Chapter Thirty-five - Sacrifices
Frieza launched in at Bardock and slammed into him hard. The Sai-jin soon realized the difference in power was enough to be more than a nuisance. The two traded blows in the sky, each time Frieza hit him Bardock felt the pain lance through his body. He also noticed he wasn't hitting Frieza to often, and when he did the tyrant barely seemed to notice.
"What's wrong Sai-jin?" Frieza asked grinning. "Having trouble keeping up? I've only just gotten started." He whipped out his right arm and thrust his open palm into Bardock's face firing a point blank KI blast. Bardock was flung backward and Frieza surged in slamming his knee into the Sai-jin's abdomen and then punching him in the face and knocking him into the ground. He was about to blast him when a voice reached his ears.
"Leave him alone!" Gohan cried surging into the air. Frieza turned and saw the young Sai-jin charging up at him, a glowing orange-gold aura pulsing around him. Frieza just smiled as Gohan reached him and started swing his fists wildly. The tyrant dodged nimbly around the blows for a moment before catching one of his fists and tossing him back down to where he'd come from.
"Got lost brat! Death Beam!" he cried pointing his arm down at Gohan.
Bardock had just picked himself out of the ground when he saw Gohan plummeting toward the ground and then heard Frieza's voice. /Shit!/ his mind screamed as he leapt into the air. He wasn't the only one charging for Gohan and the attack. As he reached him so did Piccolo. Together the two erected a quick KI barrier and stopped the attack at the last second.
"What!" Frieza cried seeing Piccolo up and moving again, no signs of his former injuries. "What's going on here?" He growled looking at him. /Wait... the Dragon I saw from space... could they have wished for immortality!?/ An angry Frieza charged in at both of them and attacked with his full ferocity pounding on each of them in turn. It was quite clear that Frieza was in charge of the fight now.
******
Earth:
A silence had filled the large room at Capsule Corp. after Frieza's last power up. He was now stronger than any of the others there. Unfortunately the power readings didn't give much play-by-play of the battle that was raging on. All they could see were the shifting and fluctuating powers and assume what was happening in the battle. After Frieza had powered up things seemed to be okay at first, then Bardock's power had jumped around seconds before Gohan's had jumped up again. Bardock's dipped first, then Gohan's did, then Bardock's had jumped back up... it was rather confusing to say the least.
Now, as best they could tell from what they could see, Bardock and Piccolo weren't doing so good. "This is awful..." Chi-Chi said. "My poor Gohan! I need to help him!"
"Now calm down Chi-Chi." Master Roshi said turning to look at her. "Gohan's going to be..."
"How can you expect me to calm down!" she nearly screamed. "My little baby's out there on an alien planet with a nasty evil alien who's trying to kill him!"
"Gohan's a strong boy, he'll be okay. Besides, Goku should be there soon." /I hope./
******
Otherworld, King Kai's Planet:
The dead Z Warriors, Bubbles, Gregory, and King Kai were all gathered on his small planetoid watching the events occurring on Namek. The monkey screeched a few times while jumping up and down. King Kai glanced back at him, a worried expression on his face. "I Know Bubbles, I know. This doesn't look good. Bardock can't last much longer against Frieza if this keeps up..."
The blue skinned Kai turned his attention back to Namek as he focused on the battle and tried to come up with some way of helping. /I wish there was something I could do... but what?/ he wondered as Frieza continued to pummel Bardock and Piccolo alike. The other Z Warriors were to worried about what was happening to say anything, especially Appla. /I could have these guys revived with the Earth Dragonballs but... that wouldn't help matters on Namek. None of them could get there in time and none of them are strong enough to be of any help even if they could./
He glanced back at the others for a moment still lost in thought. /I could have Goku healed or something... but he's almost healed anyway so that would be a waste of a wish... Geez, this is harder than it looks./ He looked back down to Namek as he heard Appla say something softly to herself.
******
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Bardock's eyes were blurring from tears as he screamed in agony. Frieza's oddly shaped foot was pressing down on his chest driving him deeper and deeper into the ground. He took a moment from admiring his work to look for the Namek, or anyone else who might have the idea of attacking him. That's when he saw Dende knelt over the injured Piccolo, a gold light flowing from his palms into the other Namek.
