Chapter 24: Ceasefire

Yes, this chapter was late. Sorry. I'm still going to update twice a week, but the 'Wednesday' update will now become a 'Wednesday or Thursday' update, okay? That should make sure I'm not late too much in the future.

EDIT: Okay, due to this chapter being late, that'd have a knock-on effect and make the next chapter late, and so on, so no chapter this Sunday, sorry. Back to two updates a week next week (one on Wednesday/Thursday and one on Sunday).

"So let me get this straight." Bulma glared at Zarbon, who had given up pretending to still be asleep. "Everybody else is out there risking their lives to save the planet for the nth time…and you decided to take a nap?!"

"Er…" Zarbon retreated a few inches back under the blanket. "That's one way of looking at it, I guess."

"Get your lazy butt out that door!" She dragged him out of bed and kicked him out the front door, throwing a fresh set of clothes after him. "If you don't like saving the world, you're living with the wrong people!" she called, as he pulled the clothes on and took off, grumbling to himself.

"Damn Earth woman, only reason I like her anyway is—what the hell?!" Zarbon clutched at his head like he'd just been smacked with a hammer. "Where did that giant ki come from?" He hesitated between the mysterious, nefarious alien force and the wrath of Bulma Brief. It was, of course, no contest—he flew straight for the battle. "How I let myself get into these bloody messes, I don't know…"

Kuriza gasped for air as he felt the grip around his neck loosen. He slumped to the floor, his chest heaving. "Hah…Huh…" I'm still alive? How does that work? was the first thought to enter his mind. When he rolled over onto his back, he managed to look up at Goku, whose entire body was pulsing with Super Saiyan power.

"Look what you've…pushed me to!" Goku said, his voice strained as his internal struggle continued. "You should know better…than to mess with forces you don't understand!"

Kuriza trembled. "What—what are you?"

"I'm a Super Saiyan, Kuriza. This is what I warned you about. This power killed Cooler—after he killed Frieza! And when King Cold came here for revenge, he was also killed by a Super Saiyan! Now do you understand…what you're dealing with?!"

"You…weren't lying?" Kuriza asked hesitantly. "Cooler…killed my father?"

Goku nodded. "We didn't start this war against your family. But we will end it." He tightened his fists. "No matter what it takes!" His aura flared up around him, flattening the terrain around him. "So, what will it be, son of Frieza? Are you going to go out like the rest of your kind—blindly attacking a superior force out of arrogance, refusing to believe you can ever lose?" There was no reply for a moment, and something seemed…off about Kuriza to Goku. It took him a few seconds to realise what it was, simply because it seemed so out of place.

Kuriza was crying. The frost demons were the terror of the universe, despots of entire galaxies, destroyers of worlds, and here was one breaking down in tears. There was betrayal behind his sadness—his family had fought itself. His father had been killed by one of their own. And now they were no longer the dominant power in the universe—these saiyans had risen to the top. Even his mighty grandfather had fallen. It was all too much to take in.

That decided it for Goku. This wasn't a tyrant, it wasn't an unfeeling monster. It was a frightened, orphaned child, far from home. Kuriza couldn't be more than his race's equivalent of ten years old, perhaps even younger. The human inside beat the saiyan. Compassion won out. The beast's howls faded from his mind.

So it was that when Zarbon arrived, he was greeted with the strangest sight he'd ever seen—a Super Saiyan, normally a violent, raging figure, was crouching on the ground, cradling a juvenile frost demon in his arms, and whispering, "It's okay. Shhh. It's gonna be okay." The alien ex-soldier was struck silent by the moment. This was different. He'd been expecting a battle. Vengeance. This was…reconciliation. Between these two races, was that possible?

Vegeta blasted through another wall. "Yes, it was faint at first, but it's getting stronger…Frieza's true body is on this ship somewhere! He never learnt to control his ki, and a life force is a life force! I'm coming for you, Frieza!" He sprinted down a corridor, unheeding of the alarms he was setting off—he was too close now. Frieza wouldn't stop him.

The door to the inner chamber exploded inwards. It was a roughly spherical, dimly lit grey area, the pattern of electrical circuits on the wall constantly shifting and changing. Wires of varying lengths hung loosely from the ceiling. Vegeta burst inside, the grin on his face fading when he saw what awaited him at the centre of the room. There stood his goal—the disembodied head of Frieza, sustained by dozens of wires, pieces of circuitry and various life-support functions. However, between the saiyan prince and his enemy stood another Meta-Frieza, gleaming in the dim light.

"Come now," the real Frieza said with a mocking smile, "surely you didn't think I'd leave myself unguarded, did you? Hahahahaha!" As if to illustrate his point, two more Meta-Friezas detached themselves from the shadows, one on either side of Vegeta.

