Chapter 12

Universe 2

There was currently a trainings-match going on. The ten members of the former Universe 2 Team from the Tournament had divided into two groups that were now fighting each other.

In the moment Rohsie was locked in a duel with Kakunsa - with the first one firing volleys of blasts, that they second was dodging with her speed while watching for a chance to counter-attack.

Jemeze and Vikal were exchanging attacks at long range with Harmira and Plum, with Jemeze using his Instant Transmission trying to catch them off-guard, against Plum´s Energy Reflection.

Zirloin, Rabanra and Zarbuto were currently facing each other in hand to hand combat.

Ribrianne was at the moment standing aside, observing the others.

The Universe 2 fighters were however now the only ones present. After both the Tournament and the `visit´ from Demigra´s followers, Heles and Pell had decided to ask not only one, but two of the other universes for help with their training.

This were Universes 7 and 11, the two top contenders of the Tournament of Power. On one side it had been hard to swallow how far this universes were above them in terms of power, on the other they realized they could be happy to have allies this strong. Especially with this threat out there.

But that didn´t mean that they intended to stay that far behind.

They had not heard much from Universe 7 yet. Except a short message from the Angel Whiz to Heles, saying that they had a dangerous situation on their own to deal with right now. Well - the Goddess hoped that things would turn out well in Universe 7.

Universe 11 however had reacted nearly instantly. The Pride Troopers Toppo, Jiren, Cocotte and Kahseral were currently here, watching the fight.

"Your fighters are good," Toppo stated. "But in a few cases their fighing techniques seem a bit… well - unrefined."

"Our warriors are using love alone as source of their power," Heles explained. "I fear that led to some of them sometimes neglecting the technical aspects of fighting."

"There is also the fact that your transformations take far too long," Jiren commented stoically.

"Well - they are tradition," the Kaioshin Pell stated unconvincingly.

"And traditions should be respected," Toppo fell in, but ended up sounding equally unsure. The Tournament had shown them all too clearly.

"And everyone who decides not to respect it... or simply don´t know... can kill your warriors before the fight had even started," Jiren pointed out.

Heles crinched her teeth, but she knew he was right.

xxxxxxx

Universe 7

16 was leading the others for the last small part of the way to the secret Red Ribbon base.

After a few more minutes they passed through another small spot of wood and saw the entrance of a cave.

"That is it?" Goku said.

"Yes," Sixteen replied.

"This place looks a bit differently in the future," Marron admitted. "It might have actually been a bit hard to find if we had been on our own."

"I am still not sure if I am doing the right thing," 16 stated.

They were now going inside. As they stapped into the cave, they were face with an mechanical entrance gate quite similar to Doctor Gero´s original lab these years ago.

16 tipped a code into a panel at the side and it opened.

They all remembered the exchange they had a few minutes ago.

xxx

6 minutes earlier

"We are here to stop 21 before she can ty to take over the world," Piccolo said.

"21 would not do something like that," 16 responded.

"Sixteen," 18 told him, "this is my daughter Marron from the future - Like Trunks years ago. She is here because in her time 21 had done exactly that. So don´t tell us she wouldn´t do it."

"21 is not a threat... like she is now," he said.

"Well - she certainly will be not to far in the future," Vegeta remarked.

"Look 16 - whatever you think you know about 21, at least in the future she will become dangerous," 17 said to him.

16 just looked at them unreadable for a few seconds

"Okay - I will bring you to 21. But you all must promise me not to do anything rush."

"I don´t care about any of this," Cooler stated. "I just want to know where my brother is and what happened to him."

xxx

"You can trust us," Goku assured him.

They had just passed the entrance gate entered the actual facility. They were met with a large room, at those end were, left and right, two different corridors that were leading deeper into the base.

The interior was also looking very similar to Doctor Gero´s old lab. Especially one sight they knew all too well. Three Android pods - the numbers written on it were 13, 14 and 15.

"I thought Doctor Gero had dissambled this three Androids because they were not working correctly?" 17 questioned.

"That was at least what he told us when we had asked about the earlier models," 18 mentioned.

