Outlanders

Chapter 44: Conscription

A/N: Based on a review by Kizzy, I realized that there's really no reason for Nappa to be using Vegeta's princely title in casual conversation with each other. I've changed the last chapter accordingly.


For the second time since dying, Krillin found himself utterly disoriented as to where he was- one moment, he was standing before King Yemma, the next…

He now looked over a seemingly endless expanse of yellow clouds, intersected and threaded by a never-ending white pathway. As Krillin took a wider look at the landscape, he became aware that the path resembled… a dragon? More of an Eastern-style one… but not really? Dunno...

'Beautiful, isn't it?'

Krillin turned- and saw a purple ogre worker in a crisp white dress shirt standing between himself and Piccolo. Bizarrely, Krillin hadn't felt the ogre worker slip an arm around his shoulder. Why didn't I notice them earlier?... 'I…. yeah, it is,' Krillin replied.

Piccolo seemed to be a similar state of confusion to Krillin- he standoffishly shrugged off the ogre's arm. 'Where are we?' he asked somewhat aggressively.

'This is the way to North Kai,' the ogre said, pointing towards the winding path in front of them. 'Snake Way.'

'Ahh… a snake, then…' Krillin muttered to himself.

'That's it?' Piccolo questioned. 'North Kai is at the end of a path?' he scoffed. 'How asinine…'

'Oh, I don't think you'll feel that way by the end,' the ogre responded. 'Snake Way is quite long.'

Piccolo scrutinized the ogre. 'How long?'

'Long,' the ogre said, gazing out into the distance. 'I heard that it took King Yemma a full day to reach North Kai's place.'

'A full day?' Krillin repeated. 'That doesn't sound that bad.'

'Hah!' the ogre laughed. 'Yeah, that sounds like something a mortal would say.'

'What do you mean?'

'You'll find out soon enough.'

Without any warning, Piccolo levitated off the ground and blasted off through the air above the path. Krillin was about to do the same when the ogre grabbed his arm. 'Trust me,' he said, eyeing the receding figure of Piccolo, 'you'll want to walk. Think of the journey as a marathon, not a race.'

Krillin stared back at the ogre, blinked, then nodded. 'Alright… but that doesn't mean I'm going to take it slow!' Krillin then jumped and somersaulted through the air, landing atop of the beginning of the path. 'I'll keep a steady jog towards the end of the path! I don't want to take too long, you know?'

'Sure thing!' The ogre began waving one hand. 'Good luck!'

Krillin waved back. Alright… let's get this over with. He broke into a run.

0o0o0

As Rayne was in the process of checking out of the rinky-dink hospital she had called a home for the past month- Bulma had paid for their beds in advance, so even after everyone had been healed by the senzu beans, they continued to sleep there- a flighty nurse ran up to her just as she was signing the release form. Panting and flushed, the man took a moment to catch his breath. 'Sorry- hoooo-' he wheezed, '-but there's something you need to see before you check out.' He held up a vanilla folder to Rayne.

'Alright…' Amused by the man's antics, she accepted the folder and opened it.

Her expression practically dissolved, reforming into a quivering look of disbelief and shock. 'No… this isn't… no…'

'I'm sorry we couldn't have told you sooner,' the man tried to comfort her. 'We only just found out…'

To Rayne, the man's words faded away. This can't be happening. This… shouldn't be happening. Absentmindedly, Rayne handed the signed release form back to the receptionist behind the desk, turned, and walked out of the building.

Outside, the sun hung high over the sky, just cresting past noontime. Rayne's hands flitted to her abdomen. Krillin… damn it. I wish you were here…

How the hell am I supposed to train now?...

0o0o0

Aboard their magic carpet, Mr. Popo came to a slow stop in the center of the Lookout. Things were much the same as they had left them, down to the half-empty watering can they had left next to the garden- though it seemed that the wind had blown it over, spilling what water remained within in onto the tiles.

Frowning, Mr. Popo disembarked and materialized a mop in his right hand. They would have to make this place presentable in just a few weeks. That included tidying up, preparing food for their guests, determining what exercises to task them with…

They dutifully began to mop up the puddle of water surrounding the watering can. Kami would certainly want me to use the pendulum room first. If they can handle that, then I can move them onto harder regimens…

Aided by the brisk wind pulling across the surface of the Lookout, Mr. Popo cleaned up the spill in record time. Letting the mop faze out of existence, they bent down to collect the can. One hand grasped the handle near the top, and as they brought the can closer, the faintest glint of movement was reflected on its polished silver surface.

A boot crashed against Mr. Popo's back, toppling the attendant forward and nearly throwing them to the ground. They stumbled forward for a few seconds before being slammed by a roundhouse kick to the left, skidding them towards the center of the Lookout. One more strike slammed them straight down onto the floor of the Lookout, cracking and splintering the tiles beneath their body.

As Mr. Popo desperately tried to push themselves to their feet, a short, shrouded figure stepped up to them and placed one hand on their back. 'Mr. Popo,' he quickly said, 'eternal attendant- I banish you.'

