The air became tense as I stared down Cooler, my eyes locking with his. He stared back, his cold gaze matching my confident one, and for a moment, no one moved. Vegeta and Nappa struggled underfoot, Zarbon left to prepare the ship, and Android 18 watched with a mixture of anticipation and interest.
Then, Cooler moved. He leaned forward, his body shifting as his arm lashed out and a fist came directly for my face. In response, my hand snapped upward, and his fist slammed into my flat palm.
"Were you always this slow, brother?" I teased him lightly, causing his brow to crease in annoyance as I took control of the situation.
I clamped my hand around his fist, not giving him a chance to retract it. Then, I pulled forward - yanking him off balance and towards me as his eyes widened slightly. As he came closer, my other hand shot forward and slammed directly into his face.
"Grah," Cooler grunted as I let go of his fist, letting the force of my punch send him stumbling backward. He stabilized and caught his balance, shifting back into a fighting stance as he glared at me.
"You're indeed stronger than before. I had hoped it truly wasn't you who killed father, but this confirms it," Cooler bit out, narrowing his eyes at me.
"Don't worry, you'll see him soon," I responded casually, and that was the tipping point.
Cooler lunged forward again, his fist snapping out in a punch, and I just leaned to the side effortlessly. The fist brushed past me and hit nothing but air, and Cooler followed up with another punch aimed at my gut. Again, I just casually shifted my body to the side, and the punch missed its target.
After that started what was probably humiliating for Cooler, but was pretty casual for me, as I bobbed and weaved through punch after punch. Cooler's arms blurred, his strikes splitting the air so quickly that the force resounded behind me, and his arms would've seemed to multiply to the untrained eye.
But, to me? His punches were slow, and at this point in my training, I would dare say they looked somewhat sloppy. I had trained my ass off for the past few months to get to a high level of actual combat skill, and the fruits of my efforts were being showcased to me firsthand. With every punch, I could think of a dozen different ways to optimize Cooler's attack, and that was just from the short glimpse I saw before his fist retracted.
"Damn it! If you like running so much, then try dodging this!" Cooler hissed, kicking backwards abruptly as he realized he wasn't landing even a single blow, and his arms shot forward. They pulsed with light briefly before two twin beams of Ki shot forward - filling the air with a blinding light as they did.
"DEATH FLASH!" The two beams of Ki shot from his hands, but curved inward as they met in the middle, and created one massive, blinding beam. It exploded outward, stretching out dozens of feet to the side and upward into the air as it was more of a wave of power than a blast.
But, as it shot towards me, Cooler clearly intending on blocking any attempt at dodging with the massive beam, I dodged in a way he didn't expect. I simply vanished.
"I'd say it was a good attempt, but it really wasn't," I hummed as I appeared behind Cooler with Instant Transmission, and casually placed my hand on his shoulder, "I'll show you how an ass-kicking is done, so watch closely!"
"H-How-" Cooler started as his wave of power cut off, and he jerked his head over his shoulder to look at me, but he didn't have a chance to finish his sentence. Instead, he was introduced to a world of pain.
My foot swept outward, sweeping into the side of Cooler's leg and ripping it from under him. Cooler stumbled as he was tripped, but my tail lashed upward before he even knew what was happening. It pounded straight across his stomach, causing spit to fly out from his mouth as his eyes went wide. Then, his body was sent launching upward from the force.
As he was flung upward, I appeared above him even without using Instant Transmission, as I was simply too fast for him to regain his bearings. I clamped my hands together, and a two-handed hammer slammed into his back and sent him reeling toward the floor again. He slammed into it with a loud crunch, and the floor caved under him as a crater appeared. The crater stretched large enough that it caused even Vegeta and Nappa to stumble off to the side, as they were finally pushing themselves up, even as they probably had more than a few broken bones.
I raised my hand as Cooler slumped in the crater, heaving as his body was probably hurting all over, and didn't give him time to recover. One finger pointed down at him, and it glowed a bright red before a bullet of ki streaked downward at him.
"GUH!" Cooler gasped as he tried to roll to the side and dodge the bullet, but only managed to evade part of it. His side got clipped, and a burst of blood came rolling out of his torso as it was pierced.
"If you keep playing around, you'll end up dead," I smirked down at him, only infuriating him more as his face twisted in anger.
Usually, I wouldn't do something as pointless as goading him into using his final form. I could have just killed him here and now before he transformed, and I would have saved a lot of time and effort in the process.
But the only reason I was giving him a chance, and hadn't just killed him the second I saw him, was because I wanted more experience. At this point, I pretty much exclusively walked around in my fourth form, because it was more comfortable and agile than my previous forms - and, mostly, because my earlier forms were much less appealing to Bulma. She seemed to like this one the most, which made sense since it was the most human-like - though she had at one point been very suspiciously stuttering and blushing while discussing my hulking second form.
