The Veil

Chapter Zero: Versus of Blood

"There she is - straight ahead," Piccolo said to him over the rushing wind of their low altitude flight.

Goku narrowed his eyes as he focused on the upcoming grassy terrain below and locked onto the woman who had killed his martial arts sensei. The sight of her sun bathing on the hood of an empty pickup truck while a farmer, who most likely owned said truck, lay dead on the ground nearby just pissed him off even more.

How dare she call herself his sister! Who in their right mind could justify murdering innocents and be so casual about it? It didn't matter that she was stronger than him. One way or another, he was going to take her down.

"Listen, Goku. Before we land, we need a plan," Piccolo started. "When I ran into her before I-"

"There's no need for that," Goku said, cutting his unlikely ally off. "I'm pretty sure I already know how we can beat her. Or, at least, weaken her to the point we can overpower her. I just need your help getting in close."

"To do what?" Piccolo asked, with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"To grab her tail," Goku replied. "It's a weakness - a huge one, too. I used to get hit with paralyzing pain when someone would yank on mine before I managed to train up my tolerance. So, if we get hers, she'll become defenseless."

"That's a stupid idea, Goku. If it's such a big weakness, don't you think she would've trained herself to eliminate it as well?"

"Oh... darn it." He honestly hadn't considered that. "But isn't there still a chance that she didn't?"

"Of course there is!" Piccolo snapped. "But we don't have the luxury of taking the chance when the world is on the line! We need to make sure moves. Now, as I was saying before, I noticed that she relies on that machine on her face to track her opponents and measure their power so it's a safe bet that she can't sense things like we can. What we do is either blast it off of her face or snatch it off by hand - whichever is easier. Then we can take turns distracting her while the other charges our strongest attacks undetected. She'll be hit unprepared if we do this right."

"Okay, we'll try it your way first," Goku agreed.

Only seconds later, Goku's feet touched grassy earth with Piccolo right beside him.

His so-called sister was already standing in wait with arms crossed over her armored chest. At nearly the same height as himself, she stood statuesque and intimidating. Her arms and legs, left bare of armor, were sleek and chiseled. There was no doubt in his mind that she had the ability to back up the threats she had made.

"It's still a bit early, don't you think?" Raditz said, staring him down from where she stood. She reached up and pressed a button on the bottom of the device strapped to the side of her head. It started beeping as light scrolled across the eyepiece.

"Yeah, well, I was never gonna do what you asked anyway so I figured why should I wait?" Goku replied as he began pulling off his weighted gi top, wrist bands, and boots. They landed in the dirt with a solid thud where he tossed them and created a significant sinkhole in the earth.

He noticed Piccolo shed his cape and turban as well.

"What's this?" Raditz said with a bit of genuine surprise in her voice as the machine she wore increased the pitch with which it was beeping. "Your power levels just increased to nearly double what they were before! How did you do that?"

Goku shook out the tension from his muscles before snapping into a low offensive stance. "Weighted clothing," he answered. "Apparently Piccolo had the same idea."

"You're not the only one who's been training, Goku," the green man replied with a smirk.

Raditz immediately recollected herself before directing a condescending laugh at them. "Don't get cocky, fellas. I'm still stronger than both of you combined. This just makes things that much more entertaining. Come at me and I'll show you just why you should've obeyed my orders."

That was as good a signal as any, in Goku's opinion, so he launched into a sprint straight at her while sensing Piccolo do the same.

Raditz caught his and Piccolo's fists in each of her hands before quickly switching her grip to their wrists and clamping down on them painfully. She laughed heartily as she dragged them into a high speed whirlwind of a spin which sent them sprawling when she let go.

Goku stretched out with his ki and caught himself with a midair burst a split second before he saw Piccolo pull the same move. He was just in time to see Raditz grab the green man by his antennae before slamming her knee into his face once, then twice, and finally slam his head down with a double fisted blow to the top of his skull.

All that was within one blink of his eyes.

Maintaining his ki fueled levitation, Goku quickly cupped his hands to his side and began chanting. "Ka...me...ha...me..."

Raditz turned her head and locked eyes with him.

"HAAAA!" Goku shouted, thrusting his hands forward and pushing the shimmering blue wave of ki at the woman.

Said woman cocked an eyebrow and leveled a smirk his way before flickering out of sight by way of pure speed. Goku felt her ki reappear behind him but he was too slow to dodge the boot that kicked into his lower back and sent him plummeting back to solid ground.

