Chapter 19

Like the Demon Buu, Gohan thought. She had divided into two halves - one good or at least normal... and one the destilation of all evil in her.

"21," Sixteen said, looking with concern at the one with the normal eyes, who was now kneeling on the ground.

"And you are her other self, she was talking about," Gohan addressed the other one.

But instead of saying anything, the evil creature just used the confusion to turn around and flew off with full speed.

"Damn it," Gohan exclaimed.

"I am sorry. I am so sorry," the first 21 called out. "I could not stop her."

"She is heading back to West City," Gohan said. "I have to stop her."

"Be careful - she has taken all the energy she-... we have absorbed with her," the good 21 told him.

Gohan gave her a short nod.

"Take care of her," he said to 16, before he flew after her evil other self.

xxxxxxx

West City

21 arrived back above the town a minute later.

"So many targets. So many live to absorb," she murmured. "Where should I start?"

The raised her hand and casually blasted a random building apart.

But right after that she was faced with a line of other opponents. Piccolo, Cooler - in his fifth form and Gotenks were rising up from the Capsule Corp building towards her.

She only grinned. Better Food - Stronger Food.

But from behind, Gohan had already caught up to her.

An angry Cooler was the first who fired Death Beams at 21, followed by a reign of blasts by Gotenks and Piccolo. During that, many of Piccolo´s shots however seemed to be missing their target.

The evil 21 though, could hardly notice that detail. Since her body was being damaged and entire pieces blown out or disintigrated by the onslaught.

One moment later her body had already started to regenerate.

At the same time, the just arrived Gohan - still in his new strongest form - was charging up a Kamahameha.

But just before Evil 21 had completely regenerated and could do anything about the coming attack... Piccolo balled his fist and the blast that had missed earlier - and had been hanging as floating globes of ki all around her - were now all shooting towards her and hitting at the same time.

Hellzone-Granate, she recognized Piccolo´s technique.

21´s regeneration was interrupted, just in the last moment.

And just at the time for Gohan to unleash his attack.

"No-..." she cried out in her last moment.

The massive Kamehameha wave hit her and completely swallowed her body, disintigrating it to the last molecule.

One second later, there was only an empty spot where she had been standing.

"It is over," Piccolo said.

"We got her," Cooler stated.

xxxxxxx

Super 18 had made a move that Vegeta had not expected, as she had formed a barrier around herself. So far he had only seen 17 use that technique.

Then, as soon as his barrage of ki blasts had quieted down, she moved and obliterated one of his copies with a single hit.

He let the other two Vegetas disappear by himself. Right now he needed all of his power in his real body.

"It seems your little trick has failed," she said to him.

"I have some more," he replied.

"I hope they are good. Otherwise you have already lost this fight. This action just now has cost you energy, even if you are too proud to admit it."

"Don´t worry," Vegeta commented.

Then he made a single move with his arm. He just pointed his hand in Super 18´s direction...

... and suddenly it was as if part of her energy was forced out of her.

Vegeta started to repeat the movement again and again and more and more of the energy she had absorbed from others was pushed out of her.

"What...?" she asked shocked.

"This is a technique the Yardrats have thought me. It is called Forced Spirit Fission. With it you can force all foreign energy, that was taken through drain, absorbtion and similar means out of a body."

"I see," she said.

"And then this energy is returning to it´s original owner," Vegeta continued. "In this case me and the others you have taken it from."

To his surprise however, Super 18 just continued to grin.

"I have to cerrect what I said earlier Vegeta, a very good tactic. Sadly you have made a mistake. Because there is something you have not quite realized about us."

"A mistake?" She had to be bluffing, Vegeta thought.

"You see - we possess an infinite-energy core... or two in my case, since I am a fusion of two Androids.

And just like it sounds like, it can produce an practically endless level of energy for us. Limited it is mostly by how much our bodies can channel at a time."

Vegeta admitted he didn´t like how that sounded like. He already had a good idea where 18´s explanation was going.

