Author's Note:
What's this? Yet another update within a week of the last one!? That's right folks! Enjoy!
-Eighteen-
What am I going to do? What am I going to say? Is there even anything I can say at this point? I ran away from my own brother! He probably hates me now!
"Videl?"
I mean I can't really blame him can I? He's always been honest with me, always trusted me with everything, and now he comes to find out that I've turned against him and stabbed him in the back!? How can I be such an awful sister?
"Videl, can you hear me?"
I can only imagine what he's thinking right now, how hurt he is. He's been the one person I've always been able to lean on, the one person I always knew was in my corner ready to back me up if something went wrong...and this is how I repay him?
"Videl are you okay?"
Eighteen jumped as she felt a hand grip her shoulder. Blinking, she looked up to meet Gohan's eyes, a single eyebrow raised in a confused expression.
"Huh?" She responded dumbly.
Gohan shot her a sympathetic smile. "Your mind's on something else. Is everything alright?"
No, not even a little bit. My world is turning upside down and I have to pretend it's all peachy.
Trunks was off focusing on his own training which appeared to consist of him firing off a barrage of Ki blasts into the air before willing them back down and attempting to knock them away as he stood in place. Something about 'Ki control and resistance training'.
It was an interesting exercise to say the least.
She tried to force a smile that didn't make it to her eyes. "Yeah, everything is fine, why do you ask?"
Gohan's eyebrows raised in a way that said, you're not fooling anyone.
Eighteen sighed, her gaze falling, the smile dropping from her face. "It's...it's family problems."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Eighteen looked up, meeting the man's gaze again. There was honesty behind those eyes, a true, sympathetic look that told Eighteen that his offer wasn't just an empty gesture, but a sincere expression of concern.
She could tell that in that moment, he actually cared about her issue, and he wanted to help.
Eighteen felt a small, involuntary smile pull at her lips. She found herself actually considering it, telling him then about Seventeen and what had happened in a way that wouldn't reveal who she truly was. Maybe...maybe he really could offer her some words of advice, or maybe a way to mend things between her brother and she.
She felt like confiding in him in that moment, like she could drop her guard and just...let it all go.
What the hell are you doing!
Eighteen suddenly snapped at herself, taking a step back and pulling her shoulder from Gohan's grip. Her gaze dropped, pulling away from the man's eyes.
He's the entire reason you're in this mess moron! Get your head in the game. We're not here to make friends with him, we're here for one question and one question only. Stop pretending like he actually cares about you because he doesn't. He cares about the person you're pretending to be, not the real you! He cares about 'Videl'! He hates the real you!
Eighteen swallowed as she reminded herself of this.
She shook her head gently. "That's okay. I'd rather not if that's alright."
"Ofcourse, right sorry. I didn't mean to overstep."She slowly pulled her gaze from the dirt and watched as Gohan flustered, clearly thinking that he'd crossed a line.
She frowned. She didn't want him to think that.
It's not his fault I'm a lying sack of shit…
She opened her mouth to try and tell him that he shouldn't be sorry but before she could, he spoke. "So, do you feel ready to move onto the next step?"
Eighteen paused a moment, caught between returning to the topic and simply moving on.
The look in Gohan's eyes told her that it might be better to just move on.
She smiled and nodded.
-Gohan-
Keep it professional Gohan. She just wants to learn to fly, you're not her therapist, you're her trainer.
Gohan told himself this as he prepared to teach her the next step to flight.
"So, have you been practicing summoning your ki?"
With a nod she produced a simple ball of Ki between her two palms. Gohan was still impressed with just how easily she seemed to be able to do it. There was zero struggle, no grunt or strain at all, it was impressive to say the least.
"Good!" He exclaimed with a smile. "Now, how have you been doing with channeling it, pushing it to different parts of your body, hands,feet Et cetera?"
He watched as she slowly began to transfer the energy to her palms, reinforcing them like he'd taught her.
Excellent!
"Alright, now, how have you been doing with moving your Ki, pushing, pulling, and keeping control."
He watched a look of worry spread across her features.
He laughed. "It's alright, relax, lets just see what you can do."
She hesitated a moment before stretching out her hands and producing a ball of energy as she'd done before. This time however, she pushed the ball of energy to move forward, her eyes narrowed in a deep concentration as it slowly began to drift away from her.
Gohan carried a smile as he watched her, seeing the focus in her eyes as she moved the ball further and further away. Despite being a natural in the other methods of Ki control, for some reason this exercise had been the trickiest one for her.
He wondered why.
"...why...do I have to learn...this?" She asked, clearly straining herself to manipulate the energy. He watched as she started to slowly pull the energy back, willing it back towards her like he'd taught her.
"Well, that's the core fundamental to flying actually, although it's a bit simpler than this is." He said with a coy smile, taking a finger and poking the ball of energy. He watched as Videl's eyes grew wide, panicking as she lost control and the ball of energy spiraled away before creating a small dust cloud on the ground.
"Hey!" She shouted with a scowl. "What was that!?"
"A test." He responded simply, enjoying the annoyed look she was giving him. "You see, when you're up in the sky." The man began to slowly float into the air. "There's a bunch of things that you have to account for, wind, weather, geese."
She raised an eyebrow, an unconvinced smile pulling at her lips.
He laughed. "Alright, maybe not that last one. But it's true that if you're not careful you can and will lose control of your flight. Eventually, it will be second nature for you, but just starting out can be dangerous if you don't know what your doing. You have to be prepared for something coming out of left field and possibly knocking you aside. When that happens, you need to know how to regain control of your Ki before you hit the ground" He gently set himself back on the ground before pushing out his hand and producing his own ball of Ki. "That's the point of this exercise."
The ball of Ki began to shoot off to the left before coming to a sudden stop and shooting back and coming to an immediate halt exactly where it had been before.
A grin pulled at the corners of his mouth as an idea struck him.
Suddenly the ball of energy shot towards Videl, he watched her eyes grow wide with shock before the ball of energy stopped just before her chest. The golden sphere slowly started to spin around the woman, moving faster and faster as it went.
He watched Videl's lips curl into a smile as she crossed her arms. "Show off."
He let out a small laugh, letting the energy shoot off into the distance and explode in a mound of dust.
