Roger entered the throne room after having entered through and upstairs window. The scene out front was chaos. Turles and Nappa was riding herd on a few hundred Saiyan council members wanting to know where King Vegeta had gone.
Roger was preparing himself to go to the balcony and address the throng, although he had no real idea what he would say. Come to think of it, he really didn't know what they were doing out there. Roger decided to play it by ear for the time being, opened the balcony doors and stepped out.
The gathering immediately went silent and looked up expectantly toward Roger.
After a few moments of silence, Roger spoke. "Nappa?" Roger called.
Nappa levitated himself up to the balcony.
"Would you please explain what is going on here?" Roger asked pleasantly.
"They've heard rumors and think that King Vegeta is dead." Nappa explained. "Nothing we've said has convinced them otherwise."
"I see." Roger said. "Please join Turles.
Nappa floated back down to ground level.
Roger cleared his throat. "I am told that you have questions concerning King Vegeta's whereabouts. A lot has happened in the last week, but I can tell you that King Vegeta is, as of about 20 minutes ago, alive and well. If all senior family members and special council members will please retire to the council chamber, I will happily relate the events that has led us to this moment."
The crowed started grumbling in a low murmur.
"I believe that it's important that we, the leaders of our people, are not viewed as little more than an unruly crowd." Roger said. "We have processes for this kind of problem."
The crowd quieted in thought. The head of the House of Peppern, Peppern himself, stepped forward. "We agree. We will honor your request. Peppern turned and headed toward the Saiyan Council Chamber followed closely by the rest of the council members.
Nappa and Turles shot Roger a look of relief as Roger turned and entered the throne room.
"Good job lover." Yambia smiled. Raditz and Bardock were with her.
"The hard part will be telling them what has happened, and that there is still a chance that Vegeta may not come home." Roger said.
"I think the hard part will be trying to explain to them why their king is off fighting ant they were not invited." Raditz said.
"What are you going to do?" Bardock asked Roger.
"Just explain what has happened, why?" Roger answered.
"You were not originally a Saiyan, so I'm not surprised that you don't understand what has been bestowed upon you. You have been named as Vegeta's heir to the throne. While it is true that the royal house has taken a less important role since our resurrection, it is still quite important to our people that the throne not be vacant. There are still people and families that long for the old days, understand? If it is perceived that a power vacuum exists, civil war would most certainly be the result." Bardock explained. "Essentially, the most powerful family would eventually rule and install a new king from among them. A king that may not be sympathetic to what King Vegeta has tried to do since the resurrection."
"What should I do?" Roger asked.
"First, we need those documents that Vegeta spoke of." Bardock answered.
Roger walked to the area behind the throne and pressed a hidden button on the back of the throne. Behind him, a huge picture of Vegeta's father slid to the right and out of the way revealing a metal door roughly seven foot tall and five foot wide. Roger stepped up and placed his hand in the middle of the door, about face high. The spot that he touched glowed slightly as it scanned his hand.
"Identification confirmed. Please state the password for access." The computer responded.
"Earth." Roger gave the password.
"Authorization confirmed." A little bit of thunking and clanking while the bolts were being drawn back and the safe door slid to the side opposite that of the picture.
Bulma designed this safe. Realistically, of course, any one of the stronger Saiyans could rip the door right off the hinges, or blast into it from the outside. It was just there to keep honest Saiyans honest.
Roger started to enter the safe when Bardock stopped him.
"You shouldn't be the one to carry the documents to the council. A certain amount of credibility will be lost. This document will be analyzed to death over the next few days as it is. I will go and retrieve the document." Bardock said.
"Good idea." Roger said.
Bardock walked into the safe. "Reference please."
"Reference activated. Please speak keywords plainly." A computer voice said.
"King Vegeta's successor." Bardock answered.
"Search has found one document with three copies. They are found in drawer B19. No electronic copy was retained." The voice informed Bardock. "Please state your name to sign out the document."
"I am Bardock, of the House of Bardock." Bardock answered.
"Voice print confirmed. Drawer B19 is now unlocked. It is located two meters to your left." The canned voice said pleasantly.
Bardock looked to his left and a green light was blinking on a drawer, on closer inspection the drawer was marked B19. Floating off the floor far enough to look into the drawer, Bardock reached in and retrieved a single piece of paper, looked it over for a few seconds, then closed the drawer.
