Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Golden Son Rise ( Chapter 17 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: If I owned the letters D, B, and Z, would I own DBZ? *ponders this thoughtfully* Hmm... guess not. Oh well, it's a moot point, since I don't own the letters D, B, or Z, nor do I own DBZ! I own this story, though! Woo hoo!

I also take all credit/blame for the terrible pun I made in the chapter title. *grins*

With Trunks and Bardock taking turns keeping watch during the night, the night passed and the sky lightened into the soft grays of early morning. Eager to get off the planet and begin their journey, the Goten was up early, making sure everyone else was awake.

"Wake up! C'mon! Sooner we eat, sooner we leave! Wake up, Veggie-chan!" Goten was ecstatic at the prospect of being able to go home. Vegeta, however, was more than a little ticked off at being woken up by the hyper gaki. Not to mention that he had just called him that hated name.

"Everyone in the solar system is awake, brat!" he snarled, shoving the boy away roughly. It wasn't even dawn yet and he was already in a foul temper. Somehow he had a feeling that this was going to be a long day. Goten took the prince's bad mood in stride, going over to shake Trunks awake. His purple haired friend was also awake, thanks to Goten's enthusiastic wake-up call, and his mood was almost as bad as Vegeta's, if that was possible.

"Couldn't you have let us sleep in a little longer, Goten?" Trunks groaned. "The sun isn't even up!"

"I waited until it started getting light," Goten protested. "I don't have a clock so I couldn't tell what time it was!"

An amused Bardock watched the scene, having been awake even before his grandson, since he had had the last watch of the night. Watching Vegeta and Trunks get upset about being woken up so early was especially funny because they looked so much like each other. They even sounded a little like each other because of the sleepiness in their voices. Not that he had ever doubted their relation to each other, but seeing the two snappish children behaving so similarly only proved in Bardock's mind that they were related.

Sitting up, Trunks grumpily looked out the cave and saw that, even though the sun hadn't risen, it was, indeed, becoming lighter. Sighing, he rose to his feet. "Well, we might as well get up. No chance of getting anymore sleep with Goten around."

A rumbling filled the air as, coincidentally, all four Saiyans' stomachs growled in unison, causing a minor earthquake. Trunks pulled out another capsule and threw it to the ground. Breakfast was consumed in record time, the sun only just barely beginning to lip the horizon. Much to the amusement of the others, Vegeta avoided the jello, though he would have fiercely denied that was what he was doing. Tempers were much improved by full stomachs, though chibi Vegeta was still rather upset by the jello incident of the previous evening.

When the sun was half visible on the horizon, the three chibis and one adult had gathered in a small field, the only level surface of appropriate size in the vicinity, and watched as Trunks tossed another capsule to the ground. Within moments, the dust cleared and a large space ship became visible. By this time, Trunks was no longer grumpy, and even the young prince was looking mildly happier. Bardock just stood there with Goten on his shoulders, smiling happily. There was something about the prospect of going on an adventure that cheered everyone's spirits up.

Trunks was about to open the hatch on the space ship when he tensed, his face suddenly becoming serious. Goten hissed inwardly as he felt it, too. The two demi-Saiyans tilted their heads up to peer into the sky. Noticing this, Bardock looked in the direction they were looking, but couldn't see anything. Vegeta just looked confused.

"What's wrong?" Bardock asked.

"Can't you feel it?" Trunks whispered. "It's... it's..."

"It's ugly," his friend finished for him. "It makes me feel sick!" The boy shivered and wrapped his arms around Bardock's head, burying his face in his grandfather's hair.

Frowning, Bardock extended his ki senses, looking for whatever it was that the boys were talking about. Straining his newfound senses as far as he could, he finally picked up something. It was far enough away that he only got the faintest impression of it, but that impression was enough to leave Bardock feeling sick to his stomach. It was so dark, so slimy, so... evil. It felt like sticking his hand in rancid oil. He desperately wanted to throw himself into the river and scrub himself until he had erased any trace of that foulness. He shuddered.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Vegeta growled, back to his normal self. "What is everyone so worked up about? Why aren't we getting into the ship and going to whatever damned planet you've been planning on going to?"

