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Going Native: Loss of Everything (ch. 33)
🕑 Added 2021-05-31 14:59:08 +0000 UTCA scream of rage ripped itself from my throat as I blasted forward, crossing the distance between us in a fraction of a second. At speeds that my team — my family — couldn't hope to react to. For me, time seemed to slow to a crawl as Fasha's gaze managed to meet mine as I reared back a fist. Her final words echoing in my head like a bell. They replayed as if they were on a loop, serving as white noise to the moment I watched my brother die.
Fasha didn't think I would do it. I could see it in her eyes. She didn't think I was capable of it.
She was wrong.
My fist blurred forward as I screamed a wordless roar of grief and rage. Blood splashed on my cheek when my fist punched through Fasha's chest, directly through her heart. Her expression twisted to one of shock and anguish as I ripped my arm free. Her blood splashed out, soaking the sand red as she began to drop to her knees.
Fasha… she had been the closest thing I had to an older sister. A memory flashed in my mind from so many years ago — my first mission. How we had both stared into the vastness of space as she told me about her own first mission to reassure me. The universe had seemed so much larger back then.
Before her knees touched the sand, I grabbed her head with both hands, each covered in the blood of someone I had loved. I turned sharply, filling the abandoned lobby with the harsh sounds of Fasha's spine breaking. Her presence left her body. She was dead. I had killed her.
"Faaaassshhhhaaa!" I didn't need to look to know who screamed her name. The grief and heartbreak in the tone mirrored my own. Shugesh. He had loved Fasha for years. Decades. He never told her. Some battles were easier than others, he used to say when I questioned him about it once. He had been afraid of ruining what he had, so he didn't dare reach out for more.
Now it was too late.
"Shugesh!" I roared right back, pivoting where I stood to look at the short man. His eyes were a blazing yellow that dripped tears, his bowl-cut hair blasted back as he threw himself at me, driven by grief. The expression on his face didn't suit him. Shugesh had always been the most laid back of the team. Someone who understood his weaknesses and strengths well, so he stuck to them. We had been similar in the beginning, but as my power and responsibilities grew…
He was still family to me. I loved him.
My fingers pressed together as I threw an uppercut, using Shugesh's momentum against him. The soft skin underneath his jaw offered no resistance, nor did the bone as I skewered Shugesh's brain. He died instantly. A noise that sounded like it came from a wild animal escaped me as I sent Shugesh into a crash landing with the sand. He impacted hard, tumbling a fair bit and slamming through the ancient wall.
Distantly, almost faintly, I realized that the building was coming down. Tora and Borgos backed off, making a hasty retreat. I stood still, uncaring of the falling stone. My hands trembled, tears blurring my eyes as they raced down my cheeks. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I was all too aware of what I was doing, but it was like I was watching someone else doing it. Watching my body murder my team. People that I loved. Looked up to. Admired. And hated.
"RAAAHHHH!" I screamed, my power surging. Like an invisible wall, the collapsing building exploded outward as sand and dust stirred. "Hnnh… gah…!" I tried to swallow a sob that rose from my throat, my hands going to my face. The salt in my tears stung at the wounds that Vegeta had given me. I barely felt it. Nothing could be compared to the hellish feeling in my chest. There weren't words. None even came close.
I tried to swallow it down. To give the same advice I had given Vegeta. The moment I thought about him, about my older brother, I saw the moment he died. It was seared into my mind.
"Bardock, we need-" I heard Tora shout, making me go still. My hands dropped from my face as I looked up at Tora. He was shouting into his scouter and I realized that neither Fasha nor Shugesh had been wearing theirs. They were trying to avoid being tracked. For all the good that it did them. "It's Tarble, he's betrayed us!"
Those words seemed to penetrate the fog that clouded my mind and it snapped me back. I was suddenly in my own body again, and every sense I had felt like it was dialed up to fifteen. The blood on my face and hands, the sand on my sweat-soaked skin, the almost gentle sound of my power surging and falling in a steady rhythm not unlike a heartbeat. I felt something bubble up from deep in my gut. At first, I thought it was another wordless roar.
Instead, I heard myself chuckle. My shoulders began to shake as they kept coming, growing in strength. A laugh escaped me, followed by another, then another. I tried to contain them, a hand going to my mouth that had curled up into a smile. I was laughing. It was too hilarious for me not to.
It was the first time I've laughed like this. From the gut, until it felt like my lungs were empty. Somehow, I don't think this was what Froot had meant.
I breathed out, looking up at Tora, who gazed down with a determined expression. However, he couldn't hide the fear in his eyes. I killed half of the team already. "Who betrayed who, Tora?" I asked him, taking a slow step forward. "Who betrayed who?"
Tora opened his mouth, but I didn't care. I couldn't. I betrayed them? After they murdered my brother in front of me? Who were they trying to fool? It certainly wasn't me. They betrayed me. They betrayed my family. They betrayed everything we had gone through together. They betrayed the trust that had been forged in war when we only had each other to rely on.
