Chapter Twenty-nine - Running out of Time

As they reached the door out of the main area of the plant Faith heard 18 curse and pulled to a stop. Turning she saw that a third Sentinel had now arrived and joined the fight. She glanced back at Hope and was just about to turn back toward 18 again when there was a bright flash of light that nearly blinded her. By the time the glare finally faded away the woman was gone. The three Sentinels stood alone, staring up into the sky.

"She... retreated?" Hope asked, a bit shocked. "I knew that one of the Sentinels had captured her but... I hadn't thought that she would have this much trouble fighting them."

"Half of her power...." Faith said slowly, remembering her earlier conversation with 18.

"What?" asked Hope, turning her gaze from the sky, where the Sentinels had recently departed to, back to her sister.

"She said that the Paladins were at least half of her power." Faith explained. "The Sentinels are supposed to be twice the power of the Paladins. Which means...."

"They're as strong as her." Hope said, awed. She'd never dreamed that any of their Battle Droids would be capable of matching one of the Masters. Then she said something she couldn't believe came from her own mouth. "This is bad. At equal strength she'll have a lot of trouble fighting three of them at once. If the other two show up she wont stand a chance."

"And Valor will go right back to his war." Faith said, with a shake of her head. "And we'll all be dead." She closed her eyes and thought. There had to be something.... "That's it!"

"What's it?"

"We've got to get down into the lower basement levels. Basement level 7, actually."

"What? Why? Shouldn't we be getting out of the city?"

Faith shook her head. "You just said that 18 wont be able to beat them. It doesn't matter if we leave the city or not, if she loses we'll be dead within a few months, I'd bet, when the Masters retaliate in force. I'll be dead before 18's even cold."

Hope frowned, but didn't argue. She knew Faith was right. If Valor remained in power then his first act, after 18's death, would be Faith's execution. "But why the basement? What can we do there?"

"Stop them." Faith said, running from the room toward the stairs at the end of the hall. "The Sentinels aren't like the Guardian or Paladin units." she explained, her sister quickly catching up and running along beside her. "We couldn't shield the EM field generated by the power core enough to properly protect an on board computer system, they were always getting wiped within a few minutes of boot up. So we came up with a work around to the problem, we put the brain for the Sentinels outside of their bodies, in one of the labs down on basement level 7. The computer there does all of the thinking and operates the Sentinels remotely."

Hope blinked and then smiled. "I think I know where this is going." she said. "We stop that computer and the Sentinels are brain dead."

Faith nodded. "Exactly. The computer room isn't even guarded, we never saw a reason. It's not like any outside attackers would know about it." Hope nodded as they reached the stairs and started on their way down the seven flights to basement level 7, ignoring the loud explosions and shaking of the ground that kept occurring. Reaching the right floor Faith threw open the door and ran into the hall making a left at the first intersection, then skidded to a stop. "Then again...." she said.

Hope came to a stop right behind her and frowned. Three soldiers stood down the hall in front of one of the doors talking. The two of them hadn't been noticed yet but she wasn't sure how long that would last. "Looks like Valor anticipated something like this." she said. She then grabbed her sister's arm and pulled her back around the corner out of sight, before they were spotted.

Faith merely nodded. She should have figured, he knew someone had to have released 18, after all. "Do you know them?" she asked. "Could you get us past?"

"I can't tell from here, but I doubt they'd let me in." she said. "Anyone Valor would have left in charge of such an important location would be as devoted as him to the Resistance, and probably told to let no one through. So... now what?"

"Surprise attack?" suggested Faith. "Hit them before they see us?"

Hope bit her lip in thought. She couldn't believe she was helping a Master or considering attacking her own people. But she couldn't deny that her sister had made a lot of sense earlier, or that 18's actions only made sense if she were telling the truth. "If we're lucky it'll work." she said at last. "Stay here." With that she moved away from Faith and peered around the corner again. The three soldiers were still standing in the same place and still talking. Taking a deep breath she cupped her hands in front of her chest and began gathering a ball of white energy. The attack charged she stepped out around the corner quickly and shot it down the hall.

The soldiers saw it coming at the last second but didn't have time to react. The blast slammed into their midst and exploded blasting them into the walls and knocking them out. "Alright, we're clear." Hope said. Faith nodded to her and the two took off down the hall reaching the door to the lab a few seconds later. Hope motioned for her sister to wait in the hall as she pushed the door open and checked out the room. As soon as the door was open she froze in wonder and disbelief. "That's... the computer for the Sentinels?" she asked, looking back at her sister. Faith nodded.

