The Lost Warrior

Cooler's Offer

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z is property of Akira Toriyama. The plot of the Lost Warrior Saga is completely my idea, but this story was written by Infernus, who was using my story as background. Oh yeah, and the original characters (especially Jenny) belong to me, too. ;)

A/N: This story was written by one of my readers, Infernus, on the German fanfiction website . It a kind of background story of my story "The Lost Warrior – Alternate Reality", and tells the story of how Cooler arrives on Earth one last time, when the planet could only be protected by Jenny and Vegeta. (Timeline: Jenny's already enrolled at the Western Capital Elementary School and Mrs. Briefs is still alive. So she's about 8-9 years old.) You know, it's really cool when someone writes a fanfic for one of your fanfics. Unfortunately I've lost contact to Infernus (especially as he wanted to write another fanfic for the Lost Warrior Saga), but to honor his story I thought I could translate it into English and share it with my English readers. This is also some good exercise to translate from German to English instead the other way round. Usually, when I write in English, I don't translate but just think English.

Since this story is incredible long, I'll post in in several smaller parts. I'll try to finish translating the full story within the next three weeks.

Enjoy!

Cooler's Offer

Part I

He has been on Earth for more than one year already and had watched how humanity tried to forget the horrors they had to experience under the reign of terror by the demon Buu. It was, apparently, a typical trait of this oh-so-simple species to get back on their feet after a terrible defeat like this. A stubborn will to survive, which kept them alive, was maybe the only thing they had in common with him.

He was very reluctant to admit this, but the fact that these weak insects still lived in some kind of order after all the death and destruction impressed him in some way, though not strongly. However, he was somehow feeling sympathetic to them. It could be very amusing to watch them. To research their habits and find out more about this people, which should have been destroyed so often already. The planet Earth. It was on this planet where his brother Frieza and his father King Cold had suffered their ultimate defeat and even he had failed on this world. But even though these humans surely would have had a will strong enough to do so, they were much too weak to save their planet.

It had been the Super Saiyajins, who had put him and the rest of his royal family in their places. With the warrior Son Goku leading the way. This invincible conqueror of the worst and vilest creatures, however, wasn't there anymore and would never be able to protect this world again. The Saiyajin, who had nearly killed him twice already, had been obliterated by a bigger power and had hopefully gone straight to the deepest hell. And so the planet Earth was lying before him. Almost completely helpless.

There was a smile on the lips of his true, absolutely disfigured face, hiding under a helmet, as he thought of the fact that there were only two more beings with Saiyajin blood flowing through their veins. For one there was the brat and daughter of Son Goku, who was still too weak to be considered a threat for him, and then there was Vegeta, the Prince and at this moment perhaps the strongest living warrior in the universe.

At least the strongest organic warrior.

And Cooler would soon find proof for this.

He was sitting, surrounded by his cybernetic full body armor, on his iron throne deep inside his fortress, while he was absorbing a steady flow of energy that was transferred to him by the tubes connected to his armor. This was necessary after the destruction of the Big Ghetti Star by Son Goku. After the terrible debacle on Namek Cooler had decided not to use the gathered energy to rebuild the Big Ghetti Star, but to use it to improve his own functions. This allowed this part-mechanic Ice-Jin to reach a power level Frieza could have only dreamed of. But the cost was high, which Cooler noticed, as his eyes wandered to the many human bodies, which were hanging in a complicated net of cables. This pitiful creatures were connected directly to him and his fortress and provided his deadly technology with the necessary energy, which would be invaluable for his next project.

There were about 300 of these living batteries, of which about half of them had already been part of this network since he had arrived on Earth, and this had left its marks. Cooler had, of course, instructed his few drones to look for the strongest human warriors and to bring them to him. They were nothing as individuals, but all of them put together were useful. At their arrival none of them had been older than twenty or thirty years old, but now many of them looked like old men. Haggard and dying they were waiting for the moment, when the last drop of energy had been taken from them and so Cooler had given his drones the order to look for new supplies.

With this problem quickly being solved, he could turn to his plan. Cooler looked at the screen, which showed the house of the Briefs family, which one of his drones was currently observing from above.

'It's time to make contact', he thought expectantly.

Vegeta had known that he would again spend many hours in the gravity room, but he hadn't even noticed how long it had really been. He first left the room in the middle of the night, and he realized that Jenny would already long be asleep, since she had to go to school the following day. The Prince would probably also just take a shower and then go to sleep as well.

