Another fairly short chapter but that was a good ending point, so I kept it.
Also, mourn with me, as Digimon ReArise will soon be taken down. Apparently, now that they've finished the story, they don't care to keep the app functioning. I worked so hard to get a Lucemon and a Beelzemon and now they shall be taken. I cri. At least I still have Cyber Sleuth, but still.
Glad I never spent money on that game.

Also Also, love when your email and instagram are hacked and while I managed to skirt past the hackers attempt at locking me out of my email, which this account is connected to, but my instagram is being annoying. It hath been lost.

frankieu: Le thank

Shadowj6480: I think it varies, like for the Frieza transformations I'd say it's fear. For Perfect Cell it's Vegeta's arrogance. Super Sayain, depending on the villain I'd shift between curiosity or respect. Probably mostly curiosity, plus arrogance.

thewittywhy: Now I don't know about that, but it would be funny. I do have a few Super Sayain based jokes/mocking towards the end of the Cell Saga. What I would say on the prince topic, however, is Goku's standing as a Prince is far more legitimate than Vegeta's. His father-in-law is the Ox-King. He has people under his rule. Chichi would, by that nature, be a Princess, heiress to the title. Vegeta? A Broken crown to a dying species. At best it's got a few generations before they're all but faded through crossbreeding. Maybe the generations might still be more advanced than just a standard human but anything specifically Sayain will be lost. Ox King's kingdom? That can stand as long as time allows it. If nothing actively tears it down it could go on indefinitely. I conclude this essay.
Trunks is one of my favorite characters, so his showing is not an if. By extension he'll also be one of Goh's favorites, so ever so slight bias shall be expected.
I have a few ideas for Nappa. The issue with anything physical, is that while true, Nappa likes feeling superior to his opponents, there's also bound to be a limit to that, and with the issue of gotta play nice on Earth or else new friends(?) won't like him, or won't like him more than they already don't, so he won't want to do something that might accidentally hurt the weak little humans. Like I said, I have a few ideas, but he'll probably need some time to get used to Earth first

To say this was no longer an even fight, well that much was obvious.

If Piccolo tried to make distance, he was out sped. If he tried to attack, he was overpowered, assuming he managed to hit at all, since once again, out sped. The only real defense at this point was dodging. Which was difficult, when one was out sped.

Suffice it to say, speed would be very useful right about now.

It was about the time that Frieza started taking potshots for the funzies that I decided enough was enough and I shot forward, catching Frieza by surprise enough with a kick that his movements stopped.

I flew behind him and fired a Masenko. As strong as I could make it, still Frieza caught it. I strained to put more energy into it to maintain the beam, and yet it felt like Frieza was only playing at being pushed back.

And as such, when it was just about to look like I had the upper hand, he pushed the ball of energy back and sent it back directly towards me.

I froze- I couldn't defend against it- I put enough energy into it that at best I'd be out of commission- that was a very generous estimation- I couldn't dodge it was coming too fast- I couldn't-

A blast intercepted the ball and knocked it off course, missing me but not nearly enough to be comfortable.

I floated there for a moment, panting and definitely not shaking-

"Ok…that was close…" my voice was too light, too high, but hey, it was there. Much better than if the blast had connected.

"I thought I told you to stay out of this," Piccolo sent a disapproving glance. Not that that was entirely easy to take seriously between his clothes in tatters and him slouching in midair.

"Yeah…that went out the window a while ago…"

Piccolo huffed, "and where, exactly, have you been hiding that power?"

I shrugged, "I dunno, power unlocking, a few Zenkai boosts? I lost track of the whole power scaling a while ago. Probably would have been better off if I hadn't used so much energy earlier."

"Zenkai boost?" Piccolo squinted.

"A Sayain thing. Get stronger when badly injured and healed."

"That seems, convenient."

"Of course! That's why the Sayain race is the best there is! We have the potential to surpass anyone we fight, given the opportunity!"

Nappa showed up.

"Oh…you're here…" Piccolo didn't bother hiding his annoyance.

