Whoosh!
Kibito vanished in an instant.
Less than thirty seconds later, he was back on the Sacred World of the Kai.
"I've dropped Frieza off on Planet Vampa, out at the edge of the universe," Kibito said with a grin. "The conditions out there are brutal — no communication devices, no spacecraft. We shouldn't be seeing him again anytime soon."
"Perfect, Kibito — that was a huge help!" Goku gave him a big thumbs up.
"Found them!" Supreme Kai's face lit up. He pointed in a specific direction. "The Ginyu Force is currently at Frieza's Planet 85 over that way!"
"Great — if I know roughly where they are, I should be able to lock onto their ki." Goku pressed his index and middle fingers to his forehead.
"Goku, if they're on Planet 85, why were we going to fight on Namek?" Krillin suddenly asked, puzzled.
"Oh? Good point — then let's go to Planet 85!" Goku scratched his head and nodded.
"...So everything I just did was for nothing?" Kibito's expression darkened considerably.
Goku didn't waste any more words. He focused on locking onto Planet 85's ki signature.
About ten seconds later, Goku's eyes lit up — he'd found the Ginyu Force's energy.
"Got them!" Goku smiled. "Who wants to come test themselves against Frieza's strongest unit?"
Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu — every single one of them wanted in. A fight like this was exactly what they needed to push their own limits.
"Alright then, here we go." Goku made the call without hesitation, activated Instant Transmission, and in the blink of an eye had arrived on Planet 85 with Piccolo, Gohan, and the others.
Krillin and the rest looked around.
The planet wasn't too different from Planet 79 — a large military base sat at the centre, with a stretch of barren wilderness beyond it.
"I'll leave you to it from here," Goku said, waving a hand. Then he disappeared without another word.
Whoosh!
Goku returned to the Sacred World of the Kai and appeared beside Old Kai.
Old Kai glanced sideways at Supreme Kai and Kibito. The two of them read the room immediately and stepped away.
"It's fine for them to know, isn't it, Old Kai?" Goku scratched his head.
"You saw him yourself — that kid is still wet behind the ears. There's a lot he doesn't understand yet. Let him go study up a bit more before we tell him anything," Old Kai said with a quiet sigh, choosing his words carefully.
"Ha, sounds like Supreme Kai still has a lot to learn," Goku laughed.
"This business with Frieza... it really is peculiar," Old Kai muttered, pacing back and forth slowly on the ground, deep in thought. "His strength climbed far too quickly. In just one month, he was already able to go toe-to-toe with you for that long."
"Yeah, it's way beyond what I expected," Goku nodded, his expression serious. "In my timeline, Frieza was eventually turned into a half-cyborg. His power went up somewhat, but nowhere near this level. The Frieza I just fought feels like he's already stronger than Majin Buu."
"So then... let's take a bold guess," Old Kai mused, looking up at Goku. "What do you think — could Frieza have been reborn too?"
"Huh? Frieza was reborn too?" Goku blinked, then shook his head with a touch of doubt. "In my timeline, Frieza was locked up in Hell the whole time. I even went down there once and ran into him — his strength hadn't gone up much at all."
"Is there any chance the Frieza who's been reborn here isn't the Frieza from your timeline?" Old Kai stroked his chin.
"Not from my timeline?" Goku blinked again. "You mean... a Frieza from a different timeline ended up being reborn into this one?"
"Don't forget — you came here from a different timeline yourself," Old Kai said, studying Goku's face.
"Could a Frieza from another timeline really be that strong?" Goku fell into thought, murmuring quietly, "I get the feeling Frieza still hasn't shown everything he's got. If he's given more time, he's only going to keep getting stronger."
"Are you confident you can beat him?" Old Kai asked.
"Should be fine. I haven't even gotten back to my peak yet — I'm only at about forty percent right now," Goku answered honestly.
"Only forty percent... and you're already this strong. You've really surprised me, kid," Old Kai said with a quiet nod, then followed up. "So — are you planning to keep Frieza around to help push yourself back to full strength?"
"Ha ha ha! Trust Old Kai to know me inside and out," Goku laughed. "That's exactly what I'm thinking!"
"Looking at this carefully, Frieza really must have been reborn from another timeline," Old Kai said, analysing it again. Then he asked, "Going by how history originally played out — where does Frieza head next?"
"Next... assuming nothing's changed, Frieza should make his way to Earth to get revenge on me," Goku said, thinking it over.
"And then?" Old Kai pressed. "Walk me through the original history."
"The original history... Frieza and I met on Namek. I used the Kaio-ken times twenty and still couldn't beat him. I even put together a massive Spirit Bomb and still couldn't kill him," Goku said, the memories surfacing in his mind. He recounted everything that had happened on Namek to Old Kai from start to finish. "Cornered and furious, Frieza injured Piccolo and then killed Krillin right in front of me. In a blind rage, I transformed into a Super Saiyan — and I defeated Frieza."
"I see!" Old Kai followed along, and gestured for Goku to continue.
"With no way out, Frieza destroyed Namek. In the moment the planet exploded, I thought I was done for — but I got lucky and managed to find the spaceship Ginyu and the others had come in," Goku said with a small smile. "I got inside, hit a few buttons at random, and the ship wound up landing on Planet Yardrat. I got along great with the people there, and they even taught me Instant Transmission."
"Go on," Old Kai said with a slow nod.
"Then, about a year later, just as I was heading back to Earth, I suddenly sensed Frieza and his father's ki somewhere in space. They were heading toward Earth — their plan was to wipe everyone out and destroy the planet before I got there." Goku scratched his head and continued, "I saw that Frieza had no intention of turning over a new leaf, so I was about to use Instant Transmission to go deal with him myself — but at the critical moment, someone else suddenly appeared next to Frieza and killed both him and his father without breaking a sweat."
"Who?" Old Kai blinked, mildly surprised.
"Trunks," Goku answered.
To be continued…
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