"We were lucky that those Androids didn't do the same to King Cold," Piccolo noted while the two hovered over the glaciers, homing in on Cold's Ki signature. "His Ki is weak, but it's still around."
"Do you really think that old bastard will have anything useful to say?" Bardock grit his teeth. He didn't fancy the idea of spending time around Frieza's predecessor and his father. Possibly even more than it was normal to feel that way.
"From the looks of him, he's spent plenty of time around those Androids being experimented on. Maybe he overheard more than he had to? Either way, he'll know about whatever dealings Frieza Army had with these Androids, at the very least." Piccolo replied.
King Cold laid sprawled on a glacier platform in a mushy powder of cherry-colored blood all around him. The ruined past ruler of the entire universe now laid dissected and utterly helpless. Even Bardock's heart softened up and he had little trouble calming his desire to reduce Frieza's old man to ashes at the very sight of him.
"You're gonna die soon. There's nothing we can do about it." Piccolo laid it bare. "The only thing you can change right now is to let us know everything you know so that you can boil in hell knowing that the people that conspired with you and betrayed you will soon join you. If anything can make hell sweeter for the likes of you, it has to be that."
"You... You did all this." King Cold muttered with a dry and raspy voice. It was difficult to imagine just how the past emperor could speak with half of his body being utterly mutilated and reduced to mere organs flapping helplessly and simmering in a pool of his own blood, but in that endurance laid the marvel of Frieza's species. "If you didn't ruin Frieza's empire if you didn't leave him that way... Battered and broken... Frieza would have made them all pay..."
"Tsk, this is useless!" Bardock extended his hand but, before he could obliterate Frieza's father, Piccolo stopped him. The Super Namekian approached the fallen emperor and placed his hand over the blood-soaked and smashed forehead. After closing his eyes and standing there for a few moments, Piccolo stood up and stepped back, wiping his hand at his gi.
"If you don't hurry, you won't have a chance to claim that you killed him." Piccolo turned to Bardock. It didn't seem like the Saiyan bruiser needed additional encouragement as Bardock extended his palm again and unleashed a shapeless wave of flashing light that annihilated King Cold. Even the icy platform that the dying emperor laid bare on shattered and submerged underwater for a few seconds, emerging less tainted with royal blood than it was before.
"Why'd you stop me then?" Bardock grumbled, turning to Piccolo.
"Because I needed to find out everything he knew before you killed him," Piccolo replied.
"You mean that thing you did..." Bardock's eyes widened. "You read his mind?"
"He was about to kick the bucket any second. Reading his mind wasn't that difficult." Piccolo closed his eyes before taking off. Bardock blasted off after the Super Namekian.
"So, you know what this mess is all about?" Bardock wondered. "Is Gine's sickness related to any of this?"
"I don't know that." Piccolo shook his head. "However... King Cold knew a lot. He was plotting with Dr. Puri to take back his empire. She promised him revenge against Son."
"My son?" Bardock said.
"She contacted King Cold a few years ago, while he was reassembling his forces and preparing for an invasion of Earth. The sly fox made him reconsider and travel to Namek instead, where the Frieza Army and these Androids slaughtered the Dragon Clan Namekians. For whatever reason, Android 19 said that Dr. Puri insisted on leaving a few warriors alive. It appears that she didn't want a full-on genocide, just the Namekian Dragon Balls gone." Piccolo explained.
"How gracious of her! I can't believe that nerd lady betrayed us!" Bardock clenched his fists. "If I find out she had something to do with Gine's disease..."
"That's not all. After the Namekian Dragon Balls vanished, Dr. Puri invited King Cold and Frieza to Earth, supposedly to aid them in their quest of having revenge against Son. She betrayed them and captured them." Piccolo said.
"It's becoming a habit with this damned woman." Bardock spat to the side.
"It seems like they've experimented on both Frieza and King Cold, but they kept the two at separate facilities so that nobody found them both. It's unclear for what reason, but these two were incredibly important subjects to Dr. Puri, or so King Cold thought. He may have just been full of itself like usual even when being dissected." Piccolo said.
