The royal garden of the Imperial Capital stretched out beneath three full moons.
Their combined light cast everything in a silvery-blue glow, transforming the exotic flora into sculptures of light and shadow.
Toji Fushiguro stood motionless, his black Vader suit absorbing the moonlight while his cape billowed dramatically in the gentle night breeze.
Beside him, Freeza waited, her white coat flowing over her bio-armor, creating a stark contrast to Toji's darkness.
The only sound between them was the steady, rhythmic breathing emanating from Toji's helmet - mechanical, measured, unnatural.
It had been this way for nearly ten minutes now, neither speaking, simply standing side by side as if waiting for the other to break first.
Freeza's tail twitched with growing irritation. The Empress of the Universe was not accustomed to being ignored, especially not by someone who should, by all rights, be groveling for her attention.
"Take off that ridiculous helmet," she finally demanded, her voice cutting through the silence like a blade.
Toji remained motionless for a long moment, the mechanical breathing continuing uninterrupted.
Then, with deliberate slowness, he turned his head toward her, the expressionless mask revealing nothing of his thoughts or emotions.
"Why should I?" The modulated voice carried a hint of challenge.
Freeza's eyes narrowed, her lips curling into a disbelieving sneer. "Because I demand it," she replied, as if stating the most obvious fact in the universe. "Is your hearing as defective as that breathing apparatus?"
"I refuse." The words came flat and final.
"Excuse me?" Freeza's tail lashed behind her, her composure cracking slightly at his defiance.
"You do not deserve to speak to me face to face," Toji continued, his stance unwavering. "Nor do you deserve to look into my eyes directly."
Freeza's mouth opened slightly in shock before quickly hardening into a scowl. "How dare you-"
"How dare I?" Toji interrupted, his voice somehow conveying his emotions. "How dare YOU abandon our son? How dare YOU say you would have killed him in the womb if your powers had returned earlier?"
The accusation hung in the air between them, heavy and unavoidable.
"Those words..." Toji continued, his voice growing harder with each syllable. "I could have forgiven almost anything else. Your further attempts to kill me afterwards? Childish. Your insults? Meaningless. Had you been loyal to us - to me and Megumi - had you been there for us, I would have accepted you, flaws and all."
Freeza's expression remained frozen, her usual quick retorts nowhere to be found.
"But what you did - what you said about our son - that is something I cannot forgive." Toji's hands clenched at his sides. "Especially since you've never taken those words back. You stand there proudly, as if they were inconsequential."
The night wind picked up, causing Toji's cape to billow more dramatically around him.
"No," he continued, his voice dropping lower. "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."
At this admission, Freeza's eyes widened, genuine shock registering on her features. The word "loves" echoed in her mind.
Toji stood motionless, waiting - waiting for her to say something, anything. To apologize. To say she loved him too.
To take back those cruel words about Megumi. To express any desire to be a mother to their child.
But Freeza remained speechless, frozen in place, her mind racing with thoughts she couldn't seem to organize into coherent speech.
After what felt like an eternity, Toji turned away, his shoulders set with finality. He began walking, each step deliberate, the sound of his boots on the garden path seeming to echo with permanence.
Something cold gripped Freeza's heart as she watched him leave. This wasn't like their battles, their games of dominance and submission.
This felt... final.
As if he were walking out of her life forever.
He and her son would be lost to her forever.
She couldn't accept that.
She wouldn't.
"Wait!" The word burst from her lips before she could stop it, louder and more desperate than she'd intended.
Toji stopped but didn't turn around, his back to her, cape settling around his form as the wind momentarily calmed.
"Why?" His modulated voice carried across the garden. "Why should I wait?"
Freeza opened her mouth, but no words came. It was as if her body was rebelling against her mind, her tongue refusing to form the words her heart was screaming.
After a long silence filled only with his mechanical breathing, Toji began walking again.
"Just listen!" Freeza called out, her voice cracking slightly.
Toji stopped once more, but this time he turned. In three long strides, he was back before her, his movements charged with barely contained fury. His hand shot out, grabbing her wrist and yanking her toward him.
