Author's Note: Hi dudes and dudesses! Thanks to those of you who reviewed last time. Things are getting really finger-biting in the story now!


Frieza took a moment, looking at the valley he'd carved in Planet Namek. The remarkable Namekian warrior didn't reappear, so he concluded that he had not dodged the attack. He had been almost dead when Frieza hit him with the energy sphere, after all.

He looked around from where he hovered over the lagoon but couldn't see Vegeta or the girl. Reaching up to the scouter he'd taken from one of his soldiers, he set it to scan the area for power levels. He only waited a second before the damn thing started to chirp like a budgie. He was surrounded by high power levels! He turned to the shore on his right where there was a cluster of them together. Behind him, perhaps at the top of that spire were another two, another shooting past him to the left, and another more distant to the left.

'What the devil?'

He couldn't search all these power sources by himself. Maybe he should pick the largest and get Dodoria and the few surviving soldiers to check the rest? He pressed his comms button.

'Dodoria, how far off are you?'

'Not far now, my Lord!' replied Dodoria. 'I got a crew to pick us up in one of the landing craft, so we have reinforcements. It'll only be another minute I'd say.'

'Good. I will need lots of bodies to track down Vegeta and the Bulma girl amongst this mess.'

'No problem, my Lord. As soon as we touch down in your vicinity we'll begin a search.'

Frieza looked down, seeing the two balls he'd arrived with still sitting out in the open where he'd left them on the island. He was reluctant to pull them after him into a battle with Vegeta, but he also couldn't leave them out here in the open where anyone might find them. He landed beside them and gave each a gentle kick, and they bounced and rolled over the jagged rocks to fall under the roiling surface of the green lagoon.

'Perfect.'


Bulma cycled, Puar on her shoulder keeping an eye on the action over the lagoon. They were both nervy and weepy, but there was nothing for it but to continue. At least there'd been no signs of fighting since the massive explosion.

'I wonder where the boys are?' Puar wondered. 'I thought they were on their way here.' Suddenly she gripped Bulma's shoulder harder, her claws going through the training suit.

'What is it?' Bulma squawked, eyes too busy guiding the bike over the gravel and rocks at the foot of a cliff to look.

'Someone's flying towards us!' said Puar. Bulma skidded the bike to a halt, eyes zeroing in on the person, whoever it was. They were definitely coming directly for them, coming in low across the water. Her muscles locked in place for a moment because what if it was Frieza? But already the figure was close enough to see that they were wearing green and had black hair flowing out behind them. Still, she was about ready to ditch the bike and bolt for cover before she remembered who had left the ship this morning with black hair and a green training suit.

'I think it's Brolly!' she gasped. She got off the bike and dropped it. 'BROLLY!'

'Brolly!' Puar squealed, adding her voice. The two began leaping about, waving their arms and screaming as the boy made his final approach.

'We're saved!' cried Puar as Brolly landed before them. He even had a dragonball under his arm. 'YES!'

'Bulma, you're all right!' He rushed towards her, dropped the ball and grabbed her by the shoulders, his eyes roaming over her like her like she'd changed the colour of her skin or something.

'Yeah,' she said, confused by the way he was acting. His gazed switched up to her eyes and got stuck there, growing wide like he'd just realised something shocking, but he said nothing.

'Brolly,' she said, alarmed. 'Are you all right?'

'Yes,' he said. 'I am. Kind of.' The look of astonishment on his face faded and he stood straight, and that's when she realised his diadem was gone. Bulma jerked back involuntarily, and as she stumbled away from him she tripped over her bike. She landed painfully on her ass, Brolly darting forward but failing to catch her in time. She yanked her hands away from his outstretched ones.

'What?' he asked.

She almost bolted, but logic reasserted itself in time, telling her that Brolly would have her back in an instant if he was inclined. Instead she snapped, 'I'm okay!' and looked for Puar over his shoulder. Puar was puzzled – she hadn't noticed what was wrong yet. 'I can get up by myself!'

She got to her feet, wondering what her next step should be. Brolly was still watching her, nearly as confused as Puar.

'How come you're here?' she asked, aiming for a neutral tone, belying her thundering heart.

'To make sure you were okay. Vegeta said he left you out in the middle of the water.' The note of disapproval was unmissable. Well, Bulma felt rather the same way on that point.

'Lucky it wasn't too far to swim,' she said and then as casually as she could, although it didn't come off sounding casual at all she asked him, 'What did you do with the diadem I gave you, Brolly?' Behind Brolly's back, Puar flinched and all her hair stood on end.

Brolly frowned, which she might've expected, but something about the pinch of his lips and the way he dropped his gaze from hers made it look like she'd hurt his feelings with that question, and how was that possible? The brief glimpse she'd had of the real Brolly when they got him out of the tank would have had her expecting suspicion but not offence.

He fished into his pocket and pulled out the diadem. 'Sorry. It broke when Guru was healing me. The latch won't do up now.' He demonstrated – the clasp was broken and grimed with ash – she suspected the electronic lock was burnt out.

'Oh, shit,' she muttered, taking it from him with fingers that shook. Maybe it could be fixed. One day. If they were all still alive.

'Guru told Vegeta that I don't need it any more. What does that mean? Isn't it just a piece of jewellery?'

'Yeah, just a really expensive piece of jewellery,' she lied.

Brolly didn't look convinced. His brow was furrowed, and the look of worry and hurt was still there. The expression was completely alien to his face and Bulma found that she couldn't stop staring at him. It was like there was a whole new person behind his eyes – someone that was awake.

'I was starting to think that it was to do with…with how I was before,' he said.

'What do you mean?' she whispered, her voice failing her.

'I mean, Guru changed me,' he said, and clutched his temples. 'He did something to all of them, but he did something else to me…in my head.'

'What? I don't know what you mean.' Bulma could see Puar starting to back away, but she couldn't really go anywhere herself with a cliff a few feet behind her.

Brolly trailed one hand down over his heart and dropped his eyes from hers. 'I can feel things now that I couldn't feel. I don't know!'

She didn't say anything, and when Brolly looked up again he could see that his words were not doing what they should. He could see that fear on her face and feel it twist like a knife in his chest. Bulma was scared of him. What reason did she have to be scared of him?

'Please, Bulma. Don't be afraid of me! I don't like what he's done to me and he wouldn't undo it, but please don't be scared of me – I can't stand it!'

Now her expression was of surprise as well as fear. 'What do you feel now?'

'I can feel-' but he choked the words back as another new, bad feeling came to him; that same, heart-shrinking nastiness, and he found he couldn't admit he was afraid. 'I can tell what you're feeling now, and feel it in me.'

'Like you're a mind reader?' she asked, unnerved.

'No! Just like what everyone feels, is what he said. Empathy. And other things. He said he healed my mind.'

'Oh. Well. How…? But…?' She seemed to be having a hard time accepting what he'd just said. 'Oh, my god, Namekians! So he healed you? That's good, isn't it?' she said, and he saw her shoulders ease down a minute amount.

'Is it?' he asked. 'Maybe. I feel like I've been living with my eyes closed, but now I can see...and I see that everything sucks.' He wanted to go back to feeling safe and happy. Earlier today, nothing was much of a bother, and now it was like the world was made of knives – every way he turned he sensed dangers, foresaw trouble and faced decisions, and his heart felt like it would wear itself out from the wrench of feeling things. But could he go back to being blind? He could still tell that the girl before him was Bulma, but already he could see that she was more than just a pretty girl that was nice to him, and more than just the only girl, and therefore the best prize he could take from the others. He remembered thinking that – that if he took the girl everyone wanted away from them, that he would have won. Even if he could now see that Bulma was scared of him, just like the others were, and even if the thoughts and feelings that moved behind her face hurt him, she was so much more. He'd always known she had feelings, but they'd never seemed very important to him, like they weren't as real as his until now. And what did this mean about him? Did this mean that he was more? It felt like he was less – smashed and open to the outside world.

