The Crash Of The Ages

The Galaxy has moved, and through this mobility, has entered the age 728.

A six-year-old Cress has just tearfully bid goodbye to his parents and is currently headed for the planet Namek in a lonesome space capsule.

A flurry of emotions had invaded him, ravaged the rolling scapes of his mind, and left behind a precarious conscience to ponder his current state.

Poke had altered Bardock's memories, his sensei had ensured some peace of mind for the young Saiyan.

His current problems had pushed such a peace far to the back of his mind however, as Paragus had become the ultimate thorn on his side.

The man knew how to control people, with threats beyond what an everyday hard-headed Saiyan should be capable of lashing out.

Broly could easily crush Cress' family with his current strength, especially when he wasn't with them.

Who could threaten Cress if Broly was killed?

The Emperor himself; Freeza.

Cress himself was perplexed as to how Freeza could possibly take an interest in him at this juncture. His powers had exploded, but they still weren't a proper match for Freeza at his full strength, not even close.

At most, Cress would wager that he could produce a few 100,000 in power level, and that was if he used every ounce of technique that Poke had taught him… 300,000 at the greatest.

This power would likely increase a great deal in his great ape form, but only the pure strength would be multiplied, and the output from the techniques would be all but nullified in the large, clunky form he would need to inhabit.

The power level of a million, if only Freeza were so weak.

Broly would likely not be an obstacle for Cress, as his strength peaked at about half of Cress' with no techniques to support him.

Of the two though, it was still Broly who inspired greater fear in Cress, not for his inevitable potential, but from the great emotion that emanated from him.

FEAR.

Where evil and naivete had once reigned, fear had run its course.

The fear that Broly felt was in every direction, consuming every part of the boy and masquerading as rage.

He had no rage, not anymore, not in any way that Cress could hold accountable.

It was just a pitiful child being strung along by his father into a powerful weapon.

A puppet that was empty and vulnerable, one that would do his father's bidding and do it well.

'A true slave, in mind and body.'

Oddly enough, Cress and Broly now shared a kinship in body.

If the aristocracy of the Saiyan world and the autocracy of Freeza's Empire were a game, then Paragus was perhaps the closest to crowning himself the game master.

If King Vegeta and Emperor Freeza were two heads deviously chuckling in an open field, then Paragus was the tiny third head, smiling silently as he peeked at the two from a shrubbery afar.

He had, with single-handed slyness, erupted a great organisation that sat quietly between the other two.

A silent resistance operating under Paragus, answering to only him, a nameless hand that simply commanded the oppressed beings seeking freedom from the giants sat on their backs.

A group that had commissioned Bardock's ship, one that could not be tracked or observed by Freeza, nor by the king.

Surely an act of treason, on the grounds of which the death of Bardock's family would be the smallest of payments.

So off went the young Saiyan to planet Namek. To catch the child-murderer Pirro, who had escaped to this mysterious rock after honouring his soon-to-be namesake.

The grand assignment of the nascent slave; kill and capture the devious Ladian.

As his ship began after Namek, Cress began quietly meditating. His strength was innate and inexorable, his growth required only a single commitment, time.

"I never expected that I'd be going to Namek this soon and chasing after a murderer no less. Perhaps I am ignorant to the sort of horrors that await me, but I have no retort, nothing to fall back on. What is Pirro? How much does he really know? And what the hell are his intentions?"

Such questions silently faded from the young boy's mind.

If time were the obstacle to his curiosity, then time would be his salvation.

***

***

***

As Cress had begun what promised to be a long journey, two pods landed on the relatively close planet known as Vampa.

The pods landed on opposite sides of the planet; something recognised by one of the new arrivals as a 'mercy in mocking'.

Silver's thoughts could not be discounted of course, as she wasn't wrong in the slightest.

If there was one person that had made her terrified, it was Broly, son of Paragus.

The former was now her antagonistic neighbour on the other side of the planet, and the latter was the lunatic that had surely wanted her dead with every ounce of Saiyan brutality he had in him.

The official mission of hers was to scope out the considerably large planet for potential life or resources. A menial task no doubt, a punishment for the youngling who had lost her commander and brought disgrace to her race on a measly planet like Kanassa.

The perpetrator of these crimes was imprisoned by the gracious Paragus, supposedly rotting in a damp and dark cell was the evil Cress, while the heroic Broly was off hunting the child murdering Ladian known as Pirro. A veritable knight under orders from Prince Vegeta himself.

Silver could only sigh as her pod slowly fell apart in front of her, for only she knew her true mission… survival.

Of course, Paragus saw it differently, for him, her mission was to die at the hands of his son, a growing beacon of power who would give him the Empire he desires.

He had entangled the foolish King into this propaganda campaign and set events into motion just as he'd pleased.

A true icon of the phrase 'waste not, want not.' For every soul in the Universe was a pawn simply waiting to become of use to Paragus.

And how they would… how they would.

***

***

***

"My name is Pirro, and I walk the Ladian dream for Heroes."

The words echoed in Pirro's mind as his pod hurtled towards Namek's surface, his eyes closed he quietly let the words ring.

A silent bout of self-abuse to atone for the water and sea-life his pod was about to wipe from existence.

This was a measured response; he would let the voice from that day torture him, but not allow his eyes open for all the blood that would surely haunt him.

"Back again huh? I was naïve to think that things would be different for me this time, but a true Hero must face his past and grow from it."

*BOOM*

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A sigh escaped from Pirro as the pod landed, a great devastation stirred in the ocean surrounding it, but oddly enough, even such a great impact did not affect a single muscle on Pirro's face… Quietly waiting for the seismic event to end.

After the degree of power, he had witnessed, and the power he had wielded, this was of little consequence.

Not in this skin, however. Not on this land and not in this time.

Pirro was the great Hero of the Ladians, the power of the Namekians, and the destroyer of the Saiyans.

Killer of Freeza.

Not here though, not now. This happened a long time ago… the day the Ladians were wiped out… the day the ceremony had occurred.

For you see, it had all happened in a dream.

The Grand Dream. The Ladian Dream…

…and it was about to happen once more.

END OF CHAPTER 13.