It had long since grown dark when the Capsule Ship entered the atmosphere of the forbidding planet, and it wasn't long before Goku felt the turbulent winds which were slamming into the ship from every direction. Still, the engine wasn't the only design element Doctor Briefs chose to lift from Goku's old Attack Ball, and as such, the Capsule Ship remained intact throughout its descent.

Goku got up out of bed and took a deep breath as he felt the winds subside, readying himself to transform back into Super Saiyan after he had spent all of the last day resting before the coming battle. Over the last couple of months he spent alone in space, Goku had honed his control over the Super Saiyan form even further, although he had admittedly been slightly set back ever since his training partner had left. Still, although the additional emotional impulses the form brought out in him had hardly subsided completely, Goku knew he was far more like himself as a Super Saiyan than he had previously been. He was also pleased to note that that adjustment in his mindset appeared to produce a corresponding improvement in the amount of power he could draw out while he was transformed. His base power hadn't changed by that much, but his power as a Super Saiyan had certainly increased by a noticeable degree. Based on the power which he sensed from below, King Cold wouldn't know what hit him.

And yet...that was the strange part of this whole situation. Once he woke up, he would have expected to sense thousands upon thousands of people down below. After all, Planet Chilled was the capital of King Cold's empire, at least based on what he'd been told by Jamba and King Kai. From what he knew about capitals, that should have meant a whole bunch of people would be living there. However, all he could sense was that single immense power down below, and as he flew up to the nearest window, there weren't any buildings or spaceships in sight, either. The place was completely desolate: a barren, frigid wasteland with no life growing anywhere he could see. Something wasn't right.

"Uh...computer?" he asked, just before the computer spoke up.

"Attention: landing on the surface of Planet Chilled in one minute."

"Computer, are you sure? I'm barely sensing anybody-"

Before Goku could say anything else, a sharp spike in power came to his attention like a needle being jabbed into his temples. Had he been less alert, and only as skilled with his new transformation as when he had started his journey, he wouldn't have been able to do anything before the second fighter struck a killing blow. As it stood, however, Goku had just enough time to power up to Super Saiyan and take the surprise attack head-on, an attack which swiftly tore through the hull of the Capsule Ship and out the other end, taking him along with it. As he heard the ship begin to fall apart as it plummeted towards the surface, Goku tried to get a good look at his assailant. He heard a grunt of annoyance, followed by the unmistakable sensation of someone channeling their ki into something else. Before he could react, he was abruptly let go, sent flying into a barren mountain in a trail of purple ki before the entire mountain was vaporized in a massive explosion.

Left winded and still trying to process everything that was going on, Goku got up from what little rubble there was and dusted himself off, shivering slightly as portions of his bare chest were exposed to the frigid conditions. He took a few breaths, breaths which were slightly more haggard than normal, even under these circumstances. He wasn't quite sure what was going on with that, but clearly there were more important matters to attend to.

"Hang on...where did King Cold-?" was as far as Goku's thoughts went before he sensed another spike in energy, and dropped to the ground just in time to avoid a heavy blow from a massive, light purple fist. Wasting no time, Goku quickly kicked outwards with his right leg, jamming his foot into the torso of a large figure who immediately doubled over in pain. Goku took the opportunity to leap away from his second assailant and get a good look at who he was facing. The hulking size of the figure, coupled with the massive horns on the helmet he wore and the figure's deep voice, definitely reminded Goku of Frieza's second transformation. At the same time, however, the voice sounded different from Frieza's, and Goku could tell that the figure's ki was identical to the ki signature he had sensed before the fight began. What's more, he could sense that it was stronger this time. Meaning that both of his assailants could adjust their power levels, and could be hiding a significant portion of their true strength.

This was going to be a lot harder than he'd thought.

"Well, I must say I'm impressed, Son Goku!"

A new voice, which took Goku a second to locate, appeared to be coming from a heavily armored figure he could just barely make out in the darkness, floating above him and the other attacker. From what he could tell, the person appeared to be the one who had just thrown him into the mountain, using a ki technique which was very similar to something he had experienced only once before.

"That...was Frieza's move. But who...?" he asked, his eyes widening for a second before the figure laughed.

