A/N: It's been a while, but the time away has given me plenty of time to get the creative juices flowing. And with the cliffhanger I left the story at last time it's about time I get back to what I do best.
X
After everything that had happened to Goku and his friends in the last three years, they believed they were ready for just about anything to come their way. Including the new threat they would be facing in the coming future.
But to see the one that they've come to see as an ally standing before them holding a child was one they were not expecting in the slightest.
Said child was also a Frost Demon, and from observation alone they could tell was also a female. Roughly around Gohan's size and looked similar to Cooler with dark-purple skin on their arms, legs and tail with their upper-half was covered with shoulder-less armor that was white with royal purple accents, while their bottom half had a long, black skirt that reached their knees
The child's head was different when compared to what they've seen so far. A large, dark-blue bio-gem dominated most of their skull, but had bio-armor along the outside with a series of small spikes framing it around to the back almost like hair with patches of pale blue skin framing their face.
Despite the disbelieving looks behind him, Cooler simply held the one in his arms close to his chest with a smile that showed nothing by joy and happiness. "Hey, Princess. Did you miss me?" he asked rhetorically.
A pair of soft-pink eyes looked up at him as a beaming smile appeared. "A whole lot! When Uncle Salza said that you called I wanted to get here fast! What kept you so long?" the girl asked with a pout.
"Sorry, I had to deal with your mean Uncle Frieza. And I was getting to know the nice people of this world as well." Cooler looked toward the others who were all still stunned silent. "I think your arrival more than surprised them, it would seem." he continued causing the child to giggle.
Goku snapped out of it first, "Whoa, Cooler is that..."
The Frost Demon nodded, "This is my daughter, Eis. Eis, this is Goku, Piccolo and Goku's son Gohan."
Eis smiled and waved at the warriors just as six others exited the ship, all dressed in armor similar to the Frieza Force save for only having one shoulder guard. All of them of various races and colors while the one in the front looked close to human save for the blue skin and white hair.
"Lord Cooler, I apologize for the unannounced arrival, but the little one would not wait a moment more." said the one in the lead with a french accent.
"It's fine, Salza. I appreciate you and the others looking after her all this time." replied Cooler honestly.
Salza, and the ones behind him, put their fists to their chests and bowed their heads, "Always an honor, sir. Princess Eis' protection will always be a prime objective. Word of Frieza's demize has spread through our ranks, we are ready to proceed at your order."
"I hate to cut in." Piccolo said gruffly with his arms crossed over his chest, "But what exactly is going on here?"
Cooler set Eis down before speaking, "I'll explain everything in a moment." he turned back to his subordinate, "Salza, get on the comms with everyone else. It's time to execute operation Liberation."
Salza grinned, "Right away, Lord Cooler." he turned to the gathered squad and started issuing orders while the Frost Demon led his daughter, the two Saiyans and the Namekian back toward Goku's house where Chi-Chi looked on with curiosity.
After a brief introduction to the Ox-Princess, she took an immediate liking to Eis, even more so that she was around Gohan's age given that there weren't any other kids around.
Sending both the young Frost Demon and the demi-Saiyan to the latter's room for the time being, the adults sat around the dinner table while Cooler began to explain what was going on.
"Salza is the leader of one of my elite squadrons, ever since I was disowned from the Cold family I encountered and recruited the aid of many people on different worlds. All of them with the goal of freeing those under Frieza and our father's rule." said the Frost Demon. "But most important, he's the one I trust the most with looking after my daughter when I'm not there."
"Why are they here?" asked Piccolo from his spot leaning against a nearby wall.
"Aside from bringing Eis to me, with Frieza gone it's only a matter of time before a power vaccuum opens up with his empire lacking leadership. My intention is to mobilize the forces I have amassed all this time and assume control of the empire before that happens." replied the Frost Demon.
Goku scratched his head, "Why though, isn't it a good thing with Frieza being gone."
