So I've started learning Kung Fu and Tai Chi in my spare time and already I've found connections to some of the moves in Dragonball Z. It's all very exciting. As always, a few things to note.
1) I am so tired that I can't remember what I was supposed to note down at all this time. Ever felt like you've been hit by a freight train? With this in mind, please forgive me for the mistakes in this chapter. I assure you, this has been checked several times but I may have missed a few silly things.
2) Ah, I have such plans for this story, such glorious, grandiose plans…I forget why this little titbit of information is important to this particular chapter…but whatever. Look out for the plot bunnies, they'll steal your left shoe.
3) I actually don't have anything coherent left to say. Apologies, I'll try again next week. For now, thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, favourited etc, I really appreciate it.
20: Death Roulette
"Let me see now, who to choose, who to choose…" Frieza chanted as his eyes moved back and forth between the scattered warriors like a metronome.
In the air, Gohan tried to ready himself for what was coming, preparing to defend himself or propel himself forwards to help defend Krillin or even Vegeta if necessary. His eyes flicked up to Krillin who was holding on to Dende and he had a horrible feeling in his gut.
As he latched on to the overlord's eyes levelling once again with his own, he felt a shiver run through him from top to toe and realised that, if adrenaline hadn't been pumping so freely round his body, he'd probably be seized up with fear.
"I know…" Frieza muttered, carefully unfolding his now colossal arms so they hung loosely by his side.
Gohan felt his breath catch.
Vegeta caught the fluctuation in Frieza's Ki and saw as the overlord moved but was unable to determine which direction he was going for. For one wild moment, he thought that Frieza was going to try and lay in to Kakarot's runt and his eyebrow twitched.
Krillin knew the truth.
In a moment of uncharacteristic precognition, he shoved Dende away from himself just in time to take the brunt of Frieza's attack.
One of Frieza's horns penetrated his body.
Excruciating pain…
Pain that made the floating rib Ginyu had given him look like a paper cut.
He felt the slide of sinew and muscle as something foreign embedded itself within him. He felt the cold rush of air on the heat of his core. He felt as the horn pierced through the other side of his gi and protruded from his back like a statement.
Agonising pain…
It took a few moments for Gohan to comprehend what he had just witnessed. One minute Frieza was standing before them, the next…
He should have felt sick to his stomach, he should have felt horrified beyond words but there was nothing, a blank, like a haze of numbness over his system.
His mouth was open in a silent scream.
"K…Krillin!"
He vaulted forward on a reflex in the air, his aura enflaming around him. Frieza caught the manoeuvre in his peripheral vision and lifted up, taking Krillin with him until he was skewered on the top of Frieza's skull like a shish kebab. The bald monk was no longer able to scream but his expression shifted and Gohan stopped advancing as Frieza glanced back at him, his sharp movements causing a spasm in Krillin's body.
Thick, bright blood was starting to pour out from the open wound, trickling down the edge of Frieza's horn and running the length of his face until the tyrant stuck out his tongue and licked away the excess, all the while keeping his gleeful red eyes on Gohan's.
The demi-Saiyan flinched.
Shorai groaned and his eyes rolled up into his head. He whimpered as he felt something sharp ramming into the back of his skull and tears started to trickle down his cheeks; an automatic reaction to sudden, staggering pressure and agony.
In his mind's eye, he could see as Gohan reacted to Frieza's senseless attack on his father's best friend, as his anger provided a temporary key to the endless, phenomenal well of potential he had hidden inside him.
He felt the fluctuation in the boy's Ki and watched as his fists clenched so hard he drew blood from his palms.
His aura pulsed.
In a moment he had launched at Frieza…
But he was still powering up…
Punch, kick, punch, block…
The air around him popped with mounting Ki. His tail was flicking wildly as he squatted in the air. Frieza was watching at first with mild amusement and then sombre disbelief.
He knocked Frieza to the ground and readied his final attack.
The transformation started at the tip of his tail, the hairs slowly spiking up as Ki flowed through them, turning a brilliant shade of gold-
"Sen…sou…"
He could hear himself slurring out his brother's name and the connection between present and future was nauseating. He was still watching as the two different realities played out before him and he could feel the essence of existence shaking as one of it's foundations was subjected to questionability, an unforgivable sign that there had been divine interference in the lives of mortals.
