Author's Note: Remember how in the description I said there would be some blood and gore in this story? Well, this is one of those chapters.

Thank you again to my beta-reader Froglady15! I do believe she is cooking up an update of one of her own stories at the moment.

Last time on Never Ever Land: Being literally the last line of defense, Brolly had Melk, the Namekian warrior, wish for the healing Guru did to his mind to be undone so he would be fearless and able to fight. Turns out that wasn't a great thing for anyone else, as Brolly proceeded to try and wish for immortality, for Bulma to fall in love with him, and also ransomed the lives of Raditz, Tarble, Krillin and Puar to force Bulma to agree to go with him when he left the planet.

Just updated this chapter because I realized I'd somehow missed the first scene and a half! It didn't make sense, but no one said anything.


Frieza looked up at the two Saiyans that now hovered behind him. The smaller one he thought he had already dispatched, yet somehow it was back in action. Some advanced regeneration tank technology? Who knew when it came to that clever Earthling female. However the smaller Saiyan came to be alive, Frieza already knew he was no threat to him, but he could do without an added distraction while he was facing off against the Super Saiyan. Behind them he could see the column of the massive dragon, and he couldn't stop a snarl escaping him. A measure of pride was going to have to be sacrificed.

'Fine! I'll do whatever I have to do.'

The Saiyans weren't paying him a scrap of attention. Were they arguing amongst themselves as if their worst nightmare wasn't coming for them? All the better.

He shot forward at them, a chi attack forming in each hand—

'Enough for everyone!'

The two boys turned to face the blazing waves he loosed, the smaller one immediately trying to dodge, and the larger one flying into it, arms raised to deflect it. Frieza didn't stay to watch if either of them succeeded. He turned at speed, heading back towards the area he'd fought Vegeta, back in the direction of his ship.


'What's happening?' Bulma cried. Goku and Brolly's argument had ended abruptly. Had they just stopped broadcasting? Or was Brolly attacking Goku?

'Please, don't hurt each other! Please, Brolly, don't hurt Goku!'

There was no answer over the comms for several moments, and then Puar replied, her voice distorted by wind.

'Tarble says they're busy fighting Frieza.'

'Oh!' That wasn't much better.

'I can't really see anything anymore - we're hightailing it out of here. Tarble, Krillin and I are taking Raditz and Nail to Zarbon's ship to use the regen tanks.'

'You're all alive?' Bulma almost screamed.

'We are right now.'

'Oh, good, oh, good, oh, thank God!'

'Where are you?'

'I'm at Guru's. The Namekians are healing Vegeta.'

'Is he okay?'

'No, but they say he will be.'

'Thank goodness for these Namekians! I'll talk again when we get to the ship.'

'Okay.'

Bulma dropped her hand from her transponder, coming back to full awareness of the cave and the curious green faces around her. Was it rude to take a call while sitting in someone's lap? Probably.

'Sorry, that was my friends,' she said, looking up and over her shoulder at Guru's oversized head.

'I know.'

'Do you know what was happening?' she asked, suspecting he was using freaky Namekian mind tricks again.

'More or less.' His sad tone made Bulma feel even more helpless. Vegeta had nearly been wiped out, the others were barely surviving, and Brolly, their best hope, had backfired. She had no plan and nothing she could think to do that would help right now.

Vegeta groaned aloud, and she turned her attention back to him, shimmying to Guru's knee and hopping down to the ground. Vegeta made a move to sit up, but weakly, a grimace on his face, and Tsuno pushed him gently flat again by the shoulders. Vegeta tried to resist, his eyes flashing wide in panic.

'It's okay,' Bulma said, kneeling between Tsuno and another Namekian healer. 'I'm here. You're okay.'

His eyes roved around, searching, so she took his hand and his eyes found hers. She didn't see much understanding in them, but he relaxed, and his eyes slid slowly shut again.

Tsuno sighed and sat back, leaving the two more junior healers to take over.

'Well, look at that,' he said, his tone ever so slightly ironic. 'He trusts you.'

'He does,' she agreed, her heart warming as she looked at his slack face. Someone had cleaned the blood off it. She couldn't even see the wound he'd been bleeding from.

'I wouldn't have predicted that, given how you two behaved the first time I met you. I do believe you had poisoned him, and he was rather angry about it.'

'Yeah,' she said, smiling, even though it was a somewhat shameful memory.

'What changed?'

We fell in love, she wanted to say, but she wasn't sure the asexual Namekian would understand. Or if it was really true for Vegeta. Or even if that really was the reason.

'I'm not sure. But I trust him, too.'


When the chi dispersed, Brolly looked around. Goku was close by, too, still breathing hard from dodging Frieza's off-the-cuff attack. He couldn't see Frieza, but his sense of chi pointed him in the direction of Frieza's rapidly diminishing energy signature.

'He's running away!' Brolly laughed. 'Frieza's a coward after all!'

He started after him, then slowed, hearing Puar and Bulma over the comms.

'You're all alive?'

'We are right now.'

'Oh, good, oh, good, oh, thank God!'

'Where are you?'

'I'm at Guru's. The Namekians are healing Vegeta.'

'Is he okay?'

'No, but they say he will be.'

'Thank you, Guru! I'll talk again when we get to the ship.'

'Okay.'

Guru's. Where was that? He turned in a slow circle, reaching out more deliberately with his sense of chi. He knew he couldn't sense Bulma at any distance, but maybe he would sense Vegeta if his chi wasn't burning too low, and he thought he'd remember Guru's distinctive aura. He could detect nothing though. Maybe if he let Frieza get further away, his stupidly enourmous chi wouldn't be tainting everything? And once he got to Guru's maybe he could also find a Namekian there to interpret for him? Or he could just torture the words he needed out of that fat fuck Guru. That was only fair, right? After all, Guru had tortured him by forcing those all those feelings of fear and guilt and self-doubt on him. How could he ever have thought of himself as a worthless coward? Absurd!

'What are you doing?' Goku asked, flying closer. 'Freiza is getting away!'

'So? If he wants to run away, job done. Let him be someone else's problem.'

'Brolly, he's not going to just go away! Not while the dragon is still alive! He'll either make a wish or kill it.'

Goku's words made some sort of sense, but not any sense Brolly wanted to hear, so they just irritated him. 'Why would he leave then?'

'I don't know!'

'If you're so concerned about Frieza, why don't you go after him yourself?'

'Brolly!' Goku looked angry. Brolly didn't care that he'd upset him. He could see right through Goku's little "friendship" charade now. 'Do you care about anything or anyone anymore?'

Brolly shrugged. 'What's that got to do with anything?'

'Everything! Do you even care about Bulma?'

