Alright lets see what we have here- *sees a comment on AO3 with an interesting idea at 3 am* nah, nah that'd never work...would it? I'd have to rework a fair bit to- maybe if I- wait- wait that might- that might work- *throws out previous plans* heeeyyyyy-

Real glad I waited a few days to start writing for once

Also I referenced the show a lot less for this one as I wrote, like, almost zero

thewittywhy: "yes well, unfortunately he does come back." And honestly, as long as SIGohan and Vegeta interact, there will be some level of spite involved.

frankieu: le thank

xXSelenaXx: I've been going off the Perfect Power Level lists wiki pages for power levels. They're probably not Entirely accurate but it's a good enough baseline. it's not like the show itself is ever relly clear about these things
And yeah, I wasn't quite vibing with it in the chapter, but it also didn't feel right to not do it since it'd just feel like a waste. At the very least the power's there if it's needed.

The fight ramped up and once again I struggle to follow along. It was hard to see who was winning at any given moment and I stood there squinting for probably too long before I noticed.

Something was wrong.

Goku wasn't being pushed back much at all. Which should have been a good thing, was a good thing, but-

It was still wrong. Wrong in the sense of it being different. Wrong in the sense that it might change things.

I'm pretty sure, actually rather certain, that Goku was using the Kaio Ken pretty liberally at this point, but still, the fact that even as Frieza upped his power and showed even less care for the planet they battled on, Goku still kept up, blow for blow, it was- it was-

It was good?

It was bad?

I, didn't know.

It should have been good, right? I mean, Goku being stronger could only be a good thing.

The thought didn't help the nagging feeling that something was wrong. Something that made me want to shove the cat back into its bag and realign with canon, even though I thought I was doing, not a great but at least a decent job at it.

It was Nappa. That was the difference. Because of Nappa Goku had a training partner on the way to Namek, hence making him stronger.

But what? Was I supposed to be upset at him for that? That's not fair. Oh sure I could be upset and things he's done in the past, but him being alive, doing things. Arguably good things, that blame would go on me.

But for better or for worse, I couldn't say.

Goku was stronger. That could only be a good thing.

Right?

The fight continued on and once again we had to back away further because the ground crumbled beneath us.

I kept waiting for something that looked like it'd realign with canon.

For Goku to be pushed back.

For him to begin to form the Spirit Bomb.

Anything.

But it never came.

Piccolo never jumped in to help, and despite his precautions, neither did Nappa.

They didn't need to.

The fight wore on and Frieza became increasingly furious. The malice in his Ki seeped through my pores.

He charged up a beam.

Surely that would destroy the planet if it hit.

It of course didn't, Goku matching it with a beam of his own.

The beam struggle raged, but Goku's was slowly being overcome.

His roar could be heard despite the distance.

"KAIO KEN! TIMES! TWENTY!"

The beam then completely overtook Frieza's and shot him back.

All was quiet.

I waited for Frieza to come back.

And waited.

And waited.

It was still quiet.

"He won!" Krillin laughed.

Piccolo was smirking.

Nappa was grinning.

Why-

Why were they so happy.

I don't-

Frieza would be back-

Obviously.

He always would.

"Hey Gohan! Come on!"

I looked up to see Krillin floating above me, smiling.

Silently, I followed after.

I watched as they reached Goku first, tired but apparent victorious.

I watched as they celebrated.

Krillin looked one prompt away from tackling Goku in a hug.

Nappa clapped Goku on the back, hooking an arm around his neck in congratulation.

Piccolo was more composed, but was smiling nonetheless.

None of their words reached me.

I tried to sense for Frieza but there was too much latent Ki in the area I couldn't pinpoint anything.

Frieza wasn't gone.

He couldn't be.

Not yet.

And yet nothing happened.

I waited and continued waiting, for nothing.

Eventually, Krillin noticed.

He asked if I was alright, I nodded and gave a standard reply.

Frieza, was gone.

Frieza was gone and Goku was not a Super Sayain.

That was-

I don't even know what that was.

I was so caught up in my thoughts I didn't notice the beam shot until Piccolo was already pushing Goku out of the way, and got hit himself.

"Surprise. Not dead."

Frieza stood on a mountainside, one finger extended.

I paid him no mind.

I only scurried over to Piccolo who was caught in shock by Goku. in a borderline panic. Half because, Piccolo, and half because if he died all was lost.

