Guess who's writing this last minute again~~
I meant to write it on my day off, but I bought Minecraft (again) out of peer pressure and ended up playing that all day instead. Which is exactly why I didn't want to buy it again, because I knew I'd get sucked back into the make block game
The ending of this chapter was kinda meh, but there wouldn't really be a great cut off unless I wanted to go up to Super Sayain, and obviously, that wasn't happening
Alright, so here's the thing. Full transparency, I've had plans for things on the sidelines and after the Goku vs Frieza fight, but none for the fight itself, and for the most part it's not much of an issue since I'm going off of SIGohan's POV and what she'd see of the fight is pretty limited, but like, I still have to know at least myself how things would playout and like, last week's upload was the first time I even processed that Goku here is stronger than Cannon Goku.
So, Cannon Goku was at about 3 mil for this fight, but due to obviously being stronger via training with Nappa on the way instead of training alone before the Ginyu based Zenkai boost, I'd place him at more like 5 mil, maybe 6 mil. And that, changes things. Granted Goku can't just spam x20 Kaio Ken's the entire fight, but that would close the gap significantly more than in the cannon fight.
This is kinda why I didn't really want to mess with power levels much in the first place, since Cannon Goku at the start of the Android Saga hadn't even hit 4 mil, according to the Perfect Power Level wiki. Which, granted, is atually a bit lower than I'd expect considering how fast power escalated in the Namek Saga
Sooooo, we'll have to see what happens here
thewittywhy: shall hope for the best I say, and of course, thanks
frankieu: yeah, Piccolo's line specifically was borrowed from Team Four Star, other than that it was semi based off his canon appearance, cause yeah, he actually was just like that in canon too
Shadowj6480: Yeah, I love making fun of Vegeta, but that fight is way too uncomphy to do that for, so doth not so.
and yeah Nappa might be upset at Vegeta, for obvious reasons, but he stills cares for him as a Sayain and as his only friend for the past, roughly 25-ish years. (along with Raditz technically but like, there are a few obvious issues with that one) and as for SIGohan, well that fight was cruel by any standing and you know, it doesn't really matter how much I'd dislike someone, I doubt I'd ever enjoy something like that
and yeah, I honestly thought that was an Abridged joke, but no, he was actually just like that when he showed up in cannon. My absolute favorite thing in early DBZ is when Goku shows up and just ignores the villain. 10/10 peak comedy
Kitsune-Queen91: and I'm just sayin I write what's relevant
Goku stood across from Frieza without any hesitance. He stood with utmost confidence, and as if fear didn't even exist.
He tilted his head as he looked at Vegeta, before leveling his gaze back to Frieza.
"I'm sure whatever business you've had with Vegeta, you've more than made your point."
Frieza looked somewhere between annoyed, confused, and thoughtful with Goku's appearance.
Vegeta's eyes opened, blinking as though it was a struggle to keep them open.
"Oh good, Kakarot's here," he was probably trying to sound sarcastic, but the words came out forced and choppy.
Frieza looked down at Vegeta, "Kakarot huh? Well then, isn't that a Sayain's name?" Frieza seemed to have an epiphany but didn't speak it. If I was remembering my canon right, he'd be recognizing Goku as Bardock's son right about now.
Then he seemed to recognize something else, he tilted his head, "oh I see! You're the Baby Monkey's father then! How curious, I must wonder how you ended up on Earth, without my knowing it even."
"Not a clue. Don't really care. Besides, that's not really what we're here for, isn't it?"
Frieza's grin fell before flickering back into place, "very well then, shall we proceed?"
In an instant, the two disappeared and I could not tell you what happened other than it ended with Frieza momentarily reeling back before landing solidly.
Goku landed without a scratch, while Frieza was now sporting a mark on his cheek.
Frieza pointed a finger at Goku- Krillin shouted a warning, but Goku didn't budge.
Frieza shot a death beam at Goku, who quite literally just smack it away.
Annoyed Frieza started shooting a manage of them, only for each To be deflected in kind.
Mountains fell and debris was kicked up as the beams hit everything except Goku until one landed at his feet and clouded the area.
The dust cleared and Goku stood firm, a single hand extended.
Vegeta laughed, "who would have thought, a low-class fool, the only defense against Frieza."
Goku didn't bother defending against the insult.
Vegeta propped himself up best he could on his elbows.
"Frieza you fool, you have no idea- Kakarot- he's no ordinary Sayain- he's become a Super Sayain!"
"Oh not this again…"
"Oh, this will be a great day after all! After all this! You fall to a Sayain!" Vegeta's cackling was cut off with Frieza shooting him through the chest with a death beam.
Vegeta fell, coughing up blood.
