.
"Something strange happened as I woke up, I was sweating!"
"Nightmare?" Bulma asked.
"I don't have those. Dr. Gero didn't install any dream programs," Eighteen explained.
"No dreams? Must be boring!"
"I don't really notice."
"So, what was it about?"
"I heard Seventeen's voice in my thoughts, but only for a second," Eighteen looked quite bewildered.
"Really, what did he say?"
"He said, watch out. I don't understand it though, we can't communicate telepathically. Maybe I actually was dreaming," Eighteen said, turning towards the holographic screen behind her. It was no longer showing much of the world grid Bulma had set up, just locations around West City and to the north where most of the humans had been evacuated.
"What's wrong with your grid Bulma? Weren't those aliens working with you on that?"
"Yeah they were, it went down a little while ago. And I haven't been able to contact anyone on their scouters, but Vegeta said they were holding some sort of dinner celebration over there and he probably shut his off. I actually haven't heard from anyone for several hours," Bulma explained, looking a little confused.
"Could they be in trouble then?" Eighteen asked.
"I would guess no. The leader Tassadar seemed pretty trustworthy, and if Vegeta trusted them then I wouldn't worry. He doesn't like anyone you know. Besides, who in their right mind would mess with a pack of Super Saiyans?" Bulma said, heading down for more coffee. Eighteen nodded, then went back to her respective bed. She wasn't in her bed five minutes before the alarms went off.
-
The pain, the harsh pain. It awoke me from a rather dreadful slumber. I was strapped to some sort of wall by strong metal plates around my wrists and ankles. I tried to move them off of me, to no avail. I noticed there was some sort of golden device around my neck, with a blue light on the front of it. I tried to access my ki, but there wasn't anything to draw from. Judging by the way my body felt, trying to use Psi without ki was a very bad idea at the time. It felt as if I had been run over several times with a steamroller, then sent through the wringer by one of Vegeta's training sessions. I looked around to see I was in some sort of prison with shiny metal all around, despite the overall darkness. There were eight prison cells in this hall, and I appeared to be strapped to a solid wall instead of in a cell. My vision was a little skewed due to some blood that was in my eyes, though I wasn't even sure if it was my own. I managed to turn my head just enough to see Vegeta staring back at me from a cell. He too had a device around his neck, but his arms and legs were free and he was standing next to the bars. There were bright blue bars on the front of the cell, and frankly they looked like they would electrocute anyone who touched them.
"You're awake, boy," he said in a pitiful tone.
"What happened?" I asked, noting how bad my voice sounded.
"We were captured," Tora's voice came from the other side. He too was locked in a cell with the golden device around his neck.
"Is the kid awake?" Bardock asked from across the room.
"They locked the others in a different prison cell then this. From what I can tell, they are still alive," came Gohan's voice from further down.
"Is your ki sense working then Kaka brat?" Vegeta asked despite the scowl from Bardock.
"No, my Psi sense is. I can't access that energy very well without my ki yet, so I'm stuck too!" Gohan retorted. I barely managed to use my own senses to detect the same, I picked up the signatures of Piccolo, Krillin, Tien, Buu and a painful one from Goku. I frowned slightly; there were a few missing.
"What about the boy? Could he use his new power to get us out of here?" Vegeta asked, glaring back at me.
"Considering his condition, I don't advise it," Gohan said, though I couldn't see him.
"Where's Seventeen and Shugesh then?" I asked, though my voice cracked badly when I did.
Bardock growled as Vegeta answered, "The robot attempted escape, but they reported that they killed him. Shugesh was taken away with Kakarot and we haven't heard from them since!" The door suddenly opened, and a few Zealots dragged an unconscious Goku in, tossing him into a far side cell and turning on the blue bars. I spotted Aldaris as he came in right behind them.
"You coward!" I shouted as I spat at him. I tried to muscle out of my bonds, but I was in pain everywhere and didn't get much effort out of my body.
"Feisty one aren't you? No matter, you are no threat now!" Aldaris claimed.
"Why have you done this?" Vegeta shouted at him.
"I haven't done anything in particular Saiyans! Except for the fact that I have single handedly have ensured the survival of the Protoss and the destruction of the Zerg! And of course the bothersome Terrans in this sector!" Gohan rushed at the bars, only to get a nasty shock and he fell to the ground.
"Now now, don't go hurting yourself! It will not do any good since no one can save you pitiful creatures now! So enjoy your stay as it will not be long!" Aldaris grinned wickedly.
"Where is Shugesh?" Bardock growled.