No further pomp or circumstance was required- Mr. Popo body dissolved and crumbled apart, separating into a thousand different black specks that dispersed, moving across the divide between this world and the next. Another heartbeat and their clothes fell to the tiles in a neat clump.

The Lookout was still, save for the tense breathing of the four motionless figures present. After several seconds, the short figure in the center barked a laugh and threw back his hood, revealing a splotchy and dull teal head to the world. 'They're gone!' he yelled in success. 'They're both gone! Haha! I knew the fool would die eventually! He couldn't hold onto his title forever!'

The other three figures arranged themselves in a line before the short figure, each one bowing their heads. 'This begins a new day in the annals of Earth, Lord Garlic,' the one in the center said. 'As our oaths have bound us to your father centuries past, we strive to uphold those inviolable words now.'

Garlic Jr. looked on with adoration towards his servants. 'Rise; you are worthy. Through you three, the Earth will know my rule. Now then,' he said, turning with a swirl of his cape, 'let's see what Kami left to me…'

0o0o0

The sun beat down on the white tiles, shimmering off as heat and light across the whole arena. Between a stretch of heat lines permeating the air, two fighters stretched.

'Can't say I'm surprised you picked this,' Yamcha remarked nonchalantly while bending his legs. The setting around them was startlingly accurate- even the symbol painted onto the main building's ring-side entrance was perfect. The only thing Yamcha could argue was missing was the raving crowd of spectators. 'I figured that you always liked the tournaments.'

'I did,' Tien called across the ring, doing some arm stretches of his own. 'Whenever the crowd was away, anyway.'

'So you enjoyed the fight between Piccolo and Krillin?'

Tien smirked. 'Immensely.'

Both of them finished their warm-ups and settled into their guards. 'You know, it just occurred to me we never settled our grudge match from a few tournaments ago,' Tien pointed out. 'You had a real chip on your shoulder then.'

'Still do,' Yamcha replied.

'Any frustration?'

'Of course.'

The scene froze unnaturally for a split-second- and then Tien and Yamcha crashed together leg-to-leg in the middle of the ring, sending out a shockwave that rolled blades of grass away from the ring. Strikes launched between them passed immeasurably fast, fists, kicks, dodges, and blocks jumbling together in one frantic procession after another- and then it abruptly ended. Tien rapidly blinked, sensing that he was back on the ship. Across from him, in a similarly seated position to his own, Yamcha also reoriented himself with his surroundings.

'That was… odd,' Tien muttered. He glanced across at Yamcha. 'Did you cause that?'

'I did,' Yamcha admitted casually. 'Tien, I have a question that's been chewing on my mind.'

Ignoring Yamcha's borderline rude behavior, Tien answered, 'Yes?'

'Why was Kami… or whoever he was before splitting into himself and Piccolo… the only Namekian sent from Namek?'

Tien scowled at him. 'What are you talking about?'

'Remember what Mr. Popo said? Proto-Kami was sent from Namek to guarantee that the Namekian race wouldn't become extinct. But if they were trying to save their race, shouldn't they have sent two people? I mean, if he was potentially going to be the last Namekian left alive in existence, why was he sent alone? He wouldn't be able… uh, well… you know…'

'Yamcha,' Tien said somewhat annoyed. 'You interrupted training to talk about this? Really?'

'It was distracting me,' Yamcha confessed. 'I couldn't focus.'

'Well, focus on something less weird,' Tien said bluntly. 'We need to get back to training.'

'Can't bother to stop for a few seconds, can you?'

'I can't bother to stop for a few seconds every minute, no.' Tien bit back. 'Are you committed to training before we arrive on Namek or not?'

'I learned telepathy pretty quickly, didn't I?' Yamcha rebutted.

'That's not what I'm referring to,' Tien said quietly, keeping a lid on his growing anger. 'You refuse to train with me for any significant portion of time. I thought we both agreed that pushing ourselves while we both stuck in space with nothing to do was in our best interests.'

'I did,' Yamcha quickly agreed, 'but I didn't consent to be driven to train like a madman. Not everyone can be as narrow-minded as you…'

Tien felt a vein on his forehead bulge. 'Narrow-minded? Are you being serious right now?'

'Look,' Yamcha said curtly, standing. 'We come from two very different training backgrounds. I understand that, for you, training is nonstop exertion, day-in, day out, without any concept of a thing called rest. And I understand that I don't train that way. I need time to reflect on what I'm going to focus my effort on.'

'Well, excuse me if I feel you're not taking this seriously.'

They glowered at each other for a time, and in that time Tien stood to match Yamcha's height. 'I'll tell you when I'm ready to begin training again,' Yamcha declared, breaking off from their conversation and walking into an adjacent room. The door slid closed behind him with a metallic hiss.

Fuming to the point of wordlessness, Tien twisted his mouth into a series of increasingly angry expressions, before finally banging a fist into the wall beside him. A soundless dent formed within the metal.

He held that position for the span of a few heartbeats before striding off towards the cockpit- the part of the ship that was furthest from Yamcha. I don't understand what his deal is! He's the one who said to me that we need to be prepared for anything! That this is life and death! He knotted his hands together so tightly that this knuckles started to turn white. I'm doing everything within my power to make sure we don't die! That Krillin and Kami can come back to life! Could he be so blinded by his pride? Or the scars- being there at the end-

Their conversation in the hospital flashed through Tien's mind. He remembered himself- by the time he reached the cockpit, he had forcefully uncoupled his hands and laid his arms flat at his side.