Because would they really stop at just Vegeta? Who would be next? Me? Mom? Elery?
Gritting my teeth, I threw myself upward, closing the distance between Tora and me. He was in the Wrath State, as far as he could push it. He dodged the punch that would have torn through his heart, moving to counter. Because of that, he never saw the blow that killed him. I dipped under his counter, rearing back a fist that I slammed against the side of his head. His skull shattered on impact, his heart still pounding and sending his blood through the stump of his neck. It doused me, but his body began to fall to the ground.
Tora… he was an uncle to me if I had to put it into words. He wasn't a mentor, but he had been someone I looked up to. When I first took command of the team, it was his opinion that had mattered the most to me. Bardock had left large shoes to fill, and Tora had been the natural choice to replace him. Which is why I had pushed myself so hard to be worthy of the role as leader.
His corpse hit the ground in a plume of dust, rolling down a sand dune before he was buried in the sand that he had displaced.
A ki blast slammed into my back, exploding upon impact. I felt it, but it didn't hurt. It was more like a solid punch. I turned around, catching another to my chest. When the smoke cleared, I saw Borgos rushing me. The fact that his attacks did no damage didn't phase him. I don't think he cared.
Borgos was the quietest among us. It was easy to forget that he was there at times. But he had made his impression on me. When I had first joined the team, it had been him that welcomed me first with no reservations. A simple gesture of sharing some dried jerky, but at that time, when I had been so unsure of myself, it had meant the world to me.
I raised my hand, ki flooding my palm while my gaze never left his. Blue light erupted from my hand, washing over Borgos before the torrent of ki slammed into the ground with explosive force. I felt his presence vanish nearly instantly, but I kept the technique going for a moment longer.
It started to sink in what I had just done. Only when it was over did it process that I had been fighting against my team. And it was only when they were all dead that it sank in that I was killing them. I reached out with my ki sense and I found nothing in the city. Frieza was keeping his distance, likely for his own entertainment. I also felt presences begin to leave my range as they obeyed the order to flee Planet Vegeta.
However, the only thing that I could focus on was a familiar presence racing towards me.
Bardock.
My mentor. The man that I looked up to. That I idolized. The man that had been more of a father to me than my own father.
Who had also arranged for my brother to be murdered. Who had betrayed me in ways that there weren't words to describe.
"BARDOCK!" I roared, blasting forward to meet my mentor halfway. A sandstorm followed in my wake as I shattered the sound barrier instantly and raced beyond it. I moved faster than I ever had before. Faster than I thought possible without being a speedster like Burter. In mere moments, I left the desert and the ruins behind and closed in on Bardock.
It still took me long enough for him to realize what was going on. Bardock spotted me coming, launching ki blasts to deter me from coming straight for them. They slammed into my body, but I hardly felt them. They did damage, but there was just no room in my head for anything but this.
I could have killed him in the opening blow. I wanted to. I was soaked in my brother's blood. I was soaked in the blood of my team. I was soaked in my own blood.
Why? I had to know why.
I slammed into Bardock, grabbing him by the face as I sent us both flying to the ground. "Why?! Why?!" I screamed, slamming Bardock into the ground below and pushing him through the dirt and stone. He couldn't answer even if he wanted to. I knew that. Even still, the lack of an explanation set my blood boiling in my veins. "Why, Bardock?!" I lifted him out of the ground and threw him down.
Bardock struck the planet like a meteor despite the little distance. Rubble and dust went flying up as Bardock shot down beneath the surface, displacing minerals and dirt as he formed a tunnel with his body. He was still alive. I felt that much, and it was proven when Bardock fired up with a ki blast that blasted through the falling rubble to hit me. I caught the blast effortlessly.
I wouldn't have been able to do that before. Bardock, however briefly, had taken Vegeta's place as the third most powerful Saiyan alive. He was nearly my equal before the Vega system. Yet, with the power that surged in my body… it wasn't even close. Not remotely. Becoming a Super Saiyan made all the difference in the world when it came to power. More so for me given that for years, I was stuck in Stage Ten of the Wrath State.
Bardock blasted out of the man-made tunnel, looking bloodied. His armor had broken up, revealing most of his torso, though he still had one strap over one shoulder. He glared up at me as if I was the enemy. "Tarble, what did you do?!" He demanded to know, his face twisting into a snarl.
"You know exactly what I did, Bardock," I bit the words out. "Now tell me why you did it. Why did you murder my brother?" I forced out between clenched teeth. Every instinct I had screamed for blood. Demanded it. That one act of betrayal completely washed away what we were before. The moment that Vegeta was murdered, the team became my enemies.
An expression of rage and loss passed over Bardock's face as he realized whose blood I was drenched in. "You killed them?" Bardock breathed as if he could barely believe it.
