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Reprogrammed
By : moviefan
Category: Dragon Ball Z > Het - Male/Female
Views: 758 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
(A/N: Here's chapter two. There's going to be a lot of conflicting feelings between Trunks, 18, and Bulma, but I don't want to spoil anything. Just know that there's going to be a lot of drama.)
Talking: "..."
Thinking: '...'
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 2: Lies and Deceit
Bulma was worried sick. Was Trunks ok? Did he defeat the androids? Did he miss them? Was he hurt? Was he dead?
“AH!!! It’s a wonder my hair hasn’t turned gray with all this worrying!” she shouted, pulling at the very hair she was referring to.
She rested her head on the desk, praying for her son to return safely. After repeating the same prayer for the 53rd time, she heard a familiar voice call to her.
“Mom, I’m back!”
Bulma immediately perked up ‘He’s back!’ She jumped out of her chair and ran down the stairs. “Trunks, you’re all right!”
Trunks gave her a smile as he entered the room, carrying 18 over his shoulder. “Hey, Mom.” He noticed her gaze shift to18 and saw them filled with worry. “Oh, she’s unconscious. It’s fine.”
Bulma breathed a sigh of relief, not realizing who the woman was. ‘Another victim of the androids. At least she’s alive.’ Hoping to hear some good news, she was quick to ask, “Well, did you do it?”
Trunks smirked and nodded. “It’s all taken care of. 17 is gone. Destroyed. We’re finally free.”
Bulma gave a squeal of joy. “Alright, wait to go, Trunks! I’m so proud of you, and I know your father would be too.” That’s when she realized that he had only said that he destroyed 17. “But what about 18? Did you get her as well?”
Trunks frowned in worry. “Well, about that…”
He dropped 18 on the ground. Bulma looked down at her. For a few moments she just stared at her, then she screamed.
“T-T-TRUNKS, THAT’S THE ANDROID!!! WHY IS IT STILL ALIVE!?”
Trunks held up his hands, smiling nervously. “It’s alright, Mom. Trust me, she can’t hurt anyone.”
“Can’t hurt anyone?” Bulma shouted. “Did that fight with the androids make you lose your senses? That thing’s a psychopathic killer.”
“Mom, please!” he said loudly. “She’s out like a light. Even so, I can stop her if she tries anything. Now please just listen to me.”
Bulma gulped nervously and moved as far away from 18 as she could. “Fine, just make it fast. I want that thing gone.”
Trunks sighed and began to tell what had happened. He explained how he defeated 17 and was about to destroy 18 as well. When he got to the part about handing over his sword, she hit him over the head.
“You big idiot! You actually gave her your sword! Why would you take a risk like that?”
Trunks rubbed his head. His mother was no fighter, but she could certainly hit hard. “She thought that I only won because of my sword. I wanted her to know that I beat her and her brother at their best. That no matter how powerful they were, I was the stronger one.”
Bulma groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Argh, that’s your saiyan half talking. Honestly, saiyans may be powerful, but they sure are stupid and arrogant.” She took a calming breath. “Ok, ok, so you gave her your sword. Then what?”
He went back to his story, telling her about how 18 attacked him with the sword, and he easily avoided her. When he got to the part about 18 being struck by lightning, Bulma’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as he told her how 18 didn’t seem to remember anything.
“Sounds like a trick to me.” she said. “She’s probably just trying to fool you. The lightning would have provided a good way to back up her story.”
Trunks nodded. “Yes, that’s what I thought at first too. But then I looked in her eyes, and I saw genuine fear and confusion.”
“You’re kidding!” Bulma scolded. “You decided to believe her because of her eyes?”
Trunks sighed. “Mom, I’ve fought them on several occasions. I’ve looked into their eyes. You can see the evil in them. But when I looked into her eyes, it wasn’t there. If you could see the difference, then you would know.”
“Trunks…” she shook her head, “even if that’s true, you can’t let her live. She’s far too dangerous. She could remember at any moment.”
