Chapter Twenty-eight - Treaty Attempt
Gero came to a stop in the viewing room outside of the Chamber 21 sparring room. He'd checked around to find out where Kakkarotto was but, upon learning of his location, realized he really hadn't had the need. He was currently in Chamber 21 and Gero could tell it wasn't for a light work out. The flashing red light was on over the door and the screen beside it was displaying, in bright red numbers, 100G. The gravity generator was maxed out, one hundred times normal Saiya gravity. More than enough gravity to squash his own mechanical body, so he couldn't just walk in.
Instead he moved over to the viewing window and looked in. He could see streaks of gold and pink zipping around but not much else at first. But a moment later those inside slowed a little and Gero realized what was going on. Kakkarotto was testing the limits of his new fourth form by sparring against Vegeta, Gohan, and Buu at the same time. Vegeta was sweating and breathing hard, Gohan even looked a little worn, but both Buu and Kakkarotto still seemed in top condition. With a shake of his head the doctor reached out and hit the buzzer button to let them know someone was outside.
A moment later the red light went off, the numbers dropped back down to 1G, and the door opened. "Buu, where are you going?" Kakkarotto called as the pink creature exited the room, pushing its way past Gero.
"Bra said she give Buu cake after he done fighting." he replied. "Fighting make Buu hungry so Buu go find Bra and have cake."
There was a flash of gold and a laugh as Kakkarotto reverted to base, his own stomach grumbling in agreement with Buu. "Yeah, I guess we did push it pretty hard." he said.
"What are you talking about?" Gohan asked, reverting as well and shaking his head. "You don't even seem the least bit tired."
Kakkarotto shrugged. "I was getting to the edge there. That form's as hard to keep going as the third level, there's just more power to feed it with so it can last a little longer. But my reaction time was really going down there, I barely got around Veggie's last kick."
Gero forced himself not to smirk at the look that flashed across Vegeta's face at the nick name. From anyone else, even Gohan, it would have earned, at the very least, a punch to the face. But Kakkarotto was more than twice Vegeta's power, almost three times now that he'd obtained the fourth form. And it really wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Vegeta had tried to break the 'Veggie' habit years ago but it never stopped for more than a month. Eventually he just gave up, though it obviously still annoyed him.
"What's up?" Vegeta asked as they neared.
"I need to speak with Master Kakkarotto." Gero replied. "I've uncovered a few more things about Gohan's condition but I need some more information."
Vegeta just nodded and left. He had better control over his stomach than Kakkarotto but he couldn't deny that he was starving as well.
"What'd you find?" Gohan asked as Vegeta disappeared around a corner.
"More than 40% of your DNA is original, not from either of your parents." Gero replied. "A massive a mount of change, all in the last two years. The sequence allowing for it has been present since you were five, I see no way it could have been inserted directly into you. You lived in that village up until then, and then were out here after. There's also no trace of the DNA sequence in any of your relatives. Not in Kakkarotto, Chi-Chi, Goten, or Pan."
"What?" Gohan asked, confused. "How?"
"I have a theory that the information was inserted via a genetic carrier. A virus, bacteria, or a parasite." explained Gero. "Likely introduced to one of your parents and designed to bond with you in early development." He turned to Kakkarotto then. "Which brings me to why I had to speak with you. In order to get to the bottom of this I need to track down the time and place the carrier was put into you or Chi-Chi. Can you think of any time, any event, where it could have happened?"
Kakkarotto furrowed his brow. "I don't think so...." he said. "Something like that would have had to have been injected, right?"
"Quite likely." Gero said. "Though it could have been planted in food or water as well."
The Sai-jin shook his head. "No, I can't remember any...." he stopped and blinked. "Wait a minute...."
"What, do you remember something?" Gohan asked.
"No, not exactly. But that may just be the thing, the fact that I can't remember it."
"Huh?"
Kakkarotto sighed. "There's a... span of time." he began. "About a week, I think, that I have no memory of at all."
"Interesting...." Gero said, pursing his lips. "I had no knowledge of this."
Kakkarotto shrugged. "It's never come up." he said. "And I've never really cared about it to find out before."
"When was this?"
"A few years before Gohan was born." he replied. "Shortly after killing Piccolo's father. A resistance fighter named Tien showed up at the palace I'd taken to living in and challenged me. He... actually managed to hurt me with his last attack, though it nearly killed him. I'd floated back up out of the pit his attack made and was going to finish him off. I transformed just as he passed out but a few seconds after that there was this... I dunno, a bright red light. Next thing I knew I was laying in a bed, Chi-Chi had found me washed up by a stream near her house."
Gero stood in thought for a moment. This missing span of time was certainly something, though he couldn't say for sure that it was connected. "How far from your palace were you?" Gero asked.
Kakkarotto shrugged. "Maybe thirty miles." he said.
"And this stream, did it pass by the palace?"
"No idea." he replied. "Chi-Chi might know."
Gero nodded. "Alright, I'll ask her."
XXX
Faith lead 18 through the rest of the cell block and to the entrance to the main area of the base. There she explained the way up to Valor's office and then went to help Gallant with the evacuations. 18 then moved back into a small alcove near the doors, sat down, and waited. She'd given Gallant an hour to clear the city as much as possible, she couldn't risk more time than that because who knew when her escape would be discovered. Once time was up she would proceed on to Valor's office and try to reason with him.
