24
Chapter Twenty Four
" Honor is simply the morality of superior men."
H.L Mencken
"The doctors said it'll take about a month for him to heal completely." Adalina had her arms crossed, her face twisted in concern. The scene looked nearly ethereal as the green liquid of the healing tank cast an eerie glow over the two occupants in the dimly lit room, "I knew he was in bad shape but not this bad. He went way over his limits."
"Should we be concerned of Kakarot? Will he cause us any problems?" Frieza questioned, his face emotionless, tone: bored.
"No, I don't think so. He didn't seem like the type for revenge, and he was in bad shape too. He's not stronger than us." she reasoned. She didn't want Frieza treating the Earthlings like a threat, they were humble, honorable people.
"It will be your problem if you're wrong." he turned away from the tank, "Come now, Arctica has requested our audience and we need to leave now if we're to get there on time."
She was confused about that, and a little bit concerned,
"Why so sudden?" she questioned as she fell into step with him, "Has something happened?"
"I'm not sure, she sounded urgent, however. She said that it wasn't a matter that could be discussed over vulnerable communication lines." that meant it was sensitive information, more than likely about that damned woman, Lilith.
Arctica had been keeping an eye out on the cosmos, Cooler too, after that entire fiasco had occurred a year ago.
"I told you no good would come out of collecting that useless staff, Little Brother." Cooler's voice was condescending as his tail swished back and forth, "You've disturbed an enemy that was nearly too much for you to handle. And in your released form as well. Don't try and tell me you're wrong, it's been quite some time since you've been injured significantly in a battle."
Frieza growled, lunging at his brother, his aching muscles groaning in protest, the gash on his arm splitting open and causing red blood to well to the surface. He ignored it, grabbing his older brother by the throat and pinning him to the wall,
"I'm still strong enough to take you out brother, so I advise you watch yourself."
"Boys! Put him down right now." Arctica had been watching the exchange and had decided that she had had enough. When Frieza didn't listen, she stomped over and jerked them apart, grabbing them by the collars of their armor and tossing them to opposite sides of the room. The woman didn't get angry often, or showcase her surprising amount of brute strength, but when she did, it was explosive, "Can't you see he cares for you? He's only looking out for you and you're letting your stupid ego get in the way of that.
"I'm worried for you too. Why can't you accept help from anyone? No matter how tough you think you are, you can't keep doing these things all on your own." she took a deep breath, "What would your mother think? She wouldn't want you two fighting, she wouldn't like your insatiable thirst for conquest, and she certainly would help you if you needed it."
"It never mattered what she thought, only what father thought." he answered, hanging his head low to avoid eye contact with her.
"And look what you've become." she replied solemnly, "He's gone. It doesn't matter what he thinks." she placed her hands on her hips, "You've made a pretty formidable enemy kiddo. You need to watch yourself. I'm glad you've got Adalina to look out for you, and now you have the both of us. Starting today, you will be accepting our help. We can both keep an eye out for this Lilith, and you will call us if you run into her again."
The tyrant opened his mouth to protest but was cut off by a small voice next to him,
"I don't want you or Ada to get killed." Polarra's voice was filled was a pleading tone that was too old for her face as she stared straight through him with her ruby red eyes, "It's okay to accept help because that's what family is for."
And he had been unable to say anything after that. He just couldn't disappoint the little girl, and maybe a few extra eyes would help him track down the Galaxy Staff. But of course, immortality would also help as well.
He smirked, yes, he would be leaving for Namek soon. Perhaps he would wait for Vegeta to wake up? So he could watch him grovel in hopelessness as he stole his wish.
"We'll be landing soon." Zarbon poked his head into the training room she occupied, informing her.
"Eh, I'm done in here anyway." she sighed and powered down the lasers, having been dodging them for the past few hours. She would have trained with Frieza but he seemed busy and not in the mood at all. So she let it be.