Taking up the bulk of the thirty foot room, leaving only a walk way five feet wide going around the edges, was a large clear tube. Inside the tube was what Hope thought looked like a large metal cube, but it was spinning so fast in so many different directions it was hard to tell. There were arcs of energy tracing along the surface of the cube and the glass tube it was in side of, and not much else. It didn't look like any computer she'd ever seen before. "This is...."

"I know." said Faith. "I was impressed the first time I saw it, too."

"Wait, you didn't make it?"

"Me? No, I just did coding work with it. I don't know where it was made, actually. Valor brought it with him when he came back from his exile. Anyway, we've got to shut it down."

"I could blast it."

"I don't think that would be a good idea." Faith said, walking around the tube and gazing at the wall. "I didn't make it but I got to study it a good bit while working on the coding for the Sentinels. Its a rather volatile device, massive energy levels stored at all times. That's what the tube is for, to help contain the energy and make the room safe to be in. Try and just break it and you could make it overload. No idea how big an explosion that would be but I don't think we'd survive."

"Right. Well, brute force is out then, so I'm stumped. You've always been the brainy one."

Faith nodded slightly, only barely hearing her sister, as she gazed over the walls and floor looking for the pannel she knew was there, somewhere. Finally, about a third of the way around the room, she saw it on the wall. She gave it a hit and it popped loose and then slid up revealing a series of circuit boards and numerous wires. Reaching in she grabbed hold of the wires and gave them all a yank, pulling them free of the systems they were linked to. Then she began yanking out circuit boards. By the time the third board was out the arcing energy around the encased cube was subsiding.

At last she yanked out the tenth and final board. "Here, smash these." she said, tossing the ten boards over to her sister. Hope caught them, dropped them onto the floor, and then stomped on them. "Now the computer can't be restarted." said Faith as she watched the spinning cube begin to slow. "It'll take a few minutes, I think, before the charge is gone enough for the thing to stop working. Hopefully 18 will last that long."

"We done here, then?" Hope asked. The explosions from above had faded some but the occasional quakes seemed to be getting worse. She didn't want to be in the city if 18 decided the only way to win was to blast the whole place to kingdom come.

"Yeah, we're done. Let's get out of here." Faith said, walking past her toward the door again.

Hope nodded and turned to follow her, then froze. Faith had stopped as well. There was someone standing in the doorway. Someone they both recognized instantly.

XXX

18 shot up into the air as soon as the light started. It wasn't nearly as bright as she'd hoped it would have been, the smoke was apparently thicker than she'd thought. Still, it seemed to have been enough to distract the machines. She got into the sky above the plant without pursuit. She cast a quick glance around the area with her eyes for signs of more Battle Droids, and with her scanners for traces of powers. There was a large knot of powers heading north, likely the people Zeal was escorting to Gallant's location. There were also knots of powers in each of the plants, only Plant One was nearly empty. She also noted that Faith and her sister's powers were still inside the plant somewhere and she couldn't figure out why.

She pushed that aside for the moment, however, as she saw the three Sentinels surging up at her. She slipped around a punch from one, ducked under a kick from the second while also grabbing its leg. She then turned and used it as a bat to smash the third one back down toward the ground. Continuing around she then pitched it up at the first one hitting it in the back. She then shot up past the two of them, thrust her legs down, and smashed her feet into their heads driving them down toward the third which was now charging up at her.

She was quickly re-assessing her chances in the battle, though. Even as well as she was doing now she was doubting her chances at beating even one of these three, even if the other two didn't show up. She didn't know what they were made from but whatever it was it didn't seem to want to take damage. She was hitting these things with all she had but they didn't seem to be fazed at all. Sure, being purely mechanical they wouldn't take damage like a living creature would, like she would, but there should still be a noticeable difference between one that had just been hit and one that hadn't, and there wasn't.

