It had already been a few months since Aizen's defeat, since then nothing of interesting had happened but Cooler had faith that something else would happen, not even if just a small Arrancar uprising he needed a distraction. The Horsemen on the other hand had their hands full with training, shortly after Aizen's defeat Cooler demanded that they were to train till their power could rival the Royal Guard. Thanks to Zeke they were getting close to that goal, even if their training was arch and brutal, somewhat like when Cooler first arrived at that universe.
Cooler did his best not to fall asleep in his throne, after all he had nothing to do or anything to distract himself with, Ying and Yang did try their best to cheer him up but their dances and provocative actions had no effect on the Frost Demon. Finally, something occurred, Zeke materialized in the middle of the room with an excited expression on her face and seemingly eager to speak.
"Speak." Cooler sighed
"There is a tournament happening between Universe 6 and 7." she spat, as if saying some mind-blowing fact
"Universe 7, that was my universe, correct?" Cooler asked, somewhat nostalgically
"Yes, my Lord. If you wish we can watch the tournament, from here."
"That would certainly kill some time. But first, I wish to know what happened since I left." Cooler said, his tone continued strangely soft and through full
Zeke proceeded to tell him about the Aindroids, Cell, Buu and all the other events that affected that universe, Cooler silently listed to all of it but something kept bothering him the dates that Zeke was mentioning those were all several years after he left and he hadn't been gone for that long.
"Zeke just one thing." Cooler said, causing Zeke to be silent and wait for him to continue
"Why is there such a difference between dates? You speak of things that happened 10 years after I left, but I haven't been here that long."
"Universes are separated by both time and space, even if they have similar planets and beings they are separate by those two factors. That being said the present of one universe could be the past or the future of another. Simply put time passes differently in each of them, even if such change is minimal." Cooler didn't reply motioning her to continue
Zeke continued to speak and finally arrived at the first interaction between Goku and Beerus, even if it enraged and insulted that monkey was still alive, and had gained such power Cooler remained silent. What he was unable to let go was when Zeke mentioned his brother's revival, return to Earth and subsequent defeat at the hands of the same Saiyan.
"What happened to my empire!?" he roared, hitting his right armrest with his fist
"It was in shambles, after this it will be a miracle if it still stands at all." Zeke replied, in a calm tone
"I gave them a mission!" he shouted hitting the armrest one more time
"And they go on and fail me…My men, my empire, wasted away by my brother…" Cooler mumbled, getting his rage under control
"I am truly sorry for your loss, my Lord. But that was no longer your empire, when you chose this position you made a choice. You chose to live for something greater, after all what is having and empire when you rule over an entire universe?" Zeke asked, her words were kind and almost motherly as she did her best to calm the God of Destruction
Coolers hands moved from their resting places and dropped down to Ying and Yang's head, they jumped in place as they felt their lords touch upon their bodies. Cooler was truly doing his best to control himself, when he wanted to kill something so it was taking great control for him not to crack their skulls open.
"Let's just watch the tournament." Cooler growled, crossing his arms
Universe 15 wasn't the only universe that got the opportunity to watch the tournament, one of the others that got such opportunity was Universe 4. This universe's destroyer throne room wasn't that wide, yet it was long on the wall opposite to the two-large brass double doors was a circular multicolor stained window. On all sides were several roman style pillars, the throne didn't rest on stairs, it just rested at ground level, the piece itself was made out of skillfully carved obsidian, decorated with purple velvet. The stranger thing was that this was only one of the thrones in the room, the other one that shares the right armrest with the previous was made of the same mineral, carved with simpler designs and no velvet just a cold seat.
On the throne with the velvet, rested the Goddess of Destruction she was of average height, slender frame, fare skin, her hair was long and silver hiding her left eye, leaving only the right eye exposed to show a crimson pupil. She wore a roman themed clothing, with a pure white color and golden lining.
Her name was Hisada, primarily she liked to carry herself as a lady and she didn't like to waste her time with things that she didn't consider important. That was why her attendant wasn't in the room with her, so most of the news she would receive via a telepathic message.