"The entire purpose of the energy-absorbers is actually to temporally force more energy into our system to force our bodies to adjust to it. And sadly for you, you used your new technique a little too late. My body already got used to the higher level of power and is now simply drawing more energy from my power-core to make for the loss."

She looked at him with sinister amusement.

"So you see - all you really did right now was to beat some excess energy out of my body that was not even needed anymore."

She moved forward in the blink of an eye and punched Vegeta hard into the chest. A few rips were actually giving in and cracking.

Then she instantly followed with another strike at the side of his head and send him flying to her left, before she added a volley of ki blast that she fired at him and that hit before his body reached the ground.

He had dropped out of his SSJ forms.

"Oh - and just that you know it," Super 18 stated. "Even if I decided to separate into two bodies again. Thanks to our abilitiy to `adjust´ to higher energy-levels, they will both still possess a majority of the raw power I have now. So even then I would still be a match for you."

"Yes? So why stay fused then?" Vegeta asked her.

He was lifting himself back off from the ground with his arms. Blood was flowing down the side of his face.

"Because 100% power in one body is still more effective than 70 or 75% in two," she answered.

"And because you are afraid to loose your control over the real Eighteen, aren´t you?" Vegeta added.

She didn´t reply to that statement.

"Now Vegeta-" she said, "how do you want to die?"

She formed a Destructo Disk in her palm, ready to cut him apart.

"Or should I remove your limbs one by one first?"

But then she sensed something behind her. As she turned around, she could barely believe what she was seeing.

xxxxxxx

Goku had once again let himself fall into Ultra Instinct. And the Super Android was reacting in return.

So far Super 17 had not completely figured the technique out yet. But Goku knew, with the highly evolved scanners he had been talking about and the instincts of a top-level fighter, it was only a question of a short time till he did.

If they were going to do what they planned, they needed to do it quick.

He just evaded another strike from Seventeen.

"With every second that pass I come closer to mastering this technique," Super 17 stated.

"I know," Goku said. "But I have to somehow keep up with you, don´t I?" he responded. "Besides - everytime you use it, you are starting to loose control, don´t even try to deny it."

"This won´t be enough to save you," Super 17 replied. "If you truly put your hope on the old version of me suddenly wrestling control of me, then you are lost."

"I know," Goku said. "So we have to try something else."

"And what?"

Super 17 noticed that someone was approaching quickly from close behind him. He had known that a few of Goku´s comrades had been hiding close by in the woods, his advanced sensors had noticed the suppressed energies right away. Even if he couldn´t identify who it was.

He had paid them no real mind so far. He knew if they decided to get involved (like right now obviously) he would notice and have more than enough time to react.

But Super 17 froze as he realized who exactly was just landing behind him.

There was the fused female saiyan warrior named Kefla. Being held in her arms however was... 17´s wife Ruby.

"Seventeen," she called out.

"What - what kind of a cheap trick is this?" Super 17 asked.

"This is no trick," his wife told him. "I am here to remind you who you are."

"You..."

"You have told me years ago what this... Doctor Gero had done to you. How much you hated him for trying to make you his slave. How you rebelled against him."

"Stop it."

"And now look at you. Don´t let this bastards control you."

"Shut up!" Super 17 shouted.

It was clear that he was getting more and more unstable.

"Seventeen - Lapis," she said, "I love you."

"Do you think this will help you? Do you think I will not simply kill this worthless human?" He raised his hand to blast her. But once again, he froze in his movement.

"No," he called out. "Let me..."

Before he would have come to shoot her anyway however, Kefla had already moved in front of Ruby and was shielding her with her body.

"I guess it is you who is not needed here," she said.

Then she - in Super Saiyan 1 form - fired a two handed ki blast at Super 17.

"You fool," he called out. "You know this only makes me stronger."

He was absorbing the energy with both hands.

But that was only what Goku had been waiting for.

He knew this would destroy him. But he had no real choice. The real Seventeen was clearly there somewhere and helping them.