She waited out the time in silence, deep in thought. She'd forgotten to ask Faith about the powers that had appeared and vanished in the city earlier, something that was still bothering her. But, as concerned as she was about both those vanishing powers and the Energy Inhibitor device in her pocket, her mind kept wondering back to Saiya and the threat the Empire had been facing when she left that world. Four days she'd been on this world already, and a week it had taken to get here. Had Kakkarotto won in his fight against that... thing? Was Saiya still there? Was her daughter still alive? Was the Empire still there? Was there any reason for her to even be here?
She didn't know about the rest of them but she realized she knew the answer to the last one. There was a reason to be here, Empire or no Empire. Valor's Battle Droids were a threat, not just to her and her daughter and the Empire, but to the people of Leberion. Whether Valor wanted to believe it or not they were beyond capable of destroying the entire planet. With the man not fully grasping the power of the machines he'd created the accidental destruction of Leberion from a random ki blast was a highly probable occurrence. Though she still couldn't help but wonder if it would matter in the end. If, maybe just as she finished wiping out the Battle Droids, Buu would suddenly descend on the world and destroy it anyway.
With a sigh she stood up and stretched, time was up. It was time to go speak to Valor. Turning toward the door into the main part of the plant she scanned her eyes back and forth along the wall watching, not what her eyes saw, but what her scanners showed. So long as there weren't any 'invisible' powers inside the plant the way ahead was relatively clear. Ten, maybe twelve people lay in the path that Faith had told her to take. None of them were above 20 so none of them were fighters which meant, hopefully, there would be no resistance to her passing.
Opening the door she stepped through into the hall beyond. She could hear the whine and click and clang of machinery in the distance, the sound of more Battle Droids being made. As she walked and listened to that sound she tried to work out the best way to handle this, should Valor choose not to listen to reason. A direct confrontation with the Battle Droids was not a good idea. The weaker ones, the Guardian design as Faith had called them, those she could handle in fairly sizeable numbers. But the Paladin design would quickly overwhelm her with just a few. And apparently Valor had five functional Sentinel design Battle Droids as well. Dealing with just one of them would take most of her focus, dealing with all five at once would be impossible.
Her best option, then, would be to eliminate Valor as soon as he showed no signs of relenting his position and then blast the entire city into rubble. She hated that idea. She hated that it was her best option if these 'negotiations' failed. There were ten or twelve people just along this path. At least a hundred still inside the factory. Who knew how many left scattered about in the city. Seventy thousand was a lot of people to try and sort through and evacuate, even if only half of them were loyal to Gallant as opposed to Valor.
She didn't even know if Faith and Gallant had gotten outside of the city limits. Hell, she wasn't even sure if Faith had left the plant yet. All those people, all those lives, all that blood.... Maybe if she had someone she could share her voice and demons with she'd be better at handling them all. All of the old demons, the two she'd already added here, those that could still follow on this world, and those that would follow on other worlds.
Trunks... Trunks would act sympathetic if she said anything to him but he'd not actually understand. He was far too much like his father, the scope of his sympathy barely reached beyond himself. And she could never open up like that with him, never confide in him about the voice that haunted her, the faces that tormented her, the blood she felt she could never wash off her hands. He was far too much of a Sai-jin for her to show any weakness around. And far too close to his father to show any instability around.
There was her brother, of course. She had gone to him more than once over the years when things had gotten to be too much for her. But she didn't like going to him because he had his own voice, his own faces, his own demons, his own blood. Sometimes she was envious of him, though. Maybe even jealous, because he had Pan. Pan was a lot different than her father or grandfather, and nothing like Trunks. 17 could confide anything and everything in her without any worries or concerns, could be himself, wholly and completely himself, around her. But there was no one else, no one in the entire universe, that she could talk to.
There was Marron now, of course, but 18 wasn't sure she could talk to her daughter about this, either. Maybe... it would help to soften her image with her daughter, help her to see she wasn't the monster she often seemed, that 18 feared Marron saw her as on some level. But she didn't want to burden her daughter with her demons and nightmares. Didn't want to admit to her all the death and destruction she'd caused. Especially since all of it, every person, every life, every drop of blood on her hands, had been for her sake. She didn't want to transfer her faces, her demons, and the blood that stained her hands to Marron.
It was with a start that 18 realized she was standing outside the door into Valor's office. She'd not noticed a thing as she'd walked, too lost in thought and worry and her inner turmoil. She wasn't even sure if she'd walked by anyone during her walk, or how she'd actually found the office without paying attention to where she was or the directions Faith and Gallant had given her. Shaking herself, both literally and figuratively, mentally and physically, she forced away everything but the matter directly at hand. Tucked away her demons, locked up her compassion, and steeled herself for the possible future that waited beyond the steel door before her.
It took her a few seconds longer than normal to get herself together and ready for what was to come, but eventually her mind was once again fully focused on the task at hand. Her determination to protect her daughter, and as many of those on Leberion she could, was back in place. And the shaking she'd not even noticed she was doing until it had stopped, ceased. Reaching out a hand she gave the door a light shove and pushed it open, snapping the engaged lock intended to keep the door shut. Those in the office instantly turned at the sound of the loud cracking and their multi-faceted eyes widened in shock.
