A/N: Sorry it took so long guys. Honestly these last three or four chapters have been liking pulling teeth! Not to mention the sudden disappearance of my beta…. Anyway, this is it. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z. If I did the drawing would have been atrocious!

The Price of a Life

Chapter Thirteen

Obo rushed at Goku and slammed his right elbow into the saiyan's face sending him flying backwards only to be stopped by the enlarged Namek grabbing his ankle. He quickly began to spin in circles, faster and faster until he finally released, sending Goku flying into the air.

Obo quickly phased out and reappeared behind him landing an axe kick to the back of the hero's neck sending him careening towards the ground.

Goku slammed full force into the earth creating a large crater upon impact. As the dust cleared He could be seen lying face=down amidst the rubble.

"It ends here you pathetic creature!" roared Obo as he dove straight down towards the unmoving form of Earth's greatest hero.

WHAM! The shock wave could be felt for hundreds of miles in any direction.

Obo's fist was buried in the ground where Goku's head had been only seconds before. Goku's head was a good foot to the left and his elbow was slammed into Obo's face. Or rather Obo had slammed his face into Goku's elbow.

Goku smirked at the Namek, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "You didn't think I'd go down that easy did you?" he panted.

Obo flipped forward landing on his knees, also panting, his long nose flattened to his face. "It doesn't matter how powerful you believe you are! I have consumed the fabled Elixir of Power! I am unstoppable!"

Goku arched an eyebrow. "Really? Well then I guess I should stop playing around."

The Namekian chuckled deeply. "You claim you've been holding back? Haha-"

His laughter cut off as a violent aura surrounded the saiyan. Suddenly Goku let forth a scream accompanied by a flash that turned the air to fire, scorching Obo's skin and forcing him to shield his eyes. When the Namek opened his eyes a completely new Goku stood before him. His hair now reached his knees and his eyebrows had disappeared to be replaced by protruding brow bones.

"Now," announced the saiyan in a deeper, smoother voice, "What do ya say? Should we end this little game?"

-DBZ-

I'll never make it in time! thought Gohan as he raced towards the prone form of his new girlfriend. He could only watch, still a hundred yards away as the blast exploded.

"Videl, NO!" he screamed as the blast forced him to shield his eyes.

Cryptus' cackled wickedly. "You failed to ssave the one most preciouss to you! She iss dead!"

"Not quite." answered a deep voice from within the smoke surrounding Videl's body.

A figure soon came into focus as the smoke cleared. Gohan's face broke into a smile.

"Mr. Piccolo!" he cheered.

Indeed standing there cape billowing in the wind was his old mentor.

Piccolo grunted. "Aren't you too old to being calling me Mister? Besides you do realize I'm not THAT much older than you. Besides, what were you thinking allowing him to outsmart you! I taught you better than that! What did I tell you when we were training for the androids? Remember, you were whining because your father and I were so much stronger than you and your mother kept forcing you to study. Remember what I told you?"

Gohan scratched his head as he blushed. "You told me that I might not be as strong as Dad but that Mom forcing me to study made me a better fighter than him because it gave me the one thing my father couldn't get no matter how hard he trained. Intelligence."

Piccolo nodded. "That's right. The brain is either the warriors greatest weapon or his greatest weakness. Unfortunately for your father it's the latter. Don't let it become so for you."

"Yes sir." the demi-saiyan replied sheepishly.

"Now I'll watch over the girl while you finish this fight."

Gohan's eyes narrowed menacingly as he turned his head to look at Cryptus over his right shoulder. The alien had not moved the entire time as he tried to recover the energy he used in that attack and the shock of losing an arm.

"You're right. Now, what do you say? Should we end this little farce?"

"Die you filtthhy monkey!" screamed Cryptus as he launched a blast at Gohan.

Gohan raised an eyebrow and watched the blast approach him The blast was a mere inches away from his body when with a yell of "HAA!" Gohan sent it flying away using nothing but pure chi.

He smirked. "I'll take that as a yes."

-DBZ-

"It doesn't matter how many transformations you have up your sleeve! You are nothing-NOTHING- compared to the might of the son of the Demon King!" screamed Obo as he rushed at the glowing figure before him, fist pulled back.

