"You will die today."
The words hung in the air like a blade waiting to fall.
Goku stood before the three healed Saiyan women, his back to them, his eyes fixed on the Cold Family hovering above. His tail swayed behind him with lazy confidence, and despite having just deflected an attack meant to annihilate the entire planet, his breathing was steady. Calm.
Above, the Cold Family stared down at him with expressions ranging from disbelief.
"Who is this guy!?" King Cold's voice boomed across the battlefield, his massive form rigid with tension. "Did he actually do that!?"
"Impossible," Cooler muttered, his eyes narrowing as he studied the Saiyan below. "A male. A male Saiyan with that kind of power. The readings before he attacked were barely notable, and yet—"
"LUCK!"
Frieza's shriek cut through his family's analysis. The tyrant's second form, massive, horned, trembled with barely contained rage. His teeth were clenched so hard that hairline cracks were forming in the enamel, and his eyes bulged with a cocktail of fury and denial.
"That's all it was! A trick! Some pathetic Saiyan technique that caught us off guard!" His tail lashed behind him like a whip. "It means nothing!"
But even as the words left his mouth, Frieza's hands were shaking.
Because he had seen it.
That pink energy, had not just matched his Death Ball. It had overwhelmed it. Bent it. Reversed it.
And the Saiyan who had done it was looking up at him now with eyes that held no fear whatsoever.
Goku's gaze swept across the three members of the Cold Family.
And Goku smiled.
"You worthless monkey!" Frieza's voice climbed toward hysteria. "Lower your gaze! LOWER YOUR GAZE WHEN YOUR BETTERS ARE SPEAKING!"
Goku tilted his head slightly.
Then, in a gesture so casual, he opened his arms wide.
Chest exposed.
Heart unguarded.
The universal posture of someone who didn't consider their opponents a threat.
"Go ahead."
His voice carried across the battlefield. Not shouted. Not projected. Just... spoken, with the absolute confidence of a man who had already decided how this would end.
"Make me."
Behind him, the three Saiyan women he had just healed stood frozen.
Queen Vegeta's newly mended body still trembled, not from injury now, but from the sheer audacity of what she was witnessing. This warrior, this impossible male Saiyan who had appeared from nowhere, healed them with a touch, and deflected the end of the world...
Was taunting the Cold Family.
"Is he insane?" Someone whispered, though no one answered.
Princess Vegeta's hands had clenched into fists at her sides. Her face was flushed. Two weeks ago, this man had been her teacher.
And now he was standing alone against the three most powerful beings in the universe, inviting them to attack with his chest wide open.
*Master…*
Eve something that burned in her chest as she watched her father, though she couldn't say it aloud, face impossible odds with nothing but a smile.
*That's him,* she thought. *That's really him.
*Show them, Dad. Show them everything.*
"Keh!"
Frieza's composure shattered entirely.
The taunt, that casual, dismissive invitation, broke something inside the tyrant. His pride. His certainty. The absolute conviction that he was the supreme being in any confrontation.
"You insolent BRAT!"
His aura exploded outward, purple energy crackling with murderous intent.
"I will tear a HOLE through your chest! I will make you REGRET the day you were spawned! I will—"
He moved.
The speed was devastating. Frieza's second form launched forward with enough force to crack the sound barrier, leaving a thunderclap in his wake. His horns, those curved instruments of death that had just impaled Eve and Princess Vegeta, aimed directly at the exposed center of Goku's chest.
"You FOOL!" King Cold's warning came too late. "Don't get baited!"
But Frieza was beyond hearing. Beyond reason. Beyond anything except the overwhelming need to destroy the creature that had made him feel small.
"He vanished!"
Princess Vegeta's shout cut through the chaos. Her eyes, sharper now, enhanced by whatever that near death had done.
But there was nothing to track.
"I can't see him!" Eve's voice joined her, the young warrior's senses failing to locate him.
Queen Vegeta grabbed her cape, fingers digging into the fabric. Her newly healed heart pounded against her ribs. Every instinct screamed that something was about to happen.
*Where—*
"DIE!!!"
Frieza's scream announced his arrival at the empty space where Goku had stood. His horns drove forward with planet-cracking force, aimed at his heart.
And then—
"Foolishness."
