King Cold

Before arriving at Planet Vegeta, there was a problem I had to take care of, a minor setback.

Unleashing my true power.

My true form is not one that can be worn carelessly. For my species, specially for the ones in my bloodline, our forms are nothing but cages, and cages can be opened gently, one latch at a time, until you reach the last one. The moment I break that particular final seal, the power I've spent a lifetime keeping under a tight leash will come out all at once, and after centuries of not using my power… well, my control will be less than admirable, and everything within my reach will simply cease to be.

Needless to say, I could unleash my power aboard the ship, I still needed it to reach that filthy monkey. If I did, well… The fleet, the crew, Berryblue… all of it would be vapor before I finished the thought, and while most of them were expendable, and I am not so far gone in my grief that I'll strand myself in the void with no vessel to carry me the rest of the way to that golden pest.

So I needed a place to do it, somewhere more expendable. 

Fortunately, I own a great many planets, so finding a place is barely an inconvenience…

So, I picked a planet on the way to Planet Vegeta.

After giving my fleet clear instructions to await… at least two moons away from the planet, I left the ship and dropped through the dark void alone, falling toward the little pink world I'd selected from the registry. A rather unremarkable piece of land I had kept from nostalgia, the very first planet I had conquered on this pathetic sector of the universe. 

As I gracefully pushed through the void, the pink dot grew from a marble to a landscape beneath me, until eventually I descended through its yellow clouds and set down in the plaza of its capital, and the noise began at once.

They had been waiting for me.

Of course they had word travels fast, and I had taken my time on the ship to instruct my people… I imagine these lowly creatures think the great King Cold is honoring a minor world with his presence. They'd gathered in their thousands, packed into the streets and the squares, their strange upturned faces bright joy, fear, devotion.

They cheered and called my name. Some of them wept to see their ruler in the flesh, throwing flowers like some animals, while holding their young ones up above the crowd for a better look, as if a glimpse of me were a blessing they'd tell their grandchildren about.

I suppose in a way it was.

A delegation approached—elders in ceremonial robes, bowing so low their heads nearly touched the dirt, stammering out some prepared speech of welcome and gratitude and eternal loyalty.

I did not hear a word of it.

I was not there for them, I looked past them, past the crowd, past the spires of their little excuse of a city, out to the horizon, and I began to unfasten the seals I have been holding for so long.

"...Your Majesty?" one of the elders ventured, sensing something in the air shift as the cheering faltered and the joy began, slowly, to curdle into confusion. 

"Y-Your Majesty, is something—"

The ground cracked beneath my feet as the wind picked up, tearing the flowers from their hands and the banners from the spires, as their confusion bloomed into fear, and panic took over.

I felt no particular way about it.

They were mine to use, mine to discard. And they should rejoice they are going to die to give their King the chance he needs to kill that filthy Saiyan. 

So, while a silent smile… I stopped holding back.

I will not pretend I remember the moment itself. There is no watching it, from the inside, there is only a feeling of release followed by a lifetime of bound power finally, gloriously being

 unleashed, expanding outward in every direction at once, and the brief distant sensation of a great many things being destroyed.

When it passed, and my senses returned to its bearings, I was floating in silent black space where a planet had been.

There was no planet anymore, only… trash floating around.

“It has been so long…” I muttered into the empty void, wasting no time, I turned back toward the distant glint of my ship and flew to it. 

"It's been a long time, Your Majesty," Berryblue said softly, smiling at me. "since you last wore that."

"Too long." I looked past her, toward the front of the ship, toward the dark that still held that filthy monkey who did not yet understand what was coming for him. "Set our speed to maximum. No more waiting...."

Berryblue bowed.

"I'm ready to kill the Saiyan."

Nappa

We'd been on Planet Cretaceous for two months and some days when the sky changed all of a sudden.

I'd built us a life by then, if you could call it that, we had a cave in the mountains. A routine of hunting the great scaled beasts that ruled this primitive planet, and that was about it. The little prince was crawling now, gnawing on bones twice his size, already scowling at a world that kept trying to eat him, and I was proud of him. He was getting stronger by the day, exactly as I'd hoped and expected of the heir to the Saiyan Throne!

His power was high enough to kill most low class warriors, and he still was crawling!

Everything was fine, until a shadow crossed the sun, and a ship descended through the sky, a ship I recognized all too well…  one of the three armada vessels for the Cold Clan royal line.