He instinctively rolled into his forced landing, doing a cartwheel and a series of flips to spend all of the extra momentum his opponent had loaded him with. His bare feet dug small trenches in the soft earth as he skidded the last few feet to a halt.

When he snapped his gaze back into the air above, she was trading speedy blows with Piccolo - although it was obvious she was toying with him.

Luckily, though she had dodged his kamehameha wave, he had managed to maintain a focused connection with it. He was now willing it to change course and loop back around for a final pass. He hoped she didn't get bored with Piccolo before it had a chance to land a hit.

"Masenko!" Goku's former nemesis yelled with a distinctive frustration when he launched the beam at point blank.

Raditz caught Piccolo's energy in her hands, briefly halting its advancement, before kicking it skyward where it exploded against Goku's kamehameha.

'Damn it!' Goku cursed, internally. 'Piccolo wasn't kidding about that thing on her face. It must've let her know about my incoming attack. I gotta do something about that.'

"You two are a pair of fools if you think you have a chance of catching me off guard!" Raditz said, howling with laughter.

Goku watched her grab Piccolo by the collar of his purple gi, while he floated in a moment of hesitation, and head-butt him once before tossing him back to earth. He felt himself begin to tremble with anger as he watched the green man fall while his nose trailed blood.

Without another thought, he leapt into the air to rush her.

He knew she was quick, so he expected it when she side-stepped him. His observations had also proven correct when she dodged to the right. She was unprepared for his outstretched left leg when it landed a solid blow to her unarmored left knee. He knew he had made her hurt when he heard her sharp intake of breath and saw a wince briefly dance across her face.

Taking advantage of a favorable situation was one of the first lessons his grandpa Gohan had taught him and one that Master Roshi had drilled into he and Krillin many years later. So, like the continuos flow of a river, he fluidly transitioned into his follow up by grappling the leg he had tagged and applying pressure to add emphasis to the pain he had caused her.

She growled and thrust her leg in an attempt to kick him off before swinging a fist down at his face.

Goku was often made fun of for being what some called a 'wild man' or a 'savage' just because he grew up in the woods. It wasn't his fault that he lacked certain manners or failed to demonstrate behaviors that would be found widely acceptable by people who were raised as part of the greater populous. He would even agree with some of their remarks. So, when he bit down on Raditz' incoming fist as a counter move, it was a totally natural and instinctive reaction.

"Aaaaaahhhhh!" she cried in pain, as she instantly switched to pulling her punch. He didn't let up, however.

"Phicco-oh! Geh pha phing off huh faysh!" he yelled around the fist in his mouth.

Piccolo got the message and darted in to snatch the device off of Raditz' head and fling it away with all his strength.

"Heh heh heh," Goku laughed before spitting out her hand. His laughter was cut off when she used her uninjured hand to detonate a palm blast against his face. The small explosion made his head swim and his ears rings so bad that he didn't realize he had fallen until he had hit the ground.

Rolling onto his side, Goku got his arms under his body and pushed himself onto his hands and knees. He swayed as his vision came back into focus. He could feel and see the blood dribbling down his nose and chin as it fell to the matted grass below him. His bottom lip was split open and a pretty decent gash on his forehead was beginning to throb something fierce.

Another explosion in the air brought his attention back to the fight.

Piccolo was now using his own version of the multi-form technique to take advantage of Raditz' new handicap. It succeeded in slowing her down, if nothing else. The split was a double edged sword, though. With his power divided like that, he wasn't strong enough to have a chance at hurting their opponent and one good hit from her would hurt him much more than if he had stayed whole.

Gathering himself, Goku climbed to his feet and shook off the lingering dizziness. Now was the perfect time to do it. He spread his feet into a horse stance, cupped his hands at his sides and began a silent chant.

'Ka...me...ha...me...HAAAAAA!'

His signature beam burst forth from the orb of concentrated energy he had gathered when he thrust his hands skyward. It flew in an wide arc as he willed it to flank the woman who was still dealing with Piccolo. He counted down the seconds as it drew near, trusting his green ally to sense it's approach and get clear of her before it hit.

"Gaaaahhh!" Raditz shouted her surprise as Goku's beam struck home.

Piccolo, having executed a timely retreat, rejoined him on the ground as a whole person and, together, they waited with baited breath for the smoke to clear.

Goku was sure Piccolo's senses were telling him the same thing he himself had felt; that Raditz' ki had dropped slightly from taking the direct hit to her back. How much damage it had done was the question, though.