My eyes narrowed into slits and I moved. Blurring forward, I crossed the distance between us and gripped Bardock by the neck. I held on tight, choking the life out of him as he pointlessly pulled at my hand. I held on, sending us both on a collision course with a cliffside that crumbled upon impact. Bardock gasped, his body taking the worst of the impact and I reinforced the cliff with ki to make it more durable.
"My brother, Bardock. My brother. I knew you two didn't get along, but this?! How can you justify this?!" I roared, squeezing tighter. Despite his position, Bardock glared at me. His face twisted into a snarl — there was pain in his yellow eyes. The same pain that had been in Vegeta's. The same that was in mine.
"For you!" Bardock roared back, pushing against my grip. "So you would be king instead of that elitist brat that was going to keep things the same because he liked being on top!" Bardock bit the words out and my grip lessened on reflex. "Because I know your father already tried to kill us once. What's to stop him from doing it again?"
"Me," I stressed the word, glaring into Bardock's eyes, completely dissatisfied with the answer. They murdered my brother to make me King? Just like how my father stripped Vegeta of his position as heir?
Meaning… meaning that Vegeta… he died for nothing. For no reason. We were fighting. Father already made me the heir, and Vegeta wasn't going to stop until he killed me or he died.
The moment we had set that aside for the good of our race, Fasha murdered him. With a gun stolen from one of my soldier's corpses.
I couldn't forgive it. I would never forgive this. I don't care how pure and good his motives were. I watched my brother die. I held him in my arms. I was covered in his blood.
I would never forgive them.
Bardock lashed out, a fist catching me in the cheek. I let it land. "What did you do to the team, Tarble?" He demanded to know, his lips curling back into a snarl. "Whose blood is that, Tarble?!"
"It belongs to people that I loved, Bardock," I answered.
A wordless roar of grief escaped Bardock as he lunged for me, tears budding in his eyes. I grit my teeth and slammed a fist into his gut, folding him over it before cupping my hands together and bringing them down in his back. Bardock shot to the ground and impacted hard enough that the cliffside began to break up from the miniature earthquake that he caused.
I should end this now. I knew Bardock. Or, at least I thought I had. He loved the team. He trusted them. They had been his closest friends for most of his life.
Bardock checked all the same boxes that I did. That Vegeta did. Vegeta had lost Father. I had lost Vegeta. Bardock lost the team. He had the power. He had the catalyst. The three of us were always the most likely to become Super Saiyans, but I never thought that the three of us would all become one on the same day.
"Tarble!" Bardock roared up at me, the sky stirring above as thunder began to crackle and his power skyrocketed. The sandstorm that I had whipped up was racing to close the distance between us. Golden light shone beneath me, the dust pushed back as Bardock too attained a form from myth and legend. His golden hair stood straight up, his turquoise eyes filled with hate.
I was still stronger, but the gap between us had been bridged.
Good.
"Bardock!" I returned, darting down and the two of us clashed in the middle. Trees were ripped up and sent flying from the shockwave of our fists colliding, the cliffside shook and further collapsed on itself. I didn't care. I only had eyes for Bardock.
His fists lashed out in blurs and I shook off how familiar the feeling was as we fought. For three years, we had trained every day together when I had been crippled by my fight with Mongul. Before, he had watched me and advised me during my fight with the Saibamen. Then we sparred more times than I could count during our years behind enemy lines. I knew how he fought.
Just like he knew how I fought.
I threw an elbow at his eye that he caught in the palm of his hand. He countered with a fist to the gut that was similarly caught by my other hand. Rearing our heads back, our foreheads collided with a clash that could be heard for miles. I grit my teeth, my nails digging into my palms until they bled.
"They were our team! You knew them your entire life!" Bardock shouted, punching me in the face, and opened himself up to a liver shot as blood filled my mouth.
I lashed out with a foot, catching him in the side of the head, dazing him, only to be caught in a trap when I learned he had faked it to punch me in the gut. He threw a high knee that I caught by slamming both of my fists against his knee, nearly breaking it. Bardock roared, just as immune to pain as I was, and slammed his fists into my back. I shot towards the ground, flipping so I landed on my feet.
Despite infusing ki into the ground, the stone still broke underfoot, but in the shape of a shallow crater as the densest stone remained strong.
"I know that!" I roared back at him, throwing a high kick as he descended. It was a feint. Spinning sharply, the bottom of my foot caught him in the stomach and sent him flying. "They were my team just as long as they were yours! They were my friends! My family! But what do you expect me to do when you start killing my family, Bardock?!" I shouted at him, closing the distance and punching him in the face.
A forest worth of trees was displaced as Bardock shot through it. Ancient and powerful trees were vaporized as he crashed through them, ripping more out of the ground from the wind force. He righted himself after a moment, catching my fist against his forearm, our eyes meeting.
"I never wanted to be King! None of this had to happen!" I continued, punching Bardock in the diaphragm in exchange for an elbow in the temple that was followed by a high kick to the bottom of my chin, launching me into low orbit. Even as Bardock raced up to close the distance, I continued. "No one would have had to die if you and father didn't decide things for others!"
