Dragon Ball Z: The Catalyst

by Drakthul

Catalyst: a person or thing that precipitates an event or change. A traditional encounter is changed, and begins a series of events which will alter the fate of millions. From the beginning of the Saiyan Saga forward. Rated T for violence and themes.

35. Chapter 35: Of Death and Innocence

Dragonball Z: The Catalyst

Act II:

Chapter 35: Of Death and Innocence

Water flowed violently down the massive hole that was burrowed into Namek. The impact of the Spirit Bomb had obliterated most of the remaining islands where the fight had been. What it had been was astonishing when it exploded moments earlier.

Hovering in the sky was Gohan and Krillin, now watching over the empty space, save for rapid waters, looking for any signs of life. There was no sign of Frieza, but also no sign of Piccolo, Raditz, or Goku. Gohan already felt Turles die shortly before the Spirit Bomb, and they'd all seen the small star thrown into the air. He'd died like Vegeta had, and like Dende had. That monster had taken their lives from them, and enjoyed it.

But now all Gohan could do was worry about his father, uncle, and friend. His senses were turned towards finding something, anything. It was obvious Krillin was trying to do the same thing. What if his father and the others had died in the blast? There would be no way to bring anyone back, and his father had already been brought back once by Earth's Dragon Balls. Slowly, a panic began to rise in Gohan's chest.

"Krillin, we've got to find them," Gohan said in a rushed voice. "I. I don't want Mister Piccolo, dad, or my uncle to be hurt."

Sensing the growing panic, Krillin seemed to know exactly what to do.

"Gohan, I've seen your dad and Piccolo pull out incredible things. Don't panic yet, have a little faith."

The words did as they were intended, looking over to his fully human counterpart, Gohan nodded, acknowledging the older fighter's advice.

In the distance, a hand emerged from the water, and Gohan felt an energy source.

"Uncle Raditz!"

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The blast had been tremendous in it's size and power. So massive even an attempt to flee hadn't left him unscathed. His left arm hand already been savaged by Frieza. When the wave hit him, he found himself plunged into the water, helpless. The seas around him had raged violently, before a near impossible current sucked him towards where the bomb had gone off. With the last of his energy, Raditz pushed back from this current just in time to grab the shreds of a remaining island. With the will to live driving him alone, and with one arm, Raditz pulled himself from the water. His arm arching up, landing his forearm on dry land before heaving his body up.

It took too much to just roll over and continue to breathe raggedly. Raditz coughed several times, spitting up the water that had nearly trapped itself in his lungs.

The Namekian stars above him rained sunlight on his body, it was so warm. In the distance he heard a voice calling out to him, but it seemed so distant. On the one hand, Frieza was dead. The monster who'd killed their entire race was gone, gone and would never return. The terror was over. On the other hand, it'd come at a high price. Raditz was now denied his chance for revenge against Vegeta. But almost as bad, he had to watch his younger brother die in front of him in a desperate battle to stop Frieza. In some strange way, he felt responsible, as if he'd somehow failed to help Turles again.

The common theme of failure loomed it's head again. It was something he was now accustomed to. Perhaps there had been a thread of truth to what his father had said all those years ago, about his failure on Siren.

It was now that he didn't even want to approach it, it was as if it was toxic. Suddenly there was something grabbing his hand, a jubilant voice ringing in his ears as he left his thoughts, returning to the world. Cracking his eyes open, Raditz looked to see Gohan grinning down at him with a broad smile, filled with relief and joy.

"You're okay!" the boy beamed, starting to laugh after that.

"Not really," Raditz responded weakly, but managed to sit up.

To his left Raditz immediately noted Krillin, looking concerned out across the waters still.

"Did you see what happened to Goku and Piccolo?"

Kakarot and the Namek?

It hadn't even dawned on Raditz that they'd have been swept away in the blast as well. Turning his eyes towards Krillin, Raditz shook his head. "No, I can't say I saw or felt them after the blast."

