Let the battle begin! I'm sorry about the long wait, it was a very busy four months for me.

Based on MasakoX's What If series "What if Gine went with Goku to Earth?", but a retcon with some changes of my own on how I think the story would have went down had Goku's mother escaped planet Vegeta with him.

DISCLAIMER: The following is a fan-based work of fiction. Dragonball Minus, Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball Super, and Dragonball GT are all owned by FUNimation, Toei Animation, and Akira Toriyama.

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CHAPTER 43: BATTLE FOR EARTH

Vegeta and Nappa both cried out in pain, covering their faces to block out the flash of brilliant light.

"AGGHHH! MY EYES!" Nappa shrieked; his eyelids were shut hard. The Saibamen didn't fare well either, the six of them letting out horrid screeches of agony.

Gine allowed herself the faintest of smiles despite the seriousness of the situation. Her little trick worked, and now they had the jump on them.

"ATTACK!" She shouted.

Summoning all of her ki, Gine sprung forward and tackled a blinded Vegeta with tremendous force. Both her and the prince careened off towards the cliffs in the distance.

"You heard her! CHARGE!" Shouted Tien as he rushed the nearest Saibamen, followed by the rest of the Z-fighters.

Krillin launched a Destructo Disk into the gaggle of green monsters. It bisected one and took off the arm of another. Now only five left.

Tien kneed one in the gut, Yamcha and Kami decked another two, Chi-Chi planting her boot into one's bulbous cranium, while Krillin partnered up with Chiaotzu against the last. The Saibamen were taken off guard and put on the defensive, the creatures frightened by the ferocity of their opponents. Soon the Saibamen and Earth's defenders were fighting in a blur of combat that no untrained eye could see.

It was just Raditz standing off against Nappa, who was stumbling and helplessly blind.

Raditz grinned something wicked. Nappa was a real bastard. A real dimwitted yes-man who obeyed Vegeta's every whim and used Raditz as a punching back for as long as he could remember; taking out his anger on him for just being the weakest, and Raditz always powerless to stop him. Now, his old "comrade" was at his mercy for the first time ever, and Raditz was going to enjoy putting his former superior down into the ground.

Fueled by twenty years' worth of humiliation and hate, Raditz launched at Nappa with a flying kick. His boot connected with the brute's jaw with a solid cracking sound, whipping his head back and sending him tumbling away. He crashed into a pile of rocks that crumbled from his impact and buried him under several tons of debris.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do that, Nappa!" Shouted Raditz, landing on his feet and resuming his fighting pose just meters away.

For a long moment the pile of rocks was still, but then exploded as Nappa stood up from the rubble, groaning in pain and rubbing his now broken jaw. With his vision back, the larger Saiyan eyed Raditz with a murderous glare.

"Grrrrrgh! You're gonna pay for that! Raditz!" He seethed, his ki flaring with rage. "Hope you enjoyed that cheap shot, cuz that's the last you'll ever have before I SMASH YOU INTO BITS!"

Raditz cracked his neck from side to side, feeling his confidence flowing. "Heh. Can't wait to see you try!"

"Oh, I'll do more than just try." Nappa threatened as he got into his fighting pose. "I'm gonna rip you apart LIMB FROM LIMB, and then vaporize what's left of ya! So, you better be afraid, punk!"

"HA! Speak for yourself, Nappa." Raditz shot back. "You should be the one afraid to face me. I've gotten a lot stronger this past year, and I'm gonna beat your pathetic behind into the ground this time."

Nappa couldn't believe this brazen defiance from Raditz. His slower-than-average Saiyan brain could only figure that his former subordinate must have had a death wish, and not once thinking Raditz had indeed gotten stronger. Because of his life-long acceptance of the prejudice of Saiyan caste systems and general bloodlust, he couldn't even fathom such an idea...

"You're calling me pathetic?" He joked incredulously, then laughed hard. "Hahahahah! Now THAT'S a laugh riot! Did you forget all those times I beat you until you begged me to stop?" He asked mockingly.

"Oh, I remember those days just fine..." Said Raditz, not without bitterness. But he retorted with a sly smirk, "And I also remember when you used to have hair."

That touched a nerve. Nappa charged at Raditz with frightful speed, but Raditz met him mid-charge, grabbing his punch that created a shock wave and dug his boots into the dirt.

"You've forgotten your place, Raditz." Nappa said with cold determination as they were both locked in their struggle. As a general, he hated nothing more than insubordination. "Guess I'm gonna have to teach it to ya all over again."

"You can try. But I'm not the same as I was back then." Raditz said with pride.

He brought his knee up into Nappa's solar plexus, the brute gasped in pain from all the air being forced out of his lungs. Raditz then hurled his head back and headbutted his former superior in his face, felling Nappa's nose snap from the blow.

Staggering back, Nappa held his face in pain. Raditz saw the opening and went for a ki charged punch, but Nappa recovered quickly and caught the foot with his giant hand.

"I'll be the judge of that." Nappa threatened. Even stunned and with a bloodied nose, he looked just as lucid and dangerous as before.

