What's Good About Life? (Dragon Ball Z SI Chapter 6)
"It is Lord Frieza to you, ape man." Frieza sneered, looking like he's about to blow him away with an energy blast. "And not anywhere near close to what will happen to you."
"I'm afraid that's not really possible as you are now." Said the Red Saiyan.
"Oh really," Frieza fired a massive ki blast directly at the Red Saiyan. "And how about..." The words stopped in Frieza's mouth. Even the Dragon Team behind the Red Saiyan couldn't help but gasp in shock.
It's one thing to tank a ki attack unharmed, it's another to just...will it to dissipate.
"I told you." Said the Red Saiyan, his voice and stance relaxed, like he was having a friendly conversation.
"What? How!?" He demanded.
"I can sense a lot of power inside. It kinda feels like it's behind several doors." Said the Red Saiyan. "Why don't you open them up? Otherwise..." He gave a condescending smile. "If I were to so much as touch you as you are now, you'd be incinerated."
Frieza paused for a moment, then slowly began to laugh, his chilling voice rising higher and higher.
"You know what, ape? Never let it be said I'm not a generous ruler." Frieza started powering up. "I suppose I should demonstrate how utterly helpless you are."
To the horror of the Dragon Team, Dende and Vegeta, they sensed and saw Frieza's increase in power.
He went through his Second Form.
His Third Form.
And ended with his Final Form.
The Dragon Team and Vegeta were shaking in despair, and hopeless defiance in the fact of the Galatic Tyrant's true power. They never stood a chance.
Only Goku and maybe Nach might have stood a chance from their recent zenki boost, and that's only if they had time to recover.
The Red Saiyan whistled. "Really shows why you're the emperor of the universe and all."
"I'm glad you acknowledge your inferiority, ape." Frieza spoke in a mock cordial manner. "Maybe if you beg for mercy, I might grant it to you."
"Nah, it's fine," the dismissed reply made Frieza scowl again. "First," to the shock of the Dragon Team, the Red Saiyan raise a hand filled with ki toward them. Before they could react, he fired and...they weren't harmed. In fact, they felt better. Fully healed up to 100% and even more. "There. That should be enough. Do me a favor and keep a safe distance, okay?" He told them before turning back to Frieza.
"Oh, I assure you there is no need. After all, all of you will die regard-"
"We're moving."
Before anyone, or even Frieza, could react, the Red Saiyan moved grabbing Frieza by the face and flew dozens of miles away.
A small quake, followed by a loud crack was heard as the Red Saiyan threw Frieza into the ground, causing a giant crater half a kilometer wide crater.
"Oops! Damn, I thought I used less force. Okay, work with even lower." The Red Saiyan said to himself.
"Wha-What was he? Who is he!?" Vegeta spoke after Frieza and the Red Saiyan left, finally finding his voice.
"The Fearful Saiyan!" Dende shouted with relieved joy.
"The what?" Asked Vegeta.
"Tell us on the way, let's go!" Goku said with excitement as he fly to watch the battle with his own eyes. The others followed.
"There was literally nothing 'fearful' about that one." Piccolo commented, him and the others that could sense ki still following the battle.
Dende told the Namekian story, which Goku, Raditz and Gohan already knew, but added some missing details.
"His first wish was for immortality, his second wish was to never lose his mind, and his third wish to was to be sent to a planet called Yardrat." Dende explained.
The reached the fight easily enough, to watch Frieza looking battered, and attacking the Red Saiyan fiercely in anger.
"What's Yardrat?" Asked Gohan, breaking the groups focus on the fight.
"It's a planet that house the Yardrat or Yardratians." Vegeta was the one to surprisingly answer. "They were among the more difficult planets for the Frieza Force to conquer, not because they are strong but because that race was just too damn good at running away, with tricks and traps." He clenched his fist. "I don't know why that Saiyan in your story went there. Maybe he wanted to learn their techniques, but..." He looked back at the battle with apprehension. "None of it should have made this Saiyan, whoever he is, this strong."