There was a choked sound from his right, looking over he viewed Gohan standing there, looking perhaps on the verge of an emotional break of some kind. When he was his age, he'd have not batted an eye to the death of allies in battle. It was a warrior's death to fall in battle against a powerful opponent, but to achieve victory. Still, even the Saiyan had to admit he hoped Kakarot would survive this.

Grabbing Gohan's shoulder, Raditz gave a reluctant half smile. There was no way he'd be able to fully stand on his own right now. With a reluctant smile, Raditz moved forward with reluctant words.

"Kid, I need a bit of a hand getting up."

For a second, Gohan's concern for his father and the Namek seemed to evaporate. Nodding, Gohan grabbed Raditz by his right arm, helping him up. As soon as he found his feet, Raditz moved his good hand to support his badly wounded shoulder.

Then, there was almost a ping in the air. Two powers had survived.

"Kakarot."

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The water was cold around him, but there was an iron grip on his hand, something not letting him be carried away in the water. Suddenly, he felt his hand being pulled into the air, above the waves. When the rest of him was dragged up and slapped against the blue grass his face now half resided on, Goku could only breath desperately for oxygen.

There were no thoughts beyond catching his breath, trying to get air moving through his lungs again.

"Dad! Piccolo!"

Slowly, Goku realized where he was. Barely managing to find his way to sitting, instead of laying face first in the dirt and grass, Goku saw Gohan, Krillin, and Raditz land in front of him. Gohan however, broke rank immediately, running towards him with his arms out, grabbing him into a desperate hug.

Agh, my ribs.

The thought was pained, but not unhappy.

"Goku, are you okay?" Krillin asked excitedly.

It took a lot even to give Krillin his thumbs up and a half goofy smile.

He couldn't even stand. Looking over, he gave a half smile and a nod to Piccolo. If it hadn't been for him, he'd have just drowned. Somehow this had all worked out, almost. They'd lost people. They'd lost Vegeta, and his brother Turles. That didn't even take into account the Namekian child who'd helped keep his son and friends alive.

Looking over a second later, Goku saw the reunion of his son and Piccolo. The large Namekian putting the boy on the head. It was amazing to think this way, but his son was lucky to have a friend like Piccolo. Piccolo had even given his life for Gohan, and he was sure that if the circumstances were reversed, Gohan would do the same in turn. The last part wasn't comfortable to think about, but it did make him proud. His son valued the lives of others, just like he did.

"Kakarot," Raditz said, stepping over carefully, smirking down at him. "Nice shot."

Goku couldn't help but smile back at Raditz, the huge Saiyan had been more than helpful. He'd kept Gohan safe on Namek, helped them gather the Dragon Balls, and fought Frieza to buy him time to heal, and then to try and buy him time for the Spirit Bomb.

"Hey Raditz?" Goku said after a moment. "Thanks, for everything back there."

Scoffing, the older warrior looked away, but didn't disregard the comment. This lead to Krillin and Gohan laughing out loud. Despite the tragedies, there was reason for everyone to be happy.

"I was so worried," Gohan finally admitted, looking at his father. "That I'd never see you again, any of you."

Before Goku could answer, Piccolo did.

"Yea, no need to worry about that. The only one you'll never see again is Frieza. Besides, you should have more faith in us, we've been through worse."

Well, that's actually not true.

Goku's thoughts were cut off by Krillin.

"I didn't think any of us would get back for a while there."

Everyone paused, looking at the short, bald human.

"It's just. I'm homesick," he admitted, looking down with an embarrassed look.

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"Oh no," Krillin then uttered. "We totally forgot about Bulma."

Gohan ceased his overjoyed smile, looking at Krillin. Blinking several times, the child realized the implications of what was being said. Bulma was going to lose it when they found her.

"I'm sure Bulma will be fine," his father assured in his usual way, just as Krillin began to help him up.

It was going to be great. He was going to get to finally go home after all this. His father, Piccolo, Krillin, even his Uncle Raditz, they'd all get home. Best of all he was going to see his mom again. When he got home, the first thing he would do is give her a giant hug, and not let go until she told him to.

