A/N: This is, by far, my favorite chapter in this fic so far, with my favorite scene.
Chapter Thirty-two - Masters No More
Pan sighed as she tossed her towel onto the bed and then started digging through her bag for clean clothes. "Cooler needs to get better water heaters." she said, fishing out a few items.
17 laughed. "The water heaters are fine." he said. "The problem is that you take two hour long showers. I mean, look at your fingers. I've seen raisins with less wrinkles."
Pan pulled her head up out of her bag and stuck her tongue out at 17 before going back to digging out the rest of her clothes. Once she had everything out she sat down on the bed and started getting dressed. "So, how much longer do you think we're going to be here?" she asked.
17 sighed and shrugged. "This mess with Cold is jamming everything up." he said. "Cooler's fighting with Frieza over majority control of the galaxy too much to do much else. We're probably going to be stuck here a while, yet." He turned from the computer and looked over to her just as she was straightening out her shirt. "You could always fly back to Saiya for a while, hang out with Bra until she goes to Gorneo to visit Marron. It would give you something to do, at least."
"I've got plenty to do here." Pan replied, smirking. "I just have to work a little harder at getting it."
17 laughed again. "Not that hard." he said.
This time Pan shrugged and grinned. "I've got natural charm." she said, walking over, sitting in his lap, and wrapping her arms around his neck. "And I've gotten plenty of practice at putting it to use."
"You know, this would have been a lot more effective if you hadn't gotten dressed first." he said, kissing her.
"Aw, but then we'd miss out on half the fun." she said after he broke the kiss. "Besides, I'm just being a tease right now, I've actually got plans elsewhere."
17's eyes widened in mock shock. "You, a tease? Never!" She scowled at him and smacked him lightly. "So, what are these 'plans' of yours, and should I be concerned?"
"Nah, nothing to worry you about." she said. "While I was out exploring the palace some the other day I got to talking with a few of the staff and expressed how bored I was here. There may not be much in the way of entertainment here but apparently there is a pretty active club."
"A club?" he asked, surprised.
"Staff run." she explained. "A lot of the staff here are from less... boring races than the Changelings. So they converted an unused dinning hall into a club. Lights, music, alcohol, the whole deal. And I've got a personal invite. Apparently they think...." Pan cleared her throat and did her best imitation of one of those airy, ditzy, type voice. "'It would be, like, totally awesome to have a Master come by.' I figured, what the hell, why not? It probably beats staying up here and watching some dumb movie."
"Dumb movie? Was or was not that you crying at the movie you watched last night, hmm?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"And if you ever tell anyone about that you'll be talking with a higher voice than me for the rest of your life." Pan threatened, smirking.
"Wouldn't thi...." The Cyborg trailed off as his terminal started beeping, loud and high. Looking back he saw the flashing 'Priority Message' notice. Pan saw it, too, and slid off his lap to sit beside him as he clicked off the notice and pulled up the message. It was just two simple words of text. "Watch alone?" 17 said, confused, as he read it.
"Watch what?" asked Pan. "And who's it from? I thought all Priority Messages like these had to be signed?"
The Cyborg started to shake his head but then he saw infinity symbol at the bottom of the message, where the signature usually went. At least, at first glance that was what it was. But he knew better. It was 18's coded signature, the one she used when she was sending a message in secret. He hesitated for a moment, she had said to watch it alone.... He knew he could show Pan anything, she wouldn't cause him problems, but he was worried he'd cause her some if she saw whatever his sister sent. Then again, he knew her well enough to know she'd not just go quietly, and probably wouldn't go at all.
"It's from 18." he said at last. "She hacked the ComNet to send it."
"Hacked the... why?"
"Let's find out." he said, tapping the screen over his sister's coded signature. The message vanished and was replaced by an image. Down in the bottom right corner were the words ANDROID 18 INTERNAL RECORDING and up in the top left was a time stamp not more than twenty minutes old.
"What... the...." Pan breathed, as she gazed at the destruction on the screen. "17, do you know where this is? What this is?"
The Cyborg shook his head. "No. Leberion, maybe?" he suggested. "That was where she was going last, right? Replacing me?"
