There wasn't much action to be had in the days following the Serrated's attack. Bardock's training had been amped up to eleven when Tomita joined in on the fun.
Tomita was the strongest warrior in the village, with Svinich a notch below her and Zaziphraz behind him. Though she just barely eclipsed Svinich in power, she had to constantly stay one step ahead of him. In the earlier years as he told Bardock, he had been annoyed by her ability to do so. After a while, he just came to except it, finding it strangely attractive.
Bardock didn't share that opinion.
Svinich, who tended to pull punches from time to time if he felt it necessary. Tomita never found it necessary.
She beat him thoroughly, and then some. Svinich had decided not to sit in on these sessions, as he felt he would be obligated to help his student out of fear for his life, and that would probably cause Tomita to kill him, and beat Bardock even harder.
"If you don't achieve Super Saiyan by the time I'm done with you," she said shortly before the first session of beatings… I mean training, "then it's likely you probably never will." She then gave a creepy smile, and struck hard, and fast.
Though he felt closer with every day, he still hadn't achieved it. He was getting considerably more powerful though, being almost on par with Zaziphraz.
Three pods departed from Chocalla's citadel on a planet called Turrin, whose people were forced below the surface after Chocalla's invasion.
In these pods rode three of Chocalla's elites, a three man unit led by one of Chocalla's three current generals (Being the last remaining members of the Ragus who weren't considered Acramel's pet). Of the Ragus Jella was the last remaining "Amorphite", a sub-species of the Ragus made of a gelatinous substance, who chose his current form.
The other two members of his team were from another planet, that Acramel had destroyed several years beforehand, a race called the Skarrim, who could move objects with their mind. They wore full body suits, which kept them shrouded in mystery.
Downtime for Bardock was scarce. Not that he minded the constant work schedule; In fact he insisted on it. But every now and then downtime was forced on him by Gin.
At first it had irritated the younger Saiyan. After a while though, he came to enjoy the stories Gin told. They were mostly stories about the rebellion that brought him and his comrades to the new planet so long ago. He refused to tell the stories from when he was a member of the Saiyan army though, and Bardock understood why. When asked the elderly Saiyan's eyes would go dark. Bardock chose not to read his mind, as he had come to respect Gin far too much.
One day he and Gin flew out to the wastelands with a few of the other Saiyans. It was Gin's granddaughter Junipa's first flight. They were accompanied by Aregano, Svinich, Cob, the local school-teacher Celera, and a few of her students.
That was the day he told them the story of how he received his name.
"I'll bet you've all noticed by now that my name isn't a traditional Saiyan name," he said smiling, "well Ive decided to tell you all why." He spoke as if none of them had heard this story, although in actuality only Bardock and some of the students hadn't Svinich and Zaziphraz had heard it as children and passed it onto their children. Celera had heard it from him when she was younger, around Junipa's age.
"You see I used to be called Aspargus, before I came to this planet, but I had wanted to leave that personality behind and decided to label myself Blank, though I must admit it was only meant to be a place-holder."
"I find this particular story rather engaging," said the voice in Bardock's head, "but it's ending is somewhat sad."
"You've heard it before?" Bardock said, to which the voice replied, "Of course not, I saw it happen, the old man allowed me inside his head for a while, where do you think I've been lately?"
Bardock grinned, "You really like this guy don't you?"
"He's different from most Saiyans, even the ones on this planet, he adapted to the new ways much easier, he hasn't fought in fifty years."
Bardock understood Toolo's fascination.
"But on the voyage with my old crew to find a new planet for Saiyans who wished to be free of Frieza's tyranny," Gin said, continuing his story, "we ran into trouble with pirates, in later years members of that particular crew sought our planet out in revenge, but at the time they seemed a mere obstacle."
"They captured some of my crew, and killed a few others, and my friend Turna and I were the only ones to escape them, but I knew we had to return to rescue our friends.," he grinned a small grin, "Turna being Turna, ever the voice of reason, disagreed with me." Some of the younger Saiyans chuckled at this sentiment.