"Ah, yes, my brother and I learned many of the same techniques in our adolescence," the figure replied. "You may refer to me as Emperor Cooler."

Goku nodded, although he could faintly hear a grunt of disapproval coming from the figure recovering behind him. "So...you're his brother then," he said, taking a bit longer to speak for some odd reason, and turned to the figure behind him. "And I'm assuming you're King Cold?" he asked, to which the second figure could only nod with a slightly pained expression on his face. "But...how do you know my name?"

This time, the second figure chuckled from behind him, having recovered enough to respond to Goku's question. "I have my sources," he replied, causing Goku to grimace.

"You knew I was coming," Goku said simply, that much being easy enough to grasp. "You knew I was coming...because-" He paused, his eyes widening as he came to a conclusion which fit all of the facts available to him. "Damn," he muttered, gritting his teeth. He should've known. A distress call which just so happened to be within range for him to lend assistance. A man who had allegedly been a skilled engineer with years of experience working on spaceships. A man with that skillset who could have accessed his ship's computer any time Goku wasn't awake to sense him, who could very well have had the capacity to trick the computer into sending Goku on a completely different course. A course which sent him right into a trap. "He told you...all about it, didn't he?" he asked King Cold, anger beginning to show in his expression. "'Jamba' or...whatever his real name is. He told you I was coming...told you how strong I was. So, you and...this brother I'm just now hearing about...trained together so you could beat me."

Cooler scoffed. "Well, you're half-right, at least. Jamba wasn't the one who told my father over there of your impending arrival, but the Falraxian mud devil did provide him with plenty of information on your capabilities. Information which he gathered from an outside source...and which appears to be slightly out of date." Cooler crossed his arms, his deep red eyes looking at Goku with a mixture of annoyance and a hint of begrudging respect. "You're stronger than we were led to believe, Son Goku. I charged at you without holding back at all, and yet, even then, you still stand, shaken up but still ready and willing to take on both of us." As Goku clenched his fists, preparing for battle, Cooler sighed. Had it not been for the mask over his face, Goku would have seen the smirk on his face, but the Saiyan felt like it was implied regardless. "All the same, however, there are still two of us, and only one of you. Both my father and I have grown stronger than we once were, and...you seem a little worse for wear, if I may say so." Goku tried his best to resist the urge to shiver against the cold or breathe harder than he should have, but somehow he got the impression that Cooler saw through the facade. "This should be relatively straightforward."

Goku let out a sharp huff as he began to feel an odd pain in his chest, right where frost was beginning to build up on his exposed skin.

"You think so, huh?"

He let out a small kiai to send it all flying off at once, surrounding himself with a small aura of heated air as he looked back and forth between the two Frost Demons. There were a few things for him to work through, and he had to admit that he didn't feel like he was in the best shape he could be. All the same, though, he knew he had more important things to worry about. Whether there was one member of Frieza's family he had to kill, or two, the stakes were the same. All it would take is just one of them surviving and managing to take him out. Then they could focus all of their energy on invading Earth, and unless his friends brought him back with the Namekian Dragon Balls, nobody would be able to stop them. It all came down to whether he could win this fight. Right here, right now. He took a step forward, bracing himself for what came next.

"Well, come on then! Show me what you've got!"

With that challenge issued, Goku powered up to the maximum he could manage, causing cracks to form all throughout the area as his raw power shook the surface of the planet for miles around. Not wasting a second, he flew towards Cooler, clearly the stronger warrior of the two, and wound up a punch just in time to meet Cooler's own.

Far away from everything, out in a field of yellow clouds and a peaceful sky, a series of powerful impacts rang out as two figures, both of them sheathed in a red aura of ki, collided with each other at speeds faster than sound. They flew all throughout the area, but seemed to erratically orbit a small green planet, one which housed little save for a simple house and a race track which covered the planet's circumference. Eventually, their struggle was brought to a rather sudden end when one of the figures' red auras grew even more intense. Before the second figure could react, they were sent flying towards the planet, able to stop just short of colliding with it in the nick of time. This, of course, did not please the short, blue-skinned man who sat reclined on a lawn chair, watching the engagement.

