Chapter Seventy-three
The Super Saiyan Awakens! Behold Son Goku's Fury!
"Well," Kaiou muttered as his antennae bobbed, "That's shitty." Launch rolled her eyes and looked away from the long-abandoned poker game.
"Y'know," she called, "If you're gonna just give us bad news, y'might as well tell us everything instead of making us beg for answers!"
"Krillin's dead," Kaiou told her over his shoulder. Launch looked at Yamcha and she could see that the news hurt him. The three of them had spent years training together and living together and now, if he was dead again, then there was no way to wish him back. "Piccolo too," Kaiou added. That hit them all like a punch in the face. If Piccolo was dead again, Kami was dead again, meaning…
"It was all for nothing," Tenshinhan sighed forlornly. "...Now what?"
No one had an answer.
OoOoOoO
Goku stared up at the last few ash trails that had once been her best friend in the world before her head hung limp. Krillin was gone. She'd failed him again. Like she was failing everyone. She began to sniffle and choked down sobs as best she could. Freeza chuckled and his finger of death idly swung back and forth between Gohan and Suno, who shook with fear and followed his finger in terror, too frozen to embrace each other for what would probably be the final time.
"I'll kill you last," Freeza told Goku, "But I think one of your brood should go next."
Something inside Goku broke with those words. All of the sadness and helplessness was replaced by rage. The sobs turned to snarls and her body shook with fury rather than fear. He wasn't going to kill Gohan. He wasn't going to kill Suno. He wasn't going to kill anyone ever again.
"I won't… let you… get away… with this!" Goku screamed furiously as thunder rumbled and lightning began to flash and strike the sea and the islands around them. A particularly large bolt of golden lightning landed directly behind Freeza and the sight made Freeza stop laughing. His eyes slowly began to widen while Gohan and Suno turned to stare at Goku. Her power was growing. And it felt… angry. Almost evil. For a few moments, Goku's teeth-clenched snarl contorted into a malevolent and sadistic smile. Huge chunks of rock were suddenly torn up as if ripped out of the ground by Goku's power as she continued to snarl and growl and shake with anger. Her hair was swept up in the currents of her power as years of control learned at the feet of masters and gods was slowly eaten away. "I will… make you… SUFFER." With those five words, the restraints were burned away like kindling thrown into a supernova. Goku threw her head back and howled with rage as her eyes went white and the veins bulged in her face. Her hair went rigid and glowed with an otherworldly golden-white light. Then in a flash the white light in Goku's eyes faded away and her dark pupils had turned teal. Her aura roared around her like a golden wildfire and she glared up at Freeza.
Freeza felt an unfamiliar feeling wash over him. A cold that he could not put into words. He only knew that it felt alien to him and incredibly, horribly, desperately wrong. For the first time in his life, Freeza was terrified.
OoOoOoO
Kaiou's antennae suddenly shot up and he gasped in shock. He was so startled that his spectacles fell off his face. He tried to voice his disbelief but he could only stutter and stammer wordlessly like an idiot. This was– it was– to think that he would ever see another! To think that it would be Goku, and now of all times!
"Okay," Yamcha barked, "Now you're just fucking with us. What is it?!"
"Goku has become a Super Saiyan!" Kaiou exclaimed with a mixture of wonder and glee. He was met with silence.
"...The fuck is that?" Chaozu asked. Kaiou face-faulted.
OoOoOoO
Suno stood in awe at what was before her. Gone was her loving wife of five years, gone was the playful spirit that could always brighten up her day, gone was the kindheartedness that had initially attracted her, gone was the gentleness that was shown to her and Gohan. She realized that instead of the love of her life, Goku had become the 'Super Saiyan' that Vegeta had described. His words echoed now in her mind.
'Unstoppably violent, mercilessly inexorable, impossibly powerful.' Was that what Goku had become? This blonde-haired warrior with power unlike anything Suno had ever even dreamed was so unlike Goku that, if she hadn't watched the transformation herself, Suno would have found it impossible to believe it was the same person. It should have been a good thing that Goku was so powerful, it should have given Suno comfort, yet everything about it was wrong. It filled Suno with something that should have been impossible whenever she was in Goku's presence. She was… afraid. She knew in her heart that Goku would never, ever hurt her. But the rage that was radiating off of Goku as clearly as her immense power was so unreal that Suno couldn't help but fear for her life. She wasn't sure if it was Goku herself she feared or the power but, either way, Suno knew she had to get far away from here as possible.
"Suno, Gohan," Goku growled. Even her voice sounded wrong. "You need to get out of here now. Take Piccolo, find Bulma and my ship, and then go!"
