Piccolo watched Goku from high above, on King Ki's planet. Smiling slightly he turned away; Goku had learned his lessons well. He would do fine. But now Piccolo's job was done, at least for now, so he could do what he wanted to do- which happened to be training.
He had been training a lot already, in the fashion that he already had before. It hadn't been difficult to tap into a new level, his power level was just over what Frieza's had been at 50% of his full power. But he wanted to get higher then that, it was just the way he lived and worked. Which was why he was here. King Ki was the only person in the Afterlife who could really teach him anything, and he wanted to learn. And now, watching Goku, he thought of a joke. He was pretty sure it would work too, if he knew anything about King Ki.
"King Ki, here is my joke."
The portly ruler turned eagerly.
"That's good, you're always too somber. You need to lighten up."
A bunch of thoughts ran through Piccolo's mind, mainly thinking that he had a really stupid joke.
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?" King Ki was excited already.
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Orange."
"Orange who?"
"Orange you glad I didn't say banana?"
King Ki stood, a little stunned for a while. Piccolo rolled his eyes and waited a second. Suddenly the basic idea of the joke dawned on King Ki and he began rolling around laughing in the ground. Piccolo just waited patiently. After this he got to catch the stupid monkey and whack the stupid cricket with that hammer. Then he got to actually learn something.
Goku almost walked into the town itself, but then remembered the sheer hate they had for all saiyans. Instead he decided to circle around to his own house to see what was there. He was pretty hungry and he hadn't eaten in a long time. While he could go without food, that didn't mean he liked it.
While walking, Goku suddenly heard a voice call out over a megaphone "Surrender at once, saiyan!"
Looking around quickly, Goku saw the police car ahead, hovering a few feet above the ground. They were yelling at him. Goku shook his head at himself. He hadn't gotten far enough away from the city.
"Look, I am not here to hurt you," he called. "Can't a guy just walk into his own house?"
No, he thought to himself, not always. Not if they were a saiyan, or a Namek, or anything else. Anything that wasn't human didn't get the basic rights everyone else got. In fact, anything they didn't like didn't get any rights. Just a basic need to cause pain. He was the obvious scapegoat. But these people gave him their own answer, opening rounds of machine gun fire at his head. The bullets bounced off his face and sprayed in every odd direction. Sighing, Goku leaped forward as fast as he could.
The policemen were still firing rounds of fire when he got close to them. Grabbing their guns, he ripped them from their hands, then broke them over his knee effortlessly. After all that had happened on Namek, his strength had increased. While he could always destroy metal before, this felt like snapping wet noodles. Tossing them aside slowly, he looked at them a second silently, then spoke.
"I didn't want to hurt you and I still won't. Leave, please."
They listened this time, running off in the other direction. Goku sighed and walked on, reflecting that he needed to get out of this saiyan armor, it made him really obvious. He continued heading toward his house.
Reaching there, Goku found it temporarily deserted. The door was locked, but he ripped it off its hinges easily and walked inside. Looking around inside, Goku saw that everything was pretty much the same as it had been before. That was fortunate. He went to his room and got on one of his gis. Now he was wearing something more normal again.
He had cleared out the fridge by the time he noticed a few papers on the table. They were set like someone had just been working on them. Goku looked down and started reading them over. It didn't take long, even with his intelligence, to figure out that they were divorce papers. Chi-chi was out for good. Sitting at the table, he started looking over the claims. She basically got everything.
Finding a pen he wrote a small note beside the lines concerning the custody of Gohan. Due to recent circumstances involving the death of the subject, the matter is void. What was that? Looking back over the words, Goku couldn't even understand what he had written. It probably meant that Gohan was dead, so it was all right. What had possibly possessed him to do something like that? He pushed it from his mind easily. It hardly mattered.
A bit disturbed, Goku put the papers back where they had been. So his marriage was dissolved. What had he expected, really? Before he left, he needed to get up to date on what was happening here on Earth. Sitting down on the couch, he turned on the TV and hoped that Chi-chi didn't get home too soon.
To his surprise, there was footage of some sort of parade going on. Goku changed the channel, but then it was just a different angle of the same parade. Goku gritted his teeth and decided to find out what this was all about. It must be important, if multiple channels were covering it. Goku flipped to the next channel, saw the same thing, then flipped back.
Some man was at the head of the parade, riding in a car. He seemed to be the most important part of it, so Goku watched him. After the parade moved for a few blocks, it reached a grand stage that had been set up in the middle of an intersection. The man got out of the car and walked up the stairs amid wild cheers.
Goku watched, a bit bored, as they heaped honors on this guy, whoever he was. He wanted to hear what he had done, that was all that really mattered. Finally a few words strained out to reach his ears.
