Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball or its characters.

Dragonball Z: The Catalyst

Act I:

Chapter 8: Bloodlust

Nappa's body was sent flying through the air, his head moving at a slight angle from the way he'd been hit. There was an angry growl from the giant as he continued his dive through the air.

The attacker, a member of his very species, his one time ally took off after him, the ground beneath him being blasted by the energy coming from his body.

He'd never asked Vegeta for anything, he was a good soldier. Raditz had taken every humiliation the others had thrown at him, constantly reminding him of his lower fighting potential, of the status of his birth. Every time there was a horrible duty given to them, he was the one to perform it first because he was privileged by his low birth.

All he'd asked Vegeta to do was spare one human, just one. A human ironically, that was helping their cause no less! A woman who he even found himself growing increasingly attached to. Only with her death, did he realize just how attached he'd become. Raditz knew full well why Vegeta had done it. It was to show dominance over him, to remind him of his place, a test of loyalty and an act of vindictive cruelty. Well what was his place?

Was it at the bottom of a food chain which Prince Vegeta was at the top of? To forever be a slave to a man who wished to fight Frieza, but was too afraid to do it? A man who never showed him respect? He would most certainly die, but if he could kill Nappa that would leave Vegeta in the state he deserved. He'd be utterly alone in the universe, not a lap dog to call his own.

Vegeta for his part now slowly growled to himself as he watched Nappa go flying. His eyes critically locked on to Raditz before he reached down and picked up his Scouter. He wanted to see exactly what was going on. Clicking on the device, the readings began coming in.

Ha, how pathetic. Nappa will crush him as easily as he crushed the Namek.

Piccolo staggered to Gohan's side, turning his head to watch what was unfolding between Nappa and Raditz.

"I don't get it. Why is Raditz attacking them? Is he on our side now?" Gohan asked.

Piccolo could almost feel the anger that was fuelling Raditz at that moment. He wasn't protecting the Earth, Nappa and Vegeta had clearly done something to slight him. He was attacking because of his wounded pride.

"No Gohan, don't trust him for a second. He's only on one side, his own."

Raditz's furious cry echoed out as he chased after Nappa, who was just now regaining his own control in the air.

"Raditz, you fool. I'm going to break your bones and -" Nappa was cut off by a swift upper cut, the blow landed with precision under his jaw, snapping his mouth shut in mid speech and sending Nappa directly up.

Feeling woozy for only a moment, focusing his power Nappa started to level off, preparing for Raditz's next assault. Blinking, he looked ahead expecting Raditz to predictably be following him. He looked behind briefly, not noticing him there either. Instead, his eyes traced down to Raditz being exactly where he'd just been.

Raditz's right hand was in the air as his face looked as if he was concentrating. A red swirl of energy forming in the hand a moment later told Nappa the attack was coming. He scoffed.

"Please! Not an energy attack! Anything but that! Now the surprise is over Raditz." He chuckled.

Raditz had learned something however. He'd seen how he'd been beaten, twice before. His opponents focused their energy into a concentrated point. Before, when he attacked with an energy bolt, it wasn't gathered in the same way, it was just fired, and he guessed it was very similar for Nappa. Nappa's scoff at his gathering of energy made him feel a certain level of confidence.

Vegeta for his part felt his eyebrows raise.

3,500.

No wait.

4,200.

The scouter continued to blip as the red orb in Raditz's hand reached its full potential, red energy bolts rippling around it as the Saiyan looked almost in pain from focusing on it.

4,900!

"Nappa! That attack is almost at 5,000!"

Looking down at Vegeta and feeling something chill in his blood, Nappa took the number into account. 5,000? How was that possible? This was Raditz, a low level. His eyes looked down at Raditz, still a bit in shock as he saw him still in the process of focusing.

"Something's gotta be wrong with the scouter! There is no way that attack is-"

"Saturday-" Raditz almost seemed to hop forward before lunching his arm. "Crush!"

The world went red as far as Nappa could see. He felt confused as to how this was happening. However he did understand perfectly how there was a massive highly powered energy attack coming towards him, that he got completely. What he didn't understand was how this attack was coming from Raditz. He was only as powerful as the Namek was, and the Namek hadn't thrown at attack like this at him.

Nappa's pride however, was not something to be underestimated. With a growl of anger, he focused his own energy, his body covering itself once again with a golden aura.

