Chapter Seventeen - Resurrection

New Vegeta - seven months to go:

King Vegeta looked down into the training room. His son was currently fighting six people at once and holding his own. Not that he expected Vegeta to lose to these six, they were good but didn't work well together yet. That was the idea of this current assignment, that and it let Vegeta beat someone up without straining their relations with any of the other races out there. His stunt a few months ago could have been disastrous if Pong hadn't been so understanding. Of course Prince Vegeta had been furious with his father. After all, he'd ordered Pong to remove his tail, that was considered a disgrace.

King Vegeta understood more than his son thought he did however. He knew one of the few secrets about the Sai-jin people that most wouldn't even consider for a moment to be truth. A Sai-jins tail was an asset but not their strength. If anything it was a weakness. Not that any other Sai-jin would believe that for a minute. But he knew that most Sai-jin relied to heavily on their Oozaru transformations to get them out of tough situations.

A Sai-jin without a tail couldn't transform but that didn't mean they were weakened. Most Sai-jins had the 'dishonor' reaction to losing their tail. They crawled up in a ball and refused to fight believing they were no longer great warriors. Some even killed themselves. But those that had the same reaction as his son became great warriors, greater than they could have been with there tails since they worked harder to try and 'reclaim' their glory. That had been his intent when he ordered Pong to remove his son's tail.

He'd gotten the reaction he'd hopped for too. Vegeta had been training himself to the bone these past few months and making a decent improvement. He winced as he watched Vegeta's fist crack three of the ribs on one of his opponents. Then a foot knocked out another before he flung a third into the rest of them.

******

King Kai's Planet - Six months to go:

Bardock stuck his face in his hands as Goku hit himself in the face with his sledge hammer. It had taken Bardock only a day to catch Bubbles and a week for Goku. Then it took almost two months for the elder Sai-jin to hit Gregory. Goku was still trying and it was almost as painful to watch as it was for Goku to attempt it. Bardock had to admit he'd thought the Kai's training methods were worthless at the start but he'd been feeling Goku's power building as he tried to hit the little bug. That was something else he'd learned in the last three months, how to effectively sense KI. He was at the point now where he could tell who was walking up to him, Goku or King Kai, where as before he could only tell someone was there.

It was all Bardock could do not to laugh as he watched Goku roll around on the ground holding his face yelping 'Owie-owie-owie-owie-owie' over and over again. "Your supposed to hit the bug, not your face..." he smirked as a thought hit him. "Though I can see how you made the mistake."

"Hey!" Goku cried sitting up and looking back at him. "I'm not that ugly!"

"That's fine, talk about me like I'm not even here!" Gregory cried in his high pitched voice. At this point King Kai fell over and started laughing his head off. Gregory crossed his arms and frowned. "I see how it is, everyone picks on the short guy!"

Suddenly Goku was back on his feet and gripping the mallet again. "Alright, I think I've got the hang of this thing now." he said swinging the large hammer back and forth. /I have the feeling Yamcha wouldn't have any problems with this... Now let's see if I can time this right, I swung a bit to early last time and hit my face before he was even beside me.../ "Come on Gregory, I'll get you this time!"

"Not likely!" he said getting ready. "And 3, 2, 1!" With that the small bug charged in at Goku at break neck speeds. Bardock's eyes widened as the large mallet moved swiftly through the air. He could see it, the speed, the angle, the timing, it was all perfect. He was smiling before the mallet even smashed into Gregory sending him speeding off into the distance.

"Ha! Yeah! I got you that time!"

"Not bad Goku." King Kai said walking over. "You've finally passed the tests, now it's time for the real training to begin."

******

Earth - Three months to go:

"Come on Gohan! You can do better than that!" Appla cried dodging around one of his punches. His power had come a good way since they'd started, a lot farther than hers had, but she'd always been slow at getting stronger. The one that really impressed her was the Namek, his power had grown in leaps and bounds and he was quickly gaining on her. He was even stronger than Gohan now. She just hopped Bardock and Goku were fairing better then them, otherwise they'd not have a chance at beating Zarbon.

The young Sai-jin's power spiked quickly and he landed a sharp blow to her jaw, the first one in three months. However his victory was short lived as Piccolo's foot slammed into his head knocking him into the ground and out cold again, third time that week. She sighed and relaxed taking a seat under a near-by tree. Piccolo glanced her way before doing the same. "I still don't get why you don't train yourself. You're stronger than either of us, you have the best chance at..."

She shook her head cutting him off. "No, I don't. Do you know what my power level was when I was born?" She glanced over at the Namek a moment before continuing. "6,301" she said at last. "In all the years I've been training this is all the power I've gained." she sighed and slumped over. "I'm one of the few Sai-jins who has to spend years training to see even the slightest improvement. Unlike Bardock who was born with a power of 351. You know how much power he's gained. He has a greater natural ability than many Sai-jins, almost as great as that of the Royal Family."