'Well, everything sucks right now, that's for sure,' she agreed. 'But I think it must be a good thing that Guru has done. Did he say anything else?'

Brolly tried to recall the words. 'That he's given me back those parts of me that were locked away, but I'm still healing. He told the others that they had to look after me.' He snorted. 'I wonder where they are now?'

Bulma's expression softened a little, and Brolly felt a brief surge of something glad but almost painful as he wondered if she was maybe feeling a little sorry for him.

'Please don't be scared of me,' he asked again. 'I'd never hurt you, Bulma.'

Her eyebrows went up and then her expression collapsed into something complicated he couldn't read. 'You're healed,' she said, and then laughed shakily. 'Brolly, this is great!'

'Yeah?' He tried a smile on, but it wouldn't stay.

She took a step forward again, not close enough to touch, but not cowering any more. 'I think it will be.'

What was it about his new self that terrified her? Surely she hadn't been scared of him before? She'd always been so cheerful. What did the diadem thing do anyway? He wanted to ask her why she'd really given it to him.

'You've got a dragonball,' she said, waving her hand towards the one on the ground between them, and diverting his thoughts. 'We're on our way to collect another one that's nearby. We've already picked up two-'

'And nearly died while we were at it!' said Puar, hurrying around Brolly and landing on Bulma's shoulder again. 'One was under some seaweed and one was in a tree.'

'Oh, yeah,' said Brolly, remembering the reason he'd been sent out here. 'We hid those earlier, and another one over that direction,' he pointed over his shoulder, 'in a big clam. Vegeta told me to gather them together and try and find the last two.'

He didn't miss Bulma's slight flinch at the sound of Vegeta's name.

'Okay, then,' she said. 'Let's get the one in the clam. You can put your ball in Puar's capsule for now. It'll make it easier to carry.'

They did so, and the six-star ball joined the one-, two- and four-star balls. Bulma picked her bike up.

'You should put that away too,' Brolly said when he saw she was getting on it again.

Bulma looked confused and then uncomfortable. 'I can ride.'

'But it will be much faster if I carry you.'

She got off the bike again, stared at it for a second and said, 'I guess you're right.' She packed it back into her kit and walked to Brolly without looking him in the eye. 'Come on, Puar,' she said, and the cat approached even more nervously.

It frustrated Brolly to see them acting like this. He'd told them already that he wouldn't hurt them, or at least he'd told Bulma, but they were still acting like he was dangerous. Why couldn't they see that he wasn't?

He bent down and Bulma put her arm around his shoulder so that he could pick her up, and she was stiff in his hands. Puar landed on Bulma's tummy rather than cling to his shoulder like she did with Vegeta and Bulma.

'I already told you, I won't hurt either of you,' he said.

'Yeah, I know you won't,' said Bulma, but she didn't sound at all sure of it.


Vegeta took off, his body as tight as an arrow loosed from the bow as he shot from Guru's house and out to where he could sense the cesspit of Frieza's aura. He was so fast now that he had to form a chi shield around himself to stop from being blinded by the air drilling into his face. His target awaited him on the edge of an island in the widest part of the lagoon. In the fraction of a second before Vegeta connected, a blast of chi exploded out of Frieza like a rolling wall of wind. It couldn't have stopped him, but he decided to stop anyway. He didn't have, nor in his estimation did he now need the element of surprise, so for the sake of curiosity he would take the time to hear what his old master, his old slave master had to say for himself before launching straight into an attack.

Frieza was the same as he always had been – the mauve skin of his face and the pink hide of his arms and legs as smooth as ever, his face as youthful, red eyes gleaming and lips dark and shining. He'd never looked as dangerous as Vegeta knew he was. The sharp, black horns that protruded from either side of his head were the only true indicators of what resided inside that skull. Those burgundy lips were currently flattened into a line and his eyes were as hard and cold as ice chips. Habitual fear assailed Vegeta for a second – this was Frieza, the one who had held the power of life and death over him for most of his life – but then he bit down, clinging tight to the knowledge that he was so much more than he had been last time he stood before his master.

Frieza's expression was not the slightest bit amused. He had no smile for Vegeta, his eyes almost bulging as he touched down on the edge of the island. It put him on edge – he knew Frieza, and Frieza enjoyed mocking his enemies with an air of good humour and manners. Instead, his old master was staring, his eyes darting around his body before returning to his face. Vegeta saw the muscles of Frieza's jaw flex, and a tiny movement caught his eye – his pink tail quivering with pent up emotion. Most of the purple tip was gone, and the chunky stump left was quite disgusting. Vegeta had never had the chance to see the result of the black-hole-bomb. The sight of that and of Frieza struggling to contain himself made him feel powerful again, and he laughed into the silence that hung between them.

'Close your mouth, Vegeta!' Frieza snapped.

'Make me,' Vegeta replied, knowing that the insolence would enrage him, and it did. Frieza's fists clenched and he hissed.

'Vegeta!'

He'd never seen Frieza without something to say before. It looked like the lizard could barely keep a handle on his anger, and he started laughing again. Nothing would be funnier than Frieza pursuing him for years, full of rage, only to be die at last by the one he pursued!

'You should be on your knees before me, begging for mercy!' cried Frieza.

'I don't know that I should be doing anything. Maybe it's you that should be begging me?'

Sparks of pink electricity crackled over Frieza's hands and arms. He was so angry he was having trouble containing himself within his first form. The long awaited confrontation was here, and Frieza was appalled at his own lack of mental organisation. Seeing Vegeta animated was at once edifying – after all, he had been searching for him for long enough – and at the same time deeply cutting, almost as if the betrayal happened yesterday. Vegeta had grown, but what threw him the most was his attitude. Vegeta had always been cocky, but he'd never spoken to him this way. No one did, or obviously they would be dead! Was this what Vegeta had felt for him all along? The possibility, always remote, that Vegeta had only accidentally delivered him a live black-hole-detonator seemed ludicrous now. He'd been betrayed without a doubt by some cur of a Saiyan it turned out he'd never truly known.

'It's not like you to be speechless, my Lord,' said Vegeta playfully. 'Are you considering bowing down after all? Because I'd like to see it, though it won't save your life.'

The sheer bombastic nature of that statement shook Frieza out of his daze. He stood straighter, relaxing his shoulders. No one had talked to him in such a manner for centuries at least, and Vegeta had neither the excuse of ignorance or massive power.

'Have you lost your mind, Vegeta? That would explain what you did maybe, and also why you are attempting to bait me. Are you in a hurry to die? Don't worry, I will eventually kill you, but it may take some time, I'm afraid.'

Vegeta lost some of his amused look. 'I didn't lose anything, unlike you,' he said with a nod at Frieza's tail. 'I tell you what I've gained though… Power.' Vegeta paused, his eyes darkening. 'I have become…the Super Saiyan!'

The bolt of shock had Frieza taking a half step backwards before he caught hold of himself. Had he not read the reports on Vegeta's conduct in field and arena battle? Had he not witnessed some of his fights himself? Vegeta was known for talking up his game, and this was undoubtedly a bluff. And if it wasn't, well… the silly family legend meant nothing anyway. So what if some weaker ancestor was almost destroyed by a Super Saiyan? He was not his ordinary Ice Demon forefather.

He chuckled himself, and then laughed heartily. 'You tell yourself anything that makes you feel better!'

'Well, if you don't believe me, I guess I'll have to demonstrate.'

Vegeta seemed to swell with the massive breath he took, and then he threw his head back and growled between clenched teeth. Frieza snorted, wondering what this little fit was about, but then the wind began to rush around them, centering on the Saiyan, and the unmistakeable prickle of chi filled the air.

'Hmm?'

