The End of Namek

The sky was sliced into three sections by three streaks of light: gold, gold, and white. Ji Ming and Vegeta stood one before and one behind, trapping Frieza firmly in the air above the altar. The crimson light of Namek's distant sun poured through gaps in the clouds, falling over the three of them and coating the battle in a rust-like hue.

Frieza's tail swayed slowly behind him. His pure-white final-form shell was covered in cracks and scorch marks. Purple droplets of blood still seeped from the dent the Special Beam Cannon had gouged near his shoulder blade, while the bruise on his abdomen from Ji Ming's knee had already darkened from purplish red to black. He panted faintly as he floated, the sound of his breathing unusually clear over the empty ruins.

His battle power had fallen to its limit—sixty million.

Six minutes ago, he had been a cosmic emperor with a battle power of one hundred and twenty million. Now, only half remained. Meanwhile, the auras of the two people facing him had not weakened at all. They were still slowly rising. Ji Ming's Super Saiyan transformation layered over his normal state kept his base battle power steadily above thirty million; Vegeta's newly awakened Super Saiyan form was still in its adjustment phase, but his base battle power had originally exceeded ninety thousand. Multiplied fiftyfold, it directly approached fifty million. Together, the two of them now held a firm advantage over Frieza.

Frieza's blood-red pupils flickered rapidly between them. He was calculating—not how to win, but how to survive. The feeling was far too unfamiliar to him. From the day he had been born until now, it had always been others calculating how to survive his grasp. He had never needed to calculate how to survive himself.

"How ironic." His voice was hoarse. The elegant tone had been stripped away completely, exposing the rough rasp beneath. "Two Saiyans. One is the son of a low-class warrior, and the other is a stray dog I kept on a leash for twenty years—and now you've actually forced Lord Frieza into this state."

Vegeta did not get angry. That would have been unimaginable in the past—before, merely hearing the words "stray dog" would have made him charge forward in rage. But now, he only watched Frieza calmly. Golden aura burned steadily around him, and not a single ripple stirred in his emerald-green eyes.

"You're the stray dog." His voice was so quiet that only Frieza could hear it. "The moment Planet Vegeta was blown into pieces by you, you had already lost to every Saiyan. Because you were afraid. You feared that a Super Saiyan would be born among us, feared that we would overthrow you—so you struck first. But once fear takes root, it is destined to be proven true."

Frieza did not answer. His gaze shifted away from Vegeta and settled on Ji Ming. This child had said little since the battle began, yet every step he took had driven Frieza closer to a dead end. He had observed the changes in Frieza's aura, dragged him step by step into the mire of a war of attrition, and finally allowed Vegeta to complete his awakening—none of it was coincidence. It was tactics, calculation, battle wisdom no four-year-old child should have possessed.

"What exactly are you?" Frieza asked the question seriously for the first time.

Ji Ming tilted his head and said something only Frieza could understand. "When Porunga reconstructed my body, he told me one fact—the Frost Demon Clan you belong to, Frieza, once destroyed many planets. Your ancestors also once tried to destroy Namek, but Shenron drove them back. That's why you fear Dragon Balls so much, fear Super Saiyans, fear every power older than yourself. Because you know you aren't some cosmic emperor—you're just a pitiful creature who happened to survive, ruled by the fear your ancestors left behind."

Frieza's pupils abruptly widened. Not from anger, but because those words touched the deepest taboo of the Frost Demon Clan. His ancestors really had suffered a crushing defeat on Namek. It was the only time their entire race had ever lost to the power of a "god." No outsider had ever known of it—yet this child had casually spoken of the Frost Demon Clan's shameful history, buried for tens of millions of years.

"That silence—you can't even think of a rebuttal anymore." There was no mockery in Ji Ming's voice.

Frieza's expression cracked apart at a visible pace. For the first time, pure, undisguised fear appeared on that face which had always held only composure and cruelty.

Then he laughed. It was not an elegant smile, nor a cruel sneer, but a hysterical laugh from someone driven into a corner. The laughter was hoarse and warped. Bloody foam spattered from the corners of his mouth, freezing into tiny purple crystals in the vacuum.