"B-but mom," Gohan protested even as Suno was picking up Piccolo's limp body and slinging it over her shoulder, "I-if we take the ship then how–"
"No buts!" Goku snapped. "If Piccolo dies then Kami dies, too! Do what you're told while I still have some control!" Suno grabbed Gohan by the back of his armor and yanked him away, flying off into the sky and desperately hoping that, when this was all over, she'd still have her wife.
OoOoOoO
Freeza turned away from Goku and chuckled as he watched Suno and Gohan fly off. He could distract himself with them. He could kill them. It would take his focus on the impossible thing that was not in front of him because it did not exist.
"I appreciate the target practice," he said smugly as he pointed up at Suno. Then, faster than he could see, she was in front of him. She was the only thing in the world. This impossibility. This mad legend. This thing that was not real. This… Super Saiyan.
Goku looked at Freeza with murder in her eyes as she grabbed his hand in hers and squeezed. "You're evil garbage," she spat, "And I'm sick of people like you!" Her grip tightened and she heard bones crunch as Freeza cried out in pain. It made her feel good. "How many more people have to die? When does it end?!" She squeezed harder and the crunching grew louder as more bones broke. "I'll answer for you. It ends today!" Freeza screamed again and fell to a knee, pulling with all his futile might against Goku's unbreakable grip, grabbing his wrist in his other hand and pulling desperately, fearfully, tears in his eyes. "You killed my best friend! You threatened to kill my wife and son!" Freeza shrieked with effort through clenched teeth and a dome of pink ki surrounded them, destroying the land under their feet as he tried desperately to escape Goku's grasp. Goku scowled down at Freeza and let go of his hand before punching him in the face to send him flying. She was over him in a flash and kicked him down into the ground, sending him skidding through the dirt. "That was for Krillin," Goku told Freeza as she landed in front of him and waited for him to pick himself up out of the dirt.
"That was the bald one's name, wasn't it?" Freeza asked as he looked down at the ruin of his right hand. He raised his power slightly and focused the energy into his hand, shuddering as the bones slid back into place. "Had I known one being's death would pain you so, I would have killed more." Freeza smirked and raised his hand at Goku. "And kill more I shall. Take that promise with you to oblivion!" Freeza fired a pink beam of death from his palm but Goku was already standing just to the left of where she'd been a moment before. Freeza's eyes widened in infuriated disbelief before he blasted her again and again and again but every time she would be gone before the blast ever reached her. Furiously, Freeza used his other hand and then both of his feet and then his eyes. The air was a maelstrom of shrieking pink light but, no matter what he did, he just. Couldn't. Hit her! "Stand still, damn you!" Freeza demanded. She did and all six beams smashed directly into her. Freeza kept up the blast for a good thirty seconds until he let his arms and legs drop and had to stop, gasping for breath. He blinked the spots from his eyes, having never used his eyebeams for so long, and saw that Goku was… unharmed.
"That all you got?" Goku asked with a smirk. She brushed the few ashen bits of what remained of her blue shirt off her left shoulder and crossed her arms over her chest. "C'mon. I can't be harder to destroy than a planet, right? Aren't I just a monkey?"
"Y-you…" Freeza stammered as he broke into a cold sweat and the mountain of denial he'd buried himself under began to crumble. "What are you?!" Goku chuckled, laughing at him.
"Jeez," Goku mocked, "And Vegeta thought I was dumb." Freeza growled and the veins twitched in his temples as Goku's smirk turned once more into a look of steely determination. "I'm the one Saiyan that slipped through your fingers, who you couldn't control and who didn't run. I'm the legend, the one thing in the universe that brings you fear. A pure heart, awakened by rage." The planet beneath them trembled as smoke billowed from the slice Freeza had cut down to the mantle. Goku's face screwed up in anger as she raised her arms and her golden aura exploded around her. "I am Son Goku! And I am the Super Saiyan!"
OoOoOoO
Suno and Gohan shouldered Piccolo's weight between them, his occasional groans letting them know he was still alive, and finally came upon the wonderful sight of Goku's spaceship. They touched down inside the ship, although Suno's landing was more of a collapse. She'd barely recovered her energy from giving most of it to Gohan earlier and carrying Piccolo had taken most of the strength she'd had left.
"N-now," Suno stammered as she crawled up onto her hands and knees, "Now we just gotta go get Bulma." She immediately collapsed back down onto the floor of the ship and groaned. "In a minute…" Gohan knelt down beside Suno and rubbed her back.
"It's okay, mother," he told her in a reassuring tone. "I'll go get Bulma. You try to recover." Suno groaned again as Gohan flew off.