Nappa's here but Krillin isn't? I glanced back to see Vegeta holding Krillin back and saying something. Welp, that can't be any good.

"Yep!"

"Then why haven't you?" I asked, recalling what was said.

"Huh?"

"Why haven't you gotten stronger before this?"

That always kinda bugged me about canon. Sure, Goku not being that strong made sense enough, being raised on Earth without many higher threats. But Vegeta and Nappa? 19,000 for Vegeta was one thing, but Nappa's power level of 4000? It took what, three good Zenkai boosts to get Vegeta on par with Frieza's first form, and if it's so easy for power to increase that quickly, easy being a relative statement, why were they so comparatively weak at the start.

"Well, under Frieza it was very difficult to-"

"Very difficult to what?"

Oh good, Frieza's back.

"Tell me, child, are you a Sayain? Who, exactly, was it who fathered you? It can't have been this fool, I'd have heard of it through his own big mouth by now. Perhaps Vegeta? You seem to butt heads with him enough. Or that other one? Raditz was it? There does seem to be a resemblance."

I frowned, "I'm from Earth, as you already said."

"Ah, but that doesn't answer my question."

"Sure it does. The first time any of them went to Earth was a year ago."

"Ah, but who's to say one of them didn't just go to Earth in secret, having discovered that the earthlings are genetically similar enough to have their offspring. Then simply had his was with an Earth woman or two before leaving. Perhaps the Dragon Balls was simply a guise to collect you."

My frown turned into a scowl. Even Vegeta I had too high of an opinion of the even humor the line of thought.

"You really think they're smart enough to think of that?" I didn't even raise an eyebrow at Nappa's slightly insulted scoff.

"Oh those two? Certainly not. But that third one…yes that would create an excellent reason for him to have gone to Earth in the first place! I did think it odd that he'd go so out of his way for such a remote planet. But I must admit, the discovery of the Dragon Balls had distracted me from looking too far into it. To think, a baby monkey almost completely went under my radar. You could have lived out your entire life without my knowing it. Oh well, it's never too late to fix my mistakes."

Most of the reason I kept with the conversation was for the stall out, but, to be honest, I was kinda impressed. He was wrong, obviously, but he was remarkably close. He just was missing the "Goku exists" puzzle piece.

"To be honest, I don't care much for this form. It's powerful, yes, but is oh so inconvenient. If you wouldn't mind, I think I'll just slip into my final form now."

That was…remarkably quick…that just doesn't seem fair.

"You should consider yourself privileged. None outside my immediate family have even seen this form, much less a monkey, halfbreed, and slug such as yourselves."

"Rude…" but that was a given at this point.

In an instant, he began glowing, and the Ki broke through any attempts at blocking it out and was all but drowning. Instinctively I curled in on myself and covered my ears despite knowing that's not how Ki sensing works.

It's not even a sound I was trying to block out- why was I-

"What in the-" I glanced up at Piccolo, not looking at Frieza, but over at where Krillin and Vegeta were?

I glanced over to see Vegeta falling from the sky and Krillin still having an arm out from the blast.

Oh, that's, not a terrible idea actually. If Dende was around, Zenkai abuse was always on the table. Though there's no saying how long until his energy runs out, if we could utilize it for now-

Or would it be better to make sure Dende has enough energy to heal us later? I don't, I don't know. Even if we wanted to abuse the boost, I doubt it'd be enough to stand up to Frieza. And if it wouldn't make a difference, why waste the energy?

I shouldn't be the one making decisions. It's not like I could injure myself enough anyway. And there's no way Krillin would, probably not Piccolo either. Maybe Nappa, but I wasn't exactly gonna put my life in his hands any time soon.

Well, on the bright side, that line of questioning distracted me from Frieza's transformation.

I tuned back in just in time to see Piccolo nearly collapsing from his injuries.

I definitely did not squeak as I flew over to catch him before he fell.

"If you were this badly injured you should have said something!"

"I'm fine." He all but growled.

