Cold snow on a frozen heart
By: Ashford2ashford
Disclaimer: If I owned Dragonball Z…I would indeed be a rich person and would never have to work again…but I don't…so…umm…hope you like this…
Pairing(s): Typical love/hate relationship between Frieza and Zarbon
AN: Well…my first ever Dragonball Z fanfic and I really hope you all like it!

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Frozen snow…

Drifting down from the sky and landing on my hard armoured skin, melting upon impact, water softly dripping down my body.

Until then, I'd never seen it before, and the memory of it was one I treasured above all. A memory that had feelings and – dare I say it? – emotion behind it, one that stood out amongst all others.

A day in my memory when the frozen snow was as alien as my presence upon the planet whose climate was cold enough to cause it…that phenomenon that I couldn't explain…

My soft arms and my hard armoured shoulders covered in snow.

My own body was still boiling from life upon my own planet, the blood as warm as molten lava.

"Father…what is this?"

I now know how ridiculous it sounded back then. I should have known about snow and water forming ice and piles of white that were as cold as the heart that beat within my breast. Should have known…but didn't…

I recall soft skinned bare feet crunching the snow between three toes, fascinated by the cold temperature, watching it melt into water and then freeze again. The same three toes shortly afterwards hovered above the ground, the small body shivering.

"It's cold."

Wide eyes searched for miles across wasteland and snow, finding nothing. The small body drew closer to the warmth and safety of the much taller, much stronger figure.

I was young back then.

Maybe only in my twentieth or twenty-first years or so…

Actually, I must explain that.

My race lives for about a thousand up to one thousand five hundred years, and to only be in your twentieth year meant lack of natural armour, lack of strength, and more importantly lack of any ability to defend oneself.

My father was already strong and around seven hundred…and behind him came my brother…bold and cocky…five hundred years older than I and all too aware of it.

"Cold, little armour-less freak?" It was amazing that he always seemed to try and drag me into an argument or make me feel pathetic at any opportunity.

I winced. Yes I was cold, yes I was scared of this strange white cold….substance that I'd never seen before, but I'd be damned if I was ever going to admit that to my older brother!

"Cooler…don't tease your brother. You know that you were the same at his age."

My father. His voice at that time lacked interest, I now know why.

The fights between brother and brother were nothing new to him, and they were more than enough of a hindrance to him as they were a distraction also.

My brother had sneered at that, I remember the cold expression on his face, colder than the snow falling around us.

"I soon grew out of that!" He scoffed, tapping his own shoulder of armour proudly, "Not like the little naked baby Frieza!"

I remember feeling so stupid…like always…

"Enough of your bickering! Cooler, don't tease your brother! Frieza, its snow and it's supposed to be cold! Now both of you pipe down!" My father's eyes were shifting side to side, scanning the white landscape for something…

"Ah! There it is!"

My tiny body was lifted onto huge muscular shoulders, and then my father began a short flight down a rocky white crevasse.

I think I was too young to fly then.

Maybe that's why I was seen as pathetic back then…

"Father! Where are we going? Are we flying into nothing as per usual? Are you lost again? Father…I'm cold! Let's find shelter! I'm sure you're sadistic! Father!"

Let it never be said that I whine more than my brother…

I could tell from the expression on my father's face that he may have been thinking along the same lines as me.

"Cooler," he seethed, "Just shut up and hold on for a few moments…we're nearly there!"

"Ah! My Lord King Cold…I trust you found us all right? I am aware that this climate may be not what you are used to, but I do hope it wasn't a hindrance…"

It wasn't the first time I'd seen Lord Zarbon, but even at this age, at this time, on his own territory, things seemed different. Lord Zarbon was…how would I put this? He was a different creature from the Ice-jin I was used to, and like it or not, my father had…business with him on this day…and he had insisted that my brother and I had come with him.

Back to the subject of Lord Zarbon…
His race was known as the Changelings. After a certain time period, they chose a form out of the two they were able to take to permanently stay in. Lord Zarbon had chosen his…how shall I say this also? …his less-attractive form. He looked frog-like in appearance, and stood around six and a half foot tall, his long green hair dangling about his shoulders, his fangs protruding from scaly…'lips'.

Why had he chosen that one in comparison to his more human-like one?