The moment he closed in, I countered his jab and planted my fist in his face, landing directly on his scarred cheek. He was knocked to the side, then struck by lightning as we fought in the storm that raged below. The wind howled in my ears, sounding like death itself as we fought. The blows that were traded were harsh and brutal, every bit as brutal as every spar that we've had until this day. Only we knew that this time, only one person would be walking away.
"We could have talked it all out! No one had to die for a chair that means nothing!" I roared, planting a fist in Bardock's gut, and he countered by slamming a fist into my exposed elbow in an attempt to break my arm.
"You don't get to talk about talking things out when you murdered our team!" Bardock roared right back, screaming at the top of his lungs as he lashed out with a kick to my head. "They're dead because of you!"
I snarled, dipping underneath the kick and lunging for Bardock's head. I slammed my hands around his ears, disorienting him before I followed it up with a headbutt that sounded louder than the clap of thunder. Bardock shot down to the ground, tearing through the planet's surface in a long line. I quickly gave chase and found Bardock recovered enough to greet me with a high knee to the face.
"They're dead because of you!" I returned, kicking him in the side of his knee, and trying to land an elbow against his bleeding chin. "How long did you plan this?! A year? Five? Ten?"
"Longer!" Bardock shouted, delivering an uppercut to the bottom of my chin before following it up with a jab against my kidneys. I bent under the blow, but I followed the momentum and lashed out with a foot to his head. Spinning sharply, I kicked him in the back of the head, sending him into the ground, then I spun once again to deliver a devastating axe kick to the back of his head. Or, I would have if Bardock hadn't recovered and narrowly avoided the blow. He planted a fist against my nose, sending me flying through what felt like several buildings.
One collapsed on top of me. It reminded me of D'xe -- when I discovered the Wrath State. Bardock had sent me against the Vanguard-class scarab in an attempt to force the transformation. That had been our last mission as a team.
My power skyrocketed, blasting the rubble away and sending it raining down on the city to clash with Bardock in the sky above it.
"We never told you because we expected this! But I thought too much of you. I never thought you'd kill the team," Bardock spat, and the hypocrisy was galling. I punched him through a building and sent a ki blast after him. For a moment, I forgot my own strength. The ki blast exploded, expanding in every direction at rapid speeds. The city was wiped off the face of the planet with no effort.
Bardock still lived, firing back with ki blasts of his own. Dozens of them. I fired back, the ki blasts colliding midair and the world went white as all of planet Vegeta seemed to quake. The sound was thunderous, the wind stirring up the storm that seemed to only swell in intensity by the second. Still, I felt Bardock's presence. He was still alive.
More than that, I felt him charging a technique.
"Galick," I began, cupping my hands to my side. The ki swelled rapidly, sending powerful discharges of energy out in every direction. The lightning was intense, carving lines through the crater below, making the new cliffside fall as chunks were cut out of it. "GUN!" I screamed, launching the technique down at Bardock.
Something was off. I noticed it instantly when I didn't feel any resistance. That much was proven when I realized that there was a Riot Javelin traveling upstream. I grit my teeth and abandoned the Galick Gun to avoid losing an arm to the Riot Javelin. Something that Bardock was prepared for because not a moment later, two Destructo Disks raced towards me at angles to prevent me from dodging.
Tucking into a ball, I dodged by slipping between them while two Destructo Disks of my own formed in my hands that I launched back at Bardock. He dodged them effortlessly as he raced towards me.
I planted my foot in his face, "You knew I wouldn't betray my family, so you just went behind my back?!"
"What family?!" Bardock shouted right back, gripping my ankle and pulling me to his level to trade blows. "Your parents refused to acknowledge you. You've only met your brother a handful of times. And you still picked them over us!"
"Shut. Up!" I bit out, grabbing Bardock by the hair and punching him in the face a few times before he caught my fist and threw an elbow at my nose. I caught the blow on my forehead instead and punched him in the diaphragm for good measure.
"Can't handle the truth, Tarble?!" Bardock screamed, grabbing me by the head and kneeing me in the face. I recovered, catching a second knee before I twisted out of his grip and delivered a kick to the bottom of his chin.
"I didn't pick anyone! I'm not the one that drew lines in the sand and made sides, Bardock! You should have told me. I would have beaten the shit out of you. Then I would have beaten the shit out of my family. There was a way this ended where no one died," I bit out, flipping back and blocking a punch with my hand. Then another with my free hand. Bardock reared his head back, and I did the same and we delivered a harsh headbutt that squelched blood into our eyes on impact.
Bardock glared into my eyes, "For all that you've accomplished, Tarble, you are unbearably naive." He pushed back, going to kick, but I beat him to it by delivering a high knee to his face.
"No," I returned, axe kicking Bardock in the face. "I'm just the only one that's had to compromise my beliefs because reality didn't care what I believed in or what I desired. You couldn't do that, Bardock. Neither could King Vegeta. You can lament in hell for all I care, but this is your fault."