Goku was really annoying him now. 'Yes! Of course! I can't marry her if she's dead, can I?'

'Then maybe you should do something to stop whatever Frieza is doing!'

'Maybe you should if you think it'll be that bad!'

Goku bared his teeth. 'Maybe I will! And maybe I'll find the strength in me to become a Super Saiyan, while I'm at it!'

'You're such an idiot, Goku! I'm the special one! You're a nobody.'

Goku didn't bother replying. He turned and took off after Frieza. Brolly vacillated a little longer. What could Frieza be doing? If Goku was right and Frieza wouldn't leave when the dragon was still here for wishing, why would he rush away from it? He himself would be going back to the dragon if he knew the words or had a Namekian to speak the wish for him.

Oh. That's what Frieza was doing.


Frieza touched down before the main rampway to his mothership. Without a scouter, and with this wretched planet's geography being so unremarkable in every direction, he was lucky to have found it without wasting hours combing the landscape.

His guards immediately shot at him with their wrist mounted chi-amplifiers. He blinked the blasts away.

'It is I, your master, Lord Frieza, imbeciles!' The guards just stared at him, quaking in fear.

'N-no, you're not!' one managed to choke out. 'We h-have orders—'

Frieza sneered at each of the four soldiers in turn. 'I'm in my final, transformed state, but I am still your master. I am going into my ship, and the next person who fires at me, dies.'

He strode up the grand ramp, and called for Cui. More soldiers in the wide corridor stopped in surprise.

He pointed at one. 'You - use your scouter to contact Major Cui. Tell him Frieza is in his chamber and urgently needs him to bring the philologist.'

He paused long enough to make sure the soldier started to comply, then continued to the door of his chamber. The biometric scanner still recognised him despite the transformation, as his eyes, nose and mouth were just the same in this form as his lowest energy form.

The dim light filtering through the dark clouds outside was filtered even further into magenta tinted gloom as it passed through the massive, oval bulge of his chamber's window. Frieza stalked to his throne and threw himself down on it. Would the Super Saiyan brat follow him here? Would he be able to find the ship without knowing where it was? He couldn't be sure, but he hoped the whelp had stayed near the dragon. The other Saiyans had seemed to be making their stand at the dragon, so maybe this one would do the same. Even so, he doubted he had much time.

'What is taking Cui so long?'

Leaping back out of the chair, he stalked over to the elegant sideboard under the massive holovid screen on one wall. He rummaged through the odd bits of electronic equipment, discarded novels and unwanted baubles pressed on him by quaking heads of state. Finding the spare scouter he'd hoped was there, he shoved it on his earlug and turned it on.

'Who is on dispatch?' he asked as soon as he connected to the network.

'Captain Noni. Who is this?'

'You should be able to recognise my voice if you've been in my service long enough to make Captain, Captain.'

'Lord Frieza?'

'I'm using an older scouter. I don't know what happened to my usual.'

'I understand, my Lord.'

'Patch me through to the entire crew.'

'Of course. If you speak now, it will be broadcast.'

Frieza took a deep breath and considered what he wanted to say. He didn't want to come off as rushed and flustered to his underlings.

'Attention! This is your master. All crew are to return to the ship immediately and prepare to vacate this accursed planet. This takes precedence over all other orders. I suggest you make haste - when the order is given for the ship to leave we will not be waiting for stragglers. End message.'

'And broadcast has been turned off again, my Lord,' Captain Noni informed him.

'Put me through to General Zarbon.'

'At once.'

Zarbon's name lit up in the corner of his scouter screen.

'Zarbon, where are you?'

'I'm out in the field, searching for the dragonballs you wanted.'

'Didn't you hear my broadcast? And you at least should know that the sky going dark is a sign that the dragon has already been summoned.'

'I did not know that, my Lord. But I'm turning back to my ship now.'

'You'd better. I can't abide this planet existing a moment longer than it has to, and when the time comes I'm not sure I have the patience to stay my hand even for the only half-decent senior officer I have left.'

'Understood, sir.'

At that moment his rather underqualified Major entered the room, preceding the nervous looking academic Frieza had press-ganged into service for this mission to Namek. The fellow was about Frieza's size, covered in loose folds of grey, scaled skin.

Frieza cut the line to Zarbon as the pair bowed before him.

'No time for that,' Freiza said. 'Get that tablet of yours out right now! I need a translation immediately.'

'Of course,' the academic said, fumbling to retrieve his tablet from the satchel he wore across his chest. His talons clattered over the screen; his nervous tremor ill-concealed. 'What do you need to translate, my Lord?'

'I wish for immortality.'

Cui gasped, but the academic only hurried to enter the phrase into his lexicon database.

'I believe the words you want are "Tenomora pa aio te dynoma."'

Frieza repeated the words a couple of times. 'What are you waiting for?' he snapped at the philologist. 'Write it down! I can't risk it slipping my mind in the next few minutes.'

The fool flinched, then looked around, then to Cui.

'I have no paper or writing implements with me,' he admitted.

'I'll…I'll go get something,' Cui said and hurried to the door.

'Wait,' Frieza hissed, darting to the sideboard. There had been a pen and some plastic parchment in there somewhere. He found them and handed them to the philologist, but as he watched those tremulous hands mark the first words of the wish there was an eruption of muffled voices from behind the door. Cui opened it before Frieza could finish telling him not to.


Brolly strolled towards the mouth of the massive spaceship, waving aside the blasts of amplified chi the soldiers fired at him like flies. It was the most enormous ship he'd ever seen, and he couldn't imagine how it managed to take off or land. It must be big enough to house an entire village. Heck, it looked like it would fit all the village houses inside, too! Zarbon's ship was the fun-sized version compared to this one.

'Halt! No one may enter the ship!'

The two guards he had already passed ran around him and regrouped with two other fellows at the top of the rampway.

These guys were making him laugh! They didn't seem to realize how pathetic they were.

'You know there's no way you can stop me? Run away while you still can.'

He considered that a fair warning, so when he reached the line they stubbornly held, he knocked those on one side away with a lazy swipe of his arm. They landed on the plain outside, dozens of metres away, which was anticlimactic. He swung at the guys on the other side with his other arm, but harder and faster. One of them was thrown a long way, but the one closest to him sort of…exploded. Brolly snorted and crouched to wipe his bloodied arm on the uniform pants of the dead guard.

Breaching the maw of the ship he saw more soldiers running around, assembling before some doors behind which he could sense Frieza. Arcs of greenish chi crackled off his skin to the metal corridor walls like lightning. Brolly hoped it looked cool and scary.

'Get out of my way!' he yelled. 'I don't have to kill you all, but I will.'

