"T-Thank you… for… saving… me…" Vegeta gritted out, looking like he was being physically hurt as he kneeled in front of me. We were standing in the medbay on my ship, and to his side, a much less pained Nappa was also kneeling.
"Yeah! Thanks, Lord Frieza!" Nappa nodded rapidly, grinning up at me, "Man, Vegeta! I can't believe that Kakarot took me out that quickly! We're lucky Lord Frieza was there!"
Nappa, despite being knocked out by me, was genuinely thankful I had 'saved' him. I hadn't even needed to lie, and as the intelligence-lacking bald man had immediately assumed that Goku had been the one to take him out.
Which didn't make sense at all, as while Goku was strong, Nappa definitely should've realized the only 'fast enough to kill you before you even know what's happening' person on Earth was myself.
"It wasn't Kakarot, you mor-"
"Yes, it's fortunate that I was there to help you." I cleared my throat, interrupting Vegeta before he could break Nappa's delusion, "And, as the last remaining Saiyans, I've decided I should value you both a bit more. You'll be stationed in my ship for the next few months."
"W-What?!" Vegeta spat out, spit literally flying out of his mouth as he looked at me incredulously, "I have to spend months with you- a-ahem, I mean, Lord Frieza, I think we can be more useful acting independently again."
Vegeta's angry tone changed comically fast into a polite statement as I narrowed my eyes at him, and I had to resist chuckling.
"Don't worry, this isn't permanent," I hummed, shaking my head casually, "It's just until your training is complete."
"Training? Hey, Vegeta! We're training?" Nappa asked dumbly, glancing over at Vegeta, who looked like his head was going to explode from the combination of Nappa's annoying voice and being stuck with me for the next few months.
"I-I don't think we would be good training partners for you, Lord Frieza," Vegeta ground out, not answering Nappa as he spoke begrudgingly.
"...Wait, you thought I was going to train you?" I asked, overly exaggerating as I started to chuckle, and then full-blown laugh, "Ah, you two? Train with me? Ha! That's a good one, Princeling. I'd have to only use my pinky toe to avoid killing you by accident!"
Vegeta's face turned red as his eyes became angry, but I just turned away, heading towards the door to the medbay.
"Don't worry, I have a suitable sparring partner for both of you. In fact, you already know them very well."
With that ominous statement, I left the two confused Saiyans in the medbay.
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"...How much longer am I going to be stuck in here?" A monotone, and very bored, female voice asked.
"We're almost there," I replied simply to Android 18, who wasn't the most excited about being stuck in my spaceship for days on end, "But it's not like you'll be leaving for long, so don't get too excited. It's just a small stop."
Right now, the trio of myself, Android 18, and Bulma were standing in the main room of my spaceship, staring out the giant glass window as we traveled rapidly towards a massive planet.
"Small stop? Then, how long do I have to stay in here overall?" Android 18 asked with a groan, and it was Bulma who answered first.
"I've been here for a year already," She chimed in, teasing Android 18 as she glanced over at the woman, "You'll be here at least that long, or, if you're unlucky and get Stockholm syndrome like I did, maybe ten years!"
"T-Ten years?!" 18 asked incredulously, staring at Bulma with wide eyes.
"Yup. That's the way it's looking so far," Bulma nodded sagely, "And it's a tough place to be, y'know? I had to work on inventing for a year straight, then I get to go back home to watch my friends all get murdered, listen to a seminar on beans, and then come right back!"
I intervened before Android 18 could get too concerned as her eyes went as wide as saucers.
"It's not ten years. I'll give you the chance to go back to Earth in a month or so," I said, looking over dryly at Bulma, "She's messing with you. She could've stayed on Earth if she wanted to, but she didn't."
"It's the illusion of choice," Bulma countered, looking over at Android 18 with a mock-somber tone, "I could've stayed on Earth, but he murdered all my friends so I wouldn't!"
"I didn't kill all of them," I shot back, slightly defensively, "There's still Goku, Yajirobe, and Roshi."
"...So, just Goku," Bulma replied dryly, and I couldn't blame her for her harsh words, "He's great, but all he'll be doing is training to take you down."
"Your parents are there too," I countered again.
"That's true, but I couldn't imagine spending a whole year with them," Bulma shook her head casually. "I love them, but my dad is always researching, and my mom is a… bimbo."
Damn. Blunt, but true.
"There's a reason I went searching for the Dragon Balls, and why I came back with you again," Bulma explained, finally conceding as she looked over at Android 18 again, "He's not really that bad of a guy, even if he does kill a lot of people. I don't really get it either, but after a couple of months, you'll end up actually having fun here."
"Fun?" Android 18 asked Bulma disbelievingly, then looked over at me, "Why did I even have to come anyway?"
"To help Dr. Gero continue his research," I said simply, and I wasn't entirely lying.
Dr. Gero was continuing his development of Android 21 as well as his research into both energy-draining modules and unlimited-energy modules while on my ship, along with helping with overall technological improvements to my Empire, just as Bulma was also doing. For that, having an android on board to help with the process would make things go quicker, as she could also act as a blueprint and test dummy in some cases.
