Raditz coughed up blood as he lay there on the ground. Everyone was frozen as they watched their ally dying before them. Gohan tried running over to help his uncle, but Vegeta fired a warning shot to stop Gohan dead in his tracks. "If any of you attempt to approach him, you'll meet the same fate."

Nappa chuckled as he walked up to the dying saiyan, raising his foot up and staring him down. "Looks like after everything's said and done, you're nothing but talk after all." He slams his foot down toward's Raditz's head.

Gohan averted his eyes, but he didn't hear anything but a slam against the ground. He looked to see Raditz wasn't under Nappa's foot anymore, but in Goku's arms.

Everyone looked shocked at Goku's new speed, including Vegeta. What? How did he move quick enough to grab Raditz and move away in time? Just how strong did Kakarot get?

Raditz opened his eyes and looked at his younger brother, smiling as a streak of blood escaped his mouth. "K-Kakarot, is that you?"

Goku nodded, setting down his older brother and reaching to grab the senzu bean Korin gave him on his way. "Yeah, it's me. Here, eat this. You'll be healed." He pulled the bean out and started bringing it towards Raditz's mouth.

Raditz mustered whatever strength he had left to smack away Goku's hand, knocking the bean out of his hand. "Don't be a fool Kakarot. You need to save that for yourself." He started coughing up more blood and turned turned his head to look directly at Kakarot. "I don't have any right to fight on behalf of this planet. I only fought to buy you time and to get some things off my chest." His eyes started to droop, his consciousness starting to fade.

Goku looked worried and tried to reach for the senzu bean that was knocked out of his hand. "You're wrong, you have every right. You fought to protect my friends and my son, your nephew. You can start over!" He grabbed the bean but felt Raditz's weak grip grab his shirt, causing him to look back at his brother.

Raditz looked at Goku with a smile, tears escaping from his eyes. "You're too soft, just like mother. But.. You look just.. like father.." He then closed his eyes and let go of Goku. His energy was gone, the saiyan was dead.

As everyone tried to grieve for their fallen comrade, Nappa started laughing. "What a pathetic excuse for a saiyan! Crying in his final moments! I couldn't think of a more fitting end for such a weak and cowardly saiyan."

Goku balled his hand into a fist and stood back up. He turned his head to Nappa and looked furious. "You bastards.." He clenched his teeth as his power began to rise, causing Vegeta's scouter to go off. "I'm not gonna forgive you for this!" The rubble around the battlefield began to rise as Goku shouted in anger. It dropped back down after he calmed down.

Nappa turned around to look at Vegeta. "Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?!"

Vegeta pulled off the scouter and grit his teeth. "It's over 8000!" He then crushed the scouter in his frustration.

"What?! 8000?! You've got to be kidding, there's no way that's right!" shouted Nappa.

Goku glared down the saiyan elite as he just stood there. "With the damage you've sustained, I doubt I'll even need to use the Kaio-Ken."

Vegeta perked up in confusion. "Kaio-Ken?"

Nappa grit his teeth and lunged himself at Goku. "As if the brother of a weakling could defeat the great Nappa!"

Goku dodged Nappa faster than the saiyan could track, then kicking him away from Raditz's body. "Guess you're not as big of a threat as Raditz hyped you up to be."

Nappa widened his eyes as he heard Goku's words. It then donned on him that this scenario was far too familiar. This is the same scenario that happened to Raditz. He overestimated himself against his opponent, didn't manage to kill a single fighter, and the one kill that did happen was from somebody else. This realization put a mix of terror and rage in Nappa, causing him to use his most powerful technique against Goku with everything he had, in the same direction as Raditz's body.

Goku realized he couldn't afford to dodge this one, so he quickly charged a beam attack and shot it at Nappa's attack, overpowering it and colliding with the saiyan, knocking him to the ground. After Nappa couldn't bring himself back up, Goku kicked the saiyan over to Vegeta. "Looks like your friend won't be getting back up. Leave the Earth now and get him some help."

Nappa looked up at his partner, slowly raising his arm up. "H-Help me Vegeta."

Vegeta stared down at his broken ally as he was thinking. Pathetic. I should just kill him right now. Then again, both Raditz and Kakarot brought themselves from being utterly weak to being on par and even above Nappa. Perhaps they know some potential of saiyans that we don't. "Very well. Go get healed and wait for me. We'll be going to Namek to ravage them and their dragon balls after I'm done killing all these weaklings."

Piccolo's ears twitched as he overheard Vegeta's plans. Vegeta pulled out a remote and pressed a few buttons. Less than a minute later, the pod Nappa came in and landed near them. Vegeta tossed Nappa into the pod, shut the hatch and watched as it flew off into space.

While that was happening, Goku walked over to his friends with Raditz's body. "I'll lead him away from here. Would you mind taking care of Raditz and heading to Kame House?"

"Are you crazy?! You can't expect to fight that monster alone. Let us fight too!" pleaded Yamcha, who was shaking despite his bold words.

"No, he's right. If we stay here, we'll only be in the way. And if a certain 3 of us die, then you know the repercussions." explained Piccolo, referring to himself, Krillin and Chiaotzu.

