An Unburdened Fury
Chapter 28: Comatose
"Sir, we've only just barely stabilized you!"
The words fell upon uncaring ears as Frieza quickly tore at the needles and IVs on his body. His gamble failed in spectacular fashion and it would be moments at best before Cooler found out.
His vision became clouded as he forced himself past the worried doctors that were in charge of taking care of him. If Frieza got hurt in their care, there would be hell to pay.
The Arcosian's mind ran wild with plans of escape. An escape pod was traceable and so were all of their ships so commandeering one was foolish. He was too weak to fight Cooler head on. Their species didn't need air to breath- the vacuum of space? It would have to do.
He forced the door open, too focused on escaping to deal with the medical staff questioning his strength, and shot through the nearest wall. At least, he would have were it not for the crushing pressure on his tail.
"And just where-!" Cooler pulled his sibling away from the metal separating him and his freedom and slammed him through the door of the medical suite. "-do you think you're going?!"
Frieza pulled himself from the wreckage of his bed and the bodies of the medical staff. From his perspective, Cooler's face was masked by shadows. His crimson eyes were the only things he could see. "You can't kill me! I'm stronger than you!"
"Oh really?"
The elder sped forward, his grasping fingers aimed for his throat, and Frieza lifted his arm. Deflecting the arm was like moving a mountain in motion. Frieza saw the ever increasing muscle mass of his brother through his guard. "Then why are you at my mercy?"
Two quick blows to his stomach took what little strength the smaller Arcosian had. A third forced him through the wall behind him.
A deep baritone replaced Cooler's voice. "You know, I was planning a quick death for you."
Frieza looked around as he stood up. The engine for the ship was right there and a plan formed in his head.
"But you just had to push your luck!"
The Arcosian rolled away from the massive foot that would've broken his spine. He could feel his soreness becoming pain and exhaustion already creeping up in him.
"You just had to insult me one more time! Well no more! I won't hear another word! Not another breath! Not from you, not from father!"
The smaller sibling reached up with violet ki in his hand and swiped at his brother. Cooler easily avoided the Death Wave. The elder brother scowled.
"You're so pathetic! You can't even-!"
Cooler turned around as the damaged engine exploded. The maw of nuclear power swallowed the would be emperor as Frieza put up a barrier.
The ship fell apart under the explosive consequence of the tyrant's attack and he found himself ejected into the vacuum of space. It was a simple matter from that point to look for the nearest ship and dash there with his remaining might. That wouldn't have killed his older brother but it did buy him time that he needed.
Frieza crashed through the nearest window to the shock of everyone on board. The heir to the Planet Trade stood up with a fire in his eyes.
"Get this ship out of this system now!"
His brother may have had the advantage at the moment but that would change. He would heal, become stronger, and bend the empire to his command.
It would be hard what with his brother no doubt jockeying for control of the PTO but he was Lord Frieza.
Nothing was impossible for him.
Cooler wanted nothing more than to just scream to the void in front of him as he saw the ship that the scoundrel commandeered. His brother's death was was right there and he let it slip through his fingers!
It was a miracle he didn't simply burst from the pure rage flowing through him.
'I am better than him!' His voice boomed in his head. 'How, HOW, did I let this happen?! How does he continue to live again and again?!'
Silence met his thoughts and Cooler realized his anger would get him nowhere at the moment. There would be a time for it later but for now he had to get ahead of Frieza's plans.
The Arcosian looked around and imitated his brother's actions though he entered through an airlock rather than potentially make the ship unfit to fly.
"Set a course to Arcos!"
He had to assert his control quickly; any delays and his brother will beat him to the PTO. With Cold's death, there wasn't a head to the snake and the body will look to the strongest to replace it. No doubt with both of them competing for power, the empire will be divided on who to support so it was a matter of who could get majority support first.
There was the loose end that was Broly and those minions that gave him trouble. He might be dead or unconscious but they were still alive and kicking.