With a quick flick Nappa twisted Raditz's leg. He tried to roll with the twist to prevent his leg being ripped from its socket but wasn't fast enough and screamed in pain as he felt the tendons being torn by the sheer force of Nappa's grip. Being swung around, Nappa let go and threw Raditz in the other direction. The long-haired Saiyan rolled to a stop, painfully standing back up with his leg slightly limp.

"Well, this definitely won't be easy." Raditz said to himself.

Even though they were both at the same power level, Nappa's large bulk gave him an upper hand in sheer strength. As long as he stayed out of Nappa's grip...

As if reading his thoughts, Nappa charged after him before Raditz could finish thinking of a strategy, he leapt back before Nappa could squash him with his foot. Looking furiously after where his prey leapt, Nappa went after Raditz like a rabid dog let loose.

He tried to swing at Raditz, but the tall Saiyan simply ducked and used the opportunity to get an uppercut into Nappa's jaw, again. Nappa howled, his already broken jaw even further broken and some teeth chipped away. It just made him even more angry.

"GrrrrRRRR! Why YOU! COME HERE!" Nappa raged, trying to catch his former underling.

Raditz parried Nappa's attacks, trying to block every punch or grappling maneuver that would crush Raditz in an instant if he slipped up. They were fighting so fiercely and moving so fast that their fight too couldn't be followed by the news helicopters either.

From the vantage point of the many news choppers, at least the ones that didn't crash from the pilots blinded by the flare, it was all just an invisible blur. The crews, most wondered where the combatants were, and the studio anchors on the other side of their communication lines screaming for more footage. But the hapless cameramen could do nothing but catch the battle for their planet on equipment that was too slow for it...

Back on the ground, it was a full-on brawl. Tien and Yamcha were at each other's backs taking on two Saibamen encircling them. Chi-Chi and Kami were in a deadlocked battle with their two. Chiaotzu froze one in mid-air for Krillin to neatly slice down the middle. Four more to go.

Of the two Saibamen that circled Tien and Yamcha, Tien followed one with his third eye, and was struck by inspiration of moves he used similarly to his fight with Kakarot back in the twenty-second tournament so many years ago...

Timing it just right, Tien roundhouse kicked into the path of the Saibamen and decked one right into its cranium, crushing what constituted as it's skull and crashing into the one trailing behind it. They both fell over and the kicked one did not get back up.

"Heh. These things aren't so tough!" Yamcha boasted, standing over the one struggling to shove its dead comrade aside. It starred Yamcha down predatorily.

"Come on, you little freak. Show me what you got!" He taunted, ready to leap at the little creature to finish it off. The Saibamen did the same...

Tien's his eyes widened. He screamed, "YAMCHA, WATCH OUT!"

Yamcha was too distracted by his overconfidence to notice that the Saibamen's skull had parted open and shot an acidic white fluid at him...

But Tien had tackled Yamcha before it could touch the desert bandit... and splashed onto Tien's side instead.

They both collapsed to the ground. What was left of the acidic shot went past them and disintegrated the ground it landed on, reducing the grass and dirt into a smoldering depression of sizzling and melting rock.

"Tien!" Yamcha cried. The three-eyed warrior writhed on the ground.

"IT BURNS!" He screamed in agony. Yamcha rolled him over and recoiled in horror.

"OH KAMI, NO!"

One whole side of Tien's face and body was nothing but bloodied, melted skin that exposed muscle and bone underneath. The look in Tien's rolled-back eyes conveyed that the pain was beyond intolerable, the nerves on that side of his body seared off. He now just stared beyond in cold shock instead. But he was alive.

The desert bandit was shaken, felt like he was going to vomit at the horrific sight. He looked up to see the sizzling spot where he stood moments before. If Tien hadn't leapt to save him, Yamcha would've been dissolved on the spot. Tien took the blow to save him.

Yamcha eyed the Saibamen that tried to melt him. It eyed him back, cackling in its alien tongue and sounding satisfied that it hit something.

The desert bandit barred his teeth, shaking in fury. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"

Feeling a rage he had never felt before, Yamcha charged with his all his might at the offending creature. It leapt at him too, ready to attack again. Summoning all of his ki into his arm, Yamcha readied to avenge his stricken friend...

"WOLF FANG FIST!" Yamcha screamed as he lunged forward and drove his ki-charged fist into the face of the Saibamen... and out the backside of its head, effectively decapitating it. Without its head, the body exploded on its own in a green fireball.

Now only two left. Chi-Chi and Kami were facing them, now with Chiaotzu and Krillin free to help them out, they were finished off quickly. Chi-Chi, having worn down her opponent with her relentless attacks, broke its defense and finished it with a kick to send it flying, then vaporized with a Kamehameha Wave. Finally, Chiaotzu kept the last one in frozen place while Kami and Krillin quickly blasted it with continuous ki strikes until the poor creature was reduced to smoldering ashes.