Goku with one hand extended, palm open, as casual as someone reaching out to catch a thrown ball.
His fingers wrapped around Frieza's horn.
BOOM.
The impact sent shockwaves rippling across the battlefield. Dust exploded outward in a perfect sphere, forcing warriors to shield their eyes, some stumbling back from displaced air alone.
When the dust began to settle, the gathered Saiyans saw.
Goku stood exactly where he was, one hand gripping Frieza's horn. Just holding. With the same effort one might use to grip a stylus.
Frieza's entire body had stopped mid-charge. All that momentum, all that killing intent, all that desperate rage.
Caught.
Like a child's punch against an adult's palm.
"You—you—you—"
The tyrant's voice had lost all authority. What emerged was stuttering, broken.
"You worthless MONKEY! How—how are you—RELEASE ME!"
He struggled. Twisted. Threw his full strength against the grip holding him in place.
Nothing.
Not even a tremor in Goku's arm.
"Impossible..."
Bardock's whisper was barely audible. She stood among the Saiyan warriors who had survived the initial chaos, bloodied, battered, but alive. Her scarred face had gone slack.
"He caught him," Fasha breathed beside him. "He caught Frieza's charge like it was nothing."
"That's impossible." Toma's voice cracked. "The power difference, Frieza's second form exceeds a million. There's no way a single male could—"
"And yet." Bardock couldn't look away from the figure holding the universe's greatest tyrant in place.
Across the battlefield, similar reactions rippled through surviving Saiyans.
"Did you see that—"
"One hand. One hand—"
"He's not even straining—"
Queen Vegeta's newly healed legs threatened to buckle again.
Not from weakness.
From want.
Because watching this warrior hold her people's greatest enemy like a disobedient child, watching him display power and control beyond anything she'd witnessed in decades of rule...
Something primal was stirring inside her.
Her tail had begun to sway without her permission.
*Who are you?* she thought, heat spreading through her chest. *And why do I want to know so badly?... My Saiyan king…*
—
Goku's voice cut through Frieza's struggles.
Soft.
Nonchalant.
Almost bored.
"That's all ?"
The words were worse than any threat. Worse than any display of rage. Because they carried something far more devastating than anger.
"You—you dare—" Frieza's voice had climbed to a register that bordered on shrieking. "You DARE speak to me like—"
Goku's hand moved.
A simple rotation of the wrist. A basic application of torque.
And Frieza's horn—
***CRACK.***
The sound was wet.
Not just breaking. Tearing.
The horn came away in Goku's hand.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH—!"
Frieza's scream split the air.
A scream the pure, unfiltered expression of agony that comes when pain exceeds processing capacity.
Purple blood sprayed from the wound, painting Goku's armor in droplets. Frieza's hands flew to his head, clawing at the ragged stump where his horn had been.
But Goku wasn't done.
Before the scream could fade, before Frieza's mind could process the mutilation, Goku's palm was already rising.
It caught Frieza under the jaw.
***CRACK.***
The tyrant's mouth slammed shut with force. His scream cut off mid-note.
And then, the kick.
Goku's leg snapped backward, heel driving into Frieza's solar plexus with surgical precision. The tyrant's eyes bulged. Blood erupted from his mouth.
And he launched.
Frieza became a blur.
A streak of white and purple crossing hundreds of meters in a heartbeat. The air screamed at his passage. The ground beneath his trajectory cracked from shockwaves alone.
He hit the rock formation at the battlefield's edge.
The structure, volcanic stone exploded. Fragments scattered in every direction as Frieza's body carved through like a bullet through paper.
"I couldn't follow it," Princess Vegeta whispered, staring at empty air. "The jaw strike, the kick, I couldn't see any of it."
"Three movements." Eve's voice carried analysis despite her shock. "Maybe half a second total. And Frieza couldn't react to any of them."
"It's not speed," Queen Vegeta said slowly, her eyes fixed on Goku's distant figure as he began walking toward where Frieza had landed. "Watch his movements. Every action is... optimized. No wasted motion. No telegraphing."
She swallowed.
"He's not just strong. He's mastered strength. What kind of hellish training you went through?"
Goku walked.
one foot in front of the other, his tail swaying behind him with each step.
