Dragon Ball ZGX
Rated T: Blood, Cursing, Suggestive themes.
Description: The conflict between Bardock and the Elite Assassins is over, and Turles has met his end at the hands of his most trusted ally, Tundra. With the knowledge that Gine is still alive, Bardock is bound and determined to find her. But how? Without any clues, Bardock feels the search could take years. However, he receives a willing hand from an unexpected ally. The adventure continues, now.
Act 4: Reunions Saga
Chapter 37: Sinister Truth
xXxXxXx
Space…
A vast void, space. Stars decorate this blanket of darkness, most of which contain unique solar systems and planets. An array of life forms existing, from simple, single-celled organisms, to complex, sentient life forms with their own communities. Comets, asteroids, black holes, space junk and debris. All of this spread throughout trillions and trillions of miles in this vacuum called space. And in this space, a small spherical attack ball sped violently and uncontrollably. And it was enroute to the beautiful yellowish-orange gem known as Planet Transeki.
It was late morning on planet, the sun was nearing the center of the sky. In the front yard of the house belonging to the new Guardian, Elder Takomi, Gummo was busy working on some tech projects. Loads of the scrap metal and technology from Eyce's destroyed ship had been delivered to the property so he could repurpose it.
"There." said the lizardman scientist as he set a few tools down on the work table in front of him. The pile of old computers, circuit boards and other stuff made up a semi-organized mess in the center. "This should help me develop some new tech for these people."
Gummo sighed happily, then, a loud whistling sound came from above, and Gummo looked up curiously. "A shooting star?" He said.
This "shooting star" was getting closer at an alarming rate, and soon, the light surrounding the object vanished. It was on course for the lake in front of Takomi's house. Gummo realized that it wasn't your average "shooting star". It wasn't a meteor, it was a small spaceship.
"I think that's a Saiyan pod," Said Gummo. "Or… something like one."
The ship showed no sign of slowing down. It approached the lake and was on course to crash into the plateau that stood out from the lake. Sure enough, the ship slammed into the side of the plateau and created a large dust cloud around the top of it. The rock was cracked all around the ship, which was lodged into the plateau.
"Oh boy." Gummo said. He looked behind him at the base of the staircase that led up to the deck. Leaning against it was the hoverbike he built a while back. "I better go investigate." He said.
Gummo quickly made his way over to his bike and hopped on. With a press of a few buttons, the hoverbike was powered up and he was off. He flew speedily over the lake towards the plateau, curious over who it could be. The fact that the ship crashed and no one emerged yet made him worry that whoever it was may have been hurt. He approached the base of the plateau and pulled back on his bike, turning himself upward towards the crashed ship. As he got closer, he noticed a logo on the ship that he'd never seen before.
"ZGX?" Gummo said to himself as he approached the ship. Once in front of it, Gummo stopped the bike and put it into "hover mode", so it would stay stationary while remaining in air. Gummo leaned out and could see a silhouette through the colored glass window . He knocked on the door of the pod. "Hello? Are you okay?" Gummo inquired, loudly in hopes his voice could be heard through the door.
No answer, which worried Gummo. The person inside was either unconscious, or dead. Part of him wanted to just leave it alone, because even though he didn't recognize the logo, the ship was still modeled after Saiyan attack balls, which were universally used across Frieza and Eyce's forces.
"Well…" Gummo said, "Since this looks like an attack ball, if I'm right, there's a release button right…" Gummo started running his hand along side the ship's door until he came across the button he was looking for. "...There!" He said, pressing the button.
Sure enough, the latch released, and the door slowly opened. As it lowered, Gummo maneuvered his bike to the side of the door and patiently waited. Once fully opened, Gummo looked inside, and the sight horrified him and left him speechless.
In the ship, sat an unconscious orange haired warrior who was severely injured. Sheamus, the future warrior from Age 953, was covered in deep gashes, dark bruises, both wet and dry blood, and dirt. His outfit was in shambles, a mostly destroyed white armor piece which was stained in blood, and a black jumpsuit underneath which was ripped up where his wounds were.
