The Triskelion
Washington D.C.
Three Months Later
Fury sat at his desk, signing off plans that the agency was putting forward. Project Insight seemed to be going off without a hitch, but it still needed as many grants and funding as he could find (from the various federal governments of the world and his top-secret donors of course).
In a second, someone flashed into the room, shocking Fury enough to pull out his gun and aim it directly at Zuchino. Sighing, he lowered his gun with a glare. "You couldn't knock?"
"Thought I could surprise you and keep you on your toes. Little technique I learned during my training." Zuchino smirked. "How's it been going since I was gone?"
"Mainly quiet, thankfully. We've been working around the clock from the day you and...King Mai?"
"Kai."
"King Kai came three months ago. Our team finished up the ship last week and are going over some last-minute safety details. Follow me." Fury stood from his desk and led the Saiyan to the glass elevator on the side of the room. After a few seconds, the car rode up and the doors opened.
"After you." Fury gestured as the Saiyan entered. "Saiyan ship reconstruction." The elevator scanned for a second before the doors shut and their descent began. "Had to hide construction in a special underground bunker, otherwise we'd be faced with a great deal of scrutiny."
"I understand, some secrets are worth being kept."
"How long do you think the trip will be?" Fury asked; Zuchino looked off, crunching the numbers in his head.
"Earth borders the South Galaxy so...I'd say it would only take me 2 weeks to be close to the point South Kai believes the activity is centered. That is, of course, if the ship goes the speed it did previously."
"I do believe it may be able to go a little faster."
"Well, then it will all depend on when and if I am able to locate the being behind the activity." Zuchino shrugged.
"What do you think is causing all of this destruction?"
"Well, from what I'm thinking, it could be the remnants of the Planet Trade Organization...but even that would be odd since the majority of the planet destroyers were supposed to have been killed during their invasion of Planet Vegeta." Zuchino trailed off, raising a hand to grip his chin in thought. "It seems far too random to be Lord Beerus, he never just destroys planets at such a speed. It's also strange since we typically strayed away from the Southern Galaxy due to the mass war being waged at the moment."
"There's a war?"
"Between these two weak empires that we decided would be best to let them annihilate themselves, then kill off the winner. I don't know if they're still warring, but it seemed to be winding down to an armistice last I heard." Zuchino added absentmindedly.
"Interesting." Fury said plainly; after the Chitauri invasion, nothing can really surprise him anymore.
Before the conversation could continue on intergalactic politics, the doors opened to a large bay area. Fury gestured for the Saiyan to walk out first. He obliged and walked onto the railing overlooking the construction of the ship. Down below, he saw the ship, much larger than he thought it would be.
"I know it's not what you're probably used to, but I thought we could add a few things to help out." Fury explained. The large ship looked more like a Quinjet than his typical Saiyan pod, but he wasn't going to complain. Truth be told, having to sit in that cramped space for such time would be annoying. It was painted red and yellow, similar to Stark's suits. The wings on the side had thrusters as opposed to the large rotors.
"This is a specialized Quinjet, designed from the remains of your spaceship material. It should be able to travel nearly up to the same speeds that your ship was able to, but we did not have the time to test it out." Fury explained. "It's two-tiered, the top tier has the cockpit and a small area for you to eat; the bottom is the resting quarters, with a fully-equipped restroom and bed. We've gone ahead and stocked with enough food for ten months, mainly since I thought it would be a longer trip. The ship and the thrusters are powered by a renewable arc reactor in order to keep fueling from being done. Once again, probably not what you're used to..."
"That's still an incredible feat for you guys to do," Zuchino admitted, looking over the ship with great interest. "Never thought you humans would be able to understand something like Saiyan technology, but I guess you never cease to surprise me. When will it be ready for me to leave it?"
"Whenever you choose."
"Cool, let me pop back by my apartment and I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Wait, I wanted to save the bad news for last." Fury stopped the Saiyan from jumping down.
"What is it?"
"Okay, the thrusters are good to go and J.A.R.V.I.S. is double-checking the life systems for us," Tony informed as he and Bruce rounded the corner, calculating a few commands with the tablet in his hand. Zuchino took one look at the humans and put it together.
"Yeah no." Zuchino frowned at Fury. "This mission is far too dangerous, whatever is destroying the planets it will be far too powerful for me to juggle fighting and watching these two."
"Aw, ET, you're breaking my heart." Tony snarked back as the Saiyan rolled his eyes.
"Zip it," Zuchino growled before turning to look back at Fury. "Why do I need them?"
"Since there was a lot of techs we were unfamiliar with on that craft, we had to bring in Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner to remodel it. And since they know this ship far more than any other human on Earth, it would be ideal that they go along and you don't get stuck in space due to a malfunction." Zuchino took one look back at the duo before turning back to Fury.
"I'd rather starve to death in the coldness of space."
"It also requires two pilots when navigating certain areas. Besides, we wouldn't want you losing your mind while you are in space." Fury added on, making the Saiyan sigh in frustration.