Suddenly a barrage of energy blasts came surging her way from all three machines. She managed to deflect about thirty of the blasts, dodged another fifteen, but was still hit by at least twenty of them. As she pushed aside the stinging pain from the blasts and tried to see through the glare they'd created she suddenly swerved around another punch and then brought her arm up to block a kick but then the third Battle Droid suddenly appeared and smashed a fist into her face driving her back. She countered with a blast of energy as she pulled to as stop but the machine simply swatted it aside, caught up to her, and then smashed a fist into her stomach. Meanwhile the other two had flanked her and as she was recovering from the blow to the gut they smashed their fists into her back driving her face into the first one's knee.

The blow stunned her and her vision blurred but she lashed out with a punch and managed to catch one of them across the jaw. Meanwhile the other two attempted to slam her head between their legs but she'd already dashed away and their legs hit each other. Shaking her head to clear it she looked around to see where the third one had gone now and saw two of them charging her. She blinked, glanced back behind her, and then cursed again. There were four of them now. "If the fifth shows up... fuck." she thought. "If I could have just gotten rid of Valor, damn it. I don't think I could have taken three of them, there's no way I can handle four."

She dodged around a blast of energy, swatted another at one of the charging machines, then slipped around a kick and slammed a fist into the Battle Droid's head. "If the fifth shows up I wont have any choice, I'll have to retreat and contact Saiya. Have someone else come here and stop Valor. Damn it, I'll probably have to do that anyway at this rate." She'd just managed to avoid another kick to the head but then a fist slammed into her back and knocked her into an elbow to her chest. Then one of them grabbed her leg, spun around, and pitched her down at the ground.

She slammed, head first, into a street a few blocks away from Plant One. By the time she'd gotten back to her feet she had four blasts of red energy surging toward her and all she could do was put her arms up to block. The attacks slammed into her and exploded savagely, blasting her back through five already damaged buildings and bringing the fifth one down on top of her. Pushing some of the rubble off and then climbing back up out again she wiped a trickle of blood off her mouth and cursed again. There was no way she was going to win against the four of them.

And then a foot slammed into the back of her head knocking her face first into the ground. She rolled to the side quickly as a fist lanced down and smashed into the ground where her stomach had just been. "And there's number five. Damn it!" she cried, quickly getting to her feet and surging backward, away from the five charging machines. "Sorry, everyone." she said, deflecting another energy blast away from her and then darting around a corner at an intersection to try and lose the Battle Droids. "I'm out of options here...." She ducked into another building, pressed her back up against the wall, and closed her eyes.

She'd just gotten a connection established when the arm smashed through the wall, wrapped around her neck, and then pulled her back into the machine's body. Reaching up she tried to pry the arm off of her but she couldn't get a good enough grip to pull it off before another of the machines appeared and slammed a fist into her stomach. Then a blow to her face, another to her stomach, one to her chest, two more to the face, another to the chest, and then another was coming in toward her face when the machine suddenly froze.

18 blinked, forcing away the pain and trying to make her head and eyes work properly again. Still the machine didn't move, just stood there, arm raised and ready for a punch. Reaching up she grabbed the arm around her neck and easily pulled it off. She wasn't sure what had happened but she wasn't going to let this chance get away. Thrusting her arms out she put them right against the chests of the two machines and fired point blank energy blasts clear through them. Stepping back out onto the street she saw the other three laying on the ground, also frozen. Apparently having fallen out of the sky. A few well placed blasts destroyed them, too, and she turned her attention back to Plant One.

"Time to find Valor and put an end to this." she said. "And maybe Faith knows what the hell just happened to these things." Checking her scanner she found Faith's power level of 12, Hope's 127 level, and a third almost on top of them at 188. "Fuck!" she cried, taking off at full speed for the plant. She'd only met one person with a level of 188 on the planet.

Valor.

XXX

"You...." Valor said slowly, quietly, as he stared at the two blue skinned women in the room. His gaze drifted from them to the spinning cube that was barely even spinning now. Then his focus returned to the two of them and he scowled. "I expected better from you, at least, Hope." he said. Faith blinked and looked back at her sister. She hadn't known Valor even knew her name.

"I came into the plant fully intent on killing 18." she said. Then she shook her head. "But I heard what she had to say and while I didn't want to believe it, while I'm still finding it hard to accept, I can't deny that it's possible. That it even makes sense, considering the effort she's going to, to protect the people in this city."

"Who cares if she's right?" Valor asked. "What does it matter? Does it change the fact that the Empire came here the first time? She even freely admits it was them!"

Hope closed her eyes. "I know." she said. "I know it was them but it was ten years ago, now."