"Is it true that Vegeta killed Nappa himself?" Zarbon had been curious ever since Frieza had mentioned it, and now seemed as good a time as ever.
Adalina furrowed her brows as the two walked side by side down the hall way,
"Yeah. I'm still not sure why, Vegeta was out cold before I could ask. Honestly, I'm not surprised, those two haven't had a healthy relationship in years, and I never liked Nappa to begin with." she reasoned. It wasn't much of a loss, really.
"I agree. Saiyans have a habit of not valuing their comrades lives if they become worthless during battle, perhaps that's what happened? Maybe Nappa couldn't fight any longer."
"Well, whatever it was, there are only three Saiyans left now, and one of them is a halfling." she pulled her hair out of its pony tail, allowing the way blue locks to cascade down her shoulders. Her hair was getting long, she noticed, as it nearly reached the length of Zarbon's braid. She needed to cut it.
"I heard about that. Hopefully the Earthlings won't cause us problems." he stopped at his room, "I suppose I should prepare for landing. I'll talk with you later."
"Bye bye." she waved lightly as he stepped through the door.
She was on her way to the throne room, so she and Frieza could head to the palace together, though she supposed she should stop at their quarters to grab her coat and assorted warm clothing.
Adalina quickly ducked into the room she shared with the tyrant and waltzed over to the closet, searching for her new coat. She kept quite a few of the garments since they traveled to Arcos often. She pulled out the long red coat with black trimming and fur accents. It puffed out in a bell shape at her waist, making it look like a dress. It had a hood too, with black fur around the edges. Something she quite enjoyed.
She pulled on a pair of black tights with soft insulation on the inside,and a matching long sleeved shirt, and then a pair of boots. Gloves adorned her delicate hands, something she usually forgot about. She never wore scarves though, too itchy for her tastes.
She finished her routine and continued on her way to the throne room, which was never a long walk at all, since the two rooms were practically next door to one another.
"That coat suits you well." Frieza said as she walked in. He had bought it for her after all.
"Thank you." she blushed, not use to the compliments he had been giving her as of late, "You have surprisingly good taste."
"Surprisingly? I really wish you had gotten the chance to meet my mother, she was very into the 'fashion' scene, and wished everyday that my brother and I were girls." he smirked at that, one time Cooler had put on one of her dresses for fun, and it had taken off from there.
"Of course of course." she smiled, "When will we be landing."
"In just a few minutes." he answered, "Polarra is dying to see you." he rolled his eyes.
"How cute."
"How annoying." he meant it in good nature of course, the little girl wasn't that bad, most days.
"You were a kid once too. So was I, and I can guarantee you I was way worse than she could ever be. I was a hyper-active little thing." she reminisced, thinking of the time she pushed her brother out of a tree, causing him to break his elbow. Though that was more mean spirited than annoying.
"You mean you've changed since then? I would have never noticed." he drawled out sarcastically. He was in his first form, so she technically had the upper hand, and yet he still teased her. Probably because he could power up in an instant.
"Ha ha, very funny." she was standing beside him as they both gazed out of the bubble port, into the abyss of space. She looked at their reflection and couldn't help thinking how cute they looked together, "Why are we both so short, it isn't fair."
"Does height truly matter when you can fly? It isn't much of a disadvantage, it actually makes us smaller targets." he surmised, it was something he had told himself for years, ever since he had stopped growing. He was merely glad that she didn't tower over him.
A voice announced that they were preparing to dock, so the two of them took a seat. Frieza in his hover pod, and Adalina at her desk. They didn't really need to be buckled in, but the two chairs were rooted to the space ship, so it would be something to hold onto if anything should happen.
It never took long to dock, so the process was over quickly, and the two of them were standing at the air-lock in no time, waiting to exit.
"I don't know if I've ever brought you here during the warmer months. It's not unbearably cold, and it's likely it will be snowing." Frieza commented off-handedly. His planet was beautiful when fresh snow fell, but he wouldn't let her know how awe-inspiring it was to him. But he hoped that she experienced the same wonder he did.