"He did," 16 confirmed, "and send their remains here. 21 had finished their designes and corrected the errors for research reasons and then the computer had rebuild them."

"And now these Androids are just standing around here in storage?" 17 asked annoyed. He remembered how Doctor Gero used to shut him and Eighteen down, whenever they threatened to slip out of his control... or when he had simply no need for them at that point.

"This models are activated whenever some special tasks are to be done. They had for example helped to recover Freeza´s body. And that isn´t so bad. They are... let us say less indenendant than you or me. All they care about is to fullfill their mission - whatever that is.

"I see you are back 16," a female voice came over a loudspeaker. "But why have you brought Son Goku and all the others with you?"

21 they all realized. Strange was, the voice sounded neither hostile or distrustful, just a little irritated.

"Goku and the others are here because they want to talk to you. Someone has told them about us and there is a matter they want to discuss with you. It is important.

"Okay - bring them to me," she said

16 led them through a few more corridors. A few minutes later they arrived in a large lab, where a female figure in a long white lab-coat was sitting before a computer and working.

"Ah - you are here," she said as she noticed them.

As they turned around, they saw that she looked nearly exactly like the woman from the picture Marron had shown them, only maybe twenty years younger.

"Son Goku," she greeted him happily. She took his hand and gave it a short two handed shake, smiling friendly.

"It is really a pleasure," she said. "I didn´t think I would get to meet the person we are all created to kill."

"Aeh - I am also glad to meet you... I guess," Goku answered awkwardly."

21 however only smiled, as if she had just told them that they would get nice weather today.

"And I am happy to meet the rest of you too," she told them. "It is normally just 16 and me... and 13, 14 and 15 of course. But they are really no fun to be around. So I guess it is getting kind of lonely."

"That is the Android who will take over the world?" Vegeta turned to Marron disbelievingly.

"Aeh - she was completely different in the future. I don´t understand this either," she replied.

"And you are models 17 and 18." 21 noticed them.

"Yes," Seventeen said.

"Yes," Eighteen did as well. They answered nearly at the same time.

"She is clearly not what we expected," Goku comented and put his hand behind his head in his typical gesture.

"I will explain in a short time," 16 told them.

"I don´t care about any of this," Cooler declared. "I want to know what you have done to my brother."

"Your brother?" 21 asked. "You mean this being named Freeza? Yes - you are clearly the same species."

She took an interested look at him, at his tale. They all got some kind of creepy wipe from this.

"Where is my brother - woman?" Cooler growled

"Oh - I have saved him," she replied friendly. "I was able to replicate all parts of his body that had been destroyed. He in currently in one of the test tubes, undergoing the final part of the reconstruction process."

"Test tubes?"

"Yes - for our biological samples. We also have some material from this saiyan named Broly... and from you all and your friends of course. Isn´t that fantatastic?" she asked enthusiastically.

"Well - except for you." She looked at Cooler. "Can you give me some of your blood?" she asked.

"What? No!" he exclaimed.

"But I could really need it. And I am sure I could do so many wonderful things with it."

"Twenty One," 16 said to her sternly, "get a hold on yourself."

She looked at him wordlessly for a few moments.

"Of course - I am calm, I am calm," she repeated.

"Okay - you wanted to see your brother? Test subject Freeza. I will bring you to him," she said now complete serious.

"Aehm Sixteen-" Gohan asked him quietly, "is she - well, completely right in the head?"

"No - and that is exactly the point," 16 replied. "21 is an experimental cyborg. Doctor Gero had as she was still human, put her body into stasis many years ago. By what the computer had told me because she had an incurable illness."

"Because she was his wife?"

"Yes. He had been experimenting on human beings even before that to find a cure. When he didn´t succeed fast enough, he instead decided to conserve her body to turn her into an Android at the point his technology would have evolved enough to do that."

"I understand," Gohan replied.

They all were now getting a good idea what Doctor Gero had wanted to use the Pilaf Gang for. Quite ironically that it had been 21´s human self who had freed them.

"Doctor Gero did not came to do it himself, but the base-computer finished his work and turned her into an Android. For the computer however this was not enough," 16 explained.

