I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to Diablo 2 or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.

Chapter 27: Reawakening

Broly glanced up as he lost Friezell's power signal suddenly. It had grown exponentially before fading out, telling him more or less what had happened. He felt Kaa's power rise by a decent amount as the other faded, the outcome was obvious.

"So, this creature is that powerful. Well, at least I'll have something to look forward to besides a sparring match with you, brat!" he said to the unconscious Verto. He sighed as he got no real answer, but at least the boy hadn't got critical ever since the doctor had pulled those strange bone fragments out. In fact, he was looking much better and was starting to heal just a bit, despite having a long ways to go. He hadn't started to fade since then either, and the doctors were convinced that once he regained his bearings, he could visit the regeneration tanks and get back on his feet. It had been a few hours since he had sent Fasha there, so he was anticipating her return so he could as least break a sweat for once. Verto appeared to be in a deep sleep for the moment, but every so often Broly heard a groan or two while the child's eyes flickered around a bit in dream state. He thought he heard a word or two mutter from his mouth, but once he heard him refer to the Overmind, he tuned it out. That was one creature he didn't want to remember. It was bad enough knowing that his sacrifice was in vain on Earth, but to learn that the overgrown weed had dishonored him by not only cloning but controlling a stronger, insane version of himself and used him as a tool to destroy his friends and their allies...it bothered him quite a bit. He was quite thankful that he had been sent to hell less than a day after he died, he didn't want to know the kind of person that his clone would have been.

Then again, it may not be as hard to imagine. I used to blow up planets for the hell of it. If that clone was as powerful as I've heard, there is no reason I can't be, if only I had stronger training partners. Maybe I've been around these kids too much and have lost my edge. Other than the continued existence of the Saiyans and revenge on the Zerg, I haven't had much to train for. Perhaps I myself have lost the will to fight much like the others. Maybe there is more in life I need to discover. It is a bit boring now. At least I can look forward to some sort of fight in the future, whether it be with this creature or the kid. But after that, what else? Broly engulfed himself in his own thoughts long enough to not notice Fasha walk into the room, fresh from the tank and wearing new armor.

"So, how is he?" she asked. Broly didn't answer as he continued to glare straight forward, as if he was staring down the wall that was shaped like the Overmind.

"Hello, Broly?" Fasha asked again, a little annoyed that the large Saiyan had ignored her.

"What is it?" he answered, slightly startled.

"I asked you how he was doing, the doctors didn't fill me in!" she said in a stern voice.

"Better than before, he should be awake soon. But until then, come with me. We have some training to do, and I want the soldiers to learn from our match!" he replied, stepping towards the door. Fasha looked slightly confused at the lack of details and opening her mouth to protest before Broly cut her short.

"That creature defeated Cell and Frieza, we must train now before it gets here!" Broly said, replacing Fasha's confusion with determination. She glanced at Verto quickly before following him out the door.

Interlude: Verto's dream

After drifting in blackness for I'm not sure how long, the memories the past flowed through my thoughts, as if watching the highlight real of my Saiyan life. It covered everything from the end of my old world, to Buu, through the Zerg era and finally to Kaa. While I wasn't overly pleased to see and feel it all again, it was refreshing to know how well my mind was storing information. Then when I felt myself summon the Kaioken technique, my vision shifted slightly to an aerial view, as if I was using my spiritual vision on purpose. After blasting the monster into the distance, I collapsed and was picked up by Fasha, who started flying fast. My dream then showed me bone fragments floating in the massive slice across my side going up towards my shoulder and then down my back. A lot of them were barely bigger than a grain of sand, but many of them were different colors other than bloody red and white. Some looked slightly brown like Kaa's claw had been, and occasionally glowed blue. When they did, my body started to fade in and out, and I saw Fasha look very concerned while flying fast in Super Saiyan form.

"So, do you understand what has happened?" a voice asked. I frowned slightly as I felt my feet suddenly touch a black ground and the surroundings lit up slightly with a dull orange in the distance. I was back in the depths of my mind, and I had a pretty good clue who was asking the question.