Goku slipped his head to left and quickly latched onto Obo's head and slammed it downward right into his rising knee. Then quickly releasing he grasped his right elbow in his left hand and rammed it into the Namekian's temple.

Goku quickly darted around the flying body with his fist drawn back. But just as Obo approached the Saiyan, he phased out.

Goku spun around quickly and barely managed to through an arm up in time to block the vicious downward kick from his opponent. Obo quickly kicked his other foot out into Goku's face under his outstretched arm sending him flying backwards.

Obo phased out once again appearing behind the saiyan charging a massive chi blast in his hands.

"Goodnight monkey boy!"

But suddenly the chi dissipated and the oversized Namek grasped his chest in pain.

Goku took advantage of his opponents distraction. He quickly slammed his fist into the ground right in front of the hulking figure, using his momentum to flip himself over and slam his booted heel straight down on his opponents head.

Goku quickly leaped back away from Obo to try to catch his breath. He was panting and sweat dripped from his brow.

And as suddenly as it had come earlier, the Super Saiyan Three transformation slipped through Goku's fingers like water. Goku just stood there shocked in his base form.

'Dang it!' he thought. 'I still haven't mastered how to retain the transformation in my living body and I wasted to much energy before I transformed! That's not good.'

Goku quickly dropped back into a defensive stance though, as the large Namekian slowly pulled himself to his feet.

"Uh-oh." was all the saiyan managed to pant out.

The swollen green-being began to take slow deliberate steps towards Goku, his hand clutching his chest. "Time. *cough* cough*. To. *cough* cough*" He stopped walking as another cough tore from his throat, this time accompanied by the bright purple of blood. "Die" he whispered.

He fell to his knees as his body began to shrink back to its original size. His eyes glazed over as he fell forward.

Goku scratched the back of his head. "Umm ooookkk. That was unexpected."

-DBZ-

Cryptus dashed towards Gohan, sweeping his leg out with a yell. Gohan calmly dropped into a crouch, allowing the foot to sail over his head.

Cryptus hissed as he spun around, dropping into a crouch himself, sliding his other foot forward quickly in an attempt to sweep the hybrid's feet. Gohan lightly bounced up using his toes and landed on the other side of his enemy's leg.

Cryptus spun around once more throwing his remaining fist out. Gohan carefully leaned back just ahead of the oncoming punch, slowly putting his weight onto his hands before pushing himself up into a handstand and flipping himself over onto his feet.

Piccolo grunted. "Just like his father. In one of the toughest battles of his life and he goofs around. Amazing."

Cryptus swung his right leg at the demi-saiyans head as hard as he could. Gohan threw up his left forearm and blocked the oncoming kick as if it were nothing. Cryptus hissed and dropped down and threw a right armed hook at the hero's stomach only to have his wrist caught in a vice-like grip.

He looked up into the eyes of the young saiyan. "Cursse you boy!" he hissed out.

With a sudden fling Gohan sent the snake-like creature sailing into the air. Gohan watched his rising form as a marksmen watches skeet. The demi-saiyan began to place the heels of hands together in his fathers signature move but then thought better of it. He shifted his hands, right over left, wrists touching as he raised his hands above his head in his signature move.

Yellow chi quickly gathered into his hands. "Masenko- HAAAAAA!" he yelled as he sent it soaring towards the falling figure of Cryptus. The ball met the plummeting form head-on and as it detonated and the yellow explosion engulfed the snake-like body Gohan heard a loud hiss.

And then the smoke cleared and there was nothing left of the being who called himself Cryptus.

Gohan let out a sigh and turned towards his mentor who was nodding his head in approval.

"You did good kid. I especially liked how you used your own attack to finish it. It sickens me how much you all rely on that old hermit's Kamehameha wave."

Gohan chuckled lightly and rubbed the back of his head in typical Son fashion. "Gee thanks Piccolo."

Piccolo grunted again. "Don't mention it kid. Now let's go pick up your father. He seems to be running a bit short on energy after his fight."

Gohan just nodded as moved over to pick up Videl's still unconscious body.

-DBZ-

Some time later the two touched down next to the Piccolo's meditation waterfall to find Goku apparently napping on the bank of the stream.

