Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Touketsu ❯ Done ( Chapter 30 )

Done

Touketsu-Vegeta steadily charged his Gallic Gun attack, aiming at the inferno below where Frieza had disappeared. He was becoming lost in his rage, just as he had on Namek when he fired a blast large enough to take out the entire planet. Without being aware, his body began to darken and the ultraviolet light strummed throughout the markings.

The tyrant suddenly came flying out of the smoke cover to unleash an enormous ki blast of his own. Touketsu-Vegeta's eyes flashed. He aborted his attack, the powerful energy still contained within a now closed fist. He phased to his right, out of the trajectory of Frieza's ki attack as the tyrant continued his rapid ascent. With a snarl, Touketsu-Vegeta nailed him in the back of the head with an explosive blow from a ki-charged fist, the growing shadow leaving his body to join the attack. Stunned, Frieza's vision went completely black as he was sent sailing horizontally.

Touketsu-Vegeta phased above him and slammed an elbow between his shoulder blades. Frieza jettisoned downwards, hitting the ground hard face first and creating a broad impact crater. He was barely pulling himself up when Touketsu landed on his back on all fours with a beastly snarl. The tyrant shrieked as his back was sliced open, but he choked on his own cries when Touketsu-Vegeta grabbed him by the throat with his tail. The demon prince leapt off, jerking Frieza up with him before slamming him repeatedly into the ground with the speed of a jackhammer.

Frieza could not find even a moment to gather his focus and energy to make the foreign transformation that he had obtained through the Eternal Dragon. The demon prince at last paused to hold Frieza up in front him, the tyrant's back to him. Frieza's nose was smashed, and he choked and gagged on the purple blood that filled his nasal cavity and throat. Touketsu-Vegeta tightened his tail around Frieza's throat, choking him further.

The demon prince chuckled evilly. "Remember this little move, Frieza?" He unleashed a flurry of blindingly fast punches to Frieza's back. "How am I doing in replicating it? GOOD?!" he roared. He stopped and pulled the tyrant close. "I learned from the best, after all," he whispered hatefully into his ear. He suddenly flung Frieza away straight into the nearest building, the structure collapsing on top of him.

With a snarl he bounded over on all fours towards his downed foe, quickly closing the distance. His bloodlust stoked and his berserker rage unleashed, the shadow again darkened Touketsu-Vegeta's pale skin. The dark light strummed within, and the stone in his chest began to glow. Panting and wild-eyed, he leapt with a roar as his body erupted with a corona of dripping blue and purple flames.

A powerful burst of golden ki suddenly blasted out in a radius, sending tons of debris outward. Touketsu-Vegeta was struck by the traveling wall of energy and he immediately lost hold of his impromptu transformation, powerful shockwaves ripping through his body. He was sent flying back before he regained control, somersaulting once in the air before planting his feet into the ground and skidding to a stop. Blinking, he looked up.

Hovering in the air was Golden Frieza.

Touketsu-Vegeta's eyes widened in alarm, and he drew his hands back. "Gallic Gun!" he cried out as he hastily deployed the attack. Almost simultaneously he was kicked in the ribs with an audible crack of breaking bones; Frieza had dodged and closed the distance so fast he had left an after-image.

The prince's mouth hung open in a silent scream as the wind was knocked out of him. A right hook landed in his jaw, sending him flying sideways head first. Frieza instantly appeared in front of his flight path and delivered a devastating upper cut to the chin, snapping his head back and sending him straight up into the air. He phased above the prince and drove his elbow into his sternum, shattering it on impact. Touketsu cried out, blood spurting from his mouth, but was silenced when Frieza appeared behind him and struck him in the back of the head with a mountain-shattering fist. Touketsu went flying forward through the air, and he opened his eyes just in time to see Frieza appear in front him.