"Brother, what's going on?" Sensou's abrupt voice demanded from somewhere far away.
Though the seer didn't feel even remotely connected to his body anymore, he heard himself manage to spit out one crucial word.
"Go…han…"
Krillin's face was going grey; his life blood was pouring down, dripping from the point of Frieza's chin and falling to the Namekian world below. Purple bruises were blooming beneath his eyes and his lips were starting to darken. The contours of his muscles were starting to become sharply defined in the shadow of death.
"Krillin…" Gohan repeated and the name was merely a whisper.
Frieza's expression was exultant as he purposefully jerked up, causing a gurgling sound to bubble up deep within the half conscious monk's throat and the blood to fly freely through the air, splashing down onto Gohan's exposed cheek.
The boy felt the sticky heat collide with his bare skin and the numbness moved.
There was a pulse.
Vegeta felt it and tore his eyes away from the gruesome spectacle of the monk being jostled sadistically up and down to gape at the boy.
'What in the world?'
The sound of the horn slipping rhythmically backwards and forwards through Krillin's chest tainted the air. The monk's blood ran free and fast colouring the world in crimson until Frieza decided he'd had enough.
"That was over far too quickly," the tyrant complained, jerking his head roughly so Krillin's limp body went flying down to crash against the water. For a second or two, he floated on the waves before starting to submerge.
"NO!" Gohan screamed, launching himself down with a burst of Ki.
Frieza's smile quirked as he shot down in front of the boy, stopping him in his tracks. The overlord watched as the little Saiyan bared his teeth, as his tail flicked out in agitation, bristling and puffing out as the boy was almost sent over the edge with anger.
"Now, who should be next?" Frieza asked lazily, turning his attention to the petrified Namekian boy who looked just about ready to pass out and the broken Saiyan prince.
"Should it be you?" he asked Vegeta rhetorically.
"Or how about you?" he asked the boy before him, amused when the child started to growl.
"Honestly, it makes no difference to me," Frieza announced, locking eyes with the demi-Saiyan.
There was a resonance.
Vegeta felt it but couldn't quite believe it, drawing back in the air.
A Ki spike of such gravity that the very blood running through him almost turned into luminous rivers of energy.
The kid had gone from being someone who could barely land a hit to something cataclysmal, pumping out power like a battery and it had happened in literally a split second.
The power seemed to be coming from somewhere deeper. He imagined that it was like a well where the hole was usually hidden. Once he had access to the water, he could go as deep as he liked but until he knew where the opening was, he was stuck on the surface.
The kid's aura flared like a cannon ball around him, white with flecks of…gold? Static electricity started to pour out around him.
And something was telling him to stop…He could see somehow that if he kept pushing deeper, if he kept diving down into that well of power, something irreversibly awful was going to happen…
He moaned, his black hair flew up around him and in the thud of a heart beat; his hair had changed to a haunting gold before falling back to black again.
'No…' Vegeta thought, watching this monstrous spectacle.
'He's just a child, a half Saiyan rat…not even a pure blood…surely that doesn't mean…it CAN'T mean that he's…'
The sparks of gold within his aura seemed to fully ignite, enveloping him in a pulsating golden shield and Frieza looked on with interest. The boy's solidly black hair whipped over his face through the golden storm bursting around him. His teeth were clenched together and bared, the only way he could anchor himself to contain his anger enough and quell his rising power. Sensou's words concerning control resounded through his mind like an echo and he knew at this stage that if he went any further…it would be the end of everything.
Yet he had to beat Frieza for Krillin's sake. He had to.
"You…" the child hissed and Frieza's expression faltered.
"ANIMAL!"
Vegeta barely saw the boy move. In an instant, he was before Frieza, his aura buffeting the tyrant back, his concrete fist ploughing up to connect with Frieza's jaw. When it collided, Frieza was thrown backwards into an arc in the air, a trail of dark blood spewing out from his mouth.
