Chapter 18: I Am

I'd forgotten to mention this last chapter, but we've past 100 reviews and 15,000 views (as of writing this, 115 reviews, 16,837 views, and this was written several days before I uploaded this so it'll be quite a bit higher by now), so...thanks, guys! We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

Raditz had no idea what was happening to himself. The rage inside was boiling over, manifesting as storm-clouds, bolts of lightning, and chunks of rock breaking off out of the ground and floating around him. And with it...he felt some new kind of power, unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. It was like an unbearable heat inside of him, roaring to be let out. "Hhh...haaagh..." he was beyond words now. One thought dominated his mind, drowning everything out: Cooler must die.

But then...it seemed like it was starting to fade. The heat, the power began to recede. It was rejecting him. He wasn't the one. It should have been Kakarot! Rational thought began to flood back in, and with it, fear. I...I can't do this! That was the power of the Super Saiyan...but I wasn't chosen. I've failed. Father...mother...Kakarot...Vegeta...I've failed you all. Cooler was only holding back out of confusion. He'd come to his senses soon, and Raditz would die. Vegeta would soon follow, and the saiyan race would finally be extinguished. Raditz fell to his knees, despairing. Convinced he was about to die, half-mad with fear he thought he heard a voice—Bardock's. F...Father?

"What is this?"

Father! I'm...sorry...I can't do it. It's too much...

"What are you saying?" Bardock's voice grew stern. "Failing me again, are you? Just like always. You've let me down, son. As strong as you've become, in the grand scheme of things—to a being like this—you're still just the same old weak trash the other kids used to kick around for fun."

No! This isn't like that! Nobody could win this battle!

"Kakarot could. If he was still alive, he'd harness this power. Vegeta too. They're talented enough. You don't think I would?" Bardock's voice began to fade. "Such a cruel trick of fate...the only one of us to even come close to accessing the power of the Super Saiyan is the one little coward who can't handle it."

Wait! The hallucination, if that's what it was, ended. Don't leave me, father! I can't bear this alone!

But wasn't Bardock right? He'd always been a failure. No matter what heights he climbed to, there was always someone better. Nappa. Vegeta. Kakarot. Frieza. Cooler. He'd never amounted to anything, and he never would. Raditz closed his eyes, and waited for the end.

No.

His eyes snapped open. Where had that come from? It was...his own voice.

Get up! Fight! It was his voice, but distorted, twisted as if some kind of savage animal was trying to mimic his words. It rose, with a grim determination, from the deepest part of his mind—the inner drive that lived at the very core of every true warrior. The one thing that remained when nothing was left, that made them fight to the end. That would drive them to attack an opponent they knew they couldn't beat. For the sake of their family—or for the sake of the battle itself. I...can! I have to! Bardock died fighting Frieza...his kind, they've taken our home, enslaved the remnants...killed countless innocents for no reason at all...my own brother...they have to pay for what they've done! Starting with him. If the power wouldn't accept him, he'd make it. Mentally, he grabbed hold of the receding anger and pulled it to the surface, forcing it every step of the way. It resisted. It hadn't chosen this one. But he didn't care. He made it his own. The heat surged back into his body, and this time a flash of gold ran through his hair. Cooler took a step back instinctively, and that moment—Cooler flinching away in fear, Raditz standing out, enveloped in his inner light, framed against the blackened sky—would forever remain locked in Raditz's memory. But not quite as vividly as what followed. "Rrr..." It was building.

Cracks spread from Raditz's feet, all the nearby grass withering and dying in seconds, crumbling to ash before the rising heat. Larger rocks began to float into the air, rising around Raditz, until they hung over his head, then shattered from the shockwaves pouring out of him and fell to the ground as dust. "Hrr...rrrgh...haaah...huh..." Another golden flash, and he seemed to struggle to lift his head, glaring at Cooler, who stood immobilised, uncomprehending. Thunder struck again, as Raditz's body shook with building tension. The scene was playing over and over in his mind. Cooler just waved his hand, and Goku died. Like it was nothing. "Grrr...hhh...AAAAAAHH!"

Golden light exploded outwards, lighting up the unnatural night and hurling back the clouds. Raditz's scream lasted a full second. There had been many screams during the battle on planet Namek. Some screams of pain, some caused by the effort of powering up or shifting into another biological form. This, though, was pure anguish, and hatred. The light dimmed to a bearable level, and Cooler gasped—Raditz had been transformed. A bright glow enveloped his body. His hair had become golden, standing on end and shining brightest of all. His eyes had lost the pupil-iris distinction, and the centre was a pure dot of piercing blue. Raditz stood silently for a moment, taking in the change.

