"Heh, it's like you have a craving for punishment or something… Not that I'm complaining, that's why I came back to life, to begin with!" Raditz placed his hands by his sides and unleashed all of his Ki, appearing as if though he's finally done holding back. Of course, he would have held back, in the beginning, Goku was weaker than him to an extent where full power might have killed him too soon.
Somewhere down the line, Raditz's little brother might have strengthened himself while battling to where he still was not strong enough to win but at least strong enough to take it.
Goku flashed up to his opponent, performing a devastating cross chop at his opponent's neck area, one that Raditz raised his hands to block but before he could meet Goku's force with superior defenses of his own, Goku's image blurred.
"Afterimage!?" Chayote widened her eyes in surprise. She had seen the Afterimage Technique used defensively before, it was a convenient way to bail one out of a tough situation against a reckless or sloppy opponent with too much power and speed on their hands than they knew what to do with. Leave it to Goku to invent new ways in which techniques could have been used.
Goku blitzed down to Raditz's shins and tripped his brother over, spinning on one arm while sweeping his brother. The boy repurposed his body weight, pushing his body off of the ground on that same supporting arm, moving like a drill with his feet as the edge and smashing into the enemy. Raditz swiped with his backhand. Surely he should have been fast enough to not let Goku gain any more momentum after being shut down.
The Saiyan boy blurred out again, Raditz grunted in pain while his eyes blanked out, Goku's foot dug into his back when the monkey boy moved behind his opponent, leaving an afterimage for Raditz to work with. It was an amazing plan, Goku knew his opponent was faster, meaning he'd be able to keep up and interrupt his attacks with effortless efficiency but if he thought he knew what was going on, when in fact he had Goku's wool over his eyes – that was a whole different deal entirely.
Raditz shot up into the air. Goku cupped his hands by his side. "Ka! Me!" he yelled out. With Raditz up in the sky, he'd have had few options to dodge a Ki beam coming right at him. Had Goku pursued the enemy, he'd have only met another one of Raditz's own Ki blasts, just like he got had before.
"Die, you fool!" Raditz grunted, recovering in mid-flight, just like it could have been expected of him. The elder Saiyan warrior extended both of his hands, unleashing a simultaneous, purple Ki beam from each of his hands. Where before he used this attack in a cleverer way, using the first beam to make the enemy open up for the second one, now he had resolved himself to just power through.
The beams slammed right at the ground, blowing up half of Baba's ring. The old crone grabbed her hat and wrapped her arms and feet over her crystal ball, the ball went completely haywire too. She looked like a cowboy riding a wild animal. Seeing Upa cowering in front of the old lady, too short to protect her from the blast, Chayote slowly stepped up in front of them both and let her body take the brunt of the shockwave while all that the bystanders got was a little, mean backdraft.
Raditz huffed in mid-air. Sweat drenched his forehead. One of his eyes looked heavy and wanted to close, just let the warrior snooze a little. His Ki attack was a desperation move, troubled over Goku's martial art maneuver, the enemy lashed out and moves fueled by rage consumed the absolute most of the wind in one's lungs. Just like he had to, Goku was fighting smart. Now. Now Raditz was ready for the finishing blow.
Once the smoke cleared, a blurry image of Goku floated above a crater that Raditz's blast had created out of the one half of the arena. A sharp whistle in the air telegraphed the sudden re-emergence of Goku with a charging Kamehameha right up in Raditz's face. "Ha-Me…!" He used both the Kamehameha and the Afterimage at the same time. It was taxing but Goku was not fighting for the long game now, there was no long game in his case – he was going for the finish right then and there.
"Ha!" Goku thrust both of his hands forward, Raditz was wheezing and panting too much from his earlier blast that should have wiped all traces of his little brother together with his strongest Ki blast. Raditz covered up his face out of instinct. Goku's roaring Kamehameha erupted from his cupped hands and threatened to blast Raditz back to the Otherworld all of its own, so high up, the beam did not even threaten one of Baba's buildings. A nice touch from a sentimental Saiyan warrior, Chayote thought…
"Wha!" Goku cried out. His Kamehameha died out in a whimpering, azure beam before puffing off in a cascade of weak smoke clouds. The reason for the sudden death of his technique revealed itself once Raditz emerged behind Goku with his brother's tail in his grip.