Touketsu-Vegeta blindly swung his right fist out at Frieza only to have it effortlessly caught. With a twist of his wrist, Frieza sent a powerful trail of kinetic energy spiraling up Touketsu-Vegeta's arm, twisting and splintering the bone and shredding the flesh to bloody ribbons. The prince screamed in agony and growing horror as he watched his arm being mangled as though stuck in a gear.

Frieza released him and unleashed a blast of ki that sent him rocketing back. He had no time to slow his momentum before Frieza appeared behind him and delivered a knee to his back that sent him upwards. Frieza phased above him in a high-speed somersault, his form a blurred pinwheel. The tyrant's thick tail cracked across Touketsu-Vegeta's clavicle and already broken sternum, sending him straight downward at break-neck speed. Frieza phased above him and grabbed him by the ankle, instantly breaking the prince's leg from the sudden halt in momentum. The tyrant swung him overhead in an arc and sent him rocketing down face first. Touketsu-Vegeta hit the ground, creating an immense impact crater that snuffed out the fires surrounding him. The nearest buildings and trees were leveled from the ensuing concussive force, the roaring sounds of the collapsing and shattering structures filling the air.

Everything went quiet. The demon prince's face rested on the cold ground, blood bubbling from his mouth and nose. He gasped, flecks of blood flying from his lips as his eyes fluttered open. Scowling, he grimaced in pain as he began to pull himself up on one weak arm, his right arm a twisted, mangled mess. A pair of feet plowed down directly into his lower back, and the prince cried out in agony when he felt several of his vertebrae shatter. He immediately collapsed back down.

Gratefully, the pressure was alleviated when Frieza stepped off of him. For several moments all the prince could hear was his own short, wheezing gasps, his breath rattling from the fluid building up in his lungs and the blood filling his throat. His eyes drifted closed, and his brows drew together. He had failed once more. Frieza reached down and roughly grabbing him by the hair, wrenching him up to his knees and earning a gasp of pain from the fallen prince.

"And here we are again, Vegeta," Frieza drawled. "Tsk, tsk. You know they say that doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is the definition of insanity?"

Toukektsu-Vegeta could barely form words, his rage hobbled by his own severely damaged body. "You…" he ground out through a jaw clenched tight with pain. "Damn you-"

"You never could quite get there, could you? Ultimately you still played into your emotions, reacting like a dumb animal. And to think I considered you intelligent for your race." Frieza smirked. He had him now, and he was going to revel in inflicting the pain two-fold. "You know, when I requested you join my army, your father admitted that he thought it would toughen you up? Yes, that's right," Frieza said, noting how the prince's eyes widened in surprise and hurt. "He felt you were far too emotional for a warrior, much less royalty. I think you disappointed him," Frieza taunted, amused by the way Touketsu-Vegeta's features tightened. "Well, you certainly proved to be a lost cause. Even I couldn't entirely beat the sentiment out of you…if your tears on Namek were any indication," he cackled. Touketsu-Vegeta growled, mortified as he screwed his eyes shut in pain.

Frieza regarded the helpless prince for a moment before his smile of amusement faded. "You were the youngest among my ranks but you were also one of my most deadly soldiers. You had served me well. You could have continued to do so then, were it not for your arrogance. You were gifted with a rare second chance, Vegeta, but you had to go and throw it away again. Ah well. Looks like I'll just have to repeat the lesson I gave you on Namek, seeing has how you were too stupid to learn the first time around. I'll make it faster this time before I send you back to Hell, however. My awaiting empire is far more important than wasting any more time with you." Frieza raised his hand, his index finger glowing with ki and pointed at the back of Touketsu-Vegeta's head.

The prince began to snicker.

Frieza quirked an eyebrow as his chuckles developed into true laughter before degenerating into a hacking cough. "And just what do you find so terribly amusing, Vegeta?" Frieza queried humorlessly. "Are you finally succumbing to hysterics?"

