Krillin cut through the sky, clutching Dende tightly as they flew low over the Namekian terrain to keep their energy signatures hidden and from being seen. Behind them, Nail's power level was dropping drastically under Frieza's ruthless onslaught, but his sacrifice had bought them the exact window of time they needed.
"How much further, Krillin?" Dende asked, his small fingers dug into Krillin's battle armor as the wind whipped past them.
"We're almost there!" Krillin called back, his heart pounding against his ribs. "Hold on tight!"
Back at Frieza's ship, the air was tense. Escallion stood like a dark statue near the ramp, his arms crossed over his chest plate, sharp eyes scanning the horizon. Vegeta paced nearby, his fresh navy-and-white armor gleaming in the sunlight, his boots crunching angrily against the soil every time he turned.
"Where is that bald idiot?!" Vegeta growled, flexing his gloved fists. "If Frieza finishes off whatever distraction is keeping him busy, he'll be back here in seconds!"
"Control your impatience, Vegeta," Escallion said, his voice smooth and cold. "They are approaching now."
A second later, two small figures crested the nearby ridge. Krillin and Dende touched down on the green grass right beside the cluster of seven giant, orange Dragon Balls.
Gohan burst out of the ship's airlock, his face lighting up. "Krillin! Dende! You made it!"
"No time for greetings!" Vegeta barked, shoving his way past Gohan and stepping right up to the small Namekian, towering over him with a terrifying glare. "Listen to me, brat! Speak the password and summon the Dragon right now, or I'll blow you to pieces!"
Dende shrank back, startled by Vegeta's sudden aggression, but Escallion stepped smoothly between them, his towering form blocking Vegeta from the boy.
"Back off, Prince," Escallion commanded, his eyes narrowing.
"Terrorizing the child will only slow us down. He is the only reason we can access the Dragon Balls."
Vegeta gritted his teeth, letting out a sharp growl, but stepped back a pace, crossing his arms in bitter silence.
Dende looked up at Escallion with a quiet nod of gratitude before turning his attention to the seven glowing spheres resting in the dirt. Stepping into the center of the arrangement, Dende spread his arms wide toward the sky and began to chant in the ancient Namekian tongue:
"Takkarapupt poporunga pupiritt paro!"
For a moment, there was absolute stillness.
Then, the sky above Namek rapidly darkened, turning from a soft green hue into pitch black. Lightning cracked across the heavy clouds as the seven Dragon Balls began to surge with blinding, golden energy.
A massive beam of light shot straight out of the spheres into the dark sky, swirling into the gigantic, muscular silhouette of Porunga, the Eternal Dragon of Namek. His crimson eyes glowed intensely as a deep, rumbling voice echoed across the plains, speaking entirely in the heavy, resonant syllables of the Namekian tongue.
"ZA-TOMA LUN-TI KA-DOR SA-LA-TOS..." Porunga's voice boomed, shaking the earth beneath their boots.
Krillin blinked, looking frantically down at the small child. "Dende! What's he saying?!"
Dende quickly translated, looking up at the group with wide eyes. "He says: 'I am Porunga, the Dragon of Dreams. Tell me your three wishes, and they shall be granted.'"
"Three wishes?!" Krillin gasped, his eyes widening. "Wait, we get three wishes?!"
Vegeta's face twisted into a triumphant, manic grin as he stepped forward, his boots kicking up dust. "Three wishes... PERFECT! First, make me immortal! Then we can use the other two to deal with Frieza!"
"Wait!" Gohan called out, stepping toward Dende. "We need to bring Piccolo back first! If Piccolo comes back to life, Earth's Dragon Balls will return, and we can bring everyone else back too!"
"Are you insane, brat?!" Vegeta shouted, turning on Gohan with flared nostrils. "If I am not immortal, NONE of us survive Frieza! Tell the dragon to give me eternal life NOW!"
Before Vegeta could push further, Krillin stepped up beside Dende, his expression settling into sudden, sharp determination as he took control of the situation.
"Shut up for a second, Vegeta!" Krillin snapped, turning quickly to Dende. "Dende, tell the Dragon our first wish: bring Piccolo back to life! He died on Earth fighting the Saiyans, but if he's resurrected, Earth's Dragon Balls come back, and that means we can bring back Tien, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu later!"
Dende nodded eagerly, turning back toward the towering dragon and shouting out the wish in fluent Namekian.
Porunga's crimson eyes flashed, and Dende quickly translated the dragon's response: "He says the first wish is granted! And for the second wish?"
"Tell him to transport Piccolo directly here to Namek!" Krillin continued rapidly, gesturing toward the horizon. "We're going to need his strength to fight Frieza, and he knows this planet!"
