Bardock, Gohan, Videl, Raditz, and Bardock Jr. made there way across hangar bay D17 to the port authority office. Beings of numerous races bustled about here and there. The hangar area was quite crowded. Saiyan guards stood watch to and from the launch areas.
"I knew she was still alive! I just knew it!" Raditz said. "There wasn't any other explanation!"
"Yeah, but why couldn't we feel her ki before now?" Gohan said. "Even dad never mentioned it before, and he's the best when it comes to sensing power levels in others, even from very far away."
"I don't know Gohan. But from what little bit I have sensed through our bond, I'd say she's been in some sort of stasis" Bardock said.
"That makes sense then." Gohan pondered. "I wonder what happened to her after Vegetasei blew up?"
Bardock had some guesses based on the fragments and images he got through the bond between he and his mate, none of which gave him any comfort. Bardock decided to share what he knew.
"I don't know much, but I believe that Celritri, along with many others, were kidnapped off the planet just before Frieza destroyed it. She's been through hell, years of backbreaking labor, beatings, and who knows what else. I got some other images, garbled mostly, but the last thing I got was they escaped because she got mad enough to go Super Saiyan." Bardock said.
A long pause followed that information.
"Celritri is grandma's name?" Gohan asked. He had never heard anything about her before now. "What's she like?"
"She was an excellent fighter, but not much interested in becoming a warrior. She hated Frieza, and the planet trade. We had a huge argument over that once. She was beautiful, and, looking back on it, far smarter than I was. Her hair was like Raditz, but Kakkarot got her eyes. She only wanted one thing in this world, and I couldn't give it to her." Bardock's eyes suddenly shifted to the floor as they walked.
"What did she want, father?" Raditz asked.
"You Raditz, you and Kakkarot. She wanted her children home." Bardock said sadly.
Raditz looked at his father like he'd never seen him before. "You never told me that father."
"I should have told you and Kakkarot how your mother felt. What do you remember Raditz?" Bardock asked.
"Not much, I don't even remember her face anymore. I just remember feeling warm and good whenever she was around. I remember you telling her to stop babying me so much." Raditz said.
"Yeah, she did tend to spoil you a bit." Bardock smiled. "By the way, isn't Abigail coming along?"
"No, she said that she couldn't leave with Jessica still missing. I hope we hear something soon, this whole thing has been hard on her." Raditz lamented.
Bardock looked at his son meaningfully.
"Yeah, it's been hard on me too. She's my daughter after all." Raditz said. "And my brother."
"Yeah, it would have been nice if I would have been able to present both her sons to your mother." Bardock said sadly.
They reached the automatic doors that lead into the lobby of the port authority.
Ten minutes later they were standing outside of a medium sized fast-cruiser which looked to be fresh off the assembly line.
A small burnt-reddish, incredibly nervous looking man escorted them to their ship.
"Please sirs, this ship was specially built to present to King Vegeta for his birthday next month. If you so much as scratch it, Queen Bulma will have my head!" The clerk said nervously. "The Queen designed every part of it!"
"Don't worry, this should be a strictly routine mission. We're not expecting combat on this one." Bardock smiled brightly trying to assuage the man's fears. The man only became more nervous.
The small man bowed and took his leave as the 'crew' took a look at their ship. It was beautiful! It was white, with the name "S.S.S. Hope 1" painted on both sides in large stylized lettering. The ship was sleek, and obviously built for speed. It looked very much like a much larger than normal Earth type fighter jet, but far more aerodynamic. The most striking part of the ship was what was painted on the side. Lying horizontally along both sides was a stylized painting of Bulma herself, with long flowing blue hair that covered only certain aspects of her nudity.
"We're going through space in that?" Videl asked, some color rising to her cheeks.
"Yeah, this seems sort of personal." Gohan said blushing himself.
"It's the only ship this size and speed that's available." Bardock said placing his hand on a plate a quarter of the way up the side of the ship, which just happened to correspond to Bulma's left breast. "It's this or separate space pods that will tack on two weeks to the trip."
