Twisted Fate And Twisted Destiny; A Dalliance For The Weak

"That bastard!"

"Broly."

"He let her escape! Where the hell did she go? Tell me!"

"BROLY!"

Paragus screamed loudly at the top of his lungs, with a voice threatening to break down if that is what it took to achieve its purpose.

"Leave her be, you are to follow my orders and my orders alone."

"Yes, Father."

"…"

Broly had replied in a timid voice, but his expression was all but timid. However, his expression began to regress until he could not look at the drone that had been his father, silently staring him down as if to crush any speck of 'Will' he could find in the boy.

"…yes, commander."

"…Board your capsule and head back to Vegeta, the coordinates are in there. Do yourself a favour and don't say a word until you get back. In fact, just keep your mouth shut for the foreseeable future you ignorant dimwit."

There it was.

The father that he remembered in the years before his birth was where he always was, with a foot a Broly's head; ready to crush any thoughts of insubordination.

He listened to his father.

He survived because of him.

He got revenge because of him.

Did he though?

'I just killed him. He was smiling…"

Broly continued to deliberate in his mind as he got in the capsule as his father had instructed and launched away.

His mind thought back to when he had attacked Magenta and Silver.

'Easy prey.' He had thought to himself.

He took out an arm with a well-placed blast.

'They don't stand a fucking chance. This power is amazing!'

He paused for a second to look at his hands, before closing his eyes and beginning to power an attack. A voice was caught by his ears, as he finally opened his eyes.

"RUN! Find Cress and escape!"

*BOOM!*

Broly directly sent a blast towards where Silver stood, he wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone else; there was far too much on his mind.

Broly had to learn long ago that there is only so much you can fit into your heart, so you had to make it worth something.

Ambition for power was worth it.

A son was not.

*Chack!*

"AGHHHH! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"

Magenta had moved in front of the blast, perhaps he was hoping to counter the attack, but he had only managed to procure the loss of another limb.

Silver quickly fled, faster than Broly had expected.

'Interes- NO!'

He quickly focused on Magenta, completely removing Silver from his mind.

He was prepared to slowly crush Magenta, after all, the drone couldn't withstand the energy; it wasn't around.

*BOOM!*

"Fuck!"

Broly lamented, he had seen a smile creep up on Magenta's face as the latter realised Broly had focused on him.

A blast had left Broly's hand before he could think; one far more powerful than the ones before; meaning that Magenta was now obliterated without a trace.

Broly closed his eyes once again. Barely able to come up with an excuse in time as he heard the drone that was his father whiz closer and closer.

After all, there was but one thought on his mind.

'…WHY THE FUCK WAS HE SMILING?!'

The still lake that had contained the surface of Broly's eyes now reflected the fire within.

A fire with a blinding light that enveloped and invaded every thought in his mind.

And as he heard explosions in his dust as the space-pod left the atmosphere… the fire merely enraptured him.

***

***

***

"So that's what he took to get there… interesting. Looks like the plan will need to change quite a bit."

"This is good though; I'd much rather have two beasts on hand if my ambitions are to come to fruition… Hehe, the might of our race is truly yet to shine."

"After all; a sword is only as good as the hand that wields it."

"So much bondage for such a mighty race of warriors… no longer!"

"I will sever the heads of those who bound us to servitude!"

"I WILL TAKE THEIR HEADS! AND I WILL SEIZE THE REINS!"

Paragus felt pure glee at this moment. Over two years of effort had paid off in a way more meaningful than he could ever imagine, lady luck had rewarded him.

Perhaps the small mishaps here and there were a result of him doubting himself, confidence is key to victory after all, and he simply needed more.

*SLAM*

"Sir there's been a problem! The carer robots in the sector's nursery have malfunctioned! They've started… they've started killing the children! I was told to inform you as there weren't any Saiyans on standby!"

A technician rushed in moments after Paragus had sat back down, letting rest the adrenaline in his body.

Perhaps it was fate at play yet again, as the smile and body of the man froze where was, as if it took all the blood in his body to acclimatise Paragus to this sudden situation.

As he quickly processed it, a thought reared its head in his mind; before quickly being shoved away as if it were the most redundant thought to have ever existed.

'Not a single one of them tried to stop the killing of Saiyan children.'

He did not continue down this line of reasoning, in fact; he took a deep breath and released a great sigh of relief. It seems that some of the steps of caution he had taken bore him some fruit.

"This may be a good thing; it will probably satiate the lizard and give me more time to work with."

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? CHILDREN ARE DYING AS WE SPEAK! YOUR CHILDREN! HELP THEM!"

As soon as the incensed technician, who lacked the strength to do much in life, found a hand exiting his body through his chest.

