//------------------------------// // Interlude: Birthday // Story: Dragon Ball Z: Magic's New Life // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Following Twilight's little display of power, something that surprised those who ended up seeing it, Towa spent some of their time teaching her about the various elements that one could call upon, such as fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, light, and even darkness itself. Her reasoning wasn't to make Twilight stronger than she already was, rather it was because she was interested in what sort of affinity her daughter might have for the various elements that made up their universe, in addition to the Ki that every living being had, even if they had different names for it. The Lightning Lance, or whatever Twilight was going to call it, was just the first step in figuring out what sort of affinity she had, though what came next came as a total surprise to Towa as Twilight displayed the power to tap into fire, control water, summon the earth, harness the wind, call forth more lightning, and even, against all odds, tap into light and darkness. Of course there were more things to learn besides the various elements that existed in the universe, and Towa was more than willing to see how Twilight took to her lessons before advancing to another section, but she did feel that going too fast was a bad thing and made sure her daughter understood the current lesson before moving on. It was during one of those lessons that Frieza floated into the area that they were using as Twilight's practice range, so she didn't damage the palace with her magic or her Ki attacks, allowing him to stare down at her while she carefully practiced calling forth her energy to fire off small Ki blasts. "So, how's the training going?" Frieza inquired, because while he, personally, never needed to train in his life, he was gifted with far more power than Cooler or even their father, he knew Twilight enjoyed learning and figured that this would help shape her into the weapon he had dreamed of her being when he first found her. "She's skilled in more elements than I thought... her affinity isn't a single element, but magic itself." Towa replied, as while Frieza would know that if he bothered to spend time with Twilight, overseeing her training with her and Cooler or helping her understand her powers, she simply answered the question as she watched her daughter, "While interesting, since it is rare to find someone like her... in fact, she might be only the second I've seen in the entire universe... it also makes teaching her much harder than one might assume. The way she absorbs information is also amazing, though I need to slow her down so she can understand everything she's learning, otherwise she'd be running around like the other children her age, messing things up while playing. With all of the training she's been doing, and the powers she's been learning, I do have to wonder if she'll care about the fact that her birthday is coming up, or if she'll just go about her studies without a care in the world." Frieza thought about it for a moment, Twilight was at the young age where children cared about their birthdays, or at least until they reached being a young adult and learning about how the world worked, and she might be expecting them to do something on the day they discovered her. Knowing Cooler he was likely all for the idea and had no doubt convinced their father that it was the right thing to do, at least for a couple of years anyway, and Towa seemed to agree with the idea, even if she had no idea how Twilight would react to it since she had no friends. That was a consequence of being his daughter he supposed, anyone her age that tried to befriend her were just out to get something from her, though, much to his joy, there weren't many children on his planet right now, so he didn't have to worry about her forming useless bonds. He also knew that it would be a waste of time and money if they went about making a party for Twilight, even a small one at that, though he could tell that Towa was silently judging him, or at least he was sure about that even though her eyes were on Twilight as she blasted her target with a surprisingly accurate display of accuracy. In the end, however, he decided that crafting one and allowing Twilight to have some fun might be the right thing to do for a time, at least until she told them it was no longer necessary, before he excused himself, as he knew Elec was on his way and both he and his father wanted to talk with him about the planets they had conquered recently. "Would be nice if he showed more interest in her." Towa commented, as while she knew that Frieza didn't care about those who served him, he even had no love for his own brother and father at times, part of her had been hoping that spending a bit of time with Twilight might have changed him, but it looked like that egg hadn't cracked yet, causing her to jump down into the training area, "That's enough, Twilight. You can stop now." "Did I... do good?" Twilight asked, to which she stopped firing at the target and huffed, as while she was getting stronger as the days went by, and was able to train for longer periods of time, her mother always stopped her every now and then so she could rest and move onto something else, even though it was exhausting work. "Of course you did sweetie." Towa replied, where she smiled as she hugged Twilight, as they had really bonded over her love of learning, something she liked to do when she had the time, before taking a moment to pull out some of the tomes they were currently working on, as there was more for her to understand if she was going to help her father, an idea she hoped Twilight would grow out of at some point. Twilight grinned as she laid eyes on the tomes, as she loved to learn everything that was inside them and knew that she would understand everything inside them in due time, she just had to be patient and not rush into things, though it made her eager to see what they might be learning today and what the future held for them. Twilight found that the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months as she learned everything that both her mother and her uncle placed in front of her, as she was eager to learn about everything, no matter what it was, despite the fact that they wanted to go slow so she fully understood the material. At the same time, however, she found that there were a number of days where her father showed up to see how she was doing, though most of the time he remained busy with his work, as even her grandfather came to watch her more often than her father did. She wasn't too upset by that, as it had to be hard running a galactic empire and ordering around all of the people that lived in it, and any rage she felt over it was turned into energy that fueled her learning, so she could become worthy of his attention while making herself ready to join his force in the future. When her uncle mentioned that it might be a bad idea, her joining the Frieza Force, she had to remind him of the fact that the Sayians deployed their own children when they were young, around her age most likely, and that most, if not all of them, ended up coming back alive with planets to sell. Other than that none of her family had anything to say about her desire to join her father's force, to use her power to aid him in his quest to own everything in the entire universe, to the point where she found that an entire year had passed, as in from the moment she appeared on that one world, and found that her family had her