"I hope we don't run into any warriors. That's embarrassing!" Raditz grumbled.
The plate glowed under Bardock's hand. "Authorization confirmed. Subject Bardock has full clearance. Welcome aboard!" The door in front of Bardock slide silently to the side
The voice was also Bulma's.
The door in front of Bardock slide silently to the side
"She sure likes to put herself into her work." Raditz noted.
"Yeah, she's always been like that." Gohan smiled.
Everyone went in side the ship. Bulma had designed it not only for speed, but for luxury as well. The pilot's cabin was designed with total comfort in mind. A living area was specious, furnished with plush couches and chairs. An entertainment center graced the far wall from the pilot's cabin. The sleeping cabin sported ten bunks, with abundant closet and drawer space. Their luggage had already been brought aboard and was stacked neatly in the far corner.
"Well, this is it for the next three days, everyone settle in. I'm going to go out and perform a quick preflight inspection before we go." Bardock said as he started to leave the cabin.
"Can I go too, grandpa" Bardock Jr. said excitedly.
Bardock Jr. had grown into a beautiful six-year old boy, the spitting image of his grandfather. Of all his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, Bardock had a special pride for this one, and he showed it as only a Saiyan can.
"Sure brat, let's go." Bardock said with a half smile.
Outside the ship, Bardock walked over to a small table that held several pieces of paper on a clipboard. The top document was a preflight inspection.
"Looks like they've already done a preflight." Bardock said to no one in particular.
"Are you going to do one too?" Bardock Jr. strained to see the paper, finally gave up and flew up to sit on Bardock's shoulder for a better view.
"Sure I am! I never leave a space dock without doing my own pre-flight, unless it's an emergency." Bardock said.
"Why?" Bardock Jr. was at that age where the question "why?" was a huge part of their vocabulary.
"Well, do you know what a parachute is?" Bardock asked.
The boy's eyes scrunched in concentration for a second. "Oh yeah! Mommy told me about them! People that can't fly use them to land softly if they fall."
"Yeah, that's the idea. Well, those parachutes pretty particular about the way they are folded up before they are used again." Bardock explained. "If they are folded wrong, they won't open, and won't slow you down at all."
"Then splat!" Bardock Jr. said with a giggle.
"Yeah, splat." Bardock smiled. "So there is an Earth saying that goes something like, 'never trust a chute you didn't pack'. I heard it once while watching a John Wayne movie when I was on Earth. This preflight inspection is sort of the same thing. Just because someone else performed it, they could have missed something, or been tired, or sloppy, or less than qualified. So I wouldn't feel safe until I've had a look see myself."
"So we don't go splat?" Bardock Jr. said with wide eyes.
"Yeah, so we don't go splat." Bardock chuckled.
Bardock looked at the other documents. He found the report on the ship's test flights, even earlier pre-flights, a report on her first shake down cruise, and some general notes and specifications. Everything looked fine. Bardock found a blank pre-flight form on the table and put it in the clipboard, and started the inspection making sure to explain everything he was looking at and why. Bardock Jr. was paying rapt attention, only occasionally stealing a quick look at his grandfather's determined face.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Gogeta and Chaos floated in space doing their best to stare each other down. Gogeta had been waiting for her to make the first move, but he was growing impatient.
"Damned her! She can obviously sense ki, she must know how much more powerful she is than I am, what gives?" Gogeta thought. "Wait a minute! I know that she can sense ki, but can she sense the level of that ki?"
Without moving or saying a word Gogeta lowered his ki to half of what it had been. Chaos didn't react at all. Gogeta raised his ki back to what it had previously been.
"So, she knows where I am by tracking my ki, but cannot sense the level. She has no idea how powerful I am!" Gogeta smirked. Then he phased out and suppressed his ki as low as he could.
Chaos looked confused. She knew he just used super speed to disappear, but his ki also disappeared! She began to look around frantically trying to pick Gogeta up.
