Frieza was being pushed to his limits, he was slowly being driven back by his assailants who would not let up their tireless assault. After dodging a powerful kick the Frost Demon tried to make some space between himself and his adversaries only to find that they had now completely surrounded him. They charged in unison, Frieza was ready though coiling his tail around his first attacker and tossing them off to the side while ducking a left hook from the one in front of him. Frieza made the most of the opportunity by kicking outwards, the blow connecting with the second attacker's gut sending them sprawling to the ground below.
Frieza's two remaining attackers charged in from both sides trying a pincer maneuver. Frieza expertly spun around slapping his tail into the attacker on his left who was sent spiraling to the ground as well. The Frost Prince turned just in time to block an incoming strike and respond with a fierce headbutt which seemed to daze his opponent as they floated back down.
"Come now is that really the best you can do? I mean there are four of you and just one of me" Frieza scoffed as his adversaries regrouped. The four figures glanced at each before nodding in unison, without warning all four charged Frieza who was not prepared for the sudden assault and was quickly being pushed back once more. It wasn't long before Frieza felt his back collide with a wall as his assailants closed in.
Frieza ducked an incoming kick from one attacker only to be met with a powerful knee from another which left the Frost Demon winded. A pair of fists collided with the side of Frieza's head as he tried to regain his composure sending him sailing into the path of the fourth fighter who was ready and spiked the Frost Prince to the ground with a resounding crash.
Rising to his feet Frieza glared at the four other fighters, the vein at the top of his forehead began to bulge, the telltale sign of the Frost Demon's annoyance. "What happened to this being a free-for-all?" Frieza called to the other four warriors who began laughing at the Frost Demon's exasperation.
Cooler, Shuyo, Aayla and Weiss all touched down grinning at their unimpressed leader. Cooler stepped forward cracking his neck with each step "well you said you needed a work out brother, are you telling me it's too much for you?" Cooler grinned at Frieza's annoyed expression. "I distinctly remember you saying you could take us all on easily" Cooler smirked as Frieza slapped his tail down in derision.
"Very well, come get me" Frieza scoffed as the rest of the group charged at him, once again it was four on one, this forced Frieza to actually start taking this seriously. It had been a week since Frieza had exited the bacta tank and after two days of 'mandatory' recovery time, courtesy of Nadan, Frieza was back to full power and was ready to get back to work.
Raising his guard he was able to block a kick delivered from Shuyo with his forearm, the kick glanced off his arm allowing him to spin around to now face Aayla as she threw an uppercut. While Frieza tilted his head back to avoid the Securan's strike he lashed out with his tail forcing Cooler to close his own guard lest he be struck by his younger brother's powerful tail. Making some room between himself and his bodyguard Frieza dodged to the right to avoid the charging ball of energy that was his protégé. Changing course Weiss charged at Frieza once again, her mentor was hand to hand with Shuyo seeing which one could overpower the other. Grinning to herself she saw the perfect opening, there was no way he'd be able to stop her while he was grappling with Shuyo. Catching the young Demoness' approach from the corner of his eye Frieza pulled Shuyo to the side at the last moment so that Weiss slammed directly into the green monk's back.
"Sorry Shuyo!" Weiss called out as the green monk flew across the training room.
"What have I told you about watching your surroundings?" Frieza chided the young girl as he coiled his tail around her midsection. Weiss tried to lunge at her mentor however she couldn't budge, looking down she realised why and no matter how hard she tried she could not get Frieza's tail off of her.
"Frieza this is not fair and you know it!" Weiss pouted at the Frost Prince as he turned to face the other combatants. Frieza looked to engage the other three pushing forward with a flurry of punches making sure that not one of them got a moment to compose themselves. Frieza lashed out with a snap kick towards his brother, Cooler was able to block the attack but it still had the desired effect breaking Cooler away so he could focus on the other two.