"Fool me once, that's a nice trick, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me thrice… Your trick is as good as mine." Raditz smirked. Chayote did not think it was a well-performed Afterimage whatsoever, seeing how he did not even produce one. Still, the basic concept of a massive influx of Ki enhancing one's Ki circulation and erupting in awesome speed all in one instance… He kind of had that part covered.
"He copied Goku's move!" Upa grabbed his cheeks in horror.
"I've excelled at so many of your Earthling tricks that I've come to forget that I'm in no way special. Raditz is nowhere near the prodigy of adopting and perfecting the moves of other martial artists that Kakarot is but… He's still a Saiyan warrior." Chayote sighed. She simply did not see a way in which Goku could have won at that moment.
Raditz pulled Goku in on his tail, only to bash at his face, his body, using him like a ball of a bounce-back paddle. It was a crude attack although it was nothing if not effective. Goku looked completely powerless being manhandled by his brother like that. Everything he threw, every genius plan he came up with, it all came up short. No matter how clever Goku fought, how much of an advantage he gained by making Raditz make a dumb mistake, his opponent compensated for the loss of Ki in spades once he got his hands on Goku.
There were some differences in power and speed that mere skill could not cover. Was this how it would be once the Saiyans come to Earth, whether they come in search for Kakarot or if they come here to claim this planet for Lord Frieza? Is Chayote just wasting her time learning the martial arts and the mystic ways of the Earthlings while the Saiyans fight the mightiest challengers in all of the galaxies and end up almost getting themselves killed daily? What if it is all for naught?
"This is over… And after Goku pulled out all of his hidden reserves and surpassed his limits…" Baba sighed. "I'll hate seeing that cocky boy leave the world of the living content…"
"Surpassed his limits?" Chayote looked at Baba. "What do you mean? Is such a thing even possible?"
"Heh…" the Fortuneteller chuckled. "You really should not have skipped out on my pervy brother's training. Breaking through the limit of humanity and transcending into something more than just human is the essence of his teachings. Training in martial arts is a continuous struggle against limits just like the limit of one's own humanity. Every limit can be broken, however, that doesn't mean they should be."
"What do you mean? If there's a way to endlessly power-up, why isn't Kakarot doing it over and over again?" Chayote turned to Baba. At that moment she almost knew that the hope that was bursting forth in her chest was false and would soon become bitter.
"That's what he tried to do. Breaking one's limits demands so much from somebody, special conditions, special kind of willpower… It doesn't last long because the limits are there for a reason and then the fighter ends up losing so much Ki in the end that it doesn't even matter in the end. It is not a wise strategy, it is a desperation move, a battle cry for those who have accepted death already." Baba explained while watching Goku getting bounced off and back of Raditz's fist in the air.
"Rage? You mean rage can trigger it? Of course… That much I can understand!" Chayote looked back up at Goku. That was it… He looked as good as dead already, even if he did break through his limiters again, this time employing rage instead of willpower… What good would it all amount to?
"Wanna see?" Baba looked at Chayote with malicious eyes and then placed her shriveled hands by her mouth. Then the old lady took a deep breath and emptied her bloated body of all the air in a single shout. "Hey, shrimp, if you won, I'd have let you meet your grandfather!"
"Grand… Grandpa…" Goku whimpered out, his face looked positively hammered in and he was already stiff from the endless cascade of blows but the revelation had managed to ignite a tiny spark of life back into him.
"Heh, don't you worry, little brother, I'll let you meet your fake, Earthling grandfather down in Hell!" Raditz mocked his weakened brother.
"No good…" Baba lowered her hands and sighed. "Even if little Goku could summon some superhuman resolve to power himself up, that cosmic scorn still has his tail. Whatever strength comes up, it is all getting sapped away."
Pop.
A twitching tail remained in Raditz's clutch while Goku's lifeless body took a plummet responding to the direction his body got blown at when Raditz bounced Goku around. The boy's life reignited mid-fall, he cupped his hands by his side and pushed them at the direction of the arena. "Kamehameha!" he roared out while a weak beam of azure blasted out from his hands, propelling Goku upward and right at Raditz.
"Ngh! Where is this energy coming from!?" Raditz freaked out and tossed the dying off tail, still in his hands, to his side. From the casual manner in which the Saiyan warrior avoided his brother's headstrong charge, it seemed like he needed no effort whatsoever to confront whatever willpower-driven assault Goku was putting out.