Ki spears formed in my hands, but I didn't throw them. A presence was approaching. My hands trembled as Frieza appeared, a smile on his face that could best be described as content.
The battle paused as he approached. "Oh, don't mind me, you two. I just wanted a front-row seat to the drama." He remarked, a cruel, mocking edge in his voice. I met his red eyes for a moment — and I saw fear in them. He was putting up a front. I could see it. By that, he meant that the moment there was a victor, he was going to kill them. He was using the loser to weaken the winner for him.
It seemed that he lost that reckless confidence in the Vega System with his arm and tail.
I looked at Bardock, his expression was fierce. Our gazes met, and a silent message was passed between us. He offered a curt nod, showing that he understood.
Then I descended and the fight resumed. I sent a command to the Warworld, preparing the main gun while I checked in on the evacuation. The Warworld reported that most of the Federation ships had been stolen as well as every reported ship on Planet Vegeta. It was too early to tell if the Saiyan race would live another day, but at least they were off the planet. It gave them a chance.
I threw the spear at Bardock, who narrowly avoided it. Cupping my hands to my side, I glared into his eyes. "Ka…" I began, blue light flickering in my palms.
I was thoroughly annoyed to see that he adopted the same stance, uttering the name of the technique in unison. ""Me… ha… me…"" the technique swelled to levels that were previously unthinkable. Something far beyond what I had used against Froot.
We thrust the technique forward in unison.
Just not at each other.
Both Kamehameha's raced towards Frieza, blocking any view of him behind the two powerful torrents of ki. Each technique was a planet buster, yet I saw both stall against Frieza's telekinesis. Mine made headway by virtue of being heavier, but he was still able to stop the technique in its tracks. So, I poured more into it. I completely let go of my restraint, an iron will that I had perfected over a decade, and just screamed at the top of my lungs in an attempt to push the technique further.
The Warworld glowed in orbit, through the dark cloud that covered the sky. It fired a second later, a bright red laser punching through the atmosphere. A vastly more powerful attack than I had blocked once before.
The red laser slammed into Frieza's back. I knew it struck because my and Bardock's techniques surged forward when his concentration lapsed. The Frost Demon was caught between all three of the planet-busting techniques, yet I still didn't feel him die. He wasn't uninjured. More so that he already was, but he still lived.
That much was proven when Frieza surged upwards, utterly furious and covered in burns. Some of which looked terrible. The prosthetics he had used melted, revealing the true extent of his injuries.
"You…" Frieza growled out, reaching out with a hand to the Warworld. He yanked it down, sending it on a collision course with planet Vegeta with effortless ease. "Damn… dirty… filthy… monkeys!" Frieza yelled at us, any semblance of composure gone without a trace. The Warworld fell from orbit behind him, slamming into the planet with explosive force. The sound was beyond loud and the entire planet recoiled under the force.
My connection to the Warworld sputtered, but remained. It was still operational, but it had suffered critical damage.
"So, you let me transform for this?" Bardock asked, floating to my level as we both squared off against a furious Frieza. I… I couldn't forgive him. And he couldn't forgive me. If somehow both of us survived this fight, then we would finish the battle we had started. But, for now, we could agree on something.
Frieza had to die. Today. Even if we had to die doing it.
"How dare you? How dare you?" Frieza hissed as he glared at us, grinding his teeth together as his only hand clenched into a fist that trembled with rage. "I will personally exterminate your species. I'll save you two for last so you can watch everyone you've ever known die!" Frieza lashed out at us, and I felt myself being gripped by an invisible force before being flung into the ground.
Stone and dirt gave way underneath me as it felt like Frieza was going to fling me through the planet that already felt like it was about to shake apart. Gritting my teeth, ki flowed to my hands as Destructo Disks formed, marking my trail before I suddenly stopped.
Frieza's telekinesis was the biggest obstacle that we had to deal with. More so than his raw power. However, I think it had weaknesses. Firstly, he needed line of sight. Secondly, how he had destroyed Mogo… it was a sight that I would never forget. But, because of that, I recalled how the planet Green Lantern had been crushed.
Almost as if a giant fist hand grabbed hold of it and crushed the planet in its palm.
Taking in a deep breath, I flexed my power and sailed upwards. Frieza flung me miles beneath the surface, but I was back to the surface in seconds. Two ki spears formed in my hands, finding Frieza's presence before I threw the spears at him. They flashed through the air, only to be stopped cold when Frieza thrust his hand at them. Fury was etched into his face. "Tarble!" He growled my name hatefully, but that rage was quickly transferred when Bardock made his move.
He dove in, closing the distance between them, and punched Frieza in the face with all of his strength. The Frost Demon sailed away, slamming into the ground below. My eyes widened as I recalled my spears, catching them in my hands as Bardock and I descended. "His hand," I told my theory to Bardock, who just grunted in response.