"While 21 herself had been working on the experiments and unfinished devices here, it continued to change and adapt her over the years.

But then the computer went too far. It had integrated genetic material of that creature called Majin Buu into her."

All of them were looking at him incredulous for a few moments.

"21 power was growing immensely. But at the same time it had serious side effects. Her body and also her mind became destabilized."

"I guess I can confirm that," Marron stated. "In the future she clearly had something from Buu. She could change between two forms. The first was the one you have just seen, the other was... completely different. And she was always quite more insane and unpredictable in this second form than in the first."

"You are right," 16 said. "After Buu´s genetic material had been added, 21 started to develop what humans would call a split-personality. The regular 21 is peaceful and non-aggressive. Neither Doctor Gero or the computer ever gave her a mission target or any aggressive programming. But the split-personality is violent and dangerous.

In her human life she had been a researcher for the Red Ribbon Army and so she here just continued her work without thinking much about it."

"Why?" Gohan questioned. "The Red Ribbon Army is long gone. What was the point?"

"It is just what she does," 16 responded. "She knows nothing else."

They all exchanged a few strange looks at this. This story sounded more than bizarre to all of them. If Doctor Gero´s computer turned his wife into an Android, would it truly let her do nothing but research work for no purpose.

Even Son Goku found that unlikely.

And if so, why would 16 be working for her?

"16 - do you remember the time we have been searching for Goku and we had stolen that black sportscar," Seventeen mentioned. "And how this police-patrol then tried to stop us and I beat them up?"

"It was a pink transport vehicle," Sixteen responded, "and it was 18 who beat up the cops. You are trying to find out if I am the real 16 or a copy."

"Yes."

"I am - at least in mind."

"Then why are you here serving 21 instead of living your life like you want to?" 18 asked.

"I feel indepted to 21 for saving me," he responded. "And I did not want her to get out of control. But if what your daughter said about the future is true, I might not succeed."

xxx

21 was leading them through a few more rooms.

Until they finally arrived in a large hall, filled with dozen of dozens of vertically standing over two meters high glass tubes, filled with water. Cables were connected to them. Some of the tubes were empty.

Others however were filled with floating bodies.

They came across one, who they easily recognized as a younger looking Goku.

"As I see these are clones," Piccolo stated.

"Yes - cells from all of you had already been assembled after all. So I thought, why not?"

"You have also created copies of us, haven´t you?" 17 asked.

"No... I haven´t," she answered. They noticed that her face had become blank. "I am sorry, I really don´t remember working on a project like this."

17, 18 and Marron exchanged a glance. They realized her strange behavior as she said this.

They were now sure that something strange was going on here.

"Ah - here he is," 21 stated, pointing to one of the tubes.

Inside they could see Freeza´s body, in his true form, swimming. From the injuries he had received during his fight with Goku, not to mention from the last Kamehameha, was nothing to see anymore.

"Freeza," Goku said quietly.

"As you can see the recreation is nearly complete," 21 stated. "The mental reconditioning and programming however will still take some time though."

"Programming?" Piccolo questioned.

"Mental what?" Goku asked.

"What are you talking about?" Cooler called out.

"As we discovered, he had received serious brain damage during the fight. He seemed to have already lost most of his memories," 21 explained. "So the computer had suggested we perform a complete mindwipe and use the chance to give him a better and less violent personality."

"What?" Cooler shouted. He raised his finger at her and prepared a Death Beam.

"You will stop what you are doing right now and get him out of there," he said.

"Please Cooler calm down," 16 asked him.

"Don´t tell me what to do Android," he responded. "And you get Freeza out of there."

"Okay," 21 said to him. "But I really don´t know what you are so upset about. If you let me finish the procedure, you would have gotten a far better functionizing brother as you had before and far better to get along with too."

"Just release him," Cooler replied.

"I am just starting the reanimation," she told him.

The water was being pumped out and finally the tube itself was pulled upwards, releasing the person inside.

Freeza was kneeling, but opening his eyes and slowly standing up. He was looking from one of them to the other.

"Freeza," Cooler greeted them.

"Freeza? Is that my name?" he asked. "Who are you all?"