"Heh, nice to know that we put a stick in that bitch's wheel for once," Bardock smirked. "We should pay her a visit and blast her to hell too."
"We'll do no such thing. There was at least one more Android in King Cold's memories that we haven't met yet. Given that those three Androids King Cold has seen worked in this one facility, it's safe to say that there's a handful more. I can't sense Dr. Puri's energy either, so for all we know she might have converted herself into an Android too. We need to be extremely careful with this. The Namekian Dragon Balls are gone, so there is no place for mistakes for most of us. More than a few Androids will probably guard Dr. Puri and it's more than likely she's kept the best for herself." Piccolo warned Bardock. "You seemed so eager to go home to your wife, do just that. I'll let Kami know about what we've seen and we'll figure a plan out."
"It would have been pretty nice if everyone kept up with their training, huh?" Bardock wondered, with a glint of excitement stuck on the corner of his lips.
"True, Yamcha and Krillin settled down for a civilian life. Tenshinhan became a martial arts master. He teaches but doesn't fight anymore after failing to resurrect Chiaotzu. There are fewer pairs of fists that we can rely on than ever and things seem bleaker than ever before too." Piccolo hissed in disdain at the odds. Following a sonic boom, the pair took off, hurrying toward the Sacred Land of Korin. Bardock soon split off from the formation and headed east. Back home to Mt. Paozu. To Gine.
A bruised, pale hand emerged from underwater. From the rippling waves. The hand grabbed hold of an icy ridge and, ignoring the freezing cold, pulled a tattered, feminine figure from underwater. One-Nine stretched out, laying on her back, and stared at the sky while her sensory systems rebooted. The sassy Android teen then stood up and looked around, scanning the environment. Her lips formed a psychotic grin when she saw the confirmation of Android 19's demise.
The uneasy wintry ocean raged on with taller and taller waves. A potent earthquake shook the abyssal bottom, cracking the ground into two and forming turbulent whirlwinds. A handful of pieces of mechanical scrap emerged from underwater, surrounded by a heated bubble of energy. Microchips and pieces of 19's remains emerged from underwater and busted out of the thin layer of ice that had already begun forming around the obliterated Android.
The microchips and pieces all hurried toward One-Nine, who shimmered in a blazing energy dome similar to the bubbles that surrounded the remains. The pieces of Android 19's remains phased into Android One-Nine one by one, with the teen turning and exposing the areas of her body where those pieces belonged. An explosive device slammed into One-Nine's chest, forcing the Android to jerk violently as it burrowed into her core.
One-Nine allowed herself to engage in a manic fit of laughter as she flexed her recovering body. A teal energy field enveloped the undergrown Android, changing the color of the entire region's skies to match the luminosity of her energy reaction. Nico clenched her fists as her body became ravaged by pulsing vessels. The flashing energy became too bright to make out much finer features of her transformation, but the Android's chocolate-colored hair lengthened and became curlier, a single braid wrapped over her head as a bow to subdue her wild curls at the top somewhat.
When the flashy, teal gleam ceased, Android One-Nine examined her new dress by grabbing its frilly sides. Her chest and waist had a black, skin-tight bodysuit covering up a white shirt and red tie at the top with two lines of white, frilly lace running down. Meanwhile, her arms and her thighs had been decorated by a bronze-colored, baggy dress. Even in transformation, the Android appeared to be unable to avoid a doll-like appearance.
"Humph, the power of Super Saiyan. Who needs it?" One-Nine smiled to herself as she examined her reborn splendor. "The power of a Super Android is more than enough..."
*****
"N-No way... You're Trunks?!" Yamcha couldn't stop trembling in surprise. To be fair, he was taking the news well compared to Bulma, who appeared to have completely lost the gift of speech. "The little rascal that Bulma's raising?"
"It may be difficult to accept it right now, but that is the least relevant part of what you might want to know right now. Android 21, or the woman you might now know as Dr. Puri, will contact you any time now and ask about your deal." Trunks said, turning to Bulma. The woman just gulped her heavy worries away and approached the future incarnation of her son closer.
"You mean I should decline her offer?" Bulma wondered.
