Author's note: I've revised this fic a bit and changed the title, as the other one was just a working title. It's still a work in progress.
I made up a name for the heart virus that made Goku sick in the Android Saga(you'll see it in the fic, I won't spoil it here), and I'm also portraying it that Frieza's kind can carry it after being ill with it once. So, in essence, it originated on their planet. I'm only mentioning it because it shows up in my fic.
Another thing I should warn you about is adult content(lemon, etc.) and issues that might make a few people un-easy. I hope nobody is offended by my bringing them to light.
One other thing is that I mention Icejin ages in this story, and I go by their years when I do this, so just multiply all ages by five to get their Earth ages(I made this equation up to get their ages, so don't hold it accountable ^_^;;). And…I sorta borrowed a scene from the movie My Girl…will you recognize it when you see it? *Shrugs* You might ^_^ OK, here we go!
***
Blackness settled over the Icejin homeworld as the sun, which gave little to no warmth, sank below the horizon. It really made no difference whether it was up or down, because it barely gave the planet any light.
Nocturnal animals with no eyes and bioluminescent skin dared to venture out and find some food while predators lurked about. Glowing plants slowly slid into view like a snail emerging from its shell, drinking in the cool night air as if the oxygen itself were a source of food.
High above it all, a huge purple stronghold with glorious crystal spires and metallic purple bricks seemed to loom, a slumbering beast watching over the land. The palace was a very ornate one, and it always looked very beautiful in the morning when the sunlight caused millions of colors to dance off the crystal spires.
Inside, despite the peaceful outward appearance, it was anything but quiet...
The Tragic Tyrant
Chapter 1
It Begins
A gaunt and wrinkled newborn wriggled about in a purple egg-shaped bassinet. Obsidian stubs gleamed on either side of a purple cabochon. Red eyes situated beneath a bony white brow filled with tears and squeezed shut as a pale face flushed. Tiny lavender hands with prune fingers balled into fists and flailed insistently. Miniature nostrils framed by a tiny tipped-up nose flared. Black lips gaped and trembled as screams rang out through the halls.
I'm hungry! The cries seemed to say.
"Listen to those cries!" A massive light-purple hand lowered, slid underneath the crying infant and lifted him off the bassinet. The haughty voice seemed to crack, "That's the cry of a future warrior..."
Another hand like the first lowered a bottle filled with deep blue milk towards the screaming newborn's flushed face. The tiny creature's cries died instantly as he latched onto the nipple and started suckling. He opened his wide red eyes to peer innocently up at the visage of whoever was feeding him. When he finished eating his fill, he yawned, put his thumb into his mouth and closed his eyes to sleep. The hand holding his helpless form carefully lowered him back into the bassinet and moved away.
Glints of blue surrounded in white appeared in the shadows, "So, are you going to name him after mother?"
"No, she wouldn't want that." Leathery black lips framed by light purple flesh pulled into a slow, sad smile. "I've already chosen his name."
The shadows shifted. "Then what are you going to name him?"
"Frieza."
****
"Cooler!" A young, raspy and high-pitched voice roared to echo through the marble halls, "You had better get your tail back here with that hologram!"
"Catch me first, you runt!" Laughed a tall purple figure with blue armor plating on his white skull structure. The teenage culprit known as Cooler thumbed his nose at his little brother and took off running down another hall. "Frieza, you are so slow! Come on!"
"Shut up!" The second figure panted. He was shorter than the first, and much paler. A strange wreath of white bone adorned the metallic purple dome on his scalp, where twin horns jutted out on either side. He was clad in purple armor with a long dark purple cape, the cape being there to show he was a prince.
Cooler stopped running for the second time and regarded Frieza with a smirk. He sure enjoyed teasing his kid brother…it was his duty. Each day he found one way or another to piss him off, and this was no exception. Snapping a hologram of him picking his nose had gotten a priceless reaction, he thought.
"I think this would be a great projection on the palace wall, don't you?"