"You are not going to believe what is happening right now! Universe 6 and 7 are going to have a tournament." she energetically spoke out, even if the room was visibly empty
"If I remember correctly, Universe 7 was your original home, right?" Hisada asked, her head turning to the pillar closest to her right
"Yes." was the cold reply she got from a male voice
"Why aren't you more excited!? There are some Saiyans on their team, you never bothered to ask about them so I concluded you weren't interested. But if they are still around I thought you would want to know more." she rambled on, somewhat pouting at his lack of interest
"I've left the Saiyans behind, living in the past would get me nothing. I've made my new home here." she quickly cut him off
"You really think that this is home? How adorable, darling." this got her an audible sigh
"Come and take a seat to your Queens side. After all I didn't get this throne made for nothing, I even made it more simple like you wanted." still her words didn't move him, so she decided to play dirty
"One of those Saiyan's name is Goku, that is his Earth name. But his original name is Kakarot." Hisada let the name slowly roll out
This was enough to get a reaction from the man, he emerged from behind the pillar wearing a black and light brown armor, with matching thigh guards and shoulder straps, dark red armbands, black leggings, with boots that matched his armor and dark red lower leg bands. On his head, he had a red headband and X like scar on his left cheek, the most interesting feature was a fury "belt" that he had around his waist.
"You finally decided to join me, Bardock?" she asked in a teasing manner
Taking his seat on the empty throne he placed his arms in their respective places, and the destroyer took the opportunity to placed her right hand over his left and hold on to it, but he didn't reply.
"Always so cold, is that a Saiyan thing?" she asked sarcastically, getting no answer
"If you weren't such a dashing rogue, I don't know if I would have saved and kept you around during all these years." this time he wrapped his fingers around hers before speaking
"Don't make me laugh. I can't see you living without me, since you are always so clingy." the saiyan replied with a confident laugh
"Getting cocky, are we? I guess I've earned that much, but if it wasn't for me you wouldn't be as strong as you are now, would you? If I wasn't "clingy" the gap between our powers would still be immeasurable." Hisada pointed out, leaning to her side so she could rest her head on his shoulder
"Indeed, I have much to thank you for."
"You've been making up for it, Bringer of Destruction." she chuckled, with a sly smile
"Weren't we going to watch the tournament?" Bardock asked
"Mood killer…" she mumbled, as a large rectangular piece of dark glass materialized before them
First thing that showed up on screen was his son, Goku fighting against a bear like creature, right away Hisada felt her companion's body tense at the sight of his son fully grown. Bardock would never admit aloud that he felt some pride and relief at seeing his son alive and fighting in this tournament, and as a Saiyan he wanted to see how strong he had gotten. However, his opponent wasn't that strong, but the fact that Goku had to think about in order to win wasn't lost on Bardock.
The following fight got an even bigger, but still silent, reaction from Bardock as the next opponent to face his son was very similar to Frieza.
"Bullshit." he hissed, when it was mentioned how good of a guy Frost was
"Did you never listen to the expression, never judge a book by its cover?" the Goddess of Destruction asked
"I don't care."
Frost eventually transformed and they seemed to be evenly matched, that was when Goku transformed his hair turned yellow and the rise of power was obvious, his son had achieved the legendary form.
"Look at that, he can go blonde….Just like you." she pointed out, with a yawn
"He is my son after all. Should be able to do this much" Bardock remarked, doing his best not to let his pride show
"Let's see what else he can do."
The battle ended soon enough and Bardock wasn't pleased with the outcome, it could see that something was wrong with how Frost got his win, the fact that he was powerless to protest only made him angrier. Then came a Namekian, he too lost under strange circumstances, the following participant was also interesting it was Prince Vegeta himself.
"He's also a Saiyan." Hisada informed
"I know. His name is Vegeta, and he was our prince." Bardock wisely stated
"You think he's stronger than your son?"
"Who knows." he chuckled, leaning back on his throne, and tightening his hold on her hand
Vegeta didn't take any chances, and going Super Saiyan quickly dispatched Frost, the next one to fight the prince was a metallic being but he also lost. Next was a Saiyan from Universe 6, who Bardock noted that was notably smaller and scrawnier than what a normal Saiyan would be. Vegeta got the boy to go Super Saiyan, the prince seemed to have the match won when he transformed once more and a blue aura covered him and his hair turned blue.
"Is that…" Hisada gasped, Bardock leaned forward in his seat so he could take in the transformation
"So, that's what they called it "Super Saiyan Blue"? I guess it makes sense." was the only thing he said, leaning back on his throne
"You think your son can do it? But more importantly, do you think they are stronger than you?" she asked, sounding somewhat concerned at this point
"Who knows." Bardock said crossing his arms, just keeping his eyes on the screen
Surprisingly Hit was able to easily dispatch Vegeta, then came his son once more and the fight that followed as an amazing display that made Bardock even prouder and eager to one day meet his son and fight him. In the end both men were exhausted, even Bardock seemed to be tiered as he followed the fight with great precision, whatever happened next even if his son did lose Bardock didn't pay attention.
"You seem tiered, darling." his companion pointed out
"Nonsense. After that I'm starting to wonder if, he is possibly stronger than a God of Destruction." Bardock chuckled
"It seems your age is finally catching up to you, old man." Hisada frowned
Both took a break, indeed the fight between Goku and Hit had been a long and hard fought one, so in the end they felt exhausted much like the fighters. So, they weren't going to pay attention that was going on, so much so Hisada had already jumped from her seat to Bardock's lap, till Zen-Oh and his attendants materialized in the ring.
"Please go back to your seat." Bardock mumbled
"I can see just fine from here and so can you." she growled back, it wasn't a satisfying reply but Bardock knew it was pointless
"He's going to make a tournament between all the universes." Bardock said, repeating to let the idea sink in
"Interesting. You'll get a chance to fight your son, you must be really excited."
Bardock gave her a smirk, carefully he placed her back on her seat, got up and began to walk out of the throne room, letting Hisada dumbfounded by his actions.
"Where are, you going!?"
"Training. There is no chance in hell that, my son will upstage me."
Back at Universe 15, Ying and Yang had left the throne room note because they were ordered to do so, but it was the best option for them to keep their lives. Cooler was absolutely livid and the several holes and blast marks in the walls were proof of that, Zeke calmly remained in her place as he threw his little tantrum.
"To think that the same monkeys that shamed my family, would get to such a level of power…" he hissed, his power going out of control
"Lord Cooler, please try not to destroy much more of this room." Zeke pointed out
"A Super Saiyan with the powers of a God, are you kidding me!? What kind of joke is this!?" he rambled on
"It is complicated…" Cooler spoke over her
"Bullshit! And now they organize a tournament, are we even going to be in it!?"
"They most likely will only involve the first 12 universes."
"It will probably be for the better, we don't have fighters at that level." Cooler replied, as if the reply was water being thrown into the fire that was his rage
"I'm going to the meditation chamber, at least there I can let my rage burn out in peace." Cooler announced, walking pass Zeke
"You want me to repair the damage, Lord Cooler?" Zeke asked, looking back as he walked pass her, he simply replied with a nod as the doors opened to let him out
"Ying, Yang come with me."
"Yes, sir." they said, with an unnerved tone
It didn't take long for Zeke to repair the damage done by Cooler to the chamber, since her Lord wasn't going to be around for some time now, she took the liberty of sitting on his throne, just to make sure it was properly fixed. Zeke leaned back and sighed at how comfortable it was and how she should do this more often, what mattered now was to think of what she was going to do.
Indeed, this tournament wouldn't most likely involve this universe and yes their fighters weren't at the level of what they had just seen, but such a thing as strength was trivial in the hands of someone with the right experience. For example, Cooler received the powers of a God so a similar thing could be done with their fighters, even if it was only temporary. Considering that issue solved, how could she get them into the tournament, well if memory served her right she could be rather persuasive when she wanted to be and she did have some favors, after all being one of the best healers among the attendants did have some meaning.