The sudden reappearance of ki in front of her told her that she'd been had just before Gogeta's foot slammed into her stomach.
"Gotcha!" Gogeta exclaimed.
Chaos doubled over momentarily and grabbed Gogeta's leg and threw him into a large chunk of the planet.
Gogeta sailed through the debris and finally caught himself several thousand yards away; he immediately disappeared as Chaos's ki blast nearly fried him, exploding harmlessly in space.
Gogeta appeared several dozen yards in back of Chaos and pointed his right arm, palm out straight at her back.
"Big Bang Attack!!" Gogeta yelled as he gathered the necessary energy into a ball and let it fly. The energy ball struck Chaos full in the chest and exploded. Before the light even started to die away, Chaos emerged from the heart of it and flew straight at Gogeta, unleashing a flurry of punches and kicks so hard that blocking them bruised Gogeta's arms and legs.
"Damned it! Her fighting style is becoming more polished as we go along! She's either learning, or remembering how to fight as we go!" Gogeta thought before missing a punch and taking it full to the chin. With Gogeta stunned, Chaos didn't hesitate to press her advantage, pummeling Gogeta viciously.
After enduring her attack for several long seconds, Gogeta managed to expand his ki field catching Chaos off guard and push her back several yards. But the reprieve was only momentary, and Chaos was back on him again. She hit him and sunk her foot talons deep into Gogeta's sides and clung to him while beating his face with her clawed fists.
Gogeta screamed inside his ki bubble and tried to pull free, but to no avail. Chaos was too strong. To make matters worst, Gogeta felt himself being drained of energy through contact with Chaos.
"Blast! She's stealing my power!" Gogeta was panicked.
Gogeta tried desperately to avoid or block the blows aimed at his face, but his strength was waning. He searched for a plan, something to help him escape. His eyes fell across the chunk of planet that held the citadel and spied the crystals they had brought with them. All six had spilled onto the ground and lay there glowing softly. Gogeta felt like they were calling to him.
"If I can't defeat this bitch, then I can at least prevent her from escaping!" Gogeta put two fingers to his head and disappeared.
"So! You can teleport too! Where did you go?" Chaos felt his ki and turned in the direction of the citadel. Her eyes shot wide open when she saw him powering up a huge ki blast with the intention of destroying the crystals.
"NOOOOOOOO!!" Chaos started to teleport to stop him, but it was too late, Gogeta had fired a massive blast at the crystals at point blank range.
But there was no planet shattering explosion, no vaporized crystals, no nothing.
The crystals had absorbed the energy, and now lay glowing as bright as the sun. While Gogeta watched, the crystals started to quiver then rose off the ground. Before Gogeta could react, the crystals flew at him and embedded themselves in his body. One crystal now graced his forehead, one in each palm and three formed one large crystal embedded in his chest.
Suddenly Chaos appeared in front of him and fired a black ki blast at him. It was deflected by his growing aura.
Gogeta felt a power surge through him the likes of which he never thought possible. He turned into pure energy. His form was held together as merely an illusion, a hologram that he himself created to give his mind a reference point.
Chaos flew in and threw a punch at Gogeta's head only to have her fist and arm disintegrate before her eyes.
"Arrrggghhh!" Chaos screamed.
The wounds in Gogeta's sides healed, and his clothing repaired. He launched himself off the citadel floor and crashed into Chaos at an impossible rate of speed. The impact carried them both off the planet fragment, and back out into open space. Gogeta used Chaos as a battering ram, plowing through several asteroids. Gogeta then began to treat her to the same ruthless punishment that she had dealt him just half a minute ago.
Gogeta sent Chaos flying into another large chunk of planet, embedding her yards under the surface.
"One-Thousand Times Kaaaa... Meee... Haaaa.... Meeee.. HAAAA!" Gogeta let fly with the most powerful Kamehameha wave ever.
Buu had been flying away from the scene stopped and looked back, trying to sense even a small glimpse of what was going on. Buu had managed to get almost half a parsec away, but could feel both their kis, and he felt Gogeta's ki shoot up dramatically.
