Tales of the Monkey Queen

by SSVCloud

The story of Son Goku is very well known... but how much would be different if Goku was a girl? More than you'd think, but less than you'd hope. Join us as we explore that change and many others. The entire original manga (aside from End of Z) has been covered and we are now on to Super.

67. The Fury of a Dark Lord!

Chapter Sixty-seven

The Fury of a Dark Lord! Piccolo's Namekian Expedition!

Gohan, Suno, and Krillin were transfixed with fear as Vegeta held Dende up by the neck and glowered at them.

"Thought you were going to steal from me, did you?" Vegeta spat before glaring at Gohan. "You and your sanctimonious talk about humans not backstabbing as easily as saiyans. You little cowards!"

"At least none of us shot you," Suno shot back. Vegeta glowered at her as his grip tightened around Dende's throat. The boy gasped and gagged, squirming and kicking as his fingers desperately pulled on Vegeta's fingers.

"I honored Nappa," Vegeta snarled. "It was a mercy to kill him swiftly. A Saiyan who cannot fight does not want to live!"

"He seemed to wanna live to me!" Krillin pointed out. Vegeta's fury continued to smoulder and color drained from Krillin's face.

"Please," Gohan said, "Now's not the time. Vegeta's here so I guess we have no other choice."

"That's exactly right," Vegeta declared smugly. "Either you're going to make me immortal or the little slug here is going to die."

"But Dende's the only one who can use the dragon to grant wishes!" Krillin pointed out hurriedly. Vegeta smirked and looked up at Dende.

"Then I suppose, as the expression goes, the ball is in his court. What'll it be, boy? My eternal life or everyone's death?" The tension hung in the air for a moment before Dende reluctantly nodded and Vegeta dropped the boy onto the ground. "Tell your Dragon to make me immortal." Dende nodded and walked towards Porunga, tilting his head up to the sky.

OoOoOoO

Guru let out a long, shaky breath. When he breathed in again… there was no pain. His breathing came easily, without the weight of centuries or the bulk of his form pressing down on him. He felt light, he felt free. Then he opened his eyes… and saw.

He saw endless blue island and crystal-clear green seas. He saw green skies filled with soft white clouds, the suns shining overhead. And as far as Guru could see, stretching in every direction, were his brothers, his sons, his father. All those he had lost. They smiled and waved, calling to him. Guru smiled. He laughed. For the first time in centuries… he flew.

OoOoOoO

Before Dende could get more than two words out, though, the sky cleared and the Dragon Balls dropped to the ground to land in a pile. They no longer shone, however. They were… rocks.

"That's not good," Krillin muttered nervously.

"I don't understand," Vegeta growled in confusion. "What happened? Am I immortal?"

Dende frowned and shook his head, suddenly on the verge of tears. He knew exactly what had happened. "Guru is dead," he said softly. "Which means that the Dragon Balls don't work anymore."

"So… so what happens now?" Gohan asked. Suno sighed and shook her head.

"I… I don't know," she admitted. It was good that neither Freeza or Vegeta could become immortal but now she wasn't sure what they could do. "Maybe we should just… find Piccolo, get Goku out of the ship, go back to Bulma and just… leave in Goku's ship." That made her feel sick They had failed to save the Namekian people. And even if he wasn't immortal, Freeza was going to continue plaguing the universe with his evil. But they couldn't fight him, not with Vegeta not being immortal and Goku still being heavily injured. "We… we have to run."

Vegeta visibly bristled at the notion. "I am the last King of the Saiyans," he said indignantly. "I will not run from the monster who slaughtered my race! Immortal or not, I shall fight." Suno… almost admired him for that.

"We can't just run!" Gohan protested. "We made a promise to Guru that we'd save the people of Namek! How can we run if Freeza's still here?" Suno shrugged and gave Gohan a sad little smile.

"I know," she admitted reluctantly, "But what other choice do we h… ha-ha-ha…" Color drained from Suno's face as she looked up to the sky. The others followed her gaze up and stared up in open-mouthed terror as Freeza hovered in the path of the sun, creating a stark and intimidating shadow. He dropped out of the sky with enough force to break the island in half, splitting it and sinking the half no one was standing on into the sea.

"There is one other choice, of course," Freeza told them as they stumbled back from him. "You can die."