"Flying is a lot like manipulating that little ball of ki. You take the skill of wrapping yourself in Ki, and then push your body like how you would push the ball of energy. That's why it's so crucial you learn how to manipulate your Ki properly."
He watched her eyes light up at that, a look of understanding crossing her features.
"Huh...never thought about it like that…"
He smiled. "Interesting how all these little lessons tie into each other huh? There's a bunch of creative ways that you can utilize your energy, although, not all of them are as cool as shooting lasers and flying in the air haha."
"Hmm…" He watched as her eyes narrowed in thought. "So should I try to fly then? Push off the ground and wrap myself in energy?"
He scratched the back of his head thoughtfully. She was a natural...and controlling yourself in the air was considerably easier than pushing and pulling a mass of detached Ki was.
"If you feel you're ready." He smiled. "I guess this would be the best setting for a crash course, no one to run into and I'm right here to catch you if you start to fall."
He watched her roll her eyes at him in a sarcastic manner. "What, you don't think I'll nail it first try?"
"Oh, I think you'll think you've nailed it first try." He pointed towards a large rock off in the distance. "But then you'll realize you're flying towards a rock like that and panic. That's how crashes happen."
Boy is that the truth.
He still remembered his first time flying with Piccolo. He'd lifted off the ground feeling lighter than air only to go head first into a beehive as he'd been navigating the forest floors. Two broken down trees and a lake later, Gohan was feeling significantly heavier than air afterwards.
But she doesn't need to know about that story.
He internally laughed at himself.
"Hmmm…" She tapped a finger to her smiling lips, appearing rather confident as she did so. "I think I'll manage."
"Well then, let's see it." He motioned with his hand for her to proceed.
He watched her lower herself, ready to spring into the air before her confident expression fautered, replaced with what Gohan could only identify as...nervousness?
Stage fright?
"...hey Gohan…"
"Hm?"
"What happens after I learn to fly?"
"What do you mean? You wanted to learn how to fly right?"
"Well...yeah…" she slowly shifted back into a normal standing position, one arm rubbing the other below the elbow. "But...is that it then?"
Is that it?
Gohan blinked.
"Well no we'll probably have one more session just to make sure that you've definitely figured it out, and then you'll be free to do whatever you wish haha." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I'm sure you don't want to be spending all your time out in the desert."
"..."
The young Saiyan raised an eyebrow at the woman's silence. Had he said something wrong? He knew that it was hot out here, and as far as he'd seen Videl had shown no interest in learning how to fight. Aside from a few other tricks he had, all the skills he had pertained to combat training, and he wouldn't force her to learn if she didn't want to. Their time together would come to an end, but that had always been the deal...right?
He frowned, realizing that a part of him would miss these training sessions. Another part of him wondered if she was feeling the same…?
Keep it professional Gohan! If she doesn't want you in her personal life, respect her boundaries!
His mother had always taught him to respect women's boundaries, a lesson heavily reinforced by Bulma.
He snapped back, forcing himself to proceed. "So, are you ready to give it a go?"
-Eighteen-
If I show that I can fly now...then...that's it?
She found herself hesitating as Gohan stood mere feet away, waiting patiently with his typical good natured smile. She knew he expected her to figure it out as she'd done with everything else, to rise into the air as he had so that he could correct her flaws and make sure she had a strong grasp on the nature of flight. He expected her to learn, and then he expected her to leave.
"..."
Her gaze averted to the ground in that moment, unwilling to look the man in the eyes. That had always been the deal hadn't it? To learn how to manipulate her Ki, to learn how to fly, and then to move on so that he could continue with his own lessons. It made sense, and Eighteen knew it would be selfish of her, and damn right nonsensical to want to keep up this routine.
I mean, he's my mortal enemy, how am I having such a problem right now?
It didn't make sense. She'd reminded herself earlier that he didn't actually care about the true her, just the fake person she was pretending to be. He cared about 'Videl', the woman who'd approached him at the bar, who'd taken an interest in him and went out for drinks with him from time to time. The woman who hadn't killed hundreds of thousands of people, the person who hadn't taken away his friends and family for her own selfish reasons.
He cared about the person who hadn't decimated the entire world.
Her eyes closed in that moment. She hoped he thought it was her concentrating, but in reality, she was just trying to clear her mind of all the cluttering thoughts racing through her head, all of the conflicting emotions she didn't know how to sort out.
It's not like I love him or anything, that would be ridiculous...but I do enjoy being around him...but I feel that I shouldn't...why do i feel that way?
Eighteen couldn't understand why she felt the way she did. Well, she understood why she thought she might feel conflicted about being around him. She'd been fighting him for as long as she'd been 'Android' Eighteen, but it wasn't like he'd ever truly hurt her in any meaningful way. Sure, he'd punched her in the face more than many could account for, but she and her brother had fought at times and she didn't hate Seventeen for punching her in the face the few times he had.
The other possibility that came to mind was the fact that she had been responsible for taking away everything that he cared about, everything that was ever important to him, including his left arm, had either been destroyed or threatened by her or her brother. But that couldn't be the case because that would suggest some level of guilt over the fact that she'd done those things to him. Eighteen had never felt guilty about anything in her life except for when it came to Seventeen. She'd ended countless lives over the years, she could remember so many terrified, horrified, and pained faces and yet, she'd never shown an instant of hesitation to do it all again.
Hell, even this little charade was nothing more than her chasing her own selfish desires. She'd only agreed to this arrangement for the sake of saving herself and Seventeen from what she felt was almost certain destruction. She wasn't changing for the sake of humanity, or for the sake of anyone outside of herself and Seventeen.
Her reasons were entirely selfish just like every decision she'd ever made in her life had been.
Her mantra, or rather, Seventeen and her mantra had always been: Why not? So why was it now of all times, when faced with the person she'd sought to kill for so long, when faced with finally ending what had originally been a grueling, annoying arrangement where she had to be nice for several hours of the day, that she was struggling to make her decision?
It should have been a no brainer for her.
But it wasn't.
Eighteen sighed as she tensed her shoulders, conveying that she was concentrating as her face tightened.
She told herself it was because she still wanted answers, she told herself it was so that she could learn more about Ki so that one day in the future if Gohan did attack them she would be even stronger in a fight against him.