Looking relaxed, but with a stern look on his face, he walked past the living room and didn't show how exhausted he was really feeling. Out of the corners of his eyes he noticed immediately that Mrs. Briefs was still sitting in front of the TV, but he just acknowledged it and walked on until he heard a well-known voice.

"I'm calling the Prince of Saiyajins." Vegeta's eyes widened with astonishment, because he knew this voice better than well. This bastard should have been dead for a long time now. He immediately went into the living room and saw that Mrs. Briefs had fallen asleep on the couch, while the voice of his old enemy was coming from the TV.

"This isn't possible", Vegeta said, as he recognized the figure in the shadows, whose eyes were glowing threateningly red. The outlines of this being were recognizable and bulkier than was the norm for this species, but the former Prince of Saiyajins was sure that this being was Cooler. He never forgot the voices of this enemies.

"Well, I think more than enough time has passed to get you in front of this primitive device", Cooler started his message and Vegeta warily crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"First I would like to explain that just one TV receives this program. I decided that the humans would only worry unnecessarily after all this trouble with the creature Buu about something that didn't concern them at all. Besides, this is a matter between you and me, the last sons of royal families. Why should we allow the riffraff to be a part of it?"

"What a windbag", the Prince growled, while Mrs. Briefs was opening her eyes behind him. She immediately recognized Vegeta, who was standing in front of the TV. This was really strange behavior for Vegeta.

"What's going on?" she asked, still a bit sleepily, but the Saiyajin motioned with his hand for her to be quiet.

"But this introduction has been long enough, Vegeta. We've got more time to talk, when we meet. And now we've come to the thing I want to talk about, my friend. I would like to invite you to a reception in your honor. We both have to discuss a very important matter, which can only be to both our advantage. I'm awaiting your visit in the 345 area in about half an hour."

Then the TV switched to another channel and one of the typical soaps was on the screen.

"What was that…?" Mrs. Briefs asked, but Vegeta had already left the living room. The woman hurried after him and saw that he was again on his way to the gravity room. "Is the world in danger again?" she asked, but the Saiyajin didn't answer. He just stepped into the room without activating the artificial gravity, which enabled Mrs. Briefs to follow him. "Who was that?" she now asked more loudly, while Vegeta was still ignoring her. He took one of the blue gis out of the closet and started to get changed. Mrs. Briefs was chewing on her lower lip and wasn't just shaking out of fear. "Vegeta…" she said quietly, as the Saiyajin walked past her, still not answering. Then it just burst out of her: "Now, listen! When Buu attacked Earth, I lost almost all the people I loved to this monster. I didn't know about it beforehand, otherwise I could have at least said goodbye. And when something like this is about to happen again, I have the right to know what's going on! I don't want to lose everything again so suddenly!"

At the end of her tirade, she was out of breath and looked completely desperate. Vegeta hadn't counted on this and spoke with a hard voice: "Cooler is an Ice-Jin. He is Frieza's brother, who destroyed Kakarotto's and my home planet. We already had to deal with Cooler twice. The first time he came with three of his best warriors to Earth, but was beaten by Kakarotto. The second time he appeared as part of a construct called the Big Ghetti Star. He tried to suck out the energy of the Nameks." Vegeta was speaking clearly, while he was pulling the white gloves on his hands. "He's been beaten by Kakarotto both times and that was on the level of a Super Saiyajin. Cooler is an annoyance, but no danger. I will meet this cyber-lizard, kill him and that's it."

The look in Vegeta's eyes told her, that the conversation was over for him.

"And what about Jenny?" Mrs. Briefs asked quietly.

"She's asleep and it's good that way. Cooler doesn't concern her." With these words the Saiyajin left the room and left the older human woman behind, who exhaled loudly. She wasn't just worried about Earth, but also about Vegeta. But it wasn't just out of concern for Vegeta, but mostly because she was worried about what would happen to Jenny, if the Prince didn't return.

Vegeta didn't fly very fast, seeing as the area wasn't that far away from the Western Capital. Underneath he saw the countless lights of the bigger cities, which weren't even asleep at night, and at this moment, he realized again how close all of this had come to being destroyed completely. After about fifteen minutes he had reached the capital of the 345 area, where he landed on the roof of a skyscraper and kept watch for Cooler.

"Get lost, you drunk idiot! There's no more booze for you here!" the bearded owner of the bar yelled after him, after he had demolished it and stumbled dizzily through the door. The cold night air was a stark contrast to the smoky heat inside this dirty drinking hole, but the dark haired Jinzoningen didn't even notice it. At this moment he was just too drunk. He didn't even realize that he was in danger of falling down with each second shaky step that he took.

