The three colossal ships blotted out the sun, their shadows swallowing vast swaths of the Saiyan homeland. When the ramps descended, hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers poured forth, hovering in the sky and gazing down upon the gathered warriors below. Every scouter among the Saiyans erupted in a cacophony of beeps, each reading no lower than 1,500. The invaders filled the heavens like a plague of locusts, darkening the world beneath them.
Then, a small figure emerged.
Frieza sat perched in his hover pod, tail draped lazily over one side, floating out from the flagship with the casual air of someone attending a mildly entertaining spectacle. Queen Vegeta swallowed hard. A bead of sweat traced down her temple. Her fists clenched until her knuckles whitened. Beside her, Eve drew deep, steadying breaths, while Princess Vegeta's hands trembled with barely contained rage.
"Ohohoho! Look at this," Frieza's high-pitched voice rang out across the silent battlefield. "Papa monkey's learned to have pride!"
Heavy footsteps echoed from behind him as a towering figure emerged from the ship's shadow. "My son," King Cold rumbled, his voice like grinding stone, "it is because you've been far too soft with them."
Lighter footfalls followed on Frieza's other flank. "Why did I have to come?" Cooler's bored tone cut through the tension. "You could have handled this alone."
"Come now, brother," Frieza replied without turning. "Wouldn't you like to enjoy a genocide together? As a family?"
Cooler merely crossed his arms, surveying the Saiyan forces with cold disinterest.
---
Frieza's pod drifted forward, descending toward the Saiyan army. Queen Vegeta began walking to meet him, her royal cape billowing behind her as she passed through the ranks of her people. A million images flooded her mind, memories of conquest, of glory, of a proud race brought to heel by these tyrants. When she finally stood before Frieza, the full weight of their situation crashed down upon her.
She was terrified.
Now that they hovered before her, all three of them, it felt real. But she refused to let it show.
Frieza's hand began to move. She twitched, every muscle coiled like a spring. But he merely extended one finger, pointing lazily at the ground. His voice dropped to a low, menacing whisper, a small smirk playing at his lips.
"I'll give you a way out. Kneel before me and give me your child." His eyes glittered with cruel amusement. "And I might be in the mood to spare this pathetic planet and your wretched monkey race."
Queen Vegeta trembled. Her mind became a warzone, duty clashing against survival, pride battling pragmatism. Save the Saiyan race through humiliation and eternal slavery? Or preserve their honor and freedom, even if it meant extinction?
Her knee began to bend.
She glanced back at her daughter, at Princess Vegeta standing fierce and defiant among the ranks. Frieza's smirk widened as he watched the queen lower herself.
*Why was I so reckless? What possessed me to rebel against these monsters? Something was wrong with me... something unusual... something...*
*Legendary.*
In her fear, Queen Vegeta had forgotten. She had forgotten that she had witnessed the impossible, the male Saiyan, the one who had ignited this hope within her. That spark flared back to life.
Her palm opened. Ki gathered, blazing gold against her skin.
"SAIYANS WOULD RATHER CHOOSE DEATH THAN HUMILIATION!"
She thrust her hand forward, unleashing a torrent of energy directly at Frieza's face.
"Pathetic," he whispered.
He deflected the blast with the back of his hand as though swatting away an insect, then raised one finger toward her chest.
"Then die."
A thin beam of light lanced through her stomach.
---
"MOTHER!"
The scream tore from both princess Vegeta and Eve simultaneously. Princess Vegeta's eyes met Eve's for a single, charged instant before they both rocketed toward their fallen queen. But even as they caught her, cradling her wounded form, the queen's eyes burned with unbroken fire.
"I'm fine!" she snarled through gritted teeth. "Show them what Saiyans are capable of!"
Both girls turned toward Frieza, their auras exploding around them.
They vanished.
"You're fast, but-"
Frieza never finished. Both princesses materialized before him in the same heartbeat, their fists connecting with his face in perfect synchronization. The impact blasted him off his pod, sending him hurtling toward his own ship.
"Frieza!" King Cold's voice boomed with surprise.
"Well," Cooler mused, one eyebrow raised. "They're not as worthless as I thought."
Frieza dropped to one knee near the ship's hull, clutching his nose. His eyes went wide, then flooded crimson with rage. Veins bulged across his temples.
"SHUT UP!" he shrieked. "You worthless MONKEYS!"
