Chapter Forty-Seven:
"When you die
You'll know why
For you cannot be saved
With all the world enslaved
When you die
You'll know why…"
The Vengeful One - Disturbed
DBZ
Considerable time passed with Zether and Tettuce flying side by side in silence. So much time that Zether had more or less zoned out and had stopped paying attention to where they were going. The only interesting things he had seen during the flight had been a literal street-sweeper and a fancy palace where Tettuce said a giant snake resided. Aside from those the flight had been rather boring so Zether had been fighting falling asleep at times.
At least until Tettuce announced their arrival and he started looking around for wherever they had arrived.
He frowned and glanced over at Tettuce. "Very funny."
The Saiyan grinned and pointed forward. "Look."
Zether scowled and looked around, but his scowl vanished when he saw a small satellite hovering in midst the yellow clouds ahead of them. "Whoa. That's a large boulder. Or is it supposed to be a small planet?"
Tettuce chuckled. "Don't let Kaio-sama hear you say that. He's very touchy when it comes to the size of his planet. Evidently it used to be larger," he added when Zether arched an eyebrow at him.
"Kaio-sama? That the dude wanting to see me?"
Tettuce grinned. "Yeah. Kaio-sama: the Lord of Worlds. So try and show him some respect. He's an important guy around here." The Saiyan paused and glanced up at the planet. "Or so he claims. Either way he said it was important. He was watching the fight when you died and immediately asked me to meet you at the Check-In Station."
Zether blinked and looked at Tettuce again. "Check-In Station? That's...seriously what that place was called?"
Tettuce laughed. "Yeah. The system is kinda...unorthodox up here. I mean hell...you should see Hell!"
"Yeah, and where is that exactly?"
The Saiyan pointed down at the clouds beneath them. "Right there, actually. Just don't go flying down there. You'll never be able to come back up if you do. Anyway, enough with the chit-chat," he said as they circled around in for a landing, approaching a small dome-shaped house with some sort of red, four-wheeled vehicle sitting on a path beside it.
Zether couldn't help but to ponder the purpose of a road that went nowhere on such a tiny planet as he and Tettuce touched down beside the house. There was literally only the one house and a single fruit-bearing tree. The rest was just a giant grassy lawn split by the single road...driveway that circled the "planet."
"Seriously. It's just a moon. And not even one at that. It's more like...a small asteroid."
Tettuce grimaced and glanced at the house quickly. "You better hope Kaio-sama didn't hear that."
"I did, actually," a voice called from inside the house. "Your friend is very rude, Tettuce."
Zether flashed a boyish grin. "I'm far more than rude once you get to know me."
"You have no respect," the voice replied, moving closer as Kaio-sama made his way outside.
Zether's eyes went wide as a squat blue...thing, with antennae and dark sunglasses stepped through the doorway and paused to look up at him. "Neither Saiyans nor you Gylderians seem to know what respect is." He tilted his head to peer up at Tettuce. "Though you at least try sometimes."
Tettuce grinned and offered a shrug. "All things considered, it's really the least I can do."
Kaio-sama nodded sagely and turned away from them.
Tettuce leaned towards Zether and hurriedly whispered, "Whatever you do, be nice and laugh at all his jokes. Otherwise he gets irritable and it's really annoying," he finished with a dramatic eyeroll.
Zether grinned and hissed, "No promises."
"I had Tettuce retrieve you for a reason, Zether," Kaio-sama said solemnly, his back still to them. "Some...dark machinations are in play, I'm afraid."
The Gylderian chuckled. "No kidding. Dark machinations are the reason I have a halo floating over my noggin."
Kaio-sama glanced over his shoulder at the young man with a scowling grimace. "So then you haven't noticed it."
Tettuce glanced knowingly at Zether and the Gylderian blinked between the two of them. "The hell you talking about?"
Kaio-sama turned to face him and peered up at him stoically. "I am talking about your soul."
Zether laughed, but it quickly faded when he saw Tettuce staring at him intensely. He arched an eyebrow in his well-justified confusion. "A'ight, what am I missing?"
Kaio-sama smirked. "Does the word 'Aguatian' mean anything to you?"
Zether looked sharply at Kaio-sama. He now had his undivided attention.
DBZ
Bardock twisted and turned, dancing nimbly just out of reach of Frieza's deadly ki-saucer as it zipped and sliced all around him. Frieza could make it turn on a dime and Bardock had been frustratingly preoccupied with barely dodging its rapid-fire strikes. His ki was maxed out-though steadily growing as the nanites toiled tirelessly away-as he phased through the air trying to out-pace the disk. That proved easier-said-than-done as he could only just twist or duck out of its path.
It was all he could do to stay alive, flashing and darting across the sky as little more than a blur while the maniacal tyrant laughed in murderous glee, his arms cutting the air as he determined where the disk would strike next. Bardock could only listen to the laughter, unable as he was to take his eyes from the death disk. His only solace was the fact that it was slowly getting easier to dodge, though it still was not fast enough.
All he had to do was survive long enough for Frieza's ki to drop, but he was hardly losing any while he was just standing still. He was still at full power and just being there was sapping his ki-a fact he was still blissfully ignorant of-but he was still too powerful and too fast for Bardock to outpace significantly. He would have to survive for far too long for it be realistically conceivable he could get one over on Frieza.