Seated in the pilot's chair, Bulma watched over the controls of the ship like a hawk. She glanced back at him as he entered. 'Yamcha giving you trouble again?' she asked.

Tien nodded, then dropped into a chair behind Bulma. 'He's… aimless. It's hard to hold his attention for even a brief mental spar between us. I don't know what to do…'

Swinging around in her chair to face him, Bulma sighed. 'He's not himself. Hasn't been since the fight with Raditz.'

'I know,' Tien said quietly, casting his eyes to the ground. He began to say something else, but then decided against it and shook his head instead. 'I know,' he repeated.

The cockpit was one of the louder rooms on the ship. The controls would occasionally make a quiet beep or bzzt to draw the pilot's attention to a critical reading displayed on the console. This discordant pattern silhouette their thoughts. 'I don't think there's much we can do to help him,' Bulma said after a moment. 'He has to come to grips with what he's dealing with on his own.'

'I… don't- I don't know,' Tien landed on. He gazed back up at Bulma. 'Isn't there something we can do to help?'

Bulma shrugged, an oddly casual gesture for the severity of their conversation. 'Maybe.' She swiveled back around to the controls. 'I don't have the time or energy to find out what that might be, though. I spent whatever energy I could spare back at the hospital. He wasn't open to talking then. So, at a certain point, you just have to accept it…'

Tien found himself staring at the back of Bulma's chair. He wasn't comfortable with the idea of there being things he couldn't change. If there was one thing the merciless tutelage of Shen and the Crane school had taught him, it was the undeniable dominion one felt when taking another's life. But… that's where we stand. Alright. 'I'm going to go nap,' he announced, standing from his chair. 'Thank you for piloting, Bulma.'

She gave a mild wave of her hand without looking back at him.

Exiting the cockpit, Tien ambled through another set of doors to his bedroom in what might have been a closet before the ship was retrofitted. Clambering into his spartan, firm slab he called a bed, Tien propped his arms underneath his head, throwing out his elbows to either side. Two weeks in and I'm nearing the end of my mental rope. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take...

I hope something changes, and soon...

He laid awake in that position for a long time before drifting off to sleep.

0o0o0

It hadn't taken Krillin long to realize that time had a way of stretching on indeterminately while in Otherworld. Whatever sun or source of light that illuminated every corner of this plane never wavered or dimmed. As a result, Krillin lacked any method to track the amount of time that had passed from one point in time to the next. At first, he had counted the steps he had taken, but he always found himself losing his count around the ten-thousand mark. He had then tried to keep count of how many bends he had rounded while traveling Snake Way- but he gave up on that measure around the ten-thousand mark, too. Absent of any distinguishing feature of his world, time ceased to be a concept for Krillin.

It was the same with his body. While he was convinced that he possessed a physical body (the ever-present tiredness and muscle burn from his unending running made that clear), it wasn't acting how it ought to; his urges to eat and sleep came, chipping away at his mind for a brief period of time, and then passed without being sated. He could ignore his bodily urges in a number of both useful and weird ways. Even running itself, while requiring a certain exertion of his will, was rote- it was like being in a runner's fog… forever.

The mental strain of his journey proved to be the most difficult aspect for Krillin to handle. As it turns out, not knowing what time it is or where you are had a way of dragging on the mind. Eventually, after a naturally indeterminable amount of time, there came a point where Krillin had to stop, drop to his knees, and reorient himself with reality.

'THIS IS INSANE!' he yelled out, fairly confident that any being that could hear him was thousands upon thousands of miles away. 'I'VE BEEN RUNNING FOR… I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW LONG, AND EVERYTHING STILL LOOKS THE SAME!' He sucked in a deep breath, then exhaled. 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!'

The noise from his yelling made no echo as it rumbled across the insultingly similar yellow clouds enveloping the landscape in every direction. Something novel did happen then, however; a grunt sounded from above Krillin.

He looked skywards. Dangling in the air a few feet up was Piccolo, looking haggard and worse for wear. Without saying anything, he touched down to Snake Way next to Krillin. 'You're… here,' he said, catching his breath.

Realizing the peculiarity of the position he was in, Krillin hastily stood. 'I am. Is that surprising?'

Piccolo bunched the angular ridges above his eyes in consternation. 'Initially, I would have thought yes. But, having thought on it, no. We were near equals on Earth, were we not?'

'I'd like to think so.'

'Then… it makes sense.' Piccolo's face sagged. 'I've been flying nonstop since we started. You, I presume, have been running nonstop. And yet we've traveled the same distance…'

'Well, the ogre who showed us the way said I would have a better time running than flying.'

Krillin was surprised when, instead of growling, Piccolo frowned. 'So he did.'

