Shared Memories

I never prided myself on how much I knew about the Dragon Ball Universe. I knew a fair bit, but I also knew that my knowledge was lacking in a few areas.

The location of Buu's cocoon, the planet that had another Hyperbolic Time Chamber, whether or not Yamoshi or Cumber were in the afterlife...

But that, what Lila had just told us, that was completely unexpected. 

"You... created me?" Cooler asked, his eyes narrowed. "What, are you trying to tell me that you're my mother?"

Lila shook her head quickly before her gaze shifted towards the floor. "Not you specifically... I'm the one who created the Frost Demons..."

Cooler looked at her with a face of both irritation and confusion. I've seen that mixed emotional response from him only a handful of times, and it's almost always from something caused by his family. 

And it pretty much always meant that he was on the verge of murdering someone...

"Explain." He told her, his voice calm and cold. 

"I'm a Kai... A god tasked with overseeing the universe..." Lila starts, her gaze anywhere but in Cooler's direction. "Millions of years ago, I... I created a planet with the harshest conditions to... to create a race so strong that no one could ever hope to oppose..." 

"That's impossible!" Cooler yelled out suddenly as he stood up and hopped out of his chair. "You're telling me that you're some type of god?! And not only that, but that my people, my race, owe our entire lineage, our entire history to you?!"

"That's exactly what I am telling you..." She mutters. 

With the way that her body is just looks to radiating with guilt, it seems that she must regret the decision she's made, which confuses me greatly. 

Out of all the emotions she could be feeling about the Frost Demon's creation, why guilt? 

"You... You dare..." Cooler seethed, his fists shaking with unbridled fury. 

Cooler's reaction was not a surprise to me. 

There's two things that Cooler takes pride in. His strength and his people. 

Whilst he wouldn't think twice about blowing up the entire planet and erasing them all from the face of the universe, he took pride in his culture. 

Matter of fact, it was the entire reason for his appearance in his movie. 

He couldn't give two shakes of a rat's ass that his father and brother were killed. He cared that they were killed by someone other than him. 

From what Cooler has told me about Frost Demon culture, it's pretty common, and damn near expected that a someone will stab another member of their family in the back for even a modicum of power. Whether that be a son, father, uncle, or even your damn cousin. 

Oh, your father is the king of the universe? Well, kill him and then you will be king!

That's basically how Frost Demon politics work. 

"You know, you can prove to him that you're telling the truth." I tell Lila. 

She looks back at me with confusion before her eyes widened, realizing what I was referring to. 

"What is he talking about?" Cooler demanded answers. 

"Memory sharing." Lila replied. "A person places a hand onto you and they can then share the memories they have with another."

"How do I know that this isn't some trick? That this... memory isn't false?" He asks. 

"The technique doesn't work like that." Lila shook her head. "It needs real memories to function properly. Trying to use the technique with a fabricated memory is like... like a cook using salt instead of sugar. It may look real, but the substance is wrong. And it's quite obvious to anyone who's watching."

"If you want, I could show you one first." I suggested.

Cooler looked towards me with a blank stare before nodding his head. 

I stepped up to him and placed my hand on his shoulder. 

"First I'm going to show you a fake memory." I told him. 

My grip on his shoulder tightens as I close my eyes and create a fake memory that I just thought of on the spot. 

____________________

Cooler's surroundings suddenly shifted to a dark and desolate wasteland, a place that seemed to have been scorched to oblivion. 

He looked around at the devastation, having to  stop from nodding his head in approval out of pure instinct. Whoever destroyed this place, they sure were thorough.

Looking around at the buildings, Cooler saw some people, the planet's inhabitants, crushed underneath some rubble. 

A few feet away, there were a few bodies that looked as if they were ripped apart.

He knelt down and thought that the inhabitants looked strangely similar to Saiyans, but he quickly threw that out once he heard screams coming from a hole in the ground, followed by a bright flash of purple. 

