So. I feel like it has been ages, and it kind of has…in a monthly version of ages. Anyway, here is my latest update! I also want to thank Fairybaby1989 for that clever review. ;) You can read my disclaimer on other chapters.
Overcoming the Past
Time ticked by hurriedly as if it only had seconds remaining before it ended. Lena checked and double checked the calendar to make sure that today was that day. The drama she had suffered the past month distracted her from the dreadful annual pool party Bulma hosted each year for her company that occurred on the Saturday of the second week of July. Meanwhile, Raditz occupied her space nearly 24/7 and drove her nearly insane. If it weren't for Vegeta's constant presence too, she knew what would have happened had she been left alone with the over-sized brute; and it was something she blushed at the slightest thought of. She recently managed to redo the entire security system despite being tortured by two aliens who believed they knew more than she did about the mechanics involved.
Today though, the two were not hovering over her. Oh no, they were busy laughing among the company outside her window by the crisp blue pool she could faintly see glistening behind the blinds.
The sounds, scents, and colors. Everything seems more vivid of late, the young lady pondered.
She continued to sulk in her room as she listened to the deep rasp of a chuckle that could only belong to Raditz. She stared at her nearly nude form in angst. The deep blue bikini was the only thing keeping her hidden away in her room. She knew she was not fat, but the hint of a bloated tummy and her damn butt she kept turning around to judge suggested otherwise.
I knew not to gorge myself on the precious, double chocolate gelato teasing me in the freezer, Lena soured as she poked her tummy. It had been a single full month that she had done that terrible, troublesome, thing with Raditz.
Has it really been that long? She questioned as she looked back onto the calendar she was glaring at previously. Hmmmmm, that means tomorrow he gets to witness me transform into a she-devil, she maliciously laughed, That also means he won't want to be all up in my business!
She refocused her estranged attention back onto the swimsuit that appeared tattooed onto her flesh. Bulma had it specially ordered to accentuate her best friend's qualities. She insisted that Lena sport the best of the best alongside her. Well, it certainly did show off the goods to the world. Lena detested the thought of being seen so exposed. She may not have felt as such had she not used such measures in her past to survive after…that incident.
"Lena! What the hell are you doing up there? The party started an hour ago and you haven't met all of the guests! I think you will really like Krillin's wife," Bulma called out.
Great. Not only do I have to walk around this chaotic party in this ridiculous swim wear, but now I have to meet new people too? Fuck this, I'm going to remove myself from the house and relocate in my garage, Lena decided as the pulled a white netted cover over her head.
She peeked her head outside of her bedroom door and didn't sense her blue-haired friend. She then softly stepped down the wooden steps that she desperately wished would have been carpet coated. Once she was at the bottom of the stair case, she ever so slowly peered around to check if the coast was clear for her escape. Satisfied of her sneakiness and the outside party noise sheltering any movement she would make, she turned to exit out of the front door instead of the back one that would lead her directly into the path she wanted to avoid.
Lena opened the door only to be met with the single person she knew would force her towards the party—Bulma.
"I knew you would try to make a run for it, you predictable girl!" Bulma teased. Lena felt the urge to back hand her witty friend, but fought it. Violence wasn't something she was about.
Must be hormones, that's all, Lena said to cool herself.
"Come on, you look like you just stepped off of a Sports Illustrated cover! Why would you not want to go out there to taunt those single men?" Bulma interrogated.
"Maybe because out of the single men I know, one is green, the other is your ex, and the last one is a creepy old perve!"
"Hey now! Those aren't the only ones out there. Yes, I heard you say 'out of the single men I know,' but you'll know the others once you get out there and meet them!"
"And Raditz? You think he'll just be super thrilled to have me parading around those bachelors? He's more likely to start another world war then to let them have a chance, Bul."
"I've tried to get Vegeta to reason with him about this whole situation. One minute Vegeta's agreeing with everything I say and in the next minute, he's conspiring with Raditz! I swear I don't know what's going on between those two, but it's starting to piss me off. They won't leave you alone for five seconds of privacy."
"I know! What am I doing that is any differently then what I was doing before?"
"Who knows? All I'm saying is that if I hear Vegeta mutter something about Raditz and 'more infidels running around like his brother' I'm going to obliterate him," Bulma laughed.
Lena did not laugh. She knew the underlying meaning behind that sentence even if Bulma didn't quite catch it. She took her pills. She damn sure took those.
"Here, take these. It'll give you something to hold over yourself since you're so conscious about hiding," Bulma suggested as she handed over a tray of red toned drinks.
"Thanks, I guess," Lena sighed as Bulma pushed her out of her comfort zone and into the life of fun before her.
Just as she suspected, every head turned in their direction. Lena kept her eyes directly ahead as she headed to the table set for the drinks where she would remain the rest of the afternoon. At least those were her intentions when a black haired man of what seamed her age reached out to take the tray from her. He smirked daringly at her, but broke the enticing smile when a small blonde next to him whispered something harshly.
