Author's note: Hey, guys, thanks for the reads, & the reviews. I love getting those alerts. Please feel free to keep them coming, & let me know your thoughts as the story progresses.

Written by: SparkerLightning and StevenBodner

Chapter 41

Frieza Planet 314

Nappa took in the scene in front of him. Vegeta's body, on the ground. Vegeta's head a few paces away, facing him, eyes open. His mouth was open in a silent scream. Tears, sweat, and blood, were smeared on his face. Frieza, standing, smiling.

Taking three short, angry breaths, Nappa gritted his teeth. "Frieza." He panted, baring his teeth. "You… you killed… Vegeta." His muscles tensed as he stepped onto the solid floor, beside Vegeta.

His eyes flashed golden, before returning to black. "You… will… pay."

Frieza hovered himself into the air, inspecting the newcomers. "Well, if it isn't Nappa." He glanced at Goku, and back to his former soldier. "I expected the Saiyan from Namek, but you, I thought you were dead. How about Chiz? Will I be able to bring my father the good news, that his favorite underling is still alive?"

Goku stepped forward two steps, passing Vegeta's head. "He's dead." He smelled iron in the air, and tried to put its origin out of his mind. "Where's Bulma? Give her to us, and we'll leave."

Nappa didn't hear Goku speaking. He heard blood rushing through his ears, burning under his skin. He heard his heart pounding, threatening to burst. He heard his breaths, jagged yet deep. His muscles pulsed, burned, and craved release. He saw Vegeta's face. He felt Vegeta's death. He felt Vegeta's rage.

Frieza locked eyes with Goku, maintaining his gaze as he rotated his body to be sideways to the group. "Oh, you mean my loyal subject? That Bulma?" A smile creased his lips. "She is safe, you will not be allowed to threaten her."

Goku's eyes bulged as he was taken off guard. "What? No, we're here to save her, from you." He set his jaw and mirrored Frieza's positioning, slightly lowering his center of gravity, and reaching into his core, preparing to power-up. "We know what kind of person you are, and we know she wouldn't willingly work for you."

Frieza felt it as Goku prepared for battle. But even more, he felt Nappa's power, climbing, growing, exponentially. "She is a loyal and willing subject of the Frieza Empire." He began drawing on his stored energy and returned his body to facing the invaders, spreading his arms, and letting them bask in his glory. "Otherwise, wouldn't she have taken the opportunity to kill me, rather than grant me far more power than I could have previously dreamed of?"

Goku's hair stood on end, snapping from black to gold. His eyes followed suit. "You're lying! Bulma would never willingly help you!"

"Kakarot." Nappa snarled. "I… we need to kill him. Now." He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, they had turned green, and stayed shining. "I'm sorry to change the plan, but he needs to die. We can't allow someone like him… We… we can't let him do this. Not again. Never again."

Krillin and Chiaotzu both took a step back. Krillin had seen Goku transform before, he was familiar with the anger, with the power, but Nappa, Nappa had brought it to a new level. Goku was kind, Goku was a friend. Nappa was good, but, but he wasn't pure. The palpable malcontent pouring off him was too much for the two humans to handle, and they slowly backed themselves towards the nearest wall.

Frieza extended his arm towards Nappa, palm up. "You?" He curled his fingers, bent his wrist, and pointed at himself. "Kill, me?" He grounded himself once more, feet easily sinking through Vegeta's still warm body.

Nappa rushed forward, leaving the more experienced Super Saiyan in the dust. In a fury, he slammed a fist into Frieza's face. To both their surprise, Frieza was knocked backwards, his feet coming up under him. Nappa continued a barrage of punches at Frieza, each slamming at his face and chest with increasing earnest and strength. Finally, he fired a Bomber DX at the tyrant, more powerful than any he had launched before, but equally effective. The explosion was immense, covering both warriors in a cloud of smoke. When the dust settles, Frieza was completely unharmed.

Nappa was speechless. A Super Saiyan had been the one to kill him, but now, he didn't even scratch his face plate or bruise his exposed flesh. Slowly, as if not wanting to trigger a retaliatory strike, he began raising his arms in front of him.