/What is he... so that's it! That Namek has been healing them... well, that's enough of that!/ "Die!" Frieza cried firing a large ball of red KI to kill both Nameks. Dende turned from where he was and stared at horror as the attack bore down on them. He turned his head and closed his eyes expecting to be killed any second. Suddenly a brilliant light shown through his closed eyelids as an explosions rocked the ground and knocked him off his feet.
Dende expected that to be his end but he heard Gohan's voice cry out. "HOTARU!" Dende opened his eyes and saw the Tanarian Princess laying in a crater before him. Her GI was shredded and blood was soaking into the ground about her. Before Gohan was even moving toward her, before anyone there could register what had just happened, she was dead. Piccolo reached out toward her, his jumbled mind thanking her. He glanced up to Dende and the young Namek nodded and quickly resumed healing Piccolo.
Gohan pulled to a stop landing beside Hotaru. He stared down at her in shock as Frieza's laughter reached his ears. He looked up from her and over to where the tyrant still stood, foot planted on Bardock's chest, and laughing. Before Gohan even saw it coming a thin stream of energy tore past him and through Dende killing the Namek as well. A second later another stream came through the air as well and caught Piccolo in the side. The added injury pushed him into unconsciousness, but he was still alive. However, Gohan didn't know that.
Gohan's body shook, his fingers flexed, and he growled staring across at Frieza. His hair flapped slowly at first then faster and faster as a breeze rose up from no where. /No... Hotaru... she died trying to save Dende and Piccolo but Frieza just... just killed them anyway. She sacrificed herself for nothing!/
Frieza noticed Gohan's anger and merely smirked at him, daring the young Sai-jin to try something. He continued to smirk as Gohan's white aura flared to life about him but still the young Sai-jin stayed where he was trying to keep control of his raging temper and powers. Those present who could sense powers took a few steps back from Gohan as his power bubbled and churned. The white aura flashing about him shifted to orange-gold as the pupils of his eyes faded from sight.
"Frieza!" Gohan cried throwing his arms and head back in rage, his aura flaring to a massive size throwing dirt and debris every which way. The tyrant took a step back as the swirling aura around Gohan shifted from orange-gold to just plain gold. The black haired Sai-jin exploded forward at the shocked Frieza and landed a hard right hook across his jaw that snapped his head around. He moved in closer and pounded on Frieza quickly.
His pure white eyes seemed to be glowing with the anger that flowed and screamed inside him. Gohan's aura grew larger and larger as he continued assault the shocked Frieza. The short Sai-jin's blows had shoved Frieza several hundred yards from where he'd stood atop Bardock moments before and the injured Sai-jin had lifted himself back to his feet as he watched his grandson attack Frieza with a power and ferocity he'd never seen in anyone before. Gohan was now stronger than him, heck, he was stronger than Frieza.
"What's... what's happened to him?" Krillin asked watching in a mix of wonder and fear.
"I don't know..." Bardock said. "I've never seen this before... ever. It's like he's... changed." Bardock wondered... "...how... could a child... No, it can't be possible... But how else could he have that kind of power? Has he... become a Super Sai-jin?"
Suddenly Frieza regained his composure and backhanded Gohan across the face. The blow spun the Sai-jin in circles and knocked him away from Frieza. He crashed into the ground and the aura sputtered a moment before vanishing. Gohan lay motionless on the ground breathing slowly and calmly, all signs of the anger and the power he'd possessed a moment before had vanished completely. The child seemed completely at peace.
Frieza turned and held his arm out toward Gohan, red energy dancing about his arm and palm. "I don't know how a child could possibly have that kind of power but I'll destroy you now before you become a problem!"
Bardock lunged forward toward his grandson just as the stream of energy burst forth from Frieza's arm. Time seemed to go in slow motion for him as he flew at top speed. He watched as the energy bore down on the defenseless Gohan and realized he'd not have the time to defend himself from the attack but he didn't care. Seconds before the blast would have hit the child Bardock passed between the two of them and the blast hit him head on, full force.
******
Goku could feel the battle raging only a few miles away. He couldn't believe the power he'd felt coming from Gohan, his son had become a lot stronger since leaving Earth. He also felt he was beginning to understand Gohan's power a bit better too. That spike had come shortly after Hotaru's death and the death of someone whose KI he didn't recognize. When he'd felt Gohan's KI drop he'd been worried his son was dead.
