Frieza's ship sat abandoned in the empty clearing in which it had initially landed, only one small impact crater near the front remaining to disturb the landscape. Various holes in the roof and hull plating were scattered about the ship: although emergency bulkheads could seal off most compartments, the sheer scope of the damage would make any attempt at achieving liftoff foolhardy at best. This would, of course, be rendered moot by the irreparable damage to the ship's engines, leaving it permanently grounded. Sections of the ship were cast in complete darkness, the accumulation of damage to various power lines outside of the interior plating making it impossible to sustain normal operation throughout all areas of the ship. In other areas, the lights flickered intermittently for the same reason. And, making matters worse for the ship's sole occupant, the power coupling responsible for the operation of all of the remaining medical pods had recently been reduced to little but melted scrap metal.

Vegeta awoke with a start to the sound of klaxons within the other pods blaring, before slowly lowering in volume as their power reserves leaked out. Adrenalin quickly flowing into his veins, he acted quickly, freeing himself from the tank before his vision blurred, and he fell to the ground. Upon inspection, he quickly determined that the chest wound he had inflicted on his own body was not sufficiently healed. It didn't take much to conclude that, without some means of adequate medical treatment, he would soon perish from blood loss, regardless of the repairs the healing tank had conducted over the course of its work.

Although his head still spun from blood loss and pain, Vegeta nevertheless managed to charge enough ki into the power of flight, ramming through the ship's hull once more. Unable to regulate his descent, he swiftly crashed into the dirt, but not before determining that there was still one Attack Ball remaining. Putting in every ounce of effort he could muster, he pushed himself up out of the dirt.

However, for a brief second, he felt an overpowering sensation in the back of his head. Even in his state, he could recognize that it meant a ki signature was nearby: one whose power was unlike any he had ever felt before. There was another stupendous power close to it, but this first one was still a league above. Vegeta couldn't believe that powers such as those existed in the world. Were his vital signs stable, he could perhaps identify with certainty who held each respective level of power. But, as it stood, his mind was far too clouded to devote the problem more than scant attention. He could mull over it when he wasn't slowly bleeding to death.

With one last, prolonged look off in the direction of the two ki signatures, Vegeta turned around, stumbling towards the crater as if in the midst of a drunken stupor, the only thought in his mind being to get off of the planet as soon as possible.

For a few tense seconds, neither Goku or Frieza said anything as they stared each other down, the capsule ship mere meters away from either of them. Frieza was simply left dumbfounded as Goku kept his eyes locked onto him, his hateful gaze unwavering from the intergalactic tyrant. Suddenly, however, a small sensation in the back of Goku's mind made itself known. For a moment, he was unsure what exactly it was. It definitely seemed to be somebody's ki signature, but with how faint it was, he couldn't quite make it out beyond the fact that it certainly didn't belong to Gohan, Krillin, or Yamcha. With a slight start, barely readable on his face, he glanced off to his left, where Piccolo's body lay sprawled out in front of the ship.

"No way..." he thought, and yet, when he focused on the signature, it was unmistakably coming from the body of his fallen friend.

Without wasting a moment, Goku sent off a wave of ki in the direction of Piccolo's body, supplementing the Namekian's rapidly draining reserves and then quickly surpassing any amount of ki the warrior could've held through his own power. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but slowly, a sickening sound could be heard if one was close enough to the body: a kind of squelching sound as torn pieces of flesh and bone began to mesh together, almost as if they were compelled by an unknown force. Goku continued pouring in energy, while Frieza simply looked on, even more confused.

"What the...?" the tyrant muttered to himself. "I-I killed him! He should be dead!"

And yet, before his eyes, the hole he himself tore through the warrior's chest, narrowly missing his heart, began to sew itself shut, and eventually, Piccolo's ki signature flared up in intensity. Goku shut off the flow of ki from his outstretched hand, and Piccolo's remaining injuries were swiftly attended to by the remaining reserves of ki which Goku had left in his body. Although severely weakened, Piccolo was unquestionably alive. He opened his eyes and pushed himself slightly off the ground with a start, a hand instinctively reaching towards the space where the hole had been. Finding himself relatively uninjured, Piccolo was then left to ponder this sudden change which had come over Goku, as well as his immense reserves of power.

"Can you move?" Goku asked, in a tone so devoid of emotion that it reminded Piccolo of his own manner of speaking in some instances. Hearing such a tone from a man like Goku left him more than a little perturbed, and all the more confused.

"Goku?" he asked weakly. "W-what happened to-?"

Goku suddenly turned towards him, looking him directly in the eyes.

"Maybe you didn't hear me. Can. You. Move?" he repeated, firmly yet with more than a hint of angry irritation. Piccolo felt compelled to respond promptly.

"Y-yes! Yes, I can, uh," he stammered out, rapidly pushing himself to his feet. "I can move."

Goku nodded wordlessly before jerking his head towards Gohan's body. "Take Gohan's body, take the ship, pick up Dende, then wait for my signal. There...there isn't anything left of the others."

"W-wait, but how will you-?"

"Did I fricking stutter?!" he snapped angrily, giving both Piccolo and Frieza pause. "If you stay here, you or Gohan's body might get caught in the crossfire! Take him, get to the ship, and get out of here now!"

Piccolo was left in shock. The Goku standing before him was completely unlike the man he knew. And he wasn't the only one stunned.

"Goku...something's happened to him," Kami said within Piccolo's mind. "This power...it seems to be fueled by rage. It's made him irritable, quick-tempered...almost vicious."

"Indeed. Our best course would be to do as he says."

"Quite."

Piccolo hurriedly moved over to where Gohan's body lay, scooping it up gently into his arms. He tried not to focus on the piercing gaze of the alien tyrant only scant feet away, who himself was confounded by proceedings. Eventually, however, as Piccolo stood for a few seconds to look at the form of his student, Frieza growled angrily to himself.

"I don't know what this transformation is, monkey," he spat out, "But I promised that I would not allow any of your companions to leave alive!" No sooner had a small point of bright pink ki began to form on his outstretched fingertips than Goku noticed the movement and sprung into action. Frieza fired the beam directly at Piccolo and the child in his arms, only for Goku to fly in faster than Frieza could react.

"HYAH!" he cried out, knocking the finger beam towards the ground with a swat of his hand and causing a small explosion in the dirt.

"What?!" Frieza cried out in surprise, before Goku sent him flying through the air with a powerful punch. "What?!" the tyrant thought, still only barely registering what was happening. No sooner had he begun to concentrate on stopping himself than Goku sent him flying into an island below with a powerful double blow to the back. Piccolo watched the battle with awe as he sensed merely a glimmer of Goku's newfound power, as a result of his weakened state.