All of Gohan's thoughts stopped as he felt a familiar energy source. He was the first to feel it, his eyes widened as the realization of what it was. It was the same dark energy that they'd vanquished only minutes ago.

"Gohan, what's wrong?" Krillin asked behind him.

It was then that the others started to feel it. First Krillin, his eyes widening in shock. Next in line was his Uncle Raditz. The large Saiyan almost seemed to stumble back, being the first to look towards where the energy was coming from.

"No, that's impossible," his father's brother seemed to whisper.

Gohan's eyes were the next to look up, his own eyes seeing the horror of what it was. Frieza was alive. Standing on top of the shattered rocks before them, the monster's face was twisted with rage and pain. The end of his tail was missing, and his body looked as though it'd been through Hell, but there he was. Realizing what was happening, Gohan began to tremble. The lion's share of Frieza's power was still there, unchanged.

"Frieza!" Piccolo and Goku announced together.

Everyone's energy was spent, what were they going to do? Panic rushed through his veins as he realized they were almost helpless. Piccolo and Raditz were completely out of energy, and his father was hurt and out of energy himself.

"It's not possible! He was hit directly with the Spirit Bomb!" Krillin shouted.

Without any energy, or sufficient energy, no one could see Frieza's finger point down towards his first victim. The only one with any real power left, who could track Frieza's movement... was Gohan. It was the realization that his finger now pointed towards them that made his senses sharpen, prepared for anything. When Piccolo was the target, Gohan realized his best friend, his first real friend outside of his family, was going to die.

With all his power and speed, despite the world seemingly having slowed, Gohan twisted before leaping at Piccolo shoulder first. The boy's heart raced violently as he desperately moved to save his friend. He felt his shoulder barrel into Piccolo, knocking the Namekian to the side, and then there was pain.

Something tore through his chest, clearing through his right lung, and burning its way through his back. Gohan's eyes widened in shock and pain at what just happened as the red line of energy disappeared. Dropping from the air a second later, even he heard the dull thud of his body hitting his ground. Hot water seemed to fill his lung as it struggled pointlessly for air, unable to take it in. Within a second, he heard the terrible wheeze from inside his own chest.

Finally, Gohan coughed, blood coming up, splattering down his chin.

His eyes looked up to the panicked adults above him, Piccolo, Raditz and Goku stood there in complete shock as the two looked down at him, before seemingly realizing what just happened.

"GOHAN!"

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A shoulder had pushed into him, shoving him to his left. Piccolo felt the searing energy wave shoot past him a second later. Whoever just pushed him aside had taken the brunt of the attack. There was only one person there stupid enough to do that.

Goku, you idiot! Now how are we going to stop Frieza?!

There was a dull thud to his right. The Namek turned his head and realized it'd not been Goku who saved him. No, it was much worse. The entire world seemed to freeze at the sight of the body on the ground, blood beginning to pool around him. It was Gohan.

There was a desperate, quiet fear that began to rise in Piccolo, before it became a full blown terror. The wound was bad, very, very bad.

"Gohan!" the words left him without almost any control, before rushing to the bleeding boy's side.

Frieza didn't seem to exist to him even in that moment as he tried to grasp what had happened to the boy. The boy he considered to be not only his best friend, but the closest thing to a son he'd ever had. His arms grabbed the boy up into his arms, feeling the blood pump into his hand as he tried to cover the wound. There was no stopping the bleeding, the exit wound was massive.

From there all Piccolo could hear was wheezing from Gohan. Looking down into the child's eyes, he saw Gohan trying his best to smile, before another wheezing cough overtook him, causing his features to contort with pain. Tears brimmed in Gohan's eyes a second later. The child tried to speak, but all that happened was a terrible gurgled noise, leading to more tears slipping down the boy's face.

"Gohan, listen, please," Piccolo urged. "You've got to save your strength. Just hold on, we'll get you through this."

Looking up the Namek saw the others. Krillin looked terrified, stumbling back still, before looking towards Frieza. The Saiyan, Raditz, looked down with a clear sense of sadness, but also looked towards Frieza. It was Goku, Goku could understand what was happening. The mighty warrior stumbled towards them, his hands trembling.