Frieza recovered, not so much as bleeding from the blow. He raised his hand, dark purple energy crackling in his palm before he fired it at us, forcing Bardock and me to split off. He went left and I went right as we narrowly avoided the blast that carved a deep line in the planet's surface. The energy seemed to make the storm above grow in strength, lightning pouring down like it was rain while planet Vegeta began to crack from the impact of the Warworld.
The planet was dying.
That didn't matter. My ki spears spun in my hands before I threw the shortest one at Frieza. He threw out his hand, blasting the ki spear away, only to fall prey to a knee to the back of the head. I threw the longer one at Bardock as I recalled the short spear, both of us pressing the attack. Frieza looked like he was going to have an aneurysm as he lashed out, an invisible force hitting Bardock and flinging him away. However, the ki spear caught the worst of it.
I dove in, lunging low with my spear, only to see my vision be filled with Frieza's hand. I felt something grip my head, and my skull felt like it was going to shatter from the pressure. I felt blood erupt from my ears and nose, but I still heard Frieza. "Tarble, it really is a shame it ends like this. You always were my favorite monkey," Frieza remarked, the pressure growing.
I grit my teeth and sent one of the Destructo Disks flying towards Frieza. The spiraling ki disk erupted from underneath where Frieza stood, and I felt the pressure around my head vanish. My vision was blurry, but I didn't need to see. Thrusting up, my short spear dug into one of Frieza's eyes, earning a high-pitched scream from the Frost Demon. Even with all my strength, and targeting soft tissue, I wasn't able to skewer his brain. I yanked my spear to the side, attempting to carve out both of his eyes, but I felt an invisible force hit me in the chest.
My sternum shattered, my ribs breaking like glass as I was flung backward. My organs ruptured, sending blood gushing up my mouth and nose. Even still, I took control of my flight path, flipping and digging my feet into the ground. It took me half a mile to slow myself down enough to throw myself back into the fight. I saw Bardock's golden glow darting about, attempting to stay in Frieza's blind spot.
As I raced forward, the planet's crust began to finally give out. I nearly flew face-first into a tidal wave of magma that gushed upwards like a fountain. The heat was intense, but I ignored it and flew higher. The action revealed that it wasn't an isolated occurrence. All across planet Vegeta, mountains rose and fell, volcanoes formed and erupted, tidal waves of lava and water swept over the land. The skies above were every bit as devastating — tornadoes formed by the dozens, lightning fell like rain…
The planet was dying and it was dying fast. I wouldn't put it at lasting for more than five minutes before the planet shook itself apart.
Meaning we had to make the most of the time that we had.
I blasted forward, my ki spear condensing into a ball as I flew above Frieza. Bardock and the tyrant clashed, and I felt more confident in my theory as I watched them fight. Frieza had macro telekinesis, not micro. More than that, he didn't seem able to properly use it without clenching his hand. A habit picked up from lazy training if I had to guess. Perfect practice made perfect, after all.
"Final…!" I began, cupping my hands in front of me as the technique began to form. There was so much lightning falling down that the discharge from the Final Flash wasn't even noticed by Frieza. "FLASH!" I roared, launching a powerful torrent of ki at Frieza. It raced down to him, but Bardock breaking off was the warning that gave it away, however.
I felt the technique slam into something. At first, I thought it was Frieza as he tried to fight against the attack. Instead, I quickly realized that Frieza had caught the Final Flash with his telekinesis and he was trying to push back. I grit my teeth, blood seeping from my nose and mouth while my hands trembled with exertion.
"Wrath State…" I bit the words out, a blood vessel erupting in my eye and dying my vision red. "Stage! Ten!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as pain unlike anything I had ever felt before tore through my body. It was as if every individual cell in my body was being torn to shreds a million times and I was being hit with all that pain at once.
I was thankful for it. The pain was the only reason I didn't blackout.
My technique surged downward, catching Frieza by surprise. He fought against it, but the weight pushed him down until the Final Flash was drilling through the planet. Yet, I didn't feel him die even as the Final Flash tore through the other end of Planet Vegeta. What I did feel was that incredible pressure on my body pressing down at every angle.
The Final Flash ended, revealing Frieza. His body was bulkier, and he was taller. His power level skyrocketed to heights that I hadn't known were possible. Double his previous strength.
The pressure grew until I felt bones snap underneath it. I couldn't let go of the Wrath State. If I did, then I was dead. Though, I might die anyway.
"Goodbye, Tarble," Frieza bit the words out, one eye closed as purple blood dripped from his face. The pressure grew, earning a snarl from me as I recalled the other Destructo Disks that I had hidden before. They raced out of the ground, converging on Frieza. Despite losing the eye, he was aware of his blind spot and I felt the pressure vanish as Frieza threw out his hand, a round shield made out of telekinetic energy catching the Destructo Disks.
A ki spear formed in my hand, and I compacted it as much as I could before I flung it towards Frieza with all of my strength. The sound barrier shattered as the tip glowed from superheated air. I saw Frieza's eye widen a fraction, but the spear slowed as it neared him until it stopped a fraction of a fraction of an inch in front of his only eye.