The casualness was somehow more terrifying than any display of power.
He wasn't hurrying.
Because this wasn't a battle.
It was a demonstration.
Behind him, King Cold and Cooler remained frozen in the air. The two other members of the Cold dynasty seemed paralyzed, their minds struggling to process what they'd just witnessed.
"Father," Cooler whispered. "What... what is this?"
"I don't know." King Cold's jaw was tight. "But we may need to intervene."
"Not yet." Cooler's eyes tracked the walking figure. "Let's see what we're dealing with first."
The pile of shattered stone shifted.
Rocks tumbled. Dust billowed. And from the crater, Frieza emerged.
Barely.
One horn was gone, the stump still weeping purple blood. His jaw hung at an angle suggesting dislocation. Blood streamed from a dozen wounds.
He was coughing.
But his eyes—
His eyes burned with something beyond pain.
*Fury*.
"Wh-who..." The word came out broken, gargled. "Who are you?"
Goku stopped.
Ten meters away. Close enough to see every detail of Frieza's destruction. Far enough to let him appreciate his helplessness.
"Me?"
That smile. That small, confident curve that held no warmth.
"I'm the soon-to-be emperor of the universe."
The words hit the battlefield like a shockwave.
*Emperor.*
*Emperor.*
Murmurs spread through the surviving Saiyans like wildfire.
"Did he just—"
"Emperor of the—"
"He's going to replace them?"
Queen Vegeta's breath caught.
*Emperor,* she thought, and the word resonated in ways she hadn't expected. *He's not trying to free us. He's trying to claim everything.*
Her tail swayed faster.
*Claim... me?*
The thought should have been offensive. Should have triggered every instinct of royal pride.
Instead, it made her feel warm.
"Insolent... fool..."
Frieza forced himself upright. Something still burned in those red eyes, some ember of pride that refused to die.
"Beer—"
The name began to form. The trump card. The one being even the Cold Family feared—
Goku moved.
Instantaneous.
One moment ten meters away. The next, his fist buried in Frieza's face, the word cut off as the tyrant's skull cratered around the impact.
***BOOM.***
The ground beneath Frieza vaporized. He drove into the earth, through the earth, into a crater that deepened.
Goku wound up.
His fist descended.
***BOOM.***
Another impact. Another meter of depth. Another explosion of displaced stone.
Again.
***BOOM.***
Again.
***BOOM.***
The crater became a pit. Then a chasm. Each blow driving Frieza deeper into the planet's crust like hammering a nail.
"That speed," Fasha breathed somewhere in the crowd. "There's no windup. No indication. He just decides to hit, and then he's hitting."
"That's not combat," Bardock replied, her voice hollow. "That's punishment."
Princess Vegeta was shaking.
*Master,* she thought, watching him rain destruction on Frieza. *You're... you're ...magnificent.*
Frieza's hand shot out.
A punch, desperate, wild, connected with Goku's stomach.
***BOOM.***
Force that could level cities.
Goku didn't move.
Didn't budge.
Didn't acknowledge.
Another punch. Another detonation. Another complete lack of response.
Again.
*Again.*
"Work," Frieza was wheezing. "Work, damn you. WORK!"
But it wasn't working.
Because the gap between them wasn't a gap.
It was an abyss.
Goku caught Frieza's next punch casually. His other hand gripped the tyrant's remaining horn.
"That all you got?"
Almost gentle.
"Disappointing."
He began to pull.
The sound Frieza made wasn't a scream.
It was worse.
A keen, primal, incoherent.
Goku was pulling. Horn one direction. Arm the other. Slowly. Deliberately.
Stretching.
Frieza's neck elongated. His shoulder separated. Skin began to tear.
"GHAAAAAAA—!"
"STOP—! STOP, YOU'LL RIP MY HEAD OFF—!"
Purple blood welled from the wounds. Tissue strained beyond natural limits.
"PLEASE! I BEG YOU!"
Frieza looked up.
Through agony, through terror, he looked into the eyes of his destroyer.
And saw nothing.
No rage. No satisfaction. No recognition of Frieza as anything other than a task to complete.
*Empty*.
Those dark eyes held absolutely nothing.
"You..." Frieza's voice dropped to a whisper. "You're going to kill me..."