My fourth form outpowered Cooler's by light-years, and I could've just given him a quick Ki bullet to the head the second I saw him, but I hadn't for this very moment. To see Cooler's fifth form in person, to get real combat experience against it, and possibly even copy it. I wasn't sure if it was a Cooler-exclusive transformation, and if only his body was capable of it, but it was worth a shot nonetheless.
"Damn you," Cooler hissed, shoving himself to his feet with a grunt as he glared at me, "Fine! If you want me to fight seriously, then I'll make you regret it!"
Cooler narrowed his eyes at me as his body stiffened, and his hands clamped down into fists, "Be grateful, brother! You will be the first to see this transformation! You will see, and then, you will die!"
Damn, wasn't that exactly what he said to Goku? Was he rehearsing that line in his head for whenever he had to use the transformation?
Cooler's face twisted in focus as the thoughts went through my head, and his entire body stiffened even more. His muscles flexed, his eyes squeezed shut, and he let out a low hiss. That hiss quickly turned into a growl, and then a whole-ass shout.
"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Cooler screamed as his power flared outward, causing the already broken chunks of floor to go flying, and for the dead bodies littering the palace to be sent skittering in different directions.
Then, slowly, Cooler started to change. His chest puffed outward as the white armor-esque part of his chest expanded and then became thicker. His head then shifted as well, and the helmet-esque white outline expanded. It thickened as it shot upward into four different spikes, and then the area around his mouth thinned out into a V-shape.
"THIS IS TRUE POWER, BROTHER! THIS IS A FORM THAT DOESN'T SUPPRESS MY POWER, BUT ENHANCES IT!" Cooler roared, his Ki flaring around him wildly as wind slammed into my front. Behind me, I heard 18 inhale sharply as she struggled not to be pushed back by the whirlwind of power.
The whirlwind died down a bit as the transformation finished, and Cooler grinned confidently at me as his body relaxed. His muscles stayed bulging, and he overall looked much bigger than before.
"Not bad," I simply smirked at the display, and I wasn't sure what Cooler expected me to say, but it clearly wasn't that.
His face twisted with annoyance, the smug look fading away as anger filled his eyes. I could only assume he expected me to let out some variation of 'oh my gosh, brother! You're so powerful! Please spare my life!'
Unfortunately for him, as his power skyrocketed to a bit over one billion, he was still far too weak to give me even a crumb of concern. He would need a lot more than that for me to take him seriously.
"Not bad?" Cooler repeated, his eyes narrowing at me, "We'll see how you feel when your head rolls off your neck!"
He shot forward, moving much faster than before, as he cocked back his fist. It blasted through the space between us, curling the air around it in a torpedo, as a crack rang out. As it did, I casually leaned to the side, letting it burst past me again.
The song and dance from before repeated itself - Cooler launched a barrage of punches, and judging from Android 18's wide eyes, which I could barely spot out of the corner of my eye, the fists were moving pretty damn fast. To her eyes, I was sure the punches looked unstoppable, but to me, it was as if Cooler was moving in slow motion.
"Damn it!" Cooler growled, his eyes narrowing, and then, abruptly, two beams of Ki shot out of them like lasers. I casually leaned to the side, avoiding the beams as Cooler's fist came from the other direction and tried to force me into a position where I couldn't dodge.
In response, I lightly swung my arm outward - meeting his fist with my palm, and swatting away the punch as if it were just a fly. Cooler stumbled to the side as I effortlessly knocked away his attack, but he didn't back down. He channeled his momentum as his tail swung outward, swatting at my head, but I simply ducked under it.
He took the opportunity to flip backwards, landing a few feet away from me as he caught his balance, and his eyes flashed with anger.
"Is dodging all you can do, brother?!" He hissed, and the V-shaped side of his face suddenly snapped forward, and closed over his mouth in a mask-like sight, "You'll regret making a fool of me!"
He raised his arms, and a flurry of Ki blasts shot forward at me. In response, I raised a singular arm, and a flurry of Ki blasts shot forward to meet them - colliding in the air and causing an explosion of smoke. As the smoke appeared, Cooler burst out of it, using it like a smokescreen as his arm was cocked back. I tilted my head to the side, letting his fist brush past my face as even the impact of the missed blow caused the air behind me to shake.
"Stop dodging! When did my own brother become such a coward?!" Cooler hissed at me as his other arm shot forward, aiming for my face, and I smirked in response. Well, if he really wants that, then-
"Sure."
His fist shot forward, bursting through the air as a crack rang out, and then made contact - slamming directly into the front of my face, and…
"W-What…"
Not even causing me to budge. The smirk never left my face as Cooler stared, eyes wide, at his knuckles pressing into the front of my face. His face twisted in focus as he shoved forward, but no matter how much strength he put into his arm, I simply didn't move.