"Well, what's the wait? Let's get you home, ET." Stark walked up behind the Saiyan and put his arm across the shoulder.
"I hate you," Zuchino muttered with a chuckle coming from Stark's mouth. "Get ready to launch in the next hour, I have to leave." With that, he generated a blue aura around him and blasted off through the open skylight.
-3 Days Later-
These three days felt like two weeks for Zuchino. On one hand, Fury was right in regard: it did help his sanity to have people to talk with. It also helped to have them cycle in between flying so far, allowing each to get the right amount of sleep they needed. That cycle ended when they finally reached the border between South and West Galaxies, which was mainly empty. Well, at least for Tony and Bruce. The nightmares still plagued the Saiyan, so much so that it took everything in his power to not let the other two know about it; his general lack of activity also plagued the humans to some extent, he could see it.
Today, he preoccupied his time doing what he did most of the time: reading books. After he deemed he'd did the bulk of the research to fit in on the planet, he still loved reading enough to begin reading this planet's fiction. By far, it was a bit more primitive in terms of ideas (they thought Mars never held life before or that they were little green humanoids), it had a certain charm to it they made them irresistible to put down. His favorite author so far was someone by the name of "Stephen King" and he was working on the book about a town trapped underneath some strange, invisible dome and the fallout from that. He and Steve also tended to trade books between each other (the Super-Soldier's favorite author was James Patterson and he loved the Alex Cross series).
"ET! Come in here for a sec!" Tony shouted from the cockpit, breaking the Saiyan's concentration. He closed the book and walked into the cockpit.
"What is it?"
"We've been floating through space for the past few days, when do you think we should expect to enter the South Galaxy...still can't get over saying that," Bruce muttered to himself.
"At this rate, we should be entering the edge in maybe five hours. You'll know because you'll start seeing the planets appearing."
"Why aren't their planets on the borders?" Tony asked as Zuchino shrugged.
"I think the Kais decided it would be simply to have large swaths of empty space to completely differentiate the sections of the universe."
"Kais?"
"Gods," Zuchino said plainly, not even noting the shocked expressions of his comrades. "Yea, I know; shook my world too when I found out."
"How old were you"
"By your planet's standards, 12. God of Destruction Beerus came to our planet, we had fed him some of our finest foods to keep him destroying our planet over a small petty reason."
"What was the reason?"
"Someone gave him the wrong pillow." Zuchino sighed; both the humans look at each other before laughing.
"No, seriously; what is it?" Bruce asked before he noticed the Saiyan's stony face. "You're not joking, are you?"
"No."
"Oh damn," Tony muttered. "He's not...coming to our planet, is he?"
"As far as I know, he's taking a nap. His nap usually lasts about twenty cycles or 140 years for Earth." Zuchino explained.
"Well, I guess it's a great thing we have you here to kick his ass." Tony sighed with a laugh. "Right, Zuchi?" Zuchino froze for a second, that word echoing in my mind for a second.
Crack!
Zuchino felt the whip slash against his back, biting his tongue again to ensure this blue-skinned bastard didn't get the satisfaction of hearing his pained cries.
"I'll make you scream yet, Zuchi." Zarbon chuckled, wiping blood and skin from the whip's rungs. Normally, he'd use the long, reinforced whip to punish insubordinate soldiers for their actions. However, getting his most hated monkey to torture, he decided to bring out his favorite: a long black tail from some bug creature with acid blood they encountered some time ago; its tail had a black pointer on the end and sharp ridges lining the edges. "Ready to give up the mastermind of the rebellion?"
There was a small silence before Zuchino raised his head and looked at the alien in his eye before spitting in his face and giving a small smile, "I'm sorry, I blacked out for a second; what was the question?"
Zarbon wiped the saliva from his face and glared daggers at the wrongly confident Saiyan. Raising the whip high above his head, Zarbon roared, "Why you dirty, little bast-
"That's quite enough Zarbon." Zarbon froze at the voice of his master. The small pink, horned alien leisured walked into the room with his arms folded confidently behind his back. Zarbon quickly dropped the whip and bowed to Freeza, who shook his head. "While I do appreciate your efforts in loosening him up, can I have moments alone with one of my best generals?"
"Yes, Lord Freeza." Zarbon barely had the words out before he shuffled to the door and hurried through it.
That's when the air got incredibly still. Freeza's red eyes bore into the Saiyan's, but there seemed to be no emotion emitting from them. They were just cold and emotionless. Finally, after a second, Freeza spoke.
"I remember the day your parents died. Back when I made the mistake of sending your parents to Rythiaar to fight Thanos' forces. I hadn't received the correct intel and I was just eager to have that planet and its Katchin mines for myself. I fucked up, is that what you want to hear? 1,000 thousand soldiers killed in a booby-trap." Freeza began circling the chained Saiyan, examining the injuries. "I lose two of my best generals and Ginyu lost his entire previous squadron. 400 Saiyans were killed. Two of them low-class warriors who had two children together that were elites amongst themselves. I took you and your sister both in. I trained you, taught you everything you knew, and even made you one of my very first Saiyan lieutenant general."