Touketsu-Vegeta suppressed his coughing and composed himself. His eyes were squeezed shut in pain, but a smile was now firmly affixed to his blood-streaked face. "I'm curious, Frieza. How do you intend to rebuild your empire while stranded on a dead planet?" Frieza stood motionless, Touketsu-Vegeta's soft, wheezing chuckling the only sound. The prince's eyes cracked open. "Can you navigate the whole of the cosmos, Frieza? Can you remember the location of planets with any resources that can possibly aid you? Do you think they even still exist? I'm sure much has changed since you've been idling about in Hell." He smirked, his voice a shuddering whisper. "Perhaps you should leave right now. If you're going to comb the entire universe for whatever's left of your army, you're in for a long journey." He began chuckling again. "Almighty Frieza the Vagrant. HA HA HA HA!"

The ki died from Frieza's finger and his hand curled into a trembling fist as the prince continued to laugh at his expense. He gave him a shake. "You have your memories back," Frieza spoke, his voice trembling with barely restrained rage. "And you have one good arm. Open a gateway to a surviving outpost now, or I swear I will make your torture on Namek feel like paradise."

Touketsu-Vegeta stopped laughing. Smiling, he closed his eyes, his expression serene. "…No."

Frieza let go of the prince's hair and struck him in the side of the head, sending him flying out of the crater and rolling across the ground before coming to a stop on his back. Touketsu-Vegeta blinked blearily up to see Frieza standing over him, brilliant fury on the tyrant's features. His fingertip glowing with red ki, he pointed at the prince and unleashed a hail of high-speed blasts. Touketsu-Vegeta cried out in agony as his body was picked apart bit by bit.

Frieza paused in his onslaught. "DO IT!"

The prince betrayed a quiet moan and scowled, refusing to acknowledge his former master's demands. Frieza stalked over and seized him by the throat. Hoisting him up in front of him, he flew up and into the city, plowing through several buildings. Higher and higher they went, the icy walls of the structures shattering in their wake as the buildings collapsed. They stopped, suspended in the air high above the pointed spires of the ruined city, overlooking what had once been its palace grounds. Frieza held the demon prince aloft before flinging him down towards the frozen, derelict palace below.

Tall, stained glass windows in murky blues and greens lined the walls, allowing the anemic light to filter through. The expansive, empty throne room appeared as though it were at the bottom of a watery grave, still and forgotten. The silence was shattered when Touketsu-Vegeta crashed through the icy, domed skylight above. He hit the frozen stone floor hard, tumbling across a broad dais. With a cry of pain his upper back connected with the seat of a towering throne encased in black ice before he slid awkwardly down. His pale body streaked in scarlet, he lay panting in pain for several moments before attempting to move. Groaning, he reached behind and gripped the arm rest with his left hand as he attempted to pull himself up, his other limbs utterly destroyed and his back almost completely broken.

A brilliant gold light began to fill the room. Blood running into his eyes, Touketsu-Vegeta squinted up at the blinding light that illuminated with devastating clarity the consequences of his chosen path. Just as he had in his first life, he would die…and he would die slowly. Touketsu-Vegeta released a shaky breath and he closed his eyes. In the next second he was again seized by the throat as Frieza hoisted the hapless prince up and smashed him up against the backrest of the towering throne. It shattered on impact, the frozen particles sparkling under Frieza's vengeful, golden aura before disappearing.

"I give you chance after CHANCE, you stupid brat!" he screamed. He planted one foot on the seat of the throne and slammed the prince down over the jagged edge of the destroyed backrest. Touketsu-Vegeta cried out in pain as the knife-like shards drove into his back and punctured his lungs. "I did so when I spared your life as a boy, putting up with your childish insolence for years. I did it when you showed up in Hell," Frieza hissed, his grip tightening. "I gave you a chance to do things right." He shook his head in disgust. "You were on the right path when you wished me back. You were so close to retribution, you fool. It seems however that treachery is in your blood."