"Come on then Low Level!" He shouted, thrusting his hands down in defence as the swirling red orb continued its path towards him. When the impact was made the brutal swelling of energy releasing could be heard for several seconds before the attack detonated.

Piccolo saw this coming at the last moment.

"Shit." He grabbed Gohan, before rocketing over and grabbing Krillen.

"Gotta move!" He urged himself on before taking off as quickly as he could.

The sky turned red it almost seemed like. Rock formations for miles began collapsing, before the shock emanated out from the centre of the attack. The blast could be heard like a clapping boom almost across the continent, being seen from space. Finally the ground beneath the explosion shattered like glass, before being blown further into itself, cratering out yet another huge area of the badlands.

Standing near the heart of the explosion, Vegeta's scouter still beeping information to him as he grit his teeth together. Nappa was an idiot to challenge the blast and not attempt a dodge. If Nappa couldn't handle Raditz, then he deserved his fate. The moment he was extinguished however, he would break Raditz in two and as his scattered remains in orbit.

Feeling depleted from the exertion of firing the blast Raditz stood, ready as he could be. Now as the red began to fade and a smoking ruin was left in the sky, he knew he needed to press. He could still feel Nappa's energy. Bracing himself, he took off at full speed, flying through the air as fast as he could before entering the huge cloud left by his assault. There was the sound of thunder a moment later.

Nappa went flying out of the cloud, heading towards the earth. His body looked burnt, bloodied, his armoured gauntlets were completely destroyed. He hit the earth back first and lay there a moment, just wincing in pain.

Vegeta just shook his head at the sight, before Raditz came down after him, dropping both knees into his gut.

Bursting to life Nappa, his mouth gaping in pain, his eyes almost hollowed out from it.

"Raditz." He finally gasped. "Your going to die, for these earth... weaklings?" He managed.

A disgusted sneer appeared on Raditz's face. "Hardly. I'm just here to kill you and Vegeta."

With those spiteful words, he began to bear his fists down on Nappa. The first strike a vicious one, punching him in the left cheek as hard as he could. Nappa's head dug into the ground, before Raditz struck again. Each strike seemed to increase the pace in one he threw punches, blood came away with his hands after another volley, before he just stopped thinking as he was swinging, he even cried out with rage like some kind of possessed animal.

It felt good to have Nappa's blood on his hands. Any sense of comradeship he once had been stripped away, With each blow all Raditz could think of was revenge, and his thirst for it only heightened as his bloodlust tried to be satiated. Each vicious strike made the next one stronger. He felt his teeth grit together and snarl.

Nappa finally caught one of his arms. The other one still tried to strike as well, before it was caught too.

Nappa's head looked like it'd had better days, his left eye was swollen shut and bleeding from the socket, blood now gushed from his nose, and two of his teeth were chipped. His face was written with the kind of fury only a saiyan in battle could know. He shoved Raditz off of him before climbing to his feet.

His whole body felt like it'd just been compressed, then decompressed, then compressed again. Raditz had really just done a number on him, more damage than all those weaklings before. The blast had fried him, if he hadn't managed a defence he'd had died from it. Even then however his whole body was in agony from it. The blows to the head and the knees in the chest however, were just adding insult to injury.

So Raditz finally grew a spine, but only after they killed a human, and shamed him as he deserved to be shamed. Nappa's eyes began cracking with anger as he breathed in heavily, unable to control just how furious he was with Raditz. How dare he? And how stupid was he?! Did he think he was going to kill him!? Let alone Vegeta?!

"You low class bastard!" Nappa finally shouted, his arm tensing as he balled a fist in front of himself, he couldn't find words at how mad he was. "How dare you challenge me?! I'm a Super Elite!"

A thrill rushed through Raditz as he gathered himself, shifting his legs and arms to brace for an attack from Nappa.

With his opponent preparing for him, Nappa finally shifted his bulky body to face Raditz completely. Without another word between the two Nappa charged like a furious bull.

The first strike was blocked by Raditz, stopping the huge fist from coming to, however Nappa immediately followed up, breaking past Raditz's guard with a headbutt, slamming forehead to forehead. Raditz clearly came away with the worst of the exchange, before a huge fist slammed into his gut. Raditz was sent up into the air almost two meters from the impact, and before he could fall he was kicked into the side of a newly formed crater.

Walking towards him aggressively, Nappa seemed to have nothing but angry mutterings.

Sitting up, Raditz scowled at Nappa.