"To be honest, I hadn't really planned this far ahead," Vegeta replied. "I was more or less counting on being caught by your pet army long before now…"

"Ah, Vegeta." Frieza sighed. "A Super Saiyan after all these years, but in his heart…a stupid little monkey to the end."

"RAAAH!" Transforming into a Super Saiyan again, Vegeta's reply came in the form of a hurled yellow energy ball. But before it hit his target, the Meta-Frieza standing guard intercepted it, catching the blast and containing the detonation inside its hand.

Vegeta choked. The speed it must have taken to catch that so nonchalantly…not to mention the strength to emerge without so much as scratched paintwork…!

"Oh, my, my." Frieza chuckled. "Am I scaring you?" The Meta-Friezas on either side of the prince raised one hand, shimmering white energy flickering to life. "Well, this has been an amusing little chat, but I for one am getting bored. Good-bye, Vegeta."

There was a quiet, fluid noise, and Raditz materialised in the middle of the room. "Vegeta!" He yelled, grabbing the other saiyan's arm. "I've only got a few seconds' lead on them!" He turned to Frieza. He's been in here talking to Vegeta… "Say, you've got your army on some sort of 'autopilot', haven't you?" With that, the pair vanished. Frieza's eyes widened, as he realised the implications of what Raditz had just said and done—too late.

Raditz and Vegeta appeared about a mile from the Gete Star, a metre or so above the ground, whereupon they bumped down to ground level, throwing up a small dust cloud. "What…" Vegeta began, but then a loud crash rocked the entire planet. The Gete Star shuddered, seeming to deflate a little. Sparks hissed around its edges, and arcs of electricity shot up and down the machine. Vegeta continued: "What the hell was all that about?"

"Heh heh…" Raditz grinned. "It was pretty obvious that we weren't going to outfight Frieza. But his army seemed to get less intelligent as they continued to chase me around the planet with Instant Transmission."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, they started behaving much more systematically. Like machines set to run on autopilot. I figured out it must have been due to Frieza's preoccupation with you—you'd found him and were keeping him busy somehow. So I reckoned they were programmed just to automatically follow me wherever I teleported to, as Frieza couldn't be bothered to directly control them while dealing with you at the same time."

"I see!" Vegeta stood up, gazing at the Gete Star, which was now belching out smoke. "So they all followed you inside the Gete Star, into Frieza's central chamber…"

Raditz nodded. "Which I could find thanks to your energy signature. The army probably arrived about half a second after we left."

"And there were hundreds of those Meta-Friezas…" Vegeta grinned. "There's no way they could all fit inside there! Which means Frieza is—"

Raditz joined in his smile. "Buried under tons of compacted metal—or maybe one of them even materialised inside of him, blowing him apart from the inside. I can't sense his ki at all anymore."

"Well, I must admit that was a pretty clever idea," Vegeta told the other saiyan. "But frankly, that thing is becoming an eyesore. It's best if there's no trace of it left!" He raised one hand in the direction of the Gete Star, forming a ball of shining energy as he focused his power in front of his palm. "BIG BANG—guh…" The prince of all saiyans toppled wordlessly face-first into the dust. Raditz had struck, relatively gently, at the base of his skull. He was tough—it'd only keep him down for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry, Vegeta. I couldn't let you do that—I can sense a lot of Namekians inside. Which would, at least, explain why I haven't seen any since getting here…hey, King Kai!"

"Uh, wha…oh hey, Raditz! Well done!" King Kai's disembodied voice congratulated him.

"Yeah, sure, thanks. Well, this hasn't taken too long, and I got to kill Frieza, so I'll forgive you for dragging me out of bed this morning. But can you explain the situation to the Nameks? I've got to get Vegeta out of here before he does something I'll regret."

"Right you are," King Kai replied. "With the damage you did to the Gete Star, the security systems will be offline—they'll be able to get out on their own. Well, guess I'll tell them what happened now—ciao!"

"Hmph." Raditz hauled Vegeta over his shoulder, hearing the prince's mumbled half-awake daydreams. I am invincible…Super…Kakarot…Frieza… "Rrgh! What did you eat for breakfast, lead weights?" Raditz complained, before using Instant Transmission and heading off again.

