Bulma had lay on the machine for at least three days; she wasn't positive how long it had been, however, because it was dark in the room and only the occasional flash of a red or green button broke the blackness. There was no sound in the room either. Having been strapped down to the table the entire time as well, she didn't know how big the room was. A day or so, something had latched onto her head and there had been a sharp pain in the back of her skull. It had only lasted half a minute or so and then went away almost immediately.

After that, every so often Bulma had weird dreams when she fell asleep. Not that she fell asleep very often, but being abducted by an insane genius whose only goal was to kill her best friend really took the energy out of her. Her last dream involved some monster wearing Goku's clothes destroying West City. It was terrifying, the monster was very similar to the giant monkey that Goku turned into during the last martial arts tournament and at Pilaf's castle. Well, except it had horns and shot laser beams out of it's eyes. Most of the dreams were around those lines.

Bulma hadn't felt this helpless since she was turned into a carrot by that giant rabbit all those years ago. She really hated this feeling. There was no doubt in her mind that her friends were out looking for her, but if they hadn't found her yet, what were the chances she would be rescued? Gero said that the device around her neck hid her ki signature from everyone. She hadn't seen where the doctor had taken her either so she didn't know if she was in a city or the middle of a forest.

She hoped that Gohan and the others were safe,; she saw the stream from Blue's perspective but even though they beat him they were all in pretty terrible shape. She still didn't know where Vegeta was because that arrogant bastard never sent any transmissions back to Earth to let them know how she was doing. Back in the day, she would have been glad that Yamcha was there to try to rescue her, but this time she had made a bet with herself on when he would get knocked out…she owed herself 40 zenie.

Bulma snapped out of her own thoughts as the first sound in a few days entered her ears. Some knocking came from the other side of some unseen wall. In an instant a door slid open and light shot through the room. She was blinded; her eyes were not used to anything but complete blackness. As her vision adjusted she saw the blurry figure of a man standing on the threshold of the room.

Vegeta woke up and checked the gauges that were on the side of the ship door. He was nearly to Earth, just another week by his best estimate. Sitting in the pod reminded him of back in the day when he would travel from planet to planet with Nappa. While the giant bald man may not have been the best conversationalist, it still gave him something to do instead of sitting in solemn silence. Nappa…he was an idiot, but he was a loyal idiot.

Vegeta hated silence, the only thing that got him through this journey so far, besides the fact that Cooler's pod was insanely comfortable, was thinking of the fight he would soon against Kakarot. He didn't care if he arrived halfway through the fight against those blasted androids, he would get revenge for that low class fighter upstaging him. His future son would receive Vegeta's fury as well; no one humiliates the great Vegeta and gets away with it.

He closed his eyes and thought of how his race was designed to fight. Their very structure made it so when they lost a battle their strength increased based on how close to death they were. Along with becoming a Super Saiyan, Vegeta had been beaten to an inch of his life, which made him even stronger. There was no way he was anything but the strongest in the universe now. After a few minutes of quiet reflection Vegeta opened his eyes again. He looked at the monitor that rested above his head. 9 days until arrival on Earth, damn. Patience is not one of my virtues.

Krillin touched down outside of Capsule Corp. It had been a long day, a long couple of weeks actually. The Z Fighters had been looking for Bulma non-stop, taking shifts and always having at least two people searching. So far they had been around the entire planet forty two times and found absolutely nothing. There was no sign of Bulma at all.

Dr. Briefs was trying to develop some sort of DNA sensor, to no avail so far. He swore he was close to a breakthrough but Krillin really doubted it. His wife, Babs, was inconsolable, burying herself in baking food for the Z Fighters. Gohan blamed himself partially for Bulma's abduction. He believed if he had been training more instead of studying he could have taken down Gero and the android, or at least held them off until Krillin and the cavalry arrived. Any time that he wasn't searching or sleeping he was training as hard as he possibly could.

Piccolo told them why Goku hadn't come to their rescue. He had been stricken with his heart virus as apparently all the intense training that he and the Namekian warrior had gone through added extra stress on his heart that overpowered the medication even. While they were all fighting for their lives against Blue, Goku had been fighting for his life on the floor of his house. He still wasn't even close to being able to stand, just the other day they had finally gotten him to sit up on his own.

Chi-Chi and the Ox King were terrified that any movement he made would send him rebounding back into a coma, something he did about a week ago when no one was around to watch him. He had tried to get up and walk to the kitchen and the strain made him pass out, falling down the stairs. Luckily, Gohan had found him a few minutes later and gotten him to the makeshift bed. Kami guessed that he would need another week or two to fully heal.

Yamcha took Bulma's disappearance the hardest, Krillin only saw him every so often when on his shift, he didn't think that Yamcha had slept at all in the past week, scouring every nook and cranny for the blue haired woman. Korin had told him that Yamcha had grabbed a bag of Senzus shortly after the fight and Krillin guessed that they were what was fueling the ex-bandit.

