Author's Note" Ha ha! Yes, I am back! Thanks again to Froglady15 for the beta read!

Last time on Never Ever Land, Zarbon transported Bulma and the boys to Namek using the giant dragonball radar Bulma created to hone in on the planet and led Frieza right to it! Meanwhile, Vegeta and Puar followed in the cruiser and collected three balls before Frieza caught up to them. Bulma and the boys were released from hypersleep after Zarbon erroneously powered his ship down. Now Vegeta faces off against Frieza, and four balls are still to be collected!

'Vegeta!' the lizard snapped. 'I demand your full attention while I kill you!'

Vegeta dropped his hand from his transponder. The intense relief of hearing Bulma's voice left him jelly-like for a few seconds. The others were all alive. Brolly, Bulma and the others would take care of business if he failed here, and Puar would not have to take the mantle of the Galaxy's last hope on her tiny kitten shoulders.

'Vegeta! Hold on! We'll find you, just please, say where you are!'

He took the transponder from his ear. He couldn't fight with Bulma's hysterically fearful voice in his ear, reminding him that he might be about to die. She'd once said that he could win this thing without the power of the Super Saiyan, but she didn't sound like she believed it now. But he needed to believe it if he had any hope of winning.

Frieza floated in his tub chair only twenty yards away. His entourage fanned out behind him. Zarbon was at Frieza's elbow - the General's favourite place to be. Vegeta's gaze snagged on the thing directly behind Frieza. An air sled was tethered to the chair, and Bulma's uber-sized dragon radar was lashed to it.

'Am I boring to you, Monkey?'

'I don't owe you anything, including my attention,' he told Frieza.

Frieza growled, his face sharpening into a deep snarl that was unlike his usual laconic manner.

'That's it! I am done with this game, Vegeta! I am tired of chasing you all over the Galaxy and for what? You are not worth it! I won't be dragging things out this time!'

He jumped from his chair and turned to Zarbon, his crew, and the terrified looking PTO engineer manning the radar.

'Go! Continue the search for the orbs while I deal with this ungrateful whelp once and for all!'

'At once, My Lord,' Zarbon said.

Frieza waved his hand in irritation. 'Don't waste time "My Lord"ing me! Get out of here before I unleash my full power, as I won't be paying much heed to collateral damage!'

Zarbon hopped onto the tub chair, standing with one foot on either arm rest as he directed in a tight circle, two dragon balls sitting snugly in the footwell of the chair.

Vegeta pounced; using all the chi he had gathered in that short moment, he flew in a wide arc around his ex-master. He wasn't sure if he heard or just imagined Frieza's snarl of temper, but he did sense his sickly chi closing from the left as he had expected. Altering his momentum, he spun, his leg swinging around, his foot connecting with an almighty crack in Frieza's cheek.

The entourage gasped in shock, trying to make sense of their master suddenly disappearing into the far distance. Before they'd finished inhaling, the air sled disintegrated in the scattershot of Vegeta's chi. The engineer fell, screaming, to the ground far below. Only Zarbon was fast enough to keep up with events; he shot away, a dragonball under each arm. While the common soldiers screamed in panic and fled, Vegeta went after Zarbon, who looked back over his shoulder. A flash of pink light on the horizon rimmed his wide-eyed look of terror nicely.

That's right, I'm faster than you now, toad!

Vegeta didn't have long to revel in the satisfaction. A blastwave followed the pink flash, blowing them both off course and hiding Zarbon momentarily in the dust. Vegeta slowed, coughing. Frieza was transforming already.

He only just saw the huge dragon ball in time before it smashed into his face. Catching it, he took off after Zarbon again, in time to see him throw the second ball in the direction of the sun.

While Vegeta tried to decide whether to go after it or not, Zarbon took off again, and another flash lit up the landscape below. There was no time! He let Zarbon escape. He was someone else's problem now.

Vegeta shielded his face from the next shockwave before looking in the direction he'd launched Freiza. At the centre of a distant maelstrom, Frieza was transforming and he needed to prepare himself. He was sure he could dominate Frieza in his base form, but last time they'd fought, Frieza had almost killed him in his third form, and he had another after that, if the others were to be believed.

He threw the dragonball in the direction the other had vanished and began gathering in his chi, concentrating it, drawing it from the air around him, the rocks and moss below, opening the pathways inside, pulling and pulling. He made his own maelstrom, leaves and dust whipped up and around him. Lightning arced up from the ground as it collapsed below him, and he screamed with pain as the energy lapped at his ability to channel it, but when he took his next breath he felt expanded, dizzy with his own power. It popped and sparked through his veins, and every cell felt alight with its charge.

There was no time to settle himself. A small figure levitated through the dust. Pure white, with shiny plates of purple armour on the top of the skull, shoulders, stomach and shins. Vegeta stared. He'd been expecting something enormous and monstrous, like Frieza's second and third form, but this one was no larger than Frieza's usual, deceptively innocuous form. As he neared, Vegeta could clearly recognise the familiar eyes, nose and mouth, but the chi was like nothing he'd ever felt before; like Frieza, but so thick with crackling darkness it was suffocating.

'I was almost sure I had killed you last time,' Frieza said, no hint of humour in his voice. 'I can't believe you're forcing me to kill you all over again.'

'Maybe this time I'll kill you.' It sounded like an empty threat even to Vegeta.

Frieza cracked a smile. 'Haven't you heard, Vegeta? I can't die, so I guess you'll have to.'

Frieza's transition from relaxation to attack was instantaneous, but Vegeta felt the tightening of chi before the explosion of action. Frieza's blow struck, and he pushed on through before slowing to a stop. His fist rested against Vegeta's crossed forearms; the blow never landed. Frieza's face flashed shock before his lips pulled back in a snarl of outrage.

'Die, Monkey!'

'What do we do? What do we do?' Bulma cried. She knew she was panicking, but couldn't rein it in. The thought of Vegeta facing an immortal Frieza, alone and very mortal, overwhelmed all other thoughts.