He launched himself at them like a missile. They split apart, dodging his wild charge. Vegeta hurled a ki sphere at his back, he whirled to deflect it, but Eve was already there, her flying kick connecting with the back of his skull. The blow sent him rocketing toward Vegeta, who leaned back impossibly, as though reclining on the air itself, and drove her heel up into his stomach.
Frieza's eyes bulged. Spittle flew from his lips as he was blasted skyward.
"DAMN MONKEYS AND THEIR TRICKERY!"
On the ground below, Queen Vegeta watched through blood-hazed vision, her fist clenching against the dirt. *They landed hits. They can actually do it.*
But in her focus on Frieza, in that desperate flicker of hope, she had forgotten something crucial.
She had forgotten about the rest of the Cold family.
Frieza wiped the corner of his mouth, staring at the smear of violet blood on his fingertips. His eye twitched.
"Frieza," King Cold's voice rumbled from above, "shall I intervene? These insects have clearly—"
"No." Frieza's voice was ice. "Stay where you are, Father."
He rose slowly, rolling his shoulders. That insufferable smirk returned to his face, though something far more dangerous flickered behind his eyes.
"I must admit... you've surprised me. No one has drawn my blood in quite some time." He began to float higher, arms spread wide. "So allow me to return the favor. I have a little *surprise* for you as well."
His body began to tremble. Then *shift*.
The sound was hideous, wet cracks and grinding bone as Frieza's compact frame began to expand. Two massive horns erupting from his head. His shoulders broadened, his limbs stretched, and his power... his power became a physical pressure that crushed the air from every lung on the battlefield.
Every scouter on the planet exploded simultaneously.
"In this form," Frieza announced, his voice deeper now, resonating with terrible authority, "my power level exceeds one million."
The fighting stopped. Saiyans and Frieza's soldiers alike froze mid-combat, all eyes drawn to the towering monster hovering above them.
Eve's legs buckled. *I was a fool. A complete fool to think I could save this planet. Even with Goku's help... it's over. It's all over.*
Queen Vegeta's fist clenched against her wound. Princess Vegeta stood paralyzed, her earlier defiance crumbling to ash.
Hope died.
Meanwhile.
Soba was running toward the city freed by Goku with something in mind.
"Goku is a genius," he whispered, a smile spreading across his face.
---
Back to the fight, Cooler uncrossed his arms for the first time. A thin smile played at his lips.
"Well, well. Had to bring out the second form, did we, little brother?"
"Against monkeys, no less," King Cold added with a rumbling chuckle.
Frieza's eye twitched, but his smirk only widened. "Shall we continue?"
He vanished.
Princess Vegeta barely registered the fist buried in her stomach before she was rocketing earthward. Eve tried to intercept, Frieza caught her by the face, dragged her through the air, and slammed her into the ground hard enough to crater the earth.
"Pathetic," he purred.
Queen Vegeta launched a desperate ki barrage. Frieza walked through it like rain, grabbed her by the leg, and whipped her downward, once, twice, three times, smashing her body against the scorched earth until the ground itself shattered.
Then he threw the two of them skyward. Eve and princess Vegeta.
They tumbled upward, broken and bleeding, barely conscious—
Frieza shot past them, horns first.
The impact was sickening. His horns pierced through them, one after another, before he flicked them off like insects from a windshield. They plummeted back to earth, crashing in broken heaps.
Blood pooled beneath them.
Queen Vegeta, trembling, crawled toward them. A hole gaped in their stomach. Eve lay face-down, unmoving.
"Oh my," Frieza laughed, descending to admire his handiwork. "The little one is still breathing! How precious. I do so enjoy when they refuse to die quickly, it makes the finale so much more satisfying."
He turned to his commanders hovering nearby. "Take the ships into orbit."
"My lord? Why would—"
"Because I'm going to reduce this planet to smithereens." His grin stretched impossibly wide. "I want a front-row seat, not a burial."
The massive ships began their ascent, engines screaming as they climbed toward the stars.
Frieza rose into the sky, one finger extended toward the heavens.
Energy began to gather.
---
It started as a spark, a pinprick of light at Frieza's fingertip. Then it grew. And grew. And grew.
The Death Ball swelled into existence, a miniature sun of destruction hovering above the battlefield. Its gravity alone began pulling debris upward. Soldiers, Saiyan and Frieza Force alike, who strayed too close were drawn in, their screams cut short as they disintegrated against its surface.
Every eye on the planet turned skyward to watch their doom take shape.
Queen Vegeta dragged herself in front of the girls, positioning her broken body as a shield. It was futile. She knew it was futile. But it was all she had left to give.
