Frostbite
Chapter 9: Darkness
Destination: Planet Knot-10.00pm

"So, what did you think of that, Bitter?" Queen Winter beamed. Bitter and Winter, still cloaked from unseen eyes, stood on the moving platform, getting a tour around the hallways Bitter already knew from the past week. Salza, Neiz and Doore assisted with Cooler to plant the flag onto Planet Knot before they leave the Planet tomorrow. Although Bitter felt disturbed by the fact that Cooler rejected only her, Bitter was happy to finally get some girly time with the real Icejin Queen herself, but something told her that she was more than a Queen to her…she was something much, much more.

Bitter shrugged, moving her eyes to her black boots.

"Pretty impressive, I must say. Well, while I was busy working with the boys, what were you doing?" Bitter asked without looking up.

"Me?" Winter piped, then she giggled. "Just observed the Spaceship myself. Just to check out how Cooler was getting on. Wow, he has grown up." Bitter felt her smile in her voice. "Maybe you should meet Cooler and tell him your real identity,"

Bitter's eyes snapped back at Winter, who smiled gracefully at the small Icejin's reaction.

"I don't know. It's too early," Bitter said. "Besides, Frieza will be around soon… You said so yourself, right?" Winter nodded. "I don't want him to be bothered by me if Frieza suddenly appears, okay?"

"Frieza hates him," Winter said, as if that was a plus point.

"Cooler wants to hit back," Bitter replied darkly.

"Don't you?"

"Of course, but it's not…as easy as that," She murmured, thinking what else to say. She hated Frieza, Winter could see that, and she knew that Bitter didn't want to offend her, and so she knew that Bitter was going to change the subject. "I can't believe…I mean, there could be a hundred reasons for Cooler to hate me. I lied to him about myself. I should have trusted him, but I can't just dedicate my life to serving someone if I don't know that he could…kill me…"

There was a long silence, during which both thought over what she'd said.

"You're scared, then," Winter stated.

"Of course I'm scared," she snapped, then caught herself. "Don't tell anyone I said that."

"Who, like Cooler?"

"What does that mean?"

Winter smiled impishly.

"Nothing."

"What? You think I…what?"

"You like him, don't you?"

"Everyone likes him,"

"Not like you do."

Bitter was surprised into laughing.

"Your majesty, if anything I'm scared of him. He's got such a…a powerful character, I guess. I don't like him like that." She caught Winter's sceptical glance. "I swear. I really don't!"

Winter shrugged, not really believing her fully.

"Okay," She piped.

Bitter turned to look back over the hallway.

"I can't believe I'm getting drilled by her Majesty,"

"I'm sure my daughter wants Cooler's heart. You know, his heart's much bigger than King Cold's and Frieza's put together."

Bitter blinked.

"What did you call me?" she said uncertainly.

"Daughter," said Winter, looking at her.

"Daughter?" She queried hopefully, smiling.

"Daughter."

Bitter blinked. Daughter? The Royal Queen, who has barely known Bitter for under 24 hours, was calling her daughter. A small flame ignited inside her chest, and she was unsure what it meant, but it felt good. Bitter closed her eyes and sighed deeply. She smiled at first, but then the cruel voices of Cooler ripped her veil of joy and Bitter opened her eyes, with small droplets of tears that sat in her lashes.

"I…I'm going to go outside for some fresh air. I…"

"You need space, don't you?"

Bitter nodded, and Queen Winter rubbed the back of her hooded head. "I perfectly understand, Bitter. I'll be in your room, okay?" Bitter nodded again and Winter watched as Bitter turned on her heels and hurried down the hall, turning to one of the main doorways and disappeared. Winter closed her eyes sadly. "Poor soul. She's missing a piece of her heart."

Before Bitter was a field of emptiness. Planet Knot, a world that was once filled with people, slaughtered and killed just like Planet Freeze. Bitter has recently begun to think again, was she doing right?