"Sheamus!" Gummo exclaimed. "Oh my god, what the hell happened to you?" Sheamus wasn't going to respond, he was out, and it didn't look like he was going to make it. "I better get you to the hospital. What the hell did you get yourself into?"
xXxXxXx
Takomi's Village, Some Time Later…
Gummo brought Sheamus to the hospital in the village. Then took his bike to Sky Island, the floating island where Transekian Guardians reside. Takomi spent most of his time there, watching over Transeki, but would occasionally return home to check on Gummo and the villagers. Gummo and Takomi returned to the hospital to check on Sheamus, and upon arrival, he was awake.
Sheamus was sitting up in his hospital bed, under the covers and wrapped in bandages. Gummo and Takomi soon entered the room, and Sheamus looked at them both. "Takomi!? You're alive!?"
Takomi nodded with a smile. "Hello Sheamus."
Sheamus nodded at Gummo next. "Gummo, good to see ya."
Gummo smiled and nodded back. "You look like you've been through hell. What happened to you?"
Sheamus expression changed as he thought back to why he was so badly hurt. He winced at the memory, but also realized that Takomi didn't know his secret, and was unsure if Gummo knew or not since he left that disc on Bardock's ship.
Takomi could sense distress from Sheamus. "I can tell you've been keeping a secret." He said, Sheamus looked up at him mildly surprised. "Your multiple trips away from Transeki and back were the first sign. And you have reservations about telling us what happened to you. Rest assured, you have no reason to keep this from us, especially in your condition."
"ZGX." Gummo said. Sheamus was visibly shocked upon hearing him say that. "That's what's written on your ship. You crashed near Takomi's house, and I brought you here." Gummo crossed his skinny green arms. "That's something I've never heard of."
Sheamus sighed and looked down at his hands. "I barely escaped…" He said with a tremble in his voice. "ZGX is… was… an army… from almost two-hundred years in the future." Gummo gasped in shock. Takomi only reacted through a twitch of his eyes. "Age 953… my home… a universe ravaged by war and terror, with an evil tyrant to blame for it all." Sheamus began shaking. He looked up at the two of them. "Where's Bardock?"
"Bardock is on Earth." Said Takomi. "Much has happened since you departed, both here and on Earth."
"That Turles guy tried to use Bardock. Then tried to kill him when his plans failed." Said Gummo. Sheamus had a flashback to when they crash landed on that frozen planet and met him.
"I knew there was something unsettling about him." Sheamus said. He looked back down at his hands and sighed.
"So you're a time traveler." Said Gummo. Sheamus nodded hesitantly. "I'm guessing you only came back so you can prevent something. Two-hundred years is quite the jump though."
"You arrived here with Bardock a long time ago." Takomi added. "So your first time jump was much further back."
"I was on a mission for ZGX." Sheamus said, gripping his comforter in his hands. "I was supposed to travel to this year and destroy what was left of the Cold family's empire. But I made a mistake and jumped thirty years too early." He paused and collected his thoughts. "I found myself in Age 737, right before Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta. I was short on time and couldn't just jump to the correct year. And I knew Bardock was about to confront Frieza, so I tried to spread his warning about Frieza's genocide to as many people that would listen. No one questioned who I was, it helps that I'm part Saiyan. And when the time was right, I saved Bardock and brought him here." Sheamus sighed and shook his head. "I'm a little biased though. Bardock is… well… my ancestor."
Gummo gasped. Takomi, again, didn't react too noticeably. He was intrigued though. "You knew Bardock was going to confront Frieza, two-hundred years after it happened." Said Takomi.
"ZGX has, or… had… an extensive archive. It took a long time to piece everything together, but it was a highly accurate collection of information and events… Now though… It's all gone…" Sheamus paused, gripped the blanket tighter in both hands, then growled. "All… fucking... gone…" He sighed heavily and shook his head, then looked at both Takomi and Gummo. "I need to talk to Bardock. I can't do it alone… and… I really need to apologize to him."
Takomi nodded at Sheamus. "I understand, my boy. But you need to get some rest and recover before you go anywhere."
Sheamus sighed and laid back down on his bed. "I know…"
xXxXxXx
Space… Location Unknown
Somewhere else in the void, another ship, quite similar to Sheamus', was flying quickly through the vast darkness. A single person attack ball, and within, the leader of the Elite Assassins; Tundra. He sat in silence as his ship took him towards his destination. The only noise was in his head, as he was deep in thought. He was preparing himself for something, and he needed to be in the right frame of mind for it.