OoOoOoO

After a few moments of introspection, the feeling of home was fleeting. Mostly because, Piccolo realized, it was so… empty. There were almost no other ki signatures on the entire planet. For a few moments, Piccolo felt… cold. Alone. Was he the last of his kind? Had he come home to a grave? That cold was soon gone, however, replaced by a heat in Piccolo's chest, an inferno of righteous anger that welled through him and gave him strength. The murderer of his people was here. He would fight. He would see justice done! Not only that, Piccolo realized, but Gohan was here as well. He was in danger! With that realization, Piccolo rocketed off into the sky and towards the battle. He would not fail!

OoOoOoO

"So let me see if I understand this correctly," Freeza began, as cool as a cucumber, arms behind his back, tail swishing amicably up and down. The picture of civility. "The one who created these Dragon Balls is dead?" The five nodded. "Meaning that the Dragon Balls no longer work?" They nodded again. "Meaning…" Freeza's eye twitched. "Meaning that I can no longer become immortal, is that right?" They reluctantly nodded. Freeza balled his fists behind his back and let out a long, slow exhalation of air. "I would like to tell you all a story. A little history lesson about my people. Is that alright?" He didn't even wait for a response before continuing. "You see, every species, every race, every culture, has its religions. Its myths, its stories, its tales of the Almighty, of the heroes and the villains, the what and the why of creation. Some have one God. Some have many gods. Since the dawn of time, when the first species had the mental capacity to light fires and draw on slabs of rock with their own excrement, they needed to believe in a higher power."

"Every race, that is, except mine. The Arcosian people have never had a faith, as far back as our recorded history stretches. We have always been dictated by science and reason. By the brutal reality of facts, not the flowery fancies of fanaticism. Would you like to know why that is?" This time, he actually seemed to be waiting for a reaction.

"Y-Yes?" Krillin asked. Freeza nodded and smiled.

"You see, the Arcosians do not believe in a higher power because we cannot conceive of a being higher than our own. The idea of a being that we owe our creation to our or must be subservient to is simply galling. It's fine for other races to believe that they were made in the image of a God. Their minds, after all, are not so highly evolved as our own. Yet we know better. We know that, as the most advanced, most powerful race in the cosmos, it was the simple matter of evolution that we rose to these heights." It was only fear that kept Suno from scoffing. "Yet despite all of that," Freeza continued, "I had a religious experience of my own, once upon a time. You see, I was on a planet called…" Freeza paused and stared off into space for a moment before he blinked back to the present and shrugged, "Oh, I suppose it doesn't matter now. The new owners changed the name. The point is, when I stood on that planet and saw the terrified looks in the eyes of the native populace, I realized something. The way they looked at me, how they cowered and trembled and hung on my every word, as though it held their life and death– because it did, naturally– I realized something about myself. They looked at me as one might act in the presence of a god. Because I am a god. I have countless legions who kneel before me in reverence. I am invincible. I hold power over life and death and can bring about ruination or prosperity." Vegeta snarled and balled up his fists. "Yet I am not a fool. For all my power, I am not immortal. Despite being the strongest being in the universe, there is one foe that I shall never overcome: the foe of time. Some day, I shall die. Some day, I will cease to be. This is unacceptable. So when Vegeta and his Saiyan comrades alerted us to the existence of these Dragon Balls and their power, I knew that my foe could finally be defeated. I could truly be a God." His eyes narrowed as he brought his fists from behind his back. "And you all have stolen it from me. Tell me, where are you from?"

"Earth…" Suno said slowly and suspiciously.

"Very good," Freeza said in a strangely jovial tone. "I'll have to go there and destroy it after I'm through here. First, however," The mirth dropped instantly from his face and it twisted into a sneer of contempt, "You all will die. Slowly." Then he turned his attention to Vegeta in particular and afforded him a small smile. "There is an out for you, at least, Vegeta. You have always been a faithful soldier to me and with the deaths of Zarbon, Dodoria, and the Ginyus; that I am gracious enough to ignore that you caused, I am in need of powerful footmen. If you kneel now, I shall let you survive."

Vegeta ground his teeth and, to the Earthling's shock, moved forward as if to protect them. He dug his feet into the dirt and moved into a fighting stance. "I," he snarled, "Shall never. Kneel. Again." Freeza smirked and flexed his fingers as he pivoted his body to one side and held out one hand in something not unlike a fencer's stance.