But it wasn't as if she couldn't get into contact with him again outside of this arrangement, sit him down and ask her question then. What more, it wasn't as if she hadn't had numerous opportunities to ask what she told herself she'd taken on this entire experience for.
And it wasn't as if she and her brother struggled to take down Gohan in the past. He'd always been on the retreating side of their engagements, always the loser, the one forced to fall back or brave certain death. Hell, he only had one arm now, suggesting that it would be even easier to kill him if the time came that they needed to. It wasn't like she needed to know more in order to take down Gohan.
...I even had the opportunity to kill him a couple of weeks ago…
Eighteen knew that she was lying to herself, feeding herself false reasons to fail this test. She knew that deep down, those weren't the reasons for why she didn't want this arrangement to end, but in the same vein, she couldn't decide what was the reason she didn't want her flight lessons to go away.
She let her shoulders tense a second longer before sagging in a gasp. She slowly opened her eyes trying to appear distraught that she'd failed. She found the facade relatively easy to pull off, letting some of her self doubt bleed into the act.
She found it helped.
"Hey, it's okay! Cheer up, I told you how it took me and Trunks a while to figure it out too right?" Gohan exclaimed with a confident smile.
The way he looked at her, without any sarcasm, with genuine, unwavering confidence in her ability to improve, it was something she found she actually appreciated in these lessons.
Whenever she failed, or rather, pretended to fail, he didn't put her down or mock her like Seventeen would, he would encourage her, build her up and tell her that she just needed to try again.
Eighteen smiled back.
"Thanks." She uttered quieter than she'd meant to.
"Of course!" He exclaimed, his mood brightening with her smile. "You're doing a phenomenal job at this anyway. Seriously, no one learns Ki control this fast, so you're bound to struggle at least some of the time."
"I guess so." She mumbled rubbing one arm with the other.
"So, do you feel like maybe going through your Ki control exercises for awhile and trying again in a little bit."
She didn't want to.
She really didn't want to.
For one reason or another, controlling her Ki and moving it around was actually genuinely difficult for her to do. Sure firing it off was second nature to her, she could fire a beam of energy through a target thousands of feet away without batting an eyelash, but that was because it was already pre-programmed in her to be able to do that. She'd come out of the operation already knowing how to fight, knowing how to use her abilities in a combat environment.
But pushing and pulling her Ki?
That was brand spanking new.
She sighed as she pushed her hands out and summoned a ball of golden, shining energy to push forward slowly. It was the first time in a long time that she found she was actually struggling at something. It was a foreign feeling, and one she didn't particularly appreciate having lived with everything and anything at her fingertips if she wanted it.
Want to live in a mansion?
Go pick out one that you want and 'remove' the current residents.
Want money?
Go to a bank and rip off the doors as the cops shoot bullets that ping off her skin like tic tacs.
Want fancy cars, designer clothing, and expensive jewelry?
Go down to the store, pick it all out and walk out. It wasn't like there was anyone who could stop her.
All in all, struggling was not something Eighteen was used to doing.
"You...really don't like pushing around your energy do you?"
Eighteen looked up, pulling her narrowed gaze on the golden sphere away to see the man's seemingly conflicted expression. She could see that he had a...nervous look to his face, almost as if he was considering something that he didn't know if he should tell her.
She shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant while also maintaining full focus on not letting the ball of energy explode.
"Well...there might be another way to figuring out flight, but uh…" He rubbed the back of his neck looking away. Her eyes squinted as she swore she detected a slight blush to his cheeks. "It's a little bit awkward." he laughed nervously.
She raised a single eyebrow before jumping as she realized she'd let her focus slip as the ball of energy exploded into the ground several yards away.
She let out an aggravated sigh, turning to him. "Honestly, I'm willing to try anything if it means I can stop doing this." She motioned to the nearby dent in the dirt where her ball of energy had landed.
She watched as he hesitated only a moment longer before letting out a short breath of air. "Alright, it's best you sit down for this one."
Eighteen complied, folding her legs indian style as she did so. She watched curiously as Gohan sat down directly in front of her, raising an eyebrow at the fact that he was sat so close their knees were nearly touching.
He stretched out his open hand to her. "This is...well, it's going to feel weird to you, but just...trust me alright?"
Eighteen's brow furrowed before she reached out and took his hand with a nod of her head. His hand was warm and calliced, the hand of someone who'd seen countless battles. Meanwhile her hand was slender and delicate, identical to how it looked before she'd become an Android.
Eighteen realized now that it felt weird to be holding hands with the man who she'd tried to kill more times than she could count. She now understood why Gohan had seemed to awkward about this.
"Alright, so, this is the best way that my master could teach me how to detect Ki." She felt his hand tense and then something...more. She couldn't quite put a finger on it, but it was almost as if her own hand was humming in response, like a tingly sensation but not quite.
Is he…?
"Are you pushing your Ki into me?" She said with a dumbfounded expression.
A sheepish smile and a nod told her that her assumptions were correct.
I didn't even know that was possible!
Of course, why would she? When you had unlimited energy, why would you ever have to learn how to share or receive it?
Damn you Gero...
"Now, I want you to push your energy to your hand and focus on it. Try and direct all of your attention on your hand and your energy as my own feeds into it."
Focus on my energy?
She frowned at the instruction. She'd never had to 'focus' on her energy before. It was all just instinct for her, just automatic function that her body handled on its own through Dr. Gero's predetermined programming. She needed to be able to push her power to specific parts of her body whenever she blocked a strike with a forearm or in contrast, threw one of her own punches. Her energy manipulation was all just a natural component of her functionality, it was never her willing it, just her programming making her body do the things she demanded of it.
She pushed her energy to the hand as she'd been instructed to do, she could see it begin to glow ever so slightly from the concentration of two sources of energy fueling into it.
Then, she blanked.
She had no idea how to focus in and detect her own Ki. It was obvious that he wanted her to take notice of something he was doing, but all she could detect was a very subtle tingling sensation going through her fingers.
I'm guessing 'tingling' isn't what I'm supposed to be detecting here…
She wanted to ask Gohan what he meant by 'feeling' her energy, but she realized that she'd supposedly already found her Ki several days back. When she'd been sitting 'meditating' was when she had been supposed to be able to find her energy and then pull from it. Her forming the energy ball was proof of that, or at least, proof to him that they could move on.
