Here you guys go!
Chapter 8: Tying it All Together
I began to tell Videl everything that had happened after my encounter with Bulma and Gero. "So the next day, I went back to Capsule Corp just like I was told to do, without letting anybody know. I didn't even tell you. Bulma handed me a bracelet and three senzu beans. I held onto my school ID just in case."
"Wait," she said, stopping me. "What's a senzu bean?"
Suddenly, I remembered that I had three in my pocket. "It's this!" I exclaimed, pulling two out. I popped one in my mouth and crunched down as I explained what it did. "It's a small little bean, but it has the ability to heal all of your wounds! You look like you need one too. Eat it!" I tossed her the other one that I was holding, and she cautiously placed it in her mouth. Now I only had one left.
Energy coursed through my veins. My broken arm stopped throbbing and went back to it's normal position. I wriggled it around a little bit, and Videl let out a shriek. "It's- It's perfectly fine! Amazing! Just from that little bean?" She looked at her own wounds, which had healed just as well.
"Yep!" I told her. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my story. As I was saying, I collected those things from Bulma before Gero made his second appearance. I told him that I was ready to go with him as long as he promised not to unleash the androids. He didn't know that I had plans to sabotage him."
"And did you sabotage him? Because it doesn't seem like it," she said quickly.
I smiled as I noticed her eagerness to find out the full story. "I'm getting there! Anyway, I followed him through this strange portal thing that was opened in the sky above us. Once we crossed through it he told me that this was his laboratory and this was his timeline. I just nodded and went along with it. Bulma didn't want me to rush and attack too quickly, or something might go wrong. So I tried to wait for just the right moment.
"He walked me around, showing me some of his model androids and other weird things, which led up to the big reveal. He needed me to be his next project. Bulma and I had already suspected this of course, but I went along with it and pretended like I had no idea. That's when I decided to turn on him and make my attack.
"He quickly whipped out a strange looking box and the next thing I knew, some sort of strange rope-material was wrapped around my torso and it tied my arms to my sides. I struggled to break free, but I then became overwhelmed by Androids 17 and 18 suddenly shoving me on to an operating table.
"'I know you want to struggle,' he said. 'So feel free and try, but it isn't going to get you anywhere.' He then tied something else around my body that was identical to the strange rope-like material already around me, which made it so that I was now attached to the table.
"'Everything you do is futile. I made this material by dissecting the DNA of a Saiyan very, very similar to you my boy. We've lost him now, but our efforts were not wasted when I was able to create what I like to call Anti-Saiyan Rope.'"
Videl seemed very confused. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to interrupt again, but what's a Saiyan?"
I had forgotten that this Videl was not the same one from the universe that I was from. This Videl has no clue what a Saiyan is! "That is another long and complicated story, so for the sake of simplicity, I'll sum it up. My dad is from a nearly-extinct alien race and was sent to Earth as a baby. To make this extremely long story very short, my dad met my mom and they had me, a half-Saiyan. Us Saiyans are very strong and we're excellent fighters plus a whole lot of other weird things, but for now that's all you need to know.
"Anyway, the next thing I know, Gero is putting me under some sort of gas so that he can operate on me. He tells me that I need to stay conscious for this procedure on my brain, but the gas will help me so I don't feel anything, and I won't try to struggle. All I can do is listen to everything he says. I can't even talk back to him.
"So he tells me why I am needed to be his next project. In his world, the one that we are in right now, he found a strong young man by the name of Gohan. I guess certain events happened differently in this timeline, but the bottom line is that he knew that Gohan would be the perfect subject to become his next cyborg. He was already naturally strong and fast and intelligent. The only problem was that he was good-natured and didn't want to participate in Gero's experiment.
"With the help of the androids, Gero was eventually able to operate on Gohan. He started off with the operation that he was in the processing of performing on me when he spoke. He erased his memory. Without any memories, Gohan was under Gero's control. He continued the process of his transformation into an android-cyborg until something went wrong. Dr. Gero messed up and accidentally incorrectly wired Gohan, which caused my counterpart to turn on the doctor.