'The peak of weapon technology of the Red Ribbon Army' he was once called, he and his sister. They had once been normal humans, but because of the insane Dr. Gero they had become superhuman warriors. Beings, for which everything was possible and which didn't know any limits. Even the Saiyajins had barely stood a chance against him and his sister, but then the creature Cell had appeared.

Juunanagou couldn't even say, what exactly had happened. After all, he had been the first one, who had been absorbed by Cell, so that the Jinzoningen could reach perfection. But he could remember very well, what had happened afterwards. He had been alone.

His sister had decided to become a member of the Z-Warriors and when he had seen her the last time, she had even been pregnant by that small baldhead Krillin. How could she still enjoy the lifestyle as superhuman Jinzoningen, when she was a mother with all the responsibilities?

Junnanagou had decided, back then, to leave her to this new chosen life and go his own way. Alone. But his limitless freedom and ability to act had felt painfully constricting for some time now. He was roaming the world alone, with no goal, because Juuhachigou wasn't only part of the Z-Warriors, but she had died with them. There was no more possibility to ask her to join him again, which had at least been a possibility before. But now she was dead, and he was alive – the siblings torn apart with no way back.

"If I… had just… this fatso…" Juunanagou whispered and pulled a silver hip flask out of the inside pocket of his coat. He quietly unscrewed the bottle top of his loyal companion and put it at his lips. The alcohol soothed the pain of loneliness not directly, but numbed it a big deal. And the more he drank, he longer he could enjoy the quiet.

*Flashback*

The Jinzoningen hit the wall with full force and broke clearly through, so that he remained lying on the other side of the ruin on the cracked street. Juunanagou was breathing hard, as he got back to his feet and immediately began to scan his environment for his enemy.

But at this moment, the destroyed city around him appeared absolutely peaceful. It gave the impression of a ghost town, which it was, since Buu had shortly wreaked havoc here. Slowly Juunanagou realized that it might have been a mistake to face the pink monster. But there hadn't been a challenge for him for years that had been worth it. And a Jinzoningen had to fight – that was his purpose and reason of existence.

"Stupid fleabag!" the black haired warrior said angrily and spit out a lump of blood and dirt, after which he wiped his mouth.

"Is everything okay, young man?" a rough voice asked. Juunanagou turned around immediately and saw an older man with thin hair and a cut on his forehead. He was carrying an old but apparently working shotgun – he really seemed to think that this might work against Buu.

"Who the hell are you?" Juunanagou asked.

The man scratched his chin thoughtfully with a long, thin finger and watched the Jinzoningen pensively. "My name is Seni. I had a gun shop in this town. I hid in my basement, when this thing appeared. I saw you fight." The old man scrutinized Junnanagou in a strange way. It wasn't that he thought he was a monster like Buu, but more like the old man knew, who the Jinzoningen was.

"I have already seen warriors who were that powerful more than once. I was a young recruit and was part of the fight against Piccolo Daimao." Seni raised his shotgun. "And because someone like you saved my life, I will fight at your side."

"Forget it!" the black-haired Jinzoningen replied roughly and continued to scan the ruins with practiced and quick looks for his opponent. "I will send this pig faced fatso to hell myself."

"But…!" Seni's voice started, before it died. The Jinzoningen's instincts were immediately alarmed. He turned around quickly, but the old man had disappeared and his shot gun was lying on the ground. Carefully Juunanagou looked up and recognized with terror the demon Buu, who was enjoying a bar of chocolate, while glaring at him. Slowly the chocolate bar disappeared between the lips of the monster, while a shudder was running down Juunanagou's spine. It appeared to him like a short respite, a suffering wait, until this fatso would start to attack. Juunanagou gritted his teeth and balled his fists angrily.

"You're facing a Jinzoningen and are still munching calmly on a chunk of chocolate?" The black-haired fighting machine wouldn't accept that. Juunanagou gathered his strength, disappeared with super speed and reappeared just half a step away from Buu. He pulled back to take a swing and before he could put a hole in the fat being, his wrist was caught by a strange yellow glove and his fist stopped just before it hit the impressive paunch of this devil.

Startled the Jinzoningen looked into the face of the monstrous demon, who was glaring at him with glinting eyes und distorted mouth.

He tried to free himself, but he had no chance against the strength of this monster.

