A detonation split the sky.
The shockwave followed, rolling across the capital, rattling windows, cracking walls, sending debris cascading from already damaged buildings.
In the civilian district, Saiyans stumbled.
"What the hell was that!?"
"The battle, it's getting worse,"
Another shockwave. Stronger. The ground itself trembled, fissures spider-webbing through the streets.
"We had no chance against Frieza and his family!" A Saiyan mother clutched his children close, eyes wild with terror. "We should have surrendered! We should have-"
"Surrendered!?" Another female warrior rounded on her, scarred face twisted with fury. "It isn't about chance! It's about pride! We are Saiyans, we do not grovel!"
"Pride doesn't mean shit when we're extinct!"
"What did you say!?"
The warrior grabbed her by the collar. Fists clenched. Tails lashing.
"We are doomed either way!" another voice cut in. "Fighting or groveling, Frieza will kill us all!"
"We could hide-"
"Hide WHERE!? Frieza could destroy the planet with a finger! Hiding doesn't matter!"
"Then we flee! We take the ships and-"
A shadow fell over them.
A Saiyan descended from the sky, landing hard. Her face was pale. Her hands trembled.
"The ships," she gasped. "All our ships, Frieza's soldiers destroyed them. Every single one. They... they want us to go out with the planet."
Panic.
Screaming. Crying. Saiyans scattering in every direction with nowhere to go. Children wailing for parents.
"Wait."
One voice cut through the chaos. An old veteran, eyes narrowed.
"Wait a minute. If Frieza wanted us dead... why hasn't he destroyed the planet already?"
The panic stuttered.
"What do you mean?"
"Knowing Frieza, this rock should already be space dust. He doesn't play with his food. So why is he-"
A massive figure dropped from the sky.
Nappa stood there.
The elite warrior. General of the Saiyan army. A woman whose thighs alone could crush starship.
"WHERE IS THE YARDRAT!?"
The civilians recoiled.
"Nappa!"
"General Nappa! What's happening at the front!? What are those shockwaves!?"
Nappa's jaw clenched. Her hands curled into fists, muscles bulging beneath her armor. Something flickered across her face, frustration, disbelief, wounded pride.
"It's the man," she growled.
"Man? What man?"
"The one who crashed into the Queen's throne room." She swallowed hard. The words tasted like ash. "He's facing the Cold Family. Alone."
Stunned silence.
"A man? Alone!?"
"Against all three of them!?"
"What race is he!? What kind of monster-"
"I don't know." Nappa's voice was tight. Controlled.
"I don't care what race he is. If he can save us, that's all that matters." Another Saiyan said
*He's a monster,* Nappa thought, the memory burning in her mind. *I beat him so easily in the throne room. He went down like nothing. So why...? Why did he let himself-*
She shook her head. *Doesn't matter. I have orders.*
"The Yardrat!" she barked. "Short pink alien, antennae. Where is he!?"
"Yardrat? We haven't seen any-"
"Shit!" Nappa's fist slammed into a nearby wall, cratering stone. "He said he'd be here! That little-"
Flash.
Light erupted beside her.
Soba materialized, two fingers pressed to his forehead, chest heaving.
"Are you Nappa?"
She spun toward him. "Yes. How did you kno-"
"Goku told me." Soba tilted his head, eyes drifting downward. "He said to find the Saiyan woman with the incredible thighs." A pause. "He was right. Very impressi-"
Nappa grabbed him by the collar.
Yanked him off his feet.
Her face was inches from his, scarlet with fury and something else.
"WHAT DID HE SAY ABOUT MY-" She caught herself. Teeth grinding. "Forget it. FORGET IT. What's the plan?"
Soba dangled in her grip, remarkably calm.
"The Cold Family's ships are in orbit. Goku needs us to gather all non-combatants, civilians, children, wounded and teleport them aboard."
"And the crews?"
"We kill them." Soba's voice didn't waver. "Quietly. Before they can alert anyone. By the time Frieza realizes what's happening, his own fleet will belong to your people."
Nappa stared at him.
"Tch."
She dropped him.
Soba landed lightly, brushing off his clothes.
"What are you waiting for?" Nappa turned toward the gathered civilians. "Let's move. We don't have much time."
"Saiyans are full of energy," Soba observed, falling into step beside her.
Nappa didn't respond.
But as they began organizing the evacuation, a thought popped.
*Why?*
*Why is he trying so hard to save us?*
*We weren't exactly welcoming. I beat him down in front of the Queen. Treated him like trash. And now he's out there, fighting three emperors alone, buying time for...*
*...for us.*
Her fists clenched.