Krillin walked into the guest room that was being used by him and Tien and turned the light on.

"You're up, bro. I'm beat." Tien groggily sat up and rubbed his right eye.

"Find anything promising?" The three-eyed warrior asked. Krillin just shook his head, the same answer they always gave each other. Their only hope was that Gero slipped up sometime soon.

Gero released Bulma and pulled her out into the lab area.

"Finally you let me out of that stuffy dark room you creep!" she yelled at the elderly scientist.

"Do you remember last time you wouldn't shut up? I believe I have some exceptionally dirty rags laying around here somewhere if you want to keep it up." Gero spat back, giving Bulma a menacing look. Bulma immediately averted his gaze. "I thought so. Now, let me tell you how this is going to work. That device that is on your head monitors you and makes sure that you are helping at optimum capacity. It is plugged in to your nervous system and forces you to do your very best work. It will know what you are thinking and make your body respond, forcing you to complete my androids. You will help me program them and make them follow my every command. In the past they have not listened to me very well, something I hope to remedy through your assistance, Bulma."

Bulma shielded away as Gero wrapped his arm around her and lead her to a workstation with several monitors and a giant horizontal tube of some sort. As she neared it she saw that in the tube lay a raven-haired boy. She nearly shrieked when she saw that his midsection was completely opened up and some foreign mechanical devices were inside of him in place of human organs.

"Do you like him? His name is Seventeen, that's what I call him at least, I'm not aware of his birth name. Didn't ask before I sliced him open," Gero smiled evilly.

"How could you do something like this to another human being?" Bulma questioned the insane doctor.

"How? I can do this because he is inferior, so was his sister. Now I took them and made them better though, I'm perfecting what Kami couldn't. I will make the perfect life-form and go down in history as the greatest scientist ever to live! They should be glad to be footnotes in my great legacy, as should you, Bulma!" Dr. Gero began to laugh.

"How dare you be so callous with human life!" Bulma screamed as she slapped Gero across the face. The device on her head sent a shock through her body immediately, but when she had enough strength to focus on Gero again a second later what she saw horrified her.

Gero's hat had fallen off after the violent slap and in the place of a scalp he had a blue Plexiglas dome on his head. Inside of it Bulma could see straight into his skull and saw his pulsating brain.

"Ew! What are you? That is disgusting!" She hollered.

"I am an android, my dear. With this modification I will live forever! Ruling with an iron fist, Son Goku's body at my feet, and a world full of androids that obey my every command. Now get to work." As he said that, he threw Bulma at the monitors and walked away, cackling at her terror.

One Week Later

Yamcha was getting tired, after everything that had happened he was positive that he loved Bulma. He was completely miserable without her, there wasn't anything that he wouldn't give up to just find her and see that she was safe. It was only a month or so until the Gohan of the future had said that the androids would appear, but then again he hadn't predicted that Bulma would be kidnapped, so maybe the demi-Saiyan wasn't right about anything. After all, Blue ended up being an android and Gohan hadn't mentioned that either. He had very little trust in the man of the future now.

Yamcha landed in front of a cave in the desert. Puar stepped out and handed him a large sandwich. This would be the fourth time he slept in the past three weeks. Puar was worried that he would collapse soon.

"Take it easy Yamcha! You'll find her!" The little blue floating cat said, cheerful as always.

"No, Puar, it's my fault that she was taken," Yamcha said solemnly, sitting at the edge of his bed.

"How could it be your fault?"

"If I hadn't been stupid and broke up with her then I would have been there. If I was there from the start then it would have been two on two and Gero wouldn't have gotten away." Yamcha set the clock on the side of his bed for five hours later, just enough sleep to keep him going.

"You broke up with her? Isn't it usually the other way around?" Puar asked, confused. This was the first she'd heard of this.

"Yeah, I was being stupid. I thought she might have feelings for Vegeta so I broke up with her before she could even explain herself. It-it's just that she was always talking about him, complaining that he never checked back in or that she missed having to bandage him up every other day, she was probably just joking around about it but I reacted too rashly. I got so jealous that the thoughts consumed me. I guess I was scared that she would dump me for him and I would have to live down being second to Vegeta romantically for the rest of my life. I am just so damn stupid sometimes Puar!" He slammed his fist down on the table next to him, shattering it into a thousand pieces.

"Yamcha, it wasn't your fault, you just overreacted. Those androids were really strong, even if you had been there right away they may have gotten away, or they could have decided that Bulma and Dr. Briefs weren't worth it and killed them both." Puar said, trying to cheer her life long friend up. Yamcha face contorted to an expression of anger.

"Are you saying that I'm too weak to protect the ones I care about?!" He yelled at the flying feline. She cowered back as Yamcha stood up and marched to the door.