...I really don't know anything about Ki...do I?
"Weird isn't it?" Eighteen's eyes, which had been previously staring down at her hand snapped back to Gohan. "It's odd sensing someone else's Ki signature blending into your own. Feeling someone else's presence with your own life energy is a...strange sensation. It's like your energy is a pool of water filled to just the right amount, not too much, not too little, and then someone comes around and starts to empty theirs into yours, and its forcing your own pool to expand and grow to a place that you didn't even know was possible."
He smiled as he closed his eyes. "Do you feel it?"
She didn't.
But she wanted to. The way he talked about it, the relationship he had with his energy was so...intimate. It was a way of looking at things that Eighteen had never even thought to try. But now that she knew that someone could understand such a powerful part of themselves, understand what Gohan so often described as his life energy, his essence, Eighteen wanted to experience that side of herself more than anything.
"I...I think I'm getting there." She spoke with a hitch to her voice, clearly still confused.
"That's alright. You might still be feeling it as something foreign, like something that you can use, but it's not a part of you. You need to view the energy not as a tool, but as a part of yourself much like your arms or legs are. It's always with you, always there no matter how big or small. It's easier to feel your own and know what it is, but when a new entity makes itself known, it can be easy to try and push it out." He let out a nervous laugh. "I wish I could help more, but it's difficult to know what your energy is doing right now since I can't sense it."
"N-no, I think you're helping more than you think." She stammered as she felt her breath quicken. She let her eyes fall shut as she reflected on his words.
Not as a tool, but as a part of myself…
Was that what she was doing wrong? She remembered one of the dumb action movies Seventeen had forced her to watch with him had a sword master tell a student that they needed to treat the blade as not an outside tool but rather an extention of their own body. Was that what she needed to do? Had she been using her energy like a tool, and not as an extension of herself all this time?
It made sense if she really thought about it. Sure, the robot bits Gero had put in her translated the information she needed to tell her body to produce energy, Ki blasts, and achieve flight, but she'd never actually reached out and tried to communicate directly with her power. She'd always held her power at an arm's reach, letting the machine part of her take care of it so that she didn't have to.
It was like a game of telephone. She told the translator what she wanted, and it handled the rest.
But now I need to somehow get around that translator…
Easier said than done, that was for sure, where could she even begin?
Her mind went back to the 'pool' analogy.
Maybe if I start there…couldn't hurt to try right?
She closed her eyes.
She pictured herself in a pool of blue water, focusing on its sensation, its visualization, the texture, the wetness. She felt the tension in her shoulders ease at this image. She'd always liked going to the beach and swimming when she'd been younger.
Next, she pictured an outside source, a tube of some sort pouring even more into the pool, letting the pool fill up even more. She made that outside water a different color, a translucent green that mixed into her water, swirling as the two liquids formed one. A strange combination of the colors forming.
Then she felt something odd, something...different.
She felt a pull of something in the distance of her mind, something that was reaching out back towards her as she reached out towards it.
Eighteen felt herself grow excited and immediately let the image of the pool of water fade away at this new source of...something. What it was, Eighteen couldn't say just yet, it was calling for her, almost as if it'd wanted to reach out and contact her this whole time, but couldn't.
Not until she'd reached out towards it first.
She felt it drawing nearer, uncertain if it was she getting closer to it or it getting closer to her.
Either way, she did dare do anything to interrupt the process.
A few seconds later, she felt herself before whatever this thing was. She found that it wasn't what she'd thought it would be. She thought it would be like a source of light within, something she could visualize, but it wasn't, she could feel it, sense it within her, but there was no sight, there was nothing that her five senses could do to detect it.
Gohan had told her it was something that she had to feel that she needed to push out all other senses to find.
She began to realize why he'd told her that meditation was the best way to accomplish this. It made sense, it was so small that if she hadn't been actually looking for it, she doubted she would ever find it.
For a moment she wondered if it had been reaching out to her the whole time, always there, waiting for her to notice it, to accept it and engage with it. She wondered if this was the reason so many people were never able to use their Ki at all, it wasn't something someone could notice unless you were actively searching for it.
She reached out, and touched it.
And immediately knew it to be hers. It felt like her, radiated her own energy, her feelings her thoughts. It was her, in every sense of the word. It represented her as much as any other part of her did, it was her life energy.
It felt warm, and it felt right.
She realized at that moment why Gohan had called it an energy signature. It was her signature, unique, beautiful, unreplicatable.
She felt her lips curl into a smile.
"You can feel it now, can't you?"
Eighteens eyes snapped open, realizing that she'd forgotten where she was for a moment as she responded. "Huh?"
"My energy." He grinned at her blank expression. "You found it?"
"Uh, yeah, I think I'm close." She smiled sheepishly, forcing down a blush and realizing at the same time why Gohan had always talked about his energy so intimately. It really was an intimate part of you to discover. It felt like she was almost naked before it, she couldn't hide away any part of her from it just as it couldn't hide itself from her. It was her, they were one and the same, she'd just never known it was there before.
He nodded understandingly. "Take your time, it's an...interesting part of Ki."
She flashed him a thankful smile. In that moment, she felt true undeniable gratitude towards this man. He'd shown her a part of herself she'd never even thought to explore. It was eye opening to say the least, this had been a part of her this whole time?
It was incredible.
"...Thank you Gohan."
"Huh?" He smiled. "Well you're welcome Videl." He frowned, "But what for? All I'm doing is giving you a little bit of my energy for awhile, no big deal."
She shook her head, refuting his statement. "For showing me all of this...I feel like I haven't properly thanked you for the effort of teaching me all of this."
He let out a soft laugh. "You've thanked me plenty of times Videl, what do you mean?"
Her smile faltered only slightly. It was true, she had thanked him multiple times in the past week, but those had never been genuine, they'd been part of the act, all part of pretending that she was learning how to control her Ki for the first time.
This time however, she found that she wasn't pretending.
"Just...I guess I just wanted to thank you again." She shrugged, still nervous to let go of her Ki now that she'd actually found it, but realizing as she let herself relax that it wasn't attempting to vanish or go anywhere. Now that she knew of it, and it knew of her, it was there to stay.
This is the connection Gohan has with his Ki…
And now she needed to find his Ki too.
