Chapter 8 – Time is running out

"Bardock, Bardock, where have I heard that name before?" Goten muttered.

Haruka smiled. "Bardock, a Saiyan low-class soldier, accidentally overheard lord Freeza's plans to wipe the Saiyan race off the face of the Universe… he tried to warn the people but nobody believed him and he was too weak to defeat Freeza although he tried. That's how Freeza could annihilate the Saiyan race. If the other Saiyans would've believed him," she looked at Bardock, "then they might've had a chance against the tyrant. Since Freeza was afraid of them."

Bardock stopped flying and stared at the girl. "How do you know that?"

Trunks stopped as well. "Yeah, how? I remember the story too but I didn't know you've heard of it."

"Vegeta told me the story," Haruka replied, "and Sailor Pluto has given me some background info as well. A sad story, actually, but such things happen on a daily basis."

"Vegeta… you don't mean King Vegeta, do you?" Bardock demanded.

Haruka shook her head. "Are you kidding? King Vegeta died a very long time ago, Prince Vegeta was about eight years old them." She grinned. "Now his son's about eight years old. Time really flies around here, huh?"

"So Prince Vegeta survived the explosion?" Suddenly Bardock was utterly excited. "The Saiyan race isn't gone yet?"

"Could we keep flying? We may not have much time. Yeah, two Saiyans survived the explosion," Haruka added as the table dashed forward again. "One of them was prince Vegeta. The other one was your son."

Bardock stopped again, staring at Haruka. "My son is alive?"

"You were supposed to show us the way," Haruka reminded him, "and it's gonna be hard when you stop and stare every two minutes. Yeah, your son is alive. At least he was the last time I checked."

"You know his son too, Haruka?" Trunks asked her. The girl frowned.

"Honestly, do you ever pay any attention to your father's stories? We all know his son. His name is Kakarot and he was sent to Earth in a space pod a little after he was born. To enslave all people living on the planet," she added thoughtfully.

"Hey but that means… that means you're my grandpa!" Goten suddenly shouted and turned to fly backwards in front of Bardock's face. "Cool! I didn't expect to see you here!"

This time Bardock wasn't that surprised. "So you're Kakarot's son?" he remarked with a grin. "Yeah… I can see the similarities. You look just like he did when I saw him for the first and practically the last time."

"Dad has to meet you!" Goten announced. "Say Haruka, once we've found Hotaru, shall we take him to Dad, huh, huh?"

"First we need to find Hotaru," the girl replied with a concerned frown. "How much longer?"

"Down there." The Saiyan warrior descended into a small grove and Trunks landed the table.

There she was. Hotaru, or actually Sailor Saturn, was sitting on a rock, holding the Silence Glaive and looking into nothingness. She didn't turn her head when Haruka approached her.

"Hotaru… what's wrong?" she asked quietly.

"Go… away…" the girl muttered, "too dangerous… they're coming through. Soon… too soon…"

"We need to call Goku and Vegeta," Haruka said, looking at Hotaru. "This seems serious."

"Allow me!" Trunks concentrated his energies and sent out an invisible but powerful aura blast.

"Dad's coming," he said in a few seconds, "but I don't know where Goku is."

"He's late, as always," said Vegeta, the prince of the Saiyans, landing by the table. "I see you've found her. What's going on with her?"

"I'd say that the demon didn't open the portal but it unlocked the door," Haruka said with a frown. "And it's only the matter of time when all those creatures find a way to come through."

Vegeta frowned. "And since dead auras are a lot closer to the Dead Zone than living auras, it's gonna be a lot easier for them. Would you look at that, I didn't expect to see you here." He had noticed Bardock. The Saiyan blinked and then kneeled down.

"Prince Vegeta," he said. "You have…" he hesitated, "aged."

"Yeah, that's what happens when you're alive," Vegeta agreed. "How come you're on Dai Kaio's planet?"

"They sent me here because they said that I had sacrificed my life for my people and my planet," Bardock replied. "Although I failed rescuing them," he added, lowering his head.

"Even I did," Vegeta grinned grimly, "Freeza was simply too strong. But now he's dead, in the Hell…"

"Or somewhere near it," Goten chortled, remembering Freeza's high flight over the sharp mountains.

"Precisely," the prince smirked. "And we have much bigger problems than some stupid old tyrant." He looked at Hotaru. "Where's that clown when you need him?" he asked.

"Perhaps he got lost," Haruka supposed, knowing that the prince meant Goku.

"Even he wouldn't be able to get lost on a planet that consists of two trees and a field," Vegeta claimed. "One way or another, we'll find him soon, right now we need to do something with Hotaru." He looked at the girl. "If all those creatures of the Dead Zone break out onto this planet, this wouldn't be so bad, since there are so many strong warriors here that they may even be able to defeat the demons. But if they fail doing that then the demons have a free way to any part of the Universe and then it would take an eternity to find them all again."

"Not to mention that when this misty darkness thing decides to return one fine day, we won't have a Universe any more," Haruka added.

"Then we have to lock the door again," Goten said. "Nice and simple. All we have to do is find the key."

"The key is missing," Trunks snapped, "and we won't be able to find it before they come out."

"There may be another way," Bardock, who was still kneeling, suddenly interjected. "But tell me first, what exactly is going on?"

After hearing the whole story he nodded, stood up again even though Vegeta hadn't given him the permission and said: "If you can't prevent them coming, you need to lock them up somewhere else; somewhere safe enough to keep them for eternity."