Walking towards it, Cooler jumped down and saw that there was a crater in which Zyleth stood at the epicenter, clearly having been hit with that earlier blast.

His clothes were singed and torn, but his body was more or less intact. 

Zyleth started walking, stopping when he stood over some mechanical equipment that was laying on the ground. It wasn't until it started to speak that Cooler realized that it was a person. 

"Someday..." A sniveling, grotesque shape that had no excuse to call itself a man called out towards Zyleth. "You too will die..."

"Yeah, but you should've died at birth." Zyleth said before using his hand to rip the... thing's heart out. 

____________________

"You good?" I asked as I pulled Cooler out of the false memory. 

"What... was that?" Cooler asked, his face looking absolutely disgusted with me. 

"A fake memory?" I said in the form of a question, not really getting what he was asking. 

"No, I mean what was that... thing you killed at the end?" He said. 

"I don't know. I just came up with the thing and just played the memory." I told him, giving a small shrug. 

It was from some show I watched back in my first life. I can't even remember what it was from. 

Although I do remember the main characters mom being kinda hot...

"What your mind managed to come up with is nothing short of grotesque and should be wiped off the face of the planet in the way of Old Yeller..." He said. 

"You know Old Yeller?" I asked. 

"Of course I do." He replied, looking at me as if he was insulted that I suggested otherwise. 

"Huh... Did not know that..." I muttered. "What about the Godfather?"

"Everybody knows the Godfather, Vito." He replied. 

Wow... 

I did not expect that...

I should really learn more about space culture...

"Anyway, let's get back to business." I said before my grip tightens on his shoulder again. "Alright, now I'm going to show you a real memory."

____________________

Cooler was suddenly sucked into his own mind, seeing flashes of what he assumed was Zyleth's own memories. 

He was suspended in some sort of glass prison, suspended by a familiar green liquid. His hands were an entirely different shade of color, but also very small. 

There were two giants looking at him from outside the glass, and he instinctively knew that they weren't here to hurt him, but to nurture him. 

'Bardock, look at him! He looks just like you!'

'Mhm, he'll grow up to be a fine warrior. Just like his old man!'

'Of course he will. He's our little Zyleth.'

'I'm still not sure about that name though...'

These people were Zyleth's parents...

Not just that, he was actually inside Zyleth's body. 

This was an entirely different experience than how it was during the fake memory.  

The feelings stirring inside Cooler were strange to him. It was as if he could actually feel Zyleth's emotions during that moment. The warmth and love of an actual mother. 

He had never experienced such a feeling before. 

Before he could experience more, he felt something shift. And just as quickly as Cooler was sucked into the memory, he was pulled right back out. 

____________________

"What... What was..." Cooler muttered, still trying to understand what just happened. 

"It was a memory from when I was still in the incubator." I told him. "You understand now what she meant when she said you can immediately tell if a memory is fake."

Cooler nodded, still in a daze. 

"Are you okay?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"I'm fine." He replied curtly. "Show me the other memory." 

I look at him with a bit of hesitancy before motioning for Lila to go ahead and show him her own memory. Lila steps up and I watch as she places her hand on his shoulder and begins the process, the two stand there completely motionless. 

Curious, I slowly walk up and wave my hand in front of Cooler's face, not getting any sort of reaction. 

"That is weird..." I whispered. 

The two of them suddenly snap back to reality and I take a few inconspicuous step away from them. 

"That's... That's not..." Cooler stammered. 

Now that was a shock. 

In all my time serving as his right hand, I've never seen Cooler act like this. Whatever it was that Lila had shown him must've shaken him to his core. 

"Leave..." He suddenly said as he turned away. 

"Cooler, I didn't--" 

"Leave now!" He yelled, interrupting whatever words of comfort Lila was going to tell him. "I need to think..."

I look at Lila, who just stares at Cooler with a sad gaze before walking out of the Control Room. I look back and forth between the two before shaking my head and following Lila out. 

"Nothing is ever simple, is it?" I muttered to myself.