"Fine. Fine. Fine." He said it three times, each one more distorted than the last. "You want a Super Saiyan, do you? You want a legend, do you? Then I'll turn you and this planet into a legend together!"

His long tail suddenly stabbed downward—not at anyone's body, but straight into the rock layer dozens of meters below. The tail of his final form plunged underground like a hot knife through butter, cracks spreading down along the veins of rock to an unknown depth. Frieza poured every last trace of energy in his body into the planet's core in a single burst.

The entire Namek trembled violently. It was not an earthquake, but some deeper convulsion transmitting upward from within the planetary core. Stone pillars in the temple ruins snapped at their roots. Massive rocks crashed down from the dome, smashing into the white stone ground and throwing up towering clouds of dust. In the distance, hundreds of water columns exploded from the lake's surface. They rose high into the sky before the shockwaves shattered them into white mist, while every lake within a ten-kilometer radius evaporated in an instant. The spherical vegetation was uprooted, the soil it carried tumbling through the air before smashing back into the ground. Aurora-like bands of eerie light began to appear in the sky—ion storms caused by the planet's magnetic field being disrupted by the core's runaway energy.

"The planet's core has entered a chain-collapse. From this second onward, this planet has only three minutes left to live." Frieza's voice regained that shrill, gentle tone, but this time there was not even cruelty beneath that gentleness—only blank madness. "Three minutes. Is that enough time for you to run? Or does Saiyan pride forbid you from escaping?"

He planted one foot on the splitting ground, used the recoil to shoot sharply upward, and launched himself toward the giant spaceship hovering in high orbit. He was so fast that he left only a white streak in the air. But Ji Ming was faster. In a flash of golden light, he appeared directly above Frieza, clasped his hands together, and smashed them down heavily onto Frieza's head.

Boom—! Frieza was sent flying back toward the ground by the blow. His body crashed into the rubble of the temple ruins, creating a deep crater dozens of meters wide. He crawled out of the pit with a large section of the purple shell on his forehead shattered, purple blood smearing half his face. Refusing to yield, he launched himself upward again—only for Ji Ming's knee to slam into his chest. Then came the third strike, then the fourth—Ji Ming's attack speed reached its limit in that instant, every punch denying Frieza even a chance to breathe. Frieza's defensive net was torn to pieces. His final-form body was like a billet of iron repeatedly hammered beneath Ji Ming's fists, every collision bursting with dazzling golden sparks. Frieza fought back as well. His fists and blade-like tail could still rip through Ji Ming's defenses with battle power close to fifty million. The golden aura was occasionally torn open, blood spraying out, but Ji Ming did not care at all. When Frieza's tail whipped across his cheek, he answered with an elbow strike. When claws slashed across his ribs, he drove his forehead directly into the armor over Frieza's other shoulder and shattered it. The two of them charged and collided back and forth above the temple ruins. Every second brought dozens of exchanges between attack and defense, and every impact added another crack to the earth below.

Ji Ming sent Frieza soaring into the sky with an uppercut. The white body spun through the air, purple blood flung from multiple wounds into a fine mist. Ji Ming did not pursue—he stopped in midair. Exhaustion and injuries made his golden aura waver, but his voice still pierced through the roar of the battlefield.

"Vegeta!"

Vegeta had already appeared directly above Frieza's upward path. He raised both hands over his head, fingers interlocked into a hammer. Golden aura compressed into the core of that strike, like a pulse sphere of light pressed to its limit. Frieza saw that pose as he spun through the air, and his pupils shrank to pinpoints. He had seen that stance countless times—when Vegeta executed prisoners of war in the Frieza Force, that was the crushing hammer blow he used to leave no survivors. Now, that move was aimed at him.

"You—" Before the first half-second of Frieza's voice could leave his throat, Vegeta's hands had already come down. Both fists struck precisely at the junction of Frieza's chest and abdomen—the exact center of the bruise Ji Ming's knee had left behind. Golden energy surged from Vegeta's fists into Frieza's body, piercing shell, muscle, and bone before exploding within.

