18 was bored out of her mind. She was lying on a couch, checking her phone.
It was a simple task, just something to do.
It had been a month since her encounter with Batman and now she felt sharper and stronger; she was sure her martial arts skills had become more polished as well.
It wasn't that her original world was doing something wrong; it was a different mindset and now she was adapting and taking the best of both worlds and creating something new.
At the same time, she was starting to feel her old strength back, like a rusty machine slowly getting repaired and cleaned; she was closer to her full power each day.
Still, it was a slow process and her need for entertainment was eating at her.
She thought about going to Ra's and talk about her progress and get a second opinion on her ideas, but he was still pissed at her for ruining his scheme to humiliate and kill Batman, so everytime she called him, the old guy responded that he was busy.
She even went to the place where she fought Batman and the whole arena had been demolished, left as if it had never been there.
Now she couldn't find him and again she regretted never learning to feel ki beyond the basics.
She had managed to recreate some of the techniques that the warriors she faced used against her, but the more specialized ones eluded her.
She knew about instant transmission and ki sense, but they were fundamentally different from other techniques, so she couldn't figure it out by herself.
The ones she did recreate were simple: increase the brightness and reduce the power of a ki blast and you get the solar flare; change a ki sphere into a disk and sharpen the edge and you get a destructo disk; concentrate energy in your hands and send it in a straight line and you get a masenko.
With ki sense and instant transmission, she didn't have any idea of how to change the energy or what to do to get the results she wanted, so she gave up.
At least in her world, where her rampage around the world kept her busy, now she was dedicating more effort to developing new skills and maybe she couldn't figure out teleportation but feeling where people were shouldn't be impossible.
With that, though in mind, she sat cross-legged on the floor and closed her eyes. She channeled energy around her body and tried to feel around her. First, she expanded her ki around, but that only made her a light sphere and didn't help.
Then she tried to lower her ki to concentrate on her environment, which only ended up making her sit in the dark for 40 minutes with no progress.
When she was about to take a break, she tried something else; she focused her ki on her head, trying to enhance her ears and eyes.
It didn't take long for a familiar feeling to flood her cranium, a headache strong enough to make her wince.
She grabbed her head and stopped her energy flow.
Then she heard it, that annoyingly familiar voice.
[Are we not better than our programming?]
Then a memory hit her.
She was standing in a forest, beside her, 17 was looking around, ignoring Dr. Gero as he screamed at him and finally, there was a big man with red hair and yellow armor.
It was he talking to her and she responded indifferently.
"I don't know 16, aren't you the only one of us that is actually a robot?"
"Do you assess me as a full robot?"
"What else could you possibly be?"
"Well..."
The memories stopped and she fell to the floor, cold sweat on her face, as she processed what had just happened.
This was something she never experienced before: a sense of dread, like she found something or part of something and she needed to find the rest soon, or she would lose it completely again.
She meditated again and tried to repeat it, but it didn't work.
Her urgency grew and her hand trembled as she got to the phone.
Vandal Savage answered in a few rings.
"18"
"Savage, I need a favor."
"That is unusual."
"Shut up and listen."
Her headache was getting better, so she took a deep breath and continued.
"Do you have someone like the Martian in your group?"
Savage was intrigued.
"In what sense?"
"Someone who is a telepath and can explore my mind."
"Unusual indeed, I was under the impression that you were against any intrusion into your thoughts."
"I'm not happy about it, but I need it now, do you know someone or not?"
"I have someone in mind, but I am reluctant to allow you to meet him, knowing your history working with us."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Just that you tend to be quick to anger and this one is too valuable to lose in a tantrum."
"You really are tired of living, aren't you?"
"You have no idea, but my point stands."
"Ok, you have my word that no matter what, I won't kill him, is that good enough?"
"I'll arrange the meeting."
A week later, she was sitting in a luxury room waiting for the guy.