"Grrr!" Young Frieza growled as he lunged at Cooler and knocked him smack into the wall. The impact could be heard throughout the castle as he started pounding into his big brother with his small fists. He was making his hatred of being teased very apparent when a larger figure stepped in.
Twin horns standing up like a bull's gleamed as they jutted from a shelf of white bone similar to Frieza's, and a haughty voice rang out, "Hey! Both of you, stop this childish behavior this instant!"
Both children froze in mid-motion; Frieza with his fist held back to bash Cooler's face in, and Cooler with his tail wrapped around Frieza's left horn. Twin pairs of red eyes turned to meet a large third pair. Cooler's tail uncurled from Frieza's horn, Frieza lowered his fist and both rose to their feet to regard their father.
King Kold regarded his children with his muscular arms crossed over his broad chest. It really irritated him that Cooler was just finishing his nineteenth year and still continued to pester Frieza, who was barely eight.
"Now that we are being civil, what the meaning of this?"
Cooler opened his mouth to reply when Frieza pointed an accusing finger at his face and shouted, "He started it!"
King Kold's eyes turned towards Frieza, narrowed a bit, then rolled in Cooler's direction, "Cooler? Care to elaborate a little?"
A growl rose in Cooler's throat as he shot a nasty glare in his little brother's direction. Any time he and Frieza got into something, Frieza always got off easily. Cooler hated that to no end, especially since he always wound up getting the worst punishments.
"I was just trying to have a little fun with him, father. Really, he just had a hissy fit over it," Cooler explained, twitching his tail nervously, "He should learn not to pick his nose where people can see it."
"Grrr!" Frieza growled.
"Frieza!" Kold warned, then turned his attention back to Cooler, "Delete the hologram and go to your room. I will speak to you later."
"But father!"
"NOW!!!"
Without further hesitation or argument, Cooler pressed a button and the little holo-cylinder in his hand beeped once to indicate all files had been deleted from its memory. He shoved the little silver device into Frieza's hands and muttered, "I hope you get sick and drop dead, you little brat!" Then he walked past his growling younger brother and down the hall to his private quarters. Frieza stuck his tongue out at him as he passed.
"Now," The large Icejin glared down at the miniature version of himself, or what was very close to it, and the little one faced him as he started to speak "I thought I told you to stop picking at your nose! That is a disgusting child's habit that spreads infections all over the place, and I won't have that sort of thing going on in my palace. It antagonizes your brother into these sorts of games!"
Frieza nervously fixed his eyes on the floor, intimidated by his large father's presence. He hated being the smallest; it always got him teased and chased around.
"Yes, papa."
Kold smirked a little and tipped his head back to peer down his nose at Frieza's small form, "You do remember what happens to children that pick their noses, don't you?"
Frieza heaved a sigh and flicked his armored tail, "The magic snail in my nose will bite my finger off."
"Be sure to remember that the next time you think about picking at your nose. I find it astonishing that you still have all ten of those fingers with that nasty habit."
"Papa, may I go lie down? I don't feel well…" Frieza sighed again, being honest this time. He felt like he had what humans called the flu, and couldn't stop panting for breath. Little pains were shooting off in his chest, but for all he knew it was a pulled muscle.
Kold sighed at Frieza's way of dodging his discipline and gave him a nudge with one large foot, "Go ahead. It is your bedtime anyway."
Frieza turned from his father and started down the hall without glancing back. He was so intent on the little cylinder in his hands that he didn't notice the second body rounding the corner until he had made a head-on collision and ended up on his butt. The sound of glass shattering mixed with the young Icejin's muttered cursing as he got to his feet and patted the dust from his rear end. He finally jerked his eyes up to protest to the other person, only to stop in surprise before his monologue could leave his lips.
Blue-green armor plating scintillated against snow white skin. Rosy-purple lips were parted in shock and fear, matching the fear dawning in the large wide-set pair of dark green eyes. A white tail flicked to and fro nervously and a pair of three-toed feet took a careful step back.