"Incredible...his power alone could crush me into nothing..."

Kami chuckled in his mind. "Interesting. I would've thought you'd be angry that Goku has surpassed you even further, not awed beyond words."

"...I can multitask."

Shaking aside his inner thoughts, Piccolo turned to the task Goku had given him, carrying Gohan into the ship as fast as he could manage. After gingerly setting Gohan down onto the deck, Piccolo looked to the right of the body, expecting to find Nail's corpse not too far away. However, there was no such body to be found anywhere on the ship, leaving Piccolo somewhat taken aback. Kami chuckled inside of his mind.

"Obviously somebody interceded on our young friend's behalf with regards to keeping his body in Other World."

"Hm. Then he may very well receive training from King Kai himself. I am...admittedly curious to see the results of such training."

"Well, in any event...?"

"Ah, right. Of course."

Without any further comment, Piccolo put his thoughts on that subject aside and made his way to the ship's control panel.

"Ship, set a course away from this planet at maximum maneuvering speed."

After a few seconds, an affirmative beeping sound could be heard from a speaker nearby. "Command registered," the ship's A.I. responded. "Query: should departure be postponed until Son Goku is also aboard?"

Piccolo reached out with his senses for a moment. From what little he could tell, Frieza appeared to be firing off a flurry of attacks, which Goku parried easily with his own.

"...No. Take off immediately, and await my instructions once we're beyond the planet's orbit."

"Understood." The entry hatch sealed shut as Piccolo began to sense the rumbling of the ship's thrusters underneath him. "Take-off occurring in ten...nine...eight..."

Piccolo closed his eyes and reached out once more, seizing upon the strong, radiant light of Goku's ki. As he pondered its intensity, an array of conflicting emotions ran rampant throughout his mind. Anger, envy, confusion, injured pride. But, beyond all of that, there was something else: respect. A genuine, deep-seated respect, for the warrior who had been his rival throughout his entire life. Piccolo chuckled a bit to himself as the ship began to shudder, just about ready to launch.

"Good luck, Son Goku. I look forward to testing my strength against your own, once this battle is over."

With that, the ship lifted up off the ground, taking off at the maximum speed it could manage without breaking the light barrier. Frieza, now finding himself locked into melee combat with the Saiyan warrior, only briefly glimpsed the ship taking off out of the corner of his eye. With a growl of frustration, the tyrant suddenly powered up for an instant, overcoming Goku's guard and sending him flying backwards a few feet with a powerful blow. Free for a moment, he attempted to fire off a Death Beam at the retreating craft, but found himself stymied yet again as Goku moved faster than he could react to place himself in front of the beam.

Recoiling slightly from the direct hit and bleeding from his mouth, Goku was easy prey for a series of blows from Frieza, until the golden fighter was able to regain the advantage. Before the tyrant knew it, Frieza's right fist was caught inside of Goku's left hand, and try as he might, he could not free himself as Goku pressed down harder. Frieza clenched his teeth in an effort to repress the scream of pain threatening to come out as each bone in his hand collapsed with an audible crunch. Just when Frieza couldn't take it anymore, Goku suddenly let go, leaving him free to fly backwards away from the fighter. Cradling his broken hand in the other, Frieza looked at Goku with a mixture of fury and fear.

"You...where did you get such power?!" he asked, although, in the back of his mind, he knew. The legend changed considerably over the centuries, with few details being all that reliable. All that was known for certain was that the Super Saiyan would lust for battle above all else, was entirely without mercy, and possessed immense power. Above all, the legends said that this warrior would see his power unlocked through righteous fury, seeking to punish those who he considered to be evil.

Frieza wanted to deny it. He wanted to say that this was some fluke, some genetic abnormality. Perhaps that was exactly what it was, and he could simply curse his luck that the Saiyan he chose to fight possessed such an abnormality. But, as he stared back into the furious abyss of Goku's teal eyes, he began to connect the dots. Goku continued to do battle with him, and unlike before, he seemed to display little in the way of restraint or mercy. His power was certainly greater than half of Frieza's own, at the very least, perhaps more. And, above all, he'd only transformed after Frieza killed his son and companions. This, combined with the speech he'd just heard from him a moment before, led him to only one possible conclusion.

"I think you know the answer, Frieza. Even if, like me, you weren't entirely sure if you believed it," Goku replied with a smirk. Frieza's eyes widened sharply as Goku apparently divined his thought process. "I'm a Saiyan, who traveled here from Earth in order to save my friends, and defeat you. The legendary warrior, with a pure heart awakened by rage." Goku held out both of his hands and powered up even further as he accessed a deeper reserve of this new form's power. "I am Son Goku, the Super Saiyan!"

Frieza floated there in silence for a moment, before he began to chuckle with increasing frequency. Goku looked him in the eyes, seemingly unfazed by the tyrant's mad levity.

"So..." he said once he had finished, "there is truth to the legend, after all." After another round of chuckling, he let out a cry of frustration, letting his arms fall to either side of him as he found himself in a situation he wasn't sure if he could get out of.

"Damn him! Damn him to infinity! The idea that I, Lord Frieza, have been bested by a filthy, low-born Saiyan! This is a nightmare, that's what it is! I'm just going to wake up, and I'll kill him easily! I'll be victorious! I'll be Frieza!"

"Frieza...it's over," Goku said, startling Frieza from his thoughts. As Frieza's fury grew, Goku held out his hands and cupped them together in the familiar gesture, twisting his body so that his back was facing Frieza at an angle. As he readied himself to charge up a Kamehameha, Frieza growled, still unsure what to do yet more determined than ever to defeat the Saiyan warrior.

"The likes of you will never kill me," Frieza boasted. "I'd kill myself first!"

"Are you going to do something, Frieza, or are you content to just sit there?" Goku called out in response, before a thought occurred to him. "I was kind of hoping I'd get to see your full power before the end of this, but if you'd rather not try it, it's no skin off my nose."

Frieza's eyes widened slightly, before his brain began to conjure up an idea. "Yes...yes, that's it! He's only lasted this long against no more than 75% of my power! With 100%, it may be close...but between my ace in the hole and my sheer, unrestrained power, this 'Super Saiyan' will be reduced to nothing but cosmic dust! Yes, ohoho YES! All I need to do is take the time to charge up, and the monkey will soon find the tables turned against him!"

"So, monkey, you wish to see the absolute peak of my power?" Frieza asked. As Goku smirked a bit, he smirked in response. "Very well, but I warn you: no mortal being in the universe, not even my own father, could hope to match 100% of my power."

"We'll see about that," Goku replied. Without another word, he canceled his attack, allowing the ki to dissipate and crossing his arms together in front of his chest. "If you need to charge up for it, take as much time as you need. I'll wait."

