A beam of light shot out from Ginyu's body and entered Kakarot's, and as it did something in Gine's awareness flipped over queasily. The light flickered and went out, leaving the two of them exactly as they had been: Ginyu bleeding from his chest, Kakarot floating proudly in front of him. But Gine could tell everything was different.

"Well," Kakarot said, lifting his arms and studying them. "It's been a while since I had hair. I guess I'll have to start shaving again."

"Guh—!" Ginyu gasped, nearly falling out of the sky. "Wha—? Why am I… over there?"

Gine lifted her hands to her mouth in horror. Even Bardock hadn't been sure if the rumor that Captain Ginyu was a body snatcher was true. Kakarot— no, Ginyu— reached out and caught the scouter as it fell back down, fixing it to his ear. For a blood-freezing moment he looked more like Bardock than he ever had in his life, but then he smiled, a small cruel thing that looked nothing like Bardock or Kakarot, and Captain Ginyu fixed his eyes on Gine.

"I don't suppose you'd be interested in helping me test out this new body?"

Gine blasted him with a Kamehameha. He countered it with an energy blast of his own, and even though it was sloppier than anything Kakarot would have done, he was so strong it more than made up the difference. Overwhelmed, she abandoned her ki blast to get out of the way— but she wasn't quick enough. The beam hit her side, burning her flesh and knocking her sideways.

Ginyu was on her in an instant, pummeling her with Kakarot's fists, overwhelming her with Kakarot's strength. She fell back, too injured to fight properly. But even if she'd been whole she couldn't have given her strikes the killing force they needed— a part of her simply wouldn't accept that this wasn't Kakarot.

He smiled.

"This is my favorite part, you know," he said in a stage whisper. "When it still hasn't sunk in yet."

Screaming with rage, Gine flung herself at him. He laughed, catching her strike easily, and she spun around and hurled a roundhouse kick at his head. He caught that too. Quick as lightning he used his grip on her foot to spin her around in midair and fling her to the ground, her impact punching a crater into the ground.

Fighting her way free of the dirt she saw Chi Chi, Krillin and Gohan standing near Vegeta, all looking up at the man who was not Kakarot.

"Chi Chi!" Kakarot gasped from his wounded, purple body. "Why'd you come back here?"

"What in tarnation is going on?" Chi Chi demanded, looking wildly from Gine, to Ginyu, to Kakarot, and back. "Why're you two fightin'?"

"That's not Kakarot!" Gine shouted, as Ginyu streaked through the sky to punch her in the face. Her head slammed into the ground again, stars dancing in her vision. One of them was particularly bright, and it did not fade as the rest of them did. Through her sunglasses Gine could see the big sun and the two little ones that lit this planet, but directly above her there was a fourth light in the sky, smaller but more piercing. A fourth sun? No, a moon. Vegeta's artificial moon, designed for only one thing…

She ripped the sunglasses off her face and, for the first time in over a decade, looked at the moon.

It started with a sensation like a sunburn on the inside of her tail. Then the itching, prickling feeling spread to her whole body, which began to expand. She spared a thought to mourn for the dress Grandpa Gohan had made before it was ripped to shreds. Hair sprouted from every inch of her body, her face lengthened, and her teeth sharpened and grew. Ginyu desperately looked up at the moon as well, but when nothing happened he felt behind him for a tail and found only a scar.

"Dammit!" he screamed, right before Gine's building-sized palm slapped him to the ground.

He struggled, and shot a ki blast at her face, but she was more powerful than him— more powerful than Ginyu! More powerful than her son! There was no one on this pathetic mudball more powerful than her! Gine felt the joyous Oozaru battle tide rise within her and ignored it with effort. She curled her giant fingers and picked Ginyu up, squeezing him tight.

"Switch back now!" she bellowed with a voice that made trees bend backward. Ginyu snarled and powered up, but he wasn't used to Kakarot's body, and he certainly couldn't use Kaio-ken. She held him in place easily.

Far below her, Gine heard Chi Chi say hesitantly, "Kakarot?"

"It's me, Chi Chi," Kakarot said mournfully.

"You're— but—"

Out of the corner of her eye Gine saw Chi Chi reach for her husband, then pull her hands back before making contact.

"You're… hideous!" she wailed. "I can't take you to parent teacher conferences like this! What will the neighbors think?"

"It's okay, mom," Gohan said consolingly. "He's like Grandpa Ox now."

"What on earth do you mean?"

"He has horns."

Chi Chi burst into tears.

Gine bared her giant teeth at Ginyu.

"Switch back or I won't hesitate to kill you," she growled.

"Ha!" Ginyu spat, still trying to get free from her grip. "You're bluffing. You don't want him trapped in that body forever, do you?"

Gine closed her eyes so she didn't have to look at Kakarot's face and squeezed until she felt ribs pop. Ginyu bellowed weakly. It sounded like she'd punctured a lung. She reminded herself they still had a senzu bean, but then she remembered Kakarot had given it to Gohan and felt sick.

"I am a Saiyan!" she said. "Do not underestimate what I'm capable of!"

She knew, as any other Saiyan would and as any non-Saiyan would not, that even the most timorous and unimpressive voice sounds like the gods themselves thundering from on high when spoken with vocal chords measured in yards. If she'd been in her normal form he would have laughed at her pathetic attempt to sound intimidating. Instead he looked nervous for the first time.

"If you kill me Lord Frieza will come looking for you," he gasped.

"We've got ships," she growled. "We can run."

"You think you can run from Lord Frieza?" Ginyu chuckled wetly. "Many have thought the same, and they all met the same fate."

He stared at her, contorting her son's face into a nasty smile. She stared back, her horror only looking fearsome on her huge, elongated face.

"Change back," she said again, "or I'll kill you."

Ginyu opened his mouth, but instead of more taunts or bargaining, a glow started at the back of his throat. Too late Gine realized what he was doing, and she tried to fling him away. But it was no good. As if in slow motion she watched the beam of light make its way unerringly toward her.

All she had time for was a curse, and then a flash of light blinded her— but the kaleidoscopic afterimage on the back of her eyelids had a silhouette in the center of it. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision, and found Ginyu's original body floating in midair just above her clenched hands— between her and Kakarot.

Gine took only a second to reach out with her energy to make sure— yes. The one in her hands was Kakarot, and the one above him was Ginyu. They were back to normal.

Lowering her hands to get her son out of the way, Gine opened her mouth and shot a white-hot beam of light at the horned figure, which dissolved instantly. For a moment all that was left of Ginyu was a faint scream, and then even that faded to nothing.