Freeza's POV:
I stood frozen, unable to move, unable to breathe, as I watched him fall.
Time seemed to slow, each moment stretching into eternity as Toji's body crumpled to the floor, blood pooling beneath his broken form.
The mechanical breathing that had become so familiar these past weeks fell silent, the absence of that rhythmic sound somehow more deafening than any scream.
My son was crying, his tiny hands reaching toward where his father had just been standing moments before. I should comfort him. I should move. I should do something.
But I couldn't.
I, Freeza, Empress of the Universe, conqueror of galaxies, destroyer of worlds, stood paralyzed, unable to process what my eyes were telling me.
Toji was gone.
The weight of the pendant against my chest suddenly felt like a planet, pulling me down, threatening to crush me. My fingers moved unconsciously to touch it through my armor - the fragment of his helmet I had recovered after the Slug incident, fashioned into a pendant matching the one he carried of my bio-armor.
A connection. A secret. A confession I had never made.
And now, too late.
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Nearly two months earlier, in the royal gardens...
"You will not see my face. This face that you yourself once liked seeing. You will not hear the warmth in my voice. You do not deserve to see the man who loves you."
His words had struck me like a physical blow, more painful than any attack I had ever endured in battle. I had stood there, frozen, as he turned to leave, his cape billowing behind him.
Loves you.
Those words echoed in my mind, foreign and incomprehensible. No one had ever said that to me before. Not my father, certainly not my brother. Love was not a concept that existed in the Cold Dynasty. Power, respect, fear - these were the currencies we dealt in.
Yet here was this human - this impossible human who had matched me in combat, who had fathered my child, who had seen me at my most vulnerable - claiming to love me.
And I had said nothing.
I had wanted to. In that moment, something had stirred within me, something I had never felt before. My lips had parted, the words forming in my throat, but they refused to emerge. Fear - actual fear, something I had only ever felt in the presence of Lord Beerus - had paralyzed me.
After calling out to him, finally him listening to me, "I need time," I had managed to finally say, the words sounding hollow even to my own ears. "I want - no, need you to wait."
Time. As if we had all the time in the universe. As if death could not touch beings of our power.
What a fool I had been.
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After our encounter in the garden, I had begun watching him with Megumi from a distance. I observed how he cradled our son, how he spoke to him in that gentle voice so at odds with his fearsome appearance, how he created games with ki balls that made Megumi giggle with delight.
I found myself studying these interactions, trying to understand this bond between father and son. It was unlike anything I had ever witnessed, certainly nothing like the cold, distant relationship I had with my own father.
One evening, when Toji was meeting with my father about imperial matters, I slipped into the nursery. The caretakers immediately dropped to their knees, foreheads touching the floor in terror. With a dismissive wave, I sent them scurrying from the room.
Alone with my son for the first time, I approached his floating crib with caution, as if he were some dangerous, exotic creature rather than my own flesh and blood.
Megumi looked up at me with curious violet eyes - my eyes - set in a face that so resembled his father's. He didn't cry or fuss as I had expected. Instead, he reached upward with tiny hands, grasping at the air between us.
"What do you want?" I asked, my voice sounding strangely soft in the quiet room.
Megumi continued reaching, making small sounds of effort. After a moment of hesitation, I extended my finger toward him.
His tiny hand wrapped around it with surprising strength, and something shifted within me - a sensation I couldn't name, both uncomfortable and strangely pleasant.
"You're not afraid of me," I observed, studying his face. "Everyone fears me. It's how I prefer it."
Megumi gurgled in response, still gripping my finger.
"You should be sleeping," I told him, attempting to withdraw my hand. His grip tightened, and his face scrunched up in what appeared to be the beginning of a cry.
"Fine," I sighed, allowing him to keep hold of my finger. "But don't expect me to sing to you or tell you stories like your father does. I'm not... like that."
Yet somehow, minutes later, I found myself humming an ancient melody - one my caretaker had sung to me, so long ago I had nearly forgotten it existed.
The tune came back to me in fragments, pieces of a memory I had buried beneath centuries of conquest and destruction.
When a servant entered sometime later and found me singing softly to the now-sleeping infant, I silenced her with a glare that promised death should she speak of what she had witnessed.
But I returned the next night. And the next.
Each visit became easier than the last. I learned how to hold him properly, supporting his head as Toji did.
I discovered which songs he preferred, which stories held his attention. I found myself enjoying these quiet moments with my son, away from the expectations and duties of empire.
One night, as I placed him back in his crib, I realized with a start that I had begun to care for this small being - truly care, not as an heir or an extension of myself, not only through instinct, but as a person in his own right.
The realization was unsettling.
If I could care for Megumi this way, if I could slowly, unconsciously act on them, accept them, what... What did that mean for my feelings towards his father?
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The Slug crisis had caught me unprepared.
Reports of Earth being attacked had initially seemed insignificant - just another backwater planet facing yet another would-be conqueror. But when I learned that Toji had gone to face this threat, something cold settled in my stomach.
"He'll be fine," I told myself, reviewing imperial reports with forced calm. "He's matched me in combat. This 'Slug' creature is nothing compared to us."