With the last Saibamen dead, the group was almost celebratory but saw the titanic struggle between Raditz and the giant Nappa further off. Gine and the prince were nowhere to be seen. But the gang noticed for the first time the sky above them was going dark. Roiling clouds gathered above the rocky desert in the distance and bolts of lightning shot everywhere, like the world was tearing itself apart. What kind of climatic battle was going over there?

"TIEN!" Chiaotzu shouted, breaking the Z-fighters out of their moment of respite. They all rushed to their fallen comrade, and Chi-Chi nearly fainted from seeing her friend's horrible injuries.

"Don't worry, buddy. We'll get you all fixed up, okay? Just hang in there!" Yamcha comforted Tien as best he could. Chiaotzu looked up to Kami who stood over them.

"Isn't there anything we could do to help him?!" The doll-like fighter begged, tears in his eyes.

Kami knelt by Tien's side and placed a hand on Tien's forehead, sending waves of soothing, healing ki through Tien's body. His writhing ceased, his pain subsided to something more bearable, and the acid burns stopped bleeding.

After a minute, Kami let go, falling onto his behind and gasping for air. Everyone starred at him slack jawed. Tien, meanwhile, looked as if his burns had mostly healed, leaving behind pink scarred skin.

"Whoa..." said Krillin, awestruck. "Kami, I didn't know you could do that!"

After regaining his breath, Kami spoke. "If you mean... healing... I don't... I only gave some of my ki to Tien. I'll be temporarily weakened before I could fight again."

"Oh." Said Krillin. "But still, you still have at least some ability to heal."

With Tien stabilized, Kami shakily stood back up. "Perhaps..."

Tien tried to get up, but Yamcha placed his hand on his other, unburned, shoulder to keep him down. "No, Tien. You need to sit this out. You were just badly burned."

But the three-eyed fighter refused. "No. There's still the Saiyans. We have to help Raditz!" He pointed toward the ongoing fight. Raditz was on the defensive, and Nappa unaware that the Saibamen were defeated.

"Don't worry, bud. You saved me!" Yamcha added gratefully. "You did your part, we'll help Raditz. But please, stay back and rest."

"Please, Tien!" Chiaotzu begged. "Don't overstrain yourself! You'll die if you do!"

Tien groaned as he stood up, disregarding the pain from his burn wounds. "If we don't all help Raditz and Gine, we'll all die for sure. I'll tend to my wounds afterward, and if I die, you can wish me back."

Everyone didn't like the idea how their friend was willing to push himself beyond his body's limits, but they understood his determination to win the battle for Earth at all costs. And he was right, there were bigger things to do first.

"Alright then. We'll do what we must!" Said Krillin. "Now, let's help Raditz and bring that big brute down!"

"Yeah!" They all charged in the direction of the battle between Raditz and Nappa...

Nappa had finally caught Raditz by the arm and swung him around, smashing him against rock piles and hurling him like a stone. Raditz skidded across the ground to a stop, dazed and battered.

"HAHAHA! What'd I tell ya, eh, Raditz?!" Bellowed Nappa. He too was looking worse for wear; blooded, his armor cracked, and more teeth missing.

"NOW YOU DIE!" Nappa charged after him, ready to stomp on him like a bug. Raditz grit his teeth as he tried to get up and out of the way...

But then, Nappa was hit in the back with a ki blast that sent him tumbling off course and past Raditz, coming to an ungracious stop.

"Aaaagh, now what?!" Nappa groaned furiously as he got back up.

Everyone had gathered besides Raditz, ready to fight alongside him.

"Took you long enough!" Raditz quipped.

"I told you that we'd manage!" Krillin shot back. "Now, let's finish this big bully, eh?"

Raditz smiled. "Sounds good to me." He looked back to Nappa. "Well Nappa, your little game with the Saibamen is up. Might as well call it quits."

Nappa seethed at them. "To hell I will! I'll take you all on! The only question is which one of you wants to die first?!"

"Suit yourself." Raditz retorted. He got down into stance followed by everyone else.

"Alright, just like we practiced, okay?" He said to each of the Earth-born fighters, who all nodded in return. The shouted, "Let's take him down!"

All at once, the seven of them phased out of sight, encircling Nappa.

Nappa laughed at the circling fighters. "Come on! I've seen all these kinds of moves before. There's nothing you can throw at me that I can't counter." Nappa bragged.

"Good thing we know a thing or two that you don't." Came Raditz's distorted voice.

In the blur, following the lead of Tien's teaching, everyone split themselves into four. Turning the number of fighters from seven to twenty-eight.

Each of the apparitions charged at Nappa from all sides before rejoining the circle and phasing out again, leaving him no chance to counter or predict their movements. Their attacks were miniscule since they had to divide their strength into numbers, but the distracting onslaught was enough to rattle the brutish Saiyan.

"New trick, same result. Nothin's changed." He berated, yet barely containing his irritation. "If this is all you learned from the earthlings, then you've wasted your time here!"

Unseen by Nappa, Raditz had snuck out of the encircling torrent of fighters and hovered high above.

"Oh, they taught me some valuable things alright." Raditz said to himself, "Like the value of a distraction!" Then sprung his trap.

"DOUBLE SUNDAY!" He fired both palms toward Nappa.

