~Chapter 21: Frieza~
Torment is confronting Frieza. It's hell in the secular world.
I'm over it now. It took me years, but I'm over it. I don't even have the nightmares anymore. My hands aren't even shaking as I type this. However, the memory still leaves a hollow feeling in my gut...
We never really knew that much about Frieza. Even Vegeta, who lived oppressed by Frieza for most of his life, knew little - all he knew was that Frieza came in one day and enslaved everyone. I could speculate upon his origin - I've thought before that he might have come from a race where everyone had that kind of power, existing in another galaxy or a different plane from us. As the theory goes, Frieza saw our incredibly weak galaxy as his personal playground, and took pleasure in manipulating its inhabitants. He was so far removed from everyone else there in power that he never dreamed that one day a few of them would rise up and defeat him. His arrogance was his undoing. However, this is all pure speculation. We'll probably never know.
Frieza spoke to us as a mother would reprimand a naughty child, smiling and keeping his polite manner. Glancing at the nullified dragon balls, he said, "My, my, now look what you've done..."
I couldn't stop staring at him. I couldn't move.
"And there's no sign of the Ginyu Special Force. Did you kill them? My goodness, aren't you industrious little tykes?"
He flew down and stood in front of us. He didn't do it particularly quickly. He didn't look scary, and he was not much taller than I was. Still, I couldn't have imagined a more imposing sight. His power felt so much more overwhelming up close that I couldn't stop myself from trembling. If feeling the Ginyu Force's power nearly brought me to my knees, Frieza's nearly gave me a heart attack. From here on, my memory's like a video camera. It's all burned into my brain.
His smile became less benevolent, and an edge crept into his tone. "Never, ever before," he said, "Has anyone made a fool out of Frieza."
Abruptly, he screamed. "You maggots! I'll kill you all! I'll torture you to death inch by inch!"
Gohan, Dende and I all flew out of his path, but Vegeta still faced him. He was clearly nervous and sweating, but he stood tall and smiled. "Don't think I'll be beaten so easily," he said. Man. Say what you want about Vegeta (and believe me, there's a lot to say), but he is incredibly brave. I'll never forget that it was he and he alone in the entire galaxy that had the guts to stand up to Frieza, as suicidal as it was. He deserves a lot of credit for that, whatever his motives might have been at the time.
Frieza laughed at Vegeta's remark and powered up. His ki flare exploded around him like hellfire. A wave of terrified nausea swept through me. I finally found a few words upon my lips. I said that there was no way we could beat him. Frieza acted as if that was an understood fact.
"We can beat him," said Vegeta. "Between the three of us, I know we can!"
Everyone stared at him, surprised at his confidence. He went on to say that all three of us were getting stronger at an incredible rate. I was amazed by Vegeta's observance - he was right. Gohan and Vegeta kept breaking through power ceilings with their Saiyan abilities, and for some reason, even I was getting stronger with every passing moment. By that point, I might have been strong enough to qualify for the Ginyu Force. Not that it would end up mattering one iota. Not at all.
Frieza attacked Vegeta with amazing speed and force, but Vegeta caught his fist, and they locked into a stalemate. It looked like Vegeta was really pushing himself, but he held it. After a few seconds, they broke apart, and Frieza seemed to be making a slight reevaluation of things. I was feverish with hope. Suddenly, he didn't seem so far above us. With all three of us, and Piccolo and Goku still coming, we COULD beat him.
That was when Frieza transformed. Vegeta already seemed to know about Frieza's transformation; in fact, I think he prompted him.
Frieza grinned evilly and hyped his transformation for a full minute. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I remembered Zarbon's transformation, and thought that it might be something like that. I really had no idea.
Finally, Frieza burst out of his battle armor. That scared Gohan and I, but Vegeta was totally unimpressed. He actually laughed.
"Oh, no!" he said. "This is the great transformation! The mighty Frieza has taken off his jacket!"
Frieza screamed, and I felt his ki rise violently. He grew into this.... eight or nine foot tall form with long curved horns. Now he WAS scary-looking, but I was infinitely more afraid of his incredible power. It was so far above us. I had been stupid to ever have the slightest fraction of hope. You could not oppose Frieza. We'd been the dead from the moment we had challenged him.
He raised his hand, and the ground shifted violently. There was an explosion far larger than the one that had laid waste to West Capital. Everyone flew to their own safety. I was going to do the same, but then I saw Dende. He wasn't fast enough to escape. He would die. I flew to him and carried him away. As I took hold of him, a large chunk of debris from the explosion hit me in the head, and I started bleeding from a large gash. It wouldn't trouble me for long.
We floated - there was no ground left in the area. All of Vegeta's confidence seemed to have vanished. We were all very afraid.
"Let me see," said Frieza, "Whom shall I send to hell first?"
In nearly the very next moment, his horn was sticking through the front of my armor, my intestines, and the back of my armor. I didn't even see him move. There was a sickening crunch, or I think there was, or in my mind, there was. He had impaled me.
You always read that in these situations, there's little pain due to all of the shock. At the first moment, I suppose, this was true. But I remember pain. You remember pain like that. He held me there for what must have been at least a minute, but felt like an eternity. My blood ran down his horn into his face. The world went white with pain. I don't know why I didn't pass out or faint or something. I wish I had. I didn't lose consciousness until he threw me off.
I woke up lying on the ground not far away with Dende's hands upon me.
"There," he said, "You're healed!"
I blinked. I hadn't had any idea that he could heal people.
Gathering myself, I stood up and saw Frieza hitting and kicking poor Gohan. Vegeta seemed helpless. I leapt up to a cliff where I could get a better view of things. Frieza began to crush Gohan's head into the ground.