"I'll kill you yet, Nappa!"

Scoffing as he got to the sitting Saiyan, Nappa towered over him like a mountain. Raditz saw the look on Nappa's face, knowing he was now looking for the death blow. Raising his fist as a golden aura burst around it.

"Die you traitor!"

Nappa froze in mid swing, his eyes going distant as sweat came down over his face. He looked sick, like he was going to vomit. The glow disappeared from his arm.

Even Vegeta winced whilst in the midst of scowling.

"Mr. Piccolo, that didn't seem very fair."

Piccolo for his part however, gave a rare smile, a broad one at that. "But not undeserved."

There Nappa was, frozen in space for those precious seconds.

Before the giant saiyan froze, Raditz had grabbed hold of his opponent's leg with his left hand, and then punched his square in the groan with the right.

Bringing himself to his feet as Nappa barely staggered back, Raditz chuckled.

"What's wrong, Nappa?" Raditz managed to say, shaking his hand off for a moment.

"You. Dirty. Bastard." Nappa winced in pain, his voice several tones higher.

This had bought him the time he needed to get reorganized, to regroup. It was too good however, because the look of sickened pain on Nappa's face was priceless.

With that, Raditz opened up his next attack, diving into Nappa's frame with his knee out, cracking into his chest, before striking him with a hard elbow to the side of the head. The giant lumbered for a moment before being sent to the ground.

When Nappa found his feet, he'd seemingly recovered from his previous groin injury.

"I hate you!" Nappa finally bellowed, before his mouth opened widely after the last word.

Taking only a second to realize what it was, Raditz tried his best to defend. The world went white for a brief second, before Nappa's attack launched, the Break Cannon. It was too close to dodge.

"Shit."

The beam burned from Nappa's mouth, smashing into Raditz like a tidal wave that simply washed him away.

Raditz felt his body almost beginning to burn, his clothes tearing and burning away inside the beam. Inside the light he saw his own death.

No, not like this.

The burning ray of blue power flew across the landscape, slamming into the distance as another huge explosion was seen. Debris flew past Nappa despite the distance.

"Nappa!" Vegeta barked.

The huge saiyan stopped as soon as Vegeta spoke.

"I am detecting a new power level on its way here."

Piccolo's head perked up.

"No way, I can feel it, its heading this way." The Namek uttered.

"Nappa, stop wasting time, especially now, finish those three off!"

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Cold fingers, now covered in his own blood pushed against the rocks which covered him. What an attack.

He let his arms go lax for a moment.

He might die from these kinds of injuries.

It was almost a peaceful thought. He was bleeding, badly, from his head, right arm, and torso. He mainly felt shame from his inability to at least kill Nappa. As if killing Nappa would somehow vindicate him before Vegeta killed him.

How did he let himself get this far? To the point where he was laying here bleeding to death because of Nappa? Where did it all start? Did it start with the woman? Did it start from just coming to the Earth? Was this a curse of some sort?

His father would be disgraced by him right now, dying here for no reason to stop beings far more powerful than himself.

Pride.

Pride had been the cause of all this. It overwhelmed his loyalty even. He was slighted and wouldn't allow his pride to take yet another blow. It must have been his selfishness that drove him to this. He was finally beginning to feel regret for attacking Nappa in a blind rage. Would he have done so differently than Vegeta? Vegeta saw his weakness, and saw how it could lead to exactly what was happening right now.

Which was exactly why Violet had to die?

The human woman who slaughtered her own people for an opportunity to survive. After all she'd done he would have saved her from this rock. An image of her flashed before his eyes. It was an image of her still dying after Nappa had collapsed the side of the mountain on her. He felt his fist ball.

No, it wasn't just pride.

"Its not her fault at all Prince Vegeta." Raditz immediately spoke up.

"I disagree. Raditz, kill the woman."

The words rang through his mind, as soon as he heard them he knew she was dead. He'd tried to reason with Vegeta, pointlessly. Nappa did his job for him. They killed her.

"Oh I get it now. The genocidal maniac who sells planets claims he doesn't get why he's sparring someone? You are terrible at concealing your feelings." Violet said, sounding bored.

Feelings? He knew then exactly what she was implying. She was implying he was infatuated with her, which was probably correct. He felt his eyes drift ahead for a moment. Thinking of her death was painful, something he couldn't explain to himself still. Or rather, something he couldn't admit to himself entirely. She had been a warrior, strong and efficient, the humans didn't deserve her to be among their ranks.

