The Power of Mercy
Author's Note: The inspiration for a part of this chapter came from an old 1980's cartoon. If you can find the reference and state where it comes from, Kudos to you.
Theme: This story's theme is based around forgiveness and redemption, the idea that even the blackest of hearts can be made clean again. This is a belief I've learned as a Christian, so, while I won't actively be using the Bible or anything, the same themes of being forgiven and being able to change and be made whole and clean after a life of sin are all there.
Chapter 1
Good or Bad
Goku barely managed to make it to the Icejin ship. He placed the comatose alien on the floor of the bridge and began pressing buttons. "Please, let this have enough power to make it out of the atmosphere in time."
He managed to get the engines to fire up for a brief few seconds, but they just died again. "No! Fly!"
Frieza moaned from his place on the floor, as he regained a painful consciousness. He tried to sit up, but he had no strength. What was going on? Why was he in the bridge of his ship? He should have been dead. This made no sense.
The engines fired up again, "Come on," Frieza heard his enemy whisper in frustration. They were BOTH there. Wait, did that mean…no…it couldn't. That was impossible.
Again, he tried to force himself into sitting up, only to moan in agony, gaining the Saiyan's attention.
Goku came over, "Don't do anything stupid, you've been badly hurt. Any unnecessary use of energy will simply kill you."
"Wha…what are you doing?" Frieza asked skeptically, "Why am I still alive?"
Goku glared at the alien. He, Goku, wasn't a hateful man by nature, but he was having trouble reconciling with his conscience for making him save this thing that had killed his best friend. "I'd think that was obvious!" he spat out.
So, his previous thought was correct, but, "You…you saved me…" Frieza dared to speak it, "But…why?"
Goku sighed, "Good or bad…you're still a person, whatever you are. You were defenseless and there's no way you can harm me now, not without killing yourself. I can't just let a man die, not when I could stop it. It goes against my nature." And boy, was he hating his nature right about now, he thought to himself.
As much as the Icejin hated to admit it, the Saiyan was right. "If you'd known what was good for you, you would have just left me, or better, finished me off right then." he told him, more to see how his enemy would respond then to make any real threats.
Goku grit his teeth, "That's what you would have done. Maybe that's the only real difference between us." The planet let out a loud roaring earthquake, indicating that the time for talk had passed, "Now, why don't you tell me how to get this thing hunk of junk working so we can get the hell out of here!"
Frieza sneered from his spot, "Did you really think I would allow someone to use this ship without my permission. I have it set so that the engines won't stay on without it. You need to type in the override code."
"Then tell me or do you want to die?" Goku tried not to shout, now was not the time to fight.
"If you'll shut up, I will." Frieza snapped back. He didn't like being beholden to this insignificant monkey, and worse, he hated the fact that his very life hung in them working together. "You want to be at that console, directly behind you," Goku ran to it, "Now, hit the red button and type in '8HJW29471F'."
Not a second too soon, Goku punched in the code, "OVERRIDE CODE ACCEPTED" the computer voiced. Goku ran to the other console with the launch buttons and quickly pressed them. "YES!" he shouted as the engines fired up and stayed on.
"ENGINES ON! TO TAKE OFF HIT THE GREEN LAUNCH BUTTON" the computer instructed.
Goku pressed it, finally getting the ship into the air. The ship roared towards the atmosphere.
"TWO MINUTES TO PLANET DESTRUCTION!" the voice of the computer said moments after.
He looked out the porthole, "No, we're not gonna make it in time."
Frieza laughed, "Idiot monkey, you know nothing of physics. Use the Hyper Drive. It'll get us just above the atmosphere, from there we should be able to ride the explosion out of here." He rolled his eyes from the floor.
It took all of Goku's will power NOT to just LEAVE the creature on the planet, as he found the button marked H-Drive, "You know it's normally NOT a good idea to make cruel remarks to the person with enough power to make you nothing more than a bad memory."
His foe laughed cruelly, "You won't kill me. You would have done it already."
"And you're starting to make me wish I had, so shut up!" Goku demanded. He was about to say something else when the Hyper Drive sequence finally initiated almost a second too late, sending them into the stratosphere, the mesosphere, and was just entering the thermosphere when the explosion began. The explosion rocked the ship but did it's job of propelling them further to the exosphere, and finally into the blackness of space. The ship did the rest on it's own, jetting away from the flotsam and jetsam of the exploding Namek.
AN: Where are the two foes headed? Will they encounter more foes or allies? Who knows? Stick around and find out.