What is this? What does it mean? Cooler wondered. Saiyans transform into giant apes—in fact, this one's lost his tail, he can't even do that. So what the hell is going on? "Hey, saiyan! What is this? What did you do?" Raditz gave no reply. Thinks he can ignore me? Well, I'll just take out one of his knees, and see if he get any more talkative. Cooler pointed a finger, and shot out a purple beam much like Frieza's attack. However, Raditz batted it away with a casual swing of his hand, without even turning to look at it. "W-what...?"

Raditz was still looking at the patch of ground where Goku had been, minutes before. He's been...completely destroyed, his blood isn't left to honour him with. He tore a strip of cloth from his trouser leg, pressing it to a bleeding cut on his arm from his earlier attack on Cooler. But again—like with Bardock—his blood is mine. The red soaked through, staining the dark blue cloth, and he tied it around his head—another band, another memory. Three now. How many more? He asked himself.

Slowly, deliberately, Raditz's head turned. His ice-cold gaze pierced right through Cooler, who shivered, taking instinctive steps backwards. Raditz flickered, and instantly appeared in front of the terrified frost demon. "No more, Cooler."

"Uh..."

"No more of you and your kind. I've had ENOUGH!" He grabbed Cooler one-handed by the head, and slammed him face-first into the ground. Cooler cried out, spitting blood, but Raditz wasn't finished. He took off at high speed, dragging Cooler's face along the ground, sharp rocks buckling and tearing at his skin. When they reached open water, Raditz let go, letting Cooler hurtle away and crash to the ground on the other side of the lake. Raditz floated down to the planet's surface, walking slowly towards his enemy. Cooler struggled to stand, turning to face the enraged saiyan. "Grr...damn monkey—I'll show you your place!" Cooler threw a punch at full strength, and Raditz moved to the side at the last moment, swinging one hand down towards Cooler's upper arm and the other up towards his forearm, wrenching the limb painfully, and following up by backhanding Cooler to the ground again.

Cooler flew up into the air, breathing heavily. "What is happening?!" he shrieked, firing a barrage of purple beams. Raditz just concentrated, the beams bouncing off his invisible shield of ki. "What do you want from me, saiyan?" Cooler called. "Surrender? To admit I can't win against...whatever you are now?"

"No." Raditz narrowed his eyes. "I want you to bleed. I want you to suffer. And I want you to die."

"But...I..." Cooler clenched his fists. "Not a chance! Take this!" He focused his mental energies, bringing his psychic powers to bear and lifting slabs of rock the size of buildings out of the ground, bringing them in a loose orbit around his body. "All right, big guy, just try and dodge this one!" He threw the boulders with all his mental might simultaneously at Raditz, who stood still until the last second, then rocketed forwards, smashing through the rocks one by one, darting back and forth to make sure he destroyed them all, coming to a halt inches away from Cooler's face. "Eyaaah!" Cooler howled in impotent fury as he flung a barrage of punches and kicks in desperation, none of them finding their mark. Raditz only had to move the slightest fraction right or left, but he'd always dodge in time. Finally, he counterattacked, his fist connecting with Cooler's face and sending him tumbling back and away through the air.

Cooler righted himself, wiping blood away from his eyes and feeling the scratches on his face. "You...hurt me! In my true form! Nobody outside my family has ever..." his fear was building. "You're no saiyan. You can't be! They never amounted to anything! What...what are you?!"

Raditz's expression never lightened. He didn't taunt, or laugh at his opponent's relative weakness. He just glared. Like all the anger in the universe was bottled up behind those terrible, cold eyes. "I am the answer to people like you, Cooler. I am the fire in every warrior's heart. I am release for all the dead souls who cry out for vengeance. I am the avenger! I am your end!" He frowned. "In case that's too big a concept for your brain, let me make it simple for you." He flared up his aura, the force of his ki throwing Cooler back. "I AM THE SUPER SAIYAN!"

"Raditz is this...Super Saiyan, then?" Krillin scratched his head. "That's good, I guess. But, uh, King Kai, I can't help wondering—is he on our side, or what?"

