Reformed Saiyans
Chapter Twenty-Five: The Grand Elder.
A/N: Oops I got so distracted yesterday I forgot to release this. Sorry guys
At last our fighters, and Dende have reached The Grand Elder's palace. Outside stood a tall Namekian male, resembling Piccolo greatly, with only small differences, and outfits. He donned a blue vest, white baggy pants, a blue sash around his waist, and like all Namekians a white scarf around his neck.
"Nail!" Dende said cheerfully. He was glad to have seen at least one of his brothers alive, and ran closer to him.
"Hello Dende, I am eased to see that you're okay." Nail replied, then he paused for a moment. "The Grand Elder has been expecting you three...but.." He paused once more. He looked to Piccolo. "You're a Namekian, correct?"
"Yes I am, what about it?" Piccolo asked.
"It appears you do not hold a fraction of Guru's ki signature within it." Nail answered. "Why is that?"
Piccolo shrugged. "How should I know, I barely know my origins." He replied. "Besides, that's partially why I'm here, so I could get some answers from this Grand Elder of yours."
"Very well. We shall make haste, Grand Elder knows all too well of the evil that has laid waste to Namek." Nail said. He turned to the door next to him, motioning for all to come in. Dende followed first, then Piccolo second, and then the two short fighters last.
Gohan and Krillin began whispering to each other about the resemblance between Nail and Piccolo.
"Isn't it weird?" Krillin said.
Gohan turned to Krillin with his head slightly tilted. "Isn't what weird?" He asked.
"This Nail guy and Piccolo." Krillin answered. He looked back to the two, then back to Gohan. "They look almost exactly alike."
Gohan looked at the two for a few seconds, then to Dende, then back to Krillin.
"Huh..Yeah that is weird, especially considering Dende doesn't." Gohan said. "I mean, Dende looks a little bit like Nail but nothing like Piccolo and Nail."
"Yeah, I legitly thought it was another Piccolo for a moment." Krillin replied.
While the two talked about how shocking the resemblance between Piccolo and Nail was, Dende had asked a concerning question to Nail.
"Hey...If you and the Grand Elder know about Namek's current events.." Dende paused for a second. Thinking about all of his dead brothers and sisters, was painful to say the least. "Then how come you guys haven't moved to a safer location?"
"Although, I've tried to convince him, even if we had tried, The Grand Elder is far too old and...large, to hide." Nail pointed out. He tried to say large in the nicest way possible, although it was very well true about his size. Especially when they had finally reached above. "We're here."
Nail stepped aside, while the four stepped forward.
"Welcome." The Grand Elder said. "I am Grand Elder Guru, father of all children on Namek. I've been waiting to see you." He let a quick cough escape him, and then continued. "I've been watching the current state of events on Namek, and you three fighters have done a great deed saving young Dende here."
"Allow me to express my sincere gratitude for saving him." Guru continued. "Thank you."
Gohan and Krillin smiled, giving a quick thumbs-up in response, while also stating it was not a problem. Piccolo didn't respond.
"You three have come from a Planet called Earth? Correct?" Guru asked.
"Yes." Krillin answered.
Guru then eyed the Dragon Ball in Krillin's hand.
"I see that you have acquired a Dragon Ball...might I ask how?" Guru wondered.
"On our way here, these two evil guys had it, they attacked us, but we managed to win." Krillin explained. "We took the Dragon Ball from them, keeping it out of evil hands."
"Mhm, may I quickly ask you for what reason you're seeking the Dragon Balls of this Planet?" The Grand Elder said.
Krillin lowered his gaze for a second and bit his lip, while thinking back about the tragedy from Earth. He then looked back up and was sure to speak clearly.
"You see...back on our planet, Earth. We were invaded by troublesome Saiyans who killed a couple of our Friends." Krillin replied. "And we needed the Dragon Balls here to restore them to life."
"Saiyans huh? I'm surprised there are still some around, I thought most were wiped out over twenty years ago." Guru said. Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo looked surprised.
"You know of them?" Piccolo asked.
"Yes, they're quite well known in the galaxy, even despite their near-extinction." Guru nodded. "There also appears to be one here on Namek as of right now. He has done horrible things to my people."
"Vegeta…" Krillin said with a tone of hatred.
Guru lifted an eyebrow. "You know him?" Guru asked.
"Yeah, he's one of the monsters who took our Friends' lives! And killed all of those horrible people on Earth!" Krillin answered. He swallowed the angry lump down his throat, the thought infuriated him to no bounds.
