66 Chapter 61 - Two-Faced
"Are you all ready?"
The lab was fairly spacious with 17, 18, Goku, and Bulma surrounding 16. Kale, after sending 18 downstairs, went to talk to Caulifla about her future after finding out she woke up.
"This better be good to warrant 16's reprogramming."
"Oh shut your complaining 17. Bulma said that 21 did something to her, I trust her."
"You are getting too comfortable with the people here 18, it's concerning."
"You are just jealous that I've made new friends while all you have done is been sleeping in the basement."
"Tsk, let's get this over with."
"Alright! Let's do this!" Bulma was more than ready to see the product of her own work. After pressing the button that initiates the program, she stepped back to give 16 some room.
After a few moments, 16 eyes opened violently. Streams of data were scrolling through his eyes as if they were one of the few monitors in the lab.
An extended amount of text went by before it came to a stop and Android 16 was fully rebooted. Awake with a new brain in the metaphorical sense, he sat up and looked around.
"Computing...accessing memory...establishing initiative. Hello, Goku, Bulma, Android 17, Android 18. It seems as if you... reprogrammed me? I do not hear 21's presence inside my head anymore."
"Correctamundo! Goku was hoping that after restoring you to your previous version, that you wouldn't be so hostile to us and maybe even help us stop 21."
Android 16 smiled, it was as if Goku knew how he was before.
"Indeed. Android 21 added extra code that made me obedient to her. It was unpleasant but she didn't change me massively."
"Android 16, we need to find and stop 21 before she does any more harm. You were with her even before she activated 17 and 18, what can you tell us about her?"
16 looked at Goku's eyes for a second. Searching. Searching for something within them. No horrible man would be loved by so many.
"Before I give you the information, I need you to promise something Son Goku. Help me save her.
"Help you how?"
"...I don't know."
---
"Ahh! This is wonderful!" Android 21 was sitting next to another version of the ki container that Goku sieged in the previous lab. Her tail was in one of the holes that connected to the yellow substance that was ki.
Her power was increasing steadily, her base limit higher than ever before.
"That was enough for now. If I take too much food, the batteries will die before they can recharge."
'Such cruelty to those poor humans. Using them just for power, you are the same as you were back then.'
'Shut up your thoughts are inconsequential, you should just disappear for good and get out of my head!'
'I will never leave. Although you have all the power right now, I will find a way out...eventually.'
'You will never escape the insides of my mind! That is where you will live forever, and it is your fault for being too weak.'
On the outside, it just looked like Android 21 was closing her eyes thinking in her head. But unveiling the curtains to look inside, we see two 21's looking at each other conversing.
One with red pupils and black eyes, similar to the one who sees the rays of the sun. And another, with white eyes and blue pupils, one that lives in the shadows. Two sides of her mind, split long ago, one good and one evil. Yet although they are both her, one holds all the power.
The Good 21 didn't speak anymore, she had nothing more to say. Of course, she wouldn't seek power at the expenditure of other living beings. She wasn't a monster. But because of it, she released a monster to harm everyone anyway.
21's eyes opened because of a sound from the room over. The big clank could wake up anyone within a mile radius. Luckily, no one was nearby.
Looking over, Cell was messing with a strange device. Standing on 5 legs, it looked like a virus with how it was shaped. Clear glass on top with a seat inside, the machine was finished off with multiple rockets on the sides of it.
"What are you doing? Don't touch that!"
"What? You seem awfully protective and emphasize its importance yet we don't use it! What is it?"
Cell was getting bored and quite irritated. Holed up inside of this god-forsaken base wasn't fit for such a superior being such as himself. 21's eyes glowed with anger at the sight of Cell touching that machine.
"It's the source of all my information, how I got here...and if I need to leave."
---
"You are saying Android 21 is from the future?!"
Everyone was shocked by what they were hearing. Even Goku.
"B-But how is that possible?! Time travel should theoretically be impossible!" Bulma maddened with the idea of such lucrative technology denied all claims.
"I am model after her son, so she did not hold back in letting loose her feelings and venting her frustrations. She said it didn't matter anyway because, by the time anyone figured out, it wouldn't be of use."
"Tell us more. Anything useful she let out to you."
"She said she has another side to her. A 'weaker' side that is on the verge of breaking out. Especially after what she experiences in the future. She retold the story of how they had everyone beat her, even her other self sided with the opposition. However, before they can finish it, she completed her side project after stealing Bulma's notes and escaped with a time machine that she capsuled. Strangely enough, forces of the world recombined the two 21's before the departure trapping the other 21 inside the current one."
"So you are saying that there are 2 21s and you want us to free the 'Good' one?"
"Yes."
"That's right you bi*ch! You ain't smarter than me! You stole my notes! I was the one who had the blueprints for a time machine!"
"But you don't know how to do it?"
"Yes."
"Interesting. My biggest question was, why didn't the future us send reinforcements?"
They as per usual ignored Bulma and her happiness. Asking to separate the 21's is a huge task. Even if Goku learned the Force Spirit Fission from Yardrat, that was to separate 2 beings. He didn't know how it would work with 2 entities that were originally one and the same.
"Anyways the crux of the matter is the longer we wait, the stronger they get. I have a plan and the power to defeat them but I don't know how long that will last with their current increase in power. 16, do you know where they are?"
"Affirmative, they are in the northern plains at an abandoned RR Army lab. Even if they assume the worst and know that I turned on them, they would still need a large amount of time to remove and transport the Energy Extractor that they use on the humans. We should go now to intercept them."
Goku nodded, he put on some fighting gear in a second and was ready to head out.
"We are coming too!"
"We are?"
"Of course we are. You wouldn't want to miss out on the fun would you?"
It was decided by 17 that they wouldn't want to miss out on the Android family reunion. Good thing there were only 5, any more would be redundant.
"Alright, let's go. 16, you are coming too."
"Wait are you going to take Caulifla as well? I'm sure she would ready and pumped to use her new power. Or even the kids?"
Bulma had to intervene at the last second.
"I would hate to say it, but Caulifla and the kids aren't powerful enough. The only reason why I don't mind the Androids coming is that they would come even if I told them not to. Besides, Kale needs Caulifla's support right now and we shouldn't ruin it."
"Fine, she won't be too happy when YOU tell her your exact words."
'She would understand and only want to get stronger.' With that, the 4 figures took off to the sky towards the base that 16 indicated.
---
'This can't happen like last time. I'll just play it slow and keep gaining power. Cell has been increasingly annoying, maybe I should get rid of him earlier than planned...'
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" It wasn't a sound of pleasure like it was last time, this time, her brain was receiving massive waves of pain originating from an unknown spot.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" Intense ringing, like a bell, echoed throughout her mind. She couldn't think and be forced to kneel down in agony. Cell ran into the room and watched by the doorway alerted by the sound.
'This is the sound of my freedom! I have been working on tearing a spot on your wall ever since you came here years ago and I have finally broken through. You can't contain me anymore.'
The voice inside her head made her feel crazier than she actually was. Her body was fazing in and out, it was like she was trying to create afterimages in place. Until eventually, two afterimages materialized into physical constructs, and with a boom in the center, launched each other in different directions embedding their respective walls.
Evil 21 was laughing out loud after she inspected her inner body. Virtually no power loss! Even with the power loss, it wasn't dangerous to her and she would be able to easily get it back after sucking her Good counterpart dry. She started talking contemptuously to herself across the aisle as she tried to get out.
"You've doomed yourself! I couldn't get rid of you when you were in my mind but now I can eliminate you forever! Such idiocy won't go unpunished!"