Turna and Gin never agreed, Bardock had once heard a story where Turna claimed the Serrated were harmless beasts due to the fact Gin had assessed otherwise, having come to the theory that they were much more intelligent. Turna still referred to them as "Dumb beasts".
"Well I set off in my own pod alone to rescue my friends, back then I was much more prone to irrational thoughts, rushing head-first into any situation that seemed like it would be sufficiently dangerous." He gave a slight smile, it was clear that he was recalling another unrelated memory. But he snapped out of it rather quickly.
"Of course," he said, "I was wrong to rush in head-first, almost got captured myself, and would have if they hadn't all been sleeping when I snuck onto their ship,"
"The intruder alarm woke them, but they were all pretty tired, and I was able to hide, my pod was floating about in space by now, as I had flown to the ship holding my breath, and they probably just assumed that one of the pods they had taken from one of my captured friends had gotten loose and was now drifting in space, I'm not exactly sure of the details, but I still wonder to this day why they didn't think to count the number of pods and Saiyans they had."
"To the shorten this story a bit, I'll gloss over the days I spent disguising myself as one of them, which I'm still amazed that I was able to do, because although these pirates wore full body suits and helmets that obscured the face, it seemed rather odd that one of their members was the exact height, size, and weight as myself, not to mention how perfectly my head fit the helmet."
"But one of them knew I wasn't a member, and what's more, he didn't care, we became fast friends."
"He helped me find my friends and escape, but the leader, a fellow named Tonic discovered our little plan."
"My fellow crewmembers got to safety as My new friend and I faced Tonic," Gin's voice got more serious, "We put up a good fight, but this guy could… move things, he's the one who severed my tail."
"He revealed my friend's face, by taking off his helmet using his powers, and as it turned out their helmets served a purpose, they could not breathe without them. I still remember the look on his face…" Gin edited this part considerably, and there was sorrow in his voice.
"However, I could tell he wanted me to go on, and I did so, defeating the leader of the pirates with my newfound power, that was the day I became a Super Saiyan."
"I'm still not certain whether I managed to kill the leader however, but I do recall him being sent into space."
Sometime after Turna arrived to find me among the bodies of any crew members who chose to fight me rather than flee. It turned out she couldn't stand the thought of me dying alone."
"At the time I thought maybe she had been too late, as I felt fairly dead inside, but I got over it, I knew my friend would find peace. In his honor I named myself Gin, which was his name. I suppose there was no need to hold that information, but I still do so in the hopes that any of you hearing the story for the first time will keep wondering."
He then smiled, "But the story ends fairly happily, because as it turned out the pirates who fled stole our pods and we had to stay on their ship, which was on course to this very planet, and we couldn't figure out their computers, which were far beyond our own technology. We crash-landed here, there were only nine of us then, but we sent people back to Vegeta to find more. Although there have been hard times, it seems this planet is perfect for us."
The rest of the trip consisted of eating and fighting. Aregano sparred with Celera and Cob at the same time. He won, albeit very narrowly.
Bardock contemplated Gin's story. He figured the reason he hadn't transformed yet was because he hadn't lost anyone that important to him. If only he had known sooner, if only he had achieved Super Saiyan back then, before his friends had died. Even their memory hadn't helped. He tried to push the thought out of his mind. It was time to relax and leave the worrying for later.
As the day led up to Jella's attack, Bardock found himself eclipsing Zaziphraz, and catching up to Svinich, with Zaziphraz constantly training to become better than him. Toolo's presence lessened inside Bardock's mind as well. He knew that their bond was weakening. Bardock didn't need Toolo as much now as he did before, and the disembodied Kanassan was spending time with Gin. The two were kindred souls, and got along extremely well.
Bardock sensed a change in the way things were. He was getting used to the peaceful existence now. He felt like he could settle down, and stop fighting, that someone else would rise up and stop Chocalla.
And the Jella arrived.