Yet when word came that Toji had been severely injured, possibly dying, I felt something I had never experienced before - genuine panic.
My heart raced, my hands trembled, my breath came in short gasps. For a moment, I thought I was under attack, my body responding to some unseen threat.
But the threat wasn't to me.
It was to him.
Before I could process what I was doing, I was striding toward my personal spacecraft, barking orders to prepare for immediate departure.
"Daughter," my father's voice stopped me in the corridor. "Where are you going in such haste?"
I turned to him, struggling to maintain my imperial composure. "To Earth. Toji is injured."
"And you feel this requires your personal attention?" His tone was neutral, but his eyes studied me with uncomfortable intensity.
"He is the father of my son," I replied stiffly. "His loss would be... inconvenient."
"Inconvenient," my father repeated, a slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "I see."
"What else would it be?" I snapped, my composure slipping.
"What indeed?" He stepped aside, gesturing for me to continue. "Do not allow me to delay you. If this is merely a matter of... convenience."
I ignored the knowing look in his eyes as I swept past him. I was not rushing to Earth because I was afraid or had love for Toji, I told myself. It was simply practical to ensure the continued survival of someone with his power and position.
By the time my ship reached Earth, it was too late. Toji had already returned to the Imperial Capital, transformed by his battle with Slug.
The reports I received were concerning - an arm missing, dependent on life support, his ki fundamentally altered into something destructive and uncontrollable.
When I finally saw him in the palace corridors, I barely recognized him. The damage to his body was evident even through the suit, his movements stiffer, more deliberate.
But it was the aura around him that truly shocked me - raw destruction energy, similar to what I had felt only once before, in the presence of only one other being...
Lord Beerus.
For the first time, I understood what it meant to fear someone (and... love them.)
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After the garden conversation, after I had asked for time and he had agreed to wait, I had begun practicing what I would say when I was ready.
In the privacy of my chambers, I rehearsed expressions, tested phrases, tried to find words that wouldn't make me sound weak or vulnerable.
"I have considered your... sentiments," I would say, maintaining my imperial dignity. "And I find them... not entirely unwelcome."
No, that wouldn't do.
"Your performance as father to our son has been satisfactory. I am willing to consider a more permanent arrangement between us."
Too cold, too formal.
"I... really... care for you as well."
Better, but still not quite right.
The truth was, I didn't know how to say what I felt, I said I loved him once, but that- that was in the heat of the moment.
The world itself felt... (small, it should be bigger, love is too small a word for how I feel towards him) inadequate.
How does one express something for which they have no vocabulary?
When I finally worked up the courage to approach him, to attempt some form of confession, I found him in the corridor leading to our son's chambers.
Something about seeing him there - this powerful being who had become the father my son deserved - filled me with a strange mix of emotions. Gratitude, admiration, jealousy, and something else, something warm and terrifying.
Instead of the words I had rehearsed, I raised my hand to slap him - a reflexive action born of confusion and fear. He caught my wrist effortlessly, his mechanical voice cold as he declared, "I am not in the mood for your games."
Then he tossed me aside like I was nothing, my body hitting the wall with enough force to crack the ornate paneling. I slid to the floor, more shocked than hurt. No one had manhandled me like that since... well, ever.
As he walked past me, his gaze fell on the pendant in my open palm - the fragment of my bio-armour he fashioned into a pendant that was recovered. He paused, then crouched before me, his masked face revealing nothing as he took the pendant from my hand.
I didn't stop him. I couldn't speak, couldn't explain why I had it or what it meant to me. I simply watched as he rose and continued on his way, the pendant clutched in his mechanical hand.
After he was gone, I remained on the floor, touching the spot on my chest where my own pendant rested. For the first time in centuries, I felt tears forming in my eyes. Quickly, angrily, I wiped them away, horrified by my own weakness.
But in the privacy of that empty corridor, I finally admitted the truth to myself: I loved him. I, Freeza, Empress of the Universe, loved Toji Fushiguro.
And I had no idea what to do about it.
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For a month I tried to... strengthen myself and utter words of... acceptance.
But then it came.
Unexpected. Like one of Cooler's Instant Supernova's- no faster.
Megumi was dying.
And it was because of the very power and presence of the man I loved.
When my father confronted Toji, I stood frozen, torn between my son in my arms and the man across the room. I watched as understanding dawned on Toji's face, followed by horror, then determination. Without a word, he had launched himself through the palace ceiling, creating a path of destruction as he fled to save our son.
I wanted to call out, to say something - anything - but the words caught in my throat. Once again, I had remained silent when I should have spoken.
For three weeks, I had no idea where he was or what he was doing. I focused entirely on Megumi, becoming his primary caretaker as his condition steadily worsened. I read to him from ancient texts, sang the songs of my childhood, held him as he slept fitfully.
Each night, I found myself on the palace observation deck, staring at the stars, wondering where Toji was among them. Was he searching for a cure? Was he simply staying away to prevent further harm? What was he DOING?
"Come back," I whispered to the uncaring cosmos. "I'm ready now. I'll tell you everything. Just come back to us."
