Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Bite ❯ 15 ( Chapter 15 )

The Bite---Chapter 15

By Elbereth in April

Kakkarot was outmatched, and he knew it. Oh, he was good, he was undoubtedly good. And now that he'd gone Super Saiyan, he could beat Nasu and Radditz easily. But now Vegeta and Trunks were before him, Super Saiyan as well. What he needed was an edge. He couldn't think of one.

"Fire and Smoke!" he heard Nasu cry, and something exploded against his side. When the smoke cleared, he saw Vegeta's fist, just centimeters from his eyes. He flinched back, but Vegeta hit him anyway, and he flew backwards into Trunks, who pinned his arms behind him.

Kakkarot snarled, power rising and bursting around him. Trunks had to slip up to Super Saiyan 2 to hold him. Then an energy blast from Goku ripped into Trunks' back and they both fell to the ground. Trunks lay still, and Kakkarot sprang up, grinning.

Hito threw himself against Goku then, keeping him too busy for further help. But Kakkarot's confidence had returned. He threw a kamehameha at Radditz, stunning him, and propelling him through several more trees.

< "We'll take you out one by one, piece by piece, if we have to," > Kakkarot told Vegeta.

Completely exasperated, Vegeta finally got to say what he'd been wanting to say all day. "Would you just shut up?" And then, "Big Bang Attack!"

Kakkarot managed to dodge, and the attack left a huge crater in the ground. Nasu darted in behind him and hit him with handfuls of ki in rapid succession, knocking him forward and rattling his teeth. By this time Radditz had picked himself back up, and launched himself at Kakkarot with a one-two punch. Kakkarot was caught between the double whammy of the attacks. Then both Saiyans fell away so Vegeta could fire his Gallic Gun.

When the smoke cleared this time, Kakkarot was panting, blood streaming from his forehead, holding his arm. He quickly glanced over to Goku, who was Super Saiyan 2, fighting lazily with his sons, who were both level 2 as well.

"Goku! Stop playing! Get serious!" he snapped.

Goku scowled and looked at him, but nodded. He turned back to his sons to be greeted by a double kamehameha, and another Big Bang Attack from a Level 2 Hito.

Vegeta plowed into Kakkarot again, kicking him in the side, then grabbing him by the injured arm, spinning him around, and throwing him into the crater, enlarging it.

Kakkarot groaned and tried to get up. "Final Flash!" he heard, and the energy hit him, burning him before he managed to block.

He pushed himself up to his elbows. Goku and Hito had faced off, and were fighting with dazzling martial arts moves. Both their forms were perfect, and neither one seemed to be able to get an advantage.

He sensed movement to his right and looked over to see Trunks slowly standing up. The four young Saiyans moved to stand by one another in a row. Vegeta nodded, and each gave a shout, releasing an attack.

The power slammed into him, knocking him back again. The ground fell away beneath him and rock fell on top of him. He was buried underneath the rubble.

Vegeta glanced over at each of the others. Radditz and Nasu were looking drained, and Trunks was severely bruised, but they were all holding up.

He tried to force himself to relax his tense muscles and calm down but his heart was beating triple-time. This was it. This was the battle for everything. His friends' lives and his own soul. They could not lose it. And he couldn't stop his heart from hammering and his stomach from churning so much he had to consciously will himself not to be ill.

"Is he alive?" Nasu asked.

"It'll take more than that, I'm afraid," Trunks replied, just as the rocks were flung upward, and Kakkarot rose into the air with a blaze of energy, eyes narrowed, tail bristling. And smirking.

He'd thought of an edge.

Kakkarot raised his hands. This would have to be timed just right. "Solar flare!" he screamed, and a bright light burst before their eyes.

The four Saiyans cried out in pain and closed their eyelids tight, unable to see.

Kakkarot raised his hand again. "And here's a little trick I learned from my father. . ." This globe of light wasn't nearly as bright; in fact, it was more like moon-light. And it was meant to be stared at.

Kakkarot stared. For a moment he was aware of his breathing and his heartbeat above all else, then there was only the light. His eyes began to glow red. . . his shape began to change. Golden fur sprouted on his body. . .

Now he towered above them in Super Oozaru form. He swiftly reached down and grabbed a still blinded Trunks in one hand, and Nasu and Radditz in the other. With one firey blast from his mouth, he knocked Goten and Gohan to the ground.

Goku and Hito paused in their fight, staring at him. Yamcha, Krillin, Tien, and Piccolo swallowed hard and unconsciously took a few steps back.

Kakkarot laughed maliciously as he began to squeeze the Saiyans in his hands, feeling bones break. Trunks was struggling.

Vegeta blinked, trying to get his eyes to clear enough to see something besides white and yellow spots. A dazed Gohan had landed nearly on top of him. Goten was trying hard to get back up to help Trunks.

Vegeta shook his head one more time and finally could see again. Krillin had just released an energy disk, trying to cut off Kakkarot's tail. Kakkarot stepped aside hastily. "None of that," he growled.

Goku laughed and abruptly powered up to Super Saiyan 3. He swooped in and took out Krillin, Yamcha, and Tien with one energy wave. As Hito and Piccolo dived for him, he grabbed Goten by the hair, threw him in the air, and sent another ki blast after him. He screamed, and fell back to the ground.

"Goten!" Gohan cried.

Piccolo shoved Gohan back. "We can't beat him. Stay out of his way."

Hito was on Goku then, throwing punches and blasts and kicks. Goku was grinning as he fought back.

Vegeta noticed all this vaguely, as his attention never really left Kakkarot. Kakkarot, who was still slowly crushing his best friends to death.

