Chapter Sixty-six
Nail's Sacrifice! Behold, the True Dragon!
"Jeez," Suno muttered as they carried Goku into the medical room of Freeza's ship, "What happened in here?" It was a horror show. Bodies all over the floor, blast marks and burn scars all over the room, there were several destroyed machines and at least one fire.
"Me," Vegeta told her bluntly. Suno rolled her eyes as he trudged through easily, kicking corpses and scrap metal out of his path as he searched through the room, checking machines that looked intact. One of them actually turned on when he touched it so he gestured to them. "Here," he said, pointing at the machine as it opened.
"Are there gonna be needles?" Goku muttered in a barely-conscious daze.
"You're not afraid of needles, are you, mom?" Gohan asked in confusion.
"Nah," Goku assured him, "They just bend on my skin. They feel weird and they're annoyin'." Vegeta tapped a foot impatiently as the other three helped Goku into the chamber.
"Try not to squirm," Vegeta muttered as he pushed buttons. "This is going to be more than a little unpleasant." Before Goku could ask what that meant, the chamber closed again and began to fill with a strange blue-green liquid. A mask rolled down from the top of the pod and instantly suctioned onto her face as Vegeta continued to push buttons, two suction cups following down and plugging onto the sides of her head.
"Is she going to drown?" Gohan asked as the water went up past Goku's hair.
'That's what I was gonna say!' Goku thought.
"No," Vegeta said bluntly as he pushed another button. Goku's eyes went wide and her throat visibly spasmed as the tubes pushed down into her throat. "The fluids will heal the damage to her body. This is an older model so the process shall take some hours."
"Gee," Krillin muttered dryly, "If only someone hadn't blown up all of the newer ones."
"It occurs to me," Vegeta muttered as he rubbed his chin, "That Kakarot is indisposed and none of you actually know how to summon the means that your lives are currently only worth as much as I decide they are." The color drained from Krillin's face as Vegeta looked them all over. "Gods," he grumbled, "Your clothes are rags." The others stared down at their clothes in confusion. Krillin's suit, to his dismay, was pretty badly torn and tattered. The tie was floating somewhere in one of the Namekian seas from one of the times Jeice had punched him and the soles had completely worn off the shoes. Gohan and Suno's gis were also torn and Suno's boots had holes in the bottom from when she'd blasted Recoome with ki through her feet. "I can't be seen fighting Freeza if you three are going to be trailing behind me looking like beggars. Come with me." Vegeta led the three to the lockers and pointed out a wide array of undersuits, boots, gloves, and armor. "Take your pick," he muttered, "But be quick!" Then he walked off to find something for himself to wear. 'Please let there be blue,' he thought to himself. 'Gods above, let there be a blue suit.'
"Hey," Suno called as she leafed through a rack of undersuits, looking for something purple while Gohan and Krillin looked at the various armors, "How do we get the armors on? I don't see any hatches or anything that would open them up."
"Pull them on over your empty heads!" Vegeta called. "The suits are expandable! Why else would mine have still fit when I transformed into an Oozaru on Earth?" Then he went back to his search and found a chestpiece of his own. Of course the damn thing was an old model.
"Oh yeah…" Suno muttered as she continued her search. That was kinda weird, come to think of it. In the end, Suno decided that she wouldn't be going with the "giant shoulders" model of armor. Speed was all she had at this point and she couldn't risk any kind of drag. She settled on a purple undersuit without sleeves, a pair of dark green and red boots, red forearm guards, and a dark blue chestpiece with green straps and green thigh pads. Krillin wore a black undersuit with short sleeves and legs with white boots and gloves, and a black chestpiece with yellow shoulder and thigh pads. Suno found that… darkly funny.
Vegeta sauntered out from wherever he'd been snooping around, wearing a white armor suit with white gloves and boots, and a black undersuit. He didn't look too pleased with that but his mouth turned up slightly in an amused expression. "Huh," he remarked, "The boy has taste." It was only then, as Gohan looked down at his blue suit, white gloves and boots, and white chestpiece with yellow shoulder pads, that he realized his outfit was strikingly similar to the outfit Vegeta wore when he came to Earth.
"Is it too late to change?" Gohan asked sourly. That actually made Vegeta laugh.
"Hey," Krillin said, "I'm gonna go back to Guru's." The others stared at him and he shrugged. "Hey, either I can try and probably get killed or we can do nothing and then nobody gets to use the Dragon Balls." Suno gave Krillin a quick hug and rubbed his stubbly head.