18 quickly noted the location and power of each person in the room while simultaneously scolding herself for not checking before entering. There were six of them in all, Gallant easily discernable by being the only one in battle armor. Three of the other five were female. One of the women and one of the men wore urban combat fatigues. One man and one woman wore a long white lab coat. The third woman, the one standing closest to Valor to the point she was practically hanging off of his arm, was in what appeared to be basic civilian clothing. The strongest person in the room was the woman in the combat fatigues, power of 222. She only vaguely noted, somewhere in the back of her mind, that it was the highest power she'd scanned on the entire planet, prior to her landing.
"Valor, I presume?" 18 said, crossing her arms. She knew it was stupid, but for some reason she felt a little less imposing than normal due to the loss of her battle armor. The shock that had come over the room at her sudden appearance quickly turned into fear and anger, depending on which face you were looking at. The two scientists were scared, their faces losing several shades of color, the woman red and the guy purple. The two soldiers, a purple woman and blue guy, and Valor, who was red, were pissed, gaining several shades of color. The civilian 18 couldn't even see anymore, she'd left out a squeal and collapsed to the floor behind Valor's desk. "We have a few things to discuss."
"How the hell did you...." Valor began, but then his eyes widened. "She... that... damn it!" he cried.
"Unlike you, she's trying to save lives." 18 said calmly. It was clear Valor had already figure out the cause of her freedom. "She's hoping to end this peacefully. She told me she already explained everything...."
"I'm not falling for your lies." Valor said sternly. "You may have been able to trick her but I wont be deceived."
"Funny, it looks to me like you've been deceived pretty damn well for the last ten years." 18 countered. "As Faith explained, and as the data from my pod showed, there hasn't been an Imperial soldier on this planet in ten years. You've been dealing with imposters, not Imperial soldiers."
The anger on the face of the woman with the planet's highest power level vanished and was replaced by confusion as she turned to look at Valor. "What is she talking about?" she asked.
"She's talking about her attempt to trick us." Valor replied. "Claims that the Imperial soldiers we've been fighting, wearing Imperial battle armors, were not actually from the Empire."
18 could hear the derision practically dripping off of his voice as he spoke. "If wearing battle armor created by the Empire makes someone an Imperial soldier than I guess you work for the Empire as well." said the Cyborg dryly. She then turned her focus from Valor to the soldier woman who seemed more interested in hearing what she had to say. Maybe if she couldn't get through to Valor himself she could take his support out from under him.
"Ten years ago Dr. Gero ordered a science team to come here for a planetary study." she explained. "Eight soldiers were sent along as escorts. Following the planet study Gero's curiosity was apparently sated and the world quickly forgotten by the Empire. Due to various reasons this world is of no use or value to us. No member of the Empire has been sent to this world since that science team left until I arrived. I don't know who you've been dealing with, but it isn't us."
"And you have proo...." began the soldier.
"There is no proof!" Valor yelled, slamming a fist against his desk with a sharp crack. "There's no proof because it's all lies!"
"No, there's no proof because you blew up my pod." 18 said, voice still calm and cool. "Faith showed you the files, the orders, all of it. All of it highly restricted information, I might add. And you, hell bent on your damned war, blew the pod up so that no one else could see it. So that no one else would know that you're destroying this planet, and putting everyone here at risk, for no damn reason."
"No reason!?" demanded the male solider. "We've lost thousands to Imperial attacks! Killed or captured."
"No, you've lost thousands to raiders pretending to be Imperials." corrected the Cyborg. "The Empire has no need, reason, or desire to attack you or kidnap your people."
"Oh, is that so?" sneered Valor. "No reason to attack us? Then why are you here, hmm? On vacation, perhaps?"
The smug look on his face, like this argument was fool proof and there was nothing in the universe that could possibly refute it, made 18 want to smack him. Hard. But she resisted the urge and kept her face and voice calm. "I'm here because your Battle Droids have been attacking Imperial bases. I'm here to shut down Battle Droid production, that's all. I'd have liked to have done it without any casualties, I'd prefer to do it without any more than have already occurred."
Valor snorted. "You don't honestly expect us to buy this crap, do you?" he asked.
18 could tell that he didn't believe a word that she'd said, or rather, refused to believe, and that he'd never believe her even if she left the planet and came back with the supposed Imperial soldiers and they told him who they really were. She could also tell that he firmly believed none of those with him believed a word she was saying either. But she could see that he was just as mistaken in this as he was in his belief that she was lying. The two scientists looked conflicted, like they were willing to believe it was possible but not yet convinced. The male soldier's face was unreadable but the woman clearly thought 18's explanation, limited though it was, was plausible. It looked like she might just be able to pull this off if she worked carefully from here.
"You don't have to believe me at face value." 18 said. "Shut down your plants, halt the production of your Battle Droids and talk directly with the rest of the Masters. Master Vegeta will be more than interested in knowing about your raiders, and more than happy to station someone in system to wipe them out if they come back."
"Stop production?" Valor laughed. "Leave ourselves defenseless for the next Imperial assault? Do you take us for idiots?"
"No, I take you for a complete ass too stupid to tie his own shoes." 18 said. "I take the four of them as intelligent enough to think for themselves and realize you're a complete ass too stupid to tie his own shoes."
She almost didn't see it. Almost didn't notice in time. She caught a vague shimmer of movement reflected in the black faceted eyes of the male soldier, a sudden shift and nervous flinch from the female scientist. It took her a tenth of a second to process the two, another tenth to put them together, and then half of a tenth to move a foot to her left letting the large metal fist sail harmlessly through empty air. Exactly where her head had just been. Turning to look into the hall she got her fist glimpse of a Sentinel design Battle Droid. "Fucking hell."