Cooler sighed at the man's cluelessness, "It's not that simple. The empire encompasses a large percentile of the galaxy in several sectors. Thousands of planets and billions of lives. Even though my brother was a heartless bastard many still looked to him for guidance and leadership, with both him and father dead there will be chaos and anarchy while those of less moral intentions will reach for the position left behind. Frieza was without equal, and with him being dead-"
"Almost anyone would be willing to take the mantle of 'Emperor'." Piccolo finished for him.
"Exactly." said Cooler, "My intention is to do this before word spreads about my brother's death. Not only will it keep things in order, I can start making changes to the operations he had set in place. Mostly those surrounding slavery and the mindless destruction of whole planets and civilizations. It won't be easy, and it'll take time, but with enough luck things will change for the better out there."
Goku chuckled, "You're definitely not like Frieza. You sure you weren't adopted or something?"
The Frost Demon laughed as well, "Believe me, I thought that for a very long time."
Chi-Chi entered the kitchen after having finished checking on the children, "Eis is helping Gohan with his school work. She's quite smart, and very well behaved." she said smiling.
"I did the best I could, despite dealing with training and leading a militia against my family's empire. But I made it work." said Cooler.
The Ox-Princess blinked, "Alone? What about Eis' mother?"
The silence that followed the innocent question became deafening. Cooler's expression became cold as stone making it that much worse.
"She was murdered...in cold blood."
The quiet, icy tone the Frost Demon spoke with had the other three shivering, Piccolo included. When he saw this Cooler took a deep breath, "Sorry, but even after all these years the wounds from that day are still very fresh, and only started to completely heal when I finally put that bastard down."
Running a hand over his face, Cooler realized that he'd already gone past the point of no return, so he decided to go the rest of the way.
"It was about a year after I was exiled. I ran into another Frost Demon on a backwater world I had been training on at the time." he smiled at the memory, "Her name was Briize. She was an academic and liked to research various lifeforms throughout the universe, he goal was to put together an almanac to help travelers going through different systems and what flora and fauna to expect."
"We had a rocky start, considering a stray ki blast from me demolished a small forest she had been researching. But overtime we became good friends...then lovers. She didn't see me as the disgraced prince of the Cold dynasty, and she stood by me during my campaign in helping those under the empire's rule. Before we knew it, she was pregnant with Eis."
The Frost Demon's mood became solemn, "After our daughter was born, Briize became ill. Every doctor and scientist in my militia tried to figure out what was wrong, the news was anything but good. She had contracted a rare disease known only to our kind that attacks the nervous system. The doctor gave her about a year, 18 months at the most."
Chi-Chi covered her mouth, Goku looked stricken, and even though he didn't show it Piccolo had sympathy in his eyes.
"Thankfully it wasn't viral." Cooler went on, "It hurt, but we made the best of it. I made sure I was with her every chance I got and made sure what time she had left was something to remember."
His fists clenched on the table top infront of him, "Then, one day, I got a call about a situation at one of our outposts in another system. I didn't want to leave, but Briize convinced me to make sure that everything was alright. When I got there, the outpost was nothing more than a crater, save for a lone body of one of my soldiers laying dead at the edge with a recorded message left on him."
Cooler had to work to suppress his rage as be brought up the memories from back then. "It was all a trap. Frieza found out where I had been living and sent his Ginyu Force to lure me away while they went in after my family. By the time I got back home..." he clenched his eyes shut, trying to block the images he never wanted to remember again.
He stood up from the table and went over to the window, looking into the night outside. "Frieza had been there. He tortured Briize before killing her and kidnapped our daughter. Leaving a message taunting me about how I should know better than to mess with something I'm no longer a part of." His reflection in the glass leered back at him, "I buried Briize where our home had once been. And the days that followed, you could say I lived up to the 'Family Legacy'."
Cooler turned to look at the two heroes with seriousness and honesty in his gaze, "I tortured, killed, and obliterated everything in my path searching for my daughter. She was all I had left, and there was nothing in the universe that was going to stop me from getting her back. It was almost a week before I got the break I needed. Eis was being kept in my father's castle on the planet that had once been my home."
The Frost Demon looked down at his clenched fist, "Salza wanted me to bring our armada to back me up...but I went alone. It was a day that no one would be forgetting anytime soon."