The ground began to shake, and Vegeta's aura became visible; a blue flame that almost swallowed him, and chi crackled brightly over his skin. Bits of dirt and rock and water drops from the lagoon behind Vegeta started to levitate and then dance in the energy field that Vegeta surrounded himself with. Frieza had seen smaller displays such as this before, and it was akin to a small scale transformation. Perhaps Vegeta had become the Super –

No! He couldn't allow that that was true!

Frieza took a step forward, hand coming up to offer his own energy in the form of a devastating attack, but Vegeta gasped and the field of energy expanded again and again, pulverising the rocks and boiling the water, and knocking Frieza back when it hit him.

Frieza cried out in surprise. It wasn't as if he couldn't have kept his feet, but he just hadn't expected something so strong. Attacking using only the force of aura was something that Frieza was able to do, but not a move he expected from others! Vegeta screamed too, whatever he was up to seeming to reach a crescendo. The aura snapped back into him and all the movement stopped. There was just Vegeta standing there, a grin of anticipation on his face and the rush of almost invisible energy passing over him like a waterfall in reverse.

'What is going on here?' Frieza muttered. And then Vegeta attacked.

Attacked! Him!

Despite his shock, Frieza had the wits still to be ready to defend himself, and Vegeta's first blow, a flying fist from overhead, crashed into Frieza's raised forearm. He was gone again before Frieza's retaliating blow could connect. Turning, he caught the movement but was too late to stop Vegeta from grabbing him by the tail and wrenching. Frieza turned into the movement, accelerating his tail past the speed that Vegeta was pulling it, and flicked the cretin off, but he was left shaken. No one had gotten such a move on him since he and Cooler would wrestle as children over the right to rule father's Empire.

Vegeta careened through the air but caught himself with a burst of chi that sprayed water in all directions. While his back was too him, Frieza pressed the button for a power reading on his scouter. Vegeta turned, still grinning.

'Believe me yet?'

The numbers on the scouter screen raced up and up, and then Vegeta flared his chi and the thing exploded.

'Gah!' Frieza didn't spare the pride to be ashamed at his cry of shock. Something was happening to the Saiyans – this was the second time he'd been hurt by one today.

'I have ascended!' roared Vegeta. 'Your end is here!'

That was rather on top. Yes, Vegeta's power was surprisingly increased, but so was his arrogance, it seemed.

'Do you think you have me beaten?' Frieza scoffed, charging the fingertips of one hand at the same time. 'You haven't seen anything yet, you ignorant whelp! I haven't even begun to punish you!'

He raised his hand, slicing it through the air in an arc that spread the purple energy out like a flying scythe toward Vegeta. The monkey phased out, but Frieza was ready to follow the movement this time. He chased Vegeta out over the water towards the far shore, and when Vegeta slowed to look behind him Frieza was on him in a second, one clawed foot landing in the middle of his back. Now for his party trick – Frieza sped up, appearing in front of Vegeta's hurtling body and punching him in the gut. Vegeta felt as supple as an iron girder wrapping itself around his fist, but that was to be expected.

'HA!' said Frieza, amused that Vegeta appeared to be knocked senseless by the one contact, his limbs hanging limp. 'Done already, sweet prince? I didn't have to transform after all!'

Vegeta shifted on his fist, and then moved like lightning, striking out with one leg into his chest. Frieza was knocked backwards, his armour cracked open while Vegeta hung in the air, not even winded. Well damn. Vegeta was a trickster – he'd do well to hold that in mind.

'I'm not the slightest bit done,' Vegeta said. 'And what's this you say about a transformation?'

Frieza hesitated, considering his next words carefully. If Vegeta was still the same as ever, he could be easily goaded into something by suggesting that it was beyond him. With affectedly relaxed movements he broke the last of the broken purple armour form his chest. The armour was only for show, after all. Underneath, his white torso and purple thoracic plate were untouched.

'Did you think that this meagre form was all there was to me?' he asked. 'This is just the form I use to contain my energy. You see, it's so inconveniently large as to pose a danger to the physical world around me. It's hard to enjoy a glass of wine when one's mere proximity shatters the glass.'

Vegeta looked sceptical. 'You're bluffing.'

'No, Vegeta, you are bluffing. I admit, defeating you in this form might be a tall ask, but in my next...' Frieza smiled. 'All I need is a moment.'


The trip to the bay that held the clam and the dragonball with Bulma cradled in his arms was a very short one. Bulma was dirty, damp, and drenched in the stink of stress and fear, but under it all she still smelled like her, which was something wonderful to Brolly. When he put her down in the next bay he let go of her a little reluctantly.

They found the huge clam and Brolly yanked the shell open while Bulma reached inside to get it out, and then they had the three star ball too.

'Now where are the last two?' Bulma wondered aloud as she pulled the radar out.

'With Frieza,' replied Brolly, and Bulma and Puar made noises of dismay, but they didn't sound that surprised.

Bulma looked down at the radar and turned until she was facing out into the lagoon, then looked up, her voice suddenly tight as she said. 'Well then, that means Frieza is less than a kilometre in that direction!'

Right at that moment another massive crack sounded across the water. The fighting had started again.

'Shit! Who's fighting now?' she cried.

'Frieza and Vegeta,' Brolly replied, feeling their chi without effort. Both of them were large enough that they were inescapable. 'Vegeta must've just got out of Guru's house.' His heart had begun to settle over the last couple of minutes, but now it sped up again, and he began to tremble. This was it – if Vegeta couldn't beat Frieza then they were absolutely defenceless. He'd felt Ngata's chi be snuffed out by Frieza's massive blast, and he had no idea how Vegeta was meant to overcome power like that.

Bulma and Puar gasped and Bulma sat down suddenly on the sand.

'Oh, no,' she moaned.

'What is it?' he asked, afraid that something else was wrong.

'Did you see that blast before? I just don't see how Vegeta can win!'

Brolly said nothing while he watched and sensed. Blasts were traded over the water, pink and blue, and he could feel Vegeta's chi spiking up and down, sometimes settling low but raising high in an instant. Frieza's was far more static. And his peaks were not as high as Vegeta's. He smiled.

'I think Vegeta is holding back. He's stronger than Frieza!'

'Really?'

And then the area around the combat pulsed with pink light.


Miles away on the opposite shore of the lagoon the rest of the Saiyans and one Earthling watched the pulsing too. Goku's eyes were glued to the fight. He'd been surprised that Guru had unlocked Vegeta's potential after the fuss he'd made over Raditz, but he had and that was surely a good thing. Krillin had given up worrying about being out in the open – ever since Vegeta had come screaming out of Guru's house like a comet on fire with chi, he'd been as unable to look away as the Saiyans. At this distance they couldn't actually see much, but they could feel seas of energy crashing against each other.

'Whad'ya reckon that is?' asked Raditz.

'Not good!' was Tarble's guess.

'Yeah, it feels like Frieza's energy is increasing,' said Goku, his attention far out over the water. 'I hope Vegeta knows what he's doing.'

'Holy Mountain,' said Nappa sitting down heavily. 'I never thought I'd…'

'What?' asked Krillin when he didn't go on. His voice trembled, but Goku didn't blame him – things were uncertain right now.

'Never thought I'd see Vegeta face Frieza. At least… not with more than a Tuffle's chance of beating him.'

Raditz huffed in laughter. 'Oh, Vegeta. Where would we be without you?'

'Living a long and peaceful life?' Krillin suggested. Raditz only laughed again.

The pulsing stopped and the group took a collective gasp. It was as if Frieza had just had his potential unlocked – the sense of him was suddenly overwhelming!

'Oh, fuck, no! Get out of there, Vegeta!' growled Nappa, seeming to go back on what he'd just said.

'I wonder if Puar is still with him?' said Krillin. Goku felt his stomach drop – he had no idea where Puar or Bulma were or how they were doing.

'For the cat's sake, I hope not,' said Raditz, not taking his eyes off the battlefield.

