Welcome to DBZ Love Garden

Say Something
By Alpha Light Bearer
Beta'd by TheBrokenAnatomy


Day 7 of Rare Pair Week (Aug 31)- Inspired by a song

Toma/Bardock

Teen

Intersex, Saiyans are Intersexed, AU, Canon Divergent, Saiyan Culture, Major Character Death, Blood, Feels, Emotional.


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Toteppo lay dead on the rubble along with his other two teammates, killed with a single blow from one of Frieza's soldiers.

"To-teppo… No!" Toma tried lifting his head to see the group of elites that had attacked him and his team. "Damn you! You brutes!" The tanned warrior cursed the soldiers from the P.T.O. as he reached for his broken scouter that could still transmit a distress signal to his Commander and breeding mate.

Unfortunately, one of their attackers abruptly crushed the device under his boot before Toma could get it, rendering it useless.

Toma stared at the former last hope of survival, now crushed into a million pieces. "Why?! Tell me-! Why are you doing this?!" The injured Saiyan coughed up blood. "I don't understand…!"

"Poor baby." One of the soldiers mocked him as the others joined in, laughing.

"What don't you understand, Toma?" A voice coming from behind the soldiers preceded a heavy, pink fiend; Frieza's henchman. "That you are weak?"

Toma looked up to see the brightly colored demon in his face. "D-Dodoria. You bastard-" Another coughing fit prevented the Saiyan from speaking any further.

"What a mess you are. Nah, Toma." Dodoria picked up the burly warrior with one hand and lifted him from the ground. "You shouldn't have forgotten that you are weak."

"W-what do you mean?! I used to be an elite! We serve Frieza, we're his top lackeys-" Toma wheezed and coughed again; more blood gushed out. "You know that!"

"Yes, I know." Came the pink soldier's voice, followed by an evil chuckle. "Frieza is very impressed with your service record." The other foes laughed derisively.

"Too impressed…" He concluded, confusing Toma with that last comment. "It seems he wants you dead."

Eyes widened as Toma's body froze in fear. "What? WHY?!"

"I don't want to flatter you, but Frieza thought you were getting too strong."

"Cool, huh?" A purple alien spoke after their leader. "You should consider this a promotion!"

"No! It's- It's not fair!" The latcher's voice was strained, his body not having enough energy to fight back. "Everything that we've done- Was for him. All the lives we took, all the children I've had to kill! HOW CAN HE DO THIS?!"

"You fool," Dodoria shook him slightly, "It's not what you've done. It's what you might have done in the future."

"Then- No one's safe from Frieza." Toma looked towards the sky, thinking about his cubs, his mates, the dead and the still living, wondering what would become of Raditz and Bardock, the only members of his circle still around. He lowered his head again to look Dodoria straight in the eye, "Not even you."

"Ha. Is that so." The pink, chubby soldier let go of Toma's armor and hit him with an uppercut to the chin, sending the wounded warrior flying through the air. Bits and pieces of Toma's armor fell off as he crashed into the rubble.

He felt his consciousness slip but struggled to keep his eyes open and his mind alert. He could feel the edges of his vision start to blur and could hardly make out Frieza's soldiers leaving the scene, laughing, off to celebrate victory over the infamous Planet Elite Force, no doubt.

Toma's breath caught in his throat, and he hacked up more blood, coughing until his airway was raw. Making an effort to crane his neck, he was able to see the broken bodies of his former teammates; Bardock's people.

"My only -kg- regret… Is not looking at your face- One last time." He wheezed, reaching with one hand inside his opposite arm guard to retrieve a special bit of paper.

Being extremely careful, Toma's shaky and bloodied fingers pinched a corner of the paper, pulling it out to see the symbol that represented his childhood idol.

Bardock's autograph.

Toma remembered that night as if it happened the previous cycle. Him, a child no older than two rain seasons, spectator of a low class tournament, running towards the victor of that term's campaign, dragging his source along with him, desperate to get an autograph from the god of the arena.