Besides Queen Bulma and King Vegeta, Roger, Raditz, Nappa and Bardock had access to this document, although none but King Vegeta had known its contents until today.
Bardock had entertained no illusions that King Vegeta had chosen him to be his successor. Sure, lead a team into battle, lead a meeting about battle strategy, even lead the neighborhood kids in a sparring match, but be king? No way! The day-to-day responsibilities would bore him to death. Roger seemed relatively comfortable in either role. Bardock believed that, if worse came to worse, Roger was the perfect choice. Now it's a matter of convincing the family heads.
Vegeta had extracted a promise from him and his son to honor the terms of the document he was now reading over. It was far more than just a random promise, but an exact phrasing of a pact between a king and his people. The words were rarely, if ever used before, except in legend. The line of ascension had been, primarily, one of king to prince when the prince had defeated the king in moral combat. However, old stories of kings that did not have children, or whose children could not defeat them were still told. In such cases, the king would have to appoint a successor. Failing to do that would mean an empty throne. That has only happened one time before and resulted in half of the Saiyan population ending up on the Planet Plant, now the Planet Vegeta, the other half destroyed them selves in mindless civil war.
"Here's hoping that they will accept Roger rather than that alternative." Bardock thought to himself as he stepped out of the safe.
"Okay Roger, this is what's going to happen. Vegeta isn't dead, at least not yet, but by custom we have to reveal whom Vegeta has chosen to succeed him to the throne. That happens to be you, do you understand?" Bardock started.
"Yes, but I'm not king yet." Roger answered.
"No, but you have to act like you are king. You cannot show weakness. You have to walk in there and take charge. You walk in and sit in Vegeta's throne just like you own the place. Got it?" Bardock said. "You don't take crap from anyone. That is what they expect of their king; anything less and they won't respect you. If necessary, raise your ki." Bardock said. "If you really have to, go to your Mystic Super Saiyan form."
"Isn't that rather primitive?" Roger complained.
"Of course it's primitive!" Bardock shot back. "The families and the Saiyan People have taken to this new voice in government very well, in fact they love it, but when it comes to their king, they will not have a weakling leading them, understand? This is very important! If you don't go in there and take charge, the entire planet could bin in a feud by this time tomorrow, each family trying to install their own person as king. We cannot let that happen."
"I understand Bardock. I will do my best." Roger smiled.
"Okay, it's time. They're probably waiting for us." Raditz said.
"By the way Roger… My father should have explained that when you sit in the throne, you should be prepared for some… well… feedback." Raditz grinned.
"You take all the surprises out of life Raditz. You've always been like that." Bardock grinned. "Just like your mother, you have no sense of humor for such things at all."
"That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask you, if all the Saiyans were resurrected, then where is mother?" Raditz asked.
"All the Saiyans that went to hell were resurrected. Your mother was never there; I assumed she went to heaven instead. At least, that's where I hoped she had gone." Bardock answered.
"Oh… I see." Raditz said thoughtfully as they all started walking towards the door.
Leaving the palace, the trio started walking toward the Council Building.
"Something is bothering you Raditz, what is it?" Bardock looked at his oldest son.
"It's just confusing is all." Raditz started. "I have been talking to people all over the planet and there are some thirty females unaccounted for. They weren't in hell, and they weren't resurrected with the rest of us."
"Even among a warrior race serving an evil tyrant a certain amount of people would manage to get to heaven." Roger said.
"I thought of that too." Raditz said "However, some of the people I talked to said that the women in their lives that were missing definitely would not have gone to heaven. Additionally, all of the women in question were in the medical facility in this city the day Frieza blew up the planet. That's a pretty big coincidence."
Bardock stopped. "What does it mean son?"
"Well, I don't really know. I have a theory… What if those women did not die at all when the planet exploded? What if they were removed just before Frieza attacked? Mother was still recuperating from child birth, wasn't she?"
"Yes… I looked in on Kakkarot then I passed her room as I left. Her bed was empty, I assumed that she had been discharged, but didn't check to see if she was home." Bardock said thoughtfully, then his jaw dropped and his eyes got wide. "I remember! There was some nurse running around babbling about missing patients! I didn't think anything about it at the time!"