"Krillin!" King Kai called out at the top of his lungs, his disapproval evident. "How many times have I told you not to knock anyone towards the planet?! The landscapers just finished filling in the crater you two knuckleheads made last week!"

Yamcha, having just landed after dusting himself off, chuckled sheepishly in response as his sparring partner flew down to take a break. "Again, sorry about that, King Kai. We just got a little carried away again."

"Hmph!" King Kai said, turning away from his pupil. "Well, at least you had the decency to catch yourselves this time."

"Barely," Yamcha said, looking over at Krillin as the shorter fighter landed. He couldn't help but grin a little. "I had no idea you'd managed to hit Times Five."

Krillin laughed a little, somewhat embarrassed. "Yeah, well, it still wouldn't have been enough without Max Power boosting it. And even that one hit took a lot out of me."

"Ah, come on, Krillin, don't sell yourself short for my sake. You probably would've won that fight regardless. We both know you've been stronger than me since we got here."

"The question is," King Kai interjected, "are you two going to stay here?"

Krillin and Yamcha both blinked a couple times as they looked at each other. "Shoot, has it been four months already?" Krillin asked, to which King Kai nodded.

"I just finished speaking with Dende, who is...apparently the new Guardian of Earth now." King Kai's antennae curled together slightly, which the Earthlings had come to recognize meant he was very puzzled. "I've gotta say, I wasn't quite expecting that. I'm a little annoyed that I wasn't briefed sooner. Well, any bureaucracy is bound to be slow, and a bureaucracy largely made up of nigh-immortal beings is bound to be the slowest in the universe." Krillin and Yamcha looked at him quizzically, prompting King Kai to get back on track. "In any event, the Namekian Dragon Balls will reactivate within the hour. Dende and the Namekian elders are preparing to assemble the balls and confer with Bulma and some of your other friends on Earth regarding what they should wish for."

Yamcha nodded along, until a thought entered his head. "Wait, Fortuneteller Baba's still willing to take me and Nail back to Earth, right?" When King Kai nodded, Yamcha continued. "So, that means they'd only need two wishes to bring Krillin and Roshi back. And that means-"

"-they could wish to go back home!" Krillin finished, a bit of excitement creeping into his tone. He knew that the Namekians had to be getting at least a little homesick after staying away from their home planet for so long. With that last wish, everything could go back to normal, for both Earth and Namek. And, from what he'd been told about what Goku was doing lately, soon they may not have to deal with anything else threatening either of their planets. The idea went against Krillin's better judgement, but, he had to admit, after dying twice, ideas like that had a certain appeal.

King Kai chuckled. "While I'm sure that would expedite the process, from what I understand, that's no longer strictly necessary. Dende's been learning the Instantaneous Movement technique which your Kami once knew, and it sounds like he's now confident enough in his skill with it to transport others to wherever he chooses to travel...albeit only one at a time."

"Whoa," Krillin and Yamcha said at once. "Being the Guardian sounds like a pretty cool gig," Krillin continued, to which Yamcha nodded in agreement.

"Can you do anything like that, King Kai?" he asked, to which King Kai began to sweat nervously, not wanting to admit the truth.

"Um...i-in any case! The issue of how the Namekians will return to their home planet is resolved. What Dende needs to know from me, aside from checking in on Namek to make sure it is safe, is what you all wish to do."

"I will return," a new voice cut in, having overheard the conversation from his preferred spot for meditation. "I could potentially grow stronger here, but I have been away from my people for far too long."

King Kai nodded, regarding the Namekian warrior with profound respect. "Yes, I had assumed as much. I'll let Fortuneteller Baba know you wish to return."

Nail simply nodded in response. "Thank you, King Kai. Thank you all, for everything that you have done for me and for my people. With any luck...I'll be better able to protect them from this day forward."

"In that case, let us all hope you remain lucky," King Kai replied before turning to Yamcha. "What about you? Do you feel you have learned all you can here?"

Yamcha murmured to himself slightly before responding. "Eh, I gotta say, I'm kinda with Nail on this one. I'm sure you've still got a lot you could teach me, and I really appreciate everything you've done, but...well, after four months, the baseball season is probably halfway done by now. I'd hate to miss the whole thing and leave my buddies back home without their star player. Plus...I think it's about time I move on to the next chapter in my life. And, no offense, but I dunno if I can do that staying in the place people go when they die, you know?"