"That's nice," Haruka grunted sarcastically," perhaps you happen to know some professional demon herders? Previous experience essential, good salary if they survive, must know how to deal with bigger amounts of demons, more or less twenty thousand heads."

Bardock didn't mind the sarcasm. "Got better ideas?"

"Dad's coming, maybe he has some ideas," Goten said, looking up. A few minutes later Goku landed in front of them.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, "I got into this little quarrel with a wiseguy that claimed that he was stronger than me… I would've kicked his butt within a minute but they wanted me to wait until they're done with all the betting and stuff. Who's the guy with my hairdo?" He had noticed Bardock.

"That's Bardock," Vegeta said. "He's your father."

Goku raised his eyebrows. "No kidding??" He examined Bardock and then scratched his head. "Whoa, nice to meet you! I didn't even know you were here, otherwise I would've looked you up the last time I was here."

"That's all very sweet," Vegeta said with a frown, "but we should really figure out what to do with a couple of thousand powerful demons. And most of them are either undefeatable or immortal, otherwise they wouldn't be sitting there but would be long dead."

"Well, there are plenty of other Dead Zone-like dimensions to keep them," Goku remarked, "but it may be really complicated to get them in there."

"Unless we send Hotaru to some of those dimensions before the demons break out," Trunks suggested.

Haruka glared at him. "No way!!!"

"She's already dead," Trunks claimed, "the demons can't do anything to her any more. And as soon as the Dragonballs regain their powers, we can call Hotaru back from there."

"True," Haruka nodded slowly, "but then we'd use that wish for calling her back and what happens when our misty darkness buddy shows up again? And besides, I'd like to get home one fine day as well."

"That's altogether three wishes, that will take a whole year," Vegeta said with a slight grin. Haruka glanced at him.

"I'm not going to stand another year sitting on your planet and knowing nothing about my home planet!" she announced.

"You don't have to worry about that any more," Trunks said. "In case you have forgotten, we now know how to contact that... Sailor Pluto, was it? And I'm sure that she knows how to send you home."

"Yeah, after she has given us a long lecture about now forbidden such things are," the girl snorted. "You're actually right, she can help us. But we still have two very urgent things to deal with: that," she looked at Hotaru, "and that demon thing that can be hell-knows-where at the moment."

"And only one wish," Vegeta reminded her.

Goku thought for a moment. "There are always the Namekian Dragonballs..."

"Yeah, good luck teleporting there," Goten snapped.

"But we can still contact them and ask them do deal with the wish," Goku claimed.

"In case Porunga will be able to grant the wish," Vegeta said.

"No, he won't," Bardock suddenly remarked. "Don't you people ever read the local news?"

The others glanced at him. "Local... you mean the local Dai Kaio planet news?" Goku asked slowly.

"Nah, I meant the local Afterworld news," the Saiyan replied. He had sat down under a tree again and was now gnawing on a little straw. "Perhaps you don't know this but we are pretty well informed about everything that is going on in the world of the living. It wasn't that long time ago when there was this huge battle with the demon Buu on Earth."

"It was more than half a year ago," Vegeta snorted. "And I remember it well because I fought him too!"

Bardock didn't mind that. "I didn't know that but I'm not surprised. Who else could've defeated that demon than full-blooded Saiyans?" They could hear the pride in his voice. "One way or another, that fight both on Earth and afterwards on the Supreme Kais' planet caused a lot of trouble. Many things had to be repaired; and awfully fast too. There was lots of paperwork," he grunted, "those ogres are so addicted to all sorts of documents that they'd believe that death doesn't exist if someone would give them a signed document to claim that. Those things take time. Even though life seems to be back in order, many temporary rules are still up to date and have to be followed." He picked another straw. "One of those rules was to stop any kind of contacting other planets. As soon as someone anywhere in the universe would happen to travel to another planet or even contact it in any way, it's automatically considered illegal and the person doing it will be thrown into the dungeons of Hell until further orders. Or so I've heard."

Goten blinked. "But... Trunks and went to another planet some weeks ago. And... uhm... returned some days ago... are we going to jail now?"

Bardock raised his eyebrows. "Check it out, what a coincidence... so these were you two? You'd be surprised of that ruckus your travelling caused over here. All ogres were so busy with all sorts of phone calls and paperwork that we didn't get any lunch for three days. I think Baba fixed the problem though. She had said that you were the ones that fought Buu and therefore the laws shouldn't affect you."

"So we could still contact Namek because the laws don't affect us?" Trunks asked excitedly.

"Only when you get a direct permission from the Dai Kaio himself," Bardock warned him, "because pushing your luck like that is an awfully bad idea in the Afterworld. Especially when it affects our lunchtimes," he added with a glare.

Vegeta snorted. "A pointless arguement over a pointless law. Kakarot, let's go and find King Kai. Someone needs to save the universe here and nobody else is going to do that for us, you know that."

"King Kai? Of the North? He won't help you." Bardock picked another straw. "He's a law-following maniac and besides, he doesn't like sitting three days without lunch either."

Haruka had turned extremely impatient in the meantime. "Namek or no Namek, who cares about that right now? We need to do something with Hotaru. Now. Fast. Locking her up into some dimension when the Dead Zone inhabitants can't get out is actually a good idea but where, if I may ask, can we find a place like that?"

"There is a place; it's not exactly the safest but the only one I can think of at the moment," Goku said. "I sure hope that the instant translocation works well this time. Someone get Hotaru, we're moving on." He waved goodbye to Bardock. "Bye Dad… I'm sure we'll meet again!"

"Hrmh, yeah," the Saiyan muttered with a slight smile.