As Nappa prepared his defense, Frieza slowly applauded. "Good job, Nappa. Both for catching me off guard, and again for actually managing to throw a decent blow. If I were my old self, that would have hurt. But this is hardly worth the trouble anymore."

Before Nappa could react, Frieza appeared before him, his knee only inches away from his jaw. A half moment later he was shot backwards. As he flew, his tongue was a fountain of blood, leaving a speckled trail across the polished floor.

Relying on decades of experience, being a punching bag for numerous warriors that outclassed him, Nappa managed to catch himself in the air. Coming to a complete stop he nursed his burning chin, shocked it wasn't broken. Quickly probing his teeth, he was even more surprised to find they were all accounted for. Nappa blinked and Frieza was gone. Frantically looking around, Frieza ruined the surprise by tapping his shoulder and speaking into his ear.

"Not only can you deliver a punch, but you've toughened up as well. If only you were here a few minutes earlier, you could have at least given Vegeta some kind of hope." Frieza pushed Nappa's shoulder, both spinning the larger fighter around and putting distance between them. As Nappa's face came into view, Frieza struck out with his tail and sent him flying backwards once again.

Before he could catch himself for a second time, Nappa was intercepted by a small ki blast to the back, arresting his momentum. Appearing in front of him, Frieza went for a savage right hook. Relying on instinct once more, Nappa got his open palms in front of him, and caught the punch before it sank into his chest. Pushing back and yanking forward, Nappa brought Frieza in for a skull crushing headbutt, one that Frieza stopped in its tracks by using his free hand to latch onto his head. Tucking his chin and yanking hard, Frieza shattered Nappa's nose with his reinforced forehead.

As birdies fluttered around his head, Nappa held his eyes open and launched a pair of eye beams at point blank range. Nimbly spinning out of the beam's path, and knocking Nappa to the side while doing so, Frieza delivered a penetrating kick to the Saiyan's side, leaving three gashes where his toes dug in. Combined with Frieza's shove, Nappa was sent flying for the third time in the, what could generously be called, fight.

Nappa's mouth was open in a silent groan of agony as he raced towards the wall, blood still falling from his lips. At the last second before impact, Goku appeared behind him, Super Saiyan aura already blazing. With more effort than he would have liked to admit, he was able to catch Nappa, and act as a cushion against the wall.

Nappa spat a glob of blood onto the floor as he stepped away from Goku. "When that first punch connected, I… I really thought I had him there. I thought this was it. I became the Super Saiyan, and now, I was going to do it, put Frieza down, once and for all."

"He's telling the truth." Goku stepped up beside him. "If we were back on Namek, he'd be in way past his head now." He swallowed. "I don't know what kind of power he has now, we need to be careful. We need to be smart about this."

Nappa's hands twitched into fists, before he consciously relaxed them. "Every drop of blood in my body is screaming at me to attack. Telling me to beat him to death with his own skull. But I think you're right. I don't think pure muscle will be able to do the trick here."

Losing patience with the monkey's chattering, Frieza raised as finger beside his head. Quickly charging a small Death Ball, he curled the attack into his palm and crushed it. The result was a sphere of red energy sweeping throughout the room, scorching all exposed surfaces, and knocking Nappa and Goku, as well as the other fighters, back and into walls.

Vegeta's body didn't handle the wave nearly as well as the still-living warriors. Nothing remained of it aside from a blackened silhouette of ash, burnt into the ground. His head was sent flying. Raising his hand, Chiaotzu wrapped Vegeta's head in a blue field, and brought it carefully down to the ground. He may not have liked the Saiyan, but he did like Nappa, and he figured Nappa would appreciate the gesture.

Taking the momentary distraction to return to the center of the room, Frieza continued hovering. Waving his hand in front of him, Frieza released a smooth stream of energy, letting it expand into a curved surface. With a flick of his wrist, it began to rotate around him. It rapidly gained in speed, and soon appeared to be a solid defensive barrier. "One Super Saiyan or two, or even three if the brat appears as well, it doesn't matter. My shield is unbreakable. Oh, it took quite a bit of work from Bulma, but we finally perfected it, together." He crossed his legs under him, and his arms on his lap. "While you will never be able to break my defense, I would like you to know, I can bypass it whenever I see fit." He lifted his finger and began charging a Death Beam.