"I see. Very well. I shall arrange your departure back to Earth as well." With that, King Kai turned to Krillin. "That just leaves you and Roshi."

Before Krillin could respond, a somewhat raspier chuckle could be heard coming from the opposite direction Nail emerged from. "Well, I don't know about you, my boy, but I reckon I've got a lot to check up on back at home. My house, my friends, the rest of my students...certain reading materials." A familiar look entered the old man's eyes, one which Yamcha and Krillin recognized immediately.

"Master-" Krillin began somewhat threateningly, to which Roshi looked over at him with indignation written all over his face.

"My favorite manga series, of course! What did you think I was thinking about, Krillin?"
Krillin and Yamcha both rolled their eyes. They weren't going to answer that.

"The point is, I'm inclined to take a cue from our mutual star pupil," Roshi said, giving King Kai a quick wink. "We've learned all we can here. Now the next step is to leave the nest, and develop our newly learned techniques to the point of mastery."

Krillin chuckled awkwardly. "Plus, uh, I'd rather be, you know, not dead sooner rather than later."

"Heh! That's a fair point, my boy," Roshi replied. "Although I can say, this experience has no doubt been significantly more pleasant than the last time I died. Don't really remember any of it, but still."

King Kai simply nodded. "Well, in that case, I'll be sure to let Dende know what to wish for when the time comes." The blue-skinned master turned away towards the edge of his planet, looking off into the distance. "Make sure you've got everything before Fortuneteller Baba arrives. I mean, you didn't really come with much, but it doesn't hurt to make sure."

"What are you doing?" Nail asked, looking at the kai with curiosity.

"Ah, well, Roshi has just reminded me that I should probably check on our mutual star pupil. I figured I would do so presently."

Yamcha nodded. "Ah, yeah, Goku. I've been wondering what's going on with him lately."

"He was due to land on King Cold's planet about now, right?" Krillin asked, to which Roshi nodded.

"Yes. I do hope that he knows what he's doing. Facing the father of a man as powerful as Frieza doesn't sound like the easiest task."

Krillin cocked his head. "But King Kai said that King Cold wasn't as powerful as Frieza was, right? And Goku beat Frieza pretty handily after he became a Super Saiyan. He's bound to have gotten stronger by now."

Roshi nodded, lost in thought for a moment. "Indeed, but...it's odd. I have this curious feeling that things may not be as they seem."

The others took a second to absorb the gravity of Roshi's premonition before Yamcha scoffed and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Ah, come on, this is Goku we're talking about, remember? I'm sure he's doing just fi-OH GOD!"

As Yamcha spoke, Fortuneteller Baba teleported right in front of his face, her eyes staring directly into his own as she sat upon her crystal ball. Roshi immediately burst into a fit of laughter at Yamcha's reaction, while Krillin simply chuckled along. Even Nail couldn't resist smiling a little. Like before, King Kai was far too preoccupied with searching the cosmos for Goku's ki signature to make any particular note of Fortuneteller Baba's arrival.

"Ah, I'm really starting to get a kick out of that," Baba remarked, chuckling to herself before getting straight to the point. "Now, then, from what I understand, you're all going back down to Earth?"

"As soon as me and Krillin here are brought back to life, yes," Roshi replied. His sister simply grunted.

"Yes, well, I'm more than happy to take Yamcha and Nail back at once, although I'm afraid I can only take you one at a time."

Nail nodded. "That's fine. Did you wish to go first, Yamcha?"

"Ah, nah, man, be my guest. I can wait a couple more minutes."

"Very well. Let us depart."

Just as Nail grabbed onto Baba's outstretched hand, a subdued, yet very audible gasp of surprise could be heard from the north kai's mouth, prompting everyone to turn towards him.

"Oh, no, is he about to start screaming again?" Baba said, not wanting any part of that. "If he's going to start screaming again, I'm not coming back for at least ten minutes."

Krillin and Roshi both took a step forward, starting to suspect that something was very wrong.

"King Kai? What's going on?" Krillin asked.

"What is it that you're seeing?"