'I could ask her!' said Goku, reaching for his transponder. 'Her and Bulma both!' But Nappa reached over to grab his hand and pull it away.

'No! I don't want you breaking the prince's concentration.'

'Uh. Of course. But I could call them over the Earthling channel. Then only they would hear.'

'Earthling channel? You mean you've got a private Earthling channel?' Nappa shot back to his feet again. 'You treacherous, fucking Earthlings! I ought to kill you!'

Krillin and Goku both leapt to their feet. Goku had forgotten that Nappa didn't know about that, and Nappa was in a particularly bad mood right now. Goku looked at Krillin, who lifted his chin. If they had to deal with Nappa now, he was ready. Tarble and Raditz backed away, looking between the three like they weren't sure if they should get involved or not.

'In-fighting? Seems to be a trend amongst you Earthlings and Saiyans.'

They all turned to the source of the deep, throaty voice, and Goku felt horror prickle over his skin – they had been snuck up on by some PTO guy with pink skin, a spiked and ridged head and purple chopped-liver lips. He was really ugly and really powerful. They must have been so intent on the two enormous powers in front of them that they failed to sense lesser powers coming up from behind, but Goku suspected that lesser than Frieza though he was, this pink guy was powerful enough to cause them some serious and even fatal problems.

Should have been on the lookout for others! Goku told himself off.

The guy stood on the top of the low hill behind them, a dozen other soldiers arrayed behind him, three of them holding Namekian hostages. For a few seconds no one said anything, and then Nappa found his voice.

'What do you want, Dodoria?'

Oh, so that was Dodoria.

Dodoria laughed. 'Well, while I admire your stones for disrespecting me like that, monkey, all I really want is to clean you all up like the sentient waste that you are.'

Then he opened his mouth wider and an unbelievable river of chi burst forth at them. Goku screamed and threw himself out of the way, crashing into Krillin and Tarble as they all went tumbling. The edge of the cliff they'd been standing on was obliterated, and out in the lagoon the water exploded up, vapourising into a column of steam where it hit. When the flow ended they were left facing Raditz and Nappa on the other side of a channel cut in the rock. The two adult Saiyans looked nearly as annoyed as Goku was. They all had no excuse for letting their guard down, and now they were all in trouble.

Dodoria swaggered forth, coming down the hill with another offering of chi streaming from his mouth. He waved his head from side to side like he was a fire-breathing dragon, and the boys scrambled further from the arc of his destruction, taking to the air.

Goku grit his teeth and drew on his chi at the same time as he dodged.

'Kamehameha!'

Krillin was fleeing in the opposite direction, but as the cyan ball of Goku's Kamehameha wave zipped past him to hit Dodoria, his friend looked up at him in surprise and did an about-face. The Kamehameha wave didn't stop Dodoria, but it definitely knocked him about; the river of chi he was still spewing abruptly stopped while he looked around for the source of the attack. Spotting Goku, he moved so quickly into the air that Goku could barely keep his eyes on him, and raised his fist, charging it with chi. And then Krillin crashed into Dodoria's side, foot first, making him lurch. Goku saw the impact roll through Dodoria's body and Krillin still hanging there, looking surprised at what he'd done. Dodoria meanwhile, recovered quickly and his eyes landed on Krillin.

'Why, you little-' But the end of his sentence was lost as Goku hit him with the energy wave he'd been cooking up. Dodoria shook it off, snarling, but suddenly Tarble was there next to Goku, his fingers charged with his own chi. Raditz and Nappa floated up on the far side of Dodoria. They were out above the water, away from the rest of his men, and they had him surrounded.

'Huh?' grunted Dodoria, only just recognising the strategic misstep. 'Do you pipsqueaks think you're any threat to me at all?'

'What are we waiting for?' yelled Raditz. 'Attack!'

The next minute was brutal. They couldn't all attack at once, but they could attack unceasingly. Cornered, Dodoria fought earnestly and then indiscriminately, seeking to maim, blind or kill anyone, attacking or not. They all dodged and ducked chi, both Dodoria's and each other's. Krillin got clipped by a fist that he was not fast enough to dodge and it hit his wrist, and he fell back with a cry before re-joining the fight with one arm clutched to his chest. Nappa and Raditz fought in a way Goku had never seen before; savage, desperate, but cautious. None of their attacks was devastating, but the relentlessness of five against one was starting to overwhelm the General. Goku pulled back – he could hear Dodoria's harsh breaths under the yells and cracks and blasts. This isn't what he meant to happen when he attacked Dodoria – he was just going to fight him one on one!

One of the soldiers barked an order and suddenly most of the troops came at them from the shore side. Goku abandoned the unequal fight to hold them off with Tarble. Straight off the bat, one of Tarble's Scallion Shots hit a soldier and went straight through him – they could both see daylight on the far side of the guy's body before he dropped like a stone, and Tarble stopped still, staring in shock, and in that split second got hit by a bolt of chi from Dodoria from behind.

'Tarble!'

The boy was launched through the soldiers and dropped to the ground behind them. Goku lunged after him, fighting soldiers as he went. One, two, three, soldiers fell, and then Tarble was back in the air, grimacing and white faced, but still able to help Goku finish off the last four. Goku was reasonably certain that most of them were only knocked out, but there was no time for finesse.

As the last one fell to the edge of the clifftop, Goku looked up at the three soldiers with the hostages. They looked nervous, but not as nervous as the Namekians they gripped in neckholds. There was an old, a young and a kid Namekian. The skinny young one yelled out, 'Help us!'

Goku was about to go after them, but Tarble grabbed his arm.

'They're getting the upper hand!' he yelled.

Switching focus, Goku became aware of Dodoria's cries and curses.

Raditz got Dodoria a good one in the chest, and then Nappa hit him from behind with a knee to the spine while he was going after Raditz. Dodoria gave a strangled scream and continued fighting, but Krillin landed another kick in the back of his head. Dodoria slipped a bit in the air, then flew back towards the cliff and it looked as if he was trying to get away from the trio. Goku started to flush red with the shame of what he was seeing, even from his own friend.

'Hey, this isn't right, guys!' he yelled, but no one could or would stop. 'This isn't a fair fight!'

'This is life or death, kiddo!' said Nappa.

Krillin grimaced. 'But there's no way any one of us could defeat him alone!'

Tarble joined in again, hitting the General with another series of Scallion Shots, which he was able to deflect though he looked dazed with pain, but it distracted him long enough for Raditz to come down on him from above, his foot smashing into his collarbone. They all heard the crunch, and Dodoria fell, plummeting earthwards. Instead of hitting the hill or the water, he landed on the very edge of the cliff, throwing his arms out to stop himself going over. He let out a yell of agony.

'Stop!' yelled Goku as they all flocked to surround their prey again. 'We defeated him already!'

'No, we didn't!' replied Nappa. 'He's still alive!'

'No!' shouted Goku. 'Where is the honour in fighting a man who can't even defend himself any longer?'

To their surprise Dodoria moaned and tried to speak, fingers scrabbling in the dirt as he tried to pull himself onto the clifftop. 'If you let me go, I…I promise I won't fight anymore. I won't help Frieza.'

'See?' said Goku.

'Yeah, he's right,' said Krillin, finally looking ashamed of himself. 'We can't kill him in cold blood. Then we'd be no better than Frieza.'

'You're idiots,' said Nappa flatly. 'You can't leave a dangerous, lying bastard like the General here to see the light or whatever it is you're proposing.'

Dodoria made it onto the cliff finally by rolling his bulk over the edge. He moaned again when he landed on his back, and then made it up to his knees, still breathing hard. He was streaked with purple blood, grazed, scorched, and covered with dust from the cliff.

'I say kill him while we have the chance,' said Raditz.

Tarble looked across at Goku and then flushed pink, looking like he might be regretting that last Scallion Shot. 'I'm with Goku,' he said. 'I don't like it, but it does feel wrong to just…kill him.'

