Chapter 8: Settling the Score

Trunks eyes remained locked on the approaching golden tyrant, struggling to stand upright in the small crater with Kassava quickly moving in front of him. Both Saiyans tensed at the slow walking Frieza, his fists clenched tightly while panting.

"At long last...the fruit of my labor. Years upon years of searching for you...and now the cosmos delivers you to me as a token of appreciation."

Frieza's lips lifted slightly into a smirk, locking eyes with Trunks' own turquoise pupils.

"I can see it in your eyes. Those same eyes...that used to inspire fear and anger in my own."

Trunks swallowed hard, reaching back for the handle on his sword while Frieza let out a small, ominous chuckle.

"How invigorating, to see the mighty Super Saiyan cowering in fear of his superior."

Frieza continued to walk forward, gasping slightly at the small explosion erupting off his back and stumbling forward from the force of the impact. His smirk vanished instantly, but the tyrant only erupted in a golden dash forward. Rapidly closing the distance to the two Saiyans, Frieza quickly lashed out with his right arm and delivered a powerful elbow to Kassava's right temple. The female Saiyan immediately crumpled to the ground, reverting to her normal state with a loud thud onto the dirt.

Trunks gasped in shock, his hands grappling onto the lone golden arm now tensing with a hand constricting heavily around his throat. Frieza chuckled for a bit.

"I want to feel every second of your life slipping away in my grasp. Do try not to struggle, it'll be more enjoyable if this takes longer than a few seconds."

Frieza snarled once more, stumbling a bit from another explosion erupting across his back. He glanced back over his shoulder, staring at the smirking Vegetto with an outstretched hand.

"Listen to what he says, Trunks. The longer it takes for him to choke you out, the easier it'll be for me to kill him."

Frieza scoffed in response, remaining still while Trunks struggled to remain still in Frieza's grasp.

"Ha, you're an even bigger fool than I thought. All I have to do is keep you in between me and your miserable friend, and your blasts only speed up his demise."

The golden tyrant turned to face towards Vegetto, only to stumble forward once again from an explosion across his back. Frieza's eyes widened in rage, whirling around quickly and wielding Trunks as a human shield, only to nearly collapse forward onto the ground from yet another explosion across his back.

The tyrant instantly rose to his feet, turning to face towards the smirking fusion now standing back in his original position.

"Normally I would've rushed you with a barrage of punches and kicks, but this is a lot more fun than I imagined. Seeing you so flustered and angry..."

Frieza's intense rage continued to boil over, watching Vegetto rubbed his chin with a mocking expression of concern.

"But I wonder; are you upset because I keep hitting you? Or is it because deep down inside, you know there's no hope of keeping up with my speed?"

Frieza only howled in response, quickly dropping Trunks onto the floor and bolting forward in another golden dash. Vegetto's eyes instantly narrowed, his smirk vanishing while his muscles tensed.

Perfect...he's focused on me again. Just a little longer...and maybe...I can change him.

Quickly throwing up his arms in defense, Vegetto rocketed backwards along the ground from the onslaught of Frieza's melee barrage, deftly deflecting each blow. The two roared in unison, both launching their right forearms forward to collide with a visible shock wave shaking the ground beneath their feet.

Trunks huffed in sitting upright on his backside, panting heavily while he watched the two fighters collide across the way. He took a moment to rub his throat, coughing audibly. He slowly reached up, tapping onto the earpiece.

"Supreme Kai...are you there?"

The Saiyan paused for a moment, sitting in silence before perking up slightly at the sound of the feminine voice.

::Yes Trunks, I'm here. And what the hell were you thinking; going through with this insane suicide plan of yours without even telling me about the disturbance in the Time Vault?!::

The Saiyan raised both of his brows in confusion, the dazed expression across his face intensifying.

"You're the guardian of time...aren't you supposed to know about everything happening here?"

Trunks sat in silence again, only to hear the defeated sigh of the Kai in his ear.

::Guess everyone's too much of a wise guy to play along with my small chat...::

Her voice remained serious, exasperation clear in her tone.

::What do you want then? You and Vegetto seem to have everything under control.::

Trunks grunted.

"Yeah... the time travelers are gone. But I almost died right there and Kassava is knocked out cold. Vegetto's got Frieza under control...but...I don't understand why he hasn't killed him. We stopped them...can't you correct the time stream now?"

The Saiyan could almost hear the Kai's nodding.