A few moments passed where neither of them said a word. It wasn't awkward; they both enjoyed resting for the first time in their dead lives. Krillin took the opportunity to watch the clouds go by. He soon realized that Piccolo was doing the same. It then dawned on Krillin that he was seeing Piccolo be the rawest he'd ever been with another living being. This is really weird. If someone told me that, one day, I was going to watch heavenly yellow clouds ruffle in the distance with Piccolo, I would not have believed them.

When the time came for them to move, not a word was said between them as they both stood and briefly stretched.

Together and side-by-side, Krillin and Piccolo jogged.

0o0o0

To fill the time before going to the Lookout to train with Mr. Popo, Yajirobe did a few errands for Korin. These errands were usually menial in the worst sense of the word. Stocking Korin's tower with hundred-pound bags of rice was frustratingly taxing, but at the very least, he wasn't carrying two-hundred-pound bags of rice up the side of a tower. At least, that's what he told himself. And knowing that a senzu bean was waiting for him once he finished his tasks was a tantalizing reward.

At the culmination of one of his many stocking climbs to the top of Korin's tower, he found Korin sitting cross-legged and fidgeting with his staff. When Yajirobe had asked what was wrong, he had muttered: "I've got a strange feeling" while bristling his whiskers. When Yajirobe had asked Korin what he was talking about, the white-furred cat had begun squeezing his head between his hands and said something like "pre-par-a-shuns". Weirdo. Korin had done a number of strange things while they lived together- he didn't think much of this most recent development.

Yajirobe glanced down- presently, he was maybe a hundred feet from touching back on the ground again. He was very nearly complete with his back-and-forth climbs. Away from the tribe camped around the base of Korin's tower, a tidy stack of sacks were positioned near the edge of the forest. And… 'What?' Yajirobe vocalized his confusion. 'What the hell is that?'

Something grey and angular was traipsing around right next to his pile, dipping in and out of the forest in some strange dance. At one point, the entity started to lurch towards Yajirobe's rice stack.

NO! THE RICE! Acting on instinct, Yajirobe brought his knees up to his chest and pushed off the thin tower, angling himself like a missile. Covering the distance between himself and the edge of the forest in a blindly fast amount of time, he pierced straight through the grey thing, diagonally splitting it in half while bouncing off of the ground and flipping to land in a standing position.

It took him a few seconds to realize what he had just done. Woah. Yajirobe grasped his belly and futilely tried to shake it. I've lost a lot of weight.

From the wreckage of the robot- yes, that's what that grey thing was, a robot- an angry looking blue imp scampered out. 'You idiot!' he screamed, shaking a fist in Yajirobe's direction. 'It'll take years for me to build another thing that can climb that damn tower!'

Yajirobe cocked his head. 'The tower?'

'Yes!' The blue imp jumped, pointing at Korin's tower. 'The ONLY tower around!'

'Just climb up.'

'What!?'

Yajirobe walked over to a sack of rice and hauled it over his shoulder. 'If I can climb the tower with a hundred pound sack of rice on my shoulder, you can climb up by yourself. I'm sure Korin wouldn't mind another guest.'

'Are you insane?!' The blue imp screeched. 'There's no way you can climb that, even without a sack of rice on your shoulder!'

'Oh?' A wooosh of air filled the clearing- the next thing Pilaf saw was an orange blip waving to him from high-up the tower's height. What looked to be a rice sack was also clinging to the tower. Soon enough, the orange and white blips were dancing up the tower's length, soon disappearing above the low-lying clouds.

Pilaf's mouth opened and closed a few times before spinning towards the pile of rice sacks nearby. 'Oh Kami! He'll be back! He's coming back! Mai! Shu!' he turned to the remains of the robot. 'We're leaving now! Get your butts out where I can see them and then get them moving!'

Accommodating groans were the only reply he got.

0o0o0

Sitting unmoving at the controls and faced with an unending, unchanging black visage of space that greeted her while the ship was in motion, Bulma found herself slowly slipping into sleep. She had just felt her eyelids flutter close when a wrenching motion nearly threw her forward out of her seat.

'Aagh!' she yelped, as her body boomeranged against the double-strapped harness holding her in place.

The ship around her blared, beeped, threw every possible shade of light across the cockpit in a chaotic and headache-inducing pattern. 'Alright!' she yelled, straightening. 'You've made the danger clear, computer!' On autopilot, her hands flew to the controls, twisting and turning every knob and dial to lurch the ship back into motion- and then she noticed a hulking steel-grey, oval-shaped object hovering just outside and above the ship. With growing dread, she realized that it was drawing closer.

'Oh… shit.'

0o0o0

Positioned over a square-shaped section of the ship's external composite hull, Nappa tapped a few times on the rebreather attached to his face and flashed a thumbs up to the two technicians staring down at him from a platform above. They nodded and turned their attention to a control board in between them.

The next moment, the section of hull Nappa was standing on collapsed downwards.

With a gentle tug, Nappa let himself be drawn into space around the ship, using his ki to maintain a barrier of energy around his entire body. As he exited fully, he gripped a handle on the exterior of his ship and took a few deep breaths to check his air circulation was working as it should. When he was satisfied, he pushed himself towards the smaller, white craft just below him. Using his ki again, he accelerated as he moved, while at the same time drawing back his fist.