*Who the hell are you?*
—
A few kilometres from the city.
A figure crashed into the earth.
The impact carved a crater fifty meters wide, rock and debris exploding outward like shrapnel, dust billowing.
Above the destruction, King Cold and Cooler hovered. Waiting. Patient.
And between them, Frieza descended slowly, arms crossed, that cruel smile playing at his lips.
In the crater, rubble shifted.
Stones tumbled. Dust parted.
Goku emerged.
One hand pressed against his knee, pushing himself upright. His armor was shattered. Blood trickled from his nose, painting a thin red line down his chin.
His thumb came up.
Wiped it away.
Examined it.
And smiled.
"Master..."
Princess Vegeta's voice was barely a whisper.
She stood at the edge of the observation point, fists clenched so tight. Her tail lashed behind her, furious, helpless, humiliated.
Beside her, Queen Vegeta watched with different eyes.
Not frustrated.
Calculating.
And Eve,
Eve stood apart from them both. Calmer. Quieter. Because she knew.
"Mother!"
Princess Vegeta spun toward the Queen, arms flying wide in desperate argument.
"I can't stand here and do nothing! This is humiliating! He's my *master*—I trained under him—I should be—"
"You should be what, Vegeta?"
Queen Vegeta's voice cut like a blade.
"Go out there? Fight beside him?" Her eyes never left the battlefield. "If we go there, we become cannon fodder. Liabilities. He'll have to protect us, and that creates the opening they need to kill him."
Princess Vegeta's jaw worked. No words came.
"We stay. We watch. We trust."
"Tch!"
The princess returned to her position, arms crossed tighter than before, fingers digging crescents into her own flesh.
*Master... please...*
"Give up, monkey."
Frieza's voice drifted down from above, sweet with mockery.
"It's all lost now. Your planet will die soon. Your people are trapped. And you..." He gestured lazily at Goku's battered form. "You can barely stand."
Goku tilted his head.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Excuse me?"
"I'm just saying..." He rolled his shoulder, cracked his neck. "You've tried to kill me multiple times now. All three of you. Together." That smile widened. "And yet here I am."
The Cold Family twitched.
King Cold's eyes narrowed.
Cooler's tail lashed once.
Frieza's smirk flickered, just for an instant, before hardening into something uglier.
"Don't get cocky, filth. You're strong, I'll grant you that. But we're not at our maximum strength. Not even close."
"Me too."
The whisper was barely audible.
Frieza frowned. "What was that?"
"Nothing."
Goku's eyes drifted upward, past the Cold Family, past the smoke and fire, toward the stars where their ships waited.
*I can't use it yet. Not until they're gone. Can't risk it. Time paradox, butterfly effect, whatever, I need Soba to finish first.*
He placed his hands on his hips.
Sighed.
"I'm so considerate."
"Speak up, monkey!" Frieza snapped. "Did you lose your ability to form words?"
"Nothing. Don't mind me."
And then he moved.
Goku's fist buried itself in King Cold's stomach.
No warning. No telegraph. One instant he was standing in the crater, the next, his knuckles were pressing against the patriarch's spine from the inside.
King Cold folded.
Eyes bulging. Blood spraying from his mouth. A sound escaping him that he had never made before.
Pain.
"Damn monkey!"
Frieza's tail whipped around, a purple blur aimed at Goku's skull.
Goku leaned back.
The tail passed inches from his nose. He felt the displaced air kiss his cheek.
And used Frieza's own momentum against him.
His leg came up his tibia connecting with the underside of Frieza's chin in a kick that sent the emperor screaming into the sky.
Cooler was already moving.
Fast. Precise. Fist aimed at the back of Goku's skull while his attention was forward.
Goku felt it coming.
Leaned forward.
Cooler's punch sailed over the back of his head, so close it ruffled his hair.
Goku's hands hit the ground.
His legs coiled.
Sprung.
Both feet connected with Cooler's face, a double heel kick that sent the elder prince spinning into the distance, blood trailing from his shattered nose.
Three emperors.
Three strikes.
Three seconds.
The crowd erupted.
"Did you see that!?"
"He hit all three of them!"
"We have a chance! We actually have a-"
"The savior! He's the savior!"
Fists pumped. Voices roared. For one glorious moment, hope blazed across the Saiyan army like wildfire.
But Queen Vegeta didn't cheer.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the battlefield. On the three figures recovering in the distance. On the way they exchanged glances, communicating without words.
*He caught them off guard,* she realized, ice forming in her chest. *Surprised them. But now they know. Now they'll coordinate.*
*And when they work together...*
Her hands clenched.