"Gohan escaped from the lab and went out into the city, doing his best to hide. But Gero said that they found him almost immediately due to the tracking software installed within him. Gohan was brought back to the lab and Gero would need to re-wire him to make him obey the doctor's every command. But Gero was frustrated with Gohan's behavior from earlier and messed up once again, ultimately killing his subject, who was going to be the perfect soldier for his army."
"'This is when I came up with the idea of traveling to an alternate universe to find you,' he explained as he worked. I was still forced to listen to every word he said. He needed me to replace the other Gohan. The only problem was, was that even though we are the same person technically, different events in the different universes still changed who we were. I am not the same Gohan that he wanted."
I took a second to let my voice rest from speaking, and Videl used this as an opportunity to ask another question. "If he erased your memory and you clearly didn't immediately use the bracelet to keep from losing your memory, how did you end up on the game show with me?"
Glancing around the strange box-of-a-room that we were in, I continued the story. "Gero gave someone else the tools to finish installing the device into my brain. That person sealed everything up nice and neatly, I guess, because there aren't even any marks on my head. Bulma was right about the device that they installed, of course. It didn't immediately erase everything all at once, but memories did slowly begin to slip away as I fell into a painful and disoriented state.
"Dr. Gero had left the room when the other guy took over, by the way. The other guy undid the ropes and left me in that room full of guards, probably expecting me to go from my disoriented condition straight into compliance to Gero. I'm not sure why he thought this, but I'm assuming it's because the other Gohan did immediately get controlled by Gero. But as I said earlier, I am different than the other Gohan.
"My head was filled with pain, and I felt everything slowly slipping away from me. I had no idea what I needed to do other than to get out of that place and find somewhere to hide, at least until the pain had passed. When I tried to escape the room, the guards tried to stop me, but in one quick frantic move I blasted everything, knocking out the guards and blowing the defense systems to bits.
"I rushed out of the room and through some halls. I had no idea where I was or where I was going, but I knew I needed to get out before someone else could find me and try to take me back. But the more I ran on, the more I was losing it all. I grew more and more frustrated and my decisions became more and more rash. Any obstacle that I encountered, I would just blow it up and out of my way.
"Somehow I stumbled into a lower level of Gero's building. I think the Red Ribbon Army must have sponsored your game show because the two places are connected for some reason."
Videl's face lit up. "That's right! They dis sponser it, now that I think about it! I didn't even realize it at the time, but there were Red Ribbon symbols all over the studio!"
It was just as I had suspected. I nodded as the rest of the details fell into place. "So you can figure out what happened next. I fumbled into hiding, AKA, behind door 3 of the game show you were on. Someone else was already there. At the time I was a mess and hardly in control of my actions, but I think I actually knocked him out and pushed him somewhere else. I don't know why I didn't just try hiding in another location, but like I said, I couldn't think clearly."
"I wonder whatever happened to that poor man you kicked off the show," Videl thought aloud. I shrugged a response.
Then I furrowed my brows as I remembered a few more painful details. "So I stood in this empty, small and dark space as I tried to recall something urgent I needed to do. But it was too late because I had lost it all, and I guess I blacked out or something. The next thing I knew, I woke up in that same tight, dark area I had scrambled into to quickly hide in. It's a miracle that they didn't find me. And...the rest is history."
The strange room that we were in was filled with an eerie silence. Neither of us had anything else to say for the longest time. She examined my newly healed arm as if she were making sure it was still okay. She then touched my face as if she were checking that I was real. She looked down at the ground we were sitting on as if she didn't know what to do.
Very quickly, Videl stood up and walked away from me. "All of this happened... I'm so sorry."
"Don't be," I said, standing up and walking toward her. "I'm the one who should be sorry that I've involved you in this giant mess, and I am. But I also want to thank you for your help. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to make it this far."
