Chapter 33
Cooler opened his eyes slowly as he gained a strange feeling, "Normally Salza would contact me back by now." Sure enough Cooler received a message, his chair's armrest had a button glowing and Cooler casually pressed it as a scree dropped from the ceiling appearing before him. What happened next brought a small smirk to his face, on the other end was the very two Saiyans he had been hunting. "Seeing as you two are still alive and not detained, Salza and his team must be dead."
"Yeah, and your next." Turles said in the camera.
"Meet us on cooler planet 6 sector 87 B-G-F, we will end things, oh and Lord Cooler. Make sure you truly prepare yourself to face a true super saiyan." Yami said only to frown at Coolers appearance. The now uncontested ruler of the universe didn't show any concern. Instead he sat in his chair relaxed as one of his underlings brought forth a cup with probably some form of alcohol in it.
"So you kill Salza, commandeer his crew and ship to fight me on some other planet. In another star system… Have you gone soft for the primitive species that lives there." The words left Cooler's mouth causing Yami and Turles to frown. "Judging by your expressions I would say I'm right. Tell me what makes you think I won't annihilate that planet before engaging you monkeys."
"Careful now Cooler, if you don't take this chance we will just go disappear again and you will be once again wasting your precious time." Turles said quickly allowing Yami to swallow her rising anxiety that she didn't know was rising.
"Every moment your waist we grow stronger, you give us time to master the power of a true super saiyan warrior, then you will fall just like your brother Frieza." The mentioning of his brother made Cooler narrow his eyes as his face grimaced.
"My brother is a fool, playing with his prey by staying in his suppressed forms. You will find that he and I are completely different, I don't have as much patience for games…Planet 6, sector 87 B-G-F." finishing his drink he put the empty cup on top of his subordinate's head who hasn't left his side. "It will take us a week. If I arrive and you aren't there, planet 5, no all of sector 86 B-G-F will be destroyed." Cooler said before ending the transmission ad leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. 'Frieza and Father have died to a super saiyan, this will be a true measure of my power. I have surpassed both my father and brother in terms of power with my final form. These Saiyans will make great test dummies for my full power considering how even Frieza couldn't keep up.' Cooler placed his hands together and opened his eyes as he laughed to himself causing his crew to freeze in fear, before doing their tasks with twice the efficiency.
Yami sat down in the captain's chair and sighed the crew mumbling before making their way to the planet the Saiyans would hold their battle. Turles looked at Yami and closed his eyes as he crossed his arms. "We will win; your son will be safe." Yami looked up at Turles and sighed before smirking and then punching Turles causing the Male saiyan to rub his arm rapidly at the sudden strike.
"Look at you acting all cool… thank you. When Cooler mentioned destroying LLabnogard first my heart sank for a moment… I Couldn't stand the idea of my child's home being destroyed, or home… not again." Turles nodded before walking away, but as he exited he spoke back.
"This time, it's different." With that said Turles left Yami alone with the crew.
"Lady Yami we would be approaching the cooler planet 6." One of the crew mentioned. Yami looked up with her eyes focused,
"When we land, prepare an emergency beacon. When the fights over we will use it to signal you to pick us up." Her words made the crew stop for a moment before looking at her. "This fight is between Cooler and us Saiyans, you won't be needed to stay planet side. Get somewhere safe and wait for the signal, if we don't use the beacon in a day's time, run. If Cooler lives he will hunt you down for assisting us." The crew was silent before one spoke up.
"Will you claim the title of Empress if you win." They asked cautiously, as Yami shook her head.
"I don't plan on ruling." With that said most of the crew muttered to themselves before getting back to work only one of them waited to speak. "For what it's worth we hope you win, and take over afterword's." Yami looked up surprised to hear that from the alien's mouth. "If Cooler dies that would make the empire's infrastructure collapse as many would fight and declare war to either claim the title of emperor themselves or declare independence. If that were to happen many of our families would be put to danger and we will all be put out of a job. As Cruel as Cooler is, he kept the empire united with his power allowing forcing all those who swore fealty to work together to keep his war machine running. While terrifying this job is the only way I could support my family." The Alien said before getting back to work as Yami realized the weight of slaying a ruler.
"The Saiyan empire… I like the sound of that." Yami said as the other aliens gave small smiles. "And while ruling as empress would be nice, I know a better candidate, one of saiyan royal blood." Her words caught their attention. "My son, he will grow to be the most powerful Saiyan, as an adolescent he already matches me in power. When he becomes an adult Cooler's power would not match his, if we fail my son will avenge us all. He will surpass us all." Yami said with pride as they all muttered to each other in awe, could someone really become so powerful?
LLabnogard
Tarden was currently hospitalized, hooked up to an Iv bag and other medical supplies after collapsing ten minutes after his fight against Ginny. His sudden Fatigue caused Those around him to panic wondering if the boy was fatally wounded. It wasn't until Several hours later that they managed to find out that Tarden had collapsed not due to injury but due to the effects of using his second Ki Core. It was Xiox who made the discovery as he stayed with the civilian medical team and help identify the cause. To everyone's surprise they found the second core was depleted, a normally dormant organ. No one knew how this happened save for Xiox who mentioned some theories about a technique called shifting, apparently it was very similar to how Xiox Paralyzed himself but unlike Xiox Tarden's cores, both of them, where slowly regenerating.
