Raditz crossed his arms as he stared at the elderly namekian. "A second chance at life? I don't need you humoring me. Piccolo already told me about the time limit of how long till you can't be revived."
"I'm not one to make jokes often. Your newfound friends are planning to bring you back to life whether you want to stay here or not." Kami simply smiled as he kept his hand stretched out. "Including your brother, Goku."
Raditz grumbled as he looked away. "Damnit Kakarot, what would father think about this situation if he knew?" He looked back at Kami. "Alright fine, I'll come back to life. But I'm not taking your hand."
"Good, but you're not coming back quite yet. In the time for you to wait, we'll be having you train with King Kai." He points in the direction to Snake Way.
"Who or what the hell is a King Kai?" shouted Raditz in his confusion.
"Kink Kai would happen to be a powerful deity!" shouted King Kai via telepathy.
Raditz stiffened as he heard a voice yelling at him in his head. "Great, all this nonsense has driven me to the point of insanity."
Kami smirked at the confusion of the saiyan. "You can rest easy. King Kai can telepathically speak to others. He was also the one who trained Goku to be strong enough to scare off the invading saiyans."
Raditz froze after hearing that last line. "You're telling me both of them are still alive?" Before Kami could respond, Raditz broke out into laughter. "What good fortune! I'll have a chance to kill them myself."
Kami looked up at Yemma, who was staring at him with an irritated look. "And what do you plan on doing after you get your revenge?"
Raditz stopped laughing and stared off at nothing in particular. "I suppose I'll just start a new life on Earth. I have an apology to give to Kakarot. Plus, someone has to train that runt of a nephew to be a proud warrior."
Both Kami and King Yemma let out a sigh of relief, telling that Raditz was being genuine. Kami led Raditz to the start of Snake Way. "This is the start of Snake Way. You'll find King Kai's planet at the end of it. It stretches out for a million kilometers, but it should only take you a couple of days to reach the end."
Raditz stared down the winding road of Snake Way and looked at Kami. "Would you mind doing me a favor? Tell Piccolo sorry for not telling him that he's a namekian. I was too concerned with my own survival to take real notice."
Kami looked stunned at the saiyan's request and nodded. "I'll make sure the message is delivered personally."
After a brief nod, Raditz started flying off towards King Kai's planet. Kami let out a sigh and stared at the ground. "Yes, it's probably best I deliver this message myself."
"Are you just gonna stay here, or are you gonna leave?! I have work to do!" shouted Yemma, freaking Kami out immensely.
While all that had been going down, Bulma and Mr. Popo had already come to the unmistakable conclusion that what they went to investigate was a spaceship. They went back to the hospital to go tell the others. "It's absolutely perfect! I'll have to fix it up a bit, but we could use it to reach Namek within a month! And if I work quickly, I could have it ready within 5 days!"
Everyone laughed in excitement as a ray of hope shone down upon them. "So we get to go to Namek in Kami's old spacheship huh? That's awesome!" said Krillin. He would be jumping in joy, but is too bandaged to do it.
Bulma turned around to face Mr. Popo. "Well Mr. Popo, we're counting on you to make it to Namek and reviving Raditz."
"Oh? I'm not going to Namek." said Mr. Popo.
"What?! But you have to go! You're the only one here who understands and speaks namekian." said a panicked Bulma.
"I would be away from Kami for 2 whole months. That is something I absolutely cannot do." Popo explained with an ever-straight face. "I'll teach you namekian instead."
As Bulma stood there completely dumbfounded, Krillin spoke up. "He isn't wrong though. Besides, if anything bad were to happen, you're the only one who'd be able to fix it so you kinda have to go."
Bulma groaned as she crossed her arms. "Fine, I guess there isn't any other choice. I'll have to install some things to make it bearable." She turns back around to face everyone else. "But I absolutely refuse to go by myself. Somebody is coming with me."
The first to stand up and volunteer was none other than Master Roshi. "2 months alone on a spaceship? Well, I suppose there's no other choice."
"Absolutely not! That will just make it worse!" shouted Bulma. She tried to think who an ideal companion would be. "Can't have Goku, he's too beat up. Piccolo would be great since he's a namekian, but there's no way I could last 2 months with him."
Yamcha stood up and walked up to Bulma, giving a thumbs up pointed towards his face to try and look cool. "I'll do it. It's been too long since we just chilled out together."
Bulma considered the potential pros and cons of spending 2 months alone in a confined space with Yamcha. "Alright, I guess it's settled. Yamcha and I will be going to Namek to bring Goku's brother back."
