Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball GT

Claimer: I own this plot and all my characters.

Chapter 1

Birth

What is life? Can it be stored? Can it be created? How does it begin, and when does it truly end? Day to day, we walk the Earth and continue our existence without more than a second thought, our lives too caught up in other activities to examine the philosophy of our existence.

But this is not the case for all.

Some are born without even the slightest notion of what life is and what it consists of, having it ripped from them and replaced with nothing more than the willingness to follow the commands of one. This is the story of the original android created by the infamous Doctor Gero. A story of trials, tribulations, denial, acceptance and learning.

This is the story of Android 1.

Several years before the infamous villain Raditz landed on Earth, far away from civilization, Gero's lair was built into a mountain range on the outskirts of North City and consisted of various access points throughout the area with metallic doors serving as entrances, each thick enough to survive a nuclear explosion and then some. But there was one particular lab Gero accessed frequently, as it contained his most precious androids.

The main lab's entrance was rather simple to spot and access, assuming one knew the code. The first level contained one of Gero's more desperate projects: androids #17 and #18. The twins were currently in the middle of the most dangerous stage of an incurable, hereditary disease that had been passed down the Gero family line for generations.

The doctor had loved his grandchildren like his own offspring and had looked after the pair since their parents had passed away from the same disease which seemed to worsen per generation. The old man himself had only able to survive as long as he did thanks to some self-made medicine that he had taken early on in life. Though he felt the occasional pains as his own grandchildren did, they were comparable to a love tap when one considered the agony the twins were experiencing.

The twins were too far along for the medicine to have any effect now, not having taken it earlier on due to being seemingly healthy. Their teenage, rebellious attitudes had them thinking they wouldn't fall prone to this disease.

Oh, how wrong they were.

Gero, being desperate to preserve their lives, did the only thing he could think of to save them: he turned them into cyborgs. Though the procedure was painful and permanent their new body parts had cleansed them of all toxins. However, 17 and 18 had to remain in storage chambers till such time that the organic parts of their bodies had completely integrated with the mechanical ones.

The first floor of the lab was also shared by Android #16, a hulking giant who was meant to be a guardian for the pair should anything - as far out as the possibility seemed - be too much for them to handle on their own.

The floor below the lab entrance was far more cluttered and cramped, containing things like prototype DNA Gatherers, miniature spy cameras, blueprints for projects and the like, mainly serving as more of a storage area than anything else.

But the final floor below that was one worth seeing. The third floor was by far the largest of the project areas, a gigantic underground circular chamber that stretched the length and breadth of a large house. The room itself, however, seemed unfinished as only the floor and ceiling had coverings while the brown rock walls were without decoration and visibly cracked. The room was dark and seemed to have no source of light, save for twenty or so computers with data streaming across their dim screens, adding an eerie feeling to the musty lab.

The room was quiet as the computers did their work, churning and humming as they processed a few million terabytes each second, but one sound stood out above all: The huffing and puffing of an elderly gentleman coming from the centre of the room.

And, as it would happen, there was a man who would fit the description of elderly in the very centre of the room, leaning over a white, coffin-shaped container. The old man seemed to stand at no more than five feet and seven inches with a large lab coat over his ancient body, Gero's pruned facial features contorting as he struggled to see in the dark while he twisted away with a red screwdriver, making a few last minute adjustments.

The coffin was pure white and rectangular in shape, a small pink window the only access to the outside world for its user. Meanwhile on the outside many a person would be more than shocked to see the good doctor's current condition. His wrinkles appeared to have wrinkles, he was thin as a rake and pale as a ghost, looking like a monster from a horror film - a creature aged beyond its natural life cycle.

But a horror was far from what the real Gero truly was.

Despite his many years of service to the infamous Red Ribbon Army, creating their most dreadful weapons and devices, in truth he was nothing more than a kindly old man who only wanted peace. Unfortunately, circumstances had forced him to take drastic measures against his morals, and just a few years into his service, the robotics engineer was knee-deep in orders to build machines for the sole purpose of killing Son Goku.

At first, the doctor dispelled the orders as jokes. As if a child could defeat an army! But after seeing footage, and almost having a first-hand encounter with the boy, Gero had begun to formulate a plan. Adding a few key weak points to his creations to ensure their destruction and exhausting the army's income on trivial inventions, leaving the soldiers with less food and consequently lower morals, the army was disbanded within a few months. This left Gero with substantial capital for his projects and offered him a chance to slip away unnoticed.

A chance to start over. A chance to fix everything. A chance to get back his-

"You summoned me Dr. Gero?" the doctor's reminiscing was suddenly interrupted by a voice almost identical to his own, the difference being a tinny echo sound.

"Ah, yes, #20. I need you to make final preparations on 1's charging chamber. It should be ready in a few moments." In response, the stiff machine gave a large bow but remained silent, its arm at its sides.