"Go get 'em, 'Bald Tiger'," she teased. Krillin rolled his eyes with a smile before he bolted for the door and immediately flew off.
"Well if there's nothing left to do," Vegeta said, "I suppose I'll take a nap. Make sure no one dies before I wake up." He hadn't realized how tired he'd been and being beaten unconscious was not the same as sleeping. Purely for his own amusement, he wandered into Freeza's private chamber. He couldn't find anything resembling a bed, strangely, so he sat against the wall and closed his eyes.
OoOoOoO
Nail could not remember being in so much pain at any previous point in his life. Still, he held the line. He was bleeding from over a dozen places, including the stump of an antenna, and was struggling to breathe. Still, he held the line. This Freeza was a monster unlike any he had ever seen and was more powerful than Nail could ever hope to be. Still, he held the line. This fight had been unwinnable. Nail had known from the beginning that he could not defeat Freeza's might. Still, he held the line. For his part, Freeza wore an exceptionally bored look on his face. Nail lunged forward with the last of his strength and blasted energy from both hands that roared like wildfire as it struck Freeza in the face.
Freeza casually pivoted his hips and struck Nail with his tail, sending the Namekian warrior sprawling into the dirt to lay flat on his back. His hand clutched at his face where Freeza had struck him like a whip. He could not hold the line.
"I believe this means I've won?" Freeza asked blithely as he wandered towards Nail. Despite his pain and his defeat… Nail laughed. "I'm afraid I don't understand." Nail continued to laugh and Freeza's brow furrowed with fury. "You will stop laughing or I will start killing you from the feet up." He stated with barely-restrained anger.
"Y-you lost," Nail laughed as he pulled his hands away from his bloody face. Freeza looked down at him, perplexed.
"...How?"
"I never knew the password," Nail admitted before spitting out a mouthful of blood. "But I bought Dende time." He laughed again as Freeza's whole body seemed to pulse with anger. It took all of Freeza's genetically-superior dignity to not show anything. He simply rocketed off into the sky, kicking up dirt, grass, and stone. Nail was left alone to die. He could already feel himself choking on blood. Yet he had no regrets. How else could a Namekian wish to die? In service to his brothers, to his father, to his people. A life lived for honor and duty. A good life.
OoOoOoO
Dende was flying towards Gohan's ki as fast as he could, pressing himself even as sweat rolled down his scalp. Faster, he told himself, he had to be faster! Guru didn't have much time and Gohan needed his help!
The others, too, he supposed.
He suddenly came to a sudden halt and cried out in panic as another being in that horrible armor rushed up to meet him.
"No, wait!" shouted a familiar voice. "It's just me! It's Krillin!" Now that Dende was no longer blind with panic, he recognized the pink stranger with a scalp like his own, unlike the other strangers that had the strange growths.
"Krillin!" Dende exclaimed happily and the pair exchanged a quick hug in the air. "What are you doing in those clothes!"
"It's a long story," Krillin said hurriedly. "What're you doing? It's not safe!"
"Grand Elder Guru sent me," Dende explained. "I know the password to summon Porunga!"
"That's great!" Krillin replied. "Come on, let's go!" The pair flew back to Freeza's ship, grateful for that tiny silver lining. "Hey, who the heck's Porunga?"
OoOoOoO
Once he was so high that the green sky began to turn black and Freeza could see a few stars, he finally decided that he had put enough distance between himself and the inferiors. Then he screamed as loud as he could, releasing his rage. Then he turned back towards the planet and rocketed down.
"No one shall possess immortality but me!" he shrieked. He tapped his scouter to summon the Ginyu Force but no one was answering. "AND THE GINYUS ARE DEAD?!" he bellowed in exasperation. This entire damn trip was just one headache after the other. He wasn't sure how it could get worse.
OoOoOoO
Suno and Gohan were surprised when they sensed Krillin returning already. On top of that, they sensed another power with him. They rushed out of the ship and were greeted by the sight of Krillin and Dende flying toward them. Gohan broke out into a wide grin as he flew up to Dende, the Namekian boy flying down to meet him and the pair hugging fiercely.
"Dende!"
"Gohan!"
"Wait," Suno interjected, "What are you doing here?" Then she turned to Krillin. "Why did you bring Dende back? It could get really dangerous!"
"I know the password!" Dende replied. She nodded and gave a bit of a shrug. She supposed that was as good a reason as any.