His body started shaking.
"Without emotion. Without feeling. Just... just like..."
His eyes went wide with horrible understanding.
"Just like stepping on an ant."
Goku's expression didn't change.
Because Frieza was right.
"STOP!"
Frieza's scream broke the silence.
"STOP STOP STOP STOP—!"
His free hand pounded against Goku's chest. Each blow a detonation. Each impact ignored.
"I BEG YOU! I'LL DO ANYTHING! I'LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING!"
The skin of his neck was separating. Purple blood flowed freely.
"I'LL LEAVE! I'LL NEVER RETURN! YOU CAN HAVE THE SAIYANS! HAVE EVERYTHING!"
Goku's pulling continued. Unhurried. Unstoppable.
"PLEASE! I'VE NEVER BEGGED ANYONE! ISN'T MY HUMILIATION ENOUGH!?"
Tears streamed from Frieza's eyes.
The Terror of the Universe.
*Weeping.*
And Goku finally spoke.
"Why are you pleading?"
Smooth. Conversational.
"Aren't you clever enough to realize that doesn't work?"
Frieza's eyes went impossibly wide.
No mercy.
There was no mercy to *give*.
Goku wound up for the final pull—
Two impacts hit simultaneously.
King Cold from the left.
Cooler from the right.
Force like colliding planets. The combined might of the two remaining Cold family members, each strike targeting joints, pressure points, structural weaknesses.
Goku released Frieza.
Not from damage, the blows barely registered. But his grip loosened for a fraction of a second.
He flew backward, arms raised in guard, feet carving trenches before he stopped.
And looked.
King Cold and Cooler hovered above Frieza. Behind them, Frieza collapsed entirely, his broken body curling fetal as he processed how close he'd come to death.
"Enough."
King Cold's voice held no uncertainty now. Shock processed. Fear converted to fury.
"I cannot allow someone outside my family to kill a member of it. That is not how the universe works."
"Brother." Cooler's voice was sharp. "Stop playing around. Go full out."
Frieza looked up at his family.
Then forward at Goku.
Something shifted in his expression.
Shock became understanding.
Understanding became *humiliation*.
And humiliation—
"You..."
A whisper.
"You filthy..."
Growing.
"You filthy MONKEY!"
His body shook. Not fear. Not pain.
*Rage*.
"You made me BEG! ME! THE SUPREME BEING IN THE UNIVERSE! YOU MADE ME GROVEL!"
Purple aura exploded outward. Ground cracked. Rocks lifted and disintegrated.
"I WILL SHOW YOU YOUR PLACE!"
*My third form,* he thought desperately. *I could transform again, but...*
*It won't be enough.*
The realization was acid in his throat.
*Nothing less than my full power will suffice against this... this monster.*
"You're thinking about it, aren't you?"
Goku's voice cut through his calculations. The Saiyan stood ten meters away, arms crossed, that infuriating smile playing at his lips.
"Wondering if your next form will be enough. Running the numbers in your head."
He tilted his head slightly.
"Show me your best."
Frieza's pride wouldn't allow retreat.
And his survival instinct wouldn't allow half-measures.
His body began to shift, but not into the grotesque elongated form that served as his third transformation. He pushed past it, compressing, refining.
When it finished—
Sleek. Compact. Almost beautiful.
White and purple.
His face was smooth, nearly featureless. A domed skull like polished bone. Two red eyes burning with intelligence and rekindled confidence.
And his power—
"Forty-five million," Eve breathed, her senses straining. "Maybe fifty."
Her blood ran cold.
Father was sitting at five million. I felt it clearly. And now Frieza is…
"He's ten times stronger," Queen Vegeta said, voicing Eve's horror aloud. "That form has ten times the power."
Eve's hands trembled.
No. No, no, no. Even Dad's technique can't bridge that gap. You can't outskill someone with ten times your power, there are limits. At some point raw force overwhelms everything.
She watched Goku settle into his stance, that infuriating smirk still on his face.
*Dad... please tell me you have something. Please tell me you're not about to die trying to fight the impossible.*
*Please.*
The final form radiated power that exceeded Goku's own.
"Hohoho."
Frieza's voice was different now. Softer. More controlled. The rage and desperation processed into something colder. More dangerous.
