A lesson in morality

Well we thought about it and one by one we explained why we do what we do to her.

Tagron explains how we helped him and his race. With Kumo backing him up on parts of the story. I filled in details they missed it were unable to catch due to the chaos.

21 hums in thought and nods slowly as she then asks, "So you only see them as your protectors? Then why not leave them to their fate of fighting and dying for you? Doesn't that make more sense?"

In her thoughts she thinks, 'Like what you did for me brother?' and her hand clenches a bit harder around 16s memory chip.

Kumo chuckles a bit and goes, "Normally that would be how it works. But not only were we chosen to be our own people's protectors. But we came to like these guys. And to enjoy them as friends and allies. To us? They are family. And you don't abandon family."

21 has a flashback that causes her a headache as she sees her brother 16 standing over her facing her while his back is taking the brunt of a brutal explosion.

She lurches forward. On instinct as I worry for people in general I step forward to help, so does 18 and 17. She holds up a hand and goes, "I'm okay! I'm fine... Just a slight memory flash. Continue."

She sits up again but with a more thoughtful look to her now.

I noticed fresh data lines are going into her arm and up her neck from the hand that has the chip. Looks like she is now reading deeper into 16s code and possible memories.

I only hope this conversation is going well for us.

17 and 18 explain how they were tortured by her father. Then brainwashed into his puppets through those behavior chips. They are grateful for their new powered up cybernetic bodies. But they are also still angry that he changed their lives for them. And after finding out the year and date that he experimented on them for a solid 5 years keeping them in stasis for a solid half of that time to perfect their powers and designs.

They lost a lot of their young adult life to that and they are not even sure if they would be able to find their home again after that.

21 nods sadly at that news as she flashes back to when her brother and her were at an orphanage to find young recruits to train up for the red ribbon army. She was so conflicted about that order while her brother carried it out by only finding those who were about to age out of the system to spare the youngest ones of that lifestyle.

She hums more as that memory becomes clear from her brothers chip.

She turns to me as I explain my journey with Goku and the others.

How they helped me. How I helped them. How we help each other and how they are my family.

And how I would die to protect them from all harm.

She nods slowly at that as the chip flashes brightly in her hand. She gasps loudly and her whole frame shudders. We all take a step back in shock before she shocks us in more than one way.

She looks to us with her eyes pouring out tears. She looks to the chip as she goes, "So... That's why you saved me... As best as you could *sob* brother! Waaaaaaah!!!"

She holds the chips close as she looks at us and holds up her hand showing us a memory as I ask, "What happened?"

We all look at the now magic formed orb in her hand and find a teenage 21 and slightly older than her 16 on a bench overlooking the red ribbon HQ in its prime.

She goes, "Brother... We are doing what father needs us to do right? So why are you only recruiting those who are older than we were requested of? Won't you get in trouble? After all you are only a sergeant in the army."

16 looks at his younger sister and rubs her head while glancing back at the HQ. He sees all the young soldiers he recruited who were between 18 to 16 years of age. He was ordered to find as young as 13 year olds. But he knew this army would corrupt them. This was no life for those with such bright futures.

He sighs and goes, "Well for one we are both safe thanks to dad being the lead scientist in the army. We have a lot of leeway if they want to avoid losing their best mind for their R and D department. And... Those kids down there? They deserve a better life. They would have been stuck in some dead end job if they stayed in the system."

21 nods before asking, "And the younger ones we were ordered to gather? Why leave them?"

16 smiles gently as a bird lands on his finger and he feeds it a few seeds from his chest pocket. They always did like him so much. He sighs a bit as the bird feeds from his hand, "I saw them... And I saw the future. If we took them? We take their future. I joined this army due to dad and mom working for them. But after being a soldier for them? I now know their intentions of bringing order to this world is a lofty and misguided one. They would do it through force and terror versus actual negotiations and plans. So I wanted those kids to not be brought into that blood shed."

21 nods and smiles up at her brother as another bird lands on his head and begins to preen his spiky hair. She smiles wider and goes, "So you would do the same to protect me?"

16 looks at her and with a wide but calm smile, "I would lay down my life for you sister never forget you are my best friend. And you have a bright future. I want to see you with a good man and with a wonderful family in the future. Maybe someone for myself if I ever find that special person. But the future is unknown."

She nods as they watch the sunset.

The memory moves forward to about two years later. 16 has a captain badge and 21 is working on a pod of some sort as she says, "With this dad can start work on the teen series of his android project! I hope we can both help him work on it!"

16 nods with a small smile at seeing ehe so excited. But he hears an alarm sound and he locks down the lab as soldiers go running by the mountain lab they were in. He checks the security cameras for what is going on and he goes pale as he sees one teenage kid with a red pole tearing through their well trained forces.