"I suppose I've left that asterisk on my Saiyan genocide long enough. Come, then, little King, and die like the last king who tried to fight me." Vegeta glowered and lunged forward in a burst of speed. Freeza shrugged before flying to meet Vegeta and they collided with a shockwave so furious that it knocked the others off their feet. They exchanged a blistering series of punches and kicks, although at first Vegeta was doing all of the kicking, as Freeza seemed determined to use only his left hand. Once a jab from Vegeta slipped through his guard, however, Freeza began to fight in earnest, using all of his limbs. For as much as they'd been dreading Freeza's arrival, and though they could barely keep up with the speed of both fighters, they were surprised to see Vegeta holding his own. The Saiyan King even grabbed Freeza by the tail and spun him around before launching him into the dirt. He followed up with a volley of purple ki blasts, flinging them with all his strength and fury, roaring in defiance. When the dust cleared, it was clear that Freeza had more powers than they had anticipated, having used a psychokinetic field to shield himself from Vegeta's ki assault. Freeza dropped the shield and flew up to Vegeta, the pair meeting in another shockwave before dropping to the ground in a knuckle lock, each trying to push down on the other, the ground around them sinking down as they seemed to increase the gravity around them under their power.

"Jeez," Suno muttered under her breath, "I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm kinda glad for Vegeta." Gohan, however, wasn't so sure. Vegeta was struggling, he was straining, veins bulging in his forehead, his teeth clenched as he growled in defiance. Freeza, on the other hand, was completely calm, his breathing even. He wasn't even perturbed by his scouter exploding. He was even smirking. It sure seemed to him like Vegeta didn't have as much of a fighting chance as they thought. Finally, Vegeta and Freeza broke away from each other and leaped out of the crater they'd created. Freeza chuckled, opening and closing his hands as he rolled his head from side to side.

"Most amusing, Vegeta," Freeza mused. "I might actually have to put in some form of effort." Vegeta scoffed and said the stupidest thing Krillin, Gohan, and Suno had ever heard.

"Quit wasting my time," Vegeta spat. "I know you can transform, let's go ahead and see it." Freeza chuckled as the Earthling's jaws dropped and their eyes went as wide as plates.

"WHY?!" Krillin demanded. "WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?!" Freeza brought his fists to his side, bent his legs slightly, and let out a low hum as power began to radiate out of him. The sounds that came out of Freeza were nothing less than nightmarish. There was a snapping and cracking of bone and sinew as his legs burst in size and he shot up in height. He groaned and leaned back as his chest violently expanded and purple biogems burst out of the skin of his shoulders to join the white bone-like armor of his chest. Then his arms grew to match and his tail cracked like a whip as it snapped furiously with its change in size. The veins in his neck bulged as he screamed out, his head and neck growing to match his body's size and his horns grew out and up like the horns of some devil.

Of course, on top of all of these monstrous changes in appearance, Freeza's power had skyrocketed. It was a pressure on their minds that was so overwhelming that it buckled their knees. Despite the terror of his power looming over him, and Freeza literally looming over him, Vegeta still put on a brave face and balled up his fists. This… was not going to be easy.

OoOoOoO

Piccolo's soarings were brought to a pause when he finally sensed another power level on the ground far below him and dropped down to the island that he'd sensed the power coming from. It was faint, so very faint. Whoever this power belonged to was near the end. He reached the ground and knelt beside the dying Namekian, this stranger who looked… so much like himself. Would this be who Piccolo might have been, had he grown on this planet? The Namekian suddenly coughed and sputtered, his eyes flickering as he held on desperately to life.

"Wh… who are you?" he wheezed out in Namekian, only the third person Piccolo had ever heard speak the tongue. "I had thought we were all gone." He squinted at Piccolo, trying to understand what he was sensing. "Why does your ki feel so… different?"

"My name is Piccolo," Piccolo replied in their language. "I am not from this planet. Long ago, I was a single being that was separated into two. I suppose that is what you sense." The dying man nodded with a measure of understanding.

"I s-see," he said before stopping to cough, purple blood flicking out onto the grass. "I am called Nail. I know who you are. You are the one who escaped the cataclysm." He frowned and shook his head. "It is a shame that you are separated. If you were whole and in full command of your strength, then perhaps you could destroy the monster who has killed our world." Piccolo looked down at the ground with a disappointed scowl. So he had come back from the dead and was useless. Wonderful. "Wait!" Nail cried, his eyes widening as he was suddenly struck with an idea. "You may not be able to reform with your other half but perhaps there is something I can do."

