Dragon Ball Z: The Catalyst

by Drakthul

Catalyst: a person or thing that precipitates an event or change. A traditional encounter is changed, and begins a series of events which will alter the fate of millions. From the beginning of the Saiyan Saga forward. Rated T for violence and themes.

100. Chapter 100: Reunion

Disclaimer, in case it wasn't obvious. I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or really any other property. Thank you.

The Cataylst

Act VI

Chapter 100: Reunion

Raditz:

The sun started to rise in the east as Raditz grasped the large fruit he'd plucked into his hand. It was hard to not be at least somewhat shaken up from the events of 2 days ago. They'd searched the entire globe now for Androids in any form, but now, standing here with the others, he just couldn't get his hunger under control. They'd barely eaten for the entire search as well, and now he was giving in, ripping through the orchard outside of the little town they were in.

It had all the missing people, just like tons of other places. It was really starting to unnerve everyone. Even Turles looked uncomfortable looking at places that had once been bustling. They were barely damaged, and hardly destroyed… but they were silent. They were abandoned, without anyone getting away. Each town or city they found were just… haunted. They'd broken ranks again, the Namek heading off with the humans and their future Gohan, leaving Turles, Trunks, and himself to continue the morbid hunt through the cities and towns for any signs of any Androids.

Vegeta's kid, or his rejected kid, had been extremely silent, and Raditz could tell he just loathed Turles, which unfortunately, seemed to be nothing new. They didn't have anywhere approaching the same level of antagonism between one another, thankfully. Funnily enough, Trunks didn't exactly know Raditz's history with him, seemingly, or at least didn't hold him in some level of contempt for it.

However, there was more than a degree of… distrust… between he and his brother. Quite honestly, Raditz had no idea that Turles had met The Catalyst himself. There was no discussion of something more than valid. But there was the fact that Raditz hadn't told anyone about his own hidden truths. Only Kakarot, Turles, Vegeta, and his woman had an idea about what had happened when Vegeta first arrived with Nappa. He hadn't told anyone of his mysterious encounter with the green man either. But there was a realization there.

He, and his brother Turles, weren't meant to be here. None of this was meant to happen at all. The only thing he knew for sure, was Kakarot was the one meant to defeat and stop Frieza. Everything else that had happened since he'd arrived on this world… it was all built on sand. He was meant to die by the hands of Piccolo, and to a lesser extent his brother. Given that Piccolo had been the first one to beat him on this planet, he could believe it, even if he was weaker than him when he'd first arrived.

A farm worker's clothes lay on next to one of the trees as Raditz sat himself down, looking down the rows of trees, holding another fruit in hand as he took a bite hungry bite. He'd seen disturbing things before, and certainly more than most of the people on this world, even if it was unsettling. They'd not seen cities and worlds burn as he had.

While still viciously biting into the skin and full body of the fruit he'd collected, Raditz noticed Turles down the isle of the orchard towards him, looking more than irritated.

"Are you almost done lunch?" he asked bluntly.

"I'll be done when I'm done eating," Raditz responded.

"Taking your time? Now is when you decide to take your time?" Turles questioned, looking irritated. "This planet is being slowly depopulated, and there are killer cyborgs across the surface of the planet, but now is the time to just have a leisurely lunch?"

The accusation that he wasn't taking a situation seriously, when coming from Turles, was more than rich.

"It's fine," Raditz replied, tossing the core of the strange elongated fruit to one side. "I was done eating anyway."

"So, when did you think you were going to tell me about your giant green man, who happened to warn you about the future?"

"It didn't seem to matter," Raditz responded. "In the same way that you and Vegeta 'killing' that midget, didn't seem to matter. I'm sure the Namekian was more than impressed both you and Vegeta never bothered mentioning it."

Despite being taller than his brother, Raditz felt very small with the way his younger sibling was staring at him. Suddenly, the front of his shirt was grasped, before he was dragged forward, forced down to one knee in front of his sibling. His brother could kill him quite easily if he wanted, but Turles so rarely devolved to this kind of primitive bullying unless he wanted something directly.

"This Catalyst, do you know what you've done by not mentioning it?" Turles demanded. "You've set things up to be a mess. It's going to be a mess I have to clean up, because you are too weak."

Yea, of course this was typical, this was what set him off, that he'd made another mistake, or there was another error that Turles had to somehow fix. Then there was the fact that his brother wasn't mentioning his own role in all this.

Shoving him back, Raditz stood at his full height, angry at the insinuation even as he glared back at the stronger son of Bardock. Even if he was weak, by and large, he wasn't just to be tread on because of his brother having a bad day, or having some kind of bad mood over him not mentioning something that happened years ago.

"When was the last time you've told anyone all of your plans, and every event you've had? Do you remember how you didn't tell anyone about your Catalyst experience? Back off," Raditz grumbled brushing his shoulder dismissively. "Besides, I'm more concerned about that thing I saw in Gingertown, than I am about some Namek. There is only one strong Namekian alive, and that's Piccolo anyway. Unless you know something about that too."

Turles back off, just like he hoped, an irritated huff came out of the other fighter as he stalked back to the isle of trees.

"We've got more ground to cover, and the boy is eager to prove himself to someone, so we're going," he ordered.

Turles's hard edge was coming through in full, flying colours today, it seemed. That was more than irritating for him. They'd not really talked about the implications of the new information they now both knew. They hadn't discussed it at all, even. Honestly, Raditz did want to ask Turles about how they had been meant to die, but now… now they had changed the course of everything, and they had whole lives open to them. But he knew not only would that subject be stupid to bring up right now, but he doubted very much Turles would want to discuss much of anything on it. He'd seemed to be in a bad mood since the entire discovery the other day.

When Trunks landed a few metres away, Raditz was quick to turn his attention to him.

"Hey," he said quickly. "No sign of anything around the town, nothing at all, it's just like the others. Everyone here is gone."

"Has been killed," Turles corrected. "Only we have no trace on anything. We can't even get a trace on the Androids. This is pathetic."

"Well, you didn't find them either," Trunks cut in, very obviously angry. "And if these people are all dead, that's on our hands for not finding them."

"Did I say you were pathetic, or did I say this was pathetic?" he asked in turn. "Very clearly it wasn't t he former. But if you felt I said it that way? Well, you can wear that."

A pair of blades taking on the form of eyes came back at Turles as Raditz felt the situation beginning to escalate. This had to stop, they couldn't just keep being at one another's throats.

"Turles, would you give the kid a break? He's already dealt with Vegeta, the last thing he needs is this from you as well," Raditz said, sounding more than a little irritated. "You've been hammering us since Gingertown, let's just move on and try to find out what's happening."

"No, it's fine. I'm finding out that everyone is an asshole except for Goku and Piccolo," Trunks shot back. "If the Androids weren't killing people, I'd actually say they might not be as bad."

Raditz, and Turles he suspected, kept quiet about the fact that they mutually had killed many times the number of sentient organisms than the Androids ever could have. They just weren't doing it now, or anymore, as far as could be helped.

There was an odd glance from Turles a second later as his brother seemed to be considering something.

"Trunks, you and I are up front," he said as his feet hovered off the ground. "Raditz, you'll take up the rear guard for flying formation."

Not that it mattered to him right now, but that was clearly showing he thought he couldn't hold his own. Great, even when he was mad at him, his younger brother was so considerate as to point out that he thought he wasn't capable of handling things.

Before he could say anything about it, Raditz sensed why. That was a huge power spike. Trunks turned his head a second later as well as he seemed to realize where it was originating from. If Raditz was right, that was coming from West City. Vegeta's power just spiked to its peak. Piccolo's power was up as well, on another part of the planet.

They just found their Androids, or rather, they'd just stumbled on Vegeta.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

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Android 22:

Well, wasn't this exciting, a city with actual people in it. Not only that, they were still in their clothes, even. Even as the bus's brakes hissed to a halt, she could see their infallible leader looking over where he'd been sitting for the last few days, at the head of the bus itself. It was like being the captain of a ship, she imagined. Her own memories typically others doing the driving, and that usually resulted in her shooting them once they ceased being useful. Killing 17 was out of the question on programming alone, but even if it weren't…

Her programming was breaking down, and she felt that accelerating. She didn't know what would come out of it on the other side, but every second she sensed more errors passing through, but didn't notice them. The organic part of her mind compensated for these, which only obscured her directives more.

Was this really so bad? Beyond the unknown, that was? Was it so terrible being here with these others?

Outside of dealing with 23, this place had become familiar. She was guessing most of them found it that way, whether it be 16 or 18. A certain kind of comradeship was here. The stability that her organic host never had, seemed to exist.

"Once we're done with this, I can't wait to go shopping," Eighteen said, kicking back her feet and sitting back. "Maybe we can even stay in an apartment tonight."

"We don't need to sleep," Twenty-Two observed, looking back towards the front of the bus as she stretched herself, before starting to stand up.

"You're right, we don't, but I want to remember what it was like," Eighteen responded, kicking her feet off the chair in front of her and standing up herself, just as Lade nervously got up, looking out the window of the bus, no longer looking frightened of them…

But frightened of the world outside.

The observation wasn't only hers to make, it appeared. Eighteen looked at her with the same glance, she knew because they exchanged a knowing look between one another. Well, they were getting off the bus for the last time here in West City, so the tour was over. If anything, this bus was really Lade's property anyway, if you could call it her property, as 22 knew at least remotely how a contract would have worked between a promoter and band.

She actually might want to get some distance from this thing, if her bandmates disappeared along with everyone else in Spiceton, but she showed up here.

Giving friendly advice was hardly in her host's impulses, but her processor and memory had picked up enough information from nearby collaborative entities that she felt she should impart some of that data to their soon to be departing comrade.

"I'd recommend getting as far away from the bus as possible," she reasoned aloud. "Authorities may trace this vehicle once they start panicking over the settlements that aren't being heard from anymore."

The girl's eyes flashed back at her, looking worried, clearly having never really run afoul the law before. It was going to be like throwing a rabbit to a pack of hungry wolves, wasn't it? Well, you could only do so much, unfortunately. And she'd given what little data she reasonably could.

"Thanks," Lade responded after a few seconds, though she still sounded uncertain.

"If the city isn't destroyed or on lockdown in a minute," Eighteen commented, walking to the front of the bus and smiling at 17. "We could take you out for lunch. It'll be nice."

The doors opened a moment later as they got ready to go. It was time to leave this heap of a bus behind and just make their way to their destiny. She felt the excitement course through her, her human body running with the anticipation of the fight that was coming. It felt very alive. She even relished the idea of killing Vegeta this time, without a moment's hesitation or worry. She felt her muscles even become amped with the idea of getting back into it with him. If he was here, like the files said he might be, given this was his home, she was going to look forward to finishing him off.

"That's really not necessary," the woman laughed in response, trying to appear humble about all of it.

Though from her own history, 22 had calculated the girl was still nervous. She almost wanted to make an act of aggression towards her, even if faux, in order to jump scare her, but decided against it. Walking towards the opened exit, she hopped out, hearing the goodbyes from the others as she looked down the streets of west city. Her sensors came active on her internal display as data filtered in, looking for any signs of her prey.

When 17 stepped off the bus, he walked up behind her.

"Vegeta's yours," he told her, his voice dispassionate, though she heard a note of it being guarded. "However, we are first going to find out if Goku is on the premise, if possible, before you engage him. If he's not, we're going to find out where he is if possible. Is that understood?"

"We determine that Goku's there, then we kill him, and Vegeta," she confirmed. "Your priority of targets will be given preference."

"Good," he responded, beginning to walk ahead, though he did turn one glance sideways. "You seemed to be personally involved with his fight last time. He alluded to it himself. Are you going to be processing objectively? And are you just telling me what I want to hear?"