She looked up through the trees and smiled faintly. "When our first son was born, Turles, he had a power level of about 800. Raditz had a power of around 600." she looked down at Piccolo again. "Then Kakka." she stopped for a moment and shook her head. "Goku was born with a power level of 2. Just 2." she sighed again. "Everyone had expected a great warrior and instead got a common civilian. Bardock and I thought that if he'd inherited Bardock's natural ability he'd become a powerful warrior someday but we weren't going to chance it. We'd expected him to reach somewhere from two hundred to five hundred but... when we got here..."

"He shocked you." Piccolo said grinning. "I know the feeling. He and I were rivals at one point and I never could catch him..."

"His natural ability seems to be even greater than that of Bardock. And then there's Gohan." she said glancing over at the still unconscious child. "He's abnormal if anything. For a child to be born to a third class Sai-jin and have that much power... it's ludicrous. Of course there are Sai-jins born everyday who have more power than him, more power than me or even Bardock, but they're born to elites. The only person who falls into the same category as Gohan would be Brolly."

She noticed the quizzical look on Piccolo's face and smirked. "He was born to a Second Class Soldier. His parents had powers of around 20,000 or so. Brolly was born with a power of over 10,000. That only happens to the children of elites. Then, a few years back, he vanished. He was at about half a million then, unheard of for anyone other than royalty."

******

Earth - Two months to go:

"No, no, no!" Vadora yelled across the Lookout. "That's not the way it's done!"

"Relax Vadora." Tien said placing a hand on her shoulder. "You said it yourself, they probably wouldn't get the hang of it."

"I know." she said sighing. "But I thought maybe..."

Yamcha looked over at the two of them angry at himself. Hotaru had walked them all through the process step by step and no one could do it. Vadora had tried but there'd been a back wash through her body that had nearly killed her. She and Hotaru believed it had something to do with her being Sai-jin that prevented her use of the Kinryoku. So everyone had been trying. So far the best results had been Krillin's, but the short man had passed out from the power surge. Tien couldn't sustain it for more than a split second, and he... he couldn't do it at all. Yamcha turned and looked at Hotaru who seemed to be starring at her feet in despair. While Tien and Vadora had gotten closer over the last ten months he and Hotaru had done the same... though sometimes he did worry about Bulma. Of course, every time he did he reminded himself she was the one who had done all the yelling and the one who had broken up with him.

As he watched her standing there and thought about everything he suddenly realized that none of that would matter in two months time unless they all got much stronger... "I can do this." he said under his breath. He'd said it softly but everyone seemed to hear and turned their attention towards him. "Nibai Kinryoku!" he cried. Suddenly a silver aura shimmered around his body, then suddenly flared brilliantly about him. As it stabilized they also noticed they increase in muscle mass. He smiled as he moved through a few motions. He could feel the power, the speed, the heightened everything. He could also feel a knot in his stomach and knew that this was his limit with the skill, at least for the moment.

"Amazing..." Hotaru said feeling his power. The move had worked perfectly, his power had doubled.

******

Earth - Zero months to go:

Master Roshi looked up from his magazine as he heard a voice. "Who's there?"

"Finally! Master Roshi, it's Goku!" the voice cried.

"Goku! But how... where are you?" he cried looking around.

"In Otherworld still, that's why I'm contacting you. You need to summon Shenron and wish us back! Zarbon's ship is already past Mars and nearing quickly! He'll be there in half an hour!"

"What! Half an hour!"

"Yeah, you need to get everyone ready, tell them it's time, and revive us!"

Roshi nodded and nearly fell over his pants as he ran out of the bathroom finally falling over in the living room. "It's time!" he yelled to Bulma and Oolong, the only ones in the room. "The alien's almost here! We need to summon Shenron!" They starred at him like he was nuts for a moment before they two heard Goku's voice echo hurry. Bulma paled a bit but quickly grabbed the Dragonballs. A moment later they were outside and the Dragon was floating in the darkened sky above them.

"Mortals, why have you summoned me to this realm? Speak your wish!" it boomed.

Oolong took a step back but Bulma managed to make the wish. "We need you to revive Goku and his father!" she called up.

The dragon's eyes glowed for a moment. "It has been done." then it began to glow. "My work is done, I bid thee farewell." and it was gone in seven streaks of light.

******

Otherworld - King Kai's planet:

Goku watched as Bardock's halo vanished followed a second later by his own. "Alright!" he cried. "They did it, we're alive again!" He jumped up and down for a moment then looked at King Kai. "Aren't you going to take us back?"

"No, I can't do that." he said shaking his head. "You have to get back on your...." his face went pale. "Oh no! I forgot to allow time for you guys to get back!"

Bardock glared at the short Kai. "It took us three months to get here!" he cried.

"Yes, but it shouldn't take you more than four hours to get back. You had better getting moving, you don't have any time to waste standing here!"

The two Sai-jins nodded, lifted into the air, and sped away from King Kai's planet and back toward the check in station.