Long story short the boy needed to rest, and he should recover just fine. But that didn't stop Gull and Ginny from visiting the boy. The boy had collapsed five days ago and has yet to wake up, causing many to worry. While Tarden was asleep they Help a funeral for all of the Elders who died in combat and news of what happened spread to the public. Gear was hospitalized for a short time as well as they tried to find a way to restore his eyesight but after two days the medical professions declared his blindness permanent.
Gear would put on a strong face around the others especially his mother and say that being blind doesn't affect him that he could navigate just fine with Sensing around with Ki. But Gull and Ginny both saw how affect Gear truly was his first day out of the hospital. The young adult couldn't put his clothes on right at first and made many blunders like mistaking which room was what, or struggling to use the proper utensils to eat, one time accidently grabbing a spoon to cut his food. The worse was when he got to the temple to continue training and teaching he would often accidently look in the wrong direction and or even worse misjudge energy readings. Many times not knowing who exactly is approaching him or even worse automatically go on the defensive when someone gets to close. Gear would often man times get frustrated from his own daily blunders and would shrug off help from anyone like a stubborn old man. Luckily for Ginny there was only one-person Gear never shrugged off as aggressively as he did others and that was a woman a few years older who worked for the hospital, in fact she was his assigned nurse who would check up on him three times in a day.
Ginny found out that the girl was a cousin to one of Gears civilian friends and he had a crush on her for years. Ginny normally would take the time to try and tease her brother about it but Ginny spent most of her own time watching over Tarden and often many times organizing the get well soon gifts the Sleeping Saiyan got. Each day since the day he passed out warriors and civilians alike appeared to drop off flowers or notes and cards wishing for a full recovery for the boy. Many times Ginny would receive them at the receptionist desk and organize the times in Tarden's room as only immediate family was allowed to see Tarden and of course Xiox as well.
Ginny on the meantime always felt tremendous guilt looking upon Tarden's face. Every time she saw his sleeping face she can't help but notice the new scar that hung just across his cheek bone, a clear sign of him getting wounded in their fight when she lost control. Two parallel lines beneath his right cheek bone scarred in a similar pattern to the three he had on his chest. While she knows Tarden was healthy and only resting she still felt guilty for hurting him, and to a smaller degree damaging the face she adored.
Leaning in from her seated position by the bed, Ginny reached and traced the new scars on his face. Tarden's peaceful face twitched before he snored quietly. 'now that I look at it more closely he does look a little more handsome, in a rugged way.' Ginny suddenly jumped when the door opens and she quickly recoiled in her seat and tried to not look as flustered as she felt. Unluckily for her it was her mother who gave a knowing smile when she walked in.
"Just because he is asleep doesn't mean you can creep on him like that." Gull said as she laughed at her daughter's reaction at being called a creep. Ginny's crush on Tarden was obvious to most people except for Tarden himself. While most people would find it weird that she has a crush for her adoptive brother many shrugged it off because they were different species, quite obvious that they are not really related.
"Mom! It's not like that I wasn't doing anything to him!" Ginny said flustered only causing her mother to laugh.
"I know sweet heart; I know just having a little fun. Has he stirred up much." Gull asked her daughter. Only for the younger girl to shake her head.
"I see," Gull said as she sat on the other side of the bed and gripped Tarden's hand as she loosed her eyes and prayed silently for the boy's well-being. Before she started to speak to the boy. "so no news on Yami and Turles still but don't worry Xiox is on it with the help of that Fen fellow, surprisingly enough that man is very intelligent and they managed to reverse engineer some of the technology from that space pod those bad guys appeared in." Ginny smiled at her mother as the woman talked to her youngest son, while imagining what Xiox and Fen where up too. Apparently Fen was also the man who made Xiox's exoskeleton and the two became business partners of some sort, and have been meeting up every day since the attack.
"But hey enough of that, guess what… They are making a new game soon, it's called Spirit warrior, it's a fighting game similar to the other games based off the history of temple warriors but this time the story is you are a customizable character and you must race to become an elder, and you get to pick a mentor" Gull said before some tears got in her eyes, the sight making Ginny slightly tear up too, "Apparently you are one of the mentors… so please wake up soon. My son." Gull started to cry silently before whipping her tears away. "It's not easy watching my children fight. Stop giving your mother a heart attack ok." Then a loud grumbling sound came from Tarden's stomach as the two at bedside looked at him and laughed slightly.
"Well at least we know when he wakes up he will need food." Ginny said before Tarden made a grumbling noise and both Ginny and Gull turned rapidly to see Tarden slowly wake up as his eyes opened briefly, he sat up slowly ignoring the happy and shocked faces of his family and muttered only one word clearly. "Food." He said groggily as he was embraced by both of the women.