There must have been some tells in her stance, or the fact she was the first one to depart the bus, unable to contain her excitement, it seemed. The onboard adrenaline was even focusing her processors as they responded to the organic state of the body, making them edgier. Even with that being the case, she kept her cool exterior as best she could.

"I'll be objective," she confirmed. "I will kill Vegeta, but only when the time is right."

"Well then, you won't mind if I take point then?"

Why? Why would he need to take point? She was perfectly adept at being the tip of the spear. She felt herself become irritated at even the mention of it. Keeping herself calm however, she looked back as she saw the other Androids marching towards them. Sixteen and 24 were getting stares just from their huge size. She looked back at 17, seeing the deadly serious look he was now giving her. He didn't trust her, or her judgement at the moment.

Her fists balled up as she considered her response, before looking ahead.

"No problem at all," her voice came through, self -preservation coming to the fore.

"Great," he answered, walking ahead of her as they moved in formation together, naturally taking up the positions necessary for the six of them to arrive at their destination.

Several notes were taken by her core system as she looked at 17 from behind, noting disapprovals of his decisions as she felt herself becoming increasingly frustrated with every passing moment. A coup wasn't in order, but she was most definitely not pleased.

The worst would be if he tried to deny her, what she felt was rightfully hers. An image came to the back of her mind again, seeing that arrogant smile on Vegeta's face before the world lit up with fire and energy, before she could feel her limbs being crushed and her body being broken. The memory of the chassis, felt like it was her own now. Just as when she fought him, though less intensely, she could see him killing her, and it made her processor stall it was so hard to cope with. Code was pieced together, trying to rationalize or combine enough data points to make sense of it, but she knew what it was.

It was the moment she couldn't escape, and even now her code started taking on more and more errors as the memories leaked back into view.

He killed me.

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Bulma:

So, this was how you entered a cycle of abuse. She'd discovered it, she should write it in a scientific journal. Have a relationship with the bad boy, become dependent on him, try to get out, and then they apologize and everything goes back to stage one. She knew about it, and she was so angry at herself. He might as well have told her how sorry he was, and it wasn't going to do it again. In fact, he more or less had. No more trying to kill people around her? Great.

Until when?

Did she trust Vegeta to hold true to that? Really? Did she? She knew Vegeta, and she'd thought he'd really changed when he left with the scanner to fight the Androids to protect her and their family. Then she saw him assault someone on their own side, and become so arrogant that he got totally out of control. Then he comes back and beats the Hell out of who turned out to be some iteration of their son from the future. When she'd specifically asked him not to. When he'd not done anything wrong.

All it took for her to stop protesting was a hug. That's how far down the ladder of self respect she'd fallen? A hug and some kind words. All she'd asked was that he couldn't do it again. At what point was she going to not make excuses for him?

Oh god, I really am stuck in an abusive relationship…

Sighing, she looked over to where she knew Trunks was sleeping. She didn't like the name that Vegeta had insisted on. Now she was beginning to realize though, why Vegeta hadn't liked the name. He must have known Trunks from before, she knew all the boys had talked about something, or at least Vegeta, and the 2 people from the future, as well as Piccolo and Goku after Frieza and his family were stopped. Putting the pieces together didn't really matter now, it didn't really stop anything from having happened.

Was she really going to give Vegeta one more chance?

It was time to get herself out of this stupor, she needed to go stick her head out a window, or walk onto a balcony to clear her thoughts. She never used to suffer from anxiety, or depression. She didn't used to think of a lot of her friends as being gateways to threats coming to hurt her. She wasn't a person who worried about everything. Now here she was, and she was worrying about just about everything.

When she opened her window, she felt fresh air come in, and she just stuck her head out the window, resting on her arms as her legs moved back. It looked like it was going to rain soon, great, it was going to be just as dreary as she felt inside. She knew for a fact that Goku and his friends had welcomed one of those monsters back into the fold. The one who came to her home and half destroyed it, nearly killed Yamcha, and tried stealing from her. Later, Goku made a deal to get her armour from her just for that guy because he thought it'd be fun to train with him. The next thing you knew, Raditz was going to be back in their good graces.

She knew those two, and she knew what kind of devils they were. They'd gone out of their way to harm her, and the only one who'd been there, consistently for her, was Vegeta.

When she looked over to the ship, she sighed, feeling her head tip down as she placed her head in her hands for a second, before brushing her fingers into her hair and just breathing.

One more chance.

She was such an idiot for doing it. Even now she felt protected by the fact he was there. That's why she felt like she was being held hostage. She didn't want to think of Vegeta as some kind of monster, because she knew him, and because he protected her… and because she loved him. Even if she never expected Vegeta to say the same thing about her in return, she had always hoped he loved her back. When he'd just hugged her and told her he'd change, she couldn't help but admit on top of all the toxicity around that, all of the bad omens those kinds of turns could mean, it meant he might just love her too.

She wished that Trunks was back here. She wanted to speak with him again, to see what kind of life he'd had, and to hear what kind of person she was in his life.

But it was in the corner of her eye that stopped her thoughts. Two huge guards were inside the compound, and four other figures. It looked like a band of punks, as far as she could tell. Had security not stopped them at the gate? Her eyes focused a bit more however as she looked at them walking across the lawn.

He looks familiar.

A blond-haired man was among them, and he was built really well. He was actually kind of cute, but as soon as how familiar he was had become apparent to her, she felt her blood run through her veins at a temperature below freezing.

G-General Blue?!

He worked for the Red Ribbon Army…

Like the Androids.

The others became increasingly familiar to her, and as soon as one took to the air, her breath caught in her throat.

The black-haired young man floated up to her, his unnatural blue eyes staring straight through her.

"Hey," he remarked. "Do you know if Goku's over? We'd like to see if he can come out and play."

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Trunks:

The other's powers weren't moving, it wasn't right. Piccolo's power seemed to be growing in the distance but it wasn't moving. There was another power nearby him as well, and he had no idea what the Hell was going on, none of them did as they were racing towards West City.

That power in the distance, the one near Piccolo… it's like Goku's, and Vegeta's? It doesn't make any sense.

It was strange to see the total change in the brother's demeanours. The two had antagonized him at every turn, and he reviled Turles, Goku's look-alike, beyond just that. But it was like a switch had flipped for both of them, and those personalities vanished. It was suddenly all business. Maybe it was because they weren't confident anymore, or because they realized just how much of a threat the Androids were, but they were wholly focused on getting to West City to help… Vegeta of all people.

Well, at least Turles was.

"With luck, he'll have killed one of the weaker ones by the time we get there," Raditz commented. "If he's dead by the time we get there, that'll be an added bonus."

"If he's dead, then we'll be in a great deal more trouble," Turles remarked bluntly. "Put your personal issues aside, just like you did when Slug was here. Vegeta is important to surviving this. Without him, we likely will fail to stop them, or at least hold them long enough for Kakarot to wake up and the Namek to get his act together."

"Well, if I didn't know any better, Goku is with Piccolo right now, and they're fighting," Trunks said, and then just noticed a grim look cross Turles's face before he looked ahead.

"That's not Kakarot," he said bluntly.

"Its power is just like his, it's closer to his than yours," Raditz was quick to cut in. "It's possible they're fighting that Android we came across, together. With his instant movement-"

"That is the Android," Turles said coldly. "Don't ask me how I'm guessing it, but don't you think it odd Vegeta is in both regions? It's using their power, though I can't tell you how. The Namek is fighting against it right now along with the older Gohan."

Looking at Raditz for a brief second, and then looking ahead, Trunks began to put pieces together. That was his father, but his father's power was currently in West City as well. Something was wrong, and it wasn't his senses. If Turles was right, and that thing that had attacked Raditz in Gingertown was using their energy signatures, that meant whatever it was, was fundamentally different than the other Androids.

"The Namek's power is rising and falling rapidly, he's using his enhancement technique," Raditz commented. "His raw power will give him the edge."

"Don't be so sure," Turles added before his aura intensified, just as Vegeta's power began to decline. "How many beans?"

"I'm not giving Vegeta one," Raditz nearly spat.

That alone was enough to make Trunks almost stop in the air. Even after everything Vegeta had done to him, he couldn't imagine being so bitter that you'd not give him a bean, it would hurt their own survival. He could see the muscles in Turles's body shift for a second, like he was about to round and knock Raditz's head off, the other Saiyan looked hostile at the remark.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot the part where I asked you for your opinion on Vegeta," Turles started, almost looking increasingly like a winter storm of fury. "Because when we get there, you are going to give Vegeta a bean, because if you don't, I'll kill you, and give him the bean off your corpse."

The long haired Saiyan looked surprised at the escalation, even Trunks was surprised as Turles continued to jet ahead.

"I am not going to this fucking city to go fight a bunch of killer Androids if one of the key players gets killed because you are so revenge starved. You are not worth as much to me, and my survival, or the survival of anyone I need later. You want to jeopardize it over some pitiful rivalry over some human woman? I've been dragged through the mud long enough by you, Raditz. Shape up and get over it."

Man, I thought this guy was harsh to me.

The other Saiyan briefly looked stunned at the turnabout on him. Everything had been changing in the dynamics he'd seen since they'd started talking about The Catalyst earlier. Turles in particular seemed to be on edge. Whatever issues existed between the siblings and they were clearly coming into full display. The only thing that Trunks recognized in all of this was that this guy was in full business mode. He knew Turles didn't like Vegeta, or him for that matter, but he was making decisions based off brutal calculus, and Trunks could see him enforcing his power behind what he thought was the winning strategy.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Raditz fired back. "And if you want to help him so badly, you take the damned beans."

"I'm going to be fighting upon arrival," Turles spat. "You are weak, Raditz. When we arrive, you're a backline fighter, just like the humans. That's what you get the Senzu Beans. And that's what it's your job to give them out. If that's a problem, then my uses for you have declined, brother."

"Look," Trunks tried to intervene. "For everything Vegeta's done, I'm not against him suffering, but letting him die will just endanger all of us."

"Stay out of this, boy," Raditz finally snapped, stopping mid flight.

Trunks hit the brakes himself, feeling the air freeze around him as he turned to look back. They didn't have time for this. What were they doing? Were they really about to turn on one another like this? Was that going to happen on their way there? This was the Hell timeline, wasn't it? No one could get along for more than a few days. Even in the face of death they were holding grudges.

When the other Saiyan stopped, Trunks almost felt something dark coming off of him as he turned towards the other Saiyan.

"Raditz," Turles said, his tone falsely calm. "I'm only going to tell you one more time…"

"And I'm telling you, that we don't need Vegeta at all," Raditz almost snapped. "Let that fool die up there, what good did he do us last time anyway?"

"You weren't even present last time, because you were bleeding in a hole, having fought the weakest of these machines," Turles snapped finally. "Have you forgotten why the Namek and I are in charge? Can't you sense him fighting in the distance?"

"Then we should go help the Namek," Raditz snapped.

"The Namek is going to be fine," Turles glared. "And you know that. The player we can't lose is Vegeta."

"Who would want to defend Vegeta?" Raditz snapped. "His own boy is his latest victim."

"Raditz," Trunks spoke up. "We need him. He's powerful and we're low on people who can help us right now. I'm not happy about it either."

The other Saiyan seemed to be holding onto his stubbornness before Turles finally zipped forward, grabbing the small bag of beans that was left aggressively before shoving the other Saiyan back.

"Show up on my battlefield, or don't," the younger brother announced. "Get yourself killed, or not. Just stay the Hell out of my way. You aren't smart enough to play along, not anymore. Look at how weak you are, Raditz? Have you forgotten where you are on the ladder? I haven't. Now you're jeopardizing my life, and this idiot's."

The gesture towards him wasn't welcome in the slightest. Trunks felt himself give a half-dimmed look as Turles gestured towards him.

Gee, thanks.