'Aayla would you be a dear and spar with Cooler for a little I want to test myself against the strapping monk, if you don't mind that is.' Aayla hadn't felt Frieza's mental contact in over two weeks at that point and so its sudden reappearance alone made her halt her attack allowing Frieza to focus solely on Shuyo. As Frieza and Shuyo passed by Aayla, the Securan warrior could have sworn the Frost Demon winked at her in passing, snapping her from her pleasant thoughts.
'Fine but don't wear yourself out we still have some catching up to do as well' Aayla replied back with the sultriest voice her mind could form.
Clearly that took Frieza off guard as his head snapped around to look at the azure beauty before he slammed straight into the wall of the training grounds. Slightly dazed from the impact Frieza tumbled out of the air spinning around before landing on his feet. 'Smooth' Aayla mentally called out to the Frost Demon as she turned around to charge his brother with a mischievous glint in her eye.
Appearing on Frieza's right side Shuyo closed in with an elbow strike connecting with Frieza's temple knocking him off balance. As the Frost Prince regained his balance Shuyo was already on him once again throwing combinations. Quickly adapting to the situation Frieza went on the defensive ducking, dodging and spinning out of the green monk's attack pattern.
As the sparring continued Frieza grinned at the monk's stone like expression. "You know I'm quite pleased that you decided to stay with us" Frieza said as he ducked a straight right and countered with leg sweep that Shuyo jumped away from.
"As am I, I prefer this to your brother's alternative." Shuyo responded as he cupped his hands together for a powerful axe handle.
"Let me guess, out the airlock?" Frieza asked as he raised his guard to defend once again before spinning around for a high kick.
"No sooner than five minutes on board and he was already demanding that your girlfriend throw me out" Shuyo grinned as Frieza came to a screeching halt.
"She is not my girlfriend, she is my… bodyguard!" Frieza exclaimed taking a moment to think of what Aayla was to him.
"Oh, of course" Shuyo smiled as he landed a nasty punch flush to the Frost Demon's chin sending him spinning into the wall once again. "By the way, you may want to pay attention against me" Shuyo grinned as he positioned himself in front of his sparring partner. The green monk had to admit that when there wasn't the threat of death, sparring with the tyrant was quite enjoyable.
"Very well let's get serious then" Frieza grinned back cracking his neck. In a flash both fighters charged towards each other. Both warriors clashed in the center of the training room, neither wanting to give the other an inch.
Up above both Cooler and Aayla had put aside their own match to watch the pair below. "Well they seem to be enjoying themselves" Cooler chuckled as the two combatants attacked each other ferociously. Turning his head towards the Securan warrior beside him Cooler asked in a bored tone "so should we tell him?"
"I'm sure he'll figure it out… sooner or later" Aayla chuckled as the match continued across the training room. Shuyo was throwing precision strikes that forced Frieza to dodge more often than naught and so their fight was being taken in every direction as the mystery monk tried his best to pin down Frieza's position.
Of course while all of this high velocity movement, spinning and sudden elevation changes were nothing new for the Frost Prince, his involuntary passenger was a different story. "Frieza… ugh… please s-stop I want off!" Weiss pleaded, the poor girl was still wrapped in Frieza's powerful tail and so as the Frost Demon sparred with Shuyo he was dragging his young protégé along for the entire ride. The problem was that Frieza was so engrossed in his fight with Shuyo that he had not only forgotten about the young Demoness but had blocked out almost all exterior distractions. So the helpless girl was forced to grit her teeth and bare it as her skin steadily darkened into a sickly green.
The two fighters were going at it at such an incredible speed that Aayla had trouble keeping her eyes on the fight. After both of them reappeared from fighting at hypersonic speed she managed to catch a glimpse of Weiss' face before they disappeared once again. Knowing Frieza wasn't about to respond to anything outside of his fight at the moment Aayla called out to him mentally.
'Frieza you better stop now' Aayla called out to him knowing he would get her message.
'What for? I have him on the ropes' Frieza chuckled as he picked up speed trying to catch the green monk off guard.
'That's not what I mean, you better stop because of Weiss' Aayla replied as both fighters connected with punches simultaneously.
'What, is Weiss about to join in?' Frieza chuckled once again as he landed with a loud thud.
