Dragon Ball - Heart of Adventurers
By LastationLover5000 and Demod20
Chapter 37 - Symphonies of Light
Anxious.
That was the feeling going through Bulma's mind. Pacing back and forth, the lavender haired woman felt trepidation since being left alone with her only child. The ship's current emptiness did little to console her or restrain Pan's desire to join her father in battle.
Ever since her sister, Kuririn and Jaco departed the planet, Bulma had waited with her child and awaited Gokū's return. Knowing that she would just be an interference if she or Pan got close, the scientist in her wracked for any feasible plans that wouldn't cause a lethal disturbance; as far as she knew, there was no positive outcome.
So she waited. Every once in awhile her implants gave her migraines, giving her an analogue play by play of the battle the fighters were having. As she endured the pain and anxiousness, something changed the whole ongoing threat into an unknown one.
"Mama," Pan spoke up, having caused the mother to look at her with a confused look; one that dropped as Pan's wide eyed expression of fear crossed her small face. "There's something coming...from underground!"
Bulma's implants began to burn within her head. She buckled over, vision going red and hands clutching at her face as she fell to her knees. Pan ran over but tripped, her body hitting the ground as the ship tips from a sudden quake that shakes its foundations.
Tapping into her ki, Pan steadied herself as the ship tumbled and rose into the sky from an unseen erupting ship. Running along the spiraling walls, floor and ceiling she dashed to her mother's reeling form and scooped her up in her small arms. Lurching to and fro, she leaps past debris of crates and equipment not bolted down, racing to the exit of the vessel.
The lavender woman felt her consciousness fleeting as she felt her body limply conform to her child's grip. Between the feel of disorienting movement along with the phantom pains her implants were hemorrhaging in her skull, her eyes rolled back as darkness claimed her.
Amidst the sea of black gave birth to a glistening light in her mind. She was back home, the green lawn of Capsule Corp graced by a Sun filled sky. She was alone, dressed in her casual purple tank top and blue jean shorts, looking anxiously at the street filled vista.
Then he appeared. Her husband carried his pizza bag over one shoulder, racing down the black tar colored ground. Catching sight of her he dropped the sack and moved towards her beaming brighter than the daylit sky.
She saw Gokū, racing to her with open arms and his carefree smile wide on his face. She ran back to him, eager to meet him halfway. Leaping off her feet, she embraced him, spinning around and laughing along with him. Held by his strong, warm form she felt tears of happiness come down her face.
On the last turn, she heard a familiar giggle behind her. Turning to look, her teary smile deepened at the sight of Pan, dressed in overalls with orange undershirt and blue sneakers. She smiled up toothily with hands held up expectantly.
Without even hesitating she and her husband lifted their child up from the ground and the two held onto her with fervor. It was a calm moment, eclipsing the violence she had seen and experienced over the recent time. She wanted it to never end.
A dark shroud stretched from overhead, snatching at her daughter and husband. Eyes wide she tried to yell but found herself unable to speak. Petrified she stared up at giant red eyes as black claws yanked her family up into the blackness, swallowed into the abyss and separated her from them completely.
And suddenly, her eyes reopened as she gasped for air and covered in cold sweat of fear. The pounding in her head subsided to an aching throb reminded her what happened before she lost consciousness.
It was just a dream...
She pondered this as she looked around her immediate surroundings, noticing herself to be in unfamiliar terrain.
Blinking, she looked up and saw her body was splayed over dried dirt and clumps of dead grass. Next to her was Pan, the child still wearing her gi from home though it was tattered and ripped from the various fights she was in. Though moreover, the girl was trembling as she looked up at something that blotted out one of the Suns of Namek.
Craning her neck, she'd look up and see a monstrous outline that gave her a burning sensation in her head. Wincing she was agape at the alien tree that sprouted from the soil and towered high up into the sky beyond her sight. Swallowing hard, she lifted herself up to her feet, getting her daughter's attention.
"M-Mama! You're awake!" She exclaimed with relief, jumping up and hugging her chest tight.