Glaring at Vegeta, Trunks mentally collected his thoughts, remember that his father couldn't sense ki at this point in time. "There's a large ki coming to Vegeta-sei. Not as strong as me or Goten, but definitely stronger than anyone else on this planet. Including you, Vegeta." The boy started pacing back and forth, trying to think through how this was going to affect their plans.

"And how exactly do you know that?" the Prince demanded.

"They can sense ki, Vegeta," Bardock explained. "Like a scouter, except that they don't need a machine to do it, and they have a larger range." The ten year old stared at Bardock in disbelief. Smirking faintly, Bardock added, "I can also sense ki. Trunks and my grandson taught me how."

"That's not important, you two," Trunks interrupted. "What's important is that there's a large, evil ki headed this way, and somehow I doubt that it will be letting us get off the planet."

"It feels kinda like Frieza," Goten chipped in. "Though I'm not sure 'cause I only felt Frieza's ki for a few seconds."

A cold certainty filled Vegeta, settling in the pit of his stomach like a lead weight. "Cold," he said.

"Twenty minutes until the ship has completed the landing sequence, my lord."

"Good. Very, very good." King Cold gave a smug smile as he viewed the planet that had brought the death of his son. He still didn't know how such a pitiful race of monkeys could have killed Frieza, but he was determined to pay them back in kind. Sipping wine from a glass goblet, he settled back into his chair. He had decided to toy with the Saiyans a bit before he destroyed their planet. It would be entertaining to watch them futilely throw themselves against his awesome might. He would find their rulers and torture them one by one until they pleaded for death. Of course, he would deny them that death until the very last moment, when everything would burn in a fiery blast of ki the likes of which none of them had ever seen. They would die knowing the utter despair that only a doomed race could know.

How fitting, that the destroyers of so many worlds would soon have their own world destroyed. And by the ones whom they had been working for when they had wiped out the races of so many planets.

Goten and Trunks blinked. "Cold?" the older of the two asked. "What's cold?"

Scowling, Vegeta snapped, "I'm talking about King Cold. Frieza's father. I figured this would happen when I heard the report that you," he pointed an accusing finger at Goten, "didn't destroy Frieza's ship along with the bakayaro. Now Frieza's father is here, probably intending to finish what his son started. Kuso!"

"Then there's only one thing to do," Trunks stated calmly. "We have to stop Cold from destroying Vegeta-sei." He pressed the button on the side of the space ship, causing it to shrink back into its capsule. Picking it up, he put it in his pocket capsule case, then turned to the others. "We probably wouldn't be able to make it off the planet with Cold waiting to blow our space ship up, anyway."

A determined look settled onto Goten's face. "Right. We gotta save the world, Trunks!" He took to the air, heading in the direction that he felt the ki coming from. The older demi-Saiyan grinned eagerly at the prospect of a good fight and darted after his friend.

"Are they insane?" Vegeta asked Bardock. The older warrior couldn't answer, so he just shrugged.

"Better keep an eye on them," he said simply as he took off, looking back at Vegeta expectantly.

Great. I just had to be kidnapped by two brats with a death wish. Now they want to go pick a fight with the father of the strongest creature in the known universe, and I have to tag along! Then it occurred to the little prince that perhaps, just maybe, the two boys might be strong enough to handle King Cold and his minions. He hoped so, because if they weren't, then he and all Vegeta-sei was doomed.

Knowing that if he didn't comply, Bardock would force him to, Vegeta took off after the foolhardy friends.

It was back again, though not as strong as before. The sense of doom weighed down on Radditz's soul as he neared his home world. Only six more hours until he landed on Vegeta-sei. A pessimistic voice in the back of his head told him that, whatever was threatening his father, he would not be able to get there in time to help.

He hoped to Kami that the voice was wrong.

The sun was now fully above the horizon, pouring its golden light into the valley where four warriors waited as a large, circular ship settled into the soft, fertile ground. Several minutes passed as no one moved or spoke. Then, finally, the door of the ship cracked open and five forms emerged. Leaping high into the air, they twirled, spun, and waved their arms around in a ridiculous manner, landing in disturbing and hilarious poses as they shouted out their names.

"Guldo!" That was the short, fat, green one with the four eyes.

"Recuum!" A tall, bulky, muscled man with a shock of red-brown hair and a stupid look on his face.

"Jeice!" Short, though not as short as Guldo, orange skinned, with long, flowing white hair, he was almost petite and probably the best looking of the lot.

