This is the tragedy of a tyranical despot named Frieza. The tale of how he was maimed by his own foolishness, how his family were lost to him, how his empire crumbled before his very eyes...And how he rose above this tragedy to become a hero in a universe that feared his visage and spat at the mention of his name.

And it all began with an ironic gesture of mercy at the hands of the newest Super Saiyan, Son Goku of earth,

"Please...Don't let me die..." Frieza pleaded, his voice cracking and barely above a whisper. It had all happened to swiftly, the alien emperor had been directing his Death Saucers after the golden haired Saiyan, desperately trying to bisect the monkey who had humiliated and beaten him to a pulp. And then, in his moment of blind rage, he lost his focus. His Death Saucers sliced off his tail, his legs, and chopped off one of his arms from the elbow down. He was fading in and out of consciousness, his pain so grand that the Frost Demon was even oblivious to the destruction of Namek going on all around him.

Goku was in turmoil. He was a kind and merciful being at heart, but the wrathful power of the Super Saiyan trying to overtake his mind was urging him to crush Frieza's skull beneath his boot, or to toss him into the hole that led to the planet's core. "Please...Have mercy..." the despot croaked out through pained whimpers. Goku clenched his fists and spun around to face the dying Frost Demon "How many people begged for their lives at your feet and you killed them anyway?!" Goku spat, his Saiyan blood boiling, voices from beyond this mortal coil urging, begging him to end this tyrant before he could harm another."Did you show me mercy when I begged you to spare my best friend Krillin?!" he yelled, turquoise eyes flaring with rage.

"Please...Please...For...give...me..." Frieza gasped weakly, blood pooling from his dark lips. Goku exhaled deeply, and then spun around, shooting a golden sphere of energy into Frieza's body. The white-skinned alien's eyes popped open, and for a moment he saw a golden light envelope what remained of his body before it dissipated. The pain was still grand, but one of the Frost Demon's greatest racial traits was their ability to endure...

"I've...given you some of my own energy. You should be able to move." Goku said, as if in disbelief at his own words "Go and do as you like with it. You're on your own now." A few metres away, the ground near the two mighty warriors errupted, giant vents of lava shooting into the sky. The ground around the whole planet was being rended apart, and it seemed the whole world would explode in under an hour...Well, Frieza had certainly underestimated the lifespan of the planet when he first launched that Death Ball into the core. Frieza used his telekinesis to float up off the ground, using the very same power to hold his remaining vital organs in place "I...I didn't think you would give me your ki..." Frieza remarked, clearly shocked. Goku still looked stoic "You can survive in space can't you? Then get off this planet and be thankful you're alive." Frieza was silent for a few moment before a smirk graced his gloody and bruised face, and the Frost Demon started laughing.

"Tell me this then little Saiyan, since you seem to have all the answers, where will you go now that the planet's going to blow up? You can't survive in space like I can, you'll just die!" Goku glanced back at Frieza from over his shoulder "That's true, I can't make it back to my ship in time...So I'll take yours." A smug grin graced Frieza's face, he knew full well that even if the Saiyan reached his mothership it wouldn't be space worthy after what Vegeta did to it. "Haha, it doesn't work! Vegeta damaged it! You the winner will die, and I will survive! How funny!" the tyrant yelled, giving a roar of laughter "Your pride has cost you, giving me your ki..." Goku stood silent and turned around, before calmly sating "I'll survive." and with that the Super Saiyan took off into the dark skies of Namek, a gold trail of light following behind him.

Frieza watched his greatest foe fly off, rage swelling and burning inside him at the pain and humiliation this Saiyan had caused him "Simian bastard..." Frieza growled, clenching his remaining fist. It was tempting, so tempting, to launch all his remaining energy at the Saiyan and destroy him with a sneak attack. Then he thought back to their earlier battle...This Saiyan had some sort of, natural energy sensing ability didn't he? He'd sense his attack coming, and in Frieza's deformed and damaged state the Super Saiyan could likely overwhelm him easily. Frieza had to swallow his pride and accept what he had been denying ever since Goku first transformed into a Super Saiyan.