"Grandpa!" Goku roared out while his leg hooked Raditz's arm and swung his body over it while delivering a hook headed straight for his brother's belfry. With the daze in the eyes of the elder Saiyan brother muddling his vision and capability of response, Goku wrapped both his legs around his brother's neck and began pounding away at his face with hammer-fists while the two brothers crashed down.
"Just an inch to the side and Raditz would have gotten himself ringed out at where he himself blasted the arena. What a poetic end it would have been…" Baba chuckled to herself, she appeared to be somewhat entertained by how badly things were going to Goku. Usually, luck tended to favor the underdogs in such scenarios, the old lady must have seen it a dozen times but, this time, it seemed like luck was just out to get Goku. "Well… It seems you might just have to use those Dragon Balls to bring your friend back and not to aid my perverted brother, would have been a waste of a wish anyway, if you asked me…"
"Ch-Chayote, you… You can't let Goku die!" Upa cried out. "That's what good people do! They help their friends, no matter how much it inconveniences them!"
Chayote stared at Raditz who wrapped his hunky thighs over Goku's throat and slammed the body down onto the ground, beginning to choke his brother out. Whatever second wind Goku was under after hearing about his grandfather waiting to meet him was now gone. It went away straight after the few seconds of beating that Goku delivered on Raditz in the air. One thing that derailed the train of Chayote's thoughts was when Raditz just let go of Goku and stood back up.
Despite having every opportunity to snap his brother's neck or just choke him out, the Saiyan warrior returned to his feet but it was not to show his little brother mercy. It was to drag his fist over his forehead, a place that felt wet and cool and, once the elder Saiyan brother did so, he saw a smear of blood over his knuckles and his armored gauntlet.
"B-Blood!? This runt made me, Raditz, an elite Saiyan warrior bleed!?" the Saiyan's eyes whited out in a manner similar to that in which Goku's own eyes were. Although for far different reasons.
"Elite?" Chayote yelled out from the sidelines, causing Raditz to look away at her. "Don't be joking around like that. Maybe that lie would have worked on someone like the Earthlings who have never been on Planet Vegeta but I've seen a few of the elite and you're not one of them. You're just a low-class warrior, just like your brother and just like me."
"What was that!?" Raditz scowled with an almost cartoonish expression of absolute fury as bursts of violet energy sparked in his hands. Then, without any warning to it, the blasts disappeared and the Saiyan calmed down. He approached his downed brother and flipped him over his shoulder.
"Fine. I suppose you're right. We're both just a pair of weaklings, nothing compared to the likes of Lord Frieza or Vegeta… My brother did extremely well against me. My vengeance is all tuckered out, swinging fists tends to do that." Raditz mumbled to himself while drowning in sweat.
"Hey, Fortuneteller Baba, how does one use those Dragon Balls?" Chayote turned to the old, floating woman. A smirk beamed on Raditz's face.
"Well, you just pour them over the floor and say the words: Divine Dragon, come forth and grant me this wish!" Baba explained. Chayote stepped up to Goku's backpack, unzipped it and let the seven Dragon Balls roll out on the ground.
"Divine Dragon, come forth and grant me this wish!" Chayote tried mirroring Baba's hand gestures and facial mimics, she was simply not sure how the ritual was performed exactly, which meant that she could not take any chances. Else she risked having the Dragon Balls scatter across the world again without making her wish come true, at least that was how she thought those little orbs to work.
One patch at a time, the sky gave in to dusk and gloom while bolts of lightning ran rampant across the surrounding area. Chayote glared at Raditz, who still held Goku over his shoulder with a kind face and decided to sit down by the edge of the ring to catch a breath.
"You might not be that bad of a guy. I'll make you a deal. I bring you back to life and you let Kakarot win the match, surrender or ring yourself out, it doesn't matter." Chayote explained her plan.
"Oh… I see… Okay, I promise, cross my heart, bring me back to life and I will give up to Kakarot." Raditz declared with a hand over his chest.
A bolt of lightning struck the Dragon Balls, enveloping them in a golden, draconic aura and raising them to the sky a fair few meters. The balls trembled with divine power before unleashing it all in the shape of an ethereal beam that coiled and made its way through the heavens. The golden beam then took the shape of a serpentine dragon and solidified into the complete image of a Divine Dragon with scaly, green skin, gleaming red eyes, and brown antlers. Salad colored mane rustled by the sides of the dragon's face like godly mutton chops.