Nappa pulled his fist back, nearly elbowing the side stepping Goku in the face. "ORGA BLASTER!" He threw his punch, a narrow purple beam expanding into a cone as it flew towards Frieza.

As the attack rammed into Frieza's barrier, Goku could feel that it wasn't breaking through. But more than that, he could see that when it was blocking an attack, it wasn't moving Thinking quickly he tapped his fingers to his forehead, and appeared behind the emperor, knee already flying.

Frieza spun in place as Goku's attack closed the few inches between them, catching the knee with his left hand. Immediately he launched the Death Beam from his right. Reacting quickly, Goku flipped to the side, evading a majority of the attack and simultaneously twisting Frieza's arm to loosen his grip. Realizing the threat, Goku tapped his forehead again, reappearing beside the still firing Nappa.

Placing a reassuring hand on Nappa's shoulder, Goku spoke, not just to him, but to all his teammates. "We can do this." He mentally noted how long Nappa was holding the attack for. "His shield can only work in one direction at a time." He looked to his left. "Krillin, I need you to keep him on his toes. Chiaotzu? Keep Krillin safe." Nappa's attack suddenly came to a stop. "This… this is going to get ugly."

Not thinking, just acting on his oldest friend's words, Krillin jumped into action. Charging his ki he shouted at Frieza. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size, shorty! SCATTER BULLET!" Throwing his hands forward, an energy wave shot towards Frieza.

Frieza scoffed at the attempt. Even without his shield, this attack would be nothing to brush off. "Pitiful." He sneered. "Only the truly pitiful have attacks that match their, lacking, stature." As the attack closed in he stopped spinning his defense, not bothering to brace for impact.

To Frieza's surprise, the beam arched up and back right before impact. As he watched, it hooked back once more, curling high, now approaching from directly overhead. Quickly shifting his shield he held a hand up over his head and returned his attention to Krillin, preparing to taunt again. To his confusion, instead of one beam, the monk was firing four distinct attacks, all following the same path. Looking up, Frieza saw a large X over his head, shortly before being closed in on from all directions at once. He didn't bother to dodge, but simply caught two of the blasts, and allowed himself to be struck by the others. "You're going to pay for that one, runt."

Krillin felt Chiaotzu powering-up behind him, and drawing on the faith in his friend, he ignored Frieza. He grinned as he poured his ki into his right palm, flattened it, spinning it, bumping it up, and repeating the process. When he had a tower of four Kienzen, he launched them from the top down. Using his left hand to direct them, he made them begin circling Frieza. Their path was erratic, all moving in the same direction, but constantly changing their plains of orbit.

Not bothering to spin his shield back up to speed, not as long as the Saiyans weren't directly involved, Frieza locked onto the discs. Nimbly flipping and dodging, ducking and twisting, he easily avoided the deadly disks. One would come from behind, and with an exhilarating delay, he snapped his body up and over it. The next came from his left, and Frieza extended his tail and his arms, pinning in place, closing the gap between his three limbs, to the point where the disc passed an inch above his tail, and an inch below his arms. The third disc came up from below, and Frieza rotated onto his back, leaving his feet where they were. Spreading his ankles two inches apart, the disc cut up directly between his legs.

"If you're supposed to be keeping me busy…" Frieza dodged two more discs, stepping back to avoid each, "You're not doing a very good job." He closed his eyes, stepping left, followed by a backwards right hop. "Not only can I ignore you with my eyes shut." He grabbed his hands behind his back. "But I can even do it without my hands."

Slowly and carefully Krillin kept directing the discs. While his attacks were missing, his intent was precise, and his desired result was becoming a reality. After just another dozen slashes, Frieza was backed into a corner, now, it was time to strike for real.