"I hate to cut the chit chat, but we're running on low time here, is there a way we could speed the process?" Piccolo asked.
Nail opened his mouth to speak but Guru signaled for him to remain quiet.
"Forgive me, I am quite old, but to answer your question yes I can speed it up." Guru said. "If it's okay with any one of you, I shall place my hand above your head, and gather the information I need through your memories."
Krillin raised an eyebrow. "You mean like mind reading?" Krillin asked. Guru nodded in response. Without hesitation, the monk willingly volunteered as Guru spent the next short two minutes reading through.
"Beep….Beep….Beep…." The machine that Vegeta floated in, had continued to ring soft yet loud beeps as he remained in the chamber. Zarbon who sat in front swiftly became impatient.
"What the hell!" He muttered angrily. "Why hasn't he fully recovered by now?! His vitals seem to be in perfect condition! There's not a single cut or slice wound on him! Not even the tiniest scratch! SO WHY ISN'T HE FULL YET?!"
What Zarbon hadn't known, Vegeta was planning, plotting in his mind, he was fully recovered alright. He was rested, restored, stronger than ever, but he resisted to have himself fully awaken, so that he could finish his plans.
"So let's see...Frieza's here, Zarbon's in front of me. The Dragon Balls are most likely in Frieza's possession or still in Zarbon's quarters. Then there's this strange familiar yet large power." Vegeta thought. "I'll have to keep a watch on Frieza, blind and distract Zarbon. This other power...hopefully I can outsmart enough. I just need to time everything just right!"
As Zarbon tapped his foot against the ground, a sudden explosion from the machine erupted, causing incredible winds to knock the former Lieutenant off his seat. Zarbon whipped his head up to see hopefully what would be Vegeta, but sadly not, rather an incredible amount of smoke and dust erupted in the room.
"L-L-Lord Frieza! Vegeta has escaped!" Zarbon shouted through his scouter.
"WHAT?!" Frieza yelled. His rage intensified. "Find him! Quickly!"
Frieza turned to the brute next to him, and put his hand in front of the brute. "Stay. Don't move."
His orders were clear and direct, Nappa obeyed, although in his mind, he was overeager, ready to pounce. Frieza rushed over to the smaller yet similar looking ship to his, and entered the medbay.
There was just smoke everywhere in the ship, and Frieza glared intensely at Zarbon, who gulped.
"Good those buffoons are in the medbay! Now all I need to do is trick them!" Vegeta thought. His mind still somewhat on the strange familiar ki nearby, that had not moved as well. Vegeta sent several energy waves to the left, and to the right, they all made contact and exploded.
"He's in the hall! GET HIM NOW!" Frieza yelled.
"Y-Yes Lord Frieza!" Zarbon replied. He rushed down the halls, and Frieza did as well, but with the intense smoke they could not see. It irritated Frieza and with a powerful shout, he unleashed incredible kiai which blew away all smoke.
On the other side of the hall, Vegeta had felt the intense winds.
"Okay, good, good." Vegeta thought. He blasted a hole through the medbay's other door, and outside, racing to Zarbon's quarters after. Frieza and Zarbon rushed to the direction of the sound.
"You idiot! You didn't even bother to check to see if he actually left the medbay!" Frieza yelled. "You better go out there and find him now! He couldn't have gotten far!"
"Y-Yes Lord Frieza!" Zarbon replied. With slight panic, he flew out of the hole Vegeta had made, and searched for the Prince as he went higher in the air.
"Do you see him?!" Frieza shouted.
"N-No Lord Frieza! I can't find him." Zarbon replied.
"FOOLS! They're so busy looking outside, they can't even realize what I'm really doing!" Vegeta thought in laughter. Once at Zarbon's quarters, there laid four orange Dragon Balls. The Prince melted the window quietly with his energy. Then as another distraction, he ran back to the door and sent another blast down the hall.
It caused intense fire and smoke on impact, as well as wind. Enough so that it blew Zarbon from the outside a little bit away. With sudden realization Frieza's eyes broadened.
"HE'S AFTER THE DRAGON BALLS!" Frieza yelled. Zarbon lowered himself to Frieza, back inside the ship, and they raced the halls.
In the meantime, Vegeta had already been throwing each Dragon Ball out the window. By the time the two had reached where the balls once were, Vegeta was gone.
Frieza dropped his jaw in shock and anger. Zarbon as well dropped his jaw with shock.