"I don't know...." Pan said, looking back at the screen. The video was now standing outside of a nearly destroyed building and there were notations of power readings on the screen. Levels and the expected conditions of their owners based on the nature of the levels. All of them were marked as dying. And then she heard 18's voice, Marron's name, and her stomach clenched as the woman came into the frame. "By the Kais...." Pan whispered, eyes widening. "That's...."
17 nodded but was barely listening to Pan, his focus was on the audio track of the video. His sister was kneeling beside her daughter now and 17 could tell Marron wouldn't make it long. In fact, going by the time stamp, she was likely already dead.
"Who could do...." Pan started, but she trailed off as 18 asked the same thing. "What!?" Pan cried, eyes widening further. "Why would Trunks... that doesn't make sense...."
17 glanced over at her, then back at the screen. "Vegeta ordered this, he must have." he thought. "But why? Marron saved Trunks's life, I thought for sure that would keep her safe. And she would have been an extra insurance policy for keeping 18's loyalty. Did... did they decide to hunt down and eliminate all the Humans in the Empire? And do they know 18 knows? If they do...." And then, suddenly, 'FAILSAFE FIVE ACTIVATION - SECURITY LOCKOUT ENGAGED' appeared over his vision and he blinked in confusion. And then he saw it again, only this time it was on the video file that 18 had sent.
"What's that?" asked Pan.
"I'm... not sure." 17 replied. "But I just saw it myself, in my own systems.... Wait, my tracer is off, and my link to Gero's computers is closed...."
"You mean... he can't use any of those failsafes on you or 18 now? The bomb and stuff?"
"I... don't think he can." he replied slowly. It didn't make sense to him that such a system would exist. It made the other failsafes pretty much worthless. He pushed it aside for now so he could focus on the screen. 18 was just leaving Marron, no doubt to try and locate Trunks, and he wanted to know how this turned out. Had his sister sent him this just before her death?
He glanced over to his side as he felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Pan looking up at him, concerned. "She'll be ok, you'll see." she said. He smiled at her, though barely, and then turned back to the screen. 18 had found Trunks. "Vegeta ordered...." Pan said slowly, eyes losing their focus. Now it was 17 who was looking at her with concern. They both knew full well that Vegeta never made a move like this without talking to Kakkarotto and Gohan first. Which meant that if Vegeta ordered it then so had they.
"But... my dad and grandfather...." she said, slowly. "They wouldn't... they couldn't.... Could they?" Pan asked, looking up at 17.
He closed his eyes and sighed. "Pan...." He sighed again and opened his eyes. "If they agreed with Vegeta that she was dangerous....."
Pan closed her eyes now. "Yeah. You're right." she said, quietly. "But... it's not... Marron wasn't a threat. The people at that facility weren't even part of this!"
17 wasn't sure what to say to her, and beyond that he was concerned for 18. She and Trunks were fighting now and he couldn't see any way for her to beat him. It was looking like she had sent this just before her death. One last act, a way to get the truth out. No doubt Vegeta had planned some sort of cover story for this, and could probably pin 18's death on the Leberion Resistance, if needed.
"What the...." Pan breathed.
17 looked back at the screen again and stared on in shock. 18 had just punched Trunks, a Super Sai-jin Trunks, and sent him flying. Then, suddenly, he transformed again and slammed her into the ground and he winced. But the video kept going, the image was moving like 18 was getting up. And then her screaming started, the video went blue for a second, and then the dust was gone and Trunks was staring down in shock. Then he was charging, his arm coming back for a punch, and 17 turned away not wanting to see what happened.
"Oh... oh my...." Pan said, slowly, right after a loud crack. Then he heard 18's voice just before Pan's came back again. "How is she.... No way!"
17 looked back just in time to see the hole through Trunks's chest before the Hybrid fell off the frame. "How...? He was at the second level...."
Pan shook her head. "I don't know either." she said. "But his punch... she didn't even react. The video didn't even shake." 18 then turned from the downed Trunks and flew back back to where Marron's body lay. As she picked the woman up the screen went black again. The video was over.
"Pan...." he said slowly, turning to face her. He didn't want to do this but... 18 was his sister. He was all she had now, he couldn't let her do this by herself.
"You're going after her, aren't you?" Pan asked, looking up at him. He nodded. "To help, not to stop, right?" He nodded again. "Well, I'm coming too."
"No, I can't let...."