'We've got to do what Vegeta said, don't we?' Krillin asked. 'Find the other balls and make the wishes!'

'We also need to go help Vegeta,' she said, her lip trembling. 'How will we find him?'

'Oh, I don't think that will be any problem,' Raditz said.

Krillin pointed out the dome. 'That way. Can't miss it,'

'There's a complete shitstom brewing,' Raditz agreed, his face grim.

'You need to go help him!'

Raditz paled.

'I don't think Raditz can help,' Krillin said quietly. 'I know I can't.'

'Don't put words in my mouth, Krillin,' Raditz said, but he didn't refute him.

'I think we could do something,' Goku said. 'You never know how things will play out. Just because none of us were a match for Frieza last time… And who says that helping even means fighting?'

'That's right!' Bulma cried. 'If Vegeta gets hurt, one of you could save him before Frieza manages to kill him.' She looked at Brolly, the one who had saved her the last time they were on Namek. Brolly winced and began gnawing on his knuckle.

Goku's expression turned stony. 'And y'know, if Vegeta does go down, it's gonna be up to us to stop Frieza anyway. May as well be there to step in.'

'No!' Brolly yelped.

'What do you mean, no?' Bulma demanded. 'You mean you're not going to help Vegeta? Or you're going to run away if he dies and Frieza wins?'

'No, not that,' he said, shaking his head and looking away, down at the floor. 'I mean, because Frieza might win, we need to find the dragon balls more than anything. It's- it's more important than helping Vegeta or watching the fight!'

Bulma wanted to scream with frustration. The very person who could actually help Vegeta was arguing against it! 'We don't all need to hunt the balls! Some of us can go help Vegeta! I'll go myself!'

All the boys objected at once.

'That's really not a great idea, Bulma,' Raditz said, literally over the top of the other's objections. 'You've no idea the level of power being thrown around out there right now. You'll be killed.'

'I survived last time and I was at ground zero!'

'Not really, not when the worst of the fight was happening, and this feels bigger. Do you really want to force Vegeta to think about protecting you at a time like this?'

God damn it, he had a point! No! She didn't want that! She didn't want to be Vegeta's liability. Her instincts were screaming that she go to him and see what was happening, but that was irrational, and the tiny part of her that still had a hand on the wheel knew it.

'Please!' she said, not even sure what she was pleading for. 'Somebody's got to help him!'

'You can't help him in a fight,' Brolly said, daring to look her in the eyes again. 'You should be helping look for the dragon balls - that's the best use of your abilities right now.'

Bulma's blood flash-boiled. 'And you should be helping Vegeta! That's the best use of your abilities! You're the fucking Super Saiyan! You're supposed to be the one fighting Frieza, you coward!'

Brolly's face turned red, and he stared back at her, stunned. 'I'm not a coward,' he said, but his meek, croaked reply convinced no one.

'Then why are you fine with sitting back and letting Vegeta fight and die when you're so much stronger than he is?'

'I—' He gulped, and his gaze slid to the floor. 'I—'

Then he turned and leapt down the stairs.

'Where's he going?' Krillin cried.

'Fuck! Brolly, come back!' Bulma screamed after him.

'Maybe he's going to help Vegeta?' Goku asked. 'I'll go after him and make sure—'

They didn't get to hear what Goku was going to make sure of, because he was already downstairs on the main deck.

Bulma burst into tears.

'What have I done? He's our best hope of saving Vegeta and now I've made him run away!'

'Probably not the best time to call him a coward,' Krillin agreed. 'Even if it is true.'

Puar spoke up over comms.

'Hey, what's going on? How do I find you?'

Krillin replied to Puar while Bulma struggled to get it together again, wiping furiously at her tears.

'Maybe it would be faster if we found you, Puar. Where are you?'

'I don't know, but I'm travelling over it very fast.'

'Huh? Do you have some sort of ship?'

'Yeah, I'm in Zarbon's attack pod. He left it on Baccanelli for us to use to get here.'

'You came all the way in one of those pods?'

'Yes and no. We flew the cruiser here, but we slept in the pod the whole way, in case the cruiser leaked.'

'I'm surprised it made it at all, the shape it was in!'

'It made it just fine, but I'm still glad we slept on the way here instead of worrying the whole way.'

'Puar,' Raditz cut in. 'What's the designation of that pod? The name?'

'Uh… Alpha… I think that's a three, but what's that? Oh, zero!'

Raditz hurried along the line of consoles, peering at each one.

'What are you doing?' Bulma asked.

'It's a Frieza Force attack pod - we should be able to remotely control it or at least track it from a command ship like this one. Here!'

He sat at a console labelled VESSEL-SIG and woke it up with a swipe of his arm.

'Um, don't really know how to do it, though.'

'Hey!' Goku spoke over comms. 'Can someone figure out how to lower the main rampway down here before Brolly blasts it apart?'

Raditz, Bulma and Krillin all rushed to find the rampway controls, and as soon as it was lowered, two figures took off from the ship below them, racing in the direction Krillin had pointed earlier.

'Are they going towards the fight?' Bulma asked hopefully.

'Looks that way,' Krillin said. 'Maybe your "pep talk" did the trick after all?'

'Oh man, I should be going too,' Raditz said miserably as the two figures disappeared into the distance.

'For what?' Krillin asked. 'What are we going to do that Goku or Brolly can't?'

Raditz scowled. 'No need to rub it in.'

'We still need to hunt the dragon balls - we have another job to do!'

'This is impossible!'

Freiza exploded from the crater that had recently been a lake. He'd been put there by one of Vegeta's better-placed blows.

'You can't be this strong! You're Vegeta! You're merely a Saiyan, a bully among weakling races! You cannot be doing this!'

Vegeta was still catching his breath from their last encounter, trying to make each second count before Frieza came at him again. He was bruised and Frieza had opened his eyebrow; blood streaked the side of his face. The wound stung, and he needed to keep wiping it away to stop the blood going in his eye, but he couldn't help grinning at Frieza's wide-eyed shock and spluttering outrage. He was mashing Frieza into the ground more than often than the other way around.