The hatch opened, and sure enough, the city was alive with people as they happily went about their day with the snow falling above them. It wasn't quite a blizzard, but more than a flurry, that was for sure.
Adalina's face lit up, she had never actually seen snow fall, not once in her life. Sure she had been to cold planets made of ice, but never had she seen snow actually come from the sky.
"I've never actually seen snow." she finally replied, "It's wonderful." she stepped out of the ship and onto the fresh white powder, nearly losing her footing on a particularly slick piece of ice. Frieza steadied her by the shoulders, smirking as he walked ahead of her,
"Do try not to fall, it would be embarrassing." he glided over the ground as if it were nothing, making her believe that she had only stepped on one patch of ice.
She took another step and nearly lost her footing again, throwing her arms out to keep steady. The whole road must have been frozen over,
"Frieza that's not fair." she whined, levitating an inch or so off the ground and gliding next to him, "You wanted me to fall." she had her arms crossed.
"No I didn't, that would have been awful of me." he feigned innocence as he placed a hand over his chest in mock hurt, "How could you think so little of me?"
She placed her ankle in front of his shin, lightly kicking backwards and causing him to stumble. He did not fall though, he was just too good. He narrowed his eyes at her, while she flashed him a grin, not caring if he was mad at her. He started it,
"Oh how terrible of me, it was only an accident, I would never do that on purpose."
They continued on their way, Frieza occasionally trying to knock her out of the air while being as discreet as possible. He never managed to, and before long they were walking up the palace steps. Adalina was now securely back on the ground, seeing as the stairs weren't covered in ice.
As they came upon the top landing her flipped his tail out, tripping her. She grabbed onto his shoulder, bringing him down with her. Unfortunately they landed in quite the compromising position, with Frieza on top of her, straddling her waist.
In another unfortunate turn of events, Arctica just so happened to open the door and see the spectacle unfold. She smirked and put a hand on her hip,
"While I have no problem allowing you two to get better acquainted with each other, you are in public, and we also have some rather important matters to discuss."
Adalina's face was a bright red as she pushed him off of her, jumping to her feet as she brushed the snow off of her jacket. She was glowering at him, mumbling something about 'insensitive idiots' as she stomped through the open door, past the two Arcosians.
Frieza shared the same sense of humor as his aunt, so he found the whole situation amusing, and a little enlightening. He hadn't minded the position they were in, not one bit.
"Adalina dear she's merely teasing you." he said as he entered the foyer as well, one of the servants had already taken her coat. He hadn't realized what he had called her until it was too late. Usually he only called her dear in a mocking manner, but this was far from it.
The Zandonian seemed to have ignored it as she scoffed,
"I'm not mad." she gave a small smirk, "Though I don't think we ended up in the position by accident, Frieza." she winked, she was only teasing. Or maybe it was flirting? Was there a difference?
He didn't know how to react to that, so he settled for his usual biting tone,
"I assure you, we did." he turned toward Arctica as the woman entered the room,
"You two stop flirting and come on. We've got a lot to talk about."
Adalina's blush reappeared with a new found fury as she glared at the older woman,
"It's not flirting." she mumbled.
"Of course it isn't deary." she smiled and patted her on the head.
The throne room was as magnificent as ever, decorated in red and gold, however, Frieza held it with some disdain when he saw who was waiting for them.
Cooler showed no emotion, and neither did he, both brothers giving each other an unreadable look. Adalina hated that they fought with each other, but it seemed to be getting better.
Arctica took a seat on her throne, the others gathering around her,
"Hello Adalina, it's been a while." Cooler said in passing.
"Yes it has been."
Frieza glared at the two, not liking in the slightest that his brother was talking to his second. He knew he shouldn't be so possessive, but the woman belonged to him. And his brother loved taking his belongings.
