Nosa breathed a deep sigh as he rested his head against the rather harsh metal wall and slumped down in his bed. His…accommodations…at the Cold palace were modest at best. The room was more the size of a janitor's closet with dim, fluorescent lights, an uncomfortable bed, and a worn out dresser that was about as old as Planet Arcos. Still, it was better than the dank and grimy dungeon beneath the palace that he'd first become acquainted with.
The Yardratian looked about ready fall into a deep and tranquil sleep before he scowled and opened his eyes wide. He looked to the door of his room and waited expectantly for the visitor that he could sense from a mile away.
The door shifted open quickly and revealed Cooler in the doorway with a muted look of disdain on his face. The tyrant's red eyes instantly shifted down to Nosa's body before his own scowl formed. "Not even a farewell, Nosa?" Cooler asked as he stepped into the crapped quarters and allowed the door to close.
"Not really one for goodbyes, Cooler," Nosa replied with a shrug. "Kinda figured that the same was true for you."
"Hmm…" hummed the Arcosian before his eyes scanned over Nosa's room, his nose instinctively turning up at such meager living arrangements. "Is this really the best that Onen could find for you? I'm pretty sure that the custodian's supply closet is bigger than this," he grouched as he did another scan of the room.
Again, Nosa shrugged. "I didn't have the luxury of being pampered all my life, so I'll gladly take what I can," he said.
Cooler looked just about ready to catch Nosa's bait, but before he could snap at the man, his eyes just briefly caught a glimpse of a photograph taped to the wall. The pitiful excuse for lighting in the room made it rather easy to miss, but as Cooler focused his eyes on the picture, he could just barely decipher out what looked to be two Yadratians.
However, before Cooler could properly inspect the photo, Nosa leapt up from the bed and snatched if from the wall. He held it protectively behind his back and glared back at Cooler vehemently.
"What do you want, Cooler?!" Nosa snapped, showing his first genuine sign of anger since their first fight.
Cooler blinked a few times as if to process being yelled at by the man, but ultimately decided lashing out in that moment would do more harm than good. He pushed back the urge to snap Nosa's neck and said, "I want you to keep an eye on Frost while I'm gone. I still don't trust her, and having her here with father could prove to be a recipe for disaster on my part. Tune your scouter to the I210 frequency. You can contact me there easily if necessary, otherwise we will not communicate. No point in rousing suspicions from father or anyone else who would try to spy on me."
"But you don't have a scouter," the Yadrat replied.
Cooler turned away and opened the door. "I will soon enough," he said. "Just make sure you do as I say."
"Will do," Nosa replied, hesitantly.
Cooler allowed himself to hold the warrior's gaze a moment longer before he began to exit. "Oh, and Nosa?" he paused to say before turning around and firing out a small Death Beam into Nosa's shoulder. The Yardrat grunted out in pain and moved a hand up to console the wound while Cooler watched expectantly. "Don't ever yell at me like that again."
"Where is he?" King Cold grouched angrily.
"He's sure to be here soon, father. Please stay calm," Frost spoke calmly to the man.
"Cooler will be here, father. I can assure you that," Frieza said casually as he reclined in his hoverchair.
Onen looked over at the royal family gathered by the space cruiser and bit at his lower lip nervously. As of the moment, Cooler was fifteen minutes late for his and Frieza's departure to Earth, and King Cold was looking angrier and angrier by the minute. The Saiyan looked away and scanned the air around the landing pad, hoping he'd see Cooler about to fly in at any minute.
"Where are you Lord Cooler?" he whined to himself.
"YOU!" King Cold barked out, making Onen startle as he turned back to the PTO ruler. The large Frost Demon stomped right over to the Saiyan, his scarlet eyes dissecting his every movement. "You're Cooler's servant boy. Where is he at?"
"Umm…" Onen muttered out, looking like a deer caught in headlights.
"SPEAK!"
"I do not know, sir," Onen responded and bowed his head solemnly. "He merely commanded that I wait for him here with you and the rest of the royal family."