"... for bravely defending planet Namek from aliens trying to take over, much as they did here. They were led by Frieza, a mercenary who destroyed everything on planets and sold them to the highest bidder. Another example of alien treachery. Even though Hercule could have defeated him and left, he instead chose to risk his life to save that of thousands of people on the planet.
"But our brave hero has survived and is back, ready to protect Earth again. And we announce officially, that Nameks that accept our agreements are now legally considered human! This raises Earth's population back to 100% of its former. So let's party, cause all's well that ends well, right? Three cheers for Hercule!"
There were huge cheers all over the crowd, mostly coming from the Namekiian section. Goku gawked for a moment, then slowly smiled a sad smile. His eyes shimmered softly, though no one was there to notice. All the Nameks should have known that he was the one who had fought Frieza, Piccolo had contacted all of them. But people believe what they want to believe, and that little incident would be forgotten forever. Hercule would be the savior of Earth from now on, with Goku on the sidelines.
Purposefully blocking out the noise from the parade, Goku decided to start his training now. Concentrating his energy, Goku tried with all his might to do a move he had heard of once. It was called Instant Transmission. The idea was that you could instantly teleport to any location you wanted to. Before, he had never been able to pull it off, but now he tried again. His mind was still thinking about Hercule, and he suddenly found himself floating above the crowd a good distance. Before anyone could notice, he floated to a side building and sat down on it. Feeling for Hercule's ki, he got a surprise. His power level was only 25! Goku was not at all impressed. Chou-su could have taken him any day. Yajirobe could have too.
Sighing, Goku tried to get back to his house. Even using the same technique as before, he couldn't. Now he understood, however. He needed a ki to warp to, one specific person to latch onto for Instant Transmission to work. Hercule's ki he had felt before. It was strong enough for someone as experienced as he was to sense it. Goku decided not to go home at all, he had a gi again. Would it ever be home, now?
Launching himself up into the air, Goku flew up out of the atmosphere. For a second he coughed and he couldn't breath, but in a few seconds his lungs remembered how to breath space. Goku breathed deeply, but the breath hurt. He shook his head and continued breathing. In a few minutes, his breathing had returned to normal. It was only then that he even considered why he could breath space. There wasn't any good reason for it, it had just happened. Putting it from his mind and flying a good distance away from Earth, Goku began training.
There was sudden heat, lacerating through him, followed by an extreme icy cold. The temperature spun wildly out in space, but that was what made it perfect for training. Goku started training as hard as he could, not wanting to think about Hercule and his taking credit for everything.
For a few weeks, Bardock didn't have any more serious visions. He would occasionally find out something in the future that was basically useless or didn't mean anything to him. The visions seemed to be linked to things he saw; he had been thinking about his son when he had gotten the vision about his son. But nothing had any significance, until a few weeks had passed.
He was standing outside, looking over the city he was in at the time. He was in between assignments, and getting restless. Still having not told anyone about his visions, he was getting used to their effects. But he was afraid he'd fall at some time that was important. It seemed that this ability was also letting him see more of the present, on far away locations. He had felt it when Prince Vegita left to go to Earth and find the Dragonballs. And when he had come back, and somehow died.
Looking out over the city, something connected inside him and he collapsed again.
Glancing around quickly, Bardock saw he was in the same city, just in a different location. Everything looked normal, and he hoped that this vision would have something important in it. Little did he know how important it would be.
Suddenly there was a comet-like object that sped down and struck the city. It was small and caused little damage, but it was obvious, drawing his attention. Flying down to it, Bardock watched to see what would happen. The comet was revealed to be a spacecraft of some sort, not a kind he had seen before. The hatch opened and steam hissed out, obscuring his view for a while.
Two pairs of eyes gleamed brightly in the fog. They were slanted and filled with obviously malignant intent. When the fog faded away, there were two people standing there. The two glanced around, then the black-haired one raised a hand into the air. Energy gathered and Bardock gasped as he saw an entire building be destroyed in the blast. The two of them, androids- the word came into his head inexplicably, jumped forward, destroying everything in their path.
Bardock was used to being cruel; he had to be to clean up planets the way he did, but this was something else entirely. They were evil, killing for the simple fun of it. Instead of taking down a building, they'd kill everyone inside one by one. Somehow disturbed, Bardock turned away and the world swam around him.
His vision shifted, now he was higher above the planet. He saw a huge wave of destruction flooding out. Time was moving at a speed beyond anything natural. In a minute, an entire day passed. From his perch above, Bardock saw the rapid destruction. Sooner than he thought possible, the planet was lifeless. Fast, for such a warrior planet. Suddenly the world swam for the last time, ending the vision.