"Not really, but it looks like that creature poisoned me or something and it caused me to start fading in and out of existence. Am I getting warm?" I asked as a cloud of blue and green floated down. It reformed into a translucent version of my face and body, though was still a little fuzzy.

"Correct, in a manner of speaking. Technically it's both the creature's bone fragments and the strain of the Kaioken technique that did it, but you are close enough. It looks like a kind doctor was able to remove those pesky fragments though, lucky for you," the voice replied, as vague as I remembered.

"Cerebrate, I presume?" I asked, leaving a large scowl on my face.

"Not happy to see me eh?" he answered.

"What do you think? Yeah, maybe I want to take a vacation here in this empty hell hole and you can run my life!" I said in complete sarcasm.

"Now that would be interesting, though I don't think Vegeta would like it if I beat him in every sparring match. I don't mean to brag but I could probably outwit Goku pretty easily as well. A few more techniques from Dabura and a little work on your concentration skills and, heh, I'm pretty sure I could take them both at the same time!" he chuckled slightly.

"I wasn't being serious," I said cautiously this time.

"Neither was I, all I'm saying is that you are doing excellent in this short stay in the afterlife. Except for this creature Kaa, you have handled yourself very well. Most of the training you have left to cover is mastery of your new Chi techniques and as I said, work on your concentration skills. Like before with ki and Psi, you simply need to get used to using your full power more often. This is nothing new in your training, just a brush-up that takes more time than you currently have," he explained, making the scowl on my face grow some more.

"And just how much time is that? Is this your way of telling me of a new threat on the horizon?" I asked.

"There will always be threats, it is not my place to tell you when they will occur. Your destiny has yet to be truly revealed to you, and it won't be for some time. I'm just here on a routine check up. We sensed your struggle against this Kaa creature and then the aftermath, so we were a bit concerned. But you've pushed through it nicely and should be on the mend presently," Cerebrate replied with a nod of the head.

"Okay, you can keep the whole future threat thing and the great destiny from me, I don't mind that. But who is "we"? Are the Supreme Kais or someone else spying on me or something? And how would you know if you're fused with my body and mind?" I asked in a demanding voice.

"Oh, Verto, you think in such three-dimensional terms. Don't you think that you would know if the Kais were watching you too closely? Your mental abilities are more than advanced enough to sense that. And spying is such a dishonorable term. Perhaps, monitoring is a better word," he said vaguely.

"Okay, let's try this again, who is monitoring me? I want a straight answer too, not this end-around shit you have been giving me!" I warned.

"Well, I'd hate to disappoint you, but I'm not authorized to supply that information. Let's just say a select group or two are very interested in you and will be watching you from now on," he said, turning his head to the side.

"Continue," I said the instant he stopped, knowing he was trying to leave me hanging again.

"And I am both here and there. Your fusion took the rest of my energy and some of my mental capacity, but I am not actually bound to you anymore. I passed on when you fused with my essence, and left at the same time your evil half did, in a most uncomfortable way I might add. My actual physical and spiritual being is far away from here in another realm, where it will stay until you need me again. While you may develop some of my characteristics in battle strategy and reasoning, I am no longer a part of you. It is sort of like when Cell absorbs another life form with his tail, they die, but he gets their energy and even some of their mental capacity, though your version is much different. Right now I am simply not allowed to tell you the circumstances of now and the future just yet. Doing so will introduce, an unstable element to an already potentially volatile situation. The group I've mentioned, they are only curious for now, they do not pose a threat at the time, so do not dwell on them. Right now your only focus should be your own life and to better yourself. You will be brought up to speed at the appropriate time. Now then, I really need to get going. I'm not even supposed to be talking to you now," he finished, turning around as he reformed into a thick cloud once again.

"What about Kaa, how can I destroy him?" I asked.

"Due to Babidi's interference and his magical barrier, the only ones who know that are locked away. Free the Kais and you will learn how. As you know, conventional methods are not effective enough to stop him, an old rival of yours has learned this the hard way. Don't be afraid to call on the help of your friends and others, they can assist you in this battle after you've recovered, or at least delay the beast. I doubt we will meet again anytime soon as long as things stay as they should, but with you, that is unlikely anyway," he replied, floating towards the distance and beginning to fade away. As vague as ever, not that I expected different.