OoOoOoO
Freeza smirked at Goku's declaration and balled up his fists. "It's kind of funny," he said as he began circling Goku in the air. "I never thought I'd actually get to see one. Honestly, I always thought it would be Vegeta. The legends never said anything about pure hearts, although that does explain why he couldn't." Then he got into a fighting stance and grinned. "A Super Saiyan slayed one of my ancestors once. I may not be immortal but I shall be the first one of my race to kill a Super Saiyan!" He charged at Goku and punched her hard in the face. She didn't flinch. Freeza looked at his fist, stunned. 'I'm going to wake up,' he told himself, 'And I'll be back in my bed and none of this will have ever happened.' Goku grabbed Freeza by the wrist and forearm and flung him effortlessly ahead, turning to watch him go sailing. She was on him again in the blink of an eye, driving the point of her elbow down into his back to send him hurtling to the ground. She was there when he landed and grabbed him by the neck to drag him through the dirt for nearly a kilometer before she kicked him away. Freeza bounded to his feet and charged in for another attack.
Goku decided to let him.
She dropped her arms to her sides and just dodged everything he had. Every punch and kick, every blast, and every swish of his tail. She could see him for what he was now. With the power of a Super Saiyan, it was like she was looking down on him from on top of a mountain. He was small and petty and angry. A slow, weak, miserable little creature whose only happiness came from the suffering of others. How had she ever been afraid? She threw out her foot and swept Freeza's legs out from under him before she knocked him flat on his back with, of all things, a kiai.
"You know what's the worst thing about you?" Goku asked as Freeza picked himself up out of the dirt. "Not just that you're a murderer, a bully, and a monster. Worse than all of that… you're just an awful fighter." Freeza's face went red and she could tell that she'd wounded his pride.
"How dare you?!" he snapped indignantly. Goku shrugged.
"I've fought awful people before. But at least the fights were fun because they had skill. Heck, I've fought people weaker than me before and gone easy on them because I wanted to see what I could learn from them." Freeza ground his teeth and looked like he was going to explode. "But you? You don't have any skill. You don't have any technique. You've just gotten by on the fact that you're stronger and faster than everyone your whole life. So let me give you a martial arts lesson." She smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. "And to make it fun for myself, I won't use my hands." The echoed rebuke and the realization that the tables had turned had Freeza foaming at the mouth and he lunged at her.
"I will make you beg for death!" he screamed as he flew… straight into a front kick, his face smashing into the sole of Goku's foot. Goku pivoted to the side and hit Freeza with a roundhouse kick that nearly knocked him over before swinging her leg back and hitting him with a reverse roundhouse that sent him the other way. She jumped forward and drove her knee into Freeza's face to send him up into the air and knocked him back down with an axe kick. She kicked him in the knees and in the ribs and hit him with a spinning wheel kick that nearly took Freeza's head off. Goku dropkicked Freeza to send him hurtling toward the horizon but was on Freeza again before he even knew he was flying. A flip kick sent him up into the air and through the clouds where she met him with a ferocious flurry of kicks that had him spitting up blood. Goku decided it was time to end her "lesson" and drove both feet into the back of Freeza's head, taking him all the way back down to the ground and burrowing him nearly a mile underground.
"You lost," Goku told Freeza bluntly as she grabbed him by the tail and hauled him out of the hole she'd dug with his face before tossing him into the grass like garbage. "Are you starting to get it now? You're going to die here, Freeza. You. Cannot. Beat me."
Freeza saw red.
"I will kill myself," he growled, "Before I let you kill me!" He raised his hands overhead and a black ball of crackling red death formed in his hands. Goku was so shocked that she didn't have time to react as he flung the ball down at the ground beneath their feet.
OoOoOoO
"Shit!" Kaiou swore, startling everyone. "Shit, shit, shit!"
"What's wrong?" Tenshinhan asked. "What happened?"
"Yeah," Launch added, "I thought this 'Super Saiyan' thing meant Goku was going to win!"
"It would have," Kaiou sighed wearily, "Except that Goku was wasting her time and Freeza blew up the planet, so everyone's dead!"
'Hello,' said a voice in Kaiou's head. 'Kaiou, are you there?'
"Oh hey, Kami," Kaiou muttered glumly. "Back in the afterlife, huh?"
'What?' Kami asked. 'No, I'm still on Earth. I want to know when you want me to use the Dragon Balls.'
"Wait…" Kaiou said with dawning understanding, "If you're alive then so is Piccolo!"
'That is how the arrangement works, yes.' Kaiou was ignoring Kami, however, and had turned his attention back to Namek. Not only was Piccolo alive but so were Goku, Gohan, Suno, and Bulma! Oh, and Freeza. 'Now, about the Dragon Balls?'
"Oh, yeah, sure, go ahead!"
'Excellent!'