The guards hesitated, looking frightened. As Brolly advanced, some of them started to shuffle back, away from the doors. He was almost at the doors when the last soldier to hold his ground raised his wrist and fired point-blank. Brolly stepped around the blast, striking out instinctively and found his hand wrapped around the soldier's throat. The other soldiers gasped. A memory came back to him - Tarble slumped against a wall, white-faced, but blood drenching his front, the smell of blood and gore saturating. It used to upset him when he remembered it, so he tried not to, but now…it was just a curious memory. Raditz had said that that was how Elites were trained to finish their kills in close combat - to tear out their opponents throats. And wasn't he also an Elite?

The soldier struggled desperately at the end of Brolly's long arm. Brolly braced his other hand against the soldier's shoulder for leverage, tightened his grip around the throat and felt his way into it. His fingers dug in deep to the flesh, the skin resisting valiantly even as his grasp closed around the windpipe. A twist and a yank, and a wet tearing sound, and then a torrent of blood splashing up. The other soldiers screamed and ran as the blood sprayed up the wall, across Brolly' chest, arm and face. Another gush of blood, then another, weaker. The soldier went limp, falling to his knees, bubbles of blood gurgling from the hole. He toppled over, his chi guttering like a candle in a stiff breeze.

Brolly laughed in surprise and dropped the grisly handful of alien flesh. That hadn't been so bad at all! He couldn't figure out what it was that used to be so upsetting about seeing Tarble dead by the same method.

The door opened and Brolly felt a surge of chi on the other side. He leapt over the body, expecting to face Frieza on the other side, but inside the huge room was only a purple soldier and some little, wrinkly grey guy. Both were staring in shock at the large hole melted in the middle of the purple-tinted down window. Frieza had escaped!

His muscles tensed to spring after him, but then he remembered why Frieza had even come back here. He could have kicked himself for wasting time daydreaming and letting Frieza get away.

'What did Frieza want?' he bellowed at the two. The purple guy just stammered, backing up right out the door. The grey one standing by the long cabinet-thing on the opposite wall was trapped though.

'He-he wanted some linguistic assistance,' grey-skin said.

'He wanted what?'

'My help, with a translation t-to Ancient Namekian.'

'A wish?'

'Yes.'

'For what?'

'Immortality.'

'Doesn't he already have immortality?'

'D-does he?' the alien stammered. 'I have no idea, I'm just a philologist!'

A what? Brolly shook his head - it didn't matter. Instead he pointed at the words written on a weird, plastic-looking scroll of paper. 'Is that the translation?'

'Y-yes. It's not finished yet, though.'

Maybe he could use this wish? Both Frieza and Vegeta wanted immortality, and he liked the idea of that sort of invulnerability for himself.

'Finish it.'

Brolly tried reading it over the creature's shoulder as he scratched out the last syllables. Ten-o-mo-ra pa… He scrunched his face up. Ai-o? Grr, reading was hard. The alien finished writing it out and handed it over. Brolly stuffed it down the front of his training suit. He'd have to figure out what the rest of the words were once he was in front of the dragon because Frieza was getting away.


Goku had only been overtaken by Brolly a handful of minutes before Frieza rocketed past back towards the dragon.

'Dammit!'

Even with the Zenkai boost he must have received less than an hour ago, he still wasn't fast enough to keep up with Frieza and Brolly. Now what was Brolly doing? Not keeping his finger on Frieza again, that was for sure!

Goku turned around and went back the way he'd come.


By the time Tarble laid Raditz in front of the regen tanks on Zarbon's ship, Krillin was near delirious with pain and exhaustion. There were only two tanks in the small medical bay, though. He tried to strip Nail's outer robe off with his one working, shaking hand while Tarble manhandled Raditz into the other tank. Nail was the colour of spearmint gum. It didn't seem to be a great shade on him.

Puar appeared by his side with a pair of scissors she'd rifled from a utensil tray.

'I got it,' she said, and cut Nail's sodden robes away.

Krillin let her, afraid he might puke on Nail anyhow. Tarble was half in the tank with Raditz, attaching electrodes.

'How is Raditz?' Krillin asked, and was shocked at how weak his own voice was.

'Still alive at least.'

Tarble closed the door on Raditz's tank and pressed the buttons to start the healing cycle, then rushed over to help Puar put Nail inside the other. Krillin decided everything would feel much better if he just lay down on the floor for a while. With his eyes closed, the world receded behind the pain of breathing and nausea.

'You don't look too good yourself, Krillin,' Tarble said.

'Not feeling too good either.'

'What can we do for you?' Puar asked, squeezing his finger with her soft paws.

'I don't know,' Krillin said. The second tank's pump churned as Tarble turned it on, and Krillin dearly wished there was a third tank.

'We're in an infirmary - there must be something we can do!' Tarble said.

'Maybe there are medicines that can help,' Puar said.

Krillin listened as Tarble got up and conducted a search, opening cupboards and sifting through drawers.

'There is, but I don't know what any of it is or how to use it,' he said. 'Gods, I wish Bulma, or even Vegeta, was here.'

Krillin felt his head gently lifted and a pillow slid underneath it. Then a blanket was laid over him. He hadn't noticed until then how cold he felt.

'What now?' Puar whispered. 'What do we do?'

'I don't know. I feel so useless,' Tarble said. 'I woke up and so much has happened and is still happening, and I've missed it all. Maybe I should go back to the dragon?'

'Are you asleep, Krillin?'

Krllin shook his head.

'Do you need anything?'

He squeezed Puar's paw in reply.

'We can't leave him,' she said. 'Or the others. This is Zarbon's ship. They're defenceless if he comes back.'

'You're right.'


Frieza halted before the dragon, flaring his chi to stop his forward momentum at the last moment. The dragon groaned to see him.

'Well, frankly the feeling is mutual,' Frieza muttered. Glancing back the way he'd come, he saw he'd gained some time on Brolly, but not much. He could see something shining like a baby star on the horizon. 'Listen up, you loathsome creature! Tenomora pa aio…crap!'

'THAT IS NOT A FULL SENTENCE.'

'I am aware!'

He couldn't have forgotten it! He just needed to calm down. What was the word? It began with Dy…

'Tenomora pa aio…te dynorama.'

'THERE IS NO SUCH THING.'

'Tenomora pa aio te…dynama?'

'THERE IS NO SUCH THING.'

Frieza glanced to the side again. The pinprick of a baby star was now a burning comet.

'Tenomoroa pa aio te dynamo!'

'NO.'

'By the frozen gonad of my ancestor, you know what I am trying to ask for!'

