The first thing that Gohan heard, upon regaining any semblance of consciousness, was the high-frequency sound he'd come to associate with one person in particular, Dende.
"nghhh." Even his voice felt weak and scratchy, let alone the pain and aching that he could feel in his entire body.
At least it didn't feel like anything was gone or mutilated, so that was an upside at least, even if his Ki was at a critical low that was surprisingly painful.
"Gohan? Gohan, are you awake?" The pre-teen just groaned and tilted his head a degree or so to each side, pretty much all he wanted to do at the moment, but still enough to let Dende know he was up.
"You gave us all quite a scare there Gohan." Dende chuckled, his voice momentarily fading out as a surge of pain went through his body, but Gohan managed to piece it together, nonetheless.
"Sick of….Waking up….Like this." He mumbled, speaking slowly both from the fatigue that filled him but also through the want to make sure his words were audible and proper.
"Yeah, I can imagine you are. Though that new form of yours will need to be worked on in that case."
"H-Hm?" Even with his eyes still closed he tilted his head towards where he was pretty sure his friend was standing.
"What? Didn't you realize it Mr. Genius?" His friend teased him, getting an annoyed grunt as Gohan tried and failed to look in the other direction like an offended maiden. "That new form of yours is strong. Like really strong. But the leakage is insane. It's almost not even worth using it honestly."
"No wonder…I feel like…crud." He censored himself at the last moment, getting a bark of laughter from the Namekian deity beside him.
"Way to keep it PG, dude. Wouldn't want to offend the singular unconscious person in the room."
"Don't have my..eyes open." He mumbled weakly.
"Then open them."
"Tired."
"Too tired to open your eyes but not to snark me?"
"It's not snark."
"Yeah, yeah. Let me guess. It's some phrase coming from a vaguely Centro culture in the 1700's?"
"Dragon kingdom to be spec..specific." He coughed slightly, getting another snort from the short Namekian.
"Yeah, sounds about right. And if you have the energy to be so smart, you're definitely feeling better. Come on, open those eyes up. I'd like to be able to use some visual cues for this conversation."
"How long has it been?" He asked after a moment, his throat feeling a little better as the healing waves finally got to it.
"About 18 hours. Give or take. Bulma used a prototype of Freeza's healing tanks to get you out of serious danger and I've been working on getting you back to a little more functionality."
With a groan that practically personified his exhaustion, the 13-year-old slowly cracked his eyes open, having to squint and blink a few times as the first thing he saw was a bright light. Something which got a startled sound both from him and from Dende as he suddenly realized what the issue was with Gohan's position.
"Ah shit, you good?"
"Yeah..Yeah. Just…Give me a moment…" Gohan mumbled, taking his time to open his eyes this time, letting them dilate and get used to the light.
"An actual moment or a figurative one?" Dende couldn't help but snark, getting a tired groan from the young teen.
"An actual moment. I need the time." Eventually he reckoned he was all good to go, at least for a regular conversation, so he turned his head to Dende.
"Alright, moment's up. Ready for this conversation?"
"As I'll ever be." The demi-saiyan grunted, flexing his fingers and toes just to feel them move.
"Great. First order of business, death toll." Gohan winced and prepared himself for the number.
Would it be a small handful? A dozen? Hundreds? Thousands? Entire cities that Android 21 had refused to let go of?
"6,234." The number, albeit only a minute, less than a percent of a percent of the population, hit Gohan like a truck and took all of the wind out of him.
"S-Six thousand?"
"From what I can tell. All of the ones that 21 ate were returned, she didn't stockpile any. But the fight you two had….it had some pretty heavy effects on the earth."
"The shockwaves and the weather, right?"
"Yeah." Dende sighed, head bowed. "The earth just wasn't ready for power like that, couldn't handle it. Neither could certain infrastructure."
"I tried so hard…." Gohan mumbled, his fist balling up as his teeth grit so hard the grind of them was audible.
"Want the breakdown?" Some may have thought that Dende was being an asshole, and they might have been partially correct but both of the teens, Namekian and demi-saiyan alike, were intellectuals.
Information and data-crunching were what they worked with, consciously or otherwise.