This is it, I thought. Frieza was distracted, and the last thing he'd be expecting was an attack from me. If I could hit him with a Kienzan, it would all be over.
I performed Kienzan. It was the best and fastest I'd ever made, considering my newfound power. Unfortunately, Frieza sensed it and dodged at the last moment. It cut off his tail.
I threw another five Kienzan at him in rapid succession, but it was no use now that he knew to dodge. I tried to fly away, but he caught up with me immediately. Well, at least I'd gotten his attention away from Gohan. Pissed off is an understatement of how Frieza felt about having his tail cut off. He screamed some obscenities at me. It was pretty scary, but I smiled. I still had one way out - Taiyoken.
I executed the Taiyoken perfectly that time, and Frieza screamed and pressed his fists into his eyes. Excited by the small success, I called out to Vegeta as if he were a trusted ally, "Now, Vegeta! Attack him now!"
Vegeta ignored me. His attention seemed to be focused on something else. Frieza was still reeling from the Taiyoken, so I flew over to Vegeta, annoyed with him for not taking the opportunity to attack. He now seemed angry.
"Why didn't you tell me that the Namekian brat could heal wounds?" he spat. While I tried to explain that I couldn't possibly have known, Gohan appeared beside us, fully healed. Things were starting to look up again.
I think that it was about then that Piccolo got there. Of course, Gohan was ecstatic to see him. I knew from the moment he arrived that Piccolo had changed greatly. His power was whole levels over what it had been before. (I'm really not sure how he got that much stronger. I mean, he trained with Kaiô-sama in the afterlife, but so did Yamucha, and he wasn't that much stronger. Oh well, it isn't important.)
Piccolo was very confident. He was determined to avenge all of the Namekians that had been killed by Frieza. He and Frieza took to the ground to fight. I didn't expect Piccolo to be able to do much against Frieza, but I was surprised. The skirmish that followed wasn't completely one-sided, but Piccolo did very well. He beat Frieza around and even deflected one of his ki blasts. His power was more than any of ours. Gohan and I started to get excited - maybe we could get out of this. Frieza looked frustrated, even angry at Piccolo's power. He floated in front of Piccolo with a scowl.
Then, without warning, he smiled and beat Piccolo to a pulp with great ease. He had just been faking it. Oh lord, Frieza was like a terrible god. Every time we seemed to have a hope, he just got stronger again. There didn't seem to be any limit to his power.
Piccolo got back up with difficulty.
"Sorry," said Frieza, "You were so much better than I expected, I couldn't resist."
Piccolo responded by calmly removing his cape and headgear. Whenever he does that, it's a sign he's getting serious. Piccolo's strength and speed even seem to increase a little. I felt a tiny flicker of a chance for salvation. Frieza just laughed.
"I see that I've given you the wrong idea, if you thought that would bother me," said Frieza, his voice becoming ever more taunting. "You see, I still have two transformations remaining."
Oh, I did NOT hear that, I told myself. I looked to Gohan and Vegeta for confirmation. They seemed paralyzed by fear.
Frieza began to laugh maniacally, and the laughter became a scream as he began his transformation. Enormous spikes came out of his back and shoulders. His head elongated into an almost cylindrical shape. To be honest, it all looked very painful. When he was done, he didn't even look humanoid anymore.
He looked like a demon.
Piccolo tried to flee, but Frieza caught up with him almost immediately. He began to chop at him with two fingers. He was so fast that it didn't even look like he was touching Piccolo. You would have sworn that he hadn't been if it weren't for the holes and spurts of blood that appeared all over Piccolo's body. He looked as if he was being shot up against a wall by a machine gun. The fear began to burn a hole into me. I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, but I just can't overemphasize how terrifying it was. Frieza was so many levels above anything we'd ever imagined, and he just kept getting stronger. It was too much.
Gohan lost it and flew at Frieza to attack. I started to follow, but Vegeta grabbed me by the wrist. "You wouldn't help," he said. He brought me face to face with him.
"Quickly, hit me so that I'm almost dead," he said.
"What!?"
He said that as a Saiyan, he'd become stronger after coming back from near death. Since Dende could heal people instantly, we had an easy way of doing that. "It won't work if I try to kill myself," he said, "you have to do it."
As much as I hated Vegeta, I couldn't do it. For the past several hours, we'd been fighting side by side. You feel a kind of bond with someone from that that's hard to explain. I couldn't make myself hurt him. Vegeta begged me. He threatened me. He called me a fool, an idiot, a coward. He said that it was our only chance. None of it made any difference. I couldn't do it.
We heard a scream and saw Gohan fire the largest ki blast ever conceived at Frieza. He bounced it back.
Presently, Vegeta began to scream at me. I tried to shut my ears to him. I wasn't having any part of his scheme.
"Now, at last," we heard Frieza exclaim, "Behold a fear worse than hell itself! My final form!"
My heart seemed to seize up when I heard that. I felt his skyrocketing ki and my mind was filled with horrible visions of his final form. The fear I'd felt before seemed like nothing compared to this.
"Now, coward!" shrieked Vegeta. That did it. I sent a ki blast straight through his torso. I think I actually heard him say "that's more like it" as he fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. What a psycho.
Frieza's final transformation took longer than the others. I met Gohan and Piccolo on the ground and explained why I'd attacked Vegeta. Gohan and I ran to the place where he had fallen, only to find him lying there, dying. Dende flew past us and headed for Piccolo. Piccolo stood up, healed, as we got there. We all started to panic a little; Vegeta would be dead from the wound I gave him soon if he wasn't healed.