"Yes...I'm sorry I worried you," She weakly apologized, cradling her child and stroking her own set of purplish locks. Internally she knew first thing when she got back home she would have to tweak the implants so they couldn't do this kind of damaging feedback to her.
Relenting her hold on her daughter, she looked around, noticing enormous roots curling and diving back around to the horizon dotting about the planet. All clearly stemming from this new growth of a plant. When was this triggered? And who caused it?
She couldn't even see the ship so there was no telling if it survived the eruption of plant growth that cascaded it about. Bulma was thankful that Pan was such a quick girl, otherwise she might have been crushed by the ship itself.
"Mama, papa is in trouble!" Pan spoke, bringing Bulma back to look down at the now ground level half Saiyan. "I can feel something wrong happening. I didn't want to leave you when you were asleep but, now you're awake, we can see if he is alright. Right, mama?"
Bulma felt a pang in her gut.
This tree was just a symptom of a bigger cause and effect. If Freeza had not destroyed it himself, then either this is a machination of his own doing or some other alien menace is doing this. She grimaced, and licked her lips while turning to look opposite of the tree.
There her eyes adjusted and the implants' HUD lit up to show a display. Three high energy signatures combatting one larger life force. If this wasn't Freeza then a new nightmare has shown itself.
"Mama?" She heard her child ask, a measure of uncertainty ringing of fear within her girl.
Shaking her head, she knelt down and looked at her daughter with a serious expression. "This is dangerous, Pan. More dangerous than ever before. Are you sure you want to help your father?"
"I-I'm scared, but I want to try," Pan affirmed with a brave smile. "Mister Piccolo and Uncle Raditz would do the same, right?"
"I'm sure they would," She sighed. Standing up, she beckoned her child. "Let's go. I'm coming with you and you're not arguing about it."
"Okay," She said with a nod. Levitating up, she picked up her mother by her arms and quickly raced off while keeping her mother in her grip.
Please, Son. Please be okay when we get there!
Gokū felt pain wrack across his core. The blow had sent him catapulting back faster than any machine could. Unable to halt his velocity he zoomed over Aspara's head and away from his brother and Vegeta. Crashing into an upheaved part of the continent, he slammed through it and spat out the other side, splintering through a monstrous tree root that coiled through a dried up lake bed.
Laying there, coughing up bile and blood, he heard his ears ringing and his vision blur.
Damn, he hit me good. That was worse than anything even Freeza dished out! Son Gokū thought as he eased himself upright, clenching his chest from where he was struck. Standing up, he wobbled and nearly fell over, heaving through the pain with wide eyes.
"I might be in trouble if I take another hit like that," He muttered to himself.
Distant thunder alerted him to the current threat his uncle proved to be. Gritting his teeth, he leaped off the splintered root splayed Nameccian soil and launched himself across the sky back to the battlefield.
As he approached, he saw three colors flashing in contrast and conflict to each other. Boring into visual range he'd see an orangish coral flame wreathed around Raditz as he ferociously launched a salvo of kikoha at a burning purple glow glistening white. Tullece danced around the attacks with visible ease, spinning out of their path and then leaping away from the blast radius of each detonation they packed.
Amidst the firestorm his sibling unleashed, he saw a dull mustard yellow halo rush around behind the forward artillery bombardment into the path Tullece was weaving towards. Revving up a purplish glow of stark violet bolts and spasming in place, he howled out a Garlic Cannon towards him the moment Tullece dropped next to him.
A flash of white light following a thuum brought a look of stark shock from Gokū's eyes. His visible doppelganger twisted around, lancing his arm through Vegeta's beam and punched him into the gut, the shockwave lifting him off the ground and dispelling the aura of his ki in an instant.
"Vegeta, did you think I didn't notice your absence from my nephew's obvious attack?" The olive toned Saiyan asked derisively to the younger prince, holding his squat body up by his fist wedged against his midsection.
"Sh-Shut your," Vegeta sneered, lifting both hands up and blasting them against a surprised face of Tullece. "MOUTH!"