Of course, that didn't mean it had to be Android 18 specifically, but compared to the other two choices? The snarky, immature Android 17 and the robotic Android 16?
Why would I not pick the more normal and pleasant android to be around? She was also pretty pleasant on the eyes, but that was just a bonus.
"Ugh, so annoying…" 18 trailed off, and I was reminded that Android 17 wasn't the only snarky one. But she was a lot easier to get along with than 17, so I still thought I made the right choice.
"What's on this planet anyway?" 18 asked, peering through the window as we approached our destination, "It looks like a bunch of junk…"
She wasn't wrong, as the planet in front of us wasn't technically a planet. It certainly looked like one, as it was round and planet-shaped, but from the outside view, you could see what the surface was made of - scrap.
As in, various chunks of space debris, ranging from destroyed or abandoned ships to entire meteors. The outside was like a gray, thick sheet of metal and looked as if someone had taken tinfoil and squeezed it into a tight, yet massive, planet-shaped ball.
"Technically, it's a star," I hummed, peering out the window with her, "The 'Big Gete Star.'"
Dealing with Porunga was annoying, as while he was the nicest and most friendly of the dragons in this world, that didn't mean he wouldn't screw you over - even if unintentionally. My initial idea had just been to wish for a 'cloning machine,' but I had no idea what type of machine Porunga would give me.
If he genuinely only knew how to make one type, then with my vague request, I could end up with a machine that took decades to clone just one person. In the same vein, he could give me something that couldn't even clone people, and was just able to clone food or material.
So, I had gone with the most overpowered cloning machine I could think of - the Big Gete Star. It wasn't actually really a planet or a star, as it was more like an 'AI' that controlled a massive floating ball of space debris. I didn't even know if it existed in this world, as it was originally part of the Meta Cooler movie, but after a few months of having my subordinates specifically searching for it, I couldn't find it.
But Porunga could. Or, more specifically, he could create one. Luckily, the AI was very easy to override, as even the near-dead remains of Cooler had been able to take over the Big Gete Star. It had been child's play for me, and as a result, the cloning process had begun.
My first idea had been to clone myself - after all, if one of me could do this much, then what could a thousand of me do?
I could clone far more than just a thousand, but even a hundred - honestly, even a dozen - well-trained Friezas could do damn-near anything with ease. After a decade of training, Beerus wouldn't be a concern, and setting my sights on Zeno wouldn't even be much of a challenge.
That was on top of the rating of Universe 7 rising rapidly, as a bunch of me's would raise the average power level by a ton, and I'd be able to more efficiently raise the intelligence and advancements of planets within my Empire. Universe 7 wouldn't be at risk of erasure, and I wouldn't even need to continue with my plan to power-boost the Z-Fighters.
It was perfect, right? All of my problems would be solved, the multiverse would be mine, and I'd live happily ever after as a multiversal tyrant!
It was perfect, and that was why it would fail - because it was too perfect. Nothing could be achieved without hard work, and upon using the Big Gete Star for the first time, I was lucky that I was prepared when I learned that lesson the hard way.
I had cloned myself just once, and what had come out was, notably, not me. It was Frieza.
Well, technically, it was me, but it was Frieza. As in, actual Frieza, and not me-Frieza.
I wasn't a supergenius who knew the ins and outs of the Big Gete Star, but from Bulma looking around it a bit, she had come to the conclusion that the cloning wasn't actually creating new life - at least, not in the way I wanted.
It would copy the exact genetic makeup of a body, including everything from its brain to its balls, and create an exact copy using the materials lodged within the star. Bulma said it 'didn't make scientific sense, because how is it making DNA out of piles of scrap?' so even she couldn't figure it out entirely, but the point was - it copied my brain.
And, the brain in this body, despite the fact that I was thinking with it, was still Frieza's. It was more so that I had swapped souls with him - a concept that actually made sense in this world, since your soul went to Otherworld when you died. When a clone was made, it would make an exact copy, but without a soul.
Luckily for me, clone-Frieza had been very confused about his existence, and I had been able to kill him before I had to have a galaxy-destroying fight to the death with my own clone. The element of surprise had let me deal with the situation quickly, and I was very glad I hadn't created a bunch of them to start, because then I would've needed to destroy the entire star to get rid of them.
So, instead of cloning myself, I was cloning a bunch of Zarbon and Dodoria's right now. They were loyal soldiers who could raise the average power level a bit - even if it really wasn't that much overall, as they were still pretty weak - and were a nice expansion to my firepower.
The actual limits of the Big Gete Star were pretty unknown, as depending on the source, Cooler had created anywhere from one hundred to literally ten billion clones with it. I could only make a couple a day, so Cooler would've had to be doing some time-bullshit to make ten billion, so I assumed the smaller number was more accurate.
But, as for why we were heading here right now-
My lips curled upward, as right on cue, I heard the door behind me slide open and a short figure walk in.
"I'm going to clone a Super Saiyan."
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be out in a few days!
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