"I've killed a lot of people. Hundreds of people." She said weakly. "I've killed people who thought they were my friends. I've used everyone, everyone to get more. You were my ticket to staying alive. I was... going to make it. Survive."

"A lot of good that did." She said, before a cough full of blood came up. "..."

Raditz felt emptiness suddenly, complete emptiness. She'd followed him, dragging herself by his side simply because she saw it as her only way to survive. Her insights made things tolerable on this planet full of humans. He even protected her from tanks, aircraft, automated turrets, and he did so because she had captured him in her own way. Clearly the opposite hadn't occurred, she'd just wanted to survive. But he'd found that to be her more endearing trait. His fondness perhaps even touched on a word a saiyan rarely, if ever mentioned.

The thought rolled through his mind unfiltered.

"Woman?" He repeated to himself quietly as her image faded before his eyes in the darkness he was in. The blood loss was settling in.

His hand moved briefly against the rock, just as when he'd tried to catch her falling head.

And just as before, there was no answer.

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Nappa started to chuckle as he looked at the three remaining defenders.

"You heard the Prince, I've got to crush you." He chuckled.

He looked even like he'd recovered from Raditz's previous assault. "Now the only question is who to start with first?"

Piccolo growled to himself, bracing his body. He was almost out of power, but he had to try and keep Nappa at bay. They just had to hold on for a few more minutes and Goku would be there.

Before Nappa could attack however, Gohan had already launched past Piccolo, flying straight at Nappa. He wanted to protect Piccolo and Krillen. Krillen was in no state to fight at all, and if Piccolo died, not only would his best friend be gone, but the Dragon Balls with him.

"Gohan!"

The tiny body flew with all his strength towards the saiyan beast, hearing Piccolo's shout behind him but ignoring it. His small hand connected with Nappa's abdomen, but to no real effect. Nappa raised both hands above his head, before bringing them down violently on the boy. Gohan's frame was crushed into the ground, his left shoulder looking broken.

Watching with a mixture of disgust and horror, Piccolo prepared to step in, as depleted as he was.

It was when Nappa booted Gohan's body flying off to the side and grinned at Piccolo that he became truly enraged.

Piccolo then noticed Nappa's hand outstretched, pointing towards Gohan.

"I wonder how much harder you'll fight after this!" Nappa declared, as a wave of energy chased after Gohan.

Piccolo's eyes bulged for a moment, before with all his remaining energy he took off, trying to intercept the blast. He managed to get there just in time, his body intercepting the blast, as waves of deadly energy rolled over him. Gohan was barely conscious at the time, his head only just looking up in time to see his own death, but instead seeing Piccolo's. The landscape blasted away around them, leaving a massive trail of destruction.

Piccolo had felt all he'd learned of Gohan in those moments rushing forward. Of the boy taken from everything he knew, forced into the wild and surviving. Of a child who'd never even seen a punch thrown, and yet mastered combat. But most of all, the thing that drove him to save this boy's life in exchange for his own, was the fact that no matter how cruel or vile he was to Gohan, no matter what he put him through, Gohan had been nothing but kind and even caring to him. He'd even put his own life at risk just to save his. It was something the namekian could never forget, the son of his greatest enemy, was the closest thing to family he'd ever had.

In the blast-wave Piccolo felt agony as he'd never felt in his life. It stripped all the energy from him just to hold on, and to keep Gohan from harm. It was his last act.

As the dust settled, Piccolo was left standing there, only barely.

He'd done it. He'd saved Gohan.

And he collapsed, his clothes barely a remnant of clothes.

Gohan was laying there, helpless himself. Piccolo's head barely managed to turn to look at him.

"I. I'm sorry Gohan."

Gohan looked at Piccolo, seeing Piccolo splattered with his own purple blood. He couldn't find words for his green friend.

"B-but Mr. Piccolo." Gohan said weakly. "You saved me."

Piccolo smiled sadly. "Not for long. Gohan... you are the only friend I've ever had. Get. Get out of here... Goha...n"

Gohan saw the tears in Piccolo's eyes, and felt his own beginning to swell. Within a few seconds, Gohan saw Piccolo's head nod off. Unable to move his own body, even with his rage and grief, Gohan just let out an anguish cry.

"Aw, how sad." Nappa cut in with a laugh.

The ground started to rumble however.