The alien stopped for a second before he shoved his finger into one of the whip stripes on his back, making the Saiyan cry out in unexpected pain. "So please help me to see why after all I've done for you, why would you betray me in the way you have." He pulled out his finger, giving the Saiyan small relief, and licked away the blood.
"Well, I'm waiting," Freeza said after a few seconds.
"Because…" The Saiyan practically whispered, "you knew."
"What was that?" Freeza walked around to the front and looked the Saiyan in the eye.
"You knew." The Saiyan raised his head to glare bloody rage at the tyrant. "You knew that planet was rigged because Thanos didn't set the explosives…you did. You killed my parents because you said the Saiyans were reproducing too fast! You fucking killed them in cold blood!" Zuchino roared in the tyrant's face. Freeza took a second to think about the idea before looking away and chuckling.
"My, my, my; look who finally found out my secret. Here I thought all of you monkeys were a species dumb muscleheads best suited for enslavement. Good thing you said it, I was about to vomit in my mouth if I had continued that façade any longer." Freeza let out a cruel cackle. "That's why you were always my favorite pet monkey, Zuchi, you were a pet project of mine to test if you Saiyans were capable of loyalty. Seemed to be working for a while; oh well, I guess I have my answer now. Time for me to give you all your grade." Freeza said with a dark smile. Zuchino thought about the phrase for a second before he realized.
"No, you won't."
"I've already made the preparations, my dear monkey. Zarbon, Dodoria, and the Ginyu Force are taking a squadron for some monkey-hunting. Though I must admit, it will be hard to lose my most powerful soldiers, but I guess I can either have loyalty or power. And normally I would kill you right now, but I feel like sending you to Hell already would be too anticlimactic; no, I'll keep you alive long enough to see my energy detonate that planet. Only once Planet Vegeta is nothing more than a few rocks floating in space will you then have my permission to die." With that, Freeza turned to leave.
"No! You can't; just kill me, leave them out of this." Zuchino begged, his eyes watering. "Please, they have nothing to do with this!"
"Afraid I can't, Zuchi. Insubordination is like a virus, all it takes is one sneeze to spread the virus around; don't want every space prick thinking he can rise up against me, now can I? No, it's best to quarantine this virus and make an example out of you all." He said as began walking away before he stopped right at the door.
"Oh yes, I'm sorry that I forgot your consolation gift: getting rid of the most burdensome part of your biology." Zuchino's eyes opened slightly, trying to figure out what Freeza meant…he soon realized when he felt a hand grab his tail.
"No! Lord Freeza, please don't!" Zuchino gasped out over his pain screamed.
"Oh, Zuchi; hearing that fills me with so much joy. You've finally acknowledged your place; how poetic, all because I threatened your little appendage…too bad my mind is already made up." Before Zuchino could open his mouth, he felt Freeza's heel dig into his lower back and Freeza's hand tightened.
"So, this unsightly thing has got to go." He began pulling, eliciting bloodcurdling screaming from the downed Saiyan. "Wow, it's really attached to you. Never the matter." With that, he fired a razor beam through the tail, slicing it off. Pain shot through the Saiyan's being; not just his physical body, but his soul. If there was one thing the Saiyan race was most proud of, it was their tail. And Freeza knew that.
"Zuchino?" Bruce's called out, awakening the Saiyan from his stupor to see both the men staring at him with gazes that screamed concerned. "We asked you a question and you blacked out on us for a minute there; you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good," Zuchino explained away, looking away and walking down to the lower deck.
"You sure, I wouldn't hope the 'legendary' Super Saiyan is scared of some god. You took on Thor, after all." Stark prodded as Zuchino looked back. "Never pegged you as a coward, just saying."
"That's because Lord Beerus is strongest being in the universe, he literally tapped an egg and reduced it to dust," Zuchino replied. "And what the fuck did you mean by that?"
"Relax, it was just a joke." Stark brushed it off.
"It wasn't a good one, so I'd suggest you keep such remarks to yourself."
"Geez, for a warrior, you seem to be very touchy," Stark said, looking back at the Saiyan.
"Because I don't mind the odd smart-ass remark, Stark; they can be quite amusing at times. But don't you dare disrespect me like that again."
"Or what? You'll cry really hard on my shoulder? So scary for such a big, bad Saiyan warrior."
"You will not speak to me this way!" Zuchino roared, his hair flashing blonde and eyes turquoise within a quick second; Bruce backed away from the duo. After he continued staring Stark in the eye for a few seconds, he muttered, "Let me know when we reach the South Galaxy," and stormed out if the cockpit.
"Irritability...well, heightened irritability," Stark said as he looked over to Bruce. "Spacing out, probably having flashbacks, insomnia, waking nightmares. On top of what Fury already told us."
"Do you think..." Bruce trailed off as Tony sighed.
"I do."