Gohan didn't wait for the overlord to recover, bearing down from above to aim a series of blurring kicks to the overlord's stomach. Vegeta flinched every time the tyrant let out an undignified 'oof', a deluge of emotions warring inside him – bitter disappointment that he had thus far been unable make such a dent in Frieza's defences, a weird sense of pride that it was a Saiyan, even a half-breed, that had been able to stand up to him, overwhelming awe that this child had access to so much power…
With one final diabolical kick, Gohan sent Frieza into a freefall down towards the nearest island, following up with a powerful Ki blast to insure that Frieza would be unable to regain himself. Frieza was barely able to weather the blast and throw up a crude block before the boy was on him once more, throwing out a punch which contained one of his own manipulations of Ki. The powerful punch ricocheted off of Frieza's chest and sent him careening down to the ground where his back cracked against the hard rocks and loose stones.
Gohan could feel the rage inside himself building to a pique and fought to control it though it was hard to keep a sense of self through the haze of red over his system.
He let out a low growl, feeling himself teetering on the edge of madness and once again, in the space of a heart beat, his hair straightened, morphing from black to gold before falling back to black. The golden aura around him bulged and for a moment, Vegeta was sure it was going to explode.
Shorai's head lolled forward and his eyes re-adjusted. For a few seconds he let himself stare at the green grass before him, subject to a wave of intense nausea. His ears rang and the high pitched sound blotted out the voices of his worried apprentice and his irate brother, his fingers and toes tingled. After a while, the trilling in his ears began to ease and his eyes began to focus. He waited until he could make out every individual blade of grass before daring to move, his stomach convulsing threateningly as he looked up into the fiery eyes of his brother.
"What did you see?" Sensou snapped, one hand already clamped around Ma's wrist, waiting for the word lest he need to go and prevent Gohan from taking his assault any further.
Shorai opened his mouth and shivered violently as he recollected how close they'd been to the end of everything as the universe tried to cope with re-writing an existential staple. Indeed, the boy had started down the path to Super Saiyan ascension and it had looked like the end but at the last moment, he'd curbed his power.
Shorai had realised immediately why, feeling Gohan's conscious skimming the same line of sight he himself had been using. Undoubtedly tapping into that latent seer potential Shorai had guessed was buried deep beneath Gohan's more prominent talents, he had read the repercussions of his actions on the immediate future and had managed to divert his power before it destroyed everything.
It was…
Exciting…
And somewhat terrifying…
That the boy could be so powerful and possess a little future sight as well? That he could see for the first time and then immediately change the outcome? It was unheard of…impossible…was the boy some sort of god bound to human form?
Sensou's eyes bored into him like drills and he found himself grimacing as he remembered his promise to inform Sensou of any developments to do with Gohan's possible seer gifts.
"I…think Gohan has it under control," Shorai said simply, grateful for Tonbo who had started to dab his forehead with a cool cloth without saying a word.
"Remember when I said the boy might have seer gifts of his own? I felt him in the weave of fate with me for a moment. He read what was going to happen and managed to stop himself powering on through to the next level."
The hand holding the cool cloth to his forehead stiffened as Tonbo absorbed that information and he raised an eyebrow at his young apprentice, wondering if the boy was jealous. In truth, jealousy hadn't even crossed the young boy's mind. If anything, he was excited that he would be able to share some of his knowledge about seeing the future with his friend, paying him back for the flying lessons.
"I doubt he really understood much of it." Shorai went on. "It was a fleeting skim along the edges of fate at best, just enough to give him a gauge of the disaster waiting to befall him if he continued…to power on…through…"
The warrior god wasn't listening, his eyes shining with sudden victory. With a show of force, he threw Ma's arm aside and crouched down before the dimension window, biting his nails as his mind worked.
'Seer gifts…even weak seer gifts are useful…if only he knew how to harness them…' Sensou thought to himself, wondering how best to manipulate his brother into teaching Gohan how to control his newfound precognitive abilities without instilling a sense of disloyalty.
"Does that mean we're in the clear for now?" Sensou asked, feigning interest in priority events.
There was a pause as Shorai considered. He was tired after his long, unnatural vision and he was afraid to try and follow the lines of fate in his present state, choosing instead to hazard a guess.