No, right now there was no time and the risk was too great. He was far weaker than he was earlier and there's no way they wouldn't be openly hostile to him after his earlier performance. One day, they'll meet their fates at his hand but it wouldn't be today.
Those last instants were gut wrenching to watch.
His end goal was mere instants from being realized and the Saiyan pulls a miraculous last ditch attack for the win.
He felt North Kai approach him before the stumpy deity put a hand on his shoulder. The fear in the plump god was palpable.
Why shouldn't he be afraid? He had done many terrible, atrocious things to strengthen his warriors, as well as himself, in his quest for the Saiyan's death.
He could kill all of his fellow Kais in an instant but was powerless against the Legendary Super Saiyan.
"It's time to go."
That was the deal. If they let him witness the battle, he would peacefully turn himself in. Though with Papoi, Galech, and Torbie backing them showed how much his fellow Kais trusted him. And why would they? He willingly sought his death to release Bojack upon the galaxy. The scourge he merely theorized could be strong enough to kill Broly.
He turned to them his head bowed. "I'm ready."
His former students, the strongest he had ever taught, flanked him, their faces blank. The shame they felt for their mentor was beyond comprehension once they discovered the extent of his crimes. Any words they had they've already let him know.
It was an evil too great for Yemma to ignore. A lot of people died because of him. It was the first time the judge had to sentence a Kai to Hell.
A thousand years in the abominable dimension before he was reincarnated. Being a god had perks like escaping damnation it seemed.
He breathed in the deathly odor of his new life. It was barren land that seemingly stretched on forever in this particular section though he knew there to be more fertile landscapes he could make his way towards.
"I thought it'd smell worse."
The remaining Galaxy Soldiers looked upon the body of the scarred man with trepidation.
"What should we do with him?"
The question of the hour hung in the air as Kogu looked between his comrades. His own mind was made up but a discussion, anything really, was a good distraction from the day's events. They were also without Bojack so there was no one to decide what to do.
"Leave him."
"Help him."
Zangya and Bujin locked eyes.
"Leave him?!" The smaller of the two asked incredulously. "After all that? It was your idea to let him go!"
"I wanted Bojack dead and he was the only one who could do it." Zangya gestured to the unconscious Saiyan to emphasize his point. "That was the only reason I let him go and now they're both out of commission. Why would you want to help him get back on his feet?"
Kogu piped up. "You saw glimpses of him during the fight; he's crazy!"
The diminutive Hera stood his ground. "He also spared us. He could have killed us all in an instant after Bojack and that other guy left us but he didn't!"
"Because we weren't worth his time!" Countered the swordsman.
Zangya put a hand on Kogu's shoulder to calm him down but the man pulled it away from her. She saw his eyes water as he turned around. The man wasn't fit of mind to have an argument so soon into his grieving.
"He was in a life or death struggle with two others on his level," She began so as to continue in Kogu's stead. The man needed a few minutes to gather himself. "Is it really hard to believe that he was just conserving his energy?"
"I saw the way he looked at us, Zangya. He let us go and it'd be in our best interests to pay him back." Bujin looked over to where Bojack's ashes rested.
"The two beings we fought earlier are still out there and, from what we saw, the bigger one was holding back a lot of his power." His gaze transitioned to an empty stare as he thought about how many times they seemingly avoided death. "That transformation of his would have broken us."
The other two were silent at his words.
"We need a buffer like him to keep them at bay long enough so we can get closer to their level of power."
Broly shot up with a gasp. Where the hell was he? And why wasn't he hurting?
The Saiyan looked down at his hands. Their scars were absent. His gaze moved to the rest of his body to find that the rest of them had seemingly disappeared.
"What the hell?"
He looked around the dark room with an eerie sense of familiarity. The only illumination was an all too bright light above him.
He had been here before. It was the surgical room where his check ups were performed.
"What am I doing here?"
In spite of the horrors that transpired against him in this very room, Broly found himself strangely calm. He wasn't strapped down to anything nor was his power being restrained. A vast improvement over where he used to be.