"So what?!" Valor demanded. "Ten years, twenty years, a thousand years, what's it matter how long it's been! All that matters is that they came here, that they came here and killed our people! Seven hundred, dead, for nothing!"

"And how many have died because of you?" Faith asked. "Died when you came back and attacked the city to overthrow Gallant, died in the weeks after you got control of the Resistance when you pushed to rebuild the damaged plants, died since then because it's too cold for us to survive outside now because of all the smoke! I know at least five hundred were killed when you took over, at least three hundred died in the first two weeks after that, another hundred or two in the following four months. And that's not counting those forced to live in the city outside! You've killed more of our people than the Empire has. And I heard what 18 said upstairs. One of the Sentinels was willing to kill a room full of our own people just to hit her!"

"People die in a war." Valor replied, calmly. "Collateral damage is to be expected."

Hope's eyes snapped open again and she scowled. "Collateral damage!?" she yelled. "The purpose of the Resistance was to protect our people!"

"No! The purpose of the Resistance is to destroy the Empire!" Valor cried. "Nothing else matters. Nothing! What's it matter if a few people die so long as the Masters are destroyed?"

Hope swallowed. "You're willing to kill us all just to destroy them?" she asked, shocked. Despite having accepted what 18 had said about the Empire as being possible she'd not believed the woman about Valor. She couldn't. She knew him. "No. I only thought I knew him." she thought, fighting not to be sick.

"The price of victory." he answered. "I thought you understood that. What happened to that resolve of yours? Weren't you the one that was always telling me that you lived for the day the Masters were all dead?"

"Not at the cost of more of our people." Hope said, quietly. "I was fighting to save us, first and foremost." She shook her head then. "I can't believe you'd sacrifice all of us for your revenge. You're no better than them. You make me sick."

Valor growled and scowled at her. "You're just as weak as Harmony." he said, disgusted. "Well, no matter. This isn't over yet. You may have stopped the Sentinels but I've still got my army. Five million Guardians and five million Paladins are waiting in the underground bunkers, I've already got those still loyal to the cause prepping them. With those numbers I'll still be able to kill her, then I'll remove all of the traitors and we'll get back to business." He raised an arm and pointed his palm toward the two women. "But before all of that I'll deal with the two of you."

Hope's eyes widened as she saw the spark of white energy around Valor's hand. She reached out, grabbed her sister's arm, and then yanked her back away from him and threw her behind her. Faith hit the wall, stumbled, and then fell with a thud, slightly dazed. When her mind cleared again her eyes widened. Hope was laying on the floor in front of her with a large hole through her chest. "Hope...." she said softly, dazedly, reaching a hand out for her sister. Her head snapped up as she heard a sudden grunt of pain and she saw Valor collapse to the ground, head flopping about oddly. His neck was broken.

She turned her gaze from the downed Valor back up to the door way and found 18 standing there, gazing down at her and Hope, and she could see the sadness in the woman's eyes. "Sorry I didn't get here faster." she said, walking toward them and kneeling down beside Faith. "I tried...."

Faith shook her head. "It's not your fault." she said. She laughed then, as she started to cry, and reached a hand out to close Hope's eyes. "She... saved me. Pulled me out of the way of Valor's attack." She smiled at her sister then. "Apology accepted." she said, barely above a whisper. Then she started climbing to her feet and tried to pick her sister's body up but 18 was already there lifting her. "I... thanks...."

18 nodded. "What is this place, anyway?" she asked.

"Computer control room for the Sentinels." Faith turned her gaze from her sister to the glass tube. "That thing was their brain."

"You shut it down?" she asked, and Faith nodded. "Then I, and everyone on this planet, owe you their lives." she said. "Come on, let's go find Gallant and let him know it's over."

Faith started to follow her out, glancing back at Valor on the way, but as she saw him she stopped. "It's not." she said.

"What?" asked 18, looking back.

"Not over. Valor organized his remaining followers. They're arming all of the Guardians and Paladins that are stored in the bunkers, the army he had built."

"How many?" asked 18.

Faith sighed and shook her head. "Five million." she replied. "Of each design."

"Five million!?" 18 thought, her mind going numb. With five million even the weaker Guardian design would overwhelm her. Five million of the Paladins... that would be enough to overwhelm Cell, maybe even Pan. "Do you know were they are?"