At the exact instant where he was mere feet away from the exterior of the ship, he drew back his fist and smashed it against the ship's hull.

0o0o0

Tien and Yamcha had scurried to the center chamber of the ship when they had felt the ship violently lurch to a stop. Just as they entered this chamber, however, a horrible banging sound resounded through the room, followed soon after by a woooosh as a section of the hull above them smashed inwards, breaching the barrier between ship and space.

Caught off guard, both of them felt the air rush out of their lungs and their feet lift up off the floor as they were overpowered by the overwhelming push of air into the vacuum of space. They hurtled upwards, careening towards the newly-made breech. As their grip on consciousness loosened, a quick blow to the back of their necks hastened their lapse.

0o0o0

As soon as Bulma had figured out what was going on, she had donned her space helmet, grabbed a spacewalk-grade impulse thruster, and jettisoned the thickened glass separating the cockpit and vast expanse of space.

Several terrified seconds later, after the world had spun and twisted around her, Bulma closed her eyes and flung out her arms, activating the stabilizers interwoven in her spacesuit. Slowly, her sense of vertigo diminished.

Careful, Bulma… Her body stilled. You're okay, You're untethered in the vacuum of space, but you're okay. Open your eyes very slowly…

All around her, space spilled outward in every direction, conspiring to boggle her mind with its sheer vastness. Distant stars twinkled with light, shimmering and bleeding across Bulma's visor. Before her was nothing but the void.

Her right hand clenched down on her palm, pressing down on a button. Air began to shoot out from somewhere behind her, orienting her to the right. The grey oval ship from before came into sight, looming menacingly against the black backdrop of space. Rotating, she now saw their ship- and gasped.

A figure pulled away from it, dragging with it two smaller unmoving figures in each arm and maneuvering their bodies into a small, surgical opening in the hull of the other ship. Then, with malicious intent, the figure turned back to the smaller ship, leveled an arm, and lobbed a golden blast of energy at it.

Kami's ship stood no chance- the blast easily punched through its hull and detonated within it, exploding the ship outwards like it had been rigged to self-destruct. Wild scrap metal flew in every which direction, coming dangerously close to nicking a hole in Bulma's suit. By some miracle, debris of every size missed her.

Once this immediate threat of death had passed, a million things at once seized Bulma's mind. No ship. I can fix this. I'm floating unbound in the vastness of space. Everything is okay.

I can't fix something that no longer exists. I can't fix a ship that doesn't exist. The lower half of the pilot's chair noiselessly rushed past her, nearly clipping her right arm. No ship. Her eyes wandered over to the oval ship; she observed the figure who had destroyed the ship just a minute before starting to approach her.

Inexplicably, Bulma sighed in relief.

0o0o0

Nappa brought the last one aboard and shoved her into a cell with the rest of them. Slamming the door close behind him and locking it, he hadn't even bothered to look over who the third person was; the two others had already confirmed his suspicions from the moment he first sighted their ship.

Where's that rat Raditz and his brother!? He mentally raged as he stalked across this deck, stomping his feet against the hollow steel floor. For good measure, when he reached the bridge of the ship filled with a half-dozen technicians, he smashed the nearest control terminal to pieces. 'Get Prince Vegeta on the line, now!'

0o0o0

A knock. A knock on her door? Ridiculous! Who would have the audacity, the sheer will, to disrupt me, of all people-

'Oh.' Baba adjusted herself on her crystal ball. 'Come in.'

Nodding, Rayne walked into Baba's modest home, closing the door shut behind her. 'Hi, Baba.'

'That's Fortuneteller Baba to you!' Baba said petulantly.

'Fortuneteller Baba…'

They moved over to the same couch she and Yamcha had sat on only nearly… what was it, seven years ago? Rayne wondered. Eight? Feels like a different life… Guess it was. After some prodding from Baba, Rayne sat on that very same couch.

'Good,' Baba commented. 'It won't do if any of my guests are uncomfortable under my own roof. So, tell me; for what do I owe the pleasure?'

Rayne glanced around the room briefly. 'I… don't know how to phrase this.'

'Try me. I'm usually very good at inferring.'

'Well… you can talk to those who died, right?'

Baba frowned. 'I'm going to stop you there,' she asserted. 'I don't bridge the gap between the living and the dead for just anything- I do it only when I know doing so will improve the future. And, sorry to burst your bubble, I haven't seen a lot of me doing that in the future, either.'

'But-'

'No buts.'

'Even for a deceased, soon-to-be father?'

Baba looked at her for a long minute. 'Even for him.' Her face took a more sympathetic appearance. 'I'm sorry, but those are my rules. They haven't done me wrong before.'

When Rayne failed to bring her gaze up off the floor, Baba sighed. 'Would telling you about your's and Krillin's future put your mind at ease?'

Rayne sniffled and lifted her head. '...Maybe. What do you see?'

'A lot of good, a lot of bad,' Baba said bluntly, 'but every good life is full of both. Makes the good times that much better.'

'Can you be more specific?' Rayne asked, her curiosity growing.

Baba's eyes glossed over. 'Not really. There's really only one scene playing out in my head. The image of your daughter sparring with you… she'll be quite the warrior.'