Before the smoke and dust could naturally dissipate, an invisible shockwave blew it away from the woman as she flexed her ki. With that, Goku could see that he had managed to break off the back portion of her armor and left the chest plate with slowly spreading cracks. Other than that, she seemed no worse for the wear.

"You think you've hurt me!?" Raditz shouted down at them. A vein throbbed under the skin on her forehead that had twisted with her scowl. "All you've done is piss me off further!"

The next instant she let loose a war cry to accompany the rapid fire palm blasts that she began to rain down all around them.

Goku split off from the spot he and Piccolo had been standing as he scrambled to escape the area where the blasts were most concentrated. He dove, twisted, and backflipped as he danced around the pillars of light lancing down from above and causing explosions. He was almost clear before he took a glancing hit to his back and felt it leave a searing burn along his flesh.

He bit down through the pain and rolled into a somersault as the concussive force of the resulting explosion propelled him forward. He managed to get his hands in front of him and handspring back onto his feet before launching into a ki boosted sprint away from the danger zone.

The storm of ki blasts ceased a moment later and Goku found cover behind a tree at the edge of the grassy clearing that had just been scorched. He caught his breath as he extended his senses to catch his bearings in relation to everyone else.

A massive cloud of dust, smoke, and ash floated over the battlefield obscuring almost everything. Raditz had put herself at more of a disadvantage than he or Piccolo. It was almost too lucky, he thought.

He grinned when he felt Piccolo's ki moving stealthily away under the smoky cover and sighed a breath of relief when he detected Gohan and Bulma's ki safely out of the way. Raditz remained high above, maintaining her vantage point.

Deciding that now was as good a time as he would likely get to go free the hostages, he darted back into the cloud at his best speed and followed his senses. When he exited the other side of the darkness, Raditz was there to greet him with an arm to clothes line his neck which knocked him flat on his backside. He hadn't even felt her move.

"So predictable, going for the hostages like that," Raditz started as she leaned over him and rested a boot on his bare chest. "Do you take me for a fool, Kakarot?" she asked before adding pressure to the boot.

"Guh!" Goku grunted as her added weight forced the burnt flesh of his back to dig into the ground below him.

"Where is your pride, little brother? Can't you see that these earth people have been holding you back?" Raditz lifted her foot and stomped it back onto his torso, making him scream in pain. "You can scream and cry out all you want - nobody on this planet is strong enough to help you. That's what happens when you ally yourself with weaklings."

"Ughhhhaaahh!" Goku shouted again as she stomped his ribcage.

"We are of the same blood, brother. Give up this foolish resistance and join me. There are bigger things happening in the universe - more than you can possibly imagine. Even if I left you to your own devices on this primitive world, someone else would come along to purge it sooner or later. If you really cared about this planet's pitiful population, you would honor them by fulfilling this mission yourself."

"Guh! Never!" Goku barked through a cough. "I'll... never hurt... my friends!"

Kakarot just didn't know when to quit.

Raditz shook her head in resignation as she summoned a ball of ki in her unbitten hand. He was practically begging to be knocked out and tied up while she got her hands dirty purging the planet for him. She sighed. 'The things I do for stubborn family...'

"So be it, Kakarot," she said. "You leave me no choice."

Before she could deliver the knock out blow, the explosive wind and hum associated with the activating of her ship's engine rushed out of the nearby crater and caught her attention. The small white pod hovered up to ground level with the hatch in its open position. The blue haired woman was somehow controlling it from a handheld touch screen device connected to a bundle of wiring running from her ship's computer.

"You leave my daddy alone!" the little half breed brat shouted from where he stood on the open hatch.

Her nephew was wreathed in his own impressive looking aura as he launched himself at her with speed she couldn't hope to follow. Before she could blink, she had taken an armor shattering blow from the boy and fallen to the ground in a heap.

She gasped audibly when her attempt to recover the wind that had been knocked out of her resulted in a sharp stabbing pain around her chest. She guessed at least one of her ribs had been cracked from that runt's hard head.

"You little... bastard," she wheezed as she rolled onto her side and slowly climbed to her feet. "Really hurt..." she added with a grumble.

"Gohan!" she heard Kakarot shout as she stumbled over to the kid who was busy shaking himself out of a daze.

"Get over here you little punk," she hissed before snatching him up by his tail. Kakarot's child immediately went rigid at the rough contact with his sensitive appendage. "You're either really brave or extremely stupid."

She noticed a growing wet spot form on the boy's pants and took it as her answer.

"Put him down, Raditz!"