"Dende," I said, "I can understand why you wouldn't want to, but... you have to heal Vegeta."
"No!" he screamed. "He killed too many Namekians!"
We begged him to do it, but he wouldn't budge. The poor kid. It must have been a hell of an internal struggle for him. Even Piccolo asked him.
In the next moment, everything was lit up by a gigantic flare that shot up from where Frieza was standing. It was like an enormous flame that extended almost through our entire field of vision, far away from him though we were. A tremendous roar filled the air, blocking out all other sound. It leveled the little island he was standing on, and sent out a shockwave that sent up dust all around us. Frieza had completed his transformation. Dende went back and healed Vegeta without further argument.
After the dust settled, we could see Frieza. His final form was unimpressive, at least in appearance. It wasn't very big, and it didn't have any spikes or horns anywhere. He just looked like a man wearing strange armor. Frieza's fourth form was the least scary-looking. What terrible irony.
Frieza pointed his finger, and there was an explosion behind us. We all turned to see poor Dende's lifeless body lying in a small crater. We hadn't even seen the attack.
"Now you can't come back," said Frieza.
Instantly, he was upon us. He appeared in the middle of Piccolo, Gohan, and I and just stood there.
Gohan yelled mightily and attacked. Piccolo joined the attack, and then I did as well. Three of us at once, some of the strongest warriors in the universe at that time, attacked as quickly and with as much force as we could. We used every strategy we could think of, and each of us called upon whatever training we'd had. The assault would be a humbling sight to almost anyone. Frieza merely stood there and dodged it all with ease. It was like attacking the wind. Every time I thought I knew where he was, I'd throw a punch or kick there, and he was gone by the time it reached. I even started predicting where he'd be and attacking there instead of where I saw him, a technique I'd learned when everyone started using after-images in the Tenkai'chi Budokai, and he was still way ahead of me. The really sobering part is that even if every single one of our blows had landed, it wouldn't have harmed him.
We separated and each fired ki blasts at him. They came even less close to hitting him than our physical attacks had. When we looked, Frieza seemed to have disappeared.
"Behind you!" shouted Vegeta. We all turned to look, and saw that he was behind us. The next thing I was aware of was Vegeta kicking Gohan. After that, I became aware of the two ki blasts that he'd kicked him out of the path of. It was obvious that Vegeta could see things we couldn't. He really had gotten stronger.
Vegeta was filled with confidence. He called himself "The Super Saiyan". Frieza seemed mildly amused.
The Super Saiyan was an ancient Saiyan legend. It told of an all-powerful warrior that supposedly came around once every thousand years. The legend said that the Super Saiyan would love bloodshed and violence, and would be impossible to defeat. It turned out to be accurate and, at the same time, way, way off. You'll read later about multiple Super Saiyans having the living tar beaten out of them, by, among others, my wife. So much for legend.
Vegeta was not a Super Saiyan. He couldn't even keep up with Frieza. Frustrated, he attacked Frieza with a truly awe-inspiring ki blast. Frieza deflected it with a bit of effort. I caught sight of Vegeta when that happened. I saw him give up. A certain fire went out of his eyes, and his shoulders sagged. He'd lost his will to fight.
Let me tell you, you know that things are going bad when Vegeta gives up. The man was like pride incarnate. Yet, he didn't even seem to try to resist as Frieza beat him mercilessly. He landed right next to us. Frieza landed beside him and picked him up by the neck with his tail. He began to beat Vegeta, slowly and cruelly. At one point, he stopped and turned to us.
"You know, you can help him any time," said Frieza. We didn't move. It wouldn't have made any difference if we had.
Frieza soon got bored with a victim that made no pretense of fighting back, and prepared to finish Vegeta off. That's when Goku arrived. Oddly, even his clothes weren't damaged. I wonder how those healing chambers work. Goku barely acknowledged us. He said that he was sorry he was late. He was focused entirely on Frieza.
Frieza and Goku talked for a little while, and he seemed to learn that Goku was a Saiyan. He attacked Goku, and Goku dodged and kicked him in the face. It didn't hurt Frieza much, but the mere fact that he was able to hit him was amazing. It was all Goku from here on. The rest of us were just spectators.
Frieza used the same too-fast-too-see attack on Goku that had killed Dende. He shot a bunch of them at once. Goku deflected them all with one hand. Even Frieza was impressed with that. We heard a feeble laughter coming from Vegeta.
"Frieza!" he said, sitting up a little, "It was Kakarotto! He's the Super Saiyan!"
He smiled despite his obvious pain. "You're through, Frieza... I'm only glad I lived to see it..."
Without warning, Frieza shot Vegeta through the heart. Still, as resilient as ever, Vegeta managed to choke out a final speech to Goku. He told him to stop being so nice, to be ruthless.
"Never," said Goku, "I'm not like you." Still our Goku.
Vegeta told Goku that Frieza had been the one who destroyed the Saiyan homeworld. In the end, his speech became an almost tender supplication, a final request of Goku.
"Please," he said, a tear squeezing out of his eye in his final moment, "Frieza must die..."
Then, Vegeta died. "Finally," snorted Frieza.
I wasn't sure how to feel. Something about Vegeta's death had seemed so sad, and so senseless, that I felt tremendously guilty for having felt mere seconds before kind of glad that he wouldn't make it.
Goku buried Vegeta, and then faced off with Frieza. "I'm going to kill you, Frieza," he said. It was a threat I'd already heard three times that day. Frieza seemed as unimpressed as ever.
Piccolo, Gohan, and I got far away. There was nothing that we could do. We could only watch and pray as the two giants began to fight.