As everyone was talking amongst themselves at this point, Gohan climbed down from his bed. "Um, miss Bulma? Please take me with you to Namek!"
The room immediately went quiet as all eyes were now on Gohan. Chi-Chi walked over to her son and put her hands on his shoulders. "Oh don't mind him. He's just making jokes, isn't that right Gohan?"
"No, it's not a joke. I really want to go to Namek." Gohan clenched his fist as he stared at the ground.
"What are you talking about? You want to be away from your family for another 2 months on top of the year you were gone?!" Chi-Chi was trembling with anger as her son was wanting to leave her.
"I'm sorry mom, but I feel I have to go. Raditz protected both me and Mr. Piccolo and fought for the sake of everyone here. Besides, he's family. Since dad can't go, I have to." Gohan looked at his dad, who gave a proud smile and nod. Piccolo on top of the roof of the hospital smiled too, seeing his pupil making such a noble decision.
"What nonsense are you spouting?!" shouted Chi-Chi, causing everyone to back away from her. "You don't have to do anything! That man is responsible for your father's death and you all want to bring him back?! I won't argue with your father's wishes to bring him back, but I absolutely refuse to let you get involved with any of this! Besides, what about your lessons?! Do you want to fall behind anymore than you already have?"
Gohan grit his teeth and glared at his mother. "Shut up!"
Everyone flinched after hearing Gohan yell at his own mother. Piccolo was the only one who truly understood. Hmph, so this is the results of training with a real saiyan huh? Well, at least he hasn't become ruthless like the other saiyans.
Chi-Chi trembled in despair that her own child just told her to shut up. M-My Gohan. He's become a delinquent.
Gohan let out a sigh as he calmed himself down. "Mom, now isn't the right time for this. We have to bring uncle Raditz back to life. I learned how to fight, I can't just sit back and do nothing. I'm sorry mom, but this is something I have to do."
"He's got you beat Chi-Chi. Give him your acceptance to go off into space." said the Ox King as he place his hand on his daughter's shoulder to consult her.
"Oh, I suppose I have no choice in the matter. But I'm not leaving him alone with the playboy and his ex. Krillin, as Goku's best friend, I'm demanding you go with them and watch over Gohan." Chi-Chi then stepped out of the room without another room.
Krillin looked a bit stunned that he was being told that he'd have to go too without his own consent. "Well, I was hoping to train in case the saiyans came back, but I guess I have no choice. You have any complaints Goku?"
Goku shook his head, his eyes still fixed on his son. "Not at all. I trust you to keep him safe." You've really grown, haven't you Gohan? I'll have to thank Raditz for making you so strong.
"Don't you worry, Goku. There shouldn't be any real danger if the saiyans are in as bad a shape as you say they are." said Bulma.
Several days later, most of the gang stands outside of Kame House, where the fixed namekian ship lays waiting for departure. Krillin, Bulma and Yamcha were all packed and ready to leave, simply waiting for Gohan to arrive. During their wait, Tien lands on the beach, carrying a duffel bag over his shoulder.
"Hey Tien, what's with the bag? And where's Chiaotzu?" asked Krillin, unable to sense Chiaotzu anywhere nearby.
"Chiaotzu's not coming. I am though." said Tien as he walked up to the ship.
The gang looked surprised to hear Tien's sentence. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean you're coming?" asked Yamcha.
"We don't know what'll happen out there. It'll be safer to raise our numbers." Tien just stood under the ship since he didn't know how exactly to get inside.
"If that's true, then why not bring Chiaotzu?" asked Bulma, who wasn't sure how to feel with an extra person coming with.
"Chiaotzu may not be the strongest, but he should be able to handle anything that happens here. And if Piccolo tries to take over the planet, we know Goku'll deal with him."
Before the conversation could drag on longer, Roshi saw Chi-Chi's car approaching the island. Chi-Chi and the Ox King stepped out of the car and while the Ox King was looking in awe at the spaceship, Chi-Chi was pulling out Gohan's luggage.
Gohan stepped out of the car and both Krillin and Yamcha could bearly hold back their lafter as they saw Gohan's bowl-cut hairdo. Everyone said goodbye and the 4 fighters along with Bulma got inside the spaceship.
"Alright everyone, place your things wherever you want and have a seat. We'll be departing in a moment." said Bulma as she went to her seat at the controls.
