Goku strides to a stop in a circular garden on Snake Way. The path is covered in a giant soil clod that expands outward over heavenly clouds below. Trees grow in the richly brown earth and their entangled root system holds the soil bed together. The earthen heap runs deep enough to dip into the golden veil underneath. A fountain in the middle overflows with water to irrigate the area.
The trees seem rather short, not much taller than Goku. Their wide trunks and overhanging branches give them a mushroom shape. Fruits hang from each of the trees. They are a sickly pale orange with a withered oblong shape. Small bulbous nubs dot their otherwise smooth skin.
"Welcome to the garden of the Kaisss," says a soothing female voice hissing out the last syllable.
Goku looks around and spots a snake descending from one of the trees. It slithers its way to the ground until its human height length has fully left the tree. It slides side to side as its arm thick coils push it towards him. Goku thinks it vaguely resembles the appearance of Snake Way itself. The voice sounds again from the serpent even though its mouth does not move except for its forked tongue flicking in and out.
"Thessse sssacred treesss bear the fruit of the godsss for their consssumption," says the voice. "Come, won't you try one?"
"Hmm," says Goku. "I don't know. If it belongs to King Kai, then I don't have a right to eat one without permission."
Despite being dead, his stomach grumbles.
"Thessse fruitsss will keep you full for three monthsss," the snake says. "Aren't you hungry?"
"Oh boy am I," says Goku. "But I can wait until I meet King Kai. I'll ask for one then."
"If you wish to have hisss power and sssave your family and friendsss, you need only to eat of a fruit. Thisss is where their power comesss from after all."
"Really? They get their power by eating fruit, huh. That doesn't sound near as fun as training."
"But what if you don't have enough time to become ssstrong enough to defeat the Sssaiyansss? Who will sssave your family then? With a fruit of the Kaisss, you will have all the ssstrength you need."
"Are they really that powerful?"
"Yesss."
"Hmm."
As Goku thinks it over, his ki sense alerts him to a familiar presence.
"Oh no. He's back," says Goku turning around to look for the approaching enemy.
A violet aura surrounding his lookalike flies overhead landing on the opposite side of the fountain. The twisted alter ego glares at him through the spouting water. His ki pulses with menacing vibrations. While the armor he wears shows signs of damage, the rest of him seems unscathed from their last scuffle.
"I've finally caught up to you," says Kakarot. Despite the anger laced energy pouring out of him, his voice is calm. "I told you I was going to get my revenge."
"Don't you have anything better to do?" says Goku. "There's no reason for us to fight."
"Yes there is, a brand new one in fact. You've insulted my very identity. You've made me question whether or not I am just a copy, whether or not my memories are even true. If I'm not real, what am I? I can't be someone else's shadow. I won't. Only one of us can exist, and it needs to be me."
"You seem real enough to me. I'm sorry if your old memories are fake, but you can start over and make new ones. It won't be easy, but you can. Don't let anyone else tell you what you should be."
"Enough!" says Kakarot. Emotion finally breaks in his voice. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say. Once you're gone, I will finally be at peace."
Goku opens his mouth to argue the point, but the tailed Saiyan is already charging. He goes on the defensive dodging blow after blow. His opponent seems disheveled this time. The ki coming from him is erratic. It lacks focus making the attacks sluggish and imprecise. Goku sneaks in a low swinging punch to Kakarot's gut. The foe buckles over gargling air and wrapping his arms around his midsection.
"You need to calm down," says Goku. "You can't fight like this. You left your guard completely open. If I had hit you as hard as I could, you'd be dead, uh, deader I guess."
Goku's face screws up thinking about the implications of dying while already dead.
"Taunting me," Kakarot says. "I'll show you."
"No it wasn't a tau—,"
But Kakarot does not let him finish.
"Sadonsutomu!"
A barrage of violet orbs erupts in his face. He blasts off backwards in a white aura. From this position he can see every sphere shooting at him, though most of them fly off harmlessly. He weaves in and out of the few coming at him and fires some ki bolts of his own to deflect the trajectory of ones farther away. When the bombardment stops, he is high above the garden. His adversary appears exhausted. The armored warrior's arms hang limply as his mouth gasps for air.