But it was not enough. There was no guaranty that he would be able to stop his clone.

xxx

The Kaioken technique (that was already damaging to the body by itself), could generally not be used in forms with unstable energy, he knew. Like all regular Super Saiyan forms or this new `Rage´ pseudo-oozaru form.

The unstable energy flow would amplify the damaging effects of the Kaioken dozens times over and destroy you nearly instantly. It was like short-circuating your own body.

Only in Base Form or SSB it could be used (halfway) safely.

xxx

But exactly that was the point. The destruction came only nearly instantly.

Goku knew he had only one chance. Then it would be over. But he hoped that for a few short moments, he could use SSBlue combined with Rage form and Kaioken on top of that... only that it would leave him completely wrecked right after that.

Goku activated Kaioken times three. He felt as if his body was being ripped apart and burning from the inside out at the same time.

But at the same time he radiated a sheer power that was unbelievable (maybe one of the stronger Angels could have a power like this, but he wasn´t sure) and a speed that even Super 17 could not really react to.

In the last moment, as Goku was already standing right next to him, he nearly instinctively moved his right arm and absorbed Kefla´s blast only with his left.

Just as Goku had hoped for. With one quick movement, he grabbed Super 17´s now free hand and crushed the energy-absorber with all his strength.

And that was exactly what Kefla had been waiting for. Without any warning she powered up into her new SSB form and the power of her blast multiplied many times over from one moment to the other.

The energy-absorbers, as powerful as the were, still had a limit. And this one was being overloaded instantly and blew up inside Super 17´s hand, while the other one was being crushed by Goku´s grip.

Goku however was not finished yet. He went even further and used Kaioken times five. The pain was now beyond any imagination.

But with his last effort, Goku punched Super 17 into the guts with all his strength.

The Super Android gaught up blood and bend over in pain as skin, muscles and internal organs that had been augmented far beyond human understanding and carried power now beyond even that of a God of Destruction, were damaged by this single punch.

But just then, Goku could not longer take it.

Goku and Super 17 collapsed at the same time.

xxxxxxx

Super 18 was more than surprised when she saw the three figures landing right before her.

It were Krillin, her - no the original Eighteen´s - husband, Future Marron and right next to them, as if he wanted to guard them, Cabba in his new SSB form.

"W-what are you doing here?" Super 18 asked `her´ family confused.

"We are here to stop you," Future Marron declared.

"Oh really?" She could not believe the ridiculous statement she had just heard.

Krillin and Marron started to power up.

Krillin was starring in both awe and fright at the transformed version of his wife. She was looking a bit taller and slightly older and more matured in this form. But all what made the typical Eighteen was still there. And she was incredible beautiful.

But all that, to him, only signalled even more how dangerous this woman was. She could kill him and Marron as well with a flicker of her finger and if it were not for the real Eighteen´s influence, she would do this without any hesitation. He could feel that.

xxxxxxx

Goku had used the combined Kaioken for barely three seconds, but he could not longer move a single limb.

Super 17 was struggling to push himself back up again. His hands were both badly damaged. The left one was badly sprained when the absorber exploded, the other was not looking good either and he had internal injuries from Goku´s punch.

He had actually absorbed most of the energy from Kefla´s blast. But he was still not able to fight anymore. He could barely use his hands. Attempting to fire ki attacks was impossible without destroying them completely.

The internal damage in his body made it hard to even move.

"Seventeen," Ruby said worried. But she knew this needed to happen if she got any chance to free him.

Kefla meanwhile gave Goku one of the senzu beans he had handed her earlier. It had all gone as planned.

"Come on - be okay," she said to him. "You will not die here on me old man, will you?"

Goku swallowed the bean and was one moment later he was standing up again.

"Thank you," he said to Kefla.

They both turned around to face the badly damaged Super 17, who was still struggling to stand on his own feet. Deep inside his mind he heard the original 17 laughing a him.