"Hit me…"
"Ox Kingdom suffered the least losses of all the countries at 217."
217. That was the number of his own people that he'd let die because he was too weak to keep a simple dome active. How pathetic was that? Why did he always falter right at the end? Why?
"Dragon Kingdom was the next worst with 450. Then Monkey, Tiger, River, and Mountain kingdoms in ascending order at 567, 896, 1794, and 2310 casualties. If you want to be nitpicky, Satan City attributed 20 to the Mountain Kingdom total."
"You're certainly chipper about all this." Gohan grouched, staring dryly as Dende slammed a hand on the railing of his bed and scowled at him.
'Piccolo's was worse…'
"Forgive me for trying to stay impartial in all this." The Namekian kami growled, getting a tired sigh from the teen.
"No.. Sorry Dende I'm just….Six thousand two hundred and thirty four. I failed that many people…"
"There was nothing you could have done. Don't beat yourself up over it."
"I could have been stronger!"
"You also could have died. And if you had we wouldn't be looking at a couple kingdoms worth of casualties. We'd be looking at planets of casualties."
"Yeah…You're right." Gohan closed his eyes and tilted his head back, getting a soft sigh from the other teen.
"I know it's not great. Fuck it's far from ideal. But those are the numbers of a bad natural disaster, Gohan. Not a planet ending alien with all the powers of Cell and thensome." Dende continued, getting a hum from Gohan as he slowly pushed himself back into a seated position.
"I guess you're right… But that many deaths are still- It's going to weigh on me."
"You wouldn't be you if it didn't Gohan." Dende smiled, getting the smallest hint of one in return from the teen.
"But what else? There were more than just…casualties, right?"
"Yeah. There is." Dende confirmed, turning his head towards a seemingly innocuous wall.
"Ruby?.."
"So, her Ki has already rejuvenated that much…" Dende mumbled, seemingly to himself, before turning back to Gohan. "Yeah, this situation is about Ruby. Or, well, 21."
"About me sparing her, right?"
"Frankly. Before you say anything else. I don't think there was a perfectly correct option in that situation." The Namekian spoke quickly, as if worried that Gohan was going to cut him off.
"What do you mean? Killing her, right?"
"Well then why didn't you?" Dende challenged, getting a pinched expression from Gohan as he thought back to the end of the fight.
"Everyone she had eaten…they would have gone with her."
"Yeah. Leaving Earth's population, a couple tens of millions short."
"But she can…She's still.."
"Hey, what's done is done. You made your choice, and as your best bro, I reckon I've got a pretty solid foundation of a plan cooking." Dende grinned and pointed a thumb at himself, giving a wink as he did.
"Yeah? And what's that?" Gohan asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend's almost casual dismissal of Android 21's continued existence.
"Ok. So obviously her consciousness is hidden somewhere within Ruby."
"Yeah. Like they're both always fighting for control…"
"Well, since we can't separate them. What if we do something like an early detection system?"
"How so?" Gohan looked intrigued now, the scholar in him snapping to attention.
"We cook up something, either tech or magic based, that is able to detect her ki. If it begins to switch over to 21…" Dende began, letting Gohan fill in the blanks on his own.
"She won't be able to catch us by surprise next time. Which means we can stop her before she ever gets to that power level again!"
"Bingo. But for now, your main priority isn't handling that, I'll deal with that, you need to rest and recover." Dende suddenly switched gears.
"Huh? What do you mean? Your healing is already helping a ton."
"Not like that you idiot. I meant mentally."
"Ah."
"Yeah, 'ah.' Did you really think that any of us were going to let you get so hung up over 21?"
"Any of you?"
"Me, Zangya, Bulma and 18."
"18? How'd you manage to rope her into all this?" The teen snorted, getting one in return from the Namekian.
"Believe it or not, people actually want to help you, Gohan." In response a sort of tight look appeared over his face.
"You…make it sound like I'm never expecting help?"
"You sorta act like it sometimes." Dende shrugged, his healing waves dying down as he stood to his full height. "I think at least subconsciously, so much time around the Z-Warrior's has taught you not to expect help unless you're about to die."
"That's…" Gohan didn't know what to say in response to that.