"Burter!" A strange purple-blue colored reptilian faced creature, almost as tall as Recuum, though not quite as ugly.

"Ginyu!" A large, muscled, purple man with two short, straight horns coming out of the side of his head.

"We are... the Ginyu Force!" they yelled in unison.

Goten and Trunks burst out laughing, holding their aching sides as they tried to keep from falling on the ground. Needless to say, the Ginyu Force was rather annoyed at their outburst.

"What's so damn funny?" Ginyu demanded, glaring at the two brats.

"Hahahaha! Your poses! They're so funny! Hehehehe!!!" Goten gasped for air.

"Yeah, hehehe, they're even sillier than the Great Saiyaman's!" Trunks exclaimed. Goten looked like he was about to protest this unfair comparison when he was interrupted by Captain Ginyu.

"WHAT?! How dare you insult the Ginyu Force! Do you even realize how powerful we are, you stupid brats?!" Ginyu fumed.

The purple haired Saiyan smirked contemptuously. "Yeah, we know. Pathetic."

"Oh! Oh! Trunks!" the black haired boy yelped, sounding worried. "My niichan told me that Captain Ginyu can switch bodies! We'll have to be careful."

"Thanks, Goten, I'll keep that in mind," the son of Vegeta said, not taking his eyes off of the five fools in front of them. "Say, Goten, think I can defeat them all without going Super?" he asked, too quietly for anyone but Goten to hear, though that wasn't his intention.

The youngest boy looked speculatively at the aliens, assessing their strength and dredging up memories of their abilities from the stories Gohan had told him about them. After a moment, he nodded confidently. "Gohan said that green one, Gull-dope or whatever his name is, can stop time or something like that when he holds his breath. But you can defeat them, Trunks, I know it!"

"Huh? How did that brat know all that?" Ginyu asked his team. Unfortunately, none of his team could give him an answer.

Grinning confidently, the purple haired chibi Saiyan strode forward challengingly. All five aliens stared at the boy as though he had gone insane. "Dude, do you have a death wish or something?" Jeice muttered in shock.

"Yup," Trunks chirped cheerfully. "I do have a death wish. I wish... for your death!"

Faster than even Captain Ginyu could follow, the boy phased out of existence. The next thing anyone knew, Guldo was down, twitching spasmodically, his neck broken cleanly. Trunks phased back into existence exactly where he had disappeared, smirking triumphantly. "Let's see... who's next? Eenie, meenie, mynie, moe." His finger pointed at Recuum. Before the remaining four had even had a chance to react to Guldo's death, Recuum, too, was dead, a ki blast having burned a hole through his chest.

"Nande kuso?!" Ginyu roared in confusion. "What is he?! How can a.. .a child be doing this?! We are the Ginyu Force! The mightiest team anywhere in the universe! We cannot-"

"Ah, shut up," Trunks shouted in annoyance. That purple guy was really starting to get on his nerves. For that, he decided he would take him out next. However, Burter and Jeice had other ideas.

The speedster and the pretty boy teamed up and attacked Trunks with a combined effort, startling the boy. Despite the advantage of surprise, though, the demi-saiyan was still able to dodge their attack with ease. "GALLIC GUN!!!"

In a bright flash, both of his enemies disappeared, leaving nothing but ashes floating on the wind. Captain Ginyu, the last of his team, gaped at the spot that Burter and Jeice had once occupied. His team was gone. Killed by a mere child. A Saiyan with purple hair.

Vegeta, however, was staring at Trunks in open-mouthed shock. He said 'Gallic Gun'. That's my attack. I'm the only one who knows how to do it. He is... he must be... MY SON! Trunks had just proven himself to be far more powerful than Vegeta, which the prince had already guessed, but somehow he still hadn't accepted the fact that the boy was his son from the future. The conclusion was inescapable now, though. Trunks was the son of the Saiya-jin no Ouji.

Both he and Bardock remained silent, standing a little ways back from the confrontation. They both knew that they would have little impact on the outcome of this scene, except maybe get in the way if they tried to help. Therefore they took on the role of silent spectators.

Ginyu knew when he was outmatched. He would have fought on, however, if it weren't for the fact that the smallest Saiyan child had somehow known about his secret weapon and had warned the other boy of it beforehand. The gaki would be on guard against it, which meant that Ginyu had absolutely no chance in Hell to beat him.