Everyone's multiform disappeared as they phased out of the blast zone. The larger Saiyan didn't see it coming as and was struck head on.

The resulting mushroom cloud of purple light blinded the helicopter crews watching overhead, many of them barely maintaining control in the gust of wind in all directions.

Raditz landed back down with everyone else, waiting for the smoke and rubble to clear.

"Did... did we get him?" Yamcha hoped.

Tense moments went by, and Yamcha's question was answered with sickening laughter from the pillar of smoke clearing to reveal Nappa. His armor all but ruined beyond repair, and his skin singed from the heat, but still alive.

"Pretty clever." He chuckled evilly. "But if that's the best ya got, well looks like it was all for not! HAHAHA!" He laughed maniacally.

The Earth-born fighters gulped in terror. They had given their all to soften him up for Raditz's surprise attack, and it wasn't enough to take him down. And his mocking of their efforts wasn't helping any.

"Wow... how was he able to take that?!" Krillin asked dumbstruck.

Yamcha turned to Raditz nervously. "So, uh... any other ideas?"

Raditz eyed Nappa with a mixture of disappointment and worry. He pumped almost every ounce of ki he had into that attack and it did take a toll on the former general. But Raditz could see that Nappa was looking desperate. A dangerous place for a cornered beast to be, where they could summon untold strength from when they'd need it most. He remembered all too well how Nappa single handedly slaughtered entire planet of autonomous fighting machines far stronger than him by going just berserk on them when he was push to his absolute limit.

Withstanding that blast was no easy feat, but Raditz was not sure if he can keep this up for long. He may be leagues beyond what he was a year ago, but in the end still not as strong as Nappa. When will his brother get here?!

Kakarot, where you are, hurry the hell up! He shouted mentally.

"I have one." Said Chi-Chi from the side. "We keep going until we wear him down!"

She charged forward towards Nappa. Raditz's eyes widened. "CHI-CHI, WAIT!"

But she wasn't listening, she placed her fingertips to her forehead and a green dot of ki formed. Nappa spied her charging towards him.

"Ah, so you wanna volunteer to be ripped to shreds?" He cackled at her, ready to tear her apart when he catches her.

Chi-Chi glared right back at him. "Even better: How about... I BURN YOU TO A CRISP!"

She fired her heat ray. Nappa's eyes widened in shock and just barely crossed his arms in front of himself before the beam struck him.

The explosion blinded everyone, the heat was intense and any exposed skin on the Earth-born fighters got an instant tan. In the distance, more helicopters nearly crash from blinded pilots. About now they learned to stay as far as possible, and many had just fled the scene of the battle.

Chi-Chi had used the force of the blast to leap backwards and land on her feet, between where Nappa was and the other Z-fighters. She heaved raggedly, as she spent all of her ki into the attack.

The smoke cleared, and despair sank further into everyone as Nappa was revealed to still be standing. But now he looked ragged, his arms that deflected the blast were singed with burned flesh, and his armor having melted away from the extreme heat.

But Nappa was still standing, and he looked furiously at Chi-Chi. "YOU WENCH! YOU DESTROYED MY ARMOR!"

"Uh-oh." Raditz mouthed. She had just made him even more pissed off, and Chi-Chi was within his sights.

"CHI-CHI! GET OUT OF THERE!" He yelled.

But Chi-Chi just stood there frozen in terror. She had put every drop of ki into the attack, the first time she ever had in her life. If she had done that to anyone else, they would have been incinerated. How... How could this fiend still be standing?!

"CHI-CHI!" He yelled again, but to no avail. Chi-Chi couldn't move, she was too frightened.

Nappa stood upright again, mustering a menacing ki.

Oh no. Raditz's eyes widened in horror. He couldn't let this happen!

"NOW, YOU... DIE!" Nappa yelled just as threw an arm forward and fired a blinding white beam of ki towards Chi-Chi...

Faster than the Z-fighters could see, Raditz sprung forward with all the strength he could summon...

He tackled Chi-Chi with full force, pushing her out of the way of Nappa's attack. A split-second later and she would've been vaporized.

The blast went past them, the other Z-fighters jumping aside to avoid it, and the blast obliterating the mountain behind them.

Raditz and Chi-Chi tumbled together and skidded to a stop. Chi-Chi had the wind knocked out of her from being hit by such force. But she was still alive.

Raditz groaned as he pushed himself off of Chi-Chi. She looked up, still shocked at dodging death. When she made eye contact with her savior, they just eyed each other not knowing what to say.

Finally, Chi-Chi's expression softened, but still held that faint trace of contempt.

"Thanks." She said almost begrudgingly.

Raditz remembered what she really thought of him, the spiteful words she used in the fight with his mother. But there'll be time for words later. He wasn't going to let his brother's wife get killed over bad blood.

"You're welcome." He muttered back.

Nappa then started chuckling, drawing their attention.

"Awww, how revolting. You trying to save these pathetic weaklings?" He laughed some more. "That's sweet, but a complete waste of you're effort, Raditz. Now I'm really gonna take my time killing that wench."