I have more than a chance of winning this fight!

'I won't allow it!' Frieza shouted, his voice going shrill, dropping the façade of rage and giving Vegeta a glimpse of the fear beneath.

He charged Vegeta again, his chest heaving with emotion. There was the crack, crack, crack of blows traded, blocked, connecting. It was so fast, he was so fast. His subconscious mind and body conspired to deliver him from harm and land hits faster than his conscious mind could keep up. He had no idea he was capable of this, and he felt...exhilarated.

Euphoric.

Exalted.

He had wanted vengeance against Frieza, not just since he found out that Frieza annihilated his people, but since the first moment he had witnessed him treat his father, king of the Saiyans, like a common underling. And now it was finally within reach.

He slashed chi across Frieza's eyes when Frieza tried to get his hands around his throat, and while Frieza roared, followed up with a kick to the side of his head. Rather than throwing Frieza away from him, they both went tumbling wildy through the air; Frieza had managed to wrap his stump-tipped tail around Vegeta's other leg just as his kick landed.

Frieza pulled him in close. Vegeta got his arm up between them just in time to stop Frieza wrapping his arms around him for a bear hug of death.

'What is your secret?' Frieza demanded, all five limbs grappling in an effort to hold and crush him. 'What did you do to yourself? This can't be you!'

Vegeta got one, then the other leg up, his feet pressed to Frieza's torso widening the space between them so Frieza couldn't lock his arms around his back. That violent embrace was the last place he wanted to be caught. He started gathering chi.

'It's...a hundred percent...me!'

He felt the prickle of the energy building up inside him, ready to be released, but how? His hands were too busy trying to either contain Frieza's or break free of them.

'This is what I really am,' he hissed at his nemesis. 'Not your slave; your superior!'

He saw the fear again in Frieza's face. Then he opened his mouth, blasting chi from his throat like a primitive wild Oozaru; brutal, unfocused, but in this case enough to drive Frieza away from him with a scream.

Vegeta gave himself no time to recover; while Frieza reeled and flustered was an opportunity to press the point - at Frieza's neck.

His throat punch thunked home before Frieza had finished raising his guard. He went down without a sound, straight back down into the crater his body had made only a minute ago. Vegeta followed, landing feet first in the lizard's gut with as much force as he could muster, doubling Frieza in half. Taking to the air again, he gathered chi to tiny hot pinpricks, pointed his fore and middle finger at Frieza's chest and let loose. An untested new technique he'd thought of while training with the others in the desert, something to fry a hole through an opponent like a super-charged lazer.

But it didn't. It sprayed off Frieza's chest in all directions, forcing Vegeta to fend off his own rebounding attack. When he next got his eyes on Frieza, he was scrambling away on all fours, tail held high. A pathetic yet delightful sight.

Vegeta swooped down for the attack, his foot connecting with Frieza's ass right below the tail. Frieza howled, shooting forward to crash face-first in the rubble of the crater wall. Vegeta hoped he'd got him right in the asshole. Then he dropped to the ground to wipe the toe of his boot, just in case he had.

Frieza turned, a hand clutching his throat.

'No! This can't be happening!' His voice rasped from the throat punch.

Vegeta walked towards him slowly, feeling assured of his victory now. His last attack had caused some damage after all - there was a dark, smoking patch in the centre of Frieza's chest, but no hole. Besting him might take some time, but he would get there if he kept Frieza on the back foot.

'Unless…' Frieza stared up at him. 'You're the… No, I don't believe that!'

'I'm the what? Your death? Your end, coming for you, for all that you've done to me and my people and all in the galaxy?' Vegeta wasn't sure why he'd added the last part. It sounded like something Kakarott would say.

'S-super Saiyan. Are you the Super Saiyan?'

Vegeta hesitated, his glee cracking with the reminder.

'Are you?'

Vegeta forced his grin back on to keep up the intimidation.

'I'm not even the Super Saiyan. But I don't need to be to end you.'

Frieza frowned. Vegeta brought his arm up, a blade of chi running from the end of his hand. Another new technique, something he'd been working on against Kakarott, though at a much less deadly intensity. Frieza may be immortal, but Vegeta was hoping he wouldn't be much of a threat if his head was parted from his body.

He leapt forward, but Frieza was no longer there. His chi sense told him to look up, and he did, just as Frieza's three-toed clawfoot smashed into his forehead. He crashed to the ground, his chin parting the rock as he was buried in it, crushing pain and blackness all around.

Too fast!

He wasted chi blasting his way out of the new crevice he was stuck upside-down in and sprang into the air, looking all around for Freiza, sure the lizard would be taking advantage of his temporary blindness.

He was right.

Pain exploded across the back of his skull, from a foot, hand or tail, he never saw. The air roared in his ears as he was thrown through it, dazed, dismayed.

Snap out of it!

He took a breath and took control of his chi, using it to slow and turn him in the air. He could feel Frieza to his left and turned that way. Why hadn't he looked for him with his chi sense earlier and avoided a smack in the head? Had he let himself be rattled like he was trying to do to Frieza?

Don't let him take you by surprise again, idiot!

Freiza zipped overhead, then to the right at him, apparently trying to decide where to attack from. Suddenly he was behind. Vegeta sensed the attack, turned, rose, and yet still Frieza was faster! The single windmill kick connected under his chin, slamming his teeth together, his skull reverberating. His brain felt like it was flattened in the bottom of his brainpan. Eyes closed, his sense of the world swirled sickeningly around the pain until he hit the ground, ploughing a furrow across a plateau. He opened his eyes just as a toppled Ajisa tree landed on him.

The tufts aren't as soft as they look.

He breathed through the pain, trying to remember where he was and who he was fighting. Cui? Jeice?

He pushed the blue-topped tree off himself and saw the green sky. Namek. Oh yes.