'No she's been with you the whole time, turn arou-' Aayla never did get to finish her thought as the sound of horrendous retching echoed through the training room followed by a sickening splash. The sight and smell alone brought Shuyo to a complete halt to stare at the pair of Frost Demons with a mix of apprehension and disgust.
"Perhaps we should have intervened sooner" Cooler stated flatly as he crinkled his nose to block the rising odour that was beginning to fill the room.
"Yeah my bad" Aayla replied guiltily as she landed next to the pair of Demons, she couldn't decide who looked worse. Weiss was hanging limply from Frieza's tail, her normally rose skin was now a mix of almost every shade of green imaginable and she was moaning softly as she cradled her head. Then there was Frieza who stood statue still as the contents of Weiss' breakfast dripped slowly off his back.
The tension in the air was so thick you would need a sword to cut through it as everyone watched to see how the normally volatile Frost Demon would respond. Cooler expected a tantrum, Aayla expected disgruntled sarcasm and Shuyo couldn't fathom what to expect. What they received however was more shocking than any of them could have believed.
Frieza burst out into hysterical laughter as he gently let go of Weiss placing her down on the ground away from the pile of bile. "I'm sorry my dear I forgot you were there" Frieza chuckled as he patted the groaning girl's forehead. After making sure Weiss wasn't injured Frieza gently picked her up and walked up to the ship's intercom system. "Paging Tukkan clean up in the training room" Frieza snickered as he turned around and carried the ill girl outside.
Cooler, Aayla and Shuyo were left behind completely dumbstruck at what they had just transpired. There were few in the universe who could stay calm after being puked on let alone openly laugh about it. There was no way in hell Frieza was one of those people, at least that's what the three thought as they tried to process what had just happened.
"What the hell was that?" Cooler finally spoke through his pinched nose.
"Beats the hell out of me" Aayla responded, she was having trouble wrapping her head around what she just saw. It was true Frieza was making huge strides in becoming a better person (whether he knew it or not) this however was just unsettling. Despite the feelings of unease Aayla couldn't lie, she did enjoy the idea of Frieza making another massive leap into being the good person she knew he could be.
"Hey there Frieza how's it… UGH WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?"Tukkan's horrified voice rang from outside, signalling it was time for the three other warriors to vacate the training room.
Considering he just had someone vomit all over his back Frieza felt surprisingly calm as felt the shower water rush over him. It was moments like these that the Frost Prince was able to use to look back on the events that had happened to him. Despite the cheery façade he was displaying for his crew, on the inside Frieza was grappling with a myriad of emotions that he desperately wanted to keep in check. Anger towards that roach Seluba who was now dead, grief over the loss of his own people but the worst part was the guilt that threatened to consume him. He had won the fight damn it, the bug was in more pieces than Frieza could count. Frieza had let his guard down confident that the fight was over but the retched insect used one of Frieza's own tactics against him.
In truth Frieza knew that this whole mess was his fault, not just the fight but the invasion in general. While yes Frieza's father was the one to run the empire, the elder Frost Demon had been content to run things from behind the scenes leaving his son's to be the face of the PTO. His father was more than willing to simply tax the hell out of his subjects and let them go about their daily lives. Frieza on the other hand had taken the power given to him and went wild with it. He was the one who struck fear into the heart of the galaxy itself, he was the one who vaporized planets on a whim, Frieza was the reason the people rebelled. And so Frieza knew that he was the reason he lost his home.
Tyrants and despots may seem invincible for a time, but they will always fall, it is our heroes who are immortalized.
His mother's words ran through his head as the water continued to run down his face. She was right, he had believed himself invincible and the past year was solid proof that he had been dead wrong. It was strange Frieza had gone years without thinking of his late mother and yet in the past year, ever since his defeat at the hands of Goku, there wasn't a day where she didn't show up in his mind. Sometimes it was a fond memory he thought lost to time, sometimes it was his own thoughts on how his mother would handle a situation. It didn't matter which form she took because it always had the same effect, a strange mix of uplifting his spirits while simultaneously flooding him with guilt.