Android #20 seemed to be an exact duplicate of Gero, apart from being seemingly ten years younger than his creator and wearing black and yellow ringleader attire. 20's appearance was by no means any vain product of the doctor, in fact it was more for familiarity than anything else. Gero was well aware of his mortality and for how long he had given the grim reaper the slip so he planned to soon move into a new, more robust body so he could finish his inventions and even watch as they developed.

#20 had been programmed with minimal personality so as to make sure there would be no lingering feelings of regret once he transferred his consciousness with the aid of his medical android, #19.

"Almost done… there!" Gero declared as the coffin was finally sealed tight, ensuring nature and time wouldn't damage its contents. "I tell you #20 this will be my greatest invention yet! Although he still needs to download the basics of his emotional and social spectrums, his power and abilities should be unsurpassed by anyone!" The doctor declared, slowly standing up with the assistance of his wooden cane, glad that his most prized invention would remain safe from just about anything and anyone.

"Yes sir, the design is most impressive,"# 20 responded in his monotone voice, his expression as inert as it ever had been. Upon noticing this, the elderly doctor let out a soft chuckle.

"Oh, come now, #20... I know that must have upset you a bit, but this is a project I'm certain will be my greatest yet!" the scientist exclaimed, elated his plans were nearing completion... even if he didn't understand what he had created to the fullest.

The lack of understanding came from not being sure what exactly the android was made of. Many years ago, whilst on a tunneling expedition looking for rare materials to integrate into his android creations Gero had unwittingly discovered the egg of the demon, Majin Buu. Unable to remove the egg by any means he had available, the doctor had taken a sample of the egg's contents and synthesized them, creating a slightly more stable, pale version of the monster's flesh.

The material was produced in larger quantities and then molded into a shape that resembled a male, muscular human body. This humanoid creature stood seven feet in height, yet lacked facial features. Subsequently, in a vast contrast to the egg's pink colouration, the android was colored a pale white. #1's insides were what made him an android though - Gero had added wires and cables for veins and arteries so as to distribute information and power, metal rods for bones so he could move and a highly advanced processor for a brain. Over time, the materials were absorbed into 1's being thanks to the still lingering magical properties his flesh contained. So as to avoid any possible absorption, with himself being the party absorbed, Gero altered the material so as to only absorb energy and mechanical parts.

Smaller, yet still necessary, additions were made to the android's body over the course of a few years, but, just last week, a rather important 'part' was added to Android 1's form: a second skin of sorts which was placed on his hands.

It was a thin layer of a material Dr. Gero had learned of, a sort of coating that could take energy from just about any source if given a storage area and controlling mechanism. This material allowed 1 an indefinite supply of power, so long as he had a light source and an opponent.

This, coupled with his already natural healing ability, made him one challenging opponent to any who would ever have the misfortune of crossing his path, should they anger him of course.

Coming out of his thoughts once more, Gero noticed #20 moving towards the coffin at a glacial pace to do his requested work, the scientist chuckling at his creation's jealousy before he spoke. "Now he just needs to charge for a few years and-ah!" Gero suddenly gasped in pain, gaining #20's interest.

The doctor's vision began to violently distort as he clutched his heaving chest with one hand and his cane harder with the other, pain shooting through his body as his knees buckled. Even worse, an all too familiar feeling of nausea crept up his throat.

"#20, I- I need my pills again." Gero managed to rasp out in agony, only one eye open now as he sweat in pints.

Even through the all the darkness within the room, Gero still managed to see Android #20's dark smirk as he said, "Of course, sir, it will only take but a moment."

The android moved slowly across the room, pushing his creator down to the floor with a harsh shove as their shoulders met. "Forgive me, sir. I will retrieve the medication momentarily." Gero only looked up at the mechanical monster, shaking on the ground as his doppelganger continued the slow walk up the stairs.

"20, h-how are you-"

"Letting you die?" the android finished Gero's question, stopping at the top of the stairs. "It's quite simple: I am the real Dr. Gero. I've had, and always will have, the Red Ribbon Army's interests first, caring about nothing but having this world in the palm of my hand... while you, on the other hand…" #20 paused momentarily as he sneered down at his creator, "You are now nothing but an old, wrinkled, weak shell of what you once were. Look at you, lying there on the floor as your pathetic organic body wastes away. It's been clear for a long, long time that I need to take over and complete the real Dr. Gero's goal."

"World domination was never my goal!" the old man declared with tears in his eyes, not believing that it would all end like this; it simply couldn't! Not when everything was finally coming together, a better world so close at hand!

"Say what you want, old man, but my mind is made up. I've watched you waste away your time on these pathetic dreams and goals of peace and salvation, despising every moment I have spent near you. But now that will finally come to an end. Enjoy rotting away like the rest of Dr. Gero's… my disappointments." With that, the third basement's door was closed with a loud bang and the room went silent once more.

Gero couldn't believe it had all crumbled away so quickly. His plans, his hopes, his dreams, and his family, which he had strived to keep alive now for decades, had just all been snatched away from him in a matter of moments. The room was no longer quiet as the old man broke down, his sobbing filling the large chamber as its sounds echoed off the brown walls.