Despite was Vegeta had said, Goku was not a Super Saiyan, at least not yet. He could keep up with Frieza, something that none of the rest of us could do, but he didn't seem to be able to actually hurt him. The battle was ludicrously fast and accompanied by various large explosions. Using a brilliant strategy, Goku finally managed to get in a really good hit on Frieza. It sent him through two mountains. It was a pretty frightening sight.
Frieza was not harmed. He still didn't even seem to be trying. He threw a bunch of rocks at Goku, a really ridiculous attack. It turned out, however, to only be a distraction from his true attack. Frieza captured Goku in some kind of ball of light and threw it to the ground, causing an explosion. For a moment, I was really afraid, but Goku had gotten out of it at the last moment. He wasn't really trying yet either.
They met on the ground and engaged. The fight seemed pretty even. As I watched, I noticed something odd about Frieza's fighting style. Then I saw what it was - he wasn't using his hands. Hoo boy.
They broke apart and talked a little, and then for a long time they just stood and stared at each other. Suddenly, Frieza attacked and they started again. Now Goku was really trying. Frieza still wasn't. He seemed to be standing perfectly still except in the moments he hit Goku. It was a horror to watch - Frieza was just too strong. Even Goku was helpless. Even Goku. Heaven save us.
Frieza stopped attacking for a moment and pointed at the ground. With his finger, he shot a ki blast that sliced a quarter of the way through the planet. It reached just up to where we were staying. It occurred to me that Frieza could destroy the planet if he wanted to.
Strangely, I didn't feel afraid anymore. Concerned, frustrated, even hopeful, but not afraid. I don't know whether some mental defense mechanism had switched the fear off, whether I'd found my final reserves of courage, or whether I was heartened by Goku's presence. Whatever it was, I was far from all right. A hollowness had replaced the fear inside of me. I felt almost nothing as I watched the battle. I felt detached somehow.
Goku screamed, and a bright ki flare erupted around him. I knew what it was - he was bringing out the last of his strength with the Kaioken. He hit Frieza and unleashed a Kamehameha that would've made the Muten Roshi damn proud to have invented the thing. Frieza half-blocked, half-absorbed the blast. It didn't injure him much.
We came to a horrible realization: that blast had been Goku's best. It was over. All of our efforts, all of our power increases, Piccolo, Vegeta, even Goku, even Goku; all had been for nothing. Frieza really was invincible. We were doomed.
Frieza really started beating Goku after that. It got to the point where Goku was struggling to get up, and Frieza would kick him. It was a torturous sight.
"What happened to your eagerness, Saiyan?" taunted Frieza. "Are you on strike?"
Goku raised his hands, palms turned upwards. It took me a moment, but I recognized what he was doing - he was preparing the Genki Dama. We saw it form in the sky. It was much, much larger than the one on Earth. It must have contained not only Namek's energy, but that of neighboring planets. It was our last hope, but it took too long to prepare. Frieza was just confused.
"What's this?" said Frieza. "Does this mean you give up?"
Finally, Frieza lost his patience and hit Goku. Goku resumed charging the Genki Dama as soon as he could stand back up, but Frieza hit him again. He wasn't going to let him do it.
"Gohan, Kuririn," said Piccolo, "Give me your energy. Hurry!"
I'd never done that before. It had never occurred to me that it was possible to transfer some of your ki to another. Gohan and I took Piccolo's hands, and he drained most of the ki out of us.
Frieza finally saw the Genki Dama and realized what was happening. Now there was no way he was letting Goku do it. He taunted Goku. Goku tried one last punch that Frieza blocked easily. In another moment Goku would die. At that very moment, Piccolo kicked Frieza. Piccolo used all of his power plus the power he had gotten from Gohan and I for that one attack. It sent him flying.
Goku started to prepare the Genki Dama again. Frieza came at him again to stop him.
"Gohan," I said. I didn't even have to say it. Both of us used what energy we had left to fire ki blasts at Frieza. They distracted him just long enough for Goku to finish the preparation.
Goku threw the huge Genki Dama at Frieza. Frieza put up his hands to block it, and there was a consciousness-obliterating flash.
A few minutes passed.
The next thing I remember is swimming to solid ground. There was a crater in Namek where the Genki Dama had hit. The ocean was flowing into it. Gohan was standing next to me. We were worried for a moment, but then we saw Goku and Piccolo crawl onto shore nearby. We flew to them as fast as we could, which was not very fast, as drained as we were.
We were so happy. I hugged Goku. "Ow," he said. We all laughed. My heart filled up with a great warm feeling. Everything was going to be all right. We could go home.
Suddenly, I realized something. I let out a little scream.
"Bulma!" I said. "I almost forgot about Bulma!"
Goku laughed. "You scared the crap out of me," he said. "I thought you saw Frieza."
Everyone just chatted it up, but I stopped. I saw something in the distance, a bloodied form standing on a cliff.
It wasn't possible. It wasn't fair. Yet, there it was. Frieza was still alive.
He wasn't messing around anymore; he had almost died. He planned to kill us all now. He shot Piccolo through the chest. Then, he raised a hand.
I felt an invisible force take hold of my body. I began to rise into the air. If I'd still had all my energy, I might have been able to break the hold, but as it was, I could do nothing. I screamed and screamed. The fear was back.
I remember being angry. Frieza had no right. We had won, we had our happy ending. He couldn't take it away like this.
Then, I felt something tear at my insides. I felt like I was coming apart. I was shaking violently.
I wished that I was back at home. I wanted more of my worthless, stupid life. I didn't want to die. As the end approached, it occurred to me to scream something. I settled on "Goku." Goku returned my scream with "Kuririn!" He really cared about me.
Then, I died.
Seems like a good place to end a chapter.