'Three against two,' said Krillin.

'It's not a fucking poll,' said Nappa.

'Please!' said Dodoria. He looked up the hill at the three soldiers who were shifting nervously.

'We'll let you go if you and your men leave, and let those Namekians go,' Goku offered.

Dodoria's bloodied face looked surprised, and then he grinned, showing off broken teeth. 'No deal.'

'W-what should we do, General?' one of the soldiers stammered out.

'Stay there,' said Dodoria. 'If any one of these Namek-loving monkeys touches me, kill the Nameks.'

The Namekians made piteous whimpers.

Goku went froze, as did Krillin and Tarble. Not so much Nappa though.

'You think I care about some snivelling plant-people?' he said as Dodoria began crawling away. Dodoria didn't answer though, and he struggled on, finally making it to his feet to climb the small incline to his men. 'You fat bastard!' yelled Nappa. 'I hated taking every order from you!' Then he turned to Raditz. 'You know he's just going to get into some regen tank somewhere and continue to be a bad smell hanging about the Galaxy, right?'

'Yeah,' said Raditz.

Goku felt the sudden spike of chi, and he rushed forward with a yell, but he wasn't fast enough to stop Nappa as he leapt forward and hit Dodoria with a huge blast right between the shoulder blades. It went straight through him, into the hill, cracking the rise that the soldiers were standing atop. In the second of confusion that followed, the soldier with the older Namek froze in place, the one with the kid bolted and the one with the young Namek sent a blast of chi in one of the boy's ears, splattering his brains out the other.

Goku froze, a feeling like an electric shock travelling every nerve to the end of his fingers, toes and tail.

And then his body moved, feeling electrified and hypercharged, seeing red as he went into action, time slowing down and the air feeling like syrup as he charged the last soldier with a hostage. The soldier lifted his hand, oh so slowly, his mouth coming open with fright as he saw Goku on his way, his palm filling with a ball of chi as he angled his wrist at the hostage…

And then Goku hit, both fists held in front of him like a battering ram to the chestplate of the soldier. The armour shattered, bits scratching Goku's face as his fists sunk deeper, below the ribcage and by that time it was too late to curb the blow, as his fists went through the soldier, and a sickening feeling of heat and wetness, and bones shattering over his knuckles as he turned his face away, lodged shoulder deep in the man's gut. The three of them skidded across the ground with the impact, the Namekian rolling free, and Goku pulling away from the soldier's body in disgust.

His eyes landed on the one who had killed his hostage. The bat-earred man looked terrified now, and leapt into the air, but time was still moving slowly for Goku. He put an arm out, throwing his essence, his chi, almost instinctively. The golden light arced out and pierced the soldier's armour. He exploded.

The cries of shock came from behind him.

'Oh, my god, Goku!'

'Hell's breath, brother!'

Nappa laughed like he'd just heard the funniest joke ever. 'Kakarott, you little hypocrite!'

Still breathing hard with rage, Goku began to come down and feel the reality of what he'd done. Blood coated his arms – it was dark maroon blood, but it was undeniably blood; it smelt, felt and - Goku spat - tasted like blood. He knelt down on the grass to wipe the worst of it off, and found the body of the young Namek staring at him a few metres away. The old Namek was staggering toward him.

'Oh, Caraco!' he wept. 'Caraco!'

Goku began to shake, tears flooding his eyes. He never cried, but he could feel he was close to it now. That innocent Namek was tall and gangly like Brolly, and probably their age too, and this old man cared for him. None of them deserved what happened to them. Blinking, he wiped his eyes on the shoulder of his training suit and stood up again. Krillin rushed up to him but as he saw Goku's blood-coated front he flinched away, going pale. He looked like he didn't know what to do or say. Goku didn't know either.

'I had to do something,' he said.

'Yeah, I know,' replied Krillin. The real question was, did he have to do that?

'I'm sorry I couldn't save him too,' he said to the Namek.

The old man shook his head. 'It wasn't your fault. Poor Caraco! But maybe it's better that he's dead than making Frieza's wish for him.'

'What?' asked Krillin. 'What do you mean?'

'I mean…' Suddenly the Namek stopped and started looking around wildly. 'Where is little Lomnenke?'

'Who?'

'Lomnenke – the sproutling!'

Goku looked up too, self-absorption melting away again. He'd forgotten about the third hostage for a moment.

'He'll be taken to Frieza to help him make his wish for immortality!' screamed the Namek. 'No! You must find him!'

Goku jumped into the air, as did Krillin, Tarble and Raditz, looking around. One of the PTO's shore ships was over a hill in a shallow valley, and here and there, just barely visible in the distance, were dozens of flying figures.

He reached out with his chi sense, and after trying to block out the noise of Vegeta and Frieza's battle, looked for smaller energies, but there were so many.

'It's like a needle in a haystack!' said Krillin. 'What are we going to do?'

'Only one thing to do,' said Raditz. 'Hunt them all down. We'll split up to cover more ground.' He looked below them at the ground.

'Hey, Nappa!'

Nappa was at Dodoria's perforated body, rolling it over. As Goku watched he sent a beam of chi between Dodoria's eyes and then jumped up to join them. Goku's stomach turned.

'Just finishing the job,' Nappa said.

The ground was littered with bodies.

'If you hadn't have killed Dodoria this wouldn't have happened!' he accused Nappa.

Nappa's brows went up. 'Suck that attitude back up, you stupid brat. If you're talking about the worthless dead turnips that's on you.'

'What do you mean?'

'You were the one that told Dodoria exactly what you cared about!' roared Nappa. 'I doubt he'd have thought to use them as leverage without you opening your big mouth. Now you're all, boo-hoo, the Namek is dead!'

Goku was struck silent by a horrible mix of rage and guilt. He went to rub his hands across his face and stopped when he saw the wet blood smears all over himself. For a moment he saw himself from above; a boy covered in blood, his victims scattered below, and wondered who this person was. Then with a jarring snap he was back inside himself, frightened by a strange sense that he didn't know himself. There wasn't time to ponder it though.

'They mostly seem to be in that direction,' said Raditz, waving towards the ship. 'Let's fan out and go hunting!'


'Ah!' Vegeta uttered, the exclamation tumbling out as doubt suddenly assailed him. Where the familiar form of Frieza had been there was now a creature almost twice as tall, muscles bulging, horns long and wicked looking. Whereas Frieza always appeared a little childlike, this form was terrifyingly adult. However, his appearance was not as terrifying as the power that now blossomed from him.

'You should feel privileged,' said Frieza, wearing a smirk of absolute confidence. Even his voice had changed. 'It's a mark of how powerful you have become; not many people have seen me in my second form.'

'Second form?'

Frieza's laugh was rich and deep now. 'Yes! I'll let you in on a little secret as you are going to be dead very soon anyway. I have four forms, the fourth one being the one I was born in. Maybe a handful of warriors I have encountered in my years have required me to stretch myself this far, and none have ever required me to use my third form. I am simply that powerful.'

Vegeta battled the urge to fly away. Sweat was trickling down his temples. He had to keep himself and his focus together. Yes, this was unexpected and intimidating, but he hadn't yet scaled the heights of his new power. The fight could go either way.

Frieza frowned now, casting a hard eye over him. 'Well, you certainly have grown into yourself, haven't you? The littlest prince is practically a man now.'

Vegeta said nothing, biting down on his anger just like the many other times Frieza had patronised him when he was younger.

'I am surprised at the progress of your power though. Nothing about you suggested you would be capable of this level of combat. I find it suspicious. Have you already made a wish?'

Vegeta was insulted by the accusation. 'No! I can promise you this is all me!' But as he said it, part of him felt like a liar. He'd needed Guru's help to get him this far. But it was all inside me, right? I just needed it unlocked. 'Are you going to fight me or talk me to death?'