He weaved through the tumultuous crowd, finally reaching the renown warrior himself. Young Toma gazed at Bardock with nothing but pure, unhinged admiration. He was at a loss for words.

Bardock arched an eyebrow at the cub and then looked at the adult accompanying the child. "An elite, huh? What are ya even doing here in a tournament for low classes?" The master fighter asked while wiping away sweat, blood, and grime from his toned body.

Roma, Toma's source, scoffed at the third class' pompous attitude. "My brat wanted to meet his idol, is all. He claims to be your number one fan."

Bardock showed an expression of surprise and looked back down at the small, tanned skin cub. "I suppose you want my symbol, Kiddo?"

Toma's breath hitched and he nodded vigorously. "Y-yes, Sir! I'd like that v-very much!"

Bardock smirked devilishly, inserting a finger in his ear and wiggling it around. "Ya don't hafta scream, Kid. I can hear ya perfectly fine. I ain't that old yet." The spiky haired Saiyan snatched a parchment from another competitor nearby, who was signing his symbol for one of his fans.

"He-HEY! Bardock, what the fuck?!"

"Relax, Banzo. I'm just borrowing a piece of this." Bardock said as he ripped a corner of the parchment.

"Too lazy to even get your own parchments for your fans? Gods, 'Dock, yer such a mess." Banzo shook his head and then hollered at the older Saiyan when Bardock stole his stylus.

Bardock scribbled his symbol onto the bit of parchment by transferring his ki through the stylus and technically burning it into the paper. "Here ya go, Brat."

Toma's trembling hands accepted the corner of ripped parchment when it was handed to him; it had his idol's symbol on it. "Th-thank you, Sir!" The cub's round eyes stared in awe at the taller Saiyan, master of the rink.

"I don't do this usually, so don't ya go losing it. Ya ain't getting another." Bardock winked at the cub, turned tail, and left for the backstage.

Young Toma nodded at Bardock's retreating back and looked back at the symbol burnt into the paper.

The same paper Toma was staring at now, orbits later, as he lay on the ground, damaged, bleeding, and dying.

He truly had no regrets. His life had been the best he had ever hoped for.

He had been able to court Bardock, take him as a breeding mate, have him bear him two cubs, and fight alongside him with his team.

"My life- Has truly been beautiful. Being by your side…" Toma grasped the bit of parchment in his hand and held onto it as strongly as his battered body allowed him. Eventually, his hand fell to the ground.

"See you on the other side, my love…"

"Panbukin! Seripa? Tottepo!"

Toma's heart stopped for a click when he heard the voice of his breeding mate not far off. If only Bardock could've gotten there sooner…

"What happened?!" Bardock shouted into the empty, dead valley. "It- Can't be…"

Making an extreme effort to stay awake a while longer, if only to see his mate's face once again, Toma called out their commander's name. "Bardock."

"TOMA!" Bardock dashed to the sound where the small voice had come from. "Oh, gods, no-no-no-NO!"

Bardock reached Toma's side and lifted his head, disbelief and pain were marring his features, his tail fluffed out and stiff. "Toma… Don't tell me ya let those meatheads do this to ya guys!" He said, referring to the inhabitants of the planet his team had been sent to purge.

Straining to smile, Toma managed a weak one and chuckled. "Nah, no way. Come on, you should know better than that, Bardock."

"I didn't think it were them." The scarred Saiyan replied. "What happened then?!"

"We- We were ambushed by Dodoria… And his men."

Bardock's eyes widened. His suspicions of Frieza killing off his kind were now confirmed, first his brothers, then his team, and now his mate. "But- Frieza were the one who ordered ya here!" He stopped when he realized why he was sent on a mission with Leek while his team took on a solo mission without him. If he had been here with his team, there would've been no way they would've succumbed to the P.T.O. soldiers.