"Did you think that achieving a new form would suddenly make you invincible? Allow me to show you just how far the gap in our power truly is, brother," I stated, my eyes locking with his wide ones, "I'll show you what a real transformation should look like!"
As I said that, my body flexed, my muscles bulged, and my power shot outward. If Cooler thought the power generated in his transformation was hard to handle, then he was about to be in for a world of surprise.
My ki flared around me in a golden aura, and a shockwave shot outward as Cooler was sent stumbling away from me. His eyes went wide as the golden aura solidified, coating my body as it moved inward - starting with my fingers and toes, and then crawling up my legs and arms.
Wind filled the palace as debris was sent spinning through the air, and the corpses on the floor were sent slamming into, and then through, the palace walls. Cooler reached up, covering his face partially with his hand as my power continued to burst outward, and behind me, Android 18 took a few shaky steps backwards. Her feet dug into the ground, trying to keep her footing, but she was slowly shoved backward as a gust of air slammed into her roughly.
"W-What… what is…" Cooler spat out, taking another step back as my skin became pure gold.
"This… is Golden Frieza," I stated as the gold color finished covering my skin, and my confident eyes locked with his wide, awe-struck ones, "This is something that you can never defeat, brother."
I could've just entered my Golden Frieza form in an instant, but doing so would've wasted this moment. This was the last sight Cooler would see before being sent to hell, so I might as well show him just how outmatched he was. It would be rude to send him to Otherworld without a show.
"H-How…" Cooler muttered, staring with wide eyes at my new form, but his body tensed as I took a step towards him.
"Your new form doesn't seem all that powerful anymore, does it?" I smirked at him and then vanished - appearing in front of him in an instant with my fist cocked back.
My arm snapped forward, and before Cooler's eyes could even process my movement, he was hunched over my fist. His eyes were still wide, but with pain rather than awe this time, and he let out a mixture of a choking noise and a gasp. I didn't give him any relief as I pressed my arm upward - sending Cooler ragdolling up into the air.
I vanished again - appearing next to him, and my leg lashed outward. My foot slammed into his side, and he blitzed through the air as he slammed into the palace wall, causing it to explode in a shower of smoke and debris as his body continued through it.
I followed after him, lunging forward through the gap in the wall much faster than his body was moving, and quickly catching him. My arm lashed out, and my hand wrapped around his ankle as he was mid-flight. I abruptly jerked my arm upward, stopping his sideways momentum as he let out a grunt of pain, and then jerked it downward - slamming Cooler into the rocky surface outside of the palace, and forming a crater around his body as I did.
"Grah… You-" Cooler grunted as he lay there for a second, pain wracking through his body as he was covered in bruises, and then flipped over as he started to shove himself to his feet, but was cut off as my foot slammed down on his neck harshly.
My three-toed foot pressed down on his throat, and he let out a pained gasp. His hands shot up to his head, grabbing at my foot as he tried to pry himself free, but to no avail. I only pressed down harder, crushing his throat into the ground below without a shred of mercy.
"How does it feel?" I asked simply, raising an eyebrow as Cooler squirmed and tried to pull my foot off of his neck, "How does it feel to be weak, brother?"
I wasn't the mass-murdering villain that the original Frieza was, but that didn't mean I had to be kind to the man either. I still felt guilt when I killed most of the time, but with Cooler, I viewed him in a similar light to King Cold.
He was a ruthless, mass-murdering, and unapologetic man. He had killed millions before without a care for the lives he was ending, and there weren't many in the entire universe that deserved death more than him. Beyond that, he had intended to give Ginyu my body and kill me, and then had attempted to take my life after his plan failed.
I knew that the human soul inside of me should've felt guilty for so mercilessly toying with Cooler before I killed him, but the only guilt I felt was at the sick enjoyment Frieza's body got from the act. What I was doing was cruel, but I knew it was deserved.
"You bastard-" Cooler started, jerking his torso upward as he tried to throw an awkward punch at me. It never landed, as my tail lashed out and casually wrapped around his wrist.
"You don't know when to quit, do you?" I asked as I raised my hand, and a small, circular disk of purple Ki appeared on my fingertip - looking not too dissimilar from Krillin's Destructo Disc.
Then, I flicked my wrist, and Cooler's arm was promptly severed at the elbow as the disc sliced through his flesh in an instant.
"GAHHHH!" Cooler screamed loudly as a fountain of blood shot out from the wound, and I tossed his severed arm to the side carelessly.
"Do you realize now that you're not in any position to be hurling insults?" I smirked down at him, my eyes locking with his pain-filled ones, "You have no chance of defeating me in this form. It's time to give up."
To my surprise, Cooler actually took my advice. But he misinterpreted my words a bit.