"Hey," Krillin said suddenly, "Is Vegeta still asleep?"
"Last we checked," Suno replied.
"Then we should use the balls right now," Krillin suggested. "That way Vegeta doesn't become immortal!" The others nodded and they quickly scooped up the Dragon Balls before flying off to a nearby island to put a little more distance between themselves and Vegeta. "Hey," Krillin said as Gohan and Dende laid out the balls on the ground, "I've got a question. So we're gonna use one wish to bring back everyone killed by Nappa and Vegeta and another to wish back all the Namekians killed by Freeza, right?"
"That sounds right," Suno agreed.
"So what're we gonna do with that last wish?" They paused and thought for a moment, rubbing their chins and scratching their heads. As neither Krillin and Suno had never used the Dragon Balls except for a need, they had no idea how to use the Dragon Balls for a want.
Then the sound of Freeza's scream reached them and they felt Freeza's monstrous ki rushing toward them.
"Weeee'll figure that out later," Suno urged hurriedly. "Right now, let's just focus on summoning the Dragon." She turned her attention to Dende. "Say the thing, okay?" Dende nodded and threw his head back, stretching his arms out wide.
"Takkaraputo Popporunga Pupirittopara!" he cried. His words were carried on an echo for a moment before the Dragon Balls began to glow while letting out an ominous hum although they stayed on the ground. For the first time since they'd come to Namek, the sky went black and massive dark thunder clouds filled the sky. Dende was wonderstruck by that even before the Dragon showed up. He had never seen a sunless sky in his life.
"Well that's pleasantly familiar," Suno muttered. She never thought she would reach a point in her life where a giant dragon appearing out of the sky would be the thing that brought normalcy to her life but that was what happened when you entered Son Goku's crazy world, she supposed. The Dragon Balls continued to glow brighter and brighter, the humming growing louder and louder, when an enormous pillar of fire shot out of the Dragon Balls and into the sky, lighting shooting off of it as it spiraled and twisted into the air.
"That's different," Krillin added in stunned shock as the pillar of fire grew and grew until they were forced back. Eventually, the pillar took shape and the four of them stared up in shock at the Dragon God Porunga.
The Dragon was several times larger than Shenron, his enormous frame filling up the entire sky as he looked down at them. He had a long fin that started at the very tip of his tail and went all the way up between his massive shoulders. He had huge, curved ebony horns sticking out of the top of his head and a pair of relatively smaller horns on either side. His arms were positively gargantuan, with each shoulder having a black spike jutting out that was the size of a mountain. Muscles covered every inch of his cream-colored stomach and he also had a pair of antennae like a Namekian.
"Th-that," Krillin managed to stammer out through his astonishment, "That is a serious dragon." Gohan and Suno nodded wordlessly.
"So," Dende said as he looked back over his shoulder at them, "What did you wanna wish for?"
OoOoOoO
"Okay guys," Kaiou muttered, "Moment of truth. They just summoned the Dragon. Almost time to get you people off my lawn." Piccolo was more than a little disappointed in the waste of time as he sat under Kaiou's tree. All that running and they had only been here for a matter of days. Such a waste of time. Launch and Ten were similarly disappointed. Yamcha was more than happy at the prospect of getting back to the land of the living. He missed Chi-Chi.
No one cared how Chaozu felt.
OoOoOoO
The first thing that made Freeza stop was the sky turning black. On a planet with… three suns. That didn't make any sense. That made less than no sense. Then it began to thunder.
"Oh no," he muttered, "Please don't rain." Freeza positively hated rainy days. It was one of the reasons why he made sure that every Freeza planet had remotely-controlled global weather. Then a giant beast burst into existence, green and scaly and… looking not unlike… a dragon. "Those little bastards!" he spat between clenched teeth before putting on even more speed than before. "No one shall take my immortality from me!"
OoOoOoO
The feeling of Porunga's ki and Freeza's swiftly approaching ki snapped Vegeta out of his slumber. He rushed out of Freeza's room to one of the viewports and gawked at what he saw.
"Those little backstabbers!" he snapped before flying through the roof of the ship in a rage. How dare they try to double-cross him?! And after all he'd done for them! He hadn't even threatened to kill them half a dozen times. Honestly, a Saiyan would consider it an insult if a close friend didn't threaten their life at least a dozen times in a day.