The cerebrate suddenly stopped and floated back towards me as he began to fade, "One last thing, watch yourself with Frost. He is a crafty one," he said, fading out. So much for not giving me information, now I know that we'll have to deal with another Frieza relative, the only question is when.

-

I awoke on a bed covered with white sheets and a few beeping noises all around, full memory of the mental conversation I had just had. I glanced up to see some sort of medical monitor beeping in tune with my heart. I tried to sit up and was treated with a nice little eruption of pain from my right side, causing me to cry out loudly as I wasn't expecting it. A rush of aliens wearing medical clothing and Saiyan armor came running in, but only one stayed once they saw that I was actually awake and only sitting up. I examined myself, seeing more than a fair share of bandages and even a few IV like tubes sticking in my right arm. I was thankful though that at least they had left my green pants on, hospitals are bad enough without having to remove your clothing.

"Awake at last I see, you are recovering a little faster than we expected. At least we'll be able to use a revival tank now," the doctor said. I eyed him carefully, he had green lizard-like skin with orange hair and large eyes.

"Where am I anyway?" I asked.

"Medical Ward Five, you've been here for about four days now. You were in pretty rough condition when the girl brought you in, but that's all in the past," he explained, looking over a clipboard.

"And where exactly is Medical Ward Five?" I asked, scanning around with my energy senses. Right away I picked up on numerous amounts of people of many species, but there was one energy type that stood out more than any other - Saiyan.

"Oh that's right, you are new here. Well, let me be the first to welcome you to the Saiyan kingdom. Most of the dead refugees from planet Vegita now reside here, along with a few others. Afterlife is pretty good here, and very routine since the Saiyans have settled down a bit from their ruthless nature of old - oh, sorry about that," he shut up when he caught my glare.

"Where's Fasha anyway?" I asked, ignoring his comment.

"Oh the girl, she is probably out sparring with the legendary one. She has been here by your side a lot, but clearly needed to work out some emotional issues in the way you Saiyans do best. I've never seen another Super Saiyan other than Broly before, so this has been quite an honor," he said with a slight bow.

"Yeah, enough with that. You mentioned a regeneration tank that I could use?" I said, quite eager to leave the bed.

"Oh yes, we should have one available soon, you should try to relax until then, that small body of yours took quite a beating. I'll have a Saiyan nurse come in and remove those medicine tubules, I doubt you want me doing that. Then again, I'm not sure I could anyway," he suggested.

"Fine," I said with a frown, lying back and staring at the ceiling. The doctor left me to my thoughts and I pondered over how I was going to free the Kais. I hadn't tried everything before, but I was pretty sure I couldn't get past Babidi's magical barrier. Not to mention that, but how in the hell I was going to beat Kaa. I sensed two high power levels duking it out not far away, one being Fasha and the other feeling a lot like Broly had. It had been so long since I had actually sensed the real legend without having a ton of Zerg implants embedded in him, so I had nearly forgotten what his power signal felt like. I also sensed all the other Saiyans nearby, and there were a lot, more than I bothered to count. A great deal of them felt like they could be Super Saiyans, but hadn't reached the level yet. I also scanned for Kaa's position, sensing it a long ways away, slowly moving about and taking on weaker opponents that I couldn't identify. He felt like he might be heading towards us, but it was hard to tell since he was moving slow and so far away. If I had to guess, I would say that he was well over ten thousand miles away, maybe even twenty thousand. I considered trying to meditate while I was sitting in bed, but the flashes of pain I was getting once I sparked an ounce of power told me I shouldn't try to just yet. So I stayed in bed and drew shapes with my imagination on the ceiling until the nurse came in. This time it was a large Saiyan woman that came through, ducking on the way in. I barely noticed her until her large head appeared, assuring me that it wouldn't take long to remove things.

"Okay little guy, this might sting for a moment, but you'll just have to tough it out!" she claimed. That's when I recognized her from the past, the large form was a dead giveaway, but the voice and appearance sure helped in remembering the name that went with her.

