Piccolo was too stricken with fear to have heard Raditz's words. He raises both of his hands above his head, preparing to fire a Masenko attack.

Raditz frowned as he saw the namekian preparing to fight back despite how useless it was. Raditz slid his foot under Gohan and kicked him straight up, grabbing his nephew by the tail. "Now now, you wouldn't want to hurt the little one now would you? I said I wanted to talk, now drop the hands."

Piccolo trembled a bit as the saiyan had ordered him. He lowered his arms and stared at the saiyan. Strange, he could have killed both Gohan and myself by now. I'll listen to what he has to say.

Raditz took a seat on a rock, motioning to Piccolo to do the same. Once Piccolo sat down, Raditz tossed Gohan to him. "There, I've given you the kid. But if you try to run, I'll just follow you." He fires a weak energy blast between the 2 of them to create a warm fire.

Piccolo looks down at the unconscious Gohan in his hands. He then looks back up at Raditz. "Alright. You've gotten my attention. What exactly do you want? Last time, you said you'd kill me."

"Before I answer that question, there's something that's caught my attention." Raditz points at Piccolo's left arm. "I'm positive that i blasted that arm off in our fight, how is it there now?"

Piccolo briefly looked at his arm, then back to the saiyan. "I can regenerate my lost limbs if they're removed rather quickly, though it isn't exactly a painless process. And if you're asking a question like that, then I have one to add to my previous one. How did you get so powerful in such a short time? You were in no condition to train after our battle."

The saiyan simply smirked and crossed his arms. "It's a simple saiyan trait that truly comes in handy. When we recover from near death, we gain a permanent boost in our strength. It's a trait found in every saiyan, including that halfling brat of a nephew there."

Piccolo grit his teeth. Now he knew that even if Son Goku had survived, he'd have become much stronger than himself. Putting that sour thought to the side, he focused back to the main conversation. "Alright. Now again, why are you here talking to me rather than killing me?"

Raditz chuckles and stares the namekian down. "I want to help you of course. These past few weeks have given me some time to think, and I just feel terrible for what happened to my brother. I want to join you and help you get stronger."

Piccolo narrows his eyes. Something about this doesn't make sense. "What do you mean join me? If you're not my enemy, then there's no threat left."

"Remember those 2 saiyans that I told you and Kakarot about? The one's who are far more powerful than me? They're coming here." Raditz lost his smile, making a serious expression. "In Earth terms, they should arrive in 11 months from now."

Piccolo gasps in shock. He had completely forgotten about the other saiyans, and hearing this now made his his blood cold in fear. "So time is short. What exactly are you proposing that would raise our chances?"

Raditz's grin returned as he'd caught the namekian hook, line and sinker. Perfect. Now I just need to make sure to learn their secrets and my plan will definitely go off without a hitch. "I want you to train with me and teach me your earth ways of fighting."

Piccolo stood up and turned around as he weighed his options. Let's see. He gains nothing from telling me the other saiyans are coming. Plus, training with someone that isn't just Gohan will help me get stronger. Though this could be a trap to let the other saiyans learn our techniques. Either way, I have to gamble. He turns back around and stares the Saiyan in the eyes. "Fine. I'll agree to let you train with us. Though you're responsible for making the brat stronger. Probably be more beneficial to train with a saiyan than just me."

Raditz looked at Gohan and smiled. "Not a bad thought, green man." He coiled his tail around Gohan's tail and lifted his nephew from it. The shock woke Gohan up but with barely any energy to understand what's going on. "If he and I train, we can both overcome the weakness that our tails provide. In exchange for this, you teach us how to manipulate our energy like you and Kakarot did."

Piccolo simply nodded. After Raditz lets Gohan down, Piccolo fired a beam at Gohan. The beam didn't damage Gohan in any way, but rather covered the naked halfling in a gi very similar to Goku's. Raditz was astonished by this technique but didn't speak up about it. After Gohan sat up and rubbed his eyes, Piccolo stared both of them down and gave a slight grin. "Alright, we've got 11 months. From what I can tell, all of Goku's pals have been training already in preparation to fight you." He glances at Raditz before bringing his focus back to both of them. "Since we've been running for the past couple weeks, we've got a bit of catching up to do. Prepare yourselves. This next year is gonna be training hell."

Meanwhile, on Kami's lookout, Kami had been listening to all that Piccolo and Raditz had been talking about. He had been paying attention ever since Piccolo completely destroyed the moon, a detail that was impossible to miss. "Hmm, seems the earth is not in danger just yet. There is still time."

Mr. Popo walks up to Kami from behind. "I've managed to calm the fighters about what happened. I take it Piccolo isn't in any danger?"

Kami turned his head to Mr. Popo and smiled. "Thank you Mr. Popo. And yes, Piccolo and myself are safe for the time being." He turned back to look over the edge of the lookout. "Though an even greater threat approaches the planet, and we have less than a year to prepare ourselves for it."

Mr. Popo smiles and nods as he stands beside Kami. "So, I take it we'll keep training them at this accelerated pace? Are you sure it is a wise decision?"

Kami tightened his grip on his staff as he continued to focus on Piccolo. "While we have the luxury to go at a slower pace, it would be for the best if we keep going like this. Else Piccolo will be the only one capable of taking the saiyans."