It was frustrating just how outclassed he actually was, and what the Kanassan had said before wasn't helping to ease Bardock's mind on the subject. His time...what had the Kanassan meant by that? Was he going to die here today? Was he going to die at Frieza's hand?
What couldn't the damn Kanassan have said what he meant? What was the point in him being elusive? He had not wanted to draw attention to Bardock, but he had not said why. Could there be forces at play worse than Frieza?
As the disk cut dangerously close to his scarred-cheek he couldn't realistically imagine anything worse than Frieza in this exact moment. He could just barely entertain that notion if only because of what he'd seen with Amotto just moments before. She had briefly surpassed even Frieza's monstrous power and hers had still been rising even more.
"FEELS LIKE IT'S WANTING TO OVERFLOW…"It certainly had been overflowing. Bardock had never before imagined the kind of power he'd experienced today would be possible, but he'd believed that he could reach nearly any height if he worked hard enough. The power Amotto had generated completely altered that belief, though. No amount of hard work would make his ki rise as dramatically as hers. Her power had been so far beyond Frieza's that it angered him she'd been killed so damn easily.
She should have been able to vaporize the damn lizard in an instant with her insane power. If only she'd been able to keep control! But what had even happened to her? She was still coherent, but also in a complete frenzy at the same time. An out of control Oozaru, but capable of more than just roaring and stampeding. The way she had been able to counter and evade, completely in control of her every move. It was more than clear that she was something more than Super Saiyan in those brief moments.
But something nagged at him the whole time; the way her power had felt reminded him of the power Falmer had attained. They were so similar in their feel, the primal viscosity of the unstable ki, that it bothered him. Because the feeling had been instinctively familiar, like it was something his body knew on a molecular level even if he'd never seen anything like it before in his life. It made him think of how similar Gylderians really were to Saiyans, and how superior they were at the same time.
Was it possible they were genetic siblings of a sort? Both races had histories of traveling the cosmos eons ago, so it seemed possible. And that, too, bothered Bardock.
Zether had said before how that strange being had said there were important parts to play and that those parts would be played by Saiyans and Gylderians. If that being had really once been a guardian of the universe then she knew something about their histories that they didn't know, and that bothered him for some reason. He couldn't imagine why, but thinking of Amotto's death made that feeling all the worse.
Was his fate truly out of his hands? Even if he could predict and change the future? Was he being allowed to change the future to suit the designs of even greater forces? Was that what the Kanassan had meant?
"...but you continue to break the stone to suit your desires."
Bardock, stunned, spotted an opening as the disk curved further away from him than it had previously. Not much, but just enough that he pounced on the opportunity and double- phased away in a flash. Frieza cursed below and behind him as he quickly brought the disk back around.
Bardock grinned and spun to face it head-on, expertly shifting his ki into his right palm as a large blue orb. "Say hello to my little friend, Frieza. FINAL SPIRIT CANNON!" he roared as he threw his arm forward to launch a massive beam straight into the disk as it skimmed down towards him. They met and he instantly detonated his attack in a blinding blue explosion, the disk breaking apart and dissipating in the violent discharge.
"Inconceivable!" Frieza roared in agitation as Bardock smirked down at him, the light of the explosion rapidly fading away.
"So ya say, yet it still happened." Bardock flared his aura and blurred down at Frieza to drive his fist into the tyrant's face. Theoretically anyhow as Frieza's arm flashed up and he grabbed the Saiyan's wrist and immediately stepped into a spin, jerking Bardock around to slam him violently into the ground so hard it shattered like glass.
Before he even knew what hit him, Frieza was stomping down onto his back and cratering the ground beneath him, the air crushed from his lungs. His mind went blank, numbed against the pain as he tried to breathe and Frieza stomped again, his armor practically exploding as the ground gave way even further beneath him. Red colored the edges of his vision as he struggled to gasp in air, desperately pushing himself up only to have Frieza stomp him down again, sending another wave of pain through his spine.
"I decide when you die, Saiyan," Frieza said as he stomped yet again, though Bardock had not tried to push himself up again.
He was finding it hard to think about anything besides getting some oxygen into his lungs. He struggled to breathe, but Frieza stomped his back yet again. Bardock's fingers dug weakly into the rubble beneath him as the pain rocked his senses. His mind was growing fuzzy. His power was slipping.
His fate truly was decided. He was going to die at Frieza's hand after all.
Stomp.
His Super Saiyan power dwindled and he felt his transformation starting to slip away.
Stomp.
No. He couldn't go out like this.
Stomp.
He wasn't done. He still had enough ki to go on.
He forced his mind to clear, struggling to focus through the growing haze. He gave an almighty gasp just as Frieza stomped down again. "HYYAAHH!" Bardock let loose a tremendous kiai, his ki flaring up in a vicious shockwave that rolled over Frieza and rocked him backwards a few steps. But it was all Bardock needed as he ignited his aura and launched himself to his feet, immediately coming about to face the visibly-annoyed tyrant.