But the stars remained silent, and Megumi continued to fade.
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Now, looking at his body on the medical chamber floor, I understood the terrible irony of it all. He had returned, as I had wished. He had saved our son, as I had hoped. And he had died, as I had feared.
But I had never told him what I needed to say.
The room erupted into chaos around me. Goku rushed to Toji's side, checking for signs of life. Bulma was shouting for medical equipment. My father stood motionless, his expression unreadable as he watched me rather than the fallen warrior.
Megumi's cries cut through the noise, his tiny hands reaching toward where his father had fallen. Something in that sound - the pure, unfiltered grief of a child losing his parent - broke through my paralysis.
I moved forward, gathering my son into my arms with a gentleness I had never shown publicly before. I held him close, allowing him to bury his face against my shoulder as he sobbed.
"Dada," he whimpered. "Want Dada."
"I know," I whispered, surprising myself with the tenderness in my voice. "I know."
Piccolo stepped forward, his expression grim but determined. "We can bring him back with the Dragon Balls," he announced. "Toji has never died before. The dragon can restore him."
A flicker of hope ignited within me, quickly extinguished by a harsh, unfamiliar yet somehow slightly familiar laugh. The strange Saiyan who had arrived with Toji - Bardock, someone had called him, that for some reason I slightly recognized - shook his head.
"Dragon Balls?" he said, his voice bitter. "You mean those wish orbs that summon Dragon Gods? You're out of luck."
All eyes turned to him as he continued, "Toji broke into Hell itself, then forced his way into Heaven. He violated the cosmic order. The gods will seal him so deep in Hell that no magic can reach him."
The room fell silent as Bardock explained what Toji had done - how he had torn through reality itself, fought Heaven's champions, and defied divine law to save Megumi.
I listened, my mind struggling to process what I was hearing. Toji had literally gone to Hell for our son. He had challenged the gods themselves, knowing the consequences, knowing he might never return.
And I had never told him I loved him.
The realization hit me even harder than before.
All my power, all my conquest, all my carefully cultivated fear - none of it mattered.
I had failed at the one thing that truly counted. I had failed to accept love until it was too late, failed to express it when I had the chance.
But perhaps it wasn't too late. Not entirely.
I looked down at Megumi, who had quieted in my arms, his violet eyes - my eyes - staring up at me with a trust I had done nothing to earn. Then I looked at Toji's body, still and broken on the floor.
Mine.
They were both mine.
And I protected what was mine, no matter the cost.
I turned to my father, my decision made. "I want to train with you," I said, my voice steady despite the storm of emotions within me. "Starting now."
My father's eyebrows raised slightly - the closest he ever came to showing surprise. "To what end, daughter?"
I met his gaze unflinchingly, my resolve hardening with each passing moment. "I will grow strong enough to break into Hell myself and bring back the man I love."
For the first time in my memory, my father smiled at me with genuine pride. "The Cold Dynasty takes what is ours," he said, "regardless of who stands in our way - even gods."
I looked down at Megumi, then at Toji's body, and made a silent vow:
Wait for me, Toji. This time, I won't be too late.
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Hours later, I stood alone in a private chamber where Toji's body had been placed. I had dismissed the guards, disabled the surveillance systems, and sealed the doors. For once, I needed no witnesses to my actions.
Approaching his body, I studied his face - the scar running diagonally across it, the lines of pain etched around his eyes, the mouth that had once smiled at me across a campfire on that jungle planet where everything had begun.
"You fool," I whispered, my voice breaking. "You absolute fool."
Without warning, the emotions I had been suppressing erupted. I threw myself over his body, pounding my fists against his chest.
"You were supposed to wait for me!" I screamed, my voice raw with pain. "I asked for time and you gave it, but then you left me entirely!"
Tears streamed down my face - the first I had shed openly since childhood. I made no attempt to stop them, allowing myself this moment of complete vulnerability.
"I hate you for dying!" I sobbed, my words tumbling out in a torrent of conflicting emotions. "I love you! How dare you leave me- us!"
I pressed my forehead against his, my tears falling onto his cold face. "You are mine, Toji Fushiguro," I whispered fiercely. "As I am yours."
Drawing back, I wiped my tears away, my resolve hardening once more.
I was Freeza, Empress of the Universe.
I had conquered galaxies, destroyed planets, brought entire civilizations to their knees.
And now I would conquer death itself.
"Not even death or the so-called gods will keep you from me," I promised, my voice low and determined. "I will tear apart Hell itself to find you."
For the first time in my existence, I - the Empress who had never knelt before anyone - knelt beside the body of the only man I had ever loved, making a vow that would shake the cosmos.
"Wait for me," I whispered. "This time, I won't be too late."
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter!
Do tell me how you found Freeza's pov.
Also, you guys are probably really confused. Where is Whis? Did no one see him catch Toji? Why is Toji on the ground?
It will be explained in the coming chapters everyone.
Let's just say, Hell's damage isn't that simple, because Toji's soul is quite... Unique. Even for Whis. Quite the mutant anomaly one could say.
Well, I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)