"You just wait", Juunanagou threatened, put his hand in front of Buu's face and fired several energy balls at him, all of which exploded loudly. Slowly the smoke cleared and Buu was still standing there, completely unhurt, while he just kept his hold on the Jinzoningen.

Juunanagou almost couldn't believe it. "Fuck it!"

"Buu is no fatso!" the pink monster said with a childish voice, which still underlined his anger. "Buu doesn't like you, that's why Buu won't turn you to sweets!"

Juunanagou understood. Had all the people in this city disappeared because of this, without leaving any bodies? Juunanagou's eyes wandered to the lonely shot gun, which was lying around uselessly, and at the same moment he remembered the piece of chocolate Buu had eaten. Juunanagou had to admit that he was feeling a bit queasy. "You changed him into chocolate and…"

Suddenly Buu let go of the Jinzoningen and raised his hands. "Buu breaks you!"

Juunanagou wouldn't let it come that far. He immediately disappeared with neck breaking speed and turned up next to the monster, which he hit immediately with a strong kick to the head, but it had no effect. Juunanagou cursed inwardly and circled Buu, while hitting him countless times all over his body. A normal human wouldn't even be able to follow the movements, but he still stood no chance against this enemy.

Then Buu was suddenly gone and was standing with an angry glare on his face behind the Jinzoningen. Juunanagou immediately turned around, but the monster had already put its hand on his chest.

"Bye bye!" the demon said to the Jinzoningen and fired his attack, which tore Juunanagou along.

He cried out, as a burning pain spread over his whole body and his clothes were starting to disintegrate. Never before had he felt pain like this, and because of this he never noticed how he was thrown through countless abandoned and partially destroyed buildings until he finally remained lying on a bridge outside the city.

Many wounds were bleeding freely and also out of his mouth and nose a huge amount of this red liquid was flowing, while he was lying motionless on his stomach and waited. At this moment, when he couldn't move, he was waiting for death to claim him, he desired to die, but nothing happened.

First after an incredible long time Juunanagou pushed himself up and got to his feet. He was breathing hard and forced his body to obey him, while he was returning to the empty town. But there was no sign of Buu.

Moaning and groaning the exhausted Jinzoningen dropped to his knees and looked up into the sky. Had the demon thought that he was dead or didn't it even matter to him, because he was no danger to him?

"Damn it!" Juunanagou cursed, fell to his side and lost consciousness.

*End Flashback*

Juunanagou swallowed and burped loudly, leaning against a wall of a house. The alcohol had betrayed him and woken these pictures from his memories. Pictures of his short fight against Buu, which he had lost quickly. Wasn't it his fault? If he had been stronger on that day, if he had killed Buu, the monster shouldn't have been able to destroy the Z-Warriors. The Z-Warriors and Juuhachigou. But was he one of the Saiyajins? Was he one of the warriors who saved Earth again and again?

Wasn't it their task to stop this demon? But despite this responsibility they had allowed this monster to kill them and had failed. It was their fault, they had all failed and taken his sister and with this a part of himself.

Slowly the doubts made way for the anger and hatred, which at least took some of the guilt from his own shoulders, while he was looking up into the night sky. There he saw something he had never expected.

"This can't be possible", the Jinzoningen whispered, as something flew with great speed above the city. It had to be a Saiyajin!

Without noticing it, he squashed the flask in his hand as if it just consisted of tin and not massive iron, so that the alcohol squirted from the opening.

He just dropped it and rose into the sky, his face distorted by hatred.

On the roof a cool wind was blowing, which Vegeta ignored. The warrior of a proud people waited undisturbed for his next opponent and didn't allow anyone to see that there was one thing he didn't understand.

Cooler should be dead. Vegeta had been there, when Goku had pulverized the remains of the Ice-Jin that were connected to the Big Ghetti Star. How could Frieza's brother have survived? It didn't make any sense, but the Prince knew that there were many ways to escape death in this universe and he was sure that Cooler would tell him every single detail of his return with great satisfaction. Boasting was simply in these lizards' nature.

"Vegeta!" someone hissed his name and from one second to another, the Saiyajin was back in the present. He knew at once that this person couldn't be Cooler and as he turned around, he saw an unshaved man with black hair and a brown coat.

It took a second until he recognized him, which was mainly due to the scarf around the man's neck. A gust of wind let the coat blow and the Prince grimaced slightly.

This fighter had once deeply humiliated him and Vegeta never forgot something like this. "What do you want, Juunanagou?"