Suddenly, Gero noticed a glint of light in the corner of his eye. A plastic sheet it seemed… no! It was the energy absorbing material he had discovered, lying on the bottom rack of a metal cart.

Knowing his time was almost at an end, the scientist gathered what little strength he had left in his quickly dying body and shuffled along the tiled floor noisily. Eventually, he reached the cart and managed to grab the thin sheet, feeling more of his already minute strength leave him as he touched it. Pushing through the pain, the old man groped along the floor back to #1's chamber.

A small, bony hand landed atop the coffin as Gero choked out his last. "Don't forget who you are my… don't forget me, my son." Another bony hand with the sheet in its fingers shoved the piece of clear material onto the small, pink window of Android #1's container. Certain that the light of his computers would allow his creation to indeed live, Dr. Gero breathed for the last time and his world went blank.

And so Gero's lowest lab, an area #20 soon dubbed 'The Floor of Failures', would stay in darkness until the end of the earth itself.

Or, at least, that was what #20 hoped.

The android was ecstatic beyond belief at the moment, however, glad to finally be rid of his foolish creator… no his foolish doppelganger, and now finally able to become the perfect being Gero was destined to be.

However, #20's thoughts were far from perfect as, unbeknownst to him, Dr. Gero had been running out of newer parts recently so he had to salvage some from machinery and computer technology from the still remaining Red Ribbon Army outposts, leading to a malfunction in the android's computer systems and the subsequent thoughts of revolution and global conquest.

#20's supposed resistance in programming was more patriotism than anything else thanks to a few old pieces of tech Gero had not checked as thoroughly for coding as, years later, #20 would discover during a routine self-check-up, flying into a rage that almost destroyed the lab.

But the idea of perfection had already been trapped in his processor, determined to find a way to achieve it, even if he were not the one to attain it. Rummaging through old files, the android was able to find a design for a scrapped bio-android, christened Android #2. The cogs began to rotate in the mad robot's head.

It didn't take long to overwrite Gero's original programming and soon every machine still active under his command had the prime objective of killing Goku and all associated with the Earth-raised Saiyan. But, try as he might, the machine couldn't completely wipe away all of the kindly scientist's original encoding, resulting in less than adequate results.

The twins had gone through the harshest of reprogramming to rid them of their memories and morals, however, they still managed to maintain their personalities and humanity. Android #16 had, by far, the most insatiable desire to kill Goku, yet was passive to just about everything else and even gained a love for animals. #19, meanwhile, was the most loyal subordinate #20 could have ever dreamed of but had an experimental fear program built directly into his core processor, preventing removal.

Yet #20 believed they all paled in comparison when compared to his 'own' creation: Cell.

The second lower level had been renovated for the newly renamed android and #20 was certain would be his greatest creation, dwarfing the old man's by miles!

Meanwhile, far below the madness of #20, Android #1 was still conscious. The machine had never been shut down and although he remained at low power, his chamber remained charged thanks to his creator's quick thinking. For a normal man, this would have been a curse. #1 was basically trapped in a room with no light for what had already been four years when Raditz arrived, and when #20 finally lost it.

The machine began to see himself not only as the saviour of the true Gero's legacy, but also the man himself. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, the wiring in #20's brain slowly breaking down until the fateful day of May 12, Age 767.

The date had been burned into the #1's memory data forever as it was the first time in ages he had heard the grinding sounds of the front doors opening and the sound of not one, but two pairs of feet leaving the lab. A few hours later, more panicked steps were heard before muffled voices and a gigantic explosion that blew the entire first lab off the face of the mountain. Hours after that, more explosions were heard as Trunks and Krillin came to finish the job on the second lab.

In an infinite number of universes, Gero's lab was forgotten after that by all, destined to slowly be overgrown by various plant species in decades to come...

...but in an infinite number of other universes, something else happened. The change was a simple, lone rock that, among those that now made up the ceiling, fell out of place and allowed a stream of light into the dingy space.

That small stream of light landed on the porthole and, as a result, the sole source of power for Android #1.

After over twenty years, the lid of Android 1's coffin was suddenly pushed off, landing loudly besides the containment unit. The room was suddenly filled with the sound of a deep, heavily synthesized voice that sounded like someone speaking through several layers of cloth.

"Base Power: 100%.

Systems: Fully operational.

Data: Requires update."

#1 continued to read aloud from his blue filtered HUD as he began to test movement functions for the first time, tightening and loosening his fists and stretching his limbs.

"Movement Functions State: Sufficient.

All systems at working capacity. Moving onto objectives.

Primary Objective: Kill Son Goku."

A/N:

Hello all readers, both new and old. I'd like to start off with thanking everyone who's made the trek from the old version of the story to this one. I really appreciate you guys giving this a chance!

I'd also like to give thanks to fellow author and friend, Super Vegetarott for all his work in editing all the chapters so far, as it's been a real help.

Lastly, I'm going to start a small Q&A section at the end of each chapter, so please, leave any questions you have in your reviews.