OoOoOoO
Back on Earth and in the garden on the grounds of Capsule Corp, Kami had been having tea with Brief and Panchy while he'd been mentally speaking with Kaiou. Puar and Chi-Chi were also there but they were far too anxious to be interested in tea.
"Pardon me, Kami," Dr. Brief said while Scratch the cat eyed the aged Namekian suspiciously, "But shouldn't you be sending that Popo fellow to go out and gather the Dragon Balls by now?" Kami chuckled and set down his teacup.
"Well, you see, Mr. Brief," Kami began before he snapped his fingers. In an instant, all seven Dragon Balls clattered onto the grass. "I may not be almighty," he continued, "But when it comes to certain matters, I am quite mighty." The Dragon Balls began to glow.
"Doctor," Brief corrected. "I don't care if you're basically God, I didn't earn 32 PhDs for fun, thank you very much!"
OoOoOoO
Goku and Freeza stared down at the gaping hole that had once been the ground under their feet. The abyss seemed almost without end, save for the faint purple light far, far down below that Goku realized must be the planet's core.
"Damn it," Freeza spat in frustration, "I held back too much! Why is everything bad happening to me today?!" Goku slapped him.
"Looks like you were too scared to take us both out," she observed as Freeza rubbed at his stinging cheek and scoffed.
"It doesn't matter," he boasted. "With the structural damage I've done to the planet's core, I'd say it only has five minutes before the whole thing blows up." Goku shrugged.
"That's okay," she assured him as her eyes went cold. "I don't even need one to kill you." Then she drove a vicious fist into his gut and made him double over with a gasp of pain. "I was just taking my time before." She grabbed Freeza's head in both hands and headbutted him. Over and over and over until his biogem cracked. The planet began to quake as Goku held Freeza up in the air by his throat with one hand and drew back the other fist. "Hey," she told him calmly, "I've always wondered something. Which one hurts more: backhand," she struck him with a backhand fist, "Or forehand?" her fist swung back around and hit Freeza from the front. "Backhand? Forehand?" She kept asking Freeza before she slammed him down to the ground by the throat and started to squeeze.
"Erhff–" Freeza started to say before he spat out a mouthful of teeth and blood, "If I were at 100 percent of my power, I'd kill you!" Goku let go of his throat and backed away.
"Okay," she said coolly, "Go ahead." Freeza stared up at her as she crossed her arms and waited. "Don't make me change my mind." Freeza hopped to his feet and started to power up.
'Gokuuuu' Kaiou said irritably in Goku's head, 'Wha-ha-haaaaat are you doing?'
'He won't win, Kaiou.'
'How are you so sure?'
'I can do math,' Goku told him confidently. 'I know what fifty percent of his power was. Twice that still won't be able to beat me.'
'So why not kill him now?!' Goku watched Freeza power up and scowled as she thought of Krillin, of the countless others that Freeza had slaughtered, and even Vegeta.
'Because I told him,' she thought icily, 'That I would make him suffer.' Freeza roared as he finished powering up, his muscles bulging with energy as he flashed Goku a malevolent grin and charged at her with both fists.
"The real battle begins now!"
OoOoOoO
Gohan arrived at the cave and, to his surprise, found Bulma already packed and looking extremely anxious to get going.
"Come on," she urged him, "Let's go!" Gohan shrugged and scooped her somewhat-awkwardly into his arms and started flying back to the ship.
"My mom's here," Gohan explained, "And she's fighting Free–"
"Don't worry," Bulma told him, "I'm up to speed! Speaking of which, maybe put a little more speed on! We only have, like, four minutes until this whole place goes up!"
"Wait, WHAT?!"
OoOoOoO
Kaiou groaned and rubbed his temples for a moment before turning to the dead Earthlings. "So here's the plan," he began, "We're going to use Shenron to wish the Namekians back to life. Then they'll use their Dragon to wish everyone but Freeza off of Namek so he's stuck there and screwed while it blows up."
"Meaning we'll be dead for another year," Yamcha grumbled before heaving a weary sigh.
"I don't see what's so bad about that," Tenshinhan protested. "It gives us more time to train and learn the Kaiouken and Genki Dama." Yamcha rolled his eyes.
"Of course you don't see the problem, Ten," Yamcha pointed out in an aggravated tone, "You're all here! I would like to go back and see my wife at some point!" Launch grinned and playfully elbowed Yamcha in the ribs.
"Ah, settle down, wolf boy," she teased. "It's not like she's going anywhere, right?" Yamcha sighed again as he realized he wasn't going to win this and if he was being honest with himself, was being kind of selfish, threw up his hands.
"Alright," he muttered, "Alright! Wish back the Namekians." Kaiou grinned as his antennae bobbed.
"Did you hear that, Kami?"
'Loud and clear,' came the voice in his head.