"I don't want you to leave!" she suddenly exclaimed, rushing into my arms. I was surprised, but I held onto her anyway. "I don't want them to take you away from me! I don't want them to turn you into an android thing! I don't even want you to have to return to your own universe! I just want you here with me!"
I let out a sigh as I stroked her long, black hair. "I am here with you right now. But you know that I'm going to have to leave soon. I don't belong here. You've said this before yourself."
She pulled herself out of my embrace. "I know. Everything's just happened so quickly. It's one thing after another, and I can hardly keep up. I just wish things were simple, like when we went out for lunch, and I was jealous of the waitress who was flirting with you."
"So you admit that you were jealous!"
"I guess so," she said with a small smile. "My life is never going to be the same now."
"Correct," the recognizable voice of Android 17 said as he walked into the room with his sister. "Your life will not be the same because it will be over. Gero has definitely decided for you to die."
It was a familiar scene. Us versus them. Videl and I took our fighting stances and readied ourselves to end the conflict with these androids once and for all. This time I was prepared. I wasn't distracted. I had a perfect memory of all my previous fights. And I knew that these two would not be a problem at all.
"Easy there, Gohan," 17 said with a weird sort of smile. "You too, Miss Satan. We're not looking for a fight. We're simply trying to bring you guys to...different places where we can set things straight once and for all."
"No," I told him, practically spitting. "If you want to set things straight, we do it right here, right now. Unless you have some better explanation as to why I should go with you. I mean, you even just admitted that you'd be killing Videl!"
18 seemed a bit bored. "A better explanation? Not really. One of you was going to come with me and the other was going to go with him. Gohan, you are going to finish your operation and she is going to be, as Dr. Gero so elegantly put it, 'disposed.'"
Android 17 almost seemed a bit betrayed by his sister's words. "Come on, 18! You always take the fun out of everything! Finishing the operation was supposed to be our...surprise."
"Really? They already knew about it. There was no surprise. Just get the boy, and I'll get the girl," the blonde stated.
"Can I get Videl instead?" 17 asked, eyeing the teenager in a way that made me uncomfortable. "You're so pretty, it sure is a shame that you had to get involved with that awful boy Gohan because now I have to kill you. Don't worry though. I'll be sure to do it as quick and painless as I can."
18 rolled her stony blue eyes. "Are you really trying to flirt with her right now?"
"Flir- What? Me? No way!" he tried to quickly cover. "How was that flirting?"
"Becaue I know you," she answered. "I know that you are just as terrible of a flirt as you are a liar."
The android's cheeks actually seemed to turn a little red. "Well...you were the one who got all excited earlier because you could see Gohan again! You even admitted that he was cuter than the last one!"
Now the other android's cheeks were heating up. "It doesn't matter. You're still going to have to kill Videl!"
Android 17 glanced over at my girlfriend. "Or maybe I can smuggle her out of this situation." Then he winked.
"Gross," Videl blatantly told him. "I'm not going anywhere with you."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Fine. Have it your way...the dead way."
"Are you trying to be dramatic?" 18 asked, placing a hand on her hip.
"What? No!"
"'The dead way'. That's so stupid!"
"It's not that stupid! It sounds..."
"Like you're trying too hard to be dramatic?"
"It does not!" he protested. Then he looked over at Videl. "What do you say, my love?"
She still held herself in a stance, and I sort of thought that she was going to attack him. "I say, that you're gross. I don't want to go anywhere with you!"
Android 17 gave a smirk of a grin. "I never said that you needed to want to go with me. I mean, you've already made your choice. The dead way."
18 then opened her mouth to say something, but 17 stopped her before she could speak. "Shut it, sis."
Out of nowhere, 17 jumped forward and scooped Videl in his arms bridal style, causing the teen girl to let out a shriek. His movement had been fast, but I still followed. He smiled down at her. "Are you sure that you don't want me to try to sneak you out alive? I mean, I could carry you like this on our wedding day."
Videl was not going to put up with it anymore. She thrashed and struggled in his grip, but he didn't seem to loosen up at all. She even began to slap him! At first it was just once, but after he didn't even flinch, she did it again then again and again. Each time, he showed no signs of putting her down though.