Yamcha, Krillin and Gohan listened and got into their seats, though Tien didn't have a place to sit since he was a last minute addition. He went to the back and braced himself for the launch. Once the ship took off and left the atmosphere, everyone got out of their seats and started to move about.
"You okay Mr. Tien?" asked Gohan as he rand over to Tien.
Tien nodded as he looked down at Goku's son and smiled. "Yeah, I've taken hits more forceful than that launch."
Bulma went into another room to go get changed. Both Gohan and Yamcha took this opportunity to change into their respective attire, Yamcha with his turtle hermit gi and Gohan's demon clan clothing.
A week of travel later, Bulma wakes up from her sleep and takes a look in the other room, finding the 4 others sitting in a circle meditating. At least that's what it looks like to her. In actuality, they were image training, fighting each other in their minds to strengthen their spirits.
After a while of this, they open their eyes, gasping for breath as is they had actually been fighting. They looked at each other and chuckled.
"I gotta say, that's quite a lot of techniques you got there Krillin." said Yamcha as he wiped off sweat from his forehead.
"Yeah, but Tien here's the one with the devastating attacks. Really quite the monster." replied Krillin.
Tien chuckled as he nodded his head. "I appreciate the compliment, but I'd say the real monster is Goku's son here." Aiming his eyes in Gohan's direction. "Piccolo and the saiyan did a good job training him."
Gohan laughed and rubbed the back of his head shyly, looking in Bulma's direction as he was the first to realize she was up. "Ah, Bulma. How long have you been there?"
"Quite a while. Don't worry about me, I don't want to interrupt your training." she said as she climbed into her chair and started tampering with something they couldn't see.
Krillin stood up and walked over to Bulma. "What's that you're working on?"
Bulma looked at him and held up 2 scouters, both of which had been taken from Raditz's body before Kami had taken it. "I'm just trying to fix these and configure them to our language and number system. Though one of them was really beat up."
"Ah, I recognize those. Uncle Raditz used one in our training to see just how our training was going." said Gohan as he ran over to take a look.
"Hey Gohan, didn't the saiyans say that they were eavesdropping on Raditz's conversations using those things?" asked Krillin.
Gohan, Tien and Yamcha suddenly got a chill down their spine. What if someone has been listening to us the entire time?
"You don't have to worry. It looks like Goku's brother did us a favor and turned off all communications from these things." said Bulma as if she could read their thoughts. "But if I can fix these up, we could speak to each other from different locations."
"Speaking of the saiyans, where do you think they went?" asked Yamcha as he sat down, the sudden stress immediately lifted.
"Well, they got pretty beat up. My guess is they went to somewhere with a civilization to get treated." Tien said as he leaned against a wall.
"Goku's brother did say they exterminate entire populations of a planet and sell them to other life, right?" questioned Bulma, continuing to fix the scouters.
"If that's true, then how long we have to rest before dealing with them consists entirely on how far they went." said Krillin.
18 days after the day the saiyans escaped the Earth, Nappa's pod crashed onto a landing pad on another planet. Several soldiers surrounded the pod as the hatch opened, Nappa lying there barely moving.
"He's insanely damaged. Grab him into the treatment center, quickly!" shouted one of the soldiers.
"But where's Vegeta? He should have been with Nappa!" shouted another soldier.
Nappa grunted as he brought himself to speak, despite his body hurting when he did so. "H-He's coming. Prepare to recover him immediately when he lands. He's in worse condition than me."
"How could you possibly know that?""
Nappa coughed up a little blood as he glares at the soldier. "Because I could hear the life support system when he contacted me."
The soldier looked at each other in worry as they got Nappa to the treatment center and into a healing pod. Roughly an hour later, Vegeta arrived and was just as bad as Nappa said. After quite a while of healing, the 2 saiyans were fully recovered and exited the pods.
Nappa looked at Vegeta and noticed his tail missing. "Vegeta! You're tail! What happened to it?!"
Vegeta walked over to put on some new armor that the soliders had ready for him, as well as a set for Nappa. "It's fine. I can live without it." He aimed his sights on one of the random soldiers. "Tell me, where's Freeza?"
"He left rather recently actually."
Vegeta scoffed at this information. "Sick of this planet already huh? Least I don't have to deal with him."
"Oh, that reminds me. Cui said that he had something to speak about with the both of you."
Both Nappa and Vegeta groaned at the mention of Cui. "Is that a fact? Tell that bastard that I've nothing to talk to him about." The both of them then started heading off for resting quarters.
The soldier noticed that Vegeta hadn't taken his scouter. "Wait, you forgot your scouter!"
