Chapter 2: Destrution
Goku woke up feeling disoriented; who wouldn't after being smacked that hard upside the head? But he didn't remember that, or much of anything for that matter. He was even drawing a blank in trying to produce his own name. He was sure he had never seen it before, this place he was now in, but was that really true or was he waking up with a bad case of amnesia? It was dark, that was for sure as no light of any kind was allowed in and there were no windows. And wherever he was wasn't very big, only a few square feet, leaving him with a slight feeling of cluster phobia. His head throbbed; he wished he was still unconscious.
"Let me see him!" came a voice from the other side of the door, wherever that may be. It seemed a bit panic-stricken but more demanding then anything else. There was another voice, Goku couldn't hear what they were saying but whatever it was pissed off the first voice. "Open the damn door! That's my brother you've got it there, you have not right to keep him from me!"
The first voice spoke again and this time Goku realized it wasn't that he couldn't hear them, it was just that he couldn't understand them; they weren't speaking English!
Something slammed against the wall right next to Goku's head. If his headache wasn't bad enough it just got worse from the impact. The sounds of a small scuffle was heard, then some shots being fired. At one point a small beam of chi chewed threw the wall Goku was now facing, barely missing his head by a few inches, and a beam of light followed afterward from the world outside.
"What the HELL is going on here!" That voice was enough to end the scuffle, which ceased the heartbeat it spoke. "Raditz, release him." Someone dropped a body.
Another voice spoke. It too wasn't speaking in a tongue Goku knew but the others understood it. And the others replied, not in the unknown language, but in the language Goku did know which also wasn't English. The forgotten Saiyan shivered and pulled his knees to his chest. This all was a little too much to be thrown at him all at once.
"Yes Lord Frieza," said the voice of whoever had ended to fight outside the door. "But please, the Saiyan you've taken a bored is Raditz's younger brother. Please pardon his outburst and allow him to see his sibling. As you well know, Saiyans are very quick to act protectively around other family members."
The first voice replied. When Vegeta didn't reply himself, Lord Frieza went on calmly, and apparently said something to trigger the "protectiveness of other family members" for it was Raditz's voice who interrupted with "No! You Can't-" before a shout from the speaker quickly silenced him; then it continued it's calm explanation to Vegeta as though nothing had happened.
The air was deathly still and silent for a few minutes; and in that time Goku became aware of two things: one was that his head no longer hurt and the other was that he was really, really, really scared. He didn't know where he was, how he got there, any of the voices speaking undoubtedly about him; everything was new to him. He wanted to go home, though he could barely piece together a picture of home in his head; whatever, he just wanted to go to a place where he knew he would feel safe. That person who had been speaking, Lord Frieza or whatever his name was, his voice had been so full of venom, he knew that's why Vegeta had not responded. He did not even know them but he didn't want Vegeta and Raditz to leave him alone with that other guy, oh no.
And when the sounds of their footsteps walking away down the hall were heard, the fear knotting in Goku's stomach tightened. He wanted to get up, pound on the door, scream for them to not leave him alone but his fear held him down. He was trembling so bad he wouldn't have been surprised if his wife woke him up and told him there was a 7.0 earthquake happening in their area. But there was no earthquake. This was no dream. And the fear wasn't going away. The door slid open; the light that pooled in blinded Goku for a minute and then his eyes adjusted.
Frieza. He stood just barely tall enough to look down on Goku who was, at the time, huddled in a corner looking rather meek. Pink and purple, pale, pale, pale rose and mauve were his primary skin tones as well as a chilling clean white snow color adorned on his head, arms and shins that actually looked more like bone then skin. Embedded in the white bone-like skin of the crown, was a shiny purple dome. Protruding from either side, just above what Goku could only guess were ears, were sharp, black horns.
Down both cheeks ran a line, separating a light pink from a darker one rippled with more lines; the dark pink skin matched the same type of skin covering Frieza's arms, legs and a thick tail resting lazily behind him. The lines that ran down the cheeks vertically reminded Goku of tear streaks, but not ones made by the one who bore them. They were the tear streaks of others who had been hurt by Frieza, their lives shattered, their worlds destroyed. And as Goku looked directaly into Frieza's eyes, a deep and strong blood red color, he could see that this man had done harm to so many that the number was uncountable.