She turned her head and saw that Kakarot was back on his feet and hobbling toward her at a slowly increasing pace. "Relax, brother. I'm not in the habit of killing children so, if you stay where you are, maybe I'll be a good girl and let him live."

"Why?" Kakarot asked, remaining where he stood. "Why is it so important for me to join you? You've already proven yourself to be stronger than me, so what use could I possibly be to you? If you have a good enough explanation, I'm willing to listen."

Something about the way Kakarot fidgeted while asking his questions caught her eye. And the fact that he was suddenly being so agreeable was definitely a sign that he was up to something. It didn't matter that she had his boy's life in her hands - it had been that way from the start and he still had chosen to go against her.

"You think you're slick, don't you Kakarot? I know you're planning something. Let me remind you, that I can easily end your brat's life before you even have a chance to-"

The place where her breath had been available to her a moment prior was suddenly and painfully removed as a thin, corkscrew shaped, beam burst through her chest from behind. She watched with wide eyed horror as blood spilled from the wound in the side of her chest while feeling some of it drain into her partially collapsed lung.

She dropped the unharmed child to the ground before collapsing to her knees. Any relief she might have felt at the beam having missed her heart was lost as she began to choke on her own blood pooling into the back of her throat.

"Shi... shit," she muttered before falling forward and struggling to catch herself with her hands. She coughed and hacked up a good sized glob of blood before gasping to fill her one good lung with air.

"Gohan, it's okay. I'm here now," she heard Kakarot say as he approached and scooped his child up into his arms.

"Daddy!" the little boy cried as he buried his face into her brother's chest.

"Goku, hey!"

"Oh, hey, Bulma! That was a neat trick, taking over the pod like that. You sure saved our skin back there. You too, little guy."

"She's scary, daddy!" the boy said pointing a finger at Raditz. "She hurt the funny old man."

"I know, son," Kakarot replied. "It's gonna be okay, though. We can wish him back to life with the dragonballs. You'll get to see us summon Shenron for the first time, too."

"Uh... Goku..."

"That's not gonna happen, Son."

"Whoa, Piccolo, what happened to your arm!?" Kakarot asked the green man who floated to the ground a few paces away.

"It's nothing to worry about," the man called Piccolo replied in his deep voice.

"Uh... if you say so... Wait, what do you mean it's not gonna happen? Are you gonna try and stop us from gathering the dragonballs or something? I thought we were allies now."

"No, Goku, I think what Piccolo is trying to do is remind you that the dragonballs don't have the power to revive someone who has already been wished back once before. I'm sorry... but we won't be able to bring him back..."

"Kuhhhkgahhk!" Raditz hacked another wad of blood onto the ground before attempting to clear her throat enough to speak. "You... it was you... wasn't it, green man?"

"Yes, that's right," he replied a bit smugly. "While you were busy with Goku, I slipped away to charge up my strongest attack. Your brother could sense me and was smart enough to stall you until I was ready. You should've come in peace. Perhaps then you and your brother could've come to some sort of agreement. It was the last mistake you'll ever make."

"Heh-ughuh," she half laughed half coughed, unable to ignore the irony. "Yes... I think that... would've been better... for me and for you. Listen, Kakarot..."

"What is it?" her brother replied guardedly.

"There are two more coming..." she said, struggling as her vision began to swim.

"What?"

She heard the green man start to growl and knew he had made the connection. "Saiyans, Kakarot. There are two more... warriors like me. Both of them... exponentially stronger. My pod over there... as long as it's active, it's constantly running scans of it's surrounding environment... and transmitting data in real time... including your conversation about those wish granting dragonballs. Tell me... do they possess the power to grant immortality? Because... I know of more than one person... who wouldn't stop at killing to have such a wish granted."

"You're kidding, right?" the blue haired woman asked her. "Someone tell me she's kidding."

"Afraid not," the green man replied. "My ears can pick up subtle changes in a person's heart rate so I'd know if she were lying. This is serious."

"That's right," Raditz continued, then paused to hack up more blood. "Take my advice, Kakarot... as one sibling to another. If you don't use these... dragonballs... on yourself, then you'll be killed by my comrades... when they arrive. It took me about a year to get here... when I parted ways with them. I expect you have about as long... to prepare yourself for their arrival."

She barely managed to finish her statement before being overcome with a fit of painfully wet coughs. This was it - she just knew it. Her time had finally come to an end. Her coughs were beginning to grow weaker as less and less air made it into her one functioning lung.

The last thing she heard before she blacked out was her brother's voice as he said something to his friends. He was too far away to make out everything he said, though. 'Kakarot... you idiot.'