'A… daughter?' Rayne looked down at her abdomen. 'You're sure?'

Baba's eyes refocused. 'Not really. Could be another child. Might not be that child,' Baba said, pointing at Rayne's body. 'But one day… I'm sure of it. My visions never lie.'

'That's frustratingly vague.'

'It's not a perfect skill.' Baba chuckled to herself. 'You know, something just occurred to me- you're doing what your friend Yamcha did, what, a few years back now?' She stuck out five fingers and counted on them. 'Something like that.'

'Which is?'

'Demanding things of me and getting all uppity about my powers,' Baba said jarringly, taking a more confrontational tone. 'The dragonballs have spoiled you and your friends. I guess you've had quite the reckoning recently.'

'That's an understatement.' Rayne stood, and then to Baba's surprise, bowed. 'Thank you,' she said as respectfully as possible. 'You've helped me a ton.'

'Huh,' Baba muttered. 'Yamcha wasn't this thankful… though, I guess I didn't actually help him at all.' Baba slouched on-top of her crystal ball. 'Hmm. Welp. You got what you didn't want. Now leave me!'

0o0o0

From a quiet corner of the bar, a man watched the establishment's patrons filter in and out. Some were planning on being drunk, some were halfway to being drunk, and some were just plain old drunk. In the part of the room where the man was positioned, a badly shaped table leg stuck out in a passage that saw a lot of foot traffic, so inevitably, the man had to help a bar patron up onto their feet after falling from time to time.

The third time this had happened, the man pocketed a scrap of paper pushed into his hands as he stood. Once he had helped up this person- he hadn't even bothered looking to who the person was- the man quickly exited the bar, moving into an alleyway adjacent to the building. Checking that no-one was near, he opened the small scrap of paper.

A few seconds of taut concentration later, the man crumpled up the piece of paper, popped it into his mouth and swallowed it. 'Alright, alright, alright,' he said comfortably. The faintest twinkle of something thin and silver reflected from the man's face. 'We're in business.'

0o0o0

A dull muttering. Muted conversation bouncing off of thin walls. Amidst this quiet discussion, Yamcha's eyes fluttered open.

He had only to take a look at Tien and Bulma's downcast faces and the bars just beyond them. They were imprisoned. Captured. Neither of them said a word- they purposely avoided Yamcha's gaze. Ignoring them, he stood and moved towards the cell bars.

'I wouldn't bother,' Tien advised. 'This cell seems to have been made to imprison people far stronger than us.'

Yamcha placed his hands around a single bar and propped his foot against the bar's base. He began to pull. 'So you're suggesting that I sit down and wait to die instead?' He asked belligerently.

Tien folded his mouth into a frown. 'I'd rather not make whoever put us here angry.'

Hearing this, Yamcha ceased his attempts at bending the bars. 'That guy…' he recollected, 'who was he?'

'No clue,' Tien replied. Very briefly, his gaze flickered over to Bulma, but when she purposely averted meeting his eyes, he quickly sprang his gaze to something else in the nearly featureless cell.

Yamcha narrowed his eyes at this. 'What?' He levied his gaze at Bulma. 'What do you know?'

She brought her hands together and wrung them- Yamcha could now see superficial bruises on her lower arms, almost as if she had been gripped too harshly. 'Well… when I was brought in here, both of you were unconscious. I got a glimpse at the guy who brought us in- he had a tail.' Bulma said, her eyes going wide. 'A brown-furred tail.'

Yamcha's expression dropped. 'You're… kidding…'

'Another Saiyan,' Tien said bitterly. 'And it took five of us to bring down the last one…'

'And the ship is gone,' Bulma despondently added. 'Destroyed. Down to the very last part.'

Silence flooded into the small, rectangular cell, choking them of any chance to speak. Yamcha sat down on a bench opposite of the bench Tien and Bulma and let his head fall into his hands.

They didn't stew in their thoughts for long. The sound of something stomping across the floor reached their eyes long before they saw him, but coming face-to-face with their captor was every bit as intimidating as they feared it would be. The man was huge- he was maybe a foot taller than Tien, and was easily twice as thick. Yamcha would have thought the man was wearing a muscle suit if he hadn't known better. He also noted that their captor was garbed in much the same way Raditz had been- flat, oval shoulder pauldrons shot out horizontally, complementing larger sections of black plate that covered his midsection and fitted around his wrists. In a direct contrast to Raditz, however, he had virtually no hair to speak of, save for a thin mustache. And there was the tail, of course.

The man greeted them with a sneer. 'I hunted well today!' he boasted arrogantly. 'Three live catches! Though…' he stepped right up to the bars, making Tien, Bulma, and Yamcha incrementally scoot back deeper into the cell. 'not the game I was hoping for…'

Before they could say anything or ask any questions, the man turned and dropped a circular black cylinder from his hand onto the ground next to him. A few taps to the side of the device affixed to the left side of his head and a blurry blue projection shot up from the cylinder, filling out to about half the height of Nappa. This figure, Yamcha first noticed, had a lot more hair than their captor. Besides this, however, they were dressed in the same armor.