"Uh-uh, no, don't even." Pan said, shaking her head. "You're my Mate. Where you go I go, you know that. Besides, I can't just pretend I didn't see that." she glanced over to the blank screen for a moment before turning back to him and continuing. "Staying here would be the same as agreeing with what dad, grandfather, and Vegeta did, and I don't. I don't want any part of that."
17 nodded. "Alright then." he said. "Let's get our things together and go."
"Wait." said Pan, turning back to the screen again. "Can you... can you send this out to someone else?"
XXX
Bra lay in bed staring at the ceiling and waiting. Waiting for her ComStation to beep. Waiting for Marron to call her after settling in at Gorneo. She felt rather stupid, and somewhat pathetic, to just be laying there waiting like that. That was something the sappy romantics in the soap operas did, the ones she was always making fun of. But she couldn't help it, she didn't want to chance not being there when Marron called. "So I'm pathetic, that's fine." she thought. "I can deal with being pathetic if it makes me feel this happy."
She practically jumped out of bed when her ComStation beeped a moment later. Rushing over she flicked it on and her smile faded, just slightly, when she saw Pan instead of Marron. 17, she could see, was behind her doing something over at the bed. "Hey, Pan." she said. "What's up?" Pan didn't say anything for a moment, just sat there looking upset. "Pan?" she asked, getting worried herself.
Finally, Pan sighed and shook her head to clear it some. "Bra... 17 and I... we just...." she stopped and tried another method. "18 sent a video to us. Something she... she recorded herself. From Gorneo. You told me the other day... about you and Marron so... I thought...." She sighed. "It wont be easy to watch but... you have the right to see it, to know."
Bra blinked. She hadn't known 18 was on Gorneo and she couldn't think of anything that could have happened that would have the Cyborg sending 17 and Pan a video, or that would have Pan acting like this. "What's happened?"
"Here." Pan said, pushing something on her end. A flashing notice came up in the corner of Bra's terminal that she had a video file. Reaching out she brought it up and started watching. From the instant she saw the billowing black clouds she knew she wasn't going to like what she saw. How could this be Gorneo? But the matter was settled when Marron came into the frame. Beaten, bloody, broken, and dying. Tears burned her eyes and she nearly screamed in fear, anger, and despair, but she forced it down, forced the emotions away, so that she could see and hear and understand.
She sat and watched. Sat and listened. Sat quietly and absorbed everything. "Trunks... how... how could you?" she thought, shocked. "Why would you...?" She reached up and rubbed her eyes, wiping away the tears so they wouldn't make her miss anything. "FATHER!?" her mind screamed, as Trunks explained why he'd done what he'd done. And then the bit before, about the power spike, registered in her mind. "No... he... he told him! He told him after telling me he wouldn't! Bastard! I'm going to...."
But her train of thought trailed off then. Trunks and 18 were fighting and the Cyborg was giving it her all. Then came the blow that knocked Trunks flying, the transformation to level two, and then 18's attack. Bra couldn't believe it. She just sat there, wide-eyed and stunned. Her brother had killed Marron, on her father's orders, and now he was dead.... And she was only disappointed that she hadn't been the one to do it. She shook herself, then, as she realized Pan was talking to her.
"Bra? Are you... ok?"
"Y-yeah." she managed. "I... I'm ok. Oh... Kami...." she started as the tears started burning at her eyes again. The sadness seemed to be pushing everything else out of her mind at the moment.
"17 and I are leaving." Pan said.
"Leaving?"
"Yeah. We're going to go meet up with 18. I don't... I don't know when I'll see you again, if it all."
"Don't be stupid." said Bra, the sadness suddenly being erased by her anger. "You'll be seeing me as soon as I get wherever you're going. I'm not staying here, not with... with him. Forget it."
"I thought you might feel that way."
XXX
Vegeta frowned as he tapped his fingers against the table. This meeting was not getting anything accomplished at all. Frieza and Cooler were bickering almost non stop. He'd never realized just how much of an influence Cold had over the two of them. Without the elder Changeling there to filter interactions between his sons they were all but trying to kill each other. Piccolo had tried, more than once, to be the voice of reason, but he kept getting drowned out. Cell spent most of the time just smirking as he watched the Changelings fight, he'd never gotten along with them as it was.