She let her eyes fall shut as she re-established that connection to herself that she'd found.
She frowned as she made yet another realization.
Her Ki, her life force...it felt so small. Gohan had described his being rather large in comparison to everyone else's, and she knew that her power had to have been at the very least somewhere in the same ballpark as his considering the fact that she and her brother were stronger than him. Not only that, but where was Gohan's energy? If he was really pushing his power into hers, then why couldn't she sense it like her own? Where was it going to if not here?
Then she sensed it.
A...tether.
There was something else there, connected by what Eighteen could only describe as a vein of energy that led off towards something else. It didn't feel right at all, like a leech or some sort of virus that wasn't supposed to be there, but was there all the same.
Eighteen decided to follow the energy, tracing the tether back to its origins.
It didn't take long.
Eighteen's face shifted into a scowl as she found it. The 'gift' Gero had pushed into her body.
It was massive, just like Gohan had described, but at the same time, it felt like it wasn't there at all. It was like a cruel bastardization of what energy was supposed to be, like someone had created an artificial source of life, one that didn't have the same life or personality that a normal Ki signature should, that hers did. Despite being enormous, so large that it overshadowed her own Ki signature several thousand times over, it also felt empty, as if it was a lifeless husk being forced to cooperate with her. A cruel imitation of what life was supposed to look like, but not quite right.
It disgusted her.
Ofcourse, that's what was all about, creating disgusting imitations of life, playing God, but never quite reaching it.
She wanted to take it and break it somehow. Reach out and sever the connection tying this monstrosity to her own Ki signature. It finally made sense now why Gohan had told her that he couldn't sense anything from her. This thing was blocking her!
Focus Eighteen. We need to find Gohan.
She made herself relax again as she expanded her search. A part of her felt the reason this was so hard for her to find was because of a failure in design. While this energy was very much a part of her, it was connected to her by a thin line, her energy signature was still separate from this one, as if they didn't or maybe couldn't form more than a thin connection from one and other. Was it perhaps that this energy wasn't designed well enough to connect with others easily? Was that the reason that she couldn't detect Gohan's?
Not as much of a genius as you thought you were huh Gero?
She internally sneered.
And then she found it. A third source of energy pushing into her reserves, pushing against the walls of this abomination that was her own source of Ki.
She reached out and touched it.
And immediately gasped.
It was so much different from her own, but no worse for it! She could feel Gohan in a way that was so personal, so integral to who he was as an individual that she almost felt embarrassed to have been shown that side of him. She could detect his morals, his feelings, the good that radiated to his very soul.
In fact, it felt almost as if she was getting a small peak into his very soul.
And it was wonderful.
Her hand tightened slightly around his. She could understand now why he'd felt so nervous about sharing this with her. He was trusting her with a deeper peak at who he was as a person. She imagined that sharing energy between people being something very personal if more people were able to tap into their Ki. She could even imagine people refusing to share energy between one another simply due to how personal it was. They were literally sharing their life energy with another person. How could that not be personal?
"You've uh, you've figured it out, haven't you?" Gohan said in an almost sheepish manner.
She smiled, lost in the moment."Yeah, I feel you now. It's incredible. You're beautiful."
There was a sudden pause as Eighteen continued to enjoy the warmth that was spreading across her body, the feeling of Gohan's energy seeking out her own, combining for what would be a limited amount of time.
But Eighteen planned to enjoy every second of it.
Then her eyes snapped open as she realized what she'd said. Gohan's face was a bright red, his eyes wide with shock.
She immediately fell back, pulling her hand away.
"S-Sorry! I-I didn't mean, I mean you're not- I'm-" She stammered feeling more embarrassed than she'd ever felt before in her life. She'd just called him beautiful! But that had been the only word she knew to describe the sensation she was feeling. It had been beautiful. Gohan's energy was beautiful to her.
What the hell is wrong with me!?
She thought in a frantic panic.
Then Gohan started laughing.
Eighteen fell quiet as his shoulders rippled with laughter, her lips tightening into a pout.
Is he laughing at me?
A part of her wanted to hit him for laughing at her embarrassment.
...Another part of her wanted to join in.
"Sorry-" He wheezed between laughing fits. "It's just your face was so red! I don't think I've ever seen you embarrassed Videl."
She wanted to get mad like she would normally. Her instincts were telling her to snap at him for making a fool out of her, to snarl and bare her teeth like she would for any other person.
But after he'd shown her something so personal...after sharing what was his very essence…
All Eighteen wanted to do was laugh with him.
So she did.
"Hehe, I guess I don't really get embarrassed very often." She snickered, her grin matching his.
"I can tell." He chuckled, the laughter eventually dying down as he let out a deep breath. "Alright, ready to try again?"
She blinked, confused. "Huh? Wasn't that…?" Hadn't been finding her Ki and then his own been the entire point of the exercise?
"I was trying to teach you how to fly remember?"
She slapped a hand to her face. "Right. Sorry, I…" She sighed, shaking her head at herself. How could she have forgotten? "Yeah, let's do it."
They sat down again. She placed her hand into his and closed her eyes. A moment later, she felt the familiar presence of his Ki flooding onto hers. She did her best not to be taken aback by just how intricate and powerful it was, how strong and incredible it felt. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before.
"You feel it?"
"Yes."
"Can you sense what it's doing?"
She frowned as she reached out with her senses. It felt like it was rising, almost increasing, growing stronger.
"Uh, I'm not sure...it feels like it's getting...bigger?" She didn't know what to make of it. How could Ki get larger? Her's was massive, huge even.
"Exactly! Good,that means you're focused. Now, I'm going to do something weird with my energy, and I want you to try and imitate me, okay?"
"Got it." She said with a determined expression.
She immediately felt what he was describing. It was still there, translating over to her own energy, but now it was...shifting, orienting itself as if it had a goal. She felt as it shifted, following the tether allowing for this connection back to Gohan's form where it was enveloping himself, reaching out and expanding so that it was wrapping around him. It was only when she did this that she realized that she was no longer just viewing the energy he was sending over to her, but rather her senses were stretching out to compensate for him, she was sensing his energy signature separate from his tether to hers.