Frieza blinked at the frightened female Icejin, who looked to be around eleven or twelve years of age. She looked weird, in his opinion, because she had no skull structure or horns; the way she looked reminded him of what he was told his fourth form would look like someday. His eyes quickly jerked down towards the shattered dinner plate he had caused her to drop.
Without speaking, the girl quickly bowed her apology and began to sweep up the broken glass before someone stepped on it and got hurt. Frieza didn't speak at all as he tipped his nose up to show he was more important than the servant and pranced into his room, momentarily forgetting the pains in his chest.
It was the middle of the night, and just about everyone in the palace was asleep. All but one, a small shape with metallic purple adorning his head.
Frieza was in the worst pain he'd ever felt in his life. His skin was soaked with sweat and one pale hand clutched his left pectoral muscle as hot pokers jabbed his heart from the inside. At first, it had started out like heartburn, then it started to grow worse and concentrate on one spot behind his sternum.
"Coo- Coo-…" The little Icejin panted as he tried to raise his voice high enough to be heard. It was so painful to breathe, so painful to move, more painful with each beat of his heart, "…COOLER!!!"
The agonized cry woke Cooler from a sound sleep, and he staggered out of bed before his eyes could fully open. His purple form made its way blindly down the corridor to Frieza's room, where he manually pried the sliding doors open and rushed inside.
"Frieza?! What's going on?"
"C-Cooler…AAAHHH! I think…Unh! I think I'm dying…" Frieza whispered through the veil of tears his pain was causing him. He burst into sobs and drew his knees up close to his body as the pain grew overwhelming.
Cooler blinked and raced to the bed, now fully awake, and laid a hand across Frieza's forehead. The carapace was hotter than an oven, and growing hotter by the second. He snatched his purple digits away from the burning bone structure and shook it to get rid of the pain.
"I'm going to get father. Stay here and hang on!" He squeezed Frieza's small hand, then raced from the room in a full-out run and dashed to the opposite wing of the palace where King Kold's quarters were. Purple fists pounded a metal door open, sending loud obnoxious snores into the hallway, and a pair of three-toed feet raced to the edge of a large bed. "Father!"
King Kold turned over and continued to snore through an open mouth. The shadow next to his bed rose, and seconds later, Cooler's fist was connecting solidly with his jaw. That was enough to wake the large Icejin king from his sound slumber, and he jerked bolt upright.
"Cooler!! What the hell is the mean-"
"Frieza is sick!" Cooler interjected before his angry father could finish.
"So sit with him until he falls asleep…" Kold yawned irritably and brushed his hand across his drooping red eyes.
The young Icejin grabbed onto his father's muscular arm and started tugging as hard as his strength would allow, "I think it's the Pericardial Sclerosis virus, father! He's screaming in agony!"
That made Kold wake up fully. There was no cure for that kind of disease!
"WHAT!?" He shoved Cooler aside, jumped out of bed and raced down the hall. Frieza's cries of pain reached his ears long before he reached the child's room. Cooler arrived just behind him and peered around the doorframe at the unfolding scene.
Frieza was curled up in a tight ball on the bed, which was becoming soaked as he started to lose control of his bodily functions. The pain was so intense that he didn't even care, he just kept screaming each time his heart contracted to pump blood through his body.
"AAAHHH! AAAHHH! AAAHHH-AAAHHH! AUUGGGHHH!!!"
"Frieza!" Kold moved quickly to the bed and ignored the liquid waste pouring from his son's body as he lifted him away from the puddle on the bed. "Frieza, can you hear me?!" His reply was a ripping scream that nearly shattered his eardrums, and he quickly turned to Cooler. "Cooler, wake the medical technicians and tell them we have an emergency!"
Cooler abruptly nodded, "Right." He disappeared down the hall, dashing right past a small white shape that had been awakened by all the commotion.
King Kold dragged Frieza's wet clothing off and wrapped him in a dry sheet. "Hang on, son, everything is going to be just fine…" he breathed as he raced down the hall with his seriously ill child in his arms.