::I can...::

Trunks turned back to watch the clash between Vegetto and Frieza, his narrowed eyes intensifying slightly in the lull of their battle.

"Then what are you waiting for? Vegetto's toying with him now, we need to get out of here before something bad happens again."

::Looks like I can't hide it from you two any longer.::

Trunks blinked, watching Vegetto's lips move from across the way while the dual voice rung out in his earpiece.

::I haven't killed Frieza outright because I don't want to. I have a better plan than just wasting this talent here.::

Trunks' eyes widened a bit, the realization.

"No...you can't be serious. You're-"

::I've never really had a decent sparring partner.::

The Saiyan quickly launched to his feet, frantically shaking his head in anger.

"No no no! You are not doing this right now! You wouldn't jeopardize your entire existence for the same thing that got Goku killed!"

Trunks paused in his frantic, the reassuring and calm dual voice in his ear catching him off guard.

::Trust me, Trunks. I'm not a fool...but I know I can do this. I need this.::

Trunks continued to pant lightly, watching Vegetto in silence for a minute. The Potara fusion had not once glanced towards him, having kept his entire focus on Frieza for the duration of their chat.

"Fine, ten minutes. Ten minutes, and I'll pull you out of the Scroll myself regardless if you're finished or not."

Frieza raised an eyebrow, keeping his defensive stance.

"What are you going on about now? More monkey dribble about sparring partners?"

Vegetto remained silent, still tense while Frieza continued.

"Don't tell me you're going to try and appeal to my humanity like Goku did."

The fusion chuckled lightly in response.

"Of course not. You're not even human."

Frieza let out a small, amused scoff in response.

"Besides, even you can't be a big enough fool to believe I'd ever consider it after all that you've done to me today."

Frieza's gaze narrowed, his smirk fading as Vegetto suddenly stood upright out of his crouching stance. The blue flame like aura surging around his body remained strong, his blue pupils locking with Frieza's.

"No, I didn't think you would. But you might consider it if your life was on the line."

The golden tyrant laughed in response, still tense.

"Ha! You may be stronger than I anticipated, but you've seen the depths of my power when I truly cut loose. The look of surprise when you crashed into that rock, the wear on your body now. I can see it in your stance: you won't last much longer."

Vegetto let out a small confident chuckle in response, before slowly reaching up and brushing the dust off of his gi. Frieza blinked hard for a moment, before snarling slightly as Vegetto casually wiped away the scratch marks along his shoulders, revealing them to be merely dirt marks.

"No Frieza, I've been playing you this entire time. All the damage you dealt, all the power I led you to believe you had...all of it was a lie. Truth is, I could end you without a second thought."

Frieza howled in response, leaping forward.

"We'll see about that!"

His eyes widened again, however, at the connected fist to Vegetto's chest. The fusion raised an eyebrow, glancing down without a change in his stance despite Frieza's fist resting neatly on his upper right gi.

"Not bad, that was quicker than your last few strikes."

Frieza only snarled in response, swinging his left arm forward and clocking the fusion's cheek with a forceful blow. The shock wave rung out, cracking the ground beneath their feet in its force. Yet Frieza's eyes widened at the sight of Vegetto casually pushing Frieza's fist back with only his neck muscles. The fusion kept only a stern stare, his lips tightly shut in a frown.

The golden tyrant vaulted back a few feet, his eyes still wide.

"No...this can't be happening! Not like this again!"

Vegetto kept his stern stare.

"Stop it, Frieza. How many times do we have to play this same part out for you to realize it's never going to change?"

Frieza quickly collapsed to one knee, reeling his right arm back. His rage filled eyes continued to expand to the brim as he attempted to bring his arm crashing down. Vegetto's grip kept the arm tightly locked in place, however, Frieza's open palm merely inches from the ground.

"Oh no, you're not going to side step this one again. Even if you did blow up this planet, I'm not like the other Saiyans. I'd still survive, and can last in space."

Frieza snapped his arm back out of Vegetto's grasp, the fusion having let go. The golden tyrant continued to glare strongly in response to Vegetto, who merely stood with his arms at his sides.

"You think I don't know?! I've spent years searching for an end to this suffering...knowing that no matter how close I get, no matter how hard I try, I always find some low class monkey somewhere out in the universe to torture me!"

His aura flared up in response, his screech causing Vegetto to cringe a bit.