“Then we’d be right back where we were before and I’ll simply destroy her.”
“But why take the chance?”
“Because of the good that can come out of it.” He noticed that he had caught his mother’s attention. “I was thinking, just because the world is safe for now, doesn’t mean that it will be safe indefinitely. Let’s admit it, the planet has been under attack several times. Remember all those stories you told me about you and Goku?”
How could she forget? She had been through more than enough. There was Emperor Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, Piccolo, Piccolo again, Garlic Jr., Raditz, Vegeta and Nappa, Garlic Jr. again, Dr. Wheelo, the Tree of Might, Lord Slug, Cooler, Frieza, the androids. Wow, she never stopped and counted.
“Ok,” she admitted, “you made your point. The Earth does seem to be targeted a lot, most likely because it’s the home as the strongest people in the universe. So you want to keep one of the people who tried to destroy the planet alive… why?”
“She’s strong.” Trunks admitted. “Very strong. I can’t deny that. And there will always be evil in the universe. Who knows when the next threat might come, or if I’ll be able to handle it. Remember a few years ago when that yellow wizard came to free that Buu monster?”
Bulma shrugged. “Yeah, I remember. The androids destroyed him, and whatever was inside that weird cocoon-like ball. He said something about how he would have destroyed us all if he had been brought to full power.”
“That’s my point. What if that Buu monster was would have been stronger than the androids if brought to full power? There could be others out there even stronger. So why destroy 18 when she can be used as a defense for the planet? Since the opportunity has presented itself, why don’t we try to reprogram her?”
Bulma’s eyebrows rose. “Interesting. With her on our side, it would be useful. Besides, then she could fight the bad guys instead of you.”
Trunks nodded. “Yeah, and if anything does happen to me, she’ll still be here.”
“It will be useful to have another strong person around.” She sighed. “Alright, I suppose it’s worth looking into. But if she is faking this amnesia thing, or whatever it is, then you dispose of her. Understood?”
Trunks nodded again. “I’m actually hoping for it.”
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For hours, Bulma hacked into 18’s data banks. She was astounded by what she discovered. Dr. Gero may have been a mad scientist, but the man was an absolute genius. Too bad he couldn’t use his intelligence for good. But if this worked, then maybe his so-called greatest achievement could be used for good.
“Hey, Mom, how’s it going?”
Exhausted, Bulma turned to her son. “Well, I certainly learned a lot. This is some really complex stuff. What surprises me the most is that she’s not a complete android.”
Trunks raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“She’s not all machine. There’s organic parts.”
“Oh.” He already knew that. “Yeah, I learned that in the past she and 17 used to be human.”
Bulma cut her eyes at him. “Well, you could have told me that; it would have saved a lot of time. So she’s actually a cyborg. But that just makes understanding this even more complex.”
That caught his attention. “So does that mean her amnesia is real?”
Bulma crossed her arms. “Well, yes, but it’s not amnesia. Not really. Turns out when the lightning struck, her memory was deleted.”
Trunks nodded. “So, she wasn’t faking. But is there a chance she could recover her memories?”
“They’re gone.” Bulma told him. “Erased, deleted. It’s like wiping all the information from a computer, leaving it completely empty.”
Trunks was confused. “But, then wouldn’t she just be, I don’t know, an empty shell?”
She turned back to her computer and began typing. “Not really. Her programs are still there, but all information is gone. It’s like typing up a document and then deleting its contents. The document is still there, but everything you typed up is gone. She’s capable of acting and thinking on her own, but the program information that drove her to kill and destroy is gone. Further more, it seems that her machine parts also use her human parts. That’s how she still knows how to move around and such; her human half still remembers, even if there are no memories to go along with it.”
Trunks felt disappointed that this meant that he wouldn’t be able to destroy her. “So does that mean that you can reprogram her?”