"No." said Faith. "Valor kept the bunker locations a secret from all but his most trusted people. Zeal might know where a few of them are but I don't think even she'd know of all of them."

18 nodded. "Come here, climb onto my back. We need to leave the city quickly, before that army is activated."

Faith nodded again and quickly did as instructed. Once she had a firm hold around 18's neck the Cyborg lifted off the floor and then sped off through the hall, up the stairs, into the main room again, and then back out through the roof. Reaching the open sky she turned north, to where the largest knot of powers were located, and sped off for Gallant and the refugees. Faith on her back and Hope in her arms. It only took her a minute to reach the large gathering of people, about a mile beyond the city limits, and she descended to land near the edge of them.

Many of those who saw her come down paled and pulled back, others watched her in a mix of shock, confusion, curiosity, and fear. Only one of them stepped toward her, Zeal. "What happened?" she asked.

"Valor." 18 replied, handing over Hope's body.

"He caught us destroying the control computer for the Sentinels." explained Faith. "Hope saved me...."

Zeal sighed. "I will see to it that Hope is given a warrior's burial." she said. "And I take it, then, that Valor is gone?"

"He is." replied 18. "But the threat's not over yet. Valor's got those still loyal mobilizing his entire Battle Droid army, according to Faith. Do you know where the bunkers are?"

"Where the Battle Droids are stored?" asked Zeal. "Only four, but each bunker only holds a hundred thousand units. That would barely even put a dent in the forces." 18 closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists. Zeal sighed and closed her own. "I do know this, though. The bunkers... they're all inside the city, about six hundred feet below ground."

18's eyes opened again. "All of them?"

"Yes."

The Cyborg turned and gazed at the city again. She was still picking up about five thousand powers inside the city limits. Five thousand wasn't a staggering number, not compared to the number of deaths already on her hands, but it was more than she cared to think about. She wished there was some other way but... Valor had forced her hand. She couldn't allow the Battle Droid army to be brought on-line. Five thousand now was better than the entire race later. "Have everyone move back and crouch down." she said, floating into the air. "And make sure the children aren't watching."

Zeal watched her float up for a moment and then turned and started yelling orders to those behind her, not that it was needed. The soldiers that had come with her had heard 18 as well and had already started sending out the word. The Cyborg stopped once she was high enough and then gave the city another look. Based on the size of the city, and the depth of the bunkers, she quickly calculated the power she'd need. Then, closing her eyes and shutting off her scanners so that she wouldn't have to see all the deaths about to occur, she placed her hands in front of her stomach, fingers bent to point at each other, red energy gathering between her hands.

Faith and Zeal watched on in apprehension, fear, and awe as they saw the energy flare up in the sky. The glow of light got the attention of most of those gathered behind them and many turned to watch. And then 18's voice rang out, clear even from their distance. "Nova Bomb!" The ball of light shot down at the city, impacted somewhere near the center, and then exploded in a roar of sound and a rush of wind and light. A towering column of energy surged into the smoke blackened sky, the ground shook knocking many off of their feet, and then the shockwave hit knocking over the rest of those still standing, including Zeal and Faith.

"In... incredible...." Zeal said in shock as she watched the massive column shrink and then vanish. Nothing remained of Defiance now. Nothing but a round canyon eight hundred feet deep.

18 floated back down and landed in front of Zeal and Faith as the two stood. "And with any luck that's the end of this." she said. She turned then as she caught Gallant nearing from her right. "Do your people have anywhere they can go?" she asked.

Gallant nodded. "There is another city, Independence, not too far from here." he said. "We should be able to walk there in three or four days. We owe you much, it would seem."

18 shook her head. "You don't owe me anything." she replied. "Too many people died here for that." She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out her capsule case. Opening it she pulled out one and held it out to Gallant. "This capsule contains a ComNet terminal." she said. "When you get to where you're going just press the button on top and give it a toss, the terminal will appear. It'll give you a direct link to someone on Saiya. If your raiders show up again before a team arrives to set up a station in the system use the terminal to contact Saiya and let them know. It'll take about three days for anyone to get here from Saiya, though."

Gallant nodded as he took the capsule. "And when should we expect this team?"