"I'm just gonna dive right into this, since I've kept you waiting long enough. We learned some new things about Lilith." Arctica began, clicking a remote that brought up a hologram in the middle of the now dimly-lit room, it was an image of a planet, "She hails from on of the other universes, I'm sure you know of them."
Adalina had heard of them, there were twelve universes in total, but she was under the impression that only gods and their attendants could travel back and forth between the worlds,
"How is she here then?" Frieza questioned, "It's very difficult to travel between universes."
Arctica clicked another button, showing Lilith, Baphomet, and Daemon, though they were all wearing creepy looking clothing, draped in shadows,
"I got in touch with the Supreme Kai, though he was nearly reluctant to speak with me, given our family's history." Cooler was the one to speak this time, "She's from the demon realm, but apparently, in her universe, her and a handful of other demons attempted to stage a coupe, and overthrow the leader of Hell. Their attempt failed and they were cast out, to our universe."
"Sounds like a story." Frieza drawled out.
"You have no idea how many strings I had to pull to get this information, and then The Supreme Kai had to pull even more. It's accurate." Cooler glared at him, irritated that his brother didn't believe him.
Arctica held her hand up to prevent any arguments before they started,
"It's the best answer we've got. I'm assuming she's in league with an alien capable of controlling the Galaxy Staff, since there's no way she would have even known about it. I'm not sure what she's trying to do, but whatever it is, can't be good for anyone. Supreme Kai suggested that it was possible she is trying to revive Majin Buu, but with the Galaxy Staff, there are far worse possibilities." her face was serious as she explained the direness of the situation.
"The staff part was destroyed wasn't it?" Adalina questioned.
"Yes, but, that doesn't mean a strong mage or wizard can't build a new one. It's only a matter of time before she finds one, if she hasn't already." Cooler answered, his arms crossed over his chest, "We need to find it and prevent that from happening."
"She's hiding and we have no way of finding her, our scouter don't read their ki signatures." Frieza knew they were helpless in that department, if she didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be.
"We have the engineers working on something right now, it should be done within the month." Arctica smirked, "It is our duty to keep this universe safe, whether you like it or not. We'll find her, one way or another."
"Of course." Adalina smiled, "We can do that."
Arctica smiled, that girl would keep his nephew in check,
"Now, why don't you two go and find little miss Polarra. She's out in the town somewhere, and it's getting dark."
Frieza sighed but relented, turning to leave with Adalina at his side,
"Any idea where she would be?" he asked
"Try the sweets shop." Arctica replied blandly, knowing that the girl had probably spent the whole of her allowance on candy and other assorted deserts.
The two walked back to the foyer so Adalina could grab her coat,
"Do you think we'll be able to find Lilith before anything happens?" she questioned as she buttoned the red garment up and pulled her hood over her head.
"Honestly? I think we'll have to take action when she does. She's not that strong, certainly not stronger than myself. This universe is mine to rule, I'll not let someone as petty as her take it from me." he had a sinister tone in his voice, one that still scared her from time to time. It made it feel as if all the work she had done was insignificant, that he would never truly change.
"Well, that and, it would be bad if everyone died or anything." she said as gently as possible, so as to not anger him.
"Yes of course.'" he replied dully, he didn't mean it.
They stepped into the chilly air and walked off into the city, Adalina taking extra care on the ice this time, placing her weight forward a bit and taking slow, deliberate steps. It helped a lot, but she was still cautious, and wary of the tyrant beside her.
"Perhaps we should split up? There are a lot of people out tonight." she suggested.
Frieza nodded, agreeing with her,
"Don't get lost yourself, though." he called before turning away, "You should check the sweets shop first." he added as an after-thought.
She nodded, walking towards the cute little shop with colorful cakes and candies in the window, heaven for Polarra. She would be surprised if the young girl wasn't in there. She walked in with a purpose, searching for the familiar red bio-gem and pale skin. There was a few Arcosian children in there, but none of them who she was looking for.