All four discs approached at once. Each closed in on its own level, at its own angle, but not at its own speed. Frieza took a long step forward, stepped onto the tip of one toe, and spun himself onto his back, before allowing himself to fall backwards. Catching himself on one hand he switched to a spin. Kicking both legs into the air, he crushed two of the energy discs, and was out of the direct path of the remaining pair.

Furiously, he stuck the landing and pointed his finger at Krillin, a downward thumb under his hand. Instantly, he fired a low-powered Death Beam at Krillin. To his irritation, the fourth, utterly forgettable, fighter was at his side.

Chiaotzu's aura darkened to a deep blue, before being reabsorbed into his body. His hauntingly white skin quickly changed tone, settling on what appeared to be an azure Kaio-Ken. A blink later, his aura smoothly curved around himself, as well as the rest of their section of the room. Popping outward, the psychic dense air hardened and thinned, forming a protective bubble. Frieza's attack would have scored a direct hit, but instead glanced off the shield and flew off through the wall.

Spitting in disgust, Frieza spun his shield back up to speed. Where his barrier was a segment of a shell, and spun quickly enough to cover all approaches, Chiaotzu's was complete, only allowing a small, constantly shifting and constantly moving opening for Krillin to focus his ki through. Remembering the other two discs, Frieza quickly focused in on them again and continued his morning exercise.

With his attention drawn by the razor-sharp discs, Frieza didn't notice what Goku had been doing, leaving Nappa at the end of their line. Slowly, step by step, he moved away from the wall, getting closer to the Earthlings. His hands were already cupped into position. The familiar blue light sprung into existence, quickly growing from the size of a marble before being re-compressed by fresh energy.

Detecting the rising ki, Frieza reacted quickly. He sat down his arm, down his finger at the charging Goku. The emperor waited a fraction of a millisecond before he began firing the visual staccato of his crimson Death Beam. With the staggering of the shots, several short beams escaped his defense, forming into a solid beam on the other side. As it traveled through the air, Krillin pinched his ring finger to his palm and one of his two remaining discs broke away from its threatening spiral and intercepted Frieza's blast. While Goku was protected, the disc was destroyed in a smokey explosion as the ki from both attacks dissipating into nothing.

As Goku continued to charge and compress his attack. It began to refuse to shrink, and rapidly expanded. Now the size of a baseball, he prepared to fire and looked for the ideal moment.

As the smoke cleared, Nappa appeared in the line of fire. He was protectively in front of Goku, crouched forward, hands on knees. He opened his mouth and screamed. "ENOUGH!" The last syllable was stretched out, and as he continued to scream a ball of ki formed in his throat, and up through his mouth. Between his teeth, over his still bleeding tongue, it stopped and a white beam shot forward. As he expected the half-dome of Frieza's shield stopped rotating and held strong against the attack. Krillin circled his middle finger around, before raising it proudly towards Frieza. Only a moment passed between Nappa's attack hitting and Krillin's remaining disc approaching, but Frieza had already spun in pace. With a well-timed elbow and knee strike, Frieza caught the attack and crushed its core, destroying it, bathing in the energy.

Leaving his elbow and knee connected, he straightened his arm and flattened his palm. A half second later, a Death Ball was formed, flattened, and was sent flying. As Nappa's energy beam faded away, multiple Death Saucers came rushing towards him. Recognizing the danger they were in, Nappa and Goku split up, diving in opposite directions.

As they dove they took to the air and flew away, desperately trying to keep away from the deadly attacks, the discs proved themselves even faster than Krillin's, easily managing to catch Goku in the ribs. It was a shallow cut, but it was painful. He pushed his hand into it, momentarily stemming the sting.