Raditz arrived back on Earth, Vegeta safely deposited on an empty planet (nobody to kill), with a habitable atmosphere, left next to food supplies and a serviceable spaceship (the previous owner had had so many, he probably wouldn't have even noticed it was missing). I'd have loved to continue our fight, Vegeta…but this isn't the time! Neither of us were at full strength, we both had realised there were even higher levels of power we could aspire to climb to, and I really need to be alive and well when these androids arrive. If anything happened to Launch, Goku or all friends because I wasn't there, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

He sensed Goku and a few other fighters over to the west, heading over with normal flight—he'd had quite enough of Instant Transmission for one day. As he approached, he noticed one mysterious power that stood out. It was almost like Frieza's family, but had less of their evil taint. He landed in the middle of a rocky plain, seeing Krillin race past him. "Watch out!" the bald warrior was saying. "They're making a move!" They…? Raditz thought, content to watch for the moment. He was shocked to see Kuriza, back in his first form, sprint between Krillin and himself. Some kind of…miniature Frieza? Kuriza put on an extra burst of speed, and Krillin fell short, his lunge missing by about half a metre as Kuriza sped on. Krillin tossed something to Goku, who slid around a corner and jumped at Kuriza. His hand thrust forward…and tapped Kuriza lightly on the shoulder with the baseball. "Gotcha, Kuriza! You're out!" he said, grinning.

"Huh!" Kuriza folded his arms, marching over to the back of the batting queue. "Next time, I'll use my final form—we'll see if you can catch me then!"

"Well, I could if I became a Super Saiyan again…" Goku responded, his smile widening. The pair laughed. Raditz just stared, speechless. "Uh…Goku…Kuriza…baseball…Super Saiyan?"

Goku rubbed his forehead. "Oh, boy…it's a long story."

To be precise, it took most of an hour to tell, and a similar amount of time for Raditz to recount his experiences on new Namek. Goku's older brother met and shook hands with Kuriza, amazed at the possibility of an innocent frost demon. The baseball game (which had, apparently, been Yamcha's idea) resumed after Raditz left for home-Goku's team won by two points. Much fun was had by all. Except Piccolo—he was in the wasteland, practicing his scowl. And then the fighters had to go home and explain they'd spent all day alternately fighting and playing sports with a junior alien warlord. This was not received well by Chi-Chi in particular.

Kuriza, for his part, had to stay on Earth for a while, at least until he could get a ship built, so he took up residence at Capsule Corp. However, even when Bulma and her father had finished preparing him a ship, he fended his departure off with a string of excuses about the weather, previous appointments, and so on. Eventually they dropped the matter altogether, and built him a permanent room—and that was pretty much that.

Nail and Zarbon discussed this one day. "I guess," Zarbon said, "he's realised what we have—Raditz too. There's something about this planet."

Nail, leaning against a wall, nodded in agreement, sipping from his glass of water (Namekians only drank water for sustenance, but it was still festooned with straw, useless little fake umbrella thing, etc.). "I know. It's just amazingly…diverse, I guess. It's got all these different climates and places. Namek is all the same. Although, personally I'll never get tired of grassy islands…"

"Indeed." Zarbon stretched out on his deckchair, resplendent in floral shirt, camo shorts and sandals—he was constantly making efforts to 'let go of himself' and just relax, but Bulma usually put a stop to it and had him back in shape before long. This was one of those glorious periods before she intervened. "Not to mention the people. Aren't humans just fascinating?"

"I know what you mean." Nail finished his water, setting the glass down. "So many flaws and failings, but overall they still manage to shine. And they always come through when it counts most."

"Plus, I can tell you from first-hand experience that the girls are amazing…ah, but you Nameks don't do that, do you?" Nail looked away, embarrassed, and Zarbon laughed out loud.

The training, of course, continued—there were still almost three years to prepare. The fighters all trained even harder now. Goku and Raditz's training picked up now that they could fight as Super Saiyans, though Raditz held an early edge due to more experience with the form. Gohan was in a strange position—his alien DNA meant that sparring with most human fighters would be a futile exercise, and laughably easy for the child, but the adult saiyans were far above him. Luckily, while Piccolo was antisocial as ever, Tien and Nail were able to give him a decent challenge, and the three regularly met up to train together (although, as far as Chi-Chi knew, Gohan was still 'helping Goku'. If she ever decided to go out and watch or join in the training herself, there'd be trouble.)

The fighters who'd been defeated by Kuriza now trained even harder, knowing that by all accounts the androids were going to be even more powerful. The focus was not just on increasing their power now, but also on developing new techniques and ways to outsmart superior foes. And so it continued, for three years, as meanwhile, in a laboratory hidden in the mountains, Dr. Gero set about creating his artificial monsters.

I've had some questions regarding what happened to Meta-Frieza and Vegeta in the 'future' timeline, and I fully intend to answer them. In this version of events, everyone was feeling somewhat less active, enjoying a seemingly-indefinite period of peace, and Raditz, in this state of mind, went back to bed with Launch instead of going to fight Frieza. He resolved to go and check on things later that afternoon, but by then it was too late.