XXX
Faith had left Gallant to tend to the evacuation after about twenty minutes. It hadn't taken them too long to locate people, both in the plant and in the city beyond it, that were more than willing to help the former Resistance leader. Valor's near insane push to build his Battle Droid army, and his extreme fanaticism, had earned him far more dissenters than Faith had ever realized. Apparently quite a few people thought Valor was obsessed and willing to kill them all for even the smallest chance of killing the Masters.
Still, evacuating the city quietly was proving a little more difficult than Gallant had expected. Well, no, clearing out the city itself was pretty easy. Those who'd sided with Gallant and not liked or trusted Valor, and thus either left the Resistance or been expelled from it, where the main occupants of the outside city. They needed nothing more than to be told that Gallant was free and he was calling for everyone to leave the city before packing up all of their things and doing just that. It was those in the plants, those who agreed with Valor on some level, some who were just as fanatical as him, that were the issue.
They needed to be avoided. Avoided completely. No suggestions of leaving, of evacuating. No hints that 18 was free again. No hints that Gallant was free now. No clues given that the people outside the plant walls, and even a number of those in the plants, were making a mass exodus out beyond the city limits. If anyone loyal to Valor got wind of any of it they'd know something was going on and it would limit 18's chances at a peaceful solution to things. Slim as Faith and Gallant thought those chances already were they didn't want to make them even slimmer.
Still, there was one person inside Plant One that Faith couldn't just leave behind. One person Faith knew wasn't just loyal to Valor but damn near devoted to him. Gallant knew, he could see it on her face and in her eyes, and as soon as they'd assembled a large enough group of supporters to aid him with the evacuations he'd told her to go. Go back to the plant and try. And so, forty minutes after leaving 18 and starting to clear out the city as much as possible in the given hour Faith found herself walking back into Plant One wondering just where the person she sought might be. She spent ten minutes looking but didn't find them. They found her.
"Is it true?" a voice asked from behind Faith.
Faith turned and found herself staring at an almost perfect reflection of herself. The primary difference being that the reflection's horn was even more damaged than her own, the top two thirds completely absent. The other clear difference was that the reflection wore urban combat fatigues instead of a lab coat. "Is what true?" Faith asked, both relieved and anxious. There wasn't much time left on the time limit 18 had set.
"The rumors I've been hearing." the other said. "The ones that say you actually tried to convince Valor to let the bitch go."
"Ah" Faith thought. She should have known, there had been a fair number of people around when she'd first approached Valor. Of course someone had over heard them. And gossip like that would spread quickly. No wonder she'd been getting odd looks ever since coming back into the plant. "Yes." she said at last. "I did."
"Why the hell would you do that?" the woman demanded, scowling. "You don't free murderers, you execute them." The woman smirked. "A pleasure I've landed the privilege of."
"I... you... what?" Faith asked, her mind suddenly seemed to be working in slow motion.
The other woman's smirk grew. "Valor said I could execute the bitch." she answered. "Not sure how I'm gonna do it yet, though. Think I might just gut her like a fish. I was on my way to report to Valor before the execution when I heard the rumors, figured I'd see what the hell you were thinking before I talked to him. So, what the hell were you thinking?"
Faith couldn't find any words for a moment. Her mind was still working in slow motion and it seemed, also, to be having trouble processing a major incongruity, some odd warping of reality. Not even an hour ago she'd been speaking to a Master who honestly seemed to regret having to kill anyone. And now she was standing here with one of her own, with her near double, her own sister, who was talking about gutting someone like a fish. As the oddity of it settled in the actual meaning of her sister's words also finally settled and Faith felt her stomach suddenly flop and twist.
She knew her sister was bitter and vengeful but to hear her call it a pleasure and a privilege to kill someone.... Even when she'd believed the Empire responsible for the attacks Faith wouldn't have considered murder, even of a Master, to be a pleasure or privilege. It took her mind several seconds to finally get back into normal gear and it took her several more to be sure she wasn't going to vomit when she opened her mouth. She spent the time standing there with her eyes closed and breathing slowly, carefully. Finally she opened them again and looked right into her sister's eyes.
"I was thinking I want this to end." she said. "I was thinking I don't want anyone else to die...."
"You've got a funny way of showing it." her sister interrupted. "We release her and that's the end of all of us. Sliced up nice and neat like Serenity and seven of my comrades."
Faith shook her head. "No, Hope. Not if we don't fight."
"Don't fight!?" Hope cried, obviously outraged at the idea. "How can you even suggest that after what we saw those... those... animals do to our mother!? To our friends?"
"That wasn't the Empire." Faith said.
Hope blinked. "Not the Empire?" she said slowly. "Of course it was the Kai damned Empire! We fucking saw them!"
Faith shook her head. "No, we saw people wearing battle armor. But I've seen the records, the Empire's own official records on our world, including all related mission orders to come here. The first group that came, they were from the Empire. The ones who've been attacking since then aren't."
"The fuck they aren't!" Hope yelled. People were starting to slow in their work, turning to look to see what was going on, but Hope ignored them. "Who the fuck do you think wears that armor?" she demanded.
"I saw the orders, Hope." Faith said. "And 18 said that armor style, the kind that Valor's got, isn't used by the Empire anymore. Not for decades now."