The group was silent for a while as they watch the battle continue. It looked like the Red Saiyan was on the defensive, even while letting off enough power to equal Frieza who was using 70% of his strength.
"What's he doing? Why isn't he fighting him seriously?" Piccolo wondered.
"He's toying with him because he's so much stronger." Vegeta said with a smirk, reveling in Frieza's suffering.
"No," Goku said catching everyone's attention. "He's not going easy on him, he's learning from him."
"Learning!?" Shouted Raditz. "What the hell would he wanna learn from Frieza?"
"How much strength he should be using." Goku said surprising everyone. "When I went to my first World Martial Arts Tournament after doing Master Roshi's training, I didn't realize how strong and fast I was, without the weighs on. I moved so fast my opponent didn't even see me move. I literally launched him off the ring with a poke, because I didn't know my own strength." He turned back to the fight, studying it rather then watch it happen. "He's doing the same. He's trying to gauge how much of his strength he should be using, and adjusting based on how badly he harms Frieza."
The group winced as Frieza took a knee to the groin. They kept watching the "defensive" battle for a while longer.
Vegeta stood with his arms cross, tense with mixed feelings. On one hand Frieza was being beaten and humiliated by the hands of a Saiyan. Now that he was looking for it, he can see the Red Saiyan was doing so with ease. He was too relaxed in this fight with someone Vegeta always considered the peak of strength in his universe, even if he would rather die than voice it.
Goku however in awe at the sheer skill the Red Saiyan was using. He was strong, definitely, but it was his skill that fascinated Goku. The Red Saiyan just seemed used a style that was loose, focusing on redirecting the opponent's attacks, with the counterattack only coming in the openings the opponent had, or the user makes.
His stance was also too relaxed, like he could change direction on the fly, or move with any new force that hits him, reflextively.
It would be pretty interesting to try and overcome that fighting style, Goku thought. The Red Saiyan was even using his tail in the fight, seemingly not having the same weakness Goku had as a child, or what he used against Raditz in their first fight.
"It's Dive." Nach suddenly spoke with certainty, shocking the people who knew who she was talking about.
"Dive? You mean that," Gohan turned to Raditz gesturing as he recalled his uncle's story. "The deserter who escape the old Saiyan world a long time ago."
"Come on now Nach, I know you hoped he's still alive out there somewhere," Raditz looked back at the battle unusually pensive, as feeling the power level of that Red Saiyan was somewhat humbling. "But that can't be him, there's no way he got this strong in a decade or two, even with immortality."
"I find myself having to agree with Raditz here." Vegeta said with a frown, to which Raditz scoffed back. "But I think the same. It is impossible for a coward that wanted to escape battle, so badly that he risked dying alone on some alien world, would possibly be this Immortal Saiyan." He looked back to the ongoing fight, now feeling Frieza throwing his energy around, seemingly to no avail. "That power, there is no way someone that runs away from battle could gain it."
"Not if you have the Room of Spirit and Time." Said Nach.
"The what?" Piccolo asked, feeling like he should know that name, but didn't.
"Oh! You're talking about that place." Goku perked up.
"What place?" Vegeta growled, feeling annoyed to be left out of the room.
"It's a room where you can train in for a year, and only a day would have passed in the real world." She explained to the shock of everyone but Goku. "The conditions in it are hellish from what I'm told, however if you stay there for more that two real world days, you get locked in there forever." She began to explain her suspicion. "I think what happened is that, Dive arrived her on Namek, made his wishes on the Dragon Balls, went to the Yardrats to learn their ways for some reason, found his way to Earth and was in the Room of Spirit and Time ever since." She turned to Goku. "He's the Saiyan that entered the room before you and just stayed there."
"Well Kami did mention that someone with a tail like me, did do that," Goku said with a thoughtful look. "It took Kami a while to get the room working for just one time again, even then I only managed to stay in it for a month at most." His face then turned serious. "I don't know if this Saiyan is this 'Dive', but his ki..." Goku had a thoughtful look. "I did feel a feint ki in that room, but it was too far away for me to tell much about it, other than it was strong." He shook his head. "It was too long ago for me to be sure if that ki is this Saiyan's ki. It does feel familiar, but..." He trailed off and shrugged.