*Please. Please be enough.*
They came together.
King Cold first, fist extended, power screaming through his arm.
Goku blocked it. Grabbed the wrist. Twisted, preparing to-
Cooler's kick caught his ribs from the right.
*Fast.*
Goku leaped in the opposite direction, riding the impact, minimizing damage-
A massive blow crashed into his spine from behind.
Frieza.
The strike launched him forward, directly into Cooler's path.
Cooler's arm extended, a lariat that caught Goku full across the face.
The world spun.
He flipped, once, twice, three times, before slamming into the ground hard enough to crack the planet's crust.
Eve's hands flew to her mouth.
Princess Vegeta's teeth clenched so hard.
And Queen Vegeta
Queen Vegeta stared at the crater where the warrior had fallen, and felt something inside her break.
*Enough.*
The word screamed through her mind.
*You've done enough. More than enough. More than anyone could have asked.*
*Please, just go. Take my daughter and go. Save yourself. Live.*
*Don't die for us.*
The crowd's cheers had died.
Silence returned.
Heavy. Crushing. The silence of hope extinguished.
"Saiyans are doomed to extinction today," Frieza announced, descending toward the crater with theatrical slowness. "Not because of fate. Not because of prophecy. But because I said so."
His foot touched the edge of the crater.
"Any last-"
*Crack.*
Pebbles shifted.
Stones tumbled.
And from the rubble,
Goku rose.
Blood dripped from his mouth.
he was standing.
And he was smiling.
"You might be right," he said, spitting crimson. "But I'll try my best."
He paused.
Blinked.
Chuckled.
"'I'll try my best'?" He shook his head, genuinely surprised. "Did I just say that? Huh. That's new."
"What are you blabbering about, monkey?" Frieza's eye twitched. "Have you finally lost your mind? I don't have any bananas to offer as a last meal."
Goku's smile sharpened.
"Lucky you, Frieza."
He straightened, slowly, painfully, but deliberately.
"You've got your whole flock of lizards here to back you up. I always thought reptiles like you were loners, y'know, slithering around by yourselves in the dark." He wiped blood from his chin with the back of his hand. "Guess even cold-blooded pests need family to gang up on one monkey."
King Cold's eyes narrowed.
Cooler's jaw tightened, tail lashing.
Frieza's smirk froze, then twisted into something venomous.
Goku spread his arms.
Palms open.
Inviting.
"So what's it gonna be, lizard king? You three gonna keep hiding behind each other..." His head tilted. "...or are you finally ready to get stepped on alone?"
"YOU FILTHY MONKEY!!!"
Frieza's scream split the air.
"DON'T GET COCKY! I'LL SHOW YOU! I'LL SHOW YOU MY TRUE POWER!!!"
His fists clenched.
His body tensed.
And then,
Power.
Purple aura erupted around Frieza like flames. The ground beneath him cracked, cratered, collapsed. Veins bulged across his smooth white form, throbbing with energy that made the air scream.
Wind exploded outward from seemingly nowhere, a gale that forced warriors to shield their eyes, that sent debris flying like missiles.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
Goku's smile didn't waver.
But internally,
*His power... that's bad.*
He could feel it. The pressure building. The ki climbing toward heights that dwarfed anything Frieza had shown before.
*Soba... I need you to hurry.*
–
Back in the city.
Nappa flew low over the ruined city.
Her eyes scanned collapsed buildings, smoking craters, shadowed alleyways, every hiding spot where cowards might cower while real Saiyans fought and died.
"COME OUT!"
Her voice thundered across the destruction.
"I know you're hiding! The Queen demands your presence!"
Movement.
A cluster of Saiyans emerged from a collapsed structure, females clutching infants, elderly warriors too frail to fight, younglings with tear-streaked faces.
Nappa's lip curled.
"Tch! Worthless coward scums!" She landed hard, arms crossed, disgust radiating from every line of her body. "Why does Queen Vegeta want to save you? Fleeing from the fight... and you call yourselves Saiyans!?"
They flinched.
Said nothing.
*Because what could they say?*
"MOVE IT! Follow me or die here, your choice!"
Soba worked with quiet efficiency.
Groups of Saiyans clustered around him, organized by combat capability, arranged in teleportation order. The strongest first. Warriors who could take down Frieza's crews on the ships. Then the others.
*First wave secures the vessels. Second wave provides backup. Third wave begins civilian transport.*
Simple.
If everything went according to plan.
A heavy thud announced Nappa's return.