Raditz and Roger looked at Bardock in wonder. "Does that mean that your mate may still be alive?" Roger asked.
Bardock reached out through the bond that he and his mate had shared. The bond had felt stretched all these years, and today was no different. He didn't get an answer.
"I don't see how. I've tried to contact her through our bond for years, even when we were in hell, and while I can barely feel her, I don't get anything in return." Bardock said.
"That's what the others who were mated to these women said." Raditz's hopes dropped.
"When we were in Heaven I looked for her high and low, never did find her, nor feel like I was any closer to her." Bardock said sadfully.
They reached the door of the Council Chamber.
"This is it Roger. Be strong, take charge, and don't take guff from anyone." Bardock reiterated.
"I want to talk about this further after this is all over Raditz." Roger said. "If there is the remotest possibility that your mother and the others survived, I want it investigated."
"Sure. I feel the same way." Raditz smiled.
"Okay then, once more into the breach." Roger said as he put on his business face and flung the council chamber door open.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Piccolo and crew flew out of the top of the jail and was almost immediately spotted.
"They're flying!" Piccolo heard a woman scream.
"Don't they know that's illegal!?" Another man yelled shaking his fist into the air at them.
"Oh, so they can fly, they just don't." Piccolo said.
"I wonder why flying is illegal?" Piccolo heard Uub ask no one in particular.
"I'm sure I don't know." Piccolo said.
"Strange people." Goku observed.
Suddenly Hercule was struck by an energy blast from below and began to fall rapidly.
"Arrrgh!" The Martial Arts Champion of the World cried out in pain.
"Mr. Satan!" Buu yelled out as he descended to catch his friend. Buu caught Mr. Satan just as they reached the ground and landed. The distinct sound of hundreds of energy weapons being primed came from all around them.
"Is Mr. Satan alright?" Buu asked concerned.
Hercule Satan stood up and felt at the spot where he got hit. He was a bit singed and had the breath knocked out of him, but he was otherwise unharmed.
"Looks like I'm going to be alright big guy." Hercule said.
Buu was still quite angry. "You shot Mr. Satan!" Buu yelled at the crowd as his ki started to rise.
"Buu?" Hercule managed to say as the planet started to shake. Buu's aura was growing with each passing second. "Buu! Don't get angry! You promised!"
Buu looked at his long time friend, and everything would have been all right except the town militia decided to open fire at that precise moment.
"Buu! Clam down! Don't hurt them!" Hercule pleaded.
"Buu won't kill them." Buu said as he raised his hand palm outwards "Buu promised never to kill again. Buu just give them a hot foot."
Buu smiled mischievously and fired a low powered ki blast right at the feet and spun around to take in the entire crowd.
The smell of burning shoe leather filled the air as the entire crowd tried to hop out of the way, yelling out in pain.
Piccolo with Goku and Uub landed next to Hercule.
The blasts could not penetrate Buu's ki aura. Seeing this, they turned their attention to Piccolo and Goku.
"You've got to give these people credit, they are persistent." Uub observed as the militia regained their bearing and aimed their weapons at them again.
"ENOUGH!" Boomed a voice as a small explosion erupted between Piccolo and crew and the town fighters.
When the smoke cleared a small man whose appearance was incredibly ancient stood in the center of the street. He turned toward the town's people.
"Savalia!" The town's people eyes grew wide; they all fell to one knee.
"Are you mad? Has anyone even bothered to take a power reading on any of these people?" Savalia practically screamed at the townies.
One of the lead militiamen who seemed to be in charge took out a small device and switched it on. Before the startled man could get a reading the device blew up in his hand.
"That's not possible!" The man gasped echoing the feelings of all within sight.
"It's quite possible you idiot! Savalia yelled. "If these people were evil, you would all be dead right now!"
The militiamen bowed his head in shame. "They were breaking the laws." He offered in defense of his actions.
"They didn't know our laws. They are not from here." Savalia said.
Piccolo stepped forward. "We were trapped here, we mean you no harm. We just want information."
"You shall have it." Savalia said as he stretched his hand out. A weird crystal glowed in the center of his palm.
Savalia and the Z Warriors disappeared in an puff of smoke.