Meanwhile, Inside Buu's head...
"What the hell is going on out there?!" Bulma asked impatiently.
"I'm not sure, but Gogeta seems to have the upper hand at the moment. His ki is phenomenal." Piccolo said.
The group stood in a large chamber that would have been all too familiar to Gogeta.
"I wish we could see something!" Jessica exclaimed. "This is maddening!"
"Hello!" A pink face took shape on the wall in front of them.
"Buu! What's going on?" Bulma asked.
"Buu left a small part of himself back there. You see!" Buu smiled, as a part of the wall to their left seemed to become transparent just as Gogeta was powering up his Kamehemehe.
"What? 1,000 times!!" Piccolo's lower law dropped. "Buu! Are we far enough away?"
"Buu thinks so." Buu answered.
Then the energy wave hit, and all of space rocked with its force.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
She could sense her body again. Instead of thoughts floating in a pool of nothing, she had some form now. She was very close to consciousness again. Again she experienced the sensation of floating, like floating in a tub where the temperature of the water matched your body temperature completely. Then some more sensation came back to her, but she couldn't will herself to move yet. She also felt how dry her mouth was; she was parched, as dry as dust. Then suddenly, there he was, standing right in front of her.
"Bardock?" Celritri asked tentatively.
The figure in front of her didn't answer. But she was sure it was Bardock and strangely, he didn't look that much older than the day she saw him die.
"Since when does Bardock have two heads?" Celritri thought. "Wait! That's not another head that's a small boy that looks just like him. Is that Kakkarot? Is Kakkarot with Bardock then? Is he... dead?"
"KAKKAROT!" Celritri moaned despairingly.
At that, the image in front of her stopped and looked directly at her. "Celritri! Is that you?" Bardock said.
Celritri was shocked for a second. She had thought that the image in front of her was nothing more than an illusion.
"Y-Yes Bardock, it's me!" Celritri said.
Bardock closed his eyes. "Yes! I can see you now! Are you on Earth yet?"
"No, not yet, but how did you know..." Celritri began.
"Who are you talking to Grandpa?" Bardock Jr. asked.
"Be still for a minute, okay?" Bardock asked. Bardock Jr. went silent and listened.
"When I first felt your ki, I knew you were close to Earth, and why you were going there. But Kakkarot isn't there anymore." Bardock explained.
"Isn't that Kakkarot, with you?" Celritri said confused.
"No, this is Bardock Jr. Your grandson." Bardock smiled proudly. "He's Raditz's son."
"Bardock, aren't you dead? I watched you die!" Celritri asked terrified of the answer.
"I did die my lover, and was dead for many years. Thanks to our youngest son, I'm back among the living. I have even better news than that, but I want to surprise you." Bardock smiled a huge, goofy grin that only a member of the House of Bardock could manage.
"You're alive! Please let this not be a dream!" Celritri was as near tears as a Saiyan could get. "Our sons! What about Raditz and Kakkarot."
"Raditz is here with me, he is well. Kakkarot is on a mission, we haven't heard from him in a number of days." Bardock said sadly.
"Bardock... When you talk about your sons, I see softness in your eyes that I never saw before, is that love in your voice? What has happened to you?"
"Things have changed my love. I have been through hell and back, literally." Bardock smiled. "I am on my way to your position and will arrive in a bit over three days. Raditz you already know, but another grandson by the name of Gohan who is Kakkarot's oldest son, Gohan's wife Videl, and the brat here will all be coming along."
Celritri smiled. "Tell me Bardock, have you missed me?"
"With every fiber of my being." Bardock answered solemnly. "I can't wait to be with you again."
"I had given up hope of ever seeing you again. My heart was ripped out when I watched you die." Celritri reached out her hand but couldn't reach her mate.
"As was mine when we were parted." Bardock also reached out his hand.
"When I watched you die, I shared a vision with you, just a fleeting image of Kakkarot defeating Frieza. Is that true?" Celritri asked.
