Bulma

The ground had stopped shaking a few minutes ago, and she was trying to decide if it was too early to go topside or not. Or even if she should. This wasn't the first Android attack she'd sat through, she'd lost track of the number back when Trunks hadn't come up to her knee, but it was the first time in a while they'd struck West City.

There just wasn't anything left to destroy.

The smart thing to do would be to stay put, she told herself. Just stay in the bunker, fiddle with some leftover tech, stop counting the days till Trunks returned from the past…

Well, that was the whole problem. She was so distracted doing that she could barely concentrate on anything else.

She was no fighter, but she could do the math, and with Goku, Vegeta, Trunks and everyone else they should've taken down the Androids no problem. It should've been a piece of cake!

So why isn't Trunks back yet?

The nagging worm of doubt was back, making her question building the time machine, sending Trunks away, whether the Androids were just so strong that even if Goku survived the heart virus he wouldn't make a difference.

She had the utmost faith in Goku being able to do the impossible and win any fight he needed to but… What if the Androids just couldn't be beaten? What if she'd sent Trunks to die in the past, for nothing?

No. She couldn't think like that. She was just being impatient. It wasn't even a month.

But she really did need to do something to take her mind off of the clock, and right now exploring the aftermath of the Android's attack was the best idea she had.

The wind whipped through her hair as she sped over the ground on her hoverbike. Bulma tightened her hold on the handles as she manoeuvred through the irregular remains of the city she called home. She didn't go above ground as much as she used to, when Gohan was alive and someone could at least force the Androids to stop attacking early, but seeing what her home was reduced to always made her feel sick and angry.

One day they'd pay for all this. They had to.

The bike lurched and she shrieked as she yanked on the brakes as hard as she could and swerved to the side. She barely hung on as the bike nearly fell over, skidding along the edge of the crater before she brought it under control.

There was a crater where downtown had been.

She stepped off the bike and took steps forward, shocked by the sight of the massive hole in the earth.

"Damn Androids. Why would they do this?" she said with venom and clenched her fists.

Not that the monsters who'd killed all her friends needed something as human as reasons to destroy things, but she couldn't help but ask herself that.

She knew the basics. The Androids had been designed by Dr Gero to kill Goku. But they'd killed him and gone on a killing spree that had never ended, just slowed down. They were smart enough to know that if they played with their food, they could make it last longer.

And there wasn't anything that could stop them.

She'd had hope that one day Gohan would beat them… but he died, and she wasn't going to put that on Trunks. She couldn't. He was too eager to take on the responsibility of defeating them, filling Gohan's shoes, but she knew that if he went down that road it would end the same way. She had lost everyone and she wasn't going to lose her son too.

Maybe she was selfish, Chichi hadn't stood in the way of Gohan putting his life on the line every time the Androids attacked, but she was okay with that. She could live with selfishness if it guaranteed her son's survival.

She was drawn back to the present by the sight of metal glinting at the bottom of the crater. Holding up binoculars she saw that whatever it was lay buried in the dark earth, steel coloured and marked with black scorches. Turning the magnification higher she saw –

Is that an arm?

It was.

As it turned out, tinkering with the half-melted, supremely battle damaged, very heavy and difficult to attach to a hoverbike, upper body of an android was a great way to lose yourself in work. Who knew?

As soon as she'd realised what she had found she'd done her best to dig it out and drag it back to her bunker, then chained it to the biggest workbench she had in her workshop. Yes, she knew that if it turned back on the chains wouldn't hold it, but they were there to back her feel more secure and as an alert system in case it tried to be stealthy when it freed itself.

Couldn't afford to underestimate these things. Too many had died that way.

Her desk was covered in sketches she'd made of the internal structure of the android. It would've taken minutes to do a scan if she still had all the equipment from her dad's old lab but it – and her parents – hadn't escaped the Androids first attack on the city. She'd been flying after Vegeta with Trunks. She hadn't wanted to be left out, wanted to see him fight, it had all been so confusing she hadn't even realised that they'd lost until she found Gohan crying at the battlefield.

The worst day of her life, and the only reason it wasn't the last one was because she'd been reckless.

Fortune favours the bold I guess. Until they go running into a fighting they can't win.

She wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Okay, I think that does it."