"Yes. It- Was a setup! Frieza- He wants us all dead!" Toma choked out.

"But why? After all we've done?! IT DON'T MAKE SENSE!" The scarred Saiyan's power level began to rise. "We took the jobs that even his elites wouldn't mess with, and we still won!"

Not being able to control his emotions, Bardock let his anger take over. "No one works like we do, Toma! NO ONE!"

A coughing fit stopped the taller warrior from speaking until it subsided. "We were getting to be the best- Frieza's scared."

"Scared of what?!" The Commander had a feeling he knew the answer to that question, but he didn't want to acknowledge any legends or that Frieza knew about said legends.

"O-of you, Bardock. Frieza's scared of you- Don't you see?" Toma grunted out. "He's scared- Of what you might become. You're- Getting too strong!" The dying Saiyan coughed up more blood, prompting Bardock to settle him more onto his lap.

"Good luck… My love… I'm sorry that- I- Can't…"

Bardock felt a tear fall down his face when his mate went limp in his arms. He didn't even bother to make sure if others were around to watch him crumble.

"Toma?" His voice was barely above a whisper, his furry appendage wrapped itself around Toma's lifeless tail.

There was no reply.

His scouter beeped with an alarm signal, showing that the nearest ki dropped to zero. He could no longer hear Toma's heartbeat either.

"Toma, no-" Bardock shook his dead mate but received no answer. Desperate to get his last mate back, the distraught Saiyan banged on Toma's chest to try and trigger his heart into beating again.

"NOOOOO!"

Bardock screamed in desperation, hitting Toma's chest plate until it cracked from the force of his blows.

"COME BACK TO ME!!!" The lone Saiyan screamed and pressed his lips to Toma's cooling ones. He kissed him like the first time they had kissed. It had been in the Rank Reassignment arena. Toma had been beaten bloody there as well, and Bardock could taste his blood again, only this time, the kiss was not reciprocated.

"SAY SOMETHIIIING!"

Tears were pouring freely from Bardock's bloodshot eyes as he continued to scream in Toma's face. His mind was telling him to do something stupid, and now Bardock had no one to talk him out of it.

His hand gave up on pounding Toma's unmoving chest and fumbled to grab a hold of his mate's inert hand. A gasp left his mouth when he felt a foreign object in his life partner's palm. He opened Toma's hand to see a bit of crumpled parchment. Curiosity led him to take it and open it, his breath catching in his throat as Bardock recognized the paper.

The Commander of the destroyed Planet Elite Force sat there, gazing at the corner of parchment he had ripped off orbits ago to give an elite cub his symbol.

"All this time…" Bardock's voice shook as he spoke, "Ya've kept yer first memento of me by yer side?"

Closing his eyes and holding the paper close to his heart, Bardock realized at that moment just how deep Toma's emotions ran. "Ya really were my number one fan…"

He placed a kiss on the bloodied parchment and put it back in Toma's hand, closing it and letting Toma's body onto the ground. He stared at the red on his own hands before grabbing his mate's armband to wipe Toma's sharp face from dirt and blood.

"So this is what it's come to." The master strategist's mind took on a life of its own. "This is how we were rewarded for our hard work!"

He wiped off the blood from Toma's still smiling face, the white armband was now stained in red Saiyan blood. "We tried so hard to please Frieza."

Bardock stood up and looked at his dead comrades, some of them childhood friends. "My crew… Toteppo, Seripa… THOSE FUCKERS!!!"

"SO THEY THOUGHT WE WERE GETTING TOO STRONG?!" The scarred Saiyan growled viciously, anger overriding any other emotion. The armband he was still holding was now entirely covered in Toma's crimson life force.

He turned to look at where his heavy set team member was at. "Pan… I promise somehow I'll get them for this, Pan." Bardock wrapped his tail around his waist and tied Toma's arm band around his head.

"…Or die trying."



Fin