He had called earlier and would take her daughter out, the next day. That twisting, twirling, spinning feeling she had had when she first saw them together was back, stronger.
Silently, she stepped out of the bedroom and went downstairs. But the old man was watching his 'movies' so she continued her walk to the outside. Night had come and the sky was pitch black; only a few stars would shine here and there. She glanced at the thin crescent of moon.
"Why did you have to come back, C-17?" She leaned against the wall, closed her eyes. "Everything was going so well here..." She let the soft, repetitive sound of waves dying on the shore fill her, appease that wild feeling. That feeling that wasn't right. "And you just step on it..." She breathed deeply.
During the past years, she had allowed herself to go to Krilin, to marry him, to have a child, to be happy... Along with her brother, her past, her story were back. The consequences of those returns scared her. She didn't want to lose it all...
~*~*~
He put his gun and capsules box on the table and sat down on the pile of blankets, wondering why he never bothered to get a real bed. He would wonder every day now, every day since she had come here.
Laying down on his back, fingers laced together behind his head, he held back a sigh.
"Marron..." She was always in his mind. The first person who ever spontaneously hugged him, who ever enjoyed his company, who ever loved him... Except C-18, but he didn't want to think about her. It was different. It hurt.
He remembered her innocent, nose-less face when she had been asleep on this same pile. Her sparkling eyes as he washed her clean after 'breakfast'. Her soft skin...
Suddenly, he understood why it hurt to think about C-18 and why Marron was haunting him. He wanted the child to be his. Not as his niece, but as his daughter. C-18 had her and he was jealous, but she was his sister and he couldn't take her kid away. Besides, he also wanted to have her back.
But for the moment he was alone. And after that next afternoon with his niece, he would be alone again. Was it his destiny?
He closed his eyes, fell asleep.
~*~*~
Marron looked up at C-17 with sad eyes and a cute pout, but said nothing. The cyborg sighed at last.
- I didn't know it was to rain, ok? Sorry.
- It's boring...
He was to reply when a flash of white light illuminated the room, followed by a deafening thunder. Marron screamed, burst into cries. C-17 cringed a little, put a hand on her head.
- It's just a storm, kid.
- IT'S SCARYYYYY!!! WAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!
She jumped onto him, he put his arms around her and said nothing.
Uncle was nice, but the storm was still terrifying. She whimpered.
C-17 was numb. He still felt Marron on his lap, but her sobs didn't affect him. His mind was absent, away. He felt sad. All those years alone, with no one to hold or to care about...
Why couldn't he focus on the present?
- Uncle, I'm scared!! she cried out, unable to handle the fear anymore.
C-17 came back to reality, hugged her tightly.
- It's alright, kid. I'm here.
"You are too, but for how long? Will you miss me when you'll go?" Her little arms wrapped up around his neck and she sniffled. "Or will you smile?" He held her tighter for a second.
She pulled her head back and looked at him. When the following lightning criss-crossed the sky, he saw the tears on her chubby face. He wiped them with his thumb, then pulled her against him again.
- Certain.
Mentally, he put a lock around the two of them, so she could never go. But he knew it meant nothing.
- Thanks uncle.
The thunder rolled, quieter, further. They listened to the rain hitting the roof and C-17 knew it would soon be over. He didn't loosen his grip yet.
~*~*~
Marron opened the door wide, a huge smile on her face. It had stopped raining at last and the sun was back. Drops of water shone in the grass and on trees' leaves, it smelled good and fresh.
She hadn't made a step out that C-17 picked her up by the back of her shirt.
- It's all wet, kid.
- Lemme go! she giggled.
- I'm taking you back to Kame House.
- Oh... Ok...
Her smile faded and she grasped his sweater firmly as he began to fly away. In silence.
- ....Uncle?
- What is it?
- Are you angry at me?
He immobilised over the woods, floating in the wind, made her look up at him.
- I'll never be angry at you, kid.
He hinted a smile and she squealed happily, her arms back around his neck.
- I love you uncle!
Somehow it hurt him to hear that.
He began flying again.
~*~*~
C-18 straightened on her beach chair when she saw her brother in the sky, carefully carrying Marron. The little girl looked happy, very happy. C-17 landed at a good distance of his sister, put Marron down on the sand.
- Mommy! There was a scary storm!
But she was laughing, running up to her mother. C-18 looked at her brother while hugging the child. C-17 looked away.
- Later, sis.
And he was gone. So was Marron, running into the pink house, calling out her father to tell him about the storm.
C-18 was alone with the regular sound of waves dying on the shore, filled with that wringing feeling again. She still felt the cold eyes of her brother on her, before they'd turned away, and she had fully felt his sadness. Now she shared it. Weren't they twins? She wasn't sure she was all that glad about it. She didn't know if she liked him to be back or not. She didn't know how she felt about him anymore.
For the second time in her life, doubts were eating her up.
- Marron fell asleep, she must have been very...
Krilin shut up when he noticed his wife's facial expression. Confusion, despair. Too similar to the day he had shown her the remote that could destroy her.
- C-18? Are you alright?!
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Identical to that day, nine years ago...
- C-18!!
He grabbed her shoulders, shook her. She finally snapped out of that dreadful state.
- What's wrong?!
She starred into his eyes. They were so full of life and love and worry...
- Nothing, she said calmly.
Before he could say a word, she wrapped her arms around his waist, hid her face against his firm, warm stomach. He didn't expect such a thing from her and could only brush her golden hair tenderly. In silence, broken by the waves dying on the beach.
~*~*~
Krilin was asleep beside her. She had given up wondering how a nose-less man could snore, years ago, but that night she didn't even hear it.
C-17. Her half. Her twin, her brother. The man who had once kidnapped her daughter, stealing her.
C-18 was holding her husband's hand, but still felt alone. She was on her own, in her mind...
Her brother's turned away face appeared in her head, painful. Years ago, they formed a team and she wouldn't imagine her future without him. Not that she depended of him. It was just the way things seemed meant to be for her.
At that time.
Now she wished he hadn't come back.
~*~*~
C-18 had been mad when he had kept Marron on his lap, cold when he had called, absent when he had picked the child up, mute when he had taken her back home.
C-17 shut his eyes closed. He had lost her. The person he wouldn't imagine of ever losing, at the time they had been activated. He wasn't her brother anymore, only a burdening uncle of Marron.
He opened his eyes, slowly. In front of him, the table and the loaded gun, at rest. He looked at it in silence.
Hadn't it been his answer to everything, one day?
End
Part Three
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