Dende nodded again, shouting the second command in his native tongue.
"That leaves us with one final wish," Escallion noted coldly, his gaze cutting toward the distant clouds. "And you had better make it fast. Frieza has just realized Nail was stalling him, and his energy is heading straight back to this ship at blinding speed."
Before Dende could translate or speak the third wish, the towering figure of Porunga began to flicker violently. The massive dragon let out a low, mournful roar that resonated through the earth, his vibrant green form dissolving into a blinding flash of white light.
The beam shot backward, collapsing directly into the seven Dragon Balls resting in the dirt. The sky regained its familiar shine. And with a series of dull, heavy thuds, the glowing orange spheres turned into lifeless, cracked grey stone.
"No!" Krillin gasped, falling to his knees as he stared at the inert rocks. "What happened?! Why did they stop?!"
"The Grand Elder..." Dende whispered, tears instantly brimming in his eyes as he clutched his chest. "His life force... it just faded. He's gone."
"YOU FOOLS!" Vegeta roared, his blood running hot as his aura burst outward, cracking the ground beneath his fresh boots. He lunged forward, grabbing Dende by the collar of his shirt and lifting the small Namekian off the ground. "You blew it! My immortality, GONE!"
Escallion's hand snapped out like a vice, clamping onto Vegeta's wrist with enough force to make the prince's jaw tighten. "Let the boy go, Vegeta. Blaming him will not alter reality."
"Get your hands off me, Escallion!" Vegeta snarled, though he released Dende, who stumbled back behind Gohan.
"Look up," Escallion said, his voice dropping into a chilling, absolute stillness. "Our time has run out."
High above them, cutting straight through the clouds, a single, terrifying streak of purple and white energy tore across the sky. The sheer force of the pressure parted the air itself, kicking up a hurricane of wind that flattened the grass and sent dust swirling around the ship.
Frieza hovered in the air directly above them.
His eyes were cold, narrowed, and brimming with a quiet, murderous rage that made the very atmosphere feel like lead. His white-and-purple skin was spotless, save for a few specks of blood on his foot, Nail's blood.
He looked down at the dull, grey stones in the dirt, then at Dende, then at Escallion, Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta, all standing together in matching imperial Frieza Force armor.
A slow, terrifying smile spread across Frieza's face, though his eyes remained entirely dead.
"So..." Frieza's voice purred, echoing softly across the empty plains, each word dripping with lethal venom. "My Dragon Balls have been rendered useless. My top elite soldiers are dead. And my own armor is being worn by traitorous Saiyan monkeys and earthling rats."
Frieza slowly descended, his bare feet touching the grass without making a sound. Seeing the tyrant, Dende hid behind Gohan and Krillin.
"I must admit," Frieza continued softly, folding his hands behind his back as his tail flicked menacingly. "You've all played your little game quite well. But play time is over. I am going to make sure every single one of you suffers a death so excruciating, it will be remembered for ten thousand years."
Vegeta let out a dark, booming laugh that cut right through the suffocating tension, stepping forward with his hands resting cockily on his hips.
"Step aside, all of you," Vegeta sneered, his eyes burning with intense, manic confidence as he stared down the tyrant. "I've waited years for this moment. Frieza is mine."
"When ants battle a dinosaur, who do you think is going to win?" Frieza folded his hands behind his back, looking down at Vegeta with an amused, patronizing sneer.
"Take a good look at us, Frieza," Vegeta taunted, his grin widening, "Escallion possesses a hidden power greater than he even knows, and as for me... I am becoming the thing you fear most: the legendary Super Saiyan!"
"Do you truly expect me to take such desperate boasts at face value?" Frieza purred coldly. "I've heard enough of your pathetic lies!"
"I guess you'll find out!" Vegeta growled.
With a sudden explosive surge of Ki, Vegeta powered up, his aura erupting violently and cracking the ground beneath his boots. He charged straight at Frieza, locking both hands with the tyrant in a fierce power lockup.
The atmospheric pressure spiked instantly. The two roared as their clashing energies radiated across the plains, creating a crushing shockwave that tore through the stone terrain.
To everyone's shock, Vegeta held his ground completely. The Saiyan prince gritted his teeth, pushing back against Frieza's tremendous force with equal weight. Veins bulged along Vegeta's arms as he poured everything into the clash, slowly forcing Frieza's arms back. Frieza's smirk faltered slightly, his crimson eyes widening in genuine surprise as he struggled to overpower the Saiyan.
With a final, joint burst of power, both fighters broke the grapple, the sheer force of their detached energy throwing them backward across the dirt.
Vegeta landed heavily on his boots, his chest heaving as a fierce, triumphant grin spread across his face. He wiped a streak of sweat from his forehead, looking over at Frieza, whose tail flicked in sudden, tense irritation.