OoOoOoO
Back on Earth, Kami gestured to Puar. "I understand," he said, "That it's become somewhat customary for you to handle these matters?" Puar beamed and rubbed his paws together before he threw his head back and screamed to the sky.
"Eternal Dragon Shenron!" he cried. "I summon you!" Dr. Brief, Panchy, and the various Capsule Corp staff on the premises gazed with opened mouths as the sky blackened and thunder rumbled. A great beam of golden light erupted from the Dragon Balls and stretched high into the sky, snaking this way and that for miles. Cars in the street suddenly screeched to a halt as everyone in West City stopped and stared at the sight, their eyes filled with terror and wonder as many of them took out their phones to record the moment. The scientists were both at once in awe and in outrage as they were confronted with something that no amount of calculation and computation could explain. The beam of light faded and in its place was the enormous and awesome spectacle of Shenron.
"You who have gathered the Seven Dragon Balls," its voice rumbled, "State your wish and I-" Shenron paused and seemed to notice Puar. The dragon let out a noise not unlike a weary sigh before it continued, its tone unchanged. "And I shall grant it."
"Shenron!" Puar called up. "Please revive all those on the Planet Namek who were killed by Freeza and his men!" Shenron nodded.
"A simple task," It stated plainly. Its red eyes flashed and it nodded again. "It is done. Farewell." There was another flash and the seven Dragon Balls streaked across the sky in all directions, now returned to stone.
OoOoOoO
Since the planet was already doomed, Goku and Freeza began to fight in earnest. Perhaps the most blatant example of this came when Freeza ripped an island out of the ground and slammed it down onto Goku. She came bursting out of the explosion of rubble and jammed her elbow up under his jaw before bringing her hands down quickly to her side.
"Kamehameha!" she cried and the blue-white beam hit Freeza square in the chest and sent him hurtling down at an angle to the sea below and burrowing into the ground. Goku was already there when he burst out of the ground on the other side of the planet and prepared a mighty blow but Freeza had put up a telekinetic field to protect himself from the planet's heat and was mostly unharmed as he dropped the field and slugged Goku across the jaw to send her flying. Goku brought herself to a halt in the air and rubbed at her jaw as Freeza came toward her. So it turned out that a hundred percent of Freeza's power actually hurt a little bit. 'Good,' she thought to herself. 'At least I won't be bored.'
They met again with punches and kicks, Freeza swinging wildly like a feral animal and Goku striking with a martial artist's precision. Each collision of flesh on flesh registered with the terrifying sound of a thunderclap. Goku charged ki into her fist and slammed it into the left side of Freeza's torso. He let out a sputtered gurgle of pain as one of his three hearts ruptured from the impact and the aura from Goku's fist lingered on the spot like a flame. Goku grabbed Freeza while he was incapacitated and spun him around, pinioning both his arms behind his back and turning upside down to rocket straight toward one of the remaining islands, obliterating it. Freeza came up out of the rubble and used his telekinetic powers to rip a plume of lava out of the ground and fling it at Goku like a thunderbolt. It struck Goku dead on and she reacted with all the pain and agony of having a bucket of water thrown on her, even as her skin burned red from the heat. In response, Goku flew at Freeza and punched him down into the ground with such force that he burrowed for several kilometers.
All the while, Namek fell to pieces around them. Terrible quakes wracked the planet and great fissures cracked open across islands and under the oceans. Great gouts of blue-purple flame burst from the fissures and lava erupted in high columns that filled the sky with black clouds of soot. There was a terrible rumbling that grew ever-louder as the sea churned up massive waves and boiled from the ever-growing heat.
Unrelated to all of this, the sky turned black. Winds began to howl as lighting flashed and thunder boomed. An enormous dragon flashed into life and practically filled the sky while the two warriors continued their battle to the death.
OoOoOoO
Vegeta quickly realized two things. He was alive, first of all. Secondly, he had been buried, which did not sit at all well with his being alive. His fist burst out of the ground and he began to claw his way out before emerging from the dirt with a roar, which turned into a fit of coughing and hacking as he spat up the chunks of dirt that had fallen into his chest cavities while he was dead. Well, this was odd. Vegeta looked around him as the entirety of Planet Namek seemed to be going mad. Very odd, indeed.
OoOoOoO
All over Planet Namek, Namekians suddenly began standing up and were all, to a man, very confused. What was happening to their planet? Why were they living again? Why had someone summoned Porunga? And what had happened to the invaders? Well, all but one village asked that question. That village's people instead wondered why there was a pile of corpses, limbs, and entrails in the middle of their village and strewn over their huts.
The Great Elder Guru reacted to his once-again living with some consternation. Before he could grumble or grouse or attempt to return to his rest, however, something peculiar happened. He heard a voice in his head.