"Gohan," the father choked, seemingly paralysed.

Trying to speak again, Gohan coughed violently once more, before going still, his eyes drifting up to Piccolo, before his mouth barely curved into a dead smile. Suddenly, the child seemed to disappear in front of him. The body remained behind, but Gohan was gone. There were no more ragged attempts at breathing.

"Oh, looks like I got another one of you. I'm so sorry, I was aiming for the Namek. The boy was such a brave little thing. What a tragedy. I wish I could say your little emotional scene struck a cord, but I'm afraid these scenes are really all the same to me," Frieza mocked. "Now who next?"

Piccolo was barely listening, instead he was clutching the dead body in his hands.

Gohan, why? Why did you do it? You could have gotten away, just like I told you to before!

It was a painful grief which washed over Piccolo in the seconds that passed. It only grew until his teeth clenched together tightly, grabbing Gohan's body tighter for a moment, tears of his own welling in his eyes. Gohan was dead. Turning furiously towards Frieza a second later, his eyes sharpened.

"You. You monster," Piccolo half snarled.

"Oh you think that was bad? Try this one," reaching his hand out, Frieza seemingly took hold of Krillin's body with his mind. "None of you get to leave here alive, I'm afraid. I like to call this attack... kaboom."

With Krillin helpless in his grasp, Frieza thrust his hand into the air, sending the human warrior into the air. Closing his hand, Frieza expanded his energy inside of Krillin. A second later there was a terrible explosion. Krillin exploded from the inside out.

"That felt very therapeutic," Frieza laughed. "I've been meaning to try to unwind and relax. Whose going to help me next?"

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His son was dead.

All Goku could do was watch helplessly as his body died in the arms of Piccolo. It was what he'd feared only minutes ago. His son gave his life to protect his best friend. The world seemed to tune out as he tried to even grasp what was happening. The pain in his chest was overwhelming, there were no other words for it. Goku almost couldn't breathe it was so bad.

In this static pain, he heard Krillin yelp out as Frieza said words that fell on his deaf ears.

Turning his head only in time to watch his best friend die, Goku heard Krillin's last desperate scream before the explosion went off.

It wasn't Frieza's words that made it all the worst. It was the terrible, sick laugh. This monster had just stolen his son from him, and killed his best friend. To add to that was his brother and Vegeta, both slaughtered by this monster as well. He enjoyed it, he took pleasure in harmings others like no one he'd ever met. And there was no one who could stop him.

Frieza would kill his elder brother, he'd kill Piccolo, he'd kill him, and then he'd go to Earth and kill everyone there.

He didn't even realize he was trembling, unable to control himself almost. His head brayed as his body tightened. Energy started to surge throughout the very planet around him. Waves were crashing against the rocks. Lightning was called down from the sky, striking around him.

He'll keep on doing this. He'll keep on hurting and killing! He killed my son!

The last thought began to make something give way inside him. Rocks started to rip from the group, scattering in the air. Goku's head brayed back again as his arms started to tremble. Without even realizing it, his hair shifted colour for a moment, before arching upwards, then falling back down to its black colour.

"I won't let you get away with this!" Goku barely shouted, his voice cracking.

More lightning rippled around him. This time, a bolt of energy energy landing behind him. Finally, something did snap. Behind Goku's eyes, something let itself go, his hair shot straight upwards, turning gold, his eyes turned blue in a moment of release, before a golden aura exploded around him, sending waves of energy around him.

Turning his eyes towards Frieza, Goku saw the origin of his pain, the origin of the deaths of so many, standing there. Now it was his turn to be afraid. It was his turn to know fear. It was his turn to die.

"Piccolo, Raditz," Goku finally said. "You two get out of here now! Get to the ship. I'll deal with Frieza."

There was no protest. He knew Piccolo was still holding his son's body when he took to the air. Piccolo said nothing as he took to the air, but he felt what was happening, he may have even understood it better than himself from the outside.

It was Raditz who finally spoke before he left.

"Brother, kill Frieza. Don't be soft and show him mercy that he doesn't deserve."