"I don't know." 18 said with a sigh. "It'll probably take a few weeks or so, before they can be assembled. We'll need to find enough people who can breathe down here or they wont be much help. As I told Faith earlier there are only three or four races we know of who the air here isn't toxic for. It's the entire reason Gero sent his team ten years ago, and why no one else from the Empire has bothered to come. Anyway, you'll be on your own for a bit, but with as long as the raiders have been gone you may have already chased them off for good anyway."

"Alright." he said. "Thank-you."

"How are you getting home?" asked Faith. "Valor destroyed your pod...."

18 smiled as she pulled out another capsule. "I have spares." she said.

"Spares? You have more than one spare?" asked Gallant.

"Yes, why?"

Gallant glanced back over his shoulder at the multitude of people he'd evacuated from Defiance, many of them still on the ground, most of them crying, then turned and look toward Faith. "I... hate to admit this." he said. "But many here will not be happy with Faith, even after all you've told us is proven true. Even those who left because they no longer trusted Valor will hold the deaths here, and the destruction of our city, against her. I... do not think it safe for her to remain with us."

Zeal nodded. "I hate to say it but Gallant's right. I don't think she'd... survive the trip to Independence, even if I were to stand watch over her the entire way myself."

18 turned at the sound of a thud and saw that Faith had just collapsed to the ground, eyes wide. The Cyborg could see that the woman agreed with the other two but hadn't even thought of it until they'd mentioned it. "Alright." she said. "If she wants I can take her with me as a refugee. We'll be able to find some place for her on Saiya until things settle down here."

Faith swallowed and then nodded. "Yes." she said. "Yes, I'll go. I... don't want Hope's sacrifice to save me to be wasted."

18 nodded and pulled out a second capsule before closing the case and putting it away again. "Alright. Say your good-byes and we'll go." Faith nodded again and, with a little help from Zeal, got back to her feet. Gallant then lead her into the mass of people to find her friends, if she still had any left. 18 turned her attention back to Zeal. "Where's Harmony? I figured she'd still be hanging on to you."

Zeal glanced at the Cyborg then turned her gaze to the ground. "She... she heard me telling others that we had to leave because you might have to destroy the city, to stop Valor and the Battle Droids, then she suddenly let go of me and ran back into the city, saying she wanted to stay with him."

18's stomach clenched then. "She was just a kid...." she thought. "Love sucks." she muttered as she turned and gave the Capsules in her hand a toss. With a crack and a burst of smoke the two capsules exploded and a pair of Space Pods emerged just as Faith and Gallant came back out of the crowd. "Ready?" she asked. Faith nodded and the two of them walked over to the waiting pods and climbed in.

"It'll take about a week to get to Saiya." she told the other woman. "There's ration bars in the compartment to your right, they taste like crap but they've got all the nutrients you'll need. The Capsules in the left compartment each have a bottle of water. The compartment over your head has the air mask. There's two options with the mask. Hibernation gas, so you can sleep the whole way and wont need to eat or drink, and nano-bot mist. The nano-bot mist is for eliminating body waste if you don't sleep all the way, since there aren't any bathrooms in these things."

"Ok."

"Alright, let's go." 18 punched in a few commands and then the pod doors closed. There was a faint shudder and then the sudden pressure of momentum as the pods shot into the sky and out of the atmosphere.

XXX

18 sighed as she stared at the blinking "Connect?" on the screen. She'd been putting it off for two days now, contacting Saiya and finding out if it was still there. She was worried, terrified really, that the world was gone. That Kakkarotto had lost to Buu. But she knew she couldn't delay forever. She'd not told Faith about Buu or the possibility that Saiya was gone, she wouldn't unless the world was gone, but she wouldn't know that until she contacted them. Finally she reached out and taped the green yes on the screen and "Connect?" changed to "Connecting...." and she waited.

A moment later Bulma's face came on the screen and she smiled. "Kakkarotto won?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, Buu? Yeah." she said, nodding. 18 noticed she seemed a little preoccupied but the other woman pushed whatever it was aside. "Are you on your way back, then?"

"Yes." 18 said. "Where's Master Vegeta?"

"Busy with a rather... problematic issue."

"What kind of issue?"

"The missing Master kind."

"What?" asked 18, shocked.

"Cold and Inferna have vanished. They were crossing the Eye of the Universe via a Worm Hole but never came back out again." said Bulma. "No one can find them or has any idea where they are or what happened. They've been gone for about a week and a half now and Inferna's daughter is already starting to cause problems and tension. Cooler and Frieza aren't helping matters much, either. Vegeta's spending most of his time trying to keep things running smoothly between them all."

