Ryoga was lost.
That much wasn't new, though it didn't make it any less depressing to be lost again. But this time he was depressed over his being lost for a different reason than normal. For once, it wasn't Ranma's fault.
It had been nearly three weeks since he had watched, horrified as on live TV some weird anthropomorphic bug man announced that he was hosting what he called the Cell Games, with the fate of the world on the line. It was the duty of a martial artist to protect the weak, which was something he agreed with Ranma about when he wasn't mad at the pigtailed pain in his ass. It was jarring to watch the bug man kill someone before announcing that it would be somewhere north of West City, igniting a desire to punish the evil creature in the part time pig. Ryoga knew himself well enough to know that if he wanted to get there in time, he needed to leave immediately.
So, he did what he always did when he needed to find his way, which was to consult his custom made map. The ones they sold in stores weren't reliable after all, so he'd taken it upon himself to create his own.
First, he had confirmed that he indeed had been to West City before. And it was, in fact, on his map! That was good. But then he saw his starting point, which was Orange Star City, and couldn't help but groan in annoyance. He was on the complete wrong side of the planet! But, he couldn't let that get him down. The people of the world were counting on him to face this Cell guy, and he would be damned if he was going to let Ranma get all the credit for facing the bastard!
So he plotted his course, and set off.
From Orange Star City, he crossed the jungles of London, over the mountainous terrain of Cairo, through the deserts of North City, past the snowy tundra of Athens, trekked around Korin's Tower, and finally reached the last major stop before West City.
Detroit.
He hated that place.
But, he was a man on a mission. And because of his urgent mission, he had asked a passerby for directions to speed things along, something he normally hated to do as they always pointed him in the wrong direction. But at that point, he only had 24 hours left to make it to the Cell Games. Ryoga wasn't going to take any chances.
Unfortunately, he never made it. It just goes to show Ryoga that he should never trust a stranger's directions, because he followed that man's directions, and yet he ended up in the wrong place entirely! From Detroit, he should have been able to find his way past the military base in Amsterdam, taken a moment to say hello to the nice blue haired woman and her new baby in Paris, and after going through the Grand Canyon - which was in her backyard for some reason - he would've found West City, which then meant he'd be at the Cell Games!
But it seemed that the blue haired woman had moved house, because instead of the Grand Canyon, he had found himself wandering around Penguin Island, where that weird little definitely-not-a-robot girl lived. At that point, he wandered around that Island for what felt like hours, before that same strangely strong little girl dragged him off to watch the Cell Games on TV!
Watching the Cell games from the sidelines like that was humbling. Because Ryoga wasn't the average viewer, he understood what was going on, and could actually track the fighting happening on screen to a certain extent. He knew that Hercule guy wasn't anything special just from a glance. He was maybe around Kuno's level, but the rest of the fighters… Man, they were something else. They had so much speed, power and Ki available to them, it was like they were stronger than dozens of Saffron's combined!
Ryoga couldn't take his eyes off the screen. The fighting was intense, and the stakes were high. It was frustrating that he wasn't there to help, but at the same time, he also realized he would only be in the way. All he could do was watch fretfully. He got excited when the muscular blonde man went toe to toe with Cell. He got bewildered when he suddenly stepped down, claiming he reached his limit, only to hand it over to his son.
Watching the boy triumph over the monster was intense and harrowing. The price he had paid was great, but the boy was humanity's savior. It was shocking to see someone so powerful at his age. It really opened Ryoga's eyes as to just how strong someone could get, as he didn't doubt for a second he wouldn't stand a chance against any of those guys. It was tempting to see if he could get one of those guys to train him, then he'd finally be able to secure a win against Ranma wouldn't he?
With that in mind, he had set off, wanting to find any one of those fighters to ask them for training. There was a small issue though. He didn't know how to find any of them.
Not that that ever stopped him before. The Hibiki's were used to that, but they knew that as long as they stayed determined, they'd find who they were looking for eventually.
He'd been at it for two weeks now, lost as always, but he wasn't going to let that stop him!
"Just you wait and see Ranma! I'm going to find one of those fighters from the Cell Games, and I'll learn everything they can teach me! You'll not stand a chance against me after that!" Ryoga declared loudly, as talking to himself was a habit one formed when they were alone on the road.
"Oh?"
He jumped in surprise when he heard someone respond to him, whipping his head around to find the source of the voice while his hand wandered to the pommel of his trusty umbrella. The part time pig had been certain there was nobody around him, until he had the presence of mind to look up, where a figure was floating in the air above him, a mere silhouette as the sunlight made it hard for Ryoga to make out any features. But the fact that they were flying meant that Ryoga had found them at last, and he couldn't help but grip his umbrella tighter, a feral grin on his face.
"And why exactly should I train you?"
The sun was shining, the birds were singing. Everything was calm and pristine, deep in the untouched Japanese wilderness. Bird's nested and fed their young. Wild foxes roamed the underbrush, looking for their next meal. It was calm and peaceful in a way that couldn't be achieved in urban environments. So many animals and ecosystems existed in peaceful harmony.
At least, until a human made their presence known as they screamed.
"Argh! This is so frustrating! Why can't I figure this out?!" A male's voice cried out in frustration as he gave up on standing, flopping back into the grassy bank surrounding the small lake that was his training ground of choice. This peaceful oasis in the sea of trees was a favorite of Ranma's, having once landed in the lake after getting sent flying by the Tomboy once last year. Normally, Ranma always landed somewhere in civilization, but Akane had clearly been trying to set a new personal best for distance that day.