Mr. Popo simply nodded and put an arm on Kami. "Come now. You should get some rest. We're going to have our hands full from now on." After a minute of silence, Kami turned around and went inside with Mr. Popo.

Four months had passed from that fateful night. Everyone had struggled at first to keeping up with the intense training, though adjusted within the first month. This held especially true for Piccolo, Gohan and Raditz.

Raditz and Gohan were repeatedly dealing blows to each other, though Raditz slowing himself down just a little to let his nephew keep up, all while keeping their tails interlocked. Meanwhile, Piccolo was meditating, focusing his energy to push it to its limits. Raditz landed a blow on Gohan and sent the child crashing against the ground, causing Piccolo to open his eyes.

Raditz wiped away just a little blood from his lip. Gohan had landed a lucky blow that dealt a surprising amount of damage, which caused Raditz anger to spurt out for a moment. He landed on the ground and walked over, helping Gohan up. "Not bad. You'd make a fine saiyan warrior in the old days. Now then, let's get onto our energy training."

Gohan smiled up at his uncle and nodded. The 2 of them had grown close in the past few months, so much so that the kidnapping back then was water under the bridge. As they walked over to Piccolo, a question popped into his mind and he didn't hesitate to ask it. "Mr. Raditz, what were the saiyan like back then?"

Raditz slowed to a stop when he heard the halfling as the question. This caught the attention of both Gohan and Piccolo. "You really want to know huh? I guess we can spare tonight's training. It may prove helpful to give a history lesson."

After taking a couple of minutes of gathering wild animals, fruits and branches, Gohan fired an energy blast at the wood to start a small fire that quickly grew. Piccolo moved some large rocks for the 3 of them to sit on. Raditz cooked the food and shared some with Gohan. He didn't bother asking the namekian since he'd just say that he didn't need it.

"Well, I guess I'll start from what I know as the beginning." Raditz took a bite out of some dinosaur meat and crossed his legs. "We brought our own planet to ruins, so we used our overwhelming might to wipe out the inhabitants of another planet and decided to move our entire species in. Our king took it upon himself to name our new home after himself. Thus, Planet Vegeta became the world of the saiyans."

Gohan dropped his half-eaten apple listening to just the introduction of Raditz's story. "But that's horrible! How could you do something so cruel?" Piccolo didn't comment considering his father would have done the same, and he would have as well had Raditz not shown up.

Raditz swatted the apple away with his tail, handing Gohan some roasted squirrel meat. "Saiyans don't exactly care about the well being of others. That's how we ended up employed to wipe out the inhabitants of other worlds so that they can be sold. Your father was meant to do the same, though a head injury made him the man he was. At least we were, till our race and planet were completely wiped out."

Before either of the listeners could comment on that, Raditz continued to speak. "Only those who were off planet survived the extinction of our race. The only ones lucky enough to avoid such a fate were me, Kakarot, and the other 2 saiyans. Though it looks like thanks to me, I simply reduced that number." He stared at the fire and remained quiet for a minute before looking up. "If you don't mind me asking, what was Kakarot like?"

Piccolo opened his mouth to speak about the matter, but Gohan jumped to his feet and started speaking first. "My daddy was the strongest guy in the whole world! He sometimes lost but he always came back and beat everyone he's fought. Even Mr. Piccolo!"

Raditz turned to Piccolo for confirmation, to which the namekian nodded begrudgingly. "Son Goku was the strongest fighter this world had ever known. Though he would more often than not use that strength to help others were that he'd befriended. After defeating me, he was given a life of peace to continue his training and live with his family."

Raditz took a moment to absorb all that info and couldn't help but smile. "So, that's the kind of life he grew up with huh? Quite luxurious for a saiyan's standards." Piccolo and Gohan looked at each other and were about to ask what he's referring to, but Raditz just explodes into laughter. "Shame he couldn't quite keep up! I would have enjoyed giving him a real fight. Too bad he isn't alive to help us."

Piccolo finally stood up and got a say in things. "Actually, you don't have to worry about that. He'll be alive and ready by the time the saiyans arrive." Raditz's eyes widened in surprise. Knowing what he was about to ask next, Piccolo decided to explain. "Here on earth, we have these items called dragon balls. When you bring all 7 of them together, they can grant you a single wish, including bringing someone back from the dead."

Raditz stood there in shock. Despite how he should feel about this, he felt somewhat relieved to hear this news. He was glad that he'd be able to have a rematch with Kakarot. Though he wasn't the only one who was happy to learn about the dragon balls.

Nappa and Vegeta had been listening in on Raditz's conversations every so often. They were fortunate to have been listening long enough to learn about the dragon balls. The 2 of them agreed that they would use the dragon balls to grant them immortality once they get to earth and deal with the namekian and his companions.

Several months more pass by and it feels like it's hardly been that long. Everyone was prepared and ready for this day. A day that would test the fate of the planet forever. The saiyans had finally arrived.

Phew, finally done with this one. This was a lot longer than I expected and I'm somewhat satisfied with the results. I know this one was purely exposition but it was necessary for progression. Trust me, some of these things are gonna be important later in the arc. I don't really have many words to say after all this. So I'll give you the proper sendoff. Let me know how you liked it and give me feedback on how I can improve upon this story. With that said, tune in next time for the next exciting chapter of Dragon Ball Z: A Saiyan's Tail.