Touketsu-Vegeta was grimacing in pain when his eyes suddenly opened, flashing in outrage. He reached up to grip Frieza's right wrist helplessly as he leveled a glare of abject hatred up at the emperor. "…You," he choked out through grit teeth. "You have the audacity to lecture to me about treason, you bastard? After the way you betrayed us? The Cold Empire and Planet Vegeta had an alliance. When you demanded I join your ranks my father obliged. You threatened my father's life and the existence of my planet if I didn't cooperate!" Tears of pain and helpless rage began to well in the prince's eyes. "And I did! HE did! We did everything you asked of us and it meant NOTHING! You're a liar," he seethed as he tried prying Frieza's fingers off his throat. "YOU HAVE NO HONOR!-"

Frieza yanked the prince forward and plowed a hand straight through his stomach. Touketsu-Vegeta vomited a torrent of blood and his vision greyed out. He slumped forward, his grip on Frieza's hand weakening to slide down his wrist. Frieza withdrew his hand and he hauled the mortally wounded prince back up. He leaned in, his face flanking his own.

"Hm. I have no honor?" he spoke softly into his ear. Touketsu-Vegeta scowled before squeezing his eyes shut, his body trembling in agony and the oncoming chill of death. "I've got news for you my little prince…and this may come as a shock," he said sarcastically, "but your race was as honorless as they came. It was not I who violated our agreement, but your father."

Touketsu-Vegeta's eyes opened marginally to stare straight ahead, his brows drawing together in confusion.

"He agreed to relinquish his heir to me and pledge his allegiance to my empire. He went back on his word. He stormed my flagship with a handful of his soldiers with the intention of taking you back."

Touketsu-Vegeta momentarily stopped breathing. His father wasn't killed when the planet was destroyed? His eyes widened as he continued to stare sightlessly forward. He came back for me…father.

"The worm breached our contract! I executed him for that, and then I sent his worthless people after him when I destroyed your planet. The Saiyans were on thin ice with me. King Vegeta finally forced my hand, and his foolish and rash decision to defy me was motivated by you. YOU are the reason why your people and planet are gone. Hm. Your king turned out to be every bit as emotional as you. Rather hypocritical of him, wouldn't you say? Ah well. Like father, like son, I suppose," Frieza snorted. "I tried to raise you right, but you have proven yourself unsalvageable, Vegeta." Frieza placed a hand over the prince's wounded stomach and released a pulse of ki. Touketsu-Vegeta flinched as the gaping wound was cauterized.

"That should be sufficient to slow the blood loss, though it will do nothing for the internal bleeding." Frieza leaned back as he regarded his former protege. "You will die, but you're not one to die easily, are you, Vegeta? That will again be to your detriment. I'll continue to dismantle you slowly until you open that portal. I will do it until there is nothing left. Know that I will resurrect my empire, no matter how long it takes. So, you may as well make this easy on yourself. You don't wish to repeat your pain on Namek, do you? There is no reason for you not to do as I say. Do it now, and I'll end your pain."

Touketsu-Vegeta's eyes slid closed as his breaths became more shallow. He brought this on himself, and he lost something he didn't even realize he had until it was too late. He was already dead inside; his body would soon follow. The bones of his arms and legs were shattered after suffering the barrage of ki blasts that had riddled his body like the bullets of a firing squad. His organs were ruptured, and his back was nearly destroyed. He should just give in. He wanted to just die and be at last released of this regret and pain. He wasn't even aware he was saying their names as he began to slide into darkness, spoken so softly Frieza could barely hear.

The tyrant studied the him thoughtfully. "Hm. In spite of everything you had learned about the folly of attachments, you certainly developed a soft spot for family, didn't you, Vegeta?" He leaned in, whispering. "They crippled you. Your attachment to them is what brought you to this point. How you can mourn the loss of something you can't even recall, I don't know. It's not as though you can miss what you've never had."

Touketsu-Vegeta's eyes cracked open marginally. He had had something. Even if he couldn't recall what it was he could feel it. He could feel when he was bereft of it. Frieza's words had breathed life into a single, barely glowing ember inside of him, an ember that had been on the verge of burning out. The ember ignited into a small flame, and his red eyes flashed. The sense of crushing failure flared into a growing anger. It fanned into a helpless rage, but there was nowhere for it to go; unable to channel it through his broken body, it could only continue to build inside him. Touketsu-Vegeta's skin began to darken. He wanted to be released of it all.