Bulma gave him a thumbs up. “You bet. And from the information I gathered, I think I should be able to make a shut off switch for her too, just to be on the safe side.”
Trunks raised an eyebrow. “Just out of curiosity, why would you need that if you can reprogram her?”
Bulma frowned. “Just because she’s programmed for something isn’t an absolute guarantee that she will follow it. After all, Dr, Gero programmed her and her brother to obey him, and instead they destroyed him. And didn’t you also say they told you that even though Dr. Gero had programmed them for world domination, that wasn’t the reason why they were being so destructive. Furthermore, you said that when you went to past that there was a third android. 16, right? And even though he was programmed to kill Goku, he didn’t.”
Trunks nodded. “Yeah, he was a good guy.”
Bulma brushed off the idea of one of Dr. Gero’s androids willingly turning good. “The point is, they don’t follow their programming completely. So even if I do reprogram her, I still want to have a way to stop her if things go wrong.”
Trunks couldn’t disagree with that. In fact, he agreed wholeheartedly. “How long would the reprogramming take?”
Bulma raised an eyebrow. “Well it’s certainly not going to be an overnight process. This’ll take months. And in the mean time, I suggest keeping what she was really designed for a secret from her. She probably won’t let us reprogram her if she finds out we’re trying to change her. So when she asks about her past, mix truths with half-truths, even straight up lie to her if necessary. Just don’t let her know that she’s responsible for the destruction caused to the planet.”
“Agreed. But what will we tell the rest of the world. I’m sure you want her dead just as much as I do, and so does the rest of the world. They may not believe the whole amnesia thing, or whatever it is. They’ll think it’s a trick.”
Bulma just waved it off. “Don’t worry about that. We’ll just leave that part out. We’ll simply say that after you killed 17, you were able to capture her and that I personally deleted all her information and reprogrammed her. But we’ll just try to keep her hidden for the mean time so we don’t have to worry about that. It’ll make things much easier.”
“That may work, but I have a feeling that they’ll demand her death if they do find out. The rest of the world never really understood our little group.”
There was a groan from 18 as she shifted slightly. Bulma glanced at the android, realizing that she would be waking up soon. “We’ll worry about that later. For now we’ll keep her a secret and give everyone time to recover. Who knows, maybe in a few years she’ll be able to walk down the streets without anyone knowing what she really is.”
Trunks looked at 18. “Maybe…” His eyes narrowed as he stared at her in disgust. ‘But I’ll always remember. You lucked out for now, android, but if you give me any reason, any reason at all, I’ll destroy you.’
(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)
With a groan, 18 slowly opened her eyes. She sat up quickly, not knowing where she was. From the looks of things, she was in someone’s bedroom. Though, truth be told, whosever room this was really needed to clean up a bit. Either that or a tornado went through it recently.
“Finally awake, huh?”
18 jumped. That’s when she noticed Trunks sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. “What’s going on? Where am I? How’d I get here?”
Trunks tired his best not to show his hatred of her. “You… fainted, so I brought you here. This is my room.”
18 looked around a bit before turning her attention back to the young saiyan. “And just who are you? Where’s that boy I saw earlier?”
“The name’s Trunks.” He replied. “And I am the boy you saw earlier.”
18 glared at him. “You are not. He had blond hair and green eyes. Your eyes are blue, and your hair’s purple.”
‘More of a lavender.’ Trunks thought. “Well, seeing as you don’t remember anything…” He transformed, making 18 gasp. “This is a transformation state I have. I’m half human, half saiyan. That state you saw me in was known as a Super Saiyan.”
18 cut her eyes at him. “Ok, I believe that you’re the same boy, but I have no idea what you’re talking about. And what’s a saiyan?”
Trunks sighed and turned back to normal. “This is going to be troublesome. With all your memories gone, I’m going to have to explain everything.”
18 felt a jolt of fear run through her. “What do you mean? Are you saying I have amnesia? Is that why I can’t remember anything?”