The Death Ball cast everything in hellish orange light. It was like staring into the sun as it fell toward you.
"DIE, INSECTS!" Frieza screamed, hurling it downward.
Queen Vegeta watched it come. A strange peace settled over her.
"At least," she whispered, "we die free."
She closed her eyes.
Behind her, Princess Vegeta's consciousness flickered. One word surfaced through the pain: *Master...!*
And Eve, Eve's mind screamed into the void:
*I'm sorry, Father. I brought you into a desperate situation. I'm so sorry. Father... Father... Father...!*
*PLEASE!!!*
The Death Ball descended without mercy, incinerating everything in its path. Saiyans. Frieza's soldiers. The earth itself. All of it burned and died and turned to nothing as annihilation fell upon them.
A sharp sound cut through the roar.
Queen Vegeta's eyes snapped open.
A broad back. Saiyan armor, but different somehow. A long, furry tail swaying behind him.
He stood between them and the end of the world.
He looked back over his shoulder, and he was smirking.
"Sorry I'm late."
---
Hope crashed back into them like a physical force. Eve's breath caught in her throat. Princess Vegeta's eyes went wide. Queen Vegeta felt tears streaming down her face without understanding why.
"Run!" the queen screamed, clutching her wound. "You have to survive! This planet is doomed, live! Don't let the Saiyan race die with us!"
"I won't let the Saiyans die," Goku said quietly.
He turned to face the descending apocalypse.
"Or any of you."
He planted his feet. Drew a breath.
"KA..."
He didn't take a stance. He simply stood, straight-backed, palms open at his sides.
"ME..."
Light began to gather in his hands. But not blue.
Pink.
"HA..."
The glow intensified, casting everything in rose-colored radiance. His ki, it was unlike anything they'd ever felt. Warm. Alive. Beautiful.
"ME..."
He brought his palms together, the pink light coalescing into a sphere of impossible density.
"HAAAAAAAA!!!"
He thrust his arms forward.
The wave that erupted from his hands lit the world in brilliant pink, a column of pure energy screaming toward the Death Ball. When they collided, there was no stalemate.
The Kamehameha bent the Death Ball like a balloon. Deformed it. And then, impossibly, reversed its trajectory.
---
Frieza's eyes went wide.
"What... WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"
His own attack came screaming back at him, wrapped in that strange pink energy. He extended his hands to stop it, but the moment it touched his palms, they began to burn.
"AGHH!" He pushed back with everything he had.
"Frieza!" Cooler and King Cold shot toward him, adding their power to his. The three of them strained against the redirected Death Ball, veins bulging, teeth grinding.
With a final, desperate push, they deflected it upward.
It detonated in orbit. The sky turned white.
---
When the light faded and the dust settled, silence fell over the battlefield.
The Cold Family floated in the sky, breathing hard, staring downward.
And there he stood.
Goku. Unmoving. Unbowed. Looking up at them with eyes that held no fear.
"Who... who is that?" King Cold demanded.
"A Saiyan," Cooler observed, eyes narrowing. "But... that's impossible."
Frieza's voice was barely a whisper: "It's a male. Male Saiyans don't exist."
On the ground, Queen Vegeta's mouth hung open. Her legs finally gave out entirely, and she collapsed to her knees, not from weakness, but from the sheer impossibility of what she was witnessing.
Princess Vegeta and Eve, broken and bleeding, managed to smile. Tears carved clean tracks through the blood and dirt on their faces.
*He came. He actually came.*
Goku turned away from the Cold Family and walked toward them. He knelt beside Queen Vegeta and lifted her gently in his arms. Then he moved to the girls, kneeling between them, and pulled all three into an embrace.
"Wh-what are you doing?!" Princess Vegeta sputtered, face flushing crimson despite her wounds.
"Fa— Goku?!" Eve's voice cracked with confusion.
Then he began to glow.
White light emanated from his body, flowing into theirs like warm water. His ki poured into them, and it was unlike anything they had ever experienced. Pure. Clean. Healing.
Their wounds began to close. Bones knit. Flesh mended. The holes in their bodies sealed as though they had never existed.
Two minutes passed in that warm embrace.
When Goku finally released them and rose to his feet, three fully healed Saiyan women rose with him.
Princess Vegeta stared at her hands, flexing her fingers. "I... I feel so much stronger."
"Me too," Queen Vegeta agreed, her voice filled with wonder.
Goku turned to face the Cold Family still hovering in the sky. His tail swayed behind him. His expression hardened.
"You will die today."