'You know, I've been thinking,' Frieza's voice said from surprisingly close by. Vegeta hauled himself to his feet and looked up to the rim of the furrow. The white figure stood cool and relaxed.

Please don't attack yet, Vegeta prayed. I just can't.

'I've let passion get the better of me today,' Freiza went on. Vegeta stared blankly at him, not caring what he said, only that his speaking gave him more time to recover.

'It's led to me to behave a little irrationally. You are, by your own admission, not the fabled Super Saiyan, if such a thing ever existed. And I, as you must know, am immortal. There is no lasting harm you could do me.'

'I could char the rest of your tail off.'

Frieza's serene demeanor stiffened into irritation. 'Not if what you've done so far is any indication of your best. That was my mistake - rushing in headlong, lashing out at you with all the grace of a child in a nursery brawl. It is all I ordinarily have to raise myself to, and so seldom at that. But I see now you are a more worthy opponent than that. Not in my league, but I shall have to take you somewhat seriously. I'll scrub you from existence methodically, precisely, as if you were a stubborn bloodstain on my throne room floor. A calmer head shall prevail.'

'How would you know? I doubt you've ever got down on your throne room floor to scrub.'

'Of course not! Merely a metaphor, but it does look like boring, tiring work for the cleaners. If that's what killing you has to be… Well, so be it. It's time I moved on with my life.'

'If you're so over me, why are you even here?'

'Tying up loose ends. And don't flatter yourself - not just you. I can't leave magical artifacts like those pesky orbs laying about, or the people who can produce them. I'm going to eradicate them all.'

'You could have done that from orbit.'

Frieza smiled. 'Well, I admit, I did have my eye on one or two more wishes before Planet Namek goes bye-bye. Teleportation for one. And perhaps to wish a little pestilence on my brother.'

'What makes you think the Namekians will wish for anything you tell them to? It worked out so well last time.'

Frieza grinned wider. 'I've had time to track down some very old books on Ancient Namekian, and a scholar or two in Arcane languages. I have my wishes memorized. Don't worry, Vegeta, I won't make the same mistake twice.'

The attack was instant and devastating. Vegeta had the sensation of turning head over heels, a hand locked around each of his arms, and then he was looking back down at the ground from up high, with Frieza's outstretched hands pointing at him, eclipsed immediately in white hot, searing chi.

Raditz piloted the ship halfway around the planet through the upper atmosphere before landing it very gingerly in a region streaked with shallow valleys and what might count as mountains on flat old Planet Namek.

'Holy hells, this thing is BIG!' he exclaimed, as the computer barked at him repeatedly that the selected landing site was not large enough. They finally set down near to Puar's local coordinates and Puar navigated the pod to the rampway as it opened to let them out.

There was a brief flurry of hugs, which Bulma brought up short, asking, 'What do we do now? Do we have any idea where there might be dragonballs?'

'I was tracking one that was in the direction you came from!' Puar said.

'You have a radar?' Their luck couldn't be that good, could it?

'Yes, I brought two just in case we found you!'

'Oh my gosh, Puar! Thank goodness!'

'And I already have three dragon balls,' Puar said, pulling the capsule out of her fur-pouch.

'That's amazing! So we only have four left to find!'

'Wait a moment!' Puar shot back to the pod and returned with two of the blocky text-interface radars Bulma had made on their way to Namek the first time.

'What do I sense over there?'Krillin asked, peering back the way they had come.

'Somehow it doesn't feel like the PTO soldiers,' Raditz replied. 'Must be Namekians.'

'It must be a whole lot of them.' Krillin's mouth popped open with delight. 'Grand Elder Guru! That's who I'm feeling!'

'Oh, you're right.' Raditz squinted in the general direction. 'I wanna see that guy. I have a bone to pick with him.'

'We have a problem, though,' said Puar. 'Freiza has two of the dragon balls. I don't know how we can get them back.'

Raditz and Krillin looked at each other.

'Frieza won't be able to fight and hang on to the balls at the same time,' said Raditz.

'Won't he have handed them off to his soldiers, then?'

Raditz grinned. 'Hopefully.'

Krillin nodded, returning Radtiz's smile with a grim one of his own.

'That's settled then. You and I will go get those two from Frieza's goons while you girls go visit the Grand Elder for that dragon ball.' He reached out and took one of the radars from Puar's unprotesting hands.

'And the last ball?' Bulma said.

'Whoever collects their balls first goes and gets it. Stay in touch.'

'Do you want the ship or the pod?' Bulma asked.

'Not the ship,' said Raditz. 'It's a pain in the ass to park and it's not exactly stealthy. Don't really need the pod, either. I think we'd be faster without it now.'

'Right,' Krillin agreed.

'See you at Guru's then,' Bulma said.

Bulma followed Puar back to the pod and got in.

'Oh, gross! Why is the seat soaking wet? Oh, you know what? I just realised I don't want to know.'

'Woah!'

The enormous flash of bright magenta chi left a blinding afterimage in the centre of Goku's field of vision and made the rest of the world seem to darken around it.

'Did he just kill Vegeta?' Brolly asked, blinking and straining to see the battle in the distance.

'Here it comes. Brace yourself!'

They both brought their arms before their faces to shield from the blastwave. It slammed into them with the sound of a thunderclap. It felt like being slapped by a giant hand. Goku felt his worn training suit give at the shoulder seams as it tried to break free and follow the wave. They both gasped at the power of it, and they were still miles from the epicentre.

'How can he be alive after that?' Brolly asked, no doubt sensing what Goku could. Vegeta's energy signature had dimmed, guttered, then brightened again, though not quite as strongly as before. A few seconds past.

A beam of violet light erupted from the area Vegeta had been blasted to. It stopped, splattering against another ball of pink light that formed. Two beams surged back and forth, trying to break through the other, but it seemed that Vegeta's had the advantage of a head start; the purple column bulged, swelling with a deep pulse of chi that Goku felt in his viscera, and the pink light was swallowed whole. Another explosion followed, the purple chi tearing a channel through the topsoil and bedrock, skimming the planet until the curvature of the horizon set it free, burning a hole on it's way out of the atmosphere, shining like a star gone mad.