"Oooooh, 18 says." Hope said sarcastically, nodding. "On a first name basis with the bitch now, are we? So, what, you're going to believe that lying, murdering, disgusting whore's word over your own damned eyes?"
"I told you, I saw the files, too." Faith said. "I didn't just take her word, I checked her evidence before I went to Valor. She was honestly confused when I mentioned the attacks."
"You are so fucking gullible." Hope said, shaking her head.
Faith opened her mouth to respond to that but froze. Her watch had just started beeping. The hour was up. 18 was on her way to talk to Valor right now. At any minute he could refuse to listen to her and leave her with no choice but to destroy the plant. Maybe even the entire city. Fear gripped her for a moment, she wasn't sure she'd be able to make it out of the city in time. And she still had to try and convince Hope to leave with her. Swallowing she pushed the fear aside, she had to focus if she wanted to get out of the city before the violence broke out.
"I'm not gullible." she said at last. "You're just pig headed, like father."
CRACK.
Faith hadn't even seen it coming but she sure as hell felt it. The backhand had knocked her onto her side and dazed her. It hadn't nearly been Hope's full power, her sister's full power would have been enough to knock her head right off her shoulders, but it had been a significant portion of it. Just enough not to do any serious damage.
"Don't. You. Dare." Hope growled slowly, through her teeth, as her jaw was clenched tightly shut.
Faith could feel the burning sting of tears threatening to surface. Not from the physical pain of the blow but the emotional pain. Part of her knew she deserved it for what she said but another part felt it was a fair and accurate comparison, and all of her was hurt that her sister would actually hit her. "Well, wouldn't he be proud of you now." Faith spat, even though she knew it was a mistake before she even opened her mouth. She could see Hope visibly shaking with her anger now but, before anything else could happen between them, there was a sudden explosion from elsewhere in the plant that knocked Hope off of her feet and onto the floor beside her sister.
Faith's eyes widened as she turned toward the sound of the explosion. She couldn't see any of the effects from where she was, or the cause, but she knew what it likely meant. She'd been so shocked by the backhand she'd taken that she'd completely forgotten that 18 was having her meeting with Valor. Apparently he'd turned down her offer. Time was up. She had to get the hell out of the city, now. And backhand or not she wanted to try and have Hope come with her. Shaking, she slowly climbed to her feet and found Hope already standing and holding a hand to her ear to better hear the reports coming in through her ear piece.
"Hope." Faith started but her sister waved her to be quiet. "No." she said, getting a scowl. "Hope, we have to leave. It's not safe here now, we have to get out of the ci...." Her voice trailed off as she saw the darkening in Hope's eyes.
"What did you do?" she asked quietly, a sharp and dangerous edge to her voice.
"The only thing I could." Faith replied, closing her eyes for a moment. "I'm tired of all of this fighting, I want it to end."
Hope swallowed and the dark look in her eyes faded some as they widened in shock and fear, and Faith thought she saw disgust, too. The last emotion hurt her but also angered her. After all, she hadn't been the one talking about gutting someone like a fish. She was the one who had tried to end things without any more deaths. The widened eyes only lasted for a moment, though, and then Hope was back into soldier mode, an angry scowl on her face. "You fucking released her, didn't you?!" she cried.
"Are you coming or not?" Faith asked, half turning toward the exit. She watched Hope long enough to be sure her sister wasn't going to leave with her and then sighed and turned the rest of the way around. "I'll see you later, then." she said. But she never got the chance to even start walking away. As soon as she'd turned her back to her sister she felt powerful hands grab her and slam her down onto the floor.
Hope pinned Faith's arms behind her and held her firmly against the ground. "You're not going anywhere." she said, her voice angrier than Faith had ever heard it. "You're under arrest for treason, and given your confession I don't see any reason to wait for a trial." With that she yanked her back up onto her feet and turned toward the crowd that had formed around them. "Get me some rope!"
XXX
The Sentinel designs looked nothing like the other two designs she'd seen. They looked like very big people. Leberion native type people, yes, but people. The one she was staring down right now was eight foot tall, had shoulders at least five feet across, and its fists were at least as big as her head. Maybe slightly larger. The entire thing was gun metal gray, save the glowing yellow eyes. She'd been hoping to avoid fighting any of these things at all so finding one right behind her like this was very unpleasant. "At least there's only one... for now." she thought. "I'll have to try and destroy it, fast, before back-up starts arriving."
"I wont make the same mistake twice." Valor said from where he still stood behind the desk. "This time I'll just have them kill you."
18 listened to him, but only barely. She was more concerned about the Battle Droid than him. "Now I know how everyone who's fought me must have felt." she thought, scowling at the machine. There was no ki level for her to track, she'd have to rely entirely on her eyes for this battle. Not too much of an issue with just one opponent but if a second showed up it could become a problem. If a third, fourth, or fifth showed it would definitely become a problem. Brushing those thoughts aside she thrust her arms forward firing of a blast of purple energy at the machine.
The energy blast only had about two and a half feet to travel. The Sentinel didn't have time to react to the incoming attack and the blast hit it square in the chest before exploding. 18 plunged into the dust cloud as she heard the loud thud of the machine slamming into the wall of the hall. An instant later she was on top of it and thrusting an arm at its head. The machine slid to the right slightly at the last second and her punch slammed into the wall instead, her arm going in up to her elbow. Her other arm came up and blocked a punch and then she ripped her right arm out of the wall as she kicked the Battle Droid in the abdominal area.