"Welcome to the garden of the Kaisss," says a voice. Kakarot finds a snake slithering up to him. "Thessse sssacred treesss bear the fruit of the godsss and contain their power. Come, won't you try one?"
"You're saying I could have the power of a god just by eating one of these fruits?" says Kakarot.
"Yesss."
Kakarot turns his head back to the reflection of himself in the sky. He stares at the stern yet kind face he does not quite recognize as his own.
"Fine then. Maybe being a god will be more fun than being a Saiyan," he says to himself.
He dashes for the nearest tree. He leaps and snatches a fruit from its branches. For a moment, he looks at the unassuming thing wondering how it could possibly offer what the snake said. Movement above alerts him to the presence of Goku closing in to stop him. He hastily chomps into the fruit barely chewing before swallowing between bites. He eats the whole thing to make sure he gets all of its sustenance. It is bitter but satisfying.
Goku stops his descent as Kakarot begins to convulse with spasms. The arm and leg muscles of the tailed man expand in uneven distributions of mass leaving them with grotesque bulges. His armor also inflates as the torso beneath grows abnormally fast. Screaming follows each twitch as the body deforms before Goku's eyes.
The enlarged parts of Kakarot stop their unnatural growth as the other areas lacking such development begin to catch up. Eventually his body regains its symmetry and the screaming is replaced by laughter. His body is a size bigger than before, and Goku senses his ki has grown to match.
Kakarot's head snaps back to glare at his counterpart above. He claps his hands together in front of his chest so their fingers are pointed up and holds them for a moment. Orange electricity crackles around them. He pulls them apart starting from the wrists. An orange ring glows between his hands with sparks randomly arcing across its center. His arms rise above his head, and his hands bend behind it. He rips his limbs forward throwing the strange ki formation at his opponent.
Goku watches the ring approach with the hole facing him. He easily moves aside to let it pass by. Just before reaching him, it instantly expands to encircle him despite his evasive maneuver. Now within the perimeter of the ring, electricity shocks him as several bolts dance around the middle. Goku writhes and screeches as his flesh feels like it is being peeled back.
When the ring disappears, the torture lingers as his nerves continue to be assualted by leftover electricity. Before control is returned to his body, Kakarot rushes up to him. The aggressor delivers several uncontended punches to Goku's stomach and head. After the quick blitz, he falls to the dirt below smacking the hard packed soil.
"Ahahaha," laughs Kakarot. "This power is incredible. I've never felt so good. I wonder what would happen if I ate more."
He notices Goku struggling to his feet and drops down to the ground before him. Just when his enemy lifts his torso from a hunched position by pulling from the back, Kakarot strikes him across the face. He watches the man he now stands half a foot taller than hurtle backwards.
Goku slams against the trunk of a tree and bounces forward. Before he can fall down, Kakarot crushes a knee into his stomach slamming him back against the bark. Goku bends helplessly over the leg as his foe's raised hands form a double axe handle. The strike comes crashing down into his spine pounding him into the dirt once more.
"Sorry, that wasn't very sporting of me," says Kakarot. "You can have a turn. Here, let me help you up."
Goku feels the hair on the back of his head pulled as Kakarot lifts him off the ground. Despite the pain, he finds his fighting spirit which breaks outward as a powerful aura pushing his aggressor back. He uses the opening to twist backward and throw an elbow behind him. It is easily blocked, so he continues his spin with a swinging kick to fully face his foe. Kakarot dodges back to avoid it. Goku gives chase, but his adversary is always one step ahead. After a few minutes of fruitless pursuit, he stops to heave for air.
"Aw, tired already," Kakarot says. "Then allow me to end this."
The tailed Saiyan charges forward. He feints a punch at Goku's head who falls for it easily. With the arms of his opponent risen to expose the torso, he drops his fist to deliver a devastating shot to the gut. The strike lifts the receiver off the ground hunched over his hand. He opens his fingers and lets a ki ball explode.