Being the secondary target, Nappa had a moment to go on the offensive. Focusing more on volume and spread than power or accuracy, Nappa brought his hands to his shoulders, before arcing them down and out towards Frieza. "BIG SPLASH!" He called out as hundreds of ki bullets, no larger than his fingers, shot forth and battered the Death Saucers. With dozens of misses, dozens of glancing blows, only a few shots hit each target, but it was enough. The droplets of ki didn't fade away, they were sticking, and as Nappa brought his hands together, they condensed before exploding out. A massive plume of energy overwhelmed the discs, and they shattered into pieces before turning to dust and vanishing. He was safe, but the others…

Yet another disc was launched at Chiaotzu's shield, hitting it hard and grinding at it. Refusing to budge, Chiaotzu shifted the energy from the rear of his shield, reinforcing the front. The sound of the energy grinding on the psychic shield was similar to a drill on bone and the red energy mixed with blue psychic force threw off purple sparks in both directions along the plain of contact.

A second Death Saucer struck just below the first, and similar to the original, purple sparks were thrown off. Under the pressure of both, small cracks began to form. The leading edge of both attacks began to push through the shield, still sheathed in blue. Krillin lifted both hands over the top of his head, making a larger than normal ki ball, and flattening it into an over-sized Kienzen. Once created, he shifted the large ki disc in front of himself and Chiaotzu.

A third Death Saucer came in perpendicular to the first two, striking beside the others. Impacting several crack lines of the shield, it too was encased in blue energy, tinting its edge in purple. Slowing for only a moment, it burst through the psychic barrier, weakening it enough for the prior two to enter as well.

Krillin flung himself forward, holding his energy disc in front of the entirety of his body. As he flew, he warped the edges of his Kienzen, shaping it to be more of a nose cone to the missile payload that was the monk. Wrapped in psychic energy, the Death Saucers wobbled in their course. Shortly before impact, the parallel set separated, one going over and one going under Krillin before colliding into each other on the other side, exploding in a minor ki pulse. The vertical disc hit Krillin slightly above true center, and while it pushed him downward, it also pushed itself up, and hopped safely over him, before finally being crushed by Chiaotzu's power.

As the Death Saucers were working their way through to the support team, Nappa shot forward towards Frieza. He slammed into Frieza's shield, unloading a barrage of punches and kicks, each barely making the shield wobble. Nappa then soared higher into the air and curled his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around them, he waited until he was only inches away from smashing into the barrier.

"MORTAL CANNONBALL!" He exclaimed as he snapped his limbs out. An explosive wave roared around him, and where he stopped moving, the attack carried forward, overtaking and enveloping Frieza's barrier.

While Frieza's shield continued to spin, small bursts of energy were able to force their way through. Long, narrow, and sharp ki pulses shot through at every opening, scanning across his body, lighting singeing both his flesh and polished exterior.

Goku pulled his right hand back, still cupping the Kamehameha. He slowly brought his left hand to his forehead, tapped it once more, and thrust both his hands forward from directly behind Frieza, inside his barrier to fire his attack.

Frieza's hand snapped up behind his back. Where Goku's attack should have blown through his body, Frieza opened his palm. The energy seamlessly transferred from attacker to target, easily being transformed from destructive and storming energy, to harmless potential energy.

Continuing to disregard Nappa, Frieza turned to face the more powerful Super Saiyan. Reducing the radius of his shield, increasing its coverage, he wrapped himself entirely in his shield's energy.

"Good trick, monkey. Taste my Nova Rush!" He pulled backwards before rushing forward, slamming his ki sphere into Goku's body.

Goku was unable to get his hands in front of him. His attacking hand was low, striking towards Frieza's lower back. His other hand was high, still near his head. He was smeared across the shield, legs spread and arms pinned against his body. As he impacted the reinforced wall behind him, he let out a scream. Frieza's energy was burning his exposed flesh, and turning his clothes to ash.

Pushing his ki into his arms, strengthening his joints and bones, sacrificing his flesh, Goku was able to struggle his way to getting his legs between himself and the tyrant. With the foot of breathing room he had, he tapped his forehead once more, and reappeared on the far side of the room, beside Nappa.

Goku panted as he inspected his arms. They were burnt and raw, but the pain was minimal, at least for now. "That's not going to work." He rubbed his forearms. "I don't think energy attacks will work. My Kamehameha had no effect at all."