Of course, being a machine, there was no abdomen to actually hit. No diaphragm to force closed. No air to force out. But the impact still forced it to stumble backward. 18 then brought an arm up and quickly formed another Destructo Disc. With a cry she pitched it forward, intending to remove the Battle Droid's head, but her eyes widened as the disc hit, warped, and then shattered. Her shock delayed her reaction time and its massive left fist slammed into her face knocking her down the length of the hall and through a wall before she could pull to a stop.
She heard panicked cries behind her and looked back to see a bunch natives, all in civilian clothes, running to the opposite side of the room. And then she noticed the bright red glare and looked back toward the hole in the wall, eyes going wide. "SHIT!" she cried, thrusting her arms forward quickly. The Battle Droid had fired off a massive energy blast at her, there was no way the people in the room would survive if she didn't at least deflect the blast force away from them. The energy blast slammed into her energy shield a second later and exploded, eliciting more screams from those behind her and destroying what had been left of the wall.
"What the hell?" she wondered. "It could have killed all of them...." She shook it off and looked behind her. "Go!" she yelled. "Get out of here!" A few of them scrambled for the door but most of them continued to huddle by the back wall. She was about to yell at them again when a knee suddenly slammed into her stomach snapping her eyes wide in pain. "Damn it, focus on the fight!" she mentally ordered herself as she drifted off the knee and then snapped her leg into the side of the machine's head. Twisting in the air she then snapped her other foot out into its chest driving it back out into the hall.
She started to chase after it but just as she emerged into the hall a large metal fist smashed into the side of her head and sent her sailing down another hall instead. She pulled herself to a stop before slamming into any walls this time and scowled at the Sentinel charging toward her. She'd still seen the one she'd been fighting in the hall before this one hit her which meant she was now dealing with two of the things. Charging at the new Sentinel she ducked under a right hook and slammed her own right fist into its chest followed by her left, then her right again, her left, her right, and then her left one last time.
The series of blows knocked the machine down the hall where it slammed into the first one. 18 fired a blast of purple energy at the two machines and then turned off down the hall again to where Valor's office was at it exploded. She reached it a moment later but found it now empty of Valor. She could only see one occupant, the female soldier, but she was knelt down by the desk saying something in a quiet voice, and 18's scanner was picking up a second power. The Cyborg turned and slammed the door shut behind her. They couldn't track her for the same reason she couldn't track them and she needed time to think. The slamming door got the attention of the soldier and she looked up, eyes widening.
"I'm not going to hurt you." 18 said, walking away from the door and toward the woman. "Not unless you give me a reason to. Where's Valor?"
She shook her head. "I don't know."
"Don't know or wont tell?"
"Don't know." she said, and then sighed. "Apparently he doesn't want me around anymore since I suggested there might be something to what you said."
18 snorted. "I think I gave him too much credit. He's too stupid to even pull his shoes on, forget about tying them." The Cyborg reached the desk then and looked down to see who the soldier had been talking to. It was the civilian woman from before, the one that had been almost hanging off of Valor's arm. "She ok?" she asked. The woman was shaking and crying, though 18 had no idea why. The soldier stared at her for a moment, as though the Cyborg were some unknown creature that had just suddenly wondered in and asked for directions to its own house. 18 was rather used to such looks, she got them on a lot of her missions.
"She'll be fine." the woman said at last. "Your sudden appearance scared her and then...." she trailed off.
"Then... then he s-said... said he never wa-wanted to... to see s-someone as... we-weak as me... e-ever again."
18 scowled. "Typical." she thought. "Mucho bull headed male." She shook her head. "Well, it wouldn't have worked out for you anyway." she said. "Not now."
The soldier looked back up at her again. "You intend to kill him?"
"Well, he's not exactly giving me much choice in the matter." she replied, glancing back at the door to make sure neither Sentinel had found her yet. Looking back to the soldier she continued. "What do you know about the programming of those Battle Droids?" she asked.
"Not much, why?"
"Because one of them nearly fried a room full of your own people just to get a hit on me." 18 replied. The soldier's eyes widened in shock at that. "What's your name?"
"Zeal." the soldier said. "And this is Harmony."
18 glanced back at the door again, still closed, before saying anything else. "Zeal, take her and get out of here. Out of the city. Gallant's already been evacuating for the last hour."
"Gallant?" Zeal asked, surprised. "You... really were serious, weren't you? About wanting to avoid as many deaths as possible?"
"Just go." 18 said, turning back toward the door.
"D-don't...." Harmony whimpered, bringing her head up at last.
It was the first real good look 18 got at her and, while she wasn't an expert on the natives, she figured the red skinned woman... no, the girl, couldn't have been more than fifteen. "She's just a kid." was what she thought, "Don't what?" was what she asked.
"Don't... k-kill him." she begged.
18 closed her eyes and sighed. "Sorry. It's out of my hands now. Besides, I'm sure you can do a hell of a lot better than that jack ass."
"What was that?" Zeal suddenly cried. 18 looked over at her, confused, but then saw her with a hand pressed against her ear. Apparently she had some sort of earpiece in place. "They're going to do what?" she demanded. "Who is it?" Silence. "Shit."
"What? What's going on?" 18 asked.
"It seems word is out not only about you being loose but that Faith set you loose." Zeal said. "And her sister's organized a group to hang her." The soldier instinctively flinched as the Cyborg's eyes suddenly narrowed and darkened.