The point blank blast threw the Shinseijū empowered Saiyan backwards, heels digging into the ground with stable resistance. With his vision blinded, he didn't see a pained Vegeta reignited with powerful dull yellow light under a loud howl. Jumping forth, Gokū saw him deliver punch after punch, each one cracking and thrashing the ground beneath their feet.
Raditz joined the assault, dashing in a forward flip that landed a double heeled kick to his uncle's scalp. Each of his feet matched Vegeta's tempo, whipping the disoriented Tullece back and forth, drawing blood from his nostrils, lips and ears with each titanic impact.
Dozens of attacks turned to hundreds and Gokū had a hard time deciphering the flurry of attacks landing as the environment became a convulsing wave of disappearing earth; unveiling twisting floral veins of monstrous sized roots below their floating persons. The ki that bled off their attacks made the tendrils below swell and quiver, bloating out cancerously beneath their battling frames.
A pair of olive hands swung in an opaque whip of white-overlapped-purple. One uppercut Vegeta, sending him flipping backwards after a space warping crack at the same time another hand grabbed Raditz's neck, forcing out a strangled choke from Gokū's older sibling.
"Nice of you to join us, Kakarrot," Tullece spoke, smiling past the mask of dripping blood leaking from his orifices. Gokū felt his stomach pang, a dark reflection of himself staring up past a grim mask of ichor and bruises that didn't bother him. "Your brother and Vegeta were dying for you to come back. Isn't that right," he twisted around, loudly punching Raditz into his gut, hard enough to blast off his shirt and warp his back with distension. "Nephew?"
"Gaulk!" He hurled blood, eyes going white from pain and mouth stretching out in pain.
"Raditz!" Gokū yelled, his body becoming a flash of red and white, soaring down in a spiraling arc towards his enemy. "Let him go!"
"Gladly."
Saying this, Gokū's uncle tossed Raditz towards his charging frame, causing them both to collide painfully together. Another blow through the bigger sibling's back and into Gokū's front, the pair flew back only to be ricocheted by their uncle flashing back into their bodies with a hard kick. Pinballing back and forth across the sky, both were finally stopped by a pair of hands that grasped their faces and separated them, their eyes craning open at Tullece.
"I gave you the option to side with me," Their uncle said with a disturbingly calm tone, staring back at their glares coldly with a smirk. "Logically, you trying to stop me gains you nothing. Pity I'll never give you any more chances."
"Who...wants," Gokū began to snarl, prying just enough of his uncle's hand to speak; then chomping down on his hand. "Your pity?!"
"Hngh?!" Tullece grimaced in pain, watching in pained grimace as the younger nephew clamped his jaws on his hand. Trying to shake him free, his other hand loosened up enough for Raditz to throw another triage of punches at his face.
With a grimace turned scowl, Tullece launched a bolt of light into Gokū's mouth, exploding his insides and part of his face. He then grabbed both of Raditz's wrists, kneeing him in the bruised abdomen viciously. After four consecutive drives up his torso stretching his backside painfully, he lifted his head up-
KRRRRAAAAAK-KOOOOM!
-headbutted Raditz down, releasing an elliptical ring of purplish light that shockwaved the air. His larger nephew crashed into the tangle of roots, smashing through the top layer before limply landing atop a large one with a lurch of his back. Bloodied and unmoving, Tullece hissed out upon turning to a blackened, bloodied face of Kakarrot barely clinging to consciousness.
"Your stubbornness is just like your father's," He snarled. Raising a hand, he splayed it out, purple rings shining around its center as it swelled in size. Becoming an orb of compressed destructive power, he aimed coldly at his flesh and blood, gnashing his teeth angrily. "Your pride will be your undoing!"
A sudden, painful yank derailed the path of the Saiyan's execution. Shooting wide over Gokū's head, the latter's eyes as he saw Vegeta's torn gloved hands pulling Tullece's head backwards into the path of whipping knees. It stunned him enough for Gokū to throw a Kaiōken-punch into his adversary's chest, aiming for the hole made in his armor from a previous unknown battle he had. It knocked the wind out of him long enough for the younger look alike to dish out a flurry of blows just as he recoiled in pain, still not recovered from his precious injury. Recognizing this, Vegeta hauled his quarry away into a distant dried up island coiled by mammoth roots.