"Okay - this is how it goes," Kefla told him. "You either release the Seventeen we know and give up and we might consider not disintigrating you right here. Or we blast you away and bring him back with the Dragon Balls later."

"Seventeen - I know you have been trying to resist him the entire time," Goku said. "Do it now with all your strength."

"Darling, please - I don´t want to see you die, even if it is just for a short time."

She involuntarely took one step closer to him.

Super 17 suddenly started to scream. He was visibly shaking and putting his hands on his own head.

And finally he was separating into two, nearly identical looking, bodies.

Both Androids were now looking at them separately. With two different expressions.

The copy - Neo Seventeen - knew he was defeated. He was now facing three powerful enemies and was in the worst state of everyone.

Since Goku´s and Kefla´s attacks earlier were directed at the energy-absorbers, that were actually parts of his body, most of the damage on their hands as they were fused was now transferred to him alone, while the real Seventeen´s were in a far better state.

His eyes fell on Ruby. But maybe there was one last thing he could do.

If he could manage to take her hostage, then maybe he could force his way out of here, recover, regain control of the other 17 and fight again to fulfill Doctor Gero´s commands.

Before he could reach her however, he was grabbed at the side by the real Seventeen, who had followed his movevent and with his other hand fired a powerful blast at him, right at the point where Goku had injured them earlier.

"You... will not lie a finger on her," he said coldly.

Then he fired another blast, two handed this time, that pushed his double backwards. It was one moment later joined by a Kamehameha from Goku and another blast from Kefla that completely destroyed the Android copy.

Ruby run forward and wrapped her arms around Seventeen carefully, reminding his injuries.

"You are back," she said with tears in her eyes.

"Yes - I am," he said.

Behind them Kefla separated once again into Caulifla and Kale and Goku powered back down into base form.

xxxxxxx

"You realize what I have become?" Super 18 said to Krillin and Marron. "You can not really think you have any chance to fight me."

"We do not," Krillin replied. "The reason we are here is something else. Eighteen - I know you can hear me. Resist their control. You never wanted any of this. Please return to me and Marron. I love you."

"Please come back to us mother," Marron said as well.

"Please tell me that this wasn´t your plan? Simply plead and apply to my other part´s feeling and hope that so she would somehow take control from me?" Super 18 said with a grin.

"You forget that our fusion was especially designed to let me be in control. And I fear as long you don´t find a way to severely weaken me in spirit and body, this will ot change," she declared.

"But I admit constantly hearing her voice in my head is starting to get bothersome, not to mention annoying. How about I make you two an offer? I will spare you two and the smaller version of you," she said in Marron´s direction.

"You are after all part Artificial Human and you especially strong... for a human," she said to Krillin. "You two can stay at my side while we slaughter the useless rest of humanity."

"I am sorry `honey´... but I fear we have two decline," Krillin answered, now suddenly smug.

"Did you not understand? You have no chance to bring her in control," Super 18 hissed.

"Maybe," Marron admitted. "But that was never really the plan. We are mainly here as... a distraction."

Super 18 realized that behind her, Vegeta had come back to his feet and was now charging at her, ready to punch.

Damn it - she had truly been distracted by this two. Her sensors had picked him up since his first move, but she had simply paid no attention to it.

But she was not really worried.

Vegeta was now in the pure Rage mode. His hair was still black, but shimmering greenly, his eyes surrounded by colors of red and yellow and his entire body had a green aura.

But it was not nearly as powerful as the form had been combined with Super Saiyan Blue and so there shouldn´t be anything he were able to do to her in this form.

But to her shock it felt to her as if Vegeta´s strike was cutting through her like a knife. It was as if it interrupted something inside her fused body and for a short moment she lost control over it.

In that short time however Vegeta had already powered back up into his combined SSB and Rage Form and landed a second punch before she could recover. This one felt even worse than the first.

At the same time she felt the mind of the original Eighteen resisting her more and more. Even without Vegeta´s strikes she would so have a hard time staying in control of her `own´ body.