The work was a sweep, quicker than she expected, and with Queen Winter by her side, Bitter has become warmly attached to the woman. But now she was called 'Daughter'…whoa, she doesn't know what to do.

Not only that, the cruelness of Cooler was pricking at her like a needle. She has always known him as an understandable, kind, loyal leader, but working closer to him made her see his true colours, and she was hurt by him.

Bitter felt sickened. She had wandered away from the others, walking in an almost daze.

All this killing…men and women slaughtered like animals. It was horrific. Her eyes took in the signs of the battle with numb acceptance.

Here, a scorched spot where a large Ki-Blast had gone astray; there, the signs of Cooler's Armoured Squad. In the crater, there was an earth-mover who had managed to form half an earth-creature golem before being cut down, the golem's upper body frozen in the earth next to his fallen corpse, a statue in the twilight of the dark sun overhead. It was a terrible battle. Such a loss for Planet Knot.

Bitter wandered further and further away from Cooler's Spaceship, tears forming hotly in her eyes. The screams she heard today, it mirrored her haunted, broken childhood. Behind her, she heard the panicked sounds of Neiz after a narrow miss of a Ki blast. And Doore was screaming in rage as he was insulted when a weapon attacked his solid back. Salza yelled orders behind her, all around her and Cooler's laugh haunted the entire wasteland, like watching slaves do his bidding.

"Mummy…" She whimpered, chocked with emotion.

It was then she became aware of a sound, just audible over the blowing of the violent wind. A soft, vicious, angry noise. She narrowed her eyes, her tears instantly forgotten; concentrating on where it was coming from, but the wind foiled her. Looking around, she realised she had strayed some distance away from Cooler's Spaceship, and now it was a few miles away. She turned back to see silhouettes against the lighter darkness.

"Salza?" She thought urgently, warmth overriding her depression to retreat from the sights and smells that surrounded her. She went a little further up the rocky slope, treading cautiously between the bodies of the fallen. It soon became apparent that the noise she had heard was coming from the silhouettes. Now the noises were louder, and it was definitely not Salza, Neiz and Doore. There were five figures, not four and her pretty face froze in a picture of horror. Before her on a smooth rise of a hill, were five yellowed, spindly creatures, with long, bony limbs and ridged backs and tails. Their eyes were milky-white in the dimness and their faces were curiously beaklike, with two protruding ridged on either sides of their lower jaw, and a sharp upper lip that curled over their chins. Their muzzles were stained with dark blood, and as Bitter stared, one of them was biting into the hand of one of the corpses of their very own kind, Macaans.

Bitter took in an involuntary gasp of repulsion. It was barely loud enough for her to hear, but the effects on those before her were immediate. As one, their heads snapped up and they fixed her with their blank gaze. She felt ice seep into her veins, making her numb. For a long moment, they were frozen like that.

"That's one of them!" One bellowed, pointing an accusing finger straight at Bitter.
Then Bitter scrambled off the hill and ran, and the group of Macaans gave chase.

She was running into flight as soon as her feet had hit the floor, hollering at the top of her voice for the others. The creatures were a heartbeat behind, springing on to and over the broken bodies of their families and friends with powerful leaps, outpacing her easily. She yelled again, throwing herself into a forward roll onto the ground as one of the things pounced past her, a clawed hand swiping through the space where her head had been a split-second ago. Springing back onto her feet, she twisted and slashed with her tail, carving a bright arc in the twilight; but her attacker writhed away, retreating to a safe distance.

A blur of movement from behind her made her swivel again, her hands cradling white orbs of Ki and she flung it in an instinctive parry. She ducked down, ignoring the pained howl of her attacker, desperate to reach the safety of Cooler's Spaceship, because these creatures were too quick, she couldn't hold out against them alone, she couldn't-

"Ah!" Her eyes didn't even register the third Macaan in the semi-light until it was on top of her, pouncing on her from behind a low, ragged wall, bearing her to the ground. The hammering impact against Bitter's head unwillingly shut the world into a blank space of nothing.

Darkness.