Trunks wobbled his head. “Not quite. It’s more complicated than that. Here, lets start with what you do remember. Tell me anything.”
18 was silent, racking her brain for some sort of information. She was coming up with nothing, absolutely nothing. “I can’t. I don’t remember.”
Trunks’ eyes narrowed. “Not even your own name?”
18’s eyes widened in horror as she realized that she didn’t remember her own name. “N-No… I don’t know my name. What’s my name?”
“18.” Trunks replied.
Several seconds ticked by, during which no one spoke. Finally she asked, “Yes? What’s 18?”
Trunks sweat-dropped. “No, um, that’s your name. 18.”
18 blinked. Then her confusion turned to anger. “You’re a real jerk, you know that!”
“Huh? Me? Jerk? What?”
18 threw the blanket off her and got to her feet. “You are! Here I am with amnesia and you’re playing head games with me!”
Trunks waved his hands. “No, wait, let me explain. That really is you’re name. You see, your father wasn’t exactly right in the head.”
18 gasped. “My father? I have a father? Where, where is he?”
Trunks felt his anger rise at the thought of the sadistic scientist, in turn, raising his anger at her, but he kept himself in check. “Well, you’re adoptive father really. And he’s dead. Has been for a while.”
She gasped again. Feeling a deep sense of sadness, she fell back on the bed again. “Dead? My father’s… dead?”
‘Show compassion. Show compassion.’ Trunks told himself. But this was part of her history that he had to reveal to her. “Don’t feel too bad. You two really didn’t get along. In fact, he was quite sadistic. He stole your identity and forced… an operation on you.”
18 looked confused. “What are you talking about?”
Remembering his carefully rehearsed story that he and his mother had come up with, Trunks began to tell 18 her life’s story. There was quite a bit of reinventing, particularly about what 18 had done the past several years. He explained how Dr. Gero had been creating androids, and that she was just the 18th experiment, thus earning her the name 18. He told her about 17 too, though he made sure to leave out the fact that he was her brother. He ended on when she was struck by lightning, erasing all her memories and programming.
“So, let me get this straight.” She said. “To take revenge on this Goku person, Dr. Gero built two super powerful androids, of which I am one of. The other one destroyed him and then began destroying the world. And then you, me, and some other guys were trying to stop him for all these years. And yesterday we managed to do it, but I was hit by lightning and had all my data erased. Does that about sum it up?”
Trunks nodded. “You’re taking this a whole lot better than I thought.”
18 cut her eyes at him. “You must think I’m really stupid. Honestly, listen to yourself. You’re saying that I’m a machine.”
“Yes, and not a machine, an android. Well, technically a cyborg. And if you don’t believe me, come downstairs and see the information we’ve got.” While she had been out, he had gone to Dr. Gero’s lab and gathered all the blueprints before blowing the place to hell.
18 crossed her arms. “Fine then. Show me.”
Trunks shrugged and led her downstairs. Bulma was currently going through the information Trunks had gathered for her, studying how Dr. Gero had gone about creating his androids. She looked up when she heard Trunks entered, but let out a squeal when she saw 18.
“O-Oh, g-g-good… Y-You’re up-p.”
Her fear of the android was apparent. Trunks gave her a warning look, silently telling her to improve her acting.
“18, this is my mom.” said Trunks. “Mom, I believe you already know 18.”
Bulma’s legs were trembling as she tried to maintain her composure. “Oh, yes. How are you feeling?”
“Forgetful.” 18 replied. “Apparently I’m some sort of robot whose programming was deleted.”
Bulma nodded, a little too enthusiastically. “Y-Yup, it’s all gone. Poof! Goodbye!” She laughed nervously. “But don’t you worry, I’m bringing up your data right now. I won’t be able to do anything about your memories, but I can at least reprogram you.”
18’s eyes shifted to the computer screen and widened. She saw her blueprints up there. Information of mechanical limbs and metal replacements. Most of the stuff she couldn’t understand, but from the looks of it, it seemed to be a very authentic blueprint of designing a cybernetic organism.