Chi-Chi didn't hide behind Raditz as they stood up and got back into fighting stance with him.

"We'll never give up! Not until we either kill you first or leave this planet forever!" She shouted back at him.

Nappa regarded her with disgust and mockery. "HA! like that's gonna happen. You all couldn't take me down with your best moves, what makes you think that you have a fighting chance at defeating me?!"

"We haven't used all our best moves yet!" Shouted Krillin. "Why don't you come at us and find out what we're really made of!"

Raditz eyed the little bald fighter incredulously. He was challenging Nappa to a one-on-one?!

"Don't worry, Raditz. We got an idea." Krillin telepathically spoke to him.

The long-haired Saiyan looked at Krillin, who looked back across the distance and winked. What was he planning?

Nappa eyed the little bald human and smiled evilly. "Well, if you wanna die next then don't mind if I do!"

Krillin raised an arm over himself, grunting as he charged his ki in a golden disk that grew and hummed.

"Yaaaahh!" Nappa charged at Krillin and the others. Raditz panicked as Krillin did nothing to get out of the way. Would his attack work?

The brute saw the charging ki disk and stopped dead in his tracks, looking amused.

"That's the best you wanna throw at me?!" He boomed. "Hahahaha! You really think that'll put a dent in me?"

Krillin grunted with effort and eyed Nappa. "HERE! CATCH!" Then Krillin yelled, "DESTRUCTO DISK!" as he flung the razor thing ki blade towards Nappa.

As if accepting the dare, Nappa held his hand out to catch the attack. Now flying straight towards him...

In slow motion, Nappa side stepped the disk and reached out to grab it as if trying to fling it back at his attacker. His hand grabbed the disk, but he didn't catch it. Instead, it sliced right through his palm, taking all four fingers with it, and still flying away until it sliced through a whole mountain, bisecting it as cleanly as Nappa's hand...

Nappa's face rapidly distorted through stages of shock, disbelief, horror, and agony as he saw half of his hand fly away.

"MY HAND!" He howled like an animal, clasping his mutilated remnant of a hand with his other. Blood spurted from it, dripping down his arm.

The Z-fighters looked on in awe, Raditz amazed that it actually worked. He made a note to remember that if they survived this, which now seemed like a real possibility, he will ask Krillin to teach him that attack in earnest.

Nappa bent over, trying not to pass out from the pain. He was definitely weakened, but not done yet. As he held his hand to stop the blood loss, he eyed Krillin with a hate he had never given an enemy before.

"You took away my hand! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT! I'M GOING TO RIP YOU LIMB FROM LIMB, AND WE'LL BE EVEN! AHHHH!"

He flew towards the gang, keeping his wounded hand tucked under his arm and ready to reach out and squash the insufferable little bald weakling like the bug he is.

"Now, Chiaotzu!" Tien suddenly shouted.

Beside him, Chiaotzu extended out his hand with a single finger pointed toward Nappa. A moment later, Nappa suddenly froze in mid-air, enshrouded by a field of soft light.

Nappa, still filled with rage, gave way to even more shock. "Wha...WHAT?!... I... I CAN'T MOVE!"

"Good!" Shouted Krillin.

Nappa struggled in vain to move any part of him, but to no avail, making him angrier and even afraid. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" He demanded.

"You're not going anywhere!" Shouted Chiaotzu. "I have a spell that will keep you frozen until I decide to set you free. Which I won't, by the way."

Raditz realized what his comrades were doing and smiled something wicked. Why hadn't he thought of this before?! He turned to them and shouted. "You guys are a bunch of geniuses, you know?!"

"Heheh. Well, it's mostly Tien's idea." Said Krillin.

"Yeah. Just working from past experience, right, buddy?" Yamcha teasingly punched Tien's unburned shoulder. "These two worked this same trick to lock away King Piccolo!"

But Tien was still focused. "We're not done yet. That Destructo Disk that Krillin fired was just a test to see how strong it was against this guy. Seems deadly enough, and now that we got him where we want him, we can put this murderous monster down for good." He said determinedly.

The other Z-fighters, including Kami, agreed. Although it was dishonorable to kill a helpless foe, even to Raditz, Nappa had to be stopped at all costs.

"Alright, then let's finish this." Raditz said seriously.

Volunteering to do the deed, Raditz walked up to the frozen Nappa, and raise his hand to Nappa's face, charging his ki to deliver the final blow. Unable to defend himself and severely weakened, Raditz was sure that he could vaporize him on the spot. It would be quick and painless, which was more than Nappa deserved.

Nappa knew what was coming, he had never felt so powerless in his life. He felt truly afraid.

"NO! NO, RADITZ! PLEASE! DON'T KILL ME!"

Raditz stopped charging up his ki. He was dumbstruck. Was Nappa actually begging for his life?

"PLEASE!" Nappa begged again, the desperation making his voice cracking like a scared child.

Something within Raditz hardened, and he glared at Nappa in the eye.