Psimon stepped into the room nervously. He had heard about his client and wasn't thrilled about working with her.
Still, he was a professional and when he got the order from Queen Bee, he stopped working on his project and traveled to meet the android.
"You must be the psychic."
The guy looked bizarre, with pale skin and dressed in black; she could see his brain inside a transparent dome on his head, which reminded her of Gero, making her disgusted.
"I prefer to be called by my name, and my name is Psimon."
"Whatever."
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"So, how does this work? Do you need a crystal ball or something?"
He laughed a little.
"Where did you even get an idea like that?"
"An old witch in my world, annoying pest was a troublesome opponent, until I managed to get my hands around her throat."
Psimon stopped laughing and grabbed his own neck, swallowing and taking a step back.
"Well, it isn't like that, I need to look at you and you have to let me inside your mind, do not resist and try to relax."
She was stiff and alert; he could see just how uncomfortable it made her to be here, but she nodded and allowed him to approach, so he started the consultation.
"So what do you want to accomplish?"
"I want you to unlock my memories. I thought I was trapped for a long time, but apparently at some point I was outside and I don't remember."
"Ok, easy enough."
"And I also want you to check if there is any order or influence in my mind, something that is controlling or influencing my decisions."
"That is more complex; if someone left something, they may also have defenses to prevent someone from removing it."
"Can you do it?"
"Of course, but I'll need your full cooperation."
"You better not do anything to try to control me yourself, or I will kill you, promise or not."
"I understand, don't worry, my orders are clear and I am very fond of my life."
He got closer and kneeled in front of her. She moved her body forward on the couch and their heads were close enough to touch.
"Now Psimon says, close your eyes."
She did and felt the same sensation as when the Martians tried to invade her mind. She was about to resist her ki flaring by instinct when Psimon spoke calmly.
"Don't, you need to allow me in, if you want me to fight whatever is inside your mind, we need to work together."
She let out a breath and withdrew her energy.
"Now Psimon says, concentrate."
Suddenly, she was standing in the middle of a destroyed city, smoke and fire everywhere, there were blood marks but no dead bodies around.
"Is this the place you think of when you focus?"
"What is this?"
"Basically a material representation of your mind, but I can't tell if this is normal for you or if your thoughts are this chaotic."
"What now?"
"We explore, you let me in so your own mind won't attack me, that is going to change if we find whatever they put on your head."
They didn't walk, but the environment changed as they entered a recent memory.
Another 18 was rampaging around, the entire city was burning, people running and screaming, as the android shot ki blasts one after another.
A group was fighting back or trying to.
"Keep her at bay, Miss Bulma needs a few more minutes."
They were firing laser guns and there were several robot suits and tanks, missiles and even some kind of gravity weapon.
They were not winning, hardly slowing her down and paying in blood for every second they bought.
The memory 18 finally arrived at the place they were and started killing all the resistance with her hands, breaking necks or just punching them, making them explode like blood balloons.
When she finished, not a single person was alive in the entire area.
She arrived at a heavy metal door and was about to punch it when it opened by itself, 18 went in and then she felt it.
Someone was using the remote to attempt to deactivate her.
She was about to blast the entire place to dust when something grabbed her.
She struggled, but the person was strong; it was a big man who looked like a Frankenstein monster, he had dark skin and a few scars, he was wearing some kind of technological armor suit.
Still, she was way stronger than him, so he could only hold her for a few seconds, until 5 metal pillars surrounded them and electricity shocked them both.
"Bulma, now."
Android 8 shouted as his body was shattered by the force of 18 struggles.
18 saw the memory of herself falling asleep as Android 8 kneeled on the ground, destroyed, his body broke in thousands of pieces as he smiled with satisfaction.
Before his head broke as well, he said one last thing.
"Tell Suno, I'm sorry for not coming back as I promised."
The memory stopped and they stood in a black void for a moment.
"They caught you by surprise."
"I was careless; normally, I wouldn't have entered such an obvious trap."
