Frieza's Justice

At the end of the space-time turbulence, that mass of violent red light swallowed the two of them in an instant.

The sensation of weightlessness vanished as quickly as it had arrived. Son Gohan and Trunks landed heavily on the hard ground, their boots striking with a dull thud.

The surrounding temperature was scorching. The air was thick with the pungent stench of sulfur, the heavy scent of blood, and the acrid odor of building materials melted by extreme heat.

Son Gohan quickly suppressed his energy to freezing point and scanned his surroundings. This was a desolate, fire-red planet with gravity roughly three times that of Earth. Yet, everywhere he looked, the landscape was littered with the ruins of high-tech metallic structures. Great fires raged among the broken walls, and black smoke choked the dark red sky.

This was clearly a planet that had possessed a highly advanced civilization, but it was currently undergoing a horrific, inhumane massacre.

Rumble!

On the horizon in the far distance, a series of dazzling energy beams erupted, followed immediately by deafening explosions and shrill, agonizing screams.

Two unbridled, violent auras were being released recklessly from that direction, exerting a crushing pressure upon the entire planet.

"Gohan, that energy over there?!" Trunks clenched his fists, his face etched with disbelief.

Son Gohan had sensed it too. One of those auras was scorching and sharp; the other was rigid and overbearing. They were auras he and Trunks knew better than anyone.

"Let's go take a look." Son Gohan lowered his body, transformed into a rapidly passing afterimage, and streaked toward the center of the explosions, skimming just above the ground.

Trunks followed closely behind.

The two circled around a collapsed metal tower, and the view ahead suddenly opened up. In a massive ruined plaza, thousands of strange-looking alien civilians were scurrying about like headless flies. They were in rags, the elderly, weak, and children supporting one another, their wails filling the air.

And hovering in the billowing smoke high above them were two familiar figures.

The person on the left was a bald man without a nose, six incense scars dotting his forehead. The person on the right was tall and burly, with a third eye clearly visible in the center of his brow.

Krillin! Tien Shinhan!

However, the two men before them were completely different from the elders in Son Gohan's memories. They wore ornate combat uniforms woven with black and dark gold, a striking blood-red emblem stamped on their chests. A chilling, evil aura and brutality radiated from them, and in their eyes, beyond a total disregard for life, there was only a sick, fanatical fervor.

"Run faster! Run faster! At this rate, you're all going to die soon~ Hahahaha!" Krillin let out a neurotic, hysterical laugh, his right hand raised high.

Zzzzt!

A massive golden Destructo Disc formed in his palm, not only several times larger than the one from the original timeline, but with jagged, violent energy currents along its edges. Krillin flicked his wrist, and the Destructo Disc carved an eerie arc into the fleeing crowd.

Dozens of civilians couldn't even scream before they were sliced in half instantly. The Destructo Disc lost none of its momentum, shearing through three massive metal bunkers before finally dissipating with a roar.

"Stop playing around, Krillin. Hurry up and clean up these scraps; King Kakarot is still waiting for us to report back." Tien Shinhan beside him snorted coldly, pressing the tips of his index fingers together.

"Dodon Ray!"

Rain-like beams of bright yellow light poured down, each one blasting a bottomless crater into the ground, sending flesh and blood flying.

Trunks felt his scalp tingle. He could not, for the life of him, reconcile these two demons slaughtering the innocent in the sky with the comrades from his memory who had given everything to protect the Earth.

Just as Krillin prepared to throw a second Destructo Disc, a white and purple figure suddenly burst out from the ruins below.

The figure charged upstream against the dense barrage of energy blasts, arms thrusting wide to expand a massive purple energy shield, forcibly blocking the subsequent attacks from Krillin and Tien Shinhan.

"Frieza!" Son Gohan widened his eyes, unable to stop himself from gasping in shock.

"What? That guy is the evil galactic emperor Gohan mentioned to me when I was a kid, Frieza?!" Trunks was stunned upon hearing this.

The one struggling desperately below, shielding the retreating civilians, was none other than the former galactic emperor, Frieza!