Piledriving through the soil like a Saiyan shaped drill, the island and its roots exploded in a dark yellow flare as Vegeta reignited once more into his avowed "Super Saiyan" form. Blank eyes glared at Tullece as his quarry regained his bearings, eyes glaring back as bloodied glove fists stormed upon him. Deflecting them with precise swivels of his arms, he felt spasms of pain surprisingly shake his limbs. Even now he felt an amazing new pressure exude off the Prince as he was subjected to a renewed assault.
Landing across the ground in a shatter shock of blasting punches and kicks, he dodged and weaved past the shorter opponent's restless attacks. Palming away punches and shoving kicks away, he threw himself in a frontal straight that blurred past Vegeta. Grasping him by the face, the shorter Saiyan was lifted off his feet and crashed against the ground, propelling forward in a flash of violet-white. Tearing through the continent, they reemerged in a spiral, seismic punches cracking the sky with an over the head blow that sent the prince down into the ground.
Bouncing off it, the Saiyan's torch light of ki grew dimmer as he skidded on hands and feet to the edge of the pit Raditz was embedded within. Looking up at Gokū's bloodied and bruised form then down at the aforementioned Raditz weakly writhing on the root far below as it sapped his strength, he knew now he was alone.
Again, he was all alone against an immovable barrier.
"Are you finally done?" Tullece asked, lowering in altitude to land with a soft tap before the prince. "You, of all people, I didn't expect to fight this hard. What about immortality and the rebirth of our people? Don't you have any regrets turning against me?"
"As if you could understand," Vegeta sneered, blood oozing out of his mouth as his eyes regained clarity and his aura weakly flickered around him. "I refuse to bend the knee to another. What is the point of living forever if I live another sham. Freeza turned you into something I can never allow myself to become. A creature without pride will never have a life worth living!"
Tullece gritted his teeth. Reaching out he grasped a hold of the shorter Saiyan's collar and lifted him up till he was inches away from his own face. Raising a fist up, he angrily yelled at him.
"Why are you making me do this?!" He howled, his voice reaching his nephew's ears. "You're fighting, only to watch your dreams die with you! Think, Vegeta! What would you have without me?! Freeza would crush you all to dust and everyone you know and care about will be gone. Your decision to defy me spits in the face of not just survival but an end to all you fought so hard to achieve!"
Vegeta chuckled, smiling back at Tullece's angry face.
"But it's my life, my choice to be who I am," He rasped out. "And my pride is worth more than your damned fruit ever could be."
A puncturing fist slamming through the prince's chest halted his laughter. Eyes bulged and his mouth frothed blood over his face and splashed over Tullece's. A squelch slid back from his chest, letting him fall to the ground with a shocked expression as eyes grew vacant and dull. The last of his energy petered out and the olive toned Saiyan glared down at his body.
Gokū gasped out, barely able to process what he was seeing. The unstoppable Vegeta he had fought against and beside had been killed so unceremoniously. Left to bleed out like an animal and grew still till his ki signature whittled to nothing.
Vegeta is dead.
"Raditz," Gokū heard him say, weakly looking down in horror as his uncle strode coolly over to the edge of the pit of writhing gargantuan roots. "Before I kill you and finish off your brother, are there any last words you'd like to get off your chest?"
"Yeah," Raditz faintly said to Gokū's ears, but Tullece heard clearly and saw his burlier nephew flip over on the root. Hands gripped the now moist, pulsing form he felt a draining touch from it. "These roots are what make the fruits you eat, right?"
"Of course," Tullece said, grinning a bit at the unsteadiness his wounded relative had. "At the rate you're going, what's left of your life force is going to be making more fruit. High quality too, given how much energy you have left."