"You've merely delayed-"
"The inevitable, I know," Bardock interrupted in a rush, breathing heavily as he gave Frieza a smirk. "B-but...I ain't goin' down...without a fight...damn it." He brought his fists up and stepped back in a defensive posture, his emerald eyes almost gleaming in the radiance of his aura. "So give me your best-" he paused and barely stopped himself from glancing around. Surely that ki hadn't been…
No, it was. He knew her power too well not to immediately recognize it. He mentally cursed Seripa for her willful stubbornness as he glared at the tyrant in front of him. She knew Frieza's power; why the hell had she decided to show up? She couldn't even transform!
Frieza phased forward and Bardock barely shifted out of the way of his jab, ducking under his immediate follow-up hook and dodging backwards to evade a rising uppercut-all in the same instant. He leapt backwards as Frieza's tail whipped around towards him, flaring his ki to phase out of the way of a series of rapid-fire jabs. He refused to so much as blink lest he lose sight of Frieza for even a nanosecond. The lizard would kill him if he made a single mistake.
Luckily he didn't get to make a mistake as a pink ki blast exploded against Frieza's face, making him stop mid-strike and jerk his attention around to see Seripa standing across the battlefield, her face split by a taunting grin.
"Remember me, Frieza?" she practically giggled, her arms folded against her chest. Bardock grimaced as the tyrant scowled at her.
"You!" he hissed as he turned sharply to face her. "Do not tell me you are one of these Super Saiyans, as well!"
Bardock's eyes widened. She would die the instant Frieza realized she wasn't.
"Nah. I don't need to be a Super Saiyan," Seripa said with a laugh. "I can beat you-"
Bardock flared his ki and phased towards Frieza-
"-as I-"
-Frieza's form flickered and Bardock shot through his after-image-
"-am." He looked towards Seripa as Frieza materialized in front of her, startling her to step backwards. He flared his ki once more and phased after Frieza again.
"Wh-?"
His fist flashed towards Frieza's face-
The tyrant's tail whipped through the air catching him under his chin and snapping his head up violently to send him flipping backwards to land heavily on his back.
Bardock didn't see it, stunned from that vicious strike, but he certainly felt it as Frieza struck Seripa with everything he had in her stomach.
He knew where because he felt the insignificant ki growing in her womb suddenly vanish. His blood ran cold as he looked up in time to see Seripa flying like a ragdoll to tear explosively into the palace rubble and out of sight. His eyes were wide as he opened his senses to search for her ki, hurriedly pushing himself to his feet.
He paused as he felt it, faint but there. He grimaced and glanced towards Frieza to find the tyrant grinning malevolently at him. Seripa was still alive, clearly unconscious from how tiny her ki felt right now. But he had to keep his focus on the task at hand. He flared his ki and ignited his aura before lunging towards Frieza with a roar of protest.
The tyrant smirked and turned to face him just Bardock phased away, causing the smirk to falter as he appeared to Frieza's right. The tyrant jerked his attention around, but Bardock phased away again this time appearing behind him with both hands clenched together and flying down like hammers towards Frieza's head.
His form flickered and Bardock jackhammered empty air. He cursed and spun to where he felt Frieza's ki, only to find a silver fist connecting with his jaw and snapping his head so violently around that his body spun with it and he was sent spiraling away, slamming into the ground as an explosive corkscrewing missile.
He groaned as he shoved chunks of earth away from him to climb wearily to his feet. He grimaced and worked his jaw as he glared at the tyrant standing just a few yards away.
"Super Saiyans. Fah!" Frieza scoffed, spitting to the ground. "There is nothing super about you at all." He chuckled and folded his arms across his chest. "I might have had more trouble six months ago, but unfortunately for you I have been doing a bit of training in my leisure. You Saiyans are a frustrating infestation but you prove you are nothing but litter in my universe." He grinned and extended an arm to point his index finger at Bardock's forehead. "It is time I cleaned this place up a little."
Bardock grimaced again and flared his aura, channeling his ki throughout his body. His ki had dropped sharply from that strike. He probably only had about half his power left, even with the nanites working to heal his wounds and replenish his ki. He suspected that they had started to short out or shut down from being overtaxed. He wasn't exactly taking it easy here, after all.
Frieza's finger shone and he leapt aside as a death beam lanced by, missing him by millimeters it seemed. He leapt back to his left as another flashed towards him, followed by another that he barely phased out of the way of. He pushed his ki to its limits as he leapt, jumped, ducked, and dodged out of the way of the flashing beams. He had to keep moving, dipping aside and cartwheeling away, otherwise he was done.
It was all up to him now. He was the only one left with a chance. He just had to survive long enough.
But how long was long enough? He ground his teeth as he flipped over a beam and took off into an aura-charged sprint, his arms and legs pumping into blurs as he dashed just ahead of Frieza's killing techniques. He could try all he liked, but he knew he couldn't keep this pace up. Frieza was toying with him. He had become an unwilling participant in a game where his life was at stake. One wrong move and he would be killed.
He glanced back at the beams rapidly gaining on him and sprang into a backflip just as one would have struck his back, the ground exploding from both the force of his launch and the blast that hit almost in the same instant. He flared his ki and phased rapidly towards Frieza.
