Based on MasakoX's What If series "What if Gine went with Goku to Earth?", but a retcon with some changes of my own on how I think the story would have went down had Goku's mother escaped planet Vegeta with him.

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CHAPTER 46 – RESCUE

Vegeta's eyes bulged in pain from the impact to his torso, and the prince tumbled backwards with all the wind knocked out of him. Gine was speechless as she saw Little Gohan touch down beside her.

"Grandma, are you okay?!" He asked desperately.

Before she could say anything, Vegeta was already back on his feet and lividly eyed the new trespasser that interrupted him. "Who the hell are you?!" He spat.

Little Gohan squared off against the prince, standing between him and his grandmother. "I already told you: leave my grandmother alone or you're gonna have to deal with me!" He said defiantly, his tail curling behind him. Seeing the young boy's furry appendage, a look of realization crossed Vegeta's face.

"Ah. You must be Kakarot's brat." The prince's tone turned to that of disgust and mockery. "Tell me, did your father mate with the inhabitants, or did he climb back up the family tree to have you?" He said this last part while eyeing Gine.

While her head was still ringing from Vegeta's assault, she heard his crude remark and wished she could get back up and cave his skull in for his words.

"Don't you dare say that about my daddy!" Little Gohan hissed. "He's the strongest man in the world, and when he gets here, he's gonna beat you up!"

Vegeta's eyes were incredulously wide, and he threw his head back in laugher. "HAHAHahahah! Is that so?! Oh no! Please don't hurt me! I surrender!" He mockingly pleaded, making the child's blood boil.

Off to the side, Chi-Chi had regained consciousness and rolled over to see what was happening. Upon seeing the face of her son standing up against the Saiyan Prince, all the blood left her face.

"Gohan?!" She shrieked. What was her little boy doing here? And why was he confronting that monster alone?!

"I've got to hand it to you. You've got nerve, boy. That's for sure." Said Vegeta. His smile turned into a dark and menacing glare. "But no one attacks me on my blind side! NO ONE!"

Faster than Little Gohan could see, Vegeta phased before him and kicked the child squarely in the gut, sending him careening several yards away.

"GOHAN!" Gine cried out, seeing her grandson kicked away like that was enough to lift herself off the ground despite her injuries. She thought she heard Chi-Chi cry out too somewhere.

"That's for trying to catch the Prince of all Saiyans off-guard, you fool!" Vegeta spat.

To his and Gine's amazement, Little Gohan stood back up. He clutched his stomach in pain, looking like he was about to cry. But Little Gohan swallowed his pain and glared back at the Saiyan Prince.

"I'll never give up! NEVER!" He cried out, just as an aura of energy surrounded him and he flew after the prince with all his might. Vegeta was surprised when he met the boy in midair. He was blocking his moves expertly, but was no doubt impressed at how fast the boy moved and his tenacity.

"You would've made a great Saiyan warrior, boy." Vegeta complimented, but the moment of admiration vanished just as quickly. "But you still must die!"

Not holding back anymore, Vegeta went on the offensive. Little Gohan, for all his courage and training, stood no chance against the prince. Vegeta was far more powerful, experienced, and ruthless than this young half-breed. Within moments, Little Gohan was battered and bruised badly by the time Vegeta kicked him away. Gine watched in horror as Little Gohan landed not too far from her. He moaned in agony and didn't get back up.

"Gohan..." Gine tried to reach out with a hand to her grandson through her own pain.

Little Gohan turned to her, one eye swollen shut from a bruise. He smiled at her.

"I'm... I'm sorry grandma." He sounded like he was about to cry. "I tried my best... but... I failed you."

Gine smiled at him. "No, sweetie... you didn't. What you did was very brave, and I'm so proud of you."

Little Gohan smiled at her and tried to reach out a hand to her too...

"LOOK OUT!" Came Vegeta's voice as he came crashing down on Gine. The sound of bones snapping in her rib cage echoed and she screamed louder than she ever had before.

Vegeta laughed sadistically over her. "Being a fiend is like being a photographer. You have to wait for the right moment to ruin it! Hahaha!"