That explains how strong he is. This is like a more organic version of Kakarrot's Genki Dama. If that's the case…
Raditz opened his mouth wide and, to the amazement of Tullece, he bit into the root hard, juices spurting out as he focused on the familiar similarity of the two forms of taking and receiving energies. He sensed the flow, moving far away from him into a massive tower of life that pulsed and shimmered like stars of the alleged fruit where he could sense their energy.
He focused on sucking them out, wrestling against the pull of the tree's hunger for life. Growling his body throbbed, feeling as if his pores were on fire, the hairs of his long mane arcing up with electrical bolts. The root throbbed and glowed as Raditz's body pulsed with energy. Muscles bulged and pinkish light expelled from his body and lit up the cavernous chasm of darkness.
"Impossible!" Tullece yelled out, eyes bulging with horror. "You can't just get power from the Shinseijū like that! Are you more brain-dead than your brother?!"
"Anything...is...possible...with...a bit...of incentive!" Raditz yelled in between spasms of his body. The roots around him crackled, flailing about as if in pain themselves. Within the contortion of this maddening act, Raditz finally split the behemoth tendril below him in half with crackling energy snapping from the wet two halves. Howling aloud as he became a conduit of ki of the tree and his own primal form of coral glowing light.
Gritting his teeth, Tullece clapped his hands together, slowly separated them and produced a glowing golden ring of ki. Lifting it up over his head he threw it down at Raditz's yelling form. To his added surprise, the scream itself slowed its throttle, coming to a stop a meter away from him.
Then, it throttled back straight towards him.
"Hell-!" He swore, nimbly stepping back as it whizzed narrowly past him, straight into the sky and disappearing into a wink. Distracted by the near lethal rebound, he barely reacted in time to see Raditz bounding out of the hole, and a massive fist thrown at his chest.
He leaped out of the way, avoiding a space warping strike. Firing a salvo of purplish kikoha that exploded around his muscle bound person, he saw with wide eyes as he shrugged the attacks off and blinked out of perception, blurring in front of him with another massive fist swung towards his upper body. Crossing his arms to block, he suddenly felt Raditz's power.
All of it passing through his exploding arm braces and into his chest and out his back.
Eyes whitened, mouth opened with a silent gasp of pain and blood escaping his lips. Then, he flew after a space splitting thuum that ripped apart the sky. Catapulting him far away till the monstrous tree shook in the horizon and the ground beneath vibrated.
A calm, finally settled into the air and Gokū didn't feel Tullece's energy. Relief flooded his body and he saw Raditz's brief bout of power whisked away into the wind. He fell, and the younger brother barely moved fast enough to catch him.
"H-Heavy!" He winced, the pain making itself known as his reserves were there but accessing it at all made him feel it more. Based on how limp his sibling felt in his hands he knew he must have passed out.
Landing a bit of ways from the hole, he rested on his haunches and breathed heavily. Distantly, he felt something coming. Something faint yet, familiar?
"Papa!" He heard someone say, making his heart leap to his throat. Looking to his right, he saw his wife held underarm by Pan. The pair brought him joy and only added to his relief.
"Pan!" Gokū exclaimed, standing up tenderly to greet his family as they hugged him. "Bulma! I'm so glad you two are safe!"
"I'm just glad you are," Bulma emphasized, nestling into the crook of his neck as she held him tight with her child. "I saw one of the signatures go out on my way here. I was worried it was you-"
"It was Vegeta," He sighed sadly, lessening his hold on his wife as he held his daughter upright. "He fought to the end. I never met a braver man, regardless of the bad he's done. Raditz passed out," He looked over at him with a smile. "He gave it his all. I tried to help as much as I could but the punch Tullece gave me before kept me from moving as well as I wanted."
"Wait, you mean that lookalike of yours?" Bulma pulled away as she asked. "Your uncle was the one you were fighting?"
"Yeah," Gokū nodded stoically. "He was tough. But with the hit that Raditz gave him, I'm sure he won't come back."