join them as they departed for one of the other nearby planets. "Twilight, today we have something special for you." Frieza said, as he had been talked into doing this by the rest of his family, several times over the last couple of months until he finally agreed, though the reason they were going to another planet was for a change of scenery, since Twilight had been stuck on the same planet for the last year. That caught Twilight's attention, causing her to raise her eyebrow as she noticed that they were flying over a planet that had a number of towns and settlements, meaning she might be meeting new people today, before she found that such a thing wasn't the truth. It appeared that they would be touching down in what appeared to be a clearing in the middle of a nearby forest, which was close to a tall mountain that looked like it had some ruins carved out of the stone, something she was far more interested in than the idea of making friends. As she stared at the area they were heading towards Twilight understood what was going on, her family had set something up for her and it made her wonder what in the world they had planned, as she knew most of their birthdays had come and gone with no one really celebrating them, so it couldn't be that. Her best guess was that this had to be some sort of vacation and, at least for today, her father and the other were more interested in tending to her own interests, hence why they picked out a ruin that seemed to be part of an ancient or long forgotten culture, which only raised her interest even more than before. Something that surprised her was when they landed only she and her family walked off the ship, as in the rest of the crew stayed aboard it for some reason, though what really caught her off guard was the fact that there was a large table set for a number of people, with a fresh cake on top of it and several dishes around it. "Happy birthday Twilight!" Towa said, as they had put a lot of time and effort into making sure that it was everything she could ever want, as there was cake for everyone to enjoy, dishes that were Twilight's absolute favorites while also being pleasing to those celebrating with her, and, most importantly, a couple of presents that were safely aboard the ship, just kept locked up before she noticed them. "Towa informed us that it is customary for children your age to experience such an event while they're young, and all four of us came up with a wonderful day for you." Cold stated, as there was plenty for them to do and plenty for Twilight to enjoy, which was all thanks to Towa doing some investigations before even attempting to set everything up, "I recalled that you liked to learn about the past and the ruins of this planet seemed to be the best of them all, so once we're done with the cake and food we can..." In that moment, as everyone stepped out onto the ground and left the ship behind, a group of insect winged individuals flew down into their camp ground, where Cooler and Towa blasted a few of them as Twilight noted that they wore some dark clothing, before one napped her and flew off before her family could stop them. "These mongrels have no idea who they're messing with!" Frieza stated, though at the same time the crew, who had been in the middle of getting things ready for the rest of the birthday celebration they had planned, dropped everything, as in putting all of the gifts back, before marching outside and blasting the interlopers down. Twilight, on the other hand, found herself thrown into an iron cage after being brought to what looked like a palace, or at least it sure seemed that way based on what she had seen so far, and the insects who kidnapped her were kneeling right now, facing a black armored figure who wore a silver crown. "So, let me get this straight: Frieza and his men have landed on our planet, and, instead of directing them to the city of my sworn enemy, you kidnap some worthless girl?" the King remarked, where it sounded like he was displeased with the few scouts that had brought her here, and if that was what he wanted of the group Twilight could see why he wasn't pleased at the moment. "To be fair, sire, we heard someone mention a 'birthday' before we swiped her." one of the scouts replied, showing that they didn't fear whatever punishment their ruler had for them, which was a bad thing since they had screwed up worse than any of them even realized, "Figured she would be of use to us in the end." "My parents, my uncle, and my grandfather are going to tear you guys apart." Twilight stated, where she was hoping that if they put two and two together they would understand how deeply they had screwed up, maybe let her go before anything terrible happened to this planet. "Wait a minute..." the King said, where this time he actually looked at Twilight and the attire she was wearing, as while it was the usual armor that someone in her father's employ wore, save for her mother, hers had an emblem on it that told all who looked upon her that she was special, before his eyes widened in fear, "No... it can't be... your father is Frieza! You morons stole the daughter of the galactic emperor?! How did you even accomplish that?" As the scouts opened their mouths, however, the door shuddered as a blade made out of energy pierced it, stunning the watchers for a moment as it resumed moving a few seconds later, where Twilight watched as it slashed through the metal with ease, even though the black coloration of the Ki told her it was her mother. A few moments later the ruined door just burst open as Cooler smashed it down with a charge, where he dusted himself off as King Cold and Frieza walked into the chamber, much to the surprise of those who were looking at them right now. Frieza stared at them all for a few moments, taking in the number of foes that were around them and found that they were stunned by her arrival, to which he walked over to where Twilight was resting as King Cold crossed his arms, looking at the other King with a disapproving look in his eyes. A moment later the cage was shattered, as Frieza gripped the material and broke it with ease, allowing him to safely extract Twilight as his brother, father, and his new wife kept the King and his guards in line, who stood there with fear in their eyes, as they knew they had screwed up and that it was going to cost them dearly. Twilight, however, could see that everyone was angry, as her uncle looked ready to crush the guards to past, her mother looked ready to use her terrible powers to devour them with darkness, her grandfather, while the calmest of them all, did given off the aura of someone who was pissed, and her father looked ready to end them all. "You know, we had this whole day planned... and now you, and your idiotic forces, have ruined it." Frieza stated, where it was clear that he wasn't too pleased right now, as while he didn't care too much about the event he did know that it was an important one for his daughter and he couldn't allow this, to which he raised his left hand for a moment, "No one, and I MEAN NO ONE, is allowed to kidnap my daughter or harm her in any matter... to do so is to invite death to the planet that dared to do such a thing." What happened next was that he loosed a beam of energy that tore through the area that the King was in, killing him in a matter of seconds, though with that done he informed Twilight that she was safe as they departed from the planet, but he promised her that things would be different from that day forward, causing her to nod as they headed home to salvage the day and prepare for the future.