Little Gohan snarled at Vegeta's torturing them.

"HOW'S THIS FOR A PERFECT MOMENT?!" Came Chi-Chi's voice as she pounced on the prince.

He turned just in time to have her foot plowed into his face. He flew back from the strike, but Chi-Chi didn't let up. She went after him.

"Mom!" Little Gohan cried out, but already she was after the prince.

Vegeta had recovered and turned toward Chi-Chi, angrier than ever. "You'll pay for that, wench!"

Chi-Chi got into stance. "Well come and get it you monster!" And she charged at him again.

The prince met her blow for blow, then was kicked in the back again from another attacker. "What?!"

"Kami!" Chi-Chi exclaimed in relief. The Namekian had recovered too.

"Good to see you too, Chi-Chi. Now, let's finish this monster together!" Said the Guardian.

They both pounced on the prince, sure that outnumbering him again, Vegeta was done for. But Vegeta was not ready to give in yet.

Enraged by being pounced on yet again, and that these weaklings keep coming back like annoying cockroaches, he lets out a roaring shout and ki-explosion that blows both earthlings back.

"Why won't you weaklings just die already?!" He seethed.

Seeking to end this once and for all, he charged after the Namekian with a kick so hard it punches right through the slug's body in a shower of purple blood and sent him flying away. Then he turned to the woman.

"Now it's your turn!" He raised a fist, ready to plow through the woman's skull.

"NO!" Came Little Gohan's voice like a battle cry. Vegeta sidestepped the boy and tried to counter, but Little Gohan phased out of sight and reappeared at Chi-Chi's side.

"Let's get him, mom!" Said Little Gohan, filled with a second wind to stand up and fight again. Chi-Chi did not argue, did not scream for her son to get back and let her handle this. She nodded and went along.

Mother and son launch themselves at the prince, but Vegeta saw this coming. In one swift move, he grabbed the boy from mid-air, swung him around, and threw him at the woman. Little Gohan crashed into Chi-Chi hard, and both were sent tumbling away, landing against a rock and falling to the ground unconscious.

"Damn pests." Cursed Vegeta. He looked down at Gine who was still lying helplessly on the ground, she eyed him back.

"This is the price you pay for refusing my offer. You could've rid the galaxy of Frieza, and could have ruled in his place. But you threw it away for these weaklings." He spat. "Now it's time to end this little dance once and for all."

Gohan stirred, and Vegeta raised a hand towards him and Chi-Chi, intending to vaporize them both.

"NO!" Gine yelped desperately, reaching for him as if to stop him in vain.

Vegeta looked back at her in surprise. Then a slow, sadistic smile spread across his face.

"You care about them, don't you." He stated as a fact and saw the fear in Gine's eyes at this realization.

Vegeta chuckled heartedly; oh, he was going to savor this moment. "Good! Then, you get to watch them die. And then I'll kill you next."

"Mom! Wake up!" Gohan tried to help Chi-Chi up. She just regained consciousness to see Little Gohan standing before her, and Vegeta aiming a hand at them.

"When you get to hell, make some room for your friends." He said as he charged a lethal ki blast to finish her and Gohan off.

"Now... DIE!" Vegeta yelled as he fired a Finish Buster at them.

"NOOO!" Gine screamed in horror.

Gohan and Chi-Chi scream in terror, holding each other waiting for the end...

But just as the blast should have reached them, out of nowhere Kami had appeared. He had leapt into the path of the blast. His arms were not crossed to protect himself; he was taking the full force of it. They heard him screaming in pain over the deafening sound of the blast, feeling his life force draining away. Then in a flash of light, the energy blast and Kami himself dissipated into a cloud of smoke.

Everyone just stared agape in shock at the tiny pile of ashes that was Kami. He had completely vaporized as his body absorbed the energy of the attack.

"K-Kami..." Chi-Chi whimpered, unable to hold back tears at what her friend had just done for her and her boy. Little Gohan started crying too.