"Where?" she demanded.
"Out in the work area, near the front of the building." Zeal raised an arm and pointed off to the left of the door. "That way."
18 nodded, turned, and walked from the room blasting the door off its hinges with a pair of eye beams along the way.
XXX
Faith wasn't really sure what to feel. Her emotions were changing wildly, never settling on any one thing for more than a few moments. Her first reaction had been disbelief. Disbelief at the entire situation. She'd gone from preparing to leave to on the floor to being yanked roughly to her feet to being held still under one of the large steel beams that reached across the room from wall to wall, all in less than five minutes. The fact that her sister was the one holding her, the one calling for her the be hung, was what really made the whole thing surreal.
The disbelief had then turned into anger. Anger at herself for getting into this situation. Anger at the raiders for their contribution to her predicament. Anger at the crowd around her for wanting her dead when she'd been trying to save all of them. Anger at her sister for leading this mob, for calling for her death in the first place. Then anger had faded into fear, into terror, as she saw one of the other lab workers, one of her friends, come into her field of vision holding a large bundle of rope. She'd heard the cries, once Hope had shouted to the room what Faith had done, cries for her death.
The fear, the panic, the terror had built quickly as she watched the scientist, her friend, hand the rope over to another soldier who then flew up to the rafters and tossed it over to hang down both sides. They weren't even going to do it properly. Drop her so that her neck broke. They were going to hoist her, let her struggle and suffocate. One end had already been tied into a noose and Hope was currently placing it around her sister's neck. That's when the fear changed into despair. Despair over her impending death. Despair that it would be her own sister who would kill her. Despair that she hadn't been able to convince more people, convince her sister, to evacuate.
And then she felt the tug. The noose pulled tight around her neck, the rope pulled taut, and then her neck was being pulled, her heels were lifting off the floor, she was already having trouble breathing, then she was on just her toes, and suddenly she as hanging by the rope around her neck and could get no air at all. She raked her eyes over the crowd around her and cried, cried for herself and for her friends and for her sister. Her body told her to struggle, to fight, to try and breathe, but her mind told her there was no chance of that. Her hands and legs were bound, her sister was holding the rope so that she'd stay suspended. All fighting would do was burn through her air faster, kill her faster, and while it'd make it quicker and less painful she didn't want to die, she wanted to cling on to whatever life she could still manage.
The world was just starting to go dark, her eyes to droop, when she heard the thundering explosion. She suddenly felt herself drop a little, then more, and then her feet were on the ground again and the noose wasn't biting into her neck anymore and she could breathe. Glorious, cold, crisp air rushed into her lungs and the dimming at the edges of her vision receded. The crowd around her, she saw, wasn't moving. They were just standing there, staring at her. No, not her, behind her, at her sister. Faith turned but found it wasn't her sister, either, that they were staring at. It was 18. Hope lay at 18's feet with a split lip, but still alive, still conscious, and scowling up at the pair of them.
18, however, was ignoring the downed woman and was untying the noose from around Faith's neck. "You ok?" she asked.
Faith nodded, her mind finally grasping what had just happened. The explosion, 18 had blasted her way through the plant to get to her. She'd rushed in, knocked her sister out of the way, and lowered her back to the ground. Saved her. The last little nagging doubts in her mind, the ones that had forced her to react so badly to Hope's words earlier, finally vanished. If the Cyborg hadn't meant what she'd said before then she wouldn't have rushed to her rescue now. "Thank-you." she said as the noose came off.
18 shrugged. "You saved me." she said. She then turned from Faith and glared down at the woman on the ground. Hope glared right back up at her. "Your sister, I presume?"
"I... yes, how...?"
"Zeal told me what was going on." 18 replied.
"Commander Zeal!?" Hope cried. "What did you do to her?!"
"Nothing." 18 replied. "She heard what was going on and told me, that's all."
"Nonsense! Commander Zeal would never betray us!"
"Valor's the one who's betrayed you." said 18. Hope opened her mouth to counter but 18 narrowed her eyes and the woman's words stuck in her throat. "When Zeal suggested that what I had to say was plausible he basically told her to get lost. While I was fighting a Sentinel Battle Droid it launched an energy blast right into a room full of your people, willing to kill them all just to hit me. Valor doesn't care about you or Leberion, he just cares about himself and his own vendetta against the Empire. Everyone and everything else be damned." She'd slid her gaze over the crowd as she spoke.
Hope snorted. "And I suppose you want us to believe you do?"
"I care about my family." 18 said, locking her eyes back on Hope's. "My daughter, who has even less power than Faith here. I care about keeping her safe, safe from anything that could threaten her. Anything that threatens the Empire threatens her. I don't want to kill if I don't have to but I wont lie, I'll blast this entire city, and everyone in it, into dust if that's what it takes to end this, to keep her safe. I'd turn this entire planet into dust if that's what it took." She'd seen eyes in the crowd going wider and wider as she spoke. "I don't want to, I don't intend to, I just want to remove the threat and the only threats are Valor and his Kai damned Battle Droids."
18 turned her gaze from Hope to the crowd again. They were all listening to her every word and she knew she'd not get a better chance than this. "I don't know if Faith had a chance to tell any of you before you tried to kill her." she said. "But it's not the Empire you've been fighting. Yes, we came ten years ago, but we haven't been here since. Your attackers, your raiders, are someone else. Someone we hadn't known about. After this is over I'll be leaving the survivors a means of contacting the Empire, should your attackers come back. Someone will be sent to deal with them.