"I thought Buu has killed all of you," the Jinzoningen said thoughtfully with a light slur.

Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "That monster did kill most of us. But I have no time now to tell you any stories."

"You don't?" he growled. "So you've no time to explain to me how and why my sister had to die?"

It simply burst out of the Jinzoningen, whose words echoed in the streets below.

A desperate smile appeared on Juunanagou's lips. "You're right, you have to time left for this, Vegeta!" The name of the Saiyajin was spoken with utmost loathing.

Then he disappeared and the Prince just barely avoided being kicked directly in the face. But what looked like Vegeta just having dodged the attack, had in reality been totally different, because the attack had been so imprecise that it had missed him from the very beginning.

The strong smell of alcohol reached Vegeta's nose and he realized quickly, why Juunanagou had slacked off so much.

"This is ridiculous!" the Prince said with a hard voice. "If you really want to fight, wait until you're sober again. It doesn't make any sense, which you should see yourself."

The Jinzoningen laughed and punched with his right hand, but the Saiyajin could evade the attack again.

"I'm deeply sorry that I'm not presentable enough to attend upon the great Prince of a destroyed kingdom. But the last years have sucked like hell!"

Vegeta looked past the Jinzoningen. "You're in my way, Juunanagou. Get lost!"

The black-haired man couldn't believe it. "Look at me, when you're talking to me, you fucking…" Suddenly the Jinzoningen was hit by a strong attack in his side. He flew through the air and crashed into the other side of the roof.

Vegeta crossed his arms and looked at the being that landed in front of him. It was almost a perfect copy of Cooler, just that the skin was made of iron and metal and the optical sensors in the android's eyes were glowing red.

The Coolerdroid's tail whipped back and forth, while it was wearing some kind of soft and at the same time cruel smile on his face, which seemed to taunt him. It was one of the character traits of the Ice-Jins which this robot portrayed perfectly. It downright disgusted Vegeta.

"I thought I could help you a bit, when I keep this stinking bug away from you. After all, I had thought that we would talk alone, face to face, among princes."

"I wonder, then, why you only send an automatic mirror image of your own sad self and don't move your sorry ass to meet me yourself."

Juunanagou climbed slowly back to his feet and noticed the new arrival. "Who's the tin can?"

The Coolerdroid turned to Juunanagou and his right eye lit up. "Interesting. I hadn't thought that there would be such a moderately well-built cybernetic organism on this backwater planet. A world full of surprises."

Vegeta took a step towards the android. "Forget him. We're not here because of him, Cooler!" The Saiyajin looked at the Jinzoningen. „Leave! When you really want to fight, we'll do it another time!"

Juunanagou just wanted to answer, as the android cut in. "But why? I think our friend could also play a part in our meeting."

"I don't like your tone, you weird freak," Juunanagou said aggressively and rushed at the android. But before he could attack, the Coolerdroid had raised his hand and pointed with his index finger, at which point some energy was glowing, at the forehead of the black-haired Jinzoningen.

Juunanagou stopped dead in his tracks and barely dared to breathe, while the android was looking deeply into his eyes. "You've reached a crossroads. You can throw your meaningless life away or your existence can get a new meaning with my help."

"He's got nothing to do with this, so keep him out of it!" Vegeta growled.

The Coolerdroid turned his head and smiled at the Saiyajin. "There's no need to be jealous, Prince Vegeta. My interest in you hasn't changed at all, despite my meeting this interesting individual." He turned to the Jinzoningen. "What's your name?"

The Jinzoningen stared fascinated at the glowing fingertip of the android. "My name is Juunanagou."

"Remarkable name. I've spent some time for my studies on this planet, so I know that Juunanagou is no normal name. You're apparently a member of a military task force. Are there more of your kind?"

The Jinzoningen didn't seem capable of answering at once, so Vegeta said, "Not anymore." The Prince raised his arm so that the palm of his hand was directly in front of the android's face. "Get to the point, or I won't let a piece of you intact."

The Coolerdroid lowered his hand and turned directly and unrestrained to the Saiyajin. "A brave threat, considering the fact that there's no problem for me to make more copies of myself."

The android bowed mockingly in front of Vegeta and then rose into the air.

"I propose that both of you follow me."

With these words the Coolerdroid flew away and before Vegeta could tell the Jinzoningen to get out of here, Juunanagou followed him.

The Saiyajin growled an angry curse and rose into the air as well.

Tbc in part II