Frieza's body smashed into the ground like a meteor. The earth split open into a deep valley several kilometers long, magma erupting from the fissure and casting an orange-red glow over the entire temple ruin.

The dust slowly settled. Frieza lay at the bottom of the ravine. More than seventy percent of his pure-white final-form shell had shattered, and purple blood streamed from dozens of wounds, gathering into a small purple lake beneath him. He was still alive—the vitality of the Frost Demon Clan was the most tenacious in the universe—but he no longer had the strength even to lift a hand. His final form began to slowly collapse, reverting from his toes and tail tip back into the dark-red shell of his third form.

Vegeta landed on the edge of the ravine and looked down at the cosmic emperor who had oppressed him for twenty years. He raised his right hand, palm aimed at Frieza. A golden ki blast gathered in his palm, glowing brighter and brighter until it threw the sharp lines of his face into relief.

"Kill me, then." Frieza showed a twisted smile. "You won today. But one day, you'll become something even more ruthless than me. Saiyans are that kind of thing—you were born as killing machines. You'll never change."

Vegeta's fingers paused. He looked into Frieza's eyes, and an extremely complicated expression suddenly appeared on the face that had always held nothing but fear and hatred. If he had not met that four-year-old child, if he had not sweated in the Gravity Chamber until he collapsed from exhaustion, he probably really would have become the kind of thing Frieza described—perhaps even worse than Frieza.

But not now. He lowered his hand, and the ki blast in his palm silently dissipated.

"I won't kill you." Vegeta turned his back to Frieza and gestured for Nappa, who had been guarding the eastern side, to come forward. "Frieza's life will be publicly judged by all Saiyans in the future. Nappa—lock him in the ship's restraint chamber. If he dies before the trial, I'll hold you accountable."

"Leave it to me." Nappa slammed one fist into his palm. He strode into the ravine, grabbed Frieza's battered body, and slung it over his shoulder. Then he added in a muffled voice, "Lord Frieza, so you have a day like this too."

As Frieza was lifted, his lips moved once, but no sound came out. His eyes held neither anger nor fear, only emptiness. He had been defeated by Saiyans. Not killed in battle, but captured alive. It was an ending no Frieza could have imagined, more humiliating than death.

Ji Ming saw the scene from midair, turned around, and dived toward the ground.

The collapse of the planet's core continued. Cracks in the earth grew denser and denser, magma pouring from every fissure and turning the entire temple ruin into a sea of fire. The sky had been dyed a sickly purple by the ion storm, and the magnetic field was so chaotic that even flying was becoming difficult. In the distance, mountains began collapsing inward, and the entire continent was shrinking toward the planet's core.

"More than two minutes have passed." Ji Ming landed, pulled open the cloth bag Chi-Chi had sewn from a pile of rubble, and revealed the Senzu Beans Chi-Chi had neatly packed for him. He grabbed a handful and placed one into the hand of each person gathered before the Flying Nimbus. "One each. Keep it in your mouth, but don't swallow it. Swallow it the instant we evacuate."

Nail led the last few Namekian warriors, using ki blasts to shatter the boulders falling from above while slowly escorting Guru toward Bulma's ship. Dende clutched Guru's robe tightly. His green face was streaked with tears, but he made no sound.

Ji Ming gave Vegeta one last Senzu Bean, then looked once more at Guru. Guru was looking at him too, firelight reflected in eyes that could barely remain open. "Child, the Dragon Balls have already turned to stone. But the power of Namek's Dragon Balls was never in the stones—it is in your bones." Guru's lips moved, his voice old yet warm. "When you come again, bring me a pot of Earth's water to taste."

Ji Ming wanted badly to say something, but in the end, he only nodded once.

"Everyone—board the ship!" Ji Ming's voice was broken by the roaring chaos, but it remained firm.

Bulma's spaceship rose from behind a rocky hill. As it descended, its landing gear smashed through several spreading streams of magma. The hatch opened, and Chi-Chi was the first to rush out. She threw her arms around Ji Ming, carrying the scent of Namekian dust on her body. She held him tightly enough that Ji Ming could feel her shoulders trembling. Krillin, Tien Shinhan, and Chiaotzu leaped into the cabin one after another. Nail boarded last, carrying Guru in his arms. Guru's face was pale, but his eyes remained open.