She landed with another group in tow, Saiyan girls barely old enough to fight, elderly women who'd seen too many wars, non-combatants whose only crime was being unable to match the Cold Family's power.
"I think that's all of them," Nappa said, crossing her arms.
"Well done, Nappa." Soba offered a small smile. "You're doing good work, saving your people-"
"Cut it out, little man." Her eyes narrowed. "What's next?"
Before he could answer,
Three figures descended from the sky.
Soba recognized them from Goku's descriptions. The scarred one Bardock. The one with eager eyes, Fasha. The calmer one watching everything, Toma.
Nappa's face twisted.
"Why are YOU here!?" She stepped forward, fists clenching. "Did you flee the battleground!?"
"No." Bardock's voice was flat. Hard. "Queen's orders. She told us to help you."
"Yeah!" Fasha bristled. "We would never run away!"
"We don't need extra hands here!" Nappa jabbed a finger at them. "Go back to the-"
"It must be Goku's idea."
Soba's quiet words cut through the argument.
Nappa's eye twitched. "Him again."
"Yes." Soba rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "They're probably reinforcements. To help us take control of the ships more... discretely."
Bardock's head snapped toward him.
"Taking control of the ships?" Her eyes narrowed. "Why?"
Nappa looked away, arms still crossed. "I don't know. Queen's orders."
"Oy. Yardrat." Bardock stepped closer to Soba, her scarred face hard with suspicion. "Do you know something?"
"Nope!"
"Then you're following his orders blindly?"
"Yep!"
"Why?"
Soba met her gaze.
For a moment, something shifted in his expression. Something that transcended his small stature, his exhausted frame, his status as a former slave.
"Because it's him."
The words carried absolute conviction. An unshakeable faith that made no logical sense.
"It's been only two weeks since he came." Bardock's voice dropped. "How can you trust someone in that short amount of time?"
Soba's smile was bright. Genuine.
"I... I don't know." He shrugged. "But I do."
Nappa made a gagging sound.
"Tch! Let's continue before I throw up!"
But Bardock didn't move.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the little Yardrat. On that inexplicable certainty in his face.
*And how did he know Kakarot's name?* she thought, the question nagging at something deep in her mind. *When we first met him in the cells... he called me Kakarot. Like he knew her. Like he knew everything.*
"Let's GO, Bardock!" Fasha tugged at her arm.
"Yeah..."
She followed.
But the questions didn't stop.
"Here's how this works."
Soba addressed the assembled strike team, Nappa, Bardock, Fasha, Toma, and a dozen of the strongest warriors they'd gathered.
"I'll transport us directly into the first ship. We take out everyone inside, quietly. No alerts. No communications. The Cold Family can't know until it's too late."
"And then?" Toma asked.
"Then the second ship. Then the third. Once all three vessels are secured, I start transporting civilians from the surface." He paused. "Everyone. Every Saiyan on the planet."
Silence.
Then,
"Ev-EVERYONE!?"
Nappa's voice cracked with disbelief.
"Are you mad!? Yes, the ships are big, but do you have any idea how long that will take!? Frieza and his family will kill us all before you're halfway done!" She stepped forward, jabbing a finger at him. "We need to save the elites first! The warriors! Then maybe think about the others!"
"No."
Soba's voice didn't waver.
"I'm sticking to Goku's plan. He's holding them off for us. To give us time. I won't waste it by picking and choosing who deserves to live."
Bardock spoke.
Quiet. Almost gentle.
"Your Goku is losing right now."
Soba flinched.
A bead of sweat rolled down his temple. His antennae drooped slightly.
But when he spoke, his voice was steady.
"He is-" A breath. "Doesn't matter. We stick to the plan."
Bardock studied him for a long moment.
This tiny pink alien. This former slave who'd been beaten and humiliated for years. Standing there with absolute faith in a stranger who was currently being pummeled by three emperors.
*Who are you people?* she thought. *And why do I feel like you know something we don't?*
"Fine." She turned to the others. "You heard him. We move. Now."
—
Flash.
The first ship's cargo bay materialized around them.
Frieza's soldiers of perhaps fifty, barely had time to register the intrusion before the Saiyans were among them.
It was butchery.
Silent. Efficient.
No ki blasts that might trigger alarms. No explosions that might draw attention. Just hands around throats, spines snapping, bodies crumpling to the floor with soft, final thuds.
Nappa crushed a soldier's skull between her palms, watching the light leave his eyes with grim satisfaction.
*This is for every year you made us kneel.*
Bardock drove her fist through an officer's chest, feeling his heart stop against her knuckles.