"I don't know," he admitted. "For the moment, I'd say yes but there's no telling what could still happen. After all, Piccolo and Goku have yet to get involved in this fight."
Sensou sent a meaningful glare in his brother's direction but Shorai just waved it off tiredly.
"I already told you, it's dangerous to try and read the future immediately after falling into a crack so I'm giving you the next best thing. My estimations aren't usually wrong, I've been doing this job long enough to recognise the patterns Sensou."
'Not that you really need to know that this case is more or less entirely unique.' The seer added to himself, hoping that Sensou would be unable to read the spuriousness in his expression.
Sensou stared at him for a long time and grunted his non-committal, turning his attention back to the dimension window as Gohan readied his last awe-inspiring attack.
Gohan could only comprehend the tyrant lying prone before him and the fact that Krillin had quite possibly been murdered right in front of him. The blood that had been forced from the bald monk's body clung dry and cracked to Gohan's cheek as he pulled his hands up.
At first, he was aiming to throw a 'Jinsumi' at the downed overlord but at the last minute, he changed his mind, crossing his hands up over his head in the familiar stance.
The Ki started to gather.
'This…is unreal,' the prince decided as he balked under the boy's climbing Ki. 'From out of nowhere, the kid explodes with power like I've never seen before…is this possibly the result of hybridising? Should I consider investing time and research into finding out if mixed genes produce stronger warriors if I live through this?'
Vegeta's nose twitched as he glanced down at the broken looking body before him, taking an inventory of the shallow injuries dotted over Frieza's body and then up again at the power house of a demi-Saiyan.
The bright yellow Ki grew up in his hands like a balloon filling with air, engorging with energy so aggressive that it spiked out at various intervals sending static sparks into the atmosphere until clouds started to gather, making the land grow dim. Gohan's power ball illuminated the land and the sea like a sun, his dark eyes flicking down to the water as Krillin's sunken silhouette was briefly brought to light.
The boy felt the anger inside him lurch and the power ball flattened as he tried to contain himself; pushing all the gathered Ki into one hand before it could grow any bigger and completely overwhelm him.
"MASENKO!" He screamed, taking aim.
"HA!"
The ball was so large that, when Gohan threw it, it took all of the momentum in his small frame to make it go. It moved through the air at a sluggish pace, devouring everything in its path until it reached its destination and detonated.
Instant irrevocable destruction.
The air itself seemed to catch light and the incandescence of the Ki blast quadrupled in size as the resulting explosion created a dome of fire over the island. Charred debris flew up into the sky forcing Vegeta to shield himself and with an ominous belching sound, the blast grew in size again, changing colour to a dark crimson, almost like a dying star.
For moments on end there was nothing but heat and light and Vegeta couldn't help but remember the days spent in brutal combat chambers where powerful blasts were thrown at him until he went mad with rage and fear, clawing his way through his enemies like some sort of wild animal. He felt the build up of post traumatic stress inside himself but locked it down with vigour.
Such weakness could never be allowed in a Saiyan prince…
Eventually, the effects of the gargantuan blast dimmed and the debris that had been disturbed started falling back to the cratered ground or the sea. Through the smog, Vegeta could just make out the kid's pint sized silhouette and could do nothing but ogle.
The golden aura that had encompassed Gohan had dispersed and the boy felt indescribably drained, like he could barely keep his eyes open. It took everything he had to remain in the air with eyes fixed on the place he had last seen the overlord. Eventually, the smoke and ash cleared enough that he was able to see the unconscious body splayed in the centre of a massive crater. For a minute or two, his eyes remained resolutely unmoving as he waited for the barest flinch.
Nothing.
A sense of relief swept through him and he almost dropped out of the sky, catching himself as his head drooped forward and letting his eyes lock onto the water where Krillin's broken body had disappeared beneath green waves.
"K-Krillin?" the boy whispered anxiously.
"Are you there?" he added, sending out his senses, hoping to pinpoint even the barest trace of the bald monk's Ki. His lower lip wobbled as he considered the possibility that his father's friend was really dead…dead…and he'd been able to do nothing but sit on the sidelines, helpless as Frieza had his torturous way…
It was hard to fathom that this time; it wasn't just a mannequin that had suffered. This time, it had been Krillin himself impaled and thrown away like a used tissue. The fact that he hadn't realised that until it was all over filled Gohan with new guilt. Even if he had grown accustomed to his training, fighting off his friends on a daily basis, it was no excuse for becoming so desensitised.