This was surprising, they all thought.

"As I told you, he had lost his memories," 21 stated.

"I am your brother," Cooler finally said.

xxxxxxx

For the next day the Z-fighters and their allied had either been training or keeping an eye on 21, Freeza and the others they were not sure about.

Freeza was peaceful so far and truly seemed to have no recallation who any of them was. Cooler and his crew as well showed no hostile behavior anymore.

There was also the issue of 21´s strange split-personality that 16 had mentioned.

They were taking turns. Whoever was currently not training was keeping an eye on them.

Cabba, Caulifla and Kale had offered their help as well, for the promise of more help with their training in return.

By now Gohan had used the time chamber. It was his second time in it, after the year he spend there with his father as a child.

Right now 17 and 18 were beginning their turn. For 18 it was the second time in the chamber, for 17 the first. They would spend a full day (year) inside.

Son Goku had teleported Vegeta to the planet Yardrat, where he would train and then returned. Bulma was still working on the new chamber she was constructing for him.

Her father meanwhile was taking a look at the data of 21 they had gotten from her, to see if they could find out what was wrong with her and maybe reverse it.

Goku would now wait until he heard something of this Meerus. Until then he would help 16 and Piccolo to check on 21.

xxxxxxx

21´s base

Piccolo had an idea. It had gone through his mind for a few hours now.

He had been busy searching the entire facility from one end to the other. He had also thought about the possibility of a secret basement, like back in Gero´s other lab, but so far he hadn´t found the entrance.

He had asked 16. But he supposedly didn´t know. If it came hard to hard, he would just burn holes into the floor and the roof to find out if such secret levels existed or not. But he was not that far yet.

First he wanted to search every spot of this floor and what 21 was doing. A part of him thought it would be better to just kill her. But if 16 was right, she as well was a victim in all this.

Right now however, he was dealing with the idea he had. He was standing in front of the chamber with his own clone.

"You really want to do it?" Goku who was standing next to him asked.

"So this clone has no programming memory or brain-activity?" he had asked 21 a short time before. "He is just a blank slate?"

"Yes," she said.

"Yes," he told Goku.

To be honest, Piccolo had something of a bad feeling about this. But he knew for the coming threats, they all needed to be as strong as possible.

The tube was being opened and the clone body sank to the ground, motionless.

Piccolo laid his hand on it´s chest. He had done this before, twice.

And with one move and a large flash of ki energy, the body had disappered... and Piccolo´s energy increased drastically.

"How are you feeling?" Goku asked him.

"Not different from before," Piccolo replied. "Not like the other times I fused with a Namekian. There is no new voice in the back of my mind this time. I am just more powerful."

"You want to find out how powerful exactly?" Goku asked.

"Later maybe."

xxx

At the same time, in the secret basement that actually existed under the base, two more Android pods were being opened.

The writing on the pods was Android 17-0A and Android 18-0A.

xxxxxxx

A couple of days later a ship from the Galactic Patrol arrived at the Satan Mansion, just like Goten and Marron had predicted.

This time however Son Gohan and the future counterpart of his brother were already there, waiting for them.

"Hey - wait a moment," Gohan called out to the small group of aliens who were just about to enter the building.

They turned around to them.

"There are a few things we need to talk with you about," Future Goten said. "It is important."

"Is someone named Meerus with you?" Gohan asked. "He should have gotten a message to meet with our father."

"I am Meerus," one of them - a light blue skinned young man (the appearance of an Angel) - said. "I have gotten the message you mentioned and decided to come along to this planet to meet this Goku."

"But we still need to get this Buu being for our mission," one of the others said.

"I know what you are going to do," Goten told them. "It will not work out as you hope. I know that, because where I come from it had already not. But we have another way to offer to deal with Morro."

"How do you know of him?" Meerus asked surprised.

"We will explain everything to you," Gohan said.

Here is the new chapter. I guess anyone can guess now who the next villain(s) to appear will be.

Freeza is back, has however complete amnesy and seems to be harmless, in this timeline at least. The new future one, is a different matter.

And the next character to get a major power up is... Piccolo.