Sure enough, he still had a pulse, and despite being unconscious his Ki barely wavered, though much smaller now than before.

I breathed in utter relief that I hoped could only be interpreted as relief over Piccolo being, relatively speaking, ok.

Frieza was here. Frieza was alive. That meant canon could still fall into place.

And then I felt awful.

Awful because in canon Krillin dies.

And sure, he gets brought back with Namek's Dragon Balls, but he still dies.

I heard shouting and flinched.

I covered my ears and stared intently at what remained of Piccolo's shirt as I heard Krillin's pained cries.

I waited for the explosion.

And waited.

And wai-

Something hit the ground behind me.

I turned my head.

I saw Krillin, who had landed painfully on the ground. Panting and terrified.

Alive.

He was-

I turned my head to Frieza, who was clutching an arm and glaring to the side.

I followed his gaze.

I saw Nappa with both arms outstretched, arms smoking with an excursion of Ki and a wild grin on his face.

I sat there dumbly, trying to piece together the series of events.

I don't know how long I did so before Goku shook my shoulder.

"I think it's time for you guys to leave. Go get Bulma and get her to the ship. Tell her to get it ready."

There was none of his usual playful attitude left. He was serious. Furious. Furious that his friend was nearly killed.

But not enough.

There was no golden glow.

No brilliant blond hair.

And no sparking blue eyes.

It was still just Goku, as serious as he got.

I looked at Krillin. I looked at Krillin and felt awful because I should have been happy. I should have been happy he was alive and well but instead I was worried because-

"I'll meet you there," Goku said, misinterpreting my concern.

It's too late.

It's too late to worry about it now.

Instead, I hooked one of Piccolo's arms around my neck and picked him up as best I could. The size difference made it terribly awkward but I couldn't quite care.

Krillin, alive and breathing and standing there, stood by in case I needed help.

I did not.

I did not look back as we flew off. Anything could have been happening. I didn't care.

Nappa kept glancing over at me.

"It'd be faster if I-" he started but I cut him off.

"You will not touch him," I snarled, pulling Piccolo as close as I could. I don't even know what I was angry at him for at this point. Existing, I guess.

Nappa raised his hands in an unconvincing surrender and carried on.

I followed, numbly. Only focusing on following Krillin as he went. It was only once we were almost at Frieza's ship That I realized that was where we were going.

Oh. Right. Dende.

It wasn't twenty minutes ago that his safety was my top concern.

I didn't, really pay attention to anything after that.

Dende healed Piccolo and they all discussed if they should actually go get Bulma or stay on standby.

I didn't know or care who was on what side. It was all the same to me.

"Gohan?"

I startled back to reality as Dende stood at my side, concerned.

"Are you ok? Are you hurt?"

"No. I'm not hurt. I'm fine."

"It's just been, kind of a long day," Krillin interjected for me.

He looked between me and back at Piccolo and Nappa.

"Hey, why don't you, Dende, and I go find Bulma. Catch her up on everything that's happened. Then when your dad beats Frieza we can all meet up again and-"

His words and their implications ran through my head for a moment-

"No!" Krillin startled back at my outburst.

"No splitting up! We can't- we can't-"

Frantically, I searched over everyone, looking, looking for something-

My eyes settled on Piccolo.

"We can't- Piccolo almost died, again, and we can't let- if he dies the Earth Dragon balls go away again and-" and that was our way home- too much has already gone wrong- I can't have another thing-

"Hey, hey ok. We'll all go find Bulma then, right?" His voice turned uncharacteristically pointed as he looked back at the other two.

Piccolo scoffed, probably not liking how he was the one being used as a point of liability, but also not having any real argument against it.

Nappa commented how he could still stay behind- not that I would mind- but ended up coming along anyway.

And once again the details faded away, I let myself zone out into the monotony of flying, as much as that sounded like an oxymoron.

Our flight was interrupted by a quite literally ground-shaking explosion behind us.

"Yeah, I'm no good at this whole, sensing energy thing, but I felt that," Nappa felt the need to point out as we looked back at the darkening sky behind us.

"Let's uh, let's just find Bulma as quickly as possible."

We continued again, this time adding "ignore shaking ground and ever-darkening sky" to the list of things.

We landed. This was the last place we had left Bulma, which better be where they are because I am not sensing out where else they could be.

Sure enough, when Krillin went to investigate the cave, the door to a capsule house opened and hesitantly a head of blue hair peaked its way out.

Then the door slammed open.