"What about you, Gohan?" 18 asked as Videl and 17 were involved with their issues still. "Would you like to do this the easy way or the hard way?"
"See?" 17 said with punches and kicks from the girl in his arms. "Now you're being dramatic!"
18 rolled her eyes, and I stayed on guard as I tried to determine whether or not now was a good time to strike. My thoughts were interrupted by Android 17. "Okay, 18. Looks like you've got everything under control. I'll be taking this fine young lady with me to lead her to her death."
"Oh no you don't!" I said, running toward him for an attack. I kicked him down and Videl fell out of his arms, hitting the ground just as hard as Android 17 did. "Sorry, Videl!"
"It's fine," she muttered as she stood up and brushed herself off.
The android man stood up and rushed to her side, pretending that he actually cared. And in a weird way, it seemed like he kind of did. "Geez, Gohan! You could have really hurt her! Are you okay, Videl?"
"As if you really care!" I spat at him. "Moments ago, you just casually stated that you were going to lead her to her death!"
He frowned and crossed his arms. "I was going to be gentle!"
"I'm not going to let you take her!" I firmly told him.
Android 17 tried to rush and swoop Videl back up in his arms again with one extremely fast movement, but I knew just what he was doing and I would be faster. I rushed up in front of Videl before 17 could get there, and I knocked him down once he stopped in front of me.
"You're pretty fast," he commented as he picked himself up, unscathed. "I'd even say you were faster than the other Gohan."
"How do you know just how fast he was?" I asked out of curiosity.
He grinned with mischief in his eyes. "I'm not sure what you know, but that Gohan escaped at one point. When he escaped, it shouldn't have been too hard to find him because of the tracking device, but there were some complications. It took a couple of weeks to track him, and we even had to put up wanted posters."
I was surprised to hear this. "Dr. Gero told me that it wasn't hard to find him because of the tracking device, yet you said there were complications." I glanced over at Android 18, who had began walking towards me. I prepared myself for any sudden attack that she might make.
"He must've stretched the truth," 18 stated. "That man doesn't like to admit his failures, but as you can probably tell, they happen quite often."
17 nodded in agreement with that statement. "In any case, the reason I knew how fast he was, was because I watched as he attempted to run away while he was being recaptured, but it was all futile. Care to guess who brought him back?"
I tensed up a little bit. "It was you guys."
"Good job, Gohan," Android 17 said condescendingly. "Your man is pretty smart, isn't he, 18?" He laughed as if he made some sort of funny joke.
She rolled her eyes and shoved him lightly. "I said that he was cute. That was it! I'm not head-over-heels for him or anything, unlike how you are for Videl."
He shoved her back. "I am not!"
"Yes you are!" Punch.
"I'm only saying that we'd be a good couple, don't you think?" Kick.
"You won't be a good couple if she's dead." Blast.
"Maybe I wasn't planning on killing her at all!" he exclaimed, ending their short squabble. I was somehwhat disappointed because I half-hoped they were going to knock each other out. "Maybe I wasn't just joking about my offer to sneak her out of here alive!"
The room was filled with silence. The two androids stared at each other as if they were having some sort of silent conversation. Videl moved in closer to me and opened her mouth. I waited for her to speak, but no words came. The next thing I knew, we were staring at each other just like the two androids were.
"Have you really gotten that soft?" Android 18 asked her brother.
I began to watch their scene play out. He looked at her dead in the eyes. "Have you?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" she countered.
"'Dear Diary,'" he recited in falsetto, causing 18 to visibly fill with anger. "'Dr. Gero is going to be experiementing on human subjects again. Even though Gohan died, he was able to find a new Gohan to replace him. I like this Gohan a lot more though. They seem very similar from what I could tell, but there are subtle differences. This one doesn't have a strange scar on his nose.' Or something like that, am I right?"
"That's not what I sound like, and that's not what it said!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe you read my diary! How much did you read?"