"Damn. If it's not one problem it's another anymore.... Well, I guess I can make my full report when I get back to Saiya, then." she said. "Though I do have a few things I think I should go over now."

"Go ahead, I'll make a note of it and pass it on."

"Alright. First of all, I've got a refugee with me. A Leberion native named Faith. She's the only reason I'm still alive and helping me put her in danger."

"Refugee status request, then?" asked Bulma. 18 nodded. "I can file that myself once we're done."

"Thanks. There are two other matters." 18 reached into her pocket and pulled out the small device that had been attached to her neck before. "This thing is called an 'Energy Inhibitor' and it was used to restrain me." she said. She saw Bulma's eyes widened. "Yeah, I was shocked too. I figure Gero's going to want it when I arrive. The other matter pertains as to why Leberion was causing us so much trouble. They were being raided by what they thought were Imperial soldiers."

"Huh?"

"Apparently, since shortly after Gero's team left ten years ago, Leberion's been targeted by some group wearing antique battle armors. Constant attacks and abductions. Sounds like pirates to me, not uncommon, but they have Imperial equipment...."

Bulma nodded. "Vegeta's going to be pissed."

"Yeah, I figured as much. I left Gallant, their new leader, a ComNet terminal so he can contact us if they show up again." she said. "The Battle Droids have all been destroyed, no more threat there. Though they were a lot stronger than I expected. They had five that matched my power."

"Seriously?"

18 nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, that's everything for now. I'll give Master Vegeta the full details when I get back."

Bulma nodded again. "Alright. I'll give him what you gave me when I see him again."

"Thanks." said 18. "So, how's Marron doing?"

"Oh, that's right, you don't know yet." Bulma said, smiling. "She's doing good. She's been pretty happy lately, actually. Right now she's on Gorneo, or will be in a few more hours, at least."

"Gorneo?"

"Yep. I pulled a few strings, got her a posting there." Bulma explained. "I figured she'd like it out there, it'd give her something to do, instead of just sitting around the palace all day. And it's not that far from here so you'll be able to visit each other easily."

18 smiled. "Thanks."

Bulma shrugged. "No problem." she said. "Trunks went with her, Vegeta wants him to do a little 'overseeing' of some of the projects, a lot of them are falling behind and turning in pretty crappy work as of late."

The Cyborg chuckled. Just having Trunks on the planet would increase productivity by at least ten percent, always did, and that was without him lifting a finger. Meanwhile she was looking at some data on her screen. She'd looked up the location of Gorneo and it made her smile a little. "Gorneo's on route back to Saiya." she said. "In fact, if I detour now I can be there in a couple of hours. Should get there right around the same time as Trunks and Marron."

"I think they'd like that." Bulma said. "I can let Vegeta know you'll be delayed getting back. And... Marron's got something she wants to tell you, anyway."

"Oh?" 18 asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not saying anything more than it's the reason she's happy." replied Bulma, grinning. "Just ask her when you see her."

18 chuckled again. "Alright, I will." she said, closing the connection. "Should have called them days ago, would have saved me a lot of anxiety." she thought as she patched in to Faith's pod. The other woman had chosen to not use the hibernation gas so that she could take in all of the sights. No one from her world had ever been in space before, not counting those abducted by the raiders. "Faith?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to make a detour to Gorneo, visit my daughter." she said. "Just found out she's got a job there now. You can either go on to Saiya by yourself or stay with me, it's up to you."

"I... I'd rather stay with you." she said.

18 nodded. She'd figured the woman wouldn't want to deal with the other Masters and the Empire all on her own. "Alright. We'll be there in a few hours then."

"Ok."

XXX

Bulma sighed as she turned back to her equations again, her mind drifting back to her fears. Cold and Inferna and their ships, gone. Vanished without a trace. In the Eye of the Universe. The place she knew instabilities would surface first. She hadn't noticed any yet but it was the only explanation she could think of for what had happened to the two Masters. She figured the Worm Hole had simply enhanced the effect of the instability allowing them to fall through it before she could detect it. She didn't like the implications one bit, though. Even with a Worm Hole the only way she could see that there could be an instability of that level was if the universe had passed the tipping point already.

She couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before she started picking up the instabilities. How long before they became obvious. How long before the universe actually began to rip itself apart. She'd considered telling Vegeta or Gero about it but... Marron was the only one she'd ever actually talked about her equations with, before. Vegeta knew of them, of course. So did Gero, he'd shown some interest in them originally. But the math was actually beyond him, something Bulma had been shocked by. Beyond that, he was more of a physical science person, so he eventually lost interest.

Telling either of them about her concerns now would require explaining her stability equation in greater detail and, perhaps, allowing them to discover the survival of the Humans. Besides, if she were right, there wasn't anything they'd be able to do, anyway. Once the universe was past the tipping point, past the point of no return, there was no going back. Period. It wouldn't even give them any advantage at locating Cold and Inferna. So, in the end, she decided there was no point. It wouldn't accomplish anything of value and she couldn't even be certain she was right. Not until her sensors started picking up on the instabilities, anyway.

She spent the next few hours going over her prediction equation. She was still stumped as to how, exactly, to factor in Shenron's effects. She did, however, have a few theories, the one she was currently pursing was a quantum mechanical, nine dimensional, temporal ripple trace. She knew, from Gero's study of the Kanassans ability to see the future, that future events were pretty well anchored in place. It was possible to effect things, slightly, if you knew of them in advance. But if you didn't know what was coming you'd always react in a certain way, those around you would react in a certain way, and a specific course of events would then occur. Always.

She also knew that the reason the Kanassans could even see the future at all was because all events left ripples that flowed through time, both forward and backward. The larger the event the greater the ripple created. The Dragons made major changes to the universe with every wish, even the smallest in scope would likely create a large ripple. If she could trace the ripples created by the Dragons by following the displaced flow of time created by their alteration of the fundamentals of the universe then, perhaps, she could factor them in. She could lock in on the Dragons at each summoning, try and interpret the energy patterns and level shifts that surrounded their summonings, and from those find a way of plotting them. Perhaps even discover some sort of imprint pattern they left behind that would allow her to predict them as completely as anyone else.

Finally, eyes tired and fingers sore from all of her work, she set aside her chalk and dusted off her hands. Supper would be served down in the cafeteria soon and she was starving. She could work more on the equation later. Besides, she still needed to talk with Vegeta. Making her way from the room she headed down to large and noisy cafeteria.

Nearing the doors she found Vegeta emerging, in conversation with Gero. "So they'll have a team in the Eye by the end of the month?" he asked.

Gero nodded. "That's my understanding. Phyre is sending out four dozen ships to scour the entire Eye for any trace of their ships."

"And Cooler and Frieza?"

Gero sighed. "Still causing problems. Both of them are refusing to concede to the other's claim of control over even a portion of Cold's section of the East Galaxy. Unfortunately Changeling law isn't exactly clear on the matter, either. Cooler is the eldest and, technically, the strongest. But only due to his latter forms. On a form by form basis Frieza is the stronger of the two, considerably so at that. Changeling law says that power supercedes age but doesn't bother to clarify if it means maximum total power comparative power."

Vegeta sighed and rubbed his forehead for a moment, then spotted Bulma waiting a few feet away. "Something up?" he asked.

"Some good news, I think." said Bulma. "Sounds like you could use some."

"That's an understatement." he muttered. "So, what is it?"

"18 contacted me earlier." she replied. "She's finished with the Leberion mission and is on her way back, and with a refugee. Also, It seems the Leberion people were only causing us trouble because they thought we were attacking them. From what 18 learned she thinks it's a band of pirates that are behind it. Only, these pirates, they've got battle armor and Imperial equipment." Vegeta was scowling before she'd even finished. "She left them a ComNet terminal to contact us if they come by again."

Vegeta nodded. "Good. I hope they do, I'd like to know where they got their supplies." he said, frowning.

She turned her gaze to Gero then. "She's also got something for you."

"Oh?"

"Something called an 'Energy Inhibitor' that was used to restrain her."

"Interesting....." Gero said. "To have been able to restrain 18 is quite impressive. When will she be back?"

"I don't know." Bulma said. "After I told her about Marron's post she decided to detour to Gorneo before coming back, since it's along the route."

Vegeta stiffened. "She's stopping at Gorneo?"

"Yeah. She's probably there by now, or almost there, she said it was only a few hours from her location when she called." Bulma replied.

Vegeta suddenly turned and hurried off down the hall leaving Bulma and Gero to stare after him in confusion.