However, after the fear faded slightly he sensed the normal calm energy Gohan usually put out. That's when he'd felt Bardock's power explode to it's max, the Sai-jin had pushed his power higher than ever. And then, suddenly, it dropped extremely low. He was still alive but Goku wasn't sure how much longer that would last.
Outside the tank the ETA to recovery clock ticked down to one hour.
******
Krillin watched in disbelief as Bardock exploded forth from the dust cloud caused by Frieza's attack. There was a stream of blood trailing behind him as he launched in at the Tyrant. The Sai-jin swung at him furiously trying to land a blow but Frieza dodged each attempted strike with ease. "Really, this is getting to be to easy Bardock. The kid was stronger than you." he said smirking.
Meanwhile Krillin had run over to Gohan and was slapping him on the face trying to get him to wake up. "Come on bro, this is no time to be sleeping. We could use that power of yours." he said softly. Slowly Gohan's eyes drifted open once more.
"Kril... Krillin?" he asked groggily. Then he suddenly sat bolt upright. "Oh no, Hotaru, Dende... Mr. Piccolo!"
Krillin shook his head slowly. "Hotaru and Dende are gone but Piccolo's still alive, barely. No," Krillin reached out and grabbed Gohan by the shoulder as he tried to take off. "If you go over to him then Frieza will know too. Right now he thinks Piccolo is dead, it's best to leave it that way for now."
Gohan stared at his friend for a moment before nodding slowly. "I guess you're right." The two turned to look toward the fight. Bardock was still trying to hit Frieza but the tyrant was still dodging without trouble. Then he spun around and smacked his tail against Bardock's face with a loud crack knocking him away. Frieza was about to follow when he caught a glimpse of Gohan and Krillin.
/Better kill the kid before he taps into that power again... he could be a problem while at this level. Then I'll finish off Bardock and Vegeta./ He turned toward the two of them and charged in. The two Earthlings took a step back in fear but Bardock suddenly came charging in and landed a hard right hook to Frieza's face. However the tyrant merely shrugged it off. "Get lost Bardock!" he cried grabbing the Sai-jin by the hair and pitching him into the distance.
He turned back toward Gohan and Krillin once more and smirked as he raised one of his arms. A flicker of purple energy sparked on the tips of his fingers. "Death Beam!" Krillin reached out and shoved Gohan quickly as the attack bore down on them.
Frieza launched in at Bardock and slammed into him hard. The Sai-jin soon realized the difference in power was enough to be more than a nuisance. The two traded blows in the sky, each time Frieza hit him Bardock felt the pain lance through his body. He also noticed he wasn't hitting Frieza to often, and when he did the tyrant barely seemed to notice.
"What's wrong Sai-jin?" Frieza asked grinning. "Having trouble keeping up? I've only just gotten started." He whipped out his right arm and thrust his open palm into Bardock's face firing a point blank KI blast. Bardock was flung backward and Frieza surged in slamming his knee into the Sai-jin's abdomen and then punching him in the face and knocking him into the ground. He was about to blast him when a voice reached his ears.
"Leave him alone!" Gohan cried surging into the air. Frieza turned and saw the young Sai-jin charging up at him, a glowing orange-gold aura pulsing around him. Frieza just smiled as Gohan reached him and started swing his fists wildly. The tyrant dodged nimbly around the blows for a moment before catching one of his fists and tossing him back down to where he'd come from.
"Got lost brat! Death Beam!" he cried pointing his arm down at Gohan.
Bardock had just picked himself out of the ground when he saw Gohan plummeting toward the ground and then heard Frieza's voice. /Shit!/ his mind screamed as he leapt into the air. He wasn't the only one charging for Gohan and the attack. As he reached him so did Piccolo. Together the two erected a quick KI barrier and stopped the attack at the last second.
"What!" Frieza cried seeing Piccolo up and moving again, no signs of his former injuries. "What's going on here?" He growled looking at him. /Wait... the Dragon I saw from space... could they have wished for immortality!?/ An angry Frieza charged in at both of them and attacked with his full ferocity pounding on each of them in turn. It was quite clear that Frieza was in charge of the fight now.
******
Earth:
A silence had filled the large room at Capsule Corp. after Frieza's last power up. He was now stronger than any of the others there. Unfortunately the power readings didn't give much play-by-play of the battle that was raging on. All they could see were the shifting and fluctuating powers and assume what was happening in the battle. After Frieza had powered up things seemed to be okay at first, then Bardock's power had jumped around seconds before Gohan's had jumped up again. Bardock's dipped first, then Gohan's did, then Bardock's had jumped back up... it was rather confusing to say the least.