Piccolo looked up and gave Nail a curious look. "What do you mean?" he asked. Whatever idea this Nail might have, Piccolo was willing to listen.

"I am dying," Nail began. "I do not have much time. Yet you can use my power. Place your hand upon my chest, so I can give all my power to you." Piccolo cautiously set his hand on Nail's chest.

"What will happen to me?" Piccolo asked warily. "Will I become someone else? Will I cease to exist?" Nail shook his head.

"You will not change," Nail assured him, "But my power will join yours and you will be greater than either of us were before." Piccolo nodded and pressed his palm flat to Nail's chest and Nail chuckled. "Prepare yourself," Nail warned him. "From the legends I have heard, this experience can be… intense." After a few moments, Nail began to glow. He turned into pure light, his aura flaring around Piccolo like an inferno. Then it all suddenly rushed into Piccolo, through his hand and up his arm, filling his whole body. It left Piccolo awestruck. He had never felt such a rush of power, such an exhilaration. He was more powerful than he had ever been!

"I…" Piccolo began to say as he got to his feet, staring at his hands as the power coursed through him, "I feel…" Piccolo threw back his head and laughed, smiling an earnest smile for the first time in his life, "I feel great! I can win! I can do this!" He rocketed off into the sky, his body burning with energy and a need for justice. He would make Freeza pay! In Nail's name, in the name of all the people of Namek!

OoOoOoO

The first thing Freeza did to start the battle was destroy the island under their feet. With nothing more than a flick of his wrist, it exploded in a plume of deadly pink light and the sea around the island was blasted into vapor. The five managed to get into the air before the explosion took them out with it, Dende clinging desperately to Gohan's arm, panic clear on his face. As concerned as Gohan was for the other boy, there wasn't time for him to play protector.

"Are you alright?" Gohan asked. Dende nodded so Gohan pushed him gently but firmly away. "Then get away from here! Go find somewhere safe!" Dende nodded fearfully before he flew away while Gohan wondered if anywhere was safe. Just like that, Freeza was on top of them, driving his shoulder into Vegeta's gut to drive the wind out of the Saiyan King, who painfully hacked out a glob of spit before Freeza spun and smacked him down to the sea with his tail. Gohan flew to Freeza while his back was turned and drove both feet into the small of Freeza's back. Or rather, he tried to. Despite his size, Freeza was terrifyingly fast and Gohan flew right through him.

"Shinsoku Odori!" Suno cried out before lunging at Freeza, hoping that doubling her speed would help put her on something resembling even faster. She fired off a barrage of punches and kicks that were sadly ineffectual as Freeza shot out his hand to squeeze around her throat. Even as Suno kicked and squirmed and threw ki balls at Freeza's chest for all she was worth, his grip effortlessly tightened.

"I haven't popped off anyone's head in a few years," Freeza mused, his voice a few octaves deeper, resonating through his massive chest. "I wonder how hard I'll have to squeeze to do that to you…" Suno's face began to turn red before her eyes bulged and Gohan could feel his rage starting to creep up, burning from the base of his neck and spreading out through his body.

Before Gohan could attack, though, Krillin made his move. "Hey," he shouted to get Freeza's attention, "Over here, you big creepy bastard!" Freeza turned to look at him quizzically, still choking Suno. "Y-yeah, I'm talkin' to you! How about you pick on someone your old size?" Then he brought both his hands down to his side before quickly thrusting them out. "Kamehameha!" The blast caught Freeza flush in the face and he let out an amused chuckle as he cast Suno casually aside. Krillin barely had time to register that his attack had done nothing before his face was contorted with pain and he gagged out a silent scream. No doubt the scream would have actually made a noise, if not for the fact that Freeza's horn had punctured his chest and punched out through his back, blood and chunks sliding off its slick, gleaming surface. He looked down in horror as his hands feebly reached up to try and push Freeza away.

"Krillin!" Gohan and Suno screamed in horror as Freeza casually flicked his head to the side to send him falling through the air like a lead weight.