"Where have you been!?" She ran out only to stumble under the shaking ground, "and what is going on!?"

"Uh well, you see-"

"The planet's being destroyed." Nappa cut off Krillin with the delicacy one would expect from Nappa.

"WHAT!?"

"Oh, would you know what that looks like well?" Piccolo asked with sarcasm not the slightest bit concealed.

"Oh yeah, one of Frieza's favorite pastimes."

"Waiwaiwaiwaiwait- can we back up to, destroying the planet?!" Bulma cut back in.

"Oh yeah, we should probably be jumping ship, pretty quickly," Nappa nodded with far too much nonchalance.

Piccolo stood off to the side, only caring to look back towards where we had left Not Super Sayain Goku and Frieza.

I also stood by myself, not in the mood to socialize or pretend to do so.

"Cargo!" Dende called as, indeed, said child walked out of the capsule house with caution. Ocari followed after him, or rather, was pulled along by the hand by Cargo. Cargo's other hand carrying a frog.

He was, however, released when Dende hugged Cargo and the two talked and shared their recent adventures. One obviously had more to share than the other.

I tuned out again. None of the interactions had to do with me and-

"Gohan?"

I startled back to reality to see Ocari looking at me, an arm half outstretched as if he was reaching for me but hesitating.

"Are you- I'm glad you are safe,"

"Huh, oh yeah. I'm fine."

He frowned, glancing back and then to me again.

And then he hugged me.

Despite how hesitant and slow his movements were, the result still surprised me.

I stood still for a moment, before a small smile tugged at my lips and I gave a light hug back, "yeah, thanks."

I vaguely tuned back into Dende talking to Cargo about whatever has been happening.

"-and then Nail-"

Ocari started beside me, "that is not the warrior Nail," he almost sounded offended by the slip.

"Huh, oh right, no. He's Gohan's friend! Piccolo, right? He was born on Earth! He just kinda, feels like Nail sometimes, so I call him that sometimes…"

Ocari was frowning, looking between Dende and Piccolo, who was still looking intently at the direction of Goku vs Frieza with his back turned, not sparing a glance back.

"Ok! That's enough standing around, we should probably at least get to the ship!" Krillin announced suddenly, which yeah. Imminent planet death. Probably should prepare to leave.

"Piccolo."

Piccolo still did not move at Krillin's call.

"Look, I get that you're really worried about Goku…"

Now that got Piccolo to turn, "I am no such thing," he said, far too quickly to be anything but defensive.

"Yeah, right, anyway- we've already established here that if you don't come, Gohan isn't moving, and I don't, really want to deal with his mother, murdering me, so if we could just not, do this whole, too cool to cooperate thing, that'd be great."

Wow. I get that it's been a long day but almost dying, again, must have really gotten to him. Probably best he doesn't find out he was supposed to actually die. Which he did not. And now Goku was not a Super Sayain.

Anyway.

Even Piccolo looked somewhat impressed by the spiel. He also half looked like he wanted to stay rooted to the spot out of spite now.

I rolled my eyes and cleared the distance, floating up so I could grab one of his ever crossed arms.

"Come on, let's go," I prompted, and he made a vague show of reluctance before following along anyway.

And for the third time in an impressively short period of time, we flew off back to the area where we had fought the Ginyus, and then a bit off from there. Krillin was carrying Bulma and I was making sure none of the baby Nameks fell behind.

The other two, well Nappa still wasn't trusted with civilian safety and Piccolo, I think the only one of the four who he didn't make uncomfortable was Dende, and maybe Cargo was indifferent.

"So let me get this straight," Nappa all but laughed, "you got no issue with anyone, and everyone, knowing how much you adore Kakarot's kid, but the second someone hints that you might slightly like Kakarot, you get all huffy?"

"I don't recall anyone asking for your opinion. On anything. At all."

"So uh, how long are you gonna call him Kakarot?" Krillin asked.

"For until I die. And after that too."

We landed and Bulma immediately made a beeline for the controls of the ship, barely pausing at the keypad to open the ship.

She said something about how difficult it'd be to take off safely as the planet and atmosphere got more unstable.

Krillin insisted that we couldn't leave without Goku.

I watched as the sky got darker and the landscapes fell apart, tuning it all out again.

That's, really dark for the sky to be actually.

I startled back to reality as an unmistakable grainy voice intruded in my head.

From their reactions, I'd assume everyone else heard it too.

