Back on Earth, the Z-Fighters and the small group of Saiyans were clustered around in a clearing far away from the site of the explosion. Food had been prepared – courtesy of Chi-Chi and, surprisingly enough, Fasha – and now they were resting as much as they all could. Abruptly, Bardock sat up, which surprised everybody. He looked up into the skies with a horrified and worried expression on his face. He had a terrible feeling, a feeling that Raditz and Goku's mission had gone badly. While he couldn't exactly tell what had happened, he just knew that something was wrong.
"Bardock, mate, are you alright?" Tora asked as he looked over at his best friend. Chi-Chi looked at her father-in-law curiously (she still couldn't believe that her Saiyan father-in-law was alive again) and noticed that it was contorted into a mask of fear and horror. Trunks and Goten (who had been practicing the Metamorese Fusion Dance) stopped and walked over as they saw Bardock's expression. Trunks sat down near his father's dead body. "Bardock?" Tora urged again, starting to become desperate.
"No…," Bardock whispered. Tora strained to hear Bardock's voice as he said, "Something has happened. This changes everything…" Bardock shook his head as he tried to control the immense fear he had for his sons. "Kakarot… Raditz… my sons… they're in danger…," the Super Saiyan murmured. Everyone – Z-Fighter and Saiyan alike – gasped in horror and bewilderment. Tora and Fasha shared a look. They were both confused. They'd known Bardock their entire lives. They knew that he'd never had this type of sense before. So why did he have it now? Was it something to do with being a father… or was it something to do with being a Super Saiyan? Or had it even been that incident on Kanassa…?
Bardock stood then, looking angrily up at the sky. His fists were balled tightly, and small droplets of blood were dripping down from where he was cutting into his palms with his fingernails. As they all looked, the Saiyans and Z-Fighters saw that Bardock's hair was beginning to take on the shape and colour of a Super Saiyan. Tora panicked, and before Bardock could fully transform, Tora grabbed his arm. Bardock looked curiously down at his friend, wondering about his motives. The Saiyan warrior was giving Bardock a stern look reserved only for battle.
Bardock's semi-transformed state disappeared after a few tense moments, and his hair returned to its typical palm-tree style. He growled angrily as he sat back down on the ground and hung his head. He felt horrible and useless. There was absolutely nothing that he could do… and both of his children were in danger. He wanted to help them. He didn't want them to die. But, as a battle-hardened warrior, he knew that if he charged into battle with no thought to his own life, his fate would be no different to that of his children's fate. They'd all die, and probably nobody would ever know. Bardock sighed, and his whole body began to shake with anger. Everyone looked at him, a mixture of confusion, horror and sympathy on their faces. Gohan (who'd finally woken) felt strongly for the Saiyan man. Gohan felt Bardock's pain; he'd lost his father many a time, and he didn't want to lose him again. He knew that Bardock had only just met his youngest son for the first time, and Gohan definitely understood that Bardock didn't want to lose either of his children. Chi-Chi sighed. She understood too. Her children were precious to her… and she understood that Bardock's children were precious to him, too.
The ground began to shake again, and everybody capable of fighting stood up, except for Bardock. King Vegeta became guarded and took up a fighting stance, looking around cautiously. Suddenly he whipped around, to see the creature. It was back. At first, King Vegeta's instincts told him to fight, but in his heart he knew that it would be a stupid move. Bardock sighed as he finally dragged himself to his feet, and initiated his Super Saiyan transformation. Taking up a fighting stance, Bardock steeled himself for attack. He would fight if he had to. There was no question about it.
Abruptly, the creature roared and lunged for the group. All of the warriors tensed up, ready to be attacked… but the creature bypassed them. Horrified, everyone realised that it was going straight for Vegeta's unprotected corpse. King Vegeta turned on his heel in a desperate attempt to stop the creature, but he was too late. Nobody was fast enough to stop the creature as it enveloped Vegeta and began to mutate until it resembled something that looked vaguely like protoplasm before… merging with him?! King Vegeta's eyes bugged out of his head as he began to feel sick. A grunt of disgust came from Nappa, who was shying away from the still corpse of Vegeta. But apparently, that wasn't the end of it.
Vegeta's eyes snapped open.
Trunks screamed loudly in horror as everyone stumbled backwards. Vegeta was dead! There was no way he could have opened his eyes, right? But no. Vegeta was now struggling to his feet, although there was something terribly off with his movements. Both of his arms were hanging limply, and Vegeta swayed on his feet. His head was hanging, looking down at the floor. Or so the warriors all thought. In reality, Vegeta was staring at all of them. Suddenly, he took a shaky step forward, and slowly looked up. Everyone swallowed and took many steps backwards fearfully. His eyes seemed to blaze with a hidden fire as they burned into King Vegeta soul. The king gagged and stumbled backwards, bumping into a terrified Nappa. This couldn't be his son. There was no way. This was something else entirely, something that wasn't Saiyan. It was the eyes that gave the creature away. The blood-red, pupil-less eyes with no whites to them. They were just blood-red.
And hungry.