"Maybe..." Krillin whispered in awe, watching the dust settle, "If we all fight together, we might actually stand a chance of beating him."
Frieza brushed off his armor, his eyes narrowing to cold slits. "How quaint," the tyrant murmured, his voice laced with a lethal edge. "I see there was a small grain of truth in your assertions after all."
Vegeta flexed his gloved fingers, misinterpreting the struggle as proof that Frieza was at his absolute limit. "See?!" Vegeta barked back at Escallion. "Frieza is nothing for me."
Escallion's sharp eyes remained locked on Frieza. "I hope you are right, Vegeta."
Frieza's composure finally shattered, his face contorting into an unhinged, violent scowl. His blood-red eyes bulged as he screamed at the top of his lungs, the sheer magnitude of his rage causing the sky to pulse and tremble. "You...."
"I HATE YOU!" Frieza shrieked, his voice cracking with pure venom. "You miserable worms! You ruined it! You ruined my chance at eternal life!"
Vegeta stood his ground, a cold sneer on his lips as he crossed his gloved arms over his ribbed chest plate. "Save your screaming, Frieza. Consider this my formal resignation from your pathetic empire."
Beside him, Escallion didn't even blink. His dark eyes locked onto the tyrant with total, icy apathy as he stood motionless in the wind. "And mine," Escallion added smoothly, his calm demeanor carrying a quiet, dangerous weight. "Your reign over us ends today."
Frieza's chest heaved, his scouter flashing erratically before he forced a dark, twisted grin back onto his face. "Is that so? I hope you've all thoroughly enjoyed your little rebellion... because it ends here."
Frieza began to power up, a blinding aura erupting from his body. The sheer pressure of his energy fractured the earth, creating massive fault lines that ripped through the stone cliffs around them.
Vegeta gritted his teeth, crouching down in a crevice as the tremors shook the canyon floor. "He's coming!" he growled.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Krillin gestured frantically to Gohan behind a rock formation. "Gohan, look! We've got to attack him while he's still distracted, okay? It might be the only chance we get!"
"Right! Let's do it!" Gohan agreed, his small face hardening with determination.
Frieza suddenly thrust his arm out, firing a rapid barrage of lethal pink energy blasts across the field. Explosions detonated in blinding waves of smoke and fire, obliterating mountains and tearing the terrain to shreds.
Krillin and Gohan leapt into action, firing back with simultaneous ki blasts from their hands, trying to cut through the smoke and catch the emperor off guard. But Frieza casually swept his arm, effortlessly deflecting their attacks and detonating another explosive wave that blew both of them backward.
Vegeta charged in through the blinding dust storm, unleashing a furious volley of energy blasts straight at Frieza's position. Smoke billowed into the dark sky, but as the dust cleared, Frieza emerged completely untouched, his cold aura shimmering brightly.
Krillin stumbled back beside Gohan and Dende, trembling as sweat poured down his face. "He's... he's too strong!" Krillin panted, his voice trembling with sheer terror. "I don't think we can win! What are we going to do?!"
"I... I don't know..." Gohan stammered, staring in utter disbelief.
Frieza looked over at the trembling group, a sickening, sadistic smirk spreading across his face as his red eyes gleamed behind his scouter.
"Well... I do," Frieza purred softly, his voice echoing through the ruined canyon with absolute malice. "You are all going to perish... and it won't be pretty."
Vegeta let out a cold, mocking laugh, stepping over the fractured earth as he crossed his arms over his chest plate.
"What's the matter, Frieza?" Vegeta sneered, his eyes narrowing. "Are you going to keep hiding behind that little body of yours, or are you finally going to transform? Don't tell me you thought your secret was going to stay safe forever."
Frieza stopped in his tracks. His red eyes widened slightly before a dark, knowing smile slowly spread across his face. "So... you found out, did you? How clever of you, Vegeta."
His body began to swell slightly, his armour shattering into pieces as he charged, his height expanding by an inch or two as his aura flickered.
Vegeta didn't look impressed. He let out a loud, arrogant scoff. "So who do you think you're fooling? You grew two inches and got rid of your armor! You call that a transformation?!"
Frieza sighed softly, shaking his head with a look of theatrical disappointment. "Oh, Vegeta... it pains me to see you behaving this way. What a waste. I had favored you so much. Why couldn't you just have continued to obey me?"
"Obey?!" Vegeta spat, his jaw tightening. "I only pretended to obey you, you idiot! I've been waiting patiently for any chance I could get to destroy you once and for all!"
"Yes... you're just like your father, aren't you?" Frieza purred coldly.