"Clerpe?" I asked carefully.

"How did you know my name already, did you overhear it and pretend to be asleep during the past few days? Sneaky little devil, aren't you?" she asked while giving my sore face a slight pinch and slap.

"Oh yeah, that must have been it," I replied quickly, realizing that this wasn't the same Clerpe that I had met in the past. Her personality was different. Must have given up that whole snatch and rape routine with other males. I would say that my lesson taught her that, but since this isn't the same one, I doubt that.

"So, is Fasha a relative of yours or something? Did you just die or what?" she asked.

"Yeah, you could say that," I said, unsure of what she actually knew about us.

"Well she never mentioned you before. It was strange that she and her crew would be called away and then only she came back not only a Super Saiyan now, but also with a tag-along. She mentioned that you two were in a spicy battle, but she wouldn't tell me anything else. Kind of annoying really, not even telling her best friends about where she had been!" Clerpe said in a disappointed tone. Best friends, with you?

"I'm afraid she never mentioned her friends much, she did say that you two were rivals or something way back when," I answered carefully, probing for more information.

"Yeah, when we were alive that was the case. But total annihilation of your people does strange things I guess. We've been friends and training partners ever since coming here to this sanctuary that was established by our ancestors, hell, we're even roommates now. It's just too bad we can't return to life like the Saiyans of Earth, but at least our people will live on in both realms now," she said with a slight tear in her eye. She wiped it away and pulled out the needles that were stuck in my arm, applying a bandage while I groaned a bit. She carefully removed and replaced the large batch of bandages that covered my whole right side, commenting on how big of a scar it was going to leave, increasing the groaning volume from myself.

"Alright, my work is done. I'll be back a bit later when we get a regeneration tank freed up and ready for you. See ya!" she left with a slight wave and warm smile. Okay, what just happened? That is not the same woman I met a year ago, no way.

-

About an hour later, a sweaty Fasha came in, looking very surprised that I was awake and sitting up. "They said you'd be out of it for several more days," she explained, looking very happy to see me.

"Yeah well, doctors overestimate sometimes," I said with a grin. I heard a slight stomping and sensed Broly coming closer before he entered the room.

"No worse for the wear I see. That creature must packed quite a wallop to mess you up this bad!" he said with a smirk.

"Not exactly, but I'll get to that later. I'm a little on the hungry side and I'd like to visit that regeneration tank soon. I hate being cooped up in bed." I frowned as Fasha and Broly chuckled slightly.

"Just tell me it was you or Gohan that beat the Overmind. Hell I'd settle for it being the prince as long as it wasn't Kakarot. It's bad enough I have to put up with his legend around here, but if he's still taking out all our enemies in the living world, I'll never hear the end of it! Especially if he beat that clone of myself!" Broly said. I glanced at Fasha, who obviously didn't know due to the circumstances.

"It was a team effort, and everyone including Goku contributed quite a lot to the cause, but I finished the job. I know for a fact he didn't beat that cloned version of you, Gohan and I did that," I said, recalling that event quite clearly.

"Good, at least the King will have a good story once you are up for telling it. He's been quite interested and the Kais have put quite a hush on it past a few minor details that the demon Dabura gave us. Fasha was only able to fill me on details up till her own death," he said, ignoring the fact that her death was a very sensitive subject.

"Anyone have any idea when I can get that tank?" I asked, trying to get off that topic before storytelling began.

"Oh, well a batch of recruits just got sent through there after the training session today, they should be out soon. Until then, fill me in. I may have a loose wire or two up top, but I still enjoy a good story about an epic battle. Especially if I wasn't there to enjoy it," Broly said, motioning to his head. A loose wire or two? I doubt that's even close. Luckily my salvation came through the door as Clerpe came in to let us know that a regeneration tank was ready. She and Fasha assisted in getting me there as I was not in walking condition just yet while Broly left the area slightly disappointed. I managed to doze off as the cold water rushed in and soothed my wounds, though far from easily as I sensed Kaa's continued presence far away.