Disclaimers: Dragon Ball Z and its respective characters belong to Akira Toriyama.
Prologue: Never Again
"We believe all sorts of things that aren't true. We call it: History."
The sirens blared throughout the complex, loud and unrelenting but utterly useless to the mutilated bodies that had once been scientists and soldiers littering the floors. The air was thick with the stench of spilled blood and charred flesh, the metal walls reverberating with the echoes of laser-fire missing their targets and agonized screams before streaks of crimson painted scorched surfaces. Desperate pleading fell upon deaf ears, guttural threats chilled blood, the sounds of futile struggles and vicious vengeance exploding into a cacophony of death and destruction before fading into silence.
Figures growled and paced restlessly in front of a reinforced alloy gate, unable to do little more than leave shallow gouges and unimpressive dents. A wave of energy rippled through their ranks, they turned, dark eyes widen in feral glee at the arrival of the luminous one. They fell to their knees, some on their faces, in fear and awe as he walked past, his countenance regal despite the threadbare rags of a slave clinging to his sculpted form, his teal eyes staring straight at the barrier before him in annoyance.
He studied the gate, absently rubbing his chin through his golden beard. There came the ringing squeal of rending metal as he ripped the gate off its hinges, tossing it away with minimal effort.
"Free our people," he rasped sharply. His followers nodded in understanding, pouring through the entrance to carry out his orders and leaving him to fulfill his own objectives. He sniffed at the air, tail lashing out behind him as he stalked down his prey.
His search led him down a long, narrow corridor that cut off into a dead end. His scowl deepened, his Ki spiking sharply when he locked onto a familiar signature he'd spent nearly two decades hating. The wall before him insisted he needed to take a different path to reach his target, but he didn't stop, didn't even hesitate when he gave the wall a shove and plowed on, snarling deadly promises in his feral language as he shoved large, blocky, blinking contraptions out of his way.
"You take another step and I will blow subject five's head off!" warned a small man dressed in armor, his lime eyes narrowed grimly behind an odd device perched on his ear, thin lips pinched into a frown. He cocked a gun at a bound, bleeding female, knowing the heavy manacles weighing her arms and clasped around her neck made her vulnerable and unable to fight back.
Confusion rippled through teal eyes when they saw her.
He knew her, didn't he? Memories resurfaced in his mind: His fingers threading through a silken cascade of hair as dark as the evening sky. Brown-furred tails entwined behind their backs. His gaze staring into wide, unflinching sable eyes as they sharpen with wicked glee. His body dodging the overwhelming hail of Ki fire from her palms. And feeling soft, lilting laughter feathering across his neck.
But the female the armored man held captive had hair and a tail the color of pale ice; her wide eyes were faded seas, her Ki barely higher than a newborn cub.
She seemed to understand and forgive him his confusion because she smiled at him, warm and joyous, through bloodied lips. He knew how it felt to see her smile that way, knew a sharp stab of pain would bloom in his chest should tears ever well in her eyes, knew the blinding rage he'd give into should anyone dare threaten her.
Old gods, who was she?
And then, in her soft lilting voice, she whispered, "You did it. You've become the Legendary."
Recognition flashed in his glowing eyes, realization hitting him with a near audible crash. A startled cry burst from the armored man's mouth, the device mounted on his face exploding from the wave of power that lanced through the air.
Hissing in pain, the man brought up his hand to yank the charred remnants. Only he no longer had any arms. Lime eyes stared in disbelief, mouth gasping for air like a fish out of water, blood pouring from his shoulders in rivers. When the pain caught up to him, he toppled over, writhing on the floor and blubbering, "It was for your own good! None of you knew the dangers of your powers! Why can't you stupid monkeys understand? We were only trying to help you! Subject five, you-"
"Silence, you miserable Tuffle worm!" The Legendary roared, his golden aura brightening to blinding. His hand met no resistance as it plunged through armor, burying itself wrist-deep into the Tuffle's gut, fingers clenching tight around entrails.
"Mercy, please, spare me! I beg of you!" he shrieked, nearly choking on his bile and blood.
"For twenty years you've enslaved my people, treated us like animals, warped us with your experiments," Ki began to collect in an organ-covered, clenched hand. "You tortured those who share my bloodline, tainted those of my mate's, and you have the gall to expect mercy?"
The Tuffle gave a wet, agonized whimper at the heat radiating from the fist lodged in his body, felt a searing pressure build until he exploded into a shower of flesh and armor.
"His death was too swift," the female chuckled weakly.
He grunted in response as he knelt down to free her from her chains, suddenly unable to look at her. His strength faded, his upswept hair losing its golden sheen, deepening into midnight, brown-furred tail hesitantly seeking out its ice-blue counterpart. He felt her slim fingers smooth over his beard, the pad of her thumb wiping away the flecks of blood on his face.
She leaned close to him, equally unable to meet his gaze as he sadly, weakly whispered, "You are no longer my mate."
"I know." she sighed, barely audible. "I understand."
Numbly, he rose, trying to still the frustrated shaking of his fists. "We would have found each other after the war, after we got our freedom. We would have been together."
"Except you became our Legendary. You belong to our people now."
Slowly, he faced her, their eyes meeting for what may be the last time as he promised her, "I will build our people a powerful empire upon the slain bodies of our enemies. I will undo the damage done to our honor. No one will ever remember the shame of our enslavement."
Wordlessly, he left. Unhearing of her despondent murmurings, "Our blood will remember long after our mind forgets."
Author's Notes: Short prologue to AU fic is short! I decided to play around with one of the other fairly popular "What If" plots. The chapters for this fic will be fairly short as someone whose literary opinion I value complained that I've been word-padding. Comments, reviews, and suggestions are very much loved and appreciated.