Lord Cooler had found us.

I snatched Vegeta up and pressed my back to the cave wall, my heart slamming, my mind screaming a single useless word, run, but where?! There was nowhere in the universe left to run! This planet was supposed to be the one place no one would look! And he'd walked right in!

The ship set down in the valley below, and as the ship’s hangar opened, he came up the rocks alone, floating above the ground.

I could have run… or I could have fought. Both would have ended the same way, with me dead and the prince dead a moment later, so I did the only thing a cornered soldier can do when he knows there's nothing else to do, I set the Prince behind me, stood up straight, and faced my death on my feet like a true Saiyan!

"So… dramatic, there's no need for that posture," Cooler said, stopping a few feet away from us. "I didn’t come all this way to kill you, Nappa. If I wanted you dead, I would’ve destroyed this worthless excuse of a planet with you in it, and you know it."

He had a point there.

"Then why," I asked, my voice trembling with fear. "Why are you here, Lord Cooler. How did you even—"

"You took an unlogged pod from XR918 and ran to the most worthless planet on the charts." He waved a hand, mild. "I simply looked for a planet where a desperate man would hide." A thin smile. "You've done well keeping the boy alive out here. Can’t say I consider this place… a good learning environment, but what do I know about Saiyans?"

I gulped.

"Let me set your mind at ease," Cooler chuckled, "Because I can see you bracing for the wrong conversation. I hold no grudge against the Saiyans, none at all. My brother's cruelty toward your people was his own—petty, wasteful, way of showing he was in charge… and honestly, it was beneath the Cold name, so needless to say, I never shared it." He looked past me, to the small scowling Prince peering out from behind my legs. "And I certainly hold no grudge against a child."

"You're a Cold," I said, before I could stop myself from being stupid. "Your father is coming to wipe my entire race off the stars as we speak."

"My father," Cooler said, and something darkened in his voice, "and I are not the same. That is rather the point of my visit, you see." He folded his arms behind his back. "My father is a grieving old fool, a stupid one at that... He'll reach the Saiyan homeworld within a month or two, and he'll throw himself at your new King, and one of them will die. Perhaps both if luck is on our side. Either way, I intend to be nowhere near this crude show they are planning, I intend, instead, to think ahead. Which is something no one else in my bloodline or the universe for that matter seems bothered to do."

He turned that gaze back on me, and my heart began to race.

"As for why I’m here? Well, I simply want to recruit you, Nappa. You, and the prince, and whatever loyalists you can still reach… I want to offer you what you cannot possibly get on your own." He smiled. "Safety, and the protection of resources you can't even begin to imagine. And beyond that..."

He nodded at Vegeta, and I moved between his gaze and the Prince’s way.

"That is the rightful king of the Saiyans. Isn't he? The true bloodline…. Sitting in the dirt on a forgotten rock while a usurper wears his crown and calls himself a hero, right?" Cooler chuckled. "You didn't drag this child across the galaxy to keep him alive in a hole, did you? No… You did it so that one day he could take back what's his. So that Escarot could answer for your king and your queen… so that the Saiyans could be returned to what they were meant to be."

How… Did he know? Could he read minds?!

"I can make that happen," he said softly, as he walked towards me. "I have the means, the patience, and the reach. Alone, you will train that boy for twenty years and he will still die the moment he sets foot near Escarot, it pains me to admit it, but he’s incredibly powerful. With me behind him?" He opened his arms wide, "The young prince will reach heights never seen before."

Somewhere far back in my head, a part of me was screaming.

He's a Cold, and they do nothing without a reason, and he has not told you the reason. You would be handing your prince, the future of your entire race, to this lizard, but at the same time… I knew he was right.

Alone, the prince dies… With him, we might have a chance.

I looked down at the prince, at the scowling, filthy, magnificent little prince who was all I had left of our people, then I lowered my head to Lord Cooler 

"What do you need us to do," I said.

Cooler smiled, and it was the smile of a man who'd known my answer before he ever landed on this planet.

“Come… we have much to discuss.”

Power Level Section

Cooler: 80,000,000

Nappa: 4,000

Vegeta: 2,359

King Cold (Final Form - 70%): 217,000,000

King Cold (Third Form): 125,000,000

King Cold (Second Form): 9,900,000