He is go smacked when he sees commander black appear in his battle suit and he unleashes the rocket that was meant to be a last resort.

It fires at the kid but is kicked off course.

And it was heading towards the lab!!

He runs to his sister who is looking about panicking as everyone is running every which way thanks to the radar warning, he grabs her and sees the pod she was working on. He places her into it with a thumb as he closes the lid. She sees him from the window viewer and tries to open it.

But with his strength he bends the lock and handle. She looks at him with tears in her eyes as she hears the whistle of the approaching rocket.

She bangs on the inside of the lid going, "No! NO BROTHER! GET IN! WE CNA MAKE YOU FIT IN HERE!"

He smiles sadly as the whistle grows and he goes, "Sorry sis. I promised you. I would lay down my life for you. You should live and make it."

She screams for him to get in only to be cut off as the rocket lands and her brother screams in pain as the fire and radiation shoots over him and his combat armor.

The green armor burns up but holds for the most part. He smiles at her in one last moment before he is atomized. She screams for him only to be cut off as the radiation hits her inside the capsule as she hadn't installed the insulators yet.

She is cooked somewhat but still alive.

It cuts to Gero finding her. The last surviving bones of her brother that were protected by the prototype combat armor he made his son. And swore to avenge them against Son Goku for taking them from him using that rocket.

She was on life support and her brothers memories were downloaded from a special machine that Gero kept for moments like this where he scanned his family members memories into it every year to update the records.

It worked 16 and 21 were in the way to come into this world again.

The memory ends with everyone looking at her sadly as she cries and looks down at 16s chip.

I look at her as she laments how she should have helped him stop cell.

I then perk up and go, "Hey! That's his memory card right?"

She nods with a sniffle.

"Then doesn't that mean that if we build a new body for him... We can bring him back?"

She perks up and the tears slowly dry up. She wipes her eyes and nods happily as she hugs me for giving her hope.

Everyone smiles at her and the touching moment as she goes, "Thank you! Thank you so much! How could I ever thank you enough?!"

I step back and go, "Aw shucks it wasn't anything big. I just did it since a beautiful lady like yourself should be able to keep your brother close you know? After all if we can be friends we gotta look out for each other!"

21 thinks, 'Friends?' she glanced at her brothers chip then nods to herself and looks to Krillin. 'Maybe something more with him if 18 doesn't mind sharing~'

She giggles and holds out her hand in a friendly gesture. "Bioroid 21! But you can call me just 21!"

I grip her hand back and say, "Krillin! And you've kinda... Met the others."

21 sheepishly grins and shocks me by pressing a quick kiss to my cheek. I am stunned while 18 surprisingly smirks at it while 17 looks between me, his sister, and 21 and goes, 'Don't want to think about how my sister is bi. Ugh damn memories.'

21 take sthe earrings off her belt and goes to zap them back to normal.

But right as she does so her eyes go wide as we hear a stab sound.

We look at her in confusion as she gasps painfully and drops the earrings.

She drops them all to the ground but Gohan and Gine II both catch them in time.

However a long stinger erupts from 21s stomach and lifts her up in the air as Cell triumphantly stands behind her with his tail out and it was sucking her energy!!

I quickly shoot out a destructo disc while catching 21.

She is gasping in pain in my arms as I fly back to Kumo who quickly begins to treat her.

Only to hear laughter from Cell.

He chuckles, "Aw are we all friends now?! Good! I never liked that Bitch! So friendly! So giggly! Ugh it was annoying to put up with that false sister of mine! Instead I think killing you all and blowing up this planet will be fucking therapeutic to me right now! And thanks for the energy boost sis! I'll put it to good use!"

21 gasps painfully and gurgles a bit as Kumo patches the hole in her stomach but I sense her and am shocked Cell took so much from her already! She dropped form 500 million to 280 million!

I look to cell and find his power has shot up to 620 million naturally.

I was healed thanks to Kumo and our discussion buying us some rest time. But now we were out matched in every way and Goku was still in the hyper bolic time chamber.

If I could buy enough time for 21 to recover and have her restore our friends. We should have a chance. But it will be close.

I yell out that I'll hold him while everyone else guards 21 so she can restore our friends.

They all nod as Cell looks to me, "You're going to hold me off?! Hahahah! Please you may be strong Krillin. But you can't hope to come anywhere close to me! Better cut your losses and just surrender to death! After all you can't hope to-"

I shoot up to Hyper Human 2 and Kaioken myself with the basic level. I can hook this for a minute. And every second gives us more time for Goku to return.

Cells face goes into shock as he sees me costed in crimson bronze now as I shoot at him full force.

The battle for earth and for our friends was on!