Frieza neither smiled nor frowned while looking down at Goku, he kept his face completely blank. "Get up," he said in the language Goku understood, "and follow me." He waited for Goku, who responded hesitantly. Now standing, the Saiyan towered over Frieza but that didn't help make Goku's fear of the guy go away. He could feel the chi of Frieza, Frieza's men, the two who were told to leave and they were all unbelievably stronger then himself; to fight or oppose anyone would be foolish. Goku was nearly scared out of his mind, and overwhelmed by the circulating chi, and he may have wanted to just crawl under his own bed in the safety of his own home (an image of his wife and son was slowing beginning to form in his mind's eye) and hope that everything would just go back to normal, but that was no reason to act childish he told himself. 'Just go with it, everything will be fine.'
Frieza beckoned for Goku to follow him and began to walk down the hall. Goku took a look at the two guards who had denied Raditz the privilege to see him and followed Frieza down the hall. He took in all of his surroundings as they walked though it was mostly just a long twisting hall with a door appearing on one side or another. At one of them a door was open and a few heads and upper bodies were leaning out to try and get a look. Frieza waved his hand at them and made a noise that one would make to shoo away a stray cat and they quickly disappeared back into the room, the door sliding shut right behind them, but not before Goku caught a glimpse of their dark charcoal black eyes and messy black hair.
Finally, Frieza stopped at a door and pushed a button beside it. The door swung open with a slight swish to revile a large room, one Goku didn't expect to find in this place considering the halls where rather small. One side of it contained a large dome shaped window and it was then that Goku discovered exactly where he was and where he wasn't, for floating in the middle of the frame of the window, almost perfectly centered none-the-less, was Earth and around it was the dark, cold void of space.
"Don't just stand their gaping, get your monkey ass in here," came Frieza's voice from the center of the room. "And make sure your stupid tail doesn't get caught in the door." Goku scooted into the room and behind him the door swung shut, leaving the two alone. Frieza had his back turned so Goku couldn't see the expression on his face, but he had a feeling he was upset about something.
"Why didn't you return?" The tyrant finally asked. "Was it always a part of the plan?"
"What plan?" asked Goku.
It took Frieza a while to answer but he finally responded with, "I know Saiyans are dumb, but don't play stupid with me, Monkey. I'm already pretty pissed off."
Goku gave him a troubled look. "Saiyans," he muttered in a whisper before continuing with the reply of, "I really don't know what you're talking about. I was never told of any plan of any sort that involved me staying somewhere...Why? Where was I suppose to return to? I mean, I've lived on Earth all my life, it's not like I fell out of the sky or anything."
Frieza turned around to face his hostage. For a moment he watched Goku, looked him up and down as though trying to decide something. "You're speaking in gibberish Monkey," he said. "Speak in your native tongue."
"I am speaking in my native tongue!"
Frieza faced him fully, a slight trace of anger etched onto his face. "Alrighty, we'll try this differently. Nod your head to mean yes, shake it to mean no. Can you understand me?"
Goku hesitated. In truth, he wasn't understanding every single word, but the points of the things Frieza said could be grasped. He slowly nodded his head once.
"Do you even speak the Saiyan tongue?"
Goku shook his head.
"But you are a Saiyan, correct?"
Again Goku hesitated. 'What's a Saiyan?' he asked himself. After what had happened, he had a feeling that he was indeed one but he couldn't conclude that for sure since he didn't know what a Saiyan was. Not knowing what else to do, he raised and lowered one shoulder hopping that sign was as universal as a nod and shake of the head.
"I see. So you don't know if you're a Saiyan or not?"
Goku nodded.
"Do you have a tail? In fact, where is your tail, I don't see it anywhere on your body...Did you...did you cut it off?"
But before Goku could answer, there was a knock on the door and in entered Ginyu, the guy who had taken Goku from Earth. He quickly walked past Goku without even a second glance at him and began talking with Frieza. He presented him with a device like the one Frieza had on his his own face and the tyrant took it with a quick glance at the Saiyan. He took of the one he was wearing and gave it to Ginyu. They talked some more and whatever they were saying obviously wasn't something Frieza wanted to hear. There were more glances thrown at Goku, some mentionings of Saiyans more then once and something about a Namek, whatever that was. Finnally Frieza dismissed Captain Ginyu and turned back to his hostage. He pushed a button on the new device clinging to his face a few times then said, "Well now, I think we'll be able to understand each other a little better with this, don't you agree?" in perfect English!