What was supposed to be a rhetorical question was instead answered, as his companion for the weekend's training trip spoke up from the tree she was currently sitting under. "You know Ranma," The blonde woman began, her attention mainly focused on the book in her lap. "If you actually let me explain it to you instead of trying to brute force it from watching me fly one time…" She trailed off, her tone carrying a slightly teasing note to it. The pigtailed boy was making it more complicated than it needed to be, because flying was deceptively simple. It had only taken about a week for herself and 17 to learn how, and that was while trying to come up with the technique only from Dr. Gero's best guesses and conjectures. And that was with her comparatively lesser talent.
It was honestly impressive how much Ranma was blowing her expectations out of the water. Her initial estimates had him fully purging his Ki of emotion after two weeks. But to her surprise, he had accomplished it three days ahead of time. She had been quite surprised when she returned from her first job as a model to find that he was ready to learn to fly already.
Currently, Ranma's attempts really just showed how inexperienced he was with Pure Ki. To fly, all you really needed was the density that came from Pure Ki. The comparatively less dense and consistent Emotional Ki just couldn't sustain you for long extended flights. Sure, for short bursts it was possible. But maintaining a singular emotion for long periods of time just wasn't feasible.
She wasn't expecting Ranma to pout of all things though. "Aw, but I wanted to show off…" He whined, earning a chuckle from his older sister.
"Ranma, you've already impressed me enough. You're way more talented than I thought, I didn't think we'd be at this stage for another week or so." 18 said as she set her book aside. "So, would you rather keep trying without really knowing what you're doing? Or would you rather I explain it, and you can enjoy flying through the sky?"
His pout slowly twisted into a grimace. He really wanted to be able to say he figured it out himself like his pride demanded. But it really was a bit silly to waste time like this. It wasn't as if 18 was a rival whose technique he was having to reverse engineer. But that damn stubborn pride of his didn't want to accept the freebie…
Seeing his indecision for what it was, 18 offered an olive branch of sorts. "How about I just give you a hint? It'll put you on the right track, but it will still be on you to figure it out."
His expression brighted as he bolted upright and turned around, giving her his full attention while he nodded vigorously in acceptance, much to her amusement. "You're going about this as if you still used Emotional Ki. Remember the differences between Pure and Emotional Ki." The android explained, before picking up her book once more.
This wasn't the first time she'd had to remind him to think about the difference between the two. So it only took Ranma a few seconds to think of the obvious ones. Pure Ki was denser and it was easier to maintain. He simply wasn't familiar with Pure Ki enough to notice any further differences, though he didn't doubt they were there.
That meant that the next thing to tackle was what she meant by him attempting this as if he was still using Emotional Ki. Currently, Ranma was willing his Ki to form a cone like shape around him, to pierce through the air, which did seem to let him jump higher, but it wasn't flying. The issue was that it was unreliable, and didn't actually support him in the sky. His current method just reduced the wind resistance a little bit…
He blinked his steely blue eyes a few times in confusion. "Is it really that simple…?" He muttered to himself, standing back up and shutting his eyes to concentrate on Ki manipulation.
Treating the Pure Ki as if it was Emotional Ki meant that he had been supporting it, instead of the other way around. He was forcing it, which was why he had only ended up with that weird, fake low gravity technique. He needed to just let it happen. His Ki needed to support him, not the other way around.
With that revelation, he immediately began to put his thoughts into practice. And… He was immediately rewarded! All he had to do was push his Ki underneath him, and his Ki would hold him up!
"Holy…" He gasped, as he ascended slowly into the air by about a foot or so. He was actually floating!
Letting out a loud whoop of celebration, the teen immediately shot a further 10 feet in the air, marveling at the feeling of hanging in the air. His Ki was supporting him. It wasn't like he was standing on a platform, it was more like his Ki was just constantly lifting him up… And the feeling was incredible!
"T-This is incredible, 18! I'm really flying!" He cheered with a giant grin on his face, before blinking a few times. "Hey, how am I supposed to go any direction besides up?"
"You should be able to intuit it, Ranma. It's not too different from what you're already doing."
"Really?" Turning his attention back to flying, he first tried leaning back and was surprised when there was no issue at all. "So then I just… Whoa!" He yelped in shock as he suddenly rocketed away and towards the lake. But in a miraculous maneuver for the gender cursed martial artist, he managed to right himself and pause in mid-air, barely able to stop himself from plummeting into the water. "Okay… A little easier on the pushing…"
It took a good 15 minutes for Ranma to get the feeling down, but in almost no time at all, he was zipping around the sky like he belonged there. It was like a dream for him, and the dopey grin on his face and giggles of elation just couldn't stop coming as he zoomed around the open air, already working on a kata for the sky.
Allowing a small smile to grace her face at the pure joy on her brother's face, Android 18 simply watched him take to the skies. His joyous, almost childlike laughter as he swooped through the sky, twisting and turning, was infectious. She was, at that moment, content to watch him enjoy himself.