Frieza laughed for the first time since the Saiyan had transformed, confident that he would soon triumph in this contest. "How gracious of you, monkey! I shall have to thank you for your generosity when I pound your face into the dirt!"

Goku's confident smirk only grew as Frieza held out his arms, ki beginning to build all around him as he began to go even further beyond. "And I'll have to thank you for giving me a halfway decent fight before I vaporize you into nothing."

Frieza grinned. "That's what you think, monkey!" As his ki began to build at an exponential rate, his muscles slowly expanded in mass, overflowing with the power he was pumping into them. Several cuts and bruises along his face, including his broken knuckles, stitched themselves together as the process continued, and Frieza's veins bulged all throughout his body as it strained to complete this latest, and greatest, transformation. Frieza laughed maniacally as he grew past 75% of his power, and even further beyond, while evidently struggling to concentrate on gathering his power.

"Behold, Super Saiyan! Behold, my power! BEHOLD, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!"

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO-!"

King Kai stood in a field at the outer edge of his planet's surface, watching the battle between Goku and Frieza unfold. Standing near the north kai's home, Roshi and Chiaotzu stood alongside a third figure who had just traveled to the Other World from another plane of existence. Sitting atop a crystal ball which seemed to float under its own power, a comically short woman in black robes and a witch's hat watched the martial arts master's panic with slight irritation.

"What's up with him?" Fortuneteller Baba asked. Roshi sighed.

"I'm not entirely sure," he remarked, slightly concerned himself. "He's been watching events transpire on Namek. It would seem he's been on edge for quite some time. He didn't even notice you come in!"

"Well, I'll let you have fun with that, little brother," she replied. "I'm only here to make sure that Chiaotzu here makes it back to the mortal coil." She paused as she looked down at the floating Earthling. "Assuming, of course, that you do indeed want to return?"

Chiaotzu nodded. "I'm sure that I could get pretty powerful if I stayed here, but, well..." He chuckled a little. "Between Tien's recklessness and Blonde Launch's impulsiveness, somebody has got to keep an eye on the two of them."

Baba chuckled in turn. "Yes, from what Roshi's told me about them, I'm sure that's true. Alright then! Come along, little guy. Let's get you back to your family."

Chiaotzu smiled. There really wasn't a better description.

"Say hello to everyone on Earth for me!" Roshi called over his shoulder. Baba grunted in response, before Roshi heard a loud pop, and she and Chiaotzu were gone. With this matter taken care of, Roshi turned his attention to more pressing concerns.

"King Kai, snap out of it!" Roshi bellowed, stopping him in the middle of his tirade. "What exactly is going on down there?"

"YOUR STUPID-!" King Kai began before taking a deep breath, trying in vain to calm himself down as he turned around to face Roshi. "Your stupid student is letting Frieza reach 100% of his power!"

Roshi nodded slowly. "...I see. And I'm assuming that your frantic screaming was a telepathic admonishment?"

King Kai nodded frantically. "I keep trying to contact him, but he's not answering! What is that man thinking?!"

Roshi put his hand onto King Kai's shoulder. "Relax, King Kai. Goku may be clueless...on a lot of things, but he's not a fool. He probably wishes to secure the best possible fight for himself, and he wouldn't do so if he wasn't confident that he would win no matter what."

"Hm. He was confident that he'd beat Frieza before, and found himself beaten utterly, an inch away from the grave. Even with this new transformation, I'm not certain that-"

"Hold up, transformation?" Roshi asked, confused. "Did he find some way to turn into a giant monkey again?"

King Kai shook his head, before his antennae perked up. "See for yourself," he said, and suddenly Roshi's vision of the surrounding area became interposed with a view of the planet Namek. Goku floated silently as Frieza continued to gather energy, just about ready to unleash the full extent of his power. Roshi stood there mesmerized by every detail: the enlarged muscles, the golden aura matching his spiked up golden hair, and his teal eyes. Above all, however, Roshi took note of the Saiyan's expression: enraged, yet also cold and calculating, with a hint of complete ruthlessness. An expression Roshi would've expected more of someone like Piccolo or Vegeta. Certainly not the bright, optimistic young man he had taken under his wing as a boy.

"It hasn't just altered his appearance," Roshi said. "It's done something to his mental state. He looks like an entirely different person." The old master paused, considering the situation at hand as he took his hand off of King Kai's shoulder. "What do you know about it?"

King Kai sighed as he recalled what information he could. "The Saiyans have a legend, one that has been passed among them since they left their original homeworld, Sadala. It states that a powerful warrior will be born among them every thousand years. None of them knew much about what this warrior would look like, only that they would desire to fight above all else, and that their rage would be awoken by righteous anger."

Roshi sighed regretfully. "If that's true...Frieza must've killed somebody alongside that Namekian warrior you'd requested to come here."

"He killed almost all of them."

Roshi's eyes widened with a start. "W-what?!"

King Kai nodded. "Krillin, Yamcha, and Gohan were taken out, one by one, while Dende was thrown into space by Frieza. If Goku hadn't transformed when he did, he and Piccolo may well have followed them." After a pause, King Kai added, "Touch my shoulder again. You should be able to sense their ki from here that way." Roshi complied, and indeed, he could sense the ki signatures of Gohan and his fallen students, roughly in the vicinity of King Yemma's chambers, along with several others he couldn't quite recognize. One of those two signatures appeared to be rapidly approaching the planet, but Roshi quickly identified it as belonging to Nail, who had been approved to receive training from King Kai, according to the man himself.

"Well...from the sound of things, that would definitely do it," Roshi finally said. King Kai nodded in agreement.

"And now, Goku has healed Piccolo and sent him off in his spaceship to find Dende, while he fights Frieza alone. If he fails..."

Roshi chuckled. "If there's one thing I've learned about Goku in all the years I've known him, it's that he gives his all in everything he does. He's been up against long odds before, and he's almost always managed to get the better of them in the end. I have a feeling that this latest fight won't be any different."

King Kai sighed as he resumed watching Goku's battle. "I hope that you're right, Roshi. For if not...Goku and his friends on Earth are surely doomed."

With no real follow up to a statement like that, the mood on King Kai's planet was somber for quite some time, before a telepathic message brought the pair of them out of their introspection.

"King Kai, are you there?"

King Kai's antennae perked up as the message came through, prompting Roshi to place his hand onto his shoulder to listen in.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Popo! Do you have any news?"

"Wait a second, Mr. Popo can contact you?"

King Kai chuckled. "But of course! Mr. Popo is a denizen of Other World himself. He is capable of contacting anyone he wishes here." Mr. Popo coughed in King Kai's mind, causing him to laugh nervously. "My apologies. You were saying?"