"Sorry for losing my temper earlier."
He examined his own hand, flexing fingers that hummed with refined power.
"This is my true form. My perfect form." His red eyes found Goku's dark ones. "No more games, Saiyan. No more tricks. In this body, I am the pinnacle of evolution itself."
*Well, well.*
Goku studied the final form with genuine interest.
*Forty-five, fifty million?*
His expression didn't change, but internally, something like appreciation stirred.
*Now we're talking.*
"Impressive," he said aloud, rolling his shoulder casually. "You actually look like a threat now."
Frieza's eye twitched.
"I am a threat, you insufferable—"
"Prove it."
Frieza's fist blurred toward Goku's face.
*Fast.*
Goku's head tilted, two inches, no more. The fist passed close enough to ruffle his hair. He felt the displaced air kiss his cheek.
His counter was already in motion.
Palm strike to Frieza's exposed ribs. Not full power. Testing.
The impact echoed across the battlefield. Frieza's smooth white form bent around the blow, violet blood spraying from his mouth as he rocketed sideways.
*Solid,* Goku thought. *That form can actually take a hit.*
Frieza recovered mid-flight, spinning to face him, eyes blazing with fury and something else, something that might have been confusion.
"You—"
Goku was already there.
Knee driving toward Frieza's solar plexus.
The tyrant twisted, taking it on his hip instead. Still hurt. Still sent him skidding back through the air. But not the killing blow it should have been.
*Good reflexes too.*
Goku's smile widened.
*This might actually be fun.*
Frieza's tail whipped around, fast, vicious, aimed at Goku's throat.
He ducked under it, felt it pass over his scalp, used the opening to step inside Frieza's guard.
Elbow to the jaw.
Frieza's head snapped back. His body followed, spinning with the impact.
But his foot was already sweeping low, a counter even while stunned.
Goku hopped over it.
*There you go,* he thought. *Fight back. Make this interesting.*
Frieza's eyes found his as he recovered.
And stopped.
Because Goku was smiling.
Not the controlled smile from before. Something rawer. Hungrier. The smile of a predator who'd just realized his prey had claws.
"What—" Frieza started.
They exchanged twelve blows in the space of a heartbeat.
Frieza's jab, blocked.
Goku's counter—dodged.
Knee, elbow, palm, fist, tail, kick, each answered, each returned, each pushing both combatants to move faster, hit harder, think quicker.
To the watching Saiyans, it was beautiful.
Terrible and beautiful.
Two forces of nature colliding, separating, colliding again. Shockwaves rippling outward with every impact. The very air screaming from the violence being done to it.
Frieza's fist caught Goku across the cheek.
His head snapped sideways. Blood flew from his split lip, a thin arc of crimson that caught the light.
He turned back to Frieza.
*Still smiling.*
Wider now. Teeth showing. A thin line of red running down from the corner of his mouth.
"Good one," he said.
And his return strike caught Frieza in the exact same spot.
The tyrant's head snapped back. His blood joined the exchange, violet against Goku's crimson.
They separated.
Circled.
Frieza touched his cheek where a cut was forming. Looked at the purple on his fingertips with something like disbelief.
"You... you're actually keeping up with me."
"Keeping up?" Goku rolled his shoulder, that bloody smile never wavering. "I'm just getting warmed up."
He blurred forward.
Frieza was stronger.
He knew it. Goku knew it. Everyone watching knew it.
That final form held power that exceeded anything Goku was outputting, forty-five, maybe fifty million to Goku's apparent five. A gap that should have been insurmountable.
And yet.
Frieza's straight punch sailed past Goku's ear, so close he felt the heat of gathered ki, but Goku was already inside, already past it, his palm pressing against Frieza's elbow.
Subtle pressure. Redirected momentum.
The tyrant stumbled.
Before he could recover: one, two, three, liver, floating rib, temple. Each strike landing in the exact moment of maximum vulnerability.
Frieza crashed into the ground.
Rose immediately, but slower. Damage accumulating.
"This is wrong," he snarled, launching himself back at Goku. "Your power level is LOWER. I can FEEL it. How are you—"
Goku caught his desperate haymaker.
Their eyes met.