"How absurd!" Vegeta shouted back, stepping closer. "You were afraid of the Saiyans, so you destroyed our entire race along with our whole planet! And yet, you left the strongest one alive! You fool, this is one mistake you're going to pay dearly for!"
Frieza's composure shattered, his teeth bared in pure hatred. "Why, you insolent tree monkey! I've had enough of this! You're the one who's going to pay!"
"Talk! All you are is a bunch of talk!" Vegeta taunted.
"Allow me to show you something that not even your father saw in his lifetime!" Frieza roared.
Frieza threw his arms wide, planting his bare feet into the ground. A sudden, violent surge of crimson energy erupted from his body, creating a towering column of light that split the dark clouds in the sky. The air turned scorching hot, and the ground beneath their boots shattered into millions of jagged pieces as the shockwave swept across the entire continent.
Vegeta's cocky smile instantly vanished. Beside him, Krillin and Gohan stumbled backward, shielding their faces from the blinding pressure, while Escallion stood unmoving, his dark eyes fixed on the growing light.
Inside the storm of blood-red Ki, Frieza's body began to mutate violently. His muscles swelled, expanding to immense proportions. His skull elongated backward, and the two black horns on his head curled upward into massive, lethal spears.
With a final, ear-splitting roar, Frieza blew the energy aura wide open, revealing his massive, monstrous second form towering over the battlefield.
"Unbelievable..." Krillin whimpered, his knees shaking uncontrollably as cold sweat poured down his face. "Absolute madness... It was nice knowing you, Gohan."
"Yeah..." Gohan stammered, paralyzed by the sheer nightmare standing before them. "So long..."
Frieza looked down at the trembling group from his tremendous height, a terrifying, deep chuckle rumbling in his massive chest as his tail whipped through the air.
As his crimson eyes locked onto Vegeta and Escallion, a sharp, distant memory flickered in his mind, a vision from decades ago, drowned in the oppressive gloom of Planet Vegeta.
Twenty-three years ago. The Royal Palace on Planet Vegeta.
The heavy stone doors of the grand throne room had swung open, filling the hall with the low, hum of elite Saiyan guards. King Vegeta stood near the center, flanked by his highest-ranking general, Escallion's father, Bramich, a battle-hardened, scar-faced Saiyan commander whose dark eyes mirrored his son's cold, absolute apathy.
Frieza had strolled into the hall in his first form, ignoring every traditional formality. Without waiting for an invitation, the tyrant stepped up the stone dais, turned, and casually took a seat directly on King Vegeta's throne. He rested his chin on his palm, leaning back with a sickening, lazy arrogance, his tail flicking against the velvet armrest.
"My Lord," King Vegeta had said, his fists clenched so tightly behind his back that his gauntlets creaked under the strain. "The vanguard is assembled. We await your briefing for the conquest of Planet Kanassa."
"Oh, quiet down, King Vegeta," Frieza had purred, his voice laced with boredom as he raised a single finger. "I didn't come here to discuss strategy. I came to address a... rumor. A rather pathetic little rumor about a rising to challenge me."
The room had gone dead silent. King Vegeta and the General exchanged a fraction of a second's glance, a slip in their composure that Frieza caught instantly.
"I see it in your eyes," Frieza sighed, his red eyes gleaming with cruel delight. "You actually believed you could organize a foolish little mutiny, didn't you?"
Before the King or the General could draw breath or raise their Ki, Frieza moved.
He didn't even leave the throne. With a flick of his wrist, a thin, blinding red death beam shot from his index finger, drilling straight through King Vegeta's chest plate. The King gasped, blood erupting from his mouth as he collapsed onto the stone floor, dead before he hit the ground.
Escallion's father roared, his aura exploding outward as he drew his hand back to strike the tyrant down. But Frieza merely tilted his head, thrusting his palm out. A swirling orb of pink energy engulfed the General instantly, disintegrating him into ash where he stood, scorching the royal carpet and leaving only a blackened crater beside the throne.
Frieza had casually dusted off his shoulder, looking down at the two smoldering corpses of the Saiyan leaders with an amused scoff.
"Insolent monkeys... to think I tolerated you for so long."
Back in the present, Frieza's heavy tail snapped violently against the Namekian dirt, bringing him out of the memory. He looked down at the two orphaned Saiyan survivors wearing identical scowls below him.
"How poetic," Frieza growled, his deep, transformed voice echoing like thunder across the barren plain. "Your fathers made the same mistake twenty-three years ago... thinking their pride could alter their insignificance. And I snuffed out both of their lives without ever leaving my seat."
A dark, lethal grin spread across Frieza's giant face. "Today, I'll finish what I started on Planet Vegeta, and wipe you Saiyans off the face of the universe!"