"Fire and Smoke," he whispered. Kakkarot howled as his fur caught fire and smoke obscured his vision. Vegeta shot up into the air and blew away the false moonlight, being careful not to look at it too long himself. The smoke helped. He wasn't going to tear up the whole planet by fighting oozaru, and neither was Kakkarot. The smoke cleared. Kakkarot looked around. . .

And shrank down, losing his fur, collapsing out of his monkey form, and losing his hold on the other Saiyans, who fell to the ground, gasping for breath and trying not to black out.

"Come on, Kakkarot," Vegeta said clearly. "You and me. Let's go."

Kakkarot looked up. He smirked. "Let's."

"Big. . ."

"Kame. . ."

"Bang. . ."

"Hame. . ."

"Attack!"

"Ha!"

Their energy bolts met across the clearing, as they faced each other about eight feet apart. Put in a little more. . . a little more. . .

Back and forth. . .

The ground crumbled and fell away in between them. Sparks crackled as their auras flared wildly, energy pouring out and pulsating all around them.

Through the criss-crossing electricity, their eyes met. Kakkarot smiled. < "Come on, Vegeta. . . you know it'll be good. It will." >

They stared at one another. Vegeta felt Kakkarot's mental fingers stroking at his mind, trying to find a way in. The bite mark burned. . .

< "It's inevitable, Vegeta. Let me in. . ." >

The pain of his body, the pain of his mind. . . Frieza openly laughing at him and tormenting him, and Kakkarot always watching in the shadows, watching, waiting, probing. The feel of Kakkarot's teeth, sinking into his shoulder, the bite exploding through his mind, ripping away his barriers and shields, Kakkarot inside his mind, the feel of him lapping up his secrets, sucking up his very being.

He shuddered, remembering. It had been bad. It was bad enough.

But now. . .

Seeing Kakkarot almost crush his only friends to death. And Goku was slowly beating up Hito. If he stayed evil, who knew what he would do?. . . `Goku's been looking at him sort of hungry-like.'

It was enough. It was too much. It *would* stop. He would *not* hurt the others, too.

Vegeta's eyes narrowed suddenly, causing Kakkarot's eyes to widen. Vegeta's eyes blazed forth with burning, intense hatred, focusing all his anger and pain on his enemy before him. And his ki flared up, up, to Super Saiyan 2.

And his energy beam suddenly cut right through Kakkarot's, and into Kakkarot, sending him flying. Vegeta followed. When Kakkarot fell back down through the sky, he was there, and hit him in the head and the ribs and the stomach and the spine as he fell down, and then tossed another ki bolt to speed his descent so he hit the ground very hard, indeed.

Goku had stopped his attack on Hito, panting, and abruptly dropping down to level 1, as he was running out of energy. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned and looked at Kakkarot, lying at the bottom of a deep hole. Goku started to go help, then stopped, as if not sure of what to do. Hito placed himself in his path.

Vegeta went to the edge of the hole and looked down at Kakkarot, lying broken. He supposed he should be feeling some sort of smug satisfaction, but he did not. He just felt tired.

He raised one hand, glowing with energy, and prepared to end it.

Kakkarot slowly opened his eyes. His heart was racing, and he was desperate to stop this, but he found he couldn't move. This just couldn't be happening! It couldn't all end this way. His mind was too hazy with pain to call out to Goku. He blinked, feeling tears welling up in his eyes.

< "Vegeta, you can't. You can't do this to me. What will you do without me?" >

Vegeta thought of all the accusations he could make, the insults he could throw at Kakkarot, but what was the point? He said nothing, just pointed that glowing hand at Kakkarot.

Who was crying, silently. < "Why, Vegeta? Why? Don't do it! Don't!" >

Feeling cold, and not at all victorious, he let his attack loose, striking Kakkarot with all the ki he could draw on. A sort of vindication began to warm him then, as Kakkarot disintegrated in front of his eyes. As if he were righting a great wrong in the world.

When Kakkarot was gone, there was a moment of silence. Then Nasu and Radditz cheered and hugged each other. Vegeta turned and looked at them and finally smiled.

Chi-Chi burst out of the bushes where she had remained, watching the battle. "Oh, Goku!" she cried, looking up at him, where he and Hito still hovered in mid-air. "I'm so glad you're finally normal again!"

Goku sank silently to the ground, the strangest expression on his face, before he gave his typical grin. "Yes. I should always be the hero."

He began to walk toward her.

The others were lost in excitement, and Chi-Chi was all starry-eyed, but Vegeta was staring at Goku, his danger sense whirring, feeling confused about it.

And Hito realized the bite on his shoulder was burning just as Goku's hands shot out, each firing a bolt of ki, one at Hito and one at Vegeta.

Chi-Chi screamed. Hito blocked, batting the blast away into the sky. Vegeta dodged, and the ki attack went past him and destroyed a few more trees.

Goku was laughing. "You sensed I haven't changed, ne? I guess I've lost the element of surprise. But I'm still stronger than you!" He began to power up again, still laughing.

"Goku, what's wrong with you?" Chi-Chi wailed. "Why are you still evil?"

"I don't get it!" Gohan and Goten were huddled together, looking miserable. "With Kakkarot dead, his mind should be freed! What's going on?"

"It's my fault."

Everyone whirled around to search for the source of the voice. A tall, powerfully-built stranger walked slowly into the clearing, staring back at them all, with an arrogant smirk on his face.

"Who are you?" Hito demanded.

"My name is Brolly," the strange Saiyan said. "I have vowed vengeance on the Vegeta Royal Family. One way or another, I'm going to kill you all."

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