He swiveled in placed and pushed himself off of the table. No point in staying here.
Broly tore the only door to the room from its frame and tossed it away before promptly turning Super Saiyan. There were no lights other than the one in the room behind him and his golden form provided plenty of it.
It felt like a lot of time passed during his travels through the ever winding corridors of the prison. There was nothing in the way of clocks, or any technology really, so it was impossible to tell just how long he had been walking.
As he went to step around a corner, he heard a faint sound like metal grinding together. He reached out with his energy sensing but felt nothing.
He continued on towards the noise unafraid but wary. It would be simple enough to just transform and end this whole place but his curiosity demanded answers and it'd be a special kind of stupid for him not to have his guard up after everything he's been through.
The noise was steadily growing louder with murmurs underneath the grinding becoming apparent. They were too low to make out any words now.
Broly came up on a door that was identical to the one he ripped up earlier. Not thinking twice, the Super Saiyan flicked the door open with ease and entered. The sight that greeted him stopped his breath in its tracks.
It was him on a table, an exact replica of the situation he was in earlier, but this Broly was noticeably younger. It was clear that he was dead as his abdomen was a mere cavity empty of any organs.
A shadowy figure, hidden from his sight by the darkness in the room, stepped in front of the body with a scalpel grinding against the table as it moved.
"How disappointing."
It turned around and he could tell that it was looking directly at him.
"To be so strong, to kill so many, to die so young." It stepped towards him and Broly unconsciously moved back. "Without a word of resistance." It passed the doorway and sparks flew when the blade met the frame.
"Where was it? The bravado you showed up there."
Broly clenched his fists in anger. "This entire thing, or that body, is all just an illusion." The fires of his aura grew to fill the entirety of the space between. "One you'll release me from if you don't want to suffer the consequences."
The golden glow of his form lit up the shadow for a mere instant. It was if someone took him and forcibly attached pieces of his past victories on his body. Cold's tail, Turb'Dis's right arm, the left half of Bojack's face, - his Super Saiyan form was forced away from him before he could truly absorb it's appearance.
"Was the power merely a facade?"
Sparks flew from the wall as blade met the metal. An invisible hand grabbed his neck. Something sharp pierced the skin of his forehead.
"Just a cover up for what you truly are?"
The scalpel slid past the bone of his skull.
Broly woke with a shock as his vision was blinded by a cloud of something. His hair shot up in an instinctive turn to Super Saiyan and reality cracked in front of him. He quickly realized he was in a tank of blue liquid and the cloud was just bubbles from the device strapped to his face.
'This better not be another fucking nightmare.'
Everything looked right this time around physically speaking and he even felt better. He felt something attached to his back and forehead but otherwise he was just floating there.
He noticed some movement outside of the glass that surrounded him. It was the woman from Bojack's group.
A beep rang out around him in the liquid and it started draining. The process from start to finish only took about thirty seconds to finish. He felt the cool air from outside pour in when the glass of the tank lifted up.
The sudden shift from soft blue light to the intensity of white fluorescent forced him to close his eyes. The world took a moment to refocus once he reopened them.
Broly reached up, the motion slow due to the stiff feeling in his limbs, and took off the mask. It wasn't strapped to his head by anything which brought the question of just how exactly it stayed on his face but that was something to focus on later.
The two made eye contact and an awkward silence passed between the two as The Saiyan slowly adjusted to consciousness. Her eyes were wide with fear and surprise.
"Hi, uh, you're awake." She said out of the blue. It was more to break the quiet than a genuine sentiment.
The climb out of the tank was less graceful than he would've liked. There was still some soreness in his abdomen and his sense of balance wasn't all the way there just yet.
"I'm surprised that I am if I'm being honest."
She took a step back as he straightened out and subsequently towered over her. He held up his left arm and inspected it. Clean and soft save for the callouses and old wounds.
"Which begs the question: why am I alive right now?"
The woman seemed to gather her courage as she cleared her throat. "You saved us from Bojack; we're just repaying the debt."
