Chapter 17: Recovery
Initiating reboot sequence…
Reboot initiated…
Programs uploading…
12:00… 12:00… 12:00…
Memories uploading…
Senses rebooting…
Android 22 reactivated…
I woke up in the dark, and sitting up I saw I was in the hospital wing of Capsule Corp. I looked at the bed next to me and I saw Gohan, seemingly fine.
"Great, it worked! I was so afraid we lost you too, Katie." Bulma was working with her computer, which I was hooked up to.
"Bulma, what time is it? My clock stopped."
"That's not all that stopped. Apparently your mechanical parts shut down completely when that huge blast finally hit you. It's a miracle you are even alive."
"If you can call this living. You saw the blast from here?"
"No, it was on the news. I knew you were off fighting the androids, so I called your cell. Gohan answered and explained everything."
"Not everything." I sighed, laying back on the pillow, "How's he doing?"
"He'll be fine, he's been sleeping since yesterday. All that fighting was over 24 hours ago, it took me that long to reboot your system. It took me three hours just to hack in, Gero was a genius."
"More like a flaming lunatic. Its all my fault, I lead everyone into a death trap. I pushed Gohan too hard and now he's hurt, and the others…"
"Katie, what about Vegeta? Is he okay?"
Bulma's eyes were full of concern. She didn't know because Gohan didn't know to tell her.
"Is he okay? Katie, please, I have to know." She pleaded.
"I'm sorry. He didn't make it." I turned away, "He's the reason I became a Super Sayjin."
"No, he can't be gone! Vegeta, no!" she was crying, and I wanted to join her in her tears.
"I'm so sorry, but the only survivors in the fight were Gohan and me. Vegeta ordered me to protect you and Trunks at the end. I knew he loved you and Trunks deep down."
I sat up and held her as she cried.
"It's not fair! They're all gone!"
"I know. My dad always told me life isn't fair. But he'd even have to say something about this. If only we could get to New Namek. But no one knows where it is."
"Katie, was he in pain?" Bulma asked, straightening up and wiping the wetness away. I had to lie to her.
"No, he wasn't. It was quick. I wish I could cry along with you, but damn Gero…"
"I know. You loved Vegeta, like I did. I know if you were older the two of you would have got together."
"No, don't think like that. He only respected me. A man like Vegeta is hard to figure out, but I know that you two should have been able to be together. Before he died he made me a temporary Sayjin Princess, until Trunks was old enough to be crowned prince." My voice shook, and Bulma cried softly, "Prince Trunks, the ruler over Gohan and Katrin!" I said with a small laugh, and Bulma also joined me with that laugh.
"Somehow I knew Vegeta was dead before you told me, I just didn't want to admit it. You see this mark?" she pointed out a tiny scar on the left side of her neck, near the base and collarbone.
"You two Bonded?"
"That's what he called it." she sighed.
"I have to become stronger and avenge all our friends. I'll train Trunks when he's old enough, and together Gohan, Trunks, and I will stop the androids. I swear we will. In the morning I'm going to call General Hendricks, get him to evacuate the people to safety. The androids already destroyed North City, and that was only a warm up. Android 18 didn't power up until right before she killed Vegeta. I swear, they're both gonna pay dearly for all the pain they've caused."
A few hours later I was still lying in the hospital bed, not able to sleep. Bulma wanted me to stay the night in the hospital wing to make sure I was fine, and Chi-chi checked in on Gohan and me. He was still sleeping. My readings were all normal, though a little below average. I guess system reboot can do that to a cyborg.
I heard something above me, like a soft cry. I got up and teleported to Trunks' room. He was waking up, and Bulma hadn't been in bed too long. She needed rest, what with her mate and friends all dead. I guess I should be resting too, but I was restless.
"Hey Trunks, what are you doing?"
"Kay-Kay!"
"Yeah, that's me, you're Aunt Kay-Kay." Trunks started to cry loudly then, like he knew something was wrong, "Why are you crying, little guy? So do you know what happened? I wish you could have been able to meet your dad. You're prince now, so no more crying, okay?" well, I knew it wouldn't work, "What's the matter little one? You need to go back to sleep. And then I can go back to sleep. It seems like I come in here a lot. Someone else might think I'm your mom if they saw me like this."