"Is it a trait your race is born with? Suddenly starting to care for things they have no business thinking about."

"How can such a paltry race must such a great deal of insignificance. What a marvel! I shall be glad to have you under my foot; a race of people that find a great deal of nothing as their boon should relish the chance to be my soles."

"I am so glad I got to kill two Hyperites today."

Paragus swiftly disposed of the Hyperite's body before leaving for the nursery. He had to deal with this problem in one way or another, the Hyperites were a sparklingly intellectual race when they put their minds to it, and they knew how to leave a digital trace.

They were so good in fact, that they were the ones now in charge of working on the Artificial Intelligence of the carer robots in Saiyan facilities.

'Freeza has them handle the scouters for all of his forces, he's foolish in ways the rest of his family cannot measure up to.'

***

***

***

"It's no use, Broly's already left the planet."

"How do you know? And where's your scouter."

"Let's file that under 'headaches for later' shall we?"

"Fine! But I want an explanation after we kill that motherfucker!"

"Yep… Let's focus on getting out of here first, I think those explosions were our pods."

Silver had run towards the last life source her scouter indicated before Broly destroyed it.

What she was met with had confused her, but there were too many emotions churning in her heart to begin tackling the flurry of shitstorms and shenanigans that seemed to be her life at that moment.

"Fuck! Alright, look. I know you can find us a way out, but if we get killed because of your shenaniganry, I swear to all that is good in the world that I will fuck you up in whatever hell awaits us!"

Cress mostly ignored Silver as he used his Ki sense to try and scope out his surroundings.

Oddly enough though, his search was interrupted for a second. Interrupted by a gentle jolt he felt in his heart at Silver's particular choice in words.

His eyes blanked with some weight for a second, before he quickly closed them and focused once again on his search.

His senses felt different ever since he began to focus on his sensing abilities, as they had not only improved at an intensely rapid rate, but he began to feel something that was more than just simple Ki.

He began to feel life.

A force almost intangible in that it was so great and overwhelmingly ever-present in all that could die, that he could almost sense the make-up of the world around him in more detail than his eyes ever could.

With it, he felt the grass, the small particles in the air… all surrounding a spaceship nearby.

Almost as he sensed it though, he heard the voice of his father behind him… a voice that was surprisingly coarse.

"My ship's fine, I can only think of one guy who'd have both reason and ability to destroy our method of escape from this planet, and I know he can't do shit to my ship."

Bardock spoke with a smile on his face; even though every organ inside his body was screaming at him to just give up and die, he couldn't help but smile at his situation.

'No matter how much a smug, spoilt piss-arse you are, I gotta thank you Paragus. I don't have to kill the boy, and I get to see the light dim in your eyes.'

Of course, Bardock would be happy, after all, his son had defeated the Hyperite and held off the monstrous Broly to save his own father. The boy wasn't a low-level Saiyan after all, but a strong warrior like his father.

"Come on kid, let's go home… your mother misses you."

Perhaps it was that he had nearly seen a hopeless death, or perhaps it was that he had nearly done the same unto his son, but there was now a relentless warmth in Bardock's heart.

A warmth unbecoming of a Saiyan, but one too powerful for him to fight against as he was now.

Cress nodded, and silently followed Bardock. Silver did the same, stunned to see Cress act so silent and submissive.

Cress didn't know what to think. He hadn't met his father before, in fact, the first time he laid eyes on him, he had crushed the man with his tail.

The guilt and fear that had skyrocketed in his heart at that moment almost made him lose complete control and destroy everything around him as overwhelming power coursed through him.

It was only when he remembered a single thing that his mother had told him when he was still bound in the nursery that he was able to calm down.

"Your father is what I like to call a 'Tsundere', I can't even remember when, but it's a word I picked up back when I was on a squad with your father. I think we had an alien… uh, crap, can't remember his name, but that's what he called your father when he was assigned on a mission with our squad."

"He was a nice enough squad mate, and the mission went well, so I was talking to him about the mission and bidding goodbye, when your father decides to interject. The crazy ape-head just grabbed his hands and crushed them… he walked away after that, like nothing happened."

"I got so angry, I was ready to go and smack the bastard around a little, the idiot never bothered to fight back anyway. When the alien-um… guy – damn, I feel bad about this – told me to just leave it. He just healed his own arms and laughed, called your father a 'Tsundere', told me I had a good one, and walked way."

"To this day, I've never heard another word that I didn't understand the meaning of, but so perfectly described something I love so much."

"Even though I don't know what the word means, I know your father, and he's a Saiyan through and through. His love is a part of him, but so is his Saiyan pride."