Goku felt a glow of pride that his training partner could produce such power. Pride, and a little jealousy. He wanted to test his own limits. Against Frieza? Was that a dumb idea? Probably, but he still itched to get in there and have a go.

'I don't know, but I'd say Vegeta was holding his own pretty well. Want to get closer?'

Brolly didn't reply, his face a mask of anxiety, but he followed when Goku swooped down to where they'd seen the purple light emit from.

Vegeta stood, more or less, in a rockcrape scraped clean of vegetation, blackened and scoured. He panted, heaving breaths as he bent over, hands on knees. He looked up as they approached, staggering a little. Goku decided that he didn't look quite as on-top of things as the light show indicated. There was dried blood streaking half his face, and his training suit was already in taters. He swayed on his feet

'Stay out of it!' Vegeta shouted, as soon as they were within earshot.

'You sure you don't want some help?' Goku asked, already knowing the answer.

'This is my fight!'

'Just askin'!'

'I know you, Kakarott, and I know you probably want to try yourself against Frieza. You'll just get in over your head.'

Goku chuckled; Vegeta did know him after all.

'Hippopotamus!' he retorted.

'What?'

'That's what you call people who call someone something when they're that thing too!'

Vegeta let his head drop with a sigh.

'Idiot.' Then he tried to straighten, grimacing a little. 'If I fail, you can take your turn dying by Frieza's hand, if you wish.'

'I don't know if I'll get the chance though - I think you've got a real shot at this, Vegeta!'

Vegeta lifted one side of his mouth in a lop-sided smile, and he grunted in acknowledgement. Then his eyes landed on Brolly and his jaw clamped tight. Brolly seemed to shrink away from his gaze. Goku wanted to shake Brolly - now of all times, he was letting himself be intimidated by Vegeta, when a stronger, more deadly foe loomed.

Finally, Vegeta managed to unlock his jaw to say what he needed to.

'If it comes down to it, Brolly, you must fight Frieza, and you must win. We all know you're the Super Saiyan. We all know you can do it, so do it to keep Bulma safe. Do it to avenge our Saiyan race! For Saiyan pride!'

Brolly bobbed his head weakly. Vegeta nodded in satisfaction and then whirled around. A white streak crashed into Vegeta, who had barely gotten his guard up. The air split at the impact, the sound so loud that Goku and Brolly were blown backwards before flaring their chi to catch themselves. Vegeta and Frieza were gone, and explosions ranged off in the distance.

'Is this what it was like when I fought Vegeta?' Brolly asked. 'As a spectator, I mean?'

'Er, not really,' Goku admitted. 'This is...even more intense.'

Brolly gave Goku a horrified glance.

'Then why does everyone expect that I can beat Frieza? I don't think I could do what Vegeta is doing right now!'

Goku narrowed his eyes. 'When you fought Vegeta...when you felt that golden chi break through, were you fighting with everything you had?'

'I-I don't know. I can't remember! That might be all I have! In which case being this Super Saiyan thing isn't all that amazing.'

'It is amazing, and you've got more,' Goku insisted. 'I know it. You just have to know how to use it.'

'Well I don't! I haven't even managed to do the Super thing again, not even once!'

Goku considered it a moment. The way Brolly had used it before, he was sure it was instinctual.

'Maybe it will only happen when you need it.'

'If Frieza hasn't killed me first.'

Puar landed the pod on the edge of the deserted village. It was on a slope running up to a rock outcrop that ran the ridge of the valley wall.

Bulma popped the door and climbed out, trying to read the radar at the same time. It looked like the ball was somewhere up by the cliff.

'Stop!' a cry rang around the village. Bulma froze, as did Puar, hanging in mid air. 'I know her!' the voice said, and Bulma found it's source - a gangly Namekian who had just stepped around the curve of a bulbous building. He wasn't looking at her though, but at something in the trees on the other side of the small cluster of buildings.

'They are using Frieza's technology to get around in,' a deeper voice called back. 'They must be in league with him.'

'No we're not!' Puar and Bulma screamed, finally spotting the full-grown, bulky looking Namekian in the trees, hands raised in a posture that suggested he was about to fry them with chi.

'Do you trust her, Caraco?' the Namekian in the trees asked.

'I do! She's the Earthling who we made the wish for, to bring back to life a Namekian living on Earth. She passed the three trials at Tsuno's village.'

The Namek warrior stepped into the clear, lowering his hands. The gangly one rushed towards them, nearly as tall as Brolly, but more slender.

'Bulma! It's me, Caraco!'

Now she remembered - he was the youth that had led her into Tsuno's village last time they were here. That seemed like a long time ago, but not long enough to explain how much taller he'd gotten.

'Oh, wow! What's been happening? How did you get that tall?'

He grinned, delighted she had noticed. 'I am no longer a sprout.'

'But so fast?'

'Saplings do shoot up starting around 13 years,' said the older Namekian, coming closer.

'And I'm 14,' announced Caraco.

That sounded about right until Bulma remembered that a Namekian year was just over four Earth months, which would make him four Earth years old.

'You mean Galactic years, right?'

'No, Namekian. I don't know how long a Galactic year is.'

'You can't be that young!'

Caraco shrugged and smiled awkwardly. 'But I am.'

'Come on,' said the other one. 'This is no time to be chit-chatting out in the open. Why have you Earthlings returned? And how, I might ask. Nail's wish was meant to save us from aliens invading our planet forever.'

Bulma wondered how to phrase the answer. It was because of the Earthlings and Saiyans that all this trouble had come to the Namekians in the first place, even if they hadn't intended it. And now they'd brought Frieza back again.

'It turned out there was a way around the wish,' she said. 'Frieza found out about it and forced us all to come here. We want to find the dragonballs to wish away Frieza's immortality again.'