Goku's smile had blood in it now. His own blood, from that split lip, painting his teeth pink.
"Because I'm better than you."
He twisted. Threw.
Appeared above the tumbling tyrant.
Heel descending like judgment.
***BOOM.***
Something was wrong with the Saiyan.
Frieza realized it as he pulled himself from another crater, as he wiped violet blood from his eyes and looked up at his opponent.
The low-class monkey should have been exhausted. Should have been desperate. Fighting against power that exceeded his own, he should have been scrambling for any advantage, any opening, any chance at survival.
Instead, he looked... happy.
Not just happy.
*Excited.*
Goku descended slowly, that bloody smile wider than ever. His dark eyes gleamed with something that made Frieza's newly awakened survival instincts scream warnings.
"You know what I realized?" Goku said, almost conversationally. "Fighting you in those earlier forms... it was boring. Like sparring with children. No challenge. No growth. Just... empty."
He touched his split lip, looked at the blood on his fingers with something approaching affection.
"But this? This final form of yours?" His smile showed all his teeth. "You actually made me bleed, Frieza. Do you have any idea how long it's been since someone managed that?"
Frieza felt cold spread through his chest.
*He's insane,* he realized. *He's completely insane.*
"You... you're enjoying this."
"Enjoying it?" Goku laughed, a genuine, delighted sound that echoed across the silent battlefield. "I'm savoring it. Every exchange. Every blow. The way your technique crumbles when you get frustrated. The look in your eyes when you realize power alone isn't enough."
He dropped into a fighting stance, blood still running down his chin.
"Come on, Emperor. Show me more. Make me work for it."
Frieza attacked.
Every ounce of power in his final form, thrown at the monster wearing a Saiyan's face.
A punch with everything behind it, fifty million units of force concentrated into a single strike.
Goku's palm met it.
Stopped it.
Their eyes locked. Inches apart.
"He's... he's playing with him."
Fasha's voice was barely a whisper, but in the terrible silence of the battlefield, it carried.
"Look at his face," Toma breathed. "The more Frieza hits him, the more he smiles."
They watched Goku pursue the tumbling tyrant, watched him intercept Frieza's desperate counter with casual ease, watched him deliver another combination that painted the sky with violet blood.
That smile.
That bloody, joyful, terrifying smile.
"He's not just stronger," Princess Vegeta said slowly, something complex moving behind her eyes. "He's... he's enjoying breaking him."
Queen Vegeta said nothing.
But her tail had unwrapped from her waist.
Was swaying behind her with something that wasn't fear.
*What kind of creature fights like that?* she thought, watching Goku catch Frieza's tail-strike and *swing* him into the ground like a child's toy. *What kind of warrior smiles while covered in blood? What kind of male looks MORE dangerous the more damage he takes?*
Her cheeks felt warm.
*No doubt about it… a real Saiyan…*
---
Frieza knelt in the ruins of his own impact crater.
Blood poured from a dozen wounds. His smooth white form, that perfect final design, was cracked and broken. His breathing came in ragged.
And above him, Goku descended.
His own wounds were minor by comparison, a split lip, a gash across his cheek, some bruising. Nothing that dampened the satisfaction radiating from every line of his body.
"Is that all?" he asked, and his voice was almost *disappointed*. "Is that everything your final form can do?"
Frieza looked up at him.
And for the first time in his existence, the Emperor of the Universe felt truly, utterly helpless.
"What are you?" he whispered.
Goku tilted his head, considered the question.
"Right now? I'm the guy who's about to end your dynasty."
His hand rose. Ki gathered, beautiful, deadly.
"Any last words?"
"WAIT!"
Frieza's scream cracked with desperation.
"Wait, please, I surrender! You've won! Just let me go—I'll never return—I'll leave this sector of the galaxy entirely—"
Goku's ki continued gathering. Unhurried. Inevitable.
"PLEASE! I'll give you anything! Planets! Armies! My entire Force! Just—"
"Not interested."
"I'LL SERVE YOU! I'll kneel! I'll call you emperor! Whatever you want, just—"
"Also not interested."
The ki sphere pulsed, nearly ready.
Frieza's eyes went wild with terror. His gaze darted upward, to where his family still hovered, watching.
"FATHER! BROTHER! HELP ME! PLEASE!"