Ji Ming stood at the hatch and looked back at the temple ruins. The ground had completely shattered into countless floating islands. The white stone ground was swallowed by magma. Of the seven Dragon Ball stone pillars, only half of one remained, still leaning crookedly in the lava, its runes emitting a faint glow beneath the extreme heat. Golden aura flickered gently around Ji Ming, reflecting the sea of fire below.

A hand reached over from beside him and rested on his shoulder. It was Vegeta. "Don't look anymore. The planet's about to explode."

Ji Ming withdrew his gaze, turned, and stepped into the cabin. Bulma pulled up the controls. The ship's engines gave a piercing roar, and its exhaust blasted hundreds of meters of sparks from the magma. The next second, the spaceship pierced the sky and shot out of Namek's atmosphere, leaving the doomed planet behind.

Beyond the porthole, Namek resembled a shattered emerald within the crimson tear of its atmosphere. Great stretches of continental surface collapsed beneath the erosion of lava, and the entire planet began to cave inward. Light burst from its cracks, growing brighter and brighter—

Then Namek exploded into a mass of light without a sound. The shockwave caught up to the spaceship, and the hull shook violently. Everyone was flung toward the cabin walls by inertia. Bulma gripped the controls desperately, using all her strength to keep the ship stable at the edge of the light burst.

The shaking did not subside until nearly ten seconds later. Ji Ming leaned beside the porthole, watching the final trace of Namek's light disappear completely into the starry expanse. He was silent for a long time. Then he picked up the fragment of Guru's wooden staff that had rolled to his feet and quietly tucked it into his cloth bag.

No one spoke inside the cabin. Piccolo leaned against the cabin wall with his eyes closed, facing the direction where Namek had vanished. Nail knelt before Guru, gently pressing his forehead against the old man's hand. Dende wiped his tears with the back of his hand. His shoulders were still shaking, but he still tried to straighten his back. In the corner, Nappa rummaged through the medical kit, stuffing hemostatic cotton into Frieza's wounds in the restraint chamber while muttering, "Don't you die. The trial hasn't even started yet."

After a long silence, Bulma rose from the pilot's seat and turned to face everyone. She took off her glasses, wiped the lenses with the corner of her clothes, then put them back on and forced a smile. "The route is set. Destination—Earth. Estimated travel time—one week."

One week.

Ji Ming closed his eyes, leaned against the cabin wall, and finally swallowed the Senzu Bean he had been holding in his mouth. Warm power surged through every limb and bone, and the pain from all his wounds vanished in an instant. He could feel the power Porunga had reconstructed within him still growing slowly—the seed of his fourth breakthrough had already been loosened during the battle with Frieza, and its roots had begun to sink deeper.

The next enemies he faced would no longer be Frieza. Cell, Majin Buu, God of Destruction Beerus—and the order of the entire universe itself. Vegeta stood beside him, still in his Super Saiyan form, the golden glow not yet faded. "Brat." His voice was still hoarse, but his tone was completely different from before. "If you leave the toughest enemy for me to fight alone again, I'll throw you into the Gravity Chamber and lock you in at fifty times gravity."

Ji Ming kept his eyes closed, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. He said nothing, merely raised his fist and lightly tapped Vegeta's shoulder armor with his knuckles. Vegeta raised his own fist and tapped him back.

Krillin secretly snapped a picture of that single exchange with his scouter. He wanted to show it to Tien Shinhan, only to find that Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu, and Nail had all fallen asleep in their respective places. Piccolo's steady breathing also came from the other side of the cabin wall.

Bulma returned to the pilot's seat and watched the waypoint blinking on the radar screen. The point of light representing Earth shone steadily blue in the far distance ahead. She looked back at the warriors sprawled asleep throughout the cabin and suddenly felt that the ship was like a great cradle filled with exhausted heroes.

"Heading home," she softly said to herself. Then she pressed the autopilot button, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes to rest.

The spaceship traveled steadily through the sea of stars, its exhaust trail straight and silent as it headed home toward that distant blue-and-white planet.