"The Empire has no interest in this planet. It has no value to us. I wont deny that there will be an interest now, now that your Battle Droids have come as far along as these Sentinel ones have. An interest in making sure that no more are built. But there's no reason to continue the fighting, not against the Empire. Once the Battle Droids are gone, and so long as they stay gone, the Empire will leave you alone." She shook her head. "Stay here, continue the fighting, and all you'll do is ensure your deaths."
"Gallant is already doing evacuations of the city." came a new voice. Everyone turned and found Zeal walking toward them, Harmony clinging to her and still sobbing. "The city is almost empty now. I've got some of my troops evacuating the other plants of those who are ready for all this fighting to end. Those willing to hope there wont be any more needless death, those willing to believe what 18 says. Those of you who feel the same should start making your way out as well, Gallant's setting up a refugee camp just beyond the city limits up to the north."
"You... can't be serious...." Hope said, softly, slowly. "You want us to surrender? To just roll over and let the Empire walk all over us?"
"Haven't you been paying attention?" 18 asked. "Your problem isn't the Empire."
"So you say." Hope spat. "But I've no reason to believe you. I've got ten years of personal experience fighting them, that's all the proof I need."
18 closed her eyes and sighed.
"If she were lying why would she be evacuating the city?" asked Faith. "Why try and save anyone at all? She's even giving Resistance members the chance to leave. If she's not telling the truth then what's the point? Wouldn't all of this just start right back up as soon as we were attacked again? And why give us a way to contact the Empire to tell them we're being attacked if it's the Empire doing it?"
18 could hear mutterings in the crowd. Some of them, she could tell, saw the reason and truth in Faith's words. Others simply didn't want to. Like Hope, lying there on the floor, glaring up at 18. The Cyborg could see it in her eyes, even as odd and alien as they were. Somewhere inside her Hope knew Faith was right. Somewhere inside her she realized it. But she didn't want to admit it, didn't want to admit that she'd been wrong. Not just because she was stubborn, like Valor, but because she didn't want to face what that meant, especially not what it meant about what she'd just tried to do.
"She doesn't care." 18 said, sadly. "She's been fighting so long, so convinced of what was going on, that she doesn't care what the truth is, she just wants to cling to what she believes." She turned to Faith then. "She wont go with you. I don't think she'll even bother to get back up off the floor, just lay there and wait for the building to come down around her."
Faith looked down at her sister and saw the other woman turn her head, cast her eyes to the floor, and she knew then that 18 was right. The Resistance had been everything to Hope. It had been her entire reason for being. Without it, without that purpose, she no longer felt she had a reason to live. "Oh... Hope...." Faith said, barely above a whisper. She knelt down beside her and hugged her. "I'm sorry. Sorry about everything, sorry I compared you to father."
"Go." she said, still not lifting her gaze from the floor. "Get out of here."
Before anyone had the chance to move, however, there was a sudden shuddering explosion from above. "Damn it!" 18 cried, thrusting her arms up and firing off a massive stream of energy quickly incinerating the falling debris before the collapsing roof crushed everyone around her. As she lowered her arms she felt pain lance up through her back from a kick. The Sentinels had found her again. "GO!" she yelled, stumbling forward and then turning to face the machine. "Get out of here!"
The crowd didn't need to be told again and rushed for the doors. Faith stayed with Hope, however. "Go." her sister said. "Go on."
"I... I can't leave you here." Faith said quietly. "You're the only family I have left."
The two turned and looked at the sound of a loud crack and saw 18 half implanted into some of the construction equipment and now there were two Sentinels in the room. "Faith, go." Hope said. "Leave me. Go on."
"No, I ca...."
"Go, damn it!" Hope cried, pushing her away. "What are you staying here for? I just tried to kill you!"
"I know but...." Faith shook her head. "You're my sister. I don't care. I don't want you to die." Faith walked back over to her, knelt down, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to her feet. "If you want me to leave then you're going to have to come with me." she said. Hope sighed and nodded and the two of them turned and ran for the exit.
"Good." 18 thought as she saw them leaving out of the corner of her eye. "There are only a few powers left in the building, probably all loyal to Valor. No reason to hold back now." And with that thought as she charged a purple ball of spinning ki, swirling blades of energy spinning around it in a dozen different directions. "Shredder Mine!" she cried, pitching it at the nearing Sentinels. The blast slammed into the machine in front of her, exploded, and flung it across the room into some of the machinery. "The hell?" she thought as the second Sentinel came charging at her through the dust. "That should have cut clean in and blown that thing into scrap metal. What the hell is going on?" 18 brought an arm up to block the incoming kick aimed for her chest and then gasped in pain as an elbow smashed down into the top of her head.
Her vision blurred for a moment and she stumbled, and then the kick smacked into her chest and drove her back through a series of conveyor belts before she could pull to a stop again. Her vision clearing her eyes widened as she just barely dodged around an incoming blast of red energy. "FUCK!" she cried, eyes focusing on the three Sentinels now standing before her. Her situation was quickly going from bad to worse to desperate. There was still a chance, a small one but a chance, that she could take on the three of them at once. But if either of the other two popped up....
"I need more room. Not much sunlight with all of that smoke but this should still have some punch to it." she thought, bringing her hands up in front of her face, fingers spread. "Solar Flare!"