King Kai's antennae perked up slightly, indicating that he had indeed heard the two speaking to him. He took a deep breath as he continued observing the situation unfolding hundreds of light years away from Earth.

"I'm afraid our star pupil's in a tougher spot than we had assumed."

"Aagh!"

Cooler barely had time to let out a short cry of pain before he slammed into the nearby mountain, causing the entire structure to collapse around him in a pile of rubble and heaps of falling snow. Floating not too far from where he had been sent flying, King Cold attempted to seize upon any momentary gap in the Super Saiyan's guard in order to catch him by surprise. No sooner had the king rocketed towards him than he appeared to vanish, disappearing in a blur of movement. However, the king would not be taken advantage of so easily, and swiftly turned around to face Goku exactly where he knew the warrior would be, meeting the Saiyan's surprise attack with a blow of his own.

"Tch!" Goku grunted in annoyance as he flew backwards, preparing himself to resume combat. King Cold simply chuckled.

"I'm afraid you won't find me as easy an opponent as you found my son, Son Goku," he replied, the condescension in his tone unbearably evident as he sneered at the Saiyan fighter. "I am far stronger and, it would seem, wiser than he was. Had I been in power when he destroyed your homeworld, I would have hunted you and the rest of your lowborn race relentlessly, until none of you remained." Having said this, King Cold went in for another punch, but this time found his blow sidestepped without too much trouble on Goku's part.

"Good to know," Goku said, before quickly following through with a powerful kick which sent King Cold flying backwards and slamming into the dirt. He glanced down at the fallen king for a second before letting out a slight gasp, which threw him off more than he cared to admit. That had been happening throughout the fight, and he had no idea what was causing it. It almost felt like he was getting tired, but he definitely shouldn't have been getting tired so early into the fight. Something else was going on, and whatever it was, he had to get a handle on it fast.

"Huh...is there some other drawback I didn't realize-?" Goku began before he sensed something approaching him rapidly, and had to focus all of his efforts on avoiding a sudden blow from behind as he ducked under Cooler's sweeping leg. Goku was able to swiftly respond with a punch straight to the new emperor's mask, hitting it hard enough to crack off a small piece of whatever material it was made of. As Cooler instinctively moved to protect his face, Goku cupped his hands together and charged up a rapid follow up.

"Hiyah!" he cried as he released a smaller, yet still powerful ki blast aimed right at Cooler's chest, sending the Frost Demon flying for what appeared to be miles. Goku let out another small gasp for breath as he briefly watched Cooler go, knowing he was hardly out of the fight just yet, and moved to check up on King Cold just as the man looked up at him from the ground, dazed and incredibly eager to pay the Saiyan back for the considerable injuries which he had sustained over the course of their fierce battle.

"Damn! I knew that he was still stronger than me, but both of us should be faring better than this! I was hoping to save my ace in the hole for once this was over, but...I may have no alternative." Before King Cold could dwell on this any further, he was forced to leap out of the way as best he could in order to avoid Goku rocketing towards him. Unfortunately, the best he could do wasn't quite good enough, and the Saiyan managed to tackle him in mid-air, carrying him off along with him at dizzying speeds. Before the king could even process this, Goku had managed to slam him into a distant cliff before following it up with a powerful kick which sent him through the rocks and out the top of the rock face.

"He's clearly the weaker of the two!" Goku thought hurriedly as he flew off after King Cold. "I'm stronger than either of them on their own, so they're depending on their combined strength to win this!" With this in mind, Goku caught up to the winded king and reached out to grab him with one hand in order to stop his flight for the moment. This accomplished, he then followed up with a kick to the king's ribs, breaking most of the ones he hadn't already broken and leaving King Cold wincing in agony. "All I have to do is take him out fast, and Cooler won't be able to keep up with me on his own!" As if to prove his point, Cooler attempted to intervene, an attempt which Goku easily sensed.

"Not so fast, monkey!" he barked as he flew towards the Saiyan warrior, prepared for battle. However, Goku had a trick up his sleeve.