The larger Saiyan looked stunned, and even Trunks was as the Super Saiyan aura burst into the air around Turles before he launched himself back, rocketing through the air towards West City. Without a second thought, Trunks own aura lit up around him before he launched himself after the other Saiyan. For all the bad things this guy seemed to say, he definitely seemed to have a bigger picture in mind. Trunks' own view of Vegeta couldn't seemingly be any worse right now, but even he recognized that just letting him die over there, alone, was a terrible idea.

"When we get there," Turles said loudly, turning his head towards him. "I'm going to get to Vegeta. I'll try to get them off him. I'm going to need you to do something for me when we get there though, keep your cool and follow my instructions…"

"What about Raditz?"

"Fuck Raditz."

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Vegeta:

The Namek's power was spiking on the other side of the planet, or was beginning to, it'd not started using its most powerful state yet, but Vegeta wasn't foolish enough to think that it was a sign of anything good. This meant even if he was on the outs, he needed to prepare to intervene. The Androids wouldn't have their powers registered, but if it was just the Namek, and Kakarot's future brat, then he doubted they'd last very long.

The simulation around him shut down within a second of him hitting the end button. There wasn't even going to be time to get cleaned up. It was time to go. Hitting the button to open the door to the outside, Vegeta got to the threshold before a huge hand reached out, grabbing him by the front of his armour and heaving him back. Without any control, Vegeta was flung straight into the dirt, his body bouncing once before scraping along the grass in front of the capsule corporation.

"Hello, Vegeta," a barely familiar voice said.

Looking up, he noticed one of the two gigantic Androids from before, it started to walk towards him, boots gripping the ground below. This was one of the ones he'd not seen fight before, but he was caught entirely flatfooted. If there was one, that meant there were more. His eyes scanned around him on the yard, and didn't immediately see anything.

Gritting his teeth, Vegeta pulled himself to his feet, preparing to pull his enhanced form to the fore, only to notice the doors of the Capsule Corporation opening up behind the big guy, who was giving him a knowing smile. The other Androids walked out of the front door of his home, with Bulma and her family behind them, and there was a look of severe anxiety on all their features.

"Oh hey, Vegeta's done training for the day," Seventeen chuckled. "Twenty-Four, has he had that stupid look on his face the whole time?"

"Sir, yes sir," the large Android mocked, leaving Vegeta to scowl for a moment before he turned back to the others.

The woman was holding onto their son and her parents were standing next to her. The other Androids were all standing there, looking as cold-blooded as ever. It was a familiar site, he'd played the role of goon for Frieza more than once, standing in front of hostages to remind lesser creatures of what their fate would be if there was resistance.

He felt his fist closed as he kept his power down, knowing to increase his strength would only put the hostages in danger. It was almost unimaginable to him only months ago that he'd hold himself back for someone else.

"Look, the monkey knows that if it acts out of line, there will be consequences," the other blonde-male Android said, sounding amused. "It looks like we won't need to make an example of anyone yet. Such a shame."

"What do you want?" Vegeta managed through grit teeth.

"Wow, he really is being compliant. Don't you remember how smug he was last time?" the blonde-female laughed. "Do you think we should just enjoy the moment?"

"Hey Vegeta, can do you do a handstand for us?" the leader said, and Vegeta just remained stationary, his eyes narrowing on him.

They'll kill them anyway if I'm not careful, but I'm not going to debase myself for no reason for this fool's amusement.

"Let's just kill him," the woman who'd nearly killed him before said. "I think we should start by liquidating the loved-ones. I want him to be angry when I kill him."

"Bloodthirsty today, aren't you?" Twenty-Three remarked. "I think I'm in agreement."

Vegeta made eye contact with Bulma as the threats were uttered and could see the look of fear in her eyes, but she was composed otherwise, likely too afraid to get out of line. He was going to need to do something to move these things away from here and give them a chance to get to safety.

"Hold on," Seventeen laughed. "Let's not play war crime simulator, hey? I think our war criminal friend Vegeta here, wouldn't want us trying to outdo his high score. Isn't that right, Vegeta?"

"What do you want?" Vegeta asked again, not bothering to take any of the bait in front of him.

"He's not nearly as much fun as he was last time. He must really have his tail between his legs," Eighteen remarked. "Should we tell him what we want him to pick up at the store for us?"

"Tell him to get a body bag," Twenty-Two said, her eyes not moving from him, it was like she was staring two holes through him.

He knew why of course, given that they'd established quite comfortably that he took responsibility for her death, and she most certainly held him accountable. The biggest one, the red-head, seemed completely distracted, looking towards the north-east, directly in the direction of where Piccolo's power was currently residing.

"Where is Son Goku?" the giant asked, not bothering to look at him.

"Cutting our fun short, 16?" Seventeen asked. "Are you sure? He probably doesn't even know where his friend is laying low, the others here didn't. Which means we're going to need to decide exactly how much fun we're going to have before we leave this city behind."

Of course, they would only care about Kakarot. It was typicalof this forsaken planet. So far, he was predicting their next move. The moment he admitted he had no clue where they dumped Kakarot's barely warm body, they'd unleash the purple dog from her chain and she'd make a charge directly at him. They likely would use the woman and her family as some kind of tool against him. He needed to get distance, and he needed to get them to come after him. Other regional powers nearby weren't going to make it in time for him to survive this, so it was a question of how he wanted to be remembered.

There was more to lose here than just his own life. Bulma looked increasingly scared and nervous as their would-be killers started to get agitated for action. The only one there who seemed to be not wholly terrified was her mother, who just seemed nervous, but that woman seemed about as smart as a brick, or at least had that much insight. He didn't think this would end so soon for him.

The Namek might make it in time for them to find him being toyed with before his death. Turles and the boy likely wouldn't make their way towards him with any degree of haste, and even if they did, he hardly expected them to make any difference.

"I know where Kakarot is," Vegeta confirmed.

The red-head turned his head towards him, its mechanical eyes assessing him before he noticed every other machine's demeanour changing.

Golden energy rippled up his body as Vegeta brought his power forward. The golden thrum of the Super Saiyan aura pushed back against the world around him. Waves of energy started to roll around him as he let his senses take in his surroundings, looking for any distance in the air. Bracing himself, like he was about to charge forward, he looked eyes with the leader, seeing the black-haired android starting to grin at him.

"Look, he still thinks he can beat all of us," he mocked. "What a ridiculous species these things are."

"You will tell us where Son Goku is," Sixteen ordered.

Launching himself forward, Vegeta blurred back, not making a motion actually towards them, instead, deviating his path into the air as he hovered only a second, his aura growing brighter.

"You want me to tell you where Kakarot is? Come find out."

Bursting through the air towards the edge of the city, making a play to head east, he knew he'd not have long before they overtook him.

He just hoped that the woman and the child were ignored now that he'd given them their red-meat to follow. The Dragon Balls could only wish people back once in this world, as was his understanding, and he'd been saved by them once after Frieza killed him. He'd do his best not to die alone. If he was about to make his way to Hell, it was going to be a multi-person experience.

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Android 24:

He'd not expected Vegeta's body to pull back in his charge towards the others, before he'd been stupid and aggressive, and he'd taken that into his calculus, preparing to intercept before he even made it to the others. Instead, he was already back in the air.

"You want me to tell you where Kakarot is? Come find out."

Assessing his tone, 24's onboard voice analysis software placed the likelihood of him telling the truth at only 50%. However, based off other models for Vegeta's behaviour, that number rose to over 70%. The probability was that the Prince was in fact, telling the truth. When he looked towards the others, he saw a mixture of outrage, principally from 22 and 23, and amusement. The Saiyan took off at high speed only a second later, blasting towards the east.

Without any command, he wasn't sure as to the course of their action.

"He's getting away," Twenty-Two hissed.

"Not for long," Seventeen commented, walking forward, before turning and turning a mocking bow towards the owners of the property. "Thank you for your hospitality. Twenty-Two? Twenty-Four? Go find Vegeta, and find out where Kakarot is."

"I don't need help," Twenty-Two almost snapped.

Seventeen remained silent for a few moments before his two-coloured eyes looked directly at her, one black, and one white. There was an intensity there that even 24 recognized, and he wasn't the only being subject to it yet. His underling, 22, wanted to kill Vegeta, on her own, very badly, they all knew it. But it was getting to the point of obsessive. All of them were having difficulty with elements of their programming, but she seemed to be having the most. For the first time, he didn't see how cowed before their boss.

Programs weren't running as they should.

"Well you're getting the help. Because you need to get the information first, and then you can kill him," he responded coolly. "Now he's getting away."

The commanding-officer turned and looked at him, gesturing his head.

He didn't need anymore encouragement, bursting into a run before pouncing into the air, his body vaulting after Vegeta before systems took over for flight, bursting forward. The others would be in tow, and he saw the Colonel rush through the air past him. She gave him a look as they made their way towards Vegeta.

"Order's say we're doing this together," he warned.

"Don't get in my way," she warned.

The spirit of teamwork was breaking down, and his files recalled watching her fight Vegeta the last time. Their last encounter with the Prince had been quite the battle for the other Android, and he had at one point, even thought Vegeta had won the engagement. That was dashed as soon as his sensors had picked up 22's energy cores, but there were almost three full seconds that he'd assumed the Saiyan had won. Saiyan subjects were also known for increasing their power after every engagement of note, and he was sure that Vegeta's power had increased, even if not substantially.

"I'll leave you to kill him, once we find out where Kakarot is," he informed her. "But until then, we're fighting to injure, not to kill."

"You are fighting to injure," she responded.

"Orders-"

"He fucking killed me," she spat, her eyes flaring to life. "I can see him killing me. I remember him killing me. I remember the life slipping through my fingers."

Before he could respond, she pulsed with energy, her overdrive kicking in before she vanished with a blur of speed. This had definitely gone off the rails. She wasn't operating with her directives. A series of options were run by his CPU on display. Disabling 22 didn't seem to rise to the top, perhaps his own errors coming through.

Neutralize Vegeta and protect the body from her until interrogations are completed.

A boom exploded ahead as Vegeta's body was impacted by 22's, the form of the Super Saiyan flipping through the air before he crashed into the outskirts of the city below. The low-density area was preferable to fighting in the dense part of the city, if only because it would mean less things to obscure their sensors. Shooting down towards the ground himself, he landed, hard, across where from Vegeta was pulling himself up. His counterpart landed opposite of Vegeta, the two of them covering both sides of his body as the Saiyan started to back up, looking between them as he did.

"Where is Son Goku?" he asked, his tone cold, unfeeling.

There was no response.

Shifting modes, 24 reached up with both arms, slamming his knuckles together as the sound of flesh-covered metal and hydraulics shifted through the air. Protocols began being accessed as his combat algorithms began running on a script, calculating Vegeta's most likely responses.

Target identified, Vegeta.

"So, this is how it's going to be, Vegeta?" he asked. "How long do you think you can hold out?"

"Longer than you think," Vegeta responded coolly.

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Android 22:

When she'd landed behind Vegeta, she saw him immediately turn, turning to keep his guard on both sides, even pulling back slightly to try and refocus both of them at their centre. This was a neighbourhood. She'd obviously been in them before. Houses lined both sides of the roads and people began staring at them. A few cars stopped in the street, and a few smart people jetted out of their houses, beginning to run down the road. The civilians were not her concern at all, and she knew they weren't 24 or Vegeta's either.

Her own code had almost started to vanish into the backlogs of her mind. She couldn't recognize commands anymore. The organic components onboard had integrated with the core computing mechanism to such an extent she couldn't differentiate between what were commands and what were impulses. It all seemed to flow from the same source, and the code, whether it was in error, or was working, or was being supplemented by instincts or other behaviour, she couldn't tell anymore. The idea of this before might have almost been frightening, or uncertain, but she didn't care anymore.