Bardock finished the blow, racing forward and grabbing the spear before thrusting it forward with all of his strength and momentum. The spear sank into Frieza's remaining eye, blinding him fully. Frieza screamed at the top of his lungs, blasting Bardock and the Destructo Disks away from him as his hand reached to his bleeding eyes. I flew forward as Bardock joined me.
We had blinded him, but Frieza was still a threat. He was still incredibly powerful. All we did was give ourselves an opening to end this fight.
Two Destructo Disks formed in my hands as two Riot Javelins formed in Bardock's. Frieza unleashed a wordless scream of pain and hate as he sent a blast of purple energy at us. He couldn't aim, so he made the blast wide enough that he didn't have to.
Bardock threw the Riot Javelins into the torrent of purple energy. A split second after, I threw the Destructo Disks before both of us were forced to try to catch the energy attack. All four attacks traveled upstream to Frieza, but the attack still hit us hard. We caught it with our hands, trying to push it back to keep it from overwhelming us, but it proved futile. It was like trying to stop the ocean with a teacup.
But that didn't matter. The momentum that propelled the attack forward died a second later, and over the claps of thunder, I heard Frieza howling in pain. When the energy faded, I saw his one arm was mangled from the Destructo Disks. His hand was cut in half, and a huge slice had been cut from the arm that bled profusely.
He wasn't dead. We were whittling him down, but it would just take one good hit from him to kill us.
"We're running out of time," Bardock remarked, his chest rising and falling in a shaky rhythm. "The planet exploding won't kill him, will it?"
"No," I answered. I doubt it would. We would need something else. My gaze drifted to the scene behind Frieza, the remains of the Warworld. I reached out to it with the mental connection that I had with it and asked it a silent question.
I was answered with an affirmative.
"We push him towards the Warworld," I decided before flying down. I threw a ki spear down at Frieza, the spear slamming into his skin, but only managing to knock him back rather than skewering him. I landed behind him and kicked him in the back while Bardock kneed him in the face.
"I will make you suffer!" Frieza raged, lashing out with his hand. I expected the action and kicked him in the wrist, knocking his hand up while Bardock dodged low. Without his eyes, Frieza was almost manageable. He countered with blinding speed and his attacks were absolutely devastating. If Bardock wasn't here to divide his focus… if Hal hadn't managed to wound Frieza… then I would have died a long time ago.
I kicked Frieza in the gut, sending him flying back while Frieza countered. Using the kick as a point of origin, he took aim and fired an energy blast from what was left of the palm of his hand. It was impossible to dodge the blow, it filled my vision. Gritting my teeth, my hands slammed against the surface of the ki blast as my feet dug into the surface of the planet. I reinforced it with ki, hoping to gain some traction before I heaved upwards and threw the ki blast up.
Not a second too soon because I felt an intense heat on the back of my legs. Blasting forward, I saw Bardock continue the fight. He attacked from the front, so I went from behind as we began to steadily push Frieza to the Warworld. No words were said. There didn't need to be said. There was just grim determination to win against a foe that the stakes were just too high to lose against.
More lava gushed upwards as we fought, the shaking of the planet growing worse by the second. We had less than a minute. We might have less than ten seconds.
The pressure fueled our resolve as Bardock and I worked in a perfect harmony created by so many years of fighting together. Our bodies remembered the feeling of working together, even if nothing would ever be the same between us again.
"I should have exterminated your species the moment daddy found you!" Frieza roared, his threats and rage growing more common the more he was pushed back. He seemed to adapt to missing his eyes, much to our horror. Each blow was immediately returned with one of his own, using the point of origin as a reference. Each narrow dodge grew narrower, and without the other, neither Bardock nor I would have been able to survive.
My blood surged in my veins as I punched Frieza back, sending him flying into the Warworld. His body tore through the thick metal like it was nothing and Bardock and I gave chase. We needed him to be in the epicenter. Even if it meant that we were caught in the blast too.
The Warworld began the preparations, a timer on the clock as we began to tear through the it, a ship that had been the closest thing I had to a home. I narrowly dodged a kick from Frieza that would have taken my head off without Bardock kicking Frieza's leg up an additional few inches. Frieza lashed out with a ki blast that only just avoided Bardock when I kicked Frieza's arm to the side. Bardock went in, punching Frieza in the throat, only to be kicked by me when Frieza countered and nearly tore Bardock in half with a wild haymaker.
I punched Frieza in the side of the head, trying to damage his ears. Bardock moved when Frieza went to counter, only to pivot. A feint. My eyes widened as blood splashed on my face from where Frieza struck Bardock, seeing through our strategy. A fist tore through his chest, directly through his heart.
Bardock was dead.
"Tarble!" Bardock bit the words out, grabbing Frieza's arm and holding him. He thrust a hand in my direction, his turquoise eyes meeting mine. There was no hate in them. No rage. Not even sorrow. Just acceptance. "Take care of the rest," he requested as the golden glow from his hair faded, returning it to a solid black. The golden aura that surrounded him condensed into his hand before it leaped from his palm, slamming me in the chest.