"Approaching destination." A computerized female voice rang out.
Tundra opened his eyes and looked through the circular window before him. Through the glass, a bright pink colored planet was growing rapidly as he approached. Tundra sighed.
"Here we go." He said.
The ship quickly entered the planet's atmosphere and began its descent to the surface. The ship looked like a shooting star as it sped towards the ground. The ship soon began to slow, but still struck the ground with much force. The impact made a small crater in a grassy field, and Tundra exited moments later. He floated up out of the crater and landed on the lush green grass.
Tundra took a long deep breath, then slowly exhaled. "This is it." He said. "This is home." He looked around a bit. The sun was high above, the sky was bright, a breeze swept across the field. Tundra then looked to his left; northeast in relativity to his position. "If my memory serves me right, it's this way."
Tundra took to the sky and started heading northeast. He wasn't in a rush, he flew at a steady speed, taking in the landscape of the planet he was on. It brought back memories, things he hadn't thought about in many years, things he couldn't believe happened in his life. But he didn't dwell on them too much, he was on a mission.
Soon, Tundra came to a cliff and landed by the edge. Beyond him was a large valley, and just below him:
"The Cold Empire's central hub…" Tundra said. Looking down, what he saw was a large military outpost with a massive elevated platform for ship landing, a cluster of buildings, and a large palace-like building in the center.
However…
The outpost was in ruins. Almost all of the structures were heavily damaged, the palace being the worst. The platform had large chunks missing out of it, and there was rubble and debris everywhere.
"Hmm… I don't sense any life down there." Said Tundra. He looked beyond the destroyed outpost and spotted a cave in the distance. "There." He said. Tundra returned to the sky and slowly flew over the outpost. He looked down to examine it further. The damage didn't look like it was done too recently, but he was 99.9 percent sure he knew who did it, and why.
Tundra wasn't one to get unnerved by anything, he was always cool. Sure, at times he could get a bit agitated with his team, or frustrated during fights. But he rarely lost his nerve. What he was walking into was the first thing that had him unnerved in a very long time; but he wouldn't show it.
Tundra landed at the base of the hill leading up to the cave entrance. He looked around, multiple trees dotted the area outside of it. The cave itself was set at the base of a mountain that led up out of the valley. Tundra felt nostalgia creep up on him. He sighed, then started walking up towards the cave entrance. Up the slight incline he went, still mentally prepping himself for what was to come.
He arrived at the cave entrance, and just as he did, a thin purple ki beam was shot at him from the darkness, just barely missing Tundra's head. He stood in place silently, cold expression not changing. He stared into the darkness. His eyes began adjusting, and he could see a silhouette forming in the cave.
"Oops… it appears my aim is off." A familiar voice rang from the figure.
Tundra placed his hands behind his back, still maintaining his cold gaze. "Hello, Eyce."
Eyce stepped forward to where the light from the sun was. His white alien body, pink sections on his shins and forearms, a tattered black cloak on his torso with a hood on his head. The son of Frieza narrowed his eyes at Tundra.
"What do you want?" Eyce said with disdain.
"I was in the neighborhood. Figured I'd drop by." Replied Tundra.
"Oh please, I find it hard to believe you'd just come back after all this time." Eyce said, catching on to Tundra's dry sarcasm immediately.
There was a long silence between the two aliens as they stared holes through each other. Tundra looked cool, while Eyce was visibly annoyed. The silence was growing more and more uncomfortable with each passing moment.
"Tch, your trademark silence is dreadfully annoying." Eyce said. "You can either tell me why you're here, or you can leave me alone and go back to wherever you've been for the last twenty-five years."
"I've gotta say, it's strange seeing you all grown up." Said Tundra, cracking a slight smile.
Eyce's eyes twitched. "Well you'd be used to it by now if you hadn't gone rogue, now wouldn't you?" He said in annoyance. Eyce sighed and walked towards a boulder against the wall to his left.
"Heard you fought a Saiyan." Tundra said. Eyce stood facing the wall and glared back at him, but Tundra wasn't fazed. "Didn't go very well, huh?"