"Now, state your wish!" the dragon boomed with a mighty and threatening voice that sounded like thunder that had perceivable meaning.
"Chayote, don't trust that man! He's mean, he beat Goku up like that, he can't possibly be a good guy!" Upa pleaded, pulling on Chayote's skirt lightly.
"The boy does have a point, are you sure you can trust this snake? At the very least have him surrender before returning him to life…" Baba smiled while a drool hung from her lower lip through a gap in between missing teeth.
"What will your wish be, lowly mortals! Those who have disturbed me, state your wish now!" the Divine Dragon roared out, making the ground tremble underneath Chayote's feet and sending more specks of dirt from the collapsing fighting stage.
"Restore Kakarot's strength and heal him." Chayote demanded.
"Wh-What!?" Raditz lost his shit. "N-No! Divine Dragon, bring me back to life!"
"Very well. A simple matter…" The Divine Dragon winked his eyes. One by one, the majestic ritual that gave him birth rolled the entire procession backward, becoming a beam of energy, weakening and thinning out into nothingness before a lowly jolt hit the Dragon Balls and rose them up to the sky. With the dissolution of the final jolt of energy, the balls scattered across the world.
"D-Did it work?" Raditz wondered to himself before a kick to his cheek sent him flying across the stage, headed right for a ring-out. With the Saiyan warrior just inches above the ground, Raditz froze in mid-air with the power of flight and returned back to the fighting arena. "Damn you!" he grunted at Son Goku who stood back on his feet, his Turtle Gi tattered but his body tougher than it has ever been.
"Did you really think I'd trust a pit viper like you?" Chayote snickered with a mocking expression at Raditz. "You're such a poor liar, I was all over your intentions the moment you started acting as if you cared about Kakarot. Acting that so conveniently started the moment you heard us talking about the Dragon Balls bringing people back from the sidelines."
"As if you're in any position to judge me. Lying like that!" Raditz hissed at the deceitful Saiyan.
"You must admit, us low-class warriors are liars by nature. We must be to hang around our elite brethren." Chayote shrugged. "Plus, I needed a guarantee that you would behave with the Divine Dragon summoned. If you had every reason to believe you were going to be resurrected, you wouldn't try anything stupid like attacking the Divine Dragon or trying to speak your wish before me."
"I suppose your friends were lucky you're such a cunning fox…" Baba smiled with a two-teeth smile.
"Chayote might have lied but she did so to help Son Goku. That's still good enough, don't get discouraged!" Upa nodded his head in acknowledgment of the bittersweet expression on Chayote's face.
"Man, this good and bad business is really confusing…" Chayote scratched her head. "Now you're saying that doing bad things is good if the circumstances are right? I guess Devil Man won't be the only one teaching me for these coming three years."
"Damn you! I'll kill all of you for this betrayal!" Raditz roared out, bursting with the remains of his strength but he was met with the adamant, stone-wall of Son Goku, staring back at his brother with an unimpressed expression and a wide-open fighting stance, as if daring his brother to come at him with all of his strength. "And I'll be damn sure to wipe that expression off your face, Kakarot!"
With renewed strength, bolstered by the full recovery ability, Goku was about to take a shot at his older brother.
Author's Note: I suppose there might be some people who will hate me for the tease of Raditz joining the supporting cast :D
That's fine, it's just that I never saw Raditz as someone capable of or worthy of redemption. Unlike Vegeta and a few other "villains" that have redeemed themselves, Raditz just seemed too destined and set in stone to be changed. He was a trickster and a liar through and through whereas Vegeta, even as a bad guy, had a moral code. Even if redemption is a core theme of the series, every bad guy that has been redeemed in Dragon Ball showed signs of being capable of redemption at some point. They showed signs that they were not completely evil whereas Raditz was just such a hatable heel and so good at getting the necessary heat that it would have been a disservice to his art of the heel to "redeem" him.
There are plenty of Raditz turned good stories out there, most of them written by people way better at this stuff than me. For Pete's sake, even Masako X took a fair shot from his cocaine boat in Miami beside his skyscraper-sized money vault. I just don't feel like I have anything to add to the twist that other people haven't done better than I could ever do and, to be honest, I don't even really want to do it, to begin with...
Sorry if it left someone disappointed or sad, Raditz is just going to remain as a hatable bastard in my story because I just like him that way too much :)