"I don't recall saving anyone but myself." Broly focused some ki to his palm and an orb of corrosive energy formed. Nothing felt restricted. He crushed it in his hand.
"In fact, your little group almost got me killed. Speaking of which, where are they?"
Those words seemingly broke whatever resolve she had and terror flashed across her face. Beyond the fear was someone whose plans had gone awry but that was no matter. He came here and killed Bojack and that was all he desired to do. Normally, he still would have killed them for interfering but he was here in good health because of them so what's the harm in letting them live?
"Why do you want to know?"
"General curiosity. You seemed close so it's strange that they're not around."
With her reluctance to answer, he found his interest waning so he pushed past her to the door. He was hungry and there was some stuff left in his ship that was tolerable to eat. It'd be tough to actually get back to the thing given that he- Broly stopped as he realized something and looked down at his mostly destroyed clothes. They were heavy with the liquid and falling apart.
"Do you know where I can find a change of pants?"
The question threw her off and she was stammering as she pointed in a vague direction to the right.
As Broly moved out of sight, Zangya's legs gave out beneath her and she fell back. This whole thing was a terrible idea. They should have just left well enough alone but no, she just had to let Bujin convince her to be there when he woke up. It was just her luck that he went to the bathroom when the man did.
Kogu would be so smug if he was here and not wherever he fucked off to.
'I'm not going to just offer myself on a silver platter to the guy after surviving Bojack. You two are on your own if you want to help him.'
Asshole.
"They have a surprisingly diverse selection of ways to reli- where'd he go?!"
Zangya quickly put her finger to the diminutive man's lips as she urged him to be quiet. "He woke up while you were gone, thanks for that by the way, and went to get some pants."
Bujin's bewildered expression would've normally been funny were it not for their circumstances at the moment. He reached up and moved her hand from his face. "I feel like there is some details missing in your description there."
She quickly explained the brief series of events that occurred which left Bujin nervous.
"I don't know what I was expecting for him to do but certainly not that."
Zangya brows furrowed. "What were we expecting? He doesn't exactly scream 'nice guy' when you look at him."
"At least Kogu's not here. He'd be too busy being self-satisfied to aid us."
A piece of glass from the tank fell to the ground which startled the Hera. They looked back at one another with their nerves frayed.
"How angry do you think he'll be when he realizes you didn't know where the clothes were?"
Author's Notes
This chapter feels a little fillery, and it is a bit, but some loose ends needed tying and plot lines needed starting.
There's going to be some time before the next saga begins. It's going to skip ahead a few years but the next few chapters will take us through the time skip and we'll see what's going on on Earth as well.
So, uh, some reviews would be nice. They make me stronger.
Ent out.
P.S. - Gonna go back and change a few things in previous chapters. It's mostly going to be editing and rewriting a few scenes. Nothing story wise is going to change but it should make the transition from Broly from the beginning of the story to this Broly a tad smoother.
Review Responses!
Gunmetal The Immortal: Here's your answer!
Jazz: That's great to hear! I strive for a great story.
trentp100: Hell yeah, couldn't have the guy built up that much and go down without something to his name.
fightingchampion: Well, here's another serving to tide you over.
THE. READER9: Cliff hangers are great, amirite? (Put a space in your name because doc manager erased everything but the 9 as it was.)
Night Shadow76: That's great to hear! My first priority with Broly is making him a real person and a real person has real flaws and real limits. A lot of Broly fics have this issue where they boil him down to his big features ( the legendary transformation, the increasing power, the rage, etc...) and then they fail to expand beyond that. It makes for a boring fic and a very flat protagonist/antagonist.
LordGhostStriker: I never thought of it that way but yeah, pretty much.
Raos: You were right on the money with that second guess. Uncanny really.
enarmonios: I feel like I'm getting too predictable since you and Raos guessed part of this chapter right. The next arc should fix that.
Guest: Quite possibly.
Supporter: Aw, you're making me blush!