Gine felt a gaping pit form in her chest. Seeing a friend she held so dear die right before her, sacrificing himself to save her family... it left her numb. It made her think of all the years she had known him, of how much he had changed her life, how he helped her discover herself, how he saved her sanity, how he lied to protect the greater cosmic good, how she almost killed herself out of blind rage, and how he believed in her more than anyone, including herself... Everything leading up until now, how real he had been before he was reduced to ashes... He was more than a friend and mentor to her; he was almost family. And now he was gone.

They were doomed already, but the loss of Kami was like a killing blow dealt to her...

"Hmph. Fool, he only delayed the inevitable. He died for nothing." Vegeta gloated.

Gine rolled over, gazed at Vegeta with pure hatred. Damn this pathetic little man for doing this to her, damn him for murdering her friends and family, damn Frieza for making this monster, damn her for being too broken and helpless to stop him, damn it all!

"I'm not taking any more chances with any of you anymore." Vegeta said. He gives Gine a mocking smile. "Don't go anywhere." Then he kicked her in the side for good measure, for no other reason than to shove her aside. Another rib snapped but she was too numb from rage and despair to even scream in agony.

Vegeta then walked the short distance to Chi-Chi and Gohan. They cowered before him as he stood over them triumphantly.

"This time I won't miss." Vegeta gleefully taunted them and held out a hand as he charged another energy blast. At point blank range, there's no way they could be saved.

Chi-Chi held Little Gohan close. "Look away, baby." She choked out through her tears.

Gine couldn't even let out a whimper as Vegeta fired...

In that horrific moment, time slowed down for Gine. Then, in that very same moment, Chi-Chi and Little Gohan disappeared in what Gine thought was an orange blur before...

BOOM!

The explosion of Vegeta's attack was bright enough to temporarily blind her, but Gine's eyes shot back open. To her shock, she could sense that Chi-Chi and Little Gohan were still alive, and overwhelmed with joy when she felt another familiar presence appear right next to her... and felt herself carried off.

Vegeta was just as shocked. The smoke had cleared, and no trace of his victims could be seen. He also felt that new presence. He turned to look...

"Sorry I'm late, everybody." Said Kakarot as he held Chi-Chi, Little Gohan, and Gine in his arms, sending them down gently next to Raditz.

"DADDY!" Little Gohan wailed in joy at seeing his father again.

"Hey Gohan! It's good to see you again, son." Kakarot beamed his wide-open smile and looked at Gine. "Hey mom, I missed you."

Gine looked up at her youngest son and felt her eyes sting with tears. She had never felt as happy as she was then at hearing his voice and seeing him in person. "Nice to see you too, sweetie." She croaked.

Just then Chi-Chi realized that she and her boy was still alive, then her shock returned when she saw the face of her husband looking back at her.

"KAKAROT!" She screamed. She too was overcome and flung her arms around his neck. "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" She shrieked, just like her old self despite the dire situation.

"It's okay. I'm here now." Kakarot said as he held Chi-Chi close.

Raditz had come too and saw Kakarot standing with them. A small smile crept onto his face. "Cutting it a bit close, aren't we, brother?" He groaned.

"Sorry guys." Kakarot said apologetically as he knelt down and pulled out a small bag from his gi. "I came her straight from the Lookout. Fortuneteller Baba teleported me from Otherworld to there. She didn't want to come anywhere near here. So, I flew here as fast as I could."

From the bag he produced two senzu beans and broke each one in half. "Here, each of you take one half."

They all did so, and already Gine felt herself feeling her cracked ribs reset and most of her injuries healed up. The pain and fatigue lingered just as intensely though, and Raditz could barely bring himself to stand after having his spine fixed.

"What'd I miss?" Kakarot asked.

"That Saiyan guy there was just about to kill us!" Little Gohan cried, pointing towards Vegeta who in the distance just gawked at yet another intruder. "He just killed Kami. Tien and Chiaotzu are dead too!"

Kakarot looked gut-punched when he heard those words. Gine felt it too, feeling the words said aloud felt like a double kill to each of them. And it indeed it was...