The Namekian considered this and then nodded. 'That's a wish we have been discussing making ourselves, once we have gathered the dragon orbs.'

'We've got four of them already!' Puar said. Bulma shot her a look - she hadn't been planning on revealing that. They were no match even for a single full grown Namekian if he decided he wanted their dragonballs. The calculating look the older one gave them now was not reassuring.

'We should take them to the Grand Elder,' Caraco said.

'Um, yes,' Bulma agreed, hoping that Krillin and Goku's high opinion of the guy was warranted. He didn't sound like the sort to shake down a girl and a kitten for dragonballs.

The older Namekian turned and led the way up the hill. 'My name is Kressoon,' he said. 'Don't think about trying to trick our Elder. He is one of the wisest beings in the Galaxy. He can sense deception with ease.'

'Of course! I would never!' she said. Negotiate using only the truth? Uncomfortable.

Caraco fell in beside her. 'I had wondered what happened to you after you left our village.'

'Kind of a lot,' she said, letting the understatement cover everything good and awful.

'Nail said you were there when Frieza made his wish, and no one knew if you survived.'

'I was banged up, but I lived. As you did, I see!'

'Ah.'

He stopped, and she turned to look up at him. He looked shaken all of a sudden.

'What's wrong?'

'Oh, I, uh… Didn't live, actually.'

'What do you mean?'

'Frieza's soldiers—' he swallowed '—killed me. I was there when your friends defeated Frieza's pink-coloured General and they retaliated by killing me and another.'

Bulma stood swaying on the spot, the spray of blood and Tarble's small frame thrown back against the bedroom wall was all she could see for a moment.

Puar was only amazed though.

'You died and were brought back to life? What was that like?'

'Not really very nice,' he whispered. 'And the things I saw before I died… I'm one of the lucky ones because I was amongst the first that the others wished back to life. Most of our brethren who died that day are still dead.'

Kresoon doubled back and wrapped an arm around Caraco's shoulders. 'Come on now, back to Guru. There's no use in dwelling on painful memories.'

'I'm sorry, Caraco,' Bulma said. 'I had no idea.'

He gave her a weak smile. 'You don't need to be sorry. It wasn't your fault. And I'm fine now!'

But she couldn't quite shake off the sense of guilt. 'I'm sorry you had to go through that.'

The cliff hid the entrance to a deep cave in a fold of it's buttressed face. Bulma and Puar heard the hushed voices of other Namekians as they were led inside. Past the bend of the entrance passage the cave was not dark, as she expected, but lit by a shaft of light from a hole in the ceiling. A group of thirty or so Namekians sat in the light. Half were kids, or scrawny "saplings" like Caraco. The others were old Namekians, with spreading guts or bent backs. One of them heaved themselves to their feet.

'Ah! It is the alien, Bulma! I'm not sure whether to say this is unexpected, or the complete opposite!'

Oh, no, Tsuno was here.

'Oh, hi Elder Tsuno. Nice to see you again.'

'I wish I could say the same. How is the companion you poisoned last time you were here? He seemed mighty agitated after I healed him.'

She had to rewind her brain to the events of her first visit to Planet Namek. She'd injected Vegeta with sedatives while making out with him, used his doped ass to win a challenge of strength, then dumped him in Tsuno's village to go after Puar, who'd stolen the dragonball behind all their backs.

Her face warmed with shame, and she had to bite down on a smile even as tears suddenly threatened.

'He was pretty pissed with me at the time, to be honest, but we got over it. But he's fighting Frieza right now, which is why we are here.'

The old Namek frowned. 'You came back so he could fight Frieza?'

'No. Frieza brought me and some of the others here so that Vegeta would come rescue us, and Frieza could kill him. But I'm not going to let that happen if I can help it!'

Tsuno's frown gave way to surprise.

'Bring her here, my son,' said a voice from deeper in the cave. Deep, slow and sonorous, it made Bulma shiver with some unnamable emotion to hear it. 'I'm sure the story is long and complicated, and we lack time.'

Tsuno nodded and waved them onward. The cave narrowed and curved, then widened again into another sunlit chamber. In the centre of this was a being more enormous than Bulma had ever imagined, even after the boys' descriptions. He sat on some sort of white throne that looked like it was formed from the same "secreted substance" that their houses were built of. A small child was asleep on his lap, and an older child sat near his feet. His knees were the same level as her head, and she had to look up past his spreading belly to see the slits between his sagging brows and heavy eyebags where his eyes might be.

An odd feeling came over her - awe. She'd never had much belief in supernatural deities growing up, and even after discovering that Kami was real, she'd never mustered a feeling of mystical wonder over him. The opposite, in fact, because she'd no sooner confirmed he existed before he was murdered like every other schmoe on Earth. But she felt something now in the presence of this being, something that made her heart flutter somewhere between joy and heartbreak. The tears she'd been holding back fell. She couldn't find anything to say; no greeting seemed worthy.

Vaguely, she was aware of Tsuno, Caraco and other Namekians filling in the space behind her. She didn't want to stand there staring like a dummy, but with her words having abandoned her, she found herself making an awkward bow.

His eyelids were so droopy that he surely couldn't see, but apparently he didn't need to.

'Bulma, Child of Huma, I did not think we would ever get to meet.'

Something thrilled in her chest to hear that he had thought of her before this moment, eclipsing the question of whatever the heck a Child of Huma was.

'And this little one must be Puar'

'Yes,' the cat said in a tiny croak. She floated forward, then hesitated.

He smiled. 'A very special Earthling. Yes, you can come closer if you want.'

Puar rushed forward with a sigh. Guru rolled one massive hand onto its side on the curved armrest, and to Bulma's shock, Puar rushed straight to it, landing on the armrest and curling herself against his palm. Then she burst into tears.

'Puar, don't!' Bulma said, embarrassed for the cat.

'It is fine,' said Guru. 'She is young and has faced a very hard day.'