What could he say in response to a statement like that? He wasn't just going to flat out lie, Dende would see through it in a second and the idea just left a bad taste on his tongue.
"Look man. I'm not judging, its not like none of you cared about each other. I'm just calling it how I see it. Maybe that's something your grandfather can beat into that cranium of yours. How to delegate and rely on others."
"You're so kind to me Dende."
"I'm Kami, tough love is sort of my thing now. Anyways I need to go check some stuff out on the lookout, you rest up." And with a grin and a peace sign, the Namekian flickered from sight.
And with a sigh, Gohan gingerly lowered himself back into a lying position, staring up at the ceiling as his brain fired on all cylinders.
'Do I really not expect people to help me?...'
XXXxxxXXX
A few hours later
The sound of the door handle turning tore Gohan out of his scribbling in a small notebook that had been placed on his bedside table, making him look up and over to see who it might be.
Though the sight of Zangya really should have been the one he thought of first, considering just who she was.
"Sir Gohan!" She exclaimed in excitement, bounding over to his bedside with more energy than he thought he'd ever see out of her.
"Hi Zangya. Sorry if I worried you."
"No no! It's fine Sir Gohan. I'm just glad you're awake and ok." She spoke sincerely, grabbing a seat and moving it to be right next to his bed.
"I'm still sore, probably Dende's way of 'tough love' as he put it. But yeah, I'm alright now." He smiled softly as he spoke, getting a similarly soft smile from the orange haired girl.
"I'm so glad. Watching you drop like that was so worrying…"
"It's not pleasant, I can assure you. I promise I'll do much better next time."
"I'll hold you to that, Sir Gohan." She winked before her expression twisted into one much…darker. "And it seems like that witch was left in an even worse state."
"Ruby? You know how she is?"
"Of course." She answered, as if it should have been obvious. "I have been watching her since you were brought to this facility. Eighteen took over for me a few minutes ago, which is why I'm here right now."
"That's- you're both- Huh?" Gohan struggled to wrap his mind around what was happening, unbidden his conversation with Dende came to the forefront of his mind.
"Oh right! Your grandfather suggested it, he appeared quite angry. By human standards he must be quite a fearsome man."
"He….is. So, you've got a surveillance on Ruby?"
"Indeed. Bulma has promised something more technologically based to aid in our efforts but for now we're watching to make sure that the witch under her skin doesn't try and resurface."
"Ever the dutiful warrior huh?..." Gohan deadpanned at her.
"I prefer to think of it as being a dutiful bodyguard. You are a Prince after all and even if it's only of a backwater planet's kingdom, such a position requires guards, maids and subjects." Zangya listed off, raising a finger with each point.
"I cannot believe you're using my title as Prince to make yourself officially in servitude to me." Gohan deadpanned once more, watching her blush slightly and clear her throat into her fist.
"I have no clue what you mean, Sir Gohan."
"Yeah…of course not."
All was silent for a moment before a lightbulb went off in Gohan's mind, getting a small jolt from him.
"Oh Zangya. How's Goten? Where is he?"
"Oh! Sir Goten is perfectly fine. Bulma is taking care of both him and Trunks." She informed him, getting a relieved sigh from the powerful Demi-Saiyan.
"Thank Dende for that…"
"Yo! I heard my name." Neither of the room's occupants reacted in surprise to the appearance of the Namekian, though it's not like he was expecting them to.
"Hello Dende." Zangya greeted coolly, her excitement having finally stopped feeding into her energy it seemed.
"Hey. Thought you should both know that Bulma said she'll work on the 21-detection device right away. Shouldn't be more than a few days."
"A few days? That's not too bad…" Gohan mumbled, getting a nod from Zangya.
"And quite easy for myself and Eighteen to handle in the meantime."
"Ah. So, you told him of that?"
"Of course, I did!" Zangya scoffed in offense. "Undue stress won't help his condition at all."
"Ever the faithful one…" Dende deadpanned before laughing a little. "Though that's good. This knucklehead needs someone like you."
"You're going all in on the 'tough love' motif, huh?" Gohan raised an eyebrow at his friend, getting a wink in return.
"Oh yeah. I'll be cruel but fair, at least I like to think so. Also, I'm gonna start working on something that I think you'll like. I'll let you know once it's done, ok?"