The fires within grew into a spinning conflagration, and they began to consume him. His loose grip around Frieza's wrist tightened, the tyrant's hand still firmly gripping him by the throat. The dark energy coursed through the markings on Touketsu-Vegeta's face and body, wreathing him in an ultraviolet aura and infusing the stone in his chest with a pulsing light. His eyes cracked open when he had a sudden epiphany: with a single decision, he could be released of it. He was released of it.

I'm done with you.

The prince's skin suddenly plunged into darkness, becoming black as night. It was as though the maelstrom of agonized thoughts that whirled and lashed about in his mind and body had reached a culmination; they snapped back, dragging all thought and feeling downward deep below into a single, concentrated point. His aura cooled to an icy blue before descending into a deep cobalt, the stone in his chest glowing with cold light. Frieza's brows drew together in concern.

There was no need to lose himself in his emotions, no need to trick his body into summoning that power. There were no doubts conflicting with his desires, whispering in his ear that he may no be able to do it. There was only the cold detachment of an unwavering decision: it was absolute conviction. Touketsu-Vegeta's red eyes slid dispassionately over to Frieza's, blue light lacing and crackling through the markings that trailed under his eyes. Tonelessly, he spoke.

"Kuroshimo."

Frieza gasped in surprise and pain as a blackness spread throughout his hand where Touketsu gripped him by the wrist. His glowing aura waned, and his shining, golden armor grew brassy. His purple hand darkened to jet black and the skin cracked. Frieza grit his teeth and tugged futilely as the skin began to flake off, trying desperately to maintain the powerful golden form. As the darkness crawled up his arm, he felt himself weakening to the point that he couldn't pull himself free. I'm losing energy! Frieza thought, panicked. He looked into Touketsu-Vegeta's stoic face; The prince looked like a shadow now, his red eyes burning like embers. Currents of the stolen golden energy intermittently snapped through the markings on his face and body, briefly pulsing through the stone before being consumed.

Touketsu was healing. Blue light emanated from the burned, gaping wound in the prince's stomach before it began to seal up. The light shown through the twisted, open wounds of his mangled arm as it was pulled back together. The demonic Saiyan straightened, standing tall as he pulled Frieza's hand from off his throat, his grip on Frieza's wrist tightening. Frieza's horrified gaze snapped over to his hand. It was black, curled and dead, as though stricken by frostbite.

Touketsu-Vegeta's body exploded into dripping blue flames that spread over the remains of the throne, melting it into a pool of blackness. The darkness continued to spread out from where the prince stood, a circular shadow wreathed in sapphire flames. It crawled outward across the circular dais and onto the floor, the cold, supernatural fires melting everything into a pool of black nothingness. The dark prince's lips curled, white fangs flashing from a pitch-black face. With a snarl, he snapped Frieza's dead hand off. Frieza reeled back screaming in abject horror as he clutched the stump where his hand had once been. He looked up just in time to see Touketsu's palm aimed towards him.

"Kurokei!"

Frieza barely had time to get his guard up when a massive ball of black energy wreathed in crackling blue lightning struck him at near point-blank range. Engulfed, the tyrant was sent screaming through the walls of the collapsing palace. The crackling voltage surrounding the deadly blast instantly whipped into a whirlpool of blue energy, debris following to be pulled into the attack that had the density of a dying star.

Trapped within the spinning sphere, Frieza went through several more buildings before he managed to throw out a blast of energy that nullified the attack before he could be crushed into atoms. He crashed backwards through a fortress wall, shattering the adjacent frozen trees before tumbling to a stop. Painfully, he drew himself up to stand on shaky legs. Frieza still had hold of his golden transformation, but it had severely diminished; his golden exoskeleton had taken on the appearance of tarnished brass, and he was streaked with purple blood. The aftereffects of the bizarre attack seemed to scatter the very essence of his ki, leaving him feeling as though he was dissolving. His strength waning, he looked up.