She was drawn out of her reverie by Ranma flying over to her from across the lake. Except, he hadn't quite gotten the hang of flying at speed quite yet, as he misjudged the landing by quite a bit, landing knee deep in water, triggering the change from male to female. "Aw, come on! Seriously? I go all this time without getting splashed, and when it finally happens it's cause I misjudged the landing?" The now redhead groused, her comical expression drawing a laugh from her sister as she trudged the rest of the way out of the lake. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, why don't ya…"
"All things considered, that wasn't a bad landing, Ranma. Better than my first. At least you didn't eat dirt." She teased lightly, earning her a raspberry being blown in her direction.
"Whatever, that'll never happen again. Now come on Sis! I wanna learn to fight while we fly!" Ranma cheered, earning a slight eye roll from 18.
"Alright, alright. Why am I not surprised?" She lamented, setting her book aside, before taking to the sky, with the redhead eagerly at her heels just a few seconds later.
"So, the first thing you need to know…"
Ranma had taken to flight like a fish to water. He was, to anyone that knew him, unsurprisingly a natural at it. The Saotome School of Anything Goes martial arts focused heavily on aerial combat. He'd always loved the feeling of pseudo flight that his art allowed him. So knowing how to do the real thing was exhilarating.
Unfortunately, actually fighting while flying drained Ki like crazy. Supposedly, that would get better with time, both as his Ki reserves grew, and as he got more used to the intricacies of aerial combat. But for now, that meant they had to stop, lest he pass out from being completely spent.
So they set up a simple camp, hunkering down for a meal before they head to sleep.
The two siblings were settled down against a felled log, the only point of light being the soft glow of the campfire that was illuminating both of their features. They were eating a large pot of some kind of stew that Ranma made. Well, to be more accurate, Ranma was eating directly from the pot. 18 had only taken a small bowl to herself as she really didn't want or care for the food, and was largely keeping up appearances. The blonde was still conflicted over when she should tell Ranma the truth of what she was. Of course, there were a lot of things that they needed to talk about. They'd only just met a little less than two weeks ago after all. While she had a decent grasp of who Ranma was as a person, largely in part to him being quite similar to 17, she didn't really know his story. And conversely, he didn't know hers.
Were it anyone else, she wouldn't even consider opening up to them. While she had repressed most of her memories, she was pretty certain that her core personality hadn't changed too much. 18 was probably a bit more guarded and intimidating now, which wasn't helped by her general distrust of others. But lately she found herself missing the casual affection she had with 17. Suddenly being orphaned meant that the two only had each other to rely on, and they had grown incredibly close, to the point where people actually thought they were twins! They never showed it in public, but behind closed doors they reveled in simple acts of familial intimacy. Without a mother to wipe their tears and reassure them things were going to be alright, they had to find those same comforts from each other. As children, there were no parents to chase away the monsters or to hold them throughout the cold nights.
She had noticed that all members of the Saotome and Tendo families seemed to be highly uncomfortable with anything remotely resembling physical affection. Even between mother and son, or father and daughter in the case of Soun and his girls. Perhaps it was some Japanese culture thing that she didn't understand, but that wouldn't make sense in the context of Nodoka and Ranma. Nodoka had never had any issue with being affectionate from what few vague memories she retained told her. So why wasn't she showing that casual affection with Ranma? Not once had she witnessed the woman give her son a simple hug and a kiss, there had to be some reason to it. The simple answer was that Ranma was a self conscious teen, but she had a sinking suspicion that there was some sort of history that she just didn't have context for.
The android wanted to get to the bottom of things. And if in the process, she could quit feeling so damned touch starved, then that was just a bonus.
The question now was, how to best approach this conversation?
"Hey Ranma?" The teen in question paused, spoon halfway to his wide open mouth, an almost comical expression on his face as he blinked a few times. Android 18 snorted softly in amusement at his expression, shooting a glance down the pot and shaking her head at the fact that he had eaten enough stew to feed eight regular people. Seeing him eat the first time had been a bit of a spectacle.
"Uh… What's up?" He responded after a few seconds, his eyes darting back and forth between her face and his food, seemingly conflicted as his stomach was not yet sated. "Oh! Did ya want more? Sorry, I just kinda assumed…"
His half sister just chuckled quietly in response. "No, it's fine. I don't need any more." She assured him, putting extra emphasis on that by setting her mostly untouched bowl aside, which seemed to make his unease disappear as he dug back in. "I just wanted to get to know you better. We've only known each other for a little under two weeks and I'm curious about some things."
Ranma paused for a brief second before he continued to scrape the last of his meal into his mouth, mulling it over. He didn't really like opening up about himself to people, only ever really volunteering information about himself out of necessity. It wasn't that he was a super private person, it was more that he couldn't stand the reactions. They always looked at him in pity, as if his journey as a martial artist was a bad thing. But he didn't see it that way at all. He loved the Art. He loved fighting and training and learning all he could about it. Learning about Pure Ki from 18 was the most exciting thing to happen to him since Saffron!
Sure, the training journey wasn't all good. There were many things about it he would have loved to have changed in hindsight. But he still would have wanted to go on the training journey in the end. Living a normal life just seemed so boring to him in comparison. That was neither here nor there though. The question was, did he want to tell her about his life if she asked? He didn't really want to risk seeing that look of pity on her face…
He shook his head, displeased with himself for doubting his older sister. She had given him no indication that she would react that way at all! The reveal of the curse had been a litmus test for how she would react to the weirdness of his life. The blonde hadn't even bat an eye when he'd turned into a girl in front of her eyes. She didn't judge him for that, why would she judge him for his upbringing?