"You are not!"

I guided him to the ground.

"I'm gonna find Dende, he can heal." I set I'm down and he didn't even bother trying to sit up.

I wasn't pleased with the idea of leaving Piccolo with Nappa, but Krillin had made his way down by that point, and it's better than having Nappa find Dende.

Of course, with Frieza's energy flooding the area, I was searching blind and was basically just heading in the direction that Vegeta fell, when I saw Dende fly overhead.

Well, that's convenient.

"Dende!" The boy looked down at my call and smiled.

"Gohan!" I flew up to meet him and was caught in a hug.

"Hey, our friend, Piccolo, is hurt, can you heal him?"

"Of course!" He nodded.

Because it was faster than flying at Dende's pace, I grabbed him and darted off myself, soon enough, we were back where we started.

Dende moved to heal Piccolo, but I stopped him, "wait."

I followed the line of sight, and we were completely in view of Frieza.

"Let's move him somewhere else."

"Uh, ok?"

With Krillin's help, I carried him over so that we were hidden behind one of the many hills of the planet. Maybe Frieza would still be able to deduce that the noncombatant child who happened to show up before everyone is healed was the healer, but at least it wouldn't be as obvious as healing right in front of him.

Regardless, Dende did his thing and in moments Piccolo was back on his feet, "well, everything seems to be back in place, so thank you."

"You're welcome, Nail."

"My name isn't Nail."

Piccolo paused, "shut up Nail."

"…so…who Nail?" Nappa was ignored.

"Hey Dende," Krillin approached the boy, placing a hand on his shoulder, "that other guy, Vegeta, could really use some healing right about now…"

"…I know…"

"And, did you?"

"No. How could I?! He's killed so many of my people, and now I'm supposed to heal him? How can I do that? He's just as bad as Frieza!"

I grimaced, "look, I agree…and I don't like Vegeta any more than you…but right now, Frieza is the bigger threat, and he will kill us. At least Vegeta, is less likely."

Dende looked down, unconvinced. Scared.

"Would you like me to go with you?"

The boy looked up, then down again. He nodded.

"Ok," I took his hand, and at a much slower pace, we made our way back to Vegeta.

Behind us, Frieza's energy exploded.

Dende flinched and upped the speed of his own volition.

Turns out it was really easy to find Vegeta after a certain point since there was quite the trail of blood leading up to his very unconscious body.

We landed and Dende let go of my hand in order to heal Vegeta.

As he was healed, he began to get up. Dende instantly ran and hid behind me.

Vegeta scowled, "why you little-"

"I think, what you meant to say, is "oh thank you Dende, for healing me despite being a terrible person who kills for fun!"" I clasped my hands together as I spoke.

Vegeta's attention shifted from Dende to me. Almost expectedly at this point, he kicked me into the rocks.

In an instant Dende had scampered to my side, healing what few injuries he caused.

"Yeah, thanks," he said, voice coated in sarcasm, before flying off.

"Hate him. Hate him so much." I laid there with an absolute deadpan expression.

"I shouldn't have healed him."

"Yeah no, totally not worth it."

I sat up with a smile, but then it fell and I glanced over at the Final Form of Frieza.

I took a breath.

"Dende," I placed my hands over his shoulders, "I need you to stay out of sight, no matter what, ok? If you need to go to a different island, swim, don't fly. Underwater if possible."

"But what if-"

"If any of us need healing, we will find you. We can sense energy, Frieza can't. We'll be able to find you."

Only a slight lie. Besides, maybe the others weren't having this "drowning in Frieza's Ki" issue. They might still be able to sense Dende out.

I didn't let go of Dende until he nodded. And didn't move until he had backed away out of sight.

With that, I made my way back to the plot.

Frieza's eyes were calculated, focused. I could tell that from even this far away. And it didn't matter how much I focused on blocking my sense, I could still feel his malicious Ki seeping into the air itself.

I seemed to arrive in the middle of a conversation.