Now, as best they could tell from what they could see, Bardock and Piccolo weren't doing so good. "This is awful..." Chi-Chi said. "My poor Gohan! I need to help him!"
"Now calm down Chi-Chi." Master Roshi said turning to look at her. "Gohan's going to be..."
"How can you expect me to calm down!" she nearly screamed. "My little baby's out there on an alien planet with a nasty evil alien who's trying to kill him!"
"Gohan's a strong boy, he'll be okay. Besides, Goku should be there soon." /I hope./
******
Otherworld, King Kai's Planet:
The dead Z Warriors, Bubbles, Gregory, and King Kai were all gathered on his small planetoid watching the events occurring on Namek. The monkey screeched a few times while jumping up and down. King Kai glanced back at him, a worried expression on his face. "I Know Bubbles, I know. This doesn't look good. Bardock can't last much longer against Frieza if this keeps up..."
The blue skinned Kai turned his attention back to Namek as he focused on the battle and tried to come up with some way of helping. /I wish there was something I could do... but what?/ he wondered as Frieza continued to pummel Bardock and Piccolo alike. The other Z Warriors were to worried about what was happening to say anything, especially Appla. /I could have these guys revived with the Earth Dragonballs but... that wouldn't help matters on Namek. None of them could get there in time and none of them are strong enough to be of any help even if they could./
He glanced back at the others for a moment still lost in thought. /I could have Goku healed or something... but he's almost healed anyway so that would be a waste of a wish... Geez, this is harder than it looks./ He looked back down to Namek as he heard Appla say something softly to herself.
******
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Bardock's eyes were blurring from tears as he screamed in agony. Frieza's oddly shaped foot was pressing down on his chest driving him deeper and deeper into the ground. He took a moment from admiring his work to look for the Namek, or anyone else who might have the idea of attacking him. That's when he saw Dende knelt over the injured Piccolo, a gold light flowing from his palms into the other Namek.
/What is he... so that's it! That Namek has been healing them... well, that's enough of that!/ "Die!" Frieza cried firing a large ball of red KI to kill both Nameks. Dende turned from where he was and stared at horror as the attack bore down on them. He turned his head and closed his eyes expecting to be killed any second. Suddenly a brilliant light shown through his closed eyelids as an explosions rocked the ground and knocked him off his feet.
Dende expected that to be his end but he heard Gohan's voice cry out. "HOTARU!" Dende opened his eyes and saw the Tanarian Princess laying in a crater before him. Her GI was shredded and blood was soaking into the ground about her. Before Gohan was even moving toward her, before anyone there could register what had just happened, she was dead. Piccolo reached out toward her, his jumbled mind thanking her. He glanced up to Dende and the young Namek nodded and quickly resumed healing Piccolo.
Gohan pulled to a stop landing beside Hotaru. He stared down at her in shock as Frieza's laughter reached his ears. He looked up from her and over to where the tyrant still stood, foot planted on Bardock's chest, and laughing. Before Gohan even saw it coming a thin stream of energy tore past him and through Dende killing the Namek as well. A second later another stream came through the air as well and caught Piccolo in the side. The added injury pushed him into unconsciousness, but he was still alive. However, Gohan didn't know that.
Gohan's body shook, his fingers flexed, and he growled staring across at Frieza. His hair flapped slowly at first then faster and faster as a breeze rose up from no where. /No... Hotaru... she died trying to save Dende and Piccolo but Frieza just... just killed them anyway. She sacrificed herself for nothing!/
Frieza noticed Gohan's anger and merely smirked at him, daring the young Sai-jin to try something. He continued to smirk as Gohan's white aura flared to life about him but still the young Sai-jin stayed where he was trying to keep control of his raging temper and powers. Those present who could sense powers took a few steps back from Gohan as his power bubbled and churned. The white aura flashing about him shifted to orange-gold as the pupils of his eyes faded from sight.
"Frieza!" Gohan cried throwing his arms and head back in rage, his aura flaring to a massive size throwing dirt and debris every which way. The tyrant took a step back as the swirling aura around Gohan shifted from orange-gold to just plain gold. The black haired Sai-jin exploded forward at the shocked Frieza and landed a hard right hook across his jaw that snapped his head around. He moved in closer and pounded on Frieza quickly.