Fasha and Toma worked in tandem, one distracting, one killing, moving through the ship like ghosts.
In less than three minutes, the first vessel was theirs.
"Clear," Nappa reported, blood dripping from her fingers.
"Good." Soba pressed two fingers to his forehead. "Next ship."
Flash.
The second ship fell even faster.
The crew was smaller. Less prepared. They died with confusion in their eyes, unable to comprehend how Saiyans had appeared in the heart of their vessel.
"Clear."
Flash.
The third ship.
Alarms should have sounded by now. Communications should have been sent. But Soba's planning, Goku's planning, had accounted for everything. Strike fast. Strike silent. Leave no witnesses.
Almost.
Nappa's boot pressed down on a soldier's throat.
Tears streamed down his face as he clawed uselessly at her leg.
"P-please-"
She pressed harder.
Crack.
Silence.
But behind her,
A soldier she'd thought dead.
Crawling across the floor, leaving a trail of purple blood, reaching for a console with trembling fingers.
He pressed the button.
A holographic display flickered to life.
"COOLER-SAMA!!!"
His voice was a wet rasp, blood bubbling from his lips.
"THE SHIPS WERE INVAD-"
Bardock's ki blast punched through his chest.
He crumpled.
The console went dark.
Silence.
"...Shit."
---
Five Minutes Earlier.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
Frieza's scream tore across the battlefield.
Purple aura exploded outward, a hurricane of raw power that forced warriors to shield their eyes, that sent debris flying like shrapnel.
His body was changing.
Muscles swelling. Veins throbbing beneath smooth white skin. His sleek final form bulking, expanding, becoming something more brutal. More primal.
More dangerous.
Goku watched with narrowed eyes.
*His power... it's still climbing.*
The ground beneath Frieza cratered. Cracked. Collapsed entirely as the pressure of his transformation exceeded what stone could bear.
"WITNESS THIS, MONKEY!"
Frieza's voice lost its theatrical elegance in favor of something bestial.
"THIS IS 100% OF MY POWER! THE FULL MIGHT OF THE EMPEROR OF THE UNIVERSE!"
The aura settled.
Frieza stood transformed, muscles bulging grotesquely beneath his skin, veins pulsing with visible power, eyes burning with madness and hatred.
He looked less refined now.
More like a monster.
*Fitting,* Goku thought.
"Father. Brother." Frieza didn't look at them. His eyes, bloodshot, wild, stayed fixed on Goku. "Stand aside."
King Cold's brow rose. "Frieza…"
"This monkey humiliated me." Each word dripped with venom. "His death is mine. I will crush him with my own hands. I will make him suffer as no being has ever suffered. And when he finally breaks, when he begs for the mercy I begged for,"
That grotesque smile stretched across his face.
"I will deny him."
"Very well." King Cold drifted backward, arms crossed. "He's yours, my son. Make it... entertaining."
Frieza moved.
Fast.
Faster than anything he'd shown before. A blur of white and purple that crossed the distance between them in less than a heartbeat.
Goku's guard came up,
Too slow.
Frieza's fist buried itself in his stomach.
The impact folded him in half. Spit and blood erupted from his mouth. His feet left the ground,
Frieza's knee met his chin.
CRACK.
The world spun. Sky became ground. Ground became sky.
A hand caught his ankle.
Swung.
Goku's body carved a trench through the earth, dragged through rock and soil like a ragdoll, every stone tearing at his already shattered armor.
Frieza released him.
He bounced once.
Twice.
Crashed into a boulder hard enough to reduce it to gravel.
"Where's your smile now, monkey?"
"Father," Cooler said, watching the one-sided beatdown. "While Frieza... entertains himself. Perhaps we should ensure there are no more surprises."
King Cold nodded slowly.
Cooler raised one hand toward the sky, toward the ground, toward the very heart of Planet Vegeta itself.
"Let's remove any possibility of retreat."
A sphere of ki formed in his palm. Small. Dense. Vibrating.
"Cooler!" Queen Vegeta's eyes went wide. "What are you- NO!"
He fired.
The beam pierced the earth like a needle through flesh, burrowing deep, deeper, past the crust, past the mantle, until,
The planet screamed.
A tremor unlike anything before ripped across the battlefield.
The ground split open, massive fissures spreading like cracks in glass, glowing orange with magma from below. Buildings that had survived everything collapsed into the wounds. The sky itself seemed to darken as dust and ash erupted from a thousand new vents.
"What have you done!?" Princess Vegeta's voice carried across the chaos.
Cooler's smile was ice.
"Insurance."