"You already know the answer, yet you ask as if you don't." Eyce turned so his back was facing the wall. He sat down on the boulder and continued glaring at Tundra.
Tundra shrugged and looked outside of the cave. "I fought him as well." He said. Eyce simply watched while he sat. "He's formidable, and very adaptable to the situations he finds himself in. The fact that he survived both of my associates is telling of that."
"Oh? Did the mighty Tundra finally meet his match?" Eyce said sarcastically.
"You jest, but Bardock fell by my hand." Tundra said. He looked back at Eyce.
"You're telling me you killed him?" Eyce inquired, finally dropping the sarcastic tone in his voice.
"Yes." Tundra looked outside again. "Not that he's dead anymore, but-"
"So you're lying to me." Eyce snapped.
"Have you ever known me to lie?"
"Verbally? No. But you abandoned me. Of course, keeping your little friend a secret from everyone else should've been telling." Eyce sighed, and he didn't take his eyes off of Tundra. "But I was a mere child. How was I supposed to know what was going on?"
Tundra sighed, then faced Eyce once more. "I kept Zarian away to protect him. I didn't want him subjected to that. Besides, you didn't tell anyone I had an orphan in my care. You trusted me, and I trusted you."
Eyce narrowed his eyes, then looked at the ground between his feet. There was silence between them for a few moments, but Eyce would break it. "Did the monkey hire you to kill me?"
"No." Said Tundra. "If this was a hit, you'd already be dead. And besides, had someone hired me to kill you, I would've refused. You're the only person who gets that privilege."
"Hmrph, quite surprising considering you up and left." Eyce said spitefully.
Tundra looked out of the cave in the direction of the outpost. "Bardock said something interesting when I fought him. That your hatred for your father stems from how he treated your 'mother'."
Eyce looked up at him in annoyance. "Don't act like you don't know!" He said sharply. "You saw what I did to that outpost, right? Our home?" Tundra nodded, still looking outside. Eyce continued: "I found out the truth. I found out what they did to me, what I truly am, and that my 'mother' doesn't truly exist." Eyce huffed angrily. "And you knew about all of it. And instead of stopping them, you just left." Tundra looked at Eyce, remaining silent as Eyce spoke. Eyce simply stared at Tundra for a moment. "I was nothing more than a test subject for their experiments. But I suppose that's all I was intended for from the start."
Flashback:
Cold Empire Central Hub, Two Months Earlier…
At the central outpost on his homeworld, Eyce arrived on the landing platform in his personal use attack ball, and after his battle with Bardock and Sheamus, was fully regenerated and healed up. During his trip home, he had ample time to reflect on his life, his battle on Transeki, and just how close he was to dying. With all that time alone, the son of Frieza was in a calm state, but vengeance was still his goal. As he walked towards the ledge of this elevated platform, he huffed.
This whole thing has been one big setback. Eyce thought, thinking back to Transeki. I will rebuild this empire in my image, and I will make that monkey bow before me. And then I'll kill him.
Upon reaching the side of the platform, he realized something wasn't right. His eyes widened as he looked at the outpost below. There was a big building towards the back, and a bunch of smaller buildings and ship hangars dotting the rest of the area.
This place looks nothing like I remember.
Eyce quickly made his way towards the large building, barging in and immediately making his presence known. Inside, he found himself in a lab, surrounded by PTO scientists of varying alien races. Eyce eyed each one of them, striking terror in their hearts.
"W-w-we didn't expect you, Lord Eyce, sir." Said one of the scientists. Immediately, Eyce shot a Death Beam through said scientists chest. He dropped to the floor and was dead within seconds.
"Now why wouldn't scientists stationed on my homeworld not expect me to show up?" Eyce said sinisterly with a touch of curiosity. "I'm going to ask you lot some questions. Wrong answers result in your immediate death."
Everyone in the group surrounding the aggravated tyrant started shaking with fear. Eyce narrowed his eyes and locked into a tall skinny humanoid with pale blue skin, a flat nose and pointy ears, wearing a long white lab coat. Eyce pointed at him, making him shake more.
"You!" Eyce said sharply. "Where is my mother?"