--END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE--
Torment is confronting Frieza. It's hell in the secular world.
I'm over it now. It took me years, but I'm over it. I don't even have the nightmares anymore. My hands aren't even shaking as I type this. However, the memory still leaves a hollow feeling in my gut...
We never really knew that much about Frieza. Even Vegeta, who lived oppressed by Frieza for most of his life, knew little - all he knew was that Frieza came in one day and enslaved everyone. I could speculate upon his origin - I've thought before that he might have come from a race where everyone had that kind of power, existing in another galaxy or a different plane from us. As the theory goes, Frieza saw our incredibly weak galaxy as his personal playground, and took pleasure in manipulating its inhabitants. He was so far removed from everyone else there in power that he never dreamed that one day a few of them would rise up and defeat him. His arrogance was his undoing. However, this is all pure speculation. We'll probably never know.
Frieza spoke to us as a mother would reprimand a naughty child, smiling and keeping his polite manner. Glancing at the nullified dragon balls, he said, "My, my, now look what you've done..."
I couldn't stop staring at him. I couldn't move.
"And there's no sign of the Ginyu Special Force. Did you kill them? My goodness, aren't you industrious little tykes?"
He flew down and stood in front of us. He didn't do it particularly quickly. He didn't look scary, and he was not much taller than I was. Still, I couldn't have imagined a more imposing sight. His power felt so much more overwhelming up close that I couldn't stop myself from trembling. If feeling the Ginyu Force's power nearly brought me to my knees, Frieza's nearly gave me a heart attack. From here on, my memory's like a video camera. It's all burned into my brain.
His smile became less benevolent, and an edge crept into his tone. "Never, ever before," he said, "Has anyone made a fool out of Frieza."
Abruptly, he screamed. "You maggots! I'll kill you all! I'll torture you to death inch by inch!"
Gohan, Dende and I all flew out of his path, but Vegeta still faced him. He was clearly nervous and sweating, but he stood tall and smiled. "Don't think I'll be beaten so easily," he said. Man. Say what you want about Vegeta (and believe me, there's a lot to say), but he is incredibly brave. I'll never forget that it was he and he alone in the entire galaxy that had the guts to stand up to Frieza, as suicidal as it was. He deserves a lot of credit for that, whatever his motives might have been at the time.
Frieza laughed at Vegeta's remark and powered up. His ki flare exploded around him like hellfire. A wave of terrified nausea swept through me. I finally found a few words upon my lips. I said that there was no way we could beat him. Frieza acted as if that was an understood fact.
"We can beat him," said Vegeta. "Between the three of us, I know we can!"
Everyone stared at him, surprised at his confidence. He went on to say that all three of us were getting stronger at an incredible rate. I was amazed by Vegeta's observance - he was right. Gohan and Vegeta kept breaking through power ceilings with their Saiyan abilities, and for some reason, even I was getting stronger with every passing moment. By that point, I might have been strong enough to qualify for the Ginyu Force. Not that it would end up mattering one iota. Not at all.
Frieza attacked Vegeta with amazing speed and force, but Vegeta caught his fist, and they locked into a stalemate. It looked like Vegeta was really pushing himself, but he held it. After a few seconds, they broke apart, and Frieza seemed to be making a slight reevaluation of things. I was feverish with hope. Suddenly, he didn't seem so far above us. With all three of us, and Piccolo and Goku still coming, we COULD beat him.
That was when Frieza transformed. Vegeta already seemed to know about Frieza's transformation; in fact, I think he prompted him.
Frieza grinned evilly and hyped his transformation for a full minute. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I remembered Zarbon's transformation, and thought that it might be something like that. I really had no idea.
Finally, Frieza burst out of his battle armor. That scared Gohan and I, but Vegeta was totally unimpressed. He actually laughed.
"Oh, no!" he said. "This is the great transformation! The mighty Frieza has taken off his jacket!"
Frieza screamed, and I felt his ki rise violently. He grew into this.... eight or nine foot tall form with long curved horns. Now he WAS scary-looking, but I was infinitely more afraid of his incredible power. It was so far above us. I had been stupid to ever have the slightest fraction of hope. You could not oppose Frieza. We'd been the dead from the moment we had challenged him.
He raised his hand, and the ground shifted violently. There was an explosion far larger than the one that had laid waste to West Capital. Everyone flew to their own safety. I was going to do the same, but then I saw Dende. He wasn't fast enough to escape. He would die. I flew to him and carried him away. As I took hold of him, a large chunk of debris from the explosion hit me in the head, and I started bleeding from a large gash. It wouldn't trouble me for long.
We floated - there was no ground left in the area. All of Vegeta's confidence seemed to have vanished. We were all very afraid.
"Let me see," said Frieza, "Whom shall I send to hell first?"
In nearly the very next moment, his horn was sticking through the front of my armor, my intestines, and the back of my armor. I didn't even see him move. There was a sickening crunch, or I think there was, or in my mind, there was. He had impaled me.
You always read that in these situations, there's little pain due to all of the shock. At the first moment, I suppose, this was true. But I remember pain. You remember pain like that. He held me there for what must have been at least a minute, but felt like an eternity. My blood ran down his horn into his face. The world went white with pain. I don't know why I didn't pass out or faint or something. I wish I had. I didn't lose consciousness until he threw me off.
I woke up lying on the ground not far away with Dende's hands upon me.
"There," he said, "You're healed!"
I blinked. I hadn't had any idea that he could heal people.
Gathering myself, I stood up and saw Frieza hitting and kicking poor Gohan. Vegeta seemed helpless. I leapt up to a cliff where I could get a better view of things. Frieza began to crush Gohan's head into the ground.