Such questions I asked back then, but now I'll never question them again…I seem to forget so much these days…it is my one hundred and fiftieth year after all. I am merely a teenager by Ice-jin standards, but still…

Where power takes over, memory is erased…

Anyway, I digress as usual.

At the time, I was scared of the snow. The fear of that soon subsided when I saw the hideous form of Lord Zarbon. I even recall clutching my father's cloak tightly, my brother sneering at my act of cowardice.

"Lord Zarbon." My father's large lumbering form bent over in a bow of sorts, his cloak sweeping over him, his tail and arm acting in unison, moving across his large muscular chest, "It is the pleasure of I, King Cold, to be upon your fine home planet with both of my own flesh and blood sons. I can assure you there were no hindrances on my journey here, and yet I must express a curiosity as to why you have called me here on such short notice. It is unlike you, my friend."

Lord Zarbon laughed softly and opened the 'door' to a large camouflaged structure hidden in the deep ever-thickening snow…an underground hide away no doubt? He bowed low again before my father and then motioned towards the warmth that crept out from within the structure.
"Please. It would be my honour if you came inside. It is not a matter of life or death, but rather one of great pride for my race and myself. I simply wished to express it to you as opposed to other Generals."

My father looked a little confused and then smiled, a huge booming laugh, the likes of which I had never heard before, escaping his lips. He patted Lord Zarbon upon the back and then laughed again, his eyes seemingly shining with joy.
"She has given birth hasn't she?" He asked, sweeping back his cloak, "You have a new heir."

I looked up in surprise. That sounded ugly. A newborn changeling! I imagined it to be a hideous frog demon-like thing, just like it's father. Not a pretty image. But my father seemed happy enough, his smile never fading.

At least it was warmer in here.

As for a description of the place I was in, well, I am not one for description, but I must ask. If you are aware of what the metal military bunkers look like, then you already have a vague idea of what this was. After all, the changelings were very military in character. It was white, and long and cylindrical, made out of a metal I could not begin to imagine what type.
Changelings in both human and 'other' form rushed around, bowing to my father, staring at Cooler and I, doing chores and tasks for their King and Lord. Several of them even commented on my soft and delicate tail, which hung limply at my back, dragging along the floor like a soft pink worm, making trails in the snow that had blown in.

I felt very paranoid by that time. The reason my tail was dragging was due to the lack of feeling in it. It would be a permanent limp, even when I developed armour on the end of it, all thanks to my brother. In a fit of jealousy, he had made sure to slam my tail repeatedly in a metal door when I was three years old. My father had punished him, but Cooler's wounds had healed…my tail, however, would remain limp…

One of the many reasons I despised my older sibling…

I looked around as we entered the main hall, decorated in the style of what a human would call a 'Medieval Style Throne Room'. In front of the two thrones lay a small bundle on the soft delicate carpet that swept across the floor.

Lord Zarbon picked up the bundle and showed it to my father and Cooler (I was too small to see) and then laughed softly.

"The future Lord of my planet, Zarbon the fifth."

Whimpering I called out, "I want to see!"

My father looked down at me and then smiled, motioning for the baby to be placed in his muscular arms. Lord Zarbon complied and then my father knelt down until he was my level and then showed the bundle to me with a smile of his face.

I peered into it and felt a warm soft hand touch my ruby lips gently. A small podgy light green hand belonging to the tiniest cutest baby I had ever seen in my entire life! It face was small yet chubby, it's wide baby blue eyes not yet changed to the adult colour, and it had the same light green skin that all Changeling's had, and also bore a few wisps of dark green hair on it's soft head.

"It's small." I commented, poking its chubby cheeks with one finger. The baby giggled gleefully and wriggled in my father's arms.

"Would you like to hold it, Little Frieza?" Lord Zarbon knelt down and motioned to my small arms. I opened my eyes wide and nodded, "Uh huh!"

The baby was warm. Warmer than Ice-jin skin, which was as cold as this planet. As soon as it was placed in my arms, it stopped wriggling and looked up at me, content to be there.

"Baby Zarbon…" I murmured, "I like you, baby Zarbon…"

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NEXT: Chapter Two – Seven Years Later

AN: Well, I hope you all liked this, with it being my first Dragonball fic!