"Solar Flare!" he cried, quickly putting a couple fingers in front of his face and sending a wave of blinding ki in Cooler's direction. The emperor cried out in pain and instinctively covered his eyes with his hands, leaving Goku room to kick him to the ground. "I can beat them, but I gotta act fast! I gotta hit him as hard as I can!" he thought, before moving to finish the assault he had started.

He dodged King Cold's off-balance attempt at a punch and responded in kind, breaking King Cold's nose and leaving his fist covered in small traces of King Cold's purple blood. King Cold's hands moved to cover his face, and Goku seized the opportunity and landed a brutal hit on his exposed throat, causing him to hoarsely gasp for air. Now thoroughly incapable of defending himself, the king could do nothing as Goku sent him flying once more, then rocketed off towards him in an imperceptible blur of motion in order to send him flying in a different direction. This process repeated itself several times, with each hit leaving the king even more battered and broken, until finally Goku landed a devastating haymaker to the back of King Cold's head, temporarily knocking him out and sending him crashing into the ground hard enough to form a massive crater.

As rock and snow was strewn about in every direction from the force of the impact, Goku positioned himself such that what he was about to do next wouldn't pose much of a risk to the planet. He gasped once more before cupping his hands together and beginning to charge up his signature technique.

"Ka...me...ha...me..." Goku muttered, pouring all of the energy he could muster into the blue ball of ki in his hands before he readied himself to fire. "HA!" he cried as the familiar beam of blue ki poured out from his outstretched hands, intent upon enveloping King Cold and reducing him to little more than ash. Massive amounts of rock and snow were vaporized in the beam's wake as it tore through everything in its path. However, just as the beam should have hit King Cold's unconscious form, Goku was able to faintly sense a second ki signature acting upon the weakened king and throwing him out of the beam's reach.

Before he could react to this development, he felt a particularly painful sensation in the back of his own head, which he could dizzily surmise was the result of a powerful blow. His eyes glazed over and his ears began ringing loudly as he lost his hold on the Kamehameha. He was helpless to stop it as he sensed it traveling beyond the planet's atmosphere, flying through the vacuum of space before he could make any attempt to redirect it. He turned around to try and face his assailant, gasping from pain and the effort of firing that Kamehameha, but only caught a brief glimpse before being kicked sharply in the side, breaking a few of his ribs. From that glimpse and the ki signature, he knew that Cooler had somehow recovered from being blinded earlier, or perhaps was simply pushing past the pain in order to keep up his own assault. His hearing returned to working order just in time to catch the latter half of a monologue he couldn't make out.

"-I just barely managed to avoid the worst of that blinding technique of yours. There's no doubt in my mind anymore," Cooler said, and Goku could make out half of the tyrant's mouth curl into a smile from the cracked portion of the mask. "You're growing weaker, Son Goku."

Goku grunted, hoarser than he had intended to. "Oh, really? What...makes you say that?" he asked, just as he once more became aware of that same odd pain in his chest. He'd been able to ignore it through the last several minutes of fighting, but it was annoyingly persistent and sharper than ever. He continued to try and push past it by summoning new reserves of strength, but he soon found his eyes widening in apprehension as he became aware of something else: he wasn't drawing as much power as he had expected to. What had previously been a moderate, yet pronounced gap in power between him and Cooler appeared to be narrowing, and although the splotches of purple blood scattered throughout Cooler's body indicated some significant injuries, Cooler appeared to have greater reserves of stamina than he did. Things were looking dire.

"Interesting," Cooler remarked, his smile growing a little wider. "I was wondering whether or not you were aware of it yourself." Without any warning, Cooler disappeared from view, forcing Goku to try and locate him by his ki signature. The Saiyan warrior was able to block the first attempt at an attack from behind, but he wasn't quite fast enough to block the second, another blow to the head which only worsened the blurred vision he was trying to recover from. "I'm not sure what it is that's afflicting you," the tyrant remarked from behind him, prompting Goku to jab at him with his right elbow. Although the blow connected, cracking even more of Cooler's mask, Goku's attempt at a follow-up punch was quickly intercepted and beaten back with a kick to his stomach, winding the Saiyan warrior. "Perhaps this is some condition among your people which is only developing now." Goku gasped again before trying for a ki blast, which was easily avoided and answered by Cooler with another kick to the ribs which Goku barely managed to dodge. "Perhaps this is something you acquired on this 'Earth' planet, or out in space. Through a deliberate act on the part of an adversary, or purely by accident." Goku gasped a few more times before letting out a sharp grunt and charging at Cooler, only to find most of his attempted strikes blocked before Cooler succeeded in breaking a few more of Goku's ribs. "Whatever the case may be, it appears to have played right into my hands."