Reaching his hand up and scratching at the base of his pigtail, he nodded at 18. "Well, sure I guess. But only if I get to ask ya some stuff too, okay?"
That earned him an amicable nod. Although in truth, she wasn't quite as thrilled to answer questions about herself as she outwardly made herself appear to be. Revealing herself as an android wasn't exactly something she wanted to do - there wasn't a chance in hell she was going to talk about this with anyone besides Ranma anytime soon - and she hadn't yet decided when she was going to tell Ranma about it. It would really depend on what questions Ranma asked, and the general direction the conversation would take. "Of course, that was always the intention. You want to go first or should I?" She answered, giving the lead of the conversation over to him which allowed Ranma to set the tone for what they'd be asking each other.
"Well alright. How strong are ya exactly? I know you're holding back, but I can't get a read on how much." He asked, immediately going to the thing that most interested him. She was powerful, he could tell that much. Probably the most powerful person he'd ever met. And that included Saffron!
18 probably should have expected that. Her youngest brother loved anything to do with fighting, and she'd given him a taste of how overwhelmingly out of his league she was. Craning her head back to look at the stars in the sky, she asked a simple question, although she already had a certain expectation of what the answer would be. "Why do you want to know?"
"So I know how much catching up I need to do." He answered immediately, with no hesitation at all. The complete lack of hesitation in his answer caused her to turn her gaze at him, steely blue eyes meeting her icy ones. She searched his gaze, looking for any reason to lie to him. For a reason to believe that this was a mistake, that if she told him the truth, he would reject her for being a monster.
She couldn't find one.
Humming softly, Android 18 broke eye contact and turned to face the fire. Grabbing a stick from the pile of kindling, she poked and prodded at the fire for a few seconds, stalling to organize her thoughts. His reaction to this would serve as a sort of test drive of sorts. If he showed no fear over this, then perhaps…
Raising a palm toward the sky, she summoned a ball of yellow Ki. "The amount of Ki infused in this ball is a little more than all the Ki you have available to you currently. Meaning that in not that long, you'll have the ability to do this." She spoke slowly, unable to give the numbers for exact context, as 16 had been the only one that had a working power scanner. "If I were to fire this, completely unimpeded, it would be enough to shatter the moon."
Ranma wrenched his attention away from the ball of Ki, blinking a few times in shock as he absorbed what she said. "... You're serious." He spoke after a long pause, to which she simply nodded as she pumped more Ki into the ball. His eyes widened, the sense of danger he was feeling from the ball of Ki growing, despite it not getting any larger. Instead it was just getting more and more dense. The amount of energy contained within was growing higher, getting condensed tightly, which prevented it from growing bigger.
"This is about five times the amount of Ki you have. With this, I can completely vaporize the moon." She explained. Her tone could only be described as careful detachment as she continued to pump more and more Ki into it, as she was already bracing herself for the rejection. "At 50 times your current strength, you enter the territory of planet busting. I'm not certain at what level you need to be to be able to completely vaporize a planet, the best estimations I saw were between 100-1000 times your current strength."
With a wave of her hand, she reabsorbed the ball of Ki, keeping her gaze set on straight ahead into the heart of the fire. She didn't dare to steal a glance at Ranma, dreading what she would see if she did. "As for how strong I am exactly…" Android 18 trailed off with a sigh. It was time to just bite the bullet. No more stalling. "I'm about 1.5 million times stronger than you."
Silence descended on the pair for a few long moments after that, only broken by the crackling of the fire. And for 18, that silence was almost worse than an immediate rejection. She had steeled her heart for the rejection, and was ready to disappear into the night at the first sign that he feared her. She couldn't blame him. She was capable of destroying the planet, and it'd be as simple as a casual flick of the hand. Hell, she was probably capable of destroying the entire solar system in one fell swoop! It wasn't clear just how powerful she had become because of Gero's madness, and the worst part was that even if she didn't do anything, she would only continue to grow stronger and stronger as time passed. The damned perpetual energy reactor would see to that. It would be better for everyone if she just disappeared. She was a monster to be feared and reviled. This world would be a better place if she had never been born, then Ranma and their mother would be safe, and they would never have to worry about her going out of con-
"Wow, I guess I have a lot more training to do than I thought!"
Whipping her head around to look at Ranma, Android 18 gave him an incredulous look, as if she could not believe what she had just heard. Perhaps she had just heard him wrong. But the small grin of excitement on his face told her otherwise. "How... Did you not hear what I just said? I'm a monster, Ranma! A freak of nature! If I wanted to destroy the planet, nothing could stop me." She questioned, her volume increasing with her apparent disbelief.
Ranma frowned in thought, running a hand through his hair as he tried to think of what to say. He was better than he used to be when it came to talking about emotions, though it still made him profoundly uncomfortable. Years of Genma beating down any emotion that he perceived as 'weak' or 'girly' made it difficult for him to converse about it, because he'd never had a chance to really do so himself growing up. There was nobody to talk to when he had felt sad or lonely or depressed. And his sister was clearly feeling something similar at the moment. He didn't know the label for it, it felt like a weird mix of depression, despair and loneliness. It was like she was trying to push him away?