"Well, I was going to inform you that I have just found the seventh Dragon Ball and am ready to summon Shenron."

King Kai broke out into a massive grin, while Roshi was left confused. "Wait, what did he say?"

"He's found all of the Dragon Balls on Earth!"

Roshi couldn't help but smile in response to that as well, while Mr. Popo cleared his throat.

"Before I return to where the others are located and summon the dragon, is there a wish you want me to prioritize?"

King Kai thought for a moment before turning to Roshi. "The Dragon Balls of Earth can resurrect multiple people at once, right?"

Roshi nodded. "That's how me, Chiaotzu, Krillin, and all the other victims of King Piccolo and his spawn came back to life. Of course, our Dragon Balls also only have one wish, so..."

King Kai considered this. "Hm...well, with nobody left on Namek who could be put in danger and still revived by Earth's Dragon Balls, we might as well make use of their power to revive everyone now."

"In that case, I will return to the Namekians gathered on Earth and summon Shenron at once."

"Sounds good! Call me back if anything changes."

"Of course," Mr. Popo replied, ending the connection. King Kai breathed a heavy sigh, relieved now that he had one less thing to worry about.

"Well, I suppose all I have to do is contact King Yemma and ask him to-"

"King Kai, are you there?" a deep, somewhat growly voice asked inside of his mind, causing King Kai to take pause.

"Well...speak of the god," he said after a second. "What is it, Yemma?"

"I was just calling to inform you that I've approved two additional applicants for receiving training under you."

"Krillin and Yamcha?" King Kai asked, to which King Yemma grunted in response. "Ah, excellent! I was just about to call and ask you to funnel them through!"

"Well, I've undertaken the task of reforming their mortal bodies, so they should be ready to receive training. They flew off towards your planet just a minute ago. Judging by their power level, Krillin should be there in about...16 hours, give or take. Yamcha will take over a day and a half, unless Krillin helps him along."

"And, of course, Nail will be here in just another hour or two," King Kai said before sighing. "Truly remarkable."

"Well, in any event...oh! That's right! I was going to approve young Gohan as well, but I wasn't quite sure. Did you want me to send him your way as well?"

King Kai thought about it for a moment. "...No. I imagine the lad wants nothing more than to be reunited with his family in the world of the living. Besides, I'm not entirely sure what the boy has to learn from me, anyway. His body's still too undeveloped to properly handle the Kaio-ken, and he's so unbelievably strong that I doubt ten times gravity will have much of an effect on him."

"I understand. I will allow him to pass into the regular afterlife, for what little time he's likely to spend here."

"Got it. Have a nice day!"

"Likewise."

King Kai ended the connection with a somewhat more contented sigh, while Roshi looked over at King Kai with expectation evident on his features. He turned around with a slight smile.

"Well, Roshi...it would appear you're about to get some additional sparring partners."

"Ahhh...all done."

Frieza floated across from Goku, his muscles enlarged to titanic proportions and the last few nagging injuries left on him more or less healed. The tyrant smiled slightly, his satisfaction evident. Goku, meanwhile, uncrossed his arms, eager to engage in battle now that his foe was far stronger than before.

"Finally. Now that King Kai's stopped screaming into my skull, I can-"

Before Goku could even finish the thought, Frieza rammed his fist into his gut with all of his power, causing Goku to let out a sudden gasp of air. Capitalizing on this, Frieza followed up with a series of attacks from all directions, at speeds far faster than he had managed before. When he had beat up on Goku to his satisfaction, Frieza decided to finish him off with a special technique. After the tyrant took a second to channel his ki, Goku found himself encased in a yellow sphere of ki, from which no escape seemed immediately possible. With a sadistic grin on his face, Frieza kicked the sphere off into the distance, where it exploded at a distant point with enough force to vaporize the entire area of impact. Frieza waited a couple seconds before he began to laugh heartily.

"So much for 'the legendary Super Saiyan!' Now you're nothing but the legendary corpse! AHAHAHAHA-!"

Suddenly, however, he felt a rush of wind hit his face, and stared into the eyes of the same man he thought he'd killed. His gi was tattered from the explosion, and several slight cuts and burn marks could be perceived along his body, but by and large, he looked none the worse for the attack.

"I-Impossible...I wasn't holding back at all..."

Goku smirked. "So that wasn't a warm up? Well...that's disappointing." Without any warning, the Super Saiyan flew up to Frieza and punched him in the chest. Unlike in Goku's case, several ribs audibly gave way under the impact, leaving Frieza struggling to repress a cry of pain. Only a second later, Goku floated backwards before kicking Frieza upside the head with a roundhouse kick, sending him sprawling towards the ground.

As Frieza struggled to get up, Goku landed nearby and slowly walked over to where he had hit the dirt. "Of course, I'm not sure I was expecting too much. You flat out admitted I was hitting two-thirds of your power before, and at this point, you're looking pretty worse for wear. So, if this is the best you can do..." His aura flared up as he said the words, evidently waiting for Frieza to get back up. The tyrant looked at him with seething fury.

"You want to see the best I can do?!" he asked, causing Goku to smirk even further. With an angry battle cry, Frieza's purple aura flared up as well, and he flew at Goku with only slightly less speed than before. The tyrant unleashed another flurry of blows, but Goku blocked all of them with little effort.

"Hey, not bad! You're actually making me try a little here!" Goku taunted, angering his opponent even more. Even so, although he was more determined than ever to break Goku's guard, Frieza still found himself stymied at every turn. Eventually, an attempt at a right hook from Frieza was easily avoided, prompting Goku to move to Frieza's side and grab onto his tail. Before Frieza could react, the Saiyan swung him around for several seconds and threw him into the air. Frieza grit his teeth and poured a considerable amount of energy into stopping himself. As he looked down at the golden warrior below, his rage only grew.

"No...no, this can't be happening! I'm fighting at full power! How strong could this monkey be?!"

Goku, meanwhile, smiled slightly in anticipation, ready to test the mettle of his opponent. "Let's kick things up a notch, shall we?" He began charging another Kamehameha between his hands, looking towards the distant form of Frieza with a mixture of anticipation and grim determination. After a few seconds, he began to sense something unusual from the tyrant: his ki began to increase even more, just seconds before he let out another cry of defiance. His muscles bulked up even further, and he began to surround himself in a massive sphere of purple ki before flying towards the Saiyan warrior at a reduced speed.

Goku took a deep breath. Based on what additional power he could sense coming from Frieza, he didn't have too much to worry about, but it couldn't hurt to put some extra punch into his own attack anyway. He charged up what ki he could manage under the circumstances, given his own injuries and the apparent limits of this new transformation. When Frieza was only a couple dozen meters away, Goku decided it was now or never.