She wasn't going to learn anything else from the android today that she hadn't already. She dropped the cutting torch into the toolbox and glanced at the diagrams she'd made. She had a rough idea of how the androids were put together now, but she still had a ways to go. The generator was a total mystery to her, she'd need to disconnect it from the socket to really examine it. And there was something that had a warning sign on it just next to the power supply that could be a bomb, but that was just speculation.

The android's head was totally intact so in theory she could jury-rig a way to connect it to her computer so she could go over its code herself. But practically, there was no way in hell she was turning it on to do that. She wasn't that curious.

Bulma rubbed her temples as she felt a headache approaching. "Damn it, I don't even know which one this is. Or what destroyed it."

Couldn't be Trunks. Did they turn on each other? Did something else do this? Aliens stopped showing up after Goku died but there's no reason they can't still find this planet.

That thought was chased by the blueprints for the new inventions she could make based on what she'd discovered from the android. And what she could build to make further examination easier. Better power units for the time machine, or a spaceship if she ever built a new one, maybe a practical version of the arm-blaster some of Frieza's soldier had used, a modified scouter to map the precise layout of the android's electronics without having to take them apart, and then a different one to track artificial ki once she'd experimented with it some more.

The possibilities bloomed in her mind like flowers, and she wasn't excited about any of them because it had taken three more days to get this far and Trunks was still gone!

She held in a sob and pressed her hands against her eyes. She refused to let this happen. She wasn't going to cry, because Trunks was fine and he would be home any minute now. And when he was, he wasn't going to see her cry because she hadn't been worried about him at all. She knew he was coming back, never doubted it for a second, because he was her son and she loved him and just like his father he was so strong that she didn't need to worry about him. Ever! When he walked in soon she'd hug him, tell him that she was relieved to see him and happy that he was back, obviously, but she'd been so busy analysing this android that the time had just flown!

What android? Why, the one I've got in the workshop! It's pretty cool Trunks, you're gonna love this! I guess this means one down, one to go! Hey, I think the Androids have bombs in them, so maybe I can find a way to remote detonate them and you won't even need to fight them!

She screwed her eyes shut then looked at her watch. It was almost 5am. She needed to get some sleep. That's why she felt like this. Just had to crawl into bed, let the exhaustion take her and she'd wake up all better.

Bulma trembled and fell backwards onto the table. Pages scattered and fell to the floor.

Am I really this tired?

She looked at the ceiling without really looking at it, just lying back and trying to use her notes as a pillow, feeling the cold metal through her jumpsuit. It was almost peaceful; she might even have drifted off. But her genius brain just had to ruin it by pointing out that she wasn't shaking, the room was.

Her eyes shot open and she scrambled backwards off the table just before the roof collapsed.

Something – no, someone – had crashed through the roof and into her bunker. She felt paralysed, covered in cold sweat as it got up from the crouched position it had landed in and stood to its full height.

Is this a new Android? Is this the one that destroyed the other? She wondered, taking in the appearance of the figure standing in her laboratory. It looked like a freakishly tall male with thick muscles, with orange hair worn in a mohawk. It wore a black bodysuit with green boots, wrist gauntlets and chest armour that included large shoulder pads. The giant slowly looked around the room until its gaze fell on the damaged android.

"Number 13, identified." It spoke. The voice wasn't what she had been expecting, deep but with a definite synthetic tone. She'd expected something more normal, like 17. This one sounded like an android, and combined with its utilitarian appearance, there really was no hiding what it was.

What do I do?

Even as she stood frozen in place her heart was racing, adrenaline surging through her system and banishing her fatigue like it had never been. She was painfully aware of her body, and how close she was to the Android, and how little she could do if it turned around and saw her.

She wanted to ran as far and as fast as she could. Even if it can catch me.

She wanted to grab something heavy and wail on it. Even if I cant hurt it.

Because this was something she hated, one of the things that had ruined her life, ruined her son's life, and it was in arm's reach.

But she was smarter than that. So while her fingers twitched with the need to do anything and her heart and head pounded so hard she felt lightheaded, she stood where was, praying that it wouldn't notice her.

The Android reached down and effortlessly lifted its brethren off of the table, snapping the chains like twigs as it hoisted the metal carcass over its shoulder. It looked up at the hole it had come through, and Bulma involuntarily sighed with relief.

"Thank you," it said, turning to look over its shoulder and face her, "I was tasked with retrieved Android 13. If he had been completely destroyed, I would have failed."

