Gohan was nearly pushing Krillin through the air, Goku's small friend having less power – and therefore speed – than the younger hero of the Z-Senshi. The desert ground spun a blur below the pair as it swung through the tall rock pillars and small mountains, the sun at its 4 o'clock position in the sky directly before them.
The boy's eyes were squinted against more than the glaring sunlight as he flew onward from the battle that was now more than a mile behind and nearing two; behind his scrunched, impassionate face hid a myriad of sudden emotions that had grown from the last words to catch his ears as he left the scene.
"Sending the boy away again? Afraid to let him watch his father die again?"
Gohan swallowed in the blurring air that whipped about him, his mind playing dark images of his father, whose strength was indeed greater than the boy's – though only when he glowed red, and only for short amounts of time, the boy knew; a memory of Piccolo – now dead – killing the Saiyan Raditz and Gohan's father, who had clung to his brother's frame to hold him from escape, flickered in the boy's fleeing head; it was proceeded by an imaged of Son Goku enveloped in blue ki, before incineration encumbered him…
"Hey, Gohan! Are you alright?" Krillin yelled, swooping in closer to the 5 year-old, who snapped out of his mental recession and looked at the man beside him.
"Huh? Yeah…" Gohan muttered, facing forward again and stretching out his senses; he suddenly remembered he had no clue how to get to Master Roshi's – he had only been there once, a year prior. Stopping abruptly, his stomach lurching momentarily, Gohan blinked and looked forward to Krillin, who had just halted several meters ahead of the boy after noticing Gohan's stop. "Well, actually… what way is Master Roshi's?"
Krillin raised his eyebrows.
"Oh, heh, might help if you knew where we were going, wouldn't it?" the man in the Roshi gi laughed, rubbing his head. "Why don't I lead –"
Gohan let loose a sharp yelp that cut Krillin out of his tangent and spun the pair about toward the now distant battle; the boy had felt a surge of power that chilled him to the bone. Just over the horizon, beyond the vast wasteland of dust and stone, flickered a purplish glow that began to gradually grow in intensity.
Krillin swallowed, and grabbed Gohan, forcefully turning the kid to face him.
"Come on Gohan, we have to get back to Roshi's to let the others –"
"No!" Gohan snarled, shaking free from the man's grasp; Krillin flew back a couple of feet in sudden shock, though he blinked it off and wore a more concerned, inquisitive face. Gohan's eyes had flashed with the dark anger that Krillin had felt when Nappa was obliterated. In the boy's now softening gaze the man had seen the determined look of Son Goku, underlain by something more menacing…
Gohan realized he had scared his father's friend, who only meant him good; looking down, he bit his lip a moment and then caught Krillin's small black eyes.
"Sorry, but I can't leave my father, he needs me."
Krillin looked about to object, but the ground suddenly spasmed and the light on the horizon grew brighter; Gohan's stare was not to be messed with. The man sighed and curled his face worriedly.
"Alright then, kid, go give him hell for me; I'll get Bulma and the others."
Gohan and Krillin nodded at one another, and the pair flared with white energy, departing in separate directions.
"Hang on, daddy!"
~*~*~
Goku's feet dug a hole into the shattering, lowering ground beneath him, the man's legs running a direct line to his outstretched arms, the Kamehameha wave streaming from his open palms – from his very being – into the air where it fought fiercely for space against the gathered might of Vegeta's oncoming Gallic Gun. Purple light filled the sky as nearby pillars toppled where they stood, sonic waves coming from the huge orb where red met blue and grew.
Already Goku could feel the wear upon his body the Kaioken double strength was causing, his every muscle straining to no avail – Vegeta's laughter accompanied the power of his attack, growing in volume and strength.
"Well, Kakarot, it appears your reign over this planet was short lived," Vegeta glared beyond the orb of collected power that began to inch closer toward the earth and its target, "As short lived as you."
Vegeta had certainly enjoyed this chance to test his power, to even feel the grasp of desperation if only for a moment, but the time had come to finish the job. Kakarot's body would absorb most of the damage from Vegeta's attack, which would leave a repairable scar on the planet's surface. And after recovering from this battle, Vegeta could only get stronger.
'And when I'm done,' he groaned, forcing more energy down at Kakarot to finish the job, 'I'll pick up that Saiyan brat and take him as my own little souvenir.'
Another wave of energy crashed outward from the pool of wrath the two warriors were sending at each other, rippling outward and jarring the landscape even further; entire boulders began to lift into the air at the distortion of gravity this exposition of ki was causing, each of the stones shattering into smaller and smaller pieces until it appeared they were gone, reduced to particles.
At the bottom of the attack stood Son Goku, his body aching in every way, his might giving way.
"Must… find more… strength…" he snarled, his gi shredding from the stress and heat the atmosphere carried now in it; the man recalled King Kai's warning only a day earlier; "Remember, Goku, the Kaioken x2 attack is only to be used during the most extreme of circumstances, and any level beyond that, while very dangerous to its user's health, to be used when there is no other option."
'Can't seem to find any other option…' Goku grinned sardonically to himself, though the smile was wiped from his face and replaced by a knot of pain and clenched teeth as Vegeta's attack continued its descent – only 5 meters lay between Goku and the prince's attack above him.
"Kaioken!" Goku began, focusing what little strength he had in reserve, his veins feeling as if they were as aflame as his body.
"Times 3!"
The red fire that encircled Kakarot's body exploded with more strength, as did the low-level's attack, which pushed upward and sent an unexpected jolt through the celebrating Vegeta's arm; the prince snarled and braced himself, flying upward a foot before catching himself.
