From Enemy to Student

- a Dragon Ball Z fanfiction -

Chapter 1 – A sound beating

Disclaimer: I do not own, in any way, any official property related Dragon Ball, such as the anime, its characters, related movies, and so on. However, I hope to supplement that glorious work of art with my fanfictions, such as this one.

I would also like to point out that this fanfiction was originally written by Gonstika, from whom I adopted it, and that many of the concepts and plot-points featured in its chapters are originated by Gonstika as well.

With that said, I hope you enjoy the story.

Writer's note: For those who have read the original version of From Enemy To Student, I took the liberty of writing a new first chapter for this fanfiction, making it start at an earlier point in time, which is approximately at the beginning of uncut DBZ episode 68 "Ginyu Assault". Thank you for understanding.

Whizzing sounds echoed through the green landscape of Planet Namek, as a blue alien with reptilian-looking skin and brown armor-plating on his scalp threw strike after strike at his opponent, who simply dodged them time after time.

The alien was Burter, one of the five soldiers that belonged to the Ginyu Force, the most powerful combat unit of the galactic tyrant Frieza. And his opponent was, right now, the bane of his existence, as no matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't hit him.

"Why don't you just stay still and fight me like a man?" Burter shouted at this Goku, as he delivered a flurry of boot strikes, missing each time yet again.

Goku did not reply, but whether he was too focused on dodging to have heard the question or he simply didn't care to do so it was unknown.

Growling not for the first time since the battle against this man had started, Burter continued his onslaught, as his mind screamed at him – also not for the first time – that none of this made any sense.

At first, their mission, to defeat Vegeta and a pair of runts he'd befriended and get the Dragon Balls Vegeta had stolen back to Lord Frieza, had been easy. In fact, it had been running so smoothly that it had seemed abnormally easy, as far as their standard missions went. But as soon as this man in the orange and blue outfit had joined the fray, things had gone from two easy to two hard. Not only had the guy managed to hit them with each of the strikes he delivered, but he dodged everything threw at him, not to mention he had brought Recoome down in one hit and had batted Jeice's Crusher Ball away. And a mere Saiyan shouldn't be able to do any of those things.

In fact, he shouldn't even be a Saiyan, no matter what he said, as there was no way a Saiyan could reach this kind of speed, no matter how wholesome their diet was. Also, the scouter clearly indicated that this Goku's power level was 5,000, but there was no way someone with that power level could deflect Jeice's Crusher Ball, or knock down Recoome with a single elbow-strike, no matter how careless Recoome had been. Not even Burter himself, who had a power level of 30,000, would have achieved such feats, as Jeice and Recoome were much stronger than him, their power levels at 55,000 and 60,000 respectively.

Nothing made sense. And yet, all the things Burter had pointed out had happened. And that knowledge frustrated him to no end.

His train of thoughts suddenly shifted as Jeice joined the fray, throwing punches and kicks at the Saiyan as well. Burter couldn't help but to be pleased. The two of them were the pair of soldiers that worked the most efficiently in all of Frieza's forces. They'd fought together for years, and could always know what the other would do and act accordingly. No one until now had survived a battle against the two of them together.

Still, their combined skill didn't seem to be enough to tip the odds in their favor this time, as although the Saiyan now seemed to have some more difficulty dodging the flurry of strikes, even Burter and Jeice working together were unable to hit their abnormally fast opponent.

"He can't dodge us forever, Jeice," Burter shouted as the two of them kept throwing punches and kicks at their opponent. "He's got to screw up sometime!"

Mere moments after he said that, Goku disappeared away, and the two of them screwed up themselves, Burter by landing a knee on Jeice's stomach, and Jeice by slamming his fist against his colleague's cheek.

Fortunately for them, Goku stood back instead of pressing the attack himself, allowing them to work out their issues.

"Idiot!" Burter shouted in Jeice's face, his red eyes ablaze with the anger that swelled inside him.

"It's your fault you dope!" Jeice shouted back, a fierce snarl on his face.

Over the next moments, the two of them glared at each other, gritting their teeth with such force that an outside looker would think the danger of both of them ending up shattering their teeth apart was very real.

"Wait Burter," Jeice eventually piped up, his hand raised toward his friend. "He's doing this to us mate, don't you get it?"

"He is?" Burter slowly let out, confused by the sudden change of subject.

"Darn right he is." Jeice said.

Any further conversation between the two of them was prevented by Goku's call.

"Hey guys! Yo!"

The two of them turned toward their opponent, who was calmly facing them, his arms folded.