A sudden chill wafted over Bulma's spine. The feeling of the tree didn't go away like she thought and only returned in fervor. Gokū felt the energy with Pan seconds after Bulma hesitantly looked to her right with her family.
"That punch hurt," Tullece hissed out, glaring down at Raditz's inert frame. His bruised arms shook angrily at his sides and his eyes were angry pins with veins sprouting along his browline as his violet aura roared around his body like an inferno. "Raditz actually made me black out from that hit. And since he is down, it'll make it easier to put him down for good!"
Gokū lowered his daughter down, separating from his wife and child. Putting himself between his brother and Tullece, he glared pointedly back with fists balled in readiness at his sides.
"You won't kill anymore, Tullece. Not one more!" He yelled between clenched teeth.
"You want to die that badly, nephew?!" Tullece asked with incredulity. "Look at yourself! You can barely stand!"
"If I put my body on the line," Gokū growled, embers of red trailing up as his body began to tremble and expand with the rising flow of ki he forced to the surface. "I can be even stronger than before. I don't care if you killed Freeza! I won't let you harm another!"
As he shouted, his body turned red as a deep burgundy flame rose up and shrieked into existence. Leaping forth, he howled at the enraged Tullece. His arm collided against his uncle's, a shockwave splitting the ground between them. Tullece threw a punch that Gokū ducked, punching up and missing. The older Saiyan swung around a foot that struck a raised knee.
Booms and blasts shattered between the two. Pan did her best to shield her uncle and mother from the debris and blasts, her raised hands being a shield of constant pouring energy. She looked on with worry as she saw Gokū keep a solid stance but not moving a step. Each blow matched Tullece and continued into a stalemate of precision and poise.
But then, a muscle ruptured and Gokū gasped in pain. A lancing punch crashed into his jaw, following with a thunderous blow against his skull. Knee to his chin and a kick to his chest.
Gokū retaliated with a backhanded strike that cut his uncle's cheek, causing the older Saiyan to snarl as he rained more blows upon his nephew. Punches, palm thrusts, knife hands, jabs, kicks and more were thrown on Gokū. Blood smeared the ground and sprayed around in a gory display of the relentless ferocity his kin abused his flesh.
Pan, finally couldn't take it.
"Leave papa alone!" She shouted, leaping over her father's head and slamming her fists onto his head.
A head that looked up with hateful eyes that made her stop in her tracks. Petrified, she never saw her father look at her like that and his uncanny resemblance shocked her.
Long enough for her to be punched into her petite chest and thrown limply back.
"PAN!" Bulma screamed.
Gokū looked away one second too long, his body kicked aside as Tullece stomped forward. Wreathed in purplish white light, he raised a clawed hand towards Pan, revving a whining light-
BLAAAAAM!
-only to feel the heat of plasma crash into his face. Incredulously looking aside, he saw Bulma with her childhood plasma gun in her grip. A shaking grip. With tearful eyes, she shouted defiantly at him.
"Leave my family alone, you bastard!"
Wordlessly, he raised his other hand.
"TULLECE, DON'T-!"
Gokū's strangled cry didn't make it. A small line of light speared through Bulma's chest. Instantly, her eyes went vacant and the blaster dropped from her hands. Falling to her knees, she fell to her back with a wet thud and Gokū stared in horror.
"No!" He hoarsely spoke, scrambling over and reaching his wife's blood soaked chest. "Bulma! No! Don't die! Please!"
"What are you babbling about?" Tullece asked with a snort. "If you had joined me, I could give you any woman you could want. What's one more death mean to you anyways? Her being your mate couldn't have been that special; no Saiyan cares that much for one woman over themselves."
Gokū felt his body grow numb. He heard this vicious murderer callously disregarding his wife as if she was just an item, replaceable and in abundance. There was one Bulma, and she was more precious than anything else. He felt his child faintly, unconscious and perhaps would lose composure if she saw what just happened.
Tears fell down his face, his throat clenched and his wails released as he howled with despair. Amidst his cries, he felt his memories flash over his mind's eye.
Their first meeting.
Their adventures.
Their first kiss.