"RRAGH!" Goku cried out as he summoned every ounce of strength he could muster in a last-ditch assault, pushing past the pain he was beginning to feel all over his body and taking Cooler by surprise with a burst of speed. With one mighty blow, Goku heard the sharp crack of bones being broken as his fist slammed into Cooler's right arm, causing the emperor to cry out in pain. Goku then landed a second powerful blow onto Cooler's face, finally shattering the mask and leaving his mouth and nose exposed once more. Goku tried to keep the pressure up, but just as he had been preparing to send Cooler flying with a rapidly-charged Kamehameha, Cooler swiftly closed the gap between them and grabbed Goku's right hand with his one good arm, preventing him from charging any further. Immediately afterwards, Cooler rammed his head into Goku's own at full force, breaking Goku's nose and leaving him barely able to block the brunt of a vicious kick which sent him flying backwards. It took all Goku had to stop himself in mid-air and avoid crashing into the ground, leaving him looking up at Cooler, who was now grinning widely in spite of his broken arm.

"You have already lost, Son Goku."

With that, Cooler vanished once more, forcing Goku to frantically search for the emperor's ki signature. He was only just able to find it when he felt one hand on his shoulder, spreading ki all throughout his body. Before he could attempt to stop it, he found himself enveloped in purple ki and sent hurtling towards the ground next to King Cold, who had only just managed to rouse himself. As soon as Goku landed, the purple ki around him exploded, with waves of intense energy hitting both him and King Cold as well as producing a massive crater beneath the pair of them. When the light from the ki faded and the dust settled, Goku was left lying there on the ground, trying desperately to push himself up and keep fighting, while King Cold was left barely conscious and bleeding profusely. Goku looked up towards where he had been, only to find Cooler floating almost a hundred feet above the pair of them, his broken arm being held by the other and his satisfaction extremely pronounced.

"I must say, things could not have turned out much better for me," Cooler remarked with a sneer. "Barely ten feet apart from each other and hardly able to stand are the two biggest obstacles to my undisputed reign over the universe." As Cooler spoke, he held up a single finger on his left hand, and began to charge up a bright orange sphere of highly concentrated ki, a technique which Goku knew all too well. With each passing second, the Supernova grew in size, while Cooler continued on throughout, eager to revel in the moment. "Once this planet expires, so too will both of you, leaving me free to pursue my own devices. Destroying Earth will naturally be first on the agenda. Eradicating the rest of your lowly species will come after that. And, from what my dear Salza has told me, it would seem that somewhere on this 'Namek' planet is a means by which I could obtain immortality. That would definitely be a prudent goal to pursue, wouldn't you say?" Goku could only gasp for air and grimace in pain as he tried to keep himself going, which Cooler took the utmost delight in. "You know what? At first I figured I'd destroy it along with Earth, but I think I may actually leave Namek intact. It would make a rather poetic monument to my brother's copious amount of mistakes. All the critical errors in judgement that I've been forced to correct." Cooler held the Supernova, which was beginning to reach a diameter that would encompass an entire city block, aloft over his head, looking down at Goku with genuine pleasure. "Starting with your life, of course."

Goku grit his teeth in anger, trying to bring forth even deeper reserves of power to try and combat Cooler, but finding his body unable to supply him with the energy he needed. His breathing had become even more hoarse, the pain in his chest hurt more than words could describe, and he could feel his energy slipping away from him at an exponential rate. Cooler had been right: whatever was affecting him, it had been slowly sapping away his power throughout the entire fight, and had now begun to reach its crescendo. His vision began to blur while the cold he had been able to combat up until now wracked his body once more, causing him to shiver uncontrollably as he tried and failed to stand up. With one last cry of determination, Goku tried his best to draw out even more power from his Super Saiyan form, only to lose his grip on the additional ki halfway through, and with it his ability to maintain the transformation. He collapsed to the ground as he re-entered his normal state, gasping desperately for air while ice began to build up all throughout his body. Whether through Cooler's Supernova, the mysterious affliction which had drained his strength, or the ever-encroaching cold he could no longer resist, Goku began to suspect that he wasn't long for this world.