Was he really so blasé about human life?
What kind of monster was he really?
He could feel the tears stinging his eyes but having spent enough time in Sensou's company, he refused to let them fall. Instead, he took a moment to stare at the sky which was littered with slowly dissipating clouds, waiting for the fluid in his eyes to drain before glancing down towards the water again.
He frowned, seeing something dart beneath the surface. At first he thought it was a large fish but as it burst out of the water, Gohan found himself looking down at the familiar form of the Namekian boy, Dende. The small, green boy appeared to be struggling with something for a moment and with a huge effort, he managed to pull his burden up until Krillin's head was above water. Gohan felt a jolt of hope and panic.
"KRILLIN!"
Dende glanced up at him and waved as best he could.
"He's okay, he's still breathing!" the little Namekian shouted up, starting to swim awkwardly to the nearest island.
"Are you sure?" Gohan called out after him, trying to muster up enough energy to fly down to the island and meet them so he could check the bald monk over himself.
"We don't have time to worry about him," Vegeta's voice cut through Gohan's linear concern. "If you think you've finished Frieza, just look."
Gohan's head whipped back until he was facing the prostrate form of the tyrant. With frightened eyes, he examined the body, wincing outwardly as he observed the damage his rage had caused. There were gashes all over Frieza's torso and blood was trickling freely onto the dusty floor, filtering into the dirt and turning the ground a muddy crimson. Where there weren't cuts, the skin had been burnt by his final Masenko, puckering and twisting to create new, hideous deformities. As Gohan watched, he could see the faint movement of the tyrant's chest as he breathed in and out, his lungs expanding easily.
Concentrating as he was, he was finally able to feel around the shape of the lord's depleted Ki, becoming completely petrified in the process.
Even through everything he had managed to achieve, he had only been able to cut the tyrant's Ki in half, completely draining his own in the process. He was left completely helpless; using every last scrap of energy he had inside himself to remain airborne.
He made a noise of fear when Frieza's tail suddenly whipped out, slapping the dirt so the disintegrated dust flew up around him, catching the light from the Namekian suns like glitter.
Frieza made a point of taking it easy as he rolled over, checking his injuries and his depleted stock of Ki before glancing up at the boy still hovering in the sky.
What in the nine hells was this kid?
In Frieza's entire reign, no-one outside his own family had ever been able to knock him down like that. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to be on the receiving end of a particularly vicious set of kicks, had almost forgotten the fleeting feeling of humiliation and shame when he was knocked down. To be knocked down by a child of all things…
Frieza hadn't managed to fashion himself into an effective universal ruler by denying himself the truth and honestly, he had to admit he was a little afraid of the boy. If he was part Saiyan as Vegeta had said then he couldn't be very old. The overlord couldn't even begin to fathom what could happen if this hybrid was allowed to progress to adulthood, how much his power could potentially grow.
'Clearly the mix of genes in this kid has produced some sort of abnormality…it might be worth finding out the formula of his genetic make up to see if I can't replicate the effects…'
Frieza's expression was steely as he stood, angry and Vegeta shrank back instinctively. The tyrant's crimson eyes stayed locked on the boy who was completely immobilised.
"I must congratulate you kid, it's been years since I was pushed far enough to harness my third form."
"Third form?" Vegeta repeated aghast, watching as the overlord widened his feet in the dent of the crater, feeling the oscillations of his Ki as the tyrant started powering up again.
'This is insane,' the prince decided, watching his worst nightmare come to life before him. 'Where is he digging up all that energy from? How can he hope to control that much Ki?'
Gohan could do nothing but watch, his thoughts frozen in the grip of complete fear. He witnessed as Frieza's domed head elongated, more horns growing up and out of the sides. He watched the face flatten and broaden, the more delicate facial features absorbed in this new horrifying metamorphosis. The overlord's body shrank, sucking in at the waist and bulking out in the shoulders. The tail seemed to gain an extra foot in length, weaving out behind him like a deadly weapon.