Like hell he would let her do that. He just got his sister, he wasn't exactly keen to lose her.
"Well, ya aren't going to, are ya?"
She blinked at him a few times, dumbfounded. Was it really that simple to him? "Well… No. But that's-"
Ranma cut her off, giving a nonchalant shrug and a smirk. "Then it's fine! One of the things Pops got right when he trained me is that he drilled into my head that a Martial Artist's duty is to protect the weak. If you're strong enough to destroy planets, then that just means you can protect the planet from other stuff that's strong enough to do that. And eventually, I'll be able to help ya with that." He leaned back as he spoke, stretching his muscles out. "'Sides, I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't accept ya after you accepted the curse like it was nothin'."
His little speech once again reinforced something Android 18 had already noticed, the oddly accepting and kind way people had been treating her on this planet. Maybe she had just been unlucky to not meet the right people in her original world, but she was finding more and more that she preferred it here.
It was nice.
It would have been great if 17 had been here as well.
"So what's up with you and Mom?" 18 decided to change the topic, having nothing more to really say to Ranma. And per their agreement, it was her turn to ask a question.
She wasn't expecting Ranma to awkwardly laugh and attempt to avoid the question though. "Ahaha… W-What do ya mean? Nothin's up with us." He said, wincing at the clearly unimpressed look 18 was giving him.
"Riiiiiight." She responded with her usual dry tone. "So she just happens to have a weird fixation on you being manly, even though you're a girl part of the time huh?"
Letting out a sigh, Ranma let the tension out of his shoulders, hunching in on himself a bit. The contract wasn't something he really wanted to explain, even though his mother had said he fulfilled it. Most people didn't really have good reactions to it, and he really didn't want to know how 18, who was Nodoka's eldest child, would react. "It's… Complicated."
"When is it ever simple?" She quipped back, earning a wry laugh from him.
"Yeah…" The pigtailed teen sighed, staring at the fire for a few seconds while he idly reached out to grab a nearby bottle of water. "I don't know what they were like with you and Lapis," He began, not noticing that hearing the name Lapis made her wince with guilt. "But Pops was dead set on taking me on a training journey when I was little. Mom was against it, and apparently it was a common argument they had. It… Makes a lot more sense now why she was so against it. She'd already lost you two huh?" Ranma mused, glancing over at 18 who just gave him a grim nod.
"Well, I guess he wasn't really winning those arguments, cause one night he just left in the middle of the night with me. All he left behind was a contract stating that he would bring me back when I became a man-amongst-men." As he spoke, he unscrewed the cap of the water bottle and dumped some of it on his head, just enough to trigger the change from he to she. "Ya can see how well that turned out." She groused, sneaking a glance at 18 who had a very neutral expression on her face that was more terrifying than the usual rage and anger most people felt when hearing about the contract. And she didn't even know about the seppuku part!
"I see." Her sister spoke in a dreadfully chilling voice, sending shivers up Ranma's spine. Was this how people felt when she spoke while in the Soul of Ice? "And how long was this training journey?"
The redhead gulped, despite not being the target of 18's chilling anger, she couldn't help but almost feel a little sorry for Genma.
Almost.
"About 10 years?"
18 took a deep breath in. 10 years. The bastard had thought it a good idea to take her third child away from Nodoka when she had already lost any hope of ever seeing her first two children ever again? It's a wonder their Mom didn't go insane.
Releasing that same breath, she peeled her glare away from the stars to look at Ranma, ready to say something about how she was going to kill her stepdad for hurting their Mom like that, but she faltered at the look of concern on Ranma's face. "... You're worried about him?" She asked, more than a little confused by that.
A faint blush dusted her little sister's cheek, as she scratched at her pigtail. "Well… I mean… Kinda? Pops has done some real stupid stuff and all. A lot of people have a bone to pick with him and stuff. And he deserves a lot of it too. But…" She struggled with the next words she wanted to say for a few moments. All this emotional talk was really draining for Ranma, but she knew that she needed to just bite the bullet and have these talks with her sister, otherwise they would just never happen. "I still care about him I guess. Everyone's already taken their pound of flesh, including Mom, and it's not like one more person doing so is gonna change that it happened." The redhead eventually declared, meeting 18's gaze with no hesitation.
They held the stare for a few long seconds, before 18 finally broke it. "Fine. If you don't want me to do anything, then I won't." She relented, while Ranma blinked a few times in surprise.
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah. Did you expect me to just ignore what you want and do it anyway?" 18 retorted with a cocked eyebrow.
"Uh… Kinda, yeah. That's what most people do?" The redhead admitted, which caused 18 to rub the bridge of her nose in exasperation.
"There's so many things to unpack there…" She muttered under her breath, though it was loud enough to be heard. Which meant that Ranma shifted uncomfortably, something that didn't escape 18's notice. Scooting a little closer, she reached out and affectionately put her hand on top of Ranma's head, ruffling her red locks. "I'm not mad at you, Ranma. I'm mad for you." The blonde answered softly, moving her hand down to her brother-turned-sister's shoulder and giving it a small squeeze. The older woman noticed Ranma's body language still was distinctly uncomfortable, it was impossible to miss the way she tensed up with just a small hug like that. So she regrettably pulled away. They were still in close proximity to one another, but no longer touching, the little contact not having done much to make her quit feeling so touch starved. "It sucks not having your parents around. I wish you didn't have to experience it as well, though it explains why your interactions with Mom are as awkward as mine."