"Hey there! You lot did a lot better against Frieza than I expected, and Goku! Heh, never in my wildest dreams… Anyway, the Namek kid, Dende's there right?"

"Um, yes…sir?" The boy in question responded.

"Good good, alright, I have a plan, now listen to me closely-"

"You used the Earth Dragon Balls to wish back everyone killed by Frieza on NamekandnowyouwantustousethelastwishontheNamekDragonBallstobringeveryonetoearth," I cut him off and by the end was probably talking too quickly to be entirely legible.

"Uh, yeah. That's, pretty much it…ok that's the second time you've done this kid, what the hell?"

And sure enough everyone else was looking at me with varying levels of confusion and curiosity.

"It's, uh, what I would have done…I mean, you have the earth Dragon Balls that can bring back a bunch of people, and then the Namek ones still had a wish back cause we only used two, so, I, uh…." I shrunk under their gaze.

"Alright! What matters is we have a plan so," Krillin took the attention from me, thankfully, "Dende has to get to the Dragon Quickly then, the more people who go will only slow him down so-"

"I'll go!" I didn't even let him finish.

"Wha- Gohan-"

"I can get him there faster than he could alone and Frieza probably wouldn't notice me, and, and-" I couldn't quite finish my words and technically it didn't even make sense.

I mean, reasonably, Piccolo would be the best choice then. He was faster than me, stronger than me, and Dende already trusted him a fair bit.

I could only hope Krillin could tell how much I needed to go.

I needed to make sure it went right.

Eventually, he nodded, "alright. No detours alright? Just get there and make the wish. Got it?"

I nodded, turning to Dende and letting him take my hand.

We flew off, and after a few seconds, I pulled him closer and went at absolute top speed.

We were there so quickly it gave me whiplash; I overshot the destination by a fair bit, but getting back wasn't exactly hard. Or easy to miss, the giant Dragon was surely visible across the landscape.

"Alright good. Now, make this wish exactly. Wish Everyone on Namek except for Frieza to Earth."

"Now hold on a second" I closed my eyes as Goku's voice came in, "you can't interrupt my fight like that! Wish that everyone except for Frieza and me would go to earth instead! I've seen his full power. I know I can beat him."

And, I believed him. I hated it but I did. I kept thinking that maybe he'd unlock Super in desperation in the fight, at some last minute and miraculously get it anyway. But, I don't think he needed it. If he could push the Kaio Ken a bit further, I think he would overpower Frieza.

And I hated it.

Because I didn't know how we got there then.

I tuned out King Kai's protests and Dende looked at me. As if he was asking for my permission.

"Ok." I decided, only for King Kai to protest further, "you had better not lose."

With that, I stepped back. And let Dende do his thing.

In an instant, we were no longer standing on a crumbling planet fated for destruction. But soft, green grass, surrounded by confused Namekians and anyone else who happened to be brought back.

And finally, I allowed myself to collapse back onto the ground, and stared into the impossibly peaceful blue sky.

So here's the thing.

I had considered killing SIGohan instead of Krillin, but it felt awkward not to have her there, and a couple of scenes to come kinda rely on her not dying before and I care a lot more about that scene than I do changing things for the sake of changing them. So I was just gonna do the standard Krillin dies ext ext. But then A commenter mentioned Goku not getting Super Sayain at all, and my knee jerk reaction was no, illegal, physically impossible...but then I thought about it a bit more and...well it's obvious what I went with

There are a few scenes I had to drop that I wanted, but I should be able to reincorporate most of them later.

There was one that is unfortunately lost to time. Post Goku Super Sayain, I'd have Nappa say something along the lines of "Since Vegeta isn't here to say it, I feel like I have to...Legendary Super Sayain" while Frieza is just yelling a disbelieving denial.

Also, Nappa is really hard to write. Because like, he's not supposed to be here at all, and there's not exactly much to pull from for his character

Also, I had expected to end this chapter with the Super and proceed with getting back to earth in the next one, but once I decided on no Super Sayain, I flew through this quickly. In terms of events happening. In terms of writing this, while fortunate I didn't have to reference the show much, so I could write it whenever, it also took longer to write. I was writing it for a few days while at work, and then knocked out the last third once I got home today, Friday. And then edited and typing this now.

I might have to see where the next chapter ends up, if it goes by too quickly then either I have to put one chapter sooner, or post two POV chapters in one week, cause I definitely want the second one before *insert plot point here*
I also have to finish the second POV chapter