'How...do you know that?'

'I'm reading her memories.'

'Puar!' Bulma cried, but the cat only sighed and relaxed against the giant green hand. Guru made a low, comforting, grumbling noise.

'Shipjacking is hardly an honorable strategy,' Guru said, 'but I'm glad you took pains at least to victimise only those most deserving of becoming victims.'

Was Puar giving up all their secrets?

Guru spent another few moments contemplating the inside of Puar's head before he raised his other hand out from the chair. 'Bulma Briefs, if you'd like to share your part of the story, it would save a lot of time.'

Bulma's feeling of awe was not enough to overcome the horror that this suggestion conjured.

'Have my mind read? That sounds a bit too intimate when I've only just met you.'

Guru's breath came out in the merest hint of laughter. 'A strange time for reticence, don't you think? When your friend's life is in the balance?'

Again, she was confused. Again, Guru answered her. 'Puar has shared that much of the story. Vegeta is fighting Frieza as we speak, though I had guessed as much already.'

Bulma stepped forwards, then stopped again. What if Guru didn't agree with all the wishes they wanted? How would she hide them from him if he could read minds? How could she hide anything?'

'You are afraid because you feel guilt for your actions and thoughts,' he said.

Her cheeks burned. 'Well, you can obviously already read my thoughts from here, so why should I come any closer?'

'Impressions and emotions only. The full picture would be more useful.'

'And will you see everything I've done? There's a lot I'd like to keep private!'

'I will only be looking for what's relevant to our predicament. Puar has told me of your new closeness with Vegeta, but the details of sex and romance are not of interest to an old, asexual Namekian. Nor relevant.'

Bulma's cheeks burned. The Namekian child at Guru's feet looked far more piqued at the mention of her relationship with Vegeta. Suddenly she realised who she was looking at.

'Nail?'

'Yes, it's me,' he said, getting to his feet. Like Caraco, he was noticeably taller than when she'd first met him. He was still much shorter than Caraco though, so what did that make him? Three? Two? 'I didn't think I would see you again.' His face showed that he didn't know whether to be happy or upset by the fact that he was seeing her again. 'You should do as the Grand Elder says. No one is wiser, and I doubt he'll give you the wish orb you're after if you won't trust him.'

'You read minds now, too?' she said, scowling at him.

He grinned. 'No. But I bet you're not back on our planet for the fun of it.'

'Smartass.'

She stepped forward again, feeling forced to it.

'Child, what are you afraid of?' Guru asked.

'We really need your help,' she admitted. 'And I'm afraid you might not give it.'

Guru let out a long, low grumbling sigh.

'Only by asking truthfully will you know.'

Nodding her defeat, Bulma stepped right up to the throne. The enormous green palm came down to rest on her head, smelling like sun-warmed garden clippings. Her thoughts reeled suddenly to her mother in the garden, but she shook it off and tried to concentrate on the one wish she was sure Guru would approve of.

'Hmm. The mind that seeks to stand alone at all costs is the last to lower its defences. Let go, Bulma.'

Her thoughts lurched again, at first just random flashes of moments from the last few months of her life, but when they encountered Brolly's transformation the flashes slowed and became more focused. She watched Vegeta's defeat at Brolly's hands all over again, Vegeta's withdrawal and Nappa's betrayal. Reliving the fear of those minutes he had held her captive on the ship had her clutching at the giant fingers in panic.

Calm, said Guru, but not aloud, she didn't think. She did calm, almost like she'd been drugged. The memories of Tarble's death flickered past but she only felt numb; the grief and fear remembered but not felt, like a horror movie playing in the background without sound.

Poor Tarble. Dying to save his friend and show his loyalty to his brother. I am very heartened that the sentiment goes both ways between those two now, or so it seems by the wishes Vegeta wants.

The memories skipped forward again, to crying in the waterhole with Vegeta, particle accelerators in the desert, then Zarbon's interrogation, the spacewalk to attach her dragon radar to his ship, and Zabon's conversation with Frieza.

I see.

The memories rewound again, skipping back to the earlier days on Baccanelli, scouring scrapyards, haggling for components, building the radar, building the unfinished wormhole generator.

She wrestled control of her mind back for a moment, like she was coming up for air. I'm being read like a piece of microfiche! An unbidden memory of a microfiche machine demonstration reader at the West City Central Library stack followed.

Interesting comparison, Guru noted.

Suddenly she was her master of her own mind again, aware of her surroundings and the faces of curious Namekians watching her. The Grand Elder lifted his hand again with a great sigh.

'So Frieza found his way back here...through you.'

'Yes,' she admitted, not looking up either at Guru or the assembled Namekians. 'You know why we needed to come back though, or thought we did. It was only because we were betrayed that Frieza found out where we were and that I had a way of getting back here.'

'After Nail grasped the opportunity to wish all our alien visitors back into space in their ships, and then to remove all record of our Planet's location from existence, we dared believe that Frieza and any other alien would never bother us again. It turned out that for someone like you, finding us again was absurdly easy.'

'I wouldn't say absurdly easy.'

'Still, we have had many centuries of very few visitors, while the secret of our wishing orbs remained ours alone. I feel that time is now over.'

'I'm sorry.' And she meant it. 'If I could have thought of any way of preventing Zarbon and Frieza from using the radar, I would have.'

'Any way that didn't involve the murder of your friends? I understand, child. There was nothing to be done. I had hoped to preclude your need to return by wishing the one you call Kami back to life when the orbs were next active, but of course that didn't stop you looking for us.'

'We know about that - King Kai told us.'

Guru straightened in his chair slightly and smiled. 'Mmm? You have spoken with the King Kai of the Northern Galaxy?'

'Yes.' Suddenly she realised she had chatted with someone of a far greater magnitude of dignity and importance than Guru and had not been the least bit awed. She raised her eyes to Guru's face again. Was it just a powerful aura, or his mind-powers that made her feel this way? She decided to not be cowed or swayed by this guy more than she would any other mortal being.