"I'm not sure," King Kai responded. "He's so filled with anger...it's impossible to tell what he'll do after this battle. He could be a saviour, or a destroyer. Hope of the universe...or bringer of death?"

"Come on! Get to the ship Goku and Raditz arrived in, and hurry!" Tien was telling the others. The battle was taking place several miles away, and they were fleeing for their lives, Tien clenching his teeth and holding his broken arm as still as possible.

"But...what happened?" Bulma asked. "Are you sure Goku died?!"

Tien nodded. "Come on, the others are already ahead. Something...happened to Raditz. I don't know what. When Cooler killed Goku, he just...snapped. And his power is enormous. We'd better get off this planet while we can."

"But, what about what we decided before—about how we can't leave with a battle like this going on!" Bulma protested.

"We'll just have to take our chances! Come on, we're dead if we stay here!"

"No...It can't be true..." Cooler hadn't believed the stories. Who had? It was just an old legend. But seeing this golden warrior here, now...what else was there to believe? "Wait—" Cooler was cut off by Raditz's foot in his stomach, driving the breath from his body. Raditz spun around, driving an uppercut into Cooler's chin and downing him again. Cooler forced himself to keep getting up. If he could just get an opportunity... "Hey! Super Saiyan!"

"Hm?" Raditz was about to launch his next attack, but paused to hear this.

"You surely don't want to fight me in this weak form, do you?"

"Weak?" Raditz folded his arms. "That's your true form. I know that. This is your full power, and frankly, it's not much to boast about."

Cooler let the remark slide—he didn't want to provoke the saiyan. "My true form, perhaps...but not my final form!"

"Do what you will." Raditz didn't make a move to attack. "I'll fight you at full power, and I'll break you."

"Very well." Cooler initiated his transformation to his fifth form, this time not standing on ceremony or showing off—it took him less than five seconds to change into his much larger fifth form. His spikes gleamed, his eyes blazed and behind his organic mask, Cooler grinned. "All right, monkey, are you ready for round two?" he growled.

"Well, if you don't stop talking and attack in the next few seconds, I will," Raditz replied, not even mentioning Cooler's transformation.

"You...you're not impressed by my final form?"

"What, this is really your full power?" Raditz eyed Cooler, weighing him up in his mind. "Is that all?"

"Is this all? Is this all? You..." Cooler trembled with rage. "How dare you!" He charged up at Raditz, and they struck simultaneously, Raditz's foot catching Cooler in the head as Cooler's fist smashed into Raditz's side.

They fell away from each other, catching themselves in mid-air and preparing to continue fighting. For the first time in quite a while, Raditz smiled. "That's more like it," he said. "Show me what you're really made of!" They sped off, battling back and forth, plowing through hills and lakes like they weren't there. Each blow resonated throughout the whole planet—even the battle between the frost demon brothers hadn't been this intense. Raditz leapt up out of the ocean, Cooler following him. Cooler swung his tail in a surprise attack from the side, but Raditz ducked under it, leaping back into the fight, and they continued to trade lightning-fast attacks, neither gaining a clear upper hand.

Cooler had, perhaps, a slight edge in physical strength—he took a minor, glancing hit to his armoured shoulder, and threw a devastating punch that knocked Raditz to the ground. He followed up with a thick purple energy wave fired from each hand. Raditz jumped to his feet and dodged one, but the other hit him in the back, making him stagger away. Cooler tried to press his advantage, but Raditz spun around, lashing out. Cooler caught his attacking leg and fired another energy blast at point-blank range, making Raditz cry out in pain and tearing a ragged hole in his shirt. Raditz flexed his aura, pushing outwards with his ki and forcing Cooler to let go. Raditz charged after him, driving his fist between two armour plates. Cooler grunted with pain, but quickly recovered and the fast-paced combat resumed.

The fight was dragging on; the individuality of each strike was lost, and they merged in the fighters' minds into one great struggle, an unrelenting clash of wills. They broke off and fired quick blasts at each other, the gold and purple beams meeting in the middle and detonating. Cooler rushed through the smoke, renewing his attack with incredible force, driving Raditz back. A double fist to the back knocked Raditz out of the air, forming a crater as he landed and stood back up. "Well, what do you think?" Cooler asked, as Raditz rubbed a slowly-forming bruise on his shoulder where he'd taken several hits. "Are you impressed yet?"