"I guess even a monster can miss their mother" Frieza chuckled as he placed his hands against the shower wall letting the water run down his sore back.
"That might just be the sweetest thing I've ever heard you say" a voice called out from behind the Frost Demon.
"Damn it Aayla get out of here I'm naked!" Frieza shouted at the Securan warrior who was leant against the bathroom wall with her arms crossed.
"Frieza when are you not naked?" Aayla quipped back to the irritated Frost Demon, a smug smile placed firmly on her face. She strolled forward throwing a towel to Frieza who caught it as he turned off the shower. Glancing down towards her partner's waist she raised an eyebrow and smiled even wider "so I got to ask where's your… well you know?" Aayla flicked her gaze back up to the Frost Demon's face just as he realised what she was talking about.
Frieza's face quickly reddened as he realised what she was referring to "I would rather not have this discussion right now Aayla." As he stiffly dried his body with the towel he saw the smirk on the Securan's face out of the corner of his eye, knowing she wouldn't let it go he groaned before turning his attention back to her. "If you are so desperate to know our… reproductive organs… are stored internally until… until they are needed." That sentence brought back unpleasant memories of having a sit down with his father decades prior, it was one of the only times the bastard had been a real father.
Sensing the flash of anger through their bond Aayla's expression shifted to a more worried one as she placed her hand comfortingly on Frieza's shoulder. "So what's eating you champ?"
"I have no idea what you mean I'm fine" Frieza stated rigidly as they exited his bathroom and entered his private quarters. They were surprisingly sparse considering who the occupant was, then again they hadn't really had a chance to pack before the planet exploded.
Wrapping her arm around his shoulder Aayla led the moody Frost Prince to his bed before sitting side by side. "Now your little act may have the rest of the crew fooled but try to remember I can feel what's going on up here" Aayla tapped the side of Frieza's head to emphasize the point she was making. "You've been like an emo teenager ever since you got out of the bacta tank" Aayla stated as Frieza growled in annoyance.
"I told you already I'm fine" Frieza huffed as he turned his head away from the azure beauty.
"My point exactly" Aayla chuckled as she noticed the pink tinge on Frieza's usually ivory cheeks. "So why don't you tell me what's eating you, you know it stays with me and no one else" Aayla had now started rubbing Frieza's back to try and goad him into accepting her request.
Sighing Frieza turned around now sitting cross-legged on his bed the ruby sheets a stark contrast to his ivory skin. For a solid minute Frieza stared off into nothing trying to put his feelings into words to best express them. Across from him Aayla had also adjusted her own position facing her partner, legs also crossed as her head tail gently waved back and forth against the soft cloth. She could feel the turmoil in his head so she knew that it could take a while before he was able to formulate his thoughts, so she did the only thing she could, she waited patiently.
After what felt like an eternity Frieza finally slumped before throwing his arms out in either direction. "I destroyed the only place I've been able to call home" Frieza moaned before placing his face down in both hands. "Mother wanted Cooler and I to be leaders, to bring our people to new heights of greatness. Instead I caused the destruction of our ancestral home and our race is now on the brink of extinction."
Aayla had dealt with Frieza for more than a year at this point and in that time she had learned that he could be just as emotional as anyone else in the universe, maybe even a little more so. At worst she had to deal with his temper, which had abated somewhat over the course of a year. There was also the excessive pride which he always had, she was totally fine with that as he exuded astonishing amounts of confidence in almost every situation. She had not been prepared for this level of grief and self-defamation, luckily she had been dealing with something very similar with Weiss for the past two weeks so she was surprisingly prepared.
Gently raising Frieza`s head so his eyes were locked with her own, Aayla gave him her most comforting reassuring smile. She then proceeded to slap the ever loving hell out of him for ten straight seconds "you need to snap out of this crap" Aayla commanded as she once again held the Frost Demon's head in her hands.
Frieza just stared back dumbfounded at what had just happened "what?"
"What happened with Fuar is not your fault idiot, now I know you're putting on a happy face for the others but I know you're losing it on the inside." Aayla pulled Frieza into a hug, something no one had done since was a small child. "Trust me there's nothing worse than blaming yourself for something that was out of your control to begin with."