She didn't care about killing Son Goku, or any of Dr. Gero's plans. There was only one thing for her right now. Killing Vegeta was the only purpose her mind could comprehend. Their previous battle ran through her mind as the entity that she was becoming examined it with machine efficiency and human malice. The only thing stopping her from immediately attacking was the traces of loyalty she felt to her companions. Even with her command not being responsive anymore, there was a sense of comradery there.

She was becoming.

Coordinating with the other android would be easy, even with her breakdown. A subtle motion of her head implied her intention to lead the attack. The Saiyan even seemed to pick up on it, subtly changing his stance. Even with her hatred being what it was, she knew how dangerous Vegeta was. Beyond the fact he'd murdered her before, he'd not been a pushover in their last fight, and her own calculation put his power at marginally higher than last time. Even if he wasn't going to beat the both of them, he was still certainly dangerous enough that mistakes could have consequences.

A figurative pin dropped seemingly, as the moment to strike came into view. Her body launched forward, surging with speed as her overdrive kicked in, trying to land a critical strike first to allow 24 to follow up. She expected the Saiyan to make a rapid counterattack, as Vegeta instinctively was an aggressive fighter. Instead, her fist slammed into an arm guard, before Vegeta swept low, trying to cut her legs out from under her. She knew why immediately as 24's huge lariat missed, intending to take off Vegeta's head from the other side. She hopped above the sweep with grace, priming her legs to kick down to try and snap Vegeta's leg in response. Instead, the Saiyan swung around, his leg clearing past 24 as he jumped up as well. A golden aura burned around his right arm as he rose up like a phoenix, counterattacking her when she was prepared to follow up her assault at the critical moment. When the fist connected with her head, she felt augmented muscle and bone pull to one side before she was launched back and into the air.

It was painfully obvious Vegeta had radically changed his approach after their last encounter. She compensated her tactics as soon as she stopped her motion in the air, hearing the sound of 24's boot connecting with Vegeta's chest well before she'd fully ceased her motion, as the giant Android had assaulted on her behalf. The Prince's body smashed through the house behind him, rolling through two years before crashing into the next building. Her sensors… eyes… followed his motion as the giant followed up after him, jetting through the building for the follow-up.

It's a trap.

Energy coursed through her body before she blasted towards the flank of the battle, intent on diving in, just as she saw Vegeta roll out of the attack, expecting the attack from the other Android. Twenty-Four overleveraged himself as he pulled back his arm for a huge strike, as soon as it shot forward, Vegeta had already moved around it, grabbing the arm and flipping the Android into the ground, hard. The street cracked as the huge body made impact before he followed up with a vicious short kick to her comrade's face, releasing the arm as he did. The impact was hard enough that she heard the soft 'wumpf' through the air before 24's body skidding several metres down the road.

When he turned to face her as she shot in towards him, she altered her attack immediately. Originally intending to strike Vegeta with a series of strikes, she knew he was anticipating that, his guard going high to block her attack from above or the side. His legs weren't positioned for a kick however, and she knew it. Shifting her trajectory lower at the last moment, her arms shifting to her sides instead of aggressively to the front, she went full speed, into him, tackling into the Saiyan's midsection in a massive spear in the centre of his mass. She heard him grunt in surprise and pain as her shoulder cracked into his armour. Her own body waxed for a moment with the pain of colliding with the target before their bodies rolled forward. It was like being in a high impact car crash, with the force of a meteor impact. Their limbs flailed out before she managed to twist with her, their bodies scraping against the asphalt before she drove his back squarely into the ground.

Straddling him in a heartbeat, she threw a vicious right, raining the first blow down from above. Her fist caught him in the cheek and eye, before she shot her left in, finding it blocked a second later, Vegeta having already reoriented himself. She felt his legs try to kick out to get around her shoulder to pull her back, however shifted her mass at the last moment, striking down another blow as she did, catching his guard again. He was protecting his head with both arms. Rearing back to strike again, this time aiming at his abdomen, the Saiyan's leg hooked around her arm, making her scowl as the pulled her back, rolling her over her shoulders.

Slipping back rapidly, breaking free from his leg's hook, she saw the Saiyan about to rise before a huge boot came in, connecting with him face first as 24 booted him down the street. The Saiyan's body skipped twice before crashing into a parked car, crashing through the windshield and hood before shredding through the cabin, ending up imbedded in the trunk. Scattered glass and fragments of plastic and metal blasted out as she got up.

"Little punk," Twenty-Four snarled.

It was getting to be time to push Vegeta past what limitations he had.

The others began landing down the road, 23, 16, 17, and 18 all taking up positions to watch things as they unfolded.

"Still not done yet?" Seventeen called. "You guys should really increase your efforts."

Her joins started to burn inside her body as a familiar glow began to emerge around her, the same thing happened to 24 as they began stalking forward. She was going to beat Vegeta to death this time. The pair of them zipped to the location of Vegeta's body, finding it was already gone. Her sensors went wild as a power surge was detected nearby. Looking at 24, she didn't understand before the ground beneath her shattered.

Looking down in surprise, Violet saw Vegeta with both his armies pointed at her, a gigantic barrier of energy formed around his body, his teeth grit with the effort. The irony that this had been how she'd defeated him in their last encounter, wasn't lost on her, even now. Before she could burst away, her body was already caught in the pull of the attack. Panic started to rush through her body as she realized just exactly what she'd walked into.

For a brief second, she could see Vegeta grinning down at her before a mountain collapsed around her.

"Die," Vegeta ordered before she simply saw a wave of purple light as the Gallic Gun fired.

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Vegeta:

The intended target, Raditz's undead witch, looked down at him with a cold, but surprised look before he thrust his arms into her. The wave surged forward as the pulse of the attack sent the giant Android sliding and spilling back. Windows across the city shattered as the buildings around him came undone from the backwash of the attack. The purple haired Android screamed as the energy washed over her, her guard not complete before the attack hit. A purple ray shot into the air, saturating the world in violet light as the system's star was overwhelmed in that moment by his attack. The attack flew into the air, shooting past the clouds before the sky opened up.

A gigantic orb of light resonated before the thundering boom in the upper atmosphere rolled out and over them. Had he aimed it at the planet itself, it'd have cracked the world in two. The energy of the attack had been immense, spending a great deal of his budget to keep put down that woman for a second time. But that expense was at a cost, his power and speed would drop significantly unless he had an opportunity to rest. The other cyborg, the big one, was looking up at the blast and was clearly not in the best of moods over it.

"Well, he still has some teeth, doesn't he?" Vegeta heard 23 utter. "Do you think she survived? Her guard didn't look very impressive. Should I go retrieve her remains?"

"Shut up, or you'll be thrown in next," Seventeen uttered, his voice filled with irritation. "Twenty-Four, mind finding out where Goku is from the Prince?"

Tightening his gloves, Vegeta prepared himself as the large fighter started to edge towards him, he could see his opponent's joints beginning to burn. It was a sign that it's speed and strength would be temporarily increased, and he knew it.

The machine braced himself, preparing to come at him. The two sized one another up once more as the purple light began to fade.

"Mad that I killed your friend, this time actually?" Vegeta asked. "You look like it. If I were you, I'd do something about it."

Normally these machines had been so emotionless, but this time he could see anger twist over the machine's face before it tensed. He was almost surprised when it came charging at him. When he closed the gap, Vegeta moved his head back just as the first strike came. A blurred fist, almost faster that he could follow, moved in for the body-shot as a continuation, but he managed to kick the arm down and away before it could make contact with him. Any major blow that landed on him, especially now, he knew would be debilitating.

With his arm overextended, Vegeta caught him unaware with a blind strike, cutting into the side of his opponent's face with a vicious right palm strike, sending the machine's head back violently before Vegeta carried on into a flurry of strikes. Another blow landed across the large machine's chest, before another strike landed on his head again, each blow sending the machine sliding back as its body flailed from one side to another with each strike. Another two hard punches landed on the body, before Vegeta caught his head one more time. A grunt of discomfort emerged from the machine before Vegeta swung his leg around as hard as he could, finding his mark on the monster with a heel kick to the jaw. When his eyes saw the machine's, he saw the stunned beast, almost appearing knocked-out, being sent back violently.

Charging after him, Vegeta overestimated the damage he'd done, and he realized it all too quickly as the beast recovered after only two metres of travel, turning on him and finding Vegeta unprepared for such a quick and prompt counterattack. The giant's fist went straight into his head with a hard punch as the monster's feet found the ground, sliding along the road, leaving burn marks in the street just as he left his fist in Vegeta's face. The landed head on, and Vegeta felt his nose crack, blood flooding his sinus a second later before all the momentum his body was under was suddenly reversed, adding even more shock to him before he was sent back.

His own legs captured the ground, his feet skidding along the surface of the ground as he felt his legs almost buckle from the sheer strength behind the blow. The Android breathed in and out heavily for several seconds before its fatigue seemed to vanish, though it was clearly annoyed. His own power had started to dip, but despite it being down from his highest point, he knew there was still enough fuel to keep this fight going for as long as he could. If he got lucky, he might even find this Android, as he did Raditz's woman's corpse.

Putting both his arms up, the Android started to move forward, his fists ready to start laying into him, Vegeta could tell. Strengthening his legs, stopping the wobble, Vegeta recentred himself as he narrowed his eyes on his attacker. He could already tell what was coming, another physical attack, this time with increased intensity. This machine wasn't able to mask its moves as easily as the other. He was much more of a blunt instrument.

A blur of motion followed, the huge android blitzing into him. He was immediately put on a backfoot as his body barely dodged and blocked a hundred blows. Each strike he tried to come back with was easily cast aside, only opening up vulnerabilities in his own defenses. Trying his best to avoid the strikes rather than absorb them, Vegeta's body twisted and curved in the air just above the ground along with the brute assaulting him. But with every passing second, with every kick and punch he dodged, he felt the machine's rhythm of attack picking up, it's speed and power seemingly getting stronger rather than weaker. It was only a few moments of this before Vegeta found himself finally outflanked.

Dodging to the side instead of striking at him once more, Vegeta didn't have time to keep up with the huge left hook that came crashing in, hitting him in the top of his chest and armour. Immediately his protective plate cracked before his body was sent violently backwards, smashing through the remnants of a small house. Attempting to roll back, just as he had before, ending up on his feet, this time he wasn't fast enough to regain himself before his adversary had closed ranks with him. He felt the air around him shift as the huge body arrived with lightning speeds, this time feeling a punch slam into his gut, his armour cracked again, this time cracking pieces off his body while he felt his insides desperately try to accommodate the displacement of the arm trying to punch its way through his abdomen.

A vicious flip kick landed a moment later, cracking into the bottom of his jaw. For a brief second Vegeta almost felt the lights turn out, dizziness over took him before his body drifted backwards, helpless to the motion he couldn't even fight against. Before he even had a chance to hit the ground a hard elbow slammed into him from below, causing a gag of pain to emerge from him, before another kick landed on his side, this time sending his body on a flightpath back towards the city.

Barely having the awareness to even look back, he saw a crackling orb of blue energy forming in front of the Android before it was launched at him. With all his resolve, Vegeta twisted, trying to turn away from the blast, before he noticed it split into a dozen other blasts, spreading out, before each of those spread into another dozen, which then split into another dozen. Before he could fully realize what was happening, the entire space in front of him was inhabited by blasts. Two connected directly with him as he felt his skin burn before he was violently thrown back, all around him, and all across the eastern half of West City, blasts rocked the surface of the Earth. Buildings shattered and crumbled into heaps of ruins all around him as Vegeta was thrown into the ruins himself.

Scraping against the ground before smashing through a hall ruined wall, his body plunged into the heart of a giant structure as it collapsed in on him, dust and scattered building fragments rumbled and smashed around him. His body formed a shield around itself as thousands of tons of the building descended from above, brief images in the darkness of steel beams, wood, drywall, concrete, furnishings, and people came into his view, their bodies crushed and splattered by the weight of what was coming down on them.