With Kami dead, the dragon balls were useless. They could never wish their friends back and would remain truly and forever dead... She wanted to weep.

Without taking his eyes of the prince, Kakarot stood up and spoke in a commanding voice Gine had never heard him use before. "The four of you stay here. Don't worry about this guy. I'll take care of it from here."

Before any of them could protest Kakarot took off, towards where Krillin still lay unconscious. Vegeta eyed Kakarot as he moved, showing only annoyance that the new intruder was not even directly acknowledging him, and somehow it unsettled the prince.

Krillin came to when Kakarot placed the half-senzu in his mouth. The bald warrior looked up and his eyes lit up.

"Kakarot! It's you!" He hugged his old friend as best he could with his good arm.

"Hey, buddy. Sorry I'm late." Kakarot placed the other half of the bean in Krillin's hand. "Here, give this to Yamcha. Then go find my mom and everyone else over where it's safe. I'll deal with this prince guy myself."

Krillin looked at him like he was crazy. "What?! No, Kakarot! This guy is way too strong!"

"Don't worry." Kakarot said with self-assurance. "I can handle him now."

"Huh?" Was all Krillin said as Kakarot walked towards Vegeta. Gine could see this too and watched her son face the man who moments earlier was poised to kill them all like they were cockroaches for him to squash. But the way Kakarot brazenly walked up to the prince with no hesitation or fear in his eyes... she momentarily experienced flashbacks of when Bardock stood before entire armies of enemies with that same unflinching stare as if he was unstoppable.

Vegeta chuckled darkly at Kakarot as the orange clad Saiyan stopped mere feet away from him. "Well, how nice of you to finally join us, Kakarot. I was beginning to think you would never show. I was getting tired of killing these pathetic weaklings." The prince said mockingly.

Kakarot didn't answer, he just stared right back at Vegeta in the eye with an iron-hard glare.

His silence annoyed Vegeta, who growled impatiently. "Well? Are we going to just stand here and stare each other all day?"

Finally, Kakarot spoke in a threatening voice. "You tried to kill my family."

Vegeta was slightly taken aback by Kakarot's statement but laughed it off. "Yeah, well they were in my way. Some of your friends here might be dead too. Sorry you were too late to save them."

Gine watched as Vegeta taunted Kakarot to his face, suddenly aware of how different her son seemed. He was still the same man she knew when he left. But she could tell that beneath him was a power that wasn't there before. Something that he had brought back from Otherworld. A power she could not even begin to comprehend but felt like a roiling lightning storm waiting to be unleashed. And unleashed it was about to be...

Kakarot clenched his fists. The ground started shuddering like an earthquake was happening. But the epicenter was where Kakarot stood. His voice rose in an all-powerful yell that echoed from everywhere. Rocks floated up around him, vibrating as if about to shake apart from the charge of energy in the air.

Vegeta stumbled back; he could feel the power too. And for the first time, Gine saw fear in the prince's eyes. Kakarot was not only more powerful than the prince was even in his prime, but Kakarot's power dwarfed his now. And Vegeta was worse for wear after having to face everyone else, now he knew he was up against the most powerful opponent yet. He might not make it out of this...

Suddenly a blood-red aura exploded violently around Kakarot.

"KAIO-KEN!"

Faster than anyone could see, he rammed his knee into Vegeta's gut. The prince doubled over crying out in pain, but Kakarot brought up his fist and snapped the princes head back, sending him and several of his teeth flying away. Kakarot shot after him like a lightning bolt, landing an elbow on Vegeta's solar plexus with such force as to snap his crest bone like a toothpick, then appearing beneath him to kick him aside, almost folding him backwards, and again in front of him to swing an uppercut that sent Vegeta flying high into the air, and finally Kakarot launching himself at hypersonic speed to appear in Vegeta's path and body-slamming himself into Vegeta all the way into the ground below with the force of a meteorite. The impact threw up a mushroom cloud of dust and debris that rained down everywhere. All of which happened in a matter of seconds.

