Chapter 66 - Evil is a Necessary Good

The massive blue ball of ki in the middle didn't stop. Only until all of them stopped injecting ki into it did the swelling stop, bursting out like an explosion.

All of the Saiyans were forced back from the massive explosion landing on their butts. In Goku's case, undoing his transformation immediately. He got up feeling sore all across his body, from his tail to his hair.

'Man, that forceful exertion pushed my body to its limit. I can feel like I can last longer in that form but until I achieve Super Saiyan 3 or raise my base in some other way, it will always be a finisher. Now that I think about it, we do have 5 Saiyans...'

Such a train of thought was dangerous. Dangerous to everyone around him that is. He could only think about it later when he spotted the Good Android 21 entering the broken lab. She had a painful but determined look on her face as her body disappeared within the confines of the building.

Goku went to follow her despite his urgent need to rest. He reached into his pocket to fish out the last Senzu that he had on him and gulped it whole. His stomach rumbled in a mix of content and dissatisfaction. The bean only recovered the soreness he was feeling across his body and replenished a small amount of ki.

'Man, that really took a toll on me.' It was something interesting he found about Senzu beans. It would be weird if they were an end all be all bean that recovers any wound be it inflicted by god or otherwise while also recovering stamina.

Goku found out that it uses most of its power to heal wounds on the surface and any excess would be transferred into ki for the body. So if the person using it had major wounds from dark ki, it would heal everything while leaving the small amount left to the user and vice versa.

Still feeling a little limp, Goku walked through the door of the lab to find both Android 21s are facing each other. The Evil 21 didn't look like the purple rag that she was before but was transformed back into her pink state with a pale complexion.

"Hah!"

Evil 21 lashed out her hand towards the other 21 in a desperate attempt. The other 21 may have been weaker before, that was only relatively speaking. She is stronger than Yamcha and that is what really matters.

She blocked it with one hand, it felt like a feather hit her. When the Good 21 entered the lab, Evil 21 was slurping on the rest of the ki reserves that her captives had. If the Good 21 didn't enter in time, the other 21 would have sucked all of the reserves dry effectively killing everyone captive.

Nevertheless, the small reserves were for her to escape to the time machine while everyone was fighting Cell, not fight her counterpart. Surely going more back in time would work! Unfortunately for her, they were on the same wavelength, literally, getting her caught in the action.

The Good 21 pushed the arm back and jabbed the same shoulder. She lost all feeling on that arm immediately and was followed up with a kick on her opposing leg dislocating some bones. With no more ki and a battered body, she couldn't stand up.

"Goodbye."

21 clasped her hand on the forehead of the 21 on the ground. Covering her head with reddish ki, 21 created this technique just for this event. She just never thought that she was going to able to use it and destroy her completely.

"Wait."

A firm hand was placed on her shoulder telling her to stop. 21 looked behind her and Goku was shocked to see a tear form from the blind spot where he was standing. That confirmed his suspicion, and he asked in a grim voice.

"Killing her won't kill yourself, correct? There has to be another way."

Android 21 shook her head. She wished Goku didn't follow her so she can do this by herself.

"I found out the day when she time traveled. Our souls are linked. If I follower her through time without my own volition, I will also travel with her to the Otherworld without it. I have accepted it as it is."

"No that can't be right. When we came here, it seems as if you just separated from her. And you fought as if she was going to kill you. If your souls are linked she wouldn't do that."

21 shook her head once more explaining in detail.

"What she was planning to do was consume me. I had an active mind, sharing it with hers before I separated. If she consumed me, I would go into a deep sleep within her resulting in me disappearing forever."

"Well, why don't you just consume her yourself?"

"It started like this, no, I was in an even better position at the start. When I was born, her presence wasn't even there. As time flowed, her presence was becoming more and more known to my consciousness due to the unstable genes that I contain. If she wasn't there in the start but broke out at the end, what good would putting her back do? She will just awaken like last time and grow stronger. I am a failure of an Android and should destroy myself."

She was really going to do it. Years in the making, years of her dreaming to do this. It was only a step away, but at the same time hesitation crept her. Who would want to die? Maybe she wasn't as ready for this as she steeled herself for. It didn't help that Goku was still talking.

"21...21 look at me." She turned her head and looked into the dark eyes of Goku.

"You think that your evil counterpart is unique? Something that you only have? Everyone has some evil in them wanting to get out. I mean, look at that guy over there with the mean face."

Goku pointed at Vegeta who was with the other Saiyans as they watched the spectacle. Vegeta had a vein pop from the top of his head emphasizing Goku's point more.

"He was a cold villain once, and I bet he still has the urges he has to kill everyone around him. But he doesn't, he suppresses them. Maybe his doesn't materialize himself as an evil copy of himself screaming pride or whatever but his is just as present. You are not that old, younger than 10 right? I think you just need to learn to live with her and control her."

"Live with her? B-but that's impossible! I-I just know that she will break free again. Why take that risk? When I can eliminate it right here?"

"Think about it, with your brain and power, you can do so much for the world. Is it that worth it to risk your Evil Self coming out, which would take a quick and fast a*s beating from us, at the cost of helping everyone the best you can?"

"I-I-"

She was stumped for words. She actually hadn't thought about a life without Evil 21 in a while. What she would do, what she will experience. How much she could accomplish.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to. Just take some time to think about it before you leap into action."

21 had some deep reflection and questions that she had to impose on herself. Can she really control her Evil self? No! What would these Saiyans know? They don't have a copy of themselves threaten to destroy the world. But at the same time, what if what they are saying is correct?

She took a couple of minutes, as she should before she said her final answer. Goku held his breath, he really wanted 21 to continue surviving. It was really unfair to her to die because of a copycat.

"I-I will do it. Fuse with her that is. But...if it is what you really say, that there is evil and good in everyone. I can't consume her, it would counterintuitive. She would be suppressed a lot, but she will just break out. We need to become one entity again. Like the beginning. But this time, accept her instead of letting her form a separate self."

"Combine us into one? We are too far from one other even if we come from the same roots. Don't do it, we will become someone else entirely! Not me! Not you! We will lose ourselves entirely!"

"So be it. We need a fresh start. You know what they say. New Android, new me.

With her hand still on the Evil 21's head, it shone a bright fluorescent red light illuminating the whole room. Hot steam came out of the pores of both 21s at an extremely high pressure throwing Goku away from her and next to the group.

Both of their bodies seemed to melt and started to rub against one another in pink blobs of goo. As they were watching, it was like watching two different colored gum squishing against each other trying to combine. Together, but still distinct.

That changed when the steam started to pump out at full force from them. The steam smashed them together in extreme heat. The two gum were not getting chewed, combining with each other until they formed one color totally separate from what they originally were.

A bright light emitted blinding everyone in the lab. They all covered their eyes looking away. Hearing soft footsteps, after the lights turned down, they all turned back to look at what happened.

Walking away from the bright with steam still everywhere covering the silhouette of the female. Going through but not completely out of the smoke, was a curvaceous body pale to the touch. Green eyes looked back at them with red hair flowing around due to the steam.

"Hey, uh..."

She had tiny amounts of freckles on her face making her face subtly more gorgeous. She was looking a little antsy not wanting to completely get out of the smoke. No glasses were seen to help her vision. Well... no clothes were seen either as the smoke pointedly proved by removing itself from 21's top chest area revealing the tops of two large marshmallows.

"Anyone got some clothes?"