"On and on he goes. Honestly, it doesn't matter how many times you tell some people something, it'll never get through their thick skulls."
"Frieza! That was completely uncalled for! He was already defenseless!"
"Have you somehow missed the genocide in my wake? What, exactly, makes you think that any of you won't be getting the same treatment?"
"There's no honor in cheap blows!"
Vegeta started, fists clenching into the dirt and clearly forcing himself to speak.
"Kakarot. Listen to me. You cannot be, your idiotically soft self in this fight. There is not a single honorable bone in Frieza's body."
"You have to get over yourself, get over your soft heart. If you win, and let him go there will not be a second fight. He will destroy your precious Earth like he did our home planet. Like he did Planet Vegeta."
"Amazing, a hole through his heart and he's still talking. Should have blown a hole through his head instead," Frieza said. And yet he made no moves to kill Vegeta faster.
"Vegeta, please stop talking, save your strength," Goku tried to reason.
"No! Listen! You will listen! We, the Sayain race, we worked so hard for him. We did everything he asked of us and more. He took me. As a child, he took me from my father. Said he would kill him if I didn't do as he said. Probably told him the same about me. I- we did everything he asked and still, he killed him and everything. Everything I am, everything I've done, is because of him. Our race, it's gone. Because of him. You cannot- you will not! You will not let him go on!"
And ultimately, despite his struggle, Vegeta fell, for the last time.
It didn't seem right to acknowledge his tears.
Vegeta wasn't supposed to cry, he was Vegeta.
"Vegeta, a guy as proud as you, that must of been difficult to say. You're not as stone cold as you lead people to believe. You couldn't have said all that if you were," Goku looked down in regret.
"Nappa!" Goku called back behind us, looking back I saw that Nappa had climbed out from the rubble, probably having long since done so, and was staring, grim, at his fallen Prince, "on Earth we bury our dead. Is the same true for Planet Vegeta?"
"Wha- uh, yeah. Yes. If a soldier dies honorably, they are always given a proper burial."
Goku nodded, before blasting a hole in the ground.
I glanced away as Goku buried him, saying some other words of respect that didn't properly register in my head.
Eventually, he stood back straight, facing Frieza.
"Ah yes, an unmarked grave on an empty planet in the middle of nowhere in space. Honestly, it's too good for him."
"You, you truly have no honor. You're a heartless monster who kills everyone in your wake, even children."
"Oh please. I already tried sparing the children. They either end up serving under me or swearing their pathetic lives to eternal revenge. Usually, both," Frieza indicated at Vegeta's grave with a hand, "really, killing them is a kindness. I can retract that kindness if you wish. then who's the bad guy?"
"Sti-still you-"
"No, that was a rhetorical- never mind, I'm going to kill you now."
The two stood across from each other. Unwavering. Goku glanced back.
Piccolo started.
"Gohan. Krillin. Out now. You're distracting him."
Piccolo took off into the sky leaving the rest of us, sans Goku and Frieza, no choice but to follow.
He distinctly did not mention Nappa, who followed anyway.
By the time we had gotten far enough away for Piccolo's liking, the fighting had already started. Each movement far too fast to have a hope to see and attempt at sensing it was obviously a moot cause, their energies blinding even at my attempts to block it out.
I was busy staring at a mushroom cloud kicked up by Frieza's blasts when I was grabbed and pulled away, unable to even process Piccolo's shout of a warning before I was covered away from a stray blast.
A moment passed and Piccolo's hold loosened enough for me to look back and see a crevasse carved out of the island where Krillin and I had been previously been standing.
On the opposite side had Krillin, who too had been barely able to duck out of the way.
"Hey, Namek."
Piccolo turned from the fight to not so subtly glare at Nappa.
"Best case here is that Kakarot miraculously got enough of a boost to beat Frieza. Odds are though, he's still gonna need help."
"What's your point? No one here is strong enough to make a real difference. Not without a lucky hit and certain death after the fact."
"Right, that's," he glanced at me, "hey is that healing kid, Dende, still around?"
I frowned, "yeah…"
"Right right, good. Remember how Vegeta used him to get a Zenkai boost? Well, do the same for me."
"What?"
"Blast a hole through my chest or somethin'! Whatever. Even if it's not enough to catch me up to Frieza it should at least make me not completely useless here. If I were really bein' practical I'd say do the same to the kid, but somehow I doubt that'd go over well."
Piccolo scowled at the last comment but Nappa only smirked, pointing a thumb at his chest, "come on, think of it as revenge for killin' you back on Earth."
Piccolo made a sound that was almost a laugh, "oh I see. This is your way to make sure I take revenge now, where you'd benefit from it, rather than getting it properly later."