There was a grim resolve to hold on. Even now that his power had faded further, he couldn't stand down, not yet.

For the first time in his life, Vegeta had one thought cross his mind.

I've got to get out of the city.

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Android 24:

West City burned. His sensors scanned several blocks for Vegeta as he growled with irritation, now floating above the neighbourhood where the battle had begun. The Saiyan wasn't proportionately stronger by a significant degree than he was before. His power was declining even, based off his decline in speed and power. His attack on 22 had been significant enough that she was either disabled or destroyed. That was one of his own, that was a unit under his command and it was potentially destroyed because some god-damned alien duped them with a rope-a-dope. He wasn't in any way pleased by that outcome.

He was going to get the information out of Vegeta, and then he was going to beat him to death for that maneuver.

There was one small snag however. Fires rolled out of the city as almost a 10th of the skyline burned. Shattered rubble and ruined property were going on as far as the eye could see, which he didn't inherently think was a problem, until he sensed motion behind him. Seventeen was floating next to him, his arms crossed.

"Nice shot, what a great attack," he remarked.

Something was off.

"Thanks, I don't think he's done yet though," Twenty-Four remarked. "Only two confirmed hits, shouldn't be enough to finish him off."

"I disagree, I saw a hundred of confirmed hits on the city, 24," he pointed out, his tone still neutral.

"Uhhhh, yes sir, tons of confirmed hits on the city itself," he remarked, not fully understanding.

"The city where Lade currently is?" Seventeen reminded.

Collateral damage hadn't been taken into account for him up until that point. Namely because target neutralization was the main thing on his mind. His sensors scanned the wreckage of the city again, noting it was several blocks away from where they'd left the bus. The odds were that she wasn't there, but there was no way to confirm that.

"I wasn't thinking, sir," he responded.

"No, clearly you weren't."

"It won't happen again. I'll relocate Vegeta outside of the city."

The other Android's critical gaze didn't leave him before he looked ahead, the only thing of note behind him seemed to be 23 obsessively looking through the sky, as if trying to find where 22 may have fallen from.

What's his problem?

Beginning to fly towards the centre of where the blasts had detonated. He scanned the wreckage of buildings, looking for any sign of movement at all. Where ever Vegeta was, he was likely buried, and was probably laying low. That attack shouldn't have finished him off, it seemed very unlikely to say the least. Based off his calculations, he estimated Vegeta could persist in offering some resistance for as much as 5 minutes. He was most certainly going to make sure he paid Vegeta back for his Gallic Gun.

"Twenty-Four! Above!"

Eighteen's voice called out. Turning his optics above, he didn't catch the pair of feet swooping in, in time to stop them from hitting him unguarded. Metal enhanced bones almost buckled as he felt both feet make direct contact at high velocity. Sensors were scrambled as his internal balance mechanisms went completely haywire. Unable to control his centre of mass or his energy, he felt his body launch back. Air whistled past him, his senses almost reverting to something human as his onboard systems failed. It was strange, like listening to the world for what it was for the first time in his awakened memories. Instead of overlays and datapoints on his display, feeding information to his onboard system, it felt natural, like real colour he felt his body slap against the hard ground of the freeway leading towards the exit of the city itself. When he bounced once, his internal systems jolted before he hit face first on the ground, sliding down the road, his body colliding with a dozen vehicles, sending the machines scattering away from him, some over the overpass itself as people began screaming all around him.

Refocusing, he pressed his palms against the warm surface of the road as he looked at it, blinking several times to assess just how badly he was damaged.

His boot pressed against the ground next while his other leg pulled his knee up to try and gain his bearings again. Overlays came back as the Saiyan appeared in front of him, an aggressive, cold look on his face. Barely in a position to block, 24 managed to shove away the first punch, only to be hit with a kick square in the torso, sending him stumbling to his feet and stumbling back, his body colliding with a vehicle as the occupant screamed behind him.

"All that technology you have won't save you from me, Android," Vegeta scowled, spitting blood out of his own mouth as he reasserted his fighting stance. "I'm going to slaughter you, just like I did that worthless woman."

"Even if you accomplish this," Twenty-Four remarked. "Your power is fleeing you. Do you really think 17 and 18 will let you go?"

There wasn't a response, and he understood immediately what it was. Soldiers that were cornered with no opportunity to surrender or escape, always fought to the bitter end. He could remember it from his own life… from the life of his body… They'd completely surrounded a force from Central City, and offered no terms for surrender. There was an exchange of artillery and gunfire until there was no one left. Anyone who'd tried to surrender earlier had been cut down.

For whatever reason, Vegeta thought surrender wasn't an option, and didn't think he could abandon this post. Likely the woman and child they'd found at the Capsule Corporation building played a big role in that.

"Better to die on my feet," Vegeta responded coolly.

Nodding to the Saiyan's words, 24 pushed himself off the fractured vehicle. His own power reserves weren't infinite like the 17 and 18 models, but they were recovering adequately. Structural damage was noteworthy, but not significant. The other fighter on the other hand, he estimated was burning through his energy supply at a very fast pace.

Without consciously thinking to give the command, he heard himself talk.

"I salute you," he responded. "A soldier's death is the only one worthy of any warrior."

Raising both his arms as guards, he prepared to march forward.

Just as the attack was about to begin, unexpectedly, his system still in recovery, Vegeta's leg stabbed out, catching him in the knee, forcing him down. Swinging back, he punched the Saiyan Prince once more, making his mark on his abdomen again, this time the strike not sending the Saiyan back, but shattering his armour. Vegeta snarled and shoved a hand into his chest in response, energy glowing around it before the entire world turned to golden light.

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Android 22:

"What the fuck is this, Cobal? I told you not to come home, and not go to the fucking casino. Did you lose your entire paycheque?"

"Cerise, it's not that big a deal."

"How are we going to eat, you idiot!"

"Look, I'll go do a job for Vector, he's always got work."

"Great, a shakedown. You're pathetic, Cobal."

An unfamiliar scene played out through audio for her as her entire body was unresponsive. It felt like she wanted to get away from whatever bullshit that was. She could recite a story with clarity in a way she couldn't before. It all played out in her head, with impulses and without images. It was a sense of being, a sense of what had been.

Wanting to escape was the first stage of life. No more barely standing house, with shitty parents who screamed all the time, or wasted money like it was water down a river. It was what drove her to seek a purpose outside of herself, at first. Sign up with the Red Ribbon Army, to bring peace and order. Learn how to fight people, learn how to kill people. Learn how to get good with a gun, or how to break people's bones. Train, see how everyone was still just in it for themselves. Learn to play that game for yourself. Watch your life fall apart again because of some kid. Kill the people who might betray you. Everyone might betray you, even. Kill them too. Keep all the money for yourself. Become worse with cash than your parents were. Take up more dangerous jobs to keep the income going. Meet a monster… die.

That was the part that was uncomfortable as well. She'd played the game, manipulating that brute as she needed to, banking that he and his partners were going to win. If she'd played well enough, she was going to live. Selling out humanity itself didn't seem like a big deal. Every level of it seemed not worth saving anyway. If even the aliens out there were the same? Then who fucking cared anyway.

"Hey, I think she's alive," she heard. "Did she survive that explosion? It looked like she fell out of the sky."

"She's bleeding."

"Is anyone a doctor?"

Systems began coming back online as she felt her eyes flash open. Sensors adjusted immediately as her lens reduced the amount of incoming light automatically to prevent her from becoming overwhelmed. A dark-skinned man was over her, along with one tanned woman and an old man with a scrubbing white beard. It reminded her all too much of the old boss.

"She's awake!? That fall though, her head must have been concussed. Ma'am- ma'am, don't worry, we got you. We're going to get an-"

The darker male stopped speaking in a stuttered as she sat up mechanically, her optics scanning the area. Fires were breaking out across the local region. Impacts were still being heard. They were significant enough that she narrowed them down to a major battle still taking place. It took her a moment to remember what had happened. She'd been engaged in combat with-

Vegeta.

With systems back online as she picked herself up, almost falling over as her balance controls finished their warmup. Her arms were bleeding, but not badly. She felt a trickle of blood rolling down from her hairline as well, and knew there was matted blood in the back of her hair. Her tank-top had been damaged, but not annihilated, and her pants were barely torn.

Looking at both of her hands, seeing mild burns on them, she ignored the nervous system responses telling her there was pain. One of her discs was out of alignment. Without saying a word to the observers around her, she flinched her back, the sound of the bone popping back in place with enhanced muscle holding it there made several people wince in horror before she checked each of her fingers. Cracking her knuckles a few moment later to ensure her digits were still useful, she noticed her left wrist was stiff.

Without a second thought, she grabbed the limb with her other hand, popping it out of place, before popping it back in. Another wave of grimaces and looks of horror crossed the people's faces as several people gagged.

"A-are you okay? Do you need a doctor?"

"My systems are functioning," she responded, not even looking at the woman asking before beginning to walk forward, getting her bearings on where the noises of battle were coming from.

Hitting her boots against the ground, she immediately started to burst into a run, jumping over debris and vehicles as she used her terrestrial mode of transport. Flight, even without Vegeta's ability to sense her energy, might lead to her being spotted on her way to kill him. Moving through the wreckage of blinding speed, she managed to close to where her audio sensors told her the core of the disturbance was.

Her optics identified at long range, 16, 17, 18, and 23 from an observation point. Based off where they were looking, she then detected 24 and Vegeta. The two were trading blows at an incredibly fast pace on freeway overpass heading out of the city. Already the structure had buckled at several points. Fires were raging across its surface from burning vehicles, and she calculated her method of approach.

Leaping forward, she burst into a run, moving along the grass of a city park before leaping through several neighbourhoods in rapid bounds. Hopping up to the level above, her feet landed on the hardened ground, before she moved rapidly towards the source of the battle, slipping behind vehicles to cover her approach. Her sensors caught a surprise to her.

Vegeta was bloodied, bleeding, his armour was gone, his clothes were torn and he looked exhausted. Twenty-four's attire was badly damaged as well, his shirt destroyed, burns covered most of his chest, his pants badly ripped and burned, and he was bloodied as well. The Saiyan struck down, his fist smashing into 24's face as the giant tried to get up, his body rolled back several times before he collided with the burning wreck of a vehicle.

Just as Vegeta prepared to move in for his next attack, 22 shot in from behind. With a ruthless kick, she took him out at the back of the knee. The Saiyan flipped back, landing back first, hard, cracking the freeway, before rolling back, hopping onto his feet with a small, but noticeable limp. She stared him down, beginning to close in with him again.

"Welcome back, 22," Eighteen called. "We were almost worried about you."

"I'm fine," she confirmed, not looking towards them as she continued to strut towards Vegeta.

"So, what do you plan to do now?" Vegeta asked her, raising his guard as he looked at her. "You and your friend have struggled more than last time."

"I'm going to kill you," she said honestly, seeing no reason to conceal her plans, and acting as if he didn't already know them. "I'll probably break your bones like I did last time, but this time you don't have any friends to save you from me taking that head off your shoulders, Vegeta. You'll get to die alone."

His eyes flashed as his aura briefly intensified, because of course it did. The primitive tribal warrior in front of her was already exhausted, but was going to try and push forward the bravado that he could keep himself going. She wanted to scourge whatever was left of him if given the chance. Her eyes, she knew, were as cold as ice as she stared through him, her own guard coming up as she started to step to one side, moving clockwise, the Saiyan immediately did the same, the two of them slowly beginning to circle one another as she examined all the damage he'd suffered. The small limp on one leg was being exaggerated to draw her in.

