Grandpa Gohan sat on the beach next to Kame House. He looked up when he noticed Gine.
"It's coming," he said.
She said, "What is?"
He pointed at the sea. She looked, and instead of water saw only light.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Fear," he said. "Suffering. Rage."
"There's so much of it," she said.
He said, "Yes."
The light began rising, pouring its way up the beach and lapping at her ankles. Gine shivered and looked at Gohan.
"I'm frightened," she told him.
He turned to her, his face burnt and black with the heat of the light that engulfed him.
"I know."
The light was still rising, faster and faster, a flood. She tipped her head back as it rose above her shoulders. The heat was unbearable. She felt her skin prickle and peel. This would not kill her, she knew. But she might want it to, before the end.
The light slipped past her chin, filled her mouth, her nose, her ears, closed soundlessly over her head.
There was nothing but light.
Nothing but burning.
Nothing remained but that.
Kakarot fell back, gasping in pain at the hole in his chest. Frieza had transformed again, and even though he'd done it twice before, Kakarot still hadn't been prepared for the massive jump in power. If this wasn't the last one they were all dead for sure. They might all be dead anyway. Even Kaio-ken times twenty hadn't been enough.
A scream echoed out across the plains. Kakarot's head snapped around to look at the source. His mother was standing, shaking with rage, her energy spiraling up and up, the clouds above her swirling in response, the water near her feet lapping furiously at its bounds. As he watched, her hair and eyes began to glow white hot. She screamed again, and for a moment, Kakarot did not recognize his mother.
Then she went still, her energy somehow suddenly fifty times more massive than it had been moments before. Kakarot, clutching at the hole in his chest, sat up and stared. Her hair wasn't white hot anymore, but it was still light, somehow. Her eyes too. She looked eerie, not like herself. With slow, measured steps, she began walking toward Frieza, who had completely lost interest in Kakarot.
"M-ma?" Kakarot wheezed as she walked past him, but Gine gave no indication that she'd heard him. She just continued walking toward Frieza.
"What's this?" Frieza mocked. "Have you finally accepted your fate?"
Gine kept walking.
Frieza frowned.
"What's the matter, monkey, fear got your tongue?"
She kept walking.
Frieza curled his lip and raised a finger, shooting her with the same ultra concentrated red beam he'd hit Kakarot with. Without flinching or turning aside, Gine backhanded the beam away, sending it crashing into a rock formation where it detonated.
"Wha—?" Frieza took a step back and fired again, but again Gine sent it flying. He fired again and again, and each time Gine knocked it away. Finally she reached him, and she snatched up his hand in hers and bent it backwards at the wrist until something snapped.
Frieza screamed. It was the first real damage he'd taken.
Seemingly energized by the intense pain, Frieza leaped away from Gine, but she left an after image where she'd been and appeared behind him, knocking him to the ground. Frieza recovered quickly and shot straight up into the air. Gine followed him, and they clashed in midair, two tiny specks spiraling around the sky and knocking into each other, each clash an outpouring of energy potent enough to shatter planets.
Kakarot saw movement out of the corner of his eye, which turned out to be Gohan carrying Dende. The child had his hands outstretched, and he didn't even wait for Gohan to put him down before the glow of healing lit up. Kakarot felt the hole in his chest begin to knit itself together, and once his lungs were functioning again he took a breath and stood up.
"Gohan, take the others and go to the ship. It's too dangerous for you to be here."
"But Grandma's still hurt!" Gohan protested.
"I know, kiddo," Kakarot said. "But she… isn't herself right now."
All three of them looked at the battle, which was barely visible even to Kakarot's eyes. Mountains crumbled at every blow, stray ki blasts caused rifts in the ocean floor which in turn caused floods and tsunamis. To the boys he supposed it looked like the landscape was being torn to shreds by invisible spectres. Kakarot heard Dende gulp audibly.
He took both boys by the shoulders and gently turned them to face him.
"It's going to be fine, I promise," he said with more bravado than certainty. They both nodded reluctantly. "Now go to the ship and get ready to take off if you need to." He looked over at Chi Chi, who had just arrived. He caught her arms before she could grab him and spoke over her. "Go with them, Chi Chi."
Her eyes sparked dangerously. "Don't be stupid, I'm not leaving you!"
Far away one of the tiny figures knocked the other into an island, destroying it in an instant.
"Chi Chi, please!" Kakarot squeezed his wife's arms, willing her to just do as he asked for once. "I don't know what's gotten into ma. I don't want her hurtin' you on accident."
"She—" Chi Chi hesitated. "She would never do that."
"Chi Chi!" Kakarot resisted the urge to shake her. The wild, vengeful ki he could feel pouring off his mother was scaring him to death and he didn't know how it wasn't doing the same to his wife.
Chi Chi flung Kakarot's arms off her. "Ugh! Fine. I'll get the kids to safety. But you'd better not do anything stupid, do you hear me?"
She jabbed a finger directly at the spot that moments ago had been a gaping hole, and then whirled on her heel and gathered Gohan and Dende to her. The three of them took off.
"You too, Krillin," Kakarot said, turning back to the battle. Krillin had arrived just after Chi Chi and been watching everything silently.
"Not happening," he said.
"Krillin," Kakarot growled, but Krillin chuckled darkly.
"I'm not your kid and I'm not your wife. You can't tell me what to do."
A mountain on the very edge of the horizon exploded. Kakarot gave a bitter laugh.
"You sayin' I can tell Chi Chi what to do?"
Krillin snorted.
Kakarot shook his head helplessly. "Fine Krillin, but then do me a favor. If things get bad, make sure Gohan and Chi Chi take off. You know Chi Chi won't go if she thinks she's leavin' me behind."
"And she won't leave unless I make her, which means going with her anyway. You're a tricky guy, Kakarot."
A massive beam struggle lit up the sky for just a moment and then faded, minutes' worth of effort expended in a single second.
"All right," Krillin said. "But only if things get really bad."
Kakarot prayed they wouldn't.
He knew in his gut they would.
Mother? Where is Aspa?
Kiru turned from where she stood by the window, still dressed in her armor. It was the only time Gine ever saw her mother look at her with something other than disappointment.
Aspa is dead, she said.
In battle? three-year-old Gine asked innocently. But her mother wouldn't be looking like that if her friend had died with honor.
No, Kiru said. Frieza killed her.
Gine remembered blinking, trying to figure out if her mother had said something else really, and she had only misunderstood.
Why? she said eventually.
Kiru sighed, curling and uncurling her tail in agitation. But other than that she was still.
Who knows? He does that sometimes.
Does what sometimes?
Kiru looked at her daughter, eyes crying blood.
Kills us.
Gine asked what she thought was the obvious question.
Then why don't we kill him?
Her mother laughed.
Frieza staggered, forced back by Gine's fists.
Her mother was still laughing.
Frieza's blood stained her hands, and her mother laughed and laughed and laughed.