OoOoOoO
Bulma groaned as she wandered to the mouth of the cave and watched the Namekian Dragon burst into existence over the horizon. Of course she hadn't gotten to be there when it was summoned. Why not? Otherwise that would mean that someone had actually thought about her in the last five hours. She grumbled and stomped back to the Capsule House. She was halfway to making a working radio out of her hair dryer, the toaster, and one of her shoes.
OoOoOoO
'Wow,' Goku thought as she sensed Porunga's energy, 'That feels even bigger than Shenron's ki!'
She wondered if her fingers and toes would prune in this liquid. It felt so weird when they got all wrinkly!
OoOoOoO
Outside of the bubble of space and time as ordinary creatures perceive it, there exists a separate dimension of great and terrible mystical power, a realm that has existed since time immemoriam and will exist long after the last star twinkles out. It is older than the world of the Kaioushin. Older than the Gods of Destruction. It is the home of the Dragons.
Within that realm eternal, Shenron suddenly sat up from his nap with the strange feeling as though he were being insulted. He shrugged and let it pass before returning to his slumber. He hoped no one was going to be needing him anytime soon. He hadn't gotten a real, honest, decent century-long nap in a long time.
OoOoOoO
"Alright," Gohan said to Dende, "Please ask Porunga to wish back all those killed by the Saiyans." Dende frowned and shook his head.
"I'm afraid I can't do that," Dende said reluctantly. "Porunga can only wish back one person at a time." The trio's faces fell as they realized that meant one of their friends would get left behind and there was no way to wish back the people of East City or the Namekians killed by Freeza.
OoOoOoO
"Uh oh," Kaiou muttered. "We've hit a snag. Only one of ya can get wished back at a time." Yamcha shrugged.
"No biggie," he assured Kaiou as he, Ten, Launch, and Chaozu formed a circle, "We've got it covered."
"Okay," Launch said, "Whoever loses gets wished back last. No shin-kicks."
"That's only ever a rule when you play," Ten muttered. Launch kicked him in the shin. "Ow!"
"Ro! Sham! Bo!" Piccolo rolled his eyes and walked over to Kaiou.
"Let me talk to Gohan," he said, already putting his hand on the blue little god's shoulder. He shrugged and his antennae began to twitch.
OoOoOoO
'Gohan!' Piccolo's voice echoed inside Gohan's head. He looked around as if expecting to see him. 'Listen carefully! I want you to use this Porunga to wish me back to life. That will bring Kami back to life on Earth as well and then the Dragon Balls will be usable again. We can use those to wish everyone back.'
"Got it, Mr. Piccolo," Gohan said, confusing everyone else as he turned to Dende. "Okay, Dende. Ask Porunga to wish the Namekian named Piccolo back to life." Dende smiled and nodded, happy to be of service. He turned back to Porunga and said something in Namekian. Porunga's eyes flashed and he said something back. His voice made the ground quake under their feet.
"Now wish him to Namek!" Krillin blurted out. Before Suno or Gohan could stop him, Dende had already started to say it.
OoOoOoO
Piccolo had barely had time to appreciate his lack of a halo before the entire world around him shifted, from the pink sky to those around him to the tiny planet under his feet. He curled his feet in the blue grass and breathed in the salt air as the wind blew through his cape. He closed his eyes and simply let the moment wash over him. He had been missing some… thing for nearly his entire existence. Some part of him, some little thing that made him feel not entirely whole. Now he knew what it was.
"Home."
OoOoOoO
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" Suno demanded as she shook Krillin by the shoulders. "THAT WAS SO STUPID! THAT WAS A HORRIBLE WISH!"
"I-I-I'm sorry!" Krillin sputtered as he was being violently shaken. "I blurt things out when I'm nervous!" Suno groaned and threw up her hands in frustration. "H-hey! We need all the help we can get, right?"
"I'm pretty sure I'm stronger than Mr. Piccolo now," Gohan put in.
"Yeah," Krillin admitted, "But Goku was a lot stronger when she came back from the dead."
"Goku was dead for eleven months," Suno pointed out. "Piccolo has been dead for one!" Dende cleared his throat and gestured to Porunga, who was still looming over them and, if he thought no one was looking, had begun to wring his hands impatiently. Suno sighed and rubbed her hands in her eyes. "Just… just wish for something."
"Anyone have any ideas?" Krillin offered awkwardly. Vegeta landed among them with enough force to split the ground open, the island shaking under their feet and nearly cracking in half. They stared at him in shock and his hand shot out in the blink of an eye to grab Dende by the throat and lift him off the ground and over his head.
"I might have one," he growled.