"Screw you, I'm going back to searching, I never should have stopped anyways."

"No, Yamcha, that's not what I meant! Don't leave!" It was too late though, Yamcha burst away from the cave towards the South.

Piccolo floated high above the Earth. As a Namekian he didn't need as much sleep as humans and needed very little nourishment as well. He had been listening to everything that he could on Earth with his fantastic hearing for the past few weeks. So far he had heard nothing of interest at all, of course, he had heard Yamcha's conversation with Puar; the conversation was very troubling. He considered going and knocking Yamcha out, forcing him to rest. He was sure that the lack of sleep is what made him lash out at his best friend. In the end he decided against it. This was the first time since he met the bandit that he was showing motivation for something other than chasing random women.

He honed his hearing in towards East District. He could hear Chi-Chi talking to Ox King about Goku's condition.

"He's doing really well right now. He's breathing fine and he was awake for a whole hour today," Chi-Chi said. While her voice was so annoying to the former demon king, it was good to hear that his old rival was doing fine though. The Ox King acknowledged his daughter and the two began discussing what to make for supper. Time to stop listening there.

Piccolo reached out with his mind, it was about time he checked up on the other Z warriors.

Gohan! It took a few seconds but the young half-Saiyan answered.

What is it Mr. Piccolo? He responded.

How are you doing? Have you found anything yet?

No, so far nothing has turned up. Mr. Tien and I are looking right now.

Alright, let me know if you come across anything interesting, Piccolo cut the mental link and returned to listening and meditating.

After a few hours he checked back in on the Son household. He could hear the murmurs of Chi-Chi and Ox King and Goku's soft breathing, but there was something else as well, something in a room adjacent to Chi-Chi. He listened in to the conversation going on there.

"Thanks for supper Chi-Chi, it was very good." Ox King said in his heavy voice.

"No problem, dad, now, I wonder where Gohan is. He's been gone for two days now. He better be doing his studying!" His daughter responded.

"I'm sure he is, dear. On a different note, how is the baby?" Piccolo almost dropped out of the sky. Before he could listen in any further though something else caught his keen ears.

There was something off about it though, instead of it coming from below, like most sounds he was hearing, it came from far above him. This was a bit concerning seeing as he was about twenty miles above the Earth's surface. It was then that he sensed it.

"Vegeta."

The escape pod entered into the atmosphere and began accelerating.

"Blast it! How the hell do I slow this ship down?" Even Vegeta could tell that he was going way too fast to safely land. He hit every button he could see; none were working. Finally he hit a button that opened up drag flaps, they tore off almost immediately. "Damn!"

In a few minutes Vegeta would be in the wreckage of a luxury escape ship if he didn't think of something. He looked around one last time for something that would slow the ship down. Same result as the last time, nothing. Only thirty seconds left, Vegeta could see the mountain range out of the front of the cockpit. This was his last shot.

Vegeta gathered all the energy he could in the center of his body. Twenty five seconds to go, he quickly repositioned himself so that he was facing the back end of the ship, his feet against the glass window. Eighteen seconds, he almost had enough power built up to pull this off. Out of his peripheral vision he could see the mountain side coming closer and closer every second. Ten seconds, he pushed off with his feet and released all of the energy he had built up in every direction. The ship was ripped apart as Vegeta shot out of the back of it. He panted and looked behind him just in time to see the hull crashing into the side of the mountain.

"Ship was tougher than it looked, partially survived my explosive wave." Vegeta looked around and got his bearings. He was somewhere in the Northwestern area. Now, it was time to find Kakarot. He floated up high in the sky, trying to get a better position to find that clown's ki from.

"You won't be able to fight him yet." Vegeta whipped around to see the Namek looking at him. He cursed inwardly for letting the bastard sneak up on him.

"And why do you say that, Namek?" Vegeta shot back angrily. Why on earth would Kakarot be unable to face him?

"Goku's heart has gotten worse. He has been out for almost three weeks now. Dumb idiot was almost better not to long ago before he overexerted himself and got twice as bad. There's something else, Vegeta," Piccolo continued when he saw Vegeta nod, "The androids attacked about the same time."

"What?! That's nearly six months too early!" Vegeta said in exasperation.

"I know, they didn't attack any town or cause mass destruction like Gohan said they would..."

"What did they do then?" Vegeta yelled, interrupting the tall green alien.

"They went to Capsule Corp and tried to abduct Dr. Briefs and Bulma. Gohan, Krillin and I tried to stop them but they managed to take Bulma." Piccolo finished.

"What? How long ago was this? How long has she been missing?" Vegeta angrily hollered. Piccolo was shocked at Vegeta's reaction to the missing scientist.

"For almost three weeks now."

"And you still haven't found her yet? Blast your damn incompetence!" Vegeta was irate; Piccolo had only seen the Saiyan get this angry before when he was getting beaten. Maybe his pride forced him to find Bulma because the latter had allowed him to stay at her residence for so long.