Frieza was completely changing before him, becoming a true monster, all the while fixing him with that sanguine gaze.
In one deadly moment, as this transformation cycle was completed, Frieza's Ki shot straight up, reaching heights previously thought inconceivable. Vegeta grimaced as the radiation given off from such a dramatic energy increase caused a headache to start pounding behind his eyes. Gohan remained completely unmoving in mid-air, his face deathly pale even in the light cast by the three suns.
"The pain you have inflicted upon me, I will give back tenfold," Frieza promised as the island around him once again disintegrated, forcing him into the air. His voice had changed once again, befitting this monstrous visage – a mix of the deep bass line of his second form's voice and the higher tones of his first form entwined together to create an unsettling double vocal that chilled to the bone.
Vegeta's mind was working on overdrive, considering angles, possibilities and the probability that he would make it out of this suicidal fight alive. His eyes grew round as Frieza appeared before the boy, a smug smirk in place.
Gohan knew he should be moving but it was like there was a short circuit in his brain.
In an instant, the tyrant's hand cut the air, embedding itself in the boy's exposed cheek. Gohan experienced the full enhanced force of Frieza's newly acquired Ki, feeling a brutal eruption of pain not only in his face but all over his body. The fleeting Ki he had remaining seemed to shatter beneath him and he plummeted down towards a wide stretch of island, dropping like a stone. The all encompassing agony stole his breath as he fell, making him painfully aware of his own anatomy as he impacted hard ground.
Frieza kept hard eyes on the boy as he struggled onto his hands and knees, appreciating the boy's fortitude and considering his next course of action. Placed as he was in the air, he'd left his back entirely exposed to Vegeta and prince didn't miss it, firing off a powerful Ki attack to the back of Frieza's neck, chuckling when it connected and detonated.
"Ha!" the prince threw out through the repercussive smoke. "Didn't anyone ever teach you not expose your back when you're up against a Saiyan warrior?"
A triumphant smile pulled across his face but as the smoke cleared, the smile faltered, morphing into a grimace.
"I believe I do remember hearing something like that," Frieza confirmed casually, glancing over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Vegeta's expression, feeling an enthralling sense of satisfaction as he realised that the prince's pathetic pride had all but crumbled.
"Come to think of it, I think your father said the same thing before he died but I never did have much patience for monkey business."
He noted Vegeta's tensing fists and sighed the sigh of the much put upon.
"Come now Vegeta, you are being rude. I believe the young half-breed requires my full attention at the moment but I promise, once I'm done with him, I'll be back for you."
Frieza started to descend slowly through the air, crossing his arms over his chest and smiling sadistically as he touched down in front of the kid who struggled to turn around, a black eye was starting to flourish on his smooth face and a nose bleed was dripping down off of his chin to splash the front of his gi. Taking a few deep breaths and pushing down like a spring, Gohan dug deep and launched at the overlord, kicking wildly at his opponent's scary face.
His feet flew through the air like a blur, backed up with the occasional punch. Though his speed had been substantially affected by his Ki drain, he was still hoping to land at least one or two hits but the tyrant seemed to be able to predict his every move. After a few seconds, he began to tire and the overlord had yet to strike back, smiling his cocky smile as he continued to evade Gohan's pointless onslaught.
The boy could feel the creeping feeling of desperation starting to wind its way like a vine up through his system and he began to take stock of his resources, wondering if he could muster enough energy for a Ki blast. Fired at point blank range like this, it was bound to incapacitate the tyrant, at least for a moment or two, enough time for Vegeta to come down and attack more effectively at any rate.
Making up his mind, he swung down in a two handed club that missed and changed the move as the overlord evaded into the correct stance for a Jinsumi. Just as the boy was gathering his energy, Frieza spun back, kicking off from the ground to ram his knee into Gohan's gut.
Bile and spit disgorged from his mouth and he fell limply off of Frieza's rock hard leg to land splayed out on his back in the dirt once more, breathing rapidly as his stomach made a valiant attempt to escape. Seeing that his opponent was all but helpless, Frieza's eyes sparked and he reached forward, his clawed hand sliding through Gohan's wild black tresses, allowing him to grip tight and hoist the boy upright.