"The core," King Cold announced, his voice carrying over the planet's death throes. "Is now destabilizing. In approximately thirty minutes, this world will tear itself apart."
Silence.
Then screams.
Panic rippled through the Saiyan ranks.
"THERE'S NOTHING LEFT!" Frieza's manic laughter rose above the chaos. He paused his beating of Goku to spread his arms wide, basking in the despair. "No ships! No hope! You'll ALL burn with this pathetic rock! Every last monkey, erased from existence!"
Eve's hands flew to her mouth, "it's happening!"
Queen Vegeta staggered, for the first time in her reign, truly hopeless.
"Mother..." Princess Vegeta's voice cracked. "Mother, what do we-"
Goku smiled.
*There it is.*
He'd known.
From the moment he'd traveled back with Eve from the moment he'd set foot on Planet Vegeta's soil, he'd known this moment would come.
*The planet dies today. That's fixed. That's history. Can't change it.*
*But the people... the people don't have to die with it.*
Goku pushed himself up,
A kick caught him in the ribs.
He flew sideways, crashing through the remains of a building, emerging on the other side in a shower of debris.
*Fast,* he thought. *Too fast. His 100%... it's beyond what I can match like this.*
"GET UP!"
Frieza's command echoed across the battlefield.
"You wanted to fight, didn't you? You wanted to play hero? GET UP AND FACE ME!"
Goku rose.
Frieza's fist met his face.
He crashed into the ground.
Rose.
Frieza's tail whipped around his throat, lifted him, slammed him down.
Rose.
A ki blast caught him point-blank in the chest, burning through what remained of his armor, searing the flesh beneath.
Rose.
"WHY WON'T YOU STAY DOWN!?"
Frieza's voice cracked with frustration. With something approaching fear beneath the rage.
Because no matter how many times he struck, no matter how much damage he inflicted, the monkey kept rising.
"Because..." Goku spat blood, that smile still on. "...I haven't finished what I started."
"WHAT YOU STARTED!? YOU'VE STARTED NOTHING! YOU'VE ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING! YOUR PEOPLE ARE DOOMED! YOUR PLANET IS DYING! AND YOU-"
Frieza's fist drove into Goku's face.
"-ARE-"
Again.
"-NOTHING!"
Again.
Goku hit the ground.
"MASTER!"
Princess Vegeta's scream tore from her throat before she could stop it.
She lunged forward, stopped only by her mother's iron grip on her arm.
"LET ME GO! HE'S- HE NEEDS-"
"He needs us to stay back." Queen Vegeta's voice was steel wrapped around breaking glass. "Vegeta!."
Eve said nothing.
Her hands were pressed over her mouth.
*Get up, Dad.*
*Please get up.*
*You have to get up.*
In the crater, Goku lay motionless.
Frieza hovered above him, chest heaving, 100% form trembling with exertion.
"Finally," he breathed. "Finally, you understand. Finally, you see the difference between us. Between a god... and an insect."
He raised one hand.
Ki gathered at his fingertip, a death beam, precise and final.
"Any last words, monkey? Any final plea for-"
Movement.
In the crater.
Fingers twitching. Arms pressing against broken earth.
"You've got to be kidding me."
*Soba... where are you?*
Goku's thoughts swam through a haze of pain.
*I can't hold this much longer.*
He pushed himself upright.
Every muscle screamed.
Every bone protested.
But he stood.
"Impressive."
Frieza's voice had lost its manic edge. Something colder had replaced it. Something almost respectful.
"Truly impressive. I've killed thousands, millions and none of them had your... persistence." He tilted his head. "But persistence without power is just delayed death."
Frieza's feet pressed against his skull.
*I don't have a choice anymore. If Soba hasn't finished... if the Saiyans are still on the planet...*
He looked toward the crowd. Toward the warriors still watching. Toward Eve and Queen Vegeta and Princess Vegeta, their faces masks of horror and desperate hope.
"This is where you belong, monkey. In the dirt. Beneath my heel. Where your entire pathetic race-"
*Whatever…"
Golden light flickered at the edges of his vision.
It started with a single strand.
One hair among thousands, lifting slightly, defying gravity, catching light differently than the others.
Gold.
Then another.
And another.
A slow wave spreading, black bleeding into gold, strand by strand.
Frieza didn't notice.
Too busy gloating. Too focused on his victory speech.
But Eve,
Eve felt it.
Her breath caught.
Something was rising. Something immense. A ki signature.
*Dad...*
Her heart hammered against her ribs.
*He's doing it. He's actually-*
Queen Vegeta stiffened beside her.
"What... what is this pressure?"