He smirked and narrowed his eyes. "Enough of it. 'I worry for the new Gohan's safety. I only saw him briefly during part of the operation, but I find him very attractive. I don't think that what Gero is doing is fair to the boy, and I've seen it go wrong too many times. Maybe-'"
"STOP IT!" she shouted, fuming. "You're adding things in! I didn't even say most of that! I mean, you have no right to-"
"You are turning against Dr. Gero!" he argued. "You're not loyal!"
"You were going to disobey his orders and let the girl live! You're not loyal!"
"I bet you weren't even going to take Gohan back to Gero! You were going to-"
Videl stepped forward, interjecting herself in this strange argument. "Hey guys! Here's an idea, how about you team up with us and fight against Gero, since you both obviously don't like him?"
18 let out a huff and eyed Videl with a frustrated expression on her face. "Stay out of this."
"But that doesn't mean that you can't still come home with me." 17 winked at my girlfriend, and I felt so uncomfortable on her behalf.
The blonde android rolled her eyes, something that she seemed to do a lot. "Moron, this is our home! We live here!"
He glared at his sister. "I know. I was trying to be funny."
"Well, it didn't come across that way," Android 18 explained. "I'm ashamed to be you sister."
"I'm ashamed to be your brother."
"I'm going to tell Dr. Gero that you were going to disobey him!"
"Not if I tell him that you were first!"
The door to the room suddenly flung open and everyone's attention was turned to a wrinkly man with white hair and an evil air about him. "Don't worry. None of those things will be necessary."
"We're both very loyal to you," 18 tried to quickly cover for them.
He stepped forward menacingly. "Really? Because that's not what I gathered from the conversation. I've been observing you. I had so much trust in the two of you. I wondered why you'd been slacking off lately. Now I doubt everything. I can't believe that you guys would turn on me like this!"
17 quit his goofball charade and did his best to show respect. "We're not turning on you, sir! We just-"
"Not turning on me?!" he exclaimed incredulously. "That's funny! Because it sounded to me like you were disobeying my orders just for some pretty girl! And you, young lady." He stopped as he faced 18. "You clearly are considering full rebellion. By not agreeing with what I'm doing, I know for a fact that I don't even have your loyalty."
"You do have our loyalty, sir." 17 seemed very antsy and anxious. He clearly did not want to get on this man's bad side.
"Then prove it," Gero spat. "Start by killing the girl."
Videl stepped back a few paces and 17 stepped towards her. I genuinely think that he didn't want to harm her because he looked so pain-stricken at that moment. "Come with me. I'll take you somewhere where you'll have a painless death..."
"No," Gero said. "That won't cut it. I need for you to kill her. Right here, right now."
Videl put up her guard as the male android began to slowly prepare for his attack. A ki orb of some sort formed in his hand, which he raised slowly. The poor girl had no idea how to block the attack. I knew that I was going to have to jump in and save her.
But...the orb in 17's hand faded and the room dimmed down. He lowered his arm and turned to look back at the doctor. "I can't do it. I can't hurt her. For some reason recently, I've been struggling internally and-"
"For some reason recently?!" the old man exclaimed. "Are you kidding me?! You are a traitor! She's just one pathetic girl! You don't even know her!"
"But I do know her," he said semi-quietly. "She's Videl Satan. I've seen her fight in matches on TV and she was so..."
"We're getting rid of your TV," Dr. Gero said next. "This is getting out of hand. You should be able to obey my orders instantly. It shouldn't matter how you 'feel.'"
Android 18 stepped up...or at least attempted to. "I'll do it. I'll kill her. I can prove to you that I am loyal after all."
"Oh no," he said, turning to face her now. "That wouldn't work. She's your 'competition'. She's interested in the boy and so are you. It wouldn't be that hard to kill her. I want you to kill the boy."
The color in her face drained and she looked at me. Even she seemed to feel a little guilty. I was surprised to realize that maybe these two genuinely were concerned for us. But she seemed more determined to prove her worthiness than her brother. She held herself in a fighting stance, and I prepared to counter anything that she did.