Gohan and Krillin grabbed onto Raditz's body and started flying away with everyone else. Goku then turned around to face Vegeta.

Vegeta looked up as all the earthlings other than Goku started running away. "You do know they'll never be safe wherever they run to."

Goku just stared down the saiyan prince. "You wouldn't mind if we moved this elsewhere would you?"

"Hmph, suit yourself. Wherever is fine by me." Vegeta said as he started flying up from the ground along with Goku, the 2 of them then flying in another direction from the escaping fighters.

Meanwhile, Piccolo landed on the ground out of the blue, making the others land with him. Tien looked at him with confusion. "What's the matter? You're not having second thoughts are you?"

Piccolo nodded his head as he held out his hand and opened it to show a senzu bean.

Everyone stiffened up in surprise as they saw the senzu bean that should have been with Goku. "Why do you have that? Are you secretly working for the saiyans?!" asked Yamcha worriedly.

"Of course not, insolent fool!" yelled Piccolo, causing Yamcha to back off in fear. "In a silent exchange, Son Goku handed it to me to ensure that me and Kami survive. But I don't plan to go too far, since I have a feeling it would much more beneficial for Son Goku."

Krillin grit his teeth as he couldn't help but feel Piccolo's plan is much better than what Goku suggested. He set Raditz down and walked up to Piccolo. "If you're going, then so am I."

Tien looked at Chiaotzu and nodded. "If this is how it's happening, then I'm staying behind too. Chiaotzu, take the saiyan's body to Kame House."

"Then I guess I'll go with him." said Yamcha. "He's already seen everything I can do. I won't have anything to contribute."

"Then I'm going too." demanded Gohan. "I owe it to uncle Raditz. Besides, I can't just sit back and let my daddy fight by himself!"

"Alright then. You 2, take the body to Kame House. The rest of us will wait here for when Goku needs us." declared Piccolo, everyone nodded in response.

Yamcha and Chiaotzu, picked up Raditz's body and started flying off towards Kame House as the rest of them just sat there and waited. They were getting quite nervous as Goku's power kept spiking to new heights several times during the fight.

They then felt an incredible amount of power and saw off in the distance 2 massive streams of light colliding with each other, one of them undoubtedly Goku's Kamehameha. The tension was unbearable as it looked like the struggle would never end, until Goku's power spiked once more and the blue beam overpowered the saiyan prince's beam.

They felt they could relax as they thought they understood Goku had plenty of power to overpower Vegeta, unaware the strain he had put on his body. Krillin was looking off towards the battlefield as he noticed the sky had gotten a lot brighter as a giant ball of light had appeared in the sky, and then became worried as he felt the saiyan prince's power begin to rise astronomically.

"That strength, how is it possible to get that strong?!" questioned Tien as he felt every muscle in his body tremble.

Piccolo was measuring just how strong Vegeta had become and knew something was all too familiar about this situation. Vegeta's strength had multiplied as much as Raditz and Gohan's power did the night they became Great Apes. "This is bad, that monster's become an even greater monster."

They all turned to look at Piccolo, rather confused. Then it donned on Krillin what he could be talking about. "You mean that saiyan's become a giant ape right?" After getting a nod of confirmation, Krillin turned around to face where the fight was picking up where it left off. "Then we have to cut off his tail, otherwise Goku's going to die!"

Gohan decided to rush in before they had made an official decision, forcing the others to chase after. As they came into view of the fight, they saw Goku on the ground, under the foot of an indeed Great Ape Vegeta. Goku fired a blast against they eye of the saiyan, causing him to scream in pain.

"Gah! My eye! How dare you scar me like this Kakarot!" He reached down to grab Goku but a Masenko attack ended up hitting his wrist. He turned his head to look at the saiyan halfling. "Well well, if it isn't Kakarot's half-breed son. Come to see your father take his final breath?"

Behind Vegeta, Krillin raised his hand up to the sky. This is a good a time as any to finally pull out this move. "Destructo Disc!" A solid disc of energy formed above Krillin's hand. He didn't hesistate to throw it directly towards the saiyan's tail.

Vegeta smirked and leapt up into the air to dodge the disc, which ended up cutting through the terrain where Gohan was standing. The moment he jumped, Piccolo flew low to the ground and grabbed Goku, pulling him out of the way and out of sight. "Did you really think I would believe you would come to face me alone? I already know you earthlings are full of cheap tricks and will use them when I least expect it."

Piccolo pulled out the senzu bean and fed it to Goku. Upon quickly digesting the bean, Goku took a deep breath as all his wounds and broken bones were healed. "There, now we have a chance at beating that monster even in that form."

Goku got back to his feet and glared at Piccolo. "You weren't supposed to give me the senzu bean!"

"There was no other choice. If you died, we'd stand no chance against him, even if we succeed in cutting off his tail!" shouted Piccolo.

Vegeta turned and smashed his hand through the rocky terrain, his hand slamming both Piccolo and Goku away. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice you moved Kakarot? I may be blind in my right eye, but I'm certainly not deaf!"

Tien had been hiding behind a rock and focussing his energy the entire time. He created 3 copies of himself, though now all 4 Tiens have only 25% of Tien's full strength. "Alright, now I just have to wait for the signal."