King Cold scoffed. "Well then, you're no use to me," he grouched and lifted a glowing index finger.
Onen's eyes went wide with fear for his impending doom, but didn't have long to fear. "There's no need for that," Cooler announced, making Cold hold back on erasing Onen's existence. The monarch looked into the air to watch his son descend onto the landing pad, a rather agitated look on his face. "I was merely issuing out the last of my commands to Nosa before arriving. I apologize that it took longer than expected."
"That's the Yadratian, correct? I'll send an armada to wipe out the life on his planet while you're gone," the king decreed as he turned with a flourish of his cape and stalked back over to Frieza, Frost, and Sheer.
Cooler watched the man with emotionless eyes and then looked to Onen, who still looked shaken up over nearly being killed. "Nosa understands his role, do you understand yours?" he asked, to which Onen responded with a nod. "Good. Keep your distance from father, unless you're looking to die."
With that, Cooler walked away from Onen and stepped right over to his family. The eyes that met his made the tyrant want to blow up the landing pad and outright murder his siblings, but instead he walked right up to Frieza and said, "Shall we get going?"
"Of course, brother," the younger tyrant replied with a smile before turning his hoverchair around and riding the platform into the cruiser.
Cooler began stepping towards the platform as well, but was halted as his father's hand pressed against his chest. "Aren't you forgetting something, Cooler?" the man asked. He didn't even bother with waiting before he brought out a scouter. "Make sure to put it to use this time," King Cold snapped and pushed it into Cooler's hands.
"Yes, sir," the tyrant responded, blandly, and walked on inside the cruiser, his mind thinking up a few different ways he'll make sure that Frieza doesn't survive this excursion.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
+++4 Months+++
Cooler growled out angrily as he looked at the ceiling of his metal prison. He groaned against the uncomfortable mattress that he lied on and cursed under his breath as he thought of his brother, who had been too pleased to offer Cooler these accommodations for the travel.
"We had to renovate the royal quarters so this is all the room that we had for you, brother," Frieza had said with a very pleased smile on his face.
Cooler scoffed at the mere memory. Still, he figured this was some form of karma catching up to him for his remarks about Nosa's living quarters. He hated when karma tried to rear her ugly head.
"Paging Cooler. Paging Lord Cooler." Cooler looked from the ceiling and focused his eyes in on the scouter still sitting on his face. Judging by the thick layer of disdain that had been put on the word "lord," Cooler could only imagine who the caller was.
"What is it, Nosa?" Cooler responded after clicking the button on the side of the scouter.
"Having fun?" replied the Yadratian, sounding bored as he spoke.
Cooler clenched his teeth to keep from snapping at the man. "You'd better have a good reason for contacting me," he said.
Nosa took a long pause, to which Cooler assumed that he'd cut communication, but then there was a long yawn that made the tyrant want to incinerate something. "Sorry; it's pretty late back here on the ice rock."
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!"
Nosa scoffed. "Doing my job…" he replied, making Cooler roll his eyes out of exasperation. "I'm reporting in on the oh-so-loved sister. She's been…distant lately."
"What do you mean by 'distant'?" Cooler questioned.
"Like…not here," Nosa responded as if it should've been obvious.
Cooler scowled at the tone in Nosa's voice, hating how the man liked to pry at his nerves when he knew there was nothing that Cooler could do to stop him. Still, the tyrant fixed his mouth to offer the Yadrat a proper verbal lashing, but just as he had been ready to do so, the door to his room shifted open and Frieza clanked into the space.
Alarmed, Cooler stamped the button of his scouter quickly and pushed himself up to address his sibling like a kid who'd just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Frieza quirked a brow at Cooler's odd behavior, but ultimately dismissed it as he said, "Long time, no see, stranger. I almost forgot that you were onboard."
Cooler scowled and calmed himself as he coolly said, "You haven't seen me because I haven't wanted you to. I agreed to come along on this expedition, but that doesn't mean that I have to enjoy myself."
Frieza made a "tsk" sound and leaned against the wall, folding his arms as he did so. "Come now, brother, we get to slaughter a few Saiyans, destroy a civilization, and we get to restore my body to its perfect form. What is there not to love about all of this?"