The dragon's red eyes flashed. 'AND YOU KNOW I MAY NOT GRANT ANYTHING UNLESS IT IS PROPERLY REQUESTED.'

Frieza felt the compaction of air running before Brolly a fraction of a second before the brat tackled him around the waist. It was a graceless, blunt attack, and Frieza immediately fought back within the grasp even as they still flew through the air. Brolly snarled as Freiza battered his face, head and sides. When he conjured a planet-wrecking orb of concentrated chi and attempted to force feed it to Brolly, the kid finally set him free, fending the attack off desperately.

Idiot.

While Brolly's hands were still in front of his face, Frieza continued his assault from short range. An array of chi bolts, shooting out to strike him on one limb, then his torso, then his face, causing Brolly to cover his face again so that Frieza could fire more bolts that hit their targets undefended. The brat yelped and backed away.

Dolt.

But then something strange started happening. With one hand still held high to protect his face, Brolly moved his other arm to block the next attack blindly, and succeeded. He deflected the next bolt, too, and the next, all without seeming to look. Frieza could have sworn Brolly had his eyes closed.

Frieza hesitated, forming a larger wave and aiming it for Brolly's head again. Both the brat's hands came up, fending it, but when it shattered apart and dispersed across the sky, Brolly's eyes remained open and trained on Frieza.

Frieza tried again.

Brolly blocked it.

Frieza tried again.

Brolly blocked again. Then he smiled, as if he was delighted at some inner revelation, and fired back.

Frieza deflected it and took the opportunity to shoot to the side. Obviously things weren't going to progress anywhere if they just hung in the air like two dopes having a slugging match. He'd come at him from another angle and—-

'Gah!'

Frieza felt as if he were about to burst and his intestines would come pouring out of his mouth. He was through the clouds and still sailing, barely able to see as a beam of chi followed him, swallowing him in searing pain. Shocked, he hauled himself from the heart of the blast to find himself far above the planet's surface. He wasn't even sure what had happened, other than a movement from below too fast for him to react to, and now this?

The pain in his middle was not abating, and he hunched over the ache, flinching when his hands touched the spot. He coughed and his mouth filled with the tang of manganese, shocking him enough that he opened his mouth and felt liquid run down his chin. When he wiped a hand across his mouth and found a smear of his own purple blood across the back of his wrist.

No, this can't be! I'm using my full power!


'Ten-o…mor-a…pa?'

The dragon was silent, neither confirming or correcting him. Brolly stared at the crumbled piece of parchment again.

'Ow… No, wait, A-ow? A-ooh?' What had Tarble said? The character looked like a fat icicle kinda, so it was Ai as in icicle. 'Aio.' No reaction from Porunga. Well, that didn't mean he wasn't right. 'Te… Dy-no…ma.'

'I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.'

'Ten-o-mor-a pa aow - I mean - aio te dynamo!'

'I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE WISH AS SPOKEN.'

Brolly roared in frustration. 'What do you mean you don't understand? What is wrong with what I just said?' He got right up in the dragon's face, right at the tip of his stumpy muzzle. 'What's the good of you if you don't grant my wish? I should just kill you before Frieza has the chance to make his wish.'

The dragon began to sway back in the air.

'THERE IS NO NEED TO KILL ME. JUST SET ME FREE FROM THIS PLANE.'

Brolly drew his fist back, wondering what sort of plane the dragon would land on if he punched him between the eyeballs. Was that the best thing to do though? He sensed Frieza approaching from a long way off, and decided to wait until he'd dealt with the lizard.

As he backed clear of the dragon again, he wondered why Frieza was wishing for immortality if he already had it? Maybe they'd been wrong about what Frieza had wished for last time they'd all been on this planet. Bulma and Puar had said that Frieza claimed he was now immortal… Why would he lie about it? That didn't make sense.

He smiled, a sudden thrill of giddy anticipation striking through his guts. He could do this! Despite the moments of pain and uncertainty he had experienced before, he'd just proved to himself he could get past it.

He flew out to meet Frieza halfway.


Goku stopped where he was, seeing the flash of energy, so bright that when it faded the dim landscape seemed as dark as night. He braced himself, covering his face, predicting the shockwave that was coming, and a few seconds later felt the air slam into him, sand, leaves, little pieces of rock stinging his chi-hardened skin as it rushed past.

When it passed, he blinked, drifting closer to make out what was going on. But really, he couldn't keep up with his eyes. Only with his chi-sense could he make out the shape of this fight. Frieza's chi burned steadily, like a flare, but Brolly's chi rocketed up and down, dimming, burning, and sometimes flashing so bright that it blinded Goku's chi sense as much as the energy attack had blinded his eyes. He was witnessing something epic, and as much as he wanted to join in, he knew he'd never keep up. They moved so fast.

Goku began to realise something.

He tapped his transponder.

'Guys, Brolly's actually winning! He's found his feet in this fight at last!'

After a second, Puar responded. 'That's good, I guess.'

Goku frowned. He could understand the lack of enthusiasm. 'He might not be the nice Brolly we used to know, but he's not Frieza.'

'He's not immortal, at least.'

Goku sighed. 'You're being kind of a downer, Puar.'

'Guys,' Bulma interrupted. 'If you don't want Brolly to hear, remember we have the Earthling only comms channel. Just double tap your transponder like I just did.'

Goku double tapped. 'Got it.'

'I'm sorry,' Puar said.'This situation is just so upsetting. Why would Brolly do this to himself? Tarble just asked before if we can wish him back to sanity. Goku, are you near the dragon? Do you think you could do that?'

'Yeah, I'm not that far away. I could try, but I can't speak ancient Namekian.'

'Is Melk the Namekian around still? Nail told him to guard the dragon.'

'I'll go see.'

Going to see the dragon would put him closer to the battle. He decided to take a wide path and come up behind the dragon. That way at least he would never have his back to the action. The dark landscape continued to flash with power and ring with mighty cracks, as if it wasn't a fight but the most dangerous thunderstorm in the galaxy.

As he got close to the back of the dragon's head, a flash bounced off the clouds above and showed him an unusual lumpy wart behind one of the dragon's ear-horn thingees. At least, that's what he thought it was until the wart moved.

He closed the gap and the lump detached from the dragon, taking a fighting stance.

'Halt!'

Goku did, not wanting to scare or antagonise the Namekian.

'Are you Melk?'

'I am.'

'I'm Goku! My friend Puar said you'd be here. I came to make a wish, and I was hoping you could help me.'

Melk didn't look overjoyed at the prospect. 'The last wish is being held in reserve. We don't know how this battle will progress.'

'Well, I can tell you that Brolly is winning.'

'It would seem.'