Goku didn't respond, just stared a little dumbfounded. Gohan had been learning some different languages when he stared school, and the boy was pretty fluent in most of them. Goku remembered (a little fuzzily, but still intact) Gohan trying to teach his father some of the words and how to use them. But for all the effort Goku put into it, speaking another language as well as his son seemed beyond him, yet here was someone who had done it seemingly at the push of a button.
"Well! Speak your gibberish Monkey! I can understand you now! Tell me what happened to your tail!"
Goku snapped out of his shock. "It was removed for good a long time ago."
"And what of your son? How did you get him?"
Goku blushed a deep crimson. He may have been extremely naive as a child, but there was a lot Chichi had taught him and he was much wiser now. He knew the things they had done on their honeymoon, as well as other various nights, were only for them to explore together and other people needn't pry into that. "Uhh...He...he came to us one day..."
"From your mate?"
"Yeah..."
"I see. " Frieza turned toward the window looking out to Earth. He seemed to be thinking something over in his mind, calculating, predicting, processing. He frowned deeper and turned back around. "You wait here. If you try anything, I'll kill you." And with that, Frieza left. And Goku was alone in the room.
The Saiyan looked around for something that might entertain him until Frieza came back, but there was nothing that looked very interesting aside from a few hover chairs over by the wall. He made his way to the window and pressed his nose in to it's cool glass covering, leaving a puff of whiteness when he breathed against it.
It was, quite literally for it wasn't that he didn't remember it as an infant but rather that he was asleep at that time, the very first time he had seen Earth from space. Goku began to realize how beautiful the earth was with it's swirling colors of blue, white, green and brown. Sure, he'd found plenty of beauty while on the surface, but this was somehow more magical. The clouds were swirling a dance across the planet, slow even from this distance but steady none-the-less. It was calming for Goku's nerves, very entrancing. He breathed deep, the knot in his stomach loosened a bit.
"Kakarot?"
Goku spun around and pressed his back to the window. He hadn't heard anyone come in, yet standing barely two feet away now was someone he had never seen before in his life.
He stood about one foot taller then Goku, his hair hung down to his knees. Hair that was not unlike Goku's own wild black mane and framing a face that held features that were not much different then the ones engraved on his own face. Before Goku could even respond though, he was swept up into a hug; embraced between two arms whose muscles were finely toned, also not unlike Goku himself.
The smell reeking off of him, however, wasn't the most pleasing of smells Goku was accustomed to now but it did bring up a buried memory the Saiyan had of when he first met Bulma. Hadn't she said he needed a bath? So many similarities, chills were running up and down his spine, driving all the hair on his head to stand on end. If Goku still had his tail he was sure it's fur would be spiking out to make it look so much bigger then really was, just like the one wrapped around his own waist right now...
Wait! A tail! The man hugging him had a tail as well! The same kind that Goku used to have, the exact same.
The younger Saiyan felt his head spinning but he wasn't sure if it was because of the lack of air from being hugged so hard, the strong scent coming off of who he was sure to be his kin, or simply because of the intake of so much data all at once. Either way, he began to slack and the other lessened his grip to ask, "Kakarot? Are you okay? What's wrong?"
Goku pushed away from him and leaned up against the glass window to steady himself. He looked back to the other and had to ask, "who are you?"
"You do not remember me, Kakarot? I am your older brother. How could you forget me?" he replied looking a bit hurt.
Goku felt bad. "I don't deny the fact that you are my brother," he said trying to soothe Raditz's hurt. "But I don't recall who you are."