"Prepare to die, Frieza!" Goku bellowed as he readied himself to fire. "KAMEHAMEHA!"

A massive, brilliant blue beam of ki shot out from Goku's outstretched hands and met Frieza's energy sphere head on, colliding in a dramatic display of flashing lights. Although incredibly durable, Frieza could quickly tell that he and the sphere were being slowed down in their effort to effectively combat Goku's attack. He attempted to escape, but soon found that the sphere's impressive durability was likewise beginning to falter under Goku's assault. As a result, he was forced to concentrate all of his energy into maintaining the sphere, while continuing to search for a means of dodging the attack before it could collapse the sphere entirely. Frieza may have succeeded had Goku not powered up even further with a mighty battle cry, pouring even more energy into the Kamehameha and causing the sphere to slowly break down. Frieza watched with growing horror as, despite his best efforts, the sphere grew smaller and smaller under the weight of the Kamehameha.

Bracing himself for the impact, Frieza decided to refocus his efforts entirely onto escape, dropping the sphere and powering up as much as he could. With a single burst of flight, Frieza managed to launch himself clear of the attack, but not before it tore a small gash through his side. As purple blood spurted out of the wound, Frieza scrambled to repair it, his position in the air faltering as he did so.

So preoccupied was he that he failed to notice Goku's retreating Kamehameha beam suddenly veering away from its intended course away from the planet, and bearing down directly onto the galactic emperor's back. No sooner had Frieza heard the noise of the beam behind him and turned around to investigate than it hit him head on, sending him flying backwards. Caught on the defensive and still reeling from his brush with it the first time, Frieza was caught completely unprepared.

Although he tried in vain to block the attack with a second energy sphere, he could feel his reserves draining bit by bit the longer he remained in contact with it. Even with all of his power behind him, he could do little but slow down the rate at which he was thrown backwards by the attack. Like before, the shell of purple ki protecting his body gave out, much faster than before, and he was left blocking it with nothing but his own body. It didn't take long for this, too, to become too much for the tyrant to bear. With no means of escape and his arms already burning from the strain, Frieza was completely enveloped by the beam, forced to devote what energy he had left towards protecting himself as the brilliant blue light of the Kamehameha completely filled his vision.

Several minutes prior, a helicopter could be heard beginning its landing sequence overhead, forcing some of the Namekians sitting in the clearing just outside West City to clear the area ahead of time. The warriors and younger villagers, easily among the most able bodied of the Namekians assembled, were left the unenviable task of transporting their fallen brothers onto the craft once it landed, and they began carrying the corpses to spots near the landing site almost as soon as they heard it arriving. Tsuno, having left the Lookout, supervised the Namekians, doing his best to mask his sadness at the sight of his fellow elders. Bulma, meanwhile, sat with Tien and Launch, watching her father's craft touch down and doing some catching up. Launch remained in her blonde form, leaning onto Tien until he winced slightly.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Launch asked, with a concern Bulma wouldn't have expected from her in this form. Tien waved it off.

"My leg's just a bit sore, that's all."

Launch put her finger to her chin. "Really? Well, that would make sense, seeing as you weren't supposed to start walking on it for another two days!"

Tien chuckled. "The doctor is being overly cautious about this whole thing."

"Uh, hello?! She's your doctor-it's her job to be overly cautious when it comes to your health!"

"I know what my body is capable of, Launch. I know the pace at which it can recover."

Launch let out a long, drawn out sigh before looking Tien in the eyes. "Just...please, at least try to take it easy for a while?"

Tien was left speechless for a second before nodding. "I'll try."

Bulma, meanwhile, had to make a considerable effort to hide her amusement at the whole exchange, but found herself relieved when the helicopter finally touched down. Bulma got up off the ground and began walking towards it now that the noise had died down.

"Alright, there it is. Let's load everyone up, and we can settle them inside of-OH GOD!"

As luck would have it, she had been only seconds away from walking directly into the path of Fortuneteller Baba and Chiaotzu. As it stood, their sudden appearance left her extremely terrified, and she stumbled backwards in her attempt to get away before fully processing who exactly it was.

"Wait...is that-?"

"CHIAOTZU!" Tien and Launch cried simultaneously, just as the small figure floated off of the crystal ball and rocketed towards them as fast as he could fly. The three met in a joyous group hug, Launch perhaps squeezing him a bit too hard. Bulma smiled at the exchange while Baba chuckled.

"Welp, you kids have fun. I need to get back home pronto, and unfortunately, this thing only goes between here and Other World, so it's gonna take me a bit."

The three paused as Launch and Tien turned their attention to her for a moment.

"Thank you," Tien said, to which Baba simply smiled before teleporting back to Other World. Now given the time to settle down while the Namekians busied themselves with loading the bodies onto the massive helicopter, Tien was able to notice something subtly different about Chiaotzu. "Hang on a second...you got stronger!"

Chiaotzu chuckled. "I didn't end up doing too much once I arrived at King Kai's planet, but I did manage to do some rudimentary exercises in the week I was there."

Tien was left stunned. "One week of training is the cause of this?"

"From what I heard, it mostly had to do with the gravity. It's ten times ours."

Tien thought this over for a moment while Bulma chimed in. "Huh. You know, the ship Goku and Piccolo left on had a device designed to go up to one hundred times Earth gravity. I could probably build a training chamber over at Capsule Corp with that technology, if you'd like."

Tien smiled slightly. "Yes, that would be most appreciated." "Particularly if I have any hope of catching up to either of them."

Bulma smiled. "Great! I'll talk to my dad about it when we get to Capsule Corp." She turned around and began walking towards the helicopter once more. "With luck, we should be able to get something set up pretty soon, so you can-AGH!"

She found herself stopped in her tracks as Mr. Popo teleported in directly in front of her, sitting atop his magic carpet. While she was left furious over the odds of this happening twice in one day, Mr. Popo stepped off calmly and took out a bag hanging from his side.

"I have successfully gathered the Dragon Balls," he announced to the people assembled, causing everyone to pause in what they were doing. Bulma's face brightened up upon hearing this news.

"Great! So what are we waiting for? Let's make that wish already!"

Mr. Popo nodded, and moved to an open space far enough away from the helicopter before opening the bag and allowing the Dragon Balls to spill out onto the grass.

"Now, before we begin, are we certain of the wish we would like to ask of Shenron?"

"Wishes," Tsuno interjected, leaving everyone surprised.

"Wait, hang on, wishes? As in, more than one?" Chiaotzu asked, to which Tsuno nodded.