Frieza crossed his arms, looking even less like he was about to fight.

'After all this time I think that I deserve some explanations before you die. Don't you?'

'What explanations?'

Frieza's fury surfaced, distorting his face with a snarl. 'Like why you tried to kill me, you traitor!'

Vegeta stared. Was he serious? 'Why do you think?'

Frieza took a moment and then a deep breath in. 'Ambition! Coupled with stupidity and lack of gratitude.'

'Gratitude?' hissed Vegeta. 'What do I have to be grateful for?'

'For the charity and honour I showed to your dead father by keeping my promise to him. I told him I would keep you safe as long as you were obedient, and even after he died I kept that promise!'

'After he died?' snarled Vegeta. 'After you killed him, you mean!'

'Oh, so you know about that?' said Frieza, not even shocked at the revelation. 'Yes, I had to kill him, Vegeta, because it turned out he was a traitorous bastard like someone else I know. We had an agreement – I would look after you in return for the Saiyans' continued loyalty. And look how long that lasted – barely two weeks before he stormed my ship, hoping to murder me. It was pathetic, but it was a bald-faced betrayal. I had no choice but to kill him for his insurrection. So yes, I do think it was charitable of me to keep you alive after that. After all, your father was the one that broke our contract. I was well within my rights to destroy you in return.'

Vegeta felt chills travel down his spine at Frieza's cold logic. 'Maybe I should be grateful that you spared me, but you left out that you also destroyed my planet! All my people!'

Frieza's stern face broke into a smile at those words, and he actually chuckled.

'You're laughing at that?' Vegeta roared. 'What's so funny about destroying everything that was mine?'

'Oh, Vegeta, you should have seen the show! All those fireworks, all those stupid monkeys thinking they were there for a celebration and then roasting to death in the blast!'

That was too much for Vegeta. He'd blown planets up himself and laughed with the same sentiments towards the pathetic creatures whose security had just been obliterated by his unimaginable power over their lives and deaths, but to listen to Frieza laugh at his own people? The humiliation of it burned like acid!

Power began flooding up into him, filling his chest, burning into his muscles. 'I hate you!' he shouted, launching himself towards Frieza. 'I HATE YOU!'

Frieza was still laughing as he lifted an arm to deflect Vegeta, but his smarmy expression disappeared when instead of wiping aside Vegeta's blow, he was thrown back and tumbled away to splash-land in the shallow waters. Vegeta followed through swiftly, zeroing in on the lizard's chi, his breath hissing from him in rage. Frieza exploded back out of the water, arms outreached for Vegeta, snarling, but Vegeta had already anticipated that move. He loosed his Galik Gun directly in Frieza's upturned face.

The whole world was lit with the intense purple light of the blast. It shot down into the water, taking his enemy with it. There was a flash and an explosion, then steam, mud and bedrock erupted back up. Vegeta had to shield himself from the outfall of his own attack, hiding his face from the light and the debris. For a moment he was afraid he'd gone too far and maybe shot a hole through to the core of the planet, but when his eyesight recovered enough to see the deep crater below him, it didn't look like it had cracked the planet. Frieza's form could be seen, tiny, in the pit. Then the waters of the lagoon recoiled and began to fill in the crater. Vegeta stared down at it all, in awe of his own power.


'Oh jeez, oh JEEZ!' screeched Bulma, throwing herself into Brolly's arms. Puar grabbed on too, claws digging in as Brolly rocketed upwards over the tsunami that rolled out from the centre of the lagoon. A six metre wall of water rushed up the bay, snapping the Ajisa trees and surging over the cliffs behind it. From their position above it all Bulma saw some of the water wash over the back of the hill while the rest peaked and then dropped back, starting to be sucked back into the lagoon.

'If you hadn't been there, we would have died for sure!' Puar said to Brolly. Bulma felt Brolly's arms tighten around her.

'Then it's a really good thing I found you,' he said.

'That was Vegeta's blast, wasn't it?' Bulma asked, her voice shaking. She wasn't sure if she was guessing or if she could really tell.

'Yes,' replied Brolly. 'And he almost killed you with it.'

Bulma said nothing. She knew that Vegeta wasn't thinking about her and probably didn't even know she was out here. His power was awe-inspiring and dangerous, but it wasn't his fault it had almost killed her. Obviously she was far too close to this fight for someone without super-speed and the power of flight. The last two balls were out somewhere in the midst of it though.

Suddenly Brolly turned in the air to face along the shore that Puar and Bulma had made their way along.

'Brolly!' she heard, and then clapped eyes on a tiny, green dot of a Namek flying towards them.

'Nail!' yelled Brolly. The Namekian zoomed towards them, and actually didn't get much bigger. Bulma found herself looking at a pint-sized cutie-pie of a Namek in a torn-up, purple stained tunic, regarding them with an expression of utmost urgency.

'Brolly, I tried to find the wish orbs that we hid over there, but the areas they were in have been obliterated!' he blurted out. 'Can your people find them again? You have those devices for finding them, right?'

'Who are you?' asked Bulma.

Nail glanced at her for just a moment. 'I'm Nail, Grand Elder Guru's body guard. Brolly, can you?'

'I don't have a radar,' Brolly said, 'but we do have those dragonballs.'

'You do?' said Nail. 'Wow, you were fast!'

'Actually, Puar and I collected them,' said Bulma.

'Huh?' said the kid. 'But how? Surely you can't even fly?'

'We did it the old fashioned way,' she said with annoyance. 'Flying isn't everything, you know!'

The Nail kid looked a trifle embarrassed. 'Oh, of course.'

'I'm Bulma, by the way, not that you asked.'

'Um, pleased to meet you.'

'And I'm Puar!' interjected the cat.

'Sorry, there isn't much time for polite introductions! Brolly, how many balls do we need now?'

'Only the two balls that Frieza has,' answered Brolly, without hesitation. The two seemed rather chummy, and that ticked Bulma off when so much was on the line.

'Who is this little guy, Brolly? Can we trust him?'

Brolly hesitated before nodding. 'Yes. Nail is the strongest of the Namekian warriors.'

'What?' she replied, disbelieving. 'But he doesn't look more than four years old!'

'I'm seven!' objected Nail, breaking back into the conversation.

'Seven still makes you a little kid,' she said, and then she recalled a similarly baffling conversation. 'Wait a minute - how long is a Namekian year?'

'Six months,' replied Nail.

'And how long is a month in Galactic time?'

'Slightly longer a galactic month I believe.'

Bulma's jaw hinged open. That was even younger than she'd thought!

'He's like two and a half years old! Or not even two in Galactic years! He's a toddler!'

Brolly frowned; it appeared he hadn't known that.

'He is very strong though – I've seen him in action. He can help us get the last two balls.'

'And he'd do that just to help us?'

Brolly shook his head. 'He'll use some of the wishes to send all the outsiders away from Planet Namek.'

'I need a wish for Earth!' she said, looking at Nail in alarm.

'I know,' replied Nail. 'The Grand Elder says you can have that wish, but I will make the rest for the sake of my own people.'

Bulma cringed - she had promised Vegeta and they would both get a wish and she didn't want to betray him all over again. 'We need two wishes though – one for Earth and one for our friend Vegeta.'

Nail looked horrified. 'So that he can wish for his immortality? That can't be! Not when I can use the last wish to make my people safe!'

Bulma glanced up at Brolly. This Nail boy seemed to know all about them and their aims. Brolly just looked back at her, his expression was helpless.

'Vegeta's not here,' he said.

Bulma made a face, about to propose ditching Nail, but almost as if reading her mind Nail said, 'You need me to make your wish! The wishes have to be made in Ancient Namekian, and I don't think you know that language, do you?'

Bulma was unable to totally hide the dismay on her face. Tsuno hadn't mentioned a language barrier to making a wish! She swallowed her guilt and turned to Nail with false brightness.