Eighteen finally understood what he'd meant by saying that Ki could be large or small based on the individual. His was huge compared to her own, real energy. Ofcourse, she imagined that her human side, that part of her that wasn't Gero didn't have much energy at all.
...weird...his is large but the...I guess I'd call it the...Gero side of me is so much larger than what I'm sensing from him...there's definitely something more going on there.
He'd always seemed stronger than her in a one on one fight, of course, that was also when he was sporting his blond look.
I'll have to ask when I get the chance.
It was so complex, so very interesting that Eighteen took several seconds to watch the process before realizing that she was supposed to be imitating him.
She looked back at her own energy and started to replicate it, trying to mold the energy Gero had forced upon her to do the same as Gohan's.
It did so with gusto, almost as if it was used to complying with very little effort.
She began to follow how Gohan was pushing his energy, taking the energy focused on wrapping itself around her body and using it to shift. She kept her eyes closed the entire time, despite having done this more times than she could count, now that she was the one actively controlling it, she found that it was actually difficult to control and maintain.
"Videl?"
"Yeah Gohan?"
"You should open your eyes now."
She did, and her mouth fell open.
They were at least a hundred feet off the ground. She'd thought that maybe they had been a few inches off the ground at most, but in an effort to perfectly replicate what Gohan's energy was doing…
Did he purposely keep pushing just to see if I could do it?
He was sporting a toothy grin that stretched from ear to ear.
"Well done Videl. You're finally flying."
A part of her wanted to scowl at him for tricking her into flying.
Another part of her wanted to give him a hug for showing her something so absolutely incredible about herself.
It was weird to her to be wanting to hug her enem-.
She blinked.
It felt wrong to call him her enemy now.
How could someone who'd shown so much to her...be her enemy?
He wasn't, couldn't be.
He was no longer Blondie...he was Gohan now and maybe...also…a friend?
The concept was strange, and a part of her still resisted it, but she knew it was true all the same. Even if he didn't know the real her, even if her brother wanted him dead, or more accurately thought he was dead...after all that he'd shown her...how could he not be her friend?
The urge to hug him only grew.
And the feeling of never wanting to do something so girly fought it back.
But at the same time…
Eighteen sighed annoyed, tired of feeling conflicted about every decision she wanted to make. She wanted to just do what she wanted without feeling like she shouldn't.
Alright Eighteen. We're doing this. I don't care what reservations you have about this. We are going to give him a hug, he's shown you something incredible and he deserves it. Hug in 3,2-
"Hey! You finally figured it out! Nice!"
Eighteen's resolve dissipated immediately as Trunks appeared at their side, a bright grin on his features as he met her gaze. He was looking back and forth between she and Gohan with a bright, almost too excited smile.
She realized then that she was still holding Gohan's hand.
She retracted her hand immediately as Gohan did the same. She could see he was bearing a slight blush.
She wondered if she was blushing too.
"It was ah, all Gohan really. I just imitated him, no big deal…" She spoke trying to pushed down the flustered emotions she was feeling.
Damn that dumb kid!
Gohan laughed shaking his head. "No I hardly did anything." She appreciated when he shifted his gaze towards Trunks, feeling it helped with the anxiety she was feeling for attention to be pulled away from her. "She's the one who had to figure out how to sense energy before she could replicate what I was doing, that was the hard part if anything."
Eighteen blinked.
Sense energy? Had that been what she was doing? Of course it had been, she'd been able to feel Gohan's energy afterall.
But...did that mean that she could now…?
She closed her eyes as she attempted to do what she'd done before, stretching out her senses past herself, past her own Ki reserves and sucked in a sharp breath of air.
Trunks!
She could feel the boy's energy now, most likely made easier by the fact that he was so close to them. His energy was bright like Gohan's was, although with Gohan's she could sense more of his personality bleeding through, likely due to the fact he'd been literally feeding his energy into her at the time she determined. It was like comparing seeing someone fully dressed compared to seeing someone fully exposed she assumed.
The idea that she'd seen such a personal part of Gohan made her face heat up again.
She made herself pull away from that thought as she focused on Trunks's energy a little more. His was most likely larger than most would be, but considerably lower than anywhere she or Gohan was currently at. It also felt young, which was weird to feel about a person. It was almost as if there were distinctions you could make about a person solely based on their energy, even if they weren't actively feeding it to you. She could sense that Trunks was at a state of rest, he was calm, or maybe a little excited if that was what that brightness was. There was more there to interpret, but still being new at sensing energy, Eighteen concluded that it would likely take time for her to eventually decipher it all.
She was curious to see what the rest of the world would look like, her mind slowly drifting out towards where she knew West City to be.
Before she could find anyone however, she heard a snicker.
Her eyes snapped open only to find both Gohan and Trunks staring at her each with wide knowing grins spread across their faces.
...They both know exactly what I was doing.
Eighteen was not used to blushing this much and fought back the feeling of embarrassment after being caught.
"Cool right?" Trunks spoke, "It's awesome being able to sense the world, the life on it, it's like...it's almost like looking out at the stars isn't it?"
Eighteen's head tilted to the side in thought.
"Go on, try it out. I know you're excited to see it." Gohan nodded.
Eighteen smiled with a small nod before closing her eyes again and stretching out her senses as she'd done before.
She eventually stretched out enough to find West City, having to rely on the power had given her to do so, before stopping in awe.
It was incredible. Just like Trunks had described, it was as if she was staring out into the night sky, looking out at all the twinkling stars. However, these stars were far more beautiful, each of these stars carried with it a small shred of personality that she could detect, some of them agitated, others were excited, some were angry, and many simply in a state of calmness. She couldn't sense from them a reason for all of these emotions, but she could still faintly detect that they were there. Each was interesting, some more than others, but she could differentiate each of them just from their subtle differences, from their signatures alone..
And then, abruptly a large portion of them went out.
Eighteen's brow furrowed in confusion. What could that mean?
Her eyes snapped open and saw that Trunks and Gohan were both wide eyed with shock, staring off in the direction of West City just as she'd been.
She saw Gohan's face shift into that of a dark, hate filled snarl.
It was a face she knew well.
Her eyes widened in realization. She knew exactly what that meant.
...no…
A cold chill ran down her spine, but he'd promised!
"Take Videl back to you mother's and get into the panic room. Keep the two of them safe."