Goku soars aloft propelled by the blast. Kakarot zooms past him in a spin. He backflips in midair and lands a kick on the helpless man. As Goku careens back to the ground, Kakarot whizs by him again. The armored warrior reaches the dirt first planting his feet. He then leaps with a raised knee catching his victim in the stomach in the same place as before. The combined forces of falling and the upward strike flattens Goku's organs. He rolls off the knee and flops on the ground. Kakarot stomps that same foot down into his ribs. The orange clad fighter nearly vomits at the blow, saliva spewing from his mouth. Kakarot aims his palm ready to fire a final blast.
"This is the end," says Kakarot. "I can't say I'll miss seeing your face though."
A violet gas begins to form around Kakaort's hand. Goku feels the boot press harder into his ribcage.
I need to do something or I'll never get home to Chichi and Gohan, he thinks.
He notices his enemy's tail whipping around behind him as energy materializes in the palm. If he could just grab hold of it, it might render his adversary immobile. But the furry appendage flicks erratically around just beyond his reach. A fully formed ki orb appears before him.
"You know," says Kakarot. "Even if I haven't actually destroyed Earth already, I know if I ever get out of here I'd love the experience of doing it again. Hopefully it would be as fun as I remember. Heh, heh, ahhhhh."
Kakarot freezes up as a numbing pain shoots up his tail and into his spine. It spreads across his body, and the ki blast he was forming fades away. He drops to his knees beside his foe and looks to his tail. Sure enough, a strong grip from Goku holds it tight.
"Why, you," he says before falling on his stomach next to his counterpart. His muscles have completely failed him now.
"You really are like me," says Goku. "I used to have this weakness too, but I worked hard to overcome it. I guess training does pay off and not having a tail isn't so bad."
He stands up with his left arm wrapped around his torso and his right hand still holding the tail firmly.
"What are you going to do now?" asks Kakarot. He cannot even turn his head to look at his opponent.
"Well I tried letting you go once. I can't afford to do that again," says Goku.
"No please, I've learned my lesson. You're right, both of us can coexist, so please let me go, and I'll never bother you again," Kakarot says.
For a moment, Goku's sympathetic nature takes hold of him. He really does not want to pass judgement on someone he knows nothing about. He believes in second chances, otherwise how will anyone ever be able to change or improve?
Don't get soft on me and hold back like you've done with past enemies, Piccolo's voice lectures against his intrinsic beliefs. Remember your son. He needs to be stopped with any force or means necessary.
Goku clenches his teeth reflecting on these words. Then he begins dragging Kakarot by the tail towards the edge of the garden.
"Where are you taking me?" says Kakaort. "Please, it hurts. Just let me go."
Suddenly he is being hung over the golden clouds obscuring Hell below.
"No, not that. I'm sorry. I'll do anything. Anything you want. I'll change my ways. I, I, I'll help you defend Earth. I'll protect your family and friends. Anything!"
For a moment nothing happens. He wonders if his cries for mercy worked.
"I'm sorry," says Goku placing his left hand over his opponent's back just above his tail.
"No. Don't do th—"
Kakarot feels the heat of a ki blast through his armor as the impact and bang of an explosion drive him into the yellow fog. His vision hazes from a heavenly glow to a jaundice yellow and finally to a deathly black as the light above fades.
Goku continues to watch long after his enemy has been absorbed by the veil to make sure he does not return. When he finally relents that he cannot stand there forever, he turns to leave still not convinced he will never see the strange man again. It is only then that he notices the tail still gripped tightly between his palm and fingers no longer attached to its owner. He drops it and flexes his cramping hand. Deep purple indents from his fingernails are pressed into the base of his palm.
"Now that you have ssseen itsss power, will you eat of the fruit?" says the snake.
Goku looks into the branches of the trees to see their bountiful offerings.
"No," he says.
He strides off despite the pain and exhaustion just wanting to get as far away from this horrid place as possible. He sets foot on Snake Way once again to resume his journey.