Gero was still down in his lab, apparently. He'd sent Videl up to take his place at the meeting. Which likely meant he still hadn't managed to establish any kind of contact with Gorneo. He wasn't really worried about Trunks, not after knowing he'd transformed, but he did want to know what had happened just the same. If Trunks had had to kill the Cyborg or not. Cover wasn't really needed at this point, that had been mostly for 18's sake, but he was still a bit concerned about Bra's reac....
His mind snapped back to the conference room as all heads turned toward the door that had just banged open. Bra was standing in the doorway, jaw clenched, eyes red from crying, tear streaks evident on her cheeks, and a look of half-controlled fury in her eyes that he'd never seen before. "I thought you might like to know, father." she said in a quiet and strained voice, barely above a whisper. "Trunks is dead."
Bulma gasped beside Vegeta while he just blinked a few times and then frowned.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"Dead." she replied. "D. E. A. D. Dead. Like Marron."
"Like Mar... how does she...." Vegeta stood up and stepped around the table, walking toward Bra. "What do you mean?" he asked. "How do you know...?"
"About what you did?" she asked, glaring at him. "What you had Trunks do? Because I saw. Because 18 saw and she showed 17 and Pan and they showed me. Marron told 18 before she died, Trunks told 18 when she confronted him, before she killed him."
"This doesn't make sense." Vegeta thought. "I saw Trunks's power spike from his transformation."
"Don't you have anything to say?" she asked.
"Vegeta... what's she talking about?" asked Bulma. Vegeta glanced back at her, and then at the others, and frowned.
"I'm talking about Gorneo." said Bra, before he could say anything. "About the orders father gave to Trunks, to kill Marron." Bra was starting shake from her pain and sadness as she stood there, her eyes were burning again but she refused to let herself cry in front of her father. Anger was something he understood far better, anyway.
Vegeta turned back to her. "We'll talk about this lat...."
"NO!" she screamed, her power snapping out and ruffling his hair. "No later! We're going to talk about this now!" Vegeta scowled at her and she scowled right back. "There was no reason, no reason!" she cried. "She... she was...." She turned her head aside and closed her eyes as the tears started anyway, despite her efforts to avoid them.
"Trunks told me you had an interest in her." Vegeta said. "But the fact is she was dangerous. According to him you were there when...."
"I told him not say anything!" she yelled. Her head had snapped back up and she was back to glaring at her father again, tears still running down her cheeks. "I begged him and he said he wouldn't. That bastard promised. He promised me and then he told you anyway. He got what he deserved!"
"Bra!" Bulma cried.
"Sorry mom, but I mean it." she said, shaking her head. "I'm just sorry I wasn't the one to do it."
"That's enough!" Vegeta growled. "I did what was best...."
"You did... what was best....?" Bra said, slowly, hands clenching into fists and her whole body shaking now with anger. "She was my MATE!" she screamed, her aura suddenly bursting to life. "And you... you dare tell me it was what was best?! BASTARD!" There was a sudden burst of gold and then two thunderous cracks almost at the same time. It took Bulma and the others a moment to process what had just happen. Bra stood, her right arm still out stretched, her hair golden and spiky, and Vegeta lay on the floor, slumped against the wall on the opposite end of the room, rubbing his jaw.
The first crack had been her fist hitting Vegeta's face, the second had been Vegeta hitting the wall. The girl panted as she stared at her father, still scowling. Finally she lowered her arm and sighed, her hair falling back down again. "Mom... I'm sorry...." she said, shaking her head. She glanced over to Videl then and sighed again. "So is Pan." And, with that, she turned and left, slamming the door closed behind her.
"Pan's sorry?" Videl asked. "What does she mean?"
"I don't know...." Bulma said quietly, still absorbing everything.
"I think you should fill us in." said Piccolo, as Vegeta got to his feet. "I think we all get the gist of it, but...."
"Marron had some sort of power spike." said Gohan. "It was back while dad and I were fighting Buu. According to Trunks she was near my own base level." He sighed. "That level of power... she could have killed any of us if our guard was down, and that's without any combat training at all. So, we decided...."
"You knew?" asked Videl, looking over at Gohan. He nodded and she sighed. "Of course you did."
"So you sent Trunks?" asked Bulma, feeling sick.
