My Immortal

By: Cabalistic

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ

Chapter 18 Eighteen

Juu looked sullenly back at the girl called 'Celi'. Young, innocent, pretty and intelligent, the child was extremely gifted but quiet and withdrawn. She didn't trust her, even now as she chatted silently to Chi Chi.

She felt an aura of misfortune hanging over the girl but Chi Chi was too attracted to the young girl to notice anything like she normally would have. Celi had many secrets, and not all of them she was willing to share.

Kurrin was eager to talk to her as well and that left Juu in her stubborn world. If Bulma were there, she'd knock some sense into both of them.

It was true, ever since Goku disappeared after feeling Vegeta's death, Chi Chi had went into a heartbroken state and mourned as though he were as dead as Vegeta.

Juu scowled, never truly agreeing to the entire 'quest' thing anyway. It was true that Trunks needed to be saved but Vegeta was the killer of Xuru, her country. He had slain her Zaio in front of her eyes then attempted to kill her. She fought him off but now he didn't recognize her. It would be better if he didn't know who she was either. The thought of Zaio made tears sparkle in her eyes.

Kurrin had acted strangely around her as well so she distanced herself away from the human. Chi Chi had warned her of something called 'love' that scared her much. Chi Chi described it as 'desperate, lonely, obsessed, and like someone burned you but you wished to be burned more'.

After all, humans were the weakest creatures in the land but they were the basis of everything. It didn't mean they received much respect though. Last humans she heard of were trying to scratch a bit of land from the very north.

"I'm going ahead," she snarled to the other three, but chatting nonchalantly they did not notice the android slip away. It was only when Celi's gray eyes drew in contrast at Juu's back that she knew that they heard her.

She flew ahead, tears crackling from her eyes. Her hair got in her eyes and her vision blurred but she knew where she was going. She hurtled through the forest, sobs ripping from her throat.

Soon she came to a lake froze over where the thin layer of ice on the top made the lake shine like diamonds. She ran her fingers through her hair as she stared blankly at the moon's reflection. She looked up at the clouded gray sky and whispered in the air so that her breath came in curls of smoke in front of her, "Zaio…"

Instantly it flashed back as the name left her lips. His pale skin matching the moon hovering above her and his silver eyes like the skies that winked at her between the clouds. He had crimson wine red hair that rested on his shoulders, that when they sparred, whipped over his shoulders and got in his eyes. He was bulky but in a slender fashion.

Of course he was created months after her but he loved her just the same. Most people claimed that androids were incapable of love. But the way he looked so intensely at her and said loyally with his lips barely moving, "Eighteen…" She shivered. Although many people called her Juu; her real name, her killer name was Eighteen. A heartless group of numbers pasted cruelly together by her maker. But when the new time came and the androids were forgotten, she started over with a new name.

Ziao whispered the name softly on his lips as though if he shouted her name, it would shatter like ice then splinter into shards.

Of course after Vegeta killed Zaio in front of her eyes she would never forget him. The way he tore Zaio's central core out of his chest and then tossing him aside like a lifeless shell. The way Juu got to him just in time to hear him confess to her that he loved her and no one ever made him feel the way he did around her. They shared a final kiss then he was gone. She wished she knew the technology to save him but now his body was lying in their favorite place, the glassy bottom of the Eath'gal Pond.

Maybe, she thought, after Trunks is found and safe that I may pay his body a visit.

She sat, alone and broken in the midst of the fog that settled in the clearing. She tried to collect her feelings that floated around in the air. She didn't realize how much time had passed until a voice called to her.

"Hey." The small voice next to her astonished her. She looked to the small human leaning himself against the rotten log that she was seated on. "You okay?" He asked her.

She twisted away. No doubt the human thought that androids were incapable of tears either. Her chin touched her shoulder and she realized she was trembling. "I'm fine." She said gruffly.

A soft smile played on his lips as he pressured her. "You sure?" She turned her head so quickly her hair flipped over to the other side. Her icy glare unsettled the human as she snarled, "What are you trying to get at?"

The human's brown-almost black eyes widened as he said, waving his hands in front of him. "Nothing, really. I'm just curious why you bolted so quickly."

She didn't answer and he didn't pester her anymore. They both silently stared up at the moon that hovered majestically over the glassy surface of the lake. The silence rang in Juu's ears and she grew uncomfortably and conscious of the human that remained silent on her other side.

Suddenly without warning she blurted, "Call me Eighteen." She surprised even herself as Kurrin thought then said with a growing grin. "Eighteen huh? That's my lucky number."

For once in a long time Eighteen shared a silent smile with someone she barely knew and looked back up at the cloudy sky, up into the night that swept her insides high as the moon.

A/N: I know the chapter title sounded kinda weird compared to my other ones but the irony is that it fits!