"When I was restoring your Dragon Balls, I was able to modify them slightly. As before, no wish can be cast more than once, and wishes to revive multiple people are still limited by a one year time frame. However, the Dragon Balls of Earth can now cast a maximum of three wishes, two if one of the wishes used restores multiple people to life."

The group was further astonished by this information, while the slightest hint of irritation passed on Mr. Popo's features.

"You could've informed me of this before I began my search."

Tsuno chuckled slightly. "Forgive me. That was an oversight on my part."

Mr. Popo nodded. "Well, in any event, we will at the very least have two wishes to ask of Shenron. What should those wishes be?"

The group thought about this for a moment before Bulma piped up. "Well, we obviously want to bring back all of the Namekians killed by Frieza and his men, but Nappa and Vegeta killed a lot of people on Earth, too. So, if we can group the two together somehow, then we should be able to bring back everyone, provided they weren't already brought back by the Dragon Balls."

Chiaotzu furrowed his brow in thought. "What if we phrased the wish to revive everyone killed by Frieza and anyone who works for him or used to work for him? From what King Kai told me and Master Roshi about what was happening on Namek, that would include Vegeta and Nappa."

Bulma and Tien nodded. "It's worth a shot," Bulma remarked.

"And the second wish?" Mr. Popo asked, yet received little to no response from the group. "Well, I suppose we can 'play it by ear,' as it were."

Over the next couple minutes, the other Namekians, aware that their brothers would soon be revived, gently set down the bodies they were still carrying and made sure to arrange the ones loaded into the helicopter as comfortably as they could. When this task was completed to Tsuno's satisfaction, he nodded towards Mr. Popo.

"Now...let us begin." With a deep breath, Mr. Popo looked upwards towards the sky and began the incantation. "Eternal Dragon, by your name, I summon you forth: Shenron!"

Upon completing this proclamation, the Dragon Balls began to glow with a brilliant yellow light, and a massive beam shot forth towards the heavens before forming into the familiar shape of the Eternal Dragon. As the sky became black as night and dark clouds hung over the group, Shenron looked down upon Mr. Popo and spoke in its booming voice.

"I AM THE ETERNAL DRAGON. STATE YOUR WISHES AND I SHALL GRANT THEM."

The others gulped nervously. No matter how often they did this, Shenron was always a little intimidating. Mr. Popo spoke up, unaffected by the dragon's intimidating aura.

"Eternal Dragon! We ask that you bring back to life every good person who was killed by Frieza, or anyone who serves or has served under him, within the last year! Some of them are quite a distance from this planet...can you do it?"

The dragon didn't change his expression much, but somehow, the group assembled could tell that he was deep in thought. "I AM NOT COMPLETELY CERTAIN. NEVERTHELESS, I SHALL DO MY BEST TO REVIVE THE NAMEKIANS, THE PEOPLE OF EAST CITY, AND THE EARTHLINGS YAMCHA AND GOHAN, ALONG WITH THE REST OF FRIEZA'S VICTIMS."

With this, Shenron's eyes glowed red, and a loud whine could be heard for some distance around where the dragon floated above. All throughout the clearing and within the helicopter, Namekians who had been long dead before suddenly found themselves restored, with no injuries upon their person. Tsuno and the Namekians joyously greeted their brothers, and Bulma and the others were so captivated by the touching sight that it took them a minute to process what Shenron had just said.

"...Wait, Yamcha's dead?!" Bulma suddenly cried out.

"Gohan's dead?!" Launch asked, equally shocked.

"NOT ANYMORE," Shenron replied promptly, his eyes having returned to their usual intensity. "IN ANY EVENT, I CAN NOW ONLY GRANT ONE MORE WISH. STATE IT, SO THAT I MAY RETURN TO MY SLUMBER."

Mr. Popo cleared his throat and replied calmly.

"Eternal Dragon, we are unsure at this time what our second wish will be. Could you, perhaps, grant us some additional time to decide? Say...five minutes?"

The dragon looked down at Mr. Popo with what passed for irritation on its face, and for the first time, slight sweat drops began to form along the genie's brow. Eventually, it let out a low roar, which could almost be construed as an exasperated sigh.

"...FINE."

Goku floated above the area where a mountain once stood, but which had since been reduced to rubble by his latest attack. He couldn't quite sense Frieza's ki for a second, before the signature slowly grew brighter. With a slight smirk, he flew down to the source, finding a pile of rubble slowly shifting, as if something was attempting to escape. Goku crossed his arms and waited patiently for the tyrant to escape. After a few seconds, a massive kiai blew all of the rocks to rubble, and Frieza was left panting and furious as Goku looked on with bemusement. His body was flecked all over with cuts and bruises. In particular, both his arms were severely burned all the way to the shoulder from the effort of holding back Goku's attack, and his head sported some of the worst cuts he'd received. Goku regarded the tyrant before speaking up.

"So," he said. "You're not dead."

Frieza let out a bitter laugh, coughing heavily due to his injuries. "You wish."

Goku smiled, a particularly sinister expression forming on his face. "Great." Frieza got up off the ground and into a combat stance, while Goku held out his arms and powered up as much as he could. "Now...it's time for me to teach you a lesson."

Frieza laughed in spite of the pain. "Oh, really?"

Goku nodded before looking at Frieza with a hardened scowl. "I'm going to teach you their names."

Without any warning, Goku flew up to Frieza faster than he could see, and rammed his fist into Frieza's chest, breaking every rib in his body that had yet to be broken.

"Gohan."

Not missing a beat, Goku took a step back while Frieza bowled over slightly, before roundhouse kicking him in the face, sending him to the ground.

"Krillin."

Goku walked calmly towards Frieza, who barely managed to get up and attempt to punch Goku. Seeing the attack coming a mile away, Goku sidestepped out of the way before turning around and grabbing the extended arm. With some slight effort, Goku managed to break the tyrant's arm with a swift chop from his other hand, causing him to wince in pain.

"Yamcha."

As Frieza clutched his broken arm, Goku stepped back, placed both arms on Frieza's shoulders, and headbutted the tyrant with enough force to send him stumbling back several feet.

"Nail."

Frieza stumbled further, slightly dizzy from the impact, and looked at Goku with blurred vision.

"This is for them."

Frieza attempted another pass, firing a ki blast from his good hand, but this was easily sidestepped and countered with a powerful right hook, sending Frieza sprawling to the ground.

"For my father!"

Frieza tried to push himself up off the ground, but before he could do so, Goku grabbed his head with both hands and kneed the tyrant directly in the face, breaking his nose.

"For my mother!"

Frieza fell flat onto the ground, pushing himself back into a standing position solely through the power of flight and charging towards him as Goku readied the final blow.

"For everyone you've killed!" he cried before charging all of his ki into a single strike just as Frieza was inches away from the Saiyan. Goku's attack dug deep into the right side of Frieza's chest...and came out the other side.