'Hello,' the strange voice said. 'Hello, hello? Is this the Great Elder Namekian?'
'I am Guru, yes,' Guru thought and was unable to hide the confusion in his thoughts.
'Oh, excellent! I was worried that wish might not bring you back! My name is Kaiou, I'm the deity of your quadrant.' Guru wasn't entirely sure what that meant. 'Now I'm going to make this quick because your planet doesn't have much time.' That was disconcerting. 'I need you to make a wish on Porunga.'
'A moment, please,' Guru thought. He certainly wasn't any condition to go wandering out to wherever Porunga was. He hadn't been in any condition to walk or fly since before he'd lost his sight. He reached out with his mind and found Dende's energy. 'Dende,' he thought, 'Can you hear me?'
Dende'd had a terribly confusing thirty seconds. One moment he was dead and then he wasn't. Now Namek was falling to pieces and he heard the Great Elder's voice in his head. 'Y-yes, Great Elder,' he thought nervously, 'I can hear you!'
'Continue, Mr. Kaiou,'
'Okay,' Kaiou thought with a clear tone of anxious frustration, 'Dende, right? You need to get to Porunga right now and wish for everyone except for Freeza to be teleported to the planet Ear–'
'Nope!' Goku thought while simultaneously pummeling Freeza with a vicious barrage of machine-gun right jabs and her left hand held Freeza's throat. Now Dende and Guru were very confused.
'Oh for crying out loud!' Kaiou thought in exasperation.
'Leave me here to fight Freeza, Kaiou,' Goku thought even as Freeza broke her grip and hit her flush in the face with a flying kick. 'If you wish me to Earth, I'll never forgive you!' Kaiou groaned in all three of their heads.
'Fine,' he muttered. 'Fine! Fine! Dende, wish everyone to Earth except for Freeza and Son Goku.' Dende nodded and flew toward Porunga. The Dragon wasn't that far away. Or maybe it was. It was hard to tell when it was gigantic. Either way, Dende flew as fast as he could.
OoOoOoO
Gohan arrived with Bulma and the blue-haired girl hit the ground running as she sprinted toward the controls of Goku's ship. Suno, by this point, had recovered enough of her strength to stand and had several questions.
"Bulma," Suno asked as Bulma frantically mashed at the controls and the ship slowly began to hum to life, "What's going on? Why did the sky go black? Why's everything shaking? What's happening?!"
"No time!" Bulma answered hurriedly. "Freeza tried blowing up the planet but he missed or something and the whole thing's gonna go up in five minutes and that was six minutes ago!"
Suno blinked. "Well that doesn't make any sense."
OoOoOoO
"Hey," Goku called as she dodged a kick from Freeza and aimed a punch at his midsection, "Shouldn't the planet have blown up by now?" Freeza evaded the punch and smashed the edge of his hand into Goku's throat before kicking her down to an island below.
"I suppose you're right," he mused as he held his hands overhead and formed a giant ball of ki. "It seems my estimations were off. This planet probably has another… two or three minutes?" Then he smirked down at her. "But if you're so eager to die, allow me to give you a hand!" He flung the ball down at her with a flourish and a maniacal laugh. A laugh that died instantly as Goku punched it and he had to dive out of the way to keep from being hit with it as it sailed off into space.
"Jeez," Goku taunted as she rubbed at her fist, "You can't do anything right, can you?" Freeza seethed and prepared to launch another attack when he caught a glint of something out of the corner of his eye. Something gold… and green. He spun quickly to his right and there, filling the sky and reaching up to the stars, was the savage Namekians' wishing dragon.
"Immortality is mine!" he declared before rocketing off.
"Oh no it isn't!" Goku argued as she took off after him. She grabbed onto Freeza's tail when she caught up with him and pulled with all her might, causing Freeza to cry out in pain. While she was holding onto Freeza, she noted how much cooler the Namekian's Eternal Dragon looked than Earth's. Shenron was cool and all and he'd brought her back to life but Porunga had huge arms! That must mean he could punch huge things! Goku was so distracted by the prospect of these huge things that it allowed Freeza to jab his dextrous toes into her eyes. Goku screamed and hauled back on Freeza's tail. There was an awful, wet ripping sound as most of Freeza's remaining tail was torn messily from his body. Freeza didn't care. He grit his teeth and flew through the pain, faster and faster. Immortality was so close! He would triumph! He would finally be a god!
"Dragon!" Freeza bellowed in Arcosian, the highest of all languages. "You will heed my call and bow to my will! I command you to make me immortal so that I may take my place as God by rights!" There was a long and agonizing silence. Then Porunga said something in Namekian and its eyes flashed. Freeza threw his head back and laughed maniacally before he realized that, once again, he didn't feel any more immortal. Nothing had changed. He looked around in puzzlement before looking down to see the little Namekian bastard that he killed what felt like a lifetime ago with growing rage.