"P-Please… S-S…Stop!" Cooler finally huffed out, his words coming out in between gasps as he found it harder and harder to breathe from the pressure I was putting on his neck.
When I told him to give up, I hadn't been telling him to beg for his life. I was telling him to give up on living.
"Stop?" I hummed, casually raising my hand as my finger glowed, "If you were in my position, what would you have done right now? If I had asked the same of you, brother, would you have spared my life?"
We both knew the answer, and one flash of light later, a Ki bullet cut through Cooler's shoulder.
"G-GRAH!" Cooler yelled painfully, still clutching at my foot as blood started to flow down his torso, "B-Brother… p-pl… please! I-I'm… s-s-sorry!"
As I stared down at the suffering man, I could suddenly understand why Goku had chosen to give Frieza some of his power on Namek. The sight of a man who knew he was about to die begging so fervently for mercy pulled on my heartstrings, and if Goku were in my position, I was sure he would've pulled his foot back. He would've spared Cooler's life.
"No."
Unfortunately for Cooler, I wasn't Goku, and a Ki bullet cut through his other shoulder a second later. This was Frieza's brother, after all - if I spared him now, I was sure he'd just train and come back for me later. No matter how pathetic he seemed right now, he was still someone who'd kill me without hesitation the second he was given the chance.
"GRAH!" Cooler screamed again, his body convulsing lightly as he struggled to breathe, and more blood flowed down his front, "W-Why… h-how… I… trained… so… hard…"
I blinked, glancing down at Cooler as… tears formed in his eyes? His red, tearful eyes stared up at me as he inhaled a choked breath.
"Y-You… were so… talented…" He gasped, and I raised my foot just slightly to hear his final words, "You… and father… had so much… power… I… I had to… work for this! I… worked so hard! So… why…"
Well, this was unexpected, but not completely surprising. Cooler, despite being Frieza's younger brother, had been weaker at birth, and unlike the lazy Frieza, who could achieve a Golden Form in just a few months, he actually had to work for his power. Compared to Frieza and King Cold, he was actually the least arrogant and most grounded member of the family - not that being the 'least arrogant' member of this family was saying much.
Cooler's eyes twisted with anger, his ki flaring up around him even as he was pinned to the ground, and the ground broke around him, causing rocks to hover into the air, as he spoke, "I… I found a new transformation! I… I trained until I couldn't train anymore! I gave it everything I had, so why are you still stronger?! How can you find a transformation even greater than mine?! How are we brothers, and yet I'm always behind?! What do you have that I don't-"
A ki bullet streamed through the air, slamming into Cooler's forehead, right between his eyes, and cutting straight through his flesh. His words died in his throat as his brain was fried, and the light slowly faded from his eyes. His power slowly drained from the air, and the rocks fell back to the floor. For a moment, silence filled the air around me.
"Talent," I said finally, staring down at the corpse under my foot, "I have talent, and you don't."
Even if Cooler was the hardest working and most grounded of Frieza's family, that didn't mean I could let him live. He was one of the few people in the universe who could pose a threat to me, and he was someone who was uncontrollable. Even if 'Frieza' had become a better person, that had been forced through me appearing in his body. Cooler couldn't be reasoned with, and I wouldn't be able to turn the mass-murdering man into a good, human-respecting subordinate.
"That was… harsh," I blinked, glancing over my shoulder as Android 18 stood in front of the gaping hole in the side of the palace. "He was pretty convincing. I thought you were going to back down for a second."
I glanced back down at Cooler's corpse for a moment and then turned around, facing 18 as I started to walk towards her.
"I was."
I knew that leaving Cooler alive would be a huge risk to myself in the future, and overall he was a lot more trouble than he was worth. But, as he begged me and ranted about all the training he had done, I had considered it.
For just a second, his story had convinced me. A man born into a family with the universe at their fingertips, and yet, even when he didn't need to, he had still trained. He had constantly been below his father and younger brother, and had trained tirelessly to keep up with them. A man who, in his mind, ranked third in the universe - and yet, wanted to be first.
The tears, blood, and pained eyes had broken through to me. For just a second, I wanted to spare him. So, in the next second, I shot him right between his eyes.
"You were?" 18 looked at me curiously as I stepped past her, "Then why didn't you?"
The answer was simple - because he needed to die. Because he posed a threat to me, and feeling sympathy for a man who had murdered millions would most likely end up screwing me over down the line. Ruling this entire universe with an iron fist meant I needed to be ruthless, and if I wanted to aim my fangs at Beerus and Zeno one day, then I needed to be more than ruthless. I needed to be heartless.
I couldn't let my human morals hold me back. I couldn't feel guilt at killing, and I couldn't spare those who wouldn't give me the same treatment. I was no longer a normal human.
"Because," The words flowed out of my mouth, being spoken as if I was just stating a simple fact.
"I'm Frieza."
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be posted in around a week!
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