'But the thing is, how he is now, he's not a nice person. Once he's won I think it will be better for everyone if he goes back to being the person he was after Guru healed him.'

Melk looked horrified. 'He asked me to wish to undo Guru's work! That it would help him fight! Are you saying that was a mistake?'

Goku cringed on Melk's behalf. 'I mean, it did help him fight, but yeah, in the long run…not the best idea.'

'I made the decision in haste. I shouldn't have made it without consulting the Grand Elder, but Frieza was right there.'

'Don't feel bad. What else could you have done?'

'This time I will ask the Grand Elder before making another wish.'

He closed his eyes, going still. Goku watched him for a moment in confusion.

'Are you going to fly to where Guru is then?'

'Not necessary,' Melk said, his eyes still closed. 'A moment more, please.' And Goku realised that Guru was talking to Melk just like Kami had talked to him on Earth, using their minds. How? Was it magic? Or was it chi?

He closed his own eyes, reaching out to feel the stirring of chi around Melk. Oh, it was tiny! Like almost non-existent vibrations of chi that he'd never take notice of if he wasn't looking. How were they doing it? Running it through the air? Through the ground? Or were the vibrations running through the latent chi that existed all around?

Eventually Melk opened his eyes, looking a little more settled.

'So, what did Grand Elder Guru say?'


Frieza's head snapped around, barely feeling the ground hit him over the pain of his teeth loosened by Brolly's fist. He didn't linger where he landed, and tried to scramble back out of the trench, but he was caught again, just above the rim. He kicked free of hands clutching at his ankles, seeking distance, not finding it. Gods damn it, he hadn't had this bad a time since Cooler had picked on him as a child.

'How dare—'

Gold flames and aqua pupils flashed through his vision, his blow halted by a hand around his wrist, capturing him for a sucker punch - he felt that thing inside him break a little more. Airlessly, more blood was forced up and out his mouth and that vile primitive laughed.

'What did you say?' it asked him, taunting, like he was just some snivelling chump to be beaten. Frieza choked in enough air to speak, then decided to save his breath. He launched everything he could at Brolly, anything to break his hold, and it worked. Brolly yelped and let go - he couldn't pin him completely and fend the barrage off at the same time.

Frieza flew, then took to the ground. He knew he was getting slower. And he also knew that somehow this punk could find him without even a scouter, over and over again. And Vegeta had, too. How were they doing it? It wasn't fair! It's not like he could use his own scouter to do the same. It wasn't calibrated to scan for power levels this high; he'd just short it out.

Well, if he was slowing down, he'd let his chi do the work. With his precious seconds of peace he formed his next chi attack. As Brolly's bright aura appeared over the rim of bare earth, Frieza sent the tiny seed of chi hurtling towards him. It was so small, and compared to their other attacks, weak, that as he hoped, Brolly didn't even try to block it. He probably thought it would bounce right off his glowing hide, but instead the pinprick disappeared into his chest.

Brolly stopped short of Frieza, his eyes widening as he sensed something not right.

Frieza chuckled. Not right at all. About now, Brolly would be paralysed with pain.

He lifted his hand, and Brolly shot upwards, his expression frantic, but unable to speak.

'Judging by the face you're making, I'm guessing you've never seen an attack like this before,' Frieza said. 'You may be able to weather my energy waves when they come at you from the outside. But what about when they come at you from within?'

He clenched his fist, and Brolly's chest flexed, expanding.

And then Brolly gave an enormous belch, silver chi erupting from his mouth like flames. Frieza gaped, stunned by the anti-climax.

'What the hell was that?' Brolly rubbed a spot on his chest. 'That was gross. Ow!'

I was at full power and it didn't even phase the brute!

It had never failed to kill an opponent before, but had he really expected it would kill this one? No, but he'd hoped it would do some damage. He growled, putting it aside. One didn't spend two centuries amassing a galactic empire and only develop one dirty trick.

'Was that you?' Brolly asked, still clutching the sore spot.

Frieza charged two fingers of his hand in readiness. 'Of course it was me! Who else is there, idiot?'

Brolly scowled. 'I'm not an idiot.' He leaped forward, and Frieza swung his arm around at the same time, a flat arc of chi thrown out like a scythe blade. Brolly stopped and reared back, but not far enough. The trailing edge sliced across his bare chest, making him cry out. Brolly leapt high into the air to put some distance between them as he examined himself. The thin wound that ran across his chest and bicep weeped a trail of red blood. Brolly pressed his hands over it, not really slowing it.

'Ow! Ow! How can chi even do that?'

Freiza leapt after him, swinging his blade. Brolly quit nursing his wound to dodge it, ducking, twisting, flying over and under Frieza to evade the blade. He got in a kick, which shunted Frieza a short distance, but it was a potshot, and didn't do any harm. Frieza came after him, unrelenting, trying to catch Brolly out, hoping for a slip up that would carve the brat in two. But then Brolly smiled.

Was he enjoying this?

'Gods, I hate Saiyans!' Frieza muttered aloud, mentally shifting up a gear. It was clear that dodging his Death Wave was merely fun for this child. He charged the fingers of his other hand.

'Two!' Brolly squealed in what sounded almost like delight when Freiza unleashed the other. Frieza twisted in the air, darting around Brolly as Brolly danced away from the blades until it became a frenzied dance. It didn't seem to matter how fast Frieza spun though, Brolly was able to move faster. Brolly could have just flown away at any time, but apparently he was having too much fun. Cretin.

Plan C then.

Frieza waited until Brolly was lined up where he wanted him to be, then pulled back from their engagement, pretending shock and pointing towards the dragon that was behind Brolly.

'Someone is making a wish!'

Brolly whirled around, and in that instant gold light swelled between Frieza's hands, and he pushed it at Brolly. It swelled as large as the Saiyan was tall, and swallowed him.

Frieza chuckled. The ball didn't burn or blast him - it merely surrounded him. Brolly reacted by trying to move out of it, and found he couldn't.

'Huh?'

He turned inside the sphere of chi, apparently very surprised.

'What is this?' He started to throw himself against the barrier. Frieza flicked his hand to one side, and the sphere jerked with it, throwing Brolly off balance before he could really test the strength of it. Frieza had never had to worry about it failing to be strong enough to hold someone before, but there was a first time for everything, it seemed.

'It's my imprisonment ball. Do you like it?' He jerked it in the other direction. 'I put filthy monkeys in it when they've overstepped their place.'

'How do I get out?'

Frieza laughed at the idiotic question. 'I'm afraid there's only one way out. When I crash it into something, it explodes! Then you'll be free. And also dead.'

'No!'