"Why did you?"
"I wasn't thinking straight."
"Why?"
"None of your business."
"You invite me here, if you want to get your memories back, you have to be willing to share."
"Ok, give me a moment."
"Don't worry if you see it, I'll see it as well."
The void filled with light and they were suddenly standing in a field. Memory 18 was sitting on a rock while a person who looked similar to her was looking at her and frowning.
He was a man with black hair and blue eyes, wearing an orange scarf, a black shirt, and blue pants.
17 looked angrily at 18.
"I can't believe you blew it up."
"Can you be more specific? I blew up a lot of things just in the last few hours."
"You know damn well what I mean."
She made a confused face and he let out a sigh.
"The dealership, I told you I wanted to play around with the cars before we destroyed them, and you aimed at it on purpose."
"Ah, that, yes, it was on purpose."
"Why?"
"Maybe now you'll think twice before destroying the clothing store I want to check."
"You're still mad about it?"
"Not at all."
"It was an accident and I apologized."
"This was an accident as well, sorry."
"You said it was on purpose."
"No idea what you are talking about, I never said that."
He turned and started flying away.
"Where are you going?"
"I need a minute away from you, before I end up killing you."
She smiled.
"As if you had a chance."
17 smiled as well, but then, remembering he was mad at her and flew away.
The 18 watching the memories was silent. She regretted allowing him to go away by himself. Knowing what she knew now, she wished those weren't the last words she said to her brother.
The memory changed to 18, sitting on the same rock, now it was already sunset and she looked annoyed.
"Where is he?"
She flew in the same direction as she remembered 17 going. After flying around for hours, she saw flames in the distance and guessed that her brother was there.
A forest fire had broken out. She landed on a nearby mountain and looked around. She saw a crater and flew towards it.
It was massive, easily the size of a small town and in the middle, there was 3 bodies.
One was a man missing an arm and wearing an orange martial arts outfit, another was a teenager with blue hair and a Capsule Corp t-shirt and finally, her brother, 17, was there as well.
She kneeled and grabbed her brother's face, tears starting to drop as she looked at the others.
The man cut on his neck, 17 had a hole on his chest and the teenager had one small hole on his forehead. She could almost picture it, the moment in which the 3 killed each other simultaneously.
Her brother's last act was taking away her revenge; now, there was nowhere to put all her anger and grief.
The memory 18 screamed and a massive explosion consumed the entire area, erasing the bodies of the other two fighters and leaving her to grieve her brother.
All the feelings she had been avoiding since she arrived in this world started flooding her as she watched the event repeating in front of her, until the memory faded and she was standing again in the middle of the void.
"So it was revenge."
"No, it wasn't."
"Then what?"
"..."
"You know how it works by now, you have to open up and let me see, if you don't, we can't go deeper."
"I should have been there."
"Guild, you regret the path not taken."
"We were strong alone and together we were invincible, we never actually hated the world, we rejected its control, we wanted to prove to ourselves and everyone that our lives were our own, that we were in control and no one else."
"At what point did you decide to burn the world to prove it?"
Light consumed the void again and they appeared on a street. Memories 18 and 17 were standing in the middle of the road talking.
"What should we do next?"
"Whatever we want, there is no one else left to stop us."
18 talked while looking at the scene.
"It wasn't all at once; we first went from one place to another, doing as we pleased."
The scenes show next were escalating, from stealing a car and crashing it to fighting the police to fighting the army.
Each instance was more violent, more brutal. She remembered the thrill and the excitement of destroying everything in her way, thinking about how her life was in her hands, how the world tried to push her down and she pushed back.
They didn't notice at first.
How the fights stopped being against tanks and soldiers and became scared people holding guns for the first time, how it wasn't military bases but cities, yet when they finally realized how far they went, there wasn't guilt or sorrow, just a feeling of emptiness.