She couldn't see the transformation beginning. Too far away. Too much dust and debris.
But she could feel it.
"Mother?" Princess Vegeta looked between them, confused. "What's wrong? What are you-"
"Quiet."
Queen Vegeta's voice was barely a whisper.
Her eyes were fixed on the distant crater.
In the crater, Goku's eyes shifted.
The black of his irises, deep, began to fade.
Draining away like ink in water.
Leaving something else behind.
Teal.
His hair continued rising. Strand by strand. Gold spreading, slow at first, then faster.
*I have to-*
"Lord Cooler!"
A voice.
Distant. Electronic.
Cooler had stiffened, one hand raised to his communicator, his face twisting through confusion into something darker.
Goku's eyes snapped toward the sound.
The gold receded.
Strand by strand. Black bleeding back into his hair, pushing out the gold.
His eyes shifted.
Teal fading. Draining away. The deep black of his normal irises returning.
His hair fell.
Limp against his forehead.
Eve noticed.
Her hand pressed against her chest, feeling her heart race.
*He stopped.*
*He was about to do something, I felt it, and he stopped.*
*Why?*
Queen Vegeta blinked.
The pressure she'd felt, that immense, presence, had vanished.
"I... I thought I felt..."
She shook her head.
*Impossible. It must have been my imagination.*
But her tail wouldn't stop trembling.
"What is it?" King Cold demanded.
"The ships." Cooler's voice was ice. "Someone's trying to contact us from the fleet."
Static crackled.
And then,
"COOLER-SAMA!!! THE SHIPS WERE INVAD-"
A wet gurgle.
Silence.
The transmission died.
For a moment, no one moved.
Frieza's boot lifted from Goku's skull.
"What," he said slowly, "was that?"
Cooler's fingers flew across his communicator, cycling through frequencies, attempting to establish contact with any of their vessels.
Nothing.
Static.
*Silence.*
"The fleet isn't responding." Cooler's voice had lost all composure. "None of them. All three ships, nothing."
King Cold's eyes narrowed.
Then widened.
Then found Goku, still on his knees.
*Smiling.*
"You," the patriarch breathed. "This was you."
Goku spat blood.
"Took you long enough."
He pushed himself to his feet.
"MAMA VEGETA! NOW!!!"
Goku's voice thundered across the battlefield.
His arm extended, pointing, commanding, ordering, like a king directing his army.
Queen Vegeta didn't hesitate.
Something in that voice, something absolute, bypassed her pride. Her body responded before her mind could object.
"SAIYANS!" Her voice rang out with royal authority. "TIGHTEN FORMATION! TOGETHER! NOW!"
Confusion rippled through the ranks.
But Saiyans were soldiers.
They moved.
Hundreds of bodies converging, pressing together, forming tight clusters across the battlefield. Shoulder to shoulder. Tail to tail. A sea of black hair and battle armor condensing into organized groups.
Eve watched with wide eyes.
*He planned this. All of it. From the very beginning.*
Princess Vegeta's brow furrowed.
"Mother? What's happening? Why are we-"
Flash.
Soba materialized at the edge of the formation.
Exhausted. Trembling. Antennae drooping so low they nearly touched his shoulders.
But smiling.
"ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN, GOKU!!!"
His small voice carried across the battlefield, high, reedy, triumphant.
He waved his arm frantically.
Goku met his eyes.
His face split into a genuine smile.
He raised his fist.
The signal.
"SOLDIERS!" Queen Vegeta's voice boomed without understanding why. "HOLD ON TO EACH OTHER!"
Hands clasped. Arms linked.
Soba pressed two fingers to his forehead.
And reached.
Flash.
The first group vanished.
Flash.
The second.
Flash. Flash. Flash.
Hundreds disappearing with each pulse of light evacuating in seconds. The entire Saiyan army, warriors and civilians alike, evaporating from the dying planet.
Frieza's jaw dropped.
"What... what is..."
Flash.
The battlefield emptied.
Flash.
The crowd that had watched with desperate hope, gone.
Flash.
The last cluster of soldiers vanished into light.
And then,
Silence.
The dust settled.
Where hundreds had stood, now only six remained.
Goku.
Queen Vegeta.
Eve.
Princess Vegeta.
And across from them, the Cold Family.
Frieza. Cooler. King Cold.
Three emperors on a dying world.
With no ships.
No army.
No escape.
"DO NOT LET THEM TAKE OUR SHIPS!"
King Cold's roar shattered his son's spiral.
"MOVE! NOW! If they secure the fleet, we'll be trapped on this dying rock!"
