At the edge of the universe.
Planet Vampa.
Frieza slowly came to. The first thing he felt was a wave of rage. Once he finally calmed down enough to think, he looked around in every direction.
Where is this?
The planet's conditions were nothing short of wretched — yellowish sand howling through the air, visibility practically zero. There wasn't even any liquid water suitable for drinking.
Frieza wrinkled his nose.
How did I end up on this planet?
Was it that Goku who dumped me here?
He checked himself over.
Stripped of everything. Not so much as a communication device left on him.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Frieza trembled with rage, letting out a string of furious screams.
I actually lost to that Goku!
I'm the reborn Frieza!
How could I have lost?!
Bitter humiliation churned inside him.
But then, slowly, the corner of Frieza's mouth curved upward into a widening smile.
Since you didn't kill me, Goku — once I, Frieza, have recovered to my full power, just you wait and see what I do to you.
Just then, Frieza's sharp ears caught something — off to his right, somewhere in the distance, someone else was shouting "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
Frieza paused.
Is that an echo?
It doesn't quite sound like one, does it?
And that "echo" took way too long to come back.
Go take a look.
Maybe there's someone over there.
How dare they copy my lines.
I'll beat them to death.
Frieza shot off quickly in that direction.
...
Not far away.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Paragus was howling at the sky, venting his fury in a string of shouts.
When he finished, Paragus suddenly caught something — it sounded like his own voice coming back from somewhere.
Hm?
That blasted echo.
Though... the pitch of that echo sounds a little different, doesn't it?
And hang on — it came BEFORE I finished shouting.
Did the echo arrive before I even made the sound?
Paragus was baffled. He vaguely figured it must be his ears playing tricks on him and didn't dwell on it.
"Thirty years! Thirty years I've been trapped on this godforsaken planet!" Paragus screamed again at the top of his lungs.
When he was done, he looked toward the place where the echo had come from, waiting for it to bounce back again.
Maybe this'll at least kill some time.
But this time, no sound came back. He waited and waited.
Was I just imagining things earlier?
There's no echo now...
Or... does that mean...
Could there actually be someone over there?
Paragus's eyes snapped wide open, and a flash of excitement hit him.
If there's really someone out there, does that mean I can finally get off this planet?
Just as Paragus was starting to get his hopes up, Frieza came flying in from the distance.
The two of them came face to face, each sizing the other up from top to bottom.
Paragus didn't recognise this form of Frieza, but had a nagging feeling he'd seen him somewhere before. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Frieza, however, felt a small jolt of pleasant surprise when he noticed the other man was wearing his army's battle armor.
"Are you one of my men?" Frieza asked with a easy smile.
"What? Are you actually talking to me? Am I dreaming?" Paragus was almost overwhelmed by the sheer shock of it, rubbing his eyes hard, convinced he was seeing things.
He hadn't seen another living soul in over thirty years.
On this enormous, miserable, hostile planet, Broly was the only other person Paragus had laid eyes on in all that time.
Should've thought twice about killing that companion of mine when we first arrived. At least I could've knocked him around to pass the time.
"I said — you're with the Frieza Force, aren't you?" Frieza repeated, his expression cooling.
Paragus nodded vigorously, suddenly feeling like he'd found a kindred spirit.
This guy knows about the Frieza Force — that's fantastic.
"I am Paragus — a warrior of the Saiyan race!" Paragus said proudly, thumping his chest with great enthusiasm.
Frieza: "..."
Frieza's face went dark in an instant.
A Saiyan.
These filthy Saiyan monkeys — I am not done with you lot.
"You're actually a Saiyan?" Frieza asked, his expression stone cold.
"One hundred percent!" Paragus said with a self-satisfied grin, flicking his tail deliberately for Frieza to see, like a demonstration.
Frieza's face got even darker.
"And who are you, exactly?" Paragus asked with a smile. "How did you end up on this planet—"
But Paragus didn't get to finish the sentence.
Frieza had already shifted back into his first form.
Paragus's expression froze. His smile locked on his face. He stared, thunderstruck.
"Lord Frieza... it's you?" Paragus could barely believe his eyes.
CRACK!
Frieza drove a casual fist straight into Paragus's gut.
SPLURT—
Paragus coughed up a mouthful of blood and nearly died on the spot.
A moment later, Frieza placed his foot on Paragus's head and leaned into it, grinding slowly.
"Ahh... ahh... ahh..."
Paragus let out agonised howls, filled with sheer terror.
"How unexpected — to actually run into a surviving monkey on this miserable backwater rock," Frieza said, rubbing his nose, murder gleaming in his eyes. "What a surprise."
"Lord Frieza... I haven't done anything to provoke you, have I?" Paragus managed, his face already drained white with fear.
"Of course you haven't provoked me. But... the Saiyans have provoked me. You can blame yourself for being a Saiyan — the race I, Frieza, despise most in the universe!" Frieza said with a contemptuous laugh, and pressed down harder with his foot.
CRACK!
Paragus's head was driven deep into the ground, and he let out screams like a pig being slaughtered. The sound echoed out across the entire planet.
"Ho ho ho ho!" Frieza was thoroughly enjoying himself.
Every bit of humiliation he'd suffered at Goku's hands was being successfully transferred onto Paragus in this moment.
Frieza decided that tormenting this Saiyan was just as satisfying as tormenting Goku.
"Don't worry — I won't kill you right away. I'm not done venting yet," Frieza said, his smile growing wider and more radiant.
Paragus let out another wrenching, heart-splitting scream.
"Ho ho ho ho! A little more suffering before you go! I do love the sound of a monkey howling!" Frieza cackled without end.
But just as Frieza was really getting into it —
Whoosh!
A streak of light came screaming from the distance and drove headfirst — literally headfirst — straight into Frieza.
SPLURT—
Frieza's expression seized up. He coughed up a mouthful of stomach acid, and felt like his whole body had been knocked sideways.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The new arrival burst into action the moment he appeared, launching into a furious barrage of punches and kicks against Frieza.
Caught completely off-guard, Frieza was hammered backwards, stumbling and unable to get a foothold.
The one attacking Frieza was none other than Paragus's son — the Legendary Super Saiyan, Broly.
To be continued…
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