Ranma just nodded sullenly, allowing the silence to descend once more. Emotional talks like this were just so draining… The smaller girl didn't understand how people did it. Still, it was technically her turn to ask a question now. Something simple should suffice.
"So, why do you go by 18 instead of Lazuli?" She asked innocently, unaware that she had just stepped on the proverbial landmine.
18 sighed. There it was. The question that would lead to her divulging what she was, if she chose to be truthful. But telling the truth meant being vulnerable, showing off that weak side of herself that she so resented.
But she also needed someone to understand. It wasn't something she would have had to talk about with 17 around. He understood. He had been there after all, going through the same hellish experiments and procedures. They could silently draw strength from each other and their new, ill-begotten strength. And after killing Gero, they were supposed to be the most powerful beings on the planet. Nobody would ever be able to hurt them ever again. They'd even gained a comrade in the gentle giant Android 16.
But now she had none of that any longer. Because of her indecision, her arrogance, 16 and 17 were both gone, and she had been magically whisked off to a new world. With no time to process her grief and guilt, she'd miraculously come upon her lost family, and even gained a new little sibling. It had been… Difficult to separate Ranma and 17 initially, and that was probably why she was so quick to trust him, and show him more than the cold aloofness that was the personality she wore as Android 18. But as time went on, it became easier to separate the two.
Ranma wasn't 17. 18 was acutely aware of that fact.
But she needed her sibling. At some point over the years, she had become emotionally dependent on her brother. If she had been all alone after Genma and Nodoka's disappearance, she wasn't certain she would have had the willpower to survive. But by having her little brother by her side, she had something to anchor herself for. She was the older sister, so she had to be strong for him. He gave her goals for each day. A reason to continue on. To continue to live and breathe.
And that was something she desperately needed. Ranma already had given her that first reason. They wanted her to train them, so they could stand shoulder to shoulder with her in strength, even after learning just how powerful she was. But all that could be a moot point if he rejected her because she was no longer human.
So she would tell her story of lost time and lost humanity.
"For years, the greatest military force in the world had been a private army. They were a criminal organization, with such vast amounts of wealth and power that everyone knew about them. Their influence was so vast, that even the World Government's military was unable to match them. They were called the Red Ribbon Army."
"Uh… What's that got to do with your name?"
"Patience Ranma." Android 18 chided gently, earning a sheepish look and a nod from the redhead. "Like I said, the Red Ribbon Army was a criminal organization. Any crimes you could think of now, they took it one step further. Human trafficking, drug muling, military takeovers of towns, extortion… You name it, they've had their hand in it. The people were at their mercy, and the government simply didn't have the resources to put a stop to it. The Red Ribbon Army had existed since long before I was born, terrorizing the world. That all changed when I was 10 years old, three years after Mom and Genma disappeared."
"You see, they weren't happy with just being the most feared criminal organization in the world. They wanted more. They wanted world domination. But they were at a standstill. While the World Army couldn't stop them, they provided enough resistance that conquering the world wasn't feasible. So they turned to something else. Magic. There's a legend of a set of artifacts in the world called Dragon Balls, and if you gathered all 7, a dragon would grant you any wish you desired."
Ranma blinked a few times. "That's… Dangerous. Are they real?"
Android 18 could only shrug. "Don't know. It doesn't really matter anyway, because during their attempts to find the Dragon Balls, they ran into a young teenager called Son Goku who was also on a quest for the Dragon Balls. They came to blows... "
The redhead winced. "Poor kid, did he make it out alright?"
"He came out more than a little okay I'd say." The blonde snorted. "Goku wiped out the entire army. The Red Ribbon Army, the greatest criminal organization in history, was completely wiped out by a 13 year old kid."
Ranma blanched at that. "What? How?! Wouldn't they have guns, tanks, explosions and stuff?"
"Seriously?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Ranma, you're well beyond the point where you'd be seriously hurt by firearms. At worst you'd get a bruise, and from the heavy stuff you'd maybe get a broken bone. You'd only be in danger if they somehow shot you directly in the eye or the mouth probably."
"Uh… Really?"
"Yep. So, anyways, the Red Ribbon Army gets all but wiped out. This happened about… three years or so after Genma and Mom disappeared. Time marched on, and people began to forget about the Red Ribbon Army. Unfortunately, Goku was still young. So he didn't get them all." She spoke, her tone slowly getting less and less emotional.
"The Red Ribbon Army had its share of rich and powerful people who preferred to have them around. A man named Dr. Gero was one such person. To the outside world, he played the role of a brilliant scientist who worked hard for the betterment of humanity. But in reality, he was a researcher employed by the Red Ribbon Army, because they gave him the materials he needed in order to conduct his research. He was obsessed with the evolution of humanity, and that obsession began to include revenge against the man who destroyed the Red Ribbon Army."
This… Was not the way Ranma had expected the story to go when she had asked what she thought to be a simple question. And she wasn't sure she liked the sound of where this story was going.
Android 18 could easily pick up on Ranma's discomfort, but she wasn't going to stop now. If she did, she would never talk about it again. "He quietly disappeared from the spotlights, pooling together all the resources he could from the remnants of the Red Ribbon Army's secret caches, continuing his research that was now fueled by a desire for vengeance. Eight years passed by like that, with the world blissfully unaware."
