His breathing was low and steady, though being in a battle against Uub, his student and friend in whose skills as a fighter the Saiyajin trusted and believed, Son- Goku tried to control the amount of air his body needed during their training sessions, because it would help him to get better stamina. The fighter knew that if he was able to control his breathing, his body wouldn't get tired and any kind of exhaustion would merely get lost. He took a deep breath as he raised his left leg to kick the young boy into his side, but Uub ducked. Son- Goku tried again to hit the small figure, when a familiar raspy voice was heard.

" Son- Goku " , he frowned as he noticed an unusual urgency in Piccolo's voice and decided to keep quiet until his former arch- rival would have told him what was up, "You have to come to the Palace as fast as possible, it's about life and death! "

"What?" Goku asked in surprise and thought that he might have heard wrong. Why would Piccolo call me, if it's about life and death. Dende's kami, it's his business, isn't it? I mean………… The ways of his mind were interrupted by Piccolo.

" Now get that lazy ass o' yers up here! " Son- Goku knew better than to argue. If the Namekian put it that way, it would be really  urgent. The man took off into the sky followed by Uub, who had also listened to their conversation and was rather curious why the alien named Piccolo, as his mentor had told him, wanted them, or more precisely Son- Goku, to come to the Palace. Uub had never seen said building before, but the Sayiajin had promised him to show him once he was older. Well, now, he was indeed older than a few months ago.

*********************************

In the meantime, Piccolo had removed the covers off of Dende. He didn't know much about this kind of illness, only the information he had received from Nail, who was yelling inside his head, but it seemed that heat was the last thing a Namekian's body needed, when survival depended on making the blood flow slower. The Namekian people did have a rather low body temperature - about 23° to 27° - because their muscles and skin didn't need so much warmth to relax. So Piccolo had been rather surprised when Dende had gotten Kjeitiva just from lying in the rain. Under ordinary circumstances, this wouldn't have done a thing to him, even though he was a teenager.  The older Namekian assumed that Dende had been living a little too long on Earth and due to coming here when he was still a child, his body seemed to have adopted some sore points of the humans' biology.

So now, he tried to keep the body as cool as possible for not wanting the circulation to work faster than it already did. It was quite an ironical thought to pray to God right now to save his own life. Piccolo merely hoped that Son- Goku would show up soon.

He looked over to Dende again and was relieved when he saw that the lad's situation hadn't changed for the worse, yet. His good ears allowed him to hear how the younger Namekian was fighting for the air to fill his lungs and he saw him clenching his teeth together. Dende was in pain, no doubt about that one. Piccolo could already feel the Saiyajin's ki coming closer and it was followed by some other ki. The Namekian remembered the other one; it was Uub, Son- Goku's latest student.

*********************************

"See that white thing there?" Son- Goku yelled over his shoulder, pointing at an object some several miles away.

Uub nodded, guessing that this had to be the Palace of Earth's Guardian. Before even knowing what he was doing, his curiosity got the better of him and the young boy overtook his mentor and flew as fast as possible to be able to make out more details of this white platform.

The Saiyajin grinned and sped up to catch up with his student and friend, already feeling Piccolo's ki. He hadn't been to the Palace for – what had Bulma said? – five years. He had preferred to stay at home and to spend some time with his family. He had been rather surprised to find Dende among the visitors at the tournament some months ago. Man, had the boy grown!! Now, he looked more mature -  a lot like Piccolo - but Son- Goku had shrugged it off as a consequence of both of them being Namekian and therefore being related in some kind of way.

Suddenly, the Z-fighter frowned. Shouldn't he be able to sense the guardian's ki? There was none, merely an energy that sparkled from time to time, like a fire that was about to go out with the next breath of wind. Might that be the reason Piccolo had called for him?

It's about life and death

Was earth's guardian…………. No! Son-Goku didn't even dare to think about this question. By the time he and Uub arrived at the Look-out and landed gently on the cold marble, Mr. Popo was running towards them.

"Son-Goku, Uub, Piccolo is already waiting for you", he stopped on front of them and indicated them to follow him, while he kept on informing them about the current situation.

The more he heard, the more he got worried. Son-Goku told Uub, who was looking around curiously, to go into Mr. Popo's garden to look at the beautiful flowers there.  He then stepped into Dende's chambers.

Closing the door behind him, he walked over to the bed and approached Piccolo.

" What's wrong with him? Mr. Popo said that he was very ill," the Saiyajin regarded the coughing teenager's form lying in his bed. He was so pale, his original emerald skin seemed to have turned into some shade of yellow and his cheeks and forehead remained in some kind of sapphire blue. Dende was shaking like a leaf in a thunderstorm.

"He is", Piccolo's voice sounded much huskier than usual, and he didn't dare to take his eyes off the boy's body while he was speaking. "It's possible that he'll die within the next few days, maybe even hours. You see, we don't have time to lose."

"But what can I do?"

"You have to help us with your teleportation. Bring us to New Namek.  If you don't. . . he will die."