Title: Come Join The Murder
Author: HousethatJackBuilt
Rating: T for now, M later probably.
Warnings: Violence, threat, language, eventual MXM pairing
Chapter warnings: Mild violence
Disclaimer: Not mine, I don't own any of the Z characters. All belong to Akira Toriyama.
Authors note: Re-watching the Andriod/Cell sagas has made me fall in love with DBZ again, so I had to write a fanfic! Comments and reviews are always appreciated.
Story summary: The Z Fighters are pushed to the brink in this story of three tremendous powers emerging to wage war on each other. The Androids and Cell are still coming. Freiza is back after Namek to his fourth and final form, more powerful than he ever was and obsessed with enslaving Vegeta once again and exacting revenge on Goku... And an even stronger force is almost ready to awaken and shake the very foundations of everything the Z Fighters hold dear. Will anybody be powerful enough to stop it?
"There's a black bird perched outside my window
I hear him calling
I hear him sing..."
His maniacal laugh, dripping with glee and murderous enjoyment echoed throughout space, whilst far below him, that sinister laugh was the last thing that almost an entire race of people would ever hear.
"AHAHAHAHA! Well well, now that is beautiful! See?! Look Dodoria, Zarbon, look at the fireworks! Aren't they splendid?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
He was hysterical with delight, throwing his hands up in the air and bellowing his amusement for all to see and hear. He was almost childlike in his mirth, the kind of joy parents often see on the faces of their children when they open that particular gift that's been sitting under the tree for many weeks. The one they've been asking Santa for since they got fed up of their previous gift the year before that.
His eyes were alive with the destruction and death he had caused. He was intoxicated on the pain and suffering he had reigned down upon the unsuspecting people who were most likely screaming in agony, fear and burning hatred at that very same moment.
His face was bathed in the golden glow of his Supernova Death Ball attack that had just struck its target, causing the spaceship behind him to rock violently from side to side.
The people on board the usually steady ship worried that their Lord Commander had gone too far, that the power and excitement had gone to his head and he would be responsible for their deaths as well as the thousands of others he had just caused in less than ten seconds with an effortless point of one little index finger.
Fortunately though the movement ceased, and after a blindingly bright final explosion, Planet Vegeta and all but a few Saiyan warriors ceased to exist too.
What were her last thoughts? Was she thinking of me when she saw that great golden harbinger of death heading towards her home? Did she try to run away? Did she even know what was happening?! Of course she did! Hiromi was a strong and intelligent woman, a Saiyan woman, and she probably did what most of them did. She probably stood her ground bravely and faced her passing with pride.
He saw Hiromi before him now, she was floating in a black void. Her once beautiful and flowing ebony hair that used to reach past her tiny and slender waist was now nothing but a scattering of singed patches on her red and blistered scalp. Her face was badly burned, the wounds angry and festering, causing the skin that he often used to call "perfect porcelain" to rot away exposing the bone beneath. It had now taken on a pale tinge of green and was puckered, like old and decaying fruit.
He tried to reach out to her, to comfort her, but he could not move. All he could do was watch as silent tears fell from her eyes that were now milky white, empty and soulless.
"You said you'd come back Tadashi... You said you'd come back for the both of us." Her voice was flat, the melody that once came with it was no longer present.
"I... I was going t-to my love... I-" He had to choke back a sob that threatened to burst from his mouth and totally overwhelm him. "I tried... B-but F-Frieza! I couldn't get away!"
"You left us Tadashi... You left us to perish. You didn't save us... We didn't even think of a name. Now I have no name either, I am lost in this place forever, never to remember the person I used to be. If I had never met you... Only one life would have been lost to you instead of two... It would have been better that way..."
She was fading and he was going to be left all alone in this dark and unforgiving place.
"NO! Hiromi, I'm sorry! Please don't leave me here... WAIT!"
He tried to run after her, alas she was all but gone now and he still couldn't move. Instead, another form began to materialize out of the blackness where Hiromi once lingered. He heard the laugh before anything else and he knew who was coming to haunt him once more. He shut his eyes tight before he could see the horns, the bulbous purple skull, those black lips and that mocking smile.
The same laugh he heard from Frieza twenty seven years ago when he witnessed the near extinction of the Saiyan race from the tyrant's spaceship boomed in his ears yet again, just like it did every night.
Louder the laughter got as the demon got closer, louder and more sinister, hungrier than ever for more death.
