It was done.
He had done it.
Ginyu had won.
He was about to give a decisive pose. A pose whose beauty would be hailed among the cosmos for decades. A pose that would taunt these pathetic Earthlings and Saiyans that he was not to be underestimated. A pose that would announce to his lordship that yes, he had ensured complete and utter victory.
But he couldn't.
In fact, instead of feeling a rush of power, his body burst with pain. Nearly every facet of it went against his wishes: his energy's flow halted entirely, his bones felt stiff and the blue aura surrounding him had dissipated. All Ginyu could do was fall to the ground on his back, completely disabled and unable to watch what would unfold.
However, Goku and Vegeta couldn't entirely focus on that. He...He took it!
Kakarot's body...
Vegeta, aura burning red turned to face Cold. "D-Dammit..." Before Goku could say anything, the Prince of Saiyans flew in the air, in an attempt to do something - anything - to beat this terror.
Cold allowed the Saiyan to come to him. From his view, his foe looked entirely composed and confident (albeit in that different color for some reason). "What happened down there?" the king barked out.
Vegeta paused, thinking of something to do, something to say. Regrettably for him, the only option he could see would be utterly humiliating. This was the cost he had to make to save the Earth.
He coughed and then swallowed not only the saliva in his mouth, but his pride as he began to shout in the most gravely tone he could muster. "Ginyu reporting!"
Cold wagged his tail back and forth inquisitively. His arms were crossed and his brow was furled. The prince held back sweat as he resorted to the one thing he could in this most dire of circumstances. He outstretched both of his arms and clicked the heels of his feet together, toes pointed downwards. "Captain Ginyu of the Ginyu Force is at your service...my lord!"
A few seconds passed. A gust of wind flew by. The emperor smiled. "Ah! I see! You took that Saiyan's body for your own!"
Hastily, Vegeta went out of the pose and gave a bow - partly to enhance the ruse, partly to hide the sweat growing on his brow. "Yes!"
Cold put his hand on his chin. "Tell me, why aren't you in that blue form?"
"I…" He struggled to think of a satisfying answer on the spot. He looked back down to see Kakarot's body laid on the floor. "I was knocked out of it while taking that Saiyan by surprise...my lord."
The emperor gave a chuckle. Vegeta gave a chuckle as well. "Heh! I knew I could count on you."
"Thank you," Vegeta affirmed. Here's where he had to make his move. "Now all that's left is the scraps. Certainly you shouldn't waste more of your golden power on such..." He glanced to the right and saw Bulma, hesitating on the last word, "filth."
Cold chuckle erupted into a hearty laugh. Once again, the prince followed suit. The laugh went further into a bellow. Vegeta followed suit.
"I appreciate it..." he said, still chuckling as flew closer to the Saiyan.
"But, poor, naive monkey..." Vegeta's laughter stopped as a purple ball of ki formed around his stomach.
"Ginyu a'int a captain anymore. He's my Supreme Commander."
The most Vegeta could do was flare up his ki right before the energy blast hit him. It wasn't enough to hold it back. Surprisingly at the same time, however, the blast of ki unexpectedly slid past the Saiyan's side, minimizing the damage. Still, the force was enough so that the prince was flung backwards at high speed into the interior of a cliffside. Water gushed into the newly formed crevice as Vegeta began assessing the situation.
"What...what was that?" Vegeta questioned himself. "That blast was fired at point blank range. It should have killed me! So why...why did it suddenly swerve?! Could it have been pure dumb luck? No...No, it can't be that simple! There has to be..."
The prince began to feel the cold tide at his legs. He looked down at the water for a moment. He then cupped his hands, scooping up some of the liquid. "Could it have been his drunkenness that threw his balance off?" Vegeta looked up at the crevice back at Cold. "Maybe."
It was certainly possible, perhaps even likely. However, the Saiyan's instincts shouted at him that something still didn't add up. "But at the same time, his demeanor is different. He's been acting like a total buffoon up until now, but he suddenly shifts to civility? At the same time, his deduction was too rational for a... "
It clicked. Vegeta's eyes widened as he once again looked down at his hands. He uncupped them, allowing the water to fall into the growing outcove of liquid. As the tide engulfed his body, Vegeta's contrasting red calmed into a monochromatic blue. He smirked.
Vegeta had won.
Ginyu struggled to make any sort of movement, trying in vain to take someone - anyone's body. It was to no avail.
How...How did this happen? His technique was flawless! Well, aside from having to get used to one's body, but even then it certainly was never to the extent of being unable to move entirely.