Uncertainty plagued what coherent thoughts he could form under the circumstances. What was happening to him? Did his friends know that he was about to die? Would they be able to revive him? And if they couldn't, who would be able to stop Cooler from carrying out his threats?

With immense effort, Goku managed to look up blearily at the ever-growing Supernova, ironically hoping that it would hit before anything else that might kill him. Then, at least, he'd be sure that he could come back to life, so long as his friends knew he was dead. He considered powering up and flying closer to it, but as soon as he tried, the pain in his chest flared up even more, and he felt his grip on consciousness slipping away. It felt like Cooler said something, but he couldn't quite make it out. Then he vaguely sensed the power contained within the Supernova begin to shift, and he knew that it had been launched, slowly but surely traveling towards him. He did his best not to give up the struggle to stay awake, but even this small effort was quickly on the verge of giving out. It would hit him any second now.

He prepared to shut his eyes and embrace the inevitable when he felt something...new. What almost felt like a ki signature, suddenly appearing out of nowhere just in front of the descending ball of destruction. A ki signature which felt new, yet also...familiar, somehow. Like someone he had fought once before. His intrigue managed to briefly beat out his fatigue, and he was able to squint upwards just in time to see a most unusual sight: a figure with what appeared to be golden spiky hair. From what little Goku could tell, the figure was clad in some kind of dark blue and white armor, armor which he might've been able to recognize if his vision wasn't already fading. What's more, although he had no idea just how powerful the figure was, he knew that the figure was certainly stronger than Cooler, and maybe even stronger than him. As his grip on consciousness finally slipped, without any care for the many ramifications of what he had discovered, Goku just managed to put a name to the ki signature he was sensing before he finally passed out:

Vegeta.

Hoo boy, we're almost there everyone! Just one more chapter and this arc will be done with.

I'm not gonna bother with an especially lengthy author's note here. College semester's winding down, so getting Chapter 35 done on time will be a bit tricky, but hey, I've managed so far. Let's have some responses:

Cerric says:

"Quite a chapter here on the re-read! Keep up the assuredly good work!"

Thanks! As always, thank you for the input you've given me on all of these before I publish. It's really helped, and also, the rest of you guys should really check out Cerric's stuff sometime.

Guest says:

"Whats done is done and this story is done"

On the contrary, we still have several arcs to get through, sooner or later. ;)

GuardianTree7 says back in Chapter 32:

"More great reading, thank you. Out of curiosity who else were they considering for guardian of earth? Chiaotzu maybe?"

You know, I only realized upon reading your review that I technically left that open as a possibility, since Kintoun confirmed that Chiaotzu was pure of heart. So...yeah, you know what, headcanon accepted.

When I wrote that line back in Chapter 29, I was vaguely alluding to Korin being the candidate that would likely accept should Dende refuse. It made sense to me that he would be considered, seeing as he already lives in the area, has a great deal of martial arts knowledge, was a longtime associate of Kami's, and meets all the requirements for the position. Aside from him, I honestly don't recall thinking about any other candidates. The general idea was just that there were other candidates, so that Dende didn't feel pressured into saying yes.

With all that said, now for some power levels. Honestly, I've been debating on continuing this forward into the subsequent arcs after this one. There isn't really anything official to go off of after the Frieza Saga, and they're rarely if ever brought up again. Let me know what you guys think.

King Cold: 170 million(mostly from having all of the same resources as before, but also from sparring with someone as powerful as Cooler and his own immense potential)

Cooler: 220 million(similar deal; King Cold's very strong, and Cooler has a lot of untapped potential still)

Goku: 300 million as a Super Saiyan under normal conditions, but he's rapidly weakening throughout the fight.

Vegeta: I'm gonna leave that one for next chapter.

So yeah, with that done, that'll about do it for this chapter. Thank you all for reading, I hope you all have a fantastic day, and take care. Stay tuned for the arc's finale!