Cooler was already moving, launching himself toward the sky, toward orbit, toward the ships that held their only hope of survival.
Frieza followed, panic overwhelming rage, survival instinct screaming louder than wounded pride.
They made it three meters.
"You're going nowhere."
Goku stood in their path.
He hadn't moved. Hadn't seemed to move. One instant he was on the ground, the next, he was there. Between the Cold Family and the sky. Between the emperors and their escape.
His head was bowed.
His eyes shadowed by wild black hair.
"Out of the way, monkey." Cooler's voice was ice. "I don't have time to play with you."
"Play?"
The word came out soft.
Almost gentle.
"You think this was play?"
Frieza snarled. "MOVE OR-"
He stopped.
Something shifted in the air.
The ground beneath began to tremble.
Pebbles rose. Floating upward, defying gravity, caught in an invisible current of power.
"I will show you a fragment of my power."
It started slowly.
A single strand of hair lifting. Shifting. Catching light differently than before.
Gold.
Then another.
And another.
A wave spreading from his crown outward, black bleeding into brilliant, burning gold. Not gradual this time.
Eve's breath caught.
She'd felt this before. Minutes ago, when he'd almost transformed. That immense pressure.
But this time, he wasn't stopping.
"What-" Frieza stumbled backward. "What is happening!? What is-"
Golden light erupted from Goku's body, but an explosion of power that sent all three members of the Cold Family skidding backward.
His hair rose fully now. Every strand standing upright, burning with inner fire, defying gravity.
And his eyes,
When he raised his head, his eyes were no longer dark.
Teal.
Bright. Burning.
The eyes of a legend.
Eve chest tightened, warm and aching, and the thought finally formed—soft, disbelieving, immediate:
"…No way."
And only after that, like the world catching up:
*Dad.*
Because this was everything her mother had described. Every bedtime story.
*"He was beautiful, Evelyn. Not just powerful, beautiful. Like looking at something from myth. From legend."*
*"What did it feel like, Mama?"*
*"Like hope. Like hope had taken physical form and was standing right in front of me."*
Eve understood now.
She understood everything.
*You're magnificent, Dad.*
*Everything she said.*
*You're all of it and more.*
Princess Vegeta couldn't breathe.
Her master, her infuriating, secretive, impossible master, in golden fire. Power radiating from him in waves that made her knees weak. Made her hearts pound.
*This is what you were hiding.*
*This is why you were never scared.*
Her arms uncrossed without her permission.
Her clenched fists fell open at her sides.
*Master...*
*You're the strongest.*
*You've always been the strongest.*
Her eyes burned.
Her tail wrapped tight around her waist.
*When I grow up... when I'm older... when I'm strong enough...*
*I'll stand beside you. Not behind you. BESIDE you.*
*I swear it.*
Queen Vegeta fell to her knees.
Not from the pressure, though that alone would have felled lesser warriors.
From the sheer impossibility of what she was witnessing.
*Super Saiyan.*
The legend. The myth. The prophecy that every ruler of her bloodline had dreamed of fulfilling. The transformation that was supposed to appear once every thousand years.
Her tail swayed behind her, completely beyond her control.
Her cheeks burned with heat that had nothing to do with the golden light bathing the battlefield.
*Who are you?*
The question she'd asked a hundred times since he crashed into her throne room.
Now, finally, she had an answer.
*You're the one.*
*The one the legends promised.*
*The one I've been waiting for without knowing I was waiting.*
Her heart hammered against her ribs.
*The one who could claim me.*
The thought came unbidden. Shameless.
*In all my years as Queen, no male has ever made me feel...*
She couldn't finish the thought.
Couldn't look away.
Could only kneel before the legend made flesh and feel something ancient and primal sing in her blood.
*Take us. Lead us. SAVE us.*
*I'll follow you anywhere.*
The transformation completed.
Goku, the Super Saiyan of legend, lowered his gaze to the three emperors before him.
King Cold.
Cooler.
Frieza.
Three rulers of the universe.
Trembling.
"You know what's funny?"
His voice resonated differently now. Deeper.
"You came here to trap us."
He flew down.
The ground cracked beneath his foot.
He took a step.
Golden lightning crackled around his form.
"But now look at you."
He stopped.
Raised his head.
And smiled.
Not warm. Not heroic.
"Three little lizards. Trapped on a dying planet. No ships. No army. No escape."
His teal eyes swept across them, Frieza's terror, Cooler's calculation, King Cold's dawning horror.
"You're not trapped in here with us."
The smile widened.
Showed teeth.
*"We're trapped in here with YOU."*