"Heh. Sounds like a plan Dende. Thanks for this."
"Hey, what are friends for?" And with a small wave, the short Namekian disappeared once more, leaving just Gohan and Zangya in the room, in a comfortable silence that the Demi-Saiyan wished would last forever.
But, like all good things, it couldn't last forever. Zangya beginning to speak after a brief moment spent inhaling softly.
"You saved them all, Sir Gohan."
"Nearly."
Zangya just hummed a little, having heard of the figures from Dende himself when he had come to inform her and 18 of the situation and some of his ideas.
"You did better than anyone could have ever predicted, Sir Gohan. You should be proud." She spoke resolutely, not wanting to see the man that had saved her throw himself into a pit of despair.
Sure, the loss of a life was sad to Zangya but at the same time she was fully capable of looking at the facts and pushing her morals to the side. The loss of six thousand people was a large number of people but in comparison to the millions that had been saved by sparing 21 it was paltry. The difference in those two numbers made the situation a no-brainer in her own mind but she knew enough about Gohan to know that he wouldn't feel the same way, and that was fine with her.
So long as she could help him and stop him slipping into depression or despair, she saw nothing wrong with how much he cared about such a small loss of life. In fact, she found it endearing, just another reason that she had chosen to stick by him.
"I know that logically…"
"But emotionally it is the opposite?"
"Yeah." He nodded a little, staring out the window with a gaze that the woman couldn't quite read from her position.
She opened her mouth to continue speaking but was beaten to the punch by the very teen that lay in front of her. His voice unsure and his expression purposefully guarded and tilted away from her for good measure.
"Zangya. Do I expect no help?"
"Pardon?" The green skinned woman blinked a couple times, caught off-guard by the question posed to her.
"To you, do I seem like I never expect anyone to help me?" Gohan clarified.
Zangya didn't answer right away, instead pressing her lips thinly together, crossing her arms and leaning back in her seat slightly as she mulled it over. She could tell that this question was important to Gohan, she wasn't sure why just that it was, so she would take the time to properly think it over. She cast her mind back to everything that had happened since they had met. How Gohan had acted, what he had said, what he had left unsaid. Slowly, for her, she picked and glued all of the pieces together in her head to come to an answer.
Slowly she breathed out, her decision was made.
"Sir Gohan…That's exactly how it seems to me."
And the exhale that left Gohan's mouth just seemed to take all the fledgling energy out of the young teen's body. His gaze slowly slid back over to her as he turned his head.
"Really?"
"Unfortunately, yes. You seem to have no plans for ever being aided. Truthfully it is…annoying." Zangya said, trying to find the correct word to summarize her feelings on the matter.
"But..I'm the strongest on the planet?"
"So, you must deal with everything by yourself?" Zangya responded heatedly, glaring at the bedridden boy.
"…Yeah?"
Zangya couldn't help but feel bad for Gohan at this moment. For such a smart young teen, for someone that made the average genius look simply average, for someone with so much potential at his fingertips…He still couldn't wrap his head around this simple concept.
"Sir Gohan. Being the strongest doesn't mean that you must shoulder every burden singlehandedly." Zangya scolded him, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes slightly at him. "Being the strongest means being fast, being strong, being durable. It does not mean you are infallible, nor are you incapable of pushing yourself past your limits."
"I…guess I never thought of it that way. I mean it makes sense but it's just…strange to me." Gohan looked down at his hands and curled his fingers into a fist for a few seconds. "I guess I've just grown used to everything relying on me."
"And I get that, but we're here for you, Sir Gohan." Zangya reached out and placed a gentle hand on his arm.
"Thank you, Zangya. I'll try to keep that in mind going forward." Gohan gave her a small smile that she was more than eager to give him in return.
XXXxxxXXX
Two Days Later, Ruby's Confinement Room
Gohan slowly stepped into the room. His movements were fluid and precise as he made his way from the doorway to the edge of the bed where Ruby sat. Zangya stood in the corner of the room where she'd been on watch for the last five hours and counting.