'Oh no!' Goku thought as she felt Krillin's ki suddenly drop, 'I have to get out of this machine!' She tried to move but her limbs were still too damaged for any escape attempt. 'Darn it! Just hold on, guys!' She hated feeling like this. So helpless when her friends needed her!

'Huh,' Vegeta mused as Krillin sailed past him while he flew up, 'That's the bald one dead, then.'

"Hm hm hm," Freeza chuckled as he ran a hand over his horn and looked at the blood that coated his palm. "You're all just bags of blood, aren't you? All you lesser creatures. How easy it is, to make you pop." Gohan flew down towards Krillin as he watched his friend slip beneath the waves. He could get to him in time! He could save him, he just had to– but before Gohan could figure out what he had to do, Freeza was in his way. "I'm afraid not," Freeza told him calmly, arms folded over his chest. "He's already dead. As are you. And the female and the little slug you sent away and the King of dead monkeys up there. You were all dead, the moment you chose to defy a god."

Something inside Gohan… broke. "You're not a god," Gohan growled as he balled his fists. "You're just a bully! You think that you're stronger than everyone and that gives you the right to play with their lives! I hate bullies! I'm going to make you pay!" Gohan flew at Freeza in a rage, who found it all terribly amusing. He did not, however, find it so amusing when Gohan's foot smashed into the side of his face and, to his horror, snapped his head to the side. His shock was compounded as Gohan immediately followed with a right hook, snapping his head the other way.

"WHAT?!" Suno and Vegeta exclaimed in unison shock as Gohan attacked Freeza's stomach with a machine-gun burst of jabs that left him stunned.

'Is that Gohan?!' Goku thought to herself. 'His ki is huge!'

Halfway across the planet, Piccolo sensed the spike in Gohan's ki, knowing that the boy had tapped into his rage. Beneath the underlying fear that came with knowing Gohan was in danger, he felt undeniably proud.

Gohan hit an uppercut under Freeza's chin, spittle flying from the tyrant's mouth as Gohan kicked him furiously in the chest, over and over, driving the point of his toe into Freeza's sternum. Each time, Freeza let out a cry of pain as a savage fury overwhelmed the hybrid Saiyan. And all the while, Gohan screamed in mindless anger. His last kick sent Freeza stumbling through the air before he drew back a hand and, still screaming, flung a bolt of ki like a javelin at Freeza, who brought his arms up to protect himself from the blast. He brought his hands down and, to his shock, discovered that the brat was still coming after him, still screaming like a bloodthirsty lunatic! Gohan threw another ki bolt at Freeza at point blank range, sending him hurtling to hit the ground with a thud.

'Where did Gohan get this much power?!' Suno thought with a mixture of astonishment and worry. As glad as she was to see him get the edge on Freeza, there was something nonetheless frightening about Gohan's… transformation.

'Have I been wrong?' Vegeta thought with horror. 'Is it neither I nor Kakarot, but the abomination who might be the Super Saiyan?!' Vegeta tried to push the horrifying thought from his mind as he and Suno joined Gohan in raining down volleys of ki blasts, although Gohan attacked faster and more ferociously than either of them. Then Gohan brought his hands together and Suno and Vegeta followed suit.

"MASENKO HA!"

"KAMEHAMEHA!"

"GALICK GUN FIRE!"

The yellow, blue, and purple beams collided on Freeza in a deafening explosion of bloody red light.

While all this fighting and exploding was going on, Dende had dove beneath the waves to go and find Krillin, pulling him up and bringing him to an island a safe distance from the fighting. The bald one wasn't dead yet but he was fading fast.

"Okay," Dende muttered to himself as he pressed his hands to Krillin's chest. "I sure hope the Elder was right about my healing powers!"

As the dust cleared and the light slowly faded, Gohan finally stopped screaming. He was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. That had to have done something! To Gohan's horror, however, Freeza stood up slowly from that, his tail swishing from side to side across the blast-flattened dirt as he cracked his neck.

"I'll admit," he called up, "That actually smart quite a bit. Mostly from the boy." He smirked at Gohan and flexed his hands. "It seems there's more to you than I expected, brat. It seems you'll be the one I have to put some effort towards." He chuckled as the color drained from Gohan's face and Suno looked back and forth between Gohan and Freeza, seriously regretting never learning those healing techniques from Roshi.

'Damn it,' Vegeta thought with impotent fury as he clenched his fists. 'What are we going to do?!'