Swallowing the lump in her throat and wetting her lips, she paused for only a brief second. "He didn't need to pivot to some new ideas for his revenge, because his research for the Red Ribbon Army was already about creating machines of death. He started by making giant mecha suits, and then moved on to attempting to make fully autonomous robots that could disguise themselves as human. He made models that could absorb energy from other people with a simple touch. He made models that had an infinite energy source."
Pulling her knees into her chest, she wrapped her arms around them, making herself smaller, as if it would make her safer. "And then he moved on to human experimentation." Her voice got softer, and the look in her eyes was getting distant, as if she wasn't there mentally.
"My brother and I were considered undesirable by society. We were known criminals, though by that point the only people we beat up and stole from were other criminals. We had developed a reputation as powerful people that nobody would miss if we just disappeared one day. Which meant we were the ideal target."
The blonde shuttered. "Gero had us kidnapped in broad daylight. Pumped our apartment full of knockout gas, waltzed right in, and just… Took us. And nobody did a damn thing to stop them. Waking up, strapped down to a metal table and being unable to move was terrifying. And it was made all the worse by the fact that I was alone. No matter how much I screamed and yelled for help, nobody came."
"I don't know how long I was like that, with no sign of any other person being around. Until he came. Gero didn't answer any questions, didn't even talk to me. He just jabbed me with some needle that made my whole body feel numb, and forced me to watch in horror as he cut me open, looking at me as if I was some cut of meat he was buying at the butcher. He didn't even flinch when I screamed and begged for him to stop. To let me go. He didn't bat an eye, entirely focused on making his damn observations, writing them down, and poking around my guts."
"I guess he eventually found what he was looking for, because he sewed me back up, and forced me to inhale some gas that knocked me out once again. Next thing I knew I was stuck in a cage, being treated like a goddamn animal, with nothing I could do except wait for the guard to knock me out, just to wake up back on that table and do the whole thing over again. And this repeated so many times I lost count."
"I didn't know what was going on, or why this was happening to me. What had I done to deserve this torture? Why me? Why wouldn't anyone help me?" She trailed off, swallowing slowly. "... The only reason I didn't try to kill myself was because I knew Lapis was coming for me. So I endured. Stuck in that endless, hellish loop of consciousness, I held on. Over and over and over again."
"Until one time, something different happened."
"Instead of waking up in that cage, the next time I woke up was to the sounds of fighting, and a familiar voice screaming my name. It took a moment to get my bearings, it was the first time I'd been outside in god knows how long. But I saw him. Lapis had come for me. He was standing over me, protecting me from two giant brutes, keeping all the attention on himself. They had him pinned in place, but he eventually found an opening, punching one in the solar plexus and sending him flying. He prepared to attack the other one, when suddenly Lapis collapsed to the floor, like a puppet who'd had all his strings cut."
"I immediately rushed to his side, not even noticing as I knocked the man attacking him away as if he weighed nothing at all. I had to make sure Lapis was alright. But try as I might, I couldn't find anything wrong. It didn't make any sense. He wasn't hurt. There were no bullet wounds, there was no blood. By all accounts, he was fine. But he wouldn't wake up. I was at a loss. I didn't know what was going on, or where we were, but I knew we needed to get away. So I picked up his unconscious body and prepared to bolt, but right as I did, I felt a jolt of electricity shoot up my spine, and darkness came."
"The next time we woke up, we were together, each strapped down to that damn table. And Gero finally spoke. He explained who he was, what his goals were, and why it involved us. How his path to revenge on Goku included turning us into his mindless half machine half human hybrids, whose explicit purpose was to kill him. He explained how he had finished the first round of cybernetic enhancements on us. He had reinforced our bones, and how he had enhanced our brains. We were 10 times faster, stronger and sturdier. We could commit anything we looked at to memory, giving us perfect recall. And then, Lapis broke free of his restraints, and charged at Gero with blinding speeds."
"Only to fall lifelessly to the ground, while the bastard had the audacity to laugh at us. After restraining Lapis once more, he explained that he had installed a kill switch in our brains, giving him total control of our consciousness. And a new cycle began."
"We would wake up, do whatever he forced us to do under threat of our lives, and then be put back to sleep. Sometimes he had us memorize his research. Other times he had us training. More often than not he would put us in combat scenarios against his soldiers, except we wouldn't have any control of our exponentially growing strength as we never had time to acclimatize to it, so more often than not, we were their killers. And when he wasn't having us do anything, we were unconscious. During those down times, he continued to enhance our bodies. He reinforced our bodies more and more, augmented our strength further, and created his crowning achievement. A perpetual energy generator. That single thing took away more of our humanity than anything else. I no longer need to sleep or eat, or even actively train to get stronger. The reactor will forever create energy at a rate faster than I can use it. With that, we had fully transcended humanity."
"But that wasn't enough for him. Oh no. The old bastard hated that we only listened to him under threat of death, because he knew that if he ever dropped his guard, we would kill him. Gero may have had our bodies under his control, but he didn't have our minds and emotions. He tried to modify our memories, to make us think this was something we asked for. But for all his genius, his specialty wasn't the human brain. All he succeeded in doing was suppressing our memories, while we tricked him into thinking that it was working. We pretended we were becoming his loyal killing machines. His perfect little Androids." She spat out that last part venomously, refusing to tear her gaze away from the embers of the campfire to look at Ranma.