"Aside from the fact that I have to spend an extended amount of time with you?" Cooler posed, inwardly loving the slight twitch of Frieza's brow to show the man's dislike of the comment. "The fact that you had to blackmail me to get my assistance in first place sounds like a pretty good reason."
"Considering I was blown up against a fucking sun, you'd better be happy that this is all that I'm asking you to do," Frieza curtly replied. A thick tension fell upon the brothers of destruction then as they glared fiercely at one another. The younger brother was the first to break the silence as he said, "Enjoy yourself or not, Cooler; you'd better uphold your responsibilities to this mission or else no modern science – no matter how advanced – will be able to put you back together again." And with that, the younger tyrant stomped out of the room, his metal feet clanking against the floor as he walked away.
Cooler remained stagnant on his pitiful excuse for a bed before he armed himself with a dangerous scowl and slowly lowered his body back down. "One more month, Frieza," he said to himself and returned to glaring at the ceiling. "One more month and we finish this!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"We shall be landing on Earth's surface in approximately 10 minutes, Lord Frieza," the bird-like alien announced as he and his comrades tapped at the controls of the spaceship.
"Marvelous," Frieza said with a sly smile as he sipped from his glass of wine, his ruby eyes focused in on the blue planet right before them.
Cooler stood far to his brother's side with his arms folded as he watched the scene. His eyes raked over Earth with an unimpressed glare as the ship was flown into the gravitational pull of the planet. It rocketed into the planet's atmosphere at a breakneck pace, zipping through the air like a rocket before bursting through the clouds and appearing high over an ocean. The large spacecraft flew through the air then as its pilots tried to coordinate a perfect spot for landing. They darted through the air, flying over forests and then a city before they were flown out onto a wasteland, mounds of dirt and rock surrounding the area.
"What was that?" Frieza frowned as he paused from drinking and focused in on monitor.
Cooler looked to his brother before his eyes watched the screen. "What was what?" he asked as he saw nothing but dirt, rocks and more dirt greet them on the planet. Even the creatures at the controls looked perplexed.
Frieza scoffed. "Must've been my eyes playing tricks on me," he said before feeling their ship settle onto the soil of Earth. He then equipped a dangerous smile as he looked over at Cooler. "We haven't conquered a planet together in decades. Shall we show this planet the wrath of the sons of Cold?"
"Indeed," Cooler replied flatly as he turned on his heel and began stepping out of the spacecraft with a dozen or so soldiers rushing around him and Frieza.
In no time, the hatch below the spacecraft opened and the soldiers filed out of the ship and stood on either flank of the ramp while Frieza, then Cooler, slowly stepped out of the spacecraft. With his wine glass disposed of and his hoverchair put away, Frieza stood on the solid dirt of the wasteland and smiled at the thought of the terror that he and Cooler would bring the planet.
"Well then, no use prolonging the inevitable," Frieza called to his men, who looked just as bloodthirsty as him. "My men…" Frieza armed himself with a dangerous smile. "…go wild!"
"YEAH!" the soldiers all cheered as they darted into the sky, battle cries aplenty as they charged out on their master's command.
However, long before they could fly out of sight, Cooler's senses perked and he looked up to the sky as he watched a figure dart past the soldiers with incredible speed. Hardly a second later, were the crew of men reduced to an array of limbs that rained back down on the wasteland around Frieza and Cooler.
"What…the…"
"Sorry," a voice called out, halting Frieza's tirade as both tyrants looked across the wasteland to a young boy with purple hair. He just then pushed his sword back into the hilt on his back and offered the brothers a cunning smile. "I know they were your friends, but they just didn't seem like good people. Frankly, neither do you two either."
"Oh," Frieza awed, taken by surprise for a moment, but that surprise passed as he said, "Already have a sheep for the slaughter, huh?" He lifted a finger and pointed right at the boy as he armed himself with a dangerous smile. "Just for that, I'll make sure it's slow and painful."