“No… No way. It’s true. I’m really an android?”
“I’m sorry.” Trunks replied, trying to sound sincere. Personally, he didn’t give a damn if she felt sad and depressed. But he had to remind himself that he had to keep up this charade for the good of the planet.
“But…” 18 hesitated. “What about my life before I became an… android? What about my family?”
“Don’t know.” said Trunks. “Dr. Gero didn’t want you to have any memories of your previous life. He wanted for you to be a tool of destruction. Thank goodness you were able to escape.”
“Yeah, good for you!” Bulma cried with too much emotion.
18 felt herself go numb. It was true. She was an android. Trunks had been telling her the truth. “Then… my whole life… was taken from me. Not once, but twice. This… Dr. Gero…” her fists clenched, “he stole my humanity!”
Her body began glowing with energy. The ground began shaking and sparks started flying out of her hands as she unconsciously began gathering energy. At this point, Bulma lost all control of her acting and screamed in terror before ducking behind her chair.
Trunks braced himself. Would this be the excuse he was looking for to destroy her?
“Trunks,” Bulma cried, “do something! Calm her down!”
Trunks’ fists clenched in irritation. But he slowly approached 18 and placed his hands on her shoulders. “It’s ok. Calm down.” He was disgusted by what he was about to say next. “I’m… here for you.”
At first, 18 didn’t seem to hear him, but then her power slowly began to die down. Then he heard something unexpected from her. A sniffle. Was 18… crying?
“18?”
He turned her around and was shocked to see tears running down her cheeks. She really was crying. And he couldn’t pass it off as rain this time. The tears were flowing from her eyes.
“I’m… sorry…” she said. “This is just… a lot to take in…”
‘Show her comfort. Come on, Trunks, you have to pretend to be her friend.’
He forced himself to pull her into a hug, glad that she couldn’t see the look of disgust on his face. “You have a right to be upset. It’ll be ok. Both Dr. Gero and 17 are gone. They can’t hurt you anymore. And my mom can reprogram you again. That’ll get you back to your old self. And I’ll do my best to give you back as many memories as I can.”
18’s head was hanging, her hair in her face, hiding her tears. “I want to be alone.”
She pulled away from him and walked away. Trunks watched as she left the room, going back the way she came. But it wasn’t until he heard the door to his room close that he turned to his mother.
“Well, it seems like she believes us for now.” He gave his mother a stern look. “But you’re going to have to do a better job at acting. It’s obvious that you were afraid.”
Bulma came out of hiding. “Well excuse me, but being in the presence of someone who could snap my neck like a twig tends to be intimidating; especially when they’ve been destroying the planet for the past several years!”
Trunks put a finger to his lips. “Shh, Mom, you don’t want her to hear you.”
Bulma took a few calming breathes. “It’s fine. I’m ok. But, Trunks, you’re going to have to keep her under control. Until I can manage to reprogram her, you’ll have to show her how to control her powers.”
Trunks blinked. “You mean she doesn’t know how?”
Bulma groaned. “What part of all her programming was deleted are you not understanding?”
“Alright, alright, I get it.” He looked in the direction 18 had walked off in. “I just hope I can tolerate her presence.”
Bulma gave him a stern look. “Now Trunks, remember, this was your idea.”
Trunks sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s what Goku would do.” His eyes narrowed angrily. ‘But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.’

(A/N: Trunks is really holding a grudge against 18. Can you blame him really? With her memory wiped, she's not the same person she was before, but she still symbolizes all the horror that Trunks lived through. But 18 doesn't have it easy either. Losing your memory must be awful. Truthfully, the thought scares me more than death The thought of completely losing yourself *shiver*. Thanks for reading, now review please.)
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Reprogrammed	By : moviefan Category: Dragon Ball Z > Het - Male/Female Views: 758 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I own nothing

Reprogrammed