"Kakkarot defeated Frieza. He went Super Saiyan and beat Frieza badly. Unfortunately, he didn't finish him and Frieza recovered and went to Earth to find Kakkarot, who called himself Goku, to seek revenge. But, as I was told the story, Vegeta's son from the future arrived and he was also a Super Saiyan and easily defeated both Frieza, and his father, King Cold." Bardock retold the story.
"My son! A Super Saiyan! I'm so proud!" Celritri gushed.
"Well, it's not that big a feat anymore." Bardock said.
"What do you mean?" Celritri asked.
"Well, I'll explain further when we meet, but I can go super as well, even the brat here went super for the first time a few weeks ago." Bardock said.
"The boy! A Super Saiyan!" Celritri was floored.
"Yeah, amazing isn't it?" Bardock said scratching his head and giving the famous grin.
Celritri smiled. "I've missed that goofy grin."
"I've missed grinning for you." Bardock answered. "Hey, we'll talk more later, okay? I've got to get this ship in the air if we're going to get to you."
"Sure... I love you Bardock Pinhead." Celritri smiled.
Bardock chuckled at the name Celritri called him the first time they met. "I love you too, Ms. Bitchy Face."
Bardock's image faded leaving Celritri wondering about what could have possibly have changed so much that Bardock learned to say those three words.
Then Celritri's eyes fluttered open. At first she was a bit disorientated, the room's lights had automatically come up the second she regained consciousness, but dimly at first, to prevent hurting her eyes.
Then all of a sudden it hit her. "I'M A GRANDMOTHER!!" She exclaimed.
Celritri started to get up, but found that her long unused muscles didn't want to work quite right, and the effort caused her a bit of pain.
"Oomph! I'm going to have to take this slow for a while." She thought to herself. She reached up slowly and pressed a button on a small console above her head. A small hissing sound started as the top of her sleep chamber swung back and out of the way, the front panel swung downward.
Celritri swung her legs and put her feet down on the deck of the ship. "How the hell long have we been out anyway? Celritri cautiously put some weight on her legs, wincing against the muscle spasms. Shortly, her legs adjusted to the work and she was fully on her feet. Still stiffly limping a bit, she made her way past the other stasis chambers and out into the main bridge.
"Computer, open main screen." Celritri said as she made her way to the sensor console.
"Computer can not comply." The computer voice sounded tinny from disuse.
"Why not?" Celritri asked.
"Panels are jammed, corrosion has rendered them useless." The computer voice answered.
Celritri walked over to the panels and managed with some effort to slide it to the side manually. Before her was a large planet that was a beautiful blue planet that looked to be well over half covered in water. White clouds sporadically covered parts of it.
"What a pretty world." Celritri thought as she walked back to the sensor console and started reading figures from the view screen.
"This planet is fully populated, didn't Kakkarot clear it?" Celritri wondered. "That's strange."
Celritri, now feeling much better, took some steps to her left and switched on he ships ki detector. Readings began to flash across the screen.
"Humph! Nothing here that could have even come close to challenging a Saiyan, even a baby Saiyan." Celritri concluded. The numbers kept flashing on the screen.
Suddenly the console exploded in a shower of sparks. The video screen flashed one final number, an extremely high number. She stared at it for several long seconds in disbelief before the video screen went blank.
"Seventeen million? That's impossible!" Celritri tried to convince herself. I don't generate that kind of ki even as a Super Saiyan! That can't be right! It was still going up with the system blew!"
She sat down in a crew chair contemplating what manner of creature could possibly generate that sort of power. She wasn't afraid, she was a Saiyan after all, but this thing is far more powerful than K had been.
"Ha, K!" Celritri smiled as she thought about her fight with the defrocked Icejin.
K was way overconfident, even after Celritri thumped the back of his neck and drove him to the ground.
"I don't care if you are a Super Saiyan! You're race are nothing but a bunch of mindless monkeys! There is no way you can defeat me!" Kay spat.