Dende smirked up at Freeza and showed him the rudest gesture in all of Namekian culture. He stuck out his thumb and pointed up at Freeza. And just like that, he was gone.
OoOoOoO
Seconds later; Suno, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Bulma appeared on the Capsule Corp lawn.
As well as three hundred or so absurdly bewildered Namekians. They gawked at this strange world they found themselves on. There was only one sun in the sky, the grass was the color of the sky, and the sky was the color of the grass. It was all so topsy-turvy!
Dende pushed his way through the throng of villagers to get to Piccolo, quickly falling to his knees to heal the warrior Namekian again. Piccolo groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of his head. "Gohan called you Piccolo," Dende said as Piccolo looked at him, "But you knew my name and I can sense Nail's energy in you. Who are you?"
"I am Piccolo," Piccolo explained, "And I'm afraid Nail is gone." Dende looked sadly down at his feet before Piccolo put a hand on Dende's head and, in a gesture of Namekian affection that Piccolo had never had knowledge of before today, scratched the skin behind his antennae. "But there is a part of me that is him and knows that he would be very proud of you."
Meanwhile, Gohan and Suno looked around and were equal parts confused and concerned. "I guess they used Shenron to wish everyone back," she surmised, "And used Porunga to wish us all to Earth." Sadly, she reminded herself that Shenron's wish wouldn't work on Krillin. Although, at the moment, that wasn't her chief concern. "Where's Goku?" she asked.
'She stayed on Planet Namek,' Kaiou explained wearily in her head. 'To see the fight through to the end.' Suno sighed and let her face drop into her hands as Gohan hugged her tight..
'Oh, Goku,' Suno thought desperately as she shook her head, 'Please come back to me…'
OoOoOoO
"Am… Am I immortal?" Freeza asked.
"Let's find out," Goku snarled as she barreled into him from behind with the force of a meteor strike, her arms cinching around his waist to slam the pair of them down into the ground like a comet. Goku got to her feet first and kicked Freeza in the ribs as he got to his hands and feet to send him sprawling. "Get up!" she demanded with venom in her voice. Freeza groaned painfully and staggered to his feet. He stumbled at first before he charged at Goku and threw an elbow at the side of her head. The blow struck and she staggered but immediately counterattacked with a knee to the gut that nearly sent Freeza to the ground again. However, Freeza fought to keep himself upright and threw an uppercut to Goku's chin. It connected and snapped Goku's head back but she hit Freeza with a palm thrust to the collarbone and felt something crack against her hand. Freeza staggered away and wiped blood from his lip as he waited for Goku to attack.
"Come on, then!" he demanded bitterly. "If you're going to kill me then kill me! Don't hold back at the end! Where's all that talk now?" Goku shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. "What," he scoffed, "Have you gone soft at the end?! I thought I deserved to die! Do it, you coward!"
"You don't deserve to die," Goku told him calmly, "You deserve to live. And live for a long time." Freeza blinked and she was in front of him. "I want you to remember this day, Freeza, as long as you live. I want you to remember fear." Freeza threw a wild left punch but Goku grabbed him by the wrist and twisted, snapping his arm from the elbow down like brittle glass. She grabbed him by the throat and glared as she slammed him into the ground. As her grip tightened, Freeza realized how all those other beings had felt. Because he realized now that he was staring into the eyes of an angry god. "I want you to remember my hand on your throat." Freeza's vision began to swim as Goku leaned in to whisper malevolently. "In your most private moments, in all your years to come, I want you to remember the monkey who beat you." Then she let go of Freeza's throat and walked away from him.
"Wh–" Freeza's voice was hoarse as he rubbed at his throat, "Where are you going?!" He asked furiously. He would not be mocked. He would not be pitied. He was Freeza! He was power personified! "Don't you walk away from me!"
"This planet's going to go up soon," Goku told him over a shoulder, "And this fight's over. You gave me a few bruises while you were at one hundred percent but you've burned up all that power." Freeza looked at himself in horror as his muscles began to shrink once more and she started to fly off. "I'm gonna take my ship and get outta here. You're boring me." Freeza's eyes went wide and he held one hand over his head.