Jolting forward finally once she saw a brief opening, she realized the moment she did, Vegeta had done the same, seeing the movement in her waltz. The two shot towards one another, as he rolled out of the way in the air. She'd primed her fist to connect with him, instead, sweeping past him. She hit the brakes, her feet clipping through the bridge's surface before she turned violently, only to see two great bolts of energy coming towards her. Her overdrive kicked in before she backhanded one aside, sending the blast into the open spaces outside the city before the second blast hit her directly in the chest. It detonated around her, the force-waves shattering the bridge and sending thousands of tons of broken reinforced concrete, abandoned vehicles, and other assorted shrapnel scattering through the outskirts of the city as the golden wave of energy rolled around her.

Her body burned, but she was not overwhelmed. All the pain she felt in that moment only made her burn. For a brief second, she remembered the flash before she'd…. died. Launching out of the light, her body brought the edges of the blast before it'd finished burning its energy. On the other side, the Super Saiyan scowled at her, his guard already prepared as their bodied collided in the air. Her fist slammed straight into his guard before she kicked into the side of his injured leg, tagging he knee before striking out at his body, only to find her fist rejected by his hand pushing off of hers, helping him dodge around the strike. Her anger was burning as she twisted in the air, striking out with a front-facing round-house kick. When he swept under it, she felt his fist's knuckles stab into her back.

The wave of force behind her sent her rolling forward in the air as she tried to throttle back the spins her body made. This time, Vegeta had followed up, striking out with his fist with an almost perfect symmetry of motion. Her head shot to one side, as well as blood and spit before she was sent hurtling back once more, this time on a downwards trajectory. Her body slowed just enough that when her body hit the ground, she didn't break the surface, this time bouncing off the concrete of a sidewalk before skidding along the road, her skin finding several small lacerations amongst the scrapes at it did.

When he landed, she knew he was coming in for the killing blow.

Despite his lower power level, Vegeta had been fighting with a tenacity she'd not seen. The arrogance that seemed to govern how he'd fought before had vanished. She didn't fully understand, she, in her current form or prior, had no understanding of what was happening… until…

Briefly though, in her mind's eye… she saw King Piccolo, the same… the same one which had fought 17. He was battling another power, someone more familiar to her. The tall Saiyan with long hair had the advantage throughout the battle, but she remembered clearly when the green warrior had seemingly regrown his arms out of nowhere, after fighting doggedly to stop him. Between the two monsters, it'd been Piccolo, despite his weaker power, who'd defeated Raditz, and she understood why.

Rolling out of the way of Vegeta's sweeping kick just in time, she raised her guard, blocking another strike as the labouring Vegeta pushed himself forward, pushing beyond whatever limits had been placed on him by his abilities.

He's fighting for something other than himself.

When his next kick came, she saw her opening. Grabbing his leg out of the air, she threw her own foot back, stabbing into the ground for support as she caught his weight and the force of the strike before heaving to one side, pulling his entire body back despite his aura flickering, his power pulling against her. Overdrive kicked in again before she slammed his body face first into the road. Scraps of the destroyed neighbourhoods and street rose into the air from the power of the impact as the entire road had a fissure cut down the middle of it.

Dropping his leg, and in the next fluid motion, 22 securing the Saiyan around the waste with one arm from behind, his body still laying in the ground as he struggled to push himself up. Her other arm came around his right arm in a half-nelson. His legs kicked out as he got a glimmer of what she was doing, so she had to be quick. With all the power she could muster, her reserves descending to record lows as her nodes burned in her body. she snapped her body back with such a velocity that she broke the sound barrier 4 times as multiple booms exploded out from her motion alone. His head and arm crashed into the ground as her body bent back. Another explosive boom rolled out over the road as she released him.

Rolling away from him as his legs fell limply to the ground. She took several seconds to catch her breath.

His body remained motionless outside of the motion of his breathing.

Several figures landed on the buildings in the distance, and she almost glared at them, knowing 17 didn't want Vegeta did.

Her orders were overridden and disregarded already, and as she saw Kill Vegeta take priority over all of her remaining directories. Pushing up off the ground, she noticed her energy reserves had almost collapsed. Running on overdrive, surviving the Gallic Gun, and using a major boost in power to suplex Vegeta with enough force to knock him out had been taxing.

Even getting to her feet was a slight wobble, feeling a couple of the blows which had made good on her from Vegeta. Even catching his kick had left a bruise across her chest and arms. When she looked at his body laying there, his black hair now replacing the gold that had been there a moment earlier, she felt her own hatred growing with every step she made towards him, not even realizing as her face twisted into a vicious grimace of disdain.

Her revenge was at hand. It'd been in the works for so long. Every motion she made towards his body felt like it was the road towards becoming who she was. The thoughts, processes, and memories onboard now understood that killing Vegeta would be the fulfillment of its only true desire. Prepping her leg, she scraped her heel out over the ground as she prepared to cave his skull in.

"Failure will not be tolerated," she said, echoing words she'd faintly heard in a previous life. "And neither will failure."

Arching her leg out, Violet snapped it down towards the body waiting below. Her foot shattered into the ground where the Saiyan's head had been, as she suddenly saw golden light in front of her. His arm broken, blood trickling out of his right eye, both nostrils, his right ear, and lip, Vegeta snarled like a furious animal, grabbing her leg with both of his and pulling her to the ground. Her back slapped into the pavement. Immediately she rushed to get up before his arm grabbed her, yanking her towards him, before she felt his leg shove into her chest as she squirmed to pull away.

Pulling her arm as hard as she could, she tried to break the lock as golden energy surged around them.

"I HATE YOU!" she screamed, using her rage to pull back against him, before the other leg shoved down her on her abdomen as he tried to get leverage.

The ground beneath them cracked as the two forces pulled against one another as she felt synthetic muscle and enhanced bone resisting every second of his pull. Slowly but surely, her wrist was bent further back, before her elbow and shoulder were locked straight. She managed to stare over at him furiously before she felt her elbow, and then her wrist, dislocate, popping out of place as she screamed out in pain.

As soon as the two pops were heard, she felt him release, before kicking back against her side, knocking her across the street, her body rolling several times as she hissed furiously.

When he got up, the Saiyan was barely able to stand, his own arm hung limply at his side as he just breathed in and out desperately. His eyes even faded once or twice, likely from exertion, internal damage, and blood-loss.

Her own journey to her feet was difficult, every motion feeling like it'd been inhibited by an invisible force trying to restrain her every action. She forced herself through it, her tired muscles doing as they were told as she found her feet once again, her own arm hanging at her side. They mirrored one another as she too took in deep breaths.

Twenty-Four landed nearby as she cast a glare at him.

"He's mine," She reasserted. "Back off."

"Is that in order?" he responded, trying to remind her of her place. "You've taken significant damage."

"I'm a fucking colonel, and you're just some NCO. I'm the one giving the orders here, back off," she warned.

Shaking his head coolly, the bigger Android turned towards Vegeta.

"Where is Son Goku?" he demanded.

The battle-worn Saiyan looked at him, just grinning through bloody teeth.

"I have no idea, I've not seen Kakarot in months," Vegeta chuckled. "You're all fools."

"Well, let's see how true that answer is," he responded. "I hope you don't mind enhanced interrogations."

"Oh? Enhanced by what? A chump like you?"

Twenty-Four's eye ticked before he gave a dark half smile, his body preparing to launch towards their mutual enemy. But this wasn't his fight.

The giant prepared to attack, and Violet couldn't let him. Rushing forward, she snapped her foot out, gathering her energy as it impacted the giant before his attack could begin. His eyes widened in shock as he looked back at her, and she saw the betrayal on his features as the Murder Kick was unleashed. The energy wave sucked him back, his body being sent back as pulverized his torso with the kick, knowing she'd not put enough power in it to kill him… she might not have enough power yet to kill him, even if she wanted to.

The huge frame of the other Android roared with surprise and pain before he vanished from view, the gigantic wave of purple energy carrying him into the distance.

When she put her leg down, she mechanically changed targets, turning her body to face Vegeta, her one good arm ready to fight.

There was a look of genuine surprise on the face of the man she hated, looking as if he wanted to ask why, though he knew full well their fight would continue.

"Twenty-Two, what the Hell was that?" Seventeen's voice shouted.

"He's mine," she fired back, turning her head briefly to seethe at him before turning once more back to Vegeta.

"So," Vegeta started. "You are a machine, but this fight means that much to you?"

"This fight means everything to me," she answered, her tone bordering between cold and fury. "Once you are dead, I can stop seeing that smug look you gave me before you killed… me."

The other warrior seemed to lose his own hardened look, instead, it was replaced by a quiet determination as he repositioned himself, his golden aura dimming slightly as it did, his power fading yet more. If either of them in their current state fought the other at their full power, they'd be completely overwhelmed. This was it, the final moments of the battle she'd waited so long to complete. She'd not even realized it, but it was in the shadow of her mind from the moment of the beginning of her true awakening. Even with the other Androids around her, even as she discovered more about the nature of the brain her CPU had been planted within, she could feel the truth of the thing that ended her life, haunting her every step.

"Good," Vegeta's voice broke her thoughts, his eyes not leaving hers. "A real purpose, a real meaning, makes a battle worth having."

As soon as he finished speaking, 22 charged forward, her feet pounded against the paved, yet damaged road beneath her, each step picking up with intensity and speed as her body shifted several times, trying to protect her injured arm from attack while exposing Vegeta's. The other fighter matched her every step almost on her approach. Predicting her attack, Vegeta seemed to motion to counter her attack, stepping forward and striking out with his own fist. Hopping in front of Vegeta, she skipped off the ground, snapping back with both her feet just as he moved to counterattack. Both the tips of her boots found their mark on his chin. The Saiyan reared back, stumbling as his footing was undone.

With her one good arm, she grabbed the ground as she inverted herself from the flip, before pulling herself down to the ground again, kicking off the ground as she came into threat range again. His leg snapped out just as she did, catching her in the ribs. She grimaced, but continued on, driving her elbow into his cheek. The Saiyan's entire defense seemingly collapsed a moment later as she kicked out his still standing leg, leaving him to fall backwards.

Kicking out again, she hit him in the side before rushing after him as his body skid along the road. He stopped himself, his arm anchoring itself on the fissure as the ground tore up around him, she didn't have time to change her path before he swept both his own legs out, taking her feet out from under her this time. She fell back, her back hitting the ground before he shot to his feet. Energy glowed around his fist as he pointed it down at her. Reacting as quickly as her processor would allow, what was left of her overdrive ability kicked in. Her arm grabbed the ground as she shot both her legs up like a pair of tendrils, wrapping her feet around his neck before heaving his body back, flipping him, smashing his head and shoulders into the ground once more.

A gag escaped the space pirate as she found herself on top of him, his one good arm locked under her leg. Rearing back her only capable arm, she slugged him in the face. Blood spat onto the road next to him as her fist was speckled with his blood. Without a second thought she pulled her arm back.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, the sound of her knuckles bounding flesh and bone repeated as the prince's face became bloodier and bloodier. Her other arm even tried to lash out she was so angry. His face swelled as he tried to push her off of him, but she overpowered him at every turn.

With each strike his resistance lowered. She was almost too exhausted to keep punching, her machine-mind ordering the blows even as the body struggled to comply. Finally, she heard a crack as her fist him above the eye and temple. His head shot to the side, his hair turning black immediately as she saw his body convulse several times.

Energy crackled along her fingers as she shoved his hand into his face.

She could see a mountain falling around her as her teeth grit, her triumph, coming into view. It felt like she was reclaiming her life.

This was the first moment of her life.

There was movement in front of her as she felt that life slip from her fingers.

Son Goku?

Turles.

The Saiyan's fist came in, crashing into the side of her head like meteorite impact. Her head felt like it was about to be torn off her shoulders before she launched off Vegeta, her body cracking into the road, shredding through concrete, asphalt, and ripping through a corner store before she slid to a halt, the ground around her built up into a wall to stop her movement.