"We were going to have him stage an attack by Slug." said Kakkarotto, shrugging. "We couldn't just kill Marron, not with 18's state of mind, not so soon after the destruction of Earth. I don't know how she found out, though."
Bulma closed her eyes. "I told her." she said. "Sort of. I told her about Marron's posting when she called earlier, on her way back from Leberion. She was already near the planet so she decided to go visit."
"And showed up while Trunks was in the middle of his mission." said Vegeta. "I couldn't get him on his scouter and by the time I got to Gero's lab to have him contact the planet the ComCenter was already out. We tried to shut down 18 but there was interference in the system from solar flares. Then he got locked out of her systems completely." He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "But this makes no sense!" he cried at last. "I didn't leave Gero's lab until I saw Trunks's power spike up to show he'd gone Super Sai-jin. 18 doesn't have that kind of power...."
"She wouldn't need it." said Bulma. "She can do energy discs, remember?"
Vegeta glanced over at her and then scowled. He had forgotten about that. If she'd fired one off that had caught him.... "Damn it." he muttered, closing his eyes again. He was about to say more when there was a sudden beeping from one of the monitors. "Answer." he said to the computer, opening his eyes and looking to see what had happened now.
"Sirs." the soldier said, nodding, as he appeared on the screen. "Um... I figured you'd want to know...."
"Know what?" Vegeta demanded.
"Uh, well, Mistress Bra was just down in the hangar bays." he said. "She... she kicked her crew out of her ship and launched. We... lost the transponder and locator signals a few seconds later." He shook his head. "We don't know where she went after that and... well... there's no way to trace her...."
Vegeta sighed again. "Understood." he said. The guard nodded and the screen went blank, meanwhile Cooler turned his head to someone off screen and spoke quietly to them. Vegeta knew what he was doing, he was asking about 17 and Pan. "Well?" he asked, as Cooler turned back to look at them again.
"Gone." he said. "Both of them. Transponder and locator disabled as well, just like Bra."
Silence fell over the room then. Trunks was dead, 18, 17, Pan, and Bra were gone. No doubt the latter three were intending to join up with 18 somewhere. Bulma was busy absorbing what it all meant. Her family was all gone now, nearly everything about her life that meant anything to her. Trunks was dead, Bra had left.... And she didn't doubt that Bra would be back eventually, along with the others. Trunks had carried out the orders but Vegeta had been the one to give them. As that thought came to her she turned her gaze over to where he stood and she couldn't help herself.
"Well, I hope you're happy." she said, standing. "All of you." she added, looking toward Kakkarotto and Gohan, both of whom were still stunned from learning of Pan's departure. "Now instead of being down three Masters we're down eight. Two dead, two missing, and four..." she shook her head. "Four defected. You do realize that, don't you? They're gone and they're not coming back. That's both of your lines, gone, turned against you." She walked away from the table and toward the door. "You did more damage in one stupid action than anyone else has ever managed." And with that she pulled open the door and was gone.
Videl stared after her and then stood up as well. "She's right, you know. All of this? It's your own doing."
"Videl...." Gohan started.
"No." she said, shaking her head. "I don't want to hear it. In fact, I don't want to see you again for a while. Find somewhere else to sleep." she said, leaving as well.
"What... what about the failsafes?" Gohan asked, looking away from the door Videl had just went through. "Can't we track 17 and 18 that way?"
Vegeta shook his head. "Not 18, at least. I don't know about 17, though I doubt it or he wouldn't be going to join her."
"But... why?"
"Another failsafe, apparently." said Vegeta. "One Gero thought was disabled that caused him to be locked out from their internal systems."
"So we just have to wait for them to surface again?" asked Piccolo, frowning. "Terrific."
"I don't think you've got anything to worry about." Vegeta said. "You're not even in the North Galaxy."
"No, but he is the weakest." said Cooler. "If they decide to try and take us all out.... And with Pan's power they could do quite a bit of damage."
"18's more likely to come here." said Gohan. "She apparently knows that Vegeta gave the order."
"So, now what?" asked Cell.
"Now we end the meeting and I go talk to Gero." said Vegeta. "Find out if there's anything at all we can do." He then turned toward the monitors showing Cooler's and Frieza's faces. "You two, settle out this squabble of yours by tomorrow or I'll settle it for you." And with that, he left the room as well.