"There's something that is blocking her ki signature from us, Dr Briefs is working to make a machine that can detect DNA though."

"Then that'll be my first stop." With that Vegeta blasted into the air and flew off towards West City.

Bulma looked down at the two resting tubes in front of her. With her help Gero had finished them both and they were, theoretically, under his control. She was almost on the verge of tears because of her part in the destructive beings completion. She had also learned in the past week what had happened to Dr. Falcon. After he had been used to the fullest extent of his abilities, that being he was so tired from a lack of sleep and nourishment lack he could barely move, Gero killed him. He put his hand right through Falcon's chest. That was when he let Bulma out of that room and forced her to work with him.

Gero had told the truth: the device somehow had known everything that Bulma accidentally thought about to improve the androids. It had even been so far in her mind that she was very sure it had made her use her own intelligence against her will, but that was purely speculation at this point. She looked at Gero, his brain still showing, since she saw that he wasn't human he apparently decided that he didn't need to hide his true nature anymore. He had a genuine smile across his face as he gazed at his creations.

Vegeta looked at the device that Briefs had given him. He was partially convinced that the doctor had finished it up just because the Saiyan was waiting outside his lab. It wasn't all that great, it just had four directional arrows that lit up in the direction that the DNA's source was. The user also had to be in at least a forty-mile radius for it to pick anything up.

With something this useful, Vegeta could only think of one way that it could work, He rocketed off towards the West, going as fast as he could. While he flew he looked at the radar, no blinking on any of the directional buttons. Irritated, he angled off to the South just a bit. In a matter of minutes he had covered nearly half the planet.

After half an hour, Vegeta finally stopped to catch his breath. He had circled the planet about four hundred times. As he lowered himself to the ground he found himself in the middle of a small mountain range. He looked around and saw a few deer run by, heading towards a nearby stream. A bear lurked around in the brush, waiting for something to become it's food source. Some hyenas were eating something dead in a nearby clearing. He swiveled around and saw a lizard climbing up the side of a mountain in hot pursuit of a fly hovering close by.

Then something made him turn back to hyenas. He took a close look at what they were eating. It was a human body in a lab coat. Vegeta's head snapped from side to side, he wasn't sure what made him certain, but this was a sign. He was near the right place; he had to be. He looked down at the radar he was holding. Nothing was registering. Oh well, might as well check it out, that man is wearing a lab coat, Bulma wore lab coats every once in awhile. Why the hell do I care so much about this damn woman?

His looked around the area again from the sky trying to find something that would constitute any sign of a secret lair. After a few minutes of thorough searching he found nothing. He landed by the body once again. He scanned the area and didn't notice anything at all out of the ordinary. Giving up on this spot, he walked over to the lizard, intending to squash the fly before it could get it's meal, but as he looked up to get a sight on the fly he saw something - a metal door in the side of one of the mountains. It was carved in just a little bit, enough that you couldn't see it from the air.

"Bingo."

Gero looked at the monitor that showed the security camera feed. On the one checking outside the metal door stood Vegeta, charging up an energy blast. He slammed his fist down on a large button next to a different monitor.

"How? How could he have found my lab? This is impossible!" Gero angrily said, moving his hand across the keyboard. Once he found the button he was looking for, a sly smirk came over his face.

"Boot up Androids 17 and 18."

Hey there everyone!

Sorry about that week off there, I had quite a bit going on in my personal life so I just couldn't get it done on time.

This definitely wasn't one of my favorite chapters to write, oh well though, it progressed the story so that we can get to some FIGHTING!

Once again Full Power, The Wonderful Wizard of Editing made this chapter all prettiful and such, give him a few rounds of applause because he deserves it without a doubt.

Now time for review answers!

Drak - Yeah that was one of the most fun/saddest parts to write. Future Gohan is definitely carrying more weight than Future Trunks was. He is a much darker and troubled character.

FP - Maybe I should have you review my A/N as well, my stupidity is seeping through haha! It has been awhile since I had watched either of those so you pointed out the problems with them! Thanks!

Dead Zone and The World's Strongest are non-canon in the Ripple Effect Universe!

Ky111 - Thanks! It was fun to write! I really enjoy writing Mirai Gohan, he's awesomesauce.

Aleaster - There were a couple Bringer of Death references!

Ness - The flashbacks were interesting to write, had to keep them close to DBZ canon, but gave them a bit of a twist! That scene with Gohan and Bulma was in the works for a while, hope it gave the emotional effect I was trying for :) Also, thanks for pointing that out! I am trying to be more aware of it from now on!

Wolverines - Is that a good wow or a bad wow?

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Please drop by a review and leave your thoughts, concerns, guesses or the meaning of life!

Cya next time!

treeger