"17, it's her," Lena caught. She jerked her eyes towards the speaker and regretted it.
No, no way. She's alive? Lena panicked as her reflexes tossed the drinks from the tray she was holding and used it as a shield over her abdomen to prepare for the blows she knew she would suffer.
How was she here? Is she Krillin's wife that Bulma mentioned earlier? But how, how could this have happened? Lena vigorously racked her memories for any answers as Android 18 tackled her onto the concrete paved edge of the pool before the others could intervene.
"18! Enough! At least let her explain herself," 17 sputtered in fear for their lives again.
"No, I don't want to hear it. I want to see it," she argued.
The Capsule Corp. employees had long since fled from the scene and were already rushing back to the safety of their own homes; leaving behind those that Lena wanted the least to see her shame. 18 held her small right palm out and placed it onto Lena's forehead and kept her left palm facing upwards to the sky. Visual displays of Lena's past began to dance on the Android's empty hand. The Z Fighters closed in on the scene to watch her broken life replay.*
Lena was once again walking in the once familiar laboratory that belonged to him. She carried the last of the batteries she had created herself. The battery was fully intended to survive any type of destruction and its sole purpose was to last forever really. Lena prided herself on such a feat; the design could be molded into any robot she had every built and was supposed to be used for the new ones her superior made himself. Not only were these batteries made by her, but so were the weaponry the Doctor requested her to make for his secretive inventions as well. She could not wait to see the end results of her hard work. Today, her role model asked her to bring in the last battery personally.
The battery she carried in both hands clambered to the ground as her eyes began to comprehend the scene in front of her. Several human bodies floated in tubs of green liquid; some of them with metallic parts exposed. Metallic parts that she had crafted.
"Lena! What do you think you are doing! I told you to meet me in my office, not this lab! You idiot girl! You are incapable of any thought other than piecing together heaps of junk and now your stupidity has just broken the last piece necessary for my most precious mutation yet!"
Lena stared ghastly at the figure he was referring to. A tiny woman with short blonde hair glared at her though the glass tank, pounding her fists against the surrounding walls.
"No! No! This is not what my inventions are for! This is not what I was told…this is not what my developments were to be used for, you sick mother fucker!" Lena screamed.
18 was all too familiar with that scene. The pure shock and betrayal she witnessed in that girl's eyes were sincere, then. She finally had confirmation from the mind of the creator herself. Instead of being satisfied with just that answer, she continued to prod for more information in hopes of discovering the whereabouts of 16.
Lena was running away from the submerged bodies behind her. She escaped into a room that was hers and hers alone. She had been working on a project in case something like this current predicament ever became a reality and this was the place to finish it. She carefully prepared two detonators she would use to cover up the mistakes she crafted with the scraps and wires she saved in emergencies. Once those were complete, she toyed with the back of what appeared to be simple remote controller for a television. The remote would be her backup plan. The very second she sealed the back onto the remote, the door to her hideout burst open.
"I thought I would find you here. It's too late to run. It's too late to hide the evidence of you being here. So, why bother with what you are doing?" 16 hoarsely questioned.
"You, you knew about all of this?" Lena choked out.
"Knew about it? Your talents are rare and prized. Did you know that you are not even speaking to a human anymore? Nothing about me is flesh and blood. NOTHING, and it is all because of you. You and this crafty leg you made me all of those years ago. Dr. Gero decided to use me as the start. Little by little, parts of me were replaced. I don't even have a beating heart."
"Wh..what did you say?"
"That's right. I am not the sweet Sixteen you adored. I'm just a metalized replica that you made yourself," the Android laughed out harshly.
"All this time, all this time I was…loving a…machine?! You manipulated me, you encouraged me continue building these things knowing you were not who you claimed to be. You're a monster. Just like those things back there," Lena gawked and pointed to the place she had fled from.
She scurried away as his attention was focused on where she had pointed. She clutched the bombs and secret remote close to her chest as she ran as quickly as she could to the main weaponry. Once she was there, she carefully positioned the two meager bombs in a way that would cause the most devastation. She had one set so that once it was detonated, it would light the fuses to the other weapons within the building. The second one pointed towards the lab that stored the humanoid beings. Hopefully it would be powerful enough to reach it.
In mid run from the buildings that would be blown away, Lena ran into Dr. Gero and 16. She knew she wouldn't be getting out of this predicament now. The situation meant that it was now or never, so she pressed one button on the remote she still clung onto, forcing the bombs to go off now instead of when she originally planned.
The blast knocked them to their knees and the flames licked at their backs. The men took the worst of the burns as they flailed around while she bolted far, far away from the scene as she tossed her scorched lab coat behind.