Raditz leaned his head slightly to the side, as though an invisible being was whispering something into his ear and he was listening intently, a frown forming on his face. Then he looked back at Goku, the younger not liking the slight look of fear mixed in with the sadness that his eyes held, but he set upon it a determined look an took his younger brother's hands. "I have to go now Kakarot; it was foolish of me to even risk coming but I'm sure you know that I could not leave you alone with Frieza. He will not want you to live, but if you prove yourself very useful he will not mind sparing your life. Do everything you can to show yourself worthy. Do what he says without question and without compliant. Please live Kakarot, I don't want to lose you. Not again." He looked again as if someone was whispering in his ear something urgent and hugged Goku one last time before dashing to the door, stopping only to look back at his brother before disappearing down the hall.
And leaving Goku alone with a churning stomach. Shivers were still dancing across his skin from the encounter and he rubbed his hands along his arms in an attempt to trip them up. A few more quite moments to himself passed and Goku used the time to think of all that had been thrown in his face.
He'd been taken form his home.
He'd been spoken to in some other language that he possibly knew, but couldn't speak.
He'd found a long lost brother.
People he didn't know a thing about seemed to know more about him then he himself knew.
And to top it all off, his friends were probably thinking, "Where in the hell is Goku? Our reunion started 3 hours ago!" Granted Goku was always a little on the late side, he wouldn't have been surprised if Bulma had told him it started an hour earlier then she told everyone else in an attempt to get him there on time, but this was a little too long for them to think he was just fine and dandy, if he hadn't been out for longer then a couple of hours. No, a few hours seemed right so his friends must've just started to begin to notice he was missing. They probably weren't panicking over it though, unless they called Chichi. Chichi would start running all kinds of horror stories through her head and get herself all worked up for nothing.
Goku sat on the ground and laid back to look up at the incredibly high ceiling. There was nothing for him to do but wait it out to see what would happen next. No need to panic. He'd be home soon enough. Chichi and Gohan could wait...
Gohan!
Goku quickly jumped to his feet, running a million different horror stories through his head about what could've happened to his son. He had totally forgotten, how could he have forgotten his own son? It didn't occur to him that he never knew what happened to his son after the Captain had taken him hostage. Was he killed? Was he tortured? Was he tortured then killed? Was he locked away somewhere, alone and scared and crying for his father who had so stupidly forgotten his very existence? Was something horrible like molestation happing to his son, the little boy he was suppose to protect, the baby he loved so dearly he'd give his very life for in an instant without a moment's hesitation or even a second regretful thought? WHAT WERE THESE FREAKS DOING TO HIS LITTLE BOY!
The panic constricted around his chest, the thoughts around his brain yet the one thing both his heart and mind screamed together was 'find Gohan, protect Gohan' and he make quick and shaken steps towards the door he had entered the room through. Before he could be stopped by his lack of knowledge in knowing how to open it, the door swished open and a guard came in carrying in one hand some type of handcuffs and a blind fold.
Goku grabbed him where shoulder met neck and lifted him up into the air, slamming him against a wall. "WHERE'S MY SON?" he bellowed not caring if he was understood or not. "WHERE IS HE!"
Some other guards tried to pull Goku off of the first one, speaking as though to try and calm him down or show that they didn't understand him. It didn't matter because it didn't help. Goku shoved them all away and started running down the hall, feeling desperately for his son's energy level. It was not a comforting feeling when he couldn't pick it up. But he couldn't rule out that it meant he wasn't alive anymore, he was still surrounded by unbelievable chi all around him; it was possible Gohan's was just dwarfed by the greater amount.
Then something slammed into Goku from his right. Hard. It took him a moment to realize, but it was a body; that Racoom dude or whoever. Before Goku could ever get his barrings straight, his arms were pulled behind him and pinned to his back. Racoom didn't say anything, but Goku could tell he was getting a whole lot of pleasure from just pushing Goku's face into the ground and holding it there.
Footsteps ran down the hall and some voices shouted, nothing Goku understood but Racoom did for he replied and loosened the grip on Goku's arms a bit so someone could tie them up with the handcuffs the first guard had been holding. Then Racoom pulled Goku up onto his knees so someone could quickly tie a blindfold around his head. Through it all, Racoom maintained a nicely fit grip on Goku's neck and that's the only reason he didn't object or fight back; it wouldn't take the brute a whole lotta strength to tighten his grip so Goku couldn't breathe.
The Saiyan was lifted to his feet and kicked at the heel, a command for "walk forward" Goku assumed. He obeyed (what else was he to do?) and let them lead him blindly down the hall.