Cooler pressed his hand to the glass window as he watched Frieza lie there in the medical ward. He was in a drug-induced sleep to keep the pain at bay, and there were monitors beeping all around him. The one registering his heartbeat was growing weaker and more irregular. A thin nasal cannula was draped across his face, feeding him oxygen to help him breathe. His soft, slightly trembling black lips had grown dry and cracked, some of the color draining from them as his heart grew less and less able to pump blood through his body.
"I didn't mean it…" The young Icejin felt tears welling up in his eyes, "I didn't mean it when I said I hoped you would get sick and die!" He balled the hand on the glass into a fist as the tears made their way down his red-lined cheeks.
Inside, King Kold loomed over the frightened yellow technician that was going over the test results, which confirmed what Cooler had thought earlier.
The Pericardial Sclerosis virus was a feared thing among Icejins. Though rare, it was deadly to just about anyone who came down with it, and there was no cure. It always attacked the pericardial sac around the heart, hardening it into something molecularly similar to diamond. The heart itself would begin to swell, and that combined with the hardening pericardial sac would result in permanent damage or a ruptured heart. It had a one-year incubation period, and if the unfortunate person who came down with it was lucky enough to survive, they would be a carrier for the rest of their life.
All the adults in the castle had been vaccinated against it, but only those ten years of age and older had a system mature enough to handle the vaccine without having brain-damaging seizures.
"…so how long will it be?" Kold asked flatly with downcast eyes. One beefy hand was drawn in a fist at his side while the other rested against the wall. It was almost as if the wall was the only thing holding him up against the grief that was beginning to rise against him.
"It could be at any time, Sire. I'm terribly sorry. We will run tests and try to come up with something, but this virus has as many forms as the common cold…"
The Icejin king made a dismissive gesture and turned to look down at Frieza, who was lying with his pale hands folded on his chest. He placed a massive hand over the two tiny ones, which disappeared completely under his palm. So cold, Frieza's tiny hands were like ice.
He has his mother's hands… Kold mused silently, thinking very briefly about his mate, who had died giving birth to Frieza. Cooler looked more like her than Frieza did, but those fine-boned hands with delicate tapered fingers had come from her. Chylla…
Frieza's fingers twitched when his father's hand covered them. He didn't wake up or show any response to his presence, but he knew he was there.
"My poor boy..." Kold let his other hand rest on Frieza's fever-ravaged forehead and stared down at him before finally lowering his large face down to press a kiss into the child's temple. He only showed his affections towards the children while they were asleep. Pride, he was sure, made him keep a hard exterior in front of those around him.
Cooler closed his eyes as his tears dripped onto the glass and slid down the shiny smooth surface. He noticed another reflection in the glass and quickly wiped his eyes, turning to find the servant girl that Frieza had slammed into earlier. She was peering curiously into the medical bay.
That girl was the newest servant to arrive at the palace, having only been there for about a month. She was always quiet as a mouse, having never been heard to speak a word. Rumors often claimed she was a mute or autistic because of her silence.
"Hey." Cooler spoke to her as he searched his brain for her name, "…Wynter, is it?"
Looking startled, the girl straightened, faced Cooler and nodded with a quick bow.
"You shouldn't be here, work-rat." He said a little coldly, frowning down at her small form. Aside from teasing Frieza, scaring slaves was one of his favorite things to do, especially when he was in a really bad mood. "My brother wet his bed. Go change the sheets."
Wynter's eyes fluttered nervously. She bowed quickly without a sound and dashed off into the corridor to grab some fresh linens.
For a moment or two, she ran a delicate hand over the soft purple velvet material in her grasp as she pulled it out of the linen pile. It was a beautiful material, in her opinion, much nicer than the soft leather bedsheets she slept under. She was sure it was much warmer too, and a smile adorned her violet lips as she carried the folded linens into the young prince's quarters.
The scent in the room made the Icejin female wrinkle her nose a little, and she began to wonder why boys always had to be so messy. Her duties resumed their priorities in her mind, and she swiftly brushed aside all disgust while her careful hands went about removing the soiled linens.