Images of the family disappearing before his eyes in a pillar of fire flashed through his mind "I could have done more."
"Then do more from now on, we've missed our leader" Aayla smiled as she separated from Frieza and got up. "The training room's clean by the way, Tukkan's not happy but he got it done and Weiss is taking a nap after you took her for that little joyride." She held out her hand for him to take, which he did, if a little guardedly.
"Thank you, I think I'll go for a walk help clear my head" Frieza muttered as the two left his quarters.
"What I didn't slap you enough?" Aayla teased. Frieza couldn't help but smile at the azure beauty, she had the most uncanny ability to raise his spirits. They came to a branch in the hallway where Aayla turned right and Frieza was to turn left, stopping for the briefest of moments Frieza had the sudden urge to follow the Securan. Frowning at his own indecisiveness Frieza turned back around and headed down the left path it seemed there was more on his mind than he had originally thought.
Strolling down the halls of The Nemesis was surprisingly relaxing. Nadan had thought of almost everything when designing the ship including the pale blue lighting in the halls. The cool lighting was not so bright to be blinding yet still kept the area evenly lit. The colour itself was easy on the eyes and had a welcoming feel to it. The Malakan prodigy had even gone as far as placing heating units in the floor to keep the durasteel warm to those in the group that didn't wear shoes.
Frieza had now performed three laps of the ship on his walk and in that time he put Aayla's words to serious thought. He shouldn't blame himself for the planet's destruction he had in fact done his best during the battle, he fought tooth and nail and he had believed he had won. Of course that was not the case but dwelling on it would not bring back the dead. It was on his second lap of the ship that he came to the conclusion that moving forward was the only healthy option available.
The only question remaining however was what to do? Fuar was gone and so were its people. The PTO was now in shambles and spread thinly across the universe with almost it's entire hierarchy now gone. Frieza had to give the bug a little credit he timed that attack to perfection, every single high ranking official had been planetside when the attack commenced. It didn't matter that the GFM's entire fleet was wiped out because the entire leadership of the Empire was now also gone. There was a chance that some had turned tail and ran at the first sight of trouble, if there were such cowardly fools out in the cosmos Frieza would have a few words with them if he located them.
Coming to a halt Frieza leaned up against the wall his tail gently rapping against the paneling, a dull smack echoed through the hall with each hit. First thing's first The Nemesis needed to be restocked, fuel, food, water and other incidental supplies. The ship wasn't exactly stocked for a galactic voyage before the battle, at best it had a month's worth of supplies stored and they had already been out there for two weeks now. Perhaps after that they would search out Frost Demons who had been off world during the incident, one thing was for sure they would need to stop at a garrison to get as much information on the status of the PTO. They had unfortunately been somewhat out of the loop the last few weeks.
"Will you stop that infernal noise brother?!" Cooler shouted as he stuck his head out of his own living quarters. It took Frieza a second before he realised his tail was still drumming against the wall behind him leaving a noticeable indent in the pristine surface.
The two brothers stared each other down neither one budging seeing who would cave first. With a smirk Frieza slammed his tail once more into the side of the hallway with a resounding smack.
"Isn't there something else you could be doing now brother, preferably far away from here" Cooler sighed at his brother's immaturity. Cooler side stepped out of his quarters cracking his neck as he did so "you know I think your girlfriend might actually hit harder than you." Cooler chuckled at the annoyed expression on his little brother's face.
"Bodyguard" Frieza replied back flatly crossing his arms as he did so.
Cooler simply smiled and shook his head at his siblings naivety "whatever, now get explaining I could handle you pacing around the ship endlessly but I am going to draw the line at you making such a racket at this hour." Cooler had now crossed his own arms and was also leaning against the wall.
"I just needed to clear my head so I decided to go for a little stroll, is that alright? I can walk around my own ship right?" Frieza fired back heart to hearts with Aayla was one thing, she was easy to talk to and to get along with. Cooler was a different story, perhaps it was because they were siblings or perhaps it was because their father had tried to pit them against one another for most of their childhood. Either way it made discussions with the level headed Frost Demon far more difficult.