"I cannot say that." Trunks shook his head. "I don't know how the future would turn out without Dr. Puri's help. To be quite frank, I cannot say for certain if this heart virus is even Dr. Puri's doing at all. I know that my mother spent more years than it was healthy obsessing over finding this connection, but she couldn't find anything. I think that this will start as a genuine wish for Dr. Puri to just save humanity from the heart virus outbreak."
"Yeah, before she does that to everyone, right?" Yamcha pointed his finger at the cybernetic half of Trunks' face, making the future traveler slip his long hair over the converted half of his face and sigh.
"I'm not fully certain of 21's intentions. But the fact of the matter is that in the future, the woman you now know as Dr. Puri controls the entirety of humanity. She uses a special control nanite, installed into the swarm of each conversion injection to control every subject that receives the cybernetic conversion once the nanites reach a certain stage and number and overtake the natural, biological cells of one's body." Trunks said.
"Your case seems quite advanced," Bulma noted. "From the sound of it, it seems like I'm resisting Dr. Puri in the future as well. How is that possible?"
"You never fully trusted Dr. Puri, even if it is in just a few people dearest to you, but you've installed countermeasures to prevent 21's cybernetic conversion from fully overwriting the body's biological cells. Even with the control module, it is impossible for Dr. Puri to control me or you, although both of us have been converted." Trunks replied.
"Wow, didn't even implant one in me, that's cold, Bulma..." Yamcha crossed his arms. "What am I like in the future? You told me and Krillin that we're in for a painful death or something, that can't be right, right?"
"Well..." Trunks looked down. "Not exactly. Sometimes, when we look at you guys from the side, we wished that you'd have died. Seeing you working as drones and doing Android 21's bidding feels more painful than grief."
"Huh? So, everyone becomes some sort of bio-android!?" Yamcha freaked out. "The future straight out sucks!"
"That is the gist of what I am trying to explain to you," Trunks nodded. "Though you're not entirely correct again. Dr. Puri did not convert Son Goku. She had Bardock kill Son Goku after his full conversion. Bardock is one of her most powerful Android drones, besides 18 and 17, of course. Although, because he lacks any semblance of free will and fully submits to 21's orders, he may be far more dangerous than those two."
"Why would Dr. Puri refuse to convert Son Goku? You'd think that he'd be her most prized warrior. He also doesn't have much of a complex mind to convert and he's a Super Saiyan to boot!" Bulma barked out in surprise of the dark news from the future.
"That's because of some personal issues that Dr. Puri had with Son Goku and Chayote. Judging by the Red Ribbon insignia that all Androids wear in the future, it is fair to say that Dr. Puri had an unclear relationship with the Red Ribbon Army which Chayote destroyed while Goku had a bigger hand to play at eliminating the Rainbow Brigade's attempts at resurrecting the army later." Trunks explained.
"W-Wait... The Red Ribbons, the Rainbow Brigade? B-But I also had a hand in fighting them!" Yamcha leaned back, overcome by terror.
"It doesn't seem like 21 blames you or Krillin for anything related to that, though. She keeps you as a drone." Trunks denied Yamcha's worst fears.
"What about Chayote?" Bulma wondered. "There's no way that Dr. Puri can kill Chayote, right? That'd spell out doom for the entire universe and, judging from the fact that she took control over the mechanized humanity, Dr. Puri must not be the apocalyptic avenger type. She has a plan for the future, right?"
"That is the grimmest thing, I believe." Trunks' look in the single human-looking half of his face became gloomy. "Android 21 knows that she cannot kill Chayote, so she keeps the woman imprisoned and does whatever she wants with her. For decades she's been studying, experimenting, flat out torturing Chayote, but always keeping her alive just to keep the universe spinning. Chayote would have been better off having been killed, I think."
"You seemed pretty pissed at Chayote though, why?" Yamcha wondered, recalling the heated exchange of blows the two were in that went far beyond just usual settling of business matters.