The tyrant shifted his arm and released a barrage of death beams. He cringed and twisted out of the way and zipped away as a golden blur with the beams skimming by just behind him, a trail of explosions kicking dust and debris up in his wake.
That's what the Kanassan had meant: he was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it. He had changed his fate for too long. This was it; it was only a matter of time before Frieza killed him once and for all. With each passing second he was losing ki just as Frieza was, but at a much quicker rate. The nanites must have finally given out on him. He had put too much faith in their holding out and he was going to pay for that error.
A beam struck his shoulder and he hissed as it burned his flesh, quickly clamping a hand over the scorch. He twisted around to phase towards the ground and another beam tore through his left thigh, his face twisting in pain. But he steeled himself and focused his ki into phasing to the ground, his feet touching down in mid-sprint.
Unfortunately he underestimated the extent of his wound and his injured leg gave into a limp as he put pressure on it, slowing him enough that another beam pierced his right ankle and he pitched forward to land face-first in the dirt, his momentum carrying him into a vicious tumble. Death beams showered the ground all around him as he rolled and pushed himself into the air.
A beam pierced his chest just to the side of his heart and he hit the ground back first, letting out an involuntary cry of pain. He tried to force the pain to the back of his mind and pushed himself up on his elbows just in time to see Frieza flash him a grin. His emerald eyes went wide and a beam flashed towards his face; he lifted his arms and dropped back under it feeling the heat of it as it shot by, missing his nose by a hair.
"Even with your injuries you are quite persistent. I must admit that I am impressed," Frieza said with a laugh. "However you and your little friends are finished, and Lord Frieza remains undefeated."
Bardock sighed as he wearily propped himself up on his elbows again. This was it. He glared across the darkened battlefield at Frieza as he pointed his index finger at his face again. The tyrant had lost a considerable amount of his ki toying with him as he'd had, but it still wasn't enough for Bardock to hope to have a chance of winning. He'd reached his limit. He was going to die.
Frieza's finger shone again.
DBZ
The first thing Seripa was aware of was being buried under a crushing weight and being pinned against something solid and coarse. The second thing she was aware of was the nauseating agony coursing from her abdomen. It was so bad and so sickening she almost felt death would be an appealing alternative. She closed her eyes and shifted beneath the rubble as she clutched at her stomach weakly. She really felt like she was-
She turned her head just in time to vomit into a crevice beside her, her stomach heaving painfully. She was only vaguely aware of the taste of blood mixed with the sickness. She'd never felt pain quite like that…
No. Her eyes shot open and she glanced down at her stomach in disbelief as her memories of the last few moments returned to her groggy mind. The faint ki of her unborn child.
It was gone.
She gasped and dug her fingertips into the fabric at her waist.
It was gone.
Her child was gone.
That one thought overtook her and she felt her mind spiraling in turmoil, the memories of all her failed pregnancies flashing through her mind as the shadowed faces of children she'd never have.
"No…" she whispered into the darkness as her eyes began to sting. This wasn't supposed to happen. She should have expected it. But it still wasn't supposed to happen. She'd lost yet another child, but this one at Frieza's hand. It wasn't supposed to go this way.
Tears poured down her cheeks as her chest heaved with jerking sobs. "No," she groaned. She shook her head and closed her eyes, a wave of torment tearing through her. Her heart ached and her blood ran cold as she clawed at her belly, as if she could massage the life back into her womb. Frieza had killed her child and she'd been unable to prevent it. He had taken the unborn life right out from under her and she'd been unable to do anything about it. But she put the child in harm's way to begin with.
Her mind was spinning wildly, thoughts repeating and driving home the fact that she couldn't really blame Frieza. Sure he'd dealt the killing blow, but it was her fault the child had been put into harm's way. Frieza had ended its brief existence, but she'd killed it the moment she set foot on the battlefield.
"NOOOOO! AAYYYAGGHH!" she screamed in anguish, thrashing her arms out violently and sending the rubble flying up and away from her. She turned over on her side and buried her face in her hands as she cried, bits of rubble clattering down around her as a wave of shame and self-loathing rolled through her.
Just days before she had barely refrained from ending the unborn life. She had wanted this child to live no matter what, and she had failed to protect it. It was her own damn fault and she knew it. Mejai, Bardock, and all the others had been right. She should have stayed away from the battlefield. If she had the child would still be alive.
But she hadn't and she could only blame her stubborn self. No matter how she tried she couldn't steer her mind from that one truth. She would have been better off just aborting when she had the chance. Her shoulders shook with her sobs as she moaned into her palms.
"Oh gods," she whimpered. "You fucking asshole…" she seethed tearfully, shaking her head slowly. "You fucking asshole," she repeated, her voice breaking with her sobs. It was her fault and she knew it. She'd failed this child just as she had failed Kakarot. Frieza would win and he would destroy this planet. And somewhere out there was her only surviving child that would meet his end at Frieza's hand as well. All because she was too weak to kill Frieza as she had sworn she would so long ago.
She sniffled and lowered her hands, glancing up at the dark sky above her. She blinked as she sobbed, listening to the sounds of battle echoing across the battlefield. Bardock was still fighting, but he was able to transform. She couldn't. She'd been unable to breach the Super Saiyan wall. She spread her senses out and she felt her spirit sink lower as she felt Frieza's overwhelming power easily dwarfing her mate's.