Frieza pushed the ball out, and it flew away at incredible speed. He could move it at the speed of thought. He threw it a mile in one direction, then back the other; up, down, around, trying to disorientate and hopefully harm the Saiyan inside. On and on he went, until it became quite boring - but he couldn't be too careful with a Super Saiyan. Finally he crashed the thing into the muddy remains of a lake, and the resulting explosion was spectacular. Frieza let out a gasp, impressed by his own power. He should try out his full-powered form more often - he barely knew what he could achieve with it.

When no figure sprang forth, Frieza flew closer and watched the steaming crater for a while. Nothing stirred. Did he dare hope this nightmare was over?

While he watched he tried to conjure the words the philologist had said. They were all familiar to him from his research for other wishes except the most important one - immortality. It had definitely started with the syllable "dy", but he was even less sure of the rest of the word than he had been earlier.

'STATE YOUR WISH.'

Frieza whirled around. At this distance the voice was quiet, but that was unmistakably the dragon speaking. Someone really was trying to make a wish!


Brolly watched Frieza from above. The lizard didn't seem to have realized that his stupid imprisonment ball hadn't killed him, and hadn't even particularly hurt him besides making him bruised, dizzy and annoyed. He'd been ready when the ball touched down, surfing the edge of the explosion to a good distance out, giving him a chance to get over the dizziness.

Suddenly he felt a strange sensation in his head; a tugging, pulling, like his brain was noodles that someone was tossing in sauce. Maybe the ride in the imprisonment ball injured his head after all? He wondered if he should return to the ground, or maybe go back to Friza's ship to use a regen tank. Surely they'd have some tanks?

The tugging became stronger, and Brolly dropped to the ground involuntarily. He landed, clutching his head against the feeling that his brains were being pulled apart. Partial memories started to flicker by, and he resisted, losing his hold on the here and now, staring sightlessly at the rocks before him. What was going on?

'I HAVE BEEN ASKED TO RESTORE THE HEALING GRAND ELDER GURU BESTOWED UPON YOU,' the dragon's voice sounded inside his mind. 'HOWEVER, I CANNOT, UNLESS YOU ALLOW IT.'

'No!' Brolly screamed. 'No, I won't let you! I won't go back to being like that!'

'VERY WELL.'

The sensation and the voice were gone as suddenly as they arrived. Who had tried to wish for that? He bet it was Goku - oh, he was going to pay for that this time!


'IT CANNOT BE DONE. BROLLY WILL NOT SUBMIT TO IT.'

'Crap,' Goku hissed. Then his eyes flicked to the approaching chi signatures. 'Crap, we've gotta get out of here!'

Goku began to fly over Porunga's head, but the Namekian darted behind the dragon's horn again.

Goku dropped down to hiss at him, 'We need to go further than this! They might sense you!'

'I'm staying,' said Melk. 'They haven't noticed me here yet.'

Goku was about to press the argument when Frieza began screaming at the dragon. It was too late. He froze in place next to Melk.

'Who tried to make a wish? What was it they wanted to wish for?'

'I TIRE OF ANSWERING QUESTIONS THAT ARE NOT WISHES. MAKE A WISH OR RELEASE ME FROM THIS PLANE!'

'I'll kill you, is what I'll do if you don't answer!'

'I WOULD WORRY ABOUT YOURSELF, IF I WERE YOU.'

'What do you—oh.'

Suddenly Frieza's chi shifted, and to Goku's terror, the lizard appeared behind Porunga's opposite horn. Goku expected him to attack, but apparently he was only hiding from Brolly, just as they were hiding from him. Melk started in fright, which was enough to cause Frieza to snap his head in their direction. For a moment, the three just stared at each other across the expanse of Porunga's scaly dome. Then Frieza turned to peer around the edge of the horn, dismissing them as a threat. Goku sensed Frieza's oily chi shift around him - he was preparing some sort of attack. Should he warn Brolly? Should he attack Frieza himself? He started gathering energy for a kamehameha, speaking the words under his breath.

'Ka—'

'Dragon!' Brolly yelled from in front.

'Me—'

Porunga growled, the sound vibrating up Goku's legs to make his insides feel like jelly.

'Ha—'

'Was it Goku who made that wish?'

The dragon said nothing.

'Me—'

'Answer me! And I know you're there, Frieza! I can sense you—'

Brolly cut off mid-rant, and Goku didn't even have time to wonder why before the towering flame of green-gold fury appeared right above him and Melk.

'Kakarott! I'll kill you!'

'HAAAA!'

Goku and Melk both flung themselves backwards down the dragon's enormous forehead, Goku wildly setting off his attack to counter whatever Brolly was about to fling at him. At the same time, something intense and pink sliced from Frieza's hiding place towards Brolly. Brolly moved too fast for Goku to follow, but when the attack cleared the space Brolly had been, Brolly was bent over backwards and avoided both attacks.

Goku and Melk collected on the bridge of Porunga's snout, slap bang between his eyes. He could see Frieza's attack spin out, the shape of a flying buzzsaw blade.

'Wise of you to dodge,' Frieza called, coming out of the shadow behind the horn. 'It doesn't matter how strong you are, my death saucers cut through anything.'

Brolly straightened. 'Not sure why you're acting so pleased when you missed me!'

'Did I? Only time will tell.'

Brolly frowned but didn't move as the burning disc arced around and headed back at him from behind.

'Behind you, Brolly!' Goku screamed.

Brolly wasted an instant glaring down at Goku before looking over his shoulder and realising the danger he was in. He shot forward, over the dragon's nose, and the disc followed, slicing right through the top of Porunga's horn on the way. The dragon roared, a sound that Goku thought was going to melt his insides. The horn fell like a toppled redwood, striking Porunga's snout right in front of them before disappearing over the cliff of Porunga's face. Brolly tumbled away, his hands over his ears, and Frieza followed, another disc leaping from his hands.

Goku turned onto his hands and knees. and looked at Melk to see if he was alright. The Namekian was wide-eyed with fear, but seemed okay otherwise.

'Mighty Porunga!' Melk shouted. 'Are you injured?'

'I WILL LIVE.'

Goku scrambled to the tip of Porunga's nose. Below, and in the distance two discs still danced around Brolly's golden spark. Now and then a beam of Frieza's white and pink chi attacks flashed, revealing his location in the gloomy light. He was not sure Brolly had even noticed his Kamehameha wave. A sense of hopelessness seeped into Goku's chest - a foreign sensation. All he could do now was be here and watch.

He double tapped his transponder.

'Bad news, guys. Porunga couldn't make the wish. Brolly wouldn't let himself be healed again.'

'No!' Puar mewled.

'What are we going to do?' Bulma asked. 'If Porunga can't fix him, what can?'