His thoughts stayed on Gohan, save the few times they strayed to what Chichi was gonna do to him once he got back home. Yes, once; he didn't bother to waste energy thinking things like "I'll never see the ones I love ever again" because keeping a level head was something he really needed right then. He had just learned that freaking out over not knowing where his son was wasn't going to get Gohan to him any faster.
As they walked, Goku took deep breaths to steady himself, for the umpteenth time that day. He took the time to size up the guards walking with him, and realized they were the same ones who had taken him hostage so fighting them wouldn't do any good. And outsmarting them was looking pretty bleak too, since this was their territory and he was so incredibly uncommon to it. He thought about asking for his son, but that seemed pointless since they wouldn't understand him. All Goku could really do was pray to God they hadn't hurt him. For their sake.
"Stop," said the voice of Captain Ginyu. Some buttons were pushed and Goku felt the ground beneath his feet start to lift. The air got colder and thiner. He wished he could take the blindfold off to see where he was, but that defiantly wouldn't have been the smartest thing to do. The ground stopped moving and he was made to walk forward a few more feet and stop again.
"I want to see how powerful you are, Saiyan," came Frieza's voice from his right. "I don't believe that the technology on...the planet on which you've been staying is as advanced as ours. We have instruments that can measure your exact powerlevel and the power behind any attack you throw out. Now, don't remove your blindfold."
The handcuffs holding Goku's hands were removed and he pulled them up to his chest to rub the wrists and get the circulation flowing back in them. He then remembered what his brother had told him when he came to see him just moments before. This must've been what he was talking about.
"So let's start with the basics. Is this your full power?" asked Frieza.
"No," Goku answered earnestly. "I can go a little higher then this."
"Do it."
Goku obeyed. He raised his power to it's peak and pushed at it as he would do in battle. The warmth of his flaring aura around his body was almost like wrapping a security blanket over his shoulders. If it had actually been something of stable material, he would've made a move to hug it for it's familiarity. Once he thought they got a good look at how strong he was, Goku dropped power till he was in his usual resting state. The cold air jumped back on to his body and swallowed him whole.
"Good," Frieza said. "You may very well pass. Now, you're strongest attack of ki. Channel it but don't fire it till I say so. Aim straight ahead."
"Kaaa," Goku began without a moment's hesitation.
"Meee..." The warmth of the channeled chi ran down his arm and into his hand.
"Haaa..." His fingers began to spark as the energy tried to break free, but was held together by Goku's concentrated will.
"Meee..." The energy burst from his hands and began to rotate violently between them, warning all of it's deadly power. It gave off a bright white light that was pretty blinding though not entirely so for Goku's hands not only blocked it, but they were the only things keeping the attack from careening out of control. He let it build up just a little more before releasing it with a mighty "HA!" at this target.
The blindfold was, quite literally, ripped from Goku's face and the first thing he noticed was that he was outside of the ship he had just been in. Outside, without any protection, any lifeline, any anything besides the clothes on his back and surrounded by the cold nothingness of deep space. The second thing he noticed was that the Kamehameha he had launched, was headed direct ally for Earth.
Time froze. No joking.
At when it started up again Goku could hardly keep up with what happened. But one moment Earth was there and the next there was a massive explosion so great, debris was flying past Goku's head and the heat caressed his cheeks. Then there was a wave of force and it knocked Goku over so that he fell on his back. He closed his eyes, trying desperately to block out the thoughts that's were freshest in his mind. 'No,' he told himself. 'This is all just a really bad dream. A REALLY bad dream. Earth will still be there when I open my eyes; I'll be ON earth when I open my eyes, watch and see...'
"You know, we never did retrieve your son before we allowed you to do that," whispered Frieza's voice in his ear. Goku squeezed his eyes harder and clamped his hands over his ears. As hard as he was trying to erase everything that had just happened, it didn't seem to want to go anywhere. If anything it began to replay over in his mind. Again and again, Frieza's words and Goku's unthoughtful eagerness to participate. How could he? How could he? How could he just kill like that! All the people on Earth, everyone just died! Because of him, because he killed them with his own hands! His friends, his family...
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
End Chapter 2!