"To be honest, I was a little worried when you hit me with that."
Ginyu knew it was Goku, speaking from that Namekian's body. Ginyu didn't want to hear what he knew was going to be a trite spiel, but he could do nothing about it.
"Then I remembered that since we were in our god states, you wouldn't be able to adjust to it," Goku said with a chuckle.
What was that buffoon talking about? Gods? They weren't gods. Just...monkeys with different hair colors.
Goku bent his head over a bit and saw this angry confusion in Ginyu's eyes. "Ah right, you probably don't know about that. To be honest with ya, I thought you died a long time ago. But hey, here you are, so I guess you found some way to get out of that."
Of course he lived. He'd always live. He'd never die of old age and he'd never be weak enough to die. He'd survive this too, just like he always had.
"Anyways, long story short, we met this God of Destruction guy named Beerus, and 'Getes and I trained with his master. After about a year, we got used to this thing called 'God Ki'. Let us use Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue." Ginyu saw a brief glimpse of Goku moving his index and middle finger around his head. Probably trying to mimic that thing the Namekian tried to do against him. Wasn't really working. Ginyu would've smiled at that if he could.
"Basically, if it took me a year to get used to it after decades of dealing with normal ki, it'd probably take you at least a quarter of that time to move all that much. Not to mention the need for a calm heart to even use Blue." A spark emanated from Goku's fingers. He continued fine tuning the fingers' positions.
"Anyways, I'm kinda disappointed. I thought that after being in a frog for a few decades you would have changed your mind about working with guys like Freeza," Goku looked up at King Cold, who was talking with Vegeta. "Guess not though. You really didn't change at all."
How dare...How dare he…
The sparks started to grow and grow from Goku's fingers. "Ah, got it!" Goku said excitedly. "You know, after being friends with Piccolo for so long, I really should've tried this sooner. But hey, I work with what I got."
Just then, Vegeta was shot in the chest with a ki blast. If Ginyu could've laughed he would've. Despite this monkey's boasting and insistence on him apparently being weak, King Cold was still strong enough to destroy that idiotic prince in a few seconds. Without whatever motivational dance they were trying to pull off, they still had absolutely no chance of victory.
Goku, on the other hand, still kept up a smile. He noticed it too. That weird serve the ki made. That thing that allowed the prince to still be in this fight. That was Vegeta's win condition.
The Saiyan knew he couldn't do much, but he kept charging, hoping this attack would be enough to help give Vegeta even the slightest bit more of an edge. He stepped further away from Ginyu, just in case he would somehow be able to speak and began waiting for his moment to strike.
King Cold smiled, swishing his tail back and forth, looking into the crevice he made. "Heh. There goes that monkey."
He turned his head towards Goku and Ginyu. "One of them's gotta be Ginyu then, hm? But which one...?" He pondered this for a few moments before he stuck out his finger towards them, ready to fire a blast to blow up the area. "I suppose I'll take them both out to make things simpler."
Out of the corner of his eye, Cold saw a flash of blue come up from below. For a moment, he thought it was a poor attempt of Goku or Tien in just making a water pillar, but a second later, he felt a tingle at the back of his head. He went to turn around, and just as quickly, the blur hit the back of his head again. So, the prince is still alive?
Cold suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. "Wh-What?!" As he swirled around, trying to get a read on this blue blur, the tingles still hitting his head, he wondered what was happening. H-He only hit me twice before my head started hurting...how did he…?
As the hits to his head got into the thousands in just a few seconds, the pain from inside his head was augmented by smallest bits of pain on the outside. "Enough!" Cold shouted, building up some energy and releasing it in an explosive burst. He looked around and saw Vegeta, far outside the radius of the attack smiling, hopping in the air back and forth mockingly.
"What's wrong? Can't hit me?"
Cold pointed out his finger to fire a Death Beam, but he stopped himself as his stomach also felt bits of pain. "W-What?! You didn't even hit me the-..." Cold interrupted himself by throwing up. The king quickly wiped his face as his mind was warped with confusion. Once again, the prince flew around the king. All around him he could hear echos as the hits on him began to begin racking up.
"Honestly, you're pathetic," Cold made a swipe forward. Miss.
"For a few moments, I actually went down to your level and feared you," Cold began desperately firing Death Beams all around, clutching his head in pain.
"Can you imagine? Me, the prince of all Saiyans bowing down to an idiot like you?" Cold began to fly to the ground, just to avoid the rush for a few seconds and to take a breather on the ground. Once again, in front of him was Vegeta.