Her thoughts froze. But not for long.

It almost sounds polite…

"You're welcome. But I wasn't saving him for you," she said, fighting down the panic and squeezing her nails into her palms as hard as she could to keep control. "I wanted to find out what makes you Androids tick."

"So, you can destroy us." It stated, delivery just as flat as before.

Bulma tensed, then decided to respond honestly. After all, if it was going to kill her, she wasn't going to change its mind with a conversation. And she'd rather give it a piece of her mind before her time was up. "Yeah, that's why. Sorry if that hurts your feelings, but you deserve it."

It looked down at her with what she would have mistaken for pity. "Because of what I am."

"Yeah! That's right!" And she didn't know where the strength came from, but the anger burst out of her without hesitation. "What you are, what you all are, are murderous psycho robots built by a dead lunatic who hated my best friend for doing what was right! And even though he died, you machines killed all my friends, and millions of people, just because it was fun! You're monsters, I hate you, and I'll do everything I can to destroy you and make the world safe again!"

- For my son!

The giant just stared impassively at her and long moments passed as she caught her breath, now trembling with rage. The outburst had felt good, and if she was going to die, at least this one would know how she felt about it.

"That is unnecessary. I am aware of the damage Number 17 and Number 18 have caused to this world. Their actions cannot be excused. That is why I will stop them."

Wait.. what?!

"Wait, what?" she uttered in confusion. "What do you mean, you'll stop them? Aren't you on the same side?"

The Android smiled, "No, we are not. My mission was to kill Son Goku. I never wished to harm anyone else. I will find and deactivate 17 and 18, not because of my programming, but because it is right. They are too destructive to be allowed to continue living."

"What are you?" she asked, stunned.

"I am Android 16." The Android's smile reached its – his – pale blue eyes before he turned back and looked to the entry hole he had made in the roof.

Android 16, with 13 slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, gently rose up through the impromptu skylight he had made and flew away. Bulma stared at that part of the ceiling with eyes as wide as saucers, unable to believe what she had heard.

Finally, deciding that was enough excitement for the day, she stumbled to her bedroom, tore the batteries out of the alarm clock, and collapsed to sleep.

Android 13

Beginning Startup Sequence

Initialising OS

Restoring Memory

Reboot Complete

Android 13 opened his eyes. He took a step out of the repair unit and held his head in his hands. His last memories were of pure anger, and the pain of burning away. Even after his ability to feel it had gone, the burning hadn't stopped, not until everything had gone black.

He'd shut down. That was it. Yet, here he was back in the lab.

Android 14 was standing in front of him, having no reaction to 13 glaring at him through his fingers. His vision glitched for a moment and he saw 14 as he had been when he'd failed him. He put his smile on though and assumed a casual stance, due to the new face in the room.

"Well, ain't you a sight, 14. Glad t'see yer head's still screwed on right."13 didn't pay attention to the lack of reaction he knew would be there, focusing on the new unit next to him.

Unit Designation: Android #16

And that was all he knew. Everything else about this one was redacted even worse than the cyborg's files had been. At a glance his sensors read the power output from 16 as being slightly higher than his own, but after the fiasco trying to fight the twins evenly had turned into, he didn't trust what the files or his scanner said till he got a chance to test it himself. Besides, 16 had been sent to back him up and failed to get there on time. That was strike one.

"So, what's the occasion? Red Ribbon send me another war buddy?"13 grinned, extending a hand to 16, "Name's 13. Reckon you already knew that, though."

The giant ignored his offered handshake. "I was tasked with retrieving you and assisting with your repairs. Now I must go." 16 said, turning around.

13 couldn't help but blink in surprise. "You're leavin'? Just like that? Where ya off to?"

16 didn't turn back, walking towards the large steel doors to the base as he answered, "Neutralise Number 17 and 18."

He lot out a low whistle, "Well, hell. Shoulda led with that."13's smile turned sinister as took a step forwards, pausing as he looked 14 in the eyes. "Just gotta grab something first."

14 didn't even have the decency to look betrayed as 13's fist cleaved through his chest plate. 13's smirk revealed his pearly whites as he grabbed 14's power core, and looked the shocked android in the eyes.

"Ain't got room on my team for a 'droid who can't pull his weight. Sorry, boy—but you're more use to me like this."