Vegeta didn't stop walking even when told this. "Keep it, I have no use for it anymore."
Nappa looked questionably at Vegeta as his superior had just denied a scouter, though didn't ask up about it. Both the saiyans stopped as Cui stood in front of them, blocking their path. "What do you want Cui?"
Cui chuckled. "I have nothing to say to a weakling like you, Nappa." He then walked up to Vegeta with a wide grin. "Rumor around the station is that you got messed up pretty bad recently."
Vegeta groaned and tried to walk past Cui, "Get lost Cui, I have no time to listen to your drivel."
Cui grabbed hold of the shoulder pad of Vegeta's armor. "Now hold on. Lord Freeza was pretty upset about you just making the decision to go to Earth and not contact us for such a long time."
"If he was that upset, he'd have stayed here and punished us." said Nappa, swatting Cui's hand off Vegeta.
"Well, he's been in quite the delightful and forgiving mood after your incredible discovery." Cui couldn't contain his excitement to see the saiyan duo start to look panicked. "He was quite throlled at the prospect of eternal life and youth."
"What?! So where Freeza recently left to was-"
Cui nods and grinned. "Planet Namek."
Both Vegeta and Nappa ran past Cui and made a run straight for their spacepods. "This is bad Vegeta. If we don't hurry, we'll be under Freeza's rule forever!"
"I'm aware of that! We have to go now if we want to have any chance of stopping him and getting our own wish for immortality!" shouted Vegeta as the both of them climbed into their pods and blasted off straight for Namek.
As everything between the saiyans and the gang from Earth was going on, Raditz had been training on King Kai's planet. He was blasting waves of energy at flying targets constantly while also dodging those same targets. He hit every single one of his attacks and started panting after he destroyed the last target.
King Kai smiled as he walked up to Raditz. "I must say, you've got quite the latent potential. I should have expected no less than Goku's own brother."
Raditz smirked as he sat down, out of breath. "I was already used to this kind of gravity. These heavy weights you supplied me are the only thing making this training tough." He raised his arm to look at the heavy gauntlet that he had on each of his limbs as well as his back.
"Well, you're progressing quite well for someone who only took training seriously a year ago." said King Kai as he handed Raditz cup of water as well as some plates of food. "Not to mention you don't seem to eat as much as Goku so you have more time to train."
"I didn't always have the luxury to eat large amounts of food so I got used to it." said Raditz as he chugged down the water and scarfed down the food.
"Hmm, with the state you've been progressing, perhaps we should get you started in the more serious training." King Kai added a little bit more weight to Raditz's training gauntlets. "After all, I can imagine that you're gonna need to be as strong as you can if they manage to pull this off."
Raditz set down the plate and cup as he looked at King Kai with a look of curiosity. "What do you mean? Is something about to go down?"
King Kai nodded as he looks off in the direction of Namek. "It appears that Freeza is on the move and is planning on getting his hands on the namekians' dragon balls."
Raditz stood up immediately and grunted as he wasn't used to the increased weight yet. "Freeza?! Going to Namek?! We have to warn Gohan and his friends!"
"Now hold on there." said King Kai as he turned back to Raditz. "If we tell them that someone far worse than Vegeta is on Namek, then they'll panic and turn back around. That'll leave Freeza to gather the dragon balls and become immortal. And then what'll happen if he sets his sights on Earth?"
Raditz froze in horror at the mere thought of Freeza being unable to age or die. His hand trembled as he clenched his fist and grit his teeth. "Then what am I supposed to?"
"For now, we put our faith in them to succeed in bringing you back," King Kai then smiled at Raditz, which made the saiyan a little uneasy. "And bring you to a level where you can protect them when the time arises."
Raditz stared at the King Kai and then off to where his trainer was looking earlier. He was greatly worried about the whole situation, especially for those he'd met. During his time on Earth, he'd made what he'd call a friend in Piccolo, had grown to care about his nephew, wanted to make things right with Kakarot, and wanted to start a new life on Earth like his brother had. "Alright. Push me to my limits and make me stronger than I ever thought possible!"
And once again I'm done with yet another chapter. I wasn't planning on finishing this chapter so soon after the last one but after 1 hour special of Dragon Ball Super, I was just overflowing with Dragon Ball hype that I knew that the best way to spend it was to work on this. I don't have much else to say personally other than get excited for the Namek arc, baby! Anyway, leave a review if you liked the chapter and have anything to say. As always, tune in next time for the next exciting installment of Dragon Ball Z: A Saiyan's tail.