He had been bested.

For now at least. Frieza would get his body repaired, get stronger...And then he would slaughter this simian. Nobody would make a fool of the ruler of the galaxy, the Lord of the Arcosian people. Wordlessly, Frieza let his muscles decrease in size as he left his power-weighted form which was causing him such fatigue, then he quietly lifted his disembodied legs, arm and tail in a telekinetic field, before starting to fly up into Namek's upper atmosphere and into the dark void of space. At his hypersonic movement speed it would take some time, but he could make it out there before the planet exploded as far as he was concerned.

And he did manage an escape into outer space, turning back for a few moments to admire the gaping wound his powers had left on the planet Namek. He could release the power to destroy entire worlds as if they were as delicate as cotton candy...And he had still been bested by a damn monkey. A few minutes passed by in the silence of space, minutes spent by Frieza strengthening the mental field containing his dismembered limbs and retreating to a safer distance from Namek. And in that time he saw one of the Ginyu's attack pods fleeing the ruined world, no doubt the Super Saiyan making his escape, much to Frieza's shock. Still, before Frieza could make any move against the attack ball it dissapeared from sight, travelling several times faster than light. Far faster than Frieza could hope to keep up with, even if he weren't so damn exhausted.

He witnessed Namek's destruction with unblinking eyes. Unlike when he had destroyed Planet Vegeta all those years ago, this carnage did not make Frieza burst out in a fit of maniacal laughter. Just a simple smirk of his dark, bloodied up lips.

And then the Arcosian Lord was left alone to drift. He could try make it to some sort of inhabited planet, but even leaving this solar system would take several days at least in his current condition...Well, he wasn't worried. Even if he couldn't make it anywhere alone, his father would likely investigate once he noticed Namek's destruction and the fact that Frieza's mothership hadn't returned to the palace on Arcos. All he had to do was wait, occupy his time with memories.

He thought back on the legend of the Golden Haired warrior, the Super Saiyan that his great great grandfather Chilled had allegedly been killed by. Nobody really believed him of course, many saw that tale as fiction, a dying man's fantasy. At best all it was was a ghost story to the Cold Family. A ghost story that Frieza's older brother, Cooler, had endlessly tormented him about. Yes ever since Frieza's grandfather Glacei had first led that Arcosian expedition to the planet Vegeta and recruited them to the Planet Trade Organisation, Frieza being only a young lad at the time, Cooler had filled his head with stories of how 'The Super Saiyan' would hunt him down and kill him, just like he had done to Old Chilled. When their mother had been alive, she'd chastise Cooler heavily for trying to scare his little brother, and while Frieza had pretended Cooler's ghost tales didn't bother him it gave him his deep-rooted paranoia. And when he saw the average power levels of the Saiyans on the rise he felt it was only a matter of time before an entire race of Super Saiyans rose against him...A prospect that terrified him to the point that he decided to...Thin out the Saiyan numbers.

Frieza scowled bitterly. He should have killed them all when he had the chance.

And then his thoughts drifted to his mother, Queen Cold, a smile graced his lips. Not a sadistic grin or a condescending smirk that Frieza would normally give off, a genuine and warm smile at those few pleasant childhood memories he had. She was fonder of diplomacy than Frieza's father, though she mainly stayed around the palace to raise Frieza and Cooler. He could recall her face even now, ivory skin, purple armoured plates, red bio-gems on her body. She was tall and lanky like Cooler, more slender than muscular of course. King Cold always told Frieza to never take her lessons of diplomacy to heart, to always follow the Cold family policy of might being right above all else. He thought back to the day she died, when Frieza and Cooler returning to the palace after spending the majority of the day sparring. Father had met them, in the throne room and quietly explained how his wife had taken ill and passed on...From then on Frieza changed into the tyrant he was today, with only his father to mentor him and shape his view of life in the universe.