This is it, I thought. Frieza was distracted, and the last thing he'd be expecting was an attack from me. If I could hit him with a Kienzan, it would all be over.
I performed Kienzan. It was the best and fastest I'd ever made, considering my newfound power. Unfortunately, Frieza sensed it and dodged at the last moment. It cut off his tail.
I threw another five Kienzan at him in rapid succession, but it was no use now that he knew to dodge. I tried to fly away, but he caught up with me immediately. Well, at least I'd gotten his attention away from Gohan. Pissed off is an understatement of how Frieza felt about having his tail cut off. He screamed some obscenities at me. It was pretty scary, but I smiled. I still had one way out - Taiyoken.
I executed the Taiyoken perfectly that time, and Frieza screamed and pressed his fists into his eyes. Excited by the small success, I called out to Vegeta as if he were a trusted ally, "Now, Vegeta! Attack him now!"
Vegeta ignored me. His attention seemed to be focused on something else. Frieza was still reeling from the Taiyoken, so I flew over to Vegeta, annoyed with him for not taking the opportunity to attack. He now seemed angry.
"Why didn't you tell me that the Namekian brat could heal wounds?" he spat. While I tried to explain that I couldn't possibly have known, Gohan appeared beside us, fully healed. Things were starting to look up again.
I think that it was about then that Piccolo got there. Of course, Gohan was ecstatic to see him. I knew from the moment he arrived that Piccolo had changed greatly. His power was whole levels over what it had been before. (I'm really not sure how he got that much stronger. I mean, he trained with Kaiô-sama in the afterlife, but so did Yamucha, and he wasn't that much stronger. Oh well, it isn't important.)
Piccolo was very confident. He was determined to avenge all of the Namekians that had been killed by Frieza. He and Frieza took to the ground to fight. I didn't expect Piccolo to be able to do much against Frieza, but I was surprised. The skirmish that followed wasn't completely one-sided, but Piccolo did very well. He beat Frieza around and even deflected one of his ki blasts. His power was more than any of ours. Gohan and I started to get excited - maybe we could get out of this. Frieza looked frustrated, even angry at Piccolo's power. He floated in front of Piccolo with a scowl.
Then, without warning, he smiled and beat Piccolo to a pulp with great ease. He had just been faking it. Oh lord, Frieza was like a terrible god. Every time we seemed to have a hope, he just got stronger again. There didn't seem to be any limit to his power.
Piccolo got back up with difficulty.
"Sorry," said Frieza, "You were so much better than I expected, I couldn't resist."
Piccolo responded by calmly removing his cape and headgear. Whenever he does that, it's a sign he's getting serious. Piccolo's strength and speed even seem to increase a little. I felt a tiny flicker of a chance for salvation. Frieza just laughed.
"I see that I've given you the wrong idea, if you thought that would bother me," said Frieza, his voice becoming ever more taunting. "You see, I still have two transformations remaining."
Oh, I did NOT hear that, I told myself. I looked to Gohan and Vegeta for confirmation. They seemed paralyzed by fear.
Frieza began to laugh maniacally, and the laughter became a scream as he began his transformation. Enormous spikes came out of his back and shoulders. His head elongated into an almost cylindrical shape. To be honest, it all looked very painful. When he was done, he didn't even look humanoid anymore.
He looked like a demon.
Piccolo tried to flee, but Frieza caught up with him almost immediately. He began to chop at him with two fingers. He was so fast that it didn't even look like he was touching Piccolo. You would have sworn that he hadn't been if it weren't for the holes and spurts of blood that appeared all over Piccolo's body. He looked as if he was being shot up against a wall by a machine gun. The fear began to burn a hole into me. I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, but I just can't overemphasize how terrifying it was. Frieza was so many levels above anything we'd ever imagined, and he just kept getting stronger. It was too much.
Gohan lost it and flew at Frieza to attack. I started to follow, but Vegeta grabbed me by the wrist. "You wouldn't help," he said. He brought me face to face with him.
"Quickly, hit me so that I'm almost dead," he said.
"What!?"
He said that as a Saiyan, he'd become stronger after coming back from near death. Since Dende could heal people instantly, we had an easy way of doing that. "It won't work if I try to kill myself," he said, "you have to do it."
As much as I hated Vegeta, I couldn't do it. For the past several hours, we'd been fighting side by side. You feel a kind of bond with someone from that that's hard to explain. I couldn't make myself hurt him. Vegeta begged me. He threatened me. He called me a fool, an idiot, a coward. He said that it was our only chance. None of it made any difference. I couldn't do it.
We heard a scream and saw Gohan fire the largest ki blast ever conceived at Frieza. He bounced it back.
Presently, Vegeta began to scream at me. I tried to shut my ears to him. I wasn't having any part of his scheme.
"Now, at last," we heard Frieza exclaim, "Behold a fear worse than hell itself! My final form!"
My heart seemed to seize up when I heard that. I felt his skyrocketing ki and my mind was filled with horrible visions of his final form. The fear I'd felt before seemed like nothing compared to this.
"Now, coward!" shrieked Vegeta. That did it. I sent a ki blast straight through his torso. I think I actually heard him say "that's more like it" as he fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. What a psycho.
Frieza's final transformation took longer than the others. I met Gohan and Piccolo on the ground and explained why I'd attacked Vegeta. Gohan and I ran to the place where he had fallen, only to find him lying there, dying. Dende flew past us and headed for Piccolo. Piccolo stood up, healed, as we got there. We all started to panic a little; Vegeta would be dead from the wound I gave him soon if he wasn't healed.
"Dende," I said, "I can understand why you wouldn't want to, but... you have to heal Vegeta."