"You're begging me for mercy?!" Raditz asked indignant, as if he couldn't believe his ears. "Really?! After all those years when you've beaten me into a pulp and ignored my pleas to stop?!" He shouted. "And how about all those helpless people you slaughtered on all those planets we purged? HUH?! WHEN YOU TORTURED AND MURDERED ALL THOSE PEOPLE, DID YOU LISTEN TO THEIR PLEAS FOR MERCY?! HUH?! HOW DARE YOU!"

The more he shouted, the more the words leaving Raditz's mouth seemed to be targeted at himself as much as Nappa. For he remembered all the times Nappa had slaughtered countless millions of helpless civilians out of pure kicks, and the sadist pleasure he took from toying with them, killing them slowly in front of their victims' loved ones and the games they played with their prisoners before executing them. And he remembered all the people he himself killed with almost as much pleasure as his former comrade did. It made him sick now to just even think that he was like them.

Nappa heard what he said, and his eyes teared up, a sight Raditz thought he'd never see. "I KNOW, I KNOW! I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T REALLY MEAN TO! I REGRET IT ALL!"

Now that gave Raditz pause.

"Really?" He asked.

"YES!" Nappa said, barely containing his panic. "I DON'T REALLY CARE ABOUT WHAT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO DO! I WAS JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS! YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME! I KNOW YOU HATE ME FOR ALL THOSE TIMES I HURT YOU, BUT I WAS JUST DOING WHAT I WAS TOLD! I DON'T WANT TO KILL ANYMORE! I'LL LEAVE! SCREW VEGETA AND FRIEZA! JUST LET ME GO! I PROMISE! I'LL NEVER BOTHER YOU OR THIS PLANET OR ANYONE EVER AGAIN!"

Raditz thought over what Nappa said. He had never expected to hear from Nappa's own mouth the same words his victims gave him to stay their executions. He could have been a true coward at heart and was just saying these things to save his own skin. Hell, it's what I would've done. Raditz thought to himself.

He was still the same dim-witted bastard he always was. But to hear that he never cared for the prince or for Lord Frieza himself either, like he did all those years, it struck a chord with him.

Was he really not alone, that they wanted to rebel against Frieza together? Raditz felt conflicted. He may have even felt pity for Nappa. Did he not want to die without having to prove himself? Was he more than just a brute? Would mother or Kakarot have killed him just as mercilessly if they didn't think he saw even the smallest amount of good in him?

"No! Don't listen to him, Raditz! He's trying to trick you!" Tien shouted.

"Huh?" Raditz was momentarily distracted by Tien's words. And that moment of distraction gave Nappa the opening he needed...

Summoning all his ki, Nappa fired a purple energy beam from his mouth, past Raditz and towards the Z-fighters, or specifically, towards Chiaotzu.

Nobody had much time to react, and the beam struck Chiaotzu head on, creating an explosion that blasted the Earth's defenders away in every direction. The magic field keeping Nappa suspended in the air vanished, and he dropped to the ground with a crash.

Raditz saw in horror what had happened and had little time to process that Nappa had escaped his trap. Acting quickly, he tried to fire as powerful a blast as he could at Nappa, but the brute quickly sprung himself upwards to headbutt Raidtz in his solar plexus, cracking his armor and knocking all the wind out of him.

He fell back, coughing as he tried to catch his breath. Nappa stood up proudly and cackled mischievously.

"Didn't I tell ya to never let your guard down? Huh?" He spat with an evil grin. "That's what ya get for being merciful."

Raditz grit his teeth angrily. Why didn't he just kill him when he had that chance?!

"CHIAOTZU!" Tien wailed. Raditz looked over to see the three-eyed fighter cradling the charred body of his charge. His friend. The others had recovered and saw what happened.

"NO!" Yamcha shouted. Chi-Chi wept, and Kami felt the pain of Tien's sorrow turning to rage.

"I gotta admit that was a pretty clever trick he pulled!" Nappa mockingly boasted. "But you were too weak in spirit to finish me off. He got what he deserved."

Tien was shaking with fury. He looked at Nappa with rage in his eyes, his whole form trembling.

"YOU MONSTER! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS! YAAAAAHHHH!" Blinded by rage, Tien charged at Nappa. The brute just grinned.

Raditz screamed. "TIEN, NO!"

But it was too late. One on one, Nappa was just far bigger and stronger. With his massive bulk and ki, Nappa threw a punch with his good hand just as Tien threw his at him, but Nappa's large fist plowed through Tien's smaller body like a sledgehammer through tissue paper. Tien's upper body exploded in a shower of blood and gore, his head being the only part that survived and flew off on its own, his face still frozen in rage and hate.

Raditz had witnessed more graphic acts of horrific mutilation than he wanted to remember, but seeing one of his friends suffering such a fate took something out of him. A friend he had come to know, respect, and trust had just been obliterated into bloody shreds. It was a sight that was sure to haunt him forever. He heard Chi-Chi screaming in the distance but was still too shocked to look.

"HA! I thought he had more fight in him." Nappa bragged, looking down at the bloody remains of what was once Tien. "Oh well."

He eyed over the remaining Z-fighters predatorily, finally settling his sights on Chi-Chi, who sat too shocked to move.