She didn't think she could handle it.
"That's the reason I don't use that name anymore, Ranma. We were in that cave for ten fucking years. And I only escaped a few weeks ago. You have to understand Ranma. Lapis and Lazuli Saotome died in that cave, leaving us to pick up the pieces. We embraced Android 17 and 18. We had to."
For Ranma, this was… A lot to take in. Like, a complete information overload. Private armies, criminal organizations, mad scientists, human trafficking, and so many more things he didn't really understand.
So he tried to lay it all out in a way that he could understand. She had been kidnapped, tortured, experimented on and as a means to cope with the horrible things that were happening to her and their brother. So she embraced the Android 18 persona. Because it was either that, or become a husk of what she was. It was… The only way for her to continue to live.
Ranma hated that she understood that. Because that was the very same thing she herself had done in regards to the Nekoken. Neko Ranma was simply a way for her to cope and protect her fragile psyche when her fear grew too much for her to avoid it.
The Android 18 identity for her was what Neko Ranma was for herself. One was just more functional than the other.
"Can I hold you?" Lazuli whispered, her voice sounding so uncharacteristically meek and timid that it jarred Ranma out of her thoughts. And it also made Ranma realize something in a rare moment of emotional clarity and understanding.
Android 18 didn't want pity. She didn't want sympathy. She didn't want to hear flowery language about how things were going to be okay.
She just wanted acceptance. To not be treated any differently than before.
The same thing Ranma wanted whenever anyone found out about the Nekoken or the curse.
"... Yeah…" Ranma answered quietly, shifting over so that she was sitting in the space between 18's legs. As uncomfortable as the pigtailed martial artist was with physical affection, she knew that this wasn't the same thing as one of her fiance's latching onto him. Actions spoke louder than words, and Ranma couldn't think of a better way to show her acceptance for her sister than this.
Ranma was somewhat used to being hugged, courtesy of Shampoo, so the feeling of having arms wrapped around her was something she was familiar with. But this was different. She couldn't help but marvel how 18's arms wrapped around her stomach tightly, but not in that constricting, possessive manner she had begun to associate with hugs. She tensed briefly when she felt her big sister's head on her shoulder, instincts associating such a thing with someone trying to kiss her. That disappeared after a long few seconds where nothing more happened. There wasn't anything sexual about the embrace, just simple warmth. The same warmth that was reserved for barely there memories of Nodoka's hugs from childhood.
It was nice.
And if Ranma happened to feel her shirt get damp in the shoulder area… Well, she was used to getting inexplicably wet.
Author's Notes: As always, thank you so much for all the support! This fic hit 120 followers, nearly 100 favorites, and passed 8000 views in the time it took me to write this chapter, which is insane numbers in my opinion. I had hoped this would be well received, but I didn't expect it to be this well liked.
This chapter should not have taken me this long to do. I guess I had my first bout of writers block with this story, which was highly aggravating. But I hit a bit of a breakthrough in the last few days, finally connected all the pieces, and came up with what I thought was a funny/interesting little B Plot for Ryoga. Because let me tell you, this was not my original plan for the Eternally Lost Boy at all. My original idea mostly centered around 18 asking about why Akane kept a depressed pig as a pet, inadvertently ousting him. But then the idea of Ryoga knowing about and trying to get to the Cell Games popped into my head, and I just ran with it. That whole section wrote itself really.
Who do you guys think would be a good choice for training Ryoga? I left it vague like that because I wasn't certain of my choice, and figured you all might have some good ideas on that front. My current thought was either Tien or Piccolo, but I'd love to hear any thoughts you all have in that regard.
Anyways, the rest of the chapter. I'm still not sure if I handled this the best way possible. This chapter was already way longer than my original plan for it was, and eventually I hit a point where I think it needed to just... Stop, I guess. Originally, there was going to be a fight scene between Ranma and 18 after he gained the ability to fly. Originally, Ranma was going to talk about the Nekoken and the fiance situation. Those things didn't happen, as you can clearly tell.
I was really torn whether or not to write a full blown memory sequence for the final bit or not. I ultimately decided this way, because while Ranma and 18 got to know each other a lot more intimately this chapter, this way they're both still hiding some things from each other. Ultimately, they're both too private to air out everything at once. But they bridged that gap a little bit, getting closer to each other via trauma dumping. At least now Android 18 can finally get that casual affection she craves so badly.
As a small side note, if anyone thinks I'm being OOC, I don't think it's too crazy for me to think that 18 is big on familial affection. From what I remember in canon, she's pretty affectionate with her immediate family i.e. Marron and Krillin. And as far as Ranma goes, I'll point out that this version of Ranma is 1 year post canon, and things in my version of this story calmed down a great deal after Saffron. So I don't think it's outlandish for me to think Ranma would be a bit more mature.
That, and this is my story dammit. I like casual familial affection a lot. If you don't get it, then that just means you need to hug your mother more.
All that said, I hope you all enjoy the chapter! Next one should hopefully only be 2-3 weeks away. Bokken Boy will find room in his heart for one more girl, as his Golden Haired Valkyrie makes her debut as a model as well as making her presence known to Furinkan High. Oh, and some more world building will occur.
Thanks for reading!