"Well, do you wanna dance, or fight?" Goku said provokingly, an annoying smirk that only a Saiyan could muster on his lips.

At that taunt, both soldiers clenched their fists and glared at him.

'No one taunts as like that and gets away in one piece!' both of them thought.

Growling at the Saiyan who dared to make fools out of them so many times now, the two of them charged at him together, before separating so that each of them would attack from one side, Jeice from Goku's right, and Burter from Goku's left.

As soon as they got within range, Burter threw a punch, and Jeice slammed his clasped hands down, both of them aiming at the Saiyan.

Again, Goku dodged their collective strike.

Burter tried to follow the Saiyan's movement with his eyes, but by the time he found him, Goku was already shooting through the sky toward him, his right foot poised forward. Burter barely had time to gasp in amazement, before the sole of Goku's boot slammed on the left side of his back, smashing the armor in that area, and throwing him tens of meters away.

The next thing Burter knew, an elbow was slammed onto his nape, knocking his scouter off. Burter screamed in pain, as his large red eyes bug out so much that they looked like two eggs and he fell down at a speed far higher than any he had managed to fly at.

Moments before he crashed into the ground, his freefall was stopped, right at the moment when pain erupted all over his torso.

And then, as if all it had taken was pressing a button, Burter's consciousness slipped away from him.

Still floating at the same spot where he'd tried to slam his hands down on Goku, Jeice looked on at the scene in front of him, fear starting to make its way across every inch of his body at the sight of another of his comrades being defeated so effortlessly by this guy. First Recoome had been struck down with one hit, and now Burter met the same fate.

"You've been deceiving yourselves!" Goku shouted at him, Burter's prone body in front of him. "This fight is fruitless."

Jeice merely kept trembling, unable to believe what he saw.

This couldn't be. Both himself and Burter were meant to be stronger than most beings in the known Universe, and certainly stronger than any Saiyan that had ever been a part of Frieza's army. There was no way they'd stand no easily by this man. Granted, they should have guessed such a thing when the Saiyan had knocked down Recoome in one blow, but both of them had thought he had only done so successfully because he'd managed to get Recoome by surprise while he had been busy making a big show out of literally cracking up the ground.

That had always been one of Recoome's faults. He allowed his opponents to spend and he always made a big show of things when he fought.

But neither of those traits applied to Burter. He was always alert when he fought, and the most he would do regarding his opponents was throwing taunts at them. And while Burter was relatively weak compared to any member of the Ginyu Force other than Guldo, there was no way a Saiyan with a measly power level of 5,000 would be capable of knocking him down so effortlessly!

But he clearly was. Which meant that somehow he was deceiving their scouters. How could that be?

"Listen, it's not too late for you to leave this planet," Goku warned him. "Your choice. But if I were you, I'd get out of here."

By that time, Jeice was still unable to speak, but there was someone else who had an opinion to voice on that matter.

"Don't be a fool, Kakarot!" Vegeta shouted. "He's destroyed more men than you can count!"

Goku turned his focus toward the other Saiyan at that comment.

"Don't you remember Vegeta?" he shouted back. "We let you go on Earth. Don't you think they deserve the same chance?"

Vegeta grit his teeth, but did not press an argument. However, one could almost hear the gears turning inside his head. He was clearly up to something.

Meanwhile, Jeice finally managed to speak, although not to anyone in particular.

"Man oh man. Burter!" he let out. "This is totally insane!"

It was. He hadn't known the taste of defeat in so long by now that he didn't even know such a thing could happen. Not only had Jeice himself won any fight he had for very long now, but never once had the current Ginyu Force failed a mission assigned to them. And yet, here was this guy, defeating them one by one without them being able to do anything about it.

"I don't know who this guy is, or where he came from, but he's good!" he continued, unable to keep that knowledge simply bottled up inside himself. "Jeez, I've never seen anything like it. We never even touched him. Now that's one bad dude! I'm bad… but man, I ain't that bad," he brought up a red aura around himself. "Sometimes you gotta know when you gotta go, go, go!"

Knowing the only thing that could be done in such a situation, Jeice took off at a breakneck pace, leaving everyone else – including his two teammates – on the battlefield.

Goku's eyes widened a bit as he saw Jeice flying off. That action had been quite unexpected by him, even considering Jeice was meant to be a soldier of the most evil tyrant of the Universe.

"Gosh!" Goku couldn't help but to say. "Some friend."