The quivering scientists blinked a few times, clearly confused. "M-mother, sir?" Eyce shot a Death Beam through the scientists head, his body dropped immediately and blood pooled up underneath his body.
Eyce aimed at the scientists to the left of the previous one; a short, blue skinned humanoid lizard with light-orange hair. "Where is my mother?"
The lizard-man shook uncontrollably. "S-s-sir… we d-d-don't know what you're talking about…"
Eyce again fired a Death Beam, shooting through the lizards head and dropping him like a rock. He looked around at the rest of the scientists, all terrified. Eyce didn't have to speak, he knew he was going to get the same answer out of everyone. And everyone knew that Eyce was going to slaughter them all. But before anything else could happen…
"Lord Eyce, sir!" Called a voice from across the room. Eyce looked towards the source, and cutting through the encirclement of scientists was an average height, pale-peach skinned scientist with a gray mustache, hair around his head with balding on top, pointy ears and no eyebrows. He walked calmly towards Eyce with both his hands behind his back. "I have the answers you seek."
"Oh?" Eyce said. "Someone's actually stepping forward." Eyce turned fully towards the approaching scientist.
The scientist stopped about ten feet away and cleared his throat. "Yes. I'm the head scientist here, Dr. Sagi. I've worked here for over fifty years. Any questions you have, I can answer."
"You seem rather sure of that." Said Eyce. He pointed an index finger at Dr. Sagi. "Just remember, wrong answers will result in your immediate execution."
Dr. Sagi nodded. "Very well, my lord."
"Where. Is. My. Mother?" Eyce once again asked.
Dr. Sagi, without breaking eye contact with Eyce, responded. "Your mother, my lord, doesn't exist…"
"You lie." Eyce retorted.
"It's true." Dr. Sagi said.
"The only reason you aren't dead yet is because you haven't stuttered." Eyce said while keeping his finger aimed at the scientist.
"Everything will be clear to you in a matter of moments." Dr. Sagi kept his eyes locked on Eyce, who looked to be growing more annoyed at the whole situation. Then… "D-04-B-26-Z-89, Unlock."
"What the hell are you babbling on about?" Eyce said. Suddenly, something clicked in Eyce's head, and he started screaming in agony. He brought both his hands to his head and bent over. "WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!?" He screamed.
Everyone in the room was frozen in fear except for Dr. Sagi. He stood with an eerie calmness while Eyce wallowed in pain. After a few more moments of this, the excruciating pain lessened to a light headache. Eyce stopped screaming, but was hyperventilating. He looked up at Dr. Sagi, eyes bloodshot, sweat running down his face.
"Dr. Sagi…" Eyce said, addressing him by name for the first time. "Explain yourself… why do I suddenly have contradicting memories?"
"The memories you've had for most of your life were fabricated. The 'new' ones you're experiencing are your true memories. That phrase I spoke was an emergency unlock code. Upon hearing it, the lock on those old memories was released." The scientist explained.
Eyce's eyes twitched. "Fabricated… So my mother…"
"Was a false memory." Said Dr. Sagi. "The abuse Frieza put her through, a false memory. Every interaction you had with her, a false memory."
Eyce gritted his teeth. This information, while completely unbelievable, was true, and his old memories validated that. "Why? What reason did you have for going through all of that?"
Dr. Sagi sighed and placed both his hands behind his back. "For this all to make sense, I must start from the beginning. Your life began in this very lab back in Age 727. Lord Frieza was never interested in reproducing, he didn't feel it was necessary, he'd always sought eternal life in whatever way he could achieve it. King Cold felt it was unwise of Frieza, that the family needed to continue in order to rule the entire universe and maintain their grip. So instead of Frieza bearing a child of his own, we here in this lab were tasked with creating one. Using Frieza's DNA and our advanced technology, we were able to create you."
"Wait…" Said Eyce, seemingly rattled by this. "Are you telling me that I'm just… a clone?"
Dr. Sagi nodded. "A perfect copy of Frieza himself." Eyce was definitely shaken by this point. Dr. Sagi continued: "We presented you to Frieza after your 'birth', but he wasn't interested in the least and demanded you disposed of. However, we decided to use this as an opportunity, and you became our primary test subject. We left you in the care of our most trusted agent, Tundra. He would train you and prepare you for the tests we wanted to run."