'Well, it's a good job we're sticking together, then!'

Vegeta was going to be really, really pissed, but only if he survived. She pulled herself up in Brolly's arms to look out over the lagoon. Lights began to flash again, glittering on the huge waves rolling back and forth in what was left of the lagoon. He was still alive. They were both still alive.


Frieza was not dead. Though he'd lain still as the waters poured over him, now that he was hidden from sight, Vegeta could feel his unmissable chi darting about under the water. He caught a streak of movement and flew down closer to the water, stalking Frieza from above. He took a pot shot, and then another with no result. Back and forth Frieza's chi went, and Vegeta followed, growing more and more confused. Why wouldn't he come out and fight? He took a few more shots, trying to divine Frieza's position accurately with his chi sense, but only put more craters in the lakebed before he gave up. He considered going down there but he didn't like the look of the angry water. He'd wait up here. Frieza would have to come out sometime.

'Do we know where the wish orbs are?' asked Nail.

'Somewhere out there towards the middle,' replied Bulma. She couldn't even pick out the island they'd seen before. The water level of the lagoon had dropped, plus with the enormous waves sloshing back and forth, islands of rock were revealed only to be submerged a moment later. 'I do have a radar though.' She dug it out of her pocket, turned it on, orientated it and pointed. Brolly turned to face where she was pointing – slightly to the North of where the fighting was, just as a white hot bolt of chi slammed down into the area. Brolly flinched, Puar began trembling, and Bulma's own heart quailed.

'There?' whispered Puar.

'You don't need to come,' Bulma said, feeling terribly noble for it. 'It would be dumb for both of us to risk it. You've got another dragon radar if...the worst happens.'

'Good idea,' said Nail. 'One of us should remain here, too, Brolly.'

'I could stay here with Bulma,' said Brolly. Puar whimpered.

'No, I'm going, Puar is the back up,' said Bulma. She'd already offered Puar to stay, plus it might almost be worse to watch someone else sticking their neck out there.

They all looked at Brolly expectantly. Brolly clenched his jaw but said nothing.

'I will take Bulma,' said Nail at last.

'No!' said Brolly quickly. 'I'll do it.' To Bulma's surprise she felt him start to shake too.

'Are you sure?'

'Yes. Let's just go.'

Puar floated away to hang beside Nail.

'Keep low, go slow and keep your energy down,' Nail suggested to Brolly. 'There's less chance of being noticed that way.'

'Put me on your back,' Bulma ordered. 'So you have your arms free.'

There was a bit of a struggle as Brolly gently hoisted her over his shoulder and she tried to turn and get her legs round without falling off his skinny shoulders a hundred metres in the air. Nail ended up holding her steady, but she got settled.

'Ready?' asked Brolly.

'Ready.'


Something out over the edge of what used to be the shore caught Vegeta's eye and he noticed for the first time distant figures in the air. Who was that? He reached out, wondering if he could sense lesser energies than Frieza's at such a distance. Was it Nappa and Raditz and the brats arrived at last? He could feel…Brolly and someone else and…more a hunch than a real sensing, Bulma. That's too close, he thought darkly. She's going to get herself killed.

In that moment of distraction, Frieza shot from the water directly at Vegeta. Like an idiot Vegeta instinctually tried to back away from the lizard, going upwards when it would have made more sense to go sideways, but before he could correct himself Frieza caught him, his hard head ramming into Vegeta's stomach. Vegeta was winded for real this time, and his side gashed by one of Frieza's horns. He kneed Frieza in the face for his effort, then as Frieza cried out and stopped, he grabbed one horn in each hand and held on tight, driving a toe into Frieza's eye socket, making him howl. The big hands came up to grab him, and though he tried to evade him, Frieza did get one hand on an ankle and pulled; the other, he had to use to fend his face as Vegeta didn't let up kicking him in the eyes. Vegeta pulled back against the hand, hauling in with his biceps and stomach muscles for all he was worth to stop himself from being stretched out by the ice lizard.

'Get off!' yelled Frieza. 'Are you trying to fight me or annoy me to death?'

Anger lanced through Vegeta at that, and with a burst of effort he slammed his free foot into the hand that was holding him, and used the moment of pain he caused to tear his foot free, then leapt off the back of Frieza's skull, flipping in the air to slam an energy wave into the back of said skull mid-somersault. Frieza turned too quickly though, and instead of getting him in the nape of the neck, Vegeta's attack sliced across his cheek, scorching a wound across it.

'Hahh-ah!' gasped Frieza. He shot away from Vegeta, pushing distance between them as he reached up to touch his face. Vegeta's own hand twitched as he resisted touching the gash in the skin where Frieza's horn had caught him. It burned.

'Did I give you a good one?' he asked Frieza. 'If you'd been a fraction of a second faster, I'd have taken your nose off. It would have matched your tail.'

Frieza growled with rage. 'At least I'm not bleeding.'

Vegeta looked down at his already-tattered new battlesuit. It was black and didn't show blood well, but it was torn as much as his skin was.

'Don't worry, you'll get your turn,' he assured Frieza.

'Stop it!' snarled Frieza.

'Stop what?'

'Stop talking like this! How dare you act so arrogantly! Don't you know I'm going to kill you? I know you're scared, Vegeta! Plead for your life! Bow down and beg for my forgiveness!'

'Never!' Vegeta shouted back. He was not going to do that even if he lost! 'I will never bow to you again, not for any reason! I'd rather die!'

Frieza made a sound of disgust. 'Always so prideful! Your bad attitude made you very unpopular in my Frieza Force, but you always showed the proper respect to me so I let your behaviour go uncurbed. Is this my punishment for lax discipline? To have you turn on me like a knave?'

'No. This is your punishment for enslaving the Saiyan race… and then destroying it!' Vegeta almost choked on the anger as he spat the words. The shame he felt at having worked for the bane of the Saiyans made him flush red with fury, but the words came forth with the force of a dam breaking; how long had he been waiting to throw those words in Frieza's face?

Frieza said nothing for a moment, long enough for Vegeta to realise that he'd been distracted from the actual fight, but so, it seemed, was Frieza. Still, he needed to say these words. He needed Frieza to know why he had to kill him.

'Who told you that?' Frieza asked at last.

'What does it matter?' asked Vegeta, and then, 'Zarbon did.'

Frieza's glare became even angrier. 'What a little canary my dear Zarbon has been.'

'I'd have figured it out sooner or later. Some of those in the lower ranks remembered the day that Planet Vegeta has destroyed, because so many of their rank we killed either on the surface or in the airspace above it. You were there in your ship. What a coincidence that a massive meteor storm rolled though while you were an innocent spectator!'

Frieza's expression flattened out into something sly. 'I forgot; you're not completely stupid, though apparently you are stupid enough rebel against me and discard the place I made for you in the galaxy. What was the problem, Vegeta? Were you too proud to serve even one person loyally?'

'The place you made for me?' echoed Vegeta. 'The place you made for me as your puppet and tool? To dance around on the end of your rope as a massive joke – the prince doing the dirty work of the one who destroyed his kingdom?'

'Ha! So it was pride!' crowed Frieza. 'Too proud to submit yourself to even me! How like your father! How like him to not know when you had it so good. I offered you so much, my little prince. So much more than you ever had among the Saiyans. When I took you in, you were living in a cave! A prince in a cave - have you ever heard of anything so pathetic?'

Vegeta simmered, torn between wanting to defend the mountain fortress he'd been born in and feeling shame at what he now knew were primitive standards, so he held his tongue as Frieza went on.

'Your species had barely heard of space travel when I encountered them! Ignorant savages, and I raised you up beyond the mire of your inheritance! I taught you business, diplomacy, strategy, manners! Did I not show you the Galaxy? Did I not give you every chance to shine?'