His pure white eyes seemed to be glowing with the anger that flowed and screamed inside him. Gohan's aura grew larger and larger as he continued assault the shocked Frieza. The short Sai-jin's blows had shoved Frieza several hundred yards from where he'd stood atop Bardock moments before and the injured Sai-jin had lifted himself back to his feet as he watched his grandson attack Frieza with a power and ferocity he'd never seen in anyone before. Gohan was now stronger than him, heck, he was stronger than Frieza.
"What's... what's happened to him?" Krillin asked watching in a mix of wonder and fear.
"I don't know..." Bardock said. "I've never seen this before... ever. It's like he's... changed." Bardock wondered... "...how... could a child... No, it can't be possible... But how else could he have that kind of power? Has he... become a Super Sai-jin?"
Suddenly Frieza regained his composure and backhanded Gohan across the face. The blow spun the Sai-jin in circles and knocked him away from Frieza. He crashed into the ground and the aura sputtered a moment before vanishing. Gohan lay motionless on the ground breathing slowly and calmly, all signs of the anger and the power he'd possessed a moment before had vanished completely. The child seemed completely at peace.
Frieza turned and held his arm out toward Gohan, red energy dancing about his arm and palm. "I don't know how a child could possibly have that kind of power but I'll destroy you now before you become a problem!"
Bardock lunged forward toward his grandson just as the stream of energy burst forth from Frieza's arm. Time seemed to go in slow motion for him as he flew at top speed. He watched as the energy bore down on the defenseless Gohan and realized he'd not have the time to defend himself from the attack but he didn't care. Seconds before the blast would have hit the child Bardock passed between the two of them and the blast hit him head on, full force.
******
Goku could feel the battle raging only a few miles away. He couldn't believe the power he'd felt coming from Gohan, his son had become a lot stronger since leaving Earth. He also felt he was beginning to understand Gohan's power a bit better too. That spike had come shortly after Hotaru's death and the death of someone whose KI he didn't recognize. When he'd felt Gohan's KI drop he'd been worried his son was dead.
However, after the fear faded slightly he sensed the normal calm energy Gohan usually put out. That's when he'd felt Bardock's power explode to it's max, the Sai-jin had pushed his power higher than ever. And then, suddenly, it dropped extremely low. He was still alive but Goku wasn't sure how much longer that would last.
Outside the tank the ETA to recovery clock ticked down to one hour.
******
Krillin watched in disbelief as Bardock exploded forth from the dust cloud caused by Frieza's attack. There was a stream of blood trailing behind him as he launched in at the Tyrant. The Sai-jin swung at him furiously trying to land a blow but Frieza dodged each attempted strike with ease. "Really, this is getting to be to easy Bardock. The kid was stronger than you." he said smirking.
Meanwhile Krillin had run over to Gohan and was slapping him on the face trying to get him to wake up. "Come on bro, this is no time to be sleeping. We could use that power of yours." he said softly. Slowly Gohan's eyes drifted open once more.
"Kril... Krillin?" he asked groggily. Then he suddenly sat bolt upright. "Oh no, Hotaru, Dende... Mr. Piccolo!"
Krillin shook his head slowly. "Hotaru and Dende are gone but Piccolo's still alive, barely. No," Krillin reached out and grabbed Gohan by the shoulder as he tried to take off. "If you go over to him then Frieza will know too. Right now he thinks Piccolo is dead, it's best to leave it that way for now."
Gohan stared at his friend for a moment before nodding slowly. "I guess you're right." The two turned to look toward the fight. Bardock was still trying to hit Frieza but the tyrant was still dodging without trouble. Then he spun around and smacked his tail against Bardock's face with a loud crack knocking him away. Frieza was about to follow when he caught a glimpse of Gohan and Krillin.
/Better kill the kid before he taps into that power again... he could be a problem while at this level. Then I'll finish off Bardock and Vegeta./ He turned toward the two of them and charged in. The two Earthlings took a step back in fear but Bardock suddenly came charging in and landed a hard right hook to Frieza's face. However the tyrant merely shrugged it off. "Get lost Bardock!" he cried grabbing the Sai-jin by the hair and pitching him into the distance.
He turned back toward Gohan and Krillin once more and smirked as he raised one of his arms. A flicker of purple energy sparked on the tips of his fingers. "Death Beam!" Krillin reached out and shoved Gohan quickly as the attack bore down on them.