With a strangled gasp, Frieza's readied arm fell to his side, and he looked down in horror to find that Goku's arm was soaked in his blood. The Saiyan's attack had cleaved straight through the tyrant's chest, in an area which Goku seemed to know wouldn't be immediately lethal. With no further words on his part, Goku promptly yanked his arm back to his side, the action punctuated by the sickening sound of flesh being torn apart. Frieza cried out in pain as he felt copious amounts of blood pouring from the wound. He sunk to his knees, clutching the wound with both hands as blood seeped from his mouth. Goku took a step back and looked at Frieza with a scowl.

"I imagine there's still a functioning space pod around here somewhere," he said, surprising Frieza. "I suggest you find it, immediately."

Frieza's eyes widened a little. "You're...letting me...go?" he asked incredulously. Goku nodded.

"For now, anyway. You wanna know why?" he asked, to which the tyrant was unsure how to respond. Goku pressed on nonetheless. "I'm letting you go because I'm hoping that you're going to live. That you'll learn of what's going to happen next." Goku paused as he grabbed Frieza by the throat, stopping just an inch short of choking the life out of him. "As soon as my friends and family are back safely on Earth, I'm going to go back out into space, and I'm going to start killing whoever tries to replace you. Your father, your mother, whatever trusted soldiers you may have out there in the universe. One by one, no matter how many people try to take your place. Sooner or later, your forces are bound to realize that the 'legendary Super Saiyan' is more than they can chew, and that any attempt to hold on to your empire is doomed to fail. So, they'll stop trying. Your empire will collapse, and all of the people you've spent decades ruling with an iron fist will be free. And in the end? When all of this is said and done, and I find whatever crevice you've hidden yourself in and finish the job...nobody is going to mourn your death. Everything that you and your family have ever accomplished will be reduced to nothing. All at the hands...of a worthless. Low-class. Saiyan."

With one last long, drawn out glare, Goku let Frieza go and took a step back before floating upwards, gradually turning away from Frieza as he flew up into the sky, intent upon contacting his friends. With some noticeable effort, Frieza tilted his head upwards as he focused on roughly repairing what damage he could with ki.

"He's just...leaving me here," he thought. "Leaving me to find a ship, and return to my empire." For a brief moment, Frieza considered taking Goku's advice and trying to find a ship, but after reflecting on the indignities he had suffered, he angrily decided against it. "No...no, I will not turn tail and run from such a lowly creature! I...I won't be the one who dies."

Frieza held both of his hands over his head, and began pouring as much ki as he possibly could into his final resort: a small, chaotic sphere of crackling red ki, with orange ki forming its center. With a mad, gleeful look on his features, he looked down towards the ground as he continued to charge the attack.

"Tell me, Super Saiyan!" he cried out, pained by the wound in his chest. "I can survive...in the vacuum of space! How...about you?!"

As luck would have it, Goku began to sense the tyrant's attempt to gather ki from where he had left him, and turned around just in time to see that the tyrant had charged as much ki into it as he was willing to. Goku's eyes widened, and he flew as fast as he could to try and stop the tyrant, charging a ki blast in his right hand in an attempt to finish him off quickly.

"N-NO!" Goku cried out, but just as he was about to fire the ki blast, Frieza sent the ball flying into the ground and towards the planet's core. With a muffled boom, the two were buffeted backwards by a massive shockwave, followed only an instant later by a massive flash of light.

Elsewhere, now out of Namek's orbit, the Capsule ship's computer flew carefully around the nearby area, guided only by what Piccolo's senses could gleam about the location of Dende. After what felt like an eternity of tiptoeing around minor space debris, a small thump could be heard just around where the airlock was located. With a start, Piccolo moved to open up the outer hatch, and sure enough, he could sense what he recognized as Dende's ki signature making its way onto the ship. Piccolo closed the seal and opened up the inner hatch, allowing Dende to collapse into the Capsule ship, gasping heavily. Piccolo rushed to his side, carefully stepping past Gohan's body and making his way to the end of the ship. He arrived to find Dende lying on his back, still breathing heavily and apparently covered in ice crystals. A quick kiai from Piccolo shattered the crystals, allowing Dende to begin to recover.

"That was...horrifying..." Dende muttered breathlessly, still only starting to breathe normally. Piccolo nodded.

"I can imagine. But, not to worry-you'll be safe here." He held out a hand, which Dende graciously accepted, and the two made their way back to the control room.

"I couldn't quite sense much after I was thrown into space, other than Goku's ki reaching enormous heights. Although...I sensed Gohan's ki die down. Is he...?"

Piccolo grimaced. "Yes. He was killed by Frieza along with Yamcha and Krillin. I was tasked by Goku to keep Gohan's body here so that he can return to it when he is eventually revived with the Dragon Balls. Hopefully that won't take too-" Suddenly, the Namekians took pause, as they both sensed the tiniest fraction of an enormous source of power not too far from where they both stood. Recognizing it immediately, Piccolo and Dende rushed to where Gohan's body had been left, just in time to see the young boy slowly opening his eyes.

"What the...? What happened? Why am I-?" The boy's questions were cut short as Piccolo scooped up the child and held him close to his chest, without even thinking. After a couple seconds of this, Gohan found the time to speak up. "Um...Mr. Piccolo? You're...kinda crushing me." Piccolo's cheeks shifted to a darker shade of green, and he quickly set the child down.

"Ah, yes, of course. I was simply...uh..." Gohan just smiled.

"I missed you too," he said, and the slightest hint of a genuine smile could be seen on his mentor's face. However, suddenly, Gohan's attention was diverted towards the direction of the planet, where he was able to sense both Goku and Frieza's ki with astonishing clarity. "Whoa! Is that-?!"

"Indeed," Piccolo remarked.

"Oh, man, Daddy's ki is insane! Frieza's at only a fraction of his strength!"

"So it would appear," Piccolo replied. "I imagine you have a much better picture of the situation than I do."

"Hm..." Gohan thought aloud before something made him stop. From what he could tell, Goku appeared to be moving away from Frieza unopposed, heading towards the upper atmosphere. "Wait...why is he leaving?" Before he had much time to ponder that, though, he noticed something else: a slight shift in Frieza's ki signature, almost imperceptible. Although it increased slightly in power, it primarily felt...occupied. Like it was concentrating all of its energy into a single attack of devastating potency. At first, Gohan assumed it was a last ditch attack against Goku, and yet for some reason, he didn't think it was a normal attack, either. He began to think it over.