"Heh heh heh…" Frieza's head, hooked up to its life-support systems within the Gete Star, chuckled as he looked upon his captive. Wires were coiled around Vegeta's arms and legs, suspending him halfway up the walls. "Thinking you could fight me all on your own, Vegeta? My whole army? What a fool." Frieza's grin widened. "Well, now you're going to give me that Super Saiyan energy of yours—it'll be an excellent fuel source for the Gete Star. Come now, I don't have all day…" The wires lit up with electric fire as they ripped the power out of Vegeta's body. His head slumped forwards, but a faint murmur escaped his mouth. "What's that?" Frieza asked mockingly. "Last words? A final confession? Begging for your life?"

"You're…wrong, Frieza…" Vegeta said weakly. "I…haven't lost."

"W-what are you talking about?"

Vegeta's head snapped up as he powered back up to Super Saiyan. "You've taken me right to the heart of your power, you idiot! Hyaaaaaah!" He forced his power outwards, gripping the wires holding him as he pumped energy through them.

"What's this?" Frieza raised an eyebrow as a pair of Meta-Friezas paced back and forth behind him. "Trying to give me more energy than I can handle? Overload my circuits or something like that? Really, I expected more from you. You should know better than that…"

"Yaaaaaaaaahhh!" Vegeta screamed, the light coursing out of his body intensifying into pure white waves of force.

"W-what's this?" Frieza's scanners were going ballistic. "Where is this power coming from? What did you do?!" The Meta-Friezas twitched and spasmed, collapsing to the floor.

"This is my life energy, Frieza!" Vegeta roared. "This is what you wanted, isn't it?"

"No! Stop! You'll kill yourself!" Frieza tried to retract the wires, but Vegeta gripped them unflinchingly, pouring his entire essence into the Gete Star.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" he bellowed, as internal explosions rocked the construct. Whole sections began to break off as Vegeta's destructive energy spread throughout the entire vessel. The surge of power reached the core, and it was all over.

Within seconds, there was nothing left of the Gete Star, Vegeta, or Frieza. New Namek was left warped, marked by a gigantic crater that visibly altered its shape. The saiyans had had their revenge.

When King Cold returned to his empire after his defeat at Raditz's hands, he encountered Kuriza, and with his experience of failure on Earth, discouraged his grandson from making a move on the planet. So, in the timeline unaltered by time travel, Kuriza—after Cold's death—set himself up as the new master of the galaxy, and came to be just as feared a ruler as Frieza had been (and he had more freedom to exercise his rule, as his family was no longer around to counsel and restrain him).

Oh, and in the main DBZ timeline, Frieza was still alive (albeit mechanised) to slap Kuriza around the head and dispel any silly thoughts he might have about attacking Earth and stealing Frieza's shot at revenge.

Well, anyway, Q & A.

Q: Hmm... Piccolo getting pwned... you my friend are brave. What I noticed here is that Goku sort of stole original Gohan's transformation trigger, but you made it work, but how will the demi-Saiyan now transform? Will Vegeta betray Raditz and run away again?

A: How will he transform, indeed. I guess you'll have to wait and see. And Vegeta didn't run away. However, he's not going to be happy with the outcome. We haven't seen the last of him, for sure.

Q: So is Piccolo really weak enough that a child 1st form Icejin could defeat him?

A: Piccolo on coming back to life was roughly equal to Nail (mid-ten thousands power level). They hadn't been training for very long when Kuriza arrived, and his first form was probably in the low hundred thousands.

Q: I kinda hope Kuriza is spared and becomes a good guy. It's really a interesting race that should've been utilized more in canon. The 5th and maybe even a 6th form can help him stay relevant. But yeah, amazing chapter. Probably the best one yet. Good job!

A: Ta-dah.

And these questions are about chapter 15:

Q: Could Vegeta really brake up so absurdly,only after being beaten by Goku?!That would only make him more enraged dude!?How come he had a change of character/thinking/opinion all of sudden?It makes no sense(knowing Vegeta at least)!

A: It's kind of like when he realised he was outclassed against Frieza's second and fourth forms in DBZ. Only, since it was a saiyan this time, it wasn't quite so bad.

Q: And why is Goku so warrior-like and everyone's accepting everyone's impromptu decisions?!Be a little more realistic dude!

A: Goku does have his warrior-like moments. See: the main villain battles in DBZ. He's not always a humorous character. And everyone's accepting everyone's impromptu decisions? Are they?

So, it seems (announcer voice) the time of the androids is drawing near! Will our heroes be ready to fight this new menace? Find out next time, on Dragon B-I already did this joke about ten chapters ago, didn't I?

(P.S. Where's Kai chapter 2? Eh. It'll be done when it's done. It's not that important anyway, and not everybody liked it. But since some did enjoy it, I'll continue it eventually.)