Open your eyes and you will wake up! Open them before he kills you. Wake up! Wake up!
"WAKE UP! Dr Hotaka, wake up!"
He jolted his head up from the desk sending a cup of coffee flying into his assistant who was standing over him and shaking him awake. Luckily the coffee wasn't hot, it was old and stale. Unluckily for the assistant, her pink dress most certainly wasn't old and she visibly tried to suppress her rage whilst trying to inform Dr Hotaka of the seemingly urgent matter at hand.
"Oh, Trixie, your dress! I'm so sorry. Here, let me help you..." The Brench-seijin Doctor picked up some discarded papers that were strewn all over his work surface and tried to dab away the more than likely permanent coffee stain, but instead of helping matters, he served only to inadvertently pat her crotch area with what he later realised to be some very important documents, much to his dismay.
"Damn it Doctor please, just leave it! It's ruined anyway! I have King Cold on line one for you, let's not make him wait any longer."
Dr Hotaka's hand froze, thankfully now nowhere near his assistant's private area, and he dropped the papers to the floor.
King Cold?! What could he possibly want? Maybe he's just calling in to check on how my work is doing... But he's far too important for that. Unless...
"Thank you Trixie, I'll take the call now. I'll reimburse you for the dress," he offered feebly.
The blonde humanoid flounced out of his office, slamming the door so hard behind her he thought the hinges would break.
Hotaka took a deep breath and picked up the phone that also had remnants of coffee on the buttons. "Hello, Sire? This is Dr Hotaka."
There was silence on the other end of the line for a few moments, causing the cold sweat that Hotaka had suffered from his nightmare to prickle his pale blue flesh once again. He was about to ask if anybody was there when a voice as smooth as honey broke the hush.
"Hello good Doctor, I hope I'm not interrupting anything important?"
Was that a trick question? No, he couldn't possibly...
The voice broke in before he could finish his thought, "I know you must be a very busy man but we have a critical situation here on my planet that requires the attention of somebody with your expertise."
King Cold's planet?! What could he be needed there for? Hotaka began to scratch his week old stubble that he'd been meaning to shave for days a little too hard whilst trying to keep his voice steady and seemingly calm.
"I am yours to command my Lord, what service is it that you require of me?" Mercifully his voice didn't even quiver.
"My son Cooler tells me that you're the best in your field of genetic and regeneration research. I know he has had you working on a little side project for our family..."
Dr Hotaka had to stifle the urge to guffaw all over his office. Side project?! He'd hardly call over twenty seven years of work a damn side project!
"... But that will have to be put on hold for the time being. Ordinarily I would never make this call myself, I would let Cooler deal with trivial matters such as these, but I wanted to stress the importance of the situation. I will send a ship to Planet Coola No. 98 to come and bring you to my planet immediately. Pack for a long stay Doctor."
Hotaka gripped the phone so tightly his knuckles turned white and his nails dug into his palm.
"Of course Sire, but if I may ask, what has happened that requires such immediate attention?"
He heard an audible sigh on the other end, one that suggested that the head of the Frieza family was getting bored quickly of the Doctors seemingly apparent stupidity.
"Why I've broken a toe nail and simply cannot wait for it to regrow on its own, so I need you to come and regenerate me a new one. What do you think has happened Dr Hotaka? I thought you were supposed to be intelligent."
Hotaka scratched his stubble even harder, his mind racing. He had an inkling of what King Cold was calling to tell him as soon as Trixie had told him he had been on the line but he didn't want to believe it. He had been hoping and wishing for this ever since he heard the devastating and crushing news of Frieza's destruction on Planet Namek, but never thought his wish would actually come to fruition.
"Dr Hotaka, my son Frieza has been found alive, but barely. I need you here to help restore him to his final form once more."
A huge surge of elation ran through the genetic scientist. Frieza was alive?! This was too good to be true. He never thought he would get a second chance at the thing he had wanted for so long, but it looked like fate was finally smiling down on him for the first time in years.
"That's fantastic news my Lord. I will pack some things and wait for your men's arrival. I will do whatever it takes to bring your son back and give him life once more."
Hotaka could almost hear King Cold smiling down the phone, "Yes, yes you will. You will also make sure he's more powerful than he ever was before. Then the whole universe will be sorry. Sorry that the Super Saiyan didn't finish the job when he had the chance..."
The Doctor hung up before the laugh that echoed down the line got any louder. The laugh that sounded so much like Friezas...