X Flashback X
"Full retreat! Everyone fall back to the palace! We must protect-GAHHH!" an entire line of soldiers was instantly obliterated in a flash of light and a massive explosion.
Through the fire and smoke, Cooler skulked over the bodies of the countless people he had killed in the last few large city that surrounded the palace was either in flames or smoldering ruins, his arrival to the planet akin to the apocalypse as he paved a path of destruction from where he landed all the way to the palace gates.
"OPEN THE GATES!" a small group of battered soldiers shouted as they tried to get the large doors opened in a terrified panic. "PLEASE! HE'S COMING! LET US IN!"
Cooler's steps were slow and methodical. His eyes glowed a brief moment before lasers fired from them, incinerating the gates and anything infront of them with a thunderous explosion. The Frost Demon strolled into the palace and sent out a pulse of ki, locating his daughter's energy on one of the floors above among the countless people attempting to defend the place, along with another, familiar signature as well.
"Get him!" a squadron of soldiers opened fire on him, but a ki barrier sprang to life around him deflecting the weaker blasts. A wave of the hand sent a line of explosions throughout the room, shaking the entire palace and killing everyone within range.
Raising the same hand he used to smite the soldiers, Cooler fired a blast upward that tunneled through the floors above him before levitating up through the building until he reached the large throne room where his 'Father' was seated. Elbow resting on the armrest supporting his head with a lazy smile.
"Well, if it isn't my oldest son. You certainly know how to mark your arrival. Looks like you finally decided to embrace your heritage." said King Cold said as if his kingdom wasn't burning outside.
Cooler's leer could have burned to the core of a planet if it had the ability. "Where is my daughter?" he spoke in a cold, sharp tone.
Cold Smirked, "Oh, she's around somewhere. Can you imagine my surprise when your brother arrived and showed me that I was a grandpa? I must say, I was shocked to say the least. She is quite the cute little thing, though. I can only imagine how powerful she will be when she's older."
A beam of energy shot past his head, skimming past his cheek and burning a hole through his throne.
Cooler lowered his pointer finger, "No, what's cute is that you think you're going to live beyond today."
The king scowled as he slowly stood up, ignoring the blood dripping from the cut made on his face. "You truly believe that you can challenge me, boy?" Cold sneered with his power fluctuating around him. "My power is greater than anything you have ever encountered! You can't possibly understa-"
In the blink of an eye, Cooler was before his father. Right fist piercing through the armor covering his stomach and burrowed into the bloody tissue beneath.
Cold gasped, doubling over slightly with blood dribbling down his chin.
"Your bastard son killed the mother of my child." the younger Frost Demon said before viciously ripping his arm out of the hole he made in the king's gut. "That will be one mistake he won't live to regret."
"Y-You...little-" Cold wheezed, clutching his bleeding stomach before Cooler grabbed his horns and bashed his knee into his face. Shattering his nose and sending him crashing back into his throne.
"You claim your power is so great, but you haven't even grasped what our kind can truly be capable of." Cooler began to power up, the palace around him starting to shake, his body changing into his final form that was as tall as the king.
Cold looked up at his eldest son in shock and awe as the power emitting from him could be felt far and wide.
"The day of reckoning has come, King Cold."Cooler said through his face mask, his glowing eyes burning in vengeance. "Frieza will get his soon enough. But right now, you will pay for your part in Briize's death."
Cooler held up his hand as a blade made of orange ki formed with a soft humm. "You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. You're going to be doing a lot of that. But in the end, it doesn't matter."
X
Outside, the survivors of Cooler's assault were greeted with the screams of agony from their king that lasted for several minutes before the battered and bloody form of Cold was thrown from his palace and landed in the courtyard below.
Everyone gathered around the Frost Demon and were aghast to see him with his left arm missing at the shoulder and one of his horns broken off and jammed through his right eye.
Cooler descended from the hole his father had made when he threw him from the palace. Still in his final form with little Eis asleep in his arms as he hovered above the courtyard.
Despite the pain he was in, Cold looked up at his eldest son and held his remaining hand out to him. "S...Son...P...Pl...ease..." he gasped out.