Frieza retook his place in the center of the room, dismissing his shield entirely. "Wrong. Your attack did have an effect on me. I didn't simply disperse the energy." He ran a finger down his arm, tracing the line from white dot to white dot. "I had MY scientist design this body with the ability to passively absorb energy. In other words, I am storing it up as a booster, for additional might, for me to use at my leisure." He lowered himself to the floor, spreading his arms once more.

Krillin's Kienzen shifted on its axis and slammed into the base of Frieza's neck. His head was forced forward, but he quickly recovered, as the attack dulled against his back, before shredding itself against the immovable object. Frieza smugly shook his finger at Krillin.

"One more time." Frieza shook his head. "If you scuff my body one more time, I will use your hide to polish it. Either way, you will die first, but it's up to you what I do with your corpse." As Frieza licked his lips, he shot forward.

With Nappa on the left, and Goku directly ahead, Frieza made as if to swing past Goku on the right, heading towards the psychic barrier behind them. Goku lunged to his left, attempting to cut him off, but was thrown off his feet. Frieza's tail had hooked around, the middle connecting with his neck, and the remainder quickly curling in on itself, three times around his neck. Goku struggled to break free as Frieza elbowed him in the gut, taking even more air out of Goku's lungs. With his victim in his grasp, Frieza twisted around and began circling Nappa.

Quickly raising his hand, Frieza pointed his thumb and four fingers at Nappa's center of mass. Along the arc of his path, roughly a third of a circle around his target, Frieza launched five Death Beams.

Nappa quickly dropped to his back knee, leaned forward, and clapped his hands over his head. Frieza guided his attacks towards Nappa, who desperately began rolling aside to narrowly dodge each blast. During which, spreading his hands he created a web of energy between his fingers, extending them out, and down his arms. He kicked off with his back foot, and began spiraling with his front.

"SLAUGHTER DIVE!" The first Death Beam carved its way down his body as he spun, starting at the back of his right shoulder, disconnecting over his left hip. The second and third beams were off target, punching out of the observation room. The fourth was batted away by the leading edge of Nappa's attack. The fifth got inside the spiral, and sliced up his arm as he continued towards Frieza.

As Nappa forced Frieza out of his path, Goku managed to swing his body towards Frieza's face, where he kicked it. It gave him enough slack from Frieza's tail to escape. Nappa's energy pushed into Frieza's soft belly, followed by sharpened fingers.

Frieza grunted in discomfort, but the noise did not reach Nappa nor Goku. Chiaotzu had lowered his shield, and created a dome around the space emperor. As Chiaotzu twisted his wrist, looking to decapitate Frieza, the frost demon smashed his fists towards his skull. With his systems alerting him to great pain, Frieza was able to smash the bubble around his head, only sustaining a shallow cut on the front of his throat. Chiaotzu then fired a Dodon Ray, hitting Frieza in the chest hard. As Frieza turned his attention fully on Chiaotzu, he launched a savage kick, which Chiaotzu barely blocked with a new shield. While it protected from the brutal impact, it did not protect him from its force, and he still got launched backwards.

As Frieza prepared to chase after the psychic pinball, Krillin appeared in front of him. With his hands already touching his head, he fired a Solar Flare directly into his eyes. The burst of light left Frieza yowling in agony. This gave Nappa the opening he needed.

While Frieza rubbed his eyes, before he could raise his guard, Nappa had clamped his palms into both of his ears.

"OPENER OBLITERATOR!" As he finished calling his attack, he both forced ki through his hands, and launched a pointblank mouth beam directly into Frieza's face.

Frieza tried to turn his head, but Nappa floated through space freely with the motion. His primary senses were overwhelmed, and while the auxiliary attacks were being absorbed into his energy reserve, the mouth beam was unblockable. His already singed skin began to blister, and from behind he felt an unexpected sharp pain.

Goku pulled his foot out from where he kicked Frieza, directly under the base of his tail. Twisting with the momentum, Quickly charging a ki ball in his right hand, he used his left to pull himself close to Frieza's back. Swinging his fist around, Goku detonated the hastily prepared attack into Frieza's throat. The force of the explosion pushed both Frieza and himself backwards, and tossed Nappa away as well.