She walked to the counter to ask the smiling young cashier if she had seen the little girl.
"Actually, she just left a few minutes ago." she replied, "She seemed to be on a mission."
"Thank you." Adalina sighed and walked out the door, watching the ground as she turned the corner. She probably she have been watching where she was going, as she bumped into someone, nearly losing her footing.
A strong hand gripped her shoulder and prevented her from falling,
"Woah there." a distinctly male voice commented.
"I am so sorry sir, I'm a bit air-headed I'm afraid." she looked up, surprised by how tall he was. He looked like Cooler almost, but with a black and white color scheme, and pale lips. Not at all the deep purple she was use to seeing on the Arcosians.
"No worries, you slipped on the ice, it's to be expected." he held out a hand, "I'm Kain."
Adalina took his hand, returning the gesture before releasing his appendage,
"Adalina. I'm actually looking for someone, Polarra, she's the queen's daughter." she explained, hoping he could be of some help.
"I can't say I've seen her." he dismissed her question quickly, "Say, aren't you Frieza's second in command?"
That caught her off guard, most of the civilians didn't address him without an honorific of some sort, meaning he must have been a noble or something of that matter,
"I-yes. I am." she answered reluctantly, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
A sudden darkness seemed to settle beside her as someone gripped her bare wrist, their nails puncturing the exposed skin,
"There you are." he growled through clenched teeth, "I found her. We're leaving." he was giving her a look she hadn't received in years, one that said, 'disobey me and I'll make you regret it.' What had gotten into him?
He didn't wait for her reply, merely dragging her off towards where he had told Polarra to wait,
"Hey, ow- hey, you're hurting me, let go!" she whispered urgently.
He released her arm, and she brought it to her chest, cradling the injury. It wasn't anything that wouldn't heal in an hour or so, but it had shocked her,
"Do not talk to that man ever again do you understand me?" he growled lowly, so they wouldn't be over-heard.
"Why not Frieza, I'm a grown woman I can take care of myself." she replied in a heated whisper.
"Because I said so. Do not forget who owns you Adalina. I do not want you around him." he had his reasons of course, reasons that she didn't need to know, not at that moment. He sighed as he stared at her dejected look, "Let me see." he held his hand out for her arm.
She reluctantly held it out, and he took it, gently inspecting the small, bloody half-moons he had caused to blossom on her lilac skin,
"I apologize, I forget I have sharp nails sometimes." he covered, it was a lie, but he couldn't have her mad at him.
"Maybe you should cut them." she suggested, taking her arm back and walking once more.
"And maybe you should cut your hair." he replied.
"I'll ask Arctica to when we return." she sighed, still confused over what had just happened.
Perhaps he was still as toxic as he had always been? Though his bouts of violent anger were few and far between, and she certainly wasn't some victim to be pushed around, it wasn't healthy, for either of them.
Maybe he was jealous? Or maybe Kain was a bad man and she just didn't know it, he had his reasons and she was sure that he would tell her in time.
In time.
A/N: That was a little intense. And don't worry, Polarra will be in the next chapter. If any of you have any questions about this chapter, just leave a review and I'll try to answer it. Oh, and I got into a little debate with a friend of mine about using the word 'Arcosian' in here. I am aware that it isn't canon, but honestly, I've already changed the canon, and this is fanfiction so what does it matter. Any way, Frieza is still a bit of a tyrant, and that won't really change until after Namek. I'm trying to be as slow as possible with this, because it's really easy to redeem these character types too quickly. I understand that Frieza is an absolute terror, so it's only natural that it would take a while for someone that awful and stuck in their ways to change.
Also, I'm working on a picture of Adalina in her winter gear, so keep an eye out for it. And I'll post a picture of Kain when I get to it, I've never been good at drawing boys.
Next Chapter: Polarra trains with Adalina, Frieza, and Cooler.