But they kept going, like kids kicking ant hills, they continued doing it because it was fun, it made them feel power and control and the feeling was like a drug, they became addicted to it and even when they occasionally tried to stop themselves, they still needed to continue, in the search for control, they became dependent on it.
When the memories faded and she returned to the void, Psimon didn't talk.
"What, no comments?"
"You'd better get ready, we are getting closer."
Before she could ask what he meant, the scene changed again.
They appeared inside a lab and Dr. Gero was standing there, remote in his hand, screaming as always.
"I AM YOUR MASTER, AND YOU WILL DO AS I SAY."
Before he could react, 17 rushed and cut off his arm and both the hand and the remote hit the ground as 18 walked closer, making the doctor panic.
"Wait, you don't understand..."
"We are done waiting."
With a swift movement, she cut off his head and once it fell to the ground, she crushed it with her boot.
Before 18 could comment, a new voice joined the conversation.
"That was uncalled for."
She looked back and saw Gero walking out of the shadows.
"Hello, 18, you shouldn't be here."
"Old bastard."
She tried to move, but her body was frozen in place.
"Honestly, you should have listened, so impulsive, exactly like your brother. Had you been obedient, you could have sat next to me as we conquered the world."
He looked furious.
"Instead, what did you do?"
"Shut up."
"As always, you throw a tantrum and leave a mess behind."
18 wanted to jump at him, to rip him apart, but she was still unable to move.
"What did you do to us?"
"Nothing much, honestly, if you lived your lives peacefully, nothing would have happened."
He didn't smile, but she saw him standing there proudly.
"But I know you, even better than you know yourself. I knew you wouldn't stop, that you would play your little games and continue to escalate until it was too late."
He started to smirk.
"So I gave you a little push to make the process faster."
"But her mind was too strong for you to control completely, so you put a suggestion, something subtle that got stronger the more she destroyed."
"Ah, the outsider, I was wondering when you would interrupt."
"You are acting quite high and mighty for a guy who is terrified."
"And you are acting quite arrogant for someone standing in my domain."
The space around them shook and Psimon appeared, as if he was dragged forcefully into the room by an invisible force.
"You see, I put this little bug in your head, another one of my failsaves, a copy of my mind, ready to take over. The more you did my bidding, the stronger I became and now I'm ready to take what is rightfully mine."
He got closer.
"Your body will serve me well, with it I will put this new world on its knees, a reborn Red Ribbon army will rise under my leadership, you see 18, you were and always will be under my control."
18 was feeling the weight crushing her; had she never been actually free? Did her brother die a slave?
"But you can't control her, that's why you are afraid, that is why you had to use such a roundabout method to get what you wanted."
"Nobody asked for your opinion."
"He wants you to feel weak, to not fight back, because he knows the truth."
A psychic wave hit Psimon, sending him flying.
"SHUT UP."
Psimon spoke while on the floor.
"18, you are in control, not me and not him, now fight back."
"I SAID SHUT UP."
"No, you shut up."
The space trembled as 18 started walking slowly towards the doctor.
"How dare you?"
"18, stay where you are."
Another psychic wave hit her, but it had no effect; she kept walking.
"18, listen to your master, I SAID STOP."
Gero was now backing away from her, his expression far from angry; he was sweating and trembling as the blonde got closer.
"Enough of this."
He tried to run, to hide deeper in her mind, but.
"And where are you going?, Psimon says stay where you are."
Now it was Gero's turn to be hit by a psychic attack, one that forcefully dragged him back as he was escaping.
He was going to try again; he wanted to curse at the intruder, or stop what was coming, but it was too late.
As 18 grabbed him by the neck.
"18, don't do this, if you kill me, you will destroy your mind, I'm warning you."
"I would rather have my mind destroyed than have you in it one more second."
She squeezed his neck and his body popped like a balloon, leaving nothing behind but a scream of agony.
"This time, stay dead, you piece of garbage."
(chapter image.)