Krillen felt weak, he looked up towards what was happening as Nappa looked about in all different directions.

"Vegeta, what the hell is that?"

Vegeta immediately moved up, clicking the scouter, before scowling.

"Can't you do anything right Nappa?!" Vegeta barked furiously.

Nappa turned, fearfully towards Vegeta.

"But, I've done everything you've-"

The ground exploded in front of Nappa, revealing Raditz as he'd broken through the ground beneath the battlefield. Nappa blinked, looking directly at Raditz.

"How're you ali-"

"Double Sunday!"

Raditz looked like shit. His body was bleeding and his posture looked weak. His clothes were almost completely destroyed, having only shreds of a shirt left and his pants had effectively turned to jeans. However, the golden energy wave that left his hands did not look as weak as he did. At close range Nappa was unable to raise his defence in time.

Nappa's surprised look was all that came to his defence, as his body was blasted back in the wave, a wave which went straight into Vegeta as well, before finally exploding in the distance.

Raditz floated there, his body now truly out of energy. He had nothing left to spend, he felt weak, not just in energy but physically. Slowly he dropped to the ground, knees first as one hand moved to stabilize him from falling over.

That was it, it was everything he had left. That was his last best chance to kill Nappa and he hoped that it'd worked.

He just breathed, even doing that was painful.

Blood trickled down the end of his nose, and down the side of his cheek. Looking up barely as the smoke cleared from his attack, he still felt both of them. He knew the attack wouldn't even harm Vegeta, but Nappa he'd hoped to kill.

The hulk of a saiyan slowly picked himself up again, this time laughing.

"Really Raditz? That was it?" He chuckled. "You should have stayed dead over there you low class runt!" Walking towards him, he only saw Nappa grin.

Raditz felt death approaching him, seeing it instead of Nappa. His left arm finally became too weak to hold up him, and his body collapsed into the earth. He managed to keep his head up to look at Nappa.

With a vicious snatch, Nappa grabbed Raditz's tail, tearing it off, mutilating his former comrade.

Raditz gave a scream of agony. His entire being exploded into pain as a piece of him was torn from him. He felt as if he was suffocating from pain and exhaustion. His entire body started to tremble finally as his scream died.

The tail was without much fanfare, dropped in front of Raditz for him to look at.

"Look familiar?" Nappa asked with a gleeful hint of sadism in his eyes.

Next, Nappa's boot came down, violently stomping on Raditz. The stomps were vicious, vindictive, angry, each one slamming into Raditz causing him to cry out. His cries began to mix with blood as the vengeful assault continued. With a final kick, Raditz was rolled over, blood splattering his mouth before he coughed violently, yet more of the red gore coming up.

"What's wrong, Raditz?" Nappa mocked.

It was another humiliation, to further punish him for his betrayal. Raditz's bloody hand moved out, grasping the appendage which had just been part of his body, his tail. It was then that Nappa's huge boot came down, stomping down on his right shoulder.

Raditz felt the joint give way, his arm dislocating. The arm suddenly looked warped and limp. He felt another hoarse cry escape his lungs, the sound mixing with Nappa's laughter.

"You don't even deserve to be called a saiyan, you miserable weakling."

"Looks like I'll get you and the kid at the same time." The big saiyan chuckled. Just as he powered his attack, both Raditz and Gohan disappeared.

Nappa was left standing there with two vacant spaces in front of him, the boy had been only 10 meters away and Raditz was right in front of him.

"WHAT?!"

Vegeta looked up, and in the sky, holding the wreck that was Raditz, was Kakarot. Next to Kakarot was a floating cloud holding the half-ling.

"Well, well Nappa. Looks like we've got the newcomer. Goku is it? Or should I say Kakarot?"

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A/N: Finally going to get a bit more opportunity to write Goku. I'm writing this just as I finish the chapter in real time, so I'm trying to even think if he'd give Raditz a Senzu bean. Interpreting the reunion of these two is going to be really tough. Goku would probably be aware of the violence Raditz is responsible for, but he also just saved Gohan and Krillen, even if it is completely unintentional. I'd say that in terms of development, the next chapter is probably going to be the hardest one to write for, so I hope I didn't screw it up.

Thanks for reading so far.

I really appreciate any feedback anyone has. Its been a joy writing this so far, so I hope everyone is enjoying reading it as much as I am writing it.

Next update is coming in this Saturday, June the 8th.