What hope did they have? What hope did her son have to survive this ordeal?
None, and it was her fault. She felt her muscles tense and she hiccuped. She wiped her eyes and slowly sat up. She sniffled and hiccupped again as she blinked her eyes clear of her tears. What the hell was she doing?
She couldn't give in. She couldn't. She had lost one child to Frieza, she wouldn't lose another. She refused to. No matter what she couldn't give up. It was her fault her unborn child had been killed, but she still had a responsibility to ensure Kakarot survived this day. She clenched her fists and slowly climbed to her feet, ignoring the pain in her stomach. And not just Kakarot, but any that could be threatened by Frieza. She'd come this far she couldn't just up and give in now, because even if she hadn't decided to fight now she would have eventually. It was almost inevitable, even if she did run and hide long enough to bear the child.
She'd made a decision long ago that no matter what she would face Frieza again and end his life. Well now was her chance. Her blood was beginning to boil and she felt her ki rising. Even if she couldn't transform, she would find a way to take the lizard down. She could feel the difference in his power now compared to when they first arrived. They had dealt him some damage despite their losses. There was still some hope.
She heard Bardock cry out in pain and a jolt went through her chest. She leapt into the air, sailing over the wall of rubble that had once been a palace and landed lightly on a small patch of grass that had somehow survived the devastation thus far. Her eyes were wide as she spotted Bardock on his back and Frieza towering over him, a glowing index finger aimed at him. Her fists clenched tighter and she felt her joints popping in protest.
She was only vaguely aware of a shift in her ki as she summoned her power, her violet aura igniting around her tiny frame. A sudden fire seemed to burn in her belly, fueling her raw determination in this moment.
Amotto...Falmer...Zether...Tettuce...and you've already taken Bardock once…
She growled. "You're not taking him away from me again!" she cried. Frieza frowned and looked in her direction as her violet aura suddenly shifted to red. "Spirit Burn!" Her muscles bulged dramatically and she ground her teeth together viciously as her aura expanded several fold, its brilliance casting an eerie gloom over the expanse between her and Frieza and Bardock. Bits of rubble jumped from the ground at her feet and exploded into tiny starbursts of dust.
"SPIRIT BURN!" she repeated louder than before. Cracks splintered the ground as her booted feet sank into the earth. One way or another she was going to kill Frieza, but she needed the power to do it. Her muscles groaned as they constricted and bulged even more, tendons stretching the limits of her flesh as veins throbbed at her forehead and across her biceps. No matter what she was going to summon the necessary power. The pain wracking through her overcharging body was a non issue. She would not give in and she would not succumb.
"SPIRIT BURN TIMES TWENTYYYYY!" she screamed, her aura flashing and a rush of power exploding from her core, the ground exploding and rubble flying up all around her. She screamed in defiance of the pain overtaking her body as the intensely rising power overloaded her senses, the entire planet seeming to shake down to the core.
She shifted her stance, raised her fists offensively, and glared through her aura and across the battlefield at the visibly surprised tyrant. "Frieza…" she seethed, her tone murderous. "No more...No more god damn it." Her aura shifted from red to gold.
"YOU'RE NOT TAKING ANYONE ELSE FROM ME EVER AGAIN! AAAAAAAHHHHH!" A rush of power surged through her as she threw her head back and screamed a protest to the sky, lightning flashing across its dark expanse. Her hair shifted upwards into short spikes before becoming gold just as her eyes shifted from violet to green. The ground trembled beneath her feet as her power shot through the roof, finally ascending to the realms of Super Saiyan and canceling out the Spirit Burn. Her muscles shrank to a less dramatic size, though they remained toned and tensed with her new power, explosive shockwaves emanating in time with her glowing body.
Her scream died out and she jerked her attention to the stunned tyrant staring frozen at her as her golden aura hummed eerily serene around her trembling shimmering body. She glanced at Bardock to see him smiling weakly at her in a mixture of pride and admiration, his golden locks shifting to black and falling into his normal style as his transformation gave out. He collapsed to his back and she looked to Frieza once more.
Power rushed through her body, her senses tingling with the new sensation. Even the pain from the damage caused by her dangerous Spirit Burn had been erased. But she ignored that as she stalked towards the tyrant. "I'm going to fucking kill you, Frieza," she seethed menacingly. "I'm sick and god damned tired of your bull shit. It's time someone took you down once and for all." Was it confidence, arrogance, or a little of both? She had no idea, but she loved it. She truly felt super.
Frieza scowled at her and turned to point his glowing finger at her instead. "As if Saiyan trash could kill me!" He fired his attack and she jumped to the side, avoiding it much easier than she'd expected to. His eyes went wide and he fired another one that she stepped out of the way of.
She smirked at the look of disbelief on his face as she spread her senses out. She chuckled. "You've lost a lot of ki, Frieza. You have no idea how to regulate your own power, do you?"
"Insolent filth! What do you know about my power?!" He let loose a barrage of death beams and she phased back and forth, evading his powerful attacks with relative ease. Granted she was generating all the power she had just attained, but she wasn't stupid. Stubborn for sure, but she wasn't dumb enough to take Frieza lightly after everything that had happened today and before on Jynn-jin 13.