A short distance away was the ghostly form of Touketsu-Vegeta, standing just on the other side of the gaping hole of the fortress wall. Stone faced, his skin darkened to onyx as he stepped towards the tyrant. His eyes burning like hell fire, the dark energy began coursing through him, strobing through the markings on his face and body like that of a bioluminescent creature of the deep. The light quickly grew cold, and a deep blue aura wreathed his form. The stone pulsed with power and his body burst into dark blue, liquid fire. The frozen, damaged walls that framed him shrank away from the nullifying energy of his aura as he stepped through, melting into black waters. His pace quickening, he strode up to the compromised emperor. His aura tamed and he brought his arms back and out to his sides. "Hiya-TE!" His clawed hands exploded with concentrated, deathly cold energy.

The vengeful demon was upon Frieza in an instant. Panicked now, Frieza crossed his forearms over his face and quickly leapt backward again and again as Toukestu lunged and swung at him. To his surprise and immense pain, Touketsu's claws, suffused with the freezing fire, raked through the gauntlet-like exoskeleton that protected his arms. Frieza began faltering, his body further weakening with every wound he endured. Finally, Touketsu-Vegeta struck Frieza in the chest with a burning, clawed hand. Frieza flew back and hit the ground, the bitingly cold flames ravaging the deep gashes of the wound. Frieza cried out in agony as he clutched the wound, drawing himself up to a sitting position as he felt his energy ebbing away.

Finally, to his dismay, his golden transformation at last dropped. His body ivory white once more, he looked up at the black form of Touketsu-Vegeta. Smoldering red eyes stared stoically back. Desperate and enraged, Frieza flew at him with a roar. The tyrant drew back the stump of his right hand for a punch, forgetting for an instant that it was gone until Toukesu-Vegeta caught it in a clawed fist. He crushed it under a flame-laced hand as Frieza shrieked. Expressionless, the dark prince shoved the tyrant back to land on the ground. Frieza sat up, clutching the seared stump of his arm close to his chest as he glaring maliciously up at the demon-Saiyan. Touketsu-Vegeta observed the fallen emperor before him for several long moments.

Touketsu-Vegeta flung his right hand out to his side. "SVAROKEN!" The darkness and blue corona of fire that had sheathed his body immediately receded to travel up his arm, coalescing around his hand and leaving his body deathly white once more. He flexed his fingers together in the form of a claw, and the energy concentrated into a fully formed, falcata-shaped blade of dripping, dark energy. Frieza grit his teeth in impotent anger and growing fear as he gripped the wrist of his non-existent hand.

Touketsu-Vegeta pointed the blade at the tyrant. "You grew too attached to your right hand, Frieza," he spoke dispassionately. "It wasn't meant to serve you much longer." He drew back the sword of dark ki.

Frieza struggled back to his feet, gripping the stump of his hand. as he locked eyes with the prince. "Don't ever forget where you get your power, Vegeta," he growled. Touketsu-Vegeta drew the sword back as he prepared to strike the tyrant down. "I taught you everything. I shaped you!"

"Everyone makes mistakes."

"I MADE YOU!"

"HYAAAAAH!" he swung the blade through Frieza's throat, cutting the tyrant's words off as he was decapitated. The head and body were immediately consumed in dark fire, the remnants ripped apart before they even hit the ground. The energy continued in a vortex around Touketsu-Vegeta as it fanned outward, shattering and dissolving the frozen buildings surrounding him within a ten mile radius. The energy died out, and the blade extinguished. Touketsu-Vegeta sank to his knees at the center of the spiral of blackened, torn up land.

He felt nothing. No joy. No relief. No sense of liberation. Nothing. He stared at his hands resting in his lap, palms up…white hands tipped with black claws. Frieza would never, truly be gone, would he? He closed his eyes.