Pulling himself to his feet by the rail, Bardock breathed heavily, blinking visions of destruction from his eyes. This was not good. Two warriors were going to come and destroy all the say-jins on the planet? They must have caught them off guard, the say-jins would never go down so easily. Unless, they were that strong-
No! Bardock wouldn't let himself believe that. But the planet would be ready for them, now, because of his gift. He needed to see the king.
Piccolo jumped through the city of the Afterlife, making his way toward the place he needed to go. King Kai's training had been useful, but not as beneficial as he had hoped. Well, he had always been one to train by himself anyway. Now, however, he was searching for a few people he wanted to talk to.
There was an explosion of ki beneath him, and Piccolo nodded. That had to be where it was. Landing on a nearby building, he looked down and saw more or less what he had expected.
"Now, it is time for a rematch," one changeling was yelling. "And this time you will pay!"
It took him a second to recognize him as Kooie, and instantly dismissed him as any sort of threat. When compared with the incredible power that was possessed by Frieza, he was nothing. He instantly recognized the one he was speaking with, as they had long been friends. Nail watched his opponent impassively.
Kooie charged, and Nail ducked under his punch, slamming an elbow into his chin. The changeling fell back, then charged, but Piccolo already knew how the battle would turn out. However strong the changeling had gotten, his Namekiian friend had obviously been training a lot since his death.
Being slammed backward, Kooie was unable to stop his flight before Nail hammered him again, then knocked him directly down. Knuckling him hard, Nail shot cracks running through his armor and Kooie gaped in pain. A second later a kick sent him flying off. He tried to attack with a giant blast, but it wasn't even close to hitting Nail, who dodged and fired his own in response. Only a bit of dust drifted from the explosion.
Dropping to the ground again, Nail nodded to him, barely breathing hard.
"Thanks for letting me do that."
"I knew you could," Piccolo smiled. "How are things going here?"
"Well enough." Nail gestured for him to follow, and they made their way to a Namekiian structure in the city, "of course- I am dead."
"Ah, aren't we all?"
"Come in, Guru would like to see you."
"I'd be glad to see the Elder again."
As they entered the dimly lit building, Piccolo glanced around. It wasn't long before he locked eyes with Guru, the aged Namek sitting in another throne. A halo hovered over his head, just as Nail's, and he looked in better health then he ever had in the normal life.
"Welcome, my son," Guru said softly. "What brings you here?"
"We have a few things to discuss regarding destiny, Guru," Piccolo said, gruffly but respectfully.
"There is nothing more. I have played my part on a cosmic scale, and now I am content to sit back here. I am at peace."
"I'm glad you've passed beyond the normal world, but I am still entrenched in it. The world's condition is worsening, and there is a great amount of variance yet to come into play before the end."
"Yes, I must admit I have worries there. Are there Dragonballs?"
"No," Nail shook his head. "With Piccolo dead, as well as you, I checked every known copy. There aren't any more, so I fear those who have died will remain dead."
"That's all right," Piccolo nodded. "I've put the truth in one other before I went."
"Who?" both of them asked at the same time.
"Goku, the one who killed Frieza. You needn't worry about him. I believe that he is the one who could help us avert the great darkness that is to come."
"You should know we can never avert it," Guru admonished him. "It is fate."
"But what we can do is insure some light survives, and when it does, the darkness will be rebirthed into something good once again."
Guru nodded slowly. "There is hope for that, yet. If the truth is strong enough. There will need to be more than one, but at least there is a chance."
"This Goku," Nail asked, "do you think he can do it?"
"The world is in good hands," Piccolo told him. "I wouldn't be worried. I suppose this task has left your hands and gone to my own now."
"It is a burden I am glad to be rid of." Guru sighed, but it was a content sigh. "I have felt very old, and this was the last thing that I needed to be in peace. Now I'll pass into legend and let you younger ones take charge and guide the fate of the galaxy."
"Goodbye, father."
Turning, Piccolo swept away, cape fluttering behind him. Guru nodded and smiled. He had no doubt that things would go well. Closing his eyes, he drifted into a blissful sleep.
"Nice to know you're keeping the galaxy under control," Nail said, "but I sense something greater than ever before coming to pass. Some part of me thinks this will not be another battle in the raging war of the balance between good and evil."
"You are correct." Piccolo smiled. "this is not just another battle. This is the End."
"Truly? This has finally come to pass, the event I have waited most of my life to see. I shall see you again, my friend."
"The same to you." Nodding one last time, Piccolo flew into the sky, vanishing to another part of the Afterlife once again. Behind him, Guru smiled deeply, finally a peace. Though younger, Nail smiled a gentle smile, gazing into the sky, then slowly turned and walked back to the house.