In the meantime, Cooler was staring into space when his father's voice woke him from his reverie, "Cooler, go sit with him for awhile. I need to get a few things in order and prepare a service for his passing." His voice was subdued, not at all near the angry bellow he usually spoke with. "If he dies before I return, stay with him until I can get back in here. Otherwise his spirit will wander, and I don't want this castle haunted."
"Yes, father." The young Icejin nodded once, feeling uncomfortable, and stepped through the plastic door to the medical bay. A force field passed over his skin to kill all bacteria he might bring in.
Frieza didn't move much when Cooler sat down next to his bed. His skin was taking on a more ashen tone and the tips of his fingers were starting to become more purple than normal as his blood started to settle in them.
"Frieza," Cooler whispered as the sobs started to rise above his ability to control them. He hadn't cried since he was a very small child, but he felt like Frieza's illness was all his fault. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I didn't mean what I said earlier…"
He felt a hot palm touch the back of his hand and looked over to find his little brother looking at him through one half-open eye. The little boy on the bed didn't speak, but his cracked lips showed the tiniest hint of a smile before his eye slid shut once again, and Cooler knew that Frieza had forgiven him. He closed his purple hand around the small pale one lying in his and held it.
About three hours passed, and each moment was filled with Cooler looking from the heart monitor to his brother and back. Every once in awhile, he would glance at the window to outside and find Wynter peering in. She never entered the medical bay, but her presence was certainly uncalled for.
Then again, it wasn't uncommon for people to stop by and peek in to check Frieza's progress; after all, not everyone knew of the poor prognosis.
Frieza had been placed into a drug-induced coma to ward off the pain, and his vitals were starting to weaken by the hour. The pain was completely erased from his expression, and his pouty little lips formed a slight smile across the bottom of his pale face. His dreamy sleep-smile, a look he could only achieve while sound asleep.
"You're cute, even if you are a little brat." Cooler chuckled bitterly at his sleeping brother. Tears had been familiar company on the skin of his cheeks for the past few hours, along with another urge. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the call of nature started to grow more and more apparent. He even looked around for a container to use so he didn't have to leave the room, but when he found none, he had no choice.
"I'll be back, Frieza. Don't leave without me." The purple Icejin spoke as if his younger sibling could respond and quickly jogged out into the corridor where the waste-elimination unit was.
Wynter clutched the linens she was washing and stepped closer to the basin as Cooler dashed by, shooting a glare at his retreating back as he went by. She finished washing and placed the delicate material into the drying unit to be dried, then shook the water droplets off her pale hands.
Light from the medical bay window caught Wynter's eye as she started down the corridor. She approached the glass and pressed a delicate palm to it's surface, her breath fogging the window a little as she peered in. Frieza was all alone in there, and probably scared. Being one of the people not aware of his prognosis, she felt her heart beat faster when the heart monitor above the bed started to show irregular ridges and valleys across the screen.
Wynter finally steeled her nerves, held her head up with confidence and ventured into the sterilized zone. Frieza didn't move, just as before, even when she placed another pillow under his head for comfort. Her dark green eyes were drawn to the heart monitor once again.
Never in her life had she ever seen someone with such a weak heartbeat! It was almost pathetic, in her mind, and she crossed her arms as if daring that poor heart to stop beating.
Of course, she had only dared it to happen, so she was caught by surprise when that very thing happened right before her young eyes.
This is it...goodbye world. Frieza thought as he heard the monitor flatline, the sound penetrating to the very core of his consciousness. It faded into the distance after awhile, leaving him in a featureless void similar to the un-memorable hours of deep sleep. Then, after a short eternity, he felt suction on the front of his body and opened his eyes to find himself looking down at his own body on the bed.
All at once, he was in darkness that flashed intermittently with color. He saw himself being pulled from between the smooth dark purple legs of a screaming woman. He saw himself standing in the middle of a thunderstorm, laughing like a madman. He saw the destruction of a planet, a brilliant explosion so large his mind couldn't even begin to comprehend its size.