'It's as I told you, Vegeta,' the hulking man said, eyeing them with unveiled disgust. 'No renegades.'

The blue projection identified as Vegeta took his time inspecting every person before him. Even when delivered from what must have been light-years away, his gaze had a way of unnerving them. 'Well,' he said after some time, 'your assessment is correct, Nappa. You've apprehended what looks to be a bunch of tailless Saiyans. And you said their ship was?...'

'Obliterated,' Nappa informed him with a smug smile glued to his face.

Vegeta's gaze on them weakened. 'Tragic. Dispose of them and resume your monitoring of LPT076, Nappa. We'll find Raditz sooner or later-'

'Raditz?' Yamcha spoke up. He stood and padded over the cell bars. 'You're looking for Raditz?'

Simultaneously, Nappa and Vegeta both narrowed their eyes. 'You know of him?' Vegeta asked suspiciously.

A sick smile formed on Yamcha's face. 'I did. He's dead now.'

Alarmed by Yamcha's disclosure, Bulma and Tien shot to their feet.'Yamcha!' Tien telepathically yelled at him. 'What are you doing!?'

Silence. Yamcha chose to ignore him. He also chose to hold Bulma at arm's length behind him- she eventually relented and sat back down on her bench.

An uninterpretable emotion briefly crossed Vegeta's face before quickly being replaced by interest. 'Who killed him? Was it you?' Vegeta gave Yamcha a once over. 'You, the tailless Saiyan?'

'I'm a human, actually,' Yamcha replied sternly. 'And I made sure he died in the most painful way possible.'

'We were defending ourselves,' Tien interjected, rushing next to where Yamcha was pressing his body against the cell bars. 'If he hadn't invaded Earth, needlessly killing people-'

'-it wasn't needless,' Nappa growled at Tien, forcing him away from the bars. 'He was there fulfilling a contract, and he enlisted his brother to do just that.'

Yamcha's face creased with consideration. 'Wait… what are you saying? What contract?''

Beside Nappa, the projection shimmered. 'Such ignorance,' Vegeta mocked. 'And you think yourself clever for possessing a nugget of information we don't know. Raditz didn't just "appear" on your planet randomly. Or did you think it was a coincidence that his brother just so happened to also reside there?'

'We know about Kakarot,' Yamcha said testily. 'We know he followed Raditz's orders like a pathetic little lap dog. Ultimately, they both paid for their crimes against humanity.'

Bulma and Tien bit their tongues- what Yamcha was saying wasn't wholly true, but it wasn't particularly inaccurate, either.

Nappa and Vegeta briefly exchanged gloating expressions. 'They really don't know anything, do they?' Nappa joked. 'And they just gave up the one useful bit of information they had to boot.' He swung his head, curled into a cruel mask, towards the inhabitants of the cell. 'I say we jettison them into space, Vegeta. If they've taken care of Raditz and his brat brother, then they've done our job for us. We ought to reward them-' Nappa made a sadistic face when he pronounced the world reward '-for their good work.'

From her bench in the back of the cell, Bulma saw Tien's posture flood with panic while Yamcha retained his almost suicidal defiance towards their obviously stronger captor. It was clear that neither one of them was going to talk their way out of a horrible death.

'Wait!' Bulma yelled, charging forward and pushing both Yamcha and Tien to the side. Her gaze focused on Nappa. 'You're right- we should be rewarded. We took care of a problem for you- easily, if I might add.'

'So?' Nappa laughed in her face. 'I heard what your friend with the third eye said- you were just defending your planet. Doesn't mean we're not thankful, mind you… but you three should have just stayed home. That way, you would have died amongst your friends when your planet was inevitably purged…'

Bulma didn't shrink back in the face of outright dismissal. 'Face it- we're allies,' she pressed. 'You didn't like Raditz, and neither did we. If our goals aligned then, why couldn't they align in the future? Surely that proves that we can continue to help each other.' When Nappa's condescending expression didn't budge, Bulma switched tactics. 'You mentioned Raditz was on Earth completing a contract, right? Are there any other contracts? Contracts that we-' she gestured to the three of them '-could do?'

'I admire your spunk, lady, but if you think you can convince me as to what I want to do,' Nappa growled, 'you're painfully mistaken.'

Vegeta had remained silent throughout this dialogue, carefully weighing every word spoken by the blue-haired woman. 'What are your names?' he asked, intending his question towards them all but nonetheless not lifting his gaze from Bulma.

She jumped when he addressed her, showcasing her previously hidden nervousness. 'I'm Bulma,' she said, pointing to herself, 'this is Yamcha, and that's Tien.'

For a long moment Vegeta stared at her, keeping the immensely black irises in the center of his eyes in near perfect stasis. Eventually, his gaze broke away. 'Bring them to FP083, Nappa,' he commanded, causing Nappa to whip his head around to the hologram in surprise. 'I will be awaiting you there.'

'You-' Nappa bit his tongue. From the look of his face, he was displeased by this turn of events. 'What do you intend to do?'

Flickering, Vegeta's posture subtly shifted from one of interest to one of power. 'The humans have offered a deal. I will judge if they can fulfill their part of it myself.' With that, Vegeta's image blinked out.