I waited for her to make the first move, but she hesitated before forming a ki attack in the palm of her hand. I prepared to deflect it, but she never threw it. She just stood there, torn apart by the decision to follow Gero's instructions or her brother's example.
"Why should I fight him?" she asked. "He's going to be one of us. I don't want to destroy your 'prefect android,' right?"
He gritted his teeth and looked at the ceiling above. "Fight him because I need you to bring him to the point where I can control him! You have to do this so that he can become one of us!"
"Control him?" Android 17 asked. "Control him like you've been controlling us? Turning us on and off whenever it's been convivent? Giving us orders as if we were mindless android-zombies?"
"I cannot believe what has gotten into you two! Do you see what your feelings have done to you? You're thinking about yourselves too much!" Dr. Gero told him.
17 shook his head and stepped forward closer to the scientist. "Oh no. I'm thinking of everyone but myself. I'm thinking about saving this girl's life instead of ending it for no good reason. It's true that I am, you could say, attracted to her, and I have these 'feelings,' but I think that's what you don't understand about us cyborgs. We'll never be completely in your control because beneath all of these modifications, we're still human."
His sister nodded in agreement. For once they were working together instead of arguing. "This is what you get for turning us into machines designed to do your bidding. We're rebelling because we have hearts, and we actually use them. Why do you think it's been so hard to control Gohan, Gero?"
"Why do you think it's so hard to control us?" the dark-haired twin added.
"Because you can't," 18 finished. "We're too unpredictable. We feel and think too much for our own good. When you use humans, this is something that you will never avoid."
The ki orb that Android 18 was going to use on me earlier, grew three times as big. 17 formed one just as large as she did in his palm. The two turned their attention to the nervous-looking scientist. Gero suddenly reached into his pocket and clumsily pulled out a device that seemed to be similar to the one Bulma had designed to shut the androids down in my timeline. Although...I never actually saw it, so this was based on the others' description of the remote.
"I WILL ALWAYS HAVE CONTROL!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. In one quick move the androids fired their ki attacks just as Gero pressed the button. The man dove out of the way, dropping the remote and barely missed getting hit.
The two androids' systems shut down, and they appeared as if they had fallen asleep. This really sucked because I was hoping they would take out Gero for me, and I wouldn't need to do anything. However, life was never simple enough to where the problems would just magically "get fixed," which meant that I still had some responsibility in this matter too. I was confident that I could take him down now though.
"I won't let you control me either," I told him firmly. "And I'm not an android or a cyborg or anything of that sorts, so you can't just shut me down. This time, you'll get a fight."
Dr. Gero straightened himself out and brushed himself off, surprisngly confident after my bold threat. "All I've learned so far is that my cyborg initiative program has proven to be a failure. The main issues with this program would fall on the test subjects and not me, of course, but I still don't think I'll be trying this one again. If I don't succeed with you this time, then I guess I'll have to-"
"I'm not going to give you another chance," I said darkly. Videl shrunk away from this fight. I was not going to be afraid to give it my all, so I was glad she stayed where she could be relatively safe. At this point, she would only interfere.
"I don't need one more chance from you. You get one more chance with me." He didn't cower in fear like I wished he did, but instead smirked at me, and I worried what he could possibly have up his sleeve now. "You see, I wouldn't think so high and mighty of yourself yet because you're forgetting one thing, Gohan."
Whoosh. I didn't know if he had pressed a button or mentally signaled for something or how it had worked, but I was suddenly tightly tangled inside a familiar rope. I struggled and struggled, but it did not want to loosen. I tried everything, but it was as if it were blocking my ki and strength. Between the androids getting shut down, and the rope that he bound me with, it was beginning to seem as if he actually did have control.
"I still have the anti-Saiyan ropes. You are bound to me until the day you die. Any and all struggling is futile."
Oh no! Gohan's trapped in those terrible ropes! That's how they were able to perform the first operation to clear his memory! What's gonna happen? Only one more full chapter!
-TOW