He didn't know why he was surprised at such actions after having seen Vegeta killing his own comrade on Earth. After all, like he had said himself, Frieza was meant to be an evil tyrant, and certainly such a tyrant would not be surrounded by kind, compassionate, loyal people, but by others who looked like himself as much as possible, although not in the same degree so as they wouldn't overshadow him. However, for a reason even Goku could not explain, he'd gotten the impression that at least these three were not exactly devoid of feelings, at least when it came to themselves.

Apparently, he'd been wrong.

Deciding it was pointless to dwell on that any further, Goku focused his attention on Burter and Recoome. Both of them were twitching and moaning, but he could sense clearly that they were unconscious, as he had intended for them to be when he'd dealt them those blows.

'These guys may walk funny for a while, but they'll recover just fine,' he thought. 'Strong fighters, but with weak characters.'

It was a pity. If only they could see what their ways truly were like, maybe they would change for the best, and end up doing a lot of good for the Universe. But Goku knew that such a thing was extremely unlikely to happen, if not downright impossible.

A timid voice suddenly broke through his thoughts.

"H-hey, you are Goku, aren't you?" Krillin asked, fear obvious in his tone.

In less than an instant, Goku reverted back to his usual naïve, cheerful self.

"What?" he said, fake disbelief in his voice. "Of course I am Krillin. Don't be silly."

Both Krillin and Gohan let out a sigh, visibly relaxing. It was clear that, for them, it had been quite a shock seeing Goku arriving so strong after six days. Goku could understood how they felt. He would also have believed his current level of strength to be impossible to achieve, if not for the fact he had Senzu Beans and was a Saiyan, which enabled him to become stronger after recovering from near-death injuries.

Suddenly, his attention was diverted away from his two friends, as his energy-sensing skills detected something. Looking up toward what he sensed, Goku saw Vegeta rocketing down, both of his knees aiming down like missiles, and killing intent afire in his eyes.

What followed was something so unexpected that neither of the four of them knew exactly what to think of it.

Reacting on an impulse that rushed through him out of nowhere, Goku flew toward Vegeta and kicked him in the face, knocking him away right when he was about to slam his knees down on Burter's neck.

After flying for about fifteen meters, Vegeta flipped backwards and set his feet on the ground, looking like the personification of fury after being struck by Goku.

For a considerable amount of time, the two Saiyans stared into each other's eyes, neither of them saying a word.

"You fool!" Vegeta roared at him. "Just what the hell was that for?"

"I could ask you the very same thing," Goku replied, withstanding Vegeta's glare. "Don't you see you don't have to kill them? They can't even move!"

Vegeta spat at the ground as if just listening to that statement had somehow left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Your hopeless mix of excessive kindness and even greater stupidity makes me want to vomit," he sneered. "What does it take to make you understand that these two are scum and don't deserve any sort of forgiveness? Would they have taken mercy on your son and your friend? If you'd arrived ten minutes later they'd be gone right now."

Goku did not reply. Part of him acknowledged that Vegeta did have a point, but it simply wasn't and would never be in his nature to be so heartless. And besides, Vegeta seemed to be forgetting, yet again, that he wouldn't be standing here right now if Goku had followed such a reasoning.

"You're too soft to be a Saiyan," Vegeta continued. "That freak you let go could cost you your life."

"No, not him," Goku replied, confused as to where such a statement had come from.

While that guy did seem to be strong in his own, he wasn't strong enough to kill him by far.

"He doesn't have to be stronger than you to beat you," Vegeta replied as though he'd read Goku's thoughts. "He could take your kid hostage and make you walk right into their hands like a lamb. These people are ruthless savages, Kakarot. They're warriors, and will do whatever it takes to win the game. And here you are, Mr. Nice Guy. They'll chew you up and spit you out with that attitude."

Goku did not waver.

"We'll see," he said. "I don't think having a little compassion is a disadvantage."

Yet again, Vegeta had sort of a point, but he was clearly mistaking compassion for carelessness. Just because Goku had let Jeice go, it didn't mean he was going to turn his back on him and trust that he would stay put.

"Fool," Vegeta replied in the most disdainful tone he could muster. "A fight with Frieza is a fight to the end. And it will be your end. You're nothing compared to Frieza, Kakarot!"

While Vegeta and Goku argued, Jeice flew as quickly as he could toward Frieza's ship, leaving a red trail that contrasted starkly against the green sky. All of his body seemed to be ripping itself apart thanks to the strain he was putting it under, but Jeice tried with all his might to ignore how he felt. Right now, the only thing that mattered was getting to Lord Frieza's ship and relay the situation at hand.

Jeice grit his teeth as Goku's stern look flashed across his mind yet again, followed by mental images of Burter's and Recoome's prone bodies. He thoroughly hated that guy's guts for beating down Recoome and Burter like that.