And then came the third punch... and she lost control completely.

One moment later - where Super 18 had just been - two Eighteens were falling to the ground before Vegeta.

They both were looking all around and at each other in confusion and shock and were slowly standing up again.

They quickly saw who the real 18 was, since they had slightly different clothes and only one of them had energy-absorbers on her hands.

"You," Eighteen gowled angrily at her copy.

"What I forgot to mention earlier," Vegeta stated, "the Spirit Fission also works to separate fusions."

He looked to the other.

"Now - that worked well," he said. "Let us hope that Kakarot does exactly what he is supposed to for once."

Neo 18 knew it was over. He had this in the backhand the entire time and had only been waiting to catch her in a weak moment. And thanks to Krillin and Marron, he certainly did.

While her prediction that she would keep most of the power of their fused state was true, that also meant Eighteen was exactly as powerful as she was now... and Vegeta now at now at the very least rivalled or even surpassed them.

She was not even sure if she could regain control of Eighteen now. But with Vegeta and the short Universe 6 saiyan also here, they would together blast her to atoms before she could even try.

For the first time in her short existence Neo 18 felt a certain feeling rising up inside her - fear... full grown panic.

Seeing no other way out, she formed another Distructo Disk and threw it in Krillin and Marron´s direction and then blasted off with full speed in the opposite direction.

Both 18 and Vegeta reacted instantly to intercept the attack and the two targets Marron and Krillin dodging it by throwing themselves to the ground. Even without their two `rescuers´, it wouldn´t have hit them.

Vegeta, who had been a bit closer was the first to catch the disk and redirected it harmlessly up into the sky.

As they looked around, Neo 18 was nowhere to see.

"Damn it," Vegeta exclaimed. "That bitch only wanted to distract us. We have to go after her."

"No disagreement here," an enraged 18 said quietly.

They all flew with full speed in the direction that Eighteen´s copy had fled to.

xxx

After flying in that direction for around a minute however, they saw in the distance an object rising up in the air from between the trees of the forest.

It was a time-machine.

"Oh no!" Marron called out. She remembered the machine her mother´s clone had stolen from Goten earlier.

Eighteen and Vegeta raised their arms to blast the time-machine. But in that moment, it had already disappeared.

"She is gone," Vegeta stated.

"Yes - to the future. To my future," Marron said with visible shock.

"What makes you so sure that this is where she traveled to?" Eighteen asked her.

"Because that is where it was programmed to and we simply left her no time to change the destination. As quickly as she left, she must have just materialized the machine, jumped in and pushed the button."

"I see," 18 replied.

"Now my world is in even greater danger than before," Marron said. "My friends."

"We will go after her," Eighteen told her. "You still have the other time-machine, right?"

"Yes," Marron responded.

xxxxxxx

21´s Underground Base - a short time later

Goku, Vegeta, the once again normal Seventeen and Eighteen, Gohan, Piccolo, Sixteen, the good half of 21, Trunks and Goten, Bulma, Cooler Krillin and Future Marron, Seventeen´s wife and Cabba, Kale and Caulifla were now all standing assembled in the underground basement in front of the main computer and the tube with the cloned brain.

"And that thing was responsible for all the trouble?" Caulifla asked surprised.

On a screen at the computer, the face of Doctor Gero appeared.

"Really bizarre," Cabba murmured.

"Seventeen, Eighteen-" the face on the screen begann to talk, "you never realized how lucky you were. I freed you from your old worthless lives and gave you new one. I gave you power. I made you immortal. And this time I even gave you power greater than the highest God´s," Gero´s mental copy exclaimed.

"And you still chose to side with these humans and fight against me."

"You didn´t do any of this for us, but all for yourself," 18 responded angrily. "You had kidnapped our human selves, erased our memories, tried to pogramm our minds into what you wanted - twice now... You never cared for us beyond as tools for your own ambitions."