With Xiox and Fen
"How much longer till we get the that Pod flying?" Xiox said, only for Fen to come out from behind the current Pod he was working on.
"I would have been done before the funeral of the fallen if it wasn't for making the repairs and upgrades on your exoskeleton." Fen said before going back to work on the pod as Xiox looked at his exoskeleton and sighed. "I told you before don't overload the system, because it will take time to restore it back to maximum capacity, but luckily I now know the current limitations and was able to make new upgrades. That boy Tarden, to think he discovered how to tap into his second core, your theory was right Xiox."
"Now I'll be able to fight at full capacity right, now that you found a way to artificially tap into my second core." Xiox asked.
"Well in theory yes, but that's not the only upgrades I done, I applied some of the more advance technology I found through the pods and the previous alien tech I collected over the years. Now it just depends on you actively tapping into this second core in order for you to become stronger, since your first core is damaged beyond repair." Fen said as he shut the pod and smiled, "There done, this pod should be able to track down the ship the Saiyans took and now is ready for easy use. Nothing should be encrypted even a child could fly this thing now."
Xiox got up and stood behind Fen as he explained exactly how to use the pod, stuff that wasn't overly complicated but slightly confusing to the man currently known as the Grand Elder, but in Reality Xiox was busy trying to calm down. The sudden rush of adrenaline coursing through his body now knowing he could go back to training and becoming stronger. 'I can go back to fighting, I'm no longer Handicapped." A smile came onto his face as he decided he couldn't wait to push himself past his previous limits.
"And now pushing this button should let us find the signal of the ship this pod came from." Fen said getting Xiox's attention. As Fen pushed the button and the screen in the pod lit up with a red beacon on a planet a few stars away. "Shall we go recover them?" Fen asked as Xiox shook his head.
"They warmed me how they would try to force Cooler to face them on a separate planet, the best plan is to wait for Tarden to wake up and he and I will go find them." Xiox said making his way out of the workshop they were in.
"Only you and Tarden? I understand Tarden going but you, even with access to your second core you haven't gotten much stronger…. Wait you wouldn't dare?" Fen said realizing Xiox's plan. While Xiox's smile let him knew how right he was.
"If you use your second core as a catalyst to increase the power behind your enhancements you will self-destruct with enough power to implode the sun!" Fen said quickly estimating the power behind such an explosion its like making a nuke look like a fire work in comparison!"
"Then it should be enough to kill the bastard, if our Saiyans can't defeat him… I will." Xiox said leaving Fen behind.
With Tarden.
After waking up from his long sleep Gull explained all that had happened since he collapsed, once she was done getting him caught up, both she and Ginny watched as Tarden sat up and casually got out of the bed. Tarden started taking off all of the medical equipment that was attached to him while Gull and Ginny freaked out for a moment before trying to get Tarden to lie back down.
"How can I stay resting when I have yet to pay respects to those I failed to protect." The statement made Ginny choke up as she fought the extreme sense of guilt for her lack of ability to defeat the enemy by herself. She was mad at her own lack of power.
"Tarden you shouldn't push yourself you only just woke up, at least eat something. You been asleep for 5 days." Gull said.
"With all due respect mom… allow me to see their graves." The sadness in his eyes is what let Gull stand aside.
"At least change clothes." Gull said as she looked at the bag she brought over. Only then was when Tarden realized he was only wearing his hospital gown. "Come on Ginny let's let him change." Gull said as they left Tarden alone.
When Tarden was fully dressed he followed his family to the final resting place of the Elders who died. The nurses tried to stop Tarden from leaving but the focused look in his eyes froze everyone from stopping him. Even the many people who recognized him and went up to see the young hero stopped and stared. A small crowd followed and grew behind Tarden as they all followed him, people had questions for the young man but something about the presence he projected silenced them. When Tarden arrived to the graves the crowd watched at a respectable distance as Tarden placed a hand on all 6 elders that died that day.
"Six more warriors dead… I swear, after this I won't let anyone die again." Tarden clenched his fist in frustration. Ginny went to try and comfort him before she stopped when she heard his words that came next. "Cooler…how much more will you take from me." Tarden began to tremble in anger. "I'm going to kill you when I find you." Tarden grit his teeth barely containing his anger, something telling him he will need every last bit of it unleashed upon Cooler when he engages him.
"That won't take long Kid." Tarden turned to look at Xiox who appeared right next to him quickly losing his eyes and praying for the dead. When he was done he stood up and looked at Tarden, and both men shared the same look of anger in their eyes. "If you're ready, we have a ship to go kill that bastard." Xiox said as Tarden smirked and nodded.
"Let's avenge our friends." Tarden said. Ginny watched as Xiox and Tarden flew away. Ginny wanted to go after them but the doubt made her stay. It wasn't until she felt a hand on her shoulder that she looked up to see her mother.
"Men tend to do stupid things when upset… go make sure he comeback alive…for me." Gull said as Ginny smiled and flew after them. And when Ginny flew off Gull collapsed to her knees as she began praying for the sater of her children. A few people from the crowd came closer and prayed with her, or simply offer their support.