"It doesn't matter." Vegeta spoke. "This Saiyan is not our people's disgrace that we retell in stories for kids, as a lesson, on how not to be a Saiyan. And your little crush is likely dead somewhere in a ditch. Now, stop sullying the Saiyan Race by saying someone like this Super Saiyan would be that pathetic weakling." Vegeta sneered.
And before Nach could swear back at him, or for the others to chime in, a shout from the battlefield reached them.
"I, actually, am Dive. You're just basically wrong, Vegeta."
The group looked back with wide eyes to see Dive looking at them with a playful grin, as he dodge another ki laser from Frieza.
"You dare ignore me you damn dirty ape!" Shouted Frieza in anger as he could feel his opponent wasn't taking him seriously, for the entirety of this fight. That was his thing. How dare this Saiyan monkey do that to him?
"Sorry, sorry, but Vegeta was being factually wrong. I just had to point that out." Dive said with a helpless shrug, talking to Frieza as if chatting with a casual acquaintance.
It got on Frieza's nerves, even as he focused on calming himself, as he thought of a new plan to deal with this moneky.
"Hmm, I suppose I can not fault you for that, ape. It is always great fun putting Vegeta in his place." Frieza stood with elegance once more, an evil smirk back on his face. "But I'm afraid for you, Dive, was it? I'm no longer amused." Frieza lost his smile, rose into the air and raised a hand to make a Death Ball. His opponent let him. "You are strong, ape. I'll give you that, but I'm the Emperor of the Universe," his sneer turned murderous. "And I will not made a mockery of by some damn Saiyan ape! Let's see if you can survive the end of this world!"
Frieza threw the Death Ball, not at Dive but at the planet. The Dragon Team shouted in horror, trying to move to stop the attack, to do something, but they could feel that it would be too late.
The Death Ball hit the ground and-
Dissipated. The ki holding the attack unraveled and broke apart turning into harmless energy that spread into millions of ki motes, flying in the air.
Everyone present looked to Dive to see his hand outstretched at where the ki sphere was.
"So I take it you're done, huh?" Dive said with what nearly looked like disappointment.
"How? How did you possibly-GAAKH!" Frieza coughed as suddenly the Saiyan was in his personal space, a fist going cleanly through his gut.
"Thanks, Frieza. You've been helpful in helping me figure out how to interact with the real world again, since everything here is so fragile." Said Dive.
"You!...You!..." Frieza tried to express how much anger and hate he felt toward the Saiyan now.
"So I'm gonna give you a piece of advice."
Frieza suddenly felt weak. His power just left him, as if dissipating away from his body like his world killing attack earlier did. There was only the certainty that he would die left...and fear. Fear from the understanding that this Saiyan could have done that at any point.
"In whatever hell you find yourself in," Dive spoke in a low tone but his voice was heard by those present just the same. "If you ever feel someone wishing you back to life with the Dragon Balls," Frieza saw the Saiyan's eyes, and the earlier calmness was replaced with the harsh look, he was used to seeing on Saiyan Warrior. Except this one...this one actually scared him. "Don't accept." Said Dive. "Because if you come back? I'll be here to kill you again."
With those definitive words, ki exploded from where Dive's fist was into a pillar of yellow ki that enveloped Frieza's body. Barely a scream followed. Once the ki pillar was gone, there was no trace of the space tyrant left, not even ashes.
"So," Dive said he suddenly appeared in front of the group startling them. He was running his hand through his hair, and scratching his butt, his aura completely gone. Yet even with his ki suppressed no longer affecting the environment around him, the warriors and Dende could feel his enormous powers, that equaled Frieza's Final Form. "Moori and the other Namekians on Earth more or less told me everything. But I have literally never eaten anything in millennia, so whatever this talk we're about to have, can we do it at a restaurant? I could really go for steak right about now. Or burgers. Or steak burgers!"
The group was processing the demise of Frieza, that he was finally, finally gone.
Except for Goku, he was completely on the same wavelength as Dive.