Brolly grunted with effort, feeling the sting as one of the death saucers passed close by again. How did Frieza make these things? Vegeta and Nappa could make a variety of attacks with chi, but Frieza was showing off things he never knew were possible. And while the death saucers were inconvenient, and potentially deadly, Brolly was kind of envious of them.

He bent low, dodging the other, and then was only just in time to counter Frieza's kick. A flurry of blows was traded, but half of Brolly's mind was on the position of the discs.

He let Frieza get away in order to dodge the next pass. 'How do you stop these things?' he shouted.

Frieza answered by appearing behind him and kicking him in the kidney. Brolly was flung, out of control, barely missing one saucer, to crash into the rock. He groaned, feeling the pain radiating right down to his groin and up to his shoulders. He felt sick.

I want to lie down. He eased onto his back only to see the next saucer coming at him. This wasn't fair! He'd thought he was winning against Frieza, and now he was on the back foot again.

He leapt upwards, flipping over, then immediately lashed out to the side when Frieza briefly phased next to him. He missed, Frieza reappearing out of arm's reach.

'Why would you even bother to ask such a question?' the lizard scoffed at him.

Here came another disc, and when Brolly side-stepped it, Frieza came at him again. Brolly snarled, catching Frieza's fist before it landed. Frieza spun, trying to break the grip and land another kick at the same time, when Brolly saw the second disc coming in for its pass over his shoulder. He caught Frieza's leg, too.

Realizing he was trapped, Frieza's mocking expression turned wild, and he reached up with his free hand to Brolly's throat, fingers grasping, arm not quite long enough, until he wrapped his tail around Brolly's waist and pulled himself up in his hold.

Brolly strained away. If he didn't want to get his throat crushed or torn out he was going to have to let go of either Frieza's leg or his fist, or…

He twisted to the side as the death saucer came streaking in for him, passing so close he felt the searing heat of it.

Frieza's face opened up in shock.

He screamed.

Brolly shoved him away, and Frieza let go, his grip like rubber, and fell. Brolly's plan had worked.

Frieza's tail flopped to the ground, cleaved close to the base, and his legs hung, almost severed below the buttocks, but still attached by skin and muscle at the front. The discs must've cauterized the stumps, because only a few drips of purple blood splattered the rocks.

Frieza still gaped down at his body, gasping at air until he took in enough to scream again. Brolly laughed, but the sight was nauseating when he still felt sick from the kidney kick. And those fucking saucers were coming back for another pass. Would they follow him forever?

He ducked around the stunned Frieza, trying to lure the discs into finishing the job of chopping the lizard in half, but as they neared, Frieza snapped out of his daze and threw his hands wide. Both discs shattered into shards of light and dissipated. Brolly backed off, taking the chance for a breather, and Frieza drifted to the ground, his shaking hand reaching for his scouter.

'Give the order! Get the crew on board! We are leaving as soon as I am aboard, and have a regen tank and medical crew ready!'

He screamed again when his dangling legs touched the ground, but he kept lowering himself until he could pick his tail up. He started floating away. Brolly watched him go for a few moments, then overtook him, barring the way.

'What makes you think I'm going to let you just leave?'

Frieza's haggard expression turned spiteful.

'What is the point of continuing? You've dealt me a mortal wound! What does it prove?'

Brolly smiled. 'I might have let you get away earlier, but you really pissed me off, so now I'm going to see if your immortality protects you if I rip your head off. I think that that was Vegeta's plan, and possibly it was the best idea that dickhead ever had. I think it's worth a try. I don't see how even an immortal can keep going when their head isn't attached to their body.'

Frieza's eyes flared wide.

And then he said something Brolly wasn't expecting.

'But you and your friends wished my immortality away. Did you not?'

Frieza knew about that, huh? And he thought he was now mortal again. Brolly pondered what to do with that for a long time. Frieza stared, trembling but unmoving. Brolly looked down at his hand, imagining his chi into something flat and sharp. It appeared, popping and crackling at the end of his fingers, nothing like the intense focus of Frieza's blades or his saucers. He concentrated harder, and swished his hand back and forth, seeing if it held its shape.


Frieza watched the brat. He'd expected a quick, defiant answer, something he could dissect for truthfulness. He was a great judge of honesty after being lied to so many times in his hundreds of years. But instead this monkey was being coy. He was playing with him. Frieza was desperately injured and in agony, but the insult of not being taken seriously burned as bad as his stumps. He wanted to get to his ship, destroy this whelp and the whole damned planet from the safety of orbit. He needed to get to an operating room. His species was hardier than any other in the known galaxies - he knew his legs and tail could be saved, and neither would the loss of them kill him - he'd been lying about it being a mortal wound. But was he mortal?

The Saiyan grinned.

'You're right, we did try to wish for that. But the dragon said it couldn't grant it. Can't you tell if you're immortal or not?'

Frieza's heart sped, until his mind caught up, reminding him this could be a trick. Could he tell if he was immortal? He thought he had felt immortality enter him, but if it had left him, he hadn't felt it go. Maybe it hadn't left him after all.

'Why could it not take it away?'

'It didn't say.' The boy turned contemplative. 'Someone had a theory that immortality was too much to take away against your will, because you're more powerful than the dragon itself. Who knows?'

Gods of his fathers, was he immortal yet?

'You could be making all of this up!'

'I could be,' Brolly agreed.


Brolly watched the self-assurance seep back into Frieza's face. He didn't feel any trepidation about revealing what he had - doing so gave no advantage that he could think of - but he was curious to see what Frieza would do with the information.

He saw the lizard glance towards the dragon. Judging the distance? He ignited his own blade of chi, hotter and harder than Brolly's, and then did something else that Brolly absolutely didn't expect. He threw his tail down and cut through the flesh that still attached his legs to his body.

Brolly flinched, then laughed at the hilarious sight of three white limbs hitting the ground and bouncing like rubber doll parts. Frieza was off like a rocket. Not even lack of legs and tail slowed him down. Frieza just didn't stop!

'Oh, my gosh,' he said, laughing so hard he had to wipe tears from the corners of his eyes. He was going to have to get there before Frieza managed to make any more wishes.

He caught up to him easily, and slowed when he heard what Frieza was yelling at the dragon in Galactic All Speak.

'Dragon, when these Saiyan and Earthling vermin wished to take immortality from me, was the wish granted?'

'IT WAS NOT.'

'Yes!' He glanced over his shoulder and saw Brolly, who pounced. 'No!'