"How...How?!" Cold shouted.
"The answer's simple. Hangover."
"H-Hangover?" Vegeta took this opportunity of confusion and gave a rush at Cold's stomach before backing away and hitting from a different angle. Hit and run was Vegeta's tactic.
"In terms of power and durability, I admit you have me beat. But you're such an idiot that you relied on having alcohol making your moves erratic enough for us to not expect what was coming."
"Erratic?! I'll give you erratic you stupid ape!" Cold hit the ground, flowing ki into it and making it erupt up in random areas. For a moment, the king smiled. "How's that for…?" He felt a light tap on his shoulder. He got a brief look at Vegeta with his back against the king's before he burst away.
"Let me tell you, it backfired. Hard. You must've had quite the party to get so sloppy from a hangover. How many bottles was it, king? A thousand? A hundred thousand? A million?"
The pain in Cold's head came up again. He bent over in pain and held his head in the palm of one of his hands. Vegeta still struck him while this happened. "Why...Why can't I..."
"By the looks of things, you didn't actually train to get this form at all. Your mind couldn't adapt after spending so many years in Hell, didn't it? So you resorted to drinking to solve the problem of skill. If you're unpredictable enough, skill can become irrelevant. However, once you lost the element of surprise, you became nothing."
Cold barfed again, this time he recognized from the thousands of blows aimed at his stomach.
"In the end, behind all your gaudish displays is just a wall. A wall that's tough to break, sure, but a stupid, unmoving wall nonetheless."
"Shut up, you monkey!" From what must have been an advantageous stroke of luck, or simply an enhanced drive from Cold to avoid being humiliated or killed again, he was able to reach his hand out and grab a hold onto Vegeta, right on his face. "Power is all I need to kill you," Cold sneered with a sadistic grin. Just as he was about to crush Vegeta's skull in his bare hand, he felt an even sharper pain in his head.
He wanted to bend over and hold his head to lessen the pain, but he realized it wasn't just the hangover that saved the prince in a miraculous stroke of luck, but the other Saiyan, firing a spiraling beam from his fingertips. In that moment, he dropped Vegeta, who began pummeling Cold more. After what must have been millions, billions, trillions of hits at this point, Cold began to feel actual pain. Pain he never felt in this body since that second Super Saiyan put a hole in his chest and blew him to smithereens.
"Really, being able to grab me like that just shows that if you had even a modicum of refinement - a modicum of actual experience - you'd have a chance even in your pathetic condition."
Blood began spurting all around Cold's body, as did cracks in the gold. "I-I won't die by some lowlife, backwater simians who don't know a king when they see one!"
Goku's blast finally dissipated, allowing Cold to feel his skull. It was spurting blood. Tons of it. His head was burning up even more. He made vain attempts to shoot ki around, even using his mouth to throw up a blend of energy and vomit. It was to no avail. His mind was too strained and Vegeta was just too fast for him in his current state.
"You may be a king..." Vegeta said, now holding the king by the top of his head, his other hand placed in front of the man's mouth. "...but we're gods."
And then, in an instant, the armor at the back of Cold's head cracked open. The gold surrounding him broke off piece by piece as the king began spurting out blood, vomit and residue ki. He held the back of his head in anguish as he realized Vegeta had blown a hole through his mouth.
"You…" Cold could only give out that word before once again coughing up that sick mixture. Every breath he took was now labored, every word spoken just intensified the pain. For all his blustering, he now couldn't bring himself to say anything.
He looked up to see Vegeta frowning, looking down at him. "Now," the god stated, holding up the creature's chin with one of his hands. "You will never return again. But if one of your empire's maggots does come again to revive you, you'd better stay the hell away from me, this planet and my family. Lest you want to experience such humiliation a third time." Before the drunk could even try to spurt out a response, the god fired upwards.
His head disintegrated instantly. His limp body dropped to the rocky earth. It was over.
Instantly, Vegeta dropped out of Blue to base, breathing heavily and holding onto his head. He turned to see Goku, sliding down the rocky cliff face and walking up to him. "Great job, Vegeta!" he said, stretching his arms a bit (though not in the manner that they elongated).
"Right. I just had to pick up your slack at the end."
"Aw, come on Vegeta, give me at least a little credit. I know we would've lost if Cold actually got you for good when he grabbed you. I helped ya get out of that."
