Chapter Fifty-three
A Desperate Struggle! Feel the Earth's Power!
As Vegeta struggled to push the raging abomination of an Oozaru off of him, something became suddenly clear to him. Though he had used this form a fair number of times in the past, he had never actually fought anything while in his Oozaru state. Certainly not anything that was the same size as him. He was also blind in one eye, which didn't help matters. Kakarot's whelp roared in his face and rained down hammering blows before Vegeta was finally able to get his feet up under the brat and shove him off. Chunks of earth went high into the air with the Oozaru's landing but he got to his feet with primal quickness and they smashed into each other in a collision that shook the earth.
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Krillin watched anxiously as Vegeta and Gohan grappled and could feel sweat running down his bald dome from more than just the sun beating down on them.
"Alright," Suno said as she set Goku carefully down on a flat rock and tried to ignore the terror rushing through her body as, giant monkey or not, her five year-old son was locked in a fight to the death with a planet-killing maniac, "What do you need?" Krillin gulped nervously. Him? It had really come down to him?
"A clean shot," Krillin told her while never taking his eyes off the colossal tussle. "I'll only get one shot and I can't risk hitting Gohan and missing Vegeta or missing both of them." He gulped again and slowly started flying towards the giant monkeys.
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Vegeta stomped on the abomination's foot causing it to howl in pain before Vegeta followed with a clubbing blow to the side of the neck to stagger it and laughed as the stupid animal stumbled away.
"Foolish boy," he taunted. "You may have the form but, like the low-class trash you are, you have no ability to control it! You're nothing but a stupid, wild beast!" The Oozaru lunged for Vegeta with its fangs going for his throat and Vegeta took a moment to reflect that, as it was a stupid animal, there was little intimidation to be gained from mockery.
Vegeta brought up his forearm to block his throat and grit his fangs to muffle a yowl of pain as the abomination's teeth sank into the flesh of his arm. Belatedly, Vegeta realized that it was the same damn arm that Kakarot had already bitten! The fangs sunk in deep as Vegeta struggled to remove the abomination from his arm, punching it in the face over and over, which only made the little bastard bite down that much harder.
Finally, Vegeta jabbed a thumb into its eye, causing it to howl in pain and release his bleeding arm. Vegeta sent it staggering back with a series of ki blasts that caught it in the chest and sent it stumbling. He went to bite its throat but the thick fur around the Oozaru's neck protected it from his fangs and it reached up to twist Vegeta's ears. He howled in pain and shoved Kakarot's whelp away in frustration. Before he had time to collect himself, the Oozaru roared and fired a blast from its mouth. The blast caught Vegeta right in the face and he was sent hurtling back. The Oozaru ripped up a chunk of mountain before raising it overhead and running towards Vegeta, slamming the rock down on top of him.
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Krillin floated closer and closer to the clash of titans, always hovering back a few extra feet out of fear of getting stepped on or having a rock fall on him. He watched Vegeta burst out from under a pile of rocks and smashed one of the rocks into the side of Gohan's face before tackling him down and the pair flipped end-over-end, rolling and tussling and roaring and biting. He raised a shaky arm over his head and the Kienzan burst to life over his palm.
"Just gotta wait…" he muttered to himself while his heart fluttered in his chest.
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Suno watched on nervously as she cradled Goku's head in her lap. All she could do right now was wait. Gohan was the one fighting Vegeta and Krillin was the one with the most useful technique in this case. They'd have to have something for when Vegeta was back to normal size, since cutting off his tail probably wouldn't kill him. But what?
"What do we have left?" Suno muttered wearily to herself. She was startled when she heard Goku chuckling weakly. She was surprised her wife was still awake. Goku tried to lift her right arm but Suno quickly put her hand down on Goku's forearm to stop her. "Don't try to move," she said softly, "You need to save your…" she blinked and stared at Goku's right hand. "Honey, why is your hand glowing?" Goku smiled with the only muscles in her body that weren't torn to shreds.
"The Genki Dama," she told Suno, though it seemed that every syllable caused her pain. "It's energy given from the Earth. I was gonna throw it at Vegeta earlier but he got me." The twitch in her neck implied that she would have shrugged if she could move those bones. "At least I've still got the energy. Take it, Suno. I'm in no shape to use it." Suno's hand slowly crept down to rest on top of Goku's and she gasped in surprise as she felt the incredible power in Goku's hand. It was unlike anything she had ever felt. It was like she was suddenly connected to everything, to the very spirit of the planet itself! She turned her eyes back to the fight and a plan started to form in her head.
'I just have to wait…'
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Vegeta was finally getting a handle on the awkwardness of fighting something of a similar size to his Oozaru state and was able to avoid and counter the brat's wild blows. The abomination was also slowing down and getting tired. He smashed his fists on the side of its head to disorient it before he followed with a barrage of blistering body blows. It was just about time to end this nonsense. He smashed it across the jaw with an axehandle strike to send it sprawling into the dirt.
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"Not yet," Krillin murmured. "Not yet…" Vegeta was still too close to Gohan. If he missed, it could kill him! He watched with dread as Vegeta loomed over Gohan while the boy-turned-giant-monkey struggled onto his hands and knees.
'Krillin,' Suno's strained voice broke into Krillin's head. He was so stunned that he nearly dropped the Kienzan. Vegeta grabbed a giant rock and smashed it over the back of Gohan's head to knock him back down.
'Not yet!' Krillin thought frantically. He couldn't mess up! He had to make this just right because otherwise he'd mess up because he wasn't good enough. Gohan struggled to get up again, more slowly this time.
'Krillin!' Suno thought insistently. Krillin's arm trembled as Vegeta smashed another rock over Gohan's head to send him back down. Vegeta picked up one more rock and threw it down onto Gohan's head and the boy's eyes closed shut. He was out cold. Vegeta stomped a giant foot on the back of Gohan's neck and opened his mouth slowly as it began to glow with deadly pink light. 'Krillin, he's going to kill Gohan!' Suno thought in a mix of anger and terror. That snapped Krillin out of his fear and he flung the Kienzan with all his might. The disc of light sung through the air and flew straight and true, slicing effortlessly through Vegeta's tail and through his legs, sailing off across the horizon. Vegeta had half a moment of stunned horror before he instantly transformed back and plummeted to the Earth in a bleeding, bruised, bitten mess.
"Woo!" Krillin crowed triumphantly as he pumped his fists into the air. "I did it! Me! Krillin! I…" Vegeta started to move. "I…" Vegeta stood up. "I… I…" Vegeta looked at him. "I…" Despite looking like someone who'd had a planet dropped on him, Vegeta was still on top of Krillin before he could react, driving his fists into Krillin's gut. He gave a strangled gasp of pain as he felt his ribs break before Vegeta's hands encircled his throat and Vegeta began to strangle him.
"You…" Vegeta growled with one good bloodshot eye and flecks of foam at the corners of his mouth. "You…" His fingers began to squeeze as Krillin frantically kicked and pulled at Vegeta's fingertips, to no avail. "YOU!" Before Vegeta could pop Krillin's head off of his shoulders, his grip was broken by Suno flying at him and dropkicking him in the side of the head, which Goku approved of. Vegeta stumbled to his feet and lunged at Suno who hovered above him with one hand drawn back and a blue orb of ki floating over her palm.
"You wanna blow up the Earth so bad?" Suno quipped. "Well the Earth shoots back!" she flung the Genki Dama down at him with all her might down at him. Vegeta gasped and, in the moment before impact, Suno was able just a to savor his expression which was all at once confused, weary, annoyed, and best of all, afraid, before he was enveloped by an explosion of light. He screamed in pain as the Genki Dama lifted him into the sky and held him frozen in place, writhing with tendrils of energy snaking off it before it suddenly rocketed him off into the sky in a pillar of light. There was a long, tense silence. The only sounds were the winds sweeping across the desert and the rumbling of Gohan's slow, labored breathing. Finally, Suno started to laugh.
"We did it!" she cried jubilantly. "We did it!" Krillin let out a long breath, not even knowing he'd been holding it, and he laughed with her. They managed a tired, pained, yet extremely satisfying high five before they walked over to Goku and sat down beside her.
"You guys were awesome," Goku told them with a wince as she tried to sit up. She quickly changed her mind and laid back down. "I knew you guys could do great if you worked together." Suno smiled and ran her fingers through Goku's hair affectionately while Krillin just leaned back on his hands and smiled up at the sky. It was over.
"Krillin," Suno said, "You'd better try one more Kienzan and cut off Gohan's tail before he wakes up." Krillin nodded and started to sit up.
"You're right," he agreed. "Then, who knows? Maybe things can finally get back to…"
Vegeta landed on the ground fifty feet in front of them.
"...Normal," Krillin said weakly with a gulp. There followed yet another painfully long silence. Vegeta didn't move. He didn't breathe. The only sound that came from him was the smoking and hissing of his skin. Maybe it really was over, Krillin thought as he took a step towards him. Maybe Vegeta was truly, finally–
Vegeta sat up like a shot and screamed bloody murder. Krillin screamed in terror and attempted to backpedal furiously as Vegeta stood up and turned on him. Vegeta's body was covered in so many burns that his body seemed to glow and his arm was still bleeding, to say nothing of the cuts that covered the rest of his body. But Vegeta didn't care, he seemed to be dead to the pain, running on pure adrenaline, pride, and an iron will. He lunged at Krillin and flew off with him before slamming him into the ground by the neck. He lifted one foot up to stomp on Krillin's head but was stopped by Suno leaping onto his back. She wrapped one arm around his throat and jabbed the fingers of her other hand in Vegeta's bad eye. He howled in pain as her fingers brushed the raw nerve endings and flipped her bodily off of him. Suno somersaulted to land on her feet and pushed off with a flying kick. Vegeta's face contorted with rage as he caught her by the ankle and slammed her against the ground, again and again. There was a sickening crack and Suno shrieked in pain as she felt her leg snap. Vegeta pinned Suno down with his knees on her shoulders and forced her mouth open with his palm.
"I will suffer no more of this planet and its so-called warriors," Vegeta gasped with a manic glint in his eye. "I will take this planet to my grave. Starting with you!" Vegeta's palm began to glow and Suno could feel heat in her mouth. She kicked and struggled frantically as her eyes went wide with terror. Vegeta threw back his head and cackled like a madman as he prepared to blast Suno's skull clean off her shoulders.
His laughter was cut short as Krillin's katana bit into his back. Vegeta froze as he felt blood trickle down from the fresh wound and run over the burning flesh. Krillin held the katana in his trembling hands as Vegeta staggered towards him with his hands outstretched. Krillin took another swing and Vegeta caught the blade in his hand, snapping it in half.
"You..." Vegeta snarled as he kicked Krillin hard in the stomach and sent him stumbling into the dirt, "You insult my honor with your very existence!" Vegeta pushed his foot down onto Krillin's throat and began to bear down on him. "You have mocked me for the last time, you insolent, impudent, insignificant little–" Vegeta staggered as a ki blast caught him in the side of the head and he really began to reconsider the benefits of monologuing. Vegeta wheeled around to see the source of the attack and saw Kakarot, Kakarot, weakly holding up one arm that instantly dropped back to her side. Vegeta clenched his teeth, both too furious and too tired to scream, and began to stagger towards her. He was going to rip her head off. He was going to rip her heart out. He was going to remove something from somewhere and then she would be dead! He would not take his time and he would not make jokes, he was just going to–
The Earth began to shake and Vegeta looked up to see that the abomination had woken up again. And was standing right over him. Vegeta started to leap back to avoid whatever attack it might throw at him but he was too weary, too slow, and his legs were trapped under the brat's foot. He howled in pain as he felt his kneecaps snap under the weight. He looked up as Kakarot's whelp reached down towards him and pointed one finger at the beast. In desperation, he fired, the shot piercing through its tail and it transformed back into a naked half-breed. The boy fell on top of him and, as if every other injury he'd suffered today was insufficiently infuriating and humiliating, he had the wind knocked out of him. He lay there for a moment, gasping for breath and staring up at the sky. Once he'd collected himself, Vegeta decided he'd had more than enough of this planet and pressed a finger to the bump on the back of his neck. He pushed down on the subdermal implant and sighed with relief as he heard his Space Pod rocketing through the sky. He shoved Kakarot's whelp off of him and began to crawl towards the Pod as it landed. It was just a few feet away. He could make it! Just a few feet and he'd be done with this planet forever.
"Oh, no," Krillin muttered weakly as he staggered to his feet. "I don't think so." He grabbed his Katana off the ground, which still had a good two feet of blade on it, and staggered towards Vegeta. "You think that you can come to this planet, kill an entire city, kill all our friends, try to destroy the planet, and just get away with it?! Nuh uh!" Krillin gripped the katana in both hands and raised it high over his head. "The only place you're going is straight to Hell!" Vegeta grit his teeth and rolled over onto his back to stare up at Krillin.
"Go on, then," he said coolly. "Do your duty, little man. If you have the nerve." He was Vegeta, last of the Saiyan Kings. The nobility and heritage of the greatest warriors in the history of the universe rested on his shoulders. He would not weep. He would not beg. If this was his fated end, billions of lightyears from home at the hands of an inferior species and a race traitor, then he would face his death with dignity and look his executioner in the eye. Krillin raised the katana high and Vegeta's gaze never broke.
"Wait!" Goku screamed suddenly.
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–-An excerpt from "My Blood Made me a Warrior, The Earth Made me a Hero", the Memoirs of Son Gohan, published in the year 900. Volume 1, Chapter Four: "My First True Battle".
"Many historians and scholars over the last several decades have attempted to say that my mother, Son Goku that is, spared Vegeta out of a sense of altruism. That she saw the potential for good in him and, in allowing him to live, that potential would have the chance to grow. That by showing him mercy, Vegeta might learn to show mercy in turn.
While this belief was not entirely unfounded, as nearly every ally my mother had encountered, from Yamcha to Piccolo, had at first been an enemy, and while Vegeta did become one of our staunchest allies and a man I call a personal friend, the responsibility falls on me to tell you, dear reader, that the truth is far less noble."
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"G-Goku," Krillin stammered, "What are you talking about? Wait for what?!" Too weak and pained to speak out loud, Goku spoke to Krillin telepathically.
'Let Vegeta go, Krillin.' Goku thought. 'Let him live. As a favor to me? Please? I've never asked for anything but just… let him go.'
'Goku,' Suno's voice added to the mix as she hobbled on her good leg, 'You can't be serious. Vegeta is a monster. He will never get 'better' and if he lives, he will come back and kill us all!'
'I know he'll come back,' Goku admitted weakly, 'So I'm determined to get stronger than him!' Krillin couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Krillin snapped. Vegeta's steely expression had the faintest tones of confusion. He was, after all, missing two thirds of this conversation. "Surpass him?!"
'Is that what this is about, Goku?' Suno asked irritably, 'Having someone strong? Someone to push yourself against?!'
'That's not what I meant,' Goku insisted, 'I only–'
'I'm sorry, Goku, but no.' Suno thought resolutely as she turned her attention to Krillin and spoke out loud. "Do it."
"May I," Vegeta interjected as he held up one finger, "Say something in my defense?"
"What?" Krillin asked icily although he had no idea why. Vegeta tapped on his chin and seemed to be in deep thought.
"How did she pronounce it?" he muttered to himself. "Ah, yes," Then Vegeta flung his hand up in front of his face and cried out, "Taiyoken!" Krillin and Suno were hit with a blinding flash as Vegeta used the last of his Battle Power to push off and collapse into the Space Pod. For all that about facing death with dignity, Vegeta thought as he pushed a few buttons and the ship sealed itself, he would cling to life as desperately as he could. "Computer," Vegeta muttered as the Pod began to look off and he felt the phantom fingers of unconsciousness dragging him down, "Set a course for the nearest PTO medplanet." This world would not be his grave. Destiny had not yet been ripped from his fingertips. "Freeza," he muttered weakly, "I'm coming for you." Then everything went black.
A/N: Hey everyone! Be sure to check back here at 3 PM Eastern Time on the 31st for a special anniversary chapter ofTales of the Monkey Queen! There will even be a little something extra to go along with it! See you then!