"Is that it?" Raditz glared straight up at Cooler. "Is that the legendary full power of the feared ruler of the universe? You can't even crush one monkey! Come on!" He soared up and slammed his body into Cooler, knocking the frost demon away. He pursued his opponent, but Cooler spun around, dodging his charge, and elbowed him in the head. Raditz didn't stop to let himself feel the pain, launching himself back towards Cooler and punching him straight in the chest, injuring his hand but cracking the armour plates. Cooler seized the Super Saiyan by the shoulders and slammed him down to the ground, through an empty Namekian house. Cooler picked Raditz up and threw him away, the golden warrior crashing into a cliff face and sliding down to the rocky floor below. Raditz heaved himself up onto his hands and knees, bleeding from dozens of small cuts all over his body.

"Have you had enough now?!" Cooler roared. "Or are you still acting tough, pretending I'm not winning?" He charged forwards again, and before Raditz could react started raining down blows onto the saiyan's back and shoulders, using his height to his advantage. After a few seconds of this, Raditz straightened up and took hold of Cooler's wrists in one sudden movement. His eyes blazed. "That's not enough, Cooler! Try harder! Go on, attack me! That's not nearly enough!" Cooler smashed a fist into Raditz's face, twisting and kicking him right through the cliff behind him. Raditz backflipped, landing on his feet, and demolished the cliff with a wave of his hand. "Come on!" He yelled. "FIGHT ME!" They ran at each other, and the battle rejoined.

Well, this chapter was originally way, way longer, but I split it in two, because it did actually make two decent length chapters. So the battle between Raditz and Cooler will conclude next chapter.

I got carried away writing, so chapter 19 is already written! I'll post it sometime tomorrow (Monday). There will also be a Wednesday update as usual.

And just in case you were wondering about power levels (I know some people don't really like them, but some have been asking for them):

Raditz: 3,000,000

Raditz (Super Saiyan): 150,000,000

Cooler: 80,000,000

Cooler (final form): 160,000,000

Yup. Remember in DBZ when Goku had quite a significant advantage over Frieza? Hahaha, no.

Q: Goku dying and Raditz becoming a Super Saiyan is a very nice touch, I'm looking forward to his battle against Cooler and the best part is, I don't know if he is strong enough to defeat Cooler. I'm also looking towards Goku and Vegeta becoming Super Saiyan's, it will be interesting on how you do this.

A: Yeah, I like the fact that this battle will be a bit more difficult, if Cooler's final form was 'only' about 120-130 million, you'd know Raditz would win and it would play out just like the Goku/Frieza fight. Well, you can probably guess from the tone of the story so far it isn't going to end unhappily, but I hope it at least gives some people some concern about the battle, rather than just 'meh, it's already won'.

Q: So Raditz became the Super Saiyan...I could see Gohan going Super Saiyan as well with the same trigger but Gohan would probably need more than just that like the death of 'Uncle' Raditz which adds yet another question, What is the relationship like between Gohan and Raditz? And did you really just kill Zarbon and Dende off or was Cooler just bluffing? Also it seems based on the Q/A's making Zarbon a 'good guy' seems like a good idea or at least try to write him since if it doesn't work out you could always kill him off later but hey your the writer and I know what its like to feel pressured to do something in a story cause I have it happen to me as well.

A: Zarbon and Dende are dead, yes. The relationship between Gohan and Raditz? Not much of one, and usually on similar lines to the conversations I've written between them—Gohan tries to start talking about something, Raditz ignores him or tells him to be quiet.

Q: Holy damn! I can say for a fact that I did NOT see that coming. I fully expected Raditz to be slaughtered and that would be the final push for Goku to transform. I think this chapter did an excellent job of misleading the audience, namely me, into thinking that Goku would transform. but I think that detracted a bit from Raditz's transformation. I feel like that there was so much insight into Goku's thoughts that we never really entirely understand Raditz's despair. A nice touch imho would have been describing Raditz's turmoil and him recalling how his fellow saiyans mocked him for being weak and how he needed to be strong, for the sake of this planet and his friends/family. Other than that, excellent work!

A: So what did you think of the beginning of this chapter? Also, good to know I led some people to believe it was going to be Goku…that was what I was hoping for.

Q: Raditz the Super Saiyan? I would not have expected that. Vegeta is gonna be pissed. My only thing about this chapter is I wish there was a tad more detail to Goku's death. Just a tad more.