"Okay...so my enemy is significantly stronger than me...and any techniques I may have which can hurt people stronger than me either wouldn't work or still aren't strong enough. Let's also assume that I don't care about anything alive on the planet I'm on, because I'm the bad guy, and at this point, all I care about is beating my enemy. In that case, given my level of power, and that my enemy appears to be distracted, the soundest method of ensuring his defeat is...oh crap!"

"Ship, get us further away!" Gohan cried out. A harsh noise came from the computer in response.

"Voice command not recognized." By this point, Piccolo noticed.

"Gohan, I don't understand. Why must we-Gohan!" Gohan rushed towards the control console, glancing towards one of the many windows along the side of the ship and finding the planet Namek, still appearing to be intact and still appearing fairly large, given their moderate distance from it.

"We have to move, quickly! Frieza's going to-!"

No sooner had he tried to finish his sentence when the planet outside their windows suddenly exploded in a gigantic plume of yellow light stretching for hundreds of miles in two directions. Before any of them could respond, a massive shockwave hit the ship, and for a moment, everything faded to black.

Alrighty! We are now done with the penultimate chapter of the Frieza Saga!

Honestly, although I'm pretty sure this is the longest chapter I've ever written, it was not easy to get to this point. I took forever to start and put it together piece by piece, working on it right up until the last day before publishing and going through a lot of different conceptual scenes before settling on all of this. I'm hopeful that you guys will enjoy it nonetheless.

There are some things I am going to want to talk about at the end of this saga, but those can wait a couple weeks. In the meantime, responses!

ashlovesdbz says:

"omg omg omg i was NOT expecting that. my poor gohan ;(. And Yamcha and Krillin I guess lol. I really hope they aren't ALL actually dead but if they were it'd make for a great plot twist! Anyways keep up the great work!"

Thank you, and yep, I acknowledge that may have been one of my more soulless alterations in this fic. =) Don't worry, though, Yamcha and Gohan are breathing now, and besides that, Piccolo's alive! Anyway, glad you're enjoying this, and I hope you stick around for the finale!

(Also, readers, if you like fluffy DBZ fics, look them up. They've got potential =) )

Ushindeshi says: "Awesome chapter." Why, thank you!

RKF22 says: "Excellent work!" Thanks!

GhostKing666 says:

"Jeice lived in the Brench system(it's a two star system with at least two inhabitable planets considering that Jeice and Salza's backstories have them live on two different planets from the same star system, possibly more depending on how much terraforming work their race has done) long enough for Jeice to play as a pitcher for Galactic Little League(his baseball experience was where he developed his Crusher Ball apparently, he's basically the Ginyu's Yamcha). He basically spent his whole childhood and probably teenage years there, possibly more considering how old he is(as shown in the Broly movie, all the Ginyu's were around and working as part of the Ginyu force since before Vegeta was born or even before King Cold handed the empire over to Frieza). X10's Earth's gravity would do as little for him as it would for Nappa or anyone other Saiyan born and raised on planet Vegeta. Hell it probably wouldn't even do much for Recoome either, sure it's better then regular gravity but he wouldn't have anymore problems on Zoon then he did on planet Vegeta unless he loaded himself down with huge weights."

I...was not aware of the Galactic Little League part of Jeice's backstory. ...I mean, it's Toriyama, so I guess it makes sense.

Also, yeah, that's all fair, but at the very least, he would be training, and he'd have Recoome as a sparring partner. And speaking of Recoome, unless he's regularly stationed on planets with ten times Earth gravity, he probably still wouldn't be as used to it as the likes of Jeice or Goku. I think it would still give him a little trouble, which in turn would give Jeice a tougher sparring partner. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, Idk how level I'll keep their respective power levels. Anywho, I'll keep all of this in mind, but at this point, it'll be a while before we go back to them.

Cerric says:

"A nice, meaty chapter, I see! Alright: my thoughts as I read:

I really liked Piccolo's simple observation that Frieza was stronger than Goku. The way you wrote it into the scene felt very right."

Yeah, Piccolo's always struck me as a very blunt and frank character in most situations. He wouldn't mince words here.

"Yamcha saying Lord and Goku saying God makes me wonder about the deities other than Kami (I guess?) floating around on Earth."

Tbh, I'd always found it a little weird in fics where the characters say "Kami" in place of "God," because I was never quite sure if Kami's existence was commonly acknowledged or spoken of by the people of Earth. In the absence of that, I decided to stick with what I figured were simple expressions referring to the existence of some higher power out there somewhere.

"You wrote Frieza very well in this chapter. I definitely think your characterization of him in his final form is your best yet. I also love how you described him as the Spirit Ball pressed down on him with a sense of doom."

Thank you! And yeah, I really wanted to sell the dread Frieza feels in that moment, and also kinda replicate how a reader would feel seeing something like that blind. I mean, anyone going off canon knows he isn't dead, but this is a fic, so for all you know, he might actually be dead. Yeah, most fans would probably still bet even money that he isn't, but I work with what I'm given.

"I really like the characterization/looking outward you added in between everybody after the spirit bomb. The use of the spaceship for Frieza's reappearance was also a nice touch- added a distinct scene of your own to the story."

Yeah, it seemed odd for the characters to just kinda leave space alone after Frieza's supposed death on Namek. Like, they have to know somebody will come around to replace him, you know?

"Same for the parallelism you had going on between Frieza's monologue and Goku's thoughts. Polarizes them in a really cool, thematic, evil-and-righteousness kind of way.

I like the touches you added to the transformation sequence, too.

Overall, this was a really good chapter, dang! Every sentence Frieza uttered felt totally his own. Keep 'em coming."

Once again, thanks! Means a lot coming from you. Hope you enjoy the finale as well!

(*cough* Also check out Strength of Many guys *cough*)

So, with those taken care of, time for power levels!

Piccolo(severely weakened): 20,000

Frieza(100%): 100,000,000

Frieza(enraged): 110,000,000

Goku(Super Saiyan): 215,000,000 at max, but for his maximum right now, given his injuries, I'd say a little over 190,000,000 is more than fair.

Frieza(100%, severely injured): 80,000,000, and falling fast

Chiaotzu(post-training): 1,000

Roshi(in-training): 1,500

Tien(recovering): 2,200, 2,750 at max power

With all that said, thank you all for reading, have yourselves a fantastic day, and take care! See you for the finale!

(Edit 7/16/19): Made some minor edits to the introductory scene and some other things at the suggestion of a friend. Thanks for understanding!

(Edit 1/9/20): A few minor retcons in order to fit with the chapters to come, and to clear up a couple of plot holes. I realized a while back that phrasing the wish as "everyone who was killed by Frieza and anyone who worked under him or used to work under him" would include Nappa and Ginyu, which would just muck things up, so I finally just rephrased it to include only good people. Sorry about that!