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The world suddenly came alive again for Gohan. His eyes stared out in wonder across the rolling golden clouds around him. He stood on a great pathway, leading towards a palace floating amongst the clouds.

Looking down, Gohan searched for his wound, the puncture through his armour that had left him dying. What had just happened? Where was the wound? His mind raced as he began to wonder where Piccolo was. Did Piccolo bring him here? Maybe his dad did?

But there was no sign of them.

The implication of this didn't strike the boy immediately, looking at the long trail of puffy white souls waiting in line. Among them there was one figure however standing there, looking disgruntled with his arms crossed... Turles

But Turles was dead.

Gohan then realized exactly what was going on. His eyes widened in shock as the revelation came over him. He was dead.

Gohan made no effort to move to Turles, or to say anything. He felt somehow a crushing weight on his chest as he realized he was dead. That meant there would be no going home. It meant that he'd not to get to see his mother again, it meant that he'd left his father, Piccolo, and Raditz behind. They could all die soon as well, and there was nothing he could do to help them!

Behind him, seconds later, Krillin appeared. Turning his head, Gohan felt himself choke, seeing the other warrior told him his fears were coming true. They were all going to die up there. Helplessly, Gohan started to cry loudly.

"K-Krillin, I'm sorry. I d-didn't want Mr. Piccolo to get hurt. And now my mom's never going to see me again!"

The human was too busy look at himself, trying to piece together what happened to his body, almost half ignoring Gohan after the torment of his own end.

"Hey! Hey you! Stay in line!"

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It was the son of Kakarot, his nephew. The child who had managed to harm Frieza. So he was in the realm of the dead, just as he thought. Which meant the only reason he maintained his body was because he was evil enough to be potentially sentenced to Hell. There was no chance for Heaven, he understood that. Just as he now understood that Bardock had tricked him. If he hadn't arrived when he had, Kakarot would have died. A pawn, was all he'd been. Bardock played off his desire to be the Saiyan of legend in order to save the destiny of his precious son.

And now the son, of that son, stood on the pathway to judgement crying like some... snivelling child.

He is a child.

Part of Turles reminded himself, having almost forgotten given the feats the boy had performed.

"Hey! Hey you! Stay in line!"

One of the blue skinned ogres demanded, running over to restrain him. With a flick of his wrist, Turles vanquished the ogre to fall off the side of the pathway, falling into the yellow clouds. Another crime wouldn't exactly hurt him at this point, so why bother with diplomacy?

Standing in front of his nephew, and the still shocked and terrified human warrior, he almost wanted to ask what happened. But there was no need to, it was clear what happened. They'd died, how they died was completely irrelevant. Still, they were clearly destined to a far different place than he was. He highly doubted either were exactly blood soaked barbarians pillaging across the cosmos. Eternal life would have saved him from this fate, he knew, but that didn't matter anymore.

The boy was sobbing helplessly, on his knees as he hunched over.

"Why are you crying?" Turles asked. "You're going to Heaven, there is little cause for concern. Trust me kid, your existence is going to get easier."

When the child looked up with tears streaking down his face, he sniffled for a moment, before closing his eyes tightly.

"But I'm not going to see my mom ever again," Gohan choked, his lungs sounding almost desperate for air as he did. "And I failed everyone, I just wanted to help. I didn't want to see Mr. Piccolo get hurt! I didn't-"

The pain the child was in was something most never experienced. Turles had killed his share of worlds, and seen children do as Gohan was, sobbing at the idea that they were left behind. In this case, it was the opposite. Normally Turles would have laughed off the child's pain, or even exploited it in order to 'toughen him up', but the truth of the matter was they were dead. There was no point in cruelty, especially a cruel act that likely wouldn't entertain or serve him. He'd come over here to see what had happened, but now all he saw was the agony of his nephew.

"Saiyans don't cry," Turles reprimanded, but his voice was lacking a harsh edge. "You fought Frieza, you should be proud you earned a warrior's death. There is little else more desirable for a Saiyan. Your mother would be proud of you. Now cease this childishness."