Vegeta looked away with a little tsk, taking his hand off of his head and flew up to Bulma. As he landed, he boasted. "See, I told you. If Kakarot can do it, then so can I." Bulma responded with a simple and quiet hug. Vegeta, after a few seconds of hesitation, moved his hands up to hold on her back as well.
"Aw, isn't that sweet?" Vegeta looked up to where the voice was coming from and saw Whis with a sly smile. From that, the prince quickly moved his hands off of Bulma. His wife, noticing this, turned around to see the angel. Needless to say, she was furious, stomping up to him as he lowered to the ground.
"Now where were you in all of this?"
"Oh, I just got here, couldn't you tell? Even I'm not as fast as that technique Goku has," Whis bubbled, turning around, going behind a rock as if looking for something.
"Really? You just happened to show up right when the fighting ended?"
"Yes, of course. Coincidences happen all the time. That's why people talk about them so much. Why would they talk about them if they don't happen?" Whis remarked, finding what he was looking for. It was the ice cream, now fully melted at this point. Instead of sprinkles, it was laced with bits of dirt and debris. However, with a wave of his staff, the ice cream rebuilt itself in its full frosty glory while also getting rid of that nasty debris. He summoned a spoon and took a bite and began to gush.
"Wait, you could have cooled that at any time you got here?" Bulma said, aggravated.
"I don't particularly like it when food melts, so I decided to focus a little bit of my time to perfect that ability," he took another bite from the ice cream and gave a satisfied hum. "And as far as I can tell, it turns this ice cream into pure perfection!"
"I'm pretty sure that's just because you made it colder, not that you had the power to make it any tastier," Bulma noted.
Vegeta merely stood silently, looking on as Whis licked up that dessert, thinking. His thoughts were cut short as very soon after Goku, Gohan and even Tien, reconvened at this humble spot of victory.
The first thing the angel noticed was Goku's new form. "Oh, is that you, Goku? Why are you in that Namekian's body?" Whis questioned, with mere curiosity and no hint of surprise.
"Ah, right, it was that guy over there," Goku noted, pointing towards his still body. "Good thing he didn't really know how to use god ki or we would've been toast," the Saiyan added with a chuckle. Gohan and Tien gave little relieved chuckles alongside it.
"So...we won, right? We can get the Dragon Balls and bring everyone back?" Gohan asked with a smile. Goku gave a thumbs up and a wink.
They began winding down. Collecting up the dead Z Fighters, broken bodies and all of that. It took them a little while to find Piccolo's: he was in Tagoma's body, face planted in the water with the rare 2nd Edition Floating Cherry Bomb card lying on his back. Gohan looked down at the body solemnly.
After a few minutes, everyone recollected. There was another body originally unaccounted for brought by Jaco. It was a thin feline fellow - obviously exhausted and traumatized beyond all belief. It was a shame that Gohan used up all the Senzu beans or else he would have given him one to revitalize his energy and give him a full course meal.
There were a few moments of silence for their deceased comrades before Gohan brought up a question.
"So, how exactly are we going to deal with putting Piccolo and Dad back in their right bodies?"
Vegeta quickly answered. "Given that the Namekian Dragon was able to transfer souls back into their bodies, I would assume it would be able to do the same here." The prince turned his head to Ginyu. "Though it may be different considering he's alive - inhabiting a body."
Vegeta held up his hand to do away with the soldier once and for all before Goku interrupted. "Hey, hey, we don't have to do that!"
"Are you serious? You want him to live after-?"
"Oh, no, no, I'm not saying it because of that. I'm just thinking just in case the Dragon can't bring us all back to our bodies, at the very least we have that guy as a backup. We've just gotta be a little careful about it 'sall. Piccolo's good and all, but I'd rather be able to get back in my body."
The prince let out a huff before dissipating the energy. "I suppose you do have a point. Well, one way or another, everything will be back to normal soon."
The cat man, wearily, started to tear up a little bit, though no one but Jaco noticed. He wiped his tears with a handkerchief he held in his pouch.
And so, with every problem sorted or to be dealt with soon, the remaining warriors began celebrating their success against the revived king of the universe.
A warm breeze flowed over Ginyu's body as the Z Fighters cheered. He wanted to throw up, but he couldn't. The only thing left was to stay in this unmoving position.
He longed for the moon. The moon and all of the universe's endless stars. There was a fleeting thought as the captain remembered how Jeice loved such stargazing. The only thing left was to be an onlooker.
The only thing left was a single yellow ball of fire.
And all he could do was dream as the sun seared his skin.