Blinking several times, she tried to pull herself up but struggled to do so. Her will to persist, the thing which had driven her so close to her dreams, finally wasn't enough to get her structure to respond. The will was there, but the ability was not. For a brief moment, she almost powered down as she just lay there, half propped up.

Robbed. Robbed again.

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Turles:

Perfect timing, as always. Vegeta had been putting up a bigger fight than he expected, which was by no means a problem as far as he was concerned. Doing more than buying time like an idiot was always a big bonus. One android more or less incapacitated. The 4 others were still going to be a nightmare to deal with, but he was fairly certain they could hang in there. They were missing 3 more additionally as well.

The Prince was almost a corpse as far as he could tell, and that was a pretty satisfactory outcome if the other Androids weren't a problem. Getting over anything that resembled reluctance, he knelt down, placing the bean in the Prince's mouth before forcing it down with his finger.

That finger will never feel clean again.

Turning his attention back down the road, Turles saw 3 of the machines make a landing in front of him, only standing a few metres back. Android 17, the leader, with his two-coloured eyes, crossed his arms while looking at him with a severe look. Though he gave a cocky smile towards 18, placing two fingers where she'd shot him through the chest, implying he was all better now. There was a less than impressed look on his counterpart's face.

Behind him, he heard Vegeta beginning to stir as well.

"We were having a reasonable conversation with Vegeta, and you involved yourself?" the lead Android asked. "We almost thought you were Goku when you get here, but well, I'm sure you're used to disappointing people."

"Maybe I can disappoint you as much as Piccolo did in your last little engagement?" Turles remarked, looking over towards 18 before looking back at 17. "Because if I'm not mistaken, you're the one down one of your allies, and we're back up to full strength."

The glint of confidence in his eye revealed what he thought was a key advantage. The odds here were still terrible. As long as Trunks did his job, then maybe they'd have a chance. These machines could track them as long as they were aware of them, but they couldn't sense power levels, just like Frieza's soldiers prior, or even himself when he first got to Namek. They couldn't detect theirs either, but the blade cut both ways.

"Back up to full strength?" Seventeen scoffed. "Vegeta might as well be… dead?"

The sound of Vegeta managing to get to his feet came through clearly behind him.

"Was that enough?" Turles asked, implying to the bean.

"Yes," Vegeta answered stiffly, and Turles turned to look at him, giving him a smirk, clearly indicating he knew who owed who, at least in his eyes.

Golden energy reignited as the Saiyan pulled forward his form, Turles allowing energy to seep off his own body as well as the two of them stood tall in front of the three of them.

"Do you really expect this to go differently than last time?" Eighteen asked him, clearly not impressed, though a faint smile was growing on her features.

"I expect it to go much better," Turles said, his tone edging on the dangerous as he narrowed his eyes on her. "After all, last time you ended up having to run away, we didn't even get to finish our fun."

The prodding worked, her expression going from amused to irritated, before falsely going back to amused. He knew full well she'd mortally wounded him last time, but he just needed one of them to slip up.

"You are delusional."

"Delusional? So, you mean my imagination was playing tricks on me? I told you before, I wasn't used to the woman being on top, but I'm more than willing to accom-"

"You are a disgusting pig," she fired back immediately, her arms unfolding as her fingers snapped into place.

"I take it you have a plan?" Vegeta said quietly, sounding more than annoyed. "Because if you got me that bean just to get me killed again, that doesn't count as teamwork."

"Look at you, Vegeta, trying to play on someone's side for once? And here I thought I wasn't in your good books."

"You're not," he deadpanned. "But they are clearly in a worse chapter than you are."

Good, he knew the machines were listening to them, and when she saw the blonde shoot towards him, he grinned, raising his guard falsely as she closed with them. Vegeta prepared to counterattack, but he knew it was going to be pointless.

"Eighteen!" he heard 17 shout.

A flash of silver cut in front of her, crimson streamed into the air from her shoulder as she'd barely moved at the last moment, heeding 17's advice. It was a superficial wound, the attack hadn't hit anything vital, or cut anything off. When she rolled back, her clothes briefly soaking with blood before she cauterized the wound without a second thought, her face grimacing furiously before she looked back at them. Trunks landed next to him just as the Android finished her bloody work, her eyes turning to full fury as she narrowed them on him.

What a shame. I'd been hoping she'd be the first one to fall.

"Nice try," Turles commented.

This complicated things. Namely, he'd been hoping they killed one of them.

When 17 started to march forward, he knew that trouble was about to double.

"So, you thought you could lay a trap for us, and kill one of ours before the fight got started?" Seventeen snapped. "Did you really think that would work?"

"It almost worked," Turles responded bluntly. "I underestimated you, though. It won't happen with the next plan."

There was a boom, and Turles was distracted by something in the near abroad.

What the Hell was that?

They all sensed it, even the machines.

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Raditz:

There was a tremendous boom before he'd even gotten to the city. Turles and Trunks had pulled ahead of him. Honestly, it wasn't the first time he'd been robbed of his dignity. This was how far he'd fallen. His brother now openly said it was pointless for him to go. He'd been discarded. That was the implication of it all. He was little more than a liability on the battlefield, and someone his brother didn't trust to pull his weight or follow orders. The implication was enough to leave him wounded more than most wounds had left him in some time.

For all the gains he made, he was always pushed one step back. Though he truly wasn't sure if they needed Vegeta or not, he couldn't abide helping him. He recognized his folly for trying to kill the ones around Vegeta, but letting Vegeta die would still be something he would more than willingly risk. Even now, even when faced with these killer machines, his hatred was still greater.

Arriving in the air, Raditz appraised what he was seeing. Trunks' power was hidden near ruins nearby, and Turles was standing shoulder to shoulder with Vegeta. The big red-headed Android was standing on top of a building, not even paying attention to the situation, and the other machines seemed to be standing in front of Turles and Vegeta. His eyes followed a nearby pathway of destruction, noting how fresh it seemed, until he spied a figure laying prone in a half-bored crater. At this distance it was impossible to make out features in detail, but if anyone had made that impact and wasn't mush, they were far from human.

It was moving as well, though only barely.

The only thing was, even from this distance… it seemed oddly familiar. Looking back towards the others, he knew they were preoccupied. Finishing off something that could barely move was being little more than a scavenger, a wretch… and sadly, something that fit what he was.

Eying the others, Raditz made sure to mask his approach, moving between the smoke and ruins as he descended towards his would-be victim. Only as he got closer, there was more than an odd sensation. It felt like he'd done this before. He wasn't sure when he'd approached a half-dead body laying in a pile of wreckage, there had been so many worlds, so much carnage, that this one feeling distinct was more than odd.

When his feet touched down on the ground, he briskly walked towards his target, noticing the woman turn her attention towards him. The second she did, Raditz felt himself freeze in his footsteps. Those eyes, they were unfamiliar, but the face… he knew this person. There was a disconnect for him as he looked at her. There was a distant recognition from the other as well.

What… what the Hell is this?

He'd finally broken, hadn't he? Because right now all he could think was how much like Violet, this woman appeared. Even if he'd callously thought the others machine, just the similar features made him already assign meaning to this creature beyond what he should, or would have. He didn't even have words to say. The only thing he knew were his features had slipped from a look of cold indifference to something else. If he had a mirror, he knew his eyes would be bulging out of his head, and his mouth had dropped slightly. He could feel his brow too, pushing towards his hairline.

Taking several steps forward, he felt his hand move up from his side instinctively as his fingers drifted in the air. Every step he got closer. He saw more of the familiar coming into view. He'd not even noticed her purple hair when he'd first seen her features, having first noticed her face before anything else. Her shoulders and neck were the same as well as his brain struggled to combine all of this in such a way that he could reach a realization he was perhaps too afraid to confront.

No, that's impossible.

"Woman?" Raditz managed, his voice breaking the silence between them.

Her eyes narrowed on him as she started trying to pick herself up, her body hobbling as it did. There was significant damage across her. He noticed her clothes were burnt and torn, as well as light burns across her skin. Her right arm hung uselessly at her side as her other arm steadied herself, barely, on the mound of wrecked earth and asphalt which had been her resting place. She was defensive, and he didn't understand.

"Violet?" he repeated.

The two words, the two questions, haunted him almost as soon as he spoke it. They were the last things he'd said to her, trying to see if she'd respond when she was… dying. In truth, she was already dead by the time he'd used her name for the first time in his memory, it was the last time as well. The irony around that hadn't been lost on him. Even now though, saying the name, it felt off.

He only ever hinted at her to Kakarot, and he'd only ever told Turles about her, and when he'd spoken to Turles he didn't even use her name. Vegeta and Nappa, the ones who killed her, didn't even know who she was. In a strange way, he felt like he was the last person who knew that name, speaking it even made him feel vulnerable.

Her unnatural eyes didn't break from him as she finished standing up, still labouring heavily.

She wasn't speaking, and he didn't know what else to say. Was it confused? Did it just look like her? He didn't fully understand Violet's past, he didn't know everything about her. Beyond her being a ruthless killer, like he'd been, beyond knowing she'd sell out her own species just to get ahead, and knowing she'd… used him, to survive, he knew only what he saw. The same killer-instinct was there, the same predatory motions even as she'd gotten up.

"Was it the Dragon Balls?" he asked. "Were you brought back as some biproduct of another wish?"

When he asked that question, she clearly knew how well he knew her. A full realization crossed her as her cold gaze intensified, he could see the edges of contempt coming to her. The guilt of her death still weighed on him. All she'd wanted from him, all she'd worked with him for, was a chance to survive the end of the world. That was all he ever could have tried to give her, and it seemed like enough. At the end though, he couldn't even deliver that.

Just as he couldn't become a Super Saiyan.

Just as he couldn't defeat Vegeta.

He averted his eyes, and as soon as he did, she spoke.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I have not had an interaction with the Dragon Balls, or their effects," she said, her voice hadn't changed, beyond it sounding younger than when they'd last seen one another. "But I know who you are. I've seen you before. You are the one named Raditz."

That was enough of a shock for him to turn back to look at her. The voice was the same, but the words didn't sound like hers. But he knew this had to be her. He didn't understand how, and he definitely didn't know why, but whatever this thing was, it was at the very least connected to Violet. Though he suspected in truth, that it was Violet.

"I don't understand how you are here, but I did… I tried," he said, his mind wanting to confess to her more than anyone what he'd… failed at.

To talk to Kakarot or Turles, or anyone else, about his failings was hard. He knew he had them more than anyone of course. But he didn't have a burden to share with them. Even when they'd traveled together, beyond conversations about destruction, the Dragon Balls, or other assorted warriors on the planet, it'd been a strange expression of care he'd provided. In the moments of silence on their travels, he had been relaxed around another being for the first time in his life. She'd been the most familiar thing he'd ever found, reminding him of the people he'd come from, despite the differences.

When he'd held her as she'd died, he felt a part of himself die. It was betrayal from Vegeta, something he'd never forgiven, and it was the end of the familiar. It had pushed him past his comfort zone, into a realm of pain and hurt, and into a new life. He'd have done anything to take away her death, even after she'd admitted she'd just used him to survive.

He could still remember what Guru said about her, and he didn't care about that either.

And now here she was, he knew it was her. The transformation in front of him was something he was slowly realizing as her own expression went from cold, to angry, to anger mixed with grief, to something intense.

The closest he'd ever reached out to someone else was when he'd tried to empathize with his nephew after his father had seemingly died on Namek, though even that had been brief. Even now he had a realization that he'd lived a life without ever having reached for another person, save for when he'd tried to save his nephew, and when he held onto Violet as she died.