Held gingerly in his right hand was a thin bracelet packed full of cutting-edge technology hand-made by Bulma. Gohan had seen all the failed prototypes and blueprints when he had been called in to grab it, a small part of his soul panging at the sheer amount of effort that the woman had put into this singular gadget.
She'd never put so much work into anything she had made while his dad and their friends had been around, but then again, he guessed with the Dragon Balls, death had never really been something that had stuck before. Everyone had their own responses to grief, and he supposed that this may have been some trauma of Bulma's rearing its ugly head in the most productive manner that it could.
"You didn't kill me." Ruby's voice cut through the silence easily, her head turning so that she could lock Gohan down with her gaze.
"I didn't." Gohan confirmed with a small nod.
"You should have."
"Maybe, maybe not." Gohan rolled his head from one side to the other as he spoke. "But I didn't, so here we are."
"Here we are…" Ruby sighed before looking up at him. "I think before we go forward, I should tell you some things that I've been hiding."
Gohan could sense the spike in hostility from the corner that Zangya stood in, but knew that she wouldn't attack right off the bat so he just stood motionless and made a small hand gesture for her to go ahead.
"Well as you already know, I was one of the experimental Androids of Dr. Gero." Ruby began, waiting for a small nod from Gohan before she continued. "However, I was a Bio-Android similar to Cell and…A human previously to even that. Like Androids 17 and 18."
"Oh." Gohan hadn't quite been expecting that, and based on the surprised look on Zangya's face, neither had she.
"My full name was Ruby Gero. I was the wife of Dr. Gero."
"Ah. You…look spry for your age?"
"You mean being 10 years old?" Ruby asked with the barest hint of mirth in her voice.
She then proceeded to giggle into the back of her fist at the completely blank, blue-screened look on Gohan's face. The young teen looking at her as if she had just told him she'd turned the moon into a dancing rabbit.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." She grinned and waved her hand a little. "That's just how long I've been an Android. I was actually in my early 30's when I perished as a human."
From the subsequent look on Gohan's face she could tell exactly what he was thinking, beating him to the punch before he could even open his mouth to speak.
"No, I didn't look this youthful when I died either. That was a result of my…corpse," Ruby shivered a little at the idea. "Being made into a bio-android and the DNA that was used to accomplish that feat."
"I imagine that usage of 'corpse' isn't entirely accurate?"
"You'd be correct. By technicality I was in a vegetative state but still alive through the extensive technology of Dr Gero."
"You seem to hold no love for your Ex-Husband?" Zangya finally spoke up, watching Ruby and her reaction carefully following her question.
"Because I don't. More than just my appearance changed with the introduction of foreign DNA. I have the memories of my older self but act far more like I did when I was first the age I appear to be, and knowing everything he had done…No. As far as I'm concerned, I've never been married and most certainly never to him."
"I see…"
"But that brings me to the last revelation. Dr Gero added a genome of an alien that never touched another Android, not even Cell, to my genetic makeup."
"I was wondering where the pink came from." Gohan muttered.
"Yes, exactly. The pink skin, the physiology, even the sweets and the immense power-level, that's all from that singular alien genome."
"Where would he have found something that powerful?"
"In the core of the planet." Ruby revealed with a hard look on her face. "Deep in the planet's core there's a ball of…something lying in wait. A shard of it chipped off and made its way closer to the surface and to where Gero could find it. The entire shard was used on me but regardless…It led to my other half."
"That's…really not good." Gohan muttered to himself.
"I'm informing Bulma now, Sir Gohan." Zangya said, already typing on the phone that had been gifted to her from the woman in question.
"Thank you Zangya." Gohan gave her a small smile and a nod.
"And its that unknown, that danger, that leads me to ask that you please take me out, Gohan."
"Nope." Gohan shook his head, his spiky hair tickling his nose a little as it wrapped around just far enough to hit the edge. "I told you before. I made my decision beforehand and I'm sticking by it. And that story only strengthened my resolve. You didn't want this, that much is clear. I get it, not to the same extent, but I get it."
He held his arm out to her with the bracelet dangling from his fingers.
"This bracelet will monitor your Ki and give a warning to anyone linked to it if it changes to the pattern, we saw with 21. You'll be on thin ice for a while, I won't lie. But if you want to have a proper redo at life, this is your best shot, Ruby."