"Tell me why," he demanded, his masked face inches from hers. "Give me one reason why I should wait for you. Why I should listen to anything you have to say."
Freeza stared up at him, her violet eyes wide with an emotion she'd never experienced before - uncertainty. Her usual imperial composure had crumbled, leaving her vulnerable and exposed.
"Because I... love... you?" The words tumbled out, confused, surprising them both.
Toji's grip on her wrist loosened immediately. His hands dropped to his sides as silence fell between them, broken only by the steady rhythm of his mechanical breathing.
Freeza felt something warm slide down her cheek. Confused, she reached up with her free hand, touching the wetness and examining the moisture on her fingertips with bewilderment. A tear. She was crying.
A long silence settled between them.
"I..." she began, her voice uncharacteristically soft. "I love you. And it terrifies me."
She took a shaky breath, struggling to articulate feelings she'd never before acknowledged, even to herself.
"I've never feared anything in my life," she continued. "Not my father. Not my brother. Not death. Not failure. But this - this feeling - it's like nothing I've ever experienced."
Toji remained silent, listening.
"I was born with power that made me untouchable," Freeza explained, her gaze dropping to the ground. "Everything I ever wanted was mine for the taking. Everyone I ever met either feared me or sought to use me. But you... you challenged me. You matched me. You saw me."
Another tear slipped down her cheek.
"When I realized I cared for you - for Megumi - it felt like... like I'd discovered a weakness in myself. A vulnerability that could be exploited. I've spent centuries destroying weaknesses, eliminating vulnerabilities. And suddenly there was this... this feeling I couldn't control."
She looked up at him, her eyes shining with tears she'd never shed before.
"I'm afraid," she admitted, the words feeling foreign on her tongue. "I'm not used to fear. I'm not used to loving someone, to fearing I might lose someone I love. I've always been in control, never having to worry about others."
Her voice dropped to nearly a whisper. "I need... time. I want- no need you to wait. To Wait for... me."
Toji's stood there silently, watching her, looking almost through her for a long moment.
His hands moved to his helmet. With a series of clicks and a soft hiss, he removed it, encasing it in a bubble of ki that floated behind him.
His face, no longer hidden, revealed dark eyes filled with a mixture of pain and hope.
"Freeza," he said, his voice now his own - warm, deep, human.
He reached out with both hands, gently cupping her face and using his thumbs to wipe away her tears.
Then, with unexpected tenderness, he leaned down and pressed his lips softly against the skin beneath each eye, kissing away the tear tracks.
Freeza froze at the gentle touch, a sensation so foreign it sent shivers through her entire body.
No one had ever touched her with gentleness before. Lesser creatures weren't permitted to touch her at all, and her family had never been affectionate.
In battle, there was only violence, never this... softness. She found herself leaning into his touch, craving more of this new sensation.
"I don't like seeing you cry," Toji said, his eyes sad as he pulled back slightly to look at her.
"I'm..." Freeza struggled, unused to explaining herself. "I'm afraid. I need you to understand that. I need time to... to accept these feelings."
Toji ran his fingers through her silky white hair, the gentleness of his touch making her shiver again.
"I'll wait," he promised softly. "I've been waiting already. There hasn't been a moment since you left that I wasn't thinking of you, aware of you. I've kept you within my sensing range constantly, extending it when you went beyond its normal limits, even when it hurt to stretch it that far."
He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her. "I'll wait for you to accept your love for us - for me and Megumi - and to push past your fear of doing so."
Freeza allowed herself to be held against his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart. For a long moment, she relaxed into his embrace, experiencing a peace she'd never known before.
Then a memory flashed in her mind - the blue-haired woman in the throne room, holding Megumi in her arms with such familiarity, such ease. Freeza stiffened and pulled away from Toji's embrace.
"How can I be sure?" she asked, her voice hardening.
Toji looked at her in confusion. "Sure of what?"
"That you won't leave me," Freeza clarified, her eyes narrowing. "That you won't betray me and go with someone else."