"Ah... Well... It's just that... When today's deal occurred in the future, Chayote was defeated by Android 18 handily. It was because Chayote severely underestimated 18's power, treating 18 as a normal human during their clash, since she couldn't sense any Ki from 18. Android 18 broke Chayote with just a few strikes and Chayote never had the chance to recover, as that was when Android 21 got hold of her. Our loss against the Androids came not just because we accepted 21's conversion with open arms, it was because Chayote and Son Goku weren't there to help. Android 21 had the superior position over us, with none of our most powerful fighters to oppose her, mother was pretty much forced to accept Android 21's deal."
"I can't say I blame her..." Bulma looked down, deflating like a balloon poked with a needle as she exhaled a depressed sigh. "No Goku... No Chayote... Sometimes it's like those two don't just represent being able to pummel bad guys into the dirt, it's like those two represent hope itself. No matter how bad, Goku always meets every situation with a smile and just laughs everything off. It makes me believe that maybe there's still hope. Goku's very presence makes me believe that something can still be done. It makes us all get creative and dare to hope. Without him... Everything would feel so grey, so... Real and urgent."
"Still, you said Bardock also got snatched. That's so weird, you'd think that Bardock would be the first one with fists itching to pound those Androids into the dirt. I'd have never thought that he'd join them..." Yamcha scratched his chin, deep in thought.
"Bardock changed a lot after Gine died of the heart virus. I think that his humanity withered away long before he became fully converted. He was a machine long before becoming an Android. After Gine's death, Bardock became more afraid of the heart virus and who it might take next than mad at it. It was that fear that drove him to join and fully give in to the conversion." Trunks explained.
"So, you came here from the future to kill Dr. Puri, to prevent the future, right?" Bulma looked up to her future son, knowing that she was wrong deep down, but she figured that by correcting her, Trunks would explain his actual goal in being in this timeline.
"No. Merely killing Android 21 here will not change a thing in the future. When one uses a time machine to travel back through time, they do not end up in that same timeline. They create a separate one. Changing the past does not change the future in that case." Trunks said.
"Then why?" Yamcha wondered too. "Is it just to feel better about snapping Dr. Puri's neck or something?"
"No. I need to find where Android 21 is holding Mecha Frieza." Trunks replied.
"Mecha Frieza?" Yamcha and Bulma exclaimed in sync. "Here, on Earth?"
"That's right. Android 21 turned Frieza into a cyborg too, just like she plans to do with the rest of humanity. This has already happened. Frieza is, in a way, her prototype lab rat. Everything she plans to do to humanity, she tests out on Mecha Frieza first. She even called him "Mecha Frieza" before settling on calling her creations "Androids"." Trunks explained.
"Okay, but why is he so crucial to you?" Bulma scratched her head. "It seems like he's just an earlier, less advanced prototype of what Dr. Puri would have done to humanity."
"That is correct. The conversion nanites that Android 21 used on humanity in the future are far too advanced to dissect and study. Not only that, they continue to consume each other and advance further. They are automatically updating themselves all the time, which is how Android 21 must have kept up with technological advances despite being converted over twenty years ago from this point in time. Mecha Frieza, however, has the prototype module in his brain, that's an early version of what Android 21 uses to control the Androids. His nanites do not upgrade unless Android 21 updates them manually." Trunks pointed out.
"So, by finding Mecha Frieza and looking into his brain, you can find the module that Dr. Puri used to enslave humanity in the future and undo that..." Bulma snapped her fingers. "That is amazing! Though I would like to study it as well so that we could, in time, devise the same countermeasures."
"That is fine by me." Trunks nodded. "It will save this version of me from making the same mistake I did and ignoring the fact that this timeline, these people here, they matter just as much to those living here as my timeline does to me. I've killed many people today. I feel terrible about it now. I don't think Chayote will ever forgive me."
"Heh, that's a chip off the old block. Then again, I don't hear Vegeta apologizing to anyone, so maybe Bulma's genes rubbed off on you just as much..." Yamcha sighed.
"Yamcha!" Bulma smacked her ex in the back of the head for the insensitive remark. "That brings up a fair point, however, what about Vegeta? Having a Saiyan like him and the entire Saiyan army would have surely tipped the scales."
"Maybe, he never showed up to help. Mother laments sometimes that he did exactly what he promised to do–leave us all alone." Trunks sighed.