"He'll take his time, but he'll never stop loving you, and he may never show it to you in the exact way you'd hope, but he'll come around."

"He's just scared honey. As we all are to some degree, that if he shows the part of him that loves you, that the part of him that begs him not to will destroy him."

Cress blankly stared at the back of the man limping forward.

"Let's get back home… father." Cress muttered under his breath, with the word meaning more to him than perhaps he ever had.

Bardock continued to walk forward though, only waving his hand a little at the comment.

Cress smiled bitterly for a second, but just a few seconds later, his smile grew infinitely larger as he saw the spaceship up ahead in the distance.

This was only fair, given that the reflection that greeted him was of a tall man slowly limping forward…

…with eyes closed, a few tears gracing the wide grin on his face.

***

***

***

A few hours later.

Planet Vegeta.

"I do so love the look on your face."

"What do you want from me?"

"Not much, I simply want you to help me do what your father was attempting to do anyway."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"Oh, my dear child, did you not realise that the ship you arrived on was different from the others? It was an older model, from before the settlement of Freeza Planet 109, nonetheless. Didn't you recognise the handiwork of your mentor's filthy race all over that machine?"

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"

"QUIET!"

"…"

"Good, now. I will say this once and only once. We live under the yolk of someone powerful enough to crush us with a finger."

"…"

"The finger taunts us and pokes at us as it pleases, as it is its right to do so."

"…"

"Power transforms and illustrates right and wrong, and when one power eclipses another, it shifts everything that is to merely something that used to be. So, to be becomes a crime, until only the finger can be."

"…"

"Talking to another mindless ape. Fine, all you need to do is listen to every word I say and enact my orders perfectly. Don't worry, you; my son, will be helping me take that finger and make it my own. An oddity such as that boy of mine can only be allowed to exist when under a responsible finger like my own."

Paragus pointed upwards with the index finger of his left hand, holding it up as if it were paramount over all else.

"Fine. Can I leave now?"

"Of course, you can, but remember the finger can give…"

Paragus slowly pointed his hand towards Cress, more specifically, something in Cress' arms, making Cress hold it ever so slightly tighter.

"…and it can take away."

Cress walked towards the door slowly, taking care to open it with one arm while delicately holding something with his other.

"Wait."

"…"

Cress quietly stood where he was, not bothering to look back.

"Won't you thank me for saving your brother? If I didn't have him in my custody, he would've been dead like all of Sector 5's children right now."

Cress looked at the Baby in his arms, Raditz was asleep, probably due to the work of some sedative, the spunky-haired Saiyan was sleeping soundly.

Cress didn't look back but closed his eyes before replying.

"Two things, first, he wasn't born in Sector 5; I understand what that means, and I hope you do as well. Second, how is it that a high-level Saiyan couldn't catch a Ladian traitor in his own sector?

"I am a high-level Warrior boy, and you will address me as such. And regarding the Ladian, it's good that you brought him up, because it will be your job to eliminate him."

Paragus scoffed at Cress, he wouldn't be riled up, he was the one who played games, no one play Paragus.

Cress finally turned around, his face calm and collected unlike before; after all, he didn't like playing games. Taking shots is good enough when people like Paragus are around, why would Cress bother with a man so clearly set to be his own undoing.

"Where to? I can leave soon."

"You will leave in two days on your father's ship, this isn't an official mission, but one directly from the King. You know, I feel bad for the prince, even I wouldn't want to have a father who so readily involves himself with the murder of children. But I suppose they won't have much to worry about soon enough."

"Is that so? And where am I going?"

"Some oddity on the map named Namek, it's far enough that it hasn't come under our radar yet, with no significant life-force to indicate value, but Pirro's sudden turn and desperation to get to the place has rendered it important. You will have two teammates arriving separately with you this time."

"Are they with you?"

"Nope."

"From the king?"

"Exactly."

"I suppose you'll want me to eliminate them."

"You may be smarter than I gave you credit for, in return for this sudden revelation of intellect, I personally won't harm your family during the duration of the mission. You can take my word for it."

"Who the fuck are they?"

"Hehe, have fun figuring out how to eliminate the prince and his aide. If you can't even figure out how to do that, you aren't much use to me are you? Use that power level of yours, see how well the numbers game works out for ya."

Cress quiet down for a second, before nodding and turning around.

He opened the door and began to walk out. However, just before fully exiting the room, he proclaimed in the loudest voice that he could.

"High-Level Warrior? But sir, I've never met a warrior with such a nice desk before."

Cress shut the door and slowly strode out, sibling in hand, smile on his face, and much deeper sentiments rising in his heart.

END OF CHAPTER 10