Gohan choked back a few sobs for a moment, just as the human Krillin finally came into play.

"What? Are you nuts? He's just a child! Gohan, it's alright to let it out," the bald human said. "Monsters like this don't understand pain."

Half smiling, Turles looked down at his nephew, still seeing the tears in his eyes.

"You are likely going to be in Heaven, a paradise. Remember every time you miss that woman, whoever she is, that you had been fortunate enough to know her at all, and that she's not just an empty face. She will live for the rest of her life, and she will remember you. When she dies, if she is as good as you were, she will be allowed to follow you to the place you have earned amongst the chosen," Turles said bluntly.

"How do you know all this?" Gohan finally choked back.

"I listened to the ogres explain my potential fate, while waiting in line," Turles admitted. "I am going to be sentenced to Hell. As I am sure your bald counterpart delights in, where I will be left to suffer for all eternity with only sparse contact with others. Nothing quite like perspective, is there boy?"

With that, Turles turned away from the two, moving forward with the line. The child stopped crying. For minutes they waited as the line grew shorter and shorter in front of them.

Without any warning, suddenly he felt a hand grab his. Turning his eyes downward, he saw Gohan holding his hand. It was a gesture, he just didn't understand for what. His eyebrows knit together in confusion, before the boy looked back up at him, giving him a sad smile.

"What?" Turles asked, almost tempted to rip his hand away, but wanting to know why this child was acting so strange.

"Because I want you to remember me, and I want to remember how you tried to make me feel better," Gohan said, his sad smile almost growing in that moment. "Nobody should go anywhere without remembering the people they helped."

Ridiculous.

This child was trying to let him know that he somehow cared about his fate? It didn't matter if he walked down this damned pathway alone, or with the boy.

However, despite his background thoughts, Turles didn't rip his arm away from the boy.

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A/N: Once chapter 38/39 rolls around, expect a bigger focus on Raditz once again. Just giving everyone the head's up.

Also, thanks everyone for pushing this story past 400 reviews! Wow! :D

And because of a few requests. This will be a power levels update. Don't expect many of these as I hate doing them.

Super Saiyan Goku: 125,000,000

Frieza 100%: 120,000,000

Frieza 50%: 60,000,000

Turles: 38,000,000

Vegeta: 8,000,000

Piccolo (max power including Demon Ken): 2,800,000

Raditz: 820,000

Gohan (calm): 300,000

Krillin: 50,000

Reviewers:

DaOneinDaCorner: I'm sure Goku and Turles will exchange blows one day...

Peter1398: Yea, Turles becoming the first Super Saiyan = teh worst.

XXXpossessedforlifeXXX: You'll find a lot of characters tend to get owned XD

FightingChampion: It was a lot of fun to write. Though funnily enough, I wasn't informed the Saiyan race was dead XD

Ness Frost: Turles deserves few tears, especially since he was duped into doing it XD

Coldblue: I think this chapter answered that question XD

Jason9000: Prediction wrong! XD

Anonymous: Updates are roughly every two weeks. I anticipate not next monday, but the Monday after will be the next update.

Perfect Carnage: Turles is a more skilled fighter than Raditz. Other then that, those questions will be answered as the story carries forward.

Saiyan God Vegeta: I hope the casualty list was to your satisfaction. I'll be posting a rare power level snap shot this chapter, yes.

Dark Impaler: I think this chapter answers that question XD

Super Mystic Gohan: I can't wait to post the next chapter XD

AlphaShenron: Turles would have awakened some time later, his body would have emerged even more powerful, and he would have ascended while fighting Frieza. Expect to see a very important chapter about all this much later...

LILFOC: Who would? He's an asshole XD

tomorrow4eva: To be honest, Bardock literally doesn't like Raditz and Turles. He's also lived with the idea that Goku would be the first Super Saiyan since he died. It was intolerable that it was otherwise, and he saw the outcome of Turles being the first as well. He acted accordingly. Bardock has no pity for Turles.

Gogglegirl: You'll have to read to find out :P

Guest: Today! XD