There was only one being that could possibly have a chance against this... demon of a child. Before Trunks had a chance to follow up on his previous attempt to kill Ginyu, the purple captain dashed back into the ship to find King Cold.

"You're saying a mere boy killed the most elite force in the universe?" Cold's voice dripped with cutting contempt. "And when it came time for you to face him yourself, what did you do?"

"M-my lord, I c-came to report to you r-right away!" Ginyu stammered. "I knew that you'd want to know who killed your son. No one else on this pitiful mudball could possibly be strong enough to kill Frieza!"

Without turning to face him, the Aisu-jin's tail slashed through the air and wrapped around the unlucky captain. "What you really mean to say is that you ran," the larger creature said in a bored tone as he squeezed the life out of Ginyu. As bones began to snap in the hapless alien's neck, Cold continued, "I have no use for cowards, Ginyu." With a last crack, Ginyu was dead. Cold dropped him to the floor, knowing that some underling would remove the body.

He had more important things to do. Ginyu was right in one thing, at least. This purple haired Saiya-jin had to be the one who had murdered his son. It was time he learned that it was a mistake to mess with the Cold family. The last mistake he'd ever make in his short life.

Meanwhile, Trunks and Goten were having a small argument.

"But Trunks! You got to fight the Ginyu Force! It's my turn!" Goten whined.

"Yeah, but they were easy! And the last guy ran off before I got to fight him!" Trunks argued back.

"Come on, Trunks! Niichan told me that future you got to fight this King Cola guy when he showed up on Earth. I want to fight him. Please?" He gave his friend the best Son Puppy Eyes (TM) he could manage.

"Oh, fine!" the purple haired chibi sighed, scowling. "Have it your way. You can fight him."

"Yippeee!!!" Goten did a little victory dance, ending with a hug for his friend as a way of thanking him. "Oh, I know what I'll do! I'll go Super to defeat him. Just like future you did!" At this point, the black haired chibi was speaking too quickly for anyone but Trunks to understand what he was saying, so the reference to the Super Saiyan transformation went unnoticed by either Bardock or Vegeta.

It was at that moment that King Cold emerged from the space ship, making a rather impressive entrance. His sheer size dwarfed all four of them, even Bardock, and his lashing tail whistled through the air ominously. Taking in the four Saiyans he faced, he sneered delicately, then turned to Trunks.

"So you're the one who killed my son," he stated.

The chibi-Saiyan snorted derisively. "No, I'm not."

"Yeah, that was me," Goten confided sheepishly. "It was kinda an accident." He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

King Cold frowned. This certainly wasn't what he had expected. "Very well, then, I'll kill you, first," he said lightly. With lightning speed, his tail once again whipped through the air at an intended victim.

Impossibly, the small Saiyan child dodged the tail. Grinning, the boy got into a fighting stance. Annoyed, the Aisu-jin lashed out with his tail again, only to miss again as the boy took to the air. "Geez, you're so slow!" Goten complained. "Don't you have any cool transformations or something that'll make you faster? Niichan said that Frieza had three transformations, an' you're his dad!"

Hissing in frustration, the Aisu-jin narrowed his eyes as the gaki dodged yet another blow. It appeared that perhaps he would have to use a transformation. "Very well, then, brat. If you're so eager to die, I'll be happy to oblige you!" Goten waited patiently as Cold began his transformation, his body mass decreasing considerably, horns vanishing from his head completely. What remained after the change was complete looked almost like a china doll, with delicate features and black lips. But the power emanating from this monster was even more deadly and vile than before.

Goten smiled, looking exactly like his father right before a fight. "Cool! Now I'll transform too!"

With a yell, a wind kicked up out of nowhere, seeming to center on the boy. Energy sparked in the air and Goten's hair stood on end. A flash of light nearly blinded anyone who was looking at him. The sky almost seemed to darken as the golden light of the sunrise gathered around the child, creating a dazzling yellow aura. Obsidian eyes shimmered and shifted into a turquoise blue, then back to black. A final yell and another blinding light.

When the light finally cleared, Goten was gone. In his place, a boy with the same face, but blue eyes and golden hair, stood, smirking in anticipation of the fight to come.

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