"T-The D-Dragon Balls! T-They're gone!" Frieza gasped. He growled angrily through his teeth and turned to Zarbon. "Don't just stand there you idiot! GO FIND HIM!"
"Y-Yes My Lord!" Zarbon replied. He flew out of the window and continued searching for Vegeta. However once he realized Vegeta was somehow long gone, anger broke from his mouth. "YOU DAMN BASTARD!"
Not far from the ship, hidden by a great rock formation, Vegeta chuckled wickedly and quietly to himself.
"Oh Zarbon, Today is certainly not your day." Vegeta thought in laughter. He entered the nearby waters, and swam quietly away.
After Zarbon followed Frieza into his quarters, and Frieza shooed Nappa away. He faced the window of his ship with intense rage.
"This is absurd!" Frieza yelled. Zarbon remained quiet, continuing to stay in a kneeling position. "He took my Dragon Balls and escaped here with ease! How inconceivable!" Frieza turned around to Zarbon, and slammed his tail on the floor of the ship. "The only thing right now that would soothe my rage is your life!"
Zarbon swallowed hard.
"I will carry out my own search on both ships! This is your last chance, if you do not bring Vegeta within the hour! Alive! You'll face a painful end!" Frieza yelled. He got closer to Zarbon yet again. "Do I make myself clear?"
Zarbon gulped once more. "Y-Yes Lord Frieza! I'll get Vegeta here in less than an hour!" He replied. Without even needing to be ordered too, he left looking for Vegeta, and the steamed Frost Demon sat in his chair with intense fury.
Shortly after, Nappa returned to Frieza's quarters at the tyrant's side.
After a little bit, Vegeta had collected all four of Frieza's Dragon Balls, as well as the one he collected earlier.
"Good..Goood!" Vegeta said to himself. "Only two more Dragon Balls and then Eternal Life will be mine!" Vegeta continued to enjoy himself for a moment, yet it was shut down as he felt Zarbon's energy nearby. "Seems I have to take out the trash first." He mumbled.
Vegeta slipped away from his spot after burying the balls, chased Zarbon down without the "pretty boy" noticing, before kicking him to the ground after they've made quite some distance. Zarbon crashed into the ground and impacted harshly but no real damage was done to the ground itself.
As Zarbon stood up, his face full of anger and hatred, he spit on the ground, and adjusted himself.
"Vegeta…" He hissed. Vegeta lowered himself to the ground to face Zarbon.
The mighty Prince had a smug grin on his face as he stared down the former Frieza Force Lieutenant.
"So you've decided to make me a fool have you?" Zarbon said, asking a rhetorical question. "And those Earthlings I saw, are they perhaps friends of yours?"
Vegeta scoffed. "I have no intentions of allying with them, I hadn't even known til Dodoria had spilled this information to me." He answered. "Aside from that, I have done no contribution to making you a fool, you've always been a fool, only now your true colors arise."
Zarbon scowled at Vegeta with fury. With no delay, Zarbon transformed and bulked up. "I'm going to enjoy beating the Dragon Balls out of you! I'll make you pay!"
Zarbon darted to Vegeta, with his shoulders in front, aiming to bash the Saiyan Prince. However, Vegeta pushed against the back of Zarbon's shoulder, causing Zarbon to rotate slightly, enough that his back was in front of Vegeta. Vegeta then quickly whacked the back of Zarbon's head with his two fists before Zarbon had a chance to rebalance.
The former Lieutenant was sent about twenty feet in the air before he spun around, rebalancing himself. He growled in frustration, rushing back to Vegeta, he swung his foot high, aimed to Vegeta's head.
Vegeta ducked, and dropped, keeping his body up by his right hand, he thrusted his foot into Zarbon's gut. All oxygen in Zarbon's lungs were forced out, intense pain in his stomach caused a puddle of blood to erupt from his stomach, and he was still recovering from Frieza's attack on him earlier.
Zarbon was half-blind, thus causing him sight issues, lowering his accuracy immensely, and any other pain inflicted upon him, only made his body more uncomfortable. When Vegeta had seen Zarbon's wound, his grin widened.
"What's this? Or did Frieza take a little payment for his Dragon Balls?" Vegeta said. He placed his two fists on his hips and laughed. "Or did somebody just slip and fall while working the ship?" Vegeta looked closer to Zarbon's eye wound, not caring that Zarbon could possibly attack him, simply because Vegeta knew Zarbon wouldn't be able to. There he saw such a clean empty eye socket, and there was no way this could've been an accident.