Nappa grinned a disgusting smile. "You and I have unfinished business, wench. You're next, and I'm gonna enjoy every moment of killing you."

He marched towards Chi-Chi but didn't get far when he was suddenly tackled by Raditz. The two Saiyans tumbled backwards and Raditz regained his footing first, with Nappa standing back up looking more annoyed than hurt.

"You just don't quit, do ya?! I was gonna kill you soon enough, but it looks like you're too eager to let me enjoy pummeling these weaklings first." Nappa bemoaned.

"I'm not going to let you hurt my friends!" Raditz spat back. "Not over my dead body you will."

"If that's what it takes!" Nappa said before clashing with Raditz again. The two Saiyans sparred furiously, trading blows that shook the battlefield. Both evenly matched this time now that Nappa had been weakened and injured enough.

They spun around each other, blocking and parried each other's blows, threw massive boulders at each other, fire ki blasts that missed and destroyed the surrounding rock fields. The more they fought, the more the once serene mountain meadow turned into a barren moonscape...

A lucky shot from Nappa hit Raditz in the side, and the long haired Saiyan came crashing down and skidded to a stop. He coughed up blood and rolled onto his back to get back up. But Nappa was suddenly on him, smashing his massive foot onto Raditz's chest, crushing what was left of his armor.

"HAHAHA! Got ya now!" Nappa laughed. He smashed his foot harder into Raditz's torso, hearing the crack of a rib or two as Raditz writhed under his feet.

Nappa grinned savagely. He had finally got Raditz pinned down and ready to finish this insubordinate filth once and for all.

"So, Raditz, any last words before I send ya to Hell?" He said as he raised his foot to smash Raditz's skull.

Raditz looked up at Nappa. Even though his face was bloodied, he smiled darkly.

"Yeah, I do." Said Raditz. "Only one word... duck."

"Huh?" Nappa looked confused.

Just as Raditz had been a fool for not finishing his enemy when he could, Nappa had been a fool for not minding his surroundings. For while the two of them fought, the remaining Z-fighters kept their distance, and now that Nappa was occupied with finishing off his opponent, Krillin saw an opening...

"DESTRUCTO DISK!" Came Krillin's voice from somewhere not far behind Nappa.

Nappa only had enough time to turn around towards the source of the voice, only to see a golden disk of light fly out of the dust. He didn't feel it when it sliced right through his bulging neck. And the last thing Nappa saw was the unbelievable sight of his own headless body tumbling aimlessly on its own as his severed head flew away. He wanted to scream "Damn it!", but he had no voice anymore...

Raditz sighed in relief. "Thanks Krillin!" He called out.

Straining against the pain of his broken ribs, he stood up with some effort. Raditz gingerly held his sides as he eyed Nappa's corpse with a mixture of feelings he wasn't expecting. After everything he heard Nappa confess to, he felt sorry for Nappa, having to die like he did serving Vegeta and by extension Frieza. He wondered if what he said was really true, that he really didn't want to kill in the name of Frieza and just live free despite all he had done. It wasn't too unlike himself, how might have killed his brother if he wasn't given a chance to live.

Well, he almost felt sorry for him. He still tried to kill everyone that Raditz had come to care about. And whether or not Nappa was more than just another opportunistic pawn of Frieza, he will never know now.

"We did it!" Yamcha triumphantly cried out, the whole gang... or what was left of it, gathered around Raditz. The absence of Tien and Chiaotzu left no room for celebration. Chi-Chi was doing her best to not cry, and Krillin eyed the beheaded Nappa with distain. Even though he had avenged his fallen friends, it still didn't take the pain away from their deaths.

"Not yet." said Kami, he was looking out into the distance. They all looked at him and knew what he meant.

There was still the prince to deal with.

As if on cue, out in the distance many miles away where Kami was staring out to, a purple streak shot high into the sky. Really high, almost to the stratosphere. Raditz knew immediately it was Vegeta. What was happening over there? And what about mother?

The dot that was the Saiyan Prince suddenly stopped in his ascent, and the purple glow seemed to get brighter and brighter. And Raditz could almost hear the prince shouting something...

A pit opened in Raditz's stomach.

"Oh Gods, NO!" He despaired. "THE PRINCE IS ABOUT TO DESTROY THE PLANET!"


Meanwhile at Kame House...

"Ugh! I can't believe that gluttonous slob!" Bulma exclaimed.

Launch echoed her sentiment. "Our friends are fighting for their lives out there and he's just stuffing his face and soaking up the attention?!"

Everyone was huddled around the TV, it showed the image of Yajirobe greedily scarfing down a mountain of food as he gave an interview on behalf of the Z-fighters fighting the Saiyans (even though no one asked him to). His table manners were terrible enough to make even Kakarot wince.

"Leave it to Yajirobe to steal the spotlight." Roshi bemoaned.

Little Gohan sat impatiently on his great-grandfather's lap. He hated this. He didn't want to be here just watching the news about the battle. He wanted to help! Why did he have to come here?!