Frieza's current state was horrifying. The purple skull atop his head was caved in, and his thick tail had been severed clean from the base, purple blood still seeping from the wound. Yet, he held his ground against the shield, shouting back at the crowd below: "Don't worry about me! Everyone, run! Survive!!"

This tone, this posture—he looked exactly like a superhero willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good.

Son Gohan felt as if this world had truly gone mad.

High above.

"Oh? Frieza, you street rat, you actually still have the strength to resist." Krillin arched an eyebrow, his mouth twisting into a cruel sneer. "You could have enjoyed endless wealth and supreme power by joining us, yet here you are, protecting these lowly peasants like a dog. Your ridiculous sense of justice makes me sick."

"Shut up!" Frieza gritted his teeth, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. "You lackeys of the Saiyans! One day, the universe will bring down judgment and completely destroy your wicked empire!"

"Judgment?" All three of Tien Shinhan's eyes flared with murderous intent. "In this universe, the Saiyans are the absolute gods! And we are the gods' most loyal hounds! Who can judge us? Who would dare judge us! Hahaha, how utterly laughable!"

Tien Shinhan placed his hands together in a triangle shape in front of his chest.

"Neo Tri-Beam!"

BOOM!

A square pillar of energy, far beyond anything they had ever known, crashed down. Its violent power instantly crushed Frieza's shield. Frieza let out a miserable shriek, falling like a kite with a broken string, slamming heavily into the ground and creating a massive crater.

He struggled to crawl up, but his injuries were too severe; he couldn't even lift a finger.

Krillin's fingertips condensed another Destructo Disc, aiming it at Frieza's neck. "Farewell, you stray dog."

The Destructo Disc whistled downward with a lethal, air-tearing sound.

At that critical, split-second moment.

A brilliant golden streak of light instantly tore through the battlefield. Before the Destructo Disc could even touch Frieza's body, it was pinched out of the air by an iron fist encased in a golden bracer!

BOOM!

The explosive shockwave blew away the surrounding dust and smoke. Trunks, his body wreathed in the golden aura of a Super Saiyan, stood firmly in front of Frieza.

He simply couldn't watch any longer. He would never allow Krillin and Tien Shinhan to use those faces to slaughter at will!

"Who are you!" Krillin was startled by this sudden turn of events, and upon sensing the terrifying pressure radiating from Trunks, his expression changed drastically.

Trunks did not answer. He exerted force through his feet, and the ground beneath him collapsed with a roar.

Swish!

Krillin felt a blur before his eyes, and Trunks had already appeared right in front of him. A fierce whip kick slammed into Krillin's abdomen. Krillin's eyes bulged, blood sprayed wildly, and his entire body was launched like a cannonball into the ruins behind him, losing consciousness instantly.

"Krillin!" Tien Shinhan was horrified. His three eyes locked onto Trunks as his hands once again formed the starting stance for the Tri-Beam.

Thud.

A hand rested silently on Tien Shinhan's shoulder.

Son Gohan had appeared behind him at some point. He hadn't even transformed into a Super Saiyan; he simply delivered a casual hand-chop to the back of Tien Shinhan's neck. Tien Shinhan's eyes rolled back, and he plummeted straight down from mid-air.

The battle ended in an instant.

Trunks deactivated his transformation, and his golden aura dissipated. He turned around to look at Frieza, who lay dying at the bottom of the crater.

"Hey, are you alright?" Trunks reached out a hand, intending to pull him up.

Frieza struggled to open his swollen eyes. When he caught sight of Trunks's iconic hairstyle and the lingering traces of the golden aura that had just erupted, the former Emperor of the Universe began to tremble uncontrollably.

It was a fear carved deep into his very genes.

"Saiyan! You're a Saiyan!" Instead of taking Trunks's hand, Frieza recoiled in terror. Ignoring his severe injuries, he knelt directly into the rubble and pressed his forehead hard against the ground, his voice filled with a desperate, sobbing tone.

"Don't kill them, I beg you! I'm willing to surrender! Just please, I implore you to spare those civilians!"

Trunks's hand, suspended in mid-air, froze.