Everyone watched in shock as the dust cleared and saw Kakarot standing in the bottom of the crater. His red aura had vanished, looking winded and breathing heavily as if he had run a marathon around the planet. Vegeta lay at Kakarot's feet, broken and half-buried, but still alive and in just as much shock.

"H... ho-how?!" Vegeta croaked in dumbfounded confusion and agonizing pain as he tried to get back up. Suddenly Kakarot grabbed him by the cuff of his ruined armor with one hand and yanked him off the ground like a ragdoll, the prince howling as his broken bone flared up. Kakarot held the defeated Vegeta up to his eye level and stared at him with such murderous intensity that the prince nearly shrank back.

"I hope you understand now that you are no match for me." Kakarot hissed at Vegeta. "You came here to destroy our planet and kill everyone I hold dear. By all rights I should kill you for what you've done, and you can't stop me."

As obvious as how hopelessly outmatched he was now, Vegeta felt the insult to his pride was too much to bear for his being manhandled by this low-class scum that should by all accounts not be this strong. Out of instinct and desperation he threw a punch at Kakarot's face with his free hand... Only to have it caught by Kakarot's other free hand. He did not flinch or break off his cold and hard glare.

Vegeta felt his terror grow. He knew that this was the end, he was going to die at Kakarot's hand. How could it have come to this?

"But I am not a killer like you." Said Kakarot. "So instead, I will have to ask you to leave this planet and never come back."

"Huh?!" The look of shock on Vegeta's face was the same as everyone else's. Gine couldn't believe what she was hearing, despite the pain she was still reeling from. He was going to let Vegeta go free?!

"Leave now, and you might get away with your life. If not, then I'll just kill right here and now. The choice is yours." Kakarot declared, awaiting his opponent's answer.

Time seemed to stretch as everyone waited for what Vegeta would do. But slowly and with great effort, Vegeta reached into his armor and pulled out a small electronic device. He pushed a button and dropped the device, eyeing Kakarot with resignation.

"Fine... you win." Vegeta croaked with painful reluctance.

Moments later, the spherical shape of a Saiyan attack pod lowered itself from the sky and gently touched down near where Kakarot held Vegeta. Its hatch hissed and slid open to reveal an empty seat, eagerly awaiting to carry its passenger away from this planet.

Kakarot didn't let go, and tightened his grip on Vegeta and hissed a threat. "Let this be your only warning: You are to leave this planet forever and never come back. And if I ever see you again... I will kill you."

He let go of Vegeta and the prince dropped to the ground landing on his hands and knees, too weak to stand, let alone fight back. "Now go." Kakarot ordered.

Vegeta didn't move for a long moment; the pain of his injuries was too much for him. He might pass out at any moment, but he had to get to the safety of his pod first. Then with wordless reluctance he crawled towards the pod while Kakarot eyeing him like a hawk watching his wounded prey getting away. Internally, despite all the pain from so many broken bones and torn muscles, Vegeta was shaking with rage. This was nothing short of complete and utter humiliation. He, the most powerful Saiyan in the universe, had been defeated by a rag-tag band of weaklings, and instead of dying in battle he was forced to retreat like a coward. Not only that, but Kakarot had spared him like that low-class scum had the right to decide he should live or die instead of the prince himself. And he was currently powerless to do anything about it.

At least not today, he thought in the back of his mind. If there was any solace in this, at least he might have another chance to right this wrong against his pride. He was the Prince of all Saiyans afterall, and he will not let this treachery stand. He will come back one day, he intends to; and will repay his pain onto these people and that wench tenfold!

The thought of his future vengeance gave Vegeta the strength to climb inside and situate himself into his seat. He eyed Kakarot one last time as the pod door closed.

"This... isn't... over." Vegeta uttered before he finally lost consciousness, just as the pod door hissed closed and sealed away the prince for good. The attack ball hovered above the ground momentarily, then shot up into the atmosphere with great speed before disappearing.

Also at that moment, with the threat to Earth gone and the fatigue of her ordeal too much to bear any further, Gine felt herself give out. The last thing she saw was Kakarot running towards her, her family and friends around her catching her as she surrendered to sweet oblivion...