"Aw, ya caught me," Nappa laughed, "Well? Deal or not?"
Piccolo frowned, contemplating.
"Wait, wait wait wait," I cut in, "before- before anyone does anything, let's, let me make sure I can actually find Dende first. No need for stupid mistakes."
I glanced over to Frieza vs Goku and sure enough the fight was ongoing, completely unregarded by our conversation.
I turned back to the group, who thankfully agreed with my sentiment, Nappa looking what would have been sheepish for anyone not Nappa shaped.
I flew away from the fight, flinching every time I tried to delve into my Ki sense. Between the drowning malice and blinding sunshine, it was nigh impossible to sense anything else.
But the further away the better it got and eventually, I was barely able to make out a spec of green through the clashing energies.
Sure enough, he hadn't strayed far from where I had left him, hiding within the rocks.
Nodding to myself, I quickly zipped back to the group and started talking before anyone could interrupt my thoughts.
"Ok. Here's the plan. We go there. We explain the plan to Dende. We make sure he agrees. Do the thing, then find somewhere else for him to hide just in case Frieza notices us leave," I said all this staring intently at the ground, to make sure I don't falter checking their expressions.
"That, sounds fair enough," I glanced up through my bangs to see Krillin nodding.
"'Course if you're so worried about the healer being noticed with us, then It'd be no good to bring him somewhere safer as a group," Nappa scanned over the three of us before landing back on Krillin, "you're probably least likely for Frieza to notice is missing so, that's up to you then."
"Gee, thanks…"
"What I'm sayin is, you're indispensable here. You gotta make sure you get the healer somewhere safe, that Frieza isn't gonna blow up, and that we can find later."
Krillin faltered at the slight praise(?) but otherwise, the plan went off without a hitch. Dende was a tad distressed at the idea of someone intentionally getting seriously hurt, but was otherwise agreeable.
Granted I did make sure Dende was as far away as was safe during the, gaining of the injury, but otherwise, Nappa was healed back up without issue.
He wanted to go for it again, but was outvoted. Dende was already starting to get tired and that was the last thing we needed if anyone got not purposely injured.
Three out of four returned to our starting positions, while Krillin was left to find somewhere safe for Dende, and as far as I could tell Frieza was none the wiser.
Of course, there was much less stable land than where we left it.
Was that a river of lava?
That. Went well.
Pretty sure things weren't supposed to go that well in dire situations…
Welp, not gonna complain.
Krillin returned not long after.
"Where'd you take him?" I asked, just, just to be safe.
"Huh, oh, I uh, I figure Frieza's probably not gonna blow up his own ship right? So, that was probably the safest place. Not like, in the ship, but in the area."
I nodded, half to myself, that was, probably the safest place. Or at least the only place that can be considered semi-safe.
And then there was nothing to do but go back to tracing the untraceable fight.
Granted, it was a bit easier now since they seemed to be moving at somewhat reasonable speeds, but we were so far away it didn't make much of a difference in being able to see them.
I glanced up and none of the other three seemed to mind. They were all staring intently at the fight.
But where I was standing, it was kinda, dull. No, that wasn't the right word. Tedious? No. Restless? Maybe but still not quite. Whatever, it didn't really matter what word I used to describe it. Even if it did bug me a bit.
All I could do was watch, best I could, not being able to actually do anything. Even if I wanted to at best I'd be a hindrance at this point. So all I was left with was the overwhelming Ki radiating from the fight and trying to follow who was being pushed back at any given time.
Ki blasts flew, and the figures darted about. Landscapes carved away if they landed in the crossfires. At one point Frieza raised a chunk of land as big as a small island and threw it at Goku just because he could.
Goku caught it, of course, instead of dodging it like a normal person would. As a result, he was pushed back into a mountain, but broke through it regardless, coming out with no worse for wear.
Goku pinball occurred and the resulting boat sent me flying back, only to be caught once again by Piccolo.
The land below where they had been fighting was reduced to a crater slowly filling with water, as Piccolo eased Krillin's concerns by smirking and telling him to look to our left, where Goku was standing, not unscathed, but not terribly injured either.
The fight rejoined and they were apparently done playing since by just looking at each other our island started to crumble away.
They landed on the ground.
Piccolo noted that it was probably chosen by Goku, that Frieza fights better in the air while Goku tends to prefer the ground.
The longer the fight went on the clearer I could see the movements, but still never enough to see the details.
Goku grabbing Frieza by the tail was noticeable since Frieza was so surprised that it stopped him in his tracks.
The fight went on, neither party seeming to be on the losing end quite yet. But it was only a matter of time before the tides decided.