Vegeta felt himself shining now; like a dark star, his chi bursting out of him and being sucked back in before it could escape. It flared with Vegeta's anger at Frieza's laundry list of gifts. Frieza didn't give gifts.

'You gave me every chance to make you money is what you did! You made an idiot of me, toiling away for you when you'd destroyed everything I'd ever wanted!'

Frieza scoffed. 'Of course I made money from you! What other reason would I keep people around me for? I can't believe how much naivety you still harbour after all you were taught! You were good, Vegeta. Your name was already known around the civilised planets as someone to be feared. You would never have had that as some tribal king in the middle of nowhere. Look at you – so young and yet so strong already. You would have been the second most powerful being in the Galaxy - all you had to do was continue to be loyal to me, serve me well.'

'I was never born to serve you, or anyone!'

'Then you will die!'

Frieza made like he was coming straight towards Vegeta but then disappeared, and Vegeta was not surprised when the attack come from behind him. He darted forward, and with Frieza still bearing down on him, drove an elbow back, hoping to hit something. He only got Frieza's hand though, and then found his elbow clamped in his old liege's grip. Working on instinct he raised his other wrist up just in time to stop Frieza's other arm closing around his throat. Without letting the lizard settle his grip, Vegeta did the first thing that came to mind – he bit down as hard as he could on the salmon-coloured bicep that was trying to curl around him. Frieza cried out in pain, but didn't desist, or at least not right away. Frieza's flesh was fucking tough, but Vegeta gave it his all, using the strength of Frieza's own hold to push against, digging in with his teeth and then when he had a firm mouthful, twisting his face.

Frieza roared with pain that time and pulled his arm away. Vegeta was ready, pushing off from Frieza stomach and tearing away from the weaker hold on his elbow.

'Savage!' cried Frieza. 'I'm…bleeding!'

Vegeta could tell – the taste of burnt electrical smoke in his mouth was like no other blood he'd tasted (completely foul), but he knew that was what it must be. He turned, ready to gloat and perhaps spit Frieza's own blood in his eye, but it turned out that Frieza was not much incapacitated by the injury. As Vegeta turned he slammed into him at top speed, tackling him around the middle.

There was nothing to bite now, and he tried to pull himself free, but Frieza wrapped his arms around his legs and gripped tight. Bearing his struggling burden, the lizard arced in the air to fly downwards, and a fraction of a second later they slammed back into the water.

The lagoon was murky and dark with the mud and rock stirred up by their fight. Bits got in Vegeta's eyes as he blinked and tried to kick himself free. Frieza took him all the way down to the bottom then stopped there, holding him down. A burbling noise reached Vegeta's ears, but the water was so filthy he couldn't even see Frieza's face right above him. Frieza was laughing, and words reached him, distorted and gurgling.

'Saiyans share that weakness of so many species – a terrible dependency on oxygen at all times. Drowning is an unspectacular form of execution, but you are just a nasty, biting monkey after all.'

Adrenalin shot through Vegeta, the realisation catching up to him that Frieza only needed to keep him down another few minutes and he'd be dead.

He shoved his legs against Frieza's chest and pushed up to tear his hold away from him, but Frieza's arms in this form were longer than Vegeta's legs. He battered at the wrists that held him down, already feeling his lungs starting to burn. He got one hand free from his chest only to find it replaced by a clawed foot. Frieza laughed again. Vegeta gathered his chi instead, lighting up the depths of the lagoon with eerie purple light. Frieza's face leered over him. He sent one bolt at it, but Frieza's free arm swiped it away. It didn't go far, boiling the water behind Frieza. Vegeta tried again, shooting beams up at Frieza's armpit, then his groin. He could tell the hits landed as Frieza flinched and the water about them frothed and bubbled, but though Frieza almost lost control of him he writhed about to resettle his hold.

I need to go bigger! Vegeta realised. If he was a match for Frieza at all, the lizard wouldn't be able absorb a full strength energy attack.

Vegeta went limp for a second, letting Frieza firm his grip again, pulling in his all for a desperate attempt to free himself, waiting as long as he dared to pool the chi he needed. Then he slowly brought his hands together, slow enough that Frieza didn't notice the movement in the darkness. He built the chi in his core, and then as quickly as possible, directed it out to his hands, loosing a double-handed energy cannon right into Frieza's stomach.

It was massive, and this time Frieza's hands and feet were ripped away, and Frieza himself was blasted upwards with it. Vegeta was pressed back into the mud before he rolled to his feet and pushed off from the bottom, heading up after his attack. He'd just broke the surface when the amorphous ball of purple-tinted energy doubled back on him, suddenly bearing down from above, pushed by another wave of pink – Frieza was sending it back down with his own attack. With only one fresh breath in his lungs Vegeta got his arms above him and threw more energy into it. He couldn't just dodge this one – it was too big. If he let it go there would be no planet to stand on. Was Frieza insane? No. Being stranded in space was just an inconvenience for Frieza, not a death sentence; he'd already proven that.

He strained with the effort, was almost pushed back under the water. If only he hadn't put so much of his all in that first cannon! The stream of chi above him bulged, becoming unstable with its squeezing. The white hot lobe in the centre dropped lower towards the water, making it steam, and then as Vegeta began to shake with effort, it slipped even lower and the water began to boil. He had to divert chi and concentration into forming a shield around himself to protect from the murderous heat.

Fuck, fuck…

His thoughts were becoming incoherent, narrowing down to the urgent need to overcome this energy wave. Deeper and deeper he dug, his body burning with the effort of putting out so much chi. Please! he begged. The merged energies wobbled again, growing as wide as one of the small islands in the lagoon. Vegeta widened his chi shield in response, and then had an idea. If it didn't work they were all dead, but it was the only way he could think of out of this corner.

He dropped the beam of energy going into holding off the attack and immediately put everything he had into his shield, and flew straight into the unstable bulge of energy. He was brought to a standstill by the flow, but it split as it passed over his wide shield, peeling off in fat, lazy beams to splatter the landscape with detonations. The destruction lit the world like lightning strikes, troughs and craters appearing wherever it touched down, but none of the split beams were direct enough to pierce to the planet's core.


One of them sailed past Brolly and Bulma. Brolly swerved, diving into a trough between massive waves.

'Oh my god!'

Bulma's hand was slick with the sweat of fear and spray from the waves, but she kept a death grip on the radar, doggedly checking it again, because this was their way out.

'I think we just flew over them!' she cried. The wind had picked up and the clouds had closed in even more, making the chaotic lake-scape even gloomier. Brolly doubled back, slowing.

'Stop!' she ordered and they stared down into the rushing water. Another wave passed, exposing rock as it sank down, and with it, two golden orbs.

'Hold on!' said Brolly.

Down he dove, Bulma gripping as hard as she could and screaming as they went down like the big dipper. Approaching the first, Brolly slowed, righting himself so sharply that Bulma was torn from his back, although she still managed to keep a grip around his neck. Letting go, she staggered and fell onto the wet, muddy rock while Brolly scooped the ball up. Suddenly Bulma found she was sitting in water, and the water swiftly rose, lifting her up away.

'Brolly!'

He burst from the water next to her.

'Are you okay?'

Bulma looked around wildly, but all she could see was swelling water and clouds lurching overhead.

'Yes, just get the other ball as quick as possible!'

He put an arm around her instead, holding her steady as the water ebbed again and then dropped them back to the rocks. They cast about, searching the lagoon-bed for the ball, and when they found it Bulma gripped Brolly's shoulder tight in excitement.

'Oh my god, we've done it!' she screamed. Brolly grinned for a second, but there wasn't time for any more celebration and the water was rising again, rising about their legs as he picked it up. She jumped onto his back again, holding on tight because both his arms were full of dragonball now.

'Get us out of here!'


Author's Note: They have all seven dragonballs! Tune in soon for chapter 50! Don't forget to feed the author with tasty, tasty review snacks to keep her going. Chapter 51 won't write itself!