"...You heard it straight from Yajirobe, folks. Now, we go live to the scene where the Earth's Special Forces are doing battle against the alien invaders." Said the news anchor.

The television footage changed to a scene of absolute chaos. The landscape being slowly destroyed by the battle between their friends and a bunch of hideous green monsters that gave Bulma and Launch the creeps. The battle itself moved so fast that the news anchors had trouble following what was happening, but only Gohan, his great-grandfather, and Roshi could follow what was happening.

"Oh no! Be careful, Yamcha!" Puar cried out when the scene changed to Tien and Yamcha being encircled by the green monsters. They all wondered what those things were, for they certainly didn't look like Saiyans.

Little Gohan had to turn away when footage showed Tien getting acid burns from one of the monsters. Launch wasn't so lucky and cried out before fainting.

"Too bad these news studios care only about ratings than to spare us showing some R-rated stuff like that." Pipped Oolong as Puar turned into a fan to cool off Launch.

"That all you gotta say, Oolong?! Our friends are being killed out there!" Shouted Bulma.

"Now, Bulma, calm yourself!" Grandpa Gohan admonished. "The situation is stressful enough as it is but think of Little Gohan here. Panicking won't do him any good."

Bulma eyed Little Gohan and felt ashamed of her outburst. She was worried sick about her friends, and for Yamcha. She hoped against hope that he would come home safe to her. With the world in danger, it gave her some time to think about things between them...

The footage then shifted to the battle with the giant bald Saiyan. It seemed like they were doing well against him, but the footage kept cutting out as the news helicopters kept crashing and switching camera angles. Then settled on one with Chi-Chi firing her signature attack at the large Saiyan.

"MOM!" Little Gohan cried out, so glad to see her okay but in such horrible danger.

"Be careful honey!" Ox-King cheered towards the TV.

They watched in horror as her attack did nothing to stop the brute, and they all nearly felt their hearts collectively stop when Raditz saved her at the last moment. Then the footage cut out again. The waiting was excruciating.

This would all be fixed if his daddy were here, Little Gohan thought. He knew his father had gotten much stronger when he was away, he must have. And was rushing as fast as he could from wherever he was. But it felt like he was taking forever. Little Gohan couldn't take this much longer, for he didn't want to sit around feeling helpless when he could do what he could to save his family and friends.

Daddy, wherever you are, please! Hurry! Little Gohan prayed mentally.

There came a collective horrific cry from everyone as the TV showed a cloud of red, followed by the news studio quickly doing what they can to censor the graphic imagery.

"Oh, my goodness! Viewers at home, I'm... I'm at a loss, but it looks like Tien Shinhan... is dead!"

They had all saw it despite the censors, and Launch, even though she regained consciousness, saw it too.

She just sat there, dazed and uncomprehending. Then a hiccupping as her sobs hit her.

"Let it out, Launch." Said Roshi.

That she did and fell into Bulma's embrace as she wept.

"WHY?!" Launch shouted as Bulma tried to her best to comfort her.

"I'm so sorry, Launch." She consoled her friend, as little as it did to sooth her friend's pain. They all couldn't bear to see Launch, their most innocuous friend so heartbroken. Even Roshi didn't bother with trying to cop a feel as he usually did when consoling a female friend.

"Don't worry, Launch. We'll bring him back with the dragon balls. I swear it!" Said the elderly martial arts master.

Little Gohan kept watching the TV helplessly. Feeling more and more agitated as it went on. His friends were dying now, he had to do something!

The battle on the TV got more ferocious, and finally the giant Saiyan went down in a headless heap that the censors couldn't block in time. But there was a brief moment of celebration as the last enemy on the screen went down. But Little Gohan wasn't convinced it was over. And soon the celebratory mood was killed when the camera panned to two dots in the sky. Both firing purple and blue beams at each other. And the one firing the blue energy blast...

"GRANDMA!" Little Gohan cried out, trying to reach out to the television screen as if to reach out to her.

The two beams meet, and the TV flashed a brilliant white before cutting to static.

"What?! No! What happens next?!" Turtle demanded aloud.

Suddenly the house around them shook as if to answer his question. Not just the house, the island shook, the waves outside lapping at the shore grew in intensity too. The entire planet was shaking!

That was it. Little Gohan couldn't take it anymore.

"NO!" Letting a cry of pent-up energy that he had been holding in for too long, Little Gohan released a shockwave of energy that blew his great-grandfather and everyone else back and blew out all the windows of Kame House in a shower of glass.

"I'M GOING TO HELP THEM!" Little Gohan declared to his bewildered friends, and rocketed out the door, crashing through it in an explosion of splinters.

"GOHAN! COME BACK!" He heard Master Roshi cry out after him. But Gohan didn't care. He wasn't just going to sit around and wait for his friends and family to get killed. He couldn't just wait for his father to come to the rescue. He had to help.

Roshi's island quickly disappeared behind him over the horizon as Little Gohan flew as fast as he could over the sea, towards where he could feel an unfathomable amount of energy being unleashed way off on in the distance...


A/N: That was fun! the next part will be even fun-ner! ;) See you then!