Brolly collided with Frieza's legless torso, tackling him from behind. Frieza screamed and writhed in his hold as Brolly tried to pin his arms. He got one arm around Frieza's neck, more for purchase than anything, as strangling Frieza hadn't seemed to work before. Maybe his immortality protected him from strangulation? Frieza flailed, twisting to punch Brolly in the face from that awkward angle, but without legs or a tail, he didn't have the leverage to pull free. Brolly managed to wrap his legs around Frieza's hips, and then he was locked to him - even with both arms swinging free, Frieza was trapped. With his other arm, Brolly ignited his primitive chi blade again.

'Get your hands off me, you filthy Saiyan!' Frieza's ranting screams glanced off Brolly, only making him smile. The immortality versus beheading question was about to be answered, and they both knew it.

As Brolly pressed the blade to Frieza's throat, the world turned over and crushed into his back - Frieza was using his chi to throw the two of them about. They flew into the air again only to slam back down into the dirt. Brolly whooped a breath back into his lungs, then pressed the blade into Frieza's throat again. The white skin resisted the licking flame.

Frieza body-slammed them again, but Brolly kept his hold. Landing on his back, he squinted as the sun struck through the hole in the clouds he'd made when he'd almost launched Frieza into orbit.

'That's not going to stop me!' he promised the lizard. Frieza's flesh was tough, but the blade began to burn its way in with an acrid, charnel smell. Frieza screamed. Then he shot out a hand before him, firing upwards, through the gap in the clouds, into the sun.

'I'm behind you!' Brolly teased him.

'You're dead,' Frieza shrieked, 'I've just sealed your death and you don't even know it!'

'Strange how I feel very alive!'

'Not for very much longer,' Frieza hissed.

Brolly's blade disintegrated at that distraction. 'Why not?'

'Because I just sent one of my supernova attacks right into the heart of that sun!' Frieza crowed.

'So?'

'So? I suppose you are too stupid to understand what that means.'

Brolly yanked on his neck and Frieza gurgled. 'Call me stupid again.'

'Not stupid!' Frieza choked out, 'But if you're clever, you'll use the next few minutes to find a way off this planet. I just sent an energy wave into that sun that will cause it to self-destruct when it arrives.'

'There's more than one sun,' Brolly pointed out.

'And when it goes supernova,' Frieza continued, 'it will take out this entire solar system with it.'

Brolly felt that uncomfortable prickling that he had earlier. Alarm. Yes, alarm, but now he realised it wasn't that crippling emotion he used to get - fear. This was just a warning, something to get his attention. He bent over Frieza to get a good look at his blood smeared face. He was grinning.

'How long?' he asked Frieza.

'Who knows? A few minutes? Ten minutes? Twenty? The time it takes light to reach the sun and return.'

'And why are you smiling?'

'Think you can live without air to breathe, Saiyan? How about when the planet is vaporized, and you along with it? I don't need air to breathe, and I'm immortal anyway! I win!' He laughed.

'The fuck you do! I'm taking your ship!'

And then Brolly gave up with the chi blade and instead just hauled at Frieza's head, trying to tear it right off. Frieza's laughter veered off into choking. He tried to buck Brolly again, but Brolly pushed back with his own chi, and they shot upwards, above Porunga's head. Things popped inside Frieza's neck, and Brolly took deep breath, growling with effort as he pulled and pulled, and white skin parted with a flood of plum-red blood.


King Kai sucked in his breath, not feeling anything of the relief he had expected at witnessing Frieza's defeated. His young students dropped their hands from his back, too sickened by the vision to keep watching.

'Oh my God,' he heard Chichi murmur with a shaking breath. 'Brolly was crazy when I met him, but I still can't believe what he just did.'

'He did what he had to do,' Yajirobe pointed out solemnly. 'Doesn't mean he's loco.'

'But he is.'

King Kai ignored them, feeling creeping cold inside him; a horrible suspicion that he had failed at his only job.

Was I so distracted by Freiza's evil that I didn't notice the emergence of the true threat to the Galaxy?


Frieza tumbled and tumbled through the air, catching glimpses of his own detached body on the way down. The fucking Saiyan had done it - he'd ripped his head off. And he was still alive, but his vision was darkening, fading around the edges.

He thudded, bounced and rolled on the blue grass between the sticks of bowled over trees. His own torso hit the dirt a few yards away on the muddy shore of a pond. He didn't feel sickened. He didn't feel anything, other than a hollow, empty dread. He didn't have a body to feel with. Would he spend eternity, just a disembodied head unable to do more than blink?

He could see the back of the dragon stretching up into the sky. The dragon could put him back together again. But there was no way to make that wish.

A pair of mint green legs in soft pink stockings stepped into his field of view.

'Zarbon!' Frieza mouthed, having no lungs with which to force air though his vocal chords. 'Zarbon! Find my body! Take me back to the ship!'

Zarbon crouched, a sneer on his face and a terrified Namekian child tucked under his arm.

'Help me! Help me, Zarbon!'

'What's that? Help you?'

'Yes! Help me! My body, Zarbon, My body!'

'Help…you?'

Zarbon reached up and plucked the diadem from his head - the one that was meant to be securely in place at all times - and threw it at Frieza's face. Frieza could only blink as it struck his cheek and glanced off. He tried to curse Zarbon, but his jaw would no longer move. Numb paralysis was setting in. Zarbon was receding into darkness.

'I know what you did to me, master. And helping you is the last thing I want to do. I mean, how do you think the Super Saiyan brat got out of hypersleep, hmm?'

ZARBON did this to him? ZARBON of all people had purposely betrayed him?

'Can you still hear me in there? I do hope so. But I don't have time to watch the light fade from your eyes. I have a wish to make, and a coronation to attend - my own!'

No! You traitorous scum! You ignoble toad! I'll rise up and kill—

Zarbon stood and kicked Frieza's head into the mud-rimmed pit. Before Frieza's head met the surface of the water, black, many-segmented legs erupted from the pond, clamping around Frieza's face like iron claws, lifting him up and over a set of yellow, needle-like teeth that emerged from the murky water ahead of a black, gaping maw.

Well, fuck.


Author's note: Next chapter is already done, just got some finishing touches to go... What is going to happen next? Only I know, but you're all free to guess!

Lot's of people have asked me lately about Illuminary Inc and if there will be a Book Two. I know it's been a hot minute (3 1/2 years) with no news. I edited it into an original novel, sent it out for beta readers (do you know how hard it is to get people to read a book for FREE?) then decided it still needed major revisions, and most especially, it needs the second book written, or at least outlined before committing to publishing. Still not sure whether this will be a self-publishing effort or not. But this story is kind of getting in the way. So yes, it's going to be another few years probably. That is hobby-writing for you. I'd love to write full time, but I still haven't won the lottery yet, so... Failing that, I have a ko-fi...