Their child being born.
Them being together with family and friends.
Now, gone.
"Will you stop crying?" Tullece sneered, walking over and reaching out to fire another execution.
Then, he saw it.
A flash of gold. Flickering like a struggling flame.
Gokū felt his body gripped by a mixture of emotion. It was hard to describe, at first, because he didn't recognise it. The man's body began to shake and tremble over his wife's corpse; pained noises he could barely associate with himself escaped his throat. Only then - when all of this came associated with a violent desire to kill his uncle - did Gokū remember this alien feeling.
Fury. Blind, unthinking rage, mixed in with the throngs of grief the likes of which he'd not felt since Kuririn had been killed by Tambourine. The tears streaming down his face began to flow upwards. The ground cracked beneath his feet, and Gokū's hair appeared to be caught in an updraft that was not present. The sky, under the influence of rising ki, began to darken.
"W-What's going on?!" Tullece watched in a mixture of curiosity and horror. The murder of his niece-in-law was already put in the back of his head, replaced by a feeling of dread as he felt Kakarrot's battle power begin to rise.
A vein pulsed in Gokū's head. Words spilled from his mouth, strung together in sentences that normally would never come from such a kind Saiyan. "You...heartless...bastard...! I'm...going...to...make you...pay!" Every word was a struggle to say, his body quivering in a mixture of grief, rage, and pain. "I'm going...to kill you...Tullece!" The ground beneath Gokū and Bulma's corpse, cracked beneath the weight of his sudden upsurge in ki. And then the Saiyan's rage snapped completely; in a flurry of power, a vibrant, golden light surrounded Gokū spiraling upwards into the air as a giant funnel of ki. His black tresses were lit ablaze as they changed from black to white-gold, his eyes from onyx to emerald, and Son Gokū cast a cold glare towards his murderous uncle. Gently, though it seemed difficult, Gokū set his wife down, standing up to full height. His tail, formerly brown, had become the same hue as his hair, the fur spiking in clear aggression.
"Kakarrot...what the hell is this?!" Tullece snarled, his onyx eyes widening at his nephew's sudden transformation. "What have you done to yourself...this isn't the Giant Monkey...this isn't even what Raditz was doing! You...!" Realisation flashed through his mind, and shock turned to fury. "Bardock! Is this your way of humiliating me from Hell?! Your child...!" He didn't want to say it. He couldn't bring himself to say it.
Aspara watched her cousin, stunned. She was in disbelief throughout the entire fight. It was futile to defy her father. She'd spent her childhood having this beaten into her. Methodically, obedience was taught to her in ways that would make all but the most vile parents shirk and vomit. Watching her cousins and the Prince fight so hard against an opponent she knew was unbeatable had left her speechless. And now, here stood Kakarrot, utterly transformed.
Is this what Father expected of me?
Gokū glanced around. He could feel the ki of his brother and Pan. Unconcious, but alive. He hadn't lost everything, and that one thought allowed reason to remain anchored for now. Swiftly, Gokū sent a sphere of ki hurtling towards Raditz. It seemed insane at first.
"Kakarrot, have you gone mad?!" Tullece almost laughed. Would his nephews finish each other off?
The shere, however, was non-volatile, and quickly absorbed into Raditz's body. The man, wounded and unconscious found himself rousing in a confused state. Sitting upright, he found hias entire body ached. That was nothing compared to the overload of his sense as he felt an incredible ki stifling the entire area.
"What is going—" Raditz's eyes widened as they landed on his brother. The man stood, immersed in a golden light that exuded violence. "Kakarrot...is that you?"
"Raditz...take Pan, Bulma, and go," Gokū's voice was strangled, and he said every word carefully.