Silence remained in place as that memory faded. 18 should have stopped there, but how could she? The answers she needed were even more blurred then they were before. If Lena had destroyed them, her…and only years ago at that, then how the hell did the battle of the androids happen many years before this memory even occurred? She pressed deeper into Lena's mind since her family around her didn't seem eager for her to stop either.
Lena was running from the burning building in fear. If anyone saw her and made any connection to her with that place, she would be arrested and sentenced to an eternity in prison. Pain and exhaustion tugged her joints and lungs as she ran for nearly two hours straight. At last, she collapsed in a secluded pasture near her.
She held out the remote she had created based off of an alien dream she continued to have ever since she arrived at the orphanage. She knew, somehow, that the device would take her back, back to a time before she was Fourteen, before she had these memories. She heaved in air several more minutes before working up the courage to press the designated button to travel back into space and time.
The flashing lights of stars and space danced around her and vanished just as suddenly as they had appeared. Lena started as she found herself standing in the same position in the same pasture she was in before pressing the remote. Something didn't add up. Something had failed. She had failed.
"No, not quite. I haven't failed, I've only just been relocated," said a strange voice in the back of Lena's conscience.
The stolen memories were only making things more complicated. Nothing was adding up at all, but it was too late. 18 had opened a door to discovery, and now she couldn't stop. She pained for the girl whose nightmares were being shared against her will. However, the truth always reveals itself, so why not now all at one time for everyone?
Lena knew the horror that would be exposed if 18 continued. Humiliation was the least of her worries at this point, but still. There was more to her that she wanted to keep secret. She desired to shift herself into an upright position to sling 18 off of her and prevent her brain from being dug in more. Unfortunately, something held in her place as the next truth began to appear in 18's palm.
Lena's mind jumped to the next year; the year she spent picking up the pieces of her broken life in a very disturbing way. She was dressed in a black leather mini skirt with a loose fitted tank top. She was walking away from a new client. She hesitated as she caught a glimpse of herself in a cracked window next to the building she called "home." Her eyes were sunken so deeply, that they appeared bruised around the rim. Her limbs were bone thin which contrasted ridiculously against her chest that remained larger than average and firm.
She clasped her hands over her mouth in disgust at her presence, at this girl she allowed herself to become out of fear of being recognized in the respectable community. Nineteen, that was her age that day.
Weeping replaced the silence thanks to Bulma and Chi-Chi. Yet, no one made any movement to make it stop.
Her memory skipped to the next year. Lena had decided that any occupation was better than what she was enduring and settled on using her mechanical prowess to start bettering herself. Currently, the memory showed her under a Chevy '69 tampering with the oil filter she needed to replace. A burly man with greased hands and a dirtied face called out to her.
"Hurry up, ya slow bitch! If you don't get that goddamned filter replaced, we won't have time to take the engine out and replace it with an older one!"
Lena pulled herself out from underneath the vehicle and glared at her lazy foreman.
"Fuck you and your illegal activities that you refuse to pay me my share for! I can't do this anymore! In case you didn't notice, I do all the work, I deal with all the customers, I live in a rat infested shit hole that you could get me out of if you would pay me what I have earned! I am only twenty years old. I can find a better place. I only settled here since you begged for the help and Kami knows I needed help too. I am out of this bitch, so good luck finding a better replacement, you ass licker!" Lena exploded and ran outside as the man she just raged on lifted a tool box and chunked it at her.
She found herself running again. The job she had really wasn't any better than the prostitution joint she fled from before. The notion of life not improving than what she was currently dealing with sickened her. She found herself dragging her legs to a nearby trash bin. She dry-heaved into it from the nerves suffocating her and noticed a flyer lying at the top.
The flyer was a job advertisement for Capsule Corp. Tears of irony threatened to trickle down her face as she laughed at her position. If only she had accepted the internship there from the beginning. If only she had not listened to her ever-changing boyfriend at the time.
"That explains a lot," Vegeta mumbled aloud as he recalled the state Lena was in the day she appeared for the interview.
Strength began to return to her numbed limbs as the last memory she would allow to be shared appeared.
She was still thin and unclean, but her eyes appeared brighter with a hope that she hadn't experienced in years. She stepped into the line to await her turn to speak with the Bulma Briefs she idolized as a teen.
A small child of around eight and with an odd shade of hair danced around her.
"You don't look like the type mom normally hires," the boy bluntly stated. Lena smiled before responding.
"That's because I'm not like the others that your mother hires."
This was the day, Lena recalled, that Trunks stuck to her side as if she were a lit candle in a dark room.
Android 18 jolted back from the impact Raditz induced on her face in order to free his trembling mate. The scene of Trunks smiling up at Lena's frail state evaporated and snapped everyone back into the reality of present day.
* okay! That was a little intense, but I needed to reveal the bits and pieces of her past to explain how she ended up at Capsule Corp and how the android thing occurred even after she destroyed them. That last thing will also be further explained in the next chapter I also have written!