However, a sizable part of the hatred inside him was directed at himself, for having left Recoome and Burter to the mercy of those two monkeys and the runts. Usually, he was not this much of a coward when finding himself in tight spots during missions. Then again, he had never been in such a tight spot as this one.

And he wasn't an idiot. He knew that if he had stuck around and tried to defeat that guy on his own, he would have been knocked down as quickly as either of his two friends. By leaving, there was still a chance at keeping all of them alive, although his more pessimistic side told him that, as they were at the mercy of those two monkeys, it was unlikely Burter and Recoome would stay alive for long. Still, if Jeice managed to get to Captain Ginyu, he could inform him of the situation at hand. Then the Captain would show that idiot a thing or two – and if he didn't arrive on time to save Burter and Recoome, he would at least avenge them.

In hindsight, Jeice knew that he should have taken the time to actually carry Burter and Recoome with them, but after seeing Burter being knocked down as easily as Recoome had been, he had been too scared to think of that. It had been extremely stupid of him, and he was also upset at himself for his huge oversight, but by now, he simply couldn't go and get them. He could only keep flying, and hope to get to Captain Ginyu as soon as possible, and hope that he would still be on time.

But even if Captain Ginyu was informed of the situation and decided to do something about it, Jeice's potential problems were just beginning.

Captain Ginyu was going to be pissed off for sure when he knew of his soldier's, and might even fire Jeice from the Ginyu Force for daring to flee from the battlefield. A thought that was, at the very least, scary. Among Lord Frieza's forces, any soldier that was demoted was held in high contempt, and considered absolutely worthless in everyone's eyes, no matter how strong he was. In the Ginyu Force, Jeice had at least a high rank, which added to the fact he was stronger than nearly everyone else in Frieza's forces made the others fear him enough so as not to mess with him. If he was fired, however, he would become the target of everyone's provocations and insults.

However, no matter how scared he was of losing his rank, that concern was nothing compared to the prospect of facing Lord Frieza's wrath. As soon as he got to know of his elite force's defeat, Lord Frieza was bound to burst a fuse or two in his anger, before executing Jeice just to let off some steam, even though he was just the messenger. Not to mention he could even not go forward to finish the job himself, either because he would assume that Burter and Recoome were already dead by the time he got to know of it, or because he would decide to punish them for their defeat by leaving them to die.

While there was a slight chance Captain Ginyu could calm Lord Frieza down if he got upset, the red-skinned soldier wouldn't like to rely on it, as not only Captain Ginyu would be mad as a hornet himself, but he would also have enough sense of self preservation for not to press the issue too much, an act whose outcome would be him ending up as a pile of cold cut himself. Although Lord Frieza didn't execute higher level soldiers as frequently as he did to his weaker ones, Jeice could recall a handful of occasions when such things had happened, all of them taking place when he was particularly angry at the soldier he executed.

Even though he was devoting most of his focus to his fast flight, Jeice couldn't help but to snort at the irony of the situation. He had gone away not only to avoid his own death at that Saiyan's hands, but also to see if he could prevent Burter and Recoome's deaths, no matter how unlikely that seemed. But in the end, this desperate attempt at saving his two comrades was almost like picking his poison, as at this point the chances of him dying were extremely high no matter which of his options he chose.

In fact, considering the circumstances, the likelihood of being executed by Lord Frieza was lower than it would normally be. After all, his lord had certainly achieved immortality by now, thanks to those Dragon Balls that were the whole reason the Ginyu Force had come to this planet. And as a result, he would hopefully be in enough of a good mood to forgive them for their defeat.

But even more intense than his fear of Lord Frieza's or Captain Ginyu's wrath was the hope that, by the time he got back to them, Burter and Recoome wouldn't get as pissed off at him as they had the right to be, even as a part of him reasoned that it would be a good sign if they got pissed off at him, for it meant they would still be alive to be so. And in the end, it was exactly for them to keep at least their lives that Jeice was going back to Lord Frieza's ship, risking his own life in a very literal manner by intending to relay such news to his Captain and to his Lord.

So, in spite of knowing what could happen to him when he got to his destination, Jeice yet again attempted to fly even faster, his determination of saving his two comrades' lives – no matter how much of a desperate attempt it was – keeping him going at a speed he'd considered unachievable before.

Up next in Chapter 2: Will Jeice end up surviving the delivery of his report? Will Vegeta see eye to eye with Goku regarding the decision to save Burter and Recoome's lives? And will that action ending up turning back against them? Stay tuned!

Hoping you enjoyed the chapter,

Genescritor