"Bulma...? Pan...? What are they—?" Raditz realised that the figure next to Kakarrot was a bloodied corpse of his sister-in-law, and frantically searched for his niece. Sensing she was alive, he exhaled in relief, double thankful that Tights was off-world. "Kakarrot, why would I leave? I can still fight this bas—"
"RADITZ, TAKE OUR FAMILY AND GO!" Gokū's voice exploded, his ki flaring and threatening to blow Bulma's lifeless body into the emerald waves. "I CAN'T GUARANTEE ANYONE'S SAFETY ANYMORE, BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN CONTROL MYSELF! SO WHILE I'M STILL SANE, TAKE THEM BACK TO THE SHIP AND LEAVE!"
Raditz balked. For the first time, he, the older brother, was on the back foot. He could tell Kakarrot wasn't simply making idle threats; his energy radiated stress, anger, and malice. Carefully, he walked over towards the man and picked up the limp body of Bulma. Holding it the way one would a glass object, Raditz looked his brother in the eye. "You're not dying here, Kakarrot. I'll see you back on Earth."
"Go," said Gokū tersely.
Raditz picked up Pan, and holding mother and daughter, flared his energy as he began to ascend skyward.
"Where do you think you're going, Raditz?!" Tullece asked. "Aspara, don't simply sit there, stop him!"
"I–" Aspara had moments to utter a single sound, before consciousness escaped her. She never noticed. Tullece barely saw it. A steak of gold materialised into Kakarrot, who sunk his fist directly into Aspara's stomach. She spluttered. Her eyes rolled back. The Saiyaness was out before she crumbled.
The most terrifying thing wasn't Gokū's speed.
Never once, not while yelling at Raditz not dispatching his cousin, did he take his eyes off Tullece.
"Fine," Tullece raised a hand towards his oldest nephew's back. "I'll dispatch them myself." Ki began to pool in his palm, crackling with the very same strength that had laid Freeza to waste. It never fired. Tullece was thrown back by a powerful streak of gold; an airborne Gokū's sole connected firmly with his uncle's face and knocked him away. The transformed Saiyan neatly landed where Tullece had been standing, the aura still burning gently off his body. The doppelganger flipped himself back over, skidding to a stop, wide-eyed with shock.
"You won't be satisfied, will you?" Gokū snarled. "Not until you've killed everyone?!" Gokū clenched his fists and grit his teeth. Ki surged around his body, the soft flickering bursting into a golden conflagration. His emerald eyes gleamed, and the Saiyan's hair, already rigid and upright, flowed upwards with the ki updraft. "You killed Bulma...and you're trying to kill Pan and Raditz too?! Right in front of me?!" The ground began to shake once more, Gokū's ki threatening to split it apart.
"You've made me furious, Tullece! And now you're going to pay for all of this!"
A sneer formed on Tullece's face, Kakarrot's ki rushing past him as a golden storm. "There it is, nephew! Try and kill me then! Let's see how much of a Saiyan you are before I send you to meet my brother!"
A/N:
Demod20: Aaaaaaand here was a difficult but amazing chapter to work on. Truly an epic climax for this year (if we don't end up updating before January) and boy was it a doozy. Between the Saiyans who tried so hard and got so far, in the end, it didn't matter for poor prince Vegeta. At least the mad lad went out with a smile, rather than a whimper. And Raditz got one moment to shine before the big finale; Bulma's death. Perhaps the hardest death to write in this story for me personally as I had a hand on the love life and marriage of Goku and Bulma to begin with. And my partner did a great job showing Goku's rage and I can't wait to see what he does in the next chapter. Happy Holidays everyone and enjoy!
LastationLover5000: This was quite a chapter for us to write. If you were to ask me, out of the entirety of Dragon Ball, what moment has stuck with me well into my adulthood, it was Son Gokū's transformation into a Super Saiyan. Gokū vs. Freeza may not be my favourite fight in the series, but Gokū's transformation into a Super Saiyan - how terrifying it's portrayed, and the resulting and DRAMATIC personality shift, that I tried very hard to capture here, was staggering even as a child. I loved being able to rewrite this moment for our own fanfic here. This may be our last chapter of the year - to anyone who follows me regularly, you know there is a lull in content when a Pokemon game drops - but we will do our best to see you all before the New Year. If not, have a happy holiday, whichever one you partake in! We'll see you all soon!