"I failed you," He admitted, his voice tight as he took another cautious step towards her. "I failed to live up to our bargain. I was meant to keep you alive, and I failed to do that… I… I tried to avenge you. I did everything I could. I killed Nappa. I tried to kill Vegeta and his family. I went through with it because I knew that would be what you wanted-"

Her eyes were distant, like she was looking through him, or was looking at something else, something that wasn't even there. When he reached out his hand fully, he didn't even know what it was for, not fully. It was an instinctive response, and it was something he'd never felt in his waking moments.

His hand was suddenly gripped though, her only unbroken arm reaching out and grabbing his hand. He flinched with how hard it was. It almost broken his fingers as he saw her breathe in sharply.

Her eyes then filtered back to focusing on him, not just looking through him. She briefly looked at her hand before looking back at him, before snapping her hand back away from him. She looked scared, something he'd not ever seen on her expression.

"Leave," she ordered, leaving him in shock as soon as she said it, because he didn't understand why.

He wasn't there to fight her, that much was obvious to him, and he... he was still trying to save her. He had been since she'd died. From taking her corpse to the hospital, to killing Nappa, to trying to acquire his revenge on Vegeta… it was all to try and somehow fix what had happened. And now here she was, and he didn't understand…

All he knew was she had survived a battle her battle power would have never allowed, and that she was here. She had no power… he'd thought her an Android until he recognized her. Her grip had been intense, stronger than anything he'd suffered from someone not trying to kill him… She looked the same, but different… and she didn't speak like Violet had. Her eyes were like the Android he'd fought before-

In the near-distance, he heard a boom go off, without an ki. He knew Turles and Vegeta hadn't started fighting yet however, it didn't make any sense.

When he turned his head towards it, he turned back to her.

"I can protect you," he told her. "You are badly damaged, the arm-"

She kicked him in the chest. His eyes widened once again as he felt the air suck out of his lungs, his back hitting a nearby, half destroyed wall of a small post-office. Gagging for air, he looked at her as she peered ahead… towards Vegeta.

No.

"I said leave," she ordered again, not even looking at him as she spoke. "… I… am not who you think. I do know who you think I am. She'd have killed you on the spot here. Whatever you've built for yourself, Saiyan, go back to that."

It was surreal to hear her said it before she looked back at him.

"If it helps with any guilt that you feel, whatever you've done for the dead woman, is enough," she said, her tone changing only slightly, and for the first time in his life, he heard Violet's voice show him compassion? "Now stay out of my way."

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Android 22:

The last thing subject 22 had seen, Colonel Violet, had been that alien's face staring down at her, his eyes filled with desperation and concern as he tried to hold onto her, as if to keep her alive. In truth, 22 knew how strange a duality of it, it was. Subject 22 felt little to nothing as she died, she knew that emotional memories linking with those moments at best were filled with self-pity, and even a contempt for her would-be saviour, for failing to save her.

But strangely, 22 saw it differently. Even if Violet had accurately described Raditz as a monster, when she saw the memories of the death flash before her eyes, the true death, the last moments before she expired, she'd not seen the monster her host had described. She saw a simple organism, an organic creature, trying to desperately find a way to save her. It was sad, more than anything. Even now, she'd not expected to see this particular Saiyan, her own programs had done their best to avoid making much reference to him, but she saw it all as he came into view. The alien had been looking for the Dragon Balls, and had coopted her host into assisting him.

At the end, even as the very obvious betrayal unfolded, she could see this monster trying his best to prevent her from dying, trying to uphold his bargain. Even now, years after the expiration of the subject, he had tried to explain to her that he'd done his best. It was strange, like a machine trying to carry out a program it could no longer achieve.

For a human perspective, perhaps it was like watching a loyal dog, sitting over it's owner's grave. A human might find it touching, but it was little more than instinct, a background program that made it continue this purpose without much more than impulse. And she, in her new consciousness, found it more pitiable than anything. She had no need for a dog, and she had no desire to kill him. Even if some of her reflexes were to just do away with this humanoid permanently, her time with the others had… softened that.

The kind heart she'd seen 16 display, the odd friendship she now seemingly had with 18, the would-be super-hero 17, and the concerned officer 24, had all adjusted her own conditional programs as they'd become confused and lost within a combination of death neural pathways and a breaking down operating system. She was the host, and she was something else. A machine with memories of a life it'd never lived. A machine which examined those memories not through the eyes of its creator, but from the outside.

Even hearing the name spoken to her, Violet, brought a reaction she'd not expected, familiar pathways responding to it as if it were being spoken to the woman herself.

Now here she was, standing here, her arm broken, her eyes peeled ahead towards the beast she had hated for so long, seeing him restored to health. Files brought up the Senzu Bean, reminding her of the ability of Son Goku's allies to rapidly heal from injuries.

The irony was, she hated Vegeta for having killed her. But she wasn't her, and yet she was.

A brief second later she finally cast the Saiyan she'd struck a glance, seeing him staring back at her, but only for a second. The monster of the story, trying to play the knight in shining armour. What was sad, was perhaps he always was. How different did that make him from 17's antics, she wondered? It was human to do so, to create masks for one to wear to justify who they were. Just as she had worn such masks, just as they all now were.

Another thud carried through the air before 24's body crashed in-between the Saiyans and Androids 17, 18, and 23, drawing her attention back to the standoff. Her eyes widened as 24 barely was moving. What was happening? Her own sensors immediately began searching for targets, before a familiar figure walked out of a set of ruins. It took her database only a microsecond to identify the assailants. A smaller male walked around one house, holding a flask in hand, as a giant brute walked around another, and in the heart of the three, a hick with a baseball cap emerged.

"What the Hell?" she heard 17 utter before he looked up, the Saiyans turning as well.

"Funny we should meet out here like this," the diner owner said? "You know, I was worried that we'd not have an opportunity to show you our gratitude for the very nice tip you left us. You can thank my boy 15 here on his excellent tracking abilities, though 14 as you can guess, was also no slouch. Oh, and I should mention something to you there, boy, you really ought to learn yourself some manners. Sometimes, you might just cross the wrong folks."

The way they were moving gave one thing away even before their names did, her eyes narrowing.

These were Androids.

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Author's Notes:

Wow. We did it everyone! Lol

My brain is so fried I barely have any thoughts in my head, lol.

After several rewrites, and several iterations of different scenes, this appears like it's going to be the final cut. I wanted it to include lots of perspectives, I wanted it to have fighting in it, and I wanted it to have Violet and Raditz meeting again. It was an awkward scene to write, because it always would be. Raditz genuinely doesn't understand what's going on, but also doesn't know how to approach the ghost that's haunted so much of his life since Chapter 6 of the story. and I'm really hoping I did it justice. I wanted to keep the words at a minimum between them. But I did think Raditz would try to tell her that he'd done his best to save her, even if he wasn't so forward about it. The line "You were supposed to save me" really framed his character throughout the story. Even if he couldn't save her, he was still trying to in some weird way, all the way from his killing of Nappa, to his attempts to get revenge on Vegeta. It was the breaking point in his life, and it's something he never got over.

I wanted this chapter to also be where Violet's original components and the processor, and everything it'd learned from its lived experiences, as well as Violet's life, started to mingle together into it's final configuration. I also have directly implied that yet, the CPU that runs the body, is more human than Violet herself was. Which I think is personally kind of sad, honestly. It can look back on Violet's life in some objective ways, despite those being its own lived experience, and see it as both the outsider, and the insider. She both is, and isn't that person. I also enjoyed her view of Raditz himself, most definitely not in a loving form, but just viewing him as some lost dog. Sadly, that's a step up from what Violet thought about him, lmao.

Vegeta's role this story of course, is also very important. One thing I stress in both of my main Dragon Ball stories, is that when characters are fighting for more than just themselves, they can push past their boundaries more than if they are fighting for selfish reasons. It's a theme I picked up on in Dragon Ball, and it's something I feel is very core to both of these. Vegeta, for the first time in his life, is fighting for other people, beyond him doing so just before he became a Super Saiyan, in the last moments of his fight against Raditz (which he just refused to admit, was because he had developed some connections with Bulma, but really, it wasn't just his pride, lol)

Next chapter we're going to tackle what's happening in Nikkitown. I'm not sure how long it'll be, but hopefully it won't be 59 pages long like this one was. I'd had a lot of work on this one done already, so I can promise next chapter will probably be running late, sorry everyone!

Also, as this is Chapter 100, and I rarely ask, if you've enjoyed the story so far, please let me know by review! This is a pretty huge milestone.

Thanks to everyone who reads and supports this work, I've enjoyed delivering it to all of you. :)

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Reviewers:

Mouse From Hell: 14 and 15 are comparable to 17 and 18. I'm also known for disappointing people a lot in terms of who they think will survive and who they think will die, remember this, lmao. And yea, Vegeta's still a dickhead, lol.

Warga: Answered by PM

Perfect Carnage: Answered by PM

Thomas-The-TMC: Answered by PM

Red Power: Violet and 22 are pretty different in as many respects as they are the same. And people justify things to themselves all the time, in regards to Bulma, Vegeta had already saved her on Namek once, she wanted to see him in a better light than he's really been.

AngryShadow04: Answered by PM.

Blades of Fury: Answered by PM.

SS2: Uh, I don't really care about multipliers or anything like that. I write the story with a set of tiers to it, more than I do with set powers and limits. I know whose in what tier, and how that impacts the story, that's all that matters.

AC97: Answered by PM

Super Mystic Gohan: Answered by PM.

Guest1: 13 and the 20's series Androids have similar functions to 18, 17, and Cell, but are different in their outcomes. I'd argue the 20's series are the least impressive, but perhaps they were the easiest to make…

Guest2: As deep as the ocean is blue! Lol. Characters like Vegeta, Raditz and Turles aren't meant to be good or bad in their entirety, especially as the story goes forward. They're complicated, and ugly, which I find to be a joy to write :)

Things are gonna be more random than you imagine, lol.

Uraqt393: Answered by PM.

Guesst: 23's time to shine is coming soon.

Ultimate Black Ace: Answered by PM.

TheItchyCooon: 100 has arrived! :O

Ratster04: Answered by PM

Luke: It's definitely gonna slow down for a little while, just due to the nature of the chapters ahead, and a few other circumstances. So I'm glad I delivered this behemoth of a chapter for everyone on time, as the slowdown is real. And yea, I try to connect with the characters to make them as good as I can.,

Guest3: Chapter 99 was a rollercoaster to write, I really enjoyed it, the culmination of really every Android Chapter up until that point, just so much fun. Chapter 100 is heeerrreeee

RulesofNature626: Answered by PM.

Silas/Guest4: I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I've not been divorced myself, but I come from a home where divorce was a thing, and at my age, I've seen many of my friends get divorced, so I really kinda guessed what beats would be the things that caused the wedge to grow between them. It's an uncomfortable thing to write, but just like in life, things can become uncomfortable. There won't be any Super Saiyan 4, at all, in the story. I know a lot of people really like the form, I'll just be honest, I can't stand it, and it won't appear. Red, Blue, and Silver are more likely to appear, if they do at all, lol.

DarkFalconZ: Thanks man, it's what I aim for the story to really hinge on. The action is great, but the development is what leads to that being a payoff.

INtergalacticrat: Thank you so much! Everyone's been really nice about Chapter 99, lol. Building up the Androids was one of the most difficult projects I've done as a fanfiction writer, especially since I had to decide just how in-depth I wanted to go, and how much I wanted to change. I love how their minds work at every stage of their development. And I always wanted to make sure the people who grew up on Planet Vegeta or in the Planet Trade, had a very different means of acquiring their moral decisions, as they just wouldn't be reflective of what most people here on Earth's would be.

DtotheZ: Answered by PM

Transformers G1's-Prime: Answered by PM.

Janem-Dragnove: Answered by PM.

Sanity213: Answered by PM.

Rj Pence: We made it! We made it to 100! And you'll see Cell in 101!