"Leave me alone! Why can't you just leave me in peace?!"

Vegetto chuckled a bit.

"Where would the fun be in that?"

Frieza snarled in response, his tone darkening.

"Not all of us share your simple monkey mind, Saiyan. Not all of us in this universe want to be punch jockeys, desperately searching for our next battle to justify our worthless existence. Not all of us enjoy the stupid little rush of combat you cling to so dearly."

Vegetto kept a smirk.

"Ah, perhaps. But no matter what way you let your hatred control you Frieza, you know you've felt that rush. The thrill of combat, to fight against the odds in a test of strength."

Frieza kept a hard glare, panting lightly while Vegetto continued.

"If you can look past your rage, you'll realize that it'll always be there."

The golden tyrant scoffed in response.

"I don't care."

Vegetto sighed.

"You should. Look at what it's brought you."

Frieza kept a strong glare, watching on as Vegetto gestured to him with an outstretched arm.

"Look at the power you've gained from following in Goku's footsteps. You've managed to close a gap that took us years to create in a matter of months. Something that if you had a motivation to do again, you could've even avoided being inferior to me."

Frieza snarled.

"Don't belittle me with your praise."

Vegetto broke out into a smirk, shrugging his shoulders slightly.

"It's not belittlement, Frieza. You're upset with me because you know it's true; you have the potential to be stronger than anything. But you don't work to bring it out, and that's why you're always caught off guard whenever the Saiyans come calling."

Frieza continued to snarl in response, clenching his fists.

"I don't care about any of that, I don't care about my power. All I care about is ruling this universe with an iron fist and dominating it as I rightfully should! Keep your petty simpleton ways to yourself, you and Goku deserve to rot in Hell for the torment you put everyone through with your self-righteous dribble!"

Vegetto kept his arms at his sides.

"Alright Frieza, how about instead, I make you a wager?"

Frieza stood upright, laxing his stance a bit at the proposition.

"What could you possibly have to offer me?"

Vegetto placed his hands on his hips, his expression stern.

"The first thing you should know about me is that I'm not from this universe anymore. I'm a guardian of the timestream, known as a Time Patroller. Trunks and I originally came here to stop a pair of magicians from stealing your energy for their own gain. Part of the reason I stalled you was to give Trunks the time to stop them, but they've vanished without a trace."

Frieza scoffed.

"Why should I care?"

Vegetto tensed slightly.

"Because your victory over Goku in this universe should not exist. Beerus planned to reverse time and kill you before you could carry out the destruction of Earth, but the two magicians made it impossible for us to make the correction. Once we're done here, you will cease to exist."

Frieza's eyes widened in response, before quickly clenching his fists with a strong glare.

"Fine, I'll just have to kill you now before you can go back!"

Vegetto chuckled in response, shaking his head.

"It doesn't matter if you kill me or Trunks, Frieza. The meddling of the magicians is what kept your empire going, and without their involvement anymore, the timestream will be corrected by a force you can't hope to control."

Frieza's chest rose and fell heavily, the rage preparing to release but stopped at Vegetto's interjection.

"But I have a better idea. One that I think will benefit the both of us."

Frieza snarled, still clenching his fists.

"No, I'll never join you. Death is better than putting up with your simple minded ways, no matter how you spin it."

Vegetto shook his head once again.

"I actually wanted to suggest giving you your own timeline. Trunks' universe, to be specific."

Frieza blinked in surprise, remaining silent as Vegetto crossed his arms.

"The timeline's Earth has been destroyed, Majin Buu has been eradicated, and there are no gods of destruction present in it from what I recall. You would be the supreme ruler of all existence there, without a single upstart who could hope to best you in combat."

The golden tyrant scoffed.

"What's the catch?"

Vegetto broke out into a smirk.

"There isn't one. You told me you don't care about improving yourself, or getting stronger for the thrill of combat. But deep down, once your mind is clear from the hatred burning strongly in your heart, you'll realize that I'm right. If this is what you truly want, then this'll be the end of it. You'll have your wish, and you'll never have to deal with me again. "

Frieza continued to pant lightly, Vegetto's smirk turning into a genuine smile as his tone warmed a bit.

"But if you wake up one day and realize what it is that you truly want, then come find me. Vegeta did the same thing years ago in your shoes, and despite how much you may hate him, you know he was useful to you because he shared your mentality."

The golden tyrant grunted in response, glancing away."