Gohan whimpered but could do nothing to save himself.
"Aw…in pain little half-monkey?" Frieza taunted, shaking the boy so he was swinging back and forth by his hair. Gohan felt the sting of strain on his follicles and tears sprang to his eyes. He hissed but lacked the energy to cry out.
It seemed to go on for an age, this pain, every second trailing by like a year and still Frieza refused to let him go. He could feel the individual synapses firing thousands of tiny pain signals over his scalp until they all seemed to run together in a jagged pulse.
"I always wondered what it felt like to have hair," the tyrant confessed mock mournfully as he finally set the boy down and yanked the clump he'd been holding onto until it broke clean away from Gohan's scalp.
The boy screamed out and in the air, Vegeta felt himself wince.
For all the years he had spent plundering and killing in the name of Frieza, frequently inflicting unspeakable horrors on various living creatures, nothing had ever managed to move him, not the plea of the mothers as they strove to protect their children from the death blow, not the cries of the dying as their lives were torturously prolonged before the inevitable darkness took them….
He watched as the boy was dropped neatly back on the ground, as Frieza placed one talon heavy foot on his head, applying pressure until the boy's dark eyes flew open and he started scrabbling at the grass and the dirt around him, trying to dig his fingers down so that he could push the tyrant's foot off of himself and something within the prince shifted.
His face twitched as he tried to keep himself impassive, becoming hot as he tried to ignore the boy's shrieks of agony and his fists balled up at his sides, his Ki rising in response to the kid's pain.
'What is wrong with me? Why the hell is this bothering me so much? I've seen much worse than this done on a daily basis…'
Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting crunch as Gohan's skull cracked like an egg and his screams reached a new crescendo.
Vegeta couldn't help it, he turned away.
Frieza caught the motion in his peripheral vision and turned gleefully towards the wayward prince, pushing a little harder on the boy's skull in the process.
"Feeling squeamish Vegeta? That's not like you. Perhaps this is your son after all and you did choose to mate outside the species hm? What's the matter, find it hard to resist your more animalistic urges?" Frieza taunted, digging his foot into the boy's head.
'E…even if I could get down there…it's pointless, the boy's a goner!' Vegeta thought to himself as the child ceased to struggle, his hand falling slack on the dusty ground, fingers twitching.
The tyrant sneered as Vegeta's eyes fell to the boy barely clinging to life, becoming hard and flint-like as he watched the small boy's chest rising and falling.
Frieza couldn't help himself. Throwing his head back, he began to laugh, great barrelling cackles of mirthful joy echoing out over the silent landscape.
Piccolo touched down on the grass before the fallen warrior, cursing himself and the weakness the kid had obviously inspired in him. He glared at the corpse-like body, unnerved when he found himself looking at someone so similar to himself struggling to hold on to life, his chest heaving hollowly as he fought to take in oxygen.
"You look like you've seen better days my friend," Piccolo said, crossing his arms haughtily across his chest, trying to apply the correct pressure to the constriction he could feel in his heart.
When the fallen warrior next breathed in, Piccolo could hear a faint gurgling noise in the back of his throat and recognised the sound of internal bleeding. Right now, his lungs were probably filling with thick dark liquid.
Just a few minutes to live.
Amazingly, the dying Namekian chuckled, the movement causing spasms of pain to flutter across his body. Piccolo couldn't help but feel a weird sense of pride. His people obviously weren't weaklings.
"You can say that again…" the warrior whispered.
It was an effort to breathe and to talk was nothing short of excruciating but Nail could feel something in this new Namekian, something…almost familiar. Somehow it was worth using his last scrap of energy to communicate with this stranger, a stranger that almost felt like a brother.
"Are you…the one the Earthlings wanted to wish back to life?" he asked tentatively.
Piccolo's eyes widened in surprise. So Goku and Krillin had been planning to wish him back? It made strategic sense when one factored in the properties of Earth's Dragonballs…
When Piccolo didn't answer, the out of place smile on Nail's battered face widened.
"So they got to make their wishes after all…I love it. Mission accomplished."