She dashed left and right, closing the distance between her and Frieza in a zig-zagging advance as he fired blast after blast. She materialized directly in front of him and he looked sharply at her. Absently she noted that he was about half a foot shorter than her which made her grin for some reason.
"I know enough, Frieza. I can feel your ki dropping with each blast you fire."
Frieza snarled at her, his composure breaking again. "You know nothing! I am Lord Frieza and I rule this universe!" His form flickered and his fist cut the air, slamming into her exposed cheek sending her sliding backwards, her feet skidding through the dirt.
She flared her ki and stopped, a cloud of dust flying up behind her. Slowly turning her head to glare at the tyrant, she grinned again and said, "That hurt. Come on, Frieza. Don't hold back on me now."
The look on his face told her that he hadn't been holding back, or at least hadn't meant to hold back. He still had far more ki than she had, but it was clear his body was rapidly tiring from being overworked. He couldn't draw his full power out and she was going to make that his downfall.
"No!" he roared, his fists clenching as his black and red aura exploded around his body. "I cannot be beaten by the likes of you!" He extended his right palm towards her and grasped his wrist with his left hand, a golden sphere immediately springing to life in front of him. It grew to be bigger than his body as his aura raged an unstable pattern around him.
Seripa smirked and brought her hands up. She could feel the power behind the attack and it was too low to do her any damage. She would be able to deflect it back at him with ease.
Frieza bellowed as he fired the attack at her. It rushed across the ground and she shifted her legs as it drew closer. Just as it reached her she brought an arm around to strike it back…
Her arm went right through it and it traveled on, engulfing her as she let out a cry of shocked protest. "What the hell?!" she demanded as she was snatched from her feet, finding herself trapped within its core as it carried her backwards across the ground. She definitely hadn't expected that! She tried to twist around as she was forced away, but found she couldn't move. This wasn't an attack but a binding barrier!
Frieza appeared beside her and she glanced at him as he kicked a ki-charged talon against the sphere that sent her careening in another direction, her neck popping audibly with the whiplash. She had felt him shunt ki through his leg and into the sphere at the moment he struck it. He appeared in front of her and kicked her again, sending more power flooding into the attack as she was sent flying straight up into the air. And she was powerless to stop it. She'd never experienced a technique like this before and she realized she had underestimated him yet again as he appeared above her and jackhammered her towards the ground. Powerless to escape she just watched the cratered ground rushing up to meet her head-on, though her mind raced to find a way out of this situation. The sheer power she was encased in would completely vaporize her. She'd failed again.
Traveling headfirst towards the ground and at an angle she had only enough time to crack her eyes open and, by sheer dumb luck, catch sight of the full moon. Its effect was instantaneous as her heart began to hammer against her ribcage and she felt her joints beginning to pop. She was grinning, her body already enlarging, when she hit the ground in a massive explosion that completely obliterated the remains of the palace and Frieza's ship, and everything else in the surrounding area for several square miles.
DBZ
Thunder rumbled in the distance as Frieza, his chest heaving from his exertions, touched down at the rim of the new, smoldering crater left behind from his destructive attack. The air above the expanse and around it churned violently in signal of a fast-approaching storm, the dark clouds rolling slowly ominous in from the darkened horizon. Lightning lit the roiling mass as Frieza took an almost gasping gulp of air and gave a disdainful glance to his trembling knees, all while his lungs ached and his heart hammered inside his chest. He had pushed his body harder than he'd ever had to before, even during his youthful training with his brother and more recently during his gravity training.
His loathing towards the Saiyans was probably the only thing keeping his power at 100%. He could still feel a mountain of ki even though he'd used a majority of his power to finish the female, but his body wasn't allowing him to utilize it completely. He hadn't noticed it in the beginning, but it was more than evident now after how much power he'd just used. Between her and the green one before her-not to mention the Gylderian and Bardock-he'd been pushed far beyond his normal abilities.
Thunder rumbled again and he was only vaguely aware of how close it sounded as his bulked up body shrank in on itself as he settled into a more relaxed state, his heart rate almost immediately beginning to slow. He took a deep breath as he tried to steady his fatigued quivering. He was actually tired he had to note as he looked out across the crater.
He suddenly scowled as he realized that he had destroyed the last remnants of his ship. The explosion had taken out a portion of the distant city as well, so surely there was no trace left of his ship. Though logically speaking there should still be a ship somewhere that he could use since Bardock and Seripa had shown up so abruptly with their accomplices.
Which reminded him...He turned as he remembered the former Saiyan having been left alive. He would have had time to flee the battlefield before the explosion destroyed most of it. Though he had been rather weak and injured he recalled. Even so he wasn't going to immediately dismiss the possibility. Not after everything else that had happened this rather annoying day. He scanned the moonlit pock-marked landscape, looking over mounds of debris for signs of movement and watching the shrouded craters for an extra shadow. He couldn't remember a time he was on such high alert, his senses practically tingling in anticipation of a sudden attack.