King Cold moved first.
The patriarch of the Cold dynasty had been watching. Calculating. Assessing this impossible Saiyan who had dismantled his son through skill alone.
He'd been hoping intervention wouldn't be necessary.
That hope died with Frieza's screams.
"NOW!"
Two impacts hit simultaneously.
King Cold from above, a hammer blow.
Cooler from the side, precision incarnate, targeting joints, the structural weaknesses that his analytical mind had identified throughout the battle.
The combined assault caught Goku in the moment before his finishing attack. His concentration shattered. The ki sphere dissipated.
He rocketed backward, arms raised in a hasty guard that absorbed the worst of it, but not all.
*Fast,* he acknowledged, skidding to a stop, tasting blood from where his lip had split. *Coordinated.*
The Cold Family stood reunited.
King Cold and Cooler flanking their kneeling brother. Three pairs of eyes fixed on the Saiyan who had dared challenge their supremacy.
Frieza, still trembling, managed to rise. His wounds weren't healed, but desperation and the presence of his family had restored something of his composure.
"You..." His voice shook with barely contained emotion, relief and rage in equal measure. "You should have killed me when you had the chance."
Goku wiped blood from his lip.
"Maybe."
That smile again.
"But where's the fun in that?"
"Enough games," King Cold rumbled, his massive form radiating power that made Frieza's final form look modest by comparison. "You've proven yourself capable, Saiyan. I'll grant you that much. But now you face the entire Cold dynasty."
"Together," Cooler added, settling into a combat stance. "As it should have been from the start."
Goku's eyes moved between them. Calculating. Assessing.
*King Cold, probably around 60 million. Maybe more. Cooler's maybe above, but not by much. And Frieza's still got fight in him, even damaged.*
*Three on one. Combined power somewhere around two or three hundred million… and maybe they are not in full power*
*Against my forty.*
His smile didn't waver.
*This might actually be a problem.*
"Together," King Cold commanded.
They moved as one.
---
The beating began.
King Cold pressed with overwhelming force, each blow carrying enough power to shatter moons, his massive frame giving him reach.
Cooler exploited every opening. Where his father was overwhelming force, Cooler was surgical precision, strikes targeting tendons, joints, nerve clusters. He'd clearly studied Goku's technique throughout the battle and was applying that knowledge with ruthless efficiency.
And Frieza, damaged but driven by wounded pride, harried from every angle. His final form had lost its composed elegance, replaced by savage desperation. Each attack carried the weight of humiliation, of tears shed, of begging that would haunt him for eternity.
Together, they were devastating.
Goku blocked King Cold's strike—
Cooler's kick caught his ribs. Bone cracked.
He twisted away from Cooler's follow-up—
Frieza's ki blast caught him in the back, searing through armor.
He attempted a counter against the smallest target—
King Cold's massive fist drove him into the ground hard enough to crater stone.
*Damn,* he thought, forcing himself up, *this is going to be rough.*
"I have to help him."
Princess Vegeta's voice cracked as she watched Goku take another combination that sent him crashing through a rock formation. Her body was tensed, ki already gathering, every instinct screaming at her to move.
"No."
Queen Vegeta's hand caught her daughter's wrist. Firm. Unyielding.
"Mother—!"
"You'll die."
The words were blunt. Brutal. True.
"Look at them, Vegeta. look." Queen Vegeta's eyes never left the battle. "King Cold alone is beyond anything we can touch. And there are three of them. If you go out there, you won't help him. You'll just give them another hostage. Another tool to use against him."
"So we just watch!?" Princess Vegeta's voice climbed toward hysteria. "We just stand here while they—while Master—"
"Yes."
The single word was agony.
"Because that's all we can do."
Princess Vegeta's composure shattered. Her eyes burned with tears she refused to shed, her fists clenched so tight blood dripped from her palms.
*Master,* she thought desperately. *Master, please...*
And then a hand touched her shoulder.
Eve.
The other girl, the mysterious fighter who had appeared alongside Goku, who shared his techniques and his impossible calm, was smiling.
"It's okay," Eve said softly. "Have faith in him."
"How can you—" Princess Vegeta's voice broke. "How can you smile while he's—"
"Because I know him."