K may not have been quite as confident as he thought, he powered up to 80% of his maximum.
Celritri smirked as she also powered up. "What a humiliation you are in for. Cold kicking your ass was bad enough, but now a female monkey is going to kick your ass as well. Tell me K, did that woman Frieza kick your ass too?"
K's eyes snapped to hers with a hard, cold look.
Celritri knew she had hit a nerve right away. "Ah! So, it wasn't Cold that kicked your butt, that's just what you told everyone so you didn't have to face the shame about being beaten by his effeminate son!"
"Shut up you bitch!" K was seething now.
Celritri decided to push another button.
"So how do you think it will feel to be beaten by two women?" Celritri laughed.
"DAMNED YOU!" K yelled as he launched himself at his tormentor again. This time, however, K moved with the speed of a determined warrior.
K moved in and started throwing punches and kicks. Celritri didn't bother to block at all. K finished with a haymaker that landed squarely on Celritri's jaw. Celritri's head snapped to one side.
Celritri became vaguely aware of some fighting over her head, but was having way too much fun to divert her attention.
"Is that all you got K?" Celritri said passed K's still extended fist.
K pulled his fist back and stepped back, his eyes were like giant saucers. "You can't be stronger than me!"
"I beg to differ." Celritri smiled then disappeared so fast that K couldn't follow her.
K wanted to power up to 100%, but he needed 30 seconds uninterrupted to do so. K decided to appeal to Celritri's Saiyan pride.
"I could destroy you if I could reach my maximum!" K taunted.
"What are you at now?" Celritri asked.
"About eighty percent." K smiled.
"Okay, go for it then. I'll wait." Celritri floated down to a small boulder and took a seat.
K smiled evilly. "Alright then, half a minute is all it should take."
"Okay, but once you get there, I'm not going to play anymore." Celritri warned.
Thirty seconds later, with a scream, a burst of energy and light, K reached 100%.
"Are you quite ready now?" Celritri asked nonchalantly. "No more excuses?"
"No, I'm quite ready now." K sneered and fired several hundred finger beams directly at Celritri.
Celritri calmly batted them all aside. The surrounding area lit up with numerous explosions.
"If that is 100%, then I'm not impressed." Celritri said.
"Alright damned it!" K flew up way overhead. "If I can't beat you, I'll rip the planet out from under you!"
K powered up a huge sphere, much like Frieza's death ball, but larger, and green.
"Say goodbye bitch!" K started to throw the energy ball, but stopped, a look of utter shock on his face. The energy ball faded as K looked down to his chest. A large hole, large enough to put both fists through, now appeared where flesh and blood once existed.
K looked away from the gushing wound back toward his opponent.
"I told you I was going to be serious now." Celritri smirked as she powered up another attack and completely incinerated K.
"Hmmm… I wonder if Cold would pay me the bounty?" Celritri frowned. "Probably not."
"fifteen or twenty of her warrior landed around her. "Mistress, the mercenaries made a run for it. We tried to stop them, but some escaped in their ship." A tall Saiyan female said.
"Damned! We could have used that ship instead of that hulking monstrosity in the hangar!" Celritri said. She sighed. "Oh well, nothing can be done about that now."
Celritri walked back toward the hangar.
It took another full month to finally bring the main reactors on line, and yet another month of hard work making the ship space worthy.
Finally, the day came to leave. Celritri hadn't thought about it before, but this trip was going to take almost 60 years, if they made it at all. Kakkarot may not even be on Earth anymore, or have been killed, but where else where they going to go? At least Kakkarot would have cleared the planet, maybe they could start fresh there.
Celritri's last thoughts were of Bardock, before the cold and sleep overtook her.
Celritri's mind snapped back to the present. "Computer, please initiate wake-up procedures for all remaining sleep chambers."
"Wake-up initiated. Process will be complete in three hours." The computer dutifully replied.
"Also initiate pre-landing process. Let's go down and see what's going on." Celritri ordered.
"Affirmative" Came the emotionless reply.