"I was right the first time!" Vegeta said mockingly. Zarbon growled ferociously at Vegeta, but he was unable to protest against him, there was nothing he could do anyways, he was still trying to regain his breath. "Frieza did take a payment after all! He took your right eye!"
Vegeta busted out laughing, and Zarbon's intense rage grew even more intense. He leaped forward, and hurled his fist to Vegeta, but Vegeta took a step to the side, gripping Zarbon's arm. He threw Zarbon over his back and slammed him on to a back.
"Hmph! Is that your best at an attack!? What happened to all that power you showed the first time?!" Vegeta taunted, a wide smirk remaining on his face. Yet again, Zarbon remained speechless, merely growling in response. "Don't bother fighting it, you know as well as I do where this is going. After all, that previous battle you gave me? It made me so much more powerful!"
"No! Impossible! I won't lose like this! Not to some blabbering ape!" Zarbon thought in rage. He jumped up, and leaped forward. He turned around to face Vegeta, who still had a smirk on his face, and unleashed a torrent of energy. "Elegant Blaster!"
A green ray of energy shot itself towards Vegeta, and Vegeta remained one hundred percent calm, not a drop of fright appeared in his face as the shot approached closer. Once it neared him enough, Vegeta swatted the blast away like it was nothing, then...the intense anger that Zarbon had held in him, was consumed by immense fear.
"W-WHAT?!" Zarbon shouted. He swallowed hard and took a step backward. "B-B-But T-That's impossible! Nobody can deflect my Elegant Blaster away so easily! NOBODY!"
Vegeta started walking to Zarbon slowly. "I hate to break it to you Zarbon, but your power is no longer a milestone." Vegeta said. He darted to Zarbon and slammed his fist into the former Lieutenant's gut, and then moved behind Zarbon, kicking his back. Zarbon slid across the ground face forward.
After a quick moment, as Vegeta walked towards Zarbon once more, Zarbon managed to gather enough strength to flip himself over. Zarbon was breathing heavily, but Vegeta looked as if he woke up from a wonderful sleep.
"Any last words before I kill you?" Vegeta said. Zarbon remained silent. "Come on, I'm sure there's something you've always wanted to say to me, about Frieza, or some other thin! Now's your chance, you'll be dead in two moments anyways!"
"Shut up! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!" Zarbon yelled. He stood up once more, and wiped the blood from his face. His internal deep hatred broke loose mixed with his intense rage. "I hate you! I HATE YOUR STUPID FACE! I HATE THAT DAMN BASTARD DODORIA! I HATE FRIEZA! I HATE HIS STUPID "sTAr CapTaIN gInYuuuU!" AND THAT STUPID FORCE!"
Zarbon clenched his fist tightly and gathered his energy into his right fist. "I CANNOT STAND YOU OR ANY OF THEM, AND I'LL KILL YOU ALL IF IT'S THE LAST THING I D-."
"Oh…" Vegeta interrupted. His fist colliding with Zarbon's gut yet again, only this time, penetrating it as he thrusted it in. "My bad, did I interrupt you? This fist of mine has a bit of a mind of its own sometimes, guess I just slipped."
Vegeta shrugged mockingly and sent a powerful energy blast against Zarbon, as the blast consumed him, Zarbon was able to make one final gesture to Vegeta. He lifted his middle finger, and kept the rest of his hand closed, only causing Vegeta to laugh in response.
"Mhm...This is quite a troublesome task you've been given. You've arrived here in order to restore the lives of the ones you lost back on Earth." Guru said. He took a second, and coughed, then took a deep breath. Then he continued. "Although you have Dragon Balls on Earth, you were unable due to them already having been brought back once before, so you come here in hopes of yet one more chance at life. However, upon arrival, it seems you gained quite the dilemma, one of the same fierce some foes you fought on Earth has returned, stronger than ever as well."
Guru took one more moment to regain his breath, and finished. "Did I get that about right?" He asked.
Krillin nodded. "Yes." He said. "Please, I ask for your help. We'd really like to hurry and resurrect our friends."
Unexpectedly, a frown was returned to Krillin. "I'm sorry, as much as I wish to help you, I may not be sure that your friends can be brought back to life." Guru replied.
Krillin, Gohan, and Piccolo's eyes widened, as they dropped their jaws in shock.
To be continued…
Powerlevels:
Vegeta: 35,000 (Suppressed)
Zarbon: 30,000