Thunder rumbled again, so close he felt the ground tremble beneath his feet. He spared a glance skyward more than expecting to see clouds, but was surprised to see a nearly cloudless sky bright with moonlight. He frowned and glanced over his shoulder to the rolling cloud banks in the distance. They were clearly advancing, and the wind picking up in their wake, but they were still several minutes from reaching his location.
Thunder rumbled and his gaze was drawn sharply to the crater, his eyes going wide.
"No…" he declared quietly. He had used a vast majority of his power! She should have been reduced to space dust!
A massive golden hand appeared from the crater and gripped the rim, the ground cracking and splintering under the immense pressure. Frieza looked down as the cracks extended beneath his feet and behind him before snapping his gaze up just in time to see the singed and bloodied golden-furred face of what could be none other than the tenacious female Seripa poking up from the crater to snarl at him.
Her crimson eyes narrowed as she said,"I'M NOT DEAD YET, ASSHOLE," her rumbling voice eerily quiet amidst the rising din of the wind whistling around them, making Frieza's blood run cold for the first time in his life.
He scowled, angry with himself and with Saiyans and Gylderians for being so flagrantly audacious, and flung his arm up to point at her. "Allow me to corre-" but before he could summon the ki, her mouth opened and a wave of golden ki washed over him and exploded, throwing him violently and painfully backwards. He crashed to the ground, bouncing and tumbling sporadically in his stunned out-of-control state.
By the time he managed to summon the ki to stop his movement, he was already lying flat on his back and staring at the moon hanging above the battlefield as pain wracked his terribly fatigued body. That attack had hurt far more than he would like to admit. He cringed as he slowly gathered himself to a sitting position, his face screwed up against the pain. He exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding as he braced himself up with one arm, palm splayed flat against the ground. He shifted his other hand to push himself up as he carefully tucked his left leg under him to give himself extra leverage, even going so far as to use his tail to push himself back to his feet.
He grimaced and then scowled as he looked up at the Golden Oozaru now towering over the rim of the crater. Her armor was all but gone, a jagged ring clinging to her waist while a long shoulder strap hung askew against her neck. Her left glove was gone, though her right had been reduced to one thumb and a strip around her wrist, both boots were completely gone, while her pink under armor was little more than tatters having more in common with netting as her blood-stained fur poked through the strips. Lightning danced across the sky behind her and he couldn't help but consider her menacing.
She scoffed a curse as she smirked down at him. "SHIT. I WAS HOPIN' THAT WOULDA KILLED YA," she said, her voice still low. "WOULDA MADE THIS A LITTLE EASIER."
Frieza narrowed his gaze into a glare. "Trash,' he seethed. "Why must you persist in y-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Seripa roared with sudden vigor that it actually stunned the tyrant. "STOP ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS WITH OBVIOUS ANSWERS. HOW THE HELL ARE YOU SO DENSE THAT YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY WE'RE FIGHTING?!"
Frieza bristled at her words, his blood boiling. "How DARE you speak to me that way!"
Seripa scoffed again. "YOU'RE A MORON," she spat in contempt, her massive hands balling into fists at her sides.
Frieza's own fists clenched at her words, his eyes narrowing to murderous slits. The insolence continued to mount and it was far past pushing him over the edge. He summoned as much power as he could in a sudden massive charge, his muscles bulging in a rush; the ground cratering into a perfect concave an instant before his aura alit with such force that the ground exploded into a hail of debris. He lunged towards the Saiyan as a black and red blur, his voice screeching an angry protest into the now howling wind.
Seripa spun around with surprising agility to whip her tail towards him in the same instant he lunged, sending him skipping like a stone across the ground. He pushed off in mid-roll and was instantly streaking up and around towards her unguarded face. Her eerily empty eyes all-too easily tracked his movements he only barely noticed as he was diving in to attack. He noticed just as she ducked under him and he was clapped between her lightning quick hands, the shockwave rocking through him and threatening to shatter his bones. His world was spinning all around him as his brain trembled in his skull, nausea (a rather unfamiliar sensation he was only vaguely aware of thinking) sweeping through him as he was suddenly, and so distantly, abruptly jarred.
Swirling gold came into his spinning field of vision and his senses began to clear. He realized he was on his back and Seripa was towering over him, sneering down at his prone form.
"SO THIS IS HOW IT ENDS, FRIEZA." She chuckled as she lifted a massive foot. She was going to try and crush him like an insect.
"No…" he heard himself whispering as his spinning world finally settled still. He was NOT going to die. He refused to be killed by a Saiyan! He smirked as his gaze found the glowing orb hanging above them.
He threw both arms up and fired a blast just as Seripa stomped down on him. The blast tore through the bottom of her foot exploding from her kneecap in a spray of blood and flashing up into the night sky as her foot crashed down on top of him.
But his aim had been true in more ways than one as her leg gave out immediately and she howled in pain as she collapsed, some of the force of the blow negated from her injury-though Frieza was still viciously flattened into the earth nonetheless, but he was spared what might have been a killing blow,-while the moon exploded an instant after Seripa hit the ground in a thunderous crash.