The name "Tundra" caught Eyce's attention, and unlocked another wave of memories, all revolving around Tundra. He was… involved…?
"Everything went smoothly for the first few years." Said Dr. Sagi. "However, things started going wrong not long into your life. One day several years in, Tundra returned looking completely rattled. He didn't want to talk, he didn't report anything from his previous outing, and he locked himself away in his chambers for days. It was the first time anyone had seen him like that. After that, things with you became problematic. Tundra seemed like his priorities had changed, it almost seemed like he was a different person. And that directly affected you because of the time you two spent together. You were no longer responding to our tests as you had been previously. This went on for many years until the time came to implant the memories that we spent so long crafting for you. Tundra tried to dissuade us from it. It was evident that he cared for you. However, we spent far too long on the project to just abandon it. He wanted to recruit you as his partner, which was suspicious because it was well known that he preferred working alone. And shortly before we gave you those memories, Tundra disappeared, abandoning you and his duties, and never returned. After we were sure the memories set in, we assigned you a team and sent you off to space."
Eyce was looking at the floor. The influx of his childhood memories, plus all of this information from Dr. Sagi had made his headache much worse. His emotions were all over the place, and he was trying his best to maintain his composure. "If that's all true, how is it that I'm able to regenerate?"
"Your team was mostly scientists, who directly reported to us." Said Dr. Sagi. "After we got Lord Frieza's reports of what happened on Planet Namek, we got to work on developing a method of regeneration similar to the Namekians. You were the test subject for that as well. They put you under and implanted our regeneration formula. They tested it and tested it until they were sure it was perfect, then we had them implant you with memories of an encounter with a Namekian, to hide the fact that they were experimenting on you."
Eyce looked up at Dr. Sagi blankly. "And you're telling me all this now… Why? Don't tell me it's because I've already killed three of your men."
Dr. Sagi went from having a stone faced expression to a nervous one. "Well sir, we didn't expect to ever see you again. We figured you'd die out there eventually. But you're back, and I for one am glad that you're here. You deserve to know the truth, and now you do."
Eyce stood in a calm silence for a few moments, staring at Dr. Sagi. "Do you think that telling me about all the horrible things you've done to me is going to win you your lives?" Dr. Sagi and the rest of the scientists immediately felt chills run up their spines, fear fill up their bodies. Eyce looked around at everyone in the room. "I'm going to tell you what's gonna happen next. I'm going to kill all of you worthless scientists one by one." He then looked at Dr. Sagi. "And then, I'm going to torture you, good doctor, until I feel satisfied. And after that, I'm going to drag your dying body to the nearest ocean, and drown you."
Flashback End:
Eyce sat in his cave, on his boulder, hunched over, hands clasped together, staring at Tundra. "... then, I killed all of them. And tortured that bastard doctor for two weeks straight before dumping him in the ocean and watching him drown." Eyce sighed and looked down at his hands. "I went back to the outpost and destroyed it, then I came here."
Tundra kept his eyes locked intently on Eyce. "Dr. Sagi admitted all of that?"
"Isn't that what I just said?" Eyce snapped, glaring at Tundra in the process.
"I'm just surprised that he came out with it so easily." Tundra said.
"Watching me kill his men must've been too much for him. Considering the look on his face when I murdered the rest of them, I can understand why he talked." Eyce maintained his glare at Tundra. "Your change of heart… because of the kid you found, right?"
Tundra sighed. "I found Zarian on that planet surrounded by carcasses and rubble. I knew what the Cold Empire was all about, but that was the first time I saw it up close."
"You, an assassin, was shaken by some dead bodies and debris?"
"Not that." Tundra said somberly. "The child, all alone with nowhere and no one to go to. That's what changed me."
"Yet you're still an assassin." Eyce retorted. "Aside from that, you left me so you could take care of some orphan you found on a random planet."