"No one walks away from Freeza!" he bellowed as he flung his hand forward, launching a razor-sharp disk of pink energy at Goku's back. She heard it coming and spun around to see it, scowling furiously as she blasted it to pieces. He was just begging her to kill him by getting on her nerves like this. Freeza growled and flung a second disk, purple foam flecking at the corners of his mouth and his eyes wide and bloodshot. "You will not defeat me! I am Divinity! I am Supremacy!" Goku tried to blast this disc as well but Freeza flicked his wrist and it swerved to avoid her attack. Goku realized that, strangely enough, Freeza's attack was a combination of the Kienzan and the Sokidan. Then she dove down toward Freeza with a look of steely determination burning in her eyes as she came closer and closer. Freeza laughed and flashed her a mocking grin. "Really," he asked, "Is this your plan?! You think I'll fall for such a rudimentary tac–" Goku blasted the ground in front of Freeza and made him fall down, the cloud of dust the blast created obscuring his vision. Goku pulled up suddenly and watched as the disc continued its deadly path toward Freeza while he began to stand. She could have said something. She could have called out a warning.
She didn't.
Freeza hopped to his feet and a fresh expletive or declaration of superiority died in his throat as the disc came at him from behind and cut him clean in half at the waist, taking his broken arm as well and cutting just above the elbow. Goku watched as he fell to the ground and writhed in pain, blood pouring from his wounds. She watched… and smirked. Goku was just about to leave when she heard Freeza whisper something.
"Help me…" he whispered in a pained voice, hoarse and strained. Goku's nostrils flared and she dropped to the ground beside him with a thunderous "Thoom!"
"What," she asked venomously, "Did you say?"
"D-don't let me die," Freeza begged. "I-I I am too weak, in the end. P-please… have mercy!" He reached out to her, crawling to clutch at her foot with his one good hand. His body was trembling from pain and from shock but also from the effort of using his telekinesis to keep his organs and most of his blood inside his body. It was clear that he didn't have the energy to keep it up for long.
"Mercy…" Goku muttered sourly as she looked down at Freeza's hand. "Mercy?!" she repeated before stomping on it viciously. "After all you've done, all the lives you've taken, you ask for my help?!"
'Leave, Goku,' Kaiou urged her. 'This planet's hanging on by a thread! You've got to find your ship!' Goku knew Kaiou was right and yet, at the same time, she couldn't find it in her heart to leave Freeza to die like this. After all, she told herself, that would end his suffering. She pointed her open palm down at him and passively let some of her ki flow into him. Freeza gasped as he felt the energy fill his body and give strength to his fading life force.
"I didn't do this because I'm soft," she growled, "And this mercy isn't kind. Run away, Freeza. Run far, far away. And if you ever hurt anyone again, I will find out. I will come for you. And I will be coming to kill. And you will never. Ever. Be able to stop me." Then she flew off in disgust without ever looking back.
It took Freeza several seconds to process what had just happened. Goku had given him some of her energy. She'd let him live. His life was indebted to hers. After all he had done. The genocide of her race. The murder of her bald friend. The multiple attempts to murder her. She had let him live. She had taken… pity on him. That set Freeza's blood to boiling. He forgot his defeat and his self-inflicted dismemberment and his terror and shame. No one pitied the mighty Freeza. No one mocked or dared to threaten the mighty Freeza! He… he was a god! He would win! He always won!
"No…" Freeza snarled with a manic ferocity as he dug his hand into the dirt. "No, no, no!" he shoved himself off of the ground and hovered into the air, blood dripping from the stump of his left arm and from his waist. He flung out his right hand and screamed in defiance. "You will die!" He poured every last ounce of his energy into the blast, all life preservation forgotten in the depths of his thirst for revenge.
Goku looked over her shoulder and saw the blast rushing toward her. She rolled her eyes and turned to face it, throwing out her hand to fire a contemptuously one-handed Kamehameha. The beam instantly overwhelmed Freeza's attack and she could barely hear him screaming over the sound of the planet coming apart. Whether he was dead or not, she didn't care. She was done with him now.
'Hurry, Goku,' Kaiou urged, 'Hurry! The planet's going to blow at any moment!' Goku nodded and surged forward with all her speed as she frantically searched for her ship. The seas had completely boiled away by this point and Goku could actually see the planet starting to crack apart but she still saw no sign of her ship.
'Wait a minute,' Goku thought, 'Those Ginyu guys might have come in their own ships!' With that she turned back to the direction of Freeza's ship, which she had passed several moments prior, and searched for any kind of ship among the wreckage. 'Come on,' she thought tensely as the planet's shaking grew worse and worse, 'Come on!' She finally found the ships, pods like the one Raditz had trapped Gohan in and that she must have come to Earth in as a baby. She let out a scream of effort as she lunged for it. "Come on!"
OoOoOoO
Without warning, Planet Namek erupted into a brilliant fireball of purple, blue, and white. Chunks of debris scattered across the asteroid belt of its solar system and its ashes were flung out into the cosmos.
OoOoOoO
"Did Goku make it?" Yamcha asked nervously. Kaiou sighed and hung his head.
"I… I don't know."