Piccolo felt a jolt of something unpleasant inside him and growled, not appreciating this new, regretful emotion. So this guy had been heavily involved in bringing him back to this dimension, so what? Why should Piccolo care? He didn't know the guy, so the only logical explanation for his generous assistance was that he was after something…probably something that Goku had promised him…the fool…
Piccolo shook his head and blanched when he felt Gohan's Ki rising to unprecedented heights, heights that made him whip round and stare in momentary awe. For a few seconds, he was unable to speak, caught up in the possibilities of Gohan's frankly astonishing Ki signature. From what he knew of the boy…there could only be one explanation for this insane outburst.
Gohan had been enraged.
He snarled.
"Look, I don't have time for this," he snapped.
Nail remained silent, waiting for Piccolo to continue, still taking in deep, wracking breaths but Piccolo didn't speak again. He stood on the spot grinding his teeth together in mounting frustration, unable to explain why he had dropped down to meet Nail if he 'didn't have time for this' in the first place.
"You feel it don't you…the connection between us…" Nail said eventually, his voice breathy.
Piccolo's nose flinched and he scowled but said nothing to deny it.
"I can help you," Nail said simply. His mind was awhirl with flashing thoughts as an idea formed in his mind. He could remember the day that Guru had taught him of the taboo technique he was considering, something infuriatingly simple with irreversible results. It was, partially, the permanence of the technique that made Guru choose to expressly forbid its use but more than that, it was the power that could be harnessed, the sudden leap in Ki that could cause even the most peaceful Namekians to become power hungry…
If he hadn't been in his current predicament, clinging to the last frayed edges of his life, the idea to attempt this technique probably wouldn't have even occurred to him. As it was, despite the fact that he was raised to revere the natural cycle of life and death, he felt that if there was even the slimmest chance of escaping this inevitability, he would latch on to it.
Somehow, to die now just didn't feel right…
Piccolo watched the uneasiness pass across Nail's face and smirked, letting his arms fall away from his chest.
"No offense, but I don't think you're going to be much help to me in your current state," the former demon informed his half dead companion.
"You'll change your mind in a few minutes," Nail said bluntly. He tried to move his arms but his muscles didn't seem to be responding, already they felt disconnected, unresponsive.
"I can't move so you're going to have to come here if we're going to pull this off," Nail said, amused as Piccolo remained resolutely where he was, his eyes distrusting.
"I'm thinking of instigating the fusion technique," Nail said quickly, unsurprised when Piccolo's face screwed up in distaste.
"You don't have to worry too much. This technique will allow me to be absorbed into your body. My strength will become your strength; my knowledge will become your knowledge. You won't have to give up anything at all."
Piccolo pulled a face, unsure of something that sounded so…invasive. For someone who was used to living alone in the wildernesses of Earth, the prospect of sharing something as wholesome as himself was completely out of the question, terrifying beyond measure. He opened his mouth to decline Nail's offer in the most colourful language he knew but paused when he felt the sudden, dangerous drop in Gohan's Ki.
'No…no…'
It wasn't happening.
It just couldn't be happening.
Gohan's energy signature had gone from being something monumental to being nothing but a tiny blip on the edge of Piccolo's senses in the blink of an eye. He spun back to face the battle, holding on to the transient feel of Gohan's diminishing Ki, his heart racing against his chest.
He had never felt so panicked in his life.
It was catastrophic, debilitating, a liability that he would not have allowed himself if he was still so linearly bound to the fate of the demon King Piccolo. His throat seemed to swell, closing off his airways and his hands started to shake.
This was his fault.
His fault.
He shouldn't have stopped to help this half dead fool.
…He had to make it count somehow.
"This…fusion…will increase my strength?" he threw back at the fallen warrior.
"More than you might think," Nail assured him.
Piccolo pivoted back to face him, his eyes full of resigned determination.
"Let's do it."
Will Gohan survive having his skull crushed? And what about these seer gifts? Why is Vegeta reacting as he is to Gohan's torture?
FIND A FAIR FEW THINGS ON THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE OF…10 Things I Hate About You?
Because I maintain that he kicked himself in the balls.
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