A: Sorry about that. And as for Vegeta, yes. He is.

Q: Dun-dun-dun! Raditz is the one who received the all time power! Unexpected, yet expected at the same time. Who would've expected that?
Something that I found kind of weird though was that a section of this chapter was: Goku is the greatest. While I think the guy is awesome, it was kind of stale having everybody rely on him so much, and him getting all the power and fights. Though these were all within reason, but I just hope this doesn't happen again.

A: Yeah, I was only doing that to subvert it at the end with it being Raditz after all.

Q: About Nail: In canon!DBZ it seemed Nail's influence tied Piccolo closer to Dende, who was also friends with Gohan. Well in your BTL!DBZ Piccolo has no such attachment and Nail isn't a plot device powerup. I could see him following little green to earth, if Kami vacates his position as guardian. Nail may not be a super Namek but if he goes through the year long training that BTL!Tien and canon!Goku did... and with another green alien... he would be well suited to defend his next home planet. Unless meta-frieza comes a knocking...

Still about Zarbon: That wish was nicely worded. It seems he has the PL of his base (23,000) form... combined with the PL of his beast (30,000) form making him conveniently 10% of Freiza's weakest (530,000) form and stronger than the warrior Namek. I wonder if BTL!Zarbon has ever trained in 10Gs...

Still about Frieza, sorta: I really like how you worked his brother into your fanon!DBZ. It is my hope that you similarly do so with other movie cast as you see reasonable.

A: About Nail, he'll be around for a while. About Zarbon, I don't know what the gravity of his home planet is, suffice to say he probably comes from a very powerful species, and on top of that is probably their best...And about movie characters, yes, as I see reasonable. You may already be able to tell that movies 1-4 haven't been able to fit in to this timeline, but movie 5 characters have...and the rest may or may not be in there.

Q: great chapter once again.
so freeza's 4th form calm is 100,000,000 and cooler 80,000,000
in dbz canon frieza 100% was 120,000,000 so what would cooler be 90 or 95,000,000 ?

it's an interesting development to see what would have happened if goku faced frieza earlier then he did in dbz.

A: Well, yes, Frieza at full power is 120,000,000. Cooler is much better at controlling his fourth form, so his full 80,000,000 is available to him all the time. However, his fifth form is twice that—160,000,000. Also, in DBZ, Goku was at about 90,000 earlier, possibly up to 900,000 with Kaioken, so it wouldn't have been exactly the same as the fight in Break Through the Limit.

Q: Wow. Goku's death really spun me for a loop. I was NOT expecting that at all. With the way the narrative was going, it seemed like Cooler was going to kill everyone else at first. Ironic how Raditz and Vegeta seemed so dead-set on Goku being the Super Saiyan only for him to die such an impersonal death at Cooler's hands. Great story-telling on that front.

Although I am curious as to where Vegeta scampered off to. To train more in higher gravity, perhaps? Such a retreat by Vegeta seems uncharacteristic unless he had very specific reasons to further his own goals.

A: Good to know I got that element of surprise. And as for Vegeta, chapter 19 should be informative.

Q: Nice to see that Zarbon is changing for the better, mostly. He's starting to value others but he still won't throw himself into the fray in a hopeless distraction. He could just be acting realistic in the fact that Cooler would (and does) crumple him like an aluminum can, but it's probably just remnants of Villain cowardice. Along with everyone else, I do hope that he comes back. With both Raditz becoming a Super Saiyan and Cooler holding power yet un-tapped, I really can't tell how this will end. It's just amazing really. :)

A: Why thank you. I did enjoy writing a battle in which neither fighter was dominating the other, but it was still a bit of an uphill struggle for the hero, to preserve drama and all that.

Q: Q; how will the story be affected if raditz becomes the super sayain

A: Er…that's pretty much what the next few chapters are about…

Q: Super Saiyan? Raditz?! Oh, what I would give to see the looks on Vegeta and Ghost Nappa's faces right now.

A: Yup. Of course, think of it this way-Vegeta leaves Namek thinking Goku is the Super Saiyan. He'll later hear reports of this battle just talking about 'a Super Saiyan' or 'a golden warrior'. Perhaps he'll sense an enormous, angry power level as he leaves. He won't necessarily know it's Raditz.

Vegeta: *reads Q&A* Wait, what did you say? It's Raditz? What the hell?!