Initiating Absorption Sequence

13 flung his arm sideways, discarding 14's husk as the core in his hand glowed. Simultaneously a slot opened on the side of 14's head and a processing chip flew out surrounded by energy. It seamlessly merged with the side of 13's head just as the power core floated out of his grasp and sunk into his chest.

Power.

That was the immediate sensation 13 felt as the core connected with his own the processing power that had been wasted on 14 joined his own. He laughed as he felt his muscles surge with power, his chest doubling in size first, with the rest of his body bulking up just like 14's had been. His gloves split open at the seams as his fists doubled in size, his long vest growing tight against his bulky chest as electricity filled the air around him. The lab shook as his body output more and more energy, cracking the glass displays around him and sending sparks shooting along the metal surfaces. 16 took half a step sideways as the outer edge of the electrified air surged past him.

"Oh hell yeah!" 13 cackled, fists clenched as power coursed through him. "That's what I'm talkin' about! Let's see that punk try and run his damn mouth now!" He looked to 16 with a wild grin on his face, silver hair floating like a cloud as he spoke, "Hey, where's 15? I gotta tell the pipsqueak the good news!"

"You consumed him," said Android 16, voice and expression perfectly neutral.

13's grin didn't fade. "So what if I did?" he scoffed, rolling his shoulders. "Trust me, I'm puttin' these parts to better use than he ever could. He failed. And I ain't exactly the 'forgivin' sort.' Gero didn't build me that way." His blue eyes flicked up and down the giant. "That a problem for you?"

16 responded after a long beat, "Android 15 was not selected for repairs. The damage it sustained was too thorough."

"Now that don't make a lick of sense," 13 said with a frown. "Me an' 14 were tanglin' with the twins. What, he fall down some stairs?"

"I do not know what destroyed Number 15. There is a 45.7% chance that Trunks was responsible."

But you don't believe that do ya big guy? And neither do I. I'd have noticed if a damn fight started. 13 thought as he narrowed his eyes.

His smirk came back, meaner than before. "15 was supposed to check out Ginger Town. Guess we're takin' a trip."

"You may. I must find 17 and 18."

13 barked out a laugh. "Damn, you got a one-track mind, son! Reminds me of 14—but at least you got a bit more color to ya." His grin stuck as his silver hair settled, falling to his shoulders while he eased off the power surging through him. "Ain't gonna take long. Just a quick pit stop to pick through whatever's left of 15, then we'll go hogtie the cyborgs. Won't take two ticks."

"I do not require your assistance," 16 stated more firmly than before.

13 rolled his eyes. "Well, too bad—you're gettin' it." Hands slid into his pockets as he strolled past 16, head held high, boots clanking against the metal floor. "See, takin' them two in? That was just business before. But now?"

His smirk faded as he stepped through the exit, cool dawn air meeting his skin. His gaze dropped to his hands, flexing his fingers as memory flickered through him—flesh boiling away, artificial nerves screaming before the skin gave way to steel underneath. The processor barely had time to register it before everything went black.

And now? His pale blue eyes glowed under the gentle sunlight, cold as iron. Now I ain't so sure if I wanna be draggin' 'em back dead or alive.

Android 17

Good morning Orange City!

"Let's start the fireworks," he said, casually firing dozens of blasts into the city. Buildings crumbled, flames spread, the city was rocked to its foundations.

He frowned. Something was missing.

"Maybe you overdid it," Eighteen offered. She was sitting with her legs crossed atop a water tower.

"Yeah, maybe," he said, though he didn't believe it. With a flick he sent a tiny spark into the side of a circular dome, and watched as half of it exploded. After the smoke and flames, there was still silence.

"It's too quiet," he murmured and lowered his hand to his side. That's what was missing. The city was under attack and there were no screams, no sirens, no movement. "Where are all the people?"

Did we-

He turned to his sister. "Did we hit this place before?"

"Yeah, but that was ages ago. When I flew by last week there were plenty of people," Eighteen said with a half shrug. She nonchalantly fired a blast of her own towards the edge of the city. After the flash and roar of the explosion the eerie stillness returned.

"Soooo…. Where the hell is everyone?"

Eighteen shrugged again. "Who knows. Let's try somewhere else, this is dull."

Empty business suits fluttered out of the exploded office, floating gently to the ground to join the rest of the attire lining the streets.