Then, suddenly, his terrified outline was painlessly whisked up through the medical bay ceiling. He flew into a narrow blue gridline corridor that became tighter and brighter until, with a blinding flash, it finally thrust him into space. His forward motion was so fast the stars were little more than bright walls of solid white light with a smudge of black straight ahead..
The suction eventually drew him into a twisting wormhole with shimmering pink gasses swirling about like the walls of a destructive cyclone. Faster and faster, harder and harder, his forward motion increased until he could see nothing but a blur.
A loud whoosh sounded, and Frieza jerked to a stop at the entrance of a gently rotating silver vortex as big around as a planet. Far away, a distant star in the sky, a white light glowed invitingly. All memories of fear left his memory when he laid his eyes upon the brilliant glow.
For a moment, Frieza stopped and looked back to see how far he traveled. He could still see himself lying there on the table, even though he was billions of light-years away from home.
Who was that other person standing beside his bed?
No, that didn't matter, nor did anything else. All that mattered was getting to that light…
Wynter reached over and laid a hand on Frieza's chest to shake him once. Frieza's eyes remained rolled back and closed; blind to life, yet still seeing. His body was numb, yet continuing to feel. His ears had gone deaf, yet they continued to hear. His mind no longer functioned, yet it continued its wild trip in attempt to make sense of the plateau between life and death.
She closed her eyes as fears of being accused for murdering him began worm their way into her mind. Her fate was sealed for sure if she didn't do something fast!
I can't let him die! Wynter thought fiercely. As if the thought itself were a flash of lightning that calmed her wiry nerves, the girl took a deep breath and opened her eyes to stare up at the flatlined monitor.
The light was so massive it almost filled Frieza's entire field of vision, and there were voices and laughter coming from within. The closer he got, the more he wanted to become part of it, and the more he forgot about his terrestrial life.
A tall dark purple figure was standing there, waiting, looking down at him with gentle ruby eyes; the same woman he'd seen before being thrust into the frightening wormhole. She looked so much like Cooler that he would have thought he was staring at his big brother if it wasn't for the obvious feminine curves and kind smile.
The woman extended her hand and Frieza's forward motion halted. He struggled to move closer, only to find he was effectively frozen in place.
"Not today, little love…not today…" Her black lips didn't move when she spoke, and her voice seemed to come from everywhere. It was the most beautiful music he ever heard.
Before Frieza could get a chance to even think of speaking, the woman lowered her hand, and he was falling backwards. Far, far away from the light, and far, far away from that musical voice. He traveled backwards through the gentle tunnel, back through billions of light-years of space, back through the nasty vortex and back through the gridline corridor. He glimpsed the medical bay ceiling just a split second prior to feeling a hard impact and hearing the thud as he was slammed back into his body.
The ceiling shrank as he sank away from consciousness. It felt like being thrust underwater without taking in enough air. He was suffocating!
Using every ounce of willpower he could muster, Frieza crawled back towards that flicker of consciousness and gasped for the air he so desperately needed. He heard a loud surge as his heart started to pump blood through his body once again, and his eyes fluttered open to fix on the glowing green-eyed angel hovering above his bed...
A blue light came from nowhere and stabbed its way out of the medical bay window to shine into the corridor. The doctors working in the medical bay all stopped what they were doing to see what was going on, and a few shouted at each other in protest as they collided with one another in their haste to move.
"What the!?" Cooler jerked his head towards the light as he finished his business. He dashed into the corridor just in time to see Wynter lunge through the plastic med-bay doors, look around for a few seconds, then take off running down another corridor.
With his heart rising into his throat at the idea of his brother dying without someone near him, Cooler forgot about Wynter and raced up to the med-bay. He skidded to a stop outside the door when he saw the most shocking sight he would ever see.
Frieza was sitting up in the bed, peeling equipment off his body while doctors stood around him in puzzlement.
To be continued...