Her mouth felt dry as she suddenly felt Gohan's Ki rise to an incredible amount before he exploded in an aura of golden flames, his hair sharpened and hardened to rise towards the air.
There he was, Blondie was back.
Wait what!? Why would I go with Trunks!? I-...I'm Videl...I'm a woman who Gohan thinks lives in West City…
Her fingers curled into fists in frustration.
Fuck.
She saw a conflicted expression cross the boy's features at Gohan's words, almost as if he didn't want to listen.
"Trunks!" Gohan's voice was harsh, bordering on intimidating. "This isn't the time to fight me about this. Take Videl back or else even more people are going to die for us wasting time!"
And he was right, for the first time, Eighteen could feel that he was correct as another large group of the lights went out in her mind. Seventeen was going on a rampage.
God damn it Seventeen! What the hell is wrong with you!?
She internally roared with frustration as she desperately tried to appear calm, or rather, nervous, which she was.
The conflicted expression on the boy's face eventually shifted into one of defeat. "Sorry. You're right." Turning to face her he spoke with a maturity that was far older than he. "Videl, I know that this is the first time flying for you, but do you think you can fly a little longer? It would be faster than getting out the jet-copter."
She nodded slowly, uncertain of what she was meant to do in this situation.
If I go with Trunks now then Seventeen will be forced to contend with Gohan alone.
Her eyes filled with panic.
-Gohan-
Again. They're attacking again.
It never ended, wouldn't end until he stopped them.
He watched as Trunks and Videl began to fly off. He noticed the look of concern she was trying to suppress as she went. She looked absolutely terrified, nervous and anxious. He couldn't blame her. He imagined that many were going through the exact same feeling.
She mentioned family earlier, she probably has someone back in West City she's scared for.
It would make sense. He'd met her in West City, it was likely she lived there. He mentally prayed that they hadn't been a part of the victims of this initial attack.
He sensed another dozen Ki signatures vanish from his sense, extinguished like they were nothing.
It sickened him that he'd gotten so used to that feeling.
His golden aura enveloping him, he shot forward, pushing his body to move as fast as he physically could because lives depended on him getting there in time. Every second wasted was another potential victim, another life taken away from this world.
There were so few of them now, so little left to protect.
He didn't feel significantly stronger than the last time he'd faced them, he didn't think that he'd miraculously found the solution to his problem either, but that didn't mean that he could just stand by and let this happen again.
He raced towards where he could feel the destruction occurring, knowing that he was likely to lose once more, but resigning himself to do everything he could to stop the Androids from killing just one more person.
He wouldn't win.
He knew it to be fact.
But that didn't mean he wasn't going to give it his all to stop them as he raced towards West City.
-Seventeen-
"P-Please! Spare m-me! I-I'll do anything! "
Seventeen rolled his eyes as he dropped the body of who he assumed had been the man's co-worker. He'd slaughtered the entire rest of the office, with bodies slumped over cubicles and desks alike. Blood was so soaked into the carpet that Seventeen had gotten used to the wet noise it made as he walked across the room towards the man cowering in the corner, tears racing down his face like it would make a difference.
Seventeen snickered as he drew close, watching the man pull his knees to his chest, clenching his eyes shut in a pathetic whimper.
He sneered down at the man. He looked middle-aged, maybe later forties with a bald head and a pudgy midsection. Seventeen couldn't picture anyone missing such an ugly looking individual. There wasn't a chance in Hell that he wasn't going to die before Seventeen moved onto the next building.
But that didn't mean he wasn't going to have a little fun with him first.
The Android lowered himself so that he was crouching down next to the man.
He let his voice soften, sounding concerned, or maybe empathetic? Seventeen wasn't sure what it would sound like to the man, it was only an act after all.
"What? Buddy no, I would never hurt you." Seventeen reached out and placed a gentle hand on the man's shoulder, suppressing his snicker when the man visibly jumped from the contact.
He watched as the sniveling mess of blubber slowly opened his now red eyes, his fearful gaze meeting Seventeen's.
"W-What?"
"I would never hurt you buddy." Seventeen did his best to develop a sincere smile and contain his utter disgust with the man. "You're the entire reason I'm here man. I did all of this to save you."
He watched with delight as the man's face warped into one of confusion. "W-What do you mean?"
Seventeen slowly reached out a hand to help the man up. After several moments of hesitation, the man reached out and took it. Seventeen pulled him up carefully, making sure that he didn't trip from the trembling in his legs.
God I love this game.
It was one that he and his sister had developed after several years of the same day in day out murder sprees. A little spice of life if you will. It was unfortunate how rarely they'd get to actually play it since it took so long to actually pull off. Blondie would always crash in and spoil the fun before they could get too far in the game. But now that he was gone…
I'm free to play to my heart's content!
The objective?
To try to get the target to willingly kill themselves.
"You're Todd right?"
He watched the man's face light up in shock, almost as if he wasn't currently wearing a nametag with his name written in big bold letters.
What the hell type of office requires name tags anyway?
"H-How did you know m-my name?"
Seventeen briefly stole a second glance across the room. It looked like there were a bunch of photos of new homes everywhere, perhaps he was a real estate agent? One of those people who showed homes off to people or something? It would explain the name tag, convenience for the customer and all that nonsense.
"Easy, because we've been looking for you Todd, for a long long time." He tried to shoot a sympathetic smile but wasn't sure if he pulled it off. Eighteen was always better at faking emotions then he was.
"W-what?" Seventeen could tell that he was absolutely still terrified of him.
He let out a casual laugh, patting the man on the back. "Relax man, I already told ya I'm not gonna hurt ya."
"B-but, you've k-killed all these p-people.."
"People?" Seventeen frowned as he raised an eyebrow at the absolute massacre surrounding them. "Todd, these aren't people, they're figments of your imagination."
He could see the blatant confusion on the man's face now. "W-What are you t-talking about?"
Seventeen sighed shaking his head. "We'd hoped you'd have caught onto it first Todd, but I guess then, we wouldn't have had to come here to try and break you out if you did."
He could see that the man was severely confused.
Perfect.
"Todd, it's been more than a decade now. You need to wake up already."
"Wake up?"
"Yes!" Seventeen reached out and grabbed the man's shoulders, startling him as he continued. "Can't you see? All of this! Everything around you isn't real!"