"You must mean your fat friend. He wasn't much for providing information to me, so he is no longer able to for the moment. Your other friend there wasn't much help either, even after the fat one was beaten to the edge of his life!"
"You bastard!" Tora shouted.
"You words do such harm, please keep them coming!" Aldaris laughed at Tora, mockingly. Tora rushed the bars, only to receive the harsh punishment for touching them.
"You Saiyans, such a violent race," Aldaris kept his grin going as he turned to face me.
"I'll show you violent you fucking worm!" I growled at him.
"Take him to the Stasis chamber!" The two Zealots released the bars around my arms and legs, just in time since I was tired of them already. I jumped over them and Aldaris and made a run for the door. The device around my neck suddenly squeezed tight and I fell down, trying to pry it off so I could breath. As I struggled I heard Aldaris laughing some more.
"Don't bother attempting escape. That device not only restricts any ki use, but can sever your head from your neck when just enough power is applied. I don't advise trying that again!" he warned.
"Get this thing off of me or I'll rip your heart out!" I shouted as I crumpled to the ground.
"You're in no position to make threats boy. Be good and tell me the secrets of your powers and I might let you live longer!"
"Never!" I shouted back at him. The device squeezed harder, and I choked as it held me firm.
"You might just change your mind, take him to the room now!" Aldaris ordered. The Zealots picked me up by the arms and dragged me towards the hallway as I continued to struggle for breath.
"Aldaris you filthy coward!" Vegeta shouted.
"Do us a favor dear prince Vegeta, and remain quiet on the matter. From what I've seen, your race has no room to talk about filth!"
-
They drug me into some sortof round room and dumped me into some sort of cylinder like chamber. I was barely awake for most of the trip, though it had been a long travel around the hallways of the massive temple. The only things keeping me awake at the moment were the pain from my wounds, the lack of air, and my rage.
"Leave us, the child cannot harm me anyway!" I heard Aldaris say. I didn't hear anything for another minute until I opened my eyes to see Aldaris sitting down in front of the chamber in a chair.
"What the hell are you staring at you alien freak?" I whispered.
"Save your breath. I would have killed you long ago if I wasn't so damned interested in your ability!" he admitted.
"What do you want?" I asked when he suddenly released some of the tension on my neck.
"I want to know how your ki power works!"
"Ha, like I would tell you that!" I was choking as soon as I said it.
"I have other methods of acquiring information boy, I never said I would only torture you!" he claimed.
"Do your worst, I'll never tell you anything!" I coughed out.
"I could just squeeze harder!" he grinned.
"You want to know how it works, take this thing off and I'll personally give you a demonstration!" I rasped in anger.
"Pity. I was hoping I wouldn't have to torture your friends too much for the information I desire, but you leave me no choice!"
"What are you going to do?" I asked in sudden fear.
"Your friends in the Western City, they wouldn't happen to know how to use ki or Psi would they?" he sneered.
"You leave them out of this!" I stood up despite barely being able to breathe.
"Ah, they do as well eh? Good, I'll discuss this matter with them instead. I'm afraid you will not be around for that conversation however!" he declared as he pressed a button on the wall when he stood up. The chamber I was in suddenly slammed shut, and an odd green fluid filtered in from above my head and below. It was cold to the touch, even with my tough Saiyan skin I was freezing from head to toe as it spilled in. My breath came a little easier, and so did steam when I exhaled.
"W-what the hell are you gonna do with me?" I shouted at him as I started to shiver.
"I'm going to store you in Stasis and bring you back with me to Auir for study and dissection. Our people can learn much from a being such as yourself. Too bad you won't be able to do the same!" he laughed.
"You better hope I never get out of this Aldaris, you will pay for what you've done. I will see to it that you're paid back ten times for this! Even if you kill me, I'll make you pay! You will pay the ultimate price for screwing with me and my friends!" I shouted at him and pounded my fists against the clear glass like chamber.
"Truly, you are so intimidating!" he laughed.
The green fluid flooded over me and got into my mouth and nose. My body quit responding to my resistance and held itself into place. The cold felt pretty good on my wounds with the numbing, but then again it numbed everything. I choked some more until I saw a few wires come through the fluid and attach themselves to me.
"No, I've failed," I managed to stutter before I blacked out into an icy sleep just as Aldaris walked out the door.
A/N's: I know that Shenron granted the wish to remove the explosive devices within both of the androids, but guess what, this is A/U! Seventeen still has his, Eighteen does not!
It's going to be 3rd person view for a while now obviously. Eventually that will be the standard anyway.