'Curse him!' Vegeta spat, thrusting his arm – and ki – down at the ever-growing orb of gathered forces. How could Kakarot gather strength like that? He was surely beaten, ridden of all resident strength, yet here he stood, sending more power Vegeta's way – more power that the prince began to fear he would not be able to fight against; the prince's muscles began to ache, his ki surely draining.
"Try what you may, you will perish like the rightful low-class warrior you are!" Vegeta spat hopefully at the Earthling below, watching through trembling eyes and body as the crater his foe was the epicenter of grew more under the strain the pair was causing.
Goku felt a hollow spot in his heart where Vegeta's words stung him; his body couldn't take much more of this! Pain writhed through his body like a snake, eating at whatever force was holding him there. Goku's eyes faltered, the red-hot glow above him becoming fuzzy. Sweat evaporated from where it dripped on his body.
"Can't… hold up… much longer!" the father of Gohan gasped, feeling his right knee collapse from strain – his left shot stiff, taking a brunt of needle-pained jarring force as Goku struggled in vain to plant his other foot back down, the man no longer able to push any ki up. If only he hadn't used his Kaioken, and thus his reserved energy, so earlier on!
'I'm… failing…' Goku winced, the last drop of ki drizzling upward from his arms, arms that then draped down to his sides. The man cast his face up as the collection of both his and Vegeta's might and ki paused and then began to race toward him.
"I'm sorry Gohan…"
~*~*~
Krillin whimpered and spun about, his body tensing up as he felt Goku's ki shrink to something miniscule, overweighed by a massive glow of power that Krillin could see as a glint of light far away from where he floated above the receding desert landscape.
"No! Goku!" he gasped, a look of terror on his face, his mind growing eerily blank as he awaited his doom, awaited the crash from that terrible attack.
~*~*~
Vegeta was more than laughing now – he was cackling, cackling a demonic, boastful howl that managed to overpower the horrible hum that emanated from the attack that drifted down at Kakarot's drained form. He had won, Kakarot would be gone in a matter of moments, and the explosion from this attack would leave a mark to prove what would occur when anyone messed with the prince of Saiyans.
Vegeta had only to give one final shove to the attack below him, one final graft of his arm, one final blow that he would savor in his thoughts for sometime to come…
Pain rocked his face, accompanied by a "Ha!" and the afterimage of a fleeing brown foot, knocking the Saiyan from his revelry and causing him to lose grip on his control of the attack below him – though the attack continued to drift downward, slowly gaining momentum to break free of its own ki gravity.
"The fu –" Vegeta began, twisting away in a mixture of shock and rage, only to find himself the victim of a sudden onslaught of punches, kicks and knees, each one sending tremors of pain through his body.
The brat! Vegeta gathered his weakened self, threw out a hand to catch Gohan's incoming flying fist, but only managed to deflect the damage as a knee was thrown at his groin; Vegeta brought up his own leg and twisted back, bunting aside the raging 5 year-old's attacks. Where the bloody hell had he come from? Vegeta cast a quick eye at the attack below him as it flamed, bloated and round, closer to the trembling earth, though the prince quickly brought his focus back up and caught the eyes of the kid in his own gaze.
Gohan stopped his attack and backed up several meters, his body trembling, his eyes glazed over with white anger.
"Leave my daddy alone!" the boy snarled, his body glowing bright white, his ki flaring even more. Vegeta found himself experiencing a mixture of fascination and dread – the prince had put nearly all his strength into the attack meant to kill Kakarot, and now the boy's strength was surely higher than it had been before even.
'No time for foolish mistakes.' Vegeta set himself, putting back on his usual smirk.
"You're too late, boy; your father and this planet will be space dust soon, and your only chance to survive is to come with me." He croaked, pulling out a small rectangular device and clicking a button on it. Gohan heard it beep, but paid it no more heed; he was going to show Vegeta he was no weakling.
"And go where? To kill some more people?" Gohan spat, his fists clenched tightly, muscles trembling; the source of his anger he did not know, though he let it flow freely now, enjoying the rush it gave him. "I don't think so!"
Vegeta narrowed his eyes and glowered.
"Then enjoy the same fate as your father."
~*~*~
One moment Goku had been sure he was facing death again, the next – the next moment found the man opening wide eyes above as he sensed Vegeta's ki give way, disrupted by…
"Gohan!" Goku gasped, his body aching from strain and causing his lungs to wheeze. Gohan had returned, albeit against his command, and saved him!
Goku laughed joyfully for a half-second, though his laughter was cut off as he realized the attack bearing down on him was still coming at him, though without a captain; Goku could surely scuttle out of the way, but the resulting explosion would kill him, and his son, and everyone on the planet in the process.
There was only one thing the Earthling could really do – finish the fight with the onslaught of Vegeta.
"Here goes nothing…" Goku muttered, ruefully noting that nothing was what he had to give…
~*~*~
Krillin closed his eyes, expecting the world to flash away from under his feet – but no flash came, only the continued dull glow in the distance as he felt another flare of ki under-shadowing it.
"…Gohan?" Krillin blinked, shaking himself free of his shock. Had Gohan somehow stopped the attack? Krillin stretched out his senses; no, the attack still existed, still beamed terribly strong, and Goku's ki was very faint, but at the very least the boy had prolonged Earth's destruction.
"I can't just fly away like this!" Krillin growled, flaring his ki and thinking – hard. Goku wouldn't leave, even if told to, and Krillin had to be of some help, somehow…
A light bulb clicked in the man's shiny head, and he gloated with glee, blasting himself toward the battle at full speed.