Nappa's attention lingered on the device he had set up next to him. 'You three are probably the luckiest Earthlings to ever live.' He pronounced, setting his malevolent gaze on them. After collecting the black cylinder from the floor, Nappa rose to his feet, turned, and began to walk away, twirling the key to their cell in one hand. 'For all the good it'll do for you…'

0o0o0

'So… how long have you known Mr. Popo, Korin?' Suno asked, sitting across from the furred white cat. They were passing the time before everyone else arrived by playing a game of cards.

'Forever,' Korin said absentmindedly. His attention was clearly focused on something else. Suno assumed it was the game. 'I think they're an eternal attendant that can be utilized in any way by the current Guardian of Earth. In other words, they don't die- they live forever.'

Suno put her hand of cards facedown on the table. 'Wait, what? They're immortal?'

'I think so.' Korin squinted at Suno's empty hands. 'Are we done?'

'I'd rather talk about Mr. Popo now.'

'Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't know much more than I've already told you.'

'What are they like as a teacher?'

Korin sighed and collected the cards from Suno's side of the table- they were clearly done with the game. 'I have no clue. I never trained with the guy.'

'Really?'

'Yes, really,' Korin replied sourly. He took the full deck of cards and tucked it into a sleeve, then put that in a small wooden box in the center of the table. 'What, are you excited?'

'Of course! Mr. Popo sounds like a wise master!' Suno beamed.

'Pah.'

A rummaging sound came from below the floor of the tower. Yajirobe emerged a second later, holding an empty sack of rice. 'Korin, do we have any more of these?'

'At the bottom of this tower, yes,' he replied.

'I mean up here.'

'Yes, and there's none up here.'

Yajirobe made an unpleasant face at Korin. 'You don't have to be such a sourpuss about it.'

'And you don't have to be so lazy! Yet here we are!'

Seeking to disentangle herself from this spat, Suno wandered over to the railed-edge of the tower. Coincidentally, Launch and Chiaotzu emerged onto the Tower's level from the other side at that very moment.

Suno turned once she heard Yajirobe and Korin greet them- and then halted. She approached and rubbed her eyes as if to confirm what she was seeing, what she was feeling. 'Woah… Launch, you're…'

Launch flashed a smile.'Really strong?' she bragged. Suno nodded. 'Want to know something about training? It's much easier when you have a goal you're aiming for. For me, Raditz is that new goal.'

Suno blinked a few times, then swung a suspicious glare at Chiaotzu. 'How come you're not this strong?'

Chiaotzu frowned. 'Uhh… ' he muttered a reply, feeling self-conscious. 'I've progressed in other ways…'

'Suno!' Korin exclaimed. 'That was very rude of you.'

'What? It's an honest question! Maybe Launch is doing something that Chiaotzu- uhh-' Suno's gaze caught on something behind them.

'Uhh… wait.' Suno pushed herself past Korin and Launch, walking over to the edge of the tower. As she did this, she drew everyone's attention to a thick plume of what could only be described as purple smoke surging down against the exterior of the tower. It lingered in the air around their level for a moment before resuming its downward movement.

Launch scratched her head. 'What was that?'


A/N: Pilloring is such a good word. If it existed. Shucks.

And more moving parts! Yippee!

Reviews:

LWexe: I hope you're even more curious now.

Luke: Typically, it takes me a week to a week and a half to write an average 7000/8000 word chapter. Though recently that hasn't been the case- I've fallen behind on my chapter reservoir, so it's been necessary to pump out chapters in about five days or so to leave some time for editing. In light of that fact, I honestly don't know how I was able to get last week's chapter out on time.

You may be right. You may be wrong. I don't know.

SoulAuron: Spot on- it was Garlic. I think his arc is going to be a hybrid construction of both his first and second movies- so we'll see what that ends up looking like.

Who is Raditz, again?

KamuiMaster: *shrugs*

TC9078: And what a trip it was! R.I.P. Katas's son's ship (try saying that super fast).

Guest, who talked about GoChi: GoChi may be on indefinite hiatus.

Transformers g1's-Prime: Thank you for the enthrallment! Glad you like all three :)!

Yeah? You think Dr. Gero, eh? Now that you mention it, what has that rascal been up to?'

Namek is… postponed.

Guest, who talked about Rayne in ch 13+14: You really took me on a roller coaster there.

Guest (Kizzy): IMO people were pretty glum in the aftermath of the battles in Saiyan Saga. Goku had never died, then the mood after the battle with Vegeta was very bad before Mr. Popo had informed them Tien and Yamcha could be brought back to life. Also, consider that in this fic they've all permanently lost someone very important to them in the form of Master Roshi. No main character ever permanently died in DB/DBZ, after all. Thus, I think a month is a decent amount of time for people to come to terms with the aftermath of the battle with Kakarot/Raditz.

I'm not sure what I'm going to have in terms of Snake Way shenans. Depends on how much I want to lean on the anime filler when building this fic. I will probably tweak with some things.

I agreed with your comment- it was weird to have Nappa using Vegeta's formal title. I changed the last chapter, so thank you for pointing that out!

Thank you for the review!