Frieza just lay there for a while after the bright flash had faded to reveal what resembled more of a glowing asteroid field in the space the moon had once occupied. His body hurt so much it practically refused to move and he was more than glad to oblige in its current disloyalty. He'd never wanted a healing tank so bad before in his life. He actually thought Seripa might've broken a few of his bones with her last strike, even if he had survived it.
It felt like an eternity before he was finally able to summon the strength, or the will, to pull himself from his earthen casing and climb wearily to his feet. He gave himself a once over and noted the bruises and gashes adorning his usually pristine form. He made a noise of disgust and staggered towards the edge of the indention he found himself in and felt further disgusted as he actually climbed out of it on his hands and knees. He spat a wad of blood as he straightened up, letting out a steadying breath as he angled his tail behind him for better balance. He eyed the bloody mess on the ground and lifted a hand to wiped any excess traces from his lips. Looking at his hand he was even more disgusted to find he was practically vomiting blood.
He spat again and looked up, searching for the contemptuous Saiyan. He scowled in disdain as his gaze fell on Seripa, no longer an Oozaru nor a Super Saiyan, on bended knee and clutching her other limp leg tightly at the knee. She was looking right at him. He stalked slowly towards her, his legs unsteady beneath him with each step he took. He paused when he was only a few paces from where she remained, her dark gaze locked unblinking on him.
"So this is how it ends, Saiyan," he seethed mockingly. "I will admit you had me fearing for my life there in the end. I actually thought I would die." He flashed her a sinister smirk. He was going to enjoy these final moments after everything her and and her friends had put him through. "However, Lord Frieza can never lose to flea-infested vermin like Saiyans. It is simply not allowed in my universe."
Seripa, surprisingly, smiled in response. "This ain't over until one of us is dead. You know that," she spoke quietly and weakly, but with a steeliness that Frieza couldn't help but to be unnerved by.
Despite himself he scoffed, forcing his voice into a ridiculing tone, "Are you being serious right now? What hope do you possibly have at this moment?"
"None," she admitted with a small shrug, followed by a wince as the movement jarred her knee uncomfortably. A pool of blood was gathering beneath her he noticed for the first time. "But your power has dropped." She suddenly hacked and spat a wad of blood and saliva to the ground. She grinned, flashing blood-stained teeth at him as she met his gaze. "Besides...can your body handle generating the power needed to kill me?"
Could he?
He quickly forced that thought away and snarled a scowl. "Do not question my power, insolent filth." He extended his index finger at his side and the tip shone with a flickering purple radiance.
Seripa's violet eyes flashed and were instantly green, her dark hair spiking up but staying black. The ground cratered beneath her as gold and alabaster flickers of light flashed all around her, crackling with sheer intensity. She lifted one hand from her knee and it was suddenly enshrouded in a milky radiance, her energy popping with an electric quality.
He barely stopped himself from stepping back as he recognized the attack as similar to the one the older female had used against him.
She clearly noticed his apprehension because she actually laughed. "Seluri left an impression. But this attack ain't hers. It's just modeled around it," she finished with another bloody grin.
Frieza glowered at her as she stared at him with a disturbing intensity. He had no way of knowing just how much power she had behind that attack, but he could say that she didn't seem anywhere near to her Super Saiyan power since she didn't seem able to fully transform anymore. She had to have been drained down considerably more than she'd let on after emerging from the crater. He met her gaze watching for any sign of her next motion, but she was unreadable.
Neither of them made a movement as their energies crackled, the wind roaring around them as the clouds finally slid into position overhead, their arrival more than likely sped by the clashing powers supercharging the atmosphere. Without the moonlight the battlefield had been cast into darkness alleviated only just by starlight and the light reflecting off the dusty remnants of the moon. It was a darkness that their glowing energies seemed to cut through with the primordial inevitability of their brief existences. As if the darkness symbolized the end of all things, while their flickering attacks represented their own personal struggles through life. Rain drops began to pelt the ground around them.
"...CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY WE'RE FIGHTING?!"
He'd been fighting up until now to squash annoying pests that stood before him and his rightful place as ruler of the universe. Until this moment he'd never known what it meant to fight for his life. But here and now, with his energy marginally drained and his body weakened from combat and unable to draw upon what remained of his full power, he felt as close to weakness as he'd ever felt before. Almost like a blow to the gut he realized he was now fighting for his life for the first time.
As Frieza brought his arm up, his thoughts growing sluggish as reflex took hold and he fired his Death Beam, he understood what Seripa had meant. In that brief nanosecond of his attack beginning to flash towards the Saiyan, he saw himself in Seripa's place and he understood what she had said without saying. Fighting for his life for the first time and he was painfully aware that his first could also realistically be his last.
Seripa's hair was golden in a flash and her body enshrouded in an alabaster and gold aura as she thrust her own attack forward as a dancing bolt of milky electricity, faster than he could track or react to, her mouth wide open in a defiant scream drowned out by the electric screech of her attack.
He didn't want to die.
He was going to die.
His attack tore into her chest and threw her violently to her back just as hers burned through his midsection and clear through his spine, his legs immediately buckling lifelessly beneath him before he had even felt the pain.
He gaped up into the dark sky as the shock began to fade and the pain set in, the rain now coming down on him in sheets.
He didn't want to die, and neither did they.
DBZ