Goku grit his teeth and went 3x Kaio-Ken. Thanks to the saiyan boost he got after eating the senzu bean, his body was able to withstand this level of Kaio-Ken. He tried to fly behind Vegeta, but the saiyan prince caught onto it and fired a beam from his mouth, colliding with Goku and knocking him into a mountain.

Gohan fired yet another Masenko at Vegeta, but it didn't phase the giant ape. Tien then flew in front of Vegeta as he turned around to face Gohan, making the pose for the Solar Flare.

Vegeta widened his still good eye and quickly shielded his eye, turning around. "Fool, Kakarot already used that trick on me once. It won't work twice!" As he uncovered his eye, he saw Tien doing the same pose in front of him. He turned to the side and saw Tien there as well. Tien was also behind Vegeta now, surrounding him.

"Solar flare!" shouted all 4 Tiens, creating a blinding light around the saiyan prince. The light amplified off each of the Tiens and blinded Vegeta longer than a Solar Flare normally would.

Piccolo took this chance and started to grow, larger and larger until he was roughly half the size of the Great Ape. He then stretched out his arms and grabbed onto the saiyan's tail, yanking it back to straighten it out. "Do it Krillin!"

Vegeta grit his teeth as he understood what they were planning to do. He tried to leap away but Piccolo kept a tight grip on the tail, keeping it straight even as he was being smashed against the plethora of rocks in the area.

Krillin stood at a high vantage point as he raised his hand to the sky. "I only have 1 more shot at this. I can't let it go to waste! Destructo Disc!" He formed the spinning blade of energy and tossed it at the saiyan's tail, successfully landing the attack and cutting right through the tail, severing it.

Vegeta shouted loudly in pain as he started to shrink and turn back to his original size. Once back to his original form, he screamed in anger and fired energy blasts at the 4 Tiens in the sky, knocking them all down and knocking them out. "You have angered me for the last time! You will all die here, by my hand!"

Piccolo grunted as he rushed in, shrinking down to his original size and throwing a punch at Vegeta from behind, only for the prince to dodge and slam his elbow against the namekian's head, his body slamming into the ground unconscious.

Krillin and Gohan looked at each other with frightened faces and nodded as they rushed at Vegeta together, attacking repeatedly but also being struck back.

"The 2 of you have been incredible thorns in my side, the son of Kakarot especially!" He fired his energy against the 2 of them and knocked them back, crashing into a wall and falling to the ground. He walked over to Gohan and saw the brat's tail, slamming his foot down on it and severing it with the force. "Hold on, where is Kakarot?!"

During all that, Goku had been high in the sky, both his hands raised to the sky to gather strength. Once his hand was covered in a bright blue glow, he formed a large ball of blue energy, tossing straight down at Vegeta.

Vegeta noticed things were getting incredibly bright and looked up, seeing the attack known as the Spirit Bomb hurtling right at him. Before he had time to respond, the blast crashed into him, creating an explosion of light around him. After the light faded, Vegeta collapsed against the ground, panting frantically as he was barely alive at this point. He saw Goku land next to him and grit his teeth. "So, are you going to finish me or just stare?"

Goku walked past Vegeta and picked up both Krillin and Gohan. Gohan had fallen unconscious from the pain of having his tail cut off while Krillin was hanging in there. "Get out of here. Call your ship and leave this planet."

Both Vegeta and Krillin looked shocked at Goku's words. "But Goku! He killed your brother! Aren't you furious?"

"Of course I am, but we can just bring Raditz back in a year after the dragon balls recharge." He turned his head to look at the saiyan prince, who was already using the remote to call his ship, albeit slowly on account of his mangled body. "Besides, I want to fight the saiyans again one day and beat them on my own."

As Vegeta's pod landed and opened up, the prince struggled to crawl inside and sit back. "You are a fool Kakarot. The next time we meet, there will be nobody capable of saving you. I'll kill you and this entire planet."

The pod closed shut and shot up to space, taking the saiyan away with it. Goku smiled as he collapsed, leaning back against a rock and staring up at the sky. "And next time we meet, I'll make sure that doesn't happen."

And that is it for this chapter. Honestly, I'm surprised it isn't longer than it is. I had quite a bit of fun with this one and am a bit bummed out I didn't have more to work with. For all those who are probably upset, I'm sorry I didn't include Yajirobe or Great Ape Gohan in this chapter. I just don't have much interest including Yajirobe when I have the rest of the cast readily available to step in. As for Great Ape Gohan, while it is a convenient plot point in the canon story, I figured a fully powered Spirit Bomb would be more satisfying than a weak spirit bomb and then a Great Ape. The next couple of chapters are probably going to be shorter as they're gonna be mostly exposition and story progression with no real action to spread them out. But considering it's gonna be the Namek saga next, I'd say the amount of chapters coming up could be read in about 5 minutes, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I've blathered on long enough. Feel free to leave a review telling me how you liked this chapter, what I could do to improve, what you'd like to see happen or any other general thoughts. That's all for now. Tune in next time for the next exciting installment of Dragon Ball Z: A Saiyan's Tail.