He watched Todd's head whip back and forth frantically, his eyes filled with panic. "W-What? What isn't real?"
"All of this!" Seventeen stepped away, motioning with his extended arms towards everything. "It's something you created with your mind after the accident, something to help your mind heal after such a serious injury!"
"...accident?"
Seventeen hid his grin as he turned his back to the man. The delightful thing he and Eighteen had discovered about people was that they were quick to believe anything if they were shell-shocked enough.
"Yes Todd." Seventeen turned back around to face him with a solemn frown. "You were in a terrible car crash, one that lead to some severe brain trauma, and even a coma."
"A...coma?"
"Yes Todd. Your brain finally started to recover, and so it created this." He motioned with an arm. "A world where things were okay, where life made sense and you weren't injured in the hospital."
Todd's brow furrowed. "B-but…" he pointed a weak finger at Seventeen.
"You're starting to see the cracks in the illusion." Seventeen smiled. This was going so damn smoothly! "When your brain finally started to recover, it needed a way for you to realize that all of this wasn't real. It needed a way to shake itself out of this fake world so that you can finally start to wake up. I mean, c'mon! Two young adults with miraculous super human abilities, flying around and shooting lasers out of their hands? terrorizing humanity? That's like a bad joke! It's absolutely ridiculous!"
He could see Todd's eyes focusing now, his mind trying to trying to make sense of what he was being told.
"I was created from your mind to try and wake you up. We both were." He said referring to Eighteen. "We thought that you were for sure think something was up, we never thought that you'd actually accept it as truth."
He walked up to the man and place a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Do you understand what I'm telling you Todd?"
This was the moment of truth, to see if he'd actually convinced this dopey piece of shit that he was in a fake reality.
He watched as Todd looked away for a moment, before meeting his gaze again. "I...I think so…"
aaaaaand touch down!
Seventeen internally cheered at his own accomplishment. It was so rare that this one worked! The Android felt a swell of pride in himself, maybe he was the better actor after all!
Alright, get back in character! We're not in the clear just yet!
"Todd…" He let out a deep, meaningful sigh. "I won't sugar coat it. You've been asleep for a long time. You're mind can't keep this up forever. It's the reason that we were created, to slowly break down everything that isn't actually real." he met the man's gaze, holding it with a serious gaze. "I've finally come to you in my last effort to try and shake you out of this haze. This is your final chance to wake up, to actually re-enter the real World, where this-" He made a motion towards the bloody room. "-Isn't your reality."
He saw a hopeful look wash over his features. A life without the Androids? It was almost too good to be true!
Well, because it is.
"How do I wake up?" The man asked with a stern resolve to his voice.
Seventeen smiled at him. "Atta boy. I knew you could do it."
"Well, you are a part of my mind, aren't you?"
Seventeen forced a laugh. "Now you're catching on. Come on, I'll show you how."
The Android slowly lead the real estate agent over to the massive gaping hole in the wall he'd made to get in.
He could see the worry in the man's eyes as they drew nearer.
Seventeen stood next to the massive hole before turning back to the man. They were more than six stories up, probably enough of a drop to kill a man he guessed.
"In order to wake up, you need to commit to leaving this false world behind you. You have to tell your mind that you refuse to remain a prisoner to its confines any longer." He grinned, uncertain if he was still managing to pull off 'friendly' anymore.
He motioned a single hand to the opening. "You have to end the life you have here to reach the real life you have back home."
He watched as the man stared wearily at the opening, the cool breeze licking the side of his face.
"Your call bud." Seventeen shot him a sympathetic smile. "I can't make the decision for you."
Of Course the man didn't really have a choice in whether he lived or died. If he decided that he didn't believe him anymore, then Seventeen would just kill him like he did all the others. But of course, that wasn't the point of all of this. The point was that he'd finally have bragging rights to Eighteen since she'd been the only one able to actually convince anyone to properly do it. She'd always held that over his head that she was the more effective killer because she'd been able to manipulate some human trash to do the dirty work for her. With this? He'd finally get her off his back about it.
He watched as Todd took a nervous step forward, and then another step, and then finally, he was standing on the edge of the drop, staring at the scene down below.
Seventeen felt a smile pulling at his lips, knowing that he'd finally win at this game-
Pain.
An explosion of pain against the side of his face.
Seventeen blinked as he tried to shake the spinning going on in his head. Was he in...rubble? He sat up confused as he tried to make sense of things. Rubbing his cheek,he could faintly make out the shape of a boot that had imprinted itself against the side of his face. Pushing off some of the debris and cement that had fallen on top of him. He could finally see that he was on the other side of the building he'd just been standing in, a massive hole his body had formed when he'd been sent rocketing away uncontrollably.
He started to pick himself up when a familiar face slowly started to descend right in front of him.
His eyes went wide in shock.
No...it's not possible.
His mouth fell open, baffled.
"...You're supposed to be...dead…?"
Landing before him, in his all too familiar golden aura…
Seventeen's face contorted into a vicious snarl.
Blondie!
Author's Note:
I imagine that some of you are most likely upset that we didn't get around to the fight with Seventeen this chapter. I promise that I had originally intended to make this chapter be focused on that. My outline only marks Eighteen learning about Ki control as a very small section, but as I wrote it I found more and more to explore and I kind of lost myself creating that scene hahaha. I know that I took some liberties in Ki and the nature of its being, but I genuinely feel like life source energy should feel something like this. I hope you appreciated the section as much as it did me to write. I promise to get onto the next chapter as soon as possible, but considering I managed to release this chapter a week after the first...I feel like I may have earned a rest haha.
I'm looking forward to the upcoming fight just as much as the rest of you are, so please stay tuned and check out the next chapter when it eventually releases! And if you desperately want to see the next chapter of this story, consider posting a review! It's truly the reviews that get me through these chapters and push me to continue the project for as long as I can.
The amazing cover art of this story was designed and completed by the wonderful:Upstart Psycho! If you'd like to check out their instagram where you can see all their other amazing work, please look them up saintswakeart. They appreciated the story enough that they wanted to add their touch to the tale, and I absolutely love it! Their commissions are currently open, so hit them up using the previously mentioned tags if you want more incredible artwork!
Nothing else to say I don't think.
So until next time!