"Even with our combined power, there's no way we can put a dent in this form," Piccolo was saying, "our best shot is to get out, leave and come back stronger."

"Leave where? Frieza's definitely going to destroy this planet as he leaves. You lot can't go back to Earth, Frieza's already set to destroy it. And isn't there that thing where some other guy dies you also die? Isn't that guy on Earth? Or is it just the other way around?" Nappa countered, "either way, our best shot, is that we stand and fight! At least that's what I'm gonna do!"

"…tsk, and who told you about Kami?" Piccolo glared.

"Told? I just overheard the rest of 'em talking about how he died when you died, and they couldn't use earth's Dragon Balls 'cause of it."

"The point is," Krillin interrupted, "running is pointless, so, we just have to stand and fight! And probably die…"

"None of that! You go into a fight thinkin' you'll lose you've already lost!" Nappa clapped Krillin on the back, causing him to stumble forward.

"Well that's hardly fair," a chill ran up my spine as a voice from behind us spoke, "you've already lost either way."

We turned to see Frieza standing there, as if he'd been there the entire time and not just a hundred feet ahead of us.

"Hello boys," his ever-focused red eyes bore into each of us individually as he grinned.

"I think it's about time we begin the third and final act, don't you?"

Caution to the wind, Nappa shot forward, to seemingly no avail as any punch or kick was smoothly dodged.

Krillin shot forward next, his jumping kick ducked and subsequent punches dodged.

Piccolo joined the fray next, but to no added benefit.

And apparently, the answer to the "if all your friends jumped off a bridge" question is yes because I only grimaced before darting forward myself.

The four of us attacked ceaselessly, too practiced to accidentally hit one of each other, but still not fast enough to hit Frieza. Half of the dodges didn't even make sense because it looked like it should have hit, and that there was nowhere to dodge to, but still, he did and there was nothing to be done but continue.

Piccolo shot into the sky, flying up and slightly behind Frieza before firing a Masenko, which Frieza simply dodged upwards.

"Ka Me, Ha Me," out of the corner of my eyes I saw Krillin charging a Kamehameha Wave, so I quickly charged a Masenko of my own to fire, and both beams shot at Frieza almost simultaneously, which Nappa quickly matched with his mouth beam thingy.

When the light faded, Frieza was nowhere to be seen.

"YOU IDIOTS! BEHIND YOU!" Only ever the spectator Vegeta shouted, which for once was useful as when we turned around, we saw Frieza standing there, with a single finger extended towards us.

"Here I am," the tyrant spoke as he shot a beam from his fingertip. It fired past Piccolo, past Nappa, past Krillin. it didn't quite register who he was aiming for until there was a Ki blast at my feet, blasting me out of the way of the beam now sailing harmlessly out to the distance.

And obliterating a distant island.

You know that probably shouldn't really be impressive anymore, I mean, theoretically, I should be able to do that if I tried.

I glanced up to see Vegeta with his hand extended from firing the less deadly of the blasts.

"You know, there are nicer ways to get someone out of the way."

Vegeta scoffed as he landed, "what was that you had said? Say thanks or shut up? Best you take your own advice."

"Great to know you hang onto my words so well."

Vegeta stalked forward, apparently in too good of a mood to care for the back and forth.

"A shame, that was meant to be a mercy kill. Better for the child to die quickly than painfully while watching its friends die and whatnot."

Oh, so I just imagined getting stomped into the dirt? I question his standard of pain.

"The brat can die painfully for all I care. The only thing I was doing was testing my new power." Vegeta said in all arrogance.

As I made my way to my feet I grimaced. Vegeta's false Super Sayain bravado. I wasn't sure if I genuinely felt bad for him, or was just a victim of second-hand embarrassment.

"What, are you claiming you can take him on?" Piccolo asked sarcastically but was only met with a genuine confirmation.

"Your words may be tough, Vegeta, but I sincerely doubt you can back them up," Frieza's voice was poised and calm as ever.

"I don't think you know who you're dealing with," Vegeta smirked, "because now you're dealing with a Super Sayain!"