Her voice turned bitter as she continued, "You're clearly getting close to that blue-haired woman. She held our son in her arms the entire time during the imperial meeting. Your 'oh so great' advisor."
Toji stared at her for a moment before a chuckle escaped him. "There's nothing between me and Bulma," he assured her. "She's just a friend who's helping me."
"How can I be certain?" Freeza pressed, her tail lashing behind her. "Because I won't accept you being with anyone else. If you do, I'll kill that woman and then you for betraying me."
Toji's laughter deepened as he reached out, cupping her chin. His smile transformed from gentle to predatory, a look Freeza was far more familiar with.
"The feeling is mutual," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous purr. "If you betray me, I'll kill you and whoever you went with. I won't allow anyone else to have you." His grip on her chin tightened slightly. "You are mine."
Their eyes locked, a familiar hunger passing between them.
In an instant, they were kissing passionately, Freeza's arms locking behind Toji's head as she reached up to him. His hands gripped her waist, pulling her body flush against his own.
When they finally broke apart, both were breathing heavily, their eyes still locked.
"You can be sure I'll never betray you," Toji said, his voice husky. "But if you want to be completely at ease, you should try to sense me."
Freeza looked at him in confusion. "Sense you?"
"Ki sense isn't inherent to humans," Toji explained. "It's a skill that can be learned. You can do it too. Just try. It's like a radar - push out your ki and try to know what is within it."
"How?" Freeza asked, genuinely curious.
"Close your eyes," Toji instructed. "Focus on your energy, then extend it outward, like ripples in a pond. Don't force it - let it flow naturally."
Freeza closed her eyes, concentrating. At first, there was nothing, just the darkness behind her eyelids.
Then, gradually, she began to feel... something. A presence, warm and powerful, directly in front of her - Toji.
As she focused more, other sensations emerged - the subtle life force of the plants, the air, the distant signatures of creatures, in the palace, everything.
"I can feel you," she whispered, opening her eyes in wonder.
"This way, you'll always know where I am," Toji said. "You'll always feel what I'm doing. You'll know what I'm feeling. There can be no secrets, no betrayals."
They stood together under the three moons, the silver light bathing them in an ethereal glow. After a long moment, Toji brought her hand to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles.
"I have to go," he said reluctantly. "It's getting late."
Toji retrieved his helmet from its ki bubble and began putting it back on.
Freeza watched him, a part of her wanting to ask him to come with her, to spend the night together, but something held her back - a remnant of her old pride, perhaps, or lingering uncertainty about these new, overwhelming feelings.
The helmet clicked into place, and the mechanical breathing resumed.
With a final nod, Toji turned and walked away, his cape billowing behind him as he disappeared into the shadows of the royal garden.
Freeza remained alone beneath the three moons, her fingers gently touching the spots beneath her eyes where Toji had kissed her tears away - the first act of gentleness she had ever received from another being.
The sensation lingered on her skin, a memory her body seemed unwilling to forget.
And in the silence of the garden, the Empress of the Universe stood contemplating not conquest or destruction, but the unfamiliar territory of love.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter!
Do tell me if you liked it.
So, finally we're seeing Freeza give in a bit to her love.
Yes, she does love Toji and Megumi. This is where the AU is most apparent.
Since canon Frieza, well... Maybe it is possible, but I find it difficult.
Freeza here has maternal instinct, and has begun seeing Toji as an equal for a while. Has felt more joy, fun, happy, and peace being with him than she has ever in her life- even when they were fighting and trying to kill each other.
With Cold pressuring her and giving his own perspective, and now Toji seeking finality- wanting to know if he should move on from her, try to kill his own feelings for Megumi's sake.
Since loving a woman who will never love their son, and take back her words of wanting to kill him, is not something he is willing to do.
With all this it reached the breaking point- and well, this happened. Freeza being a woman also makes her more attuned to the emotion of love- may sound sexist from me, but women are just biologically softer (unlike canon Frieza) as they are the ones who are closest to their children as mothers than men.
Well, I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)