As the two, or three if you include the still unconscious Videl, approached him however he spoke. "So I take it you beat that snake guy, huh?" he said with a smile.

Gohan just smiled as he lowered himself to the ground next to his father and began to recite what had happened to him. When he finished he turned his head to look at the older Son. "And how about you?"

Goku frowned as he began to tell them about his own battle. Gohan was shocked to find out it had been Piccolo's brother. Piccolo however just grunted and took it in stride.

As Goku approached the end of his story he tapered off.

"So?" prodded Gohan. "You beat him?"

Goku's smile turned into a frown. "No!" he said. "He died of some kind of heart attack or something before I could finish him off!" he pouted.

"What?" said Piccolo and Gohan together shocked.

"Yup. I don't know what happened to him! We were fighting just fine then all of the sudden he grabbed his chest started coughing and died. So unfair."

"But what caused it?" questioned Gohan, still in shock.

Goku just shrugged. "I don't know." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Although I bet it had something to do with that elixir thingy he took."

Piccolo leaned forward at that. "Elixir? You didn't say anything about that before!"

Goku scratched his head in thought. "I didn't? Oops!" he said breaking into a smile again.

Piccolo just sighed. "Did he say what kind of elixir it was?"

Goku rubbed his chin as he tried to remember. "Uhh, I think he said Elixir of Power or something like that."

And at that Piccolo began to laugh. Gohan looked at his sensei confused. "Are you ok Piccolo?"

Piccolo controlled his laughing and just smirked. "I'm fine Gohan. If he was stupid enough to take the Elixir of Power than he deserved death."

Goku sat up suddenly interested. "So you've heard of this stuff before?"

Piccolo nodded. "Yes, thanks to Nail. The Elixir of Power is an old Namekian artifact."

"Kind of like the Dragonballs?" asked Goku.

Piccolo nodded again. "Yes, much like the Dragonballs. Many centuries ago on Planet Namek there was civil war between the emerging 'Super Nameks'-"

"Like Slug!" interrupted Goku.

Piccolo nodded irately. "Yes Goku like Slug. Now as I was saying. The Super Nameks were led by a warrior Namek known as Guls and the others were led by his brother Lians.

The war dragged on for two decades without stopping because despite the Super Nameks increased power they were outnumbered a hundred to one. But the war slowly reached a stalemate, neither side able to gain ground. So finally, in a last ditch effort to win the war, both leaders began to pour all of their energy into one magical artifact to end the war.

Lians, wishing to stop the war with as little death as possible, created the first set of Dragonballs. His brother however couldn't have cared less for the lives of others. He brewed the Elixir of Power. With it a Super Namek became ten times more powerful and they quickly began to decimate the ranks of the ordinary Nameks.

Lians was still in the midst of creating the Dragonballs when his brother's armies appeared at outskirts of the village he was in. And just as they were breaking through to his home, he finished the Dragonballs. He called forth Porunga and banished the Super Nameks from their homeworld with his first wish. With his second he restored the life of all those that had dies in the war.

Now, Lians realized the danger the Elixir presented. He knew the damage it could cause in the wrong hands. So, with his final wish he placed a curse on the Elixir of Power that whoever was to drink it would die. So if my brother was fool enough to take it, then his fate is on his own head."

Gohan opened his mouth only to be interrupted by Videl suddenly bounding to her feet.

"What going on?" she said dropping into a defensive pose. "Where's that jerk of a chief?"

Goku and Gohan made eye contact. "You explain!" they said together.

End

A/N: And so it is finished after almost a year. Well I say finished, I still have the promised epilogue coming but it wont be very long and should hopefully be up pretty soon.

A special thanks to those of you who have been with this story since the very beginning; AquaMarias who was one of my very first reviewers ever and has since left a review for almost every single chapter; and Crazy Hyper Lady, UltimateGohan42 and Mirai Veggie, who even though I haven't heard from them in a few chapters, were there from the beginning.

Also to Itachi's aprentice who although he came late reviewed on every single chapter.

And to Razamataz22 who was also a late comer but has since stuck by not only this story but all of my stories and continues to encourage me as a writer.

And thanks to all of you who are anxiously waiting to type me out a loving review.

So, stay in school, don't do drugs and keep an eye out for the epilogue coming soon!