Eve's eyes found her father's distant figure, watched him rise from another devastating combination, watched him spit blood and raise his fists again.
"I know what he's capable of. What he's really capable of." Her smile widened. "This isn't over. Not even close. He's been hiding something this entire fight."
"Hiding something?" Queen Vegeta's sharp gaze snapped to Eve. "What do you mean?"
"Just watch."
Eve's certainty was absolute. Unshakeable.
"He'll show you. When the moment is right, he'll show everyone."
Princess Vegeta stared at her for a long moment. Then, slowly, her trembling eased. Her breathing steadied.
*Master...*
She turned back to the battle, watching Goku take another blow that would have killed anyone else.
*I don't know what secret you're keeping. But if she believes in you that strongly...*
Her jaw set with determination, arms crossing over her chest.
*Then I suppose I have no choice but to believe too, don't I?*
Another combination from all three Cold family members sent Goku crashing into the ground.
The crater was visible from the upper atmosphere now, a wound in the planet's surface that spoke to the sheer violence being unleashed.
He got up.
Slower this time..
"Persistent," King Cold observed, almost impressed. "I'll grant you that, Saiyan. Most beings would have surrendered by now."
"Surrendered?" Goku spat blood, that infuriating smile somehow still in place. "We're just getting started."
"Your bravado is meaningless." Cooler's voice was cold. Analytical. "Your technique is remarkable, I acknowledge that. Against any one of us individually, you might have prevailed. But against all three?"
He shook his head.
"The mathematics don't lie. You cannot win this."
"Brother's right," Frieza added, his earlier terror transformed into vicious satisfaction. "How does it feel, Saiyan? To be so close to victory only to have it torn away? To know that all your skill, all your mastery, amounts to nothing against superior numbers?"
Goku's smile didn't waver.
*They're not wrong,* he thought clinically, even as he prepared to receive their next assault. *Three on one against opponents who've clearly fought together before. The coordination alone makes this nearly impossible.*
*Nearly.*
They descended again.
More blows. More damage. More blood staining the shattered earth.
King Cold's fist caught him across the jaw, spinning him into Cooler's knee strike. Before he could recover, Frieza's tail wrapped around his throat, holding him in place for a devastating combination from all three.
He hit the ground hard enough to bounce.
Got up.
Took another combination.
Got up.
*Again.*
"WHY WON'T YOU STAY DOWN!?" Frieza shrieked, his composure cracking again.
Goku spat blood. Laughed.
"Because I haven't shown you everything yet."
—
"He's not done."
Princess Vegeta's head snapped toward Eve. "What?"
"Look at him." Eve's eyes never left her father's battered form. "Really look. He's taking hits that would kill anyone else."
Another combination sent Goku crashing through a rock formation.
"But he's not done!"
Queen Vegeta's sharp gaze found Eve's face. Found the certainty there, absolute, unshakeable.
"You know something," the Queen said slowly. "You speak as if you know the outcome."
Eve's throat tightened.
She remembered being small. Curled against her mother's side, tail wrapped around the Queen's wrist, fighting sleep because she wanted *one more story*.
*"Tell me about Father again."*
*"Again? I've told you a hundred times."*
*"Please, Mama. Please."*
And her mother would smile, that soft, distant smile she only wore when speaking of him, and her voice would drop into something tender. Reverent.
*"Your father was the strongest warrior I ever knew. Fearless."*
*"Was he ever scared?"*
*"Never. Not once. Fear didn't know how to touch him."*
Her mother's eyes would go distant then. Soft with memory. Burning with a love that decades hadn't dimmed.
*"Especially then. He was... magnificent."*
"I just... know," Eve managed, her voice thick.
Queen Vegeta studied her with sharp, questioning eyes. The same eyes that would one day look at a little girl with such warmth. The same voice that would tell stories of a legendary warrior until that little girl believed in him.
"That's not an answer."
Eve watched her father rise yet again. Eyes bright with confidence.
*You were right, Mother.*
*Everything you told me. Every story. Every word.*
*He's exactly what you said he was.*
"He's not losing," she whispered. "He can't lose. This isn't how it ends."
*Because you told me, Mama. You told me he saved us all.*
*And I believed you.*
*I still believe you.*