He still cried, so I did the only thing I could think of, I sang to him, something I vaguely remember from when I was very little.
"Hush now, my little one,
Sleep well this night,
For as long as you think of me,
I'll always be in your sight.
Hush now, my little one,
Don't you lose heart,
For as long as you remember me,
We'll never be apart.
This night I sing to you a Sayjin lullaby. I can't remember anymore of it." I sighed.
Trunks fell asleep as I sang the part I knew over and over. I don't know how I remembered it, because Andorra would have been the one to sing it to me, and I was only a few days old at the time.
"You have a great singing voice." I turned to see Bulma in the doorway, "Aren't you suppose to be resting?"
"Restless tonight." I sighed as I replaced Trunks into his crib.
"You'd make a great mother."
"Not in this lifetime."
"You can't? Did Gero-"
"No, I can physically do it, but once these androids are gone people will slowly go back to normal. And truthfully, if I do live through this, no one would want to stay with me once they knew I was an android."
"Oh, I see. Damn Gero."
"Not in front of the baby, Bulma." I said with a mischievous grin.
"You act nothing like a teenager, you know."
"Are you basing this on your own experiences, or what?"
"Psychology. You don't have that immortal complex or the fake audience thing I learned about."
"Partly because I have faced death many times, and I know what I'm doing is right." I replied.
"Well, go back to bed, Katie. We'll talk in the morning. And stop taking care of my son, I'm the mother!"
"And I'm his paladin. And from now on, call me Katrin." I said as I turned away from Trunks' crib. Bulma looked at me knowingly.
"Sure, Princess Katrin."
"I think I like the sound of that." I sighed.
"Ka--trin," Bulma caught herself, "What's wrong? You don't sound like the girl we all know."
"Who's 'we'? The others are gone."
"It's not your fault."
"Yes, it is. 17 and 18 were after me, and they killed the others to get to me."
"Katrin-"
"Choazu was first. When he died Tien went mad with grief and attacked the androids alone. Then the rest of us went after 17 and 18, and they attacked together with a shield that repelled anything organic. It was strong enough that it killed Yamcha and Krillen at the same time. Gohan and Vegeta joined me and we fought together, then 18 targeted them and threw them off the roof of the building we were fighting on. I had to give Gohan CPR, and then I hid him in the cavern behind the waterfall. Then I rejoined Vegeta. I tried to get Vegeta to leave, but he was just too stubborn…"
"Its okay, Katrin. I'm glad he died in battle. He would've wanted it that way."
"You know Bulma, ever since I was a kid I watched Dragonball Z, the show I refer to. Vegeta was the first character I 'met', the first episode I saw was of him fighting Zarbon on Namek."
"You mean the cute green guy who turned into a monster?"
"Yeah, that's him. For some reason I became entranced by Vegeta. His flaming hair-"
"-His onyx eyes-" Bulma added.
"-His attitude-"
"-His broad shoulders-"
"We better stop." I said.
"Yeah, right." Bulma looked like she was about to cry again.
"For some reason, Vegeta seemed the most real out of all the characters. Goku was a nice guy, but he was too nice and he always saved the day. No one could do anything without Goku."
"How true it has become."
"Yeah, I know. I miss all of them. I still thought of them as story characters, even when we fought together. I still thought of them in character liking, you know? Like Vegeta was my favorite character, then Goku, then… someone I just can't remember. After Goku died I realized I wasn't in a show, but I was back home and these people were real. It took losing Goku to realize that everyone here is real." I fell to my knees, begging salty tears to come. Sometimes you just need to cry, but I no longer had the pleasure unless something really bad happened and I cried liquid Dextryte again. But that was a one time thing, I'm sure.
Bulma knelt down and looked me in the eyes.
"For a kid, you're really amazing. You're brave, you're strong, and you love unconditionally. Even when Vegeta tried to kill you, you still cared about him."
"Goku called it my armor of love."
"And that seems to fit perfectly. If Vegeta didn't die I'd be happy, but then you wouldn't have become a super Sayjin. I doubt you would have become a super Sayjin if we still had the Dragonballs, too."
"A blessing and a curse all in one, huh?"
"Yeah, but you'll see, once you get rid of 17 and 18 everything will get better. It has to."
