CHAPTER FOURTY-SEVEN: TWO DEMONS

It had happened. It had finally happened. The event first predicted by Zarbon a mere few hours before he had left for capitol, and had been repeated countless times since then in the minds of Gohan, of Piccolo, and even, of all people, in the mind of Chi-Chi. Goku and Bardock were going to face each other. And this was no training match, either. This was the real thing.

Bardock had finally realized that his son was never going to be a true Saiyan at heart, was never going to be a bloodthirsty killer, and was never going to follow in his father’s footsteps, regardless of what he did. And now the two were going to fight, and quite possibly, the two were going to fight to the death. Father vs. son. How Saiyan.

Goku laid his unconscious son down in the crook of a tree, wrapped up in his father’s orange gi shirt. He lightly ran his hand through Gohan’s somewhat spiky, somewhat long hair, and thought to himself.

‘He’s my son. He’s my pride and my joy. He’s what I’ve needed and wanted all of my life. And I will not let anyone take him from me...even if it is my own father! Gohan, I love you. Don’t ever forget that.’

“Don’t ever forget who you are,” Goku said as he stood fully up and turned back toward the clearing in the woods where his Oozarou father stood. “I love you, Gohan,” he said one last time, his face hard and cold, the face of a warrior. Of a Saiyan.

Bardock looked down as his son walked back into the clearing, and started for a moment. Even from this distance he could see the glint in his eyes, the look on his face, and  the way he walked. At that moment Bardock realized where Goku’s Saiyan pride had been all of these years. It had gone into his friends and his family. Into his wife. Into his son. And now Bardock had nearly gotten one of those people killed, and had severely wounded another. Goku turned his face up at Bardock’s.

“You are not my father,” he said, before letting his ki explode outward with the Kao-Ken maneuver. Goku took off at the surprised Bardock, and lay onto his father, knocking him down, with a hard ki-enhanced punch.

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Krillin stopped in mid-flight. His entire body trembled.

‘Two demons are fighting,’ he thought to himself, ‘One good, and one evil.’

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Bardock put up one hairy paw and caught Goku in the middle of one of his punches, completely enveloping the Saiyan. He intended to squeeze him to death. Bardock began applying pressure.

“Why did you have to make me do this, Kakarat” he said, still crushing his son, “I love you as well as any Saiyan father can. You are a miracle. You were born less than third-class, and yet you rose up past the elite’s of my race. And when I come and offer you the gift of every Saiyan-the gift of your people, you throw it back in my face. Why did you have to do this to me? Why can’t you turn back now, before it’s too late, and embrace who you are?”

“Who I am is not you!” was the muffled reply, “I AM NOT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER BE! I AM NOT KAKARAT, I AM SON GOKOU, AND I AM NOT A SAIYAN!” he shouted as beams of light shone through the cracks in between Bardock’s fingers.

The older Saiyan stopped, confused, and Goku basically exploded out of his fist, completely mangling his right hand and nearly blowing off the fingers. Bardock howled in pain and clutched his crushed fist. He looked up at Goku, flying in front of him.

“Y...You...” he growled, “You would hurt your own father?”

“Of course. I’m a Saiyan, aren’t I?” Goku said as he charged in again and hit Bardock in the chest, shattering the armor there into little shards that fell onto the grass and sending the massive Oozarou tumbling into the ground. Goku wasted no time in delivering another hit to the same place with a stomping kick.

“You tried to kill me, and that doesn’t matter. You tried to kill Piccolo, and that doesn’t matter. but YOU HURT MY SON, YOU FREAK, AND I DON’T CARE IF YOU ARE MY FATHER, YOU’RE STILL A MONSTER!” he shouted as he hit Bardock in the solar plexus again, this time hearing a rib break with a loud snap.

Bardock bellowed and coughed up what seemed to be a river of blood. Then he got his second wind. The giant ape’s good hand came crashing into Goku before he could react, sending him hurtling through the air at top speed, in a world of dizzying pain, away from the forest where the entire thing had started. Goku regained his balance just in time to see Bardock flying in after him, his mouth wide open in an outright roar, each of his teeth gleaming with murder, a foul mixture of blood and spittle flying from them.

Goku put both of his hands together on his right side, and started charging his ki as Bardock quickly closed the distance between them.  “KA...” 800 yards.  “ME...” 600 yards.  “HA...” 400 yards.  “ME...” 200 yards.  “HA!!!!!” he shouted as he put his hands forward and a glorious, sparkling blue fireball launched from them and hit Bardock in the stomach at point blank range.

Goku held the beam as Bardock kept advancing, more slowly now, bellowing and roaring like a demon. The sheer power of the two ki’s struggling against each other forced Goku to land himself on a small rock face that decorated the landscape. The pale moon shone with its familiar, uncaring light. Goku pumped all of his ki into the blast, making it larger and more powerful, but still Bardock advanced, slowly, with an animalistic rage. Finally, Goku let out one last shout: “KAIO-KEN TIMES FIVE!!!!” he yelled as his ki went red and his level shot up dramatically.

The highest that Goku had taken the Kao-Ken move before now was at level Three, but he knew that this time, three was not enough. Goku put all of his new strength into the Kamehameha, even as he felt his skin start to blister and his hair start to smolder from the force of his own ki. Bardock stopped advancing totally. Goku shouted again and strained, putting all that he had into his attack now. His muscles bulged to the point where his blue undershirt started to rip, and the veins showing on his forehead were like the roads on a map.

Finally, the Kamehameha started to win its fight with the giant ape, slowly pushing Bardock high into the sky, and away from his straining son. Goku shouted again, and the pillar of rock that he had been standing on shattered as he went to Kao-Ken level six. Goku’s ki started to literally burn him away, but he was determined to do whatever was necessary to end this nightmare now. The force of the Super Kamehameha engulfed Bardock, turning him into a small black silhouette in the large bluish-white beam, which quickly faded until all that could be seen of the Oozarou was the huge blast surrounding him.

Goku finally let the beam go, and collapsed on his back, covered in burns, his shirt completely gone now, his orange gi pants in tatters. A small smile crossed his face-the smile that was always there when he got beaten up, or when he had just done something that he never thought he could do. He looked up into the night sky just in time to see Bardock’s large form plummeting down on top of him.

‘What’s that big black cloud?’ he thought as the giant ape landed on him and nearly squashed him like a bug.

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