My body felt like it was dying as my power grew, Bardock's strength being added to my own. It was too much. It was far too much. It would kill me before long.
"Ka!" I started, cupping my hands together, light forming in my hands as I channeled the excess power into the attack. I had to get it out of me. I had to put absolutely everything into this final attack. My strength flowed to my hands as I dodged back from Frieza as he lashed out. "Me!"
"You're the last one left, Tarble! I can't wait to hear you scream! Always so stoic. I bet you'll be so much fun to torment!" Frieza yelled, ripping his hand free of Bardock's body.
"Ha!" I continued, not caring what he had to say. I had no interest in entertaining Frieza any longer. His last words would fall on deaf ears. "Meeee…!"
I sucked in a deep breath and gave the command to the Warworld. It seemed I would be saying farewell to all of my comrades this day.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" I screamed, thrusting my hands out and launching the Kamehameha at Frieza. He reached out, catching the blast, but it wasn't like the others. It contained all of Bardock's power given to me in his final moments. It contained all of mine as well.
It slammed into Frieza, and I heard him screaming as he flew back directly towards the Warworld's power source. The crystal containing limitless energy detonated, filling my vision with white light as the explosion that followed was so loud that my eardrums ruptured. The Kamehameha pushed me back, slamming my body through the Warworld walls as I fought to escape the glowing white explosion. A split second later, just as I burst forth from the wreckage of the Warworld, I felt it.
A presence that had dominated my life since the day that I was born. A presence of someone that I had once respected, but grew to hate.
I felt Frieza die.
The white explosion continued to grow outwards, enveloping all of the Warworld, then continuing to expand. The Kamehameha began to peter out, leaving me to turn my back on it as I flew to escape it. My mind raced, gathering up the last vestiges of my strength to blast forward, away from the explosion.
Thirty seconds. That's all I had. The power crystal held more power than a sun. Than a hundred suns. Self-destructing was the last resort for the Warworld because it would take out everything in the system when the following explosion caused a supermassive black hole that would envelop the entire solar system.
I had one chance. No other ship would be able to save me.
"Dammit, Bardock," I cursed under my breath, driven forward by his final request. I couldn't take care of Kakarot or Gine if I was dead. I spotted my destination, having memorized the coordinates for it years ago. I flew down, tearing through the cavern and mountains of sand.
Landing on my feet, I looked up to see the ship. A bone-white ship shaped in a ring. The ship that had brought the Saiyan race to Planet Plant. A ship that I had thought about over the years, a mystery that had tugged at my thoughts whenever I thought of Planet Vegeta.
In the end, it was obvious as I strode forward. Though, that might just be because I had gotten two obvious clues.
The Galick Gun was a key that had been converted into an attack.
Kindness was the way.
A Galick Gun formed in the palm of my hand that I reached out and directed it to the ship. Power didn't matter. We just thought it did because the ship responded to it, but we had been mistaken. It wasn't power. It was energy.
A lock worked by lining up the tumblers. The key was to give it the energy it needed to line them up.
The ship responded to my single-handed Galick Gun. It twisted in on itself, merging and shaping until it was a sleek saucer. A door marked itself on its surface that opened, revealing a set of stairs. I ignored them in favor of flying inside, finding the interior vastly larger than the ship should be.
"Danger imminent in the system. Evacuation recommended," I heard a voice say with a synthetic edge to it.
I didn't have a destination in mind. "Evacuate to the previous location," I ordered the ship, my strength fading as I walked inside. The interior was too white. White floors, white walls, and a white ceiling. Sterile. I drifted to a chair that seemed to be the command center and collapsed into it. I felt the ship rise through the air as I leaned back.
"Destination Sadala selected."
Those were the last words I heard before my eyes drifted shut and everything went black.
....
The past two chapters have been a breeze to write. I've been looking forward to them for over a year at this point. This is the final chapter to Going Native. The next one will be an epilogue wrapping up the final loose ends like the Reach, or the fallout from Frieza's death, as well as Tarble's next move. Should be a smaller chapter.
After that, it's finally too Earth. I honestly thought at times we would never get there.
Comments
Wayne
Well crap... for once I can't like the chapter. It was epic. It was powerful. But it was utterly tragic and that's never been my cup of tea.
Denis Safiev
33?
Wow all three Vegetas didn’t make it
Lazy Wizard
Huh. I would have thought Super Saiyan combined with Wrath State would have been enough to overwhelm Frieza. 500 times 1.5 million is 750 million, and that’s ignoring the zenkai boost he should have gotten after Froot. Oh well, Frieza’s dead. Looking forward to the epilogue.
Enjou
Well, seems Frieza may have been stronger than in canon DBZ, given it took this much to kill him. But damn, what a fight! Bravo. Looking forward to more.
Echan Clinch Apa-ap
I would like to know what happened to the saiyan race