Sighing to himself Cooler waved Frieza onwards "well then what's got you pacing around the ship so late?" Cooler felt like he had a good idea of what was going through his brother's head but it couldn't hurt to confirm it instead of making an assumption.
"I've been trying to decide how we're going to proceed from here on." Frieza stated. "Obviously we need to resupply the ship, but from there I don't know which direction we should go."
Cooler leveled his gaze with Frieza, it was a strange thing to witness Cooler had never known his brother to be so indecisive, he usually knew exactly what he wanted to do and how he would do it. "Have you thought about finding the remainder of our people?" Cooler responded garnering a small nod from his brother.
"Of course I have, but it won't be the same, I know we had established a few colonies across the universe but none of them are substantial enough to properly keep our population sustained." Frieza had done some of the calculations in his head, he could double check with Nadan but he knew that if his math was off it wasn't by much. The Frost Demons, a race of beings as old as the universe itself were now an endangered species, Frieza found it somewhat amusing in a morbid sort of way.
"There must be a way around this, to undo the damage done, we are the most powerful beings in the universe surely we can save our race." Cooler rubbed his temple as he searched his mind for any way out of their predicament, as much as he hated to admit it Frieza was right there people would simply dwindle away over time.
Frieza snorted as he chuckled at his brother's comment "oh yes undo the damage let me just push what's left of Fuar back together." Cooler stared back clearly not amused by his brother's attempt at melancholic humour.
"I get it" Cooler responded drily before Frieza held out a hand to stop him.
"No wait I know, we get a time machine and go back into the past and tell our past selves about the invasion ahead of time." Frieza continued to laugh at his own absurd humour, Cooler was beginning to think that the stress of the situation was finally causing his brother to snap. "Oh even better let's go find some wizard and he can use his… magic… to…" Frieza trailed off as his eyes widened in realisation. How could he have overlooked it, it was so obvious and it had been right in front of his face.
"Frieza?" Cooler called out to his brother waving his hand in front of his face. Grasping his brother by the shoulder he gave him a rough shake tearing the younger Frost Demon from his thoughts.
Grabbing Cooler by both of his shoulders Frieza started cackling with delight "we can use magic brother and I can get my revenge all at once!"
"What are you blathering about? You're not making any sense." Cooler gruffly removed his brother's hands from his shoulders before staring him down once again. "Explain" he commanded as Frieza smile grew as he contemplated their next moves.
"It's simple brother… we gather the Earth's Dragon Balls" Frieza spread his arms wide at the announcement expecting applause and fanfare, when none was given his expression quickly soured as he glared back at his brother, who was deep in thought at Frieza's idea.
"From what I was told about them that could work indeed, however if I remember correctly from the reports weren't the Earth's Dragon Balls rendered inactive after Vegeta's visit to the planet?" Cooler questioned, he was actually quite excited at the idea, however he would save the celebrations for when his kingdom, home and people had been restored.
"I thought so as well, that seemed to be the whole reason the Earthlings went to Namek in the first place… ugh it's so obvious I am furious that I didn't think of this sooner." Frieza looked up to see his brother's questioning gaze "back on Namek their dragon 'died' when that giant fat Namek finally keeled over."
Cooler was now waiting patiently for Frieza to continue as his brother gathered his thoughts. "During my fight with the super monkey the Namek dragon came back to life, then shortly after Vegeta showed up as did the Namekian boy the Earthlings had with them, both of whom I one hundred percent killed."
Cooler's eyes widened as began to piece Frieza's thoughts together "they couldn't have come back to life from the Namek dragon because it too had perished, meaning an external source brought them back to life."
Frieza nodded briskly "precisely, I'll bet you anything it was the Earth's Dragon Balls, and even if it wasn't then that means they still have access to something that can revive the dead."
"What makes you think that?" Cooler inquired as he pieced together all the information he had looked at about the supposedly magical orbs.