Ruby looked between the bracelet and Gohan's eyes a few times, her expression getting more and more slack as she did so before she let out a small, hiccup-y giggle with shining eyes.
"You're far too optimistic, Gohan."
"You should have seen my father. We wouldn't have even gotten this far with safeguards."
"I can't imagine that." She reached out and gently pulled the bracelet off his fingers, putting it on and looking up at him resolutely. "I want to deal with 21 in any way possible. If this is how we have to do it, then so be it."
"I'm glad to hear that Ruby, truly I am." Gohan gave her a bright smile, keeping his hand out but twisting it to offer a handshake.
And it was an offer that was easily taken by Ruby as she shook his hand resolutely. An overall better outcome than everyone had been expecting, but not an unwelcome one.
Though these talks had given Gohan an idea. A potentially brilliant idea that he probably would have never had if he had not been placed in this odd position of leadership that he currently found himself in. He'd have to thank his grandpa at some stage.
XXXxxxXXX
Six Hours Later, Capsule Corps headquarters.
"Oh Gohan! What brings you here? The bracelet worked right? It should work." Bulma prattled off quickly, holding Trunks close to her side.
"It worked great, Bulma. And thank you for making it on such short notice." Gohan gave her a small bow.
"None of that! It's to help everyone, and I couldn't just let a monster like that roam around without some kind of detection-system."
"Yeah." Gohan nodded. "Though I came here because I actually have ideas that may sound a little crazy, but I think are needed."
"Alright, hit me."
"We've been to space and seen a lot of sci-fi technology, we've even reverse engineered quite a few of them…I think we need to start bringing some of this to the general public."
"Gohan! You can't be serious!?"
"I am, Bulma dumb it down, obviously. But regular people, they have no way to defend themselves if something even slightly more powerful or advanced comes this way, and with everything here that's bound to happen again sooner or later."
"You have a point." Bulma admitted begrudgingly.
"This doesn't have to be immediate. But I think it's simply too dangerous to leave the people of earth as undefended and naïve as they have been. I believe it's time to begin trickle-feeding more to the world to bring everyone forward."
"Heh, well look at you little Prince. Looking out for the greater good already." Bulma smirked and raised an eyebrow as Gohan spluttered in embarrassment over her teasing. "Relax Gohan, it's not a bad idea but we'll need to look into it to make sure that we do this properly ok?"
"Ok, that makes sense." He nodded, though she could tell he was a little disappointed at having to slow his idea down.
"Come around sometime next week and we'll start thinking it over, ok?"
"Ok!" He nodded resolutely and turned around to take off back to his own home.
"Oh! And Gohan?" The young teen paused and turned his head to look back at her.
"Yeah?"
"You did a good job. Your parents would be proud."
A small sheen of wetness coated Gohan's eyes in an instant and he quickly rubbed his arm over his eyes. Giving her a closed eye smile that seemed to brighten the area immediately around him.
"Yeah, I think so too!"
XXXxxxXXX
So….Hi.
Genuinely sorry about this break, I wrote the first 2000-ish words about a week after posting chapter 10 and then hit a really hard bit of writers block for this chapter cause I wanted to make it longer but didn't know what else to add. And I actually went so long without working on this chapter that I thought I'd completed it and just hadn't posted it.
Of course, once I opened the file back up I remembered why it hadn't been posted yet. But after a bit of work I'm quite happy with how it ended up, even for a cool-down chapter from the chaos and action of last chapter.
Discord code: ctMzhq3 or plasmaassassin
REVIEW REPLIES:
ThunderBasilisk: Thank you for the praise!
Niybruh: Multi
RKF22: thank you very much!
Freedmoon: Honestly that how I felt writing chapter 10 and chapter 11 XD
Monkiepawn: Yeah, I know that feeling after a fanfic takes forever to update. But at least this one is continuing XD
X3runner: Yeah, I took a bit of influence for the Gohan v 21 fight as you figured out.
Ariadne Venegas: Unfortunately not possible due to the power disparity, though definitely a good idea.
END OF REVIEW REPLIES
I'll see you guys all eventually and hopefully it doesn't take another year to write and post chapter 12.