Cracks were starting to form in Tundra's emotional armor. "Eyce, up until that day, I thought of you as nothing more than a clone, and an assignment. But it was after I took Zarian into my care that I realized, you, despite being an exact copy of Frieza's DNA, were your own person. I guess that made me realize I cared for you. You were still so young, and hardly tainted by their sick vision. But that's all they wanted for you; to be a replacement for Frieza if… when… he died. But until then, you were just a plaything to them." Tundra sighed, his voice had a very slight tremble to it. "I wanted to get you out, but I couldn't. And back then, I wasn't strong enough to stand up to Frieza. Even though he didn't care about you, me defying their orders would've drawn his wrath. I had to leave, I couldn't stand to see what they were doing to you, and I had Zarian to think about too. I figured at that point you were a lost cause. But I spent years wondering if I could've gotten away with taking you away, raising you and Zarian together. Standing here, seeing you alive and in person, I see that I was wrong about a lot. And… I'm sorry I left you behind."
Eyce stared at Tundra in silence for a few moments, then turned his attention towards the interior of the cave. It was dark, save for an orange glow further down in.
Tundra looked as well and took note of the cave. He chuckled. "You must not hate me too much since you came to my favorite hiding spot."
Eyce's head snapped back towards Tundra. "First of all, this was our cave. And secondly, you lost your rights to this cave when you left." Eyce looked deeper inside of the cave again and sighed. "You know, even after they planted those fake memories in my head, after I was forced to forget my old ones, I still came here to get away. I didn't know why at the time, because I had forgotten you. Maybe it was instinct, maybe it was subconscious, but I came here, and I always felt nostalgic for it. Now I know why."
Hearing this touched Tundra, but he knew it wouldn't help to say anything. He could sense Eyce's anger, and didn't want to stir the pot anymore. Instead, he opted to ask a question. "What are you gonna do now?"
Eyce didn't look back, he simply kept staring into the cave. "Stay here for a while. I need to sort myself out. I have two sets of conflicting memories, and I know one of them is fake. But I've lived most of my life under false information. It's bad enough that I'm not really even a person, just a goddamn clone of that bastard Frieza. I don't even know who I am." Eyce let out a defeated sigh and looked at the floor again.
"Well, I can tell you this…" Said Tundra. "Being a clone doesn't mean you're not a person. You're a sentient flesh and blood creature, regardless of how you came to be. You have your own personality, individuality, consciousness. You're a person, Eyce."
"But…" Eyce said in a lower, deflated tone. "Who the fuck am I?"
Tundra blinked a few times. "You're whoever you choose to be, Eyce." Tundra then turned around and started walking towards the cave exit.
Eyce looked up at him. "Where are you going?"
Tundra stopped and glanced back at Eyce. "I'm leaving you alone for awhile. You said it yourself, you need to sort yourself out. Best to do that without anyone around to distract you. Besides… I have a debt to repay."
"Now that's something I find hard to believe." Eyce said.
"Believe what you want to." Tundra replied before looking outside of the cave. "Next time we cross paths, I hope you've figured out who you are."
With that, Tundra took off and flew away from the cave, back towards his ship. Eyce sat quietly watching him fade until he was out of sight. Then, Eyce stood up and walked back into his cave.
xXxXxXx
August, Age 767… Earth
Traveling as a group through a forest over a country road, Gohan and Bardock were flying on either side of a hover-car that Chi Chi and Ox-King were in. The four of them were headed towards West City, on their way to Capsule Corp.
"Hey mom?" Gohan said, looking to his left at Chi Chi. "You haven't told us what's going on. Why's Bulma throwing this party?"
"Because she can, Gohan." Chi Chi replied. "That's just how Bulma is sometimes."
"I know, but she usually gives us more notice for things like this." Gohan said. "She only told us two days ago, and you guys have been talking a lot lately. I figured there'd be a reason other than 'she can', or you'd know or something."
"Are you saying I'm not allowed to have friends, Gohan?" Chi Chi said intimidatingly.
Gohan gritted his teeth sheepishly and chuckled. "No no no, nothing like that, Mom."
Bardock watched this with a smile. He enjoyed watching his grandson just live a normal life, and would occasionally wonder how things would've been for his family had things been different. He knew it wouldn't have been anything like how he was living on Earth though. That thought transitioned into thoughts of Gine. Bardock looked up at the sky, through the tall trees, and sighed.
I'm going to find you, Gine. Bardock thought. Soon, we'll be together again.
To Be Continued...