"No!" he screamed. "He killed too many Namekians!"
We begged him to do it, but he wouldn't budge. The poor kid. It must have been a hell of an internal struggle for him. Even Piccolo asked him.
In the next moment, everything was lit up by a gigantic flare that shot up from where Frieza was standing. It was like an enormous flame that extended almost through our entire field of vision, far away from him though we were. A tremendous roar filled the air, blocking out all other sound. It leveled the little island he was standing on, and sent out a shockwave that sent up dust all around us. Frieza had completed his transformation. Dende went back and healed Vegeta without further argument.
After the dust settled, we could see Frieza. His final form was unimpressive, at least in appearance. It wasn't very big, and it didn't have any spikes or horns anywhere. He just looked like a man wearing strange armor. Frieza's fourth form was the least scary-looking. What terrible irony.
Frieza pointed his finger, and there was an explosion behind us. We all turned to see poor Dende's lifeless body lying in a small crater. We hadn't even seen the attack.
"Now you can't come back," said Frieza.
Instantly, he was upon us. He appeared in the middle of Piccolo, Gohan, and I and just stood there.
Gohan yelled mightily and attacked. Piccolo joined the attack, and then I did as well. Three of us at once, some of the strongest warriors in the universe at that time, attacked as quickly and with as much force as we could. We used every strategy we could think of, and each of us called upon whatever training we'd had. The assault would be a humbling sight to almost anyone. Frieza merely stood there and dodged it all with ease. It was like attacking the wind. Every time I thought I knew where he was, I'd throw a punch or kick there, and he was gone by the time it reached. I even started predicting where he'd be and attacking there instead of where I saw him, a technique I'd learned when everyone started using after-images in the Tenkai'chi Budokai, and he was still way ahead of me. The really sobering part is that even if every single one of our blows had landed, it wouldn't have harmed him.
We separated and each fired ki blasts at him. They came even less close to hitting him than our physical attacks had. When we looked, Frieza seemed to have disappeared.
"Behind you!" shouted Vegeta. We all turned to look, and saw that he was behind us. The next thing I was aware of was Vegeta kicking Gohan. After that, I became aware of the two ki blasts that he'd kicked him out of the path of. It was obvious that Vegeta could see things we couldn't. He really had gotten stronger.
Vegeta was filled with confidence. He called himself "The Super Saiyan". Frieza seemed mildly amused.
The Super Saiyan was an ancient Saiyan legend. It told of an all-powerful warrior that supposedly came around once every thousand years. The legend said that the Super Saiyan would love bloodshed and violence, and would be impossible to defeat. It turned out to be accurate and, at the same time, way, way off. You'll read later about multiple Super Saiyans having the living tar beaten out of them, by, among others, my wife. So much for legend.
Vegeta was not a Super Saiyan. He couldn't even keep up with Frieza. Frustrated, he attacked Frieza with a truly awe-inspiring ki blast. Frieza deflected it with a bit of effort. I caught sight of Vegeta when that happened. I saw him give up. A certain fire went out of his eyes, and his shoulders sagged. He'd lost his will to fight.
Let me tell you, you know that things are going bad when Vegeta gives up. The man was like pride incarnate. Yet, he didn't even seem to try to resist as Frieza beat him mercilessly. He landed right next to us. Frieza landed beside him and picked him up by the neck with his tail. He began to beat Vegeta, slowly and cruelly. At one point, he stopped and turned to us.
"You know, you can help him any time," said Frieza. We didn't move. It wouldn't have made any difference if we had.
Frieza soon got bored with a victim that made no pretense of fighting back, and prepared to finish Vegeta off. That's when Goku arrived. Oddly, even his clothes weren't damaged. I wonder how those healing chambers work. Goku barely acknowledged us. He said that he was sorry he was late. He was focused entirely on Frieza.
Frieza and Goku talked for a little while, and he seemed to learn that Goku was a Saiyan. He attacked Goku, and Goku dodged and kicked him in the face. It didn't hurt Frieza much, but the mere fact that he was able to hit him was amazing. It was all Goku from here on. The rest of us were just spectators.
Frieza used the same too-fast-too-see attack on Goku that had killed Dende. He shot a bunch of them at once. Goku deflected them all with one hand. Even Frieza was impressed with that. We heard a feeble laughter coming from Vegeta.
"Frieza!" he said, sitting up a little, "It was Kakarotto! He's the Super Saiyan!"
He smiled despite his obvious pain. "You're through, Frieza... I'm only glad I lived to see it..."
Without warning, Frieza shot Vegeta through the heart. Still, as resilient as ever, Vegeta managed to choke out a final speech to Goku. He told him to stop being so nice, to be ruthless.
"Never," said Goku, "I'm not like you." Still our Goku.
Vegeta told Goku that Frieza had been the one who destroyed the Saiyan homeworld. In the end, his speech became an almost tender supplication, a final request of Goku.
"Please," he said, a tear squeezing out of his eye in his final moment, "Frieza must die..."
Then, Vegeta died. "Finally," snorted Frieza.
I wasn't sure how to feel. Something about Vegeta's death had seemed so sad, and so senseless, that I felt tremendously guilty for having felt mere seconds before kind of glad that he wouldn't make it.
Goku buried Vegeta, and then faced off with Frieza. "I'm going to kill you, Frieza," he said. It was a threat I'd already heard three times that day. Frieza seemed as unimpressed as ever.
Piccolo, Gohan, and I got far away. There was nothing that we could do. We could only watch and pray as the two giants began to fight.