"During father's fight with the Earthling's do you remember seeing that short balled one that cut off father's arm?" Cooler nodded slowly he still didn't like thinking about that day, his father was a bastard but still Cooler couldn't say he wouldn't have tried to save him given the chance. "Well back on Namek I killed him, blew the little bastard into a million tiny pieces, no amount of Namek healing whatever could put him back together."
Cooler continued to nod before looking back to his brother "you're positive you killed him?"
Frieza scoffed as he waved his brother off "he was so dead it pushed the monkey to becoming a Super Saiyan, speaking of which if we go to Earth I can finally exact my vengeance against the monkeys." Frieza was back to laughing at the prospect of achieving both goals simultaneously. "Yes this whole trip will be quite salubrious for me hahaha!"
"Or quite fatal, you remember how they worked as a team and overwhelmed father?" Cooler replied back sternly. "We can't make the same mistakes as he did."
"Oh this will be quite different then father's fight, there's no way Goku would pass up a one on one shot against me if for no other reason than to improve his own skills." Frieza was practically hopping he was so happy "You, Ayala and Shuyo can hold off his friends so they don't interfere, I doubt they will because Goku would want what he calls a 'fair' fight."
"So we go to Earth, you have your revenge against the Super Saiyan then we have the Dragon Balls…" Cooler began before Frieza finished for him.
"And undo all the damage that has been caused and get our home and people back" Frieza declared triumphantly. Wrapping his arm around his brother's shoulders Frieza grinned as he lead him down the hall "come let's inform Nadan that we are heading to Earth immediately."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN'T GO TO EARTH!?" Frieza roared angrily at the unflinching Malakan, who gazed back at the angered Frost Demon with barely veiled annoyance.
"Well my Lord there are actually a few reasons why we can't" Nadan replied curtly as he examined the inside of a cleaning drone. Before the Frost Demon could reply Nadan extended a finger in the air "firstly we are almost out of supplies and we are in desperate need to replenish our stores before any long trips."
"But don't we have enough supplies to last for a month? What happened to all the food?" Frieza inquired angrily clenching his fists in frustration.
"Tyr, my Lord, the boy's a Dramon their metabolic system is roughly three times that of the average person, so far he's eaten roughly twenty times his weight in food over the last two weeks, it's actually quite fascinate-" Frieza cut Nadan's anecdote off with his outstretched palm, while pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"I get it the kid a walking garbage disposal, but still The Nemesis should be able to cross the galaxy in under five days surely we can last until then?" Frieza pressed, this was a golden opportunity he could not let it slip through his grasp.
"Of course my Lord, it would be close but with the hyperdrive pushed to its limit we should just barely make it before we begin starving." Nadan admitted to which Frieza crossed his arms in victory.
"Excellent then let us-" Frieza began.
"The problem is the hyperdive is damaged beyond repair" Nadan had cut off Frieza who stared back incredulously. Nadan took a moment to close the back hatch of the cleaning drone before continuing with his explanation "that was the second reason why Earth is just not viable right now, we are currently stuck with just the main engines and a trip like that would take months to complete."
"Grrrr well how did the damn thing break?" Frieza demanded the vein in his head bulging as his plans fell apart before his eyes.
"Remember when you threw the ship into the atmosphere my Lord?" Nadan asked as he kicked the hatch of another drone open, Frieza nodded slowly recalling the massive strain he had sustained to hurl the ship into orbit with his mind. "Yes well that fried quite a bit of the electronics on the ship, we almost lost life support, our scanners were down for two days, our communications systems were down even longer, I still can't get the toilets flushing the correct direction, the espresso machine is still only capable of making lattes and as I mentioned earlier the hyperdrive is damaged beyond repair."
"So how do we fix it?" Frieza asked in exasperation.
"We need a new one as most of the current one was melted, there were some short circuits a fire broke out it was quite terrifying" Nadan drawled on as he poked around at the insides of the next cleaning drone.
"So we need to find a hyperdrive system that is compatible with the ship, great just great, are there any other reasons we can't go to Earth?" All of the Frost Demon's prior excitement had been utterly extinguished in the span of about two minutes.
"Yes but just one, I have no clue where Earth is" Nadan gave an approving nod to the last of the drones as it scooted away to perform its nightly routines.
"… What?" Frieza could have sworn he misheard that last one. "You should probably repeat that, I could have sworn you said you have no clue where Earth is."
"That's correct my Lord I tried checking up on its location a few weeks ago, I had a feeling you would want to go back so I thought I'd be prepared." Nadan had walked over to his work station where he sat back in his comfortable chair turning to the pair of Frost Demon's before him. "When I checked, there were no records whatsoever of any planet called Earth."
"That's impossible there must be something giving away its position." Frieza stated he couldn't believe that not only couldn't they reach the planet he so desperately wanted to go to, but apparently he was incapable of even finding the damn thing.
"Now I'm positive I spotted some information on the planet in the archives not long after you returned from Namek, but when I went back it was missing. So were the flight logs for the Saiyans attack pods that Prince Vegeta and his subordinates took, now there's really only one being in the entire PTO who could authorize the records to be completely expunged like that."
Realisation slowly dawned on Frieza as Nadan's words sunk in. "That son of a bitch! I'll kill him! If we ever gather the Dragon Balls I'll use the wish to bring that bastard back to life just so I can send him back to hell!" Frieza was positively seething, even from beyond the grave his father continued to get in his way. Frieza walked over to a chair and slumped down onto it feeling completely dejected, ten minutes ago the Frost Demon had believed he had the answer to all their problems but as it turned out it was just another set of obstacles.
Frieza felt the strong hand of his brother clasp his shoulder shaking him out of his stupor. Looking up he saw Cooler was smiling as he patted his brother's shoulder. "Look on the bright side brother, you weren't sure of what to do next and now we have a mission, we'll have the hyperdrive fixed, we'll stock up on supplies and we will locate Earth."
Something about Cooler's demeanour sparked something inside Frieza, grinning back he clasped his hand with his brother's. Both princes stood face to face grinning as if they were children again about to get up to all sorts of mischief. Cooler was right the plan was still sound, so what if it could take longer than expected, who cared if it was going to be a little more difficult to accomplish, that just meant victory would taste that much sweeter. As both brothers left Nadan's lab Frieza realised what it was he was feeling, it was the spark of excitement at the prospect of an adventure.
Author's Notes: Hey everyone another chapter down and we're back with some more action, not an all-out war but hopefully enough to tide you over. I wanted to try my hand at injecting a little more comedy in this chapter after all I don't want every chapter in this story to be needlessly grim dark.
One of things I definitely tried to show more of is Frieza's relationship with Aayla, I tried to show off a little of how they function together not just in combat but also with just day to day stuff. People have asked if Aayla and Frieza are gonna be a thing all I can say I 100% ship them together (Is it considered shipping if I'm the one writing the story?).
I love writing Cooler and Frieza's interactions, deep down they do in fact love each other. It's just they have so much crap stored up from their father's meddling that it's made it difficult for them to really bond.
Another thing people have asked where we are currently sitting in the DBZ timeline and so far right now we are sitting at roughly a month after Trunks showed up to deliver his warning from the future. What does that mean you may ask well that means we now have three years in between now and the arrival of the androids, that's right folks that is a stupid long gap so be prepared for training, space adventures, Kessel Runs, milk runs and MOVIE VILLAINS! I feel like Frieza needs more time to mold himself into the hero we need but don't deserve. Also I love the idea of King Cold still screwing with his sons even from the grave so I just had to roll with it.
I know we've been a little light on Shuyo this chapter but don't worry he's gonna get some more time in the following chapters including some one on one time with Frieza. I really want to explore the relationship they will form, it's gonna be a lot like what Goku and Piccolo have.
If I forgot anything feel free to let me know I really hope you guys are enjoying the direction we're going with the story can you believe over 7000 views, I sometimes have trouble wrapping my head around it, you guys are so awesome.
Remember if you got questions I got the answers, until next time readers stay beautiful!