With his daughter tucked safely in the crook of his left arm, Cooler raised his right hand and charged energy to his palm. And without a word, fired a devistating blast that obliterated not only the king, but the entire courtyard as well.
Finished, the Frost Demon took to the air and flew to the planet's atmosphere where a lone ship was waiting for him. The hatch on the top opened to reveal Salza and a couple other soldiers.
"Lord Cooler! I know you said you would do this on your own, but-" the alien was silenced when his lord placed Eis in his arms.
"Take her to my chambers. Make sure she is comfortable." he spoke with a gentleness that surprised his subordinates. His face mask retracting so that he could bend down and kiss his daughter on the forehead.
Snapping back to attention, Salza nodded. "At once, my lord." he and the others went back into the ship, leaving Cooler alone.
Looking back down at the planet, the Frost Demon scowled before raising a pointer finger to the air. A ball of energy started to form, growing larger and larger with each passing second until it was three times bigger than the ship he stood upon.
Flicking his forefinger forward, the Super Nova shot toward the planet. Cooler turned his back and descended into the ship that a moment later took off into the vastness of space, seconds before the planet below was destroyed in a blast that echoed throughout the system.
X Flashback End X
"It was only the third time I ever destroyed a planet. But it was going to be the last." Cooler finished his tale leaving Goku, Chi-Chi and Piccolo in stunned silence. "I let my rage take control. I killed so many people that I don't even want to calculate it. But at the time, I couldn't care less. All that mattered was finding Eis. The only thing I have left of Briize, and the only thing I really cherish in the universe."
He was silent for a few beats before speaking again, "In the years that followed, I dedicated most of my time to being a good father while also training to get even stronger and lead mt forces against Frieza's. I made a promise to Briize that I would raise our little girl to the best of my ability, but I couldn't be sure she was safe until my brother was dead and gone. I had to leave her a couple of times, but I made up for when I wasn't there. I'm just happy that she turned out as well as she has, she's so much like her mother. " the Frost Demon said with a smile.
The other two warriors thought over what they had been told, but it was Chi-Chi that broke the silence before they could. "I can't blame you for what you did." This caught the males by surprise. "Your not a monster for doing what you had to for your child. Any parent would given the circumstance."
Cooler smiled at the Ox-Princess, "I appreciate the sentiment, Chi-Chi. Thank you."
Piccolo thought of something, "When we first met at the Lookout, you said that you wanted to find a home when you offered to help us. I take it that was for Eis' benefit?"
"Yes. We've never really had a home since the one we shared with Briize. Having to move around to avoid being found out by the Frieza Force. Earth is a very peaceful world, full of life and new opportunities, it's a place Eis will be able to have a good life." said the Frost Demon. "And if things truly worked out in the end, I was intending on ensuring the planet's safety when my forces completely overtake the empire. With permission from its defenders, of course."
Goku scratched his head a moment, "Well, I don't really see the problem with that. I mean, everything you did was for the sake of helping other people. And you're a good dad too, that's pretty awesome in my book."
"Papa?" All eyes looked to the kitchen doorway where Eis stood beside Gohan. "Gohan was telling me all about Earth, is this going to be our new home?" the little Frost Demon asked with a hopeful expression.
Cooler smiled at his daughter and held out his arms. Eis ran to him as he picked her up and set her on his lap. "That is my intention, Princess. Though we have to make sure it's okay to move here first."
Eis looked sad, "Did Uncle Frieza hurt the people here too?"
"He did to some, but Goku over here beat him up real good for it. And I stopped him from hurting anymore people ever again." Cooler explained, making her smile brightly.
The human/Saiyan family watched the interaction between father and daughter and couldn't help but smile. Knowing full well that the others wouldn't have any issues with the small alien family living on Earth.
Even more so given he had a strong reason to help them protect their world.
X
A/N: A short chapter, but I think Cooler's surprise family could use a little backstory and then some. Will be coming back with more updates soon, so don't go too far folks!
(Eis - Pronounced as Ice)
(Briize - Pronounced as Breeze)