Despite was Vegeta had said, Goku was not a Super Saiyan, at least not yet. He could keep up with Frieza, something that none of the rest of us could do, but he didn't seem to be able to actually hurt him. The battle was ludicrously fast and accompanied by various large explosions. Using a brilliant strategy, Goku finally managed to get in a really good hit on Frieza. It sent him through two mountains. It was a pretty frightening sight.
Frieza was not harmed. He still didn't even seem to be trying. He threw a bunch of rocks at Goku, a really ridiculous attack. It turned out, however, to only be a distraction from his true attack. Frieza captured Goku in some kind of ball of light and threw it to the ground, causing an explosion. For a moment, I was really afraid, but Goku had gotten out of it at the last moment. He wasn't really trying yet either.
They met on the ground and engaged. The fight seemed pretty even. As I watched, I noticed something odd about Frieza's fighting style. Then I saw what it was - he wasn't using his hands. Hoo boy.
They broke apart and talked a little, and then for a long time they just stood and stared at each other. Suddenly, Frieza attacked and they started again. Now Goku was really trying. Frieza still wasn't. He seemed to be standing perfectly still except in the moments he hit Goku. It was a horror to watch - Frieza was just too strong. Even Goku was helpless. Even Goku. Heaven save us.
Frieza stopped attacking for a moment and pointed at the ground. With his finger, he shot a ki blast that sliced a quarter of the way through the planet. It reached just up to where we were staying. It occurred to me that Frieza could destroy the planet if he wanted to.
Strangely, I didn't feel afraid anymore. Concerned, frustrated, even hopeful, but not afraid. I don't know whether some mental defense mechanism had switched the fear off, whether I'd found my final reserves of courage, or whether I was heartened by Goku's presence. Whatever it was, I was far from all right. A hollowness had replaced the fear inside of me. I felt almost nothing as I watched the battle. I felt detached somehow.
Goku screamed, and a bright ki flare erupted around him. I knew what it was - he was bringing out the last of his strength with the Kaioken. He hit Frieza and unleashed a Kamehameha that would've made the Muten Roshi damn proud to have invented the thing. Frieza half-blocked, half-absorbed the blast. It didn't injure him much.
We came to a horrible realization: that blast had been Goku's best. It was over. All of our efforts, all of our power increases, Piccolo, Vegeta, even Goku, even Goku; all had been for nothing. Frieza really was invincible. We were doomed.
Frieza really started beating Goku after that. It got to the point where Goku was struggling to get up, and Frieza would kick him. It was a torturous sight.
"What happened to your eagerness, Saiyan?" taunted Frieza. "Are you on strike?"
Goku raised his hands, palms turned upwards. It took me a moment, but I recognized what he was doing - he was preparing the Genki Dama. We saw it form in the sky. It was much, much larger than the one on Earth. It must have contained not only Namek's energy, but that of neighboring planets. It was our last hope, but it took too long to prepare. Frieza was just confused.
"What's this?" said Frieza. "Does this mean you give up?"
Finally, Frieza lost his patience and hit Goku. Goku resumed charging the Genki Dama as soon as he could stand back up, but Frieza hit him again. He wasn't going to let him do it.
"Gohan, Kuririn," said Piccolo, "Give me your energy. Hurry!"
I'd never done that before. It had never occurred to me that it was possible to transfer some of your ki to another. Gohan and I took Piccolo's hands, and he drained most of the ki out of us.
Frieza finally saw the Genki Dama and realized what was happening. Now there was no way he was letting Goku do it. He taunted Goku. Goku tried one last punch that Frieza blocked easily. In another moment Goku would die. At that very moment, Piccolo kicked Frieza. Piccolo used all of his power plus the power he had gotten from Gohan and I for that one attack. It sent him flying.
Goku started to prepare the Genki Dama again. Frieza came at him again to stop him.
"Gohan," I said. I didn't even have to say it. Both of us used what energy we had left to fire ki blasts at Frieza. They distracted him just long enough for Goku to finish the preparation.
Goku threw the huge Genki Dama at Frieza. Frieza put up his hands to block it, and there was a consciousness-obliterating flash.
A few minutes passed.
The next thing I remember is swimming to solid ground. There was a crater in Namek where the Genki Dama had hit. The ocean was flowing into it. Gohan was standing next to me. We were worried for a moment, but then we saw Goku and Piccolo crawl onto shore nearby. We flew to them as fast as we could, which was not very fast, as drained as we were.
We were so happy. I hugged Goku. "Ow," he said. We all laughed. My heart filled up with a great warm feeling. Everything was going to be all right. We could go home.
Suddenly, I realized something. I let out a little scream.
"Bulma!" I said. "I almost forgot about Bulma!"
Goku laughed. "You scared the crap out of me," he said. "I thought you saw Frieza."
Everyone just chatted it up, but I stopped. I saw something in the distance, a bloodied form standing on a cliff.
It wasn't possible. It wasn't fair. Yet, there it was. Frieza was still alive.
He wasn't messing around anymore; he had almost died. He planned to kill us all now. He shot Piccolo through the chest. Then, he raised a hand.
I felt an invisible force take hold of my body. I began to rise into the air. If I'd still had all my energy, I might have been able to break the hold, but as it was, I could do nothing. I screamed and screamed. The fear was back.
I remember being angry. Frieza had no right. We had won, we had our happy ending. He couldn't take it away like this.
Then, I felt something tear at my insides. I felt like I was coming apart. I was shaking violently.
I wished that I was back at home. I wanted more of my worthless, stupid life. I didn't want to die. As the end approached, it occurred to me to scream something. I settled on "Goku." Goku returned my scream with "Kuririn!" He really cared about me.
Then, I died.
Seems like a good place to end a chapter.
--END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE--