The First Time's the Hardest

(11 months after Gohan's kidnapping)

Gohan's slumber was ended violently when his pod crashed to yet another planet, the third time being the charm, as his body was now familiar enough with the powerful chemicals that induced the hibernation that he actually woke up from the landing. He was awake but he didn't make any move to exit the pod, he didn't want to move, moving meant acknowledging he was there, the second to last place in the whole universe he wanted to be. He didn't want to have to hurt innocent people, there was only a very select group of monsters he wanted to hurt, and they were the ones he was suppose to be working for and with."

Raditz wasn't suffering from such stage fright though, he had done this drill hundreds of time throughout his long career with the Planet Trade, he also know this was a much stronger of a planet than he had ever taken on essentially by himself before. He launched from his pod, part of him was expecting to already be under attack when they landed, many mid-level worlds had enough technology that they would inevitably learn of their impending doom.

To say he was jumpy was an understatement, the reports said this was a world Nappa would enjoy destroying, as much as he hated to admit it, he would likely die if the brat didn't adapt, and adapt fast. A quick scan with his scouter showed no high power-levels nearby, so he hurried over to Gohan's pod and opened the door expecting his nephew to still be asleep, instead Gohan just stared up at him a turmoil of emotions clearly boiling right below the surface.

Raditz didn't care about the child's misgivings about being there, they had a mission to complete an they needed to complete it, "Hurry brat get out, they haven't realized we're here yet." He shouted pulling the reluctant child from his pod.

"No, can't you just do it I can't hurt people who haven't done anything to me." Gohan protested, tears forming in his eyes. It was the sort of sickening sight Raditz was becoming all to use to being around the Gohan. Just when he thought the kid was going to break down though, he surprised him by continuing to talk "Can't you do it?"

He felt his eye twitching involuntarily, "No you spoiled, stuck up brat I can't do it!" The dam holding back Raditz's rage broke again, "You heard Frieza these missions were chosen to test you! Not me you! And not your normal pitiful power level, no he wants to test your real strength the fucking strength that you only show when your trying to fucking kill me! If we don't work together we will die, on this swamp cover mudball do you understand me!" Raditz was snarling with rage from what he saw as the child continuing to be the same whiny child he had first found over a year ago.

"I don't care I can't hurt them!" Gohan shouted defiantly.

Raditz's anger surged the brat was going to get them both killed. "You promised you'd obey me, I order you to help me wiped out this planet!"

"No!" Gohan shouted back his energy spiking with his anger.

Raditz was about to respond when both he and Gohan's scouters began to beep. Gohan couldn't read the alien numbers flashing on the screen he knew that they meant someone was coming, and by the look on Raditz's face it wasn't good news.

Raditz's heart was pounding '1000, 1400, 1800, 1500... 3400! I can take the first four one on one no problem but there is no way in hell I can take them all, and that last one would slaughter me.' A dark thought crept into Raditz thoughts, instead of fighting it out, and transforming if necessary, the only way to survive was to transform now before the planets defenders got there.

He quickly began charging a specialized ball of energy, it was a tricky technique to master, he had only successfully done it twice but it had to be done, if he hoped to survive the day.

Finally after several tense seconds the energy in the ball began to send tingles down his spine, the clear sign he needed that he had done it correctly, and promptly threw it in the air. His entire body began urging him to look up at the orb, but he needed to do one last thing before he could unleash his true self. He immediately whipped around and shouted at Gohan, "quick brat in the sky!"

Gohan's head wiped up and his eyes involuntarily locked onto the moon-ball floating above him. His mind instantly blanked out as all of the fear, sadness, and anger he had felt over the last year ignited into an inferno of rage. Raditz smirked at his success as he too looked into the moon-ball, as his fury at his comrades constant belittling of him fueling a massive explosion of strength within him.

The squadron of the planets military, purple scaled reptilian beings, arrived a moment later. "In the name of King Rizzado identify yourzelvez!" The commander shouted, only to be ignored as the duo continued to stare up into the sky. Just as the frustrated commander was about to order his men to attack, both beings before him began to grow.

The soldiers began to feel fear building, their tails curling back into defensive curls as they involuntarily stepped away from the expanding monsters.

Finally their growth stopped, both let out ground shaking roars and began to blast the surrounding landscape indiscriminately.

"Men fall back, we need reinforcementz!" The commander shouted, unintentionally drawing the larger beast's attention.

In a flash the entire group was vaporized from a single mouth blast, not even having a chance to radio in the threat.

It didn't take the duo long to carve their path of destruction all the way to the nearest city. In a matter of seconds the sky was filled with smoke and the screams of the dying.

As reports began to get out from the city of two unstoppable monsters destroying everything in sight; more and more of the planet's defense forces rushed to the city, only to be wiped out by Raditz's might. Gohan, the weaker of the two, couldn't harm most of the soldiers but he could harass them, and he was more than happy enough to destroy the city while the soldiers focused on his uncle.

Within an hour over half the military forces on the world had been wiped out, along with one of the largest cities on the planet. The duo wasn't done yet though and continued expanding their path of destruction. Eventually leaving the region illuminated by their source of strength, and reverting back to their normal selves.

Gohan immediately passed out from the stress of transforming, while Raditz could barely keep himself moving, snatching the boy up he hid in a nearby cavern so that they could recuperate for their next attack.

Without his scouter, which had fallen off as he transformed, he had no way of knowing when they were at risk, so Raditz was forced to spend the entire night on lookout duty. The voices of the natives came from right outside the entrance to the cave for most of the night.

As the first light of morning drifted into the cave entrance, Raditz was able to see the sheer number of singe marks, both on his armour and on his skin. Raditz couldn't help but compare the boys condition to his own, seeing how he didn't have a scratch on himself. He wasn't sure if it was simply because Gohan had gotten the hardest part of the fighting, or if his rage induced strength didn't carry over to his transformation. If it was the former, Raditz was indeed worried about the planet's inhabitants, the later and he felt more than confident in their ability to exterminate the planet on schedule with his transformation aiding him.

Finally the natives decided to move their search elsewhere, their voices slowly drifting into the distance, giving Raditz the chance to sneak out and grab some food to satisfy his growing hunger. As he exited the small cavern, he noticed just how thorough they had been on their first pass through the planet, in as the rays of the early morning sun, he could still see the glow of far off fires in the distance. He knew he didn't have much time to admire his work so he got to hunting.

'Damn it I should've secured my scouter before I transformed, the damn things probably back at the crash site, if it's not broken.' Raditz scolded himself as he sprinted from pocket of forest to pocket of forest. He already had snagged some small woodland animals that were caught off guard by his speed, he knew if he was going to feed himself and his nephew, he would need something more substantial.

Running several more miles, he finally came to what he could only figure was a small farm, with a field filled with medium sized herbivores grazing on the small plants covering the ground. 'Good no farmers to get in my way.' he thought to himself after making an initial scope of the area. In an instant he had felled one of the beasts, slung it over his shoulder and started back.

As he approached the cavern his sensitive hearing picked up the sound of a blast being fired, he was barely able to dodge to the left fast enough to avoid being blindsided. His meal wasn't so lucky though, as the blast was more than strong enough to burn it and instead vaporized it.

The Saiyan warrior glared up into the sky, ready to rip apart the fool that would keep him from his meal. Floating there was a lone native soldier, a confident smirk on it's face.

"Zo, you're the alien that has everyone zo worked up huh?" The confident tone in the young reptiles voice, meant it was either exceedingly dumb, or exceedingly strong. Without his scouter though, Raditz had no way to tell.

"And what if I am?" Raditz growled back, still trying to determine just how strong this new arrival was.

"In that caze I get to kill you, in fact I think I'll be promoted when I bring your head back to the King." it smirked and dropped into a defensive stance, claws extended out in-front.

Raditz began to feel more confident about his chances of survival, the creatures stance was very open, leaving lots of holes in his defenses. "If you think you can even touch me then come on, I'm a Saiyan elite!" He gloated as he dropped into his own stance.

Both sides glared one another down for a moment, before disappearing and colliding in the middle, hands gripping each other as they struggled for supremacy, neither budging an inch for the first moment, both grunting with exertion, finally the alien broke the silence, "Not bad, are you ready to take it up a notch?"

As soon as the words left his sharp, tooth filled mouth, his spiked tail wrapped around Raditz's leg and pulled his support out from under him. The back of his head hit hard on the ground, the world going black for a second. Before his head had stopped spinning his scaled attacker was already on top on his claws extending much longer, ready to rip the Saiyan's throat out.

Raditz didn't intend to give the native the chance though, as fired a quick blast into the ground using one of his pinned arms, the heat from the resulting explosion scalded his hand, but the move had the desired effect as it launched them both into the air, giving Raditz the opportunity to gain some distance from his stunned adversary.

As soon as Raditz feet touched the ground he had already launched back towards his opponent, nothing but a blur. The lizard like warrior barely had time to roll before Raditz's leg buried itself in the ground right where he had been. used it's tail to turn it's roll into a flip, firing a series of small but potent blasts loose as it flew.

Raditz was forced to dodge the blasts, giving the native the opportunity he needed. He immediately let loose a dizzying array of clawed strikes which Raditz was barely able to escape without serious injury, as he was forced to dodge or knock the clawed arms off course. His arm's paid a heavy price for the lack of damage on the rest of himself, as each arm was a maze of deep cuts by the time he was awarded a chance to counterattack. But finally the opportunity presented itself and he unleashed a vicious side-way kick to the being's gut, forcing all of the air from its lungs.

Before the native could catch its breath, Raditz followed up his kick with a series of small blasts, forcing the creature to focus on parrying the blasts instead of watching Raditz, who immediately vanished going full speed.

Just as the young warrior realized the Saiyan was gone, was the last moment of his life as Raditz shouted "Saturday Crush!" firing a large pink blast that completely vaporized the reptilian alien's head.

Raditz could only smirk at the fallen native who would undoubtedly become the meal it had just robbed from him. He charged up a second blast intending to cook the creature right then and there to finally satisfy his endless Saiyan hunger.

Just as he was about to fire though, he was interrupted, "Ztop!" another reptilian voice rang out. Turning his head to the sky, he noticed four more warriors floating above him, all in the same armour as the being he had just slain; one though had many more patches than the others, clearly the group's leader. Each had looks on their faces that varied from enraged to ravenous.

'Shit' was all Raditz's tired and hungry mind could come up with as the four warriors descended in a diamond shape around him. "Zo Alien, by how poorly you fared against one of our raw recruitz, I'm curiouz how you managed to deztroy half of our army and a whole city, care to zhare your zecret before we beat you within an inch of your mizerable life and drag you before the King to be executed?" the groups leader asked, a toothy smirk plastered on her face.

The smugness of the creature made Raditz's pride beg to crush it beneath his boot, but there was something about this one that made him feel as if he was completely outmatched, a sort of pressure almost emitting from it that eroded the small amount of confidence he had left. Finally he could take it no more, if he was going down he would go down fighting, "Come on I can take you all on!" he shouted as he launched forward attempting to strike the creature's face.

His attack failed miserably, as a massive reptilian fist slammed into his stomach, launching the stunned alien high into the air. The other three aliens, crashed into Raditz's sprawling body, beating through his rapidly slowing defenses. Within seconds he was beaten to the ground, unable to even defend himself any longer.

The leader of the group stood by hissing to herself, her races form of laughter, as she stared down over the being that had, for a night, become the terror of the entire world.

"Now then outsider, I think it'z time I beat some answerz out of you before taking you before the King" There was a sinister amount of joy in her voice that showed she was going to enjoy the next few minutes.

In a flash Raditz world erupted into an explosion of pain, the leader of the group had vanished from his view and immediately sunk his claws deeply into his right calf. His rage at his captors shot upwards as he began to scream in agony.

In a nearby cavern, a young boy was suddenly awoken by the blood curdling screams of agony filling the entire valley. Gohan looked around the cave, trying to figure out where the screams were coming from and how he had ended up in a cave, the last thing he remembered was staring up at the moon. Deciding there were no more answers for him in the cave he rushed outside to see what what happening.

As soon as he exited the cave he regretted it, his entire system being overtaken with shock as he just numbly stared at the most gruesome, brutal scene he had even been misfortunate enough to witness. His uncle's beaten and bloodied form lay prone on the ground in the distance, four large reptilian monsters seemingly ripping him apart. His mind seemed to snap, the same horrifying image he had imagined when he was first informed of his father's death filled his head, his dad smashed like a bug, but this time it was changing, mixing with the sight he saw before him of his uncle being ripped apart. He couldn't take it anymore he was going to burst.

Then it happened the one thing that could have pushed him further than he already had been, the largest lizard rose up, and placed its foot down on his uncle's stomach crushing down with immense force, forcing the pained screams to reach higher and higher frequencies. "Zcream monkey! Zcream!" it yelled, and suddenly it wasn't some lizard monster standing over his uncle, it was Frieza himself.

Everything became a blur, he was aware of a noise, and nothing else, a ringing noise that seemed to reverberate all throughout his head, before he knew what was happening, the blur around him flashed red.

Raditz's world was slowly fading to black, he was practically begging death to take him, to remove the pain that was filling every orifice of his being. The natives on this hell hole were proving that even Frieza couldn't compare to the sheer expertise of their torture.

Then something rang out over his screams, and for a moment caused the white hot waves of pain to cool, "FRIEZAAA!" he heard shouted, it almost sounded like his nephew, but there was an edge to the voice, a ping of murderous intent that he couldn't imagine emanating from his soft nephew.

Suddenly the largest of his torturers let out a scream as her massive torso seemed to explode, his nephew flying head first through her. The boy skid to a halt, not even wiping the blood dripping on his face, and let out a second yell, "FRIEZA!" two massive blasts formed in the child's hands, each glowing with a blue shining potency that would make put most of Frieza's elites best attacks to shame. Before any of the native soldiers had a chance to even respond to this new, sudden, pint-sized threat the blasts were already on their way. Two more of the natives vanished in a flash, leaving one scared warrior left standing.

Gohan's blind rage continued, the only thing he could think of was killing the monster that had ruined his life. the surviving soldier turned to flee, but Gohan appeared in front of him in an instant, his small leg caving the warriors chest in in a single blow. He immediately followed up the attack, by charging up a massive beam with both hands cupped over his head, before screaming as he released it, the explosion he caused was truly massive explosion, one that would make Nappa proud, sending Raditz's limp, bleeding from crashing into a nearby tree.

When he was done, Gohan's head was spinning, as he became aware of the carnage around him, the carnage he had caused. Everything froze for a moment, 'Where'd Frieza go? Did I… Did I do this?' The revelation hit the Saiyan hybrid like a ton of bricks, his legs failed him as he dropped to the ground and began to wrench. He had just killed 4 beings, not bugs, or even animals, but beings that could talk and think like him.

Raditz's weakened voice suddenly broke through to him, as the older Saiyan fought to stay conscious, "Gohan… you did good...but if you want to live... long enough to do that to Frieza… you need to get us both out of here, more will be...on...the...way…" the blood loss finally caught up to the older Saiyan, unable to fight the darkness any longer he drifted into the dreamless slumber of unconsciousness.

Gohan stared at his uncle's limp unmoving body for a moment, before his body began to move on its own, completely on autopilot. He walked over and picked his uncles large frame up, slung him over his shoulder and began to drag him towards the nearby tree line.

Even carrying such a large being through as difficult terrain as the forest he was now jogging through was proving to be relatively easy for the youngest Saiyan, a testament to his rapidly growing strength, unfortunately he had no idea where to take his seriously injured uncle, or what to do when he got there.

After another 10 minutes of running, he began to really become aware of the blood running down his armour. 'Uh oh, I need to get a band-aid' the child thought, before remembering there would be no band-aids on this world, it wasn't his home anymore. He needed to improvise. He carefully set his uncle ground and looked at his surroundings, the bushes nearby had large broad leaves, and vines hung from every tree. He quickly started gathering the supplies he would need, taking the leaves he wrapped them around his uncles many wounds, and tied the make shift bandaids to his uncle with the vines with a small amount of difficulty, he had only learned to tie his shoes a few weeks before his kidnapping. Finally though he felt he was done, and picked his uncle up to keep moving, he needed to find a good place to hide in case more of the monsters came.

Back at the sight of the most recent battle, two more squads of soldiers had arrived, dismayed to find their brethren's bodies strewn across the ground.

"Those monsterz!" One soldier shouted as he stared down at his fallen comrades. Another noticed the trail of red blood and snarled, "Quick I think they went that way, lookz like the otherz did some damage!"

The entire troop of reptilian soldiers rushed into the bushes, prepared for the hunt of their lives.

Gohan was finally beginning to wear out now, his small legs burning with the effort of carrying his large uncle for so long. Finally while crossing a small river, his legs gave out, the light-current began to pull the duo along, as Gohan struggled to keep not only himself but also his uncle afloat.

After struggling for nearly thirty seconds, Gohan couldn't keep his effort up any longer, his head being pulled below the water, dragging his uncle's limp form with him. Raditz's unwanted slumber came to a quick end as water filled his lungs, he violently lashed out at both the thing trying to drown him and the water around him as well, he needed air.

After several long seconds, he was able to pull himself up out of the water, unintentionally dragging Gohan along with him. As soon as he broke the plane of the water he began to cough the water from his lungs, trying to clear a path for the oxygen he so desperately needed.

Gohan's head emerged a second later, mimicking his uncle's frantic attempts to get air.

Although his body was exhausted Raditz grab the child and pulled both himself and the child out of the water. He lay there panting for a minute, before sitting up to yell at the child, "What the hell were you thinking brat! You could've killed me!" he shouted, the adrenaline beginning to dissipate giving him a full dose of pain.

Gohan stared at his uncle slight fear in his eyes, "I was scared there were more lizard-monsters so I ran, like you said" Gohan argued much to his uncle's chagrin, although the boy had proven himself stronger than the reptilian guardians of this world, that was under a specific set of circumstances, circumstances Raditz knew he couldn't set up again. Finally he sighed in defeat, "You did the right thing brat." he finally conceded.

In the distance they heard rustling in the bushes, a few hundred meters down the river, Raditz's survival instincts immediately took over as he grabbed the boy and dove into the nearest bush he could, barely able to keep himself from grunting in agony.

Not even a full second later two of the reptilian natives shot into view, "The trail endz here!" one shouted back. "It lookz like they wazhed the blood off in the water!" the second shouted.

A much quieter voice responded, "Foolz, you'll give our location away." a much larger one came forward a moment later.

Both Raditz and Gohan immediately held their breath, Gohan's accident seemed to be extremely fortunate as the group of Lizard-men stayed only a moment more before darting across the river to continue the hunt, a hundred feet upstream.

When they had passed, and Raditz was sure they were well outside of hearing distance, he finally let out his breath. 'Damn it, if only I could've had the chance to transform again I never would've been beaten to begin with' Raditz hated his weakness, he yearned to be as strong as Vegeta or Nappa, they would've played with beings this pitifully weak, even without transforming. Raditz though could barely defeat one, and if they teamed up he was reduced to the useless form he was in now, depending on his half-blood nephew to save him.

Gohan just looked up at him questionably trying to figure out what Raditz meant by transform.

Raditz was still shaking with rage when something caught his attention in the sky, once his eye's focused on the orb, it took all of his willpower to look away long enough to whisper, "Kid look at the sky we're saved." before staring longingly at the planet's moon, little more than an overgrown asteroid but a moon non-the-less.

Gohan too looked to the sky trying to locate the source of their supposed salvation, before his eyes were inevitably drawn again to the relatively dim moon in the sky, his rational mind disappearing for the second time in just as many days. Both Saiyan again began to grow, unleashing the full might of the Saiyan race.

The native fighters scouring the forest for the two simian aliens that were apparently attacking their world, were suddenly left speechless as two giant apes suddenly burst forth right near the river they had just passed. Blasts began to rage all around them, more than half the group was vaporized in the first few seconds after the roars started, mostly from blasts from Raditz's still staggering form. His legs, although partially healed from his transformation, the cuts he had suffered were deep, deep enough that several tendons and muscles were completely ripped apart. The pain emanating from his legs only drove his rage higher, only made his desire to kill everything he saw burn hotter. Nothing would stand in his path.

Throughout the next few local days, horror spread across the planet, as tens of millions of the natives died in massive waves across the planet. By the time they had reached the longitude they had originally started their path of destruction at, more than half of the world lay in ruins, the survivors all fleeing to the southern islands of the worlds massive supercontinent. Finally the orientation of the moon with it's host planet shifted such that Raditz and Gohan could no longer sustain their transformation, reverting back to their normal forms. Both were so exhausted from their prolonged stay in their Oozaru forms that neither was conscious by the time the transformation had ended.

Gohan lay on the ground his arms wrapped around his legs, trying to comfort himself. He couldn't though, he knew in the pit of his stomach he didn't deserve to be comforted, he was a monster, a monster like his uncle, like Vegeta, and even like Mr. Nappa was. His uncle's words continuing to ring in his head.

(Flash back)

Gohan awoke, fear immediately overtook him, every breath he took seemed to make him gag as clouds of smoke filled his lungs. To make matters worse, there was an eerie glow that permeated the darkness, not just in one direction but in all directions. Too add to the strange atmosphere, everything around him was completely silent, not a single sound. The silence continued for several more minutes, as Gohan lay there too scared to move, scared that any noise he might make could break the silence and whatever monsters might be lurking in the darkness around him could come flying to him.

The silence continued for a moment more before a faint painful groan was heard a short distance away. Gohan refused to move for another moment, until the groan came again, slowly he rolled over, and noticed a slumped over shape in the darkness on the other side of the clearing. He quickly got to his feet and silently made his way over to the moaning shape, his guard up incase the being wasn't friendly.

Finally he was able to see the source of the noise, his uncle lay on his back, in agony from his wounds, both from before his transformation, and afterwards during the second wave of the purge. "Are...are you ok?" Gohan hesitatively asked, afraid that his uncle might be hurt badly.

"We did it." Raditz said completely ignoring his nephew's question, "I can't believe I'm still alive." he continued.

"Did what? What happened?" Gohan asked his voice slightly worried, as his uncle began to chuckle quietly.

"I think we won brat!" Raditz shouted a look of triumph on his face.

Gohan was confused "won what?" He naively asked forgetting the whole reason they were there.

"The purge, I think we finished our mission." Raditz bluntly stated, not realizing the impact his word would have on his nephew.

Gohan stared at his uncle his mind refusing to wrap around the elder Saiyan's words. Finally after staring a moment longer he could refuse it no more, he needed to know. "What do you mean we finished the mission. I... I..." Gohan paused for a moment, he went silent when he remembered what had happened earlier.

Raditz suddenly realized his mistake, 'Damn it, the kids too soft I should've played that off better.. well no going back now' he took a deep breath and looked at the child. "I think we managed to kill every living thing on the planet, or at least most of them."

Gohan entire body had gone rigid in a state of shock, his voice wavering slightly as he spoke "What do you mean we..."

'Is the brat really so far removed from reality? He has to know he's killed at least thousands of the natives here doesn't he?' Raditz's tone, when he spoke, was edging on wary now "Brat I think we both know what I mean when I said we." At least he hoped the boy knew, it was not a discussion he wanted to have.

Gohan's legs failed him as he remembered his outburst and the nausea that had overtaken him afterwards. "I... But... I only did it to save you they were scary and mean and attacking you... I didn't mean to..." Gohan pleaded to Raditz as if he was his accuser instead of his accomplice.

Raditz figured he had gone this far he might as well keep pushing, the brat was too soft, and he needed this lesson now otherwise they wouldn't survive the upcoming missions. "They were defending the planet, hunting us down because of the damage we did the day before." Raditz felt an odd pang in his stomach at the devastated look on Gohan's face. 'What the hell is this...' Raditz's mind raced 'This can't be, I can't be feeling pity for the brat can I?' Raditz had gone complete introverted for a moment as the child wailed at himself a mixture of disgust and rage at himself boiling over. Another moment passed, and Raditz felt a small sense of relief, 'That wasn't pity I'm a Saiyan warrior, it was just a more powerful feeling of disgust than I'm use to...' He finally rationalized allowing him to continue physiologically tearing his nephew to pieces.

While he was self-examining the rare emotion he had felt, Gohan had stopped his crying for a moment because a sickening though had pierced through his agony, "Why did you say we again?" Gohan almost couldn't ask the question he was scared of the answer.

Raditz realized the child had not been aware of the fact they could transform, he had figured either the boys father had alerted him to this fact, or at least Nappa would've during the basic training he had given the child. Apparently he was wrong on both accounts, the child for whatever reason was left completely unaware of the true power of the Saiyan race.

"Brat do you know what happens when you look at the moon?" Raditz asked, almost not believing that the child was completely unaware of such an important aspect of his Saiyan heritage.

Gohan's pained look faded to one of puzzlement as he asked, "A giant monster comes out and destroys everything?" Gohan responded repeating the story his father had told him.

Raditz was surprised that the boy was partially right, "Close, but you missing the fact that you become that monster, its a Saiyan's true form." he said, "When you looked at the moon earlier you transformed with me and we destroyed most of the planet's inhabitants if not all of them."

(end of flashback.)

Gohan didn't want to believe his uncle's words, but in the pit of his stomach he knew they were true. He had laid there an hour now and he just couldn't come to grips with the reality that was being forced on him, he was a killer, a killer as bad as his uncle, Mr. Nappa, Vegeta and the rest of the planet trade, he was the kind of monster his father spent his whole life fighting to stop.

The entire hour Gohan had laid there, Raditz had been attempting to get the boy up and moving, they needed to get back to their crash site and hopefully find their scouters, otherwise they wouldn't know if they had finished the planet or not. Gohan though refused not only to move, but to even acknowledge that there was anything left in the world.

Finally the sun began to rise, the rays of the local system's star began to glare into the young planetary pirate's eyes drawing him back into the real world. Tears began to stream down to his face once again, "I'm a monster," he whispered to himself, causing the dam to finally break, as he began to sob uncontrollably, as much for himself as for his potentially victims too numerous for the child to even begin to count.

Raditz had finally had enough of the pity party, "Brat!" he shouted causing Gohan to stop for a second, slightly startled by the outburst. "You've killed thousands if not millions, its over there is nothing you can do about it. All you can do now is thank the dead for their sacrifice and move on, if you don't survive, if you don't get strong enough to kill Frieza than everyone you've already killed died for nothing." Raditz decided he would manipulate the child once again, hopefully it would be the last time he would have to.

Gohan's eyes went wide as he considered his uncle's words, he wanted to get stronger, he wanted to defeat Frieza, but he didn't want to kill people to do it. Another part of his mind butted in though, 'It's too late for that, I'm already a monster, I can't undo the damage I've already done… maybe… maybe he's right.' it was shocking to think he had already killed more than he could imagine, let alone count. It hit him, he couldn't go back, he couldn't go back to the way he was before.

Raditz saw the shocked realization dawn on his nephews face, a realization that caused the corners of the older Saiyan's lips to curl up slightly, the boy understood, he was now one of them now, and once you start on their path there was no going back.

Gohan suddenly stood up, turned to his uncle and said, "Lets go." his voice lacked any sort of emotion.

Raditz smirked up at his nephew, "Yeah let's go."

(1 year after Goku's death/Shortly after the battle against Vegeta)

"Come On King Yemma, please let him through, he's not that bad once you get to know him." Krillin begged the deity in charge of passing judgement on all souls good and bad at the times of their deaths..

"Yeah Piccolo helped us a lot preparing for the Saiyans he's the only reason Tien was strong enough to survive!" Chiaotzu seconded, eager to help repay the being that helped his best friend survive.

"Yes Piccolo was a great help to us on Earth." Nam added his vote of confidence to the proceedings.

The giant Red Ogre seemed to think for a moment before responding, "I don't know, although he didn't kill any innocents during his life, he did spend his entire life attempting to delve your entire world into an era of darkness unlike any other your world has ever seen.." King Yemma thought out-loud.

"Yeah but thinking isn't the same as doing." reasoned Captain Meditrain.

"I wouldn't be speaking if I was you; you four barely did enough to warrant keeping your bodies." The Ogre King exclaimed, causing the five members of the Blue Force present to cringe.

"Oh great King Yemma, please allow him through, his actions bought us the time we needed for Goku to arrive" Nam interjected. "Yes without him there would be several more of us present." King Chappa added in.

Yajirobe, the last member of the Earth's defenders present, watched quietly from the shadows, sure training with Piccolo made him a lot stronger, but he still ended up being killed, there was no way he was going to stick his neck out for him.

Piccolo was beginning to get irritated with this show, he wants to receive the training the others would, Goku's power had grown by leaps and bounds, completely dwarfing all his hard work, but he was tired not only of the games the Giant Ogre that decided his fate was playing, but also being considered as nothing more than Goku's warm up act. If he had to listen to the back and forth much longer he was going to explode.

Finally one more aged voice spoke up, "Please King Yemma, Piccolo is not as evil as his father was, I can sense a change, a true shift towards good in him. Having students has caused him to begin to care for others for the first time in his life." Kami pleaded.

Piccolo almost let out a growl, 'What does that old geezer know, I'm not good, I would've killed those damn humans if they got in my way, without a seconds hesitation.' The mere thought of Kami thinking he was good caused the reincarnated Demon King a fit of nausea. Making it to the Mysterious King Kai's world suddenly began to seem less important.

The King of the Ogre's seemed to think about this for a moment and just as he was about to speak, Piccolo prepared himself to act, just as the Ki began to rush to his palm in order to begin to demonstrate the fact he was not some righteous fool, a voice stopped him, "Don't even think about it Piccolo, you don't want to pass up the chance to catch back up to Goku do you?' The invasion into his head was enough to cause Piccolo to hesitate and give King Yemma his chance to speak.

"I suppose I could let him through, seeing how he never did anything truly evil during his life, but if he causes even the slightest bit of trouble up here I will send the lot of you down to hell, do you understand me?" King Yemma declared causing the others to feel beads of sweat on their foreheads, and rethink why they had stuck up for Piccolo. But what was done was done, It was now time to begin their journey down snake way.

Everyone present said their goodbyes to King Yemma and Kami before beginning their six-hundred-thousand mile run.

Kami stood still for a moment, as he watched the group disappearing into the distance, a strange feeling of regret welled up in the now deceased guardian of Earth, 'If Roshi got strong enough to help, why can't I?' Right then and there he made his decision, using his transmutation power he changed his robes into a Gi similar to the one Piccolo wore and began jogging down Snake way, that the very least he would get the best work out he's had in decades.

King Furry watched on the long range radar system, as the two round ships left the atmosphere. As soon as they had passed the orbit of the Moon, he felt himself let out a breath he wasn't even aware he had been holding in. It hit him a moment later, "We won? We WON!" the dog-man shouted, many other people in the room began to cheer as well, all of them except one.

Bulma sat there, tears flowing down her face, a war of emotions raging in her heart. She felt the same happiness as the others at the fact the Saiyans had been beaten, but at the same time the price they had to pay to ensure the survival of the planet had been high indeed. She had lost several friends today, with no prospect of ever seeing them again. Not only Krillin and Chiaotzu but also King Chappa, Nam and Bora had all already been wished back, so the dead would stay dead. For the rest of the fighters who had died against the Saiyans they too had no prospects for revival since Piccolo appeared to be among the dead, taking the Dragon Balls with him.

King Furry who had stopped celebrating and was in the middle of ordering emergency forces into the area to aid the surviving heroes of Earth, finally noticed the sadness emanating from the woman who had initially warned them of the impending threat. He instantly knew why though, his tone became somber, as he subtly attempted to comfort her.

"When can we wish fallen back using the Dragon Balls?"

Bulma's response caused his own heart to sink, "Unless Piccolo somehow survived we can't, the Dragon Balls are tied to Kami, who is tied to Piccolo if either dies the other does too."

King Furry straighten his spine and called attention to himself as he prepared to speak "Everyone, I know there is joy in our hearts at the incredible victory our newest heroes have given us, but I have bad news to report, I know many of you were with me when we saw the Eternal Dragon appear a few days ago, and think we can wish all those who have met their grisly ends back today." He paused just a moment before continuing.

"Unfortunately one of those who disappeared in the flash towards the end of the battle was linked to the Dragon Balls and so they appear to be gone forever. So we must make haste if he has somehow survived, he must not die, if he has already met his grim end we must never forget the many brave souls have died to today."

Everyone in the room began to move with more urgency, hoping to be able to save the heroes who had saved them.

As his pod made it through the atmosphere, the Saiyan Prince delayed his stasis just a moment. He stared at the scouter in his hand, for a moment he was still too angry to speak. Not only had Frieza ordered him killed, but one of his servants had been the one to apparently cause the tyrants anger at him. To top it all off some weak earthling had managed to defeat him. 'That Earthling is going to have a painful death when I come back with my immortality. Yes him, Raditz, Zarbon, and above all Fireza will rue the day they crossed the Prince of all Saiyans!' He knew he needed to get Raditz to Namek though, at least long enough to help him get his immortality.

Finally after another moment, he had composed himself well enough to set his plans for revenge in motion, after tuning to the Saiyan team's specific frequency he started, "Low-class, brat come in!"

Gohan's gaze swept over the last of the ruins on the island, this was it, the last group of survivors on the whole planet had hidden here. None of the soldiers were present, they had died on the previous raids, because of the low power levels Raditz took care of it without transforming, and had Gohan watch. As much as it disgusted him, he had obeyed, every time he began to get second thoughts about it, he forced himself to remember how many he had already killed, it kept him moving forward.

"See that wasn't so bad was it brat, gives you a feeling of power fighting beings this weak." Raditz gloated as he tested out his newfound strength. They had spent over a week in a cave on one of the islands they had initially missed giving Raditz time to recover, and when he did his strength had risen dramatically.

Although Raditz wanted to test his strength, he knew he needed to keep his nephew gaining experience so he allowed them to transform a few more times to clear out most of the islands. At the second to last island Gohan had gotten use to his transformation enough that he actually stayed conscious at the end of it. He was glad he couldn't remember his killings when transformed, everytime he tried to sleep he saw the warriors he had killed in his fit of rage, their accusing eyes haunting him. He woke with fright every night, and had to use his uncle's words to keep himself from breaking down, he had to keep going every kill he made was a sacrifice so he could save the galaxy from Frieza.

Suddenly Gohan was pulled from his thoughts, his scouter indicating one last power level, it was low, very low, buried under a large amount of rubble. Raditz's scouter had detected it as well, he quickly walked over and lifted the rubble off, revealing a barely alive native, its breath slow as it looked up at the two Saiyan's with hatred burning in it's eyes "You…. monsters... you killed everyone." it whispered as it's power level dropped slightly lower.

Raditz turned to Gohan, "You're up kid." Gohan's eyes went wide, he stared back at it, his body beginning to shake. He could handle transforming, he didn't remember anything when he transformed, but he couldn't just kill this injured helpless being. "No I can't." Gohan whimpered.

The creature suddenly shouted, "What the hell is wrong with you, you kill millions of my people what makes me so special! Stop playing with me demon, finish it." it's voice dropping to one of remorse.

"See kid, the creature is so injured you'd just be putting it out of it's misery, besides why would it want to live as the last of this pitiful race." Raditz responded, glad to taunt the weakling one last time.

"It's all to beat Frieza, it's all to beat Frieza." Gohan whispered, as he looked at the creature again, "I'm sorry." he said slightly louder as he fired a blast vaporizing the being. Nausea hit him, but not as hard as before, in his mind he kept saying the words that were allowing him to get through, 'It's all to beat Frieza.'

"Good job, maybe we'll make a Saiyan out of you yet." Raditz said as he started to walk around preparing to do a final pass of the island. Suddenly both were caught off-guard as a voice came over their scouters.

"Low-class, Brat, come in." the voice was unmistakably Vegeta's, but it was so rasping it was clear he was injured. Raditz was relieved he was reporting in at all, from what Dodoria had said it was likely Vegeta wouldn't survive the encounter.

'He must've finished the purge before Dodoria got there, he must've given him one hell of a beating though.' finally he responded, "We're here Vegeta, just wrapping up the brat's first purge." he proclaimed proudly.

"I don't care about that right now, there were complications on the low-class world, namely Dodoria showing up." Vegeta paused to see if Raditz would respond.

Instead Gohan's spoke up, "Wait does that mean my mom is alive?" A sliver of hope creeping into his voice.

Vegeta silently growled to himself, it pained him he had failed to wipe the world out, but wouldn't alert the child to that fact, he needed to brat fully on his side. For the time-being he would lie, and remedy his mistakes after he had attain his destiny, immortality. "No, we did what needed to be done, there has been a change of plans though, apparently Frieza has decided we have outlived our usefulness." He let that set in for a moment, "So I need you two to meet back up with us at planet 79, if you can get there in under a month, if not you are to go directly to planet Namek, I will explain the rest after you arrive." The Prince finished.

"Are you sure its a good idea to discuss-" he was cut off by Vegeta though, "Frieza just tried to have me and Nappa killed what do I care if he hears me, he's no doubt on his way to Namek as it is." Vegeta growled out silencing Raditz immediately, sweat beginning to build up along his brow, the idea of facing off against Frieza in open rebellion sent chills down his spine.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to go there th-" Again Raditz was cut off, "Yes we need to get there before him, you fool, you need to leave immediately, or I will kill you myself do I make myself clear" Vegeta shouted.

"Yes… Yes Vegeta." Raditz stammered.

"Good now get moving!" with that Vegeta disconnected the line.

Raditz immediately began preparing to leave, but noticed his nephew was standing still tears rolling down his face. "Brat get moving or Vegeta will kill us both." he ordered, and Gohan slowly began to float towards him, his mind was somewhere else, far away though. He had been dreading this news for months, in the back of his mind he knew it was inevitable.

Actually hearing that she was dead though, finally pushed the boy over the edge, the last bits of his naïve self had snapped completely. Vegeta's words echoed in his head one more time, "Without strength anything you love can be taken from you at any moment." As painful as it was, Gohan now knew the truth of those words. It was as if his eye's were opened, right then and there he made himself a promise 'I'm going to be the strongest fighter in the universe, I'm going to kill Frieza, Vegeta, and any other Planet Trade soldier who gets in my way, or who actually enjoyed killing the weak. No world will ever be purged again, no child will ever lose their parent's again, and above all else no one I care about will ever have a single finger laid on them again.'

The wind began to pick up again blowing dust around the battlefield, the once worn ancient valley was now dotted with new, young craters, and the bodies of the dead and injured. Of the half dozen or so beings still alive, only one was able to move at the moment, and even then it was just barely. Slowly she limped her way back to her husband, who was still limp on the ground his body too broken to move.

"Goku, look at you, you haven't even been back an hour and you're already a mess." Chi Chi playfully scolded her husband, though there was still a sadness beneath her voice, as she continued to struggle over if her husband's words were right, or if she should've stopped the Saiyan from boarding his ship.

She sat silently for a moment her hand gently playing with her husband's hair. Finally they noticed something that forced her from her thoughts as she watched specks slowly filling the sky. It didn't take long for the rhythmic beatings identified the speaks as approaching helicopters.

They had arrived a few minutes later, military personnel fanned out not only to secure the area but to also begin the search for other staff on the other hand wasted no time rushing to the beaten heroes attempting to stabilize them for travel to a more proper medical facility.

Just as Chi Chi was about to limp onto a ship, she felt a small amount of energy emanating from a nearby pile of rubble, "I...I think someone's in there" she whispered to the nurse who was guiding her into the ship. The nurse notified some of the soldiers immediately and they rushed over to the rubble, half the group digging, the other half kept their weapons trained on the rocks, unsure of which side the supposed survival was on. After a few minutes, they were able to pull the unconscious form of Sgt. Caspin from what was nearly his rocky tomb, and load him onto a gurney so the medical personnel could help stabilize him.

Chi Chi let loose a sigh of relief that it was one of the Earth's defenders under the rocks and not one of the alien attackers that had come with the monster Dodoria. A faint smile crossed her lips as she suddenly realized she wasn't the only surviving member of her class of the turtle school. Her thoughts were interrupted though by one of the nurses "Ma'am your husband is in bad shape we need you to step away from the door so we can get him medical attention."

Chi Chi whipped back around a fire in her eyes "Well then what are we waiting for, get moving!" She shouted slamming the door shut, she had already lost her husband once and she wasn't going to lose him again.

"Um excuse me, Lo-Lo-lord Frieza." A stuttering technician whispered as he bowed before Frieza's turned throne, fear nearly choking his voice out entirely. He was new on the ship, and it was his day to report any urgent news to the galactic overlord, a task he had hoped you never fall to him, too many horror stories circulated the entire planet trade of gruesome deaths dealt to messengers who delivered news Frieza didn't like.

A cold refined voice answered as the glass of wine visible began to swirl lightly between the pink and white fingers wrap around it. "Yes speak." The tone was almost cheery how light it was, a very unnerving notion for the new recruit.

"Um... thank you sire, we have just received word that Dodoria has left Earth, only one other pod is with him though. We can only assume the rest of his squad is dead." The young space pirate mentally patted himself on the back for delivering the news so calmly.

"Excellent, that is very fortuitous news indeed." Frieza said as he spun his chair around to face the bringer of this wonderful news. "One question though, did Dodoria say anything about retrieving my wish?" A slight hint of desperation creeping into the tyrant's voice.

The technicians life immediately flashed before his eyes, but he pushed through he needed to answer if he hoped to survive, "Well no sir, we received no message. Through monitoring the fight we noted many scouters being destroyed, finally only Dodoria's remained active, a while later two pods were detected leaving the planet's surface, both locked into emergency stasis mode my Lord." He finished, hoping his news would be found acceptable and he would live to die another day.

Frieza's face was frozen a moment locked between conflicting emotions as his mind raced to understand the potential ramifications of the news. 'Dodoria's squad dying is no big deal Vegeta could've easily handle weaklings like them, but Dodoria should've easily been able to handle him, why would he need to be in stasis. This is perplexing, I wonder... I wonder if there is a time limit for which the wish needs to be used by, meaning he needed to be In stasis to avoid the wish being wasted. Possible but it wouldn't explain why he didn't alert me of this issue, unless there was no time, or..." Frieza saw red for a moment, 'Or he failed to retrieve the means to the wish and didn't want me to know...' Frieza's attention returned to the filth that brought him the news he needed to kill something but he had one more question first, "Where is Dodoria heading at this moment?" An unmistakable edge of insanity creeping into his voice.

The being's entire body was shaking but he gulp and answered anyway, "He was.. He was heading to Frieza Planet 79 my lord. Ahhh!" As soon as he had finished Frieza immediately vaporized him, with nothing more than a flick of his eye.

"Zarbon get in here." He shouted to his more or less secretary, who came running to avoid angering his boss off more. "Yes Lord Frieza what can I do for you?"

"I want you to take remote control of Dodoria's ship and have it come directly to us on Namek. I will have my explanation on his failure to report immediately after he returns." The galactic tyrant didn't even bother to hide the insanity permeating his voice at this point.

"As you wish my lord, I will get on it immediately." Zarbon quickly replied before taking his leave. Wondering what his rival had done to anger Frieza this time.

A quick additional note, it has come to my attention that there might be some confusion about the lizard commanders in the chapter. There are three different Lizard people commanders that make appearances throughout this chapter, the two male commanders die during both of Raditz's transformations, the female commander is killed by Gohan's surprise headbutt through her back, much like how Goku finished King Piccolo in dragon ball only from the other direction.

There you have it, Chapter 11 actually ended up being almost twice as long as I thought it would be, and I somehow still managed to get it done a few days earlier than expected. Since its been so long since the last time I updated I figured you guys wouldn't mind. Anyway, this chapter and the next are going to be more bridge chapters than anything else, as things get revved up to start the Namek saga.

Here are some of the power-levels for the last two chapters.

Chapter 10

Vegeta (injured)- 4000

Nappa (slightly injured) - 6000

Yamcha (Goku boosted) - 4500

Tien (Goku boosted) - 5600

Chi Chi (Goku boosted) - 1680

Chapter 11

Raditz (start of chapter) - 2300

Gohan (start of chapter) - 130

Gohan (enraged) - 3100 (The reason he was able to kill the commander was because he had caught it off guard, since it couldn't brace for his attack, the differences in strength don't matter as much.

Lizard-man recruit - 2100

Lizard commander - 3300

Lizard Soldiers - 2500

Gohan (end of chapter) - 175

Raditz (end of chapter) - 2700

Please review, I always enjoy hearing what everyone thinks of the chapters.

Here are the reviews for last chapter.

Reviews:

Super Mystic Gohan: Glad you liked the whole Saiyan arch, as you see some of the Z-fighters did survive, there is still one more mystery survivor that I haven't touched on yet. I knew people would either love or hate me having Yamcha get a win over Vegeta, his victory, well lets just say its short lived and he's going to regret being the one to take Vegeta on.

Crazy Saiyan: Glad you liked it and yes, they were based off the Terminators. I was hoping everyone would catch on to that.