Chapter 21- Spoiled Children

Disclaimer: I don't own dragon ball z, I'm not making any money yada yada yada.

Yama sat back at his desk and sighed

'Another job well done' he thought to himself as he looked down at the huge pile of papers on his desk, finally he was on top of things. Since Freiza was due to arrive in their quadrant within the next four months, he knew the grim truth was that pretty soon they'd be busier than ever. He shook his head to remove such unpleasant thoughts from his mind.

"Time for a short knap I think" he grinned and looked around his office and listened carefully "all quiet" he yawned and closed his eyes.

Almost immediately he heard a commotion outside his office. He sat up with a jolt as his huge doors where flung open by a large saiya jin.

"I'm so sorry King Yama, they wouldn't wait for an appointment!" called a frantic administration ogre from outside. Yama ignored him.

"Bardock!" he said as he realized who stood in his doorway.

"Sorry sir" said Bardock sheepishly.

"Don't apologize to him!" called a shrill voice from behind him; Yama groaned as he realized his day was about to get worse.

"What an earth do you think you're doing Miss Briefs?" he rumbled, attempting to put her off.

"You know full well what I'm here for" Bulma called, stepping out from behind Bardock, to glare at him.

"No, I don't, now I suggest you stop wasting my time and tell me what exactly you're up to!" he growled.

Bulma gulped, her confidence wavered but she didn't let Yama know this.

"I want some justice for Bardock!" she retorted.

Bardock looked at the floor. Up until now he hadn't even known what she'd been up to, and now he was worried, the way things where going he'd be going straight to hell.

"It is not for you to tell me how to treat any soul justly! I am the master of the realm of the dead! How dare you presume to tell me…" Bulma decided to change tack before he exploded.

"Yes, I know, but you've been very busy lately, I've noticed" she smiled sweetly "and you may not have noticed how well behaved Bardock has been since I got here"

Yama frowned, but decided that he should just give up and hope she would finish soon.

"Get to the point Miss Briefs" he sighed, suddenly calm again.

She grinned

"I want you to send Bardock to heaven"

Yama sputtered

"Wha… what? Send a repeated Murderer to heaven?"

"What he did was part of the saiya jin tradition, are you going to discriminate against him because of his race?"

"Its not a question of race, it's a question of what he's done"

"Well, obviously you weren't sure where to send him when he… um… passed away, otherwise you wouldn't have sent him to limbo!"

"True…" Yama pondered this for a second…

'Why didn't we send Bardock to hell?' he thought. He couldn't remember.

"Ha! There, you admit that you weren't sure! And all he's done is become a better person this last year I've known him! He's a reformed character!" she pleaded.

"Bardock, do you regret your actions during your life?" Yama turned to the saiya jin with a scrutinizing gaze

"Yes, but I had little choice at the time. Frieza…" he trailed off

"I remember now! You tried to save your planet from Frieza!"

"Yes, yes I did"

"Very noble of you"

"Thank you" Bardock mumbled.

"Very well, when your time in your body is over, you will be sent to heaven"

"YEY!!" Bulma ran to hug Bardock, who stood stock-still and stared in disbelief at the grinning ogre king.

Somewhere in deep space, a vessel shot toward its destination. Inside, Goku and Krillin continued to train, although Krillin spent most of his time in awe of Goku's rapid improvement.

"How does he do it?" he wondered as he watched his friend and once rival bounce of the walls of the gravity chamber, hardly breaking a sweat despite the weight of his entire body pulling on him in fifty times normal gravity. Krillin himself was only just getting used to walking around in this gravity, but Goku took to the extra effort like a duck to water.

'I can't even keep up with him anymore' he thought, sadly, but he was still relieved that he couldn't imagine anything in this world defeating a man with as much determination as his best friend.

Suddenly Goku stopped, and looked round at him, a large grin spread across his face.

"Lunch?" he said simply, Krillin blinked, he'd been expecting to hear something deep and meaningful, probably because his own mood was so thoughtful recently.

"Yeah, sure" he grinned back and switched the machine off.

They headed for the kitchen to find Yajarobe stuffing his face as usual.

"Honestly Yajarobe I can't see how you can stand to eat all day like that, especially seeing as it's your cooking!" Krillin laughed.

Yajarobe hardly looked up from his sandwich

"I told you not to joke about my cooking already." he grumbled and carried on.

Krillin and Goku looked at each other, shrugged and set about cooking their own lunch.

Sitting down to the table with his meal Krillin began to worry that he might be too nervous to eat. They were due to touch down on Namek tomorrow morning; they'd been shooting through space for almost a week. He tried to tear his mind away from what monsters they might find on Namek.

'Ok, so Kami is a good guy, but what if the rest of the race turn out to be like Piccolo?' Krillin thought, with a shudder. He shook the thoughts off and bit into his sandwich.

Somewhere else in space, a much larger ship traveled in the opposite direction. Zarbon marched through the corridors of the ship, looking unfazed as Frieza's furious voice rang through the air over the ship's radio system.

"Zarbon! Get here right now! Do you hear me? I don't like to be kept waiting!" he snarled into the microphone as Zarbon finally entered the room and bowed low.

"Get off the floor Zarbon!"

Zarbon stood up as quickly as possible, Frieza sneered.

"Do you know why you're here Zarbon?"

"No master Frieza, I have no idea"

'He's using my name too much, that's a bad sign, I could be a pile of ashes any moment if I say the wrong thing' Zarbon was frantic, although his outer appearance portrayed nothing of the sort.

"Well, Zarbon. I have been informed by a crew member, who as of five minutes ago is no longer with us, that it could take two months to reach the next reasonably inhabited planet cluster."

Zarbon stayed frozen to the spot, standing to attention.

"Would you care to explain why that is?" Frieza finished

"Well, sir" Zarbon began, so as not to keep his master waiting "this is the shortest route toward a cluster of planets you said you were eager to visit as soon as possible, unfortunately the route happens to take us through some relatively uninhabited space before we reach them"

Frieza sighed.

"Do you mean to say that I should be deprived of fun for two whole months Zarbon?"

"I'm very sorry sir, you yourself approved the route six months ago and…" Frieza cut him off

"You are dismissed Zarbon, be thankful you are more useful to me alive!" he stated sharply. Zarbon bowed, turned on his heal and left the room immediately, remarking how restless his master had been since he had exterminated the last of the saiya jin.

At first, there had been celebrations and rejoicing that Frieza had defeated Vegeta, the "legendary super saiya jin" threat that had hung over his head for so long, but now it seemed his drive was gone. He was no longer such an impressive leader, more a spoiled child with more power than he would ever need. Zarbon sighed to himself as he re entered his chambers

"What will become of us?" he thought aloud.