Guru's smile spread wider.

'You are a good match for Vegeta.'

She ignored that. 'Grand Elder, we request the dragon ball in your possession to make some wishes.'

'You are welcome to use the orbs to wish Tarble back to life. I liked that boy, and he was a Saiyan, which is a rare thing, and a good-hearted one, which is rarer still. The wish to remove Frieza's immortality is one we have been considering ourselves, though I am not sure if Porunga has the power to take away Frieza's immortality against his will.

'How could he not?' Bulma asked. 'He gave it - why would he have trouble taking it away?'

'It takes more magical power to do something against someone's will. Immortality is a big wish to begin with. Perhaps taking it away against a person's will be too much. Or not. As far as I know, it's never been tried before.'

While Bulma was still letting that sink in, Guru spoke again.

'Which brings me to the third wish Vegeta wants you to ask for.'

'His immortality?'

The crowd of Namekians broke into mutterings of disapproval.

'I forbid it,' said Guru, not beating around the bush. 'I had hoped Vegeta would have thought better of it by now. Apparently he hasn't, but he will. I would save him the heartbreak of finding himself burdened with endless years.'

'But if he doesn't get his immortality, he'll probably die in the fight he's having with Frieza right now!'

'Better that he die and be revived if needed.'

'But—'

'Do you really want to grant Vegeta this wish? He would never grow old, never die, Bulma, no matter what he chose to do with his life.'

Truthfully she didn't. She just wanted him to survive this fight. 'He could undo the wish later.'

'He could, if he gets the opportunity.'

'If you put it that way, he can be revived - if we get the opportunity!'

'You seem certain he will fall to Frieza.'

'I want to believe he won't.' She grimaced, but her guilt was no match for her anxiety. 'There's some weird prophecy about Frieza being killed by something called a Super Saiyan.'

'I know the legend of the Super Saiyan. They are meant to arise only once in every forty generations, and this time it is Brolly who fills the role.' The listening Namekians murmured in surprise at the revelation. Nail gasped. 'I knew there was something very different about that child,' Guru said. 'So you think that Vegeta can't be destined to defeat Frieza when Brolly is the Super Saiyan?'

She shrugged. 'I don't know.'

'And how credible is this prophecy?'

'I have no idea.'

'Take heart - Vegeta is far from lost yet. He may defeat Frieza. And if not, young Brolly will not let his fellow Saiyan die. Have faith in your friends.'

Bulma grit her teeth, wishing she could do as Guru said but really wanting to climb up onto his chair and shake the serene green Elder by his over-sized robe lapels. A sob of frustration leaked out from under her control.

'Caraco, bring the orb, if you would.'

Caraco walked around her and disappeared into the shadows behind the throne, then crawled out backwards, rolling the giant dragon ball in his wake. He picked it up and handed it over to Bulma with a smile.

'That makes four orbs in your possession,' Guru said. 'And Krillin and Raditz are gathering a fifth and sixth. Go now with Nail to gather the last.'

'Surely I should stay here with you, Grand Elder?' Nail asked. 'I'm your protector now.'

'You are the protector of all Namekians, Nail. We need our strongest with the orbs when they are gathered, lest Frieza take advantage like he did last time.'

Nail bowed, looking abashed. 'Of course, Grand Elder.'

'Kresoon will stay behind to guard the rest of us. I will call the rest off their search for the orbs and ask Melk and a few more of our warriors to come here.'

'Thank you, Grand Elder!' Bulma said. At least Nail was equipped to deal with any of Frieza's men if they should encounter them. She glanced at where Puar was still curled up against Guru's palm. 'Puar! Are you coming?'

The cat roused herself, sitting upright before leaping back into the air. 'Ready!'

As the three began filing through the Namekians to leave, Caraco's voice called out, 'Wait!'

Bulma stopped and turned. The boy was looking back and forth between her and his Elder.

'I wish to go too, Grand Elder, to provide healing if it's needed.'

'There is no need to prove yourself, young Caraco,' Guru said. 'You don't owe a debt for the life you were returned.'

'Tsuno or Malwen could go with them and provide healing,' one of the other older Namekians pointed out.

'They could, but I was the one who volunteered,' Caraco pointed out.

Guru nodded slowly. 'It is a good idea, Caraco. Of course you may go, but keep safe! May the suns bless you all.'

Back at the pod they decided that Caraco would ride with Puar and Bulma while Nail followed under his own power. Bulma wasn't sure if Nail would be able to keep up, but said nothing. There was a delay while Puar added Bulma to the list of authorised users of the pod in case Puar couldn't pilot it for whatever reason. Then Puar took them into the air while Bulma navigated using the radar. It was way off to the West.

'Why is no one using comms?' Bulma complained. Didn't they know she was going out of her mind?

She tapped her transponder. 'Guys, what the fuck is happening out there?'

Raditz responded quickly. 'Got those two balls already. It was boring - no soldiers or any resistance at all. We're heading over to the five star ball now.'

'Yeah, that's where we're headed, too. We got the one from Guru, and we've got Nail and Caraco along for the ride.'

'Oh, cool, Nail!' Krillin cut in.

'Who's Caraco?' Raditz asked.

'Just a Namekian kid that can do mystical healing or something.' Jammed into the seat beside her, Caraco looked vaguely offended. 'Has anyone heard from Vegeta? Goku, what's happening?'

'Brolly and I are watching the fight,' Goku replied solemnly.

'You're not helping?'

'Vegeta told us he didn't want help.'

'And you listened to him?'

'It's his fight, Bulma. And he's not doing too badly.'

'You mean he's winning?'

'Well, I dunno— Woah! Gotta go now!'

'Goku!'

Author's Note: As you can see, this is only Part One of this chapter. Part Two is mostly written, so won't be too long. Sorry ig you feel this chapter ending is a bit of a cliff-hanger. I'm afraid it's cliff-hangers all the way down from now on.