"Besides," 17 added (He had by now taken a senzu bean as well), "for all your talk about giving us better lives, you didn´t hesitate to sacrifice us when something more promising came up. Or what was about this entire Cell-thing?"

For a second, Doctor Gero´s face on the screen didn´t answer.

"Cell-... Cell was a mistake," it stated. "If I had realized back then how much potential you two really possessed - if only you had cooperated - I would have never created him in the first place."

"Really?" Seventeen said sarcastically. "And in the end you are not even the real Doctor Gero, but just a copy of his personality, he had stored here."

"That doesn´t matter," he called out. "I am all his memories, all his thoughts. Only better. I know more than he ever did. I am the realization of all his ambitions. I..."

"You are finished," he was interrupted by 17´s wife Ruby. "Seventeen and Eighteen have broken free of you again. You should give up," Ruby said to the face on the screen.

"They have their families and their friends and you are alone. You have lost."

"Family, friends... what meaningless words," Doctor Gero´s voice said.

"You told me that my human self had been your wife," 21 called out. "That you loved me."

"Feelings that I have left behind me a long time ago," Gero responded.

"Don´t let him get to you," Krillin reassured her. "Maybe the real Doctor Gero cared for you a long time ago, but he had lost his humanity long before he turned himself into a Cyborg."

"Whatever," Vegeta stated. "The point is, you are finished. All what is left for you are big words and throwing around hurtfull comments at others before we blow you away."

"Vegeta is right," Goku said. "There is nothing you can do to anyone anymore. It is over."

"Here maybe Son Goku," Gero responded. "But one of my creations had managed to flee to this new future-timeline. Oh yes - I know now everything about the different timelines and all these other things.

She will rejoin me in that time and give him all the information and power she has gathered. And in that timeline I will win and destroy you and all others here... and then conquer the world and then the universe."

The being in Gero´s image started to rant and then laugh histerically.

"No- you will not," Goku responded. "Because we will stop you in that world, like we did here."

"That is right," 18 said.

She looked to her brother.

"Last time you were the one to take out the bastard Seventeen," she said. "Now it is my turn."

With that she fired a blast at the tube that contained the copy of Doctor Gero´s brain and another one at the central-core of the computer and disintigrated both.

xxx

A short time later they were standing outside and fired a number of blasts that wiped out the rest of the installation.

"That was it," Piccolo said.

"For this time," Marron stated. "But my own is now in greater danger than ever."

"We will follow her," Goku told her, "and we will save your time."

"But we also still have Moro to deal with," Gohan reminded them.

xxxxxxx

A few hours later

It was over. They had won.

Celebrations had broken out all around the world after Mister Satan had made an announcement that Son Goku and the group known as the Z-fighters had defeated the threat to the world.

xxx

Son Goku and his friends had now collected the Dragon Balls and were standing at Dende´s Palace on the lookout.

The Z-fighters including Seventeen and Eighteen, the Univese 6 saiyans, Cooler and the Pilaf Gang... even the good part of 21. Many of them - especially Cooler - were still keeping some distance to her however. They had not forgotten what her other self had done.

They were now calling the Dragon Shenlong.

The sky turned dark as the Dragon appeared.

"Tell me - what is your wish?" Shenlong´s voice was halling through the air.

xxxxxxx

Somewhere else... far away

"Very interesting," Demigra said. "These group of mortal exceeds all my expeditions - especially these saiyans and the Androids."

"You truly don´t want to destroy them My Lord?" Towa asked him. "They could be a large threat in the coming conflict...

... even to us," she added the last words a bit reluctantly.

"They could," Demigra agreed. "But such powers could also be very useful if we managed to convert them to our side... or at least turned against our enemies."

Thi statement surprised Towa.

"Do you already have a way in mind to achieve that - My Lord?"

"Maybe."

This chapter had finally the conclussion of the Super Android fights. It is so also a good deal longer than the regular chapters with over 5.000 words.

The next one will mostly deal with the aftermath of this fight, before focussing on both the new future-timeline and Moro parallely.