When King Cold came to retrieve his son, Frieza had no idea just how long he'd been drifting among the ruins of the Namekian solar system. Days at least with nothing but his memories and the determination to keep ahold of his legs and arm to keep him busy. The landing ramp of King Cold's flying saucer opened up slowly to reveal the towering monarch, arms folded over his battle armour. "Frieza, so glad to see you alive...Shame not all in one piece." Frieza scowled at his father's joke while the King simply tittered and led his son inside "So long as I have the body parts they can be repaired and reattached..." Frieza remarked as he floated behind King Cold.

"Of course son." Cold replied dryly, as if only half listening "Now, out of curiosity, just what was it that roughed you up so badly...In your most powerful form no less?" he asked. Frieza inhaled slowly through his nose and then flatly stated "It was a Super Saiyan." King Cold stopped mid-step, then his head slowly turned around to look at Frieza from over his brown pauldron. "A Super Saiyan? As in the old story Chilled said on his deathbed?" King Cold asked incredulously. "I know it's hard to believe father, but it's true... Things on Namek became complicated to say the least. A group of humans got involved in a quest to get their own wishes from the Dragon Balls, Vegeta turned traitor...And then some other Saiyan survivor showed up. He seemed a little bit...Upset when I killed his human friend. The rage seemed to transform him into the gold-haired warrior that Chilled was so terrified of..."

"Well then, it seems we'll need to teach this Saiyan a lesson." Cold replied, opening the door to the med-bay and stepping inside. The scientists present gave a salute but also gave Frieza a wide berth as he floated in, carrying half his body in a bubble behind him. "Fix these." Frieza ordered gruffly, letting his limbs and tail his the ground outside a medical machine with a dull *plop*. With that, the Arcosian lord floated onto the operating table and closed his tired eyes tight "And give me some temporary cybernetic bodyparts while they're being repaired." he added.

Meanwhile, hundreds of lightyears away.

General Kanchapp was one of Frieza's most powerful Generals, dictating operations across the North Galaxy. A Zaltian in species, he stood tall at near 8 feet tall, muscular enough, his skin crimson and scaley. As was common in the Zaltian species his face was vaguely frog-like, large spherical eyes atop his slightly flat head. He wore sleeveless battle armour, black with a golden trim with arm guards of a similar colour. He wore tight black trousers on his lanky legs and had white boots that went past his ankles.

Right now the Zaltian general was in the command centre of his mothership the Dark Star, looking toward his communications officer "Report." he said simply, his voice harsh and raspy. "Well sir, Lord Frieza still hasn't been 6 days after planet Namek's destruction. Our recon crafts have sighted another Planet Trade ship heading into the debris field of the planet, though they couldn't confirm if they retrieved Lord Frieza or not. Getting any closer to investigate would have led to them being sighted." the officer explained.

"I see." Kanchapp replied, giving a solmn nod and rubbing his chin with his hand. "Dismissed." he added, turning his attention to the galactic map, seeing just how much territory Frieza's family controlled. 'If Frieza really is gone, then that's one less member of the Cold Family to worry about...I better get into contact with the other generals though if this rebellion is to have any chance at all of succeeding...'

A/N: Woo-hoo, now that was hella fun to write. Well since it's the first chapter I figure I should take the time to talk about things that I feel will be brought up in comments. First of all, this fic was inspired American Vigor's awe-inspiring fanfic, Honor Trip. The whole thing about a despicable villain becoming a noble hero is a pretty cool idea, and I have to admit making Frieza a hero will be a bit of a challenge...It'll certainly be fun to try though.

Now, first thing's first, the official name for Frieza's race in this fic are the Arcosians. The same race that appearantly gave the Saiyans their technology in exchange for servitude. Frost Demon is also a common slang term for the race within the galaxy, similar to how Saiyan's are referred to as 'Monkies.'

As for Kanchapp's species, the Zaltians, they are Neiz's species. Kanchapp is a bit stronger than Neiz though, currently equalling Frieza's third form in power. But he has a few secrets up his sleeve to raise his power up.