Being the first to hit the wall, Goku took the majority of the impact and began to bounce back. But before he had a chance to collect himself, Frieza was on him again, slugging him in the gut to the point that he coughed up blood. Frieza followed up with a spinning backfist from his other hand, knocking Goku back into the wall.

Frieza didn't let up. He pulled back, preparing to deliver of series of kicks to the Saiyan's face, but Goku dropped to the ground at the last possible second. As he lowered, he formed another hasty attack, plowing it into Frieza's chest to knock the tyrant away.

Frieza fell to the floor, on his hands and knees. His tail lashed out like a scorpion's stinger and again was around Goku's neck. Upping his power further, he slammed Goku onto his back beside him, putting the tip of his tail against his neck.

Reacting quickly, Krillin and Chiaotzu stepped apart. Krillin brought his hands to his side, and began powering a Kamehameha. Chiaotzu pointed one finger at Frieza's chest, and clinched his other hand at his side.

"Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"

"Dodon..."

"HA!" "RAY!"

As they fired their attacks, a small blue psychic barrier appeared between Goku and Frieza's tail. It quickly wrapped itself around the point, and spun. To Chiaotzu's dismay, he was unable to cleave through the appendage.

Ignoring the odd sensation from behind, Frieza threw one of his supporting limbs towards the small attackers. A nondescript blast of red ki burst from his palm. It is rushed forward, it expanded, and quickly the cone of energy enveloped and overpowered the incoming attacks.

Nappa clapped his hands together in front of him, forming a white ki ball between them as he pulled them apart. Further separating his hands, the sphere was split, and a Bomber DX was quickly powered in both his hands.

"Let him go!" He shouted through nearly gritted teeth as he threw first one, and then the other attack. As they were absorbed in the destructive wave, he quickly powered up a fresh batch.

Stabbing through the psychic barrier, Frieza berried the tip of his tail into Goku's throat.

"That's enough, that's enough." He called out as the most recent exchange of blasts fizzled out. "Surrender, now, or I'll remove his head."

Nappa turned to Krillin and Krillin turned to Nappa, both seeking guidance. One from a tried-and-true soldier, the other from an old friend of the captive.

Chiaotzu's skin faded from blue to white, and his eyes returned to their normal tone as well. He raised his hands and sank to his knees.

"I surrender!" He called out as he fell forward. On his stomach he lay still, watching the scene play out around him.

All eyes except for Goku's fell on the diminutive fighter.

"Don't… stop." He struggled to speak. Each movement of his throat sending a fresh wave of pain shooting through his neck and into his skull. "Finish… him. Don't worry about me."

Frieza tightened his tail around Goku, cutting off his supply of air. "You have to the count of five. I will tighten my grip at each count, and at five, his head will roll."

"One." Frieza lifted Goku partially off the ground, forcing him to face his comrades.

"Two." Goku's mouth shot open as he began clawing at the throbbing tail.

Krillin sank to his knees, lowering his gaze as he lowered himself to the floor.

"Stop. I surrender." He called.

"Three." Frieza shifted Goku, aiming his face directly at Nappa.

Frieza's eyes settled on the last standing soldier. Nappa stood tall, above all others in the room. Chiaotzu's eyes were pleading, not willing to risk Goku. Nappa's eyes were matching Goku's. Not willing to surrender. Not to Frieza.

Frieza rose to his feet and walked towards Nappa, stopping an arm's length away. Goku was dragged backwards as the frost demon moved. Staring the last soldier down, he tightened his grip. "Four."

Nappa saw the minuscule plates on Frieza's tail shifting, restricting. Soon, Goku's throat would be crushed and it wouldn't matter if Frieza finished his count or not. Looked down at his former master. his golden mustache turned black, his aura vanished, and he sank to his knee. "I surrender."

Author's note: This past week, after I finished my first draft of this chapter, I wasn't at all satisfied with it. I reached out to Steven, who helps to write and edit Dragon ball Z: Dynasty, and asked if he would be interested in helping to do the same with this story. This was our first attempt at a joint effort for Darkness, and I hope you enjoyed reading it, as much as we enjoyed working on it.