Time slows.
The creature's claw glows with malevolent light, a final gambit meant to end everything. But I don't move. I feel. Zelle's voice lingers in my soul like an echo across lifetimes, grounding me.
And that's when it happens.
My body doesn't dodge. It shifts the very atoms of my being rearranging in real time. I phase into a form I've never accessed before. No transformation. No scream. Just stillness... and ascension.
The claw passes through me like a blade through mist.
I appear behind the beast before it even registers the miss.
"You lose," I whisper and drive my palm into the creature's spine.
A soundless pulse erupts from the impact. The shockwave doesn't explode outward. It implodes, drawing light, sound, and even hope into a single point before releasing it all in a blinding burst.
The monster howls not in pain, but in memory. I see its life flash through my mind in an instant. It wasn't always this... twisted. It was created, warped by beings who feared its potential. Just like me.
But pity won't stop it. I gather my energy all of it. The lives I've lived. The powers I've hoarded. The love I carry. Every piece of me becomes one, wrapped in a single word that defines this rebirth:
"Unity."
I unleash the final blow an upward strike that detonates with the force of a dying star. The sky tears open. The creature's body is flung into the stratosphere, breaking apart into glittering shards that rain down like falling stars.
And then silence.
I fall to my knees, the transformation fading. My skin smokes, my muscles twitch. The cost was high.
"Cody!" Zelle's voice breaks the silence, and in the next moment, she's at my side, clutching me tight. "You did it… you actually did it."
I smile weakly. "We did it."
Her hand brushes my cheek, and I feel a warmth stronger than any power I've ever known.
But just as I lean into that warmth
The ground rumbles.
The sky flickers.
A tear in space opens behind us.
A voice booms out from the void,cold, layered, inhuman.
"You weren't meant to survive this cycle. Prepare for correction."
Zelle screams as a blinding hand shoots from the rift and grabs me by the chest, yanking me backward.
"No,NO!" she yells, grabbing my arm.
But she can't hold me. I'm being pulled into the rift, my body unraveling again. Reincarnation... again? No. Not yet.
"I'll find you!" I yell as reality collapses.
Zelle's tear-streaked face is the last thing I see.
And then...
Darkness.
Pain.Then nothing.Then... heat.
My eyes snap open to twin suns blazing in a rust-colored sky. Sand scorches my back, and jagged cliffs loom like teeth in the distance. The air tastes like metal and ash. I suck in a breath—too cold, too clean—and sit up.
My reflection stares back at me in a shard of broken glass near my feet.
Sleek white skin, segmented with deep violet lines. A long tail coils behind me, twitching like it has a mind of its own. My eyes glow faintly red, sharp and reptilian. And my voice, when I speak aloud, is smoother, colder.
"…Damn. Frieza race."
My power feels... dense. Dormant. Like a black hole waiting to collapse. But it's there—huge. Not flaring wildly like when I was Saiyan. It's coiled deep inside, begging to be unlocked.
I rise to my feet, my tail swaying for balance. The world around me is harsh—rusted ruins, smoke trails, and the distant hum of old technology. This isn't a thriving planet. It's a survivor.
A commotion draws my attention to the west—a caravan of speeders getting ambushed by a gang of brutish alien raiders. Blasters fire wildly. Screams cut through the dry air. And deep inside me… something smiles.
I dash forward—faster than thought. The desert blurs. I arrive just in time to see one of the raiders raise a blade over a screaming child.
No.
My tail lashes out, shattering the alien's spine in a single blow. He hits the ground with a wet thud. The others turn, eyes wide.
"Who the hell—?!" one starts.
I don't wait. I move.
In seconds, five of them are unconscious—or worse. My body moves like a weapon forged for slaughter. But I hold back, controlling every strike. These aren't cosmic threats—they're scum. I don't need to show my full hand yet.
The caravan guards stare in stunned silence.
"You saved us…" one whispers.
"Who are you?" asks another, gripping a battered rifle.
I look down at my clawed hands. My tail coils around me like a living serpent. I know what I look like. I know what the Frieza race means to people in this universe.
But I also know what I've been through..
And this time…I won't wait for destiny to find me.I'll hunt it down.
The caravan guards are still murmuring behind me when I step away, ignoring their gratitude. I'm too focused—on the power thrumming beneath my skin, and the choice I know I'm about to make.
This body is cold. Detached. My emotions don't spike like before—they flicker, calculated. But something inside me still aches. And I know exactly what I need to do.
Bring her.
The command echoes in my mind like a ripple through water. The system, buried in the very fabric of my soul across every life, responds immediately.
"Reincarnation Bond: Ally Transfer – Zelle. Location lock confirmed. Dimensional compression complete."
Reality shivers.
A burst of blue-white light ignites beside me, and the air implodes with a sudden vacuum. I feel her before I see her—her chaotic aura, wild and full of heart, slamming into the atmosphere like thunder.
Zelle collapses onto the sand with a grunt, coughing, eyes wide with confusion.
"Wha—what the hell—?!"
She scrambles to her feet, her long silver hair whipping around her like a banner. Her eyes flick toward me—and I watch the excitement in them die.
"...Cody?" Her voice drops.
I nod. My new voice is low, smooth, foreign. "Yes. I brought you here. I remembered what you said—'don't leave me behind again.'"
She takes a step back.
"You're a frost demon now."
"I'm still me."
"No," she spits. "You feel different. You're… cold."
I tilt my head, expression unreadable. "Because I have to be. This world isn't forgiving."
Zelle's hands curl into fists. "I watched you fight for people who hated you. I saw you burn for them. But this… this body? It's like looking at a ghost. No heart. No warmth. Just... power."
A pause. She doesn't see the way my claws curl into my palm behind my back. I do feel—but it's distant. Filtered through this body's unnatural restraint. Frieza's kind are evolved weapons. Emotions don't come easy.
"I didn't choose the form," I say calmly. "But I'll use it. This world is a breeding ground for killers and tyrants. If I'm going to survive, I need more than fire. I need fear."
She hesitates—just for a moment.
"I came because I trusted you. Loved you," she whispers. "But now… I don't know what I'm looking at."
I move closer, slow and precise. "You're looking at someone who brought you here because of that. You ground me. You remind me of what I was. What I could be again."
"Then prove it."
"I will."
The wind howls across the desert. Around us, a storm brews. A warlord watches from a cliff in the distance, sensing the power we've just unleashed. Things are already moving.
Zelle doesn't embrace me. Not yet. But she doesn't leave.
And that's enough.